Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I was trying to be fun for this holiday so I made these rainbow cupcakes from Family Fun. I was worried they wouldn't turn out right, but they did! It's especially fun when you bite into them and see the colors inside.

Those little blobs of white on top are supposed to be clouds

I also cracked Ben up with my green breakfast of green pancakes, green eggs, and green milk. Those crazy leprechauns really surprised Ben when I poured him regular white milk and it instantly turned to green milk when it hit the glass! I think he was laughing at me more than anything because I was so excited. E thought it was cool too but his face was still frozen from just waking up so his big eyes got just a little bigger when he saw the leprechaun magic.

Almost 21 Weeks

Here's my belly and me at 21 weeks. I was feeling pretty small until I hit about 19 weeks and since then things have been growing pretty rapidly. I feel a little bad I haven't kept as detailed a photo record for this baby belly, but at least I've got this one, right?

A Quick Jaunt to Kentucky

This last weekend we decided to take a quick trip to Louisville. We booked two nights on hotwire at a hotel and loaded up our car for the 4 hour drive. On the way down, Ben surprised me by suggesting we go to the Jeffersonville outlets. What? Ben!? Volunteering to shop!? Yes it's true. And he even gave me helpful commentary when I was trying on clothes at Motherhood Maternity. :) We let E play for a few minutes at the playground there to break up the drive.

When we got to just outside Louisville, we were amazed at all the beautiful mansions with their black painted fences and horse trails. (I'm sure there's an official name for those, but I wasn't brought up in classy Kentucky so I don't know what it is.) At the suggestion of some friends, we ate at the Claudia Sanders Dinner House. (You know, wife of good old Colonel Sanders of KFC.) It was delicious and their rolls were to die for.


That night we went "swimumum" as E would say at the hotel and he had a blast. Even mommy got in the water. Aren't I fun? Then we got up and going the next day so we could see Churchill Downs. It was pretty cold, but the tour lasted the perfect amount of time. I'd love to see a horse race there someday, but probably one other than the Kentucky Derby because I don't have an extra $2000 or so to throw around at the moment, plus the funds for a totally chic outfit and hat to wear.

After the tour we couldn't help but buy E this dumb little horse. We lined up all the horses he could choose from and he picked the white one. We even gave him a second try and he still picked the white one. It kept him happy most of the rest of the day.

After that we made our way over to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. We were pleasantly surprised that they were making bats that day because the website said they don't make them on Saturdays until April. It was like a grown-up Mr. Rogers for me. We got cool mini souvenir bats at the end of the tour. Then we walked through the museum and Ben and E got to both swing Big Pappi's bat as well as Mickey Mantle's.

Outside the factory

After the Slugger Museum, we headed across the street to the Louisville Science Center and got in for free with our COSI passes. E played in the kids area for quite a while but couldn't manage to stay awake once we put him back in the stroller. :) He was out like a light for a long time while Ben and I looked around the rest of the museum.

That night ate at Lynn's Paradise Cafe. It's quite a funky little establishment with great food. I ordered some bean rice bacon cheese mango salsa concoction recommended by the waitress that was delicious and Ben got the jambalaya which was also tasty.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at Sam's Club to get gas, and then went inside to just look around, and I tell you it was the classiest Sam's Club I've ever been to. The greeter actually sanitized the cart for us because he was worried about Emerson getting sick. Isn't that sweet? I'll just insert here that Ben bought me a large bag of Reese's Eggs--my all-time favorite, to enjoy back in the room as soon as E was in bed. As soon as we got to the hotel, E started running around yelling "SWIMUMUM! SWIMUMUM!" So we were nice parents and took him swimumum again just to end on a fun note for everybody.

Farewell Little Red

Farewell, little red car. You were good to me. You knew the road from Salt Lake to Logan by heart. You performed admirably in the snow. You got us across the country to move to Ohio. You brought home our new baby Emerson from the hospital. You could be counted on to start most of the time (except for the 3 or so times that you wouldn't for some reason and that resulted in $$ repairs.) You've been my constant through 7 years of friendship. Unfortunately, with our family expanding, you just don't provide enough room to haul us all plus all the baby gear. Plus you were starting to make funny noises again. Even though I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, after we traded you in I talked to my mom on the phone and got a little teary when I told her how sad I was to leave you behind. We can chalk it up to pregnancy if you're embarrassed for me, Little Red.





Little Red, I hope someone will buy you and take good care of you.

Boots!

Some nice people from our ward gave us some clothes that their little boy had grown out of, and with them were these adorable snakeskin cowboy boots. I don't think I've ever seen Ben get so cuted out before. Nor have I ever seen him be so persistent with Emerson when he wanted him to wear them. Even though Emerson was kicking and screaming and throwing a tantrum*(See note at end of post), somehow Ben got those boots to stay on. After they were on and Daddy put his boots on and took him stomping around in the little bit of snow left, E loved them. You wouldn't guess that from this face though, would you?

Please don't judge me by E's wrinkled shirt. I promise I always iron it and this one time it got away from me. But he was at least wearing a sweater over it at church.

Love this picture. :)

* Referring to the aforementioned tantrum, E has been very wary of change and new things lately. I pulled out a new pair of shoes since he'd grown out of his old ones and he absolutely refused to let me put them on. He went and found his old brown shoes and brought them to me. Then after a few days of seeing them around he let me put them on, no problem. He was also nervous when I pulled out some new jammies and looked and looked for his old ones that were getting so small that his toes were curling up in the little footies. He finally relented when I showed him the cool pictures on the new ones. He also screamed bloody murder when we were at a shoe store recently and were trying some little Nikes on for fun. I think people thought we were horrible, especially when we just laughed at him and put the shoes on anyway. I'm wondering if this is a common thing for kids his age or if it's just an E personality thing.

More Cookies...Blah Blah Blah

Here are the fun Easter cookies I made for the Ward auction. They didn't bring a very high price and were snatched up by the same red-headed child that also bid on (and won) all other baked goods entered. I'm not sure if he gets cookies very often or not, but I'm pretty sure he walked away with about 10 dozen plus some cinnamon rolls. I just hope he appreciated the delicate lemon flavor of the sugar cookies plus the lemon in the royal icing as well as the happy palette of colors that I slaved over for hours. (Don't worry, I know he didn't.)



I guess next year I should do something like weave a basket or sew a wardrobe of baby clothes. I wish I could say I was joking about the baby clothes, but we seriously have so many talented women in our ward that it makes me feel embarrassed when I buy a baby gift instead of make it. But hey, you can't make diaper rash ointment, can you? Or maybe you can...but anyway I'll be honing my crafting skillz if not for the ward auction next year, at least so I feel like a worthwhile human being. :)

Wagon

We love it when Daddy is around to play. He thinks up fun things like convincing Emerson to sit in his wagon and be pulled around. I'm not sure why, but I can't help but maul this little boy with kisses when he's just in a onesie. Maybe it's his pudgy little arms and thighs (which are sadly thinning out!). At least he still has dimples for knuckles though.

Trying to decide if he likes what Daddy has convinced him to do.

"Are you seriously taking another picture of me for the blog!?"

Trying to pull himself. :)

"Wagon" is just one of the many words Emerson throws out during the day. I feel like in the past two months he's just had an explosion of words. It kind of freaks me out sometimes because he'll throw out a word like "mirror" or "toothpaste" that I didn't even know he knew. It usually just makes me laugh and then I have to tell him he's a smart boy. We've been calling him our little copycat. He was actually able to say his own name a week or two ago, but still won't do it without a lot of convincing. I think we're entering into the terrible twos slowly but surely because he's got a defiant little attitude sometimes. We sure love our little man.

Sigh...No News

I had a doctor appointment today and got my hopes up that he would tell me the gender of Baby Christensen. But alas, no ultrasound...so it looks like I'll have to wait until 23 weeks. :( I'm a little disappointed.

FHE

On Monday night, Ben had the Family Home Evening lesson, and he decided to do it on temples. Please keep in mind that when we are having FHE with a not-even-two-year-old it goes something like this:

Me: Emerson, come sit down, it's time for Family Home Evening! (With big smile and excited tone)

Emerson hides on the other side of the kitchen table.

Me: Come on Emerson! Come sit down, please! (Amusement waning)

Emerson peeks out from under the table and giggles.

Ben: Emerson, you'd better come!

Me: Come on! (in annoyed tone) One...two...thr

Emerson runs over at the last possible second and plops down on Daddy's lap.
We sing the opening song with Emerson zoning out and copying a few words here and there.

Me: Ok, it's time to say the opening prayer. Can you show me how to fold your arms?

E: Choo choos.

Me: Fold your arms, please! Here, Bear will fold his arms.

Emerson folds his arms for .5 seconds. We attempt to keep his attention through the rest of the 5-7 minute lesson.

At the end when we were trying to recap, we turned off all the lights and turned on our little ceramic temple and asked Emerson who lives in the temple. His reply: "CHOO CHOO TRAINS!" And he then proceeded to try to drive them on the roof of the temple, almost knocking off poor Angel Moroni. But he did get really good at pointing at the temples and saying "tempo!" and doing Angel Moroni's horn.

Oh well, they always say that they'll remember you were consistent, right? Well I guess we'd better work on that and/or figure out how to incorporate choo choo trains into every lesson. :)

Family Campout

Last weekend Ben had the idea of a family campout in our front room. It was big fun and a much-needed little break from feeling sick and moping around.

E was pretty nervous about the tent at first, but then we gave him his own flashlight and his bear and he was good. He even went to sleep with us sleeping right next to him (we were able to shove his pack 'n' play in there next to our queen-size air mattress.) I wish I could tell you that the air mattress was comfy, but I cannot. It's much better than sleeping on rocks when you're really camping, but I'm afraid it doesn't cut it when there's a real bed just up the stairs.

Oh well, the sore back subsided throughout the rest of the next day and we had fun. E enjoyed reading train books with Dad by flashlight and thought it was pretty cool to have breakfast in the tent.

Deep Thoughts

As I was whipping up a chocolate cake today (don't judge me...the baby wanted it, wanted it badly) I realized one of life's mysteries:

As you get older, your egg cracking skillz decline.

It's like a bell curve, really. When you're really little and ask to crack eggs you kind of crush them and your mom has to pick out all the shells. And maybe you even fight with your brother and they kind of end up all in your hair while wearing a ballet costume and you both get sent to your room to "Wait until Dad gets home" (shudder). Not that I know what that's like...

But then you get a little older and you start doing tricky things like cracking them crisply with one hand and brag to your mom (who is now hopeless at cracking eggs) that there are zero shells in whatever you're making.

So sadly, at my young age, I'm again at the bottom of the bell curve. I tried to crack 3 eggs and got bits of shell in the batter from each one. Don't you worry though, I picked them out. Do you think it's possible I just bought a bad dozen of eggs with shells that are a little challenged? I hope so.

Also, another thought/pet peeve of mine lately:

Why do so many recipes lately declare that you must serve the dish with a "crusty french bread and salad" for a really nice dish? I mean, what if I want a moist soft bread? With maybe steamed vegetables on the side? I guess it negates whatever effort I've gone to for the main dish and it is no longer nice--but thrown together, sloppy, and incomplete. If I ever state in a recipe on my blog or at ward cooking club that it must be served with a crusty french bread, you have permission to at least roll your eyes at me. Serve it with whatever the heck you want. I won't judge you. And if you've stated this before, just know that I love you still and don't hold it in any way against you. It's just those annoying cookbook writers that I'm talking about.

I Can Do Stuff

Here are the cookies I made for Joni's baby shower that I told my mom and sisters so much about...they kind of resemble onesies, don't they? I used my beloved Cookie Craft book once again. I may not be crafty or creative, but darn it, I can bake.

Recipe Blog

I made some delicious lemon scones today and I posted the recipe on my family cooking blog. Yes, I actually updated it. Gasp! I also put the recipe up for the parfaits from Joni's baby shower. No, that wasn't yogurt, but I wish it was as healthy. :) Click here to go to the cooking blog.

Snow!

We've gotten dumped on here lately. Ben really wanted Emerson to come play in the snow, so we got him all dressed up and he looked thrilled. I know he was inside though, because he hearts his boots.
We tried to find a shovel-like tool for him to copy Daddy, but all we had was this sand sifter. Plus, his mittens don't have any thumbs so I had to teach him how to hold it between his two paws. I was giggling the whole time, trust me.

Momentarily clamping his "shovel"

Then we did some serious sledding down our friends' hill.

E was terrified, but it was fun!

Winter, I Hate You

Winter, I hate you. Release us from your cold, snow, and sickness! I don't know what all this talk about global warming is, but maybe you should catch on. You've caused us to have a trip to the ER, multiple doctor visits, a car accident, and insanity from being stuck inside every day while we try to conquer disease with our sorry immune systems. Please go away. We've had enough. We want to go and play at the park and see other people without feeling guilty we've passed something on. And, I admit, it would even be nice to be able to send E back to nursery even though there are countless germs. He just needs to be reasonably healthy and not coughing his lungs up to go back. I don't ask much. Please?

Supeh Beah

The title of this post translated is "Super Bear". We were going a bit crazy inside yesterday, so luckily Super Bear paid us a visit. Plus he brought Emerson a neat-o cape too.

This is how the two of them bond; Emerson chews on Bear's nose, and Bear smiles happily while he does it. This endearing, self-comfort bonding strategy results in Mommy washing Bear often.

This is my favorite picture.
I have no words for this face.
Daddy was really good at helping bear fly around.
And then, all of a sudden, Super Beah and Super E morphed into puppies and hid under the table.

Wow, it WAS a fun day.

Tower of Terror

If you can't tell from this post and a few previous posts, the most exciting thing we do around here lately is go to the grocery store. Emerson loves to unload the groceries. When I turned around after putting things away in the fridge I found this:

I really wanted to get a picture, so I told him to not touch while I went to get the camera. I had visions of broken glass and chili sauce all over the floor.

He was a good boy though and didn't touch until Mommy was back downstairs and then he insisted on stacking the peanut butter (also termed "dip" for apples) on top of everything else.

He wouldn't be persuaded otherwise, so I rearranged a little and helped him stack it on top. And here he is clapping for himself and saying "Yay dip! Yay dip!" (I'm pretty sure he thought the chili sauce was ketchup...and who could blame him?)

And here he is inspecting the foundation of his ingenious tower.

He was extremely offended when I had to dismantle his tower to finish putting the groceries away. But don't worry, the choo-choo trains (read= trens), namely Thomas (read=Tabos) were close at hand to console him and toot his worries away.

Love This Book

Every year around Valentine's Day my mom would read us this book, Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli. When I got married, I bought a copy for myself and I got to read it to Emerson last night. I love this book. It sounds cheesy, but it makes me teary at the end every time. You should check it out!

Choo-Choo Train Track

Oh, have I mentioned that Emerson loves trains? Like, loves them so much that he refuses to eat lunch or dinner? Even with trains watching him eat? Even with Mom pretending the trains are eating too?

I love this picture because it's obvious that the piano keys are supposed to be train tracks. I thought it was quite clever.

If you look closely you can see his little lips pursed saying "choo-choo!" And if you can't see it, well then I'm sure you can imagine it.

Proof That I'm Fun

In these horrid winter months I end up feeling like a bad mom because we hardly ever go anywhere or do anything and Emerson is constantly sick. But here is proof that I did, at one time, build a fort for E and his choo-choo trains.

He also enjoyed pretending he was a dog.

See, I'm fun sometimes. You'd just never know it to look at me. :)