20 Posts In One Month...

I couldn't resist posting these fun little pictures tonight - just so that I can say that I blogged 20 times in one month! Now that's a record...

Here's what we were up to this afternoon: 

I am not a fan of this next progression, but what can I say? It happens.

PS. It'svery unlikely that this blogging behavior will continue for very much longer....

Making Movies

Confession: I'm a nerdy-techy at heart. 

I don't know how many of you saw that coming, but I actually love technology! Clarification: I love technology that WORKS CORRECTLY - don't get me started on fixing technological problems...all I can say about that is, "Put me on the phone with somebody who speaks English, please." So anyways, this year one of my "resolutions" was to get our home videos on DVD. We got a video camera last Christmas, and we'd been recording tons of cute footage for over a year, and I wanted a way for our family to watch it: 

1.) Easily

2.) On our TV

This is the part of the story that I'm actually very thankful that I have a Mac (up to this point it was an investment I wasn't sure was "worth" the extra $$$)...

First, I put our videos on our computer. Simple task - pretty much like putting pictures on a computer. 

Second, I edited the videos using iMovie. Thank you, Lord for Mac technology! 

This program makes it so easy to add text, backgrounds, transitions, etc to your movies. It's A LOT like creating a powerpoint - most of you have done that. I was also "trained" in a Technology for Education class in college how to use iMove - way back when! My good ole' Elementary Ed major came in handy there! 

After I had created my movies, I created a DVD menu using iDVD - again, thanks to Mac technology!

This program is my FAVORITE part of the whole process!!!!!!!!! Here's where you are remembering: I. am. a. nerd. :-) During this process, I get to pick out pictures to scroll across the screen and music to play to create my very own, custom, DVD Menu. You know what I'm talking about - the annoying menu that when you fall asleep plays over and over and over again 150 times until you wake up and realize that you have a cramp in your neck, you drooled on yourself, and you are REALLY TIRED OF THAT SONG! Here are some of the menus I have created for our family videos: 

This one plays a song called "Simple Phrases" by Carrie Jo - a local artist from Opelika, AL

This one plays "Little Boy Heart Alive" by Andrew Peterson, and YES, you can click on those selections at the bottom and watch videos from the respective months...I know - AWESOME!

This one plays "We Are FAMILY" by Sister Sledge

This one just has pretty classical music playing, and when you select "Beach Trip" it takes you to this screen: 

Which plays "Surfin' USA" by the Beach Boys of course :-)

...and if you click on "Carter's Various Skills" it takes you to this screen:

Which plays "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys - Ha!

If you can't tell, I have had a little too much fun with this, and Kevin would probably agree :-) It's fairly time consuming, but since I have taken the time to do this, we have actually sat around watching home videos for hours on several different occations, and it's pretty much our current life - ha! What a treasure these videos will be years from now! I certainly am not wishing the years away, but it's going to be so very fun to watch these in 10-15 years :-) 

Easter Egg Hunt

Today was our church's Easter Egg Hunt. Carter got into the hunt this year a lot more so than LAST YEAR. Last year all he wanted to do was put the eggs in his mouth.

This year he he was more into looking for / finding the hidden eggs, and then checking out what was inside! I know it has nothing to do with the real meaning of Easter, but I think it's a fun childhood tradition.

Waiting patiently for the hunt to begin!

Little Friends

Found one!

Here's the real live action...it takes him a minute to warm up to being on camera - just ignore my irritating coaxing - gotta love home videos :-)

Finding the Treats!

Chocolate!!!

Last year, Carter thought the Easter Bunny was the funniest thing ever! 

This year, Carter was not interested in having his picture made with the Easter Bunny - maybe it's because the Easter Bunny's eyes weren't falling off this year... I must say that our Easter Bunny's look has improved!

All he would do is shake his hand - a very gentlemanly greeting :-)

Little Friends

Carter has several little friends, but Kylie is one of his "best friends." Her family lives in the neighborhood next to ours, and we get together a lot. We invited her over on Tuesday to come play. This gives her mommy a break, and it gives Carter a playmate who is not me :-) I love to play with my lil' man, but his play endurance is longer than mine at this point. Kylie, however, can keep up.

Where did it go?

Kylie wanted to be a photographer too when she saw me taking pictures, so here are a few of her shots - I just love kiddos! 

(Can you see me smiling behind the finger?)

Not bad! There was significant improvement in very little time :-)

The Curse of the Amish

Have you ever received one of these from a person who hates you friend?

Well, I got one from my Bible study leader about two weeks ago. I was so excited!!! I followed all the directions and, at the end of a 10 day process, I ended up with 2 DELICIOUS loaves of bread cakes and 4 starters (3 to give away to people I hate friends, and 1 to keep for myself). It turns out to be more like coffee cake or pound cake than "bread" which was fine with me and Kevin - we loved it!!!

My problem was that I couldn't find people who wanted to take the starters off my hands, so I kept 3 of them - thinking that I would just use the extra starter and bake a few extra loaves and freeze them for the future and/or gifts. Well, I guess I didn't really do the math in my head because on baking day, much to my horror surprise, I figured out that, in order to use up these starters, I could bake 18 loaves of bread or 9 bundt cakes!!!!!!!!!! Kevin laughed at me, told me that I wasn't a bakery, and gave me permission to throw some away if necessary. Well, I HATE throwing away perfectly good starter, so I found a neighbor who took 1 ready-to-bake starter off my hands - that subtracted 6 loaves/3 bundt cakes. Whew....progress. I found 2 more friends who said they would like to try from day 1 which got rid of part of 1 more bundt. I BAKED 5 BUNDT CAKES, and I only had to throw away about 1/2 cup of starter!!!!

(You can make chocolate, vanilla, or banana versions....this is one chocolate and one vanilla.)

Now do you see where I was going with my title? Yeah, this thing they call Amish Friendship Bread can take over your life like a curse if you're not careful! Luckily, I figured out (through a helpful website) that I could freeze the starter and give myself a much needed break. I'm not sure if when I'll be baking more bread, but for now it's safe and sound in my freezer.

And we have 5 bundt cakes to eat in the mean time...

MY SUGGESTION: I figured out that 1 starter turns into 5.5 cups of starter at the end of the 10 days. My suggestion (if you do not have enough baking friends or have already given starter away to all your baking friends) is to save 1 cup of starter for yourself each time - this leaves you with 4.5 cups. The directions want you to give away 3 cups to 3 friends and then use 1.5 cups of starter to bake. INSTEAD, I just baked the recipe 3 times with the 4.5 cups. I found that you can make 1 bundt cake or 2 loaves each time. This means that you'll have up to 3 bundt cakes or 6 loaves of bread (or any other mixture). Then I would suggest taking a break and sticking your starter in the freezer for next time! The "cakes" freeze well, so you can freeze them or give them away! I have found that people respond to being given a cake much better than they respond to a starter!

20 Months Old

My sister and her boyfriend, Justus, came for a visit last weekend.

Carter LOVED "Jusis." He said his name every 5 minutes, and followed him around everywhere. When
"Jusis" left the room, Carter looked for him. When Carter woke up, "Jusis" was the first thing out of his mouth. Obssessed. After all,  "Jusis" was Carter's first (non-grandparent/aunt) spend the night guest :-) While they were here, Aunt Bamie got to practice with her new camera lens. I love that she takes really nice pictures for me every couple of months! They really capture his personality at this age. He turned 20 months old last Tuesday.

 

20 MONTH UPDATE: 
- He does summersaults all by himself!!! I need to catch this on video.
- He is OBSESSED with being outside - we go outside after breakfast and stay there until nap time. Rainy days are hard.
- He would rather play at the creek than on the playground (most of the playgrounds we go to have creeks nearby, and we run right past all the fun equipment).
- He is really starting to talk a lot - still one word at a time. I cannot keep up with the new words anymore. They are coming so often.
- He says "Ha" when things are hot (still), and one new thing is that he says "brrrrr" when things are cold.
- He says "nee, nee, nee" and does sign language for "Thank You" (don't ask me where his translation came from...I have no clue).
- He and Fischer have really started to run and play together.
... and he still does pretty much everything on the 19 Month Update except he doesn't cheer when daddy gets home anymore - sad! Glad I got it on video :-)