The Big 3-5

Daddy-o had another birthday, and as always, I'm happy that he has caught up with me again so the "you're so old" jokes can stop. :)  Bean made him this lovely cake.

We had omelets, grits, and fruit for breakfast before we had to rush off to church.  Bean begged, starting the day before, to do presents but we held off until that night.

Daddy-o played his clarinet for the kids.  They were very impressed.  And then, of course, they had to have their turn.

Peanut was enthralled by the whole thing, although when Bug got ahold of it, it got a little loud for him.  Sharing a clarinet isn't quite as pleasant as a piano or guitar.  Daddy-o was done by the time everyone else had slobbered on it.

After dinner, we finally did cake and ice cream and presents.  For the first time ever, Daddy-o opted for a non-lemon cake.  Anyone who has followed along with my lemon cake woes each year (here and here) might agree that was probably a good choice.  Instead, he asked for the peanut butter chocolate cake I made in September.  In his words, "it just might be the best cake I've ever tasted."

I still haven't gotten to taste this cake, but can't wait for the day. . .  I'm going to post the recipe here so I don't have to look in three places next time I want to make it, and of course, there are always a couple changes.  Once I can taste it, I hope to find a from-scratch cake recipe to replace the cake mix because it seems wrong that the "best cake ever" comes from a box.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cake

1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix

1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix

1 cup sour cream

1 cup grapeseed oil

4 eggs

1/2 cup warm water

1 package Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).               
2. In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. Stir in the peanut butter chips and pour batter into two well-greased round cake pans.
3. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake thoroughly in pans at least an hour and a half before inverting onto a plate.

Filling:
1.5 sticks (6 ounces) butter, softened

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 ounce cream cheese, softened

3/8 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup confectioners sugar

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, peanut butter, cream cheese and salt at medium speed until smooth. Mix in the confectioners sugar at low speed until fluffy.

Ganache:

6 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped
3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

1 cup heavy cream

1 Tbsp. vanilla

1. Place the chocolate into a medium bowl. Heat the cream in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil, watching very carefully because if it boils for a few seconds, it will boil out of the pot. When the cream has come to a boil, pour over the chopped chocolate, and whisk until smooth. Stir in the vanilla.               
2. Allow the ganache to cool slightly before pouring over a cake. Start at the center of the cake and work outward. For a fluffy frosting or chocolate filling, allow it to cool until thick, then whip with a whisk until light and fluffy.               

It Doesn't Get Much Better

 I cannot say enough about how much I am loving the weather we've had this winter.  We're in the 7th day above 60 this month.  The kids and I have been eating it up.  A couple times a week, I pick them up from school with the bike, scooter, and stroller (and the dog most days) in the van and we head out for a walk.  I feel like nice days in January cannot be taken for granted.

And loud kids are so much more enjoyable in the great outdoors than cooped up in the house.

Of Course

Of course his best stretch of sleep in 3 nights came this morning at 7 a.m.  I had to finally wake him up at 9:20 because we'd already missed the first 20 min. of church.  We're teething over here and not much sleeping is going on.  Let's just hope that those teeth break through soon because I don't know how many more nights I can get by on 4 hours of broken sleep.  This is not my favorite part of parenthood--there is just something so cruel about being woken up each time you fall asleep and then having to get out of the warm bed, over and over again.

 But he is such a sweet sleeper when he does it.  I love the crossed ankles.

And just because we haven't had a baby bed-head picture for awhile.  No chance of us mixing up this little guys baby pictures with the other two!

Eight Months

Reasons to love having an 8 month old in the family:

He can wake Bean up and get smiles rather than groans.

I still get to sit down several times a day to feed him (and relax and get some snuggles in--I know this time is going to end before I'm ready.)

His smiles are great conversation starters when we're out.

No talking back, just earnest attempts to tell us what he's thinking.  Even when its something sad, its still incredibly sweet (which I can't always say the same about our older children's attempts to talk to us.)

I still get to pick out his clothes (and he can pull off the fun, trendy things way better than I can!)

He reminds us every day to be grateful for our family and how lucky we are.

Peanut had a weight check just after Christmas.  It had been about 6 weeks since his 6 month check and he'd gained almost 2 pounds!  He's still at the bottom of the charts (not quite 15 pounds at 7.5 months), but the doctor was cautiously optimistic and told us to keep trying to get fatty foods into him.  So far, avocado and egg yolk have both been a no-go, and my attemps to eat dairy were also a failure, so we relying heavily on fatty chicken broth and some olive oil and coconut oil right now, but we're plugging away!  I'm just glad that he seems to be on the right track. 

He's on the brink of crawling--he rolls and worms his way around to get to things just out of his reach, and he bounces like a mad man in his exersaucer. I can only imagine how excited he's going to be when he really gets the movement thing down. Look out world!

Lil' Kickers

After years of protecting our Saturday mornings for family time, knowing that it couldn't last forever, we have now joined the rest of the soccer families.  These two both started at a local sports center for a 3 month soccer clinic.  They were so excited, and I'm kind of excited to get to watch them play.  It's really low key, non-competitive and seems like a good intro to the sport.

 They had a very soccery Christmas--goals, a new ball, and my mom signed them up for the clinic.

 Here they are in action.

They both have insisted that they already know how to play, but I think they'll learn a lot.

And these are just because these kids are goof balls:

Looking Forward

It's been a couple years since I have set any real goals for the year.  I just haven't been all that inspired the last couple years, but for whatever reason, in spite of incredibly tired and pretty overwhelmed by a lot of life, I'm feeling really excited about this year.  I have this feeling that 2012 is going to be a year of good changes and growth. My life is moving on, and hopefully not without me!
Goals:

1--Log 1000 miles, either running, walking, or hiking.  (I'm trying not to feel behind already on this one.  There is no way I'll be getting 20 miles a week during the first couple months, but I'm planning to average more than that later in the year when I'm back to running 4 or 5 miles a few days a week.  Babysteps . . .)

2--Hold a plank pose for 2 minutes.  Now that the baby weight is gone, I want to find my stomach muscles again.

3--Read 24 books. (Haven't been reading much at all, but I think I can manage 2 a month).

4--Learn how to use my camera on manual settings.

5--15 minutes a day on spiritual study/meditation.

6--Make at least one in person visit each month to an assigned woman from church

7--Get rid of 2012 items in 2012 (Stole this one from somewhere else, but it sounds like a fabulous idea.  I have a lot of random areas I'd like to clean out.)

8--Work on one new household cleaning/organization habit each month.  January is "putting the kitchen to bed"--dishes done, sink emptied, tidy everything up.  Luckily, I have Daddy-o to help with this one.

9--Finish It Up Fridays--I have a list of a couple dozen projects that I have started or bought the supplies for and I'm going to spend a little time each week trying to tie up some of these loose ends.

2011, In Review

I heard a couple different suggestions to look back at the past year before setting goals for 2012 yesterday, so I thought it might be fun to do a quick summary:

 January--after spending 3 weeks together, with many hours and over 4000 miles logged in the car, we returned home from our big holiday trip.  Only to be met with the largest snow storm we've seen since moving to NC and 3 days of closed schools and roads.  It was almost too much family time. . .  Daddy-o turned another year older and started working way too many hours, which would continue for several months.

February brought lots of changes--Bean switched to a closer school that was a much better fit for our family and I switched to a midwife at a birthing center, which was also a good fit for our family.  Both kids started swimming lessons and we learned that our funny Bug wasn't such a fan of the swim instructor.

 March meant a trip to CA for a family wedding, a cousin's baptism, and a few days in San Diego to visit friends and Sea World.  The kids finished up their swim lessons, and Bug even managed to not cry for a couple of them.

April included probably one of the most lazy spring breaks we've had (although to be fair, this was only our second official spring break) and lots of baby prep, which mostly meant wishing he would hurry up and get here.

 Which he did in May, giving me what I think I can safely say was the best Mother's Day present I'll ever get.  He was our "drive thru" baby--7 hours from door to door, and that included a stop at Sonic on the way home which I will always remember fondly because those french toast sticks were pretty much the first food in 9 months that had tasted good.  Daddy-o started his paternity leave, the kids loved their new brother and Bug finished up school.

June meant the start of summer vacation.  Rara and Uncle D came out just in time for Bean's 7th birthday, the baby blessing, and some of our miserable, muggy NC summer weather.  Peanut started smiling and I started running.

 July was more hot, muggy days spent at the pool (or napping in the air conditioned house for Peanut and I).  We ate peach pie, the big kids went to Vacation Bible School,  Grandma came out to visit, and I hit the mid-decade mark.

August was the end of our dream summer.  Daddy-o went back to work, the kids and I spent 3 weeks figuring out how to do things with three kids, Bean started second grade, and I started working through Peanut's digestive issues, which did have the positive affect that for the first time ever, I actually lost all the baby weight from a pregnancy.

September was full of doctor's appointments where it was confirmed that I'd rather do my own research and find my own support groups to handle our medical questions.  We spent a lot of time cooking and a lot of time playing outside in the slightly cooler weather.  Bug lost his first tooth.

October brought reality--and a cancelled trip to the beach because of a baby who cried too much in the car for anyone to stand and only part of the family going on the church campout in hopes of everyone getting a little better sleep.  We did take a 15 minute drive to The Great Wolf Lodge, went to another family wedding for Daddy-o, Peanut, and I, and these kids dressed up to collect a bunch of candy that their mean mom wouldn't let them eat.

November was more busy-ness with Souper Saturday, Bugaboo's 5th birthday, too many hours working for the bank, and Thanksgiving, which brought its own challenges since I can pretty much only eat meat and veggies.  The beautiful fall weather held and we continued to spend lots of hours outside, knowing it could end any day.

But December brought more amazing weather, all the way up to the end.  It also brought too many treats, which was pure torture for me, but did lead to my first ever holiday season with no weight gain--in fact, I was able to put on my wedding dress the other day, a feat I never imagined possible  We spent the month with Christmas crazy kids, lots of family time, another visit from Rara and Uncle D, crafts and Christmas books galore, and even a few minutes each day focused on our Savior who is the "reason for the season".

That pretty much sums up 2011--full of great times, a few worries and stresses, and lots of growth.  Here's to 2012--a year of good health, no whining, and new-found happiness, whatever our circumstances may be.

Happy 2012!

2011 ended beautifully--64 degrees and sunny, which made it feel like a San Diego winter holiday when we took the kids and dogs for a walk on the greenway.

  And then we spent the evening with friends, did a few sparklers, and had the kids in bed by 9 p.m. so Daddy-o and I could finally watch the final Harry Potter.

 A great evening all around with my favorite people.

  2011 has been a great year, but we're ready to make 2012 even better!