What's Cooking

Nobody freak out - but I've now managed to post 3...THREE times between Sunday Photos! And since I'm sharing 3 recipes, I could technically break this into 3 posts - but honestly, I'm just a little lazy for that.

I thought I would post a few recipes that we've had lately that we love.  That way they are here in one place when I want to find them.

I am all about freezer meals and crock pots.  And recipes that I can throw together in minutes and are not too complicated.  These kids keep me B-U-S-Y!  If I can't make it while the baby is asleep or make it with one hand while I hold her, then we will not be eating it and it will be a breakfast for dinner kinda night.

Sunday I mentioned we had Italian Beef Sandwiches   I got the recipe from my sister - who made this for us when we had Lucy.  Wade loves this stuff!

Italian Beef Sandwiches

1 beef rump roast

1 pkg good season Italian salad dressing mix

2 tsp Italian seasoning

1/2 jar pepperoncini with their juice

1 cup beef broth

Cut the stems off the pepperoncinis.  Combine everything in your crock pot and cook on low 6-8 hours until roast is tender.  Shred beef, mix, and serve on buns with provolone cheese slices and some of the juice.

We like to serve these babies up with some homemade french fries, cole slaw and some chips.  

~~

Potato Goodness Crock Pot Soup

I found this recipe on Pinterest here.  It is now my go to potato soup recipe.  

So easy. Love it!

(we are eating it tonight!)

1 (30 oz.) bag frozen hash-brown potatoes (I use the squared, southern style)

2 (14 oz.) cans chicken broth

1 (10.75 oz.) can cream of chicken soup

1/2c chopped onion

1/3 tsp. ground black pepper

1 (8oz) package cream cheese (softened)

Throw the potatoes, chicken broth, soup, onion and pepper in a crock pot.  Cook on low for about 4 hours.  The last 30 minutes add the cream cheese and stir until blended.

I love it with cheese, green onions and some bacon.  Because bacon makes  EVERYTHING better!

~~

this next one...well, Kids love it!

I made this for a friend and she loved it and told another friend.  Who then also made it for her kids.

All 10 of our kids agree this stuff is good.

(Lucy doesn't count, but if she did - that would make 11!)

I got this recipe from one of my sister in laws when we did a recipe exchange.

Pizzeria Casserole

2 cups (8 oz) Mostaccioli pasta

1 jar (14 oz) pizza sauce

1/2 (2 oz) sliced pepperoni, quartered

1 1/2  (6oz) shredded mozzarella cheese

Parmesan

Cook pasta according to the directions on package.  Drain.  In a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish combine pasta, sauce, pepperoni and 1 cup cheese.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese and Parmesan   Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until hot and bubbly.  (Makes about 4 servings)

I usually double the recipe.  I also just buy one package of the tiny pepperoni's and throw the whole bag in. I'll be honest.  I add more cheese too.  Just because cheese is good too.

 I then put it in a 11x7 baking dish.

This makes an excellent recipe to double and freeze too!

The picture of it is the frozen version if you couldn't tell!

 I am all about doubling simple recipes lately and freezing one.

Like I said, freezer meals and crock pots are like my new best friends.

2013 Goals

A couple weeks ago we sat down at family night and worked on making some goals for 2013.

I found these fun worksheets on Pinterest that each kid filled out.

As you can tell, we tried to make suggestions, but in the end we wrote down exactly what they came up with.  

It made for some interesting answers!

Gage

Age: 8

Favorite color: white

Favorite food: pizza

Favorite activity: Legos

Favorite book: The Hobbit

Highlights of 2012:

Greatest lesson learned: cursive

Hardest thing of the year: reading

Favorite memory: Christmas

What I loved most about 2012: Legos

Looking forward to 2013:

Want to learn: Multiplication

Want to get better at: Reading

Biggest Goal: Get the most legos, legos, legos

Noah

Age: 6

Favorite color: orange

Favorite food: fried chicken Legs

Favorite activity: legos

Favorite book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Highlights of 2012:

Greatest lesson learned: site words

Hardest thing of the year: moving to Utah

Favorite memory: finishing preschool!

What I loved most about 2012: getting a huge bean bag!

Looking forward to 2013:

What to learn: to read

Want to get better at: wrestling, learning articles of faith

Biggest Goal: Get Better at Angry Birds

Avery

Age: 3

Favorite color: purple

Favorite food: chicken legs

Favorite activity: playing house

Favorite book: Barbie books

Highlights of 2012

Greatest lesson learned: be nice

Hardest thing of the year: leaving Linkin

Favorite memory: Linkin

What I loved most about 2012: When Lucy was born!

Looking Forward to 2013:

Want to learn: ABC sounds and write my name

Want to get better at: being nice

Biggest Goal: Learn a sport!

Eli

Age: 2

Favorite color: blue

Favorite food: food and candy

Favorite activity: flips, cars and trains

Favorite book: anything anyone else is reading

Highlights of 2012: 

Greatest lesson learned: to like nursery class at church

Hardest thing of the year: moving

Favorite memory: Lucy

What I loved most about 2012: Playing in the splash pad

Looking forward to 2013:

Want to learn: to go potty!

Want to get better at: sharing and singing

Biggest Goal: ABC's

Lucy May

Age: 2 months

Favorite Color: pink (just a guess) 

Favorite food: milk

Favorite activity: being with mom

Favorite book: The Hunger Games and McGlamery's Comprehensive Foot and Ankle Surgery 

(just kidding, just seeing if anyone is paying attention)

Highlights of 2012:

Being born and coming home

Looking forward to 2013:

Want to learn: roll over, sit up, crawl and walk

Want to get better at: not crying

Biggest Goal: Be as cute as I can be!

{Snow Shoveling}

Mr. Eli has become such a little ham!  

He thinks he is so funny and he is always trying to cause mischief.

Tonight when Wade and the big ones were outside shoveling he kept trying to get out there.

Well, he finally made it.

the little sneak

Nothing like shoveling (sweeping) snow in your brothers boots, your sisters hat, mismatching gloves and no pants.

I finally got him back in and dressed for bed.  

And then I got Lucy dressed for bed and I couldn't find Eli again.

He was back outside.

At least he grabbed some boots and a hat again.

What a goof.

Sunday Photo: 4

Tonight we fed the missionaries.

We love feeding the missionaries and having them in our home - we don't get the opportunity as much as we did in Iowa and Washington.  

So tonight was special.

We ate the yummiest Italian Beef Sandwiches.

(thanks to my sister for the recipe)

Maybe I'll even post it soon.

Surprise!  It is snowing - again.  Boo.  I am not a winter kinda girl.  

Although Saturday Wade and the kids did talk me into running and jumping onto our sled.  

I shot across the front yard.

I bet you had a picture of that!

Wade and the big 3 kids are outside shoveling our driveway.  

I caught Eli trying to make a break for the door wearing this.

Good times.  Our house is never dull.

Happy Sunday.

Lucy's update

Another post about the pint size blog hog.

Last Friday I took Lucy to the cardiologist at Primary Children's to check out the heart murmur she was born with.  While she is growing and thriving, and deep down I wasn't too concerned, it still made for an emotional stressful day.

Lucy was super good and cute during her EKG.  She laid really still and kept lifting her arms up so show us her muscles.  As if she wanted to say - Look at me!  I am one tough girl!   

Look at all those darn cords!

The resident and cardiologist had a look at the EKG, took a listen and talked to me we decided she needed an echo cardiogram too.  She wasn't too cute during that test.  She was tired and she sleeps best when she is wrapped up tight in her blankets, but she couldn't be wrapped up and have the test done.  The only way they could get her to lay still was to give her sugar water on a binkie.  She doesn't even like a binkie!  And she doesn't like strangers.   One fellow had to hold her with the binkie feeding her sugar water while the other fellow did the test.  I'll let you just imagine how happy all this made her.  

In the end the results showed that she has the same exact heart murmur as Gage.  Pulmonary Valve Stenosis.

The cardiologist was a little concerned about the stenosis though and since Lucy didn't really corporate to well during the echo he wants us to come back next month for a sedated echo.

Boo.

I am not excited about this, but I understand he can get a better look at her heart and we will know more information this way. He suggests that (similar to what we did with Gage) we follow her pretty close this year while she is growing so much. Then, if everything is working correctly we can spread out the visits.

(Gage currently goes 3 years between visits. But at his last appointment it was brought up they would want closer visits during his teenage years because it's another time frame in which the body goes through growth spurts. It makes sense, you grow a ton as a baby, level out, then grow a ton as a teenager, then level out).

So we know some information and it's something that we were already familiar with. We will know more on the 19. But honestly, I am pretty nervous about the sedation. Noah was sedated once, but that whole experience was like the worst day ever. I am positive this one will be a better experience, but still. Little Lucy. She's been keeping me up at night since before she was even born.  

I suppose those chubby little cheeks are worth all the trouble. ;)

Here's hoping for good news next month!

Sunday Photo: 3

There was a little bit of Star Wars tonight for the kids before bedtime.  

And ooey-gooey cinnamon rolls.  

No school tomorrow or Tuesday, so we are all excited about that.

It's been busy and a whole week has gone by without a single post.  

I hope to spend some time tomorrow catching up.

Avery gave her first talk in Primary today.  She was super excited and so cute.  She helped me pick some pictures and we made a little book so she could "read" it.  I had her tell me the talk again when we got home and recorded it.  She is super quiet (so turn up your volume Mom and Dad, I suspect you will be the only ones to watch this).  She added a sentence on the end that she thinks is so funny - I'm not sure why - but she didn't say it in Primary today.

Since it's hard to hear, this is what she says:

"We lived in Heaven with Jesus before we were born.

Heavenly Father had a plan for us.

He sent us to earth.

We can get our bodies.

We can make choices.

He wants us to be happy.

I can be happy.

I can live with Heavenly Father again.

The, she says something about the sun, the moon and house and being sad!  

What a goof.

She is growing up!

(If you want to learn more about what Avery is talking about - where we came from, why we are here, where we go next, you can click on the "I believe" button on the top sidebar.  Lots of good information.  And ignore the super old profile.  I need to work on that!)

Sunday Photo: 2

It's cold. As in, it's currently 5 degrees, with negative numbers in the forecast-I can't feel my limbs when I go outside-I feel like we live back in Iowa-cold. And on top of it, we got 23 (give or take a few) inches of snow this weekend. School was actually canceled Friday (only the second time in the past 13 years) and we stayed inside drinking hot chocolate and playing Lego Star Wars.

(In case anyone is wondering, we didn't make it to Lucy's cardiology appointment. I didn't even attempt the roads. I kinda felt bad about canceling. Then I heard there were over 300 accidents, and felt pretty good about staying home. She got rescheduled for next Friday.)

I suppose it is January. What else should I expect?

Today was a perfect day of rest. Eli came down with a fever yesterday and has been down for the count since. So Wade took the older 3 to church with him and the little two stayed at home with me. Then we did the switch-a-roo so I could help Noah give a talk in Primary and go to Relief Society.

(Noah thought the ice on the building was amazing.  But it was way to cold to stand there and take pictures!)

We had a lazy afternoon. Wade read some Fablehaven to the boys. Wade hadn't read that series either so they are all enjoying it. I knew they would all love it!

Avery and I did pedicures.

And then I attempted a nap with my two cute girls. Only Lucy got sleep. But I could have cuddled forever.

Everyone pitched in for dinner tonight.

Eli (after lots of hand washing and hand sanitizer) helped wrap the bake potatoes in tin foil.

Gage made a side dish of corn. 

(He wasn't too happy about this, but he had to help anyway)

Noah made everyone "sparkling drinks" (crystal light and diet sprite).

I made shrimp scampi.

Wade made yummy baked salmon and brownies. (Not together, of course!)

Lucy took a nap so this could all happen.

And Avery fixed a bowl full of sprinkles.

I am not even kidding.

Perhaps she is an elf?!

I think finishing the day off with a little Downton Abbey and hot chocolate sounds just about right.

I am almost positive Lucy will cry through almost the entire Downton episode, just because I want to watch it, and I'll have to read the dialog on closed caption. All while bouncing and walking the little Lulu.  I better have some good looking mommy arms for all baby bouncing I do every day.

I know our crazy little life is far from perfect. But today (a rarity) was pretty darn close.

Lucy Lu

Another post about Lucy.

And since she is a hog of my Instagram account (wadeanddebbi), 

she might as well be a blog hog too.

Sidebar: I do have good intentions of blogging about the other kids this week and the goals we have all made for this year.

(Good intentions does not mean I will get it done, right?)

Back to Princess Lu-Lu and a couple cute pictures from our phones.
(nickname courtesy Wade)

She had her 2 month appointment this morning.

She is 10 pounds on the dot.  I think maybe 3 pounds are in her cheeks.

The tiny little pint is in the 25% for weight.

She was 22 inches tall, putting her in the 25% for height too.

And her head was 14.2, which put her in the 3rd percentile.  She might have a small head, but her hair makes up for it, right?

Wade took this and he thought he was being so funny.  Like mother, like daughter?

Avery once approached me while I was nursing Lucy and said, 

"Mom, is that were the coke comes from?"

HA!  

The Dr. did notice that he can still hear her heart murmur.  She had one when she was born and we were all pretty sure it go away with time, but since he can still hear it now we agreed we better get it checked out.  So off we go Friday to Primary Children's for a cardiology appointment.  I would guess it's probably something very similar to Gage's heart murmur (background posts - here, here) and nothing too serious.  

(Avery has an innocent one too, that you can only really hear when you listen really well when she has a fever, she's been checked out and is fine)

Wade is already stressed about it.  I mentioned it to him when he came home for lunch and he said, "Why can't we just have a normal healthy child!"

I dissagree.  I tuck all five of them in bed each night and count my blessings they are at home with me and not in a hospital somewhere.  We have our challenges, like everyone does.  I think sometimes our problems are easier to find than they were 10, 20 years ago.  And that is a blessing.  I would rather know, than not know.  I wonder how many of us walk around with heart murmurs of health problems we don't know about every single day.  And saying our children are "not healthy" is always put into perspective for me when I visit Primary Children's and I am able to go home with them the same day.  I remember taking Gage (to the same department) 8 years ago for a check up and meeting a woman in the hall.  She then showed me pictures of her baby and told me about how they had lived there...THERE, in the hospital for the past couple months since the baby was born.  There are families who live there.  When we lived at the U our ward was in charge of helping with sacrament meetings held there every once in a while.  I went one time with Wade and one time was all my heart could handle.

I can count my blessings.

So Friday morning (bright and early) off we go.  

I feel pretty good about our appointment.  

Just look at those chubby little cheeks and all that crazy hair,

No matter what we hear, I think she is perfect.

Sunday Photo:1

Our first Sunday Photo of 2013!

Our church time changed this year.  Last year we went from 1-4, now we get to go from 9-12.  

I love this time slot so much more!  

We are morning people!  

We made it to church early and even manged to take this picture of silly faces before we left.

And I didn't yell at anyone, once!

Avery is pretty excited because today was her special day!  She got to start Sunbeams at church, and she got her very own Book of Mormon from us.

She's been watching her brothers and been waiting for this day for such a long time.  It was fun to see her go off to Primary.  And it's crazy to think that in a year from now, Eli will be going to Primary too!

We are looking forward to having lots of lazy Sunday afternoons this year.  Maybe I can use the time to catch up my blog every week (like I did today).  Maybe Wade can catch a nap (like he did today).

It's nice to have the little change in schedule.

~

I had the opportunity to teach a lesson today in church on charity.  It was a harder lesson to teach for some reason.  I just couldn't wrap my head around how to teach the material. 

I'm sure I learned more from this lesson than anyone else.  

But what I loved the most was the hand out that we used at the end of the lesson.

I'm making it a goal this year to become more aware of my surroundings.

I think there are people around me every day that I could serve.

I just need to open my eyes and my heart.

And my goal is to notice them, to be more charitable, and to offer more relief.

I might not be able to do huge-mountain-moving acts of charity.  

But I can focus on doing little things every day.

Small things I can do.

"...and by small and simple things are great things brought to pass."

-Alma 37:6

2 Months

Lucy May is 2 Months old already!

And just look at those chubby little cheeks!

Everyone loves Lucy's hair.  She gets a lot of attention anywhere we go because people are always commenting and wanting to feel and touch her hair!  Last night we went to dinner with Wade's family (for a date!) (with Lucy!) and Wade walked out to the lobby of the restaurant holding her at one point.  He said he got swarmed with young women and girls that all wanted to see her, feel her hair and look at her!  He said he was standing their circled by all these women and felt a little silly!

Lucy is a pretty good sleeper at night.  Once she finally goes to sleep around 10 she wakes up once around 3 and then around 5 and then for the day around 7.  Not too shabby.

I would love to get her on more of a  schedule, but when I am running around 4 other little people's schedule too it becomes a challenge.  I like the Babywise book (eat, wake, sleep) routine, so we stick pretty close to that.  She eats every 2 1/2 to 3 hours during the day.  She eats, spends some time looking around at all of us and then I wrap her up in her blanket and off to sleep she goes!

I wouldn't call her an easy baby, but I wouldn't call her colicky either...maybe a temperamental baby is more like it.

And all rules with Lucy go out the door from 7pm-10pm.  She is super grumpy those hours, every day.

I can feed her, burp her, rock her, bounce her, wrap her or walk with her and she just seems unhappy.

Sometimes we get her to go to sleep by walking up and down the stairs with her over and over.

At least we are getting our exercise, right?

She is not a "spitty" baby but she does sleep better when she is sitting up a tiny bit, so she sleeps in her bouncy chair, that is in the crib.  Maybe she has a touch of reflux?  Who knows.

I haven't pinpointed if it's something I eat, or just who she is, but every night it's the same.  

She won't take a binky and there are times I wish she would suck her fingers like Eli, but I know that won't make her as easy as baby as Eli.  He is just an easy going boy.  And I think she is just a different little personality.

Hopefully she'll outgrow it, but like Wade said the other night, it sure is easier to be more patient with her when you know she is our last one.

They change so fast so we are just enjoying every day!

Everyone around here still adores her, whether she is crying or not.  Gage and Noah like to show off that they can hold her now while they are standing up.  And Avery tries to pick her up..so we are working on that.  Eli just looks at her and runs off to play trains.

She is filling out and growing out of clothes.  We moved up a diaper size!  And those chubby cheeks are just so kissable!

We go in this week for her 2 month shots and check up, so we'll see just how much she has grown!

She's growing, she's perfect, and she changes every single day.

We are so glad we have her!

Ringing in 2013

We were all excited for New Year's this year.  The older the kids get I think the more excited they get for these holidays when we let them do ridiculous silly things.  New Year's Eve we had another family over that lives on our street.  Our kids are pretty similar in age so everyone had a good time playing.  

We got a cotton-candy maker for Christmas so Wade made sure everyone had a lot of sugar.

It's a fun little toy to have around, I think from now on we will need to have cotton-candy at every party!

Wade made crepes and played crazy Minute To Win It games with the kids....

Then of course, 

(around 9pm because our kids would never last all night and 4 of 5 of them can't tell time!), 

the whole reason my kids LOVE New Year's Eve:

Silly 

String.

I only buy it once a year and I think it's the best tradition ever!

It's just hard to get pictures because

1. I can get good pictures and get attacked

or

2.  Attack and not get great pictures.

I tend to learn towards the latter.

Previous Silly string fights: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009

And honestly, it's not really that hard to clean up!

(Because Wade does it every year!)

On New Year's Day we started out at Kangaroo Zoo bright and early so the kids could run and get all their energy out.  After being off track for over a month, it was their last hurrah!

Then we headed down to Scheels to take a look around (with everyone else in Salt Lake County).

We can't decide if the Scheels here really is bigger than the one we were used to in Iowa, it's hard to tell, but the kids were pretty excited to check out all the photo opps and the ferris wheel. 

(Although we didn't let them ride it because the line wrapped around the wheel twice!)

Then because we didn't do fireworks on New Year's Eve we did them on New Year's Day!  

It was a chilling 4 degrees outside.

But my little eskimos had a good time with sparklers and little fireworks.

It was bitter-sweet when the kids woke up on January 2nd and had to go back to school.

We are looking forward to everything 2013 has to offer!