Fun with Funnel Cake

Sunday evenings are wonderful.  Since I work on Saturdays, we try and make the most of our short Sunday evenings, since church is done at 4 (blech!  I very much dislike the 1-4 slot).  So we had our delicious dinner of garlic and rosemary pork loin, sweet potato chipotle gratin and baked corn on the cob and were

ca-RA-ving something sweetish and yummy to fill our dessert tummy's.  Our choice for the evening?  Funnel Cakes!  They were so yummy and monumentally cheaper than buying them at the fair.  Essentially, it's a pancake batter without butter/oil. 

Here's a funnelicious cake frying up now: 

We tried a bunch of different methods when pouring the batter into the oil, and it made some fun designs!

A half eaten cake with powdered sugar, mmmmmm.

To make pouring the batter easier, we put it into an empty corn syrup bottle with a spout, perfect!

Marin starting to complain that she couldn't eat her's because it was too messy.  I offered to take it away...no more complaints!

Daddy eating his funnel cake.

Little Owen just watching all of the fun.



Will the REAL Gerber Baby, please stand up?

Monday night for FHE (Family Home Evening), our activity was to feed Owen his first bowl of rice cereal.  I suppose he reacted like any other baby tasting cereal for the first time would, but of course, since it's your own baby, it's a million times cuter!  And Owen is just such a stud anyway ;) 

Waiting for mommy:

 Hey dad!  Dad was in charge of the camera.

 Getting the gear on:

 Huh?  We filmed the first few bites (no luck loading), but Owen is still just as puzzled about the whole experience.  Who's the REAL Gerber Baby here?!

 Must try it with the hands, maybe it will taste different:

 Or not....let's stare at my crazy big sister:

 Who happens to be making flubbit noises...that's my girl.

 Favorite pic EVER!  Look at that sweet mug, he is so handsome, it's positively exhausting most days.

And as if that wasn't eventful enough of a day for Owen, he revealed his big move later that evening...his first ever belly to back roll over!  WOW!  Stay tuned for pics of that later!

"Mama said there'd be days like this..."

Motherhood. (and life)   Is.  Exhausting. 

I'm sure you can guess where the rest of this post is headed based on my super enthusiastic preface.  But, let me also co-preface with this: I love my children.  I have picked up some extra hours at work, I work 9 hours on Thursday 2p-11p.  I work 5 hours on Friday 6p-11p.  I work 9 hours on Saturday 12p-9p.  I drop the kids off at the sitters on Thursday by 1 so I can drive an hour to be there on time.  This also means I have an hour to drive back.  I spend 6 hours commuting each week to and from work.  I *try* to make it to bed by 12:30 or even 1am.  My son wakes up to eat at 2am and 5am and then is awake by 6 or 6:30am.  My daughter is up at 8am and we begin our day, doing what any other mom of an almost 3 year old and 4 month old do:  making food, cleaning marker from the computer, making snacks, cleaning up potty accidents, nursing, nursing, nursing again, bathing, making more food, nursing, cleaning puke off my shirt, cleaning puke off the carpet, waiting on tantrums, reading stories, playing, getting children dressed and undressed and re-dressed, rotating my infant from one play-area to the next as he gets bored, nursing, making more snacks, comforting, hugging, kissing, wiping away tears, laying children down for naps, wiping bum's, thinking about making food (for dinner), cuddling and basically spending most of my day in a 20'x30' area.  If this sounds familiar, raise your hand. 

And I didn't even mention all the other stuff I try to squeeze that's NOT essential and child-care related: feeding myself (well, this is essential, but undeniably comes last), showering, getting dressed (as in...myself), making trips to the park, doing a craft, trying to save our family money and plan out shopping trips, blogging (which I LOVE), dishes, laundry, more dishes and dishes all the time EVERYWHERE (!), always more laundry, YW lessons, maybe even venturing bravely to the store with two small children because I am too exhausted to go after they are in bed, FHE, scriptures (obviously essential also, it's a work in progress), time with my husband (who?), exercise (what now?), visiting teaching....OY.....the list goes on!

After feeding Owen at 11p last night before I went to bed at midnight, he woke up at 2am to cry for an hour, then 5am to be fed and was up for good at 6am.  I think I logged maybe a touch over 4 hours of interrupted sleep last night.  The daily duties of motherhood are rendered almost impossible with so little rest for the mind.  Nap times on days like this are never coordinated or long, so my hopes for catching some sleep are already dashed.  I am still wearing my jammies.  And it's not pretty.

Fortunately, there is therapy in sharing my day of woe and in writing this sad little epilogue, I feel somewhat validated in my experience for the day, which is the most I can hope for.  I'm know I have some mommy-readers that are sypmathizing and rolling their eyes in cynical agreement that, yes, mama said there'd be days like this.  Perhaps they too are still wearing their jammies.

Marin's Sun, and then some...

We are always on the lookout for a fun craft that Marin can do, and a we found a fun one!  I saved the carboard insert from a frozen pizza box (Monday's are pizza nights) and we ripped up some paper and cut some and drew and glued and Marin made a sun.  A few days later, she made a flower!  Her sun now hangs in her room, and the flower hangs where the sun is in these pictures.

 Oh.  My.  Goodness.  This is about the funniest picture EVER!  Marin will frequently grab a magazine before she heads into the bathroom and this is how I find her at least once a day.  I about fell over laughing the first time, and have since gotten used to seeing her like this.  It still makes me smile though, especially considering the only magazines we have laying around are the Ensign, The New Era and The Friend!

 I mushed lunch and Marin's craft activity into one the other day.  So, she decorated her own open-face sandwich, it was pretty cute.

 Such a sweet girl.

 At the park!

 Marin was looking for bugs.

 And still looking for bugs!

We love our little Marin, she is such a big helper and while her challenges are frustrating some days, we just smile and move on.  She is so sweet!

Lub Lub Da Baby Chubb!

Sweet baby Owen, *sigh*, I just LOVE this boy!  Owen had his 4 month checkup the other day, and MY, how this boy is growing!  He clocked in at 15 pounds 7 oz and 26 and 3/4 inches long, BIG boy!  That's 75th percentile for weight and 97th percentile for height!!  Quite the change from his 2 month checkup where he was 50th percentile for height (still 75th for weight).  And I can't get over how FAST this time has gone by.  The other night I bought his first box of rice cereal!  We will be giving him his first trial run tonight for our FHE activity :)

Just look at those chubby little cheekers, so cute!

 Hey smiley guy!

 His happiness is infectious, I can't stay upset for long when he flashes me a big grin.

 Busted!  Sucking his thumb....well, any fingers he can find really.

 Chillin at the park with mom and big sister.

 Mornings are my favorite...most of the time.  Owen has been getting up sooo early these last few days.  6am or so.  Mostly because it's light at around 5:30 or so, and he thinks the day is ready to begin!

 One day I will forget how tiny his feet were, so I snapped a bunch of photo's the other day, to remember.

 Love these little feet.

We love our little guy so much!  It's been wonderful to watch him grow, I had forgotten how much joy it brings to watch your infant reach new milestones, such happines to know you were able to create life and now you help to nourish such a small spirit. 

Photos at the Park

We spent our Memorial Day just being together as a family and headed to the park to soak up some sunshine, it was a PERFECT day, so gorgeous!  For dinner, we had some friends over for dinner and some games, it was such a relaxing day...every weekend needs to be a three day weekend!!

Group shot...minus one, and a pretty distracted Marin.

 Happy boy!

 Feeding the mama and baby ducklings!  They were so cute, but SO greedy.  I would throw a piece of bread to mama duck and those little ducklings would snatch it right out hf her mouth!  Being a good mama, she let them have the bread, but my goal was to feed that poor mama duck...I totally know how she must feel some days.  Oy, having a children is a labor of love...no matter what species!

 Daddy was getting adventurous with his camera shots.

 LOVE this pic!  She is just so sweet.

 Daddy helped her climb around on the tree, such a good daddy.

 I have NO idea what she is doing in this picture, but her face is *priceless*!!! 

 Ah, another favorite.  Sweet baby, look at that smile!

 Tired-but-trying-to-be-happy face.

 Oh my sweet little guy, *laugh*.

 I have so much to smile about mommy!

 The goslings!  Fortunately, they were on the OTHER side of the stream.

 We fed them some bread too.  The fowl at this park have got the be the best fed birds in town I tell you.  EVERYONE was out to feed the ducks on Memorial Day!

 Staying close to daddy...don't want those geese to get too close!

 Succumbing to nap time.  This boy is the KING of cat naps!  It makes for a long and weary day, yikes!  The most I can ever get out of him on normal days is around 35-45 minutes.  On a good day, he'll sleep for an hour....maybe.  It makes me crazy really :/

 Marin found a stick, and then it broke.

 Sweet girl.  She had a blast running off all that energy, and we all got some much needed sun.



Hopefully blogging will be back on track.  I've been struggling to organize photos and edit them with this new computer, but I've finally found the same editing software we were using before.  Which is great because summer is just around the corner ;)

Holy Handsome Boy!

Aunt Tabitha sent Owen some pretty sweet outfits last week, and he has been rockin' 'em!  Kristoffers favorite?  The killer Sunday outfit with not just the most adorable little clip on tie EVER, but a matching VEST to go with it!!  Kristoffer dressed him Sunday morning and brought him downstairs prefacing with "You'd better go get the camera, mama!".  And what a *stud*  our little Owen was!

He's already practicing his look for the ladies!

 Whoa, big sister, where did you just come from?!

 Ahhh yes, quite the gentlemans pose.

 But I'm really just a sweet little guy :)



We love, LOVE that Owen has joined our family.  He has brought an additional level of wonderful-ness to our home and we are very blessed to have him.  Such a happy little guy full of squeels and laughs and smiles and snuggle.  He loves to laugh at his *crazy* big sister and she loves to hear him laugh!  I love having a little boy!