Now that I've taken out Kate's nap (in exchange for an earlier bedtime) there is a small window of time in the middle of the day just for her & I.  Today we read a few stories and then she wanted to make chocolate chip cookies. We made a double batch so we'd have enough…

Chris has been working on a program called "For the Welfare of All" that will run in-between conference sessions on Sunday, April 3rd. It's running on KSL and so I'm not even sure if we are going to get it here in California or if you have to have KSL in order to view it,…

Two of them! I was reading online today that it's very normal for hummingbirds to lay 2 eggs (1 or 3 is apparently not a good sign) so we are very hopeful for these little ones! The nest is about the size of a large walnut and the eggs are tiny, about the size of…

For the last few weeks a hummingbird has been flying around our courtyard. It was only today that we discovered it's tiny little nest right outside our front door.   She never strays far from her nest and so Chris thinks she might be sitting on eggs- wouldn't that be exciting?? We'll keep our eye on…

Today the stars aligned: it was gorgeous & sunny outside and Henry got out of school early. A last minute trip up to Malibu was in order.  The beach is a great place for us right now. All the children are so happy to just be outside in the sun that they keep themselves busy…

 I promised Kate that the second Charlie went down for his nap that we would make chocolate chip cookies together. And so it started: first we added the butter then the sugar and then the brown sugar…wait the brown sugar. We were out of brown sugar. I'm running through options in my head, leave Charlie…

Between my own four siblings and Chris' there are 9 of us. Out of the 9, we are the only ones who have children (read: Henry, Kate & Charlie get very spoiled). After years of trying my sister, Vanessa, is finally expecting a little peanut in a few weeks. When she was here over Thanksgiving,…

For years I've had a folder in my Yahoo mail with emails I'd send to myself that had links to all these things that inspired me. They mostly consisted of home idea's but also had lots of recipes and things I want to try 'one day'. There were links to amazing outdoor and indoor spaces.…

  I have been suffering inner turmoil as to whether or not to post about my recent experience with chickpeas. I talked about it a few posts ago- you know, the Roasted Chickpeas with Moroccan Spices. I'm not a big fan of chickpeas and don't know what prompted me to try this recipe because even…

 A few years ago we made some shamrock pin's for Henry & his friends. Now that he's in kindergarten, we thought it would be fun to make some pin's for his class. While I prefer the blanket stitching around the edges, the thought of doing that on 26 pins was enough to make me jump…