Piper Arizona Simba Jaggi

John and Piper at AZ Temple grounds

Matthew and Piper - hairy!

Piper - a few months old.  He liked to sleep on top of our couch pillows.

He was our first baby - July 2004

His first bath June 2004

Matthew and Piper talking.

First Halloween - he hated being dressed up.

Matthew and Piper trying to escape!

We had to say goodbye today to a good friend and family member. Piper.

A few months after John and I married, we started talking about getting a dog. He talked about a family he knew in Logan that had this cute little white dog. So a few days later, I happened to be at the mall and stopped in at a pet store, to see what this little white Maltese dog looked like. Bad mistake, don't go holding a cute white fluffy thing and not want it. So we found a local breeder and cashed out ALL our savings and bought Piper. I remember his first night, like it was yesterday, because it was awful! We wanted to return him the next day. He cried all night long!

It got better. He became such a good listener, sometimes even better than my own kids! He loved to go on walks and to run back and forth between John and me. He loved his doggie toys and he knew between his toys and the kid’s toys -never even bothered their toys! He was a good traveler. He and John were good buddies; Piper was always the first to welcome Daddy home. He would give me looks and I knew what he wanted, like potty, food, to play, he was always happy. My sister's family loved him so much they went out and got their own "Piper" (We love Snowy!!).

A few months ago Piper started having some problems with his hind legs. The vet couldn't fix him and so we hoped it would fix on its own. However, it never got better. He was suffering and that is a hard thing to see. So we had a good friend pick him up and to take him away and to put him to sleep. Just before, we had a family meeting to say goodbye and to talk about where Piper was going. I can say that he will truly be missed and we will always love our sweet little doggie. I hope all dogs go to Heaven, and I hope we meet again. Goodbye sweet Piper, we love you!

Christmas dress up - he hated it!

John and Piper, the first week we had him.

Josh, Snowy and Piper ~ in Oregon 2009.

Piper needing some love.

Piper getting some love from Uncle Mike.

Good thing he wore his sweather, lovely Montana snow!

Piper, can you tell what he is feeling?  LOL!  He was saying, "Why do you make me wear these things!"

Emily Alese 4 months today 7-15-2012

My name is Emily, or Emmi, or Em, or Stinky (Daddy calls me that) or Emily Alese Jaggi (Izzie calls me that), Sister, Girlfriend, or Baby.  I turned 4 months today.  Where did the time go?!  I still don't sleep through the night yet, I love to be held and snuggled.  I will not take a bottle.  I smile and giggle.  I love to be outside, play with my pound puppy and to see my brother and sister.  I am adorable and just plain happy all the time.  Can't wait to see what next month brings!

Just made these little babies - they are so good!

Nutella-filled Banana Muffins

ingredients:
2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 & 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg  **ran out of eggs and used 1T flaxseed with 3T water
2 medium bananas, mashed
1/3 cup milk
2/3 cup Nutella

instructions:
Preheat oven to 350. Line 12 regular size muffin tins with liners and lightly spray with cooking spray (this will keep the muffins from pulling away with the liners). Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Set aside.

With and electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until smooth. Beat in the egg, mashed banana, and milk. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl as needed.

With a silicone spatula, gently stir the dry ingredients into the wet. Divide the batter into the 12 muffins tins. Bake 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Place on a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove from the tin to cool completely.

Meanwhile, spoon the Nutella into a pastry bag fitted with a large tip. (I used a Wilton 4B.) Once the muffins are cooled, poke the tip into the center of each muffin. Fill until you see the muffin expand a bit and, while squeezing, pull the tip up and out of the muffin.

I made these for my VT Sisters.  They are pretty darn good.  I think they would be good on top of brownies or just plain dough without chocolate coating.  I am a sucker for dough though!

 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls

For the cookies:

1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup Greek yogurt (or applesauce or peanut butter) (*** I used greek yogurt)

1 cup semi sweet mini-chocolate chips

For the chocolate coating:

1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips, melted for dipping

1/2 tablespoon shortening (for shine)

In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Beat in yogurt or applesauce or peanut butter along with the vanilla extract and stir to combine.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add all at once to the butter and sugar mixture and stir until incorporated. Fold in chocolate chips.

Scoop small or ice cream scoops onto a waxed paper or Silpat lined cookie sheet. Place in the freezer overnight or until frozen, at least three hours.

When ready to dip the balls, melt chocolate chips and shortening in a small saucepan over a low heat. Remove balls from the freezer and dip into warm chocolate. Return to the lined cookie sheet and return to the freezer to harden. Serve cold from the freezer.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake

I have posted on this before, but this time I made one up myself that was soooo good!  If you have not made one of these you are seriously missing out.  My kids LOVE these shakes!!  And they are so healthy.

Ingredients

PROTEIN SHAKE BASE-

Start each shake with this base and blend in the extra ingredients to make the flavored shake of your choice!

·   1/2 Cup Cottage Cheese (or 1 Cup Reduced Fat Greek Yogurt). Cottage cheese may sound strange, but TRUST me… this is what makes the ‘MILKSHAKE’ consistency! Also, if you are sensitive to dairy, you can use tofu to get the same consistency!

·   1 Scoop Protein Powder (Something that has around 100 calories per scoop~I love Designer Whey Protein Powder)

·   1-3 Packets of Splenda/ Stevia/Low Calorie Sweetener (Play around with how much depending on how sweet you like it!)  I use 1 /2 teaspoon of stevia

·   5-10 Ice Cubes (Depending on how thick you like it, use less for a thinner consistency)

·   1/2 Cup-1 Cup Water (Alter this according to desired consistency)

·   *Optional- 1/2 tsp Xanthax gum (you can get this from most grocery stores in the gluten free section! Just a pinch of it makes your shake sooo thick and creamy!) I don't use

CHOOSE ADD-INS TO MAKE THE FLAVOR YOU WOULD LIKE:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake (Add these ingredients to base)

·   2 Tbs Chocolate Pudding Instant/sugar free

·   1 Tbs Creamy Peanut Butter

or try this:

Banana Cream Pie Shake (Add these ingredients to base)

·   1/2 Frozen Banana

·   2 Tbs Sugar Free Banana Pudding

·   Optional: 1 Graham Cracker (or Honey Teddy Grahams) on Top of Shake!

You can try so many combos but we make these almost daily.  Check out the person who made them on 'Dashing Dish'. Enjoy!

Isabel turns 4

My girl turns 4!  Can't believe it!

Happy Birthday my Izzie!
I do love how she has my eyes.  Oh I wish time would slow down.  These are the best days of my life.

Emily Alese's birth story

Emily Alese Jaggi


Having two kids you can grab each one by the hand and walk or drag. With three, what do you do with the extra kid? Do you pray they are a very good listener and will walk beside you? Yell or scream or threaten they stay near you as you go out into the world? I have been very blessed with my children. Matthew is very sensitive and if you raise your voice to scold, he can very well cry (he will hate that I said that in the coming years), Izzie, has always been my little buddy and will always stay right beside me. As I got pregnant for the third time, I worried about this. Do I have what it takes to have one more? Will this child be as good as her brother and sister? Well the worry was on my mind, as I continued to grow sicker and sicker with this pregnancy.

As soon as I saw that double line on that pregnancy stick, I would go from my bed to the couch the first few months. I would turn pale and run to the bathroom. I never had to deal with this with my other two. I had a few weeks of morning sickness, but nothing like this! I lived on saltines, ginger ale and yogurt for the first couple months. Finally around month 5 I felt better, I got off my morning sickness drugs and was able to be me again. Then month 7 I started having Braxton Hicks. Month 8 I was having contractions every so often. By month 9, I was having contractions 5 minutes apart for hours then it would stop. We had the induction date set, March 15, 2012 since I have big babies and I would rather have a newborn and not a month old baby. (Matthew 9 lbs 9 oz and Izzie 7 lbs 13 oz (2 weeks early)).

My parents arrived a few days before to hang out with us and to watch the kids. I kept thinking with all my contractions and how this pregnancy has been, I would go early. My body was preparing but no early baby. We arrived at Southern Hills Hospital, in the wee morning, got all set up and was set to go. I was already dilated to a 4 when I arrived. By 9:30 am I had an epidural and my water had been broken. My doctor (J. Pollock) came to visit and we thought we would have a baby by 1 or 2pm. Time came and went, I was stuck at a 6 for hours, at 4:30pm I started feeling all my contractions, however I was still numb from the waist down. We couldn’t figure it out. So we called in the anthologist and we had to redo my epidural. The pain was so bad I cried and screamed. I thought this baby was hanging out of me. Of course as we finished my new epidural I had progressed to a 10 and was ready to deliver. Thank heavens my new epidural had kicked in and I was feeling somewhat better. As I got ready to push, my nurse called my doctor and told him that she thinks she just poked the baby’s eye. With meant the baby was “sunny-side up”. Yes, facing up and that is why I had been in labor for so long. She was stuck, a little. I pushed and pushed, one hour later out came the vacuum to help get this little baby out. By then I was asking the doc to just pull her out! Out came our little baby girl, all slimy and one funky looking head (which went back to normal in a few hours). I cried for relief and joy. My poor John, watching this roller coaster of a ride, I think he even cried for same thing. My mother, who stayed in the room with me (cause at this time, I really didn’t care who was there) was a mess, was praying and crying for me. But we had our sweet girl, our number 3. She weighed in at 7 lbs 14 oz and 18.5 inches long. Perfect. She had a smashed nostril (right side) which all my babies have had, so I know she is one of mine.

My baby girl looks like a Jaggi to me and my heart has already been taken. She is so perfect, so precious, such a gift that all my thoughts of how can I take care of three kids has been lifted away. My love has grown so much in such a short time that it has amazed me. I always have loved the special bond that I have with my wonderful husband when we have a child. I feel Heaven has opened up for a short time and I feel the love that our eternal family has created. We named her Emily Alese, both family names, Emily for a great grandmother and Alese after my niece. She has been a wonderful baby. Only cries when hungry or very poopy. Her siblings are her biggest fans. Matthew can’t get enough of her and thinks she is the cutest baby alive and Izzie just watches her with awe. So far life as a mama with three kids has been pretty great, I don’t think I would trade it for anything.

(I hope this makes sense, writing this with a kid on my lap and lack of sleep causes run-ons and grammar mistakes!)