Little Guy on the go!

Abe recently became more mobile. Here are some examples of how he's passing the time should mommy and daddy termporarily break their vigil.

MMmm shoes!

Something hanging down? Abe's on it!
Abe exited the blanket last weekend at the beach and gobbled two or three handfuls of sand before mommy and daddy could even shrug their shoulders.
Brother's asleep? Abe makes a bee-line for the toys.
Abe loves to inspect the dishwasher.

Greetings and happy summer!

Good morning everyone! Here are a few pictures from our trip out west. We were gone for 10 days and arrived back home last Monday. It's taken us at least since then to recover. During our trip we were able to stay a night with some friends in Tulsa, stay with my parents in Tecumseh and visit Salina for a couple of nights to see my sister Catherine and some friends of mine from high school. This involved some long plane rides and more than a few extended car trips. Needless to say, the boys were sleep deprived and cranky by the time we landed back in North Carolina. Schedules were thrown out the window and we just went with the flow, but that can only last so long before 3 year olds start to act out maniacally, babies start to cry at the least provocation and parents finally snap. Ahhhh....vacation. However, I can honestly say we DID have fun (all of us) and it was nice to see family and friends. The picture above was snapped from the car window while we were just a little lost making our way from Tecumseh to Salina. Taking our "detour" ended up being a positive experience since I was able to relive just a piece of my childhood, plus show Ben some combines. It had been a LOOOOONG time since I last drove down a dirt road in Kansas. That area of the country was in the middle of harvest, so the roads were full of wheat trucks. It had also been a LOOOONG time since I had been nearly forced off a dirt road in Kansas by a huge wheat truck barreling along at 50 MPH. Good times.

Ben and Abe at mom and dad's house. Abe is getting some long locks but it will be a while before we have the first haircut. Some parts are down to his shoulders which is quite a follicular achievement for a 7 month old. People ask me nearly every day if he is a boy or a girl. Such a difference from Ben, who was the recipient of the exclamation, "look at that little old man!" at the same age. I think they're both pretty darn cute!

Ben and I (and Abe) at the River Festival in Salina. Ben had never had a corn dog, so we had to remedy that situation right away. And I had to have my Kansas special, a home brewed root beer and a bierock. They were both a little disappointing. I think I might try to make homemade bierocks sometime soon.

Another midwestern treat...snow cones! We don't have snow cone stands here in NC. Why is this? I have no idea. Someone is really missing out on a great business opportunity.

We saw a lot of tractors in Oklahoma and Kansas. I never noticed them when I lived there, but now when I visit I feel like it's all I see. Not that people don't drive tractors here in the South, but there's just not as much farmland, at least not in our part of the state. Seeing all of the tractors, combines and trucks was pretty exciting for Mr. B.

Now that we're home summer is in full swing. It's so hot. Like, miserably hot. I know it's hot everywhere, but here the high is supposed to be 97 with 65% humidity. See what I mean? Absolutely miserable. Add in a few hundred mosquitos and various other bugs, and basically I don't want to go outside until September. Plus, every time I venture out in the middle of the day I almost step on a lizard, or have a lizard run in front of me, or I reach out to open a door and don't see a lizard resting right next to the door handle. Now, lizards aren't dangerous at all, but they sure do scare me when they're jumping out at me all day. Normally we would try to get away to the beach a little more but beach trips are a lot more difficult for me with a 3 year old and a baby. So we just try to spend our time doing air conditioned activities between the hours of 10 and 5!

Ben is in vacation bible school this week, which is a nice break for both of us. I do wonder what they talk about though. I asked him if they talked about Jesus, God, if they prayed and if they sang songs, and he answered "no" on all counts. Is this what Presbyterian VBS is all about? Maybe I should have put him in a good evangelical Baptist bible school:) However, since he's only 3 and notoriously reluctant to answer questions, I don't think I should trust his version of events.

Well, Abe is up from morning nap and I still haven't brushed my teeth! I have more pics to upload but they'll just have to wait.

Sweet little Abey Baby is 6 months!

photo.JPG, a photo by annercampbell on Flickr.

I really can't believe it has already been 6 1/2 months since our precious little boy arrived. I feel like we're still in the adjustment period, but it HAS gotten a bit easier. Baby Abe has started eating some solids, gotten 2 teeth so far, learned to NOT cry in car seat non-stop, and is S-L-O-W-L-Y gaining weight and figuring out how to sit up without immediately face planting.

He likes:

Having his clothes and diaper changed. It makes him chuckle, every time.

Watching his big brother play, talk, run, eat, etc...

Sucking on fingers and toes.

Listening to mama sing.

Taking baths.

Looking at other babies.

He doesn't like:

Being taken out of his bath.

Eating. He basically only nurses when he HAS to...like, to not starve. This dislike of eating is why he weighs a whopping 12 pounds. Solid foods have been rocky so far. Three bites seems to be his max, but we hit the jackpot tonight with avocado.

Being in his high chair. See above.

Sleeping. What's up with this? It's like he suddenly forgot how to nap. NOT COOL. What do I do about this?

Being in his crib. See above again.

More pics tomorrow!

Ben turns 3

Whoa. I am waaaaay behind on this blog. I have a new resolution to post at least once a week. And maybe even twice! With that in mind, here are some pictures from Ben's birthday on April 12. Yeah, that was a long time ago.

His crown from school.

Leftover party cupcakes. Still as good 3 days later!

Lots of great gifts from grandparents plus a trike from Joel and I, complete with a bell that MUST be rung at least once every 30 seconds or so:)

Azaleas and Cupcakes, ya'll

Wouldn't that be a good name for a bakery?

Anyway....not to brag, but I made some DELICIOUS cupcakes for Ben's party. If you've been looking for an EASY, foolproof, go-to chocolate cake recipe, then I've found it here. I've made this recipe 5 times now, and it has turned out perfectly every time. It's got a good chocolate flavor, but it's not TOO chocolatey so you can use chocolate icing on it without going overboard. It has a great texture and stays moist for a long time. Just like a cake mix but without all the horrible stuff they put in those things. Some notes:

• The recipe I linked to is for the sheet cake version, but it works for any type of cake. If you're making cupcakes, bake them at 350 and start checking them around 20 minutes. I think mine took 23 minutes. It should make exactly 24 cupcakes. I also made a 9 x 12 cake, and it took around 33-35 minutes.
• I lieu of using real buttermilk I did the trick where you combine 1 T. vinegar for every 1 c. milk. It worked fine.
• Don't skimp on the coca powder. HEAPING tablespoonfuls.
• I didn't sift my flour beforehand and the batter had little balls of flour. It didn't affect the taste at all and I don't even think you could notice them, but it caused me some anxiety. If you have extra time I would go ahead and sift.

Now for the frosting!

I'm not a big fan of frosting and hate it when frosting overpowers the cake. Classic buttercream is good, but I wanted something a little different this time. PW has never let me down with her recipes, so I decided to try what she describes as "The Best Frosting I've Ever Had." I made a test batch and quickly realized it wasn't my first time eating this deliciousness. My mother made this frosting for nearly every chocolate and red velvet cake we ate while growing up. I've never had it anywhere else, and it never occurred to me to ask her for the recipe. My mistake, since I've obviously been missing out. It has a whipped cream consistency that's the perfect accompaniment for chocolate cake. Just one word of advice; you CANNOT over beat this frosting. When in doubt, keep beating. There should be no separation AT ALL. PW says it took her 45 seconds of hard beating to get the right consistency, but it took me 2 full minutes since I live in a humid climate.

Please try this frosting, then tell me how much you love it:)

Party time!

Ben had his 3rd birthday party 2 weeks ago. I started planning this party in January, and I was nervous about having our very first "friends" party--especially since I knew I wanted to have it at the house. This meant the yard (the bane of our existence) had to look presentable, and we only had a few weeks of spring to make it happen. As you saw in the previous post, we were able to finish the patio with one weekend to spare before the party. That one weekend was spent mowing, edging, weeding and mulching. Then finally....celebration time! We had 12 preschoolers and their parents here for some messy fun, lunch and cupcakes. The day was cool and cloudy but the rain held off until that afternoon. I was disappointed about it being cold but it was really a blessing in disguise since it kept the bugs at bay. The bugs here are no joke! Of course, kids don't even notice the weather so they all seemed pretty happy.

Joel and I used foam stamps and fabric paint to stamp the guests names on canvas aprons. They used them during the party, then took them home as party favors.

We set up makeshift easels for the kids to create their masterpieces. I thought they would all want to paint the whole time, but I was WRONG. The REAL star was the 2 bins of flour we set out with some cups, spoons, etc...

I can't believe how much these kids loved playing with that flour. We could have just had a flour party!

After everyone had made a big mess, we ate mini pulled pork sandwiches provided by Joel, homemade mac-n-cheese, fruit salad and chocolate cupcakes.

Three little blondies. On the far left is Carson, whose mom and I met in childbirth class and who shares a birthday with Ben. Sawyer is the other cutie, and he's Ben's new friend from preschool. Sawyer has introduced Ben to the wonders of all things superhero related.

When we asked Ben what his favorite part of the party was, he said "cupcakes!"

I'll post later about Ben's actual day of birthday celebration, plus some info about his cake. It was DELISH!

We built a patio

Well, really...Joel built a patio. I helped a little. Here's what we started with.

Don't ask me to explain the rocks. Just understand that we had a large area full of rocks.

First step was to clean up the rocks while our next door neighbor was on baby holding duty.

We dug out some sod to enlarge the space. Joel built a frame and installed it. We dug some more and made sure everything was level.

Joel added some leveling sand while Ben pretended he was in a construction zone.

Then Joel was finally able to start laying brick. With Ben's help, of course.

TADA! And this is what it looked like right before Ben's birthday party last Saturday. It's pretty awesome having an actual patio to hang out on. We've used it nearly every single day since finishing it, and it has completely changed the look of our yard.

We thought very seriously about hiring someone to build the patio, but decided against that idea for a couple of reasons. One, it's MUCH more expensive to hire somebody, like at least twice what it cost us to build it ourselves. And two, we needed it done pretty fast since we had Ben's party coming up and another party this weekend. If anybody out there is contemplating building something similar, you need to know that the skill level required is minimal but the physical labor is exhausting. I doubt Joel will want to build a patio again any time soon! We actually lucked out because the area we chose to dig out was already full of dirt, so that made it easier. We dug a few feet of sod around the perimeter and it was SERIOUSLY hard. The only thing that kept me going was thinking of my pioneer ancestors and how they used to not only dig out sod, but actually build their houses with the stuff. Yeah...I wouldn't have lasted too long out on the prairie.