Daddy's New Truck

Before I went back to work - we had one thing yet to do.

Purchase a different truck for Daddy to properly haul all the kids to and from daycare.

So we have the "Old Truck."

And the "New Truck."

I said to Marty that he officially is a Dad, as now he has a "Dad" truck!!

The kids love the "new truck" as it doesn't quite yet have the nice hog scent that the "old truck" had and it is a lot cleaner inside. Hopefully it won't pick up the delightful scent and if my husband listens to his wife it will not get quite as messy!!! (He has stick orders!)

30 Tiny Toes

I think baby feet are just the cutest.

Pre-schooler feet are pretty cute too.

The toes are even cuter.

We've got 30 of this adorable little toes in our house...

and I love them to pieces.

Visiting Santa

Last weekend Santa came to Redwood Falls and we were sure to go visit.

Last time we tried Santa was when Gracie was 2 and Zach was 1. 

It was a complete disaster.

This time... much better.

Jared got to meet him too.

Gracie told him she wanted a "baby alive" and Zach told him a "tractor."

This Santa was a little hard of hearing though, so the kids almost had to yell.

I wasn't sure I could handle all 3 kids and Santa 

so we recruited Grandma Betty to come along and help.

It was a very nice outing.

Applesauce

Here is another post that I had started and didn't get finished.

We made some applesauce for Jared too for when he starts eating.

Gracie and Zach and Jared helped.

Now I am back at work last week and all the fun baking, cooking, freezing, and other fun kitchen things will not happen as frequently.

Marty says he probably gained 10 pounds while I was home and will probably now loose it now that I am back to work.

I did very much enjoy my maternity leave. 12 weeks went so fast.

Jared has turned out to be quite the content little guy.

Barely fusses, mostly when he is hungry (but what person isn't a little cranky when they are hungry?)

The first week back at work went pretty good for me. It was better than I had expected. 

Jared did great at daycare.

So all these pictures are the process of making applesauce.

It really isn't that hard.

The kids had fun helping and sampling.

I was running out of containers to freeze it in, so I froze a batch, then popped them out and put the squares in a Zippy bag and stored them in the freezer that way.

 

I read some people use ice cube trays too.

This method seemed to work.

And my helpers!!!

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.