Things I am thankful for today

I'm thankful my pregnancy fears are starting to dissipate as I am now able to feel the baby move throughout the day. Creating life is truly a miracle and I feel so blessed to be a co-creator with my Heavenly Father. I don't feel worthy or prepared to take on the responsibility of raising another child but I also remember I wasn't prepared for the first one and how that would change my life. Motherhood is a constant learning process. I'm thankful that I have dirty floors to clean, that I have loads of laundry to do almost everyday, and that I have mouths to feed - I can't imagine life without my children. They make me grow in ways I never imagined. (And I never thought I would use algebra again but it's true - you'll later have to teach your children how to do it)

I'm thankful to have my new 72 hour kits ready to go and it's been nice that my kids have had an array of "free snacks" to munch on whenever they're hungry. It's such a peace of mind knowing that we are prepared should any emergency arise.

Saving the best for last... I am so grateful for our Savior's eternal plan of happiness. I have so much more to learn about the gospel but I try everyday to become just a little more like Him. Sometimes I fail, sometimes I move forward, but I'm always trying my best. I'm thankful that families can be sealed together forever in His holy house because otherwise this earthly life would be for naught. Sometimes it seems easy - pray, read your scriptures, go to church, keep the commandments. Sometimes I get caught in the "thick of thin things" and forget what's really important. This life is test and the time is passing quickly. I ask myself, "What have I done with the time the Lord has given me today?" and challenge you to ask yourself that same question and then... do something about it.

School and Birthday Pictures

My baby boy turned 3 recently. We had Mickey Mouse waffles, went to our favorite children's museum, Discovery Gateway, then bought fun stuff at Build-a-Bear. He fell asleep on the way home. I think his pictures turned out so cute though I may be a bit biased. The next day the kids brought home their school pictures and thankfully we won't need to do any retakes. E's teeth are all falling out at this age so I begged her to PLEASE remember to do a sweet, closed-mouth smile. Gotta love that age! Our last trip to the dentist resulted in 3 repeat visits for cavity fillings and sealants. The one kid who didn't get cavities this time? "He'll need to get braces next time." Thanks for the warning.

N now likes to put his food that is on his plate into his drinking cup. Then he'll tell me, "Mom, look! Mmmm, Licious!" Umm, yeah, that looks real delicious sweetheart. :} The other day I was tending 5 year old twins and we were talking about their preschool. The boy said, "I get to ride the bus to the Helementary school". I couldn't help but laugh - I've never heard anyone make that mistake. I tried to correct him by saying, "You mean eLLLLementary school?" He couldn't pronounce it right so I gave up. Kids say the darndest things don't they?

Happy Halloween!

Don't you hate it when you almost finish a post and then make one slight edit on the Html and your post gets cut to 1 paragraph and your pictures are gone? Yeah, me too... Blogger needs an "undo" button, seriously. I also need to get a lock on my camera case since my almost-three-year-old can now pull it out and take pictures and change the settings to low resolution. Not good... I'm too tired to re-write so feel free to use your imagination. Happy Halloween! (I need some chocolate now)

Picking pumpkins at Farnsworth Farms Festival

Witch, Pumpkin, Z the werewolf and J as Darth Vader

Waldo & Wenda (I even had striped tights.) Wow, we look like dorks
Z's
Hubby's
J's N's
E's
Mommy's

Mom's Whole Wheat Bread

I made a few small adjustments to this but there's no real taste difference - I'll explain later. I remember my mom would make this only a few times a year. However, she would get out her heavy duty wheat grinder and grind her hard red winter wheat from the LDS Cannery. Then she'd mix up batch after batch of this recipe until all the countertops were full of loaves of bread. She'd slice them with her electric bread slicer (yep, I have one too) and bag them and put them in the extra freezer for later enjoyment. The house smelled wonderful when we came home from school. Don't you love how memories can flood your mind when you enjoy food? Now when I make this, the first loaf gets eaten within 5 minutes. I try to give one or two away and the last loaf is to save for the next day's sandwiches or eggs & toast breakfast.

Mom’s Whole Wheat Bread
Karen’s version of Joyce McCown’s recipe

In medium bowl combine:
5 tsp. yeast, ½ cup warm water, and 1 Tbs. honey. Set aside. I know this is just to proof the yeast and that I could probably just add it later but I like to stick with tradition.

In Bosch mixer, with dough hook, combine:
5 cups Whole Wheat flour (I use hard red winter wheat), 3 cups white flour, 5 cups hot water, and 1/3 cup Vital Wheat Gluten (my optional add-in)
Mix for 10 minutes to make gluten work and to allow yeast to rise.

In another medium bowl combine:
2 beaten eggs (those poor eggs), ½ cup canola oil, 1/3 cup honey (if you buy some from your area it will actually help relieve your allergies - cool, huh?), 1 Tbs. salt, and 2 Tbs. lemon juice (I found that this is a natural dough enhancer that helps the wheat rise). Mix and combine with wheat/water mixture in Bosch. Add yeast mixture. Scrape down sides. Gradually add 2 ½ cups wheat flour and 2 ½ cups white flour. Mix for 5 minutes to knead. Take out of Bosch and put into a large, greased bowl. Cover with warm, damp towel and let rise till double (1 hour where I'm at). After 1 hour, turn oven on to warm setting. With greased hands, punch down dough and form into 4 loaves, brush tops with PAM as well and let rise in pans till double (30 minutes in warm oven). Leave the pans in the oven and turn it from warm to 350 degrees for 30 minutes more. Remove from oven after cooking time then brush tops with butter and wrap in towels for softer crust.

It may look difficult at first but once you get used to making it, it's a breeze. I don't even need to look at the recipe anymore. Besides, what's better than to walk in your home and smell bread baking?

My daddy likes his with honey. My oldest son likes his with strawberry or raspberry jam, no butter. My Nana liked hers with sliced sharp cheddar on top and toasted. My grandma would put a thin layer of peanut butter on hers. The rest of them like it with butter. I'm good with any of the above because it reminds of those people I love. What do you like to put on your homemade bread?

Living Christ Craft

Here is the "craft" I did for our last Enrichment Craft Night. I got the frame at Walmart for about $15. The rest of it cost $8 since I had 50% off coupons for Robert's craft store for the 11x14 matting. I love that place. I got the green matting that has the burgundy inside. I had to take all my kids in to 2 different Robert's stores but it was worth it. I got Greg Olsen's "Beautiful Savior" 3x4 prints at Deseret Book. I cut them out then we just placed them on the matting with double-stick tape. The Living Christ paper was free at the Distribution Center. This would make a great Christmas gift.

My kids aren't very good at keeping secrets

One of my children accidentally spilled the beans. However, the kids are very excited to meet their new sibling on (but preferably a little before) April 30th. I went in today and saw the heartbeat and got a tiny little picture on the ultrasound but I thought this picture above looked more visible. My parents are supposed to get back from their mission to Chile the first week of May. I wonder if they'll be able to come back a little earlier than planned?

Here we go again... :) Where's my pillow? I need a nap.

*Update: It looks like my parents are going to try to come back mid-April. That will give them some time to go home, see my SIL's new baby, then hopefully come up here to watch our kids while I deliver. Hooray!

First Day of School & Belated Birthday

My 3 oldest had their first day of school which was on Wednesday. They're holding up their fingers to show which grade they're going into. They're all laughing at me because right at that moment, our sprinklers sprayed cold water all over the back of legs. At least it got some good, geniune smiles out of them, right? Nathan was sad for 5 minutes but I felt like I was on vacation - it was so quiet and I got SO MUCH done. I cleaned, read a book (uninterrupted) and took a cat nap.

I finally got my daughter's birthday pictures taken, a week late. Oh well. We were too busy having fun at Lagoon and I was too tired when we got home. She lost ANOTHER tooth so she looks a little goofy. What a fun age!

Finished rag quilt

Here's the first quilt I've finished since being inspired from the quilt show I went to a few weeks ago. For those of you who scrapbook, do you recognize the print? It's from My Mind's Eye and I have the matching paper. *Heaven* I was going to do a gathered hem but after a couple HOURS both threads broke from the strain so I did pleats and it was done in no time. I've only washed it once so it still has some fuzzies on it. I have enough leftover of the pink polka dot to make a matching nightgown for winter. My daughter's so excited.

Now I'm starting my son's scrap quilt. We had some "discussions" about fabric choices yesterday at JoAnn's: I really don't think he should be sleeping with pictures of skeletons/skulls/all black. He's only 9 for crying out loud - isn't that supposed to happen when he's 17? Anyway, here are the pictures of the front and back. Enjoy!

CTR blocks

These are come cute little wood blocks we're making for a craft night at my house next weekend. I'm posting pictures here to share since I'm always looking for cute LDS Super Saturday ideas. I love vinyl lettering!

Quilt Inspiration

Museums are a great way to stay cool in the summer! Yesterday we drove to Springville and after 30 minutes of driving around numerous contruction zones we found the Art Musuem where they are doing a Quilt Show. I forgot how much I LOVE quilts! Here are a few that have inspired me. I now hope to finish at least one quilt a year. (Most of these look they need to be done by hand) Feel free to click on them to see them a little closer.

This was based on Gordon B. Hinckley's 6 B's. I saw one just like this at Raspberry Days in Bear Lake and couldn't help but walk right up and start touching it. So fun!

Eric Carle quilt - E's favorite

Twilight Quilt - hilarious that they did this. They're gifting it to Stephenie Meyer! (No, I'm not doing this. I just thought it was interesting. Some of the pieces look like origami)

Flower Garden aka Honeycomb. Paper piecing by hand sounds so time-consuming but I thought it would be a great way to use scraps on our long car-trips to Arizona. The artist made it with her mother using 40 different patterns of fabric, 777 hexagon pieces (thank goodness it wasn't 666 - you were thinking it too...) and it was all pieced, quilted and bound by HAND in 3 months. It was a large crib-size quilt. I also like how she double-bordered it.

This one stood out to me because the artist used shimmery gold thread - see it? There was a small wall-hanging, peacock-colored quilt with irridescent beads. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of it.

Whole Quilting - this would be awesome done with double wedding ring design stitched on it, don't you think? Talk about a lot of work though...

I was telling my boys the different designs, themes, fabrics and techniques used when some ladies commented that they were happy to see my older boys so interested in the quilts. I love art - It can be symbolic, it can change your mood, and I always wonder what the artist was thinking at the time... what caused them to want to create that particular piece.

On another similar note - if you live in Utah - you have to go see the traveling exhibit at BYU Museum of Art. Steinhilber has some really fun ways to make art out of everyday items. http://moa.byu.edu/fileadmin/moa/steinhilber/steinhilbersplash.html It ends on 8/22 and is an excellent way to get your kids interested in art. We especially enjoyed the "circular balloon wall art" and "blowing styro-peanut corner." Every piece is untitled so those are just the names I use to describe them. The "heat lamp" and "stacked chairs" I could've done without but there are always a few pieces in modern art that I just don't get. (Like at NYC's MOA they have a lamp in the corner of a room. It's just a... LAMP IN THE CORNER, who cares? It took what, 5 seconds to do it - that's not art sweetie. Build it all with forks and then I'll be impressed) Sorry to end on a grouchy note - I must need chocolate or something. :)