Our Farm Trip.

This was our third fall in Wisconsin. We've tried out a different farm each year, but we have yet to find one to call our Fall Home. We've liked different things about them, but wouldn't say we LOVE them. I know, bratty. But our Utah County loving Cornbelly's set the bar pretty high. 

This year we tested out Sutter's Ridge. It wasn't too far away and we know a lot of people that have been there before. I loved the farm shop and all of the goodies inside. The people lived up to the Midwest kindness standard, and the kittens were adorable.

We did a hay ride and the girls were extremely particular about which pumpkin to claim. Claire had been talking about pumpkins in school and taught us that when you put a face on a pumpkin, it is no longer a pumpkin. It is a Jack-O-Lantern. And sticking with tradition, she HAD to have a white one.

In the activity area, there was a place for kids to pump water and the water ran on a track with a rubber duck afloat. The idea was you do it at the same time and it was a rubber duck race. It was impossible to pull the older two away from the water. Fortunately, I got Tiegan interested in the kittens and she and I sat a while with them in the kitten barn.

Claire and Aoife loved leading the way through the corn maze and I have no idea how it happened, but we were in and out in probably 15 minutes. I'm pretty sure we trudged through somewhere we weren't supposed to. It worked out because after 15 minutes the grown ups are frustrated and done and the kids just want out.

 I can't believe it's already NOVEMBER!! It is just flying by!

 Our Next Adventures: 

• Claire turns 5
• Uncle Jake comes for a visit (Aoife SCREAMED when I told her, "I'm so excited! I can't wait to tackle JAKE!!!!!")
• Ross' Birthday
• Thanksgiving
• Tiegan's Birthday

And then it's Holiday time! It's going to go so fast! I just hope this weather lasts. I let the girls go outside without a jacket the other day. They set up the sprinkler and then got mad when I told them they couldn't play in it. Because if the weather is this nice in November, it's obviously summer. I gave them some Halloween candy and they did forgive me.

Next up: Claire's mermaid birthday party.

The BEST Creamy Dreamy Chicken Enchiladas.

One time, when I was pregnant with Claire, I made some great red beef enchiladas. They were great. But when I'm pregnant, I am ferociously sick. And those did not stay put. And I've never made red enchiladas ever since.

But I love enchiladas. I mean, who doesn't love something stuffed and smothered with sauce? Then I discovered white chicken enchiladas. At first I tried The Pioneer Woman's Recipe and then I decided to venture out. It took a couple tweaks to perfect the recipe, but we have this down pat. Honest to goodness the BEST white chicken enchiladas and no cream of anything soups. Not gonna lie, it's a little time consuming, but the steps are simple. And I like to make big batches so we have leftovers for forever. Because it takes more time than I care to spend cooking, I like to whip these bad boys up in the morning when I'm feeling super domestic and then just throw them in the oven a few minutes before dinner.

Here we go.

Creamy Dreamy (LOADED with Dairy) White Chicken Enchiladas: 

2 lbs frozen chicken breasts
butter
4 cans diced green chilies
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
flour
2 t. paprika
1 C. heavy cream
8 oz. cream cheese
Lots of Monterey Jack cheese (Shredded) -I buy a giant bag and use just about all of it.
tortillas


Start by boiling the chicken. It's not my favorite way to cook chicken, but it works really well for this. I'm all about efficiency so I toss frozen chicken in the pot and walk away to do something else while they cook.

When the chicken is cooked, save about 3 C. of the water for later. Shred the chicken and set aside.

(I like to rinse out the one pot between steps so I only have one mess) In a pot or THE pot, melt 1 T butter. Add the chopped onion and cook till sweating. Add in the chicken, 2 cans of diced green chilies,  1/2 C of the water from the chicken, 1/2 C heavy cream, and 1t paprika. Cook until bubbly and the juices have thickened slightly. I put my chicken mixture into a bowl and rinse out my pot for the next part.

Melt 2T butter. Add 2T flour and whisk until browned, thick, and bubbly. Add the rest of the reserved chicken water and cook until thickened. Add in the rest of the green chilies, cream cheese, 1/2 C heavy cream, 1-2t paprika (I go by color of finished sauce. I like it slightly pinky), and 3 cups of shredded Monterey Jack cheese. The cream cheese might take a while to melt and mix completely. Just watch it and stir it occasionally.

While my cheese is melting, I prep my enchiladas. I take a small scoop of the chicken mixture, sprinkle it with the left over shredded cheese and roll it up. I can usually cram 8 or 9 in a 9X13 pan and put the rest in a smaller square pan until I run out of chicken goop. (Don't forget to check in and stir your cheese sauce!)

When the sauce is ready, slather that goodness all over the rolled tortillas. Drench it. And lick the spoon after.

If I make these at dinner time, I toss them in the oven at 350 for just a couple minutes until the tortilla edges are slightly browned and crisp. Or you can make them before and cook them at 350 for 15-20 minutes when you're ready to eat.  BAM. Creamy Dreamy Enchiladas with enough dairy in 'em to make the Wisconsin heart happy.

A Family History Through Corn Mazes.

I love fall. I love everything pumpkin, colored leaves, boots, apples, and corn mazes. Yesterday was our 6th wedding anniversary. Crazy, right? We got married in the morning, did pictures, and then the reception wasn't until later that night. We had a huge gap of time and so what did we do? What any normal person would do in October. We gorged on soup, salad, and breadsticks and then headed off to a corn maze. Looking back, I 100% wish I had done the maze in my dress.

Every year to celebrate, we go to a fall festival and do a corn maze. The soup, salad, and breadsticks is hit or miss, but we never miss a corn maze. It's become a family event, and one that I really look forward to each year. We've had so many adventures, and our family has changed a lot since then. Here's a look at the Loveland Fam over the past six years. I think when we got married both of us were embarrassed about taking pictures, so some are missing which I seriously regret. Luckily, I am shameless when it comes to snapping pictures so we'll never miss another!

The beginning: We're married!! 

Year 1: We were still embarrassed about picture taking, but this was close to that time. 

I was also super pregnant and didn't do a great job styling my extensions. 

Year Two: The first year of having a little tag-a-long for our anniversary adventure. 

Year 3: Aoife joined in that year. (She's in Ross' arm, hiding.)

Year Four: Aunt Ena came to visit us and joined in our fall fun. Our first fall in WI. 

*That's Aunt Ena in the picture. NOT me. 

Year 5: Mama Loveland was here with us this year and was our lovely photographer. And Tiegan came along! 

Claire was sick this past weekend, but Ross is taking Friday off for us to have a whole day of Fall fun to celebrate. We'll pick up the rest of the Halloween costumes, and venture off to a fall festival for our annual corn maze. We still do smaller things for just the two of us to celebrate. This year, Ross surprised me with my most favorite painting. Not gonna lie, I teared up looking at it, and I'm amazed that he remembered me talking about it so long ago. Here's to hoping I get acquainted with it and don't cry every time I see it. Ross got socks. Superhero and Hogwarts socks, but don't worry. He loves them and he's also getting some pictures.  Six years down and so much more to go. Adventure is out there!!

UW Dairy Cattle Center

Today we went with my Mom's Meetup group to the UW Dairy Cattle Center. One of the gals had arranged a tour for us. (Note: If you go, park in Lot 36. Parking is the main thing that holds us back from any campus activity. We parked way the heck away which wasn't too bad of a walk, but with 3 tired kiddos, the walk back was dreadful.)

Anyway, I knew the university had a dairy and we love going to watch them make ice cream and the cookies and cream is literally the best I've ever had, but I had no idea that there was a cattle center on campus! As we were walking over the bridge Claire asked, "What's that SMELL Mom?" -Cows. The gent that did our tour was so great with our littles. We had a handful of 2-3 year olds and then Claire got to come today, too. We started in a lobby area where we slipped on some shoe covers which are meant to protect the cows more than anything. He talked to us about the different cows and buildings and gave us lots of general information before we started the tour. None of us moms came from an agricultural background so we were clueless.

We walked in to where the cows are weighed when they arrived. All of the little girls liked running on the ramp. Then we got to see the cows. The University actually has 80 cows on campus. There are 700 cows in total, but most are kept at other study locations. Tiegan LOVES cows. She was so excited and squealed a lot. He talked to us for a while in front of the cows, but I can't remember what he said. I was too busy trying to keep my children from playing in their food.

Then we went and saw where they get the food and he talked about that for a while. It was super fascinating. He told us about food and it turns out the preparation has a big effect on how much milk the cows will provide. (Grinding vs. chopping) The cows are milked twice a day, and each gives off about 10 gallons of milk per day.(80-90 POUNDS of milk.) One of the gals gives 22 gallons per day.

Then we got to walk past the cows again and into another room where some of the cows are involved in different studies. And then we got to see where and how the cows get milked. You can actually come in at 4:30 to watch the cows get milked. They have a great viewing area, and since you aren't walking around the cows you don't need booties. They get milked from 4:30-5. He talked to us about the milking process and the system that scans their chips and will tell the students how much they weigh, how much milk they'll give, and how long it will take to milk to ensure the cow isn't over or under milked. He said it takes anywhere from 5-8 minutes to milk a cow.

We were a little short on time, our guide had a meeting right away, but usually he lets kids stick their hands into a cow's stomach and talks about the anatomy and how their stomachs work. I doubt any of the girls would have done it anyway. Maybe Aoife.

At one point during the tour, I thought Claire was sucking her thumb and I told her to stop. Turns out she was plugging her nose and whined a little when she stopped. "But mom, it's kind of stinky!"

It's so cool that the University has so much for kids and is so willing to give tours and show us all of the cool things! They didn't have any baby calves at the time, but he gave out his card so we'll be checking in and will definitely be back with those little babes arrive!

Frogs and Science.

It's been an eventful week. Earlier this week we caught frogs in the backyard. Aoife spotted the little guy and I quickly scooped him up. Everyone took turns holding it and loved it. Well, everybody except Claire. Towards the end she was in tears begging me to let it go. She was scared of it. Aoife was so tender with it and almost kissed it. Tiegan only squished him in her fist twice (He survived.) And eventually we let him go despite Aoife's pleas for a pet. It was the second one we've caught in our yard!

The next day we captured two caterpillars. Claire was the first to hold those and she proudly announced that caterpillars are her favorite animal. We had one fuzzy one and one squishy green one. Having a backyard is basically the greatest thing ever.

This morning, Aoife and I did some science together. She had a really hard time when Claire went to school. One day, Aoife was downstairs talking to me about breakfast because "I hun-gee Mama". Claire was upstairs getting dressed for school and made some comment about how excited she was to go to school. Aoife clenched her fists, stomped to the bottom of the stairs and yelled, "SHUT UP CLAIRE!!" She just misses her buddy and wants to go to school so badly, too.

Luckily, Mama Loveland was on top of it. She sent the girls a few outfits earlier, School outfits for Claire and some for the other two so they weren't left out. But later on she also sent a package just for Aoife. It had an opposites puzzle/matching game and a rainbow science kit!

 I love science. I've been saving it till the weather wasn't so awesome, but I couldn't hold off anymore. We broke out the kit this morning. We made rainbow milk, some colored paper, colored bubbles, and used a pipette to make lots of different colors. The kit has a ton more experiments for us to do later. Aoife especially loved using the pipette to measure and mix. She's very mechanically minded. I don't think she cared too much about making new colors so much as getting to squeeze it.  Honestly, it was a little frustrating. I wanted to do the experiments correctly and precisely and Aoife just kept reminding me, "I do it my SEWLF!"I suppose I can just play with it after the kids are in bed one night or something. Overall it was super fun and she seemed to really enjoy it. Whenever I was away cleaning up the previous experiment and getting the tools ready for the next she was singing an experiment song she made up. I'm sure when we pick up Claire later she'll say that we did experiments without Claire. We'll still working on not bragging and being kind.

FHE Week 3.

 Last night Ross taught the lesson for FHE. He gathered up the girls' piggy banks and tithing jars and some extra coins. The two oldest girls get $2.50 for allowance each week. It's not a lot, but we wanted to teach the girls about both saving and tithing. We have a giant tub for tithing that the girls toss their $0.25 into each week and the rest they get to put in their piggy banks and spend or save on whatever they'd like. A few months ago they bought their own shoes with the allowance they had saved up. I think Claire is currently saving for a Doc McStuffins Clinic truck.

Anyway, we talked about tithing last night. The girls usually get their allowance on Saturdays, but we had forgotten yesterday, so Ross had their allowance for that week out to give to them. Ross gave it to them and asked what the first thing we did was. We've been doing it for a while, so the girls knew that right away they threw one of their quarters into the tithing bucket. Claire shouted, "We tithe it!" I asked her what that meant. Right answer, but I wanted to see if she knew the WHY behind it.

Ross talked with the girls about our church building and temples and missionaries and how tithing money goes to help with that. He laid out 10 pennies and asked the girls if they had gotten 10 pennies, how many of those would go to tithing. (We pay 10% of everything we get to tithing.) He talked with the girls about how Heavenly Father gives us everything, so we give just a little bit back to Him to say thank you. He helped them fill out their tithing slips and place their tithes in the envelope. Aoife wanted to drive to Bishop's house right away instead of waiting till next Sunday.

Then we played with Legos until bed time. Aoife had made brownies, but they girls didn't finish dinner so Ross and I ate some after they went to bed. (Mean parents, I know.) I've really enjoyed doing Family Home Evening on Sunday. It's been the perfect end to the day.

FHE WEEK 2.

We've never been great at having a consistent Family Home Evening (FHE). It's where we have a small gospel lesson, a treat, and an activity together. It's just a night for us to be together as a family. Our schedule is insane. I work most evenings and our time together as a family is limited. It took a while for us to find a night that worked for us. We decided on Sunday nights.

Ross taught our first FHE and I want to say it was on Family Home Evenings and why we have it and introducing the idea to the girls. We took out our Family Home Evening board and set it up, ate popsicles together, and played a matching/puzzle game.

Week 2 I was teaching the lesson. At church we've been talking about Making the Sabbath day more Holy. Our leaders have suggested making a Family and Personal Sabbath Day Plan and I decided we were going to follow counsel and do it!

Sundays at our house are a circus. Church is at 11 and my children are early risers. One naps in the morning and all 3 nap in the afternoon. I'm convinced there isn't a perfect church time. At 11, my kids are hungry and tired and cranky. We usually roll up to church with at least one kid screaming. Sacrament meeting, the most important meeting, is a blur as we try to wrangle the littles into their seats, and the drive home also has at least one kid screaming. Often I'm left why we bother to go when we're clearly a circus and I have eyes staring at me like "Why can't you control your kid?". We needed a lesson on reverence and a plan on how to make our Sabbath day what we want it to be.

I started by asking the girls what day it was. (We're pretty big on days of the week at our house.) It was Sunday and so I asked what we do on Sundays. -go to church. Then I talked about how Sunday is also called the Sabbath Day and how when we go to church we act a little differently.

Earlier I had cut out body parts from construction paper. (A head, a triangle for a dress, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, arms, and legs) I had a glue stick so we could put together our person as we talked about what each of our different body parts should do at church. We're pretty big on anything that involves scissors or glue.

We started with the head and I asked what our heads should do. (Bow our heads during prayers, think about Jesus)
Then our clothes and what our clothes should look like at church (Clean and neat)
Eyes (Watching the speakers was what my little came up with, which I liked, but I was leaning towards closed during prayers.)
Nose (Not picking our nose at church. We've had a couple offenses)
Ears (Listening to the speakers and teachers)
Mouth (My little said Smiling. But also talking quietly)
Arms (Little's response "Keep them to yourselves!" But also folded during prayers)
Legs (Walking quietly in the hallways, not running)

We glued our reverence person together and put it on the fridge so next Sunday we can look at it and remind us how to be reverent at church.

Then we grabbed a plate of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies that Claire made (Seriously, click the link and make these. A family favorite and so stupid easy.) and headed to the table to make our Sabbath Day plan. Earlier I had written out ideas, which I'm glad I did. I ended up listing off what I thought would help us have a great Sabbath, and talking about it with Ross while the girls munched and listened.

Then we played with homemade play doh that Aoife had made for us earlier. We'll have to see how next Sunday goes, but hopefully our plan will help and our reverence person can remind us how to be reverent at church!