Welcome Home!

OK, so here we go, as promised. But before we begin, I must say I truly need about 8,000 photography lessons. Please bear with me.

(I'm suce a lemming . . .)

I'm a huge fan of the exposed beams, and the color, and the huge porch . . . a real fan.

Please let me intrudoce my fourth baby, our new piano! It's so fabulous, I barely let anyone touch it. But that will soon change, something that is both good and bad!

Where all the action happens, including totally inappropriate amounts of video game playing.

Here we have the living room fireplace. No, I haven't hung up any pictures yet. Hammers and I have mutual phobias of one another. I tend to mutilate walls with about 50 holes before I have it right. I'm waiting for the experts!

My Bugs room. She's having so much fun putting things in just the right place, and not having to worry about a brother and sister "messing with her stuff." Yikes, I'm seeing puberty on the horizon here. Please send help!

Smellies room (shout out to Kara!) She sleeps in a different bed each night. ;)

My FAVORITE room! It stretches around the corner and under the porch. Imagine it filled with a year's supply of tomato soup. I already have three Costco sized packages of toilet paper, or "Mountain Money" as BJ calls it. I figure in an emergency it will become legal tender.

So, there's a quick tour of our new home. We're having so much fun getting settled, organizing and putting things away, meeting new friends and becoming a part of the community.

We're definitely having a "Staycation" year this summer, with the exception of a much-loved trip to Canada! We're looking forward to a bike-riding, roller-blade riding, swimming pool visiting, memory-making summer!

Dr. Spock, Eat Your Heart Out!

My extremely brilliant son potty-trained himself this weekend.  Seriously.  There were no charts with stickers, treat boxes, towels on every surface of my house, begging, pleading, screaming, patches of hair missing from the back of my head.  We're just done.

What is this miracle, you say?  How did you manage such a feat?  Please, publish a book so we can all bask in your brilliance!  Well, if you insist, here's my sure-fired, no-fail potty-training method.

Ahem . . .

1.  Wait until your child is embarassingly old.  I'm talking voice is changing, we're checking out colleges, his dates are wondering why his mom has to come too.

2.  At this point, he'll be the laughing stock of the junior class and will simply say to you "mom, this whole diaper thing just isn't me any more.  I love you, but I need to be my own person."  You sniff and wonder why he's abandoned you, but you respect his decision.

3.  The end.

I'd love to post pictures of his cute little backside is his new boxer briefs (his dad was very specific on this point).  However, something tells me I'd probably be arrested.

Still unpacking boxes.  Dont' worry, pictures are coming!

She's a Weiner!

My Bug actually won a bike at school today!  All that reading this year paid off big time.  

Our school participated in the Ken Garff "Road to Success" reading program this year (I thought I'd give them a little plug . . . they gave us a bike).  Four lucky students' names were drawn to receive new bikes.  Yeah, Bug!

OK, so here's the fine print.  Because Bug is at the top of the lower grades and the top of the tall scale, the bike they chose for her age group is a bit small, in case you can't tell.  We're currently in negotiations over how to handle a hand-over to younger, shorter, sister.  I'll let you know how it goes.  We're currently up to $20 Canadian for our trip this summer, a movie date ("Hannah Montana The Movie") and one of my kidneys, if she ever needs one . . .

Up next, a 30-second virtual tour of the new abode.  Just let me unpack a few thousand boxes first.

I Almost Forgot!

Oh yeah . . . I have a blog. Sorry, faithful fans. I can only beg your forgiveness and offer up the following as an excuse.

-- Nana and Grandpa and moving back home! Hip-hip-hooray! Well, sort of, because now I afraid I'm actually going to have to buy clothes for my kids. Not sure how that one's going to work out, stay tuned.

-- Erin is moving back! Double hip-hip-hooray! This just goes to show you that the constant whining of a certain 8 year-old really does work. Keep it up, kiddo.

-- Swine flu. My husband had to hand me a paper bag several times and tell me to breath deeply. I'm doing much better now.

-- Spring! Flowers! Snow shovels thrown into the Great Salt Lake! WARMTH! It's all very distracting.

-- I've discovered Facebook. Nothing like connecting with people you never realized you were missing, right? I've found old high school friends (one of which has a PhD in Chemical Engineering, show-off), old college roommates, and friends of friends of friends. Plus I can play mind-numbing, time-wasting games! What more could you ask for?!

-- Oh, and yeah . . . we bought a new house and we're moving.

So, dear, faithful readers, thank you for your loyalty and if you can come help us move, I'd really appreciate it!

She's Six! She's Six! She's Six!

My little sweetheart turns six today.  All of my kids are very unique, but Belle is truly in a class with herself.  As if there could only be six reasons her family just adores her, I'll list some of my favorites here.

--  My Belle has a smile for everyone she meets.  And cute little dimples that make you want to squeeze her tight and never let go.  She also has a frown no one ever wants to meet, but we all have!  There's no middle ground with my Belle.

--  She has a precious heart.  Bug often finds her bed has been made, The Guy has a constant supply of sippy cups and pbj's and her dad and I are mounting up am amazing collection of original Belle works of art.  She does these things not to get something she wants but because she loves her family and wants them to be happy.  I chalk that up to good parenting, actually!

-- She, like her big sister before her, listens to every word that is said around her.  There are no adults having adult conversation at our house.  We always have to watch what we say, because it could definitely come back to bite us!  And she can spell now, so no spelling out things thinking you can keep a secret!

-- Belle is a social butterfly.  More days than not she is at her best friends' houses, or here, or both, all day long.  Five minutes later, she's asking for the phone so she can call and talk to them!

--  My little Mademoiselle keeps all of us on the straight and narrow.  We can't miss a family prayer or FHE without her letting us know.  We're beginning to suspect family prayer is partially a bedtime stall tactic, though.  And early morning church . . . not so much.  My little Rigattoni is not a morning person.  

-- Ellencake keeps our household energy meter ramped up to Maximum.  I think our couches have tracks around them for all the laps that have been run around them.  She's always working on a project (yesterday's was puppet show in her bedroom, the day before that, it was scrapbooking), and she can't stand to be left out.  If you're running errands, she wants in . . . if you're putting up drywall, hand her the hammer . . . got a doctoral thesis to polish, she's your girl. 

We just adore our Belle.  She makes our home a better place.  Happy Birthday, my Sweetheart!

A Man With Class

Our sweet Grandpa passed away last night, after struggling for several years with, mostly, missing his sweet wife terribly.  We've all cried a little bit, but more than that, we know that Grandpa was ready for the next step.   He was greeted with loving arms by his amazing wife, his youngest daughter, and his Heavenly Father, who is incredibly proud of him.

I married into Grandpa's clan, but I quickly learned that Grandpa and Grandma were superglue holding their family together.  I feel so blessed, and more than a little intimidated, to have their example to look to as I raise my family.

 

I think one of my favorite memories of Grandpa was when BJ and I visited Hawaii with our two girls, who were then three and almost a year old.  Bug's favorite thing to do was go into Grandpa's office and sit on his lap and just talk to him.  I'm pretty sure he didn't understand everything coming out of her cute little mouth, but he listened intently to every word.  I, too, enjoyed just visiting with him.  He loved talking about the church talks he was listening to on tape, his temple trips with Kathie K and his weekly phone calls with Kathy Jo.  

I know there's a presumed "celebration" that's supposed to go with your 100th post.  I can't think of a better way to celebrate than to acknowledge the life of a great man who left behind him a big mark on the world.  

We Love You, Grandpa!!

Sunday Dinner

Once a month my family gets together for dinner . . . all 22 of us.  Last night we had 21, we lost one to wisdom teeth recovery.  Feel better soon, Kiddo!

So, instead of sharing a favorite conference talk this week (which would be President Uchtdorf's Saturday morning talk if you just can't stand the suspense), I thought I'd share our menu with you.

When feeding a crowd, we've learned over the years to be simple, even boring.  You'll never completely satisfy the diverse tastes of 22 people, washing and ironing 5 tablecloths and 30 napkins is not my idea of fun, and dishes . . . I don't think so.  Yes, that groaning sound you hear is Brett's fabulous Grandmother rolling over in terror.  She would not agree with me on anything I just said.  

We served baked potato soup last night.  I'd like to post pictures, but the soup disappeared too fast to get any pictures.  So, without further ado, here's the recipe.  Don't blink or you'll miss it.

Bake 4 large potatoes.  Cool to handle, peel & cube.

Sauté in butter:

1 cup diced celery and 1 cup diced onion

Make white sauce:

2/3 cup butter

2/3 cup flour

¾  tsp. salt

¼ tsp. celery salt

¼  tsp. pepper

6 cups whole milk

Add potatoes, celery, onions and 1 cup sour cream.  Heat but do not boil.  Correct seasonings and thickness.

Serve with thinly sliced green onions, grated cheese & crumbled bacon.   

Double (or triple, in our case), and leave in a crock-pot to keep warm as you eat.  Serve in bread bowls (everyone thought I was being clever, but remember how dishes and I don't get along?)  We used 2% milk that we had on hand.  If you bake your potatoes beforehand, this should take you about 30 minutes, start to finish.  You could easily use skim milk and fat-free sour cream.  If anyone tries it that way, let me know how it tastes.  BJ also added some frozen corn, which was fantabulous.

Big sister served a drink she called "Friendship Punch."  Combine light cranberry juice with diet grapefruit Shasta.  You expect it to taste like cran-raspberry and sprite, but it has a lot more tang to it.  Very fun.

All right, there you go.  Now, go try some for yourselves.  Have a great week!