And She's Off!

Almost, that is. Afton is on the verge of crawling.  (And yes I know I've been saying that for a while now, but now it's moving beyond wishful thinking.)  A week ago, Afton added a new skill to her bag of tricks - getting herself up to a sitting position. Last Sunday the temperature hit above 50, so we busted out into the back yard and I caught a play-by-play.

First, the lean forward onto the knees.  
Then the "psyche" -- as in "I'm going to crawl -- psyche!"  It's really just a further lunge forward...

followed by the belly flail.  

But wait, the reverse!  It begins with the splits and encompasses some pushing backward with the arms.  (I much admire the splits as I am so inflexible I cannot come with four or five inches of my toes anymore.)

Ta-dah!

Unfortunately the newfound skill has also made naptime a titch more difficult.  Seriously, who would want to nap when you can sit up and play with, gee, anything really (your blankets, your pink bunny, the crib bumper, the toys hooked onto the carseat that was left next to the crib)?

Today it took the advanced child 50 minutes to give up the sitting-up routine and take her afternoon nap.  You should have been here at 3:50 p.m. to see one ticked off little kiddie being laid down for the FOURTH time.  Her cry spoke of utter betrayal and shattered dreams (not to mention a whole lot of fatigue).  But she woke up happy, which is the best way to end any tale.  

Kiss me.

I'm Irish!

Well, two out of the three of us can (kind of) make that claim.  

Although, Afton gets her good looks from another continent.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Chile Verde, Cupcakes, and Crafts

Lest anyone think Heather only spends her days crafting Utah common law, Heather also spends a great deal of time bettering the world through her myriad of talents.  Case in point, last week when she volunteered to take part in the Utah Appellate Court's annual "chili cookoff," and made chile-verde.  That same day she had volunteered to bake cupcakes for a ward relief society dinner (a ward is an ecclesiastical unit).   That weekend she then demonstrated her talent at crafts by decorating Afton's nursery.  Here is the photographic evidence of Heather's exploits:

Okay, this is not an actual photo of Heather's chile-verde, but it looks pretty close.  Heather used my recipe and it turned out much better than it ever has for me.  While Heather's chile-verde did not win the cookoff, the participants consumed more of her chile-verde than any of the other chilis that were there.  Heather spent hours cubing pork from a shoulder roast, which is a horribly fatty cut requiring a lot of work to get to the meat.  Heather also fire roasted the jalapenos, tomatillos, and anaheim peppers that make up the sauce.  While Heather may have lost the rigged electoral vote, she definitely took the popular vote .

Once Heather got home, it was time to bake the cupcakes.  She made these chocolate cupcakes with a strawberry meringue frosting I believe.  As you can see, she then accompanied the cupcakes with whole fresh strawberries. *As an aside, Heather's original cupcake plan was to bake a white-chocolate cupcake with the strawberry meringue frosting.  However, due to a bad recipe they did not turn out as planned.  I will save that story for another blog post.

A close-up of a cupcake which were quickly consumed at the dinner.  
Then Heather spent the weekend sanding and painting the letters of Afton's name for her nursery.  The letters match the colors of the bedding and some other stuff in that room.  I was amazed at her ability to hang the letters so they were even.  If anyone has ever been in my bathroom at home where I "eyed" the towel racks and mirrors, you will appreciate her accuracy. 
Afton and I are very grateful for all of Heather's talents.  While Heather was making the world a better place through food and craft, I was spending hours preparing myself for this year's March Madness bracket.   This too will have to be another blog-post, but let's just say one person in our household has actually won a March Madness bracket pool and it's not the one who spends hours watching and researching this type of stuff.  It was the one who used such analytical guidelines as: west coast over east coast and which team has cooler sounding names, mascots, and colors.  I've got to perform well this year to win back some credibility.  

Oh, sweet pea

Afton took three big bites of peas before we realized she wasn't swallowing. 


Tony is debating whether we need to perform an exorcism.