Ryan & Lincoln

Ryan is lucky to have a cousin only 5 months older than him. You couldn't tell from this picture who's 11 months and who's 6.5, though, could you? Once again, I need to stop dressing that kid in horizontal stripes.

Ryan unofficially outweighs Lincoln--19 lbs vs. 18.8 but of course Lincoln is quite a bit taller and a lot more mobile!

 

They were very interested in each other's ears, for some reason.

I think they were kind of surprised to have someone their size to play with!

I think Ryan wants Lincoln to come back so they can play!

Cousins

With my sister and her kids home this past weekend, we tried to get some pictures of the cousins together,  but Ryan wasn't really in the mood.

Baking Spree

I enjoy baking desserts and all, but this weekend I feel like I could float away from the sugar rush and my massive amount of baking supplies have dwindled down to a point where I have exactly zero bags of powdered sugar and only a half a bag of chocolate chips. This has not happened since... ever.

Last Wednesday I baked the Ever-So-Moist Chocolate Cake from Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor, then frosted it on Thursday with the Sour Cream Chocolate Frosting and decorated it for work.  The owner of the company I work for shares a birthday with me (or I share it with him, to be more accurate) and I couldn't help but give him a little ribbing for his big birthday milestone. It perpetuated a few emails about the "younger generation don't give no respect" but he took it quite well and my co-workers enjoyed the cake (during an 8:30am brainstorming meeting).

We celebrated my birthday at my parents on Friday and my mom had made a Pistachio Pudding Cake for me. It was delicious and is one of my favorite recipes of my grandma's, but I was pretty caked out by that time.

On Saturday, I baked another cake from Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor, this time the Peanut Butter Cake and frosted it with the Fluffy Chocolate Frosting. I used the leftover pink and green buttercream frosting to decorate the top for our grill-out that evening. Adam's "fitness" team (Team Awesome)from school won a $15 gift certificate from the grocery store for their workout minutes and so we all got together to grill. This is a pretty fun group to hang out with, usually spending much of our time quoting "the Office" and making fun of each other, so I seized the opportunity to make fun of one of the member's contributions to the team.

I also make peanut butter chocolate chip bars to bribe the High School Sunday School class that I taught this morning. I made them put their cell phone in the middle of the table before they could have a bar. Who they absolutely have to text at 10:00am on Sunday morning is beyond me. (Now I'm sounding like a 60-yr old instead of the cocky 28-yr old...yikes).

Sunday morning I made some cinnamon muffins for breakfast and then some scotcheroo bars to bring to FPU. So, right now on my counter I have leftovers of 3 kinds of cake along with 2 kinds of bars and it would be okay with me if I laid off the frosting for a while (those beaters don't lick themselves, you know).  

Notice the extreme lack of "real food" in this list. Since Thursday I think I have made a total of 1 real meal and all I really did was throw some waffle fries in the oven while Adam grilled brats for lunch today. Otherwise, I ate at my parents on Friday, a pancake/sausage feed to raise money for a recreation trail for Saturday brunch, grillout Saturday night, and Adam ate at small group tonight.

I had a grilled cheese sandwich for supper. And a piece of cake.

Having a Ball

We just started playing "ball" with Ryan and he seemed to grasp the concept (if not the ball). Sometimes I think his successful "catches" were just extremely delayed attempts at catching the previous, roll, but of course we think he's a genius for accidentally extending his arms at the right time.

This is Ryan concentrating.

This is Ryan blinded by my flash while attempting to catch a ball.

Here is Ryan proud of his successful catch! 

I should probably explain the ball in question. Ironically we call it the "Question-a-ball" and we created it to use for a small group ice-breaker. I wrote all kinds of random questions on it and we toss it to someone in the group. They catch it and whatever section their right thumb lands on is the one they have to answer for the group. Here are some examples of the questions:

• What TV show do you watch but are embarrassed to admit it? I will never forget when one wife revealed that her highly educated husband with a very professional career was a secret watcher of the MTV dating show "Next"!
• If you could only drive 1 vehicle for the rest of your life, would you drive a skidloader or a tandem bike? I've driven both and would have the pick the bike since I've never almost fallen into a manure pit while driving one of those which cannot be said of the other.
• What movie has made you cry? Hope Floats, Good Will Hunting, Armageddon, Marley and Me, We are Marshall, Pearl Harbor, The Notebook are the first that come to mind. I try not to watch sad movies.
• If you had a cat, what would you name it? This one always gets some interesting responses. My favorite answer was "Dog".
• If you could go on vacation for a month, where would you go? Alaska, hands down, and it will happen someday.
• What is your ideal time to go to bed and wake up? Ideal is 10 and 8, reality is 11 and 5:30, so I better end this post and get on to the next so I can hit the hay on time tonight.

Guard Dog

What do you mean you want to watch the Twins' game?

Over my dead body.

Race to Ten

GOAL: Post 10 random facts before 10pm, then go to bed. It is 9:54.

1. I heart Glee. Like, a lot. (Not alot.)
2. This morning I saw a "Road Closed" sign on the road out of town, so I turned around and went all the way back to the other exit out of town to get onto Hwy 60. Took 8 extra minutes. Tonight I came into town on the "Road Closed" way and discovered the road is closed for exactly 10 feet and I would have only had to go through a parking lot or around the block to get past the baricades.
3. I requested blueberry dessert pizza at the Pizza Ranch buffet today. You're welcome, everyone who came to the buffet after me.
4. It is currently lightning, thundering, and pouring rain.
5. I should stop eating summer sausage and pepperjack cheese on onion bread so close to bedtime.
6. I baked a chocolate cake tonight and can't decide if I put an extra cup of water in or not. At the end of the baking time, it was still soup inside, but after baking 10 min. extra, toothpick came out clean. 
7. I get super-annoyed everytime the wife on House Hunters makes a joke about the size of the closet in the super-huge houses they're touring, saying "it might fit my clothes" or "I can't even fit all my shoes in here". If you can't allow your husband some room in a closet that is larger than my bedroom, you might want to reevaluate your clothing allowance.
8. On my way into town tonight, a lady at the intersection to my right stopped at a stop sign, then pulled into the intersection (turning in front of me onto my road) but stopped right in the middle of the intersection to fumble around in her purse, find her lighter, and light her cigarette. THEN she looked up to see if anyone was coming. Never been more thankful for defensive driving skills. She also came around the corner by my house which means she was on her way to the nursing home or the hospital to work (she was wearing scrubs).  Disgusting habit.
9. Adam rolled a ball to Ryan for a while tonight (the "question-a-ball", for those in our small group) and he actually caught it a few times and can kind of roll it back. He loved it and was such a happy kid playing tonight. So much fun now that he can do more things!
10. I absolutely can't wait to see my sister tomorrow and for Ryan to see his cousins on Friday! 

It's 10:01. DANG!

Good night!

Relationship Issues

No need to panic, this has nothing to do with Adam and me. The other day I snapped some pictures of Ryan and Nika interacting and the results make a nice pictorial of the different issues/stages of a relationship. Since neither can speak, I find it necessary to narrate with my own words.  I will use RED for Nika's point of view and BLUE for Ryan's side.


Sure, it may look like everything is fine on the outside.

But lately, we just haven't been seeing eye to eye.

Sometimes, I feel like you're making fun of me.

And sometimes I feel like you're hovering, always looking over my shoulder.

Maybe you'd like it if I just looked the other way.

Maybe I would.

  

How can I compete with you--everyone always commenting on your smile and your hair and your little "toofers". What about MY smile? What about MY hair? I have a whole MOUTH full of teeth.

I can't help it I'm cuter.

It feels like you're always lashing out at me.

That's because you never listen to me.

Would you want to listen to you, if you were me?

We're Through.