Caitlin & Rob: October 2011

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

A Few Things

Jury is out - MAYBE I'm enjoying "Guy's" sidewalk chalk as much as he is. Even if I just realized I never drew Donald Duck's right hand--my left hand works better for me, anyhow. :)

Guy has been cruising on his bike for quite a while now. Sometimes we take a two mile walk around base housing in the mornings or evenings. Guy bikes the whole way every time. Sometimes a few times a week. He does GREAT!

I love when Coop does this with his pacifier. I just think it's funny. His quick update: His hair is still different colors and textures, his eyes are still blue, and he's 67th percentile in weight and height right now (21.5 lbs). He army crawls everywhere and gets into everything. Every once in a while he's spotted rocking on all fours and even making a few moves on all fours. He's happy and eating tons. We make a lot of his baby food, but on busy days, when we don't make any of it, he'll easily eat 7 of the large tubs.
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A couple of weeks ago Rob was helping Guy with something and Rob was getting a little frustrated. At one point, he asked Guy, "Why are you crazy?"
Guy: "I not crazy! I just like you!"
:)

Guy's often singing and dancing around. He makes up lots of songs as he goes. The "Why?" stage is definitely here. He's growing out of his 2T clothes a little early (which is a first for him).
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Last thing of note. For the first time since we've been married we bought a piece of furniture. Two actually. When Rob and I got married we were both living on our own, so we just combined households and got rid of more stuff than we bought (don't mention his red kitchen decor to him - not a happy parting). We don't even have matching silverware for our 12 place settings, still. Anyway, last night we bought some new to us black leather couches. They needed a little TLC, and I still need to fix a couple of rips, but I'm so excited for the upgrade, they really look great. And I decided with two little boys used leather (thus less expensive leather) will give me less to worry about. :)

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Rolo Cookies

If you haven't tried any recipes I've posted, now would be a good time to start. You won't regret it.

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

Cook Time: 7-10 minutes

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cocoa
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Bag of Rolo candies, unwrapped
Sugar (for rolling the cookie dough balls in)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone mat. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa. Set aside.
3. With a mixer, cream butter and sugars together until smooth. Add in eggs, one at a time. Next, add in vanilla extract. Mix until blended.
4. Slowly add flour mixture to sugar mixture and blend well. Take a spoonful of chocolate cookie dough and wrap around one Rolo candy. Make sure Rolo is completely covered with cookie dough. Roll dough ball in sugar and place on prepared baking sheet. Continue until you run out of cookie dough.
5. Bake cookies for 7-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit on cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes. Move to a cooling rack and cool completely.

I don't roll the cookies in sugar, but I thought I'd leave it in to let you know it's an option.

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After a week of the boys and I sharing/trading time being sick, I was feeling a little unmotivated to play a YW Activity I needed to take care of. Oh yeah, less than two weeks after we moved in, I got called to serve as the YW President for our ward. Makes things busy, but it's good. I love working with the youth.

So after mulling it over I decided to do something pretty basic and hopefully fun. My plan was for the girls to ice jack-o-lantern type faces on the cookies - orange frosting, chocolate cookies - plan works for me. Then I decided that even better would be Rolo Cookies - haven't had 'em since college. With much appreciation for the internet, I quickly found a recipe. The store didn't have orange frosting in those icing tubes (what lame store carries every frosting color but orange in October? The one on the way to the church, sigh). So one of my counselors found Peeps in the shape of pumpkins. Even easier. Yea.

After a lesson on stewardship we spend some time teaching the girls some culinary skills while making a yummy treat, then dropped some in the Bishop's office and sent the girls home with some of their own. Every girl that has eaten any has asked for the recipe, so I thought I'd share on here, too.

Unless you don't like chocolate and caramel, there's no reason you won't like these cookies. Next time I might have to try them with a peanut butter cookie dough - I'll let you know how that goes when I do. :)

Sorry no photo - they disappeared faster than I could take a photo every time they came out of the oven.

ENJOY! :)

Saturday, October 15, 2011

What's Awesome and Has Two Thumbs?

This Guy!

Rubber Duck Regatta

Mid September we went to a Metro Park event in downtown Dayton with some neighbors. It's a Rubber Duck race that's a fundraiser event for a non-profit. Paired with that is "A Taste of Miami Valley Restaurants" where you can sample some local food. Guy enjoyed it (talking about it for a few days after), I was glad to get out and do something, and Rob and Cooper came along. :)

One of these days I'm going to have to get out from behind the camera . . .

Friday, October 14, 2011

Round 2

More to come

Monday, October 3, 2011

Moment's Thought

Recently I was a little hurt by something that happened to me. It certainly wasn't the worst thing that has ever happened to me, and I didn't even loose any sleep over it (which is saying a lot for me), but it's just been an uncomfortable and even a little painful feeling for me.

After venting about it a little to a trusted source, and discussing my options, I choose a course of action. And while I still don't regret doing what I did, the next result brought even a little more pain than I initially felt as a product of circumstance. It certainly wasn't what I hoped for, and I'm still mulling things through, as I'm trying get past the ill ease, pain, and contentious thoughts.

Shortly after my moment of greatest pain (concerning this incident), I had to go get Cooper, who was waking up from a nap. I can't explain what happened next except for with the label of maternal instinct.

At that moment, I vocalized exactly what I felt in my heart as I picked my child up. It was a quick prayer that he wouldn't feel pain like I do--that he wouldn't be as sensitive as I am--in all the "wrong" and unproductive ways. But that he could be sensitive in the ways that make me a good person, and useful, especially God's power behind me. And then I instantly thought about how Guy already seems to be pretty sensitive in some ways, and I prayed for those things for him, too.

I have been a mom for over two and one half years now, but I don't remember feeling that feeling so strongly ever before. I'm so grateful for the love that I have for my children. I know they will face pain, discomfort, and ill ease in their lives, but I pray that I can mostly be there for them--and only mostly because I want them to learn that the source of greatest comfort can come from our Father in Heaven. So there is my silver lining in a moment of ill ease. Thank goodness for tender mercies.

I'm grateful that I'm a mom, and I'm grateful for the knowledge I have and the comfort that I receive from Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and The Holy Ghost.