Their Stockings Were Hung by the Chimney with Care

Merry Christmas Eve!

Play For Good

Here is a cool website: http://cpdplayforgood.org/

If you go here you can play fun educational games and while you play, you earn money for the Center for Persons with Disabilities at USU.

Go check it out and have some fun for a good cause!

Cookie Monster

This is a bit of Fifield family history. We have a tradition of a "Cookie Monster Cake" for birthdays. It was my Dad's birthday while we were out visiting, and by special request we had a Cookie Monster Cake again. It's been several years since this guy has graced our kitchen table (I guess we thought we out grew him, but never!). It's a German Chocolate Cake a la Cookie Monster. Of course the birthday boy/girl gets to distribute the eyes and cookie according to personal pleasure. I always fought for an eye - marshmallow and raisin on a toothpick. He looks a bit fearsome with all those candles!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Happy Halloween!

We spent Halloween visiting family out of town. We dressed Ben up as a monkey and trick-or-treated at one house (Grandpa Great). He was a good sport and didn't seem to mind his costume much!

Four Generations

Ben is the first great grand child with the last name Espenschied. Doug's grandparents have 35 other great's, but Ben is the first one to carry the Espenschied name.

It was a special experience for us to get all four generations of Espenschied men together. Ben was a pretty good sport for having been 3 hours in church with no nap!

Feeling very domestic

I spent Labor Day laboring around the house. I did 4 batches of laundry, cleaned, cooked (including 3 batches of baby food) and of course, cared for the baby. One of my big projects was grinding some rice flour. I put the grain mill out on the patio so I wouldn't have a fine layer of rice dust all over my house, which worked great. I now have about 20 cups of rice flour (which will last a long while).



The next day I was able to bake gluten free crumpets using my fresh rice flour. They were so tasty! I tried hard not to scarf them, but they didn't last long.



I was inspired by my bread to really step out of my comfort zone and make jam. When strawberries went on sale for $.88/pound, I took the plunge. I've now got several containers of strawberry jam in the freezer, but I'll have to make more crumpets, because they were gone before the jam was ready!



Good times...tasty times :)

OCMCO CD Sale

I'm in a church/community orchestra and we recently finished working on a professionally recorded CD. It is sacred Easter music and titled "That Easter Morn." It was tons of hard work, but really fun and exciting at the same time.

They are doing a pre-sale right now and CD's are $15 each.

If any of you would like a CD as a birthday/Christmas/Mother's or Father's Day gift (and don't mind not being surprised), let me know--I'd love to give you one! If you would like the CD but think it's lame for me to give you a CD of myself and would instead prefer to purchase one, let me know and I'll get one for you (and give you a much cooler birthday etc. gift). They aren't shipping for this pre-sale, so it's probably easier for me to buy, get it to you and have you pay me back.

The CD's are supposed to be out in time for Thanksgiving.

I <3 Crockpot Mom!

I recently discovered a new cooking blog: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/. The blog owner, Stephanie, spent all of 2008 putting up a new crock pot recipe every day! That's over 300 recipes tried, reviewed, and best of all . . . GLUTEN FREE!!! She's my new hero.

I seriously started several conversations yesterday with: "The crock pot lady says..." Then I wondered out loud if she knows she's become a household name. Doug pointed out that she's only an "our household" name. But, she did get featured on Rachel Ray, and is publishing a cook book. I think that is so rad. Did I mention all her stuff is gluten free? She has a child with celiac. I'm a total fan.

I've tried two of her recipes so far and both were delicious. We had the sweet and sour chicken with mango last night and a black bean soup week or two ago.

I've not been a big crock pot girl. When we got married, Doug owned a crock pot - I did not. Usually my crock pot recipes end up dried out and in need of "rescuing" (which Doug has become quite good at, by the way). So it is a victory for me to make something that tastes really good, and we both go back for seconds of! Hurray!

I just love blog cooking. Some of my favorite blogs are recipe blogs. I'm not sure if it's because there is such a great Celiac/Gluten Free community out there in the blogosphere always posting about tasty new GF foods, or if every housewife feels the same pressure to come up with new things to cook that we've all bonded together via blog. I know it works much better for me than that email chain letter I get every few months - put a recipe on here and forward it to 5 of your closest friends! Yeah, that doesn't work for me --> deletED.

It's just so great to find recipes that someone else has experimented with. They take the first fall if it turns out gross and either warn you away, or offer tips for how to fix it.

I want a kitchen laptop. Doug said I could have one. He said we could maybe even get one with a touch screen that we can put a protector on so I can wipe it off if I splatter on it! How cool would THAT be?!

Yeay for food blogs!

Family Reunion

My family had a blast spending a few days together in July. The weather was gorgeous and we all spent as much time as possible lounging on Grandpa's lawn. It was so nice to get caught up and reaquainted, and even meet some of the newest family members. Thanks for hosting a fabulous event, Grandpa and Grandma!



Cousins

Grandpa and Grandma

Ben looking adorable as always :)

The whole crew!

Our first harvest!

And it was oh, so tasty! We can hardly wait for more to ripen :)

A Flower

The word "flower" doesn't really do this justice. Bloom is closer since it is a noun and a verb. These are pictures of the Night Blooming Cereus my friend Candice left in my care when she moved away. This is the most incredible flower I have ever seen - and it is in my garden!

These plants only bloom at night and only for a few hours. I've been watching the buds grow and grow, and last night we had our first performance. We checked around 10:00 and this is what we saw. The scent was fantastic, and the bloom breathtaking.

I'm excited to watch more of them open in the coming nights!

By morning, this was all that was left.

Tomatoes!

About the third week in April I planted some tomatoes. I thought I'd experiment with the upside-down hanging plant, and a few in containers (the control for my experiment!).

Here is the progress! I'm amazed and totally excited. All the plants have quite a bit of green fruit.

I think they've entered my subconscious, though, because the other night I drempt about them. In my dream I found the plants shriveled and dead in a neat stack on the grass. I was furious at the gardeners who had pulled up my tomato plants. I was so glad to wake up and realize they were just fine, and the gardners had left them alone.

We affectionately call the patio my little jungle.

I can't wait to eat fresh tomatoes!

Taco crunch

One of the worst things about eating homemade tacos are the stale plastic-y hard taco shells you buy in a box at the store.  They taste like they've been on the shelf for years, which may actually be true :|   Occasionally I'll buy a box forgetting how bad they can be, and then vow never to forget again!  Well, last week I got coupon for a free box, so I figured free is better than not having any.  This box recommended something I'd never seen before - heating your taco shells for 2-3 minutes in a 250 degree oven.  Wonder of wonders!  They were crispy!  They were tasty!  They were warm (for a few minutes), but they were even crispy cold!  My taco life has been changed forever.  I can't guarantee it works for all brands, and you do have to be careful that they don't burn, or burn you, but they taste so so much better!

Choose Healthy Living - starts June 1

We're going to kick off our "Choose Healthy Living" program on June 1 - next Monday. We would love to have you join us! Visit the blog just for this program by clicking here or visiting the link on the right side of the screen.

Here's to our health!

Choose Healthy Living

Confession: Doug and I have become "The Biggest Loser" fans. Somehow we stumbled upon the show flipping channels one evening, and it stuck. It surprised us how quickly we got hooked, but we can honestly say, we are inspired by the people on this show! Each week we gawk at how huge these people were, and marvel at the changes they have made in their lives to become healthy, to lose weight, and to increase their quality of life. We just watched the season finale (a week late on Hulu). Most of the contestants are completely different people now than they were at the start of the competition.

Watching the show got us thinking about our own health situation. Neither of us is morbidly overweight like most of the contestants on the show, but we both are feeling a bit thicker than we once were. But it's not even just about putting on extra weight. In the last few years we have had some significant lifestyle changes, but our healthy living habits have not followed us. It may seem like a small departure now, but we are concerned about where it will lead. Where we were once active young single students with time to focus on ourselves, we are now sedentary married folks with desk jobs and little time to spare. Our lives are changing and we don't like the direction they are going. Where will we be in 20 or 30 years if we keep on this track? We are especially concerned about teaching our children good health habits so they can start life right.

We've spent a lot of time discussing the "Biggest Loser" program. What makes it work, and how can we make it work for us? We think there are a few key elements:

- Motivation: two sub-factors motivate the contestants

• Competition for a reward - this provides the initial impetus, but by the end, most people realized the reward is now the way they feel--being healthy, they never want to go back to the way they were.
• Support

- Accountability: A weekly weigh-in on national TV!

We would like to create an online environment where we can replicate these elements for ourselves and our friends. And so, we invite you to join us as we launch our own program: Choose Healthy Living. We have created a new blog for this purpose (choose-healthy-living.blogspot.com) and have a post there that outlines the details of the program.

We all have room to improve our health habits - many of us have extra pounds to shed, but even more of us, we would guess, have bad habits that left unchecked could lead to premature death, illness or just a decrease in quality of life. We hope the program we are launching will have something for everyone.

Please consider your health situation carefully and join us as we strive for healthier living!

Our first family trip!

We recently returned from a trip to Washington D.C. ! Doug had business, and Ben and I tagged along for fun. We had lots of fun visiting our old haunts, and catching up with good friends.

Ben did pretty well on the plane as long as he didn't get too tired. When there was an announcement on the over head speakers and he was in that almost-asleep stage, it freaked him out, and he started wailing. It took us a while to get him calmed down, but eventually he did and fell asleep.

Doug and I toted him all around Washington D.C. Ben got to meet my former boss, Senator Dorgan, and several of our friends. He saw the Capitol building and a few of the monuments and rode the metro several times. The metro kinda freaked him out a bit, especially the side-to-side rocking if we didn't have him facing forward. He also took several naps in our hotel room. Whenever I could, I let him sleep rather than going out touring. It surprised me how quickly my priority changed from doing what I wanted to, to helping Ben get the rest he needed.

Star Trek

The big day has arrived! I've been waiting for so long it seems like. The tickets for the 8:30 pm show are sitting on my desk and I'm checking them every few hours to make sure they are still there, and still for the right day and time. The baby sitter is booked, and I'm blogging rather than packing the baby bag ;).

I've heard mostly good reviews, but I'm trying to keep my expectations down. Could be good, could be bad, we'll just have to see. But we'll see in 8 more hours!!


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Easter Weekend Excitement!

We had our entire families (both Doug's and mine) visiting over Easter weekend, with the exception of one brother on a mission, and one who had to stay home for work/school. We had SO MUCH FUN!!!

Ben loved the attention, or at least mom loved having people holding Ben all weekend long ;). He got to meet both his Grandpas for the first time and play with his cousins. We went to Sea World, the beach twice, out for dinner, in for dinner, and had a royal good time. We miss being so far from family and hope we can see everyone again as soon as possible! Love you!!

Ben and Dad at the beach

Ben's first trip to Sea World!

Meeting the family!

Yeah, Grandpa is an ok dude.

Hanging with friends

What a great way to spend a Friday Night!! Ben's pal is only 9 days older than he is.

The Girls

The Guys

Fun fun fun!!