currant happenings

I thought that I would just put a little note up as I have not written any thing for a long time. Chelsey has been keeping everyone very well informed about life with the girls. Makayla is getting all 4 of her top middle (yes, 4 teeth at once!) teeth right now, so she has been a grump! But we are having a lot of fun with Jada and Makayla. The other day Jada and I were moving our arms around with music, and it was so fun how she would copy every move that I did, all with a huge smile on her face. My family always makes me smile, and I love them a lot. There is not much better in life than having a happy family to come home to :)

In other news, we have a few adventures we starting. As you know, I've applied to get into the Canadian Government, with the dept of foreign affairs & International Trade. I'm still waiting to hear back to see if I get into the next phase of the application process. Last year I made it into the first round interviews, but failed to go further. I am hoping that this year I get further along into it. I hope that I hear back soon from them, as I am tired of waiting to know. It takes the average person anywhere from 3 - 5 years before they get into the government posts, so I'll keep trying a couple more years. If the Government does not pan out, I am thinking of trying to become an account manager with a bank. I think that that route could also take advantage of the skills I have. We will see what happens. Working at AWC Communications is a good enough job for now, but I've already decided that it is not what I want to be for a long time career. I enjoy working with people (most of the time), and I enjoy the money we get, but working retail and mall hours is what gets to me after a while.

The second thing that Chelsey and I are doing is Scuba. It is something that I have wanted to do for a long time, and I'm lucky enough to have a wife who is supportive and thinks that it sounds like fun, so is going to do it with me. We have signed up to do classes starting in February! That is so close! It will be every Tuesday, as well as one Tuesday in March. We are then thinking of taking a trip with the dive shop to the BC to get our open water certification during Easter weekend. So it will be a fun adventure learning to explore under water. My older brother Brent has his open water, and I think that it was a lot of his influence and stories about it that got me interested in a long time ago. I just had an opportunity (or the money) before to do so.

Well, that is what is going on from Mike's POV.

Recipe of the Week

Two new delicious breakfast ideas for you. These look to good to be healthy right? Well would you believe me if I told you that these are both sugar-free and butter free. They do not taste sugar-free or butter free though. These are sweet, moist and melt in your mouth. I got both of these recipes from www.chocolatecoveredkatie.com . This website has been my go to for baked goods lately. She uses substitutes for the not so healthy ingredients that too many of our breakfast foods and desserts are loaded with like apple sauce and other pureed or mashed fruit and vegetables, beans and nut butters. Nothing I have tried from her site taste "healthy" or like diet food either. The cinnamon bun baked oatmeal is so good when I close my eyes and don't see that it is oatmeal I could swear I am eating a gooey, moist, flavourful and delicious cinnamon bun. I like it better than most cinnamon buns I have had and just as much as the best ones I have had.

Cinnamon Bun Baked Oatmeal
2 cups quick oats
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 cup honey
1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
2/3 cup milk, juice or water
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup oil or almond butter (if using oil scale the liquid back)
1 cup raisins and/or chopped pecans
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Combine all ingredients and pour into custard cups, ramekins or muffin tin that have been greased. Bake 15 minutes or until firm and then broil for 3 minutes (optional, just browns the tops).   Beat 1/2 pack cream cheese and 2 Tbsp. honey. Spread over the top of each baked oatmeal. If you are lactose intolerant the is a recipe on the website for vegan cinnamon bun frosting using soy products.

Breakfast cookies
You can make them any flavor you want. Ideas are peanut butter banana, peanut butter chocolate chip, pumpkin pie or spice cake, oatmeal raisin... The ones in the picture are peanut butter banana chocolate chip.

2 cups quick oats
1 cup apple sauce, pumpkin puree or mashed banana
1/2 cup almond butter or peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup raisins or chocolate chips
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Stir apple sauce and nut butter until well combined. Mix in honey and vanilla. Add the remaining ingredients. Place in 2 Tbsp. mounds on cookie sheet and bake 14 minutes.

It Amazes Me How Smart and Capable Jada Is

Today Jada had re-positioned her bowl so it wasn't very stable and when she tried to eat out of it it fell to the floor spilling the food everywhere. I told her "oops, that was an accident!" and I showed her where to put her bowl on the table so if wouldn't fall off. Then I told her we needed to clean up the mess and I told her to get a cloth from the sink. Then I put my hands over her hands and guided her through the motion of gathering the food up into a pile, and picking it up with the cloth and then taking it to the garbage and shaking out the cloth until all the food was off it then going to the sink and washing out the cloth and repeating until all the mess was cleaned up. It was so incredibly successful. After two times of going through the motions with her I let her try it by herself. Although it wasn't perfect she mimicked what I had just taught her and did a good job at cleaning the rest of it up and remembered to shake the cloth out in the garbage and then wash it out in the sink. This taught me to never under-estimate what even a kid at her age (2 1/2) is capable of learning if we are in the attitude of and diligent at fulfilling our role as a teacher. I got the idea for this from a e-book I have been reading that I bought from www.raiseyourkidsright.com I have been looking at this book for almost a year and just recently bought it. The whole book is lessons on life skills (ie: hard work, cooperation, patience, self-control, ect.) that she suggests teaching your children in a family class scheduled once a week (aka. Family Home Evening). She also gives examples of how to teach them throughout the week and in everyday life. I don't know if she is LDS or not but I thought the connection was neat. Also I have been studying a lot on parenting from prophets and apostles as well as examples in the scriptures and the way these lessons are set up are right in line with what I have learned from that study. She stresses that all teaching must be done in love with a calm tone or else no real learning will take place. George Albert Smith and Gordon B. Hinkely talk a lot about this. She stresses the importance of the parents having the mindset of being teachers and verbally expressing to the children that they are their teachers. Ex. Telling your child "I am your teacher, your teacher at school teaches you things like math and science and I teach you at home things that will help you be happy and successful in life such as kindness, responsibility, hard work,etc." The lesson plans a full of discussion and questions that help the children come to conclusions themselves and internalize the lessons. There are also suggestions for preparing the children ahead of time and getting them thinking about it. Example: on the Work lesson she suggests showing them examples of things that take work and things that don't throughout the week such as a beautiful park and a overgrown lawn and asking them which one they like better and just leaving it at that and then bringing up their answers in the lesson and discussing it together. Another idea of her I really like for follow- up is having a list of these skills and qualities on the fridge and recognizing when the kids do something that falls under one of the things listed and asking them which quality on the list their sister or themselves just exhibited. She has another lesson that helps them recognize the thoughts and feelings that come from their brain and their heart and how to use them together in harmony (helps them learn self-control and appropriate reaction). When the kids are in the middle of an arguement or have done something noble you can ask them did this feeling or thought come from the brain or the heart and help them recognize it or compliment them on using the appropriate reaction. I think this book is a great teaching tool. I love to share whatever I find that I think is really valueable.