A Visit from Grandpa Dixon and Uncle Logan!

Yesterday I said goodbye to my Dad and Brother, who I won't see again for another year. It was a short visit--only 3 days, and it went by way too fast! They came for Heidi's baby blessing! We waited until she was 4 months to bless her, knowing that they would be coming to town. Leila sure loved being the center of their attention!

We had a lovely family dinner following the blessing. We had 22 people in addition to the baby in our small apartment. We all had so much fun mingling, eating, and watching Leila and her cousin show off with singing, dancing, and somersaults!

*pictures from the family dinner will go here :) *

We went to The Museum of Natural Curiosity (My dad, brother, Leila, and Heidi, along with my cousin and her daughter) at Thanksgiving Point and had a blast! Wearing kids out like that is great fodder for a good nap! My favorite part about this particular visit was having Leila and Heidi play together in the baby water table in the WaterWorks wing! It was so cute seeing them play together and to have Heidi interact with her environment!

Whenever my Dad is in town, it's a tradition for us to go to one of the all-you-can-eat buffets, since the only buffets in Canada are Chinese food only (. . .which is good. . .unless you don't want Chinese). So we pigged out at Golden Corral and it was actually good this time! My favorite were the tacos. . .mmm. . .I want one now!

And because my Dad and Brother were in town for such a short period, we lived it up by going to the aquarium the next day! Unfortunately, Leila girl was in a sour mood, so we had to do our best to enjoy the aquarium despite her mood, rather than feeding off of her contagious enthusiasm. To her credit, by the time I got everything in order and everyone out the door, it was a little late and she was probably itching for a nap by the time we got there :P It was a pretty amazing place though! I loved the penguins, otters, and sharks!

That night we went out for Sushi--it's great (and pretty amazing) that all of us love sushi! Then our plan was to go to Applebee's for Karaoke, but to my horror I found out that they stopped holding karaoke on Tuesday nights! LAME! I was so looking forward to my Dad and husband singing Garth Brooks together! SERIOUSLY!! So we went home and played King of Tokyo (a boardgame) which Logan got us for Christmas. So fun! Especially because I won 3 out of the 4 times we all played together :)

With all of the good times we had, I think my favorite part was just having them come to church with us on Sunday. Even after they drove through the night and arrived at our place sometime around 9am, they still stuck it out for all three hours of church! Sitting with them in the pew in sacrament meeting felt so natural, like that's just what we did together every Sunday! I sure liked having them around! I wish I could have kept them here, but more importantly, I'd really like to keep them for . . .forever.

Free From Gluten Free!

So. . .why am I posting pictures of my daughter eating food?!  And why do these pictures make me want to jump up and down, clap my hands and let out high pitched squeals like a giddy cheerleader?! I'll give you a hint in the form of a question. . .what do these pictures have in common?! Answer: They are all of my daughter eating GLUTEN! Hooray!!!! And dairy in one too! Hip Hip HOOORAY!!

Let me give you a little back story. You see, Leila came out of the womb crying. (So what?! doesn't every baby cry when they're born?) Yes. But the problem is, Leila didn't stop crying! I'd feed her and she cried, I'd feed her more and she cried, I'd burp her and she cried, I cuddled her and she cried, I swaddled her and she cried, I sang to her and she cried, I rocked her in my arms or in the carseat, and she still cried. This girl was relentless! And that time of my life was "hard". K that's obviously the understatement of the century. By "hard" I think I actually mean it wouldn't have been a good idea for me to drive too far up Provo Canyon, cuz driving off a cliff might have seemed more alluring than being screamed at by my own baby when I'm trying to calm her down. Ya. We cried a lot together back then. And I just believed what well-meaning people told me "every baby is born with a different temperament"--as a side note, I am flabergasted by how true that is after having my second baby! But there was more to it than that. It wasn't until my hubby and I went on a much needed escape. . .I mean, vacation to Thailand when Leila was 10 months old. My cousin watched her for those nine days. My cousin had watched Leila several times before so I could go to the temple or so Robby and I could go on a date. But whenever possible I would purposely drop her off when she was asleep in her carseat so that my cousin wouldn't have to be traumatized by a screaming baby and never want to watch her again. As time had passed there were some times when Leila would cry while in my cousin's care and my cousin would handle it like a champ! So then I thought "maybe I'm the problem, I'm just not strong enough to handle the stressors of mommyhood with the finesse that some people can!" In desperate need of a break and some time alone together, Robby and I left ten-month-old Leila with my cousin and we flew to Thailand!

This is the unsuspecting little miss, right before we dropped her off.

My cousin and I spoke on the phone. From what she related, it sounded like each of her five older children, her husband and herself were pretty much taking turns bouncing the crying baby from morning until night. She admitted that she just counted down the hours until Leila would go to sleep. At this news I felt a great deal of ambivalence. I felt horrible for my cousin, her whole family, and my baby. But I also felt a rush of relief! Like taking in a huge breath of air after being under water for too long. Someone empathized with me! Someone knew how I felt! Someone understood why I didn't love getting out of bed every morning. As much as I didn't wish those feelings on anyone, it was nice to feel normal.

Well, desperate times call for desperate measures. I think it was the next time I spoke with her she told me that she had stopped feeding Leila the breastmilk that I had stockpiled for the trip. She had also stopped feeding her foods containing either gluten or dairy--I don't recommend taking a child off of two allergens at once, it makes it hard to tell which one is causing the problem or if both are actually a problem. However, like I said, desperate times call for desperate measures and both her and I were desperate, so we were willing to try anything! The only down side was that this meant I would have to wean Leila. I was actually devestated by this because that was the only time that Leila was consistently not crying--when I was nursing her. However, it was a worthwhile sacrifice, as Leila's mood improved dramatically and therefore there were many points throughout the day when Leila wasn't crying! I wouldn't say that her temperament became such that life was puffy clouds and sunbeams, but it was different. In a very good way. 

So then came the challenge--feeding my child. No bread, goldfish, pretzels, animal crackers, graham crackers, cheerios etc. No yogurt, cheese, cheese sticks, sour cream, cream cheese, cream soups etc. what on earth was I going to feed this child?! At first I would have these panicked realizations that I had nothing in the house that my child could actually eat and I'd have to make a run to the store. But I got used to it eventually. I was grateful to get a pancake recipe from my cousin (as she and two of her children eat GF) and I adapted the recipe a bit. This soon became Leila's staple food. As time went on, I learned that the gluten-free food groups are: eggs, potatoes, fruit, vegetables, meat, and rice and we got a long just fine. However, there are so many things I like to make that contained gluten or dairy that I would often just make something different for Leila and make what I wanted for us.  It was a lot of work! And I don't miss telling other moms that their kid can't share his or her treats with Leila because she's allergic. All along I was hoping that it was just a sensitivity, but our early experiments to put her back on gluten and dairy didn't turn out well. Trying to put Leila back on dairy, I first tried yogurt (which has the lactose broken down more than milk, so it's supposed to be easier to digest). The first day I gave her a half teaspoon. She was fine! The next day I gave her a whole teaspoon. . .she threw up three times! Two weeks later I tried again, this time with Greek yogurt, which is supposed to be even easier to digest. I tried the same method: The first day I gave her a half teaspoon. She was fine! The next day I gave her a whole teaspoon. . .she threw up FOUR times! There were also a few times when she would go back to being really fussy for days and I would realize that something new I was feeding her had dairy in it. So after all that I was afraid to try dairy again. I also tried putting her back on gluten. I geared her up by having her take probiotics for several days beforehand. Then I gave her a "sacrament-sized" piece of bread (for those of you who are not LDS, that's a piece of bread about 1-inch long). The next day she woke up with hives from head to toe. So that scared me out of trying gluten again. 

But oh how I longed for Leila to eat like a normal girl! I wanted her to eat an all-American hotdog! I wanted her to be able to eat cake at birthday parties! I wanted to bake cookies with her and have her be able to taste the fruit of her labors! I wanted to try again, but. . .I just couldn't! At least not fully! I had started feeding her goats milk Kiefer which, like yogurt is supposed to be easier to digest and actually aid in the digestive process, and she had done fairly well on that. She would just have messier diapers at first, which eventually normalized. But when it came to putting her back on regular cows milk, I chickened out! I couldn't go back to that life of Leila constantly crying! Finally a couple months ago I told Robby "I think you are going to have to do it! I am just too scared to put her back on these foods!" He was thrilled to receive the go-ahead--he was sick of the headache all this was causing too! He knew the method I would prefer him to use--have her on probiotics for several days before, then start with a small portion and work up. But I didn't demand he do it that way. (We believe demanding is a currency you don't want to use too often in marriage or it loses its value). So one day I came home from something or other and he announced "I performed a unilateral experiment!"

"Did you GIVE her that WHOLE roll?!?!? . . .
Did she EAT that WHOLE roll?!?!?"
"Yes. Yes."

And what do you know? She did just fine! No hives. No fussiness. No funky diapers! Nothing!

A few weeks later I started her on dairy, beginning with cheese. With that one her diapers did start a little funky again, but they improved and she's now doing just great!

Just for kicks, I thought I would share this gluten free pancake recipe that saved my bacon for a year and a half!

Gluten Free Brown Rice Pancakes 

2 cups cooked brown rice* 
4 eggs 
1/3 cup coconut oil (other oils could probably be used as well) 
1 over-ripened banana (optional) 

1) Combine all ingredients in blender, blend until smooth and pourable. If it's too thick to pour nicely I will add another egg or two. 
2) Pour in four inch circles on griddle. Cook on low to medium heat (I put it on 4 on my stove) on the first side for five to ten minutes (or until the pancake is golden-brown). If I try to cook it at higher temperatures it is uncooked on the inside and burnt on the outside. It takes less time on the second side. 

*the softer the brown rice, the smoother the batter turns out. I like to soak my brown rice for 7+ hours before cooking it (so usually overnight). If I soak 2 cups of rice with 4 cups of water I end up with enough cooked brown rice to make this recipe 3 times. I just refrigerate what I don't use, then when I go to make pancakes, I measure out two cups of the cooked rice, add a little water, cover with plastic wrap and microwave it for a minute or so, so it's softer and easier to blend. 

Hmmm. . . writing this out makes me realize this is kind of a nit-picky recipe (or maybe I am, I dunno:) But it's easy to get used to.

First Haircut!

This is the before shot if you can't tell.

I don't know what it is about "firsts" that brings a tear to a Mommy's eye. . .I feel kinda lame about it! Maybe it's the realization that your baby isn't a baby anymore--they're growing up and learning and trying new things. Not only that, but doing new things with confidence! That happened to me twice in the past couple of weeks! The first was having Leila ice skate for the first time (with absolutely no fear and hasn't stopped talking about it since) and second was her getting her haircut for the first time ever! It's taken a long time for her to get to this point! Actually, no. It's taken me a long time to get around to getting her a haircut. Because although she was born bald and remained so for a good long while, truthfully, her hair has been pretty mullet-esc for awhile now!

This is Leila at about 2 1/2 weeks old

The girl who cut Leila's hair was impressed that she didn't cry. She said kids Leila's age normally do. Yay Leila! What a champ!

Since we're talking first haircuts, I just had to share this cute
picture of Robby getting his first haircut at about 20 months old!

Baking with My Little Sweetie

I've converted my little girl to a love of baking! Hooray! I have a live-in baking buddy! It's something we enjoy doing together and it's great because we can do it while the baby's sleeping. I love that we don't even have to leave home to have fun together! She'll say "find a recipe, Mom!" She loves making (and eating) cookies, which isn't surprising. But what is surprising is that she seems just as happy to sample each of the ingredients as to eat the finished product!

 This is her shamelessly dipping her finger into the sugar,
licking it, then dipping it again. Somehow this
girl manages to make even "double-dipping" look cute! 

At first she would ask me "what's that?" I would say "cocoa" or "flour" or "baking soda" etc. and each time she would respond with "I like that! I like (fill in the blank with just stated ingredient)". I knew she didn't know what she was talking about when she said she liked baking soda. It's quite a complex phenomenon that certain things just don't taste good on their own, or before the baking process takes place. But when she said she wanted some, I just couldn't resist. Aaaand I just had to ask Robby to pull out the camera :)

Two and a Half!

Today is Leila's half-birthday, making her two and a half years old! Believe it or not, I know what I was doing when I was exactly two and half years old! Just the other day, Leila and I were watching a video of Logan and I when we were little and my dad announces the date as September 19, 1986--my half birthday! We were finger painting, so I thought it would be fun to finger paint with Leila today! I'll try to also upload the video of Logan and I when I get a chance, that way you can form your own opinion as to whether or not the apple falls far from the tree :)

Freezer Meals

So this is the story--when I was anticipating the arrival of my precious second baby, I started getting nervous about this huge new transition that was about to take place. My mom wouldn't be arriving for a week and a half after the baby was born and I wasn't sure how I could handle a needy toddler, a needy newborn, recovering physically, and getting dinner on the table. Thankfully, Robby was around for the first couple of days. . .but I wanted to be prepared after that. I started making a few freezer meals, then started dreaming up visions of having yummy home-cooked meals on the table with little time and effort aaaaand I started getting a little carried away :) I ended up with 23 freezer meals in total! 

My baby is now more than 3 months old and I'm just now getting down to the last few! And my dreams have come true! Dinner has been gloriously easy whenever I want it to be! (At first, I dipped heavily into the freezer meals, but then started to alternate between freezer meals and ummm. . ."just-cooked-that-day meals" (I dunno what to call 'em, but you know what I mean). The beauty of freezer meals is that you can just double a recipe and eat one batch that day and freeze the other. That way, you're maybe putting in 20% more work for 100% more meal. So here are some of the freezer meals I made. My plan is to periodically update this list. So check back!

Turkey Sloppy Joe's
Chicken Pillows--maybe my all-time fav. recipe EVER!!! (freeze the filling and sauce and keep crescent dough in fridge, thaw filling when ready and continue with recipe)
PF Changs Lettuce Wraps (On my husband's top 5 list)
Chicken Broccoli Alfredo
The Most Flavorful and Moist Meatloaf 
Easy Calzones
Freezer Beef and Bean Burritos 
Italian Stuffed Shells
BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches
Tortellini Casserole (I cut up one of those U-shaped turkey sausages into this cuz we're NOT vegetarians :) and it was the perfect addition)
Chicken and Spinach Enchiladas
Slow Cooked Peanut Chicken
Cream of Tomato Soup
Beef Stroganoff 
Baked Potato Casserole Instead of bacon, I got some thick sliced ham from the deli and cut it into cubes, I think it was about half a pound. It was great! And that way I didn't have anything to cook up ahead of time!

You'll also notice I cheated a little with some purely store-bought freezer meals, some you can see, some you can't:

• I got some Marie Calendar's chicken pot pies for Robby for his lunches (from Costco). 
• I also got two packages of Chicken Tikka Masala from Costco--SOOOO good! . . .Like better than Bombay House--I'm not kidding! Also, it freezes well, and if you add a can of coconut milk to it, it'll stretch to give you 6 servings! 
• Birdseye Garlic Chicken Pasta (Also from Costco)
• Mixed berries from guess where?! Costco! I use these to have berry pancakes. You can get Krusteaz pancake mix from Costco, but I prefer the 10-grain pancake mix from the bulk bins at Winco. You just add a Tablespoon of oil, an egg, and a cup of milk or water and voila! You have breakfast for dinner (serve with fruit, eggs, turkey bacon, or whatever other breakfast food). 

Other Frozen Foods

• I wanted to make sure my gluten free princess had food to eat, so I froze chili (compliments of my lovely cousin) in muffin tins, then threw those in a ziploc bag; made gluten free brown rice pancakes by the dozens and froze those. . .I'm gonna post that recipe one of these days, and lots of corn tortillas.
• Cooked chopped chicken in 2 cup portions has been a lifesaver many times--so versatile. It can be thawed and used for BBQ chicken pizza, a casserole, Hawaiian Haystacks etc. etc. 
• Homemade banana muffins--I'm so glad I had these, because we had lots of stuff for meals, but our snack supply withered down very quickly! In fact, when my cousin and her kids came to visit the new baby, I pathetically asked if they would bring me a piece of fruit, cause I was dying for a healthy snack!

Hey! Share the love! If you have a favorite freezer meal that isn't posted, share it with me :)

Alfredo Chicken Pizza

My husband LOVES white sauce pizza, so I made this for him one day thinking I might get a good reaction. He came through :) He said this recipe was "a keeper!" This was a few months ago now and I keep thinking about it, so I figured it was worth blogging about! The sauce would go great with chicken and fettuccine too!

Also note that the sauce recipe leaves you with leftover cream cheese. I'm wanting to try these microwave cheesecakes in a mug--I'd have enough leftover cream cheese to make two of these babies for a hot "date" in :) 

To Make Pizza Dough 

(this makes enough dough for one pizza, double it if you want to use all the sauce in one go) 

1 tablespoon active dry yeast 

1 cup warm water (105-115 degrees) 

2 tablespoons olive oil 

1 tablespoon honey 

1/4 teaspoon salt 

2 1/2 cups all purpose or white whole wheat flour 

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. 

2. Mix yeast and water in a small bowl. Cover and let stand until foamy (about 5 to 10 minutes). 

3. Mix the oil, honey, and salt; add to yeast mixture and stir to combine. If using a food processor, add 1 cup of flour at a time, up to 2 1/2 cups, mixing well after each addition. Or mix in all the flour at once by hand (using a wooden spoon). 

4. Lightly grease pizza pan or cookie sheet with oil. Roll out the dough on a floured surface. Gently stretch the dough to fill the pan. 

5. Let the dough rise (it will not rise very much) while you make the sauce and prepare the toppings. I usually just place the pizza pan on top of the preheating oven. 

To Make Alfredo Sauce

2 tablespoons butter 

3 cloves minced garlic 

4 ounces cream cheese, softened 

1 cup skim milk 

1 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese 

garlic salt & pepper 

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. 2. Add cream cheese; cook 1 minute until mixture is smooth, stirring constantly with a whisk. 

3. Gradually add milk and cook 3 minutes or until thick and bubbly, stirring constantly. 

4. Add Parmesan cheese, stirring until cheese melts and sauce reaches desired consistency, about 2 minutes. Season with garlic salt and pepper to taste. 

Pizza Toppings (For 1 Pizza) 

several slices of ham 

2 cups cooked, cubed chicken 

4 slices cooked bacon, crumbled 

1/2 cup red or green onions, chopped 

2 cups mozzarella cheese 

1. Spread alfredo sauce onto pizza crust. Top with slices of ham, sprinkle with chicken. 

2. Sprinkle cheese on top; follow with bacon and onion. 

3. Bake in oven until crust is golden-brown (about 12-15 minutes) 

Adapted from Foodie Misadventures

Sassy Prayer

So if you haven't noticed, lately I've been blogging every day. That's because I made a goal to blog daily for a week! Then, hopefully that will get me into the swing of things to successfully accomplish one of my new years resolutions--to blog once a week this year! But with being on my fifth day in a row, I'm running out of things to write (at least things that would be quick to write about. . .aaand I wanna go to bed!)

So you're getting a jazzed up recent Facebook post (from December 23rd).

Leila tonight saying her prayers:

"No Mom! I want to say it by myself!" *That's my lil' miss independent!*
". . .Heavenly Father.
Thank you for this day.
Thank you for mommy. She's a great lady." *sweet! I got on the kid's good side!*
"Thank you for that she has a big nose." *K. . .come again?! I didn't know my nose was big! Hmmm. . .maybe she's not on my good side right now! :)*
"Thank you for God. I love him. He's a great boy." *Awww! But what a good girl!*
"Thank you for Jesus. He's a great boy." *Yep! She's a sweetheart!. . .big nose though?!*
*Well. . . 4/5 things being sweet isn't a bad ratio *

These are statues of me. . . and my nose. But then it makes me think--it might have something to do
with a two-year-old's perspective. The one on the right looks bigger doesn't it? Maybe because
 we're looking up at it?! Hmmm. . .yep, I think I'll tell myself that :)

photo from tourists360.com