Getting Out of the House

Sometimes I feel like we used to have a lot of time to go and do things as a family, and we have less and less time together every year.  I don't imagine that this will get better as the kids get older and have more activities, so I'm trying to make the most of what we can on evenings and weekends.

We put Miles in spring soccer this year.  My friends advertised it as "perfect soccer weather."  The weather  has been laughing at us, with three freezing, rainy weeks in a row.  Hence, no pictures.  It's too cold to get out the camera!

Another year for the BYU Astrofest!  The kids just really love making and shooting off the rockets, making paper airplanes, and going to the planetarium shows.

The Children's Book Festival at the Provo Library was also a hit!

Who doesn't love holding hands with the creepy mannequins at H & M?  Gerrit is really good at coming up with games for the kids to play if I need to look for something.

We also had a Groupon for the natural history museum in Salt Lake.  The Extreme Mammals exhibit is visiting there right now and we even got to see some live mammals too!

 Look how cute this armadillo is, all curled into a ball!

I think that climbing on rocks was in their top three favorite things about the museum.

Miles said the giant mammal was his second favorite thing.

The Bicycle Builder

It looks like our family is getting a new fix-it person!  (Spoiler alert:  It's not me.)

Baking Bread

Gerrit and I found the rest of the episodes of the British Baking Show and we've seen three of the other seasons now.  It's inspired me to bake more, especially bread.

This one is a fig, olive oil, and sea salt challah.  It tastes fantastic and it was really fun to braid the loaf.

I made these ones for our Sunday School "Feast on the Scriptures."  I'm teaching 12 and 13 year old Sunday School now....it's an adventure!

Basically, these are cheese-filled crusty bread.  I made one set of loaves with pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, and a mix of mozzarella and provolone.  The other set of loaves has ranch mix, bacon, and garlic white cheddar.

Anyone have any other favorite bread recipes?  I want to try them!

Beach Party!

The school year started with a Smurf party and ended with a beach party :)  I really can't say enough about how much I love our rec center's toddler programs.  They've been so much fun and so good for our kids and I'm excited to start Molly in the no-parent class in the fall!  In Molly's words about the activities:

 "I like fishing so much!"

 "I got wet.  Slip slip."  There was a little pool with water, she "slipped and slipped and slipped".  Luckily I had extra pants for her in my bag.

Fishing for a prize. "It was glasses and bubbles."

 "That was a squirt one.  With a ball floating."

"This one was a ring toss.  Flamingos!"

 "That one is throwing buckets down."

 "I swallowed some bubbles."

 "This was cake.  It was yummy.  Yummy!  It was yummy, Mom!  Silly!"

 "That was me."

 "And that's Elliott"

"That's the castle I was living in.  Molly won't come out.  Molly is a cute girl.  She won't come out.  I'm just like a big girl.  I'm tall, tall, and you are big"

Elliott Baby

Elliott has grown out of his newborn phase and looks more and more like a baby every day.  A cute, squishy little baby that all of us adore.

He sleeps pretty well (usually) and has gotten a lot less fussy.  He still needs a lot of rocking to fall asleep and spits up a lot, though.

Wherever Elliott is, you will probably find one of his siblings close behind.  Molly really wanted to snuggle him the morning I took these.

He wiggles, kicks, and rolls over all the time.  I think I'm going to be in for a lot of trouble once he starts moving!

Elliott loves going places with us.  He used to sleep through all of our errands, but he's always awake now, with big eyes and a happy face as he takes everything in.

Elliott is a big music lover, especially Lindsey Stirling.  Maybe he'll play the violin :)

We just love this little boy!

Shaved Ice for the Summer

My favorite summer treat is anything made of ice.  I especially love popsicles and shaved ice.  They are basically the only thing that ever sounded good during my first trimester with Elliott!

The best shaved ice in Utah County comes from a place called Yuki.  They make all of their syrups out of real fruit or other real ingredients and it's also a finely shaved ice instead of the thicker snow cone ice.  I won a Facebook contest and we got to go to their pre-opening party :)


We tried five different flavor combinations, and they were all fantastic!

This one is mango and raspberry.  I let Gerrit eat most of the mango and then tried a spoonful and didn't let it touch my lips. (I'm allergic to mangoes).

Other combinations we tried:

*Watermelon and mojito (lime and mint, non-alcoholic).  This one is very refreshing and one my long-time favorites.
*Lemonade and Moscow Mule (lime and ginger, also non-alcoholic).  We'd never tried the ginger, but it was amazing!  I loved it with all of the citrus.
*Rootbeer with a snowcap.  This is basically the best root beer float you've ever had, in shaved-ice form.  They make their own root beer!
*Strawberry and cucumber.  I twisted Gerrit's arm on this one because he doesn't like cucumbers.  He still doesn't like cucumbers, but I thought this was delicious.

I can't wait to go back for the rest of the season!

Bribery and Other Solutions

We've finished potty training Molly.  I dreaded this for months, and then it has actually not been bad at all.  She was probably ready several months ago before I was :)  Gerrit wanted us to start over Christmas break, but then I started having blood pressure problems with the pregnancy.  Do you know what is not good for your blood pressure?  Potty training.  She could have been ready after I had the baby, but you need patience for potty training.  Do you know what is not good for patience?  Newborn sleep deprivation.  We finally started once Elliott started sleeping better.

Here's some challenges we've had with both kids and potty training, and the solutions that actually helped.

Problem #1:  Fear

Miles was terrified of the potty.  We tried reading books with him, singing songs, you name it.  Eventually we just put it away for three months and tried again later.  He was still afraid the second time, but not as much.  It also helped that we would set his teddy bear on the potty as an example.

Molly was never afraid.  A) She has an older sibling.  B)  She is obsessed with the big girls in our neighborhood and wants to be just like them  C) She's maybe seen the toilet training episode of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood a few too many times.


Problem #2: Power Struggles

I have two stubborn kids who like to do things on their own terms.  It really helped if I let them have whatever autonomy they could.  The best one that worked was letting them pick out their own underwear at the store, and then pick out the pair they wanted in the morning.

Problem #3:  Getting Used to It

This was more of an issue for Miles, but for both kids, we had a sticker chart and they got a sticker for any success.  After 30 stickers, we took a trip to Kangaroo Zoo

Problem #4:  Becoming an Expert

Each kid had slightly different issues here, but this would be where the bribery came in.  Bribery sounds bad...let's call it "behaviorism."  Miles had a car that he really, really wanted that he got for five successful days.  Molly picked out a set with twelve tiny My Little Pony figures, and each dry day got to earn one figurine.  That has been an exceptionally good motivator.  She loves those ponies!

I'm sure that I'll have a host of new issues in a few years for Elliott, so hopefully these solutions will work with him, too :)

Book Human and Balloonyville

"Mom, come into Molly's room! You have to see this right away!"

Usually, this would mean there was some sort of terrible, nightmare-haunting mess.  Imagine my pleasant surprise and relief when this is what I saw instead:

Miles calls this the "book human."  I had asked him to help entertain Elliott while I got dressed, and this is what he built!  Elliott did really like it.


Miles also entertained Elliott with "balloonyville" the day after his birthday party.  Balloonyville is "a city just for babies because they like to look at balloons."

I love watching these two play together!

Larsen Family Visit

Gerrit's parents and grandma met Elliott for the first time this past month!  It was really fun for them to get to meet him, and Miles and Molly were thrilled to have them in town.  Gerrit's dad had to head back right after the blessing so he could back to teach his classes, but we were lucky to have Allison stay for the next week.

We had a great time playing, talking, having family dinners, playing games, shopping, and spending time together.  Here's some pictures from the week! (mostly taken by my mother-in-law).  Next time, we need to make sure that you are in some of the pictures, too, Allison!:

 Gerrit's grandma LOVES babies!

 Hi, grandpa!

Molly  really was very good for wedding dress shopping, all things considered.

 Elliott loved the big napkin!  Unfortunately, he also wanted to eat the big napkin, so we had to take it away.

The Payson temple was stunning! We really loved going to the open house.