Mama! Baby's moving again!

Sometimes Caden says it with delight, sometimes with annoyance. What remains is that he's saying it often these days. Eric pretty much went from not moving straight to crawling. Last night I decided I can officially say he crawls. Caden isn't sure what to think of his mobile brother, so we took the video after he went to bed.

Calas

Ingredients:
1 cup leftover cooked rice
3 Tablespoons GF Flour Mix
3 teaspoons of sugar or 2 teaspoons of agave nectar
2 Tablespoons coconut milk (I frequently use regular milk)
1 egg (I use Energ-G Egg Replacer)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon saltvegetable oil for frying
cinnamon sugar for coating after frying or honey for drizzling after frying
To make COCOA Calas: add 1/4 cup of unsweetened dark cococa powder to your mix. And omit other spices

Directions:
Mix together all ingredients (minus vegetable oil and topping of choice) in your mixer well. Heat your frying oil to 350F. Drop the calas by the tablespoon into the hot oil and fry until deep golden brown on the outside. A tad longer if you like to have a little crunch, which I do. Drain on paper towels after removing with a slotted spoon. Dust with powdered sugar or shake in a bag with powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar or drizzle with honey. Enjoy while warm! Makes 12 Tablespoon sized Calas.

Review:
Tastes like doughnuts! I love these puppies. Caden always has just a bite or two, says he likes them, then walks away. That’s okay. More Calas for me!

Paver Project

My project started last fall when we pulled the pavers out of the lower section in anticipation of putting sod in there. The neighbor boy and I dug them out and stacked them under the deck. While moving all those bricks two by two across the yard I had a lot of time to contemplate what to do with them. I eventually settled on putting them under the deck.

Once the lower section was prepped and ready for grass I began prepping the under deck area for pavers. Previous residents had installed 4-6 inches of larger rocks in this area, so I slowly removed them. I’d fill buckets with rocks and line them next to the trash can. On trash day we’d dump in 4-6 buckets and I’d refill them. I filled buckets all fall and most of the spring. We currently have every bucket at our house full of rocks.

As luck would have it, just as I was finishing up this stage our neighbor installed a retaining wall. She had gobs of leftover gravel and offered us some. It was just what I needed. I moved the pile of pavers and all the other stuff we were storing there from under the deck to the patio. Ryan graciously rearranged his Saturday to haul the gravel to our yard, and I’m grateful he did. I'm honestly not sure when this little project would have been completed otherwise.

Monday morning I started in on laying the pavers. Given my two little helpers the process was slower then I anticipated it would be, but I was still able to finish by the light of the moon. Caden thought the gravel was a great sandbox and didn’t seem to tire of piling it up, putting it in a bucket, and dumping it out. He liked to sit right where I was working and help ‘level’ the gravel, lay the bricks, and carry the bricks. Notice doggy watching Caden carry the pavers. If doggy isn't being held he is carefully perched where he can see what is going on.

By some miracle we were short only 6 bricks, which I easily scrounged up from other parts of the yard. All told there are 640 pavers in that little area. I still need to get some edging and sand to finish setting the pavers. Then we can move all our storage stuff back.

A Hat?

"Which hat do you want to wear outside today, Caden?"

"Doggy hat!"

C’mere, Porter!

A few weeks ago in nursery as we sat down for snack time one of the boys decided he would rather play with cars. The other teacher and I both attempted to coax him to the table, then decided it was just snacks and he could skip if he wanted. As soon as Caden realized we were giving up he took matters into his own hands. He turned around and in the friendliest voice said, “C’mere Porter!” To my amazement Porter jumped up and came over to the table. Caden patted the empty seat next to him and said, “You sit here.” Then, looking at me, said, “Mama, Porter needs Chex.” Porter sat next to Caden the entire time Caden at snacks, but never touched his own snack. When Caden was done both boys hopped down and played cars together.

It just goes to show, even at this young age, kids respond better to their peers than to leaders. And our Caden truly will be a great friend.

Spring Fling!

We went to the Spring Fling at Hee Haw Farms today with some friends. I thought we'd stay about an hour and a half, but the kids were having so much fun we stayed for 4 hours! The kids could have stayed forever, I think, it was the mommies who threw in the towel.

I'm still making the switch from winter to summer. I took my boys their warm winter hats and coats, not their sun hats. We all came home a little pink. Halfway through I tied Eric's blanket around Caden's head to try to protect him a little.

I have no pictures of Caden with the baby animals, because he was a little nervous in the petting pen. Eric, on the other hand, giggled when a pig sniffed Eric's foot. Caden protectively told the pig, "No, pig! Don't eat my baby!"

In addition to the animals there was a hayride (left middle picture), a train ride (upper left), pony rides, slides on a giant dirt pile, sandboxes made out of old tractor tires, swings, a trampoline covered in hay (upper right), and a old tractors to climb on. We all had a blast!

A Budding Gardener

A few weeks ago in nursery we planted seeds. Caden has loved watching his 'pants' grow in the cup in the windowsill. We check on them regularly throughout the day. On this day Caden was particularly pleased with how "HUGE" his plants were getting. He chattered on about how nice daddy is to water them, how pretty the flowers (leaves) are, and how the cup has dirt in it but thats okay because the dirt isn't messy in the cup. Then his eyes lit up and he asked me to take a picture of his plants. So here is our budding gardener with his prize winning (at least in his eyes) bean plants.

In other news, Ryan started the seeds for our garden as well. We've got way more tomato, cherry tomato and pepper plants than we'll ever use. But daddy is as excited about checking on his plants every chance he gets as Caden is. I guess its true that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

I Wanna be a Cowboy

I picked up Toy Story and Toy Story 2 on a pretty good deal a few weeks ago, and watching the movies has renewed Caden's interest in his rocking horse. Caden's description: "Mommy! Caden a cowboy! I ride the horse to my Chex and water. I take Doggy with. Doggy likes to ride the horsey! Hee haw! Oh, I hook the purse on horsey. Take the purse with, too." And so our funny cowboy rides his horse all over the house, clutching doggy and trailing the purse.

Another Productive Saturday

Ryan got the last section of railing done on Saturday. He pretty much started and finished all in the same day. He also managed to squeeze in some yard work and helping out with the boys. Next on the list is the baby gate Ryan will make, and other than that we're just waiting for the weather to warm up so the railings can be painted.

Happy Easter!

We had a great day. The boys cooperated so we were able to listen to General Conference. There were some amazing talks (like always) and we're both feeling motivated to continue to increase our spirituality. I was a proud mom yesterday when Caden recognized President Monson on the TV screen and even explained to me that he talks to God. I was a little less proud when 5 minutes later he declared he was done and wanted to 'watch sum-fing else.' Too bad, buddy, we've got 7 hours and 45 minutes of this left.

In between sessions my sister Kellie hid some Easter Eggs for Caden. He caught on quickly, and even though he was the only one hunting you would have thought he was racing against a whole pack of kids for how fast he was running from egg to egg. With each one he picked up he'd delightedly exclaim, "Another one!" The eggs held rice krispy treats shaped like eggs made by my mom and small chocolates wrapped in tinfoil made by me. All the goodies were gone by the end of the afternoon session of Conference.

Before coming home we attempted to snap a few pictures of the boys in their Easter attire. The camera battery was low, and Ryan really is the better photographer, so the pictures aren't grand but at least they are something.

Lining Up

Caden loves to line his cars up. Other places he has lined them up recently: the kitchen table, the stairs, our bed, the changer stand, and the pull out tray for the computer keyboard. Basically, if its a flat surface he'll line up as many cars as he can fit.