Mommy's Little Helper

This morning I was making some treats - one that involved a graham cracker crust. I have great memories of baking with my mom so I asked Landon if he wanted to help ... and he was very happy to lend a hand.

*smash-smash-smash*
How does it look mom?
Who says a 5 month old can't help around the house?!

A Fierce Competition

Last weekend we invited our friends Bill and Stepper down for a double date - a cookie bake-off. They accepted the challenge and came down fully prepared to compete for the honor of baking the best cookies during a date night (this is big folks, promise).

So here is the idea: Each couple brings a recipe and ingredients for their cookies, then we swap and make/bake. The couple who makes the best cookies wins. I needed to switch things up a bit however ... so not only did we swap recipes but the wives read the recipes while the husbands did the mixing (for a couple of reasons 1. our hubbies don't bake so I knew this would be amusing and 2. I cannot compete with Stepper's baking skills so this would even the playing field!). The reward would be 2 hours of babysitting time (what parent doesn't want THAT?!).

We chose a chocolate-chocolate chip with Andes mint frosting ... they picked sugar-molasses. WOW - the recipe we had to bake was much more involved!! I told you they were fierce competition. Here are the pictures ...

Jeff and I looking very domestic in our aprons.
It's all fun and games until the real work begins.
The men seriously discussing how to get started ... they were very helpful to each other and then would remember they were supposed to be "competing" needless to say it was much nicer competition than say Fantasy Football is (thank goodness!).
First step ... wash hands ... check!
Jeff measuring and mixing ... check out that concentration ...
The final product sitting on our game of Nerts.
The outcome? Both were very tasty ... so we'll just swap some babysitting time and call it a tie!

Pictures!

Carla and Maddie surprised Landon with a new outfit ... and oh my gosh does it look adorable on him! Everything they pick out is super stylish ... and if I must say he makes it just that much more adorable :)!

He's a little wiggle worm now, so it's hard to get non-blurry pictures. He also gets very serious when the camera is around ... so I generally take 20 pictures to get 1 or 2 great ones. But here were a few of my faves.
(He thinks he is such a big boy when he stands up!)

In other exciting news ... today Landon discovered Ellie (much to Ellie's chagrin since she has been studiously ignoring him since he was born). It was really cute to see how excited he was ... to have his fingers licked and to give her kisses! (Don't worry ... he was heavily disinfected after!)

Landon also got some stylish clothes from Grandma and Grandpa's recent trip to Europe to pick up Aunt Ale. These are all still too big on him, otherwise I would have modeled them for you also. Please note ... his first Beatles t-shirt, his first Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt (Grandpa is a card-carrying member of the Hard Rock club and had to introduce Landon early to good rock and roll) and an authentic Italia jacket (Aunt Ale actually went to Italy to get it!).

And in other adorable GQ fashion I got Landon his first dress shirt for church. Holy adorable!

Um, and can we say twins :)!
I love my boys!

Tuesday (Mis)Adventures

A few days ago Megan and I got a wild hair to meet in Park City for a day of shopping. This is wild for us since it involves more than an hour drive for each of us ... and two babies under 9 months!

While we were there I confirmed a suspicious I had been having for a while. Landon does NOT like shopping! Oh. My. Heck! Whose child is this? Seriously, we walk into a store ... grouchy Landon. Walk out ... happy Landon. So finally after a blowout and a screaming fit in Banana Republic he went to sleep. Ah ... bliss. Unfortunately, he doesn't nap long and before we knew it we were back in the thick of the battle. So I decided to put him in the Bjorn.

That's right, folks. I was walking around with all 20 lbs. of him strapped to the front of me, pushing the stroller and shopping. The best part is that he kept lurching himself forward to play with the clothes on the racks. Something about boys and shiny or brightly colored things. Adorable-right? Yes, until we have a near miss with his head getting bonked by something hard or sharp because of his impeccable timing. Fortunately it was all near misses and he escaped unscathed.

Let me tell you though ... at this point I am totally sweating. He is a LOT to lug around!

However, mission accomplished! I got him enough clothes to last through the warm weather and the beginning of fall. He had outgrown almost everything. And as adorable as a naked Landon is... I didn't think society would feel the same way every time we left the house. (But trust me on that one ... all his rolls = very adorable naked baby)

At our last stop - Old Navy - Landon began to wail in protest. Perhaps it was because I made him sit back in the stroller ... or perhaps he was just done. While we were there Ale called to say the whole fam had made it safely through their first flights and were officially on their way home. It reminded me ... Did I remember to tell Jeff to leave the Suburban unlocked for them at the airport (they didn't have keys with them)?

Uh-oh.

Panicked phone call to the hubby. Who had dropped the car off a couple of hours earlier and assumed that they must have keys and locked it up tight.

I felt TERRIBLE! It was all my fault. My dad and I talked about it Monday morning and I completely forgot to pass on the message.

In my defense, Monday was a bit crazy ... work, migraine-size headache, making dinner for a family in the ward, and urgent care that night with Landon (turns out he was fine, thank goodness!). So with all that somehow the car instructions slipped my mind.

Oops.

So instead of picking Jeff up at work and enjoying the drive home together ... I rushed back down the canyon to Mapleton to pick up the extra set of keys.

Only to drive back north to meet Jeff (he made it all the way to Orem by this time) who was going to drive them back to the airport and then drive home.

Do you see why I love this man so much?! He didn't complain and didn't let me beat myself up over it. He just kept telling me that it was an honest mistake and not a big deal for him to drive up there.

Um? Not a big deal? He makes that horrible drive every day! And yet he didn't complain. And still hasn't.

What a guy. I love him.

So problem solved ... car keys left in an unlocked car for their middle-of-the-night return. And we were all safely home after one heck of a day.

I'm tired all over again just thinking about it :)

Only in Spanish Fork

I love this little town we live in. It really is home. But there are some moments when I still have to laugh to myself and say "only in Spanish Fork" ... for example:

Today Landon and I went to Fresh Market to pick up some French bread for dinner. When we were walking out an old man was walking in. He was dressed like a traditional farmer ... plaid shirt, overalls, the whole 9 yards. But he had gauges in his ears! I'm NOT even kidding. He was at least 70, but probably older. And these were some serious ear gauges - I'm talking at least 1/2 inch if not bigger. I did a double take ... and will confess it was hard not to stare. They were huge.

The things you think you'll never see.

At First Bite

Last week we went to get Landon's high chair ... I was so excited to feed him baby food! We got it all set up Thursday night so Friday was the big day.

First I gave him the sippy cup I bought him. I know ... a sippy cup at 4 months? But he loves drinking water. My aunt Carla and cousin Maddie bought him the cutest sippy cup with his name on it. However, it has a hard top which he won't be ready for it for a while (even though I am dying to have him use it, it is that cute), so I decided to get him one with a soft, bottle-like top to get him used to it. He LOVES it! I gave it to him and showed him how to hold the handles then I ran upstairs to get the camera.

I came down to find this ...
And this ...
We're still working on him holding it and getting the sippy part to his mouth more consistently, but he does great! He loves to play with it - it kept him busy through dinner tonight! I know that isn't going to last long, so while the novelty is still there I plan to cash in on it!

Next we tried squash. It seemed like as good as vegetable as any to start with, right? He is a little unsure about the whole taste and texture thing (which makes for some great faces), but he is fascinated by the spoon delivering something into his mouth (not surprising!) and keeps opening up for more!

"Interesting mom ..."
"What is that thing you keep sticking in my mouth?"
"This tastes a little weird ..."
"Well if you're sure ..."
"Oh this is FUN!"
Tonight we gave him his own spoon to hold during the process. In between the bites I fed him he would promptly stick the spoon he was holding in his mouth (I'm actually really surprised at how quickly he figured that out) ... then he would take it out and rub it all over his face :)! A squash covered face is quite cute :)!