Wiggle, Poke, Giggle, Zoom

Graham Cracker Creations

2011-12-21T22:24:00.004-07:00

Today marks a sad anniversary for our family, so we gathered together as families should on such a day. I think we made some really good memories. For an activity we had intended to do graham cracker houses, but D wanted to make Thomas the train and the girls wanted to make a princess tower, so we had an assortment of creations. I couldn't believe that D sat there and decorated a train, he is really growing up. The girls had so much fun making Rapunzel out of candy and J did an awesome job on his candy cabin.

A summer birthday

2011-12-21T22:13:00.002-07:00

This is two years in a row that I haven't found AP's birthday pictures until December because we are always out of town on her birthday and the pictures are on my phone nor someone else's camera. I noticed that she is wearing a cowboy hat again, funny. I'm posting the picture from two years ago first because it downloaded with the new stuff and I love it (thanks for taking it Dad). Here are her cupcakes, she wanted pink sparkly cupcakes and since we are all addicted to decorating stuff around here, they turned out to be pretty unique.

Christmas Song

2011-12-20T16:01:00.004-07:00

My daughter wrote a Christmas song and I put it to music for her. So here is our "Christmas Card" to you.

Today Is The Day

Today is the day to celebrate, a very, very special date.
Today is the day a child was born and He is Christ the Lord.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! And He is Jesus Christ the Lord.

This little child was not the same, for at his birth an angel came
And this is what the angel said: Unto you a child is born!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! And He is Jesus Christ the Lord.

very rough, but you get the idea...

Halloween Pumpkins

2011-12-13T16:24:00.000-07:00

Halloween Costumes

2011-12-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

Fall Leaves

2011-12-09T16:23:00.000-07:00

Thing 1 and Thing 2

2011-12-08T19:29:00.004-07:00

My friend and I helped our daughters make costumes for their class Dr. Seuss party today.

Temple dirt

2011-10-31T14:56:00.002-07:00

The kids had a memorable experience at the temple groundbreaking.

Updates

2011-10-02T16:42:00.008-07:00

With our temple groundbreaking only days away...

They announce another temple even closer to home. What a deeply thrilling prospect that is. When J was two he used to always ask to go into the tabernacle for a tour and I told him we would go inside some day. (It always surprised me that he was so interested in the building at age 2). When it burned down I was reminded I had never kept my promise. I truly look forward to taking him there now when the restoration is complete and it is ready to function as a holy temple. (photo from Daily Herald)

A walk down mainstreet in August

Look mom! Glasses!

Her birthday was on the book release date for book 8 in Sisters Eight her favorite series, she has read the books ragged!

I'm helping teach violin for 4-H at the school this semester, D can't wait to learn to play himself. Violins everywhere, so much fun.

Housekeeping Class

2011-08-03T20:30:00.004-07:00

Ages 5+

This is the sequel to the LEGO Art class.

I have a great appreciation for fine art and education, but I believe a man (or woman) isn't truly educated until he knows how to do mundane, basic, everyday work. If you can do the mundane, you can do the brilliant. When one of my kids asks for permission to go play, I used to say "is your homework done?", but that really bothered me. Homework is only about third or fourth or fifth in priority.

What I wanted to say was, "are your chores done?", but they didn't really have chores. So I assigned a few, only to discover they never did them, because they didn't really know how. Also, there never seemed to be a spare minute to show them. So now that it is Summer, I can finally truly educate my children.

My new class that started when LEGO Art was over, was "Housekeeping". The preparation phase was about 20 minutes. I took a blank piece of paper and jotted down all the housekeeping jobs that my 6 and 8 year old are capable of doing. The final list had 63 items. I starred about five of them as being a bit too complex for my children to master at this age and saved those for the end of summer.

Then I told my kids that we had a new class called housekeeping and that it would last for two hours each day just like LEGO Art. I showed them that I had a list and asked them to each pick a number. This was a novelty-- chores where you pick a number between 1 and 60? And so it began.

The first item picked was
"How to set everything on the table for dinner that is needed for salad."
I showed them where salad greens are kept, where the salad condiments tray is kept, where the salad dressing is, the vinegar, and oil. Five items. They had to memorize them and then they took turns setting the table for salad as fast as they could. Then as a bonus, they learned "how to put salad away". Housekeeping class is all about training. I show them carefully exactly how to do stuff and then we practice, practice, practice. Sometimes my kids love housekeeping and sometimes they hate it. It takes a lot of energy and when I don't feel well we don't get it done, but they are learning a lot. So far we've done about 40 of the items on my list at least once.

I never know what housekeeping adventure will come next. I've kept my list a secret and its always luck of the draw. My kids did have a tendency to pick 1-10 and 50-60, so halfway through the summer I had to renumber the list to mix things up a bit.
Some days we are in the kitchen, other days we are in the bathroom or cleaning in other various rooms of the house, but its been amazing to see my kids' housekeeping skills blossom.

Another amazing thing is the whining and excuses. I've heard a lot of it. I'm "the meanest mom in the world!", Am I trying to make them puke? I'm a slave driver! I'm lazy and never work myself, etc. On the other hand they brag to their friends about the things they have learned and on the occasion I had a friend join us for "housekeeping" the friend had a blast. I believe we were cleaning butter knives that day and he thought it was hillarious that we kept making the knives dirty on purpose just to wash them. Then we broke cracker crumbs and put them all over the table with peanut butter blobs to practice washing the table. We did it again and again. Yep he thought I was bonkers. So then it was off to scrub bathtubs and clean carpet stains. It was high entertainment and he said he'd be willing to join anytime.

Well, I had other plans for the summer that we never got to, but this has been a good one so I thought I would share.

Favorite Places

2011-07-07T15:54:00.006-07:00

As I have been reading all these summer vacation blog posts, I asked myself what are the 10 favorite places I've seen? So, here's a list of 10 places I've really loved, I'm sure there are some really great ones I've missed, but here's a quick list off the top of my head, I wish I had pictures, but these are mainly in my head and I think of them often so I don't forget.

1) Philmont, New Mexico-the rain, the lightening storms, the meadows, the flowers, the meteor shower on Aug 14
2) Zion Narrows, Utah- the pool somewhere in the middle of the hike with enormous red flowers vining up the canyon wall and crystal clear water.
3) Fairview, Wyoming-the Hale Farm
4) The view of the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island from my childhood home in Bountiful, Utah- the sunset there every night was extraordinary, truly one of the most amazing sights of my life and I saw it hundreds of times.
5) Firehole River, Yellowstone, Wyoming In the winter when its frozen and smokey looking, wow!
6) San Francisco/Bay Area, CA-Kirby Cove, sourdough bread, Muir Woods
7) Green River Lakes, Wyoming- Slide Lake, the lake as well as the waterfall on the way to the lake where a quick glance took over a half an hour, it was so beautiful
8) Oregon Portland-the flowers at the temple, Astoria-foggy, charming little town, good clam chowder (Becky, I'm curious if you agree with my impressions...), Seaside-sunny, cheerful, hanging flower baskets EVERYWHERE.
9) Gettysburg, PA and Washington D.C.-the feeling I got at Gettysburg was overwhelming, a once in a lifetime experience, it gave me a much more profound love and appreciation for many things.
10) Cache Valley, Utah- the Logan temple-celestial room and how the exterior is lit at night, driving the valley on Sunday afternoons, and Wellesville Canyon when the leaves change color in the fall
wow I was just going to go to ten, but I really loved Evergreen, Seattle, and Lucerne and...

Zoom has a birthday

2011-07-05T13:12:00.006-07:00

Little D is pretty obsessed with trucks right now, so we took the family to the Cars movie for his birthday and made him this
Haulin' Cupcake birthday dessert.

"Giggle" and "Zoom" testing out the plasma car

Eating with chopsticks is fun!

2011-07-05T13:06:00.000-07:00

Another LEGO ART class

2011-07-05T12:01:00.007-07:00

Mini World: Cabin by a lake

The arts council asked me to teach another LEGO class. This time for 12-18 year olds instead of 5-7 and 8-11. I honestly did my favorite 10 projects last year and think its great for any age, but they requested different more advanced stuff, hoping that something unusual would entice the older kids to sign up.

So instead of basic bricks, I had somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 various LEGO pieces of every imaginable type. The last day I brought a scale and each student got to take home 2 pounds (about 600 pieces) of LEGO, whatever they wanted from the class set. I called it Pick-a-Brick day, that was a big hit.

The projects were much more complex and visually less impressive than the bright basic Lego brick sculptures of last year, but they loved the challenge of building with so many special LEGO elements. One student said the last day, "this is a pricey class but definitely worth it" All the other students agreed. Yay, just what a teacher likes to hear.

Technic Thing-a-ma-jigs

LEGO vignettes

Miniland size 3 1/2 inch figurines:
Ninja

Planets Day: We built Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, the international space station, and Pluto which is not a planet (therefore didn't take many LEGO bricks, heh, heh).

Spaceships and Planes (a LEGO art project back by popular demand):

Youth Arts Festival, Artist Reception

Creative Dance Class

2011-07-05T11:41:00.005-07:00

This was such a fun class, she misses it so much now it is over. On the last day the girls dressed up and all the parents came.

Birthday

2011-06-29T10:56:00.005-07:00

Happy Birthday J!
He had a great day, we did Arts Festival all day long, had a pizza picnic for lunch, macaroni for dinner, an angry birds cake with edible playdough on it for the treat, and a puppet show in the park (despite the pouring rain. The rain was good, we found AJ's long lost retainer in her jacket pocket.) I let the kids pick their birthday menu, they never tend to pick quinoa and salad, I wonder why?

Family Nativity 2010

2011-03-09T09:12:00.005-07:00

We got a Mac in August and I'm just barely starting to learn how to use it. So now I know how to export slideshows.

This was the family Christmas party with Uncle M and his soon to be fiance A. Sorry about the picture where the shepherd attempts to beat up the angel with his walking stick. He got confused, isn't that a different story!?

Gluten Free Poptarts

2011-02-18T14:18:00.005-07:00

A few days after DH had to stop eating wheat and dairy, the kids had a Dad's and donuts reading activity at school. He was sad that he wouldn't be able to have milk and donuts with the kids. I sent a lunchbox with homemade poptarts (gluten free) instead. They were almost good. I made my own jam filling since we don't normally have jam at our house. Then I used a gluten free flour mix and a gf pie-crust recipe. I didn't actually use any sugar in the jam or pastry, just xylitol, but it was waaaaay too sweet. I'd do it again using 1/4 the sweetener or none in the pastry.

Anyway they all got eaten even if they were a bit too rich. By the way, pastry dough without gluten in it is way easier to roll out, heh, heh.

Look at my book club Mom!

2011-02-18T14:09:00.004-07:00

I go to book club once a month and my kids have always had funny ideas about what a book club actually is or does. This was my favorite yet. Little AP said "Look at MY book club mom!" Yep I can just imagine all the moms getting together and building stuff out of books. Now that really would be fun!

New Years Interviews

2011-01-09T21:20:00.004-07:00

My Dear Husband:
Favorite Movies:Scott Pilgrim vs the World
Favorite Books: Paths of Glory
Things I enjoyed this year: a Real Soccer game, (seats at the midline
Songs:Meet the Elements by They Might be Giants
Favorite treat was the Huckleberry Ice Cream on our Yellowstone trip.
Highlights: Watching Spain win world cup, trip to Yellowstone, trip to Albuquerque

Me:
Movie: I only saw New Moon, Scott Pilgrim, and The Blind Side, I liked the Blind Side best.
Music: "O Light of Life" by the Tabernacle Choir, gives me the chills!
Favorite TV: The only show I watched this year was the Tabernacle Choir.
Favorite Food: I learned how to make homemade yogurt and pink breakfast smoothies (with raw beets!).

AJ, eight years old:
TV: Phineas and Ferb
Songs: Abba, Enya, God Bless the USA, I Like Being Me, If The Savior Stood Beside Me, How Firm a Foundation
Books: I kind of read a whole series at a time. My Favorites were Avalon, and Sisters 8. By the end of the year I was averaging 20 books a week.
Highlights: Yellowstone Trip, lateover with Shelby over Spring Break, Arts Festival, Soccer Camp, Getting Baptized.
Favorite Obsessive Compulsive Behavior: Picking Mud Off the Bottoms of Shoes.
Favorite Foods: Brownies, Buuz with soy sauce, fruit, potato flake soup, saltine crackers and cheddar cheese slices for lunch.
Hobbies: Reading and Computer Games.
Accomplishments: Reflections contest winner for literature (a poem about making mudpies with a little sister).

J, six years old:
Movie: Clone Wars
TV: Clone Wars
Music: Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam
Books: I read “Bombad Jedi” all by myself, I started in the afternoon and read all day and finished at night, (it was a miracle, way to go Josh!). Mom read me lots of Star Wars books, my favorites were the Boba Fett ones.
Highlights: Yellowstone, Soccer Camp, Lego Arts Class, Playing Star Wars Lego with Uncle Ben, 4-H, 4-H, and 4-H.
Hobbies: Building with Legos and playing with Bridger.
Food News: Love Dominoes Cheese Pizza, ice cream, mom made special mini-pizzas for lunch called Padawan Pizzas, Horchata from Bajio, I like a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast everyday, and an apple for a snack everyday.
Accomplishments: Reflections contest winner for literature (an essay about building Legos with a friend), learned to read

AP, three years old:
Movies: Cinderella & Monsters vs Aliens
Song: A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes, Lullabye, Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam, All Creatures of our God and King
Highlights: Watching Ice Dancing during the Olympics, Preschool, Yellowstone Trip, Watching Beauty and the Beast on my birthday, My Cinderella Birthday Cake, Swimming with Uncle Ben.
Food News: Favorite breakfast is Granola. I also love “pink” yogurt (plain yogurt with red food coloring and agave), pink and green smoothie, pretzels, cheddar cheese slices, oranges.
achievements: ditched diapers over Christmas Break, yay! Earned "Barbie and the Diamond Castle" movie for doing that.
Favorite Toys: Lego Duplos, Magna Tiles, Dolls, Cards (to carry around in purses), Playdough.
Note: AP wears a dress every day, if she has to wear pants in the morning because its cold, she’ll change into a dress by lunch time. She especially wants to wear dresses when we go to the store or have company as she feels embarassed not wearing a dress in public.

D, 18 months:
Movies: don’t care about the movies, but remote controls are the best!
Songs: likes to play on the piano, likes Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam and Scripture Power
Highlights: liked the mudpots at Yellowstone, liked the Explora museum in Albuquerque especially the “cupboard-opening” display for toddlers.
Food: likes raisins more than anything, also likes hawaiian haystacks especially the pineapple, likes green smoothie, bananas, pears, string cheese, and rice.
Hobbies: pushing buttons, pulling things out of cupboards, especially Dad’s grill tongs. Likes to play with the Word Whammer (Fridge Phonics).
Achievments: learned to walk
Favorite Toys: Weapons such as guns, swords, lightsabers, large kitchen knives, and grill tongs, also likes cell phones, the broom, and the vacuum. (not all of these are officially allowed of course!)

Making a Cake For Mom: Edible Playdough!

2010-11-04T12:54:00.004-07:00

Here is my once a year absolutely unhealthy birthday cake story. I thought since it was my own birthday, I shouldn't make my own cake. It was a busy, busy day, so I bought one at the store, had them write "happy birthday mom" and hid it in the car so baby D wouldn't sit on it.

Well, shortly after arriving home, I found baby D in the car sitting comfortably on my cake and happily pushing buttons on the dashboard. He is so fast! I scraped the frosting off the lid back on to the cake, but it wasn't nice anymore.

The older kids are always thinking up cute things to do on my birthday, so I thought they would love to decorate my cake. I made up a batch of edible playdough in bright colors and when they got home from school I said, "welcome to my birthday party. The activity is to decorate my cake."

I was expecting a few flowers or something, but they wanted something really one-of-a-kind, so this is what they came up with: The characters are Yoda, Ahsoka Tano, Obi Wan Kenobi, and Aalya Secura from Clone Wars. My daughter said she couldn't do Anakin without brown, so she skipped him. The red everywhere was "laser fire". I was very impressed. It was a great birthday present.

The cake was brownies and the playdough was marshmallow, so it tasted a bit like rocky road. I liked it.

Marshmallow Fondant (Edible Playdough)

2 cups miniature marshmallows (4 ounces)
1/2 pound powdered sugar/powdered sucanat (2 cups)
1 tbsp water

This recipe does involve some cooking, it tastes like the marshmallows in cold cereal to me.

Melt the marshmallows with the water, either in the microwave or in a pan on the stovetop. Stir regularly until the mixture is smooth. You can add color now, or knead it in later.

Add the powdered sugar and mix as much as you can. Then tip out onto a surface dusted with more powdered sugar, and begin to knead in any loose powdered sugar. It will be sticky at first, but then will become a smooth dough.

If you want to save your marshmallow fondant for later, wrap in plastic wrap and store in the fridge.

Making an Ahsoka Costume part 2

2010-11-04T00:24:00.004-07:00

First, I made Ahsoka's headtails. Basically it is an ivory jester hat with one tail fatter and longer and blue stripes glued on it. We use crushed panne fabric. A cheap, easy to sew on fabric that is easy to find at halloween. To finish this costume, we glued the gold halo part onto the headtails. Then for the dress I picked up a long sleeve orange shirt at a thrift store and sewed a maroon skirt onto the bottom. (The skirt is one and a half times the length of the t-shirt and then gathered.) To gather I sewed a wide stitch across the top leaving long pieces of thread at the ends. Gently pull one of the threads tight to gather the material to the proper length then sew it into a tube. Then sew the tube onto the skirt. (For Ahsoka's top I sewed that onto the t-shirt as well. It didn't have stretch so on the back I left about an inch gap in the tube top so it would stretch when my daughter put it on. We lucked out and found some floral print purple fabric on clearance that looked right for the belt. I had been planning on painting the floral print on lavendar fabric. The belt buckle is gold fabric glued onto cardboard with a pin glued on the back so we could pin it onto the dress. We just glued velcro onto suedcloth for the arms and legs, but this was a pain, I'd skip it or find another way if I did it again. I think the most comfortable would be to attach the gauntlets to tights and t-shirto, so they slide on and stay on easily. I did make a belt too, but it wasn't comfortable enough, so my daughter didn't wear it. This costume was a big hit with all the clone wars fans at school.

Lip Gloss Making Activity

2010-11-04T00:03:00.002-07:00

I was teaching a lesson on uplifting thoughts for the activity day girls in our ward. We talked about having uplifting thoughts and how music can help us clean out bad thoughts. Then we made lip gloss. I wrote a little poem to tie it all together. It is based on Elder Packer's talk "worthy music, worthy thoughts" (http://lds.org/cm/display/0,17631,8045-1,00.html)

This is what the finished project looked like, I had some old pots in my craft cupboard that I recycled for this project it turned out really cute.

We used this recipe:
1 tbs petroleum jelly (melted)
4 drops stevia (or 1 tsp honey melted)
a few drops of koolaid (1 packet dissolved in 1/4 tsp water)
1/4 tsp mint extract (optional)

Lip Gloss Poem
The lip gloss I have made today
Reminds me I should smile,
And make the thoughts inside
My head uplifting and
worthwhile.

For ev’ry minute that I live
My mind is like a play.
With thoughts of either good
Or bad always on display.

Now sometimes in the theater
That is running in my mind
Little dark and impish thoughts
Come sneaking from behind.
And then it is my duty,
So the Spirit can abide,
To find a way to clean them out
And shape things up inside.

The prophets have advised us
On a way this can be done,
They’ve said when thoughts
Aren’t what we want…
The best thing is to hum!

So once again I grab my gloss
And rub some on my lips
And hum my very favorite hymn,
It always does the trick!

Family Halloween Party 2010

2010-11-03T23:53:00.004-07:00

Clone Commander Fox

Doctor D

Ahsoka Tano

Jedi Master Luminara Unduli

little a was asleep, but I'll throw this picture in anyway...

My cousin's daughter hopped in the photo shoot and she was cuter than all of us...

Halloween Preschool Party

2010-11-03T23:41:00.004-07:00

Happy Halloween Boo!

2010-10-28T18:36:00.003-07:00

J made this picture in his spare time. I liked all the detail..bony skeletons, witches, bats, roof shingles, etc. I told him if he colored it I'd put it on my blog. So here it is!

AJ made this fun little picture at school which I enjoyed too. Especially since the skeleton has a very detailed Ahsoka Tano belt, that made me laugh.

Making an Ahsoka Costume

2010-10-28T13:10:00.017-07:00

Anakin Skywalker's spunky Padawan, the orange girl...

Getting an idea on how to make headtails. It looked like a jester cap, so we looked up a free three tailed jester hat pattern online.

Tracing the shape on tissue paper

The front of side tails: Ahsoka's side headtails curve, the back one is straight, bigger, and longer, I cut 2 of these

back of side tails, cut 2
back tail, one piece

designing the stripes and pinning it all together.

I traced the pattern again so I could cut up for stripe patterns. It looked something like this. This part takes a lot of time, but it looked so cool, we thought it was worth it.

crushed panne fabric with indigo stripes hot glued on (note, sewing machine didn't sew through glue very well, imagine that! I should have avoided putting glue close to the edges where I was gonna sew and then just touched up later.)
we stuffed it with polyfill from JoAnn's and hot glued a ski cap inside to finish it off.

We were almost done here, I'll get the finished product later. She wore it comfortably all day at school and it stayed on even during a cartwheel!

Next a cute orange and maroon t-shirt dress to finish it off. See the finished costume!

one more photo...

Recent Pictures

2010-10-02T23:54:00.002-07:00

Imagine there are pictures.

2010-09-25T22:35:00.004-07:00

What we've been up to lately
I don't really know how to make a blog post without a picture, but here goes. We got a new computer. Hooray! I don't know how to use it yet though, so although my pictures are on there somewhere, I don't know how to get to them yet. If I had them, I'd show you some birthday party pictures for AJ's eighth birthday, the picture I snapped of the 20 minutes AP wore shorts instead of a dress one day, pictures of a messy preschool activity, lots of kid crafts and creations, baby D sneaking into my canning peaches (the very first time a kid sneaks is cute and entertaining and this was one of the first), baby D learning how to walk with a hot pink baby stroller, and the kids with their second cousins at Thanksgiving point having a great time.

Traffic on this blog
I realized last time I was blogging that blogger has a stats page for who visits your blog. I looked at it and after the Lego Art blog post which was publicized by some really big blogs, the most visited post was the one about AJ's halloween costume last year. Apparently there are lots of other people out there looking for ideas on how to make a "Crysta from Fern Gully" costume. How random. I would have never guessed.

I finished!

2010-08-20T21:25:00.010-07:00

Have you ever taken on a major challenge such as remodeling an old house or running a marathon? Doesn't it feel incredible when the rooms are all done or you cross the finish line? Okay, I'd feel horrible at the end of a marathon, but the sense of satisfaction would be amazing. I remember when I decided to earn my BSA "mile swim" award in a freezing cold lake. I worked up to it over the summer. When I finally finished that swim, my body was so numb I don't know how I was still swimming, but I was absolutely ecstatic about finishing. When I finally got feeling back enough to walk, I was walking on air.

Well, I'm pretty excited today because I finished my year on the "12 steps to whole foods" nutrition program. Last year my GreenSmoothieGirl nutrition ranking on a scale of 1-100 was 23. I was eating no fruits or *vegetables unless you count spaghetti sauce and I ate half a box of granola bars a day. This year I'm at 76 and I feel much better.

*Let me amend that statement. We ate a TON of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and zuchinni from the garden last August. I'm referring to all the other months of the year where all we had were a few spoonfuls of frozen veggies for dinner once a week.

Strabismus

2010-07-31T21:56:00.005-07:00

D's glasses are to treat strabismus its not a strong prescription, but the theory is that his eyes have been over-focusing. Sometimes his left eye is turned inward and sometimes his right is turned inward like in the pictures below. Strabismus can be treated surgically, or with eye patches as well. There is no real proof about what works, its usually a lifetime thing that you keep working at. Our neighbor across the street has strabismus and has been helpful to talk to. We'll try glasses for a few months and if there isn't any improvement, the next option is usually surgery.

They determine the prescription for babies with a little machine that looks in the eye and uses light and shadows and geometry. Pretty amazing.

Baby Glasses

2010-07-30T22:57:00.004-07:00

I was prepared for a major battle to get D to wear these, he went ballistic when we tried on glasses at the doctor or baby sunglasses frames, but these glasses are especially for babies and don't have any metal parts. He seems to really like them. When we first put them on he was all smiles and giggles. He has put them through a few crashes so far and they are super gentle and don't hurt his face at all, I'm very impressed. He knows he isn't supposed to take the glasses off, so sometimes he giggles and does it just to tease me.

Third Birthday

2010-07-24T15:13:00.002-07:00

We asked AP what she wanted for her birthday lunch and she said "Pizza" then she said "But pizza won't turn me three, the cake turns me three!" Sorry about the blurry picture, it was supposed to be a cinderella cake.

Yellowstone 3 of 3

2010-07-22T15:11:00.000-07:00

Yellowstone 2 of 3

2010-07-21T15:07:00.001-07:00

Grandpa doing clown balloons at the cabin

D playing with logs at Old Faithful

One of the many crafts at our yellowstone cabin, this is the one I planned.

Yellowstone Reunion 1 of 3

2010-07-21T14:56:00.002-07:00

My sister and I had our first babies a week apart. Now they are almost eight!

Flashback to the reunion in 2005

Here are the big sisters giving their little 2 year old sisters piggyback rides.

She kept asking to go to the blue "sone". We didn't understand, until she said I don't want to go to yellowstone, BLUE is my favorite color. Blue Stone.

Swift Creek Canyon Hike

2010-07-16T14:50:00.000-07:00

This is where my Grandma and Grandpa got engaged. This year we are celebrating my Grandmas 100th birthday. Pictures are of my kids and my brother.

Spain Wins World Cup!

2010-07-12T07:51:00.004-07:00

I've been cheering for Spain since I met my husband, really fun to see them win what many consider the most prestigious single sporting event in the world.

One Year Old Birthday

2010-07-05T23:11:00.005-07:00

Gears, Gadgets, and Electrical Outlet Cake

As always he went straight for the plug, even if it was just frosting...

That was a pretty yummy chocolate cake...

This little toy was regifted to baby D, but he didn't care, all those buttons were fascinating.

When I blogged my last one year old birthday I included a long list of all the horrible things my one year old had eaten so far. I am glad to say that this time there is no list. Every baby is different and D isn't inclined to eat pencil erasers and sequins and such. Rather he loves turning off the compouter when you're halfway through a blog post, he loves plastic bags, electrical outlets, toilets, vacuums, cell phones, remote controls, and daddy's grill tongs.

D is a great eater, he likes pretty much everything unless it is bland like toast or plain pasta. His favorite thing is green smoothie, (not to push an agenda, it really is). We decided hawaiian haystacks seemed like his favorite dinner, so that is what we had on his birthday. He got a little baby couch for his gift which is the traditional gift for a one year old in our family.

D has 9 teeth, he says mama, dada, more, and tickle. He has attempted saying the names of his siblings, fan, and love. He learned how to crawl at 11 months and now he walks around holding on to walls all day long. This kid wants to walk.

World Cup Party

2010-07-05T23:06:00.004-07:00

Corner flags, soccer shoes, and soccer balls, why not? That was what greeted friends who came to our World Cup Soccer Party last week. The U.S. is out, but we're cheering for Spain and they're still in. Lots of fun.

LEGO art

2010-06-28T21:55:00.011-07:00

Every year our city does an arts festival for kids 3-18 yrs old. It lasts two weeks and kids can be in a musical, show choir, dance class, creative writing, arts and crafts, photography, or even a LEGO art class.

The LEGO teacher was having a baby this year and since they didn't want to cancel it, I got to teach it!

I have nearly 1000 pictures and in LEGO everything is good, but I have to put up a few to share.

A project by AJ on the "Things that Fly" day, she had named her bird Tucie.

When I was planning the class J said, "mommy, the class should have rubber bands" boy was he right. I had quite a few projects over the two weeks feature rubber bands.

a mosaic planned with LEGO brick artist paper

"things with wheels"

"hole punch and card", a huge thanks to the author of filth wizardry blog for helping me out on this one. She pioneered hole punch and card and she was kind enough to write a note I could share in class that encouraged the kids to make one of a kind projects which they really took to heart and kept referring to throughout the rest of the festival.

a most creative interpretation of "things that fly".

a marble maze, these were a huge hit...

**********more pics**********

Go team USA

2010-06-20T23:28:00.001-07:00

Soccer has always been my favorite, now I'm passing the tradition on to my kids...

Jango Fett Birthday Cake

2010-06-20T23:21:00.005-07:00

Opening the frozen buttercream transfer

Jango Fett Cake

Two Cakes! My primary teacher is a cake decorator!

Update:
How to do a frozen butter cream transfer (FBCT)step 1, draw your picture with a sharpie on some wax paper. You can trace an 8 1/2 x 11 picture and it fits nicely on a regular sized cake.
step 2 turn the wax paper tracing over so the frosting doesn't touch the lines you drew and place it on a cookie sheet. Then trace all the lines with chocolate frosting using a fine point cake decorating tip. Put it in the freezer.
step 3 Mix all the colors of frosting your design requires.
Since every cake I do seems to require gray I've found that gray is 1 drop red, 1 drop blue, 1 drop green. For brown just use chocolate frosting.
step 4 Pull the transfer out of the freezer and fill in all the colors. Whenever I am busy changing frosting colors I just set the transfer back in the freezer,every few minutes helps. After filling in a color use a knife or spatula to smooth out the frosting and press it down this helps fill in holes that may not be visible.
step 5 take some plain white frosting spread it on top of everything you just did, yep, cover everything (just like frosting a cake). I sometimes skip this step, but if you do it the final result is much nicer.
step 6 freeze for a few hours until it is hard. Then you can lift up the wax paper for a peek or to set on top of a cake. Make sure before setting this on a cake that the cake is cool.

This takes awhile, but has been a good family activity since the kids like to watch me mix colors and squirt all that frosting on the picture.

June 2010

2010-06-20T23:06:00.002-07:00

Funky hair day at soccer camp

first green smoothie, lovin' it by the way.

playing with beads

one little monkey jumping on the bed

2010-05-24T00:21:00.003-07:00

Don't feel compelled to load every video on this blog, but here is another one for the grandmas:) AP reciting the 5 little monkeys rhyme.

End of the School Year

2010-05-24T00:05:00.003-07:00

Yep it is here already.
I've really enjoyed having J in afternoon kindergarten. J feels the same as I do. The other day he said
"Mom, don't you wish they had afternoon first grade?"
"Yep, I said, I'd sign you up in a minute" J is so not an earlybird bird!

At kindergarten graduation, the teachers give all the kids an award having to do with their area of expertise such as future stuntman, future entymologist, etc. I asked J if there was such thing as a Star Wars award. Sure enough, J got the Star Wars expertise award because his teacher says he knows the layout of every star wars ship, he frequently sings the star wars theme song while doing his work, and he seems to be a just a little bit obsessed...
We are trying to branch out, he is now a big fan of Clone Wars too. Seriously though, he recently enjoyed reading a history of dirigibles and he says he wants to read every book in the library on volcanoes.

Here are two very short clips from AJ's program for the grandparents to see: the BLT song and AJ's narration.

Kindergarten Craft Sale: Yoda Finger Puppets

2010-05-23T23:46:00.008-07:00

On the last day of kindergarten the kids do a kindergarten store. The idea is to help the kids learn how money works. They all bring 10 homemade things labeled 5 cents each. They all bring 50 pennies and go shopping. Then they come home with 10 new things.

I LOVE this because kindergarten crafts are so fun to do. Last year AJ came up with the idea of jeweled fairy wands and pretty much made them herself. This year J came up with the idea of doing origami yoda finger puppets. I asked if we could do them colored and he thought that was cool.

However, some googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and scraps of green fleece started calling my name and we just had to make fleece finger puppets too. J sold packages with one origami and one fleece puppet in each and had a great time. J came home with these homemade items-silly putty, a block with Star Wars Lego pictures on it, playdough, a transformer ring, a bracelet, a homemade rainbow crayon, a beaded lizard, and I forget what else.

May 2010 slideshow

2010-05-23T23:03:00.003-07:00

No more toys???

2010-05-22T23:07:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be a good idea to take away all the toys at my house for awhile. So two months ago I did, I also decided to unplug the TV while I was at it. It wasn't supposed to be a punishment or anything (although one kid was grounded at the time), just something I felt needed to be done. I told my kids I thought it would be a good thing to have no toys. They shrugged their shoulders about it only asking what they were supposed to play with now, "I said, blankets, cushions, pillows, and chairs." J got right to work making new and better toys. After a few weeks I got the Legos back out and if the kids ever request any other toy I get it out for a day or two. The TV was recently plugged back in so dad could watch baseball, although I don't think anyone noticed it was unplugged for a week or more.

By the way, as we head into the summer when all four of my kids have birthdays, YES my kids are allowed to have toys, but they also seem to enjoy popsicle sticks, pillows, cushions, chairs and blankets *grin*

x-wing fighter

clone trooper with blaster

weekly highlights

2010-05-16T21:42:00.002-07:00

I write down highlights for everyone each week in family home evening, I thought I'd share.

AJ: I have lots of highlights this week. I went to a Museum of Natural History travelling exhibit. We got our own rock collections...fools gold and volcano rock and a clear one and a green one. I made a fossil called a trilobite. Everything about the exhibit was cool. Also my class went to the farm and I got to feed a baby goat. It bit me, but it didn't hurt and that was my favorite part of the fieldtrip. We also got to go to a very cool playground. This week we had teddy bear picnic day and pirate day. I memorized a poem this week the first time my teacher told it to us. I think I should memorize lots of poems.

J: I went to the Natural History exhibit too. They put special lights on the rocks and some glowed. The white part of my coat glowed the most, it was cool. My friend Sam had a birthday party with pizza like at my birthday party, but it wasn't padawan pizza. He liked my present best, I gave him a little robot toy (J always says that). My class went to the zoo. The first thing we saw was a turkey, we got to ride the train, and I even saw a giraffe poop!

Dad: I went to Logan on a Gosner's cheese run with my dad! I amended the dead soil in our flowerbed and we planted flowers. They look really nice--red, yellow, orange and blue ones.

Mom: We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for mother's day. I got babysitters for baby D and AP during Youth Arts festival taken care of. I'm learning lots of things about art and LEGOs, the class will be fun. I'm working really hard with J on reading, he'll thank me some day. I read a true story about a family that got shipwrecked which I really enjoyed, very thought provoking.

AP: "I like Cinderella!" (enough said). I'm finally resigned to the fact that at the premature age of 2 1/2 AP is done napping. She won't even fall asleep in the car. Also, she's had a big bed for a few months now, but she always ends up in the pack n play by morning. I had the bright idea of taking her mattress off the big bed and leaving just the board. She loved it. She's slept in the twin bed a week straight without getting out and she didn't flinch when I took down her beloved
'basket bed" and put it in storage. J also prefers a board over a mattress, my funny kids!

baby D (10 mos): two weeks ago he started eating food. We gave him some pretzels and he cried to have me get them out of his mouth because he didn't know how to chew and swallow. Yesterday he ate breakfast lunch and dinner the same as the rest of the family. Babies turn into little kids so fast! He split his head open one day (pitching a fit for food), not a highlight, but notable. It bled a lot and I was very scared. He turned out to be fine, but it was a scary day. He is scooching a lot, AJ calls his crawl "the worm", it fits.

Dying Easter Eggs

2010-04-16T04:23:00.001-07:00

2010-04-16T04:05:00.002-07:00

Oops, I forgot to give her a straw...

Curling his tongue, he did this a lot for about a week he thought it was so fun.

Happy Birthday

Uncle's Visit

Got Green?

2010-03-17T09:56:00.004-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Remember to eat your dark leafy greens every day, among other things its the worlds best source of calcium. You can just teeth on them, or put them in a smoothie like AJ! I totally reccommend the smoothie.

Broccoli Rice Bake

2010-03-16T09:45:00.000-07:00

I told my mom I was looking forward to learning some new dinner entrees this month. Well, my family has liked smoothies, garden veggies, and salad, but whole grains... they do not like. I love this particular recipe and make it for lunch when no one else is around to gag, one pan will last me most the week. I tried to pay my son to taste it, but he wouldn't do it because it looked so "bleeecccch". My two year old loves it though, she ate a ton of it. She loves the brown rice the coconut-curry sauce, the tomatoes, the broccoli, and even the mushrooms. Alas I had no cilantro which would have been the perfect touch for this yummy dish.

My family!

2010-03-14T21:30:00.004-07:00

We've had a new addition for the last eight months, so we finally got a new family picture. I agree with all those other bloggers that say its hard to get a family picture with four little kids, we had a lot of funny ones, but at least we were all looking at the camera in this one.

Now My Know My ABC's, Yeah! Hooray!

2010-03-14T21:16:00.004-07:00

I thought her grandmas just had to see this...

First hair-cut

2010-03-08T10:54:00.002-07:00

Its a milestone right? thus this post...

Knee Patches

2010-03-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

In the last two weeks 9 pairs of pants at our house developed ghastly holes. Since we already bought pants in August and December, it was time for patches...

I mostly made quilted patches, but I made one cute aplique patch.

(Quilted patch, cut two pieces, sew right sides together leaving 1 inch opening. Turn right side out, topstitch around the edge, quilt by machine, sew on via free arm on sewing machine or by hand.)

Getting ready to sew...

Patches at work
Quilted patches

The cute one, using iron-on adhesive

Olympic Inspiration

2010-03-06T10:09:00.003-07:00

They liked the men's halfpipe and made a "go USA" sign out of train tracks.
Look mommy I'm skating! She was inspired by this particular silver medal winning ice dance. She dug this dress out because it looked like a skating dress.

January 2010

2010-02-10T23:41:00.002-07:00

Snowman pizzas

pigtails!

4-H project

Thats why we take her to church!

Thundercats Candy

2010-02-02T23:23:00.001-07:00

We made these for a friends Thundercats Birthday Party. Thundercats is an old 80's cartoon in case it isn't ringing any bells for you. The main character is Lion-0 (Peach-O's) along with Panthera (popcorn), Tygra (chedder mix), Cheetara (Cheetohs), Wily Kat (KitKat), Jaga (Mamba), and Snarf (Snickers).

To do this craft:
1. scan the product label
2. photoshop new label and print.
3. cut out new words and tape it on with packing tape
4. use pictures not words for kids who don't read yet.

First Bottle...

2010-01-28T23:14:00.000-07:00

This was my water, but he surprised me by helping himself.

6 month pictures

2010-01-21T23:17:00.000-07:00

Homonyms

2010-01-18T16:31:00.006-07:00

AJ was learning about homonyms at school this week and we were trying to come up with examples. Well little AP, our two year old presented a few just today for me to decipher...

swoyall
1) cereal
2) squirrel

pbiggles
1) pickles
2) bagels

ice age
1) a great animated film by 20th Century Fox
2) a greenish gray color

She often wants swoyall for breakfast and then she wants to play swoyall and dinosaur like in the movie (Ice Age). She wanted pbiggles (bagels) not pbiggles (pickles, what J was having) for lunch which seemed a hard request at first until she mentioned cream cheese and she wanted to wear her ice age diaper, which one was that oh, the sage colored one!.

May I Ask Who's Calling?

2010-01-07T16:15:00.004-07:00

This isn't a funny post. I just wanted to remind everyone that the Golden Rule applies on the phone as well as any other situation. We recently got a new phone service and since our name sometimes doesn't show up on caller ID lots of people we thought were nice have been rude on the phone with us.

If you choose to answer an unidentified call remember, growling
"WHO IS THIS?" is not good manners, shame on you!

1)It might be a neighbor on a cell phone (me) and they won't be impressed.

2)If it is a computerized dialer, you will have plenty of time to hang up before a real person comes on the line without being rude.

3)If it is a real person, you should always be nice, say "no thankyou!" with a smile, they can hear it in your voice. If they press on, you may hang up, you tried!

New Years Eve

2010-01-04T00:24:00.006-07:00

Our New Years checkers game doubled as AP's snack tray...

We snacked, played games, danced to Auld Lang Syne, snapped improptu mugshots of everyone, and interviewed each other about our year.

excerpts from the interviews...
Dad-
most listened to music Weezer and Cake,
favorite places he went “They Might Be Giants” concert, USA vs El Slavador World Cup Qualifier.
Enjoyed doing reservoir surveys for work.
Mom-
most listened to music Tabernacle Choir and Thompson’s Lament (Celtic).
favorite thing to eat green smoothies and brownies,
I enjoyed when D was born, enjoyed seeing all my cousins at Thanksgiving, the Young Ambassadors show, and shopping at Sunflower Market.
AJ-
Favorite book “A Wedding For Wiglaf” from the Series Dragon Slayers Academy,
favorite toy, art kits,
favorite school subjects singing and art.
Favorite foods craisin/cheese/spinach salad and turkey noodle soup.
Most listened to music ABBA.
J-
Favorite books The Complete Star Wars Ships cross-sections, and Star Wars Lego Visual Dictionary.
Most listened to music, Star Wars-the imperial march,
favorite food pizza and apples,
favorite place he went-Festival of Trees.
AP-
Favorite toys baby doll, “Barney” doll, and leopard puppet,
favorite place she went was grandma’s house,
favorite movies Barney’s adventure bus and Wall-E.
little D-Glad to be born, 4 teeth, 21.4 lbs, especially enjoyed playing with jingle bells,
favorite thing to eat-mostly just interested in the tablecloth.

First Rice Party

2010-01-02T23:36:00.000-07:00

I think I started blogging with a rice party two years ago, and here is another one. Little D had his rice party over Christmas vacation. Rice party in our family is the baby’s very first food. We give them rice cereal and we eat rice too. We had Rice-a-roni, Quakes (chips made from rice cakes, yum), and Scotcharoos (butterscotch and chocolate rice crispy treats, to die for!). The highlight of Rice Party is the fortune telling game. We put a tray in front of baby with symbolic items of future career paths. First, D chose a cell phone which symbolizes a career in information technology and then with his other hand (because who has just one career path now days) a book, which symbolizes higher education. I can live with that. Go little D!

The Stuff
which symbolizes:
the arts, information technology, higher education, engineering, medicine, and business/finance

Singing Christmas Songs

2010-01-01T23:20:00.000-07:00

I caught AP singing at the piano the other night... Her favorite is All Creatures of Our God and King. In this video she sings her version of "The Little Drummer Boy" and "Angels We Have Heard On High"

Christmas 2009

2009-12-30T22:46:00.000-07:00

Legos!

When Joseph went to Bethlehem I think he took great care to place his tools and close his shop and leave no shavings there...

Baby's first present... It is the book "But No Elephants" by Jerry Smath

Playing in the snow in my new Christmas hat

Christmas morning

A new sled

Sometimes they listen...

2009-12-29T20:30:00.004-07:00

We've been reading the sermon on the mount during family scripture study lately. Today little A comes up to me rubbing her eye like crazy and says, "Mom, I have a mote in my eye."

Festival of Trees

2009-12-21T22:53:00.002-07:00

We had a great time at the festival of trees and lots of the trees made us think of you...

The "Christmas League", Justice League for Tyler
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Have a "Regular" Christmas, for the unamed relative who loves this sort of joke...

This Star Wars Tree was going for $13,000 and we thought that was a deal...
Look at the sparkle in J's eyes

Andrea back in the single days...

I liked this one, reminds me of Mom's snowman trees

REAL soccer: for David, Sarah, DH, and me.
PS. Woohoo, Salt Lake finally wins a national championship go REAL!!!! We were looking for this tree, we knew it had to be there.

This tree reminds me of DH and Liss they both like this movie, "The Nightmare Before Christmas"

Look close, the tree in the above picture is upside down! This gingerbread house is Jack's house from Nightmare Before Christmas, amazing!

Good Fats-Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs)

2009-12-16T13:26:00.011-07:00

Trans Fat(bad), Omega 6, and Omega 3

This picture minus the trans fat shows a healthy balance of omega 6 and omega 3 essential fatty acids, the picture below shows the ratio more common in American diets.

This month I learned about "good fats". We used ground flax seeds, flax oil, coconut milk, avocados, almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and of course extra virgin olive oil!

I thought of a fun way to explain the big deal about omega 3 fats and trans fats to my kids, so here it is. I said good fats are our bodies building blocks. Squares were omega 3's, Rectangles omega 6's, and homemade silly putty were trans fats. A trans fat is when you take a liquid fat and make it a solid fat. Its fake though and doesn't make a very good building block for our body. For analogoy, I explained the silly putty was home-made and nowhere near as good for building towers as real Legos.

I explained that we need between 1:1 and 4:1 Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids, but most Americans get between 10:1 and 25:1. I gave the kids 25 "Omega 6" Legos, trans fat, and one "Omega 3" Lego and asked them to build as many little buildings that had 2 "Omega 6" blocks as the base and an "Omega 3" as the chimney as they could. "We can only build one! What do we do with the rest of the "Omega 6" and the trans fat ? they asked. Then I explained that our bodies have the same problem. I asked them to try building with some "trans fat".

"You can't build anything with trans fat, its gross, it makes as mess!!!" They said.

"Yes, trans fat makes a mess of our bodies too" I said. "Would you like some more "Omega 3" instead"

"Yeees!" they said, lesson over.

They went around talking about Omega 3 for a week. It was cute.

These foods have omega 3 fatty acids:

These foods have omega 6 fatty acids:

We went on a scavenger hunt to clean out the kitchen of trans fats, usually it had the pillsbury dough boy on the label.

FYI on EFAs:

EFAs support the cardiovascular, reproductive, immune, and nervous systems. The human body needs EFAs to manufacture and repair cell membranes, enabling the cells to obtain optimum nutrition and expel harmful waste products. A primary function of EFAs is the production of prostaglandins, which regulate body functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, blood clotting, fertility, conception, and play a role in immune function by regulating inflammation and encouraging the body to fight infection. Essential Fatty Acids are also needed for proper growth in children, particularly for neural development and maturation of sensory systems, with male children having higher needs than females. Fetuses and breast-fed infants also require an adequate supply of EFAs through the mother's dietary intake.

EFA deficiency and Omega 6/3 imbalance is linked with serious health conditions, such as heart attacks, cancer, insulin resistance, asthma, lupus, schizophrenia, depression, postpartum depression, accelerated aging, stroke, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, ADHD, and Alzheimer's Disease, among others.

Essential Fatty Acid imbalance isn't a historical problem because in the olden days we didn't have an over-processed diet and people ate more wild meat and fish. Grain fed rather than grass fed livestock and hens provide omega 6 fatty acids in the meat and eggs instead of omega 3. (Now you know why I always beg my hunting friends for venison, tasty source of omega 3...)

For Cryin' Out Loud

2009-12-13T16:50:00.003-07:00

Yes there were lots of tears involved from mother and daughter with little A's latest venture. While helping me make dinner the other night, she swiped a few of my seasonings and snuck to a far corner of the house where she proceeded to dump half a can of pepper over her head. Ouch!

Other ventures of late include locking herself in the laundry room which has no light or windows (we took the doorknob off to get her out) and hiding big sister's library book in the diaper pail (luckily it was empty at the time...)
She really is such a cheerful kid. She is a morning person and always has a big smile which we really enjoy. She loves singing and knows the words to quite a few songs. She wants to be in the ward choir. She grabbed a hymnbook and jumped into line as the choir rehearsed today. She sung her heart out for awhile and then decided she needed to stand on the organ bench in order to see the director, which wasn't okay. Little D was busy flirting with the young women in the choir. He grinned and giggled at them nonstop. Obviously I wasn't much help to the choir today, but I really enjoy going, so they put up with me.

What I'm Reading To My Kids

2009-12-06T14:39:00.001-07:00

The True Gift: A Christmas Story by Patricia MacLachlan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I thought I wouldn't like this, the cow on the cover didn't interest me much, but I did. It is a short, plain story just like Sarah, Plain and Tall, but it is amazing because MacLachlan uses each and every word on the page purposefully to create a lilting rythm that is a pleasure to read and to listen too. It is like a lullabye or poetry. And of course, my kids loved the sweet story!

View all my reviews >>

D 3 month picture

2009-12-04T10:57:00.001-07:00

Thinking Cap

2009-12-04T10:32:00.005-07:00

Weird picture right? D has such a "ho-hum" expression! Monday, D volunteered at BYU's infant development lab. They monitored his responses to auditory and visual stimulus for 3 minutes. Each little circle on the cap monitors electrical impulses in the brain. The point of the study is to create a picture of how babies process what they see and hear, or in other words to get an idea how babies see the world. They gave us this picture as a souvenir. D was a good participant although he was mostly interested in eating the cap!

What's cookin?

2009-11-22T16:35:00.004-07:00

In the last three months, I've cooked a lot of things for the first time and tried a lot of new foods. Here's a quick list of recipes I've tried:

"Delicious stuff I've made more than once..."
Mackerel chowder
Salmon Burgers
Whole wheat sourdough with olive oil and herbs (I made the snacks, not the bread...)
Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Robyn's Beet Cake (kinda new, we've made Andrea's before and they're about the same)
Cornbread (from scratch, I've always used a mix before)
20-min granola
Toasted pumpkin seeds
No-Knead, Slow-rise, Sprouted Whole Wheat Bread (this recipe is crazy-hard, but I keep making it, hoping to figure it out)

Yum! I'll definitely make this again
Braggs Vinaigrette (me and husband's favorite dressing, we love the raw apple cider vinegar flavor!)
Crockpot Refried Beans
Walnut-Basil Pesto
Mushroom Chicken Thighs
Creamy Caesar Dressing (made this up all by myself)

Just okay, nothing special
Spicy Ranch Dressing
Cool Ranch Dressing
Basic Vinegar and Oil Dressing
"Simple Whole Wheat Bread"
Ice Cream Cake

Not a big fan of this recipe
Thai Pumpkin Coconut Soup (We have another pumpkin soup we love, but this soup was too bizarre for me)

Braggs Dressing
1/3 C extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 C raw apple cider vinegar
1/2~1 tsp Braggs liquid Aminos or soy sauce
1~2 tsp honey
1~2 cloves garlic
pinch of an herb blend of your choice or Braggs 24 herbs and spices
Mix it all in your blender.

Mackerel Chowder
I make chowder with canned mackerel and it is delicious--the highest and best use of the product! Place 1 can of fish in a two quart pot, bones, juice and all. Break up the mackerel into fairly small chunks and add 1 can of tomato sauce or diced tomatoes. Dice and add 1 onion, two tablespoons of raw rice or a cubed potato and salt and pepper to season. Add 1-2 cans of water or chicken broth. Boil vigorously uncovered for a couple of minutes and then cover and simmer for a half hour or so. The longer it cooks, the more tender the fish becomes. This is very similar to bluefish chowder. Enjoy! (2 1/2 Tbs rice and 1 can broth makes a nice thick stew, add more liquid if you want it more soupy)

Crysta, Boba Fett, Puppy, and a Frog

2009-11-02T14:33:00.006-07:00

Update: To make this Crysta Costume we used two colors of red fabric from JoAnn's. The bottom was just a skirt with elastic waistband. The petal shape of it is what makes it unique. I wasn't willing to let my daughter show as much skin as Crysta does in the movie, I showed her how Disney fairy costumes add a contrasting fabric to the tops where the real fairies are shoulderless and that is what we decided to do with our Crysta costume. So, the top was inspired by a blog post we saw on wrap around t-shirt crafts. The girl had taken two t-shirts, cut them up and sewed them together. We traced some of my daughter's t-shirts for our pattern. We used the two different colors of fabric on the various sides of the wrap. That lets us make a nice Crysta costume with the right feel that was modest enough for a little girl to wear. The wings were tights over wire hangers, school glue and glitter. we tied them on with long strips of the red fabric. I think if I did it again I'd get all-a-dollar wings. They are the best because they are small and light weight. We bought nicer ones that were to big and awkward and the ones we made had that same problem. All a-dollar wings could still be reshaped and glittered after you buy them.

Whew! We made it through Halloween. I love making costumes and planning parties and cringe at the candy over dosage.

I usually make at least one homemade costume a year. This year it was Crysta the rainforest fairy from the 90's movie Fern Gully. I made the pattern, sewed the dress, and made the wings. Needless to say I was very pleased with myself, even if the fit was a bit off, it was good enough for one day!

The school doesn't allow masks, so I made a Boba Fett helmet out of a cracker box and milk carton. Mixing the paint colors was lots of fun. It was a bit small, but that kept if from falling off *grin*

A puppy with a blankie...

No one would ever wear the froggy costume because it was too hard to put on, but I finally put a zipper in it, and what do you know it worked great for a baby costume. AJ said it was a rainforest costume like hers and that was very cool.

Halloween parade and class party

2009-11-02T14:16:00.002-07:00

I was in charge of the first grade class party. One of the other moms did a station and then I planned the other three. We made popcorn, noisy, messy, and very fun! (glad I brought a dustbuster)

They made Halloween decorations. AJ and J came up with this one, I told them to think something up for the party and they made a picture frame with popsicle sticks to decorate.

The kids were supposed to make a mummy and then take a picture of the group at this
station. Then they played ring toss.

The class ended the party by going on a halloween treasure hunt. Grandma had made a bunch of bats and ghosts and pumpkins with letters on them, which I hid all around the classroom. The kids had to find the letters to the word "BOO" in order to get their brownies. AJ said this was her favorite game. AJ and I put chocolate eyeballs on all the brownies to make them look creepy. That was fun and they turned out really cool looking.

The Halloween Parade
Crysta the rainforest fairy from the movie "Fern Gully"

"Boba Fett" from Star Wars

Guess what this is

2009-11-02T00:15:00.003-07:00

We've had this trivet hanging in our kitchen wherever we have lived since we were married. I like the colors, it makes me happy. Anyway, for years we debated about what fruit or vegetable it was supposed to be. Finally my Dad put the issue to rest when he identified it as a persimmon. This week persimmons were on sale and my kids enjoyed trying out a new fruit.

To be safe, persimmons need to be fully ripe before eating. Leave them on the counter until they are soft. When fully ripe they range from yellow to orange to reddish orange. They have a hard skin and are orange inside with a pudding-like texture. They are very sweet like brown sugar, known in mythology as "the fruit of the Gods". We really enjoyed them in smoothies, they added creaminess like bananas do.

"Star Wars-Ships...Guns" Song

2009-10-29T13:16:00.001-07:00

First Tooth

2009-10-21T23:29:00.002-07:00

I can't believe it, he is only three months old, but that tooth is IN and I swear the one next to it is coming in too.

No, you can't see it in the picture, but I liked the picture of him smiling...

Pictures

2009-10-21T23:24:00.002-07:00

Pear Salad

AJ aspires to be a food artist, she looks forward to designing a beautiful salad every night and is disappointed if I don't have enough toppings for her craft...

Preschool Project

Preschool Project

Beauty is...

2009-10-21T23:09:00.003-07:00

2009 Reflections Contest

AJ "Beauty is: Fairies, they have gorgeous wings and are magical and stuff..."
First place k-2nd grade. She also won first place in literature. Congrats!

J "Beauty is: Yoda" probably not a legal entry, but all he can think about is Star Wars right now.

These pears are beautiful to me. They were canned just the hour when they reached perfectly ripe, with the peals still on, in a water and stevia syrup. So they are a wholefood with no sugar added and they taste like fresh pears instead of sugar water, yummy!

Our first salad

2009-10-02T13:17:00.006-07:00

I told the kids that my goal this month was to serve salad at dinner every night. They said "eew yuck!"

So the first salad had me ready to go to battle, but as it turns out, no one complained. Little AP had seconds and thirds. I gave her a tiny bowl to start with I was so nervous she would hate it. Thankfully, my family likes salad just fine. AJ our picky eater doesn't use dressing, but she eats the salad. Yay! (Yes, that is a blenderful of green smoothie in the background.) I keep the lettuce and veggies separate like restaurants do so everyone gets some.

Fall Hike-Maple Canyon

2009-10-02T13:02:00.003-07:00

This is a family tradition of sorts. We fell in love with fall colors when we lived in Logan. Anyway, we've done "the fall drive" the last few years with little kids, but this year we did the real thing and it was a lot of fun. The kids favorite part was picking up acorns, which you can only do in the fall. Dad came too, he is the photographer, nice job Dad.

AJ's birthday photo-journal

2009-10-02T12:38:00.005-07:00

I chose a peach and spinach smoothie for breakfast

Since mom is documenting smoothie stuff, we pose with a number 7 candle. Smoothies are good for 7-year olds.

Add this one to your blog mom, please!

The rest of my birthday breakfast is cornbread muffins, Yum!

Then I watch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and hold my baby brother.

After church, we add the finishing touches to my ice cream cake. We call it the "Leaning Tower O' Cake"

It is an ice cream cake with oreo ice cream, cookie dough ice cream, ganache, reeses peanut butter cups, and sixlets. I've been planning this cake since June. Mom says its totally not on her diet, but she eats some anyway. I used the leftover ganache on strawberries from the garden. So fancy!

Re: Lovin' the green smoothies

2009-09-22T22:14:00.004-07:00

Q: What is our recipe?
A: 2 cups filtered water, then gradually add chopped up greens (Kale, spinach, chard, or collards) pulse the blender to mix them all, keep adding greens until you get the blender up to the 2 1/2 cups mark.
Blend 90 seconds on high.
Then add a banana and 3 other servings of fruit.
Blend on high another 90 seconds.
If the end product doesn't taste like an awesome fruit smoothie, add another banana or 5-6 drops of stevia and that usually fixes it.

Today we had collards with 1 banana, a handful of strawberries, and 3 plums. I usually use whatever kind of fruit is on sale and often buy and freeze the over-ripe bananas. I also freeze the greens if I can't use them up fast enough. I like our smoothies, but I've heard the texture and flavor is better in a professional quality blender like vitamix. Other possible greens include (lettuce, parsley, beet greens, turnip greens, dandelion(not sprayed or near roadways), purslane(not sprayed or near roadways).

Q: Does Smoothie improve temperement, behavior, learning?A: In the last month, we've had smoothie about 5 times per week along with dramatically reduced amounts of junkfood and a probiotic for J.
Results:
1)no more wall climbing and less standing on heads (it used to be incessant).
2)J has been healthy for a month straight, the first time he's been healthy that long in a year.
3)J has much more energy than usual.
4)AP and Dad had the flu which we assume they got at Church since he went to Nursery with her, but amazingly no one else got it!!! Dad doesn't drink smoothie and still eats lots of fast food, but he hasn't had a caffeinated drink in two weeks, yay!
5)Tantruming has stayed the same, unfortunately.

About the Color
I shared green smoothie with my friend Danika's kids in Albuquerque once, they weren't put off by the color (if you don't use a red fruit, it can be quite pretty), but it was 50% greens and that was too much for the first taste, so they didn't really care for it. If you try green smoothie, use much less greens and more fruit and work your way up.

Lovin' the green smoothies

2009-09-20T22:56:00.004-07:00

J put the strawberry on his cup to make it fancy. I just have to add that I grew that strawberry myself! *patting myself on the back*

Green Smoothie Race

2009-09-20T22:23:00.003-07:00

In theory you should go slow on green smoothie, but our little one races through hers like she is at the state fair. She polished this one off in about 60 seconds only pausing to say "yummy" about four times. Anyway, month one of my wholefoods nutrition course "green smoothies" was nothing new, we just had them more often. We are on to month two, "eat a salad with your dinner every night" (meeting with mixed reviews so far...)

On your mark...get set..

...go!!!

Slurping smoothie loudly

Trying to get that last little bit...

I love two year olds

2009-09-20T21:57:00.005-07:00

Look Mom! Ink! (our carpet will never be the same)
I'm washing my hands!

"P" is for popcorn, having fun while the big kids are at school.

Little AP is such a super cute 2 year old. I love her big one dimpled smile. She has really perfected the art of the coy smile as well. Along with that, she has developed some cutesie words to express herself with. She can say the real ones, but prefers to be original.
Wadi wadi=water
bookley book=book
blubbley bubbles=bubbles
ploopley poop= you guess...

In the bathtub, “Ma wants more wadi wadi and blubbley bubbles *coy smile*”
At bedtime, “bookley book, read it? *smile, bats eyes*”
In an emergency, “I need to go ploopley poop!”
When mom is busy and she wants sister to help, she summons, “Sillymiiiiillya!”

First day of Kindergarten!

2009-09-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

On his first day of school I asked "What special day is it today?" J said, "Sunday? AJ's birthday? Saturday?" Then he gave up.
"It is the first day of school!"
"Oh" he said completely unimpressed, I couldn't believe he wasn't excited.
Anyway he wore his favorite "Phineas and Ferb" shirt. His teacher says that is her favorite show too. He came home glowing with enthusiasm because he had so much fun, so it was a good day. Also after I dropped him off I chuckled because his special blanket Bibbon was sitting in his car seat. Oh well, at least he didn't take it with him!

August Pictures

2009-08-27T13:09:00.001-07:00

AJ's Colorful Cornbread

A rare picture of D with his eyes open

AJ holding D

First Day of School. She was so excited to go "all day long" and get "two recesses". She seems to love it although she doesn't know many of the kids in her class.

Me and D!

Here's to better health

2009-08-20T08:27:00.006-07:00

We are sick a lot
We've had 15+ colds, infections, pneumonias, and/or flus per child and husband in the last year. J has been on flovent (and he still has only had a handful of days with no coughing attacks) for nearly a year. I get sick the least by far, however, my gallbladder is filled up like a bag of marbles with gallstones (probably due to multiple pregnancies and too-low-fat of a diet).

My kids eat mostly junkfood
I promise myself daily to stop feeding my children a steady stream of junkfood. Probably as a result of the diet my kids get, I recently found myself making a new rule
"no climbing bookshelves, windowsills, balconies, stair railings, kitchen counters, tables, couch arm rests and backs, cars, or pianos" (all behavior from one single day!) As I proclaimed this, two of three kids were standing on their heads!

School lunches have a lot of highly processed foods
I once imagined myself making super healthy home lunches for my school kids. After signing AJ up for school lunch, I guiltily got online to see what they would be feeding her, I couldn't believe my eyes
typical day:
"...Vegetable Protein Product (Isolated Soy
Protein, Magnesium Oxide, Zinc Oxide, Niacinamide,
Ferrous Sulfate, Vitamin B12, Copper Gluconate,
Vitamin A Palmitate, Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine
Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin),
Seasoning (Salt, Sugar, Hydrolyzed Corn Gluten, Spices,
Sodium Tripolyphosphates, Dried Onion, Dried Garlic,
Partially Hydrogenated Soybeans And/Or Cottonseed Oil..."

This list of processing ingredients went on for pages! Anyway, I make home lunches. I hope I can get my money back for the first month of school lunches.

I make a goal to feed my family better, there are 12 steps
That does it! Time to finally give Robyn's "12 steps to better health" designed for busy mothers of young children a try. I've been aware of her program fo two years, but assumed she couldn't teach me anything I didn't already know, but now I hope she can. I want my family to get well.

Month 1 of 12 (this should be easy for us!)
1. Green Smoothies
How to get tons of leafy greens into your diet, painlessly, spending less
than 10 minutes a day in the kitchen

Wish me luck

My idea won!

2009-08-13T10:11:00.005-07:00

J's Star Wars birthday party was my creative outlet during May and June this year, well, after the party I posted about the party on the website where I got most of my inspirations from. It was my way of saying thanks, but it turns out they choose the best idea write-ups submitted each month and send money to the winners. I won first runner-up for the month of June and got a check for $20 in the mail yesterday. Very cool!

Also, AJ has been wanting me to enter a contest. She and J entered one this summer and won tickets to a magic show. So when I told her about this, she was really impressed. She also advised me to get two $10 bills when I went to the bank to cash my check, because they are easier to spend.

Zoo, Hair, Sleeping Well, and Gallbladder

2009-08-04T10:24:00.004-07:00

Inexpensive Daytrip:

We went to the Willow Park Zoo in Logan last Tuesday. It was so much fun. We were there four hours including lunch and time at the playground. Zoo Admission for all of us: $2.00

First time:

Yesterday before we went out to do errands I looked at AP and to my surprise I realized her hair was a mess. She's never had enough hair before to worry about. I suggested we brush her hair before going out. She lit up like a christmas tree. She got all the supplies and sat down on the stairs like she has seen big sister do. Finally, for the first real time in her life, 25 months old, she got her hair brushed.

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child:

This book has helped me a lot and I usually keep it on my nightstand during baby's first year, but finally, with my fourth baby, I don't need it. If only all babies slept like this one!

Ouch:

If your baby is easy, there has to be something to challenge you. Mine is gallbladder. I've had two attacks (15 hours each) in the last three weeks. No fun, wipes me out.

Baby pictures

2009-07-27T15:11:00.002-07:00

DA is almost a month old. Today we went to the pediatrician. He checks out well! 11 lbs 2 oz now. I have him in 6-9 month clothes and diapers for 14lb babies (AP can and does wear the same ones!)

The doc said I simply must supplement vitamin D. I hate baby vitamins and the resulting black poo and my gut feeling is that they aren't needed, so I consulted my old friend Kellymom (actually its just a really good website)and she explained the reason behind prescribing vitamins http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/vitamins/vitamin-d.html
Kellymom also helped me decide about when to start solids and whether or not to give my kids fluoride.

24th of July, running through sprinklers

2009-07-27T15:07:00.003-07:00

2 year Birthday!!!

2009-07-27T14:48:00.004-07:00

AP's favorite movie by far is WALL-E she loved her cake

She liked the boingy bow

She loved this card, it sang happy birthday. She carried it around everywhere for a few days.

She got Legos and a bike. This is her first creation "Lego Ship" then she added a few more blocks and called it "Lego temple". (The stuff on her face is chocolate mint ice cream and on her shirt is water.)

My first FBCT cake (Frozen Buttercream Transfer). This was fun, I'll definitely do it again. We also voted that from now on all birthday cakes will be chocolate. This one was yellow cake and yellow cake just can't compete.

Blessing Day Picture

2009-07-27T13:32:00.002-07:00

No jealousy issues here!

Blessing Day