Two are more than one!

Well I keep trying to stay up on things. I guess that I just need to be better at scheduling and planning. I seem to have a built in adversion to planning my days out meticulously, even though I am fairly sure that it would help. I bet that has nothing to do with the hours of family planning meetings that have I attended. It just seems like it would be so much work and I have no sense of time.
Danarra is nearly 3 months old and I am learning how much more work it is to run after a two year old when carrying a 3 month old. A stroller is a lifesaver- you can run faster when pushing a stroller than when trying to haul a baby filled carseat. I guess the up side is that I'm expending more energy and have less time to eat! So I hoping to be getting very slender soon! Yeah right! Well, I can dream!

I am back!

Well, I haven't been doing all that well with this keeping up with this Blog thing! School is starting again this week and it will be a busy week! My wonderful sister will be watching the munchkins while go cavorting back to school and try my hand at Fine Dining Restaurant Serving in my Hospitality class. I look forward to seeing ALL of you come in and have lunch with ME!!!

I let my wonderful brother in law talk me into working at a precinct for this election season! Yes, I am going to be a Precinct Chairman (as in I am running the joint!) I have always enjoyed helping at the elections when I can and he took away all my arguments when he said that his wife could watch Felicity and I could just bring Danarra with me. He even sweetened the deal by recruiting two of my brothers to work for me! How could I say no? So, I will be gone working all day tomorrow- see you at the polls!!!

Ben is back in town for a couple of days, his work took him up to Fairbanks last week and he is going to be returning there on Wednesday to try to conclude the business needed up there. Thankfully he is planing on being back in town for my big Ward party that I am coordinating. The Huffman Ward Second Annual Duct Tape Boat Regatta and Ward BBQ
Sounds like fun, huh? It would be a lot more fun for ME if I had some help getting it organized! But alas all others are busy, so that is how the dice rolls and I will do my best!

Thanks to Ben!

Well, as you can see Ben has helped me out with the technical details of the blog and has posted some wonderful pictures of our darling little ones! Danarra is working hard to grow big and strong and is eating constantly! Felicity is overjoyed to hold her "baby sister" even when she shouldn't be! We had some struggles today with trying to convince Felicity that she was NOT allowed to PULL Danarra into her lap when she wanted to hold her.

A few pictures, as promised

It's a GIRL!!!!!!

We are pleased to announce the arrival of our second Daughter, Danarra Clair Marvin. She joined our family at 5:40pm July 9, 2008. Danarra was 7 lb 9 oz and 20 inches long. She has a beautiful head of dark hair and is absolutely beautiful!

Felicity is thrilled to be a big sister and is often found commanding Danarra that she wake up! When Danarra does wake up or end a feeding, Felicity dances and shouts to everyone that "Danarra Wake, Danarra wake!!!!!"

Daddy is helping Mommy to recover by making sure she doesn't move much. Which is driving Mommy crazy- there are only so many times you can read the same book and it is awful just sitting and thinking of all that I could be doing!!!!
Relief is on it's way though! Ben has agreed to go to the library for me and get me some books to read!!! Poor Ben is having to work quite a bit too even though they had agreed to give him leave. They are in the middle of a big project and apparently he is indispensable. He may even be going up to Fairbanks and down to Juneau in the next couple of months. Both places need the same work done as he just finished in Kenai!

We'll get some pictures on soon!

My latest culinary creation was inspired by tring to use what was in the fridge.
We had a bunch of veggie tray vegetables leftover and weren't munching on them.

Crunchy Vegetable Salad

Broccoli, Cauliflower, Carrots, Snap peas
Dried Cranberries
Lime juice
Mayonnaise
Sugar
Dill weed
Salt and Pepper
Feta Cheese
Diced ham

Cut veggies up into small bite sized pieces, carrots into thin slices, toss in a handful or two of cranberries (I like quite a bit, makes it sweeter and chewy!) Mix 5-6 squirts lime juice with a couple of spoonfuls of mayo, a teaspoon or two of sugar, a dash of dill, and a big sprinkle of salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning. Pour over veggies and adjust as needed. I had to add a couple more spoonfuls of mayo to get it the right consistency. Covering the veggies lightly but fully. Toss in some Feta and ham to make it even better!!!
Ben and Jeremiah both liked this and it is quite filling and Very healthy!!!

SURPRISE!!!!!!

Well, I guess all of our children are determined to make a grand entrance all their own! Felicity, of course, joined our family when we found out that she was full breech and had to have a C-Section within the next couple of days! This little one has decided to put up a stink and the doctor has decided to help it into the world a couple of days earlier than the scheduled C Section! We will be going in at 3pm and having it about 5- 5:30 ish. It does look to be a bit bigger than Felicity was and should have a large head according to in utero measurements. No, we still have no idea about gender, but we'll let you know when we do. I figured that today I could relax and go get some books from the library to ease the boredom of feeding a newborn around the clock, but look at this! I got one hour of sleep last night, am itching like you wouldn't believe AND I get to STARVE all day until they cut me open!
Erynne came over to help me pack up. Mom gets to do her grandma duty and spoil Felicity while we are in the hospital for 3-4 days!
Got to go or be late to the hospital!

Taco Mountain

1 lb Stew beef
Taco seasoning
3 cup cooked Rice
1 cup Corn
1 cup Salsa
Cheddar jack cheese
Corn chips
Iceburg lettuce
Tomatoes

Heat olive oil and brown beef, toss in 1/3 cup taco seasoning. Add corn, rice, and salsa. Serve with lettuce, tomatoes, chips, cheese, and salsa.
Would be even better with a can of black beans and some sour cream in it too!

Correspondence

Ok, I am not a very good correspondent at all! I can't even seem to write en mass.
We have been having fun and staying busy. In June Ben had to work down in Kenai for a couple of weeks, Felicity and I were able to join him for the first week and play in Soldotna and Kenai. Since getting back I have begun the count down to Baby time. Thanks to Mom, Erynne, Ben, and his Bro, Jason our house is finally looking like there is a baby coming soon. In fact, we will be having baby Marvin on Friday, July 11, 2008. I am so very ready to have this kiddo out! It will also be nice to know if it is a girl or a boy finally! I don't think I like the anticipation of not knowing- too bad my children never consult me about if I want to know or not!
One of the other things I have been working on is making sure that there is easy to create food on hand for Ben to cook. As we were discussing this and I was trying to figure out what I usually cook, I came to the realization that I don't follow recipes when cooking. I follow ideas from recipes. Yes, I know this is not a great revelation to anyone who has eaten at my house. But it did give me some thing to think about and Ben suggested that I should blog my dinners online. I have decided to try it and see what comes of it. Especially since some of our favorite dishes are lost to time because I didn't write down what in the world I put in them!

Here is my first attempt:

Dinner tonight was Chicken Broccoli Alfredo
What I put in it:
1 Chicken breast, seasoned with garlic and paprika, slice and sautéed
2 cup Broccoli, tossed in with pasta for the last 3 minutes of cooking
1 packet powdered Alfredo pasta sauce mix (knorr brand I think)
8 oz small pasta

Make alfredo sauce as directed, I added a dash of cayenne pepper and about a tablespoon of dried parsley.
Boil pasta as directed, add broccoli for the last three minutes.
Once the sauce is done toss pasta, broccoli, and chicken in sauce and serve with Parmesan cheese.

This was done in about 30 minutes becauce the chicken had to cook. You could use canned or pre-cooked chicken and it would be finished in the 10 minutes it takes to boil the pasta. It serves three adults.

Yesterday's dinner was pretty good too.
BBQ Ribs
1 rack spare ribs
Montreal steak seasoning
BBQ sauce

Slice ribs into 2-3 rib sections. Sprinkle with Montreal steak seasoning and put in crock pot (slow cooker). Cook for 5 hours on high.

Remove from crock pot. (strain fat and use broth for soup) Place ribs on cooking sheet (line with foil to help with mess clean up) brush with BBQ sauce and place in oven set to low broil. Broil for 15 minutes or until sauce has browned and caramelized. Turn over and brush with more sauce, broil 15 more minutes.
We served ours with potato salad and veggie sticks with ranch dip.

Growth Estimates

So Johanna today got very excited about a growth estimate for children she found online somewhere. She quickly typed in her height, and my height, and then Felicity's height and weight. The results? At age 18, Felicity can expect to be a paltry 5 foot 3. Here I was hoping for giant children to look up to, and put me in my place. Instead I get midgets. Sheesh!

Of course only time will tell, and we'll love her just the same. Honest.

Welcome to ALL!

Hello to all those who are just now finding my Blog. I wanted to make sure that I was going to do it before sending the link out to everyone, letting them anticipate a great new source of news and then forgetting about writing and updating it. Please let me know how easy it is to leave a comment. It looks like there are a few options that I can tweak if anyone can't have their say on here! I just found out that some of the Family community has not heard that I am expecting a new Child! Ben, Felicity and I will be welcoming a New Baby in mid July, July 17 is the due date. As of yet we do not know if it will be a girl or boy. When we asked at the Ultrasound, the Technician told us "there are no visible boy parts" not exactly the most helpful or friendly tech- but I guess she figured that wasn't her job! Oh well, as we decided before Felicity let us know what she was, we will keep it whether or not it is a girl or a boy, so it doesn't matter all that much!

A funny story!

So I finally sent out a notice to family and friends that this place exists. I hope that you are all enjoying it, and leaving your comments for all to read. A friend of ours sent me a little story about Felicity and his daughter's adventures at church. We are currently meeting at a High School while our building is repaired from a roof fire which happened last spring. The Auditeria is the theater/ cafeteria where we meet for our main meetings. The seats in that room are the kind of bleachers that can fold up into themselves and form a single wall. They continue all the way up to a second story and are always out while we are there. The room was mostly empty except for our 10-15 choir members. Felicity usually plays between Ben(Bass section) and I (soprano) talking to people in between and having fun.
Here is the Story!
Last week at choir practice after church, Felicity and my 2 year old stole away to the very top of the stairs in the Auditeria. I went up to get them and there they both were sitting in the peanut gallery watching what was going on. I asked her what they were doing and Felicity looked me square in the eye and said..."I pooped". She was just looking for some privacy.

Cooking Up Fun

Felicity Loves to "halp kook"(help cook). She is enjoys bringing a dining room chair over and climbing up so that she can see what is happening on the counter and asking Mommy if she can help cook. Stirring is very fun and so is washing dishes, both projects get quite messy with her help! She is so cute about helping her momma that I just have her help clean up the mess as well! This picture is of her helping to make bread sometime in December. She loves to eat good home cooked bread. Momma is getting better at her once over glances and grabs the knives before Felicity gets all the way up! Every time she approaches the stove she'll holds her hand back and will say "hot, Hot?" just to check about where she can put her hands. I really encourage her caution. Thankfully she is and always has been quite analytical and seems to think through an action before doing it. I am so grateful for this and am worried that this next child is going to be the complete opposite and go charging into anything and everything!
This is of Momma and Felicity in our chef's uniforms! A friend of mine bought this darling outfit for Felicity and it is quite a favorite! She has it in her play kitchen's cupboard and pulls it out from time to time to help Momma or just do some cooking on her own! Momma is in the Culinary Arts program at University of Alaska Anchorage and is working hard to get her associates degree by December!

Having A BALL!!!!

Another day! Felicity had some fun at my cousin Kara's home. Kara has three children. Bentley is two days younger than Felicity and the twins are about 7 months old. The two year olds had fun running and screaming through the house while the twins took a nap. Then Aunt Julia, Kara's mom, pulled out the inflatable jumping pen. We tossed the toddlers in there with several dozen balls. They had tons of fun throwing the balls at those of us who were outside the pen. We, being the adults, went ahead and threw the balls back at them. All in all it was a VERY enjoyable day!

I have arrived!!

Ok, I have finally joined the online world. Now Everyone can know me and I can post any random thought or greatness and foist it on the unassuming public. So, here I am!
I am 24 years old. Married to the most wonderful man in the world, Ben. For all those realists, Yes he is wonderful, usually, and he is perfect for ME. Which is really all you can expect from a guy, seeing as I'm not perfect either. We have an amazing two year old daughter, Felicity, and she will be joined in mid July by a new sibling. I am going to school for a culinary degree and should be done in December if all goes well. Ben is completing his Management Information Systems(MIS)(computer stuff) degree this May.
So with school, family, church, and home, I keep quite busy! Felicity keeps me running and her daddy tries to keep me sane. Both of our families live in town which is very nice and can be a bit of a challenge, all at the same time. We love living in Alaska, and that is saying something if you can say that in the middle of the winter when it is -4 degrees F outside. It is a wonderful place to live and raise a family. It is incomparable in its beauty and opportunity to be and do outside.