He’s funny

 

*Drew makes some rather bad joke*

Me: *fake laugh* ha ha ha.

Drew: You know I love that fake laugh.

Me: Oh ya?

Drew: Ya. It makes me feel all fake warm inside.

Me: *real laugh*

Baby Bag

I couple of weeks before Hannah was born I saw this pattern at Wal-Mart and I found this fabric – and I just had to have it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I read the list on the back. I had to buy a zipper. What? A Zipper? I’d never done that before. But it was way easier than I expected and it turned out great! Actually the only piece of clothing I had ever made was a man nightgown/caftan thing out of candy bar fabric once. It was hysterical and I never finished all the hems and stuff because Drew wouldn’t give it back to me. He loved it. Crazy man. This turned out better!

 

It has come in very hand with it being so cold the last few days and she looks adorable in it!

(There are pictures of her in it I’m sure you’d love to see but I’m too tired to get up off the couch! LOL)

Picture Blogs

I don't remember if I've ever posted about Leah's picture blog but now I have one for Hannah too.

They are both set to private so if you'd like to see them you just need to give me an email and I'll send you an invite.

I'm not super secretive truly. It's just a "there are creepy people in the world" thing.

Leah's I have not updated since December (I'm lame obviously). Hannah's has some pictures on it already. I updated it yesterday.

:)

Introducing…

Leah’s little sister - Hannah Reneé!!

Friday, March 26th
6 lbs 10 oz
19.5 inches

Friends

Leah: Mommy do you know how to play this game?

Me: Yes Leah
(It's the game of Life)

Leah: Do you want to play?

(I think to myself. This is starting already? It's 7:45 am. Heaven give me strength! But I say...)

Me: I do want to play with you but I need to clean up this mess.
(I've been sewing... the living room is trashed.)

Leah: Well then I'm gonna help you clean!

Me: (surprised) You are?

Leah: Yes because that's what friends do. They help each other.

Be still my heart.

PS We cleaned up the living room and she really did help. It's not finished but we're gonna play Life now. The details need finished but we're gonna play a game of Life now.

Leah’s Duvet

So last month or so Leah decided she liked sleeping in the guest room. I don’t remember how it started but it kept up for several weeks. And much  more often in that bed she would sleep all night than in her own. So I wanted to switch the beds (from her twin to this queen) but I need to find a duvet cover that would work with all her existing things – which we just got in November.

As it turns out it was kind of a pain to find something so specific. So I solved it by doing the project below.

2 flat queen sheets
a yard to a yard and half of fabric

I cut the fabric in about 4.5 inch wide strips and sewed them together in sections long enough for 3 sides of the sheets.

I did this in a box construction. I had no pattern. This was very “by the seat of my pants”. So I sewed up the sides to one sheet, than the other, pinning it first to make sure it would match up. I left the corners open and did them last.

Then instead of doing buttons I made these ties out of the strips of fabric. Just folded some strips in half, sewed them up one side and turned them right side out.

I cut nine pairs of ties (18 total) and then pinned and sewed them to the top of the sheets. I just did a stitch straight across the seam already in the top of the sheets. (I was using a contrasting purple thread the whole time)

   

So now everything in her room still works. Her bed has flannel tinker bell sheets under all of that.

Did you know it’s hard to find Tinkerbell sheets in queen size??

I need to move the pictures around for the new furniture configuration but she could care less. She loves her bed.

And the best part is? The whole project – 35 dollars. How crazy is that? All the ones I had saved during my online shopping were 100+. Yeah me!

Birds

Leah & I – forever ago – bought this bird feeder and hung it in the bush outside the living room window. It’s been month at least. Maybe six weeks and today the birds finally discovered it’s there. Leah was SO excited. We took these pictures through the (rather dirty) glass, laying on our tummies watching them eat. A third bird came after awhile having a little chirping fit. I think because there wasn’t room for him. Leah said we needed to make a third hole and get a third stick. I decided he could wait his turn. lol

Cute little birds…

What’s up around here?

Okay. It’s true. I just keep putting cooking posts up. There is still stuff going on around here.

But mostly I just haven’t been blogging much. Food pictures and recipes are easy and take very little thought. lol

This last 6 weeks or so – had I been blogging – would have been a lot of:

Leah’s sick.

I’m sick now.

Leah’s sick again.

My turn to be sick.

Drew was sick for 10 minutes. (he has the most ridiculous immune system)

Me again.

In January I finally admitted to myself I had IBS. Forever ago I had some posts about what the docs thought was probably a gall bladder attack. Although one doctor told me it could be IBS. He’s the 4th doctor to tell me I probably had that. But I don’t want it. I have diabetes. I most likely have endometriosis. Do I want a third incurable disease? Give me a break!

But my special “ignore your physical issues” powers are not working. And I had a 12 day attack and was in a lot of pain for all those days. I finally had to sit down and do some research – still feeling doubt that this was my problem. And while reading what the worst food triggers are for attacks I was eating pumpkin seeds. Guess what’s on the list? And what I’d been eating for 3 days. Pumpkin seeds/Pepitas. No more of those for me! 12 days of pain. NO GOOD. So I accept. I have it. Slowly figuring out what my triggers are. Frustrating state of affairs. My body hates me! But I’m getting a handle on it and now it can just be a few foods I avoid or eat less of. Not so bad!

Then Leah got sick and was sick for a full 2 weeks overlapping that. And then I got that 2 week cold and it’s just now starting to go away.

I made Leah a duvet cover yesterday and finished the details today. I should do a post about that. We’re switching the queen bed in the guest room for her daybed. She’s taken lately to sleeping in there. And she seems to sleep better and longer.

You know when I hear people talking about their babies sleeping through the night I just chuckle to myself (okay sometimes I want to poke them in the eye). Leah still normally doesn’t. I don’t have to get up and make her a bottle at least. I keep telling her she doesn’t have to wake me. Just get in bed with me – that’s usually all she wants. But she always has to wake me up and inform me of what she’s doing.

Anyway! If that big bed helps – I’m all for switching them around!

That pretty much covers that last month. Not that we aren’t having fun in there but with so much sickness going back and forth some how fun blog posts are not just coming out of me. ;)

Today Drew did tell me about a little conversation he had with Leah. She’s decided that boys are scary (and really 4 year old boys are very different animals from 4 year old girls LOL) After one of her little rants about how she doesn’t like boys. He says “but Leah! *I* am a boy!”

“You are NOT! You’re a DADDY!”

That’s some good logic, eh?

Valentine’s Breakfast

Happy Valentine’s Day! This was great fun for Leah…

I’d tell you how I perfectly centered that egg… but then I’d have to kill you.

Pancake -

Leah’s Plate… 

Later I should post about Drew’s Valentine’s Day Present. He wanted my Green Chili (you can see that HERE) and tamales. I’ve never made tamales. It’s like some unreachable thing that people sell, right? Like you can buy A tamale for 2 bucks. Crazy. I told him no way. He didn’t ask for that FOR Valentine’s just mentioned I should add that to my list of things to learn. So I decided for V-Day I would do it. And homemade refried beans and Spanish Rice. It was a meal that took 2 days to prepare and 20 minutes to eat. Just like Thanksgiving! I invited my Mom & Dad over. Drew was a very happy man. (as were Mom & Dad!)

Oreo Balls & Molten Lava Cake

I made two things today. Well three. I did the Shrimp/Zucchini Tostada that are HERE (I had a craving for those) but two new things. This is going to turn into one really long blog post with two recipes but here goes…

Oreo Cookie Balls

These were really very simple to make.

Combine:

1 regular pkg Oreos
1 – 8 oz pkg cream cheese

I did this first in my food processor which chose the moment half way through to seize up and begin to spew smoke! Excellent timing, don’cha think? So then I transferred it to a bowl and finished with my immersion blender. I should have just done that to begin with LOL

After you blend these things together you can form little balls and place them onto a foil covered pan (or wax paper. whatever you have). I used a 1/2 TBSP spoon and another spoon to scoop it out to form the ball. Then you put them in the fridge for an hour or so.

**Leah’s mouth covering… She’s sick and she kept coughing all over the place. I said she could keep helping me but that she had to wear that. She was not too pleased with the idea but she had no choice.

She really was very good at making the balls though!

Towards the end of that time you melt some chocolate of whatever chocolate floats your boat. I saw a lot of suggestions about chocolate bark but I used Ghirardelli milk chocolate baking chips (one whole bag). I melted them in a double boiler.

Then I pulled out the balls and formed them into more perfect balls with my hands. Then I just used a spoon to roll them around in the chocolate. Back onto the foiled pan.

 

Once the chocolate was set some we drizzled decorating gel over the top and stuck them back in the fridge.

I don’t know what I expected of these but they’re delicious. The inside goo stuff looks like black tar which is mildly frightening but they’re delicious! What’s not to love? Oreo, cream cheese, and chocolate. Yummo.

Molten Lava Cake

So for such a “I always eat this in fancy restaurants” kind of dessert this is fascinatingly simple to make.

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for muffin tins
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar, plus more for muffin tins
• 3 large eggs
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted ( 1 1/3 full cups of chips)
• Confectioners' sugar, for dusting
• Whipped Heavy Whipping Cream (to top with when you eat. you could do ice cream or something of course)

Preheat to 400 degrees.

So you take a 6 cup muffin tin (or use a 12, just do this to 6 and put a little water in the other 6 to avoid scorching during baking), coat them in the extra butter, then liberally coat each cup in sugar.

Don’t skip this part. It gives a delightful outer crust to the cake!

Now mix until fluffy the butter and the sugar. Add the eggs – one at at time and blend thoroughly after each egg. On low, add the flour and salt until blended. Now slowly added the melted chocolate (do this by hand) and just folded it in until combined.

Split the batter between the 6 cups, bake for 8-10 minutes.

*Note – if you cook these too long they will not be ruined. They won’t be lava cakes anymore. They will be rich dense cupcakes.

Turn them upside down, dust with powdered sugar, and top with a dollop of whipped cream.

I took this first picture before I took a bite of course. Then I cut it open and got so excited I kept taking bites and forgot the original flowing lava picture. Oops. LOL Although this one still looks dang yummy!

That is one worthy dessert.

Drew was at work while I did all this and I didn’t realize he was coming home at 3 in the afternoon and he walks in and all 3 of these things were hot and waiting. He was one happy man!