The Lowe Down

Quarterly Report

2011-02-27T12:07:00.000-08:00

I should be taking a much deserved Sunday afternoon nap right now. (My headache tells me so anyway) But it's a little hard to sleep when a certain 3 year old little boy is in his room humming the theme song to Hook VERY loudly. So, instead of napping, I'll do something productive and make my mom happy by updating the blog.
For this update, I'll be heading all the way back to Christmas. We spent Christmas in California this year with the Lowe's and we had an amazing time. I always come home feeling spoiled rotten. Jonah woke up everyday asking where his cousins were and wanting to know when he would get to play with them. Some of our exploits included:

Christmas in the Park downtown San Jose

A fun family outing to the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park and then down to Pier 39 for clam chowder and some sightseeing.

Of course, Christmas day. Jonah asked Santa for Slinky Dog and a Lightning McQueen watch this year. Santa delivered, barely.

Carrie was just happy to be there.
Mike and I also celebrated our five year anniversary by going out to Thai food and a fun old movie at the Stanford theatre with the best free babysitting around--Grandma and Grandpa.
We went to Utah on the 29th of December to spend time with the Black side of the family. We were so excited to meet Dirk's new baby, Caleb, and were able to be there for his baby blessing. What a sweetie pie.
We played in the snow a lot. Let me rephrase that: JONAH AND MIKE played in the snow a lot.

Here's Jonah riding in style. After a morning full of playing in the snow and Mike pulling Jonah around, Jonah said, "Daddy, thanks for doing all of that." Those two have a lot of fun together.

We played with cousin Jane

and Jonah went rock climbing at the Quarry. He climbed all the way to the top TWICE.

Again, Carrie hung out with Grandma and mommy.
Christmas was AWESOME. It is always so wonderful to be with our families.

When we came home, Carrie had her six month appointment. She weighed in at 18 pounds 11 ounces (90th percentile) and 26 1/2 inches long (75th percentile). We like 'em chubby. She babbles and is getting so close to crawling.

Jonah went rock climbing again at the Texas A&M student rec center with one of his little buddies. Jonah had a little crowd of people watching him.

He went pretty high.

Just watching Jonah climb that high made Carrie pretty tired.

In other Texas happenings, it snowed!!

Carrie is quite the little narcissist. She loves talking to herself and kissing the baby in the mirror.

I love my two cute kids, and they (I think) genuinely like each other.
Carrie had a photo shoot with my friend Meli. Here are some of the pictures:

Our Happy Halloween

2010-11-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

Although I have really been missing the beautiful crisp Fall weather I'm accustomed to, we've had a wonderful fall here in Texas.
We've enjoyed some BYU football...maybe "enjoyed" is too strong a word here for what a crummy season they've had.

Carrie is already a Cougar fan, watching a football game with Dad.
Mike competed in a local kolache eating contest in Caldwell. (For those of you who don't know what a kolache is, don't feel bad. It is a Czechoslovakian food. It can be sweet with fruit filling or savory with a sausage filling) Just before the competition started we ran into some friends of mine, Monica and Jason. Mike invited Jason to join him in the competition. The winner of the Kolache competition would be the contestant who ate all 8 of their Kolaches in the shortest amount of time.

Mike getting ready.

Mike shoving Kolaches down his throat as fast as he possibly could.
Sadly, this tale does not have a happy ending for dear Michael. He ended up just barely losing to Jason. Jason won $50, a baseball hat enscribed with "Kolache Eating Champion 2010" and a picture with the Kolache Queen. Needless to say, Mike was a little upset he lost. They both ended up making it onto the front page of the local newspaper.
Jonah has been playing soccer one evening a week for the past 6 weeks. For the three year old age group, they had the parents very involved in the weekly practices. So, I essentially also went to soccer practice. I thought Jonah would enjoy it more than he did, but I think it was a good experience for him, and Mike and me.

For the last two weeks of soccer, they had the kids play in a game-like setting (emphasis on like). We've all seen the kid who does cartwheels in the outfield right? I know this is soccer, not baseball, but Jonah was totally that kid. Instead of cartwheels, Jonah did a few somersaults for us in the middle of the field, in the middle of the game. He cried several times and played in the net after every goal his team scored. Maybe we should have waited a year...
Jonah has preschool once a week with some kids (all girls) his age from church. The moms take turns teaching and it has really been a lot of fun for him. In early October we went on a fieldtrip to Dewberry Farm down near Houston.

He got to go on a hayride to a pumpkin patch and pick out a pumpkin, ride on big wheelers around a race track, jump on giant pillow bouncers, and more. It was a fun day and an eye opener for me on how much work an outing with two kids can be without dad around. Thank goodness for friends who helped me out.

We celebrated Mike's 30th birthday with cake and presents. At random, Mike decided to go on a 10 mile run the night of his birthday. He hasn't been running longer than 3 mile distances, and these runs only happen twice a week. Mike set out to prove that at 30 years, he's still got it. At 11:30 p.m. he arrived back home having run the entire 10 miles and feeling pretty good almost the whole way. He said it was a great chance for him to think about the thirty years he's lived and the thirty years to come. (Does anybody else hear Tim McGraw singing "My Next Thirty Years" in their heads at this point?)
We went to a local open air grocery mart called the Farm Patch to pick out our pumpkins this year. They had a pumpkin patch set up where Jonah enjoyed tripping over the pumpkins and scoping out which ones we would be taking home with us to paint and carve.

Carrie snuggling me while we search for the perfect pumpkin.

Mike tried to hide Carrie amidst all the pumpkins.
We had a whole week of Halloween Fun:

Jonah was Peter Pan this year, and Carrie was...

...a monkey. It was hard to get a good picture of her in her costume. It's so hot here that the monkey costume only stayed on her little body a total of 5 minutes.

But she's a cute monkey, right?

Here are some random pictures of my kids for the grandparents, aunties, and unclies.

Carrie with her game face on. She gets so serious trying to pull those toys off her little baby gym. Her arms are moving so fast, they're a blur!

Jonah next to some of his chalk drawings. When I took him to his 3 year old check-up the doctor asked me if he was drawing primitive people. "Well, no," I replied. Without prompting, Jonah has been drawing these "primitive people" all over our driveway, setting my mind at ease that my child is on track developmentally :) My favorite primitive being is the donut man right next to Jonah's right elbow in this picture. That is hardly primitive in my opinion.

Carrie's sweet smiles.

Jonah checking himself out in our bathroom mirror on his first-ever-tie-wearing Sunday. Is this a bad thing that he's three and has never worn a tie to church until now? I think that's the first and last time he's worn that tie. I don't blame him; from what I hear, they're not as cool as they look.
In summary, we are happy and busy.
Well, this post oughta hold down my metaphorical blogging fort 'til Spring :) Until next time!

Our Summer Vacation...Finally

2010-08-31T11:33:00.000-07:00

We flew to Utah for a long awaited and much needed summer vacation. Mike finished up a very busy summer semester, which included a tough class, a first year paper, and a new baby. We decided to bless Carrie in Utah so we could have our family and friends be there. It was wonderful! Thank you to everyone who came. Here's a little run-down of our vacation:

Jonah and Carrie getting summer vacation ready

Mike and Jonah standing in line for a ride at Lagoon

Jonah loving Lagoon

Jonah at Heritage Park in Salt Lake City

Riding a train around Heritage Park. Jonah apparently thought the tour guide was speaking too loudly over the microphone, because he covered his ears the entire time.

Jonah enjoying the school house at Heritage Park

Mining for gold at Heritage Park

Carrie slept, and slept some more during most of our outings.

Mike thought it would be lots of fun to submerge his entire body in the ice cold snow run-off at the base of Bridal Veil Falls. Jonah was all too ready to join in the fun, especially if it included running around in his underoos.

Fishing with Grandpa is always fun even if the only thing you catch is...

...green muck from the river.

We blessed Carrie and over 50 of our family and friends came to support us. What an incredible thing that this little baby already has so many people who love and care about her.

My mom (aka "Grandma Jo") is starting a tradition where she takes each of the grandkids to Build a Bear when they are three. Jonah came back from his special outing with Grandma with FRANKIE the FIREMAN. He thought of the name and everything.

We went up to BYU to stock up on some BYU gear for the upcoming Football season. Jonah had talked about wanting to feed some ducks, so we brought along some old hot dog buns and Jonah went to town throwing bread to (or was it really "at") the ducks.
We're home now and adjusted back to real life. Here are some recent pictures of my cute kids:

Jonah Turns 3

2010-07-28T13:48:00.001-07:00

Wow! I am just really outdoing myself with these blog posts lately :) Jonah turned 3 years old on Sunday. I can hardly believe I have a three year old; time really does fly. We had a birthday party at home complete with a homemade "Happy Birthday Jonah!" sign, red streamers, hot dogs for dinner, and a Lightning McQueen cake.
Jonah was very excited about his cake; don't tell him Lightning McQueen is pink (Mike used ALL of the red food coloring and we couldn't get the icing to turn red...hence Lightning's debut wearing pink. Lightning never looked so good in my opinion).

Blowing/spitting out his candles:

Opening presents. Grandma Nita and Grandpa Lowe got him a "Big Buzz", and he was VERY excited about it.

Jonah had his 3 year old appointment at the doctor today. He is in the 90th percentile for height and weight and apparently he is "perfectly proportioned" (i.e. not too fat and not too skinny).
I'm sure glad Jonah Lowe was sent to me three something years ago :)

We've Got KIDS!

2010-07-23T13:21:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Mike and I have KIDS (emphasis on "KIDS" plural). We've had a few moments, mostly late at night when Carrie has gotten up for the umpteenth time we laid her down, where Mike and I wonder if Carrie will be our last. The majority of the time, we have LOVED having two kiddos and wouldn't want life any other way right now. One baby at a time, right?
Jonah, Carrie, and I just survived our first 5 days without a Grandma around. With the exception of our first day in which Jonah decided to lock himself in the bathroom and wouldn't unlock the door, I must say it wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. (knock on something wood for me) Although an extra hand or two is most definitely appreciated.
Here are a few more recent pictures of my cute kids:

Welcome Carrie Lynn Lowe

2010-07-04T07:33:00.001-07:00

Born 10:30 a.m. July 3rd, 2010
7 lbs. 3 ounces
19 1/2 inches long

What We've Been Up To

2010-05-24T13:17:00.000-07:00

Mike finished up his first year of his Ph.D. program here in Texas. With a straight A semester might I add? I am one proud wife :) We are busy and happy here in Bryan, Texas. We feel so blessed to have each other, our babies, our little house, our "swagger wagon", and good friends. Here are some pictures from the past months.
Jonah is a potty training champ. Here he is in his Mater Tow Truck underoos. He also likes dressing up his teddy bears.

We loved (yes, it is in the past tense already) the spring here and spent lots of good time outside.

Jonah wasn't so sure about riding horses this time around.

We celebrated Easter with our little Nemo-bunny. I have the Easter and Halloween stuff in the same storage box and Jonah insisted on trying on his costume again.

He found lots of eggs...and candy. Some of it melted, but it all tasted just fine to him.

We planted two square foot gardens and we've enjoyed zucchini, tomatoes, onions, and radishes so far. Jonah loves helping me pick tomatoes and water/drown the plants.
We've got a little over 5 weeks until we meet our baby girl. And, no we don't have a name picked out. Jonah told me the other day that he was going to snuggle his baby sister and sing "I am a Child of God" to her. Does life get any better?

We're Having a Baby

2010-02-08T12:02:00.000-08:00

We are expecting baby numero dos on July 1st. In December, my Uncle Kent did an ultrasound for us. I was only 14 weeks and so we weren't expecting anything too conclusive. But, Kent's guess was that I was having a boy.
Today, we had my 20 week ultrasound.
Here are some pictures of our sweet little alien baby.

And, at 20 weeks, our "baby boy" is a BABY GIRL!! Talk about a paradigm shift. We are super surprised and excited.

Oh, and don't hold your breath for prego pictures. NOT going to happen :)
Here are some recent pictures of our Jonah boy. Some of them from Christmas (I know. How lame am I?)

Jonah loves wearing his snow boots and sunglasses everywhere. He is such a sweet boy and is excited to be "a big bruder". We'll see...

Happy Halloween! Happy Thanksgiving! Heck, Happy Holidays!

2009-11-23T11:11:00.000-08:00

Hello one and all. I'm here to finally post an update of Halloween and other Lowe family happenings in Texas. I'll roll it all out chronologically for your reading pleasure. In September, the library had a special fire truck day. Jonah was able to climb in and out of the fire truck and ambulance.

He was a little hesitant at first, but warmed up right away. I think he walked through the ambulance 5 times by the time it was time to go. He loved it.

Here he is trying to figure out the buckles on the stretcher. And he did, smart boy.

We celebrated Mike's birthday with tempura veggies, miso soup, cake, ice cream, and a treasure hunt for presents. Jonah enjoyed decorating himself with all of the bows.

We went camping that weekend with our friends the Martineau's. Their little girl Julia is one of Jonah's little buddies. They really enjoy being around each other. I think they each like how much the other one likes them. Julia: "It's Jonah! It's Jonah!" Jonah: "It's Julia!" "It's Julia!"

We attempted fishing, roasted hot dogs, stuffed ourselves with s'mores, searched for the advertised "alligators" in the lake, (kind of scary, especially since they had some camping spots right by the lake. Crazy!) and generally had a good time...except for the sleeping part.
Jonah and some of our friends from church went to a local pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins.

We found some we liked, and carved them up...Jonah had a sad face pumpkin,

Mommy had a happy pumpkin, and Daddy had a silly face pumpkin (all Jonah's idea)

Halloween was fun. We had a ward party and trunk-or-treat the same week. Jonah got some good practice in opening his bag, saying "trick-or-treat" and "thank you". Here he is in all of his Nemo Glory. He's the cutest clown fish I've ever seen.

Here he is on Halloween ready to go get more candy.

And, here he is looking very pleased with his loot.

We had some special visitors in early November. Mike's parents came out for a visit. We visited Brenham, Texas home of Blue Belle ice cream, a nunnery that raises miniature horses (whaaat?), and some fun antique stores. We really enjoyed having them here. They always spoil us, which I can't complain too much about.
We are going to Utah and California for the holidays and would love to see all of our family and friends while we're in our respective hometowns. Happy Holidays!!

2009-09-15T12:55:00.001-07:00

I had a few people ask me for the recipe for the zucchini cake we made for Jonah's birthday. So, here it is:

Chocolate Zucchini Cake
2 C. all-purpose flour
2 C. white sugar
3/4 C. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
4 eggs
1 1/2 C. vegetable oil (I did half applesauce to cut down on the fat)
3 C. grated zucchini
3/4 c. chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9X13 inch baking pan.
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add the eggs and oil, mix well. Fold in the nuts and zucchini until they are evenly distributed. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for 50-60 minutes in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool cake completely before frosting with sour cream chocolate frosting or your favorite frosting.

Sour Cream Chocolate Frosting
1 C. semisweet chocolate chips
4 T. butter
1/2 C. sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt
2 3/4 C. confectioners' sugar

Melt chocolate and the butter together. Let cool and blend in the sour cream, vanilla, and salt. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar until the frosting is of spreading consistency, beat well.

Thank You All Recipes! :)

Howdy!

2009-09-08T11:23:00.000-07:00

Blog guilt is horrible. I'm finally getting around to posting a few pictures and an update on the Lowe family in Texas. Here's a short list of some of my thoughts/experiences here so far:
1. People weren't joking when they said it's H-O-T here. The OCD in me wants to take three showers a day.

2. Splash Parks and running through the sprinklers are a great thing.

3. Having our very own fenced in backyard is great. Mowing our very own backyard (and frontyard) is not so great. Looking at it after it's mowed and feeling proud of your sweaty labors, is the greatest.
4. I was worried my drive around town would be boring without all of the liberal bumper stickers I found in Bloomington to read. I've found that extreme conservatives are also very entertaining. Among my favorite bumper stickers thus far are: "I AM the NRA." and "Comrade Obama". Not conservative, but definitely Texan: "Howdy! Damn It" (Note: I was told by a very credible source that "Hell" and "Damn" are not swear words in Cache Valley, Utah, so forgive me for taking liberties all the way out here in Texas.)

5. People are very friendly. Our neighbor Greg brought us a Thanksgiving size aluminum foil pan full of smoked/barbecued hot links and chicken one of the first weekends we were here. They were incredible.
6. We have a garage! With these oh-so-fancy garage door openers. My life feels more complete every time I hit that little button when I drive away from the house.
7. Paint colors and more paint colors!
8. Having visitors makes me feel like we're living closer to home. Kelli and her "significant other" Steve, came to visit for a day.

It was so cute to see Jonah snuggle right up to Kelli after his nap.

We went out to eat at a great Mexican place that serves gigantic stuffed and deep-fried avocados. You know that now, you too, want to come and visit right?

Here are some pictures of our house. We still haven't painted, but I've got paint colors picked out and we'll hopefully tackle that project this weekend, so I'll be sure to post before and after pictures of our living room and master bedroom/bathroom.

Front of the house

Backyard

Backyard with a cringing (smiling...?) Jonah

Sideyard

Living room

Kitchen

Jonah's room

Third Bedroom (Pardon the boxes; those need to be taken to the attic.)

My recently completed project...a craft cabinet.

We really are liking it here in Texas. I think there's always a period of mourning (sorry if that sounds too dramatic) when you move. I feel like we're still in transition stage, but we're feeling more at home by the week. Mike is feeling like he can tackle his course work this semester and Jonah and I are finding some great friends in the ward. We miss Mike during the day, but he is so good about spending time with us from dinner to bedtime. I think that about wraps up life here in Texas for now. Until next time...

"HAPPY DOO!" Jonah Turns 2!!

2009-07-26T18:03:00.001-07:00

Jonah celebrated his second birthday yesterday. It was a day of laughter, tears, rain, sunshine, tantrums, and hugs and kisses. What more could you want for your second birthday?
We started the day by making banana-chocolate-chip-pancakes.

Jonah did a great job of sampling the chocolate chips and smooshing the bananas.

After breakfast, Jonah opened presents from Grandma Jo and Grandpa Black, who tuned-in via Skype. Jonah wasn't as excited about his cute new outfit from GAP as I was.

He did get pretty excited about the dress-up doll book my mom made him (It's very manly I assure you; firemen, baseball players, tennis players, army guy outfit...). And, he got even more excited when he opened the biggest toy fire truck I have ever seen. There's even a "fire guy" to stick on the ladder.

Jonah got a cute card and big birthday money from Grandpa David and Grandma 'Nita. That means more choo choos and maybe a pool for our new backyard.
Mom and Dad's big gift was a tricycle. A tricycle with streamers and a bell. I had one just like this when I was little.

Jonah hasn't quite figured out the pedals yet. He kind of just scoots around and gets frustrated with himself. It will be a bike he will grow into love with... we hope.

Mike and I wanted to make Jonah a cake covered in M&M's, Jonah's favorite candy. I made a chocolate zucchini cake with a sour cream chocolate frosting. So yummy! If anyone wants the recipe, let me know. Then, we spent nap time covering it with M&M's and eating a few as we worked. One for me...one for the cake. We bought a 3 pound bag of M&M's from Sam's Club for decorating. We still have over half of it left. Any takers?

Mike and I were pretty proud of how it turned out.
We invited friends to Bryan Park to eat cake and ice cream.

I didn't get to take any pictures of Jonah eating his cake at the party, so I took some today when he ate some of the leftovers.

We sure love Jonah, and we feel so blessed everyday to have him in our family.

Urban Foragers Unite!

2009-07-13T17:50:00.000-07:00

Back in May when we were visiting the Lowes in California, Jeanette told us about an emerging food trend called "urban foraging." Urban foraging is basically living off the land, finding food that is growing wild and taking advantage of the natural bounty Mother Nature provides. Sounds kind of weird if you imagine hippies running around digging for roots and funky looking mushrooms like I did. Watch out locally grown/organic foodies everywhere; urban foraging is fun and the benefits, taking the form of wild blackberries in our case, are both economical and tasty.
After talking to some friends at a Sunday picnic who know all the right places to find wild blackberries, we tried our hand at urban foraging. We found tons of wild blackberry plants growing alongside a public park. While picking, our friends told us about the anecdotal effects of jewel weed on a poison ivy rash and how one can actually boil cattails and eat them...only if you have to though, I guess they don't taste that great if you can believe that. (I can.)

Today, we found even more wild blackberry bushes lining the forested area near our apartments. I showed Jonah how to only pick the black ones. He learned that blackberry bushes are poky, but eating the berries is well worth it. Every time I turned around he was stealing handfuls of blackberries from the bowl and shoving them in his mouth and saying "mmmm". Pretty funny.

The Daddy Bowl, Mommy Bowl, and (empty) Baby Bowl. :)
We are definitely going to be making some blackberry cobbler and blackberry ice cream at our house this week. Happy summer and thanks to Nate and Jenn, our urban foraging heroes! :)

It's About Time

2009-07-10T10:32:00.001-07:00

I'm not even giving excuses for not updating our blog. Suffice it to say we've been pretty busy traveling across the country, trying to plan a move, and buy a house. I lied; I guess I will give a few excuses :)

Without further ado, I'd like to catch ya'll up on a few things. I get to say "ya'll" again, even though I'm not officially a Texan yet.
First off Mike graduated with his MBA in early May.

But, before he did, my parents came out a week prior to graduation to celebrate with us.
Here are some of our adventures with Grandpa and Grandma Black:
Fishing at Lake Monroe. We didn't catch anything, but we all had a good time being outside in beautiful Indiana.

Riding a train in French Lick. Jonah loves trains, and he loved this hour and a half train ride through French Lick, Indiana. French Lick is home to tomato juice and Larry Bird. Who knew?

We loved having my parents here.

A week later, Mike's parents came and he graduated!!

Here he is an all of his graduation regalia

and with the family. Mike's parents came out for graduation, and then treated us to an awesome trip to Nauvoo.

We were all able to go to the temple, go to Carthage jail, and visit downtown old Nauvoo.

We had a wonderful time with Mike's parents and are so glad they came out for his graduation.

We celebrated Mothers' Day in Nauvoo, and Mike surprised me with tickets to see Mary Poppins in Chicago. Anita stayed a couple extra days so we could make the trip up to Chicago without dragging Jonah along for another 8 hour drive in the car. It was a fabulous show with some of the original cast members from broadway.

A few days later, we all hopped on a plane and headed to California to see the rest of the Lowes. We were able to stay two whole weeks and could've stayed all summer. The weather was gorgeous and we spent a lot of time outside.

We went to a Stanford baseball game with all of the older grandkids,

to the beach,

to L.A. to visit Mike's grandparents,

to a Giants baseball game with Joe and Meg Field (we had rockin' seats by the way. What can we say other than: we KNOW people)

and celebrated Charlie Drummond's fourth birthday with a Cowboy-themed birthday party. Here's Jonah in his Cowboy attire. He learned to say "Hee Haw" ... we'll have to work on that one a little more.

After visiting the Lowes, we headed to Utah for another two weeks of family and fun. While we were there we went to the Orem Fest Carnival. Jonah rode lots of rides. He was pretty serious about the whole thing.

The only way we could tell he was having any fun, is that he cried when we had to take him off when the ride was over.
Here's Jonah checking out a helicopter with Dad.

Jonah loves helicopters, planes, any type of truck, buses, trains...basically anything that goes.
We also went to an aquarium. Jonah loved watching the fish. Here is with Uncle Nathan, or "Nah-Nah". Jonah LOVES "Nah-Nah"

We also had family pictures taken by Amanda Peterson while were in Utah. They turned out great. Here's a few:

We're now back in Indiana with tons of free time on our hands. We're enjoying spending time together, especially because we know that we won't see a lot of each other once Mike starts school in August.
We took a trip to the Indianapolis zoo on Wednesday.
Jonah rode on a train,

saw lots of animals,

and even got to ride a horse.

He is the greatest little boy.

He makes me laugh everyday. I can hardly believe he is going to be turning two on the 25th of this month.

We've bought a house in Texas, and will be closing on August 6th. It's a great little house and we feel so blessed that it fits our needs and is in our price range. I'd love to post pictures, but I'm lame and didn't take any when we went to Texas to look at it. You can go to this website though and check out a slide show:
http://www.margiestibora.com/DispListing.asp?ListingID=145336&AdminID=1885&PropertyType=A&BuyerID=

Until next time!

Hullabaloo, Caneck! Caneck!

2009-05-06T10:27:00.000-07:00

You may be wondering about the title of our latest post. If you are one of those people that retains meaningless bits of sports trivia (pretty much every male I have ever known), or you happen to live in Texas, you would know that "Hullabaloo, Caneck! Caneck!" happens to be the opening line of Texas A&M's War Hymn.

So what we're really trying to say is: "WE'RE MOVING TO TEXAS!" College Station, Texas that is, and Mike will be starting his Ph.D. at Texas A&M this Fall. I never thought I'd live in Texas. I never thought I'd live in Indiana either. Funny what life brings.

We visited College Station at the end of April hoping to find a house. We found ugly, overpriced houses in good areas of town and really cute, new houses in the bad areas. Luckily, there are new homes coming on the market every few days or so. We made an offer on this house:

Somebody else made an offer earlier on the same day, and we didn't get the house.

This house came on the market this past Monday:

We made an offer that day, without seeing it in person mind you. Two other people made an offer on Monday. We just found out we didn't get the house. The person who did, paid 100K in cash for it. Apparently, the economy's housing woes are not so woeful in Texas. Texas really is like it's own country.

Despite these setbacks, I'm not worried about finding a house. I know that everything will work out. We'll keep you updated on our long distance house hunting.

Happy Easter

2009-04-13T04:56:00.000-07:00

Jonah was one lucky little boy when it came to Easter this year. He got to go to FOUR Easter egg hunts. That means more candy. Unsurprisingly, "Candy" has become his new favorite word. Sometimes he'll just start talking about candy while we're driving in the car. It's funny to know what's on his mind.
On Thursday morning we had an Easter egg hunt at our church playgroup.
Here's Jonah and I getting ready to go outside. He sure knows how to cheese it for the camera.

On Thursday afternoon, we went to another Easter egg hunt hosted by the MBA program.
Here's Jonah with all of the other kids before the egg searching mayhem began.

And, here he is in action with Mike.

Whenever he found an egg, he immediately tried to open it to get the candy out. We had a hard time getting him to look for more eggs to put in his basket.
On Saturday, the city held an Easter egg hunt by the courthouse downtown. It was nice because they had different sections for each age group.

Jonah got to meet the Easter bunny. I was a little creeped out, but Jonah wasn't even scared.
Jonah's final Easter egg hunt, was on Easter day. The Easter bunny made Jonah work a little harder to find the eggs, but Jonah did great. He knew there were "nem-a-nems" (aka M&Ms) inside the eggs, so he had some motivation.

The easter bunny came after Jonah's nap, and Mom was mean enough to make him wear his bunny ears AGAIN. Thus, the dazed and confused, I've had too much candy look.

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter as well!

Spring Break

2009-04-07T10:34:00.000-07:00

I always look forward to Spring Break. I love spending every waking moment with Mike. That must mean I really like him, huh? The Lowe family Spring Break could never be complete without a little family time. Dirk and Marissa planned the blessing of their sweet baby, Jane Elizabeth Black, the first weekend in March so we drove down to Birmingham, Alabama to share in the festivities.

Jane is the sweetest baby. She seriously slept 98% of the time I saw her. I guess that's what newborns do best. Although, from my foggy memories of Jonah as a newborn I seem to recall believing he never slept and I would never sleep an entire night through again.

Jonah had a great time seeing Grandma and Grandpa and playing with Dirk. He was very sweet to baby Jane the majority of the time. I think he might have taken a swing at her once or twice, but for the most part he was a good cousin.

Grandpa and Grandma took us to the Birmingham Zoo. It was the perfect little zoo for Jonah. I think he walked everywhere we went.

He absolutely loved seeing the animals, but I think the highlight of the trip for him was riding the little train. Jonah loves his wooden trains at home and I think he just couldn't believe his eyes when he saw a big train he could ride on. He was very serious during the train ride; I think he was just trying to soak in all of the glory of the train. Towards the end he pointed to the front engine (my mind is blanking at the moment as to what the correct train terminology is) and said, very seriously, "Choo Choo."
After we got off he wanted to inspect the train.

Here are some more zoo pictures:

We took him to the petting zoo, but he was more interested in the rakes than the sheep and the goats.

After we left Alabama, we came right back to Bloomington so Mike could interview for IU's Ph.D. program and he got in! We are in the midst of making a final decision, so stay tuned.
Instead of taking off for another far-away destination, we took day trips to see some of the sights in Indiana we had been meaning to explore.
We went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum:

We also went to an organic dairy farm near Indianapolis:

We had fun eating ice cream, being chased by chickens, and learning a little bit more about the organic food process.
I also just have to post some pictures of my sweet baby boy. He is seriously so much fun. He makes me laugh everyday.

Here he is "helping mom with the dishes." Notice how he's picked out all of the knives and shoved them through the rack all in a nice, neat row?

And, here he is watching Bob the Builder with his very own little plumbers crack.
Until next time!

Our Little Italy

2009-03-01T18:11:00.000-08:00

Our family has been spending a lot of time in the kitchen lately. Here are some of our latest exploits:
Jonah loves making smoothies with Mike. Let's be honest, it's probably the drinking part that he enjoys the most. He still hasn't quite figured out how to drink out of a big boy cup, but the mess it part of the fun too:

My friend Allison and I are both huge fans of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. This sounds completely lame, but it changed my life. We decided to make mozzarella cheese just like her. So, we bought kits online and made mozzarella together.

There were a few scary moments when we thought we had ruined the whole thing, but all in all, I'd consider our first try a success. Here's our final product:

Fresh balls of Mozzarella!! Next time, we'll use our cheese cloths so we can end up with a little more cheese. Oops. I'm excited to try the recipe with nonfat dry milk powder from my food storage. That night we got together to make pizza with our mozzarella. It was yummy.
Tonight for dinner, Mike and I were craving calzones. Having never made them before, we kind of winged it. Mike was so impressed with how HUGE they turned out that he wanted to take a picture and have me post them here.

The kitchen aside, we are doing great. Mike got accepted to Texas A&M's Ph.D. program and we are still waiting to hear from IU.

The more we hear about College Station and the Aggies the more excited we get. But, it makes us sad to think about leaving Bloomington so IU is definitely still in the running. We'll let you know about our final decision.

Take a Walk with Me...

2009-02-03T12:21:00.000-08:00

down memory lane that is. My little sister posted these pictures on facebook for the whole world to see and I thought I'd share them with you here. Yes, please feel free to LAUGH (at my clothes, my hair, my teeth), CRY (at my once natural platinum blonde hair) or SMILE (as you remember just how silly you looked when you were 6 years old).

Me, Dirk, and Kelli at Yellowstone. I am donning my favorite cabbage patch doll shirt with REAL yarn hair.

Me in all my Easter morning glory. I am gnawing on a giant piece of candy. According to my little sister Kelli, this is the "best picture" of me ever. I sure hope not.

Halloween: I am a sorceress. I think this is the closest I ever came to being anything slightly scary for Halloween. I was such a girly girl when I was little.

Another Easter picture. How much more frilly could my dress possibly get?

Kelli and me on her birthday. I loved Aladdin just about as much as she did, so you can only imagine how excited I was for her to get that doll. I remember telling my mom, "I will never get sick of watching Aladdin." I watched it every day for a year.

I had to save the best picture for last. When I say the best, I really mean the best "ugly" picture of all. You can't beat leather boots with scrunchy socks, glasses with ONE bifocal lens (to keep my lazy eye from being so darn lazy), a hideous primary colors bag, and baggy shorts with my shirt tucked in.
And, there ladies and gentleman, you have me in all my glory...well, almost. Heaven forbid Kelli Jo ever get a hold of my even uglier junior high years.

Christmas Time and Beyond

2009-01-25T10:21:00.000-08:00

It's about time we updated everyone on our Christmas season, and what we've been up to since coming home. We did actually get a Christmas tree this year, even though I knew our time to enjoy it would be short lived, I just couldn't pass it up. We went to Hunter's Honey Farm in Martinsville to cut our own. Unfortunately, all of the trees were pretty much dead, but we decided to cut one down anyway since we'd driven all that way. In the midst of our trying to find the most perfectly dead Christmas tree of all, Jonah kept pointing and blabbing.

I thought, "This kid really has an opinion on what Christmas tree we should get."
Come to find out, Jonah had spotted a tractor and was trying to get our attention.

Daddy let Jonah ride on the tractor and our little boy could not have been happier about finally getting his way.

Our Christmas break started on December 15 when we flew out to Utah. We spent a few days there with my family before coming to California to celebrate Christmas. Now, we've gotten snow in Indiana...

Here's a picture of Jonah with his very first snowball in Indiana. He learned to say "snow" but it comes out more like "mow" (so cute).
And, here is Jonah playing with Daddy and Uncle Nathan in Utah in "real" snow.

After spending time in Utah, we flew to California for Christmas. It was so fun to see all of Mike's family and to see Jonah experiencing some time with his cousins.
Here's Jonah on Christmas Day.

While in California, we also made a trip down to Monterey to go to the aquarium. Jonah loved all of the cool sea creatures that he got to touch. He also discovered how to make a "fishy face" while watching the fish swim.

After two weeks with the Lowes, we headed back to Utah for another week with the Blacks. We played in the snow some more. Michael built two pretty awesome snow caves/igloos.

We had our annual "Bake Your Buns Off Bake Off" in which my mom starred as the honored judge. Here's a picture of all of the delicious desserts and almost all those that participated.

After a stiff competition, Marissa won with her absolutely amazing chocolate raspberry cake.
We had such an incredible time over Christmas break and seriously could never get enough of our family. It's always sad to come home.
Mike and I had another trip ahead of us to look forward to in January. For my birthday/Christmas present, Mike bought me tickets to Wicked in Chicago. These weren't just ANY tickets though. These were front and center, Elphaba singing, "defying gravity" in your face tickets. We saw the show this past Thursday at the Ford Oriental Theatre.

It is a beautifully ornate theatre.

The show was MAGICAL. SUPERB. FABULOUS. Pretty much every superlative you can think of. Thanks to my good friend Katie Quinn Anderson and her family for letting us stay with them and for watching our cranky baby. :)

It was fun to catch up and see Katie's new baby boy Mark. What a cutie!!
Oh, I also ordered a pair of rain boots from Target for my birthday and I just can't pass up posting this picture of Jonah. When I told him to "Smile" this was the goofy face he made.

Whew! And, I think that's it. Our blog is officially caught up, and I'm blog-guilt free.

I Love Thai Chicken Pizza!!

2009-01-16T18:37:00.000-08:00

I realize that I have yet to post an update about our amazing month-long Christmas break (Hip-Hip-Hooray for being an MBA student), but I just have to post my new favorite recipe. I got this Thai Chicken Pizza recipe from my friend Megan Whiting about a month ago, and tonight was our second time making it.

Mike's friend from school, Dian, came over with her daughter Kaylia,and I taught them how to make pizza. She is going to teach me how to make the Indonesian version of chicken noodle soup sometime soon, so we're sort of doing a hands-on recipe swap. We made a pesto pizza with tomato, goat cheese, and chicken (which is also fabulous) and this pizza.
Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Thai Chicken Pizza
Peanut Sauce:
1/4 c. creamy peanut butter
2 T. Hoisin sauce (I did not include this when we made it because I haven't been able to find it)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 T. granulated sugar
2 T. brown sugar
2 T. water
2 tsp. sesame oil (or canola oil)
2 T. soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp. minced onion
1 tsp. minced ginger-root

Mix above ingredients in microwave safe bowl. Pour this mixture into blender and blend for 15 seconds or until mostly smooth. Pour back into bowl and microwave for 1 minute. The peanut sauce should be darker now. At this point, you can add more sesame oil to achieve desired consistency.

Toppings:
1 cup cooked, chopped chicken
1 1/2 c. grated mozzarella
1-2 green onions, sliced (you could also try using thinly sliced red onion instead)
1/4 c. grated carrot
2 tsp. minced cilantro
1 T. chopped peanuts

Spread peanut sauce onto prepared pizza crust. Sprinkle 1 c. mozzarella, onion, chicken, carrots, cilantro, nut, and then the rest of the mozzarella. Bake pizza for 10-15 minutes at 425 degrees, or until edges of crust turn golden brown.

Here's the pizza crust recipe I use (thanks to Mike's mom) just in case you don't have one you like:

Pizza Crust
1 1/2 c. warm water
1 pkg. yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)
2 tsp. salt
3 T. Oil
31/2 - 4 C. flour, enough to make a stiff dough

Dissolve yeast in water. Add other ingredients and knead for 8 minutes. I actually don't let the dough rise at all, so pizza night is actually pretty time friendly. I just plop the dough on a cookie sheet on which I've drizzled olive oil and sprinkled corn meal and use my hands to roll it out. Then put your toppings on and bake it up.

I've Been Tagged!

2008-11-23T19:01:00.001-08:00

Rules:
1. Post rules on your blog
2. Answer the six '8' items
3. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving them a comment.

So...I've been tagged. Here goes my first shot at this tagging business.

8 favorite TV shows
1. The Office
2. Good Eats
3. Ace of Cakes
4. MythBusters
5. the Today Show
6. So You Think You Can Dance
7. Man vs. Wild
8. The Hills (I can explain: I was nursing for what seemed like every other hour when Jonah was first born, and this trashy yet highly entertaining television really made the time go more quickly)

8 things I did yesterday
1. Bought apples and eggs at the Bloomington Farmer's Market
2. Drank hot cocoa and ate a pumpkin bagel with pumpkin shmear from Bloomington Bagels
3. Played with Jonah at WonderLab
4. Went Christmas shopping for Mike
5. Watched Jonah destroy an Anne Klein purse display at Macey's waiting for Mike to decide on a Christmas present for Marissa.
6. Ate leftover pancakes for dinner
7. Hung out with some girlfriends while MIke watched the BYU vs. Utah football game.
8. Read A Tale of Two Cities

8 things I look forward to
1. Spending time with Mike over Thanksgiving break
2. Eating Mike's Thanksgiving turkey
3. Winning the pie contest (yes, this means beating Mike...a difficult but not impossible task)
4. Working out with Megan and McKenzie
5. Seeing my family in December
6. Having my family spend time with Jonah in December
7. Celebrating my 3rd Anniversary with Mike
8. Spring!!

8 favorite restaurants
1. Turquaz Cafe (Bloomington)
2. Smokin' Jack's Rib Shack (Bloomington)
3. Saigon Cafe (Provo)
4. Demae (Provo)
5. Bombay House (Provo and Bloomington)
6. The Chocolate Moose (Bloomington) -Not really a restaurant, but they have the BEST Mint Oreo ice cream ever.
7. Siam House (Bloomington)
8. Mi Ranchito (Orem)

8 things on my wish list
1. Fruit Dryer
2. Big Baggy Man Sweats...for lounging around of course
3. Books
4. someone to scrapbook all of Jonah's pictures from the last year and a (almost) half of his life
5. Garden
6. House with a porch
7. New upstairs neighbors (that don't party like it's 1999 nightly)
8. a baby girl (someday...I'm not pregnant)

8 people I tag
1. Annie Green
2. Kelli Black
3. Jessica Gillespie
4. Jeanette Millward
5. McKenzie Stoddard
6. Celeste Johnson
7. Dirk Black
8. Kellie Yeates

Brrr!! The Latest in Gloomington

2008-11-20T09:55:00.000-08:00

This past week has been a busy one for our family. Mike is busy with school and preparing for more school (Bless my sweet husband). I have been busy with cub scouts, play groups, Thanksgiving potlucks, Christmas gift scheming, and hot cocoa. Mike and I have decided that in order to spice up our winter season we are going to drink 100 hot cocoas. That's 50 cocoas each. We've dubbed this: "The Winter of 100 Cocoas." If anyone else wants to join us, please do! Cheers! I've had 5 hot cocoas so far; only 45 to go. I have a feeling it won't be too hard to achieve my goal of 50 hot cocoas seeing as it is pretty darn cold here in Bloomington.

Here's a picture of Jonah bundled up to go and get the mail. Don't you love his little scarf. Thanks Auntie Kathryn!

Jonah has found a new trick. He loves to hide in the cereal cabinet while I cook dinner. Since discovering that he can fit inside, he has dumped out my dried oatmeal, a box of cheerios, and his baby oatmeal. He really is fascinated by making messes. As long as he's not whining while I'm cooking, I'm fine with a mess.

Apparently, Jonah likes his privacy.

Grandma Jo and Grandpa sent Jonah an early Christmas gift to save us the hassle of trying to bring it on a plane. Jonah loves his new barn. Thank goodness for Grandparents!

Jonah was so excited to play with his new toy.

Happy Fall to One and All

2008-11-02T17:38:00.000-08:00

I don't know if it is still Fall where all of you are, but the crisp weather and beautiful colors of Fall are still going strong here in Indiana. I've got to brag about our good weather while I can, because I know we've got some cold months ahead of us. It seems like October flew by. Here are some recent pictures of our family.

Mike was able to baptize one of our Cub Scouts, Derik Gonzalez on October 25th. One of our other Cub Scouts was also baptized that day and we were asked to speak on Baptism for their program. It was wonderful to be a part of their baptism.

We went on a hay ride as part of a MBA Kelley Kids activity. Jonah loved watching the cows follow the trailer. I think that's the closest he's ever been to a cow and he was absolutely enthralled by them. He even wore a John Deere tractor t-shirt to fit in. Grandpa Winder would be proud.

Jonah was a lion for Halloween. Thanks to Camille for letting us borrow the costume. We practiced our roaring and he got pretty good at it.

Me and a couple other girls planned a Trunk-or-Treat so our little guys wouldn't have to walk so far on Halloween to get candy. We had a potluck before hand at Bryan Park. People brought soups, bread, and dessert.
Jonah caught on pretty quickly to the whole concept of Trick-or-Treating. "If I hold my bucket out, people will put candy in it." He sure was cute walking around in his costume; he looked like a big doll.

Here are some of Jonah's friends who came to the Trunk-or-Treat. They all looked so cute, it made me wish that our kids dressed up like this more than once a year.

Lastly, Mike and I let our political voices be heard and we voted!
Mike and I like to think we've educated ourselves on the issues surrounding the election and both voted this past week. Mike voted by mail, sending his votes all the way to California. I had to wait in line for an hour in downtown Bloomington. Not too bad, considering I prepared myself for a two hour wait. For those of you who know I am maybe the biggest eavesdropper around, let's just say I saw some really interesting people and listened in on some pretty crazy conversations. (Or, maybe they weren't really that unusual, and my excitement stemmed from the fact that I just don't get out much) Either way, I came to a few conclusions on my own early voting day:
1. Boys should never ever wear lip gloss and/or turquoise-colored skinny jeans.
2. It's hard to make small talk with a local politician you know is a liar.
3. You can never prepare too much. After preparing myself as best I could for the presidential vote, I was surprised to see that I had no idea who half the other people running for local office were. So much for being politically prepared on election day.
4. The era of two party politics in America needs to end. The Presidential candidate who I thought would best represent my convictions was NOT on the ballot in Indiana. I had to write him in.
5. It feels pretty darn good to wear an "I Voted" sticker.

Back in B-Town and Lovin' It

2008-10-21T18:44:00.001-07:00

Has it really been since August 16th that I last posted? Well at least I never promised to be good at this blogging thing. We've been back in Bloomington, Indiana for almost two months now, and it is absolutely amazing to be home. I missed our good friends here, my kitchen, the farmer's market, and my shoes. Let's just say I got really tired of rotating through about 6 outfits this summer. Packing for four months in less than an hour doesn't bode well for variety in the wardrobe department.
Here are some pictures of us back in B-Town:

Jonah "just chillin'" on the couch. You wonder what he thinks when he sees Mike and I sitting on the couch; we must seem to be really enjoying it.

Jonah playing golf inside with Dad when Mom was gone.

To keep Jonah entertained one day while I was trying to get ready, I put a pair of his church socks on his hands. He loved trying to pick up things. And, yes that is my toothbrush in his mouth. Good thing it had the cap on it.

Jonah and Dad at an apple orchard just south of Bloomington. We picked lots of apples. Jonah was more interested in eating the rotten ones that had fallen off the trees, so we had to keep our eye on him. He loved being outside.

Mike made sure Jonah wore his overalls so he'd looked the part.

Jonah sitting in a tractor (at least I think it's a tractor) that was parked right outside of our apartment. I'm becoming more convinced everyday that I want to live on a farm.

Jonah opening a package of toys from Grandpa David and Grandma Nita. He'd just woken up from a nap and he was so dazed and confused when he opened up the toys. Maybe he thought he was still dreaming.

Jonah driving for the first time facing forward in his car seat. He had the funniest look on his face, like "Are you sure this okay Mom?"

We went to a pumpkin patch this past weekend and Jonah loved walking around the rows of pumpkins. He liked to sit on the pumpkins, pat the pumpkins, and pick up the smaller pumpkins and throw them. Good thing we never did have to find out if "You break it you buy it" was a pumpkin patch policy.

Here he is with his little friend Giana.

Jonah has taken to sleeping with a teddy bear Kathryn and Peter gave him. It is so cute to watch him cuddle up with it. He really hasn't gotten attached to any other toy, but his teddy bear. So sweet!

Mike is staying busy with school. He is taking finals this week to finish up the first 7 week semester. He is applying to Marketing Ph.D. programs. Didn't we just do this? Here is the list of schools we're applying to: (Don't you love that I put "we're applying to"? It really is a "we" thing though!!) From East to West here they are:
1. Columbia
2. Penn
3. Ohio State
4. Indiana University
5. Texas A&M
6. Arizona State
7. USC
We are excited to see what this next year will bring. I love that I have a husband who is willing to go after his dreams, no matter how daunting they may seem at times.

I have to also list a few recipes below for friends who have been waiting on me...Sorry Chris and Jenner!
Here are some of my new favorite Fall Recipes:

Curry Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients:
2 T. butter
2 medium onions, chopped (1 cup)
1 medium carrot, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 stalk celery, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (this usually consists of cinnamon and nutmeg; I eyeballed the amount of each b/c I didn't have "pumpkin pie spice")
2 (15 oz.) cans pumpkin
2 (14 oz.) cans chicken broth
2/3 cup water
1 cup half-and-half or light cream
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

Directions:
In 4-quart Dutch oven (or big pot) melt butter over medium heat. Add onions, carrot, and celery. Cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add curry powder and pumpkin pie spice. Cook and stir 1 minute. Add pumpkin, broth, and water. Increase heat to medium-high; bring to boiling. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer covered for 15 minutes. Remove from heat; cool slightly.
In food processor or blender, add one-third of the pumpkin mixture at a time, cover, and process or blend until smooth. Return all pumpkin mixture to dutch oven.
Stir in half-and-half, salt, and pepper into pumpkin mixture; heat through.
Optional: Top with Cranberry Topper. This consists of 1/2 cup dried cranberries, 1 T. finely shredded orange peel, and 2 T. fresh Italian parsley.

Pumpkin Bean Soup
Ingredients:
1 T. olive oil
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
2 tsp. fresh ginger (I added 1 tsp. ground ginger)
2 tsp. curry powder
dash of cayenne pepper
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (14 oz.) can whole kernel corn, drained
2 cups chicken broth
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the bell pepper and onion; cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Mix in the garlic, cumin, ginger, curry powder, and cayenne pepper. Cook, stirring, for an additional 2 minutes.
Pour in the pumpkin puree, black beans, corn, chicken broth, tomato sauce, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring the soup to a gentle boil; reduce heat and simmer, covered for 25 minutes.
Optional: Garnish with fresh cilantro and a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream. (I didn't do this and the soup tasted great without)

Apple Scones
Ingredients:
2 c. all purpose flour
1/4 c. white sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. butter, chilled
1-2 apples peeled, cored and shredded (I added 2 small-medium sized apples and was glad I did.)
1/2 c. milk
2 T. milk
2 tsp. white sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions:
Measure flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt into a large bowl. Cut in butter or margarine until crumbly. Add shredded apple and 1/2 cup of milk. Stir to form a soft dough.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently 8-10 times. Pat into two 6-inch circles. Place on greased baking sheet. Brush tops with milk and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Score each into a 6 pie-shaped wedges.
Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes or until browned and risen. Serve warm with butter OR (and this was Mike's idea) make a frosting of sorts out of apple juice and powdered sugar. It was delicious!!

Hope you all enjoy these yummy recipes. Happy Fall to One and All!!

Family Pictures

2008-08-16T18:32:00.000-07:00

Mike's cousin Spencer works at a photography studio here in Minnesota, and when he offered to take our pictures for free we just couldn't turn him down. Even though I am a total stress case when it comes to getting pictures taken (this has only increased since Jonah came along...funny how that works) it was well worth it. Thank you Spencer!

He also took some pictures of just Jonah. What a sweet baby I have.

Jonah Turns 1!!

2008-08-13T09:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, so Jonah's birthday was more than two weeks ago, but isn't this picture of Jonah stuffing his face with cake worth the wait?! We celebrated his birthday by taking him to the St. Paul Children's Museum. He loved crawling through the kid-size ant farm and watching the other little kids. He even took a few steps on his own. We headed home so Jonah could open his presents and, of course eat cake!

As you can see, I'm no Jeanette, but you can't go wrong with banana cake and cream cheese frosting.

Jonah's One Year Old Photos
While I was home in Utah visiting my family in July, Jonah had his pictures taken by Amanda Peterson. She did an amazing job, because I am pretty sure I didn't see Jonah smile once through the whole thing. Somehow she caught a few whiny faces and turned them into smiles. Thanks Amanda!

Way Down Yonder in Mississippi

2008-05-30T08:41:00.001-07:00

We have been living in Corinth, Mississippi for almost a month now and we are enjoying life down South. We are staying in a bed and breakfast and love getting breakfast made for us everyday. It makes getting up early easy when you have warm biscuits, omelets, and/or pancakes and french toast waiting. We live in historic downtown where we are a stones throw away from gorgeous antebellum homes and lots of fun little boutiques and restaurants. With no responsibilities of a home I have enjoyed window shopping and I'm able to walk Jonah almost everywhere we need to go.

Our favorite activities in Corinth include:

Swimming at the ghetto Sportsplex

Swinging on every swing set in town

Shopping at Wal-Mart. Jonah has decided that he prefers to see where he's going, despite being buckled in. Jonah looks absolutely HUGE in this picture. He's chubby, but not that chubby.

Mike helps me stay sane by promising to take me away every weekend. So far, we have gone down to Birmingham, Alabama to visit my brother Dirk and his wife Marissa. We spent Mother's Day weekend with them, and Dirk and Mike fixed us a delicious dinner. Here's Mike's chocolate-banana cake.

He made it just for me, because he knows how much I love bananas and chocolate. It wasn't pretty, but it was delicious!
At church all of the women were given Gerber daisies. Jonah fell asleep with Marissa's broken flower on the way home.

Mike said he looked like a sweet dead boy. Sad, but funny.

This past weekend we went to Nashville, Tennessee. I'm not sure what we expected, but we weren't overly impressed with the country-style Vegas we found. I'm sure we would have had a blast at a concert, but unfortunately no one was playing the weekend we went.
Here are some pictures of our Nashville adventure:

Here we are at the famous Gaylord OpryLand hotel. It was like an amusement park inside complete with a river boat ride.

Mike just had to get a picture in front of this famous Dukes of Hazzard car. Don't ask me to tell you the name. Mike will have to update the blog to get this piece of T.V. trivia straight.

We enjoyed a riverboat cruise on the General Jackson steamboat. We were treated to a barbecue buffet, live band, and LOTS of drunk people.

After attending a small branch on Sunday, we headed to Bicentennial Park for a picnic. It was so warm that we stripped Jonah down to his onesie.

On Monday, we ate lunch at the famous Wild Horse Saloon. Famous for the country music stars who reportedly frequent the restaurant. We didn't see any, but supposedly Tim McGraw was seen there and Bon Jovi (I didn't know he sang country, did you?) Mike learned a line dance and we ate catfish and "award winning barbecue." Is it just me, or does every restaurant in the South have their own "award winning" BBQ?

Better Late Than NeverJonah's 6 Month Old Photos

2008-05-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

So, Jonah had his pictures taken in February and I am finally getting around to posting them here. Maybe, it was the nightmarish ordeal of the photo shoot or the pushy photographer that made me delay, but nonetheless here they are for all to enjoy.

The Greatest Egg Ever Laid

2008-04-27T08:50:00.000-07:00

Mike, Kristin, and Bowling Ball Head (so named by his cousin) went to the farmer's market this Saturday to find some eggs and honey. While picking through the red wagon of eggs to find our favorites, we found the biggest chicken egg we have ever seen. The farmer noticed our stunned faces and simply stated, "Yup. We call those "Ouch" eggs." Well, we had to buy it. We tried to put it in the egg carton with the other eggs, but the carton wouldn't close. Here are some pictures.

And look what we found inside! Two yolks! No wonder it was so big! The egg was delicious. Mike ate it with some toast and Hoosier Wildflower Honey.

The End

Mississippi Here We Come!!

2008-04-17T16:46:00.001-07:00

As mentioned, we will be spending some time down South this summer. After many phone calls and hours of looking for extended stay hotels online, I found the perfect place--Corinth, Mississippi. Mike will actually be working in Selmer, Tennessee, which is only 25 minutes North. Now, you may be asking yourself, "Where in the world is Selmer, Tennessee?" I asked myself the same thing. After conducting research on a few credible sites (i.e. YouTube), I came across several enticing videos. Among them: "The KKK in Selmer" and "Drag Racing Accident Kills 7." Sounds like a classy place, right? Thus, the reason we are staying in Mississippi. Check out our home for six weeks:

The Generals' Quarters it is. Think of this post as an official invitation to come on down and visit. I hear there are a lot of interesting Civil War sights and plenty of Southern charm to enjoy.

Jonah: The Tummy and the Teeth

2008-04-15T12:26:00.000-07:00

Wow! Where do I begin. It seems that the last time we posted was in November. After receiving two emails: one from my Aunt Sherrill and one from my Aunt Sheila, and numerous hints from other friends and family, I have decided it is high time to update you all. I guess I should start by recapping Christmas and go from there on out.

Christmas
Christmas was wonderful. We spent two weeks in Utah with the Blacks and one week in California with the Lowes. We enjoyed every minute of family time. Here are some pictures of all the fun.

Jonah with Dad at a BYU basketball game. Oh, the concentration and focus it must take to be such a die-hard.

Jonah with Grandpa decked out in, you guessed it, BYU gear!

Jonah playing with Aunt Kelli and Grandma Jo.

Here's Mike and Brian being crazy. I think they ate 2 pounds of beef each.

After Christmas, we returned to Bloomington to brave the weather and Mike's second semester of his MBA. Mike's second semester was all about getting an internship. He interviewed with a lot of great companies and we have been so blessed to have TWO internships this summer. He will be working for GE in Selmer, Tennessee and EcoLab in St. Paul, Minnesota.

At the end of February, I took a little trip to Utah to visit my family and friends. Here are some of the highlights:
Is he really going to do it?

Yes! Jonah can really put his foot in his mouth while sitting in his high chair. Babies are so flexible, apparently no matter how chubby they are.
Here's Jonah getting his hair cut for the first time.

He was very brave and very wiggly.

Here's the final product. He looks so grown up with his fohawk.

Spring Break
After visiting my fam in Utah I headed to sunny, warm California where I met up with Mike and we spent a wonderful week with his family in Fullerton.
We went to the San Diego Zoo and enjoyed seeing all of the amazing animals.

I don't think Jonah looked at a single animal. Even when we stood right in front of the elephants, Jonah looked at everything else (the sidewalk, the bushes, the sky) but never at the elephants. We also ate yummy fish tacos, and had a delicious crab and potsticker dinner with Kathryn and Peter.

Mike's Mom and Dad flew down to see us. And, we were able to get a four generation shot of the Lowe men.
When we returned from California, we still had a full week of vacation left so we headed to Louisville, Kentucky. While there we attended the temple, went to the Louisville Slugger factory (pictured below) and enjoyed just being together.

Jonah also enjoyed our King bed at the hotel. We know who really rules in our house.
Here are some updated pictures of Jonah, being Jonah. Some of his favorite activities include: jumping in his johnny jumper, eating, taking a bath, crawling backwards, and growling. He has two teeth now, and one of the cutest little, big tummies around.

On May 5th we are off to Tennessee. We'll keep you updated on our summer...Promise!

Happy Holidays!

2007-11-25T17:52:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since our last entry, so forgive us for keeping you out of the loop. We have some catching up to do.

For Mike's birthday, we went to an IU football game. They played Penn State, so Mike was excited to see Joe Paterno. We ended up losing, but the game came to a close and exciting finish.

Jonah was a chicken for Halloweeen. We thought it was the perfect costume for him, because of his "chicken fuzz" hair. He went to a Halloween party, but ended up sleeping through the whole thing. Maybe next year will be more exciting for him.

Jonah was blessed on the first Sunday of November, and like a bad Mom, I did not take any pictures of him so there are none to post here. The grandparents took pictures of him in his sweet blessing outfit, so they will have to email them to me. Both sets of grandparents came out, and it was wonderful to have them all here. We went out to eat, visited Nashville, and played with Jonah. The weekend went way too fast, and it was hard to see them go.

We had family pictures taken for our Christmas card. The girl who took them did a great job. Jonah did okay, but I'm pretty sure photo shoots aren't too high on his "Favorite Things" list. Here is a sneak peek...

For Thanksgiving, we flew out to California to surprise Mike's family. After some elaborate lying we tricked Mike's dad into picking us up from the airport, and then surprised his Mom and sisters by leaving Jonah on the doorstep. We had a great time. We ate way too much pie and we couldn't get enough turkey and stuffing. Grandma Nita went all out as usual and everything was delicious. We went to the Jelly Belly factory, which sounds cooler than it actually was. We did get free samples though...always a plus:)

Jonah loved meeting his cousins, and they loved meeting him. As Sam Drummond said, "That was AWESOME!!" And it was:)

On Saturday, we went and bought our first Christmas tree. We picked out a winner and named him Ferguson the Frasier Fir. It smells lovely and we decorated with lots of fun ornaments. Jonah got a little cold at the tree farm, but he was a good boy.

Saturday was also the big BYU football game against Utah. Mike and I were able to watch it and we all dressed up in our cougar gear. Jonah really enjoys watching football on TV and kept trying to peek at the game. We finally had to face him away from the TV and distract him with Christmas books.

Life is good and we hope all of our family and friends are doing well. Until next time...

The Elusive Jonah Smile

2007-09-30T17:31:00.000-07:00

So I can finally understand the thrill that being a member of the paparazzi would be. We did our own photo hunting these past weeks and have managed to catch the Jonah David Lowe smile. It's pretty cute. We've included a bunch of pictures, because we've gotta give the people what they want.
Kristin and I went on a train ride with the cub scouts on Saturday. It was an hour away in French Lick, Indiana. You may know French lick as the boyhood home of Larry Bird, or perhaps as the birthplace of Tomato Juice. It is both. It is also home to the French Lick railroad and we enjoyed the ride. We got to see a bunch of southern Indiana scenery, ride through the woods, and see Larry Bird's house out the window.
About half an hour into the ride, the train stopped in a field to deliver its strong box to the stage coach for safe transportation. The stage coach came running up along side of the train with all six horses in a gallop. While the shotgun rider was bringing the box back to the coach, three horseback robbers came flying out of the woods, shot the cowboy with the box, made the stagecoach driver reach for the sky, blasted open the lock and started to unload the contents. Just when we thought they were coming for us next, the sheriff came riding along and shot the bandits, saving the day. It was great. We included a picture of a robber trying to steal Jonah. We wouldn't give him up, even though Jones was excited about the prospect of being raised by train robbers at an Indiana woods hideout.
On our way back we stopped in Paoli for some apple dumplings. The leaves are changing color, and the ride back over the rolling Indiana hills was just beautiful.
Today we ate peach cobbler.

Enjoy the pictures of Mom, dad and Jones!

Grandma Comes to Town

2007-09-16T11:03:00.000-07:00

After a mix up with Jonah's baby blessing date (due to a "surprise" Stake Conference this weekend), Grandma Anita came to visit this weekend to meet her newest grandbaby after she decided she couldn't wait until his rescheduled baby blessing in November. We ate yummy food, shopped, and just enjoyed spending time together. She thinks Jonah is a "10" on the Cute Scale, so he will fit right in with the other Lowe grandkids. We look forward to having all of the grandparents and Dirk and Marissa out for the baby blessing in November.
Life seems to be getting busier as Mike and I get more into the routine of school, parenthood, and church callings. Mike is studying hard in school and was excited to learn that he will have an opportunity to work with the renowned IU music school as he works in the Entrepeneurship Academy.
Jonah really seems to love hanging out with his dad whether its bath time or taking a nap. Jonah saves most of his smiles for Mike, which makes me a little jealous, but that's okay.

I have had a lot of fun opportunities to get to know the girls in the area. I attended an all day conference for women in Indianapolis where I was able to hear various LDS speakers, go out to lunch, and do a little shopping (which is a lot more fun now that I don't have to worry about a big pregnant belly). It was fun to spend a whole day out of the house with friends. I have picked up various projects including scrapbooking (which I swore I would never do) and decorating Jonah's room. If anyone has any ideas for a nautical theme let me know.

Jonah is starting to smile more and he slept 7 hours last night! which is absolutely amazing. I woke up at 5:30 in the morning and went to check on him thinking he was dead. He was sleeping soundly. I sure hope this trend keeps up.

Here are more pictures of Jonah just because he's so cute.

Jonah's One Month Birthday!

2007-08-26T11:43:00.000-07:00

It has been over a month since our last entry. On July 25th we welcomed our new baby boy, Jonah David Lowe, into the world. He was 7 pounds 5 ounces and 20 inches long, which was bigger than the doctor had expected. He was born with a head full of fuzzy blonde hair that all the nurses just couldn't get over. We think he has Kristin's eyes and lips and MIke's little turned up nose. We think we've sent most of you pictures, but we've posted some recent ones.
Mike has been through three weeks of orientation and starts his official first day of school tomorrow. He has learned a lot thus far and is looking forward to his study of marketing and entrepreneurship and corporate innovation. (Sounds impressive, right?)

Kristin is enjoying being a new mom and has only had a few moments where she wanted to throw the baby out the window. She has made friends with the other MBA students' wives as they all mourn over the sudden disappearance of their husbands to the Kelley school.

We still love Bloomington and are continuing to discover yummy restaurants, beautiful parks, and interesting people. We have discovered that the Chocolate Moose has the best ice cream in town, that Bryan Park is great for strolling with a baby and Saturday night movies, and that MBA students still love to kick back one too many drinks at social events.
Until next time! (Which will hopefully be brought to you sooner than a month.)

For the Glory of Old IU!

2007-07-18T12:07:00.000-07:00

Kristin and I are now Hoosiers. We are safe and sound in Bloomington, Indiana - a little south of Indianapolis. I made the long, long drive out here from Utah with my parents and got things set up for Kristin. The great belly flew out on July 11th and we have just been waiting on a baby ever since. We love Indiana already and will post some pictures. It is green, humid, spacious and beautiful. We went for a walk our first day here and saw two deer in the woods next to our house. We have watched concerts and movies in the park, explored our dining options, and gotten to know Bloomington. We visited the farmers market last saturday and made a lovely dinner with some of our finds - fried green tomatoes, corn on the cob, and homemade blackberry ice cream. Oh my. The ward is great, the school is great, our apartment is great, and everything is ready to go...EXCEPT WE CAN'T GET THE BABY OUT! Now, given that the due date is still a week away (July 26), but we just really want that baby now! We are ready to go and I start school on the 6th, so we'd like him to JUST COME OUT AND PLAY! Hmmm, maybe we'll go for another walk.