Christiansen Chronicles

February is almost over and I need to blog our random pictures/highlights from January.

Grandma and Grandpa Bullard sent money to everyone for Christmas so one brave day Wade and I took the kids to Target toy section and let them all pick out what they wanted.  Almost 2 hours later we didn't have much patience left, but everyone came home happy.

Avery and Eli got kindles for Christmas so now everyone has one but Wade...and all four big kids can actually sit and read book too! (Eli reads his Bob books on his kindle)

Lucy started primary!  It's been 10 years of at least one kid (sometimes two at a time) in nursery, so it's a strange thing to not have to drop anyone off there at church.  I wasn't sure she would love it since she is really young for the class.  She walked in the first day, stomped her foot, put her hands on her hips and declared "This is NOT my class" but her teachers are toddler/whisperes or something because now she love it.  I think Avery was sick with the stomach bug that first sunday...the poor girl has had stomach bugs, strep, hand foot and mouth, coughs, colds.  She is SO tired of being sick.  

Gage is growing up and can babysit for us now!  It's amazing to have a built in babysitter!  He babysat for us so we could go see a movie with another couple.  Then he texted us and said "Please be quiet when you come home, I just got Lucy asleep."  He is a good brother (when he wants to be).

The kids all got new sleeping bags for Christmas from Grandpa Christiansen.  To say that they love them would be an understatement.  They pull them out every weekend and all sleep on the floor in the downstairs room.

We were introduced to the game Tapple at Christmas and now love playing it.  Even Lucy can play - her own version, she just hits a letter and says the sound.  Super fun game for a family night.

Wade had a booth at the Lehi Health and Wellness Fair.  Last year it was the same weekend as the St. George half marathon, so I couldn't work it with him.  This year it was the same weekend as the race, so I just didn't run the race ;(  But I did get to work the booth.  I think it was successful and good to do.

Avery....I mean the Princess in black.

This girl isn't going to have many teeth left if we keep going at this rate.  One week in January both her and Eli kept loosing teeth.  Avery doesn't have any of her top 4 teeth.  I have no idea how she eats anything!

This is a super fun book that I found at the library that Avery and I both loved. (there is a review on the book blog - but I loved it that much, I thought I would add it here too). The boys love this author too - Dragonbreath is their favorite.

Sometimes I can catch them getting along...

Gage participated in the science fair.  It isn't required.  He did the same question as he did in first grade at Northwood (you can see the post here - he looks so little!)...but this time he did more of the work and got different results.  He had a really good time. He was able to move on to district.  That was this past week and he was a little disappointed that he didn't move on from that point.  But his project was really great and he said he learned a lot. He said he was glad he got to experience district, even if he didn't get to move on. (even though he was sad about it)

Lucy and I have a weekly date at toddler story time.  It works out better with my schedule to go to the younger story time, although she is old enough to go to an older one.  She doesn't care and loves sitting on my lap.  

Eli jumped from couch to couch (he always is) and ended up hurting his foot one day.  Then he crawled all around and wouldn't walk on it so I had Wade x-ray it.  Nothing was broken but I could tell it really hurt him.  He wouldn't really walk on it right and Wade wrapped it for him.  He limped for about a week.  He told me he was sad when none of his friends would believe that he broke his foot.  HA!  He didn't break his foot.  Silly kid.

I haven't ever really liked listening to audio books - but my friend recommended this book to me and it was available to listen to instead of read the digital version so I tried it. I LOVED this book and now I am kinda hooked on listening to book while I work in the morning too.

Lucy's pretty good at spending mornings at the office with me when she needs too.  She always wins cutest employee contests.

A friend cut and colored my hair for me - I LOVE it and I really loved it that day that she styled it.  I wish I had hair skills.

And last, but not least, I threw a big birthday bash for Wade.  I posted about it on a Sunday Photo post, but here are some other pictures:

We had a blast - and now he's off the hook and won't have to endure me throwing him another birthday party for another 10 years.

Our church starts at 11am this year.  So it's kinda  strange time to eat breakfast or lunch - so we've been trying to eat a larger brunch type meal around 10.  A couple weeks ago Grandpa made the kids some toast and hard boiled eggs for breakfast/brunch.  I kinda thought he was a little crazy.  I remember thinking - there is NO way the kids are going to eat hard boiled eggs.

But they LOVED them. 

(Except Gage, who only likes an egg if it's in a cake or a brownie.)  

Even Lucy - who is super picky and only likes ham/sausage/cheese and hot dogs loved the eggs!

But then came my dilemma.  

The kids started to ask me to make them eggs , but I've never had good luck making them right.  So I turned to facebook.  I got lots of good ideas and suggestions.  In the past month I've cooked them a couple different ways. 

Today I picked up two 18 count packages of eggs and came home and was prepping some breakfast foods for the week.  I made 24 muffins for the freezer, some brownies (just for fun) and while I was at it, I got dinner in the crock pot.  The kitchen was kinda a crazy disaster for a few hours.  I thought that in between all this cooking I could get some hard boiled eggs fixed for the week too.  

I had a cook book from Six Sisters already out so I decided to try their method. (click here for their instructions)  Starting with the eggs in the water, adding baking soda, taking them off the heat after bringing them to a boil....their recipe says it should be super easy to peel...

Since I was super busy in the kitchen doing a couple different things at once, I had it all timed out in my mind.  It's like that when I make bulk freezer meals too - I usually don't make all of one and them move onto another - but have multiple things going at once.  I've found it's the only way to get a couple recipes done at once in the kitchen. I placed the brownies in the oven and had 13 minutes for them to bake, so it should have been the perfect amount of time to peel 18 eggs that I had just placed in an ice bath.

Ugh.  I was SO wrong.  In the picture above - the green plate is from that method of cooking eggs.  I was SO frustrated.  The peels would not come off and I ended up wasting and throwing way some eggs too.  Wade had more patience than me and stood there chipping away at the eggs for a while longer.  I was just frustrated!

But the kids LOVE these eggs - so I really wanted to get some prepped and in the fringe for them.  So I used my 2nd 18 pack of eggs and cooked them according to the Pioneer Woman method.  (bring water to boil first, then add the eggs).  You can read her instructions HERE. 

(I'm posting here so share the info I learned - and so I will never lose the link)

Basically, it's just a tad harder, because you have to be careful not to break the eggs when you place them in the boiling water, but they peel amazingly well - and the shells come off in huge pieces. (the eggs on the orange plate in the picture are from this method)

(do you love my cheap colored plate?)

That brings me to this:

How do you make hard boiled eggs?

What did I do wrong the first time?  

I really love most recipes from Six Sisters, so I don't think they are wrong in their method - even though I followed it exactly, I must be doing something wrong, right?

~~~

ps:

I guess the good news is I have 24 muffins ready for breakfast next week.  We already ate half the pan of brownies and I did get some eggs in the fridge for next week. 

(but who am I kidding...with these boys - I think all of this food will be gone by Monday)

pps:

the kids like the eggs a little warm, so I put them in the microwave for 30 seconds to warm up from fridge temperatures.  One morning last week I accidentally hit 3:00 instead of 30 and walked away.  FYI: Eggs can blow up in the microwave...they make a pretty big bang when they do

Happy Birthday Avery!

On February 12, this girl turned 7!

(going on 17)

She was so excited and had a great week leading up to her birthday.  The first grade got to go on a field trip and her valentine's day class party was the same day as her birthday.  She said this was going to be the best week of her life! (too bad her actual birthday wasn't that great).

For her birthday we took Avery to the store and let her walk around and pick out some of her own things- she picked out a new outfit and purse and some make  up and fun things to go in her purse.  She didn't know it but we also surprised her with the third Princess in Black book - it had just came out and she loves this series!

The first thing that was a let down on her real birthday - the poor girl - was that her teacher was gone.  She had a sub and she was so sad.  She had a good time at her party and when she got home she seemed a little sad so we fixed her hair and put on some make up.  She picked to go to IHOP for her birthday dinner.

At dinner she started feeling really bad  and couldn't even eat her food.  We came home to find out she had a high fever.  It ended up that she had hand foot and mouth, which we didn't think she could get again.  It was so much worse this second time around.  She was sick for so many days and I made her stay home from school all the way until Friday.  She is finally better - but for the first couple days she just kept saying that being 7 is no fun at all.  We are hoping that the next 358 days of being 7 can be much better.

Avery is a fantastic reader.  She is always reading book and chapter books. She loves to go to the library and is always has a book in her hand. 

She is such a good sister and helper.  She loves to be in charge.  She loves to draw and is always creating stories, pictures and cards for everyone.  She is always asking me when she can babysit.  She loves to be able to take care of Lucy.  This week while she has been sick she has set up "school time" and "story time" for Lucy.  She loves to learn and to go to school and primary at church.  She loves all foods - and will eat anything we give her!  

Some of Avery's favorites at 7 years old are:

Favorite book: Princess In Black

Favorite movie: Beauty and the Beast

Favorite show: Barbie Dream House

Favorite song: I feel better when I'm dancing

Favorite toy: teddy beasr

Favorite color: pink and purple

Favorite sport: basketball

Favorite animal: bear

We love Avery!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The kids woke up and I think were a little surprised that I even remembered.  The little 3 kids got bears and chocolate and the older boys got nerf darts.  I will never understand where those things go - they always come up missing - maybe they are with a big pile of socks somewhere?

Avery got sick - with hand foot and mouth diseases - for the second time!  I thought once you had it you couldn't have it again - but I was wrong.  I am normally not so good at remembering when my kids have been sick with what - but she had it when she was 17 months old, the week before I had Eli. And the fever that she had from it caused her to have a seizure.  It was a horrible week.  I can't forget.

Anyway - we got some good cuddle and girl time in.  I had to teach Primary and Wade had to be in Elder's Quorum (we got new callings recently) so we had to swap during church, but it all worked out.

I took the down time with Avery and read through both Me Before You and You After Me this weekend too.  They were hard books to put down - maybe not my hands down favorite books, but something fun to read over the holiday.