5 months!

Aunty Jilly!

Yes, they are holding hands! :)

She loves daddy!


Here she is in all her 5-month-old glory! :) We love our little niblet!

Great Find at the Yard Sale!!

So on our way to the Farmer's market today we hit up two different yard sales. Things looked okay at the first one. We saw a really nice table and chair set for $300 but we thought it was too much. The majority of the things came from a Pier 1 imports so maybe they were just asking too much for the already too expensive stuff they bought. Perhaps that is why they had the yard sale, needing more money so they can get new Pier 1 stuff, or at least that's what their husbands told the wives who were already bored with their nice stuff.

Well, at the second yard sale the people seemed a little more artsy and down to earth, living in a semi-modest house off 100 N 100 E in Provo. They only had a few things but we did spy out one great steal. We had been looking to get a fan for Lucy's room because she had been having a hard time sleeping with the summer heat. That is when we came across the fan below. We got it for 5 bucks, Rachel says its because I look intimidating and only smile if I have to, and that all that was really wrong with it was that the filter needed to be cleaned. The original price as listed on Amazon is 79 bucks! Aren't we lucky?!?! I thought so since they were only asking for 5 I opened the cover on the filter and saw it was stuffed with dust bunnies. We got home, cleaned it and it blows more air then it did when we were looking at it. Also, on Amazon, the filter needs to be cleaned regularly so it works properly, leading me to think that the husband said the fan was broken and the wife didn't really care to clean it so they sold it to us at their yard sale. I wonder what else we can find.

It's A Rolling Baby!!!

Yup, it's official, we have a rolling baby :)

Strawberry Tart

Yesterday I made a strawberry tart. It was beautiful. Strawberries are one of the most rewarding fruits to cook with because of their great beauty. The idea came from recipes for strawberry galette. such as this one from Martha Stewart. I decided to follow her strawberry galette recipe with a few changes--a different crust, more strawberries, and a tart pan.

Here's what I did:

Strawberry Tart 
Crust:
1 c flour
1/3 c butter
1/2 t salt
6 T ice water
Combine flour and salt. Cut cold butter into small cubes. Add to flour mixture with a pastry cutter or fork until the butter is in small pieces. You can even use your hands to help incorporate the butter. Then with a few stirs, add 4-6 T ice water, until a soft, dough is formed. Do not add too much water, or over-mix your dough. Roll dough out on floured surface with floured rolling pin until it's big enough for a nine-inch tart or pie pan. Put in pan. Chill for about 30 mins.

Filling:
1 1/3 lbs strawberries, stems removed, and cut into about 4-5 slice each.
1/4 c sugar
2 t cornstarch
Combine all ingredients. Arrange strawberry slices beautifully on chilled crust.

Bake about 45 mins at 350 degrees F. Enjoy!

                                                             A delicious slice

                                                                Waiting to be baked

                                                                      Yum! :)

Stairway to heaven or a hidden closet crawl space?

As we moved in we discovered this nice little item in Lucy's closet. It is a little stair/ladder that leads to a secret crawl space. We're thinking that back in the day when people had tons of kids in a 2 bedroom house they used these types of crawls spaces/caves to banish the gollum of the family while the rest of the kids had the luxury of windows. At least maybe the dark recesses of this part of the house might help a baby/gollum nap, right? Ha, ha, jk. It's good we have a Lucy and not a Gollum.

This is the view outside the baby's window. Much better than a gollum crawl space hole in the wall.

So we are in the next stage of our moving in the new house. We are officially moved but now we just have to finish unpacking stuff and have the rooms clean and organized. My wifey finished getting the kitchen cleaned and organized and I helped with the dining room which had stuff scattered all over. We just have three more rooms to go: the living room, and our two bedrooms.

I think one of our next moves should be getting a frame for our bed so we can put more junk under it. In the apartment we stuffed as much as we could under there because there was no other place to spare. Other than that the house is really coming along.

Also, my wife made a decorative bookshelf with nice pictures and dishes in the corner of our living room and it is the designated nothing space (nothing else can go there except nice things) in our house for stuff we want to look nice. More pictures will follow.

New House, well, new to us anyways :)

The rumors are true. We are moving into a new house. Not new as in it was just built recently but it is a new habitat that we will dwell in. That's me in the front, I had just dropped all the junk mail in that bush by accident :)

This is the kitchen.

More pictures to follow :)

Release

For the past yearish Vico has been serving as second counselor in a BYU singles' ward. It has been way fun! I have loved watching Vico in this position--seeing his kindness, funniness, shyness, strength and love. He is a good teacher and awesome people person. I have also enjoyed the people in the ward. They are really fun. In addition to being fun they have helped us so much. When baby Lucy was born the sisters in the Relief Society brought us dinner for two weeks and for three weeks they took turns coming to our apartment and helping me with Lucy--watched her while I napped, went to doctors' appointments with me, etc. They also cleaned our apartment and gave me friendship and love. This is something that I will always cherish and never forget.

I want Vico to know how much I love him. He is my dearest friend and a wonderful companion. I am proud of him and the growth I have seen in him as a leader and will miss all of the loving looks and smiles we exchanged as he sat in the front during Sacrament meeting. It has been awesome sharing this experience together and now we are on to a new adventure. I feel like the couple in "Up." Everything's better when we're together. :)