Jones Look-alike Meter

When Noelle has a happy face she looks more like her Mommy!

Goodbye Scarlett...Hello Canary Island

For my birthday Aunt Lorrie took me shopping and we picked out fabric to make valences for our family room. We were not able to find anything I liked that worked with the red. So we decided we would just have to paint. Lucky me, Uncle Larry agreed to do it. As you can imagine this color is not easy to paint over. He's awesome and did a great job.

Good-bye Scarlett, it was good while it lasted.

Hello Canary Island! I hope we have a good time together.

Now it's time to get sewing!

Anniversary Day

It was great that our anniversary landed on a Saturday. We spent the day as a family because when you think about it, we have very few left as a family of three. Soon Noelle will be invaded by a newborn and life as she knows it will be over. Aaron suggested we take her to the beach because that really is her favorite thing to do. It was really overcast and foggy but it did not affect her at all, as always, she had a the best time ever.

Playing with BIGGEST sand crab I have ever seen. Aaron dug it up and Noelle was so curious until the thing started moving. She squealed like a little girl and ran away, she came back and was still really interested as long as it did not touch her.

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That evening we went out to dinner, just the two of us. Aaron made reservations at a restaurant in Malibu right on the beach. He got us a table on the top floor looking right out the window. Unfortunately, we were a little late and missed the sunset but really enjoyed our time together. I actually wore high heels somewhere other than church!

Cookies

I always said that I would not give my children names that people would easily misspell. The way we will spell Madeleine...we will be two for two. Instead of Madeline (mad-eh-line) it's Madeleine (mad-uh-lynn) , with the extra e, like the cookies.

Sorry to my sweet girls for sentencing you both to a life of correcting people.

5 Years Ago Today...

This party started and what a ride it has been!

We both cannot believe how fast time has gone by. We are so blessed to have each other and look forward to the next five.

I Love You Babe.....Here's to Eternity!

Per Several Requests...

Ain't it grand? This is the very first belly shot I have ever taken. I never took any with Noelle and it's the first time with this baby. I took this on Friday and Aaron thinks it's gotten even bigger, probably true!

Note: You really know you are a stay-at-home-mom when you are at the kitchen table combing through and marking the grocery store ads with an ENORMOUS Strawberry Shortcake pen.

Mmmmmmm......

This week we had the missionaries over for dinner. I always try to come up with something 'different' because I am sure they eat a lot of casseroles and pasta. This time, we had a potato bar...it was y.u.m.m.y if I do say so myself. We were all in carb comas afterwards.

Daddy helped Noelle get her food after a serious tantrum, but I'll save you those details. Had I been doing the food, I would have smashed it up so that I could make sure to get the broccoli in there, give her chicken, salad, etc. Not Daddy! Here's some potato, bacon, cheese and sour cream. She picked up that thing and started chowing...needless to say she loved it. It's a good thing he is around or things would be no fun at all.

"Perfect" Baby Girl

"Perfect" is the adjective Dr. Tabsh used on Wednesday after my ultrasound. Music to our ears! What a contrast to how worried I was 3 months ago. She looked adorable on the ultrasound moving everywhere, gulping down amniotic fluid. He even paused so we could "look at that cute button nose!" Dr. Tabsh is a very stern man of few words with NO bedside manner. So, something like that coming out of his mouth is nothing short of a miracle.

She is in the head down position, which is news I like and weighs an estimated 2lbs 5oz. I got a green light on taking some Zyrtec for my allergies because I am MISERABLE.

He also wants me to switch Endocrinologists and see Dr. Tamagna, who I heard is the best but she is not accepting new patients. His reply (in a deep Lebanese accent) was, "Well, tell that crazy Cooper I want you to see Tamagna." I saw Cooper today and apparently she thinks he got her kids into some fancy shmancy school and got her son a job at the hospital so he is going to get me an appointment on Monday. He also confirmed she is head down by squeezing my belly...ouch! Noelle greeted him by pulling up her shirt and he thanked her for showing him her breasts....everyone else does anyway.

Bread Recipes

Here is the recipe that only requires one rise.

No Fail Yeast Bread

5 cups warm water
1/4 cup oil
1 1/2 tablespoon salt
1 cup honey or 3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoon yeast
3 tablespoon dough enhancer, (optional) (I used bottled lemon juice)
11 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I used only Whole Wheat, no white)

This recipe is easiest if a large mixer is used. If a mixer is unavailable, dough may be kneaded by hand. Combine water, oil, salt, sugar (or honey) and dough enhancer. Add yeast, mix. Stir in enough flour to make a soft dough. I am not sure exactly how much flour I used, after a few cups I just started to slowly pour it in directly from the bag. My KitchenAid was not quite big enough, so I dumped out the dough and kneaded in by hand just enough to make it workable. Knead for 8 - 10 minutes (I only did for a couple minutes.) Divide into 4 parts. Shape each part into a loaf and place into greased loaf pans. Cover and allow to rise until dough is 1 inch above pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 30 min. Makes 4 loaves.


Here is the recipe that I normally use. I have tried out several recipes and this has been my favorite. After making it a couple of times, making sure I liked it, I have had fun adding other healthy stuff. I don't really measure just eye-ball ground flax seed, rolled oats (not instant), FiberSure (kind of like Metamucil but when mixed in just disappears). The sky's the limit!

Whole Wheat Bread
2 packets of yeast
2 cups of warm water
1/2 cup of sugar
1 TB salt
2 beaten eggs
1/4 cup of oil
6 or so cups of flour

1. Dissolve yeast in water. Then add the sugar, salt, eggs, oil, and half the flour.
2. Beat that til it is smooth.
3. Add in the rest of the flour as the mixer is going until it is the right consistency.
4. let it knead for a couple minutes.
5. Let it rise for an hour.
6. punch it down and then shape it into two loaves (if you kinda roll it in a tube it turns out pretty) and put them in prepared loaf pans.
7. Let it rise for another hour.
8. Bake it at 375 for half an hour, or maybe a little less.

Go forth and bake! Making your own bread really is not that much work, once it becomes habit. We use it for everything just like store bought bread.

P.S. Make sure you take a stick of butter and rub it all over the tops of the loaves right out of the oven!

Weekend Fun

After our usual Friday lunch at the park this is what Noelle looked like. The jeans have a very dark wash on them. The sprinklers came on and the kids went wild. We were there for three hours!

After bath time and something to eat this is what Noelle did. I was glued to the TV watching the Metrolink accident and realized it was too quiet. She was passed out.

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A quick note about the accident, my heart is still aching for everyone involved. I rode the Metrolink for the entire time I worked at Aramark and it was a great all around experience. You really do become a weird kind of family. I started riding the 111 train when we moved out here to Simi and I was already pregnant with Noelle, so it was only about 4 months, but it was still all too real. I pray that everyone is recovering from the ordeal.
~~

On a lighter note we had a great Saturday. I got to enjoy breakfast with two of my best girls Erin and Ruthie for Erin's birthday. Then I got to go to the Chiropractor. Oh, I love that lady, I am a new woman.

Auntie had asked if they could take Noelle for the night since it had been a long time. We ran several errands in record time and then decided to drive to Culver City for some Tito's Tacos. This place has been around since the 50's for good reason. We had just sat down and in walked the Reeves and Lovios, it was funny! I am still thinking about the salsa.......mmmmmmm....

After tacos we hopped over to one of my other favorite places on the planet Diddy Reise, got an ice cream and walked around Westwood and the UCLA campus. It was wonderful. Afterwards I was so stuffed, I felt like such a fat pregnant lady. Ugh.
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Sunday was our normal church in the AM and then naps and relaxing the rest of the day.

After Noelle was in bed I used a new recipe to make our bread. This one makes a huge batch so I can freeze the other loaves and only requires one rise. It was fast! The bread came out pretty good although next time I will bake it for a couple more minutes.