Domesticating

Creativity is not one of my strong points. Saving money (well, more like not spending the money I have) is a stronger point. Unfortunately for Eden, that means for her that we lack toys and fun things in our house because I don't buy them AND I don't create them.

There was a lady who came over to my house that was a part of a free, community group called "Parents as Teachers". They come over every 3 months and talk about your child's development, give you ideas of things to do, and interact with your child. She came over for the first time a while back and she was really nice. She brought some toys that were made from things many would label as "trash". Since then I've been saving things from the fate of the trash can and giving them life as a child's play toy. I must say, Eden's impressed.

Here are my creations! A tent made out of the cardboard box, covered with her blanky (not so original, I know...I should have thought to do this a long time ago).



Out of a plastic apple carton (from Costco) I made a place for all of her little play food, balls, and little toys to go. She'll throw them in, close the lid, take them out. Seems kind of ridiculous...but she really loves it.And out of a sour cream carton I cut a slit through the bottom to fit her rings in (which is nice because she never uses those rings anymore...until now!) She'll put them in, open the bottom and dump it out, put them in again...she LOVES this one.
Also, while on my "domesticating" kick I figured that I would do something that was "economical" and always reminds me of my mom because she always did this....cut up her own chicken. I can officially say that I've taken a whole chicken and cut it up limb from limb. Umm...it was really gross and I may not do it again...I even called my mom halfway through for help and she basically told me, "Just do it!" And, as seen below...I DID IT!Although, I felt more like this crazy mad woman (as shown below) than a domesticated housewife....But at the end of the day....I wasn't the only one going crazy....

Videos!

That's right, I decided to give up trying to get my new camera's videos to work on my computer...so I pulled out the old camera and just started using that for my videos. The other issue is now Eden just loves to play with the camera...so its hard to get her to sit still enough in pictures and videos. So here's what's been going on.

Eden is getting smarter and smarter. She recently started to understand counting a bit. Here's a video of her counting...but its kind of hard to listen and decipher. She says, "one. two. four. five." She's obviously still learning. But she's counted all the way up to 10 (with a little help from me...and usually skipping at least one number in the middle).


Eden is also growing a lot. We put up this little measuring thing on her wall and she loves it. She'll always put her back to it and wait for me to measure her. She also tried to put her kitty there once to be measured.


This video may seem kind of boring because it's not really of Eden but the book we are reading. I couldn't figure out any other way to do this video. And might I add...it's really hard to read and turn pages on a book while Eden is sitting on my lap and I'm holding my camera.

Anyhow, this is Eden's favorite boo, "Moo. Baa. La La La." She reads the book with me and we'll often recite it without the book because by now we've BOTH got it memorized. And at the end the book asks "What do you say?" I didn't realize until today that when I ask that she says, "Waah" because she refers to herself as a baby.



Speaking of Eden liking to be the baby. She always asks me and Tyson and rock her and sing "rock rock" meaning 1 of 2 songs. Here she is rocking her bear.


Finally, this is her putting baby to sleep....and herself to sleep. But she still loves to have someone pretend sleep and then she'll say "ATTACK" and body slam them.

Flashback Friday: Mother's Cookies

It's 12:34 a.m. No, I wasn't so excited to do a "Flashback Friday" that I stayed up late...I just don't feel like sleeping yet...feeling REBELLIOUS!

I haven't done a Flashback Friday for a long time, but I recently had a flashback moment. I was making chocolate chip cookies with Eden. I decided to not use the Bosch mixture this time and hand mix my cookies...for the TRUE cookie making experience. Then it happened...the flashback.

*Vision gets fuzzy and music plays in the background as I reminisce back to my childhood*

My mom seemed to always be making cookies growing up. My friends loved coming to my house for the free food that my mom always offered. She never had a Bosch or any kind of mixer...just the buffness of her arms (which takes quite the strength might I add). She would always sit in front of the pantry door next to an open bucket of flour.... adding ... mixing .... adding ... mixing. A good portion of my memories of my mom were of her sitting there adding ... mixing ... adding ... mixing.

While I was making cookies, Eden started to get a little frustrated that I wasn't paying attention to her. So, I decided to sit on the ground with my bowl of cookie dough I was mixing to show Eden what I was doing. She sat there and loved to watch.

Eden pointed her finger at the dough wondering what it was...she pointed so closely that she touched the dough. Which she then stuck in her mouth. Which lead her to discover the wonderful excitement of eating cookie dough straight from the bowl. It became a game...get the cookie dough without being attacked by mom trying to vigorously hand mix with the spoon.
*Another flashback moment*

When I was little I remember trying to eat the cookie dough while my mom stirred the dough. I think she was much rougher than I was though...much more strength in her arms than mine I suppose...after all, I usually take the lazy road of using an electric mixer. But I usually didn't do too well at getting cookie dough while my mom was mixing...at least not a lot.

When I was finished mixing my cookie dough and started putting it on the cookie sheets all of a sudden I noticed Eden going for the kill. She saw this as her chance to REALLY get some good dough eating. First one finger, then using two fingers...and then three and four.

She was LOVING it...and being the loving daughter she is offered me some with a look on her face that said, "Mom...you have GOT TO try this stuff!"
And just like my mom used to do, I gave Eden the wooden spoon to lick after I was done with it.

I loved it. Eden loved it. And once Tyson got home from school after a long day of studying...he loved it.

Recipe for these cookies HERE.

Bumps and Bruises

Eden got her first big bump yesterday. And Tyson and I got our first real heart-racing scare.

This is her right before the incident, happy as a clam...or should I say lobster cause she looks more like a lobster than a clam with those mittens on.
This is her after the incident (actually I took this picture this morning)....

She was sitting on her feeding chair (as shown in the first picture), which was on our regular kitchen chair (and we didn't have the two chairs fastened together...making this totally our fault). She leaned forward to see something she dropped and the chair fell right off with her attached to it. She hit face first and with how hard that floor is, how far down she fell, and how bad it looked...I'm surprised she doesn't look worse. She actually isn't bruising too much, but its definitely discolored giving her a black eye and a bump on the forehead. And her eye is definitely swollen making her look like she's permanently giving the stink eye.

I'm just glad that she is alright and we didn't have to go to the hospital and nothing serious happened. I'm positive that God made children super resilient for a purpose....1: to create a way for a child to live past toddlerhood and 2: to help the parents learn to take extra safety precautions when it comes to their children.

Defenders of Awesomeness

There is a very prestigious group of individuals that have come to call themselves the "Defenders of Awesomeness" (of which my husband is affiliated, he's got the t-shirt to prove it). When first formed, this group of high schoolers...I mean, group of prestigious individuals...defined "awesomeness" as "never having to say you are boring". I have been selected to be a part of this group (through marriage...I'm more like an in-law has become a part of a family "through marriage" or like someone who is given a job not because of their qualifications but because their uncle is the "top dog" of the company...not because of my highly-esteemed qualities and values which I hold). And awesome is what I strive to be.

But I have failed this group and found myself to be a boring individual. I'm currently in the repentance process. Starting with this picture below to prove that I'm not boring...boring people just don't take pictures like that.


The beginnings of me going back to awesomeness...

I went to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art which was INCREDIBLE (and FREE). It was huge! Three floors and a large outside area with statues and sculptures.
....and GIANT birdies.
This is Tyson in front of a statue that represents peace. After taking this picture we were tempted to take a picture of him doing a peace sign...but didn't.
Inside there were rooms and rooms of different cultures, artifacts, stories, etc.
And I have person who is willing to vouch for my "awesomeness". She may be a little person...but just like the book Horton Hears a Who "a person's a person, no matter how small".

Isn't she cute? I love when she wakes up from nap happy...
...and half naked. She's really into dressing...and UNdressing herself lately. Yeah, that shirt got stretched out a bit after she was done with it.

And Eden's gonna grow up to be awesome just like her mom...she's already starting to imitate me. Obviously I take a lot of pictures...(but I swear that I don't wake up from naps and take off my clothes...she learned to love that by herself)This is Eden's first picture she ever took by herself. She was playing with the camera and and all a sudden I saw a flash. She got a LOVELY shot of my neck and arm.

All I have to say is "I'm awesome, I'm pretty, and DOG GONE IT...people like me!!"

Little Conversations

Note: So, I needed to write a new post because I hate when I write complaining posts (like the post before). It makes me feel bad...like I'm a compulsive complainer, which may or may not be true...

Anyhow...

Two conversations I have with Eden DAILY:

Eden: Eat.
Mom: You want to eat?
Eden: Yeeeaaah. (Smiles)
Mom: What do you want to eat?
Eden: Noonles.
Mom: We don't have noodles. Want anything else to eat?
Eden: No...nnnnoonles.
Mom: How about _______?
Eden: Yeeeeaaah.

Mom: Let's get ready to go night night.
Eden: No? (said like "can we do something else?")
Mom: How about we brush your teethies.
Eden: No. (much more of a statement)
Daddy: Daddy's going to brush his teethies. Want to brush your teethies with daddy?
Eden: Yeeeaaaah.

Man, I love this age when you can distract your child away from getting what they want. But I love having conversations with Eden...she's so cute. I love that she talks. And I love the picture above...she just looks so...what's the right word...suspicious?

Misery in Missouri

Dear Reader,

I am calling on you for help. Recently I have moved from Orem, Utah to Kansas City, Missouri. While life here has been good, there is one unsolved mystery that I'm currently trying to solve. Making bread is much more of a hassle than enjoyment. I loved baking loaves of bread, bread sticks, rolls, etc. But since my move to Missouri I can't make a good bread to save my life. I have researched the internet, tried to make some adjustments, and I can't figure it out. I'm hoping that you, my diligent readers, may have an insight to my ever-frustrating dilemma.

What is different?

1. My yeast will rise and amazingly rapid rates. While I'm used to waiting 5-10 minutes for yeast to be bubbly, I'm finding that after 2-3 minutes my yeast has almost turned into a soft pillow of bubbles.

2. The same thing happens when rising...its SUPER rising. I've never had dough rise this fast. Maybe this is a good thing, maybe this is a bad thing.

3. Then when I transfer my dough to the pan to cook in (say for example my bread sticks I attempted last night....I let rise the first time in a bowl, then transfer to a pan in the shape of bread sticks) for some reason its deflated so much that it doesn't fill the pan size that it would normally have filled if I were in Utah. Its as if the same recipe makes LESS in Missouri than Utah.

4. During the second rising time, it SUPER rises again (but in the case of the cinnamon rolls I made) since it didn't seem like there were ENOUGH cinnamon rolls, they seemed to grow out and almost a little melty on the bottom.

5. Then when cooking it looks nice but when out of the oven it flattens and denses and overall doesn't taste the same, not NEARLY as good. Just sort of...tolerably OK.

Could this be the fault of the over-excited yeast? Maybe the new kind of flour I'm using? Is it the altitude change? Is it temperature of the oven? Is it the amount of time I let it rise? Do I need to knead it extra or less? I may just give up making any kind of bread while here in misery...I mean, Missouri.

Hoping to find answers,
Misery in Missouri