All in a days work!

I would like to dedicate this post to all those who have tried to teach me to make bread.  

Bread is of the most delicious things in the whole world-  I survived off of bread and cheese for three weeks with Safra in Europe.  Darren did tell me in Australia and South America that he needed to eat more than bread and cheese, so we ate dulce de leche also....(that is carmel yummy stuff in spanish- you spread it on bread!  EVEN BETTER!)  

So to Kathren C., Tiffany E., and Pam N. who inspired me, but more importantly to Renee my little sister who taught me to put the mix in my bread maker, turn it on, pull the dough out an hour and half later then put it in a tin and bake for 25 minutes-- all told the time it took me to make this delicious looking loaf of bread - no more than 5 minutes and that is with distracts!!!

Now I just have to not eat it all when it comes out of the oven hot and yummy!

29 years and 1 day...

So I had a great birthday yesterday- And when I was doing my hair yesterday- on my birthday- I randomly thought (most of my thoughts are pretty random) but I thought- This is nice I am 29 and don't have any gray hair- I wonder how old I will get before I get gray hair and then I thought- wow- I really don't want to have to start dying my hair ...

Today- December 11, the day after I thought this, I looked in the mirror to brush my hair out and noticed a shiny blond, no not blond, GRAY hair on top of my head- (refer to picture below) So the answer to my question is - You have to be 29 and one day old to start getting gray hair- All I have to say is my husband did it to me, well wait- Tyler helped a whole bunch too!

Earthquake

My State Farm Agent forwarded me this article, per my request-  I have attached my favorite quote in the article- but mostly I hope I will be prepared so my family will not go hungry or cold.  

Stever had warned earlier, "I think people in our valley have expected to call 911 and have help there in three minutes. But in the event of a catastrophic event, it's not going to happen. People are going to be on their own. It will give new meaning to individual and family preparation."

IT'S 2008 -- AND 'THE BIG ONE' SLAMS UTAH It is 2 p.m. on Feb. 1, 2008,
a freezing, snowy Friday. Most people are still at work or school --
which, unfortunately, is the worst-case scenario for what is about to
happen.
FULL STORY:
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1%2C1249%2C635199749%2C00.html

November Ends

We hung Christmas lights on our new patio out back- Tyler was a great help on the ladder

We spent some of Thanksgiving break in Logan with old friends- this is Riverside trail- The kids started off running...

Then the slowed and rested...

Then crashed.  Tyler was so tired by the end, as where the Dogs and the kids
Ella is a beautiful baby who does the army crawl - but give her a week she will be on her knees moving everywhere.

Thanksgiving was great- Darren cooked the Turkey and did a great job- We had the whole Balls family together- Except for Baby jonah who doesn't want to be born yet-

Ranell played the piano and Tyler loves to listen to the loud vibrations on the paino- No we dont make him stand in the corner

Part II

This was not staged, planned, set up, nothing... this is just a three year old learning to get into the fridge himself.  Darren was hanging Christmas lights and I was trying to help him in between helping the kids, but I didn't get to Tyler's plea for "I'm Hungry" fast enough.  When I finally made it in the house a few minutes later, this is what I found...

I said, what are you eating, he said, whipping cream with a big spoon.  So this is the sequel of how to get your kids fat... just give them whipping cream with  a big spoon. 
On a side note- If anyone wants some bamboo plants, I really want to get rid of them, I am quite tired of them- 

Also, If anyone is dying to go to IKEA in the next month- Please let me know- we want to get tyler more train tracks and I DONT want to go out there for a very VERY long time

How to make your kids fat...

First thing you need is Peer Pressure- In our family the daddy is the best- if he is eating something, Tyler wants it- If he sits down to eat- Tyler will too

Next you need to make Mac and Cheese- Set out all the ingredients then turn your back and do something else - If you leave the butter- Dont use margarine- it isn't fatty enough... but if you leave the Butter with a fork in it and put the butter close to the edge- your chances will improve of getting the skinny 3 year old to eat some- 
Then act like you want him to stop and he will get a good two Tbs before he realizes ... Yes... I really do want to stop- Butter is yucky!


This is Ella trying some Mac and Cheese- she didn't know what to do with the bowl sitting in front of her



After I took some photos I did use a fork and help her eat some- you can see her only two teeth  on the bottom - along with some mac and cheese:)

Happy Days

Things that make me happy
1. Getting flu shots and tyler being such a big boy- he didn't cry, he looked like he would for a second but then I reminded him he was going to be big and show Ella how to do it- She didn't really cry either!

2. Going to Costco- finding delicious bread, buying it and then having Tyler eat lots of it- That kid will eat any fruit you put in front of him, but not so many carbs!!! This morning for breakfast he wouldn't eat Waffle Crisp cereal, he wanted an apple! Not my kid thats all I know! But the bread- I am delighted he ate it all

3. More food- Tyler ate today! He has gone about a week and a half of surviving on nothing- If I push him to eat, he just throws it up ( Uncle Jason did this too I heard!) But today, he ate crackers, ice cream, cornbread, artisan bread, an apple, 3 glasses of milk, one glass of water, and a cookie- This is a record.

4. Oh, Ella isn't that great- I weighted her at the doctor office today- only 13 pounds 13 ounces- She has had a cold or just a runny nose and hasn't eaten well for days- and I really had hoped her weight was higher- But today- Today she has eaten great- A blessing

5. I love days without long lists of things to do- I love that I can work hard for a couple day and then breath and relax because I know I dont have a hundred things to do- No... I cant just relax when I have things to do, I have to finish them!

6. I love my new bike- I have ridden several times on it and wish the cold weather would stay away-

7. I appreciate my hard working husband- Do you any of you have a husband that comes home from work, plays with the kids, helps with dinner then goes out and rakes the pine needles and the leaves up so fast so that I wont have to hurt my back doing it- it was cold, and dark, even slightly raining- but now our yard is ready for this storm that is coming!??!??!!

Now I have to prepare my Gospel Doctrine Lesson for Church- wish me luck!

FINALLY some pictures of Ella

Here are some pictures of Ella- First her two front teeth- She got them both in her 6 month
This is Tyler playing patty cake with Ella- She loves to singing this song- she starts clapping all the time and wants you to sing it with her- Also, she is getting pretty good at jumping- 
Photo shoot: Fall leaves
The photo shoot was going great until Ella stuck the stem in her eye- then we were done
Tyler helped me rake up the leaves

Fireman costume - He had a great time- 
Ella did not want to be in this photo shoot- She was a monkey- and was screaming as this picture was taken

Still need more pictures of Ella

I thought I had some good pictures of Ella- but no not really- I need to take more- especially of her two front teeth-

For now this will have to work- Time with Dad is always fun- Tyler loves reading books


Tyler and his only cousin close by- Jack -driving a train at Thanksgiving point


Tyler is taking a tumbling class at a local middle school- very amatuer but fun. He looks forward to the class all week and takes it very seriously- He practices his stretches all week so his teacher "will be so 'mpressed"



We also got a new addition to our family- our family of bikes that is- Darren picked me a really good one- I rode it today for the first time and loved it-

Butterflies

I went to the Scarecrow festival with an old friend Tawnie Baldwin Croft- side note - we have been friends for almost 21 years -can anyone beat that...

Anyway- you would think I would have pictures of pumpkins and Halloween things- Sorry to disappoint- This was the highlight!  Tyler flew Tawnie, Ella and I all over- 

Some of the places we went were over to the popcorn stand, Boise Idaho, Michigan, Seattle, Logan, Chicago- oh I cant even remember all the places we went!

Tyler has said some interesting things lately :

"I like butterflies because they give us butter"

Tyler likes to eat hot dogs- he gets a bun, puts ketchup and mayo on it and then LOTS of mustard - no hot dog!  - He says- I like mustard because it is good for you!  (who knew!)

For those of you who watch Channel Five news- One of Darren's pictures was on TV- The picture Darren posted in the last blog with the beautiful yellow leaves and the white bark of the aspens was shown a couple nights ago.

My sister said I needed more pictures of Ella- This is a classic Ella one- She weighs 15.5 pounds now- up from her little 12.5- and loves to eat- I am glad she is so cute with food all over her but I sure seem to be "bizzing" - that means soaking ...a lot of her clothes lately!

Seasons and a Big Moose

One of the great things about living in Utah (besides being so close to the mountains) is seasons. I went mountain biking at Solitude with Nolan the other day and the leaves were starting to change... so this evening we decided to go for a little walk/hike in Big Cottonwood Canyon.





It really was a perfect evening.
















On our way back to the car we ran into a moose. She was about 20 yards off the trail. Like all moose, she wasn't scared of us and didn't seem to be in a hurry to go anywhere. We decided to keep on moving to get past her as it was getting dark. We passed her and Amy, Tyler and Ella kept walking as I paused to take these pictures.



As I was looking through the view finder to take this picture (trying to get the shutter speed and aperture correct) I noticed she appeared to be looking at me. The picture isn't perfect as I decided it was time for me to leave... well so did she. As I looked up from my camera she began to trot towards me. (I don't know if moose can run or not but with that long of stride the trot is pretty fast). I caught up to Amy, Tyler and Ella about 50 yards down the trail, picked up Tyler and told Amy that we had better run for a little bit as the moose might be angry. (About now I was praying that she didn't have any youngsters up there and if she did that we were not between them and her.) After we had ran for about another 100 yards or so we stopped, I set Tyler down and as I was telling Amy I think we are OK we hear branches cracking behind us. You guessed it, there she was again about 20 yards behind us. By now the adrenaline was really pumping. I grabbed Tyler and off we ran down the trail. Another 200 yards or so of running and we hear branches breaking right next to us on the trail. I'm now hoping that it's not a baby moose and thinking to myself how I can get her to chase after me so Amy can make it down to the car with the kids. About that time Amy yells back it was only a couple of deer. We had finally lost her, or probably more realistically she had decided we were no longer a threat. Anyway we made it back to the car safely, and Tyler now has a really cool story to tell all his friends and family.

Tyler's Birthday- 3 Years Old!!!

Tyler does Preschool with three neighbor kids two days a week- we got to start celebrating his birthday on Wednesday

Ella is getting so big- she moves quite a bit when on her tummy- and smiles the most wonderful smile- She is 6 months old today!

Tyler loved his birthday and got so many fun gifts and cards- Thank you everyone !  We especially love this loud one from Grandma Balls- and Yes Pat- Darren does remember the loud laser gun you had to put up with when he was a kid - but he would still really like to take out the batteries of this lovely digger. 
He got a train track from IKEA- 
This is his birthday cake I made- It was great for me- not perfectly balanced but it tasted good and it was worth the work (which wasn't really that much work) to see his face when he came down the stairs and saw it and with wide eyes and open mouth- he said- WOW!

Heaven

Conversation with Tyler on his Birthday

Mom: 3 Years ago from today you were born

T: where was I before I was born

M: You were in Heaven - then you came down to Earth and were born - So Dad and I could take care of you

T: How did I come down from Heaven?

M: I dont know Tyler

T: Mom I know - I just came down the stairs, ya mom, I just came down the stairs

Never Nervous Tyler

Tyler still loves firetrucks- but it has taken until now to get him to not be so scared of them -

Grandmas Birthday

Grandma Balls had a birthday - I know it was a little while ago but some things take me time like downloading the pictures from our camera-

Tyler loves to blow out candles- as any kid would- So this is the pre lighting candles pep talk. I am sure I was saying something like... this is Grandmas cake, lets let her have a turn blowing out the candles...

This is the final outcome- Grandma helping Tyler blow out the candles- making one happy boy

Curious George

We spent Labor Day in Bear Lake with the Balls family- It was a great weekend- For those who are familiar with Israel- this lake is the Galilee of Utah- It is so blue and the cliffs behind Darren and Tyler look like the Golan Heights to some.  It was wonderful. 

This Saturday we went to the Health Fair at the University of Utah- We waited way to long in line to take this picture- Curious George and the man in the Yellow hat- Awesome stuff, lots of free food and fun- and Tyler got to sit in a Life Medical Helicopter- It took off and landed in front of us- Very loud, windy but exciting for a two year old- Ella slept!

 We did start rice cereal with Ella- She does love to eat- just like her mother-  

(I dont have bangs in this picture... why you might ask... Well, I will never again trim my own bangs- I think they will be pinned up for a long time...until they grow back out to a normal length)

Going to prison...

I share this  mostly for one reader who will laugh a lot, and her brother will probably laugh a lot more...

We got a Curious George book from the library- Here is the plot in a nut shell- 

George gets curious after watching the man in the yellow hat push buttons on the telephone so when the man leaves, George goes and pushes buttons too. Well, George accidentally calls the firestation- and they say hello, hello- but no one answers, they dont know it is George, they think it is a real fire. So they look at their map to see where the signal is coming from, and go to George's house- and I will quote -

"They open the door, NO FIRE! Only a naughty little money, Oh catch him, catch him they cried. A thin fire man caught one arm and a fat fireman caught the other.  You fooled the fire department they said, we will have to shut you up where you can't do any more harm.  They took him away and shut him in a prison"

This book was copyrighted in 1941- and I guess back then... if you called 911 you went to prison. I have tried to explain that you wont go to prison for that, and it is just what the author wrote. 

Tyler doesn't even ask to hold my phone anymore, and when he sees it, He says, I dont want to go to prison so I wont push your buttons.  

 

So tonight Tyler and I went on a walk to a friends house and just because I figured he would say something funny, I told him, that our friends brother just got out of prison today (this is true, he really did) and of course Tyler asks me a million questions- The first one being--- oh, did he call the fire station on the phone....