chico, don't do that!... wait let me get my camera real quick!

Those were my exact words the other day when Chico did this to Brent. Brent was sitting on the ground, can't remember why exactly. Anyway, Chico saw this as a perfect opportunity to go where no chico has gone before. The sink! He climbed up Brent's body, Brent was too tired to stop him. He grabbed the scrubber and started working away. When I first saw it I felt bad for Brent and was telling Chico to get off of him but it was so cute I just had to capture the moment.

p.s. I finally fixed the html problem I have been having with this ding dang blog! For some reason it wanted everything to be one giant paragraph unless I manually entered some divider code. My other two blogs have never had that problem.  I did some digging through the settings today and figured out the solution.  Hoooray!  I'm so happy!

Helping Chico Combat Boredom

Chico is getting BORED at home. So I'm trying to be a "funner" mommy and take him out more often.

Today I took him to the park and let him play for a while. I definitely won the "cool mommy" award for that one. Chico doesn't even care that it's cold. I think he would play out there all day long if I let him. He's not scared to walk in snow anymore. His cute little footprints are all over our backyard. He also doesn't mind touching snow anymore. He saw these boys throwing snowballs, so he copied them and started throwing snow. SO cute.

Yesterday we went to the pool for this swimming time that they have special for mommies and toddlers. We met up with my friend and her two little girls. It was a blast, he loved it! He also loved the beach ball they brought and was throwing it back and forth with them. He's really good about sharing, I keep wondering when he's going to enter the whole "IT'S MIIIINE!!!!" stage. So far, he's just happy to be with other people and play with them. He doesn't care if they take his toy or not! My friend's little girls thought it would be fun to play "ring around the rosies" with Chico. We were trying to get him to hold hands with her two year old. Oh man, it was comical watching them trying to figure that one out! He was pretty cold but was still having a blast. He discovered that it's fun watching Mommy throw the ball into the basketball hoop in the pool, over and over again. :) We saw my second grade teacher swimming, man she's getting old. She's the one that chased me down the hall when I took a cinnamon roll out of the cafeteria in first grade. Boy was I glad when I got her as my second grade teacher. I am sure she's a very nice woman but I was pretty terrified of her when I was a kid. Anyway, that was a random tangent... back to Chico!

He even got brave and started walking around in the shallow parts without my help. He went down the little slide a few times (with my help). He did the whole steering wheel thing and I got drenched. (I hadn't thought my face would get wet so I put on mascara, DUH, it was all over my face when I got out. Oh well) Any suggestions on how to get dressed afterwords without your 1 year old ducking under the curtain and running off while you're totally not decent? That gave me a little scare when he did that. He was just playing with a nice lady the next row over but I could imagine much scarier scenarios.

So a while back I organized a play group for our ward. It's been fun for Chico to learn how to play with other kids. He mostly just watches them but he's learning. :) I think it totally helped with his transition into nursery too. After puzzle time was over and it was time to play with the toys he totally let me leave and was fine the rest of the time! I peeked in during treat time and he was sitting at the table all nicely with all the other children. It was so cute, I almost cried. I honestly had this vision in my head of him on the table kicking off all the other kid's treats so it was a pleasant surprise to see him sitting so nicely.

He's growing up so fast, I can't believe it. He has a new obsession with babies. He'll point at the pictures of himself on the walls and say "baby! baby!". We found a little baby doll of Grandma's and he totally loves it. He holds it and treats it so cute. I pretended to feed his baby this morning with a fork. Then at lunch he pretended to feed his teddy bear some of his quesadilla. He loves having us read to him now. I never could get him to sit still and listen until recently. Now he finds books and brings them to me for me to read. He still has a super short attention span and will shut the book and grab a new one within the first few pages of the book, but he's enjoying the attention from us, that's for sure.

call me crazy

I am really excited for the Olympics!

15 more days!!!

(wonder if they have one of those little sidebar countdown things for the Olympics like they do for babies???)

Crazy thing is, I don't have a t.v. and our internet is only so-so most of the time. Watching them is going to be tricky. Good thing Grandma has a tv.

I just LOVE the Olympics, it's so exciting and thrilling! Down-hill skiing, bobsledding, ice skating, SPEED SKATING!!! After the 2002 Olympics I decided I wanted to become a speed skater. I was showing my friends how fast I could skate and totally biffed it on the ice. A couple years later I tried again (again with friends) this time I biffed it and landed so hard on my knees I got giant hematomas on them. It hurt SO bad. I've decided that dream will never come to pass. But it's still fun to watch.

middle of the night

At about 3:00 I hear Chico start to cry. I hope he'd just go back to bed, but the crying grew louder. I stumble into his room. He's half asleep while crying. I try to get him comfy again so he'll fall back asleep. Didn't work. I try to make a bottle. Wouldn't take it. I tried to feed him Tylenol. Wouldn't let me. I tried to rock him, read to him, and walk him around. He wouldn't stop screaming. By now I was worried so I brought him into our bedroom and said, "Brent, I don't know what to do! I can't get him to stop crying!" Brent sleepily asks me, "Have you taken him on the front porch yet?"

"No....." I reply, I hadn't even thought of it. In my head I'm thinking, 'like that'll work, this kid is REALLY upset'. But I thought I'd give it a try. As soon as I get in the front room he seems to calm a little and by the time I open the front door and take him out there he calmed right down and stared out at the few stars we could see through the foggy haze and down at the city lights. When it got too cold for me to stand out there in my barefooted pajamaness I went back inside and shut the door and we just stared out the front window until he laid his head on my shoulder and started to fall back asleep. Thank goodness Brent thinks outside of the box and calms Chico in non-traditional ways. I need that creative thinking in my mothering. Good thing I've got such a wonderful husband. And he's got some amazing skills (Napolean Dynamite), like picture taking skills:

Anyway Chico has been fast asleep for an hour now and I'm still wide awake. I hate when I can't back to sleep. Guess I'll photo edit for a bit. That always gets me sleepy. :)

another blast from the past...

I've been scrapbooking here and there lately. (It's my artsy craftsy project right now) A little remembrance of the warm summer air has been nice during this cold January. Enjoy these two pages, more to come I promise. :)

I love this man

To this day, this is still one of my favorite pictures. It was taken probably 3 years ago (January 2007) we were dating at the time not quite engaged. But we knew life would never be the same without each other. You know that quote I said about Michaelangelo and art? Well, the same thing is true about us. We are married because life would be miserable without each other.
Brent took me on a fun date on Saturday. We went ice skating at the Olympic Oval, just like we did when we were dating. It's so nice to be married to such a wonderful man. Wouldn't trade it for the world.

Banana Bread

Baking isn't the only thing I do, I promise. I just haven't quite figured out how to share our favorite recipes for our meals like lasagna and cheesy potato soup and pork barbacoa salads because I kind of just throw things together. Someday soon I'll write down those recipes that are in my head. For now I'll share the recipes that are exact.

I LOOOOOVE Banana Bread. So does my man and my little boy. You will love this recipe too


(as long as you don't leave out the sugar like I accidentally did one time, blech!).

1 cup Sugar

1/2 cup shortening

2 eggs

3 bananas

1/4 cup of water

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 cups flour

cream together first set of ingredients. Then mix together the dry ingredietns. Then mix them together.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour if it's a big loaf, 20 minutes or so for tiny loafs, and about 30 minutes for medium loafs. Every pan is different but the best way to tell is to do the toothpick test. (put the toothpick in the middle and if it comes out clean it's done!)

our little artist

This isn't the only canvas he has used, but this is the only time I laughed and thought it was cute, cuz it was just in our closet. I didn't laugh so hard though later on when he did it on our bedroom wall, and then got a hold of a dry erase marker and did a little design on our brand new duvet cover on our bed. I hope I can get that out. If anybody has any suggestions, I'm all ears!

But honestly, it was adorable how he was putting the pencil in his mouth. So dang cute. Oh, and do excuse the graininess (even though it seems to be the style lately...) I was trying to capture the picture quickly while he was still doing the adorable pencil in the mouth routine.

Chico is 18 Months old!

Beautifying my home, one step at a time...

Finally after almost three years we purchased a duvet cover for a super soft comforter that we were given for a wedding gift!!! I LOVE IT! I walked into my room after it was all set up and felt surprised and thought to myself, "That's CUTE!" I haven't had that reaction to anything in our drab bedroom for a long time!

I was going to be all domestic and sew one I promise. BUT I was told by a friend and super good seamstress that it would be cheaper to buy one from a company called overstock.com So I took her advice and we found this one that we love. Way cuter than one I could have made with the designs they have at the fabric store anyway!

art

There is a quote from a book I read about Michealangelo. I don't know if Michaelangelo actually said this or not but I'm sure it's how he felt.

"One should not become an artist because he can, but because he must. It is only for those who would be miserable without it."

I haven't pulled out my painting stuff for over a year. I've been missing it miserably but I've been too busy with photography to paint. I got really burned out in December and mentally could not bring myself to do much photo editing. So out of necessity Brent took over. I still do a little bit here and there, but he does the majority of it now. And can I just tell you, he is GOOD! He is very detailed and thorough and is kind of a perfectionist. And best of all... he ENJOYS doing it. So now, after we put Chico to bed I can pull out my painting stuff and set up my table next to our computer desk and we can work together late into the night doing something we both enjoy. It's been awesome.
I took a picture of it because it is so awesome to me, words cannot describe the peaceful feeling I get when I think about this situation. By the way, don't look too close at the painting, I'm far from finished.

Ball

One of the few words in Chico's vocabulary is "ball". He says it every time he points at the Christmas tree. Then one day he picked up the tennis ball and with the most adorable expression on his face went and put it in the tree.

Time to say goodbye to the tree until next year. I'm sad to see it go but have high hopes that next year I will be able to decorate the whole tree and not just the top. :)

Chico started hamming it up for me when I pulled out the camera...


Chico has kind of claimed this chair as his own. It's low down to the ground and perfect for him in every way! My grandma says these chairs were called "slipper chairs" back in the day, you'd put your slippers on in them I guess! :)
Look at those chubby legs, oh I could just eat them!

A really good movie

Brent and I don't really see a ton of movies. Pretty much only the Pixar and Disney movies that come out and even then, we wait for them to come out on video. Well this is one that we totally would have seen in the theater and we are totally going to buy it! We loved Forever Strong! It was such an inspiring movie. AND, you totally also have to watch the special features and listen to the actual Coach Gellewitz speak. He's awesome. That's all I have to say.

Pancakes/Waffles

This is a, 'can't live without this recipe', recipe.

Best pancakes I've ever had. I got this recipe from a woman I worked for in North Carolina. I figured out (all by myself!) that I can convert the pancake recipe into a waffle recipe by adding a tbsp or two more butter. Such a swell discovery. Since I was in North Carolina these were, however called Griddlecakes because you cook them on a griddle, not a pan. I love the South.

Griddlecakes

3/4 cup milk*
2 TBS melted butter
1 egg 1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder 2 TBS Sugar
1/2 tsp salt
mix wet together, mix dry, then add to wet.
Cook on hot pan or griddle, 1/4 cup of batter per pancake
*I normally add about 1 cup of milk, it all just depends on how thick you like your pancakes. I kinda just add milk until it's just right, you know? If you only do 3/4 cup they will be very thick which is sometimes fun. :)


And believe it or not, these have a funny story to go with them too. I was a nanny for a summer in North Carolina (funnest job!). I had it pretty dang easy and only had to cook dinner for the kids ONE time the WHOLE summer. I loved this griddlecake recipe so much that I made it for dinner! That night the 5 year old got really sick and threw up all over me.
These results are not typical.
Enjoy!

what will the chico do next?

Our cute little chico is just loving his improved skills in climbing. He's getting all over the place. On Sunday Brent found him in the most adorable predicament. Brent grabbed the camera quick, not knowing how long it would last, and without getting it on a preferred setting had to take the picture in, *cringe*, Full Auto.

Totally worth it though:

Not quite sure HOW he got in the garbage can but it's pretty dang cute that he did.

A Newish Blog!

About a year ago I had a distinct feeling that I needed to turn our blog private. With our ever growing photography business I definitely feel good about that decision. But I have been feeling lately like I want to keep a brand new blog that isn't private. This blog address (sarahhatch.blogspot.com) is actually the first blog I created a couple years ago. It was when I very first started doing photography. Then I switched to a different blog name and this one just kinda stayed stagnant and I'd use it for proofs and stuff. But now I want to use this blog again! This blog will, in some ways, be a family journal but will more so just be a fun place to document every day, mommy-type things. If I feel the need to do any documenting that I don't want out there for the whole world to see, I'll record that on the private blog. This one will be updated more frequently so go ahead and add it to your blog lists and I'll mention if I add anything to the private blog. Oh and I would like to keep information about children private still. So our son's name is going to be chico. If you are going to say something about him in your comment, please refer to him as chico. (and if I slip-up and call him his real name please correct me asap!)
Anyway, so you'll recognize the 3 last posts, they're my most recent posts on the private blog, but they're the type of posts I'd like to do on this blog so I put em on here.
And have no fear, there will still be plenty of pictures of chico... hope you don't mind the watermark across the picture though, I still don't trust the cyber world.

artsy craftsy week #1

Remember in my new year's resolution how I said I want to work on some kind of artsy craftsy thing at least once a week? Well... I've been obsessed. I had this idea to have a bunch of pictures pinned up somewhere in my house. The idea kinda stemmed off an idea I saw on a neighbor's blog and off of nie nie's blog. Both of them had them only in black and whites but I just am too in love with the color in a lot of my photos that I couldn't do that. So I had to come up with the WHERE to pin them and the HOW. My fun old roommate gave me a cork board/white board for Christmas one year. I decided to turn it around and spray paint the back all black. You can pin things into the back of both sides. The spray paint worked well and I was able to hang it in my kitchen!

* the only problem with the location of these pictures is that chico learned how to climb up onto our table the VERY same day I put these up. He loves to try to pull the pictures off. I don't know what to do. :( For now, we decided to just keep the chairs away from the table, though he's learned to push those around where he wants him to go too. sigh.

here is the close up view the picture isn't the best...

The next two pictures are of new cute things I got for decorating. (My house was in serious need of a woman's touch, I have been neglecting that part of my creativity).

I got these baskets from Michael's half off. They are perfect for chico's diapers and books and I had this cute blue frame that I've been meaning to hang up to go above them. I love how it turned out, but now I want to paint the handles on the bookshelf white or something. Brent told me it might cost more to paint them than to just go and get new handles. We'll have to check into that, because I'm really not digging the red. I can live with it for now though. :)

Lastly (for now) my mom gave me this cute collage frame for Christmas. I love the design and I love how my black and whites look in it!

And then lastly, I'd like to end with a funny story:

Last night my knee was hurting pretty bad from twisting it as I slid down our icy steps (in case you were concerned, it doesn't hurt anymore, no worries :). So Brent went to go get me ibuprofen and a glass of water. He comes in to the room with the water and then all the sudden his eyes get wide as he realizes he mindlessly took the ibuprofen he had just gotten for me! Oh man, we laughed so hard!

Ann's Chocolate Chip Cookies

The best thing I brought into this marriage was this recipe. :) Just kidding, but they really are the best chocolate chip cookies you will ever make. Brent took some to share at work and his co-worker called them "crack cookies" and accused Brent of trying to get him addicted so that he'd have to pay me to make them for him. They are addicting so beware. The woman who gave me the recipe (Ann) would make them all the time. I used to babysit her kids and it was all I could do not to eat all of them out of the cookie jar and blame it on the kids!



Ann's Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 c. butter
1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 pkg. chocolate chips


Mix butter and sugars until smooth. Add vanilla and eggs. Mix until smooth. Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix until smooth. Add chocolate chips. Drop onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 9-10 minutes depending on your oven.
Some tips: Make the cookie dough balls kinda thick. You can fit 15 on a pan because they don't spread out too much, they stay plump. My recommendation on the baking is to not let them cook too long! They shouldn't turn very brown, these cookies stay kinda white. You can let them get a TINY bit golden brown on the top but any more than that and they are burned. Put them on cooling racks no sooner than 5 minutes after you pull them out. I recommend not to eat them until it's been about 20 minutes since you pulled them out. Keep them in a ziploc and eat them within a day or freeze them, they just aren't the same after 24 hours.

Hope you enjoy them!

And to end with a story:
So speaking of Ann and babysitting her kids. She had three boys when I used to tend for her. They were FULL of energy. It was hard to keep up. Well one day one of the boys was throwing string over the ceiling fan and I was right there watching and have NO idea how this happened but all the sudden the fan came falling out of the ceiling. One of the boys, he was probably 6 or 7 but tall for his age, was standing right underneath it as it started falling and he caught it! He looked like Atlas, that Greek god who holds the world on his back. It was incredible, I think we were all quite shocked at him catching it, him most of all.
I grabbed it off of him and I sat there and studied the fan as I panicked about what the parents would say. As I remember it, it turned out there was only one screw holding the fan up. I didn't feel so bad about it falling anymore, they should have installed it better. :)
Leave it to me to blame other people.

New Year's Resolutions

1. Follow the FLY Lady routine.

2. Do a few of paintings this year. (one for my home, one for a gift, and one of chico)

3. Actually do a couple photo shoots of chico. (why am I so bad at getting around to doing them of my very own son!?) I want to do one at 18 months and 2 years old.

4. Try a new recipe once a week.

5. Work on some kind of *artsy craftsy thing about once a week.

*artsy craftsy for ME is defined for me as anything that enriches and beautifies my home... decorations, sewing, crafts, scrap booking, etc.

and this last one is not really that important but I think it'd be fun because I like to cook and I like eating good food so I'd like to share the joy with y'all.

6. Share a family favorite recipe on blogger once a week.