Domestic Bliss

I have been learning so many new homemaking skills lately! Trust me, this is so not like me. I have never been interested in these things before, and I can't explain why I am suddenly interested.

I've been practicing my bread making skills and now it looks like real bread! The secret to my new found success is letting my stand mixer kneed the dough. Apparently I am a failure at kneading. Is it still homemade if you let a machine kneed?

I was also inspired by a Relief Society enrichment activity to learn to can my own fruit. I've never done it before so it was a bit intimidating. Sorry my pictures are so blurry. This is applesauce and peaches. No one would accuse me of being a martyr, I made Paul help me with the peaches after the kids were in bed, and during nap time with the applesauce. It was really fun to work together on this project. We listened to BYU crush UCLA on the radio during the applesauce canning. (Paul actually enjoyed himself!)

Maybe now I'll learn to sew. HaHaHa

Rise and Shout

This last weekend Vanessa "gave" me my anniversary present by letting me take her to the BYU-Washington game in Seattle. I took Friday off and we drove to Portland (4 hours) to drop our kids off at my parents' house, and then drove up to Renton (3 hours) where we were going to spend the night. We went out to lunch in Vancouver and went to see a movie after we checked into the hotel. We saw The Dark Knight, the latest installment in the Batman series and it was pretty good. A bit gruesome at times, but it was the first time just she and I went to a movie since Asher was born, and he turns three next month.

Watching the movie made us feel old, though. We had a late lunch so we planned on having a late dinner after the movie, but as we staggered out of the theater, half asleep, we were too tired to be hungry. The thing that made me feel like I deserved an AARP discount was the fact that when I wanted to head for bed, the theater looked busier than ever, with people coming to start their 2+ hour movies. Man, I am old. My sister Emily says that getting married adds 5 years, and having kids adds another 10 years. I now think that may be a bit conservative.

Well the next morning we had a hearty breakfast at IHOP, decked out from head to toe in our BYU gear. I felt a bit out of place, like we were behind enemy lines, until the cashier remarked that she had seen a bunch of people come through earlier in similar get-ups. We were not alone.

We had a great time at the game. There were a bunch of BYU fans, and a Bishop from our area bought 162 tickets that he sold to local fans. Vanessa and I sat next to Brian and Natasha Woodward and Stephanie and Sam Swanberg way up in the nose bleeds of Husky stadium. Matt Dawes and his son Evan were sitting near us too, but they were rooting for the Huskies. Some parents just don't raise'em right.

It was a back and forth game with BYU holding a 7 point lead with Washington driving down the field. Jake Locker scrambled into the end-zone for the potentially tying score with 0:02 to go, but the Huskies still had to kick the extra point to tie the game and force overtime. This brought back flashbacks of the BYU-UCLA Las Vegas Bowl in 2007, when UCLA was attempting the go-ahead field goal on the final play, but Eathyn Manumaleuna got a hand on the kick and it fell short.
But Manumaleuna has left on a mission and BYU needed someone else to step up and make the play. Enter Jan Jorgensen.
BYU held on to win 28-27, much to our delight, although my heart went out to little Evan Dawes who was crushed by the failed comeback bid.Vanessa and I had a blast. It was fun to spend some time alone, and sitting with some other couples made it feel more like a date, or at least it did to me. We tried to go out to dinner after the game, but when we got out of the game traffic we couldn't find the restaurant we wanted so we just got dinner at Jack in the Box. Still Vanessa and I had lots of time with just the two of us, to talk and remember how much fun we had together before we had kids.

But as nice as it was to leave our kids with Grandma and Grandpa, we were anxious to get back to them. We went back to my parents house and spent the night and the next day with them. We were so excited to see Asher when he woke up on Sunday, but he seemed indifferent. He had lots of fun without us and was sad to be going home.

Madeleine had lots of fun too, but had a rough day Sunday. At church she hurt her wrist and was teething so she was more than a handful. Then after she got a nap and was feeling better we were out in the back yard. I was making a zucchini scare-crow and Madeleine was playing near the wading pool when she started screaming. I could tell right away that something was wrong. I had seen some bees stuck in the pool water, and she seemed to be holding her hand funny. I checked it out and sure enough there was a bee stinger sticking out of her middle finger. We got the stinger out and tried to get her settled down. I tried cradling her, and Grandma tried some baking soda slurry, but it was Grandpa and his topical local anesthetic who saved the day.

She was really tender the rest of the day, but eventually became her usual sweet little girl. It was hard because it was the first time one of my kids really got hurt. I know it is trivial, and a bit vindictive, but after Madeleine was on the mend, I went back to the pool, tracked down the bee and exacted revenge.

It was a great weekend. Our kids got some time with their Grandparents, aunts and cousins, we got to spend some time with my family, and Vanessa and I had some real couple time.

Asher and the Giant Onion

I took Asher and Madeleine to the Grocery store yesterday. Talk about multitasking. I have to simultaneously try to get out of the grocery store with ingredients for actual meals and avoid toddler melt downs. For those of you who have ever had two kids under age three I am sure you know what I mean. To keep Maddie from melting down I have to constantly present exciting toys and snacks and keep Asher from invading her personal space, but she has a seat belt so at least I don't have to worry about her personal safety.
Asher on the other hand, has full reign over the basket of the cart. If left un-entertained, he likes to pile the groceries onto one end of the basket (particularly bread, chips and other soft items) and leap onto them repeatedly with all of his force. He has also been known to secretly snack on food that hasn't been purchased yet. Keeping him entertained means keeping him involved with all aspects of decision making. We keep a running dialogue about everything from the variety of produce to the color of the trucks that most likely delivered the food. If Asher thinks he is in charge, he is happy. We have wonderful sweet onions that are grown locally all summer long and I always pick a few up. I parked the shopping cart so that the onions were within Asher's reach and he got a look of glee on his face. He had spotted "the one". The biggest onion I have ever seen. No manner of reasoning could convince him that it would take us a whole week to finish this onion; it was nearly as big as his head and he had to have it. I ended up giving in and we are now the proud owners of one huge onion.

Chill in the air

I absolutely love Autumn! It is my third favorite season. I absolutely hate matching and finding socks for little feet or else it would surely move up in the rankings. Autumn is Paul's favorite season of all because BYU football is in full swing and his months of angst and speculation over the future of the program finally come to an end and he can put all of his theories to test. I insured Paul's undying devotion to me this week by making BYU's fight song my ringtone. We are going to Seattle this weekend to watch BYU play University of Washington and Paul is beyond excited.

The kids thought it was so fun to put on warm jammies and read books under the covers with their Dad. You just can't do this in July.

Best Friends

Asher is such a good big brother. He doesn't know how to read yet, but it's amazing how often he remembers what the pages of his favorite books say word for word. He likes to tell me that Maddie is his "best friend" Then again best friend isn't an exclusive term to Asher. Just about everyone he knows has been described as his best friend at some point.



Madeleine loves her cow as much as Asher loves Dumbo. Asher has started making up stories about Dumbo. He told me that Dumbo walked away from him today. Dumbo also routinely drives a garbage truck. My favorite question from Asher is, "Mama, where is Dumbo's family?" Notice the cow's threadbare tail, it's Madeleine's favorite part to chew on.

Asher has been really sweet to me lately. He will be staring at me and say "Mama, you're a beautiful princess." He also tells me how yummy his dinner is. He even gushes with appreciation when I remember to wash his favorite blue plate. I think he gets his good behavior from watching my wonderful and kind husband. I hope Asher grows up to be just like him. So far, so good!

Not so Domestically blessed

I'm sorry I haven't updated for a long time and I will spare you excuses.

I tried my hand at homemade bread for the first time in my life! I'm not sure I will ever do this again, so I figured I would document it for posterity. It took four hours to make the bread! I must admit though, it took an extra long time because I managed to accidentally turn the oven off about 20 minutes into the baking process. It was really ugly, Paul actually laughed when he saw it, but it was really yummy! I'm not entirely sure what homemade bread not baked in a bread maker is supposed to look like. I followed the picture directions in Better Homes and gardens. Asher thought it was the funniest thing ever that I sprinkled flour on the counter before I kneaded the dough. He said "I want to make a mess with you!" and I let him. He has become my assistant chef, every time I cook lately he's right there, ready to stir; and more than willing to try to take over as head chef.
I'm so proud of my sad little loaves.



This is where you will find Asher and Maddie every morning as Paul leaves for work and every garbage truck day (commonly referred to as Wednesday). Asher consistently pulls up the blue chair for himself and finds the green chair for Madeleine. He wants Madeleine to do everything with him, which she loves and it warms my heart. Check out the Thomas underpants, I'm sure he'll love that picture when he's a teenager. This is the smile Madeleine makes when she is looking for a compliment. She loves to hear she is beautiful.



Madeleine has been really into shoes lately. It's even more fun when she wears our shoes around the house, casually discarding one in the bath tub and one in the toy oven. And I thought I misplaced my shoes before! This is Maddie trying Paul's shoes on.

Once again, the "beautiful" smile.

One of those days

Any tips on getting extreme amounts of bubble bath out of the carpet? This is not rhetorical.