It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas :) More Christmas activities/stories to come!
And a preview: December 15 Little Miss will be in her first recital! She's tapping to "Frosty the Snowman"!
Friday, November 30, 2012
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Dinner
We had an interesting mix of good and bad for dinner tonight. We're trying to cook more from our freezer, fridge, and pantry this week (I still spent a ridiculous amount at the grocery store this week).
Tonight and tomorrow's menu looks like this:
Chicken nuggets
Butternut squash soup
Turnip fries
Yes, you read that right - we had TURNIP fries for dinner tonight. We have had turnips in our last couple of CSA boxes. One of the recipes the CSA sent out was for turnip fries. Basically turnips (cut like fries) with Parmesan cheese, onion powder, and paprika baked in the oven at 425 for 15-20 minutes. I don't know that I have EVER had turnips before (I think Stephen has). I can tell you that I will NOT be having them this way again. I can't decide if they didn't actually cook all the way or what, but the fries weren't particularly enticing (dipped in BBQ sauce they were edible, but that's not a selling point).
The chicken nuggets and the soup, on the other hand, were DELICIOUS. I did half the nuggets by "frying" them in the pan and baked the other half. The fried ones were wonderful, and I'm sure the baked ones will be good too. Not all the ingredients were truly "real food" approved because I used what I had on hand like frozen chicken breasts and bread crumbs (I did a mix of Panko and regular), but the goal was to cook a good meal using what we had on hand. Moment of honesty: I did try to make my own real-food approved bread crumbs, but I managed to burn the bread! Oops! Next time :)
Thursday and Friday I'm making a stirfry with pork tenderloin (already in our freezer) and whatever veggies are in our vegetable drawer!
Tonight and tomorrow's menu looks like this:
Chicken nuggets
Butternut squash soup
Turnip fries
Yes, you read that right - we had TURNIP fries for dinner tonight. We have had turnips in our last couple of CSA boxes. One of the recipes the CSA sent out was for turnip fries. Basically turnips (cut like fries) with Parmesan cheese, onion powder, and paprika baked in the oven at 425 for 15-20 minutes. I don't know that I have EVER had turnips before (I think Stephen has). I can tell you that I will NOT be having them this way again. I can't decide if they didn't actually cook all the way or what, but the fries weren't particularly enticing (dipped in BBQ sauce they were edible, but that's not a selling point).
The chicken nuggets and the soup, on the other hand, were DELICIOUS. I did half the nuggets by "frying" them in the pan and baked the other half. The fried ones were wonderful, and I'm sure the baked ones will be good too. Not all the ingredients were truly "real food" approved because I used what I had on hand like frozen chicken breasts and bread crumbs (I did a mix of Panko and regular), but the goal was to cook a good meal using what we had on hand. Moment of honesty: I did try to make my own real-food approved bread crumbs, but I managed to burn the bread! Oops! Next time :)
Thursday and Friday I'm making a stirfry with pork tenderloin (already in our freezer) and whatever veggies are in our vegetable drawer!
Saturday, November 24, 2012
A Busy, Busy Holiday Weekend
We are having a BUSY Thanksgiving weekend, and Little Miss S has been handling it surprisingly well. She has asked a few times to just go home, but overall she's been having FUN.
The festivities kicked off on Wednesday for Aunt "Cake"'s birthday. We went to the Zoo in the afternoon with Aunt Cake and Burak, then we went out to eat for the birthday dinner, and finally to Mimi and Pop's for birthday cake! We had a great dinner at Alodia's in Ballentine, and Little Miss mostly behaved herself. She ate lots of bread and some of Daddy's ziti (but none of her ravioli). The thing she was most thankful for on Wednesday? The new tiger truck from the Zoo gift shop!
Thanksgiving is always a busy day for us because we go to Bowman for Thanksgiving lunch and then to my parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner, so we eat A LOT of turkey on Thanksgiving! Little Miss had a blast both places and ate especially well at Mammy and Pop's house. We did have a cute Thanksgiving bow, but someone refused to wear it (and the brown boots)...
Friday we spent mostly at home. Daddy had to do some yard work, and Mommy and Little Miss S played inside and outside while he did that. One of the things she enjoyed? Her new felt Christmas tree:
"Bye, Santa Claus."
The festivities kicked off on Wednesday for Aunt "Cake"'s birthday. We went to the Zoo in the afternoon with Aunt Cake and Burak, then we went out to eat for the birthday dinner, and finally to Mimi and Pop's for birthday cake! We had a great dinner at Alodia's in Ballentine, and Little Miss mostly behaved herself. She ate lots of bread and some of Daddy's ziti (but none of her ravioli). The thing she was most thankful for on Wednesday? The new tiger truck from the Zoo gift shop!
Thanksgiving is always a busy day for us because we go to Bowman for Thanksgiving lunch and then to my parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner, so we eat A LOT of turkey on Thanksgiving! Little Miss had a blast both places and ate especially well at Mammy and Pop's house. We did have a cute Thanksgiving bow, but someone refused to wear it (and the brown boots)...
Friday we spent mostly at home. Daddy had to do some yard work, and Mommy and Little Miss S played inside and outside while he did that. One of the things she enjoyed? Her new felt Christmas tree:
Friday night we went to the Lights at Saluda Shoals. Her favorite thing was the Winter Wonder Ride - a slide/tubing thing. All the pictures are on my phone :( She asked to do the "boats" over and over! We may go back and spend another evening before the Christmas season is over. I will DEFINITELY take the camera if we go back!
Today we attempted to do two things: 1) let her ride a real choo-choo and 2) get a photo with Santa by going on the Santa train ride at the South Carolina Railroad Museum in Winnsboro. She was excited about getting on the train, at least at first, but she was less excited about the train once we got on it. She calmed down once she got to sit in the seat across from us and look out the window.
(She has a really cute smocked Green santa pants set under the huge winter coat. Thankful that I grabbed her coat as we ran out of the house because those train cars are not climate-controlled, so it was CHILLY on the train!)
Then Santa began to make his way down the train (we were at the front, so we saw him first). This was what happened when she first saw him:
She spent a good part of the rest of the trip with her head buried on Daddy's shoulder looking out the window and AWAY from Santa. We got ZERO Santa pictures and I don't think we'll try again this Christmas.
We did, however, get some good/horrifying video.
"I get OFF the train."
"Bye, Santa Claus."
"Not going to hurt you." (After this video, she then said "Not going to hurt Mommy. Not going to hurt Daddy." She was VERY concerned about if Santa was safe and nice!)
Monday, November 19, 2012
My Favorite Things #2
One of my absolutely favorite things is a person - our photographer Mandy Smith (check out her great blog). She is an AMAZING photographer and I love catching up on her blog - creative party ideas, inspirational thoughts on motherhood, etc.! I'm actually very sad - she and her family are getting ready to move to Thailand for their missionary work. I don't know who's going to take our pictures from now on - I guess it's back to Penney's :(
Anyway, I discovered Mandy through another favorite, Dayspring Dresses. Her girls have modeled a TON of outfits for Kelly. Then randomly I discovered that Mandy basically lives across the lake (if we had a boat, it would be SO much faster to get to her house!). That was a little over a year ago. Since then, she's done our photos FOUR times.
Last years Christmas photos:
Easter photos:
White summer photos:
This years Christmas photos:
Anyway, I discovered Mandy through another favorite, Dayspring Dresses. Her girls have modeled a TON of outfits for Kelly. Then randomly I discovered that Mandy basically lives across the lake (if we had a boat, it would be SO much faster to get to her house!). That was a little over a year ago. Since then, she's done our photos FOUR times.
Last years Christmas photos:
Easter photos:
White summer photos:
Funny Little Miss S-isms!
I wanted to do a post with some Little Miss S stories before I forget them all (the baby book is in dire need of updating from the very beginning!). So a few cute stories about what she's been up to.
1) Clothes: This girl is getting funny about her clothes, shoes, etc. She's gone through several favorite shirts/outfits the last couple of weeks: the penguin pajamas, the tie dye shirt, the pink shirt with the dog applique. She has also been ALL about the shoes the last couple of months - changing them like a zillion times a day. This weekend she's been all about the tap shoes. She even wore them to church this morning (we changed to church shoes before actually going IN the church).
2) Counting: She's started a little bit of counting finally this week. It started out like this, "2, 3, 2, 3. I counted!" Then it became "2, 3, 4, 2, 3. I counted!" Now it's usually "3, 4, 3, 4." We'll get there :)
3) Frosty story: This week we found out that she gets to be in a Christmas recital! Her dance teacher does several Christmas shows. There's an actual Christmas show/recital that's a fundraiser to off-set costumes and also several shows at nursing homes. I have to figure out an elf costume (maybe that will be a post later). But anyway, her Christmas dance is to "Frosty the Snowman." She is just now finally starting to almost sing parts of songs here and there. I was singing "Frosty" to her in the car and before I had gotten very far into the song, she said "Bye! Don't cry!" Stephen and I were like "Wow, she actually recognizes the song!"
This is the note from her dance teacher: "She is such a little doll...I don't know how much she will do but she does start doing the footwork when the dance part starts....the singing...not so much. But she is so cute, I am sure the residents would enjoy her even if she did nothing other than stand there and look cute."
4) Daddy going to church: Wednesday nights Stephen has started going to a men's Bible study at church. When he left this past week, we told her he was going to church. After he left, she looked at me and said "Daddy going trick or treating." Stephen and I laughed so hard about that. Ever since we went trunk-or-treating at church for Halloween, Little Miss always mentions it when we're in that part of the parking lot, so it was hilarious that she was associating that with Stephen going! (Speaking of Halloween, the candy is ALMOST gone and she has been less anxious about "my basket" as it disappears, so that's a GOOD thing.
5) Reading: Little Miss has loved books from almost the very beginning. There was even a month or so last year when she carried around a book almost ALL day at school! Right now, she especially into reading before bedtime. It used to be with Daddy and then Mommy. Then she changed to only wanting Mommy to read. Now we're piling books, Mommy, Daddy, and Little Miss on our bed to read before putting her to bed!
The funniest part is the way she names her books. Sometimes she'll ask us for a book and we're so confused until we figure out what she's talking about! One of the main ones she has named right now is Sandra Boynton's Fifteen Animals, which Little Miss simply calls "Bob"! Yesterday, she found a copy of If You Give a Pig a Pancake and a random Winnie the Pooh book. Then in the afternoon and the evening, she kept searching for "Pig and Pooh"! At first, I was very confused and then I figured it out!
6) The Gym: We have been doing Open Gym at Lexington Gymnastic Academy two Fridays a month. The other two Fridays she's in a cheerleading/tumbling class at daycare. She LOVES open gym - jumping on the trampolines, running around, swinging, etc. She is also doing well in the class. Her favorite thing, according to her teacher, is the forward roll. She has been trying to do it at home on her home for a while now, and last night she finally started doing it! She rolled over and over again on our bed and on the floor. We were so proud! The funny part: she started saying "Mommy do it. Daddy do it." She was very insistent that we should roll too. I'm proud to report that Stephen managed to do it. Me? I have zero idea how I used to do somersaults because I could NOT figure it out! She just kept showing me and showing me. Then she would look at me like "See how easy it is?" Yeah, not at age 32!
Finally a picture to share. I told her she was stylin', so then she kept saying "I stylin'!" :)
1) Clothes: This girl is getting funny about her clothes, shoes, etc. She's gone through several favorite shirts/outfits the last couple of weeks: the penguin pajamas, the tie dye shirt, the pink shirt with the dog applique. She has also been ALL about the shoes the last couple of months - changing them like a zillion times a day. This weekend she's been all about the tap shoes. She even wore them to church this morning (we changed to church shoes before actually going IN the church).
2) Counting: She's started a little bit of counting finally this week. It started out like this, "2, 3, 2, 3. I counted!" Then it became "2, 3, 4, 2, 3. I counted!" Now it's usually "3, 4, 3, 4." We'll get there :)
3) Frosty story: This week we found out that she gets to be in a Christmas recital! Her dance teacher does several Christmas shows. There's an actual Christmas show/recital that's a fundraiser to off-set costumes and also several shows at nursing homes. I have to figure out an elf costume (maybe that will be a post later). But anyway, her Christmas dance is to "Frosty the Snowman." She is just now finally starting to almost sing parts of songs here and there. I was singing "Frosty" to her in the car and before I had gotten very far into the song, she said "Bye! Don't cry!" Stephen and I were like "Wow, she actually recognizes the song!"
This is the note from her dance teacher: "She is such a little doll...I don't know how much she will do but she does start doing the footwork when the dance part starts....the singing...not so much. But she is so cute, I am sure the residents would enjoy her even if she did nothing other than stand there and look cute."
4) Daddy going to church: Wednesday nights Stephen has started going to a men's Bible study at church. When he left this past week, we told her he was going to church. After he left, she looked at me and said "Daddy going trick or treating." Stephen and I laughed so hard about that. Ever since we went trunk-or-treating at church for Halloween, Little Miss always mentions it when we're in that part of the parking lot, so it was hilarious that she was associating that with Stephen going! (Speaking of Halloween, the candy is ALMOST gone and she has been less anxious about "my basket" as it disappears, so that's a GOOD thing.
5) Reading: Little Miss has loved books from almost the very beginning. There was even a month or so last year when she carried around a book almost ALL day at school! Right now, she especially into reading before bedtime. It used to be with Daddy and then Mommy. Then she changed to only wanting Mommy to read. Now we're piling books, Mommy, Daddy, and Little Miss on our bed to read before putting her to bed!
The funniest part is the way she names her books. Sometimes she'll ask us for a book and we're so confused until we figure out what she's talking about! One of the main ones she has named right now is Sandra Boynton's Fifteen Animals, which Little Miss simply calls "Bob"! Yesterday, she found a copy of If You Give a Pig a Pancake and a random Winnie the Pooh book. Then in the afternoon and the evening, she kept searching for "Pig and Pooh"! At first, I was very confused and then I figured it out!
6) The Gym: We have been doing Open Gym at Lexington Gymnastic Academy two Fridays a month. The other two Fridays she's in a cheerleading/tumbling class at daycare. She LOVES open gym - jumping on the trampolines, running around, swinging, etc. She is also doing well in the class. Her favorite thing, according to her teacher, is the forward roll. She has been trying to do it at home on her home for a while now, and last night she finally started doing it! She rolled over and over again on our bed and on the floor. We were so proud! The funny part: she started saying "Mommy do it. Daddy do it." She was very insistent that we should roll too. I'm proud to report that Stephen managed to do it. Me? I have zero idea how I used to do somersaults because I could NOT figure it out! She just kept showing me and showing me. Then she would look at me like "See how easy it is?" Yeah, not at age 32!
Finally a picture to share. I told her she was stylin', so then she kept saying "I stylin'!" :)
Thursday, November 15, 2012
First Haircut
Little Miss S is 2 years, 6 months, and 3 days old today. She had never had her haircut until 10:30 this morning :) Her hair was getting a little out of control - long, wispy, and straight-ish on top and short-ish and curly on the bottom. Time to do something about it! We went to Ms. Linda's for her first hair cut. Linda has been cutting my hair for 20+ years, did my hair for prom, for my wedding, etc, so she definitely needed to give Little Miss her first cut!
BEFORE (you can sort of see the curly underneath and the long wispy layer over here):
So we to "celebrate" her first hair cut, Little Miss and I went out for her favorite breakfast: eggs, bacon, grits, and toast! We had a good relaxing breakfast and she was great on the car ride over to Irmo. UNTIL she started asking to "go Reagan and Addison" (her code word for daycare). When I told her we were going to see Ms. Linda, the fit throwing began. There was fussing in the car and full-on screaming, crying, and clinging once we got there:
BEFORE (you can sort of see the curly underneath and the long wispy layer over here):
So we to "celebrate" her first hair cut, Little Miss and I went out for her favorite breakfast: eggs, bacon, grits, and toast! We had a good relaxing breakfast and she was great on the car ride over to Irmo. UNTIL she started asking to "go Reagan and Addison" (her code word for daycare). When I told her we were going to see Ms. Linda, the fit throwing began. There was fussing in the car and full-on screaming, crying, and clinging once we got there:
She did slowly calm down to the point she wasn't screaming and we sat down into the chair. Clearly she was still not convinced that this was a good idea!
She continued to calm down as Linda combed her hair out and once Mimi got there to take pictures (thanks for the rain - her riding lesson was cancelled and she could come!). She was actually pretty good once things got started. She was smiling and laughing (ignore Mommy's strange faces):
And all done :) We even got a sort of smile for the camera! We then spent about 20 minutes with Little Miss zooming a truck up and down the center aisle!
Monday, November 12, 2012
A Busy, Busy Weekend
This was a VERY, VERY, VERY busy weekend! But it was a good weekend too :)
We spent Saturday in Clemson for Homecoming. We didn't actually go the game (2 year old + upper deck = mommy's worst nightmare), but we did
1) go to the Wesley Foundation reunion tailgate - We saw some old friends, had some lunch, and Little Miss S enjoyed every 2-year-old's favorite activities: stair climbing and door closing!
2) have some ice cream: the line was REALLY LONG (as per usual on game day), so Little Miss and I climbed up and down and up and down the stairs in the Hendrix Center what felt like a million times. Little Miss also ate half of Daddy's chocolate shake instead of her cup of chocolate. This kid loves her a chocolate shake!
3) catch up with some old friends (hi, Lindsey!): We actually got to see Lindsey this trip! We hiked back and forth across campus at least twice, but managed to get to her tailgate spot before they went in for the game. It was good to have a quick chance to catch up!
AND
4) show Little Miss the floats: We were mean parents - we made her walk by those floats on Bowman Field TWICE before we finally took her to see them! She wanted to check them out as soon as she spotted them!
We "lost" her (brand-new) hair bow somewhere between Lindsey's tailgate near the old Johnstones and Bowman Field, so Daddy traced back our steps in search of it. Where was it? It fell over the back of the stroller and into the basket below! Oops! So here are a few pictures before we re-located the bow:
"What is that?" She thought all the floats were so fun!
This float was great with its Hill replica! We did it twice. The first time she was NOT in a good mood because Daddy made her wait her turn. We got better pictures later :)
More random float pics:
Her favorite thing on Bowman Field was probably the Habitat House though. Maybe because it seemed out of place? She just kept screaming: "It's a house" and running up and down the stairs and into the living room and looking out the windows and... you get the idea!
Little Miss didn't nap until about 4:30 when we got on the road to Greenville for dinner, took a 30 minute nap, and drove Daddy crazy the whole way home in the car! It was almost 9 before she was down for the night. Thankfully though she never really got fussy despite the lack of sleep - it didn't catch up with her until about 5:30 on Sunday!
We did have a great dinner in Greenville. I found this place called Everyday Organic in a Google search, so we gave it a try. It's an all-organic restaurant; they use local grass-fed meats, local produce whenever possible, and are linked with a sustainability program at Furman. The prices weren't noticeably different from a regular restaurant and the food was GREAT! I had a chicken salad sandwich and tomato-basil soup while Stephen had a black bean burrito. They also had a great kids meal option with a variety of sandwiches that came with fresh fruit or fresh veggies. Little Miss had a ham and cheese sandwich (or rather pieces of it) and some carrots and celery dipped in guacamole!
So Saturday was SUPER-busy and we decided to follow it up with a trip to Bowman on Sunday. We went to Sunday school (our class is doing a really good Christmas study: Walking the Road to Bethlehem), let Little Miss play on the slide for a little while, packed up the car, stopped at Subway for lunch, and hit the Interstate! She slept for maybe an hour and was awake when we got to Mammy and Pop's house! Apparently this is the key to a smile in the photos because she was so excited to see them! Look at this grin:
We spent Saturday in Clemson for Homecoming. We didn't actually go the game (2 year old + upper deck = mommy's worst nightmare), but we did
1) go to the Wesley Foundation reunion tailgate - We saw some old friends, had some lunch, and Little Miss S enjoyed every 2-year-old's favorite activities: stair climbing and door closing!
2) have some ice cream: the line was REALLY LONG (as per usual on game day), so Little Miss and I climbed up and down and up and down the stairs in the Hendrix Center what felt like a million times. Little Miss also ate half of Daddy's chocolate shake instead of her cup of chocolate. This kid loves her a chocolate shake!
3) catch up with some old friends (hi, Lindsey!): We actually got to see Lindsey this trip! We hiked back and forth across campus at least twice, but managed to get to her tailgate spot before they went in for the game. It was good to have a quick chance to catch up!
AND
4) show Little Miss the floats: We were mean parents - we made her walk by those floats on Bowman Field TWICE before we finally took her to see them! She wanted to check them out as soon as she spotted them!
We "lost" her (brand-new) hair bow somewhere between Lindsey's tailgate near the old Johnstones and Bowman Field, so Daddy traced back our steps in search of it. Where was it? It fell over the back of the stroller and into the basket below! Oops! So here are a few pictures before we re-located the bow:
"What is that?" She thought all the floats were so fun!
She was ALL about the tractor float and had some serious turn-taking issues!
And on to the next interesting float!
Better ones:
More random float pics:
Her favorite thing on Bowman Field was probably the Habitat House though. Maybe because it seemed out of place? She just kept screaming: "It's a house" and running up and down the stairs and into the living room and looking out the windows and... you get the idea!
Little Miss didn't nap until about 4:30 when we got on the road to Greenville for dinner, took a 30 minute nap, and drove Daddy crazy the whole way home in the car! It was almost 9 before she was down for the night. Thankfully though she never really got fussy despite the lack of sleep - it didn't catch up with her until about 5:30 on Sunday!
We did have a great dinner in Greenville. I found this place called Everyday Organic in a Google search, so we gave it a try. It's an all-organic restaurant; they use local grass-fed meats, local produce whenever possible, and are linked with a sustainability program at Furman. The prices weren't noticeably different from a regular restaurant and the food was GREAT! I had a chicken salad sandwich and tomato-basil soup while Stephen had a black bean burrito. They also had a great kids meal option with a variety of sandwiches that came with fresh fruit or fresh veggies. Little Miss had a ham and cheese sandwich (or rather pieces of it) and some carrots and celery dipped in guacamole!
So Saturday was SUPER-busy and we decided to follow it up with a trip to Bowman on Sunday. We went to Sunday school (our class is doing a really good Christmas study: Walking the Road to Bethlehem), let Little Miss play on the slide for a little while, packed up the car, stopped at Subway for lunch, and hit the Interstate! She slept for maybe an hour and was awake when we got to Mammy and Pop's house! Apparently this is the key to a smile in the photos because she was so excited to see them! Look at this grin:
We played at cousin Taylor's house for a good bit of the afternoon. She has a trampoline, which Little Miss loves! We also played with the toy kitchen and colored at Mammy and Pop's. We decided to eat around 5 - Little Miss was not in a good mood about this; she did end up eating a good bit out in the living room with Mammy. Bath time brought a whole other set of tantrums in part because Taylor's name was mentioned. She was so mad that Taylor wasn't there that we called Stacy and asked if Taylor could come over and say "bye" (we call this look her mean baby face):
She managed to stay awake in the car, got home and ate some more, and finally went down for the night at 8! She actually slept in a little this morning (7:45)! I hope that she'll be in a better mood tonight!
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