The Browers

kids and clean don't mix

2012-01-27T13:49:00.003-07:00

Whenever I try to clean up one room in the house, my kids are inevitably trashing another. This morning I was folding laundry while Alta and Ellie pulled out all the clothes from their dressers in their rooms. Then I took a shower and came down to find Ellie's hands covered in bike grease.

I walked in the room to find Ellie naked except a hat, with black all over her hands. Alta had gloves on ("to keep my hands clean, mommy!"). These little girls are turning into partners in crime. Ellie usually has the idea, and Alta helps her carry it out.

I may soon give up on cleaning altogether. Especially my kitchen:

Ellie signing "all done"
At least her seat would sort of contain the mess, but over the past month she has decided she is as big as Alta and doesn't need a chair to be strapped in. I tried, oh how I tried, but this girl is stubborn. So the chair is gone, and now she is still as messy but can get on and off her chair, touch everything in the kitchen, and when I try to wash her hands she runs back to the table because she wants to eat more. And the cycle repeats.

How do I keep my house clean and keep my sanity at the same time?

Brower Sweep

2012-01-12T13:38:00.004-07:00

We spent last Saturday up at Park City watching Daniel, Kevin, Mitchell, and Mark race.

The girls liked cheering for all the boys as they came down. And they loved skiing with Dan and Kevin.

Alta with her goggles, and downhill-suit-Dan. niiiiice.

Ellie didn't want me to hold her, she'd much rather be skiing. Whenever Kevin set her down she would just stand at his legs and look up at him with her little beggar face.

We skipped naps (besides the half hour that Ellie spent sleeping on Mal, awwww) and decided to go to the awards thing. It was at the Olympic Park so we walked around the museum.

The girls and I were not big fans of sitting around for so long waiting for this thing to start, but Dan really wanted his trophy. Mitchell, Daniel and Kevin took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the race, and Mark got 1st in his age group. And I might as well mention that with the handicap they worked out before the race, Dan came out the winner of the family $100 prize money.

And after all that, Alta can't wait to go skiing for real!

My favorite family picture

2012-01-02T14:38:00.005-07:00

At the BYU basketball game on New Year's Eve day with the Browers. Alta picking her nose, Ellie refusing to look at the camera.

The girl cousins

2012-01-02T14:24:00.006-07:00

Last night was the first night in a week and a half that we've all slept at our house. We've been house jumping to spend as much time as possible with our families. I thought that living here now would mean that holidays weren't quite as crazy. Not true. But worth the craziness. I've got lots of pictures to steal and then lots of posts to write.

Lisa and Matt and their kids got here after Christmas and we spent a few days with them at my parent's house. Alta loves Sierra and Katelyn more than almost anything else. I didn't really see her the whole time we were there, she was too busy playing with them.

By the way, Lorna made those dresses and they are adorable!
Also of note: after this, we drove back home to go to church where Alta went to her first week of primary! I almost cried, for real. She's getting too big.

Snow

2011-12-13T14:02:00.003-07:00

This is how much Ellie loves snow:

"It's time for lunch, Ellie. Do you want to go inside and eat?"
"NOOOOOOO!"

Thanksgiving

2011-11-30T13:39:00.004-07:00

We drove down to St. George on Wednesday afternoon for a fun-filled Thanksgiving weekend at the Brower's vacation home. The entire family was there and we had a blast. We girls got some road biking in (minus Natalie, sorry preggo), the boys golfed and mountain biked, and everyone (minus Natalie, again) did a little razoring. We enjoyed the hot tub, relaxed around the house, laughed at Alta and Ellie, and played a lot of Uno and one contentious game of Scum.

But here's the thing: I took zero pictures. So maybe someday I'll get around to mooching pictures off of someone else and posting them, but in the meantime if you want to hear the details, go to my sister-in-law Malorie's blog. She takes more pictures of my kids than I do anyway! (Which will hopefully change-I just got a new battery for my camera that actually holds a charge for longer than an hour.)

Oh and I lied, I did take a couple pictures at a park the girls (and everyone else) played at. They had the best spinning toys!

Winter Salad

2011-11-30T13:16:00.004-07:00

Usually when I makes salads, I throw some lettuce in a bowl with maybe bell pepper or carrots, with some dressing on the side. Really not that appetizing.

When I want a real salad, this is one of my favorite recipes. My sister put it in our family cookbook, but everyone should have it. It is so yummy! I always have extra dressing, this makes way too much for one salad. And the recipe calls for cashews, but I'll tell you what really makes this good: candied pecans.

Winter Fruit Salad
1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. lemon juice (from a bottle is fine)
2 t. diced onion
1 t. Dijon-style mustard
1/2 t. salt
2/3 c. vegetable oil
1 T. poppy seeds
1 head romaine lettuce (or any lettuce), torn into bite-size pieces
4 ounces shredded Swiss cheese
1 c. candied pecans (or cashews)
1/4 c. dried cranberries
1 apple - peeled, cored and diced
1 pear - peeled, cored and diced

In a blender or food processor, combine sugar, lemon juice, onion, mustard and salt. Process until well blended. With machine still running add oil in a slow steady stream until mixture is thick and smooth. Add poppy seeds and process just a few seconds more to mix.

In a large serving bowl combine the lettuce, cheese, nuts, cranberries, apple and pear. Toss to mix then pour dressing over salad just before serving and toss to coat.

Sugared Pecans
1 egg white
1 Tbsp water
1/4 t. vanilla extract
8 oz pecans
1/2 c. sugar
1 t. cinnamon
3/4 t. salt
1/4 t. ground cloves
1/4 t. ground nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Put sugar, cinnamon, salt, cloves and nutmeg in a plastic bag, shake to mix.
3. Put egg, water, and vanilla in a bowl. Beat until slightly foamy, add pecans and coat well. Lift pecans out of bowl with a slotted spoon and put into the bag of sugar and spices. Shake pecans making sure they are well coated.
4. Bake 30 minutes on a baking pan lined with lightly greased aluminum foil. 15 minutes into baking, stir the pecans. Let cool completely before serving.
Makes about 2 cups.

Chocolate Chili

2011-11-17T15:43:00.004-07:00

I've been eyeing this recipe in my Our Best Bites cookbook for a while, but I was a little nervous to make it. Chocolate in a savory dish? I know it's done all the time, but I'd never actually tried it before. When my sister-in-law posted it on her blog, I knew it had to be good so I made it. It is delicious, it is easy, and it's one of those things that tastes even better the next day. And now it will be showing up on my menu all winter long. Yum.

The original recipe uses chipotle chilies, which I never have. I also made a few other changes.

Chocolate Chili

1 lb. lean ground beef

1 onion, chopped (i used less because we don't love onions around here)

1 red bell pepper, minced

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 (your preference) cans diced tomatoes

1-2 (your preference) cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn

1 15-oz. can beef broth

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

2 Tbsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. freshly-ground black pepper

1/2 tsp. Kosher salt

1/2 oz. unsweetened chocolate (1/2 unsweetened baking cube), chopped

3-4 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

1. Heat olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Saute onion, garlic, bell pepper, and ground beef until meat is cooked through. Add salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, brown sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, tomatoes, beans, corn, and beef broth. Heat to boiling and then reduce to a simmer (uncovered), stirring occasionally, until thickened as desired (about 30-40 minutes).

2. Stir in 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar. Add chopped chocolate a small amount at a time until desired richness is reached. If you add too much, your chili will be bitter. Add more red wine vinegar if you need to cut the sweetness of the chili.

3. Serve with chopped green onions, sour cream, and shredded cheddar cheese.

Or if you are us, skip step three and serve with a crusty loaf of cheddar cheese bread.

Ellie

2011-11-10T16:05:00.005-07:00

Time for a post dedicated just to her.

-Ellie is 17 months old. Almost nursery time! And what a relief it will be (if she goes by herself). I don't even make it to the opening prayer in sunday school before she's screaming.

-She is super late getting teeth, and she's getting them in a really weird order. She got her first tooth (bottom middle) at 15 1/2 months old. A month later she got her second tooth...a molar. Another molar popped through a few days later. What will be next?

-She says a few word, but mostly just grunt-yells until we figure out what she wants.

-Just in the last couple days she discovered the toilet was a fun toy. I have to keep the bathroom door closed now.

-She loves to eat. Wherever I go, I have to bring a huge bag full of snacks because I know she'll be hungry. She wants to feed herself, and refuses to eat when I try to cut up her food into manageable pieces.
-She's very much a one-year-old. Her moods are every-changing and she gets frustrated easily when she can't communicate what she wants. She doesn't understand the whole sharing thing so she gets mad at Alta all the time when they're playing. And when she gets mad, she shows it. She will grab toys and chuck them across the room, hit whoever is closest, and throw herself on the ground. Sometimes I have to try not to laugh.

-She is, quite possibly, the best sleeper ever. This is a fantastic change from the first half of her life. She actually gets excited to go to bed.

-And lastly, jeggings are the cutest thing in the world on chubby babies:

Cornbelly's

2011-11-10T15:57:00.002-07:00

For the whole month of October Magleby's Fresh had a stand at the corn maze at Thanksgiving Point. We got a bunch of free tickets and Bekah and I took advantage of it. The kids loved it.

Corn dog, anyone?

Carb addict

2011-11-09T14:02:00.006-07:00

I'm totally hooked on this bread. It is so, so easy. Mix (no kneading!) the dough, let it rise on your countertop for a couple hours, then stick in the fridge for up to two weeks. That means I can have fresh-baked bread any time I want.

You could actually just get the book from the library (or from me) and copy the master recipe. There are a bunch of other recipes but the main one is so good that I never make the others.

I like to make it into loaves with my baguette pan.

And dipped in some high-quality olive oil? Heaven, my friends.

Halloween

2011-11-09T13:40:00.003-07:00

The girls were so hyped on sugar that I couldn't get a good picture of them with my camera phone. Ellie re-used Alta's kitty costume, which was re-used from Sierra. I'm not so into finding halloween costumes. Alta was a witch, but not a mean one (she was very insistent on this).

We went trick-or-treating in the Brower's neighborhood with Sawyer and Wyatt. Alta totally came out of her shell and talked to strangers and ran around yelling "poop deck" to everyone (Sawyer was a pirate...).

Good times, then we ate all of their candy.

The 55-miler 60-miler

2011-11-01T15:46:00.005-06:00

When I first started road biking in June, Lorna mentioned a charity ride she wanted to do for the Make a Wish Foundation. You could choose between the 100, 60, 30, or 10 mile rides, and Lorna wanted to do the 60. I kind of latched on to the idea and kept it as my training goal as I rode all summer.

So last weekend we headed down to St. George and made a Brower girls trip out of it. Natalie flew in from L.A. (with her cute little pregnant belly!), and we all drove down together Friday morning.

Little side note, on the way down we drove through Kolob Canyons. It's right off I-15 (somewhere past Cedar City) and you'd never even know it was there. Take the 15-minute detour and see it sometime, it's beautiful:

We made it to St. George and dropped off our stuff at the house, then got back in the car to drive the 60-mile bike route to see what we'd gotten ourselves into. BAD idea. We kept driving up hill after hill and all started psyching ourselves out. I'd never ridden more than 30 miles, and 60 miles of hills sounded like a terrible idea.

Another side note, but an important one: This was not a race. They didn't have anyone timing the event, and it was just a charity ride. But the Brower boys are very competitive, and weeks before the ride Daniel and Kevin turned this into a wife race. Dan was always telling me I had to beat Malorie, and apparently Kevin was telling Malorie the same thing. And then Mark put $100 on the line for the winner...

That night we had dinner at a restaurant called Xetava. Delicious seafood and amazing bread pudding, yum. We spent some time in the hot tub chatting, then went to go call our husbands before we went to bed. Malorie and I couldn't get a hold of Kevin or Daniel, turns out they were talking to each other. Then they each called their wives and gave us pep talks on how to beat each other.

Saturday, race day! Here we are ready to go:

Apparently I didn't know what was going on.

Getting ready to start:

After the first 15 miles, we all felt great. The hills that looked so bad in the car turned out to be long and gradual, so they weren't hard at all. We got to the halfway point, which turned out to only be a little over 27 miles instead of 30. I don't know how they left off 5 whole miles from a 60 mile ride...

Lorna, Mal and I stuck together for almost the entire race (with Karen not far behind!). It was fun to ride and talk. But 5 miles before the finish line, I decided to make my move. I started sprinting up a hill, and never stopped. I came pretty close to puking, but for $100 it was worth it.

Did I mention I'm a little bit competitive?

Here's us after the race. 55 miles in 3 1/2 hours.

After recovering at the house for a while, we went to the Anasazi Steak House. It was the perfect post-ride meal. Cheese fondue, steak and shrimp (that you cook yourself on a 700 degree slab of granite) and chocolate fondue for dessert. If you are ever in St. George, I would highly recommend it. It was deeeeelicious.

It was such a fun girls weekend! And next time, we're totally doing the 100-miler.

Alta

2011-10-19T16:21:00.003-06:00

These little girls change way too fast. And I seriously need to be better about writing down all the funny things they do and say and all the little phases they go through. I forget about them so quickly and then they're gone!

So here are some tidbits about Alta (3 yrs 5 months):

-still loves to talk as much as ever. She's used up all the words she knows and has started making up words. She'll even give me definitions of these made-up words. And the definitions often contain even more made-up words.

-she has started taking naps less and less. I bribe her to take a nap 2 or 3 times a week, and on the other days I have about an hour where I tell her she can't talk to me. Some may call it neglect, I call it sanity.

-she gets bloody noses all the time. At least once a week I wake up to her crying in her bed with blood all over. But she's gotten the hang of it and knows exactly what to do, and they really don't bother her. Example:

-she is so concerned about Ellie and is always keeping tabs on her. Which is usually really helpful. They are starting to have rare moments where they actually play together, and even rarer moments when this happens with no fighting!

-she got a new bike. Specialized. Only the best for this girl. She loves riding it and we've been trying to take advantage of the fall weather before it gets too cold!

-she's still extremely nervous in new situations. She doesn't like strangers (or even people she hasn't seen for a while) trying to talk to her. She is really good at pretending they don't exist. I signed her up for a tumbling class and she hates it. She stands on the mat and ignores everyone and refuses to do anything.

-when she's not nervous, she is so bossy. She is a little ringleader with Sawyer and Wyatt and always tells them what to do. She says things to them like: "Come on, you two!", or "Sawyer, stop doing that cause your mommy told you not to".

-she's bossy with Dan too. The last two Sundays, Dan has turned on the tv to watch football or golf or something and she tells him, repeatedly, "Daddy, we do not watch shows on Sunday".

-she is knocking on her door right now letting me know she's awake. How polite. Usually she starts saying "cock-a-doodle-doo" as loud as she can...

2011-10-03T15:44:00.002-06:00

Bekah introduced Ellie to popcorn. She's a big fan. She can sort of say it, and gets really excited if she hears anyone else say it. She eats it as fast as possible and doesn't like to share.

One of the many reasons she loves her Aunt Bekah!

the zoo (again)

2011-10-03T15:32:00.005-06:00

Bekah and Jim and the boys have been in Utah for a few weeks and are staying for the whole month of October. I am loving it! and so are our kids.
Zoo trip a while ago:

Wait, this isn't the zoo! But almost as good.

Why we like Uncle Kevin

2011-09-29T14:15:00.000-06:00

no captions needed.

poppin' the collar

2011-09-29T14:11:00.002-06:00

Bedtime Snack

2011-09-27T14:44:00.004-06:00

I start craving sugar the second we put the girls to bed. Combine that with a box full of peaches, and I ended up with these little treats:

Individual servings of peach crumble, yum. This recipe was really good. It wasn't overly sweet so the peaches really stood out.

To make these small servings, I halved the recipe for the crumble topping and had enough for 4 ramekins. (Actually, I made two servings one night, refrigerated the extra topping and made two more servings the next night.) Dan is a purist and wanted only peaches, I added frozen blueberries to mine.

White Peach Crumble (from Baking Bites)
5 large, ripe peaches (white or yellow)
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. oats
6 T. sugar
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ginger
3 1/2 T. butter, cold

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Peel and slice peaches into about 10-12 pieces each.
In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Cut butter into 6 or 8 pieces and rub in to flour mixture to create coarse crumbs.
Place peach slices in a pie dish and distribute crumble topping over the top.
Bake at 375F for about 30 minutes, until the crumble browns at the edges and the peaches are tender. Let cool for at least 20-30 minutes before serving.
Serve with vanilla ice cream or plain.
Serves 6.

California: The Cousins

2011-09-19T14:37:00.008-06:00

Last of my CA posts. Alta was in heaven the whole time we were there. She loved being around her cousins.

Sierra and Katelyn were so sweet with her!

Alta also liked to see how many people she could convince to drive her around in the jeep:

Ellie had just as much fun:

And after all the fun, the 9 hour drive wasn't too bad. Although I doubt it would have gone that smoothly without my mom's help, thank you thank you!
I'm so glad we're close enough to make the trip, I can't wait to do it again!

California: The Outings

2011-09-19T14:02:00.006-06:00

After Dan flew back home, the girls and I split our time between Jamie's and Alisa's houses. We stayed busy playing in the yard, going to the pool, and taking a couple little day trips around Orange County.

Jamie took us to the San Juan Capistrano Mission (built in the 1700s).

Alta and Carter (with one of the buildings in the background):

The church was extremely ornate:

Part of the church was destroyed by an earthquake during a Sunday service in the early 1800s:

The koi pond was a favorite for the kids:

On another day we went to a petting zoo with Jamie, Alisa, their kids and my mom.

Alta told me she wanted to hold a guinea pig but quickly changed her mind. Do you see Ellie in the corner? It kind of looks like she's eating something. Because she was. While I was busy trying to convince Alta to hold the guinea pig, Ellie found a chewed up carrot hidden in the poop-infested straw and ATE it. Sick.

The longest train ride ever. The kids loved it though!

Saving Ellie from being eaten by a sheep:

California: The Beach

2011-09-19T13:51:00.003-06:00

What's a trip to California without a few beach days?

Dan and Andy getting some boogie boarding in one evening:

This was Alta's first trip to the beach (that she can remember) and she didn't like the waves. She said they were too loud:

Another day at the beach, Ellie saw how much fun Everett was having and joined in:

Every time we went it was pretty cold:

Sierra's baptism

2011-09-17T10:26:00.003-06:00

We went to California in August for Sierra's baptism. Another post to follow with pictures from the rest of our trip.

found in the street:

2011-09-17T10:23:00.001-06:00

Lake Powell

2011-09-17T10:13:00.008-06:00

in July I think? It was a long time ago.

tubing very slowly behind the boat

the brothers

2011-09-08T14:29:00.005-06:00

These are random pictures I've been meaning to post over the past month and a half.

Zoo trip with Grandma, Cousin Brittany and D'Anna:

Funny face girl:

Family bike ride:

And Thanksgiving Point trip with the Kunz family! We love when we get to see Virginia friends!

sisters

2011-09-08T14:17:00.002-06:00

Thanks Aunt Alisa!

Labor Day weekend

2011-09-06T21:26:00.002-06:00

The weekend was fun and busy, but mostly picture-less.
Saturday: first city league frisbee game in Orem followed by the Soldier Hollow Classic (sheepdog competition). We watched the sheepdogs, the K-9 dogs, and the dock diving dogs. The girls loved it! I forgot my nice camera, so here are phone pictures.

The girls got tired just in time for us to drive home and watch the BYU game.
Saturday night and Sunday morning involved a whole lot of cleaning so my family that came over on Sunday could be tricked into thinking I'm a good housekeeper. Brian and Colleen and Bekah and Jim and the kids all came for a BBQ and some deeeelicious ice cream.

My labor day monday started bright and early at 5:00 am. I was in Orem by 5:45 for a women's frisbee "team camp" and spent the next 8 hours running, throwing, drilling, and scrimmaging. Dan got 18 holes of golf in in the afternoon, and the evening we spent together playing with the girls.

And there you have it.

veggie picking

2011-09-06T20:37:00.002-06:00

We recently went to a small you-pick farm in Orem with my mom. The girls had so much fun, Ellie kept finding the smallest vegetables that were easy for her to pick (and usually very under-ripe) and Alta didn't quite understand that you have to pay for tomatoes before you can eat them.

Adventures in Biking

2011-09-01T10:16:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago I almost ran over someone's dog (I think I would have killed it). A few days ago, a dog almost ran over me. Today, while avoiding a potential crash with a few deer, one spoke broke off my wheel and a few others got bent.

The ironic thing is we ride the Porter Rockwell trail because it's safer than the road...

Baked Oatmeal

2011-08-29T21:14:00.004-06:00

We are big breakfast people around here, so I'm always on the lookout for good, semi-healthy breakfast recipes that don't involve cold cereal and milk. Enter this Baked Oatmeal:

It was a hit.
I adapted the recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. I already decreased the brown sugar but you could still do less. Next time I'm going to do all applesauce and no oil, I don't think it will make a difference. This last time I made it I added frozen berries before baking, but it's also very good plain with a little milk and fresh fruit in your bowl. Really, the possibilities are endless.
It made a perfect amount for us, but you can double it and bake it in a 9x13 pan.

Baked Oatmeal

3 cups oats, either quick or old-fashioned
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. oil
1/4 c. applesauce
1 c. milk
2 eggs
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1/2 T. baking powder
1 t. salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together and pour into a greased 8x8-inch baking pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve with milk and/or fresh fruit.

Jackson Hole

2011-08-28T19:54:00.004-06:00

I've been wanting to go to Jackson Hole ever since Mark and Lorna went in July. I'd never been, and the pictures they brought back were beautiful. So I planned my own birthday present and Dan and I went on Friday and Saturday.

We left early friday morning and as soon as we got to Jackson, we got on our bikes. The ride was 25 miles and went through some really beautiful ranches on a secluded road.
Taking a break at the top of a long, long hill:

After the ride we went up to Teton Village and walked around, then drove over the Teton Pass (absolutely gorgeous!) to a bed&breakfast we stayed at in Idaho. That evening we went to Grand Targhee to see the resort. Yet another beautiful drive:

For dinner we went to this restaurant called Warbirds. It's right by the local airport in Driggs, Idaho and the restaurant is in a hangar. We got to watch a few planes land...

...and check out the restored war planes they had on display. Here's Dan with his finger in the gun of a MiG-15 (i think?):

On Saturday we headed back over to Teton Village, parked our car, and got back on our bikes. We rode 30 miles up to Jenny Lake and back, and it was an amazing ride! So much better than if we had driven up there.

At Jenny Lake we walked sat by the lake for a while and enjoyed the scenery.

After the ride we drove around Jackson and stopped by Snow King. Three ski resorts in one trip! In front of the resort they had a playground with this huge bouldering wall for anyone to use.

In the late afternoon we started the drive back home. There was a pull-out on the highway where you could watch rafters go down the Kahuna and Lunch Counter rapids on the Snake River. We sat there for almost an hour.

Despite almost running out of gas in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone reception, we made it home. It was a perfect birthday trip!

Alta at Alta

2011-08-10T15:32:00.008-06:00

I'm in love with Utah. We took a drive up little cottonwood canyon on Monday to enjoy the mountains:

The only downside were the 20 million mosquitos trying to eat us alive.

I've been wanting to get a picture of Alta next to this sign ever since she was born, so we finally did. This is what she was named after (ok, it's a family name too).

On the drive home we saw these goats and stopped to show the girls:

Gibb visit

2011-08-10T15:10:00.002-06:00

Here's another late post. Natalie and Jeremy came for the weekend a few weeks ago.

Riding the train at Draper Days:

Alta was so excited to ride a pony. Until the pony behind her started "blowing it's nose" and she wanted off.

Watching Alta and Kevin cracks me up. He teases her and she gets right in his face and yells at him. I think she was saying something like, "NO Kevin, don't do that!".

Natalie, Jeremy, Mark, Daniel and I went on a hike. There was still a lot of snow at the top.

You can see all the trees leaning over from an avalanche:

And that, sadly, is all the pictures I have.

Alta-ism

2011-08-10T14:57:00.002-06:00

Alta saw a picture of Dan and I and I was telling her it was taken before we were married.

Alta: "Where was I?"
Me: "You weren't born yet."
Alta: "But where was I?"
Me: "You were still in heaven."
Alta: "Yeah, and then when you and Daddy got married you came and got me!"

I was telling Dan this story later in the day and when I got to the end, Alta interrupted and said, "Yeah you came and got me 'cause you missed me soooooo much!".

Confusion

2011-08-10T14:47:00.003-06:00

I don't think Alta really gets all these familial relationships. Yesterday in the car we had this conversation.

Alta: "Where's Daddy?"
Me: "He's playing golf with Grandpa."
Alta: "Grandpa Palmer?"
Me: "No, Grandpa Brower."
Alta: (little pause, then using her hesitant quiet voice) "Grandpa Lorna?"
Me: (trying not to laugh) "No, Grandpa Mark."
Alta: (longer pause) "Is he the one that's Grandma Lorna's friend?"

Yes, she's definitely confused.

Marinos visit

2011-08-10T13:50:00.005-06:00

Jamie and her family came to Utah in July and we had so much fun with them. And yes I"m a month late posting these.

Playing at the park:
On the Fourth of July we all went to the parade in Provo:

Alta loved it but wouldn't unplug her sensitive little ears. She inherited that from me, I didn't like fireworks until I was 20 years old. No joke. This is her trying to plug her ears and eat a cracker at the same time:

She had so much fun with Carter! Here they are sucking their thumbs/fingers with their blankies and "taking a little rest":

Aunt Jamie doing french braids in Alta's hair. They looked 10 times better than when I do it! How did she end up with three boys?

She did this to herself. I didn't complain:

We went to Bridal Veil one afternoon:

We also went to Seven Peaks:

It was a lot of fun, and now we get to return the visit this week!

Rocky Road Ice Cream

2011-07-25T15:43:00.003-06:00

I've made this for two family barbecues this month. Dan has requested I use the recipe to make just plain chocolate ice cream, it is very rich and creamy. If you make it with the add-ins, use fresh marshmallows! I've made it once with pecans and once with almonds, I think I preferred the pecans.

Rocky Road Ice Cream
from the OurBestBites cookbook

2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup low-fat milk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1 cup mini marshmallows

1. Gently whisk cream, milk, sugars, vanilla, and cocoa powder by hand for about 2 minutes to incorporate the cocoa powder and dissolve the sugars.
2. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.
3. When the ice cream has finished churning, fold in the pecans and marshmallows by hand and transfer to a freezer container. Freeze for 1-2 hours or until desired consistency is reached.

random

2011-07-23T21:39:00.002-06:00

Just a couple more pictures I found that I hadn't posted.

Alta loves jumping on the trampoline, and she loves looking at this picture:

Little balancing girl:

This was just a couple weeks ago, I guess i need to post it to remember the time Dan tried to grow facial hair. You can just barely see his month-old beard. A few days after that he shaved all but his mustache. I wasn't a big fan.

Funny Face

2011-07-23T21:35:00.004-06:00

(These pictures also from a few days after we moved here). Ellie cracks me up sometimes, she can be very expressive. She probably gets it from Alta.

birthday girls

2011-07-23T21:28:00.003-06:00

I just put some pictures on my computer that were taken when we first moved here, so I'm a little late with these next couple of posts. And a lot of these pictures have been posted on Lorna's blog already. oh well.
Alta turned 3 right before we left Manssas and Ellie turned 1 a couple days after we got to Utah, so we had a little joint party for them.

We've got to combine their birthdays while they still don't know what's going on! They even shared their (makeshift) candles:

Ellie opening a present:
One of Alta's presents:

2011-07-21T15:22:00.004-06:00

I've been trying to decide what kind of "season pass" deal I wanted to get so I had something fun to do with the girls. It was between Thanksgiving Point, the pass of all passes, and the Hogle Zoo. Well, Thanksgiving Point was too expensive. And who in their right mind wants to go by themselves to a water park with a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old, who, by the way, is terrified of water? PLUS, I'm kind of a nerd and anything relating to ecology and evolution fascinates me. So I guess it was a no-brainer. We are now members of the Hogle Zoo.

We went for a couple hours yesterday and all three of us had so much fun. Alta even got to touch an armadillo.

really crappy picture of Alta watching the elephant show

Ellie loved these cavies, Alta thought they were reindeer (not so sure how she made that connection).

So, who wants to go to the zoo with us?

backyard zoo

2011-07-19T15:04:00.003-06:00

These girls love going on walks. We go to the wetlands park near our house every couple days, but this is their favorite place to go:

Yes, that's a zebra. And two emus and a goat. Alta gets so excited when we go see the baby zebra. His real name is Zuri but she thinks his name should be Stripey. I guess the wife of this family really wanted a zebra. And apparently if you have enough money, you can buy just about anything.

new toy

2011-07-07T14:43:00.003-06:00

I feel like we've been outside non-stop since we moved here. Sorry Virginia humidity, I don't miss you. We got the girls a bike trailer so we could go on evening rides and they love it.

Little sailor boys

2011-07-07T14:37:00.003-06:00

I saw this and laughed. And had to take a picture of it. Daniel on the left, Kevin on the right.

Back by popular demand

2011-06-29T11:33:00.003-06:00

I've been told that I need to take more pictures of my girls. Especially Ellie.

Breakfast time:

We got Ellie's birthday present (a month late) and she can't get enough of it. Alta loves pushing her around.

My budding photographer

2011-06-29T11:29:00.002-06:00

Alta loves to take pictures. Just yesterday I deleted about 100 photos and videos from my phone that Alta had taken in the last week or so. She chooses her subjects carefully:

What a funny girl:

st. george

2011-06-22T16:02:00.005-06:00

Dan and I were a little worn-out (understatement) from the whole moving process, so the weekend after we got to Utah we took a trip to St. George. The girls stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's house (best in-laws ever) while we packed in as much fun as possible in two days. We went swimming, went on a bike ride, ate lots of good food, saw a movie, enjoyed the hot tub, and spent a lot of time in the sand dunes on the razor.

Ride up beautiful Snow Canyon:

so, so fun:

I even drove for a while:
I've missed red rocks!

Blow torch + Roman Candles =

2011-06-22T15:28:00.007-06:00

a perfectly acceptable way to celebrate selling our house.

Nostalgia

2011-06-20T16:11:00.004-06:00

Finally have internet, lots of posts to come.

But first a little reminiscing.

In June 2007, Dan and I packed up everything we owned into our little civic and drove across the country to Virginia. We showed up in Manassas with no idea where were going to live. We didn't know a single person and knew nothing about the area. This picture is from the morning we left Utah.

And here we are May 2011, four years later:

Oh how things have changed! In the time we lived there, we had two kids, bought our first house, completely re-did almost every surface in the house, Dan put in four years with Lockheed and got his master's degree, and we made many wonderful friends in our ward and neighborhood.

We packed up all our stuff (significantly more this time around!), said goodbye to our friends, our house, and our faithful little civic. Now on to the next chapter of our lives!

She's 3!

2011-05-24T14:28:00.004-06:00

Alta's birthday was on Saturday, she's so excited to be three years old. We had a last minute mini-party with our neighbors. Dan decorated the cupcakes, making sure some of them had "train tracks" and "wheels" and "propellers" for Rhys.

Alta has been talking for months about getting a birthday cupcake and putting 3 candles in it. It was a dream come true to her...except she got nervous and wouldn't blow out the candles.

Opening her one present. It's been a little too crazy around here to think about birthdays!

Ellie just loved the balloons:

potomac nationals

2011-05-20T14:27:00.001-06:00

This year's Lockheed family picnic was at a minor league baseball game. We got rained on but lasted about half the game before the girls got a little antsy. Just a few pictures:

2011-05-16T13:54:00.004-06:00

Ellie loves to play in our bed in the mornings. This girl is turning into such a cutie!

2011-05-14T14:24:00.002-06:00

Oh how we'll miss our wonderful neighbors!!!

Old Rag

2011-05-14T13:52:00.005-06:00

The youth in our ward hike Old Rag every year and I went along as a leader last weekend. There are three reasons why I was more than happy to help out: 1) I love hiking, 2) it was a beautiful hike, and 3) I got a 10 hour break from the girls. Win, win. win.

Old Rag is a mountain in the Shenandoahs. The summit is 3,291 ft and the 3 mile hike to the top gains 2500 ft in elevation. That's not too shabby for Virginia standards, and it's the most popular hike in the Shenandoahs.

The first two miles involves a lot of switchbacks. After that the trail comes out of the trees to some very pretty views:

The last mile or so is a rock scramble. Very fun!

We made it to the summit!

It was about 5 miles to complete the loop back to the car, and it got just a bit tedious. But so worth it! I'm glad I got to go, it is definitely not a kid-friendly hike so this was really the only chance I had. It made me that much more excited to live where hiking is so accessible!

2011-05-10T14:18:00.003-06:00

These are for the Browers. Alta loves her bike, she's getting pretty good at riding it!

I'm in love...

2011-05-06T18:48:00.005-06:00

...with our new iMac. It's beautiful. It's easy to use. I don't have to worry about Alta unplugging the cord and ruining everything I'm trying to do. The screen is almost as big as our TV.

The internet is another story, but that's the router's fault. So posting pictures is still painfully slow, but at least it doesn't shut down on me in the middle of it!

I won't attempt to catch up on everything I've skipped, so here are a few random pictures.

We've been absolutely loving the spring weather! We've been to the farm a few times (where Alta loves looking at the animals but refuses to touch).

We play in the cul-de-sac all the time, which is especially fun if Rhys and Broc are out too. Wagon ride, anyone?

Alta is a total mom to Ellie. She loves being in charge of her-telling her what to do ("Come on Ellie, let's go read books!") and what not to do ("No, no, Ellie, that's not a good book, it's not for babies!") and tattling on her ("Mommy, Ellie's getting my books! Ahhh!"). She also loves feeding her, she likes to sit right next to her and help her take bites and hold her sippy cup for her. She's such a sweet older sister and I love watching them together!

Ellie is very mobile and loves getting into things. She likes to walk around the whole house while holding onto the walls, doors, and chairs. She very rarely sleeps through the night, but at least she takes good naps now, which is a whole lot more than I could say a couple months ago!

2011-04-27T13:54:00.002-06:00

To all those who think I've abandoned the blogging world:
Our computer is on the verge of death. It takes 20 minutes to upload a single picture on a post. Our internet is constantly cutting out, and sometimes the computer just turns off for no reason. When I try to comment on other people's blogs, it usually freezes up and won't let me click on anything.

Also, I'd rather use my free time for more productive things. Like reading 3 books in the last week. And making lots of desserts.

But this week's goal is to get some pictures up!

Heading West

2011-04-19T06:21:00.005-06:00

I guess it's about time to share our latest news:

We'll be moving to Utah in June!

video catchup

2011-04-07T13:02:00.010-06:00

Here's a glimpse of life around our house:

This one is from a few weeks ago, for a while there Ellie just growled all the time. She had a deep voice too! She's stopped doing it since then and now uses a total girly voice. so I had to document it.

Whenever Alta gets new clothes, she wants to wear them right away. And all at once. I love seeing her personality come out more and more.

Ellie's crawling! She started a couple weeks ago and has gotten much better, but here's her crawling a few days after she figured it out. Notice that Alta calls Dan "Sam". She sure loves her friends.

Lately when Ellie gets tired she just starts throwing herself all over. It really is funny to watch. Sad...but funny.

And a couple photos:

Baltimore

2011-03-14T18:38:00.005-06:00

On the drive home from Philadelphia, we were planning on stopping at Fort McHenry in Baltimore. The weather didn't cooperate though and was cold and rainy so we decided to go to the Baltimore Aquarium instead, something I've wanted to do for a while. They had some pretty impressive exhibits, we all really enjoyed it.

Alta was really funny about what she did and didn't like. She loved the colorful tropical fish and would get right up to the tank, but with some of the scarier looking fish she would make me hold her and yell at me if I stepped too close to the tank. She especially didn't like the snakes, I tried to point them out to her and she would turn her head and say, "I don't want to look, I don't want to look!".

Here's Alta and me watching the stingrays. I think she thought they were birds for a while, she said something to Dan about the birds flying on the sand.

They had a really big exhibit with lots of sharks, this one was our favorite:

They had two different aviaries as well. When we walked in this one, I pointed out a bird in a tree to Alta and she got really excited and said, "That's my favorite purple bird!" She said the same thing about a pink fish. I knew anything pink or purple was her "favorite", and apparently it applies to animals as well. (In the picture she was trying to point out her favorite bird to Dan)

My favorite Alta quote of the day though was when we were in the other aviary. There were a lot of tropical birds and quite a few of them were squawking. Alta was acting really nervous, she wouldn't let me set her down and kept asking to leave. When I asked her what was wrong she said, "I don't like those birds tweeting at me!".

Last exhibit of the day, the jellyfish (with crappy pictures). These are the same kind as the one that stung me in the Chesapeake a few years ago. Ouch.

Jellyfish are some of the craziest animals! Ellie was mesmerized:

It was a fun weekend trip!

Philadelphia

2011-03-14T14:27:00.014-06:00

Dan had a work meeting just outside of Philadelphia a couple weeks ago, so the girls and I drove up and met him so we could spend the weekend there. Get ready for some pictures!

Alta's favorite part was probably the pool at the hotel.

She actually liked everything about the hotel. She loved the little fridge, she claimed it as hers and Ellie's because it was small. She also kept asking us what this was:

After a long night with all four of us trying to sleep in one room, we got up in the morning and headed to Philadelphia. We walked all over the historic district and saw as much as we could.

The liberty bell, with Alta refusing to look at the camera. She was kind of cranky all day.

This picture is in the Christ Church, it's the church that many of the founding fathers went to, including Benjamin Franklin. Alta is sitting in George Washington's pew.

We headed over to the Reading Terminal Market and passed through Chinatown (and thought of Jeremy and Natalie).

The Reading Terminal Market is this neat indoor market with lots of little shops and places to eat. It's very crowded and has little room to walk around in. I didn't take a picture so I stole this off the internet. You can see why people weren't too thrilled with us and our double stroller:

We went to see Independence Hall. Alta and Ellie were well past their prime by this point:

And Philadelphia would not be complete without a stop at one of the famous cheesesteak places. Dan said the food was good, but I lost my appetite looking around at how dirty everything was.

2011-03-07T12:54:00.004-07:00

I forgot these.

So Ellie loves this car. I mean, loves. Every time she sees it she freaks out and does everything she can to get to it. Alta is pretty territorial over it, but if she can dictate how and when Ellie plays with it, she's ok. She is one bossy older sister!

This video is Alta singing one of her favorite songs. The last line is "just to see the lambies" and she thinks it's hilarious to change the last word. She was being pretty crazy. And for some reason, whenever she yells she pronounces her words really weird.

catching up!

2011-03-02T13:12:00.010-07:00

Here's a picture tour of what we've been up to for the past month or two:

Enjoying the last little snowstorm:

Alta love love loves to cook with me:

She also loves to tell me to take pictures of her. All the time. Here she is showing me her headlamp:

She's starting to like painting and drawing more:

Alta's tumbling class is over now, but this is from one of her last classes.

Then the weather got warm so we started playing outside! Yay!

Ellie's first bike ride:

Alta and Rhys swapped bikes the other day. Alta had never ridden a real bike with training wheels but figured it out right away and loved it. I guess we're going to have to get her another bike!

Two funny girls:

Alta has much more confidence jumping and climbing these days. My favorite part of this video though is how annoyed she gets with Dan at the end. Alta has entered the "why" phase but doesn't like anyone doing it to her.

Why I've stopped blogging

2011-03-02T12:59:00.003-07:00

Look at those bags under her eyes. She doesn't sleep! Help me!

Master Bath Complete

2011-02-13T16:32:00.004-07:00

Remember this?

Finally after 6 months of work the master bathroom is finished. The 6 months included a lot of breaks and school, but it was still a longer project than originally planned. It turned out very nice and we both enjoy it very much.

The glass door was the last piece, Alta loves to open and close it

8 months

2011-02-04T18:30:00.007-07:00

I've been bad at keeping updates on Ellie. I think when you have a toddler, they are doing so much that you forget your other baby is even changing. Or at least that's how I feel.
So, Ellie at 8 months old:

-loves food! But won't touch store-bought baby food. I have to make my own and freeze it in ice cube trays. We measure her food intake by "cubes" now. She likes eating little mashed up pieces of whatever we eat for dinner as well.
-no teeth yet
-Between making baby food, feeding her baby food, and nursing her, I feel like I have time for nothing else.
-has the funniest hair. It's longer on top than on the sides so she kind of has a floppy mohawk. You can sort of see it in this picture. You can also see that one way I keep my sanity is to delegate, delegate, delegate. Alta loves feeding Ellie (I just have to keep an eye on them...).

-still isn't crawling, and I don't think she will be anytime soon. She will try to get on her knees, but gets frustrated really quickly and gives up. And cries. And cries some more. She would much rather be carried everywhere!
-a couple days ago I was thinking about what to post on our blog and it was going to go something like this: "After 8 long months, Ellie has finally figured out how to take good naps and make it through the night with only one feeding!". She was going on 6 or 7 consecutive days of good sleep, only to have it all come crashing down today. But I think it was just something she ate, and I'm still optimistic.
-still has to be swaddled to fall asleep. so weird.
-this video is from the other day while she was getting lots of sleep. Not the most exciting video, but look how happy she is when she actually takes naps!

-loves Alta! When I tell her, "let's go get Alta up from her nap" she gets really excited. Which also means she's starting to understand more!
-while writing this post, I went back to all my old blog posts about Alta around this age and it's funny to see the differences in their personalities already. Ellie isn't quite as intense and persistent as Alta was. Besides wanting to be held all day, she is a pretty content little girl and loves to watch everyone around her. Will this mean less temper tantrums in her future??? ...probably not...
-one more picture:

2011-01-21T13:30:00.003-07:00

Here are a couple random pictures that I've been meaning to post.

Alta, stylish as always:

Ellie really wants to be crawling:

Alta doing a forward roll (she has to use the correct term now). She couldn't do them before we started her tumbling class, and now she likes to show them to everyone. And I love watching Alta and Ellie interact. sorry it looks all weird, I have to remember to turn my phone the other way when I take videos.

Tot tumbling

2011-01-21T13:05:00.005-07:00

We've had internet/computer problems but I got the rest of our christmas pictures and now just need to pick which ones to post. Someday I'll find the time...

I signed Alta up for this tot tumbling class. We go once a week and she's been having so much fun!

palmer christmas

2011-01-07T13:55:00.006-07:00

Home again, home again. It was so hard to leave Utah this time! We loved spending time with family and friends, and Alta and Ellie loved all the attention they got.

We didn't bring our camera and took everyone else's photos. unfortunately, all the pictures from the Brower side are not working on our out-dated iphoto. So here's the Palmer side for now.

Alta definitely remembers everyone from last time we were here, and she was so excited to play with Grandma and Grandpa.

Look at this girl. She's so fat she can hardly move.

We spent Christmas day with my family and Alta insisted on helping everyone open their presents for them.

We had a few days of good snow while we were there and Alta loved playing in it.

A favorite part of Grandma's house, the water cooler:

Cute girl:

Alta's new hat, a little big, but so cute:

We had so much fun, Mom and Dad. We miss you!

Christmas round 1

2010-12-18T18:26:00.004-07:00

We wanted to have our own little Christmas before we leave for Utah, so last night we watched A Charlie Brown Christmas together and this morning we got up and opened presents.

Ellie of course really only wanted the paper:

Alta's big present was this project I've been working on lately. I forgot to take a before picture, but here's my craigslist nightstand turned play kitchen:

It took longer than I thought it would, and Dan had to help me quite a bit (mainly because I'm scared of power tools). But I think Alta is going to have a lot of fun with it.

She was cooking a pizza:

Merry Christmas! Can't wait to see our family and friends in Utah!

cold weather fun

2010-12-14T11:11:00.006-07:00

First and foremost, Dan finished his last assignment for his last class of his master's this weekend. And he passed the class. Do you know what this means? He's DONE. I'm very proud of him, and we are both happy that it's over!

So we've been trying to have some fun now that school is over. Dan took Alta ice skating at this outdoor rink in downtown Manassas. They had tiny little skates for her:

And she loved it! She couldn't stand up by herself, but Dan would hold her hands and they skated for a long time.

Yesterday we took the girls up to DC to see the Capitol Christmas tree and this model train exhibit they have every year at the National Botanical Gardens. Dan got off work early, we brought tons of warm clothes and blankets, drove to DC, hit some traffic on the way, took a wrong turn and got stuck in more traffic, and finally made it to the botanical gardens around 7pm. As we were getting out of the car, I had a little epiphany: all the museums in DC shut down by 5pm. oops. And to top it all off, it was 25 degrees outside with strong wind making it feel like 10 degrees.

We were feeling pretty dumb about the whole thing, but we got there and the lights were on so we could see through the windows. The trains were still running as well. Here we are trying to see in:

And the little Ellie munchkin:

And then we totally lucked out. A worker was inside the building turning off the train sets and saw us looking in, so he opened the door for us and let us in. He was saying that on Saturday they had 5,500 people come see the trains so we felt pretty lucky to have the whole room to ourselves.

It's really an amazing exhibit. Almost everything is made of plant material: seeds, bark, twigs, leaves, etc. This picture shows how big everything is. The train tracks wind through everything and have bridges higher than my head:

Alta was loving it. Especially because they had a Thomas and a Percy train.

Kind of a crazy night, but well worth it.

2 1/2

2010-12-05T19:18:00.004-07:00

Alta is now 2 1/2 years old.

She weighs 25 pounds and hasn't gained any weight in the last 6 months.

Potty training round 2 was completely initiated by Alta and is going really well.

If you ask her what her favorite color is, she will undoubtedly say pink.

She picks out her own outfits almost every day and can dress herself completely. If I ignore her fashion sense, it's so nice to only have to dress one kid.

She seriously cracks me up. Here are some things I've heard her say lately:

"I can't believe this shirt totally fits me!"

"What the heck, Ellie?"

word for word and completely out of the blue: "I don't ride on cows Mom, that would be silly. You know that, right? I just ride on the Beni-dog."

After a long day of Alta climbing all over me and being constantly in my face, I kind of lost it and yelled at her to get off me. Her reply: "Are you just ornery?" What 2-year-old knows that word???

Listening to Alta also gives me a good idea of how I talk. I never realized how often I cut off the end of words, like saying goin' instead of going. But Alta does it all the time. And she applies it to all sorts of words. She calls the freezer "the freezin'". I told her go-gurts were the kind of yogurt you squeeze, so now when she wants yogurt she asks for "the squeezin' kind".

She's a cutie. I've never had my patience tested more than I have in the past couple months (and I'm sure it's just the beginning), but she makes up for it by being so much fun. Here's a video of her singing another song. (Notice how she pronounces "doing". what have I done to her?)

2010-12-05T18:59:00.004-07:00

I thought I had a bunch of pictures to post, but i really don't. Here are just a few random ones.

Alta's hair:

I know that's a weird thing to take a picture of, but just look at that curl! I have never cut her hair and can't get myself to do it. It's so cute in the back, but straight and not so cute in the front. Poor girl.

Ellie eating solid food for one of the first times:

Don't let that smile fool you, she doesn't like it. I try to feed her something every day and she is just disgusted by the whole idea. But whenever I am eating anything she goes crazy trying to get to it.

This picture makes me laugh. I think this is Sawyer's old snow suit, but it's the only thing warm I have for her. Dan says she looks like him.

We decorated for Christmas! For the first time ever! For some reason I just never got that excited about it, but Alta kind of gets what's going on this year and it's so much fun. My dad would always lift one of us up so we could put the star or angel on top of the tree, so we had to follow tradition:

Bathroom Remodel

2010-11-26T15:21:00.003-07:00

Start of the tile installation
Tile floor and vanity installed, as well as the toilet and baseboards.

I (dan) could be a plumber, look at that fancy pipework.

All that is left to do is put in a mirror, lights and tile the shower.

2010-11-23T12:49:00.004-07:00

I've been neglecting the blog. Ellie has had all sorts of sleep problems, both day and night, and I feel like I've barely been keeping my head above water. But (fingers crossed) something seems to have clicked this weekend and she has taken good naps for 3 days in a row. She is SO much happier, as am I.

Pictures and a video to come soon, I'll see how far I can get with the post before one of the girls wakes up...

Birthday Boy

2010-11-08T18:45:00.002-07:00

Dan slept on the couch last night because I went to bed early. He worked all day, then went to the dentist to get a crown. And I was going to make an apple tart for his birthday dessert but he can't even eat it.

Happy Birthday, honey...

popcorn popcorn

2010-11-07T17:58:00.004-07:00

Some pictures from the week.

Remember these things? Those little capsules you put in the water and the sponge grows out of them? Yeah, not as exciting as I remember. They took SO LONG and Alta got a little impatient. It kind of reminded me of Calvin and Hobbes.

I had to take a picture of Alta's outfit because she dresses herself every day now. I really don't have much say in what she wears. She thinks that if two things are the same color, they "match" so she can wear them together. This usually involves pink in varying shades. Luckily I convinced her to wear a skirt over her leggings in this one.

Ellie was sitting like this in her bumbo the other day. I hurried to take a picture because I assumed she'd move soon, but she didn't. She sat like that for a good minute or so.

Here's Alta's rendition of "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree"

yee-haw

2010-11-02T19:02:00.006-06:00

My little cowgirl:

And my other little cow-girl:

Trying to get Alta to hold Ellie for a picture. She kept pushing Ellie away.

We totally won an award at our ward trunk-or-treat. Awesome.

We also went trick-or-treating with our neighbors:

Alta showing off her haul. She got so much candy! People would just give her handfuls.

Too bad I hide it from her and give her 1 or 2 pieces a day. We've learned the hard way that this girl does NOT handle sugar well.

And a random picture from today. Ellie just rolls and scoots all over. Every time my back is turned she moves half-way across the room!

2010-10-29T13:42:00.006-06:00

Ellie is starting to scoot! How is she already old enough to do this? Where have I been?

Sorry this video is really long, I'm too lazy/tired to bother cropping it. It's more for my own journaling (pretty sure that's not a word) purposes anyway.

And this is what Alta has been up to lately. I got her this train set and she will play for a significant amount of time BY HERSELF. It's wonderful. She built this whole track with very little help from me.

Ready for snow

2010-10-26T19:33:00.005-06:00

Just making sure everything fits. I only wanted her to try on the pants, but she insisted on the whole outfit. She was so sweaty.

2010-10-26T19:04:00.007-06:00

Look, Alta's legs are finally long enough to pedal! It's so fun to see her FINALLY ride her bike by herself.

But I really just wanted to post this picture. I love the face Ellie is making.

And this video just makes me laugh. Notice how she says "cheese" at the very end...

Palmer Family Reunion Part 1

2010-10-21T20:36:00.005-06:00

Two months after the trip, and I'm finally getting the rest of the pictures up. I had hundreds to choose from so this is just a small sampling. What a fun trip! Wish we could do it more often.
This first post is from the week before the reunion.

All the cousins loved spending time with Grandma and Grandpa! Here they are pushing strollers on one of our many trips to Bridal Veil Falls.

Matching jammies! Again!

Alta loved being able to wake up and play with her cousins.

So many fun aunts. Lisa, somehow I have hardly any pictures of you guys...

The Creamery. Oh how I miss their ice cream.

Playing in the water at Bridal Veil.

This pretty much sums up the trip for Alta. Messy and eating junk food.

Throwing sticks over the bridge with Grandpa and Holden.

Alta loves her Grandpa!

Alta and Carter hanging out in the car.

Palmer family reunion part 2

2010-10-21T20:07:00.007-06:00

The rest of the pictures are from the actual reunion in Aspen Grove. It was such a perfect place to go with all the kids, we'd love to do it again!

Alta and Wyatt, such cuties.

The Grandma and Grandpa!

I don't know what she's eating, but she's enjoying it.

Alta had fun swimming with Daddy

and then got freezing cold!

I love these sisters of mine!

Alta after her little nursery class she went to in the mornings.

Train ride! Despite the looks on their faces, Wyatt and Alta loved it.

Bekah and I knife-throwing.

Dan and Bri-bri getting ready to throw.

Do you see something wrong with this picture? Dan. with a whip. holding Ellie.*

mmmm, snowcones!

*The "whip" was really just a piece of rope. No worries.

Palmer family reunion part 3

2010-10-21T19:44:00.006-06:00

Lots of fun stuff to do while the kiddos were in their classes.

Archery,
Dan and Matt were very serious about winning...

...so much so that they spent 10 minutes arguing over Matt's score. I'm pretty sure Dan won. Or so he says.

awww, we love Aunt Bekah! and I miss the mountains.

Super hot. ropes course time.

I'll spare you the butt shots. Here's Dan on the course. I climbed all the way to the ropes and decided I had a healthy respect for heights. I skipped the ropes and just repelled back down.

More competition. Race to the top of the wall. I do believe Dan won this one as well...

Proof that we tried to hike to Stewart Falls. No carrier for Alta meant that we didn't get very far.

Relaxing at the lodge. Mockingjay had just come out and I couldn't help myself. Dan was reading Catching Fire so he could read it next.

Palmer family reunion Part 4

2010-10-21T19:27:00.007-06:00

And last but not least, just a few pictures from when we had our family photos done:

sleepy, unhappy Ellie

beautiful sisters/in-laws and mom!

cute and crazy Alta, she would not stand still

unfortunately, none of our pictures turned out that well...

4 months

2010-10-18T19:52:00.004-06:00

More like 4 1/2 months, we're a bit behind with the doctor's appointments. But as of today she weighs 16 lbs 2 oz, 26 inches long, over 95th percentile for both. Still a chunk.

She's been a little fussy for the past week or so. Teething? She chews on everything and drools constantly. In fact, if the sun hits our wood floor right, you can see it is covered in water spots.

Despite that, she will still smile at just about anyone. She has this huge open-mouth grin that is just so cute.

The front of her hair just naturally curls strait up. Our neighbor calls it her troll hair.

She loves getting foot rubs. Weird, right? Dan figured this out when she was a newborn and it still calms her down. She also quiets down if I play the piano.

She's finally adjusting to her crib. She was sleeping worse and worse every night until she was waking up EVERY HOUR. But she's down to just once or twice a night now.

She can now roll from her back to belly, and her belly to back, but only in one direction. Always counter-clockwise.

More pictures and videos to come soon.

2010-10-11T19:59:00.002-06:00

I'm trying to be better about writing down the things Alta says, thus the new sidebar.

Also, we're taking the plunge and potty training. As Alta was peeing on the toilet today, she said, "I'm going potty train, Mom!".

We'll see how it goes.

Alta's room

2010-10-11T19:00:00.006-06:00

We switched the girls' rooms. It's been quite the project for me. I was able to do most of it myself, which is why it took me so long. But Dan helped me paint the room/closet/trim and he put in new electrical outlets (white instead of yellowish-off-white, yay!).

It's a tiny room (seriously, so small) so it was hard to get a good angle, but this is from the doorway:

My first pair of curtains! The first panel took me forever to make, the second one was so much easier. They are far from perfect, but I like how they turned out.

Making all the little ties was extremely tedious. I'd stick with using just ribbon next time.

Cute little fabric flowers, I could get addicted to making them!

Making a fitted sheet was so much easier than I thought it would be.

Dan built wooden frames for my wall hangings and I stapled the fabric on. I found a cheap dresser on craigslist and spray painted it.

So now I just need to figure out what to put on top of the dresser and on the wall over Alta's bed. And I might make tie-backs for the curtains as well. It's been such a fun project!

Here's Ellie in her big girl bed. She's been sleeping in a little basket but she got too big for it. She is now in the crib which surprisingly has made my life a little more difficult. She has room to roll over now which wakes her up, and then she won't fall back asleep. So instead of getting up once during the night to feed her (she was doing so good!) I now get up numerous times to turn her over, re-swaddle her, and try to get her back to sleep. Not so fun.

Bathroom update

2010-10-03T08:53:00.010-06:00

Demolition Phase

Frameing for the pocket door, and drywall in the closet
drywall, closet door frames and pocket door installed

View of the pocket door from the inside of the bathroomShower stall with the fiberglass shower walls removed, the left side of the shower had a 12 inches of wasted space, all I had to do was move the copper plumbing to take advantage of the extra space. This picture also shows the pre-slope concrete for the shower pan

half wall, backerboard, rubber showerpan liner, final 2 inch sloped layer of concrete, and new recessed shower light
Finished shower pan with drain, ready for tiling (once Shalane picks out tile)

shelf for shampoo

Alta is satisfied with the slope of the shower pan ( at least 1/4 inch per foot)

Browers, Part 1

2010-09-25T12:46:00.007-06:00

I finally downloaded my pictures from the Brower half of our Utah trip. I didn't take any pictures and took all these from Lorna's computer. We loved seeing all our family and friends! This first post is pictures all taken on the first Sunday we were in Draper.

Alta liked just about anyone who would play with her and give her candy, but she especially liked Grandma Lorna:

I really love this picture, I don't know why

Everyone was happy to meet Ellie for the first time! Dan's grandparents came to see us and the girls.

Alta's is the oldest child of the oldest child of the oldest child of the oldest child. I think I got that right. Here they all are:

The Brower family, minus Natalie and Jeremy (got there a few days later) and Mitchell (serving a mission).

Browers, Part 2

2010-09-25T12:14:00.010-06:00

We just played, played, played for the whole week we were in Draper! Biking, golfing, shopping, go-karting, going to a movie, hanging out with friends, and eating so much good food...it was such a great trip!

Alta became obsessed with the trampoline. She's been on one a few times before but never really liked them until this trip. Between that and the swingset, she was one happy little girl. The heat and humidity in Virginia had been so bad that it had been a LONG time since she got to play outside.

She would hang on this bar all by herself and didn't want me to touch her. But then she'd say "I'm tired!" and immediately let go.

Alta painted for the first time. She liked putting the wet brush in every color so by the end all the colors were just brown.

She also got to help out in the kitchen. Grandma is much more patient than Mommy!

Pat and Ellie. I think everyone got a turn to play bounce-the-fussy-baby!

Alta loves ipads. She knows exactly how to use them, where her favorite apps are, how to turn up the volume, everything. She was more than happy to cuddle up with Aunt Mal and find youtube videos.

Dan and I got to go out by ourselves a couple times while everyone played with the babies. Apparently this is what happens when we're gone:

More jumping with Kevin and Malorie:

Mark and Ellie:

Oh, and this post would not be complete with a picture of Alta and Benni. She loved feeding him every morning and night and making sure he had water. She constantly talked about him and what he was doing. She loved bossing him around. And by the end of the trip she wasn't afraid of him at all:

Here's the only video I have:

this 'n that

2010-09-23T11:56:00.005-06:00

This picture is blurry, but oh how it makes me smile!

Do you see the resemblance? They look a lot alike to me in this one.

Muffins, anyone?

Here's the round-faced, chubby Ellie Belle:

She rolled over for the first time this past Sunday (conveniently while we were skyping with the Browers). She does it every time I put her down and then gets mad that she can't roll back.

She drools like crazy.

She likes to chew on anything that she can get in her mouth.

She likes her pacifier. This is new territory for me and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

She's only laughed a few times, but is always ready to pull out a huge smile.

The Alta Girl:

She is getting very good at getting herself dressed and undressed, as you can see.

She talks nonstop. I know I've mentioned that before, but she just keeps talking more and more. I sometimes have headaches by the end of the day...

She often refers to Ellie as "my sister". Such as, "I can't brush my teeth, I'm playing with my sister" or, "I'm going to go wake up my sister!".

She likes to be a little mom to Ellie. We were driving to the park today and Ellie was crying. Alta said, "Don't worry, Ellie. It's ok. We're almost there".

Ellie is waking up. I have lots of funny Alta stories but they will have to wait for another day.

2010-09-16T19:07:00.003-06:00

Ellie hasn't rolled over yet, but she's surprisingly mobile...

I stole this from my mom's facebook page

2010-09-12T19:57:00.003-06:00

It's the ENTIRE Palmer family. Aspen Grove was a blast with everyone! Getting the pictures, not so much...but so glad we did it!

more family fun

2010-09-12T19:37:00.004-06:00

We are going through family withdrawals and so we were very excited to have a chance to see some extended family this weekend. Dan's cousin Colby and his family live in North Carolina but they were in Williamsburg this weekend so Colby could compete in a half Ironman. We spent all day Saturday with them, cheering Colby on and then hanging out afterwards.

Alta was happy to have cousins (well, second cousins) to play with again. Both Colby's and Cami's parents were there as well and I'm pretty sure Alta thought she had two more grandmas. She just latched right on to them!

Blowing bubbles with Tate

Ellie taking a nap while we waited for Colby at the finish line. He did a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13 mile run. yikes.

We played a little mini golf in the afternoon, Alta thought it was so much fun and just ran around everywhere. Like in the nasty dyed-blue river...

We're so glad we got to drive down and see everyone!

Home again

2010-09-09T19:11:00.006-06:00

We were in Utah for 2 1/2 weeks and I took like 5 pictures. So the trip summary will have to wait until I get other people's pictures on my computer. For the Palmer half of the vacation, just imagine having 11 kids (all 7 and under) in one house and you get the idea. So much fun, and so chaotic! Alta loved having cousins to play with. In fact, she was kind of crazy the whole time. Here's the one video I took. You don't have to watch the whole thing, no one wants to hear screeching kids...

We stayed at the Browers for the other half of the trip where Alta got spoiled rotten. Actually, we all got spoiled.

We got home late Monday night and have been trying to get off Utah time and restore order to our house. And get Alta caught up from 2 1/2 weeks of sleep deprivation.

So, more to come when I get photos!

It's a start

2010-08-17T19:14:00.003-06:00

I used my neighbor's cricut to make this vinyl wall cutout, and I love how it turned out. It's the first step to decorating Alta's room.

Oh, and Alta loves her big girl bed!

a visitor!

2010-08-16T13:20:00.007-06:00

We had a fun visit from Natalie last week! She came for the weekend and was supposed to fly out on Monday morning, but she was flying standby and got stuck here until Friday. Which was fine with us! Alta really liked "Aunt Naalie" and loved playing with her.

We spent our time playing with the girls and eating lots and lots of good food. It's so much more fun to cook and bake when there's someone else to help out and enjoy the food. Nat also went into DC one day (without us, I'm not brave enough to take 2 kids without Dan!) and saw some museums. Like all the Browers, I think she spent almost the whole time in the Air&Space museum :)

I didn't take very many pictures, but here they are:

Some friends from the ward gave us this bike seat and Alta loves it (thanks Andrea and Rob!). She is always asking to ride in it.

Alta has problems staying on her feet these days. She is always skinning up her knees! We replaced her crappy pair of flip-flops with some good shoes hoping it would help, but it turns out they're big on her and she still trips all the time. She was running around at the park with Dan and Natalie and landed on her face. I took a picture of her the day after it happened...

...and 10 minutes later she was running down the driveway and did it again. She ripped up the old scratches and they looked so much worse, poor girl. I just hope they'll heal and she'll be coordinated enough to not do it again until after our family pictures next week!

Alta had all sorts of fun with Aunt Natalie. She made her put all her bows in her hair:

and loved having Natalie chase her around the house while she pushed her baby in the stroller. This turned into a game where Alta would wear her blanket on her head and walk around the house:

Ellie liked Natalie too, she gave her a big smile the first time she saw her. Here's proof that she's still growing and extremely healthy:

You should see her thighs, they are HUGE! She's definitely not as strong as Alta was at this age, she just barely started holding her head and chest up when she's on her tummy. I blame it on all the weight she has to support!

Thanks for coming to visit us, Nat! And now we are so so excited to go to Utah this week. Alta, Ellie and I are flying in on Friday. It's going to be a fun-filled 5 1/2 hour flight, I tell you what. Dan will be meeting us a few days later for the Palmer family reunion and then we'll spend a week with the Browers. We can't wait!

Pesto Bread

2010-08-16T12:59:00.004-06:00

So I have a link to this recipe on the sidebar, and every time I saw it I would think about how delicious it looked. I finally made it a couple weeks ago when I had some leftover pesto waiting to be used:

The bread was just as good as I'd hoped, and easier than I'd expected as well. It was actually really fun to make. While it tasted very good fresh from the oven, it was ten times better after a few hours when it had cooled completely. The flavors were much more pronounced.

If you like making bread, try it! Here's the link: http://www.cookingbread.com/classes/class_pesto_bread.html