No Internet

So we've been having major problems with our internet the last week. Usually it doesn't work at all. I was able to get into my google reader account today and check the 160 unread posts that had built up during my internet hiatis, but when I tried to comment on a post I ran into problems. Hopefully we'll be up and running before too long. You don't realize how dependent we are on the internet until you don't have access. It's very frustrating!! We haven't dropped off the face of the earth, but it sometimes feels that way.

Ucreate Christmas Boutique!!

I am participating in Ucreate's Christmas Boutique this week and am VERY excited!!! To celebrate, everything in my Etsy shop has been marked down 25%. I have also been spending what feels like every waking moment working on making patterns for both of the styles of purses in my shop, and they will also be on sale. I am one of 30 stores participating, so go and check out Ucreate's blog for some fun Christmas shopping!!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a busy and fun Thanksgiving weekend, first with a nice quiet dinner at my mom's with my little sister and her husband. Then on Friday we went out for our annual post-Thanksgiving dinner with my dad and his wife to PF Changs, this time with both my little sister's and their husbands. We look forward to those lettuce wraps every year.

On Saturday we went and cut down our Christmas tree. Since Max has a broken leg and still isn't walking we decided to put him in the baby carrier on Jeff's back. (Apparently he was giving Jeff advise on how and where to walk the entire time.) I figured I could carry Emily or help her walk, but didn't realize she was going to be a little pill and cry unless I carried her, which proved to be more difficult than planned since the hill that didn't look so big when we chose it sure felt very steep when we were climbing it. For some reason we picked out our trees pretty quick this year!

After cutting down our trees we headed over to Meghan's baby shower at her in-law's house. It was fun to get to spend a little bit more time with Meghan before she heads back to LA. Isn't she the tiniest 32 week pregnant lady that you have ever seen in your life!! I don't look this good right now!

Tomorrow we get to head back to the Dr.'s office for Max to get his cast removed and it's back in the walking boot for a couple of weeks. I have a feeling life isn't going to slow down until after Christmas!

Our Little Booted Boy

So Max broke his leg last week and we win parent's of the year for not taking him to the doctor for FIVE days. But honestly, how do you break your leg tripping over the carpet, your own feet, or thin air, since there was NOTHING on the floor?! How do you break your leg just by tripping anyway!?! He has the boot on at least temporarily until we go to the Sports Medicine doctors on Friday to see if he needs a cast and to find out how long it should take for him to recover. In the meantime I'm sick to my stomach trying to figure out how much this is going to cost us and how we are going to pay for it right now. I now have the equivalent of an almost 40 lb. infant, who can no longer dress himself or go to the bathroom by himself. I'm mourning the loss of my big helping boy and missing the bundle of energy we usually have running around our house. I can't wait for my energetic little boy to feel better.

(To Max the most traumatic point was when I cut one of the legs off his beloved Thomas pajamas last night so we could get them over the stylish boot. He kept crying for me to put the fabric back on his pants. Honestly, they're two sizes too small for him anyway and look more like capris then pants.)

Pumpkin Pancakes

Pumpkin pancakes are the favorite breakfast at our house right now. Sooo yummy and easy to make. If you love anything pumpkin (like I do!) you should definitely give them a try.

Pumpkin Pancakes
2 eggs
1 cup wheat flour (or white if you prefer)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbs. sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup pumpkin

Beat the eggs together then add the rest of the ingredients. Bake on a hot griddle. Makes about fifteen 4-5 inch pancakes.

This is the same recipe we use to make regular pancakes with just the cinnamon, nutmeg and pumpkin added. It's a very simple recipe and make very good pancakes.


These pancakes go great with Buttermilk Syrup. If a syrup could be life changing, this would be it. I have a hard time fighting of the urge to drink it, it is SOOOO good! (Thanks for the recipe, Danielle!)

Buttermilk Syrup:
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cube butter
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. white corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla

Bring buttermilk, butter, baking soda, sugar and corn syrup to boil and boil for 3 minutes. Take off heat and add vanilla.

I mass produce this recipe in batches. The most I can cook at one time is 3 X the recipe because the baking soda makes is bubble up A LOT. I'll make batch after batch until I use up all my buttermilk and then I freeze it in glass jars to pull out as we need it.

Happy Halloween, 2009

Max and Emily were both so cute for Halloween this year. I didn't sew them costumes this year, but we made some unique costumes with some very cheap supplies. Max went as a robot and Emily went as a flower.

Emily was a little unsure about putting this big flower around her face, but she didn't mind once we got to the trick-or-treating and she realized that it would secure her a bucket full of candy. She got the trick-or-treating thing down right away, except that she didn't want to go the direction Mom wanted her to go.

I was really excited about Max's costume, but when it came time to actually trick-or-treating in it I realized how poorly I had thought it through. The poor kid could barely see for climbing up and down stairs. Since almost every single house in our neighborhood is split-entry, it only took us three houses to realize that we would need to relocate or it was going to be a long night. We decided that I should take the kids to the neighborhood next to ours were most of the houses don't have more than one or two steps and that worked a lot better. He was such a trooper, never complaining once, even when he couldn't get his candy from the bowl into his bucket. Oh well, he looked really cute and we got so many comments on his costume.

Back Seat Driver

Max pays attention when his mommy drives. He likes to give unsolicited driving advice. "Go faster, Mommy!" and "Why are you stopping?!" Are common things I hear from the back seat. Today it was, "Catch up to that trailer, Mommy!!" I was unable to follow through on this request (this is usually the case when Max is telling me how to drive). For this I was reprimanded.

Twice As Giving Holiday Boutique

I've been asked to participate in a Holiday Boutique on Saturday, November 7th. I am so excited and honored that I was asked, especially since I don't know the lady organizing the event. There will be over 15 vendors participating and 20% of the sales are going to be donated to A Golden Dawn Adoption Assistance. (They are a non-profit organization that helps families adopt orphans with special needs.)

It will be a great way to get some Christmas shopping done while helping out a wonderful organization and local artisans. Here are the details in case anyone would like to come check it out:

Saturday, November 7th
10:00 am to 7:00 pm
695 N 2475 W, Layton, Ut 84041

Directions:
Take the Hill Field Rd exit in Layton. Head west. Turn right onto 2200 West. Turn left onto 650 North. Turn right onto 2475 West.

Three Little Bugs in the Tub

We got to have our nephew Ryan visit us for a couple of days this week while his mom and dad were at the hospital having a baby. Of course lots of fun, running, screaming, fighting, and mess making was had. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of our beautiful new niece, Lily. In my hast to load up three little kids in the car for our trip to the hospital I forgot my camera. She is beautiful! We are so excited for you, Matt and Sherry!

Low Point - High Point

Low Point:

Yesterday I was having one of those days with Max. He woke up from his nap in a MOOD. He screamed he wanted a drink. I filled his sippy cup and he screamed because I was doing it. I stopped and he screamed because I didn't fill it up all the way. I filled it up all the way and he screamed because I filled it TOO full. I was loosing my temper and decided that I needed a time out, but it's hard to have an effective time out when you can still hear your 3 1/2 year old yelling at the top of his voice at you no matter were you go in the house. I was getting more upset so I tried to take Emmy with me to the park down the street to calm down, but Max followed behind us screaming at the top of his lungs. And apparently the weather was so nice that the ENTIRE street was outside to witness the spectacle. I felt like the Mother of the Year.

High Point:

Jeff and I went to The Scarlet Pimpernel tonight at the Hale Center Theatre. I've been wanting to go to this play for years and didn't buy tickets soon enough last time they did the production, so when I saw they were doing it again I immediately bought us tickets. (This was over a year ago.) It was amazing! I've never seen such an incredible set, the costumes were fantastic, and the actors (especially Percy) were wonderful. With the cost of tickets, dinner, and a babysitter it was a very spendy date (for us) and well worth it.

Under Attack

I've mentioned before that Emily goes by the nickname Goose or Goosey most of the time at our house. This nickname just kind of evolved from me calling her a silly goose and it just stuck. I knew that this name probably drove my mother crazy, even though she hadn't said anything, because she hates nicknames of any kind.

A couple of weeks ago, Jeff and I went rafting down Cataract Canyon and Jeff's parents were nice enough to watch the kids for us while we were gone. I mentioned something about my mother not liking the nickname Goose when we dropped them off. When we picked them up six days later, Jeff called Emily Goose, to which his mom replied, "Her name is Emily!" Apparently my mom isn't the only grandparent who isn't fond of Emily's nickname. Bill and Deanne had worked on getting Max to call his sister Emily the entire time they were at their house.

Jeff and I thought it was funny that three of Emily's grandparents are now on a mission to get her called by her given name. We have no intention to stop calling her Goose. I think they might be fighting a losing battle. (Apparently they're concerned she will be called Goose for the rest of her life.)

Tonight at dinner I was teasing Emily and asking her if I should call her Emily or Goose. (She emphatically shook her head no to being called Emily.)
Max interrupted me with, "We're not supposed to call her that!"
To which I replied, "Call her what?"
Max, "Goose. Her name is Emily!"
Me, "Who told you that?"
Max, "Grandma!"

Jeff and I thought this was hilarious, especially since Max calls her Goose more often than anyone else.

Burrito Baby Max

When Max was a baby I made up a song that I would sing to him when we laid him down in his crib. I called him my burrito baby because we would wrap him up like a burrito. The lyrics are very simple:

Burrito baby, burrito baby Max.
Burrito baby, burrito baby Max.
Burrito baby, burrito baby Max.
Burrito,
Burrito,
Burrito baby Max.

I've been singing it to him lately, which Max really enjoys. Well, last night Max wanted me to wrap him up like a burrito. I was being lazy and thought he would be happy if I just tucked his blankets around him, but no, he wanted to be wrapped up just like a burrito. So I wrapped him up in his dinosaur blankie just like I did when he was a baby, nice and tight.

Then this morning he was up early so I was trying to get him to come snuggle with me in bed. (I was tired after working on our blog book until about 1:30 in the morning.) He finally said he wanted to be wrapped up like a burrito again. I wrapped him up, nice and tight again, and just like when he was a baby, he zonked right out.

I love my little Burrito Baby Max!

Grandma's Carnival

Yesterday we got to go to "Queen" Grandma's house for a knights and princesses tournament.

The kids built catapults to help fight off this scary troll that had invaded the castle.

We all had a medieval style dinner of drumsticks, rolls, and fruits and vegetables. After dinner the kids dug for buried gold in the sandbox. Then they had to either answer a riddle or pay the troll a gold coin in order to cross the bridge over to the trolls territory. Once there they got to all help slay a dragon. Then they used some magic rings in a ring toss to help break the spell to turn the scary troll nice. Max even got to decorate his own shield, which he is still carrying around today.

Thanks for the fun time, Grandpa Marc and Grandma Sharon. It was a great night!

Bathroom Redo, After

So, I've been putting off posting about the bathroom because it's not officially finished yet. But I finally decided that since the only thing we still need to do is the back-splash, and who knows how long it will be before we get it done, I better just go ahead and post some after pictures of our bathroom and be done with it.



Here's the bathroom before.




And here it is now. I am SO happy with how it turned out. I ended up painting the cabinets pink and I LOVE them! I want to get some glass knobs for the drawers, but I haven't been able to find what I want yet.

I actually ended up moving our shower curtain from the master bathroom because I couldn't find anything I liked. I love this shower curtain, but knew I didn't want to keep it in the master bath anyway. The walls are a butter yellow. I think it is such a happy and friendly yellow.

We ended up spending more than I had originally hoped, but at only $500 I feel like we still did a pretty good job on a small budget. That covers wallpaper removal; paint for the walls, ceiling, door, baseboards and cabinets; new light fixture, faucet, floor, baseboards, towel rod and toilet paper holder; new towels and bathmat; and accessories/decorations.

It makes me happy every time I walk by and look in my beautiful, clean, new bathroom. (I do have to say that I think it's kind of ironic that the first bathroom we redid was already the NICEST bathroom in the house, if you can believe that.)

Goose on the loose

Cherry Hill

We finally made it to Cherry Hill after two years of trying. The weather was perfect and we had a great day playing in the water, going down the slides and hanging out with family. We went to celebrate Ellie's 4th birthday that is coming up this week. Max did not like the slides, but loved playing in the water. Both he and Emily just loved running around the kid pool. We got home at 8 that night and Max wanted to go straight to bed. By 8:30 both kids were bathed and asleep. Thanks for inviting us, Erin and Brian. We had a great time! (Also, thank you Mom and Brian and Erin for helping me out with my kids!)

We love hats!

Actually, Emily loves hats. And necklaces, crowns, dresses, purses, etc. I think it's funny that Emily is the one introducing Max to the world of dress up and not the other way around.

The Dinosaur Park

On Saturday, August 8th, we had one last family get together with Shannan and her family. Jim had flown in a couple of days before for his family reunion and we wanted to spend some time with him since he doesn't get to make it out to Utah as much as Shannan and the girls.

The original plan was to go to Cherry Hill, but once again we were thwarted by the weather. We decided that 70 degree weather and a high chance of rain would not be ideal for water fun so we went to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden instead.


The kids all enjoyed the dinosaurs, although I think Max thought they were real at first as was a little nervous.


Ellie and Malia were offered as lunch to this dinosaur by their fathers.




All six grandkids on my side of the family:
Kaitlyn, Malia, Emily, Ellie, Rachael, and Max

Poor Max being the only boy, but not for long. (I'm so excited for one of my sisters to finally have a boy!)






Emily and her Daddy. No family resemblance there, ha ha.










Max does this quit a bit. I'm not quite sure what the point is of the hands around the eyes.








Max and Malia, cooking up some dinner.




It was a fun day eating, playing and laughing. Afterwords we had dinner at our house and got the chance to play a couple of games before everyone had to leave.

Grandpa Marc and Grandma Sharon's house is a little kids wonderland. Me, my sister Shannan, and all 6 grand-kids had a BBQ with my dad last night and the kids just played, played, played. Max especially loved driving the jeep around the yard, and I thought he did a pretty good job steering for a three year old! Emily loved splashing in the pool and climbing in and on the playhouse and slides. (Max did not enjoy accidentally sliding/falling into the pool. He hates water in his face.) Other highlights included: playing in the Barbie room upstairs, digging in the sandbox, and water fights with Grandpa.

Oquirah Mountain Temple

The open house took a lot longer than I expected (around three hours), but I'm glad we got to go see the temple together as a family. It was also great to be able to go with three of my siblings, one brother-in-law, my mom, and all of my nieces. It's a beautiful temple and has an amazing view of the Salt Lake Valley.

Deso Trip, Day 5

Day five was pretty mild rapids. We were a little behind were we wanted to be so we were up early and trying to get on the river and get moving so that we could get home at a decent time. We spent the day rowing and had a few water fights along the way, which helped make the time go faster. We rafted up for lunch instead of pulling off to save time and got to the take-out around 2:00 pm.

My mom's trailer had broken down close to the put-in when Nick and Joey had taken off to run shuttle our first night. Luckily my mom had a Sat phone and was able to work things out for us to get a trailer to bring the boats and gear home in, thanks to her friend, Lee.

The last day you're always anxious to get off the river and home. Usually by the end of a trip everyone knows how to help and work together to get things done quickly and by 3:30 we were loaded up and headed home.

I was pretty anxious to see Max and Emily. I have the best in-laws in the world, who offered to bring our kids to our house instead of us having to drive the 2 hour round trip to pick them up, so we were able to get most of our stuff unpacked and put away before they got here. Max seemed pretty excited to be home and was his usual self, but Emily wanted nothing to do with me and would cry when I held her. It was pretty late when they got home so after Jeff's parents took off we put them to bed and she had mostly warmed back up to me the next morning and only wanted Mom tonight when Jeff got home, so I guess things are back to normal.

It was a great trip and so relaxing. Jeff did a great job rowing, I was so proud of him! Shannan said to me a couple of times that he looked as happy as a clam the entire time, and I think she was right. I especially enjoyed watching how much fun Kaitlyn and Rachael had. It made me so excited to bring Max and Emily in a few years.

Deso Trip, Day 4

Day four was my favorite part of the trip as far as rapids go. We had Joe Hutch rapid that day, which has become pretty big after a flash flood carried some big boulders into the river from a side canyon last year. It was probably the most technical and scary of all the rapids we faced and I was really nervous to run it. The last multi day trip I went on six years ago my mom, Jeff, and I flipped in Big Drop 2 on Cat and ended up riding through Big Drop 3 on the bottom of our boat. I've been a little scared of rapids since then.

The oarsman decided that Kaitlyn and Rachael should walk the rapid with their mom, and I admit that I wanted to walk the rapid, too, but I felt like I needed to be in Jeff's boat supporting him on his first big rapid. He did so great and hit the rapid just how he wanted to! I don't have any pictures, but I'll post some video that Shannan took when I get a copy.

After lunch the boys were ready to let someone else ride in the duckies, so Vanessa and Shannan took the two man and I took the one man. We had a couple of bigger rapids (Wire Fence and Three Fords) coming up and I was a little nervous being in a duckie all by myself, but I thought it probably wouldn't be to bad since the water level was pretty low.

Wire Fence and Three Fords have always been two of my favorite rapids on Deso since they have some nice big waves. I was getting more and more nervous as we got closer, but kept trying to tell myself I could do it and to just dig in. Wire Fence was big but fun and I thought that Three Fords would be about the same. Three Fords is really close after Wire Fence and as we were coming up on it, Shannan, Vanessa and I were starting to get really worried. The water basically funneled down the far right side of the river, being blocked by rocks all along the left side. As we were coming up on the rapid we could just see a big drop and lots of water spraying up. I thought for sure I was going to flip over as I watched Shannan and Vanessa go down the tongue and drop into the rapid. All I could think was, "Oh Crap!" and then, "Dig In!" as I followed them in. There were some huge waves and it was a fun and bumpy ride. I can't believe none of us ended up in the water and we all three hooped and hollered when we realized we had made it through. A couple of people told me later that it looked like my duckie caught air as I went up that first big wave. It was such a rush! My only disappointment is that I didn't get a photo or video of me riding through that rapid.

That night in camp we got a picture of everyone's Chaco tans. (Except Rachael and Dalin who weren't wearing Chacos.)

Deso Trip, Day 3

The rapids were bigger and funner this day, but still nothing too big.

Our campground that night was by Chandler Falls Rapid and was my favorite of our whole trip. We had a nice sandy beach and played a lot of horse shoes.

Jeff and I beat Dalin and Nick at horse shoes, which was another one of the highlights of the trip for me. They were both pretty cocky about their ability to beat us, which I'm sure added to the pleasure of winning! ;)

Deso Trip, Day 2

Day two we stopped to see some petroglyphs and a moonshiners cabin. We hit our first rapids, but nothing very big. The middle section of this trip is very pretty and we had a great campsite right below Firewater Rapid that night.

Rachael loved the rapids and just wanted more.

Kaitlyn loved playing games and talking at night in camp. She was always setting up everyone's chairs in a circle and trying to get everyone to sit down and play a game, any game. She didn't care what it was as long as we played something!

The highlight of the day was when we got to see a group of big-horned sheep run down the cliffs close to sunset. I didn't get any pictures with my camera, but it was amazing!