Family Pictures

Just remembered I never posted our family pictures. We got them taken the end of January and sent them out as Valentine's Cards.


It was fun for me to see that Luke bought more pictures than he planned on (like the sales gimmick wants you to) because he thought they were cute and got emotionally attached. I have tried to explain to him how it happens when I have bought an extra photo or two when I originally went in for free fun. Now he knows how hard it can be. It was a fun day and our purchases and frames for the wall were our Valentine's for each other.

Easter Dresses

I loved getting a new dress from my mom made every Easter. So I am going to keep the tradition going:

2 Yellow Dresses and matching hair pieces made from 2 Men's T-shirts.

Total Cost: $2.00 (already had white ribbon)

Time: 1 Naptime + 1 Nightime (while watching a show with Luke)

Inspiration: Kojo Designs inspired by JCrew

Unplanned Extras: 1 Baby Doll Dress (she loved it) and 1 Drawstring Purse- not pictured (just had to make it when I saw the sleeve was already in a tube with a nice hemmed casing for the ribbon closure)

What I would have changed: How often my stinkin' machine cobbles even though I got it serviced for $80 bucks so it would have taken even less time, and smaller flowers on the headband.

Girls dressed + matching :). Mom feeling pretty good.

Easter eggs hunted.

Chocolate consumed naughtily.

Sacred Easter meanings discussed.

Family time never enough.

The only thing the Easter Bunny forgot was a matching tie for Dad.

Darn!! Next year she will get it right.

Did I say I love re-purposing?

These dresses are so easy. You just trace a dress folded in half on an old t-shirt. Cut it out. Sew it up without hemming (best part). Add the ribbon straps and belt. And then hand-sew the flowers on (made from a stack of 3 circles ruffled cutely).

I have a feeling there are more to be made.

Kori's House

So my long lost friend Kori is so kind and cute.
She saw some of our troubles and Gracie's broken leg so she sent us this cute "homemade by Kori" felt play house that fits over a card table to help Gracie pass the time.

She even included this cute card and some money to put towards a card table since we didn't have one. She was very naughty! But very in-tune because it sure cheered us up. We even re-arranged Gracie's room to fit it and brought her kitchen up for tons of fun.

Watch out Kori because we are going to make something fun to send your kids!

Black Bean Soup

So Luke and I don't really LOVE soup. Therefore I have never really made that much soup. Usually I just throw things in for a heartier beef stew or something like that. I have made broccoli and cheese or variations with potatoes and bacon. Also Lenna taught me how to do ham and bean soup made from the leftovers of a ham that is so yummy.

But I had this at Cassidy's house in Vegas with a BLT. I came home and made it for Rick and Luke and they LOVED IT too. It is so easy. And such good texture and flavor. I never even thought about blending soup after it is cooked. Gracie first said she didn't want any because of the color. But then after eating it, she even wanted seconds. That is how good this soup is. And NOTHING BAD IN IT. (Mom/dad you could save broth from cooking a roast or maybe buy some organic beef broth. Maybe try it without the broth and it would still be good!) We don't even think it needs any toppings. And Luke said it is definitely good to dip chips in. Try it! Next thing I want to try is the Thai Peanut Stuff.

P.S. I want to get their new cookbook produced by Deseret Book at Costco for $15.00. I pretty much read the whole thing when I was in Vegas and I wanted to make everything in it because it was easy, fresh, and practical.

Black Bean Soup

Recipe by Our Best Bites

(Brazilian, healthy meals)

1 T olive oil

4 large cloves garlic, roughly chopped

3/4 C diced carrots (about 2 med carrots)

3/4 C diced celery (about 2 ribs)

1 C diced onion (about 1 sm-med onion)

2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained

1 3.5oz can green chilies

2 cans low-sodium beef broth

1 t kosher salt

1/8 tsp black pepper

1/2 t chili powder

1/4 t cumin

1/2 t dry oregano leaves

1 bay leaf

Optional Toppings: sour cream, tortilla chips, grated cheese, chopped cilantro, etc.

Place a large stock pot on the stove-top and set to medium-high heat. When pan is warm, add olive oil. Add carrots, celery, onion, and garlic and saute 4-5 minutes.

Add in the black beans, chilies, and beef broth. Stir to combine and then add the salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, oregano, and bay leaf.

Simmer uncovered for about 20-25 minutes or until carrots are tender.

Remove from heat. Remove bay leaf from soup.

Place soup in a blender. (You could use an immersion blender in place of this step) Place lid on blender, but remove the stopper in the lid to let heat escape. Place a paper towel over the hole to avoid splatters.

Puree soup until completely smooth. Optionally you could pulse until a semi-chunky soup is achieved. Squeeze in the juice from one lime and pulse to combine.

Ladle into bowls and top with desired toppings. Serve with extra lime wedges. Makes about 8 C soup.

Cast Off!

I wrote "Cast Off!" on my calendar a month ago and every time I saw it I would read it and say, "Cast off what?" and then I would remember oh yeah, that is the day Gracie gets her cast off. Well that day came on Wednesday and it wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be.

For two days after I have been wishing the cast was back on again because Gracie won't/can't walk. She wouldn't even stand the first day because she said it hurt. But now after a few days she is walking but very slowly and limply. Her leg has buckled under her a few times so that really scared her. And the stairs are definitely "bottom friendly". And to top off whatever pain or discomfort she is feeling, I think she just started the terrible 2-3's. There is definitely a difference. She says no to me all the time, has crying fits, whines instead of talks, and just started asking "why?" back to back to back (you know like Pinocchio?). And she is even picking on Katie when she gets bored or tired. Must have patience. I think I am going to start the "nose on the wall" discipline.

We caused a traffic jam while leaving an overcrowded Costco on Friday because Gracie refused to ride in the cart. She wanted to walk (limp) and carry her drink and I was carrying Katie who could not stand her car seat any longer. We were going so slow that I finally just picked her up and somehow managed to carry her and her drink in one arm, Katie in the other, and still push the cart. I was hoping someone would offer to push the cart for me and finally a nice lady did but we were only 5 feet from the car. So we got there, spilling the drink and crying in the process, and me (who never litters) leaving the cup in the parking lot because I had had enough.

On a silly note, when we were sitting in the waiting room at the Orthopedic's office I opened Gracie's backpack that she insisted on bringing with her that morning to carry her baby.
Instead of finding here baby, I found...
3 dirty diapers!! It made me laugh and be grossed out at the same time.
Explanation: Gracie always helps me bring the diapers downstairs. Dad taught her to say "fire in the hole" and pretend they are a grenade. Then we pick them up and put them in the trash outside our backdoor. Apparently she thought they should go in her backpack instead. GROSS!
She IS a good little helper when she has slept well. And the doc said give it a couple of weeks for her leg to be normal again. I just have to laugh. :)
And I am grateful that what happened to me when I was 2 and broke my arm, (Dr. cut/burned me with the saw in 3 places while I screamed and my dad held me down), didn't happen to Gracie. I still can't imagine what that must have been like for my parents.

Close to Heaven...

I think children are very close to Heaven.
All of us are very tender because of missing Anjelica and Lenna and very aware of heaven and dying and blessings and love. Not a day goes by that we don't talk about heaven and Grammy.

It's sad that children have to be acquainted with death so early but sweet on the other hand because they get to really learn and practice the plan of salvation. But man, try explaining 1. Where heaven is and 2. Why we can't go there and 3. When we will be able to and 4. Why doesn't Jesus come here? to a 2 year old who misses her Grammy and loves Jesus.

Things Gracie has said:

Before the funeral:
Me: "Where did Grammy go?"
Gracie: "Heaven."
Me: "Yep. And who's taking care of her?"
Gracie: "Anjelica."
She really understood better than me probably. I had never told her that and the answer I was looking for was Heavenly Father was taking care of her. I loved it.

2 nights ago while reading Pippi Longstocking:

There was this picture of the circus clowns carrying Pippi on the bedlike thing-forget what they are called with the four poles like a caravan thing for royalty.
Anyway Gracie said:
"That's like Grammy. Give her a blessing and feel better."
I didn't know she was paying so much attention because it could kind of look like they were carrying her like the casket. The spirit was so strong. She talked about how dad gave Grammy a blessing on the couch.

It is true that they are never too young to start learning ANYTHING. She saw a picture of Alma blessing the people and she talked about the blessing again. I need to take a lesson from her and not leave blessings to a last resort, "after all I can do myself" kind of thing. This life, like what was taught at Lenna's funeral, is not about how much we are able to accomplish by ourselves through our own grit and strength, but how we use the atonement readily and daily with faith because it has already been done for us. We aren't supposed to do it without help. You are just banging your head against the wall when you say I can do it and as a last resort seek spiritual help. It is like saying, "No thanks or let me try first" to Jesus when he already did it for us. " I have to remind myself of that ALOT. The faith of a mustard seed to to move mountains is not what it was to me before. It is not how the smallest grain of faith can move a mountain, but how the smallest repeated applications or use of faith in the smallest daily moments creates a compounding mountain of strength and power like President Monson or Joseph Smith or Nephi or Helaman or Abinidai. You get the point. Now I just have to remember the point.
I love the spirit that comes with being a mom to precious little (whiny, did I say that?) children. How do we become like a little child? And be close to Heaven?

"When you have someone you love in Heaven, you have a little piece of Heaven in your home."

Sometimes children are like having a little lesson from Heaven in your home too.

Family Silhouettes

My friend Kara from Vegas had me make silhouettes of her family in Photoshop last year which she then framed and hung so cute in her house. Ever since, I have wanted to do a set of my own but couldn't pony up the dough for frames. Well we got our first paychecks from Google and Apple so this is what I chose to allocate some of the funds for. You would not believe how expensive and how hard to find oval frames can be. But I am hoping since I got them at Michaels, they will be around for a while so I can get one for each of my kids (don't know how many now?) and then just change the silhouette each year.

So I put them on the header above and here is a picture of them hanging in my front room. I am trying to decide if they need to be hanging from little green ribbon or just keep it clean modern and classy. I think I like it like this better. What do you think?

PS. Kara let me know when you need your new ones done. We gotta get those twins up there!

Happy Birthday to My Sister Nancy!

Love you Nanc!







Sorry I didn't call you ON your birthday yesterday. I am fired!
I am gonna come up there though and hand deliver your gift and give you as many birthday spankin's as you deserve. We might have to consult BJ on that one. Have fun getting your pedicure today. Let me know what they are like!! Happy Birthday

Shout out to Kate

You know when you have several photos of pretty much the same thing just different faces, gazes, poses, etc. and you somehow become emotionally attached to all of them so you can't delete them? Well that was me back in January when I took these. I just found them again and realized I never posted these treasures, so here are 4 of the 15 that I took. Kate is my happy, smiley girl. She melts my heart. Not kidding.

Pokerface Dance in the Underpants!

I can't let the monumental feat of being potty trained go by unmentioned. Gracie was potty trained in February and was excited to wear underpants. We went to the store like Grammy suggested and let her pick out her very own Dora the Explorer Panties. It was a fun day. We also had a lot of fun dancing in our underpants a couple of times to celebrate pottying. This movie is one of them. I'll tell you what, this girl has some some skill.

Right after we filmed this, the unfilmed edited version of Pokerface (song she loves) was made. We changed the words from "can't read my, can't read my, can't read my pokerface" to "can't wet my, can't wet my, can't wet my underpants." Too bad we didn't get it on film. You try singing it that way.

We also sing a version of "I will follow him" on Sister Act changed to say instead of "I love him, I love him, I love him, and where he goes I'll follow" to "I went poo poo and pee pee, and poo poo and pee pee, in the potty, the potty..." That song is forever changed!

Way to go Gracie we are proud of you. Just like she says, "Mom I am proud of you." (I love it) It doesn't mean we haven't had any accidents though. Oh my goodness just ask me about when we have gone out of town or had late nights or long days. It is like asking for accidents. We are still doing diapers at night which are sometimes dry and sometimes wet. I am not sure when kids are supposed to be able to go through the night. Hmmm.

April's Catastrophe

Yep, we did not manage to escape from trouble this month either. Tuesday night we did laundry and made dinner at Papa's house (we have been doing this once/week for a while). Afterward, Luke went to YM and we went to get a few groceries at Smiths. Gracie always does good there because she can push her own mini cart around. We both like it. The clerks, not so much, because they have to put a few things back that Gracie picked out but mom does not want.

I got Katie loaded in the car and Gracie was enjoying the warm night while I put the groceries in. (Katie was hungry but I was going to wait until we got home to feed her.) Gracie has just learned how to open the car doors and she is obsessed with locking them. Every day we play... "mom goes to open Gracie's car door and it is locked, so I push the unlock button in the front and go back to open Gracie's door and... it is locked again"- ooh it is frustrating. Well this time she was outside the car, opened the door and pushed the lock button. I disciplined her and as a precaution took my keys out of the front seat and put them in the ignition - and turned the car on (forgot to unlock the doors). While both doors were open, I put one more sack of groceries in by Katie and closed her door. Not a split second later Gracie slammed the front door. OOOOHHH! Hungry Katie was locked in the running car with the keys and cell phone and Gracie and I were outside with the milk and there was nothing we could do to get Katie. I didn't know what I should do because I didn't want to leave Katie who was crying in a running car while I went inside and called someone (?) for help. I didn't have Luke's cell number memorized either and he was at least 15 minutes away.

I was kind of panicking and just then a neighbor of my inlaws, Matt Evans whose family Lenna and I had taken dinner and did laundry for once, drove up and smiled and waved. I threw the milk jugs down on the ground, ran over, and blurted out, "My baby's locked in the car and it is running and my phone is in there too. What do I do?"

He called the police department and about 5 minutes later a firetruck and a police car showed up. They blocked the front lane while they raced each other, each on one side of the car, to see who could get it open first. The firemen won with no damage to my car, and the policeman scraped off the black trim on the car and was unable to unlock it in time. I rescued my little Kate and got her calmed down. I have never felt so helpless just peeking in from the other side of the glass. Then they all stood around and chatted about how they race each other frequently. They talked with Gracie about her cast and "REWARDED" her with a police badge. I asked, "Do you really think she should get a reward?" I guess I do like though how she got to see that police and firemen are friendly and that when the sirens go off (like in our car accident) they are actually helping people. They were awesome and I am so glad that they are able to help people who are locked out of their cars, probably even houses for that matter. Never thought about calling them for that.

And ultimately I am so grateful that we served Matt like he pointed out, so that he knew us when he drove by and was able to help us back. We are always being watched over. And we need to do our part too. Here's a shout out to the speakers at General Conference who spoke on service. Loved it, and the talk on parenting, praising and focusing on"DO AND BE." So good.
I am so glad to not be locked out of the car still. The photo is courtesy of Matt's cell phone since mine was locked in the car. And to think what we did without cell phones. And I only just started "believing" in them like 2 years ago.

I am forever grateful for the blessings and lessons learned following our trials. Here's a shout out to that other awesome conference talk on the purpose of trials, speaking directly to me and a few others I know. I need to go and listen again. :)

Just got back from Vegas...

Last Thursday we headed to our old home Vegas for a business Conference for Luke. Rick was supposed to come too but a family funeral happened, but then the weekends were even mixed up and he could have come. Darn. It was a beneficial conference and we hope to be able to start acting on somethings from it soon. Luke and Rick sure are trying to have patience with trying to make some money from doing there own business in something. Things just keep getting put on hold and timing is not right. I wish there was some way you could see into the future and know where is the best place to put your money and effort to make it work. So frustrating sometimes and I have to pull myself away from it and not think about it to be sane and happy. They are being troopers but we don't know what we are going to do.
Anyway going to Vegas was just what the Dr. ordered. Although, it was hard getting up everyday at 7:30 to cram in some breakfast and take Luke to his conference and then not go to bed till between 11:00-12:00. Hotels are interesting for trying to sleep at nap time and sleep and wake at different times, carrying children and belongings in and out, etc. Gracie wet or pooed her pants at least once, sometimes twice everyday and Katie had a runny, stuffy nose so she did not sleep well. One of the nights Luke was so jazzed from the conference that when we were both awake because of Katie, he sat and whispered very energetically to me about stuff for 1 hour at 5:3o in the morning. He stopped long enough for us to fall asleep again and wake up at 7:30. I will always remember that.

But we had so much fun. The warmer weather, the pool, and good friends were are favorite things. We got a little sunburned at the park after church on Sunday. We bagged and taped Gracie's leg for swimming which lasted a while, but eventually got snagged or something so we had a wet cast to dry out with a blow dryer and just natural leg heat over time. We saw our old walking and biking, stomping grounds. We had the best pizza with our friends Kara and Clay and Nixon and their new twins that are Kate's age. We had a 'delicious as always' home cooked meal by Cassidy and Richard with their 2 kids also our same kids' age. We made some friends for life there, so it was fun to see them again. No pics cause I left the camera card in the computer.

It is good to be back to appreciate a comfortable home that we have been blessed to live in despite no real income from the business yet. Luke's dad is being very generous to employ Luke to do this business venture together. We hope something will work soon.