Day 334

Today the teacher had brought out the work bench for curious little minds to practice swinging a hammer into nails. The children wore safety glasses and little aprons to work in. Lucky for me, I got to see Andy in action since I was snack mom today.

Day 333

I have a budding chef in my house who likes to assist with making dinner if he is in the mood. It's pizza night and we are making calzones. I'm the one in the family who likes mushrooms so those were on my side and Andy was being very meticulous on where the cheese needed to be placed. I enjoy my help and hope this assists him in making good nutrition choices and developing a love of cooking.

Day 332

While Mike and I were enjoying our quiet evening together, I spent my time wrapping wire and beads into a bracelet. It's my trial pieces from the berry vines class and unfortunately it's too big to be a bracelet, so I'm thinking it will have to be transformed into another piece, but I like the bright copper with the blue green beads.

Day 331

Tonight is movie night. Mike and I have a movie from Netflix we've been hanging on to for awhile since we watch more movies online thanks to our new Tivo. I have gathered the snacks for some munchies and if need be, stay awake items to make it through the movie.

Day 330

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have so many things to celebrate and am extremely thankful and grateful to God for all of the many blessings our family has been given this year. As our country sets aside one day to be thankful, I feel we need to be thankful each and every day of the year.

Day 329

The other day during preschool, Andy put together a Thanksgiving center piece with various kinds and colors of lentils and good old Elmer's glue. Today we brought it home and Andy is excited to share it with the family and take it to grandma's house tomorrow. I just love how he tried to write his name.

Day 328

Today was a saving grace for this pregnant momma. The boys went to grandma's house for the day and mom went home to relax and catch up on sleep. I also hunted down a pumpkin scone recipe thanks to Google and baked up some yumminess. I actually took three recipes I found online and sorta did my own thing and they turned out fantastic.

My first posted recipe: Pumpkin Scones

Pumpkin Scones:

2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup light or dark brown sugar

1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/3 cup raisins (optional)

1/4 cup toasted and chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

1/3 - 1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup fresh or canned pure pumpkin (if using canned pumpkin make sure there are no spices or sugar added)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Buttermilk has a nice thick creamy texture with a rich tangy buttery taste that makes baked goods tender. It is now commercially made by adding a bacteria to whole, skim, or low fat milk. However, in the past it was the liquid left over after churning butter. You can make your own by adding 1 tablespoon of white distilled vinegar, cider vinegar, or lemon juice to 1 cup of milk. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes before using.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Stir in the raisins and pecans, if using. In a separate bowl mix together the buttermilk, pumpkin puree and vanilla and then add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture. Mix just until the dough comes together. Do not over mix.

Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead dough gently four or five times and then pat the dough into a circle that is about 7 inches (18 cm) round and about 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) thick. Cut this circle in half, then cut each half into 4 pie-shaped wedges (triangles). Place the scones on the baking sheet.

Place the baking sheet inside another baking sheet to prevent the bottoms of the scones from over browning. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Makes 8 scones

Powdered Sugar Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons whole milk

Spiced Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

2 tablespoons whole milk

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 pinch ginger

1 pinch ground cloves

TO MAKE THE PLAIN GLAZE:

Mix the powdered sugar and 2 tbsp milk together until smooth

When scones are cool, use a brush to paint plain glaze over the top of each scone.

AS THAT WHITE GLAZE FIRMS UP, MAKE THE SPICED ICING:.

Combine the ingredient for the spiced icing together. Drizzle this thicker icing over each scone and allow the icing to dry before serving (at least 1 hour). A squirt bottle works great for this, or you can drizzle with a whisk.

Day 327

This afternoon I received a very unexpected surprise in my mail. One of the gals I follow on Twitter was giving away some of her extra beads and I responded saying I would gladly take any extra beads off her hands. She had sent the first package to someone else and I honestly wasn't expecting anything later on, but I do appreciate my gift today.

Day 326

What do 28 and 18 gauge brown wire and black drop beads have in common?

Another beading class courtesy of the beadclub. My sister-in-law and I took yet another wire class tonight and this one was called Berry Vines. I have one segment out of nine completed, but just honestly enjoyed a kid free evening hanging out with my partner in crime.

Day 325

I have been on a jewelry kick of late and took a picture of a couple of pairs of earrings that I have recently made. The one on the left is a cherry quartz faceted square bead dangling from a hand forged and hammered S swirl. The pair on the right is vintage Lucite blue with silver swirls through out the bead.

Day 324

Andy went to a birthday party for one of his classmates today and brought home a little goodie bag. Inside the bag was probably the coolest thing little brother has ever had the opportunity to play with. It's one of those toys that when you push the button it lights up and spins in a pattern. He looks like he wants to hug it.

Day 323

One of my new toys I got while shopping at Hobby Lobby in Tulsa was a beading lap tray. I thought this would be great to have another way to work on my jewelry and can transport this to various rooms around the house or take it with me on a trip. I am working on a new necklace using more fabulous lucite beads I recently purchased at The Beadin Path.

Day 322

It was so nice to wake up in my own bed this morning. Andy picked up my camera this morning while I was probably checking my email or twitter and was capturing a few moments of our day. Not the most flattering picture of me, but here you have it.

Day 321

This was our last day in Oklahoma with us flying home this evening. There wasn't anything really exciting about my day, but I noticed outside our plane window that the plane to San Diego was about ready to leave the gate. San Diego sounds a lot warmer than Seattle, but I'm ready to be home whether rain or shine.

Day 320

Today was such a fun day. I got to spend the day shopping with my mom and aunt. Mike took the boys to Qdoba for lunch and a little concert with Switchfoot and then bought tickets to the U2 concert at Qwest Field next June.

To top off our day, my parents took the boys for the evening and Mike and I headed to Oklahoma City to see Switchfoot in concert. We had such a great time rocking out and singing along to a lot of the songs since we have almost all their cd's. It was so nice to have a date night with my husband during our vacation.

Day 319

The boys, Mike and I spent this evening at my brother and sister-in-law's house who live in Tulsa. My parents, aunt and grandparents were all there to enjoy each other's company, hang out and eat some pizza. I snapped this photo of Andy sitting on great-grandpa's lap after dinner and it's really sweet how my boys who don't get to see their great grandparents often still enjoy being with them.

Day 318

Introducing

Mr. and Mrs. Keith Reimer

My middle brother has taken the plunge and got married to a really sweet gal this afternoon. It was such an honor and privilege of being able to be there to watch Keith and Alissa be joined in marriage. Andy did an awesome job standing up with both of his uncles and walking down the aisle with Alissa's nieces. I look forward to getting to know my new sister-in-law.

Day 317

Tonight was the rehearsal for my brother's wedding in which my adorable son is the ring bearer. We have been prepping Andy for a few weeks about how he will stand up next to Uncle Keith and Uncle Kyle during Uncle Keith's wedding and hold a little pillow. Andy didn't have much to say this evening, but he did learn he was to walk down the aisle with two little girls who are the nieces of the bride. Later Mike instructed Andy that if he was to walk down the aisle with these two girls, he needed to learn what their names were. My husband is already teaching my oldest to be a little Casanova.

Day 316

Today we are off to Tulsa, Oklahoma to see my family and attend my brother's wedding this coming Saturday. Since Aaron is now two years old, I thought we could possibly take one trip without the stroller. It worked for the most part, but Aaron walks at his own sweet pace which was fine since we had a three hour layover in Salt Lake City. He did eventually give out and Mike offered to give him a ride on the suitcase. It was absolutely funny to watch the reaction of other travelers seeing my son ride atop the carry on. It did get us to the gate a lot faster.

Day 315

One of my husband's favorite events to attend each year is the Seattle Auto Show. This year it happened to be right before our trip to Oklahoma, so Mike took the day off of work and we headed into Seattle to Qwest Events Center to browse through the latest and greatest of the auto world.
I must say if money was not an issue, I would take an Aston Martin any day. The only bummer is there is no room for any car seats.

Day 314

Here is another photo of our newest little member of the Sorensen family. My ultrasound appointment was this morning and according the technician, the baby looks good and she doesn't have any concerns. Of course, everyone wants to know, but guess what, you'll have to wait. We didn't find out what we are having, because we like to keep a little surprise in our lives. We chose not to find out with our boys too, so you'll just have to stay tuned.

Day 313

This afternoon I had the privilege of joining my little preschooler on his field trip to the salmon fish hatchery. One of the places the children were able to see was the fish ladder and it was interesting to learn that the fish were intrigued by the bright colored jackets. Both the salmon and the children were nose to nose at the window checking each other out. My little guy is the one in the red jacket as of course it was raining today.

Day 312

Today after church was a relaxing day at home and the boys built a train track. It was really sweet to watch them continue to play nicely together even after their baths. Granted they had their moments of disagreements, but they are each learning how to work together.

Day 311

After my party hardy last night and getting home at nearly 2am, I was pretty wiped out today. My sweet husband let me sleep in this morning, but I felt like I had been run over by a mac truck or had a few too many. So we just hung out at home, relaxed, took naps and played trains. Being Saturday, it's also bath night since we go to church on Sunday mornings. AJ had his little bath squirters all lined up ready to aim and I just thought it would make a fun picture.

Day 310

My dear friend, Dana, decided to have a girl's get together for no other reason than to hang out without our kiddos and enjoy each other's company. She fixed quite the spread of cheese, crackers, spinach artichoke dip, veggies and dip, wontons, chips, salsa, guacamole and brownies. Along with all the yummy food was wine and mocktails for all us preggers. Come to find out, there was one more amongst us as she told us tonight she was 12 weeks along and starting to tell people. Somethings in the water around here....

Okay, the mocktails were yummy drinks and I'm going to have to get the recipes for Thanksgiving for some fun, festive drinks, but the best part was just catching up with one another. After a chance to eat and drink, Dana whipped out the XBox and my favorite game, Lips. It's a karaoke game with a mix of songs from the 70s, 80s, 90s and today. I sang Walk Like an Egyptian by the Bangles to warm up and then busted a move with some song about lip gloss. I have no idea who sings it, or why I'm so good at it, but I can put that song down and earned nearly 2 million points to become Super Nova. Unfortunately, the little one kicking around is starting to make it hard for me to sing and breathe at the same time, so I was a bit winded after the lip gloss song, but I was glad Dana's sister got a picture of me belting out the song.

Day 309

The Seattle Children's Museum has a new exhibit featuring Sesame Street teaching you all about your body. We have a membership which is quite handy on the rainy days Seattle has and we need an indoor activity. I had also heard that most of the general public was staying away from most places due to the piggy flu, so I figured we would have the place to ourselves. Well, it was busier than I anticipated, but it was also full of toddlers whose parents were probably thinking the same thing I was.

The boys seemed to really enjoy the various characters teaching them about how our bodies work. Here Aaron is dressing Elmo in the correct outfit for the weather in order to keep us healthy. I think he was just more interested in the magnetism of the pieces than what the appropriate outfit was supposed to be.

Day 308

My Sensaria order arrived this afternoon and I am so excited to try out the new body scrub. I was out of body wash, so I took the opportunity to order the holiday scent in the body scrub. It smells really nice, so I will be trying it out tomorrow in the shower.

Day 307

Tonight I am hosting the board meeting for the preschool, so after dropping off the boys at grandma's house, I was able to clean most of my house completely interruption free. I also took advantage and moved all the furniture around for a different layout and every spot of my living room has now been vacuumed.

Day 306

Another month of preschool began today and it was another day of mom working in the class. One of the projects was to string beads onto a necklace. Andy, with some assistance, was able to find all the letters to his name and then strung them onto the string. It was a fun time in the class and I'm really proud of my little beader.

Day 305

God just blessed our socks off today with a gorgeous Sunday. It felt more like September than November, so I hoped in my car to scout out some more fabulous fall foliage. This is about 18 blocks from our house on a dead end street. I just love all the various colors the trees become before the wind and rain blow it all down.

Day 304

Well, it's moving day at the Sorensen household. The little one is moving into big brother's room since he will be ousted out of the nursery come next spring. We were very blessed to borrow a toddler bed from some good friends and dad spent his morning moving closet doors, beds, dressers and cleaning away to make room for the little dude. It may take a couple of nights for the transition and of course we start on the night of the time change, but the threat of returning to the crib worked nicely for big brother, here's hoping it works for little brother too.