Trevor is 2 Months Old

This is about a week late but Trevor is now 2 months old! At his well child checkup last Wednesday (the 20th) he was 12 lbs. 5 oz. and 23 inches long. I took some pictures of him tonight...

First, asleep in his carseat

Then he woke up so I thought I'd try to get one of him smiling, but since it had been 4 hours since he'd eaten, he wasn't performing well for me! Time out, must eat!

Happy baby with a full belly!

Awww, the only time it's so stinkin' adorable to have chubby cheeks and a double chin!

Monday Night Monopoly

For the last 3 Monday nights, we have played Monopoly Jr. for the activity portion of FHE. Ashlee has been the winner whenever we've played this game. She somehow manages to either get most of the "Free Ticket Booth" Chance cards or is the first to land on both of the Blue $5 spaces (making you pay $10 for landing on either one) and monopolizes the board. Brynlee actually got both of the blue spaces this time, but the game was cut short and she didn't get a chance to collect the $10 from the unlucky occupant of her space. Why was the game cut short??? Poor Landon started puking all of a sudden and did it like 4 times in an hour. He threw up the water he drank the first thing the next morning, but then after a little nap he was back to his normal self...color back in his face, jumping off couches and tormenting his sisters. Luckily no one else has gotten it!

CAUGHT THE MOUSE!!

Of course, I was thinking last night....what if we catch the mouse and Rob is gone on a campout...and what happens this morning?? Yep, I go into the kitchen to get Landon some breakfast and looky there...the MOUSE! I could tell (even though I didn't have my contacts in or glasses on) that the trap was in a slightly different place on the floor and that there was something dark on it. So I went to get my glasses and yep, it's the mouse! The other ones that we caught on the sticky trap died before we saw them, but of course this one has to still be alive, wiggling and squeaking...yah, I'm just about freaking out right now! I think I'll stay out of the kitchen until Rob gets home! Hopefully it will be soon, since a couple of the scouts needed to be home early this morning!

6.0 EARTHQUAKE!!

So this morning I was in my bed feeding Trevor and I felt like the bed was shaking. I was sitting up against the headboard, and I was moving from side to side. I looked up and the pull chains on our ceiling fan were moving slightly. Was I just feeling dizzy or was this an earthquake??!! I waited until Rob woke up and I told him I think I just felt an earthquake. I'm sure he was like....yah, okay, go back to sleep. Then I was on the treadmill this morning and turned on the TV to watch Price is Right and looky there....Breaking News, a 6.0 earthquake in Nevada that was felt in Idaho and Utah! CRAZY!!

Stromboli

I made Stromboli for dinner tonight, based off this recipe. I was looking for a calzone recipe originally, then stromboli fever hit me. They're really similar food items, just the calzone is a pocket, whereas you roll up a stromboli.

I used our favorite pizza crust recipe, Jay's Signature Pizza Crust, which is big enough for two pizzas. I made a full recipe of the dough and split it in half to make two stromboli. I used roast beef, turkey, and ham since that's what lunch meat we had, plus monterrey jack, swiss, and parmesan cheeses. Ashlee actually liked it, so that was pleasantly surprising. Some other recipes I found called for italian sausage, onions, peppers, olives, mushrooms, etc.

Roll out the dough about 12" by 10"
Layer on the meat and cheese, leaving about an inch around the edge
Sprinkle on italian seasoning
Roll it up (starting from the skinnier edge)
Set it seam-side down on a pan sprinkled with corn meal.

Brush on egg white or olive oil and add poppy seeds, sesame seeds, garlic salt, parmesan, or whatever you feel like on top. You may add some decorative knife cuts if you'd like. (I did and it kind of split open and oozed out, which isn't actually a bad thing if you like crispy dripping cheese like I do.)

Bake on a pizza stone at 375 for about 35 minutes (or just on the pan if you don't have a stone).

Serve with marinara or spaghetti sauce to dip it in.

P.S. Not quite so perfect!

After reading my Valentine's day post, I kinda had to laugh because it sounded like the day was so perfect....not quite so. So here's the uglier side of the day :) This is for my friend, Marci, who hates reading blogs that always talk about how great life is with perfect children and perfect husbands! These are the things I conveniently left out :)....

Hauling two boys around to 5 stores looking for a new snow shovel (and other little last minute things for dinner) since I broke ours while shoveling the 6 inches of snow on our driveway at 11:00 pm is not fun. Oh, and every store is sold out of snow shovels. Maybe I should be looking for a snow blower instead :)

Rob left to go to Ogden around 4:30 to pick up our van that was being fixed. We've been having problems with the transmission. He took it to a mechanic here in town and they quoted us $2700 to replace the transmission...yeah, I don't think so considering the stinkin' thing is only worth about $3000! So Rob called his uncle who works in the service department at a Dodge dealership in Ogden. He said he could do it for $1600 but when we took it down there on Monday night, they discovered that they only needed to fix a leak and fill it with transmission fluid. Yeah, we were really getting ripped off by that first guy! Uncle Craig did find some other things wrong when doing a general check over of the van but the final bill was only $1200 for fixing the transmission, exhaust leak, water pump, some clockspring thing that was under warranty from a recall, and some gaskets. I know "only $1200" isn't pocket change but it's better than $2700 to only replace the transmission.

Since I was left with the truck and had to take Ashlee to ballet, Rob took Landon with him and Brynlee went to a friend's house. So here's the fun I had with the truck...hold on, it's gonna be a long ride...
Since we never drive the truck, the recycling container and trash can and stroller and kids' scooters are parked behind it. Side note: 15 minutes until ballet lessons start and it takes 10 to get there... So I move those out of the way.
Get Trevor's carseat (without base) and Ashlee on her booster buckled in...not too easy since there isn't a whole lot of room to squeeze all that on the bench. Finally get everyone all buckled up and take the keys out of my purse...crap, the truck key isn't on my keyring. Try to get out but wait, the stupid door handle is broken so I roll down the window (no, it's not an electric window) to open the door from the outside (this is why I hate this truck!). Get the key and start backing out and have to manuever my way out of the driveway since the whole thing isn't shoveled (remember my store hunt above!) Reach up to close the garage door but wait, there isn't a door opener in the truck. Get out (again, roll down window, open door from outside), run into the garage, push the button, run and jump over sensors while ducking to miss the door. Okay, 10 minutes, we can make it right on time. I look at the dashboard and we are on empty...please, make it to ballet!

On the way we're at a stop light and I hear sirens. I look in the rear view mirror and a firetruck is coming. Since I was so frazzled I move over into the right turn lane to get out of the way and now have to go through the university. So since this is getting way too long I'll spare more details...end result, Ashlee was late to ballet. Off to the gas station...I make it there and fill 'er up!

Arrive home from ballet and remember I don't have a garage door opener...or a key to the house on my keyring! Text Rob to see if he is close to getting home (he has no minutes left on his cell phone so he won't answer it...another long story since he changed plans after the university changed their policy for paying for employees cell phones and now has to watch his minute usage) Decide to go to a neighbor's house since it is getting dark and cold (oh, and Trevor is crying because he is ready to eat!) Get a text back and they are about 25 minutes from home.

It is now 7:00 and the pizza still needs to go in the oven. Luckily it only took 10 min. to bake. The rest of the story is below....and I go to bed with the stress headache! I'm sorry this is WAY too long but I hope you got a glimpse into our not so perfect life!

Oh, and I've had a bit too much fun posting so much lately. It's my outlet and I feel like I actually get to "talk" with adults instead of being in my house all day with the little ones! I now need to go clean my house since my friend is coming from Boise with her 4 kids for the weekend....oh HAPPY DAY!!

Valentine's Day

When I was trying to think of something to do for Valentine's Day, I thought came into my head while in the shower yesterday. I remembered an answer to a prayer I recieved while listening to the Worldwide Training last Saturday. We've been losing our patience quickly with one of our children (who shall remain anonymous) and the "acting outs" (for lack of a better description and rambling on about what this child does) of this child was becoming more frequent and our tempers becoming shorter. While listening to President Packer read and discuss the The Family: A Proclamation to the World, this part touched me and I knew how we needed to deal with this child...."Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. "Children are an heritage of the Lord" (Psalms 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness". Now those were some pretty powerful words to me that morning. This child did not need our quick tempers and yelling but rather our love. I've been doing much better with my patience and soft voice and this stubborn child seems to be responding well....most of the time...after all, none of us are perfect! It was so interesting because before President Packer started reading the Proclamation, he even said that we've probably read this many times, but sometimes we can learn different things from it if we read it slowly and articulately (something to that effect). So that leads me to our Valentine's Day plans...I decided our home needed more love and so Valentine's Day was going to be a family affair.

Trevor gave me a great Valentine's present by only waking up to eat once at 2 a.m. and then slept until 7:30!

(Thanks, little buddy, for letting mom get a little bit more sleep!)

After I finished feeding him, I made heart shaped pancakes for the kids for breakfast.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon were pretty normal day to day activities...work for Rob, school for Ashlee, preschool for Brynlee, errands for mom and the boys. For dinner we had Papa Murphy's Take n Bake pizza (the new Chicken, Bacon, Artichoke deLite....yummy!), salad, and Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cranberry Cider.


Then for dessert we had Baked Hot Chocolate (a recipe I saw on Good Things Utah a couple weeks ago)...to DIE for!

After dessert we had a little "I Love _____ Because..." session. Each person had their own heart with that saying on it filled in with their name and everyone had to tell one thing why they love so and so.
I then put them up on a wall to remind us throughout the month that we are loved. I hope this helps bring more love into our home. We want all our family and friends to know that we LOVE you and hope your Valentine's Day was special!

A Few Pictures

I was downloading pics off my camera and thought I'd share some. I just love my cute kids. They bring a smile to my face!

Mr. Moustache! Half chocolate ice cream, half blue raspberry yogurt!

The girls in their bubble bath on Sunday. Rob turned on the jets and the bubbles kept growing!

I LOVE these pictures of Trevor and Grandpa B. Thanks to Uncle Dave for capturing this moment!

The girls using Uncle Dave as their jungle gym. I always feel so sorry for Uncles and Grandpas when they come over. My kids seem to think they need to climb all over them!

21 Down, 25 to Go!

Yes, I am referring to my weight in the title! I managed to put on a WhopPing 46 pounds this pregnancy and it's time to kick my rear in gear and get the rest of it off. I lost the first 20 in about two weeks. Yeah, some of that was probably my swollen legs and ankles! It was so nice to see them again and be able to wear shoes other than slippers or flip flops! It was quite nice dropping 4 pounds every other day during the holidays! :) So here's the plan so I can be accountable to all who read this blog....I'm going to eat more fiber and whole grain foods. Kellogg's Raisin Bran has 7 grams in one serving so it's a good thing it's only $1 this week at Lee's (for others in Utah, that's an Associated Foods store so you might want to check out any near you. There are other Kellogg's cereals in the sale as well. There's a $4 off 4 boxes coupon on the boxes and another in-ad coupon making them 4 for $4....and yes, I've bought another 32 boxes. I had to make 2 trips since they had a 16 box limit :)) So back to my weight...I'm also going to drink at least 64 oz. of water each day. I am soooo bad about drinking water. I have a 64 oz. water jug that I fill each day. I think I actually finished it one day! Now for the exercise...I have a 6 week workout for the treadmill. I found it on the internet last winter and did it here and there but I'm going to get serious this time. It's called the Ultimate Belly-Flattening Workout and goes through different intervals of power walks and tempo walks with toning exercises thrown in here and there. It's alot better than just walking on the treadmill. The time goes by pretty fast since you're doing more than just walking. So that's my plan and I'll let you know in six weeks how it went. Oh, and no mouse in the trap yet...that dang thing!

Landon's Room

Hooray! I finally finished painting Landon's room. It was probably about 6 months ago that I started taking down the wallpaper. When we moved into the house, every room had wallpaper so we've been trying to get it all down and paint, room by room. The wallpaper came off pretty easy (alot easier than than some of the other rooms!) but left a thick layer of glue. Little by little I would work at it, scraping off the glue. Then I got this big prego belly and had a hard time climbing up and down a ladder or squatting and standing. So it got put on hold until the baby was born. Rob and I have been working the past few Saturdays trying to get it all done. Now on to the baby's room...

"Spring" Cleaning

So I was forced to do a little "spring" cleaning...you know, take everything out of the cabinets, pantry closet, etc. and do a good cleaning. Let me set the scene....I'm sitting at the kitchen counter talking to my mom on the phone about plans for our Kovacs family reunion this summer. Out of the corner of my eye, I see something moving on the floor. I look at it and IT IS A MOUSE. I scream "There's a mouse!" and of course it jumps back into the cabinet that it had just come out of. I couldn't understand where in the world it went in because I could not see a hole. I called Rob into the kitchen and he got down on the floor and looked. Yep, there's a small hole about one inch square that it escaped into. At least it didn't go into my cabinets where my pans and other cooking things are but actually in between them, but none the less there is a stinkin' mouse in the house. And who knows, there could be more...knock on wood! I absolutely detest mice!!! Last fall/winter we caught 4 of the little buggers about a month after we moved in. I prayed that we wouldn't have any of these nasty critters this winter, but I guess no such luck. So I spent last night and this morning wiping down cupboards, counters, shelves and the table with a bleach solution...my whole body shaking when I think of the darn thing! Luckily we still had one sticky trap left over from our last bout with the mice so Rob put one down right by the hole hoping it would make its way out and stick right to it, but no mouse this morning. Hopefully I'll be posting again soon saying that we caught the little varmint! I'm going to the store when Rob gets home from work and buying some more traps and putting them all over the house! A bit obsessive...I think not!

Trevor's Blessing Day

Yesterday was Trevor's blessing day. It was a special day and he received a beautiful blessing by his dad. Trevor was so good the whole day. Of course, that's pretty normal. He really is such a good baby. He's starting to be awake a lot more and is just content sitting there and taking it all in. He's also sleeping longer at night which is VERY nice! We feel very blessed to have this sweet little boy in our home! Despite the massive snow storm that hit Logan yesterday, it was a great day!

Trevor shared his special day with another event...yes, Super Bowl Sunday! Rob got a projector from work and we rearranged the furniture in the living room for all to enjoy the game. If you can't tell from the picture, the "screen" is above the piano and it's the same width as the piano. It was pretty fun to have a "big screen" for the game...
Rob, Trevor, Dave and Russ enjoying the game...oh wait, I think Trevor is snoozin'.