Bread

I thought I had made the perfect loaf of bread once upon a time.  But really, I hadn't.  This is so amazing I'm going to have to write about it on my food blog as well!

Yesterday, after being woken up at 7 AM by Nick and Tristan, I decided to bake some bread.  We were out anyways, and I thought it would be fun.  I also decided I was going to make it by the book, do exactly what the recipe said to see how it turned out.

This meant letting the yeast and sugar foam for 10 minutes, kneading the dough for 10 minutes, letting the dough rise for an hour (actually timed it), punching it down and letting it rise for another 45 minutes, and then baking it.

And you know what?  It actually worked.  I ended up with a perfectly light and fluffy textured loaf of delicious white bread.  Like it actually felt like real bread, I was so shocked.  Nick said I should try making pumpernickle next, so we'll see how that goes.  But I blended up a piece of my delicious bread with butter and honey, and oh man, it was superb!  Usually homemade bread in the blended just tastes like straight up yeast to me, but this bread was just yummy.

It was a country white loaf recipe ( I don't remember the website though!), and here it is if you want to try it.

1 cup warm water
5 tsp dry active yeast
1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup canola oil
2 eggs

1/2 tsp salt
6 1/2-7 cups all purpose flour

Dissolve yeast and sugar in water, let set for 10 minutes until frothy.  Beat eggs with oil, mix into yeast water.  Add salt and flour, adding flour one cup at a time until incorporated.  Dough will be slightly sticky (I use a mixer with a dough hook up until this point).  Turn onto floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic.  Grease and let rise covered one hour until doubled.  Punch down dough and form into desired loafs or rolls.  Cover and let rise additional 45 minutes.  Bake for 10-15 or so minutes at 350, until crust is golden brown.  Let cool enough to cut, butter, and enjoy!

Latest Project

I discovered I feel happier when I have something to work on.  For some reason, blogging just wasn't doing it for me for awhile, I apologize……

So I decided to make a new baby scrapbook and crochet another blanket.  Nick took me to JoAnn's so I could pick out some yarn, and I ended up going with the blue angel hair.  I made Tristan's out of red.  I spent about a month or two working on Tristan's, because I was working and super pregnant when I started it.  I figured this baby's blanket would take me just as long.  Nope…..I finished it in 4 days.  Oops.  It took me 6 spools of yarn even!  I don't know why, but when I start something, I just have to finish it.

I also started a scrapbook for him.  And I've already got 14 pages all done.  I've been keeping the scrapbooking material in the back room where I can't easily access it during the day to kind of pace myself.  I've still got a ways to go before he gets here.  So I've been trying to figure out what else I can work on.  I like scrapbooking, and I like sewing and crocheting, and I like baking, but unless I have a goal or purpose, I just don't do it.  It's like when I was making those letters for Atticus.  I need something like that again.

Anyhoo, pictures of the scrapbook pages to come, but for now here is a picture of the finished blanket.

Fun Tristan Facts

He likes to pretend to sneeze.

If you pretend to pout when he is throwing a tantrum, he will try an punch you in the face, closed fist an everything.

If you ask him where his brain is after several near death stunts, he will immediately gasp and begin searching for it.

He tells you he needs to be changed by smacking his diaper.

If he is being naughty, ask him if he wants to be spanked, he'll stop whatever he is doing.

For the last week, every morning he has pulled a new stuffed animal into his crib (his stuffie bin is right next to his crib).  I moved the bin afraid he might suffocate himself in the night, and the next morning found that he had somehow pulled his baby scooter into his crib and was riding it.

When he gives hugs, he'll always rub your back as well.

He loves to snack on apples, oranges, blue berries, and grapes.  Mommy doesn't like his fruity diapers.

There is a drawer in the kitchen he knows he's not supposed to get into, but if you punish him for anything, he will immediately go to that drawer and pull something out.

If you say, go look for daddy! he runs to the window, gasping at every car that goes by.

And while he still doesn't say anything besides "nigh nigh", "momma" and "dada", he will chat your ear off for hours in "Tristan" if you let him.

Tooth Brushing

Tristan's latest thing?  Teeth brushing.  There is this episode of Sid the Science Kid that he loves that is all about why you need to brush your teeth.  Now, I don't think he loves it because of that, I'm thinking he likes the taste of his tooth paste.  And he sees me and Nick doing it.

The problem is, he doesn't ever want to stop.  Generally, I brush them for him, and then let him pretend to brush himself for the next 10-15 minutes, sometimes longer depending on the size fit he throws when I try to take the tooth brush back.

Oh well, at least he is set up for great oral hygiene, right?

Half Way Through

Today was my 20 week ultrasound.  Crazy right?  I can't believe it's already half over!  And at the same time, I can't believe it's only half over.......haha.  Good thing is though, keeping up with Tristan, the dog and the house has made me busy enough to forget most of the time that I'm even pregnant at all.  It's only when I walk by the mirror and see myself I go, "oh yeah...."

Anyhoo, so we had the ultrasound today, and to our relief, everything looks great.  Except one tiny thing.......he's breech!  Sitting the exact same way and in the exact same place as Tristan had once upon a time.  Perhaps my short little skinny body isn't meant for the giant headed babies I produce.  We're just crossing our fingers that this little guy doesn't have torticollis as well, because it was a nightmare with Tristan.  We'd have to spend another year and a half in physical therapy.  The only up side to that is we've been there and done it before, so we wouldn't be so stupid this next time around.  Like I said, though, we are going to keep our fingers crossed.

But other than that, perfectly normal, due on his due date, and snug as a bug.  Here are a couple pictures for your enjoyment!  Sorry about the glare, but Tristan wrecked our scanner so I had to use my camera......

Gonna play soccer?

The Terminator

Little Profile

Feet

Drinking fluid (baby pee....yummy)

Yeay for Nursery!

For, I don't know, since Nick got released from the bishopric, we have been begging our ward to organize a nursery.  Attending church with a toddler is next to impossible.  Sitting through Sacrament meeting never happens, we are usually out in the foyer where he can run free.  And class?  Ha!  The problem is, we are going to a married student ward.  What's the problem you ask?  Aren't LDS married college students baby making machines?  Usually.

See, our ward is comprised mostly of this giant complex of one bedroom apartments.  As soon as these couples have a baby, they move.  So, Tristan was one of three nursery-ish aged babies, until his buddy Eli moved to SLC.  Now it's just him and a little one year old named Owen, oh, and about three newborns.

For those of you who know Tristan, you understand how INSANE he is around people.  He just runs around screaming, and there is NO off switch.   Nick and I have not been able to attend any of our meetings pretty much in such a long time, and we were about ready to rip our hair out.  So yesterday, after spending Sacrament meeting in the relief society room (we just discovered we can listen in there), we went to ask the bishop if they had called anyone yet.

And guess what?  THEY HAD!

Tristan spent his first Sunday ever in nursery.  This is how they did it: typically, nursery is part of the primary.  But, they didn't need to organize a whole primary for two little boys.  Instead, they made nursery a relief society auxiliary.  I guess this ward has never ever had one.  So it's nice now that they have it all together for future kidlings who come along into the ward.  I gave a lot of input in the organizing, mostly where to have it and what to do about toys.  I said we needed to get our own cabinet and own toys (I'm not ok with sharing with other wards), so they are going to do that.

And Tristan had a blast.  Owen joined in for half the time, but then got freaked out and had to go back to mommy.  Tristan was a good boy though, sharing and being sweet. And Nick and I got to go to Sunday school and priesthood and relief society.  It was absolutely wonderful!  We went home afterwards all proud and feeling like we accomplished something.

I am soooooo happy we finally have a nursery!  Yeay!

What I've been wishing for

Ever since we got married, I have wanted a dining room table.  We had a little card table and folding chairs from Walmart, and it worked fine for us.  Just throw on a nice table cloth and it looks ok.  But I told Nick when we finally have a house, that is the first thing I want to buy.

See, the nice sets are always so expensive, and large!  We just live in a small apartment, we don't have a ton of room.  But the other day while we were wandering around town, we decided to stop into RC Willey.  Its always fun to walk around looking at furniture, and Tristan can run wild.  Well, for the most part, haha.  So while we were perusing, we came across a nice dining set.  It was in the outlet section, so there were a few dings and scratches in the sides, but overall, it looked just great.  And here was the beautiful part.  It was originally $600, but had been marked down to $240.  Now, I'm sorry, but that's just too good of an offer to pass up!

And with a little help from Will and Emily, we brought home our brand new dining room table and chairs.  Its amazing just how nice and chic it makes the room look.  I now have a real table, and Sunday, we had dinner at a real table.

Thank you Nick!

Hair

My little boy has beautiful hair.......after it's washed, haha.  It's this cute curly mess right after he gets out of the bath, but then it fall flat on top and turns into a mullet in the back.  So Sunday morning, while Nick was geting ready, he thought it would be better if he gelled Tristan's hair as well.  It looked ok from the front, but in the back it was long enough for a ponytail.  And I just couldn't resist.....so I put it in a ponytail, hehe.  Don't worry, we gave him a bath later and fixed it.  Guess it's time for his first haircut, huh?

Brushing his teeth with his little ponytail

Curly mop top

Check out that crazy hair!

Going Private

I tried this once before, but I think I'm actually going to do it this time.

I'm going to make our blog private.  If you would like to be able to continue following our blog, please leave a comment or send me an email.  I think you have to have a gmail account in order to view private blogs on blogger, so I'm sorry for any inconvenience, I just think it's time to screen my readers, make sure I know who is stalking my family!

I'm going to set it to private on January 11th, so this coming Friday.  If you aren't able to send me a note before hand, there will be a prompt from blogger asking if you want to be made a reader and it will let me know.

Thanks for your understanding!

Happy Anniversary!

Can you believe it?  We have been married for four years!

I remember my first Sunday as a married woman.  They had all the new sisters get up and introduce themselves in relief society....and I remember marveling at the girls who said they had been married for two and three years.  And here I am now, haha.  Sure doesn't feel that long, it goes by pretty fast doesn't it?  Especially when you add kids to the mix.

About a week ago, I reminded my husband that he had better do something extra special for our anniversary, and that he had to be super creative.  Apparently he was already on top of it, and I had spoiled the surprise by asking what we were doing.  Haha, hey I like to know what's going on!  But I have to tell you, this is probably the sweetest, most amazing thing he has ever done.

As most of you know, I don't eat normally.  Everything has to be blended down to practically nothing.  One of the girls Nick works with waitresses at a Thai restaurant here in town, and he asked her if the owners there would be alright with blending me a dinner.  It has been about 7 or 8 years since I have gone to a restaurant and eaten there, and I've always been sad that Nick and I can't go out to eat together.  He wanted to make that happen for me.

The owners agreed.  So tonight, we took my blender with us and went out to dinner.  They were very nice and accommodating  they took my blender into the kitchen and made my order.  And it was PERFECT!  The best tasting Thai soup I have ever had in my life.  And I got to eat it right there at the table with Nick, no "can I get my order to go, please?"  And all thanks to a wonderful, thoughtful husband.  I mean, I am seriously impressed, and very thankful.  That was one of the best experiences; I don't know if Nick realizes just how much that meant to me.  It was something very special.

Then to top it off, we went and spent some time being silly at the Nicklecade, playing games, winning tickets and just enjoying each other's company.  We haven't been able to go on a date like that in a long time, so it was a lot of fun for both of us.  And last, we got some hot chocolate and wandered around Barnes & Noble looking at books.  It was probably one of the most enjoyable nights or ouf married life.    Sometimes the most simple gestures are the most rewarding.

Thank you for 4 amazing years Nick!  It's been a lot of fun so far, and it's only going to get better, I know it. We're like a stinky old cheese babe, just getting riper with age!

And just for fun, here's a blast from the past!

(7 years ago!)

We look so young, it's nuts

Sick Baby

I've never had a sick kid before.  Unless you count the times Tristan had an allergic reaction to rice and spent 6 hours vomiting.  But I don't think that counts.  I'm talking full blown ill, fever, runny nose, cough, grumpies, the works.

We're pretty sure he picked something up at family dinner last week.  Poor little guy, woke up Sunday morning with this horrible cough.  I didn't think it would be that bad, like I said, he's never been sick before in his life.  By that night, his nose was running.  And Monday morning, fever of 102.7.  Uh, yeah, not good.  So I gave him tylenol and ibuprofen, and a little benadryl to help dry up his mucus.  We were sure it was a virus and would just go away in a few days.  But when he woke up Wednesday morning again with the 102 fever, we decided it was time to have him seen.

Having worked at a clinic for four years, I'm usually reluctant to see a doctor unless its an emergency.  But with kids, it's different.  Little things can explode into big things really fast if you aren't careful.  And you don't mess around with fevers.

Turns out he has a really bad cold (not bronchitis thank goodness!) and a horrible ear infection.  Which explains the mood and even worse balance.  We got him started on an antibiotic today, which he of course isn't thrilled about.  Any time he sees me with a syringe full of pink liquid, he starts freaking out.  It's a good thing the benadryl,  tylenol, and amoxicillin are all pink then, huh?  And the snoppy nose, it's like a fountain, so we try to wipe it up as much as we can, but he hates that too and fights as much as he can.

I feel so bad for him!  Like I said, new experience for all of us.  I'm just glad he was able to make it this long without ever getting sick.  And I guess I should be grateful it's not the pukies, though I'm sure those are soon to come as he gets older and meets more little people his age.

Other than being sick, he is growing like a weed.  Almost 30 pounds!  And he is starting to say a few words, like mama, nigh nigh, ball, car, yeah, ooh.  While he doesn't talk much, he sure says a lot in his baby jargon.  He always has something to say.  He's very good at pointing to what he wants, and he knows where things are kept.  He understands most of what we say, which is pretty neat.  And my favorite, if he poops he is always sure to let us know by coming up and smacking the crap out of his diaper.  He is otherwise a very sweet little boy, he loves to give hugs and rub your back.  He adores Korra, even though he sometimes gets rough with her.  And the best part, when you put him to bed, he goes to sleep!  Amazing, right?  I hope we have as good of luck with this next one.