Baby St.Hilaire II

We just had our first ultrasound this morning and met the newest addition to our family! Baby is due in mid-October which means that right now I am about 10 weeks along. We are so very thrilled!

I happily present to you Baby St.Hilaire II:

 Have fun decoding the pictures! =)

Can you see the tiny foot and toes? =)

7 Quick Takes ~ Vol. 21

1. I've been taking a little break from blogging lately. Life has been pretty busy, but I plan on getting back into the swing of things during Lent. I have a lot of ideas for posts, so stay tuned! =)

2. Lessons in the kitchen: My world has forever changed... I was never really sure how to chop an onion. To be honest, I've always been frightened of the slippery layers of an onion - fearing for my poor fingers who could easily be victims of the knife. But all that has changed now, after watching this video on how to chop an onion! (H/T Shelly!)

3. Potential trip: We are still working out the details, but it is very likely that we will get to take a vacation to Florida! Andrew has a one-day conference to go to, and SwingSetMall.com will be covering the costs of this portion of the trip (including his flight round-trip). So we thought it would be a nice way to save some money, since he is going anyway, and make it a family trip. We are hoping to be there for about a week. It will be so nice to have some down time and relax in a sunny place. The trip will be in May right before John's birthday, which means that he will (barely) fly for free!

4. Friends: Several weeks ago we had a delightful visit with our friends Andrew and Molly. It is so refreshing to spend time with our friends. We even squeezed one of our favorite games - Settlers of Catan!

5. Date Night: We went out on a date last Saturday and saw The King's Speech. I know it's been out for a while, so everyone else has already seen it - but it was very good! =) I even found myself Googling more information about the British monarchy. (Funny side note: I just googled the word "googling" to make sure that people say that... haha)

6. Video: Check out this great video to promote Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament for college students:

7. St.Hilaire Family Recipe: Here is the recipe for the Soda Bread that we had last night:

• Grease pan - heat oven to 350 F
• Sift together in a large bowl: 4 c flour, 2 T sugar, 3 T baking powder, 1 t salt, and 1 t baking soda
• Add 1/2 c corn oil and mix with fork or pastry blender until fine crumbs form (optional: stir in 1 c raisins and 1 T caraway seed)
• Mix together 1 c buttermilk and 1 egg. Gradually add to flour mixture, stirring until soft dough forms
• Turn out onto floured board
• Knead lightly about 10 times or until smooth
• Shape into ball, place in prepared plan, flatten lightly, and cut a cross on top of loaf
• Brush with corn oil
• Bake about 50 min or until brown
• Cool on a rack

Happy St. Patrick's Feast Day!

John and I went grocery shopping yesterday and we saw our favorite grocery checker there, Annie. She is so fun and we always choose her lane over the others even if there is a wait. John always loves to see her. Yesterday she was wearing a St. Patrick's day headband. John was intrigued, so she let him wear it. I warned John that we had to give it back, and she generously told us to have it - she has plenty more. That was SO nice! Needless to say, John wore it a lot today and got some great compliments from his friends at Mothers' Group this morning.

Here at the St.Hilaire household, we just finished enjoying a yummy Irish-inspired meal: Soda Bread (recipe from Mom St.Hilaire), and Guinness Beef Stew served over a mound of Colcannon. It was delicious and we gave the meal 4 stars (out of 5) - which is very good; we reserve the 5 star for only the finest cuisine known to man (in our humble opinions).

Happy Feast of St. Patrick!

PS. Today is also my conception day too! Thanks, Mom and Dad!! =)

Valentine Cake

As the leader of the Pro-Life Youth Committee at our Church, I put a lot of work in planning our annual Couples' Dinner which was last Saturday. This year our theme was"Wedding Reception." Part of the evening included a couple (randomly chosen) cutting a cake. I wanted to have a cake that was very pretty but also frugal. So I decided to make it myself. I used this recipe to make the fondant. The cake topper is a Valentine figurine that I got at the Dollar Tree. I also couldn't have done it without borrowing a lot of supplies from my friend who is a pastry chef (Thanks, Emily!).

I was very proud of the end result!

 

21 Months Old!

Grandma and Grandpa St.Hilaire came for a visit last weekend. John really loves being with them and it was hard to say goodbye! This picture was taken right before they left and I love how John grinned for the camera.

John is now 21 months old and his vocabulary is really blossoming. He says many words, but more than anything, he understands a lot of what we say to him! Today he was looking for his little cat figurine and I said "I think it is on the floor in our bedroom, go check for it!" And he ran off and came back in a few moments with the cat!

We have so much fun together every day! I am really loving this age!

Here are some of John's new words:

• "Bo-bo" - Elbo or knee
• "Toe" - Toes
• "Cookie" - He says this pretty clearly and he uses it for anything sweet
• "Boat"
  
• "Bo" - Bowl
• "May-may" - Cat; one of his cutest word creations. I'm not sure how he came up with this, but he has been saying it for several weeks. We recently went to the park and he ran over to a tree and said "May-may!!" He was remembering last November when we saw a cat up in that tree! I was amazed at his good memory and that he applied his new word to a past event.
• "Uh-oh" - Probably his most commonly used word, he says it when something falls or is unexpected
• "Choo-choo" - Train

He likes playing in the sink while I make dinner.

He stands on a chair and I spread a towel down to minimize the mess.

No more crib! John is now in a big bed!

Book Reviews

John and I try to go to the library at least once a month. I've been reviewing the books we check out so I can get them again later and this list will help me remember which ones we enjoyed. Now I am going to make it available to you! Click HERE to see an alphabetic list of the books and my reviews of them. I also added a link to this list on the side column near the bottom of the page. If you have any book recommendations for toddlers, let me know! We love to read!

Establishing a Routine

John and I tend to have lazy mornings, especially when we have no where to go. Sometimes I am astonished at how long we stay in our jammies. Yesterday I decided to try to be better about having a morning routine.

I took pictures of him doing all the different parts of his morning routine and made a book about his morning. I know it will be really good for John and train him to have good habits and be more independent as time goes on. Also this will help me to stay on track too! - Actually it is probably more for me than it is for him!! =)

This morning was our first time using the book. When he woke up, I grabbed the book and we did all the things that he is shown doing in the book. It worked really well. I plan on doing this every morning until he is able to predict each step of the routine.

Moving to Hawaii...

Unfortunately the title for this post is not about us! Andrew and I would love to take a vacation to Hawaii, but at this point we are very happy living where we are. ;)

No, this post is about some dear friends of ours who are going to be stationed in Hawaii until June. So it won't be a long separation, but we will definitely miss them. We got together with them last night for a farewell dinner. John and his buddy, James, get along so well. I know they will miss their play dates together. They hugged and kissed each other goodbye - it was super cute!

So long for now!

Fashion Faux Pas?

It's been raining a lot lately here in Bremerton, and I'm struggling with a temptation right now, which has been brewing inside me for several years...

I'd really like to start using those rain bonnets that are stereotypically reserved for old ladies. 

In all seriousness - think of the practicality! Here in Washington, who even uses an umbrella anymore? They can be bulky, something extra to hold, and awkward. Yet I would still like to have a way that I can keep my hair dry, especially on the days that I actually try to make my hair look good. I have one problem... my sweet husband would never want me to wear one of these!!! So out of respect him, I am going to resist this temptation with all some of my might.

Actually, in writing this post I found some "trendy" rain bonnets - Here is a an etsy store that sells bonnets made out of umbrella fabric. And here is one being sold on a European website (I really have my eye on that one!).

Maybe he would go for one of those? 

Our big boy!

Today John turned 20 months old! It's hard to believe that he will turn two in only four short months! Here are some highlights from John at 20 months:

• His favorite toys right now are little cars that he can wheel all around the house. As I type this he has one car in each hand and is driving them on the couch's rough terrain.
• He really likes to accessorize (in a manly way of course) - hats, boots, mittens, scarfs...
• He has a minor obsession with hats. He will often say "at" (hat) and put his hand on his head when he wants to wear a hat. Or he will say "at go" when he wants to put a hat on and go somewhere. For some reason when ever he sees Grandpa St.Hilaire, he says "at?" and wants him to put a hat on.
• Other new words for him include:
• "Bay-be" - baby
• "wa-wa" - water, but he also could be referring to any other drink
• "ca" - car
• "guh" - glove, he does have mittens but he prefers to wear socks on his hands right now. He will bring me socks and say "guh!" insisting that I put them on his hands.
• "doos-doos" - blues clues or choo-choo train (they sound the same)
• "Ma" - grandma
• A whispered "pa-pa" - grandpa
• "go" - goat
• "up"
• "mo" - more
• I have started teaching him letter sounds with the help of the short video "Letter Factory" by Leap Frog. It is a fun video and teaches letter sounds in a neat way. The only letter sound he is confident in is "H." My parents got him some alphabet blocks for Christmas and he will find the "H" and make its sound. We always assume he is panting because he sees a dog, but then realize he is making the "H" sound!
• He is such a sweet little boy and very sociable. He likes playing with his friends in childcare while I go to Mothers' Group every Thursday at our church. A few weeks ago I went to pick him up and he had some older friends saying "Bye John!" It was really cute to hear little kids saying his name and treating him so nicely.

Here are some pictures of John from our friends' wedding in December

(Congratulations Marc and Nichole!!):

John and Clare had fun dancing together, it was really cute!

Under the gift table proved to be the biggest entertainment for all the toddlers!

Gotta love this action shot of him hitting his head on the table!

Here is John playing in a box full of peanuts. He loved playing in it until the box tipped over and he hit his head and spilled peanuts everywhere! =(