Lily's View of Easter

A week or so before Easter I was having a conversation with Lily about what Easter was all about. I said, "Is it about the candy and eggs and treats?" And she thankfully replied, "No, it is about Jesus." So we started talking about why it was about Jesus. I briefly explained the Crucifixion and then asked her, "What happened after Jesus was in the tomb?" Hoping she would reply, the resurrection, I was surprised with her answer. She said in a very thoughtful, honest and disappointed way, "Jesus missed Easter." I laughed so hard! I explained that no, Jesus did not miss Easter, but that we have Easter because He was resurrected. I love digging into my children's minds. It is so fun and often times funny to see how they perceive things. I am so thankful for their innocence and simplicity.

Have Faith

After my last appointment with my midwife, she told me that the radiologist had sent her the results from my ultrasound. He is recommending that I go see a perinatologist for a higher level ultrasound and a possible high-risk pregnancy. The baby has some cystic collections by the choroid plexus, which is at the base of the head, near the brain, and an abnormally echogenic bowel with possible fluid in the bowels. I have done a lot of reading about these two things and had Adam give me a blessing and I have said many prayers. I have decided to have faith in the Lord and whatever His plan may be and I feel tremendous peace. I am so thankful for personal revelation.

As I thought about going to a perinatologist, I felt that it would do me no good. They would do more ultrasounds, stress me out more, want me to do amniocentesis, which I will not do, and in the end, all they could do is tell me what might be wrong, but not fix anything. If our baby has a chromosomal abnormality they can't do anything about it, and I will not choose to terminate my pregnancy on the condition that my baby may have something wrong with him. I am thankful for the miracle of life that is in me and grateful to the Lord for blessing me with this time. I don't know if the peace I feel means that he is whole or not, just that I know I am okay with whatever it may be. Both markers can be an indicator for Trisomy 18 which is fatal. Most babies are stillborn who have it. They usually have several markers though, not just one. I know we have two, but I still feel peace. The echogenic bowel can show up if the baby has swallowed blood, which I spotted a lot between 5 and 8 weeks and thought I was going to miscarry, but thankfully did not. So I am hoping that that is all it is from. Each of the things he has in and of themselves can often clear up on their own by the time the baby is born. I am hoping this will be the case, but if not, my trust is in God and I am relying on the peace He has given me.

When I was pregnant with the twins, Jameson also had an echogenic bowel, but after he was born and they did all his tests, they came back fine. I met with a genetic counselor and saw perinatologists, but it didn't change anything. I feel like my mental well being is extremely important for me during my pregnancy. I feel like it really affects my baby when I am stressed and concerned and I do not want that. Before I knew about the ultrasound results, I was so happy and excited. I felt like someone popped my balloon or took the wind out of my sails after I heard that he had some concerns. It is really an awful feeling. All the joy and excitement turns to stress, tears, and fear of the worst. I have turned those feelings around and am confident that the Lord will continue to strengthen me and bless me no matter what the outcome. Adam and I have turned to Joseph B. Withlin's talk from his last conference, "Come What May and Love It," and also from something said at this April's General Conference, which I don't remember who said it or the exact words, but basically, to not ask why this is happening to me, but to ask what I can learn from it. Both have helped us to feel better about the whole situation. And one last thing that was said, by I think Elder Uchtdorf, "Our future is only as bright as our hope." I have great hope and that coupled with my faith is helping me to be okay.

An Easter Surprise!

Ammon's Talk and Lily's Scripture

Ammon gave a talk in Primary on Sunday about obeying your parents. He gave the whole thing by himself! He memorized everything he was going to say and did a perfect job. I was so happy watching him. I kept thinking he might skip a part or forget something but he did even better in front of everyone than he had all the times we practiced. The only thing was that he was practically eating the microphone so it was really muffled and loud! It is such a neat feeling to watch your children grow in the gospel. He even shared his testimony at the end which he is usually reluctant to do even at home. Way to go buddy! Oh, I even got Ammon to wear his suit! He looked so handsome. I wish he would wear it more.
Lily was able to do the scripture and prayer. She had most of the scripture memorized (Exodus 20:12), but needed my help for all of it. It is a little scary to get up in front of all those people. She still did a great job and her prayer was sweet. She blessed everyone to have fun in primary that day about seven times. She is such a cutie!

Snowshoeing

From the top left of the picture, we hiked across that ridge and down through all the trees and around the lake bed behind us.

Looking down on the big hill.

The big hill we hiked down.

Our picnic rock with an awesome view of the lake.

Adam and I went snowshoeing yesterday up at Mt. Rose and had an absolute blast! It was so much fun! Thank you Margie for coming up to watch the kids for us! Grandma Margie came up Friday night and stayed over so not only did Adam and I get Saturday to play, we got to go to the temple together on Friday night for the first time since the week before Anna was born! It was really nice to be able to do both.

We hiked up and across a ridge near the summit of Mt. Rose and could see Lake Tahoe, Reno, Sparks, the mountains...we could see forever around us. It was so beautiful! We had a picnic on some huge granite rocks at the top where we could still see the lake. We hiked across the rest of the ridge and then down, down, down into the beautiful trees and out into an open meadow around a lake-bed and then out to the street. I would have died if we would have hiked back up the mountain, so we opted to hike out to road and shortcut the hills. The snow was so high along the road, too high to jump off and walk on the street, so we walked up, about 10 feet higher than the road on the snow. It was on a slant and I kept falling so I took off my snowshoes and just hiked with my boots. I preferred that over falling into the road and becoming road kill! That trail brought us right back around to where we started, thank goodness, because I was starting to get tired! We had so much fun! Snowshoeing is great, next year I'd like to try snowshoe running! Adam and I also want to try cross country skiing. There is so much to do out here, we love it! It was so nice to spend the day in the beautiful mountains doing something so fun with my very best friend! Thanks Adam for a great day, I love you!

Ratatouille

So, I don't know if any of you have been wanting to try Ratatouille since seeing the move but I certainly have. I finally made it the other day and I loved it! Adam and Ammon did not care for it, but Lily and Anna did. Also, my mother-in-law was up this weekend and tried some and she loved it too! Maybe it's a girl thing? So, if you decide to try it you can follow the recipe I used or follow the link to see her pictures, she also has some other tasty looking recipes. I would maybe use 1/4 of an onion and 1 clove of garlic instead of the 1/2 onion and 2 cloves. I have looked up several recipes in the past, but this is the closest to the movie's. Most others serve it like a stew with the veggies chopped but this recipe serves it sliced, just like in the movie and I personally think helps with the flavor. I only used 1/4 of an eggplant, 1/2 zucchini, 1/2 yellow squash and most of the red pepper. If you can find a small skinny eggplant it would work better. I had to use two or three slices of squash and zucchini over each eggplant slice to cover it because it was so large. Also, with the bell pepper, you can use red or orange. I made it twice this week, once with red and once with orange and they were both good. I end up just laying three slices of pepper on top of the zucchini because it wasn't working to layer like the recipe said. I also used dried thyme instead of fresh. I used an 8 ounce can of tomato sauce, not tomato puree. I served mine with couscous, yummy, but a messy choice with children. Warning, it will make your breathe stink! It is worth it to me though! It is super easy and really tasty, but does take a little bit of time to cut the veggies. http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/07/rat-a-too-ee-for-you-ee/

Ratatouille’s Ratatouille (As envisioned by Smitten Kitchen)
1/2 onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced

1 cup tomato puree (such as Pomi)

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 small eggplant (my store sells these “Italian Eggplant” that are less than half the size of regular ones; it worked perfectly)

1 smallish zucchini

1 smallish yellow squash

1 longish red bell pepper

Few sprigs fresh thyme

Salt and pepper

Few tablespoons soft goat cheese, for serving
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Pour tomato puree into bottom of an oval baking dish, approximately 10 inches across the long way. Drop the sliced garlic cloves and chopped onion into the sauce, stir in one tablespoon of the olive oil and season the sauce generously with salt and pepper.
Trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash. As carefully as you can, trim the ends off the red pepper and remove the core, leaving the edges intact, like a tube.
On a mandoline, adjustable-blade slicer or with a very sharp knife, cut the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and red pepper into very thin slices, approximately 1/16-inch thick.
Atop the tomato sauce, arrange slices of prepared vegetables concentrically from the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping so just a smidgen of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables. You may have a handful leftover that do not fit.
Drizzle the remaining tablespoon olive oil over the vegetables and season them generously with salt and pepper. Remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs with your fingertips, running them down the stem. Sprinkle the fresh thyme over the dish.
Cover dish with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit inside. (Tricky, I know, but the hardest thing about this.)
Bake for approximately 45 to 55 minutes, until vegetables have released their liquid and are clearly cooked, but with some structure left so they are not totally limp. They should not be brown at the edges, and you should see that the tomato sauce is bubbling up around them.
Serve with a dab of soft goat cheese on top, alone, or with some crusty French bread, atop polenta, couscous, or your choice of grain.

Some of Anna's Words

This video is long and Anna gets a little distracted and doesn't say much after doggie. I'll try again another time. I just had to capture her sweet voice. She is trying so hard to talk and is doing a good job. I love it when babies start talking. She is so much fun! P.S. Mute the sound on the playlist to hear the video.

Ammon and Lily's Conversations

These are old pics of the kids but it captures their silliness!

Monday the kids were talking about the Ice Road Truckers show, the guys who drive their diesels across the ice up in Canada in the winter. We watched it a few times while we were in Vegas. It has obviously been awhile since they have seen it and I don't know why they started talking about it. Anyway, Ammon was reminding Lily of how sometimes the ice breaks and the truckers fall through and die. Lily had the perfect solution, "If they'd had floaties..."! Okay, I totally busted up laughing to myself. Then they started laughing, not because of me, but because they started talking about how the truckers could have used a baby tube and that would have been silly because they would look like babies! Are you laughing yet?! Can you imagine these big burly truckers wearing floaties and baby tubes and see Ammon and Lily laughing about it? I think my kids are hilarious!

A few weeks ago we were talking about bedtime and I was reminding the kids that they need to not talk, but sleep. I already mentioned how Ammon sleeps in Lily's room. Lily said to me, "Yeah mom, I'm real snappity about talking!" Me, "Really?" Lily, "Yes! I snap snap snap and I talk talk talk!" Then Ammon piped up in a totally serious voice, "Yeah, and you need to be quiet because I got a lot of hard work at school for three months and then I go to second grade." Where do these kids learn to talk?

Yesterday Ammon was telling us about a kid in his class who he doesn't like because he is mean. He talks about this boy a lot. Yesterday the boy asked Ammon for an eraser and he let him borrow one and then he asked for another...until finally Ammon had given him all his erasers. When Ammon asked for them back the boy wouldn't return them. Now, this is coming from a six-year-old and I don't know how accurate his stories always are and Ammon tends to be a little bit dramatic. I told him to ask the boy nicely today to give them back and if that did not work to explain it to his teacher and get her help. So we were talking about this for awhile and suddenly Lily throws out her arms like a referee saying SAFE and says in a totally serious and adult like-Lily voice, "Ammon, lets just respect this conversation. You need to go and talk to your principle." Ammon replied, "No Lily, this is a little problem and I can work it out on my own." Good boy Ammon! I love it when the kids use words in the wrong way or think it means something it doesn't. They are growing up so fast and learning so much. They make me smile with the silly things they say. I love them!

The kids love Martha Speaks on PBS. Yesterday they learned the word STUPENDOUS. They used it all day long. They called everything stupendous and most of the time Lily kept saying "stupenous!" I think my kids are stupendous!

Government

The kids were just watching "Saul of Tarsus," from the Living Scriptures New Testament video collection. Lily said, "Mom, they put all the mommys and kids and daddys and grandpas in jail!" Me, "Because they believed in Jesus?" Lily, "YES, that is so mean!" Then Ammon piped up and said, "That is what the government does to you when they get too much power." I guess you can kind of tell the way Adam and I talk around our kids about our government. It is sad that our government has taken so many of our freedoms away and so many of us don't even realize it! Most people think that it is the government's job to take care of us from cradle to grave and are willing to give up so much for that to happen. It is scary! If you want to read something awesome and eye opening read "The Proper Role of Government," by Ezra Taft Benson. It was written in the 1960's but it is not all out-dated. I wish we would all live by this. It is a little bit long, but worth every minute it will take you to read it. http://www.zionsbest.com/proper_role.html
"The first and greatest battle lies in the heart of every living person."(Living Scriptures Video, Mormon and Moroni)

Spring is Here!

Our T-ball stand broke so Lily and Anna filled up the dump truck with rocks from the yard and made a little stand for the t-ball pole so they could play. Such smart little girls! Lily is getting good and can't wait for T-ball to start. Ammon is excited too. I can't wait to watch them play!

I am loving this nice weather! The kids and I have had a blast playing outside all week. It has been in the 60's every day. It feels so nice to have the sun warm me up and actually feel HOT outside! We have had several picnics, played T-ball, tried getting rid of rocks and weeds in the yard, turned on the sprinklers (haven't run through them yet, although Lily has put on her swimsuit and keeps begging me to let her), played in the dirt and been so dirty! It has all been so much fun! I love great weather!

How Much Do You Pay?

I am wondering how much to pay for babysitters. Do you pay depending on the age of the sitter, how many kids, how much they need to do while they are watching your kids...? It has been awhile since we have had a sitter and I want to be able to pay one well enough that they are willing to come back, but not so much that I can't afford to go out. Please let me know what you think. If you don't want me to publish your comment I won't post it. All comments are emailed to me first. Thank you!

Messes

What does your toddler do when you are busy? Mine dumps out whatever she can get her hands on! This is a normal occurrence around our house. You think I would get smart and move the cereal to a different place... Oh well, thanks to our broom it doesn't take too long to clean up.

The Mountains

Here is a neat picture of Adam and Anna at Mt. Rose on Saturday. We go up almost every weekend to enjoy the beautiful wintry mountains and to sled. It is so much fun!

St. Patrick's Day

We had a fun breakfast for our St. Patty's morning. I made green German pancakes and green milk. The kids thought it was so cool, even though it is the same thing I do every year. Adrienne, did you do this breakfast? When I was about 10 we were at my uncle Kenny's and he and Johanna and my mom made us this for breakfast. We thought it was the coolest thing ever, at least I did! So, I have continued the tradition with my kids.

Ammon had a great idea for family home evening the night before to make a playground for the leprechauns. We used styrofoam, I hate that stuff, it is so messy, green foam paper, toothpicks and marshmallows. The kids were excited to see that the leprechauns had enjoyed the playground and a few marshmallows and left them each a dime! Holidays are so fun with kids!

Problem Solving

Last week I made the mistake of getting down a treat for Lily, who had finished her lunch, just as Anna woke up and was getting ready to eat hers. Yeah right! Like Anna is going to eat her bowl of rice when she sees Lily with a piece of chocolate. Ha ha! I would choose the chocolate, wouldn't you?! Well, I tired to give Anna her lunch anyway, and it was met with crying and refusal to eat. So I took her out of her high chair and decided we would just go run errands instead of battling over mealtime. Lily wanted to share her treat but I told her no because that would teach Anna that all she had to do was cry and throw a fit and then she would get what she wanted. While I was getting ready to go, Anna was still crying, it had only been about a minute or two since I had taken her out of her highchair, she suddenly stopped crying and disappeared. She came back into the kitchen carrying the stool from the bathroom. She placed it right next to the fridge and climbed up on it and tried reaching the top of the fridge, which is where I put the treat bag. It was so cute! She barely reached halfway up even with the stool. She didn't care though. She was determined to get that treat bag. What a sweetheart! I thought it was so neat that she figured out a solution to her problem all by herself! What a smart little girl. By the way, no I didn't give her a treat. I grabbed some fruit snacks for her to nibble while we were at the store. Thankfully we ended up at Costco and they had samples, so Anna got her lunch after all!

Bed Time

All the doll toys between the crib and dresser and bed and crib. Lily's little fortress. Cute girl!

Happy Kids!

Ammon is scared of sleeping in his room, so he camps out on Lily's floor every night. I think he feels left out since Lily and Anna get to share and he is all alone. Last week Lily had the brilliant idea of moving Anna's crib next to her bed so she, Lily, wouldn't be scared. The first night was out of control. All the kids were up way later than normal laughing and playing and making tons of noise. I went in to tell them to go to sleep and Lily had unloaded her entire doll box between her dresser and the crib and her bed and the crib. Lots of it ended up in Anna's crib too. It was hilarious. It was pretty messy, but she did clean it all up the next morning. She was building a ice safe-zone around the crib for her and Anna. So silly. Ammon has liked this set-up because he no longer has to sleep next to Lily's bed and imagine all the scary things that might be under it. He is so much happier with it this way. The only problem is that it makes it difficult fot Lily to get in and out of her bed and impossible to open her dresser drawers. I moved it back the way it is supposed to be last night while the kids where busy and when I went in later, Ammon had moved it back by Lily's bed! He promised he would switch it in the morning. He really hates being next to Lily's bed. She doesn't have a bed skirt so you can look right under her bed. He always builds a nice blockade with stuffed animals and pillows so he can't see under it. Kids are so funny!

Sleepy Baby

I moved Anna's naps back about an hour and a half. She is so ready for her naps now. The other day she fell asleep in her highchair, it was so sweet. I love sleepy babies! Her head was nodding and her eyes kept opening and closing until finally she was sound asleep!

Wavy Hair

Lily always wants her hair curly, but it is hard with it short. The other day we did twists all over and it turned out pretty cute. She has agreed to grow her hair long again, we'll see if that lasts.

My Van

Okay, I don't know if any of you watched Oprah yesterday, thanks to Keri telling me about it, I watched. It was her Clean up your messy house tour show. She had a family on there and she brought in their car which was very messy. I just wanted to clarify that my van did not and does not look like her car. In defense of myself, I have never lost anything in my car, never been able to not find a gift I purchased and placed in my car, never had my kids grow out of bottles or clothes that were left in the car and there is always enough room for my whole family. When I told Adam about this he laughed. He said that was a pretty low standard to compare myself to. Just to let you know, my van is not always perfectly clean, but it isn't so out of control that it would take me an hour to just sort through the trash in my car with the help of Oprah's staff. My kids and I can usually de-junk the van in about 10 minutes and vacuuming always takes much longer. Since my episode last week, I am proud to say that what goes into the car always comes out when we get home. We have been doing a good job and I am trying to train the kids to be cleaner and more organized. One thing they said on Oprah's show was that when you don't take care of what you have you are teaching your children that it is okay to be irresponsible. Definitely a message I don't want to be sending to my kids. By the way, I organized my whole closet yesterday before I even knew about the Oprah show! Adam came home late and after I told him about the show he noticed the closet and said, "You should watch that show more often!" Silly guy! He makes me laugh. Yes, I do clean things on my own initiative!

Two Pigs in the Mud!

So, I started a carpool this week with a family in my neighborhood. She drives to school and I pick up. On Monday, the first day of carpool, I picked up Ammon and Breydon, who is 7 1/2. When Breyden got in and sat down he said, "It smells like two pigs in the mud in here. Maybe I have been smelling too many ferrets, they stink!" I tried so hard not to laugh! You have to understand that Adam is always telling me my car smells and looks like a barn. In my defense, I think most of you with three kids might understand that snacks get left in the car and smashed into the carpet... Anyway, Tuesday, I made sure I cleaned out the van and vacuumed it really well so Breyden didn't make any more farm comments! He hasn't said anything about it stinking since Monday, so hopefully we'll be okay. I should probably get an air freshener or get the upholstery shampooed to help out. Hope this made you laugh and not think I am disgusting. I guess I just have different priorities, and keeping my van in tip-top shape isn't #1. I do care about being clean though, I am just not meticulous about my van. I did want to share something from President Monson that Adam shared with me this morning. "If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly." (Finding Joy in the Journey Oct. 2008 General Conference). Even though my van smells like two pigs in the mud, my kids and I are happy!

Our Newest Family Picture!

Adam and I have been talking about how badly we need and want a new and recent family picture. Well, here it is...

We woke up to about 3 or 4 inches of snow yesterday! It was so pretty! You know, I really wouldn't mind it being cold if we actually had snow to play in. It was mostly gone by the time Ammon got home from school, but Lily and I went out during the afternoon and built our little family. Lily rolled daddy all by herself! I used our poor snowman from last week for me, but had to roll a new head. Lily helped pick out all the hats and scarves and wanted to dress the baby, Anna, so she wouldn't be cold. I told her she would be okay, but she still wrapped her up with two scarves just to be safe, what a good little mommy she will be! We had a lot of fun. We love the snow!

Well, I like everything about the snow except for driving in it. Poor Adam was stuck in traffic for 2 1/2 hours on his way to work. It normally takes 30-35 minutes to get to work, but not yesterday! The roads get so backed-up when it snows, it's ridiculous. Adam left at 7:20 and I called at 8:00 hoping he was at work and he was only 2 miles down the street! I called again at 9:00 and he was almost to I-80. He finally called at 9:45 and had just pulled in to the parking lot at work. Aggravation! I am glad I didn't have to go out!