Hit or Miss

I've been making a lot of new recipes lately, you know, just trying to fulfill my role as the little housewife at home with the baby. Some of the recipes have been definite keepers, others have not. Let's start with the good:
Wheat Bread- I had made wheat rolls before, but it was my first time making bread. I planned on using my Bosch mixer because they're great for bread, but I ended up doing it the old fashioned way of mixing it by hand because that's how my mom does it. The kneading was a little intense and I was a little worried at one point (when the entire dough ball was wound around my sticky dough hands! It's a miracle I got myself out of that one!), but it turned out so good. I could have eaten four whole loaves myself. Seriously. I planned on saving one loaf and giving three away, but I only gave two away. It was just too good. (I definitely need to work on the appearance, though. Two of them looked pretty, but the other two looked pretty funny on the top. But taste is what matters!) By the way, bread is so, so cheap to make! Which is a great reason to make it more often!
Banana Walnut Bread-No picture. I only made one loaf and it was eaten too fast to take a picture. Really yummy recipe from the Food Network Kitchens. Loved it.
Homemade Jam-Super easy. Waaaay better than store bought jam. I have never and will never buy store bought jam. We always had homemade jam growing up, but I had never made it before. My mom always stocked us up with homemade jam when we were in Utah, but it would have been tricky for her to mail me more of it in California. I figured I had better learn how to make it. And I'm glad I did. Delicious!

Now, for the not-so-good.

Pizookie-Bad. Really bad. It literally makes me sick just thinking about it. A "Pizookie" is basically a chocolate chip cookie baked in a six inch pan, with ice cream over it. We also decided to make my Mom's famous chocolate sauce to put over it (as if we needed any more sweetness!?!) Long story short, it was waaaaaay too much. I usually love sweets, but this was just way too much goodness at once. We only made half the dough and we planned on making the rest of the dough the next night, there's now way we're making a pizookie anytime soon. Or ever! We had heard so much hype about how yummy pizookies are, but it was just pure sugary chocolate overload for us. We'll stick with the wheat bread.

How Do I Know When Bryn's Awake?

When I hear gargling from the other room. These strange sounds are getting a little out of control. She gargles and sings more and more everyday. And the noises are getting weirder and weirder. The noises in this video are pretty mild because she's just waking up, but once she's wide awake the sounds just get crazy. Where did she learn this!?

Little Miss Vocal

As usual, here are Brynlee's Sunday pictures. Thanks Marie for the cute skirt! Brynlee was good at church, except during Sunday School when she decided she didn't want to be quiet any longer. She pulled out her pacifier and began making the cutest little noises! I wanted to just let her talk, but I figured I better start teaching her now about reverance during church. Bryn is definitely a vocal child. She's not a crier, but she's always talking and finding new sounds she can make. Sometimes she's talking in response to things we're saying to her, but other times she's just babbling to herself as she plays with her toys. The video demonstrates a few of the sounds she's been doing lately.

P.S. In the picture above you'll see how her hands are clasped together. She loves doing that lately. Her hands are just glued to each other all day long. It's so funny. Her hands are her new favorite toys! I hope she stays this easily entertained!

Four Months Old

Brynlee is four months old today!!! She has seemed so grown up lately. Some of the things she loves to do are rolling, blowing bubbles in her mouth, spitting and drooling, sucking on anything she can get her hands on, making tons of different little noises, pulling her pacifier out of her mouth and tossing it on the germy ground, looking at colorful books, playing in her "exersaucer", going outside and looking around, stroller rides, holding tight to her blankies, long naps, charming all the little boys at church, and spending time with her Daddy. We love her!

Scrub-A-Dub-Dub

Brynlee LOVES bath time! This video is pretty long, but it's mostly for my Mamasita back home who hasn't seen Bryn take a bath in the real tub. It's also for all of you who have been wanting a close up view of my head. There are some really nice back-of-the-head shots. Enjoy!

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

Brynlee learned how to roll a week ago and it's been so funny. When she first learned how to roll, she was doing it nonstop. As soon as I'd unwrap her from her swaddle, she would roll over. And the rolls would continue all day long. I think she was just so excited at her new trick, that she wanted to do it over and over and over. It's cute, but there are a few problems with this new rolling thing. One, she only knows how to roll from her back to her tummy. She tries and tries to roll back onto her back but so far she hasn't figured it out. This means once she gets tired of being on her tummy I have to come flip her back over. I used to be able to lay her on her back and she would play with toys while I got chores done, but now my chores are pretty interupted because every few minutes I have to flip her over. The second problem is that Brynlee is a spitter and rolling all day just contributes to her spitting up. I think she makes herself motion sick with all the constant rolling. So she'll roll, spit up, then grunt until I flip her back over, roll, spit up, then grunt, and so on and so on. This is our pattern for much of the day! Luckily, the thrill of rolling is wearing off a little and she doesn't do it constantly. Only 15-20 times a day, which is far less than a few days ago!

Here we go again

When I first got married I would take a picture of every meal that I made! I wouldn't let Josh take a bite until I had taken pictures of his pretty plate. Sometimes I even included him in the pictures prompting him to "smile big and act like you're really happy about this new recipe!" I guess I was just so excited to be a wife and to be learning how to cook. Now I laugh when I go through my pictures and find all those pictures of meals! It was a little out of control.

Now I'm doing the same thing with Brynlee's Sunday pictures. We'll be rushing off to church and I'll say "Wait! We haven't taken a picture of Brynlee's church outfit!" We'll have to drop everything, find the camera, and take a handful of pictures. I know. It's a little overboard. How long will this last? It could be a while. Even though I recognize that it's silly, I'm sure I'll be pulling the camera out again next week! This a dead give away that I'm a first time mom. Something tells me I won't be doing this by the time I get to my fourth or fifth child!

Hope you enjoy the picture of Brynlee from this past Sunday!

Why?

So about two and a half years ago around Christmas time of 2006 my family decided to do family pictures (in a family of eight kids I was the only one who was still single). Well, after my whole family had taken family pictures, each of my siblings then had some time with the photographer and their individual families to take their own family pictures. For some reason after one of my siblings and their family had taken their pictures the photographer called my name. Why I consented to a single photo shoot of myself, where all the pictures were of me in various poses I'll never know, but the following is just one of the photos taken that day, titled, "Alone":Word to the wise, if you're ever in a photo shoot and the photographer thinks that it will be really cool to take a picture of you at the bottom of a pit with your hands in your pockets and a cheesy grin on your face, ask yourself, "How have I gotten myself to this point in my life?" I didn't, and now I have this photo for the rest of my life.

-Josh