What Will Entertain Today?

Annnnddd let's see how long the muffin tin and old ornaments can entertain you.

Not long eh?

Wait, there's still hope. Let's swat each ornament over and over again.

Now let's fill it up...

...and stomp on them!

Will my feet fit?

Just a small glimpse into play time for your viewing pleasure.

Chasing Cats Is My Game, Feather Duster Is My Name

Shae and I went up to my parents house for a few days last week. It'd been a good three months and we were missing them AND I really really wanted to see A.J. in his last play. I didn't get to experience any of Philip or Anna's high schoolness so I have to take advantage of these last few opportunities with A.J.

He was Daniel Pontipee in the play Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. He KILLED it. Such a stud. He's hilarious and acts his part so well. I couldn't believe that it was my baby brother up there singing and dancing and jumping over people and brooms and doing somersaults. I wish I could see it again!

Other than the play I spent my time chasing the kiddo around the big house with lots of stuff. It must have been like a candy shop in his eyes. He went from one room to the next...his eyes when he pushed on the laundry room door and it opened up...ANOTHER ROOM. SWEET....Yeeeeaaahhh, going home has become much less about relaxing or helping with things that need to get done and more about following the baby boy in a very NOT baby-proof house. His favorite thing was definitely this pet feather toy. He would walk around and stuff it into the animals faces. The cats realized this quickly and would run as soon as they saw him coming, he would just follow behind them until they finally hid.

We celebrated Philip's birthday a few days early so that Shae and I could participate in the festivities. (Well, me anyways, Shae was already asleep by this point). I made him a Better Than Sex Cake which has got to be the best cake around (except for Cheesecake of course). I'll never forget a comedy gig that we went to in Provo..."I feel bad for the wife of the guy who named Better Than Sex Cake." Oh so many jokes and awkward conversations when this cake is around.

Check out those baby hairs. That's where my bald spot used to be (Thank you after pregnancy hair loss). The little hairs are finally growing in and not sticking straight out of my head. We've come a long way together me and those hairs. 

Happy Birthday Philip! Glad we could share it with you! (sort of)

Whispy Hair

This hair.

Is awesome. 

The weather was almost  perfect on Saturday. Just slightly too windy for me (Darin would disagree and say that it was perfect). Close enough to perfect (much more perfect than right now as I watch some flurries start up outside my window). We took advantage of that, packed up some grilled chicken, pasta salad and apples and went for a walk to the park for a picnic.

Shae is really in to sharing his food right now. A lot of times he won't even eat unless we put food in his mouth while he puts food in our mouths simultaneously. Whatever works right?

Seriously, his hair. That's all that I can see in these pictures.

His favorite part of the park is currently trying to crawl up the slide. I usually push him up with my hand on his bum and he loves when I let go because he just slides right back down. We do that over and over and over again and we both get excited about it every time the hand leaves the bum. 

All morning he has been walking around with his socks and shoes in hand (he seems to have figured out that shoes have something to do with outside). Sorry kid, no outside today. Today is a total inside day.

Happy Pi Day!

I really really wanted to have a pie party tonight. Good thing we have a branch activity tonight because if not I probably would have planned a party where there would have been multiple pies that I couldn't have eaten but probably would have eaten because my self-control only goes so far. I'm currently doing a "healthy-living" challenge with my besties and one of the rules is to only eat one serving of sweets or less per day. Considering that I can't let something go untasted, it's best that the pie party didn't happen.

So instead, last night with the Elders we had ONE Chocolate Chip Pie where I ate ONE slice and made the Elders eat the rest so that it would be gone. (P.S. This pie is SO easy and SO yummy so if anyone is still looking for a pie to make today, do it). I actually didn't MAKE the Elders do anything I just suggested that they eat the half of the pie that was left, and they did. I was kind of shocked and really hope that they didn't get sick last night but at the same time I'm glad that it's gone.

In other news, being able to walk has opened up new doors of exploration for Shae. He seems to enjoy being outside quite a bit more these days (not that he didn't like it before but he just seems more excited). This is our picture book story from yesterday: 

(Starting with him holding a bag of trash by the door as a hint that he wanted to go take it out to the garbage can).

And in the end he walked back home. The End.

And just in case anyone was wondering, yes, Shae does  own shoes, however, he has a sick obsession with taking them off about .0003 seconds after I put them on. Same with socks. Hence the one sock and one bare foot.

And check out that curly hair! I don't usually post pictures of the back of his head so you don't often get to see his lovely locks taking over the back of his head. Darin keeps saying we need to cut them off because he doesn't have much top hair and is slightly starting to appear mulletish, but I love them too much!

"Can We Stop With the Kale Propaganda?"

(Jim Gaffigan quote)

Well folks, it's happened. We've joined the kale-lover-fad train. Okay, I wouldn't say that we are kale "lovers" but we bought some kale for the first time last week and are pretty dang happy with it.

I bought the kale to try out in this recipe that everyone kept raving about on facebook and pinterest. It was delicious. We'll definitely be eating it again. Of course after making the soup we had a bunch of kale leftover that we had to find a way to use up (I hate hate hate throwing away/wasting food). We made a few easy smoothies (frozen strawberries, a banana and apple juice) and threw some kale in and they were wonderful and Shae LOVED it which is an added plus since he's already turned into such a picky eater and won't eat anything green (so annoying!).

 Last night I was trying to decide what to make for dinner and I wanted to make something that I could stick some more of the kale in. I decided on quiche. It's one of those meals that I love (like a pizza, frittata, pasta salad, fried rice) because you can just throw in whatever you have. It was really really good. I'm usually such a food critic and always find things wrong with dishes that I make. This one was perfect, so perfect that I want to notate it so that I can make it again:

Ingredients I used:

Pie crust

 1/4 of an onion

1/2 red pepper

1/2 green pepper

 a couple handfuls of kale

5 strips of bacon, cooked and chopped up

4 eggs

1 1/4 C milk (I used whole)

A cup or so of cheese

salt

pepper

basil

Chop onion, red pepper, green pepper and kale and then saute in pan with a little bit of oil. Saute until veggies are somewhat soft. While sauteing the veggies I baked my bacon (why have I not been baking bacon my entire life? So easy, little clean up, don't have to stand and watch it and flip it. So great).

Place pie crust in 9" pie pan. Add the veggies, then sprinkle bacon on top. 

Mix the eggs, milk, salt, pepper and a few shakes of basil. Poor on top of veggies and bacon. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake 375 for 40 minutes.

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Something else we love. Chocolate chip cookies! It took me a long time and many batches of cookies to find my favorite recipe but it has been found and it is a keeper (recipe). I've been really good as of late to not bake as much since Darin and I both have some extra pounds to lose. Also, now that we have an eating, drinking, slurping, sucking machine running around our legs we want to try and keep sweets to a minimum. With that said, we had a rainy, yucky day last week and I just couldn't resist making cookies. Not only did I make cookies but I sat on the living room floor and ate them with Shae. We've been pretty strict with no-sweets for Shae up to this point (like I said, already picky! I don't think sweets will help him be any less picky). But I couldn't resist sharing with him so I did. This is what happened:

I think he liked it. 

The kid hasn't figured out how to take a bite out of something, chew, swallow and THEN continue on with the next bite. Just too complicated of an eating principle for him right now. So instead, he stuffs. His hands don't move away from his mouth and he pushes whatever he is eating into his mouth little by little as he continues to find space. Hence the puffy cheeks full of cookie. Watching him eat a banana is something else. It just keeeeps going in.

The last little bit pushed inside:

And cheeks full to the brim with yummy soft banana:

What if we all ate like this? 

There would much less talking going on and dinner would be over much faster that's for sure.

La Casa del Señor

Some things have been on my mind as of late.

1. We went to the sealing of the beautiful Flores family last weekend. I had never been to a family sealing before and it was so special. They were sealed in the same room that Darin and I were sealed in which made it extra special. Watching them be sealed together as a family for time and all eternity, reflecting upon our sealing...both reminded me how blessed I am to be married to Darin and how much I love our marriage.

Last night, right around 10pm Darin did the usual quick look at the clock, jump up to go brush his teeth and kneel down to pray before hopping into bed. I really never like this time of night because whatever we were doing or talking about seems to end so abruptly. I told Darin that I feel like the clock owns a third of our relationship. I really admire Darin for his strict discipline when it comes to being responsible with time and a schedule. I feel bad because I've slightly ruined his ability to be fully disciplined in this regard because, well, let's face it, I like to talk at night. But really, the reason I like to talk so much at night is because I don't like my time with him to end. Saying goodnight means that the morning will soon be coming and that Darin will be leaving me. ALL. DAY. I sound like a pathetic, hopeless romantic right now but it's embarrassingly true. We could have talked for hours before 10pm but I always seem to have more to say anyways, and that's the reason why (...because I'm clingy and crazy-in-love and attached and think to much about bedtime being such a long goodbye until he gets home from work the next day...crrraazzzyy, I know).

I'm really thankful that we were sealed in the temple. Can you imagine how much more talkative and clingy I would be if I knew that we wouldn't be together For-EVER? 

2. At church on Sunday our Sunday School teacher said something that really stood out to me. She said, "I am SO thankful that we have a temple so very close." The Washington D.C. temple is 2.5 hours away (without traffic). Coming from Utah, I have NEVER considered that to be close. I want to change my attitude about the distance to the temple and never let that be a deciding factor in whether or not we should go. We really are blessed to have a temple SO close. It's an 8 or 9 hour day trip, opposed to so many other people who have to travel days to get to a temple. I really am thankful that the temple is so close.

3. Our Stake President is in our branch. I work with his daughter in Young Women's. This family is incredible. I have learned so much from them. They have a goal to make it to the temple once a month. The end of January came and apparently they had not made it up to D.C. yet (they have five kids under 17 and are busy busy busy). Their daughter told me at the end of Young Womens on the last Sunday of the month that they were going up to the temple after church and that she could read the talk I had passed out while there. I was so impressed by their example. We end church at 3:30pm. The temple isn't even open on Sunday but they had set a goal to be at the temple and they were going to accomplish it. So they drove to the temple after church, spent some time as a family on the temple grounds and drove home late into the evening. Wow.

4. I've been reading in Alma 5 for a few days now. It's taking me awhile to get through it because each and every verse is so mind-blowingly good that I have to stop and think about it and soak it all in before moving on to more. A lot of the questions that Alma poses made me think about our temple covenants and how the temple helps us become the people that God wants us to be:

Have ye spiritually been born of God? 

Have ye received his image in your countenances? 

Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?

Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you?

Do you look forward with an eye of faith...?

Can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?

Have ye walked, keeping yourselves blamelss before God?

Could ye say if ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been sufficiently humble? 

Are ye stripped of pride?

5. The youth lesson theme for the month is The Atonement. The theme for the year is Come Unto Christ. I am enjoying both themes immensely and feel so blessed to work with two amazing young women who have taught me so much about what it means to live a Christ-like life. 

I want to take more time each day to think about the Savior, to apply his atonement to my life each and every day. 

Anyways, those are just some things that have been on my mind....