August Wrap-up

Needless to say, I am not going to win any blogging awards for the month of August, unless it's "Month with the least amount of blog posts ever since the beginning of this blog." Oh well.

-My peaches are done for another year! Hooray! They came on early this year, and that caused me (and my mother, I'm sure) a little bit of stress, but now they're done and I don't have to worry about them any more until next year. It's not that canning peaches is hard, I just hadn't put it into my schedule for this week, when it came up suddenly. But I think over all, I maneuvered it into my schedule quite nicely, and didn't have to drop a whole lot of what I'd already had planned. And yes, I realize the picture would have been prettier if I'd taken the bottles out of the boxes and done the picture that way, but I didn't.

Wednesday I took the kids up to Hooper to my mom's house, and we put up my peaches and her peaches. Our friend Susan Harrop came over too, and it was fun chatting with her, and learning her time saving tricks! Then on Thursday, my friend Wynter came over and I taught her how to do peaches. We had a fun day canning and chatting, while all our kids played. Two good days, filled with good company. I'll admit I'm tired though. But I have 24 quarts of beautiful peaches to show for my efforts.

-Lincoln's soccer season has started up again. He's doing so much better than last year. We can see a lot of improvement, which makes it fun. We've had three games so far, and Linc has scored twice. He's still most excited about the treat at the end though. :)

-We went up Hobble Creek Canyon and camped out with our homeschooling group last weekend. It was fun, and again the company was excellent. I do have to admit though, that I'm a little camped out for the year, so I think this is going to be our last camping trip.

-Aaron found a killer deal for an entertainment center on KSL. So our TV is now securely behind doors and out of the way until we need it. And I got two new book cases out of the deal. Win. win. Looks a lot better than the nursery dresser, hu?

-I started school with the kids this week. I wasn't going to officially start until after Labor Day, but my children seem to be so much better behaved when they have some structure in their lives. So having school during the mornings has actually been really nice. I switched up the way I was going devotional so make it a little more simple. Instead of a long list of small things to do, all we are doing is having a prayer, singing a song, and reading a story out of the Friend. We do that first. Then we have read aloud, where I read them a chapter out of whichever book we're reading (right now it's Wizard of Oz). Then the boys do a page from Handwriting Without Tears. Then Lincoln works on his 2 pages out of Explode the Code while I help Ivan do a cutting sheet. Then Ivan and Adelia go play, while I help Linc finish up Explode the Code and do two sections out of his Math U See book. Then we go downstairs and do a preschool activity, geared towards Ivan, but the other two join in as they want. This week our preschool activities have centered around Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

I feel like I've explained this unit a bunch of times already, so I am not going to do it again here. Next week we are doing letter A and reading about Johnny Appleseed and doing activities with apples. Should be fun. When the preschool activity is over, if it's not lunch time yet, the kids get to go have some free time and I work on house work. Then we have lunch and Ivan and Adelia go down for naps. During the first part of nap time Lincoln and I do a lesson out of Teach Your Child to Read, and then Mon-Thurs we do an exercise out of Writing With Ease. Then Linc is done with school for the day, and finishes his quiet time, and I do whatever I feel is the best use of my time at the moment. (Today it's writing this blog post.) And that's been school so far.

-Ivan is also doing a preschool co-op with some other families in our ward and I'm really excited about it.It wasn't something I was going to do at first, but then the thought just couldn't leave me alone, so I decided to go to the planning meeting and see what it was all about. When we got there it just felt right. All the other moms doing it seem super on top of it, and I think this is really going to be a good opportunity for Ivan to have something of his own. I'll be teaching once every 5th time, and there are only 5 kids total, so that seems totally do-able. Also, I don't have to stay every week. I just drop Ivan off at whomever's house, which will not only give Ivan an experience he needs, but it will give me a little bit of an easier time teaching Lincoln on those days, with only Adelia to entertain simultaneously.

-So August is done and I am ready for fall. Being hot makes me nauseated. Bring on the cool air, and long pants, and jackets, and pumpkin rolls, and apple cider, and hay rides, and Halloween, and Thanksgiving. And then let us have a very long, beautiful and glorious fall, because I don't like ice and snow and cold. Picky, aren't I?

My 3 Favorite Zucchini Recipes

What did we do with our monster zucchinis you ask? How about the 10 others that have popped up in the last week? We've been eating them! (And giving them away.) Here are a few of the different ways we've been cooking up the treasures from our garden.

This first one is my new favorite. We've had it for dinner twice this week, and I could probably eat it lunch and dinner every day for the rest of the month. Seriously. It's that good.


Tomato Zucchini Casserole

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups grated Mozzarella cheese
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 medium zucchinis, thinly sliced
• 5 plum tomatoes, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
• 3/4 cup fine bread crumbs

 Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly butter a 9x9-inch pan.(if you add more zucchini, tomatoes, and cheese, you can easily make it a 9x13 pan)
   
2. In a large bowl, combine Mozzarella, Parmesan, oregano, basil, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper, and set aside.
3. Arrange half of the zucchini slices in the pan. Sprinkle 1/4 of the cheese and herb mixture on top. Arrange half of the tomatoes, and top with another 1/4 of the cheese mixture. Repeat layers.
4. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in onions, and cook until soft and translucent. Stir in breadcrumbs; cook until they have absorbed the butter. Sprinkle on top of casserole.
5. Cover loosely with foil, and bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake until the top is crusty and the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.

The second recipe is Aaron's sister Lisa's recipe, and I fell in love with it the first time I had it. I've made it twice already this zucchini season.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup oil

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups flour

1/4 cup cocoa

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup buttermilk (or if I don't have any I just use regular milk)

2 cups (or so) shredded zucchini

1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional) 

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees

2. In a large bowl combine sugar, butter, oil, vanilla, and eggs; beat well

3. Add flour, cocoa, baking soda, cinnamon, and buttermilk; blend well

4. Fold in zucchini, chocolate chips, and nuts

5. Pour into greased 9x13 pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes until knife comes out clean.

* Try to catch it right when the knife becomes clean so it will not be dry. You can cool it and frost it, but we prefer without frosting because it is so moist. 

 The last one, I've only made once so far. For my taste buds it was good, but not fantastic, but my husband and father-in-law raved on and on about it so...it must be good, and I'm just weird. I dunno, I guess I just prefer banana bread instead. 

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

Monsters

Look what was waiting for us in our garden when we got home from Bear Lake! Monster zucchinis. Good think I know what to do with those bad boys.

Bear Lake 2012

Last week we went up to Bear Lake with my family. And we had a really good time. The kids even slept pretty well...no middle of the night screaming, I'll take it!

Kyle and Kels brought up a couple of wave runners, and Steph and Kirk's friends brought up a boat. So everyone had plenty of opportunity to play out on the water. But I think, as much as my kids loved those things, they would have been perfectly content if all they got to do was sit in the water and play in the mud/sand. They spent hours on the shore in ankle deep water, just digging and digging. Silly children.

On the way home I asked each of the kids what their favorite part of Bear Lake was. Lincoln said the boat and the wave runner. Adelia said the wave runner. And Ivan said, "watching Dad slide across the water!" (water skiing.) 

 Tanner, Kels, and Kyle

 Kerry, Adelia, Mom, and Me

 Tired baby, only Grandpa could get her to sleep.

 Uncle Jackson and Ivan coming in.

 Lincoln going for a spin with Uncle Kyle and Aunt Kels

 Silly, muddy children

My handsome brothers: Tanner, Kyle, and Jackson

$2 Tuesday

My great friend Wynter suggested we hit up Thanksgiving Point's $2 Tuesday a week or so ago. Wynter and I always have so much fun when we get together, and since all our kids are the same ages, it makes it really easy to find reasons to hang out. We decided to do the Children's Gardens, and we had a good time. Here are some of the pictures I took.

Tommy, Zoe, Lincoln, and Adelia. We couldn't convince Sawyer and Ivan to be in the picture.

Best I could get of my three together

I mostly only took pictures at the fountain, but I got a couple on this giant spider web thingy too.

Lincoln's Birthday

These next few posts I'm going to be playing catch up.

Lincoln had a birthday! The big 05. I can't believe it. And his birthday was a crazy day indeed. I was supposed to get everything ready on Thursday, the day before his birthday, so that when Friday came around all we would have to do is celebrate. But then Ivan got sick, and puked all over my entire house all day long on Thursday. So, no only did I not get anything done, but the whole house needed to be disinfected. I had an emotional, pregnant-lady break down, and Aaron stayed home Friday morning to help me get things sorted out.

Aaron made the cake, a rocket ship, which I thought turned out amazing.

We had a lot of people over for birthday dinner, because almost everyone on Aaron's side of the family happened to be in town. So Lisa and Jared and their four kids came, as well as Kelly and Esther and their son Asher, and Ryan and Melissa, and Grandma and Grandpa Swan. Of course, Lincoln didn't want anything easy that I could throw in the crock pot...he wanted breaded chicken and rice and corn on the cob for his birthday dinner. It turned out delicious though, and I think with all the salads and rolls that people brought to go with, that no one left hungry.

After dinner we opened presents. Lincoln got Legos. The normal sized ones, and he got lots of them. :) And he was thrilled about it. They kept him entertained ever since.

At some point when life settles down a hair, we are also going to take Lincoln and Ivan to see Brave, as part of the belated birthday celebration. None of our kids have ever been to a theater yet, and we thought it would be a fun experience for them. We'll see when we get around to it though.

Happy Birthday Lincoln! I love you so much, I'm glad to be your mom, and I'm glad we've gotten to keep you around for five whole years!

I Wrote This

 It's been awhile since I submitted anything to the LDS Sentinel, but I met the editor at a homeschooling conference this weekend, and was sort of re-energized and came home and wrote this article. Yay me. I'll write more about the conference later maybe, as well as Lincoln's birthday and some other fun things we've been doing, but at the moment I have to get off the computer. 


 http://www.ldsnhe.com/WP/2012/08/14/chicka-chicka-boom-boom-an-abc-kick-off/

Names

I've had a few people ask for a pregnancy update, how I'm feeling and all that and what my current baby name choices are. You know I have 'em :)

I'm feeling pretty good. I get nauseous if I'm hungry, hot, tired, driving, or staring at a computer screen for a long time. But if I'm good about eating every 2 hours or so, and going to bed on time, I can hang in there pretty well. Aaron has mostly taken over in the food department for the time being, bless him, because early evening seems to be the worst time of day for me. (I'll take that over mornings though.) I eat a lot of cereal.

But enough of all that boring pregnancy stuff...let's talk about baby names!! I think naming the baby is my most favorite part. I think when I'm done having kids, I'll open a business for naming other people's babies, because there are a lot of names I like, and I won't have that many kids, guaranteed. Also, I like way more names than Aaron does, so he eliminates just about all of everything I come up with. Such is life. I should have made him sign a paper before we got married that the naming of the children was solely up to my discretion. But I didn't.

So the following is my list of names. I'll try to mark the Aaron approved ones, just so you know what the real possibles are.

* Aaron approved
- I love it, but won't use it because it's too popular
+ my current top favorites

Girls
+*Ruby
+Finley
+Wren
+Britta
+*Aurora (Rorie)
-Avery
Nora (most like won't use this, our across the street neighbors are using it for their baby)
Ivy (won't use with Ivan)
India
+Jersey
Vienna
-Ella
Sadie
Cornelia (+Nelly or Corie)
Navy
Nike
Oakley
LaRue
Gretta

Boys
+*Seamus (pronounced Shay-mus)
+Sullivan
Ezra
*Talmage
*Isaac (probably won't use with Ivan)
-Noah
-Owen
Nolan (won't use because Tanya and Nelson are naming their baby that in December)
Ryder
Arthur
Jameson
Angus
Magnus
Atticus
Cyrus
+Phineas (Phin)
Atlas
Ajax


So there is our ever-changing, ever growing list. Currently the two most likely possibilities are Ruby and Seamus, but we'll keep you posted :)

Getting Around to It

I have not been a very consistent blogger lately. Mostly because staring at the computer screen for long periods of time tends to make me nauseous at the moment. So there are things that I would have normally blogged about that have fallen by the wayside. I hate when that happens, but there isn't much I can do about it. But there are a couple of things I wanted to put up, so here we go.

First, Adelia's two-year old pictures. I took them myself with my little point and shoot, mostly because I'm my husband is too cheap to pay someone to do it professionally. So they are far from professional or perfect, but hey, at least we'll be able to look back and see that she was adorable as a two year old. We went up to BYU campus and found some really pretty spots.

 

Also, we had a combined birthday party with my side of the family last Sunday for Adelia and Lincoln, since my mom and Kerry and Tanner would be out of town for Lincoln's. Kyle and Kels came to join in on the fun with us. I think the kids had a great time with all their relatives. And they got spoiled of course. My mom made Adelia the coolest hanging tent for her bedroom. And Mom and Kerry gave each of them a camping chair, and Lincoln got a little lego set, which he hasn't stopped playing with since. Kyle and Kels gave Adelia some sand toys for our up-coming Bear Lake trip, and Lincoln some play dough toys. A big success.

On Monday we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Swan's house for a little slip'n'slide action with the cousins. My kids had a blast in the water and with the umbrella game the kids made up afterward.  And Adelia got to open her birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa Swan; a cute little singing picnic basket.

 

I also wanted to post about our newest awesome home decor item. My step-sister Tanya, and her husband Nelson, made us this really cool window as a house warming gift. We hung it up in the living room and it makes the whole room. Pretty much everyone who comes over comments on how cool it is. Thanks guys! (Just imagine that there is no computer desk, and that there is a real piano and a couple of nice chairs and a coffee table. We'll get there some day.)

Adelia Turns Two

This is Adelia. Today she is two. She insists that we let her "do it myself!" This includes doing her hair, brushing her teeth, screwing the lid on her sippy cup, and just about everything else. Luckily for her, she's always been just as adorable as she is feisty.

Adelia wanted to pick her own cake, but couldn't make up her mind what she wanted. We went back and forth between a heart cake and a twinkle star cake, among other varies kinds of cakes. Then I decided that she and I would sit down together at the computer and look at pictures of cakes to help her decide. She picked a fish cake. Which is very appropriate because she loves to watch fish in fish tanks whenever we have the opportunity. I thought the cake turned out really cute, despite the fact that it was a disaster to put together. Everything that could have possibly gone wrong did, but finally after many hours and at least 4 trips to the grocery store, it came together. (To be fair, the cake we looked at online did not come with a pattern or instructions, so I was winging it a little bit, and didn't know how much I needed of everything. If I were to make it a second time, it would be a piece of cake. Haha, get it? A piece of cake... Mom and Aaron that one was for you.)

Grandma and Grandpa Swan, and cousins Jeremiah and Baby Claire came over for dinner, presents and cake. It was nice to have a little party.

Adelia did awesome at opening her presents this year. And all three boys did awesome and leaving her to it. Yay for improvements all around!

Lincoln and Ivan really wanted to give Adelia individual presents of their own this year. I took them to Target and told them they had $5 apiece to spend. The took the challenge very seriously; we were there wandering through the same three isles for two hours. But we finally came up with something they were happy with. Lincoln got Adelia a little Tinkerbell figure. And Ivan got Adelia a Belle that came with two rubbery dresses. Aaron and I gave her the book Herold and the Purple Crayon, and a Cabbage Patch doll, which Adelia promptly named Nora. We wanted to buy her a little doll cradle to go with Nora, but they want a ridiculous amount for the stupid, flimsy, plastic things and even more for a wooden one. Aaron decided to try his hand at making one instead. He bought a board at Home Depot for $13 and made it into a beautiful, sturdy cradle. We did not get a good picture of it tonight, so I'll take one tomorrow and have Aaron write a post about how he made it later.

Adelia was really excited about her baby doll and the cradle. Well, and all the dolls really. She calls them all babies and she'd pile them all into the cradle and put them to bed by spreading her blanket over the top of them. In about one minute she'd wake them all up, snuggle them, and put them back to bed. It was pretty cute.

Right after presents Gramma Tam and Papa Kerry and Uncle Tanner called to sing happy birthday. Here is a picture of Adelia very intently listening to their song. Gramma Tam asked her what she got for her birthday and she replied, "The phone!" :)

And then we ate cake...

Happy Birthday Adelia! We love you so much. Our family would not be the same without you in it.