Baby Christmas Tree Craft

We had our first successful finger painting activity today! He only licked his finger once, never gagged, and the paint came out of his clothes.  Success! I found Baby's 1st Christmas Craft at No Time For Flash Cards. I have about zero creativity when it comes to new ideas for crafts Mr. F might actually enjoy so thankfully No Time For Flash Cards rocks the whole baby craft thing. 

1. Trace chubby little hands and feet for as long as he'll let you. Cut them out while he's napping because he STILL doesn't understand that he can't have every single thing that you put in your hand :)

2. Draw a Christmas tree on a brown paper bag.  Don't be jealous of my mad drawing skills. You should see my maps.

3. Put some green finger paint down and let him go crazy. If that's something your kid does. 

 4. Once dry, cut out Christmas tree and attach ornaments.  Put on the refrigerator and smile at those adorable little hands and feet. 

Advent Calendar

I love the commercialized idea of Advent calendars.  Gifts every day of December?  Yes, please!  I love shopping (such a girl) and I love picking out the perfect present for someone.  Even if all 25 presents are for Mr. F and he totally isn't going to get it. Most of them are books and fun craft activities.  I did sneak in a few days worth of candy too.  Mom and Dad need a little Advent love too right? I saw this adorable Calendar at Garnet Hill. Love that store.

Unfortunately, for many reasons, I'm not rich.  So I decided to make my own!  I was able to pick the colors, size, and presents (did I mention presents?!?) to put in them.  While these probably aren't quite as cute as the original Garnet Hill ones, they aren't too bad.

1. I picked out the felt and waited in line for 45 minutes while an extremely friendly (or not) old lady cut material as slowly as humanly possible.

2. I drew a few different stockings.  I wanted to have 5 of each stocking but after 4 stockings I realized there are only so many ways I can draw a sock. I did a little tracing and cut out 25 stockings.

3. The next step took a while.  At least two movies worth. I cut out a ton of tiny little details to attach to each stocking.  

4. I had no idea felt glue existed but it does and it saved A LOT of time. Instead of hand stitching 500 tiny details I glued them!  And it was only about one Friends rerun worth of work :) 

5. I did some actual sewing now.  I sewed the front and the back of the stocking together.  Tough work. 

6. Then I glued on tabs and sewed them to burlap ribbon.  Yeah, that stuff is pretty great too. 

I had some placement problems.  I had a little problem looking beyond all the cool presents I could put in these stockings if they were just a little bit bigger than the Garnet Hill Calendar and well...it's really long. With a little finagling I think I worked it out.  I can't wait to teach Mr. F how to rip open presents each morning and then how to share his presents with Mommy :)  

Baked Ravioli

This recipe may actually be easier than "traditional" (frozen) ravioli and it was delicious!  Finally!  A Pinterest project that worked.  Actually, Pinterest is pretty good at the whole semi homemade thing.

Ingredients:
Frozen ravioli (my pack had 16 raviolis)
Pasta sauce (I used an arrabiata sauce...yum)
2 cups shredded mozzarella
Parmesan (as much as you want! I wanted about 3/4 cup)

Recipe:
~Preheat oven to 400

~In an 8x8 baking dish spread about 1/4 cup sauce

~Arrange half of the raviolis on top of sauce then top with half of the remaining sauce and half of the mozzarella

~Repeat previous step

 ~Top with Parmesan. Like I said, yum.

~Baked covered for 30 minutes.  Remove foil and bake for 15 minutes.

~Try not to burn your face off with all the cheese.  Can you have too much cheese?  I don't think so!

The terrible twos already?

Today was supposed to be an awesome day. We were going to go to the fire station for the first time and I was going to get adorable pictures and a laugh when Mr. F came unglued and scratched my skin off when he heard the sirens. Unfortunately, the firemen had to work and we didn't get to go. Saved my skin temporarily, at least.
Sister suggested we go to the Austin Children's Museum instead. This sounds like an awesome idea. How could this go wrong? A place where kids can basically run free and do whatever they want.
Mr. F wanted to crawl up the stairs, climb on the pulley system, run out the front door, and roll around on the floor throwing fits. It was such a disaster that I sent the husband a picture every time he threw himself to the floor. "Such a sweet boy."
To top off a perfect morning we had lunch outside and a bird crapped on me. Awesome day. Can't wait to go back.

Turkey Craft

As always, I'm looking for some crafts to do with Mr. F.  I found a turkey craft on my favorite kid craft website, No Time For Flashcards. This one is going to be a lot more fun next year when he gets over his disgust of all things gooey.  I assume he'll man up soon enough and start digging in mud and eating sand.  Until then I enjoy finishing his crafts.  

Turkey Hands

1. Traced his chubby little hands a couple of times on a brown paper bag

2. Let Mr. F and Cousin go crazy with paint

 3. I forgot to take pictures (because I had paint every where and guess who was screaming?) of a few steps...Let the paint dry and cut out the hands
4. Paint cardboard toilet paper roll.  Let dry
5. Tape/Glue paper hands together to look like feathers
6. Tape/Glue painted toilet paper roll to the "feathers"
7. Draw adorable face on toilet paper roll

8. Adorable!

Good Old Fashioned Banana Bread

Geez, guess I've been MIA lately.  It's that crazy time of year I wish would last forever but unfortunately, time  seems to disappear.  I can't believe Mr. F's birthday party was already two weeks ago! We've been running around like crazy for the last month.  Today we finally slowed down.  The husband spent the weekend at the F1 race so we spent today getting things finished around the house and making banana bread. I love banana bread but can't ever seem to get the whole banana situation right.  I usually have time to make the bread when the bananas aren't ripe enough or are beyond ripe and being swarmed by fruit flies. Today however, the bananas crowding my counter were perfect.  Mr. F was in desperate need of attention (as opposed to every other second of every other day) so I sat on the floor with him and we smashed bananas together.  Perfect little helper until I was ready to use the bananas. Then we went into full of scream mode.  Luckily, I had the baby gemini so I was "holding" him and cooking.  Gemini=Genius 

Banana Bread Recipe (adapted from Better Homes & Gardens)

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 melted butter

As many bananas as you have! At least 1 1/2 cups smashed 

1/4 cup walnuts

Recipe:
~The original recipe has at least 5 steps.  Mine...
~Mix everything together
~Poor into a greased bread pan
~Bake at 350 for about 55 minutes, slather on the butter, and eat up!

Birthday Pancakes

These were pretty delicious pancakes.  Definitely not your everyday pancake but pretty good for the morning you are officially another year older.  Some how the sprinkles make your butt feel just a little bit smaller and your wrinkles a little less prominent.

Ingredients:

pancake
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup funfetti cake mix (yes, use funfetti!)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/2 vanilla

syrup/ frosting
milk
powdered sugar
sprinkles

Recipe:
~Mix all the ingredients for the pancake batter together.  Don't lick the bowl. It looks like cake batter but it's not.

~Melt a little butter in a skillet and make pancakes.  Difficult, right?

~The hard part is actually the syrup/frosting.  No matter how many times I make this kind of frosting I feel like I never do it right and I have no idea how to measure it.  I usually end up with about a gallon of frosting and an empty milk container before I get it right.  However, this is supposed to be easy so mix powdered sugar and milk until you get the desired consistency :)

~Pour over pancakes and top with sprinkles, a candle, and sing happy birthday!

Huge Family Photo

 Let me start off by complaining.  This project is not as easy as Infarrantly Creative makes it look.  They said this project was going to cost $20 and was "super easy." Ha!  It was neither.
I did start off the way they told me to.  I drove 30 miles to Staples (note...every other office supply store does this too! Don't drive 30 miles, go to Office Max) to get an engineered print.  This was pretty cool.  I expected the picture to be pixelated but it wasn't.  It was stunningly huge though.  I ordered the 24x36 print for $4.99. Fat rolls zoomed in?  Of course, why not?
Then at a particularly enjoyable trip to Home Depot I bought a 4 ft x 4 ft piece of plywood.  It cost $18. Yes, I'm already over the promised $20 and I haven't even begun to mess up.  Next, they said to find a frame I liked and to project the shape and trace it.  Apparently, you need a classroom grade projector to actually be able to make this work.  When our projector fell short it gave me some cool advice on how to make my own.  I made my own following their instructions and again, failure.  After two hours of trying to make this work I (and my mother-in-law...aka partner in all things crafty) decided to draw our frame.  As you can see it took us 4 tries to get this right too.  Another hour in and we had it!  Thankfully, my father-in-law owns all things tool related and he cut and sanded the frame.  He made this look easy and it took him about 20 minutes. For me this would have been a total disaster and I would have ended up at Home Depot at least two more times.

I drove home with my new frame stabbing me in the side because I picked a rainy day to do this project across town.  Miraculously, I made it home without being impaled and decided for a fresh start. I painted the frame with some left over paint and was ready to easily apply the picture and be done.  Again, Ha! The paint went on easily and I got over confident.  First, this part is my fault, I used Mod Podge (what the hell is that stuff?  As far as I can tell, really expensive Elmer's Glue) to apply the picture to the frame.  Mistake. The picture immediately bubbled up.  I threw the paintbrush. The next day I went to Office Max and asked for an engineered print.  Yes, they can do them!  BUT, if you are going there be prepared for incompetent print services employees.  I had to tell the nice (or not) girl behind the counter how to print.  Seriously?  Isn't that her job?  Anyway, saved time and money.

This time I used spray adhesive.  Yes, much better except the husband decided it was going to dry clear so he sprayed it all over the board.  Doesn't dry clear.  He convinces me that it's savable we just need to use the Mod Podge and paint over the whole picture like the instructions explain.  Again, failure.  Mod Podge makes the paper bubble up immediately!  I still haven't figured out how or why people use that stuff.  I may have thrown the paint brush again.  Then I repainted the frame.

Third time. 

This time the husband went to Office Max and the same lovely employee tells him they can only print in color.  Apparently, they own the only printer in the world that doesn't print black and white!  So he finds another wonderful employee to help him.  Again, explaining exactly how to print something.  Third time was a charm.  Well a slightly imperfect charm but a charm none the less.We sprayed the back of the picture and used spray fixative for the top instead of Mod Podge.  The paper still bubbled but you have to be really close to see it.  We put the frame very high up. 

I'm pleased with the outcome but leery of "super easy" projects found on Pinterest. 

Happy First Birthday Mr. F!

I should have done this post yesterday but I was exhausted.  So today...

Happy Birthday Mr. F! It has been a roller coaster year but we made it!  This time last year I was so anxious to take you home and start our new lives.  As it turned out I rushed things a bit.  You weren't quite ready to come home and I had no idea what I was doing.  After starving you for a day or two we were back in the hospital and I was a total mess.  Live and learn?  I'm so grateful that you were ok and that some milk finally came in for you. While we were in the hospital one of the nurses told me that you really liked to be held and were not happy when they put you back in your bed.  I knew then you were going to be a "mama's boy."  As it turns out you ARE a mama's boy and I love that you are able to come to me for comfort (admittedly, it would be nice if you loved someone else sometimes, especially your father!).  Thankfully, we celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas surrounded by our family and you started sleeping though the night! Regardless of any differences we may have had or will have, THANK YOU Mr. F for sleeping through the night in your own bed at 8 weeks.  You have no idea what this did for everyone's sanity. January was a tough month. We spent a lot of time with Grandma and she was even able to hold you one last time.  The last thing she said to me was that she loved us. Always remember this sweet boy. In February I turned 30 (yikes!) and you were 3 months old.  You hated tummy time almost as much as you eventually hated crawling. By April you were sitting up and we made our first plane trip to NY.  I had a panic attack (Xanax and the NY firemen that bought me a drink were beautiful things) on the plane but you were great. In July you got your first teeth and started to crawl. You were one of those babies that wanted to walk before your crawled and you almost did it.  Every time you crawled for the first month you screamed.  It was a fun time for all involved.  By 10 months your were up and running. These last two months have been really interesting as you've learned to say a few words, gained some independence, and even showed Cousin C who's boss a time or two :) I love you so much sweet boy and can't wait to see all the amazing things you're going to do.                                   

 Today was an almost perfect day.  Husband stayed home from work and we celebrated Mr. F from sunrise to sunset. Most nights I'm ready for bed time but everyone morning (provided it's after 7 am) I love waking up and listening to him talk to himself.  Unfortunately, he woke up sick and didn't get to enjoy his birthday as much as we did.  We started the day with birthday pancakes.  Really we started the day with cake in the shape of pancakes.  If I didn't have such refined taste buds and didn't require mimosas and breakfast tacos on my birthday this would definitely be my choice.  I mean cake for breakfast, yes, please! After breakfast we stayed in our pjs and played outside on some of the awesome new birthday gifts.  Again, I'm not sure who had more fun? Husband took him for a ride at the park and climbed all over the place with him.  I wish we were independently wealthy and could spend this much time together all the time.  That's not unreasonable is it? After a much needed nap we had the whole family over for dinner and more cake. Yes, please! Over all I think it was a pretty decent first birthday.

Freedom...

Let me be cliche...today I'm thankful for our freedom to elect our leaders. At least kind of. The whole Electoral College thing real screws with us but for the most part our votes sort of count. Most of us take our freedom and our ability to vote for granted but I've had the opportunity to see places where people don't have these awesome opportunities and we really are fortunate. I live in a state where (regardless of affiliation) my vote doesn't really get a voice one way or the other but I believe it's still important to have my say. I took Mr. F for his first voting experience and he definitely had his say! Glad we didn't get kicked out. It will be interesting to watch him develop his own political opinions over the next 18 years and to try really hard not to influence his views. I HATED when kids would tell me how awful a candidate is/was but couldn't tell me why. I hope I'm able to guide him to think for himself.

Friends & Family

Yesterday was Mr. F's 1st birthday party and it was great! We were surrounded by so many friends and family members that the hole left by the one person that wasn't here didn't feel so heartbreaking. I'm so grateful for all the people she left in our lives and all the relationships she nurtured for so long. We had over 50 people stop by yesterday to see the little man kind of dig into his cake. I don't use this word lightly as it's cliche but we really are "blessed" to have so many great people in our lives.

Missing Mom

I hate that she wasn't here today. She missed a perfect day. A run/walk in her honor this morning and Mr. F's first birthday party this afternoon. I hope she would have been proud and I know she would have been honored to see all of the people that still think of her daily and love her. I miss her everyday and feel less of a person without her but today I'm grateful for the 29 years I was able to spend with her. I love you and miss you so much Mom.

Perfect Life Of...

Today I'm thankful for amazing photographers like my friend at Sweet Fix Photography.  How do they do what they do?  She made me look photogenic, my child angelic, and my husband adoring! After looking at this picture I realized my life is perfect!  Mr. F never screams.  I never get stressed. My husband loves getting dressed up and smiling.  When I see this photo in 20 years this is exactly how I'll remember this time in our lives :)

Sister

This is a sappy one...
Today and everyday I am thankful for my sister.  We have been best friends for years and get lost without each other.  I'm still not convinced we came from the same genes as she is infinitely kind, loving, and generous (and always late). She is the eternal positive thinker and finds joy in the littlest things, which makes for really long shopping trips ;) while constantly taking care of everyone else.  Sister is another of the 3 people in the world Mr. F loves and he loves her dearly.  She gives him hugs, kisses, and anything he wants.  Unfortunately, for her husband she seems to have adopted Mr. F and me as part of her household.  She never asks for anything but always feeds us, shops for us, and welcomes us into her chaos. She never judges, at least out loud, and is always forgiving.  I'm never as kind to her (fatal personality flaw) and yet she loves me anyway and most of the time accepts me for the B I can be.

Sister, like my mother, always puts her needs behind those of other's.  That is what brought her home to us this time.  When our mom got sick again (don't read this if you're under 18 or a prude...FUCK CANCER!) she immediately got on a plane, left her kids and came home to hold all of our hands and hearts.  By the time she booked her plane back to Kentucky she had made the decision to move her entire life back home to be here for Mom, Dad, and me. As soon as she, my brother-in-law, and her crazy sweet babies were here things were right again.  We knew that whatever the future held we would be ok because we had each other.  Since my mom passed away we have become inseparable. We both have such a huge hole in our hearts right now and being together eases the pain.  Our mom gave us to each other in hopes that we would learn from the other and I have learned; what a loving, forgetful, caring, compassionate, forgiving, generous, late, silly, and amazing person she is.  I will never be able to express my gratitude fully for all she has done for me so today I just say thank you.
Love you Sister
.

November...

Oh November...easily one of the best months of the year. It could have come a little sooner for me because October was really getting on my nerves.
Obviously, I'm a fairly negative person most of the time. This November I'm going to attempt to not only be positive but to be thankful too! What a concept? Admittedly, this will be tough. Luckily, today was a great day so I have a whole list of things to be thankful for. I'm only going to list a few though just in case I get ungrateful later in the month, I'll have a reserve.
Today I'm grateful for family that (finally!) lives close by and a very fashionable mother-in-law.
The husband and I have been in Texas for a while and through all sorts of strange events finally have almost all of our family close by. I think we probably resemble the Griswolds on occasion (I'm still waiting on his Christmas bonus to get the pool) but I'm grateful for each of them. At least a little bit. One I am very grateful for is my m-i-l.
My m-i-l is probably cooler than your m-i-l. For real. She is one of the 3 people in this world Mr. F loves, she can make anything, she owns everything (seriously), she is kind and generous but above all she is fashionable! I can ask her anything about clothing and she'll shoot straight without making me cry. She shops at my favorite store, Anthropolgie and is better dressed than most people. I know, you don't believe me. No one has a good m-i-l, or at least that's what TV has led me to believe, but I do and today I'm grateful for her.
What are you grateful for?

Green Bean Painting

My kid will eat just about anything.  I made all of his baby food and experimented with some interesting concoctions such as my black beans, bananas, and yogurt surprise! He ate it all.  But then he started eating the same foods we eat and I got lazy.  If his gums weren't quite up to our weekly pizza I "supplemented" with organic squeezy packets.  If we're not eating healthy at least he is, right? I can't tell you how much money I've spent on those squeeze packets. They are $1.70 a pouch! Seriously?  Mr. F can eat 4 in one sitting.  I refuse to pay more for his serving size than I do for mine. I had to break him (and me) of the addiction.  So I bought the Beaba reusable squeeze thingy.  Thinking, I'm a genius.  So I bought a huge pack of green beans, steamed them, pureed them and filled my $15 reusable squeezy...and he promptly spit them back at me. Great.  Will try again with fruit? So I had this huge container of green beans that he clearly wasn't going to eat so we painted with them instead.  

I wasn't sure how he was going to take to this activity as he hates, yes hates, anything mushy to touch his fingers.  The first time he touched playdough he gagged.  What's wrong with this kid? However, he dug right in today.  Unfortunately, he didn't try to eat the paint. 

Think he'll want this piece when he's older?

Yay!  Using his hands!

Survived!

Dumplings...and I don't mean Mr. F

Girls Night.  Great Night.  J & H came over for "Asian" night.  I made Alton Brown's potsticker dumplings, J made "Asian Pasta Salad?" and H made an "Asian Salad." 

It was a fun cooking night, minus Mr. F screaming in the background and good talk time.  I'm not sure what to do about Mr. F?  He is completely attached and isn't interested wants absolutely nothing to do with anyone who isn't me.  It seems endearing...to a point.  Currently, I'm working on not killing myself.  On Monday the daycare let him scream for 2 hours before they politely said, "get your kid before we throw him." Suggestions?  I'm at a loss and tired of Everyone saying I'm just spoiling him.  No.  This kid is literally minutes away from a panic attack at 11 months!  

Anyway, somehow I was able to cook some pretty good food...

Ingredients:

1 lb ground pork

1/2 cup chopped green onions

4 tbsp chopped red bell pepper

2 eggs

4 tbsp ketchup

2 tsp mustard

4 tsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp brown sugar

3 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

30 to 40 wonton papers

3 to 4 tbsp veggie oil for frying

1 1/3 chicken stock, divided 

Recipe

~ Mix the first 11 ingredients together (I love recipes like this :))

~ Fill wonton papers (about 1 tbsp) and fold however you want...will make a lot!

~Brush pan (NOT non-stick) with veggie oil and fry 6-10 wontons for 3 minutes...don't mess with these!!!

~Drizzle 1/3 cup chicken stock, cover, slightly lower heat, and cover for 3 minutes

~Repeat and enjoy :)

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