Playing catch-up: Paul's birthday

Paul's 27th birthday was May 1. He got this awesome, handy, pain-in-the-neck-to-put-together wheelbarrow. The boys had endless fun riding in it, despite their sober expressions. (Paul is fielding birthday phone calls.)



Paul requests carrot cake for his birthday every year. My latest go-to carrot cake recipe is this one from the Pioneer Woman. I make some changes to it, so here is my version.

Carrot Cake w/ Cream Cheese Frosting

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
4 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
(I bet some whole wheat flour would work well in this)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups finely grated carrots

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch round pans. I like to cut circles of wax paper the same size as the pans and stick them in the bottom after I grease it. Then I grease the wax paper and flour the whole thing. Do this, and you'll never tear out the bottom of your cake again when you try to get it out of the pan.

In a large bowl, mix sugar, oil, applesauce and eggs. In another bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir to combine. Stir in carrots. Pour into pans and bake for 25-30 minutes (possibly a little longer).

The original recipe didn't list a temperature or very specific cooking times, so I've tried to write down the times as I've made the recipe on different occasions. I think 25-30 minutes is pretty accurate for the 9-inch rounds, and 24 minutes worked well for cupcakes (this recipe makes about 2 dozen). If I remember right an 8-inch square pan (1/2 the batter) baked for 30 minutes or so, give or take. Hope that helps if you decide to try it!

This recipe turns out a light, moist, totally delicious cake, unlike some that are heavy with oil.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 pound powdered sugar (4-4 1/2 cups)
2 teaspoons vanilla

Beat butter and cream cheese. Add vanilla, then beat in powdered sugar. Frost cake when it has cooled completely.

After trying this for the first time, Paul commented on how perfect the frosting was, hinting that this is how I should make it all the time in the future.

The Broccoli Bandit

I thought I posted about this last year, but I guess it got missed! Hopefully the fact that this behavior is recurring is evidence that Rhett will forever be a vegetable (or at least a broccoli) lover.

Last September in Juneau we caught Rhett on the kitchen table trying to steal Benjamin's food. Benjamin was finishing his slow-poke dinner and had a cookie waiting next to him for when he was all done eating his meal. Of course, Benjamin thought Rhett was after the cookie, but the title of this post has already given away his true aim:

Benjamin holds his cookie close for safe-keeping while Rhett goes for the real gold...

Broccoli!

These pictures are from April, but Rhett was quick to gobble up the broccoli at dinner last night too.

Notice how he has pushed his plate aside and pulled the serving bowl of broccoli right in front of him.

Can't argue with that!

Happy Five Years

Our fifth wedding anniversary came and went in a flurry of cleaning, organizing, and remodeling. Paul sent me an e-mail that day to the effect of, "Happy Anniversary! Just wanted you to know I didn't forget." To which I replied, "I didn't forget either. But I thought it was tomorrow." Way to look at the calendar, Vicky.

Hopefully ten years will be more momentous than five.

And for memory's sake, here we are on our wedding day, May 28, 2005, coming out of the Salt Lake temple:


And here's one of us from a recent trip to the Seattle temple:


We're not as thin and not as cute, but I think our kids make up for it. Happy Anniversary!

Froggy Home Evening

Yard clean-up was on the agenda for last night's Family Home Evening. At one side of our house and wrapping around part of the back was a dense jungle of overgrown weeds of many sorts which had been taking thorough advantage of the rainfall in these parts. Before we mowed it all down we had to clear away some large rocks and trash scattered about. While being grossed out by the abundance of slugs in one part of the yard (could someone please educate me on the ecological value of slugs???), I came upon this little guy, holding very still and hoping I wouldn't notice him.

I'm glad I found him (or her) before the lawnmower did! Here's a long video of the boys and the frog.

A question of pants

This morning I was getting Benjamin dressed and I gave him the option of wearing a pair of overalls.  He said to me, "We don't wear overalls, we eat them." 

Confused, I replied that people do, in fact, wear overalls, not eat them.  He protested.  "What are you talking about?" I asked. 

"I'm talking about those little black things that we eat!" he explained.

"Oh!  Olives!" 

"Yeah.  We eat olives."

Much tastier than overalls, I'm sure.

***

And speaking of clothes...

Benjamin wanted to help me water the garden today.  He had already gotten his shoes soaked with the hose, so I told him to take them off while I got started.  After a minute he came up from behind me wearing only his t-shirt and zipped-up, hooded sweatshirt.  When I asked him why he took off his pants (and underwear) he replied in a matter of fact tone, "Because it's a nice day!"

The Move, part 1

So we moved. It was a whirlwind of cardboard, packing tape, sponges, vacuums and paint. We are so thankful for the many friends and neighbors who helped us with moving boxes and furniture, watching the boys and giving us dinner. I couldn't even begin to list the people who did so much to help.

It was sort of strange to empty and clean the house we rented for nearly two years, but relieving as well, if you know what I mean. That house was so perfect for us in so many ways, and such a blessing. Great rent, good landlords, awesome location, fantastic ward, and sweet next-door neighbors. We couldn't ask for more. But for some reason, whenever I walked in the door, I never felt "at home." I never loved it. I've lived in places that have been so hard to leave because of my (possibly unusual) emotional attachment, but that wasn't one of them. The more time that passes, the more fond I feel of the place. But at the time we moved out, I had no desire to look back.

So, back to business. We moved out and cleaned. The boys helped.

Washing chalk off the house

Vacuuming was Rhett's favorite

Then we moved in.

First things first, the master bedroom needed a new coat of paint. Thank goodness the entire house wasn't this color when we moved in, although it was in the recent past. The people who painted the other rooms didn't care to remove things like pieces of tape and painted right over them, preserving (at least for now) the brilliant minty green color underneath. Thankfully they also painted over the deep purple color in other rooms of the house (such as the bar room; see below and imagine what that would have been like).

Benjamin staying busy in his new room while we moved stuff in

Every time we move we say, "We don't have that much stuff." Until the new place looks like this and we wonder, "Why do we have all this stuff?"

The kitchen was the first thing (after the carpets) to get a good scrubbing. I can't do anything without a functioning kitchen.

Evidence of unpacking

The toy corner of our new family room (which used to be still is a bar, until we can tackle that project)

(See???)
The beer fridge has now been recycled, thank goodness. But we're not sure what to do with the bar, for the time being...

We are currently in the process of remodeling the main bathroom. I always have been, but now I am really thankful for my handy-man husband! He has done so much to make this house work for us!

Self Portraits

Benjamin likes to take pictures with my camera phone, and his favorite thing to do is take pictures of himself making silly faces. His repertoire of poses has definitely widened over time, and I have to laugh when I look through the photos and find one of these randomly among the other pictures.


I love this boy.

A Look Back at Easter

I know that Easter was about a month and a half ago, but my brain is so cloudy about where to begin with posting about our move that I figured I might as well start with something to get the juices flowing.

Easter was the weekend before we moved into our new house. Most of the weekend was spent in a frenzy of packing (why is it always like that?), but we still were able to enjoy some (I wish I could say "most" or "all") of General Conference and get in some egg dying between Saturday sessions.


Benjamin is still way into Cars, so he liked calling the egg colors by their respective Cars characters: Red, like Lightning McQueen; Green, like Chick Hicks; Blue, like The King.

Saturday afternoon I was blog surfing (probably when I should have been packing?) and randomly came across a blog post about dying eggs with silk ties. How had I never heard about it before?? Have you? Anyway, I decided I had to try it (impractical though that was) and quickly strapped the boys in the car to go to the thrift store. Somehow I completely forgot that the Salvation Army was a mile away and instead drove through mall traffic to get to a "thrift store" that sold their silk ties for 6 bucks! I was not impressed and headed to Goodwill instead, picking up about six ties. Of course, I didn't take pictures of my fancy silk-dyed eggs, mostly because they didn't turn out really good, but it was fun to learn something new and I think I'll give it another go next year.

Has anyone reading this ever done the egg dying with silk ties, and do you have any tips?

No pictures from Easter, but I do recall that Rhett consumed nearly all of his candy in about 10 minutes (before breakfast), and Benjamin was really disappointed that there was no Easter egg hunt this year. Also, after all the time we spent reading the story of the Atonement and Resurrection in Benjamin's New Testament Stories book, now all he wants to read is "the part where the guys are being wicked to Jesus." He doesn't seem interested in most of the other stories yet, but he always wants to read the parts about Jesus's crucifixion, and asks for it almost every night. Interesting.

Whose house is this?

Oh, wait. It's ours.

Did that really just happen? Did we just buy a house?


Yep.



(Moving in this weekend. More on that to come.)

Let's Talk About Rhett

This little man has been filling up our hearts with more and more love all week, which is good because last week he was awful. (Not that we loved him less, however.) Recovering from sickness (his first icky, throw-up sickness ever), possible teething pain, and just being almost 2, seem to have been the main contributors.

But this week he has been delightful!

Rhett is 21 months old, the same age Benjamin was when Rhett was born. It seems like every time I look at him I find myself marveling at his babyness, when Benjamin seemed so grown up at the same age. And because of that I find myself wishing I had let Benjamin be more of a baby, while at the same time wondering if Rhett is really more grown up than I give him credit for.

He loves for me to read to him, and his favorite books are of the Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?/Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? variety. He still loves The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and at the end he likes to go flap flap flap with the pages to make the butterfly fly.

He loves to ROAR! And boy, does that kid have volume! When we read Polar Bear, Polar Bear..., he roars at almost every page, as if he thinks that is the appropriate animal noise for each creature. The other day Rhett expressed his excitement at having Paul home from work by ROARING enthusiastically several times.

He discovered the other day that he is a great tickle monster. I wish I could have captured forever the minutes the other day when he and I snuggled on the couch prior to his nap and took turns tickling and laughing.

He loves dogs! Have I mentioned that before? I don't think I have, so let me emphasize it again. Rhett LOVES dogs! He can spot one a mile away, and will either shout "DAH!" or "WuhWuhWuhWuh!"


He loves to say new words, or at least we love to hear them. Why is it that he has mastered "cookie" more quickly than "please"?

He is a fabulous eater (knock on wood), downing everything from chili to spicy curry to broccoli and more. Some nights he seems like a bottomless pit.

He loves to be like his brother. During potty training (which is 90% complete, by the way), he would imitate Benjamin by sitting on the little training potty. A couple of days ago he found a pair of Benjamin's underwear and wanted to put it on over his diaper. And speaking of clothes, he likes to bring me random articles of clothing and have me put them on him. (Maybe we need a dress-up box?)

Rhett is a singer. Many times a day he can be heard singing the tunes to I am a Child of God, Called to Serve, Reverently Quietly (a frequently lullaby in our house), Autumn Day, and/or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. We never get tired of it.

This is becoming longer than intended, and the subject of this post is now screaming for my attention and trying to put on his shoes to go outside. So I'll wrap up by saying that we love Rhett so much, and couldn't be happier to have him in our family!