Making Challah for Rosh Hashanah

Today we went over to the Klearmans' to help make challah for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It's been our tradition to make it together over the last few years, and this time was just as fun. Except for the end, when Eli hurt himself - but I'll get to that in a second.

Caroline and their nanny Agnes (Drew and Agnes mixed the dough earlier in the morning - I showed up when it was time to do the braiding)

Saralyn and Drew - he was very excited to help with the braiding.

Smiley Will watching the challah-making process

Here I am with Eli, before his fall. Yes, he fell from that chair that I'm leaning on in the picture (that is stool-height) and hit his forehead on the hardwood floor. I was way too trusting that he would be okay up there (he wanted to be a part of things, and it was too hard to hold him the whole time). So I take complete blame and am glad it wasn't worse...

I forgot to take a picture of the finished challah this time, but here is a picture of our beautiful challah from a few years ago. It's delicious!

Before and After of My Bruised Little Guy

Before Eli's fall today - my cute little guy in his darling jammies from my friend Jennie:

And a few pictures from tonight - check out the huge bump/bruise in the middle of his forehead! Poor little guy.

So as I explained in the post above, Eli got this shiner from falling off of a chair at stool height. He cried pretty hard initially, and I put him down for his nap about 45 minutes after the accident because he seemed fine. Then he woke up after only an hour and a half nap (short for this one-napping child) and was crying SO hard. I tried all kinds of things to console him, but he kept crying and started coughing - hard. I ran into the bathroom with him and thankfully he just threw up on the tile floor (and got some in the toilet at least), rather than on our bedroom carpet.

I have to say - smelling your son's vomit when you're pregnant is not the most pleasant experience. I was doing my best to breathe my nose as I hugged him close and tried to calm him down, this time because he was upset from throwing up. I gave him a bath and called the pediatrician, who said he should probably be checked out, in case he had a mild concussion. We ran over there after his bath, and thankfully he seems to be okay and didn't need x-rays. He even got his flu shot since our next regular appointment isn't until November, and while he cried before and after the shot, he immediately stopped when he realized the nurse gave him a Spiderman band-aid. Suddenly the tears disappeared! Amazing.

Anyway, we'll watch Eli closely for the next day or so, but he ate like normal and didn't throw up anything else since the afternoon. Tonight we made lots of progress on the third bedroom, unpacking a few last boxes and rearranging furniture. Eli kept throwing himself on the bed's comforter, laughing and laughing. I think he'll be okay, but will be sporting a nice big bruise for a little while...

Goodbye, Sweet Car

I am happy, but also a little sad to say we sold our second car, the good ol' 1994 Nissan Altima. I bought this car in the spring of 2000 when I was a sophomore at BYU. I barely knew how to drive a stick shift, but figured it out after a little while. I met Ben soon after buying this car, and he will attest to riding around w/ me as I would frequently stall or have problems driving it. Once we got our newer car, this was designated as his fishing car (remember that this is the car that stranded my husband in Wisconsin last May).

The car has definitely seen better days, and needed $1200 worth of repairs for us to safely drive it around, so we decided it was time to part with it. With 153,000 miles, a missing passenger side mirror, and the need for new struts and rear brakes, I sold it this morning for $600. Craigslist is seriously amazing if you want to sell a cheap car - I posted the ad last night, and had about 20 responses in 12 hours.

We bought our other Altima new four years ago, thinking this one was on its way out pretty fast. But it's done pretty well, considering its age. I love having lots of space in the garage now, but I am sad to see my sweet car go. Adios old Altima! We will be a one-car family for at least through the winter, which will be fine.

After selling the car this morning, I took our other car to get the oil changed. I dropped it off and then walked to the park with Eli to kill some time. We got caught in a downpour, and by the time we ran back to the car place, we were both SOPPING wet. Eli didn't mind at first, but once we got home, his teeth were chattering and his lips were blue. Poor guy! I threw him in the bath and after we were both in dry clothes, we climbed under my covers to get warm. It has been pouring now all afternoon - makes me want to curl up and take a nap!

Apple Picking at Apple Holler

If you have an aversion to apples, you may want to skip reading this post.

Otherwise, see below for lots of fun apple picking pictures from our visit to Apple Holler in Wisconsin! We went with the Fryers (their daughter Katelyn is in the wagon w/ Eli) and saw some other friends from church there too.

Eli loves apples just as much as his dad. I think Ben ate ten apples while we were going through the orchard. Eli ate two.


I don't know if you can tell from these pictures, but it was a HOT day for apple picking. We were all sweaty and tired from being out in the bright sun. On the way home we passed a sign that said 88 degrees, but I don't know if that was really true (it felt like it though!!).



Eli had fun feeding the goat.

Ben juggling the apples

We split a 1/2 bushel with Craig and Lindsay, but it still is a TON of apples. I'm excited for apple crisp this week!

Eli fell right asleep on the way home. Ben and Craig went fishing before apple picking, and then spent the rest of the day fishing and had lots of fun. He was pretty wiped out by the time he got home though, since they left for the day at 5 a.m. Crazy fishermen :)

Enjoying the Sunshine

The weather this week has been perfect, so we're enjoying it while it lasts.

Notice he's sticking his tongue out in a lot of these pictures, silly guy.
Look at these lovely, chubby toes. My child was SCREAMING at me the other day as I spent 10 minutes trying to cut his toenails. His toenails tend to curl into his skin, which makes it hard to cut them fast. I seriously dread cutting them and probably let them get too long each time. Nothing works - he doesn't zone into the tv or get into any other distraction. He just gets MAD. Eli just doesn't like people in his personal space like that - he hates going to the doctor, getting his haircut, etc.

But he's a joy otherwise :)

Lately he's been very into wearing his baseball hat. It's a little big, but it stays on for the most part and he loves it!


Crazy, sweet boy.

Big Smiles

Show those teeth Eli!

Can you tell he likes drawing with this toy? :)

Weeds Everywhere

In case you were wondering what happens when you neglect your plants for a month...

You get lots and lots of weeds. Yuck. There were already weeds when we moved in, but we kept putting off the joyous chore of weeding...
I think the 11 inches of rain that we got a few weekends ago didn't help our cause.

Finally I started to make progress on pulling them out this week. There is still plenty left to pull, but I can only go so fast being 5 1/2 months pregnant. It's not so comfortable bending over like that for long periods of time!!

Design for Obama

For my fellow Obama fans, you can download the following posters (and many other designs) for free - here.

These are some of my favorites:

(this last one is for Aaron and Emily, since Aaron is going to be an optometrist :)