biting the dust

and so it is.

this blog is biting the dust.  not that it's not great and all, but since i've switched emails i decided to make other changes too.  and so i am changing my blog address.

please continue following us on our adventures, starting april today (april 3, 2012) at:

http://sandiegobakers.blogspot.com/

until then...

...ta-ta!

old school

i found my recipe box from when i was a kid tonight.  i enjoyed rummaging through and finding a few gems, including this one.  mostly because i got to see my old handwriting and misspelling, though i didn't do too bad!  i wish i knew how old i was when i wrote this.  i was really into recipes as a youngin'.

this one is my grandpa skip's buttermilk recipe.  we eat it almost every sunday, family tradition.  the best is when strawberry season finally hits again and the toppings for the pancakes are my favorite.  growing up i didn't put anything on my pancakes except butter.  and i would cut it like i would a pizza and eat it with my fingers.  we weren't fancy in our home with pancakes, but that was just perfect.  my brother and dad had theirs with plain old syrup.  probably aunt jemima or something.

but as soon as stephen took over my dad's role in our own home with the pancake-making, we started to get fancier.  strawberries, freezer jam, homemade whipped cream, chocolate chips, peanut butter, apple butter, nutella, bananas, you name it...we are putting it on our pancakes!

just one more reason to look forward to sundays!

questions

do you have children?

do you have a five year old?  or a six year old?

then you must know what i'm talking about when i say that having children this age requires serious patience.  i remember my brother-in-law, john talking about his then five-year-old.  he was saying that he finally understood why his father used to tell him, "because."  question after question after question.  one leading to the other.  other questions having nothing to do with anything else.

these questions happen a lot in our home.  and then there's also the repetitive question.  the one that demonstrates your child's lack of understanding of the value of time.  today, this week, next week, a few weeks, a month, a few months, next year, etc.  because of the confusion with learning time values, i swear i get the same questions over and over and over.  especially from sienna.  it could have something to do with the fact that the girl doesn't listen to me when i talk to her...though she has the keenest ears in the car when i'm talking hush-hush to stephen.  funny how that is!

i'm learning to just have more patience, but i truly do just have to tell her sometimes, "you're not allowed to ask that question anymore!"  for reals.  i do that.  i get so tired of it.  as bad as i feel about that, i need it to be so for my sanity.

Source: yourhomebasedmom.com via brooke on Pinterest

and then....there's those!  yuuuuuum!

my mom has an awesome visiting teacher.  after my stepdad broke his hip (yes, ouch!), said visiting teacher brought dinner and cookies for them to eat that night.  i happened to be there the next morning for chloe's piano lesson and my mom showed me the root beer float cookies.  sounds strange, right?  when she first stated what they were, i thought "ew", "gross."  but no!  stop right there!  if you're saying those same words, take them back quickly.

i took a bite of one of the cookies and was instantly hooked.  it's awesome how it really tastes like a root beer float.  and it's not gross!  it's delicious!

so, to welcome stephen home today, we made him some honorary root beer float cookies.  we'll see what he thinks of them!

holy windy!

the wind is just going craaazy outside at our place right now.  i'm actually really enjoying it too.  we don't get extreme weather here often, if ever (not that i'd consider this extreme weather, to clarify).  so when a little something gets sent to san diego, we either whine about it or bask in it.  right now?  i'm basking.

so this week i received the pre-ordered purchase of joy the baker's new cookbook and ree drummond's cookbook as well (pioneer woman).  i've already completely paged through joy's book.  same old fun and witty writing in her book as in her blog.  i can't wait to thumb through ree's too!  stephen even made joy's browned butter chocolate chip cookie recipe.  oh the divinity!  just smelling the butter browning was heaven enough, then to put it in the cookie?  ahhh!  it was a-maaaz-ing!

and i'm not gonna lie, i've eaten more than my pants can handle already.  eek!

i won't turn this into, yet another baby post (ie. wyatt).  i realize that i can't help myself in sharing his cuteness and lovable-ness.  buuuut, every once in a while i shall venture.  but, real quick before i venture...he just cut his fourth top tooth yesterday night (yes, his fourth top tooth).  that makes six altogether.  the boy is only seven months old for heaven's sake.  give him (me, okay us!) a break!

okay, moving on!

breast infections are no good.  i repeat, no good.  it's not like this is the first time i've had one, but it has been about six years since i'd had one.  it's like i blocked out the real pain that comes with it.  these things are gnarly!  and my body reacted promptly as it usually does when being attacked with sickness...fever, body aches, cold feet and misery.  the perfect combination for a miserable weekend.  oh, and add that on top of a teething baby.  ugh.

hopefully this week can help and show me some compassion.  we shall see...

chubba wubba

this was my chubby little man just four months ago.  it's hard to believe he is encroaching on the eight month mark.  the chub has not moved elsewhere, nor has it significantly progressed, phew!  he is already on the verge of pure deliciousness.  i just can't take it!

unrelated to squeezable and kissable baby, april is almost upon us!  where is march going at such a fast rate?  i feel like this year is trying to sneak away and hide from me.  i'm always lost in a scheduling blur.  don't you dare ask me to have a playdate or to visit teach or to go do something fun unless i have consulted "the calendar."  yes, the mighty one.  if you do, i will inevitably call you explaining that i didn't realize that so-and-so was doing such-and-such on this day or that.  it really must be true that you lose brain cells while pregnant and especially while nursing.  each suck diminishes an IQ point.  i'm starting to believe it.

or maybe it's just that i'm conversing with my seven-month old all day and night.  yes, the optimal four and six-year-old conversations do come up, but those aren't exactly enlightening.  mooost the time, that is.  i will admit that chloe occasionally baffles me with her words.

example?  the other day stephen took her and sienna on a small puddle-jumping adventure.  this led them to a dirty pathway towards a rope and tire swing in some trees over yonder.  chloe says, "we're heading into deeper terrain!"  no, i don't believe we have any movies that have the word terrain in them, nor do i think we say this....ever.  so the questions is, huh?  chloe is constantly making us ask her to repeat herself, just to make sure we heard her correctly.

last night, after a very frazzling day, she hears me venting to stephen about how tired and stressed i had been that day.  she comes over to me, side hugs me and says, "maybe you shouldn't have any more children mom." dare i take my four-year-olds advice?  though she may have a point after my examples of non-patience that day.  i plead non-sleep.

a pony ride, part deux

chloe was definitely more comfortable hopping on the pony after seeing how much fun sienna had on it.  that helped a lot.  she got right on and looked so natural on pingoleta.  she even agreed to trot!  go, chloe!

the onlookers.

pony ride...check!  that item on the girls' bucket lists is complete, though i suppose it might transition into the desire to ride a real and large horse, rather than a pony, later in life.  we shall see.  it was a great first experience.  it was perfect.

friday pin-ups

here's a few things i've pinned today!

Source: angrychicken.typepad.com via brooke on Pinterest

and

Source: hello-naomi.blogspot.com via we love citrus on Pinterest

and

Source: net-a-porter.com via brooke on Pinterest

oh!  and

Source: zara.com via brooke on Pinterest

and yes, this

Source: linenandraspberry.blogspot.com via brooke on Pinterest

now on to the weekend!

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VOTE people!  Please????

I will love you forever.  And then an extra few years on top of that!  

And maybe, just maybe I'll bring by some chicken fried rice by your house if you vote more than once!

Love,
Brooke

a pony ride

for christmas the girls received one awesome stocking stuffer from "santa".  he must've heard sienna stating that she wanted a horse for christmas.  ha!  well, santa made do with what she could and found the concord equestrian center in del mar.  yippee!!!

as soon as i was up and at things in life again, we scheduled the rides.  although it was no big horse, the pony was just perfect for our first-timers.  the girls even had their h&m riding pants to wear to the occasion.  too perfect!

wyatt enjoyed the festivities from afar.

the experience started with the girls going down to "pingoleta's" stable to bring her over to be cleaned a bit.  she was not in the best of moods, as we stole her away from lunch.  i can't say i blame her.  every once in a while she would try to bite ximena (pronounced "shi-mena", with sh sounding more like an s an a j being mixed together.  got it?), our gracious pony-riding host.

we wore our pony-riding shoes...oh yes, and then got fitted for helmets.  not surprising was that chloe wore an adult sized helmet, while sienna stuck with the children's helmets.  that chloe, she's always had a well-endowed noggin'.  ;)

sienna went first, as older siblings do.  you know, to show the way and to be brave in front of the younger siblings.  it was good that she did.  i could've sworn i saw some sweat on chloe's brow.  sienna did a great job and really enjoyed her time on the pony.  she even finished the ride off by trotting.  go, sienna!

next up, chloe!  (next post)

Five Little Babies

i found this in our video archives on the computer a while ago.  then i re-found it yesterday with chloe.  i love watching this.  it's the girls singing a song that chloe learned in daycare when she was two.  i love how even though they're little people, they still have opinions and remind me that i shouldn't be singing...just them.  really, sienna doesn't even know this song so i find it amusing that she goes on and on as if she knows it, and then corrects me.  they're so little and i love it!

enjoy!

little baby man

that is his newest nick name.  little baby man.  but aren't nick names supposed to be short and easy?  oh well!  i can't believe he is 7 months already.  he is well on his way to manhood.  i wish time would slow down some times.  wyatt and his twenty-two pound body sure give me a work out too.  my left arm and hip are getting good use.  he has been expressing lots of pains with his first top tooth coming in.  that will make three teeth total.  i just pray that this doesn't mean more biting me during feedings.  that is no fun! 

and lately he has been getting quite loud.  it's as if he thinks we don't know he is there.  he competes...getting louder and louder.  my favorite is when he talks back to me.  i'll grunt, and he'll grunt.  back and forth, back and forth.  i find it amazing how quickly babies learn.  if only i learned that quickly.  i'd love to pick up capoeira or tap dance or rock climbing!

little ballerina

chloe has thoroughly enjoyed her time as a ladybug ballerina, but that time is coming to a close.  it was short-lived, no doubt.  the fact is, we want her and sienna to be good swimmers.  after all, we will be living our summers each year at the beach and in the ocean.  i want them to be strong.  soooo...we are done with dance and will be starting swim in april.  we will be dancing again later, for sure.

yay!

cute chloe in her ballet and tap class

"suuuuu-per girlssss!!!"

tap time!

chloe's teacher, miss tiffany gets into the disco feel of the tap dance.  oh yeeeeah!