Rich Occasions

Snowman FHE

2012-01-10T06:36:00.000-08:00

I know I'm way behind on blogging so I'm going to try and get caught up this week. aka prepare for blog overload! :) Well not too much because I've been a slacker at taking pictures as well :(

Here is an Family Home Evening we had a few weeks ago. I must say it was so much fun! We started with singing "Once there was a Snowman". Our FHE's consist of 50% singing, 10% lesson, 5% prayer, and 35% snack. Will absolutely loves to sing and request "Book of Mormon Stories" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" like 3 times each every time!

After our lesson we had our activity/snack. It was my idea to use vanilla ice cream to have a snowman building contest. (since we have a little lack of snow for the real ones) I honestly thought it would be a melty mess, but it turned out awesome. btw I think the cheap ice cream helped us out here, it melts slower.

Danny's Snowman

Jenni's Snowman

Danny's Snowman after he figured out there were sprinkles.

Building our snowmen, okay actually Danny's eating his

Will's snowman

Doesn't it look like fun?

Christmas 2011

2011-12-25T06:52:00.000-08:00

Christmas started early at our house this year. Since we were going to be in Denver for Christmas and wanted to minimize our packing, we had "Christmas morning" at our house the week before Christmas. The night before we had cheezy potato soup for dinner, drank eggnog, and Will slept in his santa suit. Then, the next morning we opened stockings, had strawberry banana crepes, read books, and played with toys all day! We very quickly forgot it wasn't actually Christmas, but were really excited that we got to do it all again the next week.

Denver was a ton of fun. We spent a lot of time with family!

Will received flying lessons from Uncle Scott. Every time he heard that helicopter fire up he was running to go find it! Unfortunately, even when it was nap time.

He also received piano lessons from Aunt Crystal. He is pretty good with the piano, plays it rather than bangs on it. He did suffer a battle wound with the cover though... now a month later he still has a black fingernail! Oh well it'll grow out eventually if not I guess it's a cool battle wound?

Played with cousin Maddie & Caleb. We were able to be there for Maddie's birthday. I took pictures, but it was on my sister's camera and I still have to get copies from her.

I ran out to the car to get my camera so Will could have a picture with the santa cow, but he wanted nothing to do with him. He just wanted to go play some more. oh well.

We also went to the Denver Zoo lights which Will absolutely love! He especially loved the spiders. I think that has something to do with a certain itsy bitsy spider. Once again though I'll have to get pictures from Tiff because I was too cold, and busy carrying Will to take my own.

Will's a makeup artist

2011-11-15T07:21:00.001-08:00

I came upstairs the other day and Will was covered in tabs. He then started to stick them to me as well. It was a lot of fun! Here we are in our "war" paint.

Silly Faces

"Oh man mom, are we done yet?"

Where's Will?

2011-11-08T09:00:00.000-08:00

Where's Will?

I'll give you a hint

Peek-a-boo

This is Will's favorite thing right now. He'll be playing in the kitchen with me, and I'll look around as he's vanished. (He normally closes both doors) Then, I hear him clearing his throat trying to get my attention. When I say "Where did Will go?" he pops out. He'll play in the cupboards forever, super cute!

Will is out!

2011-11-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

My house is very child-proof, we have the child swirly knobs on all the doors, all the chemicals in magnetic locking cabinets, a security bar on the backdoor, all precious books on the top shelf, ect. However, Will is ALWAYS one step ahead of me! This day I was having a R.S. meeting at my house when one of the sisters looks in the kitchen and says, "oh my, I think it's your son's fault". I look and her son (who is the same age as Will) and Will have opened the freezer and are grabbing handfuls of flour and eating them. Thus, they are both covered in flour, so is my freezer and my floor and yes I have zero doubt that it was my son's fault. Well, whats done is done so I let them sit and play with it until the end of our meeting. Then, I fix Will lunch and sit down to write a couple follow up emails from my meeting. When I finish I notice it's quiet, like really quiet. That's not really a good thing in my house, but Will is all buckled up in his seat so he can't be getting into too much trouble. I look over and find this. This is the first time Will has ever fallen asleep at the table and he is completely out! I later found out that his flour friend didn't even make it home before he fell asleep. Let me just say it was magical, I'm thinking of renting this kid for my daily tire Will out use :)

On another note Will is officially out of his crib. It was a little bit of an adjustment getting him to sleep on his "big boy" mattress on the floor, but once we finally but a gate up on his door it's worked pretty well. We tried just taking him back to bed every time he got up and skip the gate, but after 3+ hours of this he won and I lost so the gate went up the next day. One more step to big boyhood while we prepare to have another little one. I wish I could potty train him so that I didn't get to have 2 kids in diapers, but he's not showing any interest in that at all yet so it'll wait.

On another note taking this picture woke the sleeping giant and nap time was officially cancelled for the remainder of the day. I would not recommend it.

Rise & Shout the Cougars are out in Dallas

2011-11-06T19:08:00.000-08:00

Danny's parents invited us out to the BYU vs TCU football game in Dallas. We couldn't turn down a chance to feel like old alums and hang out with family so Danny took a 1/2 day of vacation and we headed down.. well I guess up to Dallas. We decided to board Sadie at the vet after our last not so successful attempt at letting her camp out in the backyard.

(In the course of 2 hrs. she managed to move a cinderblock, a 2x4, pull the wire cattle fence we had stapled to the bottom of our fence off with her teeth, and dig under our fence to get out. We now affectionately call her Houdini dog!)

Anyways, it was funny though because Sadie really likes our current vet for some reason. She has never really done well being boarded, she always comes back skinny with marks on her nose from rubbing against the cage. Except, this vet for some reason she loves! Maybe the have a good view from the window or their treats taste better we're not quite sure. Anyways, we pull up to the vet and Sadie is jumping to get out she's so excited. So I fill out all the paperwork at they take her back, that's when I look at Will. I seriously think he is going to cry. He has a look of total udder betrayal on his face. He took the whole leaving Sadie at the vet thing incredibly hard poor little guy, she's his best friend.

The puppy was quickly forgotten by the time we got to Dallas though. Will found his seat and settled in next to Uncle Scott to watch the game.

Pre-game

Will had a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa this weekend. He really loved walking back and forth and making everyone adjust so that he could fit through :) I was pleasantly surprised that Will lasted through the entire game in good spirits. The people around us kept asking if he was just a happy kid and if he ever got upset.... um, they should have seen him at 4am the next morning that would have cleared things up :)

After private tutoring from Grandma and Aunt Crystal, Will finally figured out which team to cheer for, too bad it was a little too late the cougars finished the game with a loss. :( Oh well, we got what we came for... a fantastic weekend with some of our favorite people. Thanks for such a great weekend!

Our Almost Not so Halloween & Adventure of super baby

2011-11-05T14:05:00.000-07:00

We were just sitting down to our dinner of slimy worm soup (french onion) and witch fingers (breadsticks) when the alert came in.

There was trouble so Super Baby ackem... sorry Boy stepped up to action.

He arrived at the scene of the crime and scouted for evidence. This looks like the work of the evil Bizzaro.

Superboy began his search

Of course he encountered a few obstacles in his path. That he had to move out of the way before continuing. Of course they were of little consequence because he is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Thus, moving a house was no big deal... really.

Dodging speeding bullets

Then at last Superbaby spotted Bizzaro's secret lair.

He cautiously scoped out the scene.

Found his opportunity

And went for it!

But Bizzaro was quick and escaped and so the chase continued.

But Superboy discovered a plan that would shut him down for good.

Now the world is once again safe

And Superboy went home with the spoils

We weren't going to do anything for Halloween this year since we missed all of the parties and trunk-or-treats while we were in Dallas. I figured I would concentrate my creative efforts on finishing his room and working on Christmas projects. But when Halloween rolled around I felt bad that Will would miss out. So I found this superman outfit in a box of clothes our neighbor gave us, made the cape while making dinner, and voila we were ready for Halloween. Not my usual level of creativity but it worked. We let Will trick-or-treat our street and he had an absolute blast! It took about 1/2 the street for him to figure the whole thing out but once he did he was quite good at it.

Blue + Yellow = Green

2011-10-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

Our house is fairly childproof, but every once in awhile Will catches us in a slip up. This just happens to be the forgotten bottle of food coloring. Oh well at least we can chalk it up to an art lesson right? I'm just glad we found him on the tile and not the carpet.

Movies in the Park

2011-10-24T11:02:00.000-07:00

Our Parks and Rec department sponsor movies in the park during the fall and spring. It's a lot of fun to bring our blanket and a picnic dinner and watch a free movie. Will has yet to make it through the whole movie, but we're working on it.

Will really likes being outside until it gets past his bed time.

2011-10-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it rain!

We've had a horrific drought this year that has threatened to kill everything including all of the native trees in our area. The lakes are all closed because they are too low for the boat ramps, and the lakeside restaurants are advertising their view of "sometime islands". Needless to say, when it started to rain we all had to go outside to enjoy.

Do you want to ship something to me?

2011-10-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

Danny's parents shipped some crystal to our house because they weren't sure where they would be when it arrived, moving and all. When it arrived I carefully put it in our guest bedroom (aka stuff room) so that it would be safe. Well in the meantime Will learned how to open doors.

I found out that he had this new found skill when I found him like this. I think the "with care" adds a nice irony to this picture. We later went and bought child door locks. Btw they have opened this box and everything is fine, that's the only reason it's funny to share this picture. (Otherwise, I might have been tempted to delete it and blame DHL :)

Tomato Onion Cobbler

2011-10-22T11:44:00.000-07:00

I know it sounds weird but it was absolutely amazing! We got the recipe from here http://annies-eats.net/2011/09/14/tomato-cobbler-with-gruyere-biscuits/ I think I ended up using a swiss instead of the gruyere, but I forget now.

Tomato Cobbler with Gruyere Biscuits
Printer-Friendly Version

Ingredients:
For the filling:
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. fresh thyme
3 lbs. cherry or grape tomatoes
3 tbsp. all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
1½ tsp. coarse salt
Pinch of black pepper

For the biscuit topping:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
8 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup grated gruyere cheese, plus extra for sprinkling
1½ cups heavy cream

Directions:
To prepare the filling, combine the oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked down and caramelized, about 20-25 minutes. Stir in the garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant, 1-2 minutes more. Remove from the heat and let cool.

Preheat the oven to 375˚ F. In a large bowl, combine the onion mixture, tomatoes, flour, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. To make the biscuit topping, combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture is crumbly and small clumps form. Mix in the cheese. Stir in the cream with a fork until a sticky dough forms and the dry ingredients are incorporated.

Transfer the tomato mixture to a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Using a large ice cream scoop or a ¼-cup measure, drop clumps of the biscuit dough evenly over the tomato mixture. Sprinkle the top with additional grated cheese. Bake until the tomatoes are bubbling and the biscuits are golden, about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Let cool 20 minutes before serving.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place

2011-10-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why, but Will thought that trying to squeeze between the couch and the wall was a good idea. He got stuck and I got the camera... then I helped the poor kid out :)

Too much Relief Society

2011-10-18T09:44:00.000-07:00

Last weekend my Relief Society planned a Friday, Saturday retreat. Since, I'm the enrichment councilor that means I got to plan it. I really did try to delegate, but unfortunately that means that everything changed last minute with only me to pick up the pieces. It was one crazy stress filled week, particularly Thursday...

So I was attempting to make the cute quote blocks pictured above. I was pulling the top off of the new bottle of mod podge I had bought for this even when it slipped out of my hands. From the mess it made you would have thought I had chucked it across the room.

It flew all the way under the table and even nailed the wall on the other side! I wish I could blame Will, but he was actually fast asleep taking a nap at the time. Now the question how do you clean up a pile of glue?

Then, my day got even better! I didn't get dinner ready in time to eat before Danny had to run off to a meeting so I was multi-taking holding Will (so he wouldn't touch the oven) and pulling dinner out. Needless to say, my one-handed attempt failed. Once I saw that I wasn't going to make it I attempted to shove the pan back in to catch it. Well that just managed to fling dinner all over my oven.

At least I had saved half to freeze so I pulled that back out of the freezer and stuck it in the toaster oven to be ready when Danny got home and set to work cleaning my oven. After scraping the bulk out I figured hey at least I can get a clean oven out of this and turned on the self clean. Now I had seen a piece of chicken fall down by the burner, but the screws to take off the bottom were covered in cheese and junk so I really didn't want to mess with it. I just figured it was a gas oven and thus used to flame down there so it would be alright.
So about 30 minutes into the clean cycle I realized that when the burner cycled off the flames didn't go away. Apparently, I miscalculated the mess down by the burner and had a small fire in my oven. The worst part was the door was locked because it was on the self-clean. All I could do was turn off the oven and watch the fire. About 5 min. later and lots of black smoke, the fire finally smothered out. The whole time I was envisioning my oven becoming engulfed in flame taking my kitchen and house with it! Danny I think we should get that fire extinguisher we talked about...

Anyways, when Danny got home he looked at me and said, "you look like you need a hug" and proceeded to give me a hug while I told him about how I almost burned down our house.

Worst part was at the end of it all I still had a retreat to plan!

oh and just a tid bit I learned... If you have a stone (like pictured covered in casserole) that gets dirty let it ride in our self-cleaning oven. It comes out like new. Even all the old cheese marks were gone!

It's "Officially" a boy!

2011-10-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

We had our official anatomy ultrasound last week and confirmed that Will is going to have a little brother. We're excited that these little ones will be able to share a room and for the impending havoic that will be made. Will is excited to teach his little brother everything he knows, I'm sure.

Since it was official we decided it was about time we let Danny's office in on this whole baby thing (especially since he gets to take 2 weeks of paternity leave). So I made some sugar cookies with blue frosting for the announcement. I was going for the Lofthouse, type I think they turned out pretty well. They even held up when Will picked up the pan trying to sneak another one.

On another note technology is amazing! Danny couldn't come into the ultrasound with me because children under 6 weren't allowed. Because "it takes as much focus and concentatration as surgery". Yeah, basically the ultrasound Dr.'s office was on a soap box, but they did do an amazing job. Did you know that they can count fingers? Yup, our little one has 10. We do get to have the job of counting toes once he arrives though, they are too delicate to see accurately. Anyways, everything checked out and our little one is happily swimming around, kick'n me. This kid is really active even Danny can attest to that already.

2011-10-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

We were lucky enough to head to Houston for General Conference weekend. We got a little lost on the way there (I wasn't a very good navigator because I erroniously thought that since Danny had lived in Houston, and we have been there several times, he could get there without me. Lets just say he needs me :)

We also recieved a call from our neighbor letting us know that Sadie, who we thought was secure in Fort Knox aka our backyard, got out about 2 hrs after we left. :( That little stinker moved a cinderblock, a 2x4, pulled out wire horse fencing that was stapled onto our fence, and dug underneath. We are now looking into electric fence options.

Relaxing in my new pajamas during Girl's night

Everyone hanging out together

One-on-one time with Aunt Crys

Playing on Grandpa's putting green

Grandma said she didn't like these Cattails here...

It's so much easier when you use your hands!


This is right before the fountain became barracaded with chairs!

It was fantastic to see everyone. We had a fabulous weekend. Thanks!

Creature from the Black Lagoon

2011-10-15T10:34:00.000-07:00

Halloween came to our house early this year with a knock on the back door.

Will was running around the backyard for about 10 minutes and managed to get covered head to toe in mud. (Did I mention we're in a drought? This kid has talent!)

Do you like his mud shoes?

It was then off to the shower, clothes and all, to get rinsed off. I'm so glad we have a shower on the main level and didn't have to drag him all the way upstairs :)

Mama's Lil' Helper

2011-10-05T11:51:00.000-07:00

Here's the link in case you can't see the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_HyxYP5Iq4

Labor Day Camping

2011-10-03T15:27:00.000-07:00

For Labor day weekend we dusted off our tent and headed out on a long overdue camping trip. By the time Danny got off work and we got to the campground it was already dark. Danny and Will pitched the tent while I made dinner.

Drinking milk by the light of the lantern.

The next morning everyone was up bright and early... well actually no one got very much sleep. Will wasn't so comfortable with the tent thing. I think he'll get better once we switch him out of his crib. But in the morning he was all smiles

Cooking breakfast. With all of the fires in central Texas all we could use was our propane stove

Still smiles

Breakfast is ready.

After breakfast Will and Danny took down the tent

Will was a big help

Or not so much :)

relieved of tent duties

Camping is so much fun!

It doesn't count as a campout if you don't come back dirty right?

Will the Computer Engineer

2011-10-02T15:24:00.000-07:00

Will is helping Danny with his coding. Can't you tell how much help he is being? Maybe I should quit taking pictures and babysit for awhile?

Will the Irrigator

2011-10-01T15:22:00.000-07:00

Will made a 'nest' out of the drip hose... now if only him and dad would finish those sprinklers :)

Tuckered out

2011-09-30T15:19:00.000-07:00

I set Will on the couch while I brought in the groceries. By the time I got them all in the house I found him passed out.

Little boy and his balloon

2011-09-29T15:16:00.000-07:00

Our grocery store gives balloons and suckers to all the kids that come in. Will has figured this system out and loves getting his balloon. He plays with it for the rest of the day. I like being able to shop in peace :)

Yay new freezer!

2011-09-28T15:13:00.000-07:00

We bought an old freezer from someone in our ward. I'm really excited to fill it up with freezer meals for when the baby comes. Thanks to my muscle man for moving it into the garage all by himself :)

We have a climber.

2011-09-27T15:09:00.000-07:00

We were in the garage the other day and looked over to see this. (Danny is there just in case not really touching Will) Will had climbed onto the cooler and stood up all by himself.

Here's a better picture, but Will was deciding he wanted down by this point.

Paddington Bear

2011-09-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

I don't really like Will to watch TV, but every once in a while I need a 15min break. Will's favorite show right now is Paddington bear. I must admit I don't mind watching it either :)

Inventive Pizza Date

2011-09-25T15:01:00.000-07:00

The challenge was to create 2 pizzas using anything in the house, except the normal ingredients. Here is the lineup of ingredients.

Yup, it was pretty interesting. We also made cheese bread so by the time the pizza was ready we weren't very hungry. The peanut butter actually ended up being the best, kind of like a Thai pizza. It was a fun date, but I don't think any of our recipes are going to end up in a cookbook. :)

Argh! Why do I ever clean?

2011-09-24T14:59:00.000-07:00

Hmm... freshly mopped floor + muddy puppy paws = :(

Ever have one of these kinds of days?

2011-09-23T14:56:00.000-07:00

Will's drowning his sorrows in a pint of Blue Bell. Okay maybe I ate the rest of the ice cream and he was just trying to lick up the residue. Either way it was Kooky Cookie and it was incredibly addictive! It even has sugar cookie dough in it! :)

Will has an announcement

2011-09-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind in blogging so almost everyone knows by now, but Will's going to be a big brother in February. We got to see our little peanut last Friday and we either have another little boy or a very confusing little girl. :) We'll know for sure in another couple of weeks.
In the meantime, Will is practicing his big brother skills by turning on the baby swing and trying out all of his old baby toys.

Growing up just like Daddy

2011-09-21T14:51:00.000-07:00

Whenever Danny shaves Will has to be right there. He's growing up just like daddy!

Parenting 505: Advice

2011-08-15T08:16:00.000-07:00

okay so I still have some catching up to do that include some fun pictures of Danny being bored, but right now I need some advice from all of you experienced parents out there.

Will is on a major separation anxiety kick right now. We've left him a few times and he was mostly okay, but now not so much. (okay well I guess the first time he cried himself to sleep, and last time he was screaming so hard in their car that other people in the ward know about it)

Anyways, so he's old enough to start nursery. We've been taking him in the last month or so to get used to it and to get to know everyone. He loves being in there. When I asked him after sacrament if he wanted to go find the toys he started clapping. Yesterday was the first day he was official and could thus be left alone. Danny dropped him off and left pretty quick. I guess he was totally content for about 5 min. when someone else walked it and he couldn't find us. Then, he freaked! He cried so much that he threw up all over the floor! We have great "grandparent" type nursery leaders that can calm any other kid down in about 5 seconds.

When I went in he calmed down pretty quick, but was super clingy the rest of the day.

So what should I do? Obviously, he can't throw up every week, but he's totally fine when we're there and totally not fine when we're not no medium at all.

2011-07-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

I watched my neighbor for a week while her babysitter was out of town. She and Will had a lot of fun together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQx80YHBRXU

Fourth of July Godzilla

2011-07-29T12:50:00.000-07:00

I had just iced this cake and was letting it sit in the warmth of the oven so that the icing would drip down the sides ever so nicely... but apparently Will saw it first :) Aunt Debbie gave us the idea of slicing it and putting it on a platter, so we took it anyways.

If they video doesn't work in the emails try here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5EPCuEIlzE

Free on your birthday!

2011-07-25T12:02:00.000-07:00

Alright, so here's my list of completely free stuff for your birthday
not buy one get one totally free x2 = free dinner/ lunch
You do have to go on their website and sign up for it in advance.

Schlotzkey's
Free small sandwich

Red Robin
Free Gourmet Burger w/ bottomless fries
Free Hot Fudge Sundae (varies by waiter)
All we paid was tip and Danny's drink. The coupon says one per table unless your birthday is within 1 week

Fuddruckers
Free 1/3lb burger or like menu item

Baskin Robins
Free single scoop

Which Which
Free Sandwich

Sonic
Free Drink, Tater Tots, or Creamslush

Buy one get one
Dairy Queen
Coldstone

Happy Birthday Danny!

2011-07-23T20:14:00.000-07:00

For Breakfast me and Will made up a Breakfast Card (like the kind you find in a hotel) and Danny had to select his choices. He could chose any and all items if he felt so hungry, but he had to make sure to leave it one his door by midnight.

He chose a ham & cheese omelet, hashbrowns, sausage, one bagel 1/2 with cream cheese 1/2 with jam, and orange juice. It was so much fun and delicious!

We then opened packages and presents. My present to him wasn't really here because I discovered on Wed. that I had ordered the wrong one so he got to open that before we send it back, but the right one isn't here yet. :( There is a funny story to that though.

Last weekend I was falling asleep this conversation occured

Danny: I know we already spend our birthday money but could I have a 'wok' for my birthday

Jenni: Ya know Danny there are a lot of other things we could do that don't cost money

Danny: Ya I know I just kind of want a 'wok'

Jenni: Well I guess if you want a 'walk' that much sure.

Danny: I think it was good we didn't get the one at Ikea though

Jenni: (What?)

Jenni: I thought you wanted a 'walk' for your birthday

Danny: ya a 'wok'?

Jenni: No like a 'walk' around the neighborhood

Danny: Well we could do that too.

It was a good thing Danny made the Ikea comment because I really thought all he wanted for his birthday was to go for a walk. Talk about a potential disappointment!

We then went climbing at our local rock gym and had free Red Robin for dinner.

and yes we went for a walk :)

It was a good thing we had an early dinner because then it was turtle cheesecake for dessert! I even used some of the toffee that Danny's parents sent us from London. So good, maybe the best cheesecake I've ever had.

Well anyways happy birthday Danny we love you!

Ant Bites

2011-07-23T20:01:00.000-07:00

We were out in the front yard last night when Will started crying then making motor boat noises with his lip. We went over and discovered that he was completely overwhelmed by fire ants. The poor kid didn't know what to do so he just stood there right in a fire ant mound. We quickly helped him out, but the next day I got a rough count of at least 28 bites! Poor kiddo welcome to Texas :(

Okay, Let's get caught up!

2011-07-22T07:57:00.000-07:00

I'm so out of date with blogging. It started when I lost my camera, and thus got out of the habit. Now, I have a ridiculous amount of catching up to do. Will was so generous today as to bless me with a morning nap so here we go! I'm grouping these into a couple of posts so that those who receive them as email won't down in the monsoon that's coming :

Unfortunately, I don't remember why I took this picture or why I uploaded it to blogger. I figure we could do one of those write the caption things. What is Will thinking?

We tried finger painting with pudding. Will sort of started painting, but once he tasted it It quickly became snack time.

Remember that water around my air conditioner? Well it's now in my living room, and that is my ceiling. It made me so sad to see my new house all broken. They came by and 'fixed' it. I was so mad the whole thing was caused by the air conditioner not actually being set into the drip pan. It took 3 guys 4 trips to figure this out. Now I have patched water damage in my house. :( They tried but I'm not sure it's really possible to patch drywall without leaving some sort of line. The whole situation was just dumb.

Now we know why Will is so glad when daddy comes home.

Will is starting to get good at independent play. I love just watching him play and discover things.

Will picked a 'flower' from our 'yard'. Yes we're still working on that whole grass thing. This Texas drought has not been very good to us :(

Will likes popsicles. If you have not tried the Blue Bell strawberry bars you have not lived! and at about 150 calories they are an amazing substitute for my daily ice cream fix in this hot summer!

So one day Danny left his Android at home... and Will and I discovered all sorts of cool things to do with it. For instance watching Warehouse Mouse from bed while mom pulls a splinter out of my foot. Totally memorized!

Story time with Dad + Milk= pure happiness!

For the 4th of July weekend we built a fence around our garden so that Sadie would quit 'watering' the lettuce and Will would quit 'weeding' it. I still need to go take some pictures of our finished product so I'll post those later.

Happy Bithday to Jenni!

2011-07-21T18:03:00.000-07:00

24 years, 24 hours, ~24 pictures

First up was a package from across the pond. I don't think I've ever seen this picture before. As far as we can figure it was taken the week I was in Houston before the wedding. Maybe the open house? Are we right? And Toffee!!! I didn't know toffee could be soft. I'm not much of a fan of hard candy, but this stuff is amazing and I can't stop eating it!!! We have original, banana, and mint. So fun! It actually makes me kind of sad that we will no longer be receiving packaged from London :( Having Danny's parents close by will be even better though.

Danny made me a photography light. He fashioned it from an old stand light, and some random household stuff. It works great and was a super thoughtful gift. He even created a plate of ketchup and basil so I would have something to photograph. Unfortunately, my camera battery was dead and will got to the plate before it charged. btw, yes Will is sitting on the table it's his favorite place ever! I haven't figured out how to keep him off yet, still working on that but he is pretty good at getting down on his own.

Danny also made sourdough pancakes for breakfast before he had to run off to work.

Next up a package of Crys's favorite things :)

A run down to the park and back

Then, it was off to Babies & Books

Lunch date with my lil' man at Einstein Bagels

A drive by my future house just to check on it. No really it was just on my way to my next stop, but the first time I drove past this house I just thought it was the most beautiful house I had ever seen. I've seen kept that opinion and drive past it whenever I can. Since it was my birthday though I took the time to park (a ways way, have to be stealth when you are taking pictures of some other person's house) and walked the path and snapped a couple pictures. The house is kind of hidden behind the trees but it was the best I could do without being on their front yard. :)

Baby Earth to try on and decide on a carrier for the new baby. To replace the one Sadie ate. btw this is the coolest sling carrier ever! I'm so excited to use it.

I'll have to make another post about all the free stuff me and Danny got for our birthdays, but lets just leave it at free strawberry creamslush+ 104* weather (in the shade)= :)

If you ever give Will a taste of your creamslush....

you will not get it back!

Notice the sippy cup he never goes anywhere without it anymore. Carries it around the house all day long.

Grocery shopping for dinner

Taking treats to someone else who shares the same birthday.

Funny story they were brownies, but they stuck to the pan so I just rolled them into balls and coated them with powder sugar. volia! brownie truffles!

All I wanted was guacamole so I made tostadas with homemade refried beans. Amazing and easy!

Key Lime pie at the O'Leander Cafe

(We went just for dessert!)

2011-06-20T20:42:00.000-07:00

I looked over the other day and saw this...

How can you not love this kid? I love the monster face! My lil cutie.

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T20:42:00.000-07:00

For Danny's big day we pulled out his authentic Chinese cookbook and gave it another shot. After a TON of work, and even more dishes we finally got around to eating.

We had orange beef (it was called like old peel beef or something in the book because the orange peels were dried), squash pancakes... (these were more like fried, battered squash pieces we'll have to work on the "pancake" part more), and rice.

It was a lot of fun, Will even insisted on trying his hand at chopsticks :)

Will's a climber

2011-06-18T13:45:00.000-07:00

I looked over the other day and saw this...

Apparently, Will is taking his new climbing skills to new heights.

Eww!

2011-06-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago I noticed a little bit of mold near our air conditioner. I called our warranty people and they sent someone out. He pretty much treated me like I was crazy and told me for all he could tell a glass of water had gotten spilled there. (In the utility closet?) He puttied over the mold and called it good. I just checked again yesterday... 1/4in of standing water. Definitely not a spilled cup and definitely a problem! So now instead of doing the hundreds of things I was going to today I'm waiting for the HVAC man. At least that means blog posts for you all?

Baby storytime

2011-06-16T08:03:00.000-07:00

We're still doing baby storytime every Thursday. Sometimes we have a ton of kids and sometimes there are only two. This week in order to distract Will from the bubble-wand I put a sock puppet on his hand. I couldn't believe that he kept it on and played with it for awhile. It was really cute!

Getting Big!

2011-06-14T07:26:00.000-07:00

Playing peek-a-boo after he snuck out the back door.

I think somebody sprinkled Miracle Grow on Will. In the last week he has learned how to climb, open the back door by himself, and buckle his high chair. He also has started really trying to communicate with us, he'll bring us his empty cup or pull us to the pantry, or just yesterday he got behind me and started pushing one leg at a time till I walked were he wanted me. I'm not sure what happened but he definitely hit an intellectual growth spurt!

All Wet

2011-06-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we went for a short run and afterwards we sat on the front yard to stretch and such. As we were sitting Will came up to me, grabbed my fingers, and pulled. This is the first time he's tried to get me to go somewhere. So I got up and quickly discovered that he was asking me to turn on the hose. It was pretty cute and it's been so so hot here, so we played in the sprinklers for a bit.

And this is how we ended up with soaking wet baby :)

Will climbs!

2011-06-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

It's sideways but here's the video. Maybe next time I'll remember that turning a video is not the same as turning a picture.

Family Home Evening Treat: Frozen Bananas

2011-06-13T12:33:00.000-07:00

Okay let me start by saying these were a lot prettier in my head... oh well they will still taste amazing!

I was introduced to frozen bananas a million years ago at Disneyland. I think they were mostly our favorite treat in the park because they were the biggest treat in the park and well when your a hungry kid size is everything.

There you have it... oh wait I just realized we're going to play Bananagrams for our activity tonight. Ha! It's perfect and I didn't even plan it Amazing!

Growing Up!

2011-06-13T11:29:00.000-07:00

Will discovered Saturday how to climb up on chairs. That means nothing on the table or desk is safe anymore! We have a cute video of him climbing up here but after several hours of trying to turn it and a couple more trying to download it... things aren't looking very good. It's uploading to youtube right now so if that works then I'll share. I might add that I've baked a loaf of bread, done laundry, wrote this post, and feed Will lunch and it's at 54% :(

Also on the development note Will has become quite the cleaner. He puts his toys back in the bin, books back on the shelf, keys in any random nook he can find, and pennies, library cards, alcohol wipes, and metal pieces in the air intake vent!

Stair Sliding

2011-06-11T14:54:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night I introduced Will to one of my childhood favorite activities... sliding down the stairs in a pillowcase. I even still have the exact same pillowcase from those days for his use.

On your mark, get set...

GO!!!

That was fun

Lets do it again.

Waiting for Dadda

2011-06-10T10:45:00.000-07:00

Since Danny takes the train to work he get home at almost the exact same time everyday. Normally Will is starving to death and grumpy so we head outside to wait for him. Here's how we pass the time.

Getting a drink

Watching Sadie

Discovering treasure

Oop here he comes...

Run Away!

And the payload!

We love our Daddy!

If you came to my front door today...

2011-06-09T08:35:00.000-07:00

You'd see this...

Our onion harvest is curing outside our front door because we need a place that was hot but not in direct sunlight. My neighbor thought we were trying to ward off vampires. I can say it worked we officially had no problems with vampires while we had onions on our doorstep.
We had a pretty good harvest, though it would have been better if Will and Sadie had not prematurely trampled them. Next project? a garden fence.

The Breakfast Procession!

2011-06-08T16:22:00.000-07:00

How can you not love this kid?

I'm in love with the FedEx man!

2011-06-07T15:40:00.000-07:00

After waiting all day with the online tracking saying "On the truck to be delivered" my camera finally came at 7:00pm. Super exciting! Upon taking it out and charging the batteries my only thought after turning it on was... "This camera is WAY too smart for me!"

So much for my daily goal :(

2011-05-29T17:04:00.000-07:00

In case you are wondering about my break from blogging our camera has gone missing. It just disappeared and we have no idea where it is.

This is unfortunate because all of our pictures for the last little bit were on it and we no longer have a way to take pictures.

This is fortunate because it finally gave us a reason to take the plunge and buy a DSLR! It's ordered and will be here in 2-2.5 weeks (super slow, but hey it was free shipping) so until then more break but I promise I'll make up for it later.

WGB Challenge

2011-05-09T10:35:00.001-07:00

Okay, I'm throwing down the Gauntlet for a new bread baking challenge. As may of you know I was part of a challenge offered by Pinch my Salt to bake my way through Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice book. Even though I fell behind with a move and a new baby I managed to mostly complete the challenge and it changed pretty much changed my life. I never buy bread from the grocery store! French bread, sandwich bread, rolls, hot dog buns... you name it I can make it and I can make it tasty. The only problem is I mostly use white flour and I would much prefer to have the added health benefits of whole grains in my growing family's diet. I must say the only 100% whole wheat breads I make are dry, dense, and disgusting! So I challange myself to bake my way through Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads book, New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor. I hope that I will excite this challenge equally changed, ready to bake delicious, healthy breads for my family.
Sound interesting to you? Please join me! It's so much easier and more fun with a group.

This leaves you plenty of time to grab a book and get ready to bake! Pleas leave a comment if you're going to join so that I know who my fellow bakers are.

Here's the schedule:
(We're not going straight through since I feel we should do all the transitional breads first then move into the 100% whole grain, baby steps right?)
5/29- 6/4      Transitional Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread p.99
6/5- 6/11      Transitional Multigrain Sandwich Bread p.107
6/12- 6/18    Transitional Rye Sandwich Bread p.119
6/19- 6/25    Transitional Cinnamon Raisin Bread p.140
6/26- 7/2      Transitional Challah p.149
7/3- 7/9        Transitional Country Hearth Bread p.156
7/10- 7/16    Transitional Multigrain Hearth Bread p.161
7/17- 7/23    Transitional Rye Hearth Meteil p.178
7/24- 7/30    Transitional Rye Hearth Seigle p.181
7/31- 8/6      Transitional German-Style Many Seed Bread p.210
8/7- 8/13      Transitional Rustic Bread & Focaccia p.264
8/14- 8/20    100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread p.95
8/21- 8/27    Multigrain Struan p.103
8/28- 9/3      Oat Bran Broom Bread p.109
9/4- 9/10      Rye Sandwich Meteil p.112
9/11- 9/17    Rye Sandwich Seigle p.116
9/18- 9/24    Potato Onion Rye Meteil p.122
9/25- 10/1    Potato Rosemary Bread p.125
10/2- 10/8    Anadama Bread p.129
10/9- 10/15 Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Bread p.132
10/16-10/22 Whole Wheat Cinnamon Buns p.136
10/23-10/29 Whole Wheat Challah p.144
10/30- 11/5 Whole Wheat Hearth Bread p.153
11/6- 11/12   Multigrain Hearth Bread p.158
11/13- 11/19 High- Extraction Flour Miche p.164
11/20-11/26 Three Rye Hearth Bread Variations (choose 1) p.169
11/27- 12/3   Power Bread p.185
12/4- 12/10   Whole Wheat Sprouted Grain Bread p.189
12/11-12/17 100% Sprouted Grain Bread p.192
12/18- 12/24 **Julekage, Panettone, and Stollen (choose 1) p.245
12/25- 12/31 Whole Wheat Mash Bread p.195
1/1- 1/7         Multigrain Mash Bread p.201
1/8- 1/14       Steamed Boston Brown Bread p.202
1/15- 1/21     Spent-Grain Bread p.205
1/22- 1/28     Whole Wheat Brioche p.215
1/29- 2/4       Volkronbrot p.219
2/5- 2/11       Bavarian Pumpernickel p.225
2/12- 2/18     Hutzelbrot with Dried Fruit p.229
2/19- 2/25     Swedish Limpa Rye Bread p.233
2/26- 3/3       Santa Lucia Buns p.236
3/4- 3/10       Hapanleipa and Vorterkaker p.241
3/11- 3/17     Whole Wheat, Multigrain, and Pumpernickel Bagels (choose 1) p.253
3/18- 3/24     Whole Wheat Focaccia p.260
3/25- 3/31     Whole Wheat and Multigrain Pizza Dough p.267
4/1- 4/7         Whole Wheat Pita Bread p.273
4/8- 4/14       Whole Wheat Naan p.278
4/15- 4/21     Chapatis, Parathas, and Roti p.281
4/22- 4/28     Injera p.283
4/29- 5/5       Whole Wheat Matzo p.285
5/6- 5/12       Lavash p.289
5/13- 5/19     Thin Wheat Crackers p.291
5/20- 5/26     Seeded Crackers p.293
5/27- 6/2       Graham Crackers p.296

There'll be days like this

2011-04-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

Those shards used to be a bowl.

And this company ripped me off!

I am currently torn between taking pictures with my little kodak easy share digital camera or my nice Nikon film SLR. The problem is I need my pictures to be digital so that I can photoshop them, post them here, make photobooks, ect. I used to develop my film straight to a CD but that gets expensive and the quality isn't that amazing. Plus, last time my negatives got scratched by some inexperienced employee.

So I was really excited when I found this online company that I could mail by film to and in a few days they would have files for me to download from their website.

I thought I would try them out and sent in a roll of film from Will's birthday. When I got back the pictures I wasn't really happy. I don't know if the film got hot in the mail or they are developed wrong but it looks like Will turned 1 in 1970. Kind of a fun effect, but not something I want accidentally every time!

Anyways, I thought lesson learned I won't do that again. So today I went to download them from the site so that I could at least have retro 1970 memories, but guess what? I had to have paid extra to get a DVD of the files in order to download them! Basically, I paid to have my file ~~developed~~ ruined and I don't even get the files! Whatever! So I ripped them off the site by right-clicking on the thumbnails so they are super high quality now! I feel like I'm stealing my own pictures.

This makes me want to eat ramen for 3 months so that I can spend our grocery money on a new camera! The sad part is I really do like my film camera, and I like shooting film. But, with all the digital now a days I can't find someone who can develop film right anymore unless I go professional :(

I'll leave you with another blast from the past.

Bittersweet Cookies

2011-04-10T13:17:00.000-07:00

Will's still sick as you can tell by his eyes, but this cookie made him feel much better!

So Wednesday I received a new calling to be the Relief Society 2nd counselor. I was so excited! No more activity days (I had 15 girls with 9 coming in), planning and teaching a lesson every week, juggling Will during Sunday school. Well, today it turned a little bittersweet. I forgot in the newness of it on Wednesday how much I had grown to love my Sunday school class. They were working towards a class party this summer. I guess that won't happen now, so I made them cookies to make up for it. (I never bring treats). When I told them it would be my last week because I got a new calling they asked "do you have to?". Then, I got pulled into the Bishop's office to be set apart and never actually got to teach my last lesson.

Standing up in Relief Society on Sunday was weird! I think I am really close to being the youngest there. I have no idea what I'm doing in the presidency but I guess sometimes the Lord has a different plan for us then we have for ourselves. So here's to a new adventure! We do think it's kind of fun that Danny's the 2nd counselor in Elder's Quorm and now I'm 2nd counselor in Relief Society.

Grow Grass Grow!

2011-04-09T13:13:00.000-07:00

Say "hello" to my lil baby

All 3,500 of them!

This is try 2 to get grass in our backyard after we seeded last fall. We planted, no kidding, 3,500 little plugs of grass a little over a foot apart across the whole yard! Yes it took forever!

After, 2 weeks we're still watching them grow. I guess we're learning patience?

Finger Painting

2011-04-08T13:07:00.000-07:00

Will has a little bit of a cold and has been feeling under the weather lately. Thus, he needs tons of distraction during the day or he's cranky, cranky! It was too hot for me to want to go on an afternoon walk (I know it's April) so we finger painted instead. It was going alright until Will started licking his fingers... then it went all downhill when he picked up the watercolors and started licking them. We were done really quick after that! (that would be why his mouth is black). His masterpiece now resides on our fridge. Our first refrigerator art!

Thursday Thoughts

2011-04-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

Always eat your Greens!

Never forget to Aspire to Something Higher!

Activity Days!

2011-04-06T13:02:00.000-07:00

Today was my first and last activity days with my 8&9 yr. old girls.
We had a lesson on the Atonement and the Sacrament then, made bread to be used for Sacrament on Sunday. It was a lot of fun. I thought I would share my white bread recipe with you. enjoy!

White Bread Recipe

Based off of bread formula from:
The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart

Ingredients:
4 1/4 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 large egg (slightly beaten, at room temperature)
1/4 cup butter (at room temperature)
1 1/2 cups buttermilk or whole milk (at room temperature)

1. Mix together f lour, salt, sugar, and yeast.
2. Add egg, butter, buttermilk and mix (If the dough seems stiff add a trickle more buttermilk until the dough is soft.)
4. Sprinkle the counter with f lour. Knead adding more f lour if needed so the dough is soft and tacky, but not sticky. Knead for 6-7 min or until the dough passes the window test.
5. Lightly oil a bowl, put the dough in it, and cover with plastic wrap.
6. Wait 1 to 2 hours. until the dough gets twice as big
7. Remove the dough from the bowl and divide into loaves or rolls. 8. Shape the dough then put into a bread pan. Mist with oil and cover with towel or plastic wrap.
9. Wait for 60 to 90 minutes. until the dough gets twice as big
10. Preheat oven to 350* for bread or 400* for rolls
11. Bake bread for 35-45 minutes and rolls for 15 minutes.
12. Let loaves cool for at least 1 hour before cutting.

Practicing for Easter

2011-04-05T12:58:00.000-07:00

I was looking for a ~~distraction~~ enriching activity for Will so that I could get something done around the house. I came up with practicing for Easter by filling a couple of plastic eggs with some snacks. Will had fun pulling his snacks out of the eggs. Though he still needs to work on getting the tough eggs open by himself.

Adventurous Will

2011-04-04T12:05:00.000-07:00

Will is getting more and more adventurous every day! This week decided why go around the table when I can just wiggle my way through. The squeeze is so tight that his has to turn his head to get through. Excuse the poor pictures I took th48em .0000056
+*8-++9////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// and now Will is telling his side of things :)

Monkey Bizness

2011-04-03T10:59:00.000-07:00

While we were in Denver I was able to catch up with a friend at Monkey Bizness. Amy is actually my High School band director/ yearbook advisor's wife, but we went on all our crazy band trips together and became friends. She's been to my bridal shower, wedding, baby shower, you name it. It was great seeing her and her two adorable kids. I just wish we could have found some more time to catch up. I guess we'll just have to use the internet :) Thanks for coming though Amy I was really excited to see you!

On a Side note Will loved Monkey Biz! He particularly loved the inflatables.

Aunt Crystal Spotings!

2011-04-02T11:28:00.000-07:00

I promise my lil sister was in Denver too, but some how I missed taking a full picture of her. I guess I was too focused on the kids they grow up so fast. So here's the evidence I've collected that Crys did exist.

Thanks for a great trip everybody!

Head'n Home

2011-04-01T12:55:00.000-07:00

On the train at DIA headed back home to Austin.

Prehistoric Times

2011-04-01T11:15:00.001-07:00

The Mall in Denver has this awesome soft Dinosaur play area in the food court. Will had to go play there with Madi twice while we were visiting them.

How do you spell trouble?

2011-03-31T11:09:00.000-07:00

Madi and Will had a great time playing together! ... at least when Will wasn't pulling her pigtails or trying to use her to stand up. Will even learned how to say Madi and baby while we were there. Here they are bonding over string cheese. Madi even let Will watch "stuck in tower" Tangled and play with some of her babies... some of them but not Lily :)

Instant Care :(

2011-03-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

Will had his first insta-care visit while we were in Denver as well as his first round of antibiotics. While we were working on the yard he had been bit by a couple of fire ants on his thigh. I guess because they were really close to his diaper they got infected :( So I after I noticed the red rings around them we took him to the insta-care.
It was kind of funny because they were a little confused by what a fire ant bit was and how he had been bit when it was snowing outside. I kept explaining that fire ants are quite common in Texas and there it's 90 degrees. I still think they were a little confused when we left, because the doctor said that this type of infection happens when there's a wound, which 'could' have been an ant bit. :) oh well after a round of antibiotics everything is cleared up and Will's feeling better.

Naturally, he had to have some of Grandpa Don's ice cream once we got back home for being such a trooper.

Freddy's Steakburgers

2011-03-29T10:08:00.000-07:00

While we were out shopping on Monday we started discussing favorite restaurants. I mentioned that we had a place by us in TX that had awesome hamburgers that we're thin and crispy on the edges. My sister said, "wait where is that?" Come to find out they had a Freddy's too and my brother-in-law had already talked about wanting to meet us there for lunch. Too funny of a consequence to pass up so here we are having lunch at Freddy's. Will's very fond of their hot dogs and frozen custard.

Denver

2011-03-28T09:56:00.000-07:00

This little kiddo was the star of the week. We didn't have any delays on our flights so we managed to make his blessing. We did have to go straight from the airport to the church though. Talk about efficient no wasted time!

Did you know you can fit over 5 car seats in a Suburban? Good thing to know, now that kids have to be in car seats until they're 8! The kids had a blast sitting all snug like this. Will did have a habit of reaching over and stealing Caleb's blankets and toys though.

Do I fit?

2011-03-27T09:35:00.000-07:00

We finished planting the grass at around 8pm. That only left dinner, laundry, packing, and cleaning to be done before I had to leave for the airport at 4:30am! :) Needless to say, I think I got 3 hrs of sleep.

While we were waiting for the flight Will made friends with our pilots. So when they went down to get on the plane he wanted to go to. I would carry him over to the other side of the waiting area and he would hussle back over to the open door. Then, I would "catch" him and carry him back. We did this repeatedly I figured he was tiring himself out so he would sleep on the flight. Well when that got tiring we started getting creative. Do you think Will qualifies as carry-on luggage?

The flight to Denver was awesome. I got the bulk head window seat and another lady with a 18 month old took the aisle. Needless, to say no one was over eager to sit in between us. So we blocked off the end and were able to let the kids play on the floor together most of the flight. They were happy and thus everyone else on the plane was happy.

I did qualify for "extra security screening" at the Austin airport... not really sure how I feel about that. Really? The lady with the baby? Traveling by herself? Really? I'm such a hardened criminal. They lady assigned to do it seemed really uncomfortable with the whole thing so I tried to be a good sport to make her job a little easier. :(

Cooties

2011-03-25T09:33:00.000-07:00

Don't let him fool you. He loves his mamma.

In the Trenches

2011-03-24T09:29:00.000-07:00

The yard work continues as we Till, Tamp, dig trenches for the drip system, lay pvc, and cover up the trenches

Sadie & Will's Tea Party

2011-03-23T09:22:00.000-07:00

"Why, thank you Sadie."

"I don't mind if I do."

Will's getting better but we still have some work to do on the dog food vs. Will food topic.

Hello Ugly!

2011-03-22T09:22:00.000-07:00

Isn't this the ugliest caterpillar? Maybe he'll make an exceptionally beautiful butterfly? I hope so because they're all over our yard.

Sprinklers!

2011-03-21T09:05:00.000-07:00

While we were working on the boat gate I turned around for literally 5 seconds and Will was gone! I found him all the way on the other side of our yard absolutely soaked! So we went in and changed him into his swimsuit and let him play. Both him and Sadie had a blast.

Boat Gate

2011-03-20T15:47:00.000-07:00

Yay! The boat is finally off the driveway and behind the fence. We still need to figure out a long term solution for it to sit on, it's just on grass, but the gate is done! We ordered a metal gate from online sunk some new posts, and we're able to pretty much just attach the old fence back on. It took all day and we ended up with almost no visible difference in the fence. (but we consider that a good thing)

Cute Noises

2011-03-19T10:49:00.000-07:00

Will has been making these funny noises lately kind of a mix between a brr and a motor boat. I can't even do it! He will be sitting there just playing with his toys while doing it. so cute! We thought we would share. I have to warn you though it takes us a little bit to get him to do it on camera so it's a little long of a video. Maybe someday I'll actually edit a video before I post it.

Valentine's Day... the belated post

2011-03-19T08:43:00.000-07:00

This is space saver post. I think Danny wanted to explain so I'll let him.
(edited by danny)
Ok so I have been supposed to be more active in this blog and I am now guilted into actually posting about this. I have been meaning to post about this for a while. Jenni awesome wife that she is decided to try and come up with something extra special for me. So she emailed my parents(unbeknownst to me) looking for pictures for the trip to taiwan and china and my Mom sent back a selection of photos. So Jenni selected one that looks cool and split the photo in three sections and then blew it up and sent it to costco to be printed off. I think this is the largest size print you can get at costco. She then glued the pictures to some MDF and painted over it with mod podge so that it is all protected nice. I tell you what these are things are hefty and very nice. Anyway so I came home and she had put them up in our room and I was very surprised we are planning on putting them up in the bedroom along with some other chinese pictures and having an asian feel to the room. Anyway I recognized the place, one of the new members had taken me and my parents there when they came to pick me up after my mission. For those interested it was originally a fort(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Provintia) and is one of the oldest buildings in tainan which is one of the oldest buildings in taiwan as well as being the capital at the time of the fort. There are some beautiful grounds that surround it and this picture is of those though you can see a corner of the building in the one section. The two things that I most recall about this building were that on the grounds there is a small stone horse which has an almost arthurian legend associated with it. I believe that the horse is supposed to come alive if the right person sits on it's back and that person is supposed to free/rule taiwan?( I suppose I don't remember that clearly, but give me a break it was several years ago now). The other was that inside was a small section dedicated to the god of learning, where you could see prayers hung that students placed before going to take exams. Let me see if I can google something up for you.(http://dreintaiwan.blogspot.com/2009/05/fort-provintia-chih-kan-lou-in-tainan.html this guy has a picture of the prayers/offerings half way down on this post). Anyway the whole of this is that I have an awesome wife and she made a cool thing for me.

Panic!

2011-03-18T08:47:00.000-07:00

Why do they always make the panic buttons on keys a big red button? Will has discovered these buttons and loves to push them. The only problem is that they can make it through the house to the cars parked outside. I'm sure the neighbors wonder why our cars randomly start honking ALL the time.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T08:43:00.000-07:00

For Dinner we had hot dogs on homemade green marble rye bread with thousand island and sauerkraut with boiled cabbage.

Then for dessert we had grasshopper cake. mmm

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Play Date

2011-03-16T16:12:00.000-07:00

We were invited over to a sister in our ward's house to try out their new swing set. Will was only slightly interested in the swings, but really got excited when he saw this:

why yes that is a hot pink barbie big wheels car. Will was memorized by the radio. He sat there pressing the buttons the whole time. He just loved playing the 'tunes' for everyone else there :)

Will's computer skills

2011-03-13T16:27:00.000-07:00

Like father like son

By myself

2011-03-13T15:54:00.000-07:00

All of a sudden Will has decided he likes to feed himself. It started with having to have his own plate, but today he decided he know how to use a fork as well. This kid is growing up too fast for me!

Photography by William

2011-03-12T15:40:00.000-08:00

Will has learned how to turn on the camera by himself. It is also his favorite toy. Do I really need to explain the pictures?

I must admit part of me hesitates before I take it away from him... maybe if he broke it I would get my new camera...hmmm :)

Pan Pizza

2011-03-11T15:48:00.000-08:00

The other day I really wanted Pizza Hut style pan pizza. So I went online and found a recipe. It turned out amazing. It really did taste like Pizza Hut except I cut back on the oil. I was okay comprising I little authenticity for my conscious. Oh I used this recipe here.

Will the drummer

2011-03-10T15:45:00.000-08:00

Will really likes music. So I gave him and old metal bowl and spoon. He had a ball!

Colored Pencil on the Walls

2011-03-09T15:42:00.000-08:00

I now have colored pencil on my newly painted walls. Will found these in the diaper bag left over from my primary class on Sunday. He thought they were fun to play with. He also thought they made a really cool noise when he rubbed them on the wall. He really wasn't trying to be bad, I don't think he even knows he drew on the wall.

More Birthday Presents

2011-03-08T15:29:00.000-08:00

Will is going to think that birthdays last all year long at this rate :) We received a present in the mail from Will's Great-Grandfather. This is one of the first presents he's opened up mostly by himself.

Chinese Food

2011-03-07T15:14:00.000-08:00

Okay so this story really starts here. I was looking for Christmas presents last year and stumbled upon this on Amazon. The author is supposed to be a Cantonese Julia Child. It looked really authentic and was supposed to be half text book/ half cookbook similar to my bread book that started my food blog.

I was really tempted but I was worried because Danny is known to be a little snobby when it comes to Chinese food. (apparently Panda isn't authentic?) Anyways, I found something better and moved on. A couple months later somehow it got brought up and I showed it to him. He was so excited! (missed perfect gift giving opportunity) He couldn't wait to have it and all of the sudden started remembering gift checks that had just been deposited and never really used. So this Sunday we decided to show off our fancy culinary skills for Danny's parents. This is what we made:

(excuse the ugly picture, by the time it was all ready I was too tired and hungry to go find our camera so this was taken with my phone)

Long beans with Roasted Sesame Seeds

(These are cut up they really were like 18in long)

Crisp Beef

(This was A-MAZING! including sichuan peppercorn paste, hot bean sauce, sweet bean sauce, and hot pepper oil. Surprisingly, it wasn't that spicy just really intense flavor)

Beijing Baked Bread w/ Scallion Oil

Grandma and Grandpa Rich

2011-03-06T15:09:00.000-08:00

We were surprised by a visit from Grandpa and Grandma Rich this weekend. They came in Saturday and drove all the way out to see us. We had a lot of fun with them Sunday and Monday morning! I'm so glad we get to see them so often even though they live so far away. (I may or may not have snapped this during sacrament, but it was too cute to pass up. Plus, I have impressive stealth skills with my camera phone.)

Will the artist

2011-03-05T14:59:00.000-08:00

He seems a little young but Will really likes to color. It started when we were hanging out at Danny's office. I was trying to keep Will occupy and showed him how to color on the whiteboard. I think that was his gateway to coloring (because it's easy to make marks on a whiteboard). Since then he'll color with crayons and color pencils... on my newly painted walls (but that's another post)

Here's the little Picasso with his art work.

The Dishwasher

2011-03-04T14:40:00.000-08:00

Who knew that the funniest toy in our house was the dishwasher. Will has figured out how to open it when it's closed unless it's latched. I've got to figure out how to curb this before he gets any heavier! On the flip side the climbing wall Danny wants to build in the backyard might be gaining support.

Spring has sprung in Austin!

2011-03-03T14:41:00.000-08:00

Our peach tree has some of the prettiest blossoms. Yay for spring!

Diaper Boxes

2011-03-02T14:45:00.000-08:00

So around my house there is an abundance of these...

They are good boxes and I love that have so many the same size, and I mean who doesn't want HEB baby all over their house? Ya, not me either so check out my new, improved diaper boxes...

Pretty amazing huh? The best part is I made them out of the ugly curtains that I didn't put up here. Completely free project!

Here's the tutorials I used in case you have some hanging around your house to.
http://www.positivelysplendid.com/2011/02/lets-make-something-together-lined.html

Overloaded with Emails?

2011-03-01T14:46:00.000-08:00

So this blog has morphed a little this year. It's become a place for me and Danny to journal/ record our family adventures. It's my goal to have a post for ever day this year. Now ideally that should happen every day not big chunks at a time. That hasn't happened and I'm not going to pretend that it ever will :)

That means if you're on our email list you are getting bombarded with updates. I know I'm sorry. So here's your options, chose whichever works best for you they're all easy for us:
1. Keep getting every update in an email (nothing will change) Think of it as 365 love notes from us :)
2. Get 1 single email each time we update with a link to the blog so that you can go there to read up on all the posts.
3. No emails you can just go visit www.richoccasions.blogspot.com whenever you miss us or want to see what were up to.

WILLIAM ISAAC RICH!

2011-03-01T14:39:00.000-08:00

Me and Will went to the grocery store today to get all those things we've been running out of. Well after we made it through our whole shopping trip I stopped off at the health section to pick up some vitamins. I was trying to sort out the aisle and a half of vitamins when I heard *crack*

Will must have gotten bored waiting because when I looked over her had turned around in his seat, and grabbed the eggs. The eggs that I thought we're safely in the back of the cart! He grabbed the edge of the carton so when he pulled up the lid popped open and all the eggs fell out. When I looked there we're only 3 or 4 out of 18 left. The rest were all over my cart. It was like Easter trying to find all the eggs amongst my other groceries. Like the bad kind of easter where you still have to spaces in the carton left and you were confident they were all full before hand. I didn't know what to do so I just put all the eggs back into the container and bought them anyways. Thankfully, the cashier didn't check them so I didn't have to explain why all of my coupons were wet. (I felt bad about that one, there was nothing I could do but yup I pretty much used coupons that were covered in egg whites)
Now my groceries are covered in egg and just in case you are visiting our grocery store today I have no idea where the puddle of egg whites came from in the vitamin aisle. :)

Ugly Shoes!

2011-02-27T18:23:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago Danny and I bought the ugliest shoes I've ever seen, well maybe not the ugliest but close. (for the record Danny does not think they are ugly) Anyways, on top of that they are also the most expensive shoes I've ever bought. So that said, why did we buy them?

It's a new trend in running shoes, minimalistic shoes or barefoot running. The idea is that you run very differently without shoes than with them. When you run without shoes you hit the ground with your mid-foot instead of your heel. When you strike with your mid-foot you are able to take advantage of the body's natural shock absorbers your forefoot and calf instead of just your knees and ankles. Running without shoes also strengthens all the tendons and muscles in your foot. The problem though is that when you run barefoot you're likely to step on things aka glass, sharp rocks, ect. These shoes are supposed to enable you to run as if you were barefoot but while still protecting your feet.

There's a steep adjustment but we'll let ya know how we like them.