Slow days

Hasn't been much to talk about here. Everyone's been a little sick, not sleeping well, its frigid out and we just haven't been doing much of anything. In fact, except for a couple drives to drop things off (which didn't even involve getting out of the car), we haven't left the house since Monday.

But Bean and I did have a fun game of Uno this morning. It was the first time we've used the Uno Attack thing--and lets just say that the first time she pushed the button, Bean thought she was under attack. Those cards really come flying out!

And Bugaboo has gotten really into dressing up. He's definately shown that he is a multi-faceted individual. He'll pull out the dockworker clothes (which actually means he wants to go outside--he knows that's what hats and jackets are for),or just as likely, want to wear a pink tutu and hat. What can I say? He's pretty cute either way. (For the record, DTM, I'm not forcing him to dress as a ballerina boy--he brought those clothes to me. So no angry emails coming my way :)

And now, since I feel like our Thanksgiving trip got slighted, here's a few pictures from last week.

Once we made it to Fresno, we had 4 days to enjoy being OUT of the car. It was great. We read, watched TV, moved the cat, played Uncle J's Wii, chased the cat, baked, went to the zoo, played Doctor with the cat (Anyone read Olivia? Its one of our favorites), and just enjoyed some family downtime.
Baking time. Grandma was sick so everyone chipped in with the baking and cooking. Daddy-o is the pie king anyway and he's passing his secrets on to Bean.
Fresno zoo had changed a lot from what Daddy-o remembered (definately a good thing for the animals, and visitors!) It was the perfect place for just a couple hours of wandering around. And we got lucky--they were feeding most of the animals while we were there--even the tortoises are exciting when they are eating.Bugaboo did NOT like the petting zoo. He'd been so fascinated with the cat all week that we thought he'd love to pet some other animals, but all he wanted to do was run. And I'll admit, the goats were not being particularly friendly, so it was probably much safer that way.
Roadtripping with the kids. We were a bit crazy and decided to just do the whole drive home in one day. Mainly, the 12 hour drive (14 hours in the car) seemed easier than lugging all the things 2 kids require for a night into a motel halfway through--after 9 hours in the car, you'll let them do pretty much anything to keep the peace, including emptying an entire box of tissues.

Although I can't say any of us are fans of getting home at midnight. Oh, and the house was only 47 degrees because we did the environmental (and probably safe) thing of turning off the heat.
Only took 2 days of laundry and shopping for everything to be back to normal. Or, the vegetative state we've been in this week. Guess we have a good excuse for laying low.

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Random list of things we're thankful for:



Family--my little nutty family, and our big nutty families as well.



Friends--It's been really fun to see friends this trip--we have them spread to all corners of the world and we're always grateful for any chance to visit.



Good food to eat--this was Bean's first thought. And by good food, she means treats and sweets, but I thought I'd include our delicious thanksgiving dinner in that as well. Smoked turkey--the best! (and the rolls by yours truly turned out pretty good as well.)



Fun things to do--its always good to get in some family time--visiting the zoo, playing games, running around outside, or even just snuggling on the couch for a movie.

Our health. Poor grandma ended up with a stomach bug this week, and we're sorry for her, but so grateful that, knock on wood, our little family is healthy so far. Because as fun as road trips with the two kiddos are, I can't imagine doing 12 hours on Saturday with diarrhea and puking stops.

On the road again. . .

After 12 hours in the car, we made it to San Diego (well, San Diego County--we stayed with friends up in San Marcos). The trip itself was actually one of our best ever, despite being the longest we've ever done with kids. And even better. . .We got to spend the weekend with friends, enjoy beautiful weather, and hang out at the beach. Our friends have kids the same ages as our two--twins Beans age and then a little girl Bugaboo's age, so it was a fun, loud, giggly weekend.
And Bugaboo LOVED the beach. This was his first trip and everything was exciting--the sand, the ocean, the birds stealing our food. He had a great time.
Next leg, Grandma and Grandpa's house! (That 5 hour trip didn't go so well. We showed up with one nearly naked kid, one kid in a second set of clothes, cracker crumbs everywhere and 4 tired, hungry, frustrated people. Glad we're staying put for a few days!

Crafts, crafts, and more crafts

I love it when I have a crafting spree. These projects are actually the accumulation of the last few weeks, but since I haven't been doing as much posting, none of them have made it up here yet.

Here's a couple pictures of the turtle cake from Bugaboo's party.

We always thought Bean's gummy smile looked like a duck-bill so she had a duck cake for her first birthday. Well, Bugaboo has always tucked his lips so he looked a little like a turtle.

Then, my mom, mother-in-law, and I made cupcakes for the family get together the next day since along with the baby blessing, we were celebrating 2 family birthdays. And all the little girls loved them.

And these were for the new baby, just 3 months late, but that's the nice thing about bibs--they use them for a LONG time.

First of the Christmas gifts that I need to get going on. Just have to make sure Bean doesn't see this post since this one is for her--more on these here (thank goodness for craft blogs!):

And of course, some scrapping. These are both for recent challenges on the Baby Whisperer site. I love the inspiration I've found there to do something with all my pictures. Who would have thought that having sleep-challenged children would have led me to so many crafty friends. Now, I probably would actually get more sleep if I hadn't met these ladies since I now have this crafting itch I have to satisfy that eats into bedtime, but I don't think I'd be as happy.

Free-form Lasagna

I found this recipe in the Daily Herald a few weeks ago and finally had a chance to try it while my mom was visiting. I used to always clip out recipes that sounded good, but hardly ever made them (although my brownie recipe is adapted from a newspaper article recipe) so I had made myself quit accumulating the newspaper clippings that were taking over my recipe binder. But I'm glad I cut this one because these were great! And there is another version with roasted tomatoes and pesto that I can't wait to try.

Only warning is this is not a quick mid-week dinner. I only tried it because I had my mom around to help keep the kids out from under my feet.

Free-form Butternut Squash Lasagna

3/4 C flour
4 teaspoons olive oil
1 egg
1/2 cup + 3 Tablespoons butter
1 (2 pound) butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped rosemary, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons minced shallots, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dry white wine
ground pepper
grated nutmeg
1 cup whole-milk ricotta
grated parmigiano-Reggiano

Make pasta dough with flour and olive oil, add in egg and knead until smooth and shiny (see here if you need instructions for making pasta). Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Roll out pasta dough very thin (a 6 on most machines), in approx. 4" wide strips. Cut into squares and dust with flour.

Heat 3 Tbsp. of butter in skillet over medium-high heat. add cubed squash, 1 tsp. rosemary, 1/2 tsp. shallots, and salt to taste. Cook until squash has slightly browned, stirring occasionally, about 5 min. Reduce heat to medium and cook until squash is tender, about 5 more min. Remove squash from pan, add wine to pan and cook over medium-high, scraping the browned bits and reducing the wine to a glaze. Add squash back in and coat with glaze. Season with pepper and light grating of nutmeg.

In a small bowl, beat together the ricotta, 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. shallots and pepper and a little nutmeg.

Cook pasta 4 or 5 sheets at a time in plenty of rapidly boiling salted water. Pasta will float to the top when done, about 1-2 min. Remove and drain on a tea towel. Repeat until all pasta is cooked.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Melt 1/2 cup butter in a skillet over medium heat with 1 tsp. shallots, 1/2 tsp. rosemary.

Place a square of pasta on a greased heat-proof plate (I just used a cake pan because I was too scared to try putting my dishes in the oven) and brush with melted butter. Spoon 1/4 cup ricotta in a low mound in the center. Arrange a loose mound of butternut squash on top. Generously dust with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Place another square of pasta on top. and brush again with the melted butter. Scatter more squash cubes on top and dust again with the Parmigiano-Reggiano. Repeat with 3 more plates. (I actually found that I could do another layer and still had enough to make 5.)

Arrange the plates on a cookie sheet and heat through in the oven for 8-10 min. Serve immediately.

Now, I should have taken a picture of the kitchen after I finished this. Definately glad that there was someone to help me with the dishes that night!!!

Family time

We got to see all the Utah family for baby Chloe's blessing. It's always absolute chaos of the most fun sort when we all get together--10 kids ages 3 months to 9 years makes for a crazy group. And of course, since 10 of the 12 grandkids were all under one roof, we had to try to get a picture (minus the baby). Easier said than done.

Party!

I'm only a week late with these pictures. Things have been very busy, and sleep has not been happening (except the one night this week that Bugaboo randomly decided to sleep all night--never even been close to happening before and hasn't happened in the 2 nights since, but it was a fun surprise). But the birthday boy still deserves to revisit the festivities.

We had both grandmas here with us to celebrate. Lunch of quesadillas and 7-layer dip, and then, of course, cake and ice cream. On par for our kids, he didn't know what to do with the cake and actually looked pretty concerned with the whole thing at one point. But in the end, he decided it was pretty good (and I just had to post this picture of his choice of utensils--the kid LOVES spatulas!) And presents. Such a different experience when there is an big sister who understands what those are all about and isn't so patient. He didn't really get to open any of his own and seemed a little confused about whether he was ever going to get to play with his new toys since they were "borrowed" pretty quickly after coming out of the packaging.

Happy Birthday, Little Man

I stole this idea from my friend, Becky's, blog, but it was just too cute to pass up. Hope you enjoy this look at Bugaboo's first year!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

New month

Here we go--only 2 months left of 2007. This year has flown by!

Just a couple updates for now. We have a lot coming up in the next few weeks, but for now, we're still waiting about jobs and where our future location will be. So you still have time to make a guess as to where we'll be living next year if you just go here.

Otherwise, the recap for October--

Bugaboo is walking now, and has another tooth--this only puts him at 3 teeth one day before his first birthday so we still have a LOT of teething to go through this next year. His favorite things right now are baths (he goes over to the bathtub anytime he finds the door open and starts pounding on it and trying to climb in), carrying spoons, forks, knives (only toy ones), pointing at things, EATING (and he likes just about everything we'll give him, but favorite foods are still avocados and bananas and bread or pasta), making noise, pretending to bite or kiss us, and trying to crawl into the street (his new favorite pasttime when we're out in the yard).

Bean is. . .well, she's the Bean. She loves her dance class, loves torturing her brother (who is learning to give it back though, too), loves doing craft projects--drawing, coloring, cutting, gluing. She even wrote her name (I helped with the spelling) on the back of a picture she'd drawn the other day (which was supposed to be for Grandma Linda, but sorry Grandma, I had to keep the first time she wrote her name --we'll draw you another one!) She makes up crazy stories all the time, can be heard singing to her animals when she wakes up in the morning, and has some type of abhorrence of the toilet (makes for a fun race several times a day to see if we can "beat the pee").

Daddy-o is busy at school as always. Not much fun stuff to report there. He did get to make a realistic looking, but luckily non-working, bomb for a project last weekend which he seemed to enjoy way too much.

And I've been doing the same old stuff--trying to get enough sleep, keep the family fed, clean, and happy (or at least not too sad). I've squeezed in some crafting (more pics coming soon), and reading--couple great parenting books that I'm working my way through right now in hopes that I can find a more peaceful way to be a mom (more on those later as well).

I've got my mom here for another week, which is always nice and we have a couple birthdays coming up to celebrate with her, as well as a baby blessing on Daddy-o's side this weekend, so lots of family time (and lots of sugar :))

Oh, and there are new ideas on this blog for fun things to do in November!