Oops, what happened to Fall?

No this was not taken months ago although it looks like it.  Yeah, this was a week or two ago. Our yard has a huge amount of leaves in the fall.  For some reason our priorities have not been geared toward the yard for several months. Or last summer for that matter, it was all playhouse all the time. Sometimes somethings gotta give, you know?  I guess it is kind of out of sight out of mind since we don't go out there much lately. 

I had to laugh at myself last week at Target when I was buying a package of leaf bags.  Dallin said really loud, "Oh, are those so we can rake up our leaves and throw them away?"  I was so embarrassed that it is February and I am just now buying them. I just avoided eye contact with the other person in the isle. Hmmmm, said bags are still unopened....so I thought instead of feeling ashamed, I would go ahead and make fun of myself instead. Blogs are great that way.

At least the kids don't mind.  In fact they had a great time "fishing" for leaves out of the rain water built up in this plastic turtle.  Yikes, we have a lot of work cut out for us this spring to get things back into shape.  We have plans to relocate the garden and expand it, finish up the playhouse(unenthusiastic yay!), general landscaping and I imagine putting down seed for the bald spots in the lawn from stagnant leaves!

Whole Wheat Bread

I don't make my own bread. I wish I did, but I am just not there at this point.  I do buy 100% whole wheat bread, so at least we are trying.  But every time I look at the ingredients, it is so frustrating to see what else is in there.  I buy the inexpensive loaves at Winco for $1.39.  We eat a lot of bread so we can't afford the really expensive stuff.  What really gets me is that the 3rd ingredient is high fructose corn syrup. I have been trying to avoid that stuff all together, but I thought that unless I was going to pay a lot more or make my own bread, I was out of luck. 

I was expressing this to my sister Elizabeth a couple of weeks ago, when she filled me in on her secret.  Over by the deli section they have a brand called Deli-fresh that has a whole wheat variety that is similar to the kind in the front of the store.  The big difference though is that there is no HFCS in it! It uses sugar and honey, which is more acceptable to me.  The best part? $1.49 each! I can handle paying a few cents more and the bread is good.  So I don't feel quite as guilty about not making my own for now.  I am so happy with that little change so I thought I would share in case anyone else is trying to cut that out. Thanks Bethy!

P.S.  Ketchup is a hard one for me because we really like it, but I was at Winco today and discovered that the Hunts brand does not use HFCS either!  So nice of them.  

Potato Balls

When Peter and I were dating after his mission, he decided to bring me on a date to his grandparents house.  He asked his Grandpa to teach us to make something I had never heard of: Potato Balls!  I didn't quite get it. Peter just said he had always had them throughout his life, it was a Norwegian food that had been passed down generations and they tasted like a potatoey ball.  Sounds interesting.  So Peter's Grandparents enthusiastically showed us the ropes. I will never forget the excitement in Grandpa's demeanor as it became time to eat.  Like a kid in a candy store.

Here is what the potato ball procedure looks like:  Peel raw potatoes and grind them with and old fashioned, hand crank meat grinder.  Mix with flour until it is a sticky consistency and add a good amount of salt.  That's it. You drop them into boiling water like dumplings and cook them for about 30 minutes while the water gets thick and starchy.

At the table you put a few balls on your plate along with the "juice" and totally smother them with butter.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and that is your whole meal, nothing else. Grandpa is a very skinny man so we got a kick out of how much he ate. I think he himself consumed a whole cube of butter.  They are delicious by the way. The best part is slicing up the extras in the morning and frying them in butter. Best hash browns ever.  It was such and endearing experience that I have made them several times since we got married.  I use a food processor since I don't have and antique grinder. 

Peter loves to have Grandpa over to play pool so the other day, he came and brought all of his equipment. Once again we grinded and made the delicious dumplings together, making more wonderful memories of this strange and delicious food.  Grandpa was as excited as ever to eat. 

Cooking Potato Balls

 We could hardly wait for them to get done.

 Did I mention the teacher is a 95 year old pool shark?

 Ta da! Appealing right? You should see how they look the next day.  I have to add a side story: When we were in college we made them one night and Peter took some left overs to school the next day.  By then they were kind of a blueish gray color.  His study buddy was totally appalled by what Peter was eating and could never quite get over what kind of weird food Peter's wife had cooked for him.

 The kids loved them too.  Lily at so much I couldn't believe it.

So, wanna feed your family a yummy dinner and breakfast for about 2 bucks? I highly recommend it.

Chess Tournament

 Dallin participated in his first tournament a few weeks ago.  He played 5 games and won 3!  He has great sportsmanship. 

All the Dickinson kids and dads.

Brookwood Team.

Peter and his friend are thinking about starting a club at our school this next year.  That would be so good for the kids there.  Larry D has made such a difference with his club, I hope it works out.

In other news, my foot is almost healed. The Ice really did the trick.  I was starting to feel hopeless, but after icing it for a day, I could all of the sudden walk again!  Yay!  That was getting old.  Although I did have a lot of fun researching nutrition.  My new favorite site is http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/  . Her videos are fabulous and I so want her 12 step program now.  Some day... 

Tanner quote and tid bits.

Overheard while Tanner was doing his business in the bathroom: "I've never pooped in the bathtub." (Chanted over and over).  I have no idea what brought this train of thought other than he was going number 2 and looking at the bathtub at the same time.  He cracks me up.

Eden's mothering tendencies are coming out more than ever lately. She is my eyes and ears for my 3 naughty boys. She keeps me informed, helps out with whatever anyone needs and lets them know when they have food on their face, even wiping it off for them at times. Dallin was going on about something about space the other night and Eden said, "you are such a smarty pants!"  in the same tone I would.  I hear my tone of voice echoed a lot by that little miss.

Carter is really starting to talk a lot.  He is also in the terrible 2s big time.  He loves to get into things and make huge messes just for fun.  He also likes to share his preference about everything and throws tantrums if he doesn't get his way. If he decides he wants to be naked for a while, he will strip and if I don't catch it in time, this can be a bit messy.  This phase is one of the harder ones for me.  But I have seen this before so I know it will end some time.  It's a good thing 2 year olds are so cute. Here's to power struggles!

Lily on the other hand is in one of my favorite phases. She is cute cute cute all the time.  She is happy and smiley 90% of the time.  I love to watch her toddle around and make cute language and adorable faces.  She loves cuddles and kisses.  When I kiss her cheek she will turn  and press her other one into my lips so that she gets both sides evenly.  She loves it when Daddy comes home and cries a bit when he leaves.  She has a big pot belly that sticks way out.  I just love cute little bodies.

Dallin had a rough patch with school for a while, but has come back with even more improvement like he always does.  He really keeps us on our toes that way.  He works so hard and his reading is really starting to get better and better.  I think this is his hardest subject.  It just doesn't come easy for him, it is a lot of work, so it is not very fun.  We hope to get him over that hump soon.

Day 5 as a cripple

My ankle seems to be getting worse. The only way I can seem to make it better is to wear a boot cast thingy that we borrowed from my MIL and stay completely off of it (yeah right). That is a problem.  I did pretty good yesterday and had almost no pain.  I was good about using crutches all day if I had to get my duff off the couch. But by the evening I got over confident and started walking around in the boot only to go to bed in pain once again.  doh! 

Today my game plan is to use crutches again and keep it iced all day.  I am thinking if I can get the swelling to go down, it might have a chance to heal. I don't think it is broken since I didn't fall or anything so here's my theory:  I stopped walking for about a month and started up again last Thursday. Friday we walked and I had extremely bad shin splints, but walked anyway.  I think I was probably walking weird to compensate and somehow injured the tendons in the top front of my ankle. It was the next day after that when I started to feel pain. Lame lame lame lame lame.  Who get injured from walking?????  I know I am not 20 anymore, but come on, I am far from this sort of thing I would think.

Yesterday I went grocery shopping and used a little scooter thing at Winco!  It was kinda fun embarrassing. It was either that or take forever on crutches and aggravate the injury. The cashier was impressed with how much food I was able to get on that thing.  We go through 4 gallons of milk and 5 loafs of bread a week just to give you an idea of how it went.  By the end I had cereal boxes all around my feet on the scooter!  Okay I know I am pretty cool.

Seriously though, I am so bored.  There are only so many times I can check email/facebook/blogs a day.  I am getting a little stir crazy and my children are taking advantage of my gimpyness.  It is nice that Peter got my laptop fixed so I have something to do at least.  Hmmmm...my foot is starting to get frostbite now.  Yeah, life is good.  I am going to go laugh at how pitiful I am now.

Sympathy Sprain

The other day Peter fell and sprained his ankle.  He was in a lot of pain for a couple of days and won't be able to run for a while.  The weird thing is, a couple of days after he got hurt, I woke up in the middle of the night with a sore ankle!  All day yesterday it kinda hurt and I hobbled around on it.  Then when I woke up this morning, it hurt so much I could barely walk on it.  The more I walked around, the worse it got.  I finally borrowed Peter's ankle brace, since he wasn't wearing it. I even had to get a substitute for my class and stay home from church because I was in so much pain. 

I seriously don't even know what I did to my ankle!  Peter is doing a little better now,  so we have switched.  I guess we are just so in sync that we feel each others pain, LOL!  OUCH! Well, at least I will have more time to blog now, since I am resting my foot.

Eden is 6!

Eden was very ready to turn 6 last month.  We had a great party planned involving friends and horseback riding.  But that week we got hit with a stomach bug.  It slowly worked its way one person at a time.  I was crossing my fingers it would skip Eden, but of course about an hour before her party, she started throwing up.  That was that.  The next day we were going to have a family party, but we were quarantined, so it was just us, a cute cake and a decorated house. 

Eden was very good natured about the whole thing.  Probably because she didn't feel well enough to be disappointed.  Plus she still got cake and presents.   

Hello Kitty is one of Eden's favorite things ever, so she got some ear mufs for those cold morning walks to school.

Eden also loves snow globes. 

And stuffed animals.

Then Daddy brought out the big surprise!

A Pinkalicious Bike!  She loved it and couldn't wait to try it out.  Her old bike was so small for her.

I am not proud of this cake that was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  For the sake of memory, here it is.

 A week later we finally had a family party for her so she and I decided to try the popular rainbow cake this time.  We had a great time making it together. And this time everyone was healthy.

 It was a hit.

A couple of days before her birthday, by request, Eden and I went to Claire's and picked out a new crown like we did last year. It is a cute tradition that I am happy to do for her. She should feel like a princess.  Peter also brought her flowers for the 4th year in a row. She just loves that kind of stuff.  What a girl.

I can't believe Eden is such a big girl.  She is beautiful inside and out. She really is a virtuous young lady.  She has such a desire to be good and do what is right.  She loves kindergarten, chess club, cooking, sweets and playing with her siblings. The other day when we were shopping she said to her brothers, "You guys are my best friends."  I am so lucky to have such a sweetheart of a daughter.  I love you Eedy Beedy, you make life fun!