Food

As most of you know, I LOVE food.  I love cooking it, and I love eating it.  I love finding recipes to try and buying ingredients that I have never bought.  Food and I are friends.  Luckily my kids love it, too.  They are great sports with all the different things. 

Last Christmas my sister and her husband bought me a Paella pan on their trip to the Canary Islands.  For one reason or another that recipe has been on my list to make ever since and I kept putting it off.  But I finally did it.  It was fabulous!  I still have leftovers and I can't wait for lunch time.

Luckily, Greg and I also share a love for food.   He is very open and honest with me when it comes to all of my new recipes.  I sent him to the store the other day and he brought home some yummy surprises.  First he bought a HUGE slab of Gouda cheese.  No cheddar, just Gouda.  Luckily the kids liked it, they even said their grilled cheese was better than ever.  He also managed to find a new treat, stroop wafles from the Danish people.  Greg's brother served his mission over there and we had tried them before, but YUM.  Greg also bought these scrumptious raspberries and for the past few nights this has been our dessert after the kids go to bed.  

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Now, on a different note.  Remember how I am in a boot camp class for the next 5 weeks?  Well, thanks to that class I am now counting calories.  It is something that I have never done, and something that I can't see myself doing again.  But, I am making the most of this class and for the last week have been figuring out how many calories, carbs, protein and fat I have been eating.  It is a little annoying, but interesting at the same time.  Who would have guessed that a Cafe Rio salad would have almost 1000 calories while my yummy paella only has about 300.  It is also interesting to see that some days I eat a lot and the page is full, while other days my menu is very simple.  I look forward to seeing what the class instructor has to say.  Hopefully she doesn't suggest anything too drastic.

Even our little Callie has joined the ranks of eating food.  She loves it.  Here she is sucking banana through a mesh bag device.  I love it.  She loves it.  Food is AWESOME!!

Tigger

Three of my children were able to wear this costume.  I was going to make it a guessing game but due to the poor quality of pictures I am sure you could guess who was who easily.

 We bought the costume for Nathan.  What a cutie.  He was 7 1/2 months old here.

 

Why is Ryan's picture worse quality?  Who knows?  He, too, is 7 1/2 months.  Such different looks.

 And finally we have Callie.  I love digital pictures!!  She only gets to wear it once since we are shipping it off to cousin Jak.  I think Callie is a good mix of the boys.  Annabelle never got to wear the costume because she was too little and we lent it to another cousin that year anyway.  But here is my beautiful princess (she is the blue Sleeping Beauty-remember at the end when the blue fairy kept changing her?) all ready for a friend's Halloween party:

Fall Break 2010

  

It was a little crazy having all the kids home for two extra days last week.  I know at least one person loved it, Callie.  She absolutely LOVES her big brothers and sister.  We didn't do much, but we did have some fun together.  Whether for an hour at Traflaga or walking to the park, we had beautiful weather which made the whole weekend better.

 

 

 

 I bought a pass to Traflaga this next year and it is really nice to go for just an hour and feel like I am getting my money's worth.  The kids ride a few rides and then we can go home and get Callie into bed.  Annabelle tried the Lighthouse ride this time where you go up and then drop down.  She did great.  Then I told her the Frogger ride was just like it, which it wasn't.  It was a lot more jumpy and she did not like it one bit.  This time around they had the horse rides.  Crazy that my boys told me they were too old for them.  They did the bumper boats while Annie and I did the horses.  I like that it isn't a big place and I fell safe separating for a little bit.

 Annabelle got make-up for her birthday from a little friend and she literally painted her face one day.  This doesn't do it justice because she wiped some of it off.  Luckily she was okay when I said it was time to throw the rest away. 

 I don't know about you, but we have SO many flies in our house.  I had no idea we had so many fly swatters but it was a good thing they each had one.  They killed a few flies each this weekend and were SO proud when they did.

 

 

 I love walking to the park.  I love seeing my kids play together and ask me to take funny pictures of them.  Nathan and Ryan are the only boys in the neighborhood with a brother so close in age and I consider this very lucky.  Look at my two goofballs.  What handsome boys I have.  Down below they are looking for BBs.  For a couple years they have been collecting the air soft BB gun pellets.  They asked for their own gun this year.  I am not sure if I am ready for them to have BB guns, no matter how soft the pellets are.  Annie loves trying to be like her big brothers.  She hung upside like them, took a funny picture on the ropes like them, she idolizes them and all they do.  But I also love how sweet she is with her baby sister.  Seeing them together makes me smile and dream away to the many years they will have together as sisters and all the fun things they will do together.  I consider myself the luckiest mom in the world to have these 4 rascals.

 

 

 I am also the luckiest wife in the world.  Greg came home Friday night and played football with the boys and helped Annabelle hit a ball with a baseball bat.  He watched the kids for quite a few hours on Saturday so that I could go to the temple and to a baby shower.  It was my first time back to the temple since Callie was born and it was so wonderful and peaceful.  Saturday was a beautiful day.  Greg got his remote-controlled airplane working and took the kids to fly it.  Then we were back outside skateboarding and he even got Annabelle and Ryan to wash his tires.  Right before dinner (which Greg cooked), we were talking about going to a movie when I noticed Nathan not looking so good.  Sure enough he had a fever and so for the rest of Sat. and Sunday he rested.  He went to school today with no fever and he promised that he felt great.  I hope so. 

 

 

 

 

So there is a whole lot of pictures of our 4 day weekend.  Back to school and tonight I start a boot camp workout class.  4 days a week for six weeks, at night.  I will probably be so pooped that I won't have time to take any pictures let alone blog.  So this may be it for awhile.  Enjoy!

Free Time

Believe it or not a mother of four does have a little free time in her life.  It does help that both of the boys are at school all day and Annabelle is at preschool 3 times a week.  I have to admit that I love the me time I do get.  

I learned how to crochet and sew after Annabelle was born.  Because of that I had never made a blanket for the boys.  I can recall them reminding me about that after each little baby blanket I would send off to niece or nephew.  I kept telling them that I would eventually make them matching bedspreads.  I am happy to say that it is finally done!!  

 I used jeans from a collection of old jeans that has been piling up and up.  It was a great feat to cut them all into squares and I am happy that the pile is gone.  The back and the other squares are flannel and the blanket it is very soft and warm.  It is on their beds tonight.  Hopefully it will help them sleep in a little, especially since it is Fall Break.

 

I had a lot of fun making these skirts for Callie and Annabelle.  I need to find some cute white shirts to go with them and then I look forward to taking pictures of the girls in them. 

 She smiled for the camera!!  That is a feat in of itself.  Here I am showing off Callie's "baby legs" or legwarmers as I told the other kids.  I am sad it took me so long to make them since I feel it is already too cold to wear them.  Oh well, she looks so cute and she smiled for the camera!!

Growing Up

It is hard for me to believe that my little baby is already 5 and a half months.  She definitely is acting like it, but she is my baby so it seems to be happening faster than normal.  I love that she is growing up, I just forget how quickly it happens. 

 Here Callie is sitting on my lap to eat.  She hates being in any other chair, so far away from the family.  And notice her grabbing the spoon?  Yes, she thinks she can handle it.  I promised myself that I wouldn't feed her on my lap anymore, I just get too dirty. 

 For an after school snack the kids were decorating cookies.  Callie was chilling in her Bumbo chair just staring at the cookie and at Ryan.  She sat like this for a good ten minutes.  I'm not sure if she was thinking that she wanted the cookie, wondering what Ry was doing, or maybe not even thinking at all.

 Callie is our screamer.  I have never had a baby as vocal as her.  She isn't sad or angry, she is just wanting to be heard.  My cousin's youngest is like this and I must have thought too many bad thoughts about him and the Lord thought I needed to see how it was to have a screamer.  However, I still think she looks pretty cute.

Tonight we tried something new.  She was sitting in her high chair, not loving it, and if I wasn't putting food in her mouth than she was screaming (look at above picture).  Well, we were having bread sticks and I thought, "Let's see what she does if I just put the bread next to her lips with the garlic, salt, and Parmesan topping."  Well she quieted down and seemed to really like it.  So I handed her the whole thing and she LOVED it.  She sucked all the topping off and gummed the rest of it.  She may have gotten a couple tiny pieces in her mouth, but not much.  Maybe she is ready for some sturdy chewable solids.  I really loved how quiet she was with it.

Conference Weekend

What a great conference weekend.   Twice a year for my church they have a two-day conference where the prophet and other apostles and leaders speak.  It is inspirational and helps me to get more focused on what is right and good.  On Saturday we let the kids play while Greg and I listened.  In the morning I kept hearing (I was working on the boys quilts) talks about being better parents and having a happier home.  I don't think I can ever hear that enough, it is my constant goal.  Someday it will happen. 
In between the two sessions the boys both had soccer games, at the same time.  I went to Ryan's with Callie and Greg took Annabelle to Nathan's.  Grandpa Ray was awesome and showed up to both games.  Ryan played so hard!  He only got a break at quarters and the last few minutes.  His coach kept telling him that he was such a good runner and that is why he needed to be in.  Nathan scored his first goal of the season (sad I missed it).  To celebrate he picked out some yummy ice cream sandwiches on the way home.
We watched another session of conference and then Daddy headed off with his daddy and brothers to watch the priesthood session.  The kids and I had a blast outside in the nice fall weather.  The boys were playing some sort of rugby type game and getting a lot of energy out.  The girls and I lounged on a blanket and played on the neighbors swing set.  Thankfully bedtime was easier than normal.

 

 On Sunday morning we headed down to Grandma Pam's.  We brought cinnamon rolls and she had made an egg casserole--YUM!  She, Uncle Jeff and Aunt Bri had also set up the downstairs with a projector so we could all watch conference-very cool.  In between sessions we played games and headed up the canyon for a little fresh air. 

I don't know why, but I have been wanting my kids to walk in a creek.  I have lots of childhood memories of walking in creeks, and I wanted to see how they liked it.  Luckily they loved it, despite that the water was FREEZING!  It was so nice to be outside.  I just love the fall colors and weather.  Rich and Laurette came over for dinner with their son, Mckay.  Callie just wanted to grab him.  I did too with those big dimply cheeks. It was a great day.  As we drove home Nathan and Ryan figured out we had been at Grandma's for over 10 hours-so much fun!  We are so lucky to have her live close by.  I think I am ready to handle another week.  

Curious Callie at 5 Months

 It is amazing how time flies.  Our little baby is 5 months old now, and you can tell that she is growing up.  I was talking to a friend the other day and asked her if she thought it was okay that I was excited for Callie to be growing up (and not sad since she is our last).  She assured me it was no big deal, especially since she is my fourth.  I do love her babiness, but I love that she is getting older as well.

 Callie has been eating rice cereal for a month and now we have started to introduce other foods.  Here she is trying green beans.  She made some funny faces, but over a two-day period ate the whole jar.  Notice her fingers coming at the camera.  The title says curious Callie, and that is exactly who she is.  She tries to grab and touch everything.  She wants to feed herself.  She wants to be at the table with the rest of the family.  She reaches for phones, remotes, anything and everything.  She just thinks she is as big as her older siblings.  Above is her serious expression whenever I bring out the camera.  I can tell she is just trying to figure out what that "thing" is that mom always puts in her face.

 Callie is a screamer.  It isn't always an angry scream, but she likes to be heard.  I suppose with three older siblings she has learned at a young age how to get mom and dad's attention.  I love it, except in the car, I HATE it in the car.

Like I said earlier, Callie goes stoic when a camera is placed in front of her.  But she really is a happy, laughing and smiley baby.  So later today when I heard the laughter I just had to go and investigate.  Callie had woken up from her nap and her big sister Annabelle was the first to find her.  Annie started playing peek-a-boo and got Callie laughing really hard.  I had to be very sneaky to get that smile.  I love her smile.  I love this little bundle of joy.