A Photo A Day: Week 4

Jan 22: We got an emissions test done on my car. It took forever but the boys were good while we waited. The suckers helped.

Jan 23: The boys snuggled together under a blanket while they held their penguin and dinosaur flashlights and watched tv. So cute!

Jan 24: We visited Aunt Karen, Gigi, and G-Pa.

Jan 25: Lauren had her bridal photo shoot. I'm not allowed to post any of the pictures of her in her dress, so instead, I'll share a picture of me and my mom from when we were there helping her! We had a lot of fun helping with her poses and carrying her dress so it didn't get dirty.

Jan 26: When Ama came up this weekend, she brought a new set of play dough for the boys. They are completely obsessed and all they want to do is play with it. Oliver has his handicapped concentrating tongue out- what do you know?!

Jan 27: Eli was begging to go outside and play so I told him to get his winter clothes on before he went out. I heard the door open and shut a few minutes later so I went out to check what he'd managed to get on. He had his hat, gloves, and snow boots, but somehow forgot pants and a coat. At least he was on the right track!

Jan 28: Baby is 4 inches long now, crown to rump, or about the size of an apple. I'm feeling great!

14 Weeks Pregnant

For both of my other pregnancies, I have blogged every 2 weeks to give an update about what's going on with me and the baby. I am going to do the same for this pregnancy because it's so fun to have a record of everything I was going through.

Like usual, I'm feeling so great. I seriously wouldn't even know I'm pregnant if it weren't for that positive pregnancy test and those visits to the doctor where I've seen pictures of the little baby flipping around in my uterus and hearing the heart beat. I feel so normal, it's crazy. It's a little nerve-wracking every time I start a new pregnancy because I don't know if I'm going to feel good or not. Just because I felt great with Eli and Oliver doesn't mean that all of my pregnancies will be easy, but so far, this one has been just as great as the others. I am so blessed to not get sick and to have energy even when I'm growing a baby.

My body during this stage of pregnancy is definitely not my favorite. I hate the in-between stage when you can definitely tell you're pregnant but other people might not be able to. Some people might look at you and wonder if you're just putting on a little weight. I prefer to have a big enough belly where strangers and look at you and know you're pregnant without a doubt. This stage where my body is awkwardly shaped is the worst. I can't wait to be showing more.

I have gained 6 lbs so far, which is a little more than I would like, but I feel like I truly can't really help it. I don't eat too much, I'm try to eat healthy foods, and I exercise 3-4 times a week. When I go to the gym, I usually run 3 or 4 miles on the treadmill for cardio and then do some weight training. I also really like doing lunges, squats, burpees, and wall balls. I like to mix it up. I hope that by staying in shape throughout my pregnancy, I'll be able to bounce back quickly and lose the baby weight. It took me 5 months to lose it all after Eli and 7 months with Oliver, so I'm hoping it doesn't take me any longer than that. I always get a little freaked out by the weight gain when I'm pregnant. No matter how many times I've done it, it's still not fun to see the scale going up every day.

I am sleeping well at night but still get sleepy in the afternoon no matter what. I try to take a nap every day, which doesn't always happen, but I can usually manage to get a little in 4 or 5 times a week. I fall asleep almost instantly and sleep really deeply, so I know I must need it. Aside from growing a human, these little boys of mine sure keep me busy too, so no wonder I feel tired a lot.


13 weeks pregnant with Eli and 14 weeks pregnant with Oliver.

A Photo A Day: Week 3

Jan 15: 13 weeks pregnant (a day late!)

Jan 16: I am trying to read the Book of Mormon along with tens of thousands of other Mormons this year through @bom365 on Instagram. My friend Ben Prince from my ward growing up started it. He posts the reading assignment every morning on Instagram and I try to follow along. A lot of the time I'm behind, but I am determined to catch up!

Jan 17: Adam had another hearing for the Brown case. They discussed whether the Brown's were entitled to damages and whether Professor Turley was entitled to attorney's fees. They were on the news!

Jan 18: Lauren had another bridal shower, this time at Taran's grandmother's house in Clinton. We played a game where we had to create a wedding dress for her made of toilet paper. The little girls were really into it.

Jan 19: My parents were in town for Lauren's shower and a few other wedding planning errands, but of course, my mom made time to play with the boys. She is seriously the best grandma ever! They adore her!

Jan 20: Today was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so Adam had the day off work. We worked out, took the boys to the children's museum again, and went on a date to see "Saving Mr. Banks." It was a fun day. 

Jan 21: While I was taking my 14 week photo, the boys (who were still naked after their bath) wanted to get in on the action. Little stinkers! I secretly love it when they run around the house naked. I love seeing their squishy little bodies.

French Baguette Bread

I am obsessed with baguette bread and I've always assumed it was something I couldn't make at home. A few nights ago, one of our neighbors brought some to a party that he'd made and I couldn't stop eating it. He described the process of how he'd made it and it sounded easy enough, so I went home and tried it that very night (at midnight!). And holy moly, it turned out incredible! It's honestly, truly some of the easiest bread I've ever made. You don't need to knead it, you don't need any special equipment to make it, and it only has 4 ingredients. I've made it quite a few times over the past few days because it disappears almost as soon as it comes out of the oven.

I watched this YouTube video to learn the technique and get the recipe, but I've tweaked it a little bit.  Here's what I've come up with. Happy baking, and let me know how yours turns out!

Ingredients (Really! There are only 4 of them!)

• 1/4 tsp dry active yeast 
• 1 1/2 cups room temperature water (don't worry about getting out a thermometer)
• 1 3/4 tsp salt
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 

Directions

• Mix all 4 ingredients in a large mixing bowl (I used my KitchenAid). The dough will be very, very sticky. Don't add more flour. Don't grease the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel.
• Give your oven a blast of heat for like 30 seconds and then turn it off. Put the mixing bowl in the oven and close the door. Don't disturb it for 12-14 hours or until it's double in size. I like to make my dough at night after my kids have gone to bed and then it's ready in the morning.
• Dust your kitchen counter with flour and dump the dough out of the mixing bowl. You might have to use a rubber scraper to get it all out because like I said, it will be really sticky. Roll it around gently in the flour until it's coated and then using a knife of pizza cutter, cut it into 4 relatively equal sized pieces. 
• Roll each piece of dough into a loaf shape and gently place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Using a knife or kitchen shears, cut 5 or 6 diagonal slits into the top of each loaf. Don't cut too deep. If there are little tips of dough sticking up, push them down or they will burn.
• Give the oven another little blast of heat and put the loaves inside to rise for an hour and a half or so.
• Take them out and set them on top of the stove. Fill a 9 x 13 pan full of water and put it on the lower rack of the oven while you preheat it to 550 degrees, or as hot as your oven will go. If your oven only goes to 500 degrees like mine, don't stress. It's not a big deal. The baguettes will still turned out delicious!
• When the oven is screaming hot, spray the tops of the baguettes with water and stick the first sheet in the oven. Quickly open the oven 5 minutes into the cooking and 10 minutes into the cooking and spray the bread again. The key to getting that delicious crispy brown crust is creating a very humid environment for the bread. Bake the bread for 13-14 minutes total.
• Take the first sheet of bread out and repeat with the second sheet. Let them cool a bit before digging in. Slather the baguettes with butter, make sandwiches with stinky cheese and salty meat, or make little toasted crostini's with them. You won't be sorry you made this!!!

Let me know how it turns out for you and whether you love it as much as I do!

A Photo A Day: Week 2

Jan 8: When daddy gets home from work, we love to change into pajamas and have family snuggles in our bed. The boys are always silly and we have a lot of fun. These are some of my most cherished times.

Jan 9: This is one of my favorite pictures of Oliver ever. I feel like it really captures him. His dark, intense eyes lined with those incredible lashes, his rosy cheeks, his juicy lips..... I could kiss him all day long (and I do!).

Jan 10: For Christmas, I got Adam an eye exam that came with 2 pairs of free glasses. The only problem was that the frames included in the deal were RIDICULOUS. These are what he settled on because they were literally the best option. FAIL. But p.s., how awesome is it that my husband can look this hot in those specs?!

Jan 11: Rachelle and I made a quick trip to St. George (without our children!) to throw a bridal shower for Lauren. We stayed up late cooking and making decorations and got up early the next morning but it was a lot of fun and it turned out beautiful. I'm so glad we were able to do it for her!

Jan 12: Is this kid longing for summer or what? Poor guy was "mowing" the icy driveway.

Jan 13: Because it's been so cold and dreary out, we've been doing a lot of arts and crafts indoors. The boys have been really into watercolor painting and haven't limited their artistic abilities to the paper, as you can see. ;)

Jan 14: I had to take 56 pictures, bribe them with candy and TV, and do a song and dance behind the camera to get a semi-decent one. Life with boys!

A Photo A Day: Week 1

In 2014, I'm going to attempt to take a photo every single day and post them here on my blog. Some of the pictures will come from our DSLR and some will come from my cell phone. The photo quality isn't what's important to me, but I just want to remember the details this year. I have a feeling it's going to be a good one! :)

Jan 1: The boys love hiding and playing in this little space in between the couch and the wall. I always find them back there giggling.

Jan 2: One of Adam's co-worker's is the wife of one of the Utah basketball coaches. She has tickets on the floor to every game, and Adam hits her up once in awhile for some. We watched the team play Oregon and we had a blast even though Utah lost in overtime.

Jan 3: After their baths every day, the boys love to get warm by snuggling in our bed and they always end up jumping. I love watching them giggle and play together.

Jan 4: We bought annual passes to the children's museum downtown. E & O loved every inch of it, especially this helicopter.

Jan 5: Eli started Sunbeams today and did great. His teacher told me that he knew a lot of the primary songs and sang his heart out. That's my boy. He also bore his testimony in sacrament meeting and he threw a tantrum when he was done. I had to carry him off the stand and down the aisle while he yelled "I'm not done, I'm not done!"

Jan 6: We had our second ultrasound today. The baby was flipping around and wiggling everywhere. It is such a strange feeling to see that on the screen and know that it's happening inside of me, but not being able to feel is. So strange... The baby had grown so much since our last ultrasound just a month before!

Jan 7: I'm feeling great, like usual! I love being pregnant. My only complaint is that I get really tired around 2 or 3 in the afternoon and feel like I need a nap. I'm gaining a bunch of weight and am trying to keep it under control. I've managed to make it through 2 pregnancies without a single stretch mark and I'm hoping to make it through another!

Oliver: 20 Months Old

Dear Oliver,

You continue to be a sweet, happy, delightful boy. We love you so much, it's kind of ridiculous. Sometimes I worry that I'm too obsessed with you! You are practically perfect in every way and are such an easy child.

You are such a great eater.  I can't even believe the difference between you and your brother in this aspect. We can seriously put a food on your plate that you've never tried or even seen before and you will just pop it in your mouth like it ain't no thang. You are very adventurous and will eat pretty much anything. This isn't to say that you eat a lot but at least you're willing to try things. You eat with gusto for the first minute or two that we put food in front of you, but your excitement usually wears off pretty quickly. And once you decide that you're done, you're done. There's nothing I can do to get you to eat any more. So I always try to put the healthiest, protein-filled foods in front of you first so that you'll fill up on those. I'd say your favorite foods are fruits and veggies. You'll almost always eat those without fail.

Putting you to bed and down for your naps is the cutest thing ever. You grasp 3 or 4 burp cloths tightly to your chest and then we carry you around the house while you say night night (or nigh-nigh) to everything. You wave your chubby little hand at everything while you yell NIGH-NIGH at the top of your lungs with a big grin on your face. You love to sleep and are awesome at it. You take one nap, usually around 12:30. You sleep for about an hour and a half, sometimes two, and on a rare occasion, even three hours. When we put you to bed at night (around 7:30), you usually talk or sing to yourself for a few minutes before falling asleep. It's really nice because you and Eli have the same sleep schedule. You both go down at 7:30 p.m.and wake up between 7:00-7:30 a.m.

You have made a lot of improvements with your talking this past month. Yay! You can say "mommy," "daddy," "basketball," "burp cloth," "more," "thank you," and a few more that I can't think of right now. The biggest improvement is that when we tell you to repeat a word, it sounds a lot more like that word than it used to. It will usually have the right amount of syllables at least!

You and Eli get along pretty well for the most part but have the typical sibling fights (usually over toys). Sometimes, they get pretty ridiculous and you'll fight over the other brother sitting too close to you or talking the wrong way, etc. It's been hard having you two so close together in age, but I'm so glad we did it like that. I hope that you're best friends forever. It occurred to me a few months ago that your missions very well may overlap and you two won't see each other for 4 years! That can't happen! We'll have to hold you back for a few months so that you can at least spend a week or two with Eli before you leave.

You're not doing much better about going to nursery than you were last month. Just walking into the nursery room causes deep sobs to escape your chest. You grab my legs and bury your head in them so that you don't have to even look at the toys and the other kids. I usually stay with you for a minute or two, but as soon as you're not looking, I leave. I'm kind of hard core about it but I really want you to learn to deal with it on your own. I don't want to coddle you and go to nursery with you for the next year just because you're acting like a cry baby.  Sorry! You'll learn to like it.  I think it's in both of our best interests to leave.

Have I ever written about how much you love to pray? Every time we tell you boys that we're going to say a prayer, you drop everything you're doing to fold your arms and bow your head. You love to "repeat" back the words of the prayer.  It is so funny because you can barely talk but you totally think you know what you're saying. You say it with so much confidence. It's so much fun to watch.

Oliver, you have such a fun personality. You love to play, be chased, do silly things, and sing. You love wrestling with your dad more than anything and shriek at the top of your lungs when he throws you around. I love your relationship with your daddy. You love to snuggle with him and plant big kisses right on his mouth. We love you so much and are so happy you're ours!

Love and kisses,
Mama

20 Month Stats:
Weight: 27.8 lbs (64th percentile)
Height: 33 1/4 in (52nd percentile)
Head Circumference: 19 in (52nd percentile)