coffee beans and jet fuel

30 Day Challenge, Day 13

2012-01-27T21:37:00.000-07:00

This morning was another egg scramble, we've been doing different veggies in these every day so I have not gotten tired of them yet. We are going through 4 dozen eggs per week... this is amazing to me! Lunch was leftovers and munching on various fruits and veggies along with some cashew butter.

Eating this much produce means a weekly shopping trip, we just do not have enough space to keep things fresh any longer. I am used to shopping every 10 to 14 days so this is taking some getting used to.

Dinner was simple but really good and filling! I made mini burgers and topped them with a slice of tomato, caramelized onions, guacamole and bacon. I know we were missing bread but I really did not miss it all that much tonight. I also baked some acorn squash and finished it under the broiler with coconut oil, salt and a little cinnamon.

We are really missing dessert these days so tomorrow I am going to try something... will let you know how it works :)

30 Day Challenge, Day 12

2012-01-27T21:21:00.001-07:00

Jeff made another tasty egg scramble for breakfast. Lunch was the last of our squid sauteed in coconut oil with garlic, coconut aminos, salt and crushed red pepper (photo was our lunch). We ate it with spaghetti squash and the rest of our sauce from day 11.

Dinner was beef and sweet potato stew found on my friends blog here. We loved this stew and will be making it again!

Sorry for a short boring post...

30 Day Challenge, Day 11

2012-01-25T21:21:00.000-07:00

Breakfast this morning needed to be quick so I just made scrambled eggs with salsa and ate a banana. Lunch was chicken vegetable soup and a spinach salad. I am so glad that my dear friend Tyne taught me that salads can be as interesting as you want to be creative :) I added cucumber, apple, celery, toasted pecans and homemade citrus vinaigrette, simple but good. I stocked up on Larabars today when I found a decent price so that was my snack and Jeff requested cashew butter so I made that again.

Dinner was stuffed braised calamari, spaghetti squash and sauteed swiss chard. For the squid I used Alton Brown's recipe to stuff it, found here and Anne Burrell's recipe for the sauce to braise it in found here. Per Whole30 we did not use breadcrumbs in the stuffing or wine in the sauce. I used chicken broth in place of the wine and just left the breadcrumbs out completely. We plan on making this one again!

30 Day Challenge, Day 10

2012-01-24T23:10:00.000-07:00

One third of the way through, woohoo! I think the last couple of days have been the most Jeff and I have talked about wanting things that are not allowed. For the most part this has not been terribly difficult for us. In fact, it has made us get out of the rut we were cooking in and make things interesting. Right now we are trying to figure out if we feel better. I have not noticed a ton of difference in the way I feel but I do know that my clothes are getting looser and I wore a pair of pants on Sunday that I have not worn since before Maddie. Jeff really thinks that he will be watching his grain intake the most after all of this, he thinks that may be something that really affects how he feels.

I think this was my favorite breakfast so far. A little on the heavy side, so definitely not a daily breakfast but dinner tonight was really light so it made up the difference. We ate sweet potato latkes with eggs over easy, bacon and grapes. Recipe found here. I did not add the cinnamon but it would be good either way.

After a big breakfast I was not hungry for a long time but I did have a small bowl of chicken vegetable soup and then finished off the grain free granola with almond milk.

Dinner was Squid Ceviche with jicama fries and jicama chips. Ceviche is one of Jeff's favorite meals so when we saw squid at Costco there was no getting around making our own. Jeff used Alton Brown's recipe for Catfish Ceviche replacing the catfish with blanched squid. This was excellent! Our one note for you is that a whole red onion is a bit much, at least for us. The jicama was raw, cut into fries and seasoned with lime juice, chile powder and kosher salt. The jicama chips are just thin slices of raw jicama, great for eating salsa, ceviche etc.

30 Day Challenge, Day 9

2012-01-24T17:20:00.000-07:00

We ate another delicious egg scramble made by Jeff along with half of a grapefruit for breakfast. We both ate various leftovers a for lunch.

Our snack was homemade cashew butter eaten with apples and celery. So, very, good!! Just chop cashews in a food processor until almost a powder. Add oil while the food processor is running until it is the consistency you want it to be, we used walnut oil, then add salt to taste. We used raw cashews this time but will roast them next time to see which way we prefer.

Dinner was scallops grilled on the himalayan salt plate, roasted butternut squash and brussel sprouts.

I also made a pot of chicken vegetable soup so that I would have something easy for lunch this week. I have about half of it in the fridge and about half frozen for later. I am learning that this way of eating does not have many quick and easy options and, while I love to cook, some other things in my home are suffering for the sake of scratch made food. You will see some lower maintenance meals and leftovers this week :)

30 Day Challenge, Day 8

2012-01-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

My sweet husband made breakfast this morning :) It was an egg scramble with the last of our pulled pork and some portabella mushrooms served on top of raw spinach garnished with crumbled bacon, tomato and avocado... I felt spoiled!

Lunch was leftover chicken curry from last night but I did make some cauliflower rice to pour it over. I like it both ways, the "rice" gave the broth some body and texture but did not really affect the flavor. I would say that if you would rather eat it like a soup to leave the "rice" off but if you want eat it like a saucy stir fry, make the rice.

For dinner we ate spaghetti squash with chunky tomato sauce and a spinach salad.

Chunky Tomato Sauce
I warmed some olive oil in the bottom of a pan and added chopped onion and bell pepper with some salt. I let the veggies sweat with for a few minutes until the onions were just starting to look translucent. I added a few sprinkles of crushed red pepper, 1 can of diced tomatoes, 1 can of tomato sauce and fresh crushed garlic (3 cloves). It was a little thick at this point and I knew I wanted it to cook down a little to develop flavor so I added about 1/2 a cup of chicken stock... just eyeball it so that the sauce thins enough to cook down and thicken up again. Bring it to a boil, reduce to a simmer for about 20-25 minutes. Add 1 lb of browned ground beef and salt to taste.

Maddie cleaned her plate! Success :)

Snow + a Hill + Sled = Maddie's Mirth

2012-01-22T13:42:00.002-07:00

Yesterday ended up being the perfect day for sledding, not too cold, not so warm that it was slushy and lots of fresh snow. So, we decided to take Maddie out to a hill just outside Jeff's office. We had the hill to ourselves and were able to leave Si in the truck just a few feet away so that he could sleep straight through the whole experience.

On her first trip down the hill Maddie's hat fell over her eyes and I do not think she was really ready for what we were doing.

As soon as we talked her into trying one more time, she could not go enough and ended up having a blast!!

Si's adventure was spent dreaming away in the nice warm truck.

30 Day Challenge, Day 7

2012-01-22T13:15:00.000-07:00

I am realizing some of my weak points when it comes to food. At the end of every night, once Madeline has gone to bed, Jeff and I usually sit down to watch some TV I want dessert. What I have been doing for the last several nights is a cup of herbal tea and it is amazing how satisfying it has been. Of course, right now I have some very strict boundaries on what I am allowed to consume so it is much easier to make the choices I am currently making. It does make me want to think about how I want to handle "treats" when this is over. I do not plan to go with out chocolate or baked goods, but I think I need to pull back on how often I eat them and try not to eat things like that right before bed every night.

On to Day 7's menu:

I attempted a waffle recipe that fits within our guidelines. It was a failure... looks good in the picture though :) I will not even be sharing the recipe here, they were dense, they did not crisp up like a waffle should and they did not have much flavor. We wanted butter and syrup desperately! The topping was good, it was bananas browned in a little coconut oil with a toasted walnuts. The bacon was, of course, delicious.

For lunch we ate the pulled pork with barbecue sauce but this time we sliced an avocado on top and then squeezed some lime juice over it as well... the best version of the pork so far in my opinion.

For dinner we ate Chicken Curry, recipe found here. I really like curry, a lot. This was super simple and did not disappoint. I think the red curry paste we used was far spicier than the one in the recipe which suited me just fine. We garnished with green onion, fresh cilantro and fresh lime juice. I have a can of green curry paste in my pantry that screaming at me to make this again soon!

30 Day Challenge, Day 6

2012-01-20T21:22:00.000-07:00

Today we tried a couple of things with our coffee. I made almond milk latte's this morning and there was still something that just felt off. So for my afternoon coffee I decided to make drip instead of espresso and liked the almond milk that way. I think I will still try a couple other options for creamer... I apologize for obsessing over this, but I really love coffee.

Breakfast today was egg muffins. This is something I have been making for a very long time, the main difference was not being able to use lunchmeat and cheese but it did not really make a big difference. You can put whatever meat and veggies you want but for these I used roasted chicken, red pepper that I sauteed for a few minutes in a little oil, green onion and tomato. I use one egg for every muffin, crack the eggs into a bowl (I like to use a large measuring cup so that they are easier to pour) and whisk them lightly with salt and pepper. Divide your veggies and meat between your muffin cups and pour the egg over them leaving a little room for them to puff while baking. If using cheese just place a slice over each muffin at this point. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. One of my husbands favorites, and great for company. You can throw this in the oven to bake while cooking pancakes (not while on this challenge though :).

Si had avocado for lunch today :) I ate a new batch of chicken salad (same recipe from Day 1) on some lettuce leaves. I discovered Larabars today and ate that as a snack, so so good.

This is a beautiful thing, a himalayan salt plate. My sweet husband spoils me by feeding my love of cooking, he bought this for Christmas and this is the first time it has been used.

Here is the block in action, cooking cinnamon steak skewers. You can heat it up on your cook top or in your oven and use it like a grill. Considering the amount of snow outside right now and how cold it is, an indoor way to grill is a wonderful thing! It also seasons your food with the Himalayan salt so don't be like me and put salt in your marinade when using one, it was the only thing wrong with dinner tonight.

And here is tonight's meal:

Cinnamon Steak Skewers
Four 6 oz steaks (I used 1 10 oz steak for Jeff and I), Juice of 1 lemon, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp cinnamon powder, 1 tsp curry powder, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, salt and pepper to taste

Because I used less meat I adjusted my marinade to suit what I needed but the recipe is as stated above
1. Soak wooden steak skewers in water for an hour prior to grilling
2. Cut steak into cubes and place in a 1 gallon ziploc bag
3. In a small mixing bowl whisk together marinade ingredients
4. Pour marinade over steak, seal ziplock bag and marinate in the refrigerator at least 1 hour, up to 24 hours
5. Skewer the meat. Grill on high for 12 - 16 minutes, turning every 3 - 4 minutes.

Yam
Peel, cube and boil 1 large yam. When soft enough to easily poke a fork into the cubes drain and return to pan. I added the same ingredients in the marinade for my meat leaving out the curry powder and replacing it with 1/2 tsp chipotle powder. Mash or puree until fairly smooth.

Brussel Sprouts
I cut them in half, coated them in olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and roasted them on a sheet pan in a 400 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes.

I know this was another long blog, but we ate some really good food today and I did not want to leave anything out.

30 Day Challenge, Day 5

2012-01-19T21:10:00.001-07:00

I love the opportunity and the excuse to make as much from scratch as I possibly can but, today was one of those days that reminded me being a mommy of 2 little ones means that my time is not my own. Si is really teething, he did not want to sleep last night and was pretty fussy most of the day. My sweet husband gave me a break long enough to take a good nap but that one alteration in my plans for the day meant that the cinnamon steak skewers were not going to happen tonight :) Oh well, hopefully they will happen tomorrow.

Today breakfast was egg burritos just like we ate on Monday for breakfast. One of the biggest differences I am seeing while eating this way is that I am full for a very long time, which means I probably need to reduce my burrito to 2 eggs instead of 3 and get myself eating more frequently but who knows. I like the full feeling. I did not really eat lunch, I ate some grain free granola before I worked out and a banana after.

Dinner ended up being a super simple salad: lettuce, cucumber, tomato, carrots, green onion, roasted chicken from Tues night, sunflower seeds and citrus vinaigrette. It was simple but good, definitely glad to not be washing pots and pans right now!

30 Day Challenge, Day 4

2012-01-18T21:18:00.001-07:00

Today's post is a short one because we had leftover quiche for breakfast, grain free granola as a snack and I made a barbecue pulled pork salad for lunch.

Here is dinner:

Portabella burgers, inspired by Make it Paleo but I did it a little differently. Cook the mushroom caps in a pan with a small amount of oil, salt and pepper and use them as the base of your burger in place of a bun (you just want them to soften up but not become completely limp). I used grass fed ground beef seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder for the burger. Toppings were carmelized onions, tomato and lettuce. These were delicious! I mean really good! Try these :) We ate sweet potato fries as well.

The challenge is still going well. I have to say we are still using the creamer I posted about on Sunday but I am starting to dislike the aftertaste. I think that as long as I keep thinking of it for what it is and not wanting it to be half n half that I will still enjoy it.... but, I am also going to try some alternatives, will let you know if any of them work.

30 Day Challenge, Day 3

2012-01-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

Day 3 was a little more difficult, not because I was tempted to eat anything that was not on the list but because I just feel tired and a little off. I do not know if I should blame the challenge or the fact that my baby boy did not want to sleep last night.

Jeff goes to work at 5 a.m. every day so it is important that he can just grab something quick to eat. Because of that I made this crustless Kale Quiche last night so that he could just heat it up before leaving for work. I would say that this is pretty good, not my absolute favorite. I think the only problem was that I did not cook the kale long enough before putting it all together. I will give it one more chance because the flavors were great, the texture was just a little off.

For lunch I made some barbecue sauce to go with the pulled pork from Sunday, some deviled eggs and a salad.

Barbecue sauce (from Make it Paleo)
1 tbsp coconut oil (I used 1 tbsp bacon fat because I had just cooked some bacon for Jeff's second breakfast), 2 cloves garlic minced, 2 shallots, 1 tsp each: organic spicy mustard, smoked paprika, chipotle seasoning, ground cumin and salt, 1 1/4 cups chicken broth, juice from 1 1/2 limes, 6 oz can of tomato paste. (1 tsp maple syrup is optional but not on the whole 30)

1. In a saucepan, heat coconut oil on medium heat. Add garlic and shallots and saute until soft and translucent
2. Add mustard, smoked paprika, chipotle, cumin and salt. Continue to saute for 30 seconds.
3. Add chicken broth, lime juice, maple syrup (optional) and tomato paste. Whisk all ingredients until smooth.
4. Bring to a light boil, reduce to simmer and slightly cover with a lid. Simmer for 45 minutes and let cool

Deviled eggs
I just hard boiled eggs and used some of the mayo that I made on Sunday along with some dried dill, paprika, salt and pepper. I have no quantities for you, it is all to taste

I generally have a cup of coffee in the morning and then another in the afternoon but today I kind of wanted a treat. This is a recipe I found a few days ago for a pumpkin chai latte and have been wanting to try. It was really good! I know that a little bit of sweetness from the maple syrup would have really made it great but I enjoyed it without, you still get some sweetness from the coconut milk. I will make this again but I think it is more like 3 servings than 2 and I am planning to try it with light coconut milk or almond milk next time.

Dinner was herb and garlic roasted chicken, brussel sprouts and cauliflower rice (Maddie ate all of this really well but particularly loved the cauliflower :). Really good! I accidentally left the oven on preheat instead of moving it to bake and my chicken turned out perfect, golden brown and juicy. I am sure you guys do not need a recipe for roasted chicken or brussel sprouts but here is the cauliflower rice (also from Make it Paleo):

1/2 head of cauliflower, 1 tbsp coconut oil, 1/2 yellow onion, 1 clove of garlic minced, salt and pepper to taste

1. Rinse cauliflower and break away from stem in large chunks
2. Using a cheese grater, grate the cauliflower to a coarse texture (think rice grains).
3. Heat coconut oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic until onion is relatively translucent
5. Add in the cauliflower rice and continue to saute for 4-5 minutes
6. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

30 Day Challenge, Day 2

2012-01-16T23:29:00.002-07:00

Day 2 of our challenge and I am feeling good, I have not had any of those crazy cravings that I expected... we'll see how long that lasts. Jeff has been doing great in the morning between breakfast and lunch but after lunch and dinner he just has not felt incredibly full. We are not sure why because it seems like he is eating plenty. We'll keep you posted on whether it gets better, worse or we just find the right filler.

Breakfast today was a "burrito". This is 3 eggs beaten well with a little salt. Add them to a large non-stick skillet with a tsp of coconut oil melted and cook on low with out touching them for 6-7 minutes and then slide it off the pan and onto your plate. Add what ever filling suits you. It is a lot like an omelet but much thinner without the fluffiness so that it resemble the effect of a tortilla. We used some of the pulled pork from yesterday along with salsa and avocado drizzle (also from yesterday). This was another recipe from Make it Paleo but I used pork in place of taco meat, another winner!

This picture has nothing to do with lunch, but I do not have a picture of lunch because it was leftover chicken salad and veggies from yesterday and my baby boy is super cute :) I also had a snack around 4 of the Grain free Granola from yesterday but I ate it like cereal with unsweetened almond milk, I may like it even better this way but I think it all depends on what kind of snack I am in the mood to eat.

Dinner tonight was with some friends. She made chicken vegetable soup and even made her own stock, it was soooo good! Especially since the cold weather really hit today, perfect day for some tasty soup. My contribution was a simple salad but I did make the salad dressing. I juiced 2 lemons and 2 mandarin oranges, added 2 cloves of crushed garlic, salt, pepper and about 3/4 cup of olive oil. I made plenty so that we would have some for the rest of the week. I would try making your own vinaigrette even if you are not doing this challenge, it is so much better when it is fresh.

That was it for today, nothing to terribly spectacular but it was a good day :)

30 Day Challenge, Day 1

2012-01-15T21:37:00.001-07:00

Our first day went well!(there will be more recipes from today than you will normally see, I have a few staples to cover).

One of the deal breakers for me on doing this challenge was cream in my coffee! Not using sugar is one thing but I am just not a black coffee drinker. Another family doing this same challenge found this recipe for non-dairy creamer. The one note I will make here that they do not discuss on the blog is to make sure your egg is at room temperature and that after you melt your coconut oil you give it a few minutes to cool off before adding it to the mixture. It is definitely not half n half and has a coconut aftertaste that I am still getting used to, but it really is pretty good and I am grateful that it worked!

Our breakfast was Eggs Paleo from the cookbook Make it Paleo. I am sure you gather from the title that it is a riff on Eggs Benedict. This was really good and it was the most filling meal of the day for Jeff. Here is the recipe (recipe is for 1 serving, I multiplied it to suit our needs today):

2 strips of bacon, 1 large slice of tomato (I only had romas so I used 2 small slices), 1/2 avocado, juice of 1/2 lemon, 1 clove of garlic, 3 Tbsp water, 1 egg, pepper to taste

1. Cook bacon, cool crumble for later (as you can see in our picture I left the bacon whole, will crumble next time)
2. Slice your tomato
3. Place avocado in a food processor. Add lemon juice, garlic and water. Blend until the drizzle is a smooth consistency.
4. Poach eggs
5. Plate by stacking the egg on the tomato slice. Liberally dress with the avocado drizzle the sprinkle with pepper and bacon.

For lunch today we ate pulled pork (recipe found here) that I put into the crock pot last night. We wrapped it in lettuce leaves like a taco and dressed it with leftover avocado drizzle from breakfast, tomato and green onion. We also ate some raw veggies on the side.

Our main snack today (and probably for the duration of this challenge) was Grain Free Granola from the cookbook Make it Paleo. This is wonderful! It can be eaten like cereal with Almond or Coconut milk or dry like Trail Mix. Here is the recipe:

1 cup each raw: sunflower seeds, pecans, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and sliced almonds; 1 cup each shredded unsweetened coconut, chopped medjool dates and raisins.

1. Soak nuts and seeds in warm water and a Tbsp of salt for 10-12 hours
2. Drain and spread onto a baking sheet. Set oven at 110 degrees F and dehydrate for 10-12 hours. (if your lowest setting is higher than 110 leave the door ajar) Coarsely chop and place in a large bowl.
3. Mix in shredded coconut, chopped dates and raisins.

For dinner we ate chicken salad with lettuce (really delicious). I roasted boneless, skinless chicken thighs seasoned with olive oil salt and pepper in the oven on a baking sheet for about a half an hour. I let the chicken cool and then chopped it up with 3 celery stalks, toasted pecans (maybe a 1/2 a cup), green onions, a little garlic salt and homemade mayo.
For the mayo (also from Make it Paleo):

1 egg, 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice, 1/4 tsp ground mustard, 1 cup unrefined macadamia nut oil, salt and pepper to taste

1. In a blender or food processor, blend egg, lemon juice and mustard
2. Slowly add in the oil while processing to fully emulsify
3. When the oil has all emulsified and you have a creamy mayonaise, add in salt and pepper. Continue to blend until combined.

Whew, that was a lot. I do not blame you if you did not read every recipe :) I plan to do more recipes that do not involve using a lettuce leaf but today I wanted to prepare some things that would be good as leftovers for lunch this week. I have to say that I really enjoy the "homemade" aspect of what we are doing, as long as I have time I love to do things from scratch!

30 Days... We can make it 30 days, right?

2012-01-14T13:45:00.002-07:00

Jeff and I have been trying to figure out some things regarding our family's eating habits. Many of the things we have looked into have been convicting but we have yet to really follow through on them in our home. We have decided to take the 30 day challenge, removing all sugar, dairy, beans, legumes and grain for 30 days. Our main reason for using this as our starting point is that we would like to limit processed foods in our daily eating and want to go through a "detox" before adding them slowly back into our routine. We want to know how these foods are making us feel and if we really need to eliminate any of them completely. I personally struggle with taking things like this to an extreme but 30 days sounds reasonable and I really need to try and get away from how much sugar I have been eating. I do not see us maintaining this as a forever lifestyle... who knows, maybe we will feel so good that we will not want to stop. What I am hoping for is that we come out on the other side with better habits. Maddie will be eating mostly the same meals we are eating but we are not removing dairy for her and I will be letting her have some grain. We have purchased a cookbook and there are also a few blogs that have some recipes. A friend has been sharing her family's 30 day challenge on her blog and I have really enjoyed it so I will be sharing ours here.

A few of the documentaries we have watched that made us think about our way of eating:

Food Inc
Food Matters
Fat, Sick and nearly dead

Christmas 2011

2012-01-09T12:40:00.000-07:00

We had another fun Christmas this year! My Mother was visiting once again which always makes the time extra special. Jeff was busy with work but, with all the crazy warm weather we are having, it went very smooth and he was not gone as much as he has been in the past. Here are a few pictures:

A Big Texas Thanksgiving.

2011-12-15T14:14:00.000-07:00

Now that it's almost Christmas, here are our photos from Thanksgiving in Texas. There was a great deal of fun had with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmothers and great grandmothers. We can't wait to go back.

Grandpa's Farm

2011-10-22T20:22:00.001-06:00

Today we went to the pumpkin patch known locally as "Grandpa's Farm". There were animals, and slides and kettle corn. We managed to get some cute pictures in spite of everyone being hungry when the camera came out. It's amazing to look at last year's pictures and see how much Maddie has changed. They really do grow up too fast.

Cross One Off the Bucket List

2011-10-21T09:21:00.005-06:00

Yesterday I had the privilege of realizing a life-long dream by flying on a piece of history. I got to fly from Helena to Provo in the Boss' P 51 mustang. I've always loved the mustang, It's a beautiful airplane that looks fast just sitting on the ramp and it oozes horsepower and history. It could be argued that the Mustang is what brought about the defeat of Germany in WWII as it was the first fighter capable of escorting our bombers all the way to Berlin and back. Chuck Yeager, Bob Hoover and the Tuskegee Airmen flew mustangs. The V12 Merlin Engine produces 1490 horsepower and the most glorious roar you will ever hear. Everything about the airplane is awesome.

Our flight was awesome too. As we wove a course around snow capped peaks supported by the red, yellow and orange foliage below them, we could see elk running through the trees and the hunters that pursued them. We did loops and rolls and "strafing" runs down canyons. The only thing that could have made the flight any more fun is if there were still six .50 cal machine guns in the wings with which we could do some real strafing runs (perhaps in Heaven?). Thanks Gene, I had a blast and count it an honor to be one of the few privileged enough to fly in a piece of history. Here are some pics, be sure to turn up your volume for the video, that my friends is the sound of freedom.

Stuff

2011-10-17T13:32:00.003-06:00

Perhaps it's the fact that I'm nearing the end of my weekend and the beginning of yet another work week that has caused me to spend the better part of the day pondering the question, do we really need all this stuff? How much time do we spend at jobs we don't particularly enjoy so that we can make enough money to maintain our stuff? The house that is too big, the car that is too new, the iPods, iPads and iMacs, the smart phones and HDTVs, all this stuff that we bought to "enrich" our lives. But when we are honest with ourselves, far from enriching our lives, these things take over our lives and distract us from what is really important.

A quick perusal or our home will reveal 3200 square feet, we use the basement for laundry, storage and nothing else, the attic will be a master suite some day but we don't use it yet. The four of us live on the main floor in about 1000 square feet which means we have 2200 square feet of wasted house that we heat and cool for nothing. You will also find in my dresser twenty pairs of socks, eight pairs of underwear, nine t-shirts, and five pairs of pants. The worst part is that it's laundry day so most of my clothes are not in my dresser, they are on the laundry room floor. I have 9 pairs of shoes! In the basement you will find an inflatable kayak that I just had to have and have used once in the 3+ years that I've owned it. Three tents, four backpacks, six sleeping bags, I guess you could say we are well prepared for the one camping trip we do each summer. I could go on and on.

In light of all that waste I've become fascinated with the idea of simplifying. It's exhilarating and horrifying all at the same time. I love my toys, I love buying them, thinking about buying them and hunting for the best deal on them. But, how freeing it would be to walk away from all that stuff. Live in a tiny house with no mortgage to worry about each month, drive a really cool old car that doesn't require a payment or comprehensive insurance, just buy what you need and not much else. Just think what you could afford to give to worthy causes in time and treasure.

We are thinking about, I guess I should say we are in the primal stages of beginning to think about, doing something like this . A small house we could build with our own hands, on our own land and pay cash for. The size necessarily requires a reduction in the amount of stuff you have, but that shifts your priorities to what is important.

Madeline is 2

2011-09-11T09:35:00.000-06:00

Friday was our sweet Maddie Mae's birthday. We celebrated slowly throughout the day, homemade pizzas, playtime outside, the big gift reveal and then cupcakes. It was pretty low key but we did our best to make her feel special. It is very interesting to tell a 2 year old happy birthday and have her stare back at you with the exact same huge smile that you always get, a little question mark in her eyes about why I am so excited. We bought her a toy kitchen with a few accessories and it was a hit! There have been very few moments since we gave it to her that she has not been cooking, making coffee or doing dishes. It is in our kitchen and throughout the last day and a half she has grabbed our hands saying "see it?!" and led us to her kitchen, handing us something to stir or try... so much fun!! We have been blessed with a joyful, inquisitive, affectionate, precious little girl and we had a great day celebrating her birthday.

Madeline's 1st Haircut

2011-09-06T16:29:00.001-06:00

My sweet baby girl will be turning 2 on Friday. (pausing to let that sink in... I know it must be as crazy to you as it is to me) I have been somewhat tormented by what I should be doing with her hair these days, not that I am trying to be dramatic, it has just been an issue lately. The mullet has been bouncing back and forth from really cute when her curls are fresh from her bath to a stringy mess halfway through the day that looks like I do not care about her. The attempted solution was pigtails, super cute! But alas, she would inevitably pull them out giving her a version of "big Texas hair" that was just not right. So, this morning I took her to Molly, the stylist that has been doing my hair for the last 4 years. Someone that I felt I could trust to keep as many of those curls as possible while getting rid of the stringy issue. I have to say it was a success! Maddie was nervous and unsure about getting in that chair at first but by the end she was smiling and making everyone around her smile. Molly trimmed it up without chopping off all of her curls, it is no longer in her eyes and the stringyness is gone. Perfect :) Now I wonder why exactly I was so nervous and teary about it... got to love hormones.

Colorado vacation 2011 part 2

2011-08-30T15:01:00.000-06:00

After leaving Colorado Springs we made the beautiful drive to the western slope and my father's home in Delta. This is my other home town, it is where I spent my summers and every other Christmas growing up. Many memories of softball, playing in the ditch, riding my bike (which I earned by pulling weeds) and listening to my Dad's old Elvis tapes with my brothers. As we drove into town I noticed that many things have changed in the years since I have been gone but for the most part it is the same small town I remember from my childhood.

My Dad greeted us with hugs and a big pot of chicken and rice soup. We spent the first evening getting settled into his guest room and letting the kids get some rest after driving all day. Day 2 was spent having lunch in Cleland park and then Dad and I going for coffee while the kids took a huge nap before heading to Yvonne's for dinner that night. Yvonne spoiled us with my favorite dinner that she cooked for my birthday every year, fried pork chops and mashed potatoes with cream gravy plus the bonus of Olathe sweet corn. We spent some quality time with she and LaVerne before our kiddos had a small meltdown signaling the need for bedtime. (Yvonne, somehow we did not end up with you in our pictures... just LaVerne, you will have to email some from your camera).

Day 3 began with a trip to the farmer's market which was a stone's throw from my Dad's condo. We bought some great fresh veggies and fruit for dinner before spending the rest of the day in Grand Junction. We ate wonderful mexican food (Jeff said they had the best refried beans he has ever eaten) and the real treat of the day, getting to listen to my Dad sing at an Assisted Living home. Madeline had an absolute ball dancing while Grandpa sang, the video below only captures a fraction of the fun she was having! We ended the day with a simple meal of the fresh food bought that morning (Thanks for the pots Geri, we could not have done dinner that night without them).

Our last day was spent at the Box Canyon and in Ouray. I remember going to the Box Canyon as a child and, while the beautiful waterfall there is difficult to forget, my biggest memory is feeding the very fat chipmunks that mooch off the tourists. Well, we are no longer allowed to feed them but they are still there and Maddie loved them. It was such a fun day and it was wonderful to show Jeff and the kids something I remember so well as a child.

The next day we drove for 16 hours back to Billings. We had a wonderful time, thanks Dad for being so generous in every way, it was so much fun to spend time with you!!

Colorado vacation 2011 part 1

2011-08-07T14:10:00.000-06:00

We just returned from visiting some family in Colorado. We planned to leave on Saturday morning but Jeff ended up with some scheduling issues at work, so the kids and I pulled out alone and picked Jeff up in Denver 10 hours later. The kids did really well and we ended up in Colorado Springs that night instead of leaving an entire day later than originally planned. Our main reason for heading to Colorado Springs on this trip was a visit to my Grandmother. She is living in an assisted living home there and it has been 12 years since the last time I have seen her. I really wanted her to meet Jeff and our sweet babies. It was so neat to see her excitement at our arrival and to sit and chat with her for a while. She snuggled Si and enjoyed our very active Madeline for about an hour before treating us to lunch. It was special to see her and to introduce her to my family.

The rest of our time in Colorado Springs was spent exploring some local tourist traps. We attempted to drive up to Pike's Peak but were denied entry, apparently babies under 6 months in age are not allowed due to concerns about hypoxia. The fact that it would have cost us $12 per adult and $4 per child was a bit of a shock that lessened our disappointment. We ended up exploring Manitou Springs instead. We started at their coffee shop which served Mate espresso (good but not the replacement for coffee that they claimed it would be) and then headed to a very unique playground. They have reinvented a lot of the usual playground equipment in a really creative way. Maddie enjoyed it but in a few years this would be a blast for her. After that we wandered around downtown before stopping for dinner at the Sahara Cafe where we ate some amazing middle eastern food... just thinking about it has me planning fresh pitas and hummus for dinner tonight :) The next morning we explored a little of The Garden of the Gods before heading out to Delta.

Will cover our Delta fun in Colorado vacation 2011 part 2

four years with my best friend

2011-07-28T22:56:00.000-06:00

It has been awhile since I have blogged, my sweet husband has been keeping up with it lately. That said, this post is out of order but it was something important enough to me that I still wanted it recorded here.

On May 27th Jeff and I celebrated our 4th anniversary. My Mom was in town to help us because Si was brand new so we were able to go on a date. One of our favorite indulgences that we do not get often anymore is sushi so we seized the opportunity and tried out a new place. One of the things that we enjoy most about each other is that we are both willing to be adventurous and try new things together which resulted in the one negative experience of the evening, sea urchin. Jeff put it well when he said it was like licking an ocean rock... not the best after taste either. Overall it was a great time, we talked, laughed, ate good food and just enjoyed each other... something that we have to seek out with purpose since 2 blessings have entered our lives. Jeff, you are my best friend and I am incredibly blessed to be your wife. Looking forward to many more years :)

Camping

2011-07-24T23:48:00.006-06:00

Recently we went camping to see how it would go. We kept it short (24 hours) just in case things (kids) got crazy. Overall it went well. We forgot many things and in so doing learned a very valuable lesson, never ever under any circumstances forget to bring the dog bed. In spite of his appearance Ruger (the big dog) is a weenie. He loves nothing more than comfort and the tent floor just wasn't up to his standards. Thus, he spent most of the night pacing and begging to get out of the tent. This of course kept us up and Maddie too. Maddie in turn had a bit of a short fuse the next day, for some reason she didn't take it out on Ruger though. We did manage to get in a hike to a wonderful waterfall and we escaped the 100 degree heat in Billings. Maddie also discovered the wonderful world of dirt. We will go again, but we won't forget the dog bed. More posts to follow about our summer adventures. Here are some pics.

Maddie and the Hose

2011-06-02T11:53:00.004-06:00

The annual May deluge has finally ceased and given way to sunshine and warmth. This means Maddie has been helping me with the yard work and last night she discovered the hose. We returned to the house completely soaked. Today she helped me water the garden and we returned to the house completely soaked. Looks like we have a new summer pastime. Enjoy the pics, I know I do!

Josiah Comes Home

2011-05-21T11:12:00.005-06:00

After two nights in the hospital, Josiah was cleared to come home Thursday. There is no sign of the pneumothorax and he is breathing like a champ. He is a little jaundiced, but LeeAnn took him in this morning to have it looked at and all is well. If all stays as is, we are done with doctors until his two week checkup. It's pretty awesome having everyone home. Here are some pics.

Grandma Gini and her Grand Kids.

Maddie Loves Her Little Brother

Momma Finally Home With her Little Man

Travel Buddies

Our First Family Portrait, on the Way Out the Door.

Let's go Already

A Quick Nap Before the Trip Home

Maddie's Favorite Chair at the Hospital

Let's Hope They Always Get Along This Well

A Beautiful Day for a Birthday

2011-05-17T22:30:00.009-06:00

Josiah arrived this morning (5/17/2011) at 9:19. LeeAnn started having contractions at 3:30 and we checked into the hospital around 7:00 so our Ob would be the one on call. After a lot more contractions (sans epidural) and a couple hours our son arrived. He was almost a month early but still tipped the scales at 6 pounds 14 ounces and 19 inches long. Overall he is doing very well. They did take him to the NICU for about 5 hours due to a slight breathing problem, but he is currently sleeping comfortably with mommy in their room. It's somewhat doubtful that he will be able to accompany LeeAnn home tomorrow, but according to to doctors his breathing problem should work itself out sooner than later and we hope to have him home for the weekend. Fortunately all of his vitals are good without supplemental oxygen and he is starting to figure out how to eat. Thanks for your prayers. Come on over for a visit. Here are some of our favorite pictures from the day.

יאשיה

2011-04-30T17:37:00.008-06:00

Jo·si·ah

1. whom Yahweh heals.

"Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.

In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles, carved idols and cast images.

Under his direction the altars of the Baals were torn down; he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them, and smashed the Asherah poles, the idols and the images. These he broke to pieces and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

In the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign, to purify the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah and Maaseiah the ruler of the city, with Joah son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the temple of the LORD his God. . . While they were bringing out the money that had been taken into the temple of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the LORD that had been given through Moses. . . Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. . . When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his robes. . .

Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. . . He went up to the temple of the LORD with the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites--all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the LORD.

The king stood by his pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the LORD--to follow the LORD and keep his commands, regulations and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, and to obey the words of the covenant written in this book.

Then he had everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin pledge themselves to it; the people of Jerusalem did this in accordance with the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

Josiah removed all the detestable idols from all the territory belonging to the Israelites, and he had all who were present in Israel serve the LORD their God. As long as he lived, they did not fail to follow the LORD, the God of their fathers."

Josiah my son,

It is our prayer that the meaning of your name will be true in your life. We ask that God will heal your sinful heart, making you a new creation through His grace given because of your faith in Jesus Christ. We pray that you, like your namesake, will be used by the LORD in this perverse nation to lead those in your sphere of influence back to Him. We love you and can't wait to meet you! See you in a few short weeks.

Love, Dad

Maddie and Mommy go to Texas

2011-04-24T19:47:00.008-06:00

Madeline and I had the opportunity to spend a week in TX recently and had a wonderful time with my brothers families and my mother.

My sweet sister in law carted Maddie and I to my dear friend Jenn's house where we had some quality time... it only happens once every year or two but I treasure our time together.

After leaving Jenn's house we took Maddie to the mall in Frisco where she went on her first carousel ride, thank you Aunt Emily!

Saturday was the day that both my brother's families and my Mom spent together. We started by watching my nephew Seth play flag football (for some reason my camera did not come out for this) and then proceeded to spend the rest of the day relaxing at Randy's house. It was wonderful to have a laid back day hanging out with my family and letting all the cousins get some quality time together. As you will see in these pictures, Grandma was a favorite of the day for all the grandkids!

That evening Mom, Maddie and I left Randy's house and spent the rest of the trip at Jon's. Our girls had some great time together, we ate delicious TexMex (thanks Mom!) and, once again, spend some great quality time together. Uncle Jon even taught Maddie how to ride the four wheeler, next time maybe she will learn how to steer too! We are expecting our little boy in June and Jon and Emily are expecting a little boy in August so we had to get a picture of the boys :)

Maddie Goes to the Zoo

2011-03-29T13:44:00.008-06:00

Because Maddie has been around animals since conception, it comes as no surprise that she really loves them. LeeAnn and I have been anxiously awaiting the day that Maddie could appreciate the Zoo. That day was last Thursday during our visit to Boise. It's still early Spring in the Northwest so a lot of the animals were still indoors for winter. However, the great thing about taking an 18 month old to the zoo, is that a squirrel in the vacant giraffe exhibit is just as exciting as seeing the giraffes themselves. Maddie had a blast looking at the animals but what she really loved was walking all by herself on the paths and of course the giant giraffe slide. We had a great time too. Having a kid is a great excuse to be a bit of a kid and experience the wonder of the world all over again. Here are some pics.

Idaho is Calling Me Home

2011-03-05T07:37:00.000-07:00

Watch the full episode. See more Outdoor Idaho.

Recipe 11 Quinoa and Black Bean Salad

2011-02-28T17:29:00.008-07:00

It has been a while since I have posted a recipe (there are a few I should put on here) but this is a new family favorite and needs to be done first. Red Quinoa and Black Bean Salad was featured on The Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen blog a while back. We love quinoa and the flavors looked good to us so we made it that night... Jeff has requested it every time I have been planning meals since that night. Let me just say that if you have tried quinoa because it is so healthy and not enjoyed it, you should try it again with this recipe. More than anything else the quinoa gives the salad texture, it is the other flavors that make it so good. This is a great recipe if you have time to make dinner in the morning but not that night. The longer the flavors combine the better it tastes.

My alterations to this recipe:

- Red or original quinoa are both fine, not really a flavor difference so do not worry about finding red quinoa unless you really want the salad to be extra pretty
- I do not cook the quinoa the way the recipe tells me to, to much work. I buy mine prewashed. Add your quinoa to a pot, add in 1 and a quarter times liquid to quinoa (I use chicken stock but water would be just fine), add a little salt. Bring this to a simmer at medium heat, turn down to low heat, put a lid on the pot and let it cook on low for 30 minutes. Turn the heat off and let it sit for an additional 5 minutes, fluff with a fork and then let it cool before combining with the rest of the salad.
- I have not had access to fresh corn since using this recipe, using a drained 15 oz can of kernel corn has worked for us for now.

As you can see below, Madeline likes it as well :)

(photos taken by my very talented husband!)

Dizzy Maddie.

2011-02-25T14:49:00.000-07:00

One of Maddie's favorite new activities.

Fetch

2011-01-31T08:34:00.000-07:00

Maddie loves her dogs and they are pretty fond of her too.

Maddie In Black and White

2011-01-25T14:06:00.006-07:00

Now that LeeAnn has gone back to work part time, Maddie and I get to spend a lot of time together. One of the ways we pass the time is by taking pictures. Maddie has recently discovered that she can see herself in the back of the camera after it makes the clicking sound. This has become a source of much entertainment and some pretty cute photos too. They are in Black and White as I believe the light and the different textures in our house make for some great black and white photography. Here are some of my favorites.

Thanksgiving 2010

2011-01-19T11:15:00.007-07:00

It has been awhile since we made this trip but I still feel compelled to make sure it is recorded here on our blog. It has been 3 years since we have made it to the White family Thanksgiving. Jeff had just accepted a new role in management in 2008 and it was not good timing for us to spend a week in Texas and in 2009 we were blessed with our precious Madeline Mae. Had we known about her early arrival we might have still attempted the trip but it was wonderful to celebrate at our house with Jeff's parents and his brother Tim's family! Our two Thanksgiving celebrations here in Montana were great but there really is something missing when I miss out on my whole family being together. We are a family who loves food and fellowship, a holiday that facilitates these two things is not something you want to miss.

Our first full day in Longview my Mom had to work so we spent the day at Uncle Walter and Aunt Mona's hanging out with some of my best friends/cousins. Caleb and Tyne, Jon and Leigh, Jeff and I along with our combined 7 children, with 2 on the way, had a great day of just spending time together. Thanksgiving day was filled with wonderful food (if I elaborated on the food I feel that I would be typing far longer than I have time for today) and some quality time with extended family, it met the build up of what I had missed out on the previous 2 years. I must say that my favorite part of the whole week was getting to spend a lot of quality time with my Mom, my two brothers and their families. Watching all of them love on Madeline and seeing her interact with cousins, aunts, uncles and grandma was wonderful!

Here are some pictures to commemorate Thanksgiving 2010:

Sugar High at the Hardware Store.

2010-12-12T17:47:00.001-07:00

We took Maddie to Paciugo this afternoon and introduced her to the awesomeness that is an Affogato (gelato with espresso poured on top (no, not a whole one)). This was the result . . .

Four Generations One Room

2010-12-06T15:10:00.004-07:00

I grew up with only one grandparent which is why I'm so thankful that Maddie has not only a full compliment of grandparents, but also two great grandmothers. Last week we were able to visit Great Grandma Annie while we were in Texas. She treated us to lunch at Luby's and then we were able to visit with her for a while at her apartment. Maddie was a little charmer and we enjoyed watching Grandma enjoying Maddie. It was really neat to see four generations in the same room, here are some pics.

Celebrate with us!

2010-11-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry to have been absent for so long but we return with a joyful announcement, we are pregnant again! I am almost 11 weeks along, due on June 12th. Our first appointment was yesterday and I just couldn't make myself tell the world about this pregnancy until hearing that heart beat, what a blessing that the nurse was able to find it this early. Our first appointment was just with the nurse and our second one will be on my birthday with the doctor. It is not standard procedure at our OBGYN's office to do a sonogram unless they believe there is a reason for it until 22 weeks but I may have to ask for a birthday gift and see what they say.

We have been dealing with lots of colds and lots of nausea around here lately so I am not sure you really want to hear about everything that has been going on, I'll just stick to the fun stuff. My former employer has allowed me to come in and do some work on the Christmas retail lately so I have been going in for about 10 hours a week, nothing terribly substantial but Jeff and I are grateful. This has spurred us on to evaluate our schedule and see if I could go back a little more regularly. We are attempting to see if I can work 15 to 20 hours a week but we are headed into Jeff's busiest time of year and hope that we made the decision at the right time. We would really like to get ahead before baby #2 arrives so please pray that this works out.

Jeff was able to go hunting yesterday and brought home a buck! Woohoo!! Venison for the winter :)

Below I am posting a picture that Jeff used to tell his family about baby #2 and picture of Jeff and his buck. Hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving week, we should have a huge post about our TX trip in the next couple of weeks.

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-28T09:56:00.006-06:00

I have recently been seeing some pretty wonderful posts from family and friends getting great photos of their children in pumpkin patches and it inspired me to find one we could take Madeline. What I found is that the "patches" in Texas are set up for wonderful pictures and around here they are actual pumpkin patches in the dirt. While it was a different experience than I was looking for I still think we ended up with some fun pictures and we had a great time! It will be even more fun next year when Madeline can participate in the games and a hayride. Here are the pics!

Finally Maddie and Daddy pics

2010-10-04T14:35:00.007-06:00

This weekend we were ambitious enough to think we might make it to the mountains for a fall drive and photo safari... did not happen. What did happen is going to the park and taking some fall pictures of Madeline and Jeff together. This photo shoot was suppose to happen on Father's Day but just kept getting postponed due to inclement weather. Really it ended up being worth the wait, the fall leaves and beautiful weather this weekend made for some great photos. I did have a bit of a moment... I had an outfit all picked out for Maddie to wear, it was super cute laying on the bed. I put it on her Saturday and immediately started asking Jeff "Are you sure you like it?", but what I really meant was that I really did not end up liking it. We did the shoot anyway and when we came home, downloaded and started editing I just could not handle my decision. Jeff was kind enough to entertain my neurosis and we did another shoot on Sunday... I was much happier with the result :) We ended up with great pictures both days so here are some of both, hope you enjoy!

Day 1 shoot (not my favorite outfit)

Day 2 shoot:

One less tooth and a fantastic husband

2010-10-02T09:25:00.004-06:00

I have not blogged in a while, the following consumed my entire week so I apologize now for using an entire blog for this experience. It was this or nothing... not really sure if I want to know that you would have preferred the nothing.

When I was living in College Station and about to move to Billings I went to the dentist one last time to take advantage of my insurance before I went without for a while. On this last visit x rays were taken and a wisdom tooth was discovered... just one, the other three decided not to show up, which is more of a blessing than I knew at the time. I was advised to have it removed at that time but I was in love and on a tight schedule to get to the same city as the man that I loved. So, this advice was ignored. Fast-forward to being 17 weeks pregnant with Maddie Mae. When you are pregnant your immune system is not as strong, my one wisdom tooth became infected and was throbbing in constant pain but for the sake of my precious girl surgery was not an option at that time either (the things I do for love :). Fast forward to last week, the tooth flared up once again. A reminder that removal is not really an option but more of a necessity. Monday was the fateful day. I was under with iv sedation and upon coming out of it all I really remember is telling Jeff about the free blue tie-dyed t-shirt they gave me for having a wisdom tooth removed, apparently I chose it from about 10 colors offered :) The rest of that day I was pretty sore and my fabulous husband took care of Madeline and made me instant mashed potatoes. The next morning I woke up feeling pretty good so Madeline and I went to MOPS. Wednesday and Thursday hit and so did the torture. I do not believe that I am even using hyperbole when I say torture, it was horrific! Jeff was not flying either day (thank God) and even took Thursday night off work to help me out. I am afraid that I was not at my most gracious but he graciously served me through it all. On Friday morning relief came in the form of a nurse packing my tooth, I had a dry socket. Until this week dry socket was a meaningless phrase that I have seen people cringe at... I now understand and am willing and ready to cringe with you in the future. I am hoping that this is the end of my wisdom tooth saga, that the packing will dissolve and my socket will heal and you will never have to hear me blog about my teeth again.... let's just all hope and pray for that together :)

Hoodies and Dinky Doughnuts

2010-09-18T11:38:00.003-06:00

Saturday day morning this time of year means the farmer's market :) In the past I have either been at work or taking care of a new born and have not been able to attend but this year Maddie and I have been 5 times and today was Jeff's second time to go. It is in the middle of downtown which is all of a 2 minute drive (I know, we should probably just walk) and we have enjoyed it so much! Our weekly purchases include green beans, grass fed beef and the most wonderful freshly fried Dinky Doughnuts. These are the lightest, fluffiest doughnuts I have ever eaten! We've decided they are laced with crack and do not know what we will do without our fix after market season is over... I just might have to try my hand at homemade doughnuts. Every week I am trying something new that is sold there as well and this week it is garlic from a stand that sells about 25 different types... we'll see if it is worth the effort of using different kinds...?

There was a chill in the air this morning so we bundled Maddie Mae up a bit. Here she is with Jeff in their hoodies :) Every time we attempt to have a photo shoot for Jeff and Madeline we end up with some pretty rough weather (the first attempt there was a tornado). We hope to have some quality pictures of them to go on the wall next to the Mother's Day pics of Maddie and I soon.

The Party

2010-09-10T18:09:00.004-06:00

Over all I would say that Madeline's 1st birthday party was a success! The video montage that Jeff made really tells it all so I will just say that getting her hyped up on birthday cake and then introducing her new playroom was a good order of events, all that sugar made her run around in there for a while trying everything out :) Maddie is thoroughly enjoying all her new gifts so thank you so much for thinking of her!!

Maddie Mae is 1 today!

2010-09-09T16:27:00.003-06:00

Today we are celebrating the birth of our precious Madeline Mae Grissom! A whole year has passed... wow... a whole year! As astounding as this is to me I have been looking at pictures over the last year and the amount of change in our sweet girl seems like it should have taken several years and not only one. We were expecting to meet our little girl on 10/16/09 but she wanted a better birthday so she showed up on 9/9/09 at exactly 6 p.m. After some worry and a ton of prayer over her early arrival God blessed us with a healthy (albeit very tiny) little girl. She has been a joy! We are loving getting to know her as her personality comes through more every day. We are having a little birthday party (just the three of us) and will post about her day in a future blog but for now, here is a photo of Maddie the day she came home from the hospital and one from today. Thanks for all the Happy Birthday wishes you have sent out to her!

Bath Time

2010-09-01T13:28:00.000-06:00

Most of you saw this on Facebook, but in case you missed it, here it is again. Perhaps the cutest bath time video ever!

Nana's visit

2010-08-28T11:10:00.003-06:00

Last weekend (now officially the weekend before last,oops) we had a visit from Madeline's Nana. It was the first time they have met and I think the first impressions were positive on both sides! Yvonne fed Maddie Mae almost every meal, spoiled all of us with Christmas gifts and really spoiled Maddie Mae with her first birthday gifts by helping her out with her winter wardrobe. Jeff and I went on 2 dates while she was here which was such a blessing! Over all ate some good food and spent quality time with our precious baby girl! It was a good weekend.

Goats

2010-08-27T15:52:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I went hiking in Jewel Basin near Kalispell MT between flights. These mountain goats were kind enough to hang out with me for about ten minutes before I headed back down the mountain. That was a pretty cool experience!

Feeling far away

2010-08-16T19:59:00.003-06:00

Our sweet Maddie Mae recently turned 11 months old. This event has taken me through some unexpected emotions. When I say that she is more fun all the time and I would not wish to return to her former stages I am speaking the truth... and yet there is a little piece of me that is always wondering if I am enjoying these moments enough, will I remember her sweet baby time well enough? While these questions have been a part of my emotional ups and downs the primary trigger comes when I try to figure out what we will do for her first birthday. I know that she will not remember this day but it is just getting harder and harder to think that none of our family will be around to celebrate her first year. Regardless, I will be baking cupcakes and making a special meal, we will have that picture of her tasting cake for the first time and allow her to make as big of a mess as she wants... but I am shedding some tears and feeling the miles between Billings and our families. My solace comes in the fact that we serve a great God with great plans and I have no doubt that we are here for a reason.

On a lighter note, Maddie Mae starting pulling up on everything taller than she is as soon as she started crawling and now has the ability to stand unaided for quite a while. Jeff has been wanting to capture this before she starts walking and here is what he just got :)

Look How She's Changed!

2010-08-10T21:42:00.000-06:00

It's hard to believe that Madeline turned 11 months old yesterday. She will be walking and talking and graduating from college soon. Crazy!

We're Back

2010-08-09T21:59:00.003-06:00

We're back in two regards. First, we are back from our trip to Boise where we got to visit with my family and friends. Second, we're back on the blogosphere as we finally got fed up with our old mac and bought a new one. . . the 27" iMac specifically, it's quite ridiculous but completely awesome too!

First our trip to Boise. It was hot, it was brown, it was smokey, (like most places in the Northwest in August) but it was home and it was nice to be there. My brother Mark and his family were there and they finally got to meet Maddie. She was the center of attention as usual and seemed to enjoy it, but she did get overwhelmed by all the new faces from time to time. We went bowling and ice skating which neither of us have done for years. We also cooked a salmon feast for everyone as Mark and his Family had just come from Alaska with copious amounts of said fish ( there was also halibut which was honestly better but we didn't cook that). Most of our time was spent just hanging out with family and friends it was a nice break from the daily grind. Maddie was a great little traveler and we were able to travel 300 miles between stops!

Now for our new toy / necessity. After sending our macbook out for repair for the third time and determining that it would need yet another costly repair, we decided to stop dumping money into it and just get a new computer. We contemplated many options, having my brother Tim build one for us, buying a new PC ,or just getting the old one repaired. We just couldn't stomach the thought of going back to a PC and we didn't want to spend anymore money on a dying machine, so we bought a new Mac and we love it! It will be super awesome for all the pictures and videos we like to take, plus I'm pretty sure it could launch the space shuttle if we wanted it to. At any rate it'll be nice to be connected to the world again. Unfortunately I have to get back to the daily grind at 5:00 tomorrow morning so here are some pics and I'm off to bed.

Oh yeah, an aside to the mac buying story. We went to Costco to look at computers and buy groceries today and Maddie had a little (actually not little at all) puking incident. We had just passed the fresh fruit section and she was acting like she wanted to be held, so of course I obliged. Soon thereafter she proceeded to projectile vomit all over herself and the front of my shirt. Everything went into slow motion and I remember thinking how is she still puking it's like a vomit fire hose! so that was fun.

Daddy Dressed Me

Cousins!

Michala and Maddie

Michala and MADdie

Can You Give Maddie Her Binki?

2010-08-03T10:24:00.000-06:00

OUR LITTLE SHADOW

2010-07-25T14:57:00.000-06:00

Look who figured out how to crawl.

2010-07-15T14:03:00.000-06:00

Sushi at home

2010-07-11T21:19:00.002-06:00

Eating sushi for Jeff's birthday has made me crave sushi all week long. So I decided it was time to try making it myself :) A good friend of ours gave Jeff a sushi making kit that we have never used for his birthday a couple of years ago so we already had all the equipment. I did not want to hunt down the good raw stuff just in case it did not work out so I ended up making California and Philadelphia rolls. Turned out well for my first time, next time I will attempt to use less rice and more filling. I will say that it was not that difficult, I expected it to be much more complicated. I made 5 rolls and we are stuffed! Jeff took some fun pictures so that we could share our first at home sushi experience with you.

Grissom's visit (and a Wynkoop too!)

2010-07-06T15:33:00.007-06:00

Last friday Jeff's parents and his sister Debbie arrived for a visit. We played it pretty low key for the most part while they were here, fortunately they seemed to be as entertained by Maddie Mae as we are :) They took us out for dinner Saturday night for Jeff's birthday and he chose Sweet Ginger. It is amazing how often we ate sushi when we had two jobs and tip money to burn, it seemed like it had been so very long and it was delicious! I think I might try to make some vegetable rolls just so that we can get a small taste of that flavor occasionally here at home. Sunday was church in the morning (love Galations, great series!) and dinner off the grill on our back patio that night. Our visiting family was not interested in going to see fireworks so they blessed us by babysitting so that we could. We went up to the hangar where Jeff's offices are and were the only ones there, it was so nice to have the view to ourselves. Next year we plan to bring a bigger lens so that we can get some better pictures, we are not even proud enough of the ones we took to show them to you. We had a wonderful time getting out of the house alone and so appreciate the opportunity! Monday we went to Red Lodge, there were a few more tourists than we wanted to see but we still had fun wondering in and out of little shops and art galleries. There is a furniture shop that we just love to look through and every time we go we see a beautiful wooden musical drum/xylophone that we wish we could get for Jeff's dad, it was fun to see him play it and hopefully we can get him something like it some day. Tuesday we all went out for breakfast before sending them off back to Boise. I really enjoy the opportunity to get to know my in-laws better and this was a wonderful visit, thanks so much for driving all the way here! We look forward to seeing you soon when we go to Boise at the beginning of August.

Here are some of the pics from the weekend, enjoy!

I Could Crawl But I Don't Want To

Grandpa I'm Going to Need Your Glasses

Grandma Tells Great Stories

Aunt Debbie is Fun

Grandpa is Funny

Maddie and the Moose

The Center of Attention

Mothers Day

2010-07-02T00:11:00.003-06:00

Hopefully I will be able to remember everything I was going to blog about while our computer was gone over the next few days.

To begin, I was really wishing that we had our computer on Mother's Day this year. I have such a wonderful husband who makes me feel special every day but he worked especially hard that day. First thing in the morning I was given an emersion blender (happy sigh), I just love that my husband feeds my culinary addiction. I proceeded to cook down some strawberries, blueberries and peaches with some sugar just so that I could puree it in the pan and pour it over buttermilk pancakes. We went to church and then that afternoon Jeff took some fun pictures of us at the park. I really hope that we make it a tradition, it was a beautiful day. We meant to take some pictures on Father's Day as well but, as you saw on Jeff's vidoes, we had a tornado in town that day. Overall I just felt incredibly blessed to be Madeline Mae's mom and am so enjoying this precious little gift that God has placed in our care.

Stuck in Reverse

2010-07-01T13:01:00.000-06:00

VIDEO0019

2010-06-23T22:00:00.000-06:00

The Day Our Street Became A River.

2010-06-20T17:52:00.000-06:00

Ruger and the tornado siren singing a duet.

2010-06-20T17:39:00.000-06:00

Maddie's First Hike

2010-06-07T18:31:00.004-06:00

We finally have our computer back and now we can do some blog updates! We took Madeline up to the Stillwater river for her first hike on Memorial Day. We had a graduation party to get back for so we couldn't hike for long, but it sure was nice to get out of town and enjoy the mountains for a few hours. We ended up hiking to Woodbine Falls, a hike we are always too tired to do at the end of the day but have always wanted to try. Here are the pics.

Figuring out how to crawl.

2010-05-30T10:26:00.001-06:00

2010-05-15T17:47:00.001-06:00

we're still waiting for the computer to get fixed so here's a couple videos to tide you over. these were also taken on the phone pretty cool huh.

Maddie and her frog.

2010-05-15T17:46:00.001-06:00

VIDEO0001

2010-05-15T17:45:00.000-06:00

2010-05-06T18:18:00.003-06:00

I apologize for the lengthy delay in updating our blog . it would seem that our mac needs a new logic board in addition to the superdrive. so here I sit updating the blog on my new smartphone, i'm actually speaking and not typing how cool is that ?! things are going well for us, in fact we really don't have much to report . madeline went to the doctor saturday because we thought she might have an ear infection, it turns out she was fine, just teething. she is now just shy of 15 pounds which means she has quadrupled in weight. she is also quite the little chatter box ,she has a lot to say to everyone especially the dogs and cat. she is still not crawling although she is getting very close.

the last gasp winter is now upon us, snowing off and on all day.it's been very windy for the last week so much so we don't want to go outside. needless to say we are very ready for summer and some outdoor recreation. unfortunately, we have a record low temperature to set tonight before the weather turns nice. we hope this update finds you well , we'll post more when we have our computer back, i have to say though the droid incredible is really cool! ( sorry about punctuation and capitalization i guess technology isn't quite that far along yet)

A Spur of the Moment Trip

2010-04-16T08:38:00.007-06:00

Last Friday we had the opportunity to take an unplanned mini-vacation. Since Jeff has been working so much we have found that the only real break he gets is when we leave town and he no longer has the option of working... in other words this was necessary for his sanity! We left Friday evening and arrived in Boise Saturday around lunch time with an overnight stay in Idaho Falls on the way. It was great to spend time with Jeff's family and we even spent a little time with some friends. Our coffee addiction took us to a new little shop that had great art, really fun jewelry and, thank goodness, good coffee :) Of course we still had to hit my favorite coffee shop in the area, Rembrants. The shop is in an old church which, coincidentally, Jeff's dad used to preach in and it is where his sister Connie was married. They have great stained glass chandeliers, funky furniture and a great atmosphere (once again, they also have great coffee :). Most of our time was pretty relaxed, we took the dogs on a couple of walks in the foothills and had some great family time, we look forward to going again. Our return trip was a little long and once again Maddie traveled so well until the last hour, I think she must sense how close we are to being home and just cannot wait to get out of that seat. Who can blame her for that and how can we complain about one rough hour, right? Here are some pictures of our time there:

Avocado

2010-04-15T12:33:00.004-06:00

Maddie Mae had her first experience with Avocados last week, she is still not sure that she likes them, but the pictures are priceless.

Easter 2010

2010-04-05T15:09:00.004-06:00

Maddie's first Easter was pretty low key. Unfortunately the weather was a bit chilly for the outfit we had planned for her to wear, a little sad. But we still dressed her up and put a little flower bud headband in her hair made by my cousin Leigh :) We went to church where we were reminded of the humble, overwhelmingly selfless sacrifice Christ made for us in His death and then were able to rejoice in His awesome, powerful, redeeming resurrection, conquering death. He is risen, He is risen indeed!!! What a powerful God we serve, how amazing that He made a way for us to be in relationship with Him...

Here is our attempt at a family photo, we have a tripod and a nifty remote which help us quite a bit... maybe one day we will be able to find a way to get our little one to look at the camera without anyone behind it trying to grab her attention (I know, good luck with that for at least a few more years).

This weekend

2010-03-29T17:21:00.004-06:00

We had a great weekend! It started off with the wonderful surprise of Jeff not having to fly on Saturday, he still had to go in but it was for a few hours instead of all day. The sun was shining and all three of us were together, definitely a perfect day for a walk. We spent some time online and in stores trying to find a trailer/jogger for Maddie Mae so that we can ride our bikes... without much success. Who knew what an investment that could be? We would love some recommendations from those of you who have already bought a bike trailer :) We ended up loading up the dogs for our usual walk out at Norm's island and took the camera to record our fun in the sun. Jeff has been working 7 days a week again, we expect it during the holidays but it has gone on much longer this year. Even though it was only most of Saturday and most of Sunday we still really enjoyed the sweet time together!

Semisolid

2010-03-19T13:33:00.002-06:00

On Sunday we fed Maddie her first cereal, here is the priceless first reaction to food :) Enjoy!

And today, Jeff's first time to feed her

Maddie Mae's 1st trip to Texas

2010-03-09T21:05:00.019-07:00

Maddie Mae's Texas debut can be summarized in a couple of different ways. I guess we could say that there is a glass half empty version and a glass half full version. Considering the fact that I would like to leave everyone reading this on a positive note we will begin with the negative. I just spent several minutes chronicling the multitudes of people on this trip who suffered from a particularly fast and furious form of the stomach flu, including myself and Maddie Mae. Upon reading this excessive account I feel that reliving every moment of illness on this trip does not really do anyone any good so I will just say there were many many sick family and friends and when I say that we can define our trip in a glass half empty way I am referring to the plague going through Texas that ran into us in every city we visited.

Now, on to all the wonderful things we experienced (they far surpass the glass half empty version referred to above).

My brother Jon and his oldest daughter Addison picked us up from the airport and we spent the first night with them in Mansfield. It was so very much fun to hang out with the girls! Aubrey is crawling and is constantly exploring the world, already following her big sister around and wanting to do everything that Addison does. Addison and I had our first real opportunity to play and had so much fun! Usually there is so much going on when we are together that we do not interact much, it was great to get some quality Aunt/niece time with her. I also had a great time with Jon and Emily, I value them getting to meet Maddie so much and they really loved on her (happy sigh)! Here are some great cousin pics from their house.

The next leg of the trip began with my dear friend/cousin-in-law Tyne picking me up in Mansfield and going to lunch with our former roommate Adrianne. We then went to College Station where I lived for 10 years before moving up to MT... 10 years, wow! We started with some Pho Johns and meeting Lenna Marie, the precious babe you see to the left, born to Ryan and Beth Evans. I was able to spend dinner that night and the next afternoon with them, dear sweet friends who I miss so much! I stayed with Matt and Christine Martin, ate lunch at Cheddars with Sarah Malone and Janine Kirk, ate dinner at La Bodega with Jarrod Edwards, George Ward and the Martins then spent some quality time with that group plus Scott and Katrina Westphal. Dear friends and great food with lots of laughs! Not as many pics as I would have wanted but that is traveling with a baby :) Due to the previously mentioned stomach bug Tyne was not able to participate in many of these things (truly sad) but at least we had time to really talk on the drive...

The next stop on our Texas tour was Longview. We stayed with my mother and were joined by Jon, Emily and their girls. We went to my Uncle's new restaurant, T. Blancos for dinner on Saturday night (if you are in the Longview area you should definitely check it out!), the ceviche was amazing and I know that Jeff cannot wait to try it out on our next visit. On Sunday my cousin Leigh, Tyne and my mother threw Maddie a baby shower and the whole family came over to meet her. Leigh made the best white (tinged with pink) cake with seven minute frosting and there were beautiful flowers and wonderful food. It was great to have the opportunity for my very large family to meet our sweet little Madeline Mae and they blessed us with sweet little outfits, books and gift cards. Thank you!! Jon and Emily left that night and gave my mother some good Grandma time with Madeline and good mother/daughter time with me for the next couple of days. While my mother was at work on Monday we went over to Leigh's house to eat and play for the day. We were then confined to my mother's house for 2 days while the three of us worked through our stomach issues... my mom took care of us just like she did when I was little and we were blessed to be at her house when that happened. Here are some pics from this leg of the journey.

Our last stop was at my brother Randy's house. We arrived there on Thursday and had some quality hang out time with my sister-in-law Emily and their children, Seth, Abigail and Levi. On Friday my mom arrived and we were able to celebrate her birthday with an apple cake that I fully intend to get the recipe for from Emily :) On Saturday we attended a carnival at Levi's preschool. It was very well done, a train, pony rides, jump houses and lots of little games, it was a great time! On Sunday we were able to just hang out and play some games. My nephews and niece have grown up so much, it was incredible to reflect back on the day they were born and then see the people they are becoming... makes me feel a little old :) I really enjoyed the time we spent together! On Sunday evening my good friend Jenn that I have know since high school came over and we attempted going to dinner together. Maddie Mae was having a rough time (I think that teething has begun) so dinner was cut short but it was wonderful to see her! Here are some pics from this part of our trip.

That is the tale of our journey to Tx. Tx will always feel like home in so many ways, but I missed Jeff so much... home really is wherever he is (cheesy but true). When we arrived he greeted us with dinner and an amazing surprise. Jeff's brother Tim came here for a week while we were gone and helped Jeff get work done on our master suite. It is looking so good! You can actually see what it is going to look like, it is an amazing and wonderful surprise. Here is the link to a video of where we are now upstairs if you want to see. Thanks for sticking with me on this long long post.

Maddie Mae's New Sound.

2010-02-22T21:14:00.001-07:00

I know I'm biased but this is just the cutest sound in the history of all things cute!

Happy Sounds

2010-02-15T08:54:00.002-07:00

Madeline has a lot to say these days. Most of it is happy, some of it is not, but who wants to see the unhappy sounds anyway right?

Thus Saith Maddie Mae.

2010-02-02T11:44:00.004-07:00

As promised here is the video of Madeline's sounds. It turns out I didn't need camo or the duck blind to get the shot just LeeAnn to distract her from the camera. I've also posted some shots from our new camera. We're really enjoying having a professional grade camera!!

I Have Hands!

2010-02-01T14:01:00.003-07:00

Over the past few weeks Maddie Mae has been discovering what those dangly things at the end of her arms are for (hands to those of us who are not babies). She loves to grab everything within reach and put it in her mouth to see if it tastes good. She has also been quite the chatterbox but as usual, she quieted down when she saw the camera come out. One of these days I will capture and share all of her extraordinarily cute sounds for you, I my need to put on my camo and sneak up on her and record form a duck blind but I will do it. The main reason for this post is because I wanted to play with the new camera and the revel in the glory of its full HD recording capabilities, it is astonishingly cool. Alas, youtube will only allow you to view the video in 720P rather than the full 1080P that the video was shot in, but our baby is still cute. Enjoy our cute baby.

Recipe 10

2010-01-30T07:57:00.002-07:00

I really think that I must need my Omega 3's because the last time I went to Costco I just had to buy some salmon! Unfortunately that night when it was time to cook I realized that not having it on my list meant that I did not buy the ingredients for any specific recipe and when nothing online inspired me I ended looking through my pantry and making my own glaze. It was too cold and snowy to fire up the grill so I seasoned the filet with salt and pepper then pan fried it in a little olive oil. I made sure that the salmon had some time to come down to room temperature before cooking it this time and noticed that it helped to cook it more evenly, will be doing that from now on. For my glaze, not anything too terribly crazy but we enjoyed the end result. I zested and juiced an orange, mixed that with 3 cloves of crushed minced garlic, a generous tablespoon of honey and some dried dill weed. Once one side of the salmon had seared I turned it over and began glazing generously with the orange mixture, turned it again and glazed again. It is really bad to overcook salmon so this all happened pretty quickly, I poured the rest of the orange mixture into the pan, let it caramelize a bit and then removed it from the pan. Served it with steamed broccoli and couscous. I will be making this again :)

It has been sooo long since I have posted a recipe that I wanted to share this one. I knew that my schedule would no longer be my own once becoming a mommy but dinner seems to be the thing suffering the most. The other night I had Spicy Orange Beef Stir Fry on the menu and we ended up eating tuna mac :) It happens a little more often than I want it to but it is just a part of life right now and as much as I love to cook, I would not trade it for anything!! It feels really good when I can accomplish a whole meal these days but taking care of Maddie Mae is an amazing privilege, definitely worth a few nights of tuna mac!

Maddie Mae goes to Boise

2010-01-21T21:00:00.006-07:00

Sorry about the break from posting, last year at this time we took quite the furlough from our blog and I hope that we do better this time :)

Last weekend we took Madeline on her first trip to Boise and took our first trip with an infant. I must say she did pretty good, out of 24 hours (usually would have been 18-20) roundtrip the last hour and a half is all that she really complained about. I have a feeling it could be our most successful road trip for a long long time but will attempt to stay optimistic as we travel in the future. Aunt Connie made the trip from Oregon, Aunt Debbie hosted the whole family for the big meals and Uncle Tim hosted the three of us plus our two dogs. The two things missing were Uncle Mark in Florida and Grandma Carolyn who was sick most of the weekend. Fortunately she did feel better our last day there and we were able to get some time with her. We were also able to spend some time with our good friends the Arbons and the Shadles. It was so much fun to introduce our sweet Maddie Mae to so many people that we care about and who care about her. Over all a very successful trip!

Here are the pics:

The Dreaded Sweep

2010-01-03T09:09:00.003-07:00

I discovered a time lapse video feature on my camera yesterday and took video of all six legs of the dreaded Montana sweep. It was bumpy so take some dramamine before watching if that sort of thing bothers you. How did we ever live without digital cameras and the internet?

Grandma Gini and Maddie Mae

2009-12-30T13:47:00.003-07:00

Here are a few pictures we took today of Maddie Mae and Grandma Gini

Christmas Presents

2009-12-26T11:48:00.001-07:00

Maddie Mae loving her present from Grandma and Grandpa Grissom.

Maddie's first Christmas

2009-12-25T18:16:00.004-07:00

We had a lot of fun today. It started with americanos for Jeff and I and a latte for Mom. We then proceeded to open gifts and stockings. Maddie was blessed with some wonderful toys and it was so much fun to see her face light up and interest in her eyes as things lit up and played music. She is just growing and changing every day :) Jeff and I were just going to get each other items for our stockings but he surprised us with a very special gift, a Canon 7D! We have been playing with it quite a bit today and are including some of the pictures below, very exciting!

Today we remember the amazing blessing of our Savior coming to earth and are so very grateful that He came! Merry Christmas!!

Birthday dinner

2009-12-19T08:31:00.005-07:00

My birthday was on Monday and Jeff did it up right. He made reservations and the three of us got dressed up and went to dinner. Jeff had sea bass and I had beef tenderloin with apple crisp and pumpkin creme brulee for dessert. When we arrived at our table the restaurant staff had signed a birthday card for me and our desserts came with candles. I must say that I preferred their way of doing things over the entire staff singing their own version of Happy Birthday at the top of their lungs so that the whole restaurant stares. We had a group at the table next to us that was incredible impressed with our little Maddie Mae and were kind enough to take a picture of the three of us. It was a great birthday and I must say this has been a great year :)

Caught on Camera

2009-12-13T13:51:00.003-07:00

Our sweet little girl is smiling more and more these days but we have had trouble catching them on camera... Jeff was finally successful today :)

mmm mmm good

2009-12-10T16:58:00.004-07:00

Yesterday a box was delivered to our house addressed to Jeff. He has been grinning about my birthday present for days just waiting for it to arrive so I assumed that the contents of the box were the source of the grin. He was flying in from Utah and when I texted that it had arrived he quickly texted back "open it!". I am the type that usually makes people wait until their actual birthday or Christmas to give them their gifts but Jeff just gets so giddy about it that he can barely contain himself. I did not open it until he came home last night but I also did not wait until my birthday because of his excitement. He bought me an espresso machine :) So, today I had 2 americanos and am currently sipping some hot chocolate that was steamed with my new toy and it has all been so very tasty. I am pretty impressed with this little machine, even though I am used to working with the big daddy machines at my old job, everything has come out beyond my expectations and it should be much easier to stick to our new coffee budget now :) It is such a sweet gift and I am so grateful! Especially because my sweet husband was so excited to bless me with it.

We also finally decorated our tree today. It is actually leaning quite a bit, we had trouble when the hole was drilled for our tree stand when we bought it, but I must say that the leaning is actually endearing and I love it all the more for the flaw.

Here are a couple of pictures. My new toy and our tree:

Talk Time

2009-12-07T20:35:00.001-07:00

Maddie Mae making dinner conversation.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-03T17:06:00.000-07:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-12-02T15:30:00.008-07:00

This year's Thanksgiving was so special for a number of reasons. It was Maddie Mae's first Thanksgiving and our first time ever to host a Thanksgiving. We felt so very blessed that Jeff's family came for an entire week. We had good times and they really served us as well. They helped us make progress on our renovation and helped with the clean up project we had out back. I must also say that it was wonderful to be able to cook for so many all week and have almost every bit of the clean up done :)

Thanksgiving Table

Thankgiving Day just before dinner

Grandma and Madeline

Grandpa and Madeline

Michala and Ruger

Michala and quarter round

Grandma and Michala

Dedication

2009-11-22T16:26:00.005-07:00

Last week we realized that we had an opportunity, we were going to have family here on a Sunday! So, we made a phone call to our church and they graciously allowed Madeline Mae Grissom to be dedicated on very short notice. Our head pastor was out of town with family which was very disappointing, but Pastor Ben did a wonderful job. We have included a video for those of you who would like to see the ceremony. God has graciously entrusted us with this little life and we take this stewardship seriously. Our prayer is that she would come to know God's saving grace as soon as possible and dedicate her life to serving Him. The dedication was our promise to do our best to reflect Christ and ask others to hold us accountable to that promise.

We also have a short video below of Maddie "playing", she just loves to spend time on her play mat and is really studying the world around her so intently. The picture below is of Maddie in an outfit that Grandma Gini gave to her, it finally fits and she wore it for her dedication (and looked so precious in it!).

4 lbs WOOHOO!

2009-11-17T22:12:00.005-07:00

Monday we went to the pediatrician and here is the latest. Our little girl has gained 4 lbs!!! Yay Maddie Mae :) She is now 8 lbs 12 oz and 20 inches long. She is in the 5th percentile for weight but has not even made it on the charts for length or head size. Her doctor was impressed that she made it onto the charts at all and said that she does not seem to be far behind her full term 2 month old patients. The down side of the appointment was vaccinations... so sad to see those tears but she seemed to bounce back pretty well. With her weight gain and development we can now work on her sleep at night without worrying about waking her before she wakes on her own, very exciting!

Below there are a couple of pictures I took today of Maddie, a picture of Maddie taken yesterday in her sweet camo shoes, a picture of Jeff's work in our back yard mid-project (a much needed project that is HUGE evoking the words "what have I done!" repeatedly from Jeff's mouth) and a video of our little girl.

Chubby Cheeks

2009-11-15T23:30:00.008-07:00

Here is a little update on Madeline. She is holding her own head up now, not completely stable but getting there fast. She seems so much more alert, watching everything so intently, studying our faces and responding to our voices. It seems as though she is getting bigger by the moment (check out those round cheeks!). Tomorrow we go to the pediatrician, time for vaccinations, and we will have an update on her weight.

Maddie meets Uncle Randy and Aunt Emily

2009-11-09T17:26:00.004-07:00

My brother Randy and his wife Emily traveled all the way to Billings to meet our little Madeline Mae this weekend. We had a wonderful time :) Most of our time was just hanging out around the house eating and talking but we did venture out on Saturday for Randy, Emily and Madeline's first trip to Red Lodge. Montana has so much beauty but Billings is not the best representation of it so we like to take people to Red Lodge when they visit because just beyond are the Beartooth Mountains, one of the most beautiful ranges I have ever seen! Emily was kind enough to help get some of the decorating done in our house, one of those things I was planning to do after I was done working and before Maddie showed up, and now our house has so much more of a home feel. We do not miss our bare walls at all! I think that Uncle Randy and Aunt Emily were pretty impressed with their new niece and, if the little almost smiles you get from a 7 week old are any indication, she was pretty impressed with them as well!

As an addendum to our last post, here are a couple of pictures that were not downloaded yet but that we feel you should see:

10 31 09

2009-11-01T09:36:00.007-07:00

We had a lot of fun yesterday! It started with lunch out at Grains of Montana, we love their sandwiches. After a quick trip home to feed Madeline we headed out to Norm's Island with the dogs, it was just to beautiful outside to stay at home. We have an extra dog this weekend because some of our friends went out of town, he is a basset hound/rottweiler mix... yes it is just as odd a mix as you might be imagining. His name is Yogi and he is a very good dog, the island was almost too much for him with our 2 young puppies but we think he enjoyed it :) After another trip home to feed Madeline we decided to do a last minute search for a costume for Maddie. I had looked a little bit when out over the last couple of weeks but there just is not a ton of costumes for a baby in between preemie and newborn size. We ended up getting her a chili pepper costume that swallowed her but was still really cute :) Jeff and I just couldn't resist a couple of the wigs we saw when buying Madeline's costume so we dressed up with her... although I am not sure either of us could tell you exactly what we were, I would say we were both from the 60's/70's. Hope you enjoy our pictures, we had a lot of fun taking them :)

A collage of the dogs

The Grissom family on a walk at Norm's Island

Costume fun

Photography...

2009-10-27T18:54:00.004-06:00

I have not posted in a while because we do not have a whole lot of news to share. We are currently attempting to get days and nights all sorted out with Madeline... no easy task :) But she is doing pretty good. Once we can get the Wii fit set up we will update you on her weight, we do not have a lot of concerns in this area because she is looking sooo good. So in an effort to update you on something, here is what I have been looking into during my "spare" time. As most of you know Jeff and I both really enjoy photography. Up until recently I would say that I can take a decent picture... nothing professional but I would like to think that I am decent at composition. Having Madeline has inspired me to REALLY learn how to use my camera. I am not even close yet but here are the first attempts. I think my future investments will be at least one really good lens, some lighting equipment and maybe, if I feel like I really understand what I am doing, someday a new SLR with a ton of megapixels (Jeff and I have been drooling over the Canon 50D).

Big Girl Clothes

2009-10-21T20:42:00.005-06:00

Jeff and I have been noticing Madeline getting bigger and bigger every day. It really does seem that there is a marked difference between morning and evening. When I dressed her for the baby shower a week and a half ago I thought she had grown enough for me to try a newborn size dress... I was sadly mistaken, it hung like a potato sack. Today we tried a newborn outfit that was given to her by our friend Jenny on the day she was born and it fits perfectly! In the same breath we rejoice over her growth, the chubby cheeks, thighs, the little belly that is forming, and we mourn the passing of the beginning phase... our sweet little baby girl is growing up already and we are trying to cherish every moment. Here is a picture of her very first "outfit", the rest have been sleep n plays (pajamas).

Our dogs are somewhat exasperating at times but are also hours of entertainment. They are constantly in competition, what one has the other wants (i.e. food, rawhides, toys, socks and, the important one, beds). We have a large dog bed for Ruger, bought mainly because we allow Otis on the couches but not Ruger due to their sizes. A daily occurrence lately has been our little 8 lb dog steeling the big dog bed from our 50 lb puppy... causing no end of distress for our big puppy. In an attempt to alleviate this stress we bought a small bed for our small dog. Immediately upon bringing it home what you see below is what happened... always wanting what the other has :)

Today is the Day

2009-10-16T21:34:00.003-06:00

Today is the day, or it was supposed to be the day that Maddie was to be born, but she had other plans. It's hard to believe that it's been five and a half weeks since she was born. We both think she is getting so big but when we take her out everyone comments about how tiny she is. Today we took her to the hangar so she could meet my coworkers and, big surprise, they all said she was tiny. I suppose it makes sense since she should just now be getting born. It's been really nice to take Maddie out in public but on the downside, she has contracted her very first cold. In fact, we all have said cold but we are on the mend.

It seems that LeeAnn and I hardly see one another anymore even though we see each other every day. I've been building a dog house (which the dogs won't use) and working. LeeAnn's day is of course filled with caring for Madeline and keeping the house running. We look forward to the weekends when things slow down a bit and we can actually hang out like we used to (with one awesome difference of course). Here are some pics.

Checking email with daddy

Snuggle time

The sleeping bag from the dog house!

Go Broncos! and thanks friends :)

2009-10-13T12:01:00.005-06:00

Sunday we had a great family day. We started with church where there is a great series on Ephesians we are thoroughly enjoying. We then rushed home in an attempt to feed Madeline a "quick" bottle so we could meet a friend for lunch... the quick bottle turned into enough spit up for all three of us to change our clothes :) After lunch we did a little shopping to get Jeff some much needed jeans and me some much needed tennis shoes. We then hurried home, not only because it was time to feed Maddie once again but also to catch the rest of the Broncos game. Jeff and I spend most of our days trying to accomplish certain to-do lists as we care for our young infant, most of which is not done together. Sunday was so restful and sweet because we just spent time together without even looking at our lists. I know that our house would be unbearable if we ignored these lists every day but I also know how necessary this time was for us. You can see our little Broncos fan below :)

Last Friday night my two sweet friends Kori and Abby threw me an impromptu baby shower, They had been planning on doing this for quite some time but the early arrival of Madeline Mae threw a wrench in their plans. We had a great time with good food and quality hang out time, I am so grateful for their generosity! Here is a pic of the three of us, Kori is on the left and Abby on the right: