My artist

I had to take Matt to the airport super early this morning and I had to wake up at 4:30 this morning. Needless to say, I took a nap this afternoon. When I woke up from my nap, Dean was on top of the fridge looking for scotch tape in my craft stuff. I went into the computer room and he'd already gone through one roll of tape by taping together about 13 or so papers together to make one large canvas.  I let him add enough to make a 20 paper canvas, and I talked him out of crayons and into paint since it would take a lot less time and frustration to cover that large of an area with paint.

He was so cute as he was explaining his painting. He was the multi-colored person. The red and blue guys are friends and they are all holding hands. The little guy is their invisible friend (like Soren Lorenson on Charlie and Lola). His arms can grow and shrink if he needs them to. The red spot is Mars. The Green spot is Earth. They are in outer space, but in a place where there is gravity so they're not floating around (that's why he wrote the word gravity on top).

Walt was sad he wasn't in the picture, so Dean painted him a different picture with him and a friend. As I was changing Edward's diaper, Walter took the bottles of paint (that I stupidly left down) and was "splat painting" by squeezing the bottles out onto his painting. It got all over the ground. I was not happy. As I was cleaning up, I told the boys to not go inside till I cleaned them off. Next thing I knew, they were in my car!! AAAAAACK! Luckily no paint (that I found) got on the car or upholstery. Close call.

I let him hang it in his room when it was dry.

On Sunday the boys wanted to wear ties like Dad to church. I had some clip on ties I got two years ago on a super cheap sale but they've never worn because they're a little big and the boys don't have white shirts. It didn't really matter that they didn't have white shirt or that their collars didn't lay right. They loved it. It was cute and they kept them on all through church!

Camping

The boys have been begging to go camping for awhile now. Our ward had a ward camp out at our Bishop's "ranch" this weekend. At first I thought I was just going to go for the dinner and then have Matt camp with the boys while I came home with Edward. But at the last minute I decided to camp as well.  Edward was a champ. He actually slept better out there than at home! I just had him in his car seat. He slept from about 7:30-10 and then from 10-4:30! and got up at 6:15 for the morning. The other boys got to stay up until about 10!! And they were still up at their normal 6:15 with bounds of energy.  All in all it was a success.

I didn't have a chance to get marshmallows before we left, so I was so happy and impressed with a young boy in our ward (with aspergers) who started toasting himself a gigantic marshmallow and gave it to Dean and Walter to share when they said they wanted some.

Oh, and at the end of the night they set up a projector and showed a short "Mormon Message" Good Things to Come (click it if you want to see it. It's 5 min.) by Elder Holland.  Dean was totally into the clip and was SO very concerned about the family and the dad leaving them. He couldn't understand that the dad left the family to go get help when the car broke down, and that he actually came back to the family.  He thought the dad had abandoned the mom and two boys by the side of the road with no money TWICE. He was on the brink of tears! I had to explain to him a couple of times that the dad really came back for the family and that they were a happy family even though they couldn't make their trip.  I was impressed that he was watching and processing as much as he did. What a tender spirit.

Walter was frustrated when we went to bed because older kids were out walking around and making noise. He wanted to be out there with walking around too and didn't want to be sleeping despite the fact that he'd been up since 6:30 without a nap! He got into the "mud room" portion of our tent but couldn't figure out how to get that zipper undone. He ended up sleeping out there rather than in with us! haha. Funny kid.

Summer cuts (and bruises)

Last week we were playing outside with chalk, and once again, Walter chooses to draw on everything BUT the "correct" place to draw. He preferred to chalk himself and the table rather than the sidewalk. Dean's choice were the bricks.

This week we were in our garage/front yard and Dean started drawing a family portrait. Matt is REALLY tall and far away. When I asked why he was far away, he said dad was at work, of course. The three boys were all in the same row. Dean is the biggest, Walter is medium, and Edward is little. I was under the boys. And then there was "someone we didn't know who is in jail" above us. I'm not quite sure about that one...I asked him why the man was in jail and he said it was because he hit one of our friends. If you notice, the man in jail is frowning.

Matt was cutting some pipe in the back yard for a project. He let Walter help and his facial expression in the second just about summed it all up. HAHA. He was so worried Walt was going to cut him.

 

 

We had some car problems earlier this week and I ended up with a rental car for a day while mine was getting fixed. While I was teaching a piano lesson, they were playing in the car and as far as I can tell, Dean opened the door on Walt and knocked him flat on the pavement resulting in a huge goose egg on his forehead and cuts on his nose. Poor boy.

 

The boys' hair has been getting out of control, so I decided to give them their summer cuts. We decided to give Walt the same "big boy" hair cut we gave Dean. It's the shortest we've gone with him! While I think it looks good and makes him look so big, I do miss the curls a little. Ah well. That's why hair is so great. It just grows back in a few months.

Bruce Chester Hunt

Last Wed. while I was watching a friend's kids, my dad called to tell me that my mom's dad passed away the night before. It was not unexpected. He's been battling Parkinson's disease for years and has been in steady decline. He had a close call about a month ago when his heart rate slowed waaaay down. He had pacemaker surgery and never quite recovered.  My parents have been caring for my grandparents for the last 13 months, so it was extra hard on them when they had to admit him to a (great) rest home in Snowflake Easter weekend and then when he passed. It was amazing how quickly everyone was able to arrange the funeral services.

My family was lucky enough to live close to my grandparents that we saw them a couple times a year. It wasn't a question of if I'd go or not. It was a, "I really hope tickets aren't going to break the bank, but I'm going even if they are."  It was a whirlwind weekend. I looked for tickets and booked a flight for Friday after Matt got off work. It worked out perfectly. I took Edward with me and left the other two with Matt for the weekend. I was a little worried to travel with a baby by myself, but he was amazing. He seriously didn't cry at all the whole weekend (probably because I could actually tend to him immediately) and people on the planes coming and going commented on how he was one of the best babies they'd ever sat by on a plane. He is just a gem.

The service and weekend was wonderful. All 7 of his kids were there. All 7 Waterman kids were there, so we had a mini family reunion at my Uncle Doug's. So much fun to see everyone since we only get to see everyone every other year. One of my cousins said there were 30 of 36 grandkids in attendance and quite a few great grandchildren as well. One thing that touched me was when my aunt announced that 3 of the cashiers from Albertsons who have waited on my grandpa (the only way they knew him) made sure they got work off to make it to his funeral. So sweet and such a testament to what a guy he was.

You know, it's interesting. It was the first funeral I've attended since I've had kids. Easter weekend we had a family home evening lesson on the Resurrection. Trying to explain death, the relationship of the body and spirit, and resurrection to children made it all click a little differently in my mind. When my dad's mom passed away, I couldn't go see her at the viewing because I felt very uncomfortable. This time, however, I feel like I had much more peace and understanding about family, the resurrection, and it didn't make me feel uncomfortable to see him. I knew that I would see him again when his spirit and body were reunited in the resurrection and that everything would be just fine.

When I think of Grandpa, I think of a quiet and gentle person with a dry sense of humor and cute smile. He was very predictable and dedicated in his routines and behaviors. His running/walking in the morning, cracked wheat for breakfast, whole wheat bread and butter with dinner, and cracking pecans while watching football. He was very consistent and faithful in reading his scriptures. I loved watching him with his long citrus picking poles, picking us boxes and bags of fresh pink grapefruit (that we would salt, of course).  He was always so even in his demeanor and I don't think I ever once heard him raise his voice.  I remember him irrigating and  letting us play in their flooded yard.  What a hard worker.

 

Grandpa's girls. It wouldn't let me load the one with the whole fam.

Here is the obituary that appeared in the newspaper:

Bruce Chester Hunt

88, died Tuesday April 10, 2012 in Snowflake AZ. Bruce was born November 6, 1923 in Joseph City. He was sixth of nine children born to Benjamin and Pearl Hansen Hunt who owned and operated Homestead Dairy. Bruce was a loving, hardworking son, husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather. He served in the Army Air Force near the end of World War II and married Zena Louise Beadle in 1947. Bruce graduated from the University of Arizona in Business and established Hunt's True Value Lumber Company in Flagstaff in 1967. He was known as an honest business man. Bruce was active in the LDS Church and served as a branch president in Wickenburg, as a stake missionary on the Navajo Nation, and with his wife Zena served LDS missions in Ireland and South Africa. Bruce is survived by his wife, five daughters and two sons: Lois Waterman, Deborah Esquibel Hunt, Jennifer Menegas, Colleen Crane, Sandy Harenberg, Jefferson Hunt and Doug Hunt. Bruce and Zena have 36 grandchildren and 55 great grandchildren. Funeral services will be held Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 3 PM

Waterman Clan

I love my family and I'm grateful for the knowledge I have that we can be together again some day. Death is not the end.

And tornado season begins

The very first weekend we moved here we watched our first tornado producing storm (unbeknownst to us).  We were sitting there watching the crazy lightening from our windows in our living room and the next day at church we found out that a tornado actually touched down about 10 miles north of us!

We've had a few other tornadoes pretty close, but this week was crazy! On Monday it was kind of overcast. The boys played outside for about an hour after lunch and shortly after they came in I called Matt for some reason and he said, "You know there's a tornado warning, right?"  I had had no clue.  I turned on the news to hear things like, "This is the worst possible scenario."  "We've never seen this." "There are 4 independent tornado producing storms."  The tornado sirens went off and I brought the boys into the bathroom (the safest place in our house). Miraculously, no one was killed. There was lots of damage, though. Here's a link to some crazy pictures of the storms. Spring is usually the worst for tornadoes, but luckily we've found the last 7 years we've lived here that McKinney is in a little "safer" pocket that doesn't get hit as hard as the rest of the metroplex.

At first I put the boys to work and I tried to clean the bathroom, but then Matt told me to take a mattress in with us to cover us if we needed, so there wasn't much room to clean after that. I ended up just reading to the boys until the warning was lifted.  There were over a dozen tornadoes within a few hours. We luckily only had hard rain here.

After I brought the mattress in and explained why I had it in there, I went to get a lantern in case the electricity went out (it did, but only for a min.). When I got back, Dean had pulled Edward's seat under it and had tipped it to cover the three of them so they'd be safe from the storm. So cute.

Dean absolutely loves Edward.

Laugh of the day

Walter has not been feeling swell. At first I thought it was because he hasn't napped in several days, but last night he went to bed at 5:50 and slept until 7 am. He had a fever today and a goopy eye that got redder throughout.  When we got home from dropping Dean off at school and the grocery store, he passed out at 10:30 am. He ended up having pink eye and a sinus infection poor guy. 

Anyway, tonight at dinner Matt was trying to get some food in him and he said, "Do you want me to feed you Walter?"  Walter's response was, "No. You don't have boobs." HAHA.

(This picture's from January but I never posted it. Just more proof of his love of drawing on anything but paper.)

Smiles at 6 weeks

I'm pretty sure that Edward is my earliest smiler. On Sunday we saw a few glimmers of smiles and on Monday and today we saw some real smiles. So fantastic. And as a follow up on my Tupler thing...2 weeks in and my stomach is measuring 3 in. smaller (could be due to just time passing) and my diastasis has gone from a 6 finger gap to a 4. The splint gets a little annoying at times, bunching up and with the weather warming up it is toasty.  But it seems to be helping, so I'll continue. I have been getting better at my running. Since I can't really do much distance during the week due to time constraints, I've been working on speed.  I have been keeping my time between 8-8:15 min/mi. repeating for up to 3.5 miles.  My longest run yet was a 6 miler and I kept my speed around 9 min. for that. I have been really pleased with my progress. I'm now running faster than I was before I got pregnant. Not bad for 6 weeks postpartum. I really love this vaginal birth recovery. With my c-sections I don't think I started running again for about 5 months! Though, truth be told, I wasn't as dedicated to running then as I am now. I found with Walter that it really helped restore my sanity so I started back as soon as I could this time around. It seems to help! Gives me a little "me" time.

Stripy twins!

My attempt to get their size comparisons. Kind of a fail. =)

Multitasking at its best

"Walter, did you sleep or just play during your nap?" "I sleeped while I played. I just didn't close my eyes."

Classic. I wish I could do that.

100 Percent Whole Wheat Loaf

I have been making all of our sandwich bread for the last 2 years or so. I used to use LuAnn's whole wheat bread recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe that produced 4 (1 lb.) loaves at at time.  It was really good, but I realized that it was just too much for my 6 quart kitchen aid and was burning out my motor. I now use a recipe tweaked from the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion cookbook. It makes a larger loaf (make sure you have the right size pan!) and I actually like the final product better than the other recipe. My favorite pans to use for the King Aurthur loaves are the Chicago Metallic Commercial 1 1/2 lb. loaf pans. They really make a difference in the crust not getting too hard or browned.  Every time I make bread I make 2 loaves, 1 in my kitchen aid and 1 in my bread maker on dough setting. The bread maker almost always gets my loaves a little lighter and fluffier and have a shorter rise time by about 20 min.

100 Percent Whole Wheat Loaf - Yields 1 (1.5 lb) loaf
1 1/2 C (12 oz--I always weigh this one) warm water
3 Tbs olive oil
5 Tbs honey, molasses, or maple syrup (I prefer honey. I've tried them all plus agave and honey is the best to me)
3 1/2 C whole wheat flour (I use fresh ground white wheat that I grind in my Fidibus 21 grain mill)
1 Tbsp gluten
2 tsp dough conditioner (This is KEY to an amazing loaf. And not all dough conditioners/enhancers are created equally. I buy mine on Amazon since I can't find it in stores here. Shirley J's dough conditioner is horrible. FYI.)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast (I used to use dry active but have switched over to instant. I too buy this on Amazon in bulk and store in my fridge/freezer)

For the bread maker:

1. Put all ingredients in machine in order and select dough. 
2. After it's finished (about 1 hour 20 min.), take it out and shape the dough to fit your greased pan. 
3. Cover the pan loosely with greased/sprayed plastic wrap and let sit until it's 1-2 in. above the side of your pan. If you let it rise too long at this point it will collapse on you when it's baking and/or cooling.

For the kitchen aid/mixer:

1. Put all the ingredients in the mixer and combine with the paddle until it forms a shaggy dough. Turn off the mixer and LET THE DOUGH REST FOR 20 min.  It makes a difference. It gives the flour a chance to absorb the liquids. 
2. Turn it on to knead with the dough hook for 15-20 min. You can knead by hand, but it will be a denser, smaller loaf.
3. Let the dough rise in a greased, covered bowl for 1 hour or until double.  If it's extra cold in my house, I turn my oven on to warm, turn it off and let the bowl sit in the warm oven with the door cracked. I don't have to do that in the spring/summer.
4. When shaping the loaf, I spray my table/counter (rather than flour), dump the dough out and gently deflate any large bubbles. I make it into a thick rectangle, a little longer than the size of the bread pan. I gently roll/shape the loaf into a log, seal the edge, and fold under and seal the sides. I put into a greased pan.
5. Cover the pan loosely with greased/sprayed plastic wrap and let rise until it's 1-2 in. above the side of your pan. If you let it rise too long at this point it will collapse on you when it's baking and/or cooling. 
6. Preheat oven to 350*. Bake the bread for 18 min., tent it with foil, and bake another 18 min.  Remove from the oven, turn it out of the pan, and cool on a rack.  It slices better once it's cooled, but it's oh so delicious when it's warm.

Tips for slicing and storage: To keep my slices relatively even, I use a canning lid ring as my guide for each slice and use a good bread knife.  I cut it all up the night that I make it and freeze in gallon ziploc freezer bags, sucking as much air out as possible when I zip it. That way I can take out 1 or 2 slices at a time rather than have to use the whole loaf in a day or two. It thaws really well just sitting out, but you can also nuke it for about 20-30 seconds in the microwave.

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's day didn't quite go as planned. I had hoped to do some fun crafts and things with the boys, but Dean started getting sick last night (though I thought he was just tired). He kept complaining about his legs being too tired to walk and he woke up in the night saying his stomach hurt. I thought it was because he was hungry since he only took his one obligatory bite of dinner. This morning he woke up happy as can be. He said his stomach felt a lot better, but he didn't drink his morning milk and he didn't want breakfast right away. He said he was going to take care of Edward and got a blanket and laid down next to his chair on the floor. After that it went down hill. He had a fever of 101* and was just plain not feeling well. I let him just veg on the couch watching Curious George and Bob the Builder most of the day. I never even changed them out of their PJs.

He felt better after having some Tylenol and he even managed to get down a whole green (spinach) waffle. We were able to make our "leprechaun candy" aka sour patch grapes aka grapes rolled in lime jello powder and chilled. They were so yummy! The boys had a lot of fun. After that we tried having lunch, but he was only able to eat 1 saltine cracker. I went and got him Gatorade and by the time I got back he was so hot looking. He kept complaining about his eyes being hot. His fever was back so I gave him some ibuprofen. He asked me to carry him to his bed so he could take a nap since his legs were hurting too much to walk. He seemed to feel better when he woke up, but by the time bed rolled around I could tell he was feeling poorly again poor boy.

Edward was a good boy. He basically slept, ate, and hung out pretty well all day. I think he's pretty close to smiling. He's such a little cutie pie.During one of his naps I got a 6.17 mi. run in today. That was pretty awesome. I even kept the pace under 9 min. miles. The last time I ran that particular route was the day I found out I was pregnant with Edward. On an aside, Walter has been calling Edward "Edward Von Drake" a lot lately as in Professor Von Drake (Donald Duck's uncle) from Mickey Mouse. It makes Dean mad every time he says it. "HIS NAME IS NOT EDWARD VAN DRAKE! IT'S EDWARD STEED!!!"

I didn't do anything amazing for dinner. Pork chops and zucchini/carrot patties (my zucchini was kind of small so I added a grated carrot to make up for it even though the recipe didn't call for it.) and a green salad. The veggie patties were really yummy, but the boys each just at their obligatory bites of each thing. Of course. I did make some bread since we were out, and before bed I let Walt have a slice of warm fresh bread. Oh it is so yummy. I make some fabulous soft, pillowy whole wheat bread if I do say so myself. I honestly can't stand to have store bought bread anymore unless I really, really don't have the time/energy to make some.