Sunday Funnies

On Thursday night, as Ian was drying Cora off after her bath:

Ian: “I like you. You’re nice.”

Cora: “Thanks. You’re nice, too. Sometimes I’m nice. But sometimes I don’t share with Evaline.”

Ian: “Well, sometimes I don’t share, either. And sometimes I’m mean and don’t say things as nice as I should. I’m sorry when I do that.”

Cora: “You just need to say ‘oh, pickles’ instead of the naughty words.”

Ian: “I’ll keep trying on that.”

Cora: “Well, you can just say ‘oh, pickles’ second. You can say the naughty words first. I know you really like those words.”

Sunday Funnies

Cora: Why are you in here just starin' at a book?  Daddy said you were reading.

Apparently it only counts as "reading" if you are doing it out loud.  :-)

Welcome Home, Uncle Dave!!!

After almost a year away, Uncle Dave is home from Afghanistan!!  

We badly wanted to go his homecoming in Lincoln, NE...but they came home the Thursday before our Spring Break, and unfortunately we couldn't get off of work (I have no days left after my maternity leave).  

I intended to post this a week ago...but never got the photos uploaded off my camera :-(

Soooooo......in lieu of our actually being there...

Recent Baking

So...I stopped keeping up my other blog where I recorded recipes and pictures of those recipes.  I'm kind of bummed that I stopped doing this - it was a really, really handy recipe file for me.  It was a great way to keep track of the things that we've made and enjoyed: complete with pictures to jog my memory of the specific dishes (cookbooks with pictures are always the best - this is sorta like that).  BUT...it takes a lot of time to take the pictures, upload the pictures, write the post, etc.  I'd kinda been slacking off, but about the time I got pregnant with Willa my energy for it really dropped.  While it doesn't even begin to compare to some of my friends early pregnancy experiences (which consisted of major sickness), I didn't feel well for the whole first trimester.  Everything made me feel nauseous, I was incredibly tired all the time, and my general disposition was down in the dumps.  All of that passed, but I never picked up that blog again and now...running after these three little ones, teaching a new AP class, etc - I can hardly keep up with this one.  And it kinda makes me sad.

The girls and I have spent some time in the kitchen lately, though, and I do want those projects recorded.

Here's a cake that I made for some good friends' son's 2nd birthday.  (The design didn't come out of my head - I saw it on...wait for it...Pinterest, but it was just a picture with no website, so I don't know where to attribute the design.)

 

 

It is a yellow cake (from the red & white plaid Better Homes & Gardens cookbook) with jello frosting, only I added a couple tablespoons of meringue powder to help it stablize.  I used a grass decorators tip (Wilton #234) for Cookie's "fur," and the eyes are Ritz crakers dipped in almond bark (the center of the eyes are just some melted chocolate chips).  The chocolate chip cookies are homemade, too...although they are a frequent dessert at my house, apparently they never made it on the blog so I don't have a link there.

C & E are acquiring my love for baking (yea!).  And for Valentine's Day we made some mini-cupcakes:

I love mini-cupcakes, because you can eat two without feeling guilty and they have a much better frosting-to-cake ratio. I just used the chocolate cake recipe from the BH&G cookbook and filled mini-muffin tins.  I used my standard cookie scoop to fill the muffin tins, and they came out the perfect size (once scoop per cupcake). 

The frosting here is pretty unique - its a fantastic substitute for standard buttercreme, or whipped creme frosting.  It's a cross between the two actually.  It has the texture of a whipped creme frosting, but is more like buttercreme, but not as sweet.  I think it pairs perfectly with the rich chocolate cake.  (However, my mom thought it wasn't sweet enough.)  This is the same frosting that I use for Oatmeal Creme Pies.  The girls did the sprinkle-decorating.

Six Month Photo Dump

Willa is six months old!!  Actually, she was six months old almost a week ago but we just went to her doctor's appointment today.  As suspected, she's pretty perfect.

Since we're at the 6th month mark, let's take a look back at some of her growth pictures (I didn't take them for nothing, after all):

Right now Willa weights 15 lbs, 15 oz.  (less than Cora did at this age, but more than Evaline) which puts her at the 44th percentile for weight, she is 25 1/2 inches long (1/4 inch longer than C&E were) which is the 29th percentile, and her HUGE noggin is in the 97th percentile!!

Willa is rolling from tummy to back like its her job, she hates lying on her tummy more than anything and has no interest in being there.  Ever.  She has rolled from back to tummy, twice, but has since decided that it isn't worth the effort.  She is well on her way to sitting solo, getting a bit better at balancing on her hips everyday. It takes a lot of strength to hold up that huge head of hers.  She's pretty keen on her bottle (and if you catch a glimpse of her thighs, you will have no doubt of this) but has very little interest in solids.  She's tried cereal, peas, green beans, carrots and apples...but nothing has yet tempted her palate. She's reaching and grabbing for things. She's quiet and observant, but she loves to be around people.  Generally, she will be happy if she's positioned in the room where she can see everything going on - but only if everyone stays where she can see them (she gets cranky when left alone). She loves her floor gym, her giraffe-blanket, her crinkly giraffe toy, her "O" ball, and anything that she grab on to and put in her mouth.  She loves watching her big sisters act goofy (unfortunately, however, the very things (sounds, actions, etc) that elicit peals of laughter and squeals of glee from Willa are....super annoying to Ian and me. Because of Willa's response, it's cute the first ten times or so, but after that.....).  She goes to bed around 6:30 at night and on school days we wake her up around 6:00 am but on weekends she'll sleep until 7:00 or 7:15.  (I'm a huge advocate for early sleep training.) Her naps are good, but inconsistent - two or three a day, anywhere from one to three hours at a stretch.

And that's Willa.

And here's Willa, too:

Just hanging out, being her smiley self

It's hard to tell, but they're all wearing sheep-themed footy jammies

She looks as though she's all excited to eat.  Looks are deceiving.

Shortly before a nose-dive.

Another happy baby girl.

Cora's teaching her to use her computer.

This was her first bite of cereal.

Watching Mom and Dad fold laundry.

I've had some questions about who does she look like here lately....here are some pics...let's see if you can guess who is in each one:

Picture A:

Picture B:

                                      

Picture C:

Picture D:

Picture E: 

                                                   

Answers: 

A: Cora, B: Willa, C: Evaline, D: Merry  E: Ian(I'm a little older, and Ian's a little younger, but I had limited access to pictures from the same age). 

So?  How'd you do?