LOVE HARVEST

Sierra made dinner tonight.

I told her she had to pick a meat out of the fridge.

She picked ground pork.

I said she had to pick onions or garlic.

She wanted both.

Then I said she could put any vegetable she wanted from Lily's or Sister Kay's garden.

She put in zucchini, beans, tomatoes, and a variety of peppers.

She chopped all the vegetables herself and cooked the meat.

Then I added a pound of pasta and some chicken broth and little salt and pepper.

Cooked it for six minutes in our electric pressure cooker and dinner was served.

It was really yummy with fresh grated parmesan cheese and a little pepper.

Thanks Sierra for making dinner. You are a little culinary genius.



HEXAGON's and VINTAGE SCRAPS

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am!!!

Story...

About a year ago I was at Sister Trevenan's house.

We were looking at all of the her old fabric in storage.

She has some from her mother and her mother's sister.

It was beautiful.

I said, "I would give anything to own this fabric."

It may have been a subtle, or not so subtle implication that really meant, "Please! please! please! can I have this fabric."

Obviously picking up on my not so subtle implication, she said, "I am going to pass this fabric onto my grandchildren."

I was a little heart broken and have thought about the beautiful vintage fabric scraps from time to time.

Then out of the blue I got a call this week it was from Sister Trevenan. She said, "One of the boxes of fabric was actually my mother's sister's and I don't think my grandchildren really care about it, so if you want it??"

I practically screamed into the phone... YES!

She brought it over two days ago. I have been touching every piece and loving it.

Yesterday, I got this crazy hair to make a quilt for my king size bed out of one inch hexagons. My goal to get it done by Christmas.

Hexagons have to be hand pieced. I am using an English paper piecing method my friend Shelly taught me Pittsburgh, which is fun.

 I am pretty sure I won't make my goal, but I have to have a goal or it may just never get it done and that would make me really sad.

So, wish me luck!

I will picture my project here from time to time.

LOVE MY LITTLE SISTERS

 I had a few seconds before church started and so I took the girls out in the garage and got these few shots.

I love these little girls.

They sometimes drive me crazy but at the end of the day I am so glad they are mine.

Yesterday, Madison was cracking me up.

I recited the Dragon Tales poem. The one they say to go to Dragon Land. Any PBS junky will know what I am talking about.

Madison said, "Mom, don't say that poem, cause then you will dis-dappear to Dragon Land.

I said, "Maybe I want to go to Dragon Land."

She said, Well, if you go to Dragon Land then I will be alone."

Then I will have to get on my Diego Bike.

And then I will have to go to Sister Kay's house.

And then I will have to wait for sister to come home.

And then sister will have to clean the house.

And then daddy will have to make dinner.

And then sister will have to make peaches in the jar.

And then Sister Kay will have to read me stories and tuck me into bed.

And then we will be sad.

And then we will have to remind ourselves to feed Edison.

And then we will have to vacuum the floor all the time.

And then we will have make our lunch.

And then we will have to wash our clothes.

And then dad will have to take sister to school.

Andt hen we will have to take care of each other.

And then....

And then...

And then...

She must have spoken for twenty minutes straight.

And she convinced me, I won't be going to Dragon Land.

Especially because I have a little girl that is very observant and realizes how much her mommy does.

More especially because she would be sad.

 

I did like that if anything happened to me she had a back-up-plan.

It tickled me that Sister Kay was her back-up-plan.

She really is a second Grandma to my little girls and we love her so much.

 

EDISON, the CAT

 I  can't believe that this cat will let them carry him around half the day like a little baby.

He loves it.

They love him to pieces.

The first thing Sierra does when does she wakes up is run to the back door and call for Edison.

She sits out and holds him until I pester her to get ready for school.

The last thing Sierra does every night is say good night to Edison by flowering him with kisses and holding him for a few moments before bed.

My girls play outside all afternoon with Edison

For that reason, and a plethora of others, I am glad he is and outdoor cat.



SUNDAY, is GOOD

I love seeing my little girls all dressed up for church.

I love that we are always there every week.

I love that they learn about the Savior and that through him they can overcome anything.

I love that they learn that they are children of our Heavenly Father.

I love that they get to be around good kids that share their same values.

I am grateful for the Sabath and that my parents taught me to honor it, because it brings a sense of peace into my life when this day is spent honoring my Father-in-Heaven and his son.

Happy Good Sunday.

LITTLE MISS BROWN COW

 Kay got a Dexter Cow and it's calf, yesterday.

Isn't little Miss Brown Cow the cutest thing.

She got the Dexter Cow to milk, but she is so mean and onery that we don't think it is going to be possible to milk her.

Bitter, Sweet.

Cause I was hoping for fresh milk and cream once a week.

However, I am not going to miss milking her.

 

Dexter Cow's are really small and very cute.

This calf is so sweet and tiny.

The kids tried to bottle feed her but she didn't want to have anything to do with it.

Then they fed her corn stalk leaves. She loved it.

We will have to go feed her more tomorrow.

Sierra just loved her and wanted to keep her.

She asked Sister Kay, "What are you going to do with the baby calf when it get's to be winter?"

Kay said, "I am going to put him in your bedroom."

Sierra said, "Then it will poop and pee all over my room."

Kay said, "Well, I guess you will have to clean it up."

Sierra said, "What about the goats?"

Kay said, "I think they can fit in your room too."

Sierra said, "What about the chickens?"

Kay said, "Hmmm. Your dad's room."

Sierra said, "Be serious."

Kay laughed.

We picked more tomatoes and found some turkey eggs.

I asked Kay if she had every tried eating turkey eggs.

She said, "No, go home and try them."

I do not want to be the guniea pig.

Anyone want to come over and try a turkey egg omlet tomorrow? Anyone?

HAPPY DAYS

Sierra had the day off of school and we had to do something fun.

 Another favorite thing to do when our funds are low is to go to the Fruita Thrift Store.

We take a few quarters and find some treasures.

Madison and Sierra found a Zhu Zhu Pet game.

All of the pieces were there and it was a quarter, so we bought it.

We brought it home. It is a cross between Chutes and Ladders and Candy Land.

They wanted to play it over and over again on a blanket in the backyard.

We played until the mosquito's started to bite and then we moved our fun inside on the kitchen table.

Another note about bread that maybe a bit boring..... 

...but I feel so blessed I have to share.

I haven't been able to make whole wheat bread since moving to Fruita.

I have had a few times where it has turned out and I get really excited and then I try to make it again and something goes wrong.

I have never been able to make the same batch of bread twice.

Typically, it is flat on the top and dense.

It is pig food.

Then I have to wait a whole other month to get up the courage to try again.

Honestly, I have been so destroyed inside over the fact that something I use to consider a talent was just taken from me.

 

We had a lesson on Food Storage a few Sunday's ago.

Two years ago Nate and I talked about building a years supply.

The church recommends 25 pounds of grain and 5 pounds of beans per person per month.

We felt that was doable.

We bought a lot of wheat and a lot of rice and a lot of beans.

My wheat has just sat there for two years and has hardly been touched.

Anyway back to the lesson that was given.

The person giving the lesson gave a really complicated year supply plan.

I raised my hand and said, "The church had given us a really simple plan. It is simply 25 pounds of grain and 5 pounds of beans per person per month. You may not be giddy about what's for dinner and the food won't be all that yummy, but you will live. You can add all the other fancy things as you get the money. I stored wheat or rice." (Although the church says any grain, even corn.)"

The lady looked me in the eyes kind of fierce and said, "But do you know how to use your wheat."

She sounded like a Baptist Preacher crying down from the pulpit.

I felt small.

I was sad because all of my bad bread days rushed in on me.

I had to concede that..... I didn't anymore

.

Funny enough my sister and I have had the same problem.

We both have had this bread funk at the same time.

Anyway, she called me really excited because she had found this recipe on line.

She said it had cured her whole wheat bread ills.

I was really skeptical.

It was the same recipe we had been using, but the process was a little bit different.

I tried it.

It worked.

I tried it again today.

It worked again.

Can you see the smile on my face!

I can't tell you how happy I am.

No words can describe it.

When you have struggled and struggled and struggled to do something you know deep inside you can do but just can't and then two years later this miracle happens there are no words to describe the joy.

Thank you sister, Michelle.

Thank you Mel's Kitchen Cafe for posting such a detailed step-by-step process, that anyone can follow, for making wheat bread .

Thank you Heavenly-Father for answering my simple, but ridiculously not simple and important to me, prayer.

I am grateful to turn the bad bread chapter of my life.

Sigh....

One happy girl tonight!

CARNIVAL

 Well, Sierra wanted to go to the carnival at school, really bad.

We couldn't go.

To be honest it had a lot to do with our current budget.

It wasn't like we couldn't have gone, all it would have taken was one phone call to anyone.

I have very generous friends and an extremely generous family.

However, starting a new business requires sacrifice and my children can sacrifice too.

She has been to the carnival the last two years and she will go again next year.

 

She was upset.

I told her it broke my heart to see her sad but we can do hard thing together as a family to help Daddy.

I suggested she make her own carnival in the backyard.

She did.

She was so happy.

She spent all evening making her little carnival.

She made a pin-the-tail on the My Little Pony.

A ring toss.

A ball toss.

A fishing bucket.

And a sack race.

When Dad came home we all as a family went out and played together.

It was such a sweet beautiful evening.

I love my little family so much.

 

(You can thank me for not including pictures of the sack race. Nate couldn't participate because of his knee and so I had to. Bouncing around with a pregnant belly isn't fun. My feet broke through me sack, which was actually a plastic bag. By the time I was half way into the race, it looked like I was wearing an oversized diaper. Both of my girls were rolling on the ground laughing their little heads off. 

 

Sierra said it was the best day of her life.

 

I have to include the funny thing Sierra said today at dinner....

Sierra: Mom, how do you spell her?
Me: H-E-R
(She covers her face shocked.) Sierra: I spelt it H-R.
Me: That is okay.
(Sierra confident) Sierra: Yeah, I am sure my teacher won't notice.
(Nate suppressing a laugh) Nate: Yeah, I am sure.

 

Funny, that she missed the word her.

She worked really hard this week studying.

She got every other word on her spelling test right including the challenge words, which were...

September, August, forces, motion, and problem.

 

I also have to say in case our situation sounds more dire than it is. Nate is doing really well, really well. We are both in awe at how the Lord has blessed him in his new venture. We have only had our doors open about two month and yet we can see that he is going to be very, very successful.

He is crazy good at what he does and I am so proud of him.

EARLY OUT DAY

We went to visit Darcy and go for a walk/bike ride with our kids.

I went off on a verbal tangent that may have taken up most of our time.

I felt bad. I want to get together again when I am not so high strung.

Then we can talk about our great ideas and that is what I love to talk about most with Darcy.

She has such fun ideas and such a interesting things that she is doing all the time.

 

Sierra was learning how to text and may have texted a few of her Aunts.

It was funny to go back and read them.

I don't know if I want my seven year old texting but she likes to practice spelling right, so maybe it is a good thing.

 

I have been so crazy this last month that I haven't blogged that often and I have missed a lot of the fun things that Madison and Sierra have said.

I have forgotten the ones Madison has said but here are a few from Sierra on being famous.

 

"Mom, how come dad wants to be famous?"

"He doesn't"

"Then why is he in the newspaper and on the radio?"

"Because he is advertising for his new practice."

 

"Mom, how come Jesus wants to be famous?"

"He doesn't."

"Then why does everyone know about him and he has like two books written about him."

 

"Mom, why did Jesus only have to be dead for three days and we have to be dead like forever? That isn't fair!"

 

Then a funny thing she said after school the other day.

 

"Mom, did you send me with a sugar snack today."

"Yes."

"My teacher said, no more sugar snacks because they gives us a little buzz."

We both started laughing because it is one of our favorite lines from the Santa Clause 2 movie.

IT's A.........

I, Sierra, and Madison headed to the doctor's office bright and early this morning.

I was a little bit nervous.

I am not sure why, but I was.

I wanted Nate to come, but he is so busy with his new practice.

The girls were really good though and sat pretty still, except for Madison who kept getting off of her chair to hold my hand.

The doctor asked the girls, "Have you ever seen an ultrasound?"

Sierra said, "Oh yeah, hundreds."

The doctor looked at me cockeyed.

I said, "She saw one. Madison's."

I am really surprise she remembers.

The doctor of course spent a lot of time at the babies head, making sure the brain was developing and then looking at his face.

He slowly moved down the spine and it seemed like forever until he got to the shot below.

He asked me, "So, what is the gender?"

I said, "A boy."

He said, "Yep, it is pretty obvious. I will give you a 100% percent guarantee on the gender of this child."

He also said, "The baby looks healthy and is measuring perfectly on date."

So, I guess we will be welcoming Gunnison Nathan to the world on January 14th, give or take a couple days, hopefully take.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILY

 Happy Birthday, to the sweetest, kindest, most generous person I know.

Lily moved into our ward about a year ago and has been such a huge blessing in all of our lives.

We wouldn't be the same without her.

Thanks Lily for being you.

 

We went to a Italian Restaurant for lunch.

The food was good.

The pregnant lady kept spilling balsamic vinegar on herself.

It was really attractive on her circular little belly.

I wish I had of ordered pasta. I know people should order pasta at an Italian restaurant, but I am always doing the thing that doesn't make sense and then wishing I hadn't.

This is my favorite picture of the day. Lily and Annie look radiant and Elise and Barbara look like... come on pregnant lady, stop taking pictures already!

 

Well, you are in for a treat because tomorrow I will be announcing whether this sweet baby growing inside me is a boy or a girl. Stay tuned.

MORNING ERRANDS

We ran some morning errands together.

There is only a grocery store, an ace hardware store, and a family dollar in this little town.

I needed cleaning supplies.

A lot of them.

My sweet friend is moving and needed a little help cleaning up her new house.

We went shopping early.

We were waiting till the family dollar was open, which apparently isn't until 9:00am.

MJ was balancing on the parking lot cement dividers.

She would walk to the end and then come and take another bit of her oatmeal.

Apparently, it would take her a long time to chew up, if I called her back early she would open her mouth and show me that she was still working on it.

The oatmeal wasn't chewy. She just doesn't really like oatmeal.

 

Not sure exactly sure what she was looking at in this moment but it must have been something pretty serious.

 

She was a good little helper today.

She sponged walls. There may have been a few puddles of water on the floor, but she was helping.

She had to have a sponge in every color.

After I took her sponges away and mopped up the floor, she entertained herself by climbing on my back or clinging to my foot as I cleaned or begging me to hold her.

She was a bit of a rascal but she still let me get a lot done, so I can hardly complain.

POOR TORTURED CAT

She flings him over her shoulder and carries him around the backyard.

She drags him by his tail and by his neck.

She hauls him to the top of the slide and slides down with him.
She plays hide-and-go Eddy with her sister and him.
One of them hides the cat, the other finds him.

She basically tortures him.

 

She giggles her lungs out when he climbs the wood singset posts.

She giggles when she sees him chase a bug in the grass.

She loves him more than any creature she has ever known.

 

I hope he makes it.

I hope he doesn't turn mean.

I hope he is patient with her.

Because she sure loves him.
And you know what, I think he knows that because he runs to her everytime she opens the back door.
And last night the sprinklers came on and scared him and he ran away, but this morning he was purring at the front door waiting for some one to love, torcher him again.

CHEF BRAD

 Chef Brad or as we call him Uncle Brad came to visit again.

We were so excited.

He cooks for us. It makes me so happy. He loves food and who doesn't love food and who wouldn't want a Chef to come and cook for them for a few days.

You can watch his show here.

He is very talented. You are going to love watching his show. Go click on the link.

He taught me a few quick meals that I am super excited to try out.

My girls love him. He loves them. 

He has a gift at making everyone feel loved.

Uncle Brad, Nate and Cousin Tate are doing dude things today. Nate took them out fishing.

I wish Nate had of been busy because then we would of been able to tour all the beautiful fruit orchards in the area and go out for some good Thai food.

Sigh.

Next time hopefully Nate will be too busy.

New Practice.

What I have been working on lately. Business Cards and Flyers.

I giggle everytime I say the name of Nate's practice.

Just say it. It will make you giggle too.

I feel like a cheerleader.

And the neon green wasn't my choice, but it is growing on me.

When Nate asked me to make him a flyer with the phone number tabs, I laughed.

This is how our conversation went.

"Are you going to stick them in bathroom stalls?"

"No."

"Then what?"

"Grocery Stores."

"Cheesy, Getto Marketing."

"I know, but it works."

Here we are, a few weeks in and things are going well.

I am hopeful I will be able to meet my bills next month, which will be huge.

I thank my Father-in-Heaven for blessing us so much.

EDISON

 I know everyone will think I am crazy. I kind of think I am crazy.

This move has allowed us for the first time in our lives to have a pet.

Our friends moved and were giving away their half grown kittens.

Their daughter brought this little cat to the door and begged us to take it.

She may have had tears in her eyes.

She may have suggested a few times if we didn't take it would go to the human society.

I maybe thought it was a dirty trick.

I caved.

I shouldn't have but I did.

I think Sierra is a little in love.

 

It is an outside cat.

It isn't allowed in the house.

If it runs away tonight, I may not be too terribly sad.

We will see if she loved it enough for it to stick around.

P.S. Thank you Jess for rescuing me again. The card reader worked perfectly. We are back in business.

NOT THAT GOOD, NOT THAT HORRIBLE

Well, I asked her how her first day of 2nd grade was and she said, "Not that good and not that horrible."

 

I can't believe how big she is. I wish I could keep her little but the days keep going by more and more quickly and she keeps growing more and more rapidly.

DISAPPEARING

Just incase you have wondered where I have gone.

My camera card stopped working in the drive. I called HP they said they could fix it, if we set the computer back to its factory setting. However, I don't have time to save all the important information that I don't want erased because I am in the middle of moving.

I can't even begin to describe how busy this move has been or how tired I am.

Plus, Nate has been full time at his new office. He has been gone early and home late six days a week, which I am not use to after having him only gone for four.

My girls have been constantly bickering since summer has come to a close. Since moving we have had late nights and early mornings which has not been a good combination for bringing out the best in them.Schools starts Monday, so seperation for part of the day should bring out more sisterly love.

The hardest part should be behind me by Tuesday. Wish me luck. I will see you sometime after that.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl

We have been together for seven years and nine months and I have loved every second of it!

I wouldn't trade all the sleepless nights, the worried filled days, the bruised forehead and scraped knees, for the whole universe.

I wouldn't trade all the giggles, the kisses, the hugs and the times you have said, "You are the best mom ever!" For the whole of the universe.

You mean everything to me.

I could have never hand picked a better first child and oldest daughter.

You are so compassionate.

You feel for other people and hurt when others hurt.

You have such a strong feeling of what is right and wrong.

You want to be good and choose the right.

You love to laugh and have taught me more about what it means to be sincerely happy than anyone.

You have the best imagination of any kid I have ever known.

You are constantly creating worlds and adventures for you and your little sister, and sometimes the neighbors, to go on.

You are a little helper and a companion for me. I love it when you ask to help me make dinner or clean the kitchen.

You love math. It is your favorite subject. You are always begging me to give you sums to add in your head.

You have changed your favorite color to blue.

You are such a good older sister. You help your little sister all time.

Your dad thinks you are the best, most talented child on the planet.

The other day you were watching wipe out together, your daddy said, "Sierra you could win that show so easily!" You said, "Yeah, I bet I could."

You have a lot of confidence in your ability to accomplish things.

Whatever you do, you do it well.

You have great coordination and are the only child I know of that could easily slice vegetable with a knife at the the age of four.

I remember you at the age of two you saying, "I can do it, I can do it!" Whenever there was an obstacle in front of you.

Do you know what? Your daddy and I both believe you can do it, "You can do anything. You will do so much! Your life is full of endless possibilities and we can't wait for another seven years!"

I am so bummed because my camera isn't working for some strange reason.

I couldn't take pictures of your special day.

You went swimming and were so excited to try the diving board for the first time.

You jumped off of it over and over and over again and said it was the best thing ever.

You are starting to become quite the swimmer.

All you wanted for your birthday was a stuffed animal.

I spent hours looking at all of them last night. I am not into stuffed animals, so it was hard for me to buy one... even though it is all you wanted.

I finally found an oversized dog at Target. He went in the cart. You named him Sandy.

I think you were more excited about the My Little Pony cake topper and have spent more time playing with it than Sandy. I should have just bought more pony's.

You also got markers and a Junie B Jones book.

Grandma McKnight brought you a present and so did the Primary Presidency and your friend Victoria who lives across the street and Sister K, but the best reaction was from the presents that Sister Palmer brought you last week for your birthday. I don't think I have ever seen a little girl more excited. You kept screaming, "Oh my!" Sister Palmer got the biggest kick out of it.

I love your stinkin' guts. STOP GROWING SO FAST!



BAD DREAMS

My girls wouldn't sleep in their bed last night.

The two have vivid imaginations.

Madison has gotten as bad as Sierra.

She was hiding in the closet last night and this is her story.

She is stickin' to it.

She swears a monster touched her arm.

With all of the toys in the closet it could have been any number of things, but she insists.

Oh, how will I survive?

I love you girls but please sleep in your own bed, there really truly is no such things as monsters.

Madison and Sierra even collaborated on this picture of what they saw.

Doesn't look scary to me, looks kind of funny.

Sigh.