May 2013

May was good to us, though full of school/work decisions and other grown-up stuff. This is a very common face for Danny nowadays. Always concentrating on something.

Our lovely Beckah left for Denver last week. This is Danny when told she was leaving... 

No crawling yet; Daniel spends most of his time in this "Mission: Impossible" pose.

Favorite things: making monster noises in his crib, sweet potatoes, and the feel of Daddy's scruffy chin.

Little Man got a new hat for his giant melon. He loves it.

And for cuteness' sake: reading to Ralph. For a little while we actually stopped reading to him (Daniel, not Ralph) because he got so frustrated that he couldn't eat the books. Now we just read when he's fed and happy.

Tomorrow we leave for Spokane to watch Jesse's little sister graduate. I have to tell you, I am nervous. A 12-hour drive? Then the next week we're off to Reno and Salt Lake for a wedding and a pretty sweet reunion. And more driving. I'll let you know how it goes.

Mmmmmmm.

I haven't blogged about cooking in a long, long time. Partly because I haven't felt like making anything very exciting. However, my cousin and I were talking recipes, and I figured I'd share this gem I found on A Mingling of Tastes. I'm always on the hunt for the most luscious, lemony desserts I can find. My mom, sister, and I LOVE lemony things. I thought for Mothers' Day this year, I'd make myself (I might share) some lemon bars.

(I add an extra 1/4 cup of sugar to the original recipe's 1 cup)

Lemon Lovers’ Lemon BarsThe lemon sugar must be made one day ahead--see step one of the recipe. If you don't have time, just use one cup of plain sugar and 1 to 2 tbs. zest when you mix up the filling--I've done it this way a couple times since developing the recipe, and it's still great. Also, note that you must lower the oven temperature after baking the crust.

Makes 12 or 16

For crust:
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks and chilled

For filling:
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
zest of 3 lemons
1/4 cup plus 2 tbs. all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1/2 cup plus 1 tbs. lemon juice (3 to 4 lemons)

1. Make the lemon sugar: In a food processor, combine the granulated sugar and lemon zest; pulse several times, until zest is very fine. Transfer to a shallow container or baking sheet and let sugar dry out at room temperature for several hours. Cover and chill overnight.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8 x 8 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray or line with nonstick foil. In a food processor, combine flour, powdered sugar and salt; pulse a few times to blend. Add the butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some pea-size chunks of butter still visible. Transfer the crumbly mixture to the baking dish and press into the bottom and sides of the dish with your hands. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until lightly golden around the edges. Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees.

3. Meanwhile, whisk together the lemon sugar, flour and salt. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs, then whisk in the lemon juice. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until thoroughly combined. Pour the lemon mixture over the hot crust, return to oven and bake for 25 to 28 minutes. The center should be set, but still quite gooey when poked with a toothpick (it will continue to set as it cools). Within a minute or two of taking the lemon bars out of the oven, run a thin knife along the edges to loosen; this allows bars to contract as they cool without cracking. Cool completely on a rack, at least two hours. Sift powdered sugar over the dish, cut into 12 or 16 bars and serve. To store, cover and chill.

Secret's Out.

What a strange thing to be pregnant again. After everything. And so soon.

I have a blog friend who I feel like I've met. She went to BYU-Idaho around the time I was there. She has a Dachshund. And she and her husband have been struggling with infertility for years. I first started following her blog in 2009 after basically googling "LDS infertility." A while ago, they did the InVitro thing and got pregnant. And then they miscarried. They had no frozen embryos. She was brave enough to post her journal entries after it was all said and done, and the long and short of it was...heartbreaking. I mean the kind of heartbreak you only maybe come back from.

We found out we were pregnant around 7 weeks this time. I had been feeling sick for a few weeks and thought I had a bug. How are we those people? How am I that person?

We know how lucky we are, and how...anecdotal our situation is. We're so very happy and excited. And I somehow feel like I'm leaving people behind.

We used to dread Mothers Day. We should have just stayed home from church, but we went anyway, all martyred-up. I'm not complaining now (though I did plenty then), just trying to process our new place in this funny world.

Anyway, if you know someone who, for whatever reason, hasn't had the opportunity to have babies of their own, pay them a little extra kindness on Sunday, would you?

The Many Funny Faces of Danny Boy

Today our beautiful boy turned 7 months old. 

Danny's gone through many phases in his short time here. Shall we have a look?

The where's-my-milk? phase

 The cute 5-months phase

Phuzzy phase

 the bald Robert DeNiro phase

 the brand-new phase

 the intoxicated phase

 the tubal phase

 Ninja Master phase

 the GQ

 and the Homer Simpson phase

Daniel had a check-up recently, and he's about 50th percentile all around. Except for his head. Which is absolutely off the charts. The doctor says this is because of his father's giant melon, and most likely not anything worth worrying about. He's a healthy, sweet, laid-back, wonderful kid, and we can't believe we get to keep him.

My Buddy and Me

Daniel's my little co-pilot. Some of his favorite places to tag along are...

 to Grandma and Grandpa's! Grandpa shows him all the flowers and chickens and clocks.

to hang out with my young women! This is a favorite. All the girls just love him and he eats it up. He's a pretty cool guy.

to the park! Some friends from our ward got together tonight for a picnic. Daniel loves Kim.

And sometimes Danny's favorite place to tag along is to Mom and Dad's bed for a nap.

Today.

i carry your heart with me
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go, my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
                                                        i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)

e. e. cummings

Easter.

We had a really nice Easter this year. It's nice to live by my family. The day before Easter, we had some amazing weather, and Daniel got to ride Grandpa's tractor! I think this will become more exciting for him later, but I thought it was pretty cute.