Deck the halls

This afternoon I finally decided I had enough energy to decorate the house for Christmas. We've had this 4.5 foot tree since we first got married and I thought Ezra would have fun decorating "his" tree this year. Dumb me bought white-wire Christmas lights, and Dumber me thought that once I got them on the tree and plugged it in, you wouldn't be able to tell that much. It was pretty trashy looking, so once Ezra went down for his nap I re-did the lights with some green wired ones. Also, while decorating this tiny tree, I decided that it will be our only tree this year. I love our 7 foot tree, but the idea of having to take it down when I am 3ish weeks away from giving birth was not one that appealed to me. 

Ezra had a blast decorating. I showed him how to hang each of the ornaments, carefully separating the breakable ones from the non-breakable ones that he would put on the tree. He would run over to me and say "Nother one," get another ornament, and point to a branch and say "Goes right here." Incidentally, all the ornaments went on just two branches. I re-did that after he went to sleep too.

I may or may not have instructed Ezra to "sniff the light" to get this picture.

He loves letters these days and had fun pointing out the letters on the blocks. He also enjoyed the santa hat.

Deer in the Christmas lights. He is incredibly hard to photograph these days. Why won't you just SMILE NORMAL, child?

Love this one. He really did love the lights and ornaments.

"Goes right here."

Ezra's creation at the end. When all the ornaments were gone, Ezra said sadly, "I need more or-ments."

Close-up of the two branches with multiple ornaments

Videos

Ezra singing "Jesus Loves me" Ezra singing "you are my sunshine" Ezra telling me that he made a turkey, and then telling me the sound a turkey makes (I love the part where he runs into the wall when he's running away from me)

Monthly Menu

Chicken enchilada soup
Breakfast casserole & smoothies
Lasagna
Taquitos
Chicken huts
Potato bacon torte
Crispy southwest chicken wraps
Coconut chicken
Chicken cordon bleu
Salsa chicken with rice
Cheesy enchilada casserole
Braided sandwich loaf

Recipes I'm taking to potlucks/parties etc.
Pepperjack Grits
Pumpkin cupcakes with Salted caramel buttercream

Road trip with a two year old

If you've been reading this blog for a while now or if you know me in person, you know that Ezra has never been a fan of the car. This past weekend we spent 24 hours total driving to and from Arkansas. Needless to say, I was nervous. To add to my stress, the first part of the trip included Chad just getting off a 12-hour shift at work which meant he needed to sleep for a few hours, I needed to drive, and Ezra needed to be quiet and stay entertained with no one to really entertain him. So this trip required some planning. Thanks to other people's great ideas, it was the most pleasant car trip we have ever been on. 

So if you are planning a road trip with little ones any time soon, might I suggest the following. These are the things that kept Ezra entertained. 

1. Rectangular, magnetic cake pan with sides...a couple people gave me this idea and it was genius. It kept Ezra's toys contained on his lap and also allowed him to play with the magnets I brought.

2. Magnetic numbers and letters

3. Cars and small dinosaurs (Ezra played the longest with these, and the cake pan acted as a holder for everything)

4. iphone with games -- Ezra's favorites are Tozzle and Talking Hippo. I also take quite a bit of video of him on the iphone ahead of time and leave it on there so he can watch videos of himself. 

5. Post-it notes and tape

6. Notebook with stickers and crayons (important that the stickers are the kind Ezra can take off the page by himself)

7. Noisy stuff--flarp, noisemakers for birthday parties, etc.

8. Stuff that lights up for after it gets dark. I got ezra one of these little wand/globe things that you press a button and it lights up and spins around. Also glow sticks

9. Laptop with lots of Little Einsteins episodes downloaded to itunes. I probably had 6 hours worth of Little Einsteins, plus Lion King, and we brought other DVDs too. This is probably most of what made both trips so pleasant. We just put the laptop in the console between the front seats of the car and plug the charger in to an adaptor we have that plugs into the car. Great for keeping the computer (and phones) charged.

10. Lots of special snacks. I brought stuff that Ezra doesn't get very often and would use it as rewards.

I brought the toys out one thing at a time to keep everything new and interesting. It worked! Hopefully we will have good luck on our next trip as well...since it's only about half as long.

I don't know how well you can see this picture, but Ezra is playing with that spinny light-up globe thing I was talking about. $5 at wal-mart.

Terrible picture, but this is Ezra still happy as a clam when we had about 1 hour left in our trip (so we had been driving 11). We don't do much capri sun at home, so he enjoyed having the special drink.

This is on the way home...one of the less happy moments in the trip. Ezra HATES the sun being in his eyes when we're in the car. He is also not a fan of hats or sunglasses, so solutions aren't easy to come by for Mr. Particular. Well, this is getting close to sunset, and we are heading due west, so the sun was really bright in Ezra's eyes. I taught Ezra how to hold the blanket over his head to shade out the sun. It worked pretty well, but he was also watching a movie, so he had to figure out how to block out the sun AND be able to see the computer. A good lesson in problem-solving. :)

Weekend in Searcy -- 30 years old!

This past weekend we went to Searcy to spend a few days with Emily, Joey and kids. They were very gracious and let us stay in the big girls' room. That made 10 of us in their apartment, and it was great! Another bonus was that we got to see a lot of our CBH current and former staff and campers. Another bonus was that it was my 30th birthday on Saturday. I decided a couple months ago that I wanted to take a photography/photoshop class, and Taylor Jackson of Barefeet Photography was putting one on in Searcy that day. It was great and I learned a lot. I also got a new lens for my birthday, so I have had to fight the urge to just take pictures and play around in photoshop all day, since there are suitcases to unpack and laundry to be done. :) 

Anyway, I am going to start trying to be better about editing my pictures before I post them on the blog. I have started working on getting all the entries published in a book and I'd like for the pictures to be a little better quality. It will be a lot of experimenting so bear with me. 

Ezra loved playing in the leaves on Harding campus, and this is what we like to call the bulldozer pose.

 My sweet twin nieces June and Norah. They just turned ONE on November 1!

This is just a picture from this afternoon that captures our son. He is a fan of cars these days. Anything with wheels, really. He is constantly saying "I see cars." Also, just because I want to remember, he woke up from his nap today and the first words he said when I got him were "I'm Super Ezra." He got that from his buddy Trevyn. It was pretty cute, and then he pointed at me and said "Super Mama." And that just melted my heart. 

 This is for all my friends who graduated from Harding. It really is a beautiful campus. I told Chad that if our children decide not to go to A&M, even though I would be heartbroken, I would be okay with them going to harding. As long as they spent a semester in Greece or Italy and I could go visit them.

 Josey guiding Ezra across Harding's campus. All of Joey and Emily's girls were so great with Ezra. He had a blast. He would wake up from naps and say "ready to go play."

Sweet June. Apparently this is her newest face. June liked to be held and snuggled, and since she wasn't picky, I got to hold and snuggle her a lot. We're buds.

And her elder sister, Norah. :) Norah likes beans...and I'm sure some day she will love this picture.

Chad and Lucy. Somehow I didn't get a picture of Riley the whole weekend. Sorry Riley, I'll get one at Thanksgiving.

Halloween 2011

We had a fun evening. Ezra ended up dressing like his buddy Aiden, and I decided to try to paint Ezra's face like a skeleton. Once he saw Aiden get his face painted, he was totally fine with it. 

 Serious skeletons (as in, "seriously, move out of the way, we are trying to watch "Little Einsteins."

 Ezra with two of his favorite people!

 Getting his first piece of candy at Trunk or Treat at church

 "I got this, mom."

 Concentrating on his sucker...no time to pose for a picture with Anna Beth

 The college students did games in the gym this year. Here Ezra is playing a little golf game and spotted his friend Leslie Ann.

 CHEESE!

An attempt to get 5 children to pose for the camera. 

Ezra loves his friend Emily, and I think she likes him pretty well too.

28 weeks

Recent videos

This is the video I took right after we told Ezra what his little sister's name would be...what's cuter than hearing a two-year-old say his sister's name?
Baby Ivy! from Lesley Montandon on Vimeo.
Took this video right after Ezra learned his ABC's...mostly. He says "HIJ, I'm okay. QRS..." and then yells "Elmo!" at the end. That is from a little Elmo's ABCs movie that he watches on my phone. Ezra's current pronunciation of the word "tortilla," which of course I think is the cutest thing ever. Every night before bed I sing "You are my sunshine" to Ezra. Here is his version...much speedier than mine. Also, please ignore the grody tile. It's all busted out now and replaced with new, pretty tile. :) Ezra has been coming home from school singing songs I have never heard before. During his bath he had been singing a song that goes something like "I'm a little bullfrog and God made me, croak, croak, croak." I could only make out the word "frog" so I had him sing the song again so I could play it for his teacher and ask her what he was singing. Of course she knew right away. He loves going to school!

Happy Halloween!

I just wanted to show everyone what Ezra is going to be for Halloween this year. He is going as a "child who was supposed to wear an Elmo costume but who freaks out anytime I try to put it on him so he is going to wear pajamas instead." He really does love these pajamas. I am going to try to see if he'll let me paint his face like a skeleton, but I doubt it. 

Last night the girl's dorm at LCU did a trick-or-treating thing, so we went up there and Ezra had fun holding up his pumpkin bucket...especially once he realized that they were all giving him candy. We've still got the Halloween festival at his school tomorrow, and then REAL Halloween. I guess I better make him a dentist appointment sometime soon, too.

The last two months

Funny thing happens when I have "dust bedrooms and living room" and other things I really don't want to do on my to-do list. I take the time to sit down and post a bunch of pictures to my blog that I've had for a while but haven't gotten around to posting yet. 

These first ones are from September. Or maybe August, I can't remember. Doesn't matter. Anyway, we took Ezra to the science spectrum to something called bubble fest. You'll notice the pictures don't have any bubbles, because Ezra couldn't have cared less about all the bubble stuff.  

 Well, here he is watching a bit of the bubble show. That didn't last for too long.

 He was much more interested in sticking his face directly in the colored spotlights that lined the large room.

 This picture cracks me up. There is a t-rex at the science spectrum that moves and makes roaring sounds. Every time we drive by the science spectrum, Ezra says "Go see dinosaur!" The funny part is that he is completely scared of it. He won't go near it. This is what he did as we passed it the night we were there. So, good job science spectrum for making the t-rex believable. I guess.

 

I am in love with this picture. Ezra was sitting in the back with his papaw and they were sharing a laugh. Those two love each other. 

 We went to the fair when Paul & Carolyn came to visit and this is the only picture I got. Just picture all of us, some turkey legs, corn, funnel cake, etc. It was a good time.

 Twins

 Ezra LOVES to do puzzles, which usually means he brings me the pieces and I put them together, but he is so cute when he says "Yay! It fits!" and he is super proud when we finish a puzzle.

 Buds

 Nap hair

 We took Ezra to see "Lion King" at the drive-in and he loved it...he's posing in front of our set-up in the back of our van.

 Taking pictures with your mom is pure torture.

 I get to spend two days a week with these sweet boys.

 More random pictures

 His best pose

 Ezra is 2 years and 3 months. He is loving his Tuesday/Thursday school and is learning so much. Some of my favorite phrases that Ezra says these days:

"Come on, mama." 

"Be patient, mama." He said this to me yesterday as I was waiting for him to buckle the top buckle of his car seat. He insists on doing it himself and I guess I was being a little impatient. Nothing like a two-year-old putting you in your place.

"I like it chicken, mama." I love that he is learning to compliment. Yesterday he was chowing down on the dinner that I made and let me know that he was enjoying it. So sweet. Another compliment he says a lot is "I like it shirt, daddy," usually when Chad is wearing a plain white undershirt. 

The other day I went in to get Ezra from his nap because he had started making noises, and he was still laying down. He looked over at me and waved me out. Then he called me a few minutes later and said, "Good nap."

When it's time to put Ezra down for a nap or bedtime, his favorite stall tactic is, "Snuggle, little bit?" Hard to resist that.

I'm sure there are more that I would like to record, but as usual, I have forgotten.

Before & after...new windows

We had new windows installed this last week. It's a pretty subtle change, but my favorite part is how CLEAN they are right now. :) They also open, unlike our old windows, so it's nice to let the fresh air in...when we're not having a terrible dust storm like we did last week. 

So here's the before picture:

 And here is the after picture. Can you tell the difference?

The windows are a color called "driftwood" and I got the exterior paint to match it, so I think the windows blend quite nicely. No more ugly storm windows, and since these were so cleverly designed to be able to open and clean from the inside, I guess I will have to do that every once in a while. Probably won't, though. 

We are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on our bathrooms. We are moved into the master bathroom, still waiting on the countertop, sink, backsplash, and a bit of tile wainscoting. We've got folks working at our house as we speak tiling the floor of the guest bathroom, and they have already done the wainscoting in there and the tub enclosure. Waiting on counters for that bathroom and painting and texturing. I'm guessing our kitchen counters will be in about the same time the ones in the bathrooms are, since it's all the same stuff. I can't wait for it all to be done so I can show you all those before and afters! And so we don't have constant dust and dirt and people coming through our house! And so Ezra doesn't have to take showers anymore!

Another kind of recipe...

My friend Laurie at Heritage Schoolhouse posted a recipe for homemade laundry detergent a while back. I had been meaning to make it for a while but we just ran out of our store-bought detergent so I waited until now. It was SO easy and it seems to work just as well if not better than my regular detergent. Not to mention, it is WAY cheaper than buying store-bought detergent.

Here are the ingredients...

Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda

20 Mule Team Borax

Fels-Naptha Laundry Bar Soap

 

Directions: 

1. Grate your bar of soap. Add soap gradually to four cups simmering water, stirring often and adding more as it dissolves until all soap is dissolved. 

2. Pour 3 gallons of warm water into a 5 gallon bucket. Add soapy water from the stove, 1 cup washing soda, and 1/2 cup borax. Stir well until everything is combined. 

3. Put lid on bucket and let sit for 24 hours. 

Laurie suggests using 1 cup detergent per load. Based on that suggestion, you can look at a price breakdown at her original post that I linked back to above. She also has links to a recipe for powdered detergent. 

Thanks for posting, Laurie!

Monthly menu & favorite fall dessert recipes

If you've been looking at my recipes for a while, you might notice that I tend to repeat a lot of stuff. That is because I stick with things that we like, and also because I tend to get in ruts with my cooking. Who doesn't? I'm so thankful for the internet, food blogs, and pinterest because otherwise we would literally be eating the same thing all the time. So anyway, for my own sake and for those of you who are looking for new stuff to try, I have started making a note if it's a new recipe that I'm posting. If you have a recipe that is worth sharing, please post it in the comments. Also, in this list you'll notice that there is often 4 or 5 recipes in a row using the same kind of meat. In real life on my calendar I mix it up, so we're not eating chicken for a week in a row, unless I do it on purpose like roasting a chicken one night and then using the meat in another couple recipes that week. That just makes good financial and time sense. Enjoy!

Bowtie "lasagna" (new recipe)
Taco soup (Paula Deen recipe...thanks Heather for making this at book club! This is the best taco soup I have ever had.) with cornbread
Creamy chicken taquitos (I make this at least once a month and always wish I had made more.)
Lemon roasted chicken (I am going to make 2 of these and use the meat in the next couple recipes)
Lemon Chicken Soup with spaghetti
Southwest Chicken & Corn cakes
BBQ baked potatoes (I will probably make this around the same time I make the beef stew so I can use part of the stew meat to make shredded BBQ in the crock pot for the potatoes.)
Sub sandwiches with turkey, lettuce, tomatoes, guacamole, cheese, and sub dressing
Tasty pork tenderloin
Chicken huts
Pizza
Taco pile-up
Chicken, bacon & avocado quesadillas (new recipe)
Beef stew
Crispy southwest chicken wraps (a keeper from last month. I'll probably make Pioneer woman's basic mexican rice for the taco pile-ups and then use the leftovers for this recipe. It will boost the flavor and then I won't have to make rice again. It's not my favorite thing to do.)
Savory spiral stuffed rolls (new recipe...I will use Rhode's frozen bread dough instead of making my own dough. I'll make these close to when I make the lemon chicken soup since they both call for fresh shredded parmesan, NOT the grated kind in the green cylinder.)

Here are a few desserts I've made lately that you might enjoy trying...
S'mores bars

2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups marshmallows
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Combine 1 1/2 cup crumbs and melted butter and press into the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan.
Top with chocolate chips, then marshmallows.
Pour condensed milk all over the marshmallows.
Top with the remaining 1/2 cup crumbs.
Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, until the top is golden brown.
Cool before cutting.

Sidenote: I love baking with canned pumpkin. I think it was last year that there was a pumpkin shortage when it wasn't fall, and I couldn't find pumpkin ANYWHERE. Obviously, not the end of the world, but when you want pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and there is no pumpkin to be found, it is a bummer. I learned my lesson and stockpiled last year, and just finished my last can of pumpkin making the two recipes below.  Time to stock up again in case we have Pumpkin Crisis of 2012.

Pumpkin cupcakes with salted caramel buttercream...YUMMMMMY!
Pumpkin Cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the  brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Beat on medium speed until well combined.  Add dry ingredients, and mix on low until smooth. Fold in pumpkin puree.
Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pans once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.
Makes ~ 24 cupcakes.

Salted Caramel Buttercream

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 stick salted butter
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 cups powdered sugar

In a saucepan, stir together granulated sugar and water.  Bring to a boil over medium high heat.  Cook without stirring until mixture turns a deep amber color.  Remove from heat and slowly add in cream and vanilla, stirring until very smooth.  Let caramel cool for about 20 minutes, until it is just barely warm and still pourable.

In a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter and salt together until lightened and fluffy.  Reduce speed to low and add powdered sugar.  Mix until thoroughly combined.

 

Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the caramel.  Beat on medium high speed until light and airy, and completely mixed (about 2 minutes).  Mixture should be ready to use without refrigeration.  If your caramel was too hot when added, it will cause your icing to be runny.  If this happens refrigerate for 15-20 minutes.

Pumpkin bars
Bars:

• 4 eggs
• 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 15-ounce can pumpkin
• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Icing:

• 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Directions: 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. Cut into bars.
To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.