pullman's 1.5lb loaf pan

my mom very generously got me a kindle as my (early) birthday present when she was here visiting.  the store we got it from included a $25 amazon gift certificate.  they were probably doing that so i would purchase items for the kindle, but i couldn't resist the large 1.5lb pullman bread pan from my wish list i've been eyeing for a while.  it came in the mail the other day, so i just had to whip up some wheat bread:

just to give you an idea on the size:

i baked the loaf in front in my normal 8" loaf pan, and the mammoth behind it is from pullman's.  they looked gorgeous, but the dough was too dense; neither loaf was fully baked on the inside.  i tried again that afternoon and got another pullman loaf just fine.  i can make bread maybe just once a week now, with this larger pan!  thanks mom!

guess who's coming to town!

can you guess who's moving in, max?  we need to make room for some buddies!

no guess yet?  open a little wider and i'll give you a hint...

a little wider...

first tooth!  bottom left!  maybe that's why you've been a more-than-usual drool bucket and refusing some afternoon naps lately?

nap or not, you're still the cutest max attack we know!...

...who claps on demand!  saying "yay" is our pavlov's bell!

call bicka?

i love it when pace requests to call one of his grandparents!  this particular day it was to bicka.  we called her at work, and as soon as she picked up pace went silent and just breathed.  i was afraid she'd think it was some spy tracking her down, but smart bicka figured out it was pace and started asking questions about trucks, scooping, and the crawl space, and then pace perked up.

we also spent that afternoon making drums for pace, because you can make anything with duct tape!  we used some tins we had after using up some dried fruit from our food storage, and whipped up the drumsticks with styrofoam balls and wooden dowels.  pace picked out the colors we taped on the drums.  bonus--they also double as maracas--one has a cup of beans, the other a cup of rice!

hearts say yubew

 "hearts say yubew!"  pace pulled this cute little phrase out of his verbal brain box the other day when i was hanging these cool heart decorations in the window.  happy valentine's day!  

staycation

my mom came to visit the boys, take care of us while we were all sick, and once we were better, she then kicked david and i out so we could have a pre-valentine's day 24-hour staycation!  we love it when bicka comes to visit!  the boys have a super-duper playmate, my mom so graciously and generously changes every diaper and feeds every open mouth, she loads and unloads the dishwasher, and does her own laundry and scrubs the guest bathroom before leaving!  mom--thank you so much for being a spectacular bicka!  

the week before she came out, she was sick with a cold.  and then when she arrived, we were all sick with colds, and pace's cold turned into croup.  we all kind of stayed home and lounged around the first half of the week, trying to get better.  thankfully david and i felt good enough to take off on our 24-hour staycation to slc, and then the day after we got back, my mom got another cold!  i guess we did a lot of sharing east coast and west coast germs.  

we left for salt lake tuesday afternoon after we put the boys down for their nap.  we stopped in scheel's on the way up--a new humongous sports store--it has a ferris wheel inside, columns at the entrance that double as a fish "tank", and all sorts of "stuffed" animals.  i was too whimpy to ride the ferris wheel--i just can't do heights anymore.  we made it up to salt lake and checked in at non other than the grand america hotel!  it was gorgeous and so, so luxe.  after checking in we walked up to city creek mall, which we'd never explored before.  we had a great cheesecake factory dinner, and then went back to the hotel.  WE SLEPT IN the next morning.  that was worth every penny the grand america hotel charged us for one night!  we stopped at the thanksgiving point cineplex on the way home and saw the first installment of the hobbit.  we were the only people in the theatre!!  the picture is kind of dark, but trust me, there isn't any one else in the theatre!  it was so fun to have it all to ourselves!  and then, of course, on the way home we had to find a new pair of shades for pace-boy.  what a super vacation!

a few tricks

pace loves technology!  he uses the iphone and ipad better than i do.  he especially loves the photo booth thing on david's ipad.  i don't think i could count on all of our fingers and toes the number of photos he's taken.

when we ask pace to smile big, he's recently started doing this:

maybe this is why?...haha!  always look to yourself when you wonder why your kids are doing something weird...

i think max is going to be our little comic relief.  he is always up for an ear-to-ear grin, a giggle, a tickle,  and prefers to be gabbing/chatting away.  well, really he's growling , but it'll be chatting once he gets some syllables mixed in with the growls.  don't leave this kid's side for a minute or he'll turn into a wailing banshee!

max has pulled a couple of tricks out of his sleeve:

he thinks shaking his head no is the funniest thing on earth.  he has no clue what it means, it's just for his own amusement!  ready, set, go!

then he promptly follows the head shake with some clapping, as if he's congratulating himself for a trick well done!  max LOVES bedtime.  he starts clapping and giggling when i lay him down on the changing table to get his pjs on.  he wakes up at the crack of dawn (between 4-5am for the day), so i think i'd be clapping, too, if i started getting ready for bed at 545pm.  

who can resist those thighs?!