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.

Ezra-26 months

So, maybe slightly more interesting to most of you than pictures of ovens...

It's been a while since I've posted pictures of Ezra. He is still as goofy and funny as ever. He talks all the time these days and is pretty good at communicating most of the time. He gets easily frustrated as I am sure all two year olds do. Some of his favorite phrases are "I yike it," "Choke-it meeoke" (chocolate milk), and "Yuck! Yucky! Yuck! See?" (Look! Looky! Look!) when he wants us to look at something, mostly when we're passing it in the car. 

Silly kid...

 He likes to stack things. We've been working a lot on letters and numbers. One of my favorite things is his rendition of the alphabet. When he gets to the middle, he says "H I J I'm okay Q R S." I guess LMNOP sounds like I'm okay to him. As far as numbers goes, he'll count to twelve, then say "thirteen, seventeen" over and over again.

 He also loves to imitate Chad.

 Sweet boy.

Before & after

Attempts at craftiness

I have been having fun making some things for Ivy. The thing is, I don't really make things, I mostly buy things that other people make. My whole life I've gone through crafty "spurts," such as teaching myself to knit a few years ago, and the one Chad teases me the most about--mosaics. Yeah, that one was short-lived, but lasted long enough that I invested in tile nippers, glue, and lots of old ceramic plates from goodwill. Anyway, here is a little peek into the fabric I've chosen for Ivy's bedding which my much, much more talented friend Emily is sewing for her. I pulled out my sewing machine the other day and made a minkie blanket. Above that is a bow holder. Yes, an entire holder for bows. Apparently that is the kind of thing you need when you have a girl that isn't on your radar when you have a boy. I saw something similar to this at one of the many baby showers I attend. I bought an open-back frame at hobby lobby and a few different rolls of ribbon, cut a piece of foam board to fit inside the frame, and used a lot of packing tape and hot glue to attach it all. Then I bought some alligator clips and glued some grosgrain ribbon to those and made some little flower hair clips to test the sturdiness of my new bow holder. 

I am hoping that we can move Ezra into our guest room (which will be his room) soon, but we have to wait until our master bathroom is done with being remodeled because right now everything from our closet has taken over the guest room and we are sleeping in there most nights because of all the dust. The plan is to move him to a regular bed with plenty of time before Ivy gets here so we don't need to convert the crib or buy a second crib. Funny how with my first pregnancy, 4 months felt like FOREVER before the baby got here, and now I feel like we are SO CLOSE to her being here...this pregnancy is going by really fast. Anyway, I will be excited when we can move Ezra so I can start transforming his little boy nursery into one for a sweet little girl.

We have a name!

Just wanted to let y'all know that we decided on a name for our little girl. Her name will be Ivy Noelle. We love the name, and I'm excited that we were able to come to an agreement so quickly. When we named Ezra we had two names that we liked, and we waited until after he was born to officially name him. This time around we chose Ivy's name with 4 months to spare. Noelle is my middle name so that's where we got that. Ezra will just say "Baby Ivy" randomly throughout the day, which is pretty adorable. We can't wait to put a face with a name in four months!

September menu

It is already mid-September and I'm just getting around to planning my menu. That might tell you what September has been like so far for us...crazy, lots of traveling for Ezra and me, Ezra starting school, remodeling the house, Ezra being sick for a week, etc. etc. I also decided I'm going to try lots of new recipes this month, thanks to pinterest. I also pulled out some older ones that I haven't made in a while. It took me a long time to come up with what we're eating this month...I've just been in a planning and cooking rut.

Tuscan garlic chicken  (had this tonight and it was really good. Make sure you use shredded, not grated, parmesan, and it probably wouldn't be good as leftovers)
Crispy southwest chicken wraps
Cheesy potato soup & sandwiches
Creamy chicken enchiladas
Soft tacos & homemade flour tortillas
Coconut chicken
Ultimate beef stroganoff
Jalapeno popper chicken
Marlboro man sandwiches
Salmon cakes, couscous with dried dates
Creamy chicken taquitos
Chicken cordon bleu
Marinated flank steak
Pork & ginger potstickers
Cheddar baked chicken
Chick-fil-a knockoff nuggets
Chicken tortellini bake
Chicken Parmigiana

If you have never tried couscous before, PLEASE try it! It is an easy side dish that is just a tiny little pasta. I use chicken broth to make it and I love the recipe above. You can also get whole wheat couscous that offers a few more health benefits. I don't post most of my side dishes but I'm sure we'll be seeing some asparagus, green beans, sweet potato fries or baked sweet potatoes, fruit or fruit salad, green salad, and rice/beans/chips and salsa with the Mexican dishes. Let me know if you try any of these recipes and enjoy them!

Sugar, spice and everything nice...

That's what baby Montandon is made of! We are so excited to be having a baby GIRL! Ezra would be excited too...except that he has no clue what's going on. 

Here she is! Cutest little profile ever. I had a "feeling," and just so you know, my "feelings" are not very accurate, that I would be having another boy. We were at the ultrasound and Chad and I both glimpsed the girl parts before our sonographer even asked if we wanted to know what it was. So we had a couple minutes to let it sink in before she told us we were having a baby girl.

 Already doing her senior picture pose...(fist under the chin)

And I just had to go out and buy a couple cute things. The thing about my second child is that she'll probably wear mostly hand-me-downs...including a bunch of the stuff I bought at our local consignment store. Why would I pay full price for a brown dress with pink polka dots on it (brand new with original tags, by the way) when I could get it there for $4? 

I'm just not ready for all the pink yet. You can see by my choices of clothing that pink doesn't play a very big role. I like bright colors. And since she will be using Ezra's current nursery, her bedding has to have red in it because I already have a red rug.

Since people will ask probably, no, we do not have a name picked out (although I've been thinking about it all my life), and we haven't even discussed it. Soon enough I'm sure!

Ezra starts school

Yesterday was Ezra's first day of SuperKids, our church's Tuesday/Thursday school. He had a blast! This was the only picture he would let me take of him with his backpack on. He sensed that something was up and did not want to cooperate for the camera. He wouldn't eat anything for breakfast either.

Before heading in to his classroom

Ezra walked straight to the books when we got to his class. He did not acknowledge us. I think he liked it. 

 

This is how we found him when we went to pick him up. Still reading a veggie tales book and having a good time! His teacher said he slept on his nap mat for over an hour, which I was so relieved about since he has ONLY slept in a crib or pack n play and ONLY in a room by himself. He had a great time!