A novel

A LOT has happened since the last time I did a real post. So I’m not going to write about everything. The day after we found out I was pregnant I got a phone call from the day care 3 houses down wanting to know if I wanted an interview. This was a complete surprise. I had turned in a resume in August because we were not meeting ANYONE and the girls and I were going CRAZY! So, anyway I was very surprised by this. What a blessing it has been though. Ryan and I were worried about finances, and I was still having a hard time meeting people. So I took the job. The girls and I now go to “school” 2-3 times a week. This is a picture of the girls before their first day of school:



Yes, Emily is ceying in this picture, but I had to get a first day of school picture.
Well, it has been good for me. I really like getting out of the house and being around adults during the day. It does however leave me EXHAUSTED on those days. The bad part is Kaitlyn is not doing so well. I had hoped she would enjoy playing with other kids, since we hardly ever have play dates here, but she just cries for mom the WHOLE time, I’m talking hours. I don’t know how her teachers don’t throw her across the room. I feel so bad for them. Emily does ok. She doesn’t sleep very well there, and is pretty clingy, but other than that she’s good. She is so much calmer than Kaitlyn, it’s amazing they’re related. As for the money, after paying for child care for the girls, I get paid almost $3 an hour. Pretty sad, but still worth it. Crazy huh.

So as far as my pregnancy goes, I have been doing very well. I am 10 weeks and so far I have only been sick once, and that was the flu. I’m defiantly counting my blessings there. The only hard part has been emotionally. I am beyond exhausted everyday and I have a can’t do attitude that is driving me crazy. I’m normally a very can do person so this feeling that I can’t do anything is very frustrating. So with the new pregnancy, the new job, and my way fun can’t do attitude (heavy sarcasm) not much has been getting done around here. Hence, no blog long time. If I can convince the girls to relax, this is how I would spend the day:



Just laying on the couch cuddling with my 2 girls. Of course they hardly ever want to just sit still. Oh well, can’t blame a mom for trying.

Other new news, Emily is an official crawler. In fact it has been so long, that she now is pulling up on things and standing up, her new favorite thing. Emily started crawling just before Christmas and really picked it up over the break. A few days ago I was reading some blog’s and she crawled under my chair and got stuck. I thought it was really cute, especially since Kaitlyn had done the same thing a few years ago!



I have searched all the pictures and can’t find the one of Kaitlyn. I was excited to see them at about the same age, doing the same thing. Oh well. For the first time yesterday, Emily pulled herself up to standing in her crib. It was so adorable. When Kaitlyn did it for the first time Ryan and I freaked out and video taped her and took pictures. I had to get one of Emily too.



While we were in Texas we had a great time. The only thing that sucked was the entire time we were there someone was sick. Emily and I started everyone off the night we got into Texas. After that it went through our whole family, Ryan’s family, My family, Mindy’s family (Ryan’s sister) and Katrina’s family (Ryan’s sister). I felt so bad. Then After all that Emily got pneumonia. Poor girl. I think we were all ready to go home and stop being sick. It was so nice to be pampered when I was sick though. Ryan’s mom took great care of us and the girls.




Poor Emily didn’t feel well most of the time we were in Texas. While I was in Texas a bunch of my high school friends got together. It was fun to see everyone and the kids running around. Aria and Mandy both weren’t able to come, but we had Krista, Stephanie, Adrienne, Suzanne, Jenny, and Me. Between the 6 of us there were 5 babies and 2 on the way. It’s crazy how much everyone has grown up. This is the group of us girls.



The only one not in the picture is my mom, how took the picture and Emily, but I figure you know what she looks like. We had a nice time, and I’m glad so many were able to come. Adrienne, Suzanne, and I all live out of state- in different states, so it was cool we were all there together.

We did lots of fun stuff, but I didn’t take many pictures. Kaitlyn was attached at the hip to bomp pa (Grandpa D). She wanted to go everywhere with him and had a great time hanging out with him. It was really cute. When Ryan was a toddler he did the same thing to his Grandpa Fox. This is Kaitlyn playing in the couch next to her bomp pa.



The girls loved playing with their cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. This is Emily with her cousin Collin



Ryan is 30! Ryan had his birthday on the 15th. He is such a wonderful man, great husband, and amazing father. I am so lucky to have him for eternity. He takes such good care of our family, and I love to watch him play with our girls. We went out as a family for dinner at our favorite restaurant in town, twin dragons. You would think that Chinese would suck here because there isn’t much diversity, but this place is AWESOME, we love it. In fact, I came home from work one day, completely worn out and my sweet husband ran and got us take out from there. He certainly knows how to make me feel better! Ryan loves to snowboard, so I told him I’d watch the girls all day on a Saturday so he could go snowboarding for his birthday. He was very excited about it, but that next Saturday was WAY to cold to go. He decided to build something instead. So, he is now making a computer desk for us, and having a wonderful time doing it! It’s turning out very nicely. I think he just has to wait for it to warm up a little before he stains it. When it’s finished I’ll post a pic. It’s pretty cool.

And now for some Kaitlyn stories. If you know my sweet Kaitlyn, you know there is always a new story with her.
The other day we had a very lazy day, so I didn’t dress Kaitlyn. When Ryan put her down for nap, we put some pj shorts on her so she wouldn’t take her diaper off. When she woke up she was quiet for a long time, so I went to check on her, this is what I found



She had taken off her shorts, attempted to put on a night dress, and in one hand she had her blankie and in the other was a purse she had packed full of panties. What a goof ball. I had a pretty good laugh about that one.

Kaitlyn loves to move the chairs from the table all around the house, to anywhere she can get into something. Usually it’s the sink to play in the water. Recently she has discovered that she can climb up onto the counter. The first time I found her she was sitting on the counter with a container of Tums dumped out between her legs, happily eating her new found “candy” . She was also experimenting with what happens when you soak them in water. I almost had a heart attack when I found her. She had gotten into our medicine cabinet and gotten into some medicine! This is one of every moms worst nightmares. So I quickly took them all away and called her doctor. Luckily it was just Tums and the nurse said she would be ok. I was having nightmare thoughts of having to take her to the hospital to have her stomach pumped. SCARY. This is what I found today:



On the top shelf is a cookie jar that we moved off the counter because she kept getting into it. She is consistently asking for candy. I’m just glad Ryan put it on the top shelf, if not she might have knocked it down on her self. I don’t know what I’m going to do with this girl! I sure do love her though.

Chocolate Raspberry Cake

A friend from Iowa posted this on her blog. I imediatley thought of my mom, she LOVES Raspberries. I haven't tried it yet but it sounds delicious. This is what she had to say about it;

"So I tried out this recipe, and oh my word, it is to die for. After I told Cameron the secret ingredient, he was hesitant to try it (baby food), but once he did, he ate most of it by himself. It is so moist and good, you would never know it was light."

Hope you enjoy!

chocolate cake with raspberry filling
Canyon Ranch Cooks | 2003

Servings: Makes 16 servings.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 4-ounce jar baby food carrot puree
1 4-ounce jar baby food prune puree
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon pure almond extract
2 tablespoons brewed coffee
1 whole egg
1 egg white
1 1-ounce square unsweetened baking chocolate, melted
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup nonfat fudge sauce
1/2 cup raspberry all-fruit preserves
1/4 cup nonfat fudge sauce
Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly coat a 9-inch cake pan with canola oil. Dust with flour.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. In a medium bowl, combine buttermilk, carrot and prune puree, extracts, coffee, and eggs. Beat lightly to mix. Combine with dry ingredients, using an electric mixer on low. Add melted unsweetened chocolate and beat on medium until glossy and smooth. Fold in chocolate chips.

4. Pour into prepared cake pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place on rack and cool.

5. Invert cake onto dry surface and slice in half horizontally. Spread raspberry preserves on bottom layer. Replace top and frost with nonfat fudge sauce. Slice into 16 servings.
Nutritional Information

Each serving contains approximately 135 calories, 26 gm. carbohydrate, 3 gm. fat, 15 mg. cholesterol, 3 gm. protein, 153 mg. sodium, and 2 gm. fiber.

Surprise!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope everyone is having a great time. We have had a great time, but I'll write about that another day. So it is official our little family of 4 is growing. I am pregnant and baby number 3 is due Aug. 19th. We are very excited and a little nervous about our new addition. Ryan REALLY REALLY REALLY wants a boy. He feels there is too much estrogen in the house. I think why ruin a good thing? We're good at girls, plus I'm terrified of having a boy. Lol. I really do want another girl, but I'll be happy for Ryan if he gets his boy. This means that Julia and I get to be pregnant together! Coarse she's much further along. If this one is a boy then he'll be happy cause all of his cousins are boys! Julia's baby is a boy and Mindy already has 3. I guess it would be fun, maybe I can have a boy. I guess we'll see in a few months. Merry Christmas all!

Catch up, again

So lots happened since the last time I blogged. Unfortunately I have a pretty bad memory so I really only blog about the things I take pictures of. The rest gets lost somewhere up in my head. I do know it has snowed TONS and the snow hasn't melted yet. I actually have helped shovel the driveway 3 times already. I was pretty proud of myself the first time. I felt like supper mom. Ryan couldn't shovel before work, so I thought I'd surprise him by shoveling the whole driveway for him! So I bundled the girls and I up and we went outside. Emily just cried the whole time, until I put her in bed and she went to sleep. Kaitlyn wasn't even almost interested in playing in the snow (she must get that from me). She just wanted to help mom shovel. We got half the driveway finished and then she realized that she could run strait out into the street. And she did, like three times in a row before I gave up and we came inside. So I only got half finished, but Ryan was still pretty impressed when he got home. I have to say it is a lot of work! It's not easy to lift that shovel full of snow and throw it wherever it goes. I think we are going to have to invest in a snow blower in a few years. I'd say now, but they're like $400! We've made a couple of friends in this town (yea!) So one of the weeks we were house bound we invited friends to come and play with us a couple of times. The first one was a family with 2kids each just older than my 2. They all get along well and have lots of fun, so we like to hang out with them. Her husband is a preacher for a church in town. It's so interesting to get to know how that all works (our church has a lay ministry-they don't get paid). I don't think I've ever known a preachers wife. It has been really fun getting to know them. And it's nice because they have the same standards as us. Unfortunately we just found out they are moving to Missouri just after Christmas, so we are bummed about that, but it's a good opportunity for their family. The church there has a parish (sp?) which means they'll have a house to live in. So different. Anyway when they were over, Isabelle the girl about a year older than Kaitlyn and Kaitlyn had fun playing dress up and then playing in her toy boxes. I couldn't get the two of them still long enough for a picture, so this is the best I could get.



Pretty sad, but you can almost see Isabelle. They also have a little boy that's a few months younger than Kaitlyn. His name is Isaiah. He is SO cute. He's Kaitlyn's age, but he's very short and not chunky, so it looks so cute when he walks around. He looks like a skinny 8 mo. old baby that can run and play like Kaitlyn. Poor kid though, Kaitlyn just takes everything away from him and bullies him a little. Later that week we had the Stauders over. Danni (the mom) is one of those women who never stops moving. She has 3 children, The oldest (Emily) is a kindergartner, but Danni home teaches her and she is as smart as like a 3rd grader, it's amazing, then she has Noah who is a home school preschooler and is at least up to kindergarten level, plus little Lilly who's Kaitlyn's age. Not only does she have very smart kids, that she teaches herself, but she also always has a clean house. AND she is the president or runner (I'm not sure of the title) of MOPS, a group I go to once a month. MOPS stands for mothers of preschoolers. We (the moms) have a discussion, a guest speaker, an art project, and food, while the children are in other age appropriate rooms with child care provided. She does all of this plus little field trips (educational of coarse) for her kids. She's amazing. So anyway, I'm sure she wouldn't care, but I feel like the house has to be clean and everything in order before I invite her over. That doesn't happen very often! Usually I just go over to her house. But this time I had her come over. I was so proud of myself. I had the house clean (as long as you didn't look in the bedrooms or at the dirty dishes) and I had an activity in mind for the kids. Pretty amazing. So anyway they came over and we all had a great time. My project for the kids was making gingerbread houses. I got Gram crackers and icing for the kids. They each had a little container of icing and pretty much just ate it as a snack. I figured that would be how it went, but we had fun anyway. Emily and I made little houses and then ate them.






And for the random pictures of the day. Kaitlyn likes to find interesting and new ways to eat her food. This particular morning she was putting Kix on her toes and then using her toes as a spoon to eat them. Crazy girl.





Here is Kaitlyn dressing up like Daddy! She is such a Daddy's girl.

December

It’s hard to believe that it’s already December, even with all the SNOW outside. It has already snowed 3 times here in Lancaster. I have to admit I was not one bit sad to miss the first one while we were in Texas. It had even all melted by the time we got back. We defiantly have been here for the last two though. On Friday we got a call from the Relief Society president saying church was to be canceled on Sunday due to the storm coming in. I don’t think I’ve heard of church being canceled in advance before, but it defiantly was a good thing. We got a huge storm on Sat. It snowed for the first part and then turned to freezing rain. Which meant there was a layer of snow and then a layer of ice on everything! It made shoveling much harder for poor Ryan and our upstairs neighbor. On Sunday we went outside to play in it. Kaitlyn was so excited and Emily was just kind of like whatever. We bundled everyone up and headed out doors. It was the weirdest feeling because normally when you step in snow you sink down a few inches right away, but because of the ice in was delayed. So you’d step down and then a few seconds later you would sink a few inches. Very interesting feeling. Anyway Kaitlyn didn’t really know what to do. It was hard to walk and you couldn’t play with the snow, but she managed to have a good time before coming in. Here’s some pictures of us braving the weather. (there was a bitter cold wind that afternoon)






A close up of Kaitlyn’s snow pants booty. Ryan and I got a kick out of this!



My husband looking super handsome as he shoveled our driveway! The first ones my favorite.





Yesterday (Tuesday) during the evening we got another layer of snow. 6 more inches. Pretty crazy. Ryan was supposed to drive up to Prarie for a meeting last night. I was very glad they found somene in Prarie to go. Ryan wasn't too worried about it but just thinking of sending him out in that storm for a 45 (in good weather) min drive made my chest squeese together and I couldn't breathe very well. So I said a huge thanks to Heavenly Father when another priesthood holder was able to go instead.

On Saturday we put up our Christmas tree and decorations. It was really fun. Last year my aunt Sheri gave me a bunch of PURPLE tree decorations. I LOVE them. Purple is by far my favorite color. So we have a very cool purple tree this year.
It’s a little fuzzy, but you can see the pretty purple bows.



I also decorated our mantle. I love having one. My favorite Christmas decorations are nativities. I LOVE them. I so want a particular one my mom has from when I grew up. It never was quite Christmas until it was set up. Over the past 3 Christmas’ I have been slowly collecting some. I’m proud to say I have 3 already. And I love them all. So here’s our Christmas mantle.



Kaitlyn had fun playing with the stockings before I put them up. She decided to wear them so I got a quick picture.



Kaitlyn discovered that if she dumped all the toys out of one of the toy bins, it makes a perfect play toy. This entertained her for quite a while.





And another thing turned into a toy. I had cleaned this out and given it to her to use a drum, but she found a much more fun use for it.



And I don’t feel like I post enough pictures of Emily so here’s a couple.

What a look




Enjoy!

Fun stuff from November

Kaitlyn has some great morning hair. I think she could win prizes, it’s that crazy. Hum, maybe I should send a picture into bed head and she could be the spokeswoman, spokesbaby? Anyway here’s a cute picture of my favorite bed head.



Kaitlyn had so much fun painting her pumpkin at the beginning of November, I thought we should just paint. She was VERY upset that paint goes on paper and not your face. She flatly refused to paint the paper. I think she thought it was like makeup.




So, I’m going to toot my own horn for a min. Back in the beginning of the month when I thought we weren’t going home for Thanksgiving, I was a little panicked about making a turkey, I had never even roasted a Chicken. So I decided to start out by trying a Chicken. We had the missionaries over for dinner and I made a chicken with real gravy (my favorite part) and mashed potatoes. It was so yummy! I’m so proud of myself. Now I know I can do it and won’t be so scared when it comes time to make my own Turkey. Here’s a very proud me with my Chicken.



So Emily has been working very hard at crawling, all month long. Poor girl, she just can’t figure out the hands. She works so hard on it everyday. It’s very cute and sad at the same time. It usually ends in quite a few tears of frustration. If you look closely you can see the tears and frustration.





Emmy cuddling with her daddy, they are so cute!



The girls being silly

We have a two year old!!! Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!

Kaitlyn turned two on Tuesday the 27th. Because we had just returned to Wisconsin around 1am Monday morning, we didn’t do a huge birthday party for her. She did however, have a great birthday. Tuesday morning she got to put on a birthday outfit from Grandma D, and then we headed over to play group. She had a great time playing with some friends and they even sang Happy Birthday to her. Mom and Emily were in the next room getting shots for Emily, so we missed the song.  Afterwards we came home and had lunch and naps. Then Kaitlyn got to help mom make cupcakes! She thought it was so fun. Mom, was a little stressed trying to keep things going. She also got to help make dinner and eat some olives, which she LOVES.



Doesn’t she make eating olives look like heaven?



When Ryan got home from work, we ate some dinner and then opened up presents. Grandma sent a box over, and I had fun wrapping them all up. Here’s Kaitlyn with her b-day presents.



After that we packed everyone in the car and drove to Prairie (45 mins.) Ryan is ward mission leader and our branch has just started a Tuesday evening study session. Branch members bring their friends and they can ask questions and find answers. Well, this was the very first one, so we all went. Kaitlyn’s nursery leader and probably her favorite teen in all of Wisconsin was there, so she was in heaven. She got to play with her before it started. While they were having their meeting Kaitlyn and I went and frosted and decorated the cupcakes. She found some salt and pepper in the kitchen area and decorated her cupcake. She didn’t think it tasted to good. Lol, live and learn. She did like putting the real sprinkles on the cupcakes, but I had to keep hiding the salt and pepper because she really wanted to put it on her cupcakes. Oh well. The missionaries and teenagers that were there that evening really enjoyed the cupcakes, so did Ryan, Kaitlyn, and I. They also sang Happy Birthday to Kaitlyn, but she wasn’t very happy about that! Here’s our cupcakes. Yummm, they were good!




I didn’t have the camera that night, but we didn’t decorate all of them, so she got to do it again on Wednesday. If you look closely you can see her fingerprint in the cupcake.



Her favorite part was eating the sprinkles afterward



And the customary frosting covered face birthday pictures, she’s definitely not as messy this year.




After that we stopped at Wal-Mart to get her a fish. Unfortunately that Wal-Mart didn’t have any. Oh well. That meant Kaitlyn got to celebrate two days in a row. So Wednesday we packed up the girls and drove to Platteville to get her birthday fish. She really had a good time, and especially liked holding her fish.







She liked getting to pick out her fishies. She got two, since they were like 18 cents, and because she is now 2.
In a sad note, today one of the fish went belly up and went down the toilet. It was a little sad. I was pretty nervous about getting a fish because when I was younger we babysat somebody’s fish and it too did not last very long. I couldn’t even watch when Ryan got rid of it. Partly because I felt bad for my part in it’s shortened life and also because I didn’t want to see an animal in my toilet. I have an irrational fear that one day something will be in there and touch my bum. I didn’t think seeing a fish would help. Lol, I know I’m crazy.
So there you go. Kaitlyn is now 2. How crazy is that!