Today Alan interviewed for a position at the local Goodwill and look who his interviewer was!
We had the opportunity to visit the Morton Arboretum before leaving Chicago which made us all so happy. It is definitely one of our favorite places and we never seem to have enough time to do everything we want. It's like Disneyland for plant lovers (and their children). :)
The kids knew exactly where they wanted to go...The Children's garden.
Here's our little Maple - Lily leaf,
And our little Oak - Landon leaf
The sign here says something like, "Are the arches getting smaller or are you getting taller?" Emma always says she's getting taller. :)
The day we visited, they were having a gnome hunt in the Children's garden. We had fun hunting for all the little gnomes tucked amid the plantings and then learning new things that the gnomes had to share about nature. Here's Lily spending a little time bonding with one of the gnomes.
Just playing on some acorns
Lily thought Malia would enjoy a chance to play in the acorn too!
Emma found a gnome!
Landon in the music area of the garden, honking a flower
Lily loved making music on this pretty pansy
This is a photo of the most amazing tree house I've ever seen. It is nestled amid giant evergreen trees, with netted bridges that lead to the top where the view is spectacular. I think this was Lan's favorite activity of the day. He would've climbed those bridges all day if we'd let him.
Another fun thing about the arboretum is that the kids learn so much. There are these cubes scattered all over the place with facts about the various plantings inside. It's fun to watch the kids search out the cubes and then share what they've learned with each other.
Here they are playing spiders and bug.
Lily is the unsuspecting bug...
And Emma and Lan were the sneaky, ferocious spiders. Yikes!
Thankfully, Lily narrowly escaped, thanks to her amazing bug climbing skills.
Well, the fun couldn't last forever and we had to once again go home. Lily was so sad, but we promised her we'd come again soon! Thanks, Peg. :) 
Last weekend we had the great opportunity to attend Aunt Kelly and Todd's wedding near Chicago. As we drove north, we saw this. A section of the interstate is lined on either side by a giant wind farm. I'm certain these weren't here when we lived here before, but it was pretty fun for the kids to see. Emma called it a "forest of spinning-leaf trees."
Here's the newly married couple. They are so great together! (Sorry the photo is a little blurry. I was trying out a nice camera we borrowed from a friend).
Here are the beautiful bride and her beautiful daughter.
This is me and my great uncle Ladd from Portland. And let me tell you, he is definitely GREAT! We always love spending time with him and wish we could do it more often.
My cousins, Karli and Anj before the big event, growing up too fast as usual!
This is my uncle's daughter Stephanie (my cousin) with Emma and Lily. Emma and Stephanie had the greatest time playing together, but I can't figure out exactly what they are to each other. Second cousins maybe?
Here we are ready to have some fun after the ceremony.
This is my uncle Rick with his beautiful wife Alexandra from California. I think it had been almost 10 years since we'd seen them. Let's not wait that long this time around.
Here I am with my uncle Mike and his wife Colleen. Once again, we need to see them more often since they only live in Michigan. It was great catching up and spending time together.
These are my grandparents who came all the way from Oregon for this momentous occasion.
Landon and Uncle Ladd spent a lot of time together male bonding...ie. bumping fists, etc.
And once again, here are the beautiful newlyweds. We're so excited to have Todd in our family and can't wait to have some fun double dates with them in the future.
and then with the help of this amazing little wheat grinder (the Blendtec Kitchen Mill)... 
I turned my wheat into this beautiful whole wheat flour!
Then I added some pretty basic bread making ingredients (yeast, gluten flour, salt, oil, dough enhancer and sugar) and voila! I had successfully baked my first two loaves of homemade whole wheat bread from scratch. And I even kneaded the dough by hand!
The delicious freezer jam I made earlier this year. I know, just call me Molly. :)
Doesn't it look delicious? This bread is a big deal for me because, although I've had this wheat in my food storage for a while now, I've never really known exactly how to use it. Now I do and it feels so comforting. Plus, it wasn't even that hard (thanks to the wheat grinder, a little YouTube and some bread making tips from my talented sister).
If you don't have a wheat grinder yet, the one I have is amazing and I would highly recommend it. And, if you have wheat stored like I did, and haven't ever used it for anything, you should definitely try this recipe! For 2 loaves of whole wheat bread you'll need:
1/3 C oil
1/3 C. honey or 1/2 C. sugar
2 1/4 t. salt
2 3/4 C. steaming hot water
1/4 C. gluten flour
1 1/2 T. dough enhancer
1 1/4 T. instant yeast
7-8 C. whole wheat flour
(recipe from Emergency Food In A Nutshell by Leslie D. Probert and Lisa L. Harkness)
(Landon took this picture of Lily)Well, here is another example of why we love our little Lily Lou:
Lily: "Mom, what are we having for lunch?"
Me: "We're having Spaghettios."
Lily: "With meatballs?"
Me: "That's right."
Lily: she sticks out her little belly, puts both of her hands in the air and yells, "I'm SO lucky!!!!"
Later that same day we're driving in the car listening to the radio and a song Lily likes comes on. She shouts "It's just my lucky day!!!" and then proceeds to dance and sing along in her seat.
We just love having Malia in our family and I just can't believe that it's already been 2 and a half months since she arrived.
We had her blessed a few weeks ago at church in the same little white dress Emma and Lily wore for their blessings. It was a beautiful blessing and a very special day.
Doesn't she look a little defiant in this picture? Well, that leads me to my next point. We took our little Malia in for her 2 month appointment the other day and were very surprised by her stats. At this age, Emma, Landon and Lily were all average length, average weight (well, Lily has always been tiny) but all three of them have always had BIG heads (like 85th-95th percentile). Well, apparently Malia is not going to be a follower. She weighs 12 pounds which puts her in the 80th percentile for her weight, chubbier than any of our other babies. Also, she's 23 inches long (50th percentile) and her head is measuring in at a mere 38 3/4 cm which puts her in the 50th percentile for head size. She's her own girl. :) I absolutely love the little rolls on her legs and her little chubby cheeks. So cute!!! She's also our first baby who prefers to sleep on her back.
Malia is still a happy girl. She's a great smiler and is beginning to "talk" to us too.
She's getting much stronger lately and has been attempting to hold her head up. She also enjoys grasping onto Lily's little fingers, which makes Lily happy too.
Malia's still a good sleeper and she loves her bath time. She enjoys spending time in her swing and is often found smiling at it.
Basically, she's a very content and happy little girl. We're having so much fun watching her personality come out and are excited to see how she develops. 
