10) The Veggie Sub - A cursory review of Kim's credit card statement reveals the regular occurrence of a $4.99 charge from Subway. This happens to be the exact cost of a foot long veggie sub on whole grain wheat - hold the pickles, olives, and jalapenos. It's been four years since we've seen this particular craving.
9) Lonely Movie Nights - Kim has always subscribed to the old adage, "Early to bed, early to rise, makes you healthy, wealthy, and wise." However, under normal circumstances I can usually talk her into staying up until 10:30 on the weekends to watch the first half of a movie with me before she drifts off to sleep. But my powers of persuasion have had no effect on her for the last eight weeks. She's been retiring early and I've had my share of lonely movie nights. And for the record, that old adage has never made me anything but healthy. I'm afraid that the other two advantages tied to going to bed early may be actually be empty promises.
8) Emptying Half Filled Garbage Cans - On my most recent solo movie night I watched the new X Men Origins movie and it turns out that Wolverine's sense of smell in the movie is ALMOST as keen as Kim's has been over the last two months. This has necessitated a very thorough cleaning of a gas spill in the garage that was permeating the entire house (although I could only smell it in the kitchen.) And we have had to double our garbage emptying efforts across the board to be sure no odorous substances have more then a few minutes to mingle together in an interior garbage receptacle.
7) Cleaning Toilets - I am happily looking for things I can do to help keep Kim's nausea to a minimum. I've cleaned more toilets in the last eight weeks then I have in the last four years. True that's only like five toilets but they were cleaned in the morning at a time where Kim particularly did not want to look at a dirty toilet. Sometimes it's not what you do that matters most it's when you do it that really counts.
6) Go Big or Go Home - Kim has been going all out on projects lately. It's kind of crazy from throwing baby showers to planning the primary program she's not doing anything halfway. ........Wait, wrong list for this bullet point. I was confused with another list I'm compiling called "10 things that will never change at the Dover home." In this case I guess the more things change the more they stay the same.
5) Where's It Going to Sleep? - The children have been overheard discussing who's going to get a bunk bed or who is going to move downstairs to create a little more room.
4) Changing Requests - Sydney is no longer asking Heavenly Father to send a new little baby to our family like she has been for sometime now. Instead she's joining us in our requests to make sure the baby just doesn't come before it's supposed to!
3) A Father's Sacrifice - Unfortunately my current truck is not equipped with a bench in front so it won't seat six. I am going to have to sacrifice and take one for the team by selling my truck and getting into one that will allow for a growing family like mine. It's hard for me to think of parting with my Truck, but in the name of Family Boating and Family Ranger Riding I've reluctantly accepted the idea. It won't be easy to settle into my brand new totally redesigned Tundra once I find it. But it will help that the Tundra now has the highest towing capacity and payload in it's class and that it still drives smoother then any other Truck on the road. I'm grateful that I've been able to find these small sacrifices that I can make to better allow me to empathize with some of the sacrifices Kim also has to endure over the next few months.
2) First Things First - This just in, I've been informed that my up coming truck sacrifice is secondary in importance to finding a new family vehicle for Kim to drive. Apparently the Pilot is too hard for the kids to get in and out of on their own and not adequate for our ongoing needs. At first I was proud of Kim for being willing to make this type of sacrifice, on the level of the kind of offering I am going to have to make with my own vehicle. However, the more I've talked to her about it the more I'm thinking that she might be simply using this new and exciting development in our life as a way to get out of an older vehicle into the "latest and greatest" thing. It's been hard for me to accept that Kim's intentions might be less then pure when my own decision to look for a vehicle has been so unselfish and based completely on the "needs" of my family as opposed to my own "wants." So please keep my suspicions on the down low, I don't have any hard evidence so far - just a hunch.
1) If Momma Aint Happy, Aint Nobody Happy! - I am very grateful to be married to a strong, balanced, optimistic, and gorgeous wife. Kim knows how to remain happy and grateful regardless of the challenges that life brings. So far, babies on the way in our family have not made life easy as each one has threatened to come out early. But Kim is an example of strength, faith, and optimism despite all the uncertainties that come with this news. She has powerful faith and I have a firm belief that it is her faith that has called down the Powers of Heaven on behalf of our Kiddo's in the past. I also believe that the Lord will continue to support us as he always had in the past while we anxiously look forward to April 24th....and hope baby doesn't decide he or she prefers February 25th. Your prayers on our behalf our always appreciated, we know from past experience that they work.
This was also on Pottery Barn and I loved the mixed arrangement!
This Acorn pan off Williams Sonoma would be super cute to make the cookies with too.
Birthday pancakes by Dad!
Just about to head out to school...
Getting sung not 1... not 2... but 5 Happy Birthday songs at school!
After school we hit up Target with her friends for some Icees, Popcorn, and chicken fingers! YUM!
Then it was off to gymastics... in a new leotard!
Mia chose to go to dinner at Oregano's- yum! Pizza, pasta, and a big pazookie and ice cream! The kiddos love the dough they get to play with while they wait for their meal... And while we waited for the pazooki we ran off dinner through a game of tag, duck duck goose, country swing dancing, etc on a little patch of grass.
What a birthay huh!?! Aunt Mindy even stopped by that night with a birthday treat and surprise which Mia was SOO excited about. Thanks to everyone for calls, cards, presents, and visits! Her Aunt Melissa gave her a tea set and skirt which she is loving too...
It only requires 6 basic ingredients: Brown sugar (or honey), salt, water, yeast, wheat, gluten. NO OILS OR FATS!
Me and the girls made it together- the loved the whole process which started with grinding the flour. This Blendtec Kitchen Mill is great... They loved grinding the wheat so much they did the entire can!
The recipe is super simple- nothing complex about it. I will post it again at the bottom of this post... Add all the ingredients together, let raise, knead, and form into loaves. (Mia got wheat flour all over her shirt and decided to be the Naked (actually Topless) Chef!)
Phew, she got dressed while the bread was baking- ha ha! I think they ate their whole loaf right out of the oven!
Top it with homemade jam and I'm back to reminiscing about coming home from school to the house smelling so warm and amazingly yummy... we loved an after school snack of my mom's homemade bread fresh out of the oven topped with her strawberry homemade jam. Yes I was a spoiled child! (Though usually the bread was white bread back then...)
Bah- don't forget there will be a mess to clean up! But it's worth it if you have the time... In fact I think I will go make some right now- yum!
This is as easy and yummy as it gets so I thought I would share it!
3- Pour pre-washed and pre-cut broccoli from Costco in a bowl. Add a tad of water, sprinkle lightly with chicken boullon granules, and microwave under tender-crisp.
After school the other day Colby was especially goofy! We take turns making funny faces at each other and laughing. He always has the funniest!
They loved it. Wanted to do it again and again. Playdough for us just never gets old- always so much to create and make and do with it!
SO EXCITED!!! *And Hurray! He finally got another uniform color other than orange! The uniforms are really nice this time around... * Ger's coaching his team and they are the Sharks.
Colby played AWESOME! He has come so far since 3 seasons ago and had a blast and is improving so much on his ball handling skills and understanding of the game.
Another GOAL! Ger's fingers show "2" goals...
The kids were VERY excited about being able to squirt out their own pancake batter! 
It made nice fluffy pancakes... the kiddos loved making lots of shapes and sizes...
And here Mia is posing for their next ad- ha ha! The kids said it was the best pancakes EVER! They ate every last bite. In fact it was good to feed our family for 2 breakfasts and they were SOO sad this morning when they found out it was all gone. They were begging me to get more at the store! I thought they were yummy- not the best I'd ever had since I prefer wheat but they were yummy. Another plus though? NO MESS! Batter can get everywhere and sometimes you just don't have time to whip a homemade batch together, so it was so great that there was no disaster to clean up after... Give them a try!
Product #2- Oroweat Sandwich Thins. I have seen these advertised a lot and happened to run into them at Costco... LOVE the concept since I think there is always too much bun when you eat a burger anyways. I got the Multi-grain ones, we toasted them on the grill when our burgers were done and were so excited to try them, I don't even have any pics! Whoopsie. They are DELICIOUS though!! Really yummy. Ger loved them too and thought it was such a great concept since burgers are so huge anyways. 
