3 Christmases

I swear, Christmas is the busiest time of year! It's always packed with stuff to do, but it's also tons of fun. This year was no different. We celebrate Christmas with each of our sides on a day other than Christmas so we can really focus on who we're with and not have to rush. It's so nice to have a day to spend with my family, one with Dave's and Christmas day with our little family.

The Saturday before Christmas we celebrated with Dave's side. It was at Dave's brother Jon & his wife Anisa's house and everyone but Lucinda & Aaron were able to join us. Jon & Anisa just moved into their first home a few weeks ago, so it was nice to see it! It's a cute! We ate soups for dinner and enjoyed cookies, presents, and chatting afterwards. 

Logan enjoyed playing with his cousins McKay and Lindsay. Lindsay lives in our basement, so we see her all the time and they just love each other! McKay was super excited to see Logan and exchange gifts. This year I had Logan give each of his cousins a little gift so he can learn to give. It was especially hard, because he really wanted most of the toys, but a good lesson to learn.

The next day (Sunday) we headed over to my parents for a Chinese food Christmas Dinner.  Sheila and Scott were missing from the dinner, but everyone else was there. It's some what of a tradition in our family to do Egg Rolls, so we filled and fried! The food was great (as always). 

Logan had so much fun playing with his cousin Andrea, and we had fun chatting and playing games. It was a great time! Logan again had a hard time giving away his gift to Andrea, but there were so many toys to play with that it ended up ok.

Christmas Day we had fun just as a family. We opened presents, played with all the new toys Logan got, and just relaxed. It was so nice to have a little break from the hustle and bustle of the season.

Dave took the entire week and a half between Christmas and New Years off, so we were able to do a lot of relaxing. We all came down with a cold somewhere in there, but since we had so much time off, it worked out well. 

Dave also started working on his new hobby of wood working during this time. He's building Logan a play table for his new train set/legos/cars or whatever. So far he has the legs put onto the base. Logan's loved putting a blanket over it and making a "fort" out of it to hide in. I'm sure he'll love it even more when it's done.

I took it easy a lot of the time off. I read a few books and have been catching up on some unfinished sewing projects. It's been nice to have extra time since Dave's been home to help out. I also tried a few gluten free recipes, since I've gone gluten free on the 1st of January.

Sledding

It snowed last week, and of course we had to go sledding! We headed over to the golf course after nap time and got some intense sledding in. Well, as intense as a 8 foot hill can be. But it's the perfect size for Logan.

We went down a few times all together, and I took Logan down a few times, but he really just wanted to go with Dave. We sledded for about an hour before our fingers turned into popsicles. When it was time to go home, Logan was so upset we couldn't stay longer. 

Gluten Free and Walnut-Crusted Salmon

It's been a busy week around here! Last Saturday I went to my monthly quilting class, and Dave and Logan went to Dave's Parents to help do some sheet rocking and mudding. Dave was there most of the day, but they got most of the work done.

I found out last week I have a mild aversion to Gluten (wheat products). It's not considered on the same level as Celiac Disease, but a gluten free (GF) diet is still recommended at least for 2 - 3 months. I've done some research and decided.

I'm going to wait until January 1 before I make any changes to my diet. The Dr said it won't kill me to wait, and this way I can get in my fix of pies, cakes, cookies, pizza, doughnuts, breads, and licorice before I start. Then I have a few months to find good substitutes.

Sometimes after at least 2 - 3 months of GF living, a mildly gluten averse person like myself can re-introduce gluten into their diet. How do you know? You try some and if you get violently ill you can't bring it back. After doing some research I decided that although 2 months is the bare minimum, I think I'll wait at least 4 months before I re-introduce gluten.

Also, because I'm only mildly averse toward gluten, I'm not cutting out the questionable products. Like oats, and products that say on the back "may contain trace forms of gluten" because they were made in a factory that also makes wheat products. This will make life substantially easier.

That being said, I've been thinking a lot about food lately, and created this fabulous recipe. I got the orange sauce from a Better Homes and Gardens recipe, and the idea for a nut encrusted salmon from Red Rock (a restaurant/brewery in downtown Salt Lake City).

This recipe is heavenly! I love the sweet of the maple and the zing of the orange. It's totally worth buying the pure maple syrup for. It makes a difference.

Walnut-Crusted Salmon with Orange Maple Glaze

4 servings of salmon

Flour for sprinkling

Salt and pepper to taste

4 T pure maple syrup

1 c walnut pieces (finely chopped)

2 T vegetable oil

½ c orange juice

1/8 t cumin

1/8 t cayenne pepper

1 T corn starch

Stir orange juice, 1 T of syrup, cumin, cayenne, and corn starch in a small pot. Cook uncovered 1 – 2 minutes (until slightly thickened).

Trim your salmon so it is ½ inch thin (some cuts of meat come naturally this thin, others you need to lay on it’s side and slice it so it’s thin). Dry off the meat if any juices are on it. Lightly dust with flour, salt and pepper.

Put the oil in a pan and start heating up. Place 3 T syrup in a dish and put the crushed pecans in a second dish. Dip the salmon in the maple syrup, then press meat in the pecans. Mix any remaining syrup with the walnuts and place on top of the salmon. Cook the meat 3 – 4 minutes per side.

To serve: pour the orange sauce over the salmon. Rice is a great side with this!

Cookies = Christmas

It's been busy season around the Plastow home! We got most of our Christmas decorations up, and Logan has been enjoying them. It's been hard to find places to put all our fragile nativities, since he's so fascinated by the "new toys". I'm just glad he has one nativity he can play with.

He loves to move his beanbag nativity around the living room. See the one dinosaur "talking to" Jesus? I guess the dinosaur was paying his respect, who knew?

I've also been working on this bad boy! I got some of the felt from my Grandma Yoder, and the rest I bought last year. So I've been working like mad on finishing the ornaments! One a day until Christmas...

Monday night for FHE we made sugar cookies. I rolled out the dough, and Logan & Dave cut out the shapes. The cookies turned out with a few finger prints in them, and double stamping here and there, but they still taste good!

Tuesday morning I came out from my shower to find this! I guess I had left the flour bin unscrewed from cookie making the night before, and Logan had used the scoop to make piles of flour on the floor, on the sugar bin, and all over his feet! Little punk. It took forever to clean up.

Wednesday we had a few of the cousins and Grandma Sheila over to decorate our cookies. If this leads you to believe we didn't decorate and eat any before Wednesday, it's not true! We ate (and shared with neighbors) our fair share.

The kids had fun creating, although I think more of the sprinkles were consumed before they even hit the cookies. The ladies had fun too eating cookies and chatting. It's been a while, so it was nice to catch up.

The Week of Cuddles

It's been a snugly week in the Plastow home. Logan's been recovering, but has wanted extra love and attention. So we snuggle and play most of the day. This morning he woke up some time before six, and we ended up falling back asleep cuddling (which is Dave's dream come true).

We've also been playing a lot of hide and seek lately. Dave will run and hide, then peep until Logan and I find him. Then I take a turn hiding until we run out of hiding spots (once you've hid in on spot he remembers and check it). Logan thinks it's great fun, and he'll wants to get in our hiding spot when we find him.

In other news last week Wednesday my brother Dan got home from his mission. Logan and I were able to meet him at the airport and Dan briefly visited our home after. It was great, because Logan hadn't gotten to meet him yet and they were able to spend some time together. Dan would talk or gesture in Tagalog, and Logan would respond. He had to show his Uncle all his toys and book and his fish before he could leave. It was fun to watch them interact.

We spent Thanksgiving at the Plastows and had fun eating and visiting. Dave's old roommate Ramsey and his wife stopped by too. It was fun to catch up with them as well.

I feel ready for Christmas, even though it's still November! I wrapped the presents on Monday. Logan helped by unwrapping the first 4 I wrapped when I went to get more tape. He was having the time of his life playing with all his toys early! At least I know he'll like them. So now all the gifts are high up on the bookshelves in the living room so not to tempt him.

Watching the Snow

Someone loves standing on the boxes of food storage hidden behind our couch. He'll watch the cars drive by, but he's enthralled by watching the snow come down in the back yard. As you can tell from the pics, he also got into my felt scraps and likes lining them up on the window sill. He's very precise about it.

First Sledding Trip!

The holiday rush has really hit us! I can't believe it's already half way through November. Thanksgiving is next week. Oh man we're in trouble! I had so many projects I wanted to get done before now... But they just haven't happened.

Last week flew by! We had something scheduled almost every day of the week. The most exciting was Friday, when we closed on our refinance! We were able to get our interest rate locked in at 3.5%, which will save us a few hundred a month. I did the math (of course) and in 6 months we would have saved enough to pay for our closing costs. After that, it's all savings! So we're happy to have that done.

My boys are ready to go!

Monday for FHE we went night sledding! It snowed over the weekend, and it was so busy we didn't get to enjoy it until Monday. We knew we had to get it in before today because it's supposed to get up to 50 today. So as soon as Dave got home we scarfed down dinner and headed to the golf course down the street from us.

I think sledding is the one thing Dave's looked forward to  most about having kids. When we moved into our house there were a few items left from the previous owner, one of which was a sled. It's the only thing we didn't throw away. It's big enough for the three of us, so it's perfect for now!

Dave stuck Logan in the sled and we started walking over to the little hill they have. The snow was fresh packing snow, and there weren't any foot prints in it. Half way to the hill the sled hit one of Dave's foot prints, dumping Logan over and white washing him. It took Logan a little time to get warmed up to sledding, but I think he liked it by the end. Now that he has snow boots, we know we'll be going again.

Yesterday Logan had his 15 month checkup. He's in the 45 percentile for height and the 3rd for weight. We knew he was skinny! He has a larger vocabulary than average for his age, and the doctor agreed he's too cute. He also got his flu shot, and although we're glad that's done, it was awful!

Today we're just doing laundry, tidying up the house, and maybe going grocery shopping. Just trying to get ready for Thanksgiving next week!

Fall Photo

I swear we just keep getting busier and busier. We went to the temple on Friday. It was a horrible day, and everything seemed to go wrong for us going, but we made it and had a great time. Doesn't it always seem like when you really need to go, Satan will do all he can to get you not to? On Sunday we found out our temple will be closed for a month, so I'm glad we got the trip in before then. Yes, we can go somewhere else, but it's a lot easier to go to our temple.

Saturday morning we decided to take family pictures in the back yard. It was an ordeal to get us all dressed and ready! Logan was having a cranky morning, so we ended up only getting one picture with him smiling. Dave looks good and I look ok (there were other ones that I look so much better in), but I didn't want to pick the picture with a sad boy. The timer worked fine, but I'm thinking we need to get a remote before the next time we attempt to take pictures.

Yesterday, after running all our errands in the morning, Logan and I watched Brier for 5 hours. It was such a long afternoon! Brier was having a bad day. Thankfully, whein I put Logan down for his 2.5 hour nap and she was fine for that time. Then he woke up and I put her down for a nap. Finally Grandpa came to pick her up. I didn't get half of the things on my list done, but we survived!

When Dave got home we enjoyed a casual FHE of jumping on the bed. This has been our activity for the past few weeks, because Logan just loves it so much. He just loves to jump! We also ate some ice cream and listened to a conference talk. It was a good end to a rough day!

Happy Halloween!

Late Monday night Dave asked me "So, what are we being for Halloween?" Huh? I used to dress up before we got married, but Dave told me our first Halloween together it was kinda silly. So I haven't thought about dressing up since then. Funny how things change when you have kids :).

We talked briefly about easy options, and decided on me being Alice in Wonderland (because I already had the costume) and he being the Mad Hatter. So Tuesday I worked like CRAZY to make something work. I also had to make some cookies for Dave's work party, and I figured while we had the oven on to make a batch of granola. Oh, and I did visiting teachings somewhere in there.

Wednesday morning I ran over to Johanns to pick up some black felt to finish the top hat. And Dave requested some fake teeth. So we ended up spending $1 on felt and $9 on fake teeth for all three of our costumes (not that Dave even wore the teeth...). I finished the top hat at noon and decided it was time for a well deserved nap!

When Dave got home we went over to Grandpa Mike and Grandma Sheila's house for a little party. We ate pizza, decorated cookies, and went trick or treating. Logan loved pouring the sprinkles onto his cookie, almost as much as he loved eating the cookies.

We didn't last long trick or treating, we only did about half a block before the little ones called it a night. Logan weighed in with 2 lbs of candy, so we still did well!

We went back to the grandparents and enjoyed the spoils of our labor. But someone was pretty exhausted, so we headed home soon after.

The weather was so nice today we thought we'd do a fall photo shoot in the back yard. I got a few cute ones of Logan dressed up.

Logan discovered how cool the camera is lately. If I leave it anywhere in his reach I will find a dozen pictures like this. You can see the spider on his shirt on the left (with green button eyes).

Trees, Canning and Teething (oh my!)

It's been such a busy week, and it's only Tuesday! Today was our fall neighborhood cleanup. This means the city drops of several dumpsters on our street and we can fill it with whatever we want. Dave has been wanting to remove several bushes from our backyard since we moved in. Although I'm not in love with the bushes, I liked the privacy they gave us. 

Finally we came to an agreement that if we build up the back wall, we could remove the bushes. So this weekend we cut down all the bushes to the base, bundled them up, and piled them just waiting for today. In the spring we'll remove the flower bed trim, plant some sod, and maybe even add a fire pit to the area that was just a mess of bushes and weeds.

Well this morning it rained on our 8 bundles of bushes. And the trucks were late. So Logan and I loaded all the bundles into the dumpster and a few rocks Dave wanted removed as well. It was so cold and messy, but I'm so glad it's done.

Monday was pretty crazy too. Logan's been teething again. I swear he gets the worse teething of anyone I know! Logan kept trying to put both fists in his mouth to gnaw on, along with everything else he could find. He was so ornery all day long! He refused to wear a shirt, screaming at me when I put it on, and ripping it off again and again. So I gave in and let him go topless for the afternoon.

Also, since he refused to nap and was crying anyway, I decided to do the canning I had planned for the rest of the week. We did applesauce and spaghetti sauce. I'm just glad it's now over. Logan loves applesauce, and we've eat a lot of pasta, so both will be used.

He's been ornery again today, and I hope this tooth comes in quickly. The rest of the week will be wasted if not!

In Which We Work Too Hard

It's been a busy few weeks in the Plastow home! With interest rates down we have been looking into refinancing (why not save ourselves some money each month?). So we've been busy fixing things up so we could get an appraisal!

We painted the basement hallway and the basement bathroom's ceiling. We touched up all the paint in the house (from the bumps and scrapes that have happened over the past 3 years. We staged the house (ie. removed half of our furniture so the house looked more spacious). I made curtains for the bedroom and a bedskirt for our bed. I rearranged just about every room in our house... and deep cleaned everything.

Now we've appraised at $10k higher than we needed and the house is spotless. The windows are washed inside and out. The oven is shiny clean. The bathtub grout has been scrubbed clean with a toothbrush. The baseboards are even dusted. All things that haven't been cleaned in about 6 months. The nice thing is now I don't have to worry about these things again for a while.

So we move forward on the refinance process and look forward to a lower monthly payment. It will allow us to put a little money each month away into savings. Maybe even put a little more into the mortgage itself. So less is more!

Other than that, Logan's been keeping us busy. He's been getting into everything lately! He realized he can reach on top of things now, so nothing is safe placed on top of anything his hight (the end tables, our bedside tables, etc). He also started throwing things in and taking things out of our trash. And he's getting pretty fast at walking/running. So we have to keep an eye on him all the time.

We've started (and almost finished) our Christmas shopping for the year! W've got all of Logan's stuff purchased. Dave's got my big gift last weekend (a new sewing machine!!! I saved up for half over the past year, and Christmas is covering the other half). And if Dave could just decide on what he wants for his big gift, I could get that out of the way. I always try to get the shopping done by the end of October, and I'm pretty close this year.

That will give me all the time in the world to finish this year's Christmas crafts. This year I know an advent calendar is on the list, and we'll see what else I come up with.

In which Logan discovers his pockets

I've been finding rocks in Logan's pockets for weeks! He loves rocks and he always will bring some home from the park or wherever we are for later enjoyment. Usually we find them in his bed after nap time or on the changing table.

Lately he's been putting his pockets to the limits by stuffing as many golfballs in his pockets as he can fit. He loves them so much and just wants to make sure he has them when he needs them.

This weekend we went to a Conference party at my parents house. It was fun to be with the family and enjoy the word of the Lord. Dave and I got some good insight and inspiration. Hopefully we will let it change our lives for the better.

Something I found interesting was the changes that were made to the age you can go on a mission. It's really exciting that girls can now go on a mission at 19. I think more ladies will now have the opportunity to go.

I do wonder what this will do to the average age of marriage in the church though. It seemed to be younger than the general population before, and I'm thinking now this will up the average (since 18  months will likely be devoted to a mission instead of the pursuit of marriage).

I see this as a benefit in many ways. Missions are such a changing event in the lives of those that go. I would expect more women going better prepare for marriage and motherhood, with the extra spiritual knowledge they gain. I know the words of the prophet are inspired, but this doesn't just feel right to me, it makes so much logical sense!

The Cabin & Zions

Since we didn't take a summer vacation this year, we decided to take an early fall vacation instead! Friday morning we headed down to the cabin for a LONG weekend. We swung by my Grandparent Yoder's house on our way into town and briefly visited with them.

Logan loved playing peak a boo with Great-Grandpa Yoder, visiting with the cats, and exploring their stuff. He loves checking out new stuff, and there was an abundance of new stuff to see. We didn't stay too long though, because Grandma had a cold and wasn't feeling well.

We then headed up to the cabin and spent a relaxing night picking apples, making dinner, and falling asleep to the Two Towers. Dave worries far too much, so it was really nice for him to get to just unwind for once.

The neighbors always seem to have different animals every time we go down. Usually there are horses, but there have been sheep too. This time they had goats. Tons of goats. Logan loved visiting the goats. He would walk over to the door and point outside until we took him outside to visit. Any time we were outside this trip he insisted on saying hi to the goats.

Saturday we headed into Zions and hiked the narrows! Logan had the time of his life. We hiked in a few miles, ate some snacks, then turned around and hiked back. We didn't let Logan play in the water until the end, but he LOVED it when we did. He loved the rocks, splashing around in the water, and the sand. He rubbed the sand everywhere.

Sunday we had a more casual day. We slept in, cooked a big breakfast, and drove into Hurricane to play at the park/splash pad. Logan loved the water (as always). When we got there, we were the only kids there. Logan would play at one area, then walk over to another area, then back to the first, then over to the third area. He was back and forth for about an hour! We had to take warm up breaks where we wrapped him in a towel and swung on the swings. He would stay in the water all day if we would let him.

Monday we did a few more hikes in Zions (Emerald Pools, Overlook, and Weeping Rock). They were fun ones. Logan mostly had a good time, especially flirting on the bus with everyone. We got back to the cabin exhausted, so we picked up a pizza for dinner and topped it off with an ice cream from Dairy Queen. Something about being in Zions requires a trip to Dairy Queen. It's the only time we go!

We headed home Tuesday morning, unpacked and got ready for the rest of the week. It was a nice break, but we're glad to be home again! It's always nice to get away, but it's great to be back in your own bed.

Pizza Friday and Stake Conference

Last week flew by! I started a sewing blog a few weeks ago and have been working hard to get everything in place. It's called A Sassy Seamstress and I'll constantly post on my sewing projects on this blog. I plan to focus on Quilting, Alterations, and Fun Projects. Check it out! I have a few posts up already.

Logan's been transitioning to regular food over the past few months and has been loving most of it! Friday we had pizza and he just went to town eating it with us. He made a mess, but ate half a piece (which is a lot for a little guy). 

He also has been loving cow milk too. He's drinking twice as much has he did when I started weaning him, so he's doing well on that account.

Saturday was the adult session of Stake Conference. Grandma Linda came over and watched Logan so we could attend. It was a great meeting. One of the counselors from our new mission spoke about missionary work.

Right before the meeting we spoke with one of our ward missionaries, and it turns out our across the street neighbor (that we referred to the missionaries) are now taking the lessons! The house has about 10 Vietnamese family members living in the house. Right now only one of the family is meeting with the missionaries, but you never know what will happen!

Sunday Conference went fabulously. Logan played with his toys and sat through the 2 hour meeting without too much fussing. There were some greatly inspiring talks that made Dave and I think about what we can be doing better.

It's cooled down here and we've really been enjoying the weather. Logan and I go on a walk every morning and swing by the Elementary School to play on the playground. He's been learning to swing on his own. I keep a hand on his back and gently push him, and he's got great balance. Soon he should be doing it on his own! He's getting to be so big!

Our Smart Little Guy

Logan's been learning so many things lately! A few weeks ago he took his first steps, and now he will take about 8 steps from Dave to me (or vice versa). He's really wobbly and doesn't have the confidence to do it without our encouragement, but he's on his way!

When he does really good he gets so excited and jumps which causes him to fall over. He even will cheer for himself and clap sometimes. It's too cute to see his excitement.

We've been doing some minor repairs around the house, and Logan's been so helpful. If we put any tool down he immediately picks it up and imitates what we were doing with it. Cute when he's waving the stud finder across the wall, but scary when he grabs the drill, sticks a screw on the end and tries to make it run!

We found the best way to curb his eagerness is to give him a pile of something and ask him to hand it to us (like screws). It doesn't even have to be useful things, as long as he feels like he is involved in the project.

He has also started wanting to help me with my sewing. I was on the kitchen floor pinning a halloween runner I've been working on, and he wanted to hand me the safety pins. It got scary when I saw him pick up a strait pin and stick it in his mouth (just like mom does... :{). But he wants to be involved, and that's what's important.

Logan's been loving brushing his teeth lately too. When he turned 6 months I started putting him on my lap and brushing my teeth while he was given his toothbrush to chew on. Now he puts his toothbrush in his mouth, makes a humming noise (imitating my electric toothbrush), and shakes his head side to side. I don't think he can figure out how to make his hand move like that, so he  moves his head.

He now insists on flossing with me after too. He grabs a piece of floss in his hands, bites down on it and moves the floss from side to side. No teeth are involved, but it's just to cute to watch. What a little observant boy we have!

Painting, Weening & Naked Time

It's been a crazy week! I spent all nap time last week scraping the poles of our carport so we could spend Labor Day repainting them. Our house didn't have gutters when we moved in (we've since replaced them), so many of the carport poles had water damage. Last year I chose to ignore the peeling paint (being pregnant), but this year I decided if we wanted the poles to last another 5 years, we're going to have to do something about it.

Monday we primed and painted the poles, and today I did the final coat of paint. We also repainted around the side door, and it looks tons better. I'm so glad to be done! Dave now wants to paint the whole house, but I'm in no need to rush that project. I'd be ok repainting the trim around the front door, but that won't take a ton of work.

We've finally got Logan' weened from being swaddled! It's been a week now, and he's loving bedtime now. Also we weened Logan to cow's milk. It's been a transitional time, but Logan's dealing with it well.

Sunday we had three baby blessings to attend. One for my brother's daughter Sarah, and two for Dave's sister's twins. It was crazy running from Sandy to Centerville to Kaysville and home. It was busy, but we were glad to be able to see everyone's blessing.

Monday we had an interesting nap... Dave put Logan down for his nap normally. We heard him giggling, but just assumed he was playing with his stuffed animal toys before falling to sleep. Well, when Logan woke up crying we went in to find him completely naked! He'd figured out how to take off his clothes and diaper, little punk! So he's been in overalls ever since. I'm hoping he'll forget or something so we don't have daily naked time!

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!