29<-08:00>03/13

Egg Drop

1:25 am by Janelle. Filed under: News

I have so much to catch up on if I want to make another blog book that will actually document what we do all day…I am failing miserably. So, for now i will post about a more recent event: the school egg drop.

I learned something new about Shaun…he is a champion egg dropper. Apparently he won (I will probably get this totally wrong) the state championship egg drop at the science fair in Oregon back in his prime. So, seeing as this was a family project, he helped Preston with his contraption. We couldn’t execute Shaun’s previous design because of size regulations but we made do and well, let’s check out the results:

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19<-08:00>03/13

Attempt at 1 year pictures

8:05 pm by Janelle. Filed under: News

Today I went with Dallin and Ada across from Preston’s school to a spot that I have been eyeing for awhile now. I have looked at this stump thinking it would be a cute spot and then recently the trees around it started blooming the prettiest purple! So, today we trekked out there…my vision didn’t exactly come out as planned, but I still think there were a  couple cute ones! Maybe I will try again another day. My favorite part of the outing was when we got back to the car and I smelled poop. Upon asking Ada if she had pooped in her underwear she promptly replied no so I checked our shoes. Nothing there…I checked Ada myself and there it was, the source of the smell all over her new Easter dress and Preston’s booster seat (sorry buddy.) Awesome. Luckily I had wipes and a t-shirt in my abyss of a van…Potty training is the best :)

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17<-08:00>03/13

Our 1 year-old!

7:11 pm by Janelle. Filed under: News

We had a little party for Dallin yesterday! He turned one this week and I really can’t believe it! Maybe that’s another reason I am feeling sentimental…the first year went by so fast! Always does though, don’t you think? Dallin shares a birthday with his cousin, and my brother has a birthday a week later so we combined it into one big (small) birthday bash. The day was beautiful and perfect for a night outdoors. I will post some more pictures later, but here are a couple of my birthday baby!

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12<-08:00>03/13

My Girl

11:27 pm by Janelle. Filed under: News

Ada brought me my camera across the tile floor (eeeeek don’t touch my camera!) and she wanted to take some pictures. So, instead of shooing her from my precious 4th child like I normally would I set it up on a chair (over the carpet) and showed her which button to press. She took some of me, and then we put on the timer and would run back and forth taking pictures. She loved looking at the back of the camera to see us in there and I loved to see me with my girl! I’m not sure if this is a recent thing for me, but I have become very…sentimental? I’m not sure the word, but wanting to cherish every second of these kids’ childhood because I already feel like it is slipping away too quickly! Not to say that I sit and relish in the fighting, whining, mess making, poop cleaning, etc. but I stop and think all the time, “Will I remember this second? Will I remember my kids at this stage? Will I remember the ordinary days?” And it makes me sad to think that, no, I probably won’t remember most of the ordinary days! I already look at pictures of Ada and Preston and think, “You looked like that?” I watch videos and can’t really remember them as little babies! So, I am trying hard to at least stop and look around and watch my kids with the hopes that I will remember these days better and not wish them away because I am tired and frazzled!

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04<-08:00>03/13

February 2013

11:17 am by Janelle. Filed under: News

What happened in February? Honestly…I don’t even really remember! Thankfully I took a few photos so I do remember a few events! So here we go:

Preston and I decided to trim up a tree in our back yard and I realized it is the perfect first climbing tree! I was pretty appalled one day when I realized that Preston had never climbed a tree so i was determined to find one that would work in our backyard…because there are a lot of random trees in our backyard.  I’d say 75% of my childhood was spent up in trees, climbing and making forts, so hopefully I can instill the love of tree climbing in my kids too! This is a pretty tiny tree, but it will do for now.

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Preston performed in his kindergarten performance and it was adorable. For awhile now he has been singing all these songs that I’d never heard and now I know why. It was a bedtime theme so everyone wore their PJ’s. Then we went back to their classroom and the kids had worked in groups to creat bedtime stories and illustrations, so Preston and his group got up and read us all their parts in the story. It was pretty impressive.

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Here is Preston at his last basketball game:

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Him with his buddy:

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Our valentine’s Day breakfast:

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Celebrating cousin Finn’s first birthday…Kelsey caught this cute picture of Ada…she was LOVING the swing!

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The usual Ada antics: getting into things she isn’t supposed to and being so proud of herself. This time was Eucerin cream…

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And…not to boast, because well, I was amazed when I saw this come out of the oven and even more shocked that I had actually made this! It looks like I spent some time slaving away in the kitchen (but I actually didn’t!) my mother-in-law told me about this bread she had that someone had made and it was the best bread she’d ever tasted. She asked the lady what was in it…just flour, yeast, water and salt! The trick was baking it in a dutch oven. So we all got a recipe and dutch oven for Christmas and it took me a few weeks to try the bread because well, bread intimidates me. All I had to do was literally throw all the ingredients in a bowl, mix, cover and let sit for 12+ hours (overnight.) The next day plop it into the dutch oven, bake, and the most beautiful,  amazing loaf of bread comes out! I kept trying to get a loaf to my parents because  knew they’d love it…but I couldn’t get it out of my house uneaten ever!

Here is the recipe: http://www.simplysogood.com/2010/03/crusty-bread.html

(Only thing I changed was when I take off the lid I bake for another 5 minutes and not 15.)

If you have a dutch oven, try it!! If you don’t, borrow one and try it!! That’s my plug for that :)

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My little Dallin boy is now 11  months old (REALLY close to 1 year at this point…) He is a sweet heart, but also a little stinker. He likes to hit and terrorize his siblings, mostly Ada. I can hear him saying, “nnnnnnnnnnno” sometimes. He can also say Mama, Dada, Nana, and Papa. He loves being outside and jets to the door every time it is open. Right now he is into putting everything in his mouth and when I tell him not to he gives me a dirty look and does it anyway. Again, and Again and again. Even if it is something gross like sand or dirt. I don’t get it. I’m trying to help you kid! But he cracks us up and we love him.

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