Mass

Today at mass, I was pointing out Jesus up on the Crucifix above the altar and Izzie said quite loudly - "My Jesus, I have poops!"

I almost fell off the kneeler.

Baking

As mentioned previously, I have started to really get into baking, specifically cookies. I have been bringing in anywhere from 2-4 batches of cookies into work per week for the last 3 and 1/2 months now. It has been getting pretty fun! When I am not able to make cookies for a couple of nights, I even start to go through cookie withdrawal :(

My inspiration has been coming from this book. While not every recipe works exactly as billed (the s'mores cookies were a pain), almost every cookie I have made from here is awesome!

Today, I made cookies called "top-heavy heavenly hash." I have to say, they look pretty impressive! The chocolate cookie on the bottom is crisp and crunchy with marshmallows and walnuts and chocolate chips piled on top. They were surprisingly light!

I made these cookies a couple of weeks ago, entitled "lemon ginger cookie sandwiches." These may be the most impressive cookies I have made so far. Also very yummy.

The other thing I have been baking pretty consistently are biscuits. These are Betty Crocker's biscuits with 1 cup of Tillamook cheddar cheese added in. Oh man are these a great breakfast!


The best part is that Izzie still likes to help me "mak-a coo-kies a-day!"

Family Pics from the Summer

Over the summer, we had some family photos taken by the same photographers who did our wedding. They also did some family photos for us last summer, which we absolutely loved.

Here are a few selections...

Halloween

Last year for Halloween we were in Oregon and Izzie was still too little to go out and Trick-or-Treat. This year, we were pretty sure that she would be interested.

A few weeks ago we ordered her costume online - a Jessie costume from Toy Story! She has really enjoyed watching Toy Story ever since we went to see her first movie - Toy Story 3.

We were a little worried she wouldn't want to wear the costume, but after a successful dry run yesterday, everything went pretty smoothly.

We decided to go over to Matt's parent's house for Halloween as our street doesn't seem to have many kids nor decorate for Halloween. It ended up being a good choice because the street was completely empty when we got back home this evening.

Izzie ended up having a great time and even kept wanting to go back out! She was pretty cute and even occasionally said "trick or treat." Mostly, she just said "oh, welcome!" when she was supposed to say "thank you." Oh well. She did throw in an occasional "bye bye" and a "see you later" now and then, which was pretty cute.

On to the pictures!

Izzie waiting for her chance to go out while another neighborhood grandkid stops by.

Izzie's turn! She insisted upon carrying that Ty pumpkin around.

Getting some candy!

Check out what I got everyone!

It was pretty successful overall!

Matt is afraid she will want to go Trick-or-Treating tomorrow.

Making cookies

For the last couple of months, I have been baking cookies and bringing about 75-85% of the batches to work to share with the other doctors and the nurses. One of the best parts about it is that Izzie really really likes helping bake the cookies. She will stand up on our step stool right next to me and help me dump the cups/teaspoons of ingredients into their appropriate containers. She also likes to help stir up the dry ingredients after I have thoroughly mixed them (I guess I wasn't thorough enough). Sometimes I catch her licking her finger and sticking it in the flour (oh well). Her favorite part is, of course, when she gets the beater after the mixer has finished mixing the dough.

After I have cut the cookie dough or spooned it onto sheets, she sits on the ground with me and watches the cookies in the oven - for a little while. Then we play in the kitchen and wait for the cookies to be finished cooking.

It has been a lot of fun to bake with Izzie! At our old place, we really didn't have room to bake, and I very rarely got the mixer our to make anything. Here, our kitchenaid sits in the corner on the counter and I just slide it out to make something. :)

The people at work have really liked my baking prowess as well - usually I try to bake something a couple of times per week and everyone seems to think that the cookies are pretty tasty. I certainly like them.

Anyway, I have really enjoyed my newly-found baking hobby, and Isidora really likes to bake with me :)

Episode VI: Return of the Dadi

Yes, I did just go there with the title.

Anyway, as I have not posted on our blog in quite some time, and as my wonderful wife has subtly and not-so-subtly hinted as such, I am finally getting back into posting.

Bree has covered some of the pertinent info, but here is some more!:

Bree's birthday was the 24th. I will follow gentlemanly form and not reveal the age of my spouse in this space, but I like to think she had a nice birthday celebration. The main event this year happened the weekend before the actual day, as we were able to take advantage of a fabled Golden Weekend (weekends where call schedule for residents lines up perfectly and they get the entire weekend free) and take off to a bed and breakfast, leaving Izzie with my parents. It was called Amber House, and was very nice and relaxing. It was located in the town of Rocheport, MO, just outside of Columbia, home to the University of Missouri (or Mizzou as it is known). Unbeknownst to us when we originally were planning the weekend, there was something of a wine festival going on that weekend, which we lightly participated in. Not only that, but the sleepy town of only 200 or so had two very good restaurants. The more fancy of the two was the Blufftop Bistro, owned and run by Le Bourgeois winery. The second, more urban and laid back, was called Abigail's, and boasts a new menu every day. All in all it was a very nice getaway, and Bree really liked her present. Oh, and I also picked up some nice earrings which I happen to think she likes very much.

As of now, the house is pretty much set and stuff works. The last major item, just purchased and installed, was the garage door opener. The wife is very very pleased with this, as we no longer have to manually open and close it. It's like we've joined the 20th century or something.

The stay at home saga continues for Izzie and me, and lo, some transition has definitely occurred since last I blog'd thereof. Izzie now has fully changed over to napping in the afternoon, usually around 1 o'clock. This means Daddy's routine must change, too. For example, instead of exercising on Wii Fit (yours truly has lost something like 8 or 9 pounds and is way more pro

ud of himself in the mirror, but seems to have plateaued at around 140, not that anybody is complaining) while Izzie naps, I usually try to fit in what I can while she is awake, with our without Wii.

The usual daily routine starts somewhere after 5 but before 6, at which point I get up to groggily make coffee and breakfast for Bree. At this point Bree has already done her own workout routine downstairs at an absurdly early time and is usually in the shower or perhaps already out. Doctors are workaholics.

Izzie tends to wake up right after Bree leaves for the hospital, so then the two of us have breakfast. Lately I have been trying to get us out of the house more, and with Izzie napping in the afternoon, the time before lunch is when this happens. We sometimes have to just do errands like go to the grocery store, but we are able to do fun stuff as well. Whether we go out or hang at home, Izzie and I usually eat lunch around 12:30 and then she gets tired around 1 or so. She still naps for around 2 hours, after which we find something to do until it is either time to get started on dinner, or Mama gets home.

Today's excursion was a simple one. We took the new umbrella stroller (I keep leaving the big stroller at my parents' house) and walked around the neighborhood to the nearby MacDonald Park. Picture time!

Artist's rendition of Izzie and I walking across the soccer/baseball field to get to the playground. Just imagine the stroller folded up and held under my arm instead of an enormous samurai weapon, and it's pretty dead on. It was kind of hard to take a picture of us walking across the field but I'll bet it was cute, so this will have to do.

Trying out the new stroller. And sticking out tongue. Precious.

Swinging. Weeee!

After swinging for a while I asked Izzie if she wanted to play in the jungle gym area or go back in the stroller. Surprisingly, she preferred stroller. So we made our way back home and had lunch. It became clear that Izzie was getting more and more tired, so a little after 1 she finished lunch and took a nap. And here I am blogging about it.

As the above pictures were from my phone (except for the one from the Lone Wolf and Cub samurai movies) I'll end today's post with more recent and cute Izzie pictures from said phone. Engage!

"I've decided I need to wear Daddy's apron."

"What? Am I being cute or something? Woody and Buzz need to get clean too, you know."

"Daddy says this car runs extremely well when you consider that he used to play with it with uncle Ben when he was little. I would prefer something with a few more horses and maybe some bigger rims, but for a first car it's not too shabby."

"Usually I knock daddy's block towers down before they get anywhere near this tall. This time I let him get to 19 blocks, and let his hubris be his own undoing as he tried for 20. Heh, heh, heh..."

Post-call nap time. Awwwwwww.

Story of the Day

Today when Isidora was lying on the changing table after her bath, she grabbed her hands together and said "Peased to meet you!" This was shortly followed by slapping her hands together and saying "High five!" and then "poun it!" (pound it, or a fist bump).

It was pretty cute.