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.