And Still, A Handsome Man

Blake - 2006

Blake - 2013

6 years later he is still our handsome little man!

(and 6 years apparently makes a big difference in how my parent's kitchen looks)

To grandma's (and grandpa's) house we go...

Blake had 3 days off from school last week for parent teacher conferences and president's day so we had planned a fun weekend trip to Utah to visit grandma and grandpa Norby. We hadn't been up to Utah since June and that was the last time our kids took a road trip too. We tried to fit in as much fun stuff as we could in 4 days. 

 We caught a Grizzlies hockey game. Can't beat $10 a ticket for Blake to be in hockey heaven. It was a really fun game, ending in a shoot out. Fun was had by all (except maybe Kalli. She looked incredibly bored the whole time but she insists she had fun).

 A trip to grandma's always includes dessert. This time I picked my favorite, strawberry crepes. I won't admit to how many I ate while visiting.

 Visiting also means eating things for breakfast that mom usually wouldn't allow (like sweetened strawberries and whipped cream on pancakes).

 Blake played in the snow quite often. He loved this little snow thrower. His favorite was going out with Maestro and playing in the snow. He also loved having Maestro sleep with him each night.

Lots of dress up time. Kalli was in love with all the new outfits to try on.

We ate at a couple places that I had been wanting to eat at. Kneaders is every bit as good as people say. I am still dreaming of my tomato soup from there and wish I would have made time to get soup from there one more time before we left. And a trip to Utah is never complete without a stop at In'N'Out. Joe and I also got to do a session at the Jordan River temple which was fun.

First tooth...gone!

Right before New Years Blake lost his first tooth. He had been wriggling it for about a week and Joe and I couldn't take it anymore. Blake had been reading Ready Freddy Tooth Troubles and got the idea from the book to tie a string around his tooth and attach it to a doorknob. I thought that was pretty brave, especially on a first tooth. Although there were tears I'm pretty sure they were more because of the fear of the unknown, not that it hurt too much. 

Best books I read this year

This year I read 75 books, which is quite dismal compared to my 95 book average. I think I was just quite a bit busier this year with 3 children and I also stopped working at Deseret Book which meant I wasn't reading their books as fast or as often. Looking back on the list I read this year I wasn't blown away by too many of the books. I think this years reading was lackluster and not all that great. I did re-read a couple of titles (Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Giver, Twenties Girl) because of book club and I was reminded how much I love those books! Without further ado, I feel that these books were the standouts for this 2012 reading year. 

This Steven King novel was quite good. It's extremely long (849 pages to be exact), but it reads super quick and is very entertaining. It's all about a history teacher finding a way to travel back in time to stop the JFK assassination. Along the way he creates a life for himself, a life in which  you root for. This book also has a lot of information about the time period and all the key players in the JFK story. I loved this story so much that I watched the newest Kennedy's miniseries and loved that as well. I will warn that this book is chock full of swear words. I mean, swear words on every single page, which got quite tedious after a while. If you're a fan of historical fiction and can handle the obscene amount of swear words, this book is for you. 

I LOVE Sophie Kinsella. In fact I picked one of her books for book club this last year (Twenties Girl). This was her newest one and it is probably her best yet. It's about a girl named Poppy who happens to find a cell phone and starts using it for a random reason. Turns out the phone belongs to a pretty good looking business man. The story follows their encounters and texts with each other. The story is cute, clever and leaves you satisfied. With all Kinsella books, there are swear words so proceed with caution. 

I can't say enough good things about this book. I LOVED it and think that everybody should read it! We read this one for book club and I was so excited because I had wanted to read it. It's all about this woman who wants to recognize more happiness in her life. Each month she focuses on an aspect that she feels will bring her more happiness (organization, health, finances, personal relationships, etc). There were so many things in this book that I highlighted. Some of the chapters spoke right to me while others weren't for me at all. But, this was HER happiness project, she was just giving us a peek into it. Seriously, read this book, it's amazing! 

This is another chick lit book and I loved it. Joe actually got sick of me talking about it so much. Even though it's a bit fluffy it had so much that got me thinking. Alice wakes up in the hospital missing the last 10  years from her memory. She wakes up thinking she is happily married and pregnant for the first time and in actuality she is divorced with 3 kids and hates her husband. It's her journey to see how her life changed so much and how she could get it back. The main thing I pulled from this book is how I treat my husband. Alice pretty much felt that she had to do everything herself and would never let her husband help out which made him feel unloved and unappreciated. Things deteriorated pretty quickly from there. It was a very powerful story to read and had me weeping at points. 

I really enjoyed this YA book. It's about a mother and daughter trying to live life after the husband/father dies. The mom decides to adopt a baby from a pregnant teenager. The pregnant teenager comes to live with them until the baby is born. It was interesting watching the relationships develop. Sometimes in YA novels the sentiment feels forced and shoved down the readers throat. But this one comes together quite well and I felt was very real. A great read! 

So did you read anything in 2012 that you thought was spectacular? 

Tried and true

I love Christmas. I love the foods, traditions, magic seen through my children. It's just an amazing time. But it can also be stressful, especially with how much cooking and  baking needs to happen. I find this is not the best time to try new recipes. I wanted to share a quick list of tried and true recipes that I turn to at this time of the year. I will usually try a few new recipes but not on an important night, that just spells out disaster.

For dinner:
-We usually have prime rib either on Christmas or New Years. It's super easy and crazy delicious. I used Pioneer Woman's prime rib recipe last year and it was great! You can find the recipe here
- I love ham so ham is usually part of our Christmas dinner at some point. I really like the one from Mel's Kitchen Cafe in which you cook the ham in a slow cooker. So delicious! You can find the recipe here

Breakfast:
-There is a recipe for caramel pull a parts that I use religiously and I usually make it for Christmas morning, however the recipe can only be found in the first Our Best Bites cookbook, not on their website. Suffice it to say, it's amazing and my kids gobble it up.
- I really like this baked french toast by Pioneer Woman and my kids loved it just as much. You can find the recipe here

Dessert:
There is usually numerous parties in which you need to bring a dish and dessert seems to be the most popular category. Here are some of my favorites:
-These candy cane cookies are amazingly delicious. My kids request these ones to be made for Santa every year. You can find the recipe here
-I tried this peppermint ice cream last year and I was so happy with the outcome. I made mine with the Andes mints and it was so good! You can find the recipe here
- Now this caramel corn isn't just for Christmas time and we tend to make this all year round but it is so good while you sit and watch Christmas movies with your family. I speak from experience. You can find the recipe here. The perk with this caramel corn recipe is that it can be made in the microwave in under 10 minutes!
-I tried these the other night for a girls night and to say they were a hit is an understatement. I had husbands requesting them! These brownie batter truffles are so easy, no bake and come together amazingly. You can find the recipe here

So do you have recipes that you get excited to pull out each year?

Another one under my belt...

On Thanksgiving morning I ran with some friends in the Hobbler Gobbler 5k. Last year, while I was getting the turkey ready I watched everybody run this race (it's directly behind our house) and I thought to myself how much I wish I could do something like that. This whole year has been about me doing something that I never thought I could do (running). As my 2nd 5k of the  year I really wanted to be able to beat my last time. 

The Hobbler Gobbler route is very difficult with 5 steep hills throughout the course. I did better than I thought I would beating my practice time by 2 minutes and coming in a little faster than my first 5k. Considering that my first 5k was flat, I find this to be very exciting! The run was so much fun and I can't wait to do it next year, although next year I plan on running the 10k! 

 Before the race began.

 Blake ran the kids k after we were all done. It was so fun!

 Here I am finishing, feeling great. It helped that the last part was downhill.

I ran it in 36:20, which is by no means super fast, but it is good for me. I was just happy I didn't come in dead last and that I finished.
I also found out that I got 22nd in my age group, which I thought was good since my age group is quite young. The first runner to finish did it in 16 minutes! Now the training starts for a 10k in April!

Running through my head

Our book club selection last month was The Happiness Project. I had heard great things about this book, so when it was picked I was super excited. Not that I feel I am unhappy, but like the author talks about, sometimes life is just passing me by and I'm just watching it.
There were so many things I completely loved about this book but there were also things that had nothing to do with my life.
One thing that has been sticking out to me since I read it, that I think of nearly every day is this: The days are long but the years are short. I felt this particularly true in my life right now. My children are still young, there are still days I wonder if I'll make it through all the whining, crying, fighting and constant need of my attention. But then lately this statement has run through my head and it's helping me to live in the moment.
I look at Blake and wonder how I have a 1st grader, when did that happen? And as soon as you have a kid that starts school, time moves even faster. Before I know it, he'll be grown and living his own life.
But there are days with Lexie that feel are never going to end. Mostly because she needs a TON of one on one attention and hates for me to be doing anything but giving her my undivided attention.
But I need to remember that there will be a day that I no longer change a diaper, fix a sippy cup, buckle a child into a high chair, lay a baby down in a crib. I will look back on that with such nostalgia and wonder where the time went.
So although the days are long (and sometimes seemingly endless) the years are short and I am trying to remember to live in the moment and enjoy each stage as it comes.