A Glimpse into my Life.

We went up to Salt Lake City to visit Temple Square over the Holidays. It's the first time we've taken the children up to see the lights and I think they enjoyed it.

City Creek Plaza right across the street. I really liked the lights and how they reflected on the water. It was a nice way to start out the evening.

It never ceases to inspire and amaze me every time we go to Temple Square. I always intend to go back more often and usually end up not being able to as often as I'd like. The peaceful Spirit is always calming and wonderful.

This is the best shot I could get of our family. We're all mostly looking the same direction, our eyes are open, and no one is making too awful of a face. Not sure about how my coat is making my skirt look like goofy pants though. Huh.

I love visiting the Temple, even if it's just to walk the grounds with my children.

We'd purchased a box of tangerines for everyone to munch on, they were definitely a hit! Baby B kept getting into the box, and I'd find tangerines with bite marks in the skins. We'd peel those ones first. One morning when I was making breakfast, I turned around and saw this:

I found a draft post in here and couldn't believe how much Rynie and Little Miss have grown! I honestly hadn't realized how much they've both changed. Yes, I know in my mind they have, but in some ways, seeing the day to day makes it not as noticeable as when you see the pictures from a few years ago.


I love that they still play together. These two are quite the adventurous buddies. When one does something, the other usually follows suit pretty quickly.


This is a pretty typical scene at our house still. Although, now they both try to feed Dutch whether he wants them to or not.


She still makes messes, although now they usually involve spilled cups and bowls.


He still thinks he's part mountain goat. In fact, I've had to replace two curtain rods and he's now learned that curtains are not to be climbed.

So, we tried making oatmeal cookies the other day because Little Miss was dying for a treat we had no suitable treats for her and Dutch's new diet. It was interesting to say the least. From the reading I've done, some say you can substitute straight across if you do it by weight not the volume, some say it'll never be the same, some say you have to really tinker with the recipe. Since the answers were so mixed, I decided to take my recipe, weigh out the amount of regular flour, and substitute it with gluten free flour.

The mixing it up part looked the same.



They started to look a wee bit different as they baked up. If I took them right off the baking sheet, they 'melted' through the cooling rack and fell apart into a lacey, holly mess. Yes, I know you see a stack of cookie mess, but that was after we realized there was no hope for them to hold their shape and I needed somewhere to put the hot mess.



If I left them on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, they glued themselves to the pan.



In the end, they made a fabulous granola, and I'll have to get back to the drawing board. The kids enjoyed eating the granola, even if it wasn't what we were expecting.




Looking at the granola, maybe we'll have to make it again for a snack with some fruit!

Since I know I won't be on here much in the next few days, I am taking the early opportunity to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We are going to be having a bit of an adventure this Thanksgiving, in at we are doing a mostly Gluten Free Dinner. On that note, a few things I am thankful for this year:

Oddly enough, since I've come home I've had a lovely bout of insomnia as we've all adjusted to life at home. I'm averaging about one good night's sleep in five and it's killing me. It's not even the productive, energetic type of insomnia; it is the bone weary, don't want to move but can't sleep type.

On the flip side, sitting at the computer isn't a chore right now so I've been doing more research on the home based business my friend and I are getting into! Small blessings from what could be tedious. :) We are working on website ideas, color schemes, layout, etc. That is why I haven't mentioned more of it here. We need to be a little more set up before I do so. Maybe there'll be some teaser photos soon since I need to start back into the production swing of things. :)

Sewing has been a wee bit slow for me lately. One of my cousins is coming into town so she'll most likely be staying in the sewing room. I can't wait to see Brooke though, we have a blast every time she's here. I'm actually working on some tiered broomstick skirts. My cousin, K, knows how to make them and showed me her way of doing them. In return, I taught her how to make the Tznius style wrap skirt. I am now the owner of a lovely black and white tiered broomstick skirt, with a green one on the way for me and Little Miss, and K is the owner of a beautiful navy satin wrap skirt!

We finally have our garden in and plants are coming up. I think I'm most excited for my purple potatoes! When I was younger, I always wanted to grow them and my mom never wanted to so since I get to plot out the garden now....We have purple potatoes!!! I can't wait to see them! We have strawberries, corn, green beans, pumpkins, squash, watermelon, cantaloupe, lettuce, carrots, spinach, peppers, chilis, and a few herbs growing. The funniest thing is we have some volunteer something viney growing right now. I guess when we put the compost stuff in the garden, some of the seeds were viable.

Lately I've been on a journey to learn more about herbs, essential oils, and how to use them. Along with that, I've been learning more about different nutritional aspects and how they effect your health. This was prompted by some health issues Little Miss has, and being told she is within the realm of 'normal' but the extreme far end of the spectrum. We are looking at diet, how what we eat affects us, how our food is processed, and what the different processing methods does to the food and us. It is an interesting journey, and we are slowly modifying things, which I'm happy to say is helping out immensely. We are working on one dietary thing at a time, and as we do that, her health is improving.

Well, time for an at home date with Hubby! Ciao for now!

This post is sans pictures again. I swear I took pictures, lots in fact. But*someone* was trying to be clever and put all her pictures on the memory card so she wouldn't have to take a few cd's home. Well, we realized when we got to the airport that the card was still at home! So much for photographic evidence of the trip. But! I am going to steal Shannon's cd so I can at least do pictures of a little bit of the trip before I get the card somehow!

Let me just say that traveling with three kids, age 5 and under is an adventure. Especially when one of them (who currently refers to herself as the Lost Princess- a chip off the old block) is her own person and doesn't march to anyone else's drum. At least the bigger parts of the crew are seasoned travelers and know that they need to get with the program once we are at the airport.

Traveling out with Shannon was fine, there were relatively few hitches. The main one being Little Miss had decided the week before we left that she wanted to start potty training. Yeah, add that into the airport mix, and there was seriously no time from when we went through Security to when we boarded the plane because I was in the toilets the entire time. Dutch needed a diaper, Rynie needed to go once, and Little Miss went in there three times! What a way to start a trip. The flight to MSP was uneventful and we booked it to our next flight and there was just enough time to change the diaps that needed to be changed and ask about preboarding the flight then get on. The gate crew were great and gave Shannon and I both our own bulkhead rows for the trip so we had lots of space with the kids! It is very nice to have that little bit of extra space when you have a few little helpers who want to stretch their legs.

Once we got to Schipol, around 6:30AM, that was an adventure. Shannon and I had to figure out where to go through customs so we could get the stroller through, then we went to baggage claim and couldn't see any luggage. Finally, we got smart and asked the men at the security desk where to go and got pointed in the right direction. Dutch was so happy to be set down and crawling around while I pulled off the luggage off the carousel. Thankfully, through the next set of doors we saw Bumpa and Floolie!

The only way to describe the country side on initial impression is surreal. Beautiful, but surreal. It is just that flat. There is no other way to explain it. They have tall buildings, lots of trees, and no mountains, hills, or anything that resembles an incline that isn't man made. They've even brought in sand and made an area of dunes covered in native grasses to add variety to the landscape. Add that to the fact you know you should be underwater, and it really is an interesting feeling. Everything was very lush and bright green though. And you'd randomly see windmills, and canals. They even use the canals to 'fence' off their cattle. That never would have worked for ours!

Floolie made us breakfast when we got back to her house, and we turned the kidlets loose on her house! I don't think her house will ever be the same. Thank goodness for grandparents that weren't jet lagged, so the mamas could get some sleep.

Anyway....More update later, but at least it's a start, right?!