The Story of A Purse

Once upon a time, there was a lady with an adorable baby girl. This baby girl had the tiniest feet in all the land and even though she was five months old, the newborn sized shoes were all too big for her. Her mother, being the crafty sort, went on a quest to find the most beautiful piece of leather that she could to make her darling daughter a pair of shoes. She stopped at a peddler on the side of the road and inquired about a purse. Oh what a find! It was genuine leather and only fifty pieces of silver!

She promptly put the baby to bed so that she could work. With sissors flying and needles sewing, the hideously ugly purse became the most adorable and tiny shoes!

The pattern is available here.

Jenna's First Day of Kindergarten

I'm kind of sad and Jack is moping around with no one to play with. He misses his buddy. She was excited this morning, though, and was up at the crack of dawn.

Marsh School has a staggered start for preschool, kindergarten and first grade, so only a third of the kids go on each of the first three days. Today was her day and then all the kids will be there tomorrow on out. She has Mrs. Heersink for a teacher and so far, one of her friends from preschool is in her class.

She seems like such a big girl, but looking at this picture, she still is so little! How can she be big enough to be gone to school all day, everyday?

Of course her hairdo was a big hit with all the teachers as I was filling out all the required paperwork.

Paige's First Day of 4th Grade

On August 24th. Seriously? And how can she be that old? We have never started school this early before and I'm not quite ready for it. Paige wasn't quite ready for it either. Notice her cut off shorts. Now notice her shoes. She has been dying for a pair of those and bought them with her own money. The Nike shoes that I bought her are probably still in the box in her closet.



Now notice the fancy concrete porch that she is standing on. Yes, that is indeed my front door and we do indeed have a porch! We also have half of a driveway and it, along with the back porch, will be done in the next week or so. I can't wait to park in the garage again!

Paige's teacher is Mrs. Treinen, who I remember from Girls Camp when I was in Young Women. I don't know if any of her friends are in her class, but I suppose she'll make friends with whoever is there.

My Three Most Overused Words

"Jenna, quiet down!"

I swear, that girl doesn't have a volume control.

Banana Muffins

I signed up to take a dessert to our ward campout potluck tonight. I made over this banana muffin recipe to be a lot more healthy.

I used applesauce instead of butter and added flaxseed for some fiber. I added an extra banana because I had it and reduced the sugar since the bananas are so sweet anyway. I should have used whole wheat flour, but I didn't think about it until just now! That is definitely a better option and I don't think it would change the texture or taste in this recipe.

With all these changes, I'm not even going to consider it a treat! Now I'll just need the willpower to avoid the other desserts...

Banana Muffins
1 1/2 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
4 bananas
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
1 egg
2 T. milled flax seed

Preheat oven to 325 for dark pans or 350 for shiny pans. Spray with cooking spray or use muffin liners.

Combine flour, baking soda, powder and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.

Mash bananas in a large mixing bowl. Add sugar, applesauce, egg and flaxseed and combine. Add flour mixture all at once and fold until combined. Don't mix too much.

Fill muffin cups about half full. I got 20 muffins this way. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden.

Four Months Old

Can you believe it? Pregnancy seems like it will never end, and then before you know it, your baby is doing all kinds of new tricks.

London's most favorite thing to do is chew on her feet. She is so cute and I love her so much.

We haven't started any cereal yet with her. The girls were both four months when I started them on solids, but Jack refused until he was about six months. It just seems like one more thing for me to worry about at this point.

Here are her stats:

Weight: 11 lbs, 4.5 oz

Length: 23.25"

And since I never posted her two month stats, let's compare:

Weight: 9 lbs, 2 oz

Length: 22"

Yay! She's growing! It helps that she all of a sudden decided to eat. That was a big relief. I don't know what clicked, but something did. Maybe she got sick of seeing doctors and having scopes shoved down her throat and decided to do something about it. Whatever it was, I'm glad.

Fit By Fall

I am joining a weight loss group that is similar to The Biggest Loser, and it starts today! I still have at least ten pounds to lose of pregnancy weight, so I am hoping this will motivate me to lose it. My friend, Becky, who is actually an internet friend, started the contest. The rest of my group lives around Salt Lake City, so I'll never meet them.

Here are the rules:

Daily Points
5 fruits/veggies: 2 pts

No eating after 9pm: 1 pt

48 oz water: 2 pts

No sweets: 5 pts
Or if you eat 1 treat, you get 2 pts

Minimum 30 min. exercise/day (except Sunday): 5 pts

Weekly Points
Pounds Lost: 10 pts per pound

Maintain: 5 pts

Gain pound: -10 per pound

Monthly Points
Inches lost/month: 5 pts per inch around the waist and the hips (measure on the last day of the month

At the end of the 16 weeks, we give bonus points for the percentage of body weight lost: 10 points for each percent.

Runs from August 3rd through November 22nd

$5 per week if your team doesn’t win, paid monthly

Report by noon Monday

Standard list of what constitutes a treat:
Cookies, cakes, Brownies, chocolate, Candy, Ice cream/ Frozen yogurt, Doughnuts, etc

Whole fruit Popsicles don’t count as a treat.

If it is a member of your immediate family’s birthday you can have one reasonable-sized piece of cake and not have it count against you.

At the end of the 16 weeks, the team with the most points gets to split the money. But of course, everyone wins with a new body! ;0)



So that's it! I weighed in after my class this morning and was pleasantly surprised that I had lost a couple of pounds since the last time.

Weight: 136 lbs

Waist: 35"

Hips: 38"