Pretty Dinner

Don't you love making a meal that's as pretty as it is tasty? I made one of those last night and I just had to share. Brent wasn't even home to enjoy it when it was warm (luckily it tasted good re-heated too), and AJ's the only one of my kids who appreciates the beauty in food. (She told me how pretty it was (love that girl!) .....the others are just all about the flavor.) So I felt I HAD to share the beauty of this meal with someone else. It would be wrong to keep it to myself. ;)

The preparation:
Cooking:
Finished product:
Yummy veggies and whole grain pasta w/creamy pesto sauce and steamed beets on the side.
And just for the sake of full disclosure, I was totally trying to redeem myself after serving cereal for dinner the night before.

Need some ideas for a consequence (punishment)

Alright, all you creative minds out there....I need some help.

Tonight Roo broke a window. He was throwing rocks into our basement window well (something he's been told not to do a few times) and low and behold he broke the window. It's a double-pane window and only one pane broke, but a big chunk broke out of it. Brent was on his way out the door to run an errand when it happened, so he just told Roo to go to his room. After a few minutes I called Roo out to talk to him about it.

He'd been crying pretty hard. He was obviously upset. I told him that Daddy and I love him and that we were very glad he'd come to us right away and told the truth, but that there'd be a consequence.

The problem is, I have no idea what to do for a consequence. I want it to be something appropriate, but I'm having a hard time coming up with anything.

He's been sitting here stewing ever since Brent left. If he were younger I'd say his worrying was consequence enough, but I think this time he needs something that will help him remember to "think first" in the future. He is only 6 and obviously still lacks the impulse control that he'll (hopefully) gain as he grows up.

So any ideas would be MUCH appreciated!

More pics of our house

Here's *almost* the rest of our house. I'm not going to take pics of the basement until it's finished. Right now it's just empty rooms (except for the one we're using as a storage room right now), so not worth showing.

First, the rest of the inside of the house (minus the basement):

Living Room:
Butler's pantry going from living room into kitchen (stairs to basement are to the right):
Master bedroom:
Master bathroom:
Sorry this one's so dark.....the windows messed it up.

On to the outside of the house:

Back of the house:
From the back door, west to east: (all the green stuff you see are weeds)
This is the "club" the kids made. They like to dig here:
This is the "pit." The entrance to the basement from the backyard. We have a built-in rock-climbing wall in our backyard. Fun, huh?
Front of the house:
Ignore the wheelbarrow, we're having the yard worked on and they started in the front today.

Our spectacular weekend

We were invited by some good friends to go up to Bear Lake with them this past weekend. We figured with all the work needing to be done with our house and having a baby this summer, this might be the last chance we'd get for a vacation. So we happily accepted their invitation. And we're SOOOOO glad we did.

We were able to stay in a great 3 bedroom condo. Our friends have 4 kids also (with a 5th on the way) and their ages are all very close to our kids' ages. It works out quite well. The 6 oldest kids stayed in one bedroom. There were originally 2 twin beds in it with a nightstand in between. We put the nightstand in the closet and pushed the 2 beds against the walls and put down a pull-out mattress from the living in between the 2 beds. 3 girls slept across the big mattress, 2 kids on each twin bed and one kid on a blow-up bed at the foot of one of the twin mattresses. The room was wall-to-wall beds, but the kids LOVED it!

We didn't plan much for the weekend at all since we just wanted it to be a relaxing time. We got there Thursday night and put the kids to bed. Then Friday morning we went swimming at the indoor pool since it was 45 degrees outside. And by afternoon it had warmed up enough to let the kids go play at the small playground they had out behind the condo.

Before the kids went outside to play on Friday, they got bored for a few minutes. There was "nothing to do." (Can you hear the whine?) So Brent told them he had the "best game ever" for them to play. They were all quite excited. He told them to sit in a row and take one hand and cover their eyes, then take their other hand and cover their mouths. They all quickly obeyed. Then he told them we were going to see who could stay that way the longest. The kids all took it quite seriously, much to our surprise, and the game lasted MUCH longer than we all thought it would.

Friday evening we went for a drive to the lake and had fun trying not to get "sucked in" by the water-logged sand.

Across the street from where we stopped at the lake was a field full of cows. The kids were all so excited. (Don't you love the things kids get excited about?) So we stopped to say "hi" to them for a while. (Isn't it great to see a babywearing dad?!!!)

Saturday we went for a fun drive looking for a "ghost town" that we never did find (maybe that's why they call it a ghost town?). We knew we wanted to go for a hike, but since most of the trails aren't open until May or June (they were still covered in snow), we didn't have a lot of options. We found a trail up a hill to Round Valley Cemetery. So we decided that would be our hike. It was farther than I thought it was going to be, but it was great. Good exercise for all of us. We even got a little sunburned. (I brought sunscreen, but didn't think about using it since it was between 50 and 60 degrees.)

After the hike we went to the park in Garden City for a fun picnic and then back to the hotel for the babies to sleep while the menfolk took the older kids swimming again. That night we went out to eat at a little "cafe" (that's for my grandma) in town. I wasn't sure what to expect in the quality of food, but they surprised us and it turned out quite tasty.

Then Sunday morning we got up and packed up and headed into Logan for lunch. We stopped by the temple first, but since it was Sunday the gates were closed. That didn't stop some kids from figuring out a way in, though! We had lunch at a park there in Logan that has a small zoo attached. The kids were in heaven and got some good energy out before we made the trip back home.



I HAD to take this picture. This is what happens whenever you hold Lady. She's got her hand in your hair playing with it the whole time. LOVE IT!!!!
I couldn't believe how well the weekend went. No fighting or major catastrophes. The kids were all very well-behaved. The only trauma we had was about 15 minutes where we "lost" one of the children. It was Friday evening and all the kids (the older ones) were outside playing on the playground while the adults were inside preparing dinner. We called them in when it was time to eat and our friends' 4 yo little boy didn't come in. We called for him off the balcony for a while with no answer, so I stayed w/the other kids while the other 3 adults went on a search party for him. It took a while (it always seems like forever in those situations, doesn't it?), but they found him over by the next building. He'd gotten confused about which building we were in (they all look the same) and had gone to the wrong condo. He'd been knocking and knocking and no one was answering, poor kid. There were tears shed by both mother and son upon seeing each other. (And truth be told, a few by me since I can relate to that feeling of helplessness.....it brought back too many memories of when we "lost" Roo.)

So THANK YOU, Brandon and Cheryl for letting us barge in on your fun vacation! We all had a GREAT time and the kids are already asking when we're going to do it again!

A few pics, as promised

I'm going to do just a few pics in each post for the next couple of posts. Mostly because I can't seem to keep the entire house clean long enough to go around and take pics of it all. Also because it's raining outside today, and I'm not going out in the rain to get a picture of my wet house. So I got a few today of most of the inside, but the rest will have to wait. :)

Upstairs first.

AJ's and Tink's room:
Lady's room:
Roo's room:
Bonus room (current playroom until we get the basement finished):
This is the first time it's been clean since we moved in. :)
Kids' bathroom:
Double sink
Tub/toilet room:
Roo's vanity (a separate sink area accessible from his room):
The kids' favorite part of this bathroom is that little cupboard on the left in Roo's vanity. When you open it up, it's a laundry chute down to the laundry room. :)

Now to the downstairs (part of it, anyway).

View of family room from kitchen:
View of family room toward back of house:
View of family room/entry way/stairs (toward front of house):
View of kitchen from family room:
Close-up of the working area (I love it!...super functional):
So that's some of our house! It really is starting to feel like home and we're loving it. There's still plenty of work left to do (wait'll you see the pics of the yard), but it'll be worth it.

And no, we do not have any framed pictures up on the wall yet. We have LOTS of bare walls! :)