Updates

St. Patrick's Day~
I redeemed myself and made green colored vanilla pudding for dinner. We also had an Irish inspired dinner of lamb and potatoes. It was GREAT! Especially since lamb is the only meat that Rosalee will eat without questioning us or giving it a second thought. In case you're wondering, calling something "lamb" that isn't lamb DOES NOT work!

Apparently spoons are overrated!
Zeke is 7 months old~
So I'm about two weeks late on this post but I guess that's what happens to the 2nd child. (Sorry Zekey!) Zeke is now 7 months old and he isn't crawling and doesn't have teeth- which makes Mom VERY happy. He does roll and do this odd butt bouncing thing that gets him around the room fairly well. He loves banging toys together or smacking things. I can imagine when he's a little bit older he'll be running around with a pot and a wooden spoon making a one man marching band. One of his new favorite things to do is play the conga drum with Dad. Sadly when he sees the camera he stops playing. :( My goal is to try and catch him playing without him knowing about it.

Zeke has now discovered books. Mostly because Rosalee tosses them on to him, but whatever gets him "reading"! His two favorite things about books- they taste good and they have fun looking things.

One of my favorite things about Zeke is that if he's tired, he'll just pass out asleep! I'll run into the room freaked out because I can't hear him anymore to find him sleeping in the middle of his toys. Normally he'll stay there for an hour or two if he isn't disturbed by Rosalee.

Zeke's favorite toy is the bouncer! He will jump and JUMP for the longest time! I know fully understand the term bouncing baby boy.

Zeke loves to snuggle with his dad. If I try to snuggle him he thinks it is time to eat, so sadly I don't get to have sweet moments like this as often as Jesse does.

Jesse~
I rarely post about Jesse so I decided I should fill everyone in on him. He's still working for the school district as a substitute teacher. There are a few jobs that said they're interested in him and they might contact him for an interview so we're hoping one of those pans out.

Lately Jesse has been playing basketball at church and our ward's team is now in the regional playoffs! Rosalee loves going to the games and cheering for her dad. When he's on the sidelines she'll climb on his lap and demand that he reads to her, even if he's covered in sweat.

Now that's love!

Chrome Under the Dome~

Last Saturday we went with my in-laws and my father-in-law's parents to Pocatello to a car show. We saw a lot of cars that we wouldn't mind owning someday... :)

This one was Jesse's favorite

Rosalee really got into looking at the cars with Jesse. It was cute because he'd talk about the engine and she'd say something like, "I like blue."

I want a motorcycle with a sidecar!

This one is for my mom

I taught Rosalee to say, "I like Chevelles" after seeing this car. When we walked up to a Mustang a man asked her, "Do you think my car is pretty?" She replied, "I like Chevelles." Ah, she's fabulous.
After walking around looking at the cars I decided to try and find all the classic Impalas. My dad had a '58 Impala right after high school, but sold it before he went to Vietnam, so it is my goal in life to one day own one and spiff it out.

On my way out of the show I was sad that I didn't find a '58 Impala but Grandpa James told me there was one so we ran back inside just so I could get a few pictures for my dad.

It may be a land yacht, but isn't it beautiful!?
After the show we went out for lunch at The Golden Corral in Pocatello. The funny thing is 6 years ago Jesse and I went on a date here and that same night we had our first kiss and decided that we wanted to date exclusively. Even better, we haven't been back since! HA!

Early Easter~

This year we won't have a "normal" Easter Sunday because we'll be out of town and General Conference is that same weekend. So in order to show off how cute my kids are I decided to dress them up in their Easter clothes yesterday for church.

Being the GrEaT mother that I am I neglected to take a picture of Zeke OUT of the jumperoo. Oh well... he has matching blue (to his hat) pants that make him look like a golfer from the 70s. I love him in bright blue because it makes his eyes just SHINE!

Rosalee has a pretty dress that I got for $1.50 at a crazy sale a few months ago. We both win with it- she gets to have flowers and pink and I get her to wear a color that isn't pink. She was too busy playing with some of her new toys from GG (that's Great Grandma James to you) to be bothered with a proper photo.

In case you wanted to know that Rosalee still has a runny nose from the croup... This isn't zoomed in, she just leaned forward and said, "cheeeeeese!"

12 minutes later and we have a nice picture!
Rosalee, Rosalee, Rosalee~
I love this kid! She is the craziest, best thing that has happened to us. She has a mind of her own, for better or worse, and she is really growing into a personality and little lady. She loves pink and purple, Dora and Disney, but at the same time loves to collect rocks and pine cones. She also thinks she's a little mother/my helper and for the most part, it works out great. She likes to pick out which jar food Zeke gets to eat, help me cook and clean, and do "motherly" things for Zeke.

Rosalee's new thing- quiet time.
On days when she doesn't want to take a nap, but isn't cranky I tell her to have quiet time. She takes her pillow, a blanket (or 5), and has to lie down on the couch. During this time she can only get off the couch to go potty, get a drink of water, and she has to either quietly watch a movie or read some books. She's really good about staying on the couch because she knows if she doesn't then she has to go to her room and take a nap.

At two separate times today Rosalee decided that Zeke needed some quiet time. She gave him some blankets and books and told me "Don't talk to Zekey, he's having his quiet time".

Rosalee loves to cook, especially if it is a dessert. After we play outside (if the weather permits) we come inside and cook. This started as an incentive to come inside without fussing, but now it's a tradition. Today she started going to the door and said, "Okay Mom, let's go make some cupcakes." She wanted chocolate cupcakes but not normal ones. She wanted "a new kind" so we looked up some recipes on the internet. My sister-in-law also bought a new cake pan today. It's a giant cupcake pan so we decided to try it out too.
We found a recipe that uses regular chocolate cake batter and then has a cream cheese topping/filling. You just plop the cheese mixture on top and bake for the normal time.

The end result-

Crunchy topped cupcake with an ooey, gooey center.
Oh so fabulous!!!!
As for the jumbo cupcake... well, I didn't use enough grease on the pan AND because of the thickness the middle was super gooey. I attempted to get it out of the pan and that ended up with a sticky mess so we've just decided to eat it out of the pan.