Once there was this Funny Boy and this Artsy Girl: February 2012

Fruit Pizza and Bruschetta

- We made fruit pizza this past weekend and it was INCREDIBLE!
- We ate a couple slices with every single meal until it was gone
- (because it has fruit on it so that makes it healthy right? That cancels out the fact that the crust is a giant sugar cookie and the topping is whipped cream and cream cheese, we won't even go into what the glaze is made of).
- This recipe is a combination of two recipes I found on allrecipes.com. This one and this one.
- And the pictures are from allrecipes too.

Crust

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

(or an 18 oz package of refrigerated sugar cookie dough)

Topping

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
Fruit
(strawberries, kiwis, oranges, grapes, blueberries, bananas, pineapple, raspberries, etc.)

Glaze

1/2 cup white sugar
1 pinch salt
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon orange zest

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 3/4 cup sugar until smooth. Mix in egg. combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Press dough into a greased pizza pan.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until lightly browned all over the top. Cool.

4. In a large bowl, soften cream cheese, then fold in the whipped topping. Spread over cooled crust. You can chill for a while at this point, or continue by arranging the fruit.

5. Begin with strawberries, sliced in half. Arrange in a circle around the outside edge. Continue with fruit of your choice, working towards the middle. If bananas are used, dip them in lemon juice so they don't darken. Then make a sauce to spoon over fruit.

6. In a saucepan, combine sugar, salt, corn starch, orange juice, lemon juice and water. Cook and stir over medium heat. Bring to a boil, and cook for 1 or 2 minutes, until thickened. Remove from heat, and add grated orange rind. Allow to cool, but not set up. Spoon over fruit. Chill for two hours, then cut into wedges and serve.

And while we are on the topic of food from this past weekend, we love this bruschetta recipe.

Adam sometimes gives this little girl licks of his favorite foods (Gardetto's and ice cream) and she loves it! She smacks her lips to get all the flavor off her lips and into her mouth.

A couple more months until we start solids for real.

Ella Is Laughing So Hard, She Can't Even Breathe

Hangout

Have you used Google+ Hangout before?

My beautiful and amazing roommates from my sophomore year now live in four different states and we talk to each other on the phone but we haven't gotten to all talk to each other at the same time for a long time. But this past weekend we changed that.

And it was awesome.

We talked for more than two hours.

We screen shared to show each other pictures

And showed off babies and a picture of a soon-to-come baby

And pulled out memoirs from years ago and reminisced.

So pretty much it was wonderful and you should definitely try it out.

Bath Time is Always a Favorite

The bath is definitely Ella's favorite part of her bed-time routine each night.

At first I thought that giving her a bath would take too long to do every single night but we learned how to get her in and out of the tub in less than 10 minutes.

And she just loves it so much, it's worth doing every night.

After her bath, we rub her in lotion, put her in pjs, feed her and then Adam sings her all sorts of songs (everything from primary songs to Backstreet Boys) and she just sucks her thumb and then we put her in her bed.

Two nights ago she slept for ELEVEN HOURS STRAIGHT!!!

She didn't wake up even once to eat.

It was mind-bogglingly amazing.

An Ode to Coldstone

We love you a lot.

Many milkshakes we have bought.

Adam likes berries

But he does not like cherries.

Sometimes he likes mint

But not when it has lint.

A "like it" just isn't enough

Because this ice cream is great stuff.

You'll want to eat more.

Happiness abides here galore.

Annie's pregnancy she would not have survived,

Even Ella would have died

If it weren't for wonderful Coldstone.

by Adam and Annie (expert ode writers)

Writing the ode

Proof that "happiness abides here galore."

Clips of Little Girl's Life

Some clips of Ella all compiled into one video.

Clip 1

Ella loves that Daddy of hers.

And she loves funny noises.

(Yeah, I know, the bed is missing it's sheets again. An awesome thing about having a baby: the sheets have to be washed 1-2 times a week with the amount of times that milk and poop seem to get on them, at least that's how it goes at our place. It's ridiculous. But sleeping in dirty sheets is gross, so I'm okay with washing them all the time to have them be clean.)

Clip 2

She was just hanging out with her dad and that's how he was holding her and it she was loving it.

Clip 3

Thumb sucking.

After she wakes up and we cuddle and giggle I put her in her pac-n-play with some toys and some music (Ella Fitzgerald in this clip) while I get dressed and talk to her. (Yes, her bed is in the closet. It's dark in there so she sleeps well in it. Plus she can imagine that she's Harry Potter). She doesn't have much interest in toys yet (except for this neon yellow snail that sings "you are my sunshine" she always smiles when she hears him singing that ridiculous song) but she loves sucking on that thumb and I just think her thumb sucking is so cute.

Clip 4

How much Ella loves watching sports.

We got home from church, that cute-faced boy was making dinner and the Super bowl was on and Ella laid there and just watched football for the longest time.

At one point she has this mini freak-out where it looks like she's lost her balance. She's been doing that since her two month immunizations but it used to be way worse. She would fling her arms out, her eyes wide with fear and she would let out this desperate panicked scream and gasp for air until someone rushed over and held her arms against her body and let her know she was safe. She would do it all the time. Now it's just occasionally and she's learned to calm herself pretty quickly.

Clip 5
Ella is skyping with her grandparents.
She hyperventilates to express happiness
(at least we like to think it means she is happy because she does it a lot).
(And please note how amazing it is that there is a sheet on the bed!)

Winter hat and a tiny swimsuit

Poor little girl, her mom dresses her so insanely.

Her belly and thighs in this tiny bikini-- love!

Prepping jars for the Valentines dinner decorations that we were in charge of last weekend. I loved all the different shapes of the jars.

Making this for dinner tonight-- one of Adam's faves (especially with the lime juice added-- yum!)

That cute-faced boy's birthday

It was this cute-faced boy's birthday this week!

We went to Kneaders for brunch for their all you can eat french toast of incredibleness.

We'll celebrate with friends next weekend.

He had the day off work and we just played with Ella, took a nap, watched Moneyball and cuddled inside while it poured rain outside. Then we went out for dinner, it was a wonderful day!

It's fun to just be a family

I love this picture from last summer!

What is happening in Adam's life:

So Adam started working for a new company last month and just a month and a half later he got promoted to be a leader over a team of employees! Next week he's being flown to Salt Lake City for a few days to be trained in his new job. It's pretty great! And he is pretty amazing!

And Adam's ward basketball team is currently 5-0. He loves playing.

Ella is his biggest fan.

She hardly takes her eyes off the game even when she is exhausted and needs to sleep.

And Adam is the greatest dad to Ella! That girl saves all her biggest most wonderful smiles for him because she knows he is the one who makes her laugh and who does crazy things with her that she loves! She just adores him and I don't blame her at all.

Happy Birthday, Love of my Life!

And a side note:

How cute is this baby swimsuit by Roxy?

I love it so much, it would be perfect for Ella!

Ben and Jerry's and a candle-lit dinner that Ella cried through

I love seeing peoples reactions to different posts on here and I loved how much you guys seemed to like the post where Ella was talking from the laundry basket-- thanks for letting me know!

So Valentines Day. Did you know that I kept every single silly Valentine I ever got in elementary school until like just a couple years ago? It seemed wrong to put a Valentine and even birthday cards that had my name on it into the trash, it would be like saying I didn't care about that person's thoughtfulness. So I kept every Valentine and birthday card I had ever gotten from the time I was 7 until I turned 21 in a huge box under my bed. And then I magically had some sense knocked into me (actually we just ran out of storage space under the bed) and I realized no one cared if I kept their valentine from ten years prior (especially if I no longer remembered who that person was) and I finally threw them away.

Have you seen the amount of crazy flavors that Ben and Jerry's has on their website? There are six pages that look like this and as you run over the flavors with your mouse it tells you what is in each flavor, and they are incredible flavors!

I may have ~~accidentally~~ left the Ben and Jerry's website open on Adam's laptop with the Creme Brulee flavor expanded.

You'll never guess what I got for Valentines Day.

I ate it for breakfast because I'm a really healthy person.

He went to three different stores to find the flavor-- oh wow that boy is amazing!

He is good at reading hints too--always a bonus.

He also left sweet notes all around the house for me, I mean everywhere, like on the toilet and in the fridge and on Ella's wipes.

Adam's birthday is today so we kept Valentines Day pretty low key so that we could do more stuff for his birthday.

We had a candle-lit steak dinner.

It would have been romantic if Ella hadn't been screaming the whole time.

It's grape juice in a wine glass, you know, because we don't drink alcohol and stuff.

(How great is it to add "and stuff" and the end of a sentence? As if it adds any extra meaning to the sentence.)

And then some pictures because we're still picture crazy and probably will be like that until all our children are grown and are out of our home:

Big head. Little legs.

At a college basketball game with our friends, the Steadmans.

Ella loves watching basketball-- a lot.

Adam plays on Thursday nights and Ella thinks it is so great.

So fuzzy on top!

I love cuddling with this girl.

Valentines Day and More Date Ideas

Happy Valentines Day!

I saw a pin on pinterest that lead to a website that lead to another website that listed Great Date Ideas and I really like some of the ideas! (Thanks, Nicole, for the pin)!

Here are some of my favorite ideas (but go to the website if you want even more):

Five-dollar date
For a simple and economical date, take your spouse to a farmer’s market, flea market or antique shop with only five dollars each. Together, scour the stalls for the perfect five-dollar gift for each other. Unusual or quirky items make good gifts, as do market foods, used CDs, jewellery, books, records and small antique items. And be sure to be sneaky and buy your gift when your mate isn’t looking so you can unveil your treats for each other together.

Hello again
Remember the early days when you and your spouse were first dating? Recreate the excitement of your first encounter with a date pretending you don’t know each other. For example, set a time and place with your date for your “chance” encounter. On the big night, dress to impress before you head out. When at your meeting location, keep an eye out for your love and be ready with some smooth (or corny) pick-up lines. Then, spend the evening flirting and getting to know each other all over again!

Spice it up!
If you’re bored of your recipe repertoire at home, take this opportunity to learn how to make new and exciting dishes with your spouse. Try community centre cooking classes that offer different ethnic foods and spend each week learning something new to try at home with your spouse. Learning a new skill, plus having the added bonus of tasting the outcome of your efforts, can spice up your weekly routine – and your relationship!

Thrift store makeoverGo to a local thrift store and pick out a piece of furniture (bookcase, end table, picture frame, etc.). Next, buy a can of spray paint to match your find to your house’s style. Sand down the surface of your purchase, paint it and let it dry. You’ll then have a new piece of decor that looks good as new – and it costs next to nothing!