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.