Moov'n and a Groov'n

Aubrey started crawling Sunday. I got her to move about two "steps"! She has been up on her hands and knees rocking and using her arms to move in a circle but just couldn't figure out how to get the knees going at the same time. As the week progressed she has started moving further and further. She hasn't figured out she can move from room to room yet but she knows how to get to things she wants. I have also figured out her toys won't be staying on her blanket in one central location anymore.

Bring on the craziness!

Sweet Ashlyn

Today was the last day of swim lessons. Ashlyn loved them! Her teacher, Lisa, and her daughter were wonderful!! Ashlyn was quite uncomfortable in the water for a while but by the end of the two weeks she was going under the water to watch Miss Taylor make faces at her.







I'm hoping we can make many trips to the pool the rest of the summer with Daddy so she can practice what she learned the past two weeks. We can't really practice when it's just me and the girls, I don't have enough hands and eyes.


Ashlyn says the funniest things. It just makes my day listening to her talk and tell me her version of things that happen. Here are some new things she has said lately.

Ashlyn: Daddy, Aubreys chewing on your fur!!
Phillip: No, that's not fur that's hair on my arm.

(While sitting on the potty)
Ashlyn: I don't need to poop any more.
Me: Just sit there a minute and try
Ashlyn: No, my poop is saying Red Light!

(Tattling on her cousins who were arguing like brothers and sisters do)
Ashlyn: Mom, Benjamin is being de-dic-ulous (ridiculous)

Fluffy Pancakes

This is the best Pancake recipe, ever! A friend of mine was raving about the recipe she found on Allrecipes app so I made them for breakfast this morning. They were awesome! I would rank them right up there with Denny's pancakes, which are delicious! I'm throwing out my old pancake recipe and replacing it with this one.

Fluffy Pancakes

3/4 Cup Milk
2 Tbl White Vinegar
1 Cup Flour
2 Tbl Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Egg

Combine milk and vinegar together and set aside for 5 minutes to "sour".
Wisk together dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix in "soured" milk and egg until just combined, do not over mix. Allow to sit for a couple minutes, mixture will start to foam.
Pour spoon full of batter on hot skillet cooking on both sides.

(This only makes enough pancakes for 2-3 people so double or triple recipe for a larger family)

Adapted from Allrecipes

Our Weekend

We had a great weekend! Saturday morning we packed up and headed to Phillip's parents. His oldest sister and brother and their kiddos were all there. We had a blast hanging out and laughing like we always do.


Ashlyn loves playing with her older cousins. She loves playing with any older kids! Olivia and Adyson are always so sweet to include her. She was so worn out by time the weekend was over. We let her stay up during nap time Saturday and Sunday so she could play. She did really good without her naps but crashed hard once her head hit the pillow at night!


It's always so hard to get pictures of all the families, so after church we made everyone stay in their nice clothes to snap a couple pictures.

My wonderful in-laws. Seriously, I am so blessed to have such great in-laws!


Phillip's oldest sister and her family. They are moving from North Texas to Spearfish SD in the next couple weeks. Doug is a pastor and has been called by God to move to Spearfish to start a church. Nearly 75% of the population is unchurched. He and Dana truly have a heart for the lost and following Christ.


RW and his family (minus Nick, who had to stay home and work, poor guy is getting a taste of what it's like to be an adult). This picture cracks me up! Not everyone was thrilled about taking pictures!! Case was totally putting on a show and loved that everyone was laughing at him.


My sweet family! This is one of the very few pictures of all four of us together. Shame on me!!


We missed Phillip's youngest sister and her family. Madelyn turn three last week and had her "Pink and Purple" birthday party this weekend. Heather had some cute ideas for her party so I'm anxious to see her pictures!

9 Months

Aubrey you are nine months old! You are such a cutie pie and I just love squeezing you. You are as happy as can be, funny, and non-mobile (but not for long) which makes you so easy to take care of.

You weigh 15lb 15oz and are 27 1/2 inches long. You are starting to slowly drop down in your percentile for weight. You are as healthy as can be and a great eater, your pediatrician just thinks you are going to be tiny and petite like your sister.


You get on your hands and knees and rock back and forth. You can move backwards but haven't figured out how to go forward. You will move your hands but can't get your knees going too.


You moved yourself from a crawling position to a sitting position. We were at Grandpa and Grandma's and I missed seeing it. :(

You love to feed yourself Puffs. You have a good pincher grasp.


You wear size 3 diapers, 6-9 month clothes, and size 2 shoes.

You love to give kisses. They are big and slobbery and I love 'em! Ashlyn laughs when you kiss her squealing "Aubreys eating me!".


You love to sleep on your tummy now. You couldn't look any cuter when you are on your tummy, heinie in the air, and thumb in your mouth.


You sat in a shopping cart for the first time. We were at Sam's, which has double-seat carts, so you sat next to Ashlyn. You girls got the biggest kick out of each other!

You love baby dolls! You have a little plastic baby that you have always loved but have started to get so excited when you get a hold of one of Ashlyn's "big" babies. Your little face just lights up!


I wish I could keep you at this stage forever, it's my favorite! You are such a sweetheart!
I love you sweet Aubrey girl!

Phillip

When I married Phillip nine years ago I knew he would be a good Daddy. He loved children and had a very sweet spirit about him. It wasn't until six years later that I realized he wasn't a good Daddy, he was an amazing Daddy. Watching him with our two girls almost brings me to tears. He is so gentle, so patient, and so silly with them. Ashlyn and Aubrey are absolutely head over heals in love with him.


God gave us two girls because he knew Phillip would be the perfect "girl" daddy. He constantly tells them how beautiful they are and acts awe struck over princess dresses and painted toe nails.

Phillip made my heart smile the other day. I gave the girls an early bath since Ashlyn had been in the pool for swimming lessons that morning. Her outfit of choice after her bath consisted of a t-shirt, denim shorts, and winter Ugg style boots. When she came around the corner Phillip started to laugh and say "what in the world..." then immediately realized he would crush Ashlyn's spirit and started to comment on how cute she looked. Ashlyn stood there swaying back and forth with a sheepish grin on her face, thrilled that her Daddy thought she was beautiful.

Phillip dances in the living room with them and makes up silly songs at the dinner table. He wants them to feel loved and accepted at home so they can be confident and secure when they enter the big world on their own.


He is amazingly patient with our girls. He has never raised his voice at them and so lovingly explains things and encourages them when they do something wrong. Ashlyn has such a deep respect for him, she is crushed when Phillip has to get on to her. I honestly have never seen a Father more patient than he is.


Phillip is such a hard worker and a wonderful provider. I give him grief all the time about being such a tight wad but it is one of the things I love most about him. Sure we could live in a bigger home and have a slew of material possessions we don't need, but he is more focused on what really matters. Every morning I am blessed to wake up and stay at home with my babies. He views this as a top priority in raising our family and I am so grateful.


I am forever grateful for such a wonderful man to love and raise our daughters with!

My Addiction

I have this new addiction, and it's my sister-in-law's fault.

Everyday for the last three weeks I make a chocolate smoothie for my mid afternoon snack. It is soo good, healthy, and gives me the much needed energy boost I need to get through the rest of the afternoon. It has chocolate soy milk which is so much better for you than chocolate dairy milk, can we say yea for no high fructose corn syrup! If you've never tried chocolate soy milk, you need to, it's quite yummy. Plus soy is very good for you.

Chocolate Smoothie

1 1/2 Cup Chocolate Soy Milk
1-2 Tbl Peanut Butter
1/2 Banana
6-8 Ice Cubes

Place all the ingredients in a blender. Pulse until the ice chips are finely chopped and combined.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The past six months or so I have been searching for the perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie. I like chewy cookies fresh out of the oven. Most cookies turn dry and crumbly the next day which I'm not a fan of. I also like them a bit thicker, not thin and wimpy. I found a lot of the cookies that claimed to be plump and moist had a lot of baking soda which gave them a funky taste in the back of your mouth. I made a new CC cookie recipe yesterday and was really impressed. I had one of the leftover cookies today and they were still chewy! Yes! There are a couple more steps, but don't let that scare you off. Oh, and I used my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, I wasn't about to mix them up by hand!

This recipe makes 16 large cookies. They claim the larger cookies makes them cook more evenly, thus getting a chewy cookie all around. Also, I didn't brown the butter all the way. I was melting it in a smaller pan and got tired of waiting for it to brown, they were still delish. Also, the reason for the mixing and waiting, mixing and waiting of the butter and sugar is to melt the sugars and keep the cookies from browning too quickly in the oven.

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 14 tablespoons unsalted butter
  
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  
• 3/4 cups packed brown sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunk

• 1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.
• 2. Heat 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 4 tablespoons butter into hot butter until completely melted.
• 3. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Add egg and yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds. Let mixture stand 3 minutes, then whisk for 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth, and shiny. Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.
• 4. Divide dough into 16 portions, each about 3 tablespoons (or use #24 cookie scoop). Arrange 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets, 8 dough balls per sheet. (Smaller baking sheets can be used, but will require 3 batches.)
• 5. Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10 to 14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely before serving.

*Taken from America's Test Kitchen

My little Swimmer and baby goat

Ashlyn started swim lessons yesterday! She has been waiting for them to start for months. She was so excited! She is taking lessons with a lady and her daughter at their home, so much better than a public class supported by the Red Cross taught by a sarcastic teenager. We absolutely love her teacher! Poor Ashlyn is in a class with older children, everyone else is on the older side of four and five years old, she looks like such a baby out there. So, physically and developmentally they are leaps and bounds ahead of her. (Thankfully she is too young to realize that, she thinks she's big too) Her teacher is wonderful to modify what she is doing with Ashlyn. She is still a bit timid in the water and often wants to get in and out of the pool to get toys but I think she is going to get so much out of her two week lessons.

(This is the only picture I have so far. I haven't wanted to get up close to the pool and distract her the first couple days. She was pumped about those goggles)

So on a totally different subject. I think Aubrey is part goat! She loves fuzz! During her meals she reaches down between her high chair cushion and pulls the fuzz off the back side of the cushion. She does this every single meal the... entire... time! I am constantly pulling fuzz out of her chubby fingers and mouth. It's gross! I've decided to just remove the cushion and have her sit in the hard plastic chair by itself. She's such a mess!

Aubrey has apparently decided her tummy isn't so bad after all. Up until about two weeks ago she HATED being on her tummy. She would literally lay there screaming her head off and I would eventually have to pick her red, snotty little self up before she went into cardiac arrest! It was really pitiful! She is now starting to army crawl around and even sleep on her tummy. She isn't able to go far yet, mostly just get to her toys on her blanket but she's about to take off. I need to go around and baby proof our house again and make sure Ashlyn's toys are ok for Aubrey to get into.

She wore herself out and was ready for her morning nap! I wish you could see the other side, she's sucking her little thumb. I knew if I walked around her she would pop her head up and ruin the picture. I just love it when babies start sleeping like this!

The not so distant future...

The more I see Aubrey pull moves like this...


I start to realize how close she is to crawling.
And then I start to realize how close we are to this...