Anniversary

We celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary on Saturday.  We don't usually celebrate in high style.  I actually tried to for our first anniversary and it was a total bust which involved crying through our dinner at the Long John Silver/ A&W combo restaurant (we couldn't find our planned restaurant, among other traumatic happenings).  Oh, I was so silly.  I really do think marriage is one of the most important things to celebrate, and we really wanted to do something special this year.

We left the kids with my parents on Saturday morning and took off for Salt Lake, just the two of us.  We spent the day shopping, wandering, talking, eating, and reminiscing.  Our courtship and the first nine months of our marriage were spent in downtown Salt Lake.  We drove through our old stomping grounds.  We remembered a simpler, easier time that for some reason didn't feel simple or easy.  Why is that?  Will I feel the same way about our life now in another seven years?

We spent a highly romantic evening watching the olympics.  Then we both woke up at 6:30am and couldn't sleep any longer.

The end.

We're officially old.

Hunger Games 3

Recipe number 3 is based off of a recipe sent to me by my friend, Janae.  I combined it with some flavors I had wanted to try out together.  I loved the shape of this little treat.  I call it...

Sweet and Salty and Nutella-y Rice Krispy Treat Rolls, or something like that. 

It's starts out as a basic Rice Krispy recipe, but I browned the butter first because I just can't get enough of browned butter.  Then I substituted crushed pretzel bits for 1/3 of the cereal.  You spread it out on some oiled wax paper in a thin layer.  Then I topped it with 1 1/2 c. melted chocolate chips and 1/2 c. nutella.  After letting it  sit for 20 minutes or so to let the topping harden up a bit, you roll it up and then cut it into slices. 

Let me just tell you that these were good.  Like maybe better than the cinnamon roll treats.  But only maybe...

At one

Here's the low-down on our little one year old:

Wt: 21.5 lbs.  My little fatty patty has turned into a bit of a skinny minnie.  Just following in his sister's footsteps I guess.

• He does the bear crawl now and prefers to be on his feet instead of his knees.  He's gotten really fast. He stands from a sit without holding onto anything.  No steps yet.
• His mop of hair is starting to curl at the crown.  Scott's hair went curly at a year.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a whole head of curls.  
• He sleeps through the night!!!  And it was so easy.  All we did was wean (due to our 3rd round of thrush and an unresolved biting issue), which was also so easy, and he decided there was nothing worth getting up for anymore.  
• He has a bird mouth when I feed him.  He opens it larger than you would think a person could.  And he eats SO much better than he used to.  It all started with a horrible ear infection that wouldn't go away for a month with all kinds of antibiotic and other treatments.  We even had an appointment scheduled with an ENT to discuss tubes, which our physician felt he would need.  Our last ditch effort was a diet change.  Scott read that certain foods can cause or exacerbate ear infections.  So we took the plunge and cut out wheat, dairy, sugar, eggs, and dried fruit.  Pretty much everything he liked.  But, just a few days later his ears were free and clear.  Was it the diet change that actually worked?  I don't know, but we decided to leave him on the diet for a few months in hopes that we could stave off any more infections.  He hasn't had one since.  This whole thing helped me realize that kids (at least this kid) will eat what you give them, over time.  When no option for bread, yogurt, jam, cheese, was given, he slowly started to like other things.  He still has things he really doesn't like, but he eats so much more and so much better than he used to.  What do we feed him?  Beans, rice, meat, oatmeal, fruits, and vegetables.  Now we're slowly starting to reintroduce the foods we had cut out.
• He's a very friendly little guy and will hold his arms out for anyone to hold him.  Even if I'm just talking to a random person in the hall at church, he wants to go to them.  Anyone remember Miss M at this age?  Ha ha.
• He force fake cries when I tell him "no" about something.
• He's decided he loves bottles and binkies now.  He also has a special blanket.  This is for another post, but I'm all about comfort objects this time around.
• He says mama, dada, and once bye bye.  He shakes his head "no" and adds in a forcefully swaying arm if he really means it.  He waves hello and goodbye.  
• He's turning into a little monkey and can climb onto Madeline's bed and a chair in our living room which he uses as leverage to climb on top of our computer desk.  He can also climb up our slide in the backyard to the top.
• He's so easy to take care of, and for the most part just entertains himself.  He has the sweetest spirit.  He snuggles.  He laughs at everything.  We just really can't imagine our family without him.

Light

This little house we are living in was dark.  Really, really dark.  We love pretty much everything about it except for it's darkness.  The builders painted the walls with flat tan paint, the doors and trim are chocolate brown, the cabinetry is cherry, and the kitchen floor is dark brown.  The walls we knew we could change pretty easily, and it's been in the plans since it was purchased.  We decided to paint the ceiling white and the walls a cream color with the same tones as the tan, because it really was a pretty color.

Last weekend the dead was done.  It was a pretty big job.  My parents came to head up the whole project.  

We are so, so happy with the results.  When I woke up the next morning I told Scott it felt like how I feel when winter lets up and the airy lightness and freedom of spring and summer begins.  Everything just feels lighter.  Well, it IS lighter, but you know what I mean?

Now I'm itching to do the rest of the house.

BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER:

Hunger Games 2

Here's my second trial recipe for our rice krispy treat death match coming up in a month.  Recipe here.  It's supposedly a knockoff of the avalanche bars you can get at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.  The candy apples always call my name there, so I haven't tried these so-called avalanche bars.  What intrigued me about this recipe is that the base is melted white chocolate and peanut butter.  You can't go wrong there, huh?  Well, actually melted white chocolate can go very, very wrong as I learned with Scott during our first fall as a married couple trying to make the aforementioned candied apples.  I wondered why the white chocolate was so chunky, so I just kept putting it back in the microwave.  And, as you can imagine, it just got worse and worse.  We've learned that lesson, so I was very gentle with my white chocolate melting this time around.

These were really good, but a little too sweet for my tastes.  I couldn't even finish my helping.  I don't mind not being able to finish something because it's so richly chocolaty that I just can't take another bite, but not because it's too sickeningly sweet.  That doesn't mean that I haven't stolen little chunks off of the pan in the fridge.  They really are good, just in small doses I think.

Our Fourth

This is the first 4th of July that our little family has really celebrated.  Last year I was sick with a 9 day old baby, and I really don't remember what we did during our years in Texas.  Madeline was so, so exited, which made it fun for all of us.  

We started the day off with a nice, big breakfast at church.  We went home for am naps and some yard work.  We got a little over-zealous with the yard work and almost missed the beginning of the parade.  This is one great perk about living in this quaint place - the parades are fun and really doable.  Even with our late start we found parking a couple blocks away and seats right on the street.  The kids love, love, loved the parade!  Madeline looted handfuls of candy, and one of the floats handed out pints of ice cream.  

The rest of the day was spent with family for a bbq and bubble blowing at grandma and grandpa's.  

Here are the pics: