If You're Happy and You Know It

 

She just started doing this on Sunday and it is sooooo cute!!!

 

Here is Natalie at the game on Saturday. Micah was concerned about her dressing up as the opponent's mascot when we were sitting in the BYU section, but everyone just thought she was cute.  I was mad that I forgot my camera, so Marty snapped a few shots with his phone.

 

Here's the best shot I could get of her at the trunk or treat. We were kind of rushing to get there, then arrived just as they started the kid's costume parade and went out to do the trunk or treating. Micah held Natalie's hands as she walked in the parade and it was adorable.

I'll have to score some more shots when we go trick or treating on Wednesday night. And yes, I am taking her trick or treating. It's my first year as a parent! My first ever opportunity to use my child to get candy!

 

 

 She is really into taking stuff out of containers/shelves/bags etc. right now. She went after a hamper of clothes that I had just folded, so I ran over to refold the clothes and turned around to this!

She is a creative prodigy. She knows how to use the magnadoodle and it is her favorite toy.

Second to Daddy, of course, who is the absolute favorite plaything.

Play

Natalie scores some Daddy play time...

 

 

 

Natalie snatches away the baby food yet again to feed herself. And by "feed herself", I mean pour it all out, spread it liberally, and then play with the empty spoon and jar.

 

 

TJ, with the assist....

 

 

My daughter is a genius. Realizing that she would never figure out how to spoon feed herself on this occasion, she began dipping her bib into the food and then sucking it off.

Homemade Hanging Screen

 I see a lot of commercials for the magic mesh screen door and really wanted one. I thought of asking for one for Christmas, but then I would miss out on using it this fall. Fall and Spring here are perfect open-window temperatures. So I started shopping around online, reading reviews, looking at various types of hanging screens and then decided- hey, I could do that myself! I was originally going to use velcro so that it fit the door more perfectly, but instead just used a tension rod. It was super easy- just bought a roll of window screen from lowed, folded over the top and sewed it, slipped it onto a tension rod and cut it to the corrent length. It took less than 10 minutes, cost around $8 and now we get to enjoy the nice cool evening breezes without worrying about what is going to fly in.

 

 

And here's little miss noodle queen

 

 

 

How Do I Get That Goodness In Me?!

 

Natalie kept crying and screaming while I was trying to feed her. Finally, I just threw down the spoon and jar in frustration... and it turns out that was exactly what she wanted. She proceeded to suck on her jar and spoon, dump the food out all over herself and her tray and try to pick it up with her fingers and put it in her mouth. It's frustrating because she does not have the skills to feed herself baby food but she really doesn't like it when I spoon feed it to her. And I have TONS of baby food for her to eat still. Urgh. Need to find some recipe on how to make pureed baby food into finger food.

 

Natalie LOVED dinner last night- I was surpised by how well she could suck up the spaghetti noodles. She made the cutest little kissy lip-smack noise when she sucked it, not captured well enough in this video.

 

This Dog is CRAZY!

Case in point:

 

He's young, so there are some things that come with the territory- such as chewing, needing further potty training work- but what's with the humping? He did it to me while I was holding Natalie, he did it to a friend who came over yesterday, he did it to Sammy this morning and he even did it to Natalie! Good thing he has such a loveable personality. It makes it easier to tolerate his naughty moments. He is a big sweetheart that just wants to curl up on your lap and get rubbed all over. Natalie has thoroughly abused him and he doesn't react. She'll be pulling a clump of fur out of his neck, and he will just sit there smiling. He growled at her once when she was coming near him while he had a bone- which is good. You want a dog that will warn you with a growl when he feels threatened. So, I'm pretty sure he will be adopted before long. And Sammy will breathe a sigh of relief :)

So, you've heard of snake charmers- people who get snakes to wiggle by playing an instrument? I think that Natalie could develop a real talent for that...

Kale Kookies

I'm so Klever :)

 

Micah has now been gone at his conferance for 4 days. He comes home tomorrw night (super yay!). I miss him so much, I turned to my one foolproof sourse of solice: baking. As I was making oatmeal cookies (from this recipe), I got to the part where you mix your dry ingredients before adding the blended butter, sugar and eggs. I added some allspice and as I ground my cinnimon (fresh ground cinnimon is the BOMB!) I was thinking about how much I love strong spices in cookies. Then I suddenly remembered two weeks ago at the park where I was trying to describe the taste of kale and said it was sort of like anise. So, I incorporated kale, along with my favorite kale kompanion-sweet potatoes!!!

 

1 egg

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 cup kale, stems completely removed

1- 1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 finely shredded sweet potato

1/4 cup shredded coconut

1-3/4 cups old fashion oats

1/4 cup raisins

Blend first 3 ingredients in a blender. Add Kale and blend until kale is in fine pieces

Mix together dry ingredients. Add blended ingredients. Add the last 4 ingredients. Bakes 20 mins at 375 and Viola. Kale Kookies.

 

They're really good. Definitely a little different, but totally satisfy my baked good craving. With all the sugar, these are certainly not a health food, but definitely the coolest way I have ever heard of to eat your greens.

 

If I do it again- I would take out the stem of the kale. I usually do this, but was lazy this time. The stem leaves a very pervasive, bitter taste that doesn't belong. I might add nuts, grate the sweet potatoes finer and omit the coconut.

 

Now I want to try kale in a gingersnap or some kind of spice cookie. That would especially be fun to take to a holiday party, since the kale has such a bright green color.

 

 

 

And here's a random picture of Natalie, in case Micah checks out the blog and wants to see her:

Mischief Managed

 

 

 

The list of items that we have to keep out of reach is getting pretty long... while the number of places that she can't reach are shrinking!

 

I don't think this one was her fault- I'm pretty sure TJ knocked it askew to get out, and Natalie and Sammy took the opportunity to get in. I was cleaning up a mess, so I didn't see it, just came back to this! So much for keeping everyone safely seperated when I can't supervise them! Fortunately, TJ had eaten all his food, so there was nothing for Natalie to choke on, but she did dump his water out on the floor :/