Studio 5 TV!

Today my demonstration for "Apple Mango Chutney Brie Bliss" aired today.  It was deliciousness overload, apple heaven.  I absolutely love doing demonstrations, and I thoroughly enjoy eating, and tv gives me a chance to wear sassy bright red lipstick. So this whole television gig is a win, win, win.

Looking good. The recipe will be up on my website sooner than later:

thechipperchef.com

See, it's a total legit television studio, with cameras and prompters and everything.

Sisters Sunday

Today in church all of the women folk gathered for our last hour of church. The men took over the primary and the youth group, whilst the ladies met and ate and chatted and talked about the attributes of our Savior. It was so lovely to have everyone gathered together!

Chatting.

Eating.

Fabulous table display.

Family birthday party for my cousin's daughter, Jade. Hugging the My Little Pony tube we gave her.

Jade is rocking her 4th birthday!

 Because I promised to share:

Drop Sugar Cookies

By Lindsey Joy Smith

1 c sugar

1 c powdered sugar

1 c butter, softened

1 c melted coconut oil

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

4 ½ c flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 375.

Beat sugar and butter till light and fluffy. Beat in oil, vanilla and eggs until well combined.

Sift flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt together.  Then beat into the wet mixture until dough forms a ball.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls: place 2 inches apart on un-greased cookie sheet. Flatten each ball with the bottom of a glass cup dipped in sugar.

Bake 5-8 minutes or until set, but not brown or golden. Immediately remove from pan to rack.

Variations:

For orange cookies, I add orange zest to the batter.  Then I frost with buttercream frosting that has a few Tbs. orange juice, orange zest, and buttermilk added (to taste, sorry, I don’t have a specific recipe, but this can be a delicious adlib! It rocks!)

Home Coming

Preston and Hannah had the homecoming dance tonight. Preston made her a lovely dinner, which they ate on the roof of our home, by candlelight. Then off to the dance!

Love!

Love!

Love!

Saturday,

September 26th, 2015

Ladies Day Out

How fun it was to spend most of my Saturday down at Temple Square.  I began the day with a lovely brunch that the PR dept of the Mormon church invited me to (bloggers/entrepreneurs, etc). The quiche was incredible. The guest speaker and mingling were even better. And in the evening, Annie, my cousin and Aunt and I wen't down to the Conference Center at Temple Square to watch the women's broadcast live. (Twice a year my church has a conference, called General Conference where we get to hear form the leaders of our church; it's pretty exciting stuff.) After: Chinese dinner at the Dragon Diner (fast, good food with excellent service.) Today was a winner, winner Chinese dinner!

Tasty Buffet. 

Lots of lovely ladies.

Age, Annie and Jayne in front of the Salt Lake City Temple.

ANnie and I in the Conference Center.

Like Mother, like daughter!

I love me so good Chinese.

Good Morning Mess/ Well Played my Out of Town Husband

My early riser poked his head into my doorway at the crack of down, and informed me that our dog with pooped or threw up on the downstairs carpet in the hallway.  When that's how the day begins, it's either going to go up or sideways.  Luckily, I think it went up. My dog seems to be feeling much better, and my kids are all nestled in their beds (with Calvin snuggling in a sleeping bag somewhere on a campout.)

A lovely friend loaned me her carpet cleaner.  It looks like the dog puke never happened... but I'm still planning on lobbying for new carpet.

Preston's choir performed at an assembly singing "All the Lonely People." It was lovely, and just as sad a song as you remember it to be.

Tonight was also his schools homecoming.  Here they are, warrior paint on and all, ready to cheer for the Woods Cross Lions (I think they're the lions...)

A Cut above the Rest!

I got my hair cut today, and I'm loving it! We'll see how much I enjoy it when I try to do it myself tomorrow.  My friend, who is also my hairdresser, has mad skills. 10 points to Ms. Jen V!

I took several selfies today, from various angles, because I want to have it look like this everyday, and I'm not observant enough to bank on remembering.

Right after the cut.  I didn't dye it red, it just looks like I did.

Awesome family bridal shower for my cousin's wife.

She is 39 weeks along, and ready to welcome her fist son.

Cutest acorn treats, ever!

Annie is singing and is rocking her little Chinese outfit. 

Dinner at Costco. Boom, baby.

Floating

Norman is super excited about our vacation to the big island, but has been really nervous about not being able to swim. So I signed us up for some swim classes. Really. We're doing the mom/tot party in the pool, and it was so.much.fun.  The class is 25 minutes long, and he was loving every minute of it, until minute 23.  He's so wee that he didn't need a pep talk about trying his best, or making the most of this opportunity (like his older siblings when they're in their own swim classes) he just needed to get the heck out of the water, so that's what we did.  I highly recommend a mom/tot swim class, not because your baby is going to learn mad swimming skills, but because they look so cute in their baby swim suits, and what mom doesn't want to be seen in a swimsuit in public?!

Unrelated: Preston asked some lovely girl to homecoming.  He wanted to make it a special event, so he got her a rose, some chocolates, a bear and a blanket with a sign saying something about "not being able to bear not going with her." What was so lame was that he didn't get a pic of the invite.  Anyways, what fun. 10 points for Preston.

My little fish!

What a Pig!

Norman Harold is now in the 8th percentile for weight, not the 5th percentile anymore. Which means that he is certainly a Smith. Almost all of my kids are featherweights (excluding Preston.) But 8% is almost 2x 5%, which he came close to doubling his percentile... not really but doesn't he look darling on that baby scale?! Of course he does!

14 lbs, 14.9 oz. Boom, baby!

***This post is for Monday, September 22nd, 2015***

Pride

Much of the discussion in church revolved around the topics of sacrifice and pride.  It seems that these two are often best friends: pride telling us not to sacrifice for others (not to show charity: the pure love of Christ.) My favorite quote of the day was about the opposite of pride: humility:  "humility os to thinking less of ourselves, it's thinking less about ourselves." Love it.

Whenever I hear the word pride, I always think of a lion pride, or a gourd of lions.  

I have actually held a baby lion. It was on our honeymoon in what I'm sure is/was an illegal petting zoo.  I was too young and inexperienced to know that the whole thing was not safe: for the animals or us. Memories!

The Curious Smell

For the last few days, my bedroom has smelled un-good.  I was accusing Ryan of tooting in the room, he would question wether or not I was farting.. back and forth, back and forth... apparently our room hasn't been as clean as it could be, because I finally found Norman's stinky diaper under some papers.  I have always joked that it is extremely unwise to tick off a parent with a child in diapers; we could just hide a bomb somewhere in the premises.  I never anticipated that I would play my nasty revenge diaper trick on myself.  This is a true story.

There are two things that I will never feel guilty about piling high in a landfill: disposable diapers and feminine hygiene products.  This is a position I will hold for as long as I am allowed to enjoy life on this planet.

We took a walk to Costa Vida for dinner. It was super fun.

We decided that walking down hill is way more fun than walking uphill, so a pal picked me up and I retrieved our van. I'm so grateful for awesome neighbors.

New cast iron pans from Costco.  I love the rubber handles.

Those are ogign to come in handy~

Feeding my sweet Norman his bottle.

525,600 Minutes

Today was the only fundraiser for the year, the elementary school that my kids go to, Muir.  It's a simple (but awesome!) obstacle course around the school year. This is the third year for the "Laps for Lions" fundraiser, and it's made about 30,000 each year. It's brilliant. I went to the school to cheer my kids on and help out with the course. It was loads of fun, and the kids had a great time.  Annie finished first for all the girls in her entire grade.  I was super glad that I was there to witness their efforts, and it made me think of the song Seasons of Love, from the play Rent. Trying to measure my minutes in love.

Ryan took me to get Japanese for dinner, and then to do some 

clothes shopping. I hate shopping, but everything is more fun with Ryan.

Owen racing.

Annie showing off little Norman.

Annie running, smiling, making the most of every minute of her life.

Simon at a well check visit. He turns 12 in a few weeks.

What a guy.

Preston at the Apple Store.

Seasons of Love:

Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty five thousand moments, oh dear
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets
In midnights, in cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife
In five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, a year in the life?

How about love?
How about love?
How about love?
Measure in love

Seasons of love (love)
Seasons of love (love)

Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty five thousand journeys to plan
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure the life of a woman or a man?

In truths that she learned
Or in times that he cried
In bridges he burned or the way that she died

It's time now, to sing out
Though the story never ends
Let's celebrate
Remember a year in the life of friends

Remember the love
(Oh, you got to, you got to remember the love)
Remember the love
(You know that love is a gift from up above)
Remember the love
(Share love, give love, spread love)
Measure in love
(Measure, measure your life in love)

Seasons of love
Seasons of love
(Measure your life, measure your life in love)

Attributes

I'm teaching a lesson in church in a few weeks.  The topic is "the attributes of Christ" and so it has been on my mind a lot lately.  It seems that along with a plethora of names that Christ is known by, there are also loads of wonderful attributes He is known for.  Today, I keep thinking about the Christlike attribute of forgiveness.  "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."  I would hope to be known as a person who forgives freely and frankly... like my husband. He honestly doesn't hold grudges, not with me and not with others.  This isn't my normal Thursday night line of thinking, but I think the more we learn about Christ and his attributes, hopefully the better we will be able to recognize our own god-like qualities, the more we will catch little glimpses of the divine in ourselves,  leading us to further develop Christlike attributes. But for tonight, forgiving is on my mind. In a favorite country song by Tim McGraw, "Live like You Were Dying" forgiving is one of the things he decides to do, with the belief that his days are numbered.  It's a great song.

Looks so much like Ryan when he wears his black shirt, and his black jacket and his black cowboy hat.  They're like twins.

Live Like You Were Dying by Tim McGraw

He said I was in my early forties
With a lot of life before me
When a moment came that stopped me on a dime
And I spent most of the next days
Looking at the x-rays
And talking about the options, talking 'bout sweet time

And I asked him when it sank in
That this might really be the real end
How's it hit you get that kind of news
Man, what'd you do (he said)
I went sky divin
I went rocky mountain climbing
I went two point seven seconds

On a bull named Fu Man Chu
And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
And gave forgiveness I'd been denying
And he said some day I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dying

Romantic Lunch Date

Romantic i spreadably not the right word to describe lunch with Ryan, but it sure was tasty.  We were hoping to have more time, and to go to a fancier restaurant, but in the end Subway was the winner. It met our three requirements: easy parking, fast service, and a bathroom (by the time we parked I sprinted in and left Ryan to collect Norman.  Sandwiches plus two that I love = a crazy good lunch date.

Ryan is showing Norman his little rattle toy (not Ryan's toy, Norman's toy.)

Afterward, Norman took me swimsuit shopping in prep for our Hawaiian vacation.

6 Months!!!

Norman is now half a year old, and twice as fun as I ever thought he would be, My sweet little pie baby (born on pie day, March 14, 2015:   3.14.15) is just as sweet as pie. In honor of his half birthday,  he had baby cereal for the very first time. He did very well compared to his siblings first attempt at solids, but he is  two months older than they were.  My other children started solids at 4 months, just goes to show that my Norman is a legit caboose, and silly goose. 

Party!

ANnie is always there to help with a Norman photo shoot.

Playing outside. Someone accidentally turned on one of our gas burners. The house reaked, so i kicked everyone outside for an hour and opened up all the windows and doors. Luckily it was a pleasantly breezy day, so the smell cleared up.

Anie made sure to take the pets out to join us as well. She loves her pets.

Mmmmm. That's my boy!

Ryan and some Scottish friends hooked us up with some UK candy from Ryan's trip.  

It does not get better than Club mint crackers.  It's like a thick delicious Girl Scout Cookie, wrapped in a Scottish hug.

Listen

True story. Church is about to start and several of my kids are totally fighting in our pew.  I'm trying to calm the storm and this sweet little boy in front of us turns around, and talking to me he says: "Maybe you could sit in between the two that are fighting." To which I reply, seriously attempting to muster the same kind, gentle voice he just displayed, "Actually buddy, there are too many of my kids that are fighting right now, and I can't sit between all of them." He makes kind of a sad face and turns again to the front of the chapel... I also made a sad little face.

On a way better note (pun intended) Preston and Annie sang a duet in sacrament meeting today, the song "Listen" from the 2014 EFY.  They did an absolutely beautiful job, and Norman was good enough that I got to stay for the entire sacrament meeting.  My Aunt, cousin and her toddler kids made special efforts to attend, which was just so very kind. Anners and P-dog are very similar in personality, so they don't always get along.  The mom in me was Utah jazzed to see them work on something together.  I had hoped to get a picture of the two of them either before or after... but they were fighting!

Here is the beginning to the song, Listen, by Colton Avery

Everybody's going somewhere

and we're trying to find our way

but we get lost sometimes and think we're all alone.

We don't know our destination and we're running in place
because of all of the distractions on the road.

But He is there

and He knows where you belong

and He wants to bring you home.

When you're trying to find the path you should take,

when you're lost inside
the wind and the waves,

His voice will break through,

He is speaking to you.

When you don't know where to fasten you gaze

when the world's distractions get in your way
He will be your guide if you just close your eyes and listen.

Listen.

Calzone

Today was a dry typical Saturday: some house cleaning, a bit of shopping, downtime. I think one of my favorite parts of the day was when Calvin (aka Calzone) came home from a scout camp overnighter, and asked to hold his little brother.  Norman is sure a blessed little boy with so many people loving on him.  Ryan finally gets home tomorrow night and I wonder if Norman will look older to him... infants sure grow a lot in just one week.

Two handsome boys