So Romantic!

As much as both Paul and I would have loved to go out, by ourselves, on a date for Valentines day, it wasn't possible. So we set up shop at home and made the best of it. Stop making fun of us (you, you, and you). You know we are idealists. Thursday night we had a bunch of appetizers: wings, dips, shrimp and then we ate chocolate fondue.....yummy! This is how romantic it got. Paul held Ellie all night and I wrestled Dallin until he went to bed at 8.
Then, on Friday night, I made fondue again. But this time we ate it for the main course. Again...yummy! The steak dipped in horseradish-mustard sauce was the favorite. Dallin's was the cut-up hotdogs!
MMMMMMM...mmmmmmmmmmm...good!
We were trying to recreate Valentines Day 2005. We went up to the Melting Pot with our friends Troy and Shari and spent the night up in Salt Lake. It was so fun and so yummy! Some day we'll do it again! That, and our spaghetti nights...

Rye Bread and Sour Cream

Paul and I are self-proclaimed foodies. We love to cook and we love to eat. We love to try new foods and find that with everything we eat, we review as though we were food critics getting paid. We're not too picky ;) We love walking down the international food aisle at the grocery store and look at everything there is to offer. We bought rye bread the other day, purely by accident. It was yummy and is very tasty toasty! I think I might try to make some now.

I think this is all rubbing off on Dallin, all but the eating part. He's in his picky stage, but that's another story. Lately, he insists on helping with the preparation of every meal. I usually don't mind, unless I am in a hurry. He will stand on our step stool and I will let him dump ingredients into a bowl or pan. Or I will give him a plastic knife and he will cut onions with watery eyes. He'll look at me and say, "eye, eye, eye!!" and go back to cutting. He even makes a mean chocolate chip cookie!

The other night, I made fajita soup for dinner. Dallin opted out, so I made him a turkey sandwich. As Paul and I were busy garnishing our soup, I gave Dallin a spoonful of sour cream. He loves to eat this stuff plain, like yogurt.

I thought the spoonfull of sour cream would go right into his mouth. Instead, he would dollop a bit onto his turkey sandwich, just like mom and dad.

Extremes

I feel as though the last nine months or so have been filled with weather extremes.

From hot, misty, humid HEAT

to dry, dry ,dry

to tornado weather (i hate this one)

and now freezing rain.

I am sure that you all know: I am READY for Spring!

Now that's a binky!

The best sugar cookies that I have made.

I am kind of OCD when I make cookies. I mix the dough just enough, not to much. And I always add more vanilla and almond extract than any recipe calls for. When I am baking the cookies, I set the timer for half the time and then add more minutes as I go just so I can check them a billion times to get the perfect “barely golden”. It’s a process, but I think they turn out great and the time I spend obsessing about them is worth it when I bite into these yummy cookies. These cookies tasted like Granny B’s cookies when I put the Cake Mate squeeze frosting on top.

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup butter (room temperature)
1 cup sour cream
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1-2 teaspoons almond extract
3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven at 375 degrees. In a bowl, cream the sugar and butter together. Mix in the sour cream, the egg, vanilla and almond extracts. Stir in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Wrap cookie dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a couple hours or over night – This step is important, do not skip it!!

Place cold cookie dough on a well floured surface and roll out about ¼ inch (or a bit thicker). Do not roll out too thin, or you won’t get the perfect cookies that I made (haha). Get out your cookie cutters and cut away.

Place cookies about 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet and bake for about 10-12 minutes, barely, barely golden. I check my first batch about 10 times just to make sure I take them out at the right time.

Let your cookies cool before you frost and decorate them.

Sweet Deal

I found a pretty cool blog, Baby Cheapskate, recently. It has all sorts of deals posted on baby deals and steals. This one http://babycheapskate.blogspot.com/2007/10/reader-tips-85-off.html is worth looking into! Seriously, click on the link right now and found out what I am talking about! I found these super cute pink cowgirl boots! They are listed as $18.95. So with the deal of 85% off, they should come out to $2.85, right?! One of every size and color please!

Chili and Mini Cheddar Biscuits

I LOVE the fall. I love the chilly nights and falling leaves. I love mountains full of red, orange and yellow. I love throwing on a sweater. I love cuddling up in a blanket and sipping hot chocolate. I love turning on my oven and using my stove. I love making soup and stew and chili and biscuits. I love the sound and smell of my heater turning on. It brings memories of my childhood at Thanksgiving and Christmas time. I love fall for all the things it brings to me.

Baby Shower

I have the coolest Young Women at church. They, along with a few other amazing friends in my ward, threw me a baby shower tonight. I took my camera with me, hoping it would take some good pictures, but it only takes fuzzy ones in our church building. I needed Paul there to fix it. Anywho--- There are the most amazing people in my ward! Thank you everyone for coming and supporting me! My young women decided that that they would be in charge of all the games and prizes. They passed out little napkin diapers and we all opened them and the people who got the "peepee" and the "poopy" diapers won a prize. Then they had us sit in a circle and we played the LEFT, RIGHT game. Here's the story that Rachel (13) and Nicole (14) made up, they are hilarious!

Once upon a time, in a land far far away of green jello (Utah), there was a family consisting of a woman named Kristen, a man named Paul, and a super baby named Dallin. They suddenly LEFT Utah because they heard rumors that the awesome young women in Winchester, Kentucky were needing another assistant, since the other one LEFT. RIGHT at that moment, she knew she should come and help make them scarves and soap. A year seemed to have LEFT so quickly, because now she’s RIGHT here with us. But what you don’t know is that at night, she becomes a super hero/bounty hunter. Her shoe phone rang, RIGHT in front of Paul, who had no idea of her secret identity. She fled her house to of to the crime scene. As she flew in, she crashed RIGHT into the bank owner. It took him half an hour to explain that they had $6000 and all that’s LEFT is $0.48 now. The witnesses were shouting out directions how to get the criminals: “LEFT, LEFT, RIGHT, RIGHT, straight ahead and your there.” Kristen tried to follow those directions, but RIGHT before she got there, the criminals had already LEFT. As soon as Kristen relocates them, they’re hanging from the top of the Ale-8 factory tied up. “Who did this?” she wondered, as she turned to her LEFT to discover that Dallin the super baby had been the one to capture the criminals. Before she knew it, the police showed up, RIGHT in front of her. As the police LEFT with the criminals, Dallin the super baby and Kristen looked LEFT, looked RIGHT, and gave a sigh of relief knowing the job was done. LEFT, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, RIGHT, RIGHT. The END.

The girls also brought Dallin a bag full of presents to open. He has not left that shiny gold bag out of his sight since then. I laughed so hard tonight. What funny, amazing girls I get to work with every Sunday! Thanks for an amazing shower, yummy food, and all the pink that now fills my home!

**Ale-8-one is soft drink. It is made right here in Winchester. It is like GOLD here, everyone drinks it. It tastes like watered down Gingerale.**

Happy Halloween!!

I get an news letter email from Lion Brand yarns weekly/monthly?? They had this project on it. I want to make this cute felted bowl. How do I felt Amy???? You are a pro at it. I am so scared to try! It is a beginner level project. I can easily crochet the thing, but the felting is so intimidating to me!

On the other hand, this little project might not get started. I have just started a blanket for someone for Christmas. Granny squares! I might give you a sneak peak......

Sandbox Substitution

Do you think that Dallin needs a sandbox? This used to be my herb planter.

Fine Dining

Kristen seems to have returned to her crafty self. Yarn, crochet hooks, thread and the sewing machine again abound in our home. Our dining table has become the craft/sewing table, as seen in the photo below:

This has necessitated a new place to eat. Fortunately, Dallin has been very generous with his resources:

The Craft Bug is Back

I think that my craft bug is finally back. It went away with a vengeance when I had morning, noon, night and every time in between sickness! Here is what I have been up to this last month. I crocheted this blanket on a "I really need to do something with my hands while I watch season premieres, but what do I have to work with now so I don't have to go to the store" night. I used a triple crochet stitch through the whole blanket so that I could weave ribbon throughout. I still need to heat set the ends of the ribbon, as you can see in the picture. I think the baby will enjoy munching on the ends!
I bought this froggy hemmed stitched blanket at the fabric store and simply crocheted a border. I wanted to try to do something a little elaborate, but my fat fingers did not like the tiny crochet hook, so I gave up and finished it simply.
These are a couple rag burp clothes and a changing pad. A friend of mine made me these changing pads, in blue, for my first baby. I needed, okay, wanted some pink ones. I loved these with my boy and have since made a few for other people as baby gifts.
Okay! I will stop with the PINK baby things! Here are a couple pillows that I finished this weekend. I love them!
And in my long search for ties for my handsome little toddler, I finally made a pattern for one. This one needs some interfacing on the back to make it more sturdy. I am so excited to finish it and for my little buddy to wear it to church!

Hidden Treasure

I found this blanket in storage the other day. I forgot it was even there. I made this blanket one evening when I was barely pregnant with my first baby three years ago. The baby was a boy, not a baby anymore, so I folded it up and put away. I made this blanket from $1/yard fabric and didn't want to worry about getting the squares cut and sewn perfectly. I just threw it all together, uneven and all and I think it turned out pretty cute.

Pseudo Sidewalk Chalk

The sidewalk chalk had been neglected to be put away (hid) the other day. Dallin found it and really wanted to color. I didn't want to go outside at the moment so we got out some black paper and colored at the kitchen table. I later noticed that it was raining outside, so I didn't feel too bad about not taking the chalk outside.
Dallin has so much fun and made a huge mess. But I found out that chalk is really easy to clean up, BONUS! It doesn't stain clothes, walls, carpet, or anything else that a marker or even a crayon would. Coloring with chalk is now our favorite thing to do! Of course he got chalk dust all over his face and he was really cute about it! He loved to see his name written and also LOVED the cars and trucks (his latest obsession) that I tried to draw for him.
We showed Paul our art when he got home from work that night. We thought that this would make a great quiet time activity to do during general conference. It turns out, Paul was more interested in coloring with chalk during conference than Dallin was. He drew me a really pretty flower and then was embarrassed when I took a picture of it!

Invasion

Dear Ant Family,

I hope you have enjoyed your stay in our home today. I feel the need to apologize to you and your relatives for sucking you all up with my vacuum, but it was necessary. Now, it is time to go, little ants. I know that Dallin is really good at leaving yummy crumbs all over the place for you pick up and drag along. But you know that your end will come soon if you keep coming back. The piles of crumbs that you have so painstakingly collected and stacked will be vacuum-ized. So please, please, please, stop coming back. I feel cruel in saying this, but you are not wanted here.

Regretfully,

The Duncan Home