Solei's First Post

I love Gamma Gamma Very much. This is a picture of Gamma Gamma and me at the airport hugging gamma gamma.

I like my new haircut because I like the way it feels and the way it looks. Mommy and Gamma Gamma gave me beauty salon. Daddy helped cutted my hair.

I love my haircut. I like this picture because I love going outside with mommy and daddy.

I like buddy buddy (Forster's nick name). I love when I hug him and hold him. I love when I play with him at Easter.

Rocketgirl's Fondue Recipes

I’ve gotten a trillion requests for my awesome fondue recipes. So instead of e.mailing everyone I know, I’m going to post it everywhere. For you, for Valentine's Day, because I’m just that awesome. You’re welcome.



This first one is my all-time favorite, friends from college will remember this at my many Fondue/Sushi parties. Husband doesn’t like it so much because he says I smell like onions for days afterwards, but it’s so tasty, I take the hit and forgo smooching for a few days. Since it has french onion dip in it, it tastes awesome with any bread, and any veggie.


Sharp Cheddar and French Onion Fondue
(I usually double this, but this is the singular version)

1 can cheddar cheese soup

1 cup sharp cheddar (I usually use more, just throw a bunch in a see how the consistency is)

8 oz french onion dip (since I usually double this, I use 16 oz sour cream and a packet of onion soup mix since it tastes way better than premade french onion dip, but if you do the singular, I’d use 8 oz sour cream and half a packet of onion soup mix, though I will add more for uber flavor)

a squirt of mustard

I suggest green peppers (and the red and yellow and orange ones), cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and sourdough bread, but anything goes, seriously.



Tomato Cheddar Fondue

1 can Italian Tomato soup ( or any Campbells tomato soup that is all flavored and yummy)

cheddar cheese - I don’t know how much, I just add until the consistency is nice and not too thick)

Super easy, super delicious, great with veggies and breads, I like fancy focaccia breads with cheese all over the top.



Easy Swiss

1 can chicken broth

Swiss shredded, tossed with flour

(optional, add some pressed garlic to the chicken broth before the swiss)
This is really easy get the chicken broth boiling first then add the cheese, but I have to do it slowly and make sure I don’t add too much or too little swiss because it gets too thick or too runny. But it’s so simple and delicious.


Then there’s this new aMAzing Fancy Gouda/Fontina Fondue Jane posted a few weeks ago here: http://isnowagoodtime.blogspot.com/2010/01/in-spirit.html - she’s been trying for years to perfect a fondue that does the Melting Pot justice, and it TOTALLY does!! I skipped the green onions and used a squirt of mustard instead of powdered and it was still awesome. I won’t repost it so you have to go and check her out, but rest assured, with Gouda and Fontina, it tastes so decadent and fancy, and I’ve made it twice now without screwing up up. That means it’s TOTALLY foolproof!!

Easiest Chocolate Fondue EVER
1 jar Nutella
3/4 cup milk
dash cinnamon
Yeah, that’s it. So easy, has that Nutella hazelnut goodness, and goes with anything you’d put with chocolate fondue. I love rice krispie treats, brownies, any fruit, and angel food or white cake.
So if you don’t have fancy plans or anything else, nothing make sa normal meal a party like fondue. Take my word for it, I may not be a cooking expert, but I know how to throw a par-tay :)

Yeah 5

Our 5th anniversary, seriously??  It was down to the wire on this one - it usually takes me 2 weeks to make the video, but I couldn't find the right music didn't think it was going to happen until yesterday.  It took a few hours, is a bit sketchy, but it captures the year nicely I think.

Phew.

PAGET FOR PREZ

The family got the best present ever - campaign shirts for Jared's 2012 Presidential Bid!!!  Thanks Florida Pagets!!!!  See, he writes him name in on his ballot every presidential year since he's pretty sure he's better than whatever candidates there are anyway.  But 2012 is the first year he'll actually be legally allowed to "run" since he's old and stuff.

Don't you love the mirror effect there, the duplicate smiles?  And see that belt around his middle?  That's the "Jared" belt Anna and Danny got him for Christmas a few years ago, and the new Mr. T belt buckle he got this morning from the Florida folk!

Show your support, get your Paget for President 2012 shirt today!!!

Awesomeness explained.

Fine. Y'all aren't interested in the fact that there are crazed murderers roaming our neighborhood. You just want happy fuzzy posts. Fine. But we don't have to be happy about it. Here's what happened while we were off having a way-cooler life than YOU:

Halloween. Fun party at the church. Candy was consumed. Solei threw up all over mommy that night. Mommy has now earned her mommy degree.

Living in the Middle Of Nowhere has a few perks, involving an adorable parade of kids down Main Street, trick or treating all the businesses. This time we ate less candy.

Pascal came to visit us. Because we are that awesome. Forster was thrilled.

Then we went to Atlanta to SELL OUR HOUSE. *cue choir of angels and gasps of shock and awe* While we were there we hung out with these people and ate sushi. Did you? Didn't think so. Chalk another point in the Us=Awesome column.

We had a sleepover with these friends. Words cannot express how much cooler they are than your friends. They can cook, entertain, play fiddle and somehow we left their house with enough clothing to fit Forster until he is 2 years old. Yup, we know how to pick the awesome friends.

And we hung out with Nana. She totally rocks the name Nana better than your Nana.

Created world-class art with Nana too.

Headed to Colorado to hang out with my family for Thanksgiving. Can your mom pull off this ensemble? No? Yea, my mom is just that awesome.

We ate Thanksgiving dinner. Did you? Oh, you did? Well, you get one point then. But we're still leading.

Then I got a surprise party since I lived 30 whole years. They served sushi and friends. We definately got some fabulous cool points there.

Oh yeah, and then went to see New Moon. It was Jared's idea. Yeah, he heckled most of the movie, but was your husband willing to brave an angry theater of Twi-hards?

Then we came home and got a Christmas tree. Okay, you probably did that too, so another point for you.

It snowed approximately 1 inch and we freaked out. Jared had to shovel.

Solei wanted to play outside, but even though these was virtually no snow out there, I still made her wear her entire snow get-up.

Forster continued to beyond adorable and easy-going. I have no idea hwere this baby got his temperment, but I totally dig it.

Last thing I did today was spend WAY too much time on Picnik.com messing around with this picture. Yes, I'm aware it looks like photoshop threw up on it.

Now you are all informed on why were too busy being awesome to post. You're welcome.

Men with Guns

On our way home from Chicago we ran across two men climbing out of their truck and heading into a field. They were looking to shoot something. This is called hunting.

This is all fine and good. We all know people who "go out" hunting and I really don't have an issue with them doing so. Usually people talk of trips where they travel out into the middle of nowhere to hunt, camping by the river and waking up at the crack of dawn to take something down.

My problem with these two particular hunters was this: They were getting out of their truck to go hunting just two blocks from my home. This may not be a big city, but I know how far a rifle bullet can go and I'm pretty sure a poorly aimed round could rip right through my wall.

So, dear hunters, please stay away from my home...

Forster

Turning 3

This week was eventful. Three years ago, our firstborn daughter was brought into this world. Looking back, I don't know what I would have done without her.

We had a wonderful birthday party planned and executed by her amazing mommy.

Solei REALLY loved the suprize visit from her cousin. It was AWESOME.We also went to Chicago for the weekend to celebrate the aforementioned Mommy's 21st birthday (again). We went to eat at a Chicago Hot Dog legend called Portillos. We took a picture of ourseleves to capture the moment. It ended up catching the moment perfectly.

This perfect moment inspired me to capture 60 seconds in the life of our Daughter. This is totally unscripted, unrehearsed, unplanned and our very first take. This is just 60 seconds of Solei being Solei. - Note that this does not include her putting greasy handprints on the window or exiting the booth by climbing over the seat and jumping out of the booth next to us. -

We love this little girl like nothing else!

Twisted FHE

Last week, our Family Home Evening was beyond awesome. First off, the new Nursery manual is FANTASTIC and the lessons and activities are so blasted easy and quick, perfect for a almost-3-year-old-going-on-24. We did the 3rd lesson on prayer (Solei is really good at asking for blessings, but not so quick with THANKING Him for our blessings:) and the opening activity was just perfect. You should try it - I just colored some pictures of things we should ask for or be thankful for (food, home, family, scriptures, car) and she had to chose what bag to put them in - the We Ask Thee bag or the We Thank Thee bag (there were some repeats, like food and such). It went over so well!

Then for our activity, we dug out the Twister game we got for our wedding, put stickers on Solei's right hand and foot so she'd know the difference between left and right, and played Twister. She loved it!

photo dump

I still have no idea how to bring y'all up to speed, so instead I'm posting a crapload of pictures that might tell something about our lives now.

Here's Jared and I meeting Forster for the first time:

The boys in our family:

He's got the "seriously??" look down pat:

He's kinda sweet. I think he looks like my side of the family.


This is what he looks like most of the time:

This was high-larious. The dudes just hanging out.

His first sink-bath with dad - he was quite kind and trusting for most of it. I love the look he's giving dad - "Um, I trust you - for now."

Afterwards he didn't cry (like he does at every bath now), he just clung to daddy, all confuddled.

All him:

Solei has been pretty dang good with him. he doesn't interact much, but that never bothers her, she can carry on both sides of a conversation anyway :)

Baby boy hacks

Size comparison of feet - a 2 year old, a week old, and a way too old. He's put on weight and as of his doctor's appointment last week he was up to 7 lbs., but MAN is he still so super tiny!

One interesting thing we've found about having a boy is that he does NOT like having a soilded diaper, for even a second. This is bothersome because he howls the second he's dirty until we fix it. Man, Solei could sit in her own filth for hours... that was nice ;) But something we've also noticed is that no brand of diapers will stop him wetting himself and it seeping up his diaper and around to cover his entire back. Gah. LOTS of pajama changes. We finally remembered something someone mentioned once at a baby shower that has been working about 80% of the time - we put about 3 cotton balls around the waistband of his diaper and it stops the free-flow and we don't have to change the whole outfit, just the diaper.

Any of you have any more tricks for baby boys we should know about?!

New kid

So have you heard? We had a kid. I'd blog about it, but there's just too much to say, so instead I'm going to be lazy and leave you with a link to my fabulous sister-in-law Jane's blog with pictures. I started getting contractions around 10pm on Sunday (the 16th) night, we went to bed and by 1:30am I couldn't sleep through them anymore, so we packed up, headed to the hospital by 2am, and had a baby by 5:12am Monday morning. Apparently I'm pretty good at making human beings. Our ward has been beyond amazing in helping us out, and the care we got at the small area hospital was fantastic. He sleeps pretty consistently in 3 hour stretches at night and passes out right after eating, so we're not as sleep deprived as anticipated. We feel very blessed. Now we want visitors. GOBS of them, come up and see us!!

Toot!

I'm not tooting my own horn here because it's was actually Jared's idea, but I submitted his latest brilliant parenting move over at Parent Hacks and they used it! Parent Hacks is chock full of brilliant and simple solutions to weird parenting issues and I'm a big fan. Go over and check out the idea I sent in that was actually Jared's idea but they used my name so I feel cool :)

Wisconsinites...

It's official. We are Wisconsinites (or whatever we call ourselves). We have a permanent residence with a real street address and I now own a snow-blower.

We've been working to find a suitable place to live and the only thing we could find was a split level deal that someone had built and had been trying to sell for the last three years. Well, the realtor called us the other day and told us he had a nice ranch with a fourth room in the basement just a few doors down the street. We signed the paperwork on friday (after a brief tour) and now we have the perfect house. Now, how to pay for it while we sell our house in ATL... If ANYONE wants to buy a house, please buy mine.

Since we have a yard (that actually overlooks a farm no less) we must care for the yard by mowing and clearing snow. So, I turned to my old friend Craigslist, who didn't let me down. Saturday morning we went to a farm (a real dairy farm) and bought a self-propelled mower for a mere $25. The nice people even gave our Daughter a nice little tour of the place. The mower is going to be perfect.

Our Back Yard

Daughter pets a 3 day old calf

Then She rides the tractor

And checking out the chickens

That afternoon we purchased a real life snowblower. Seriously. We found one on the craigslist. Something that I never thought that I would ever own. I am official now. Now we just have to wait a few weeks for snow so I can break the thing in.

Work has been going well. The more I learn, the more terrified I am. I just keep finding things that are either broken or that need to be totally re-done before we can take over control of things at the end of the year. I am enjoying work and i work with a lot of nice people.

SO - we got callings. Reva was called to be the primary chorister. It's a calling that she has dreaded forever. Now she has it. She went to primary today to check it out and freaked out a little.

I was also given a calling. After a one month break, I was called to be the ward mission leader - again. This is the third time I've had the calling. Hopefully the third time's the charm. I think I need to write a book. Our ward has not had a new convert since 2006. Our full-time missionaries were removed from the ward a few months ago. This will be fun.

In other seemingly random news, there is a gentleman who has been in the area forever who is from Puerto Rico and a member of our ward. He was recently married to a nice woman who moved here from NYC. It just so happened that she is from Brazil. SO, we had a good old time chatting after church (we were the only people left in the building except for the clerk and bishopric member doing tithing deposits). We were all a little more relieved that we had some kindred spirits.

That's all for now.