Family and friends, thanks for visiting! There aren’t too many posts up yet, but hopefully as time passes you’ll be able to find fun posts on A, myself, and baby W!
French toast in casserole form – what could be more perfect, particularly for the weekend of General Conference? These will fit well with the new AlohaLarsen family tradition of caramel/pecan pull apart’s.
Thanks to awesome Aunt Becky for the find.
Ingredients
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 4 eggs
- 2 1/2 cup milk
- French bread
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350°
- Prepare 9″ by 13″ pan with cooking spray
- Combine and beat the first five ingredients (cream cheese, sugar, butter, vanilla, and cinnamon)
- Beat in 1 egg at a time
- Stir in the milk
- Cut the french bread into 1″ slices, and soak them in the mix
- Place the pieces of bread into the pan, and then pour any leftover mix
- Cook for 40-45 minutes
Pictures to follow as we try tomorrow!
Update
As promised, pictures of our french toast baking adventure!
Mom and Baby getting ready to make breakfast
Watching General Conference in our family room, computer plugged into the TV
Using the recipe from this blog page – the start of something great?
In goes the cream cheese
In goes the vanilla
In goes the sugar, butter, and cinnamon
The picture doesn’t show it, but I want everyone to know that as I grabbed the PAM by the cap, the bottom fell off, and I was able to catch it with my other hand. Yep, I’m that awesome.
Assembling the beater
She’s ready for battle… I should remember this vigor next time I’m thinking about getting in a fight with her.
Dad and Baby beating together
Baby is loving this beater
So far, so good
Mom and Baby had to take a break from baking for diaper changing. Side note for new parents out there – chucks are probably the best purchase we have made so far during Baby’s short life.
If I wore diapers, changing them would probably make me this happy, too
More skill needed for the picture taker than for the egg breaker…
…Good thing my photographer is awesome
She gets excited about the weirdest things
I’m proud of the fact that I’m allowed to do the jobs involving pointy objects
Ready to soak
Ewwwwww
Fitting so far
That’s it, for better or worse
Just a few last steps
A dash more cinnamon, and we’re oven ready
In the oven for 40 minutes. And then, we feast.
T minus 40 minutes
Mom and Baby had to take another break, this time to eat. He was pleased.
Will has not been the most consistent sleeper so far. Who would have guessed?
This kind of sneaking makes me feel kind of like the crocodile hunter.
I’ve heard multiple calls for more pictures, and thought I might oblige today!
The Trip Home
Before going home, we decided to put baby Will in a cute “go-home” outfit.
I did the honors.
With the clothes on, we were ready to get into the car seat.
We made it home from the hospital in one piece!
A New Way of Life
Because we’ll be moving to Washington in a few weeks, we decided not to set up the crib. Instead, we’re having baby sleep in our pack ‘n play.
More Friends Visiting
We had some of “Miss Alexa’s” friends come and visit yesterday. One of them really enjoyed holding baby Will.
Her little sister was curious for a moment…
…but then decided it would be more fun to tackle me.
I was unprotected because the women were busy taking pictures while I fought for my life.
But how could you not take pictures of something this cute?
What a fun day!
We’ll get some more pictures up. We haven’t taken as many as we did in the hospital because we are always tired 🙂
To help us figure out who Will might be the best mix of, I broke out some pictures of the two of us from way back yonder.
Dan
When I was a baby:
Then a tad older:
And in costume:
And Eric, my brother, is a baby in this one:
Alexa
When she was a baby:
Then a tad older:
And with the grandma’s:
And Austin, a boy from Alexa’s side, is a baby in this one:
Will
I still don’t know.
From Labor and Delivery to Mom/Baby
I got to rock baby Will a few nights ago in the nursery while Alexa was moved down from Labor and Delivery to Mother/Baby. That sure was fun.
He sure needed the love and attention after the traumatizing bath.
Not all the poking and prodding was as traumatizing, though. He was content for some of it.
In Mom/Baby
Since we’ve moved from Labor and Delivery to Mom/Baby, we’ve had a fair amount of adventures. I’m sure we “haven’t seen nothing yet”, but…
Well, for example, I love sleep, and sleeping is a more complicated affair here (it will likely be more complicated for the foreseeable future…). This is my bed.
Or, rather, this is my bed.
I am ready to leave the accommodations here at the hospital for my bed back at home.
At least the food is better here than it was in Labor and Delivery. In fact, the hospital has a sort of room service that has brought Alexa wonderful meals (as the father, I even get a complimentary mean during our stay), and the nurses have all been incredible.
We also had another rite of passage, at least for fathers and sons in the Larsen family. Baby Will does not yet appreciate having his diaper changed, and Alexa thought that we could make the experience easier by having him lay on Mom’s legs while Dad did the changing.
I’m sure you can see where this is going.
While the diaper was open, Will, with all the water pressure a 18-hour old child can muster, urinated all over his mom with a golden arc that, at it’s apex, shot right over his head (I was very proud). If you look closely below, you can even see droplets in Will’s hair.
To add insult to injury, he pooped on his swaddling blanket while we were dealing with the urine situation. Ah, parenthood. The silver lining was that it was the hospital’s swaddling blanket, and so “clean up” meant rolling it up and throwing it into the dirty laundry bag. I’m fine learning that lesson (to change diapers more quickly) on someone else’s linens.
Friends and Family
He was born into a family where so many already love him. We’ve had video chats with my family in California, and we’ve gotten some fun visits.
For one, Alexa’s mom has been able to be here with us in Provo, and will stay with us for a couple weeks.
And could baby fever be spreading among our other visitors? Who can tell? Husbands and boyfriends, beware!
AlohaLarsen 