Legoland, CA

We went to visit my sister Carolyn and her family and she got us some free tickets to Legoland and the aquarium for the day. The big kids were in school but Carrie and Ashley, and friends Laura and Ashton, joined us at the park.

We'd never been there before and we were excited to go. It was a really hot day but the kids had a lot of fun. Sammy got to go on the most rides because he was the tallest/oldest but all of the kids had fun. They have a water park inside of the park and an aquarium next door so there were a variety of things to do.

Too bad this park isn't closer or we could go more often. Here are a few pictures of our adventures there!

To see the rest of our pictures from our adventure check out Smugmug! :)

Brothers…a few fun pictures!

I am having lots of fun taking pictures of the boys together. They adore their new brother Daniel and barely let him sleep or do anything without one of them hugging or kissing him, holding his hand or doing any number of things to him. Either way, here are a few fun pictures of the boys by themselves and together that were too fun or cute not to share. :)

This one is also from Zimmerman Park…woo hoooooo!

Not wanting to be left out…this guy is also going to eat us out of house and home! He is already 5 weeks old and starting to fill in!

And my favorite photo…

My Big Boy Sammy – His first talk

Last Sunday we got a little note telling us that Sam was assigned a three minute Primary talk for the following Sunday. I was kind of excited for him and nervous and wondered what to do it on. We finally decided to have him tell one of his favorite Bible stories--Daniel and the Lion's Den.

I put it off but eventually we wrote it out in kid form and I hoped that it wouldn’t be too long. He did a great job and repeated most of what I said. A few times he got so excited that instead of repeating after me he yelled out the next part (pretty good for not practicing at all with him) and the other kids giggled but he just smiled even bigger. I was very proud of him and he was so happy looking back at us in Primary—his smile said it all!

Two more recipes that you’ve gotta try!

Two things that I made this week that I loved were from two of my favorite recipe blogs Picky-Palate and My Kitchen Cafe. I will definitely be making these two things again!!! The chicken tacos were a hit even with the kids and the cookies had just the right amount of crunch but were still soft and chewy!

Easy Chicken Tacos from My Kitchen Cafe

*Serves 6

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 teaspoons minced canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (you can find these in the Mexican Foods aisle at most grocery stores); use less if you don't like it as spicy or more if you want it more spicy!
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 3/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• 1 teaspoon yellow mustard
• Salt and pepper
• 12 (6-inch) flour tortillas

Melt the butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and chipotle and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the orange juice, Worcestershire sauce and 1/2 cup chopped cilantro and bring the mixture to a boil. Add the chicken and simmer, covered, over medium-low heat for 12-13 minutes, flipping the chicken halfway through cooking. When the chicken is done cooking, transfer to a plate and tent with foil.

Increase the heat to medium-high and cook the mixture left in the skillet until the liquid is reduced to about 1/4 cup, about 5 minutes. Off the heat, whisk in the yellow mustard. Using 2 forks, shred the chicken into bite-sized pieces and return to the skillet. Add the remaining cilantro to the skillet and toss until well combined. Season with salt and pepper. Serve warm with tortillas topped with lettuce, cheese, tomato, sour cream and avocado.

**To warm the tortillas, wrap them in foil and heat in a 350-degree oven for 15 minutes.

Recipe Source: adapted slightly from Cook's Country

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Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookie Crispers from Picky-Palate

• 2 sticks softened butter
• 3/4 Cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 Cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 2  1/2 Cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 Cups Panko (Japanese Bread Crumbs)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 bag chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Place butter and sugars into electric or stand mixer and beat until well combined.  Beat in eggs and vanilla until well combined.

2.  Place flour, panko, baking soda and salt into a large bowl.  Mix to combine.  Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips on low speed until just combined.  Scoop onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet with a medium cookie scoop*.   Bake for 9-11 minutes or until edges just start to turn brown.  Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies

* I just put them on a regular cookie sheet (no parchment or fancy silpat lining) and they turned out just fine!

Daniel – 3 weeks old today!

Time is quickly passing and our newest little guy is already three weeks old! It doesn’t seem like that long ago that he was still in my tummy nice and warm, kicking me and giving me heartburn!

Here are a few photos from this past week that show how he’s changing. We’re sure that he’s ours—there is no denying that he looks like his brothers!

Mommy and Daddy are surviving (although three is definitely harder than two!) Being outnumbered is quite a challenge at times, and if Daddy isn’t home and the baby decides to wake up and needs to eat at the same as the boys need baths, dinner, bedtime stories or Mommy’s attention things get difficult quickly.

The boys still absolutely adore him and more often than not want to be right next to him at all times (driving Mommy crazy when she’s trying to take care of him, feed him or put him to sleep in the bassinet that is being rocked/pushed/rolled by his big brothers!)

Heavenly Father definitely has blessed us with a good little guy though! Yesterday I put him down for a nap at 4:30 pm and he didn’t wake up until 11:30 pm. He woke up two more times that night but it was a nice break! Thad’s theory is that he gave us an easy one so that we’ll have more kids (and as long as Mommy’s happy and sane maybe that will be true!)

That said we’re doing well and happy to have this newest addition in our lives! He looks like he’s going to have a nice big smile (he’ll fit in with the rest of us), bright blue eyes and red hair (who knew that the gene was so dominant in our DNA?!) We love you Daniel (or Dan-Dan as Sammy likes to call him!) :)

 

 

Danny’s First Trip to Disneyland

Most people think that we’re crazy, or that I’m crazy, and well I guess that I can’t argue with that but we’ve already ventured out to Disneyland with the whole family. We love going with the boys and since we’re not crazy enough to go during the summer we finally decided that it would be fun to take all three boys there this week. We went a few times when I was on maternity leave after having Nathanael and people left us alone and it was nice for Sammy (and for me as well) to get out and play.

So, on September 3rd we headed to Downtown Disney (we like to ride the Monorail) and then into the park. We took pictures of Daniel after every ride so that you could see just how much he enjoyed it but he looks about the same in every picture—asleep! He didn’t wake up until we were transferring him into the car and then he fell back asleep only to wake up later so that mommy could feed him.

 

Here are some pictures of our first adventure with Daniel and his two big brothers. We sang with the birds and the flowers in the Tiki Room, reluctantly took pictures with Captain Hook, shot at Zurg on Buzz Lightyear, flew the Spaceships right outside of Buzz Lightyear on the Astro Orbitor, rode the horses on the Carousel, cruised through It’s a Small World and then took the Monorail back out to Downtown Disney. 

 

We had a lot of fun and will probably go again this week (although Grandma volunteered to take Danny boy so that we could just play with the big boys!) Life is good!

Welcome home Daniel!

We have long awaited the chance to post about our newest addition and now that we are home we’d love to introduce him to you and tell him how he arrived…(this is my journal too so if you don’t want the long version scroll down to the photos ;))

About three weeks ago my RNP told me that he’d be here any day so I started mentally preparing but then he didn’t come…and he didn’t come…and my due date passed and he still wasn’t here. Monday, August 24th came and I had another appointment with my doctor—not too much change in the last three weeks but still “ready” as soon as the contractions arrived. Monday night while saying his prayers Sammy, who has been quite anxious for his arrival, prayed that “our new baby brother would come tomorrow” which he hadn’t done previously and I wondered if it could be…

Later that night I had a contraction about midnight and went back to sleep and another one or two and then about 4:30 when I had one and then another 7 minutes later I figured out what was going on. I finally called the hospital after an hour but they told me to wait another hour until the contractions were 4 or 5 minutes apart instead of 7. I told them that I lived thirty minutes away and that my last delivery was pretty quick and she finally gave me the okay to come in (thank goodness!) We called our friend Ed and he brought his daughter Jennilee over and they stayed with our sleeping boys. Auntie Sarah would come over later to get them. We jumped in the car and arrived there about 6:30.

(Warning…descriptive labor details if you keep reading…now that you’ve been told, I’ll continue) Upon arriving at the hospital they put me in an exam room, started my paperwork and were taking their time until the midwife examined me and laughingly said, “do you always like to play it dangerous and arrive at the hospital at a 8 or a 9?” That was about 7:30 or so and they moved me into a room and kept working on the paperwork and said he’d be here within the hour. The contractions were starting to get a bit stronger but I figured why get an epidural if it was going to be under an hour—it couldn’t be that bad, right? My sister Cathy had arrived and was reminding me to breathe while Thad held my hand and fanned me during the big contractions. The doctor came in about 7:45 or 7:50 and asked if I wanted to push. Startled I said sure so she got me ready and then said go for it. Now for the crazy part. My water still hadn’t broken so she said she might have to go in and break it but with the first big push (ouch!) out came the water bag and Cathy and Thad said it looked like a water balloon as it burst on the way out – I thought it felt like the baby’s head it was so round! A few more pushes and then his head popped out, Thad got to grab him then they told me to stop pushing (ha! That is hard to do at this point) because the cord was around his neck, they untangled him and I pushed again and he was out and Thad placed him on my tummy. Thad got to cut the cord and wa-lah, he arrived at 8:03 am. He was a whopping 9 lbs 4.9 oz (but you could have fooled us) and a lengthy 22 inches!

We had lots of visitors (before he had a name) and just before we went home the next morning it was official—Daniel Driggs Marcroft. We had been thinking about Daniel as one of the top choices for a while but couldn’t think of a middle name that we liked and that meant something to us. Sammy, who looked like a grumpy old man when he was born, fit the bill to be named after Daddy and Great Grandpa Clifford and Samuel the Prophet. Nathan we just knew his name was supposed to be Nathanael James when we heard it. Nathanael the Apostle from the New Testament and James after Grandpa Marcroft. So this little Daniel needed the same thing! Daniel (think Daniel in the Lion’s Den) was a good start but my Dad made us promise NOT to use his first or middle names since he “had to suffer” and didn’t want our boys to do the same so we finally figured Driggs wouldn’t be embarrassing but would have great significance!

We were discharged as early as they would let us go the next day. It was a great labor/delivery and I feel great! My body really doesn’t feel like I just went through labor 48 hours ago (hooray!) and the baby is doing very well! I hope that if we have more kids it will be the same (quick labor and quick recovery!) :-)

Welcome to the family Daniel Driggs Marcroft. We love you! :)

And here are a two more pictures of the big brothers Sammy and Nathan that I had to share because they’re too cute! :)

Sammy had the biggest grin when he came in to the hospital and has barely wiped it off of his face since. He loves him bunches and even threw a fit the first night because I wouldn’t let Daniel sleep in his room!

Nathan was quite unsure of him at first when he arrived at the hospital but quickly determined that he wanted to hold him and hug him too. Now I just have to watch him because he thinks that he’s big enough to do both of those things (and he’s strong enough to pull it off!)

P.S. He is definitely ours if you couldn’t tell already…but we’re wondering if yet again we passed on the red hair gene that we didn’t know that we had…we’ll have to see as it fills in. He got my birthmarks too (but they should lighten just like Sammy’s did) and he turns red when he screams too! I think that we might have gotten lucky again with the blue-eyed gene as well! It will be fun to see the three of them as they get bigger.