Coast Toast

We discovered this breakfast dish at a little resturaunt called Brockton Villa, right on the coast in La Jolla. It is the chef's take on french toast and is dubbed, appropriately, Coast Toast. It is so delicious that we have made it our Christmas morning tradition, so I thought I'd share the recipe with all of you.

Coast Toast

1 loaf soft french bread (sliced)
1 qt. whipping cream
10 eggs
3/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup sugar
a pinch of salt
2 TBS vanilla
2 TBS orange flavoring (I never have this so I substitute with orange juice concentrate)

Combine ingredients. Pour over bread slices. Cover and refridgerate for at least 1 hour.

Remove bread and discard liquid. Spread butter on flat grill.

Cook until golden brown, then bake at 450 degrees for 5-10 minutes until bread is puffed up like a souffle'. Dust with powdered sugar. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Pretty Baby

Tessa

It's offical...

....I am a blogging loser. I wouldn't particularly care, except that my friend Taylor makes me feel guilty by being a blogging rock star. She is The Lumberjack's Wife. And she blogs at least once a day. Where do you find the time, Taylor? Or the energy? Or the things to blog about? Because, frankly, my life is simply not that interesting or exciting. Oh well, I shall never be a blogging rock star. But I guess I could at least try to post once a month...... see? Blogging loser.

In all honesty I'm really just very, very, very tired. Which I realize is probably because I have four children who are home with me all day and I'm 22 weeks pregnant. But when this particular lady is tired, it's hard for me to do anything beyond the completely essential. I become very anti-social because it takes too much energy to be social. I also find it difficult to psych myself up to do anything that involves leaving the house. Because getting four kids dressed, bundled up, and in and out of the car is exhausting!

And yet, yesterday I not only left the house, but I stood in line in 18 degree weather for 6 hours just to see and shake Sarah Palin's hand. And it was totally worth it. She is a woman I greatly admire. Not only her ideals and principles, but her grace and strength under fire.

Today, I am sore. And exhausted. I have issues with having too many contractions during my pregnancies (my doctor refers to it as an "irritable uterus" which is just a funny term, in my opinion) and sometimes it's hard for me to tell what's going to trigger it. Evidently standing in line for 6 hours does, because last night was a contraction filled night! So this morning I am doing something I never, ever do. I am lazing around in bed at almost 9 am. Oh, I'll get up eventually and clean the house and fold the laundry. But right now, I'm enjoying some down time. And blogging! Imagine that.

What a week

It's been a busy, crazy week!
I'm almost finished packing up our house. My mom came up on Tuesday and took the kids for me so I am able to concentrate on packing. It's been wonderful and I know they are having a great time.
On Wednesday we had an ultrasound and got to see our new baby girl! That's right, the pattern is broken. We're very excited to have another sweet baby girl! No name yet, we'll be working on that one.
Today, we closed on the house! We have keys! It's ours! We can move in this weekend! (Can you tell we're excited?)
Pictures to follow~

Hanging on

I am so ready to move. Seriously. Packing is the pits. I miss my simple life with my simple daily activities! I miss my house being clean and organized! My kids are watching WAY too much PBS. My husband is appalled by the state of the house. But what's a girl to do?

We are so excited and thankful, though, in spite of the mess we are currently living in. Every few days we go check on the house to see how much they've gotten done. I'm already un-packing in my head.... which is silly since I'm not even packed yet.

I'm not doing school for the next couple of weeks- I already had two weeks scheduled off for this month so that worked out well. Phew!

And.... My AWESOME mom is coming up on the 17th to take my children so that we can finish this whole packing and moving thing that week. I love my mom. She's the bestest. ;)

So, here's to surviving!

Bad blogger lady! Bad!

Okay, I have seriously been falling down on my blogging duties lately. I would be surprised if any of you have even stuck around and actually check the blog anymore!
I'm afraid I've been ridiculously busy lately, with school, kids etc. And I am not feeling particularly creative or amusing.
But I am really going to make a concerted effort to be a better blogger lady. And keep all of you updated on our fun, exciting life! (Ha!)
Is there anybody out there?

Coming along quickly!

Less than 1 week later and they already have all the sheeting on and the interior framed as well! It's going very quickly and I'm realizing that I need to start packing. Thankfully, I know a wonderful woman who works for a wonderful company (Mom4Life) and she has graciously offered all of their boxes from shipments and returns! Which saves me from dumpster diving for cardboard boxes! Yay! We have about 4.5 weeks before the move.

We have walls!

First picture

We are planning on taking pictures of the house as it's being built. It will be fun for the kids to see it going up! So since we're in the waiting on permits stage, here's a pic of the lot and the bare ground! :)

Home sweet home!

We are so excited! We're buying a house! We are so ready to be homeowners again, it's not even funny. It's absolutely amazing how everything is just falling into place so perfectly. We're so thankful that God is allowing us to have the opportunity to own again.

The home we're buying is new construction and in a neighborhood we really like. I've been busy running around to various pre-construction meetings this week. I bravely ventured into a lighting store today with four children in tow... crazy, I know, but we're on a deadline! The builder is fast-tracking construction so that it's completed and closed before Nov. 30- since we haven't owned in over 3 years we qualify for the tax credit. So, if all continues to go well we will be posting pictures of our new home in just under two months!

The inevitable question

We are finally ready to announce that in April we will be welcoming a new addition to our family!

And now for the inevitable question- yes, we do know how these things happen. Just thought I'd answer that one in one fell swoop, since it seems to be the question that folks always ask.

I've been feeling pretty sick, as usual for me, and quite honestly we are still trying to get used to the idea that before the school year is out we will have 5 children!! Seems rather impossible. But God is faithful and we rely on Him. We know that our children are a blessing and a gift, and this one will be no different! We do however covet your prayers firstly for a healthy pregnancy and baby- and the strength and wisdom we need to raise our brood!

Is your mouth watering yet?

See these beauties? Aren't they gorgeous?

My family has a long history of scouting the mountains and braving the bears, just to get these beautiful berries socked away in the freezer for the year.

One year my family picked 64 gallons of the suckers.

We used to pick for HOURS.... till our poor fingers were purple and we'd be begging mom and dad to take us back to camp. And then they'd say those fateful words.... "ok, we'll pick our way back to the car now." Two hours later...... we'd finally get there.

Now I get to do that to my kids!

For the past few years I've craved, longed for, deeply missed the taste of huckleberries. Huckleberry sauce on ice cream. Huckleberry pancakes. Huckleberry muffins. Huckleberry fudge.

I'm telling you. Taste them once and you'll never go back to blueberries. I promise.

So this week my mom and I took three of the Fab Four and went on a camping/huckleberry picking adventure.

It rained the whole time and we got soaking wet. But it was fun. And the berries were beautiful! My freezer is now full. Glory be.

And the next people I have over for dinner will be getting huckleberry sauce and vanilla ice cream for dessert!!

Hmmm... I wonder who will be nicest to me... :D

He's done!

You know those turkeys you buy at Thanksgiving that have the plastic timers already in them? The timer pops up when the turkey is done.
Vance happens to have his own built in timer. After a meal he checks his tummy and says...



"Look Mom! My timer popped! I'm all done!"

10 years down, many more to go!

Today is the 10 year anniversary of our marriage. It's amazing to think how much we have grown as individuals and as a couple in the last 10 years. I'm incredibly grateful for my husband- a man who works so hard for his family, who gives the best of himself, who loves me and does sweet things for me and most importantly who seeks after the heart of God. I love you so much, baby! Happy Anniversary!

Handsome Fella'

My kids and my sister's kids are wonderful friends. It's so great to see them have fun together. They have one ongoing game that they play- The older ones and Vance are part of "Spy Club" and the younger ones call theirs simply "Club". They make and bring home the cutest, funniest things as prizes from Club. Abbie always makes these "Spy Manuals" that have things like ciphers, codes and spying methods, and the littler ones make crafts, learn Bible verses and songs, etc.

Anyway, Vance came home with these glasses that Abbie made for him as a prize for Spy Club- he LOVED them and wore them constantly until they fell apart. I just couldn't help but laugh every time I looked at him! He was so proud.

Siblings...

We have our share of sibling rivalry around here. Some times I think we actually have more than our share, considering the fact that we home school and therefore our kids are around each other constantly. But there are wonderful advantages to that, as well. My kids love each other as fiercely as they sometimes fight. The boys especially are inseparable. They call each other their "Best Buddy". Tonight we left Jaxson with my mom for an overnighter. Vance spent the whole ride home and until he finally fell asleep in his bed howling, sobbing and calling for his "Buddy". "My Buddy!! I missed my Buddyyyy!" This happens every time Jaxson is gone. Even when we recently just dropped him off for a birthday party. After a couple of hours, even Ellie was saying she missed Jaxson. I am grateful for the deep love that they hold for each other. I hope that some day, when they're adults, they'll be as close to each other as my siblings and I are. I always tell my children that their brothers and sisters are built in best friends!

What do you get...

......when you have a 5 year old who likes to play Mommy and a 3 year old who still wants to be the baby??

Trip to Sandpoint

Last week Brady had a shoot up in Sandpoint so we decided to make a family day of it. We drove up to this amazing cabin in the woods on the lake. It was so incredibly beautiful up there! Unfortunately, when we got there we discovered that there were people there (they hadn't told the rest of the family who arranged the photos of the cabin that they were going up that day). So the photo plans were put on hold and we decided to just enjoy the scenery and drive. We drove up to Oden Bay and then to Hope. We stopped at the Trestle Creek Rec. Area and let the kids play in the water, which was remarkably warm! It was a great day. It reminded me of going on drives as a kid- we'd all hop in the car (with our books, of course) and drive up to these remote places on these crazy, narrow roads... inevitably we'd have to back several miles down a dirt trail that was barely wide enough for the car... ahhh... good times! ;) Truly.

I may have passed on my OCD

Yes. This is my 1 year old. Dusting.  

Seattle Trip + Tons of Pics= Procrastination

My blog is disgracefully behind. Every time I think about updating.... I get overwhelmed with all of the pictures that I know I need to edit and upload ... and I put it all off yet again. But no more!! Today begins a new day! A day in which I will finally update our blog and hopefully begin to do better at keeping it updated... hopefully...
First our Seattle trip. ( Just by way of warning... I'm going after "the longest post" title with this one.. watch out Mandy! :p) It's been a while since we have been on a 'vacation' type trip with the kids. I think since Vance was just a little one. So we had a lot of fun. Our hotel room was comped by a client of Brady's who was trading for photos. So we got to stay in this amazing suite... that was probably about as big as our house.
Here are Jax and Ellie right before we set off. Don't they look excited?

Lilah was asleep before we'd even left our street.... Sweet thing!

We stopped the first night at Grandma Rothrock and Leonard's house. It was so great to see them!
The boys made themselves at home right away.. I think the first question Vance asks whenever we get there is "Can we play with the toys?".
And Ellie and Lilah went outside to enjoy the swing.
The next morning was mother's day. Jax spent a little while outside that morning.. mysteriously... and when he brought me out to the swing this is what I found!! He's such a sweet son.


Grandma and Lilah spending some quality time together. This picture is just so sweet.

After breakfast on Sunday morning we headed off to Seattle! The kids really do so well on long trips so we didn't really have any major adventures along the way. We listened to books on tape in the car (Narnia) and next thing you know we were checking into our hotel in downtown Seattle!



This was the bedroom.
The living room.
The kids eating breakfast in the dining area.

We did a little bit of sightseeing. Far more than I'll be able to post because uploading all the pictures would take a year! But here are a few highlights...






One amazing daddy with four amazing kids!
The Children's Museum. What a great place that was!

This is in our hotel. Just a couple of cute kids we found! :)

We took the kids on the monorail... talk about cheap entertainment! Vance is doing his signature half smile.

The Seattle Aquarium. Vance once again with the cute half smile.


Vance likes otters.......
What a doll she is!

When Vance was just a tiny baby my mom made these blankets for all the kids for Christmas. They are fleece blankets, you know, the kind with the fringes on the sides? Well, Vance became extremely attached to his and we are never allowed to lose this blanket. He has specific knots in the tassels that he wraps around certain fingers. He HAS to have those knots when he sleeps. If you move the blanket while tucking him in he yells "mom, you lost my knot!". He also likes to tickle the inside of his ear with the tassels when he's upset.... it instantly calms him down. He's always done this, from the time he was a baby.
Tonight was one of those inevitable nights... the blanket just had to be laundered. It got dirty at the Lake today, and I can't get over my OCD enough to allow my kids to go to bed dirty or with dirty blankies! The conversation went something like this:

Vance: Mommy! Please, please, please get my blanket! *sob*

Me: Baby, you have to wait until it's clean... you can have it tomorrow.

Vance: But I NEED it! *sniff*

Me: Well, here's a blanket with tassels... can you use this one for tonight?

Vance: (testing the tassels out on his ear) It doesn't work!! *more sobs*

He suddenly stops crying.

Vance: Mom! I have a great idea!! We'll clean the blanket and then I'll just never get it dirty again!!

Great plan, buddy. Great plan.