Missing tooth

You wouldn't believe just how exciting it was for Lexi to lose her first tooth! She was so anxious when she first noticed it was loose and talked every day about it. Like:

"Mom, what if my tooth falls out when I'm asleep tonight?" Or "Wouldn't it be so funny if my tooth flew out of my mouth while I was swinging on the swings?" etc, etc.

After school she'd ask for an apple so it would help it fall out. You wouldn't believe every little update we got - but it was cute. :)

So the night before I left for the temple trip it was barely hanging on (I'm so glad I didn't miss it!). She tried pulling it out herself and then let me try. Then, as she says, I "yanked it out."

The only thing more exciting than losing it was having the tooth fairy come and a leave a whole dollar!

Quick trip

Just got back last night from a youth temple trip. Found out that only 15% of the church lives more than 200 miles from a temple. We are in that percentage and probably always will be. Eight of our youth made the sacrifice and traveled more than 700 miles to attend the Seattle temple. Here's how it went:

Thursday: arrive late at night, check into hotel

Friday: Early morning fireside and testimonies

3+ hours at the temple doing baptisms for the dead

Dinner at a buffet

Bowling (yeah, we don't even have bowling here!)

Some of us went to Dairy Queen

Saturday: Some of us adults went to temple at 6am

Check out right after breakfast

3+ hours service project

A few hours at the mall

Go to airport for flight home

I am so grateful for the opportunity to attend the temple. I remember going there as a youth so it was really neat to go back as a leader.

My parents drove across the state (in snowy weather) to come because I needed someone to babysit Addison. Can you believe that?! My mom just thought she had to come and see us since we were so close (4 hours away)! I arrived a day earlier than the youth because it was slightly cheaper and I had to see a dentist. It was fun to have some extra time with my parents. Addie adjusted pretty well, and got pretty attached to my dad.

The temple was really great, but it was so fun just playing around with the kids too. I taught them Spazz Uno, the "hair-fighting" game (hee hee), and made extra tall icecream cones at the buffet. Good times to remember (but no pictures because I'm not so good at remembering to take pictures).

Going domestic

My main focus lately though seems to be on being more domestic. I've been so annoyed with the price of groceries that I've been making more stuff from scratch. Since November I've been making bread consistently. I make about 3 loaves a week, with plenty of "help" from Kaytlin. My mother-in-law is letting me borrow 2 mini bread pans so she gets to make her own loaf, which I guess that means we make 3+ loaves a week.

I use some of the bread to make croutons for salad.

I bought some silicone cupcake molds and have been using those to freeze homemade soups in individual portions.

A friend and I have been getting together and doing "homemaking Fridays." We've been making our own refried beans to make burritos (they are so good), homemade hotpockets - BBQ beef and pepperoni pizza- which we're still trying to perfect, from-scratch chicken pot pies, and most recently breakfast burritos.

The breakfast burritos aren't going to last very long, they are so good! But then again, how can you go wrong when you've got cheese and bacon involved right?

Next we're going to figure out homemade tortillas and some sort of dessert pastry. I'm so glad we have an extra freezer for all this glorious food!

If only I liked to exercise as much as I like good...

Anything you've done to safe money on groceries?

Side note - it seems more and more people up here are keeping chickens for eggs. Is that happening "down south" too? I don't think I can handle that myself.