Denver here we come!

Well, it has been rumored now for a while that we have been looking to move, and as of yesterday, it is official. Initially we were planning a move to Bountiful or North Salt Lake to be closer to Craig's work. However, in a somewhat dramatic turn of events, the regional manager at Craig's work approached him and asked if he would be willing to transfer and take a position at their Denver location. We have worried and worried about this moving idea, and when this opportunity came up, it just felt right. It is extremely difficult to think of leaving our home here in Mapleton, and all our fruit trees and the garden and berry patch, not to mention all of our good friends. There have been hundreds and hundreds of hours of blood, sweat and tears spent making this house our home. The thought of someone else living in this place that I love makes me anxious. I hope we can find just the right family, who will love it and cherish it as we have. If any of you know of anyone who is looking for a place to rent and loves to can and garden, tell them to give us a call. :)

Milestones

I never seem to remember from one child to the next how old they were when they did what, so I figured I would do a post about some recent milestones so that I could remember them later.

Nathan is now 3 (and a 1/2) months. And in just the last 3 weeks has come up on some pretty big milestones. At 3 months almost exactly, he started sleeping through the night. YEAH!!!! for everyone!!! In the last few days, he has learned how to roll from his stomach to his back, and how to scoot himself all the way across his crib. And what I love the most lately, he has started to giggle. Baby laughs are always my favorite!



Logan has had a few milestones himself. Last week, we kicked the binky habit. For any of you out there trying to do the same things, I sliced a hole in the top of each binky and in 2 days, he didn't even pick them up anymore. And secondly, he is potty-training! We have only been at it a few days, but today, we made some huge progress, and hopefully by the end of the week, we will be done!

Bye-bye binky and bye-bye diapers! But the little stuffed lamby will be around for a long time I am sure!

Lettuce wraps

I have a good friend, (Thank you Heather!) who shared this recipe with me and I adapted it slightly, and wanted to share it with all of you. I love the PF Changs lettuce wraps, and I am not sure without a side by side comparison, but I think these are every bit as good as theirs, if not better. And if any of you are calorie counters, which I am not, but I was curious as to how many calories were in each lettuce wrap, so I used a calorie counter website to figure it out, and if you make 8 wraps, each is only 135 calories!

Here is the recipe:

3 T. Canola Oil
3 Chicken Breasts

2 cans water chestnuts (chopped)
1 8 oz. pkg. mushrooms (chopped)
3 T. onion (chopped)
1 tsp. garlic (minced)

3 T. soy sauce
3 T. brown sugar
1 tsp. vinegar

8 leaves iceberg lettuce

Cook chicken in oil, add chopped chestnuts, mushrooms, onion and garlic. Cook 5-10 minutes. Mix together soy sauce, brown sugar and vinegar to make sauce and pour over chicken mixture. Spoon into lettuce leaves and eat. YUM!!!

First trip to the ER

Well, I knew it was inevitable that someday, we would have an injury that required a trip to the ER. I also was pretty sure that it would be Logan that I would be taking. And sure enough, a few weeks ago, we went up to Layton to visit my brother and his family, when Logan jumped off the top bunk and landed head first, splitting his head open. And then we went to the emergency room for stitches. A few hours, 5 stitches and $1000+ later, all was well. Here is a shot of Peter Pan after his attempt at flying...still cute, even with the scar.



He's getting his hair cut, if you are wondering why the black cape.

Little Helpers

I am always enlisting my children in all the work around the house. Sometimes the things they do are little, and sometimes the things they do are big. Here are a few shots of the kids helping me around the house.



Nathan woke up from his nap, right as I was in the middle of making lunch for the other kids, so I asked Olivia if she would go in and talk to him so that he wouldn't cry, until I could finish and go get him. A few minutes later, Nathan was quiet, and this is what I found when I went in his room... All 3 kids in the crib...And everyone was happy :)



While doing laundry, I heard the buzzer on the dryer saying that the clothes were dry, so I sent Olivia in with a basket to empty them into. After a few minutes, I finished folding, and went to put wet clothes into the recently emptied dryer, and I can't see Olivia. When I called her name, her response came from inside the dryer...
When I asked her what she was doing inside the dryer, she said, "well, I can't reach all the clothes any other way!" The funny part is that she has been bringing me clothes from the dryer for months, and I never knew that was how she was doing it.



Perhaps there should have been some warning before this shot, but I thought it was HILARIOUS!! Logan has entered his "I DO IT!" stage. He doesn't want to have help for anything. So, here he is, mopping the floor with the swiffer, and as you can plainly see, he dressed himself... And was very adamant that I not help him in any way...Even to pull his underwear up over those sweet little cheeks that were hanging out. :)

Ally reading the Ensign

Ally is a great lover of books and will read just about anything she can find. The other night when it was time to read stories, before bed, she picked the Ensign as her bed time story. I opened it and read her one of the "latter-day saint voices" stories. She says to me, "Mom, that was so good, I should read this more often!" And so here she is, the next night, reading the Ensign. What a sweetheart.

Sassy lays eggs???

We have this cat that adopted us about a year ago. We named her Sassy after a kitty that we used to have that looked just like her, but ran away. Well, when Sassy originally showed up, she was as thin as a rail, so naturally we all felt sorry for her, and we decided she should stay with us. Over the last year, we thought that for sure she was going to have kittens, but when she just stayed fat, we figured she was just fat.

Today when Craig came home from work, he picked up Sassy and said, "that's one fat cat huh Livy." In response, Olivia says, "She must be ready to have eggs."

:)