Little Sonoma Arrives

Baby Sonoma arrived on May 12th at 6:58pm after 16 hours of labor (15 of which were passed at home, the last hour in the hospital). She weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces, was 19 ½ inches long, and came out with very dark hair. I did it naturally for the first time, and am still in shock that I was able to do it! It was such an awesome experience in every sense of the word, including awesomely painful and awesomely glorious!

Since being home I have been so incredibly grateful for the out-pouring of support, love, and kindness from the giant network of friends and family that surround us. I do not take it lightly how much help we have at our fingertips. The girls have been showered with attention and love from family members who have taken them for a few hours here and there each day. We have been brought food and gifts from a number of people. My mom has come and stayed with us each night to help with Sonoma so that we could get some sleep. So many people have called to show their love as well. I have felt carried through the last few days and I am feeling great so far. I feel as though I am healing quickly, and that Sonoma is doing well. Life is so great. And, although it may be hard to believe, I am very grateful that I live in Logan, Utah right now.

One thing I have to include is what Ruby said the first time she saw me and Sonoma after getting home from the hospital. She looked at the baby, then looked and me and my stomach and said, “One baby came out.” I still look pregnant, obviously. How cute coming from the mouth of an almost 3 year old. Both Olivia and Ruby have been sooo cute with Sonoma. They are anxious to see her, touch her, and to help bring her things like blankets, wet wipes, toys, diapers, and anything else they can think of. They want to be involved and hold her all the time. It has been fun to watch their reaction to her.

Waiting ... waiting ... waiting ...

The past two weeks have been filled with one big, fat, painful, never-ending, fill-in-the-blank WAIT! Holly is due any day and we've tried to just keep killing time as we wait for the little pup to be ready. To make matters worse, Holly is a never-wait-until-Christmas-to-open-her-presents type of girl ... so she's trying reeeeeallllly hard to be patient.

In the meantime, we'll just post some photos from the past two weeks.

And we can't forget the recipe of the week–from sis-in-law Amber Olsen:

VEGGIE-STUFFED MUSHROOMS

20 large (1 ½ to 2-inch diameter) mushrooms (about 1 pound)
½ cup broccoli, finely chopped
¼ cup carrot, finely chopped
1 TBL onion, finely chopped
1 cup seasoned croutons, crushed (about ½ cup)
½ cup (2 oz) shredded cheddar cheese
1/8 tsp salt
2 TBL butter or margarine, melted

Carefully cut out stem end of each mushroom. Reserve enough stems for ¼ cup chopped mushrooms. Place hollowed out mushroom caps onto glass pie dish or (small) casserole dish.

Croutons is where you need to be careful. I toasted some homemade wheat bread and crumpled it up with garlic salt and a little olive oil, then broiled briefly in the oven.

With reserved chopped mushrooms, add the remaining ingredients. Spoon mixture into caps and bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until tops are lightly golden. Serve warm.

Chillin' on the tramp on a sunny (finally!) day.

Carnival games with the tots.

One is a basketball ... hard to tell.

Holly with some of her students from USU on the last day of class.

Happiest mom around on Mother's day... not the most comfortable, perhaps, but very happy.

Six days from the due date.

Olivia has a green thumb under that mud. She's a princess, but doesn't mind getting dirty!

Olivia's soccer team.

Happy St. Patrick's Day... and a bunch of other stuff!

Every year my family does a special St. Patrick's Day dinner with a few friends. This year I was asked to make the "Trifle" dessert - which I had never done before. Luckily, Olivia was around to help out! It turned out well and the evening was a lot of fun, as always. It's a great tradition.

This week Adam has been working a TON to prepare to leave on Thursday to L.A. where he will run the ½ marathon that his brother Drew was training for when he suddenly died of a heart attack four years ago. It will be a monumental occasion for our family. He has been training for this culminating event to his weight loss goal for quite some time. I’m so excited to go and witness it. The drive will be long with a 2 and a 4 year old, but I’m sure we’ll survive!

The great news this week is that the Multicultural Center has agreed to accept our donation of Union Preschool and will take over management of it as soon as the current session is over (at the end of May). This is a big relief for me with a new baby on the way, and with my sister, Kristen (who has been running the school with me) moving in the fall.

In other exciting news, the snow is melting and it finally feels like spring!! There is still some snow on the ground, but that didn’t stop us from heading to the park the other day. And Adam even put up the trampoline. There is new life in us as the weather turns, and my girls are loving every minute of it – as am I! Also Olivia started a tumbling class this week and LOVED it! It was so fun to watch her.

Also, our Toyota Corolla sold (woo-hoo!), so we scrambled to buy a replacement for it so that we'd actually have a vehicle in which to drive to CA. We didn't have much time, but there happened to be the car we were hoping for - a 7 passenger Volvo XC 70 (2 rear-facing seats) in a used car lot. We purchased it and are SOOO excited to take it to CA. I'm excited to be able to recline a little! My favorite feature (I'm a mom of young children) is the fact that the center row of seats has two built-in booster seats! Woo-hoo! Is that pathetic? Oh well. Here is how it looks, but ours is not black, it's a dark bluish-green color. We love it.

Recipe of the Week:

I LOVE these chocolates! They honestly taste better than a lot of the junk you get in the stores. I recommend omitting the hemp seed protein for a more sweet, milk chocolate flavor. The hemp seed tends to make them more bitter, dark-tasting.

Superfood Chocolate Candy
http://www.organicauthority.com/organic-food-recipes/desserts/superfood-chocolate-candy.html

1 cup extra virgin coconut oil
1/4 cup organic raw almond butter
1/4 cup almond meal
4 tbsp agave nectar
1/4 cup organic unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup hemp seed protein (OPTIONAL)
½ tsp liquid Stevia or 3 tsp powdered Stevia (6 packets)
1 tbsp organic vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup raw chocolate cacao powder (may substitute Chatfield's roasted carob powder)
1/3 cup goji berries *optional

Directions:

1. Spray an ice cube tray with nonstick spray and set aside or use mini cup cake tins and papers.
   
2. Melt coconut oil under hot water or spoon into saucepan and melt over low flame. When coconut
   oil turns to a liquid, pour oil into medium bowl.
   
3. Slowly whisk in almond butter, cinnamon, Stevia, and agave nectar one at a time.
   
4. Next, whisk in vanilla.
   
5. Then slowly stir in cacao (or carob), almond meal, coconut, and hemp seed protein one at a time,
   sprinkling evenly as you go.
   
6. Batter should run off of spoon. Spoon into ice cube tray, or cup cake papers and chill in freezer for
   15 minutes.
   
7. Sprinkle goji berries of the top. *optional

Calzones, Bangkok, & Fatty-Pants Video

I am now 26 weeks pregnant, and facing the 3^rd trimester of this pregnancy head-on. It starts with a cold and a pinched nerve in my lower back. Bring it … or not.

This is a photo of Ruby dancing with one of her teachers at Union Bilingual Preschool on the day that some Dominican students came and taught them how to dance the Merengue! It was adorable!

Adam whipped out an old recipe from Italy this week: Calzones. (see recipe below) They were soooo delicious. We made them with fresh ground wheat instead of white flour, and it worked out very well.

I ALMOST had a husband in Bangkok today. He had an important client meeting set up and suddenly had to schedule a flight out with just a few days notice. It got postponed, however, until March, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. The closer I get to my due date, the more anxiety I feel when he’s gone.

New music anyone? Mumford and Sons is a band my brother was telling me about. Check out this music video and see if you dig it.

As many of you know, Adam (hesitantly) entered a contest in Prevention Magazine called “Picture of Health”. Don’t know if he made it as one of the finalists yet, but to enter, he had to write an essay and make a video explaining why he should win. The idea was to find people who have overcome major obstacles in life and now live an ideal lifestyle of health. Here is his video (that he was a bit resistant to let me show…but I find it VERY inspiring!):

Here is a drawing that Olivia made this week. She explained that the swirl on the forehead of this girl is a Bindi. She got to wear one last summer in a preschool session called “Around the World in 80 Days” when they visited India. I guess it made a strong impression on her, because she remembered and drew it all on her own.

Recipe of the Week: Calzones of Rimini (AKA Cassoni) - Makes appx 4-6 calzones

Dough:
3 cups of Whole wheat flour
2 TB Butter
1/2 c (or as needed) of warm water
1 TSP salt

Sauce:
1/2 to 1 cup of diced ham, sausage, or hamburger (or add zucchini if you want to go vegetarian)
2 bell peppers chopped
1 yellow chopped onion
6 cloves minced garlic
1 TB parsley (dried) or small handful of fresh
1/2 TSP red hot chili pepper
1/2 TSP ground pepper
3-4 TB olive oil
1/8 cup red wine
1 cup of tomato sauce (ideally not from a tin can, see reason number one here)
1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese

Directions:
1. Combine all the Sauce ingredients (except the tomato sauce) into a frying pan and cook on medium until the meat is browned and the veggies are softened. Then add the tomato sauce and let it simmer.

2. Hand-mix the dough ingredients until it hold together well, but isn't sticky. Break into racquetball sized balls and roll out into rectangles or circles until appx 1/8" thick.

3. Cover 1/2 of the rolled out dough with your desired amount of mozzarella cheese, leaving a 1/2" edge around the outside. Scoop appx 1/4 cup of sauce out of the pan and place onto the cheese area.

4. Fold the dough in half covering your sauce and cheese and seal the edges with a fork. (see photo)

5. Cover a frying pan with a thin layer of butter and place the prepared calzone onto the pan and cover with a lid (if available). Flip and cook other side. When both sides are slightly browned. If desired, additional sauce and cheese can be smothered atop to perfection. Enjoy!