Hi, everyone! Well, after much searching and headaches, I simply cannot figure out why I can’t see half of our blog page, and any of your blogs in my list on the right side, so I started all over from scratch. This blog will be moved to a new location. Please bookmark it, as I greatly appreciate all comments and love from you all

http://littlehatchlings.blogspot.com/

Since I can’t see the friends and family blogs, I could only copy what I had in my following box, and try to find your blog addresses on your FB pages. If I don’t have yours in the list on the right, can you email it to me? Would love to continue following your adventures!

ethanmom07 at gmail dot com

The new blog still has some work to do, like a better header, but it will come. I just miss seeing your blogs and blogging. Allright, now to get a new post on the new blog. Thanks, everyone!!

What a week last week was! Finally getting all the housework done on the new laptop. Here’s what happened:

Last week, I took the old laptop to Laptop Exchange to get the fans cleaned out. It would heat up so fast, shut off all the time, especially while I edited photos, and I had enough of that. Came back home, but then there was an issue of the computer shutting completely off before any heating happened. (Which didn’t, the fan cleaning really helped.) I heard a little jangling sound inside, like a little piece floating around. Packed up the boys the next day, and headed back to the store. Was informed that because of the little part inside moving around, it shorted out the motherboard, making it a goner. I could have died right in the store when he told me that. All I could think about was our finances, and there was no way we could afford a new laptop, but how greatly we needed one to hopefully bring me some wedding business. I just wanted to cry. I had no idea a stupid little part would come undone, and wreck everything. Well, thankfully, the hard drive was ok, so that was good.  After continuous bathroom visits to Café Rio next door, we headed home.

Saturday, we made sure General Conference was DVRd, packed up boys and snacks, and headed out to do homework. Went to the Mac store. Very nice laptops. Much better quality than anything I’ve ever seen. Why can’t all laptops have vents on the top?? Genius! Totally out of our price range.

Went to Frys. Getting better at lower prices. Went to Best Buy. Hit gold. Found a good HP laptop that we could somehow afford, on sale, scraping my photo account and taking bill money together. Next paycheck will be fun. Yet, we don’t have another monthly bill, and that is wonderful. Whew, computers. Ugh

From what I could hear of Conference (hardly anything with young kids up and running) it sounded wonderful. I heard small snippets here and there. I love that the podcasts were available the next day! So, we listen later, and watch the recordings. If you’d like to see the talks, go HERE:)

One talk I have watched early in the morning is Lynn G. Robbins, on Sunday afternoon. He talked about Christ like attributes, and gave wonderful advice to parents. I loved every word of that talk. We’ve had some great days, and some awfully challenging days with Ethan, and it’s easy to feel that you are completely no good at this mothering/discipling/ teaching your kid to just be a good kid stuff! Gratefully, it has brought me to my knees in prayer, pleading for paitence and guidance in this chapter of my life. Trying very hard to not give Satan an inch over my thoughts. Prayer kicks him out really fast!

So, that’s our story. I’ll probably have to redo the blog, because it stopped showing the full blog page, and doesn’t show any your blogs on the side. Only to me. You guys can see everything normal, but I sure can’t. Another mystery. It’s ok. Hope everyone is doing well.

I was reading HERE on the Nurture Mama blog, and got some inspiration for my cookbook. She shared some ideas on meal planning, and a link to some free, downloadable 4x6 recipe cards. They are quite cute, and easy to type in your recipe. I decided to do her photo book idea for my cookbook. What I’ve been using is a large binder with recipes in sheet protectors. Lately, it’s been resembling something like an anvil, and is incredibly hard to lug around the kitchen. So, I’m trying to simplify by using the photo book idea, and these cute cards.

I had fun and made up four recipe cards to start my book, and to share with you guys. I printed mine on white cardstock, and found a photo book at DI. In these cards, you’ll find our favorite smoothie recipe, Ethan’s newest favorite food, Seashell Pasta, Crock Pot Ravioli, and Easy Chocolate Mousse. We made the mousse twice last week, it’s so good! Enjoy:)

Click HERE for my recipe cards!

This is my anniversary post. We had ours last week, but were in the middle of sick kids and other trials. One night, after the kids were down, I made some insanely good chocolate mousse for Shaun and I to enjoy for our anniversary celebration. (I’ll share the recipe soon, gotta type it out:) Here’s what I love about my darling friend:

• He gets all excited when there’s a fix it task around the house. Gets his tools out, takes Ethan to Home Depot, comes back and enjoys taking care of the home.
• Is an awesome worker, does the laundry for me on his days off, cleans the kitchen every night with me before we crash.
• Is incredibly better at loading the dishwasher than I am, and laughs kindly at my crazy assortment of dishes everywhere when I load it.
• Makes hilarious ‘Bruce Lee’ karate sounds when making the first cut on a vegetable, fruit, etc.
• Makes me feel good about my photography when he looks at the finished product, and says “Man, they’re going to love that!”
• Hasn’t lost his ability from our single days to plan the most awesome dates ever!
• Shares my love of action movies, and laughs when I find “Terminator 2” on cable, right at my most favorite part of the mall fight/T-1000 chasing John Connor on bike scene. (Yes, those are the exact names and yes, I’m still a huge tomboy dork:)
• Makes me laugh so hard with stupid, funny one liners. Days later, I’ll remember them out of nowhere and start laughing uncontrollably. Boys wonder why Mom is so weird.
• Puts up with my quest of trying new, heavenly pasta recipes.
• Gets way excited for a chance to grill some good meat outside.
• Super father to our boys, and they love their da-da so much.
• Is a supreme grizzly bear when it comes to protecting his family, but melts like butter for his eternal sweetie:)
• Is the best Paramedic on the planet. So educated on anything health, anatomy, sickness. Really knows well how to deal with drunks and legals, thanks to nine years of his job. Just laughs at them, while doing his job, ha ha!
• Is very attractive to me, of course, but when he’s in the ‘line of duty’ so to speak, doing his job, I find him stinking hot. One time at church, an older woman passed out and was having a hard time. Shaun came and knelt down by her, checked vitals, did assessment and his usual work. Lots of people were trying to peek in to see if she was ok. I just wanted to see him do his thing, and tried very hard to not faint in the hallway from swooning.
• Always makes me feel safe.
• Loves his family with all his heart, and just wants to give us the world.
• He’s Captain Redbox, bringing me home the latest new movies out that look decent.

Oh, there’s so much more, but I love him dearly. It took me a long time to find him, but it was so worth the wait. We both wonder ‘when did these kids get here' and where did the time go, but love our new chapter in our lives. Happy 5th to us:)

I have a few moments before Ethan wakes up to write. He’s sleeping in today, which is wonderful. I think he needs it, and I’ve been reading good things in scriptures and blogs that I pray will give me some much needed strength in mothering these sweet boys today.

On my ipod, I have some wonderful podcasts that I subscribe to, mostly church stuff. One of them is “Conversations”. Last week, I listened to two stories that I wanted to share.

The first was a young woman named Connie Gunnell, who lives in Utah now. She met her husband in high school, built a beautiful friendship, and married shortly after his return from serving a mission for the LDS church. They were married for two years. Then, he was on a field trip with other students in a van. The van had a blowout, van rolled, and killed nine students in the car, including her husband. All of a sudden, she was a young widow. She had incredible support from family, church and the community, but it was still supremely hard. After a little time, she wanted to serve a mission for the church. She wasn’t sure if she could, with her circumstances of already being married, but got a big yes to go ahead a serve. She served in Arizona, and it was there that she truly healed and learned more about her Savior. She now is working on her education, and is remaining hopeful. Prayer is the main thing that go her through it all.

The other story is of Christian and Stephanie Neilson. They were involved in a small plane crash that burned both of them. Christian was burned a little, but Stephanie had 80% burns all over. She was in a coma for three months. So very sad, but such a humbling story. Before this happened, she kept a blog, sharing thoughts about mothering and family life, and sharing her testimony of the Savior. She continues her blog today, and you can find it HERE. I the video clip, you can see in pictures that before she was burned, she was physically beautiful, just gorgeous. Now, she looks quite different, but her beauty from within shines through. Her example to me is so humbling, and reading her blog this morning has been so healing. Just when you think life is hard, and you’re going through rough stuff, there are others that have it so much harder. It’s just amazing when they keep a positive outlook on their life, and it helps us who still have a long way to go on becoming like the Savior. Here’s a wonderful video about her:

Today is Monday, and it’s going to better than last week. The kids are on the mend physically, we’ve been enjoying smoothies every day, and the trash truck comes today. That’s their favorite thing about Monday, to watch it through the window. It’s been so windy and dark these past few days. The garden’s growth seems to have slowed while the temperatures drop, but the little plants are hanging in there.

This weekend, I went to a huge youth formal for church to take candid pictures. It was such a blast. Hundreds of teens dressed in beautiful, modest dresses, and sharp dressed young men. The music was so loud, and I kept apologizing to little baby inside me. I stood on a low table, but high enough for me to hold the camera over my head, point it down towards the crowd, and get some fun shots. It made my night when they played Backstreet Boys ‘Larger than Life’ song. I sang every word to it while I snapped away. That stuff just blows away the rap crap for great dance music.

Have a good day, everyone:)