Day four and day five - Sunday trip to the temple and coming home

After church we went to the temple to take family pictures and individual pictures of the kids. Their pictures are on the side bars and these are the family pictures.
I think I want to go to our temple here and re-do the girls pictures. I didn't get to curl their hair like I wanted to.

Then we went to Jeanette's for our Easter family dinner. I don't know what it is about Sunday afternoons, but after dinner we crashed as we do every Sunday afternoon.
We had a nice visit with family that evening and then we were off to bed.

Monday morning, Matt made breakfast while I got everything ready to pack into the car. We left Jeanette's and picked up the girls at my mom's house. Then we headed home. It was a nice vomit-free trip home. The kids watched Despicable Me, Tangled, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1.



This is a picture of Marni's 4 younger girls and my 4 girls. They are inseparable when we come here!

If you are reading this and you live there and I didn't contact you, I am truely sorry. It really was a busy and exhausting weekend. Hopefully next time.

Day three - Matt's Grandma J's 80th birthday party

Saturday morning first thing Matt and I made a potato salad for Matt's grandma J's birthday party celebration. Then we headed over to my mom's house. I left Matt there to work on her house doing some electrical work and Marni and I went shopping! We went to Goodwill where on Saturdays they have a 50% off everything sale. Since I had lost my weight, I didn't have any pants or jeans to wear. I was so happy with what I found and at less that $5 per piece, jeans, capris, shorts, skirts, etc. I took Jileigh with us too. She got a couple of pairs of jeans too and a couple of skirts.
We barely made it home in time to pick up Matt and the kids and head to the birthday party. Matt's whole family was there and all of Matt's moms living sibling. It was a nice family reunion for Matt and his family. All of Grandma J's grandkids sang a song to her from the Children's songbook: Grandmothers. The last picture is of Matt and his siblings and 3 of his 4 first cousins on his mother's side.

That evening Matt went with his brother's to his uncle's house and I took the kids to my moms. I finally got a chance to visit with her for a while.

Day two continued - Jaren's baptism and Easter Pageant

Jaren's Baptism turned out wonderful. Matt's mom and sibling were there with their families and Matt's Grandma J. My mom and two sister's and their families and Nathan were there. Marni and Matt's mom Cynthia gave the talks and all the cousins sang a song. My mom and Nathan gave Jaren a set of Scriptures and the case for his birthday and baptism.

That night we all headed to the temple to watch The Easter Pageant! I grew up watching it every year, so it was a wonderful experience to share this with my children.

Day one and day two - Our Easter weekend trip

We made the plans to go to my mom's for Easter weekend for several reasons as you will read. We spent two days packing so we could leave at a decent time Thursday after the kids were out of school. We were only on the road for about two hours when Jaren's stomach gave out. Then it was Talon's turn and then it was Beau's. Elody was crying because she was sick of her car seat. This is the point, only half way there, that I was asking myself, 'Why am I doing this???' Most of the stomach contents made it into bags, but some did not. I did have a container of wipes with me and put it to good use. We realized we didn't start out our trip with a prayer, so at that point we had our prayer and everything was fine after that.

The next day, Friday, as soon as it was noon, we were in the pool. It was a little bit cold, be we got use to it quick enough. The kids had a good time together. We stayed at my sister's house (Jeanette) while my girls stayed at my mom's house because Marni's family lives there. Then the kids did the annual dyeing of the eggs. When we were done with that we had to get ready for Jaren's Baptism! See next post.

Who is this masked little girl?!

While I was inside trying to get things packed for our Easter weekend trip, Elody and Beau were outside playing. Well, this is what Elody looked like when she came in. I don't think she covered herself with mud on her own! So I took some pictures and then cleaned her up.

Safia's friends birthday party face painting

Safia came home from her friend Alyssa's birthday party with her face painted. It looked cute so we took a picture of it!

Freeze threat to our garden!

April 8th we woke to the beginning of snow. Talon and I ran outside to assess what to do to save our garden. Our large tarp had some compost on it, so we bagged it all up and use the tarp to cover the garden. Then I took him to school, late, and came back home. I could see that the snow was piling up on the tarp so I took a broom and pulled off what snow I could and then found some buckets and put them in the isle to hold up the tarp from off of the plants. It snowed for 5 hours! That evening we found buckets and boxes and covered every plant. It did freeze the next morning and we were able to save our plants!

My yummy nutritious muffins

Due to several requests, I am happily posting my muffins recipe on my blog. Let me know if you try these and what you think! The original recipe is from www.americastestkitchen.com

Banana Muffins
2 C all-purpose flour (I usually use 1 C mixed grain flour, ½ C hard white wheat flour, and ½ C all-purpose flour. If I am serving these to others other than my kids, I do 1 C all-purpose flour and 1/2 C mixed grain flour and 1/2 C hard white wheat flour.)
½ C sugar (I use ¼ C raw sugar and ¼ C honey)
¾ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt (I use sea salt)
3 very ripe bananas mashed well (appx 1 ½ C)
6 T butter, melted and cooled (I use 4 T olive oil)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
¼ C plain yogurt (I use buttermilk)
1 tsp vanilla
1 C chopped nuts, optional (I use walnuts)
½ C chocolate chips, optional
1/2 C natural peanut butter, for banana-peanut butter-chocolate chip muffins

Whisk the dry ingredients together. Mix bananas, eggs, honey, sugar, yogurt, butter or oil, (peanut butter if using it) and vanilla together in a separate mixing bowl. Gently fold the banana mixture with the flour mixture. Then fold in nuts and chocolate chips. Do not over mix.
Bake in a greased muffin pan at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean or with only a few crumbs on it.

Pumpkin Muffins (apply to recipe above)
Instead of bananas, use 1 ½ C cooked pureed pumpkin. Then add:
2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp all spice
1/8 tsp cloves
Increase the sugar to 2/3 C sugar (1/3 C raw sugar and 1/3 C honey)

Blueberry Muffins
Instead of bananas, use
1 C defrosted or fresh blueberries
1 C applesauce

Apple Muffins
Instead of bananas:
¾ C bottled apples or sautéed apples
¾ C applesauce
Fill muffin tin with batter ¾ full. Add crumb topping on top of each muffin batter before baking.

Crumb topping (24 muffins)
2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp all spice
1/8 tsp cloves
1 C rolled oats
3 T raw sugar or brown sugar
3 T mixed grain flour
¼ C melted butter

Mixed grain flour
Equal portions of the following grains put through a grain mill:
soft white wheat
buckwheat groats
oat groats
brown rice
millet
kamut
popcorn
rye
spelt
barley

If you don't want to use all ten of these, you can start with maybe buckwheat, brown rice, barley, oat groats, and millet. Add a grain or two as you go. Or you can just use half white flour and half wheat flour. It's up to you! Enjoy!!!

Garden project part 2

Read part 1 first if you haven't yet. So after we got all the clay soil out we had to fill it back in again. We bought some sand from a rock company, some compost from the dump, so quality compost/soil from a landscaping company and got a couple of load of soil from a guy from Matt's work that has some property 30 minutes north of here. We filled in our garden plot and then Matt decided to put a chain link fence around it with a long swinging gate. Now it is protected from the chickens, the dog, and the little kids. Just the wind and rain and hail are our fears. As long as the wind a rain are mild, the plants will be ok. We just literally pray that we don't have any freak hail storms like we did last year.

A couple of weeks ago we planted carrots, onions, beets, peas, potatoes, spinach, and romaine lettuce. We also planted an apricot tree in the chicken area. Yesterday Jileigh and I planted 24 tomato plants, 2 bell pepper plants, some zucchini, yellow straight neck squash, Brussels sprouts, Swiss chard, okra, parsley, basil, cilantro, and cucumbers. Here's hoping we have a successful garden this year! We also planted two elderberry bushes next to the blackberries and a cherry tree out front.

At the beginning of the day, Talon was helping us unload dirt and jumped out of the trailer. He landed on a rock and ended up spraining his ankle. I guess that's one way of getting out of a lot of work!

March 29th Happy Birthday to Me!

I woke up with a positive attitude about my birthday. I happily made breakfast and got my kids off to school. Before I ate, I stepped on the scale. Oh yeah! I finally hit my goal, my ideal weight! (129.4 lbs. at 5'9") I was about 180 after having Elody almost two years ago. I weaned her by the end of last August and was down to 161. Then I took off almost two months to recover from my surgery. Now at the end March I feel good and can fit back into my clothes that I had before I started having children. I posted pics of me after having Elody and of me on my birthday March 29, 2011.

Anyway, I went for a nice bike ride with my s-i-l and then went to our weekly picnic at the park. It was a gorgeous day outside! After school we went to scouts where we teach the webelos. We have had this calling since last November. It has been a challenge for me. It's just not my thing. Anyway, later the bishopric counselor called us in and released us. Whoo Hooo! Matt has been wanting to go into boy scout to be the assistant Scout Master and the scout master finally convinced the bishopric to let him!

My dessert is peanut butter fudge. It is my newest sweet treat that is not a bad sweet but a good one!

Peanut Butter Fudge from Health Home Happiness

½ C raw butter (pasteurized butter is ok too)
½ C natural peanut butter
¼ C virgin coconut oil
¼ C raw honey
3 T cocoa powder
Dash of salt

Whip all ingredients in a Kitchen aid mixer.
Line an 8 x 8 casserole dish with plastic wrap.
Pour PB fudge on plastic wrap and smooth out evenly
Freeze for about 2 hours or so.
Pull the fudge out of the freezer and out of the dish using the plastic wrap.
Cut into 1 inch squares and place in a plastic container.
Cover with a lid and keep refrigerated.

Also, my kids have been begging me plenty over the past year to try on my wedding dress once I lost all my weight. When they heard me rejoicing, they insisted that I try it on. So... here I am, almost 15 years later. It's kinda cheesy!

rip stick fun

Talon received a rip stick for Christmas after asking for one for three years. The kids loved it so much that when we found another one on clearance to picked that one up too. Beau decided he wanted to ride on it too and Talon went for it. He put him on with him and away they went. Angelique decided she wanted to try it too with Elody and away they went. They have so much fun together. When Elody is upset or just wants Mama when Mama is busy, the girls will roll around on the rip sticks with her.