New Year's 2010

I continue to catch up.


We celebrated New Year's in Salt Lake with Tom's family. We enjoyed the snow, family, and festivities. We actually let the kids stay up until midnight (I don't think James made it). They loved being with their cousins and eating lots of great food and just enjoying the festivities.

Thoughts on Being 38 Weeks Huge

38 weeks along in my fourth pregnancy is a lot less exciting then the other three. Ok, maybe the other 2 were just as bad. I am excited and filled with anticipation of the arrival of our sweet 4th baby, but I am also sick of being pregnant. The heat is hard, but not that bad, all of my pregnancies have taken me into the hot summer months.

The hardest part is not being able to be as active as I like. Race season is fast approaching and I can barely run 3 miles or bike 15. But I'll keep doing what little I can until she arrives. I have already planned to bike 30 miles on her 1 week birthday.

I rode 15 miles this week to celebrate a friend's birthday. I wasn't going to miss out on the celebration.

Enough of the negative. I am so excited to be a mother to a newborn again. I anticipate great things. I am looking forward to nursing her and having that special bond only a mother and child can have. I picture quiet moments where we get to spend this quality time together. I know that might not happen with 3 others running around demanding my attention, but if nothing else, she and I can enjoy this priceless bond in the wee hours of the night.

I look forward to seeing her dressed in many of the same outfits Eliza (and even Porter and James) and I wore. I have already filled her dresser with her tiny clothes. I reminisced as I folded them and put them away. Memories of Eliza as a newborn flooded back to me. And I imagined myself as tiny newborn as I folded some of the more vintage dresses. I still haven't decided on what to bring her home in, but Tom said he won't be ready for the baby until the bag is packed, so I better decide soon.

I am thrilled for Eliza to have a little sister. I know that she will take great care of her baby sister. And I hope they will be great friends. She does such a great job with James when she isn't teasing him. The two will share a room, and Eliza is so excited.

James is a different story. He is not quite 3 and demands a lot of attention. But I am thinking positive. I know he will be jealous, but luckily the other kids will be home to entertain him. By the time the others are back in school, hopefully, James will be used to the new member who demands so much of his mama's attention.

So here's to her soon arrival. I know, I still have 2 weeks left, but I can dream she'll come early, right?

Chicken-Zucchini Bake

Here is a super easy, super healthy dinner. My friend, Ty, introduced it to us and we love to make it. It is easily adapted to what you have on hand as well.

Chicken-Zucchini Bake

1 lb. chicken breasts, pounded thin or chicken tenders
1-2 zucchinis or yellow squash, thinly sliced
1 can diced tomatoes or 3 small tomatoes diced
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
fresh or dried basil
salt and pepper and seasonings to taste


Spray casserole dish with Pam. Season chicken with salt and pepper and garlic powder. Layer in casserole with zucchini and onions. Top with tomatoes and basil. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes until chicken cooked through. Top with cheese if desired for last few minutes, but it really doesn't need it and why ruin the uber-healthiness. Serve over brown rice.

Christmas 2009

The rest of Christmas.

I love Christmas and all of our traditions. Some of them we have carried on from our families, some we have started on our own. We start our festivities on Christmas Eve with a very traditional program filled with drama, music and the spoken word. All of the extended family is invited.

We act out the nativity either live or with Playmobil.

We play and sing Christmas hymns. This year, much of the family prepared special numbers. It was fun, even if it wasn't perfectly harmonious.


And of course, we read from the scriptures, the story of the birth of our Savior.

A tradition from the Fisher side that I love is the whole ritual of Christmas morning. We all dress in our Sunday best, we sit down to a formal breakfast (the Dansies do not eat the traditional oysters).

We used to always have puffy oven pancake, aka German pancake (a Dansie tradition), but we have it so often that I wanted to do something a little more special. So this year, we had crepes with all sorts of delicious toppings.

Grandma and Grandpa are always invited, but we like to be in our own home. After a delicious breakfast, the kids line up, youngest to oldest in front of the sheet covering the living room. By this point they are so filled with anticapation, it is almost painful to watch them.

Finally, after someone goes around the other way to be ready with the camera, the sheet is parted and the kids are allowed to see what Santa brought them. Santa brings our children one gift and stocking filled with fruit, candy, soda and maybe a small toy or so.


James' favorite gift this year was a littel football Santa put in his stocking.


They spend the morning enjoying all the fun before we open one gift at a time from under the tree. Again, we try not to over do the whole present thing. We enjoy a relaxing morning before heading over to Grandma and Grandpa's for a delicious dinner.


Merry Christmas! And I will soon be caught up in my blogging.

Christmas Tree Decorating and Potential Christmas Card

Had we actually gotten around to printing a Christmas card, we would have chosen one of these photos, but alas, we didn't. And here it is, June and I am barely just getting around to blogging them.