Open House

Today from 2-6 pm we will be hosting an open house to celebrate Joe's birth. There will be snacks and all are welcome (including husbands and children). It looks like it will be a beautiful day for the children to play outside. So come on over to meet our little guy, enjoy some food and friends, and marvel at how clean my house is!!!

*Thank you for your help Starla!

Spring Break

So this is my official blog spring break. I have been very busy the last few days cleaning and organizing the house. So I'm off the blog (I guess you could say I have been off the blogs) I will return next week. Thanks all.

Poor Joe

Okay so we're pumping again. Joe is just so constipated on the formula that is crying in pain with every feeding while he tries to go. So the plan is now to pump in the morning and at night and add it to the formula to hopefully help him "go".

YESS!!!

Click on the yes to see why I'm excited.

I'm swiping...again

Okay so I got this picture from Amen, Let's Eat!. I do really like their page although I have yet to try any recipes. But I had to put this picture up because it's exactly what I want my kitchen to look like when we build our house. With a bigger table of course!

Traditional Salisbury Steak

INGREDIENTS
1 egg
2 tablespoons dry bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3/4 pound lean ground beef
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
2 teaspoons olive oil
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon beef bouillon granules
1 medium onion, quartered and sliced
1 (4 ounce) can mushroom stems and pieces, drained

DIRECTIONS
In a small bowl, combine the egg, bread crumbs, garlic powder and pepper. Crumble beef over mixture; mix well. Shape into two patties; dredge in 2 tablespoons flour. In a small skillet, brown patties on both sides in oil; drain. Set patties aside.
Add the remaining flour to the skillet; whisk in water until smooth. Stir in the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and bouillon. Add the onion and mushrooms. Bring to a boil. Return patties to the pan. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until beef is no longer pink. Serve gravy over patties.

I got this recipe from allrecipes.com. I really enjoyed it and so did Ed and Jane. That felt pretty good since Ed is a big Salisbury Steak fan. I served this with mashed potatoes, carrots and green beans with bacon and mushrooms. I would recommend doubling the gravy, if you family really likes gravy then tripple it. I trippled the recipe and then instead of simmering it I boiled the gravy with the mushroom and onions in it and then poured it over the patties and baked it until the rest of the food was ready.

Tonight we're going to have lasagna (leftover from a meal we were given when Joe was born) with a BIG caesar salad! YUM!

Emma and Joe and everything (nothing) else.

Okay so I've basically spent the last four weeks behind a breast pump or bouncing (what I'm assuming is) a colicky baby.

Today will be the first day that Joe receives formula. I'm not a big fan of formula, not at all... and I know that breast is best. But let me tell you one thing that I finally realized yesterday. I live in a time where I can choose to stop pumping and have an alternative, this is why I decided to do this.

1 - There is no hope for breastfeeding in sight. Joe does not have enough suction to get his milk out, so he assists this by using his jaw, which means he chews on me. As most of you can guess, this isn't working so well for us.

2- I have three other children that need my time and energy. Up until now I have gotten nothing done with my children. I am so thankful to Dalen and Jane for all that they have done in the last month.

This was a tough decision for me. I LOVE LOVE LOVE nursing my babies. It is the most amazing time for me. There is also something about being able to say that I've nursed a cleft pallat baby that pricks the pride.

Okay on to another topic.

It was Emma's birthday!!! On the 6th. Her party was on the 9th. I know I'm late in posting about it but right now, that's life! Here are some pictures.

The beautiful cake that my mom made... Yes that castle is the cake. All of the turrets are plastic pieces... it was beautiful... and it tasted good too! The hats were one of the crafts that the girls did. It was SO FUN! I love girl parties... they are so layed back!

Here's daddy lighting the sparkler with a propane tourch... if only I could type the Tim the Tool Man grunt.

Decorating Sugar Cookies. They were really good and I think that we could have skipped the straw hats and just done these.

Okay so on Emma's actuall birthday she went for a date with her Daddy. She chose Dairy Queen for dinner so off they went. This is her waiting by the door for him. Since we dont' have airbags in the front passenger seat she even got to sit in the front with him. She had a cheese burger with onion rings, a strawberry milkshake (which she only took a few sips of and then gave to Ephrim when she got home) and followed that will a blizzard of some sort (which she only took a few bites of and then gave to Adon) They even brought home a treat for me, which I shared with Jane ;)

Once she got home she opened her gifts from us and Ed and Jane. Oh and lets not forget that she started the day off with a shopping excursion paid for by Grandma Lowe! She had a great time but she was an emotional wreck by the end of the day!

Sleep.

Well what can I say. I was very blessed last night. My baby went to sleep at 11:30 and didn't wake up until 7:00. I just couldn't believe it. Actually I had to wake him up to feed him. It was so marvelous. I have no idea what will happen tonight, but last night was great.

And more good news. Things are all healed up and I was able to nurse Joe last night and this morning. It was GREAT!!! Some people don't enjoy nursing, I'm not one of those. I absolutely adore it! Thank you to everyone for their prayers.

Well time to go play outside and get my house ready for a birthday party tomorrow.

Swiped from Wiebevill

Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2 : The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Pumperdy-pumperton

So the pumping is going well. At this point things are quite sore, very bruised and cracked. They say to give it about 24 hours before trying to nurse again. At this point I cannot imagine trying. It hurts to think about. Anyway I'm hoping to post a picture that I took this morning but it may have to wait a bit.

I just have to.

Because we are a little Star Wars crazy around here and this girl has the cutest hair ever. it makes me want to perm Emma's hair although I think we all know what a disaster that would be :)

This is a prophetic vision of Ruth and Mark's Daughter. I especially love when she talks about Luke learning how "to do his little light up sword"

Girlie Stuff

okay so I need a little prayer because I think that Joe is tongue tied and nursing is nearly impossible right now. I took the day off and was pumping and bottle feeding. He's used to the bottle and I'm used to the pump. Joe is also the most fussy baby I've ever had and it makes for an emotionally trying day. So I have a doctors appointment soon. I am going to try to get in sooner to see if he's tongue tied. This is the thing with a tongue tied baby. When they suck, their tongue does not cover their bottom gums so it's basically like they're chewing on you. It hurts. I will try nursing again tomorrow morning, but I'm not that hopefull. Maybe that's my problem? Anyway, thanks for you prayers!

Flab&Sag

For those of you who are on a fitness journey you can join me in mine.