Our latest trip and a recipe!

The reason for our trip to My Parents House ^

This is just a cute picture of Linnea that I took at our house. Has absolutely nothing to do with our trip.

This last weekend our whole little family went to my parents and visited my family and picked blackberries. It was a short and quick trip, but productive none the less. We also went to the County Fair and Stampede. That was pretty good too. I forgot my camera at my parents when we went to the fair. Luckily my friend Chelsea brought her's. I've known Chelsea since kindergarten and it was really nice to see her. I was also able to see Serena as well. She was up for a family visit from Utah with her little boy Lincoln. Serena and I have been friends since 3rd grade. I love that I have life long friends!

My grandpa came over for dinner as well. It was so nice to see him! I love my grandpa! I finally go some pictures of him and Linnea. We've been up 3 times since she was born and I finally got a picture!

On our way back home we stopped by our old college stomping grounds and said hi to our old branch president's wife. Our old branch president wasn't there but we still had a blast talking to his wife Karen. We are headed back up that way this coming weekend for the Rodeo.

When we got back yesterday I looked at our garden and it had exploded since we left. I picked green beans this morning with Emma off the bushes and noticed a lot of tomatoes that have finally started to grow. I'm so excited. We are having fresh green beans, jello and fresh BBQ tuna for dinner tonight. My dad gave us some fresh tuna while we were over at the house. I think he caught it. Either that or one of his friends did.

Here is a blackberry recipe in honor of blackberry season! (And man is it a good crop this year!) I believe I got this from Taste of Home but I can't remember. Enjoy!

Blackberry Soup

• 4 cups frozen blackberries, thawed

• 1 cup pear juice

• 1/2 cup honey

• 1/4 cup water

• 1 lime or lemon wedge

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Dash ground nutmeg

• 1 carton (8 ounces) fat-free vanilla yogurt

In a heavy saucepan, combine the first eight ingredients. Cook, uncovered, over low heat for 20 minutes or until berries are softened. Remove and discard lime wedge. Strain berry mixture, reserving juice. Press blackberry mixture through a fine meshed sieve; discard seeds. Add pulp to juice. Cover and chill.
Set aside 2 tablespoons yogurt for garnish. Combine blackberry mixture and remaining yogurt in a food processor or blender; cover and process until smooth. Ladle into soup bowls. Dollop with reserved yogurt. Yield: 4 servings.

3 months old!

My sweet little princess Linnea is 3 months old today. These last few months have flown by so fast! I can't believe she's already this old (not that 3 months is old). Some milestones she has reached since her birth are:

• she can hold her head up
• when she's on her belly she can lift her head up all the way
• she giggles (and it's so cute! I need to get a video of it)
• she tracks things when you hold them above her
• she is cutting her first teeth! (normal for my children apparently)

Once again I caught her with her thumb in her mouth. Dang it! Linnea is such a sweetheart! She's full of smiles and giggles. The last couple of days she's been miserable but I think that's just her teething. Overall she is a very sweet and happy baby. Linnea loves her big sister and always smiles when she sees her. This is a big step since a couple weeks ago whenever she'd seen Emma she would start crying. Linnea also loves her daddy! When Jacob comes home from work and announces to the girls that he's home Linnea starts squirming and looking around for him. When she finally sees him she gives this huge smile and usually a big laugh.

Can you spot the baby?

Linnea, I want you to know that your mommy and daddy and big sister love you very much! You have made our family feel complete. Your smile and your laugh make each of us happy. Just being around you makes all our troubles and bad feelings that have built up go away. We are glad you are finally here!

Oh To Be Little Again...

Don't you just wish you could go back to the days where you could be care free? No mortgage payments, no worrying about what to cook for dinner, no knowledge of anything bad going on in the world? I know I wish I could... just for one day.

My Little Girls

I LOVE my little girls! They are growing up so fast! This week Emma has decided that she is a big girl and is no longer wearing diapers!!! We bought her Dora big girl panties and princess big girl panties. She loves them! We went out as a family last night to Costco and Target and Emma didn't have any accidents. I am so happy! I thought this day would never come and now that it's here it seems like it happened too fast. She's in a pull-up at night but hopefully she won't need those much longer.

Emma also is in love with her baby sister Linnea. She reads to her, lays next to her, and I've even caught her singing to her. Such a good big sister. Emma is also a big helper when I need a diaper for Linnea or her pacifier. When Linnea is upset Emma will go over and comfort her. I can tell that she's been paying attention to how I calm Linnea down because she will sit next to her and stroke her head and tell her "it's alright, it's alright, just calm down". So cute!!

Linnea is getting big! Not too big though. I still consider her small and fragile. What's funny is with Emma I was rough housing her and I'm afraid to do that to Linnea. Linnea is trying to sit up! I'm not ready for that! She's also teething. I can see her two bottom teeth trying to come through. Emma got her first tooth just after she turned 3 months and it looks like Linnea will be following suit. I've been trying to discourage thumb sucking with her and just when I think it's working I walk into a room and see her like this...(she does have 5 fingers... not sure where her pointer finger is in the picture. Probably in her mouth too). Despite my efforts, she still slips her thumb in her mouth. I think it's really cute but you can't take the thumb away.

Jacob and I are going out to eat tonight with people from his company. We are going to Carmine's. It's a new local Italian restaurant that just opened up. I'm excited! We are leaving Emma at her friend Niev's and taking Linnea with us. It's not that I don't want to leave her, it's just that I can't right now if you know what I mean.

We are all headed to my parents next weekend to can some more blackberries. I can't get enough of them! I think we are going to need to make more jam and then we are also going to be doing syrup and juice. I love love love blackberry season!!

Jacob and I are doing good. He's busy working (thankfully) and doing scouting stuff and I'm busy with the girls. We've been so blessed and are thankful everyday for those blessings.

In Port Orchard

Right now I'm in Port Orchard with my family canning. It's not necessarily a "fun" thing to do, but I do enjoy sitting over the sink snapping beans, stemming blueberries and crushing blackberries. My brother Tyler and I went over to the neighbors and picked blackberries this morning. There still aren't many ready but I think we have enough for a batch of jam.

I love coming back home and hanging out with my family. It's funny to me because my brother Tyler and I didn't get along growing up but now we are the best of friends. It's funny how that happens. My other brother Kaleb is fun too. The three of us enjoy joking around with each other and annoying our parents. I'm pretty sure my parents are glad when I leave! :)

I haven't posted in a while and I just realized this is my 100th post. I didn't plan ahead for a cool post for my 100th, but I will give you a recipe!! My mom and I came up with this amazing combination of ingredients/spices for the best ever chicken pot pie.

Chicken Pot Pie

So what you do is cook some chicken in oil and minced garlic, salt and pepper and set it aside. Then you open a can of corn, peas, and beans and put them in a bowl. Then open a can of cream of celery soup and a can of cream of mushroom soup and add to the vegetables. Add a little milk to thin it down. Next add about a teaspoon of poultry seasoning, sage, rosemary, thyme and oregano. Add the chicken. Make up a triple batch of pie crust and place 2/3 in the bottom of a 9x13 pan going up the sides. Then pour the chicken mixture in and top with the rest of the pie crust. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until the crust is baked.


I hope that makes sense. I should really write it down and organize it a little better. Anyway, I hope everything is going well with you all. I'm enjoying myself! Oh! And we closed on our house! We are official home owners! So that's good news. Well... I'm off to make a batch of blackberry jam!