Baking Adventure With a Two-Year-Old

On Monday I started baby-sitting an adorable little two-year-old boy, named JJ. I still wanted to bake, so I knew that I had two options . . . either bake while he is napping or try baking with him! Since I had run out of eggs yesterday that meant that either I had to go to the store (yuck) or not make English Muffins like I was planning on doing this week.  I decided that it would be just as easy to make PIZZA for lunch with him!

A couple weeks ago, Roland and I had made up a bunch of pizza dough and froze it, so it was as simple as one, two, three! After defrosting the dough over night in the fridge all we had to do is: roll the dough out, put the sauce and cheese on, then cook it! Pretty simple! JJ had fun helping me out! He helped at each step, and had to taste test everything that we did . . . yep, even the dough! He liked the cheese the best and was busy picking the cheese off and eating it almost as fast as I was trying to shred it and put it on!

After it was done cooking, it was LUNCH TIME!!! So, we got to try our creation right away! JJ told me that it was “YUMMY!” Even though I had lots of fun helping him roll out the dough and spread the sauce, I have decided that unless I am going to bake something that is pretty simple and doesn’t take that much time to make, I will just bake during his nap time! I don’t want him to get board with it or frustrated with a more complex recipe, but I do think that the next time I bake cookies, I will have to use my little helper!

My little helper with flour on his face with our creation before it goes into the oven!

The First Snow of the Season

When I woke up this morning and looked out the window, I asked Roland, “What is all that white stuff doing out there?” He, being the smart-aleck that he is, replied without missing a beat, “It is falling on the ground!” haha Boy, do I love being married to that goofball, life would be boring without him! After his remark this morning, a Primary song has been stuck in my head ALL day . . . okay, since it is only noon, it would be more fair to say ALL morning!

Looking out my window into my "backyard" of woods!

“Snow is falling all around,
On the rooftops,
On the ground,
Snow is falling on my nose,
On my head and hands and toes.”

Can you tell that I am a Primary worker since I know this song? (Yep, it is in the Primary Song book, look it up, you will find it in there . . . but under a different name, I think, the “original” verse is about rain, which would have worked for yesterday!) How about that when I sing it I have to do the actions that go along with it? (My Primary kids would be so proud of me and would sign along, then ask to sing the “Once there was a Snowman” song!)

Wednesday Baking Adventures

I have recently realized that ever since my sister-in-law started her new blog about cooking, that I have been baking something every Wednesday. I know that I have been baking before that, but I don’t think that it was every week. Lucky for Roland, it seems to be a habit that I am getting and even looking forward to each week! Since I don’t have pictures of my last few weeks of my creations, I will just tell you what they are, and then someday I will remake them and post about it!

Previous weeks Wednesday Baking Adventures have included:
•    Lemon Poppy Seed Bread with Glaze
•    Cinnamon Streusel Muffins
•    Lemon Spice Muffins
•    Carrot Cake Bread
•    Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
•    Braided Cheese Bread
•    Banana Bread
•    Potato Rolls

My new goal is to post a picture of what I bake each week! I don’t only bake on Wednesdays, but I want to post every Wednesday something new that I baked. My oven gets more exercise than just once a week, in fact this week I baked some Braided Cheese Bread on Sunday to go with lasagna that we had to celebrate my dad’s birthday and I baked bread bowls on Tuesday to go with the chili that we served the missionaries for dinner!

This week I decided to take a walk down memory lane! One of my fondest childhood memories is going down to my Grandma Jefferson’s house and baking with her! I don’t know how often we would do it, but I always remember having so much fun! We would make bread and rolls, and then deliver some to some of the older ladies in the neighborhood. I love spending time with my grandma, she doesn’t bake so much now, but whenever I make homemade bread or rolls, I always think of her!

Today I made cinnamon rolls! This was something that Grandma and I would make together too!  I remember my grandma teaching me to measure out the flour, and I would make a HUGE mess, but Grandma would always smile and tell me to try again!  One of the things I love most about baking cinnamon rolls is how the cinnamon just fills the whole house! As I was cooking today, and thinking about my grandma, I was thinking to myself that I hope my daughter will be able to look back and have wonderful memories about learning how to cook too! Someday I will have to teach her, but as for today, I am going to enjoy my cinnamon rolls smothered in cream cheese frosting!

Here are my fresh out of the oven cinnamon rolls! I can't wait to eat one!

Introducing Our Baby Girl!

Roland and I are looking forward to this February with a new type of excitement this year! Sometime around February 10th, a baby girl will join our little family! We have decided what we are going to name her, but we are not putting it up on the internet . . . so that is one surprise that will just have to wait for February! :)

We found out that I was pregnant right away, mostly because I just suddenly started feeling sick and was throwing up at least once a day. Roland figured that if it was some sort of bug, like I thought it was, it should be going away, and it wouldn't hurt for me to at least take the home pregnancy test to find out if I was or wasn't. So, one morning, I took the test, and guess what . . . it said PREGNANT! I was super excited! Roland smiled and said, "I knew that you were!" We did a little happy dance in our tiny little apartment! I set up an appointment for us to go see my OB, whom I LOVE, and Roland started plotting on how we could tell all of our friends and family! We decided to tell Roland's parents right before they left to move out to Seattle, that way we could tell them in person, we also told my parents around the same time. I thought it would be kind of fun to wait to tell our siblings for a little bit, because Roland's sister, Nicole (who is also going to be having a baby) was coming to visit us. Once the news was out, it has been fun being able to just smile and say, "Yes, I am going to be a Mommy!"

14 1/2 weeks. 18 weeks. 21 weeks, and 25 weeks

At the end of September we found out that we are having a little baby girl! It was so much fun seeing how active she is on the ultrasound screen! We had to stay in there a little longer, because she wouldn't sit still long enough to let them get the pictures of the head and heart that they needed! It was love at first sight! :) It was kind of funny how, Roland and I had a boy's name picked out, but we were still decided on the girl's name . . . but it was almost right at the moment that we both found out she was a girl, we both knew what we wanted to name her, and it was the same name! :)

Ultrasound pictures of her feet, ears, flexing her arm, and of her spin at 21 weeks!

I love being pregnant and being able to feel my baby girl come to life inside of me! Roland loves to poke at her and feel her kick back at him . . . I tell him that he should stop teaching his daughter how to "beat" me up! :) I can already tell that she is taking after her daddy, because she likes to "tickle" me from the inside of my belly just like her daddy like to tickle me, but I guess that is what I get for being so ticklish! She loves it when we listen to music, especially piano and Primary songs. Sometimes I think she is most active when I am sitting in church or reading the scriptures out loud, it makes me smile. The newest trick that she has learned is to kick the monitor and then roll over, when I go into the doctor to listen to her heartbeat, so the nurse has to play "hide and seek" to find it! It is so cute!

3D picture of her face, and a couple profile shots including ones of her pointing to her nose and sucking on her fingers!

Once the first trimester was over, I started being able to keep more food down, which was something that I was excited about! The only thing that I really need to stay away from is Orange Juice, which makes me sad, because I love it! I have been craving like crazy chips and salsa, carrots, Chinese food, and of course ice cream! I get heartburn no matter what I eat, so I just live off of Tums and milk!

I have decided that the only thing that makes me happier than knowing that I am going to be an Auntie to a beautiful baby boy, is knowing that only a couple months later, I am going to be a Mommy of a beautiful baby girl! :) It is so much fun being able to go through my pregnancy with my sister-in-law, Nicole! I am super excited to be able to watch out babies grow up together! Our family is getting just a little bit bigger, and it makes me count my blessings to know, that we will be together forever!

Fresh Starts in September

So, I have been horrible at keeping this updated . . . and I have decided I am going to try a little harder to be a little better! Wish me luck! :)

For Roland, some new adventures started in September . . . well, maybe not new, more like a second chapter of the same adventure! September brought the beginning of his second year of college. And now, that the semester is well on its way, he says that he is feeling more part of the campus life. He thinks that part of it might be because he is working on campus . . . three jobs! He works a couple afternoons a week in a Chemistry computer lab (making sure that everybody signs in and keeps the lab clean), he works a couple hours in the Chemistry stock room (checking in and out lab equipment), and he also grades lab reports for a teacher. He seems to be enjoying being able to be on campus and "part" of that world. He still works a couple nights a week at Target. And with all of that, he stays very busy, but for the most part, he loves it!

September brought us another fun adventure . . . we moved into a new apartment! Oh, boy, I can't tell you how much I love this new place! It has been so much fun moving into our new home! It is much more roomy and we probably well be staying here until Roland is done with his undergraduate degree. It is a two-bedroom apartment with a fairly open concept floor plan for the living space. One thing that Roland LOVES about this apartment is that the kitchen is big enough that you can fit the kitchen table in it AND still have two people working (cooking/cleaning) in it at the same time! I love how even when we had absolutely nothing unpacked, it still felt like home to me . . . and every unpacked box has just added to it! Another thing that we have found that we love is that we have room to invite people over for dinner and there is enough room for everyone without having to rearrange the whole apartment! It might be still a small apartment compared to some, but it is the perfect place for us . . . close to campus and the interstate, the price was right, and best of all, it is our new home together! :)

I also started up my own business in September! I am officially a Pampered Chef Consultant and I am super excited about this new business of mine! One of the things I love about it is that I can make my own schedule and still earn money to help support Roland threw school! This also means that I can be a stay at home mommy! :) I love how much Pampered Chef works with you to help you be successful! My director is AMAZING and she is a wonderful source of information! Even though I am very new in the business and have only been a consultant for about a month, I have already seen the benefits that it has on my life! In this economic time, where so many are being laid off or having trouble finding a job, I feel so blessed to have to opportunity to be working. I love my new job, it is so much fun and I get to do a couple of the things I love to do: meet and party with new friends AND make and eat YUMMY food! What is there about this you could not love? :)

We have found that sometimes life doesn't turn out the way that you think it is going to, but that is still okay. If you live your life getting caught up in the what if's and could have's, you will miss out on the even better right now’s and will be's! It is good to plan ahead in your life and work towards your goals, but if a change of plans comes along, remember that it is all part of God's plan for us, and He knows what He is doing, because He can see the big picture! :)

Nauvoo: Beautiful City (Week Two)

Like I said before, we were in Nauvoo for two whole weeks! I can tell you that now I truly understand why the Lord said the Sunday (the seventh day) was to be a day of rest! Oh, boy, was Sunday a wonderful treat! :) We decided to go to the afternoon Church, but it was so hot that morning that we went for a Sunday morning drive along the Mississippi River! It was so BEAUTIFUL! As we were traveling we were trying to find the most scenic rout possible. So, here we were just turning on all sorts of back roads and trying to get lost without getting stuck! Then, suddenly as we came over a hill, there it was . . . the Nauvoo temple! We had come across Montrose, Iowa! This was the place where the Saints had crossed over the Mississippi on their way out West. It was kind of cool to see how literal it was, that they would look back one more time to see the temple and their homes, before crossing over that hill, leaving all they know behind.

After church we ran into a wonderful family, the Holts, who let us come hang out with them that afternoon . . . it was so hot that we would have melted! We had so much fun just spending time with our new friends, just talking and playing games! We learned a couple new games and new rules to old games! It is kind of funny how every family has different house rules to play by for the same game! :) Sunday really was for us a day of rest!

So, come Monday morning it was back to practice! Remember . . . practice makes perfect! :) We didn't have to practice as much after Monday's dress rehearsal . . . so we had more FREETIME! :) We could have gone around to some of the sites in Nauvoo, but we chose to stay close to home, because I wasn't feeling too great! :( Do to the fact that it was a billion degrees outside . . . okay, so maybe it was just 100 degrees with an heat index of 120 degrees, a wonderful family took us in for the second week.  They let us move into their house for the rest of the week . . . it was amazing! It helped just being able to be in air conditioning again when I was sleeping! The fun thing about this family, the Smiths, was that they had six kids ranging in ages from 2 to 14! Roland and I were able to help out getting the kids ready and see how things ran in a large family! It was good practice for when we start having kids! :)

The rest of the week went smoothly with every night being a performance night! One of the cool things was being able to do missionary work before the pageant started, while the Nauvoo Frontier Country Fair was going on, because the next family cast came in to fill our spots in helping out! We were able to meet more people, but probably one of my favorites, and Roland's, was a family from Peru, who spoke some English, but mostly Spanish! Roland had so much fun talking to them in Spanish! I loved just hearing their stories . . . something I love is how even though they live over 1000 miles away, we still have something in common with them, the gospel! Roland was nice enough to translate or at least sum up what the Spanish conversations were about, so I wasn't completely lost! On our last night of performing it started to rain while the Nauvoo Frontier Country Fair, there was some thunder and lighting, but it stopped in time for us to be able to go on and perform! The show must go on! It was interesting how different it was performing with wet (rain drenched) clothes!

It was sad to say goodbye to all of our new friends not knowing when we would see all of them again. I can't wait to be able to go back to Nauvoo next year just to feel that wonderful spirit of Nauvoo! Nauvoo is kind of addicting . . . once you have a little taste, you just can't get enough of it! We will all meet again someday . . . after all, all roads eventually lead to Nauvoo, and when you're here, we're here! :)

Nauvoo: Beautiful City (Week One)

Some snapshots of us through out the week!

In July, Roland and I had the great opportunity to serve as special representatives of the Church and do lots of missionary work in a unique way! We were part of the family cast in the Nauvoo Pageant! That means, that for two weeks we volunteered to go and spend our vacation time dressed up in pioneer clothes, learning how to sing new songs and dance on a stage, sharing the spirit of Nauvoo to thousands of people every night, meet many new lifelong friends, and having the time of our lives! Not to mention, sweat like crazy, get little to no sleep, and work harder than you have ever worked in your entire life doing something you would have never normally done if it weren’t for the fact you were in Nauvoo!  Yep, that pretty much sums up what we did! :)

Our Home Away From Home

 For the first week that we were in Nauvoo we stayed in a tent! It was a fun adventure! It was cool during the evenings so we could sleep comfortably! The bathrooms and showers were right down the road just a quick walk away! :) Most days went like this . . . get up, run down to the bathroom, take shower, come back to tent and eat breakfast (usually a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or something like that), then head off to practice! For lunch we would come back to our campsite and eat . . . then I would take a nap (Roland later as the week progressed started to join me!) Sometimes, all you need is just a quick fifteen to half hour nap, and you're good for the rest of the day. For me, it worked wonders!

Roland letting me nap so I will be in a good mood for the afternoon practice!

 For the first week we also helped out running the games of the Nauvoo Frontier Country Fair. We were asked to help out in the tug-of-war station! It was so much fun! I loved watching the young families come and do the tug-of-war! It would be all of the little kids versus the Mom or Dad! :) Sometimes some of the cast would challenge those who have come to visit Nauvoo!  Unusually right before the pageant would start there would be a large group of youth that would be challenging each other or the youth of the cast! It was fun to see the "modern day clothed youth" versus the "pioneer day clothed youth"!

 During the first week we learned all of the songs, dances, and all the things that we need to know to perform the pageant! In just one week we go from clueless to the experts! We learned all about leaves, angles, and how to be expressive in our movements! We learned a new language  . . . the language of movement! :)

Practice makes perfect, both on and off the stage!