Photos of Brooke

Here are a few photos of Brooke taken over the last few days. We love this girl so much! Just to explain, the first few photos were taken by me of Gordon squishing Brooke's face around. Kind of mean, but very entertaining.

Brooke cannot get enough of her thumb! When she has no toys, she goes for the thumb. Good thing its attached!

I thought this was a cute picture. Her and Gloria (a stuffed animal from Madagascar 2) are friends! She has her arm around her and everything!

Happy Birthday to.....

JAKE

CHELSEA

MOM

SHAYNA

GORDON

and

TONY

Seriously, all these people related to me have their birthday's right after one another! So, we've had a lot of cake this week!

Gordon's birthday was yesterday, so we had lots of fun and lots of sweets! I asked him if it was a good day, and he said 'of course!'. So, hooray! Success! He got some good gifts and a few more are on the way (great deals are to be found online!)

Happy Birthday everyone!

Videos!

These two videos of Brooke were taken today. This first I thought was pretty funny and the second one shows that she is SO CLOSE to rolling over from her back to her tummy. BUT! I put her down for an afternoon nap and after an hour, I went in to check on her and to my surprise (but slight dismay) she was on her stomach! (I ALWAYS put Brooke to bed on her back because the risk of SIDS increases when babies sleep on their belly's. I know the risk is relatively low for Brooke dying of SIDS but there always is a chance. Therefore, I am over cautious.) None the less, I was a little proud of her!

What's been happening!

Here's what Brooke has been doing lately!

EATING!

(She will grab anything in her reach and put in her mouth)

SLEEPING!

After sleeping for over an hour and a half, I went into check on her and this is what I found:

Luckily, she wasn't completely smothering herself

PLAYING!

We went to the splash park with Zoe and Keegan (and of course Shayna and Chelsea!) Isn't Brooke's swimsuit so incredibly adorable? My mom found it in Canada after I couldn't find ANY here! I hope she never grows out of it!

CHILLIN'

Its not every day that Brooke will snuggle up to me, but she's doing it more! I love my cuddles from my baby!

GETTING BORED ON WALKS!

This is the first time EVER that Brooke has fallen asleep while in her stroller on a walk! She is always too curious to let herself sleep...until today!

ROLLING (around naked!!)

I try to change a diaper, and away she goes! This poor girl has inherited my large lower half!

What a monkey- and of course she's keeping her thumb close!

AS FOR THE REST OF US-----

Gordon has been working hard to finish the semester strong! He has been doing such a great job at work and school and playing with us! He has mastered balancing his life, trying to make sure he puts me and Brooke first-- even if it meant staying up until 4 am to finish his assignments! He really deserves a week of non-stop sleep! Way to go, Gordon! Only 2 more semesters to go! We love you!

As for me, I have been trying to keep up on my running, but its been hard with Chelsea here because its so much more fun to just hang out with her and the rest of my family thats here! On Wednesday, I'll be running another 10k. I mapped out a pretty good running loop in Rexburg that takes me up a 2 mile hill and down a 1 1/2 mile hill, and then the rest is pretty much flat. Hopefully, I can make it bigger and run 8 miles soon!

And, the recipes continue! I have been working on these for the past few weeks, but just haven't posted them. These aren't all of them, either! My mind works pretty fast when it comes to food! Let me know if you guys have any ideas and if you try anything! I'd love to get some opinions! Now that we're back from vacation and feeling a bit better, I'll try to post more!

Chunky Monkey Chex Mix

(made for a Chex Mix competition)

8 cups rice Chex

2 cups Reese's Peanut Buter Puffs Cereal

3 cups dried banana chips

1 1/2 cups roasted, salted peanuts

1 cup milk chocolate chips

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

Combine all dry ingredients except chocolate chips into large bowl. Toss and set aside. In heat proof measuring cup or small saucepan, add butter, sugar, corn syrup, salt and vanilla. Heat and boil for 4-5 minutes in microwave or on stove top, stirring every 30 seconds. Pour hot syrup mixture onto dry ingredients. Stir to coat and pour onto greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle chocolate chips over top and refrigerate until set- 15-30 minutes. Will be slightly sticky.

My recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 3/4 cup flour (this will vary depending on your altitude)

1 cup milk chocolate chips

1/2 cup toasted, slivered almonds (optional)

Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg and vanilla. Carefully stir in all dry ingredients. (If dough seems too sticky, either add more flour, or test it: bake 1 cookie once batter is complete to see how much the dough spreads. If the cookie seems very flat and spreads a lot OR the edges get crispy and the middle still is uncooked, add in more flour-2 T to 1/4 cup) Mix in chocolate chips and nuts. Scoop into balls and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 8-11 minutes or until edges are golden.

REALLY REALLY GOOD (and versatile) Southwest Shredded Pork

1 3 1/2-4 lb. pork loin roast

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 can water

2 Tbsp cumin

2 tsp chili powder

2 cups fresh sweet corn

2 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese

salt and pepper

1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro

Place roast into large crock pot. Season meat with salt and pepper. Add in corn and 2 cups of cheese. In large bowl, mix soup, water and seasonings until smooth. Pour over meat. Cook on low for 7-8 hours. (Every few hours or so, mix sauce around meat and be sure to scrape the edges to get the crispy bits off!) Take meat out and shred. Stir back into sauce. Stir in cilantro and last 1/2 cup of cheese. Adjust seasonings to your liking. (You may need more cumin, depending on how large the roast was) Serve over rice, or use as meat in a soft taco (with all the toppings!)

Jalapeno Popper Pizza

Surprisingly SO SO good (and not spicy at all!)

1 12-14 inch pizza crust (either store bought or home made)

1/2 lb mozzarella cheese, grated

1/4 lb cheddar cheese, grated

2 oz. cream cheese

1 1/2 cups jarred alfredo sauce

3 Tbsp oil

2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1/2 cup sliced black olives

1 large chicken breast

1/4 cup flour

1 egg

1/4 cup plain bread crumbs

salt and pepper

Over uncooked pizza crust, spread alfredo sauce evenly. Set aside. In medium skillet over medium heat, add 2 Tbsp oil. Put flour, egg and breadcrumbs into 3 seperate dishes. Add salt and pepper to flour and breadcrumbs. Coat chicken breast in flour, egg and breadcrumbs, and put into hot skillet. Cook about 4 minutes per side or until golden brown. (If chicken is uncooked in the middle, transfer to a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.) In same skillet chicken was cooked in, add last 1 Tbsp of oil. Cook onions and jalapenos for 10 minutes on medium low heat or until onions are translucent and soft. Chop chicken into bite sized pieces. Top pizza with chicken pieces, cooked onions and jalapenos. Add black olives. Place small dollops of cream cheese over pizza. Top with mozzarella and cheddar cheeses. Bake in a 450 degree oven for 15 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and crust is brown. Cool 5 minutes before cutting.

We're sick--AGAIN!

I guess we really wore ourselves out on vacation because we are all sick! Gordon and I seem to have some symptoms of the common cold, but Brooke seemed to be hit harder. So, I took her to the doctor this morning and she has an upper respiratory infection! I asked what I can do, and he said because she's so little that we can't give her decongestants and we just have to let it run its course. But luckily, the doctor said the worst of it is over and she should be better in the next few days! Thank goodness! As for Gordon and I, who knows. We're taking all our vitamins and airborne, plus the occasional sudafed (for Gordon) and benadryl (for me...due to breast feeding). I hope we're better soon!

Oh, and I ran 10k today! Probably not with the best time, but hey, who cares? I did it without stopping! Probably going to be sore tomorrow...

Our trip to Canada!

We had lots of fun traveling to Ottawa these past few days and are already itching to go back and visit! We did lots of fun stuff and took many photos. After a few days of all three of us visiting, Gordon had to travel back home to Idaho so he wouldn't miss too many classes. Brooke and I stayed 5 more days. On our return flights home, Chelsea (my younger sister) travelled with us and will be here for a month! Woo hoo! We love aunty Chelsea. AND, we got upgraded to business class on our flight into Salt Lake, so we got the comfy chairs, dinner, free movies, hot towels, the works! I'm telling you, its the only way to fly! It'll be hard to fly in coach again, thats for sure! Here are just a couple of photos from our trip!

Grandma and Grandpa Ernhofer with their great grand children!

Great Grandpa Ernhofer holding Brooke, his 2nd great grand-daughter.

My entire family went to go feed some ducks and go for a picnic in downtown Ottawa on a freezing cold and windy day! We forgot our snuggli at home, so Gordon sat Brooke in his jacket to try and keep her warm!

Feeding the ducks

A family photo while feeding the ducks. Brooke looks almost surprised! Funny face!

When we have gone to feed the ducks in the past, we are lucky if we see swans, and really lucky if you see black swans! When we were throwing our bread to the ducks, the swans were stealing it!

Everyone by the river

Just a cute photo I wanted to include of my 2 loves!

My cousin, Evan, holding Brooke at a family dinner.

My parents have a high chair that was a little too big for Brooke, so we had to put a pillow behind her and strap her in with a belt! Totally old school.

My aunty Valerie with Brooke.

4 generations. We just had to get a photo like this. My Oma didn't make it to our wedding, so she and her beau, John, came up this time!

Me and my girls! Awesome friends from Ottawa that I grew up with! This was taken at Katarina's wedding reception. (From left to right, Abby, Brynne, Katarina, Lauren, Lindsey)

Camping at Algonquin Park was freezing, too! We only ended up staying 1 night cause we couldn't take it! This was taken one morning when we went for a stroll to the beach. Its really a wonderful place to camp and spend summers, except when its bitterly cold!

This is something we all grew up doing while at Algonquin- feeding the chipmunks. Zoe and Keegan especially loved doing it. Although, this year, the chipmunks were a little crazy! Like climbing the side of the kitchen tent, or sitting on our lawn chairs! They were quite the friendly creatures!

Pine-Wood Derby Race!

So, besides getting shot two saturdays ago, I also raced two cars in my ward's pine-wood derby race. I competed in two of the four brackets: Traditional rules, and Anything Goes. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed working on my car. Below are some pictures that display the process I took to make my anything goes car (Flash). On the day of the race they weighed it at 498 grams. the traditional cars can only weigh 142 grams. Needless to say, I added a lot of lead.

For the Traditional rules bracket, I just grabbed one of my cars that I have had since Boy Scouts and reapplied graphite powder and polished the axels.

The funny part about this is that I won both races. No one had built an Anything goes car, so I won by default and I'm ok with that. My other car competed with about 10-12 other cars and managed to win. I was shocked. I won a huge bag of Skittles and a $20 gift card to Apple-bees. I'm glad I decided to do it.

I hollowed out the middle of the car and left the walls up for support and to hold the lead in.

This is just to show how much lead I used. There are 28 pieces of lead sitting in there.

I borrowed a torch and held each piece of lead with my needle-nose pliers while dripping the lead in as evenly as I could.

This is just after I finished melting it. It's burnt around the edges because not all of the pieces that fell in were below the height of the walls. I had to melt it even more so that there wouldn't be pieces sticking up.

After it cooled I filled it in with wall putty and let it dry to I could sand it down nice and smooth.

These are the two cars. I painted Flash red and tried to put a yellow lightning bolt on the front. Trying to do that reminded my why I'm not an artist. It looked like I spilled mustard on the car.

Here he is.... he's a beauty!!