Luxury Item

Here is a great contest to enter for all you baby wearers out there! I've seen this baby carrier on the internet and am very curious to see how it works and WHY it is so expensive!!! It's cute, but wow, definitely a luxury item. Simple is having another great contest, hosted by babySNAZZ, where you can win one of these carriers! I've had fun browsing that site, isn't this onesie a super gift idea? Anyway, check it out when you've got a moment!

YAY!

We got our gift card in the mail the other day, since our camera was not repairable. I HIGHLY recommend getting the insurance on an item like this! Unfortunately, we didn't get it in time to take on our Yosemite camping trip. I'll have to get pictures from my dad to post later. It is always great to vacation with family. My dad and his girlfriend cooked and brought most of the camping supplies for us. Matt's dad was there to provide the occasional comedic relief. They all also babysat for Matt and I to go out to breakfast at the Ahwahnee one morning. We celebrated our 5th anniversary a few days early. Matt had steak and eggs and I had eggs benedict, which was awesome!

The whole family hiked up to Half Dome! Just kidding. We just looked at it from our campsite. This was the first time we went camping with all of the kids, with any of the kids, actually. They had a great time! It is just so nice for them to be dirty, dirty, dirty, and not have to clean up! Okay, I did use a baby wipe to wipe their faces sometimes. They played in the Merced River, rode their bikes around, played with their tractors and watched the garbage man pick up the garbage each morning. Ezra's favorite part of the trip was seeing an F-18 fly around for a while. It was probably Matt's favorite part as well!

Here are some other miscellaneous photos, including some from the fateful day that our camera was dropped in the pool.

Justus loves Matt's motorcycle! He is potty trained! He loves his cowboy boots!

This is Ezra's big boy bike he got for his 4th birthday. He is totally a big boy, weird!

Priceless

Testing positive on an expired pregnancy test: $.50
Walking into Walgreens with my 3 kids in tow to buy a new pregnancy test: Priceless.

I didn't walk in Walgreens, but I thought it would be funny if I did. I did take a blood test to confirm this pregnancy, wow! I don't know the due date for sure, but am guessing it will be in March. I've heard many comments, "You're brave; You're crazy; You would have made a good Mormon; You guys are like bunnies." I have a feeling that my life as I live it now is going to drastically change with this 4th baby, which isn't bad, just different. That's what this whole life is about anyway, right? Dying to self... And to top it all off, we are going to have a home birth! Yes, to the world around us, we are officially crazy!

No photos...

I haven't posted any new photos lately because our camera fell into the swimming pool. Justus picked up the camera and before I could tell him to put it down, he had dropped it, it bounced once, and landed in the pool. Oh well, it's really not that big a deal, as this is the 3rd camera we've owned and last time we were smart enough to get the accidental insurance! Yay!

New Blog

I've been enjoying this mom's blog that I found one night. She has some really cute kids and is truly growing and challenging others in her/their faith in Christ.

I think I just gained 10 pounds from reading this....

Two food posts, in 1 night!!!??? I don't post for over 2 weeks and then I come back with these! I try not to go to the Pioneer Woman too often, there is just too much to read and too little time. However, tonight I sneaked (snuck??) over there and started drooling over this. Biscuits and Gravy are probably my favorite breakfast food ever, even above eggs benedict. Seriously, her recipes just look awesome and it is pretty amazing that there are step by step photos! Great inspiration!

Rumpledethumps, Colcannon, and Bubble & Squeak....

What??? We had this recipe for Rumpledethumps in our farm box newsletter today. I've never heard of it before, but I had all the ingredients and it looked tasty. It's pretty much mashed potatoes, mixed with leeks and cabbage (didn't have broccoli to put in), lots of butter and a dash of nutmeg (the recipe called for mace, but all I had was nutmeg), and chedder cheese on top! I had some purple potatoes in our bag this week and purple cabbage from last week, so our rumpldethumps dish was definitely purple! The recipe was adapted from a Moosewood cookbook, but said that it is similar to colcannon. My Joy of Cooking said that colcannon is an Irish dish. Wikipedia linked the Irish colcannon (substituting cabbage for kale) to the Scottish rumpledethumps (topped with cheese) to the English bubble and squeak (using leftover meat and/or vegetables, chief ingredients usually are potatoes and cabbage, then all is fried together). There were actually lots of other variations from many other European countries, all similar to a hash or hodgepodge of leftovers. I think next time I will put BACON in my rumpledethumps! YUM!