I have many many photos that I haven’t even looked at yet but I just wanted to share this one that my mom took of us. This is at Cannon Beach and the rock in the background is the famous haystack rock. We had such a great time and I can’t wait to share more photos and videos but first I promised some anxious mommies and daddies a sneak peek from their session, so check back soon!

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We have been spending a lot of time in our backyard and for Simon at least clothing is optional. This kid loves watermelon. Given the opportunity he could probably eat an entire watermelon on his own. We also made some popsycles out of greek yogurt and fresh raspberries.( I got the idea here.) they are delicious.

We have a great little inflatable pool and Simon loves jumping off the back of the slide. I love his expression in this photo : )

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This weekend we celebrated Myles’s 30th birthday. (His actual birthday was on Wednesday). We had a backyard BBQ extravaganza. It was really fun and the weather was perfect. The kids (and adults) played in the sprinkler, swam in our kiddy pool, jumped on the trampoline, and roasted smores. I got my creative juices flowing and made a 30 layer rainbow cake (because you only turn 30 once). I didn’t take a lot of pictures but here are some of the snapshots.Happy Birthday sweetie! I hope it was the best one yet.

Myles let the kiddos blow out his 30 candles and were they ever into it! 2 year olds really like birthdays.

and the rainbow cake once cut!

Thanks to everyone who celebrated with us – it was a blast!

Usually I am very into the 4th of July. I love the food, I love the parade, and I love the fireworks. However, this year I just couldn’t get into it. I think it’s probably had a lot to do with it falling on a Sunday, and the fact that they scheduled our community parade right during Simon’s nap time. And the weather was crummy – rainy and cold. It was just sort of a blah day that ended with us lighting off sparklers while standing under an umbrella in the poring rain. Not really what I envisioned, hopefully next year will make up for it. The one good thing about the 4th falling on a Sunday was that Myles had the next day off. The weather was significantly better so we decided to attempt a short hike.

We have taken imon hiking before but I don’t think he really remembers it. This time he was very excited to “go up a mountain!”

And we made it all the way to the top and back! Simon was very disappointed that we were not going to let him out of the back pack at the top (way to scary for me. We did let him out part way up the trail and he of course immediately fell into a mud puddle.

(see his right pant leg?)

and of course on the way down he totally sacked out. I don’t know how he slept in that back pack – his head looked SO uncomfortable

He keeps asking to do it again so I guess overall it was a successful day.

The Second Trimester!

14 weeks, yay! I made it! I made Myles take this photo yesterday, as I really liked how the stripes accentuated the bump and I wanted to commemorate the beginning of the second trimester – it feels like such an accomplishment right now.

Our baby is now the size of a lemon. I love the fruit/food comparisons that babycenter sends me each week but I have to wonder if our baby is only the size of a lemon why is my stomach already the size of a grapefruit? (at least) They say you “pop out” sooner with your second pregnancy and boy isn’t the truth. I have officially kissed my regular pants goodbye. So I’m sticking it out a bit in the photo but you should it after I have eaten a really big meal!

You know how when you are pregnant you get more “emotional” and just a little “crazy”. Well I am an opinionated person and when I am pregnant it just gets worse. I chalk it up to the pregnancy hormones.  My friend Jennifer just told me that by the end of this pregnancy everyone would know all of the things that I hate. That might be true, I find pregnancy very polarizing I either love or hate everything. There is not a lot of middle ground, it can actually be kind of exhausting. I have been posting a lot on twitter and facebook about the things that I love/hate I find myself spending a lot of time pondering these things so I have complied a short “crazy” list.  Feel free to add you own in the comments (or just make fun of mine).

• If I were queen of the world the grocery store would definitely be organized differently. I don’t understand why molasses is next to maple syrup in the juice aisle. Do some people use molasses as a substitute for maple syrup? That seems like it would taste horrible. In my mind the molasses belongs in the baking aisle next to the brown sugar.  Actually I am not even sure why the maple syrup is not in the baking aisle too. Also I would alphabetize the spices.  I once mentioned this to a store clerk and he looked confused and said “the spices are in alphabetical order” and I pointed out that yes they were in alphabetical order by brand but if I were in charge I would just mix all the brands together and put them back on the shelf in alphabetical order. I like to be able to price and size compare and it would be much much faster if all the tumerics were on the shelf next to each other. In fact if I get crazy enough one day I might just take the time and organize the spices myself.
• It drives me nuts on allrecipes.com when you are looking at a recipe and start reading the reviews only to realize that none of the so-called reviewers have actually made the recipe in question. They have all severely altered it and are rating their new made up recipe. You’re not really writing a review of a recipe if you completely alter the recipe! Did it ever cross into their mind that maybe they are the reason the recipe failed? Please don’t rate recipes you haven’t actually made!
• Sometimes when I am at other people’s homes and I use their bathroom I also take a peek in their medicine cabinet to see if there is anything interesting. I know I won’t be caught and it’s a rush of adrenaline to do something so naughty (ok sometimes this happens when I am not pregnant – but don’t think I don’t know that other people do it too!)
• On the bathroom topic: It also really bothers me when toilet paper is hung the “wrong” way (i.e. over the back). I usually just fix it. When I am in a public bathroom where they lock the toilet paper down and I can’t fix it – well that drives me crazy.
• This hasn’t happened yet this pregnancy but when I was pregnant with Simon Myles’s incessant “stomping” drove me crazy. He would stomp all around the house. His defense was “this is how I always walk!” but it sure sounded a lot louder to me.
• I’m really sad about the degradation of Sesame Street – what happened? It’s all green screens with crayon drawings and all Elmo. I want the classic Sesame Street for Simon and I am considering ordering it for him. I find it frustrating that I can’t just by the classics from itunes.(I am planning for a road trip we are taking this weekend)

So that’s the crazy list.  Now you know the truth about me (I’m far from perfect)
Until next time

-Emily

P.S. someone just posted this song on babycenter – ha ha

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My little man in his Sunday best! He picked out this outfit himself. He liked the pink shirt and the “striped” tie (as he called it).  This morning when I got dressed I put on my new argyle sweater and Simon said to me “Mommy!  you have your diamonds on!” I told him that if he let me take a photo for grandma I would give him a piece of chocolate and boy was he cooperative!

After church some friends joined us for a delicious lunch, or dinner as Myles calls it. Either way it was a feast.And the best part, I didn’t have to cook any of it! I bought one of the catered meals from Whole Foods. It’s a fixed menu for the holidays and it was so good and so simple, and I think that somehow it ended up being less expensive than if I would  have done the whole thing from scratch myself. I love to cook but catered food sure makes entertaining a breeze scenes from our day.

Now I can’t wait to make some ham bone soup. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

until next time

-Emily

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Yesterday, in keeping with the Good Friday tradition,  Simon and I made hot cross buns. This was a major feet for us since our power was out for a large chunk of the day (we have been having a really aggressive storm) and I was also plagued by morning sickness for a better part of the day hindering my ability to stay vertical. This was the only thing we got done yesterday but we at least accomplished one thing. Oh, and Simon learned the hot cross buns song.

I used Martha Stewart’s Recipe from this months magazine but cheated and put everything in the bread machine on the dough cycle. Here is my cute boy kneading the bread. I can’t remember where I leaned this trick  but if you kneed your bread on a slipat bake mat you don’t have to add a bunch of flower. When I told Simon to kneed the bread he pulled a piece off and stuck it in his mouth, I realized that he thought I said “eat” instead of “kneed” But he finally got what I meant. I love baking with Simon as it’s such a simple activity and he really enjoys it.

This morning for breakfast we enjoyed our buns! They were super moist and soft. I have made hot cross buns in past years but I think this is by far my favorite recipe.

I was reading about the history of hot cross buns and it’s very interesting. Hot cross buns were believed to have all kinds of mystical powers. It was believed that if you gave a hot cross bun to a friend on Good Friday that you would remain friends for life. This was the origin of  giving candy and Easter baskets on Easter. The first Easter baskets held dinner. Baskets containing buns, cheeses, lamb, hams and other food items were carried to the Mass on Easter morning to be blessed. Later on the food would then be carried to either friends or neighbors to be enjoyed. A sweet tradition!

We really scored with the blues and purples this year but not so much with warmer tones.

These were the ingredients that we attempted , also not pictured was chili powder and pomegranate juice. I just forgot to put the chili powder in the photo. I switched the raspberries to pomegranate juice as about halfway through the process I checked the color and the raspberries were not working at all.

We used the Martha Stewart method for hard cooking eggs which is you place them in the water and bring it to a slow boil, then remove the pot from heat and cover the pot letting it sit for 12 min. The eggs always turn out perfect and the yokes are not gray but bright yellow. I let Simon carefully place the eggs into the water, he was really into helping with with project.

For the Chili powder and the tumeric we made a paste with vinegar and then rolled the eggs in the paste and then wrapped them in plastic wrap.

(wrapped eggs)

For all the other ingredients I just made a juice either by food processing the fruit or in the case of the cabbage and beets boiling them with water until I had a sufficient quantity of water sainted the correct color. I then put eggs in these old pom wonderful tea jars and covered them with plastic wrap. Everything went into the refrigerator for 24 hours.

This morning we pulled all of the eggs out of their dye bath and these were the resulting colors.

From left to right: beet, blueberry, pomegranate juice, cabbage.

I was really disappointed with the beets this year. Last year the beets dyed the eggs a beautiful shade of pink this year they came out a kind of yellow brown. But the blueberry and the cabbage more than made up for my beet disappointment.

Turmeric, Chili powder, (2 broken eggs)  beet, and plumb

as the eggs dry the color changes slightly. I then rub them with a little olive oil to make them super shiny and took them outside for the top photo. As always this is a fun project. If you would like to see last years eggs you can see them here. Have a Happy Easter everyone!

You would think I would have learned my lesson about not keeping baby powder within baby reach… apparently  not.

Looks guilty doesn’t he! I was in the bathroom putting on makeup and I could hear him saying “shaking! shaking! shaking!” and I said “what’s shaking?” and he was quite so I went to investigate.

Sometimes, on very good days, your grandma comes over to play and shows you how to build a fort. And it’s cool!

I have been really exhausted and nauseous a lot (and not getting much done) so I was very grateful when my mom came up to play with Simon for a few hours. He thought the fort was the best idea ever. Thanks mom!