It's official.

This kiddo rolls.

P.S. He has absurdly large ears and I love 'em.

Listen Up

Remember the BeeGee's classic "How Deep is your Love?" Here's the cover by The Bird and The Bee.

Yum Yum Monday

The jury is out when it comes to brownies...cake-like or fudgy? These are my favorite fudgy brownies.

{fudgy brownies}

10 TBS. (1 1/4 sticks) butter
1/2 c. rapadura (or succanat)
3/4 c. plus 2 TBS. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp.salt
½ tsp. vanilla
2 cold large eggs
1/2 c. WW flour or spelt flour
2/3 c. pecan pieces


1 Preheat oven to 325°F with rack positioned in the lower third of the oven. Line the bottom and the sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with foil or parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides to make it easier to lift the brownies out of the pan when they are done.

2 Combine the butter, cocoa, sugar, and salt in a medium heatproof bowl. Set the bowl in a wide skillet of barely simmering water. Stir the butter cocoa mixture from time to time until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth and hot enough that you want to remove your finger quickly after dipping it in to test. Remove the bowl from the skillet and set aside briefly until the mixture is only warm, not hot.

3 Using a wooden spoon, stir in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring quickly after each one. When the batter looks shiny, thick, and well mixed, add the flour and stir until you cannot see it any longer, then beat for 40 strokes with the wooden spoon. Stir in the pecans. Spread the batter evenly in the lined pan.

4 Bake until a tester inserted into the center comes out just slightly moist with batter, 15-25 minutes. In my oven and at my altitude these puppies were done in 17 minutes. Let the brownies cool completely on a rack. Lift up the ends of the foil or parchment paper liner, and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Cut into squares.

The Christmas Rundown

For Family Night this week we told Sage that we'd be celebrating two birthdays but we didn't tell her who. We made birthday hats (check out the photo above) and even a birthday cake (brownies). Then we played a guessing game to find out who had a birthday. Can you guess? Joseph Smith and the Savior!




Le Jeep looks good in white no? Just in time for Christmas! Woohoo!

A lovely mom in our new ward invited us to Christmas Eve. Kaly has the most beautiful house and it's perfect for hosting parties. Sage met 2 other 4 1/2 year olds and ate more goodies in one sitting than she's probably had in her entire life. When Shane told her to try a doughnut she asked, "What's a doughnut?"

After eating, playing, acting out the Christmas story with all the other kids and listening to "The Night Before Christmas" she was hungry again. With all of the yummy food around Sage chose an apple...atta girl!




Sage thought Santa would enjoy some cookies and tomatoes, the carrot is for the reindeer.
She wanted to serve Santa two beverages...milk and orange juice. No oranges so we squeezed tangerines. Santa loooved the tangerine juice and thinks we should serve it more often.

Sage's letter to Santa (she wrote it out herself):

Hello Santa Claus. This food is for you. The carrot is for the reindeer.

On the back she provided a food key (you can see in the photo up above). She drew and colored pictures of each food item and then labeled them.




Favorite Gifts:

Sage: Dark Chocolate Reindeer
Micah: wrapping paper (hours of fun)
Shane and Alicia: Sage's 7:30 wake-up time




Santa ran out of sleds so he left this IOU for Sage. We'll take her tomorrow to find one. Shane... errr Santa tried to disguise his handwriting and wrote in lower case. It's been almost a decade since he's used lower case. I about died laughing when I saw his t's....if you click on the picture you'll see what I mean.





Would you believe it if I told you that a hot dog is a big treat around here? We decided that dogs and fries and kombucha would make a great Christmas dinner. The ultimate low key holiday meal eh?

Joy to the world!

Merry Christmas!

A girl can dream.

From Anthropologie.

Golden Slumbers

When Sage was born my sister-in-laws made me promise that I would sleep train her. I read half a dozen book on the subject and at 11 weeks we went to work. It was easy and we were happy.

Sage

Night 1: cried 30 minutes
Night 2: cried 40 minutes
Night 3: cried 30 minutes
Night 4: slept 12 hours straight (plus 2-2 hour naps during the day)

For some strange reason when it comes to Micah I have no will power and I waited 17 (long) weeks to sleep train him. We finally took the plunge last week.

Micah

Night 1: cried 2.5 hours (plus 2 night wakings with lots more crying)
Night 2: cried 3 hours (plus 1 night waking)
Night 3: cried 1 hour
Night 4: Some crying

Yikes! I'm not sure if he's just more persistent than Sage or if he can cry longer because he's older.

It was painful to hear him cry so much but the payoff is huge: a happier baby and two rested parents.