Cranberry Hootycreeks

INGREDIENTS
5/8 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans
DIRECTIONS
Layer the ingredients in a 1 quart or 1 liter jar, in the order listed.
Attach a tag with the following instructions: Cranberry Hootycreeks 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper. 2. In a medium bowl, beat together 1/2 cup softened butter, 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla until fluffy. Add the entire jar of ingredients, and mix together by hand until well blended. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets. 3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until edges start to brown. Cool on baking sheets, or remove to cool on wire racks.

I gave these as gifts for Christmas this year. They look so festive and yummy. They turn out good to, so they tell me. The ones pictured on top don't have walnuts because I was making them for Ceri (my sister) and she's allergic. But, nuts or no nuts they are supper yummy and super cute. Plus who wouldn't like a cookie named "hootycreek"? The name alone scores it points!

A Swingin' Good Time!

Emmie really enjoys the new swing...not to say she doesn't like being held more... but the swing keeps her happy for a little bit - long enough to allow Matt and I to get some things done around the home that take two hands to do....In Matt's case it's looking up YouTube videos.

The Helicopter

This video is of Matt and his new Helicopter toy

Christmas Day!

My talkative little girl

She's just so cute! I love my little Emmie Grace!

Pajama Day at Adobe!

What is more fun than getting to wear your pj's to school? Besides the crazy juice that must have been spilled in the children's drinking water - we had a great time. These two ladies are my assistants. Kassie on the left and Maryela in the middle - they are awesome! We had a little one who snuck into the picture too - she's a doll! Happy Christmas vacation time!

What a good looking group of children!

Two Months and Sleeping!

Yeah for sleep! For the past three nights Emmie has slept 7 or so without waking up!

Matt and I did a happy dance of joy this morning. It was really funny because just last Sunday I was reading in my "Your Baby's First Year - Week by Week" and it was saying that by the 10th week babies should be able to sleep through the night. When I told Matt he actually laughed out loud - yeah right....our child sleep longer than three hours...no way - but she did it! Yeah for Emmie!

I can't believe how big she is getting! I took her in for her two month well baby check and she weighed in at 10lbs 13oz and measured 22 3/4 inches. They also gave her 5 vaccinations. As the nurses gave her the shots she was looking at me with this face that just screamed "Mommy, why are you letting this happen?!" It was horrible! Good thing for Tylenol also....we would have had a wicked bad day without it! Fortunately there's a whole two months before her next set of shots!

The Non-Dairy Life....

So it's been about 6 weeks now since we figured out that Emmie has a milk (and possibly soy) allergy so therefor I've been off of dairy. It's a rough life. I can not believe how many things have milk/soy protein in it...but I have to tell you it's worth it not to be up with a screaming infant all night long. I've discovered the wonders of almond milk. I like using almond milk to cook with now - it gives everything a sweet vanilla-y taste - try it - you'll be surprised at how good it is! The one up side to this whole non-dairy thing (besides Emmie's new found happiness) is that I've lost a little weight....I guess it's a no brainer when you can't eat ice cream, butter, cheese, cookies...etc...

A Blessing for Emmie

Emmie was blessed this past Sunday by her daddy. It was such a great day. The Root family came and so did the Bennett's. Emmie was surrounded by a lot of people who completely adore her. The blessing was wonderful and Emmie cooperated perfectly. She woke up right as they were saying "amen". I'm so thankful for the priesthood and its power to bless.

Arn't these just the cutest little shoes?








Matt is just the proudest daddy.

Smiles

Emmie is starting to smile and coo and I thought I was lucky - capturing a genuine smile but turns out it was just gas...

Gratitude

I love Thanksgiving. This picture is of us trying to all fit in the bed to watch the Thanksgiving day parade. It used to be just Ceri, Mom and I but since we've had a few additions over the past two years the bed is now full...no more room! For the past couple of years my family has gone up to Sedona, AZ for the holiday. We always have a blast. This year my Aunt Sandy's family (my dad's sister) came too. I was stupid and didn't get a picture of all of us. There were so many people. It was so great to see all of my cousins and their kids. I'm so grateful to be a part of such a great family!

Eating at the Junepine Cafe...not thanksgiving dinner...a different meal

Getting ready to go...hat and all!

Emmie needed a Thanksgiving nap too!

ElfYourself....Hilarious!

So...if you're in for a good laugh click on the link below. Heidi sent this to me and I about died.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9565841864

Featuring: Amy, Me, and Heidi

Matt and Emmie's new trick

I forget how Matt discovered this new trick with Emmie...I think he was trying to blow something off her face. It's pretty funny. (We don't do it a lot....that would be mean...)

Sleeping time...

This little one is a party girl....sleep all day - party all night long.

Tag - I'm It...

So...I was tagged by Heidi a while ago and have been lazy and haven't done it...but now I've been tagged a second time so...here we go...seven random things...

1. There are two things that I secretly eat out of the tub when I have them in the kitchen...Cool Whip and Peanut Butter. Sometimes I combine them and take a spoonful of peanut butter and then top it with a dollop of cool whip...it's delicious.

2. I have a love/hate relationship with running. I hate to actually run but for some reason love getting ready to run and love the feeling I get when I'm done running - so I do it over and over and consider myself pretty good when I stick with it.

3. I listen to the same CD over and over again in the car for months at a time. Currently I'm listening to my Saturday's Warrior CD...it's a classic.

4. I loved growing up with the last name "Corriveau". I was very proud of the fact that it contained every vowel.

5. In addition to my Education degree I am certified in Montessori Education. I've never had to work so hard for anything...including my bachelors at ASU.

6. If someone asked me in high school what I considered one of my talents I would say it would be singing...now however, singing probably wouldn't make the list. I'm really sad about that. I would love to start singing again.

7. I really dislike monopoly... and settlers of catan... I'll play when invited - but never look forward to playing again. I'm not sure if it' s the length of the games or if it's because you have to be constantly thinking about all the different angles and variables...I'd much rather play a more fast passed game like catch phrase or speed....

Joining us...

A big warm welcome to Ceri and John! Go check out all the happenings of the Goughs...they know how to have a good time!

Happy Halloween!

Mike Root - a scott (kilt not photographed) and Emmie

Michelle Root (a black cat) and Sleeping Emmie

Matt went to our ward's trunk or treat as a "guitar hero master"

Our little pumpkin

Ceri and John...the sumo wrestlers

Emmie In Action!

So I realize that this video is pretty boring - nothing much happens...but it's my little girl and everything she does is adorable...even when she does nothing. (she crosses here eyes at the end...that's pretty exciting!)

Photos By Kacy

A week and a half ago we took Emmie to my friend, Kacy, to get some newborn pictures taken. I was amazed with how many good shots turned out - Emmie was fussing almost the entire time....she was not happy when she was naked! Anyways...Enjoy!

oh-p.s. If you're thinking about getting a family photo taken and are in the market for a good (and reasonably priced) photographer go check out Kacy's work: photosbykacy.com (If you click on clients you'll be able to find all of Emmie's pictures under "newborns and maternity").

What's up with the background?

Something's going on with the bandwidth (I have no idea what that even is) so until it's fixed I'm back to a generic background....i'm hoping to figure it all out soon!

A public service announcement....

So...for the first time I read what I wrote and found out that I should proof read more often. I apologize for the frequent spelling and grammar errors. My family was making fun of me because I wrote "Banner DESSERT", rather that "desert". Oh well, what can I say - my mother has been working with me on this since elementary school....

p.s. I went back and edited some of it...I'm sure I didn't catch it all! : )

Welcome Emmie Grace!

We have a baby girl! Sunday morning, bright and early at 4:30 little Emmie Grace joined us. She weighed in at 6 lbs 10 oz, 20" long. We had the best birthing experience and really feel blessed. She is beautiful and healthy. I'm a little sore, but really can't complain much - epidurals are miracles!



Now for those of you who would like the whole story keep on reading...



Saturday morning around 7:00 I thought my water broke, but because I didn't really know what it was suppose to feel like I wasn't 100% sure it was my water. I was so anxious to go into labor, I thought I might just be making it up, PLUS I had a baby shower to go to that I had been hoping and praying that little girl would just stay inside so I could go! I made it this far so I was going! Well, as the hours went on I began to realize that what I was experiencing could only be caused by my water breaking. So I had a great time at the shower and made it through the without any contraction (which was awesome! A great big thanks to Sister Jameson who threw it for me and to all the generous Shalimar ladies for really setting us up well for the baby!) and off we went to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital I went into OB triage and sure enough my water had broken! YEAH! My cousin, Dana, a labor and delivery nurse at Banner Desert, took over once I was admitted. She scored me a great room with a window! Some people have asked me if it was awkward having my cousin as my nurse...honestly it's awkward to think about, but once I was in the hospital room and in delivery mode it didn't really phase me. It was actually really comforting to know she was there and I could ask her anything and not feel silly (thanks Dana, I love you!). I started having contractions around 2:00pm and got the epidural around 10:45. I got myself dilated to a 5 or 6 and when I couldn't hardly make my self breath through the pain I figured it was about time for the drugs. I slept on and off for the rest of my labor time. Around 2:00am my Dr. came in and broke my 2nd bag of water (I didn't even know it was possible to have two!) Again, I cannot believe how amazing epidurals are! Dana woke me up around 4:00am and told me I was dilated to a 10 and she could already see the baby's head. She brought in the gear, called the doctor and I started to push. 20 minutes later baby girl was here! Matt was an awesome coach. He stayed with me the whole time and was so encouraging and supportive. He cut the cored and everything! He's completely over the moon in love with this little one. All my family was waiting in the waiting room and rushed in when Matt gave them the thumbs up. Later in the morning we were transported to the recovery floor were we spent 48 hours. (Because it was over 12 hours between the time my water broke and when Emmie was delivered they had to put an antibiotic in my IV. And because of this they had to monitor Emmie an extra day.) Luckily we had lots of family to keep us company in the evenings - otherwise I think we would have gone mad in that little room! It took us a little while to decide on a name. We really liked "Emmie" but had a hard time deciding on the spelling and then didn't know what to do for a middle name. During labor, Dana's nurse friend, Grace, helped us out for a few hours while Dana rested and I thought that she had a beautiful name and thought it would go good with "Emmie" so that's how we got Emmie Grace. On Tuesday we were happy to get discharged and go home. Emmie loves to eat and sleep. Everyday she's a little bit more alert and makes Matt and I laugh and smile. We love our little girl!

Chuck E Cheese

Do you ever open those "money mailers" that come every so often? Well, if you do you'd know that there are a lot of worthless coupons and every once and a while you can get something good. Well, because I have only seem to ever get worthless things from those mailers I usually throw them away unopened....BUT the other day I got one and for some reason opened it and inside there was a coupon for Chucky Cheese "Buy one lg. pizza get 100 free tokens"! WHAT A DEAL! So for FHE Adam, Ceri, John, Matt and I all went. Ceri had gotten the coupon in the mail too, so we had 200 tokens and 2 pizzas. It was awesome. I think the last time I was there was at a birthday party when I was 7 or 8. There's nothing like a good skiball game.

King of Kong

So if you're ever in the mood for a good documentary, try the King Of Kong. It's surprisingly entertaining. Matt watched it with his friend, Ryan, a month or so ago and has been talking about it ever since. We went with Ceri and John last Friday and were all pretty surprised at how much we enjoyed it! It's about this average guy who randomly decides that he wants to beat the standing top score of Donkey Kong only to find out that the current title holder has this posse behind him that will do almost anything to keep him as the title holder.

Surprise Shower

Michelle and I
Michelle, Me, and Becky

Last Friday everyone at work threw a potluck party for three of us girls. A double baby shower for Becky (the 2-3 year old teacher) and Me, and a birthday surprise for Michelle. Michelle co-teaches with me in the mornings and is also the administrator of the school...not to mention close family friend! When I asked her if she wouldn't mind me putting her picture on my blog she only wanted to make sure everyone knew she wasn't one of the pregnant ones! It's been really fun being pregnant at the same time as Becky. Her due date is only two weeks after mine and she's having a girl too! Anyways it was so nice of everyone to throw us a party. We had no idea...they are so sneaky!

Murphy

I've blogged about Murphy before...but he is just the cutest thing...he deserves to be blogged about again! Dana brought him over at Sunday dinner last week and we had a blast playing with him. This is him "exercising". Murphy was standing on Adam, and Adam starts to move his leg back and forth. You would think that Murphy (or any dog) would get down really fast....but not Murphy... he was cool with it.

It only took me 8 months...

So I had been looking forward to this moment ever since I found out I was pregnant...The moment when I could could use my nicely rounded tummy as a table to balance ice cream on while watching a little TV. It definately lived up to my expectations!

Catch Phrase

Catch Phrase is a pretty great game. The funniest person to play with is my mom. (She will be mortified when she finds out she's on the blog... she hates being video taped...sorry!) The category is "Food" see is you can guess what mom is trying to explain! good luck! (to turn off the music: scroll down to the picture montage of our Reunion/Wedding and hit the volume symbol next to the pause button on the bottom left corner.)

New News

The last couple of weeks have been really busy for us!

I guess the biggest news is that we moved...not far...just a 1/2 mile. The new apartment is just a little bit bigger and a little closer to ASU, and just all around a little more comfortable. Matt and I are pretty excited about the dishwasher. We had a ceremonial first dish load...It was pretty awesome! I must say though, I did shed some tears when we moved. Handing over the keys was harder than I thought it would be. Our first apartment had so many good memories attached to it!

Secondly, The hermit crab that I just barely blogged about....died. It was horrible. Matt and I found him out of his shell and well...dead... when we went to set up my classroom on Labor day. I had mixed emotions about it. On one hand I just felt awful because I was the one who was suppose to make sure all of his needs were met and I failed despite all my efforts. But on the other hand, it makes me so mad that I put so much effort into making him as comfortable as possible and he STILL died. There is still one that's alive. hopefully that one will make it.

I had my 34 week prenatal appointment and everything is going well. Baby is growing and is healthy. The doctor says that my pregnancy (up to this point) is nothing but "text book". I'm pretty happy with that! Only 5 more weeks come Sunday!
This is a picture of me today...This little girl is a student of mine and everyday she gives the baby a hug just like this. It's too cute! Don't look too close to my classroom. Of course we had to choose the messiest place and time to take the picture....by the counter at the end of the day. I promise it usually doesn't look like that! All of my student's are really excited for the baby to come and say the funniest things when it comes to how big my belly is getting!

Vote!

So I went exploring the blogging features today and found an option to post polls. So vote and see how close you get to the baby's due date. If I were to have it my way the baby would stay in until her due date....not only would it be great for her lungs....it would make for the best maternity leave time for me! Have fun!

Hermit Crabs

Well, I began to write a lengthy entry all about the hermit crab drama at school but erased it all because who really wanted to read all the lengthy details about it? So the short version is that hermit crabs may look like an easy and cheep pet to take care of...but they're not. You're better off getting a hamster.

A Wedding and Reunion in Washington

We had the best time in Washington with our Coleman family. We were able to attend the sealing of Will and Ame in the Columbia River Temple (located in Richland, WA - central WA). It was a wonderful ceremony and Matt and I are very happy that we were able to go! Matt had a great time visiting with friends (members of Ame's family) that he hadn't seen since he left EWU - I had a great time putting names to faces! After the wedding festivities we went back to Kent and spent a leisurely Sunday with the family, lots of talking and laughing...and for some...Guitar Hero. We were sad to have to be the first ones to leave! We hope that it won't be too many years before the whole family is able to get together for a reunion again!(It is kind of squished but if you click on it it will send you to a sight to see the whole thing!)

Free MySpace slideshows, photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A quilt for the baby

After spending too much time browsing the Internet for nursery theme and being shocked/appalled and the price of nursery bedding sets I decided to do what my friend Kamarah did and make my own bedding set. Initially I was against a big pink theme....but i got sucked in... and it's not like it's froo-froo princess pink - so I'm good with it! : ) I thought the lady bugs turned out pretty cute and it was a really simple pattern so it didn't take too long....

Our 2nd San Diego Trip

During 4th of July when we went to San Diego we really wanted to go to the Temple since it was the first time Ceri and John could come through with us but it was closed....SO mom and dad decided to make a quick weekend trip out especially for the Temple. It was wonderful being there all together and enjoying the Beautiful San Diego Temple. Unfortunately it was wedding city out there and we couldn't find a spot to get a family picture without disturbing the various photographers and their wedding parties....so that's why there are no temple pictures. We all had a great time, but were happy to get home - especially after having to change a flat tire on the side of the highway in the middle of the dessert!

Matt's beard

For the past week Matt has been growing a beard...not necessarily because he wants a beard but because we thought it would be fun for a few days. Yesterday Matt decided that he couldn't take the itchiness of it anymore and shaved it off. In the last picture you'll notice that he didn't shave all of it off... he left a little mustache as a joke. I didn't get a picture front on but if you use a little imagination i think you'll agree that he looks like Kip from Napoleon Dynamite. Fortunately, Kip only stayed around 'til the next morning! He's a clean shaven man again.

Congratulations Amy and Nathan!

Amy and Nathan were married at 9:00 this morning in the Mesa Temple

Amy and Nathan showing off their rings!
Best friends

6 months and growing...

I went in for my 6 month check up yesterday and everything is coming along great! It's crazy to think that we have only three months left before our little girl arrives....and only three months to get everything ready! Every time the doctor checks her heart beat it's 160 bpm or over. She's an active little thing. The last time I was at the doctor's her heart beat ranged from 160-200 bpm. The doctor said that when her heart beat varies in short amounts of time she's enjoying her environment. I like to think she's having a party in there...it sure feels like it! If I didn't know better I'd think she was trainging for the olympics in there! I love being pregnant - It is the neatest experience!

The 4th of July in San Diego

We had a blast on our 4th of July trip to San Diego with our Corriveau (and Bennett) family. We were in San Diego for 5 days. On the 4th we hung out, ate KFC, enjoyed the ocean and watched the Conney Island Hot Dog eating competition (Yeah Joey Chestnut for bringing the Nathans mustard belt back to the USA after a 6 year run in Japan!) Needless to say it was a much needed break! The weather was beautiful and we just had so much fun joking around and hanging out. On our last day there we went to Sea World - saw the cool shows, rode some rides, and some of us even got completely drenched! The whole trip wouldn't of been complete without Adam's Optimus Prime helmet...it provided hours of entertainment!

Murphy

A week ago Dana bought a little Maltese dog. She's been wanting one for the longest time. Originally she wanted a little girl dog she could name "Molly" but when she saw Murphy he was just too cute to pass up.

Mom Coleman's Quilt

For my Birthday Mom Coleman sent me the quilt that she (and Becky, my sister- in-law) have been working on for the past year or so that has all of Matt and my wedding colors in it. Isn't it beautiful?!