Our Seattle Family

After the last session of conference Sunday, we loaded up the kids in the car and headed to Ben's cousin's place in south Bothell.  Uncle Bob and Aunt Ingrid and Rob and Deana were so sweet to share their dinner with us!  We are so grateful to be so close to wonderful family who are quickly becoming wonderful friends!

Julia and Leah enjoying pizza crust and the warm fire!

Project Produce: Guac and Sorbet

Friday I got pretty ambitious with the basket items.  For dinner I made Taco Salad.  The romaine lettuce washed, dried, and shredded was the base.  I made my very own Crockpot Coconut-lime Chicken, and then I used the gigantic avocado and half the tomato for guacamole to top it off.  Dessert was a delicious Melon-pear Sorbet!

Crockpot Coconut-lime Chicken:

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup lime juice

1/4 cup coconut syrup

one clove garlic smashed (or minced)

onion powder, salt, and pepper to taste

dash of hot sauce (optional)

2 Tbsp pepper jelly (optional)

one can green chillies 

3-5 chicken breasts

Combine all ingredients except chicken in crockpot.  Add chicken breast and turn to coat in the sauce. Cook on low 4-6 hrs or high 3-4 hrs. Remove chicken, shred using a couple forks, and return to sauce.  Stir it up and serve!  This is great for tacos, nachos, salads, burritos, etc.

We made our salads with the fresh lettuce, the chicken, crushed tortilla chips, grated cheese, diced tomatoes, sour cream, salsa, and homemade Guacamole.

Guacamole:
Avocado (half chopped up/half mashed)
1/2 tomato diced
2 Tbsp lemon juice
tabasco sauce
salt to taste



Turns out I'm the only one that likes Guacamole in our family and I'm not really a big fan.  Most of it went brown in our fridge and got tossed out the next day.  Whoops!

Melon and Pear Sorbet

Now this was yummy and a major hit with the entire fam!  I'd used half of our honey dew melon in a fruit salad.  It was a little lacking in the flavor department so I decided to make the second half into sorbet.  I added a pear (pealed and cored) for some more texture and body (whatever that means), 3/4 cup sugar, and a tray of ice cubes to the melon in our Vitamix Blender. Blended it all up and tad-a! Sorbet!

I froze what we couldn't eat right then into an ice cube tray with toothpicks stuck in.  We are still enjoying them!

Project Produce

I love Bountiful Baskets!  It really seems to be the best deal for getting fruits and vegetables, and it forces  encourages us to eat more fresh produce.  However, I sometimes feel a little overwhelmed by the task of consuming all that delicious food before it goes bad.  It can also be challenging to incorporate new fruits and vegetables into meals I am good at preparing and that I know my family will eat.  I'm determined to make our families eating-style a healthy one, so each week I'm going to post a list of the items we get in our basket and what I make with all of it during the week.  I'd love input for new ideas and recipes!

Last Saturday we picked up our basket at the Lynnwood, WA food bank.

Veggies:
Romaine lettuce
Collard greens (yikes)
Spinach
Broccoli
3 Tomatoes (I know they're technically fruit)
1 Large avacado

Fruits:
Apples
Bananas
Red Pears
Honey Dew melon
Strawberries

We pretty much just gobbled down the strawberries as is.  They were so yummy!
 
I steamed some of the broccoli as a side to baked potatoes.  I learned the best way to steam broccoli from Alton Brown's "Good Eats" cooking show on Food Network: Wash and cut up your broccoli.  If you're using the stems put them on the bottom of the pan and the florets on top of them.  Put enough water in the pot to cover the stems, cover, and bring to a boil.  Boil on high for three minutes, then turn to low and cook another three minutes.  Add a little butter and salt and pepper and it's delicious.  My kids love them so much I cook a lot of broccoli.

I like making homemade pizza and decided to incorporate some more greens into mine this week.  I spread my crust with a sauce of tomato sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, dried basil and oregano, and spinach pureed together.  Pepperoni, canadian bacon, pineapple, and sliced tomatoes topped off the pizza.  I loved it! But the rest of my family picked off the tomatoes :(  Oh well!  They couldn't pick off the spinach.

Bumper Bowling

Things have been moving a little more slowly than we thought they would as far as Ben's job is concerned.  We don't mind too much though.  Especially since it's meant having more time with Ben on the week days.  Last week we took to the lanes midday.

We had a couple pinched fingers between the balls.  One day they'll learn to listen, right?

 

Julia was so sad that I beat her (only just barely...phew!).




We had them pop out the bumpers for the kids, but I think Ben and I used them just as much!  This place was so nice.  It was quiet, right in the middle of the day, so there were just leagues bowling. No smoking or drinking is allowed in the building or near the doorway.  Hopefully we get a chance to go back soon!

ID to WA

I haven't yet figured out how to make the blog look the way I want it to, but I thought I'd go ahead and post a little bit about our new adventure anyway.  About 6 weeks ago, Ben got a call from one of his Aflac friends in Washington who used to work in Idaho wondering if Ben would be interested in joining the team here.  While a move was not something we were planning on for a couple more years, Seattle had always been a place we said we would like to live and the opportunities for furthering Ben's career were really tempting.  We spent a lot of time praying, went to the temple, and made the long drive up here on a weekend with Stuart to check things out.  The conclusion we came to was that it was probably going to be a rough start and a major change for our family, but we felt it was the right thing to do.  Four weeks after that initial phone call, we drove our gianormous U-Haul up in front of a tiny 3 bedroom condo.

Two weeks later it's starting to feel more like home.  Our condo has enough bedroom space, but the actually living space is so much smaller than what we'd gotten used to in Pocatello.  The only space for the kids to play with their toys is in the living room.  I don't know why this seems weird to me because growing up we always had our toys scattered over the living room floor, but it kind of drives me crazy. I think it's because there's no outdoor play space so unless we go somewhere in the car, we're confined to the living room all day.  Thankfully we plan to only be here for 5-6 months.  The condo is being short sold (that sounds funny) so we are able to rent it month to month for a REALLY good price.  Then in early spring we'll find a nice house to rent.

When we got here, everyone told us we were just catching the last couple days of summer and it was going to rain for the next nine months.  A bit of Idaho summer must have followed up here though because it's been nice up until this last weekend.  We made good use of the warm weather by hitting several cool parks around the area.

We decided to get the touristy stuff done the first day and go down to the wharf  and Pike's Place Market.  Julia loved the fish and chips she shared with daddy, but Andrew and I stuck with our chicken and hamburger.  Julia was really sad that we didn't ride the ferris wheel, but it was just too expensive to stomach.

It's still weird that there are 3 of them! This park is pretty close to us.  We still have to drive.  It's right by a wetland.  You can walk all around the bog and down to a little pond on a board walk.  The kids and I saw a snake and fuzzy caterpillar and a ton of dragon flies. 

We had planned to go to this little beach on Lake Washington, but it was a little drizzly in the morning so we thought we'd just let the kids play in the sand.  Well, the sun came out and Julia and Andrew ended up getting soaked wading in the water.  

This is where our new ward's play group was supposed to be.  We got there an hour and a half late because of Stu's nap and nobody from our ward was there.  We met some nice families from another ward who were also having playgroup there.  

So all in all we are doing well.  I had a hard time the first week really missing family and my friends in our Chubbuck ward.  Our new ward has really welcomed us in.  What a blessing to belong to a church with consistent doctrine and teaching no matter where you go in the world.  It's like instant family.  

And to one he gave one talent...

Ok. Probably not the actual scriptural quote, but I'm too lazy at the moment to look it up. I was making dinner tonight and thinking while the kids played in their room about the pre-pregnant me and all the things I did. I wouldn't say I'm the one who got ten talents, but maybe five or more likely three. I danced moderately well in college and I sing. I did some very mediocre acting in high school. I was good at math until I got to college and realized what math actual is...found out you need a thinking brain not just a memorizing brain. But I am good at memorizing when I want to.

These were my talents that I tried to develop and show to the world. I don't do hardly any of these things now. So have I hid my talents under a bushel? Not intentionally, but motherhood, time and money have seemed to bury them for me.

A story by Julia

I was finishing washing dishes when Julia asked if I wanted to hear her story. Of course I said yes and this is what she told me:

"Once upon a time there was a little girl named momma who lived in the woods with her daddy. And my pink minky (blanket) and me and my hogies (some shape toys she's playing with) come. And my hogies are really scared. My hogies are scared of wolf-es. They scared of Big Bad Wolves. And we scare a Big Bad Wolf. And mine hogies are scared of foxes!"

The End

update

Hi blog. How have you been the past six months? I've been busy and lazy. I'm now working at the library. We closed Sub Zero and Ben is selling AFLAC now. The kids are doing great and growing so fast. Aren't they cute!

Pictures!

These pictures didn't end up in the order I wanted them to, but oh well! Here they are!

He rolled up on his side like this less than a week old!

Julia would lay beside him and say, "nigh', nigh'!"

He still makes that face. So cute! Like life is just miserable!
Ben was such a great coach! Andrew looks a lot like him, especially when their sleeping. One of their favorite things is taking naps together!

Julia helped pick his name. The afternoon after Andrew was born, Ben picked up Julia's from Lori's house where she'd been staying, spent some time alone with her, and then brought her to the hospital to meet Andrew. While they were driving about, ben asked her if we should name her baby brother Stuart or Andrew. She said, "Annoo!" She loves him very much!
Wearing the yucky, faded hospital nursing gown, but I love this picture. We look like a real family!

The New Addition

So I'm finally getting to blog about my 18 day old beautiful baby boy!! Andrew Benjamin Fuhriman was born on June 3, 2010. He was 7 lbs 13 oz, 20 1/2 inches long. He is healthy and happy. Julia loves him very much and is adjusting pretty well to not having mommy's attention all the time. The labor went really well (I may not have said so at the time!) My first contraction was Wednesday night at about 7, we went to the hospital at 6:30 the next morning and I was dilated to a 6 1/2. Then he was born at 9:04 Thursday morning. Within a few months after having Julia I had pretty much decided that I didn't want to have an epidural with the next baby. So that's what I did this time. It was about 10 times harder and more painful than I'd expected, and I didn't feel wonderful afterward, but after having a couple weeks to forget the pain, I think I'll probably do it the same way next time!

Now Andrew weighs 9 lbs 13 oz. He eats and poops a lot! It was s0 hard to imagine what life would be like before he was born and now it's hard to imagine what life without him! He just fits in so perfectly! Im not getting very much sleep but I'm surviving and it's getting better every day! I'm so grateful to be blessed with the opportunity to be a mommy! I love my kids so much! I'll post pictures when I'm not so tired.

Funny Girl

Julia's just getting into that copying phase. The other day we got home and I got out to open our garage (the automatic opener is broken) and there was a cat in our garden acting like it was going to go to the bathroom. So I started yelling at it to get out of our garden. When I went to get Julia out of the car, she furrowed her brow and shook her finger saying, "Meow, Meow!" So I said, "That's right, tell that kitty not to poop in our garden!" She said, "Meow! No poopoo!" Later that night she was sitting in the middle of the living room with her brow furrowed, shaking her finger and saying, "Meow! No poopoo!" By the time I got my camera she had stopped of course and couldn't be coaxed into saying it any more. Here's my best attempt. Every once in a while I can get her to say it again.

New Blog

I'm starting a new blog. It's going to have anecdotes and recipes and menus and other fun stuff. Check it out! soggycerealmom.blogspot.com

Family Pictures

Or at least the attempt at family pictures. I'm so bad at taking pictures and like with Julia, I really didn't get any pregnancy shots until right at the very end. I look tons better with this baby than I did with Julia though! Not nearly as much face fat!

We were using the timer and just couldn't get Julia to be happy long enough! Oh, well, she's still cute!
For Mother's day, Ben is giving me real family pictures after the baby is born! We've only taken Julia to a studio once for her one year pictures and we've never had professional family photos taken (except for our wedding). I'm so excited to coordinate our outfits and have some nice pictures to put on our walls!

So I am 39 weeks today, and while I feel good and would be fine waiting a week or two more, I'm really ready to be done! Ben heard that a pedicure can help send you in to labor, so I called Tyson's aunt who does foot zoning (like an intensive reflexology sort of thing) and I'm going to see her this afternoon. I guess ideally I should have been having treatment all through my pregnancy, but she said that even if this doesn't send me into labor, it will help a lot when the time comes. I'm trying not to get my hopes up about going into labor in the next couple days, but I've been cleaning and shopping and baby prepping last night and today just in case!

Snow in May!

So yes, we woke up to snow on the ground this morning!!! And it's still only 33 degrees outside! I am so tired of this cold weather! one might think that since I'm 36 1/2 weeks pregnant I'd be glad that it's not hot outside, but the only maternity bottoms I have that fit decently are shorts! So I'm cold all the time!

This has been a really good pregnancy. I haven't gained as much weight as I did with Julia and I've been going to water aerobics as often as I can so I feel stronger and have less hip pain. I can't believe my little baby boy will be here in less than 4 weeks (hopefully I'm not jinxing myself) I haven't even packed my hospital bag yet!! There is so much to do! It's so nice to have my husband home after a couple of weeks of being out of town a lot. It's not like I get to see him that much when he is here, but I sleep better at night and those few minutes in the mornings and evenings make a world of difference. I'm much more motivated to keep my house clean and get things done. I also eat better because I want to cook good meals for him instead of just finding something to fill Julia's and my bellies.

Julia said her first name this week: Bac (Beck). She loves her cousin Beckham. They play really well together usually (yesterday was an exception). After he came over yesterday she kept walking around saying "Bac, Bac, Baky!" and calling and talking to him on her toy phones! It is so cute! We also babysat Bruce and Kiri's little baby boy Crosby here at our house. I was interested to see how Julia would interact with a baby here and how she would do having her mommy's attention split between her and a baby. She was very loving and gentle with him. She had some trouble sharing the toys I'd picked out for him to play with, but didn't show any animosity or jealousy toward him. We'll see how things go with a baby around permanently!

Julia and I decided on Monday that since Daddy was out of town, it would be a good time to take a trip to Logan to visit Brian and Traci and Dallin and Audrey and see Traci's beautiful twin filled belly! I was planning on going alone, but that morning, Jenae offered to go with me. It was a really great thing she did! It was wonderful to have time to talk with her on the drive, and really wonderful to have someone else to drive on the way back. I got way more wiped out by the trip than I'd expected. We went to a cool park, I hit a car in the parking lot backing out, we checked out the new Sub Zero, got Aggie Ice Cream, played Phase 10, and ate really yummy pizza! Julia and the kids had a fun time playing until exhaustion started setting in! Thanks for the wonderful, fun filled day Brian and Traci! Can't wait to see you and be able to spend some time with Jeff and Heather too at Kirk's reception!

Fun at the Park

So I thought I'd have a really hard time getting Julia to go down the slides, but nope!

a TV Day

I stayed up late last night reading my book and gave myself a head ache. Also I think I'm getting a cold so today we are watching more TV than usual. Julia loves Max and Ruby, Olivia, and The Backyardigans and will sit mesmerized for at least half an hour watching one of those. She waves "night, night" to Olivia and "Goodbye" to the Backyardigans, really cute! It's nice to have some quiet, still time but I feel kind of bad.

To my Beautiful, Loving Grandma Beth

My grandma Beth passed away last month on January 13. She was 75 years old, had been married for 56 years, has 7 children, 37 grandchildren, and 22 great-grandchildren. She is a wonderful example of goodness and love. I feel so lucky to have had her in my life as I grew up. She was always very interested in what I was doing and supported me all that she could. Whenever you went on a trip with Grandma and Grandpa Christensen, Grandma would make a batch of her special chocolate no-bake cookies for the ride. I found that recipe and made those cookies the other day. It's amazing how such simple things bring such good feelings and memories. Thank you, Grandma. I love you.

Christmas and everything else!

So a lot has happened I guess you could say since my last post. I had an interesting trip to the emergency room in October. My jaw locked open while I was at work. I ran over to Ben pointing and showing him that I couldn't close my mouth. We rushed to the emergency room where we waited around for and hour and a half before we got it fixed. They had to knock me out (I found out afterward that they used the drug that killed Michael Jackson), wiggle my jaw around and then pop it back into place. It was quite a painful and expensive ordeal that I'm trying hard to not have to repeat. I don't open my jaw all the way any more and will probably have surgery in the future.

Needless to say, that was my last night working, but not for that reason alone. That fun filled week was also when my morning sickness hit!!! Yay! I'm pregnant again! 24 weeks and doing really well especially since my morning sickness is all but gone (if you can say that it ever really goes away until the baby comes, I still have to eat every three hours religiously!). We found out the gender this time. Mostly because we are hopefully moving to Texas this spring. It was really fun to not find out with Julia and if it weren't for the uncertainty of our plans I think we would have waited again. I had a feeling from the beginning that it was a boy and IT IS A BOY!!! No definite name ideas yet.

Julia has changed so much in the last couple months! She took her first independent steps the day before her first birthday, November 24, but didn't start really walking until December 4 which was the same day Bruce and Kiri's baby Crosby Hyde was born! She is now running everywhere all the time! She's very smart too (well probably average baby smart, but it still amazes me!) She can say mommy and daddy. She says no, uh oh, doggy, shoes, ball, snow and I'm sure some other stuff that I just don't recognize as words yet. She can also tell you what a bee, a doggy, a cow, horse, rooster, lion, monkey, bird and a kitty cat say. Bee is my favorite because she makes like a long gurgling J sound! Really cute! Her last day with a binky was November 30. I took her to the doctor for her one year appointment and was asking the doctor about giving her a bottle before bed (that's what we do before every nap and bed, she has a bottle, then I lie her down and she falls asleep on her own). Anyway, he said that he reccomends getting rid of bottles and binkies by 14 months so we were doing ok. I wasn't really thinking and had it in my mind that we had like 6 months. Then I got home and realized that was only 2 months away. So that night I decided to just try and lay here down with out here binky (we still had a bottle) and she went right to sleep! The next couple days were a little rougher than usual, but nothing absolutely terrible, and now we are binky free!! Still hooked on the bottle though, not to fall asleep with, just to relax with right before bed.

So here are some pictures of the last several months! Enjoy!

Julia loves hats! And she loves to smile! All you have to do is say, "Julia, are you happy?" and she gives you this cheesy grin.
This is Julia's favorite spot to sit. She can climb up by herself but needs help to get down. She also loves to read grownup books to herself.

I made that stocking!

and those pajamas!

Julia with Aunt Kimi at her first birthday party!

My pink marshmallow!

This was in Coeur d'Alene at our friends wedding. congrats Bryce and Shawna!

Julia was Tigger for Halloween