Baking Bread

This may not seem like to a big deal to some people but this is huge for me:

Look! BREAD!

I hate baking. Love to cook, hate to bake! I got a wheat grinder for Christmas and along with that comes a goal to learn to make bread this year! I decided to start easy and not use my wheat grinder quite yet. I just wanted to hone my skills on the basics. I haven't made bread since I used to help my grandma do it when I was a little girl! I remember helping her make the dough and letting it sit in the sun to raise. Grandma had a big picture window that looked out to the south towards the Chugach Mountains that got great sunlight. She would always save some dough to make a little baby loaf too that was our special "kid" loaf.

Anyway, I decided to start easy and make a generic white bread - nothing fancy. My sisters assured me that making bread is easy with my Kitchenaid - it takes all the hardest work out of it. Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Okay, turns out they were right - thanks guys! It did all my mixing and all my kneading. SO AWESOME! Turns out that dough hook that comes with the Kitchenaid isn't a waste of space!

I did encounter a small problem when I discovered that apparently the bread pans I bought are bigger than the standard size, how was I to know? So the dough didn't fill out the pan, thus instead of being squared, they kind of taper off. If they were a birthday cake they'd be perfect to decorate like a car...

Not too shabby for a first try! I bet it is really good with homemade Strawberry Freezer Jam

Rating: 2 loaves of bread (forget the candy rating - I have hot fresh bread calling my name and the kids are all napping so I have it all to myself...)

A Christmas Story - Our Version

Christmas morning was great, as detailed in the previous post. The kids were cute, the toys were fun, the candy and treats were super yummy! We have a fun tradition of sorts, where for either Christmas Eve dinner or Christmas Day dinner we have a somewhat non-traditional meal: tacos, or BBQ ribs, or something along those lines. This year we went for the BBQ ribs.

Earlier in the year we had gotten a great deal on some pork ribs: buy 1 get 2 free! So we were going to cook up two of the racks this evening for dinner. I fired up the grill and came back inside to slather them with Sweet Baby Ray's - very tasty! I sliced up the racks into thirds to fit on the rib holders, turned down the grill to very low, and put the rib holders on the grill. Cooking time is approximately 45 to 60 minutes, So I came back inside and we settled down to play with the girls and watch Tinkerbell.

After awhile I went to go check on the ribs. I noticed smoke - and there shouldn't be smoke on something cooking low and slow! I ran back inside to get a fire extinguisher!!! Wow those were some big flames!!! All we can figure out is that the ribs were very fatty, and that somehow they started a grease fire. We have some fantastic smoke stains on the outside of our house - we'll be moving the grill further from the house... assuming the grill is salvageable. The metal seems to be melted a bit.

I think the best part was the neighbor who came over to tell us our grill was on fire!! Oh what joy - we almost burned down our house on Christmas! I wonder if the new toys would have been covered under the insurance...

Seeing as how dinner was... less than tasteful at this point, we decided to find a another source of food. But nothing in this stinking town is open on Christmas. NOTHING. Not King Soopers. Not Target. Not even Wal-Mart. Bethany found this out by driving to several of them in hopes of getting us some food. (We'd have made food, but by this time it was 5pm, and everything that wasn't charred was still frozen.) None of the major restaurant chains were open either. We were running out of options... until we all looked at each other... "Chinese!" Fa-ra-ra-ra ra-ra-ra-ra!

Yes - we did order one dish with duck in it.

Rating: 1 Big FIREBALL

Welcome Christmas!

What a Christmas morning! The girls woke up at the reasonable hour of 7:00am. Emmaline was able to peek through the upstairs banisters and see that Santa had come. Hooray!!!

Emmaline got a My Little Pony Castle complete with a herd of ponies, a board game, and some beads to make jewelry. Her stocking had some candy, a new hair brush, and a green toy car. The ONLY thing she asked for this year from Santa was a green toy car and boy was it hard for Santa to find!

Liliana got a Noah's Ark complete with the two "Expansion" animal packs. She LOVES Little People and is constantly carrying them around and lining them up places so we knew 20 new animals would be a big hit. Also the Tinkerbell movie and a Color Wonder set. Her stocking had candy, a new hair brush, and a red toy car!

Imogene received a Sing and Go Choo Choo, a ball, and some books. One is called Imogene's Antlers. (heehee). Her stocking had baby food and some small baby toys and a yellow toy car. That train has actually been the biggest hit so far - with Emmaline and Liliana fighting over it. Who knew??? I managed to pull off a surprise for AJ and got him an ipod nano. I actually spent the grocery money on it and have been living out of our pantry all month so he had no idea that I had spent anything on him! Go me!!! The girls went to the Dollar Store for him and surprised him with a new tape measure, cable ties, and a case for his ipod.

AJ got me a video, a new Hymnbook (mine is literally falling apart), a stick blender (mine died!), and new socks! I haven't had new socks since 2004 and ALL of mine have holes in them. ALL of them. He was helping me fold laundry a few weeks ago and apparently noted the woeful condition they were in! The girl's Dollar Tree surprises for me were a heart shaped night light, a loofah, and sponges.

Merry Christmas!!!

Rating: 100 Candy Canes (for a great Christmas!)

Sugar Cookies

Okay this first thing has nothing to do with sugar cookies but I had to share it anyway. Last night we went out and delivered goodies to the neighbors. I put Idgie in the sling and then put my coat on over - she just looked so cute we had to take a picture! I think this must be how my sister Kathleen is feeling right now - from what she describes, her baby is doing this - only all on the inside. . .

Okay - so on to sugar cookies. I found a recipe for vegan (dairy and egg free) sugar cookies so I had to try it of course! Can you believe Emmaline has never had a simple sugar cookie??? After mixing up the dough, Emmaline helped roll it out with her little rolling pin:

Then we cut out the shapes:

Make sure to eat some dough while we did it:

Look we made more cookies then the dough we ate! The nice part about egg free cooking is that you don't have to feel any guilt about eating raw dough!

After they baked and cooled, we decorated - hard not to taste test!

Be a little lazy and only make two colors of icing, one of which turned out more hot pink than red. But they are all done! Our bribe for Santa is ready now!

Rating: 13 Remaining Sugar Cookies (of course!)

Christmas Eve @ Work

So, I email daily updates to my project manager at work: what I did yesterday, what I'm doing today, any problems I foresee, etc. (The actual methodology is called Agile, but on a one man team, having a daily scrum doesn't make much sense.) So, today I decided to get a bit creative - I mean, it's Christmas Eve, and there's really not a whole lot to do - no one is in the office, the client is unavailable until after Jan 5th, etc. Here's what I sent my project manager:

Twas the day before Christmas, and I was on support,
With only a few in the office with whom to build rapport.

The Mantis bugs were all nestled in the proper state,
And it appears only a few are left on my plate.

Memories of yesterday were still fresh in my mind,
With writing and testing that took all of my time.

Yesterday’s build was sent to Wiley with care,
Fully tested and doc’d, with not much fanfare.

When in my inbox there arose such a clatter,
I opened Outlook to see what was the matter!

Away to my keyboard I typed with panache,
Turned to the monitor and powered it on fast.

The inbox was empty, or so it did seem.
For there was only one email from the rest of the team.

With Derek out sick, and Boris at home too,
I sit in my cube, with bug 1550 to do.

The day is still young, and there is much code to be had,
So vigorously I work like a good little lad.

And when the day is done, and the lights are turned out,
You’ll hear me exclaim as I drive out of sight,

Merry Christmas to all!
And to all, a good night!

Now, if you don't find it amusing - you're just going to have to trust me. My project manager's reaction? "AJ, that was hysterical!" See? I *CAN* be funny...

Field Trip with Dad + Wal-Mart = Flowers for Mommy

We have the cutest kids - we really do; and they're smart... TOO smart. You see, the girls like to go on field trips with dad. It's something of a special treat that can be used to entice good behavior, or in some cases, to give mom a well needed break. But this trip, I learned something new.

When I told Emmaline where we were going (Wal-Mart), she instantly said "So we can get mommy new flowers because her old ones died!" Wait... that's not why we're going there - we need to get ice melt and some other *things* for The Big Day™. But I was reminded several times that when we go to Wal-Mart, we go there and we get flowers for mommy. Which is true - we have done that in the past. I'll fully admit to hitting the $10/dozen roses bin at Wal-Mart to score some brownie points. But apparently I was missing the fact that we do that EVERY time we go to Wal-Mart... which I somehow missed.

Regardless - it's a win for everyone involved: Emmaline gets to pick flowers; AJ gets to give flowers; and Bethany gets flowers. Apparently I'd be lost without Emmaline. Thanks Emmaline. :-)

Rating: 12 Roses (because that's what Bethany most recently received)

Idgie

Meet Idgie:

We've been wondering if Imogene would ever end up with a nickname and it seems she finally has! Liliana can't quite say Imogene and it comes out "Idgie" instead (think Fried Green Tomatoes!) and it has started to stick. I think it suits her.

Rating: 5 Pixie Dust

Finger Painting

On some insanely crazy whim today, I decided to let the girls fingerpaint. I taped some butcher paper to the table and let them have fun! They didn't make nearly as much mess as I thought they might, but they did end up being carried directly from the table to the bathtub...

Rating: 4 Pixie Dust

Christmas Hair

For church yesterday I just HAD to do some fancy hair for the girls. Well, not Imogene - she doesn't really have enough to do anything with. They got lots of compliments so I had to show it off here!

Rating: 3 Pixie Dust

A brag on AJ

AJ had his yearly performance review at work yesterday. He got glowing praise on the good work he has done this year and even better - a raise! Good job AJ!

Rating: 5 Chocolate Truffles (Because we can celebrate the raise by buying expensive candies!)

Ornaments

Each year we get the girls a special ornament. It signifies something about them in the last year, and is something they can take with them when they flee the nest. Then they can't ever say we never gave them anything...

Emmaline: She has played a lot this year at being a puppy. We have finally had to make a rule about "no puppies upstairs" so she doesn't get distracted getting ready for bed. If she had the choice she would pick up everything with her mouth and lick water out of her glass.

Liliana: She has spent the year being curious, exploring, and sometimes getting into trouble. Imogene: Instead of the traditional "Baby's First Christmas" ornament, we went with something that more closely represented the day she was born. Voila! Patriotic Santa.

Rating: 3 Candy Canes

O Christmas Tree

We decided that since Christmas is next week, we should finally get the tree up. We have not been looking forward to it since, well, Lil likes to touch. We were lucky enough to score a play yard gate thingy on craigslist that fits around the tree - score!
Decorating the tree was a disaster. All three kids spent the day with a serious case of the whines and no good naps. By the time tree decorating came around, they were shriveling messes of tears and tantrums. Still though, we stuck it out. This is the end result. As with any good tree decorated by small children - the ornaments are all clumped on the front and on the bottom and the top is bare. Didn't they do a great job?

Rating: 4 Candy Canes

Spaghetti-o's

What you see there - are Spaghetti-o's. Not just any spaghetti-o's though. They are homemade and free of allergens! Go me! I ran across the little ring pasta (Anellini) in Safeway a couple months ago and have had a hankering to try and make safe Spaghetti-o's ever since.

1 box (12 oz.) Anellini

1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes (you can find this in the bulk bins at health food stores)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. dry mustard

1 cup rice milk

1 T. margarine

2 - 8 oz. can tomato sauce

Cook and drain pasta according to box directions.
Mix together dry ingredients in mixing bowl. In a sauce pan, melt margarine. Put in dry ingredients and quickly stir around until the mixture is crumbly. Add in rice milk and mix with whisk to smooth. Cook until thick. Mixture will thicken very quickly once it starts to - so stir frequently. (That is your "cheese" sauce)
Pour "cheese" onto cooked pasta. Pour on tomato sauce. Mix thoroughly.

I thought this turned out surprisingly well. Once it cooled it seemed to thicken even more so I am thinking I might add just a bit of beef broth as well next time (it needed a bit more flavor too). However, the kids liked it! I thinking of trying to make the mini meatballs next time too - I'll have to ponder that one . . .

Rating: 4 Lollipops (It is always nice to be able to recreate what the "other" kids eat)

Fire and Ice

Liliana spent another fitful night with us fiery fever that was minimally controlled by Motrin. Poor thing was just miserable. She couldn't sleep and at one point I turned on a movie for her and let her watch while I slept. Pretty much the only uninterrupted sleep we got the whole night. First thing in the morning, we got all the kids ready as quickly as possible. I took Liliana and Imogene with me to the Urgent Care and AJ took Emmaline with him to work long enough to pick up some things he needed so he could work from home the rest of the day.

As with every good doctor visit, by the time you go, the kid is fine. It is like the second we walked in the door, Liliana's fever was gone and she was chipper and happy. Only sign of illness was sounding a bit hoarse and a bit of a runny nose. The doctor examined her and determined whatever "it" is, to be viral and said it should go away in a few days. Good times. Of course about an hour after we got home, Liliana turned back into a miserable, fussy, feverish kid for the rest of the day. What IS it about the doctor's office???

In other news, Emmaline had her second skating class. This time I dressed her very very warmly. Of course today was pretty warm (about 35* during the class) so she was actually OVER dressed. All the kids that we ultra bundled last week had just coats and gloves this week. Anyway, it was good how thickly I bundled her, because she spent the majority of the 30 minute class sprawled on the ice. The girl could NOT get up. Since part of the class is learning how to get up when you fall - the teachers tried to teach her to get up - but what that meant is that she spent very little time actually in an upright position. At one point I watched her crawl across the ice to use the wall to help her stand up, only to discover that she is shorter than the wall and couldn't grab onto it either. It's a good thing this class only has three lessons totally. I think we'll try it again next year.

Rating: 1 Fireball and 1 York Peppermint Patty

Sick Day

What I failed to mention in my last post - is that right before I left last night, I noticed that Lil had a fever of 101*. I left right before bedtime so we gave her some Motrin and put her to bed. The medication wore off about 12:30am and she ended up in our bed all night in a fitful state of sleep. This morning she is still feverish, cuddly, hoarse, and refuses to eat so I think she must have a sore throat.

She hasn't even gotten into anything today - a sure sign of illness.

Rating: 4 Fireballs (being sick is hard on everyone. Poor baby.)

Where I enjoy a nice evening out...

Tonight was the Relief Society Christmas Dinner. It was SO nice. I left Emmaline and Liliana with AJ, and took Imogene with me. The dinner was planned, cooked, and served by some of the husbands. Each table had their own "waiter" and we were served a 4 course genuine Italian meal (one of the men is from Italy). We had:

Primo Piatto: Fettuccine con prosciutto (fettuccine with ham and cream)
Secondo Piatto: Lonza al latte con carote (pork braised in milk with carrots)
Contorno: Insalata (mixed greens, feta, tomato salad)
Dolce: Tiramisu (no coffee in it - I know you were wondering)

It was sooooo yummy. And again - the best part was that I didn't have to cook!

Then we had a gift exchange. We were each given a small box a couple of weeks ago - all identical - and asked to put a gift in those. Then at the party, we all stood in a circle. They read a story and whenever the word "right" was in the story, we passed the gift to the person on our right, and then when "left" was read, we passed to the left. It was fun and surprisingly hard when those words came quickly in the story! I ended up with a yummy bottle of Plumeria lotion from Bath and Body Works.

We also had two musical numbers - accompanied by me. Those went pretty well considering I was given the music just a couple of days ago! At the end they showed a special slide show with music about the life of Christ.

I thought it was a great relaxing evening and I enjoyed getting to gab with the other women and relax.

Rating: 5 Lollipops

Where I confess to yelling at my kids in public...

Tonight was the annual Christmas Dinner/Party at church. I used to enjoy going - but I left tonight wondering why we bothered. My family is a size now where we don't really fit at a table with another family - so we didn't really get to chat with anyone. My kids are too small to sit still and comfortably in folding metal chairs and eat. They wanted to run and play. The dinner was disorganized (which I can totally forgive since they had a new Activities Committee this year) so it was drawn out longer than it should have been.

There was a short musical program - which I was part of one musical number and AJ was in another. That left one of us alone to herd the kids while the other was up performing. Of course on my watch, Emmaline declared she had to go the bathroom. So off I went with all three girls to the bathroom. When we got there - Emmaline declared that she had to poop. So while she did that, I tried to keep Lil from playing in the other toilets and the sinks while I was of course carrying Imogene on my hip. Then Emmaline needed some help - so here I am, trying to help her while holding Imogene and yelling at Liliana to stay out of the toilets. By that point in the evening I was pretty well spent and I am sure everyone outside of the bathroom could hear me yelling at my kids "hurry and pull your pants up!" "Liliana get out of the toilet" etc etc. Sigh.

Then of course the big guy himself showed up. Emmaline just HAD to see him (and tell him she wanted a green toy car - how random is that?). AJ was occupied so I had all three girls in line with me. As we approached Santa, Liliana started to scream and cry - after all, here was a scary man in a red suit! So I picked her up and had Imogene on one hip and Liliana on the other. Luckily at that point a friend of mine noticed my dilemma and came and snagged Imogene for me. I tried to get Liliana to sit on Santa's lap but she wouldn't have any of that. When we got back to our table, I started getting packed up to leave - and AJ gets back to the table as well and starts to help and then turns to me and says, "Where's Imogene???" Whoops!

Let's just say that after I retrieved my forgotten baby, we hauled out of there - fast. The kids were cranky (an hour after bedtime when we left!) and we were exhausted. Just writing it all down it doesn't sound that bad. But in the moment, I was about ready to pull my hair out.
The bonus of the evening? At least I didn't have to cook dinner!

Rating: 1 Fireball

Where I confess that I'm a bad mother...

Last night Emmaline had her first of three ice skating lessons. There were 4 instructors and 18 kids - all between the ages of 4 and 6, and all new to skating. They started the lesson off the ice, teaching the kids to fall down and get up without getting hurt. Then they herded the kids onto the ice. This instantly caused all the parents watching to start busting up laughing, because as every kid stepped on the ice - KERSPLAT! Legs and arms everywhere, except for a couple of kids clinging valiantly to the wall, trying desperately to keep their legs underneath them. It was a riot.

Now here is the part where I talk about what a terrible mom I am. I did NOT have my brain on yesterday. When I got her ready to go - I was thinking about what would be *easy* to skate in. I didn't think about the fact that it was 14 degrees (it is an outdoor rink). Poor thing. I dressed her in her fleece jacket and mittens. I realized my error almost as soon as we got there and saw all the other kids dressed in snowsuits/pants and heavy coats. The lesson was supposed to be 30 minutes long and she made it through 15 minutes before she was shaking so bad from the cold that her instructor picked her up and skated her back to me. I took her straight home to get her all warmed up. You would think growing up in Alaska that it would have occurred to me to dress my child in proper cold weather gear (after all - she wore her snow pants and heavy coat just earlier in the day to play in the snow!!!). Anyway, next week I hope it goes a little bit better.

Emmaline's comments on ice skating? "That was h-h-h-h-h-hardddddd."

Rating: 5 Fireballs (3 for being a bad mom and 2 to help Emmaline warm up!)

First Snow

We woke up this morning to the first snowfall of the winter. Emmaline was anxious to go out and play as soon as she saw it. Liliana had no idea what it meant. This time last year she was only 11 months old so she really hasn't done any snow playing in her life yet. After breakfast I bundled them both up, sent them outside, snapped a few pictures, and raced back in to warm up! They both came in rosy cheeked and cold. Emmaline insisted of course on a mug of hot apple cider which I was happy to provide.

Rating: 2 York Peppermint Patties

Off to Work?

Emmaline is wearing a frilly dress-up outfit and a colander on her head. Liliana is in a ladybug costume and has a mixing bowl on her head.

Emmaline says to Lil: "I have a meeting at 10. Come on Lil, let's go!"

Edited to add a picture!



Rating: 5 Pixie Dust

Photos, photos, photos

I have been slack in the photo department as of late. So here is a quick catch-up of everything that should have been posted in the last month or so and never was!

Imogene at her blessing (for a close up of her dress look HERE)

Just a cute one of Imogene playing. She is really getting the hang of using her hands and feet!

Emmaline enjoying a West Virginia style hot dog!

Rating: 3 Lollipops

Thanksgiving: A Travelogue

If you manage to sit through this entire post, I promise to mention key words and phrases like "diarrhea", "squeezing through McDonald's playland", "screaming", "baby blessing", and "pie". Enjoy!

We traveled out to Utah this year for Thanksgiving. My aunt planned a big family Thanksgiving since my parents arrived home from their mission this year. We haven't done a long car trip since we moved out to Colorado when Emmaline was 2 so we were "excited" (read that: petrified) of a long car trip with a bunch of young children. It should only be about an 8 hour drive but we did it in 10 with all the nursing and diaper changing stops. We also got on the road an hour later than we wanted since it turned out we had to be VERY creative getting everything in the car. Everyone but AJ (who was driving) had to ride with their legs crossed or straight out in front of them! Sadly, we still forgot some things - but they wouldn't have fit anyway. The good news is that a lot of the things we brought were Christmas and baby gifts so things weren't nearly as packed on the way home.
Anyway, the drive was pretty uneventful. Emmaline and Liliana were fantastic and Imogene preferred to be screaming the last 40 minutes of every two hour block. It should be noted that there isn't a lot in Wyoming so there was really no pulling over until you get to the next town - thus the prolonged screaming.

We stayed at Kristin's house and spent Wednesday getting ready for Thanksgiving and I got to match her sock basket! She apparently hates to match socks and I love it - so there you go. Liliana was initially hesitant with all the swirl of kids around, but she quickly got into the swing of things and she and Emmaline both enjoyed playing with the cousins.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. My aunt reserved her church building so we were able to fit all the family in there. It was your standard Thanksgiving - about three of every dish so as to accommodate for regular diets, fat free diets, low sugar diets, and allergen diets. The best part? I specifically brought special food from home and went to the effort of providing a mini-thanksgiving dinner just for Emmaline, and she hardly ate a bite! Argh! At least there was plenty of pie though. Pie makes everything better!

After Thanksgiving, we headed up to my parent's house to stay. The next day we headed down to Kathleen's house. Since she is quite pregnant these days, my mom, my other sisters, and I, all cleaned her house for her and also prepped for her shower the next day. That evening we made the food.

So on Saturday, we headed back to Kathleen's house for the shower. Kathleen, I think, is now decked out it pretty much everything her baby needs - except for a name. She really needs to work on that...

After the shower, we did Imogene's baby blessing at Kathleen's house! She is 4.5 months old but we wanted to wait and do it when our family could be there. Sadly, Imogene was off her routine so much that day that she screamed the entire time.

On Sunday, we came home! The van wasn't as full on the way home so that was nice. This time around if Imogene was sleeping, we didn't even think about making any stops, so we busted through and made great time ... until Rawlins, WY. We decided that the kids needed to stretch their legs and eat some real food instead of car snacks. We stopped at the McDonald's there so they could use the playland. I spare you the bulk of the reasons why we ended up being there for 1.5 hours. But I'll share a few highlights.

Liliana had explosive diarrhea. Fortunately, this happened *just* as I had taken her into the bathroom to change her diaper anyway. Unfortunately it got on her clothes. You can imagine the confusion on AJ's face when we showed up back at the table with Lil in nothing but a diaper! I ran out to the car to get her a change of clothes, only to discover the bag with her clothes was pretty buried. Luckily, there was another bag that had all the dirty clothes in it, so she got to ride in some pajamas I dug out of there for the rest of the time.

The other super-fun part was when Lil wouldn't come out of the play tunnels so I got to squeeze my fat adult sized tooshie through McDonald's playland to go get her. Good times. Good times.

So in a nutshell, that 8 hour drive took 11 hours. The good news of course was the Imogene did fantastically well so that really helped. We are thrilled to be home and perhaps I will get up some pictures of Imogene's blessing during naptime today!

Rating: Lollipops, Fireballs, Pixie Dust, and Sour Patch Kids.

Tip of the Day: Shoeholders - not for shoes!

I bet you thought that those over-the-door shoe holders were for shoes.

You'd be wrong.

I once read a tip in Real Simple magazine about other ways to use them and so for about 4 years now I've been using one inside my linen closet door to organize first aid supplies and medications (we have a lock on the linen closet). Well yesterday I got two more of them! I now have one hung in the coat closet to hold mittens, hats, and AJ's "stuff" that he stacks on the counter every day when he gets home from work (wallet, keys, glasses, etc). Then the second one I hung behind the laundry room door - which also happens to be the mud room that goes out to the garage. I am going to use it for putting all those things that come out of pockets when you check them. I don't have any other uses for it yet in that spot but since it is on the way out to the garage, I am sure we will find some!

A couple other ideas:
Use in small bathrooms for hairbrushes, hair ties, shaving cream, toothpaste, make-up, etc
Use in offices to organize crayons, pens, glue sticks, etc.
Inside pantry door for spices or to divvy out snacks for the kids.

The other big thing is that it MUST be a CLEAR shoe holder so that you can see what is inside of it!

I know - this post is useless without pictures huh? Well I'll get back to you on that!

Rating: 5 Lollipops

So what do you do when you can't even trust what the label says?

I ran across this article today:

Children at risk in food roulette

I guess I shouldn't be TOO surprised that this kind of thing happens. I am grateful that so far nothing bad has happened to Emmaline.

Rating: 5 Fireballs

Do you ever wonder...

...if it is worth it to change all the diapers, comb all the hair, find *matching* socks and shoes for everyone, get coats on everyone, and strap three kids into carseats just to get one thing at the store?

Me too.

Rating: 2 Lollipops

Where does the time go?

Goodness, I haven't written in five days! Shocking! Maybe because life has been pretty dull. My parents are now officially home. We enjoyed having them to visit and Emmaline still prays every night that they will drive safely - she doesn't realize they are home already!

Emmaline had her very last sports class today - Teeball. She actually has a little teeball set here at home so she already knew what she was doing with that. They did practice throwing which was good. They got a sticker on their left foot and right hand so they could remember which foot to step with and which hand to throw with. That seemed to really help! After Thanksgiving, we have her signed up for 3 weeks of ice skating. Come January, we haven't decided yet what to do!

Liliana's new word is "guy" (or "guys"). Instead of calling "daddy" like she used to, she now says, "guuuy! guuuuy!" Pretty funny.

Imogene is just doing that cute thing. She is doing really well now in her exersaucer. She loves to be up in that because she can see better what is going on around her. She is often content to just watch the chaos.

AJ recently got the World of Warcraft expansion (computer game) so we haven't seen him in a few days. It is like spotting Yeti - rarely emerges and when he does - it is kind of scruffy and hungry. ;-) It's all good though. I know it is a new version of his game and it won't last forever. Emmaline spends time on her computer right next to him so they are actually spending quality time together!

As for me - well I'm actually quite boring. Nothing new!

Rating: 3 Lollipops

Christmas: Complete

Today my parents watched Emmaline and Liliana while we took Imogene with us and went Christmas shopping. I can now officially say we are done - everything from the big gifts down to the little stocking stuffers! We started out the morning by going to breakfast at a restaurant we have never been able to try due to Emmaline's allergies, called The Egg & I. It is a chain that started right here in Colorado and it was GOOD. Wow. If you find you have one in your area - go check it out.
After breakfast we hit Toys R Us, Costco, and Dollar Tree. It was nice having our list and knowing exactly what we were buying at each store. It really made things more efficient.

Bring on Christmas - we're ready!

Rating: 5 Lollipops (we actually found some huge lollipops at the Dollar Tree but there were only 5 left and they were all broken. I am kind of tempted to go back another day and see if they get more in stock...)

4 Month Check

Imogene had her 4-month check-up on Friday. She is doing great - growing perfectly along her curve.

Current stats:
Height: 24 3/4 in. - 60%
Weight: 13 lbs. 15 oz - 50%
Head: 16 in. 35%

Our pediatrician had a new nurse today. She told us that the old nurse had a new position. I was so happy because I've never really liked that nurse. Then of course she mentioned that the new position was with MY OB/GYN. *sigh*

Rating: 5 Pixie Dust

The last couple days . . .

It seems that whenever family comes to visit - I make them help me can! When my sisters were here, we did peaches and pears. When my mother-in-law was here we did grapefruit. Now that my parents are here, my mom helped me can pineapple and taught me how to make jam - spiced pear jam to be exact, YUM!

Yesterday we also took them to the Pearl Street Mall and window shopped. Tonight they cooked us a genuine West Virginian dinner - hot dogs with beanless chili, mustard, onions, and coleslaw on top. It was pretty good!

Emmaline had the tennis portion of her sports class today. It was definitely more tricky for her. They practiced balancing the ball on the racket, and then bouncing it on the racket, among other things. Emmaline's favorite part was balancing the balls on top of some cans and hitting them off - she has quite the swing!

Rating: 4 Lollipops

On their way home...

Today my parents arrived to visit for a week. They have spent the last year and half serving mission in West Virgina for our church. They are on their way home but decided that it made sense to stop and visit the grandbabies. Last time they saw Liliana she was just 5 months old - and they have never met Imogene!

Emmaline also had her sports class again today. It was basketball this time. She actually did pretty well but did get more frustrated this time because the ball kept getting away from her when she tried to dribble. Looks like so far she leans towards soccer!

Rating: 5 Lollipops (welcome home Dad and Mom!)

Happy Birthday AJ!

Happy Birthday AJ!

In honor of this day I give you 32 Things I Love About You

1. You're a hard worker
2. You do Dishes
3. Your Smile
4. You play with the kids
5. You are patient with the kids when you do projects
6. You do projects with the kids
7. You are good at organizing things
8. You fulfill all my computer needs
9. You tell me that you love me everyday - usually several times a day
10. You put the toilet seat down every single time
11. You cook dinner once a week
12. You kill critters for me
13. You listen to me blab about subjects that bore you
14. Your Eyes
15. Your Nose
16. Your mouth
17. Your ears
18. Your hands
19. Your toes
20. You study out issues
21. You learn and care about things on a local, state, country, and world level
21. You're great a model railroading
22. You know what a "money maker" is
23. You provide for our family
24. You eat leftovers
25. You're not a picky eater
26. You'll watch chick flicks with me
27. You change diapers, make lunches, give baths
28. You're honest
29. You communicate well (a rarity for programmers!)
30. You're loving
31. You're kind
32. You're YOU

Rating: 5 Lollipops

Soccer Girl

Yesterday was day two of Emmaline's sports sampler class that she is taking. They did soccer for the first two classes. As it turns out, Emmaline is kind of a natural! This is incredibly shocking since neither AJ or I are athletic - and that is putting it gently. Her teacher commented that Emmaline was picking up the skills very quickly and that she does the best headers she has seen in that class in a long time. Who knew that Emmaline would have no problem bouncing a soccer ball off her head??? Emmaline had a blast learning all the different skills. Next week I think we will start basketball!

Rating: 4 Pixie Dust

A Lil' about Lil

After cleaning up a huge mess that Liliana just made with the salt shaker, I decided that I need to write a blurb about just how fantastic of a girl she is. Let's call it a little "reminder" post - for my sake.

1) Liliana is really picking up with the talking. She is trying so hard to get those words out. She already is speaking in full sentences and having conversations - it still sounds like this though:
"doo be doo yo gabba yo gabba blah blah blah". So in other words - we don't understand a thing she says. The funny thing is she does it all the time - constantly "talking". Yet I found out from her nursery teacher at church that Lil never talks there - surprisingly - that girl is shy!

2) Lil is great about learning new physical skills. She can watch something once and has no problem trying it out and is often successful in her attempt. I have to be careful what I do in front of her - it gives her ideas. She has already learned to turn the locks on doors in the house halfway, which means she is getting very close to even locked doors not keeping her in/out. I also caught her the other day with a door key. She had actually inserted it into the hole on the handle and was attempting to pick the lock - just like we do!

3) Lil has learned how to hide - and she is very very good at it. She prefers hiding next to chairs/couches, behind doors, and behind curtains. What makes her good at it is that she is very very very quiet. She can sit there a LONG time without ever making peep.

Rating: 5 Pixie Dust

Edited to add an update: While I was typing this - apparently the gate to the upstairs was not shut. Liliana went upstairs, got into my nightstand and got the TUMS that I haven't used since I was pregnant. She then preceded to hide behind the curtains very quietly and eat the TUMS while I ran all over the house calling for her and trying to find her - until I discovered that the gate was unlocked. Just so everyone knows, according to poison control, TUMS are perfectly fine to eat up just like candy - she just may have some diarrhea as a result. Lovely.

Election 2008

We spent Election Night eating pizza, watching Welcome to Mooseport, and checking the results come in on the computer.

We are quite sad in this household that Obama won last night and even more devastated that with a Democrat majority in Congress, he will have free rein to do as he pleases. We foresee a very unstable and shaky future that will affect our family in many negative ways.

We are extremely grateful though, that Prop. 8 in California appears to have passed. The race is still tight but the Yes vote is currently in the lead with 94% of precincts reported. Similar props passed last night in Florida and Arizona. Those propositions are more important to us than even the presidential election and we are pleased so far with the outcome.

God Bless America. We need it now more than ever.

Rating: 5 Fireballs and 5 Lollipops

Imogene/Emmaline, Emmaline/Imogene

Today AJ and I were noticing how similar Imogene and Emmaline look. The only major difference is that Imogene is chubbier! What do you think?

AJ adds: What's really funny is that Bethany and Emmaline were looking through some scrapbook pages when Emmaline saw the picture above. She instantly said "It's daddy and Imogene!"

Rating: 5 Pixie Dust

Final Ballet Class

Today was the very last day of Emmaline's ballet class for my preschool a la carte program. Parents were allowed to watch today. It was a blast watching those little girls have so much fun! And since it is Halloween, they were allowed to wear their costumes to class - which is handy since Emmaline is a ballerina for Halloween anyway!

Rating: 5 Pixie Dust

What I'm reading

Well I was "tagged" for a blog game - these are the rules:

Rules:
1. Get the book that's on your nightstand (or whatever you happen to be reading).
2. Open it to page 56 and find the 5th sentence.
3. Post the next couple of sentences on your blog, along with these instructions.
4. Do not go and find your favorite book; it has to be the one you are reading now!
5. Tag five other people to do the same.


The only book I have on my nightstand right now is a Logic Problem book. I LOVE logic problems. So does my mom! She'll tell you all about how I used to swipe her books and use up her puzzles first! HAHA!

Page 56, sentence 5 reads: As they approached the tree, the five realized that their guesses had been wrong -- it was a money tree, and what they had believed were green leaves were in fact crisp freshly grown $100 bills!

Oooohhhh! I can't wait to solve this puzzle and find out what happens!

Rating: 3 Lollipops

Upsizing

Well a sad day has come. BOTH of my girls in diapers have moved up a size! I put Imogene in a size 3 a couple days ago, and today I moved Liliana into a size 6. How did this happen? Why are all my babies growing so quickly??? Emmaline actually wore a size 3 diaper until she potty trained! With all her problems she was pretty small though. Luckily when I did the great diaper deal back in July - I did grab a bunch of size 6 diapers (a size I didn't think we'd ever actually use) so it was no problem grabbing the size I needed without having to go to the store! I'll give away a secret though - Liliana will be getting big girl panties for her birthday in January. Shhhhhh, don't tell her!

Rating: 3 Fireballs (why do they have to keep growing???)

Jack-o-Lantern

Tonight for Family Home Evening, we decided to carve a pumpkin. This morning we went to the store and picked one out. The girls managed to choose a "Charlie Brown" pumpkin, because it had lots of "character" (including not being able to sit up straight).

We let Emmaline draw where she wanted the eyes, nose, and mouth, and then AJ cut it out. During all this, Liliana wandered away to go play - we were too boring for her. Once we were done carving, we put the candles inside, lit it up, and turned out the lights. We called for Liliana to come see. She took two steps into the kitchen, got this "look" on her face - and backed away into the family room! Even when we turned the lights back on, she would not go near it at all. We must have done a good job making a scary face after all. What do you think?

Rating: 5 Hershey's Pumpkin Spice Kisses (that I can not find at any store and when I finally found them at Target, they were sold out!)

Vegan French Toast

Whenever I am trying to figure out a dish that is normally unsafe for Emmaline, I turn to the Vegans. Those guys really know what they are talking about most of the time. All you have to do is google: "Vegan ______" and you can usually come up with a decent recipe that is free of dairy and egg. They do like to use soy a lot but usually it is just soy milk so we replace it with rice milk.

Anyway - tonight I decided we were having breakfast for dinner. Sausage, homemade hash browns, orange juice, and french toast. "Surely the vegans have a french toast recipe!" I said, as I typed it into google. And sure enough up one came! It looked yummy. Instead of egg, you use mashed banana, rice milk, cinnamon, and vanilla. Well - it was yummy. But it was NOT french toast. It created a soggy mess of bread - that once cool, at least created a mass rubbery enough to take bites of. The girls both loved it - since they've never had french toast before they had NO idea what they were missing.

So there you go - the vegans cannot be relied upon 100% of the time! Now that I've tried it their way though, I have a few ideas up my sleeve that I'm thinking of trying, so stay tuned.

Fun Fact: I just did the math and our meal cost us $1.63 for the whole family.
Sausage: $0.00
Hashbrowns - 1 lb. potatoes at $0.38/lb
Orange Juice 1 quart - $0.25
French Toast ingredients - ~$1.00

Rating: 3 Fireballs (will we never have french toast again???)

Trunk or Treat

Last night we had a Trunk or Treat at church. Emmaline was really excited to go and Liliana had no clue what she was in for. We are lucky that Liliana loves to dress up AND she loves to put things in bags and carry it around. Halloween is right up her alley!

About half way through making the rounds around the parking lot, Liliana really got the hang of it. She knew if she held out her bag and said, "tee-tee" that people would put things in it! She would NOT let go of her bag for anyone and was struggling to carry it by the end. The bonus for us is that about half the candy that they got wasn't safe for Emmaline, so AJ and I had to sort it out of the basket and keep it for ourselves. Bummer.

Also another fun tidbit - this very kind, yet odd, older lady in our ward was handing this out for treats:

Yes - those are pill bottles filled with animal crackers. VERY odd indeed. This is the part where I brag on Emmaline. She observed that it didn't have a label to check, so she wouldn't be able to eat it (not that we would have let her anyway). Good job Emmaline!

Rating: A bag of assorted Halloween candies!

Rolling Over

Imogene just rolled over! She is 3.5 months and successfully rolled not only from back to tummy, but also tummy to back. She rolls onto her side all the time when laying on her back, but this time she struggled and finally made it over her arm. I of course ran to go get my camera, and by the time I was back, she had rolled back onto her back. Good job Imogene! I wonder if she'll be like Liliana and roll everywhere she wants to go?

Rating: 5 Pixie Dust

Politics and Christmas Gifts

What do those have to do with each other? Not much actually. It just so happens that I am going to talk about both in the same post!

Every Friday night, AJ and I have date night. We don't actually go outanywhere. We just put the kids to bed and then do something fun together. Sometimes watch a movie, play a game, read a book, make something (we did paint by numbers once!). Anyway, this week we decided we had a few things we needed to do without the interruption of kids. So, I made smoothies and we sat down and got to work.

First order of business was talking politics! We reviewed who the candidates were for everything and made our selections (Bob Barr (Libertarian) for President, and a mostly straight Republican vote - except for a couple Libertarians sprinkled in at the local level). Then we reviewed our State and County voters guide. Did you know Colorado is looking to get rid of an obsolete law in their constitution regarding the sale of impure alcohol (moonshine)? (referendum N) Turns out the only arguement against it is that it will eliminate the "historical character" of the current constitution. Seriously - that is the best they could come up with???

Anyway, after deciding our individual positions on things, we moved onto Christmas. We sat down and reviewed what things we already had in the gift closet, what the girls would probably like, and what we could afford. The hard part of having kids of all the same gender is deciding on gifts! By the time it gets down to Imogene, we already have everything - but we finally came up with some ideas. Each girl gets:

Three things from Santa (a la the Three Wise Men)
Small stocking stuffers
A gift from the parents
A yearly Christmas ornament.
They will also be able to pick out things from The Present Store for each other, but we don't make a list for that.

Liliana's birthday also falls just after Christmas so we made our list for that as well. When my parents come to visit in a couple of weeks, we hope to leave the kids with them and go finish all the shopping (hint hint Dad and Mom!!!). It is a relief to have it all decided on. I'd list what we are getting, but then what would I have to say at Christmas???

Rating: 5 Lollipops (for doing our civic and parental duties all in one night)

Recipe Review: Chipotle Chocolate Chili

I got the recipe for Chipotle Chocolate Chili from the girls over at Our Best Bites. I was a bit skeptical but noticed that all the ingredients were allergen safe (baking cocoa doesn't have milk or nuts) so I decided to give it a whirl. I also didn't have any chipotles but I did have some dried chili pods so I cut one in half and allowed it to simmer with the chili. The verdict:

AJ: The chili was good. I didn't taste chocolate-y. I like that it was thick and hearty.

Bethany: I loved that it was an easy allergen free recipe with no need for special substitutions. Always a bonus in my book. It was very tasty and very filling. It was also simple to make - from start to finish it took just under and hour.

Emmaline: There's chocolate in this soup??? WOW!!!

Liliana: "Ahhhhhh!!!!" (more please)

Rating: 4 Lollipops (yum!)

Moments in Time

Sunday morning, Emmaline woke up and came into my room. She and Lil were playing on the bed while AJ and I tried to get just a few more minutes of sleep. Suddenly Emmaline says to me:
"Look what I can do mommy!" and she turns around, flips up her nightgown, and starts flexing her butt cheeks. I just about died laughing.

And since someday Emmaline will hate me for telling that story, I'll share one that is a bit nicer.

Yesterday Emmaline and Liliana were playing and Imogene was napping. There was no TV on, no computer - nothing. It was quiet, peaceful play. Emmaline looks up at me and says, "Mom - why is it so quiet!?"

Gee I don't know - maybe because nobody is stealing toys, pretending to be a puppy, or diving off the couch yelling, "Wahoo!" - But that is just a guess. . .

Rating: 4 Pixie Dust

Dairy update

Well I avoided dairy for 3 weeks with Imogene and then put it back in my diet and the verdict is that she seems fine! She seems a bit reflux-ish from time to time when I eat bunch of dairy, but other than that I think we're okay!

Rating: 5 Lollipops

Punctuality

I have finally figured out the very simple equation for how to get out of the house on time. In order to find what time you need to start getting ready to go:

15 mins. x (number of people leaving)

So in order to get myself, and the three girls out of the house by 10:30am I have to account 15 minutes per person - meaning we start finding shoes and socks, changing butts, going potty, finding coats, etc at 9:30am.

I wonder at what point I can start subtracting minutes based on the age of the kids...

Rating: 2 Lollipop

Frosted Mini-Wheats

I have been feeling a bit anxious lately because there hasn't been a good cereal deal in a long time and I am down to my last 20 boxes! EEK! Those will only last us about 2.5 more months. Anyway - just my luck that this week there is a great deal at Safeway for Frosted Mini-Wheats. AJ and the girls are all big fans of them so I was thrilled!

The Possibilities

So far I've gotten 36 boxes for $10.92 +tax

If you have a Safeway in your area - this is an EASY deal for you to do too.

The Details

The unadvertised promotion is buy 3 boxes of *flavored* Mini-Wheats and get a $3 coupon when you check out. At http://www.coupons.com/ there are NINE coupons (update: as of 10/17 those coupons are no longer there - dang rotating internet coupons. Try this link instead - you should be able to print 6) that you can print out for $1 off 1 box. Some of the coupons are deceiving because they have pictures of Rice Krispies or Raisin Bran or whatever, but they say on them that they are good on ANY Kellogg's cereal. That site will let you print 2 times - so a total of 18 coupons right there. If you have more than one computer in your house - you can do it again.
Depending on where you live in the country, the Mini-Wheats are on sale through Tuesday for either $2.22 or $2.50 per box.

The Steps

So here is what you do (obviously make adjustments to the scenarios if your boxes are $2.50):

Transaction #1
(3) $2.22 Mini-Wheats - $6.66
- (3) $1/1 coupons
____________________
Total: $3.66+tax
Receive a $3 coupon

Transaction #2
(3) $2.22 Mini-Wheats - $6.66
- (3) $1/1 coupons
- $3 coupon from Trans #1
____________________
Total: $0.66+tax
Receive $3 coupon

Transaction #3
(3) $2.22 Mini-Wheats - $6.66
- (3) $1/1 coupons
- $3 coupon from Trans #2
____________________
Total: $0.66+tax
Receive $3 coupon

Rinse and Repeat.

Now go my Coupon Padowans and conquer this deal!

Rating: 4 Lollipops (I'd give it 5 except I prefer getting free cereal)

Bedtime Stories and Knock Knock Jokes

Last night at about 2:45am Emmaline crawled into bed with me. I know she gave a reason why but I was asleep and can't remember what she told me. About 10 minutes later I heard Lil. She apparently saw that her bedroom door had been left open so she was just sitting at the top of the stairs babbling away. I put both girls back in their beds and we all went to sleep. Then around 3:45am Emmaline comes running into our room, "Mommy mommy!! Lil is downstairs!" Apparently Emmaline had gotten up to go to the bathroom that time and Lil decided to exit the room as well. Normally we have a gate at the stairs but last night we forgot to shut it. I went and looked, and there was Lil downstairs just sitting by the front door! I went and retrieved her, put her back in bed, and locked the gate this time! Oddly enough the only child that wasn't up in the night was Imogene! Oh the irony.

As for the knock knock jokes - Emmaline is learning how to tell jokes! Obviously at this age they aren't funny to anyone but her - but here is a sample:

Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Banana
Banana who?
Banana that crossed the road!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA

Rating: 3 Pixie Dust

When life gives you grapefruit. . .

There was a great deal this last week at Sunflower for grapefruit - .10 cents each! We bought 200 for $20 and produced 3.5 gallons of juice and 12 quarts of segments. If we had bought the same amount already made at the store it would have cost us between $50-$60. Not bad!

Rating: 4 Lollipops

First Laugh

There has been a couple times lately where Imogene has been so close to laughing but just couldn't get it out. Well this morning she did it!!! I was singing that song from Cinderella "Bibbity Boppity Boo" and she was smiling and cooing and all the sudden let out a big guffaw.

This helps support my theory that children with siblings laugh sooner. It took us forever to get Emmaline to laugh and it was hard work whenever we wanted to get it out of her. I think she was 5 months old the first time we finally squeezed that laugh out. With Liliana it was super easy - she was 4 months old. Now with Imogene we weren't even trying and she popped out with it at 3.5 months!

Rating: 5 Laffy Taffy

Thank You Wendy's

I discovered a couple days ago that the Wendy's Jr. Hamburger is safe for Emmaline to eat - at least according to their website. Usually the problem at most fast food restaurants is that they like to hide soy flour in the bun. So today we went to Wendy's and for the very first time ever, my child had a hamburger from a fast food restaurant just like a regular kid. How cool is that?

Rating: 5 Lollipops

Cell Phone

If you are one of the lucky few people of the world who know my cell phone number then you are no longer lucky. I have a new cell phone number. So if you are one of the lucky few people of the world that have my personal family email address, AJ's cell phone, our home phone, or my IM screen name then you may contact me in order to find out my new super-secret digits. It is a sad sad day that the number I have owned for 7.5 years is no longer mine. Let us have a moment of silence.

This message will self-destruct in 1 week.

Whoops

So on Tuesday night I accidentally ate something that had dairy in it. When Imogene spit-up all over my shoulder on Wednesday morning - I rechecked the ingredients on what I had eaten and realized what I had done. So yesterday I loaded up on the dairy - we even ordered pizza for dinner. So today if there is a problem - I think we should start seeing it. Tell you what though. After 3 weeks with no dairy - suddenly overloading your system with it is NOT easy on your guts. The good news though is that in just 3 weeks of being dairy free, I got 3 lbs away from my ideal weight and the jeans that I bought just a couple months ago are starting to fall off of me - I don't even have to undo them to get them off and on!

Rating: 1 Fireball (mad at myself for making that mistake)

Yogurt Yogurt Everywhere!

Oh the irony that I am dairy free and there was a stellar yogurt deal this last week! Albertsons was doing a promo where you buy 10 participating products and get a $5 catalina (that's one of those coupons that spits out at the cash register at the grocery store). Well Yoplait yogurt was participating and was 10/$5!!! I did the very obvious math and realized it was a freebie! I also had some coupons for some other products as wells so I did 16 transactions total. Sadly no pictures because all the yogurt went straight into the freezer.

136 Yogurts
10 canisters Bread crumbs
8 cans of soup
6 boxes Cereal
32 bags Frozen Veggies
_________________
Total: $5.25+tax
and still have 1 more $5 catalina.

Rating: 4 Lollipops

The Dentist

Has anyone caught on yet that we accidentally overestimated our flex spending and now we're scurrying to use it up? We have new glasses on the way too but I'll save that for another post . . .

Anyway - yesterday we all went to the Dentist. When I say "all" what I really mean is that AJ, Emmaline and I went and Lil and Imogene hung out in the waiting room while we took turns going in. I confess that AJ and I haven't been to the dentist in a long time. In fact if I'm really being honest here - we haven't been in at least 10 years. Please do not shame us - we know we are bad. Luckily things aren't TOO bad. We both have some work to be done though. Sadly I have the first two cavities of my entire life - thanks for the great enamel mom and dad! The dentist also noticed that I still have one baby tooth and a molar that never came in - thanks for the "great" genetics mom and dad.

Of more interest is Emmaline of course! This is her very first time at the dentist. She was so excited to go. In fact she was so excited that I threatened her at naptime that if she didn't stay in her bed I wouldn't let her go. What kind of parent am I??? She did great and thought going to the dentist was fun! She doesn't have any cavities so it was a very positive experience for her. I'm just surprised that she could stop gabbing long enough for the dentist to get a peek inside that mouth!

Rating: 3 Sugar-free Candies ('cause they're better for the teeth and all)

Family Home Evening

Three weeks ago I decided that it was about time we start having Family Home Evening. So far for the last two weeks - as soon as Emmaline hears that it is a Monday, she instantly asks if we can have Family Home Evening again. How can you deny her?
Based on the kids' ages - we've kept it really simple. We sing a Primary Song (Emmaline picked Popcorn Popping the last two weeks so this week I told her I was picking I Love to See the Temple). Then we read a couple of stories from the board book we have of the Book of Mormon. Then this is where it gets really exciting. For an activity - we play Ring Around the Rosy! The girls love it and they aren't quite ready for a good game of Chinese Checkers or Trivial Pursuit like my family used to play. Someday! Then for a treat - we each got to eat TWO marshmallows. Please try to hold back your envy. It was Emmaline's idea and she was thrilled with it. Silly girl.

Rating: 2 Peeps (cause they're really just marshmallows you see)

A Formula for Dinner

One of my favorite quick and easy meals to cook for dinner is basically "Meat Helper" using rice instead of pasta. It is such a basic formula and I can mix it up easily.

1 lb meat of your choice (chicken, steak, ground turkey, ground beef, etc)
1/2 onion
Veggies of your choice (about 1/2 to 1 lb depending on your veggie and the size and such)
1 1/2 cups rice (I use regular white rice - cook time will vary if you use other varieties)
4 cups water
4 tsp bouillon (your choice - chicken, beef, vegetable) You can also just use stock - just use 4 cups and don't use boullion
Spices

In a large skillet fry the meat and onion. Put in all other ingredient. Bring to a boil while stirring, then cover and reduce heat to low. Let it simmer (untouched!) for 15 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit for at least 5 minutes more with the lid on. Stir and mix in some milk (or rice milk) if you want it a bit more creamy.

Variations:
Spanish Style - Ground Beef, 2 cans tomatoes, corn, chicken bouillon

Enchilada Style - Ground Beef, 1 can tomatoes, 1 can black beans, replace half of water with Enchilada Sauce, chicken bouillon

Asian Style - Ground Beef, or Steak, mushrooms, broccoli, celery, beef bouillon, soy sauce

Indian Style - Chicken, yellow squash, red pepper, green beans, curry powder, chicken bouillon, use coconut milk in place of milk

All-American Style - Ground Turkey, mixed veggies, powdered ranch dressing, chicken bouillon

Fajita Style - Steak or chicken, Peppers, fajita seasoning, beef bouillon, add fresh tomatoes at the end.

Refrigerator Delight - Any meat you have thawed, any veggies you have left over the fridge, chicken bouillon, basic seasonings like garlic powder, salt, pepper.

Rating: 4 Lollipops (I love a cheap, quick, healthy, and easy dinner!)