What's for Dinner?

I am not a cook. I never have been. I can follow a recipe, but I don’t have the ability to taste something and know what ingredient would make it better. There’s no improvising. Thankfully I’ve had friends and family share some of their fabulous recipes with me, but we need more (please email me some of your favorites - I’d be forever grateful). Anyhow, I don’t cook everyday, but I made a goal that after the move I would try to cook more often. So I’m trying a new recipe every week. Last night I tried something new and LOVED it. Since I’m always grateful for a good recipe I thought I’d post it here.

Pasta With Mascarpone, Chicken, Sun-Dried Tomatoes & Spinach

I wish I would have taken a picture of our dinner – it looked way more delicious than the picture above.

Its only drawback is that contains ingredients most of us wouldn’t have just sitting around at home so it takes some planning ahead of time.

Below is my version (click here for original version from Italian Food Forever) – mine is slightly different based on what I have on hand and what I was able to find at the store (The only sun-dried tomatoes I found at the store were in a small package. They go a long way though so I still have enough to make this at least one more time.)

8 Ounces Mascarpone Cheese At Room Temperature

2 T. Lemon Juice

3/4 Teaspoon Black Pepper

2 Chicken Breasts, Cleaned Of Fat And Cut Into 1 Inch Dice (or bit smaller)

1 1/2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

2 Cloves Garlic, Peeled & Minced

Salt & Pepper

1/3 Cup Chopped Sun-Dried Tomatoes

1 (6 Ounce) Bag Baby Spinach

1 (500 Gram) Package Pasta

To Serve:

Grated Parmesan Cheese

Combine the lemon juice, mascarpone, and pepper in a bowl, and whisk to combine. Bring a pasta pot of salted water to boil. While waiting on the water, heat the oil in a skillet, and cook the chicken until it is cooked through and just beginning to brown. Add the garlic and cook another minute or two. Season with salt and pepper. Cook the pasta until al dente, taking it off the heat about 1 to 2 minutes before you would normally remove it. Drain, reserving about 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Return the pasta to the pot, and set over medium heat. Stir in the mascarpone and lemon mixture, the chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, and spinach. Loosen the sauce with about 1/4 cup of the water and toss all over the ingredients together until the spinach has wilted and everything is piping hot, adding a little additional pasta water if needed (I added a little water several times to keep moist). Serve immediately, topped with grated cheese.

Let me know if you give it a try and if you have any recommendations – but really, I’m not sure it can get much better.

Mount Si: Take One

Quick Sick Update: Thankfully whatever bug we had is short-lived and nobody was sick for more than 18 hours. Abigail is the only one that didn't get sick - hopefully it stays that way! For now towels remain in the upstairs hall and around all children’s beds.

Last week we had a few beautiful days. It was the first time Seattle has reached 70 degrees all year – that sounds so pitiful to be thrilled with 70 degrees, but we’ve had such a wet winter/spring that it was fantastic.

Wednesday evening we decided to hike nearby Mount Si – we knew we wouldn’t make it to the top, but we were planning to hike up a mile or so to Snag Flat and then turn around and head back down.

All smiles before starting our hike

We’d read online that it’s a steep, rocky climb and found that to be very true.

It was beautiful

After we’d been on the trail for 45 minutes the girls were dragging. We had a decision to make – either buck up and keep climbing or turn around and head back down.

Katie was a trooper although after an hour she was ready to get unhitched

We went a little further then decided to turn around. At the time it was a little disappointing because we expected to see Snag Flat at any moment. We’ve since learned that Snag Flat was much further up than we thought so it was never just around the bend.

My legs were so itchy coming down the mountain I was in serious pain. Did you know I’m allergic to exercise? It’s sad, but true. If you think I’m joking just Google it.

The girls and I were glad to get back to the trailhead and rest

Jason was our untiring hiker and is proud to claim that he is the “best hiker” in the family – much to the dislike of his older sisters. He was always at the front leading us onward.

First attempt at Mount Si was unsuccessful… we’ll try again

some day...

A Sick Day

We’re passing around a little stomach bug

I don’t think there is much worse than a sick child that doesn’t understand (or is unable) to rush to the toilet before their entire insides insist on resurfacing.

So we are covering our bases

And doing a lot of this

Katie was stuck at home today with two sick siblings and a mommy with a migraine so she was thrilled when Abigail finally got home from school

Tomorrow is bound to be better

May Moments

We’ve finally seen some sun around here which is wonderful. There is one drawback though… around 6am the sun is shining right in my slumbering face. Needless to say the kids are up early. This morning we had a full two hours before the girls needed to leave for school. Time to get serious about getting some window coverings.

Katie’s current window treatments – a broken down packing box and an old vacuum box from Grandma Fletcher

We have a bunch of little birds constantly flying around our house. I think they are pretty cool and I love to hear them chirping away – it makes it almost believable that it may be spring. Problem is they don’t seem to rest. It can be 11pm and I can still hear them chirping. They are so loud we thought they must have a nest someplace on our property, but we don’t have any trees large enough. Last night Carly came downstairs nearly an hour after she’d gone to bed and asked about the birds making so much noise.

Katie is walking more and more – like across an entire room. And she’s moving quickly. Does that make her a toddler? I’m in denial that I’m in denial.

Last weekend was the annual Lakeland Hills garage sale. As Justin helped me load the van the night before he asked me if I really thought it was worth it since I didn’t really have much to sell – mostly just a bunch of old kids clothes. He asked me how much I was hoping to make to make it worth my time. I told him if I came home with $100 I’d be happy. This was the first year I’ve sold on a Friday and I’m so glad I did. By the time I called it quits on Friday I’d already pocketed over $150. Combined with the sells from Saturday it was over $250. I’d call that a successful weekend especially considering I didn’t have any big ticket items.

Again, I totally slacked taking pictures, but I took the picture above off my SIL’s blog. She comes down every year with a bunch of her friends to shop, shop, shop. With hundreds of homes selling stuff you can find just about anything. It really is an insane weekend.

Justin took Jason camping on Friday night while the girls and I crashed at our old house. Definitely a little strange to be camping out in an empty house, but it made it easy to wake up and already be there for the garage sale.

The girls started piano lessons this month. The teacher offers a little discount if you have more than one child taking lessons so we decided to start Carly. She was so excited and is doing great. Immediately after her first lesson she broke down in tears because she didn’t know how to play the songs she was given to practice. I had to explain to her that she wasn’t expected to know them right away and that she has a week to practice them before her next lesson. My girls place so much pressure on themselves!

The girls’ piano teacher brought her bird over last week. Abigail let the bird sit on her shoulder while she read a book during Carly’s entire lesson. Carly wasn’t near as tolerant. Once the bird started nibbling on her hair and face Carly was done.

Jason has started speech therapy in our new district and I was hoping we could somehow get him into pre-school through the district next year. Unfortunately (Fortunately) he is doing so awesome that there is no way he would qualify in fact we aren’t even sure he’ll need any speech help next fall. He has made HUGE improvements this past year, but now I need to figure out if we’ll look (and pay) for a pre-school on our own.

We’ve been in our ward for almost 2 months now and still don’t have callings – word has it though that our new bishop called our old bishop to get the scoop on us. I’m hoping our old bishop and friend explained that I don’t like to speak, teach, plan anything creative or cutesy, or take care of children. We did get cornered into speaking this next Sunday which I’m totally dreading.

To say we’ve been in our new house for almost 2 months is SHOCKING - really, that sounds so long and it doesn’t feel possible.

I was spotlighted in the RS Newsletter this month at church. They gave me a series of questions to answer, do you think it gives an accurate representation of me?

I think it was quite boring, so I guess that’s probably a yes. :)

Happy Mother’s Day

My Mom is awesome. She loves unconditionally, she’s involved without being overbearing, and she listens with compassion but without judgment. She is one of the strongest women I know. Her life has been challenging – and while I’m sure she’d agree she has been incredibly blessed, she has had experiences throughout her life that many of us couldn’t bear. She amazes me.

Me and my Mom

My Mom recently announced she was going on a mission with her husband Val. Of course we were thrilled, this is something she’s always wanted to do, but another thought I expressed was: “I guess that means were not having anymore kids”. My Mom has come up to help after each of my four children was born and I seriously couldn’t have managed without her. Those visits with her will always be some of the most cherished I will have with my Mom.

My Mom with Abigail and baby Carly. Abigail was born in the pre-digital ages and unfortunately all our old scrapbooks are still in storage so I couldn’t scan a picture of my Mom with Abigail as a newborn, but she was most definitely there.

Jason snuggling with Grandma just days old

Katie and Grandma

This summer my Mom and Val head off to Hong Kong to serve an 18-month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We will miss her. Lots. Unless we can convince her to make a trip to the NW before she leaves it will be over two years without a visit. We are used to only seeing her a few times each year, but this will be different.

Since retiring my Mom spends much of her time traveling the world. Carly made a cute card for my Mom for Mother’s Day – since I couldn’t send it in the mail (I believe she’s in San Francisco today) we decide to post it on the blog instead since we know she’ll check in on us on the road.

“Dear Grandma Kesler, You are a great grandma and you are loving and kind. You are always giving us things when we are at Utah at your house. You are always helping when you can when you give us a art project. Love Carly”

We LOVE you!

Disastrous FHE

FHE (Family Home Evening) Monday night was disappointing. In many ways. It was late and the kids were overly hyper, Justin got through about 25 seconds of his thought then we all got distracted by Katie. She was being silly on the couch then silly on the floor – then she got brave and I felt a small piece of my heart crumble.

Baby Bath

I don’t enjoy giving my kids a bath.

I’m not sure why.

They love it. There isn’t any crying or tantrums. There’s just something about the process that causes me to postpone bathtime as long as I can. Jason is old enough that he enjoys showering too, but he would take a bath twice a day if I let him. Needless to say I don’t bathe Katie as often as I probably should.

I think I’ve found a solution

My laundry room sink

It’s big and deep, I don’t have to kneel on the ground, and best of all it has a faucet that pulls out for easy rinsing.

Exploring the Neighborhood

Now that the days are getting longer and Justin gets home from work earlier we have more time during the evenings to do things together. Friday night we all went exploring the undeveloped land around us. Being my first time roaming the hills beyond, Justin and the three oldest kids were excited to show me around.

Our hill peaks just a few minutes walk past our house and the views from here are really incredible (pictures just don’t do it justice).

Overlooking the Snoqualmie Valley

And the beautiful mountains that surround us

We found a perfect woodpile for a bonfire this summer

This is the road that will lead us to the first LDS church in Snoqualmie due to be built next year - only minutes away from our house – we are so excited.

All this construction requires some serious equipment

Commute

Justin sure enjoys his new and greatly shortened commute. If it’s a nice day the girls like to meet him down the street when he’s walking home. On this afternoon they brought him a scooter to ride the rest of the way home.

Okay, so we’re not close enough to Justin’s work for him to walk the whole way home. He’s found a great vanpool in the area that picks him up and drops him off at the entrance to our neighborhood. We love having him on a schedule and best of all the company pays for it.

Easter Egg Hunt

I was torn this year about what Easter Egg Hunt we should attend. We LOVE the hunt in our old neighborhood and since we still own a home there we have claim to attend – besides it would be fun to be among friends. But with gas prices so high (and much to do at home) we just couldn’t justify the drive down. Instead we opted to attend the Easter Egg Hunt sponsored by the city of Snoqualmie. With Mount Si in the background the setting was gorgeous, the fields were green and spacious, and the eggs were aplenty.

This is the huge field for the 0-3 year olds

What is it with this boy and hats?

Never before have my kids scored as many eggs as they did this year. I was pumped when I saw all the full baskets.

Since Abigail and Jason both have food allergies this would usually mean more chocolate goodness for me. But my excitement was short lived. Instead of the mini chocolate bars we have found in our Easter eggs in years past these eggs were filled with the cheapest, least-desirable candies I could imagine. Below even the tootsie rolls and sweettarts level.

I’m still smiling here cause we hadn’t opened any eggs yet

As it turns out, I’m the only one who felt slightly jipped - the kids had a blast and I’m sure we’ll make our way back next year.

Tulip Festival

We finally had a small break from the rain this past Friday and Saturday. Since the girls get out of school early on Fridays we took advantage of the beautiful day and drove north to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

After experiencing the Tulip Festival our first spring in Washington we said we’d try to visit every year thereafter. Well, life gets busy and it is quite a drive so we haven’t made it every year (I think 2007 was our last visit), but we are always glad when we have taken the time to go. It is absolutely beautiful.

We first stopped in Tulip Town – a large touristy field with several different varieties of tulips. We took lots of pictures.

Definitely beautiful, but I wanted to find some fields totally saturated in one color. We drove around a bit and found red fields and yellow fields as far as you can see. These were easily my favorite and best of all they were free.

We had a great afternoon and hope that it doesn’t take another 4 years to get us back. Even though it was chilly and breezy the sun made it a gorgeous day. I almost believed spring had arrived, but alas the clouds and rain have already returned.

West Tiger Summit #3

With the move to Snoqualmie, I (Justin) have really looked forward to the access to local hiking and biking trails. A couple weeks ago, the forecast looked decent for hiking so the girls and I woke up intending to make the short hike to the bottom of Snoqualmie Falls. We arrived and found it was closed for improvement until 2013. We were a bit disappointed so decided to head to the trail to Tiger Summit. We hiked about 6 miles roundtrip and climbed 2000 feet in elevation. Many times on the way up we asked other hikers how much further to the top and almost turned around a few times. Initially we figured we would hike up halfway but Abigail was persistent that we make it to the top.

Abigail and Carly in the snow

Taking a break at the top and trying to get warm

Abigail and Carly at the top

The weather turned windy and colder the closer we got to the top and we had to watch our footing in the snow. Unfortunately the clouds rolled in and the view was limited but we definitely felt a sense of accomplishment in reaching the top. There are no bathrooms at the top so Carly practically ran down the mountain and Abigail and I had to keep up.

Hopefully this is just the beginning of many more adventures to come.

More Katie

With all the events of the weekend (see below) the kids spent a lot of time with sitters. I think I was away from the kids 9 hours on Friday, over 12 hours on Saturday, and close to 4 on Sunday. Sunday evening I could tell Katie just wasn’t feeling well. Thankfully it’s just a little cold and she wasn’t sick when we had babysitters.

Usually the plus sides of having a sick baby is that I have an excuse to stay home all day and that the sick child sleeps more than usual and wants to cuddle more. I’ve never had a cuddly baby so I enjoy it when I can. Of course when my kids were teeny tiny and couldn’t move for themselves I got plenty of snuggle time, but never beyond that newborn stage. So when Katie woke up early this morning still not feeling well I tried to bring her into bed with me with the hopes we could get a bit more rest before starting the day, but I’m afraid we’re already far past that stage. Oh how I miss those days when I had a little baby snuggled beside me sound asleep.

Katie resting with me at 2 months old – pure joy!

I gotta say it… I can’t believe Katie is already a year old. Here’s a slideshow of her monthly shots; unfortunately, amist the chaos of moving I missed her 11th month.

Monday Katie had her one year check-up (sick AND four needles... poor girl!). Here are her stats:

Height: 30.5 inches (90th percentile)

Weight: 21 pounds, 12.8 ounces (about 60th percentile)