Beautiful Birds!

Since we have put a birdfeeder in our backyard a plethora of birds have come for snacks. I've also discovered some beautiful birds in my backyard that I didn't even know existed. In this picture of our birdfeeder, a bluebird is waiting on the deck patiently as a northern flicker is eating.  The northern flicker is SO beautiful.  I have made a bird collage (because really, what else do I have to do) to show you some of these birds.  The mallard duck does not come to our bird feeder but is at the pond close to our house so I think that counts.

My pictures don't do them justice. The birds are striking in their beauty.  Okay....enough about the birds already. 

Jenna will be baptized on Sunday and Matthew will be dedicated. I don't know what Sarah will get?
It should be a wonderful Sunday!  We believe Jenna is ready and we are excited for her to take this step.  Our pastor met with her today and asked her what sin she has committed (to see if she understood the concept of sin). She said "not being nice to her sister".  Then he asked her questions of repentence which she understood.  I'm amazed at what she understands at 6!

I ordered a cake with a picture of all the kids on it.  Erik is not excited to eat a cake with the kids on it.  He would rather I made a yummy chocolate cake but such is life.

Tonight for dinner I made pancakes and put vanilla pudding mix in the batter.  Those pancakes were awesome!  Jenna and I both ate 4 pancakes!!  That is a record!

61 points on Quiddler today and I got to make the word "blimey".

My lazy week

The girls went to my parents house for a few days.  They had a fabulous time seeing movies, going to a museum, and going out to eat.

I, of course, thought this would be a great time to get caught up on cleaning, laundry, and go to the gym for exercise. 

Nope.

I sat on the couch and read with a cup of hot chocolate.

And it was glorious!

Some books I have read/am reading:

1. The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers. This was a fantastic book and a quick read.  The main character was raped and the book followed her struggle on whether or not to have the baby.  She ends up having the baby and I cried!  I loved it!
2. Sea of Monsters and The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan.  Yes, I admit it. I love young adult fiction! These books are 2 and 3 of the Percy Jackson series.  I'm on book 4 and loving it!
3. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. This is a fabulous book we are reading with our CO* book club. We are about halfway through and I really like his writing.  The story is interesting and I'm excited to see what happens - he is a good storyteller!
4. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark.  This book is very English and I love English things!  I like having insight into the way English think about things.  I'm not sure if this is still true but in the book I get the feeling they hate the French and view Wales as we view West Virginia (eg. backwards).
5. What the Bible is all About by Henrietta Mears.  I'm still in this book and enjoying it very much.  I'm reading about proverbs now.  I recommend this book highly!

In other news, Matthew said Mama. The more exciting thing is that I got it on video. It is at the very end while he is rolling around. I really think he said Mama (maybe I want it to be true!).

I am also contemplating doing Bible Study Fellowship next year.  Each year there is a different study (for a total of 8 years). They are very in-depth and I've heard it is life changing.  I want a life-changing Bible study.  Sign me up!   They also have Bible study for kids so Sarah and Matthew would be learning the same books of the Bible the adults would study just at their level. I think it sounds wonderful.

67 points on Quiddler today and no bonuses!

Woo is Cute

My little man is 9 months old!  He is sitting up really well and crawling backwards.  He has also acquired the nickname of "woo".  I'm not sure how or why but he really is a "woo".  I need to brainstorm better nicknames or my limericks about him will have the word "poo" in them and that's just no good.

Matthew also loves Scruffles. I mean LOVES Scruffles. He laughs whenever he sees Scruff and squeals in delight when Scruff looks at him.  Matthew will be an animal lover just like the girls. Jenna's new profession of choice is zookeeper.

Last night Erik and I went on a date to Cantina Laredo.  It was expensive yummy Mexican food.  They made guacamole right at our table - which was delicious and very cool.  We gave Matthew some and he tolerated it.  We also got dessert.  It was a 6 layer chocolate cake.  It was so incredibly delicious that I felt like I was floating as I was eating it (yea...it was that good). 

Erik and I have gotten the chocolate cake from Max and Ermas.  It is a 8 layer chocolate cake but the cake from Cantina Laredo was better.  They both are decadent.

This has brought me to a very important decision:

I have decided to make it my mission to try layered chocolate cake at restaurants. 

I owe it to everyone. 

I will make this sacrifice.

I will determine the best layered chocolate cake in Columbus and of course, make a top ten list!

I have also included a picture of my 3 kids.  Seriously. Can anyone have kids this cute? I think not.

74 points on Quiddler today!

Sarah and Star Wars

Sarah has been obsessed with Star Wars since we went to a Star Wars party at the library.  We watched Star Wars tonight and Sarah ran away several times when Darth Vader showed up on the screen.  But at other times she was glued to the TV loving the movie! Yes... a 3 year old watched Star Wars :).  It was fun.  And scary.

Jenna asked too many questions and talked constantly. At one point in the movie she said she didn't really know what was going on. To which I replied "if you would pay attention instead of talking you might know!".

Anyway - this is a video of Sarah discussing how she would beat Darth Vader (because she is so menacing...).

Unfortunately Erik was gone playing racquetball during the movie so I had three kids on me wanting to cuddle.  I love cuddling but there is only so much room in my lap. 

Erik has been playing racquetball every week with Nick.  I've been amazed at how muscular his legs have gotten.  Tonight he burned 950 calories playing racquetball.  Wow!  I could eat 10 cheesecakes if I burned that many calories (maybe not).

I just got Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan from the library.  Yea!! The second Percy Jackson book.  I can't wait to read it.

I made the word "toker" on Quiddler today.  One of my favorite songs is The Joker by Steve Miller band so I was SO happy Toker was an actual word :). 86 points!

Iron Chef Battle: Nacho Cheese!

Erik and I tried something new with iron chef.  We did a dual iron chef with the same secret ingredient. We discussed the secret ingredient together and then bought it and had an hour to make our dishes.  Our secret ingredient was:

Nacho Cheese

Erik's favorite type of food is Mexican so this secret ingredient made him very happy.  I like cheese too so we're all good.  We approached this secret ingredient in two totally opposite ways.  He used a lot of fresh vegetables, cilantro, tomatillos, etc whereas I made more comfort foods (that actually featured the nacho cheese better but we won't get into that). 

He made:

1. Mexican pancakes.  Ummmm.... yes he did.  He put taco seasoning in pancake mix and made taco pancakes. Then put nacho cheese,  fresh salsa, and whipped cream on top of that with freshly grated lime zest.  Mexican pancakes.  Weird.  That's Erik.  I love him!
2. Cilantro lime nacho cheese dip.  This dip had cream cheese, nacho cheese, cilantro, tomatoes, and lime juice.   Erik loved this dip the best - it was creamy and flavorful.
3. Shrimp tacos.  Erik mixed shrimp and some fresh veggies and put them on corn tortillas.  Then topped it with nacho cheese.  The shrimp and fresh veggie combination was fabulous (it was my favorite!).  However the nacho cheese actually hurt the dish. So I think this one would have been better with a different secret ingredient.

I made:

1. Mexican lettuce wraps.  I love lettuce wraps - yum!  We had them when I went to P.F.Changs with my friends Leslie, Kimberly, and Erica.  So I wanted a twist on traditional lettuce wraps.  I made chicken with taco seasoning then put that along with some fresh veggies and nacho cheese in a lettuce leaf.  This was so yummy.  Erik loved it too!
2. Mexican lasagna.  Lasagna and peanut butter are my favorite foods. Before you get scared that I put peanut butter in lasagna, that was just fyi.  Anyway, I made a Mexican lasagna by layering corn tortillas, refried beans, nacho cheese, and fire roasted tomatoes.  This was yummy but Erik said it was a little too one-dimensional.  I'm not sure what else I should have added though.
3. Chipotle mac-n-cheese. Oh my!  This was HOT HOT HOT!  I made mac-n-cheese with nacho cheese and velveeta cheese. Then added chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Wow was this hot.  It was very good but a little too hot.  The girls wouldn't even eat it.
4. Nacho cheesecake.  Yes - I did it.  I also love cheesecake (along with lasagna and pb). I crushed tortillas and added butter and used that as the crust.  Then mixed nacho cheese, cream cheese, sour cream and egg for the cheesecake. It was actually good.  Really :).

This was a success!  The girls also made dishes as well. I gave them pie crusts, strawberries and bananas.  They made their own dishes and had fun with that.  Matthew napped.

We are going to do dual iron chefs again.  It was fun to see how we both interpreted the same secret ingredient.

Also, I made a brownie chocolate pie. Tomorrow is pi day 3/14 and I had to make a pie. Obviously!  Erik and I already dug in :).  You'd think after all that nacho cheese we couldn't eat anymore but we managed. Since I haven't exercised in 3 weeks my pants are tight.  I'll be able to exercise again next semester. This semester with 5 classes is too much (obviously exercise was the first thing to go!).

Recipe for brownie chocolate pie:

pie crust

5 squares unsweetened chocolate

1 1/2 sticks butter

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup heavy cream

I melted the chocolate and butter in the microwave. Then added the rest of the ingredients. Pour in the pie crust.  Cooked it for 30 minutes at 350°F.  Yum-O!

In more serious news - the tsunami in Japan looks devastating.  I saw this video and thought it was very scary

66 points on Quiddler today.

There are teeth, really!

I have tried unsuccessfully to get a picture of Matthew's two teeth.  He really does not like it when we try and get a picture (obviously).  He does have two teeth though. I promise. However I don't see much more solid food than baby food in his future. He really doesn't like anything with texture - not even yogurt.  At some point I hope he eats - I can't have three kids who don't eat.  I love to eat - what's the deal?

He is rocking back and forth like he's going to crawl any day. He can actually crawl backwards just not forwards.  Here is a video of him rocking back and forth a little bit. I'm just loving this stage.  I love 8 months - they are too cute.  Of course 6 and 3 yrs are also cute. Check out my super cute girls at ballet. 

I'm very excited for their ballet recital. This will be the last year they will be in the same recital.  After this year, Jenna will be in the main show (since she will be in first grade).  Sarah will be in the mini-show if she still wants to do ballet next year.  They do have all boys tap classes so if Matthew wants to tap he can!  You get a discount for the more kids you have enrolled - not a bad idea.

On a different topic, I'm very excited that a paper I have written was accepted through the first round of peer reviews for a conference I want to attend in October.  I will find out in May if my paper is accepted for publication which will be very exciting!  The conference should be good too.  I'm also thinking of working on some research and writing a paper for the Las Vegas conference I attended in 2009.  I learned so much and had such a good time!  Hubby came too for that conference and worked in the hotel room while I conferenced (if that is a verb).

Today is the first day of Lent.  I wish the Pentacostal church would get on the ball and observe Lent as well. It's such a great time of Spiritual spring cleaning. I love Lent!  Today I went to the Ash Wednesday service at St. Joan of Arc near my house. I love the Ash Wednesday service and St. Joan of Arc is such a wonderful church.  I think Jenna is old enough to go to Stations of the Cross this year.  I'm excited to take her. 

This year I am giving up coffee for Lent.  I tried to think of something that Matthew really didn't need (as I am still pumping) and he really doesn't need the caffeine in coffee (I guess I don't need it either).  I love hot tea though so I'll be drinking lots of tea!

82 on Quiddler today and I got to make the word "plaid".  "Plaid" is just such a cool word. I like it as much as I don't like "yolk". Really, who likes the word "yolk"?