Christmas Tree, Parade and Race

This past week I put up our Christmas decorations, tree and all!  I do love Thanksgiving but I just couldn't wait until the following weekend to decorate.  In addition, Summer and I went out and about in town to see the Christmas tree lighting at Biltmore Park and to the Holiday Parade in downtown (busy busy while daddy was out of town). 

It was a really cold night so Mama opted for dinner for two at a restaurant nearby instead of standing and waiting for the tree to turn on. Never fear, we saw it!

Since Summer behaved so well on our dinner date I treated her to Pink Icecream! 

While we waited for the parade to begin, Summer danced in the street with her baby. 

Waiving with both hands!

Yall, I had NO IDEA how much my little girl liked to DANCE! Hope to get some video uploaded soon. 

The next day my brother ran his first HALF MARATHON in Birmingham.  I am SO proud of him for setting this goal and training to meet it.  Here he is at the 8 mile mark giving Mimi and Brody a high five as he passes by. 

ALL THE WAY! ALL THE WAY! I can hear my mom chanting that from the sidelines.  So happy for you Bud!  I hope to run it with you next year.

I'm on a roll...

So far I am having a great week getting back in the swing of updating this blog!
Although my camera is off for repairs (actually they are replacing it for free) I have managed to take some pictures on my phone. 
Today was our MOPS meeting which is always fun and encouraging and I get tons of creative ideas from the other moms.  I came home inspired and went to town on some potatoes!  I tackled 15 pounds of potatoes which at the time felt like overkill but they were on sale for 2.99 for 10# (plus I already had some) and I know that down the road, when I don't have to bake a potato, I will be a happy girl.

Per,http://www.momonamission.me/, I washed them, pierced them once, rubbed them with vegetable oil and sprinkled with salt then baked them for 1 hr at 400.

The smaller potatoes I sliced into rounds and will use those for scalloped potatoes or french fries in the future.  I made twice baked potatoes with one tray and with the third tray I sliced and left in halves to later top with cheese, bacon and chives.  I flash froze them for 2 hours by laying them flat in the freezer.  Then I bagged them.

While the potatoes were cooking, and after Summer woke up from naptime, we made dinner-Spinach and Cheese Manicotti (another momonamission recipe).  We doubled the recipe so that we could eat some tonight (and lunch tomorrow) as well as have another meal in the freezer.  She was very meticulous about getting the cheese into the plastic bag (which we used to pipe the filling into the shells).  Oh and by the way, smiling AND keeping your eyes open at 2.5 yrs old is practically impossible.

Summer is becoming quite the little kitchen helper.  Just last week we got together for a baking playdate with her friends and made some delicious Fleischman's bread. Pictured (Addyson, Addie, Levi and Summer)

I thought I would share with you what a sweet little girl Summer is.  Every night we give her a breathing treatment as an asthma prevention method.  At first the mask was not fun but now she can hold it by herself like a big girl.  It helps that she gets to watch cartoons at the same time!

Cooking and Playing

The past few months I have been so inspired by a friend of mine who is a cooking queen! She has four kids and manages to cook smart, frugal and healthy. Not to mention she feeds the women and children in our community at the homeless shelter weekly. Anytime I need a recipe I go to her blog to see what she is up to.
This week potatoes are on a big discount at the local grocery and I am going to take advantage by making some of her twice baked potatoes as well as freezing some for grilled cheesy potato skins later. Check out the link below and explore her blog to find more great recipes and cooking ideas.
I have made her Chicken Parmesan and froze it for later and it came out great! I also love the breakfast burritos.
Grilled Cheesy Potato Skins

Yesterday Summer and I went to the Mountain Playlodge with our neighbors for the first time. I had heard rave reviews but didn't know what to expect. Summer went crazy! She got in there and just started running. She couldn't climb on each dog, turtle, boat, car fast enough. It was so much fun to watch her. They had inflatables and to my surprise she got in the BIG ones and actually climbed to the top and slid down (with me encouraging her to be like Dora)!
Sorry no pictures...as you remember Summer dropped my camera and I have sent it off for warranty repair.

PS - This year I am going to be one of those people who put up their Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. I hope to get them up this week!

Crafty

When looking through the Pottery Barn Kids Holiday Magazine I thought that I could recreate some of the cute Christmas decorations that they had.  Here are some stake signs that they have listed for $44 each (ridiculous).

 Here is my version for no out of pocket costs...had everything under my roof.  I plan on attaching them to paint sticks and sticking them in my metal planters that are on both sides of the front door...then tying a red bow around each of the metal planters.

 Here is another cute Pottery Barn Christmas decoration, oversized ball ornaments hung at your entryway.

My version, still under construction (many more coats of white paint).  Mine will actually end up cuter because they are made of red burlap and I will glue or stitch two pieces together, and stuff them, to make them 3-D.  The Christmas trees were a cookie cutter I had that I used as a stencil.

This was the last photo taken on this camera, by Summer, before she dropped it face down on the lens.  Since then I have spent my evening googling "lens error."  After no solutions, I finally called customer service and it appears that if I ship it to them then they will repair it under warranty (of course not mentioning the 2 year old dropping it with the lens extended). 

Miss Mischief herself outside church today.  I told her she could go touch the bus, as you know BUSES are her favorite...and since this one does have a yellow top she might as well consider it a yellow bus.

Bright Eyes

My bright eyed girl painting again...
She woke up at 5am and repelled out of her crib (a trend the past 2 days).  I woke up seeing that the kitchen light was on and went to see what she was up to.  She didn't see me, but I saw that she was playing at her table and chairs...so I went back to bed.  Chad and I just laid there listening and guessing "what that noise was?"  Amazingly she never came to get me.  After 1 hour and 20 minutes I got up and peeked in the kitchen to find her picking up crackers she had spilled on the floor.  She had opened the pantry and climbed up the shelves to get what she wanted!  Oh, for the record, Summer can open any child-proof door knob and she is an excellent problem solver...so nothing is out of her reach.  There weren't any major messes and she had removed her diaper and placed it in the trash just like Mama does.
This is the begininning of her not needing us!

Painting and Halloween

This week, once I received the Pottery Barn Kids holiday magazine in the mail, I got a creative itch.  I saw some cute Christmas signs and decided that I could paint something similar.  Well, as you can imagine, when I paint my mini-me wants to paint also.  And so we did!

This Halloween Summer dressed up as a fairy.  It was cold so this fairy had to keep warm under her tutu.  Thanks to Mimi for making her tutu, magic wand and hair bow.  She got the hang of knocking on doors and saying "Please" and "Thank You."  The phrase, "trick or treat" was a stretch for her vocabulary.   

I guess it was the costumes that threw them off.  But here is Summer with her buddy, Nicholas aka Superman.

Thanks to Nana for staying at our house to pass out candy so that Mama, Daddy and Granddad could walk the neighborhood. 

Baby Update: I am 18 weeks pregnant now and feeling well.  This past week I haven't had much of an appetite for dinner (and my family has suffered) but otherwise I crave citrus and typically eat an orange every night.  Chad and I haven't yet agreed on a name...sigh.  However, we were able to name Summer so I have faith that we can do it again.  Talk to you soon.