Cooking and Baking

My little helper!

Last week Sydney and I spent a day in the kitchen. We love cooking together but haven't been able to much since Violet was born. First on the list was cookies of course!


We were blessed with so many meals from friends when Violet was born so we wanted to pay it forward to other families with new ones. We made lasagnas to go with all the cookies. We also have been making Amish Friendship Bread lately so we made up a regular batch, a batch of the lemon blueberry, and another of chocolate pecan. Yummy! All this baking has really made me ready for fall. I just love baking and especially sharing it with others.


And on a final note, this past weekend we were in San Diego for Shane's last three day weekend. We just relaxed, ate good food, spent time with a good friend, and swam. Shane took Sydney to the Olympic training center while Violet and I napped one day. It was nice to be away from all the smoke. Now we are back home and it is so gross outside. It is raining ash all over and even though we are closed in tight, the apartment is starting to smell like smoke. My prayers and thoughts are with all those who are much more effected then us and with all those fighting the fires.

Great-Grandparents

For one of Shane's three day weekends we headed north to visit my grandparents. It was great to see them with the girls. One of my grandfather's passions is gardening and he took Sydney outside to pick tomatoes. She loved it and ate half of them before we even left. It was a great visit and just reminded me how much tradition and history I have through my family.


While we were in town we also spent time with the rest of my family (except Richard who was at training). Sydney had tons of fun going shopping with her aunties for baseball gear. She then called for a game with everybody so we played a girls vs. boys t-ball game. Although lots of rules were broken and we all had errors it was lots of fun.

Shane has two more Fridays off so we will have a couple more three day weekends to enjoy before getting back into the routine. This extra time with Shane has been great!

Big Sister

Above pictures by Amy Agadoni Photography

We were wondering how Sydney would react to a new baby in the house. Sydney has been an only child for four years. Plus, for most of that time none of our friends had children so she was the only child period in her little world. Everybody was telling us stories including some of when I was younger and my baby brother was brought home.

We should not have worried though. Sydney is great with Violet. She is still learning how to be gentle and to leave her alone when she is sleeping. But for the most part, Sydney just wants to help: help wash the baby's clothes, help feed her, help bathe her, help change her, etc. She is a wonderful big sister already.

Here's one of their first pictures together.

So what special things to big sisters get to do? Swimming of course.


And learning how to embroider too.

Shane has Fridays off as part of his paternity leave so we have been busy. I will share more as soon as I have another good day with the girls and have a little extra time. ;)

Violet Olivia

I would like to introduce Violet Olivia to this blog. She will undoubtedly make more appearances here in the future. She was born two weeks early on July 17 at 6:16am. She was 6 pounds 15 ounces and 19 3/4 inches long (same length as Sydney and exactly one pound lighter). Shane and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie with friends and as soon as it was over my water broke. She is such a good baby overall. She is sleeping fairly well and eats great. She mostly grunts and only cries when really hungry or when the grunting doesn't get her the attention she wants. She is such a joy and we are in love with her. She already seems like she will be stubborn and patient, even though those two things seem to contradict each other. The picture was taken by a good friend Amy Agadoni who is a great photographer. They were taken when Vi was two weeks old, which was the day she was due. More to come soon.