Some updates

So things have been going pretty well. Dan will be done with work after next week, then it's summer break!!! June will be busy. We're going to Utah and Idaho for a couple of weeks. My siblings and mom are all meeting in Bear Lake for a little reunion. We haven't all been together for 4 years! It's time for us to all get together. We rented this really nice, big house and are excited to hang out! Then after that, Dan's best friend is getting married in Newport. Dan's parents and brother are coming out to visit and then we'll have Anna's birthday party, while they are here.

I'm really hoping to have a productive summer and get some things done around here that need to be done. Most of all, I am really hoping that we can remodel our bathrooms. At least ours. We'll see how things go. I won't be pregnant this summer, like last summer, so I can do more things and won't feel held back as much. And of course, we need to have fun and go to the beach and the pool. :)

We bought a composter for the garden. Dan put it together inside, since it was cold outside. Anna kept calling it a house. Then there were side panels that came off, where Dan's legs are sticking through. She started calling that a doggie door. It was so cute. She was inside the whole time Dan was getting it put together.

Anna and my cute husband.

Alex has discovered the toy pile! He was in the middle of the family room and managed to scoot over to this corner and start playing with some toys.

Is this not the most adorable picture of Alex? I was folding laundry and Anna started playing with the laundry basket and putting her toys in it. Dan thought it would be fun to put Alex in it.

And this is what happened...

Don't worry, Dan was beside him the whole time.

Alex has discovered a new toy as well. Anna's new thing is to take the cushion off the ottoman and play with it. So Alex found out that the tag is fun to chew on.

I can't think of a title...

Haven't updated the blog for a few weeks, so it's time to get caught up!

Let's start with this. Fun with a Costco box! Not just for your groceries, also a great napping container. :) Anna loves boxes, so it was no surprise that she got comfy right away in this one.

Why not have some family fun? Dan had fun pushing them around for a while. Not the greatest picture, but it was the only one where everyone was looking.

A little update on Alex. He is now 6 months old and he knows it! His six month stats are 19 lbs 8 oz, and 28 1/2 inches tall. It's amazing how in a month's time, babies can develop so much. He's gone from kind of rolling around and mildly tolerating tummy time, to rolling everywhere, getting up on all fours, doing little baby push-ups, constantly being on his tummy (thus spitting up more. I thought we were done with that), reaching and grabbing for things. This little guy is a mover! Any day he is going to start crawling and our world will never be the same. :) I also have to wrestle him to change his diaper. He does NOT want to be on his back. He rolls over and wants to grab things. I have to put lotion on him every day, because he has eczema. It's hard to do, since he won't be still. I'm getting pretty good at putting his diaper and or/pants on with him on his tummy or knees. It definitely takes some skills.

I love these pictures. This is right before bath time for them. I put Alex down in the hallway and Anna just had to go over and join him. He's doing his little baby push-ups.

Holding his head up so high!

My cute little diaper babies (hopefully, Anna will be potty trained soon).

Another exciting 6 month mark is Alex starting solids!

Waiting patiently for his rice cereal.

Taking a yummy bite...

And, not quite sure what he thinks about it. Anna never liked rice cereal, and either does Alex. I could barely get him to eat any. I tried it for about 4 days, then moved on to carrots.

Me, feeding my cute little boy.

He still won't eat a lot, but we moved on to some peaches and he likes those a little more. Last night, I was able to get him to eat everything that I put in a little container for him. Anna definitely caught on to solids faster than Alex, but I'm sure he'll catch up. Slowly, yet surely...

Better late than never

This has been a work in progress, these pictures here. We took them when Anna turned two. She'll be three in two months. Oops...

So it took me forever to get them in frames. Basically because I wasn't sure where I wanted to hang them up. At first I was going to hang them up in the hallways, but wasn't a hundred percent sure. We rearranged her room when we put the bookcase in there and I decided that above the bookcase is where I should put the pictures. So I finally painted some frames and hung them up.

The top left and bottom right frames are from Goodwill. I paid 99 cents for one and 1.99 for the other. I just painted them white. The other two I already had. I primed one and painted it pink. It was originally black. The princess word and crowns, I cut out with my cricut.

If I could do it over again, I would have spaced the frames further apart. I thought having them close together would look better, but I think I was wrong. If you look closely, the brown one is a little crooked, but I don't feel like putting another hole in the wall, trying to fix it. Maybe later. :)

Here is Anna with two bunnies that my mom sent us for Easter. These caused a lot of grief initially. When my mom sent them, the box just said Anna. We opened it and there was a bunny. So I told Anna, this is for you! Then, there was another one in the box and I said, oh you got two bunnies Anna! Then, I remember I now had TWO kids and one was probably for him. I called my mom to double check and one for was each. So then I had to tell Anna one was for her and one was for Alex. But the damage had already been done. I told her to pick one and she started crying. I finally just told her which one was hers. But she didn't want Alex to have the other one and kept trying to get it from him. We had to go to Target, so I got her in the car with her still upset and crying. While we were at Target, she would stand up in the cart, look at Alex with his bunny and try and take it from him. :) It was kind of funny. As soon as we got home, I put Alex and his car seat down and she went and grabbed the bunny. She eventually accepted that he got one and she got one, but she still likes to play with his.

Oh this little girl...

Gluten, baby!

A month or so ago, Dan was reading about gluten flour. You add it to breads to make it rise more. Since we make a lot of whole wheat bread, we decided to get some and see what it would do to our bread. We got it at Winco, in the bulk section. As far as flour goes, it's more expensive than normal flour, but you only need one tablespoon per cup of whole wheat flour, so it goes a long way. I think it's around $3 a pound.

Well, we started using it and we LOVE it! It really does help the bread rise more and it isn't so dense. Here is some bread I made, with all whole wheat flour. Normally, the top of the bread would barely be over the edge of the pan.

Here, you can see just how much it's risen past the top of the pan.

It's great, and we love it. We've been adding it to our pizza dough, bagels and other bread stuff that we make. It does make the dough tougher, so you have to knead it more and add a little more water. The bread is lighter and not quite so heavy. The bagels I made were great too. I make them with half white, half wheat flour and they were so nice and fluffy.

Also, we got some more food storage. A lot more wheat and some white beans. I was reading that white beans can be used in place of butter and oils, so I want to try that out and see how it works.

I really lucked out with the buckets. I always get my food storage buckets at local bakeries. I just call them up and see if they have any with lids. Normally, they say, there is one or two I can have. Well, we had to go down to the Bishop's Storehouse in Sylmar two weeks ago. I kept forgetting to get buckets and the day of, I finally made the calls to get buckets. I went to Ralphs and Albertson's and scored 7 buckets! It was just enough for everything we got. I'm counting my blessings with that one! I just wash the buckets with a little bit of soap and bleach water and let them air dry. I finally got some oxygen absorbers. I started our food storage two years ago, but never got them. They're only ten cents a piece at the storehouse. I had to buy a 100, but I'll be using them all eventually.

My new goal with food storage is to build up our 3 month supply. It was originally really good, but over time we've been using it and haven't been replacing it as we should have. I need to start working on that.

I found this website a while ago, http://www.thecanorganizer.com/pantry.html

They sell can organizers, but they're made out of cardboard, so they're cheaper, but still sturdy. I'm thinking of getting some. They sell four for $16. It says shipping to CA is $8.70, but if you order more, it's cheaper, I believe. If anyone is interested in getting some, we could split shipping. Check out the site and let me know.

I've made a lot of posts today, so keep scrolling to read more! :)

A Visit and the Park

Dan's sister, Sarah, was able to come visit us for a day last week, on her way to Australia. She hadn't met Alex yet, just seen him on Skype.

Aunt Sarah and Alex.

While she was here, we went to the park.

Alex had his first time in the swing.

I love this one. His little mouth is so cute.

He looks happy here, but for the most part, he was pretty emotionless as he sat in the swing. When we first pushed the swing, very softly, his face was so funny and startled, as he obviously wasn't expecting his seat to move. It was pretty funny.

Anna and Alex on the swings together.

Anna and Daddy at the park.

Even though Sarah's visit was short, Anna had a ton of fun with her. She was so nice to sit and play with Anna. Anna loved it. After Sarah, left, she kept asking where she was. After spending a day with her, she started calling her grandma. It was pretty funny. We're so glad she was able to visit us.

A little update on Alex. He is rolling around all over the place and able to move a ton. Here in this picture, I had originally placed him by the small green carpet and a few minutes later, this is where he ended up. He goes on his tummy all the time now and pushes his arms up. I bet he's going to start crawling in the next month or so. I don't know if I'm quite ready for that, but oh well. :) Just this morning, I was playing the piano and he was about 6 feet away from me. I played for a minute, turned around and he was about 3 feet from me. I played a bit more, then turned to see him and he was right next to the piano bench. It was pretty funny, every time I turned around, he had moved. Kind of like, red light, green light.

Here is a picture that Anna drew. She is getting better and better with her drawings.