Oregon Adventure

Last Thursday we flew standby into Eugene, OR to see our niece Abagail's baby blessing that Sunday. We stayed with Jason's sister Lisa. It was so fun to see everybody in the family except for Jimmie & Co. all in one weekend! Here are a few of the highlights, in no particular order:

• Playing SingStar with the Gray kids, although I still need to fulfill my promise of beating Javan and Kambria at their own game. (SingStar is a video game that is basically competition karaoke. We had never played before and it was really fun. Jason and I even got to play by ourselves for a while when the rest of the family went strawberry picking and we stayed behind with a couple of sleeping babies.)
• Going entirely off Weight Watchers for an entire weekend. We even got Junior Mints in the theater and See's candy in the airport. Very yummy, but I overloaded and was ready to be good again when we got home.
• Witnessing sweet Abby's blessing. Her dad, Scott, is a recent convert to the Church and it was awesome to hear him bless her.
• Eating Dad Maner's famous egg sandwiches.
• Going out on a boat in the lake and watching Javan ski. Well, actually it wasn't skiing but he was on this board thing and I don't remember what it's called. Brooklyn hated her life jacket.
• Jason beating Javan in a game of Horse.
• Meeting Scott's family.
• Watching how much Brooklyn liked to play with Kylan's toys and how much Kylan liked to bang on Brooklyn's head. Not so much fun for her...
• Going for a walk around a beautiful little lake and finding the cutest salamander ever. After meeting that little guy, we decided we were going to get one as a pet. However, I did some research and apparently 90% of them carry Salmonella and are not recommended as pets for households with children under 5. So sad...
• Going to a movie for the second time since Brooklyn was born. We saw "Horton Hears a Who." It was cute.
• Going to Javan's basketball game at the sports center.
• Giving Brooklyn her first bath in a regular tub. She LOVED it. (Yes, we still bathe her in the sink. I'm putting off getting soaked and spending any length of time with my knees on linoleum for as long as possible.)
• Playing dominos and "Loaded Questions."
• Discussing the superiority of "The Host" to the Twilight series with my librarian sister-in-law, Luann.
• Eating Lisa's amazing home-cooked meals... and sleeping in Kambria's comfy bed, complete with satin sheets. Thanks so much you guys!

It was a great trip, but it obviously had to end at some point. Jason's first day of school was Tuesday so we were anxious to get home. However, the flights coming home looked HORRIBLE for standby. We were going to leave Monday afternoon but it didn't look worth it to spend the day in the airport and probably not be able to fly anyway. So, we decided to have a nice day on Monday and then fly through Vegas that night. We were flying on another airline so our standby priority was lower than everybody else's. We flew to Vegas without a problem, but had kind of anticipated being stuck there that night. When we called earlier in the day, there were four unsold seats and 6 people listed standby (including us). The only way we were going to get on was if 2 people didn't show up. When we got into Vegas, the connecting flight was delayed about an hour. We got there a little after 10 pm and the flight was delayed until 12:45. So we were looking at a 3 hour wait to POSSIBLY get onto the next flight. We were thinking we would just leave and get a hotel, but the girl at the counter told us that we were the only ones flying standby. (Apparently the others had cancelled?) She encouraged us to wait with our cranky 8-month-old, so we did. We were hungry and tired and anxious, but we took her advice. When the plane was finally ready to board, we were relieved to get our seats assignments. It was one of those planes where you have to go down stairs to get to the tarmack and then go up stairs to get on the plane. It was a big pain with the stroller, carryon, and sleepy child, but we were excited to be on our way home. This is where we ran into a problem. Somehow, the attendant had made a mistake and the PLANE WAS FULL!!! We were kicked off. It was after 1:00 in the morning and we had nowhere to go. To make a long story somewhat shorter, after another hour we were finally in a hotel room. Jason missed his first day of class and we flew JetBlue into SLC the next afternoon. I was pretty miffed that the attendant had us stay when there REALLY WERE 4 OTHER PEOPLE FLYING STANDBY and we could have been in a hotel a good 4 hours earlier than we were, and possibly had a nice day in Vegas before flying home. Anyway, that's standby for you. Brooklyn is 8 months old and has been on 12 standby flights, with this one being the only bad experience. I guess we'll just have to stick with JetBlue, the best airline in America, from now on. So here are some pictures from the trip. We brought both the video and regular cameras and somehow left them at Lisa's house every time we went out. I have a bunch of pictures on my cell phone with no way to get them off. So a couple of these are ours, but the rest are pilfered off other other people's blogs. =)

The whole gang after Abagail's blessing.

Going on a walk with all the strollers. I felt like we were a pioneer handcart company.

Abagail in her blessing dress.

My cute little one.

The Nelson family with the new baby.

Brooklyn sleeping on Aunt Lashelle.

Lisa with Kylan wearing his cute little glasses.

Brooklyn taking her first fascinated look at the big movie screen. She was pretty good, fussy at one point but then fell asleep on Daddy.

Guess Who's Standing?!

Brooklyn has a tendency to learn new tricks immediately after being with family. That way, nobody gets to see it. Great. Anyway, we spent a great weekend in Oregon with the Grays, Nelsons and Maners and this is what Brooklyn did the day after we got back....

Yippee!! Amidst the chaos of unpacking and laundry, a new talent is born. Jason and I were distracted and I looked at her and it didn't really register that she had pulled herself up. Then I did a double-take and said, "Wait! She doesn't know how to do that!" Jason caught this picture on his cell phone the very first time she ever did it. That doesn't happen often. Anyway, we'll tell you about our weekend soon. Stay tuned!

Summertime

Well, here's Provo for you. A week ago, our temperatures were running an average of 20 degrees lower than usual for the time of the year. This week, they are running 10 degrees higher. So all of a sudden it's hot, and we don't have central air. We do have the little "in the window" air conditioners, but they are SO noisy and I feel like they blow so much dust into the room. Plus, you have to have your blinds up in order to turn them on and, being on the first floor, I feel like I'm in a fish bowl all day. So far we have done okay with just a fan and shorts. Here's the little one all dressed up for the heat:

We have taken her swimming in the pool a few times and she LOVES it. She liked it when we went swimming in Florida, but now she just splashes and kicks and smiles up a storm. It's the entire reason we go. So much fun. Here's another shot of her looking all milky and windblown from drinking a bottle in front of the fan.

Speaking of bottles, she doesn't like them anymore! The only time I can get her to finish one is first thing in the morning. Other than that, she acts very disinterested. She's a good eater otherwise, but I worry about her getting dehydrated since it's so hot. She doesn't even like juice in a sippy cup! Any ideas why this might be? How can I keep her hydrated?

Speaking of summer, do spiders come out when it's hot? I have seen a few around lately. Today I saw a HUGE one while Jason was at work and I had to kill it all by myself! Luckily, there was a can of Raid in the house. Jason always teases me when I spray bugs with hairspray or Lysol. He says, "Girls always think that anything aerosol is poison. That's not going to do anything." Well, it might not kill them, but if I'm going to have a spider in my house, I think I'd rather it be stylish and clean. Anyway, I sprayed the little bugger and sucked up its body in the vacuum cleaner. I always feel freaked out for a while after I kill a spider. I think its friends are going to come back for revenge or something. Or maybe it wasn't dead and it's going to crawl out of my vacuum cleaner and come get me in the night. Freaky thing - I just saw another one crawling up the wall as I typed this. AAAHHH!!!

Luckily, we get to escape the heat and the spiders and are headed off to Oregon tomorrow for our niece Abagail's baby blessing. We're flying standby and the flights look great going out there but not so good coming back. Maybe we'll be forced into an extended vacation. I'll be sure to post pictures upon our return! Happy summer!

The Prettiest Rose

Our little Stinkerbell is now 8 months old! I can't believe the time has gone so fast. Why does my belly still look like she was born yesterday?! We got her pictures taken at JCPenney's the other day. We had to wake her up for the appointment and she was NOT happy about that. She pretty much cried the whole time. These pictures are the only ones we got of her where she was not crying or recovering from tears. I think they are cute, but not as good as I had hoped for. The top one is the one that I thought was SO adorable and ordered for everyone. Now that I look at it, she totally looks like she is just faking a little smile and is really not happy. I guess that expression didn't show up as well on the monitor they showed me. Oops. Anyway, I think I like the closeup of her in pink the best because you can see her little teethers. What a cutie!

I have really loved getting to know this little one. She has such a personality and is sure to let you know whether she likes or dislikes something you do. For example, she HATES having her teeth brushed/cleaned. Daddy has to hold her arms down while I do it. She has resorted to sticking her tongue out as far as she can so I can't get to them. Let me tell you, this kid has a LONG tongue. It's also surprisingly strong.
Brooklyn is the least picky eater I have ever met. She will eat anything that gets put into her mouth, including leaves, wrappers, or anything else she finds on the floor. This trait also extends to edible substances. Although I can tell that there are certain foods she likes better than others, she will eat anything without complaint, even medicines and vitamins. It's nice for now, but I hope she won't grow up to be a young lady who eats anything in sight.

Another quirk of hers is her obsession with cords. She LOVES cords of any type. We try to keep them out of her reach, but our cable cord attaches really low on the wall and there is no way to keep her away from it. She is fully aware of the fact that she is not supposed to touch it. In fact, if she starts going towards it and you simply say her name, she will start crying out of sheer guilt. The other day I was making dinner and she was in the living room playing around. All of a sudden, I heard something come crashing down. Brooklyn started crying and I rushed in to see what happened. She had pulled the cord so hard that the VCR fell off the shelf above onto the ground. I don't think it hit her because she stopped crying after I picked her up, but that was pretty scary. I subsequently taped the cord to the wall as far up as I could. At least now if she pulls too hard, it will just pull some tape off and won't pull the VCR down. Hopefully she has learned her lesson. Also, we have found that an acceptable replacement for electrical cords is Daddy's belt. She plays with that thing forever and acts simply ecstatic that Mommy and Daddy allow her her very own play "cord."

Brooklyn's hair is getting to be somewhat unruly. It is too long to simply smooth down with your hand like before, but two short to do anything else with it. It ends up sticking every which way or looking really scrappy 5 minutes after I fix it, even when I use mousse. =) I am unhappy to report that it is also as straight as a pin.

There are a lot of other good things about our little one that I'd like to share, but it's late and I'm tired. Suffice it to say that we love our Brooklyn Rose!!

What's for Dinner?

Lettuce Wraps!!

This recipe was SO yummy and so EASY!! You can even use leftover chicken. Enjoy!

2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar

10 oz cooked chicken breast, chopped small

1 cup water chestnuts, chopped small

2/3 cup mushrooms (I'm not a big fan, so I left them out)

3 tablespoons chopped onions

1 teaspoon minced garlic

6-8 leaves lettuce, rinsed and dried (iceburg or romaine work best)

Combine soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar in a small bowl until sugar is dissolved. Set aside. Spray a large frying pan with cooking spray and heat to medium heat. Add chicken, water chestnuts, mushrooms, onions, and garlic until heated through. Pour soy sauce mixture over the chicken and heat a little more. Spoon chicken mixture into lettuce leaves, roll up, and enjoy!

This was so yummy you would never think you could eat it on a diet! I counted the whole recipe as 10 points, 9 for the chicken and 1 for the brown sugar. Jason and I split it for 5 points each! Splash a little teriyaki sauce on some 0 point stir-fried veggies and you've got dinner! It would be good with rice too.

The website I modified this recipe from also had a recipe for a "special sauce" to go with them. The people who rated the recipe just RAVED about the sauce. I made the sauce but we didn't eat it because I thought it just tasted like watery ketchup. I'll put the recipe here if you want to try it, but I would recommend making it without the ketchup and adding it to taste at the end.

Special Sauce

1/4 cup sugar (I replaced half of it with Splenda to cut calories)

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

2 tablespoons ketchup

1/8 teaspoon sesame oil (I didn't have any so I left it out)

1 tablespoon hot mustard, mixed into 2 teaspoons hot water

1-2 teaspoons garlic and red chile paste

Just mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Make sure to mix the hot mustard with the water first or you will have little mustard clumps.

Don't like lettuce wraps? Here's a different Asian-inspired recipe. We have this one about twice a month.

Noodles with Peanut Sauce

2 T soy sauce
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp garlic pwdr
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 C peanut butter (I used crunchy so there'd be little peanut chunks)

Sauce: whisk together soy sauce, lemon juice, cornstarch, garlic powder and red pepper flakes. In a small saucepan, whisk together peanut butter with 1/2 cup hot water. (Add more water before you pour it over the noodles or it will be too thick.) Add soy sauce mixture to peanut butter mixture; bring to simmer over medium heat until mixture thickens. Reserve.

I cut up a large, 9 oz chicken breast into bite-sized pieces and cook it in a frying pan with some Pam spray. Then I dump in about 1/3 of a bag of the Costco stir-fry frozen vegetable mix. We LOVE this mix. It's got broccoli, carrots, peppers, water chestnuts, mushrooms, edamame, etc. I do cut the broccoli florets in half because they are disproportionately large. Anyway, after that is cooked through you add about 1/2 box of cooked spaghetti noodles. I use the Ronzoni SmartTaste brand. It's white pasta but it's got fiber and calcium in it. I break the noodles into thirds before cooking. Pour the peanut sauce over everything and mix it up!

You end up with a yummy, peanutty noodle dish with lots of veggies and a little protein. The Ronzoni pasta is only 1 point an ounce so the whole recipe makes 4 LARGE servings for about 7 points each. We are always impressed at how much food you get for just 7 points!

I did it!

I finally got up the guts to cut off all my hair! Freedom!! These pictures are a little wind-blown because we went on a walk right after, but you get the idea. What do you think? Love it or hate it?

Big Day for Baby

Yesterday was a big day for the little girl. In the morning, I noticed that she had a third tooth! It's on the top left. Not the front tooth, but the one next to that. That's going to look really funny after it grows in more. Hopefully she'll at least get one on the other side to match. Don't they usually come in a certain order? I thought it was usually the front bottom teeth and then the front top teeth. Maybe that's just the most common but not the rule.

Later in the day I was working and Jason came in and told me that she had crawled up on her hands and knees! She has been doing her army crawl this whole time. She has been trying to crawl like a big girl for a while, it's fun to see her finally succeed. She still gets in a hurry and falls down and crawls on her tummy most of the time. I'm sure she'll be more steady soon.

I thought she looked so pretty dressed for church this morning, but she wouldn't let me get a good picture. All she wanted to do was chew on this shoe and she'd cry when I'd take it away. These are the best I could get:

Crawling like a big girl!

This is just a funny shot of Brooklyn trying to eat the camera this morning. Notice that she already loves New York. Gotta teach em young.