Veggietales

We've been consuming mass amounts of vegetables lately! The tomatoes are producing like crazy (romas and sweet 100s), so we've had many salads, pasta with red sauce, and of course bruschetta.

Also, the old ladies in the ward have been bringing zucchinis to church on Sunday, and we just can't help but take them home with us! We've been eating zucchini bread, muffins, fried zucchini, breaded zucchini fries, zucchini in stirfry and stuffed zucchini. It's been fun to try out all these new recipes. I never really ate zucchini before this year, and I decided I like it! So maybe we'll grow our own next year.

Logan's been a busy boy! He's discovered how to get into everything, so Monday I baby-proofed the house. The kitchen and bathroom cabinets and drawers are all sealed up, and every time he tries to get into one it causes weeping, wailing and gnashing of 4 little teeth. I did leave one cabinet open in the kitchen so he has one outlet for his creative juices. We'll see how long I can stand picking up the measuring spoons and pots.

Logan also took his first two steps yesterday! Dave was playing with him in the living room and got him to do it. Although I missed it, he took two for me today. So they're legitimate! I know it's crazy, but I can't wait until he can walk! Right now he stands up and scoots along the furniture and walls to get where he wants to go. It will just be so much easier for him when he can just walk.

Dave and I have kept ourselves busy too. We (and by we I mean I) decided the paint was scraping off too much on the poles to our carport to last another winter. I noticed this last summer, but there was no way I was adding a project for my pregnant self to do, so I promptly ignored it.

This year it's pretty bad, and I don't want the wood to rot and to have to replace the poles, so we spent the weekend (and this week nap times for me) scraping the chipping paint off. Tomorrow I'll hopefully scrape the last two poles and sand everything down. Then we can prime and paint them again! I'll be glad they'll be nice and done for the winter.

Rolling in the Dough!

It's been over a week since we got back from Snowbird, and what a week and a half it's been! Logan's been having problems sleeping through the night since we got back! Every other night He wakes up from 1:30 - 2:30 and doesn't sleep for the remainder of the night (sometimes I can get him to sleep around 5:30). I can't decide if he's teething or if it's residual separation anxiety. Either way I really hope it's over soon! I've been a zombie since this started.

We found a KILLER recipe this week. Dave loves anything with basil in it, especially pesto. So when I saw a recipe for Pesto Swirls in King Arthur Flour's catalog, I knew we had to try them. And they were delicious! I have a feeling these will be one of Dave's favorite breads for a while. You can find the recipe here.

I made the dough in the bread maker, rolled it out, spread the pesto on, sprinkled parmesan, let it rise and cooked it. This is one of those few recipes that I wouldn't change a thing about!

Last night I also tried a fun recipe for play-dough! It sounded like something that would be fun for nursery. It turned out awesome, almost the same consistency as the play-dough you buy at the store. I really hoped Logan would love it, but he didn't like that it was squishy. At least this will keep the kids a little more entertained next Sunday!

Play Dough

1 c. flour

1 c. water

1/4 c. salt

1 T oil

2 t cream of tarter

food coloring (I used neon for fun)

Add all the ingredients to a medium saucepan. Whisk together until all lumps are gone. Heat on medium-high heat stirring constantly. Eventually the liquid will completely become a dough. When it's done, plop the dough onto the counter and kneed it until it cools off. 

Makes about a cup and a half of dough that should last for about 6 months. If I were just making this, I would probably make a half batch of each color and end up making more colors (pink, orange & yellow). Seriously, try this if you have kids. Or Grandkids. Or are an Aunt/Uncle. Or work with kids. You won't be disappointed!

Anniversary weekend at Snowbird

Our anniversary is the same day as Logan's birthday, so we decided to celebrate last weekend! My mom offered to watch Logan for the weekend, so we debated driving to the cabbin. But I realized we'd be spending about the same amount in gas as if we stayed at Snowbird. Also considering this is the first time we've left Logan over night, we decided it was best to be a little closer to home.

Dave won a gift certificate to Red Rock, so we went there for dinner first. Their food is fabulous, but way over priced. I used to work right next door to the down town one, so work would regularly pay for lunch there. I got my favorite Macadamia Incrusted Salmon, and Dave opted for the Rotisserie Chicken.

After that we headed up to Snowbird, checked in and went swimming & hot tubbing. Every day we were there Dave insisted we go swimming (even on checkout day), so we got pretty familiar with the pool there. We had room with a kitchenette, so we did all of our cooking in the room. It even had a dish washer, so we didn't have to worry about cleanup!

The next day we took a tram up to the top of the mountain and hiked around a bit. We followed the ridge down and followed a trail back up to the chair lift to take back down. We were hot from the hike, and the wind was chilly, so I thought we were going to freeze heading down!

When we got back down off the mountain, the Tour of Utah bike race was finishing, so we watched the bikes pull in. It was fun to watch and surprising to see the different kinds of people that had entered. Even kids!

Logan had tons of fun with his Grandparents. They took him to the splash pad by their house and fed him so many black berries he had killer diapers for the entire next day (5, I counted).

This week has been rough! I think Logan has had separation anxiety now. When I leave the room we're in he starts crying. He doesn't want me to do any chores, so it's been hard to wash dishes, clean the bathroom, etc. It's been rough, but he's getting better. I just have to convince him we won't be leaving him again any time soon!

Logan's Birthday!

Yesterday was Logan's first Birthday! We had such a fun day together. I made the rule that we would only do fun things yesterday, so I woke up early to eat and shower so he didn't have to "suffer" through those activities like he usually does in the morning.

We took a trip to the park to play on the slides and swings. I was planning to take Logan to the splash pad after lunch, but Dave's car is in the shop (and will cost somewhere between $500 and $1,200 to fix depending on if we can find the needed parts at the junk yard). So we filled up the bath tub and he splashed around in there for an hour instead. We took a walk to Fresh Market to pick up some candles for later (I didn't know I'd be out the car all week, or I would have picked these up sooner). And we played in the yard.

We went next door to visit our neighbor Joe because Logan's birthday is the anniversary of the day his wife died. So we brought him homemade wheat bread and apricot jelly. We chatted, Logan splashed in his fountain (old people will let kids do anything!), and he pulled out a camping chair for Logan's birthday! He was so excited to sit in it and try it out.

Next, Dave came home early to celebrate the big day with us! We had a kid friendly dinner of homemade mac & cheese, hot dogs, and a side of peas and carrots. Before you think I'm mean, the carrots and peas were his favorite part of the meal. He LOVES veggies and would exclaim "YUM" after every bite of carrot.

Next we opened the presents! He loved tearing apart the wrapping paper. And he was so surprised when he found cool stuff inside the paper!

When Logan tore pieces of paper off the main present, he would feed it to Dave. I'm not sure why, but maybe it was so shiny he thought he was doing Dave a big honor.

He was in heaven when he opened them all and found out he was sitting in a pile of new toys! I made Logan a colors quiet book a few months ago, and Dave found some ABC magnets online. Most of the rest we found over the past few months at DI (Fisher Price Little People bus, car, stacking rings) and I found some 5 Little People along with some farm animals for a few bucks on eBay. I also couldn't help but buy him a camo shirt that said "Daddy's Major Man" on it! It was only $3.

After he got bored of his new toys, he crawled over to the shelf where I store his new drum that Grandpa Mike gave him for his birthday and started going to town playing for us! He just loves banging on this little drum and will get it out all the time.

After presents Angela and Blaine dropped in to tell Logan "happy birthday" and drop off a little ball for him. He loves it and today insisted on playing with it all during breakfast. Then Grandma Sheila & Grandpa Mike called to sing Happy Birthday to Logan. He smiled and talked while they sang to him on speaker phone.

Finally it was time for the birthday cupcakes! At first Logan was grabbing for the candle, then he burned his finger and just stared at it until we blew it out for him.

Dave's been waiting for logan to smash his cupcake since before he was born. I wanted to make Logan an angel food cake with berries (he LOVES berries), but Dave wanted to do a chocolate cake so he could make a mess! I caved in, because a cupcake is far cuter than a piece of angel food cake.

He pulled off one of the chocolate curls (covered in frosting), ate it, pushed his cupcake over and pointed to the mint chocolate chip ice cream Dave was eating. What can I say, he takes after me and his Great Grandma Yoder and LOVES ice cream.

So he ended his night with a scoop of ice cream instead of the cupcake, followed by a bowl of apricots and oatmeal. He was happy, and that's what counts!

Plastow Family Camp Out & Brown Family Dinner

Last weekend we went on the Plastow Family yearly camp out. It ended up only being Mom & Dad, Blaine, Angela & Lindsay and us, but we still had fun. We camped up American Fork canyon, which was the perfect temperature for camping.

We arrived around 3, set up camp, and took the babies down to the river to play in the water. Logan had the time of his life (as he always does when water is involved). He splashed, scooted around on his butt, and tried to eat all the rocks. Lindsay didn't love how cold the water was, but she liked putting her hands in it.

Later that night Bill & Linda joined us and we made foil dinners, smores and sat by the fire. Logan refused to go to sleep (there was a bright light by our tent, he could hear everyone talking, and we found out the next day he was breaking in tooth #4). So when he threw a fit around 10:30 and wouldn't stop crying, I took him down the canyon to spend the night at my parents house.

They were already asleep for the night, so I let myself in, and crashed in the basement. The next morning we woke up, cleaned up the trail of Logan clothes I had dropped through the house as we came in, and headed back up the canyon for breakfast.

We hiked up Cascade Springs that afternoon, and it was nice to see the baby waterfalls. Logan loves all things water so he was mesmerized by the rushing water. Logan slept on the car ride home, and when we got home while we unpacked.

Sunday I took my first week off of Nursery. It was so nice to go to Sunday School and Relief Society! Nursery mostly feels like we're baby sitting for 2 hours, and Dave and I both really miss the spiritual uplifting you get with church normally.

On the plus side, Logan was the best he's ever been in church. Nursery has taught him to sit in a chair and play with his toys, and he just stayed in his little area instead of trying to escape. The RS secretary said she had never seen such a good baby at that age who sits and plays quietly. It was nice to have that go so well, especially since Dave said Nursery was the worst he's ever had!

Sunday we also celebrated family dinners at my parents house. It was Mike and Logan's birthday month, so we had an angel food cake for Mike and a chocolate cake for Logan. I decided to let him eat whatever he wanted since it was his birthday, and he went crazy! Hotdogs, pasta salad and potato salad for dinner. Chocolate cake and blackberries for dessert. He ate so many berries, because Grandma put the bowl right in front of him and he kept helping himself.

Andrea and Logan didn't get along for the first time ever. Andrea was playing fort under a desk in Grandma's office, and Logan wanted to join her, so he crawled over. She didn't want this so she pushes him over. He got up whimpering, crawled right back and pinched her! Little punks! They were both upset, and not happy. But they made up pretty fast. How great is the forgiveness of a child?