Evan's Sweet Moves

I guess if I put Owen shakin' his booty on the blog, I have to include Evan, too. We were watching American Idol tonight (otherwise he would NOT be dancing to Neil Diamond in this house!) when Evan started showing off a bit. Of course it wasn't nearly as hilarious after I broke out the camera, but it was still pretty funny. Sorry it turned out so dark on the blog!

Owen's Sweet Moves

Casey put together a little animation of Owen shakin' his booty.

The Return of Bug Out Bob

Owen's twin is now featured in a new Mac commercial.

It's Official

Owen=trouble. I took the following pictures during about a 10-minute span of time. I did not get pictures of him under the desk playing with the computer cord, making a bee line for the kitty litter box, and almost falling down the stairs. I did document him playing with the vacuum (I sure couldn't get the carpet clean today because he found it quite amusing to chase the vacuum around) ...

pulling himself up to standing using the stairs (which I also told the doctor he was no where near doing last Thursday) ...

(I think he was pretty proud of that move ...)

pulling himself up on the dishwasher ...

chewing on Casey's shoe ...

untying the shoe Casey was wearing about 2 seconds after he walked in the door ...

and pulling the Excedrin out of my purse.

I don't know if I'm going to be able to keep track of this one! Evan has not gotten into as much mischief in his entire life thus far as Owen has in the past 5 days. He better not teach his older brother any new tricks.

The Other Kid

I suppose we need a little update on Evan now. He is very into "sports" lately. I think this still stems from all the Wii-ing he did over Easter. One day he started asking if anyone wanted to play "cool kicks." I'm not sure where he came up with that, but I guess it's the latest and greatest soccer-type game that he invented. It involves 2 people kicking a ball back and forth. That's all there is to it. I like to see if I can kick it really hard so the ball smacks him and he laughs hysterically because it's a lot of fun with the squishy ball that we use (pictured below). It makes the game a little more exciting (somehow cool kicks just doesn't live up to it's name for me).

We finally found one of those plastic baseball bats with the whiffle balls at Target the other day. Now all Evan wants to do is play baseball. Problem is, someone has to play with him. I should have shelled out the extra bucks for T-ball. Turns out he's pretty good, though. These pictures should make his Pada Jones proud! :) Look at that form! He always gets a "thingle," "change thides" and "home wun" ... no strikes, oddly enough.
Another little story for Pada Jones ... We went to the Pead's house the other day and Evan played the Wii while we were there. (He remembered how to play every sport perfectly, by the way.) As we were walking home he said, "That was fun to play Pada Jones' games at the friends' house!"


I made a little chore chart for Evan a while back to help encourage him to help do a few things, especially brush his hair every day. Well, last week (Monday, if you can't tell) he decided that he needed to draw his own stars, rather than having me do it. So here is his handiwork. (We need to work a little more on the bed-making, I think.)

One last funny story ...
Last night we were watching "America's Funniest Home Videos" while we were eating dinner (kind of a Sunday tradition lately). A new video came on and Evan says, "Holy cwap, it's a bird!" Hmm ... where could he have possibly learned that phrase??? :)

Baby Owen ~9 months old~

I can't believe it, but Owen turned 9 months old on Thursday, April 17th. He looks pretty much the same as he did in his 8-month pictures, but he sure can do a lot more. His first tooth popped through on March 31st, and the 2nd one is well on it's way. I forgot to get a picture of it (not that I could with this wiggle worm). He's shaking a string of silver beads in this first picture so it's kinda crazy looking.

I took him to the doctor on Thursday for his 9-month check-up and they asked if he was crawling yet. I told them no, but he's very close. Well, as of that night, I was wrong. He took his first little crawling "steps" and has been going and going ever since. This one is going to be trouble. Here he is crawling:

The doctor also said Owen was ready for table foods. I couldn't believe it. It seems like I just started feeding him baby food. So we've been giving the table foods a try, but he's not getting the hang of how to feed himself. He's funny like that--he'll find little pieces of paper or little rocks or whatever on the floor, and he'll pick them up and finger them like crazy, but he won't put them in his mouth. Same thing with the food on his tray. He does like to throw it on the floor, though.

Owen is still the same, sweet, easy-going boy he has always been. He's just getting into a lot more mischief now. He loves to play with Evan and can now make his way over to him at any time. He is both Evan's best friend and worst nightmare at times.

He loves baths, especially the splashing part. He pumps his arms and legs the entire time, sitting or laying down, providing the bather with a drenching shower. He hates getting his clothes changed and trying to change his diaper is a joke anymore--the rolling begins as soon as you lay him down.

We realized in church today that the next 9 months, before he goes into nursery, are going to be a joke, as well. I remember dreading those days with Evan and I can't believe we are to that stage again already.

Hand Mixed Whole Wheat Bread Recipe--All Together Now ...

I realized how difficult I made it to copy and paste this recipe in my last post so here it is again, all in one spot:

Soften in container in order:
1/2 cup warm water
1 tsp. honey
1 T. yeast
(swirl in container together)

Whisk together in bowl in order:
1 cup warm water
2 T. oil
2 T. honey
1 rounded tsp. salt
1 egg
1 tsp. lemon juice (we actually omitted this because I forgot to bring it ... maybe a happy accident?)
2 cups whole wheat flour (2 1/4 cups if freshly ground)

Add up to 1 cup more flour and mix together by hand until well blended and all the flour is mixed in. It will form a sticky ball that holds its shape. You may add 1/2 cup more flour if it will not form a ball. Spray top with oil and let rest for 30 minutes.

With well oiled hands, form into a loaf. Place in well greased pan. Raise until doubled. Bake in pre-heated oven (350) for 30-35 minutes.


If anyone makes this, I would love to know how it goes.

Hand Mixed Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

Here is the easy and delicious recipe I promised. Now, if you are a homemade wheat bread connoisseur like Piper, you may find this bread a little crumbly, possibly a little dry. Piper prefers making her wheat bread with gluten. But again, if you find yourself starving and you have to make this, you'll think you're in heaven. I thought I was in heaven, but I don't generally make bread of any kind because it usually involves complicated things like kneading and rolling and measuring out into multiple loaves and such. Not this recipe. It makes 1 simple, delectable loaf. Here we go:

Soften in container in order:
1/2 cup warm water
1 tsp. honey
1 T. yeast
(swirl in container together)

Piper & Em demonstrate this first step. A large canning jar works well for this because it bubbles and expands and such.

I'm not sure what discussion was going on here, but look how cute Piper's curtains are.

Whisk together in bowl in order:
1 cup warm water
2 T. oil
2 T. honey
1 rounded tsp. salt
1 egg
1 tsp. lemon juice (we actually omitted this because I forgot to bring it ... maybe a happy accident?)
2 cups whole wheat flour (2 1/4 cups if freshly ground)

Look, so easy you can make homemade bread while holding the baby!

Here are all the ingredients before whisking.

Here is a great view of what happens to the stuff in the jars ... pretty cool.

Add yeast mixture (stuff in the jar) and beat with whisk until well blended.

Smells good!

Proper whisking technique (???)

Here's what it looks like.

Add up to 1 cup more flour and mix together by hand until well blended and all the flour is mixed in. It will form a sticky ball that holds its shape. You may add 1/2 cup more flour if it will not form a ball. Spray top with oil and let rest for 30 minutes.

Starting to mix by hand ...

Below are the "sticky balls that hold their shape." I think we used even more flour than it called for (freshly ground is much airier), but we discovered that it's better if it's not too stiff. If you form it into a ball and it doesn't move, that's a little too stiff. If you form it into a ball and it "melts" or "settles" very slightly, that's good. You can kinda tell in the picture below that the ball in the upper left is stiffer and holding it's shape really well, but the one at the bottom has settled a little.

With well oiled hands, form into a loaf.

Oiling hands ...

Dough after it has rested.

Plop it out onto the counter.

Press it out a bit with your hands.

Roll it up tightly into a big, long roll. This releases all the air bubbles. (I act like I know what I'm talking about, but I really don't. Piper taught us her tried and true techniques.) We're rolling ...

We're rolling ...

Here's what it looks like all rolled up.

Take the 2 ends of the roll and fold them in so they meet in the middle.

Place in well greased pan.

Place the roll in the loaf pan with the joined ends down.

Cut a slit down the middle.

Raise until doubled.

Here they are rising. It didn't take long. We had Papa Murphy's pizza while waiting ... yum!

All done rising!

We were already so proud of our handiwork and we hadn't even baked them yet!

Bake in pre-heated oven (350) for 30-35 minutes.

Voila!

It was hard to get a picture of this one, but Piper has perfected the technique of quickly pulling the loaf out of the oven with one hand and plopping it out into her other hand (using potholders with both hands) and placing it on a cooling rack in one swift, smooth motion.

And here they are. Gorgeous, huh?

Evan didn't know what they were ... not being sliced and all.

And that's it. That's all there is to it. I hope I didn't make it seem too complicated because it's really not. I just wanted to include everything because I wouldn't have known how to form it into a loaf and such.

Let me leave you with one final warning: if your body is not used to it, wheat takes a little getting used to. Your innards won't know what hit them for a day or two, so go easy at first. But it is so good and so good for you that it's totally worth it!