eggplant and mango lassi

 So my friend Jenn came to visit today.  She lives in Vegas now (previously South Carolina).  We like to eat together.  When we were teens we would exercise together and then make and eat an entire batch of brownies (or rice crispies).  We've progressed since then.  Her baby Hailey and Julia share a birthday - so we included them in our cooking fun today.  We picked eggplant from the garden and baked it.  We made pesto.  We cut up tomatoes and peppers.  Yum.  Then Jenn went home and I did a webinar about kids with autism for work.  After julia woke up from her nap we got the eggplant back out and made Mango Lassi (anna's favorite).  Julia really likes baked eggplant and also really likes mango lassi (or smoothies of any type).  She decided that it would be yummy to dip the eggplant in the mango lassi.  what?  She loved it and then got anna to try and they ended up eating probably 2 cups of eggplant dipped in mango lassi.  I didn't try it, maybe i'm the picky one.

 Anna has been dying to make these masks that she saw in a halloween book she found at the library.  So we finally did it today.  Then she wanted to pose like a mad spider.  Wow - look at this drama queen.

 Here is julia in her mask.  she loved it.  which was surprising because usually she's picky about those kinds of things.  At any rate she is absolutely adorable.

 Oh yeah, and we started the morning at winco.  We got there at 8am, we got home at 10am.  I spent 271 dollars and bought 130 items.  As you can see below, that's a lot of food.  I was out of steel cut oats, pasta, wheat berries, rice (I buy 25 pounds of each of these at a time).  Someone in the parking lot felt bad for me i guess, because he came over and helped me load all the groceries into the car. There ARE nice people in the world!  It's been a good day.

BYU grandparents, temple dedication, dance, JJ painted the guest room

Last weekend was a busy one.  I went for a long run saturday morning and bought tons of junk at yardsales ( I spent 10$ and got a lamp, a baby swing, a star for my wall and a bike thing for my wall).  Then we went to the animal museum at BYU with the Buhlers.  We also went to the creamery and had burgers.  The girls got ice cream with their meals.

 in the "video" below you can see what it is like to take anna to a museum.  lots of sign reading.

  Then Rich went on a date with his parents to the game.  Anna says she wanted to go, but we all know that it wouldn't have really been fun for her.  Instead, I took the girls home and we went to Brody's birthday party (he lives 2 doors down - lilly's sister).  The girls had a wonderful time

Sunday morning we made crepes for the buhlers (since they are so french!).  Anna eats everything in hers.  Julia requested NOT ANYTHING.  She likes em plain.  Rich's parents stayed with the girls while we went to the ogden temple re-dedication.  It was a nice reminder of how close the temple is to our house and how we should be going more than once every 3 months (we can see 3 temples from our house!).

The buhlers left after we had a meal of eggplant curry.  As joyce would say, "this is the summer of eggplant, never to be repeated."  We grew too much this year.  But it really is nice that Paul gives us good plants for our garden from his greenhouse.

Monday was a busy day.  I did a lot!  I woke up at 5 and read scriptures for an hour, then I ran for 45 minutes, then I sanded down the guest room while doing 6 loads of laundry.  I cleaned the whole house too.  AFter that we went to walmart, ross and bed/bath/beyond to return stuff I didn't like.  We then went to dance and after we washed a big comforter that anna peed on.  Then I worked for a few hours and made some banana muffins with anna.  Trina and JJ came over to play.  We made chili for dinner.  Lilly and family came over.  Kids went to bed and Rich and I painted the rest of the guest room.  I finished the second coat this morning.

 anna and jj, locked themselves into her room and had fun.  Lately I've been tired of picking up toys, so I took away eveything except the legos, food and a few ponies.  They play just as much as ever - and it's easier to clean up.  case in point: kids don't need lots of toys to be happy.  pic below is anna sleeping funny.  oh i love these girls.

Today was a weird one.  I had some urgent work stuff this morning, so the girls played while I worked.  Then we went to the library and park.

At the park anna did some awesome dancing, she was being the teacher and julia was being the follower.  I love how they play together.  Enjoy this video - and if you want.....get up and dance to it!  Anna is the next kathy smith (;

park play date, primary party, sub zero

we had a busy day.  whats new.  the furnace man came at 8 this morning and for some reason thought i wanted to know everything about furnaces, so he gave me a furnace lesson for 2 hours.  He wasn't very good at explaining things and I think he might have been full of crap, but it's included in our home warranty so whatever.

After he left we went to a play date at the park.  my visiting teacher likes to do "group" visiting teaching.  I really do like having someone that comes to my house and shares a spiritual message with me.  I need that more than gossip at the park.  But for some reason in Utah I've still yet to be visit taught for real.  Oh well.  The girls played.  Anna tried to play with the other girls there but they are older than she is and were not very inclusive.  She didn't want to stay very long.

We went home and ate lunch and water colored and cut and made a princess castle and shape patterns with our crystal climbers.  Julia and Spencer napped and Anna played with ponies.  I put in an application for a new job reviewing menus for school breakfast and lunch.  It is 1-2 hours a week and pays the same as my current job.  how many part time jobs do I need?

when the sleepers woke up we went and visited Spencer's aunt (who lives down the street).  Then his dad came and got him, then we took anna to her first primary party.  She has been looking forward to this for WEEKS!  Before I even got a flyer about it she asked every day when the sleepover party was.  I was like...uh I'm not sure about that!  But it was just a movie in the primary room in PJs.  She just got home and had a good time.  When I left I told her not to go anywhere but the primary room because sometimes she wanders off and I didn't want her to get lost.  I messed up.  After the movie they went into the gym.  I guess anna cried because she didn't think it was okay to go anywhere else!  She got over it though and had a good time.

While she was there rich and i took julia on a date.  We haven't done that ....well...ever.  We went to subzero ice cream.  It was outrageously priced, we should have gone to McDonalds.  But julia felt special anyways.  I read her a bunch of princess books and put her to bed.  A good day.

grandma's birthday luau

i am sad because i didn't get a picture of grandma on her birthday!  It was grandma Elaines bday today.  No one knows how old she is, but on the car ride there the kids guessed:  chloe said 18, Remi said 4 and anna said 18, then 28.  Grandma was happy with those guesses.

The care center she resides at was having a luau on her birthday to support a cause.  They told grandma that it was her birthday party.  What a party it was!  There was Hawaiian food and live music and dancing.

I was watching Virginia's kids because she needed to run to the DMV.  So I kind of had my hands full trying to get 5 kids under 6 dinner and drinks and desserts from a long line.  After dinner though, I gave the baby to my mom and took the kids up front to watch the show.  They loved it.  Especially Remi.  Julia was dancing the whole time - i didn't get a good picture of her first dance.  I love that my girls are confident enough to dance anytime, anywhere.  I always loved to watch people who were good at dancing - and was never brave enough to do it myself.

Here's some videos and pictures.  The staring pictures were taken when the Polynesian men came out.  Remi was especially entranced by that. Will somebody leave a comment and tell me if they can see the movies below?  I am trying a new way to post the movies.  I can see them but can't hear sound.

family fun night

we have been learning about france this month.

Turns out that a lot of childrens movies and things are based in france.  Doesn't anna look tres chic?  I think that's a french term and I just wanted to put that funny picture in.  She requested that I send it to aunt joy earlier today.

Anyways: Since we have a lot of eggplant in the garden I decided to focus on the culinary side of france, and we got the movie ratatoille. We read the book, we listened to the soundtrack, then we made some ratatouille from a french cookbook.  While the ratatouille was cooking we watched the movie.  Anna was smiling ear to ear the whole time.

When the movie ended no one ate their ratatoille but me.  I was disappointed.  Oh well.

Then we danced to french music.  Daddy and Julia got a little rough.

After that we attempted these cookie eifel towers from a cookbook.

Ours weren't quite as pretty.....

But I'm sure they tasted just as good.

after that anna was sort of disobedient and didn't want to go to bed.  It's my fault.  We ended our fun night at 7:30.  It's a half hour past their bed time.  Next time NO FUN after 7pm (:

life felt crazy so I took a break

I worked a lot last week.  Sometimes I get so crazy about getting work stuff done and house stuff done that I almost feel guilty when I take time to do fun things with the girls.  When the crazy passes I realize that doing fun stuff with the girls is the most important and the most fulfilling thing I can do with my time.  It's just hard to balance it all.  Here's pics of the house:

So today we have spencer.  Technically I'm working when I have Spencer because I get paid to do it.  We have had a fun day.  We jumped on the tramp, we had the neighbor girl millie over, I played math games with Anna, we built stuff with legos, we went for a nature walk and collected all sorts of things (including 2 bird feathers!), we took cookies to a new neighbor, then - best of all - we made an airplane out of the trampoline box - and finger painted it.

Spencer starting getting a little fussy so I had to take him in and give him a bottle. While I was inside the girls changed gears from finger painting to BODY painting.  So I went out and hosed them off with cold water.  After the fact anna told me "We were pretending to be like people from india - they have dots on their foreheads."  I love this girl.

Oh yes, and Anna's primary teacher came over because she needed to ask Anna "why she loves jesus" for the primary party.  So she thought on it all morning and this afternoon during lunch she said "I love jesus because he created the beautiful world."  We then listened to the beautiful world song by coldplay and julia pulled out some killer dance poses.

Now Anna is reading books and listening to music (see above) and Julia is taking a nap (actually talking in her room in the dark, hopefully she continues to nap until she is 3...or...4....).  Time to get back to crazy work - or at least until 3 when everyone wakes up.

peanut butter, pee pee and happy endings

i find little tidbits about shopping interesting when I read my grandma's journal.  So I'll include one here.  We go through a lot of peanut butter. 1, sometimes 2 jars per week.  We eat it in our oatmeal in the morning.  It's good and filling that way.  Anyways, peanut butter can range from 9 cents per ounce to 15 cents per ounce.  I usually buy the cheap kind at winco, which is usually 3.98 for 38 ounces.  WELL, there is a case lot sale at Smiths.  and peanut butter is 1.25 per 18 ounces, which ends up being pretty cheap (like 6 cents/ounce).  I bought a lot.  4 cases to be exact.  That should last us at least until December.

On another note anna went to dance today, julia likes to pee pee ON TOP of the potty (she puts the lid down then pees, she doesn't like the little potty).  We don't know what that is about.  I scheduled babysitting so I can work some more.  I made dinner that had 2 bunches of kale and everyone (but julia) ate some and enjoyed it.

My dear friend from Portland is here, she just adopted a cute little baby.  The Lords ways are odd and sometimes very painful.  It always fills my heart with joy to see real life happy endings.

Oh and we watched some TV tonight.  Back before we had kids and houses and yards and we lived in portland we used to watch a lot of TV.  Those were the days..........

sick sick sick at the museum of natural history

we had a good saturday.  i got up and went for a run, i haven't been running enough lately and i feel it!  (i feel better when i regularly get a run in).  I stopped at a yard sale and bought a christmas tree, a garbage can, a map of the world for anna's room, a lamp, a toy for julia, a toy for anna and wheelbarrow for the sandbox - all for 13 dollars!  What a deal.

Then we went to the museum of natural history (it was free day for summer reading program finishers).  It took a long time to get there because there was a marathon going down ft. union.  It was really annoying.  I wish there were more warnings about it on the street - we could have taken I 15 and saved a HALF HOUR of traffic.

The museum was okay.  julia makes it difficult to enjoy.  richard was lame and was checking his phone every few minutes instead of enjoying time with the girls.  sometimes I really hate smart phones.  plus we are all sick and we probably should have just stayed home.

we stopped by rons to return some window coverings that i found in our halloween deocrations.  we had no desire to talk with them so we put it in the mail box and drove off.

We stopped by my grandma's house.  my mom was there cleaning it out with virginia and the kids.  they are going to be moving in it looks like.  i am so grateful that they don't have to have 4 kids in their 2 bedroom house!  we helped for a half hour then went home to get julia down for her nap.

When we got home I was feeling sick so i took a nap.  julia took a nap.  anna played in her room or something and richard went shopping for cover crop then planted it in the garden.  we had hamburgers for dinner.  Then we put the girls to bed, I made a menu for the week and richard got violently ill with chills and fever and headache and nausea and diarrhea cramps.  So we just went to bed.

I guess long story short is that life has been difficult to enjoy the past few days because we've all got some sort of flu bug that takes a long time to GO AWAY!

 this is the first time julia has walked over this glass floor display of fossils by herself!  good job boppy!

 by the triceratop display.

 anna says her favorite part is the dinosaurs.  it really is a cool display.

 doing a puzzle with daddy.

 looking down at a display.

 trying to guess which is heavier.  anna was a major cheater.

 julia building a pritti caca.

 julia by the skull collection

 julia's favorite part of all:  the princess carriage.  she went bonkers over this

 anna sits down at the piano several times each day and starts playing and singing.  she reads the words from the children's song book and sings along.  I HAVE GOT TO GET THIS THING TUNED!

we went for a drive after church (I was the only one who went....the rest were sick).  the fall colors are beautiful.