Jared

This is kinda an old post. I started it about a month ago and then never finished it.

He is about 2 1/2 months old here.

He decided he liked his thumb. We are working on having him NOT like it.

So far many a little success.

He is pretty cute though!

More Cousins

 At the end of October Marty's sister's Lisa and Debbie came for a visit.

Debbie has 2 little kids Kailani about 8 months old and Sebastien who is Zach's age.

We had some fun playing. 

Kailani is scooting all over and kept trying to get Jared.

For the most part Jared didn't mind.

Since I was taking pictures Gracie joined in and pretty soon Zach too.

 We tried hard to get all 5 kids to look... this is the best we got.

Then my 3 kiddos... this may have to be my Christmas picture, as it may be the best one I get!

Jared just about 3 months

Jared's 3mo photos taken at Sears.

They are a little blurry due to these being just the online proofs and then I tried to make them bigger.

By three months this little guy is smiling a lot, holding his head up, and he can roll to his side.

He has started to find his thumb otherwise likes his pacifier.  He nurses about every 2-3 hours and 1-2 times a night (usually 2).  He is a pretty content little guy who generally cries for a good reason such as being hungry, dirty pants, or a bubble in his tummy. 

Time goes so fast.

Cinnamon Rolls

It must be time for me to go back to work as I am finding more and more things to make and bake in my kitchen.  I very much enjoy this and I very much enjoy making things I have not made in a loooong time.  I very much wish I had more time to do this kind of thing.  I guess I need more maternity leaves. Marty may not be on board with that last comment.

So last week I took on the adventure of making cinnamon rolls... from SCRATCH!

I have done this I think twice before.

While I was doing this I thought I would practice my photography skills.

This summer before Jared was born I bought a Canon Rebel T3i.

Then this fall Community Ed happened to put on a class one night a week for 3 weeks about these kind of cameras. Basically it was learning the features and how to not use the Automatic button all the time.

Most of these photos are for the purpose of me to practice using my camera.

I think I am getting a little better. I didn't use the Automatic button... but selected my settings.

With cinnamon rolls the basics are these: yeast, butter, flour, eggs, and of course cinnamon.

I think my egg picture here is pretty good.

I use a recipe from a friend of mine.

It is on her blog page:

 http://www.farmergalsmarket.com/home-cooking/2009/3/14/pecan-caramel-rolls.html

It think it works rather well. Her recipe is for Carmel rolls, but I do it cinnamon rolls style.

 I use the technique and cinnamon rolls part from the Pioneer Women's cookbook (I love this cookbook) which is also the link:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/cinammon_rolls_/

My Grandma Sohre made cinnamon rolls all the time when I was a kid and I got the pleasure of helping a time or two or three....

Grandma didn't  have the beautiful Kitchen Aide mixer I have.  I am pretty sure she did it with a wooden spoon.  But me, I use my mixer.  I love my mixer. I couldn't live without my mixer.

I love the dough hook and it does a great job blending and kneading the ingredients.

Gosh I think I did pretty good on these photos, don't you think?

See it is a skill to try to get focus on one part of the photo and the blurr out the background. I am learning.

So we have cinnamon and poppy seed filling.

Grandma Sohre would make what she called a "Monster Roll".

This was using the poppy seed filling. It was good. Really good.

Here is a little bit of the roll making. Mmm,they look good.

(and they were!)

And here we have the finished product below.

I had made 3 batches of the dough recipe so we had some to put in the freezer for later.

I think my Grandma's were better, but then I am probably a few 100 batches behind her in experience so maybe someday when I am 80 something I will have it all figured out.

Squash

One item our garden was abundant in this fall was our squash crop.

We had lots so I thought I would be creative and try to freeze some for my little Jared as baby food and for the rest of us.

First the slicing in half and scraping the "guts" out as I like to say it.

Then on to baking in the oven.

Then scraping the good part out.

To make it a little smoother I borrowed my Mom-in-laws food processor and blended it up.

End result is smoooth squash.

Then on to putting it in baby food containers and zip lock bags and on to the freezer.

I sure hope my baby Jared likes squash, because I have a lot of it!!

Cousins

A few weeks ago we were at the Daly's for some celebrations: birthday party for 3 of their kids and post marathon celebrations.

All of the Sohre cousins were present which is the photo above.  To bad we didn't have a better backdrop (The Daly Shop...), is it hard to get them all to look at the same time. With the addition of Jared we are now at 6 girls and 6 boys. Time for Shelly and Darrin to add more kids to make the girls more abundant again.  See my Sohre family has always been girl abundant (5 girls: Mom and her 4 daughters and 2 boys: Dad and Darrin).  It just doesn't seem right to have more boys in the family, which since Darrin isn't married (yet!) the boys actually take the lead.  We just CANNOT HAVE THAT! 

Then I happened to capture this photo:  Zach and best Bud Joe.  Someday when they are both 17 or 18 or 20 and caught doing something naughty... (I know Shelly - our boys naughty? No way!), we will show them what buds they were when they were 3!

Halloween 2011

Last Monday we had a great day. It was Halloween and my two oldest kids really understands what this means now. They both had preschool in the morning so the day started with wearing the costumes to school.

 This year Gracie was a Penguin and Zach was a Froggie. They were adorable and both very much liked their costumes.  Jared got to be my little "Sweet Pea." I am not so sure he liked wearing his costume. We put it on for a few pictures. 

My Sweet Pea!

We went Trick-Or-Treating in Redwood Falls. We joined up with some cousins of Marty's who also have some kids similar in age to ours. I was bummed when I was going through my pictures as it doesn't seem I got any photos of their kids.

We went to about a dozen houses and got plenty of treats.

I think we will be eating candy until Christmas!

2011 Combine Ride

I am a little late getting this post up... but better late than never. Harvest around this neck of the woods is for the most part over. We had the pleasure of getting a combine ride this year again with Uncle Kevin.  The kids just love going out to the field with their Uncle. 

He was picking corn during this ride. 

Uncle Kevin even let them drive a little bit!

Can't wait till next year... he will have little Jared too.  

I teased him he might need to get a bigger combine (or we take turns!).