The Latest

Every time I pull up a window to get on the internet I see my home page, which is our family blog and I start to feel super guilty that I haven't updated in a while. I know I'm not the greatest blogger, nor the most interesting to read, but I do think it's nice to keep some sort of record of what our family is up to.

The last 2 months have been pretty busy for us. For one, we've been spending more time outside since it's been warm. Playing at the park with friends is a pretty high priority for the girls. But it's good because they get to play with their friends and are pretty tired at the end of the day (that always makes bed time go a little faster when they practically crawl into bed themselves).

In early May, we celebrated Mother's Day and my birthday at my parent's house with a nice family dinner. My mom made this gorgeous and delicious lemon blueberry cake to celebrate.

On the way over to my parents that same day, we stopped at the Timpanogos Temple to let the girls walk around and we were able to snap some great pics!








A couple weeks later we decided to drive up to the Bountiful temple to show the girls where Ben and I got married. We were sad the gates were closed so we couldn't walk the grounds, well Ben and I couldn't walk the grounds. The girls managed to squeeze through the bars and walked around a bit. It was overcast so I got some amazing pictures! Hopefully I can get one printed up for my living room wall sometime.
















As far as other updates go, I was recently called into the Relief Society Presidency, so between meetings, activities and preparing talks and lessons (all which I've had to do the past 3 weeks) I don't have much time to get into trouble :) I do keep up on my culinary adventures though, I think it's what keeps me sane. I also bought each of the girls a new dress pattern and some fabric. Shelby has been asking me to sew with her for weeks. So I finally got the push when my friend told me patterns were on sale for 99 cents. I've started Shelby's dress and cut out Erin's so far. Hopefully they will be done in the next 2 weeks or so. I've finally gotten back to running-I had just started training for a half marathon before I got pregnant with Paige, but had to stop for obvious reasons. My next big goal is to do the American Fork Canyon half marathon next summer but I'm sure I'll do a 5k and/or 10k in there in the mean time, most likely after Paige turns 1 in November.

Speaking of running, Ben took up running last fall and started training for the Wasatch Back Ragnar relay race, which took place last weekend. As any race is, it was thrilling for him but he also said it was the most physical thing he's ever done. He had some of his best personal times and did really well. We are very proud of him!





Ben has also had fun taking the girls on daddy-daughter dates to the dollar movies and on short hiking trips. Their most recent one was to Battle Creek Falls in Pleasant Grove. The girls loved it!


All three girls are growing and changing and we just love them to pieces! Paige is getting pretty good at sitting up and is trying to like solid foods, though we can't get her to eat them much. She is very much a momma's girl (momma was her first word, although she just started saying dada this week). Shelby lost her first tooth and was so excited about it. She got a new hello kitty toothbrush under her pillow the night she lost it. Erin runs around all day with boundless energy, sometimes destroying everything she comes in contact with and other times singing at the top of her lungs to her heart's content (and to ours!).

Erin's "Talk About"

So, whenever Ben has the girls or when he puts them to bed, he'll often ask them what they want to talk about. So we started calling our little conversations with the girls a "talk about." A lot of the time, they'll ask to talk about cats and dogs, other times it's just random things to give us anything to talk about with them. Recently Ben has been taking the girls one at a time on Daddy dates, which they totally love, but I hadn't had the chance to do it though and I really wanted to. I know I spend most of my waking hours with the girls, but one-on-one time is really important. It shows them that they are special and important to us and it gives us, as parents, a chance to talk about a specific topic, random topic or just pick their brain and see what's going on up there. That's what I got to do with Erin on Saturday. We just went to the dollar store to look around and buy a couple of things, but being able to visit the whole time, just she and I together,was so fun. Here's what I found out about Miss Erin.

What is your favorite show: Cars 2 (this was funny to me because she has only seen it once, like almost 2 years ago when it came out!)

What are your favorite shoes: My fast running shoes. (If you read my last post, you'll see why.)

What is your favorite dinner: Peas and rice. (Good girl-loves her veggies!)

What is your favorite dessert: Crepes (This is a new favorite in our family.)

What is your favorite color: Pink (Needs no explanation. Have you seen their room?)

What makes you happy: Toys, baby, blanket

Who is your best friend: Shelby (I was happy to hear that, since Shelby can be NOT a best friend at times. Sisters DO make the best friends though.)

What is your favorite toy: Mousie toy (I don't even know which one that is!)

Who are your favorite people: Sophie (Sorensen), Sophie's mom, Noah, Max, Melody, Emma, Bekah (Notice mom and dad are NOT on the list!)

Who is your favorite cousin: Kate, because she's nice (I probably shouldn't have asked that, it's like asking do you like mom or dad better!)

Outdoor Fun

Last summer we got Shelby a new (to her) bike. She had fun for a little while but the training wheels weren't the greatest and she kept falling off. So, once it started getting warmer this year, I got Shelby some new training wheels that actually fit the bike. My ulterior motive here was to get Shelby comfortable enough on her bike that I could resume walking with the other two in the jogging stroller. So far the training wheels have been a success. We've had a lot of fun riding bikes this spring.

Now, for Erin. I think she's going to be my little sports superstar! She's very active and loves to just get up and GO! She'll take her scooter outside when we go to ride bikes and ride a few times around the playground. Then she'll just ditch her bike and just run laps. It's hilarious to watch and pretty cool. She just keeps going....and going....and going....and going! She has great stamina. Love that girl!

Easter

First of all, we have a new family picture. Do you like it? Of course Shelby is the one holding Paige. She sure does love her sister.

And here's another one with us all dressed up.

Notice where there should be a "mom" and "dad," it says Michele and Ben. Shelby likes learning how to spell all of our names. And that thing down there at the bottom, well that's a dragon.

And now on to Easter stuff. This year I tried to do a few activities with the girls that talked about Jesus Christ, his different names and what they meant. We had a little Easter topiary tree on our table that we hung little tags with the different names of Christ and tried to review and remember them each time we sat at the table. I got the idea here. Although I didn't do all of the activities listed I think it's something we can come back to in the future and do. I really liked the ideas.

This was also the the first year we actually colored eggs for Easter. We all had a blast. The girls especially loved the clear crayon they could write on the egg before they colored it. We called it our secret message and kept singing the very important message song from Backyardagains as we did it. I also had so much fun with the first dozen that we colored, I cooked the rest of the eggs in our fridge to dye them as well. Thankfully the girls liked to eat boiled eggs so that took care of some of the eggs and the rest we ate as egg salad sandwiches with Ben's homemade mayonnaise!

A Hobbit Party

Early this month my mom had knee surgery so I took the girls and spent about 4 days at my parent's house to help her out as well as plan and throw my sister's 16th birthday. She decided on a hobbit theme. My other sister Juli came down the day of the party to lend an extra hand in getting everything together on time. I think it turned out spectacular! Of course all of Laura's friends obliged when she asked them to dress the part...as well as wear the foot patch! What fun kids and what a fun party.

While we were there, Laura got asked out on here first date--PROM!!! I can't believe how fast she's growing up.

Rounding off March

The last part of March Ben was able to put some shelves in for me!! One was in the pantry and one was in the laundry room. Between the existing top shelf and the ceiling was a ridiculously tall space and much of it unused so the shelf wouldn't be overloaded. Since we have little storage as it is in this place, I put Ben to the task. I must say after months of trying to get it done and thinking it never would, Ben finally got it done quickly and did a great job! I'm so happy to have a more organized pantry and laundry thanks to that extra space. (Who knew those days Ben spent doing carpentry for the theater kids would ever pay off?)

Here's the girls helping dad in the pantry...and playing (hopefully nicely) with his tools.

Here's some other random stuff from March...

Paige has discovered her pointer finger and likes to suck on it when she's tired and ready to go to sleep. I think it's pretty cute, I've never seen a kid suck that finger before.

And here's Erin and her Strawberry Shortcake puzzle.

March Madness

March has been pretty eventful. We've started to emerge from the black hole of winter (although it really wasn't that bad) and the weather's even been nice enough to play at the park a bit. We started the month off with a last minute trip to Ogden to see Ben's grandpa Chris (Christopherson). He's starting to lose his memory so we decided to visit while he knew who we were, for the most part. It was a really nice visit. One of my favorite parts of the visit was Shelby sitting on the rocking chair most of the time entertaining Grandpa with her phone. They both had a blast. I was so amazed that Shelby wasn't one bit shy.




My other favorite part of the visit was stopping by Rita's Bakery. It's a little Mexican bakery at the bottom of 30th street, the street we used to live on (at the top end) when we were first married and still attending Weber. Anyway, we used to stop by occasionally to get sweet empanadas and fresh tortillas (still warm in the picnic cooler!). Since we don't make it up to Ogden that often, we thought we would do the same. The sweets were yummy but the tortillas were wonderful!!! I used half of them to make some enchiladas (yes, they're on the blog) and froze the other half to use later, probably for more enchiladas.

The past little while Ben and I have been really trying to have more family time, especially on the weekends. So we've instated Family Fun Fridays. Most of them have been lower key, but I did put one together that took a little more planning and effort in executing. We did an indoor camping theme. I started the evening off having the girls help Ben put up the kid tent, then go on a scavenger hunt gathering things they would take on a camping trip. We ended at the tent where we turned off the lights and turned on our glow sticks, sang camp songs, told (age-appropriate) ghost stories, recited "Going on a Bear Hunt" and ate s'mores trail mix. The girls had lots of fun and I really enjoyed putting it together. Of course nothing ever turns out how you plan; Ben fell asleep early and all the activities didn't last as long as I figured they would, but it was still enjoyed by all and hopefully a tradition we can keep doing Friday nights.



This month is has also been warm enough to get outside a bit and head to the park. Mostly we just go to the playground pretty much right outside our door, but sometimes we like to go to the big park too, weather and Paigey permitting. One day I wanted to take the girls out on a walk, Paigey and Erin in the stroller and Shelby on her scooter. I wasn't expecting a long walk, I just wanted to see if it was even going to be possible this summer trying to walk every morning like I usually do, but this time with three kids. Well, it failed miserably!!! We didn't get but 10 steps out of the door and Shelby was already crying and complaining that she was tired. NO WAY!!! I made her scooter to the corner of the intersection of our development (mere minutes mind you and she cried the whole way) and then Erin happily traded with her. We went around the other side of the development, heading to the big park. Erin was so proud of herself for not crying like her sister and she told me that she was so strong for riding the scooter!!! I don't know how I'm going to get out and exercise with three kids now. Maybe I'll just have to get up super early and run on the treadmill although I'd much rather be outside enjoying nature and letting my kids run and play. Well, at least we can still go to the park and Shelby won't complain about walking out the back porch or across the parking lot to either of them.



*Oops, I almost forgot a few celebrations this month! March 11th, 12th, and 13th we celebrate Emily's (niece) birthday, my mom's birthday and mine and Ben's anniversary. We usually get together for a big family dinner for birthdays so we got to celebrate my mom's and Emily's together. It was lots of fun and we ate delicious Hawaiian haystacks. I'm so lucky I get to make dessert for a lot of our family gatherings and I made a snickerdoodle layer cake. It was so delicious, nothing like I have ever tasted!!! Ben and I didn't end up doing anything for our anniversary (8 years), although we did get a sushi mat and plan on having a sushi night at our house soon and try our hand at it.

February 2012

Wow, lots of stuff going on in February. Life started kicking in now that Paige was a little older and I could manage to get out of my pajamas more than twice a week! One of the great highlights this month was Paige's blessing. It was a wonderful day surrounded by family and, of course, good food. Ben really took some time to prepare spiritually for this special day and did an awesome job. After church we brought all our family back to the clubhouse here and had a brunch. We did a granola and yogurt parfait bar, fresh fruit, quick breads, some egg dishes and hot chocolate and juice. We loved having everyone there to share the day with us.


Another highlight of the month was going to grandma's house with our Poulsen cousins to make and decorate Valentine cookies and decorations. Grandma always takes such good care of all her grandkids, we love her so much and always have fun at her house. The cousins also had a blast playing in all of Laura's old dress-ups.

Ben had lots of little surprises for me this Valentine's. He usually can't keep surprises because he can't stand when I have a surprise for him and I don't tell him. However, this year, he did 5 days of valentines. I didn't take any pictures, but each day, the five days before the actual day, he brought treats with notes attached (and some of these are some of my favorite treats too!!); Hot Tamales (you are one "Hot Tamale"), a 6 pack of Crush Soda (I have a "Crush" on you), Sweedish Fish (You are o"fish"ally my valentine), Junior Mints (we were "mint" to be together) and donut holes (oops, can't remember what that one said).

We were going to celebrate Valentine's Day together with just a night in but my mom offered to come and watch the girls while we went out to dinner. We ate at a local barbecue place then headed to IKEA to do some window shopping mostly.

Since we had already planned on eating in before my mom called, I had already bought the stuff for our romantic dinner, so we just saved it for that weekend. We made lobster risotto with salad and had yummy chocolate crepes with nutella and coconut whipped cream cheese filling for dessert. It was all wonderful!



Another fun thing I got to do was teach a cooking class to the Young Women from our ward. The YW leader asked me if I could teach the girls how to prepare a meal from start to finish. I decided to do an Italian theme. So I had all the girls and their leaders over to our house and we ended up making Chicken Parmesan with an Italian green salad and Banana Dulce de leche trifle for dessert. It was all so good and I had a fun time teaching the girls. It has been so long since I have been in Young Women's and around girls that age. What fun.

January 2012

Looking back at all our photos from January, I think we must have taken it pretty easy, since I don't have much to show for it. I think we were in some kind of coma, to tell you the truth, trying to recover from all the holiday festivities, the girls' birthdays and Paige's feeding difficulties.

Shelby got cake batter pancakes with sprinkles for her birthday. They have become a fun tradition in our family (as if we needed another reason to eat pancakes at our house).



Miss Paigey started smiling up a storm. The older girls just eat her up, they love her to death.




We didn't go out much, and since we were still smack dab in the middle of winter, the girls couldn't go out to play. So, they played princesses pretty much every day, but they totally loved it!


We also reintroduced the GREEN SMOOTHIE to our diet in an effort to eat more fruits and veggies. The year up until I got pregnant with Paige, we were eating so well, lots of green smoothies and salads and well-balanced meals. However,when I was pregnant and so sick, I pretty much dumped any effort to eat properly; for myself or the rest of the family (sorry guys!). I think I lived off of cheese and crackers for a while and didn't make a meal with a veggie for I don't know how long. The girls were proud to show off their green 'staches. Erin especially loves drinking the smoothies.



Oh, and I also started blogging again more regularly on my food blog and decided I love Thai food. We ate this Thai Chicken Pizza a few times-the sauce is absolutely to DIE for!


I also made these Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies more times than I'd like to admit, but they're my new favorite.