Finished at LAST!

So, remember that mystery crochet a-long I mentioned waaaaaay back in September? I FINALLY finished the afghan last night!! The last clue for the project was given in December, but with other projects (baby blankets, Advent mittens) I got a little behind. Its just for us so there was no hurry.



I actually didn't follow their clues exactly. I omitted one of the square patterns, a striped one that I didn't think flowed with the whole layout. I just made more of a couple of the other square patterns. I also didn't do the flower pattern like theirs. Theirs was a 3D flower and I didn't think it would stand the test of time like a flat one would. I also thought it was a little too girlie for my boy-heavy home. I found a pattern elsewhere and Jacob thought they were stars so I went with that one instead.


Anyway, that was a whole lot of blah blah about stuff probably only I care about. It was a fun project and got me out of my comfort zone of doing baby blankets all the time and I also learned a few tips and tricks from the other ladies doing the project.

Bakers

Jacob and Isaac love to help me bake! If I ask them if they want to help me this is usually the conversation that follows.
Jacob: Do we need eggs, Mom?
Me: Yes!
Jacob: Can I put them in the bowl?
Me: Of course! You can do one and Isaac can do one.
Isaac: I do the salta (that's what he calls it - not sure where that 'A' at the end came from)
Me: Sure, Isaac! What else?
Isaac: Soda! (baking soda)
Jacob: And powder! (baking powder)
Jacob: Can I help now, Mom?
Me: Yes, Jacob. Just a minute while I get a few things out.
Jacob: Can I help now, Mom?
Me: Yes, Jacob. Please be patient, okay?
Jacob: Can I help now, Mom?

You get the picture! Things get a little hectic and a lot messy when they help me, but I love that they love it and that they are learning the ingredients needed for baking.

The other day we were going to make muffins for a play date and I thought it would be cute if I tied my aprons on them.
Then I tried to take a picture of the two of them wearing the aprons. They were so cute!
Not sure what they were looking at, but it was obviously more interesting than me with a camera.


Now they aren't even looking at the same thing, but still not looking at me either.


Oh! I got one to look at me!


They loved wearing these aprons so much. They wore them long after we were done baking.

Trains

Trains! Trains! Trains! They have become a bit of an obsession around here.
Sometimes the first thing Isaac says from his crib in the morning, is 'Toby! Toby! I want Toby!' or whatever the train of choice is that day. Sometimes it Salty, sometimes it's Gordon, sometimes its Henry and we don't even own a Henry! Yikes.
Today we declared a 'No train day' - no trains, no track. I thought it would be relatively easy since the boys went over to spend the afternoon and evening with my mom and dad and we left to run errands before 9:00, but there were some moments in those couple hours that I thought Isaac may lose it. He cried the whole way to the post office, 'Rosie! Rosie! Rosie!' I told the boys that the trains were on vacation, chuffing around in Hawaii. Some days after I have put the track together for the 500th time, I wish I were chuffing around in Hawaii.
I do like the trains, really I do. When Isaac is napping, Jacob will quietly play and play and play with the track. I love listening to the stories he makes up about them too. It is just so precious!




I'm pretty sure Isaac is telling Jacob to stay away from his horde of trains.


Just a sidenote: we didn't buy all these trains for the kiddos. They are on borrow from the Leonards who got them as a hand-me-down. Their girls aren't into trains as much as Jacob and Isaac so we are using them for the time being. So nice to have generous friends!

They love to line them up!
On the floor


on the windowsill


Even when we play with Legos we have to make a shed for the trains to sleep in.


Choo! Choo!

Nine Lives

Do dogs have nine lives? I'm beginning to think Homer does. Wednesday he scared the juju bees out of me!

He was fine in the morning and played outdoors with us after we came home from some errands. I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to him, but it looked like he was just doing his normal yard exploration. We went in for lunch, I put Isaac down for a nap, fed Homer his lunch and got Jacob settled playing with his train tracks. About 1:00 Homer was standing by the door, asking to be let out. I noticed he was kinda shaky so I decided to watch him when he went outdoors. He was walking funny and I thought maybe he laid on his leg wrong and had 'dead leg' (can dogs get that?). Well, it got worse and worse as I watched and I knew it wasn't a case of 'dead leg'. It was scary! He couldn't walk straight, his legs would give out on him then one of his legs would shoot out straight to the side like he got electrocuted. Then he threw up. I called the vet immediately, but couldn't get in for a couple hours so decided to bring him to the emergency vet. I waited until my mom got here to watch the boys and then loaded Homer in the car. Not an easy task! I drove out to Grand Terrace only to discover that they are only an 'after hours' clinic and didn't open until 6:00 pm. Of course, I had already unloaded Homer from the car! So I loaded him back in and then called the vet to see if I could get in earlier since Homer was looking BAD. They said bring him right in.

The vet could see right away that Homer had gotten into something toxic and asked me about everything it could be. 'No, no, no' I said to everything. I mean, we don't have toxic things laying around because we have kids. Then she asked about trees and I said he eats the walnuts. Ding ding ding! Black walnuts can carry a mold that produces toxins. So they had to flush his tummy out using charcoal. When he came home he was so pathetic looking since he had been sedated! He's back to his old chipper self now and we've cleaned up all the walnuts so I am hoping we don't have a repeat of that. Very scary!

Birthdays

Friday was Alan's birthday and my parents were gracious enough to take the boys overnight so we could enjoy the night and the next morning together. We did some wine tasting at The Farm and had an early dinner there before heading over to The Fox Theater to see Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted. Some of it was funny, some of it disturbing, but we had a lot of fun.

We were surprised at the age of the crowd. We weren't the youngest, but we certainly didn't drive the average age up either. There was even a couple who had to be at least 70. Because it was his birthday, Alan won a pair of tickets for another Spike and Mike show this coming weekend. Funny thing is that Jeff, Mike and Jennifer went to the show on Saturday and Mike and Jennifer won tickets too!

After the show we headed over to Time in a Bottle for some dessert and wine. They have these super comfy leather couches to lounge on while you sip your wine. So relaxing!

On Sunday we all went over to my parents' to celebrate Alan and my dad's birthdays. It was a super gorgeous day so we ate our grilled salmon outdoors. It was actually pretty warm and those facing the sun needed hats so Jacob went with my mom to choose some from my dad's collection.


This was the first family get-together after Mike and Jennifer got married and look what Jennifer does! She falls asleep. Guess she is comfortable letting us know how boring we are. Oh, just kidding! We were all just in food comas after eating so much good food.


The boys were convinced we should make a Thomas cake for Daddy and Boppa, but I made a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting instead (no Thomas decoration). It was SO GOOD, if I do say so myself. The frosting wasn't super sweet and used as much peanut butter as sugar so it had a bit of a salty/sweet taste. Oh my!
Notice how on some of the peanut butter cups you can see the peanut butter? That's cheap candy for ya! Next time I'll buy Reese's!


Right before we ate cake, Jacob and my dad were playing hide-n-seek and when they came back we were all sitting at the table and jokingly told Jacob that we already ate cake.
This is the reaction we got. OOPS! He was SO sad.



Shoving his mouth full of cake.


Here's my silly little Isaac!



And my mama - you should have seen the face she pulled at me before I took her picture! :P


I wish I had taken Alan's picture when he opened one of the gifts from my parents. They gave him a gift certificate to a seed company, but my mom put the catalogue on the top. When Alan opened it, his face looked like, 'Why in the world are they giving me a catalogue? I get these free in the mail ALL THE TIME?' I made him re-enact it, but it just wasn't the same.


Happy birthday, Alan and Dad!

Cooking with Alan

Alan got a couple new books this Christmas and both have to do with cooking.

He's had his nose in this book for the past couple weeks.


There was a recipe for bread you don't have to knead. Super easy and super yummy!


On Saturday he made up a huge batch of it to use for pizza dough.
This stuffed pizza was a real hit! The boys just inhaled it!! We filled it with mushrooms, spinach and onions.


This was the pesto chicken pizza and we also made a veggie one. We had a LOT of pizza!


And this is what we drank with it. Alan is always good at choosing some good wine. This was a really good inexpensive (I think) zinfandel.


And speaking of pairing wine with food, this is the other book that Alan got as a gift.


The first recipe he tried was lentil stew with homemade fennel sausages. He made the sausages using his new meat grinder (also a Christmas gift).

The fennel, carrots, leek and herbs are from our garden.




I wasn't sure what the boys would think of this, but they LOVED it!!


And this is what we drank, a carmenere.


Then there is cooking with Patty......
We had some nice turnips in the garden so I found a recipe for a creamy root vegetable stew that looked good. I spent quite a bit of time peeling and dicing all those veggies then making the stew. I put part of the stew in the blender to puree it, but failed to realize that the plastic insert for the cover was in the blender. It made a horrid noise and like a dummy I dumped the semi-pureed stew in with the rest of the stew in order to find out what the noise was. Now there were bits of plastic in the entire stew! I had to toss it all down the drain! What a waste. No pictures of that disaster.

Reading with relatives

As I mentioned in the wedding post, my grandma and uncle Carl (my dad's mom and brother) came out for the wedding. While they were here we ate dinner at my parents' house a couple times. Let's just say that I was vey spoiled last week. I don't think I cooked dinner once!

Here a few pictures we took during one of those dinners.
The boys love to have people read to them and now they had two more people to do it!
Uncle Carl reading to Jacob. I have no idea what Jacob has in his mouth!


Uncle Carl attempting to read to Isaac. I actually think Isaac sat on his lap for a couple minutes, we just weren't quick enough with the camera.


This picture is too cute! I think Isaac had been sitting with Great-Oma, which is why she is holding a children's book and teddy bear. He just has a very short attention span! He would run over to her and get up on the couch to read, stay there for about 5 seconds, then run off again. He did that over and over.


It was fun to see my grandma and uncle again! The boys are still talking about their visit. On Monday when the boys went to spend the afternoon with my mom, Jacob asked me if Great-Oma and Uncle Carl were going to read books to him.

Red Wagon

The boys are loving the red wagon they got from Boppa and Oma for Christmas! One afternoon we played with it for a long time. I even pulled Isaac all the way around the block and he just sat in their so happy. 'I ride in da wagon' 'I'n in da wagon wiff bankie' I put a quilt in the bottom so it was nice and cushy to sit in and Isaac thought that was so cool. Later that evening, though, when we went for a walk around the block to look at Christmas lights, he did not want to ride in it. He walked almost halfway around the block before he decided he was too tired to walk any farther and that riding in the wagon was a better option.

These are the pictures I took that afternoon.
Jacob kept saying, 'I don't need any help. I don't need any help' What you can't see in this picture is that Alan is slyly pushing from behind.





Not sure if this is a hug or a strangle hold


Jacob wanted to try out the front of the wagon


Isaac likes to ride in the wagon while Jacob rides his bike so I pull him around and around the driveway. You would think he would get sick of it quickly since usually his attention stays on one thing for about 3 seconds, but he just loves to ride and ride and ride in the wagon.

Thanks, Boppa and Oma! What a great gift!!