Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Blue + Yellow = Green

Our house is fairly childproof, but every once in awhile Will catches us in a slip up. This just happens to be the forgotten bottle of food coloring. Oh well at least we can chalk it up to an art lesson right? I'm just glad we found him on the tile and not the carpet.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Movies in the Park

 Our Parks and Rec department sponsor movies in the park during the fall and spring. It's a lot of fun to bring our blanket and a picnic dinner and watch a free movie. Will has yet to make it through the whole movie, but we're working on it.

Will really likes being outside until it gets past his bed time.
Can you believe it rain!

We've had a horrific drought this year that has threatened to kill everything including all of the native trees in our area. The lakes are all closed because they are too low for the boat ramps, and the lakeside restaurants are advertising their view of "sometime islands". Needless to say, when it started to rain we all had to go outside to enjoy.


Sunday, October 23, 2011

Do you want to ship something to me?

Danny's parents shipped some crystal to our house because they weren't sure where they would be when it arrived, moving and all. When it arrived I carefully put it in our guest bedroom (aka stuff room) so that it would be safe. Well in the meantime Will learned how to open doors.

I found out that he had this new found skill when I found him like this. I think the "with care" adds a nice irony to this picture. We later went and bought child door locks. Btw they have opened this box and everything is fine, that's the only reason it's funny to share this picture. (Otherwise, I might have been tempted to delete it and blame DHL :)

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Tomato Onion Cobbler

I know it sounds weird but it was absolutely amazing! We got the recipe from here http://annies-eats.net/2011/09/14/tomato-cobbler-with-gruyere-biscuits/ I think I ended up using a swiss instead of the gruyere, but I forget now.


Tomato Cobbler with Gruyere Biscuits
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Ingredients:
For the filling:
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. fresh thyme
3 lbs. cherry or grape tomatoes
3 tbsp. all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
1½ tsp. coarse salt
Pinch of black pepper
For the biscuit topping:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
8 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup grated gruyere cheese, plus extra for sprinkling
1½ cups heavy cream
Directions:
To prepare the filling, combine the oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked down and caramelized, about 20-25 minutes.  Stir in the garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant, 1-2 minutes more.  Remove from the heat and let cool.
Preheat the oven to 375˚ F.  In a large bowl, combine the onion mixture, tomatoes, flour, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.  To make the biscuit topping, combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.  Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture is crumbly and small clumps form.  Mix in the cheese.  Stir in the cream with a fork until a sticky dough forms and the dry ingredients are incorporated.
Transfer the tomato mixture to a 9 x 13-inch baking dish.  Using a large ice cream scoop or a ¼-cup measure, drop clumps of the biscuit dough evenly over the tomato mixture.  Sprinkle the top with additional grated cheese.  Bake until the tomatoes are bubbling and the biscuits are golden, about 1 hour and 10 minutes.  Let cool 20 minutes before serving.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Stuck between a rock and a hard place

I'm not sure why, but Will thought that trying to squeeze between the couch and the wall was a good idea. He got stuck and I got the camera... then I helped the poor kid out :)

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Too much Relief Society

 Last weekend my Relief Society planned a Friday, Saturday retreat. Since, I'm the enrichment councilor that means I got to plan it. I really did try to delegate, but unfortunately that means that everything changed last minute with only me to pick up the pieces. It was one crazy stress filled week, particularly Thursday...
 So I was attempting to make the cute quote blocks pictured above. I was pulling the top off of the new bottle of mod podge I had bought for this even when it slipped out of my hands. From the mess it made you would have thought I had chucked it across the room.
 It flew all the way under the table and even nailed the wall on the other side! I wish I could blame Will, but he was actually fast asleep taking a nap at the time. Now the question how do you clean up a pile of glue?
Then, my day got even better! I didn't get dinner ready in time to eat before Danny had to run off to a meeting so I was multi-taking holding Will (so he wouldn't touch the oven) and pulling dinner out. Needless to say, my one-handed attempt failed. Once I saw that I wasn't going to make it I attempted to shove the pan back in to catch it. Well that just managed to fling dinner all over my oven.

At least I had saved half to freeze so I pulled that back out of the freezer and stuck it in the toaster oven to be ready when Danny got home and set to work cleaning my oven. After scraping the bulk out I figured hey at least I can get a clean oven out of this and turned on the self clean. Now I had seen a piece of chicken fall down by the burner, but the screws to take off the bottom were covered in cheese and junk so I really didn't want to mess with it. I just figured it was a gas oven and thus used to flame down there so it would be alright.
So about 30 minutes into the clean cycle I realized that when the burner cycled off the flames didn't go away. Apparently, I miscalculated the mess down by the burner and had a small fire in my oven. The worst part was the door was locked because it was on the self-clean. All I could do was turn off the oven and watch the fire. About 5 min. later and lots of black smoke, the fire finally smothered out. The whole time I was envisioning my oven becoming engulfed in flame taking my kitchen and house with it! Danny I think we should get that fire extinguisher we talked about...

Anyways, when Danny got home he looked at me and said, "you look like you need a hug" and proceeded to give me a hug while I told him about how I almost burned down our house.

Worst part was at the end of it all I still had a retreat to plan!

oh and just a tid bit I learned... If you have a stone (like pictured covered in casserole) that gets dirty let it ride in our self-cleaning oven. It comes out like new. Even all the old cheese marks were gone!

Monday, October 17, 2011

It's "Officially" a boy!

We had our official anatomy ultrasound last week and confirmed that Will is going to have a little brother. We're excited that these little ones will be able to share a room and for the impending havoic that will be made. Will is excited to teach his little brother everything he knows,  I'm sure.

 Since it was official we decided it was about time we let Danny's office in on this whole baby thing (especially since he gets to take 2 weeks of paternity leave). So I made some sugar cookies with blue frosting for the announcement. I was going for the Lofthouse, type I think they turned out pretty well. They even held up when Will picked up the pan trying to sneak another one.

On another note technology is amazing! Danny couldn't come into the ultrasound with me because children under 6 weren't allowed. Because "it takes as much focus and concentatration as surgery". Yeah, basically the ultrasound Dr.'s office was on a soap box, but they did do an amazing job. Did you know that they can count fingers? Yup, our little one has 10. We do get to have the job of counting toes once he arrives though, they are too delicate to see accurately. Anyways, everything checked out and our little one is happily swimming around, kick'n me. This kid is really active even Danny can attest to that already.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

We were lucky enough to head to Houston for General Conference weekend. We got a little lost on the way there (I wasn't a very good navigator because I erroniously thought that since Danny had lived in Houston, and we have been there several times, he could get there without me. Lets just say he needs me :)

We also recieved a call from our neighbor letting us know that Sadie, who we thought was secure in Fort Knox aka our backyard, got out about 2 hrs after we left. :( That little stinker moved a cinderblock, a 2x4, pulled out wire horse fencing that was stapled onto our fence, and dug underneath. We are now looking into electric fence options.
Relaxing in my new pajamas during Girl's night

Everyone hanging out together

One-on-one time with Aunt Crys

Playing on Grandpa's putting green

Grandma said she didn't like these Cattails here...
It's so much easier when you use your hands!


This is right before the fountain became barracaded with chairs!






It was fantastic to see everyone. We had a fabulous weekend. Thanks!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Halloween came to our house early this year with a knock on the back door.

Will was running around the backyard for about 10 minutes and managed to get covered head to toe in mud. (Did I mention we're in a drought? This kid has talent!)


Do you like his mud shoes?
It was then off to the shower, clothes and all, to get rinsed off. I'm so glad we have a shower on the main level and didn't have to drag him all the way upstairs :)

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Mama's Lil' Helper



Here's the link in case you can't see the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_HyxYP5Iq4

Monday, October 3, 2011

Labor Day Camping

For Labor day weekend we dusted off our tent and headed out on a long overdue camping trip. By the time Danny got off work and we got to the campground it was already dark. Danny and Will pitched the tent while I made dinner.
Drinking milk by the light of the lantern.


The next morning everyone was up bright and early... well actually no one got very much sleep. Will wasn't so comfortable with the tent thing. I think he'll get better once we switch him out of his crib. But in the morning he was all smiles
Cooking breakfast. With all of the fires in central Texas all we could use was our propane stove

Still smiles
Breakfast is ready.
After breakfast Will and Danny took down the tent
Will was a big help

Or not so much :)
relieved of tent duties
Camping is so much fun!

It doesn't count as a campout if you don't come back dirty right?

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Will the Computer Engineer

Will is helping Danny with his coding. Can't you tell how much help he is being? Maybe I should quit taking pictures and babysit for awhile?

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Will the Irrigator

Will made a 'nest' out of the drip hose... now if only him and dad would finish those sprinklers :)