The Biggest Loser

We (mostly I) love this show and it's amazing the transformations that happen at the ranch. If you've never seen this show it follows a group of overweight people who go to a ranch to change their life and lose weight. Each week 1 person gets kicked off and the finale is 4 people and the one who loses the biggest % of weight gets $250K.

Anyways, there are these polynesian cousins this year that we've been following and I've really liked and rooted for from the beginning. Someone in my Bunco group early on said 1 of them was in someone's ward in Mesa that she knew. There were also hints here and there that I picked up on that they were Mormon and was pretty sure they were both from AZ.

1 of the cousins-Sione got booted last night and as we were watching the homecoming part at the end of the show I recognized his mom but initially couldn't place where from and then I saw in the background our home teacher. I finally figured out that his mom used to be in our ward and I had helped her with a project at an enrichment Super Saturday. She had brought me a little bag she had made for Matthew the next day at church as a thank you.

I asked Jordan to call our home teacher and ask what was up. He is Sione's brother-in-law (Sione is married to his sister) and told us that Sione lives in a ward in our town. Also, that episode was taped in February so not that long ago. We're so curious to see if we run into them here. Pretty cool-huh!

You can see his transformation here: http://www.nbc.com/The_Biggest_Loser/video/clips/week-14/1082506/

Inside-Out Pizza Rolls

I saw this recipe in the Rachael Ray magazine and it looked pretty easy so we bought some whole wheat pizza dough the other day at Fresh & Easy (love that store) and I made the meat filling this afternoon. Easy to put together and pretty yummy! I think this would pass the test for anyone who has picky eaters in their home (especially you Tiana).

Anyways, you could make your own dough (they include the recipe) and if you really want to cut corners you could use some nice thick bottled meat sauce. I liked making the meat sauce at home because I had the ingredients in my fridge that needed to be used up and I have plenty of leftovers to have spaghetti w/this sauce on Wednesday and possibly even have more leftover to freeze and make this recipe again. I also did not cube my mozzarella but had already shredded mozzarella in my fridge and used that. I think that is a better idea-if you like super cheesy I would double the cheese if I were you, it wasn't super cheesy (which I liked). You could do a cheese layer, meat layer, and then more cheese over the meat layer.

Also, if you have BIG eaters at your house you would either need to do a side salad to go with this or make a second roll. Jordan went running after work and got back late so we ate a late dinner and only had this-we're lame like that. My mom would be disappointed we didn't have a salad or more vege's on the side (there were onions, carrots, and a red pepper in our meat filling-so I figured I was covered) to go with dinner. :)

I'm wondering how this would be in a BBQ style with chicken, red onions, and mushrooms cooked in a BBQ sauce spread over mozzarella cheese. We might have to try that alternative.

So just an idea if you need one for your picky family or are just looking for something new to try.

http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/pizza-pasta-recipes/inside-out-pizza-rolls/article.html

Matthew knows something is up!

We are pretty sure that Matthew can feel something is up. He has been acting up all weekend long-he hasn't been obeying, he's doing naughty things, he throws out of control fits for unreasonable reasons and on top of that he's come down with a cold...and he had a bloody nose today.....ergghhh!!!

Anyways, the poor kid has also been cooped up most of the weekend because of General Conference and this afternoon after the last session Jordan took him out in the back to play outside. I wandered out and started taking pics. Matthew had a blast in the dirt and got quite dirty. Jordan brought him inside and gave him a bath and I decided to do some quick layouts of the pics because I had an idea in my head of what I wanted to do.

While working on the layouts our friends Todd & Briana (they live around the corner and Matthew adores them) stopped by to give Matthew a gift they had picked up on their cruise. They ended up taking him to see the ducks that wander the lake by our rec area and then across the street to the park. They stayed for dinner (yummy biscuits and gravy) that they ended up helping cook and got to witness the great side of Matthew having a meltdown because I ate part of his biscuit (which he wasn't eating). He ended up in timeout and promptly fell asleep and is out for the night.

All in all an ok weekend. We got a lot accomplished and things set-up and washed. I just need to pack my bags and steralize some bottles and finish up 1 work item and we'll be good to go. Dealing with Matthew and a new baby is for sure going to be interesting.

Layouts below and pic of Matthew asleep in the hall.


Matthew loves the squirt bottle and generally just playing in water. I love capturing sweet moments between these two. He is especially attached to Jordan lately and is pretty sad when he wakes up in the morning and Jordan has already left for work. Jordan went running yesterday and Matthew cried and cried big fat tears because he wanted to run with Daddy too but couldn't.

It was such nice weather today. This is why I love Arizona. It's been snowing and 40 in Utah and I get 80+ weather. My parents are coming just at the right time.


Journaling says:

Anatomy of an ordinary day played outside.
1. Pile dirt onto your feet.
2. Carry dirt from one place to another and throw it all around.
3. Put weeds into your water wheel and push around and around, repeat.
4. Rub dirt into your white shirt (one guess who decided to put him in a white shirt to play outside)
5. Spray daddy with water, run away from daddy and then spray him again.
6. Have a great time out in the sunshine.


Poor kid pooped and worn out from a long fun day!

1 week to go

It was so weird to leave work last night knowing it was going to be July until I sat back at my desk. I had a long list of laundry items to get done before next Wednesday (technically my last day of work) and finished everything today but two small items. I'm hoping that I can just take care of questions/problems that arise next week and finish the few things I have to get done. I also wanted to make sure the bulk of my work was done in case something happened this weekend (which I hope doesn't).

Yesterday was also my last Dr.'s appt and it felt great knowing I don't need to go back in again and that I'm in the home stretch. I really am getting ready and can't wait to be done with this achy back and swollen feet. I know I'm trading those in for other pains and sleepless nights but I'm ready to meet this new little member of our family.

I've been feeling pretty blessed lately and am starting to feel weepy at little things. I've been pretty unemotional during this whole pregnancy but I think the reality of what's going to happen is finally getting to me. I had a surprise shower at work on Tuesday and the marketing group gave me some cute things and a nice GC to Target. I also got a really nice check from the owner of our company that I directly worked for-for a few years. Yesterday when I got into work there was a bag from Pumpkin Patch sitting on my desk. Inside was a cute box with a blanket, super cute hat and a very generous GC. Pumpkin Patch is one of my favorite stores in the mall, but I only really go there when there are sales because it's kindof pricey so I'm excited to spend that GC in the future.

I feel so blessed to work where I do that is flexible with my family life and have been so great to me during my pregnancy and especially recently. We really feel blessed as well with our babysitter situation and only hope that it can continue for awhile longer. Matthew loves our babysitter and she's so good for him and also enforces the limits that we place on certain things. He gets to stay at our house where he is comfortable, but also goes over to her house (she lives close) to play with her little brother and sister who are close to Matthew's age. Overall it's a really great situtation for us for now.

We have just a couple of things to wrap up this weekend and then I'll feel set and ready to go for next weekend. My butterfly poster came for her room and is in it's frame. It looks so good and I'm very happy with how it turned out and proud of myself for creating a cool work of art. My parents are coming on Thursday so that will be nice to have them here to look after Matthew and keep him company while we are at the hospital. I'm so excited for him to meet his sister. We had him tell her tonight that he's excited to meet her soon. He was also being crazy tonight so I had him tell her that he was her crazy big brother :).

Please don't forget to vote for Jordan. That would be an amazing blessing for him to be able to see 24-7 and not have to worry about his blindness right before/after he goes to bed or wakes up. He does so much for me and our family and has been carrying the brunt of the work lately so this would also be a great gift for all of his hard work. The procedure he would get would be permanent contacts so it's probably an even more expensive procedure that we can't afford right now. The procedure would also be by the Dr. who does the Suns/Cardinals procedures and is no $500 per eye doc. See the posts below if you don't know what I'm talking about.

I'm excited to post pictures of our newest arrival and have all of you meet her. The countdown is on!!!

Quick Voting Update

Thanks to everyone who's been voting. I found out today that the voting runs through the 10th, and you can vote once per day. Thanks again!

We're a week away from the baby (well, technically less than a week, since the delivery is scheduled for 7 a.m. on the 10th), unless something crazy happens in the meantime (let's hope not).

Jordan

Rock the Vote

So in the video challenge I managed to make it into the top 10, albeit against a couple of firemen (tough to compete w/ that) and a couple of people who went over the 60-second time limit (ergh). Anyway, if you feel so inclined, I'll take any votes I can get, given that I have to compete with people who run into burning buildings and a video of some kids rapping.

Here is the link: http://www.nba.com/suns/fans/vision_challenge.html. I think you can vote once daily, but I'm not sure about that yet. I believe voting was supposed to be open for a few weeks.

It's listed under "bitterlarry."

Thanks!

Jordan

Announcing....two things

Everyone has been bugging us to tell them the name of our baby and since I'm so close to having the baby and everyone I know who was pregnant with a girl now has had their babies we're leaking the name today. Her name is going to be.......

Portia Capri Stephens

I know...kinda different but something we agreed on pretty easily!












APRIL FOOLS!!! Ha, ha! Like I'm going to tell anyone at this point.

We do have a real announcement though that Jordan was contacted about his video for laser eye surgery and is in the Top 10. He's getting his eyes evaluated this morning to make sure he's a real candidate for the surgery. Once we know all the details we'll post them on here because we need all the votes possible. The top two videos that get the most votes get free surgery and he really really needs this. We'll be doing a big campaign and will need you and all of your friends help! More details coming soon. If you missed the video the first time here's the link to it again.
http://jordanandkarin.blogspot.com/2009/03/wwwseethebestyoucanseecom.html