Lessons from Disneyland

1.  Go with Kristin Smith

If you are going to spend the time and expense to visit Disneyland, you should go with this delightful lady.  She knows all the secrets of success and she never tires of the fun at the happiest place on earth.  Seriously, our vacation was so much better because of her.  She planned the order of rides, which rides the the little kids could go on when they couldn't ride with the big kids, and she taught us how to us fast-pass successfully.  Because of Kristin, we hardly waited in line, and we did way more fun stuff than we thought possible.  Thank you, Kristin! 

2.  You don't need a friend in the diamond business,
     You need a friend from Southern California.
It will probably save you more money...depending on how many kids you have!  :)

 

We were really happy that we were able to save $$ with the SoCal discount.

3.  Capture every fun moment with your camera!
This means you will be taking a lot of pictures.
(Kudos to those of you who have the stamina to look at all of ours.)

 

 

4.  If you are going to take a baby, take a newborn.
 They will sleep the whole time.

 This is one of two pictures of Hazel awake.  The rest of the time she slept in the front pack, like this:

(She is the baby you do not see inside the blue sling.)

4.  Visit with some characters.

 Elliot was a little too shy to meet this storm trooper face to face.

 ♪ ♫ I'm Chip, I'm Dale, we're just a couple of crazy rascals out to have some fun...♪ ♫ 

 

 (Molly was too busy coloring to have many pix taken with the characters.  So this one, Horace, sat and colored with her.  He drew the following picture for us, we just had to hand him the crayons.)

 

  5.  Take a nap in the middle of the day.

You really will enjoy the fireworks so much more if you do.  I promise.
We tried it both ways.  See #6.

6.  When the shoe falls in the water, go home.
If you should be so foolish as to not take a nap, and then you should ride Small World...this could happen to you:
We were waiting in line.  Anna was dancing around.  Her shoe fell off.  Into a boat.  The nice lady in the boat tried to throw it back to us, but she had terrible aim.  So it just bounced off a railing, into the water.  I muscled my way through the line to tell the ride operators.  They promised to rescue the shoe.  We rode the ride (I don't think I saw a thing in Small World, I was too busy looking in the water for that stupid shoe).  When we emerged from the ride, the cast members were holding the lost shoe.  I cheered.  Then I heard a collective gasp.  I turned to see Elliot fall out of the boat.  I am not making this up.  Aunt Kristin said, "I've never seen that happen before."  The night went downhill from there, culminating in me trying to carry two (crying) babies back to the hotel, only to find that I was locked out.  We had to wait to get into our hotel for 45 minutes.  I am sure all of that drama could have been averted if we had taken a nap.  :)

7.  Enjoy the details
This is for the grown-ups, the kids will be too busy having fun to even notice. 

 

There is actually a baby duck just outside the picture.  This momma had 13 babies.  My brood feels small by comparison.  

  

Total Fun: 10 grams

 

Jill used to say, "Bib Bodi da Boo."

 

This must have been how Elliot rode Small World.

 I want to live in Toad Hall.

 

Sugar, Salt, and Fat (truth in labeling).

7.  If you are going to go all the way to California, 
Don't forget to visit the beach.
If you are lucky, you might run into an awesome family called the Rudds.  I heard they go there every year. 

 

8.  Gratuitous Flashback Photos
You should take some of them.

 

Jill in December 2005

Jill (and co) in May 2012

Molly in December 2005

 Molly in May 2012

Baby Hazel

March 10 was a BIG DAY for Hazel Smith.

She went from black and white,

to color.

She barely made it in time to be born on the 10th, she was born only 10 minutes to midnight.
She weighed 8 lbs 10 oz, and was 20 in long.

She was fabulously beautiful and everyone loved her.

She was born chubby, which is the best way. See her double chin?

Here she is, eyes open, ready to explore the world. . .

for a minute at least, until she falls asleep.

I love you baby Hazel!!

p.s. Yes, it is true, we got pulled over on the way to the hospital. We were speeding because I was really worried that we would have the baby in the car. Turns out, if you roll down your window and yell "I'm going to have a baby in the car!!" to the officer, he will not give you a speeding ticket. In fact, he won't even check your registration and license. And yes, I really did have her about 15 mins after getting pulled over. Good thing the hospital was close. :)

Nesting

So I have been nesting. Which is normal for a pregnant lady who is ready to deliver any day now. It's just that my nest has taken me 3 years! (I wasn't pregnant for that whole time, although sometimes it feels like it.)

This is a picture of Molly and Jill's room right after we moved it.

We got the dresser from ksl.com and it was very functional and sturdy, but not very pretty. The beds I love, but the comforters were freebies that were ... not exactly the style I wanted. Also, we needed curtains for light control and privacy. And I really wanted the girlies to have a chair for reading, or rather, a chair for a grown-up (Daddy) to sit on while reading aloud.

So, little by little I found things or made things or made things over. It was fun, but I wish I was much faster at it (a la Trading Spaces in 48 hours). But, my goal was that it at least had to be finished before the baby came and SUCCESS! I finished just in time.



Thanks to my awesome neighbor, Aly, I learned some good techniques for painting the dresser. (I didn't want it to be all brush-stroke-y, but I couldn't find a very good selection of greens in the spray paint section.) She pointed me toward this stuff that you add to your paint that slows the drying time, so your brush strokes fade away. It worked great. She also recommended the wax paste, which gives it a nice finish, much better than just that latex feeling.
Disclaimer: Molly and Jill found the butterfly and fairy (Molls prefers to spell it faerie) pictures at DI. I really didn't like them, but sometimes you have to be nice and let your kids choose at least some part of their bedroom decor, right? And they were only $1.



I made these twin quilts for the girls. I loved the pattern and it seemed really easy (it was). But it turned out to be much more time consuming than I would have thought. However, I enjoyed cutting and sewing while I listened to (several) General Conferences. I don't think you can tell very well from the picture, but the circles have a raw edge that I think will be really fun once they have been washed a few more times. And these are made out of my favorite kind of fabric, Aunt Gracie, which is reproduction 1930's. My friend Andrea really helped me out with these as well, because she told me about a basting spray that both simplified and sped up the process of quilting. (I just couldn't bring my self to pin-baste these babies with my huge, enormous belly.)



Another, admittedly gratuitous, photo of the quilts.



My kids are big readers and the main problem we were having with bunk beds was the lack of nightstand. I was constantly finding books all over in the beds, or even worse, in the crack behind the bed. (Yes, we got a few library fines for that.) Anyway, one of the ladies in my ward posted on her blog about these handy-dandy, wall mounted, book-holders. They are made using the hardware for double rod curtains, dowels, and not that much fabric. I added the pockets to the design for the "treasures" that I knew would inevitably accumulate in there anyway. I used the same fabric as the quilts.



So I got the curtains from DI and added black out fabric to the back. I think everybody should have blackout curtains in their bedroom. It is just so nice to make it really dark whenever you need to sleep. If you are sick and really want to take a good nap, for example. Or if you are under 10 and need to go to bed when it is still light in the summer. Blackout curtains really help.

The chair was the last thing I wanted to complete the room. I looked and looked at the millions of chairs on ksl.com and I didn't see anything I liked. Until one day...I saw this awesome flowery beauty. But the lady had two chairs and an ottoman and she wouldn't break up the set. I posted her ksl add on my facebook and found a friend who wanted the other chair. I don't think I've ever worked so hard to get something from ksl.com. But I'm really glad, because I think the chair adds a lot to the room.

So there we have it. A totally girly bedroom that hopefully my girls will love for at least 3 more years (cause you know it's going to take me at least that long to change it again!)

Halloween, or, You Have to Choose

I just read this article, http://segullah.org/daily-special/boo-humbug/ which I thoroughly enjoyed and mostly agreed with. I too am "Boo Humbug!"

It seems like everything is so over the top these days. And Halloween is one of those things that I can only stand in really, really small doses.

But basically, what I think it comes down to, is that no matter what you choose to do, you have to be purposeful about it.

Husband and I have discussed the options and come up with what we feel works best for our family.

We do a very minimal amount of Halloween decorating. The paper-plate skeleton and two jack-o-lanterns are it. I wouldn't have even done the skeleton, but the kids begged and I thought it would be a good family-bonding-time craft.

The kids have to choose their costumes from out of our dress-ups.

We only go trick or treating once, on Halloween day so we skip out on second, third, and fourth options for trick-or-treating and costume wearing.

I made really small Halloween bags, and when the bags are full (usually about an hour of trick-or-treating) we are done. (I am just going to say it "What the heck is the deal with pillow cases for candy collecting?")

Here's how I have solved the candy problem. The day after Halloween, my kids and I dump all the candy into a bowl and sort it into piles. This relieves their need to check out and discuss what they collected. Then they are each allowed to choose 10 candies to keep. We go one at a time starting with the youngest and each child takes one candy each round. This way, they get a fair chance to get what they really wanted. Plus they get lots of anticipation time while they wait for their siblings to choose. This really does make the candy taste better, I swear! :) Taking only 10 candies means that I can handle it if they eat all their candy in one day, but it is a great opportunity to talk about delayed gratification and the pleasure of making it last.

So what do we do with all the extra candy? I'm glad you asked. We put it into a box and tuck it into the back of the pantry and save it for decorating our gingerbread houses which is a favorite Christmastime tradition around here. My kids love making ggb houses and more candy means that they can make them even cooler. And if all of the chocolate candy doesn't make it til December...oh well. ;)

Fall = Canning

This year I canned:
21 quarts of Salsa (with tomatoes from my garden, but not peppers and onions...they didn't do very well).
34 quarts of applesauce (from my friend's orchard. Thank you, Andrea!)

and 20 quarts of apples for pie (the kids loved helping me with the apple corer-peeler-slicer).

The kids enjoyed eating the apple peels,

as well as snitching from the finished sliced apples.

24 quarts of marinara (also from my garden)

I can't wait til next year, when I will finally have peaches to can as well! :)

Canning is messy, as you can see. But I wish I could post the smell! Oh so heavenly!



Here are my recipes for salsa and marinara:

Aunt Jane’s Salsa

8 cups tomatoes

1 large onion

4 peppers, seeded

2-3 jalapeno peppers, seeded (use rubber gloves!)

½ bunch cilantro

15 oz tomato paste

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 ¼ tablespoons salt

1-2 tablespoons lemon juice

Blend first 5 ingredients, and add to large stock pot.

Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to boil, then simmer for ½ an hour.

Fill jars with salsa, remembering to leave headspace.

Place in canner for recommended amount of time.

Marinara Sauce

4 onions

3 green peppers

1 ½ cups oil (veggie or olive)

1 ½ teaspoons pepper

8-10 C tomatoes

4 cloves garlic, minced (I just use the minced garlic from Costco)

3 tablespoons salt

4 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons of oregano, basil, thyme (get spices from the Winco bulk section)

12 bay leaves

2, 12 oz cans tomato paste

Blend up the onions and peppers in a little of the oil. Simmer them in all of the oil, and add ground pepper.

In a large stock pot add:

Tomatoes blended

Garlic, salt, sugar, herbs,

the onion pepper mix

Bring to a good rolling boil and add the tomato paste. Remove bay leaves.

Fill jars with sauce, remembering to leave headspace.

Place in canner for recommended amount of time.

Here are a few canning tips I've picked up over the years:

FREEZING TOMATOES

If you do not have enough tomatoes come on at once to do multiple batches, you can skin the tomatoes and then freeze them in a ziploc bag until you have enough. You simply boil the tomatoes for 1 minute, then put them immediately into ice cold water (this is called “blanching”). Their skins will crack and you can easily peel them off. Put the whole skinned tomatoes in a Ziploc bag and freeze. Remember to get them out to thaw a day in advance.

PURCHASING EQUIPMENT AND JARS

DI has jars all the time, except at canning season. They are usually $ .50 each. I got a bunch off of ksl.com for free, I just had to empty out the old contents.

You can buy jars with lids and rings at most grocery stores during canning season, but it is much cheaper to buy the lids new (you need new lids every year) and get used rings and jars. You do not need a ring for every jar in storage, only at least one for each spot in your canner. I don’t buy rusty or bent rings. When buying used jars, check the rim for chips. It will not seal properly otherwise. Personally I try to only buy narrow mouth jars, because then I only have to buy one kind of lid and ring.

I did see a few steam canners on ksl.com. But they are not that expensive to buy new. I found them at Walmart and amazon.com for about $35 and that includes the extra tools you need as well. I have had mine for about 8 years, so they are pretty sturdy.

When your jars are empty, throw away the lids and store them upside down. This saves a ton of time cleaning later.

CANNING DAY

I prefer to get my canning over in one or two days (per type of food). So I like to big batches. It doesn’t take that long to do one batch, but I figure once I’ve got all the equipment out and heated up my stove I might as well spend the whole day and do as much as possible. You are more productive if you check all your supplies the night before and stock up if necessary. It’s annoying to have to stop canning to run get more tomato paste. Also, canning is more fun with a friend (or at least an audiobook).

Save a few cents

So, I recently made a discovery. You know those felt thingeys that you put on the bottom of your chairs?

Yeah, those.
Well mine have a tendency to get really dirty, really fast. Like so dirty that you can't move the chairs cause they are sticking to the floor. Anyway, we have to replace them often. The other day I needed replacements and I had this ingenious idea.

The felt tabs are pretty thick and I discovered you can cut them in half and they still work. So now I am getting twice the usage for my money.

You can use this idea too. You're welcome. :) You'll be saving literally ones of dollars!

Just for the record, I am cheap, yes. But not pointlessly so. I prefer to save my money on the dumb stuff so I can spend it on cool things, like this:

We used to have a plain wall on our landing. Now we have these great bookshelves for bedtime reading. Yay!! I think it was worth all the felt trimming and other assorted weird, cheap stuff I have tried.