Pizza

We like pizza in our house. 99% of the time when Ashton asks me what sounds good, my answer is "pizza." Even David likes pizza. Usually he just eats the toppings, but hey whatever works.

A couple of months ago, I made a goal to try a new recipe once a week. It hasn't been a perfectly kept goal, mostly it's once every other week that I try a new recipe, but it's been fun. We've found lots of new things that we like. By "we" I mean Ashton and I because David has this thing about mixed foods right now, and most of the recipes I've tried have had foods touching each other.

David's fun comes in looking for a new recipe. He loves getting out my many recipe books and looking through them with me. For days afterward, he'll just go pull book after book and sit with them.

So, back to pizza. One of the new recipes we've tried is stuffed pizza rolls. You can find the recipe here: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/06/stuffed-pizza-rolls/. We make the dough and marinara that's referenced there. It takes a bit of work, but it's so good! Even David likes them. Oh, and here's a tip to make things easier on you. Do NOT use shredded mozzarella cheese. Buy a block of cheese and cut it into squares. Using shredded cheese, while it ultimately works when it's melted, makes wrapping and sealing the dough around the toppings difficult. Learn from our mistake!

Ready Or Not, Here He Comes

Neal has started rolling around the floor. He enjoys being able to reach things that otherwise would be safe from him. Mostly, he enjoys getting David's toys, particularly puzzle pieces and cards. The things that are forbidden and, therefore, the most fun.

It's taken David a little while to figure out how to deal with Neal's mobility. The first day, I pointed out to David that Neal was getting his cards. So, David grabbed hold of Neal's shirt and rolled him back over away from the cards. Immediately, Neal rolled back toward the cards. Once again, David rolled Neal away just to have Neal roll back to the cards. This continued until I successfully implemented the idea of moving the cards or putting the cards away.

I don't know what David is going to do when Neal starts crawling, but David better get ready because Neal's coming!

Food

At breakfast this morning, David dropped a cheerio. A single cheerio. He jumped off his chair, or rather my lap because it's been a needy morning, to fetch the cheerio. He heard Dusty coming which was enough to send him into a panic as he searched frantically for the cheerio. He couldn't see it immediately and started screaming as he ran at Dusty in an attempt to make her stop before she got his cheerio. Mostly he just stood there screaming. I made Dusty stop, she looked confused since she didn't know he had dropped anything, and pointed out the cheerio to David. He picked up the cheerio and was happier.

I think David likes his food.

My boys

My favorite part about being a mom is getting to play with these cuties:

I can't believe I have 2 kids and that they are 2 years and 6 months old now.  They drive me crazy sometimes, but more often, they make me laugh. I love hearing them "talk" to each other during lunch. I love hearing them laugh together. I even love when they cry together, especially when David's done something to make Neal sad and then David starts crying as well. To me, it shows me how much they love each other and care about what's happening to the other one.

They are curious boys and full of energy. We've started doing "wiggle" songs before scriptures and prayer to help David be able to sit still. Wiggle songs are usually Primary songs that are full of movement. Neal loves "Popcorn Popping" and David loves "My Hands."

Speaking of full of energy, my two year old needs a better direction for his energy rather than pulling everything off the shelves.

Pictures of Crafts

As I mentioned in my last post, for Christmas, I made some rattles for Neal. It's so hard to find soft rattles and I decided that I was going to try my hand at making some. Here is rattle number 1:

I would do it a little differently next time to get a perfect sphere, but I'm happy with the results of this one.
Here is rattle number 2:

 

I used a pattern found here http://www.lovelylittlelife.org/2012/06/stripey-owl-baby-rattle/ . I did make a few changes. More that I didn't follow the pattern for the eyes, beak, and wings. I'm happy with how it turned out.

Crafts

This year, I decided to get all crafty and crochet hats for a bunch of people that wanted one. I spent hours online looking at patterns that I liked and I've made a grand total of 14 hats. I'll probably make a few more to cover Neal's ever growing head and I still need to make a warmer hat for myself. I used a variety of patterns and one hat I made up on my own because I'm too cheap to buy patterns.

Then I was lamenting the fact that I don't have any soft rattles for Neal because they are impossible to find. So, I thought of this rattle we used to have growing up and realized that I could crochet my own! So I did, after some trial and error. It's not perfect, but it looks a whole lot better than my first attempts that I never finished because I didn't like the looks of them. I did find a pattern for an owl rattle that I absolutely love and I do plan on making. First, however, I have a different sort of craft to finish.

Last year, I decided that I was going to sew Christmas stockings for our little family. I figured it wouldn't take too long and I bought a bunch of fabric to that end. Yeah. I only made one that year. It took way longer than I thought it would and now I wish I had just bought stockings. However, I have the fabric and I have enlisted Ashton's help so they will hopefully be done this year. Turns out, I'm not a huge fan of all the things that go into sewing something. You can't just sit down with fabric and sew. Nope. You have to cut out the fabric into the desired shape, pin the pieces together, figure out what needs to be sewed first, then you can sit down and sew something. I like to just be able to pick out yarn and sit down with it to create whatever I want. I have decided to put crocheting on hold though until I finish the stockings. That should be motivation enough right?

I also love the fact that with crocheting, I can pick it up or put it down whenever I need to and it's not really a big deal. I also love that I can look up tutorials online. Seriously, there are so many videos and tutorials online that if you want to learn how to crochet, you can do it easily. It also keeps David entertained because he loves to play with my crochet hooks. Taking them out of the case and putting them back in the slots. No need for toys this year I guess.

I have new ideas for things I want to create and I'm so excited to get back to crocheting so I can put my ideas to the test. Just need to finish those stockings!

Neal

I know I haven't posted many pictures of Neal. There are two reasons for that. One, it's hard to get pictures without big brother in them (not that it's bad to have pictures of the two of them), and two, I don't usually put pictures from my camera on the computer until the end of the month and then Neal has changed so much that I need new pictures. It becomes a vicious cycle. However, I took some pictures a couple of days ago and put them on the computer yesterday morning. Then the internet decided not to cooperate with me yesterday, so you get them today!

Neal is such a happy boy. He's already smiling and laughing at us. It's such a blessing to have him smile at us when we go to get him up from a nap. He's been trying to hold up his head from day one and he's had it pretty much mastered for a while now. His strength impresses us. We're all pretty smitten with this little guy.

Look who's a big boy and holding up that noggin

Such a classic Neal look. The boy loves furrowing his brow.

Love the smile

Nothing like a sleeping baby