Oops

Oops, I left the Nutella on the counter. And this is her 'princess smile.'

Burrr!

Today I sent my kids to walk to school in sub zero temperature because my car is in the shop.
I feel like I should get the mother of the year award.

I knew this day would come!

It is official, Ethan is taller than I am. I feel oddly proud and sad and short all at the same time.

Cooper (For Mary)

Well, I have a goal for 2013 to post to my blog more often.  (Once a week? Yeah we'll see if that actually happens. :) ) Honestly, I felt a little guilted into blogging again, but it's a good kind of guilt. 

Any who, Mary requested more photos of Cooper, so this is for you Mary! <3

  

This is Cooper at 4 days old.  And Sam the Lamb.  (Sam has a long and involved history which is not appropriate for this post,)

Here is Cooper at 2 1/2 weeks.  He has grow a little.  Sam looks like he has put on a little weight too.

And again at one month, somebody pudged out!

This is the notes from our doctors visit at 2 weeks.  (I really thought his head would be in a higher percentile.  Only 17%?) 

Cooper with the sibs.  Wow he looks teeny tiny.

This is Cooper in his carseat for his first excursion.  Not that you can tell that he is in the carseat from this close up shot.  Mostly I wanted a picture of the hat, that is for a 6 month old, and is too small already. (17% yeah right.)

I don't have a snarky comment for this one, just cute.

More cute.

So, nursing has been a bit frustrating, so we started him on solids a little early.  The only down side so far is that he is a little messy.

 He has already learned the half smile....

.... that drives the girls crazy. 

He started dressing fancy, he is just growing up so fast.

Oh yeah, there was the time I dropped him down the stairs.  I was trying to multi task and juggling the baby and the toilet paper didn't work out so good this day.

I think maybe he has hit puberty already.  In retrospect, maybe we started solids too early.

Then he and Halle decided to run away and join a biker gang.

 

He came back but he had sold Halle for a monkey!  Needless to say he is grounded from solid food, for at least a couple more months.

Pre-School

Halle has been going to Pre-School (or sometimes we call it Joy School) this year.  I think of it as pre-pre-school.  It is fun, we rotate taking turns teaching once a week.  We focus on one letter each week.   This is the first week that it was my turn to teach since Cooper was born.  I was a little anxious  about having to hold Cooper the whole time while teaching four 3-year-olds

This is Halle and her friend making L  L  Lion pudding snacks.

Cooper was an angel and fell asleep 15 minutes before school started and slept the whole time!

December 2012

December for us was all about the new baby and Christmas.  It was a little tricky, with an itsy bits baby,  to get out and do all the Christmas activities we would have liked to, like going to see the lights at Temple Square, or going to the Festival of Trees.  But we made our own Christmas fun that didn't require leaving the house {much.}

(I have forgotten how to blog, so the following pictures are in random order :) )

Cooper, about 2 weeks with Sam the lamb for perspective.

 Moey making Gingerbread Houses.

 Moey with her new monster hat.  We all got new monster hats from Nana.  They are pretty awesome.

 Ethan spent his Christmas break reading and playing the computer.

 Gavin, our little dare-devil, snowboarded all the way across the yard.  Winter, pretty much the only time the hilly yard is awesome. Notice Dave's orange monster hat, it just about glows in the dark.

 Silly Gavin is nearly skewered by icicles.  We have some amazing icicles in the snowy cold.

 This is actually the first snow we had, it was perfect for making snow men.  The weird alien snowman was as tall as Dave.

 Making a giant snowball.

 Crazy Halle in her monster hat.

 I really wanted to get an Elf on the Shelf this year, but I didn't want to pay the $30 for it.  So I just made my own 'Elf' (More Elf photos coming soon.)

 Mustaches in stocking = lots of fun pictures.

We ended the month on a high note. We blessed Cooper and wintessed Grandma and Grandpa B. Mission setting apart.

Adventures in cooking

I made some yummy Alfredo sauce tonight. I am ashamed to admit that this is the first time I have ever made it. I now understand why it is so tasty, it is made with fat, and fat and more fat, oh and then some cheese. :)

I also made breadsticks, I typed in breadsticks on google and used the first recipe I found. They were very yummy too. (Dinner was a little high in carbs tonight.)

Here is the recipe for the breadsticks. Although I had to add at least 1/4 cup more water. and I used a whole egg and skipped putting the egg white on the formed dough. Then, before I cooked them I covered them in melted butter and shook garlic powder and parmesan cheese over them. The kids especially liked the bread sticks because I formed them in the first letter in their names.

ITALIAN BREAD STICKS

Printed from COOKS.COM

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2 to 2 1/4 c. flour
1 pkg. dry yeast
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. olive oil or cooking oil
1 egg yolk
1 egg white
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. warm water

In large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. Combine warm water, oil, and egg yolk. Add to large bowl. Beat at low speed with electric mixer until blended. Beat 3 minutes at high speed. By hand, stir in enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth. Shape into a ball; cover and refrigerate 3 to 4 hours or overnight. Divide into 16 equal parts. Cover; let rest 10 minutes. Roll each piece of dough to form rope 14 inches long.

Place 2 inches apart on greased baking sheet. Add 1 tablespoon water to egg whites; beat until frothy. Brush over dough. Let rise in warm place (45 to 60 minutes). Brush again with egg mixture; sprinkle coarse salt. Bake 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Makes 16.