Lloyd Family

. . . surprise ! I don't know how much this will delight or annoy everyone, but we have decided to let the sex of this last Lloyd baby be a surprise. I'm really excited for it from my kids' perspective- how exciting it will be for them to wait for the phone call announcing their new brother or sister! A lady in my ward told me that she knows it's a girl and she's never wrong. (This same lady, bless her, told me she knew I was pregnant even before I actually was. I couldn't quite wrap my head around that one.) As for the rest of us, we'll just have to wait and see.

Another sister-in-law challenge here, to post a favorite family recipe. I don't make this one all the time, but it is a true favorite of everyone here and my mom got rave reviews this Christmas when she took it to a dinner at the Boise ID Temple, where my dad works. We make it for special occasions. Sweet & Sour Chicken The following sauce will cover enough chicken to fill a 9 x 13" baking dish. You may choose whichever chicken type your family enjoys. Growing up, we used bone-in chicken pieces, but these days I like to take boneless skinless chicken breasts and cut them into strips. Sprinkle pieces of chicken with salt and pepper. Roll pieces in corn startch and then into beaten egg. Fry till golden brown, using high heat. (my Mom fries in oil, I just spray the fry pan) Put pieces of chicken into baking dish. Sauce: 3/4 cup sugar, half brown and half white 1/4 cup water or chicken stock 1/2 cup vinegar 1 Tablespoon soy sauce 1/4 cup ketchup dash of salt Heat until sugar i...

Kory's sister Marlene has started a challenge for us all to post which celebrities we've been accused of looking like (and we've been impressed with what we've seen so far!) I personally have no known similarities to any celebrity-sorry! Kory is pulling through for our family, though, with having some of the same features as. . . Clint Eastwood! They're not twins or anything, but, well, you judge for yourselves: Hey, this makes Kory look YOUNG!

I have just been reading everyone's blogs on Christmas and realized I didn't post one! We did have a wonderful Christmas. We enjoyed our Christmas Eve tradition of snack food, watching "The Nativity" (aka. Luke 2), re-enacting the nativity, and the kids opening homemade presents they prepared for each other. This was pretty cute, and included: pennies, a quarter, bracelets, a paper boat, a stick of gum, paper dolls designed to look like Star Wars characters, Barbie towels, and store-bought toys one kids owned and wanted to give to another. I was pleased with how gracious and thankful each of the kids were to each other. Christmas Day was the first we've ever spent at home. It was pretty great. Wake time 6:30, stockings opened, Bacon, eggs, and orange rolls for breakfast, followed by present opening. For the rest of the day we played, assembled (Kory was a full-time laborer in this enterprise), napped, watched a movie, and of course- ate more. I cooked a spiral ham...

I took the kids to see Santa Claus this past Saturday. Since we live in "Christmas City" it's only natural that Santa has his own house right on our town square, and he is there every Saturday in December. Pretty neat! Since we waited until the last weekend before Christmas we had to wait in line for 40 minutes with all the other procrastinators. Luckily the weather was mild. When we got into Santa's house, who would have guessed that they were all too nervous to actually go up to Santa? Luckily Zac broke the ice for us and then Ezra went next without hesitation, doing a stellar job on his first visit with St. Nick! This picture shows him looking a little unsure, but I think he was just taking it all in. In the end everyone sat on Santa's lap, told him what they wanted for Christmas and were rewarded with the traditional candy cane. Hooray!

I think the news has fairly well gotten around now that we are having another baby. But since I didn't make many personal announcements, some of you may have missed it. We're having a baby! The 6th little Lloyd, the child to complete our family, is due on June 12, although we won't expect him/her until more like the 19th. I went through a month or so of pretty miserable morning sickness, although I almost never threw up, which was nice. I just felt like I'd eaten way too much candy every minute of every day. And I was so exhausted it was all I could do to pry myself off the couch. Thankfully, I've gotten over the worst of it and am looking forward to the next few painless months of pregnancy :)

Zac came to me looking like this and said, "I'm the King of Stickers. Take a picture of me and put it on the blog!" So I did. Who doesn't love stickers?