TWD: Back in Action and Cocoa-Nana Bread

This week the assignment was Cocoa-Nana Bread, chosen by Steph at Obsessed with Baking. I made it on Saturday morning while the kids were playing, and we ate it throughout the day. Before long Jacob came in the kitchen to dig in the drawer where the measuring cups and spoons are. I thought maybe he wanted to help so I got out his new apron that his aunt made him for Christmas, and got the baking powder ready for him to pour. Turns out he didn't want to help, he just wanted to throw measuring spoons and cups around the living room, much to my dismay and much to his baby sister's delight. She sucked on every 1/2 tsp. in the house and loved it. After I put the batter in the pan Jacob wanted to have a bite so I gave him a lick of my spatula. Not 2 minutes later (after I was pretty sure I put the bowl in the sink) I looked into the kitchen to see him on the floor with my KitchenAid mixer bowl, the spatula in his mouth, and his mouth and clothes lovin' on the chocolate. Too bad Jeff had the camera with him, it would have been a classic picture.

This bread is a little bit too chocolatey for me to be a breakfast sort of bread, but it was still pretty good. My pan makes most quick breads too crusty so I cut the crusts off and liked the moist middle much more. I put the bananas on the table for the picture just to remind myself and others that they were an ingredient, since they end up being a tad bit overpowered by the cocoa. What you can't see is that next to the plate on the other side there is a machete, a bike pump, and a ski mask. Those are not ingredients, thankfully. Next time I'll add another half of a banana and I'll make sure I have chocolate chips to put in since I had to leave those out this time.

Someone in the family loves to eat chocolate chips straight out of the bag, which means we usually have some, but it also means that we run out when I least expect it. And I won't name any names, but the chief chip-eater is neither my husband nor either of the children. Just sayin'.

I won't post the recipe here, but I will give a hint...go to Google Books, search for Dorie Greenspan Baking and go to page 46! They have about every other page of the book on there for preview, and this one happens to be just one page. I have wanted this book for so long and bid for it on ebay the other day but I lost because the auction ended while I was asleep. I didn't really want to win bad enough to wake up at 3 AM, I guess. But they have it for just 14+shipping at ecookbooks, the cheapest I've found, so I think I will go ahead and buy it so I don't have to keep waiting for my name to come up for it at the library.

Stay tuned for next week: milk chocolate mini bundt cakes!

Yellow and Grey Week

I wish I were more into pretty things sometimes, then my house would be cuter (and I would probably be cuter) but for now I'll just admire the pretty things that others tell me about. As a prime example, I came across a blog recently that's written by a young mom living in Chattanooga, TN. She is pretty stylish, her husband makes the coolest pancakes, and this week the blog's focus is on all things Yellow & Grey. We love yellow in our house; it's such a happy color. So here's to a great week of finding cute things in one of my favorite color combinations.

MyBlogSpark: General Mills

I think I've always been a fan of cold cereal. I suggested it for dinner the other night and was promptly turned down by my better half. It's so easy to eat it, so there's really no excuse for skipping breakfast.

Thanks to MyBlogSpark, our family recently received four coupons for General Mills cereal. I haven't had a chance to use them yet (I keep forgetting them when I go to the store, whoops) but I look forward to picking up some cereal, maybe a kind we haven't had before.

Jacob calls all cereal O's because that is what we've always called Cheerio-type cereals, his first love in cereal. In our house, we've learned that people can possess the O's: sugary cereals are called "Daddy's O's" and I noticed last week Jacob called the KIX "Becca's O's." And the Special K with Red Berries was aptly named "Berries O's." He loves cereal; can't imagine where he gets that from...

Here is a coupon for $1 off of one of four GM cereals for you, dear reader.

Thanks to General Mills and MyBlogSpark for the info about the benefits of cereal and the goodies for me and my family and for my readers!

Slideshow of Pictures from Ohio

Enjoy!

10 Months old!

In just a few days Rebecca will be as old as Jacob was (10.5 months) when we packed up the LeSabre of yore and headed from Provo to Ann Arbor via Denver. This is something I will take the next few days coming to terms with, because, let's face it, life hasn't exactly slowed down since this little girl was born. She is about as cute as can be and it really is so fun to learn more about her personality.

There are some things that she has done or that she does often that are worth sharing:

• looking like she wants to chew out of her bed (laying on her side, and gnawing on the rails)
• pointing her foot in the air when I get ready to put her socks on
• dancing while she's on her tummy
• laughing when she gets her 8 teeth brushed
• scooting everywhere in a sitting position and getting into things a bit more than her brother did
• picking up hymnals with one hand when we are in sacrament meeting
• moving our office chair here at the desk while someone is sitting in it
• waving her arms around during the songs at church
• using her pincer grasp very excellently when eating. she eats very fast but still looks dainty doing so.

Happy 10 month birthday, Rebecca Lea!

Here are her stats from 2 weeks ago at her 9 month checkup. Doctor has no concerns, of course:

Height: 30.5 inches (99th percentile)

Weight: 23.5 pounds (99th percentile)

Head: also 99th percentile

Christmas, at long last

Getting behind on blogging is never recommended. I figured I'd spare you all (all 4 of you?) the suspense of what happened to us over Christmas break and share some pictures from our time as a family. I'll go clockwise from the top left corner, beginning with Rebecca's New Year's Eve picture.

She was on my lap while we had dinner with several families in the ward at the church, so I tried to take her picture. Next is the kids in their new pajamas (Christmas Jamas, as Jacob says) in front of the tree on Christmas Eve. Jeff took about 30 pictures. I think this is the only good one of both kids. Next is earlier in the day, me and the kids in front of the tree. Next one shows the kids (and their assistant) coming down the stairs on Christmas morning. The picture of the field is Jacob watching Uncle David fly their family's new RC airplane. Then our attempt at laying in the star on Christmas Eve, something Jeff's family has always done. A four point star is tricky enough, but when you make 2 of those 4 points age 2 and under, the "star" is highly questionable.

Bottom right corner, you can see Jacob playing with his new farm See 'n Say and his phonics train is in the background. Bottom left, kids on Christmas eve in their finest red apparel. Center picture is first thing Christmas morning, Jacob is admiring his train. To the left of center, Jacob is sharing his new echo mic with Rebecca, giving her a chance to suck on it at least. Above that is a picture of Jacob at the NYE dinner. Another picture of Christmas with Rebecca eating her presents and Jacob looking at his. We'll end with the Mrs. Potato Head, a little felt friend with removable parts (and plenty of more masculine things to make a Mr.) that I made for one of Jacob's presents.

We had a great time here on Christmas morning in Ann Arbor and then drove down to Beavercreek, OH, that afternoon to spend a few days with David and Megan and family. We're lucky they're so close, and we're lucky they let us keep coming back! If you didn't get a chance to see it, feel free to read our family's Christmas letter found here. Stay tuned, tomorrow I'll post some more pictures from our time at David's house...taken with his fancy camera, so they'll be a treat!

Cute Things I've Seen Lately

One handsome husband the day after he

returned to Ann Arbor after a busy week attending class at UNC.

One dragon in the bathroom!

One Rebecca in the snow!

One baby that's tutu cute.

One baby wrestling match. I guess he is punching her in the stomach.

Oh, phew! It was just Jacob!

One family playing the snow on a cold day last weekend.

And one instance of Jacob checking the size of Rebecca's pants...what would we do without this kid? The consensus was that the elastic is pretty worn out in the waistband.

Erin's Graduation

Last month I was in Boise with Rebecca to be at my younger sister's graduation from Boise State. We saw several family members and were happy to be there. Coming home was a different story - one plane was delayed so we opted to stay an extra day, then another plane was cancelled so we had to hang out in Chicago for a while on Sunday, but in the end we made it back home. Jacob played with his cousins in Ohio while the baby was on the trip with me and while Jeff was busy studying for finals at home. Jacob seemed to miss Rebecca more than anything else, go figure.

Here are some pictures and video of the highlights of our trip.

Rebecca hanging out during our layover in Chicago. It was getting to be bedtime, can you tell?

This is how we take naps at Aunt Erin's apartment. She was zonked after we got in so late the night before. And wouldn't you know it, she woke up right after I took this picture with no flash.

They had confetti falling from the ceiling of the Taco Bell Arena right

after the commencement ended.

Horrible picture with the point and shoot, but a really cool memory! Yay Erin!!

Rebecca got to hang out with her Aunt Jamie for part of the ceremony. Here she is wearing her fanciest dress, which Jacob lovingly refers to as "Becca's Christmas Dress."

Here is my family, missing a couple taller and several shorter members. Sorry Dad, the other one I have of this pose has Mom sticking her tongue out. I figured this wasn't so bad. I'm amazed Rebecca didn't chew a hole through her sweater.

Erin didn't play football on the Smurf Turf, but she did do marching band so she spent some time out on this field. I walked on it. It really is fake, and it really is very blue.

Walking across campus before heading to lunch...

After graduation we ate at Donnie Mac's Trailer Park Cuisine. It was quite the experience, even just to see their decor. I had my biennial reuben sandwich and enjoyed it. If you ever make sweet potato fries at home, you should try them with a sour cream + brown sugar sauce.

Rockin' good.

I didn't take any pictures of the graduation party, or a video of the cheer Jamie made up for us to sing to Erin once we got there, but we did have fun meeting some more of Erin's friends. We took pictures by our college flags after the party...all I have to say is "RAH RAH RAH RAH RAH RAH RAH RAH RAH RAH GOOOO COUGARS!" :) Three college grads, pretty exciting!

We made mom cry that day. Doesn't take much, but she was proud for sure.

I spent a few nights at my Aunt Tami's house, where Rebecca got her first taste of hanging out with the guys watching football! That's her with the black Nike hat on backwards...

This was a sign for BSU in the airport in Boise.

I don't know if you can read all of it:

Where you see BLUE, we see:

A Metropolitan Research University of Distinction

The largest institution of Higher Education in Idaho

A place of Science, Business, Nature and Art...

Discover the New U Beyond the Blue

I mean no disrespect to my sister's alma mater, but this was funny to me for some reason. Maybe it was the weird capitalization?

I am working on doing a Photoshopped version of Erin's face on the sign.

After waiting for a long time in the Chicago airport the day we were finally heading home, I realized as we were getting on the tiny plane to Dayton that they had put us in First Class! I got snacks and about 3 cups of orange juice on my 40 minute flight. Livin' the dream for sure. Additionally, I had the World's Cutest First Class Traveling Companion (WCFCTC).

Congratulations, Erin!

It was so fun to take a trip to see you in your regalia and celebrate with you!

Pomp and circumstance, indeed.