You Know What's Cute?

A five-month-old baby in a Bumbo seat.

(Thanks, Michelle, for letting us borrow it!)

Even if he has an eye infection, I still think he's a keeper.

Poor kiddo.  For a day there he looked like a prize fighter.

A prize fighter who eats his opponents.

*NOM*NOM*NOM*

Bread of the Month: Swirled Pumpkin Yeast Bread

I luuuuv pumpkin anything.  It's the super squash.  Tasty.

So I really wanted to make pumpkin bread this month, but it's a quick bread, not a yeast bread.  I was bummed until I found a recipe for Swirled Pumpkin Yeast Bread on Taste of Home.  Score!  So I made it.  Then I ate it. 

Verdict?

Meh.

I mean, it wasn't gross or anything.  It was actually pretty good.  But it wasn't great, either, you know?  I most likely won't be making it again.  And I think I'm beginning to realize that although I like the idea of raisins in my bread, I don't know that I really like them in there.  But when it really gets down to it, what I really, really wanted was real pumpkin bread.  With chocolate chips.  And no yeast bread is gonna take care of that.

So here's the deal:  I'm busy.  The primary program is in a couple of weeks.  (Late, I know.)  My calling is suddenly very busy and even kinda stressful.  Lance is never home.  And my kids are all hopped up on sugar. Even Cole, although I'm not quite sure how that happened. So I'm just gonna show you the pictures with a few snarky comments here and there.  You can fill in the blanks.

Here we go.

 

I had to make my own applesauce.  How in the world did I run out of applesauce?  I blame this baby, although he's only had a tiny bit once in his cereal.  But he doesn't answer any of my accusations coherently, so I take this as guilt.

 

 

And somehow I was out of whole wheat flour as well.  Which is weird because I always have some around the house.  But I forgot to replenish the supplies.  Oh, the shame!  So I read in my substitutions book that 2 TBL of wheat germ to a cup of white flour would work.  And it did.

 

The dough was extra wet, so I had to add some extra flour.  Which made it huge.  But my mixer was up to the challenge!

 

 

Stacey, I know you love the giant green bowl.  And I know you're gettin' hitched soon. But you cannot have the giant green bowl.  He's stayin' with me.  Plus, how would I fit anything else in my luggage?

 

Lovely pumpkin color.  Lovely pumpkin aroma.  But not so much on the lovely pumpkin taste.  Bummer.

 

Card Catalogs and Other Pretend Things

First things first:

Thanks, Grandpa and Grandma, for the uber-fun vampire teeth suckers.  My house was actually quiet for a few minutes!

Josh was a little hesitant at first, but once he saw Spencer he jumped right in.  And by 'jumped right in' I mean instead of sucking on the sucker like a normal kid he chewed it all up in about three minutes flat.  That kid loves his sugar.  Saturday night is gonna be fuuunn.  (And by 'fun' I mean miserable when we won't let him take the candy to bed.  Because you know he's gonna want to.)

This afternoon Spencer decided we needed to watch one of the greatest movies of all time: Ghostbusters.  (Twenty-five years old this year and still awesome.)  I didn't really think the boys would watch much of it; I figured I'd turn it on, they'd watch five minutes, and then start running around and playing and whatnot.

I was right about that on Josh's count, but not Spencer - that boy sat through the entire movie, loving every minute of it.  He luuuvved the ghosts and the beams and the loud car.  Most of the jokes (and, thankfully) the potty words went right over his head.

Before I started the movie we had a brief discussion about how ghosts are just pretend; they can't hurt you because they are not real.  It's fun to be a little scared!  Ghosts are fun because they are pretend! 

Spencer to Josh: Ghosts are pretend!  And funny!

Josh: Yeah!  Pretend!

I told them if they got too scared they could tell me and we'd turn the movie off.  I got several bored "I knowwwwwwww"s and rolling of the eyes.  In other words "Yada yada yada, lady, just start the movie!"  Okay then.

A few minutes into the movie I heard the boys howling with laughter - the polterguist was making all of the cards fly out of the card catalog in the NYC library.  The following conversation occurred:

Spencer: Mommy, what is that?  What are those papers?

Me: That's the card catalog for the library.

Spencer: The what?  What is that?

Me: The card catalog.  That's how people found books in the library.  Before computers.

Spencer: They what?!

Me: You know how when we go to the library and Mommy wants to find a book and she looks on the computer?  The computer tells her where the book is?

Spencer: Yes.

Me: Well, they didn't have computers then.  They had cards that you had to look up.  Made of paper.

Spencer (incredulously): No computers?!

Me: No computers.

Spencer: That's funny!  That's pretend!

Josh: Pretend!! Hahahaha!

Boy.  Talk about a generation gap.  Perhaps the boys were more afraid of a world without computers than a world with ghosts.

A Bit More

Just a few more tidbits about this past weekend.

After the intitial shock of Dad and Susie had worn off, and after all of the Egg McMuffins they had brought had been eaten, it was time to get ready for Spencer's soccer game.

Oh wait - you didn't know Spencer was in soccer?  That's because I'm a baaaad soccer mom and never got around to blogging about it.  I just kept forgetting.  But I have some very entertaining and amusing pictures and movies.  Because five year olds playing soccer is very entertaining and amusing.  Maybe tomorrow.

Anywho, because of the weather the game was going to be held indoors at the YMCA.  What luck!  I wasn't exactly thrilled at the prospect of sitting outside in the cold with a little baby (I don't worry about Josh - he has the metabolism of a hyper chihuaha and is never cold), and Grandpa and Grandma would get to see Spencer in his last game of the season.  Unfortunately, the other team must not have gotten the memo about the new location because they didn't show up.

No matter.  Spencer's team played a rousing game of Zombie soccer (don't ask). We had fun watching, throwing balls at Joshie's head, eating gummy eyeballs, and admiring the cuteness that is Cole.  (Again, don't ask.)

After soccer it was time to go home and start getting ready for the party.  Dad entertained the boys by playing Wii with them.  Susie entertained Cole by feeding him. (That boy luvs his cereal!)

I love this picture I got of Grandpa and Cole together.  I just wish it were centered.

You already know all about the fantabulous donut party.

On Sunday Dad and Susie came to church with us, which was great because it meant that for once the adults outnumbered the children.  (At least in our pew.  Yep - we've graduated to having an entire pew on the side to ourselves. Partly because of the size of our family, partly because of the, ah, behavior of certain members of our family.  *cough cough* *Josh!* *cough* *Spencer!* *cough cough*)

After church I played "Iron Chef" in my kitchen and made a meal for unexpected guests with what I had on hand. With no recipe I made Spaghetti with Chicken and Apple Sausage, Sweet Potatoes, and a light cream sauce with Fresh Thyme - we dubbed it "Surprise Guest Pasta" or something like that.  I think I did a pretty good job, thank you very much!

Before Dad and Susie had to head out we got a few pictures of everyone.  A good way to end a great weekend!

Grandma Susie and Grandpa ElRay with the Heir, the Spare, and Cole.

Susie bussing Spencer.

Yet another off-center picture of grandpa and Cole.  Apparently I was drunk everytime I pointed the camera at them.

I love how Cole is almost already half Spencer's size.  And fingers always in his mouth - because we never feed him, you know.

 

Yeah, Lance was a little anxious to get out of his church clothes. :)

Fifth Annual Doughnut Party!

For months I have been racking my brain about how to make our doughnut party this year extra special - it's our fifth anniversary, after all.  First I though about adding cake doughnuts to the menu, but couldn't find a recipe I liked well enough.  Then I thought that making homemade root beer, dry ice and all.  But that's way more expensive than I realized.  Then I thought we could just have dry ice in the cider, but had issues with getting the dry ice and such.  So I just gave up.

Then this happened.

And our fifth annual Halloween doughnut party was suddenly extra special!!

Dad and Susie really helped in getting the house ready and helped keep the boys out of the way, which was great.  (Side note: Cole and Susie are now friends for life because she fed him so much :)

Things were running smoothly.  It was time to start making the doughnuts.

Then came the throw-down.

So apparently the recipe that I have always used and have always assumed was my dad's recipe is NOT!  No, my super-secret spudnut recipe is my grandfather's (my father's father) recipe.  (Well, my version of it; I've made some changes.)  My dad's is some random, un-Roper recipe he found and altered. 

Interesting (to me at least) side-note: apparently my Grandpa Roper actually owned a spudnut shop in Vernal, Utah, way back when.  So, spudnut making is in my blood!  Oh sure, the shop didn't survive.  But that was due to bad management and my grandfather's brothers' penchant for 'borrowing' the shop's money for dates and never repaying it - not because the spudnuts weren't awesome.  Because with this recipe you know they were.

Anywho, the trash talking commenced.  Dad decided he needed to "show me how it's done". To which I said "Whatever, old man.  Bring it."  Or something like that. 

Dad ended up making a batch of his own recipe, just so we could compare.  I think we (and by we I mean the four of us who actually knew about this) can agree that my recipe won.  In your face, Pops!  Okay, in Dad's defense, he was cooking in a strange kitchen and in a strange climate.  And I do know for a fact that's Dad's spudnuts are awesome.

I think the big thing we both agreed on was that it's not just the recipe (although that is a big factor) that makes for great spudnuts - it's knowing the best techniques for making and frying them.  And lots of practice.

Anywho, the spudnuts were made and the party started.  And even though Dad was taking care of all the frying and Susie was taking care of Cole I still managed to forget to take very many pictures.  I just can't help it.  I start gabbing with my friends and I'm suddenly useless in that department.  Oh well - I think this party is one of those times where it's better to just live in the moment and not miss it while trying to record all aspects.

I had a great time, and I hope all of our guests did, too.  It got pretty packed for a while - Lance and I decided that we either need to get a bigger house or get rid of a few friends.  I choose the first option. (And not just for doughnut party purposes!)

Here are a few of the pictures I did manage to get:

Sure, no one's even looking at the camera.  That's because of the steamin' fresh spudnuts on the table!

Susie with Chad and Bekah.  Fun fact: Chad and Bekah are my faux cousins. Susie's first husband was Chad's uncle, so Susie is his aunt by marriage.  When you live 10,032,378 miles from your family, I consider that related.  Plus, Chad and Bekah are just so cool - who wouldn't want to be related?

My two rotgut sons.  I spent quite a bit of time working on their Halloween costumes and they don't even wear them.  Like I said: Rot. Gut.

 Dad, the master fry-man.  He did a great job!

Perhaps next year I should hire a photographer to chronicle the event.  Do you think I could pay them in spudnuts?

Best. Surprise. EVER.

This morning started out like any other Saturday: Spencer and Josh woke up at 6am (I know!) and decided to play computer.  Thankfully, Cole slept for another 30 minutes after that, so I got to 'sleep in' until 6:30.  (I know!)

I had just finished feeding Cole.  We were snuggling in the dark on the couch in the living room, watching the early morning news.  Chilly, pitch black outside, and I'm still half-asleep.

And then

there was

a knock.

Three of them, actually. Very ominous, forboding, scary taps on the front door.

My heart raced.  My mind raced.  My first thought: something's wrong with one of our neighbor friends - they need help.  My second thought: wait - where is Lance?  How did he lock himself outside?  My third thought: some crazy guy is knocking on the door, and once I open it he's gonna kill me.

Let me just say that my paranoid logic was completely understandable.  Lance didn't get home from his trip until 2:30am on Friday.  He was supposed to go through the garage door, but the battery for the lock was dead.  It was raining, the middle of the night, and he was very tired.  So he knocked on our bedroom window. 

And scared me half to death.

I'm not usually that jumpy, but I just happened to be having a nightmare at the time, which is very unusual for me.  I was half awake, half asleep, and a rather LOUD tapping on the window very understandably freaked me out.

Anywho, long story short: by the time I heard the knocking this morning I was a little jumpy with people knocking at my house when it's dark out.

So, holding Cole as protection (because if a bad guy was at the door he wouldn't expect the adorableness that is Cole, right?) I slowly opened the door, waiting for some hulking, scary man of a monster to get me.

Instead it was Dad and Susie.

DAD AND SUSIE??!!? 

I yelled something along the lines of "WHAT THE WHAT?!?!?"* and started babbling incoherently, throwing Cole into his happy grandmother's arms.

Cole was all cooing smiles.  Spencer and Josh came out to see what all the rumpus was, and then promptly went back to their computers.  (Their motto: "A surprise visit from Grandparents who live in Utah?  Whatever.")  Lance was still asleep because he was still tired from scaring me the other night.

Dad explained that since we had invited them to our annual Halloween donut party they decided to come check it out.  (I send invites to lots of family and friends I know who can't come, just to let them know we're thinking of them.)  They were here to help me visit and help us out with the party.

Awesome.

No, AWESOME.

No no, SUPER AWESOME.

No, that's all lame.  But you get the point.  I was sooooo surprised.  And happy.  Happy!!

But now I'm pooped.  It's time for bed.  I just hope I don't get anymore knocks on the window or door.  I'm about surprised out.

*Thank you, Liz Lemon.

Josh's Thought Process

Boy, I am sooooo sleepy! It is so hard to throw so many tantrums each day. If Mommy would just give in to every single one of my very reasonable demands all of our lives would be so much easier.

All I asked her for was a snack. Doesn't she know that I've given up meals and that I only eat snacks? I mean, sheesh, I've been doing it for weeks, I thought she would have caught on by now. Apparently she's not the brightest bulb, ah, in the bunch. Whatever. My point is, I just wanted a snack!

And no, an apple or grapes or anything that resembles a vegetable is NOT a snack. I can't believe she offered those to me. That's just madness. I don't want something that came from the ground. Gross.

Good thing Spencer left this piece of bread on his plate after lunch, or I woulda starved. Thrashing on the ground, screaming, whining, crying, and throwing things really works up an appetite. I think I could have gone on longer, but Mommy finally left the room to fold laundry.

Now. Time to watch some SpongeBob, eat my stolen goods, and think about my next plan of attack. Mmmm... this bread is really yummy. I... zzzzzzz...zzzzzz...

Oh Joshie. My own little Jean Valjean.

Quote of the Day

The boys are watching some kid's show on TV; the characters are doing a poor rendition of Aida.

Spencer: Look, Mommy! Look! They're singing Oprah!

Me: Opera.

Spencer: Yeah, Oprah!

Me: OpERa.

Spencer: OpERa. Oprah. Whatever.

Self-portrait Tuesday: Bad Hair Day, Boots, and Wendy's

I started off with bad hair today. But I think I turned it around to make it okay. Mostly. Pesky frizziness. (That's what you get when you let Josh 'help' dry your hair.) (Side note: my hair has gotten curlier, as it has for each baby. I want to cut it, but am afraid of what might happen crazy-uneven-curl-wise!)

Also,

I have never been one for boots. I don't know why; I've just never had the hankerin' for a pair. Until I saw these in November's Real Simple.


Ah, new love. I am yours.

And only $380. Oh well. A boot virgin I am and apparently a boot virgin I shall remain. (At least until I can find some decently-priced knock-offs.)

Also,

tonight was Wea Ridge night at Wendy's, so I made the ultimate sacrifice and took the boys there for dinner. They were so well-behaved and ate such a good dinner that I treated them to an Oreo Frosty. (Dessert? When we're out to eat? Unheard of!) Josh was in heaven. He started out with huge mouthfuls. Then he started to steal the ice cream off of my spoon. Spencer, who has never been a big ice cream fan because he as zero body fat and gets cold easily, soon claimed to be finished. Josh happily took Spencer's spoon and began to eat with both hands. I decided to see how this would end and put down my spoon, at which point Josh cut out the middle man, put down both spoons, and just chugged the remaining melted ice cream.

Awesome.

Also,

Lance is still out of town. The boys have been behaving sooo well (well, for the most part), which has made his absence quite a bit easier. But I still miss him and wish he were home.

Because then Josh could really learn how to put away a Frosty.

Coley-Boley

Just a few shots that were too cute not to share. Boy, is he getting big. (Compare with these shots taken just a few months ago!)

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