Everyday Bio

It has been eight years since I graduated from school but the world is biology and I can't help but notice it.  I'm constantly amazed at how we are creatures of biology.  Recently my mother was in town loving on my children.  She wears a musk scent perfume.  It isn't overly powerful.  I kind of like it...well I did that is until I'd pick up my kids.  After a full day of nana love mom would swope in to take her chicklets off to bed and that is when that perfume smell would drive me nuts.  Instead of smelling like me, they smelled like her, 13 years after leaving home something foreign.  Yesterday I found myself rubbing my head on my daughters neck.  I started to laugh when I realized I was subconciously trying to erase the smell of the babysitter off of her and it replace it with my own, dare I say scent.  For the record humans are animals.

Nana Visit

My mom came into town last week.  It was heaven!  We don't get a lot of visitors.  We live so out of the way that we usually only get visitors when we have a baby or are getting a delivery.  To supplement these visits we try to make biannual or annual visits home at Christmas and the Summer.  This summer we are especially busy and poor.  We called home and told our parents...."Hey we love you but the chances of us coming out to visit this summer are zero."  Then we got the calls back..."We are coming."  This week my mom was here.  It was heaven.  I mean HEAVEN!  Church with an extra set of hands...WOW!  It is enough to make someone like church again.  My mom entertained the two older kids with one little pen and a tiny piece of paper.  How did she do that?  Dr. J and I only had to worry about Peach.  For the first time in years we  heard all three talks.  I'd be willing to say here whoever is willing to entertain my kids every Sunday, that is the place I'd be willing to move.  Be willing to entertain my kids and I will move into your ward boundaries!  We visited a lot of parks, went swimming, went shopping, cooked, cleaned, and did lots of playing.  We went to the fabric store and picked up this cute pink fabric and sewed these little flower dresses.  It makes me them look like flower petals.  It was so fun and I learned all kinds of neat tricks sewing with my mama!

WE MADE THE GIRL'S DRESSES

Nana and Granddaughters

Peach loves drinking out of water bottles and cups.  She does not like getting wet, but she does recover.

 

Nana got Peach to walk playing Twister.

The kids can be trouble but not as much as the plants!

Father's Day

I think my friends think I'm bitter towards fathers.  I'll admit, I have a little bitterness.  Years without talking to your father...well it can do that to a girl.  That doesn't mean I don't appreciate the vital role that a father plays in the life of his children, in fact I'd like to think I know it maybe even a little better than most.  I picked a husband that I thought would make a good father.

Here is what my kids have to say about him.

Captain E: "When I think of my dad I think about Wii.  He is the best Wii player in our house. I like him because he works hard.  He is fun to play with!"

G Bear: "I love daddy!"

Peach: "Dada!"  Which was her first word and is still her favorite.

My children are lucky.  They have a loving father.  He plays with them.  He makes hover mom back off.  He provides for them physically.  He loves them.  Kisses them.  Reads to them.  When they are sick he is the one who takes care of them.  When they wake up in the middle of the night he is the one who comforts them.  He is a good daddy and we love him. 

FoolProof Bread with my Bosch!

I pre-heat the oven to 120.

Then I mix
4 cups warm water
1 TB salt
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup honey (use the same measuring cup for the honey you used on the oil and it just slides right out).
1 1/2 TB Dough Enhancer (I've also just used gluten before if that was all I had)
2 TB saf yeast
Then I slowly mix in my flour. It is about 7 cups wheat kernels freshly ground somewhere close to eight cups of ground flour. Flour is important, better to add to little than to much.

The kneading if the vital part of making 100% whole wheat flour. I used to have bricks as well. I never was able to knead it it enough by hand to get my dough elastic. So I save up and bought a bosch on ebay. I know people who are ok with a kitchen aid. You just need a mixer with a lot of power. I let the dough knead for ten minutes in the mixer, until the gluten is developed and the dough is elastic. Then I pinch off three loves, shape them and put them in the greased pan. I turn the oven off and stick the loves in the oven to rise for 25 minutes. Then I turn the oven on to 350 for 30-35 minutes. Pull and eat.


Got this from Erika and it has been a life saver... before this all my wheat bread was hard rocks :)

6 Years Old

E,

Six years old, six years old.  How did time go by so quickly?  Six years ago you were a little tiny baby.  Now you are a spaz case.  You are like your daddy.  You are arms and legs all over the place.  Never do something easy when you can do it difficult.  Question mom always.  Sometimes mom doesn't know what to do with you.  You can whine, grouch, fight with mom.  You are such a sweet boy.  You have a fierce love of family.  Your sisters are your best friends.  You spend hours entertaining them.  I think you would babysit if I let you.  You are creative.  You love inventing characters, drawing, telling stories.  You are a video junkie like papa.  Mom has to reign you in....sometimes that puts us at odds.  Sometimes that makes us a team.  We love to beat dad and take out his scores.  We are the best like that.  You still love to cuddle.  You are my hugger.  You love to read, either me reading to you or you reading to me.  You have the best laugh I've ever heard. You seem to have an aptitude for math.  I guess you aren't your mother's son on that front.  You love to learn.  You ask me to play school with you.  You love working in work books or with flash cards.  You love writing or making up new sentences.  You love meat.  You still claim to be a meatatarian. Like all boys this age you find space and dinosaurs fascinating.  You know tons of dinosaur names and your are very protective of a dinosaur fossil you made.  You are my baby boy and I love you. 

Mr. All Grown Up

E wanted a Zombie Birthday Bash.

 We decorated shirts to keep the face paint off our clothes.  Then I face painted some zombie looks.  We played feed the zombie a brain (pin the tail on the donkey) and hide the brain.  We ate pizza and fruit.

 The kids found a frog in the backyard.  Definitely a highlight of the party.

I can't have a party without feeling inadequate on the decorating front.  My mom says I feel this need to overcompensate for her lack of effort at my own parties growing up :)

Dead rat weights for the helium balloons.

Brain cake anyone?

A Birthday Letter to My Daugther

This letter is to my daughter.  I realize it is long and tedious so if you prefer just skip to the end and look at how much she has changed.  Amazing.  Without further ado...

Darling Peach,

It has been 1 year, 52 weeks, 356 days since you entered our lives.  You are my third child, my second daughter.  This year has gone so fast.  Before you were born your father dreamed of you.  He told me you would be my child, the dark one, dark hair, dark eyes, round cheeks.  He told me you would be a mamas girl.  He was right.  Peach since the moment of your birth you have been the love of your families' life.  Your brother, your sister, your mom, and dad, we all love you so much.  You are our brown eyed girl, brown hair, olive skin.  You are our littler talker.  For months you have called your dad, mom, and brother Ezra by name.  You point.  You clap hands.  When you blow kisses you enunciate each kiss with an "um".  You love to stand.  You walk along furniture.  You've taken running steps in between mom and dad but for the most part you won't strike out on your own.  You have one little tooth on the right bottom.  You have a second little tooth on the left bottom just waiting to poke through and two bulging gums on the top.  You love to eat fruit, especially berries, grapes, melon, and apples.  You want to eat your apples whole.  You use that one little tooth and gnaw away until you get a little chunk off.  You hate sitting in your car seat.  I think it has something to do with the fact that you despise having sun in your eyes.  The irony of course is the fact that you love being outside.  When the door opens you head for it.  You want to be outside.  You love outside.  You have no fear, you are totally confident in your ability to be outside.  You love crawling in the grass, eating dirt, throwing sticks, riding in the bike trailer.  You are artistic.  You have a thing for music.  When music is on in the house or anyone sings you start to dance.  When it is on in the car you tap your feet against the back of the seat..  You yell out when we sing.  You already know how to hold a crayon and you love to draw.  Everything you see gets put in your mouth but when you see crayons you pick them up and start drawing. You are a flirt.  When someone smiles you, you smile back, then you look away sly, and then rush back to look again, this time with another big smile.  You are a horrible sleeper.  When I put you down for a nap, you instantly jump up and start crying for me.  You prefer to get your sleep in the car while we are running endless errands with your siblings.  I love you so much girl but you are killing me with your sleep habits.  You still love the mama milk and you don't mind waking up in the middle of the night to get it.  Then you want to have a party in bed.  Oh girl it is wearing your mama out.  You are the apple of your brother's eye.  He carries you everywhere, he gets you out of bed, hikes you up the stairs, hikes you back.  He brings you toys, halves grapes with you, sings you songs, jumps hoops to entertain you.  You are your sister's playmate.  You play tornado in the doll house with her, you chew on her, you play instruments.  You empty drawers together, another favorite activity for you.  You love listening to books together, and then you try to sit on them.  You always want to be held.  You love to snuggle with your family.  Darling daughter when you were one day old your brother named you Peach.  When we asked him why he simply said because Peach was a good name.  When I was 15 we went to Seattle.  One early morning my mom and I went to Pike's Market.  I can't remember everything we bought, but I do remember a gigantic peach, the biggest peach I'd ever seen.  The peach sat in the bag through our shopping.  It made it back into the car.  Then I had to pull that peach out of bag.  I bit into it right there sitting in the car.  Juice went down my chin and onto my fingers.  It was worth it.  That moment, the green of Washington, the smell of the ocean, the sweetness of the peach, the early morning sun, the excitement of the Seattle, the joy of having a moment alone with my mom, that day was one of the best of my life.  You are like that day.  A Peach is a good thing!  

Peach at 0 months :)

Peach at six months.

 I wanted to try and recreate these two moments to show how much she has changed in 12 months.  She is huge now in the basket and two old to leave the bow alone.  Wow it has gone by fast. 

This one is my favorite.  It is like looking in an egg.

Lost in Austen

How have I missed this mini series?  "Lost in Austen".  Amanda Price has been in love with Mr. Darcy since she was 14 years old.  When her boyfriend proposes using a beer bottle tab, she hits an all time low.  That night Elizabeth Bennet shows up in her bathroom and through some unexplained phenomena trades places with Amanda.  My favorite characters are here along with lots of my favorite lines and scenes, but there are problems and the story does not go traditionally. Definitely entertaining and for the above posted scene totally worth it!  I should post some warnings.  1) If you are set on nothing in the story changing...leave it alone.  2) If you think the characters can only be one way...leave it alone.  3) If you are offended by the words "Landing Strip"...leave it alone.  4)  If you don't like Jane Austen...leave it be.  If these issues don't bother you check it out now.  If you have Netflix you can watch it right this second!

1st Birthday

1 year, 12 months, 52 weeks, 356 days...it all goes so fast.  To celebrate 1 year of life we went to the pool and ate some cake.  All and all it was a good day.