Making Pizza

Friday night we made pizza with garlic, tomatoes, artichokes, spinach and of course pepperoni.  

7 Quick Takes: Reece, Bowling, & Family

1. Reece update 
Reece now weighs 17lbs 11oz.  He is now eating mostly table food... he is eating what we have for all meals most of the time (pasta, lasagna, frito pie, grilled chicken, pizza, white beans).  Since he is sitting up so well now we took him out of the bath sling and just have him sitting in the tub and he loves is and does GREAT.

2. Jump N Jive  
We went to play at Jump N Jive last week with our play group friends.  Audrey and Aunt Ray Ray were in town so they came too.  

3. Bowling  
They have a free summer bowling pass that lets kids bowl 2 games everyday of the summer for free.  So my friend and I took our boys bowling last Friday.  They did pretty good for their 1st time bowling and only being 3 years old.

4. Father's Day  
We just spent Father's Day hanging out around the house we did run out to get coffee for Keith and I and get Grady a snowball.  I made lasagna and our favorite chocolate chip cookies :)  Keith is a wonderful father and husband... Me and the boys are so lucky to have him.  WE LOVE YOU!!

5. Frito Pie
So at the snowball stand Keith noticed that they sold ice cream and Frito Pies.  We were not a 100% sure what made a TRUE frito pie so I looked it up online and decided to make it for dinner Monday night.  I decided to use one of our healthier chilies and it tasted GREAT!!       

Frito Pie

3 cups Fritos corn chips

¾ cup chopped onion

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

2 ½ cups chili (your favorite -- homemade, canned, whatever)

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Spread 2 cups of Fritos in a baking dish. Sprinkle half the onion and half the cheese over the Fritos. Pour the chili over the onion and cheese. Sprinkle the remaining Fritos, onion and cheese over the chili.  Bake for 15 or 20 minutes and cheese is bubbly. Serve hot.

Southwestern Beef Chili with Corn

 

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 carrots, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1 poblano or bell pepper, chopped

½ pound ground beef

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 15-ounce cans black beans, drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tbs ground cumin

0.5 tsp + a pinch of ground coriande

Kosher salt and pepper

½ cup corn kernels (from 1 ear, or frozen and thawed)

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, onion, and poblano and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add the beef and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until it is no longer pink, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, until it is slightly darkened, 1 minute. Add the beans, chili powder, 3 cups water, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Simmer over medium heat until the vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in the corn.  Make Ahead: You can cook the chili in advance and refrigerate it for up to 3 days or freeze it for up to 3 months.

NUTRITION PER SERVING

CALORIES 343; FAT 15g (sat 5g); CHOLESTEROL 51mg; CARBOHYDRATE 34g; SODIUM 893mg; PROTEIN 23g; FIBER 11g; SUGAR 6g

6. Slip n Slide
I got Grady a Slip n Slide at Target on Monday.  He had a lot of fun playing on it :)  Maybe Keith can show him how to really do it one day... I don't think I want to slip n slide, but we will see :)

7. Louisiana Children's Museum
On Wednesday we meet a friend at Louisiana Children's Museum in New Orleans.  We had a wonderful time.  The boys and I then spent the night in Mandeville with my parents and brother.   We had fun hanging out and swimming :)

Oh yeah I just had to pull this picture up because this is Grady at the Children's Museum about the same age Reece is right now.

6th Wedding Anniversary

Our 6th Wedding Anniversary was June 12 but I forgot to post something about it.  It was a very busy day.  USA soccer team was playing England in the 1st round of the 2010 World Cup.  We went to get Grady's hair died RED for the game then went to watch the soccer game at Pluckers with Keith's soccer friends.  We made Crab Cakes with Hollandaise Sauce for dinner.  We had a nice family day :)

 Our Wedding Day!! June 12, 2004

1st Wedding Anniversary 2005

2nd Wedding Anniversary 2006

3rd Wedding Anniversary 2007 - Grady: 2months

4th Wedding Anniversary 2008 - Grady: 14months

5th Wedding Anniversary 2009 - Grady: 2yrs  ~ 16weeks pregnant

6th Wedding Anniversary 2010 - Grady: 3yrs, Reece: 6months

Reece is 7 months old!

We don't have a weight and height update because Reece does not have his next well visit till 9 months old.

Reece can now sit up on his on.  His has been sitting up for a little while but would not sit up for very long so we always kept the boppy pillow behind him... well now he is a sitter :)  He also loves to roll onto his belly and scooting backwards... he has backed himself under a chair in the living twice now and gets stuck.

Reece is now eating a lot more table food, cooked carrots, peas, pasta, pancakes, bananas, cheerios, biscuits, watermelon, cooked tomatoes, & broccoli.  We are hoping to have him on all table food by 9 months old like Grady was and I think Reece way ahead of Grady that this age.   We have also started teaching Reece baby sign language, we are working on words like milk, eat, more, & all done right now.

Reece LOVES to smile and laugh at everyone.  He is such a sweet boy.  He loves to watch Grady and Reece will laugh at almost anything Grady does or says.  He is now saying dada & babba.

Grady's 7 month update

Show Us Your Life - China Patterns

So my friend Liz posted about China Patterns on Saturday and she said that everyone was showing their China Patterns this week. So you know the GOOGLE QUEEN (me) had to search the blog title and see who else it posting about china.  Well when I found Kelly's Korner... and it seems like she started this a while ago and does a Show Us Your Life every Friday.   (haha then when I went back to Liz's blog I saw Kelly's blog is on her Liz's blog list)  Anyway I LOVE this idea.

Our casual dining set is Noritake Colorwave, we were looking for dinnerware that was Microwave, Oven & Dishwasher Safe... We decided to register for the blue and the green and I am so glad that we did I love having both colors and my favorite thing is the floral accent plates

Our Fine China is Lenox Federal Platinum... I think we might have used our china once and today when  I looking for images of our china I could not remember if we had Federal Platinum or the Continental pattern so I had to look at our china in the top of the pantry.  I knew we had not got all the place settings I wanted (I wanted 12) but was pleasantly surprised to see we had 7 place setting.  I guess we need to have some people over for a fancy dinner on our china :)   

Anyway when we were picking out which china to register for we wanted to make sure it was a timeless and simple pattern because my moms china is a floral and kind of dated patten.  

The Handwriting Project

My sister tagged me on her blog... and i thought it would be fun to see everyones handwriting.  

So here is how it works:

Write down the following, snap a picture (or scan the document), post it, and tag others.

1. Name/Blog Name

2. Right handed, left handed or both

3. Favorite letters to write

4. Least favorite letters to write

5. Write: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

6. Write in caps:

CRAB

HUMOR

KALEIDOSCOPE

PAJAMAS

GAZILLION

7. Favorite song lyrics

8. Tag 7 people

9. Any special note or drawing

I tagged Ashley, Liz, Michelle, Kim, AnaMaria, Jen, & Kate.  If I didn't tag you, please still play along and let me know by posting a comment with a link to your handwriting project.

7 Quick Takes: Swimming, Birthday & Friends

1. Floating
           We got our float back from our niece Audrey (we let her borrow it last year, since we were not using it).  Reece LOVED floating around the pool on Saturday and it was nice to have our hands free to play with Grady.  On another note Grady does not like to float on his back, he goes crazy when we or his swim teacher tries to get him to do it.

2. Fishing
        Grady and Keith went fishing this weekend in our "lake" behind our house.  Grady does a pretty good job casting, but still not ready for a hook because it ended up around Grady and Keith's legs a number of times (right now he has a fake worm on the end).  Alligator update:  They caught the small gator he was 5' 7".  Still trying to get the big one :)

3.  Making Cake
         Grady helped me make a Chocolate Layer Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting for Keith's Birthday on Tuesday.  Keith wanted a chocolate cake so I looked up recipes and found this one.  Then when I got ready to make the frosting I saw that I had to make a custard (which I have never done before), at one point I thought I had started scrabbling the eggs.  Then you have to let the custard cool for 45mins, melt chocolate and let that cool.... oh my!!  The cake is great but very time consuming especially with a 3 year old "helping."

4. Keith's 31st Birthday
       Grady helped me wrap Keith's gift, make the cake and decorate the house.  We had a wonderful dinner but Grady would not eat a bite so he cried while we were singing Happy Birthday because he knew he was not getting any cake.

5. Reece scooting backwards
        Reece has started scooting backwards.  I don't think he does it intentionally yet but he is really starting to move around.

6.  Show-off Day for Swimming Lessons
       On Thursday Grady had his Show-off Day for his second session of swimming lessons, Keith came to watch this time.  Grady did great, he can swim farther now and this time the teacher also dropped them in the pool and they had to turn around and swimming back to the ledge.   After showing off we went to Gatti's Pizza with some friends that were taking swimming lessons at the same time.   We are so proud of you Grady, we are swimming great now it is hard to believe that 4 weeks ago you were using arm floats.

7.  Blueberry Farm
       Today we went to a Blueberry Farm to pick blueberries with some of our friends.  It was a lot of fun, none of the blueberries Grady picked made it into the bucket he ate them all.  It was REALLY hot out today (heat index of 105 degrees) and it is only June.  We had lunch at friend's house that lives close to the farm and then Grady & I got a DQ Blizzard on the way home (YUM!! I wish we had a Dairy Queen in Baton Rouge).  

7 Quick Takes: Swimming, Praying, Circus & Reece

My sister got this idea from a blog she reads and since I have not updated in a while I figured it was an easy way  to update. :)  But they do it on Friday and I started typing it last night but then got too tired and went to sleep :)

1.  Swimming Lessons Show Off Day!!
          Grady finished his 1st two week session of swimming lesson on Thursday May 27.  He did GREAT.  He can now swim and jump in the pool turn himself around and swim back to the ledge!  He started his 2nd session of swimming lessons this week... he is missing his other teacher Ms. Rachel K.  but started doing better by the end of the week.

2.  Last day of Little Gym
         Grady's had his last day of Little Gym on Friday May 28th.  He started going last summer, went in the Fall and just finished the Spring session.  This will be his last parent/child class since he is now 3years old and can go to gymnastics class.    But he starting school in the fall so I think we will take a break and see what sport he wants to do then.

3.  Praying 
       I couple weeks ago my sister started praying a Novena... I did not know what a Novena was but found out it was a nine days' private or public devotion in the Catholic Church to obtain special graces.   We found a novena and decided to start praying it together on Friday May 28.

4.  Memorial Day
     We did not have any plans for Memorial Day but Sunday my mom called to see if we would come to Mandeville Monday because my dad wanted boil crawfish.  So Monday after Grady's swimming lessons we went to Mandeville for crawfish, swimming and watermelon.  Reece had his 1st watermelon he LOVED it!!

5.  S, S, S, S, S
     Tuesday night I went to dinner and to see Sex and the City for a Moms Night Out!!  Wednesday Grady had swimming lessons, then we went to storytime and then to Chick-fil-A to try the new spicy chicken sandwich.  That night Keith and Grady played soccer in the back yard.  Oh my Grady looks so cute in his cleats and ankle socks :)

6. Circus
      Thursday night we went to Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus.  We had great seats and had a lot of fun!!

7.  Reece
      Reece is now rolling over and over he is getting around by rolling over.  He is now saying babba, Grady really wants him to say his name but we all decided babba would be easier for Reece to say and he is already saying it, he does not know what it means but it makes Grady very happy when he says it.  Reece has been on stage 2 baby food for a while we are now giving him some table food and he is doing great.  He is eating bananas, carrots, broccoli, watermelon, tomatoes from minestrone last night and the inside of a biscuit today.