Baking

Today, Hollie and I had a mother-daughter day and decided to do some baking. I have been wanting some homemade strawberry jam lately and decided that we should make some, so we did. And along with that we made homemade cinnamon rolls, and 2 loafs of bread. The jam and the bread turned out fantastic. The cinnamon rolls weren't the best and I don't know what happened. I used a different bread recipe this time and I should have stuck with the original one. They must have not been that bad because Ryan ate 5 of them! And ofcourse, the kid won't gain an ounce! They are his favorite and hopefully next time they will be more doughy and he will like them better.

Hollie was so cute today. We pulled out our aprons and Hollie had her little cooking pans and it was just perfect. She was a great helper and did a fantastic job. It was so much fun. Her and I haven't had one on one time in awhile and that was much needed and I enjoyed every bit of it. She is turning into a big girl and I am so excited that we are going to be best friends. I did have to share her with dad today. Ryan was outside in the front yard preparing to put grass on the left side of our driveway, just because he thinks it needs it, and Hollie went from playing in the dirt, to being my cute Hollie in the kitchen. It was fun and I love my two precious children. Ethan was a champ today and slept most of the day. I think he was really tired and needed some extra rest. Thanks Ethan, I love you lots.

Oh, when Hollie and I went out to the grocery store to get a few of our missing ingredients Ryan and Ethan took the infamous trip to Home Depot. I wish I was there to take a picture, but I know this will not be the last father-son trip to Home Depot. Ethan will know that store like he knows all of his owies by the time he is 2. Ryan loved it and can't wait for more father-son trips to Home Depot. (I just had to add that)

Our Growing Ethan

I have been playing around taking some cute pictures of Ethan and I thought I would share. I cannot believe how fast he is growing and how he is turning into a little man. One of my favorite things about him is his eyes and how he looks at you. He reminds me so much of our little Hollie and I just love the "look". I feel that he can see right through me and knows every little thing that I am thinking. He is adorable and I love him lots. We were at the doctors on Wednesday and he now weighs 10lbs 8oz. We thought he weighed more than that, but I guess he is just long so the chubbiness has room to spread out.

Hollie is still my biggest helper and just loves her little brother to pieces. Ethan has been smiling and cooing the last couple of weeks and Hollie loves to make him smile. He has a super cute smile and I love his little voice. He is growing fast and I know he will be Hollie's age before I know it. I am trying to enjoy every minute and not sweat and worry about the small stuff. I have learned that it's okay to not have a perfectly clean house and to let my floor go a few weeks without being washed, I did sweep though. That has been hard for me because I love a clean house, but I have learned that spending time with my adorable children is priceless. I love them so much and am so grateful that they came to our family. Ryan says, he loves to come home to toys all over the house, because he knows that we have had a fun filled day. At the end of the night I clean it all up, think about the fun day I had and look forward to our next adventurous day.

San Tan Mountain

Yes, I know this post is 2 weeks late, but I am finally sitting down and updating the blog.
We decided to go and do something fun as a family a couple Saturday's ago and we went on a small hike around San Tan Mountain. It was lots of fun and the kids did great! Hiking around Arizona is a bit different than most places. The only thing Hollie could find and that would keep her eager to move forward were the ROCKS. Yes, there were lots and they quickly became Hollie's favorite thing. She would pick them up, say, "pretty" and put them in her pocket. It was very cute, but sad because most of the time when you go hiking you find pretty flowers. Well, we found cactus and rocks, but we still had a fabulous time.
The weather was perfect and when we were done we came home and played in our splash pad and had a blast. For those of you that don't know what a splash pad is, it's a cement pad, shaped like a kidney bean, and there are water spickets in it and it shoots up water. It's kinda like a water fountain. I hope you understand, I just don't know how to expain it. They have them at the zoo here in Phoenix and sometimes they have them at parks. Anyway, we had some friends over and really enjoyed ourselves. It was a fun filled weekend and it was great to just be with our little family.

Cute Pictures of the Kids, Enjoy!!

Buddies

Hollie and Ethan have definetly become buddies lately. Hollie just loves him and has become my biggest helper. When Ethan is hungry Hollie wants to be the one to feed him. She will feed him, then take the bottle out of his mouth shake it and put it back in. After a few minutes she looks and me and says burp. It's so cute, I just love it. When Ethan is sad, Hollie is right there to help make him happy. There was even one day that Hollie decided to make Ethan happy she was going to play with him and put necklaces on him like she had on herself. It was so adorable, I just laughed and thought wait till Ethan gets older he isn't going to like the pretty necklaces around his neck, but for now it was cute.

Hollie comes up to Ethan all the time and says I love you Ethan and then I move his mouth and say, I love you to Hollie. She gets a kick out of it and thinks he's really talking to her. As a big sister she just can't give enough hugs and kisses. I think it's great and I am so glad she loves him as much as she does. These two have definetly become best buds and Ethan loves having her around. He will just stare at her and it's so cute. I love it and we have two adorable kids. Here are some pictures.