More Catch Up

Here is the rest of my catching up from this month. We have had a lot of fun. A few weeks ago we went to the Treehouse museum in Ogden. It is right across the street from the Ogden Temple and it was so much fun. The whole place is interactive for kids. They can drive fire trucks, see fish, climb in a giant tree and drop parachutes onto a target below. There are several houses decorated with fun things to do from countries around the world (Mexico, England, Japan, Kenya, China, Argentina), a life size tee pee with a drum to play, a cow to milk, horses to ride, a musical instrument room, a room with a new art project each day, and so much more. It was pretty reasonably priced too. Ethan had a blast!

This was in the Japan House. You could also play chopstick games.
Safari in the Kenya House
When you milk the cow, water really comes out. It was pretty realistic!
Yee Haw!
I think we will definitely visit the Treehouse again. It was great.

This is just a dress we really liked on Maddie. It came from Grandma Mendes.

A friend of mine gave me this idea--she actually brought the cookie dough for us. You use food coloring to make cookie dough bright colors, then kids can use it like play-dough and really bake cookies with the things they make. Granted, if kids are squishing and playing with it, you might not use these cookies to take to your next-door neighbors, but it is so much fun and they can eat the finished product. Here are a few things we made.



These pictures were taken just a couple days ago. Madeline is now 4 months old. It's hard to believe how fast time goes!

Catching up

Back in December we went to a great exhibit in the museum of Church History and Art. It is across the street just west of Temple Square. The exhibit is called "I am a child of God" and it is full of fun interactive things to do for kids. Here are some pictures of it:

You can dress up and be part of the Nativity

They can take puzzle pieces out of the scriptures to see picturesTake care of babies in a nurseryThis is the Sunday before Christmas at our house
We had Christmas Eve at my parent's house. Ethan got a big boy potty. He hasn't been too excited about actually using it--but it definitely makes a fun toy!

This is Madeline on Christmas Eve--also her 3 month birthday.
Christmas at Jana's Grandma's house
A lady from my mission (Noemi Grau--right) was in town. She has a daughter that lives in Salt Lake who had a baby in November so Sis. Grau has been here for a couple of months. We got together with her at my trainer's house (Melissa Chipman--middle) for dinner. It was so fun to see her. When you serve somewhere as far as Paraguay you don't assume you'll ever see some of these people again in this life. But how fun when you do!
At Jana's family's house

My New Favorite Bread

I love making bread for my family. When Ethan was born he had a milk protein allergy, so I couldn't eat a lot of things, or the milk protein would end up in my milk. So around that time I got into making bread. There are some great recipes, but the problem is, it takes about 3-4 hours out of your day. Well, we had some ladies come to a relief society night and teach us a new recipe that really gives you a delicious homemade loaf of bread in an hour. It is awesome! You can use it for everything from a regular loaf of bread, to pizza crust, to rolls, to pastries (I love their cream cheese braid. Their website is http://www.pantrysecrets.net/ and their blog is www.howtomakebread.blogspot.com. I think you can find recipes there, but I haven't checked it out too much. They do have some different ingredients that are a little harder to find, but it is so worth it.

Here are a few pictures of some things we've made.


2/3 wheat, 1/3 white bread
Cream Cheese Apple Pie Braid
Here is the stuff they made the night they taught us: Their pizza was to die for!

Madeline's Blessing Pictures

Here are some pictures we had taken of Madeline in her blessing dress. These were taken the second week of December. Madeline was 2 1/2 months old.