Cooking with Kids

The kids love to help with everything I'm doing, especially if it involves cooking. If they see me dumping ingredients into the mixer they immediately think that we're making cookies and they want to be there for every step of the way. This time we were making bread pudding and Tyler wanted to "hatch" the eggs. (I guess he doesn't like the term crack.)They had fun stirring everything and dumping in the ingredients. We did a lot of baking over the weekend and I think that by now, if they could read, they could make a cake all by themselves.

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we went to the pumpkin patch. If you know what the weather was like yesterday, you'd realize that we are insane. It rained and poured the whole time we were there. Actually, that's not true. The sun came out and stopped raining about 3 minutes before we left. I guess that's just the way it goes sometimes. The kids had a blast playing on the hay pyramid, they hay maze, the petting zoo, and then the tractor ride to the pumpkin patch. Nicole was looking around for a pumpkin that she could actually pick up. Watch the video and you'll see what she was able to find. :-) Tyler thinks it's funny to lick his pumpkin. I don't know why, he's a 3-year-old little boy and there's very little I understand about how his mind works. They were both so excited about the animals, but when we asked them what their favorite part was, Tyler said that it was jumping in the puddle. I guess next time I should just go outside and let him jump in puddles instead of running all over Vancouver! By the time we got home, we were all soaked, muddy, and tired. We all went to bed early and today we are ready for a new adventure!

Throwing Fits and Cheesy Grins

I walked into my room today and found Nicole sitting at my vanity trying to put on make-up. She's not supposed to do that without my help. I just said, "Nicole..." in that you're-in-trouble voice and she burst into tears and buried her head. Luckily, I had the camera in hand, so I got a cute picture of it.

When Tyler saw the flash, he came running. He always loves to have his picture taken. You may be wondering why the top of his face is cut off, well, I managed to fall over while taking the picture and that was what we got. Tyler thought it was funny, so I thought I'd share it with all of you. If you had been there to see my fall over, you would have laughed too. :-)

My First Doctor Appointment

Whew! I can't tell you what a relief it is to have been to the doctor and have her tell me that everything looks good. The baby's heart is beating fast and strong and it was so wonderful to hear it. It sounds just like the last two babies, so that's a good sign. Even more wonderful, the doctor said that there is, in fact, just one baby in there. I didn't really think I was having twins, but the idea of having two babies at the same time makes me want to cry. I can't imagine how hard that would be. So, everything is good and we are hoping that things will continue to go smoothly for the next several months.

I am posting this willingly. No, really, I am!

Well, in an effort to acquiesce to the demands of my wife to post a, uh, posting, on this blog. I know, I know. acquiesce is way to big of a word to be coming out of my mouth. That is why the thesaurus feature of Word is great. It makes it appear that I am smarter than I really am. Well, at least that my vocabulary is a little bigger than Tyler's, which shouldn't be too hard, since his entire vocabulary tonight consists of the phrases, "I want mommy" and "mommy, hug". It's a real treat, let me tell you.

Kristi has now sat down next to me while I am typing this, so I better clean it up for the censoring board.

I really do not know what to discuss with whomever may be reading this. I am pretty excited to weigh less than 180 pounds again. I was a little soft around the edges there for a few years, as recently as June, I weighed in at a svelte 206 pounds. So I have lost 27 pounds in 3 1/2 months and now weigh less than when I got home off my mission. (Random event: Nicole just ran up to me and informed me that she wants more 'po-corn' and then ran away arms flailing. I really wish we had a video of her running. It is quite hilarious. End random thought)

I am putting in 2 pictures here for your comparison. One is me and one is Tyler. Obviously you can tell who is who, but I like to think that this is pretty concrete proof that Tyler is indeed my son. Not to imply that there was ever any doubt or question about that, there isn't, but it is funny to see nonetheless.



Kristi just told me that I need to write my whole life story. I disagree whole-heartedly with that notion. I think it would be fair however to finally admit the truth about what went down the night Kristi and I met. The truth is, and I bet Kristi would never think that I would finally cop to it, but the truth needs to come out after 7(!!!) years. The truth is, she kissed me first. I know, I am a wuss, but she apparently saw something she wanted, or in the more likely scenario, she was just desperate for some action. So that is the unvarnished truth and now you know. And as we all know, knowing is half the battle. Well, its at least a good one-eighth of the battle. It might even be a majority of the battle. Okay, I am done now. I better post a picture of Nicole to alleviate any potential jealousy that the kids may feel. Alright, I am really done now. Gigitty.

Three foods I wish were healthy

I love to eat. I especially love to eat food that is bad for me. Every once in a while I thoroughly enjoy something healthy, but even that would probably taste better with something sugary or fatty added in. Here are 3 foods that I really wish were healthy so I could eat them every single day and not feel bad about it:
-Marshmallows. Not the big ones so much (though that's good for s'mores) but the little mini-marshmallows. My kids have them with pretzels for snack once in a while and I always stare at them longingly and my mouth starts to water. I just ate one and it was the most delicious thing ever. Maybe it's the pregnancy or maybe I haven't had one in a while, but, oh man, it was good.
-Cream cheese. I would put cream cheese on everything if I could. I like it on sandwiches, bagels, crackers. I like to put it in casseroles, mashed potatoes, frosting (oh sweet, delicious frosting), cookies, and basically anything that I can get my hands on. Of course, it goes without saying that it's the best part of cheesecake too. I could eat cheesecake all day long... It's just too bad that it's got so much fat in it! I don't really like cheese in general, but cream cheese is probably my favorite dairy product (next to chocolate milk).
-Peanut butter. Today I had toast with peanut butter and honey for breakfast. For a snack I had an apple dipped in peanut butter. For lunch I had macaroni and cheese, but I wished I was eating something with peanut butter. When I'm done typing, I'll probably go eat a spoonful of it with some chocolate chips because my mouth is starting to water.
I realize that I would be 300 pounds if I ate these things a lot, but luckily, I have some self control. I'm not going to go nuts and live on this junk, I'm just saying that I wish these things were good for me so I could indulge myself a little more often without getting fat or feeling guilty. Hopefully I planted the idea in your head and you'll have a sweet tooth all day and think of me. Have a marvelous day!!

What about me?

I realized that my family blog turned into Tyler & Nicole's blog very quickly. So here's a little update about me. I am now about 10 1/2 weeks pregnant (25% of the way done!!) and I'm already starting to show! I didn't start to show until about 5 months with Tyler and probably 4 months with Nicole. This is way sooner than I expected. I was afraid I was just getting fat (I haven't been throwing up my food this time), but I've actually lost 5 lbs, so I guess it's all baby. I'm shocked and amazed that I already look pregnant, but there isn't much I can do about it. According to babycenter.com, our baby is about the size of a kumquat. Unfortunately, I don't really know what a kumquat looks like, so I had to look it up. According to Wikipedia, it's about 3-5 cm long, 2-4 cm wide. I really shouldn't be showing with such a tiny, little thing in me, but apparently this kid has other plans. I have all of these nightmares about having twins or something, but I guess I shouldn't worry about that too much. I have my first doctor appointment next week, so I guess I'll find out for sure then. The good news is, while I feel really horrible all day long, I am able to keep my food down so I can function like a normal human being (mostly). We have had some negative feedback on the names that we like, so if you have any great name suggestions, we would love to hear them. Ultimately, we'll just name this baby whatever the heck we feel like it, but ideas are always nice. Tomorrow I'll try to force Ben to give an update on himself so that you guys can see how great he's doing.