March's Ten Things

March was a great month, and I'm amazed it over!  Here are my:

 1.  I made a lot of bread this month, including wheat, white, focaccia, and chocolate bread.  And lots of rolls too!

2.  I have been very good at keeping my journal this year, and have written every week instead of only once a month.

3.  We built an awesome train bridge.

4.  Flowers are blooming!

5.  We ate green cookies on St. Patrick's Day.

6.  I got a few fun camera gadgets and have enjoyed playing with them (you just wouldn't know judging by the lack of pictures I've posted . . .)

7.  We've lived in our house one year now!

8.  I purchased a beautiful little decorative tree (made with freeze dried real leaves instead of plastic ones!) for $25 when the original price was $165!!!

9.  I've had more play dates with friends this month than the whole rest of the year combined.

10.  TODAY we are finally enjoying really nice weather and went outside to play!!

Hi!

Hi everybody!  We know our mom hasn't blogged much this month, but we're all still alive and doing well.  My mom told us that, in looking through old blog posts, she realized March last year was her lowest posting month as well.  Something about March gets her sidetracked.  She's been busy, and happy though.  And we bet she'll post some more soon.

xoxo

E and M

One Year

We’ve now lived in our house for a year! I can’t believe how fast this past year has gone. As I’ve thought about our time here, I just got really happy that I’m married to such a smart man! Todd has fixed so many things in and around our home and I can’t pass up this opportunity to think about some of the things he has done!

Without Todd . . .

I’d be breathing in radon never knowing it

The grass would have died because the sprinkling system didn’t work, and now it does

The side of my house would still have a broken light

My door from the garage to the house would still have a doggy door cut out of it . . . and squeak a lot!

The sink in my hall bathroom would still be pouring water out the bottom pipe

My backyard fence would forever have a huge hole in it

My garage would have wardrobes in it instead of big storage shelves

The playroom would have only one light bulb instead of a fixture with three

The back yard wouldn’t have a place for a vegetable garden

And we all would have been awfully lonely.

Signs on the Bedroom Doors

Here is the sign that has been hanging on Ethan's bedroom door for quite a while now:

 Yes, that is a picture of Madeline, Todd and Me with a big X through it.  We aren't allowed in his room.  Of course the sign is only in force when he's working on projects for us.  And that's why we can't come in.  He's making surprises, like the sign that now hangs on Madeline's door:

And while St. Patrick's Day is well over, it's hard to take down a sign from Ethan when it actually has something on it other than animals!  This sign was To Baby since that is Madeline's favorite thing to be called lately, and well, pink princesses and cats . . . those are her favorite things. 

The Word Game

Ethan has a new favorite game.  This one was thought up by Todd and I'm glad for a new game to play.  The word game is perfect for driving in the car, or when I have to do jobs around the house but still want to play with Ethan.  Madeline doesn't understand it, but she still joins in anyway!

All you do is say a word and the next person has to say a word that starts with the last letter of the word you said.  Every word can only be said once.  It's a good thinking game and helps him with spelling as well. 

A typical game will go as follows:
Apple
Elephant
Truck
Kangaroo
Orange
Egg
Giant

At which point Madeline will pipe in with "Princess!"

Tiger
Rainbow
Water

Madeline again, "cookie!"

Rabbit
Train
Nose
Ear
Road
Duck

Now is about when Madeline wrinkles up her nose trying to figure out what we are talking about and then says, "Kitty!"  Occasionally, she'll say a word that rhymes or an opposite, though most of the time it's completely random.

Kite
Electricity
Yellow
Wood
Donut

and so it goes . . . for as long as you both shall live . . . or until you can't think of any more words.  It's pretty fun; you should try it out too with your kids.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

KitchenAde!

My husband is so amazing!!  He fixed my kitchenade!  And believe me, this was no easy task.  The few links you can find online about fixing them are not the professional model like I have.  He basically had to figure the whole thing out on his own. 

After taking it apart, cleaning black SMELLY grease from the MANY parts, and finding a tiny pin that broke, he searched for the little piece we needed online and found a place to buy it in Orem!  I went down there and bought it today and Todd put it all back together using new white grease.  Now it making a smushy happy grease sound instead of a dying cat sound!  Not to mention that it actually rotates again the way it supposed to.  I'm so excited to use it tomorrow!

KitchenAde, I know I've always wished for a Bosch, but I really am grateful you are fixed.  Thanks honey!

Car Bridge

We spent the morning making this car bridge that went across Ethan's entire room.  The kids had fun covering it with all of Ethan's cars . . .

And that's how you know he has too many, when he looks at the final product and exclaims, "Who even knew I had so many cars!?"

Closets, Paper and some other Random Things

Slow blogging week.  My hubby was out of town and we're glad he's back now.  I spent the week organizing random closets and trying to keep up on my list of people to call. 

I've got something extra special rising upstairs right now.  My KitchenAid is still broken, but I told my wrists to toughen up!  Can't wait . . .

And in other news, I thought some of you might find it interesting that Ethan has officially finished his ENTIRE package of 800 sheets of paper that he got for his birthday.  It ended up being about 10 sheets a day for the last 80 days- all animal pictures - that I get as gifts about every 45 minutes throughout each day.  How is one to keep up?!  We may very well need to add an entire section to our budget called, "Ethan's Paper" and then use one of those random closets I cleaned out to store his collection of pictures.

What would you do if your son gave you about this many pictures every single day, for 80 days? 

Hmmm, more like for the last 400 days . . .

March Recipe

Creamy Cauliflower Soup

Chef Vaughn Montgomery

3 TBLS butter
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp onion salt
1 can chicken broth
1 3/4 cup half and half, or milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups fresh cauliflower, cut into tiny florets

In a 3-quart saucepan, melt butter.  Saute onion until translucent; do not brown.  Stir in flour, garlic and onion salts.  Add broth and half and half.  Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened.  Add cheese and cauliflower.  Stir and cook 6-8 minutes until cheese is melted and cauliflower is tender.

Notes:  This would taste great with bacon added.  I dumped the cauliflower in before the soup totally thickened, that way it wouldn't take as long to get tender.  Also, make sure you double or even triple this recipe for a family sized pot of soup.