Thanksgiving

I love this time of year! Not so much the weather but the spirit that this time of year brings. We are headed over the mountains tomorrow to go to Port Orchard. I love traveling over the mountains in the winter. The snow is beautiful and I'm always up for a road trip. There won't be any snow going over or coming back thankfully.

In the spirit of the season today I will post the things I am thankful for. I'm thankful for family. I've learned over the last few years that they really are the only steady and constant people in your life. I'm grateful for all my friends. I have been blessed with some of the world's most amazing friends. I know that I am loved and I have lots of people that are willing to lend a helping hand with whatever I need. I'm so blessed to know so many amazing people.

Of course I'm thankful for Jesus Christ my savior. What a wonderful blessing it is to have knowledge of Him and His love for all of us. I know that when we are doing our part and trying to live a good and honest life that He recognizes it and blesses us. I've been on the receiving end of many blessings in my life. It doesn't mean it's been easy. You have to have the trials to have the blessings and for that I can honestly say that I'm thankful for my trials as well. I've grown so much because of the trials I've had to endure.

I'm grateful for nature and it's beauty. There is beauty no matter where you are. Yes even in Eastern Washington there is beauty all around. I'm grateful for the house that we have to live in (thank you mom and dad!). I'm grateful for the moments when everything is completely quiet and still. It's in those moments that I feel so much peace.

There is so much more that I could write but I don't want to bore anyone. There is lots to do before we leave so I'll cut this short. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! I'm skipping out on the recipe this week. I'm sorry! If you need an idea for dinner tonight, I think Potato Soup sounds yummy!

A new Recipe/Emma uses the Potty and goes to the doctor!!!

Okay, this week I am posting a new recipe. This week has been very mellow compared to last week and for that I'm thankful. We still have no word on Jacob's new job but I will post as soon as we find out. For now, we are watching his vacation time slowly slip away. I just realized last night that Thanksgiving is next Thursday! I am sooooo excited! Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I am most excited to see all my extended family. I miss them A LOT! We are only 4 hours away but we don't see them as often as I'm used to (I lived in Port Orchard my whole childhood with all my dad's family living within 15 minutes of one another... you do the math).

This Thanksgiving will be the first since my lovely Grandmother died. Do you ever stop missing someone who you've lost? I miss her so much and it's just not going to be the same without her during the holidays. Her strong love of all of us could be felt as soon as we walked through her door. Anyway, forgive me please, I'm a HIGHLY emotional pregnant woman. I actually it's worse this time than with Emma.

Okay, this weeks recipe is what my Grandmother called "Cheesy Potato Bake" known more famously in the LDS culture as "Funeral Potatoes". These potatoes are served for Easter in the Trogdon home but I think they should be eaten with every meal.

2 pounds frozen hash browns, thawed

½ c butter, melted

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 tsp salt

½ medium onion, chopped

1 pint sour cream

10 oz shredded cheddar cheese

½ tsp pepper

Crushed corn flakes

Mix butter, soup, sour cream, onion, salt and pepper. Separate potatoes and add to sour cream mixture. Add cheese. Place in 9x13 pan. Sprinkle top with crushed corn flakes and pour about 2 Tbs. melted butter over the top. Bake at 350˚ F for 1 hour.

Emma used the big girl potty for the first time on Sunday! This was very exciting for us. Emma was very proud of herself and was beeming the whole night. Of course she didn't use the potty yesterday but that fact that she did on Sunday is enough for me! It's exciting to think that Emma is that much closer to being potty trained.

Emma's 2 year check up was yesterday. She is 3' tall which puts her at the 99th percentile for height and she is 28 pounds which puts her in the 63rd percentile for weight. Every doctor's appointment shows the same percentiles so it wasn't a shock for us. She's gained 3 pounds since her 18 month check up. It was also time for her to get her flu shot and she was very brave for it. The nurse was fast so it was over quickly. Emma cried for just a litle while and then she was fine. Such a good girl!

Happy Birthday Emma!

This is our little princess! Born November 15, 2006 at 11:33 pm. She was 7lbs 11.5 oz and 20 1/2" long.
And this is our little princess at her 1year birthday in Grand Junction Colorado. During her first year she slept 8 hours during the night starting at 2 months, rolled over at 3 months, crawled at 7 months, and walked at 9 months. Her first words were dada, mama, dog and yes. That was her vocabulary at 12 months. Her favorite things to do at age one were help mommy dump ingredients into a bowl to make dinner or cookies, play with her big people barn, take a bath, go to the mall and play in the play area, go to the park and swing and go down slides, and pretty much just be out doors.

This in Emma and her friend Olivia at her 2nd birthday party. This last year, Emma has started talking A LOT! Her speach is very clear and when she talks she tries very hard to say the word right. Now she loves to run and play outside with our dog Annie. She also loves to stack blocks really high and then knock them down. She is a little ball of energy with a very sweet spirit. I have never met a more loving little girl. She makes me so proud to be her mommy.

She likes to eat anything but green peppers (I tried, that's all I can say and I personally HATE them so I don't blame her). After I clean up a room, Emma will notice before Jacob does (how embarassing for him!). She loves to read and will clean up her toys every once in a while without me forcing her. She loves to watch movies and her favorite is Madagascar. Her best friends are Niev, Hallie, Micha and Quinton (I hope I spelt his name right).She is starting to get to know Olivia through nursery and when she goes over to Niev's and Olivia is there too.

Emma has been so easy to parent. She does have her moments like every child this age does but even then they aren't as bad as some tantrums I've seen. Emma has shown me a whole different side of who I am and what I can become. I hope she knows how much Jacob and I love her. Here are soem more pictures from her party:

Cool Tag

I found this on Lisa's blog a while ago and thought it was cool. I'm also happy to say our toilet is fixed! If you missed that story it's below this post.

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago

1. Looking forward to turning 14 and going to the youth dances.
2. Playing volleyball on my junior high's J.V. team
3. Getting into trouble for not cleaning my room
4. Wishing I was an adult
5. Struggling to figure out who I was

5 Things on my to do list today

1. Finish scrubbing the bathroom
2. Do the dishes
3. Clean the living room
4. Rake the leaves in the front yard
5. Get over being sick!

5 Things I would do if I were a Millionare

1. Pay off student loans
2. Buy the house from my parents
3. Travel the world
4. Get a new truck (sorry Big Birtha)
5. Make sure my extended family was taken care of financially

5 Places I've Lived (I've lived in more than 5 places though)

1. Bayview Drive, Port Orchard, WA
2. Woods Rd, Port Orchard, WA
3. 15th Ave, Ellensburg, WA
4. Park Drive, Grand Junction, CO
5. Dawes St, Kennewick, WA

5 Jobs I've had

1. Tour Bus washer- Janssen Tours
2. Music Specalist- Dj's Music
3. Caterer- Central Washington University
4. Road Construction Flagger- Kitsap County
5. Laundry Slave- The Laundromat on North Campus
6. Janitor- Central Washington University

(Jobs 3-6 were how I payed my way through college and yes I know I don't know how to count to 5)

When it Rains, it Pours

This weekend was INSANE! (Warnign this is a really long post) Actually the last couple of weeks have been kinda rocky but it hit hard this weekend. Work is painfully slow for Jacob right now. He is having to use up his vacation time to make sure that we are still getting a paycheck. We were thinking that we would have to use up all of our savings to get through this slow time and that I would have to go substitute teach. Well, when you try to do the right thing the Lord knows and he blesses you. Jacob's boss called him and apparently another guy that Jacob works with set up something for Jacob so that he would have work.

I'm not sure of all the details but he will be doing office work instead of going out in the field which sucks for Jacob but it's going to be guaranteed 40 hours/week for one fiscal year (which is from October to October). During that year he will be doing quality control on the paperwork that comes to his desk. This particular job is with the new lead contractor at Hanford CH2M Hill so his network will increase in a BIG way. He will still be working for his company GRAM but will be contracted out to CH2M Hill. This means a pay raise as well. At the end of the year if he doesn't like the job he can ask to be transferred somewhere else in the company or go back to his old job. It isn't 100% sure but it's about 99% sure that this will happen. So that takes care of that problem. Now onto the next...

THE TOILET

Jacob's family came to visit this weekend for the long weekend and for Emma's party (I will talk about that at the end of my post). Yesterday while I was at my doctor's appointment (which will too be at the end of this post) the toilet and tub backflowed into the house. We came home to my mother in law bailing water out and my father in law plunging the toilet. YIKES! That's not even the best part. I started calling around the ward looking for a plumbing snake. Five phone calls later I located one. I went over and picked it up and we put it down the toilet. Nothing happened.

Meanwhile the plunger my father in law broke so he went to take it back to the store. Jacob and I decided to go to Home Depot and buy a hefty plunger. While we were there we looked at plumbing snakes. We decided to rent one. Back home we go to use the new plunger on the tub and toilet. Well... the plunger didn't do the trick. Meanwhile my dad called (since I called him to ask advice) and gave us some ideas on what to do. As a result Jacob crawled under the house to find the clean out valve to the sewer line. After a LONG time he found it. Well, the snake we borrowed wasn't long enough. Jacob went downt he road to rent a 50 foot snake. He came back and tried to fit it under the house to get to the main line. The heating vent was too low and the snake was too big to fit under the vent. Jacob came up and tried to fit the snake through the toilet and the head of the snake didn't bend enough. So... up on the roof he goes to put it through the sewer vent. Guess what? It wasn't long enough! In the meantime I'm running back and forth to my neighbors house to pee.

The next step was to take the toilet off and put the snake down. Jacob didn't have any gloves so he was using my bath towels to pull the line out and feed it into the pipe. That didn't work. By this time it's almost 6:00 in the evening. My in laws left to head over the mountains and Jacob, Emma and I went to the store to pee and buy gloves.

When we got back Jacob and I put Emma to bed and ran the snake down the toilet hole again. Five minutes later it was all the way through and we backed it out. There were tree roots on the end of the snake! We then poured root killer in the hole and sent the snake down again. Well, the snake broke halfway into the pipe. Jacob pulled it out and we decided to sit and watch some tv.

THE T.V.

Wouldn't you know that the tv bulb would go out!? That's right, our big screen tv is no longer working either.

THE POOP

Here we are at 10:30 the next day with no plumbing still. Jacob is on his way to rent another longer snake and we hope this will work. Meanwhile there is poop on my bathroom walls and in the tub.

NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS!

EMMA'S PARTY

Emma's birthday party was really fun. We had 15-20 people over and 3 of those including Emma were 2 year olds. The kids had tons of fun playing together and the adults had fun sitting around and talking. Thanks to Lora for coming over and helping me grate cheese for all the pizzas we made!

MY DR.'S APPOINTMENT

My doctor's appointment went really well yesterday. It was a quick in and out but we got to listen to the baby's heart beat. It was 158 bpm which I guess any range between 120 and 180 is normal. I think Emma's was somewhere around that too. It took the PA a long time to find the heart beat and I was starting to worry but I'm glad the baby is fine.

I think I'm going to post a new recipe next week. I can't think of one right now. I hope that your weeks aren't as eventful as mine! I'm glad that every week is not like this for me. It's weeks like this that make you appreciate the good ones. Keep your fingers crossed that we won't end up having to call a plumber! And lets hope that this cold I'm getting goes away quickly!

I finished Emma's cake!

So tomorrow is the big day. Emma's birthday party. Her birthday isn't until the 15th but my in laws are coming over tomorrow. Here is the cake I received my inspiration from:






And here is my version of it:
Elmo and Ernie's legs and feet hang over the side of the cake (you can't tell very well from my camera phone picture). Yes there are flaws and I don't care that the word Birthday is spelt at a slant. It took me 3 1/2 hours to complete and I'm glad to be done! My hands didn't cooperate so there were times when my hand slipped. Jacob was kind enough to give me hand messages when the pain was too much. It's scary that I'm only 23 (almost 24 on the 16th) and I can't decorate a cake. Anyway, I hope you all like it.

I'm making my blog private!!

So I have decided that I don't like the fact that anyone can read my blog so we are going to make it private. Send me your email addresses if you would like to continue reading. I just think it's creepy that total strangers can read about my personal stuff. Thanks!

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes/ Our week

I thought that since it's November which is the best month EVER (mine and Emma's birthday's and Thanksgiving) I would post different dishes you can make for your Thanksgiving dinner. This weeks recipe comes from Martha Stewart. Last Thanksgiving we celebrated with our friends Willie and Sally. It was really nice of them to invite us over even though Willie's family was over too. Anyway, Sally made these sweet potatoes and I became addicted.

• 14 (each about 8 ounces) sweet potatoes
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 3/4-inch-thick slices
• 1 3/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
• 4 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2/3 cup pecans, toasted, coarsely chopped
• 40 large marshmallows, halved crosswise

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prick sweet potatoes with a fork. Bake until soft, about 50 minutes. Let cool slightly on a rack.
2. Cut a lengthwise slit in potatoes almost all the way through, leaving about 1 inch at each end intact. Scoop out flesh, leaving a 1/2-inch border on skins. Put flesh in a medium nonreactive bowl, then transfer half to a food processor. Process until smooth; return to bowl. Stir in sour cream, 6 tablespoons softened butter, 1 cup brown sugar, lemon juice, and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Transfer sweet potato mixture in batches to a pastry bag fitted with a very large round tip. Pipe mixture into 12 of the potato shells, dividing evenly; discard remaining 2 shells. Filled shells can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 1 day. Just before serving, top with remaining 3/4 cup brown sugar, the sliced butter, and pecans; arrange marshmallows on top. Bake on a rimmed baking sheet until hot and marshmallows are golden brown, 7 to 10 minutes.

In other news, I'm going in next Tuesday for another checkup. This one I will be 13 weeks and will have an ultrasound. I'm excited to see my little baby and hope that it will give me a boost of confidence and excitement. In January hopefully they will be able to tell us what we are having. I really thought that with our next baby that I wouldn't find out but now I'm sitting on the fence. Last time we got a false alarm so I don't know if I trust the machines or not.

Emma's birthday party is on Saturday (though he birthday isn't until next Saturday). I've gotten all the decorations and have a final decision on the birthday cake. I'm going to do the one that no one voted for because it's easiest and I'm feeling lazy this week. For the cake, all I will have to do is ice is white, smoth it out, outline the characters of Ernie, Elmo and Cookie monster (I believe) and then just pipe stars. I'll save the extravagant cakes for when Emma is older and can appreciate my work a little more.
Last Year's Birthday Cake

I WON!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so I'm almost embarrassed to admit this... Jacob and I have been married for 3 1/2 years (that's not the embarrassing part) and we play monopoly sometimes. Well, for the last 3 1/2 years I have gotten my butt kicked every time. I will own up to spiking the board on a few occasions. Today, the tables turned. The first games we played lasted maybe 10 minutes and Jacob beat me really bad. I resisted the urge to spike the board and asked for a rematch. I got the first and second monopoly on some properties and with my lucky roll of tons of doubles (without ever having to go to jail) I racked up some serious money. The end of the story is is that I totally blew Jacob out of the water. It was a very redeeming moment for me.

In other news, Emma had a blast last night. She was a black cat, although her ears looked more like a mouses since they weren't pointed. We went to our ward's trunk or treat and then came home just in time to catch some trick or treaters. Everytime the door bell would ring, Emma would run as fast as she could to the door so she could hand out candy. She didn't want to go to bed for fear that she would miss someone. We were keeping her up until 9:00 anyway to get ready for the time change so we assured her that she wouldn't miss anyone and that they were all done coming to the door. I loved seeing the excitement in her face when she was trick or treating and handing out the candy to other kids.

We carved pumpkins on Thursday night. It was our first time as a couple and a family doing it together so it was pretty exciting for us. Jacob couldn't figure out what he wanted his to look like so he went online to get a template. Emma and I were getting her ready for bed and I decided to check on Jacob's progress. He had gotten out the power drill and was using it to detail his pumpkin. I grabbed the video camera and got some video of it too. If I had a computer cord for the camera then I would post the video. Emma thought the pumpkin guts were gross. She made quite the face which I also got on video (dang it!). It was a good Halloween for us!