Meeting Layna and Some Family Photos

 

Jayna hadn't been to Utah for quite some time, so long in fact, that I'd never met my sweet little niece Layna. She, Mike, and Layna flew into Provo to visit for a week and attend a friend's wedding. We were able to meet up with them for dinner in Salt Lake before she headed to Price and Castle Dale, and we headed to Mexico for our Fifteen Year Anniversary.

 

We had a great night eating at Sugar House BBQ, between all of us, and a bunch of toddlers, we kept the waiters busy. When we were done eating we stepped out on the patio to snap a few pictures and let the kids run wild.

 

We didn't have our kids with us; Cali, Carter, and Caleb were back in Rock Springs being babysat by Grandma Vicki as we were on our way to Mexico. I must say, eating dinner without kids, and watching your siblings chase their kids, is pretty rewarding. After so many years of being the baby chasers, it sure is nice to be out of that phase.

 

Layna was so sweet an tiny with a tiny little voice. Our time visiting with them was too short, but it was great to catch up and fun to be all together for the first time since Brandt's wedding in the Summer of 2011.

 

I especially love this picture of me holding all my Peacock nieces and nephews, I like that they are thrilled about it too!

My Lunch

 

We pack a lot of lunches around our house. Caleb needs a lunch for school, I take a lunch to work, and most days Cali and Carter both take cold lunch to school. On this day, Caleb made my lunch for me!

Something Grew!

The first harvest from my little garden, two zucchinis!

Giving Thanks

 

There is this really delicious holiday sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas. At times it is overlooked, even by the semi-dedicated bloggers. The holiday, is called Thanksgiving, and is one of my favorites.

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Castle Dale with the Peacocks. Cali got to move up to the "adult's" table and I sat with Caleb and Carter at the kid's table. My Grandma Zora and Aunt Mari joined us for dinner, and we had a great time talking and eating...but not at the same time, of course.

 

 

 

Celery for Breakfast

Before 8:00 a.m., while singing the song from Wonder Pets; We get our vegetables any way we can!

This is Good

I'm sure this is a huge blessing for those with soy and dairy allergies. I don't have either of these allergies, but over the past six months I've tried to limit my dairy intake. Sure, I love cheese...and I love good old fashioned 2% milk from a cow. However, I've found that coconut milk is a good alternative in many situations and substitutions. This delicious treat is no exception. I have been recommending it to anyone who will listen to me. So, what are you waiting for? 

Eating Through a Straw

 

Eating through a straw has a two-fold mission at our house.  First, when you are missing as many teeth as Carter is, a straw is very practical. In fact, he's lost two more teeth since this picture was taken.  Second, sometimes eating through a straw is a good way to add extra nutrition to your day.

Carter likes bananas, almond milk, and ice all whipped up in the Ninja.  Every day I drink a combination of spinach, kale, berries of some sort (assorted or blue berries), 1/2 a banana, and ice.  Some days when I'm feeling adventurous I add some almond milk and cocoa powder too! 

Drinking extra fruits and vegetables is not a bad thing to do, especially when a lack of teeth makes chewing a a chore!

Our Pre-Christmas-Minus-the-Kids Vacation

Sometimes you want to create special holiday memories with your children, and sometimes after being husband-less for several weeks, you want to create special holiday memories without your children. I think Christian could see I was on the edge...not of glory like Lady Ga Ga....but the literal edge of my sanity. Maybe it was all the hints I dropped about checking myself into UNI. Whatever it was... It worked!

While Christian was working in Utah a couple weeks ago, and I was finishing up my final papers for school, he said to me "what are you doing the 9th and 10th of December". I checked my calendar and told him that I was free. He said that he had something planned. He sure did...

He arranged for grandma Vicki to watch the kids, she arrived on Thursday night, and we left first thing Friday morning for Salt Lake. Christian had to have a lunch date and finish up some work related business, so he dropped my off with my sissy.  Bethany and I hit up her hair stylist for some "hair-doing" lessons, then Granato's for lunch, and we met Christian at the Utah Utes store later that day.

Here we are, surrounded by our favorite team paraphernalia, right after we got our hair did! I think I've finally decided to give up the wavy hair fight, for a season, and try this curlier look. I'm giving my flat iron a break for a while.

Of course, Bethany had to try some cute baby clothes on her baby.

After we said good bye to Bethany...apparently some people have to go back to work... Christian and I checked into our hotel. He kept telling me that he got a room better than the Anniversary Inn, we laughed and joked because we thought our stay at the Anniversary Inn was a little lame for the price.

Then we drove right up to the Grand America, no joke. I have the slippers to prove it! For the sake of all my readers, this is the ONLY picture you will see from the inside of our room!

The Grand America, is just that....Grand. You could spend whole days inside and never come out into the real world. Some reasons for the five star rating...in my humble non-sophisticated opinion.

1. There is a door man that opens your car door when you arrive. Christian may or may not have almost slammed his hand in the door. We are obviously not that high class.
2. There is a cute little dude from the Ukraine that takes your bag to your room, and makes awkward small talk with you all the way to the 15th floor.
3. There is a free cookie and gelato cart that is available all hours of the day and night.
4. People call you Mrs. and Mr. and you have to look around to see what "old" people they are talking to.
5. They charge you $10 extra dollars just for getting on their treadmills.

There are some fun activities at the hotel, even if you are not a guest. There is a Christmas treasure hunt that we participated in. You walk through the main level of the hotel looking for clue in the fancy window decorations. It was really fun, I almost wished my kids were there...almost.

We also got to check out this gingerbread house. Yes, made by the chef at the Grand America. Christian is pretty tall, and he could have lived comfortably in this thing. All gingerbread, 30,000 gumballs, and the windows that look like glass are sheets of crystallized sugar. It smelled so good!

A nice family with kids, who actually had an excuse to get pumped up about gingerbread houses offered to take our picture. We were obviously way more excited about it than their kids!

 Finally, the bakery and toy store in the Grand America are worth a visit. The tree outside the store was decorated with balloons. Something I might try someday when my kids are at a less of a choking hazard age. The robot and dragon are displays in the store, and the monster is one of the main windows of the store. It was amazing. You could spend hours and your life's savings in that place. We managed to purchase a few books for the kids...we didn't forget about them entirely.

 

We got up at a reasonable hour on Saturday morning and ate breakfast at the Village Inn on 4th South for old time's sake, and then hit the shopping trail. More Costco, the outlets at Park City, and then home again.Grandma Vicki looked a little tired when we got back, but we were so grateful for her willingness to come and wrestle the kids for a couple of days. She left me a voice mail later that night that said something like..."Cammie, I told you that I cleaned your whole house, but we missed a few things. We didn't get the showers done and we only swept the floors...not mopped them -pause------pause- your one little helper was too much of a helper to get much done. Now I see why it's so hard for you to get things done."

I've been back to reality for a couple of days now, and it's not so bad.

Thanksgiving Memories

Before we get any closer to Christmas, I thought I'd blog a little about our Thanksgiving and giving thanks...in general.

It's more than obvious that we all have a lot to be thankful for. Even when things are crazy or plans are changed or times get harder than are comfortable, there is always something to be thankful for.

My Grandpa Cook died at the end of October 2006, a month later my grandma was faced with her first holiday as a widow. My grandpa had actually been sick for the five years leading up to his death, so in some ways she'd been alone for years. However, this year she was really physically alone.

Somehow I talked her into letting me and Christian pick her up and drive her to Castle Dale to watch a play that my dad was directing and eat Thanksgiving dinner. She was not easily convinced to leave her house, but she did it, and I am so glad that she did. It's one of my most favorite Thanksgiving memories of all time.

The following year we tried to talk her into doing it again. She declined and told me something that I will never ever forget. She said that she was too tired to travel and although celebrating Thanksgiving is fun and important {and here's the kicker} "Living in America, everyday is Thanksgiving". Think about it. I've been thinking about it for the past few years, and I believe it. I also believe that it's possible to live with that much gratitude in our hearts.

So here are some thankful moments from our Thanksgiving 2011.

Pre-turkey coma naps. This poor child had not even tasted the turkey prior to this serious nap. We let him sleep through dinner, so I was able to eat with two hands!

 

The kids table, and two kids that totally feed themselves! 

 

The real table. Do not mess with Pollastro's and their dinner tables, they are serious!

Wii boxing...

Real boxing!

Loves!

I'm the King of the World

Pretend It's Warm...

Today, amid our daily running around, we made it to Green River to register our car {it was only due in December}. We can't go to Green River without going to Arctic Circle, and we can't go to Arctic Circle without eating it at the park. So, even though the thermostat said 35 degrees, we stuck to our guns. Carter shivered a little when it was time to eat his shake, but Caleb thought eating outside was a dream come true.

The hot corn dogs steamed outside in the cold air, Carter thought his was smoking...which reminded him that he's NOT supposed to pretend to smoke. It was pretty chilly, even my cell phone camera captured Caleb's cold pink cheeks. All in all, it was a pretty fun adventure...it will be more fun in the warm summer sun, but at this point we just take one non-windy day at a time!

Also, I should note that I do feed my children things other than girl scout cookies, shakes, and corn dogs. However, it seems that those healthy normal foods are less fun to eat, and therefore less fun to photograph. At any rate, I assure you that these children are not on the fast track to obesity.

Girl Scout Cookie Season

Some people have hunting season, Christian is crazy for baseball season, but we have Girl Scout cookie season. Yes, it's an actual season. It starts when we order our cookies, and it doesn't end until the very last box has been devoured. This is me, just enjoying my very first {of many} thin mints of the season.

After being very sick for a couple days, Cali found a cure for her illness, cookies of course. She was on a strict sprite, cracker, banana diet for about 48 hours, but once the cookies were in the house she made a miraculous recovery. It was amazing.

Carter can't get enough Samoas he asks every hour if he can have one. Let's see, one an hour, he will easily finish off a box a day by himself. That's my boy!

And we can't forget Caleb's very first Girl Scout cookie. He was much too young last year to enjoy the deliciousness, but he's catching on quickly.

Valentine's Day Dinner

Since Valentine's Day was on a Monday this year, we decided to stay in and have a family night together. Well, as together as it gets with everyone running in different directions. But, we managed to spend the evening together and I even got creative and made some LOVEly Valentine's related dinner items. Here's what we had {just in case I need some ideas for next year}...

Heart shaped turkey burgers, seasoned and broiled with kissy lips reduced fat Sargento cheese on whole wheat buns.
Baked red potato fries.
Cherry 7up with a squirt of pured strawberries
Strawberry yogurt pie

That was a very heart healthy meal!

And in case you want a very low-fat desert {which does not taste low fat at all} try my yogurt pie recipe:

One reduced fat pre-made graham cracker pie crust
One medium container of frozen strawberries
One Yoplait Red Velvet Cake fat free yogurt
One container of fat free cool whip
Thaw and drain strawberries. Mix drained strawberries with yogurt and 1/2 container of cool whip. Pour into pie crust. Spread remaining cool whip on top. Chill or freeze. It's great frozen or refrigerated! P.s. It works with ANY fruit and ANY yogurt flavor, just remember to drain the fruit, you won't be disappointed

Cermal and Nermal Rhyme

Carter is learning about rhyming sounds in preschool, and makes some very interesting observations. For example...He announced to us the other day that cermal and nermal rhyme.

True, they do...But, these words are just Carter speak for caramel {cermal} and normal {nermal}. We've been using these two Carterized words since Carter could talk...Maybe too long, apparently he thought they were real words.

I will try to quit saying, "Hey, kids we're going over to some friends house try to act nermal" instead I will use the correct word...normal. After all, that's the nermal {I mean normal thing to do}

Check out Carter's cermal-concentration face...

Oh there's that face again, only much larger!

We ran out of sticks so we had to stab the apples with forks instead.

The finished products! Cermal rolled in chocolate chips and granilla {granola}. We may need to check our vocabulary around here!

Thank You

Thank you, thank you, thank you grandma Vicki for the Halloween bucket of joy. Cali, Carter, and especially Caleb were thrilled to dig into the bucket-o-treats that grandma Vicki sent home with Christian {he worked in Utah last week}. Caleb ate three Tootsie Pops right off the bat, wrapper and all!

Do not get between this boy and his suckers. Many trips to the bank has taught him a thing or two about delicious candy on a stick!

Cali and Carter dug right in too. Only with more patience and less slobber!

Case Loads of Fun

Thanks to my mom and Vicki, we are now stocked full of canned goods. I put off going to the case lot sale in RS, and when I finally got around to it, there was one case of black beans and one case of pineapple left. Lame! Luckily I have a two mother's that were on top of it for me. So between the Smiths in Price Utah and Stewart's Thriftway in Castle Dale Utah. We have food, and cases of it!

Cold, Creamy Crack in a Cone

I've never done Crack before, but I can imagine that the ice cream cones at Little America, WY have a similar effect. Honestly....The best $0.50 ever spent. Just ask these little addicts.

O-R-E-O

Cali and Carter showed Caleb the joy that is Oreos and milk...Well, minus the milk for Caleb. I had never met a person that could eat Oreos for breakfast, and then again at 10pm until I met Christian. Come to find out, it's a skill that all of his brothers have perfected. I like a good Oreo now and again, but not daily. My kids, on the other hand, have inherited their father's Oreo eating abilities.

Caleb's first Oreo 6/23/10

Carrot Top {and Bottom}

Caleb loves carrots. Even though he gets a lot of his lunch on his face, a lot makes it down to his tummy too. It's so fun to feed them new foods, see their expressions as they experience the joy of food, and give them the experience of feeding themselves. It's all pretty magical, until you have to change a fruit or vegetable inspired diaper. Seriously.