Olliewog's Weekend Birthday Bash

This kid is two years old. He is a sweetheart, such a mild-mannered, go-with-the-flow, cheerful little fella. I love his fluffy hair, and his mischief grin, and his big blue eyes. I think Heavenly Father knew we'd need a peaceful person in our house, and so he sent us Oliver.

Friday was Ollie's birthday. Gramma Tam came down to spend the whole weekend with us. Friday morning we went to the Youth Theater production of Pinkalicious! The kids absolutely loved it, especially Adelia. It was very pink and frilly. Lots of bouncing and face-paced music. It was kind of an exercise of patience for me to sit through, but it kept Ollie's attention, so that was good.

After the play, we ran a few errands and had sample at Costco, then we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch, so the kids could play on the playground. Ollie really loved that. He didn't want to leave.

Once we got home and got all the kids napping and in quiet time, Mom helped me make an airplane cake for Ollie. I thought it turned out so cute.

Aaron picked up a few pizzas on his way home from work, and then Chuck and Debbie came over for birthday dinner.

The great debate this year, was what to get Ollie for his birthday. We have oodles more toys than we need, and I've spent the last few months trying to downsize our collection as it is. Plus, all the things Ollie really likes to play with (cars, trains, balls) we already have aplenty. So what do you get a 2 year old when you don't want him to have any more stuff? We asked the Grandparents to contribute money to his bank account. We got him the book Andy Warhol's Colors, so that he'd have something to open, and decided we'd take a trip up to Thanksgiving Point. We encouraged each of the kids to spend time playing with Ollie on his birthday, rather than giving him a present. All in all, I think this worked out well. Although, admittedly, I felt a little guilty while he was opening his tiny book, that the "opening presents" part of his birthday wasn't more exciting.

Gramma Tam slept over, and came with us on our adventure up to Thanksgiving Point. We decided to go to the Museum of Natural Curiosity. I think we even hit all the rooms, except the outdoor gardens. Ollie's favorite part was the water table in the Water Works room, but he also enjoyed spinning balls in the Motion room, and the little kids area in the Rain Forest room.

Other Blender Attempts

I am loving my Blendtech! It's seriously so fun. I've tried a few new things, my favorite being the Peanut Butter Chocolate Smoothie that I've had every morning for breakfast this week. It's milk, peanut butter, cocoa, honey, banana, and ice blended together, and I am in love. No more cereal for this chick.

We've also tried a few things that we didn't love, but it was still fun to try. Carrot juice, too pulpy for our fancy. And homemade ginger ale. I really, really, really wanted to love the homemade ginger ale. It was so fun to make. I got to use a cheese cloth and everything. But, no. It was gross. A little fresh ginger goes a LONG way. And after drinking the ginger ale I'm pretty sure I'll be breathing fire for at least a week. It was so spicy!

I also made a cauliflower soup that was really good. Both Aaron and I liked it, and 1 out of 4 children did, so that's not so bad.

Maiden Voyage

Success!!

The very first thing I made in my new blender was a Very Berry Smoothie. Strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries, oh my! It was tasty. Even the kids thought so. They liked it so much they used it for war paint. :)

Ruby's Blessing and Krystal's Birthday Weekend Extravaganza!

My birthday was on a Sunday this year, which means we celebrated all weekend instead of just one day. (Who am I kidding? I always celebrate for the entire month of February, haha!) Anyways, Friday night Aaron took me to Texas Roadhouse (my favorite restaurant) for some much needed steak and shrimp.

After dinner we went and walked around Barnes and Noble Bookstore. (Aaron must have been feeling brave, he knows how I am in bookstores.)

Saturday morning I got to go thrift shopping for the first time, with several of my amazing homeschool mom friends. We are pretty much Dressing Your Truth groupies, haha!, and so we were on a mission to find inexpensive clothes that fit our Types. There were two Type 1s, two Type 2s, and two Type 3s in our group. (All our Type 4 friends prefer to shop alone, true to their Type!) It was so fun! We went up to American Fork to check out Tags and DI. I was so impressed. I found some awesome finds. My favorite though, was an army green courderoy bomber's jacket, with brass zippers, and fur collar. It's awesome! Abercrombe and Fitch brand and it was only $9. I also found some great sweaters, some hoodies, another jacket, a pair of pointy toed shoes with buckles, and a sweet sweater vest with a fur-lined hood. Sweet!

Sunday morning we blessed our sweet little Ruby Aveline Swan. Lots of family members from both sides came. Aaron did a good job on the blessing. The things that stood out to me were: That she would be blessed with a keen mind. And that she was named after 4 generations of strong women who she could look to as examples in her life.

Ruby's great-great-Grandma Roberts crocheted her blessing dress.

Our family selfie on Rue's blessing day.

 Church was kind of like the Swan Family Show, haha. We blessed Rue, and then Aaron had to speak in sacrament meeting, and I taught the lesson in Relief Society. There was a lot going on and a lot to get ready for. I felt like my lesson got off to kind of a rocky start, but that it ended well, and that the comments from women in the class enriched it and made it meaningful.

After church it was time to party like I was turning 29! Everyone came back to the house for birthday dinner, presents, and cake and ice cream. (The yellow sweater is one of my thrift finds.)

We had ham and salad and rolls, with a delicious made from scratch German Chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert. Look, I'm 281! Or....we didn't have a #9 candle, one of the two. :) I love my husband's problem solving skills. Haha!

Aaron totally surprised me in the present department by getting me a Blendtech. Totally didn't see that one coming! I've been wanting one for ages, but didn't think it was even in the realm of possibility. I'm so excited to start blending things.

I was so grateful for all the family members who came down to celebrate this double special day with us. I love my family, and I don't get to see them nearly as much as I want to. We kind of forced them all into coming to my birthday party by combining it with Ruby's blessing, but hey, I'll take it.

Little Things

It's the little things, right? Like how my oldest 4 all held hands to walk into the indoor playground today. Melt my heart.

Where My Girls At

I love my girls. I think it's great that they have each other. Del is really excited to have a baby sister, and she is so good with Rue. I bet Rue grows up thinking Del is about the coolest thing there is. I hope they are the best of friends. And I hope they let their old mom tag along sometimes on their crazy adventures.

Adelia is so funny. She is a bright sunny spot in my day. She has a huge imagination, and sometimes I wonder where she comes from, because she is definitely more girly/frilly/sparkly than I am. But I just love here. She's been quite the artist lately. She stared by drawing pictures, this one is of me and her.

Then she branched out, and started making paper dolls. She has spent about 2 consecutive weeks of quiet time making these dolls. I don't think she likes to play with them as much as she likes to make them. She is a cutting gluing markering fiend. Haha! She has literally made hundreds. We've gone through several packages of construction paper, rolls and rolls of tape, and a few glue sticks to boot. These are her latest three. The first one is Santa Claus in a new jet powered sleigh. And the second two are gymnastic girls learning how to do tricks on the rings. I just love it!

And this little Ruby girl...she's turning into a fat baby. :) Don't you just want to squish those cheeks? I do. All the time. She's sleeping a little better at night now. For which I am grateful. Usually she'll go to bed around midnight and sleep until 5am. It's doable. 

She saves all her best smiles for Aaron, but she's really chatty with me when she's awake. She is a quick eater, which is keeping nursing bearable. She wakes up abruptly, meaning that she'll be dead asleep, and then next second she's crying loudly to be up. And she falls asleep just as abruptly, meaning she'll be cranky and crying and then boom! She tips over and is out. It's kind of funny. I haven't decided 100% for sure, but I am really leaning towards her being a Type 3 based on the above descriptions. And she looks adorable in animal print. :)

Native America Cultures: Southeast Region: Booger Masks

This week for history we study the culture of the Southeastern Native Americans. We talked about the different tribes that lived in the Southeast, their houses, clothing, food, beliefs and games. We learned about a Cherokee man named Sequoyah who made a Cherokee alphabet. And we looked at the influences Europeans had on the tribes when they came to the continent.

For our activity we made Booger Masks. These masks were worn before a hunt to inspire a successful hunting trip.

Poetry and Chocolate Cake

 Our Valentines' Day started off with our annual homeschool poetry recital and Valentine exchange. And I was in charge of it this year. We got out the door later than I wanted to, because I was feeding Rue, and we still had to stop at Macey's grocery store to pick up the balloons I wanted for table decorations. So we were late. But it all worked out. We set up the tables and the kids arranged their Valentine boxes all in a line so it would be easy to pass out Valentines without missing anyone's box. Our boxes were pretty low key this year. Aaron folded pieces of poster board into a box shape, and the kids decorated them. That was about as fancy as we were going to get this year, since we've all been sick the last couple of weeks. We did store bought Valentines too. Some years you just have to do what's the easiest and be ok with it.

The exchange went well, but my very favorite part of the activity was the poetry recital. Am I a dork or what? :) But I love it. I love that the kids get to memorize poetry, and I love that their motivation for doing so is because they get to recite it in front of their friends. And I love that my kids get to hear their friends reciting poetry. Some of the kids get really animated when they recite and it's awesome!

Both of my boys recited poems. It was fun to watch them pick which poem they wanted to do. Lincoln recited It's Raining Pigs and Noodles by Jack Prelutsky, and Ivan did Captain Hook by Shel Silverstein. They both did an excellent job. And this year, they pretty much memorized their poems all on their own. Occasionally I had to remind them to spend some time practicing their poems, but both boys pushed themselves and did what they needed to do to memorize without me having to do any of it. Awesome!

Adelia flat out refused to memorize a poem the entire time leading up to the day. Then, at the recital, at the very last second, she tugged on my sleeve and told me she was going to go up and say the ABCs. I told her that was fine. And she went up there, got the microphone, introduced herself and then kind of froze. She motioned for me to come up and help her, and then told me she wanted me to tell her the ABCs while she said them into the mic. She knows her ABCs, but whatever, so I helped her. And she was very proud of herself.

After the recital the grown-ups stood around and chatted, it was a beautiful sunny 65 degree February day, while the kids decorated sugar cookies and played on the playground. It was a great way to spend off Valentines Day morning, with lots of people that I love.

We came home and the boys went to play with a friend, so Adelia helped me in the kitchen while Ollie and Rue had naps. Del loves to help me in the kitchen. And when it's just me and her one on one I love to let her help. We were making our traditional Valentine's Day Black Forrest Cherry Cake, which is my favorite cake of all time, and is to die for. I only ever make it on Vday, because it's that good.

Del got in a few dances with her Daddy, while I fed Rue and we waited for the cakes to bake.

And here's a few shots of my other cute Valentines:

This kid loves his trains.

We had the adult session of stake conference tonight. And since we couldn't find a baby-sitter, Aaron gave me a pretty fantastic Valentines' Day gift...he let me go to stake conference by myself, while he stayed home and fed the kids, put them to bed, and cooked an amazing steak dinner for two, for us to eat together when I got home. That man is a keeper for sure!!

Stake Conference was fabulous. I was so glad I was there. It felt like every speaker had something to say specifically to me. We have some really amazing leadership in our stake, and some awesome people in general. I feel so blessed to be living here, and learning from everyone.

And it was perfect to come home to a quiet house, a lovely dinner, and a handsome husband. I enjoy so much the little bits of time like this where we are just the two of us (plus Rue tonight, but she was good) and we can talk and laugh and dream. It helps us to bond, and to face another day as a team. After nights like this I am convinced we could take over the world together if we wanted to. :)

I love you Aaron Swan. And I am so happy to be married to you. Thank you for the perfect Valentines Day, it might be the best one we've ever had together.

Venomous Ponies

Adelia had her preschool Valentines party today. She told me she wanted "fun hair and a fun outfit" for the party. :) Her idea of a fun outfit is a skirt, four different patterns, LOTS of pink, and sparkles. Haha! Sometimes she is SOOOO not my child. (I've never been a lover of pink, and I wouldn't be caught dead in a skirt outside of church.) I feel like we have our very own Fancy Nancy living right under the same roof. But I love this crazy gal. She had a great time at her party.

Adelia has been really in to building castles for her ponies and princesses.

The other day Adelia was playing and she said, "Mom, it's bad guys vs. ponies. Do you know whose going to win? The ponies. Because I'm pretending that they have a venomous bite" Haha! I freaking love her.

I'm feeling a ton better today. I'm grateful for priesthood blessings, Aaron's mom (who took Ivan and Adelia most of yesterday, helped Adelia get her Valentines ready, AND made us dinner), and Aaron (who came home from work and took care of everything else while I slept most of the day).

I'm still taking it easy today, but I'm so happy to be able to function and take care of my kids. Now if we could just get Rue feeling better.

Sick Everyone

Watch out for us, we have the plague. But really. We have been sick for over a week. It started last week with Lincoln, he had a fever and a cough. Then Adelia got a fever, but she also threw up a couple times. Then Ollie woke up one morning with croup. And Ruby got a fever and was really congested. Then Ivan had a fever, and spent an entire day puking every hour or so. Then I got the beginnings of a sinus infection. Lovely. Poor Aaron, he's missed a few days of work, and has been running around like a crazy person taking care of everyone. 

We have seen every episode of Curious George ever made, because it's the only show Ollie will stay on the couch to watch. And to add insult to injury, the weather has been a beautiful 68 degrees, and all we can do is stare out the window and wish we could go enjoy it.

I did let Ollie go out for a bit on Sunday. He wanted to badly to sit in the garden and dig. So I let him. Footie jammies and all.

We ended up taking Ivan to the doctor for an ear infection, so he's on antibiotics, and hopefully on the road to recovery. We took Rue in to the doctor as well, they said she didn't have a bacterial infection, and recommended we take her up to the hospital for a mucus treatment, which we did. That seemed to help, so hopefully she'll be feeling well in a few days. And Adelia's lip is back down to normal size, so hopefully some of that drama will settle down as well.

Whew. I am sick of sick. And I'm afraid whatever I have is getting worse, because I'm averaging about 3 hours of sleep per night.

Biography Box: Neil Armstrong

All week long Lincoln has been working on this research project called a Biography Box. I think it turned out really cool.

First off though, I need to put two thumbs way up for the "Who Was" book series put out by Scholastic. The have a book on just about any famous person you can think of. The writing is well done, age-appropriate, and interesting. And it's got lot of pictures. These are great chapter books for kids who prefer to read about "real" things/people versus fictitious ones. They've been a huge hit at my house, a great addition to our library.

So Linc has been reading these biographies. Since one of our educational goals with Lincoln is to work on being able to summarize what he's read in writing, I got on Pinterest looking for a fun way for him to do a biography report and I found a template for this awesome Biography Box. I was in a hurry, so I just bought the template, but it would be so easy to make it yourself.

Basically it's a medium box glued on one side into a larger box. On each flap are different facts you learned (ex. 3 obstacles your person had to overcome, what they are famous for, 3 character traits, 3 fun facts, 3 objects that remind you of this person, etc.), or a picture of your person. Fold all the flaps up, and make a lid big enough to slide down over them, this will hold your box together, until you take the lid off to look at the facts. Pretty easy, but so much cooler than a report.

Lincoln's favorite part was doing the pictures. But he also said to me, "Wow Mom, I used to think Neil Armstrong was just a boring old guy, but now that I've read the book I know he did tons of cool stuff." So, I think the project was a hit.

Fat Lip :(

Adelia had a dentist appointment this morning, they were fixing some cavities. They got her lip pretty numb, and I reminder her not to bite it, but since this wasn't her first visit I didn't stress it like I did then. I should have.

She came out of quite time to find me and tell me her lip hurt. It was HUGE! I kind of freaked out for a half second. But after looking it over carefully, I could see that she wasn't bleeding anywhere, so she hadn't chewed through her lip, thank goodness. I put some tea tree oil on it, and gave her an ice pack (which she refused to hold up to her lip), and hoped for the best.

It's going to hurt like the dickens when she gets feeling back in it. :(

Midnight

We adopted this fish from some people in the ward who wanted to get rid of him. The kids named him Midnight. We now have 9 pets.

I Walk My Dog at Daybreak
by Jack Prelutsky

I walk my dog at daybreak,
and again right after school.
It's often inconvenient,
but I'm sticking to the rule.
I feed the fish and parakeets,
my hungry cats as well,
then tidy up the litter box
before it starts to smell.

I tend to all the rabbits,
turtles, gerbils, frog, and snake,
and clean the little messes
they inevitably make.
The finches' cage needs freshening,
especially the tray,
and then there are the elephants--
I'm giving them away. 

Steakhouse Honey Wheat Bread

One of my goals for the New Year was to branch out away from my usual bread recipes, and try new things. In January I made Focaccia for the first time. I decided to kick off February with this Steakhouse Honey Wheat Bread, mostly because #1 I love steakhouses, and they always have good bread (this recipe is supposed to be a copy-cat of Outback btw), and #2 the ingredients call for cocoa and molasses, and I've never heard of those in bread making before, and had to check it out. The bread turned out really good. I'll probably make it again. This recipe makes 6 mini loafs.

Also, the heart-shaped butter was totally unintentional, but I love it!

Steakhouse Honey Wheat Bread

1 1/4 cups warm water (105-110 degrees)
2 tsp. sugar
1 pkg. (2 1/4 tsp.) active dry yeast
2 cups bread flour
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 tblsp. cocoa
1 tsp. salt
2 tblsp. butter, softened
1/4 cup honey
2 tblsp. molasses

Instructions

1.Proof the yeast: measure the warm water into a two-cup or larger measure. Add the sugar and yeast. Stir to dissolve. Within 5 minutes the yeast should have begun to bubble and grow.

2. While the yeast proofs, mix the flours, cocoa, and salt in a large bowl. Stir together with a whisk.

3. Using your fingers, mix the softened butter into the flour mixture.

4. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and add the honey, molasses, and yeast-water mixture. Stir from the middle, bringing the dry ingredients gradually into the wet. You can start out with a wooden spoon but will need to use your hands to finally bring the dough together.

5. Turn the rough dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 10 minutes adding small amounts of flour to the kneading surface only if needed.

6. Let the dough rest for a few minutes while you wash and dry the bowl that you used to mix it in. Spray the inside of the bowl with cooking spray. Put the dough into the bowl top side down and then turn it over so that the top is coated with a bit of the cooking spray.

7. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it in a warm place to rise. The interior of an oven with the light on is usually warm enough. Let the dough rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size.

8. When the dough has doubled, cut it into 6 portions. Form each portion into either a 6-inch log shape or a round mini-boule.

9. Pour a small amount of cornmeal onto your work surface. Moisten each dough portion very lightly by wetting your hands, removing most of the water and rubbing over the dough. Roll the lightly moistened loaves in cornmeal to coat. Gently pat to remove any excess cornmeal.

10. Place the loaves on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise for another hour or until doubled in size.

11. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Uncover the dough and bake for 35-40 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes.

12.Serve with plenty of butter.

Two Month Old Rue

So Ruby is two months old. She weighs 12 pounds, is 23 inches long, and still has an insane amount of hair. :) 

Although she can smile, she doesn't do it very often. She kind of a Mrs. Grumpy Gills, actually, but she doesn't scream like a banshee, so we don't mind too much.

Well, sometimes she screams...

"My parents are mean, I want Gramma Tam!"

but not as often or for as long as Adelia did as a baby.

Mostly she just gives me her best Swan Scowl, with the eyebrow raised. She saves all her smiles for Aaron.

She's still up every three hours or so at night to eat. Occasionally she'll give me a longer stretch. Typically she saves her long stretches for the afternoon though.

We've been taking turns being sick at our house, and Ruby didn't escape. She had a small fever for a day or so. But luckily she hasn't gotten the respiratory stuff that the other kids have had. Ollie has been croupy, poor kid. And Adelia and Ivan are hack-coughing. Lincoln was the first one to get sick, and his cough is lingering still, but he hasn't been as bad as the others. And neither has Rue, thank goodness.