Lauren Noelle

Announcing Lauren Noelle, born 12/29/2010, at 11:21 pm, 6 1/2 pounds. 20 inches long.

She's a beautiful baby, with tons of dark hair.

More pictures to come.

Merry Christmas!

Present for ya...........

Feeling Snappy

For all of you who rejected my whale picture, who tried to make me feel guilty for not posting a "real" picture ......

I ask you? Why do you want this picture so much??? Have you pondered this question in your heart?

You want to find inner glee at how big I am, ....don't you??? You might as well admit it. Because I already know the truth.

So I am delaying. I'm thinking a candid on-the-way-to-the-hospital picture.
I'll probably be in my PJ's, hair uncombed, crumbs on my shirt. (A person drops a lot of crumbs when they have to sit three feet away from the table because their belly is so big. Good thing I have my daddy's long arms ...we'll not HIS arms.) Anyway more glee for you.

Speaking of snappy. Yes, I am snappy these days.

Gingersnaps. I don't like 'em

I love them.

Well not really, I bite into them and think, "ick" too strong, not good. blehk!, But a few second later I want another one, so I eat another one, and another one and another one. Until all I want and have ever wanted is gingersnaps.

It's the strangest phenomenon.

I wonder if it's related to the chocolate ice-cream phenomenon.

Once when we lived in Logan, Barry brought me home some ice-cream as a surprise. It was chocolate, as a rule, chocolate ice cream is not my favorite, but being ice-cream deprived I ate a bowl of it.

Surprisingly finding it quite delicious, I ate another bowl of it.

Later that night Barry had some, and I finished off the carton the next day.

That next evening Barry asked me what I wanted to do for our date (see, this was a long time ago, we still went on dates).

I told him all I wanted was to get some more of that ice cream. He laughed at me, but he agreed and went and purchased two more cartons. I was halfway through the first carton, when Barry(gggrrr)happened to look at the ingredients. Third ingredient Instant Coffee.

Oh so sad. I finished off the carton, and promised to eat no more of it, but I have dreamed of it, and I can tell you, if the craving for a cup of coffee is anything like the craving for coffee ice-cream, those people have a tough habit to break.

ON to better things....

You want to make gingersnaps now don't you??? No?... you want some of that ice cream. MMmmm me too, but we can't.

So you'll have to settle for these.



Grandma's Gingersnap cookies.

Yes, you'll like them strangely, you won't be able to stop eating them ravenously, you'll get fat, ironically, you'll look like a whale fittingly..........and then I'll request a picture gleefully.

Ahh the power of suggestion.

(Mmm yum, don't forget to buy the molasses, if that's not something you keep around the house)



Grandma's Gingersnap Cookies
Original Recipe Yield 5 dozen

Ingredients

* 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
* 1 tablespoon ground ginger
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 3 cups of instant coffee
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 cup shortening
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 egg
* 1/4 cup dark molasses
* 1/3 cup cinnamon sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Sift the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt into a mixing bowl. Stir the mixture to blend evenly, and sift a second time into another bowl.
3. Place the shortening into a mixing bowl and beat until creamy. Gradually beat in the white sugar. Beat in the egg, and dark molasses. Sift 1/3 of the flour mixture into the shortening mixture; stir to thoroughly blend. Sift in the remaining flour mixture, and mix together until a soft dough forms. Pinch off small amounts of dough and roll into 1 inch diameter balls between your hands. Roll each ball in cinnamon sugar, and place 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.
4. Bake in preheated oven until the tops are rounded and slightly cracked, about 10 minutes. Cool cookies on a wire rack. Store in an air tight container

For added blubber, dip in melted white chocolate or cream cheese pumpkin dip.

Presenting

As per request my much anticipated pregnancy picture........








Not only is this picture a perfect representation of my current self, but it also captures how I feel as well ....as a whale.

FHE

My sister and her husband came up to visit us this weekend. We decided to surprise Ellie. They came before Ellie had got home from church, so when she got home I sent her up to room to change and had Amy and Mo were hiding in her room. She was very very surprised, and excited. She and James had a grand time playing with them. Later that evening Barry and I went to the Stake Christmas program. It was weird going without kids, it was like we were going on a date.
Barry did a good job as Joseph, he cut out some of his more cheesy lines, and he looked good in his costume that he sewed himself. Mary did look about 18, but Barry said in real life she was probably 12, so I guess it was as accurate as they could get. I thought the choir did a pretty good job too, so all in all it was a success. We came home and had hot chocolate and candy cane cookies and the kids had a blast dancing around to fiddle music.

Monday morning, I went to my Dr. appt. and Amy and Mo watched the kids for me. When I came home they were all busy playing hide and seek, and by all the wrong rules, like running away from your hiding place before the person could find you. James didn't have a clue what was going on, but he loved it all the same. Both Ellie and James cried when it was time for Amy and Mo to return home and will be excited to see them again.

For FHE on Monday we painted some plaster ornaments my mom sent us. The kids really enjoyed it. Now we just need to buy another tree to hang them on.

The doctor says I probably have about two weeks before baby pate makes her appearance. I'm thinking it may be sooner than that, but hopefully we'll get those two weeks in because then the baby would be considered full term.

I thought I'd get Barry one of these.

I despise his beard, and this should take care of the whole "the beard keeps my face warm out in the cold" excuse.


Just Brilliant, I know.




Another Brilliant idea is these



Every year on my birthday in elementary school I would give out candy canes instead of the traditional cupcakes. To carry on this tradition I decided to give my YW candy canes after my lesson on Sunday.
I bought two boxes on Saturday to share, unfortunately I opened them before giving them away. Oh yummy in my tummy. I decided not to give them out after all, and was enjoying munching several of them, when Barry reminded me who I had actually gotten them for. Grumbling, I decided to give away the last 6 Starburst Strawberry Canes, and keep the whole package of Spree Candy Canes to myself. My are they tasty.

Mmmm... Buy Them, Try Them. Yum!

Doozies

Me looking in the mirror, dressed in an all black dress:

Examining my bulging figure, I remarked with dismay. ""I look like a whale."

Ellie examines me with a critical eye. ""Nah," she says, "Whales aren't black."

Helpful Barry remarks from the other room "Sperm Whales are black."

Ellie taking another look at me with a nod "yeah, okay then."



Conversing with my neighbor:


I remarked to my neighbor about how crazy big I was feeling.

Then she kindly shared HER thoughts with me

She said.

"Yeah I know, I keep telling myself, we'll it IS her third baby, afterall, I guess she's already all stretched out, and she does only have a month or so left...."

I stopped listening then.




Relaxing in the bathtub, (due to my forgetting to lock the door) Ellie runs in to tattletale. (Totally against the rules).

Instead of tattling though, she stops dead in her tracks and gasps with surprise and exclaims "Holy Cow your milkers are getting big!"

"OUT!!!!!!!!!" was all I could say.

(My milkers???, seriously, MY MILKERS???? .........can't wait for her to tell her primary class that one.)







P.S Amy wanted me to include a belly picture with this post, but I'm just not up to it.
Maybe Sunday, in my black dress.

Bonus Post

I know, I know, two posts in two days.

What more could you want?

Christmas music????

We'll I updated my blog music too. (Sorry Amy, it does play automatically, I'll change that after while.)

Yesterday, as I mentioned, church got canceled because of terrible weather conditions. I on the other hand would have canceled it anyway, because I spent the day on the couch with terrible terrible cramps and back pain. I finally asked Barry for a Priesthood blessing, because I feared I was going into labor. I was blessed that our baby was very healthy and strong and would be delivered at the proper time. The cramping didn't go away, but I felt much comforted as the spirit whispered in my ear something that should have but had not occurred to me. Today looking at my ripe belly, it definitely has changed shape, and I can (deep breaththhhhhhhhhhhhh) breath again. All is well, Little Baby Pate has dropped, and she is right on schedule for making her New Year's Eve appearance.

Snowed In

Ellie and James' first look at the snow. We got a ton, Barry spent a couple of hours trying to shovel us out, but the piles of snow on either side of our driveway grew taller than him. Our kind neighbor finally came and plowed us out with his tractor.


Saturday night we lite a fire in our wood stove and watched Burl Ives' Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. James loved the music and wanted to dance.

His daddy obliged him





Scones and hot milk before bedtime.


A very tired James. He gets up at 5:45 to see his Daddy off to work everyday, but sometimes around breakfast his lack of sleep catches up with him.


We got snowed in this year for Thanksgiving. We were sad to miss visiting with everyone, especially Ellie's who has been counting down the days for more than a month. We did have a good meal though, with all the fixings. So we didn't miss out on that part.
The weather has just been awful, cold and snowy and windy. The roads are terrible slippery. Our car is much more of a sled on snow than a car, so it makes it quite scary. I told Barry we should put sleigh bells on our car, since we just slide down the road anyway.
We did have some fun on Black Friday, Barry went out early and picked up a few Christmas presents, 2 for him, 1 for me. Then we went shopping with the whole family. Got a few more things, including snow-pants and boots for Ellie and candy for everyone. Then we went car shopping, donated stuff to the DI, got everyone a hamburger and surprised Ellie with movie tickets to Tangled. She loved it, and was very surprised. She didn't even realized where we were until we were about to go into the actual theater, and then she got all excited. We snuck our candy in and Barry even bought us popcorn. :o
On the way home we picked out a Christmas tree, we weren't planning on getting one yet, but Barry decided to go ahead, so we strapped it on the top of our car and slide slowly home.

Overall it's been a very quiet peaceful weekend, and I am thankful for my family, our safety and our warm home.

I got up early today to get ready for church but we found out it got canceled today because of the weather and the huge snow drifts across the road. So today we will have another family day. I spread some blankets out on the floor in front of the wood stove, and James is already getting our his blocks to make trains, and Ellie has carried down her dolls to play with. I think I'll stay in my PJ's, eat pie and warm my feet by the fire.

Craving

So I've been delaying my post, so I could show off my birthday present. Unfortunately it didn't arrive in the mail today as anticipated. So I'm gravely disappointed and had to eat a handful of chocolate chips to console myself.

After Halloween I told Barry I wasn't making any desserts until after Thanksgiving. After gaining 10 pounds in about 3 weeks, I knew I needed to cut back on the goodies.

This, not dessert making, has been extremely hard on me, but more so on Barry. He doesn't have access to the hidden Halloween candy, or my stash of chocolate chips and marshmallows. He's actually threatened to make a dessert himself and not give me any, but I am holding strong. I am determined, I am resolute.

Today, I got out the ingredients to make white chocolate pecan cookies (oh drool), but I put them away before I started. Barry says I'm just going to have to make up for lost time after Thanksgiving with extra goodies, but I think I can overcome.

I will admit I went to a party for someone I never even talk to just to get a measly piece of cake and scoop of ice cream. I also went to enrichment for the 3rd time in oh so many years in hope of refreshments. I stayed until almost 9, with no refreshments in site, I finally left.

On the upside, at enrichment I did learn how to sew a baby blanked with mitered corners. Thus leading me to my birthday present. My very own sewing machine

Her she is.



I've put off buying one before, because I don't have a good space to keep it, and well, I don't really know how to sew, besides the basics. Yet, my faith in my basic skills were renewed at enrichment and I found sewing the blanket very easy and satisfying and the end results good. So my intense craving for sugar has lead to possibly a new hobby and years of joy and entertainment ;)

Besides Barry will need to use my new machine to sew his "Joseph" costume for the Nativity.

After much encouragement from the high council, He did go to the practice on Sunday, but Mary was not there, so they didn't practice lines and her identity still remains a mystery.

The stake president's wife DID tell him that he looks exactly like Joseph. She must be older than I thought.

The stake nativity is on Sunday December 12th. I may be singing in the choir.

Further details to come.