Erik, Jenn, Tyler & Mason

Well we did it! 9 hours in the car each way to and from Boise, Idaho. With the dog and the baby. We actually left the dog in Idaho--she wanted a vacation on the farm. We miss her already but it's nice to have bark-free naptime. Here are some pictures of Tyler and his adorable cousin Garrin. They had so much fun. They laughed at each other and watched each other and just loved sharing Grandma's lap. We love Garrin and we had so much fun with our Idaho family!!! I also wanted to start sharing some of my recipes...I have a knack for finding delicious but pretty easy recipes and everyone is always asking me to share. So last night I made a really yummy version of the Chinese classic Sweet and Sour Chicken. I took out the fattening deep fry batter and sauteed the chicken instead. The result was about 75% less fat and 100% of the taste! I have doctored the recipe from it's original and played with the ingredients to make it even better. Enjoy! Serves 4 - 6 Sweet and Sour Ch...

So as we all know, I gained about 1,000,000lbs during my pregnancy. Let's face it, food is good and I had been dieting for way too long. :) Going forward I have a goal of doing much better when I'm pregnant so I don't have this problem again. But in the mean time I have about 50 more pounds to lose and I want to make it public so I'll actually do it. So, I started Weight Watchers about 6 weeks ago and so far I've lost 12.2 lbs just on Weight Watchers. I lost weight before that but it was mostly baby and water weight--about 18 lbs. So yesterday Erik brought home one of those digital body fat scales that also tracks your water weight and total body weight. I have to say I'm pretty pumped. I'm more motivated now because I have a real scale that actually works (our old one was 10 lbs off) and now that I know Weight Watchers is really working I'm excited to keep going. I can see my goal in the distance. By October I should be as thin as I was when E...

I love being a Mom. The best moments are when Tyler is staring into my eyes and smiling up at me. I know he is counting on Erik and me to provide him with the love, nourishment and support he needs to grow up and be strong and successful and I am beyond humbled by the opportunity. Here are two more pictures of his smiling face. I just can't get over how cute he is. I bet most of you are sick of seeing post after post of pictures of Tyler, but I don't have much else going on since he is our whole life now!

So we were at Stake Conference yesterday and of course Tyler was upset because he can't stand church. He will only "be good" at church if someone is holding him and walking around in the halls. So as Erik and I were taking turns missing conference, I was out in the hall with Tyler. I saw another mom out there with what looked like a pretty new baby girl. I noticed Tyler is about twice the size of her baby so I asked how old she was. That baby was 3 weeks OLDER than Tyler. I didn't realize Tyler was getting so big! I swear I don't overfeed the kid--he just keeps growing!! He is already 12.5 lbs and just 11 weeks old. Unfortunately he takes after his parents and he's short--only about 22'' long. He has also started whining to get his way this week--it's quite entertaining though of course we are trying to put a stop to it by not immediately giving him his way when he whines. But its amazing to me how smart he is, to try whining when he want...