Ambition!

So I have been thinking a lot lately. I LOVE to bake, and everybody loves to eat what I bake. SO...I am pretty sure that I should open up my own sweets shop! I would make pastries, candies, cakes, and even have make coffee drinks. But I have to wait until Max retires from the National Guard because with his job, he may have to move out of Lewiston. So that means I have around 16 years to plan this all out.

Allie and Cora!

Allison and Cora are 5 days apart, and they are both so sweet! 

They had met once before, but were so tiny they didn't really care. Her mother and I were best friends when we were in school, and I am hoping they will be good friends in the future.

Brownie Pudding = Amazing!

So I have been wanting to share one of my FAVORITE recipes with you guys for a while! It's called brownie pudding and it's amazing. After it's baked, the top layer is kinda like a normal brownie would be, but underneath...that's where the amazing part comes in. It is a gooey, chocolatey, HEAVEN. It's like underbaked brownie. Mmmm. Try it out and let me know what you think!!!

Brownie Pudding
Oven: 325

• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus extra for buttering the dish
• 4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean
• Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly butter a 2-quart (9 by 12 by 2-inch) oval baking dish. Melt the 1/2 pound of butter and set aside to cool.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs and sugar on medium-high speed for 5 to 10 minutes, until very thick and light yellow. Meanwhile, sift the cocoa powder and flour together and set aside.

When the egg and sugar mixture is ready, reduce the speed to low and add the vanilla seeds, and the cocoa powder and flour mixture. Mix only until combined. With mixer still on low, slowly pour in the cooled butter and mix again just until combined.

Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared dish and place it in a larger baking pan. Add enough of the hottest tap water to the pan to come halfway up the side of the dish and bake for exactly 1 hour. A cake tester inserted 2 inches from the side will come out 3/4 clean. The center will appear very under-baked; this dessert is between a brownie and a pudding.

Allow to cool and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Allison Update

Allison is getting so BIG and changing every day! She has started to grab things, and put them in her mouth. She can almost roll over! Any day now. She talks ALL the time. People tell us every day how cute she is. We have to agree. We sure made a pretty baby!

Homesick

I have been on vacation for a week now. And while I LOVE vacations, there is always no place like HOME. I really start to miss it.
Max is at a 2 week training. He is only 1 week in now. It feels like he has been gone for a few weeks. Time just drags when he is gone.  I can only imagine how it will drag when he is gone for 1 whole year.

It hit me...

So it kinda hit me today after dropping Max off at the airport for a 2 week training, that he is leaving really soon! I know that he is leaving, but it hasn't really hit me yet. It only kinda hit me today, and I cried for the first time about it. 

I am scared. Scared to be alone. I have to raise our baby by myself for one year. 

We knew this was all expected when he joined, and we went into it knowing that this would happen. BUT that does not make it ANY easier! Nobody can understand unless they are 1. An Army Wife and 2. Have gone through it.
I know I am a strong woman; I CAN DO THIS.

4 Months!

My sweet little princess is 4 months old today. She is changing so much every day. She loves to stand on her legs(with help of course), and she giggles every once in a while. She smiles ALL the time! If I am in a bad mood, or not having a good day, her smile always makes me happy. She had her 4 month check up today.

Weight: 12lbs 13oz - 32% of all babies her age

Length: 24 3/4" - 71%

Head Circumference: 42 1/2cm - 87%

She's perfect. I couldn't ask for a better, healthier, prettier baby!

This picture was a lucky shot. Max let go of her for about 3 seconds. Just long enough for me to snap a picture! Looks convincing though huh?

Water Baby

So today was Allison's first time "swimming". It was probably not the best day to go because it wasn't all that hot, and it was very windy. She didn't care much for the cold pool water. She tolerated it after a while. I hope that she will learn to love water and someday learn to swim. We are thinking that we are gonna put her in swimming lessons sometime in the near future.

To My Wonderful Husband-I LOVE YOU!

I Carry Your Heart With Me

I carry your heart with me(I carry it in my heart)

I am never without it(anywhere I go you go, my dear. And whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)

I fear no fate(for you are my fate, my sweet)

I want no world(for beautiful, you are my world, my true)

And it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you

Here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root, and the bud of the bud, and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

And this wonder that's keeping the stars apart

I carry your heart(I carry it in my heart)

By-E E Cummings

Baby girl's first time watching TV

Allison getting a bath!

She LOVES bath time!

If you're in love with a soldier...

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you can’t know adventure. You don’t know smelly gray PT uniforms that require a daily washing. You can’t understand green and brown camouflaged bags flooding your bedroom floor. They may seem like they are just thrown around, but move one thing the night before an important layout and expect to hear about it.

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you can’t understand the meaning of the phrase "going to the field" and the weeks you spend away from each other.

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you can’t understand what it’s like to have company every weekend that you will soon refer to as your "children" and they will need to be fed, so figure them into your grocery bill. You will need to teach them that you can’t fit 3 hampers of clothes into the washing machine at the same time, and that whites and darks are not washed together.

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you can never imagine the hole in your heart when that phone call comes. "Honey, I am leaving tomorrow to go overseas. I don’t know how long I will be gone or exactly where I am going, but I want you to know that I love you - always!" You don’t know the anxiety that comes with not knowing any specifics until it is already happening.

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you don’t know what it’s like to say that final good-bye, to watch those buses drive away and wonder if you will ever see him again. You don’t know what it really means to be glued to the television watching CNN. You don’t understand fear and you can’t possibly understand the sleepless nights of endless crying wondering if you will ever see the love of your life alive again.

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you can’t understand why a computer must always be on full volume just in case. And why it is necessary to have one of every messenger... because you will never know when MSN messenger might work and Yahoo wont, or vice versa.

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you don’t know the best brand of webcam and all of the features by heart and recommend them to everyone you know. You can fully utilize all of the emoticons on every messenger and even know the hidden ones on yahoo...

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you also won’t understand the importance of always having access to a cell phone charger. Or having that special ringer for "unknown" and 13 digit phone numbers.

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you would never understand the bond that instantly forms with any woman you see wearing anything battalion-related.

If you’re not in love with a soldier, on the nights where we all come together and talk for hours about nothing but our men, and how even those little things that annoyed the crap out of us a few months ago are the things we miss so much. And then compare ideas on how to keep them... "entertained".

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you can’t know the immense joy, the uncontrollable smile, or the butterflies in your stomach when you see your soldier march into the family waiting area upon redeployment or the end of basic training. You can’t understand the self-control it takes to stand on the other side of the room as some higher-up gives a seemingly endless welcome home speech while all the soldiers stand in formation. You don’t know what it’s like to have that second first kiss or what it’s like to experience puppy love all over again. You spend hours and hours getting ready so everything is in perfect place, just to have your hair ruffled and everything tousled up with that first embrace.

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you can’t truly understand how to make every moment count because you never know when that phone call may come again. You don’t understand why a secret bottle of cologne is kept in the medicine cabinet, or his deodorant left on the bathroom sink all year, just to smell when you want to feel closer to him.

If you’re not in love with a soldier, you can never really understand how very delicate life is! You don’t understand how fast one phone call, or a knock at the door can instantly change life for so many people. You don’t understand why the National Anthem will forever be something that we will STAND for and probably well up in tears, no matter where life takes you after the military. 

 I love you and am so proud of you Max!

4th of July!

It's been a while since I have written a blog! Sorry,I have been busy lately.

We spent our 4th of July in Fort Lewis with Max's family. We had a great time! It was our first time seeing Tom since he got back from his deployment, and his first time meeting Allison. Things went great. Allison slept through all of the fireworks. It was the best fireworks show that we have ever seen...go figure, the army put it on. haha.

I have to share a picture or two of my little princess on the fourth. Enjoy.