Gettin' Domestic on ya

I am not a cook by any stretch of the imagination but I've learned since changing my diet that cooking from scratch is A LOT healthier and better for you. I decided yesterday I was going to take on the task of making my own perogies. For those of you who have never had a perogie, oh man you have to try one at least once in your life. I have a very picky 3 year old who does not like vegetables and I can sneak veggies into these bad boys and he'll gobble them up with a bit of ketchup. Definately one of his favorite foods and mine too yum! What I didn't realize though when I took on the task was that it takes a long time to make when you haven't prepared the filling and everything beforehand. Yesterday it just didn't happen because I didn't have any sour cream for the dough. So tonight I started making them but waited til 6:30pm and it took forever! We had a very late dinner but I was so proud of my perogies I had to share. They had potato, cheese and onion filling and were ever so tasty. I will have to make them for friends or family next time I am over for dinner.

Gavin enjoying the meal, one of his favorites

The Perogies de la Stephanie, Voila!

Seal for Time and All Eternity

Saturday I had the unique opportunity to drive the two hours to the Portland Temple and see my good friend Jenny and her husband Evan sealed to their beautiful little boy Daniel whom they just finalized adoption to him. I have been to a few sealings of parents to their babies who weren't born under the covenant but this was the first experience of an adopted child to their parents. It always amazes me that when babies enter the temple its like a calmness comes over them and they are so quiet and well behaved like they know that this is the house of the Lord. I barely made it on time to the sealing I literally walked into the chapel and they were about to lead the guests into the sealing room. We had gotten stuck in traffic and then took the wrong exit on the way to the temple because we had only been there maybe twice ever. But I made it! Minutes later Jenny and Evan Bowles came in and then their beautiful boy Daniel came in and his escort, the temple worker was so cute. A little old man who gave him his nametag to keep him happy.

The funniest thing about Jenny and Evan's little boy Daniel (and we heard this all day yesterday, and I'm sure Jenny and Evan hear this ALL the time) is that he looks so much like them! It amazes me, to look at that little boy you'd swear he was biological. He was definately meant to come to their family and they are truly blessed. After all was said and done we went to a small family potluck at a friend's house and then drove the long drive home making it home by 9:30pm. I haven't been to the temple as much as I should, but having the opportunity in occasions like this made me feel good to go to the house of the Lord. Spencer and I are planning to return without kids sometime in the near future so both of us can take in a session and take time for ourselves. Here's a couple of pictures of their family in the atrium afterward.

Mana from Heaven

This is what my best friend calls the breast milk that I've been giving her for her little girl Iyla. Poor thing was having such a hard time with gaining weight, reflux and not sleeping well through the night that my heart ached. Her mom couldn't make enough milk and continued to pump for her getting barely a half ounce sometimes after hours of trying to no avail. I would've given up a long time before that but she tried so hard to give her daughter what was best for her. And no matter what the Formula companies say, its not the same or even close to the same as breast milk.

Leahona and I had joked about giving her daughter some of my extras a few times but in my head I was thinking "why not give her the milk that I pump every morning?" I am what you call the over producer in this area. Example: Rowan sleeps through the night for about 8 hours so by the time I wake up, feed him and then pump I can still get about 5 ounces and I freeze it and that is what I give to Leahona. Enough to give her a couple bottles a day or at least one at night time to keep her full and sleep better. I never realized what a blessing it is to be able to give my own kids a full year of breastfeeding until I saw someone who couldn't do it and my heart went out to her. She just happened to be my best friend and oh so convenient that I have plenty to spare for supplementing. Little Iyla has been recovering and getting over the reflux and sleeping so much better, I think it even helped her chunk up a little.

I get so many thanks for this small gesture that doesn't seem like much to me but I know it means a lot to my friend and her little girl.

Happy Birthday Leahona (Pinch, Pinch)

My best friend in the whole wide world Leahona Gifford (who will eternally be older then me by a whole 7 months HA HA) just had her 27th birthday on St. Patty's Day, which is how I always remember it because who forgets to wear green? Not me! I don't want some pinches thank you.

Every year when that happy day comes around I call up my friend and ask her what she wants or better yet what she NEEDS for her birthday. I say this because last year it was a pair of shoes which to some people is small but to her she was really hurting and it was simple so I got her some with pink laces and voila happy Leahona! Anywho this year we both have 2 kids and are crazy busy moms who never see each other ever except for short conversations at church exchanging milk and feeding babies (see next posting). This year she thought for oh, lets say, two seconds and then said "I want to go out with you to see a movie." I said "hmmm I think I can arrange for that" and we preceded to make a date to go see a movie on Saturday morning.

As luck should have it we both recieved the same phone call from our friend Jenny Bowles announcing she was in town with her family and they were to be sealed to their son Daniel whom they just finished finalizing his adoption on Saturday! (also see another post about that). Saturday was out, plus the movie we wanted to see was not playing anymore. We decided instead that we'd go see a late night showing of "He's just not that into you" which I must say is a cute and funny movie. What made me laugh the most though was we went to the 10:20 showing and in the middle of the movie we both started to nod off! I only dozed for a second but I looked over and she was out too lol. I poked her and was like dang it I paid 20 bucks to see this movie we're both going to watch it. The joys of babies and not being as young and spry as we used to be. Not to say we're old foagies or anything but children and husbands really do change the amount of energy you have to spare. I enjoyed the time out we took for ourselves even if that one little part in the movie was blacked out for a minute oh well obviously it wasn't that important.

Happy Birthday Leahona! (A Pinch to grow an inch, and a sock to grow a block as my mother in law says! Love Ya!)

Diet / Me Update

Hello my lovely fellow bloggers. Sorry I've been MIA for so long, I swear this whole two kid thing is way more complicated than I thought I am finally starting to get into the swing of things with these guys. Gavin is talking more and getting more and more defiant (did I really want him to talk?) He is sweet as ever though and loves his brother for now until he can move around and starts taking Gavin's toys, Rowan is still a good little brother and baby in Gavin's eyes. Diet Update: I've gotten used to the whole diet change and enjoy how I feel now that I'm eating healthier. I've lost about 34 lbs since I had Rowan which is nice, I feel I've hit a plateau though with diet change being the only thing I've done, I need to start exercising which isn't so much fun. With the weather being the way it has been (ie. Snow, Sun, Rain, Hail and Wind all in one day last week) I don't think its gonna happen very much but I will TRY to get some walking in.

Rowan had his 2 month appointment last week and is 14.5 lbs and 95 percentile for his head size (that's a big noggin) but he's doing well and survived his first attack of the needles. I am not a fan of the needles thing and we usually switch off when we do immunizations who gets to hold him during the deed but Daddy had to work that day so I was stuck with the chore of comforting the poor guy when it was all over. Since that day he has found his voice and cries a lot louder, coos a lot louder and can be heard a lot better then before. Nothing like a stick in the leg to make you scream bloody murder (which my sister said wasn't even that loud and to count my blessings he's a quiet baby).

Before and After the Shots : Sleep = Baby Defense Mechanism

I took on the task of making some doll clothes for my neice Ariel's 9th birthday. Ariel has an American Girl Doll that she got for christmas, for those of you who don't know what that is its a very expensive beautiful type of doll that reminds me of a porcelain doll that isn't breakable but the clothes for them is quite expensive so I bought a couple patterns and took on the challenge. I was really pleased with the result and Miss Ariel was super excited so it made it all the better. She only has the outfit that she came with and a few "no sew" ones she made herself for Samantha. Here's what a few of the peices looked like when they were finished.

Last week we had my older sister Erin come down for a week and we enjoyed visiting with her while she stayed at my parent's house. Gavin and Evan had a blast playing with each other. They are only 4 months apart and don't get to see each other very often but when they get together it is pretty cute especially since they are both talking more now and interacting which is hilarious. One day we went over and Evan greeted Gavin with "Come gimme a HUG!" and they preceded to hug and run off playing.

We ended up one of the days against my better judgement going and eating at Macdonalds. We had lunch and let he kids play which was really quite comical because Evan got stuck at the top of the play place and couldn't get down or at least wouldn't because it was too high. Averie to the rescue! Climbing up and lifting her 3 year old brother down who wasn't much smaller then her and rescueing him from the top not once, but TWICE while her ice cream was melting. She even went to the top and helped a little boy named Isaac who did the same thing and his dad couldn't get him down. Good job Averie!

For those of you who know me I don't eat at Macdonalds! I got sick the last time I did and I really will not eat there again since this incident. We had decided to go there because they have a play place and the weather was sucky lately so we wanted to get the kids playing so we went. It was myself, Gavin, Rowan, Erin, Evan, Averie, Brynlea, Shannon, Tanner and my mom and Every single one of us except Gavin and Tanner got sick in some varying form. I had really bad stomach pains and headache. Others had puking, diareah etc. Needless to say their name is mud and we will never go there again.

We also visited Charlie's Safari while Erin and her kids were visiting for the same reason as above (Washington weather is lousy). I had never been to Charlie's Safari and it is the best place! Adults are free admission because we are supervising our kids and each kid costs aproximately 8 bucks to get in, we had buy one admission get one free so two kids cost 8 bucks to get in, in our case and you have access to 4 or 5 bounce houses, a huge play place with 4 or 5 slides, giant balls, basketball court and a smaller tikes play place for the littler kids. Best of all its big enough so the parents can go inside and play too! We let them go for hours and played too which was so much better then Macdonalds. So much fun.

Wow I've missed out on blogging about a lot of stuff. Hope this wasn't too long winded and the update was thorough enough to let you know we're doing pretty good. Hope all is well with you and I'll blog more when its not so late and I can think better maybe tomorrow. There is so much more to blog about!