Day 105- Alli

Words cannot even describe this little imp. 

She is HILARIOUS. 

Alli is two.

She has the cutest glasses you have ever seen.

She loves to play with and antagonize her sister. 

She calls Sam "Baby" even though he is 7 months older than her. 

At this very second she is telling me that the popcorn is high and she wants to eat it.  Guess I'll get her some popcorn. 

Day 104 - M's

There will be a giant post on California when I get home but for now we are just trying to keep the kids happy so I'm blogging as fast as I can.   Tonight we counted M&M's.    You can tell who is older by how messy each child's face is. Obviously Alli is the youngest with Sam coming in just a few months older. 

Day 103 - The Girls

There are so many funny pictures that I want to post from today but my kid is EXHAUSTED and I need to vacate my sister's spare bedroom so he can pass out. 

Sam and I arrived at my sister Karen's house to hang out with her as she prepares for the birth of her third daughter.  Sam is in HEAVEN!  They have a dog, a yard, and a play kitchen. 

We went outside to play this afternoon and Alli (age 2) discovered a spray bottle of water.  Then she discovered Sam.  My dude is such a good sport, he just stood there while the girls sprayed him.  Such a gentleman. 

Day 102 - Tickles

Sam's favorite game goes a little like this.  

Mom:  I'm going to get you and give you some . . . . 

Sam:  NIBBLES!

Mom:  I'm going to get you and give you some . . . . 

Sam:  KISSES!

Mom:  I'm going to get you and give you some . . . . 

Sam:  RASPBERRIES!

Mom:  I'm going to get you and give you some . . . . 

Sam:  TICKLES!

He loves the tickles part.
I love the fact that he says tickles.

Day 101 - Happy Easter

We hope your Easter was wonderful as ours.

We also hope your bubbles were as delicious.  

Day 100 - The Climb

The Easter Bunny asked us to pick up a couple of things at Target today.  One of those things was the Duplo Play with Numbers Set.

As you can imagine, our number obsessed child was not going to let it go once he saw it.  He INSISTED on carrying it from the car.  We weren't sure how we was going to manage to get it up the stairs.  As you can see, he managed just fine.

Our child is definitely determined.

Day 99 - Snickerdoodle Pie

Tonight we got to have dinner with some of our favorite Austin friends.  In exchange for them feeding us and allowing our child to wreak havoc on their home and their dog  we brought Snickerdoodle Pie.  I found the recipe on Cookies and Cups.  

You can get the recipe here.

Day 98 - Thumbs up

Are you tired of Sam posts yet?  I'm obviously having an uninspired photography streak.  Oh, well.  At least he's cute. 

Anyway, yesterday Sam starting giving us "Thumbs Up"  I'm not sure where he learned it.  We are kind of thinking Tangled (which he thinks is HILARIOUS) but it could also be a different show.  The best part is when he does it, he uses both hands and says "Thumbs up" while scrunching his little face.  We were trying to get him to do it today so I could get a picture but for some reason he didn't seem to trust his thumbs today.  He kept giving them strange looks.

 Maybe tomorrow they will be back on good terms.  

Day 97 - You’re my little chu-chi face . . .

When we were kids, my sister and I love the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  In the movie, the villans sing a song that has the line "You're my little chu-chi face."  Every time Sam makes this face, I start to sing the song in my head.  

Maybe I'll start singing it out loud to prepare him for the embarrassment that I'm sure to cause him as a teenager.

Day 96 - Texting

Since we all know it is unsafe to text while driving, Sam has started to take over for me.  

Photographing your child over your shoulder while at a stoplight is much safer.

day 95 - Swimmin'

Coming home from the store today my car's thermometer said it 

was NINETY-FIVE degrees! 

At that moment I decided tonight would be the first official Hanson swimming party of the summer.  Sam figured out what was going on when Ben started putting on his suit.  He was sooooo excited!  That boy loves to swim.  Sam and I swam for a bit while Ben when running and then he came and joined us.  

I think there are many swimming days ahead of us.  Maybe I'll even get a bit of a tan this year.

Day 94 - Bread

Ben and I LOVE good bread.  When we lived in Salt Lake we always bought Great Harvest Bread but since we've moved to Austin, it is just too far away.  

Last night we went to a local BBQ place that makes the best bread.  So after church I tried my hand a bread making. 

First loaf ever.  

Not the prettiest bread ever but is was pretty tasty.  

It probably would have been better if I had remembered to add the salt.  

Oops. 

Day 93 - Zaylee

My cousin Zaylee is hilarious.  Yes, I said cousin.  She's 28 years younger than me which would make sense since her mom is 2 years younger than me.  

Anyway.  She's a crack up.  Tonight I did a quick family photo shoot with her family and she decided that she didn't want to say "Cheese."  Instead, she wanted to say, "Happy Picture Day!"  

So she did.  

In every single picture. 

Except this one.  

Hilarious AND adorable.  Love that girl.

I'm so glad she's here in Texas with us. So is Sam.

Day 92 - Love Notes

The love note I wrote Ben the other day . . .



Oh, how romance changes when you have children.

In case you're wondering, the puppy leash is actually a kid leash with a puppy backpack attached. We were taking his car to San Antonio and I wanted Nicole to have the leash for when she took Sam to the park.

Day 91 - License Plates

There were two packages in the mail for Sam today. 

Guess what they were?!  

License Plates!!!

My sweet friend April sent him a Utah plate.  Thanks April!  

Granny and Grandpa sent him a package of 10.  Between them and some of Sam's aunts and uncles it contained plates from all over including:

Idaho

Old School Idaho

Utah 

Virginia 

Manitoba Canada (Granny & Grandpa's Mission)

and my very favorite . . . 

1985 Maryland

How great is that?

As soon as I started pulling them out of the box and envelope, Sam came running over to get a look. 

He kept saying, "Oh, WOW!"  Since Sam doesn't say much, you know he must have been excited. He had to check out each individual plate and tell me what was on it.

Here he was telling me "seven".  He always scrunches up his nose when he says "seven" and "six".

Cutest thing ever.  Thanks to all of you who helped make my little guy's day.

XOX  

Day 90 - Time. For. Bed.

Today I got up at 6:15 and drove over 105 miles to San Antonio so I could have a babysitter while I spent 5.5 hours on a conference call writing reports. Then I drove back.

I fed my family a nutritious meal of hot dogs and Doritos.

I taught eight 12 and 13 yr olds how to make jersey bracelets and satin flower rings.

I spend another 1.5 hours cleaning up reports.

Then I realized I needed a photo

Good thing my husband is rad and a good sport. Obviously it is time to go to bed.

Day 89

That's all.

Day 88 - Shirts

You might be saying to yourself, "My Tracey, what a boring photo."

Maybe a snippet of my Google Talk conversation with Ben today will help explain.

Tracey: I just sold another 2 shirts

Ben: holy cows

Tracey: I know right?

Yes peeps. (snicker) We stuck them on Etsy and on Facebook on Friday and it has been crazy! People are ordering via text and email. 

In the last five days I have painted thirty peep shirts. 

If you want to check them out, they're in my Etsy shop.

Now I just have to come up with something for every other holiday . . .

Day 87 - Dad

As previously mentioned, Ben and Sam get to spend a lot of quality time together with my new job at church.  Today was no different.   Because I spent a whole lotta time at church today (6 hours) I outsourced dinner preparation, sole parenting and today's photo to the cheapest (and most qualified) labor I could find . . . Ben.

Thanks Babe!  You're the best!

Day 86 - Paparazzi

Poor Ben has paparazzi living with him.

Unlike the tabloids we'll still publish your picture even if you cover your face.  

Day 85 - Restaurant Genius

Yet one more reason we love P. Terry's Burger Stand.  

A sandbox on the patio.  Brilliant.  

Day 84 - Squirrel!?

Ben seems to think that I have a focus issue when it comes to craft projects.  As in I quickly lose focus if a fun new project pops up. He says that I'm like a dog watching a squirrel.

I have no idea where he got this idea.

Tomorrow Sam will be modeling his new "Chick Magnet" shirt.  You're gonna die. So cute.

Day 83 - 9:49 pm

Ben and Sam now get a lot of quality time together on Wednesday nights.  I, on the other hand, get to spend Wednesday night with the teenage girls at our church.  

Typically Sam is in bed by the time I get home but that doesn't mean he's asleep as proven by the photo last Wednesday.  Tonight was no different.  I heard a squawk come from his room so I thought maybe he needed some Mommy cuddle time.  

Apparently, he just needed to look up a recipe.  

Day 82 - Peeps

I've been making and selling vinyl stencils for glass etching for awhile now but recently a cute bride messaged me on Etsy and asked about making some stencils to paint wood signs.  Upon doing a little research I found out that I could buy blank stencil plastic at Hobby Lobby that would work in my Silhouette!  So exciting.  She was pretty excited too.

I decided to put this new found fun to the test by making a T-shirt for my little guy based on a design I've seen all over the blogs.  

  The best part is I now have a stencil that I can use to make a million shirts! At least one more so I can perfect their little eyes.  These came out a little too big for my liking. 

Day 81 - The most amazing dinner I ever made . . .

I know that I have posted some pretteeee tasty recipes on the blog recently but NOTHING is going to compare to the dinner that I made tonight.  

I'm telling you . . . .

It's pretty good.

And the nutritional value?

Off the charts!


So simple, a 14 yr old boy could make it.

Your children

and husbands

will be BEGGING you to make this.  

Are you ready?

Day 80 - Riding the train with Grandpa

Today we took my parents to ride the Austin Steam Train.  My dad loves steam trains.  The only problem is the steam engine is being refurbished so we actually rode the Austin Diesel Train.  Oh, well.  At least the car we rode in was air conditioned!

Day 79 - Sweet Silence

Today we took my parents down to San Antonio for some site seeing and to see my mom's sister Nicole and her family.  They met us at Guenther House (soooo good) for lunch.  Sam and Zaylee were so well-behaved and quiet!  It may have had something to do with the two iPods we handed at them when we got there.  

Ahhh, the joys of technology.  

Day 78 - Mater?

My parents arrived tonight!  We didn't have a real firm plan for the night so we decided to take them downtown.  We took a driving tour of campus and then proceeded to South Congress (the funky part of town) across the South Congress bridge.  In case you didn't know, the South Congress Bridge is home to the largest colony of bats in North America living in an urban environment.  During the summer there are up to 1.5 million bats who make this bridge there home.  They start to arrive in March and every night at dusk they rise like a plume of smoke and fly off to eat bugs.  

Tonight's picture isn't the bats.  But Ben did manage to drive us over the bridge in heavy traffic right as the bats were flying off.  Nice work honey.  

As we drove down South Congress we started to notice random old hot rods.  The numbers increased and we found ourselves cruising through the Lonestar Round Up.  So many restored fun old cars!  My dad was in heaven.  In typical Tracey fashion, I started taking pictures from a moving vehicle.  I'm so lazy.  

My favorite car of the night was this old truck.  

I think I've been watching Cars waaaaay too much.  

Day 77 - She's about to POP

Last night I had the opportunity to help throw a shower for one of the girls at our church. She is the custest and TINIEST thing you have ever seen. She looks like she's about to POP. So that became our theme. I found the idea on a blog and we loved it.

Of course, the invitations had to go with the theme.

We decorated with bright neon colors, which of course, I forgot to photograph. Our centerpieces were cute little bowls full of Blow-Pops  

We also played a fun game of the Price is Right.  Each of the ladies had to guess the price of different baby items.  My favorite item was figuring out how much they estimate 4 yrs of tuition will cost at the University of Texas in 2029.  It's only $77,480 a year.  OUCH!  

Our menu was super fun.  We served Pop Rocks

Cake Pops and Pop Tarts

Soda and "Not Pop"

The hit of the night was the POPcorn bar.  We offered three types of popcorn.  

Plain

Kettle Corn

And Samoa Popcorn (think Girl Scout Cookies)

We had lots of fun toppings including the popcorn flavor shakers (white cheddar and chili lime), M&M's, Reece's Pieces, nuts, clarified butter and shredded Parmesan.   

All in all it was a fabulous night with lots of fun ladies! 


AND since it was such a hit, here is the recipe for the Samoa Popcorn that my sister Karen found for me on "Cookies and Cups".   I made a couple of changes that I found worked better for me. 

Samoa Popcorn

2 bags of Light microwave popcorn popped with the unpopped kernels removed (1 1/3 cups of popcorn kernels).

2 c. light brown sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

12 tablespoon butter, cubed

4 Tablespoons water 

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups sweetened coconut flakes

4 oz chocolate almond bark

1 package Samoa Cookies (optional)

After your popcorn is popped according to the package instructions set it aside in a roasting pan.

Preheat your oven to 200° 

Lightly toast coconut in a medium skillet over medium low. Stir frequently.  Watch it carefully so it doesn't burn.

Now, if you are adding the Samoas, chop your cookies into small bit-sized pieces. Set aside.

To make the caramel combine the butter, brown sugar, water and corn syrup in a medium saucepan.

Whisk ingredients to together and bring to a boil. Boil without stirring until candy thermometer reads 250°.  (The original recipe said this takes 5 minutes.  Mine took closer to 10 minutes.) Remove from heat and immediately whisk in your baking soda and vanilla. It will foam so don't worry when it goes crazy.  

Combine add the caramel and coconut to the roasting pan and stir until it is well mixed.  Carmel didn't cover all of my popcorn but it will just depend on how much you use.  

Bake the popcorn for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.

Now spread you popcorn back onto the wax paper and sprinkle your chopped cookies evenly on top.

Melt your chocolate almond bark according to the directions on the bag.  The drizzle it over the popcorn.  Once it has set, break it up and store it in an airtight container.  It will last 3-4 days if you can resist eating it all before then.