Daily HearAll Headlines:

ROCK STAR BABY

Caught roughing the floors of his parents' uptown Siloam Springs apartment, this Rock-star baby sports his trademark hair doo. His electrifying hair entices fans all over NWA.




When questioned about any possible upcoming concerts all he could say was, 'da daay." His mother assures that he has begun banging a spoon on a pot.

6 MONTH CRAWLS !

Emerett Matthew Patterson, the son of Upward Bound's gymnastics coach, made his first successful crawls this past week. He has taken to it with eagerness and has made great strides.




In the picture below he is working on his plank position. He says he plans to be completing a full push-up by the end of next week.

GARDEN HARVEST

Nathan Patterson holds a prize-winning-size zucchini from his garden. 

 After months of work, Nathan reaps the fruits of his labors. On Monday June 27 he used a shovel to dig up beautiful new potatoes. Today's picking yielded 10 yellow squash, 5 zucchini, 10 hot peppers, 4 bell peppers, several grean beans and red potatoes.

Emerett Updates

 Emerett is loving the Johnny Jump Up! Today he played in it for an hour while I cleaned out his closet. I think he liked the independence and the practice standing. We're still working on the jumping part. 

Emerett loves bath time. He stretches, splashes, and kicks. 

Right here he is doing his "sexy pose" as Nathan calls it.

With the help of Dad, Emerett has discovered his toes. The big one works well for sucking.

He is learning so many new things and getting better at the old ones. He loves to sit and stand with Mommy's help. He sings along with Mom and giggles with Dad. He is grabbing toys and doing his best to suck on them...BUT we still have at least one blow-out a day.

In the kitchen

So I have had a little extra creativity and a little extra time, and have come up with some of my own recipes. I bought a fresh pineapple in hopes that I could figure out something yummy to make with it. 


Tropical Salmon


2 cloves garlic chopped
1/2 c chopped onion
1/3 c fresh pineapple
1/4 c red or orange bell pepper 
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar


Simmer in a sauce pan 5 minutes. Spoon over Salmon filets. Bake for 20 minutes at 350.


Friday night, Emerett went to bed at 7:00, so Nathan and I stayed up late baking. So I used some more of the pineapple to make Hummingbird cupcakes. I would put that recipe on here too...but Nathan wants to keep it a secret. We used bananas, pineapple, and honey with a rich cream cheese frosting. The cupcakes will be our way of making friends this Easter. 

Lemon Pepper Chicken

3 chicken breasts cut into strips
3 T olive oil
3 T lemon juice
1/2 green bell pepper
1/3 onion sliced
1 tsp pepper
1 T honey

Saute all (except honey) together in a sauce pan on high heat until chicken is fully cooked and onions and bell peppers are tender. Add honey last. Serve over rice.

Then last night I made Lasagna and some hearty breadsticks. Well, there were some extra breadsticks left over and somehow Nathan and I got into a breadstick fight. This morning I am sweeping up parmesan crumbs left over from last nights edible game of dodgeball.

Breadsticks

1 1/2 c warm water
3 1/4 t yeast
3 c white flour
3/4 c wheat flour
3 T olive oil
1 1/2 t sugar
1 1/2 t salt

Dissolve yeast in water. Mix remaining ingredients. Let sit for however long it takes you to prep dinner. With hand roll out into sticks. Top with cheesy goodness. Bake 15-20 minutes at 425. Works great for pizza dough!!

Meet Janome

All rejoiced today. At my doorstep arrived my very first, my very own, Janome sewing machine. Nathan surprise got it for me, and to my relief said it was highly discounted. We justify it because it is important to us to be provident. Nathan got a gun recently, so it is now my turn!

 Here she is. Miss Janome!

Emerett was excited too.

And our first banana pepper sprout! He wanted to see Janome so badly he finally popped up!

By the Sweat of Our Brows

Today we officially started a garden. We prepped the seeds by first planting them in little containers and set them in our window sill to bud. Our window sills were made for growing seeds...so deep and the windows so tall. It seems as though the windows like the sunshine because they take as much of it as they can and blast it through onto our colorful walls. It's like we actually have the sunrise right in our kitchen! In a few weeks we'll plant our budding seedlings out at the Patterson pasture along with everything else we planted today. Today we tilled about 5 rows of potatoes and onions. We used a rickety old tiller that practically shakes your bones as much as it shakes the dirt. Tomorrow... we'll be achy for sure.

Sleepy Day

I think Emerett has a condition. My high school Chemistry teacher was affected by it. In fact I remember tracking the effects of her condition in a discrete pocket-sized notebook. It is called Seasonal Affective Disorder, which basically means that the weather or the season affects your mood. People affected by it tend to sleep a lot and act more cranky and depressed. Well it's cloudy today and Emerett has been sleeping all morning and every time I try to wake him he is very cranky. Ok, so he may not really have a condition and in fact is probably just acting like a normal baby, but I do think it is funny that he is really sleepy on cloudy days. 

To the family

Yesterday I was finishing up a lesson with one of my 9 year old violin students. As usual, I was writing in her notebook and I happened upon what looked like her own writing in the back of the notebook. It read, "I will not get married." Interesting. I inquired.

-Who wrote this?
-Oh, I did.
-You don't want to get married?
-Uh, not really. I don't think so.
-Why not?
-Well, you see I want to go to law school and then I want to be a judge. Then maybe after that I will get married. 
-But you will be so lonely that whole time!
-No...I'll be too busy.

Too busy?! Oh dear. Yes, I told her emphatically that being married is wonderful and I told her she would like it and should seriously consider it. She laughed it off. I was heartbroken to hear her viewpoint on marriage. I read recently a talk by Sister Beck about the importance of defending the family. That we have the distinct responsibility as parents to teach our children the doctrine of the family because they will, like never before, have to defend the family.

Looking back on the past year of being newly married...I am so happy! Gosh, it was a little tough with the whole pregnancy thing, but now we have a beautiful baby boy. A family! It is so great! So here's to the family...  

Married in Nauvoo February 13, 2010

 Dating! 

One of our fun tricks. Okay...one of Nathan's fun tricks!

First family photo. January 2011.

Push off!

We are proud of our new little champ. He insists on holding his own head up and proudly tries to stand (with help of course!) and recently he has attempted a tummy push off. We are starting early to train for the olympics. Actually, we are just really pumped because we went to the BYU vs. Arkansas gymnastics meet on Friday. It was cool enough to convince Nathan to start working up some of his old gymnastics skills...and maybe some new ones. Anyway, we are proud of Emerett's strength and his already present desire to try new things. Being a daddy is new to Nathan so he is always comparing our baby to others (mostly in secret) to see if little Emerett matches up, and he is convinced that Emerett has unusual strength for his age. True or not, it's fun to help him stand up and support himself with his increasingly chunky legs. He loves to kick and do little bicycles on his back. A recent morning he discovered how to push his body forward off of my hands with his feet, and apparently he wore himself out because slept the rest of the day.

 Emerett loves when daddy comes home to play with him!

 Right before his bath.

 Daddy got peed on...big surprise...

 Enjoying the morning sun rays through the bedroom window.

 Emerett is learning to smile and coo when I tease him and sometimes he will talk to himself while he plays on his little mat.

There's that goofy smile!