Dental Dilemma

A couple years ago, Brigham had a molar pulled, see here.  It is second to the back on the bottom right side.  The hope at the time was that we could use orthodontics to pull the back molar into the empty spot and then have a wisdom tooth, in turn, take the back molar's place.  Our first orthodontic consult was today and we were given three options.

1. do nothing - yea right

2. braces on the bottom set of teeth, plus a spacer and retainer for about a year to move the back molar into the empty spot. 

3. a spacer to hold the empty spot and straighten the back molar. Implant when he is done growing, somewhere between 18-24.

I'm not sure which I prefer.  Two will be done sooner, but has less chance of success.  His back molar is already tilting forward and with nothing to brace it from behind it will be hard to get it onto the same plane as the other teeth. On the other hand, I'm not sure about implants. There is a part of me that really rebels against the idea of a foreign body inserted into his bones.   The downside of the implant is that it is also more expensive and the wait to get it done is fairly lengthy. He is not excited about the second option because that could mean 2-3 years total of braces and he loves playing his trumpet. Brigham will need a full set of braces after treatment, no matter which option we end up with. 

What do you all think?  I didn't have to wear braces (my teeth are pretty amazing) so I'm not really in tune with all the pain and travail that brings.

Halloween 2013

I went all out this year and made every costume, well, at least the parts that aren't normal clothes.  I started wondering what I had gotten myself into a couple weeks before Halloween, but the day was saved by a friend.  We had a family staying with us for a bit and the wife is quite the seamstress. She helped me make the girls' dresses.  It did take a fair amount of time, but I'm pretty proud of how it turned out.  It was Elle's idea to do the Greek Gods this year. Next year  is Arrested Development.  Themes are quite fun, as long as everyone agrees.  Brigham turned 12 today too, but we'll celebrate that tomorrow.  Both he and Elle went off on their own trick or treating.  First year we haven't been all together as a family.  My babies are growing up.  We have my mom and dad here so they were able to hold down the fort while we were out with the kids.  I'm not used to living in a popular neighborhood so we ran clean out of candy.  Mom pulled out a box of popcorn to start giving away once the candy ran out.

Aphrodite just found out she's not the cutest girl in the world.

Oh, Poseidon told a funny joke.

Poseidon does not smile!

Artemis forgot she's a huntress, not the Goddess of love.

Ares will cut your head off like that.

Or just disembowel himself.

Suction arrows aren't scary.

Stephanie Persephone = Perstephanie

Clash of the Titans

House Tour

If you want to waste 16 minutes of your life, click here for a video tour of our house.  You'll probably want to mute it so you can't hear the construction noise and my huffing and puffing.

October House Update

Jacob here.  It seems the last house updates were back in January and February and we never posted pictures of the house after it was completed.  Time to rectify that. We finished it up in July, right on schedule. Haha. At any rate, here are some pictures of the exterior and some of the 1st floor (kitchen mostly).

We'll get some trees planted next spring.

Very nice gentleman named Bruce from our ward helped me cut the lettering on the address plate using his CNC router.

Exterior entrance to the basement

That's the backyard through the double doors

I haven't finished the column trim, but the hard part is done now

Looking toward the front of the house from the kitchen, pantry on the left at the base of the stairs, tower room on the right through the glass door

This is a little bit blury, but this is looking from the tv room down the hall toward the front door (to the right of the mirror).  The barrel ceiling turned out great I think although it could use some more trim work (someday)

Geese

I very rarely take all the kids shopping with me.  The kids have been dying to go to Dollar Tree and I decided to walk over to safeway when we were done there.  As we were walking through the store, I felt like I was herding a gaggle of geese.  They were loud and crazy and constantly getting in other people's way, but you know what?  I sure do love these kiddos.  I'm so proud of them and their personalities and how much they have accomplished in life.  I wouldn't trade them with any other kids.

2013 Recipes Updated

For the pdf, click here:  http://www.stephacob.com/Compilation.pdf.

Let me know if you find any typos.

If you want to buy a paperback version so you don't have to print it out, here is a link:

http://www.lulu.com/commerce/index.php?fBuyContent=13610244&fBuyProductType=print&cid=en_email_pt_pubcomplete_add-to-cart

Luke's Baptism and More

Luke turned 8 in December so it was time for his baptism.  He's a good boy and I'm so proud of him for all the good choices he has made.  He can be so crazy full of energy, but he is so sweet and I sure love my special little guy.

Jacob's parents did the long drive to be here with us for the big day.  I was really, really hoping the house would be done by now, but it's not hard to fit a couple more people in this house.  When we took them to see the new house, I told them that we could still let them stay in the new house if they want, it just might be a little cold.

As soon as they arrived Luke was driving us crazy wanting to play Scum. He's a little obsessed with that card game right now.  Grandma, Grandpa and Drake were very accommodating and played it with him many, many times.

One of many rounds of scum.

Our stake does the baptisms once a month, so you never know how many other kids are going to be baptized the same day.  We lucked out and had only one other boy there to be baptized.  I decided to do the accompaniment so I practiced the two songs nonstop for two weeks before the baptism. I was super duper nervous, but it was a nice goal to shoot for.  Grandma was the chorister so we were able to be nervous together.  The first song went so so.  "Baptism" is definitely difficult.  The second song, was much easier.  Grandpa gave the talk on baptism.  We had to wait for a few minutes for the first boy to be baptized and then headed back to the font room.  It was wonderful to have so many friends and family there with us.  I definitely felt the spirit during the ordinance. 

Here is the slideshow we watched while Luke and Jacob were drying off and getting dressed (be warned, it's pretty long):

Uncle Robert gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and then Jacob gave Luke a wonderful blessing after conferring the gift of the Holy Ghost.

The whole crowd.

Michelle gave Luke some delicious cake pops.  Probably the best part of his day.

After the baptism we had family over for some delicious pulled pork.  Thanks to my dad for such a yummy recipe. Thanks to my mom too for the delicious Gone with the Wind recipe that we had for dessert.  Speaking of which, I've done some more tweaking to my recipe and finally figured out exactly how the custard needs to look before you mix it with the other ingredients.  Recently I've been having more problems with it separating into layers while separating.  Turns out I just wasn't cooling the custard enough sometimes.

Gone with the Wind

1 c. graham crackers (about 7), crushed 1 c. vanilla wafers (about 23), crushed ¼ c. brown sugar 3 tbsp. melted margarine 1 Tbsp. gelatin (Knox--about one packet) ½ c. cold water 4 egg yolks, beaten

2 c. milk 1 c. sugar 4 egg whites 1 tsp. salt 2 c. whipping cream 2 tsp. vanilla 5 tbsp sugar

Mix first 4 ingredients well and pat ½ into 9x13 inch pan.  Reserve ½ for the topping.  Soften gelatin in cold water.  Make stirred custard by cooking and stirring milk, sugar, and egg yolks in microwavable dish on 30% power.*  Check every couple of minutes.  Custard is done when the mixture coats a metal spoon (it is a very obvious change).  Mix gelatin in until well dissolved.  Cool the custard in the refrigerator.  Be sure to stir periodically.  The custard must be thoroughly chilled before mixing with other ingredients (otherwise will form layers while setting).  It is properly chilled when the custard mounds when stirred. Whip cream and vanilla till stiff, whip in the sugar.  Beat egg whites and salt till stiff.  Fold both into custard (thoroughly with a whisk) and turn into pan.  Sprinkle topping on.  Chill overnight.

*When making custard, cooking times and power levels will vary.  Be sure to not overcook the custard or the egg will cook into little chunks.  Best rule of thumb: start on a lower power and bring it up if it’s not cooking.

White Without Snow

We had a few super cold days recently that resulted in some pretty cool frost formations. I let Elle take the camera out to catch a few pictures.  Here are a couple:

Silly boy.

This willow tree is one of the few things I'll miss about the rental.

What We Did Over Christmas Break

Turns out not much.  I was about as lazy as you can get.  I felt bad the last vacation day we had before school started so we headed down to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum.  I've been wanting to visit there for awhile and with reciprocity it was free!  They just added an indoor waterpark within the last couple of years, but we didn't go to that yet.

The kids seemed fairly impressed with all the planes, etc.  I was a little nervous that they were going to be whining about being at museum, but there was a good balance of interactive displays and cool exhibits.  The spruce goose was definitely the coolest attraction.  That thing is huge!  The museum is setup in two different buildings, one for the airplanes and one for the space exhibits.  I was pretty impressed that little old McMinnville has such a nice museum.  We'll definitely have to head down there again soon.  Can't beat free!

Inside the cockpit of the spruce goose.

The spruce goose has the longest wingspan of any plane in existence.  Amazing it could fit.

Before heading over to the space building, a tour guide told us there was an exhibit that simulated a rocket launch and it even shook a little. The kids were extremely excited for that one. It was not quite as great as we were expecting though. It was just a control room that counted down from 10 minutes and then had the slightest vibration when the rocket took off on the video screen.  Sorry kids, gotta go to Disneyland for something better.

Some plane tire.

We found the best activity at the end, a flight simulator.  Luke was a natural.

They had a little airplane ride at the entrance to the space museum.

A Mini Jazz Recital

Elle's jazz class wasn't able to participate in the nutcracker, only the ballet classes did, but they did do a quick little exhibition at the end of class right before Winter Break.  That class has been wonderful for her.  The teacher is super kind and a little easier to identify with than her hip hop teacher was.  She still likes hip hop more, but this class is a good standby until she can get back into hip hop.  So, without further ado, here is the show:

Lukie's 8!

Luke had his 8th birthday 3 days before Christmas.  It's always tough shopping for both birthday and Christmas.  I usually end up with not quite enough toys and have to do some last minute shopping.  Thankfully he is getting old enough to read calendars so he doesn't keep asking me how much longer till his Birthday.  His birthday was on a Saturday and I think he felt a little sad because Jacob and I spent a lot of time wiring the new house, but the evening made up for it.  Presents, Red Robin for dinner and a trip to the mall.  Okay, maybe he wasn't too excited about the mall, but Brigham needed new shoes.  His big present was a razor 2XL.  I've given up on buying the cheap ones, they fall apart too fast, especially with how hard the boys are on them.

This was definitely the year of Angry Birds.  His favorite iphone game right now is bike race, but there isn't licensed merchandise yet.  Plenty of Angry Birds though.

I bought trick candles for the first time.  I love his reaction.

Nutcracker 2012

Every year our dance studio puts on a Nutcracker performance.  It utilizes all the ballet classes at the dance studio, even kids as young as Phoebe.  Phoebe's class was given the part of little mice.  I loved seeing the performance and how adorable all the little kids were.  They did a pretty amazing job putting the whole thing together.  For living in such a small town we sure are blessed to have such a great dance studio.

I wasn't sure if Phoebe was going to be able to perform in it because she missed the dress rehearsal. She has caught my strep I had had the week before.  I was able to get her on medication super fast since I knew what it was right off, but not fast enough for the rehearsal.  She was perfect by Saturday.  I was so glad because I knew she would have been pretty disappointed to miss it.

Cute little mice, happy the nutcracker was wounded :)

She wasn't totally confident in what she was doing since she missed the rehearsal, but she was dang cute!

Gotta love stage makeup.  She lives for recitals so she can wear makeup.

Sweet Harmony

Elle's big elective she chose for this year is the girl's choir at the middle school called Sweet Harmony.  They had their second concert in December.  I was very impressed with how much they had improved since September.

Later in the week I helped chaperone their trip to the zoo lights.  I think it was colder that night than when we were in Utah for Thanksgiving.  The zoo lights are gorgeous.  Luckily we had some time to walk around and see them after the girls sang.

Thanksgiving for Families

I swore when I was pregnant with Phoebe that we were never driving down to Utah in the winter again.  I was missing family at Thanksgiving time though and since our house wasn't even close to done I decided it'd be fun to see them over break.  The kids get the whole week off from school so it is easy to take the time to go down.  The weather was beautiful the whole time, perfect for driving and perfect for being out and about.

Our first stop was at Jacob's parents house in Bountiful.  Apparently I didn't take any pictures :(

After a couple days there we headed down to our Provo bed and breakfast (my sister Maren's house).  It is so wonderful having them back in the West.  We only had a couple days there, but we managed to fit in a trip to the Y. (For all you non-mormons, that is the big Y they painted on the mountain next to BYU)

Best t-shirt and ad campaign ever.

Y

M

C 

(Apparently some of us have forgotten the proper orientation)

A

Elle was in love with Baby Logan.  She's such a good little babysitter (except when she changed Matilda's diaper on the bed and she fell off).

This was my grandpa's suit.  A perfect fit!

The last few days we spent at my parent's house in Sandy.  I spent most of my time trying to get Matilda to smile at me.  Thanksgiving dinner was delicious.  We all contributed our best works to it.  

Matilda was the queen of silly faces.

The whole family was there!  We even kind of matched.

The cutest little niece and nephew.

Visiting with the Wasdens. Phoebe is going through the forgotten how to smile phase.

Our last night we visited temple square.  Seems like everyone else in Utah had the same idea, but it was still fun.  It was a little hard to keep a group as big as ours together, but we managed to only lose people once.

Tabernacle at Temple Square.

Baby warmer.  Look at those cheeks!