Is It Naptime Yet

Yesterday I was a great wife and made chocolate treats for Jon to take to his coworkers. I was a bad mom because I was so immersed in the projects that PBS was on all day and Eden often came over wanting to be held but having to be turned down by her chocolate fingered momma. Even on days I had tons of studying to do I would have time for them. Yesterday I just had to get things done so the house could hopefully get back to order ASAP. Lilah was mostly okay. She just tried to “help” by licking any spoon with chocolate that she could get her hands on. Only when I told her no she could not have any more chocolate did she get upset. Lilah would just come and see what I was doing and them go on her merry way of watching whatever was on. By the time Jon got home Eden was a mess, even after a nap, because she needed some love and attention. Also I had put her in Lilah’s chair at one point and she wanted to stay in it, but if I was out of the room I took her down because she couldn’t be trusted to sit still and I was afraid she’d fall off of the chair, so whenever I took her out of the chair she got upset. It was a crazy.

These are the chocolates I made.

I made different truffles and then chocolate covered popcorn. The recipes came from my friend Amber. I cut off the extra chocolate that you see on so many of the truffles. I figured I did okay considering this was the first time I’d done anything besides the chocolate molds you can buy. Wilton has special dipping spoons that might help avoid the huge amount of chocolate around the base of the truffles, so I may try those next time. So here are things I learned about chocolate.
In the truffle recipe it says to refrigerate the center for the truffle until firm. (Please refer to the recipe so you know what I’m talking about.)
Well I thought to save time on Monday morning I’d make the center the night before. I didn’t save any time because the center had completely harden by being in the refrigerator overnight! (So tip: it only takes about an hour in the fridge for the center to be firm enough to shape it. Or you can do it the night before but plan on letting it thaw the next morning.)
The second thing I needed to improve on was the outer coating. On some of my truffles the outer layer of chocolate cracked. What I think happened is the center was too cold…it had been in the freezer more like an hour, plus it was still fairly cold and hard from being in the fridge the night before…and the chocolate that I melted to coat it was a little too warm. So when I let the truffle centers sit for just a little while after being in the freezer and the melted chocolate for the outer layer to sit, then they were less likely to crack if they cracked at all.
I made a lot of popcorn and I think I made around 130 truffles. I still have truffles to give away even after Jon took some for his coworkers today. I packaged everything in cute bags, but I was too lazy to take a picture last night when all was said and done.
I think I’m good on making chocolate for a little while. I made these with the Wilton wafers, so I didn’t have to worry about tempering the chocolate. I hope as I become more experienced that I can use the real thing.

This year my parents went to Ceder Hills Utah to spend Thanksgiving with my Uncle Mike and Aunt Robin and their family. Uncle Mike is my father’s half brother. Andrea and Brien went up to Salt Lake to stay with his family and then they went to my Aunt and Uncle’s for Thanksgiving day, since Salt Lake is only an hour away from Ceder Hills. Andrea and Brien are planning on staying in Ely for Christmas, so I’m not sure when we’ll see them again. Maybe I’ll visit them during Christmas break when Jon is studying for the GRE. Since my parents weren’t here we just had to worry about Thanksgiving with Jon’s family. Since we only had to worry about visiting Jon’s family I figured I could contribute to the dinner and I made some rolls and a banana cream pie. Everyone loved the rolls, even though I thought they we’re just okay. My pie wasn’t cut so no one ate it until Devin, Jon’s nephew, took a couple pieces on the go with him. I had a small piece and didn’t like it either. I think it needed to be in the fridge and I used the generic Jello pudding brand, which made it taste not as good. We have about half of it in our fridge. It might taste a little better now that it’s been refrigerated, but the memory of how it tasted on Thursday makes it less appealing. The food that Annie, Jon’s sister, made was delicious and we got very full while there. I was disappointed because I thought Shauntae, Jon’s niece, would be down, but their family ended up not coming. It was still good to see Jon’s side. We see them pretty much at the holidays and if birthdays come up.

Friday I made a small feast. Really I was tired so I made a turkey breast, beets from our garden, and then we had left over potatoes and rolls from the day before, along with cranberry sauce. The rolls were better the second day. I had yams that I could have made, but when it came down to preparing everything my kitchen was already a little chaotic, so I decided against yams and instead I made two pumpkin pies. Like I said earlier the banana cream pie wasn’t sounding appealing. It was a good Friday. Besides making dinner I can’t remember much about the day. I had an assignment for one of my classes due, so I stayed inside and studied while the girls and Jon played outside in the above average weather. We’ve stayed in the 70’s up until yesterday, Sunday, in which I think we’re finally in the 60’s or 50’s.

Saturday was the big day! Dixie Chicks!! We avoided dishes, and hung around the house a lot. I went over to my sister Kristi’s and watched her kids in the afternoon so she could do some toy shopping. I left Eden at home to take a nap and I took Lilah with me. She had a blast playing with her cousins. I got home took a shower and we dropped the kids off at the Villagomez’s to be watched.
I had the hardest time finding a babysitter for this concert. Our normal babysitter, Kelsey Lee who I’ve known since she was in her mother’s womb, went to Salt Lake this year with her family, instead of just St. George. Then the two girls in our ward that I would trust had a youth dance. I thought one of the older sisters might be able to, but since she graduated high school in May she’s had a party every weekend, and her answer was if there’s not a party I’ll do it. I was going a little crazy. I thought the Villagomez’s would be out of town because her family is in Utah, but luck had it that they’re going up in December for a wedding so they stayed here for Thanksgiving. (Danielle Villagomez is my visiting teacher and she helped me out a lot when my shoulder was stitched up. Her husband also loves our girls. He’s great with kids.) So there is my side note about how hard it is to find a babysitter on Thanksgiving weekend!
We met Carolyn and Derrek for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe inside the MGM. I don’t recommend their seafood selection. It was shrimp and red snapper. The red snapper was good, but they served it with it’s tail still attached. Derek dared me to eat it for $10 but I said he was already paying for dinner so what was the point of making $10.
We had seats against the back wall, and we were just about ten seats shy of being in the farthest spot from the stage. Derrek had also bought seats on the second level, but they had closed their section so Carolyn and Derrek were moved to the first level and sat directly across from the band in the far back. She said they had some annoying girls behind them that kept singing over the sound of the Dixie Chicks. So I am happy that we had our back seats. No one to sing in our ears or throw beer bottles at us. It was a great concert and they did a small encore. Really they finished the show since it appears that encores are now expected of groups. It was a great night and it’s still a little surreal that we were at a concert and in the same room as the Dixie Chicks.(Sure it was a really big room and they looked about the size of barbie dolls but it was the same room.) I really loved the night. We picked the girls up around midnight and got home and crashed. Sunday Jon missed his 6:30 am meeting and we amazingly made it to church on time even though I slept in until 9:20. Our church starts at 11:00 am.

So there is a summary of our Holiday weekend.
I have pictures I need to post of Eden with her black eye. It was so cute and now I kinda miss the rugged looking girl. Happy Holidays!

Sometimes being a stay at home mom is long, tedious, and draining. Sometimes it seems the bad outweighs the good as we take care of the kids and find ourselves fighting and contending with one another. I forget that I love my children on occasion, on those occasions I just want to out them in their room and to forget about them. There are many moments that show me that I love my children. Sometimes it’s all day long, other times it’s when I don’t open my mouth before they do. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving and because I’m in a gushy mood I’d like to write some reasons I’m grateful for my children, or times when I feel their love for me or someone else.

Lilah
1. She shares her Halloween candy with everyone.
2.She often says thank you and she’ll say that dinner is delicious or good.
3. She’ll get me things when I ask, usually.
4. She puts her feet against mine when I’m resting on the couch…..usually it’s annoying because she plays with them and it interrupts any rest I’m getting, but it’s also nice to know that she likes to be close.
5. She’ll cuddle next to you when you’re sitting together on the couch.
6. She’ll say she’s thankful for ____  during the blessing when we’re visiting or when they’re visiting us.
7. She thinks of silly games.
8. She always wants cuddles at nap times.
9. She appeared at the doorway of her room one night and before I had the chance to chastise her she said she wanted a kiss and hug goodnight.
10. She won’t let you leave her for her nap or bedtime before she gives you a kiss and hug.
11. She won’t let you leave the house before giving her a kiss and hug.
12. She’ll play with her sister.
13. She’ll read to her sister.

Eden
1. She plays with your hair while your holding her or cuddling her.
2. She plays with my hair in the morning when she’s in my bed waiting for mommy to fully wake up.
3. She gives you a smile if you look at her.
4. She follows you.
5. She’ll follow you and hug your legs so you can’t walk…Luckily I’m usually doing something at the kitchen counter when she does this.
6. She gets so excited when Jon comes home. Their is no separating Eden from giving her Daddy a welcome home hug.
7. She puckers her lips out and looks like a duck.
8. She does everything her sister does…or at least tries to.
9. She loves being read to.
10. She’s patient with me and Lilah
11. She does some things she’s told.
12. She learns something new all the time and it amazes me to see her growth.

So here are the Halloween pictures. My friend Anna made the Incredibles costume for Lilah and Eden was a purple ladybug…what Lilah was two years ago. I was suppose to hem Lilah’s costume but I ended up not having time.

Here are the cupcakes I made for the Trunk or Treat that was Friday the 28th. I had strawberry shortcake green…so they look like they were on radio active grass. oh well.

On Friday I was doing something on the Internet and had Eden on a blanket on the floor rather then her play pen.

This is where she was when I left her.

This is where she was after I turned around. Of course these are reenactments that Eden did for me. She rolled off the blanket about four times and almost got to the couch once. Lilah wanted Eden’s headband on her, that’s why she reliving the 80’s with her yellow head band.

Friday night we set up our Christmas tree and here is a picture of Jon and Lilah.

This is a lady bug ornament that hums a very quick and partial rendition of “Hark the Herald Angels sing.” It hasn’t annoyed us yet to the extent that we need to move it. But I’ll be surprised if it still works after this Christmas.

Saturday Jon put some lights up and I finished my Relief Society lesson. It went well. I just wasn’t as prepared as I like to be, plus it was just hard for me to figure out what they were meaning by the discussion questions and what not. We did Chapter 10 in the David O. McKay book, because of Joseph Smith’s Birthday on the 23rd.
Sunday we also had FHE at the Lee’s house. Their oldest, Kelsey was singing in their youth stake choir and had a solo, so we went and supported her after we ate. I made some delicious rolls for dinner. I say they were delicious because everyone likes them, not because I’m big headed about my cooking.

Monday I made lots of cookies, today I’ve done lots of cleaning and cooking and then more cleaning and cooking. My back aches because of needing to lean over just enough to not be able to stand straight, but enough that it really starts to ache, if that makes sense. I’m a little tired, and I still should make some more cookies tonight. Will someone come to my house and bake for me. Tonight I think I’ll do peanut butter cookies. Those sound good.