Monday, February 17, 2014

New Hobby

As you know, we got Jeremy his own drum set in October. He has been playing ever since, taking lessons about once a month and practicing almost every day. There is no exaggeration in saying that he's going from pretty good to REALLY good. I, of course, take some of the credit seeing that it was me who encouraged him to get drums and me who enjoys (most of the time) the loud sounds coming from the basement. 
But there is another hobby Jeremy has recently taken on. 
Everyone, meet Jeremy the BAKER!
His motivation to start baking came from being disappointed in my own baking. (Not to be confused with my cooking.)
When working with food, I have a tendency to do my own thing, like add something extra, use a substitute or try a different twist. It just doesn't seem right for me to follow a recipe perfectly. I need to have that creative element. Sometimes, my creations turn out great. Other times, not so much. This is why cooking is much more suitable for me because things don't have to be an exact science. Baking, on the other hand, kinda does.
My version of apple pie turned out to be delicious sliced apples glazed in honey and cinnamon on a pie crust-a much more healthy option than a real pie. 
Jeremy was horrified. 
So he pulled up some videos on allrecipes.com and figured out how to make his own apple pie. He is really good at sticking to a recipe, and so this is what came of it. I was extremely impressed!
Then, he tried chocolate chip cookies. I've never made those from scratch in my life, so I cheered him on. 
They were very delicious, putting up a good competition with any of your mom's best.
His most recent success is homemade banana cream pie, with pudding made from scratch. 
(He's made this twice now).
Needless to say, this is a hobby I'm extremely happy about.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

cute Dallin pics

The afternoon light on Jan 8 made the room perfect for some pictures of my little Love. 
cute fingers and toes.
runny nose.
mesmerized.
blue eyes.
common expression.
chubby face.
middle finger.
leaping from his bum. a common occurrence.
showing off his skills.
teeth! (this pic is my favorite)

Monday, February 10, 2014

New Year's Eve Game Night

We had our friends, the Taylor family, over for dinner and game night on New Year's Eve. We ate Papa Murphey's pizza, salad and lots of snacks. The kids played a bunch together and then we decided it would be fun to do a count down with them. (The real time was something like 7:35). We used our Roku to play the countdown in Dubai on demand. We didn't bang on pots and pans because our little guests seemed frightened by our drums earlier, so we got out a quieter option: BUBBLES!
 We watched the firework countdown about 5 or 6 times, counting down each time. Tanner loved the anticipation!
 And then each time we got to zero, we cheered and blew as many bubbles as we could. We also used a tambourine for some jingly sound effects, but the kids were more interested in bubbles. 
Once we got the kids to sleep, us grown ups played Dominion and Blokus for several hours. It was super fun to play adult games again. We also carried on the Zavoral tradition of ice cream sundays at midnight. It was a smiley, scrumptious, stress-free way to bring in the new year!

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

We've got a crawler!

Did I mention that Dallin crawls now? 
He figured it out the week before Christmas on Tues, Dec 17, making him 1 day shy of 7 months old. For several days, he was making one or two crawling steps and then falling. But then, on this particular day, while I was trying to video him, he crawled about ten steps straight for my camera. There was no turning back!
He crawls under tables and gets stuck.
I often find him quietly chomping on something around the corner like this.
See the pretzel stuck on his finger?
And now he likes to be in the center of everything. Including drumming...
and dishes and cooking...He gets right under my feet while I cook...
and rough housing...can you find him?
And just a week after crawling, he started pulling himself up against furniture.
Between Tanner and Dallin, my kitchen doesn't stand a chance.
Now we let Dallin take big-boy baths since he can crawl and climb.
Here's a happy bath boy with a snot bubble.
Here's my attempt to keep these busy bodies contained for a few minutes.
Music time!
Daddy time!
Dallin figured out how to walk with this pusher toy. But luckily no walking on his own!
Tanner is carrying 4 bags stuffed with things for his "chwiiip." (trip).
These boys sure are cute!