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Homemade Italian Dinner

Dinner was heavenly last night.

I made gnocchi with marinara sauce and french bread. All homemade.

First, the french bread. I've been on this kick recently of trying to make my own rolls, breads, etc. I haven't done french bread before. I just searched for french bread recipes, clicked on the first one with a good looking picture and went with it.

This bread is amazing.

 The crust was golden and slightly chewy while the inside was fluffy and soft. This was as good as or better than store bought french bread. And it made 3 huge loaves. One is in the freezer and one will be consumed later in the week. The recipe can be found here. It was pretty easy to make.

Next, the Gnocchi.

 We've had Gnocchi a few times before at restaurants and loved it, but I've never tried to make it myself. It never even occurred to me to make it myself until Mckay suggested it Saturday night. I figured it can't be that hard, right? (I think I've been watching too much Food Network again.)

It actually wasn't that hard to make. I had a few struggles, mostly because I was using an awesome little pasta maker we picked up last summer. I didn't add enough flour and it was a very hot, humid day which only made the dough stickier. I think it would be a little easier for me to do by hand. Time consuming, but easier.

The gnocchi were oddly shaped and non-uniform, but they tasted delicious. I used this recipe for the gnocchi.

For my marinara, I use Giada's Marinara recipe. I usually make up a big batch and then freeze smaller containers of it so I have it on hand for occasions like this.

And there is my tasty, inexpensive Italian dinner, all made from scratch.

Except for the asparagus.

Bathtub and outside fun

Earlier this week I brought Dallin and Connor into the bathroom to bathe them. After the tub was filled, I went to grab clothes to change them into after the bath. When I came back into the bathroom, I saw that Dallin had climbed into the bathtub...on his own... fully dressed. 

 He was laughing and smiling, but that was probably because I was also laughing when I saw him.

Since Connor was born, I've always bathed the boys together, but I've had Connor in the little baby bathtub right next to Dallin in the regular bathtub. Yesterday, I decided to try putting Connor straight into the water with Dallin. Now that he's sitting up pretty well I figured he could handle it.

 They loved it.

***

It's finally beginning to feel like summer here. Dallin loves being outside so we have to find things for him to do to keep himself entertained. We taught him how to water the grass.

And he keeps an eye on the grill for us.

 We've been grilling a lot recently. Note: Grilled cheese on an actual grill doesn't really turn out very well.

***

Dallin had some friends over for a play date, and they somehow roped Mckay into reading a book to them.

Dinosaur Pajamas

Connor can now fit into these dinosaur PJs.  This may not seem like much of a big deal, but it reminds me of how small Dallin really is.

Dallin got these pajamas when we took a trip to California right before he turned 2. Becky thought he would look so cute in them and she was right!

He was 2 years old! And Connor is 6 months old. Big age difference.

Even more amazing is that while preparing to write this post, I came across a picture of Dallin wearing these pajamas on this last Thanksgiving.

Connor was a month old at Thanksgiving!! Dallin at 2 1/2 years could still fit into pajamas that newborn Connor would be wearing 5 months later.

I realized that I attach a lot of sentimental value to our baby clothes. I think back to when they first wore that outfit or the trips we took when they were wearing that. (Evidence: Connor at the WS walk wearing the same thing Dallin wore 2 years before.)

The 6-12 month size clothes that Connor wears now especially bring up memories because Dallin wore these particular clothes for over a year. He wore these clothes for his first Christmas, his second Christmas, while moving from Utah to Indiana...

Dallin was in these clothes for a long time and it's weird seeing Connor grow into them and almost out of them again so quickly. I knew that eventually Connor would catch up to him and they'd be wearing the same clothing size, but I didn't realize it would be so soon. The size gap between them is closing.

Walk for Williams

We held a Walk for Williams Syndrome here in Lafayette on May 5th. We have been lucky enough to participate in a walk every year since Dallin was diagnosed with Williams Syndrome over 2 years ago. This year was different though because we were actually involved in the planning and hosting of the walk, rather than just attendants. You may recall that another local family has a daughter with WS and Dallin was on the news with her last year. Dallin and Kendal are in the same class in preschool so they get to see each other often. When Kendal's mom asked me if we wanted to help her put on a walk here in Lafayette, I knew we had to do it. There was a lot of work and planning that went into it, but the walk was a great success. Our goal was to raise $2500 and we got almost twice that amount! Not bad for our little city. We had a lot of people come and I hope we raised a lot of awareness.

Dallin loved that so many people were there and was excited to see old friends from last year.

Mckay and Kendal's dad held the banner as we walked around the park.

Dallin and Kendal rode right behind the banner in a wagon.

They were laughing and having a good time while we walked. They started a "game" where Dallin would make noises and Kendal would laugh hysterically. Oh the joys of being 3 years old. 

Here's a picture of all the people with WS and their families.

 

Connor was sleeping so he's not in this picture, but I promise he was there.

He spent most of the day just like this in his stroller.

We had a free lunch provided by many local restaurants and sponsors.

 Two of the fingers broke on my cookie, but it still looked pretty cool.

 Andy the Armadillo from Texas Roadhouse came to take pictures with the kids.

Dallin was uninterested. He looked at Andy for a few seconds and then walked away.

There was a face painter. Dallin wouldn't keep his head up.

Frito Lay donated 500 bags of chips. Dallin ate a few bags himself.

We had a raffle drawing and a silent auction. Dallin got to pull out a few names for the raffle.

This was one of my projects for the walk: making the donation box.

 The 4 sides of the box had pictures of people with WS.

A police car stopped by and the officer let the kids sit in the car, turn on the lights and look around.

 We told Dallin this was the only time he was allowed to be in a police car.

 (Anyone notice that Connor is wearing the same outfit that Dallin wore at his first walk? I may have planned that...)

 We had such a great time. We are so lucky to have many wonderful friends and family that support us and love our son.

Getting into trouble

Dallin is getting into all kinds of things today.... not just trouble.

 Dallin got into the laundry basket and requested that Connor sit with him.

This picture is blurry, but Connor's face is good.

 They played in there for a while until Dallin decided it would be fun to whack Connor with the toys. Connor did not like that game.

Later, I could hear Dallin playing in his room, but it was suspicious that he had been playing in there alone for over 30 minutes. I looked in and this is what I found.

He somehow figured out how to climb in, but could not climb out! At least he was playing happily the whole time.

 (The pack and play was up so that my friend's child could take a nap that day.)

I got him out, thinking he wanted to be rescued, but he climbed right back in.

Scriptures

One of our family goals for the year is to regularly read the scriptures as a family. Before we made this goal, we would often read after the kids went to bed, and the time varied depending on when we found time to read. Now, we've set a specific time to read each day: after dinner and before getting kids ready for bed. It's easier to remember to read now that we've scheduled time for it. And now it's FAMILY scripture time involving the kids as well. We're trying to make Dallin more of an active participant in reading now that he's getting older.

All of that was to set you up for this video. One night, feeling tired and not wanting to get off the couch to fetch the scriptures, we told Dallin to go get them. We'd never given him that command; we weren't even sure if he understood the words. But we wanted to see what he would do. This is what happened:

(We didn't intend for the video to end on him falling down, but the camera died. He wasn't hurt so don't feel bad if you laughed.)

We were amazed that he not only understood the command, but brought us our scriptures and knew which book belonged to which person! His "scriptures" are really a book of scripture stories with pictures. He loves looking at the pictures as we read. I love how his communication skills (both expressive and receptive) are improving. And hopefully he's learning a little about the scriptures as we read.