Tiny Teagan- Baby Model Extraordinaire! ;)

There is a girl in my ward who has been doing professional photography for like 12 years now. She is AMAZING. We were going to have her shoot Teagan when he was born but she is expensive...like insanely expensive. She travels all over the world (literally!), doing photoshoots for people.

A couple weeks ago I got a text from her asking if we would be interested in letting Teagan be a baby model for a product she was going to shoot for. AHHH! YES YES YESSSS! We got free professional pictures, and we got the hats for free- sweet deal. We drove down to Ogden today so he could model HushHats- Baby earmuffs. These are a couple of the pictures he took. They aren't edited at all- she just pulled them right off her camera and sent them over to us. So great!! It was so much fun! He was a champ. And, he's adorable.

Enjoy some of these darling pics :)

Cafe rio Pork

i had a couple people ask about the pork from Sunday- so here's the recipe I used.

Thanks again for coming, everyone!


http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2011/09/cafe-rio-sweet-pork.html#more

Just a note- in the last step it says you can mix or blend ingredients- I would recommend blending them.

New Zealand - A Few Quick Pictures

Hamilton temple

Lake Taupo - just outside our condo.  This region has lots of geothermal activity, with hot water being marked by signs that say things like "CAUTION: scalding hot water."  You can see the steam as it flows into the lake.

Huka Falls.  You don't get a great grasp of scale here, but it was massive and beautiful.

That should provide scale.  In the middle towards the top you can see people standing on the other side of the falls - that should help with size.

About an hour in on our 6 hour hike.  That's a volcano.  Mt. Ng.... (not sure the rest of it).  Note the scenery - looks like we were on Mars.  Felt that way for about 4.5 hours of the hike.  We've never seen anything like it.

Same volcano - look how much we've ascended.  (Our FitBits showed that we went did 373 flights of stairs on the hike.  This picture is shortly after the devil's staircase which did, indeed, feel like Hades.  Today - day after - does too.)

After even more of an ascent.  This was crazy windy and cold.  They added "arctic" to the hike name, and this section of the hike is why.  Cool views but crazy desolate.

Emerald pools.  Their colors were striking.  They are sulphur pools so smelled terrible.

Just before doing the descent, where we held hands with a nice lady named Jo from the UK that was shaking with fear.  It was a long ways down.

Our car is parked WAY at the bottom of this.  Loved the view of trees and lakes after so much brown, red, black and empty.

And then - surprise - the last 90 minutes was through a jungle.  My cheeks are rosy: the sun had come out and I was down to only 3 layers at this point.  :)

More of the jungle on our hike.  Huge difference in setting.

Our breakfast this morning!  TJ made strawberry jam using the sugar packets for the coffee.  :)  We had french toast and scrambled eggs, made in that tiny kitchen in the background.

New Zealand is gorgeous.  This is Lake Taupo - our condo is on the other side of the lake.

We've been trying to figure these forests out.  We've come to the conclusion that they are planted for lumber.  We call them "The Forbidden Forest" because they are incredibly dense and dark.

Just an idea of how stunning New Zealand is.  We thought this looked a lot like Toon Town.  :)  Rolling green like we've never seen.  I've never enjoyed driving so much.  We truly went from our lake front property to complete jungle within 12 minutes yesterday.

Redwood Forest today - this is my favorite thing we've done so far.  Walked for about an hour.  It was so peaceful.  I absolutely loved it.

Can you see T?

We were trying hard to show how BIG these trees are.

Holy gorgeous.

Rode a gondola up to the top of the mountain to ride the luge.  That view was great.  The water was super blue.  Loved it.

TJ riding up the chairlift after taking the "Advanced" luge track down.  He caught air, which delighted him.  :)  I, of course, was reading in the sunshine while he went.  Perfect for both of us.

Before we rode the luge together.  I screamed with delight on the way down.  :)

The luge -

:) Well, we had a few minutes to burn.  Where would you choose?

The Rotorua Library is now TJ's favorite library ever.

TJ looked for a great restaurant in Rotorua and we went here for lunch.  I fell so deeply in love that we also went here for dinner.  And two desserts.  It was fabulous.

Can't get over that treeline.  The cows make it pretty picturesque too.

Sunset on Lake Taupo, just as we arrived home for the day.  Note the black goose in the foreground - they are everywhere.  We still haven't gotten over all the beautiful bird sounds.

LOVE!

Elliana is pretty much being loved to death!  The kids can't get enough of her.  One day she was very uncomfortable with a tummy ache.  I had tried feeding her, bouncing her, walking her but nothing was helping.  I laid her down to change her diaper and started massaging her legs.  All of the other five kids surrounded her on the floor.  Lexi started rubbing her tummy, Tanner started massaging her right arm and Anna had her left.  My instinct was to shoo them all out and let Elliana have a little peace and quiet but I looked around at each of them as they were all singing her primary songs and massaging even just a limb that they were all trying so hard to help little Elliana in whatever way they could.  I realized that this was a moment that I didn't want to ever end.  Our little home has been overflowing with love this summer.

Girls' Getaway

I've found a new blog I adore - 71toes.com - and in it she talks about getaways with her sisters.  Their sisters getaways (more here) are MFME: Mothers and Future Mothers of Eyrealm (their family).  I adore this idea.  Getting together to laugh, eat delicious food, enjoy sunshine (ideally) and discuss how to improve ourselves.  I know we are all very busy, so it would be difficult to orchestrate, but who would really be up for a weekend away?  Maybe St. George or California or Bear Lake?  I could do the planning (at some point Events Planning became part of my job title...) if everyone is up for it.  I know that means arranging husbands' work schedules, your own work schedules, extracurricular activities, etc.  Work, but worth it?

Thoughts?

Baby Animal Days!

Sisters!!!

All of you should plan to bring your kiddo's up (or yourselves!) and come to baby animal days with Dusty and I! We will be going on Friday, April 3rd and will probably get over there around 11:30AM. It is $7 for kids 3-11 and $9 for 12 and up. If you bring a canned good you get a dollar off each ticket.

They have all sorts of fun things going on- check out the website and please comment or text me if you're interested so we can figure everything out!

:D

We were thinking that we could also do a picnic lunch by our house at a fun park or on Old Main. Let me know if you'd be interested in that as well :)

https://www.awhc.org/index.php/babyanimaldays/

Cruise Pictures

I bought these gems from the cruiseline.  They cost a mint, but really - how could I not?  What fun girls we have in our family.  I love how much fun they make life and how often they crack me up.  I can't look at these without grinning (especially picture #1). 

:)

Special Dates

So!  Check out what I added right over in that sidebar.  -->  A quick little list of all birthdays and anniversaries, as they are hard to track!  I am missing a few anniversaries, so if you can let me know yours if it's missing that would be grand!  Also, let me know if you see any errors.  :)

-Rachel

Dr. Suess!

LADIES!!!

Yesterday was Dr. Suess' birthday so I found this AMAZING deal!!!! This is everything I got for FIVE DOLLARS! I think the sale doesn't last long and that is a steal of a deal so if you want it- sign up quick!!!

The website it www.funbooks1.com
Use promo code: 010315

The Tooth Book Go, Dog, Go! Ten Apples up on Top! The Cat in the Hat Mr. Brown Can Moo!	$5.95
Dr. Seuss Activity Book Dr. Seuss Stickers	FREE
Dr. Seuss Growth Chart Seuss Book Stickers Seuss Reading Stickers	FREE
Shipping and Handling	FREE
Tax	$0.00
Total	$5.95

Protein Cookies- soo yummy :)

Sisters!

My boss, Julie, is super great with nutrition and she recently gave me this recipe for protein cookies. There is just over 100 calories in one cookie and lots of protein. I made them today and they are yummmmmy. Give them a try :)

Protein Cookies 
1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
2 Tablespoons almond paste
          -(I don't want to pay for it so I just one ounce of cream cheese and it tastes great)
1 Tablespoon flaxseed oil
          -(I also didn't want to pay for this so I just use 1 Tablespoon of olive oil)
10 packets of Truvia
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup whole wheat flour (white flour works just as well- just not as healthy)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 cup vanilla whey powder

combine all these ingredients- mix with a hand mixer.

Then add and mix in:
2 cups oats
1 cup dried cherries (any dried fruit- I've used cranberries and they were delicious)
1/2 cup sliced almonds
*I add some chocolate chips as well or Dusty won't eat them ;) I think they taste really good with just the cherries instead of chocolate chips though.

Spoon onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 325 for 12 minutes or until the tops are light brown.