{Sunday Dessert}

It was always kind of an unspoken tradition in my family growing up that Sunday was the day for dessert.  We would come home after church, have lunch or dinner depending on what time slot we had for church meetings.  After dinner was over and the kitchen cleaned up it was inevitable that one (or more) of the kids would head into the kitchen to bake up a treat.  We would scour Mom's cookbooks, of which our favorite was an old ward cookbook that had seen better days.  It didn't even have the binding on it anymore, being held together by a rubber band or two.  As we searched for a recipe we would notice that we were related to more than half of the recipe submitters, which for me somehow made the cookbook all that more special. Once we had a recipe picked out we would make an utter mess in the kitchen but oh the utterly delicious goodness that came out that kitchen is what mattered most to us.  And it wasn't just the girls in the kitchen, some of my brothers are some of the best cooks.  Which I am sure came from my mom's patient teaching and her resigning her kitchen over to her kids often.  

It may be genetic, this needing to bake on Sunday afternoons.  Without prompting from me at all my two oldest kids have decided that we are going to have dessert on Sundays and they are going to be the ones to bake it.  This has been going on for some time now and it finally hit me last week that it had kind of become a tradition.  Maybe it was because last Sunday we had to decide that one too many bakers in the kitchen is never a good thing.  It was decided that Ayden would get to decide and make a dessert one week and then Meysa would get to do it the next week (and Lauryn wants to get in there too).  So last Sunday Ayden made Texas Sheet Cake (a favorite recipe from that beloved cookbook), it was great as usual. Ayden is becoming quite the cook, he also made us buttermilk pancakes from scratch yesterday.  He is able to read the recipe and know pretty much what he needs to do.  He does need some assistance with techniques and such but pretty soon I will be able to let him free in the kitchen.  Yesterday it was Meysa's turn.  She chose BYU Mint Brownies.   Meysa, for her age, does a great job.  She loves being in the kitchen and getting to make yummy things.  Repeatedly yesterday she said she was having so much fun!!  She also knows how to make a Mom feel good.  She said I was the expert in the kitchen in our family!!  At least I get to be the expert in one thing!!!

I do love spending time in the kitchen with my kids.  I love teaching them the value of good, homemade food and that my job as a Mom is an important one.     

 The best part of being the cook is you get to lick the beaters!!

 Love this girl!!!

It was a success!!  There is a big section that is missing from that pan of goodness.  The kids loved it and Daddy did too!!  Here is too Sunday desserts and family time in the kitchen!!!

{Instagram}

I have realized that I am usually behind the eight ball when it comes to new fandangled gadgets or trends.  I am ok with it, I am not trying to be a part of the up-to-date savvy crowd.  I am usually one of those people that jump on board just as the excitement is dying down.  That is just how I roll.  Well, with me being someone who likes to take pictures I had heard about Instagram, but sadly I wasn't one those neat people who had the cool phone with an apple on it.  But just recently I found out that the Instagram people took pitty on the rest of us and launched their Instagram that would work with Android phones.  Yippee, Skippy!! I downloaded it and it took me a little bit to figure out what exactly I was suppose to do with it (see I told you I was behind the eight ball).  But once I did, I was off and running.  I sat outside one afternoon watching the kids play and decided to really play around with the app and took some keepers.  

Our poor daisies aren't doing so well, they don't get enough sun.  Bummer....

Wyatt wasn't going to be left out of the baby fun the girls were having.  He may not have a baby of the human sort of species but he can improvise with the best of them.  To infinity and beyond....

Lauryn's hair doesn't always look like this.  I do fix it but it was at the end of a very busy and obviously very crazy day of playing!!!

Meysa is the Mom of all Moms.  I remember being her age and playing exactly the way she does.  Talk about flashbacks.  

I love my nice camera and always will but it is fun to be able to take pictures on the fly, capturing those moments that won't hold till I get out the big camera and get all the settings right.  Plus with Instagram you can make them fun!!  Possibly my new favorite app!!

{Look what I can do}

Lauryn has graduated from little kid bike to Big kid bike.  I tried a new tactic with Lauryn who isn't easily convinced to try something she hasn't already decided she wants to do herself.  I threatened and then I bribed.  Yup you read that right, I don't know why more parents don't use those skills.  It worked like magic I tell ya!!  (please read this with the sarcasm I wrote it with)  I first threatened  Lauryn witha tale about the Training wheel fairy who comes to take the training wheels off bikes when she sees that you are ready ride with out them.   So I told her to be prepared to wake up one morning to no training wheels.  Then I bribed her and told her that if she decided to take her training wheels off and then learned to ride without them she could get ice cream with just Mom (this whole thing worked for Meysa too, maybe I should patent it).  The first day it didn't work so well, she was still sure that she wasn't ready.  She wanted a few more days to practice!!

 Well the very next day she was out "practicing" after school and then decided that she was ready.  I realized you just need to let the threat/bribe simmer for day or so and they will come around!!  

 Ryan and Ayden were her pit crew, taking off the training wheels and pumping up the tires.  Making sure everything was good to go for the maiden voyage.  Lauryn had a few "concerns" about riding a bike with no training wheels.  One of the many, was that she wouldn't know how to start without someone holding the bike up for her.  Well that concern took about 1.2 seconds to work itself out.  She sat on the bike, Dad held the seat (which was a request) and then she took off.  Ryan didn't have to run along side her or hold the bike up while she got going.

 She was pretty darn proud of herself as you can see.  

 She was happiest about outsmarting the Training wheel fairy.  She said several times that she beat the fairy to the punch.  Haha take that training wheel fairy, you can't get the best of this little chicka!!

 Before we know it we will bribing and threatening this little guy too!!

 But wouldn't ya know it, there was a crash and someone wasn't happy about it.  She thought her Daddy was laughing at her (which he may or may not have been, not to be mean but because that of course was another of her "concerns") and she wasn't going to smile no matter how hard we tried to get her to.

This is as good as it got.  Until she realized that she earned her ice cream with Mom.  That changed her whole perspective pretty quick!!  We headed out to Chick Fil A to enjoy an ice cream cone and a good chat!  We are so proud of our Lauryn and her determination to take on this world on her own terms!!

{SIX}

Our little Lauryn turned the BIG SIX on Friday.  She was a lucky duck and didn't have to go to school (the school was conducting incoming kindergarten registration).  Not everyone is so lucky to get to play hookey from school on their birthdays.  We started the day with Mom's picture taking out on the deck.  She was humoring me, she kept saying are you done yet and I kept saying just one more...!!  She is a trooper to have a Mom like me :).  

I always have to get a shot of those baby blues, oh how I love them!!  She has really grown up over this last year.  She has always been an opinionated child and when she was younger she was a "bit" moody at times but for the most part she was happy and giggly.  Nothing has really changed over the years, it has only become more refined.  She is still opinionated and does it in such a matter of fact way.  She can still be moody but for the most part she is a happy, giggly girl.  She is tearing up the pages and reading like crazy.  In fact she is reading above the year end level.  She has become so self assured this year at school.  She definitely knows who she is and no amount of talking will change her mind.  She is still a "little thing" as her Daddy likes to call her.  I think Wyatt is about to pass her in the weight department.  She still has him in height but it won't be long till she is the shortest one in the family.  A position I know well.  What she lacks in size she makes up for in personality big time.  

Wyatt wanted in on the picture action and was just as excited for the day that Lauryn had planned for her birthday.

She has been talking about going to Chuck E. Cheese for, gosh the last two years at least.  I am not a huge fan but I figured since she had the day off of school and we could go during the day instead of at night with every other Tom, Dick or Harry, we would do it.  We invited our neighbor friend and had a great time.  We were literally the ONLY people at Chuck E. Cheese for two whole hours.  It was the best!!  The kids played to their hearts content and had a great time.  We had lunch and then headed home to bake her birthday cake.  She was so happy and that is what birthday are really all about, right?

 I have mentioned that Lauryn has an opinion, right?  Oh, I have!!  Well, she does and boy she isn't afraid to let you know it.  The only problem is that it takes her time to come to that opinion.  But boy howdy once she gets around to deciding what her stance is, she is unmovable.  Take her cake for example.  She had so many ideas floating around in her pretty little head and just couldn't decide on one.  One day it was cupcakes, then it was a rainbow cake, then it was a chocolate cake.  It was the eleventh hour and we finally came to a decision.  She wanted a two layer cake, one pink layer, one purple with white frosting and sprinkles.  I know not earth shattering but it took some time to get it decided.  That is where we have to exercise patience with this dear, sweet girl.  She helped me color the batter and then she was the sprinkle-putter-oner.  She did a fantastic job!!

Birthday wish time was more of a contemplative time, not a "oh I'll think of something and blow out the candles".  We seriously waited for a few minutes so she could think of just the right wish.  Then once she had it decided she went for it.  I was lucky to get this shot of her blowing her candle out.  She is such a uniquely wonderful girl.  I am so happy and thankful that she is all mine.  My life would certainly be dull without her spunky personality!!  Happy Birthday Lauryn girl!!  We love you!!

(and Happy Birthday to Lauryn's birthday buddy, Gracie Lee (Lauryn's cousin's baby) born on Lauryn's birthday this year.  We are so happy to have a new baby in the family!!)

{Lately...}

So have you had enough of looking at our Spring Break?  Don't feel bad so have I.  Just when I think that I am getting back into the swing of things, something comes and slaps me upside the head (like two loved ones dying in the same week) and blogging gets put on the back burner again.  So I'll try and catch you up to date.  I guess I should stop promising regular posts, because it is making me into a liar.  

What have I been doing you ask...?  For the last four months or so I have been on a journey to lose weight (hey maybe that can be my excuse for not blogging regularly).  I decided after feeling crappy about myself and physically feeling not really great that it was time to lose the baby weight that I was packing around like a trophy.  I always came close to losing all the baby weight in between each of the kids, like within 10 pounds.  Well after Wyatt that ten pounds turned into twenty and then into thirty.  Three years after having my last child I was thirty pounds from where I was when I started having kids.  I was miserable. I had started things and just never had the determination for whatever reason to stick with it.  So this last December I had a coming to Jesus meeting with myself, and the consensus between me, myself and I was that the weight had to go.  So the day after Christmas I started P90x.  It was hard physically, but the hardest part was the mental arguments I had with myself each day.  I think change and growth is mostly a mental game.  I slowly started to lose weight.  Like excruciatingly slow.  A pound each week(now and then maybe more), maybe a 1/4 inch or so here or there.  I had the best cheerleader though.  Ryan would measure and chart my progress, and offer words of encouragement as each pound came off.  I lost 20lbs in 13 weeks.  I actually could see a waist and needless to say my pants fit way better, as in they didn't fit at all-in a good way!! :)  Some of the things I learned while I was huffing along with Tony Horton, was that I could do hard things (which I had forgotten in respect to myself), and if you put good things into your body, you get good things out.  Just to name a few.  

One of the things that I found I loved was making my own Greek yogurt because I could control what I put in it and flavor it however I wanted to.  Another thing that I have learned to love is fresh Kefir.  My family, as in my Mom and a few of my siblings have been doing Kefir for years now.  I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical at first and when they would offer me something made from Kefir (like a fruit smoothie) I would politely taste it but I wasn't loving it.  I don't know what changed but I ordered my own Kefir grains and I started making my own Kefir and magically I love it.  I make Kefir smoothies each morning and I use the kefir in place of buttermilk in all the recipes that call for it.  I LOVE it!!  So there you have it, what I have been doing lately...(That update turned out to be longer than I anticipated and I hope no one thinks I am bragging, just sharing what I have been up to as of late).

 Ayden participated in the District Pinewood Derby a few weeks ago.  Ryan happened to be out of town so I had all the kiddos and there were well over 50 cars to race.  It was well organized thankfully, and Ayden did really well.  He came in fourth overall for his den.  Not a bad way to go out on his last Pinewood Derby.  He turns 11 in less than a month and then he is on to 11year old scouts.  Just today he proclaimed that he is growing up.  Now he said it not like he was trying to convince me of the fact but as if he just realized it himself.  Sadly I had to agree with him.  Stop the clock, please!!

 I wanted to do something to show our neighbors how much we appreciated them welcoming us into the area so warmly.  So I started a batch of Friendship bread and we shared with our neighbors.  Well when Ayden took a batch to one of his friends and classmate from around the corner he came back with this little car for Wyatt.  I guess they wanted to share something with us as well.  Wyatt LOVES it.  He plays in it on the deck out back and is pretty content.  Today Meysa took him out to the sidewalk and gave him a good run.  He was in heaven!!  I don't think he will be happy ever again just playing on the deck.  He and Meysa raced up and down the sidewalk like they were in some kind of derby.  After coming back to start line he declared that he needed a trophy.  I guess for being so darn cute.  I mean he is so fashion forward with his dragon helmet and his rain boots.  So I gave him a high five!!  There ya go buddy, there is your trophy!!  Lauryn (who turns 6 in two days-holy cow) was speed racing on her bike.  She is very close to having the training wheel fairy coming to take the training wheels off her bike.  The hard part is if he comes and she hasn't decided that she is ready I am honestly not convinced that we will be able to sway her.  She is one stubborn little girl and once she has made up her mind it is set in concrete.  Ayden busted out his rip stick and took it for a spin and had to show us just how much he is "growing up".  Heaven help me!!  

 We live in an urban area, I think that has been abundantly proven.  Well with what we are growing out on our back deck, it is just one more piece of evidence.  We really wanted to have a garden this year, especially our kids, and so we thought we would give pots a chance this year.  Our back deck gets a good amount of sun each day and so the pots line the deck, basking in the sun.  They have actually gone crazy since we planted them over a month ago.  The kids are really excited, in fact Meysa went out today and found a few tomatoes that are growing and some strawberries that are starting.  We planted tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, and bell peppers.  So for now we haven't killed them, we will see how well they produce.

So there you have it an update, don't know when the next one will be.  Actually I take that back.  Lauryn has a birthday coming up.  I'll post after that!!