Can a kid survive on beef jerkey and milk alone?

These are some of my recent attempts to get my kids to eat. I have to admit that NONE of them have worked a bit.

I ate ALL of the above food myself.

We had cooking club at my house based around an April Fools theme or foods your kids will eat. There were tons of great ideas and it was a lot of fun.
The ideas above were from a Strawberry shortcake cooking book my friend Katie brought. I thought they were very clever but my kids didn't touch them. Maybe in a few years they will think I'm really cool when I can make animals out of their food. The muffins on the right are from my friend Emily's blog. They have pineapple, zucchini, carrots and I substituted the oil with applesauce and they are delicious!! Except, even dressed like cats, my boys refused to eat even a bite. ARGGGHHH!! Thanks for the recipe anyway Emily. I loved them, and put the extras in the freezer for quick treats for myself.

This recipe is from familyfun.com. They had a whole article about fun April Fool's day food. I thought it was really clever and this "strawberry" pie -actually meatloaf and mashed potatoes colored with beats- was really tasty.


Leah brought this "meatloaf" which is chocolate rice crispie treats and "corn" and "mixed vegies" which are really laffy taffy shaped into vegies. Her kids really loved this.
On the right is apple slices with jello sprinkled on it. Tasty.

This "cheese sandwich is really toasted pound cake with orange frosting. Leah brought this too.
On the right is this delicious sandwich made with flat bread spread with peanut butter, jelly, strawberries and bananas. It was delicious.
Katie suggested serving food in metal tins and giving the boys shovels to eat with. I can't wait to try this on a picnic. I think they will love it.

So my boys are picky. That's fine. Most kids are quite discerning. They are obviously growing fine and gaining plenty of weight. I just have unrealistic expectations of their eating I guess. I mean, if they want to eat hot dogs and yoghurt everyday, every meal.. that's mostly ok right? I'm sure the problem lies with me. The only thing that gets them to eat a meal is to let them get really hungry by denying them the milk they are screaming for, get them at someone else's house where other kids are eating, or let them eat really really bad food. Joren does have a good excuse. He cut two more teeth in the past week or two. I think it really does hurt to chew on those half-way through molars.

This mom who wants them to eat all whole grains and vegetables is slowly lowering...lowering .... lowering her standards. At least I started giving them candy now and then. I know, I know, I have food issues. I'm an idealist and wish they liked curry and eggplant Parmesan so I wouldn't feel so guilty about all the preservatives and corn syrup and sugar they get in "kids" food.

Like I said.. Issues.

My Dream Interior!

I just found my dream home interior. It has my favorite colors, a great mix of old and new, all that wonderful carved dark wood that I adore with lots of clean lines mixed in. It is so dreamy I have to share. I found it through a design blog I love to check out called Katydid. The house is called EcoManor and is the home of Laura and Rutherford Seydel. Laura is the daughter of Ted Turner, CNN founder. The home is environmentally friendly and is being used to teach designers about designing green.
I think designing green is very important and very cool, but they way they designed this house exactly to my taste is even cooler.
I've chosen my favorite photos to post, but if you want to see more you can visit EcoManor for a tour of the home.

I think the art chosen for this home is especially wonderful. Oh how I would love to design interiors like this someday!

Wasn't that a treat!

Potty Lesson

How did we all fit in one box? We were on a boat to the jungle and Eirik had to bring me some flowers for the trip. Paul had to help us get out. (oh, and that's one of my new penny pillows in the background.)

Rock Band!!

A few bits to hopefully make you laugh:

Eirik why don’t you use the big toilet this time so that I don’t have to dump your pee? Eirik: “Mom, I will help you dump the pee so that you don’t have to do it yourself.”

(ie: disaster waiting to happen!)

One day while Joren was crying in the car:

Eirik: " Don't be worried Joren, I'm right here strapped in looking for cars. I'm your brother, don't be sad. I love you. We'll be home soon. You'll see. Don't be worried."

Eirik:

“Joren I’m going to give you a potty lesson. Here, this is how you go potty so you don’t need to go in your diaper anymore. …… Joren, don’t lick the toilet! Joren I’m going to teach you a potty licking lesson. (Eirik licks the arm of his potty chair and them makes a disgusted face and says,) see Joren. Joren, I’m going to be your teacher. Ok, listen Joren. Mom, Joren is not listening!.”

A few wants.. not many needs

While my sister was in town we talked a lot about the subject of wants and needs. We decided that when children feel that their wants and needs are valid and ok they get a solid sense of confidence that the world is ok, they are ok and I think it breeds a sense of hope that they will have their wants and needs met. Not every child gets this luxury. In fact it's a pretty rare thing in our world. And to think that we can allow ourselves to WANT luxurious, fabulous, outrageous things, and have that be ok, is a big step for a lot of people. It has been for me at least.
I owe my friend Emily a big credit for opening my eyes when I was in college to believe I could want and yearn for and try to achieve awesome things. She just posted a great post about WANTS. She's always inspiring me like this. She put up a challenge to make a list of wants. Doing this helps us discover more about our motivations and the yearnings of our souls, which I think we all need to explore. If we don't allow ourselves that, we are burying our talents.. right? I would love to see your lists.

I want:
to stop worrying about food storage
SPRING ... PLEASE !! Enough cold already!
to get a solid footing between the conservative/liberal lifestyle where I always seem to be vacillating
to cook and eat all day long- especially creamy soups
to not cook anything this week
no more dishes

to be able to buy clothing and not feel guilty and think about taking it back for the next 2 months
to watch 30 Rock and eat hummus and carrot sticks for 6 hours straight
to take all my childrens' toy weapons and throw them in the dumpster- but then they would just use forks and chopsticks and sticks and more dangerous things that plastic swords and they would cry and scream and be so sad...

I want a baby girl
a vacation at Lake Powell with my family
my toilets to stop running
green earings to go with my awesome new summer shoes
A Playroom!
A fenced yard!
botox
herbs in my pots for cooking all summer
a tan
Joren to learn to say Mommy
to have a clue what to give our parents for their birthdays
palm trees
Joren to STOP insisting on playing in the toilets and trash cans!
for Paul to get whatever he wants
to someday in my life, possibly before I die, learn to go to bed before midnight
our two old cars to last 4 more years

Down the road:
to renovate houses and make them amazing
to do home makeovers for deserving families out of my own budget
to be a DESIGN STAR contestant
an old red or apple green Chevy pickup truck with renovated interior and engine
a little Spanish Hacienda with an atruim and a studio
a little land for chickens and a great garden and an amazing play structure
my best girlfriends on the same block
Did I already say palm trees?

And just for fun, here are some houses and rooms I'm loving lately.
(They aren't a lot to ask for right? JK)

Making it through the winter- Party time

In February and March I got to help with three really fun parties.

My friend Anona had her first baby girl so we had a big pink party. I got to do the decorations. These pom poms/ paper flowers were really easy to make and so fun. I used a tutorial on Martha Stewart.com. Just look up paper pom poms. So easy.



Check out the cheesecake pops Erin made. Are they spectacular or what?!

I just love Anona. She is easy to spoil because she is so totally humble, grateful and genuine. I don’t know a more loving person than Anona. I’m glad I know her.

The next party was for my good friend Angie.

She had her second baby. I did the decorations for her party too. I hung tissue paper circles/ globes with Chinese lanterns for her party. What a fun time. The ladies I get to hang with could not be cooler. I had sore cheeks coming home I laughed so hard at that party.

The third party was the Relief Society Birthday Luncheon. I got to do the decorations for this event too. It was really fun to get together with so many awesome women and learn about this history of this organization that we are a part of. The Relief Society started with only 18 members has grown into the largest women’s organization in the world with over 5 million members. I feel so blessed to be a part of Relief Society.

Sister Beck, our General Relief Society President says, “We have a vital role to play in helping build the kingdom of God and preparing for the Lord’s coming. In fact, the Lord cannot accomplish His work without the help of His daughters. Because of that, the Lord expects us to increase our offering. He expects us to fulfill the purpose of Relief Society as never before.”

President Hinckley, the former prophet of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints said: “I am convinced there is no other organization anywhere to match the Relief Society of this Church. If they will be united and speak with one voice, their strength will be incalculable. . . . It is so tremendously important that the women of the Church stand strong and immovable for that which is correct and proper under the plan of the Lord.”¹

For me Relief Society is a place to find friendship, acceptance, guidance, leadership, comfort, direction and opportunities for service, and a place to learn about how to gain my salvation through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Also serving in Enrichment gives me an opportunity to use my talents which I really enjoy doing. I gave all the twig centerpieces away at the end of the party and it is fun to see my friends using them in their houses. They were so fun to make. The fondant cake is another story. It's a miracle it even happened. I bought the cake mixes I was going to use and dumped them into the bowl to mix them up the night before the party only to discover that they were brownie mixes.. and it only went downhill from there. Luckily my mom called late at night and offered the suggestion that I add chocolate pudding over the super dry cake I had made from scratch from an untested recipe. The pudding saved the day. It wasn't the best tasting cake, but it looked pretty nice. I thought. I didn't plan for it to look like a beehive, but it did which turned out to be ok in the end. :)

Joren 16 months

Joren is learning to talk. This age is really the funnest age yet! I love his little gibberish mixed with baby signs mixed with a few real words. He is so sweet. He LOVES dinosaurs and calls them dies and says it all day long. He can find a "dies" on a billboard 4 miles away while we are driving. Eyes like a bat I tell ya.
Joren is fearless. He loves the playground. He loves to climb on things. He likes to eat his food standing on his kids size table; dancing. He hates to sit in his high chair. He would rather eat on the go. He has little patience for eating.
When we go to the park we have to be very vigilant. More than a few times he has bolted to the nearest mud puddle. Yesterday Paul took the kids to the park. Eirik hurt his hands so Paul was helping him. Paul said it took Joren all of 10 seconds to run to the mud, get stuck and fall face first into it. He was drenched in mud. When Paul brought him home Joren was naked but so excited to "tell" me all about what happened. He is so annimated, pleasant and fun.
He started saying "Hi" the same way Eirik used to say it with a sweet drawn out low, high, low cadence. It is so cute and he says it to everyone.. ALL DAY LONG!
He knows so many words but he will only say Hi and Die all day long! He can say basketball, but won't. He communicates very well though.

I got this giant dinosaur encyclopedia that Joren loves. He always wants to read that book over every other book. Reading is one of his favorite things. He often grabs a book and throws himself in my lap. He loves to do the baby sign for milk and book.

I love taking Joren to story hour at the library. Lots of kids are tentative at story hour around all those older kids, but not Joren. He wants to be right up front sitting on the teachers lap or grabbing her books and doing all the activities with all the big kids. He wont' stay by me or on my lap. He likes to explore the whole room and interact with all the kids. He loves the parachute and loves to dance. He recognizes the songs and is learning all the actions.

He's a big tease. If there is something he knows he is not supposed to do, he will wait until you are looking and then do it with this sly little smile on his face. He loves to sit by the toilet and wait for me to look at him and that's when he will start to put his hand in (while he is watching to make sure I see him.) Then he giggles and tries to hide from me. He also loves to play in the trash. It drives me crazy!! He loves to pull everything out of the cupboards and drawers. He's a big mess maker. I love it because he really entertains himself well. He is easily diverted with new activities to keep him busy. He can make all the messes he wants to as long as he is exploring and enjoying himself. He's not a whiner (yet) and he goes to bed very well. He loves his naps. He sometimes plays in his crib for a long time before he wants to get out.
He plays really well with Eirik. I'm amazed by his sword fighting abilities. Those light sabers are about as heavy as he is, but he has no trouble with them. The other day we had one of Eirik's friends over. The friend said, "Eirik I am hiding from Joren, I don't want him to see me." Eirik said, "Joren is my brother, you shouldn't hide from him! He's not bad!" The friend continued to try to stay away from Joren and Eirik decided he would rather play with Joren than his friend. Later Eirik told me, "I protected Joren. I'm his protector and brother."
I heard all of this over the monitor and it made me so happy. They really love each other.

St. Patrick's day party at Erin's house

He's my rough and tumble tank with a big smile and a constant great big HiiIIIiiii!!!
I XXXOO him.

Eirik 3 years old

For Eirik's 3rd birthday we were all sick. :( So.. we had a little party with the 4 of us. Eirik got a soccer ball, a guitar and a few other fun toys and great gifts from grandparents. We waited a week and then had 2 friends over for cake with blue frosting and raspberries.

Eirik is a spitfire as always. Yesterday he said, "mom play with me, it's your job!" He never ceases to amaze me. He can quote chapters from movies and learns songs after hearing them 2 or 3 times. Yesterday we had a conversation that went something like this. "Mom, I only like hotdogs, chicken and pizza and starfish. I just bit off that starfish's face, here I will glue it back on. All better. I only eat fresh starfish. Not soggy ones, only fresh."
He's always cracking me up like that. Today he said, "I hurt my hoof and it became invisible. If I run in a circle it will become visable again and turn into a tomato plant. If I eat the tomato my hoof will regrow." Then he pretended to pick and eat the tomato and then spit it out because it tastes bad.
I didn't know how early bathroom humor started and I was ... shocked.. when I heard Eirik ask me, "Mom, do you like pink?" Me: "sure" Eirik: "then do you want to see my penis?"
seriously people, he didn't learn that from Paul and I.. how do kids learn this kind of stuff??
The following list is from way back in December; better late than never.
Eirik had never had an accident at night before so the first time it happened he was overwhelmingly distraught. I woke up to him screaming, "Mom, what do I do NOW??? What do I do now??" I quickly comforted him and said, "It's ok, we just change your sheets and PJ's and you can go back to bed. It's not a big deal." So naturally the next accident he had he cheerfully said, "It's ok mom, I just change my pants and it's no big deal." Luckily he is a quick learner and has not had an accident since.
I also loved how when he first saw Star Wars he insisted on calling it "Star Whores" for several months. That really made me laugh.
Eirik quickly learned Jingle Bells this Christmas. However, he insisted on changing Blitzen's name with Spirit because his favorite Spirit horse had to be in the song. When I asked him what happened to Blitzen he always said, "Blitzen got bit by a werewolf, Spirit will help Santa."
One day someone told Eirik he had a great vocabulary. He replied, "I guess so, actually I talk ok."
His cousin asked him "What's your mom's name." Eirik: Melody, but I call her Mommy, but when I was a baby I used to call her Momady."
Eirik loves to measure people. He holds up his tape measure and always confidently tells you that you are 60 lbs. When you ask him how much he weighs he always weighs 1500 lbs, and he runs 40 miles per hour.
For our Christmas talent show he learned the Pledge of Allegiance and Deck the Halls. He really loves to show off the Pledge of Allegiance. I'm sure if you know him you have heard him say it.
"Mom, you have to give me and Joren lots of milks. If you don't, you are breaking the law. If you break the law the policemen will come for you and talk you away from your kids. So you gotta give me milk.. NOW!"

On the way to church I kept saying, "wow, isn't it cold!" and Eirik said, "Here mom, I will blow my warm breath on you and it will heat you up!"

He is working through all these feelings that he has all the time and one day he said, "sometimes I'm just a bad guy and I don't say my prayers"
He told me that he needs a hovercraft and asked me where to get one.
He won't take off his cowboy boots to sleep or anything and he won't wear them in the snow because he doesn't want them to get wet.
He wears his Luke Skywalker shirt EVERYDAY

The other day he had a runny nose and he said, "I think ants are eating my nose. They smell food so they are eating my nose."
Later, he told me, "I was in the fridge and the food was talking to me and it told me to eat this (pronounced zis.) (referring to the cream cheese).

This one is for Grandma and Grandpa:
Eirik: "I couldn't sleep because I was thinking about Utah and I had a dream that a Pegasus flew me to Utah and I went downstairs with the magic and I saw Grandma and Grandpa and I said"HEY, I love you guys!, and I gave them a big hug."

Eirik: "Mom, when we move next, let's move onto a big ship and sail the seas and see the jellyfish and sharks and whales and starfish.
Mom: "that sounds fun, but how would you go to school?"
Eirik: "Easy, you just take the ship to land and you go to Kindergarden."

Mom: "Hey Eirik and Joren, aren't you so glad it snowed again?"
Eirik: "Yeah!.. huh? .. wait.. NO! I just like Satan, I don't like Heavenly Father because he made the snow." (Please don't hold that against him HF.)

Michigan or bust

I'm pretty late in posting this but it's big enough news to post, even late.

Paul officially got a dermatology internship spot at Southshore hospital, 3 minutes from our house!

We feel very blessed. We are counting down the days (42) until Paul's big, exciting

Medical School graduation ceremony on May 16th.

I got Paul's cap and gown in the mail last week and I know for a fact that I was way more excited than Paul. I was never even so excited for my own graduations. When I look back over the past 5 years that have brought us to this point, I can really see the Lord's hand in all our journey. When we first decided to go to KCOM we were deciding between this small DO school in the middle of ... nowhere... and two MD schools; one in CA and one in OR. Paul went to all the interviews and came back feeling like KCOM was the place. He loved how family friendly it was and how great the spouses organization was (SAA). At that point I had no idea how important these things would be to me and I wanted to stay west. I thought Missouri sounded awfull. Thankfully my husband was eagerly looking out for me. The people and the environment in Kirksville were so good for me and my growth, and it was a place where Paul could really excel as well. When it came time to match for rotations we were matched to our 6th choice. We had prayed about our choices and neither of us ever felt like we really got an answer initially but when we were given the chance to renegotiate our choices, we both felt very sure that we should try to go to Wyandotte. Michigan was really my last choice but I knew it was where the Lord was directing us. The day we moved in a bunch of guys from church showed up to help. One of the guys happened to be one of Paul's second cousins. He was finishing his last two years of his dermtology residency. He ended up being very instrumental in helping Paul decide to go with dermatology and helping him get published, and at the right meetings so that now we get to stay here for at least another year. You know how on sitcoms if there's a guy that all the girls covet and think he's oh so dreamy, he's almost always a dermatologist? Yeah, He's my man. =) We are so glad we get to stay. We have made such good friends here and despite how crappy Michigan can be (winters, potholes, wind, layoffs) we still really love it and we're praying that we will get the residency spot available at the same hospital for the 3 years after his internship.