Project 52: Details

I had a hard time with this week's PROJECT 52: DETAILS.

I could not think of any way to really capture details! So I decided that Phoebe's and my toesies were a great example of details since it's one of those little things that almost every girl thinks about.

I just had to wait till Friday at lunch to take the photo because we went this morning for our first pedicure of the season. It was killing the OCD part of me that wanted my post up first thing Friday morning!

A lesson in patience, I guess.

Now all we need is a little sun (or self tanner!) on our pasty white legs! :)

I'm Going To Miss This

I love Wednesdays.

There is absolutely nothing on my agenda (and I work to keep it that way) and it's a nice, lazy day for Phoebe and I. We stay in our pajamas.  (Well, Phoebe stays in her pajamas. I have on yoga pants, which, as we all know, is a step up from pajamas.) It's a day for me and Phoebe.

We make dessert for Huddles. She's a huge help.

And I'm already mourning the disappearance of our special Wednesdays. Next year, she'll be at school on Wednesdays. She'll be spending her day learning to read and write and probably loving every minute. But on Wednesdays I'll be sad.

She won't be here to find her little apron. Or crack the eggs. Or stir the batter.

She won't be here to be my "Helper Girl" and vacuum the kitchen while I do the dishes.

Oh, how I'm going to miss this.

I'm going to miss this, indeed.

Dino-Diorama

Eli was given his first school project assignment last week.

He needed to make a dinosaur diorama to wrap up the unit on dinosaurs they had been studying. Truth be told, I was a little excited about this project. It's funny because growing up, I distinctly remember my parents lamenting the fact that me and my siblings had projects that they ended up doing. While I get that it's supposed to be "Eli's" assignment, our family had a lot of fun helping Eli out with this.

And, boy, did we all help! Brad helped make the box stand up and used the sealant to "sculpt" the volcano and the rocks. I spray painted the "sky" and Eli and Phoebe painted the landscape. Eli got to hot glue all the dinosaurs on himself. It was the first time I let him use my hot glue gun all by himself.

He was so proud.

He took it school yesterday morning.

This isn't for a grade, but if I was, I just know he'd get an A++.

I'm not biased at all.

Really.

Peanut Butter Brownie Pretzel Bar Recipe

I've decided that these a-MAZ-ing brownie bars need a new name. I realize that the current title basically spells out what these brownies are made of, but it cannot express how deliciously decadent they really are.

They are that good.

I'd call them Crack Brownies, but there are other recipes floating around Pinterest with the same name so it's already taken. I'd call them Better Than You Know What Brownies, but there were too many times I went to parties with my parents where there were cakes/brownies/bars sporting that name and it just kind of creeped me out as a kid. And since coming up with cute names just isn't my thing, we're going to have to stick with Peanut Butter Brownie Pretzel Bars for now, all the while realizing that it's like calling The Grand Canyon a ditch.

Anyhoo, I made these brownie bars for Huddles last Wednesday. Other than needing a big glass of milk or a good cup of decaf to go with them, they went over like gang-busters. I especially loved the pretzel crust. Mmmmmm.

And they're easy. Which is right up this non-bakers alley. Seriously. So yummy.

Peanut Butter Brownie Pretzel Bars
2 ½ cups crushed butter pretzels
1 cup melted butter
5 tbsp sugar
Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Cookie Mix and all the ingredients the mix calls for
Brownie Mix (13×9 family size box + all the ingredients the mix calls for)
Snack Size Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (2 – 10.5oz bags)

Crush the pretzels. Mix the melted butter, sugar, and pretzel crumbs. Press into lightly greased 13×9 pan. Set aside pretzel crust and make the cookie dough. Make the cookie dough according to the package. Lightly press the cookie dough evenly on top of the pretzel crust. Unwrap 32 snack-size Reese’s Peanut Butter cups and cover the cookie dough with the candy. Whip up your brownie mix and pour evenly over the Peanut Butter Cups. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. (I had a hard time knowing when these were done because when I used my cake tester, it would inevitably go through a peanut butter cup and come out all gooey. Good luck.) Cool for 10 minutes and slice into bars!

Recipe found on Pinterest, originally from BABY GIZMO BLOG


What do you think we should call these brownie bars?

Project 52: Huger

PROJECT 52: Hunger

I'm not sure if I've ever been as excited about a movie as I am THE HUNGER GAMES.

I even made my non-reading husband read it because I wanted to make sure he took me to the movie. (The last adult movie we saw in the theater was Star Trek in 2009. No joke.)

I loved the books and read them in about 3 days last year around Valentine's Day. Even though they are not deep, change-your-life, uber sophisticated books, they grab you immediately and suck you into Panem. I'm not ashamed to admit that I loved.

Well, maybe a little ashamed. I'm kind of a book snob that way.

Seriously though. I'm so excited!

I'M SO EXCITED!!!! Updated with Pictures!

Baby Lola comes TODAY!

I'm so excited!

It's killing me that I'll have to wait until Easter to meet her, but I'm still so excited!

I'm hoping to post a photo here later today so stay tuned!

Yay!!

UPDATE:

Lola Claire
11:09am
8 lbs. 4 oz.

When Phoebe saw her photo earlier, she said, "I ALREADY LOVE HER!!"

My sentiments exactly.

Forgotten Photo Booth Photos

So guess who kinda sorta forgot to post the photo booth photos from Carrie's shower.

Today I'm playing catch-up. Since I had all the photo booth props from PHOEBE'S PARTY, I thought they should be used again...and the baby shower was the perfect place!

I'm pretty sure we got at least one photo of every person at the shower. And some of them are pretty darn cute.

This one might need a little explanation...especially since it's one of my favorites. It's all the preggos at the shower holding up appropriate props for the baby they are having. I love it!

I think I did better with these than I did at Phoebe's party. Maybe by the time I use them again, I'll actually have the hang of this thing!

And since I'm playing catch-up, there are three new recipes up over at Eating at the Taj McCall. SKILLET LASAGNA, CHEESY POLENTA WITH SAUSAGE GRAVY, and CROCKPOT CARNITAS.

Show and Tell: Little Girl Goodies

While getting ready for Little LOLA'S shower, I decided she needed some really girly things from her very favorite aunt. :)

I found the IDEA for this on Pinterest (where else?) and used the fabric Carrie had picked out for her nursery. My mom made the bedding so I had a good resource for scraps!

I didn't quilt this one or use her templates. I have a bird template for my Accu-go quilt cutter and traced around some wooden letters I had for the name. I don't know which would actually be easier, but that's the way I did this one.

I also made a bow-holder to hang up in her room. I had a big, old frame that I spray painted and then used more scrap fabric and some ribbon attached to some leftover foam board from another project.

The only problem?

It's not big enough.

You can see both pieces hung up in the nursery HERE.

Now we just need this baby girl to show up!

Project 52: The Eyes of March

PROJECT 52: The Eyes of March

This photo is a few years old, but it's what our eyes look like all Spring around these parts. The wind is un-BE-LIEVE-able!

No, really.

You have to experience to believe it.

And, unfortunately, we get to "experience" it almost every day.

Sigh.

That Boy is a Running Fool!

I've mentioned before that Eli is training for a 5K in April. (You can find out more about it HERE.) It came about because of sweet MADISON.

Before she passed away, she had talked about running it with our co-Huddle leaders in April. But life never turns out the way you think it will and things don't end the way you think they should and she passed away a little over two months ago. It forever changed us all.

Several people at church have decided to run the OKC marathon in honor of Madison...including Brad and Eli. Since I can't force Brad to train, I'm forcing helping Eli to do it.

This usually involves running on our way home from school. He's up to two miles...or at least he was until he got sick earlier this week. And because it's West Texas, he's almost always running in the wind. I don't make him run if the wind is blowing over 30 mph or so. If we try to wait until it's not windy, he won't train until August.

Most days, he just puts his head down and runs. Steady and straight. Willing his body to do what he wants it to do. Putting that stubborn strong will perseverance to good use.

He prefers me to stay behind him. Apparently I "distract" him if I'm up to close. But sometimes he needs his water...and I need to take a photo.

At the end of the run (our driveway), he hops on the running board outside the driver's door and hitches a ride up the long (uphill) drive. I think this is his favorite part!

When he finishes, no matter how hard it's been, no matter how many times he's complains, no matter how many times he's wanted to stop, he feels good about himself and what he's done.

And more than anything, I'm so proud of him for that.

Crazy

This week has been crazy.

Eli's been running a high fever since Saturday.

The time change has us all messed up.

It's Spring Break, but we're not going or doing anything fun.

I should be uber-productive since I'm stuck at the house, but I just flat don't want to.

So I'm posting this photo of Phoebe from her Dr. Suess Day at school. She helped pick out her "crazy clothes" and totally loved wearing it.

Crazy girl.

Ten on Ten: March 2012

I'm linking up again with TEN ON TEN.

Taking a photo an hour for ten consecutive hours, finding much life and beauty among the ordinary things of my day!

A rainy, sick-y, cleaning-out-the-attic kind of Saturday.

I feel that I should confess that the second photo is one of my son getting ready to do his two-mile run, a run he really didn't want to do, and somewhere between the second and sixth photo I noticed he was running fever. I took the photo after he had already taken some Tylenol.

I guess I won't be winning the Mom of the Year Award.

Project 52: Be Still

My life is not full of a lot of "be still". There's more go and busy and run around like crazy people. But most afternoons, there are a few minutes.

Baby Boy is training for a 5K at the end April in honor of a SWEET GIRL from church who passed away in January. He's been training most days of every week (at least most days when it isn't too cold or the wind gusts aren't over 30mph) and is up to 2 miles, which is what he had just completed in this photo. This is how he spends a few minutes after each run. Just resting and being still...it doesn't happen very often with him.

I love the juxtaposition of his stillness to Baby Girl's exuberant leaping and twirling at the same time. She's been sitting in the car for 20 minutes as I follow along on the road behind him so there's a lot of pent up energy to expend, for goodness sake!

HERE are the other Project 52: Be Still participants. And, seriously, I am loving this little project...even though it stretches my creativity to find a way to express the theme every week. I'm not good at this kind of stuff, but I like that it uses a different part of my brain that I don't usually use.

Happy Friday!


** There's a new SOUP recipe up over at EATING AT THE TAJ MCCALL! :)

How To Bake A Cutie Pie or Carrie's Baby Shower

Last Saturday, I got to help host my sister's baby shower.

And you know how I love to throw a party!

This one was pretty fun, too, since Carrie is having a girl (Lola Claire) and we all love pies...hence the cutie pie theme. There were lots of fun ideas for a cutie pie baby showers online and we decided to use vintage quilts and tableware to make it even more lovely and sweet.

Casey (the hostess who let us use her house for the shower even though she had brand-spankin' new wood floors!) made this banner for her mantle. Very sweet.

This was our pie table. Notice THIS quilt under the pink and white quilt that is one that hangs in Phoebe's room, but I bought it at a garage sale so I didn't have to worry about dropping cherry pie filling on a family heirloom. :)

I took photos of the sweet pies because I'm a dork like that. Look how pretty my mom's cherry pie turned out. If you make homemade pies with homemade crusts, you know a "pretty" pie isn't always a guarantee, but this one was truly nice.

An egg custard pie. An old-fashioned (and kinda rare) pie that is a favorite of my dad and sister and me. And it seemed to be a big hit at the shower, too, despite almost no one having ever heard of it and it's odd name.

Sarah, my sis-in-law, made a yummy chocolate pie.

There were also three quiches, but I forgot to take photos of them. They were delicious, though. Oh, and fruit tray, but I didn't take a photo of it either.

We served all this yumminess on my mom's collection of vintage plates and silverware. The plates are all BLUERIDGE in all different patterns and the silver is all mismatched. How fun is that?!

We used some of her teacups for coffee as well.

The punch was served in champagne glasses. Cause we're fancy like that!

Because we were hosting a Cutie Pie Shower, we had "recipe" cards for baking a "cutie pie".

There were recipe cards on which to write a blessing or advice and we offered some prompts to help out those of us who have a hard time saying something inspirational spontaneously. You can find those prompts on pinterest (just look on my Party Idea board), but I couldn't ever find an actual link.

I never did get a photo of my sis and all her hostesses, but here's a good one of her and my mom. And it has to be said, Carrie looks like she's about to pop.

And here's one of the "girls" in my family. Me, Sister (that's what the grandkids call Carrie), and Sarah. I'm the only one not preggo in this photo...despite what my shirt might be telling you.  And I wish I had eyes, too.

As party favors on the way out the door, I made apple pies in a jar. I made them using THIS tutorial (that I've used before), but mine never turn out that well. I feel like they always look a little off.

They were topped with this cute little tag that my friend, Kristi, made. She makes all kinds of awesome party stuff (including the invitation, recipe cards, and thank you tags for this shower). You can find her stuff HERE and if you ever need any paper stuff for a party, she's your gal!

I didn't get a photo of the gift table, but it was covered in another vintage pink and blue quilt. Although by the time the shower was finished, it looked like a sea of pink! Precious. Now we're all ready to meet Baby Yo-Yo (that's what Phoebe and Big Brother Lincoln call her)...and I know that Carrie is more than ready! Especially since Lola's room is now filled with all kinds of pink things. :)



* Oh, and we also had a photo booth (I know, I've gone a little photo booth crazy!), but those photos aren't edited yet.  Hopefully I can get to them in the next little bit.

** And I finally posted again at EATING AT THE TAJ MCCALL. Due to Phoebe's birthday party and this shower, I haven't been doing much cooking lately. But I'm back at it...hopefully for a little while, anyway.