BRRRRRR!

I still love Alaska but it sure is cold up here. I'm sure it'll get colder. It was -7 when we took the boys to deliver goodies to our neighbors tonight. Poor Sam didn't complain once but boy did he look froze. We ended up coming back home to get the truck for the last two houses. We just aren't that used to -7 weather. I still saw people out with just jackets on. Maybe they're just crazy or part polar bear. :) I'm really thinking about those snow pants for me. Hmmmm. Yeah I'm gonna need them.

Our house is the bus stop and is a slope of sorts. We have tons of kids playing on our slope everyday, or so it seems. At first it was their scooters and skateboards flying down the hill, then it snowed and out came the sleds. THe snow melted and then froze and we now have a nice ice path. THe kids love sliding down on their bums. THe whole neighborhood does every morning as our house is the bus stop. Apparently the bus driver was either worried about someone getting killed flying into the street in front of him or just tired of waiting for them to stop sliding to get on the bus, but what ever it was it caused the principal to come out almost daily to stop it. They will not be allowed to ride the bus if they are caught doing it. Today my little Jack said to me. Mom, I was sliding yesterday but I didn't get in trouble because no one saw me. Sneaky little rat. I don't think he really wants to get into trouble though. Some kids just can't resist it even though they know the consquences. It's so enticing. One father who usually isn't there showed up this morning to ensure his child would not get kicked off the bus. His son is always one of the last ones to do one, two maybe three more slides before he gets on the bus. He's a little guy and I'm sure just wants to have fun. Mike doesn't like the new rule but then again you can catch him sliding down the hill on occasion too. Okay so I tried it once too but without those snow pants it really is cold, fun but cold.

A life of indulgence

I love food, have I ever mentioned that before? I do, I'm surprised I don't weight 500 pounds yet but there is still time.

So today I made myself some of my very favorite soup. Butternut squash soup along with one of my favorite salads pear and bleu cheese. I usually make my an easy loaf of french bread but I was gone all day so that didn't happen. Here are some pictures and recipes.

This recipe is from Cooks.com

Roasted Hazelnut and butternut squash soup

1 med. butternut squash (acorn squash or fresh pumpkin)

1sm onion chopped

1 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup whole roasted hazelnuts ( almonds, walnuts, or pecans) I use pecans

1qt. chicken broth

1cup whipping cream (I use half an half)

white pepper

salt

fresh grated nutmeg

Sour cream

1/4 cup coarsely chopped roasted nuts

Halve squash lengthwise; remove seeds. Place cute side up in shallow baking dish. Bake in 400 degree oven for 1 hour or until soft. Don't add water. Scoop out pulp; set aside. In a large saucepan, cook onion in butter until tender. Sir in squash and 1/2 cup nuts. Sir in broth. Cook over medium low heat for 30 minutes. Transfer about 1/4 of soup to blender container. Cover; blend smooth. Repeat with remaining soup. Return to saucepan. Stir in cream (or half and half) and season with some white pepper, nutmeg and salt. Bring just to boiling. Remove from heat. Season to taste. Ladle into bowls, topping with a dollop of sour cream and some remaining nuts. 8-10 servings.

I like it even with out the sour cream but this is a rich soup and very yummy. Everyone I've fed it to is always impressed.

My salad is simple. I usually buy a bag of baby spinach and mix it with green leaf or red leaf. Crumble desired amount of blue cheese on top ( a little goes a long way) chop some green onion and add on top and then add on chopped red pear. I like to serve this with 1/2 cup roasted pecans too. Yum yum yum. I'm in love.

So there you have it my fine friends, one of my favorite indulgences. Did I mention that I also ate a piece of left over chocolate pumpkin cheesecake. Yeah I know. I'm working out tomorrow. I promise. :)

Thanks

Thanks to my baby brother Ben for actually reading and commenting on my blog. He's great. I am thankful for the friendship he's given me over the years. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and wonderful birthday. I'll try to be a great sister and call.

Today I thouroughly enjoyed myself in the kitchen. I love cooking! I made a wonderful feast if I do say so myself. High lights were Turkey of course, the stuffing was yum yum and my oh so favorite blueberry cranberries. Smile. They were more expensive to make then that little can of jellied ones but it was worth it. I had to drive all around Anchorage just to find blueberry nectar.

My children are adorable and probably one of the most important things for which I have to be thankful this year. I couldn't ask for cooler kids. So here's a blurb about them.

Jack-6 yrs. old. Loves Transformers right now. He's awesome, smart funny, and generally a good kid. Yesterday he peed on his brothers in the bath tub. His excuse was that he didn't want to get the floor wet by getting out to use the toilet. He has his moments. Currently he hates school and is learning how to make friends. I am trying to learn how to teach him to be happy regardless and to make friends. Parenting gets a little more complicated the older they get, at least it seems like that.

David-4 11/12ths Loves what Jack loves and playing all day. He's very inquisitive about everything right now. He recently has been asking about marrying me. I have told him he can't. While out the other day he says "Mom, I don't want to marry an old lady with bumps" I beleive he means wrinkles. Silly boy. Everyone gets old. He has also been asking a lot of questions about when are we going to die and why. It's been fun answering them all. I love how he says Chapstick -chopstick. He's adorable and cute and usually very sweet.

Sam-3 and crazy. Sam is in charge, well he thinks he is. He is so much fun though it's hard to get mad at him sometimes. He can still use his cuteness to get what he wants from MIke most the time. He loves playing anything Jack and David play. He gets mad more easily and will throw or hit. Working on that. He loves to say stupid and we have tried to narrow it down to being okay to say certain things are stupid like monsters. He's also still gets into things when not monitored for very long which is why I've found him on the counter trying to get the candy off the top of the fridge. Hmmmm is it any wonder he's had stitches twice. Today in the middle of my cooking while MIke was gone for five minutes he busted his lip pretty good.

I am one lucky mom. I'm grateful for a great husband and a great life.

Now my eyes want to fall shut so that's all for now.

ED

This is my brother ED. He lives somewhere I've never been. I rarely see him and even more rarely receive phone calls from him. He's the kind of person who used to live in the woods in the summer to save money on rent. He's unpretenious.

This month I have received two phone calls from him. A miracle none-the-less. I beleive prompted by my recent loss but regardless, I am glad he called. It's nice to know that your siblings do remember who you are every once in a while. Granted I'm not the best at keeping in touch. In fact I thought using this blog would help but I beleive no one reads it so I am writing for myself. Weird since I have so many other things to do.

Must go will reflect on life's bigger questions later, my oven calls.

Ed if you ever read this for some strange reason. I love you, thanks for calling.

Bread dough belly

Yup, that's me, bread dough belly. I'm usually a pear shaped woman with most my junk in the trunk area. Once known for my child bearing hips, probably because I had a small waist they stuck out more, now they all mold together. I love my totally imperfect body. Just thought I'd share my random thoughts of my new found bread dough belly. I did an exercise video today and to be honest skipped the hard ab part. It was so difficult that I felt the effort would have been better used elsewhere. Not to mention I was afraid I'd injure myself trying to be Denise Austin. :) "Smile, you're doing great" crash! :)

Alaska

We're here, we've been here for about a month now. It's lovely. Granted we've been deprived of cold weather for four years now, we may be sick of it soon, but we love it! We went sledding with the boys today and I must admit that I enjoyed it probably as much if not more then they did. I need some of those snow pants though. My legs got a little cold after crashing a few times.

I need to catch up on so much stuff I don't know where to start. But I guess for lack of a better place I'll start with my last blog. I announced how sick I was during my pregnancy. Well unfortunately after we got here we went in for our ultrasound and found out that the baby had died. It was truly an awful day. We didn't really know anyone and had to do some juggling to find some help with our other kids. We were lucky we knew some one from the band in GA that is up here as well.

My heart broke into a million questions. Why? Why would we get pregnant after having a vasectomy only to not keep this baby? What are we supposed to do now? How do I explain this to a six year old whose been praying for a sister for so long and thought his prayers were being answered? How do I hold it together and continue to live when i feel like part of me just died too? The list goes on and on.

I had a very neat experience the night before we found out. I was looking through some old memorabila and listening to Mike read to our boys. I was overwhelmed with a feeling of completness and joy. I felt like my life was truly perfect. I was so happy. I woke the next day still feeling this happy. It was nice to reflect on that as I felt so much sorrow. I know that Ihave a wonderful family and that for whatever reason I didn't get to hold and love and raise that baby that God knows more then me and things will be okay. My heart will heal and my love will still grow.

I think I'll let that be my post for today. This Thanksgiving will be wonderful as I am truly thankful for all I have.

Until I sneak on Mike's computer again. :)

Changes

So I guess I should write about some changes coming our way. Many of you know but I thought I should just say it to the wide open world anyway. I'm pregnant. Baby number four is thriving in there making me sick as a dog. Well I guess I'm not that sick as I have been more sick with other babies but I sure don't feel good! I know my English is impeccable. :)



The story goes like this. My husband says three is enough and he wants to get a vasectomy. I say hmmm that sounds permanent but then I talk to lots of people who got pregnant after their husbands had the big SNIP. So I told him go ahead we'll probably still get pregnant. I looked up once that it was something like 1 in 2,000 don't work the first time. I told him that would be him. I really thought we were done though. I got rid of every maternity thing and just about every baby thing too. Really, I don't hold on to all their little clothes for sentimental value. Those poop stained things were cute before the stains. :)



So after the first vasectomy I had said a little prayer basically saying if we are supposed to have more kids let us have them regardless of this little surgery. Months later we find out that he has swimmers. We hadn't been very careful but I wasn't pregnant yet. So the week after the second vasectomy I found out that I was pregnant. My husband was still sore. Poor thing. Then I told him about that little prayer. His response was "you're not allowed to pray anymore!" Well he didn't mean that of course but he was in shock to say the least. I didn't even tell him in person. He was at scout camp and I text messaged him. How romantic!



So now that I've been puking my brains out feeling like crap he'll say to me "you glad you said that little prayer?" He's definitely accepted this great change and is searching for a new vehicle to carry us all in, that has 4 wheel drive that is. No minivan for him. My boys are besides themselves with joy. My oldest, Jack has actually been praying for a sister for some time now. I'd say almost six months, so it's not just my prayer. I can pass some of the blame to Jack. :)



I'm excited though and I truly don't care if it's a boy or a girl, so long as it's a baby. I'm about 12 weeks now and am wishing and hoping that my trend of being sick for 5 months doesn't follow through with this one. I've turned into the mother slug and my poor kids have been eating probably the most processed foods they have ever had cause I can't stand to cook. We do eat a lot of cold cereal too. Dad's been gone or I'm sure he'd figure out how to cook something. :) My two year old now thinks cereal is for any time of the day and that he can opt out of the real meal for cereal. Hmmm. I'm going to have to undo some of this damage but I sure don't mind when I'm feeling so lovely.



Oh another wonderful perk to this morning sickness all day long thing is that I have at least three fans cheering me on every time I heave. Some times my two year old will run before me and say "no my go pee pee" I say "no, Mommy needs to puke!" He moves and says "okay I stay with you" It's so nice to have such a great support system. Then I get the "you done mommy?" And "my want to see it?"



The topper though was while I was moaning and groaning on the couch a couple weeks ago, my David (4) came to lay with me. I thought oh he misses our snuggles. I wasn't prepared for what happened. He threw up all over me, the couch and the floor. My husband was out of the country my two good friends had moved and my wonderful neighbors were gone, no one to call upon for back up. Not that I would ask my neighbors or friends to clean up my kids puke but I felt like I needed back up. It was awful. It took me so long to clean it all up and then I couldn't set foot in that room for a few days, really not until we got back from vacation.



I realized later that it was my own fault. I had fed them the night before some highly nutrious corn dogs and didn't put the left overs away. The next day David obviously hungry and fending for himself ate one of the old corn dogs. I believe this to be the source of such illness. My own laziness did this to me.



Enough of the drama. It's still good to be alive. :)

Now I feel guilty better do some more kids

So on our way home from my parents on memorial day weekend we stopped at this huge tourist trap that has seen better days. It's called South of the Border. It must have been spiffy once upon a time but looked like it was barely hanging on. We needed the break and got out and looked around. Here's some shots of the kids under a huge gorilla. Note the binoculars Jack got from Grandma Stair for his birthday.

THis is how huge he was. Jack decided to ride a giraffe. Cute boy. David wasn't really into it, you can tell eh? It was a fun little stop anyway with little shops full of junk you don't need.

Another Sam day

I guess we'll do two Sam specials in a row. Here's a few shots my great friend Erin took for me. Isn't he adorable.

Makes you just want to kiss his little face right off. I love this little rascal. I think my friend needs to go pro. What say ye?

SAM

Look at this cute boy. Watch out though cause he can be trouble with a capital T. He's so much fun but has been getting a little crazy lately. Maybe it's cause he feels the threat of another sibling already, maybe it cause I'm sick and not as attendant to his every need, or maybe it's just cause he's still 2 though not for long. I realized that I never actaully got his two year pictures made. Bad Mom! I've been looking through what I have to see if any of my snap shots would do. No they won't. Is it bad to take him just before he turns three for two year old pictures? Probably but I feel bad cause I have the other two on my wall at two years old but no sam. Just an empty space. I guess I could just take down the other pictures but I do like them. I love this kid.

wow, I don't know what I did to the spacing on that last one. Sorry

Pictures from Memorial Day weekend

Sweet Scarlet, Johns' daughter. She is so much fun. I always love seeing her. Look at her toothless smile. Hope you enjoy a peek into my family.








My Dad adn my brother John. See our tents. It was like a little tent village in their back yard. It was a lot of fun. John was sweet and played with my boys. It's kinda fun to see everyone all grown up. Mike was a telling stories in this picture or as his family says "yeller dawgs" that means he stretches it a bit.

Joe with his adorably, irresistably cute baby Sam. He's one chunky cute baby and so sweet. Joe is my archeologist brother. He's really smart and a lot of fun and pretty darn silly too.

Ed, my older brother. The brother who never calls back. He looks a little weird in this picture but he can't smile normal unless he's supposed to be making a funny face. It was really good to see him too though he disappeared before we left. Perhaps to a certain females house.

My baby brother Ben. He's ten years younger then me. He's currently at BYU and doing great. It was really nice to see him too. This was actually our first Stair family reunion that I can think of. We loved it. All except the part where Sam woke up and came to snuggle me then puked on my pillow. But hey what's a reunion without someone getting sick?

This is my Lovely sister Katy and her husband Bobby and their son Gabe. This trip Katy and Bobby were given the opportunity to adopt another baby. This time from Liberia. Hopefully things work out. It's a little girl and they will call her "Maggie" I love the name. Now that I'm pregnant I'm sure I'll be thinking of names too. Of course we have a girl name picked out. Kamber Rose. A combiniation of Mike's and my sister's names. :)

Oops I guess I didn't get the picture with the first attempt. Still new at this. :)

grandma

This is my Mother's Mother. Grandma Linder. She's an amazing person. She is almost 95 years old and is still healthy and sharp as ever. She has accomplished so much in her life and is an inspiration to me.

We visited for Memorial day this year. Grandma was a bit camera shy at first but I did get a few shots of her. She was pretty worried about some skin cancer she had removed from her face. She said she didn't want to scare my boys. I told her not to worry that they would find it all the more intriguing as they love to talk about their own owies.

I take after my Grandmother's side of the family so this could be me at 95, well maybe. She always says "It's no fun getting old!" She does it gracefully. :)

Morning Sickness

Oh how I love morning sickness, wrong bongo as we say in our house. I don't love it. But it sure does love me. I have not started puking just yet so I guess I should count myself lucky. I'm sitting here drinking a lovley crushed melon Jones Pure Cane Soda that a very sweet friend brought me today and to be honest, I think it's helping. That or the fact that my kids are asleep and I have the house all to myself might add to the improved feeling.

I actually am very lucky. First of all for those of you who don't know, I'm pregnant. Oh I guess you probably figured that out from the title. Some of you may know that Mike had a vasectomy less then a year ago. Well, I had decided to send a little prayer up to make sure we were doing the right thing and I asked that if we were to have more kids the surgery wouldn't work. Well, low and behold it didn't work. We found out I was expecting the week after MIke had his second Vasectomy. He told me I was no longer allowed to pray. He was in a bit of shock but has seemed to accept this change and is even thinking of the next vehicle we will purchase as our truck will no longer suffice.

I love our family and my boys are just beyond themselves with excitement. This morning Jack crawls into bed with me and says so sweetly, "mom , I love you and the baby" They keep saying cute things about the baby and ask every two minutes if my belly is getting bigger. Glad I won't be letting them down on that one. :) David is very watchful over SAm as he tells him not to jump on the baby. Jack and David seem to grasp that I feel pretty yucky too as they have been really good and I haven't been doing much. In fact tonight I was thinking about the mess they made with their art project and deciding I didn't feel like cleaning it up or asking them to when Jack said "mom I'll clean that up" then DAvid came to help. How perfect does it get! Well all the toys are still out but that's okay.

End of school

My Jack is now finished with Kindergarten and promoted to first grade. He's so smart. I'm so very proud of him. He's a really good kid too. His teachers told me that he was a glimmer of hope in their days. Now we have 2 months off and then David will go to Pre-K and Jack to first grade. It will just be me and Sam next year. I'm a little nervous, what will we do? David and Sam play so well all day together. I'm gonna have to get on the floor again and play more . Of course I guess I should be doing that already.

We've had such a busy week and I'm sure it will just get more busy as time goes on and we have to do more before moving to Alaska.

Right now my boys are sleeping in a fort we built in the living room. It's our celebration for school being out. Poor Jack's had a fever of 103 today and hasn't felt well but it finally broke and he seemed to be excited about sleeping on the floor.

Man is my Sam 2!!!!! I can't believe how defiant he's been. Granted he had no nap today but WOW! Every two minutes he was testing me after telling him not to swing from the refridgerator door or climb up the pantry or play with the light switches. He's a wild one right now. I feel bad cause I have to discipline him but boy I don't want him to continue to think he runs the show even if that's how it feels sometimes.

David has been pretty good. He acts overly sensitive at times for attention. He played nice for a while with Jack today and that made me happy. We watched Balto last night about sled dogs in Alaska. David loved it and now prays that Daddy will let us get a dog when we move there. He is my animal lover. We just got back from my parents house memorial day and there were 3 dogs and 3 cats there (not all my parents). David loved those animals up. He would often be found laying on top of them. Silly boy.

Today I made a purse. I am proud of it. I'll have to take a picture and post it. I don't do many projects anymore but it feels good when I do.