Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

Modified by Carolyn Rousculp (my aunt)--originally from All Recipes.com

Beat 8 oz cream cheese until light and fluffy. Beat in 1 can sweetened condensed milk, 1 egg, 3 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 teaspoon vanilla until smooth.

Put 1/2 to 1 cup fresh raspberries in the bottom of 2 oreo pie crusts (i.e. 1/2-1 cup in each crust) pour the above filling equally in each pie and bake at 325 for 35 minutes.

In saucepan melt 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips with 1/2 cup whipping cream. After removing cheesecakes from oven top with chocolate mixture.

It is soooo good and I usually don't like cheesecake.

So yesterday in the bath Annika was kicking Caleb. She has this little lounging chair for the bath and she loves to splash around. If I'd had the camera near I would have made a video. It was just so funny because you could see in her face that she knew she was kicking Caleb and getting a reaction and she found great enjoyment in it. I am amazed that it starts this early! :)

Videos

This is of Caleb staggering around Salt Lake's warehouse district after having a little too much (chocolate milk) to drink

This is of Annika eating her breakfast and Caleb watching

New Camera!

Yeah! I finally bought a camera! So now I can post pictures of kids! Here are some. I need to work on my photography skills...

Sleep

I was a super stressed out mom with Caleb. Now I've moved to not so stressed with Annika. Also I think Annika has a more easy going personality and has naturally developed sleep habits. I tried and tried to get Caleb on some sort of schedule when he was little and had the hardest time. So now he falls asleep going on a walk in the stroll (winter, spring, fall and summer), and has developed a late schedule of going to sleep somewhere between 9:30 and 10:00 and waking up somewhere between 7 and 9. It works. I finally gave us stressing about it. But now Annika is a typical early to be, early to rise baby. She usually goes to sleep somewhere between 7 and 8 (only tonight Caleb happly running and shouting through the house woke her up around 7:40) and wakes up happy as can be between 6 and 7. That leaves my mom and I little time to get things done that need to be done without kids around. So this morning I woke Caleb up at 8:10. He was not ready to get up and told me to turn the light off, go out and shut the door. The light was the sun so we couldn't turn it off. I did leave and shut the door but then he was upset because it was light and he was tired and it was "still night" and thus not supposed to be light yet. It was pretty funny hearing him tell me to leave. :) He's a lot like me in that he takes a long time to fall asleep at night and is always begging me to stay. Then when he wakes up he wants to still sleep. That's totally how I am, why is it that it is so hard to get to sleep at night and then in the morning so hard to get up and out of bed?

This weekend Andy came down to visit.  We decided to take an outing and went up to Sandy where we caught TRAX, rode to Salt Lake, had lunch downtown and then rode the frontrunner train up to Roy and back.  Andy's sister and her kids did it a few weeks ago and we thought it sounded fun and Caleb would like it.  Caleb did like it, but got bored of sitting still (no surprise).  At one point on the frontrunner he told Andy, "I need you to sit still."  Passengers around us started laughing.  It was pretty funny.  Annika was really good and hardly fussed at all.  Caleb ate well at lunch and both of them really were good.  All of us were pretty tired and I got a headache, but the kids were really, really good.  My parents also enjoyed the time off and went to the mountains together.

Andy also brought another car load of stuff down and Caleb said, "Thank you for bringing these toys to me, Daddy."  I thought it was so cute!  Andy got some cute pictures of the kids and maybe he can post them.  I really need to buy a camera.  Maybe tomorrow.

Annika is eating food now.  She's had oatmeal, bananas, applesauce, carrots, honeydew (which she really loved!), and prunes.  Yes, poor little girl needs the prunes.  I didn't know that bananas cause constipation and fed her a ton of them.  She had such a tummy ache!!  I felt so bad!  So we've been feeding her prunes.  

Annika also loves toys.  Caleb took a while to get interested in toys.  Maybe it was that I had all my attention on Caleb so I thought it took a long time for him to be interested in toys.  Then with Annika began thinking that it would be a long time before she was interested in toys.  Whatever it was, she really likes toys.  She can sit up pretty well on her own and loves to sit on the floor surrounded by toys and play side by side with Caleb.  Andy brought her little jumper think down and she likes to jump in it as long as someone is smiling at her and telling her what a good job she's doing. :)  So much for a sitter...oh well.  She's also started doing this motor sounding thing with her lips and tongue.  I will try to get it on video.  It's so cute!

Grandma Evie sent a package of clothes and they are so cute!!  Caleb loves his kayaker shirt and has worn it twice even though it is long sleeved and Annika looks so stylish.

Milestones

It's been forever since I've written so I thought I'd just jot down a few developments.  

Annika grabs things now.  She is especially interested in food and will go crazy at mealtimes trying to grab plates, food, silverware and anything she can get her hands on.  I've let her try cantelope although she just got the juice.  Since I hadn't wanted to introduce solids until at least 6 months this was very premature and not such a smart move on my part if I'm going to keep denying her all the interesting food she smells.  Today she was determined to get my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  It was so funny to see the focused look on her face.  I felt bad that I had to whisk it away

She has also stopped sucking her thumb and started taking a binki.  My dad wanted her to have a binki while they were here and so even though I told him she didn't really take them, he bought some and we tried them out.  Surprisingly, she took them and now prefers the pacifier to her thumb.  There are pros and cons to both thumbs and pacifiers.  She's still an amazing sleeper and a generally happy baby so I'm not complaining either way.  She also loves to suck on other people's fingers and chins.  Yesterday I realized she gave me a hicky (sp?) so I don't think I'll let her do th

at as much any more...

Caleb continues to amaze people with his verbal abilities.  He seems to be adjusting really well to the changes in his life.  He follows my dad around and does whatever he does.  He pretends to use a shredder, work with compost, and lately pick up dog poop.  The other day we went to the park with these two girls who live next door and he was scooping up bark and calling it dog poop.  I tried to persuade him to call it something else like popcorn or something, but to no avail. He has very impressive melt downs and if something happens that isn't the way he wants it (the craziest things sometimes) he will howl so loudly that I'm sure you can hear him down the block.  He is an intense little guy.

We've been up to visit Aunt Alisa, David, Mary and Grandma Evie while they are in Park City a few times and Alisa got these cute pictures of the kids.

Annika is on her tummy more these days but still shows no interesting in scooting, rolling over, or any other sort locomotion.  Perhaps I should put some food out of reach for her on her tummy... :)

Visit with the Cousins

When we learned that Alisa and Greg (Andy's sister and her husband) were going to spend the summer in Park City, we were so excited for Caleb to spend time with his cousins. It happened this weekend when they came up to Boise for a visit. Thursday night we got together and went swimming at the hotel where they were staying and Caleb had a blast! It was pretty cold (it's been colder here lately) and then we went in to take baths and warm up. While we run on a late schedule, David and Mary are on a super early schedule. I couldn't relax because I kept worrying about how we were messing up their schedule. But Caleb and Andy had tons of fun. At the end Caleb and David were wrestling on the floor in their pjs. Nothing like cousins.

I didn't take any pictures because I was feeling very lazy about it, but Alisa took a bunch and when I get some I'll post pictures. (Thanks Alisa.) On Friday we went to Nampa to spend time with Grandma. The highlight was the sandbox where we should've let them stay and play so the grownups could relax, but I got this great idea to hose off the deck chairs with the kids. Mary wisely steers clear when her brother is in control of water and David and Caleb soaked themselves--especially Caleb. Again it wasn't super warm out so we had to come in and bring everyone inside while we put clothes in the dryer. Alisa had been resting since she had a cold. Grandma was contentedly enjoying knowing her favorite granddaughter, who she adores, was here visiting, and in come crazy, half-clothed children. Caleb's shoes had gotten wet so I didn't want him back outside. So much for a peaceful morning. Grandma kept asking Caleb where his shirt was, toys exploded in the living room, and the noise level rose by about ten notches. After Alisa and family left I asked Grandma if she enjoyed the morning and she just looked at me with big eyes and put her hands up in the air. It was a little much for her. I very much regretted ever disturbing their play in the sandbox.

After afternoon naps, we met at our house for dinner. Andy made his BBQ pizza and the crust was perfect (only it got a little charred on the BBQ). I swear I use the same recipe as Andy but my crusts never turn out quite as well. We also had grilled veggies and strawberry pie. Since our apartment is pretty crowded, we headed outside and ate on a picnic table by a stream running through the apartment property. While we were finishing preparing the dinner David and Caleb played garbage truck with the wheelbarrow and car and dumped little loads of toys throughout the house. It was just last night and this afternoon that we even started to clean everything up. It was pretty disastrous. :) Well, we did do the dishes Friday night, but there was flour spilled around the table where Caleb "helped" make pizza dough and lots of pans I had set out to dry that were still there until today.

After dinner Andy took Caleb and his sister and family up to see our new house while I worked on dishes and held a baby that really needed to sleep. (I was okay with that just for the record ;))

On Saturday we went to the zoo and it was a lot of fun. We left the sandbox and slide for the end and the kids happily played there while we visited and ate lunch. It was really nice. The weather was also so accommodating and it didn't rain until we got home. Then it poured. For around here it was pretty intense rain. I loved it! I love summer storms in the west. We also all fell asleep. A whole family nap. That rarely happens. In fact, I can't remember the last time it happened. Alisa had gone to stay with Grandma, Greg had taken the kids on an outing, and Janell was running errands. Grandma's hearing isn't that great and Alisa had lost her voice. She called us twice but we were all asleep. At least it wasn't the chaos of the day before. :) When we did wake up we met for dinner at the Hong Kong in downtown Nampa--a tradition for Alisa when visiting Nampa. Afterwards Andy helped the boys get soaked in the fountain across the street. David and Mary changed into pjs in the car and they headed back to Utah. I don't know if it was all everyone had anticipated, but I know Caleb had a good time with his cousins and we really enjoyed the time we got to talk with Alisa and Greg. We look forward to seeing them again sometime this summer.

Today

We were going to be early to church today. We have church at 9:30 and live about 5 minutes by car or 10 or so on foot--not very far--but are still late every Sunday because we are on a late to bed late to rise schedule. Today the alarm went off and I thought to myself, "I'll get up in just a minute," and sure enough 45 minutes later Andy woke me up and told me it was 8:30. We were all still in bed. We almost made it. Had it not been for a yummy fruit and waffle breakfast we would've made it. As it was we were about 10 minutes late.

Last night Caleb refused to take a bath. He also refused to wear pajamas so Andy dressed him in some CARS warm-ups with matching shirt. First thing this morning when Andy went in to get him he said that he wanted to keep his clothes on. So I played dress up with Annika in a really pretty sweater and foo-foo dress and Caleb wore Lightning McQueen warm-ups. During church Caleb is so loud. Most of the time it isn't even terribly irreverent behavior, it's just talking. Loudly. His voice carries so much I can hear him over the mic when I nurse Annika in the mothers' lounge. So I suppose that is irreverent. Today Adrienne's 6-month-old son started making noises. They were two pews in front of us and Caleb started saying, "Connor talking. Connor making noises. Connor noisy," quite loudly. Andy and I couldn't surpress our smiles it was just too funny. Then every time Connor would make another noise Caleb would talk about it. Then in places where it's appropriate to be noisy Caleb is totally quiet and just sits and observes. He's definately not a big crowd type. At the park he sits and watches or finds a place to park himself as he watches what's going on around him. Last night Andy took him to see the finishers coming in from the 70.3 ironman they had in Boise and tried to get Caleb to cheer--encouraging shouting when it's appropriate. No luck. But he wouldn't stop shouting in the car when Annika was trying to go to sleep...so goes parenting, huh?

Boise Foothills

On Sunday evening we went for a family walk (hike for Caleb since we were in the hills) in the Boise foothills not far from where we live. It was really nice to get out and walk around and fun to do it as a family. Annika slept most of the time and Caleb spent the first while begging to get out of his backpack and "get out and hike." We wanted to actually go somewhere and not spend hours digging in the dirt so we made him sit in the backpack for quite a while. Here we are starting out:
Part way along

Then we finally stopped and let Caleb get out. If you can see above there is a strip of green that signifies water and the trail and stream met up and that's where we got out and ate our snacks and had a rest. Caleb wouldn't eat or drink a thing (even though I'm sure he needed to, it was past dinner time) because it was such a waste to eat when he could play. I remember finding it terribly burdensome to eat as a kid and just wanting to play. Caleb loves to be outside and play. He could spend all day every day outside. It will be nice to move into our new house so he can do that more. Here is a little video and picture of Caleb playing in the water:

Then after having enjoyed our walk so much on Sunday evening, I set out to get more exercise and today went for a walk up the trail closest to our apartment. I pushed Caleb in the stroller and carried Annika on my front and tried to get a good workout for about a half an hour. Then we headed to another little stream, this one with a bridge, where Caleb could play and I fed Annika. I let Caleb get out a bit before the stream and walk a bit. Here are some pictures of the hillside and Caleb walking. I didn't take any of him at the stream.

I couldn't help but think of our time in Park City on the last couple walks. Andy and I got to live in Andy's parents' condo in Park City the summer after Caleb was born. Andy studied for the bar and I finished my thesis and stressed immensely over Caleb, poor kid. However, their condo backs a beautiful hillside with a trail starting in the back yard. I wanted to get back in shape after having had a baby and hiked up the hill to a flag pole on top every day. At first it took me a while and then I got better and could go pretty fast. I took Caleb in the front carrier and we waited until it had cooled off and the sun was setting in the evening. Here are a couple pictures of the trail

Andy's sister and her family are going to live there for a couple months this summer and I am green with envy. I know, Alisa, it comes with a large price. I loved living there that summer and all the beautiful trails. I loved the walk we took every evening up that hill. It was absolutely beautiful. I also got in really good shape. Looking back I'm really pretty impressed but realize it was living close to such a beautiful walk. I've never been good about going to gyms or even running around town consistantly, but that walk I could do every day of my life--especially having it start right out your back door. Hope you Hammonds have a wonderful time there!! And you can see, while the Boise foothills have their own beauty...Park City is enchanting.

Raccoon

This morning I took out the trash and saw a raccoon on top of the car port. I hurried in and got Caleb's shoes on and took him outside to show him. It had fallen back asleep so I went over by it and clapped and then had to move a branch and it poked it's head up. Caleb was nervous and stayed on the far sidewalk. But when the raccoon poked it's head up Caleb loved watching it. It's still up there asleep in the shade of the tree.

Baby Shower

Some friends in the ward have been trying to throw me a baby shower for a while now and it finally happened. Here are some photos

Earlier this week

Annika woke up happy. Caleb woke up sick. It was a long day but I took a lot of pictures. The above is a video because Annika woke up so smiley I wanted to get it on film. I also wanted my mom to see this outfit so I changed her diaper and clothes before taking the video and she wasn't as smiley. But that's okay.

Annika changed her outfit many times throughout the day. Caleb stayed in his pajamas all day. They were his Cars pajamas and he loves them. Whenever he wears them it's a fight to change out of them.
Happy baby. Enter brother. Not so sure. Smart baby.

Our kids have such expressive faces.

Caleb reading to Annika.
.Caleb sitting by Annika. Annika not so sure about this. Again, smart baby.

Mommy probably shouldn't have let them sit together...

Warily looking on.

Caleb wanted me to take a picture of his eye

...and his mouthBy the end of the day it had warmed up and Annika was in her third outfit (or maybe it was even more than that--this girl has so many cute clothes!!). This little dress was part of my Mother's Day present from my sister.

Brithday take two (at Grandma's)

This was the Sunday after Caleb's birthday and I forgot we had these videos. The first one just shows how things are at Grandma and I found it entertaining.

Griping

I was just scanning facebook while I was waiting for my pictures to load and I read my cousin Jennifer's byline about being positive because everything is so negative in the world. Jennifer is one of the most fun people to be around and has had a lot of tough times and has laughed through a lot of them. I was feeling incredibly grumpy and sorry for myself, and despite her bright call for positivity am still in a very bad mood--Sorry Jennifer. Give me a few hours and I'll be okay again. In the meantime, I sort of feel like writing in one of the two or three journals I have floating around that I haven't written in in ages, but I know if I did that it would just be a lot of venting and probably just make me more angry and irritated. So instead I'm writing a blog entry and griping to the great void. You do not have to read this at all. In fact I'm writing it for myself and should probably just push delete when I'm done, but I'll post it so people who think other people have blogs to show how perfect their lives are, are incorrect in this moment. So I'll gripe first then count my blessings to end on a positive note. Gripes: I made a dinner I was so looking forward to and it totally didn't turn out. It was a new recipe and I bought cheap chicken (so much for my resolves to change the world huh?) and didn't buy the right kind of bread crumbs, so perhaps I'll try it again. Andy and I had a discussion about food and shopping (let me make it clear ANDY DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING TO MAKE ME THINK THIS--I THOUGHT IT ALL ON MY OWN!) and I just realized I'm not a very good cook and my desires for a healthy family would be greatly improved if I could improve my organizational skills, time management, and cooking skills. I need to plan better and make more time for preparing meals that everyone would like and that are also nutritious. Also, my house is almost always a mess. I hate that. I never thought I would have a messy house. I grew up in a very neat and orderly house. I know how to clean, it just is always messy--and sometimes dirty. I think I just need to accept this and move on with life. Actually today (as part of counting my many blessings) Caleb went to bed at 9:00, which is early around here, Annika is asleep, the dishes are done, and things are fairly picked up. But this is highly unusual. If anyone were to stop by randomly, chances are it would be a mess. An embarrassing mess. Not just, "oh I have a two year old and some toys are in the living room mess," but dirty dishes, stuff on the counter that needs to be dealt with, messy bedrooms, probably the bathrooms need to be cleaned, etc, etc. If I start thinking about it, I can come up with a few dozen things that need improvement in my life. So I need to stop thinking about it. If this were a journal entry it would be way worse and like Alisa, I need to go through and edit my journals before I die, so why add another entry that would just need to be disposed of? Instead I'll get it out of my system on the computer. Andy just came home so I'll wrap this up with some positive things. Andy just went to the store and got food for his lunches. Annika is an amazing sleeper. Caleb falls asleep by himself and sleeps through the night. Andy has a good job. We just bought a house. Our peas our coming up. Yes--I have one ince pea plants!! I was very happy about that!

Nursery

Today Andy took Annika for the last part of church since I was doing sharing time and he was done teaching his class. He took her in a room that is part of the nursery but the divider was shut. There was a nice rocking chair in there and they both fell asleep. But before he fell asleep Andy heard, "Caleb, you can't hit," "Caleb you need to stop hitting," interspersed with, "Will come down you're going to fall."

For the Grandmothers

Annika

No, I don't have a picture. I promise I'll take one in a bit. I just have to say how much I love this little girl. What a blessing she is in our lives. She brings us so much happiness. She has also blessed us with what a great sleeper she is and how sweet and content she is. I'm so grateful for her.

Baby Steps

One of the favorite movies at our house is What About Bob? We watched it again the other day and it's good every time. "Baby Steps" came to mind as I was thinking of the post I'm going to write. See there are so many problems with the world and so many ways I need to live my life better that I get totally overwhelmed by it all. I get "all-or nothing" about it and then it's too much. I've got to learn to go in baby steps--so hard for a nature like mine who wants to be completely part of something...

Anyway, I've slowly started some improvements that help my life coincide with my beliefs and now I will proceed to evangelize them on this blog.

First: Cleaning products

I recently read, in one of the many books I'm reading, that "the average sample of breast milk produced by a woman in the US contains over 100 contaminants. Some 25 percent of the breast milk supply is now so laden with toxic foreign substances that if bottled and sold as a food product it would violate federal food safety regulations." So what I thought was the best and safest thing I could possibly feed my kid is really just another thing to worry about! So what to do? First of all I have to constantly remind myself that I just do a little and do the best I can, Baby Steps, you know. Here are some things I've found helpful:
-Get rid of all Windex. White vinegar works just as well and is way safer. There's no real reason to use Windex. When I was a custodian at BYU they told us of the ills of the stuff and we were supposed to follow the directions (had I EVER read the directions on that? No) and spray into the rag so as not to breathe it in and always use gloves. I'd grown up doing neither and sad to say didn't heed the advise of my managers as custodian either. Old habits die hard. But now I do not own Windex and just have a squirt bottle with Vinegar. Vinegar also does pretty well with hard water stains and worked just as well if not better on my windows that had lots of hard water from sprinkers.
-Borax is good for cleaning bathroom sinks.
-Hydrogen Peroxide is a disinfectant. I've started cleaning my toilet bowl with it. Then after rincing it, doing a one over with Borax. I don't know if the fact that it kills germs in your mouth means it kills fecal germs, but who really knows if the stuff they sell us really does either.

So brief interlude. The more I've been reading lately, the more I feel betrayed. I've felt that all things I buy are safe for me and that laws and regulations are out to protect us, etc., etc. And while laws and regulations are out there to protect us, I as a consumer need to be so much more informed and careful about things. I'm such a trusting person. Time to start reading fine print and inform myself.

-I mop my floor with vinegar.

Well, I hope to do a lot more changes as far as cleaning. I'm reading and trying to find safe but effective ways to clean. Luckily my parents have done a really good job getting me started and we didn't use pesticides, herbicides, oven cleaner, or other dangerous chemicals. But we did use comet, toilet bowl cleaner, windex, and pinesol. I'm trying to find easy ways to get rid of these now too.


Food:

I recently read The Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan. I loved it. I've known a lot about the ills of our food industry and just try to block out what I know when I buy things. I've known how awful animals are treated as they are grown to feed us and it makes me ill to think about. But I still buy and eat meat. I've known that the hormone levels in milk from the hormones they inject in cows to make a few more bucks on faster growing beef is slowly making puberty start earlier in girls and could be linked to fertility problems nationwide. Yet, because organic milk is over twice as much I don't buy it. I've known about all this long before reading The Omnivores Dilemma, but the book is pretty convincing. I have decided to try to change for the better for my own health and my family's. Baby Steps. I bought my first half gallon of organic, hormone and antibiotic free milk. I've been buying organic yogurt for Caleb for months now. And we just planted a little garden.

As you can see this is a different set of beliefs than you might have originally thought, but I believe in doing what's best for our health, individually, as a community, as a country, and for the world. There are so many problems and when I read about any of them, poverty, hunger, disease, misuse of power, abuse, etc., all over I just feel like there isn't anything I can do. You may not think that changing the way I clean or eat has anything to do with those, but to me it all ties into doing what's best for our world, starting with us. So see it is trying to live in line with my beliefs.

I'll keep you posted. As long as Andy doesn't think this bit of spouting off out to all of our beloved readers isn't too annoying. :)

Italian Bread

This morning I couldn't find anything that looked good for breakfast so I got out a cookbook and found a recipe for this Italian cheese bread that looked really good. I was making it and Caleb pulled the little step ladder we keep in the kitchen up to help. As I was making the filling on the other side of the counter he somehow fell over and brought the bowl full of bread dough on top of him. It was a HUMONGOUS mess! He was covered in dough and by poor design the bowl hit a spot of carpet in the dining room. (Whoever designs houses or apts with carpet near the kitchen or dining room should just expect that carpet to get ruined!) Caleb was crying and got up and ran towards the living room dropping globs of dough as he went. I got his clothes off and dumped him in the tub. Ate some left over brown rice for a very late breakfast, and then Annika woke up. We put her in the bath too. Thankfully both kids were very cooperative. Annika watched Caleb play in his room for a while and then got fussy. But then she fell asleep and slept in her swing long enough for me to clean up all the dough off the carpet. It took quite a while, but I think it's clean. After telling him about five times, Caleb understood that he couldn't come in where the mess was and he played while I cleaned it up. That sort of thing doesn't happen very often so I was very grateful (messes happen, kids being cooperative so I can clean them up is what is harder to come by). I wish I would've gotten a picture of Caleb covered head to foot in bread dough and the piles of it on the floor. Unfortuately the batteries weren't charged. Now the Italian cheese bread is cooking in the oven and my stomach is growling again.