July Fun ('14 Edition)

Here's what we've been up to this month. Also, how is it the end of July already?

Chicken Scallopini. SO tasty. Recently we've discovered that we're huge fans of chicken cutlets with a pan sauce. There are so many options and they're pretty quick.

New favorite book: Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? We find the blue horse to be hilarious.

We got a new dishwasher! This is approximately 842 times quieter than the one it replaced. The old one rivaled a WWII German army tank in decibels emitted.

My dad spent the day with Henry when daycare was closed. At some point there was a dirty diaper and the little sock became soiled. My dad bagged it up like it was evidence in a major crime case. For some reason this just cracked me up.

Chicken with a sweet and sour sauce. For some reason, I thought I was making sweet and sour chicken so this was a surprise. It wasn't bad, just not what I was expecting.

A Trip to the Park

So last week we were hit with what the weathermen called a Polar Vortex. In the middle of July. I feel like there should be a limit to the use of the term polar and it should only be used to describe things that are frigid, numbingly cold, arctic, and snow. And it should not be used in the middle of July.

Anyway, it was all over the news and it was a big deal. Basically, what that meant was that we had high temperatures in the upper 70s in the middle of July and it pretty much rocked. Maybe they could have called it a spring vortex, or a comfortable vortex, or just unseasonably mild?

We took the opportunity to visit one of the local parks and it was a delight. The flowers were just amazing and the whole place looked phenomenal. One of Drew's brother's family joined us there for a bit and the kids had fun running around. Henry didn't really seem to have any strong feelings about anything other than the ponds. And his feelings were down. As in "put me down now I have to get down now I want to be down now." The boy likes water.

Just amazing. This is one of my favorite places in this city I call home.

The colors are different every year, but I can't remember a year where it was just so colorful.

We weren't the only ones who had the idea to visit the gardens, but it wasn't too crowded.

Lily pads just fascinate me.

At this point, Henry was in full on "down I want down I want to be down there" mode.

Sigh. I'll have to revisit these pictures in the middle of January when it's grey and bleak outside.

Us. You can see over my left shoulder a pink blob. This was a teenage girl in some sort of princess dress that was full of froof. There was also a tiara. She was having pictures taken and all the little girls in the park were entranced.

My boys.



Family selfie! AND Henry is even sort of looking at the camera! And sort of smiling!

June Fun ('14 Edition)

Here's a snippet of what we've been up to.

Chicken Madeira. The mushrooms look purple and the sauce was too runny. It tasted pretty good though! We'll have to try this one again.

We got all dolled up for a wedding. Oh how I love this man.

Henry and my Opa. My Oma passed away last month and hanging with Henry puts a smile on Opa's face. Henry even made Opa an official member of the Drink Water and Spout it Back Out on Your Arm club. It's not an exclusive club, Henry will invite anyone and everyone!

May Fun ('14 Edition)

A little late, but still here! We sold our other house at the end of May (WOO HOO! and more on that later) so I blame that for not getting this up in time.

Drew working on an update in the kitchen. I don't even want to think about all of the hours we put in working on that house in the past 5 months. It. Was. Crazy.

I used some of my birthday money to buy a real live ficus tree! It's still alive too!!

We read this book at least 274 times. And every single time I said "the horse says neigh" I got a huge giggle.

This guy. Here he is playing outside while I hung up some laundry on the clothes line.

April Fun ('14 Edition)

You know the drill, here are the highlights from the past month.

We graduated to a big boy car seat. Henry celebrated by swinging his legs back and forth for an entire week. I guess he felt cramped in the old infant car seat.

This is what Kramer's life looks like 85% of the time.

Buffalo Chicken. Spicy!

He really does like yogurt. And moving his head from side to side. So this is what we get. Yogurt face.

Southwestern Bake. The rice was a little undone so I'll have to try this one again.

All of the cousins from Drew's family at Easter. We're at 9 right now, but number 10 should be here next month!

March Fun ('14 Edition)

I'm still a little in shock that it's the end of March. Seriously, the year is 1/4 over! Here are some of the things we've been up to this month.

We've been doing some work on our other house. Here is a progress shot in the dining room.

More progress at the other house. This time, it's the front door.

This is how an eight month old participates in March Madness. For the record, as best we can tell, he's got Michigan State winning the whole thing.

This boy. My heart swells.

January and February Fun ('14 Edition)

Here's what we've been up to the past couple of months!

Chicken Marbella over couscous. So yummy and so easy (two of my favorite qualities in new recipes these days). We're making some tweaks (including using sliced olives so the flavor isn't so intense) and trying it again.

Zonked out in front of the fire.

This little guy was very excited to pop his first two teeth.

Birthday flowers from my guys.

Kramer wanted to help me stuff diapers.

My current favorite picture. Bath time = fun time in this house.

Paleo Pad Thai using spaghetti squash. Pretty yummy!

Majestic resting by Kramer.

An excited little boy in his John Deere overalls.

December Fun ('13 Edition)

So this is late. Obviously.
This having a kiddo sure does limit my free time to do things like post pictures. And fold laundry. And sweep the floors. And sometimes, and I'm not proud of this, wash my hair.
Totally worth it.

Here are some of the fun times from December!

The boy met a dog that weighs more than he does. He was just as fascinated with Bean as he is with Kramer.

Speaking of Kramer, she decided she deserved a little more respect. So she sat where the people sit.

This happened. It's brisket. Covered in bacon. BACON.

Chicken with an artichoke and tomato sauce.

The newest ornament on our Christmas tree is hands down my favorite ornament.

November Fun ('13 Edition)

It's November already! How on earth? Here's what we've been up to this month.

Crusty bread for Thanksgiving. I added cheese and garlic. Yum!

Also for Thanksgiving, cheesy broccoli and cauliflower. If my mom had made veggies like this when I was younger, I would have eaten quite a bit more veggies.

Final item for Thanksgiving, strawberry pretzel salad. So yummy!

My new favorite picture. Love these two.

Fish with tomatoes and parsley. New recipe that we'll tweak and try again later.

Henry looks so focused and mesmerized here. And intense. Wonder where he gets that from?

LEAVES. These leaves need to leave me alone... That was rough. But seriously, this was only the first round. There's another round out there that looks to be just as big waiting for our attention. Thanks, nature. Thanks so much.