Spinach

Jaxon likes to literally eat spinach raw out of the bag.  I fully support it.

San Tan Flat II

After I had a nap on Saturday we realized we only had a few hours left in the day to do something fun for the weekend.  So, we went somewhere close, affordable, kid friendly, and delicious!  

San Tan Flat!

Daddy, J, and Hen, and Batman too because he goes everywhere with Henry, of course.

 Mama & Ollie with my yummy salon salad!

 Throwing wood into the fire.  These boys love it!

Caramel Apples

The boys have been watching Enchanted and since Giselle eats a caramel apple they wanted to make some.  

 Henry ended up running around while Jaxon did all the work!

 All done!  We ate a little bit of the caramel, but ended up peeling it off to eat the apples!  It was a fun project to do with little Jaxon.

A Little Too Much

Oliver gets so much love from his brothers it scares him sometimes.

Oliver loves Oma

As you can see, Henry is still in the habit of falling asleep while eating.

You Used What?

One of my New Year's goals this year is to switch over to as many natural products as possible so we can avoid having harmful and unnatural chemicals in our home (but that's another post...).  

So, a few weekends ago Devin and I made our first real visit to Whole Foods.  I had stopped in once before, but didn't have much time to browse.  In a store like that, where most things are new and unfamiliar, it takes time to read packages and labels so we wanted to take a trip without the distraction of the kids.  My fabulous mother-in-law watched all 3 kids so we could go with Elisha, Josh, and Reina.

The guys kind of separated from the girls to go check out some other things.  I was checking for cleaning products and shampoo and Devin was trying to find the yogurt he needed to make the vegan chocolate cake for my brother's birthday.

Josh had found some sausage samples the store had out and invited Devin to try them.  After picking up a toothpick from the pile and eating the sausage off the end, Devin realized he grabbed a toothpick from the USED pile.  SICK!  When he told us what he had done, we were cracking up in the store and making jokes about how nasty the person could have been that used it before him and how he might get sick.  We couldn't believe he made such a gross mistake!  His stomach did bother him the rest of the night, but it was probably psychological...

Weekend Sickies

This was kind of a strange weekend.  Friday we were home and I was able to get some work done, which was nice.  Devin even helped with some painting.

Saturday Devin worked and I took the kids to a birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza, which was cra-zy!  There was so much going on in there...lights flashing, games making noise, tons of kids running everywhere...not quite my thing.  I get too nervous that my kids will get lost or stolen.  But, once Devin got there to help it was better.

Then, Sunday we stayed home from church because we were all little sickies.  Jaxon and Henry have had a cough, but then Henry started to have a fever.  My throat was sore.  Oliver had been up most of the night before because he was coughing so I slept in the recliner with him.  That means I didn't really sleep.  He slept all day Sunday and barely ate anything.  He did have a cough for a few days like the other boys, but I don't worry too much about a cough.  But once he stops eating, I start worrying.

I feels like all I did this weekend was paint, nap, and take care of poor little Oliver.  Devin and I didn't get any time together, which is a bummer.  I will be taking Oliver to the doctor this morning.

One fun thing we did was make a chocolate cake.  My brother's birthday was this month so Devin made him a vegan chocolate cake.  It was SO delicious.  Since we gave that one away, Devin made another non-vegan one.  It was also SO delicious.  I have a few pounds to lose and these yummy desserts aren't helping!

Oh, that reminds me, I ran on Saturday!  It felt so good.  I ran 2 miles in 20 minutes so it wasn't my usual pace, but I will work up to it.  I'm a little sore in my inner thigh and shin muscles, but those are the only places.  I guess one run in with Jillian Michaels was enough to prepare my muscles for running.

Logan's Roadhouse

Since running errands on Saturdays pretty much takes the whole day, we have been going out as a family for dinner.  As long as we pick a place where the boys don't have to be perfectly quiet, we have a great time!  

Last week (Oliver's 1 month birthday!) we went to Logan's Roadhouse.  I had never been there before.  It was really yummy and so much fun to be out with my boys!  

I'm so blessed to have such an amazing husband to be an example to our precious sons.

Henry is a little goofball!

Singing and dancing to the music in the restaurant.

Oliver was a trooper and slept the whole time so I could enjoy some warm food!

Mama and her boys!

Oliver has put on a few pounds:)  Look at his chin!

What I Learned from Canning 50 Pints of Jam

We don't eat jam.

About a year ago my bff Joy (who moved away and I miss terribly!) and I canned tons of jam.  We did strawberry and raspberry for the shelf and some for the freezer too.  We were so excited to be stocked up with jam for our food storage.  Little did I know I rarely ever use jam.  Nor does Devin.

So, now a year later, how many pints of jam do I have left?  47.

Nana's Cookies

These are some cookies the boys made with Nana.

Look at these goofballs!  They sure love going to Nana and Papa's house!

And we made it through the weekend without a baby yet...

San Tan Flats

This past weekend we went to San Tan Flats for family dinner Friday night.  It was so much fun!  The restaurant is inside, but you can take your food outside and eat by a fire.  Then, you can roast marshmallows.  They usually have a band play on the weekends, but there wasn't one there the night we went.  The food was surprisingly not overpriced either!

The boys loved the fires and being outside.  It was a fun family night out!

Thanks Elisha and Josh for the gift card!

And today is my LAST DAY doing daycare!!!  Hallelujah!!!

Holidays = Family Time

After having family dinner at Elisha's, we had a few activities to do.

Henry kept busy with the stickers.

 Devin and Mom tried making candy canes.  It was a fun activity, but without a candy thermometer, they didn't come out quite right.  But it was really fun doing it together!

 Somehow, Henry knew it was candy and immediately wanted a taste.

Next, Nana cut out cookies with the boys.  

 Jaxon loves doing projects!

 So cute!

 Look at his little apron!

 Time to decorate!

We sure do love spending time with family.  The holidays are such a wonderful time of the year!

Pumpkin (Chocolate Chip) Cookies

I found a recipe on a blog and changed it a bit and now these are my favorite cookies!

Heat oven to 350.

2 cups sugar
1 cup butter

2 eggs
1 15 oz can of pumpkin
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp clove

4 cups flour

optional:  nuts, chocolate chips


Cream together sugar & butter.
Add and mix everything else except the flour.
Then add and mix in the flour.
If you are crazy and like cookies with nuts and chocolate chips, add those now.  If you know me well, you know that I don't like either anywhere near my cookies.

Grease the cookie sheet and bake for 14 minutes.  Remove right away and cool on a cooking rack.

Yields 30-35 cookies, depending on how big you make them.  That's a lot of cookies and so you can split the recipe, but I think it's hard to use a half can of pumpkin...

Hallow's Eve

While Daddy was at work, Mommy ran errands.  Henry really did fall asleep...

Jaxon just pretended!

Eventually he did fall asleep but it was cute while he pretended.

 After Daddy got off work we went to eat at Johnny Rockets.  Henry was in such a fun mood he was dancing to the music and being so cute.  He has such a silly personality.  He's so much fun!

Jaxon was in a good mood too.  We had a great time getting out having a family lunch!

Curly

Henry's hair is always so curly after bath time.  But by morning, it's flattened into kind of wavy instead.  Isn't he the cutest?! 

UT Fruit

After receiving our shipments of Utah apples and peaches, we had a lot of canning to do.  We canned 10 pints and 25 quarts of applesauce and 35 quarts of peaches!  It was a lot of work, but luckily Devin was off work and could help and we had my mom, dad, mother-in-law to help us too.  It feels so much better to have our shelves replenished.

Oatmeal

One thing we do in our house is that if the kids don't want to eat the dinner I make for them, they only have one choice...oatmeal.  I'm not a restaurant and I'm not going to make anything they want, but I don't want them to go hungry either.  

Some nights, Henry prefers to eat in the Bumbo, on the table, without his shirt on.  

He's so cute in church when we sing hymns, he just says, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus."  Sometimes when we aren't singing he still wants to and when we tell him to sing quietly, he gets upset and says, "Singing. Jesus" and keeps going!

A Date

Devin and I got to go on a date last night!  Every time we go, I am more and more sure he is definitely the right one for me.  We have such a great time together.  He makes me laugh, he listens to me, talks to me, laughs at me when I'm ridiculous.

We planned to go to one of our favorites, Buca Di Bepo, but when we arrived, the parking lot seemed unusually barren.  We were a little suspicious.  When we walked up to the door, there was a sign saying it was closed for some repairs.  We were so bummed!  But, we were craving their salad so bad that we drove all the way across town to the other Buca!  We had some great discussions in all the time we spent driving in the car.

Have you ever been to Buca?  If you have, have you been in the restroom?  They have the wackiest pictures decorating the walls!

Tiger Pancakes

Jaxon wanted some "tiger pancakes" like in the story, The Boy and the Tigers.  It is a crazy story, but he likes it.  This is the best Devin and I could do.  Mmmmm...  They were so healthy!

"Garlic" Bread

So the other night I really wanted my most favorite salad in the whole world.  The delicious Italian Antipasto Salad from RigaTony's.  But, we weren't able to go out that night, so Devin made me a delicious salad at home.  To go with the salad I wanted garlic bread.  We don't buy the frozen loaf, we just butter some slices of bread and sprinkle garlic salt and put it under the broiler for a few minutes.

Well, when I tasted it, something about the flavor just didn't seem quite right.  Since I'm pregnant,  my taste buds aren't really trustworthy because sometimes they taste strange flavors that have nothing to do with the food I'm eating.  I asked Devin, "What did you put on this?"  His response was, "Butter and garlic salt.  Why?  Do they taste bad?  They should just taste like regular garlic toast."  I told him I didn't know why, but they just didn't taste right and that it was probably just my taste buds.  He figured I was just crazy and we went on with dinner.

We went on with dinner and he got up to get something from the spice cupboard.  As he was rearranging the spices to look for what he needed, he saw that the onion powder was at the front.  Hm...He realized he had put the onion powder on the "garlic" toast by mistake.  Ha!  I am not a totally crazy pregnant lady!!!  He pulled it out and showed me with a guilty little smile on his face.  Lucky for him, he was so cute so I forgave him for making "garlic" toast with ONION powder and then calling me crazy for thinking it tasted funny.

Menu

After church today, in our kitchen the following were prepared by my most handsome husband:

--fettuccine noodles with alfredo sauce
--salad with special dressing
--red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting

Every food item listed was totally homemade from scratch.  He even washed every single dish.  He spoils me:)

Sundays have become my favorite day of the week.  When I was in high school, I liked Fridays and Saturdays because I would go out with friends and do things like see movies and go shopping.  Then when I was first married I still favored those days because I wouldn't have work or school.  Now, I love Sundays for a few reasons:

--I get to go to church.  I love going to church.  I always feel welcome  and enjoy seeing the people I call my ward family.  Plus, and my testimony of my Savior is strengthened every week.
--Neither Devin and I have to work.  Devin and I both work 2 jobs (mine are from home, but still stressful and time consuming) and Devin is taking classes for his masters (hallelujah) so we are both extremely busy.
--Since we follow the commandment, "Keep the Sabbath Day Holy" we don't do any shopping or go out anywhere where people are working.
--We just spend the day together.  If it's just our family or we see extended family, we always have a great time.  We love being together and Sunday is the perfect day for family activities.