What-Shall-We-Give?

In theory, you would be able to see the whole screen here, but I am techno challenged. Feel free to chime in if you know how I can fix it...

Merry CHRISTmas!

To Explain...

the background, I added the song. Only 6 more days to go! Although I still have doll clothes to sew and an entire family picture calendar to make. I think I'd better go...

This Kind of a Day...

Yes, that's a flask-shaped bottle filled with hot chocolate. Hot chocolate made with mostly cream, a little milk and lots and lots of chocolate melted in. Recently my kids have started fighting with eachother. Really fighting. All the time. This has not gone well for me, especially since it coincided with Hadden just missing the deadline for Kindergarten this year, and growing a serious attitude. We begged the school to let him come early, they said no...more hot chocolate for me. And, just so you don't think I locked myself in the closet and drank the whole thing myself, which I certainly would do, but didn't happen to this time, I give you this...

Sad Halloween

Calla was an adorable butterfly for Halloween.

We didn't make it trick or treating because...

Hadden has some sort of flu. Who knows what it is, since he had BOTH flu shots. But, we are in the middle of the 4th day of fever, chest congestion, cough and loss of voice. He was the saddest 5 year old EVER when he didn't get to go trick or treating in his new policeman outfit. He has been watching movies and Reading Rainbow episodes in bed ever since. He likes the movies, the flu, not so much.

Hadden is 5!

The Magic Tree House Birthday Party. We used balloon bunches to make a "tree house" in the living room. We picked 5 books and made a game for each book. The kids were up in the tree house and then we spun the kids and turned on a fan and then took them downstairs to play a game based on that book.

Hadden getting wrapped up for the mummy race.


There go the mummies! Good thing we have a racetrack in our basement!



Presents. This particular present is a policmean outfit that has been worn almost non-stop since he opened it.

Family Dinner. Hadden wanted homemade macaroni and cheese and corn.

The ugliest birthday cake ever beheld. Hadden didn't care. It tasted yummy.

Ready for cake

Here Come the Candles

Yum!

Carpe Diem

We were driving around town on one of the million errands we ran today, and apropos of nothing, Hadden said: "Mommy, once a moment is over, it's gone forever." Carpe Diem, little dude.

We Are NOT Dead

What? You thought we died? I know it's been a long time, but summer is so short, we had to make the most of it. Here's what we were doing last night because it froze (cry, cry) and killed our pumpkin plants...

Hadden has been BEGGING for about 2 months now to pick his pumpking, so you can imagine the excitement (photo in top right) at actually getting to finally do this. Happy fall everyone.

Feeling Better and Eating S'mores

Thanks to all of you who called and offered help and prayers while we were sick! The kids are both feeling much better. Calla still has lots of bruises from all the IV tries and gets tired quickly, but she is herself again. We are so blessed to live in a time with doctors, hospitals, IV fluids and all that. I took this picture the day before Calla went to the hospital. Poor kids. I am trying to remind myself now that the kids are back to fighting with eachother over every toy in our house of just how quicklty things can go from fine to serious.

Last night we grilled some hamburgers (and vegiburgers, of course) and let the kids make S'mores afterwards. Hadden loved them and made quite a mess!

Calla tried one bite and decided it was much too sticky for her.

She hates to have sticky hands, so she set it to the side and just ate chocolate instead. I can't say that I blame her, that is the best part!

Get the Rotavirus Vaccine!

My poor, poor kids. They have spent since Tuesday at noon throwing up, and having diarrhea. We were giving Calla Pedialite as fast as she could drink it and keep it down and she still ended up in the ER on Thursday night. She got an IV (after 2.5 hours of trying and 4 pokes) and finally got rehydrated. They admitted her and she spent Thursday night and all of Friday in the pediatric unit getting rehydrated and waiting for the vomiting to stop so we could keep her hydrated at home. She's doing better at home now and is walking around and playing again. The docs are pretty sure it is rotavirus, so if you have a little one who isn't vaccinated (our family doc didn't have the vaccine when she was little--we have now switched to a pediatrician) get it now!

Hadden is having the same stuff now and we just hope his is more mild! Keep my kids in your prayers, they need it this week.

Hadden's Big Night

Hadden had his last indoor soccer game and his final choir concert for the year tonight. What a busy kid! He got to be the duck and quack for everyone, which was totally adorable. Check out the video(s). It's only one song, but Chris, for some reason (Calla on his lap, I'm guessing), decided to film it in three parts, sorry!

Cute Kids

Quacking Like A Duck

"Sittin' In the Water"

Just Say NO to trying to Photoshop a microphone off your child's face with the Picasa blemish tool.

The Proud Goal-Scorer

The Team

In A Huddle

Go Hadden!

High Fives from Dad

Catherine Newman Is Coming!

Have I mentioned her before? Well, too bad, because here I go again. She is my favorite writer ever and so very, very hilarious. Her memoir about motherhood and parenting is Waiting for Birdy and you must read it if you haven't already. She currently writes the Dalai Mama Dishes weekly blog/recipe column. I totally adore her food, as do my kids and husband. That's a tall order to please all of us!

And...She's coming here to teach 2 cooking classes at the store! She'll be here on Friday June 12th and Saturday June 13th, teaching two different menus. I know this is a totally shameless plug for the store, and I truly hope you don't mind. Here's the link:

http://www.luvtocook.com/products/prodDetails.asp?pID=54

The second class should be at the bottom of the page under "you might also like"

We are working on our coupon codes for the site, but they aren't working for the buy one get one free classes yet. So if you do want to sign up in the next few days before we get those codes organized, call down to the store (the phone number is at the bottom of the website pages) and they will get you signed up for the buy one get one free. If you don't, I won't feel bad, I promise. I will probably tell you how amazing it was, though.

New Website (FINALLY!)

After much (impatient, by me) waiting. We are ecstatic to announce that the new luvtocook.com is finally wheezing to life. This partially explains why I have been slacking on the blog lately. I'd like to say I'll do better, but I probably wont anytime soon, so sorry!

And, I know, I know there's only one measly product on there now, but they are being added as frantically as we possibly can. So, for now enjoy the beautiful main page and browsing the cooking classes.

Summer Might Actually Come!

Please, brace yourselves, because we actually went outside today without down coats and snowsuits!!!! I know this is shocking, but let me tell you it was fabulous! I am getting the gardening bug and have to keep reminding myself that if I plant tender plants now, they will surely die. So, we planed peas, spinach and beets and are waiting till mid-April for the rest. Here's a few pictures of the kids lately:

Reading books with Grandpa

Cowgirl Calla

Play-Doh, oh how i hate thee. For some reason, I was out of my mind the last time we made it to Target, maybe because when I'm there I have to buy things to make up for not having a Target close by, I don't know. I bought this Play-Doh ice cream parlor set. It lives on the top shelf of the pantry and doesn't come down unless I'm feeling very nice and the floor is looking like it needs to be mopped. But the kids absolutely adore it and it does occupy them for a long time, so maybe I should let it out of jail more often.

The kids watching conference on the laptop, next to the TV, which isn't actually on because we dont' have TV reception. We do this fun snack activity for the kids, which seems to work well. It doesn't, however work for kids who aren't generally foodies, but my kids didn't seem to mind 8 hours of weekend snacking.

Here is the snack table. Each bowl is assigned a word, which I also print a picture for, like "Jesus," "temple," "prophet," "tithing," etc. Every time the kids hear one of the speakers say one of the words, they get to pick a snack out of that bowl. Hadden ate himself sick on chocolate covered peanuts during Elder Bednar's talk on temples.

Must Read!

I should be blogging all those pictures--all 5 of them--I took in March and showing you how cute and talented my kids are and how we actually traveled to somewhere with sun and not this endless, endless snow that we have here at home. But, instead, I am showing you this. I know we can be food snobs over here, but this is ridiculous and disgusting. That's not to say I haven't eaten at or enjoyed some of these restaurants before (oh Macaroni Grill focaccia, how I love you). I do think that the old adage, that knowledge is power is the point of this article, though. All our best and some pictures to come sometime in the future!

February

February is the month I would like to forget about. If I could pick just one month each year to get rid of, it would have to be February! It is just so cold here! I know it's cold almost everywhere, but still, we're chilled through and through and getting so very tired of snowsuits and hats and mittens, etc. etc. Also, for those of you who know Cache Valley, the inversion. It's just gross to go outside and smell the air. There's something wrong about that. My kids are truly trying to be good sports, but what we all really want is to go outside! That's not to say we don't get out for a walk almost every afternoon, but it's just not the same as playing outdoors unencumbered by layers of down and water repellent fabric for hours on end. Hadden's newest obsession is Lego's, which is not helping my cabin fever in any way. It feels more like a slow and cold form of torture to put together houses, cars, planes, helicopters, etc., etc. day after day only to have them immediately smashed by a loving but not so very gentle nearly 2-year-old. And then there's the stepping on the forgotten pieces, you know the ones that you thought you picked up out of the rug, but apparently you, well, didn't; only to find them embedded into the tender skin of your feet? Yikes, am I just complaining? What I meant to do was post these pictures of how we are managed to survive February despite it's best efforts not to let us. Hope you are all defrosting, wherever you may be!

Truly, Calla is happy nearly all the time. I don't think she actually remembers summer.

I think we were super bored this day and Hadden took to trying on extra sunglasses. I really cannot remember why he thought it was so funny to wear them with only underwear, but it was funny.

He then, of course, had to run around the house. I particularly love how fierce his face looks. He is generally very fierce lately.

Even the deer are getting tired of scavenging for food underneath all the snow. These particular deer were right outside Calla's window when she was getting her diaper changed. She looked up and said "deer," and Chris looked out the window to see these two right up next to the house. Hadden came running and pretty soon we had scared them into the neighbors yard, which is where they are in this picture. They then jumped over the fence, at which point Calla started to cry uncontrollably and kept saying, through her huge sobs, "deer" We think she was actually terrified, poor girl!

The other day Hadden informed me that it was Dimple's birthday. Dimple is the little stuffed dog in the above picture. Hadden has never been much of a stuffed animal guy, but Dimple is by far his favorite. I decided to humor him and made cupcakes for Dimple. Hadden insisted that Dimple eat dinner with us (he has a bowl of soup and a bowl of water) and then he had to have a birthday candle, which Hadden was all too happy to blow out for him.

And this is what the kids were doing this morning while I was getting ready for church. Chris has to be at church at 7 a.m. every Sunday, so we all fend for ourselves and reading books in our bed is one way to keep them from fighting with each other while I get ready. Hadden put down his age-appropriate book and mischievously said to me, "Mom I am going to read a vampire book to myself! It's the one with the apple right?" I, of course, thought this was hilarious. For the record, he has no idea what a vampire is, just that I happen to have a few books about them and that I've read them a few times. Maybe we'll get out a little more in March!

Hadden Skis!

Here's what Hadden and Chris were up to today.

"Can't We Have Anything Nice?"

Do you remember your parents, most likely your mom, saying this repeatedly when you were a kid? My parents are very big on taking care of the stuff you have so that you don't have to buy it again. I'm pretty sure that not taking care of your possessions is my dad's #1 pet peeve. It is definitely mine. I realize that I am a little fanatical in this respect, especially in today's disposable society. Chris is much less worried about stuff getting broken and needing to be replaced.

So, can I just take a minute to vent/beg for ideas? Hadden is like a tornado around here. He runs, jumps, crashes, bonks, yanks, throws, and stomps on anything he can get near. We have repeatedly explained the reason that we have rules around the house is so that people don't get hurt and things don't get broken. I feel, however, that everything we have ever said on this topic has been lost on him. Aside from the zillion or so times a day he accidentally (or not so accidentally) hurts Calla, it seems like he is on a complete destruction spree lately. Yesterday, we were trying to be outside so as not to go absolutely crazy, and Hadden decided to take the "big car" (the kind you pedal Flintstones style) down the driveway at top speeds while Calla was hanging on to the back. She couldn't run that fast and was holding on by her hands while her knees dragged all the way down the driveway. Mind you, I was chasing them screaming "stop, stop, stop," to no avail. By the time they reached the bottom, The knees on Calla's hideously expensive down snowsuit were worn down to almost nothing. "At least it wasn't her skull," I kept trying to tell myself.

Then, this morning, I was trying to clean up breakfast and make yogurt, while the kids ran around in their underwear and diaper (They love to be naked, and I rarely indulge them, so I was trying to be nice). After about 10 minutes, Hadden came in and said he needed me to come see something. Well, it turns out that something was one of the brackets from Calla's curtains torn from the wall with a 6 inch gaping hole where it used to be firmly attached. In order to fully understand my fury, please understand that Hadden has already broken the valence and the open/close stick from his own blinds, which are only 2 years old. We have forbidden him from touching any window coverings at least 50 times each day and have resorted to pulling most blinds all the way up and hiding the cords during the day since he was one. Needless to say, I flipped out when I saw the hole in the wall. After he had spent a long time in his own room, I made him go to the bank, withdraw money from his savings account and go to Lowes and buy the materials to fix the wall. Hopefully we can remount the curtains after we fix and repaint the wall, though they will have to be mounted lower on the wall since that spot will no longer hold the bracket weight, being that it's made up of only Sheetrock mud and not of any substantial material!

So, is the answer, "No, we can't have anything nice?" Or, is there some way to teach a four year-old boy not to tear the house and everything in it apart bit by bit? Please, enlighten me!

Fun Park

Because I am too cheap to pay for a blog book and because I already have a photo printer and digital scrapbooking program, I am going to try posting some scrapbook pages and see how it works. You can click on the image to bring it up larger. You don't mind doing that, right? Just one little click? Feel free to let me know your opinion. Here are some shots from the Fun Park with the kids a few weeks ago. Hadden has become a pretty good little roller skater. They had lots of fun with Grandma and their friends Jack and Piper.