Baby K Helps...& a new recipe

Above is what it looks like when Baby K helps mommy wash dishes - she sits next to me while I work and last week discovered she can reach the paper towels and if she pulls they just keep coming! She loves it - it's cute for now. ;)
Dinner:

So here is the salad I made for dinner the other night - YUMMY! and Healthy!!!
It is a bed of baby spinach topped with craisins, red onion, mushrooms, almonds, feta crumbles and salmon - the best part was the salmon! Oh and I used Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing (from Kraft).

This is how I cooked the Salmon:
2/3 c apple juice
2 tsp Old Bay spice

in a non stick pan I brought the juice and spice to a simmer at med-high heat.
I placed the salmon (which I got in 4 oz servings vacuum sealed at Dillons) in the skillet and put the lid on the skillet for 4 min.

After 4 min I turned the salmon over meat down on the heat - skin side up facing the lid and cooked it for 3 more min.
It was beautifully caramelized! And SO flavorful and took less than 10 min!

I let the salmon rest then cut the skin off and cut fish into strips to place on the salad.

I will make the salmon this way again and think I may serve it with a side of salad and a potato rather than as a topping to the salad.
Enjoy!

Memories that Still make you laugh out loud

Don't you just love it when a memory from several years back can randomly come to mind and make you laugh out loud?! I do...
Today, while filling out the Facebook "25 random things about me" thing, I was reminded of a memory I share with my dear friend "Joy" and honestly I have laughed out loud several times this morning because of it.
We were out to eat one day at a local restaurant and on their menu they had an advertisement for an offer called "Make it a Platter!"
The offer was for $1.99 you could add two sides and a drink to any sandwich order.
J asked the waitress if she could "Just make it a platter" after explaining herself a few times, she had stumped the waitress. Yep, J wanted to order two sides and a drink for $1.99 no sandwich. I still laugh at the look on the waitresses face when she realized what J was asking - finally deciding she didn't know the answer and would have to ask her manager.
In the end the answer was no. No you can not JUST make it a platter!

Why this is so funny I'm not totally sure but I think it was the looks on everyones's faces, my face, J's face, the waitress and I can only imagine her manager's face.

So Funny! Honestly, usually when J tries to work something like this...it works. She gets great deals and sometimes even free stuff because of her boldness to ask. I love her (for many more reasons than just this).

Swimming..

Baby K LOVES the bathtub! I think she is ready to try swimming. I want to take her to the YMCA and try it out and then last night at Targ*t they had swimming suits! Here she is modeling...

Serving

My wonderful husband was helping me in the preschool children's church class a few Sunday's ago. We have a toy workbench and some toy tools down there and he found that our drill was broken - not only was it broken, someone must have stepped on it and we were worried that small pieces may fall out of it! After both agreeing the toy was now dangerous, I said we should throw it away - he thought he could fix it.
Ok, so my idea of "fixing" it would be take out the small electrical pieces inside, throw them away, glue the plastic thing back together again and call it good.
My husband's idea of fixing it...is seen below in the slide show - he got out the superglue, the special small screwdrivers, and the soldering iron & wire. Not only did he put it back together but he was able to repair the electrical part of the toy so it completely works again - and it is almost as loud as a real drill which I'm sure the kids will love - but the volunteers may not! HA!

The adventures of a 4month old...

Baby K is days away from being 5 months old. This past month she has had 3 more shots, started trying rice cereal and other baby foods, ROLLED OVER from tummy to back, taken a few naps (and I mean few), enjoys her excersaucer with the help of a blanket (she's so long and lean that the seat is too big w/o the blanket), watched history in the making yesterday although she won't remember it, oh and many things I'm sure I've forgotten at the moment.
We have been so busy - the basement is almost finished - all we need is carpet I can't believe it! Children's church is now planned for the next two months, my bow party is over, my house is clean w/ the exception of laundry and holiday decorations have been put away, OH And I finally mailed all 140 Happy New Year Cards yesterday - what in the world!
Here are some pictures of our sweet Baby K

Justice gets a hair cut...

So I take our dog to the same wonderful groomer every time, I always pick her up to find our cocker shaved down to look like some kind of lab puppy - that's how I ask them to cut her. Sometimes they give her a more traditional cocker shave and leave some curls on her ears but no matter how they cut her hair she always has a bandanna around her neck when I pick her up.
Today was different. Today she had no bandanna, she looked like a princess dog, she looked like this:

Kiss

My cousin, Beth, and I are good friends even though we live miles apart and are years apart in age. In a lot of ways Beth is my personality clone. We talk often on the phone. When my husband and i were dating Beth would call and he would see her name on the caller id, and then proceed to sing the Kiss song "Beth I hear you calling." When his birthday rolled around Beth and I ordered a kiss doll off the internet, then purchased a build-a-bear voice box, recorded the song and put it inside the doll. When you would push his belly he would sing. Later when it was Beth's birthday we rerecorded on the voice box, Happy birthday and had her mom put the doll in her locker to surprise her. So the plan was made...the doll must continue to be passed around as our little family inside joke...well...Beth keeps forgetting to give the doll up and it's been 2 years people! So I have decided that I will just keep pranking her until she passes the doll back.

I've put the craziest looking stuffed Troll doll in her duffel bag with a note, and twice now I have changed the header on her blog (girl needs to change her password) and this last one was pretty funny, I crack myself up! :) She posted some pictures of the troll doll on her blog several weeks back, check my favorite blogs for "Fingerprints" you can visit her there.
Here is the header I posted last night...

My favorite part is I put her photo on the screen of the cell phones, oh and the gross chest hair is pretty funny too. You'll have to see the header on her actual blog to see how well it blends in. What a hoot.

Baby K & Daddy...

This is Baby K at 4mo old...
The previous post (Guess Who) is her daddy at 5 1/2 months old...

I think they look similar only their noses are different and of course Baby K looks like a girl and not a boy. :)

Guess Who...

Look at this cute kid!

An EASY meal

Want to make something tasty, healthy, easy and beautiful?
Here's a delightful meal.
Main Dish: Honey Orange Glazed Chicken (quick prep but cooks 45 min in oven, make sure to allow for cooking time)
Sides: Fresh Spinach Salad, greenbeans, potatoes (boiled new potatoes red or white are wonderful!)

Fresh Spinach Salad:
prewashed baby spinach leaves
dried cranberries
drained light mandarin oranges
toasted almond slices
feta cheese crumbled
store bought Balsamic Vinegrette Dressing

Greenbeans:
Just from the can but if you have a little bacon fat (I know not the healthiest ingred but just use a tiny bit and it will go a long way to add flavor)
add a few toasted almond slices for easy added flare!

Ok the Chicken:
4 Chicken Breasts
1 Tb Olive Oil
4 green onions, chopped
1 Garlic clove, minced
3Tb honey
4 Tb Orange Juice
1 Orange peeled and segmented
2 Tb light soy sauce

Preheat oven to 375
place chicken in a shallow pan, I use a 9x9 pan the chicken should just fit and not touch each other.
Heat oil in a small saucepan. Fry onions & garlic until soft. Add honey, OJ, orange segments, and soy sauce. heat until honey is dissolved.
Pour sauce over chicken & bake uncovered for 45min.
Remove from oven and cover dish tightly with foil and let set for 5-10min. This will lock in the juices of the chicken. Plus it will be too hot to eat right away.
Serve with sauce.

I'm Offically Crazy...or Stupid!

I love foodgawker (see my fav blogs) and I saw these really cute cookies I thought I would give a try. Now making sugar cookie dough, chilling it, rolling it, cooking it, making frosting, and then frosting them is quite a challenge with my non napping baby and the fact I keep forgetting about finishing my project in the evenings. Well today I finished what became a 2 week process, only to yield a minor 13 cookies! Really, that's all I was able to make with the dough recipe! Disappointing! In the end the cookies are cute and they taste good but the effort required did not win me over. Oh, I forgot to add that I bought fondant and colored it and made balls to make snowmen heads and "carrot" noses. After all this complaining here are the results...

Picture of the cookie I found on the internet:

Pictures of my final result:

Christmas

Here are some pictures of our Christmas so far. We still have Christmas with extended family to celebrate on Jan 1 and Jan 3!
Funny story - my family always tells the story of my first Christmas Eve service at church. I was 4 mo old and sucking on a pacifier or a bottle - anyway they were having prayer and it was very quiet. I started making loud funny sucking noises so my grandma pulled the pacifier out of my mouth so I wouldn't be loud during prayer - my response.....SCREAMING! So much for being quiet. :)
So my husband and I take our little angel to our Christmas Eve service. There was a group of gals doing special music - they are awesome. Baby K is sitting on her daddy's lap enjoying the music and movement on the stage. I guess she started dozing off, but we hadn't noticed. The gals hit a loud high note and baby K threw her hands up in the air and started SCREAMING her head off! I guess they startled her. It was hilarious. Daddy put her up over his shoulder and she went to sleep quickly so we made it until the end of church.
Like mother like daughter I guess.
Baby K and I got daddy a low profile floor jack he has been wanting. He was surprised and it looking forward to working on his 1974 GTO without worrying about hurting the cross something underneath it - I can't remember what he called it but he has scratched it up before with a jack that wasn't low enough. I had the jack delivered UPS to the house and then had to call a neighbor to help me get it in the house - I had no idea the thing would weigh 98 lbs!
We are loving our extra family time together this week and have had many chances to stop and reflect on how thankful we are for God's special gift of Grace and Love to His people and to be thankful for each other and the wonderful family he has given us. We are SO BLESSED!

The dreaded day has come...

What day is that? The day my child has her first fever! Ok, so it's not too serious, her fever was 100.1 when taken from her armpit. But still I have been hoping it would be a long time before our little girl was sick, really sick and now at just 15 weeks, she's sick. Poor baby!
She has been congested for over 2 wks now. The past 7 days she has been sleeping in her carseat in our room. Ever since she has been congested she has been sleeping with a humidifier on (in addition to the whole house humidifier we have. We have been giving her saline nasal drops and suctioning out her nose often. And then.....last night she got a fever, just when I thought we were about to kick this thing. I called the dr. he said we could give her some tyl*nol. I just couldn't sit and do nothing so I decided to give her a bath.
I drew her a bath of luke warm water and kept luke warm washcloths on her so she wouldn't get chilled. She relaxed in the tub for 30 min just as calm and happy as could be. By the time she was out of the bath and dressed again her temp was back to normal. She made it all night with no meds and no fever and then at 8am she had a fever again.
She is being such a trooper, still managing a smile and a laugh here and there but her eyes are a little glazed over and she cries like she is uncomfortable at times and she is napping more during the day. Luckily we don't need to leave the house for a few days so we can stay home and rest and get healthy. We may go to the dr tomorrow to rule out an ear infection.
My grandma said that 2 of her children started teething at 4mo old so maybe there are teeth on the way??? I hope not, I'm so not ready for teething yet! :)

Look alikes?

We think Baby K looks like her Grandma Susan. Baby K looks like her daddy and some say she has mommy's eyes but she does look some like grandma too! They even hold their hands the same. :)

SO Sweet!

Cinnadoodles!

I found this recipe via Foodgawker.

After weeks of searching for Cinnamon Chips I finally found some at the Niffty Nut House. My husband said last night, "These are the best snickerdoodles ever!" Then I learned that he doesn't even like snickerdoodles but he loves these.

(Pet Peeve! When Blogger changes the direction of my photo - Grrrrrrr!)

Cinnadoodles

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies

2 3/4 c flour 2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1 c(2 sticks)unsalted butter, softened 1 1/2c sugar 2 large eggs At least 1c of cinnamon chips 3 Tb sugar 3tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. Put butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Add in cinnamon chips.

2. Stir together cinnamon and remaining 3 tablespoons sugar in a small bowl. Shape dough into round balls; roll in cinnamon sugar. Space 3 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper or a Silpat.

3. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are golden, 12 to 14 minutes. Don't overbake. Let cool on cookie sheet for a minute or two, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Gift Update & our Big Girl!

Ok - well my scrapblog turn traveling coffee mug worked! It would take a little explaining that I am too lazy to type but basically I exported my scrapblog as a .jpg and then plopped it into photoshop. In photo shop I changed my image size to fit the mug template and then made the canvas size 8x10 and had the 8x10 image printed at Walgre*ns then traced the template that came with the mug and inserted it! GG likes to buy coffee at McD*nalds when she travels so I am going to put a McD gift card inside - what a fun gift for the woman who has everything but who also loves her great granddaughter! I can't wait to see her open this gift! No one show GG this blog entry until after Christmas you hear! :)

Finally,
Until reading M&Em's connection I had kind of forgotten we had a Bumbo - so I pulled it out and Baby K had a great time hanging out in it for a while. I can't believe she is 14 weeks Big! We sure love our happy girl.

Gift Idea

I made this on Scrapblog.com and I am hoping to print it off and fit it in a travel coffee mug for Great Grandma and it will be what Baby K gives her GG for Christmas. GG loves to travel and usually keeps a small McDonald's coffee cup with her b/c it has a lid. I'm thinking this will make a cute upgrade from her McDonald's cup.

I found an 8oz travel tumbler on Bodum.com however it is out of stock and I'm not sure how long it will be until they have them. I can order a 16oz tumbler but GG likes small cups...but in the end all GG's like to show off pictures of their grandkids so maybe size doesn't matter.

Christmas is so close...maybe I'll just order the 16oz mug and call it good.

Help

So we took some pictures that I plan to use for a "Happy New Year" card
Some are really sweet, some are so-so...I can't decide for sure which are my absolute favorites so I thought maybe you could vote.
I need one of the family and one of Baby K by herself.
There are a few candid shots of the family so I could use more than 2, maybe 3-5 pictures total...can you tell I am undecided? I will need to crop some of the photos as well.
I tried to add captions to most of them so you can vote via the caption name. I would love some input.



**If you drag your mouse over the slide show you will see the Picasa tool bar, click on the album name or the multicolored circle and it will take you to a website for easier viewing of the pictures.

Thanksgiving & Dedication

Here are a few pics of our family with Baby K and pictures from her baby dedication.
So many friends and family came to be with us as we dedicated ourselves to teaching K about Jesus and are committed to praying she grow up to be a woman of God. Such a special day!

As we thought about what we would name our baby it was important that her name have special meaning. The meanings of her first and middle name mean
From the earth (created)
Forgiveness
and God is gracious

We found the perfect Bible verses to sum up the meanings of her name and our heart for her to know God.

Ephesians 2:8-10
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

We do believe that God has created baby K and pray that she will do good works for His kingdom, that she will know Jesus is her Savior and the forgiveness of God her Father. We pray she has a kind heart and loves others with the grace and forgiveness that God offers her.

Will Post...

Hopefully tomorrow I will post baby dedication pictures of Baby K.
We had a wonderful time spending the past few days with family and topped off our time with baby K's dedication. Several family and friends joined us today and we loved that you were all there to share this special day with Baby K.
Thank you for your support and love; we are SO blessed to have you in our lives!
Can't wait to share pictures of our little princess with you.