Midnight Sun

Okay, so for all those "Twilight" fans out there, did you know about the whole scandal with "Midnight Sun?" There are a few girls in the ward who are obsessed with this series and they informed me of this. If it weren't for the fact that the author put it on her own site, I wouldn't have read it for copyright reasons (my dad ingrained in me the importance of copyright laws, as he's a musician) but I delved in and read all 264 pages in 2 days. Aaaaaah... now I can't wait until she finishes so I can read the whole thing!!!

Great News!

We have some wonderful news to announce- we are expecting baby number 4! And what is the gender?... drum roll please... it's a BOY!!! Steve is on cloud 9 and we are extremely excited to meet this little guy. My due date is January 29th, but it'll be at least a week earlier than that, as this will be a repeat C-section. So yes, that means I'm 22 weeks along and I was able to hide this from friends and family to this point. Now I've popped out and there's no denying it anymore! Looks like I'm going to need to figure out a new name for my blog... :-D

Busy Week

This week has been busy, busy, busy!!! We are all feeling the effects of it as well. Monday was grocery shopping/laundry/FHE. Tuesday was a baby shower, Wednesday was a Presidency meeting (for both Steve and me), Thursday was Enrichment, Friday I took a breath and watched some Monk and Psych online :), Saturday was Stake meetings in Salina, an hour away, and today was more meetings and church. And I just got a call to take dinner to another sister in the ward tomorrow. Steve had to put the girls to bed alone twice this week. Katie is now scared of the rain and having her bedroom door closed when she sleeps (and is afraid I won't be there when she wakes up), Ellie has become more emotional about... everything. And Sarah is just slightly more clingy with me. Steve says it's good for them to get some time away from Mom, but it's hard on us all! I'm exhausted physically, emotionally and spiritually. This will be a great learning experience, but it'll take practice to get into the groove of it all. Steve told me last night- just wait until the girls get into extracurricular activities... then you'll think all of this was a piece of cake! Nice...

On a lighter note... here are some funny things the girls have done.
Ellie has raided my closet and now wears my tank-tops that I wear under my clothes as nightgowns or dresses. She thinks they're pretty.
Katie has an interesting way of asking for dessert. She tells us she wants "dirt".
Sarah has become quite the conversationalist and we caught her yelling at her sister this afternoon for being naughty. She loves to run and walk on her tiptoes- she is typically doing one of those at all times.

And last, but certainly not least- we are soooo excited to have Mom come visit tomorrow. Just one more sleep! :-D

Deprived?

Okay, so is Ellie absolutely deprived because I haven't enrolled her in either preschool or dance class? Pretty much everyone I know with a 4-year old has enrolled them in both. I'm starting to question my parenting choices!!!

Avanti's Bread Recipe

Avanti's is an "Italian" restaurant in central Illinois that makes yummy sub sandwiches. Pretty much the only people that love the rest of Avanti's food are the ones that grew up eating it, but really, this bread makes very tasty sandwiches. You oughta try it out.

Here is the 2-loaf version of the Avanti's bread (I make them as long loaves on a cookie sheet).

1 cup warm water
2 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp oil
1 egg
1/3 cup plus 1 1/3 tsp sugar
3 1/3 cup flour

Then bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Then you just get some salami, ham, american cheese and lettuce and you're set. I love these sandwiches!

Avanti's

I have been wanting an Avanti's sandwich for about 2 weeks now, so today I finally made some bread and bought the fixins and mmmm.... so tasty!!!

I also made some homemade peach jam today. The bishop gave us tons of peaches from his trees and I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that it turned out well. It sure made a huge mess!