Did you miss us?

We're back! Very burnt out and a bit disoriented... but things are slowly but surely getting back to normal. Here's a little bait to keep you coming back for more... when I get around to it...

Things I Am Loving

The blessings that come from this wonderful place.

Eating healthy and still enjoying every bite. It's so fun to be creative and find ways to eat healthy and still love everything I eat. It's challenging in so many ways... you have to figure out how to afford it, you have to find good recipes, and you have to avoid all the seemingly 'good' things and hold out for the best! These muffins are seriously the best. We ate the whole batch in less than 24 hours...

I love sharing, my kids, and Luci's hair in the humid weather.
My kids are so into sharing these days. Luci even shares her coveted ring pops that she got from a friend for her birthday.

I loved this conversation while at the grocery store.

Luci: Mommy let's get some watermelon
Me: Well, that sounds good, but it will be better when it's in season... in the summertime we can get some.
Luci: Oo Oo I see it, please!
Me: Sorry darlin'
...A few minutes later as we're walking past the pudding...
Luci: What's that mommy? Is it chocolate?
Me: Oh, that's pudding.
Luci: Oh, yeah PUDDING! Let's get some mom! Pudding is in season mom, it's always in season mom!
...She says as she is nodding her head in a very convincing way

And, I loved going out on the town last night with Mr. Dean.

Life

This morning I went for a swim. It's a good thing Jacob helps me get out the door, because I love it. It's getting into the pool that is so hard. I have been so cold lately! I think it's because of all the tricks mother nature has been playing. Anyway, Last week as I was walking past a lovely bunch of older ladies in the locker room (all half dressed) they all kindly commented ,"awe, what a skinny little thing". Then they talked about the old days when they were skinny little things and some about how they were never skinny things, and how their husbands (bless their souls) loved them just the way they were. I loved being able to listen in on that conversation. They were all so content with who they were. They were constantly complementing each other and saying how much they liked each other.
Today as I was swimming one of those sweet old ladies stopped me mid swim to ask me, in her thick German accent and shower cap covered head, where I was from. I said Utah, and now here. And then she continued saying, "oh, so you're not European then? You vere swimming so gracefully, and it vas so lovely to watch. Most people beat the [heck] out of the vater, and I vonder, vhy do they svim if they hate the vater?"
Ha! I got mistaken for a graceful European swimmer today :) I love those ladies.
Life is so great.
These kids are great


They are seriously so funny together.

Valentines day was great too...
I did accomplish lots of things on that list, not the flower cake yet, but I will! Jacob took me to get ice cream at Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream where I had to taste pretty much every flavor, notice all the little spoons in my hand. Proof of my indecisiveness. Yum, I got salty caramel, and Roxbury Road. Mm you have to go there. I want some more...

My Babies

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.


by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Chocolate!

Back to Baking...I love baking, and chocolate. Check out theses delicious brownies :)

Happy

Oh, we are tired but we are happy. Okay, Luci's not tired, just happy. Luci is as cute as ever. She says the funniest things. She keeps us laughing all the time. Here are a some of them,

"Luci, what's on daddy's face?"

"--Fur"

"Cheer up Charlie, Don't be afraid"

She loves to request either Blue Cheese or Caesar for her salad.





















Mom came to town to help and visit for a week. We are so grateful that she came! And Pops too :) He came for the last couple of days. Luci loved all the attention, and so did I. Thank you mom, we miss you already.

Bliss

Today was day number 5 of luci being sick...again. This time she's had a high fever and no other symptoms, so the doctor finally decided to put her on antibiotics just in case. Well, that means more antibiotics for poor little luci. And lots of days waiting in our cute little house until she gets better. Jacob is super busy volunteering, working, fulfilling his church callings, working out, reading, and driving to and from his externship. He only comes home at a decent time twice a week. Otherwise it's just me in my little house while Luci sleeps. It's really hard to motivate myself to eat good, among other things, when he's not around to cook for. So, when my visiting teachers dropped by these cookies, the battle had begun. To eat dinner, or to eat chocolate chip cookies. In the end I ate both. Some cookies before, during, and after dinner though. This was my favorite, Smore's sandwich. Have you ever tried it? Why have I never tried it before?? I think Elijah might have more of a sweet tooth than is humanly possible. Sweets have been just so wonderful lately. So has my luci girl. She certainly is not quiet, or still, ever. But she is wonderful. She really does "make me happy when sky's are grey". Every night, as I pick up her little things, shoes, purses, pictures she's scribbled, I can't help but be happy.

A Life Saver Smoothie

While this combination might look somewhat odd to some of you, I'm sure many of you would agree with me about it's life saving abilities. Oh the green drink. So delicious when made right. It's one of the only things I can get Luci to eat when she's sick, or refusing vegetables. It's so nice for me to know that I can drink a big glassful of this and get so much out of it! Because really, it is hard to make sure you get in those leafy greens everyday. This is one of our favorite combinations:

1.5 cups water
2 tbs oj concentrate
1 cup plain yogurt
3 tbs ground flaxseed
1/2 cup frozen raspberries or blueberries
1 orange
1 large banana
as much kale or spinach as you can handle!

The benefits:

The oj and banana completely kick the flavor of the greens, and add vitamins. The flax meal gives omega 3's, magnesium, fiber, and more. Plain yogurt for texture, calcium, pro-biotics (especially good when taking antibiotics), and vitamin D. Raspberries have anti-oxidants, vitamin C, iron, vitamin A, and more calcium. Oranges, well we all know the good things about oranges. Bananas equal potassium, better texture, and flavor. And kale, oh kale, just look at the charts on this baby here.

I have lots to post about, so look forward to some more posts. I hope I can squeeze them in before this baby comes! It's technically only a month away you know.

A fussy one

This little one has been giving me quite a test the last week or so. For some reason she refuses to sleep. She just screams instead. To the point that she has lost her cute little voice several times. So she's completely overtired, bags under her eyes and all. This means days filled with, "NO!, no, No!"coming from her sweet little mouth. Distraction is a great tool. Especially reading and her baby doll. Poor girl.

Well, last night Jacob gave her a priesthood blessing and decided to put her in a different room. She still fussed for a little bit, but no screaming! I wonder if she is afraid of something in her room? Is it separation anxiety from starting nursery at church? I guess she'll be sleeping in her pack and play until we figure it out. Until then, I'm so glad it's the weekend so Jacob can help me...I was starting to go crazy. I did crazy things yesterday. I almost bought hostess donuts at the store, and I made macaroni and cheese with canned peaches for dinner. Those that know me can attest that those things are considered crazy for me. Since I really don't like packaged mac and cheese, and hostess donuts are packed with hydrogenated oil (a contraband in our home). Pray for me my friends and for my sweet little girl to get over her fears.

So Glad

Tonight I'm all by my lonesome while the baby sleeps and Jacob has meetings and basketball. Surprisingly, I have been cleaning much of the night away. I guess being in my second trimester has given me a burst of unexpected energy. We are preparing for a good, no, a great friend to come visit us this weekend; I guess that helps to motivate me too.
I put away my skinny clothes and got out my maternity clothes. I'm giving in to the comfy pants earlier than last time. I really don't care if I can fit into my normal jeans for my whole pregnancy. Don't ask me why I cared last time. I am also feeling the little kernel inside of me popping sooner than last time too. I love, love, love that feeling. It makes it so real. In all this quiet time I have thought about some things that make me glad.

So glad that I'm not a single parent.


So glad that we have good friends that let us borrow their clothes, their phone, their Mountain sports channel, their house, their time, oh and whatever else...














So glad that fall break is fast approaching.

So glad that Jacob got an internship for this summer, and a paid one at that.

So glad that I get to be a part of my family's big happenings next month (Lot's of weddings, 3 actually).

So glad for the beautiful weather that is fall.


So glad for a happy, smiley, non-stop little Luci. (Cookie Monster slippers: 2$ from goodwill)

(She is saying "cookie monster", who she used to think was Elmo)

And the list could go on, and on...

Last Week

I made some muffins last week. They have a ridiculously long ingredient list and I'm not sure what to call them. We'll just say they were Pear, zucchini, flax, banana muffins. Yummy, healthy snacks are a must have around our house. Mostly for me, since I am constantly hungry. Well, okay so is Luci. So if I don't make healthy snacks then we end up eating pretzel sticks and cheese everyday. Okay! We still eat those everyday too. Anyway. On with the story. So I put Luci on the back porch to eat her muffin while I cleaned up a little. I could hear Luci saying, "Mmm, Nummy, muffins, mmm, nummy, (pause for chewing), Mmm! Nummy, muffins." Literally the whole time she was eating. You could say I felt pretty good about my muffins. It's so fun to have a child that appreciates my cooking. A husband too.

Speaking of the husband. What a charmer he is. I'm glad that now you all know why I like him so much.

8:59 AM

It's overcast and muggy today, surprisingly I am loving it. We had waffles for breakfast as Jacob hurried out the door for work. Luci waved with both hands saying bu bye Dada. I read and pondered while Luci played wonderfully by herself until 8:15 when we set out for our morning walk. I love our little neighborhood. Every yard is kept immaculately. The birds chirp wildly, really, I feel like we live in a forest sometimes with how wild they are. Other than the birds it is oh so quiet...all the time. Would you believe that we live just 15 minutes from the city?

Anyway, on our walk I decided to maybe try a little jogging. I haven't been running since I hurt my knee last summer. I jogged for about 7 minutes and it didn't hurt! That is good news folks.

So we've returned from our walk/jog, and Luci is supposed to be napping. But alas, she is jabbering away in her crib, making airplane noises, and probably doing the hand motions to go with it. She loves airplanes these days.

On my list today:

• Finish Monday's laundry
• Mop kitchen floor
• Make something delicious for the S family (thanks for babysitting yesterday!)
• YOGA tonight!!
• Read new books from library while Jacob plays basketball

So, now it is 9:18. And I'd better hop to it! Luci can only entertain herself with airplane noises for so long you know.

YMCA!

Banana's require concentration. How do you like the new car seat?