Recipes

There were a few recipes that I was repeatedly asked for at my dad's party.

Lemon Mousse Fruit Cups
frozen phyllo cups
1 pint of heavy whipping cream
1 lemon
1 can of lemon pie filling
powdered sugar to taste
seasonal fruit washed (strawberries (cut into quarters), blueberries, blackberries, raspberries)
mint leaves optional

Allow phyllo cups to thaw on counter. Whip the cream in the mixer to medium peaks. Add zest of lemon. Fold in 5-6 tbsp of lemon pie filling and several pinches of powdered sugar. Taste and adjust to liking. Fill pastry bag or zip lock bag with mousse (if using zip lock bag cut corner to pipe out). Pipe into phyllo cups. Top with fruit and mint leaves.


Marble Cheesecake brownies

1 box of favorite chocolate brownie mix
8 oz cream cheese (softened)
1/3 cup of sugar
1 large egg yolk
1/4 tsp of vanilla

Mix brownie mix according to directions and spread in pan. Stir cream cheese, sugar, egg, vanilla until smooth. Dollop cream cheese mixture on top of brownie mix and swirl with a knife. Bake at 350 for 35 min.



Homemade Salsa

2 cans of diced tomatoes (or you can use the equivalent of fresh tomatoes ~7-8)
2 cans of rotel
1 tsp salt
1 onion
1 jalapeno
1 bunch of cilantro

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until well mixed. Refrigerate overnight for best results.

The BIG 6-0

My dad's birthday was this past Sunday and he turned 60. Since this is a major milestone birthday, I wanted to celebrate it in a big way! My mother, brother, and I decided to throw him a surprise birthday party. I had a lot of fun planning it. This was the first time I had ever planned a party for this big group of people (35). I did have thoughts during the planning process that I could get into this and this is fun, but those thoughts were quickly dissolved when the day of the party came! There were a few unforeseen kinks thrown into my final planning hours and I had to make some compromises, but thanks to my MIL for her help we were able to pull it off! The party was a success and I had bought plenty of food and everyone went home happy, so it was all worth it to see the look on his face.

The week before the party, my brother thought that my dad sounded suspicious of me planning something. So, all week I was trying to think of something to distract his thoughts, but it serendipitously worked out on the day of his party. My brother traveled from Lubbock for his birthday and on Saturday we surprised him at lunch with the arrival of my brother and his family! So, I thought this is perfect, he thinks that this was the BIG surprise and now he won't suspect anything else the rest of the day, GREAT! Well, that night we had the party at the church. He looked shocked when he walked in the room. He told me that he didn't expect anything and he was surprised! Then he said, "Now this is all the surprising, right?" I told him yes and to just enjoy the evening!

Here are some pictures of the evening:

My nephews: Andrew and Ethan

The kids know where the good stuff is!

Ethan's face says it all...

My dad looking at all his memorabilia. My mom and I worked on getting pictures and things he liked together to display on a keepsake table.

Me and the birthday boy!

The birthday cake

I Love You, Dad! I hoped you liked your party. Happy 60th Birthday!

Heather 11 months

Heather is just a ball of energy! If she is not asleep, she has to be moving, climbing, twisting, crawling, cruising...any form of movement! It takes some speed and skill to change her diaper! She is becoming more inquisitive and figuring out how things work. She will play with her blocks or legos and try to see if they fit through holes. She has figured out how to open the jack-in-the-box without turning the crank. She loves to fill buckets up with various toys, dump them out, and repeat. She has figured out how to open cabinet doors and drawers.

Her language skills are exploding and she is babbling all the time. She even said her first word this past Sunday, "Bye", while waving bye-bye. I was pleasantly surprised. By the way, she also waved for the first time this past month, 8/10/11. There are several times I think that she has said something, but it still sounds like giberish, but on Sunday the word bye was very clear and even used appropriately! Way to go, Heather! I know it is only a matter of time before she starts adding more words to her vocabulary.

Heather is still cruising, but getting more confident of letting go of things. Not walking yet, but getting closer. She will occasionaly take a few steps between Ryan and me. She still does the mowgli crawl (named after the jungle book character because that is what it looks like) especially when she is wearing a dress or doesn't want to scratch up her knees. We went to a birthday party at the local splash park last week and Heather wanted to get in the middle of the water action. Even though it was all concrete, she didn't let that stop her. She just did her mowgli crawl all around the park! Everyone thought her crawl was unique and funny!

She is doing great with eating table foods. She loves pasta, cheese, strawberries, carrots, yogurt, and crackers. I have weaned her to three feedings a day and I feel more comfortable with her starting mothers-day-out next week. She is drinking whole milk from a sippy cup and it was an easy transition from formula.

Heather is wearing mostly 12 month clothes, size 3 shoe, and size 3 diaper. She is 29" and 18 lbs by my measurement.

Potty and Swimming Milestones

I am happy to report that Brooke is doing great with potty training. She has been consistent for a little over a week going pee pee in the potty at home and even done it a few times in public places! Anytime we are at home, she is wearing big girl panties! We are still working on #2, but one step at a time. I am so proud of her.

We have been taking swim lessons last week and this week. Heather is doing great and seems very comfortable around the water. Brooke was a little timid last week, probably due to our illnesses. This week, however, she is doing great! Today she repeatedly went under water on her own and even discovered that she can open her eyes and see things under water! She loves to monkey climb on the wall around the pool. She also tried jumping into mommy's arms from the wall today and did great! I want both of my girls to be comfortable around the water and have fun. I am a proud momma!

Brooke 30 months (2 1/2 years)

Has it really been 2 and 1/2 years since you were born? I can't believe how fast time has gone. I have really enjoyed being able to stay home this last year and watch you grow.

You have gone from saying 2-3 word phrases to talking in complete sentences. Some of your funny phrases are: "I funny, mommy!", "No, no like that (sometimes insert "it's spicy")", "I silly", "Put my down", "Skip, Skip, Skip, la la lou...", "That be fun", "I brush my toothbrush."
Common mispronunciations include: diming room for dining room, cane cane for candy, ho ho for santa, biaper instead of diaper, sharp for knife, schmoon for spoon, corder for recorder. I know there are more, but this is all I could recall for the moment.

You are starting to be so imaginative. You love to play with your dolls and cooking in your kitchen. You love to swim, play at the park, go to the bounce house and are even getting brave enough to go up the big slide all by yourself. You love to color, make art, and hang it on your wall. You can draw circles, rainbows, and mountains instead of just scribbling.

You love to listen to the 'trumpet song' aka The Music Class CD. You know most of the songs in the book and can sing them by heart with correct inflections in your voice. Some of the songs include: Frere Jacques, A train is a-coming, and Muffin Man. Some of your other favorite songs to sing include alphabet, skip-to-my-lou, head-shoulders-knees-toes, where is thumpkin, happy birthday, itsy bitsy spider, patty cake, Jesus loves me, and row row your boat. You know more songs than what I listed, but these are your favorites and you usually sing them on a daily basis. You can recognize black and white keys on the piano and can correctly identify low versus high tones. You love to listen to daddy play the piano, trumpet, and guitar. You sometimes like to listen to mommy play her clarinet. You love to play the piano, drums, rattles, xylophone, and recorder.

You love to help mommy cook by stirring, pouring, or tasting ingredients. You like to pick out your own fork, spoon, cup, and plate when it is time to eat. You can drink from a cup with no lid during meal times with very few mishaps. You love ketchup and want to eat it with everything. I have a hard time getting you to eat vegetables, so I have to sneak them in foods. However, you will eat broccoli most of the time. You like most fruits. Your favorite foods are sweet potato pancakes, hot dogs, chicken, strawberries, bananas, pudding, hummus, and of course candy! You try to get candy by any means possible even telling me your baby dolls went pee pee in the potty.

Lately you have been testing my discipline limits especially in public. Most of the time you are well behaved, but if you are tired, hungry, or cranky we can run into issues. You have figured out how to wiggle your arms out of the car seat and I have had to stop on the side of the road or parking lot several times to fix it.


You know the most common shapes: circle, square, diamond, and star. You know all your colors and your favorite is blue. You can count to 13 and with help to 20. You commonly follow 13 with your own made up number eleventeen. You can recognize most of the letters of the alphabet. You still have trouble with C, D, F, Q, V, W, but you love to read your alphabet books. You are starting to recognize numbers. You love to do puzzles.

You are working on potty training and have some great days and some challenging days. We have switched to pull-ups full time and you wear a size 2t. I can tell you are getting taller because your 2t shirts are getting shorter and just this week I have bought you some 3t shirts. You wear size 6-7 shoe depending on the brand. Recently you have started dressing and undressing yourself. You will wear a barrette most of the time to help keep the bangs out of your eyes, but refuse to let me put a pony tail in your hair. If I can't get you to wear a bow, then I can usually convince you to wear one for Jesus.

You visited the dentist for the first time on 8/10/11. We did a trial run with your stuffed animals the day before. You played the dentist and brushed all your stuffed animals teeth.
You had a great check up, but didn't like the dentist looking in your mouth. You are still missing the 2nd molars on top and bottom and the dentist expects them to come in the next six months.

I really love how your personality is blossoming. I can tell you are going to have a caring sweet and sensitive side, but also possess a strong character. I cannot thank God enough for blessing me with you! You have taught me so much about life and how to be a mother. I look forward to seeing you grow up and develop, but I also try to cherish the way you are at this moment. That is why I write these milestone blogs! I will Always Love You, Brooke! Happy 2 1/2 Years!

This is your favorite shirt right now and you love to show off the cow teeth!

Dinner

The other night we had some friends over for dinner. I have been craving these jalapeno cheese burgers we used to buy from whole foods and decided to come up with my own recipe. I was pleasantly surprised how they turned out and I think I will be making them again.

Here is my recipe for 6 burgers:
2 lbs ground chuck (80/20)
2 -3 peppers finely diced (I used anaheim for this recipe)
1 tbsp of ground onion
1 tbsp of ground garlic
1 tsp of paprika
several pinches of salt and grinds of pepper
1 -2 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
Mix all ingredients.
Form into 6 burgers and grill to your liking.


I was playing around with taking some food pictures. So, here is my artistic foodie pics. I also made some homemade mac n cheese to go with the burgers.

Heather 10 months

My little girl is growing up so fast. She is really letting her personality shine! She loves to be silly and is intentionally doing silly things like putting a basket on her head and crawling around. She will climb in the little tikes car, grab the steering wheel, and shake her head around like a crazed monkey. She will put several toys in a bowl then dump them on her head laughing the whole time. She thinks it is hilarious to "sneak" up on her sister or cat or dog even though they hear her squeal in delight before she has gotten there. When Brooke is acting silly, she claps and laughs in delight! It is so much fun to be interactive with Heather now. I love to just sit back and watch Heather in action.
She is sleeping through the night. I have noticed a frustrating sleep pattern. Heather has dropped her morning nap and will only take one afternoon nap usually from 12-2. However, if she cuts that nap short then it is not a happy ending. She will go down for bed fine, but every time she has a short nap she will wake up 1-2 hrs after I have put her down for the night just screaming. It is very difficult to get her to go back to sleep. I feel so bad for her and I can't wait until she is napping at least 2hrs consistently. 2hrs seems to be the perfect amount of sleep for nap time and she will not wake at all during the night on days that she naps well.
She is doing well eating table foods and will try anything that I put in front of her. She doesn't prefer apples, watermelon, or mangoes, but so far she has eaten everything else.
I weighed her using our home scale and she is 16.5lbs and 28.25" long (but this is as close of a measurement as I could get because she was squirming around).
She is wearing 12 month clothes, size 3 diaper, and size 3 shoe.
As usual, I had almost forgot to take a picture until it was bath time and while I was getting Brooke ready for bed I asked Ryan to take a picture with her bunny and monkey. Well, he didn't know which bunny I was talking about and just grabbed one out of the crib. Even though it wasn't the "correct" bunny, I thought it was a cute picture anyway.