Our life in a nutshell

I know it's kind of become the norm--it's been awhile since I've posted. I won't try to recap everything that's happened over the past four months and bore you all to pieces, but we have been up to some fun things lately that I think are worth mentioning!

Last week our summer finally officially started (hooray!) after Aaron finished his last speech therapy and group sessions on Wednesday (the Early Intervention programs ends at 3 years-old). Ethan and Noah have been out of school for a few weeks, and although they were sad to be out of school (Ethan: "I don't want school to end! I want to have more math problems!" and Noah: "I don't want school to end! I want to have more gym!) they are having a blast getting to play with friends everyday.

It's a little crazy for Chad and me to comprehend, but our little Aaron turned three this last week! We had so much fun on his birthday. Chad took the day off of work and we all rode the Front Runner train down to Salt Lake and spent a few fun-filled hours at the Discovery Gateway (our first time!). Aaron absolutely loved the train, so much so that, for better or worse, he threw a temper tantrum when it was time to get off in Salt Lake. Now every time we see a Front Runner train he says "A train, a train! Again, again!" And he loved playing at all of the different centers at the Discovery Gateway, and spent a very long time at the water center. He was in heaven! (Take a look at Aaron's b-day shirt! How CUTE is that?!? I just had to buy it!)

It's unbelievable to me how quickly the last three years have gone by. Even though it doesn't seem like it was that long ago that Aaron was born, in the same sense it seems like our life has completely changed since then and everything is SO different from what it was. I am so grateful for Aaron, and for his special personality that adds such a unique dynamic to our family. He is such a sweet little boy (most of the time!) and has this uncanny way of melting my heart with his small but surprisingly tight little hug. I am so grateful for that little man!

On another note, we've added a new sport to our life roster this year, a switch from our usual soccer, and Ethan has been having so much fun playing baseball this spring! It's been so fun to watch him play, and he makes us so proud--he does great! Noah has asked to play next year too so I think that both baseball and soccer will be a big part of our lives now! Next spring is going to be a little crazy I'm afraid, since the schedules will overlap a little bit!

Anyway, I promised this wouldn't be a long post and here I am rambling so I will leave it at that! Just a little glimpse into our good, but very busy, life lately!

A New Recipe

Did you know you can make your own microwave popcorn? I didn't, until yesterday when I found the coolest recipe on allrecipes.com. It's so simple and easy, I can't believe I haven't heard of it before, so I thought I'd share.


Ingredients:
1/4 C popcorn kernels
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)

• In a cup or small bowl, mix together the unpopped popcorn and oil. Pour the coated corn into a brown paper lunch sack, and sprinkle in the salt. Fold down the top of the bag and seal with a small piece of tape.
  


• Place the bag upright in the microwave, and cook at full power for 2 1/2 minutes, or until you hear pauses of about 2 seconds between pops. Carefully open the bag to avoid steam, and pour into a serving bowl.

I tried it yesterday and it was so good. I eat popcorn fairly often for an afternoon snack and I'm getting tired of the preservative/cardboard taste of the microwave popcorn you buy at the store. (I know, I should buy an air popper right?!)

The other cool thing is that you can vary the recipe for different flavors or to change the fat and calorie content. To keep the calories low, make it without the olive oil (they say it really still works!) and spray on I Can't Believe It's Not Butter after it's popped. To make kettle corn, mix in one tablespoon of sugar with the oil and kernals before cooking.

Give it a try! It's fun to make, it tastes great, and it's healthy. Enjoy!

Random Things

It's been a LONG time since I've posted, and really it's because our life has been, well, just life lately. We've had ups and we've had downs--nothing overly exciting but thankfully nothing overly horrible either. We had a very fun Christmas and really enjoyed the time we were able to spend with both our own little family, our extended family, and our wonderful friends.



We brought 2010 in with a bang--spending the majority of January bearing the difficulty of one cold after another and a week-long (plus some) stomach flu that worked it's way through our whole family. But I'm happy to report that we are all finally on our way to good health and looking forward to what we hope will be a very happy, and love-ly February!

Amidst all the illness, we celebrated Chad's 33rd birthday this month! I am so grateful for the opportunity to celebrate him and the wonderful man that he is. Between me and the boys I'm afraid he doesn't get much attention and he certainly deserves it more than anyone! As I mentioned we were all recovering from the stomach flu, but on his birthday he took the day off of work and we all went out to breakfast at Mimi's in Layton and went shopping for some fun new birthday presents (that he got to pick out himself, what a rotten deal for him!).



The night of his birthday he said that all that sounded good for his "cake" was cinnamon roll from Great Harvest, so we stuck some candles in it and sang him the best song ever! (I will mention though that the following Saturday he DID finally get his favorite homemade New York-style cheesecake.) I thank my lucky stars every day that I get to be his wife--I don't think he realized what he was getting into when he asked! :) He is absolutely the very best man I know, and I love him with all of my heart.

So there you have it, an update about our not-too-exciting lives! I'm just grateful I had a few minutes to write something so that I wouldn't have to keep looking at the picture of Santa from my last post since it's almost February already, lol! Love to all of you from the Barker family!