Portal Cake geekiness

I went temporarily crazy yesterday and attempted my first three layer cake for our work party. Who woulda known I had this kinda time on my hands for such an escapade?


There are only a few people who read this blog who will even recognize this as anything more than your average deluxe and delectable chocolate cake. It's actually a cake from a really cool game that John and I played a few months back. It's patterned after this cake.

Not bad for a n00b. :)

Proclamation Effay Cheese

A couple months ago we decided to take a sentence from "The Family, A Proclamation to the World" as the topic schedule for our upcoming family home evenings. It's the part where it says,

"Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities."

So we did an FHE on each of those and it's been awesome. Yesterday we finished up with the last one, so for our FHE we picked up Wendy's for dinner and headed up the canyon for fun and adventure.


So much fun and adventure in fact that eating wasn't even close to first on the list for two little boys. They actually finished all their food though, which is a credit to them in such an environment. :)


Jonathan was super proud to have climbed up so high. He could take some lessons from his cousin Isaac, who is a superb climber too.


And, (drum roll) I actually got a picture with me in it, and with all of us together! It happens less often than I would like. Luke is doing his best to get his finger in John's ear, hence the "he's getting me!" face. Seth got all shy because he didn't know the woman we asked to take our picture. He's that kind of boy. :) But hey, it's a family picture. I'll take whatever I can get. :)

We came home and had Otter Pops on the front lawn, and Luke had his first serving of rice cereal, and was a pro at it.

Anyway, it was great fun, and I'd like to do it every single day.

Play date

Seth had his super cute friend over to play the other day, and felt very cool about it.


She is sunshine personified.



They had a really hard time coming to a consensus about what to play. She wanted to play house with the baby, and he wanted to play cars. But she said she didn't like cars. It was headed straight for disaster until I suggested that they play house with Seth as the dad, and when he goes to work, he works with the cars. It was a big hit. And they played happily ever after. :)

Little boy blue

Luke hasn't been eating or sleeping really well for a while now, and he's started looking really thin to us, so at John's prompting I took Luke in to the doctor today. And he's lost 1 lb 3 oz since his last appointment 3 weeks ago! That was alarming, both to me and our pediatrician. That's almost 10% of his weight, and he's supposed to be gaining 2 or 3 ounces every day, certainly not losing weight. He said Luke seems perfectly healthy otherwise, which is good, he just needs to be getting more.

He suggested supplementing with formula (which is unusual for him since he's a very strong advocate of breast feeding, as am I) and also starting him on rice cereal. John had suggested supplementing yesterday, and I've been wanting to start food for him to help him get more, but didn't want to start too early.

So today after the doctor appointment I came home and tried to nurse him but he didn't want any, and then I offered the formula, and he guzzled it. I was using the 2 oz pre-mixed sample bottles, and he drank it down fast and steady. I thought, "wow, he was hungry." And then it occurred to me that he might drink more, so I offered a second bottle, which he drank just as quickly, and then a 3rd and then a 4th. Eight ounces without even stopping for a second. The poor boy was starving. And it was a beautiful thing to see him finish and lay back, content, and actually full, for probably the first time in a long time. I'm so happy to let him eat all he needs! It's a little bittersweet in a way though too, that I couldn't give him what he needs, but I'm so happy that he's getting it now. For whatever reason my milk supply is low, and he's not getting enough when he sucks, so he pulls away. I've never been a fan of formula (quite the opposite actually) but when using it means your baby won't be losing weight anymore, it's heaven sent.

The plan now is to mix formula and breast milk for all his feedings (at least for the next week) so we can double his calories and see if he can gain some weight back. John gave him a blessing this evening that he'll be able to react well to the changes, and that his system can accept the new things we're adding to his diet. I really hope he can do well. He's an awesome little boy. His favorite thing lately is to reach out and touch your face. It melts us all. :)

Work in Progress. . .

I can't say how good it feels to draw again. This is James Madison. He's amazing.

Quote of the Day

I picked up some shirts for SUU for Mary that were printed up here, and someone came to pick them up from my house. This is what they said, verbatim:

"Mary is so awesome. She knows everything. If it weren't for her, I'd be totally lost."


And later, "Thank Heaven for Mary."

What can I say? Everyone loves Mary. :)

Happy 4th of July!

What a blessing to live in this country. As evidenced by such a plentiful breakfast!


Jonathan's idea and creation. :)

Two reasons why I love my crust recipe

My friend shared some beautiful peppers with me, so I used them this evening to make quiche, (which FYI came from the german word kuchen, which changed to kuche, and means "cake.") Tangent, sorry. :)

As I was sauteing the peppers and onions, it struck me as so beautiful that I had to take a picture.

(Just before cooking it.) It was fun to make - with spinach, ham, onions, peppers (green, orange and red,) green onions, cheese. . .

MMM - it turned out really good, and Jonathan and Seth even loved it.

In other news, I made these today too, hence the extra crust for the quiche. And if apple pie isn't the best food on the planet, I'm not sure what is.

Swing kids

A swing set really is a simple thing, but it provides literally hours of enjoyment!

Jonathan taught Seth to pump. And now Seth is tall enough to get onto the swing by himself, so the world of swinging has opened up to him.

Today I looked out back and saw the boys just swinging and talking together, or here they're "running" while swinging,

or timing their swings to be in sync with each other (the universal challenge in swingdom.)

I'm always the clandestine camera woman from my perch on the deck. It's fun because I can observe without interrupting their mood. I like these guys.