Big Plans?

So let me start by saying I have miss placed the cord to upload the photos from my camera to my computer.... ugh totally annoying! So that is why I have not had a lot of photos recently. But hopefully I will find it soon so I can get some fun family photos up as well as photos of what we will be working on this weekend. Oh yes, we have a big project in store, we have called back up and are ready to get our hands dirty! We are tearing out our horrible hodge podged (not in the cute eclectic way) patio and laying sod. More grass for little man to run and play in and maybe ever the perfect spot for a swing set in the future! Who knows though, I don't want to get ahead of myself :) So wish us luck! This weekend will be a real adventure since neither us nor the help we have enlisted (PJ's buddies) have ever laid sod before.... smartest idea ever? we will find out! Do you have any fun plans for your weekend?

Sweet Anyone?

If I keep baking like I have been I am going to make my family fat and diabetic! But I just can not help myself lately! I am not sure if it has been the spring rains that have us cooped up inside or just my love to be in my kitchen covered in flour and making a mess.... In the past 4 days I have baked, sugar cookies (new family recipe from a friend at work, and let me tell you this WILL be my recipe from now on), homemade peanut butter granola bars (found on the Frugal girl, these are PJ's breakfast every morning), Pear muffins with a ginger glaze, and last night a pound cake..... I mean I might be bordering on ridiculous here people! I just can't get enough lately. And don't get me wrong I do share most of these with friends, family and co-workers, but my habit of doing so is getting a little expensive. Yes that makes me sound cheap, and don't get me wrong I will continue to do this. But I have almost gone through an entire bag of flour in 3 days.... a little excessive right? So my thought last night was.... I really need to get in the baking business.

Weekend Recap

So I feel like I have been go go go since last Monday! Sorry I have not got around to posting much. I completely blanked on my Monday muffin post until it was way too late and the muffins were all gone... But they were delish! I use this recipe for a pear muffin with a ginger glaze. I would recommend adding about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of pear sauce and a pinch more ginger to the glaze. These puffed up beautifully but need the added moisture of the pear sauce. I wish I had a picture to share!
Our weekend was absolutely fabulous. My Aunt Heater and her Partner Beth came in town for the weekend. We lunched and visited a community garden that my company helped design. Then went to see some jazz at an awesome local bar/restaurant, Jardines. Saturday we all had a morning at home then met at my sisters for a lunch of leftover fish tacos, cilantro lime rice, mango black beans and fruit salsa with fresh mint. (I had made this the night before for our dinner) I SO wish I had taken some pictures of the feast that I made! It was so colorful with the white fish, shredded cabbage, tomatoes, avocado and yellows and reds of the fruit salsa. I will def make this meal again and take detailed pictures. You have got to try it! And I have to say that it got rave reviews. (Insert pat on the back here :) Back to Saturday, after lunch we headed to the zoo to check out Nikita the polar bear and explored the Australian part. Brody was fascinated by Nikita but also loved the tiger and all of the birds :) What a lucky mama I am to have such a wonderfully curious and attentive boy! After that we ordered in barbecued meats from Jack Stack and everyone came over to tour our new home. At 730 it was off to Easter Vigil where my brother in law was baptised, confirmed and took his first communion. It was a beautiful but very long service. Sunday we headed to Butler to enjoy an Easter lunch at PJ's family's home. Then Sunday night we had my wonderful friend's daughters 3rd birthday party. . .
And its now Tuesday and I feel like I might be caught up from our wonderful but whirlwind weekend. I hope everyone had a fab Easter and is enjoying the spring rain.

Fiesta

Ok not really but I did make some delicious shrimp and veggie enchiladas (for moi) and chicken enchiladas for my boys. To accompany that there was cilantro lime rice and black beans. The black beans were nothing special, from a can, but still delicious.

As you can tell I LOVE cilantro. It has such a clean and bright flavor, so delicious! The enchilada recipes are from Annie's Eats, mine our a variation, of course I throw whatever I have on hand. And the cilantro lime rice is from Stephanie Cooks. A very simple basic recipe. Check out these recipes! Both simple and delish. Happy cooking!

Buttermilk Biscuits

To go with our Roasted Chicken last night I made some buttermilk biscuits. They were so delicious right out of the over. Perfectly flaky! I was impressed with myself to say the least :) And oh I could not wait to eat one this morning with a slab of butter and smear of strawberry jelly (Smuckers simply fruit) YUM!

The consistency of the biscuit was perfect, but the bottoms were a little over cooked... nothing a few minuets shaved of the baking time can not fix.

I got this recipe from The Brown Eyed Baker. One of my favorite cooking blog, let me retract that... it is my favorite cooking blog. If I need a good baking recipe this is ALWAYS the first place I turn! She have several variations on almost all her recipes and her step but step instruction is super easy to follow. I recommend everyone going to her site and perusing her recipes! Happy Tuesday Friends :)

Monday Muffins

Every Monday at work I am going to start making muffins. Usually a double batch of muffins will feed, oh I would say 75% of the staff. I use 2 mini muffin tins and 1 regular muffin tin. This week I made carrot spice muffins from Annies Eats. I omitted the raisins and forgot to bring coconut so just used some extra carrots instead. These were SO YUMMY! Moist but still light and fluffy and packed for a carrot goodness :) I will be using this recipe again for sure!

Sunday Funday!

Oh what a day we had! Slept in, had a great breakfast, ran some errands, did some yard work, and best thing of the day.... Brody's first Eater Egg Hunt!!!

Oh it was a glorious day! :)

Photo Friday

Brody went through a phase where he LOVED boxes! Hey, its free entertainment!

Happy Friday!!!

Dealing with Change

So as you know Brody has started at his new daycare full time. And it is working out great so far! I drop him off around 6:30. It is nice to get to chat with Emily about how he is doing there :) I did not get to chat much with our other daycare provider since PJ did the drop off and pick up. So I think I will stay a little more informed about his day to day happenings, which obviously I LOVE! Brody has been doing great with the transition. I am so proud of him :) Of course he does a little whining when I leave but Emily is great with him and getting him involved right away. So we am so very blessed that this transition thus far has been smooth! As for me though, I have been feeling very tired and run down by all the change that has been going on in our lives. I know its just a phase and I will snap back in a week or two but at the moment I just feel tired & sluggish :( How do I deal with this? Most of the time I just suck it up. My thought process goes like this, fake it till you make it, keep active and stay positive! I reassure myself that these are the right steps and you know why? Because I do it for my family. I think about how my moods affect my little boy and my fiance, and then that gets me right back on the positive horse. And most of the time this works for me. It helps me not focus on how tired I am and sluggish I have been. Is it healthy? Who knows, but it gets me by and it gets me by in a positive productive fashion that helps me stay thankful.

Weekend roundup...

Yes this is the fortune I got in my fortune cookie on Friday! Can you believe they are putting pick up lines in these things now!? Needless to say the food was delicious and company was great. My good friend Jessie came over to hang out have a few beers, girl talk, House Hunter International, and Chinese food.... I mean seriously does it get any better!? :)

Saturday morning, since PJ was out of town Brody and me went out and about! We picked Jessie up and decided to hit up Starbucks. A latte and large ice water later we headed to a little neighborhood park near Jessie's house. The sun was out and our spirits where high. Bubs took a minute to warm up to the play equipment but ones he noticed the tunnel with BIG puddles in it he dove right in. (Of course I had put him in nice clothes with his new (old) shoes on. Eh totally worth it. After the park I dropped Jessie off and we headed to meet my mom at my Granny's storage unit to see what all was there, she is looking to downsize. I loved this pic, even though I took it with my crappy camera phone. That box just made me smile on that beautiful Saturday morning with the sun shining in.... This is the chair I am planning on doing a reupholster on and claiming it as my own! Of course with Granny's permission first. I have been doing some research on reupholstering, a good source, Vintage Revival, UMMM love her! Maybe not all of her project are for me or my home but what a creative soul!

I made a batch of homemade brownies from Brown Eyed Baker. They turned out great and were SO simple. Best part is they were not cakey at all!

Headed over to Beth & Kevin's for BBQ with the fam. And yep it finally happened... our first skinned knee :*( But my boy took it like a champ!

Man I look tired.... I realize now how amazing it is to have my main man with me to help in the daily responsibilities of raising a child. And yes I was as tired as I looked.

Brody getting some Nana love :)

And yes then I finally got home and went to bed! (oh after I finished the book, The Glass Castle. and started my next one The Help)

PJ got home late last night and crawled into bed. Boy it was good to have him home!

Brods and I let dad sleep in so we went out to breakfast with Nana and Gramps. We hopped on over to the grocery store to pick up a few things then brough a bagel back to dad. By this time it was nap time for the little man so PJ and I were able to get some yard work done. That included me studying my garden bed very carefully to find the following (SO EXCITED BTW!!!)

Carrot seed sprouting!

Beet seed sprouting! I love watching these coming up because you can see the stem is purple at this ripe age of 8 days :)

Lets play a game of find the sprouts. I wanted to give you an idea of how small they really are at this point :)

Lettuce in pots. Yes I will thin them but I am waiting to see which ones are the healthiest.

And last but not least my basil seeds sprouting!

WOOOOSHHHHH and its over. No wonder weekends go so fast. It was a "mommy and me weekend" and I could have not asked for more this weekend :) Hope everyone had one of those, busy but good for the soul weekends!

Thankful

Today was Brody's first half day at his new daycare. He did GREAT!!! I am SO proud of him :) So as I was driving today I said a prayer of thanks for our wonderful life. So many things to be thankful for. I hope everyone is finding the thanks in their lives!

Photo Friday

Lots of outdoor fun last weekend! Happy Friday friends!