More House pictures

Here's a few pics of the inside. None of the bedrooms were clean enough for pictures today, except Tyler's but he was sleeping. I'll have to post those later. We have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Its nice that we can have the boys in separate rooms when the baby is still little, but it means we've moved the office down to the basement which is unfinished and really cold. Andy and I bundle up every time we go down there to use the computer. I told Andy the basement can be his "Man Cave" and he can do whatever he wants with it. We have our treadmill and weights down there too. Probably by next winter we'll move the office upstairs and try the boys sleeping in the same room. Hope our next baby's a better sleeper than Tyler!

Here's our spacious kitchen. I love how much cupboard and counter space it has.

Andy finally got his big screen t.v. He got a killer deal on it though - you gotta love Costco! We also decided to get nice leather couches after selling most of our furniture last May before we left for Samoa. We also got a good deal on them. They're really comfortable and the couch reclines on both sides!

This is looking towards the front door. The first door goes down to the basement. The one in the middle is the front door and the one of the right goes to what will be the baby's room. Down the hall is Tyler's room and our bedroom.

We Moved!

Finally, a blog entry after over a month. I have a lot of catching up to do. We moved over a month ago and sadly I'm just now posting some pictures. I've been waiting until we could hang some pictures on the wall but decided this could take too long. I'll just have to post the finished product later. So here's our cute little house in Spanish Fork. We're starting to get to know our neighbors and really like it here.

We have plenty of storage space with a two car garage and a big unfinished basement.

I love having a yard for Tyler to play in too. I'll have to create some shade this summer, but its nice to have it all fenced in.

We love the view from our back windows. It faces West so we get to watch the beautiful Spanish Fork sunsets every evening. Its just a big open farm field behind us and apparently the farmer doesn't even grow anything in the field.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

For anyone who wants to try it - Here's the recipe for the cake I made for Tyler's birthday. If you're a chocolate peanut butter fan - you'll love it.


Chocolate Cake (I found this one on the internet):

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch round pans.
2. In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Make a well in the center and add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat for 2 minutes at medium speed. Stir in boiling water.
3. Pour into two 9 inch pans. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and continue cooling.

Peanut Butter Frosting

This isn't an exact recipe. You you just have to kind of play with it until it looks like the right consistency.

1. Start with about 2/3 cup of creamy peanut butter
2. Add 1 tsp. vanilla and about 1/3 cup of milk (may need to add more)
3. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Then just keep adding powdered sugar until the consistency looks right for frosting (about 2-3 cups).
4. If it gets too thick: just add more milk. If it seems too runny and soft: add more peanut butter or sugar

Frost the cake once cooled. I sometimes add pieces of Reese's cup to the top. Enjoy!

Tyler's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Tyler's 2nd birthday today. He woke up and asked for his presents right away. We decided to give him one thing in the morning - his Lightning McQueen car. It entertained him the rest of the day. He even took a nap with it. We met some of his cousins at Carl's Jr. for lunch and he got to play on the playground.

I made his birthday cake entirely from scratch this year. Chocolate Peanut Butter cake! Its a family favorite.

I don't have enough pictures of Andy on this blog. I thought this was a cute picture of Tyler with his dad.

We got Tyler this tent from IKEA for his birthday. It was a definite hit. I would highly recommend it. Only $15 and its really easy to set up and take down. Tyler calls it his "house" and had to put all of his new presents inside. He also got new trucks from Grandma and Grandpa and a Tough Trike which he was very excited about.

Recent Funny Tyler Comments:
After telling him he was having peanut butter on his chocolate birthday cake, his eyes lit up and he said "Thats Great!"
While pulling out of the driveway when I accidently put the car in drive instead of reverse and had to slam on the breaks "Easy Mom."
After leaving the doctor's office for my prenatal appointment "Baby brother come out now?"
While looking in the mirror after getting dressed in the morning "I handsome."

Tyler Update

I feel like I haven't been very good about recording all of my "Tyler moments" lately. He's growing up so fast I can hardly believe it. He'll be two next week and is definitely a toddler now. He talks non stop and will repeat just about anything we say. He has an amazing vocabulary for his age. One day a few weeks ago he told me "Mom I need to exercise." I'm not sure he knows what exercise is, but he must have heard Andy and I say it to each other. He is in love with cars, trucks, and anything with wheels. My father-in-law bought a new ATV last Saturday and Tyler has been obsessed with it ever since. He always asks to go see it outside in the driveway and tells me "I need to drive it." (Another 14 years buddy) He's recently moved into a "Big Guy" bed and did the transition pretty well. He calls it his "guy boy" bed. He had his older, potty trained cousins around this week and now wants to be like the big kids and tells me multiple times a day that he needs to go potty. I humor him by sitting him on the toilet for a few seconds and then letting him flush it, but I'm not expecting any miracles yet. He's been so much fun over the past two years. I'm excited to experience it all again with a new baby soon.

Back in Utah with a Job

I've been very behind on my blogging lately. My excuse is that I don't have a house of my own right now, but really I've just put it off. So the latest update is that Andy got a job! He's working for a state run medicaid mental health facility in....Spanish Fork! I'm actually really excited to move back to Spanish Fork because I really liked living there before. I still have hopes for living somewhere outside of Utah in the future, but for now we're grateful to have 1) income 2)supervision towards Andy's Social Work license 3) really good benefits! We feel very blessed right now considering how difficult finding work is for a lot of people with the current economic state. We're still living in Andy's parent's basement in Provo right now, but we're hoping to find a place to rent down in Spanish Fork in the next month or two. Being a "gypsy" for so long, I'm anxious to finally settle somewhere and unpack our bags especially before the next baby comes.

Another Boy!

We had our 20 week ultrasound today and knew right away that we were having another boy! I've had a feeling I would end up in a house full of boys and I guess I was right. We're excited that Tyler will have a brother close in age to play with and glad we already have a ton of boy clothes too! He's got two arms and two legs and everything seems to be working as it should. The doctor said he's going to make sure this baby isn't over 8 lbs when I deliver this time and I'm grateful to hear that! Here's a few pics from the ultrasound. He's showing us his spine in the first picture and giving us a thumbs up in the second.