Brown bread a la Kelly

A new break through in the kitchen. I made brown bread for the first time. Kelly gave me the recipe that is why I named it after her. It had another person's name in the title previously, but since Kelly gave it to me, I say it now gets to be named after her. She blogged the recipe earlier so go visit her because I am too lazy to retype it all out. The only thing I changed was I used melted butter instead of oil because I like butter better.

The whole reason I had to make bread was because I made jam. Boy this cooking thing is a vicious cycle.

Merry had a great day. She just has a little bit of the poor me syndrome right now. It probably doesn't help that I am there taking pictures of it. Merry was very helpful and tried to fix a broken piggy bank by gluing it together with hydrocortisone lotion. Maybe this is why she had a sad face, maybe not. Who can know for sure?

Jacob told me he loved me a gazillion and forty-six. Merry told me she loved me eighty seconds. I am thinking that they are about the same amount as both are the most either of them can think of. I do feel pretty loved

Little Gracie just says- huh?

Pure Heaven

Today we went to Fredericksburg to pick strawberries. It was beautiful. The weather was perfect and the strawberries nice and red. Merry tasted the fresh strawberries as we picked. The farmer said that if we sampled too many he would weigh us on the way out. I think little Merry needed to be weighed.

Pensive Merry pondering whether or not to eat more strawberries.

I guess she decided eating was better than saving

Red, ripe strawberry finder extraordinaire.

He actually didn't eat any the whole time because he was sure he needed them dipped in sugar. I finally convinced him to try one with out sugar when we arrived home. Then he downed a few more without complaint

a prime candidate

A motley berry picking crew

Pick berries I say.

Grace slept in the stroller the whole berry picking time. She is 10 months old now and has developed very strong opinions on most things.

She loves blueberries, eating rocks, things that roll and hair.

She strongly dislikes being carried by one arm and a neck (which unfortunately happens quite often) and her crib (so the travel crib will still have to do).

She has quite a list of talents now which include clapping, waving and free standing for about 5 seconds. Her favorite hiding spot is in between the 2 green chairs in our family room.

In my kitchen window a little zucchini is sprouting.

Tomorrow we will be canning strawberry jam, jam, jam.

If you live in our area I highly recommend Marburger farms for U-pick. I will be returning for blackberries in a couple of months and probably more strawberries in a couple of weeks because I will probably eat so many we will have none left to make jam, jam, jam.

Disturbing

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with this post, but I felt it must be shared.
The title of the post is referring to catching a mouse in my garage. We caught the mouse on a sticky pad trap. Very disturbing. Even more disturbing was that I discovered it alive on the trap. So what would you do with a mouse stuck to a sticky pad? The most disturbing thing of all is that Merry ran upstairs, got her little pink croc knock-off shoe, and wanted to squash the mouse with it. When Brian pointed out that this might soil her shoe. She then proceeded to take a full-size shovel off of the peg board hanger and wanted to squash the mouse with it instead. Very disturbing indeed. Let's just say the mouse was properly disposed of and Merry did not get to squash it.

PS- I am going to have to post childhood pictures of Brian's sisters and aunts because Merry, pictured in the eighties style photo in the previous post, looks just like them.

Merry Merry

Merry is a funny, funny little girl. Today I went in her room and I found her fast asleep in Gracie's crib. When she woke up I asked why she was in there. She said "I climbed in so I could think about being good." Well it turns out she tore her foam letter puzzle M in half. She decided she needed a time out so she got in the crib and then fell asleep. I am so glad I have Merry to keep me entertained. Here she is with her typical hairdo and food on her face.

I took a few pictures of Gracie today too. This is when the alleged letter tearing occurred.

Happy Valenheart's day

We started celebrating Valentine's by making mail boxes for Jacob and Merry's preschool party. Merry made a giraffe which she named Milky. Jacob made a green guitar.

A front view

A side view

Jacob showing off his gee- tar

For breakfast on Valentine's day we made pink heart-shaped muffins and opened Valentine's mail. Merry was convinced it was Keepit (her name for Cupid) who delivered the cards even though they were signed Mommy and Daddy.

Little miss fuzzy head ready for church in her hand-me-down heart dress.

She celebrated Valentine's day by eating the envelope her card came in. A jar of baby food came in her mailbox. Cupid must have known she was hungry.

Dan came over on Valentine's Day to party with us. Then we all went to Austin on Sunday to celebrate my sister Emilie's birthday. I made my version of Bakerella's heart candy box cake. Maybe not as polished as hers. Oh well.

While we were in Austin we went to a park to snap some pictures. Merry was the only one who wanted to go.

She is getting so grown up.

You can see her nice battle wound in her left eyebrow when you blow the picture up. Hopefully her eyebrow will hide the scar. Thank goodness for steristrips - who needs to visit the ER when you have those on hand?

If you are wondering about the Valenheart post title- that is Merry's name for Valentine's day. So close.

Lucky Me

One baby sleeping is so sweet

Two babies sleeping is even better

Three babies sleeping is very best

It took tons of self control not to poke Gracie in the belly and say whoo- hoo.

Just for the record this rarely happens in my house.

Results from a fishing trip

Brian and Mando brought home some black drum.

Brian posing with his rubber boots on for no particular reason.

Merry wanted to inspect the fish.

Paul wanted to pose with the fish.

I have no idea.

This is what the fish became- fried fish for fish tacos.