Swimming!

Claire went swimming with our ward's play group - which meets while I am at work, so Emily took Claire to the pool today. I'm a bit jealous since I was stuck in meetings while all this fun was happening... thanks for sticking with it Emily!

In Training

Claire has done pilates since she was just a few weeks old - lifting up her legs and head at the same time to do what I call the Windsor 60 - pumping her arms and legs just like in the pilates DVD I have.


Now she is doing the plank - she is up on her arms like a push up, and now her legs are off the ground too. She is training for something - crawling, maybe. She is progressing - at least she's off the ground now!

Winter Camp Out - Yes, I know it's almost June

The Hillers go camping every Memorial Day weekend - I enjoy camping, but the idea of camping with an 8 month old, in a tent, in the cold, was a bit daunting. We went up to Kyle Canyon, so just about an hour away. Every 1,000 feet in elevation, we dropped about 5 degrees. So by the time we reached 9,000 feet, it was about 40 degrees, at 11:30 in the morning. We packed all of our stuff to stay the night, but planned on not staying if it got too cold. Even though it was snowing off and on, we decided to tough it out and stay.

The view from our tent

I've decided that camping is all about the food - I think I really stayed so I could have these amazing pineapple doughnut treats - cake doughnuts, cut in half, layered with a slice of pineapple, butter and brown sugar then wrapped in foil and cooked on the fire. Carmely, hot and yummy! I ate two. Plus we had steaks, bacon, eggs, the works.

Claire bundled up in her way too big coat

And plus, Claire saw snow for the first time, had a good time with cousin Noah, and slept in our tent all bundled up. I think she had fun, and I am glad we stayed.

Claire and Noah

Now for the worst part about camping - unpacking and cleaning all the smokey clothes, tents, sleepings bags, etc.

Recipe Ideas

I am trying to make at least one new recipe a week -to see if we can find some keepers for our regular rotation of dinners. This week I am working with flank steak - it's pretty affordable and it's already thin, so it's easy to cook. I broiled two steaks in the oven - never done that before, just 7 minutes or so on each side. Then I had enough steak to use in three different dinners/lunches:

Steak Fajitas with peppers and onions (my new favorite seasoning packet is the Lawry's brand); served with sour cream and guacamole - yum! I use the 98% FF soft tacos, only 2 points.

Vietnamese Salad - Cook up some rice noodles and run under cold water; mix noodles with shredded carrots, diced cucumber, bean sprouts and mint leaves (if you like them) and then add in warm slices of beef. You can use different sauces - hoisin, fish sauce (traditional) or a hot sauce. Good summer salad.

Nachos - cut up smaller bits of the steak you have left - I bake mine in the oven on 400, add whatever toppings you want. I'm sure you can microwave them but they won't be as good.

This makes for really quick meals when the protein part of the dish is already done.

8 Months

Another month has gone by - Claire is already 8 months old. The phrase everyone told me after she was born keeps ringing in my ears - "9 months to gain the weight, 9 months to lose the weight." Since you are technically pregnant for more than nine months, do I get extra time? :) Matt and I are still doing Weight Watchers but I lost that original drive and have to recommit myself. I just love sweets way too much! Dang that Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip recipe!


Anyway, Claire is doing great - this is her new favorite pose - it's like she's asking a question, or being philosophical - she just raises up one hand like that... Anyway, we don't have another well-baby check up until 9 months so I'm not sure exactly how much she weights but I think it's around 21 pounds or so. Her hair is coming in more, and it looks lighter than when she was born. And her eyes are still very much a dark brown - no blue anywhere to be seen. She is talking up a storm and I think she likes to hear her voice - until you put the phone up to her mouth for Grandma to hear all the chatter. Then she just wants to eat the phone.


Matt and I got new fancy phones (our anniversary present to ourselves this year) so now Claire has two cell phones that are all her own. She can slobber on them to her heart's content.

"The Office" Finale is Thursday Night

We are BIG fans! I predict that Jim will propose to Pam. Any other ideas? And it's one hour, so set your DVRs!

Crawling??

We are trying to get Claire to crawl - she has the push up part down, but not her legs yet. More often than not she scoots backwards, or rotates 360 degrees, or just decides to take a rest.


And I know we aren't supposed to skip crawling, but she likes to stand up already - but I kind of cheated and stood her up next to the couch so she could hold on - no pulling up yet either. But if I am being totally honest, I am not ready for crawling yet - our house is not child-proof and I will have a hard time working from home if Claire is mobile...

Diesel is $4.55 in Las Vegas!

We are kind of getting tired of having a mobile business - the cost of gas takes all the fun out it!




Allan Peerce and his horse Hitman make their way through the town's traffic to do his banking in Leitchfield, Ky., Monday, May 12, 2008. Peerce rides Hitman, adorned with signs of protest, to bring attention to the high cost of fuel. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)

Book Club, Anyone?

So, I speed-read through the Twilight series so I'm excited to get started on Stephenie Meyer's next book, The Host, that just came out yesterday.

I bought it today and my sister Becky and I are starting it together with high hopes. But can this book really live up to the expectations we all have?

Is anyone else reading The Host?

Third Anniversary - May 7th

Tomorrow is our Third Wedding Anniversary, traditionally considered the "leather" anniversary. What is with that? I think those yearly gift suggestions are so strange - I can totally get the gold and silver anniversaries, but leather? I guess I could expect a nice new purse or a wallet - but that's kind of boring. Maybe they should all just be the Diamond anniversary? :) Matt has it pretty bad for the month of May - our annivesary, followed closely by Mother's Day and my birthday.

So, we are getting new cell phones for each other this year - not that exciting but we need them, and need an excuse to splurge. We switch back and forth on who is in charge of the celebration - one year I have Valentines and Matt has our annivesary, and then we rotate. So this year I have our anniversary. We went out to dinner last Sat and then went to see Iron Man, which was actually pretty good. It was only our second time leaving Claire with a babysitter (Matt's mom) and our second movie since Claire was born. We realized that we need to go on more dates. We go out a lot, to dinner and friend's houses, but we always have Claire. Anyway, I digress.


My last post was on traditions - one fun anniversary tradition we have is that we always eat Nothing Bundt Cake, which was our very non-traditional wedding cake (Matt's choice). And the other tradition is that we make a CD every May that represents the past year. We had a CD as a party favor for our wedding reception and we have done one every year since then. The songs are just songs we like, songs from movies or concerts that we went to that year, songs from road trips or songs that remind us of the year. Like this year we have a baby theme. In no particular order, our play list is:

1. Let My Love Open the Door, Sondre Lerche (Dan in Real Life Soundtrack)
2. I Saw God Today, George Strait
3. Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morrison
4. Modern Nature, Sondre Lerche
5. Little Wonders, Rob Thomas (Meet the Robinsons)
6. My Little Girl, Tim McGraw
7. What You Thought You Need, Jack Johnson
8. To Be Suprised, Sondre Lerche
9. Lullaby, Dixie Chicks
10. Ever the Same, Rob Thomas
11. My Girl, The Temptations
12. My Hands are Shaking, Sondre Lerche
13. Lullaby (Goodnight my Angel), Billy Joel
14. Same Girl, Jack Johnson

Traditions

Someone told me once that the fun part of life is actually more the anticipation of the event, more than the event itself. And I have decided that for most things, that is true. It is fun to have things to look forward to and plan for - it makes time go by quickly and you get excited for what's coming up. For example, we have a Johnson Family reunion coming up this summer in lovely Stanley, Idaho, and a Cousins Weekend Trip in the Fall.

This idea of creating anticipation has made me think about creating traditions so my family has specific things to look forward to all year long, and if we start now, then Claire will never remember a time when we didn't do these traditions.


Long story short, my new tradition is to celebrate Cindo de Mayo with Mexican food and homemade Churros (we went all out in college and had a pinata and an enchilada cook-off every year so I have enjoyed this holiday for awhile now). I made some churros last night and they were pretty good - I was very impatient and ate one right out of the hot oil and burned the roof of my mouth. I HATE when I do that. Anyway, mine did not look as pretty as this picture - Matt called them "churro turds" because they were small little pieces instead of the long pretty ones like at Disneyland (yum). But I liked them - here's the recipe for anyone who wants it. I will have them perfected by next year! :)