Grateful for the Ride

Fevers and a sledding accident

2012-03-04T09:08:00.003-07:00

Just over a week ago both Elisabeth and Charles got a fever. They were also lethargic, sleeping most of the day, and had little coughs but this only lasted about 24 hours and then it was gone. Annabelle and Jane got a fever a couple of days later with the same symptoms and the same length of time, maybe even shorter, and then it was gone. I think this is the mildest form of flu we've ever had. It was nice not to have any vomit or diarrhea involved and I'm glad it was very short lived :).

About a week later, just yesterday in fact, Scott took the three oldest sledding. It was their first sledding trip this year/season because we've had surprisingly little snow. They were all super excited to go. I figured with my size in pregnancy and difficulties with balance, I should probably stay at home, and I wanted to keep Jane with me since she's so little. I got nervous for the others just before they left so I gathered them all together and told them to please, please be careful and I asked Scott to only allow Annabelle to sled if she was with him...I didn't want her going down with her siblings. He agreed. And Annabelle came home injury free. Charles and Elisabeth on the other hand had an accident on their first run. They went to a place they'd never gone before that had stepper hills and the snow had been packed down by sledders the previous day so it was icy. Char and Elisabeth went down together and toward the bottom of the hill they tipped over and both of them smacked their faces on the ice. Charles mostly got it on his mouth and chin. One of his top teeth fell out, though it was a little loose before, so I think that was okay. His chin looks pretty bad. It bled some. Elisabeth hit her right cheek and near that same eye. Hers looked awful. It wasn't bleeding, but there are red scratches all over her cheek and the skin surrounding it was really red all day the first day. The area around her eye is swollen now. They're both looking a little better today and it's not hurting either one of them so we're grateful for that. Hopefully they'll both heal quickly and without scars.

Day 1
(I am really not happy with my camera. It SO does not come even close to capturing what these injuries look like. The lighting is awful and makes their scrapes looks wimpy. It takes horrible close-up shots. I've also dropped my camera so many times that it's taped together and doing even worse than it used to)

Day 2

Children's Museum at Temple Square

2012-03-02T12:52:00.000-07:00

In the museum of Church History and Art at Temple Square, if you travel up to the second floor, they have a free interactive children's museum. My kids love spending time there so we usually try and make a trip there whenever they're off track. We went the Saturday before they went back to school so Dad was able to come with us as well. They have a few games you can play on the computers(pioneer game and something else), a station where you can try and copy egyptian script for translating the scriptures,
a large wooden nativity set with clothes that you can stick on the wooden dolls and take off,
an area to dress up in vests or colorful skirts and dance like senors and senoritas to a video...there are big mirrors just across from the videos so you can watch yourself and see the video while you dance,

fishing on Noah's ark(or maybe it was a different ship from the scriptures...I didn't pay close attention), soft but very large building cushions to make a temple out of, a couple of cultural movies to watch,
a large kitchen area that has a dining room table with two missionaries painted on the wall sitting with you at dinner, lots of play foods and utensils, and just around the corner is a garden where you can pull out wooden fruit and stuffed play hens in a coop you can take out and gather the plastic eggs they have laid. And here are the girls in the stationery truck with animals in the back perhaps making a delivery.

30 weeks!

2012-02-29T17:07:00.004-07:00

Scott and I put the babycenter app on his ipod touch awhile back. Every week we get a message letting us know what week I am in pregnancy and how big the baby is etc. When Scott got a message last night that I was 30 weeks, I couldn't contain my joy. I shouted, 'Whee!' like Liesl from the sound of music when she gets her first kiss :). Elisabeth couldn't understand my excitement....though I'm sure she will some day when she's in similar shoes. I'm so happy to be in the final 10 weeks of pregnancy! And this means that next week I'll be in the single digits for weeks. I was also just thinking that the next time my kids go off track will be when the baby is due!

Not much news at 30 weeks except that I'm so hungry. All the time. This started happening about a week ago. I've been pretty good about controlling my cravings for the majority of this pregnancy, but when you're always hungry, it sure gets a lot harder. Yeah, for example, like last night I took out an expired strawberry cake box mix, divided the mix in half and made one, six inch round cake and one 8x8 pan of strawberry squares drizzled with powdered sugar and milk, and all because I was hungry, craving sweets and couldn't make up my mind...so why not both! Ugh! Why?! And then of course I paid for it that night. I did not sleep well, at all. I kept waking up to the littlest noises, even though my noise maker was on and I had nightmares! I haven't had nightmares in forever. Good thing I have Scott in bed with me; as long as I can reach out and touch him, I feel like everything will be alright. I think I slept with his hand in mine for several hours. At least I had the sense enough to throw away a good part of the leftovers today. I think I just need to be sure I'm getting enough high protein foods throughout the day that I don't get to that point where I feel like I'm starving. Though I really am eating a lot already. I love apples and peanut butter, raw almonds, granola with yogurt or kefir, hummus with flax crackers and veggies, all of which are very satisfying. I've also gained 25 lbs so far which we all know is not just baby who weighs approximately 3 lbs right now, so if I eat more, I'm pretty sure I'll be up to my typical 45-50lbs that I usually seem to gain.

Annabelle took these 30 week shots. When people ask when I'm due and I say May, they're generally really surprised. I've had people say things like, "Wow, you look like you're going to explode." or, "Man. You already look really uncomfortable." I usually just smile and think to myself, 'thanks man(it's usually a comment made by a man). Appreciate it.' I like to wear longer sleeves to cover up my not-so-toned triceps and to help play down the size of my belly. So here are two pictures, one with the long sleeved cover up piece, and one without.

Jumanji

2012-02-27T13:14:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the movie Jumanji? I was a kid when it came out and I remember liking it. While at the library a couple of weeks ago, we found this movie in the kids section and decided to give it a try...the kids were off track and we had more time for movies. It's PG, and whenever my kids watch a PG movie I always look up content information before hand to see if I think it'll be okay. Even though I've seen the movie many times, I haven't seen it in years, probably way before I had kids, so I needed to be reminded. Anyway, what I read sounded okay, some intense fantasy action scenes, mainly with the animals that come out of the jungle. I thought Charlie would really like it, and he did. He even asked if we could buy it for his next birthday. Annabelle and Elisabeth on the other hand....

Annabelle sat right next to me and a couple of times got really close to me but overall she seemed okay. Unfortunately, that night, Elisabeth came upstairs out of bed in tears because she couldn't stop thinking about Jumanji and how scary it was. Scott and I talked with her for awhile. We let her watch, "The Coat" on daddy's ipod touch, which is a nice, short(probably 3 minutes) video about a sweet little boy who does something kind for someone else. We reminded her to say a prayer asking Heavenly Father to protect her and to help her be comforted so she could fall asleep and then we told her to think about happy things, like the short clip she just watched. She went back to bed and seemed to be fine. But the next night was the same. And then Annabelle started saying she couldn't go to sleep because she always thought about Jumanji. Whoops! I felt bad for letting them watch it. Ever since then, the girls have slept together in Elisabeth's twin bed, on the top bunk. This was something they came up with on their own and I didn't know about it until after they were asleep and I went in to check on them. They've been sleeping together every night for the past couple of weeks and we haven't had any problems so we're letting them.

Charlie's cavities

2012-02-24T20:00:00.000-07:00

Since the kids are off track, I thought now would be a good time to schedule a cleaning with their dentist. This was Annabelle's first real cleaning and x-rays, and she did okay. She hated the taste of the 'bubblegum' toothpaste and when they started that part of the cleaning, her legs, which were laying flat and relaxed, quickly tensed up and she brought her knees up to her chest. She was so tense. She made them stop a couple of times, sat up at one point with tears in her eyes and looking to me expectantly. I told her they were almost done and that we just needed to finish up really quick. They were able to do all they needed with Annabelle, so all in all I'd call it a good visit for her. Elisabeth and Annabelle both came away with out any cavities. Charles on the other hand has four cavities.

One of the four is small so we can wait on that one and see if it'll go away with good brushing and flossing. But the other three needed to be taken care of. This shouldn't have come as a surprise because even though he spends five plus minutes in the bathroom each night with the door shut supposedly brushing his teeth, he has admitted before that he doesn't really brush his teeth. I think he just plays with the water. So now Scott or I will need to be sure to monitor and help out with brushing and flossing for our 6-year-old.

Charles went into the dentist again a few days later to have his three cavities taken care of. He got right in the chair and lay down, but when the dentist asked him to open his mouth so they could put the numbing gel on his gums, Charles refused. He would not open his mouth for anything. Next we tried to get him to wear the laughing gas mask, but he refused to do that as well. The dentist talked with me and told me that maybe we should reschedule in the near future and at that time, for me to give Charles valium an hour before the appointment so they can put the mask on him and do their work. Drugs for my 6 year old to work on his teeth? Uh...that didn't sound very fantastic to me. So I asked them to give me a few minutes to talk with Char, and then I decided, if this didn't work, I'd wait a year or so until he was a little older and we'd try again. I know the dentist says they need to be taken care of soon, but unless Charlie gets to the point where he is in severe pain(which I think would be a good motivator for him to listen to the dentist anyway), I think I'd rather wait it out a bit until he's older. So I talked with Char.

First I explained that the thing that goes over his nose is just like one of his other play masks, that he can breathe perfectly well with it on. Then I told him that he needed to have this done and that if he wouldn't let them put the mask on and work on his teeth today, we'd have to come back again and he'd have to do it then and if we waited too long to come back, his teeth would get bigger holes and they might have to pull them out. Then I told Charles that if he would do this and listen and follow what the dentist asked him to do, we could do something really fun afterward and then I asked him what he would like to do more than anything. His answer, "Go to McDonalds". I cringed inside but then smiled and said, "okay, we'll go to McDonalds today". He knows I mean what I say and so he smiled big and said, 'okay'. He knows I hate McDonalds, so this was big. Charlie allowed the dentist to come in and do his thing. Once he was numb, it probably only took the dentist about 10 minutes to fix all three cavities which was nice. The dentist was really good and talked to him the whole time and would tell him about all his different tools and allow him to feel them on his finger etc which I think helped relax Charles a bit. Let's hope we can teach Charles better dental hygiene over the next little while so that he won't have to get that last cavity filled, but rather, help it to go away on it's own. Oh, and on our way out the door, I told Charles we could go to McDonalds for lunch, or we could go to a movie or do something else, and that it was totally up to him. He got excited and said, "jumping jacks!", which is a bounce house place for kids, so we ended up going to a place with lots of bounce houses(though not actually 'jumping jacks') that afternoon which was even better! They had a blast and both Elisabeth and Charles asked if we could celebrate their next birthdays there.

Forks Over Knives

2012-02-22T10:00:00.002-07:00

Watch this 2 minute trailer for the health/nutrition video 'Forks Over Knives'. It follows two men: 1.) Colin Campbell who conducted the most comprehensive research study ever done on health and nutrition(according to the NY times), and 2.) Dr. Esselstyn a clinical surgeon. It goes over their findings along with findings of other doctors and leaders. It summed up Dr. Campbells research from his book The China Study which I read last year and loved, and highly recommend, but it is a longer book so if you're not a reader, I'd at least watch this clip and then find the movie on Netflix or through your library system. It'd be a great date night movie...Scott and I both really liked it, and it's always good to be on the same page when it comes to nutrition and feeding your family.

Charming Jane

2012-02-20T21:03:00.004-07:00

Jane, our youngest of four, will be two-years-old next month. The best single word I can think of to describe Jane is 'charming'. We are all so amused by her personality and her many facial expressions; she's a real people pleaser :). Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks of 'Jane in action'.

Jane just trying to look pretty. 'Pretty' is a new word in her vocabulary and she likes using it especially when it's directed toward herself.
While we were having our Family Home Evening lesson, Jane wandered off. Scott found her downstairs, on top of the guest bed watching Hello Kitty on our portable DVD player(her older sisters had watched it earlier that day and apparently left the dvd player on the bed; though they had turned it off and it was closed before Jane got to it. How she manages to figure out all our electronics on her own is a puzzle)
Jane saw her brother do this one day: pull out all the kitchen drawers and hide behind them. So of course, a day later, she had to try it herself. She just hung out back there for awhile, while sucking her fingers.
When Jane is doing something she knows she's not supposed to be doing(like dumping the water out of her cup, throwing food on the floor etc), she'll keep her head down but with her eyes, peek up to see if me or Scott will catch her in the act. It's pretty hilarious and she does it multiple times a day. Here she is taking a bite of her ice cream cone during Annabelle's birthday dinner. I guess she wasn't sure if we thought that was okay. And one of my favorites is when she gets mad at someone, she'll bow her head down slightly, glare and point her finger at you and sometimes she'll add in a "No!"

Dolphin Cake

2012-02-20T10:25:00.004-07:00

One of Elisabeth's best friends just had a birthday and I offered to decorate the cake; her mom is a good friend of mine and brought the baked cakes over to my house so that I wouldn't have to do that step. I cut and stacked them and decorated them with a dolphin theme as per request.

Cake decorating details: I covered the cakes in blue butter cream frosting. I had a cookie cutter in the shape of a star fish that I used to gently press in the side of the cakes and trace over with the circle tip 3 and then filled in with star tip 16. For the dolphins, I free-handed a big and small dolphin in pencil on a piece of paper(or you could just print one out and cut it), cut out the paper and then gently pressed those into the cake where I wanted my dolphins and then traced those outlines with tip 3 and 5 and filled them in with frosting. The plants were done with leaf tip 352, the rock border on the bottom tier with circle tip 10 and the shell borders on the top tier in tips 21(base of top tier)and 18(top of top tier). The 'sand' around the base of the cake is brown sugar.

DIY- Swirl Top Cupcakes

2012-02-19T10:01:00.004-07:00

Swirl top cupcakes can look really beautiful, even when done by a person with little or no cake decorating experience. And they are fast which is nice. Children love to see them with sprinkles on top, just be sure to put the sprinkles on soon after you've added your frosting swirl so that they will stick...if you wait to long, the sprinkles will just bounce right off.

As long as you have the right tip, a decorating bag and a good decorating frosting recipe, you're set. I learned how to make these in a Wilton cake decorating course, so I thought I'd do a google search and see if they had instructions online. And they do! I will post that here with my own tidbits of advice in italics, that I've found helpful. And just remember, the first one may not look perfect, or the second one, so plan on practicing on a few. The nice thing about frosting cupcakes is that if you hate the way it turns out, you can easily scrap off the frosting and try again. So even if it takes you ten tries to get this down, you can always redo your cupcakes. Here are the instructions (and I've included my butter cream recipe as well):

1M Swirl

Ingredients:

Buttercream icing (light to medium consistency)

My butter cream recipe:

1 c vegetable shortening(not the kinds with added butter flavors)

4 Tbsp water

1/2 tsp clear vanilla flavor

1/4 tsp almond flavor

1/4 tsp butter flavor(you can buy this at a craft store in the cake decorating section...our Walmart also carries this with their birthday/cake decorations)

1lb or 4 c powdered sugar

1 Tbsp Meringue Powder(also find this at craft store; this is a very important ingredient in decorators frosting b/c it really helps with the consistency and allows the frosting to keep it's shape...it stiffens just slightly though the frosting is still super soft and yummy, but this also allows you to stack frosted sugar cookies on top of each other without having them stick together, as long as you've let the frosting set for about 20 minutes)

Tools:

Tip: 1M (this tip is bigger in size than most which means you won't use a coupler with this tip, but just stick it straight in the decorating bag; you can buy this at a craft store in the cake decorating section...our Walmart also carries this with their birthday/cake decorations)
Decorating Bag (I personally like the white kind you reuse, but the disposable, clear ones work just as well)

Instructions:

Step 1

Hold Open Star Decorating Tip 1M approximately 1/4" above cupcake top at a 90° angle to cupcake surface. Pipe a spiral of icing, beginning at the outer edge and working inward.

Step 2

Stop pressure; pull tip away. (note: you stop pressure once you've filled out the outer edge and done your swirl in the middle; basically once the entire cupcakes is covered; and I skip the last step and once the cupcake is completely covered and your tip is in the middle of the cupcake, I stop pressure and pull the tip up and then around in a circular movement so the middle doesn't stick straight up )

Step 3

Pipe a second spiral, smaller (not as wide) on top. End spiral at center. Stop pressure; pull tip straight up and away.

Annabelle is Four!

2012-02-16T20:53:00.000-07:00

Annabelle has been counting down the days to her birthday for quite some time. Being the third child, she has always felt like she should be older. Even now she's already talking about how in a year she'll be five and then six like Charles. I love the picture above of Annabelle with her cupcakes! Isn't she a doll? She is so full of life and joy and energy. We all love to be with Annabelle.

Annabelle requested pink rose cupcakes for her birthday this year. The day before her birthday I baked half the batter and tossed the rest. Annabelle helped make the batter, and the frosting and she helped put the sprinkles on a few of the cupcakes. As a side note, when we had the cupcakes tonight after dinner she only ate one really small bite and then said she was done. She's not a huge sweet eater. I think we're going to freeze the leftover four cupcakes and let the kids have them on Jane's birthday next month. Our day went as follows:
Wake up, open presents, eat German pancakes with whipped cream, play with new gifts(art kit and watched her new barbie movie),

Elisabeth made Annabelle a book with different barbie princesses on each page with some descriptions on that particular princess. Charlie made her some nice pictures and as well.

We made Elisabeth a pillow out of a t-shirt last year that she loves so we decided to do the same thing for Annabelle this year. Now Charlie wants one, too.

go to the park, play at home some more, eat at Sweet Tomatoes for dinner, go shopping at Target with Mom after dinner with the gift card she got from grandparents, and then cupcakes back at home with the family. I think she had a really nice day. Happy Birthday Annabelle!

Valentine's Day

2012-02-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

I've decided I like the track my kids are on right now. I like that they have a good amount of February off because there are so many fun crafts and other things to do in preparation for Valentine's day, and then there is also Annabelle's birthday.

We had a Valentine's Day Menu that we had decided on a couple of days before hand. We pretty much always do pink, heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and a heart pizza for dinner, and this year we also added in a pink smoothie at breakfast, heart shaped sandwiches for lunch(which we packed up and shared with dad at work), strawberry spinach salad for dinner and a smore pizza for dessert. Yes, you heard that right. Smore pizza. Not my choice but I'm going along with it. I made the mistake of telling Scott about the papa murphys e-coupon I received, where you get a heart pizza and a smore pizza for $7 and he was sold. But we compromised a little and agreed to either give the leftovers away or toss them. We ended up tossing them. We wanted to do a homemade heart pizza, but I wasn't sure how we'd manage keeping it in a heart shape while transferring it to the pizza stone. Though last night my mom shared the brilliant idea of still making a circle pizza but arranging the toppings so they make the shape of a heart, so I think we'll do that next year. We also had fresh strawberries and strawberries dipped in almond bark. Elisabeth helped dip the strawberries and we brought a plate over to a lady in our neighborhood and ward who played the piano for Elisabeth and I this past Sunday at church when Elisabeth and I sang a duet. As a side note, Elisabeth did a great job and even sang one verse solo. Singing in a microphone in front of lots of people can be really scary and we were very proud of her.

And of course, we all got to read our love letters at breakfast. This is the 5th or 6th year we've done this and it truly is my favorite part about Valentine's Day. I love getting love letters from the kids and especially Scott :)! I've kept all of them in a box and my plan is to put each child's together into a notebook as a gift to them when they turn 18 or before they leave home.

Happy Valentine's Day!

28 weeks

2012-02-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

Since the kids are off track I let Elisabeth come with me to my last doctors appointment so she could hear the baby's heart beat and get a general feel for how my appointments go. This was also the appointment where they do the gestational diabetes testing. I was able to get my glucose drink at my prior appointment and drink it at home so I wouldn't have to wait quite so long before they drew my blood, which was nice. When drawing my blood, the nurse missed my vein on the first prick and almost did the same on the second, but then wiggled it around and got the blood flowing. Elisabeth didn't really like that part :). She said seeing them fill the three tubes with blood was gross. The nurse said they'd call if something was wrong so hopefully I won't hear any news.

A few days ago I told Scott that I felt ready to have this baby. I'm feeling uncomfortable already and would like to be done soon :). He tried to offer comfort by reminding me that this could likely be my last pregnancy and that I should enjoy it. It was a good attempt on his part, but not very comforting. My breath is always short, baby seems to be getting in weird positions fairly frequently that make my lower right side of the back hurt, and I can't breathe whenever I bend over, which happens more often than I'd like. On the upside, the bumps on my legs have improved quite a bit. They don't bother me anymore and they've significantly shrunk in size. Also, as in previous pregnancies, strangers feel comfortable around me when I'm so obviously pregnant and will strike up conversations with me or just smile which is nice. Right now when I go out shopping, I'll either go alone or I'll take one of the kids with me because having all of them right now, in my size, is not only stressful but I can't keep up with them physically, they're too fast and they're much lower to the ground than I am so I just don't do it if I can possibly help it. Anyway, several times while out alone, people have asked if this is my first. It sounds a little strange to hear myself saying, "No, this will actually be the fifth."

Another upside is that I'm now in my last trimester! Hallelujah! I get so antsy and excited during this last trimester which almost makes the time seem to slow down, unfortunately. I like to sit and daydream about when and how everything will happen. What will I be doing when the contractions come on? Will it be during the day or night(though so far, our track record is that they always come at night...accept for Annabelle who I had induced). I like to think about what she'll look like, how big she'll be, what her name will be. We have a list of several first and middle names we like but we both have different first choices, as usual. So we probably won't decide for sure until we see her. Some names just seem more blonde and others more brunette to me :). Maybe that seems strange, but it's true. And since we have both combinations in our family....you just never know. Alright, well, I think that's it for now.

Repairs

2012-02-12T17:23:00.003-07:00

Scott and I both come from places where water softeners were never used. There was no need.
The water is naturally soft where we come from. So we came to this house knowing nothing about water softeners. Apparently they need to be replaced(expensive) or maintenanced (also expensive) about every 12 years or so. Ours is probably that old, and in fact, we think it's as old as the house which is more like 18 years, and since we knew nothing about water softeners, we didn't know much about how to care for it besides what the previous owners mentioned in passing which was to put salt in every 2-3 months. So, every two to three months we'd add one bag of salt and call it good. I think we were running what was left of this water softener, into the ground.

Our softener started leaking over the past month. I talked to some people around here about who they liked and trusted when it came to water softeners and got a couple of recommendations. I've gotten kind of scared of having workers come into my home because of a recent bad experience when we had some air duct cleaning guys over. They were worse than car salesmen. And to me, that means they're really, really bad. Anyway, that's another story.

The first place I called came out to our house and tested our water, which was really, really hard(not good), and checked the pressure which was really, really high(also not good) and then upon peering into the tank where we put our salt, besides seeing that the water level was way too high, he also announced that it was empty. Empty, I thought? Really? But look at all that water. Apparently the water doesn't count. And it's not supposed to be that high. The salt should have been that high. Then I took some time to ask him a few questions and I learned a lot during our appointment. He said we needed a new water pressure regulator and either a new water softener or we needed to put all new stuff on the softener tank we already had. Both options were really expensive. He left and a couple of days later I called the other company I'd heard about. They said we needed the same stuff, but the price they quoted us was several hundred dollars less! Happy day! It was still expensive, but this way we wouldn't be using all of our tax return on this repair, just part of it. So they came in and within a few hours the old, leaky one was out and the new one was in, and the water pressure regulator thing was also put in. Scott just had to make a new, bigger wall panel covering to cover the hole in the wall where they put in the pressure regulator. Yay for tax returns!

the new water pressure regulator

Here's the new softener. I should have taken a picture of our old one. It looked pretty terrible compared to this one.

Now onto our second repair. My treadmill got a hole on the belt. When the belt rotates while I'm walking, it makes a really loud noise and shakes a little because the piece on the belt that's torn, sticks out and is catching on something else underneath that I can't see. Anyway, we thought we'd have to dump it and be without a treadmill for awhile which made me really sad because I use it everyday, but we knew since we were getting a new water softener system we really shouldn't do both and the water softener takes precedence. Now, remember how I just got stitches? One day this week I was on my elliptical thinking about how much I'm already missing my treadmill(the elliptical is sure getting hard with my continual weight gain) and then I got distracted and started thinking about my stitches and the thought came to me, 'I wonder if I could stitch up my belt?' I got one of my more heavy duty needles, and some plain old thread(though I might buy a stronger kind in the future if this doesn't hold) and I sat down and stitched it back together. Even though the hole wasn't huge, it took me a long time to stitch it back up because it was hard trying to get my needle through the material on the belt. But I finished and I've used it a couple of times since without any noise or shaking! Wahoo! Let's hope this holds up for awhile.

Date swap

2012-02-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned before that another family and ours swap babysitting each month: they go on a date one month and then Scott and I go the next. We decided for February, since it's Valentine's, that we'd swap twice and each get a turn to go on a date. Scott and I are going out this weekend! It's always something the whole family looks forward too. Annabelle and their Elizabeth are best friends and play barbies or house most of the time. Our 4 oldest kids(there 2 and our 2) get along really well and our babies like to walk around together with their strollers and babies :). Last weekend we watched their kids. Scott played sports with the big kids outside, we ate pasta, veggies and fruit for dinner, we played 'Pin the Heart on Cupids Arrow' (I had to make a game for Charlie's kindergarten class so I already had this all ready) and then played some more and watched part of A Dolphin Tale.

Home-made whole wheat tortillas

2012-02-09T10:00:00.003-07:00

The first question I asked myself after eating these tortillas is, where have they been all my life? Seriously, my dad is from Mexico and his family apparently always made their own tortillas. Why didn't we? My friend Maren gave me a couple of really good whole foods recipes recently and this was one of them.

Backing up, Elisabeth(our 7-year-old) does not like store bought whole wheat tortillas. She always said she didn't like quesadillas, but I know now that it was just quesadillas made from store bought whole wheat tortillas. Sometimes she'll have a burrito if it has enough fillings inside so she can't really taste the tortilla, but then she'll always leave the ends where there isn't much of anything else on it.

About a month ago, we went to Costa Vida for the first time and she ate a quesadilla and loved it. I asked her why she didn't like my quesadillas and she said it was the tortilla. Now, back to the present. I made these whole wheat tortillas this week and had her try a bite. She loved it and in fact said, "Mom, these taste just like the ones from Costa Vida!" A HUGE compliment coming from her. And then she ate two quesadillas! And in fact, the whole family loved them which is also HUGE for us. We don't have very many dinner meals we ALL enjoy. Now, these tortillas are not really just like the one's from Costa Vida, which I told her, because mine are whole wheat and the one she had there was made from white flour. Either way, I'm so happy to have found this recipe because I am a Mexican food lover and this will be very useful for my family.

I filled my burrito with cooked beans, lettuce, mexican rice, guacamole and salsa! So yummy!

This recipe made 12. When I made it again I doubled it, though I only used 3/4 c oil rather than the full 1cup. They were pretty easy and probably took about 30 minutes to make, the longest part being the rolling out of the dough and cooking. The first time I made these I cooked them on my stove in a cast iron pan. Then I got smart and pulled out my large pancake griddle so I could roll out and cook four at a time which went much quicker. I cooked all of them at one time and then you can refrigerate or freeze leftovers, though I just left mine on our counter in a tupperware because I figured they'd get eaten up the next day, which they did. Here's the recipe:

Whole-Wheat Flour Tortillas- Lightly adapted from 100 days of whole foods
Yield: 12 tortillas

Ingredients

2 1/2-3 cups whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup oil(I used olive oil...if you double this recipe, you only need 3/4 c oil)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water (heated in the microwave for 30 seconds)

Directions

In the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer set with a dough hook, pour in the 2 1/2 cups flour, oil, water and salt. Beat with the paddle about 3 minutes until smooth. Scrape the sides as needed. If your hand-held mixer comes with dough hooks those can be used as well(and that's what I personally used to make these). Add more flour if needed; you don't want it so sticky that you can't work with it.
Take out the dough and divide it into 12 equal sized pieces. I do this by rolling out a log shape that is about 8 – 10 inches long. Then I cut it in the middle. Then I cut each of those pieces into 3 so you have 12 pieces.
Roll each piece into a ball and flatten it out on a baking tray/board/parchment paper. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for at least 15 minutes or up to one hour.
Heat a cast iron skillet, griddle or 12-inch skillet over med to medium-high heat. I had my griddle on about 375 degrees. The pan should be fairly hot before you begin cooking the tortillas.
On a lightly floured board or countertop, roll each ball into a 8 to 10 inch circle. Be careful not to use more than a teaspoon or two of flour when rolling out each ball of dough because too much excess flour will burn in the pan.
Grease the pan with a touch of oil if needed(I didn't do this on my cast iron or my griddle) and then carefully transfer each tortilla, one at a time, to the pan and cook until puffy and slightly brown, about 30 to 40 seconds per side. Set aside on a plate to cool slightly. Eat within an hour, refrigerate or freeze.

Valentine Banner

2012-02-07T20:00:00.004-07:00

The kids and I did some Valentine crafts today. The kids made Valentine envelopes so that when we write our traditional love letters to each other, we can stick them in their envelopes.

3-year-old (almost 4)Annabelle using scissors for perhaps the first time ever. I keep scissors out of reach for just about all the kids because I don't want things like hair or clothes cut, which has happened in the past. And wait, I take back that first sentence. I know she used scissors at least once when she put a cut in her skirt and shirt. But she wasn't ever given instructions on how to use the scissors so we had a little lesson on how to hold them today.She did pretty good.

I have been searching Pinterest for a Valentine banner I could duplicate and put over our fireplace mantle in our front room. I didn't ever find one I loved and then the other day I was reading friends blogs and my friend Monique had a picture posted of some of her Valentine decorations, one of which was the cutest Valentine banner. I zoomed in on her picture to try and figure out how she did it and then I made a similar one. I worked on it today while the kids worked on their Valentine envelopes. Everything turned out great! And now I have a Valentine decoration besides the one's my kids like to make and hang each year(but don't get me wrong, those are great too). I had nearly all the supplies on hand(construction paper, toole, an ink stamp pad and sponge I used to antique the edges, and a friend cut out letters for me on her cricut!), I just had to buy a few pieces of cute 'Valentiney' scrapbook paper which I found on sale at Michaels.

Like the tiny sponge I used? It was one of Charlie's little critters that start out in a tiny little ball and once you soak it in water it turns into this spongey creature. :) These are all my pieces before I antiqued them.

Marilla Moment

2012-02-07T13:18:00.002-07:00

Have any of you ever seen Anne of Green Gables? There is a part when Marilla's special brooch goes missing and she thinks it was Anne. Anne tells her she didn't do it but Marilla doesn't believe her and says that until she tells the truth, she won't be going to the neighborhood party that evening. So Anne comes up with a story about how she lost the brooch, even though she didn't ever take it. Marilla gets mad that Anne fesses up and tells her how she lost it, but soon after finds her brooch on one of her own shalls. She feels bad for blaming Anne. She goes to talk with Anne about why Anne made up that story and Anne says, "because you wouldn't believe the truth."

I had a Marilla moment today. The kids are off track now. We were getting ready to have snack and I noticed someone had finished all the pancakes and someone(obviously a child by the handwriting) had written numbers all over our eggs. Neither one was a big deal, but I wanted to know who had done it(they were supposed to stay out of the kitchen until snack time because from previous experiences when the kids are out of school, if I don't set up time schedules for the kitchen, I am literally in there all day getting different people food and cleaning up). They all denied everything. After awhile Annabelle said that she and Jane ate the pancakes. But still no one would confess to writing the numbers on the eggs. I knew it had to be Elisabeth or Charles because Jane and Annabelle can't write numbers yet. When I told them this, they still both denied having done it. I told Elisabeth and Charles that I wanted to figure this out before they got their snack.

A couple minutes later Charles comes to me and says he did it. I figured it was him in the first place because I thought I saw a smile when I first noticed the numbers on all the eggs. When I asked him why he didn't just tell me in the first place because he wouldn't have gotten in trouble and I didn't really care if he wrote on them or not, that I just didn't want him to lie he said, "well I didn't do it, but I just said I did." I asked if he just said he did because he wanted to eat. He said yes. Finally I decided to call Scott at work. Maybe he could shed some light on the situation. And he did. You see, we just started buying eggs from someone new because our old contact sold her chickens. Scott said when he bought the eggs, he noticed they'd all been numbered. I know this family has children who collect their eggs and for some reason, they must have numbered them. I felt horrible when I found out the truth. I told the children I was sorry that I didn't believe them and that I was glad they didn't give in but that they stuck to the truth. Don't you hate those bad mommy moments? I'm happy we finally figured it out.

Here are pictures of the kids having their quiet/school time today while Jane napped. First thing this morning we wrote out a schedule because we all do SO much better when we have things all planned and mapped out. Later today or tomorrow will be a Valentine craft.

2011 Blog Book Published

2012-02-05T12:23:00.001-07:00

I finished my blog book! I made a 'finish-it-by-January-31st' deadline for myself so I wouldn't procrastinate and stress over when I would have the time to do it, which also turned out nice because I was able to use the 15% off coupon from blurb which expired at that time. I went with the image wrap cover again rather than the dust jacket which I like a lot better. My dust jacket covered one's aren't looking so nice anymore; partly because my children love looking through and reading my blog books and they're not the gentlest human beings, so yeah, image wrap works better for us.

Oh and funny story. Today Elisabeth was reading one of my first blog books aloud to Charles and she saw I wrote the word, s-t-u-p-i-d. I could hear her from the other room gasp and say, "I cannot believe mom said the 'S' word! And even worse, she was an adult! Charlie, go tell mom, and see what she says." Whoops! So if my kids ever talk about the 'S' word or the 'F' word, and they mention that I say them, just know it's probably not so bad as you may think :). The 'F' word in our house is 'fool'.

Everybody's Barn

2012-02-04T12:22:00.000-07:00

Elisabeth telling the horse to "speak" with her hands and with her words.
The girls feeding Bow.

Our friends invited us to go visit, "Everybody's Barn" this past week. At 'Everybody's Barn', they have miniature ponies they've trained to do tricks: speak(moving their lips like they're talking), rear up on hind legs, knock, count with their hoof, open a toy chest, kick a soccer ball etc. The kids got to feed them and help give signals for the ponies to do tricks. The kids loved it and Annabelle keeps asking if we can go back. If you're a local or are ever visiting Utah and have little kids, you should check it out. They have movies/short tv shows you can watch, some animated some not, but both very kid friendly with a good message. Here is there website: http://everybodysbarn.com/

Annabelle was a little reluctant to get up and have the ponies do things. But she did when Dad went up with her; and like I mentioned above, now she can't stop talking about them.

Work and Play

2012-02-03T12:40:00.000-07:00

Dad taking the doors off the fridge and freezer and switching them to the other side so they open from the right instead of the left. (when it opened from the left, you couldn't open it all the way when the dishwasher was open, which was often)
Elisabeth working on piano. She practices for 30 minutes, 5 days a week. She's starting with a new teacher soon because her last teacher just had her fifth baby and will be done teaching for awhile.
Charlie and Jane playing with tools.
Annabelle working on writing her letters. She knows all of her alphabet letters and sounds though struggles with writing a few of them. 'K' for example is really hard for her to write.
Scott working on the front door. He got to use his new drill and put in a new door handle and bolt. The old bolt made the door extremely difficult to open and get out. Which can be nice when you have little ones you don't want opening the door, but it's a little embarrassing when guests can't open it either :). Not that embarrassing, but I figure, if an adult can't figure it out, it could be a fire hazard.

26 Weeks

2012-02-01T12:47:00.003-07:00

Here I am at 26 weeks. I read that the baby should be about two pounds now and 14 inches long! I'm sure that's more exciting for me than it is for anybody else :). At my last doctor's appointment(I went at 24 weeks), the doctor said I was measuring a week farther along(so 25 weeks rather than 24) which I was happy to hear. But of course, I won't set my hopes too high because though Jane came 10 days early, Annabelle was induced on her due date and the other two only came a few days early as well. I just hope she comes a little before her due date....a week or two would be fantastic! The next appointment I'll have the glucose screening done. Life is still going as normal, and like I mentioned in my last pregnancy post, day-to-day things are just getting a little more challenging with the growing baby, but still manageable. I'm not sure if this is true or if I just didn't keep very good records from before and can't remember, but in this fifth pregnancy, I feel like I'm getting a lot more uncomfortable earlier on. I always remember the last month being uncomfortable, but I'm uncomfortable already and I still have three months to go. And to add to my discomfort, I went in to see a dermatologist recently for two reasons: one a mole that seemed to have changed and two for a constantly peely and red nose. We(the doc and I) think the nose is from sun damage. My nose always gets burned in the spring and summer. Always. Several times a week, it seemed, even though I'd try and remember to put sunscreen on(notice the word 'try'. yeah that's because I didn't get in the habit of doing it daily, only when I knew I'd be out in the sun and more often than not, I was out in the sun on a daily basis for one reason or another and maybe half the time with sunscreen). She gave me a steroid cream to put on it twice a day for two weeks which I'm doing and after several days of that, it cleared up! But that wasn't the uncomfortable part.

The uncomfortable part was with the mole. First off, the mole sits above my uterus, about a half inch under my bra line in the front. The dermatologist decided to cut out a chunk of it and get a biopsy done. Then she had to stitch it back together with four stitches. Because of the position of where it was done, it is really uncomfortable. I'm always adjusting my bra so that it's not touching it or rubbing against it, but because it sits on top of my uterus, it's kind of pushed up in that direction and it's hard to keep it out of the way. She'll take the stitches out next week which will be a relief. And I got the results back from the biopsy and though the mole is abnormal, there is no cancer, as of right now, so that's good.

Like my socks?

I wear mismatched socks a lot these days, but for a good reason. Near my left ankle I have two of my bumps: one on the back of the ankle and one on the side. It hurts when there is anything tight or form fitting around it which means most of my socks hurt it(just the elastic part around the top of the socks). But I do have about 5 pair of really old, stretched out socks that don't bother it at all, and since I go through socks so fast with exercising every day and what not, I've decided that in order to make my comfortable sock supply last longer, I'd wear my stretched out old ones on my left foot each day and my newer ones on my right foot :). Problem solved! And yes, I'm still exercising each day, usually I'll walk three miles on the tredmill and then do about 10 minutes of yoga and stretching at the end. I may have to do more yoga and less walking near the end, but for now, I like doing it this way...if I skip a day or two of walking, it's harder for me to go for the full three miles. This baby sure seems heavy on my legs and everything else under it.

Heart burn isn't too bad yet which is nice. I've probably taken tums three times so far with this pregnancy, and all of those times were at night, as I went to lay down to sleep. I'm sure at the end it'll get worse like it usually does but for now it's manageable. And I'm sleeping well which is nice. Turning from side to side is a little more difficult, especially with the body pillow that I have to bring with me and keep in between my knees and ankles, but I seriously love that thing so I don't mind too much.

My bumps are looking and feeling a lot better for the most part. They're not so big and red anymore. They've been flattening out and turning a purplish color, like a bruise. I think that's because 1. I've stopped doing Tae Bo and 2. I've been a lot better about eating well. One of my favorite snacks that I have daily right now are Lara Bars (you can find the recipe by clicking on the link...I always quadruple the recipe which makes 8 bars, so instead of doing 1/4 c dates and dried fruit, I do one cup). I was buying them from Costco for awhile(I started doing that when I wasn't feeling well), but now I'm making them again. So far I've only made the cherry kind, but I love them so that's fine. I love these because I can make them on a day when I have 3o minutes to spare and then I individually wrap them and store them in my fridge so during the next week, I can just grab one when I'm really hungry or throw one in my purse when I know we'll be out.

"Let food be thy medicine..."

2012-01-30T10:00:00.002-07:00

You remember the pictures from two posts ago? The one's of Scott's birthday where we had ice cream and cookies and lots of sugary toppings? Yeah so after that, over the next few days we had leftovers, and four of us got colds. Four! We rarely get colds/runny noses/coughs anymore and four of us did! I was so mad! But of course it was my fault what with all the refined sugar, white flour(which acts like sugar in the body) and different processed foods with lots of additives. So now we're on a strict no-refined sugar diet and doing much less dairy as well until we're all better...and then hopefully we'll still stick with the no sugar....except Annabelle has a birthday in 2 weeks and she wants me to make her a cake with frosting roses on top. Grrrrreat......just what we need. I think I'll make a mini cake. And whatever we don't finish that night I'll toss. Good idea? I think so.

And by the way, Scott and I were just reviewing our year and we had no sick visits this year. Zero! None! Can you believe it?! And we have two kids in school, plus a three year old and a one year old all of which should be sick fairly regularly, right? Especially in the winter months? Isn't that normal for those ages? You know, colds, ear infections, allergies, etc. That's what everyone else thinks. But not me anymore. Having a healthy family is absolutely amazing, and is not just pure luck! We think Jane may have had an ear infection once this year, but we didn't take her in, we just did some at-home healthy things for the kids(foods mostly) and Jane got better over a couple of days. Anyway, this is just huge, especially when I think back to several years ago when Charlie was a toddler and had 6 ear infections in one year(almost had to get tubes), tons of antibiotics, plus Elisabeth had her own sick visits that year. I felt like the doctor's office was becoming a second home, what with all those plus wellness checks plus having to come back after two weeks of being on antibiotics to make sure things were cleared up, and with Charles they usually weren't and we had to get stronger antibiotics. Seriously a nightmare. I felt like such a poor, helpless mom. And it wasn't just Charles. All our little ones were regularly sick until Jane which is when we started cutting out processed foods and sugars etc. and drinking green smoothies regularly. Wow, life has sure changed for us. And I'm so happy! Food is amazing. Just like Hippocrates(the father of Western medicine) said, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be they food." I love it! In fact, I have that quote printed out and it's up in my kitchen on the outside of my cabinet; it's a good reminder.

Rigoletto at the Opera

2012-01-29T21:31:00.002-07:00

One of the Christmas presents Scott got for me this year were tickets to Rigoletto the Opera. This was our first Opera experience. We had a good time. It was interesting. The story of Rigoletto is a tragedy so it was, well, sort of tragic and not the most uplifting story :). But the singing was great! It was all in Italian but they had english subtitles above the stage. I don't think Opera's will be something we do regularly until our kids are much older because not only was the Opera 3 hours long, but you're to arrive 30 minutes early and it's a 30 minute drive from our house. Oh, and our van wouldn't start when we walked back out around 11pm which added a few more minutes. But that turned out alright; we had a lady jump us and it started up immediately. We're still not sure why it didn't start...perhaps a light left on somewhere? But we couldn't find one. And we haven't had any problems since. Anyway, this was also the first time we had a sitter put Jane to bed. It went alright :).

Like our coats in the picture? We were having a little snow storm on our drive up. We probably should have taken them off before we had our picture taken. Oh well.

Happy 31st Birthday Scott!

2012-01-25T21:00:00.001-07:00

I love this guy of mine so much. Even after nearly 10 years of marriage and soon-to-be 5 children together, and all the school that comes with two bachelors degrees, a masters degree, several moves, lots of budgeting and so much more, I can honestly say I love him so much more now than I did those 10 years ago, which would have seemed impossible at the time because we loved each other so much then as well. Our love has changed and evolved over the years and our marriage and relationship is worth more to us than anything else in the world...well second to our relationship with our Savior. But that in turn strengthens our relationship as well. Anyway, enough lovey dovey stuff :).

Here's how Scott's birthday went:Breakfast consisted of egg and cheese biscuit sandwiches. Scott opened his presents after breakfast and then headed off to work. The older kids each made Dad really sweet cards.

It was hard trying to get a good picture of this group. First Scott wouldn't make a normal face, then when he finally did, of course, his children had to follow his previous example :). I gave up.
After work we had dinner: cheese tortellini with a homemade tomato cream sauce which was heavenly!

(Sorry, I forgot to snap a picture of the tortellini until after we'd all eaten. Here are the leftovers though.)
Amazing tomato cream sauce. I'll post the recipe at the end.
After dinner we had a sugar cookie ice cream bar and sang Happy Birthday. Last year we had ice cream in a giant sugar cookie that had been baked in a pie plate. This year Scott wanted pretty much the same thing, but we decided to bake the sugar cookies in our muffin tins instead so that we didn't have to freeze the leftover sugar cookies with the ice cream(the sugar cookies get really hard when frozen...they're fine once thawed but you can't really thaw it well when it has ice cream inside). We had a family over the next day to help us finish off the leftovers. As you can see, there was a lot.

Tomato Cream Sauce- adapted from Allrecipes.com

10 servings

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, sliced

2 cloves garlic, cut up or 1 tsp garlic powder

2 (14.5 ounce) cans diced tomatoes, undrained

1 Tbsp Italian seasoning

2 tablespoon dried basil leaves

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoon butter

In a saucepan, saute onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat. Add tomatoes, basil, Italian seasoning, oregano, salt and pepper. Bring to boil and continue to boil 5 minutes or until most of the liquid evaporates. Blend in blender until smooth. Return to saucepan and stir in whipping cream and butter. Simmer 5 more minutes on low to medium-low heat. Serve over cooked pasta of choice.

*If you have a smaller family, you might want to halve this recipe. This worked well for our family of 6 and allowed me to have a left over quart sized jar of sauce for another day this week.

Tikka Masala, Naan and Basmati Rice

2012-01-25T10:06:00.002-07:00

Scott and I love to go out and get Indian food. It's a little pricey, or at least where we are. We've talked about trying to make Indian food for quite some time, but never got around to finding the ingredients we needed. Scott's birthday was yesterday(post to come on that later) and so the kids and I have tried to do some special things for him during the week in anticipation of his birthday. We made molasses cookies(his favorite) and brought them to him at work one day and ate lunch together, I took him out on a surprise dinner date during the week(we ate at an Italian Restaurant called Fratelli's), and making this Indian food was another one of those special things. I made Chicken Tikka Masala, Naan(indian flat bread) and Indian Basmati Rice(though Scott actually did most of this one). I also made paneer(a homemade cheese used in some of their dishes and one I personally love), but it didn't turn out as planned....it was too soft and crumbly to actually make squares out of, so I won't share that recipe. Everything else was SO good! We were very pleased with how everything turned out. Now that we have the ingredients, we'll have to make this more often, though the kids didn't want to touch any of it, so they had homemade pizza(we just pulled a dough out of the freezer that I'd made the week before and cooked that up with some sauce and cheese).

Chicken Tikka Masala- adapted from all recipes.com

Chicken Marinade

1/4 c plain yogurt

4 Tbsp Tikka Masala (bought a glass jar in Asian food section at grocery store)

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast thawed and cut into bite-sized pieces

Place in a gallon ziploc bag, close it, mix together and allow to marinate for at least one hour or over night in fridge.

Tikka Masala Sauce

1 tablespoon butter

1/3 of large white onion, sliced

1 clove garlic, minced (or 1/2 tsp garlic powder)

1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons paprika

3 teaspoons salt, or to taste

1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

1 cup heavy cream

Cook chicken at 350 degrees in a tinfoil lined 9x13 dish for 30 minutes or until no more pink in chicken.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute garlic, onion and jalapeno for 1 minute(if using garlic powder, wait to add with other seasonings). Season with 2 teaspoons cumin, paprika, and 3 teaspoons salt. Stir in tomato sauce and cream. Simmer on low heat until sauce thickens, about 20 minutes. Add grilled chicken, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Indian Style Basmati Rice- by Scott and Elisa Smith

1 1/2 cups brown basmati rice(if you use white basmati, cut down the water by 1/2 c and decrease cooking time by 30 minutes)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 (2 inch) piece cinnamon stick

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp cumin

1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

3 cups water

Place rice into a bowl with enough water to cover. Set aside to soak for 20 minutes.(This is very important)

Heat the oil in a large pot or saucepan over medium heat. Add the cinnamon stick, cloves, and cumin. Cook and stir for about a minute. Cook and stir the rice for a few minutes, until lightly toasted. Add salt and water to the pot, and bring to a boil. Cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for about 45 minutes, or until all of the water has been absorbed. Let stand for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork before serving.

The Naan bread was the most labor intensive and time consuming. But, that's how most yeast breads are, right? At least this recipe made enough that I could freeze a lot of the extra dough balls and so the next few times we eat Indian food I won't have to make the Naan from scratch again.

Naan- adapted from allrecipes.com

3 tsp yeast (or 1 package)

1 cup warm water

2 Tbsp honey

3 tablespoons milk

1 egg, beaten

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp garlic powder

31/2 cups bread flour

1/4 cup butter, melted (if cooking on grill)

Heat 6 c water in large pot on high heat. While waiting for it to boil, dissolve yeast in warm water in glass measuring cup. Add honey. Cover and let stand about 10 minutes, until frothy. Stir in milk, egg, salt, garlic and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until smooth. Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set on top rack of oven. Place a 9x13 pan on bottom rack and fill with the boiling water. Let it rise 1/2 hour, until the dough has doubled in size.

Punch down dough. Dump water back in pot and bring to boil again. While it's heating, pinch off small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll into balls, and place on a tray. Cover with a towel, place on top rack of oven, boiling water in 9x13 on bottom rack, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 15 minutes.

During the second rising, preheat grill to high heat or turn on oven to highest heat with Pizza stone inside.

*If baking on pizza stone, do not brush with butter. Roll out individual balls of dough very thin(I did three at a time) and place on pizza stone. Close oven and cook 50 seconds, then flip and cook another 50 seconds.

*At grill side, roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle. Lightly oil grill. Place dough on grill, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until puffy and lightly browned. Brush uncooked side with butter, and turn over. Brush cooked side with butter, and cook until browned, another 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from grill, and continue the process until all the naan has been prepared.

Blueberry Baked Steel Cut Oatmeal

2012-01-23T09:48:00.001-07:00

I found a recipe on pinterest the other day that I had to try. I made a couple of very minor adjustments to the recipe(like I always do...can't seem to leave recipes 'as is') and then I was in the kitchen baking. The prep time was probably only about 10 minutes(though it cooks for nearly an hour) and it'd be half that if you already had almond milk made up, which I didn't so I made some from scratch. I LOVED this recipe! Scott, Jane and Charlie had some too and they all really liked it. It's a definite keeper. I made it in an 8x8 dish and we were able to have leftovers for a day which were also SO yummy! The blueberry sauce and whipped cream are necessary toppers(or I suppose you could just add a little of your favorite milk instead of the whipped cream) and I also really liked having a few chopped, raw pecans. I made my own whipped cream with some agave in my Blendtec which just took a few seconds. So healthy, so filling and satisfying. Give it a try.

Blueberry Coconut Baked Steel Cut Oatmeal (serves 6)-adapted from familyfreshcooking.com

Oatmeal Ingredients

3/4 cups Steel Cut Oats

1/4 teaspoon ground Ginger

1/4 teaspoon fine Sea Salt

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

2 cups unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk (I make this using 1/2 cup almonds soaked overnight and blending in hi-power blender them with 2 c water and 1 tsp vanilla extract then straining through a nut-milk bag or in my case a paint strainer bag I purchased really cheap from Home Depot)

1 cups light unsweetened Coconut Milk

3/4 cups fresh or frozen Blueberries (if frozen, do not thaw first)

1/8 cup unsweetened Coconut Flake

Stevia or your favorite natural sweetener to taste

This goes in really runny and comes out looking more like a baked cake. Moist but not so runny.

Blueberry Sauce

1 cups fresh or frozen Blueberries

1 Tbsp agave

Optional Toppings

Chopped Pecans or other Toasted Nuts

Coconut Flakes

Whipped Cream (I love this topping on here. I make my own whipped cream using agave instead of sugar to sweeten it)

Coconut Milk

Directions for Oatmeal

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees with the rack in the center. Lightly coat an 8x8 inch baking dish with cooking spray(this recipe can easily be doubled and cooked in a 9x13). Combine all ingredients in a large bowl adding blueberries and coconut last. Sweeten to taste (I used 1/2 tsp stevia) Bake for about 55 minutes(add a few minutes if doing in a 9x13), until the oatmeal is set and not runny in the middle.

Directions for Blueberry Sauce

Heat the blueberries with a splash of water over medium high heat. When you hear them sizzle reduce heat to medium and cook for about 5 minutes until saucy. Mash the blueberries against the side of the pan with a spatula or spoon.

Serve oatmeal with some almond or coconut milk, whipped cream, blueberry sauce and any other optional toppings. Great as leftovers too!

Here are my leftovers!

Char's 2 front teeth, Jane's loves

2012-01-22T08:59:00.005-07:00

Charlie lost one of his front teeth some time ago and the other one has been wiggly for over a month. It could have come out a long time ago but he doesn't ever like to wiggle it and doesn't want other people to try(I think he's afraid it may hurt or doesn't like the blood or something...not really quite sure). Anyway, it continued to loosen up on it's own and was sticking out for about a week when finally this past he was wrestling around the living room with Annabelle, his face hit the couch and out it went! He didn't cry, just promptly brought the bloody tooth to me and then washed out his mouth. He was happy to be able to put the tooth in a baggie under his pillow in anticipation for his dollar :). Now we're waiting on the wiggly tooth on bottom(next to the two middle ones he lost awhile ago) to slowly inch it's way out.

This other picture of Elisabeth and Charles is one I took in the morning just before school. Look how close they are in height! They could be twins!

Jane has a fleece tie blanket she loves and sleeps with. It is a huge comfort to her. For the most part, I have her keep her blanket in the crib but as we draw near to the end of the day she likes to pull it out and keep it with her. That being said, it's nice to have something she loves and finds comforting while we're out and about. Backing up, a few years ago I made myself and the two oldest girls matching fleece scarves with the ends cut into strips. I made it using leftover material from one of the tied fleece blankets I made for my girls when they were babies. Now, a couple of years later, I'm SO happy I decided to make those little girl scarves because it's the same material and style with the cut ends Jane can hold in her hand like she does with her tied blanket and it's the perfect 'to-go' size. When we're heading out the door to run errands or to go to church I just grab her little scarf and wrap it around her neck and she is perfectly content.

Here's another cute picture of Jane in all her snowwear. She looks like a giant roasted marshmallow. It reminds me of the movie 'Christmas Story' with all the many poofy layers of snow gear which make it difficult to move.
And one more picture of Jane. I wish I had taken a 'before' and 'after' picture. This one with Annabelle would be the 'before' picture and unfortunately, there is no 'after'. Jane had a new bow to wear which my sister Becca made for her and the other girls. We got her all dressed for the day in the morning and then not more than 30 minutes later she came to me while I was exercising on the treadmill, sans bow, and with 3 different colors of marker all over her face. Seriously!? I knew Charlie and the girls were coloring in his room which is why I specifically asked them to keep their door shut so Jane couldn't get to his stuff. Well, apparently they forgot and when she came knocking, they of course couldn't turn her cute face away. Oh well, I guess that just happens when you've got three older siblings who aren't that old. A baby wipe and 2 minutes later, it was mostly gone.

24 Weeks

2012-01-18T13:56:00.004-07:00

Last week I made the mistake of counting down how many weeks I had left until the estimated delivery date. There were 17 weeks remaining. 7 weeks, or over a month and a half, until I would be 30 weeks. That sounds awful! Scott suggested I don't try and keep track anymore :). I think that's a good idea. I think I'll wait until April to do that again. Until then we'll just keep trudging along. Literally. Okay, it's not terrible, but the reason I even thought about counting down the weeks so early on is because it is getting increasingly difficult for me to get my normal day-to-day things done. Bending over or squatting to pick up toys over and over throughout the day, standing on my feet for a long time while I prepare and cook meals, bending over and twisting etc to get clothes out of the washer and into the dryer and then bending over my tummy to get the clothes out of baskets and fold them. I notice every time I bend over because my tummy is getting so big and the space in there so filled that that particular position makes it difficult to breathe. Doing my prenatal yoga helps with some of this but I really don't see any way around some of the typical stuff that comes with being pregnant; an over-sized, belly stuffed full with a child and other vital things, being one of them. There's just no way around it. :) Anyway, I really am doing fine. I'm feeling good. I still have the bumps on my lower legs but they're not causing too much discomfort, though like I mentioned earlier, when I eat refined sugar, I notice them more and they're a little more painful. Unfortunately, I'm still eating refined sugar a lot more than I used to and a lot more than I'd like to be; but that doesn't mean I'm giving up. I'll keep trying to do better.

Other news in pregnancy:
I can feel the baby move around all throughout the day which is fun. And she's not SO big that it hurts or is uncomfortable....yet :).

I'm into all of my maternity clothes now and even have a couple of pairs of shoes I won't wear anymore for awhile and a couple pair I wear all the time since my feet seem to grow when I'm pregnant(It seems like they grow in width and length though I could be wrong)

I have to use the bathroom a lot more frequently especially when I'm walking which makes my tredmill exercise a little more challenging...jumping on and off the moving belt when balance and coordination are already a disadvantage.

My doctors appointments are every 4 weeks and I usually bring my 2 youngest girls with me and schedule my appointments when the older two are at school. I don't mind bringing the younger girls with me to most of my appointments though when the appointments are.... unusual/embarrassing if I had an audience (usually the first one and near the end when they check to see how dilated I am), I'll leave them with a babysitter. I think I may be doing the glucose screening at my appointment tomorrow...either then or my next one.

I've had multiptle dreams about the labor/delivery. This always happens. It's such an exciting time that I think about it often and go through my old blog books and look at pictures and read the old birthing stories. My kids love to read about their own births too. I can't wait!

A week in our life...

2012-01-15T10:21:00.008-07:00

Annabelle, our 3, almost 4 year old, is home with me all day throughout the week and I love having her with me.

Wow, it's been over a week since I posted! Really?! I honestly thought I just posted the other day. I guess time flies when you're busy and having fun. I have been unusually busy this week. I'm normally busy when the kids are awake and home, basically from 7am-8pm, with an hour break for myself(okay not really completely for myself because usually Char and Annabelle need help with things, but it's more for myself because I allow myself the liberty to blog or read etc) during the day when Jane naps the others have quiet time, but this week, even my hour break and my time after 8pm was full of things that needed to be done. Those things are(in bold): my blog book. This takes hours and hours to complete. Editing, moving pictures, etc. and my book is 280 pages, so my goal is to complete 20 pages a day so that it'll be done in about 2 weeks. Hopefully. But getting through 20 pages a day on the booksmart program takes a long time because it's not very fast. I usually have to spend about an hour and a half to get through those 20 pages.

I was also asked to teach a class with our bishop's wife about family home evening ideas and traditions. The class is next month and is for our stake relief society(we'll be teaching this 1/2 hour class three times in an evening) and so this week I really started pulling things together and got together with this other lady and have been spending a lot of time reading, gathering, praying, etc trying to get inspiration on how we can do this well. While I was with Amy(the lady I'm doing the class with), we got off track for a few minutes and she asked me about kefir. I told her I had some water kefir grains that I hadn't done much with and then she proceeded to show me her milk kefir and asked if I wanted some of the grains. How could I pass that up? If you know me and my crazed interest in health and nutrition, this opened up a huge arena of questions I had and we talked awhile longer, I brought my new milk kefir grains home and went straight to the internet to do some research. Well, that research has turned into hours over days again. But it's paid off! This week I started doing more with my water kefir grains, learned how to make a smoothie, yogurt and experimented with pancakes using the milk kefir. Anyway, lots of questions, lots of reading and I'm learning a lot and still have a ton to learn and still have a ton of questions. If any of you use kefir grains, please leave a comment and let me know so that I can send you an email and perhaps pick your brain a little.

milk kefir grains

water kefir grains brewing on the left, milk kefir grains brewing on the right.

Blending up some fruit and agave with my kefir to make a fruity yogurt to add to my granola. Making kefir is so much easier than making yogurt. Pretty soon I'll have enough grains to share so if any of you locals are interested, let me know and I'll get you some.

kefir pancakes(I just substituted half of the milk with kefir)

I'm also reading a book that is very large and just yesterday decided I need to skim it because even though it was highly recommended, it's really not my style, far too many intricate details on things that are not important to me at all. Some things are a little sketchy too. And it's HUGE. But I've spent hours reading it. And then my normal stuff like scripture reading, personal/spiritual journal writing(not everyday, but I've been trying to do it a little more often than once or twice a month too and have done it a couple of times this week) and reading my book club book all of which I do during my free time which is limited already :). Busy, busy, busy.

Even though I didn't post anything this week, I did take some pictures of what our family was doing this week(that's not listed above) so I can remember the day-to-day stuff we do together. Here are some of the other things we've been up to this week.

We made bread(I've been borrowing Maren's, my neighbors, Bosch to make my bread as of late. I love it and I think If I stick with my bread making for awhile and we use it often, then maybe some day in the near future we'll purchase a Bosch.). My family LOVES this wheat bread recipe and they even love it as their sandwich bread which makes me very happy because at least three of us and many times all of us, eat sandwiches daily. I do my food preparations and baking during the day and usually have helpers.
I made four loaves and froze one of them. We finished three loaves in four days so this is probably the amount I'll need to make each week for now; and when the kids get older, it may be even more. Luckily, the Bosch makes life easy for making four loaves at one time.

I helped Charlie with his animal poster project. The children were asked to pick an animal to write a report on. They're kindergarteners so they just had to put a picture on a poster board and write three facts about this particular animal. But it was all, or mostly all to be done by the child. As one of Charlie's gifts for his birthday, he got a book and matching dvd on animals from Granny and Grandpa which he loves and now can tell you lots of interesting facts about all different kinds of animals. For his school project, Charles choose the Texas Horned Lizard. Why did he choose that? Because it shoots blood out of it's eyes, of course :).
Usually Friday or Saturday night we'll either have a game or movie night. So Friday night we had a game night. Charles and Dad played Stratego and Elisabeth and I played chess. Annabelle 'helped' dad play a little, but then she found a piece of rope and sat on the table with us and played with that. Jane sat with us in her high chair and colored and then got out and brought her babies in the kitchen to play with. Annabelle isn't old enough to play very many games on her own yet, though she does really like Uno, Hungry Hippos, Pictureka and Sorry, so we play those a lot as well.

We also have pizza night either Friday or Saturday. We've been doing this for years, and making home made pizza since we were married almost 9 years ago. Our recipe has changed over the years but we've finally found one we all love, that is all whole wheat(well and spelt) and is so yummy and soft and delicious. We bake it on our pizza stone which makes a perfect crust. The kids helped me make the crust. This week we also made lots of other foods including our typical pot of beans and mexican rice, though we've recently started 'refrying' the beans but not really because we don't use any oil, we just mash them up in their water. And I've also started cooking them in a crock pot(thanks for the tip Robin) which I love to do now.

tomato, onion and pesto pizza for the adults

cheese pizza for the kids

cooking my whole pinto beans in it's juice and then I will mash it up so they look like refried beans.

One morning this week was particularly busy. I was trying to get kids off to school when Annabelle woke up and started crying. Annabelle, our 3 year old, is completely potty trained. Apparently Elisabeth closed the door before coming out of her room that morning(they share a room), Annabelle couldn't get it opened and had to go to the bathroom really bad. She accidentally made a mess. Not just pee either. It was nasty and she needed a bath. So I threw both little girls in the bath, but the kids needed to be off to school in a few minutes. I asked Elisabeth to run downstairs and get a change of clothes for Annabelle which she did immediately without any complaints(which she has been known to do as of late) and then when she came back up and I had just pulled Jane out of the bath, she offered to get her diaper on, oiled up(we put coconut oil on after baths/showers to help with dry skin/eczema etc) and dressed. I was so grateful for her help that morning so I wrote her a thank you note and placed it on her bed which I also made up for her since she didn't get to it that morning. Seriously, I'm so grateful for her help sometimes, and Charlie too.

I apologize for the length of this post. Usually I'll split them up over the week. I'll try again for next week.

Protein Comparison Chart

2012-01-07T17:09:00.001-07:00

Some people wonder how vegans and vegetarians get their protein. That's not a big surprise considering the large amount of money and influence in the meat and dairy companies. They're the ones who fund much of the health/nutrition education in schools. If you look at this chart you'll see that the first five items on this list, the items that have the most protein, are all vegetarian/vegan. Black beans, kidney beans, lentils, wheat gluten, etc. And peanut butter has more than most meats as well. I'm not 100% vegetarian(though I mostly don't like meat) but I thought this chart was good enough to share.

Pirate birthday!

2012-01-07T13:50:00.006-07:00

Charles turned six this week! The whole week leading up to his birthday, he was very good about remembering to check the mailbox. He loved getting letters from family members. In fact, he likes it so much that one day, a few days before his birthday, he left this note for Scott on his bed:

If you can't read the words he was sounding out, I'll translate it for you here: "please send me a card for my birthday." Dad made one and put it in the mailbox for him.

Charlie got to open his presents at breakfast, which has become a tradition in our house. He was so anxious the night before his birthday party that he didn't sleep well and came into our bedroom several times to see if it was time to wake up yet. Why he didn't just check his own clock I'm not sure. He got the pirate gift I made him awhile back(and LOVES it!!!), a couple other pirate things, books, his favorite cereal(I rarely buy cereal so this was a treat), a head lamp, and a board game.The kind of cake he wanted was, of course, pirate themed this year. Leading up to his birthday, I went on a cake website with Char and showed him lots of different pirate cakes. What he seemed to like most were any cakes that had little action figurines on them, probably so that he can keep them and play with them afterward. So I made a pirate treasure island type of cake. He loved it.

I volunteer in both of our elementary kids classes every other week and it just so happened that it was my turn to go in on Charlie's birthday. I brought 100% fruit roll-ups for the class and stayed and helped for a bit. Once school was over I took Charlie to Subway to get a kids value meal which is something he requested awhile back. We took it home to eat and afterward I conducted a short birthday interview with him on camera. It was a little longer than expected, about 7 minutes, so I split it in two parts and I'll post them here in case his grandparents want to watch :). Just beware, he was being a little stinker and would act shy or give me false answers just for fun. That's my boy! :)

Charlie choose Chuck-E-Cheese for his birthday celebration that night. Our general rule is that if you want to have a party outside of the home, then it'll be a family party. If you want to have a friend party then it needs to be at home(or somewhere else that's free). But since Charles is one among many girls in our home, we decided to allow him to take one of his friends. I'm glad we did because those two had such a fun time together playing all sorts of boyish games and Elisabeth and Annabelle stuck together and played what they wanted to play. Being on a Friday night, the place was packed which made keeping track of Jane a little tricky, but Scott and I took turns and it went well. Happy Birthday Charles!

New Years Survey

2012-01-05T13:49:00.001-07:00

I answered all of these questions and then went back and asked Scott for his answers...he didn't know what any of my answers were before hand.

What was the best part of last year?

Elisa- spending time with Scott, visiting with both sides of our families when they flew out and staying with my family in WA

Scott- “seeing Charlie go to school for the first time. Watching Charles and Elisabeth play soccer. Our camping trip.”

What was the worst part of last year?

Elisa- Weeks 5-12 of this fifth pregnancy. That time of life is always no good.

Scott- “I don't know”

What was the biggest surprise of last year?

Elisa-Finding out our we're having another girl. I made the lab technician check a second time once he'd finished getting all his measurements and he said with a smile, "just in case something sprouted between a minute ago and now?" Yes, I suppose...but I just needed to be completely sure before I broke the news to Charles.

Scott- “getting pregnant with another girl” (out of context, this answer could sound a little bad:))

What are you most looking forward to next year?

Elisa- The birth of baby number 5. I cannot wait to meet her and hold her in my arms!

Scott- “new baby”

Is there anything you are not looking forward to next year?

Elisa-The last two weeks of pregnancy...maybe the entire ninth month. It gets uncomfortable being that big and having to use the bathroom almost constantly. And the swollen face and feet are not fun. On the upside, that probably means my sweet hubby will be giving me lots of foot rubs. He's already giving me nightly back rubs.

Scott- “no there's not”

Which new years resolutions did you keep last year?

Elisa- I don't know if I made any specific new years resolutions, but since Jane was born I've been trying to eat better and we've been pretty good about that.

Scott- “I didn't make any”

Which new years resolutions did you break last year?

Elisa-I'm not sure

Scott- N/A

What will be your new years resolutions next year?

Elisa-Keep up with healthy eating and exercise before and after baby arrives, reading scriptures for a longer period of time each day, keeping a clean house all the time.

Scott- “exercise more”

As a side note, look what we just got in the mail from Costco. A vacuum that works! This should help me keep a clean house. The one we had previous to this one, we bought when we were first married. It was cheap and never got everything up so I rarely used it. I ended up doing a lot of 'spot cleaning' where I'd get on my hands and knees and pick things out of the carpet(especially when family was coming to visit). This vacuum was a long time coming and I'm SO happy it's here! :)

Which resolution are you most likely to break?

Elisa-Keeping a clean house all the time:); it's hard keeping the house perfectly clean when you have 4 and soon, 5 children ages 7 and under. The older two aren't too bad, but they need lots of reminders. "please put your shoes away. please put your back pack away. Please don't leave all your school papers on the counter. Please put the peanut butter and honey away. Don't forget to make your bed.....on and on"

Scott- “it's not hard to exercise more than I did last year, so probably I'll probably keep that one” :) (he's saying he didn't exercise much, if you didn't catch that)

What will you be doing on new years eve?

Elisa-Hopefully playing games with family and perhaps friends

Scott- same thing as last year....party(just to clarify, when we party we play games, eat and have sparkling cider)

What was the best song of last year?

Elisa- Favorite song that Scott I like to dance together: Rhythm of Love

Scott- “I don't know”

What was the best TV show of last year?

Elisa- Didn't watch any

Scott- “TV show? I don't watch TV shows”

What was the best book you read last year?

Elisa- North and South. So happy to have finally read an Elizabeth Gaskell Novel. The movies are good too. *

Scott- “did I finish a book last year? uh...let me check goodreads.” It didn't look like he finished any though he started several, but after thinking sometime we remembered listening to a book on our drive out to WA which was 'Traitor' by Sandra Grey.

What was the best film of last year?

Elisa- Tangled. I think it actually came out the year before, but that's all I can think of and it's pretty new.

Scott- “Inception”

What change would you like to make to your life next year?

Elisa- adjust well to having five children. schedule a time/day to attend temple regularly again(it gets tricky while pregnant and when the baby is nursing).

Scott- “I need to read more. Well, finish what I start.”

What change would you like to see in the world next year?

Elisa- people noticing and caring more for those around them(I need to work on this too). Not so much road rage and impatience while waiting in lines etc.

Scott- “I would like to see the value of my house equal to what I paid for it.” (we bought 4 1/2 years ago when house prices were really high...and now they've dropped considerably.)

*Books Elisa read in 2011

Magnificent Obsession- Lloyd Douglas
Green For Life-Victoria Boutenko
Rebecca- Daphne Du Maurier
A Crimson Frost- Marcia McClure
The Prophet- Khalil Gibran
Sword of the Rightful King: A Novel of King Arthur- Jane Yolen
Unearthly- Cynthia Hand
The Coconut Oil Miracle- Bruce Fife
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto- Michael Pollan
Agnes Grey- Anne Bronte
The Pirate Ruse- Marcia McClure
The China Study- Colin T Campbell
Lois the Witch- Elizabeth Gaskell
North and South- Elizabeth Gaskell
Traitor- Sandra Grey

22 Weeks

2012-01-04T11:54:00.006-07:00

Scott took my belly shot on his new ipod touch. The quality isn't fantastic and the clothes I'm wearing are kinda hiding my belly, so this isn't the greatest picture. But it'll have to do. Can you tell Jane is in love with Scott's ipod...or any phone/electronic device. That's why she's practically jumping out of my hands in this picture, she wants the ipod Scott is holding :).

I forgot to include a few of the pictures from my ultrasound a few weeks back so I'm going to put them here. The first is a head shot, the second a foot shot and the third is the gender/girl shot.
Doesn't it look like her feet are in fifth position? A ballerina in the making!I love being able to feel the baby move around! I started to feel her right around the ultrasound time and the movements have gotten increasingly stronger and seem to be closer together, but really I think she's just getting bigger and stronger and so I'm noticing them more.

And now onto the health part of my pregnancy at 22 weeks. About three weeks ago, the tredmill was suddenly a lot more difficult for me to walk on. I thought it was because of my bump, but since I've been eating better again, the bump hasn't been giving me much trouble, but the tredmill was still too challenging, and it's not like I was running, just walking. Finally, yesterday as I walked, I noticed that I seemed to be leaning back as I walked. I tried to push the incline button down in case it was at a tilt, but nothing happened. So I decided it must be because my belly is getting so big that it's pulling me in that direction. But after continuing to think about it for a minute, I jumped off, squatted down next to it and noticed that the tredmill was definitely at a full incline! :) I jumped back on and tried pushing the up arrow button(but that didnt' make sense to me because the tredmill was up/inclined) and as soon as I did the back of the tredmill raised up and leveled out! It was SO much easier and I was able to once again get in my full hour(I'd been stopping at about 35-45 minutes the past few weeks because it was so difficult) and this time without so much huffing and puffing.

Like I mentioned, I'm eating pretty good now, though every once and awhile I'll have something with sugar. I personally think if you're doing good things 90% of the time and 10% having things that aren't so great, it's not a big deal. It's when you're eating bad things every day or 90% of the time and then only making good choices every now and then that will really hurt you. But that's just my opinion. 90% is still an 'A' right? Or at least an 'A-'. Now figuring out what is 90% of the time is a little more tricky. For me, I try to eat well all the time and maybe once or twice a month I'll have something with refined sugar. Now of course, if you had more than one serving, that would be like having it again during the week, so take that into account and don't go crazy when you decide it's okay to have a little treat. Sometimes I won't even have it that often. I usually count on having something at my monthly book club because I want to be a part of the group and I've known these ladies for 4 years now(it's usually a group of about 10) and many of them purposely make things without chocolate because they know I won't eat it, so then to not eat it would be rude. Other than that, occasionally I'll have something else, but usually not. Besides sugar, I do the grocery shopping for the most part and I don't buy things that are processed and have lots of ingredients in them. And besides chicken, I rarely buy meat. I buy a bag of chicken from Costco and it probably lasts our family of six, about 2 months. I make a lot of our food from scratch. Beans, rice, wheat flour, bread, granola, granola bars, soups, etc. If we eat out I'll usually get a salad, and sometimes if I'm on the go and need something fast and easy I'll stop at Subway and get a veggie sandwich. That being said, over the Christmas holiday there were tons of treats around! We got several plates full of cookies and goodies from neighbors. We sampled a couple of things, and then we ended up throwing some plates away. If you're one of my neighbors reading this, who in fact gave us a goody plate, just know it wasn't yours that was tossed...it was the other neighbors :). We also made a few treats ourselves. Cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning is a tradition and so I made those...though I did make them using all whole wheat flour. Also, when we had friends over for new years eve, I mentioned making maple bars and carmelitos. I had a maple bar and unfortunately, several carmelitos. I really shouldn't make those. Ever. And I think the fact that they have some good things in them like nuts, oats and whole wheat flour almost makes it worse because then I find myself justifying having another helping :). But now it's all gone and I'm determined to get back to my normal healthy routine. It's really SO much easier to do when you don't buy the junk and don't make the junk. Since I was on a little bit of a sugar high from Christmas, I decided to make one of my favorite healthy treats yesterday. It's a peanut butter cup made with carob chips instead of chocolate, crunchy natural peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs(I bought these at the health food store so there's no sugar and they're an okay snack), rice milk and a little bit of maple sugar. It helps to have a healthier treat around that I love when I'm trying to get off of sugar again. Just remember, just because it's healthier than other treats doesn't mean you should eat several servings. You can find that recipe here.

Holiday Vacation

2012-01-01T20:18:00.005-07:00

I feel like I haven't blogged in ages, though it's only been a week. Scott had several floating holidays from work he needed to use before the new year was up so he was able to spend a lot of time home with us over this past week which has been so nice. It felt like a little in-home vacation.

Scott and Charlie reading Snow Treasure together.

We did some fun things with the kids and got several chores done on our to-do list. We've been feeling 'cluttered' lately with all the clothes, toys, items etc that pile up with having six people living in a home and so we spent many hours de-cluttering.

We've held onto all of our baby boy/young boy clothes since Charlie was born nearly 6 years ago, thinking we'd have another boy some day. But the Lord had other plans for our family and blessed us with three more girls in succession with a total of four and so we decided it was time to let go of those items that have been sitting in the closet, taking up lots of space, for years. Does this mean we're done having children? We're not sure. I guess if some day we are blessed with another son, he'll get to have some new clothing items :). Anyway, we were able to put those clothes in good hands. The rest of the stuff we de-cluttered, we packed up in the van and brought to D.I. We were surprised at how much stuff we had around the house that we almost never use. It felt nice to give it away.

The girls room was, hands-down, the worst. They have SO much stuff. I was in their room for at least 2 hours going through their mountains of clothes. I figured it would be the worst because when we do their week-load of laundry and bring all their clean, folded clothes back to their room to put away, their drawers and closet are still literally full and we have to cram these in somewhere. Before I went down to their room to take over the sorting, I asked Elisabeth to go through her clothes and make a D.I. pile which I would inspect. Here are the D.I. piles she made for her and Annabelle. And pretty much all of it did go to D.I., plus quite a bit more.

All the stuff we got rid of before we bagged it up and not including the 8 large trash bags full of baby boy clothes; well I guess we had two full trash bags already, mostly with my old clothes and shoes.

New Years Eve we decided to have a couple of families over from our neighborhood, to celebrate. Everyone brought food items to share and games to play. There were 13 kids here total at one point or another in the night, though for most of the evening there were more like 10, and six adults. The kids mostly played downstairs and watched movies. Since we got together at 8pm, we put Jane down before hand and she slept the entire time which was nice. We made several things, some of which were healthy choices, a couple of which were really not healthy like the home-made maple bars(our first time making these and they turned out really good. This recipe made about 20 and they didn't last long. I got the recipe from ourbestbites.com) and carmelitos(one of my personal favorites so when I saw we had leftovers, I made sure to send most of them home with our visitors because I know I have a weakness for them. Though I did make these with all whole wheat flour which was 2 cups, and they also had 2 cups of oats and 2 cups of raw nuts....but then there's a whole jar of caramel, lots of butter and chocolate chips. I'm glad these are nearly gone!). All our kids made it to midnight and we all had a really enjoyable time. Once our friends left home, I asked the girls to get ready for bed and then I couldn't find Charlie. We looked in several places in the house and then went to his room, which was completely dark and found him fast asleep in his covers, fully dressed :). We just let him stay that way. Elisabeth was the only one to sleep in this morning to 8am. Jane we expected to be up at her normal 7am time because she went to bed at her normal 730pm time. But we were hoping Charlie and Annabelle would have slept longer. I think Annabelle would have if she hadn't of waken up to use the bathroom...and then she didn't quite make it to the toilet on time and made a huge, nasty, stinky mess in her underwear. Ugh! I'm just glad she's normally very good about getting to the potty on time because, whew! Annabelle fell asleep around 630-7pm tonight on a couch so I know she was tired. It's 9pm now, the house is completely silent and I'm headed to bed. G'night and Happy New Year!

A few more Christmas pictures

2011-12-31T13:08:00.001-07:00

Here are a few more pictures from Christmas.

Charles and the oldest two girls got new pajamas on Christmas Eve.

Scott made dinner on Christmas day. Ham, potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. He even made the healthy version on cranberry sauce for me so that I could have them...I ate everything minus the ham.

The kids wanted me to take pictures of them with some of their new things, so here they are:

Elisabeth got a lot of dolphin stuff because she loves them right now. She got a dolphin necklace and stuffed animal from mom and dad, a dolphin pillow pet and movie from grandma and grandpa. She also got an art sketch pad, a gratitude journal(that was her spiritual/Sunday gift), some stationary from aunt Krissy, a piggy bank from Charles and a coloring book from Annabelle.

Charles got an art kit, a book of mormon puzzle book, and a crane from mom and dad. He got a pillow pet and mater electronic car from grandma and grandpa. He got a tiger binoculars from his sisters.

Annabelle got black ballet slippers, a Dora umbrella, barbies from mom and dad and grandma and Elisabeth, a Christ puzzle, a piggy bank from Charles, a sketch pad, and pillow pet from grandma and grandpa.

Jane got a new jacket, hat and gloves, a couple of new babies with a stroller, a new sippy cup and a couple of little gifts from her siblings.

This was the first year the kids had their own money and exchanged gifts with one another. It was so fun to see their faces when they watched their siblings open one of their gifts. They were so excited to see how the recipient would like it. And then they always exchanged hugs afterward. It was very sweet.

Scott and I also exchange three gifts (one spiritual) with each other and do stockings for each other which is always fun. Scott got me a new quad(it has the book of mormon, doctrine and covenants, old and new testament) which was such a surprise! He had noticed that I kept the same ones I had when I was baptized twenty years ago and the spines on those books were in really bad shape. We got my new name engraved on them(not really new since we've been married for 8 years but my last set obviously had my maiden name on them). He also got me an mp3 player so that I could listen to books and music while I exercise on my machines which was something I had hoped for. Did you know you can check out ebooks from the library and put them on your mp3 player? And when they're due three weeks later, they're automatically taken off. I think that's pretty awesome. Our library also has a website for music and you can pick 3 songs to keep each week for free. And my third was tickets to the opera. We'll be going at the end of this month. Scott got an ipod touch, I made him some hot bags made from wheat(he has pains in his back and neck when it gets cold), and I got him the audio book of mormon so he can listen to it in his truck which doesn't have a radio, just a cd player.

Here is the wheat hot bag I made. I made it out of an old pair of my jeans and then also made a pillowcase/cover out of some soft flannel so that we can wash the outside. It works great and we both like it better than the store bought hot pad we have to plug in to the wall. This one feels more comfortable.

These are a few of my favorite things

2011-12-26T08:40:00.000-07:00

1. Not the pie, but the person who made these pies. Scott made a couple of pies for the families he home teaches. Aren't they so pretty? He is amazing! He is definitely one of my favorite things :).

2. Food. I love food. This here is one of my favorite meals ever and we had it for Christmas Eve dinner this year. It's enchiladas, rice, beans and corn. I made it using my dad's recipes, though I took out the oil part in the enchiladas(you can put the corn tortillas in warm oil to soften them) and I didn't fry the cooked pinto beans in oil either, instead I just mashed them in their own juice/water. And I used brown rice for the mexican rice. It was so good. It makes my mouth water. So yummy!

3. Children. I love children. I love having children, and having them at Christmas time is a bonus. I seriously am going to be so sad when we no longer have little ones around at Christmas. It feels so magical when they're around. And they're excitement and awe is contagious! We've had so much fun doing all sorts of Christmas related activities this month leading up to Christmas(seeing christmas lights, parties, making ornaments, singing carols, making our 'Christmas Angels' with our gifts to Christ written on them, reading LOTS of christmas stories, acting out live nativities etc) and Christmas Eve and morning were so wonderful. Scott and I could barely sleep Christmas Eve because we were so excited. Basically from 3am on, I was stirring and the time seemed to move so slowly. The girls finally came in a few minutes before 6am and we were happy to get up and get going :)....6am was the time we'd predetermined as an acceptable time for gift opening to begin. They were all so excited about everything.

Granny and Grandpa Garnica got the kids matching outfits to wear to church. They got a lot of compliments :).

(This little play mobil nativity set is awesome. Or any nativity set that is kid-friendly, really. This is the third Christmas we've had this. I pack it up with the Christmas things and when I pull it out each Christmas season, the kids play with it for hours, literally. We've lost a couple of small pieces, but none of the major pieces)

I have many, many more favorite things; these are just a few.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T08:00:00.001-07:00

All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth

2011-12-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

Well, just one for now, but Charlie is about to lose the other one any day here which, if you remember having a loose tooth, especially right in the front, makes it difficult to eat many foods. So I think he does want 2 new front teeth :). And luckily, the two teeth he lost on bottom a while ago have come in which helps.

This first picture was taken just before his tooth came out...see how it's barely hanging by a thread?

And a couple more pictures concerning Charlie:
1. Charlie, for a couple of days(until we found out), was putting his school clothes over his pajamas so that he wouldn't have to change into his pjs again at night...they were already on! :) Here he has pulled up his school shirt to reveal his pajama shirt underneath.

2. This is the gingerbread house Charlie made with his kindergarten class this week. He loves doing craft projects.

Candied Ginger Pears

2011-12-21T16:50:00.000-07:00

I read Alicia Silverstone's book, The Kind Diet, a year or two ago and wrote down some recipes I wanted to try. This is one of them. I halved the recipe and used two pears, but I should have quartered the recipe and just made it with one pear since it was just Scott and I and one serving is a half of a pear.

I really liked this dish. The ripe pear and apple juice made it sweet and the roasted ground up almonds mixed with brown rice syrup gave it a nice texture and complimentary taste. It looks beautiful and would be great served as individual servings at a fancy dinner party or something with adults(my kids didn't want it...but maybe that's just my kids).Here is the recipe:

Candied Ginger Pears

serves 4-6

1 c ground almonds

2 Tbsp brown rice syrup

3 large or 4 small pears, halved and cored scooped out

1 ½ c pear or apple juice

1 tsp ginger juice (grate 1'' fresh ginger and use your fingers to squeeze out the juice)

pinch of fine sea salt

1 Tbsp kuzu(can use cornstarch) mixed with 1 Tbsp cold pear juice

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 tsp lemon zest

4 tsp maple syrup (optional)

Heat a dry skillet over medium heat. Add the almonds, and toast for 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly, until fragrant and golden brown. Transfer to a small bowl to cool. When cool, buzz the almonds in a food processor or blender until very finely ground. Heat the rice syrup in a small saucepan. Add the ground almonds, and stir over medium-low heat until the mixture thickens. Set aside.

Arrange the pears in a deep skillet, cut sides up. Add the pear or apple juice to the pan along with the ginger juice and salt. Cover the pan, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium, and simmer for 7-10 minutes, or until the pear halves are soft. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the pears to a serving platter, reserving the cooking liquid. Fill the hollow of each pear with some of the ground almond mixture.

Stir in the diluted kuzu into the reserved cooking liquid, and heat for 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens. Remove from the heat, and stir in the lemon juice and zest. Pour the sauce over the pears, and serve. For extra sweetness and some color, drizzle each pear with 1 tsp maple syrup.

20 weeks and Jane's hives

2011-12-20T14:41:00.003-07:00

I had my 20 week appointment today. Everything went well. We went over my ultrasound and everything looks good, the due date is about the same, around May 8th so that's good. No belly picture today because you saw one last week :).

I talked with my doctor about my history of bumps today and then showed him the large one I have on my leg. Like the other doctors(physical therapists etc) I've seen in the past, he's not sure what it is, though he said if it hangs around after pregnancy and I'm concerned, I could see a hematologist and see if he could figure it out for us. But I don't think I will. I've found that if I'm eating good foods and not overweight, they usually don't appear. But right now, with the uterus putting pressure on my blood vessels and making circulation to my legs difficult, I think I'm going to see these until the pregnancy is over...I've also had some swollen varicose veins. Oh the joys of pregnancy :).

I took a picture of the area with the bump for you. It's just below my right knee and it's taking over a pretty large area of my leg. See where it's all discolored, purple, red and some white spots in the middle? That whole area is sensitive to touch, hard and very warm. My varicose veins are down further on that leg, just above my ankle.

And as for diet, I know some of you don't believe that stuff, but I can testify that it really works. Just over Thanksgiving I was in so much pain because of my bump that I was in tears. I could barely walk. I had to have my leg up all day. It was awful. And guess what I ate over Thanksgiving? Ice cream, cake, and apple pie, and more ice cream :). Sugar increases pain. I'm not making that up. It also feeds infection. Dairy is another one that seems to bother my bump if I have too much of it. So, since that time, I've been very strict about what I'm eating. Pretty much no refined sugar, very little other sugars too(and when I say sugar I mean from the sugar cane, but not things like fruit. Fruit is amazing!), and very little dairy if any. And since then, my leg has felt fine and the swelling has gone way down. The bump is still there and sensitive if someone bumps into it, and like I said, I think it'll be there until this baby arrives because of circulation issues that come along with pregnancy, but I'm okay with that as long as I'm not in pain all the time.

One other thing I've changed over the past few weeks is my exercise program. With the bad circulation in my legs, Tae Bo was just way too aggressive for me and it was another thing that was causing me pain. I still exercise every day, but three times a week I do a 50 minute maternity yoga video, and the other three days I walk on the tredmill or do the elliptical machine. Walking feels fine as long as I'm not eating sugar and dairy, but if I am, it's too painful to walk for a long period of time. Anyway, enough about that.

Last week Jane woke up one morning with hives. And she had them for at least 4 days. We're not exactly sure what caused it(this was her first time having hives; though Annabelle had them once last year after a mosquito bite), but we think it's from the extreme cold weather conditions that hit Utah recently. It's always the worst in the morning, and she'd wake up with cold hands, legs and feet(she always takes off her socks, silly girl). So we put a warm mattress cover over her plastic crib mattress and we started having her sleep in a sleeper with feet and since then we haven't seen it again. But, it could have been something else too(food, bug bite etc) and it just cleared itself up after awhile. But like I said, it was always worse in the mornings, oh, and when we walked to church the other day(it was freezing outside but the church building is really close), the hives got worse on her hands and face which were both exposed to the cold air. They don't seem to bother her too much. She doesn't try to scratch them, though occasionally, if they were really flared up and I picked her up and was touching that spot, she would squirm in my arms until it felt comfortable. I gave her benadryl a couple of times and put on some cortisone cream, but I don't like giving medicine if it's not necessary, and she wasn't in pain so I stopped. Besides, I wanted to see what was making it worse and when I gave her benadryl, they'd go away temporarily and I couldn't tell. Here are a couple of pictures I took of them.
I cropped this picture so you wouldn't get the full bum shot :).
And to end on a more positive note, look at Annabelle in her cute Christmas dress. Isn't she darling? I did a braided headband in her hair for church which she liked(well, she didn't like it while I was braiding it; there were a few tears. But she loved it when it was all finished)

Christmas neighbor/teacher gifts

2011-12-19T13:25:00.005-07:00

It is six days before Christmas and I think I'm pretty much ready. Gifts for the family are in the closet waiting to be wrapped(Scott and I have a wrapping party Christmas Eve...it's pretty fun. And we can't put anything under the tree early because of the ages of our children. Saying, 'No' to 21-month-old Jane is like inviting her to do that very thing.). Packages to our family, Christmas letters etc have all been sent off, and this morning I finished up gifts for neighbors and teachers. I made sure our gifts to neighbors/teachers this year were all pretty healthy and not too time consuming(life is busy; and being pregnant and standing for long periods of time don't go well together...at least not for me)

I found sparkling cider at Costco in a pack of four and each one ended up being about $1.70 or so which has been the best price I've seen. I added a tag to each one that says, "Have a very merry Christmas and a 'sparkling' new year!" I thought it was pretty clever :), and better than giving people high fructose corn syrup aka soda(and diet soda is probably even worse!)
I also made Italian Party Chex Mix and poppy seed bread, partly because I wanted to have these, and because I wanted something a little more for larger families and the kids school/piano teachers.
I posted the recipe for the poppy seed bread on here about a week ago, but I have tweaked it since then and it is really amazing. So click here and check out that recipe if you'd like to give it a try. Here is the recipe for the party chex mix as well.

Italian Party Mix-from Granny Rojean Garnica

Combine, pour 6 Tbsp olive oil over all and shake gently to coat:

8 c corn chex

8 c rice chex

8 c pretzels(sticks or small twists)

Combine and add to cereal mix and gently shake to coat:

1/2 c parmesan cheese

2 Tbsp dry spaghetti sauce mix

4 tsp garlic powder

Optional: nuts, sunflower seeds, other snack crackers, Bugles etc.

Store in airtight container. Makes 24 cups.

Elisabeth's ballet recital

2011-12-19T13:00:00.001-07:00

Elisabeth started taking ballet a few months ago and had her first recital this past weekend. The theme for the ballet recital was an 'enchanted toy shop' and the girls in Elisabeth's class were soldiers....very pretty and dainty soldiers :). Before we took off to the recital, Elisabeth requested that I make a video of her doing her dance, and I'm glad we did because the video at the actual recital is terrible because it was dark and I had a seat that was far away even though I arrived an hour early...next time I'll have to come even earlier I guess. The recital was 2 1/2 hours long, which was a bit long for our family....next time we're leaving the kids with a sitter because poor Scott missed Elisabeth's number because he was out in the hall with Jane who was being disruptive. I thought he was standing in the back(the place was huge, and dark, so there was no way to know for sure) otherwise I would have tried to find him.

Elisabeth did a fabulous job. She remembered all the steps, her timing was perfect and overall she did very well. Elisabeth absolutely loves ballet! A couple of weeks ago her teacher copied their song on cd's for the class so every night since then she's been going through her dance several times before bed. She's a very persistent, diligent and dedicated girl...she chose to do this extra practicing all on her own. And she's determined to take ballet until she's on pointe. We'll see if we can afford it for that long :). Here are the two video clips I took. The first is the one I took at home in our kitchen, and the second is from the actual recital. When watching the one of the recital, when she first walks in she's in the back on the far right. After a minute, they travel and she's in the middle.

Christmas Lights

2011-12-17T08:32:00.006-07:00

There are a couple of things I'm really loving right now(besides family, friends, the obvious things). I'm loving oranges! I eat them all the time! They're ripe, sweet, juicy and so delicious! I like the big navels and the clementines; though I think for ultimate juiciness and sweetness, the navels win. I'm loving seeing the frost on the trees and covering the grass in the mornings. I'm loving Christmas movies, Christmas music, and Christmas decorations and more particularly, the Christmas lights. I love to see lights on our house when we pull up at night, I love seeing lights on neighbors homes and out in public places.

This past week we got to do two of our annual Christmas traditions, both of which involved Christmas lights:
1. Seeing the lights at temple square

It was beautiful, and I'm sorry these pictures do it absolutely no justice

2. Grazzini Family Christmas Party/white elephant gift exchange and afterward we went to see the lights at an outdoor mall
Here are pictures from the outdoor mall: My cousin had tickets for the carousel so all the kids got to do that as well. They all loved it...except for Jane :). She cried for most of the ride. Charles and Parker enjoyed one another's company and were being goofy on their horses.

19 week Ultrasound and Gender Reveal Dinner Party

2011-12-13T17:13:00.011-07:00

I didn't do an 18 week post because I knew I had this ultrasound coming up a week later. But I'll get back on track and do a 20 week post next week, too(if I remember, of course :)).

Here is a shot of my growing belly. We took this just before church this past Sunday.

I had my ultrasound today! The baby looks healthy and it was so fun to watch it move around, cross it's legs, and breathe(apparently babies have breathing episodes around every 30 minutes so it was neat that we caught it). I'm so excited to meet this baby in May!

I went by myself to the appointment today so that I could surprise Scott and the kids after dinner. We had a 'gender reveal dinner party' with our family where I made pink, yellow and blue foods and had some decorations in the same colors. We had pink waffles, blue whipped cream, scrambled eggs, strawberries and blueberries to go on top of the waffles and cranberry juice. I chose foods I knew they all loved because I wanted it to be a happy evening :). I made a bouquet of paper flowers, pink ones and blue ones that said, 'boy' and 'girl' on them and once we finished up dinner, the kids picked a flower as their vote...blue if they thought it was a boy and pink if they thought it was a girl. Charlie and Elisabeth thought it was a boy...Annabelle did too even though she picked up a pink flower...probably because her favorite color is pink.Then I brought out a giant box all wrapped up, with a big bow on top, and let the kids open it to see if there was something blue inside(meaning we're having a boy), or pink. I explained all this to them before hand. They were so excited all day! And so was I! Here is a short clip of them opening the box....drum roll please..... :)

In the picture below, Charlie is there too, he's just hiding in the box. He shed a couple of tears. He really wanted a brother. I'm just glad we decided to find out the gender now instead of waiting until the birth because if he would've cried when he first saw the baby out of disappointment, I'm sure I would've gotten upset and cried too :), but this way it was sweet and it made me chuckle :).

Sucanat Almond Poppy Seed Bread

2011-12-12T16:35:00.009-07:00

Yesterday as I was browsing recipes on the internet(something I do often), I saw a picture of an Almond Poppy Seed Bread and wanted it. But it had 2 1/2 c of refined sugar! I wasn't going to do that. And it had canola oil and white flour. So I decided I'd follow the basic recipe but make my own changes so that I could eat it and feel good about it(remember the pain in my leg increases dramatically when I eat sugar...and it's no good for you anyway. If you want a healthy family this winter, avoid it; remember it significantly slows down your immune system...to a crawl. I know, I know, easier said than done. But if you check out some of my healthy dessert recipes here on my blog, I think you'll find that they can replace the other stuff very nicely).

I was a little nervous how it'd turn out(and so was Scott), but it was delicious! I made 3 mini loaves and 12 muffins last night and we're down to half a loaf left...granted, I gave one loaf away to a sweet neighbor who has been watching our children the past four Sundays so Scott and I could go to choir practice in preparation for the Christmas Program. Yesterday while we were at practice, a couple of the boys(including one of our own) made life stressful for her...so Charlie brought the bread over to her with a note of apology. It made her so happy, and in turn, him too. Anyway, back to the bread. This morning, when I only had one loaf left, I threw together a glaze and we drizzled that on and Charlie liked it even better(though we all loved it without too, so you can decide)! So I'll post the recipe for that too at the bottom of this post. This would be a great Christmas neighbor/teacher/friend gift, wrapped in cellophane with a ribbon.

*Sorry about the awful pictures...again :). My camera has a hard time taking close-up shots. I took quite a few, and surprisingly, these were the best.

And two of my favorite things to eat right now:
1. For Lunch-whole wheat veggie sandwich with a little mayo and mustard, lots of lettuce, tomato and avocado.
2. For Breakfast or snack- yogurt(plain greek), granola and blueberry parfait
I recently researched the difference between normal plain yogurt and greek plain yogurt. The difference is that normal yogurt gets strained twice(taking off some of the liquid whey) after they've added the healthy bacteria to the milk and allowed it to ferment; Greek yogurt is strained three times, so there is even less whey and it's thicker and creamier. Because of this difference, Greek yogurt is higher in protein and lower in carbs. (also, lactose is in the whey, so if you have a hard time with dairy, try Greek. Sometimes people who have a hard time with dairy do okay with normal yogurt too, though. Experiment with it.) Whatever you choose, try and go plain. It's so much better for you. Just add a little agave, honey, stevia, fruit, etc. I personally like mine with a little agave and frozen blueberries.

Sucanat Almond Poppyseed Bread

1 c. white flour(I'm going to try all wheat, just haven't yet)
2 c. wheat flour
2 c. Sucanat
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. coconut oil, melted (butter would work too)
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. rice milk (milk would work fine too)
1 Tbsp. poppy seeds
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. butter extract/flavor
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract/flavor

Glaze

1/2 c agave

1/4 c orange juice

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp butter extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, oil, sucanant, and flavorings and beat for 2 minutes. Alternate adding in flour mixture and milk and then mix until combined. Add poppyseeds and stir until just combined. Pour into prepared pans (5 mini pans or 2 regular loaf pans...or 2 mini loaves and 13 muffins; any combination really) and bake (25 min for muffins, 35-40 minutes for mini pans, 1 hour for large pans; keep an eye on them). Test with toothpick in center; should come out clean. When done, place on a cooling rack for 10 minutes and then remove from pans and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack. While cooling, prepare glaze by combining all glaze ingredients and whisk together with fork. Put loaves on a tray or cookie sheet with a rim and then drizzle glaze over loaves.

Christmas Traditions

2011-12-09T21:34:00.001-07:00

Over the years we've developed some Christmas traditions. Some of them occur daily all throughout the month of December while others are just one time things. One of our daily traditions during the month of December is that each night, instead of doing our normal scripture study/song time, we follow along with a binder called the 24 days til Christmas. Each day has a scripture(about Christmas), a Christmas song and a Christmas inspirational story. Before we start this routine, we light our candle...I buy a candlestick each year from the dollar store and then number it from 1-24 with a black permanent pen, with a short black horizontal division line beneath each number. So December 1st we light the candle and then start our song/scrip/story and once it burns through the number 1 and gets to the division line, one of the kids(we choose a child who has been reverent) gets to blow out the candle. And another new daily tradition we've started this year is that once all that is done, the children can pick one of the children's Christmas books for us to read to them....I keep all our Christmas books together during the year and the kids don't get to use them, and then once Christmas decorations go up, I put those books underneath the Christmas tree. I was going to wrap them(thanks Linds for the idea!), but I had a late start in pulling them out and didn't have much wrapping paper either, but maybe next year...we'll see :).

Some other Christmas Traditions:
-In the picture above there is also a white box under the tree with a ribbon around it. That is our box that holds our gifts to Jesus. During this month we each write down on an angel(white piece of paper shaped like an angel) what we're going to give to Jesus this year: being extra kind to a sibling, increasing scripture reading goal etc.. We put them on the Christmas tree and then on Christmas morning we open the box, put our new angels inside and we take out our old angels (which are now in envelopes inside the box labeled with the year) and reread those.
-See the lights at Temple Square
-Pajamas on Christmas Eve(we may not do this one much longer because the younger girls all have SO many pj's now because they get all Elisabeth's hand-me-downs...maybe we'll just change it to a small gift to open on Christmas Eve? I don't know)
-Act out Nativity on Christmas Eve
-Caroling on Christmas Eve
-3 gifts for each person, one of those gifts is something spiritual, or something they could do on the Sabbath for instance a puzzle of Christ, a church movie, a new journal etc. I do Scott and he does me(like three gifts to Christ from wisemen...this really helps to keep things from getting too out of hand which I really appreciate)
-when the kids wake up Christmas morning, if parents are still sleeping they may open their stockings, but they can't open their gifts until we're out with them and they can't wake us up until 6am. I remember many a sleepless Christmas Eve nights as a child. The anticipation is killer. But who am I kidding, it's still hard, I still wake up several times, and many times I still wake up earlier than my kids...but now it's because I'm excited to see their faces :).
-Big Christmas breakfast
-Play Grandpa Fred's(great grandpa for the kids) Christmas tape(amazing pianist and fantastic singer too) on Christmas Eve or Day
-Watch Christmas Movies throughout the month- my personal favorite is The Elf
-Watch 'Joy to the World' on Christmas
That's all I can think of right now.

Testimony Glove

2011-12-08T21:07:00.005-07:00

I was recently at Deseret Book, looking around for Christmas gifts for the kids. A children's book called, The Testimony Glove, caught my eye, so I picked it up and read it. I really liked the book, and it even came with a 'testimony glove' but I couldn't bring myself to spend $18 for it. So, I read it again and tried to take as much as I could to memory. Basically it told the story of a family gathered together for an FHE lesson and the father pulls out these gloves: gardening glove(protects hands from blisters and needles), a baseball mit(protects hand when catching a ball) and then a plain white glove, which he explains is a testimony glove. He has a child help him put pictures on each finger which represent the 5 basic truths of a testimony and then talks a little on each one:

Heavenly Father-we know he lives and he loves us, Jesus Christ-he is the son of God, he is our Savior, Temples-they are a symbol that this is the true church and we can go there and be sealed together with our families, Joseph Smith-saw Heavenly Father and Jesus and restored the gospel in it's fullness, and our Prophet today-gets direction from God for the whole church.

I decided I could make the glove for a lot cheaper, and teach these same principles to my kids in our own Family Home Evening lesson. The white gloves were the only thing I had to buy, everything else I had on hand which included pictures to put on each finger(I cut these out of our old Friend Magazines and laminated them with scotch tape), and sticky-back velcro to make the pictures stick to the glove. Our closest dollar store didn't have white gloves but it had just about every other color. I think if I checked a couple more I probably could have found them. I ended up finding them at a local grocery store for $2.99 which was still good.
My kids loved it. They each had a turn putting the pictures on and once we finished, they each decided to share their testimony with the family which was very special. This lesson was very timely because the day before was fast Sunday and people in the congregation can come up and share their testimony, and Elisabeth was asking me all sorts of questions about testimonies. This visual aid really helped her grasp things better and by the end of the lesson you could tell she had a better understanding and was feeling much more confident in her ability to share her testimony.

Lunch with dad, community christmas party, Chia Cookies

2011-12-05T14:37:00.005-07:00

The kids are back in school again. Their time off track went well for the most part. Though the last few days, we'd run out of activities and so Elisabeth and Charles teased each other a lot more which wasn't pleasant for anyone. During their break they had a regular morning routine which included getting ready for the day and doing their chores while mom exercised(though sometimes they'd join in for the exercise, especially if it was Tae Bo), we usually had siesta time(aka quiet time with books, coloring/writing, puzzles etc) in the afternoon and then an activity.

Kids doing Tae Bo with me

Last week we surprised Scott at work with a fruit bouquet the kids and I put together(the kale under the strawberries is from our garden! Wahoo! It's just used as a decoration/filler in fruit bouquets) and then we took him out to lunch. Scott later told us that his coworkers thought it was his birthday :).
At Del Taco; one of the only places to eat near his work. I picked up sub sandwiches for Scott and I on the way. I've recently developed a love for the veggie sandwiches! So yummy!

One evening for our activity we attended our community Christmas party they have every year. They have fire pits outside with scones and hot chocolate, and crafts inside. You can also go see Santa, but the kids didn't want to wait in line so we skipped that this year.

I made Chia Snowball Cookies for our annual bookclub Christmas get together. That recipe is posted under the recipe section on this blog or you can click here to find it. The host had dinner for us and everyone else was supposed to bring a dessert and/or salad. I'm being extremely strict right now because of the bump on my leg, which is why I chose to make a healthy dessert. I brought it on a plate along with the recipe and some facts about chia seeds and it was very well received. Most of the people in book club are quite a bit older than me and are more health conscious than younger folks or people my age, so they were happy to have something along those lines :). Jane loves these, by the way.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

2011-12-03T15:13:00.004-07:00

I got quite a few sweet potatoes in my bountiful basket this season. I like sweet potatoes okay, but the only way I've ever had them was as yams and that's fine for Thanksgiving, but I don't really like having yams all the time.

Awhile back I decided to make them into sweet potato fries and this is definitely a winner :). They are so yummy! I've made a couple of batches over the past few months. I made some while my dad was here and he also really liked them. Jane loves them! They are best eaten right away so if you don't think you can eat all these in one sitting, try it with one sweet potato instead and halve the spices and oil.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

2 large sweet potatoes, chopped into fry shape(peeled if you don't like them)
2 Tbsp olive oil or coconut oil melted
1/2 tsp. Cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. sea salt
½ tsp. cayenne(optional for added kick)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Chop the sweet potatoes into matchstick shapes by cutting in half, then lengthwise(half again if they're really long), in lengthwise again twice more. Try to make them all about the same thinness so they cook evenly. In a large bowl combine spices. Add the potatoes and oil and stir well to combine. Evenly space the fries on a cookie sheet(probably need two), make sure they don’t touch. If using two baking sheets, space them out with a rack in between them so they don't steam each other; switch the pans half way. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Pull out of oven and flip them(flip a bunch at a time w/spatula and don't worry if they're not all neat looking anymore, just try not to have any on top of each other). Bake another 10-15 minutes until lightly brown and crispy. Serve immediately.

Jane sneaking a few more fries even after we'd closed the kitchen for the night.

Elisabeth

2011-12-02T09:01:00.003-07:00

Jane looks unhappy in this picture, but really, whenever Elisabeth wants to hold or play with Jane, she is generally all over it! When Elisabeth gets home from school Jane always runs to her and squeals with delight! Elisabeth is a good big sister. She is seven now and has been able to take care of herself for some years now and she helps out her younger siblings a lot too. She helps Jane get dressed, Annabelle wash her hair, she helps me clean and cook, helps Charlie with piano and more.

Elisabeth enjoys learning and is becoming a well rounded individual. She excels in school, loves playing the piano, enjoys soccer and ballet, spending time with her family, reading chapter books and especially Magic Tree House, doing art projects, going to church and playing with friends. She is so excited to be baptized on her next birthday and to be able to spend some time with her extended family when they come for this special occasion. Elisabeth practices piano with her piano books but she has a few pieces she has memorized, either for recitals or just for fun. I video recorded her playing part of Fur Elise. Here is the clip:

All of our children have gone through a stage where they've gotten pretty picky with their eating. But I'm pleased to say that over the past couple of months Elisabeth has branched out more and is at least willing to try new things. She is also our most health conscious child. She likes learning health and how to care for our bodies. Elisabeth's favorite food is my homemade pizza and our whole wheat German Pancakes.

Elisabeth is a very sensitive person...in a good way. She is sensitive to the feelings and moods of those around her and responds appropriately. She's the one in our family, like myself, who cries fairly frequently in movies or when reading something. Elisabeth likes to be with friends and talk with them, but on the other hand, she's pretty reserved. All of her current and previous teachers/instructors always comment on how well behaved she is, though also quiet. Elisabeth has a loving, kind and understanding heart. We love her and appreciate she does for her family.

Charles

2011-12-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

Our only boy will be turning six pretty soon. Even though he's surrounded by a house full of girls, he is still very much a boy. Charles loves to play sports. He likes to dig, run, jump, and climb trees. I've recently started doing piano lessons with Charlie. We have a 30 minute lesson together every Tuesday, and then throughout the week he's expected to practice as Elisabeth does, though at this age, he needs me to be near, guiding him through his practices. I'll start him in lessons soon, but he's still trying to decide between the piano and the violin. If he decides on the violin, I'd rather wait a year so we don't have to go through so many different violin sizes; and I think he's young enough that he can catch up quick. These in-home piano lessons will give him a good foundation. Charles likes to draw and do art projects, he likes playing with cars, dragons, linkin logs and tinker toys, and he enjoys teasing his sisters and giving them lots of hugs and kisses; so many that it sometimes ends in tears on one or both sides: a sister doesn't want any more hugs and if Char doesn't listen she'll either cry or she'll do something to make him cry. Charles enjoys kindergarten and does well with his school work. And funny enough, most of his friends in his class are girls :). Since he's surrounded by them at home, it probably comes naturally.

Charles is our only brown-eyed and dark haired child so far. He's about as tall as Elisabeth now and just as skinny. They get that from Scott. Charles also goes by 'Charlie' and 'Char'. His favorite dinner food is pasta with white sauce. He's the only member of our family who does not like pizza. He also loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, scrambled eggs, and granola. Many days he'll have two sandwiches for lunch. I've gotta start making my own wheat bread more regularly with how often he's goes through a loaf.

Charles continually surprises me with how observational he is. He notices facial expressions and body language, he hears things and takes in things around him that some adults miss. I know because he'll tell me things later or ask questions, sometimes while something is going on that make me realize how aware he is. He is a very sympathetic and sweet boy and in tune with those around him. I think this will be a great strength for him and those around him throughout his life.

We sure love our Charles.

Annabelle

2011-11-30T15:26:00.001-07:00

I love the picture above. It tells a lot about Annabelle at this point in time. Our curly, blonde-haired, blue-eyed 3 year old daughter loves to play with her older siblings, wear what they wear, do what they do, and desperately wishes she were older :). Almost daily she'll ask why she's not four yet and how much longer it is until her birthday. She wishes she could go to school like her siblings, play piano like her siblings and go to sports camp with her siblings when the kids are off track from school. She's loving all the time she gets to spend with them over these three weeks they're off of school. It'll be an adjustment when they all go back, but she has gotten pretty good at keeping herself busy and entertained.

When the older siblings are gone, Annabelle likes to play with barbies. She can literally do this for hours. Sometimes she'll let Jane join her, but apparently Jane doesn't know how to play right so she usually won't let her play for long. Annabelle loves to dress up in princess and ballerina clothes and play make believe. Annabelle and Jane like to look at books, help mom cook and clean, exercise with mom and walk babies around the house in their strollers.

It seems to me that Annabelle and Jane have similar temperaments. Annabelle can both be very loving and sweet, she loves to cuddle and give and receive lots of hugs and kisses. But if you get on her bad side, you'll be in for a surprise. She's pretty feisty.

Annabelle knows her alphabet letters and sounds, she can write her name and many other letters, she can almost count to 20 without errors, and she knows many of her shapes and colors. Annabelle can ride a tricycle, she can get herself dressed and undressed, she can wash herself in the bath(though I always do her hair), and she plays well with others(except on occasion with her older siblings when she hits-usually Charles). Annabelle loves to sing and dance, just like her other two sisters, and she's very personable and friendly, even with adults which is a new one for our kids. Elisabeth is still shy around adults, even with her teacher who she's with every day and her piano teacher who she's with weekly.

Annabelle shares a bedroom with Elisabeth. Once we do our normal bedtime routine, they like to read together for a few minutes on Annabelle's bed, then Elisabeth will climb in her bed and read to herself a little longer with her bedside lamp; Annabelle usually falls asleep during that time. Annabelle doesn't take naps during the day when we're at home but if we're driving in the van in the late afternoon, she's out within seconds. Annabelle's favorite food is pizza, pasta with white sauce and apples with peanut butter.

We love our Annabelle!

Jane

2011-11-29T15:00:00.001-07:00

The next four posts I'm going to focus on each child individually and try and paint you a picture of their life at this point in time.

Jane is our youngest at 20 months of age. She's a beautiful petite little girl with very little hair that is blondish-brownish in color and big hazel eyes with long brown eyelashes. Even though she's small and cute, she's very able to do a lot of things and she can get herself into a lot of mischief. She can feed herself, communicate with words, hand gestures and facial expressions, she will eat dirt if you allow her to go into the garden, she can help unload the dishwasher(though things don't end up quite as organized as I would like), she can take everything out of a drawer or off a shelf before you even realize what's going on, she can climb onto chairs and tables, she can get on Charlie's bed and turn on the music from his alarm clock that sits on his head board, she can get up on the couch and piano(she either pulls a siblings shirt until they lay on the ground and then she uses them as a step stool, or she'll actually go grab a step stool and bring it over), she can sit and look through books, she can put on shoes, she can unroll an entire roll of toilet paper in a matter of seconds, she can sing and dance and even open the computer and get past the security lock! If you don't believe me, just look at this picture. She tries to be really sneaky about it, but I usually know what's going on because it suddenly gets really quiet and Jane is no longer in sight, and Jane is always by my side.

Jane is going through a stage right now where she wants to be held a lot and she wants mom a lot. This is fine some of the time. I love to cuddle and hold her, but it makes life a little more challenging when I'm trying to clean up a mess or cook dinner etc. And she's not very patient. Even though she understands a lot, if she doesn't get what she wants when she wants it(for example when she wants me to pick her up right this moment even though I've just explained to her that I need to make dinner), she'll plop herself onto the floor and cry and wail until well, until either I give in and hold her on my hip while still trying to make dinner, or until I can't take it any more and I ask her to go into another room until she's done crying, though sometimes that method backfires and she ends up crying even more. Usually she wins and I hold her on my side while I get other things done at a much slower rate. Even with this attachment, she does surprisingly well at her nursery class at church. She runs to class and then stays the whole time and is happy. But who knows, it seems like once our kids hit the age of 2, they all go through a hard spot in nursery.

Jane still has a blanket she loves. There are actually several blankets she loves that are all made out of fleece and have the ends tied together. She picks up one of the tied pieces, puts it in her little palm, closes her hand around it, and then brings that hand up to her nose where she can smell it while sucking her two fingers. Over the past couple of weeks, we've just started asking her to take her fingers out because even though she's only allowed to have her blankets at bed time in the crib, she'll suck her fingers without the blanket and I'm trying to get her away from that. You'd think doing this with three other kids before her, I'd know exactly what I was doing. But I don't. Every kid is so different that I've always had to approach it in different ways. Elisabeth was our longest finger sucker and she finally stopped at age 5, just before she started kindergarten because I told her she was too old now, going to be in school and that the other kids would make fun of her. I know that doesn't sound kind but it seemed like the right thing to say at the time. And it worked alright.

Jane is such a loving, sweet girl, but one who wears a scowl for a good portion of the day. I don't remember our other kids doing this but I'm kinda thinking it's because she's around older, but not that much older siblings all day who are constantly in her space and trying to do things with her that she doesn't want to do so she makes this face, perhaps to let them know she's unhappy, but it seems to be one of her normal expressions now. Hopefully that will change, I mean, it's cute for now, but I don't think it'll be quite so cute when she's older.

Jane takes one to two naps a day for about a total of a two hour nap period. She goes to bed around 730pm and wakes up around 7am. She eats what we eat and seems to like most things. When she wakes up, she'll usually hang out in her crib for awhile and talk to herself or sing. Then when she's ready to come out she'll call "Mommy!" over and over again until I come in and get her. I love it!

We love our Jane!

Injuries

2011-11-28T20:48:00.001-07:00

Annabelle accidentally touched a hot pan with the side of her finger. We put ice and aloe on it right away, but I didn't know it was very bad until two days later when I noticed the huge, discolored blister on her finger. Poor thing. I'm hoping it'll just go away on it's own.
And my bump came back. It's hard to tell from this picture but it's big, red and about an inch under my knee. In high school especially, I would get a couple of huge bumps on my legs where I had bumped into something and they would be red and painful and would stay around forever. The last one I had before this was probably a couple of years ago. I hate these bumps and I thought I was forever rid of them but I think they're conditional upon a couple of things: 1. my health and what I'm eating(they get worse and bigger when I eat things high in fat and sugar) and 2. circulation...and I seem to have bad blood circulation in my legs when I'm pregnant...and I think a lot of this has to do with all the increasing weight I'm putting on my legs(If you're thinking, well you had this a lot in high school and weren't pregnant then...yes that's true, but I was also a little overweight in high school and that brings on bad circulation as well). Anyway, the bump got a lot bigger and more painful this weekend. Why? Because of Thanksgiving and the slice of cake I ate from the buffet and the apple pie and ice cream. Grrr. But I think this visible evidence will help me get back on track. If that doesn't help, I'm sure Miss Elisabeth will. She is keeping tabs on the family as to when each person eats sugar. If you have any sugar in a day she puts a big 'o' on your paper, and if you don't have any sugar she'll give you an 'x'. She likes to brag about how she has zero 'o's and how many 'x's other members of the family have. She came up with this all on her own :), and it's not a bad idea because I can honestly say I think twice now before I decide to eat something sugary or not because I know she'll ask later and I'll have to tell her and then she's going to mark a big fat circle on my paper. :)

Thanksgiving Holiday

2011-11-27T15:33:00.004-07:00

We celebrated Thanksgiving a little differently this year. Instead of cooking a Thanksgiving feast at home, we went out to eat at a buffet restaurant. I know, I know, it sounds kind of lame, but we'd thought about it for awhile and decided it'd be a good choice for our family this year.

We had heard from some friends who go every year to this particular buffet, that they have the typical Thanksgiving foods plus lots of other things which sounded perfect for our family. You see, it's just me and Scott and the kids in Utah, and my dad who was visiting for a few days. Scott's parents and siblings and my parents and siblings all live in other states and on top of that, most of us don't like turkey or meat, and the kids don't like mashed or sweet potatoes or green beans or stuffing or any of the traditional stuff so it just didn't make sense to spend hours cooking a huge meal that most of the family wouldn't eat. I don't mind leftovers for a day or two, but in years past, we'd have left overs for at least a week, sometimes more and then we'd end up throwing some away.

Our friends also warned us that we should go around 11am because the line is the shortest then, but even at that time to expect to wait an hour....and we did. We got there around 1130 and got in at 1230. The place was packed all day and apparently they are every Thanksgiving. And I can see why because the variety and all the foods were just great. Our kids ate free which was nice(two were young enough to be free and two had free meal passes from school)I loved the huge salad bar. The girls loved the pizza. Scott and my dad seemed to like most everything and Charles and Jane each found some things they enjoyed as well.

Later that evening Scott made a caramel apple pie and stuffing, and I made a small batch of mashed potatoes and yams just because I'd picked some of these items up earlier in the week for really cheap. It wasn't a big deal, we were probably in the kitchen cooking for half hour. I only made enough potatoes to have leftovers for a day which was nice. I really wasn't very hungry and didn't eat much at dinner, but the kids were ready for another meal and ate some chicken nuggets my dad bought while here with a little mashed potatoes. While sitting at the dinner table we went around and everyone said a few things they were grateful for. It's always fun to hear what the kids come up with. Overall it was a really nice Thanksgiving. And I wouldn't mind going to a buffet on Thanksgiving again next year!

I didn't do any Black Friday shopping this year; I think I'm getting too old for that :). But we did put up our Christmas tree, lights and decorations. I love Christmas and all the decorations and preparations involved!

(sorry the picture is awful; but this one is better than the one's we took of the outside of the house. I think we need a fancier camera to take pictures in the dark)

Hair styles

2011-11-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

We have more time to get ready in the mornings since the kids are off track. I printed off a hairstyle e-book and put it in a binder which I keep in my bathroom to try new hairstyles. Elisabeth has been going through and picking out new hairstyles to try several times a week. So far they've all turned out really cute. My personal favorite is a side french braid that ends in a bun on the opposite side of the head.

This is a double twist into a bun. I forgot to take the picture until after she'd slept on it all night so it doesn't look that great, but she loved it and got a lot of compliments on it.

This is a waterfall braid. You french braid starting on the side, but you drop a piece each time you braid and pick up a new one and then it ends on the opposite side in a braid. It's cute but next time I'll have to do it tighter because by the end of the day it had come out.

Elisabeth has also learned how to put her own hair in a pony tail and messy bun. Last week she put Annabelle's hair into pigtails. The front looked really good, but she didn't know you had to part the back of the head, so that was a bit messy looking, but since we've talked about it, I'm sure she'll do better next time. I'm amazed at all that girl can do.

16 Weeks

2011-11-22T13:35:00.003-07:00

I had my 16 week appointment and everything seems to be good. Next time I post will be in three weeks when I have our ultrasound!! Wahoo! People's favorite question to ask us is, "So, are you hoping for a boy?" I thought I'd answer that now for all of my readers. Of course it'd been nice for Charlie to have a brother, but whatever the gender, we'll be super happy.

I'm pleased to report that I've been really good about my 6-days-a-week-1-hour exercise program. I haven't missed any days over the past few weeks. For now I walk or do the elliptical 3 times a week and I do exercise videos three days a week. When I walk, I make sure to get in three miles before I'm through which means I'm doing really brisk walking. But I think that even with all this exercise, I'll still gain quite a bit. Why? Because I've now gained almost 20 lbs and in the past I always exercised and I generally gain around 50. Do you know what that means? Over the past 7 years I've lost almost 200 lbs! Crazy! This time I'm also eating pretty healthy, but I really think that the weight gain and how our bodies develop in pregnancy have a lot to do with genetics etc. because my sisters are the same exact way. But I don't exercise and eat healthy just to not gain weight. There are SO many other benefits to living a healthy lifestyle.

Exercising with extra weight is hard. Try doing all your normal, challenging exercises and then add 20, 30 and 50 lb weights, and for an hour each day. It's no easy task. But doing that sort of thing is good for our bodies. It's good to strengthen them and to be challenged. It also makes the whole pregnancy better(less aches and pains, more energy etc) and once you have the baby, it makes getting back into shape a lot easier. Sometimes, before I get pregnant(since this is our 5th) I'll think to myself, "can I really do this again? am I strong enough? can I handle all the work involved?" and the answer always comes, 'yes, with the help of the Lord you can do anything that is good, and He will help you accomplish it.' And He always does. I know this is what He wants me to be doing right now and that makes me happy.

Other news in pregnancy....well, not much else is going on besides my changing body(the torso and chest area are where the changes are most pronounced and both require larger clothing). I haven't felt the baby kick yet so I rely on the monthly checkups with the doctor(love hearing the heart beat) to make sure the baby is okay.

Here are a couple of random pictures. Jane has maybe drunk from a bottle 5 times in her life and probably over a year ago. One day recently she was tearing her room apart which is something she likes to do often(she actually likes to take out clothes, toys, books, objects from all over the house and just leave them out), and she unzipped a bag that had a bottle inside. She brought it to me and begged and begged until I gave in and let her have a bottle. I was kind of curious to see what she'd so with it. It was so funny to see her drink from a bottle. I just had to pick her up and cradle her like a little baby while she drank. Since that night, we've put the bottle away, and I don't think she'll be able to get to it again. In the picture below, Jane picked up her bottle and it was dripping all down her neck and so she and I were making funny faces.

Off Track

2011-11-18T16:17:00.004-07:00

The kids are off track right now, so I'll probably be posting less over the next couple of weeks. In year round school, they usually have several three week breaks, and then they go back to school for about 8 weeks. It works out pretty nicely.

Now that we've done this several times, we've figured out things that work well for us. First and foremost, me and the kids require a schedule. We need to be productive otherwise the kids get bored and whiny, they fight and mom goes crazy.

The weekend before we went off track, me and the kids sat down together and made a list of chores and activities and then we typed them all out. We have our daily chores which include making their beds, cleaning their rooms, practicing piano, unloading the dishwasher and cleaning up after themselves and after meals. Once their rooms are clean and they've practiced piano they pick one chore from the extra chore list which include things like, spot clean floor, clean bathroom, rake leaves etc. Once the daily and extra chores are complete, they may pick one of the activities from our list. If they want to have time to do these activities, they're finding that their chores need to be done in the morning then usually after we've eaten lunch we can do the activity. Some of the activities include making bookmarks, going to the library, going to the dollar theater, lunch with dad, making Christmas letters, going to sports camp, doing a craft, going to the children's museum at the church history building(we did that one today) etc.

Here is a picture of the kids making bookmarks. Elisabeth and Charlie's were double sided. Elisabeth put her favorite scripture on the back of one of her bookmarks which I thought was a nice idea.
Elisabeth knows how to make scrambled eggs all by herself and enjoys doing it. She's had more time to do this since she's been out of school. It is nice having an older child who takes care of herself and helps her siblings as well. (It was morning which is why her hair is unkempt. She wanted me to be sure to put that explanation in here :)).

Grandpa Garnica arrived yesterday and we're all enjoying his company. We tried to save some of the activities we thought he'd like to do with us, for this week.

Pumpkin recipes

2011-11-13T15:47:00.005-07:00

I love this time of year. I love baking with pumpkin. We've already made pumpkin pancakes several times this month. Love them! I've adapted a couple of recipes recently to my more-healthy-taste and both have turned out deliciously!

I had been dying to make pumpkin bread, and I have a good one that I used last year, but I didn't have some of the ingredients, and when I came across a pumpkin bread recipe from Blendtec, I thought I'd give it a try, making a couple of minor adjustments. The bread was SO yummy! Moist, perfect sweetness, perfect texture, all around a really yummy bread and one you can feel good about. If you don't have a high power blender, I suggest substituting applesauce(google it for sure but probably half a cup) for the whole apple.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread- recipe lightly adapted by Elisa Smith, from Blendtec

¼ C rice dream(or another milk)
1/3 C coconut oil, melted
¾ C sucanat
1 C pumpkin purée
1 medium apple, cored and seeded
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 2/3 C whole wheat pastry flour

Preheat oven to 350°F. Add first 8 ingredients to WildSide jar and secure lid. Press “Speed Up” to Speed 5 and allow full cycle to run. Add the remaining ingredients and secure lid. Press “Pulse” 6-8 times to incorporate dry ingredients. Using a spatula, scrape down sides of jar and add batter to a greased 8”x4” loaf pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes until done.

The next pumpkin recipe was decided on because Scott was craving pumpkin cookies(I, the pregnant one, should be the one with the cravings, right? We go through this pregnancy together :), but hopefully he won't put on 50 lbs like me). I found some highly reviewed pumpkin cookie recipes and then made some healthy adjustments. They turned out really good.

Pumpkin Cookies-by Elisa Smith

1 1/2 c wheat flour

1 c white flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c butter, softened
1 1/4 c Sucanat
1 c canned pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves and salt; set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together butter and Sucanat. Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla to butter mixture and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet covered in parchment paper(this is optional; I like it because it means less mess to clean up after)by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Happy Pumpkin Baking!

In-home dates

2011-11-09T13:13:00.002-07:00

Scott and I, more often than not, do in-home date nights, meaning we wait until the kids are in bed and then we have popcorn and a movie, play a game, or get take out from a restaurant etc. We love spending one-on-one time together and having date nights each week, and having in-home date nights makes that possible for us. Jane is 18 months and perhaps others think she's old enough for a babysitter, but she's a handful and I won't leave her with a teenager especially when that teen would also have 3 others to watch. So actually going out on dates doesn't happen too often, though we do go every other month when my friend(who is also a mom of four) can watch them. Sometimes we'll go when family comes to visit or sometimes we'll do a date with a teen babysitter but bring Jane with us, but definitely not weekly and many times not even monthly.

This past Saturday we planned a dinner date night. I always get so excited when we plan something that involves bringing food in! Scott and I love to get Indian food now and then and we hadn't had it in awhile, so we made home-made pizza for the kids, got them to bed by 8pm and then we had candle light dinner with Indian take-out. It was so nice to sit at the table together, just the two of us, not having to worry about getting up and down getting things for children. We were able to just sit, eat and visit. And we had zero interruptions.

This is my favorite Indian food ever! It's called Paneer Tiki Masala. It has a home made cheese, onions, peppers in an amazing creamy orange sauce and is served with indian rice and Naan bread. Yum! Scott usually gets the butter chicken which we think is the same sauce and it's also super yummy.

*As a side note, sometimes Charlie won't eat much at dinner time, but then he'll come back to the kitchen just before bed 'starving' and will eat his dinner at that time. Because we know this about him, if we noticed he didn't eat much, we'll leave him a dinner plate on the table he can warm up. On this particular night we left the rest of the pizza on the table since he didn't eat, and while we were reading scriptures(kids were in their pajamas) Jane walked into the kitchen, pulled out a chair, climbed on the table, grabbed a piece of pizza and sat there and ate it. Scott walked into the kitchen to see what she was doing and said, "Elisa, come look at your daughter." I thought it was cute(even though we've been trying to teach her not to get on the table), so I took a picture :).

By the way, my family is obsessed with this pizza dough recipe. It's the one in my recipe section called sourdough spelt pizza, though I actually don't do the sourdough part, and sometimes I use half wheat or all wheat. We cook it on the pizza stone and it rises perfectly, has the perfect amount of crisp on the bottom of the crust(maybe because of the pizza stone) and the top is soft and so delicious. And this dough recipe makes three pizzas so I can freeze the crust and it turns out wonderfully later.

14 Weeks

2011-11-08T13:57:00.001-07:00

My goal is to do a pregnancy update every 2 weeks. So here I am at 14 weeks. Over the past two weeks things have definitely improved. I feel SO much better. I wouldn't say I feel the same as I did before I was pregnant, but I'm sure that won't happen until a few months after the baby arrives :). I'm generally not nauseous anymore, though every once in awhile, if it's been too long since I've eaten, I'll start to feel yucky. And unfortunately, because of the months when I was sick and had to eat all the time, I'm positive my stomach has grown so I feel like I'm hungrier more often than normal.

I think I mentioned last time that I've already gained 10 pounds. I haven't gained anymore in the past two weeks which is a good thing :). I have also committed to exercising 6 days a week, an hour each day. So far I'm five out of six days, and the one day I didn't get my hour in, I was able to do half hour but that day was just crazy busy with volunteering at school and babysitting and getting food ready for a talent show that evening for our ward. I didn't even get to my exercise until all the kids were in bed, probably around 9pm. It is so much harder for me to exercise at night than in the morning; at night my body is exhausted, and when I'm pregnant, that just intensifies and for some reason my knee started bothering me a little too; but I'm sure it was because my body was tired from all the 'going' that day because it was fine again in the morning.

Other news in pregnancy is that I've recently taken out my maternity clothes and put away some of my clothes that are already too small. I'm still swimming in probably half of my maternity clothes, but there are quite a few pieces I can wear now and my normal, not pregnant shirts are just too short now to cover my growing belly. Overall I feel really good, I have my energy back, I'm drinking green smoothies regularly and not taking medications so I have less stomach pains because my body is not holding stuff(aka constipated), I'm able to do all I was before including staying on top of cleaning and cooking which we're all happy about. I can't wait until next month when we can find out the gender and start to feel baby kicking!

Date with Annabelle

2011-11-07T08:28:00.001-07:00

Annabelle and I went on a dinner date last week. At Cafe Rio, kids under 6 get free quesadillas if you dine in, and Annabelle and I love Cafe Rio, so we went there for dinner. Usually she'll eat two quesadillas, hers and Charlie's because he doesn't like them but he loves my salad. After she finished her quesadilla she said she wanted more so I offered her some of my amazing salad. She refused at first but about a minute later decided to give it a try once I told her it had whole beans inside. She loved it and so we ended up sharing the rest of my salad as well. Afterward, we went across the parking lot to Cold Stone and shared an ice cream(We had earned a free one on our Cold Stone card because our family likes to go sometimes :). Hey, no judging! We don't eat refined sugar regularly and I almost never make stuff with refined sugar, but I think having a treat while you're out every now and then is okay, and one serving is better than having leftovers around the house for days)

Annabelle was so pleased to be able to go out on a date, with just her and mom. She smiled and sang and you could just tell she was soaking up all the time and attention from Mom. Just before we left on our date and Scott had just gotten home from work, Annabelle went up to him and said with a smile and a very excited voice, "Daddy, I'm going on a date with mom and only me, not you!"

Halloween Activities

2011-11-06T15:05:00.000-07:00

Halloween Parade at school

Painting and Carving pumpkins

A short video of the kids scooping out the pumpkin guts.

Every day dinners

2011-11-04T11:30:00.000-06:00

I was thinking recently that the foods I make the most for dinner, I haven't ever posted on here and I'd like to share that now.

I think I've mentioned before that we have a menu posted in our kitchen. It's just a frame with a piece of sparkly scrapbook paper as the background and I write the menu in each week with dry erase markers. Anyway, I try and allow each child to pick a meal a week and then the other days I'll fill in with recipes I want to try or ones Scott and I really like(and the kids don't particularly enjoy). We also usually have a day of leftovers. If you didn't already guess, the kids pick the same things week after week and these have become our staples(three dinners in particular to be exact) and I always have the food to make these meals stocked in the pantry. Here are those three meals.

First will be Homemade Pizza. We usually have it Friday or Saturday night. You can click on the link which will take you to an older post of mine where I typed out the recipe for the dough and the pizza sauce we make. I like to serve this with a salad.

The second meal that's chosen weekly is pasta and more often than not, with white sauce. For now we do half whole wheat pasta and half semolina(the typical, white kind you buy in stores). Scott doesn't love the taste of whole wheat so this is my compromise. But they're taste buds are adjusting and eventually I think we'll all be able to handle all whole wheat pasta. The kids have a favorite white sauce recipe I make, but I honestly don't make it every week, but fairly often. When I don't make sauce, I use the white or red sauce from a jar. But read the ingredients. Not all jars of white or red sauce, or any food for that matter are created equal. I go for the jars that have the least amount of ingredients with the most real foods(and words you can pronounce :)). I also like to serve this with a salad or steamed veggies. Here's how I make the white sauce:
Chicken with Cream Cheese White Sauce
1 large chicken breast, cut into strips
1 Tbsp butter or olive oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 c whole milk
6 oz cream cheese
1 tsp dried basil
3/4 c grated parmesan cheese

While you cook your pasta(~12 oz), heat oil over medium heat and cook chicken with garlic powder until no longer pink. Add milk and heat just to boiling. Stir in the cream cheese and basil. Reduce the heat, stirring constantly until cream cheese is completely melted. Remove from heat and stir in parmesan cheese. Toss hot pasta and sauce. Serve immediately.

Third is burritos. Or quesadillas, depending on how we decide to fold them up, I suppose. This meal is one you can do some prep work for days ahead of time, if you like. I like to keep cooked brown rice and beans in the fridge and on hand(right now I have pinto and kidney beans cooked and in the fridge; sometimes it's black beans). If you do that, it'll make putting your meal together really easy and fast.

Many times, the day we're going to eat burritos I'll put a piece of chicken in the crockpot with diced tomatoes and a chile(I use fresh when I have it from the garden, otherwise canned; and remember to read the ingredients) and a tablespoon of taco seasoning(I buy the big one from Costco because it has all real ingredients and specifically no msg which some of the packets do). I cook that on low for 7 hours or high for 3-4 hours, depending on what time in the day I was able to get it started. Once Scott's home from work, I pull my beans and rice out of the fridge, grab my whole wheat tortillas out of the pantry, grate some cheddar cheese and we put our burritos together(we have salsa and sour cream out for those who like it, as well). It's super fast and easy and there's always enough leftovers for another meal or two which I love. We'll usually have this with corn or a salad.

This is what my counter looks like when I'm pulling everything together: I've got all the foods out and a plate that I'm warming the amount of beans/rice/corn etc on that we'll need for that meal. Nothing fancy. But this is our life now :). By the way, for those of you who have never cooked beans before, try it. It's not hard, they're cheap and they don't have any preservatives like the canned ones do(I do use the canned one's sometimes, but I try not to). Read the instructions on the bag and it'll tell you how to do it. Generally there's a couple methods: soaking over night and then cooking on the stove for an hour or two; or rinsing and then boiling/simmering on stove for a couple of hours; or cooking in a crock pot for 6-8 hours.

As for the other meals, we all eat pretty much the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day. Breakfast for the kids is a bowl of my homemade granola with rice milk or whole milk with green smoothie; except Sunday when we have a brunch before church and generally that's pancakes or waffles with pure maple syrup (also, now is the perfect time of year to make pumpkin pancakes. We just made these again this past weekend and I love this recipe.). I have a green smoothie for breakfast and Scott has toast with smoothie. Lunch is usually a peanut butter and honey or jelly sandwich with fruit, though we use 100% whole wheat bread, natural peanut butter, and raw, local honey or jelly with the most fruit and least preservatives. Annabelle, Jane and I have oatmeal for lunch pretty regularly too or sometimes they'll have a hard boiled egg or leftover burritos. And hopefully pretty soon here, I can get back to having my pink smoothie for lunch regularly. And that's about it for breakfast and lunch. Snacks a lot of times are fruit, sometimes combined with peanut butter(apple slices and peanut butter is a favorite) or cheese, we also have tortilla or multigrain chips and salsa, or sometimes a home made or packaged Clif Bar or Lara Bar. And there you have it.

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-02T14:13:00.004-06:00

This Halloween we did something different. But first let me back up. A couple of weeks ago, leading up to Halloween, I was thinking it would be nice if our family had a different Halloween tradition, one that didn't involve going out in the cold, dark weather and having our children knock on doors asking for candy that I would make them give away anyway(well most of it). I don't like having candy around. We're always in the doctor's office for ear infections and other sicknesses when my kids are on sugar, probably because it dramatically slows the immune sysytem. Anyway, after mulling some ideas over in my head I decided that I wouldn't decide anything until I talked my ideas over with Scott and the kids because in the end, I want to do what will make everyone happy; within limits, of course.

Over dinner one night I asked the family what they would think about not going trick-or-treating this year but instead if we wore costumes and went to dinner and a movie(we have a dollar theater near by) or bowling. To my surprise no one whined and instead I heard a bunch of excited, "yes!" answers, with fist punches in the air. And Elisabeth even added, "Good, cause I hate being out in the cold and dark for so long." So that's exactly what we did. I'm not sure if this will be a forever tradition, though I certainly wouldn't mind, but if they decide to go back to trick-or-treating again, I'll be okay with it, though I'll enforce the rule I had before which is that they can pick out a couple of pieces of candy and the rest we buy off of them(not for much, just a few dollars) and Scott takes the remaining candy to work to share(I hope, he shares :)).

On the way to the bowling alley

It's not a long drive, but Annabelle refuses to nap so whenever we get in the car, if it's the late afternoon, she is out within minutes, sometimes even seconds.

Me and the two oldest girls dressed up as witches, Charles was a ninja and Jane was a pumpkin. Scott was himself. Boring! :) Just teasing you Scott.

Jane happy to walk around the bowling alley

Scott helped the kids steady the rack which they would roll their balls down

You have to watch this 15 second video clip below. It's of Annabelle bowling and it's hilarious. The only video we took while bowling was of Annabelle because she got so into it. Once her ball was rolling she'd jump up and down and yell! All the kids were pretty intense. They must get it from Scott :). Just kidding, he's not intense, he just cared more about my very poor bowling skills than I did(I'm sure because he didn't want me to feel bad, but that particular feeling was far from me :)). He gave me some pointers which helped my score but I still lost and I don't think I even got to 50 points, while he and a couple of the other kids were in the hundreds! Oh well, like I said, I really don't mind :). Okay, enough talking. Watch this!

After bowling we went to dinner at TGIFridays(the kids request). By the time we got there it was 630pm and quite dark. All the staff was dressed in costumes and it was SO not crowded which was SO nice. We got right in, got our food right away which was nice because we were all very hungry, and ordered vanilla ice cream for dessert which ended up being on the house because our waiter was just so pleased to have some customers :). I really hope we get to do this again. It was a very nice evening. Happy Halloween! (More pictures of Halloween activities during the week prior, to come in a later post)

Jane and mom on the piano

2011-11-01T09:06:00.005-06:00

When I'm playing the piano, Jane likes to come sit on my lap and play along with me, or sometimes she'll sit there and sing. It's really cute. This particular time she was playing the piano a little, but she also had her blanket with her because it was nearly bed time so she was enjoying her blanket :). Scott took a short video clip. It's a little hard trying to play the piano with someone on your lap. Here's a picture and a video. And the picture below is one Scott snapped of Jane while sitting in her favorite spot...in the kitchen on top of the honey bucket. It's the perfect size for her. Notice she's drinking her green smoothie from her jamba juice smoothie sippy cup, which means I'm making them a little more regularly again. Yay!

Stake Conference at the Conference Center

2011-10-26T20:18:00.003-06:00

In our church, every 6 months we have a general conference which is when we(anyone in the world) get to hear the prophet and apostles speak to us about Christ. Also every 6 months we have something called Stake Conference which is a lot more localized. People in our church will gather together in their local church buildings with all who meet at that building and we hear from our local leaders. I hope this makes sense. Anyway, this past weekend we had stake conference but we were lucky enough to have been invited(along with 20 others) to attend conference at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City where they broadcast general conference and we were able to hear from some of the general presidencies and from the apostle Elder David A. Bednar. The kids had been inside the conference center once before on a tour, but this was their first time sitting in the seats and listening to talks while in there. And I am pleased to report that they did great. All of them. Well, except Jane occasionally wanted to climb up all the stairs in the aisle that were right next to us so I had to keep her distracted. But she wasn't too bad. And we didn't have to roam the halls even once during those 2 hours.

The general young men president talked about how we(specifically the youth but can apply to all) cannot be casual about our standards and commitments to the gospel. He told a story of some boys who were riding a bus and one boy was holding an ipod and turned to the other and wanted to show him something pornographic. The other boy refused to look and said plainly, "I'm Mormon. I won't watch that stuff." The kid with the ipod smiled and said something like, "oh, so and so is Mormon too and he won't watch it either."

Elder Bednar, an apostle spoke about conversion and testimony and Christ. It was an amazing talk. He said, "conversion is consistently being true to what we know." He told a couple of stories about keeping the sabbath day holy. Both stories were about his family. His son was playing soccer on a team that was really good. They had a championship game that would be held on a Sunday. Elder Bednar asked his son, who it seemed to me was older than 8, what he was going to do. Elder Bednar was surprised when his son said matter-of-factly, 'I'm not playing." Then he asked him how he wanted to tell the coach and his son said, "Let's go pay him a visit." When they pulled up to his house Elder Bednar asked, "do you want me to come with you?" "No. I'll do it." and he jumped out, knocked on the door and when the coach answered said, "Coach, I won't play in the game on Sunday. See ya!" and he ran back to the car. Elder Bednar said he was a little surprised but pleased at his sons response; he thought, he shouldn't be surprised cause this is what they've always taught them, but he just was unsure how his son would make his own decision. The second story took place when Elder Bednar was President at a university in Arkansas and they had seasons tickets for two, to the basketball games. The parents laid all the tickets out in order of game dates before the season started, and allowed the kids to do a lottery and pick which game they would attend with one of the parents. Arkansas was particularly good that year and ranked number two, and it just so happened that UNLV ranked number one and would be playing Arkansas at Arkansas on a Sunday. One of the sons noticed this on the ticket and said, "Dad, this one's on Sunday. You better get rid of it or sell it or something. But do it fast before I change my mind." :)

Elder Bednar talked about how we need to put off the natural man and work on things, repent and improve ourselves becoming more christ-like. He mentioned that one time while he was president at Ricks college in Idaho(and not an apostle), Elder Maxwell(an apostle who has passed away some years ago) spoke to the students and staff. After his talk, Elder Maxwell took Elder Bednar aside and apologized for his talk; he said he just didn't 'get off the launch pad' or something like that. Elder Bednar was completely surprised at his comment because he thought the talk was amazing. Then Elder Bednar commented, 'Elder Maxwell's bad, to everyone else around is still really, really good. But to him, it wasn't his best so he felt he needed to repent.' He's a good example. I always tell my kids not to compare themselves with everyone else and not to judge because most families don't live the way we do; but we follow the prophet. For instance, my kids all have to dress modestly. I don't allow them to watch or play much with media. We talk nicely about everyone and don't say mean words or things that are hurtful. My family doesn't drink caffeine. Violence is not okay. We do chores and we don't play until we get them done. Things like that, and if someone else is doing these things, that doesn't make it right for us to do them...they need to be their best based off of what they've learned, have been taught and know, and not based on what their friend, neighbor, etc does.

After these stories Elder Bednar shared some stories of Christ. He said Elder Maxwell talked about the character of Christ and said something like, only Christ, only His character could have performed the atoning sacrifice. Then Elder Bednar challenged the audience to go to the scriptures when we got home and look for descriptions of his character, especially by reading accounts in the New Testament when he's on the earth and also in 3 Nephi when he visits the America's. He shared a couple examples.
1. In Matthew 4 - He's been fasting for 40 days, he's probably very tired and weak and the adversary comes to tempt him. If you look in the footnotes under JST(joseph smith translation) about when the angels come to minister, it actually clarifies that Christ sends the angels to minister to John the Baptist who He has heard is in prison. Instead of turning inward(self absorption/pity) during his pain and suffering, he turns outward and administers to others in the midst of his own suffering.
2. In the upper room He administers the sacrament, prays for others, the night before his own suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane.
3. When he prays in the garden, he asks his apostles to stay awake several times, which they don't. Then he's betrayed by another one of his apostles. He sweats drops of blood and suffers a great deal and yet when the guards come to take him away at the hands of Judas, his apostle who has betrayed him, Peter cuts off the guards ear, and Jesus immediately heals him. He is always concerned about someone else.
4. When He's on the cross, dying, nails in his hands and his feet, He prays to the father and asks Him to forgive them(the soldiers) and when the thieves who are strung up next to him talk with him, he comforts them. He also looks to his mother and asks John to take care of her.
After Elder Bednar told of these experiences he reminds us that some things can only be learned while we bear a burden. I was so grateful I was able to attend conference with my family and listen to the stories and hear the words of an apostle and the leaders in the church. I came away feeling uplifted, edified and like I could do so much more and be so much better. In fact, Scott and I felt the same way and when we got home and discussed the talks further, we set new goals with our scripture study(increasing the length of time we study each day) and I'm happy to report that we've both been following it and I think we have a new habit established. It's amazing to me what that little extra time spent in the scriptures does for me and my family. I love our Savior and I love this gospel. It is why we are who we are. Christ and His plan is everything. Without Him, we would be nothing. But He came. He lived. He's perfect. He died for us and took on our sins so that if we follow Him, we can one day return to Him and be with our families and Him forever.

12 Weeks

2011-10-25T17:00:00.001-06:00

I am 12 weeks now. Still not feeling fabulous, but I am feeling better than I was a few weeks ago and there are some times during the day where I feel pretty normal. But light nausea is with me many times throughout the day, though usually at night. If I don't go to bed by about 930 or 10pm, the nausea increases. Here are a couple of pictures I took recently. I try and hide my tummy area right now by wearing sweatshirts or loose cardigans over another shirt because when I wear my normal clothes, I just look like I've gotten lazy in my diet and exercise routine...which I have, so actually I am getting fat, with just a little bit of baby :). Scott and I were talking about how we think my belly is kind of like a balloon that's been blown up before and it's all stretched out and when I get pregnant again it blows up a lot easier and faster than it did the first time I was pregnant. I know this isn't the case with everyone; but it seems to be with me.

Here I am with my cardigan, trying to cover things up but actually just looking kinda frumpy.

And another picture with the cardigan pulled to the side. And just for the record, when I went to the doctor's office last week I had in fact gained 10 pounds. That's a good amount of weight to put on in the first couple of months. And I probably will gain another 30-40 over the next 6 months. Not my favorite thing about pregnancy. Oh, and I thought I'd share with you as I did with Scott this morning that I had a nightmare last night that I was picking up one of my kids from a birthday party and there were all these leftover cupcakes and pastries sitting on tables with no one in sight, completely tempting me, and I can't remember for sure, but I think I ate some. Can you tell I'm struggling internally with this? I am still trying to eat healthy most of the time(though I am eating more refined sugar right now than I'd like to admit. I hate sugar. It's so addicting!), but when you eat so many more calories than you used to(b/c I feel nauseous if I'm not eating every couple of hours and I always have a weird taste in my mouth which makes me feel like I need to eat more to get rid of it) and exercise so much less than you used to, it's going to show. And it does :). But I can promise you this: I am going to work really hard to get all the weight off once I've had the baby. Sorry about this venting post. I think once I get through this nasty first part of pregnancy(let's hope it doesn't last the whole pregnancy) I will feel better about things because I'll be able to exercise regularly again and eat better foods, and less. Having good health is such a blessing. Experiences like this always increase my appreciation for good health.

A piano, at last!

2011-10-24T14:52:00.002-06:00

Elisabeth started taking piano lessons a year ago from this coming November. We had a small keyboard she would practice on(pictured above), usually in our bedroom; the keyboard sat on a chest in our room and she'd either stand next to it with her legs stretched out in a wide 'v', or she'd kneel and play. Scott and I decided last November that if she was still playing piano this time next year(now), we'd get a piano or at least a full-sized keyboard. I've been watching for deals on ksl.com(similar to craigslist) for the past little while and found a piano last week in good condition for $200; the couple selling were getting ready to move this past week. I went and looked at it and really liked it. The only problem was we weren't sure how we were going to get a trailer and extra people to move it here. I talked our concerns over with the couple and they offered to drive it down to us and unload it while they had their moving crew with them because our house would be on the way down to their new location. It worked out perfectly and we gave them a little extra for the trouble.

We are all in love with the piano. All of us take turns on it, including Scott and I(we both took piano for a year growing up and can play a little...me, a very little but I'm working on it and it's enjoyable). We also got a little side table and lamp to put in the living room. Both were free from different people we know. I refinished the table and everything looks nice all together.

As a side note, I let Charlie help me refinish the table. We were in the garage and I only had a small piece of cardboard laid out for the stain and paint brushes etc to lay on. Charlie didn't see the can of nearly full stain and accidentally kicked it over. I quickly tried to use what I could(you should have seen me on my knees, paint brush in hand, quickly getting as much stain as I could from the garage floor and onto the furniture; I'm sure it was a funny sight) to finish staining both of my projects and then I mopped up the rest, but it still left a big stain on the garage floor. My bad.

After looking around at the new room, Scott and I talked about how almost every piece of furniture(minus our bedroom set which was given to us as a wedding gift) we own is used and was either given to us for free or for a really great deal. All of our couches, all the kids beds and our guest bed, our kitchen table, crib, changing table, dressers, rocking chair, toy chest, book shelves, and more. We've been very blessed in that sense, and I'm glad I'm married to someone who is as frugal and careful as me, and who doesn't mind owning things that aren't brand new :).
I know the piano is still pretty new to us, but it has seriously been getting played constantly. If Jane is awake, someone is sitting, playing the piano. Elisabeth is even giving Charlie piano lessons using her Primer books from piano. I think we'll put Charlie in piano lessons soon.
Elisabeth is so happy to be able to play out in the living room with us all, while sitting on a bench. It definitely beats playing back in the bedroom, door closed so Jane can't bother her, by herself while kneeling :). But I think it's good for people to go through things like this so they can better appreciate all the blessings we're given on a daily basis. And I can tell you we all really appreciate this piano. Even if it's older and a little out of tune...but we'll get it tuned this week.

Jane is 18 months

2011-10-23T14:29:00.003-06:00

Jane had her 18 month well-check visit this past week. She'll actually be 19 months in a couple of days but that's okay. She had to get three shots. It was a very unhappy minute. And all three of her siblings were there watching, feeling sorry for her(they were on a 2 day Fall recess). The doctor thinks she's healthy and doing well. She's still small, but she's staying within her growth curve so we're not too worried. Here are her stats:
Weight: 21 lbs 4 oz - the 8th percentile for her age
Length: 30.9 inches- the 21st percentile for her age

Jane is a happy and fun loving baby, though strangers might not think so because she wears a continuous scowl if they're near. She loves to wave at people she knows, swing, dance, sing(she sings to herself all the time), run, go on walks, play the piano, read books, play outside, take baths, play with her siblings and more.

Jane's favorite foods are Clif Bars, bananas, apples, cashews, pasta, burritos, green smoothies, guacamole, natural peanut butter, whole wheat pancakes and well a lot of things.

Jane finishing off her bowl of guacamole

Jane can say a few words that all can understand and then lots of other things that no one really understands. Here are the words we understand and that she can use correctly: Mommy, Daddy, baby, Owie, ball, my(meaning 'mine), rorry(sorry), hi, nose, eye, stop

Jane with some spaghetti in her hair(or at least on her head...she still doesn't have much hair :), but that always takes our girls awhile...and then they get a lot!)

Slow Cooker Lentil Soup

2011-10-21T21:25:00.004-06:00

Slow Cooker Lentil Soup
1 1/2 c dried lentils
1 1/2 quarts water
1 med onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and grated
1 rib celery, chopped
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp(or 1 cube) Better Than Bouillon or chicken bouillon
1/2 c tomato sauce
3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
optional: 1/2 c-1 c orzo pasta with 1-2 c water, added during the last hour

Place the lentils and water in slow cooker. In a large frying pan, saute onion, carrot and celery in oil until limp and glazed. Add to slow cooker. Add garlic, salt, oregano and bouillon to slow cooker. Cover. Cook on low 6-8 hours. Add tomato sauce and vinegar. Stir well. Cover. Cook on high 30 minutes to blend flavors.

This picture is not mine, but I didn't have any and when I did a search for lentil soup images, this one looked a lot like mine. Minus the garnish. I'm lazy like that :). Anyway, I am currently obsessed with this soup. I love it. It is so satisfying. I've made it three times in the past 2 months which is a lot for me considering I haven't been doing a whole lot of cooking the past couple of months...minus boiling water for pasta, even though the smell of pasta(usually w/red sauce) makes me want to hurl. But I can boil water without a fuss. Most foods sound awful right now and so I don't want to be in the kitchen with them. Hopefully only another week of this. Anyway, try this soup. It is so good. Scott loves it too, though I can't say the same for my children. I can't get them to eat any kind of soup. But, I have high hopes for this winter season. I intend to make a soup once a week and I think by week 4, they will like something. Or maybe I'll give them til' week 7. That seems a little more reasonable.

Also, we've done this with and without orzo. The orzo really thickens it up so be sure to add the extra water.

Pumpkin Patch and Date Night

2011-10-19T15:04:00.001-06:00

Saturday after Elisabeth's soccer game we stopped by a pumpkin patch. This was our first time taking the kids to a pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins. They also had a free tractor ride which was enjoyable and there was someone there making good money doing face painting. She charged $3 for half a face or $5 for a whole face and she finished my kids face painting in less than a minute each. She did a really good job though and I'm actually glad she was fast because some of our children aren't very patient. The kids were thrilled to have their faces painted so prettily and kept them looking nice all day.

Later that day Scott and I went on a date while a family friend watched the kids; we switch with this couple every month and take turns going on dates(usually to the temple but when I'm pregnant I can't go much because of weird things that happen to my body). We each have four children about the same ages, so it works out really nicely. I wouldn't leave all four, especially with Jane being at the age she is(18 mos), with a teen. She needs someone who knows what they're doing and can do it while watching three others :).

Lindsay snapped this photo while the kids were watching Despicable Me.

Scott and I decided to eat dinner at a restaurant we really like in Gardener Village. Unfortunately we picked one of the two worst days of the year you could possibly go: Witches Night Out. We had no idea this would be going on but when we got close, we knew something was up. There were cars parked all over the streets and witches everywhere! Thousands of witches! They make it an all day thing, apparently every October on a particular Friday and Saturday, and we just happened to pick going to Gardener Village that night. But we didn't know so many people would be coming to eat at the restaurant(why we didn't figure that out once we saw all the people walking along the streets, I don't know, especially since Archibald's is the only restaurant in Gardener Village), but by the time we parked our car--which they charged $5 for on this particular night because of all the people--and we went inside the restaurant, it was too late. We'd paid for our parking, we were surrounded by people and there was no turning back. So we put our name on the list, were told an hour to an hour and a half wait, and then we went out into the village and bought candy to eat while we waited for our dinner(I know, SO bad, but Scott was starving and I was pregnant and that was the only other food they sold in the village) and looked around in a shop at furniture and home decor. They actually have really cute shops there and we like browsing their stuff.

When we got back to the restaurant, it was madness. People everywhere! Seriously had to push (very politely, of course)our way through to get to the hostess again. I felt so bad for the poor lady hostess. She had to deal with hungry people who were impatient and rude. We got to eat at our 1 1/2 hour mark, and noticed at that time, the next wait time they were giving people was 2 and 1/2 hours! Yikes! Once we finished our dinner and were walking out, I tapped the hostess on the shoulder and thanked her for all she was doing and told her I thought she was wonderful and doing a fabulous job. She gave an exhausted chuckle and smiled and said thank you. That village must make bank over that one weekend in the year. The restaurant was completely packed and it sounded like it had been all day long. And the sweets shop was packed. All the shops seemed to be doing really well. I'm glad they did so well, but I'm also making a 'note to self' not to go eat at Archibald's during the month of October, ever again. And a million thanks to Lindsay and Matt for watching our kids for so long and being so great to them...and for giving Jane a bath which was above and beyond the call of duty!

Braids and Babes

2011-10-18T15:42:00.001-06:00

I've been watching hair style video tutorials online and have learned some fun new hair styles. This one is called the fish tail braid. I've always wanted to know how to do this and it was fun to learn.
And here are the two babes that get to stay at home with Mom all day. Annabelle is 3 and 1/2 and so independent and wonderful. She gets herself dressed every morning, sometimes with the assistance of her older sister, but many times not, and it's so fun to see what she comes up. Like these blue winter tights with horizontal stripes, shorts with vertical pastel colored stripes, a green shirt and princess sandals.
And here's Jane. She covers her ears whenever I use my blender or my wheat grinder. But she's always smiling. She's a little sweetheart(and a firecracker...you should hear this girl scream. Shrill. But with three older siblings to compete with, she's got to be loud at times in order to be heard.)

All in the first 6 months of the year

2011-10-18T12:54:00.008-06:00

All six members of our immediate family have birthdays within the first six months of the year.
January- Charles and Scott
February- Annabelle
March- Jane
April- Me
May-
June- Elisabeth

And it looks like we'll get May filled in this coming year. May 8th perhaps? (that's my mom's birthday so I'm rooting for that date). According to the ultrasound today, I'm 11 weeks and 3 days. I was able to listen to the babies beautiful heart beat. I love that! It measured 1 1/2 inches in length and everything looks good so far.

I've already gained several pounds(someone asked me this past weekend if I was expecting! And because of the way I look! I told her no, I was just getting lazy :), just kidding...but to give her credit, I do show really early, and both Scott and I can definitely tell..and I can't fit comfortably into my jeans anymore, so I'm now in my 'in between' jeans...you know, not the full blown maternity ones, but the other ones for when I'm a little bigger) and I'm not feeling fantastic, especially in the late afternoon and evening, but I can't complain because I've had very little vomiting and I'm fortunate enough to be able to have meds for the nausea/vomiting if I need it. Hopefully I'll just have a few more weeks of the morning sickness and then I can be more regular with my green smoothies(maybe once a week now) and exercise routine(which is more every other day right now instead of daily). But I generally gain between 40-50 lbs so I'm not going to set my hopes too high.

Bone Density

2011-10-17T14:41:00.003-06:00

I meant to blog about this awhile ago and forgot.

Probably 2-3 months ago I went into the health food store to grab something. I noticed a sign outside as I walked in that there was a professional there who would be measuring bone density for free. I didn't intend to have mine measured, but as I was checking out, the 35ish-year-old fellow who runs the test asked me if I could spare a few minutes to have it done. Sure, I said.

As we walked over to his machine he asked me a few questions. Our conversation went as follows: Do you exercise? Yes. Do you take supplements? No. Do you eat greens regularly? Yes, quite a bit everyday. Do you have any children? Yes. How many? Four. Really! Okay, well don't be surprised if your score is a little low because having children takes from your bone density and if you're not taking supplements....blah, blah, blah.

So we went over and he took my hand and put it under some screen while asking me personal questions about being married and if I had a single sister(OMG! Seriously!? I kinda just wanted to bolt outta there at this point). When my score came out, he was really surprised. "Wow," he said. "This is the highest score I've seen in days, and it's higher than mine. You really don't take supplements?" "Nope. And I don't even drink milk either." :) Then I told him about my green smoothies and he didn't really seem to care that much but I truly think that the smoothies/whole foods diet, and exercise is what's contributing to my strong bones.

Here's the sheet he gave me:
See the graph on the left of the page? The top curvy line shows what is normal for my age. If you fall closer to the middle line that means signs of osteopenia, and if you fall near the bottom line it means osteoporosis. See that little black dot way up top that's circled? That's my score which was quite above the normal range. Sweet!

2nd season of soccer

2011-10-16T14:25:00.003-06:00

Elisabeth is just about to finish her second season of soccer. It was really fun to watch them this year because the girls are at an age now(7-8) where they're really beginning to grasp the concept of the game. They're not doing cartwheels on the field or picking flowers or playing patty cake, they're actually playing their positions and scoring and defending goals. I really turned into the cheerleader mom this year. I never say mean things to or about anyone, only kind and encouraging comments, but it's a lot, and I can be kind of loud :). Elisabeth has scored three goals this season and all within the last month...I think scoring that first goal built up confidence within her.

Ballet is also just taking off and she's doing really well, though last week she said she likes soccer more than ballet which was contradictory to what she'd said just before ballet began. When I questioned her further, she said it's because ballet is too hard. She said, "I always have to hold my shoulders back and down, suck my tummy in, and it hurts my legs to always have to point my toes and stand on tippy toe." But I told her that those things won't seem hard anymore as she progresses through ballet and practices more. Eventually it'll just be natural. But we'll see what she decides next year when she has to decide between the two; soccer would actually be much cheaper for me and Scott so I don't think I'll be too sad if she decides to go that route :).

Elisabeth is number five

Pirate Treasure Map and Loot Bag-DIY

2011-10-12T12:16:00.004-06:00

I know it's only October, and Christmas still seems far away, but I actually collect gifts for the kids almost all year round. Why? Because it's cheaper that way. And providing a memorable Christmas for 6 takes careful thought, planning and early preparations when you're on a budget. So, when I see something one of the children would love, and it's a great deal, I pick it up and stick it up high in my closet. Sometimes I forget what I've picked up so usually around this time of year, I'll go through everything and see who still needs what.

My friend Lindsay showed me a homemade pirate treasure map idea she found on pinterest. I knew it would be something Charlie would love so we decided to do it together. We each found our own bandana and little spiral notebooks, Lindsay provided the canvas for the map, paint pens, and muslin(which she sewed up into pirate loot bags for us), and I provided the compasses, pirate money and keys. It cost us around $6 each and took a couple of hours. I'm excited for Charlie to open his gift on Christmas :).

Fall in Utah

2011-10-06T17:34:00.004-06:00

(I didn't take this picture, but it is a picture of Utah)

I woke up, one morning this week, to the sound of falling rain. I love that sound. I love the rain. I guess that should be expected considering I grew up in Seattle. I got out of bed and peeked through my blinds. The wind was blowing the leaves off the large tree in our front yard. I looked around the neighborhood and noticed that many of the leaves on the surrounding trees were changing to beautiful autumn colors: yellow, orange, red, purple, green, brown. This is a beautiful time of year, though I'm grateful for all the seasons. I love that I can see the snow on the mountains. I love the Fall decorations that are everywhere, particularly the pumpkins. I enjoy snuggling into my jacket as I walk out into the crisp morning air. I'm happy I can wear jeans and sweatshirts once again. I love watching my husband and children rake leaves into large piles and jump through them. Life can be a wonderful thing if we remember to look for the good and thank our Father in Heaven for all he's blessed us with.

General Conference Activities for Kids

2011-10-02T20:25:00.005-06:00

Wasn't General Conference Amazing!? I loved every minute of it!

I'm going to refer to this post for future sessions of general conference because all the preparations we did for the kids this year really paid off. General conference was enjoyable. With all four little children. For all 8 hours. Let me share with you what we did. (I grabbed these ideas from all sorts of places on the internet, mostly originating from the Pinterest website).

I put together a general conference basket. Sort of like an Easter basket. The kids loved this and were so excited to wake up in the morning and see this basket all put together and full of neat things for them to do during conference. Inside were fun snacks(I stayed away from refined sugars and did things like fruit leather, the Clif bar fruit twists, 100% juice capri suns etc), pens, new crayons, blank cards, activity envelopes, apostle and first presidency cards,clipboards with church activity packets, and whatever we needed for those packets like glue, scissors, tape, empty toilet paper rolls etc. I'll give you more details now for some of the things in the basket.

Activity Packets: A couple of days before conference(and next year I'd start a whole week before conference so I don't have to do it all at one time) I printed out the new activity packets for children off of Sugardoodle.net. The lady who does this website makes new activity packets every conference and they're fabulous. She has packets for nursery aged children, junior and senior primary and some things for teens as well. I printed off the nursery packet for Annabelle and Reese(our neice- we had my brother's family with us for the Sat. morning session) and the junior primary packet for Elisabeth, Charles and Shaun(my nephew). Each packet is about 12 pages long and has several coloring pages and several cut and paste activities. I divided the packet into four(because there are four, two hour sessions), each fourth having some coloring pages and some cut/paste activity, and then put the first portion of the packet on each child's clipboard. I already had clipboards for my children and I bought a couple of inexpensive one's for my niece and nephew from Walmart.

Here is one of the projects they cut and colored and our globe. I kept it out so when they announced new temples being built, we could find where in the world they'd be located.

Activity Envelopes: I had four envelopes in the basket. Each envelope had written on it the name of one of the four sessions: Saturday Morning, Saturday Afternoon, Sunday Morning, Sunday Afternoon. Before a session began, the kids were allowed to open the envelope, read what was on the paper inside and do that activity. The first activity was to cut out and color these paper watches I found online that say 'Come listen to a prophet's voice at 10 and 2'; they have other watches for different times if you don't live in mountain standard time. We taped them onto their wrists like real watches. For the other three activities we: wrote letters to grandparents telling them about conference, we read Mosiah 2:6 and then set up a tent facing the TV just like the people did in that time to hear the prophet speak, and last we put together more snacks and brought them down to eat while watching the last session of conference.

The kids in their 'tent' during the Sunday sessions

Quiet Zone: the whole room where conference was being shown was a quiet zone(meaning if there is talking it's in whispers) but near the 'quiet zone' sign we had bingo boards set up on a hard, flat surface and the kids usually colored over there and did their cutting.

General Conference Wall: I loved this. I printed out coloring pages off the Friend website, and had the kids work on coloring them for a couple of days leading up to conference. I wrote a topic on the top of each picture ie, prayer, repentance, temples etc. We printed off 14 all together. I taped them on our 'General Conference Wall' along with the insert of all the faces of the general authorities from the last conference Ensign. I also printed off cards that had pictures of the first presidency and the 12 apostles which you can find by clicking on that link. Each child had their own baggie with all the cards. When one of these gentlemen were speaking, the kids would find their card and listen for what that man was speaking on and then we'd put a piece of tape on the back and stick it on the correlating picture.

All four children did very well. Our 7, 5 and 3 year old children stayed in the room and were relatively quiet and busy with their packets and other things during all 8 hours. Okay, there may have been about 15 minutes during the last session when Charlie and Annabelle went in an adjacent room and ran around, but that's it. Jane, our 18 month old, napped during two of the sessions, and the other two she hung out with Scott and I on the couch with her blankey(we usually only allow her to have this in her crib). Or she'd wander around the room and pick up crayons and paper her siblings had left unattended and help color their pages or other scraps.

One other thing we did for conference that was special was we had a big breakfast both Saturday and Sunday morning which was something the kids, and the adults, looked forward to. Saturday we had pancakes, eggs and hashbrowns and Sunday I made something not so good for you. I'd heard about an amazing french toast that a local bakery made and I wanted to try it. This bakery had gone onto Good Things Utah several years ago and shared this recipe which I was able to find online and duplicate. As Elisabeth watched me make this french toast she said, 'Mom, this isn't good for us." My response was, "I know." "Well, why are you making it then?" "I just wanted to try it, but it's definitely something we won't make often. But if we love it, maybe we could call it General Conference French Toast and only have it then." "Hum. I think I like the other french toast you make better, and it's good for you." Gosh, our conversation made me feel guilty. But that's okay. I'm glad she's wanting to make good choices. And I usually do. Though every once and awhile I'm okay with eating something sugary and sweet if I'm really in the mood. And I was. As we ate it Elisabeth said, "this doesn't really taste like french toast. It tastes more like cinnamon rolls." :) And if you look at the picture below, those slices are so thick. Scott and I were stuffed with one piece. Two of the kids ate half a piece and the other two couldn't even finish their half.
Here's the recipe:

Overnight French Toast

1 Loaf Kneaders Chunky Cinnamon Bread cut into 8 slices(here is a recipe for a similar bread if you don't live near a Kneaders)

8 eggs (I used 7)

3 cups milk (I used 2 1/2)

1 Tbsp brown sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 Tbsp vanilla

2 Tbsp butter

Butter a glass 9 x 13 baking dish generously (I also used an 8x8 because I couldn't fit it all). Place the bread flat in the baking dish. Mix all remaining ingredients, reserving the butter and pour over the bread. Cut butter into pieces and dot over the top. Refrigerate over night or at least 1 hour. Bake 45 - 50 minutes at 350 degrees. Serves 8

Kneader's Carmel Syrup
1 c. Brown sugar
1 c. heavy whipping cream
1 c. Light Karo Syrup
Blend together and heat on stovetop until sugar is smooth.
Serve warm.

Grateful for the Ride

Fevers and a sledding accident

Children's Museum at Temple Square

30 weeks!

Jumanji

Charlie's cavities

Forks Over Knives

Charming Jane

Dolphin Cake

DIY- Swirl Top Cupcakes

1M Swirl

Tools:

Instructions:

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Annabelle is Four!

Valentine's Day

28 weeks

Repairs

Date swap

Home-made whole wheat tortillas

Whole-Wheat Flour Tortillas- Lightly adapted from 100 days of whole foodsYield: 12 tortillas

Ingredients

Directions

Valentine Banner

Marilla Moment

2011 Blog Book Published

Everybody's Barn

Work and Play

26 Weeks

"Let food be thy medicine..."

Rigoletto at the Opera

Happy 31st Birthday Scott!

Tikka Masala, Naan and Basmati Rice

Chicken Tikka Masala- adapted from all recipes.com

Place rice into a bowl with enough water to cover. Set aside to soak for 20 minutes.(This is very important)

Blueberry Baked Steel Cut Oatmeal

Char's 2 front teeth, Jane's loves

24 Weeks

A week in our life...

Protein Comparison Chart

Pirate birthday!

New Years Survey

22 Weeks

Holiday Vacation

A few more Christmas pictures

These are a few of my favorite things

Merry Christmas!

All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth

Candied Ginger Pears

20 weeks and Jane's hives

Christmas neighbor/teacher gifts

Elisabeth's ballet recital

Christmas Lights

19 week Ultrasound and Gender Reveal Dinner Party

Sucanat Almond Poppy Seed Bread

Christmas Traditions

Testimony Glove

Lunch with dad, community christmas party, Chia Cookies

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Elisabeth

Charles

Annabelle

Jane

Injuries

Thanksgiving Holiday

Hair styles

16 Weeks

Off Track

Pumpkin recipes

In-home dates

14 Weeks

Date with Annabelle

Halloween Activities

Every day dinners

Happy Halloween!

Jane and mom on the piano

Stake Conference at the Conference Center

12 Weeks

Whole-Wheat Flour Tortillas- Lightly adapted from 100 days of whole foods
Yield: 12 tortillas