Gearing up for colder weather...

In Dallas we can usually get away with outfits like this most of the year... But in preparation for our trip to Utah on Monday we've let Ashton wear his mittens and beanie. As I was putting his jammies on he informed me that the mittens were not coming off. So I snuck into his room to document the adorableness of this.

And here's little Hannah's outfit for the cold. You wouldn't believe this but her feet actually reach the bottom of this silly snowsuit. The arms on the otherhand are more than just a little disporportionate to the rest of the outfit. And of course she doesn't even begin to fill it out. The little thing barely weighs 14lbs at 7.5 months.

David says he can always tell right before it's vacation time because the phonecalls between my parents and siblings increase ten fold. Midway here we come!!

This & That

I started uploading pics hoping to find a couple to send to my sis-in-law from Thanksgiving. Actually, I'm really just procrastinating finishing my Sunday School lesson. Don't judge - doing it in Spanish is still really hard for me.
Anyway, I found one picture from Thanksgiving Day.
Yes, that's a Turkey hanging from the trampoline. Believe me when I say only in Texas. This poor birdie was deep friend just minutes later. And boy was he delicious!

On Weds night David & I went to a Stars Game with Trevin (David's bro) & Kalisha. The Stars lost but we saw a lot of fighting and a shoot out. Needless to say, the boys thought it was a good night.

I know I talk a lot about how Ashton adores Hannah - but he REALLY adores her. This kind of stuff is a daily occurance at our house. He reads to her, helps change her diaper, tells us when she is sad or crying in her bed. We hope this lasts at least a couple more years because it's the best.

And here is Ashton putting up his baby's 1st Christmas.

He has taken it down and put it back up atleast 10 times now. And I'm not embarassed to say he just learned to recognize Santa this week. I'm not a huge Santa girl myself. I'm a realist - David, my opposite, believes the imagination should be fostered for as long as possible.

Any bets on who will win this battle? I say as long as he can sing "Away in a Manger" and point out all the figures in my nativities we've got Christmas covered for our 2 year old.

An Ashton Funny

We've made it a habit of letting Ashton go to the bathroom on the big potty everytime we change his diaper before we put on a new one. He goes about 80% of the time and when he doesn't we're pretty sure it's just because he's got no liquid in him. His main motivation is the 2 skittles he gets afterwards. As he runs to the potty he says "Potty candy peepee candy Ashton candy". So we know he gets it. Anyway, he was sitting there on top of the toilet and wasn't going the other night so he asked for some water. When David handed him the water bottle he poured some into the toilet and said "Ashton, peepee YAY!" "Candy please".
We decided that being clever deserves a couple of skittles too.

Just what the doctor ordered

Ashton & I had a hard Saturday. Our friends E&E moved and we both cried after we dropped them off at the airport. These 2 learned to crawl, walk, talk etc. together.On the way home I tried to tell him about all the fun things that were coming up... mostly to help cheer me up too.

We've been super busy this week and it's only Tuesday - it really is just what the doctor ordered.

We ate a firetruck cake. I told David as I was up to my elbows in a frosting and foodcoloring covered kitchen that I needed to remember that just because I watch the foodnetwork doesn't mean I can make a cake just like the Ace of Cakes. That was my sad attempt at a firetruck.

Can you tell Ashton didn't really care what it looked like? David & I were impressed that he blew out the candles without spitting on anything.

He got a lot of fun new toys.

Some of which he wont even get out of for storytime before bed.

We're so glad David's family is here in town - and that even more came into town for this holiday.

I love Thanksgiving. What a better way to spend a day than with family and being grateful for all we have.

Turning 2

Happy Birthday Ashton!

Braided Swiss Bread

So I had every intention of taking pictures of every step of the cooking process. Then I didn't remember to take pictures until the dough was done. Sorry - looks like I'm not cut out to start a cooking blog after all.

Here's what you'll need.

1 cup warm water
3 T. dry yeast
1 T. salt
1/3 cup sugar
2 2/3 cup milk
2 T. butter
4 eggs
10 cup flour

Now if you're like me and staring at your 4 qt kitchen aide wondering if it could possibly hold 10 cups of flour - I'm here to tell you it can be done! So here we go with the step by step process.

• Combine warm water, yeast sugar and salt in bowl. Let sit for a few minutes.
• Meanwhile melt your butter in a saucepan and add the milk. Heat until very warm.
• Add milk mixture to yeast mixture.
• Add eggs and 4 cups of the flour. Start mixing.
• Add 1 cup of flour at a time.
• If you working in a small kitchenaide here's where it gets tricky. When I got to cups 9 & 10 of flour I had to unlock my mixer and hold it up a little from the bowl so the dough wouldn't go over the paddle. Knead for 6-8 minutes. If you're scared to ruin your mixer go ahead and do it by hand.
• This makes a soft/sticky dough. Split the dough in half and put in two greased bowls.

Sidenote: you're definitely going to want to grease your hands before you attempt to split the dough by hand.

Okay - if your dough looks something like this you're doing great so far!

Cover and let rise until double.
My friend Bree asked how long that was I told her one batch in the dryer - she had never heard the secret of putting dough on the dryer to rise. It's actually folding that batch in the dryer that is the hard part for me.
Really - the hard part is done if you've come this far. Now before you get your hands sticky go grease 4 bread pans.

Each bowl will make 2 loaves of bread. So take half out of one bowl and put on floured surface. You'll need two peices to braid with for each loaf - so yes, split that dough again.

Roll out each piece until it is about 18 inches long.

Now watch the video (at the bottom) of Bree braiding the bread a couple of times to see how you do it. Basically you make an X with the dough and then do under - over - under until you're out of dough to work with. Then tuck the end under so you can only see the braided part.

Cover let the dough raise again until it looks about how big a loaf of bread should be.

Put in the oven at 350 for 22 minutes. Keep an eye on it because altitudes and ovens are a little different.

Only 3 loaves came out of my oven - Bree who helped me make this batch had already taken hers home. Our braids weren't as perfect this time around - mostly because I let her braid - kidding, Bree. It was me who rolled out uneven pieces to braid with.

*If you like fancy shiney bread go ahead and do the egg brushing thing on top. If it grosses you out like it does me take a good old stick of butter and rub it on the top to get rid of any flour that you can still see.

I had a video of me doing the braiding but I wasn't nearly as thorough as Bree is... so follow her expert ways. This was really only her 2nd time so it can't be that hard -right?

My new favorite way to eat this bread is toasted with butter and a little bit of cinnamon-sugar on top it's just as good as a cinnamon roll. MMMMMMMMMmmm goodluck ya'll!

I had one of those moments...

The other day my sister & I were talking on the phone to pass a few minutes of our day. Sometimes we don't even talk we kind of just listen to what's going on in the other's house... I was feeding Ashton pretzels from a Halloween bucket and tripping over toys as I went back and forth from putting Hannah to sleep. Then I heard my sister telling her daughter to quit licking her. She said it a few more times and it dawned on me... this is what we always wanted. That sounds so weird but I've always wanted a toy filled house and little ones to love. It comes along with extra messes and quirks but it's already such a joyful time of my life.

Cue Sunday morning. Wait, let's rewind and start with Saturday. We spent an amazingly fun day at Six Flags with David's family. Ashton was a roller coaster junkie and consequently got no nap and went down for the night at 8pm. Around 10 he woke up crying which almost never happens so we got him up and let him drink some milk and have some of the cookies we were eating. When he seemed calm we put him back down. I'll spare you the details but basically from 12-2 he woke up every 45 minutes and we tried a number of things to calm him. He didn't have a fever or anything noticeably wrong so we figured his sleep schedule was messed up from hid lack of nap. Finally around 2:30am he fell asleep for the night.

Sunday morning we had to wake him up for church and as he was as happy and could be as I got him dressed. Meanwhile, David took a look at him and said "He has chocolate in his ear!" We both start to laugh at how he could have gotten part of the cookie in his ear and actually wedged a chocolate chip in. So I took a picture b/c I thought it was hilarious.

I took him to the bathroom to clean out his ear. I was already full into my "putting things in our ears = no, no" talk when it dawned on me that it couldn't possibly all be chocolate from the cookie. I told David this and he refused to believe me. I said it was wax - he said it was chocolate. So I did what any sane mother would do to prove they're right. I tasted a tiny bit from my finger and came to the conclusion that it was in fact wax.

Later I was telling the story to my mom and she laughed and said "You tasted it?!?" Before then it really never occured to me that tasting it was that big of a deal. And that's when I realized that was a defining moment of motherhood and I am not ashamed.

So a quick trip to the pediatrician let us know that it was a ruptured eardrum. His ears were infected and he didn't say a thing or even pull on them. I think he has a high pain tolerance. I thought maybe it was all the rides and they had messed with his ears, thank goodness it wasn't. He's on antibiotics now and it's really not a big deal. Just wanted to share my mothering moment of the month, especially since I had a picture, hope I didn't gross you all out.

Trick or Treat

I've got to admit - Halloween has been kind of boring for the last oh.. 10 years. But this year we stayed busy with lots of fun activities AND it was magical watching Ashton trick or treat.

This is our 3rd time going to a Murder Mystery with the Kaynes. They went all out this year and it was SO much fun.
We went on an archealogical dig. My character was actually doing the digging, hence the khaki, David on the other was a bussiness man who came into town to stir up trouble.

We taught Ashton how much fun it is to carve pumpkins. He refused to stick his hand in though.

We went to the ward trunk or treat. Here is Ashton and his best bud Elsie. He's not going to know what hit him when she moves in just a few weeks. We'll have to mourn together when the Malinkas leave us.

The dragon ate a hot dog.

And on Halloween night we ate some pizza with friends and then went to a really nice area of Dallas with huge houses to go trick or treating. On the 2nd house Ashton got a sucker and refused to do anything else until he could eat the sucker. If you click on this picture you can see how sticky and slobbery he was that night. We did about 10 houses and that was just perfect.

I can definitely say I'm looking forward to Halloween next year!

Solids

Looks like I'll be waiting another few weeks before we try rice cereal again.

As long as everyone remembers that this blog was started primarily to make sure my family stays up to date with my growing kids you wont mind all the updates & pictures about the kids.

I'll post Halloween pics soon - promise!

What kept us up past midnight...

I decided to combine Ashton's 2 favorite things, Elmo & pumpkins. And well, David's pumpkin... all I can say is, that my friends, is what you get when you marry a perfectionist who drills in small areas all day long.
Pretty cool, huh?

The craft

Here is part of the reason my house was so awful for so many days. They also made gobble blocks that I decided weren't as important as clearing off my table. Maybe before Thanksgiving I'll give it a whirl. Also, I haven't forgotten about the swiss bread recipe. I WILL post it - I just have to make a video of me showing how to braid the bread. After all that's really the only reason you all want to know the recipe - because it looks soooo cool.

Sometimes my house takes on a life of it's own.

A while ago my friend Amy aka The Lawsons Do Dallas did a Let's Get Real 2009 challenge. I laughed and laughed at all the pictures her readers submitted of their messy rooms - it made me feel so much better about my "kinda" dirty apartment. Well, I woke up Monday morning and my house looked like this:
It looked like my Relief Society craft night threw up on my table.

And I refused to put it all away until I had actually finished my craft that I didn't get a chance to do that night. And there was no room to paint on the table so I had to move to the kitchen. Notice the wood balancing in the middle of my kitchen sink.

And because I could have cared less what Ashton was doing as long as he wasn't touching the stuff on the table my living room looked like this.

Now, let me start by saying I am NOT a clean person by nature. I hate all things scrubbing. But generally I am pretty neat. Toys go back in their places and I always have a clean sink before bed. Waking up to this as you can imagine made me want to go back to bed. Thursday was craft night, Friday we got a flat tire, Saturday once it was fixed we spent all day running errands and Sunday we were up at David's family's house all day.

So, poor David put up with this for 3 days... yesterday I vowed not to leave the house until it was spotless. Thank goodness we had invited new friends from the ward over for FHE so I had a deadline.

By naptime my house was sparkling (well, mostly) so I decided to make some macaroni grill rosemary bread. And this happens:

I could have cried. Can you see my footprint? It's a wonder I love to cook as much as I do because I am a HUGE klutz in the kitchen. Just ask my mom. One time she was baking 10 dozen rolls for a funeral and asked me to get the butter out of the microwave and I dropped the glass bowl full of hot butter. It shattered all over my mom's spotless kitchen and she kicked me out. Or the time I was loading my dishwasher and wasn't paying attention and broke a glass cup right in half because it didn't clear the counter. Things like that happen to me ALL. THE. TIME. pregnant or not.

So this is my get real post. Now no one can ever accuse me of only posting the happy/perfect/fun things about my life!

5 Months

Happy 5 months Hannah Lei!

I can't believe it was just 5 months ago that Hannah made her grand entrance in the world. In what I would call my perfect birth. It was so great infact, that David has already agreed to buy me my very own birthing tub for the next time (insert a thrilled squeal here). So Hannah was my first water baby but definitely not the last.

I remember I whined a little (okay, maybe a lot) about how hard she was her first few months and already that seems like forever ago. She has turned into the easiest happy baby.

So here's 5 fun things about Hannah for her 5 month birthday.

* She loves tummy time. Within 2 seconds of laying her on her back she flips right over and stays happy for 20 minutes at a time.

* She has been known once in awhile to stop crying in the middle of a gasp to smile at whoever is looking at her then she will continue her cry.

* Only 2 things will make her cry. When she is super tired and hasn't been laid down or when she is hungry and trying to latch on to nurse and gets distracted because there is too much noise (ie Ashton yelling).

* She adores Ashton and he adores her.

* She gets lonely if I leave her in her seat and Ashton and I do something in another room. So she comes everywhere we do (even in the house).

Airplane

Sometimes I look at my little family and think, could life get any better?

Hannah's Bedroom

Harry Potter's got nothin' on her

Dear Hannah,
Please start sleeping though the night (12 hours would be great) so we can move you in with your brother and out of our messy closet.
Thank you.
Love, Mom

Mom, are you proud??

My very first batch of Swiss Bread!

I'm waiting for David to get home from the Priesthood session to taste it.

It's almost Fall...

and pumpkin is Ashton's new favorite word.

She gets a lot of this.

It started in the womb when Ashton would blow sherberts on my pregnant belly. Now he saw me tickling her during a diaper change and had to join in. Notice she goes between a nervous giggle to a seriously startled face. But there's no doubt about it, this little girl is loved.

Summer is officially over

Labor day always signifies the official end of summer for me. No more plane rides, trips, school breaks for David etc. until we're in full swing of the holiday season. We had a great time at Swiss Days and I was so glad the kids and I got to stay an extra week to avoid the last week of real Texas heat. Our afternoons were spent on the hammock watching the kids jump on the tramp or riding the scooters around Midway. The kids and I loved being spoiled by my parents and getting our one on one time since we're the farthest away. Being away for the extra week made me realize that Dallas is officially home now. Home has always been where David is but Dallas (downtown believe it or not) is the place I know best now. I've long forgotten my way around Vegas. And Midway, eventhough it's always been our 2nd home is now Nana & Papa's. Dallas is mine; I know the streets, the stores, the parks, our friends are here and I actually miss it when I'm not here. I guess after 3 years it's about time I call Dallas home.

Now onto pictures...


These 2 kiddos cuddled in bed with me every morning while I was without David.

One morning my Dad took the kids to a friends' house to ride the ponies. Ashton, my little controller, preferred holding the reigns and leading it around.

Here's Ashton and his "Pookie" (Kimball) these 2 are the best playmates. They took turns venturing off into neighbors' yards and under fences. Kimball is the most gutsy, unafraid 2-year- old little girl I've ever met. And while I would love for these 2 to see eachother more often I may be just a little grateful that Ashton can only learn her daring tricks a few times a year instead of daily.

And little Hannah is officially 4 months as of last week. She's still long and skinny and already rolling and inching her way to grab things.

I know enquiring minds want to know how the plane trip went with the kids. Aside from being held up in security for a good 15 minutes because they found "traces" of something on my diaper bag it was uneventful. I still can't believe they made me wait to get patted down when I had 2 kids by myself. But the wonderful people on my flight were SO helpful that they made up for any of the bad taste I had left in my mouth after security.

At the book store today I started browsing through a book called The Happiest Toddler on the Block. Intriguing, I thought. I most definitely want the happiest toddler on the block because let's face it, Ashton at 22 months is full swing into the two's. And I refuse to call them terrible just yet because I know I haven't even begun to reach the peak. The book grabbed me from the introduction. The author compares toddlers to cavemen. And he is SO dead on. Here's his list of why.

• Toddlers forget to say "please" and "thank you" because, like cavemen, they're impatient and impulsive.
• Toddlers bravely defy us, like cavemen hunting elephants and buffalo, even though we're many times their power and size!
• Toddlers, just like our ancient relatives, love face paint, sticking feathers in their hair, drawing on walls, and banging on drums.
• Toddlers have trouble being reasonable and rational because, like early humans, their brain's language, logic, and patience control center is too immature.

Needless to say I bought the book and am loving it so far. Even today I've been more patient with my little guy. And in honor of likening him unto a caveman I fed him leaves for lunch and he ate them!

(Spinach with a little bit of italian dressing goes a long way in this house! )

I love my life

it's NEVER boring!

Embracing the 2 kid situation

We had just put Hannah down for some tummy time and Ashton saw it and immediately crawled down from on top of the table to lay down next to her. We didn't even have to pose this.

The most common question I get these days is "how are you handeling 2?"
Depending on how the day has gone you could get any of these answers:
-we're glad we have one of each because we're done (this is saved for the occasions when both kids are crying at the same time)
-we're seriously rethinking our idea of a big family
-I'm surviving, enough said
-Not as hard as I thought

If you're reading this and you have more than 2 kids and are already rolling your eyes and thinking 2 is nothing try 3,4,5,6... give yourself a big pat on the back and let me boost my self esteem for a couple of minutes.

Anyway, Hannah is 3.5 months old and I have had a sweet life over the summer. David was with me almost the entire time. He went back to school last Monday and I'm finally like every other wife who says goodbye to her husband at 8 and doesn't see him until 6. It's been a couple weeks and I feel like I've finally gotten the hang of things. Before I've waited till the evenings or Saturdays to run most of my errands and my bravest activities were playgroup or going to a friend's. This week I've decided it's time to start getting back to normal and surely 2 kids and running errands can't be all that bad or everyone would stop at 2. In the past couple of days we've been to Costco, the museum, Michaels, grocery shopping, visiting teaching etc and we've survived. Only one piggy bank at Michaels shattering on the floor was evidence of how I wasn't totally keeping all my ducks in a row... but that was my fault not Ashton's so I figure I did pretty well.

So in answer to the famous question. Yes, we're doing great. I thought nothing could be better than having a kid and loving them so much... but I'm pretty sure the sibling love comes pretty close. Ashton adores little "How-wah" and can even get her to smile and coo with him.

Midway!

Well after 3 weeks of being on vacation it is a huge wake up call to be back in a 2 bedroom apartment. Poor Ashton already misses being outside. Here are some things we did up in Midway.

My parents backyard borders horses & cows!

Ashton was partial to the pony.

We went to park city to ride on the Alpine slides. Ashton went down once but it was scary trying to keep him sitting on the chair lift.

Some of the little cousins looking longingly at the little kid rides. The guy let them on even before we had tickets because they looked so pathetic watching through the fence.

The boys! David was super sunburned from standing in line to go on the zip line in Park City.

Me & the Ashbug!

Ashton woke up every morning and said "Ride - Ride - RIDE!!" until he could find someone to take him on a ride in the Rhino.

Luckily my parents were more patient taking the kids out on atleast 5 rides up Memorial hill or around town every day.

We haven't forgotten about our little girl!

Hannah & Anna. Thank goodness they don't have the same last name! They are just a few weeks apart.

And Hannah & Eli these two are just a month apart.

Ashton only went inside to sleep. He was outside all day long and he LOVED life. The weather was SO nice!

Breakfast with the Ashton cousins.

Quick family picture. This is the first time I haven't cried when I left Midway and that was only because I get to go back on the 3rd for Swiss Days! David will be taking me up there and staying the weekend but then I'll be flying home with both kids by myself. Wish me luck!