And while I'm at it....

I thought since I was advertising the giveaway blog, I may as well advertise this amazing book!

As we were browsing the aisles of Deseret Book the other day (horrible store, I should never go in there!!! we always buy too much!), I came across this book in the clearance section!  I couldn't believe it was in the clearance section but then I realized what a perfect opportunity this was for all of you :)  my fellow bloggers.... This book has completely changed the way I think of parenting!!!  I've tried a LOT of the suggestions in this book and found them to be successful.  It talks a lot about disciplining techniques, ways to teach your children ownership and my personal favorite FAMILY ECONOMY!!!!  I'm not getting any money for this plug, no prizes, no points anywhere :)  I just LOVED this book and wanted to recommend it to everyone!!  It's very light reading.  The chapters are short and concise so that you can read it during those few minutes while you're waiting in the carpool lane to pick up your kids at school.  It's by an amazing woman, Linda Eyre, who had 9 children (I've read a few of her other books) and her daughter, Shawni, who now has 5 (I think?) kids as well.  They are both fun to read about.  The pictures are beautiful too... Shawni is a photographer.  SO that's fun too!  Anyway, it's ONLY $5!!!!!!  I'm including the link to Deseret Book if you want to go buy it right now :) HA!  Or you can just go to the store and get it.  If it's still too much money for you, I've got the book, Charity gave it to me for Mother's Day last year, you're more than welcome to borrow it!!  Anyway, that's all I'll say about that :)

Weekly Giveaway Blog

K, so I just found out about this new blog that gives away something weekly.  It's pretty new, I think, so not too many people are on it.  Makes your chances better right?  So anyway, gotta post the link.  Hope you all love giveaways!

And just so you have a heads up.... my good ol' friend Kaye from AK is going to be featured next week, with a $50 credit for vinyl lettering!!!! 

Future Memories

- Friday night we got to tend Charlie and when Brent and Sarah (and Alvin :) ) picked him up Steve talked Brent into playing the Wii.  I loved having family over and just playing around.  Fun stuff even if it was short lived :)  It's nice that everyone's feeling better and can be around each other again :)  (1-28-11)

- Saturday we spent the day cleaning.  We started a new thing on Saturdays.  Everyone has an "adopted room" (got the idea from my teaching partner in Primary) that we have to have spotless on Saturdays.  It only took about an hour to get it all done.  Once you finish your room you help someone else.  Nate and Luke did the Bathroom, Charity did the Family room, Kelly did the Office, Bradley did the Living room, and Noah and Erika and I just sat around doing nothing.  HA!  Actually I was pretty drugged up and in a lot of pain during this part.  Luckily the pain went away for part of the day though.  Don't I have a great family- they still clean even though the one bossing them around is sitting on the couch curled up in a ball.  Good stuff.  (1-29-11) 

- Saturday night we went to Lignell's house for dinner.  After being told we have too many kids by the furniture salesman, it was nice to hang out with people who feel the same way about big families that we do.  I loved how Scott put it, "it's like people don't realize that you think of your big family as a GOOD THING!"  So true.  I do love my "big family".  Wouldn't trade them for the world.  Not one of them.  The Lignells are really nice to hang out with.  So relaxing.  Even if we did plan and reschedule about 3 times before finally making it over there.  They're so forgiving too.

- Monday was a crazy day!!  I took Erika and Kelly to the Dentist amidst it all and that went MUCH better than I had planned.  I like that our new dentist doesn't lecture me about brushing.  I'm doing my best.  Yes we do miss a few days here and there.... we're not perfect.  Lucky for you, Mr. Dentist, because now you're making a lot of money out of our lazy/forgetfulness.  Kelly did great!  She has a cavity to fill and two teeth to pull.  She's very excited about her appointment for tomorrow (for some reason....).  Erika LOVED sitting in the chair before it was her turn.  She DIDN'T love sitting on my lap in the chair and having her teeth poked and prodded.  She screamed.  But the good thing is, her teeth look good and it's another six months before she has to go again!  Yay for her.  Every six months.  Really??  Well, my bad for skipping a year or so in between visits.  The rest of the kids will have their cleanings on Wednesday.  yippee.

- My Mom totally saved the day today, picked up Brad, picked up my girls, AND took Kelly to dance and picked her up at the end.  How nice of her!!  Nate's car was dead and in order to save him time I let him take the Expedition.  Couldn't have done that without her.  (1-31-11)

The Big Five!!!

Man, I can't believe he's five!!!  Luke was a little bit of a challenge the first couple years of his life.  He cried pretty much nonstop for 2 years.  It was hard, but I think it really made me appreciate what a happy little kid he is now!  He really is VERY easygoing for the most part.  He doesn't like to do what he doesn't like to do, but as long as you don't ask him, he's a happy camper!  He is very social, likes to have people around him.  I think that's why he needs help with a lot of things still.... he just wants company.  Someone to smile at and talk to while he's carrying out his everyday routine.  I love that about Luke.  Especially his smile.  He has the sweetest little face.  And when he comes at me with his big romantic lips.... well.... let's just say, he's a sweetie :) HA!!!  Luke's lips are gonna be famous someday.  He's very loving, very forgiving, VERY sympathetic.  He recognizes when there is someone in need.  He is probably one of Erika's favorite people so far.... and he LOVES her SO MUCH!  He would do anything for that little girl.  Including having his ears nearly ripped off.  What a brother.  He's got a really fun sense of humor and will do just about anything for a laugh.  He's pretty active, although in the winter, he's a stay inside kind of guy.  He doesn't love the cold and the snow.  He's WAY into the Wii.  He told me the other day that he wants to be a professional Baseball player (in quite a few words), and I told him that he needed to not play the wii so much if he wants to be a pro athlete.  He wasn't so sure about that.  But Luke's good at playing it cool until things get heated.  He mananges to fly under the radar quite a bit!  And he can be the most stubborn person in the family (that's saying A LOT!) when he wants something bad enough.  He is still not a very good eater.  I'm not sure how he can manage to be hungry EVERY SECOND OF THE DAY, but not want to eat more than four (now five!) bites of his meals.  Crazy little kid.  I always tell him I'm just going to stop feeding him because it's not getting me anywhere :)  He doesn't like that though and says, "Are you just kidding?"  This is our all time favorite line!  I think Nate and I will be saying it forever!  He's starting to get used to the idea of starting school in the fall.... not sure he likes the idea yet, but he's getting there.  He said he's going to miss me.  Yes, I love that.  He is more of a stay home with mom kind of guy.  I think it will be an interesting change for him.  But I get so excited for him to learn and grow outside of the home.... he will love the social scene, I'm sure of that!!  And he's SO SMART!  He pulls things out of nowhere that I just had no idea he had picked up.  Like how to spell Erika's name!!!  And write it himself!  I love that he calls himself Lukey.  Lukey's favorite color is orange.  He used to say colorful, which is how he is, but now he just picks the brightest one he can think of :)  Love this kid!!!  I really don't know what my world would be like without him.  He's been such a ray of sunshine.  Especially these last couple years where he and I have been able to get along and understand each other.  He's my sweet little friend now.  I love his hugs and kisses and his cuddles.  He sure adds a special little flavor to our family.  It wouldn't be the same without him!

Looking back....

Right after they pulled him out!  (I spared you the pictures of the gaping hole in my belly even though I think we got the coolest pictures of his c-section!)  Those LIPS!!!

Crazy little 1 year old Luke.... he liked his train cake. 

Turning 2!  What a cute little guy!

3rd birthday

This was only last year and he looks so much younger!!! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKEY!!!!!

Chopped night!!!

I doubt anyone is as obsessed with the Food Network show Chopped as we are.  We have it on our DVR and watch all the episodes we have time for :)  Nate and I used to love watching it at night after the kids went to bed, but recently we let the girls stay up with us one night while we watched it and they just fell in love with the show!  Now THEY are the ones checking to see if we have a new episode of it :)   It's a pretty fun game show type cooking show.  Four people start out with a basket of mystery ingredients.  They have 20 minutes to complete an appetizer using the mystery ingredients.  Based on taste, presentation and creativity, they are very brutally judged by world renowned chefs and three are chosen to continue on to the next round.  ONE is CHOPPED.  The second round is the same, but with 30 minutes and they are required to make a main dish.  Another contestant is then chopped and the remaining two move on to the dessert round.  30 minutes again and the winner is awarded $10,000!!!  Nate and I love to cook, love the fun recipes that are tried on this show, and we love making fun of the judges responses.  The girls love to root for the girls :)  So why am I telling you this?  Well, we finally had our Chopped Family Night this last Thursday (we had missed our usual family night, on Tuesday and then rescheduled twice to finally end up doing it on Thursday.... the girls suffered, but the day finally came).  We didn't have a lot of support from the boys.  Brad had a friend over, so we decided (since we were also short on judges) that they could be judges along with Steve.  We split up into two teams (we had to change it from the show a little, since we only had 2 people who can use the stovetop alone :)) Boys against Girls.  Basically Nate ended up cooking alone while Charity, Kelly and I whooped up on him!  HA! jk.  (trash talk, you know) 

So for the appetizer round, the mystery ingredients were:  ramen soup, apples, cauliflower, and honey.  The girls and I made a salad (I was trying to copy my ramen salad recipe, but used way too much vinegar).

The boys (aka:Nate) made a little roll up.  Both appetizers were okay, but not the best.  Steve ate all of Nate's. 

The Entre round mystery ingredients were:  marshemellows, ice cream, chex cereal, and Chicken in a Biskit crackers

Nate made this fried chicken with chocolate sauce on top of pasta with roasted marshmellows on the side (a very nice touch, but melted before we remembered to take the picture).  Steve didn't eat much of it.  I thought the chicken was really good.

The girls and I cut up some chicken and dipped them in vanilla ice cream and then crushed chex and crackers.  Then for a dip we made honey bbq sauce.  They were not as crispy as I would have liked.  Should have tried the deep fry method Nate used.  We also added a few honey glazed carrots to garnish.  Steve doesn't like the carrots.  But he loved the dip.  

The entree round had it's own ups and downs with Noah needing so much help in the bathroom.  Sounds gross, making food and doing the potty stops, but somehow it worked out.  We did give ourselves an extra 10 minutes though.

For the dessert round, the mystery ingredients were: pie crust, pumpkin, jalepeno cheese crackers, and oranges

This seemed like a really easy one to me, we did our pie-pops recipe that we made for Thanksgiving.  Just with pumpkin, pie seasoning, and crushed cheese crackers for the filling, then an orange and powdered sugar glaze.  The girls and I had planned on making this into pie-ice cream sandwiches, but ran out of time.  We finished plating BARELY in time.  And it looked like a HUGE mess because we had been so pressed for time.  I did have the added Noah pottying and Erika needing to go to bed element during this round as a handicap also.  But they turned out really good! 

Nate made these amazing little fried pie tart-type things.... SO GOOD!!!  I might have to make these again sometime.  They reminded me of cream cheese wontons.... very good.  He did a great job.  He did basically the same thing as us, but fried.  Which is always better.   

Ultimately it came down to Steve being a softy and not knowing who to choose as a winner.  He gave the winning title to the girls and I, but I really don't quite know how he came to that conclusion.  We did really good though, so we relished in our victory!

As the winners we got to choose the ice cream that we bought with the Cold Stone Gift Card we received as a Christmas gift.  We chose Strawberry Cheesecake.  It was spectacular also!! 

I think we will have to try this again sometime.  Possibly with more people and more judgmental judges.  Pickier eaters maybe.  Steve did a fantastic job of eating, judging and babysitting our kids for us while we destroyed (and I mean DESTROYED.... like three days worth of dishes.... the kitchen).  This would be a fun double or triple date activity.  Someday.