Thanksgiving Weekend Highlights

We had a fun, relaxing weekend.
1. On Thanksgiving we feasted with Darrell's extended family. We watched old family slides/pictures and saw some cool things. When we drove home I asked my family what they were thankful for. Salem said "eggs" and Oaklen said "Um...orange" with a big grin. :) Darrell was thankful for our family and I was thankful that we have a healthy family.
2. On Friday we spent the morning putting up our Christmas tree and decorations. The boys were quite excited and loved putting ornaments on the tree and putting up their Fisher-price manger scene.
3. Saturday we were able to see Santa arrive at the Sugarhouse Santa Shack in style riding in a fire truck. (There were 2-3 news cameras but I haven't been able to find anything online about it.) The boys had a great time. Salem said he wanted a "spiderman set" and Oaklen didn't say anything at first but nodded when Santa asked him "Do you want toys for Christmas?"

Here are some pics...(click to view a larger image.)

Happiness Part IX

Happiness is...
* Being able to change my email inbox to a pink background.
* Finding matches to all the socks in the load of laundry.
* A hot shower
* Finding a tv converter box for free.
* Saving a bunch of money on my car insurance by calling around (no not Geico.)
* Getting new windows for free.
* Receiving the phone call from Salem's teacher saying they will most likely do all-day kindergarten starting in January.
* Looking at pictures of my babies and falling in love with them all over again.
* Listening to Christmas music, any time of the year.
* Darrell thanking me for the little every-day things I do.
* Seeing my houseplant thrive.
* Salem reading books to Oaklen.
* Being more than half-way done with this pregnancy.
* Communicating through email.
* Getting together with family for good times.
* Darrell never complaining about all the work he does, at home, at work, at church.
* Crunching the leaves as I take an Autumn stroll outside.
* Watching my boys get so excited to play together as a family.
* My boys saying "sheep" as I sing them their goodnight song. (It's the last word of the song.)
* Oaklen repeating everything I say then saying "Mommy?" at the end of the sentence.

My boys...I love 'em.

Transparent blessings

We have been blessed recently by receiving free windows and a few other things. Yes you read it right, free windows!

Our family and old home were candidates for the Salt Lake County Lead Safe Housing Program. They came and painted our lead-hazardous paint and gave us free windows on the main floor and basement. We applied for this grant/program back in June and they finally finished the work today.

Here are a few before and after shots:


We had to be relocated last week for about 24 hours so they could install the windows. They said they'd either provide a hotel or let you stay with family. I was tempted to go with the hotel since that was going to be free too, but the hotel's pool was outdoor and too cold so we decided that Grandma's house would be more comfortable. Thanks mom for letting us come crash for the night. My boys, of course, loved the vacation to Grandma's and the night wouldn't have been complete without a nice soak in a bubble bath.

They were having so much fun that they wouldn't even pose for a picture.

We arrived home the next day and the windows were installed and the white on the porch was painted. Now we'd love to tackle the rest of the porch next spring. We'll see...

Cracker of choice

Crackers are delicious but many are filled with hydrogenated oils, white flour, artificial colors and/or MSG. I have looked at labels on a lot of the grocery store crackers and have been surprised to find what's in them. Even the expensive "whole wheat" crackers aren't all that great. They usually aren't 100% whole wheat, the first ingredient is usually "white flour" or disguised as "wheat flour" but if it doesn't say "whole wheat" then it's white flour. Once in a while I'll eat some of these crackers at parties, but you most likely won't find them in my pantry.

Do you want to know my cracker of choice? Triscuits! They're the classic cracker that have been around since the 1900's. They're 100% whole wheat, and they're pretty affordable. Triscuits are on sale this week at most grocery stores because of the Thanksgiving holiday and you can get a coupon here. (I'd stick with the original or reduced fat varieties, most of the others triscuit varieties have MSG or colors in the ingredients.)

Dance like everybody is watching

A few days ago I found myself in my kitchen dancing to the jams on the CD I got from the library. There were no blinds or curtains on the windows (I'll tell you later in another post the reason for the naked windows) and it was dark outside so anyone could plainly see me dancing. I was entertaining my two boys, as well as the neighbors. I'm sure it was hilarious to watch some pregnant lady shake some bootie.

I thought about the saying "Dance like nobody is watching" and decided that I prefer the saying "Dance like everybody is watching." I like to entertain and the more people watching me, the merrier! :) In high school I got "The Entertainer" award at our year-end cheerleading retreat. In Crimson Line, at the U, I also got a couple other awards that followed that same suit. (I'll refrain from giving you detail about the awards in fear of some random person reading this blog to think weird thoughts.)

This was the photo featured on the front page of the Daily Utah Chronicle during my freshman year of college. My glory days of dancing...and using a flag. :)

Here I am (wearing a wig) backstage while performing in Singin' in the Rain at Hale Centre Theatre in 2004. (I wasn't the one who popped out of the cake, but it was fun to pose for the picture.)

Ode to Oaklen

I have a binder for each of my kids to hold various paper keepsakes like doctor's notes, artwork, certificates, birthday cards, etc. I have written a couple different "Odes to Oaklen" in his book and now I figure that these "odes" should transfer to this blog. Typing is always so much easier for me than writing. It's so cumbersome for me to write, although I do feel that I should preserve my handwriting for historical purposes once in a while. :)

Anyway, here is an Ode to Oaklen.

I'm still two mom - Randomly he'll come up to me and say "I'm still two mom!" Thanks Oaklen for reminding me that you're only two and it doesn't last forever. ;)

I can't see the creatures coming - Oaklen loves the word "creature." If you put two fingers near him and try to "walk" the fingers up to him, he thinks they're creatures. He also sees things and says that they are creatures. When I turn off the lights as we go from the bathroom to his bedroom for the night, we walk in the dark and he says "I can't see the creatures coming." It's funny that he says that and it's even funnier if you think of it in a different way. Most kids are scared of the dark and say things like "I'm afraid of the monster." But Oaklen has a different way of thinking about it and says "I can't see the creatures coming." He acknowledges that there are creatures but the dark bothers him only because he can't see them coming. :)

I'm scary - When he hears a noise outside that seems scary to him he says "I'm scary" instead of "I'm scared." He keeps repeating it until we acknowledge that he said it.


Walking up the stairs - He is now old/big enough to take one step for each stair. He no longer has to stop on each step like a smaller children do. :( My baby is growing up!

His sighs - He must have remembered me doing yoga with him when he was in the womb because he always uses his deep breaths to relax him. A lot of times when he's crying he'll calm himself down by doing a big sigh. Often, he'll even say "I'm sorry Mom...forgive me." That just melts my heart! He also sighs when he needs to relax to go to bed, or he's ready to settle down to read a book on the couch. When I cry he comes up to me and says "breathe in...breathe out."

Hair pulling - He has a love for hair and especially Mom's hair. I'll be reading him a book and he has to look up at me and stroke his fingers through my hair just to make sure I'm still there. When we have co-slept, he'll almost always have some of my hair in his hand as a comfort. Sometimes it gets quite challenging and frustrating that he wants to hold or pull my hair. I draw the line when he starts to pull Salem's hair while sitting in the grocery cart. Salem is a good sport about it and knows that Oaklen is a turkey. :) I really hope he'll grow out of this hair pulling phase.


Little munchie - I've called him my little munchie because he is always wanting to eat. He usually wakes me up in the morning by holding my hair and saying "Let's go have food, mom!" When we finally do have breakfast, he's looking around for something to eat less than an hour later. (Don't think that he must not have eaten that much for breakfast because he usually has a banana, a big bowl of oatmeal/cereal/rice/millet, plus something else like applesauce.) Even now as I type this blog post I have had to get up twice to give him a snack. Also, his favorite part about nursery on Sunday is the snack.

Orange - There is no question that his favorite color is Orange. He wears this orange sweatshirt (pictured below) at least once a week. He wakes up from his nap and tells me everyday that he dreamed about "orange garbage trucks."


His perch - Speaking of orange garbage trucks, he loves to sit on the back of the couch and look outside. I've tried numerous times to get him to sit on a chair at another window but he likes to be up a little higher on the back of the couch in front of the biggest window. Thursdays are the favorite day of the week since that's when the garbage trucks come by. It was a real treat a few weeks ago for both Salem and Oaklen to watch the various work trucks cut down the tree across the street.

A Halloween to remember

I'm catching up and am finally doing a post about Halloween 2008.

This Halloween will be one to remember...
1. Salem was a lion. We had talked about him being other things throughout the year, like a pirate, darth vader, or batman, but when he saw this lion costume that I had, he really wanted to be a lion.
2. This was my first school Halloween parade to attend, the first of many I'm sure. It was interesting to see all the costumes that the kids wore, and it was weird that I was the adult watching the kids. I always felt silly walking in the Halloween parades at school, so I felt for those awkward kids.
3. Oaklen was an aligator/crocodile/dinosaur (I couldn't quite tell what it really was.) He only wore his costume halfway through the time we spent being at Salem's parade then he took it off. He refused to wear it the rest of the day.
4. Oaklen got sick! (No it wasn't from too much candy.) We went to visit my friend Candace and he puked on her carpet! He had no symptoms of anything, and afterward was as jolly as a lark, so I'm not really sure what happened to him. I spent some time cleaning up the mess, and I doubt Candace was able to eat the soup I brought due to the likeness of the stuff I was cleaning up. Sorry Ace!
5. We visited Darrell's employer. They always go all out for Halloween and the kids get to go down aisles of decorated cubicles.
6. Darrell was an old man for his costume. His team did different demographic segments and he was "gray power" older people who live in quiet comfort.
6. We came home and watched a movie since we all were pretty tired. Afterward, we went outside for a little trick or treating. The boys enjoyed the blow-up Tigger across the street and I snagged a picture of Oaklen next to it.

Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion

Today I got emotional...that's not an uncommon thing for me right now due to the pregnancy, but today I wanted to share the reason I got emotional.

We were doing our usual family home evening and Salem updated the FHE chart to assign himself to do the lesson and the scripture.
1. He read one verse of scripture; just like he usually does for his bedtime routine. He's getting better and better at reading the hard words every day.
2. For the lesson he got the children's Book of Mormon Stories and read to us the chapter about Nephi building the ship. I was a hesitant at first about him reading it since I figured I'd have to help him a lot and he'd get frustrated. I ended up only helping him with only 2 or 3 words and he read the rest himself! After the first few picture captions I just broke out in hysterical tears which quickly turned into a chuckling laugh because I pictured how ridiculous I must have been, yet I was laughing from being overjoyed.

Geez pregnancy does a lot of crazy stuff to you...but I am very proud of Salem for learning to read so well, good work!

Oaklen's ABC's & Salem's backpack trot

Here are two videos to make you smile...

Oaklen has been learning his ABC song, he sings it everywhere we go and we were able to catch it on camera. His little 2-yr-old voice is so adorable.


From the second day of school, I have been meaning to take my camera to capture Salem's backpack trot. It's so cute to see the cute little kids with their backpacks almost the size of them, running off to school. I finally remembered my camera, but he now has to wear a coat and the backpack doesn't bounce as much as it would if he wasn't wearing a coat. Enjoy!

There's no fun like snow fun

We went outside today to play in the snow and I was happy to find the consistency of the snow to be perfect snowman snow. It's been ages since I have built a snowman, Darrell has done it with the kids the past few years. It was quite a workout for my pregnant self, and challenging to get the body section on top of the bottom section!

(Oaklen was, of course, a turkey and refused to wear his snow boots and his gloves. Half way through our snow fun, after falling in the snow a couple times, he decided to put on his gloves.)

Here are some pics to enjoy! (Click to enlarge.)

Frankenstein Soup AKA Split Pea Soup

Last night I made Split Pea Soup and tricked Salem into thinking that it was "Frankenstein Soup." He was so intrigued with the Frankenstein green soup with orange eyeballs (carrots) and white fingernails (onions.)

I got him to eat a small bowl of the soup by telling him the story of how I caught the Frankenstein and melted him into the pot. As he ate each spoonful I'd tell him more about my adventure of calling the Frankenstein hotline to find a Frankenstein to capture for the soup. His eyes were so big as I was telling him the story, he ran to the mirror to see if he was turning green like a Frankenstein (since you are what you eat!) It was pretty cute.

This tactic worked really well to get him to eat this soup but I'm sure it was a one-hit wonder. He'll be savvy to my scheme next time around.

Here is the recipe that I used, I got it from Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure. I don't currently own this book so I check it out from the library pretty much every other month.

Split Pea Soup with Herbes De Provence
Serves 4 - 6

1 tablespoon safflower or canola oil
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh garlic
2 cups coarsely chopped onion
1 teaspoon each dried basil, oregano, and rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon whole fennel seeds
1 large bay leaf
2 large carrots, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4 inch slices
2 large celery ribs, diced
6 cups boiling water
2 cups dried green split peas, picked over and rinsed
.....
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
salt to taste

Heat the oil in the cooker. Cook the garlic over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, just until it begins to brown. Immediately add the onions and continue to cook, stirring frequently, for another minute. Stir in the basil, oregano, rosemary, fennel, and bay leaf. Add the carrots, celery, boiling water (stand back to avoid sputtering oil), and split peas.

Lock the lid in place. Over high heat, bring to high pressure. Lower the heat just enough to maintain high pressure and cook for 6 minutes (I cooked it for 15 minutes, as that is what I found works best). For a hearty texture, quick-release the pressure by setting the pot under cold running water. For a smoother texture, allow the pressure to come down naturally. Remove the lid, tilting it away from you to allow any excess steam to escape.

Remove the bay leaf. Stir the soup as you add the parsley and salt to taste. This soup will thicken considerably on standing. Thin as needed with water or stock.

I found this picture after googling the recipe, it looked just like this.

My mom the clown

Darrell can literally say "My mother-in-law is a clown!" For those of you who know my mom, you'll appreciate these pics...

We had a family Halloween get-together featuring M&M the clown. :) The kids thought it was hilarious! Thanks for the fun time!

Mending tape - clothing label

Salem's school asked the parents to have all of the children's outdoor clothing labeled. Here's what I used...iron-on mending tape! I got a package at NPS for $.39 and it will last me a long time.

I debated on what to use for a while, my mom had labels professionally made for me and my siblings that said our names on them. She would have to sew them on, but I thought it was cool that I had my own name tag. :) I found websites to order similar name tags for my kids but I was too cheap to spend the few dollars. I even found some that were iron-on so I didn't have to sew. My mom suggested using a heavyweight interfacing and then labeling and ironing it on. I intended to do that but then I found the mending tape.

During general conference a few weeks ago, I collected all of Salem's hats, gloves, jackets, etc and started applying the labels. It was a quick and painless process. I just wrote his name on the mending tape with a fine-point sharpie marker, then cut the tape around the name to save as much tape as possible (I could fit three names in the width of the tape.) Then I ironed on the label and it was done! :)

If you need to label clothing, I suggest that you use mending tape!

P.S. - I realize that I'm probably not the first one to think of this. I'm sure there are many moms out there that have done this for years, but I thought I'd just pass along this info to those who still haven't been enlightened. :)

Ultrasound Pictures

For those of you who have been too lazy to figure out the gender math equation, maybe this will be a better hint for you:


Here are the pictures from the ultrasound. They even did some 3D images. They looked at the x,y, and z coordinates and the computer produced a 3D image. The computer finds everything and then the technician has to "photoshop" out all the other tissue etc to find the baby, so that's why it looks like a baby that is not all the way formed. (I've seen random pictures online of 3D ultrasounds and thought they looked creepy, but now that I understand how they do it, and that it's my baby, it looks okay.) Our baby's feet were up cross-legged around his head, so the technician even removed one of his legs so we could see his face on the 3D pics.

Gender math

Drum roll...we had our ultra sound and in order to announce the gender of baby #3, I'm going to make you do a little math. :)

(Where D= Darrell and H=Heather)

Here are some hints if you don't know the years:
Sqrt[(Baby’s birth year - D & H wedding year) + (H’s birth year - D’s birth year)]

The answer will be the number of letters in the word "boy" or "girl" and then you'll know.

Discoveries

In honor of Columbus Day, I'll give you some of my random discoveries that I've had over the years...

* Buying dental floss and using it every day is cheaper than a dentist visit for a filling.
* Buying name-brand food on sale with a coupon is usually cheaper than the store brand.
* Counting down from 5 to 1 works to get Salem and other children to do something or focus on the task.
* The attention span of a 2 year old is 2 minutes, a 5 year old is 5 minutes, etc.
* Cleaning as you go is easier than setting aside time to do everyday chores.
* Stop and smell the roses, breath in...breath out.
* Reading the Book of Mormon every day will bless your life, even if it's one verse.
* Keeping your gas tank 1/2 full or more keeps stress out of your life.
* The following letters are the same upside down: H, I, N, O, S, X, Z
* Children learn at an incredibly fast pace.
* You never stop learning.
* You don't "save" money by spending it.
* If you think someone's perfect, you don't know them well enough.
* As a new mom, you think why am I so alone? But then you realize that there are thousands of moms saying that same thing.
* Vinegar can be used for almost anything. I have at least 3-4 spray bottles of vinegar in my house.
* You can make substitutions in recipes very easily and it still comes out okay.
* If you are seeking a school for your kindergartner, you must start looking into a school in October of the year before he starts. (Same goes for preschool.)
* Breastfeeding is calming for the baby and the mother, strengthens the baby's immune system, provides complete infant nutrition, and is 100% the best.
* Attachment parenting is a style of caring for your infant that brings out the best in the baby and the best in the parents.
* Children don't care about "new" toys, they'll love a used toy just as well.
* Nutrition plays a big part in someone's health. Instead of popping a pill, look at what you're eating (or rather what you're not eating.)
* You don't have to be a member of Costco to use their pharmacy, or redeem a Costco gift card.
* Hairspray & gel work for most of my hair styles, I don't need to buy all that gimmicky other stuff.
* The rubber-band trick works well for the first few months of pregnancy when jeans start fitting a little too tightly.
* Children love playing dress-up! Halloween is just like any other day at my house.
* Always "google it" before you purchase something online. You can find product reviews and even coupons.
* A mother's intuition (the spirit) is sometimes better than a doctor.
* Those who understand interest, earn it; those who don't understand interest, pay it.
* Paying bills online is fast and easy.
* Renewing and reserving library books online is even easier.
* You can view demo videos on youtube and learn how to do just about anything.
* Wheat is not just for bread.
* After you shave your legs, put baby oil on them, it feels great!
* If your hair is straight or straightened and it's your off day for washing, sprinkle baby powder on your scalp and brush it through. It'll absorb some of the oil in the hair and make it smell good.
* You are in charge of your own happiness.

Zip-it

Have you heard of the Zip-it? I was introduced to this product a couple years ago, and now love it! I got it at WalMart for about $3 and it's a good preventative maintenance tool for clogged drains. You don't use harsh chemicals, it's just a jagged strip of plastic that you stick down in your drain and pull out all the yuck.

I clean our upstairs bathtub drain every few months with this. I like that it's cheap and really easy to use. This is not for those with a light stomach, some of the stuff that comes out is pretty gross, but I'd rather get it out than have it stay in the pipe!

Here's a demo of it:

The end of my KitchenAid era

When Darrell and I were registering for our wedding, he insisted that we register for a KitchenAid Stand Mixer. He said "to be a true Hendriksen, you have to own a KitchenAid." I thought "Whatever, I don't really understand the whole big whoop over them but okay, I'll register for it, I doubt anyone would be able to buy it for us since it's pretty pricey."

Sure enough, when it was Thanksgiving time (we were still engaged) and we had our annual Hendriksen family Thanksgiving dinner, all of Darrell's aunts started bringing in their KitchenAid mixers into the church to use for mixing & mashing the potatoes! I was amazed that they would literally bring their heavy duty mixer just for that, couldn't they use an easy-to-transport hand mixer? I figured there must be something cool about these mixers.

Later in January, while at work, my boss & co-workers asked me to step into my executive boss's office. There on the desk was a huge wrapped wedding gift. I opened it up and it was the KitchenAid mixer that we had registered for. I couldn't believe it! My mouth dropped open since I didn't expect such a large gift from them. (The standard wedding gift at my office was a basket full of various odd & ends & kitchen gadgets.) My executive boss, who was a single lady and could afford such a gift, just looked at me, smiled and said "you deserve this." That was a nice pat on my back.

I've grown to enjoy the KitchenAid. I liked being able to go get another ingredient from the pantry while the mixer is still mixing. The dough hook is, of course, great for making bread. It has served my family well for over six years.

This past year and a half I have tried (desperately) to make bread for my family. I've always wanted to make bread regularly and am now I'm doing it, but I still would like to perfect my technique and get a nice fluffy whole wheat bread. With my KitchenAid I could only put in a maximum of 6 cups of whole wheat flour (8 cups white flour.) That meant I could only make 2 small loaves of bread at a time, and I'd have to be making bread every few days.

I bought a huge stainless steel bowl($1 at DI) and started making bread by hand so that I could make 6 loaves of bread instead of just two. (I'd freeze 4-5 loaves.)

My family had outgrown our 4 1/2 quart KitchenAid mixer and I wanted something bigger. I was introduced to the Bosch Mixers and fell in love. (Sorry KitchenAid.) I watched a video comparing the Bosch to a KitchenAid for making bread and the Bosch won victoriously. I immediately wanted a Bosch mixer but since they were pricey I needed to "save up" to buy the mixer. (I thought that I'd do that just like Darrell did to save up for his guitar.) I made a spreadsheet (who knew?) to figure out how much I needed to save and entered the info whenever I made a few extra dollars (selling things, birthday money, babysitting, substituting a dance class.)

I was holding out for a brand new model, but this weekend I found a refurbished Bosch Mixer with a warranty from a reputable local store so I decided to purchase that one instead of saving a lot more money for a new one.

I put my KitchenAid up for sale on KSL and Craigslist and sold it today. It was a little hard for me to let go as I was giving the mixer to the lady who bought it. It's an end of an era for me. It was my learning mixer, and I've had fun memories with my boys making food using the mixer. I feel old now that I've upgraded to a bigger mixer, I'm in a new stage in my life.

I feel like I'm still a "true Hendriksen" even though I no longer own a KitchenAid, hopefully the family won't disown me. :)

My quest for bread perfection still awaits me, but I feel that I'm getting closer all the time.

A kid after my own heart

Salem is a kid after my own heart...
I was being lazy this morning and the boys came in my room to wake me up instead of vice versa. They climbed on the bed to snuggle for a minute then Salem quickly rushed out of the room. (I thought he was going to go get dressed for school.) He came back ten minutes later and still had on his pajamas. I was just starting to get out of bed to start the day so I told him to quickly go get dressed too. He started to get upset and then showed me what he was doing.

He made a math worksheet for us to do while snuggling in bed! He said "but we have to snuggle in bed and do math before we get dressed!" How could I say no to that? Two things I love...math and snuggling! We snuggled for another 5 minutes and did our addition. I was impressed that Salem even figured out that 11 + 12 = 23. Salem is also like me and likes to stall and dawdle, right Mom & Darrell? :)

Afterward we rushed to get ready and were greeted downstairs with delicious French Toast made by Darrell. Ah, how nice! :)

Whole Wheat Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Anything is better with chocolate! These cookies are whole wheat but they still taste great, I don't know anyone who would turn these down.

Whole Wheat Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mix together:
1 egg
1/2 c canola oil
1/4 c butter
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c honey

Add:
1/2 c water
2 t vanilla
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t ginger
1/2 t cloves
1/2 t salt
1 t baking soda

Then add:
1 c zucchini
2 c whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c whole wheat pastry flour*
2 c quick oats
1 - 2 c chocolate chips

Spoon & shape into golf-ball sizes. Place on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. They will come out fluffy and delicious! :)

* Whole wheat pastry flour can be made by substituting a little bit of corn starch for whole wheat flour. Use 1 tablespoon of corn starch for every 1/2 cup of ww pastry flour. Example: I added two tablespoons of cornstarch in my 1 cup measuring cup, then filled the rest with whole wheat flour. Then I added one tablespoon in the 1/2 cup measuring cup and filled the rest up with ww flour. (1 1/2 c ww pastry flour = 1 1/2 c ww flour - 3 T corn starch.)
If I've confused you enough, then you can just add white flour instead, or just use all whole wheat flour.