T-Ball

My cute kids before their first game!

Ammon up to bat for the first time, yes he is a lefty!

Ammon at first base, good throw!

Lily out field.Ammon running home.

The team with Coach Rob after the game.

Ammon and Lily enjoying their treats!

Ammon and Lily had their first t-ball game tonight. They were so cute! I laughed so hard during the game, as well as the other parents. Watching little 5 and 6 year-olds who know very little about baseball try to play the game is quite entertaining. They would all run to get the ball when someone hit it and they would usually end up crashing into each other and then fighting over it on the ground, sooo funny to watch! Ammon and Lily did a great job and I am really proud of both of them. Lily was up to bat last during the first inning so she got a home run. So in the second inning when she was up to bat again, she ran all the bases, passing her teammate on 2nd. It was hilarious. Everyone was yelling at her, not in a mean way, she was so confused. Her coach gave her a high five as she ran to home an then he told her to run on to 1st and stop. She is a sweetie. Ammon played first base the 3rd inning and did a good job. It took him a few minutes to catch on, but he did really well. The girl who was there before him was totally out to lunch. She was sucking her thumb and didn't even pay attention to the fact that the ball was coming to her. It was hilarious! She was just happy to be out there. I am so glad the kids have a great coach. He is so laid back and just wants the kids to have a fun time. I am glad he doesn't overdo it or we would probably not be playing! Maybe I am crazy, but I think more than once a week is too much for these little kids. Thankfully the kids only have a few weeks with two games, most are only one, phew! It takes a lot of time, which I don't mind spending on the kids, but really, they are so small... Anyway, sorry about that. All in all the kids had a great time and were very happy about their game. We wish daddy could have been there! We missed you!

Tea Party

The kids and I went to the TEA Party up in Carson City last Wednesday. I hope some of you had an opportunity to attend one. I know the media tried to make it look like there were just a bunch of freaks out there who didn't know what they were doing or why they were there, but I'll tell you there were mostly very American every day citizens there along with me, protesting how our government is running and ruining things and taxing us too much! I was really inspired by some of the things the speakers said and was happy to play a part of the history of our nation. Overall, the turnout across the nation was larger than the crowds who showed up in Boston on December 16, 1773, and I hope that the effects will bring about as great of a change for us as it did for them. I don't know if we will have a full-blown revolution as in war, but there are a lot of people out there who are getting really tired of our government taking all our freedoms away and interpreting the constitution improperly. I hope change is coming! Adam and I listened to a speech by Chief Justice Clarence Thomas last week and it was so awesome! I wish all the Justices were as honest with themselves, God, and our forefathers as he is. Adam had the opportunity to take a class with Justice Thomas while In Law School. What a neat experience that was for him. I wish we had more good men and women in elected office.
When I told the kids we were going to Tea Party they were a little confused. I told them we weren't going to drink any tea and Lily asked if they were going to have water. So cute! It was neat to take that time to teach a little history lesson about the Boston Tea Party and explain what protest means and to go together to take part in it. They actually enjoyed it and had fun!

We didn't take any of our signs, but Lily made her own American Flag in the car with her markers when we got there, but then she forgot to grab it because we were so busy bundling up. It was freezing cold! I think it was only around 36 degrees that day!

I don't know if you can see, but there are tea bags hanging on the tree behind Ammon.

This is one of Adam's favorite quotes by Thomas Jefferson.This was a statue they had that is suppossed to represent the Boston Tea Party. It is a contemporary version of the Statue of Libery and is called The Hand of Order.

I don't know if you've ever read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, but this is from her book. The yellow sign says "Who is John Galt." I read the book last summer and loved it. I think it should be a must-read for everyone! It is really long, around 1100 pages of tiny print, but it is quick reading. I loved every minute of reading it and was sad when it was over. I highly recommend it!

I love this Don't Tread On Me Flag! The first time I saw it was on the John Adam's Videos by HBO. It is a seven video series and so wonderful. We have them if anyone wants to borrow them. I love history, thanks to Adam. I didn't care much about it before and I feel ashamed to say it. Since marrying Adam that has changed. He majored in history at BYU and is very active in what is going on. He is a great example to me and has opened my eyes to so much. Please understand and study the history of our nation and love it! Teach it to your kids and help them know what our founding fathers believed in and fought for! Thanks Adam!

Everyone was honking and making noise. It was really a lot of fun and the kids were so excited about being able to honk all the way down Carson Street to show our support. They had a lot of fun and so did I!

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!