Cooking Club X

As I was about to write this up, I realized that I never blogged the last 2 cooking clubs. I went back and did a quick version of them if you are interested: Cooking Club VIII & Cooking Club IX. This theme was breakfast dishes. To get in the mood for eating breakfast at night we thought it was appropriate to make it a pajama party. Good thing because there was A LOT of food. And it was all excellent. I would make almost all of the dishes again.

1st Course

Bacon Wrapped Dates

Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Holes

Mimosas

That tiny note Jenny is holding up was the recipe for the bacon wrapped dates. It was in my chicken scratch and a little pathetic, but they figured it out and it still turned out wonderful

The doughnut holes were so good, especially for being gluten and diary free, that I typed them up on my other blog. It was just like being at a fair.

2nd Course

Flight of Smoothie Shooters - Peanut Butter and Banana, Mango and Strawberry, Sunrise Tea

Bacon and Chive Biscuits

The PB Banana smoothie was Jenny and mys' favorite. It was like drinking peanut butter. Mmmmm. Everyone else preferred the Mango Strawberry one. The Sunrise Tea was ok but not great. And the biscuits were much lighter than they looked, again especially for being gluten free.

3rd Course

Crab Benedict with Béarnaise Sauce

Potato Pancakes with Lox

Grand Marnier Strawberries and Kiwi

Every part of this course was excellent. We gave each person only 1 Crab Benedict because we'd already eaten so much food, but we all said we could have squeezed down another. The crab and bearnaise just melted in your mouth.

4th Course

Banana Carmel Crepes with Nutella

We finished the night off with a crepe. I'm not sure how, but we all practically licked our plates clean. It was that good and would great as a meal in itself.

One Year Difference

I was cleaning off pictures on my phone and I came across these two. Same baby, same swing in FL, one year apart. I need to remember to do this again next year. Amazing how different she looks!

Mickey and Friends

(image courtesy of Google Images)

Sienna "read" her first book to me yesterday. She has a little Mickey Mouse book that talks about all of Mickeys' friends. Let's paint a mental picture first. Picture about a 20 gallon rectangular, clear Rubbermaid tub with a couple of books in it and Sienna plopped in the middle. She picked up her Micky book and I asked her to read it to me. Starting at the back she opens the back cover and proceeds to point to and name every character on the page. She flips through each page and does the same thing, occasionally saying, "Where [insert name of character not on page]? with her little shoulder shrug. I was so impressed, mostly that her attention span lasted so long to get through the whole 6 page book. :) I love her version of all of their names. Mickey and Minnie are both "Mi-Mi", Donald is "Don-Oh", Goofy is "Gi-Gi", Pluto is "Pu-Oh", Daisy is "Da-zi", and Toodles is "Too-Oh".

I wish I could record every little word she says and how she says it. It's so cute and something I want to remember forever as her vocabulary increases and her articulation becomes better. Unfortunately, I think there are too many words for that. On a couple of the blogs I read regularly, they have posted this article, Don't Carpe Diem. Great read and it's so true, as much as you'd like to savor every moment when they are little, that's not realistic. But those little moments that happen make everything you do worth while and are so cherishing.

Moves like Jagger

Finally got Sienna dancing on video. Pretty much every time any type of music is played Sienna starts to dance. Didn't capture her booty shake but it's not done as often. I love that she loves dancing. Can't wait to get her in some classes and hope that she continues to love it. Oh and I also got her saying her 2nd favorite word "Uh Oh!" (No is her first favorite)

Jumping Beans

We took a trip down to WI last weekend to visit the family and for our annual Dells trip. Love this picture of the cousins. Bedheads and all. They were all loving jumping on the trampoline together.

2012 Resolutions

I've been thinking for awhile about what my resolutions for this year should be. I can't say I've come up with anything great but there are a few things I'd like to put on the list.

1. Last year I said I wanted to get back in shape. I'd like to thank Life Time's Zumba classes for getting me hooked (obsessed?) and helping me accomplish this. I feel like my strength training has been lacking lately so this year I'd like to make sure I get that in twice a week.

2. This whole "meatless Monday" idea has had me intrigued for awhile. Unfortunately my husband is a big meat eater and really dislikes beans and most other things that would be a good substitute. I was thinking of trying to do a modified version of this idea and have one day a week where I either eat meatless or eat fish. This seems like a really big one for me to tackle. It shouldn't be that hard should it? Oh and lets be clear. I'm only talking about dinner, not all day long. :) Maybe all day will be part 2 of the resolution.

3. I need to learn to use my camera better. I started working on this last summer and it has helped. I think I mastered some good shots outdoors or with natural light. Now I have to figure out how to do that inside. Might need another class for this. Or maybe a new camera lens. That all counts, right?

That's it. If you have good fish or meatless recipe ideas send them my way! Happy 2012!!

Basement improvments

Ron, Justin and I (but mostly Ron) have been spending the past couple months making bookshelves for our basement. Justin got them installed over Christmas break. They look fabulous and complete the room!! Thanks so much to Ron!

It's been awhile since we've done any big home improvements worth mentioning. Over our break, Justin decided it was time to get some crossed off the to do list. The bookcases prompted a long chain of events in the basement, mostly with organizing. Our furnace room is also where our internet and phone come in. It used to look something like this.

But after some Justinizing it looks like this!

Notice the sink - it was just installed too. It used to be in our laundry room but sometime last summer Justin flipped our washer and dryer around and removed the sink. It's been sitting in our basement ever since. Feels good to finally get that done. Next up is finished the laundry room (it's still sinkless too). 

Sledding

To get out of the house for a few minutes this weekend and enjoy the whole 1 inch of snow we have, we took Sienna sledding for her first time. It was windy out so we bundled her all up until she could hardly move. It was a Ralphie from Christmas Story moment.

And down we went on the little hill next to our house. She was all smiles until the blast of snow got her in the face and the wind picked up.

We tried just pulling in the sled with the wind to her back.

This proved to be much more fun.

That was until we turned around and Ralphie lost her balance in the sled. It was a slow motion face plant into the snow. Luckily she had so many layers on she bounced/rolled onto her back, but the damage was done. Not a happy baby. With a cold and wet face, she screamed and cried all the way back into the house. 

We'll have to try again next snow fall - maybe when it's a little warmer!

Christmas Break 2011

Christmas came and went this year so fast. It's been a super fun couple of weeks with Sienna home from daycare and me playing stay at home mom. After a full weekend of celebrating Christmas, Sienna and I filled the week with play dates and outings. Here's a few of the highlights.

A few pictures before heading to Grammy's Christmas Eve

 At Grammy's house before dinner.

Opening presents quick before the kiddos had to head to bed.

Christmas morning we continued our tradition with the 3 of us at home. Sienna loved tearing into her gifts and wanted to play with them all right away.

Went to Mom's house for Christmas afternoon.

As usual way too many presents were purchased. We have run out of room to put everyone!

Such a cutie!

One of the play dates we had with Cran, Kristen & their girls was at IGM Gymnastics. They had the whole place open including beams, bars, trampolines, foam pits, all different sized and shaped mats to climb on plus many toys to play with. The girls had a blast. Sienna chasing after a ball almost as big as her.

Mallory was the only one to brave the big balance beam.

New Years Eve we did a 3 course fondue with my parents. Sienna joined us for the first cheese course. They even broke out a bottle of Dom Perignon for us to sample. Living the high life!

Back to reality tomorrow. I think I'm ready, or getting close.