Gifts For The Boys

Another surprise of the week was when I weighed the boys...what's your guess?



Caden - 30.5 lbs.
Corban - 25 lbs.

Hey Caden, watch out for your "little" brother!

Morning Face

This is what the boys look like for the first 30 minutes or so after they get up in the morning...all they need is milk and a video and they totally zone out...

Soooooo Sleepy

I think every parent has a video of their child falling asleep in the highchair. Here's ours:

sleepy corban

Well, OK, he doesn't actually fall asleep...but it's still pretty cute.
(FYI: the sign for "all done" is twisting both hands)

Caden's World

Come on in, just remember: It's his world, and we all just happen to live in it...
You're gonna see some really cool stuff...There are hot dogs in C1's world...And a momma...And a daddy...A little brother...A few friends...And lots of smiles...
And just when you want him so say something fun and 3-year old-ish...It's his world, and he'll say what he thinks, when he wants!

Water Fun

Bath time with bubbles is the best...and make some fun pictures too!

...and here's a fun video simply because most people don't go swimming in January.

Just For Fun

I know, I know...you're wondering if it was really cold enough to wear long sleeves and pants, plus a winter hat in Africa. No, not really...but the long-clothing helps with the mosquitoes and when it's cold we take every chance we get to dress our kids up in "winter" clothing. It's a form of entertainment for us. ;)

Yes, I found him this way. I don't think any true "potty-ing" occurred.
Oh, and sorry Betsy, but I cut his hair....not a lot, but one day the tangles were too much for me and Caden. (the dry season was zapping the curls...I'll post newer pics soon)

Warning: Lots of Corban Ahead

That's right, this is a Corban is a cutie post. Enjoy the pics and the video!

I feel the need to inform our viewers that the following video is slightly boring...unless you're family, then I'm sure you'll love it.

Baking Firsts

I've had two "firsts" in the last few weeks that I am quite proud of. So many of you ask about our daily life that I'd thought I'd share some of the exciting parts...at least exciting to me.


Having two little boys in the house, we don't have many "girly" things around and definitely no pink. So when I had the opportunity to make a Barbie cake for a friend of ours, I couldn't think of a better color for frosting than PINK. Let me tell you, my kitchen has never seen so much pink! I wasn't sure how it was going to go....but it was actually a lot easier than I thought. I enjoyed it and Sydney was quite excited to see her Barbie cake.
We had a group of 17 adults and 19 children to serve cake to and I knew the Barbie cake wasn't going to cut it. I had plenty of pink icing, so the cupcakes received the same flower shapes of frosting as the Barbie did. I told you it was a lot of pink!
The other thing I did for the first time was bake bread. I have lived here for 2 years and always let my houseworker make my bread for us. I figured, in the States, I would just buy it from the store so it's not really different if I don't make it myself. Well, recently, we've stopped liking the flavor of her recipe so I got ambitious and attempted to make homemade white bread myself.

The loaves turned out great! Brett couldn't stop talking about how good it was. When I asked Caden what he thought, he said, "it good, Momma" and then proceeded to ask for more bread all day.

Before moving to Africa I always wanted to enjoy cooking but couldn't bring myself to make anything that required too many ingredients or too much effort. Living here and not having convienences has required me to get in the kitchen and just try things. I now LOVE to cook and have become very interested in cookbooks and new recipes. I actually wish I had more time in the kitchen by myself to just cook. Nearly all my cooking requires me to make a lot of extra ingredients...true "scratch" cooking. But I love the feeling when someone compliments my cooking and I know that I made that dish myself. It's funny to me that after a few months of living here I would tell people that the cooking was the hardest thing for me to adjust to...now it's one of my favorites.

Happy New Year

For a special New Year's treat, make sure your speakers are turn on...but not too loud.