"It takes wisdom to have a good family, and it takes understanding to make it strong." - Proverbs 24:3


Friday, October 30, 2009

Under wraps

I'm working on Mason's Halloween costume tonight (yes I'm a procrastinator).

What could it bee???

This actually isn't his costume. It's a receiving blanket and beanie he got from Grandma Pete.


Mason digs it though!

Here's one last Halloween dinner for you!

Mummy Meatloaf

3/4 lb. lean ground beef
3/4 lb. ground turkey
1 egg
1 c. bread crumbs
1 c. dry stuffing mix
1 c. ketchup or barbecue sauce
6 cooked lasagna noodles (with the wavy edges trimmed off)

Mix the first 5 ingredients together, shape into a mound (or bake in an oven-safe bowl) and cook in a 350 degree oven for 45-55 minutes. Cover with ketchup or barbeque sauce and "wrap" with the lasagna noodles.

We ate the Mummy Meatloaf with stuffing and butternut squash (which you can slice in half, place face down in a baking sheet with 1/4 inch of water and cook in the oven with the meatloaf).

Enjoy!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Wrapping up dinner


Hebrew Nationals + crescent roll dough cut into strips = Yummy Mummies!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Get your finger out of my soup!


Monday night we made Sausage and Potato Soup to go with these "creepy finger" bread sticks. You can make bread sticks from scratch or use pre-made ones (like we did). Use a knife to make indentations for knuckles and almond slices (or whole almonds) for fingernails. I like the almond slices because they look more like dirty fingernails-- gross!

Here is the recipe for the soup...

5-6 medium sized potatoes, cut into 1″ cubes
1 lb. pork sausage
1 medium onion, chopped (we omitted this)
1 cup light cream (we used half and half)
1/4 cup butter
6 cups chicken stock (we used vegetable)
1 1/2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
freshly ground black pepper

Bring the stock to a boil in a large pot. Add potatoes (and onions, if using). Cook until the potatoes are tender. Meanwhile, brown the sausage in a separate pan. Add the cooked sausage to the potatoes and stock. Add the cream and butter. Stir until butter is melted. Add the vanilla and balsamic vinegar right before serving.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

No tricks, just treats

How CUTE are these candy corn drawstring bags??? They were super easy to make and took me about 15 minutes last night to make two of them for my little cousins, Lauren and Melanie.

Here is the tutorial I found via The Crafty Crow. These are the same talented ladies whose tutorial I used for the Easter egg drawstring bags.

Enjoy!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Nutrition


Mason is almost 9 months! I can't believe he has been now been outside of my body a month longer than he was inside of it. What a difference a year and a half can make.

My aunt commented this week that she is amazed at what Mason will eat (her youngest is super picky) and it got me to thinking that he really has had quite a variety of foods in 4 short months of eating solids...
  • Bananas
  • Apples
  • Pears
  • Mangoes
  • Tomatoes
  • Avocados
  • Plums
  • Peaches
  • Nectarines
  • Strawberries
  • Honeydew melon
  • Cantaloupe
  • Watermelon
  • Raspberries
  • Blueberries
  • Figs (his FAVORITE)
  • Spinach
  • Yellow Squash
  • Zucchini
  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Potatoes
  • Carrots
  • Broccoli
  • Pumpkin
  • Oatmeal
  • Brown rice
  • Egg yolk
  • Lentils
  • Split peas
  • Fish
  • Chicken
  • Cheese
  • Yogurt
  • Whole wheat bagel/bread

The best part is that so far there is nothing he refuses to eat. Of course he prefers apple sauce and yogurt over lentils or squash, but who doesn't? He is his mommy's baby and loooves his fruit. I know we need to expose him to more meat and get some beef in his diet-- any other suggestions? What foods am I missing? We are still making our own baby food and so much of the produce this summer came right out of Grandpa Flint's garden. Sooo yummy and completely organic.

We are definitely counting ourselves lucky to have such a great eater!

So, what else can I feed a 9 month old???

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Out with the old

This week I said goodbye (via Craigslist) to my Warren Kimble "Four Seasons" prints...
And hello to some delicious Heather Bailey fabric...


How do those two things relate, you ask?
Our motto for the last 2 years has been "Less is more".
We live in a 900 square foot house.
And we're on a budget.

So now we have less stuff,
I can make new curtains for the kitchen using fabric I really, really wanted,
and it was basically free. Thank you Craigslist.

It's a win-win!

Now if the FedEx box would just arrive...

Monday, October 19, 2009

Weekend Fun

Out for a drive in our new Subaru Legacy!

Frozen yogurt (mom's favorite treat)

Rockin' pj tops, too-big sweat pants, and marine-themed socks.

Being goofy with Dad.

The boys' new favorite game: Baby in a laundry basket

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Saturday Smile

How adorable is Ella???

I love when my friend Kim sends me pictures of Ella from her phone. In the photo above she's chewing on the crinkle toy I made for her (I can't believe that thing isn't in pieces by now). That picture pops up when Kim calls me and it makes me smile every time.


And here is the little cutie modeling a ruffle butt onesie I just sent her. I want to take a bite out of those chubby thighs!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

You may not know...

Thanks Heather, for sending me some blog love yesterday! Check out Heather's post yesterday (if you haven't already) and maybe you'll learn a thing or two about her that you didn't already know. Here's how the Kreativ Blogger Award goes...

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award. Check.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog. Check.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award. Check.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people may not know.
5. Nominate Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they’ve been nominated.

Thinking of 7 things most people may not know about me was more difficult than I thought it was going to be, but here you go...

  1. I spent 2 years as a Peace Corps volunteer. More specifically, I was a member of AmeriCorps and taught junior high math and science during the summers and tutored during the school year.
  2. One of my many hats has been the Children's Ministry director at a baptist church. I led a program of 700 children and 200 volunteers.
  3. I've travelled overseas to Thailand and China.
  4. I have email OCD. I have to read emails in the order I receive them. (Extremely annoying when they are backed up and there are recent ones I really want to read!)
  5. I have a degree in kinesiology. And yet I am currently a banker...
  6. I once played "Silent Night" on the piano for an elementary school Christmas show-- having never taken a piano lesson. My parents thought I was crazy.
  7. Finally, if you've never met me in person you may not know that I have two different colored eyes. One brown and one hazel.
Now, check out these fabulous ladies and their fun blogs! (I'm breaking the rules and not telling them I've linked to them here, but their blogs are well worth the read.)

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Mason, AKA

If I had to give Mason a Native American nickname it would be "Refuses To Nap"...

Apparently cruising around his crib is far more entertaining.


Regardless of how tired or cranky he is.

It's going to be a long day...

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Before and After: Work Training Classes

Before: I'd show up the last moment before the instructor closes the door.
After: I show up early to ask the instructor for a private area with a door that locks...

Before: I'd spend my breaks chatting in the hallways.
After: I spend my breaks alone. In the janitors closet.

Before: Lunch time meant I had a full hour (and a per diem) to have a sit-down lunch.
After: Lunch time means I have a full hour to pump, call home, and grocery shop.

Before: I was that flirty chick who sits by all the boys.
After: I was that mom of the "Worlds Cutest Baby" showing everyone pictures on her phone.

Before: I'd hope class ends early so I can go out for drinks with my coworkers/classmates.
After: I hope class ends early so I can go to the park with my Worlds Cutest Baby.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Pacifier Clips

It has been a while since I've posted a project and this one has been sitting in my blogger que. Mason likes his pacifier when he's getting sleepy but he won't fall asleep with it in his mouth so we use it most when we're out for our evening walks or in the car. We have one pacifier clip and it works okay. The clip part isn't the greatest.

I saw this stinking cute owl pacifier clip on Give Away Today and it was all I could do not to order one! Okay so it was only $6.75 (around $8 after shipping and a 15% discount) but I was going to wait a day to see if I won the giveaway first. It figures that that evening I went to Joanne's for fabric and happened across some super cute adhesive backed ribbon that looked like the ribbon in that stinking cute owl pacifier clip. Of course my next thought is, "I bet I could make that..."

If Tage had a nickel for every time he has heard me say that he could finally buy the flatscreen TV he has always wanted!

At any rate, here's what I did...

Gathered the ribbon, my sewing kit, some eco-felt and a hot glue gun.

Purchased snaps along with the ribbon at Joanne's to use to secure the clip to the pacifier. The most time comsuming part of this process was sewing the snaps onto the ribbon! Before doing that though, I cut a 16" length of ribbon, peeled off the backing, and folded it in half (so that it adhered to itself.) If I make these again I'm going to use a 20" length of ribbon because the 16" is border-line too short in the end.

At the other end of the ribbon you'll secure whatever you're using as the actual "clip" part of it. I opted for one of these hair clips. I made Mason's first and used hot glue to attach the clip to the ribbon-- failure. He pryed it off after a few uses. When I made the next one I sewed the thing on, which worked much better.

The fun part for most people, cutting out your felt shapes, comes next. This is always the hardest part for me because I do NOT have an eye for stuff like that. Heather, on the other hand... well that's why she has a shop and I do not. :) So if I can manage to fashion a somewhat owl-looking creature out of felt, you can too.

I handstiched some body parts on and added a little detail. If you double up the thread it stands out a bit more.

Then you take that cool fusible material stuff and iron it between your felt creature and another piece of felt cut roughly the same shape. You can tell by my picture above that when I say "roughly" I clearly mean roughly. Not pretty. I'm sure yours will be pretty though. Especially if your name is Heather. Or Julie. Ugh.

Thankfully (for me) when you finish ironing and the felt pieces are happily fused together your mistakes are forgiven and it looks just fine.

Now you hot glue the felt form to the end of the ribbon that has the clip. The hot glue worked well for this function. Mason has yet to pry them apart.

Here is what it looks like when it's finished.

There you have it, the finished pair-- don't make fun of my felt shapes! Someday I'll be good at the whole "creative" side of craftiness. Um, or not. Either way, this pacifier clip cost me less than $1 to make. Think of the possibilities with all the cute felt creatures (monograms? or fruit? vegetables maybe?) you can create to add to the end of the clip! Check out Cranberries and Capers for lots of cute ideas.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

From zero to sixty

video

On Tuesday Mason figured out the crawling thing. As you can see from the video, we sat him down and off he went-- toward anything with a cord to pull. Today he has decided he is over crawling and it is now just a means to get him over to anything he can use to pull himself up on.

Exhibit A:
Other firsts today include eating lentils (so far this kid will eat anything, yay!!!)...
...and successfully using a sippy cup (not 100% of the time, mind you.)

Also note that Mason's feet appear to almost be too big for those SIZE 12-24 MONTH socks he has on.

Our Baby Valone is growing entirely too fast, in every sense.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Weekend Fun

Apple Hill!

That smile just melts your heart!

Checking out his first pumpkin.

Seeing how pumpkins taste, then contemplating rolling down the grassy hill.

Staying warm on a chilly day with Mom and Dad.

Inspecting the gourds.

We enjoyed our first annual family trip to Apple Hill and came home with a half bushel of apples-- time to look for some yummy recipes!
Related Posts with Thumbnails