A Smorgasbord of Happenings

We have had a really random weekend. Travis taught the first of two weekend classes this past weekend. This meant that he was in class from 2-10 Friday afternoon and 9-5 Saturday. Basically, it meant he was in town but out of town at the same time. I, mean, really… I saw him after I had already gone to bed Friday and Sam went over 24 hours without seeing his Dada- and he was just down the road. It was crazy! It wasn’t really bad though. Thankfully, we got to eat lunch with him Saturday and it was nice out so we played outside at SEBTS while waiting on him to break for lunch.

I had mentioned in my previous Project 365 post that Sam had “the croup.” He is STILL coughing! However, he has always been in a good mood- Praise God! It was really warm here Saturday and Sunday so he was able to spend a little bit of time (read 1 hour each day) outside getting some sun and fresh air into his lungs. On Saturday, I took his bicycle that my grandpa found/fixed/cleaned up to the seminary for him to practice riding. I liked the comfort in knowing that if he randomly took off peddling, he wouldn’t wind up in a road. HA HA!! He had a blast playing with his bike. He managed to get it going a couple of times but I think the cobblestone posed a bit of a tough ground to ride on. Oops!!

From January 2011

After we ate lunch, we came home for naptime. After naptime, I made a no-sew reusable shopping bag from an old t-shirt that I never wear but still like. I found the idea here. Basically, you take a t-shirt…

From January 2011

cut a few things, tie a few bows and…voila… a shopping bag!!

From January 2011

We tested it Sunday night at Target and it is really sturdy and VERY comfy to carry. I like it and will definitely make more.

I also mentioned previously that Sam took pictures with my “good” camera. I finally have them online so below are my favorites.

From January 2011

From January 2011

From January 2011

Since Sam is sick and the medicine he is on suppresses his immune system, we felt it was best to stay home from church Sunday. Therefore, we had a fairly quiet day at home. It was kind of nice in that I felt like we had a one day weekend since Travis taught all day Saturday. It was kind of not nice in that I felt a little “lost” all day because we didn’t go to church. It was weird. At one point, Sam climbed up in his bed and covered his friends up. It was cute…

From January 2011

From January 2011

He never took a nap but he did lay there for awhile singing and talking to his friends.

Today has been very uneventful. Tomorrow starts February and that makes me happy because that is my birthday month!! WOO HOO for birthdays!!!!

See ya next month!!
Steph

Sam takes pictures with my DSLR!!

Once I upload the pictures from my camera to my computer, I will actually post a blog with more details. However, I wanted to share this video so I will give a bit of background…

Yesterday, I made a reusable shopping bag from an old t-shirt that I never wear. When I was finished, I took pictures (shocker) and while I was just goofing off online, Sam crawled up in the chair beside me, took the lens cap off, turned the camera on, and started snapping away. Some of them were really cool- most were very blurry. I will post them tomorrow, hopefully. Anyway, I thought I would make a video of our little photographer. It is cute.

*Side note- sorry the music is so loud. I was standing right beside my laptop and was listening to my “favorite songs” playlist. In case you are wondering, the song being played is “Grace” by a group from SC called Silars Bald. I LOVE their music and LOVE that my best friend, Lauren, was able to hook me up with several CDs while I was living in Alabama for college. Thanks, Lauren!!!

Steph

Sam was in the paper!

Sam was in the paper for his Halloween costume. He was in the Wake Weekly the first week of November. I FINALLY cleaned off our attic stairs today and located my copy of the paper. Travis snipped the title page (?) and Sam’s picture out so that I could scan it and digitally save it. I thought I would post it on here as well since the vast majority of you don’t live up here. FYI- The Wake Weekly is the newspaper for Wake Forest, NC. 🙂 I still think he is the cutest “Sam”wich ever!!

From November 2010

Steph

Project 365 (Week 4)

From Project 365 (2011)

1/22/11 Church Directory Pictures- This was a marriage & family first!!

From Project 365 (2011)

1/23/11 Sam was apparently punishing his Elliott Moose for some horrible deed by squishing him with the pitcher plunger!

From Project 365 (2011)

1/24/11 Sam’s attempt at helping with laundry

From Project 365 (2011)

1/25/11 Sam rolling out our first ever Whole Wheat Pizza dough. It was delicious!

From Project 365 (2011)

1/26/11 Sam’s fish made at MOPS

From Project 365 (2011)

1/27/11 Canvas prints painted for my parents for my Aunt and Uncle’s birthdays

From Project 365 (2011)

1/28/11 Sam at the doctor’s office. You can’t tell by looking at him but, he has “the croup”- his first time. His “barking” (aka coughing) the previous night had been HORRIBLE!

Steph

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

is SO YUMMY! I made my first pizza crust tonight. Well, actually, my bread maker made the dough and then Sam and I shaped it, dressed it, and baked it. It was very yummy. However, next time I will make two pizzas out of one dough batch- my pizza stone is small (so it fits in my toaster) and so it only makes 12 inch pizzas. I had WAY TOO MUCH dough for that small of a pizza. Oh well… live and learn!

From January 2011

Sam really liked using playing with the rolling pin.

From January 2011

I rolled the edges up to form a barrier for the sauce. I wish you could see how thick the dough is in the middle. It would help put into perspective how gargantuanly thick the crust is.

From January 2011

I caught Sam snitching some Canadian bacon.

From January 2011

Our Hawaiian pizza, fully dressed, ready to be baked.

From January 2011

Sam then snitched cheese. Please ignore the bed head- he had just woke up from his nap.

From January 2011

From January 2011

Sam was trying to give Peeper a hug. Peeper was trying to eat Sam’s cheese droppings. Have I mentioned lately that our dog is lactose intolerant? Yeah, this might prove “fun” later on tonight.

From January 2011

The finished pizza. Our house smelled FANTASTIC!!

From January 2011

It’s not the greatest picture, but I was trying to convey just how THICK the bread was on this pizza. Ha Ha!!

It was good. We all enjoyed it. Travis and I are in agreement that next time I will make 2 pizzas out of one batch- I guess that means I need to make one more label for my new menu. Hee Hee!! If you don’t know what I am talking about, read the post below. When you are done with that one, watch the latest Sam video.

Steph

My New Menu Project

I saw this idea from The Amazing Mess and thought it would help me out a bunch.
1- It gets my menu off my computer where I can “conveniently” forget to check it
2- It keeps me from having a large post-it note with the menu written on it that a certain two year old enjoys pulling down and doodling all over… sometimes to the point that I can’t read what I wrote.
3- It helps Travis know what we are eating that week and make suggestions for future weeks.
4- It helps me satisfy my desire to craft.
5- It helps me with my desire to have a yellow and red kitchen.

Of course, numbers 4 and 5 are the most important reasons why I did this. Everything else was just lagniappe. Ha Ha!

Anyway, our menu is now displayed on our fridge for all the world to see! I printed out labels with the stuff that I have made since Sam was born (yes, I’ve kept record- on my computer) that was successful AND that he ate, if applicable. I stuck the labels on cute scrapbook paper, adhered magnets to them, and then organized them on the fridge. Now, when I make my menu, I just move the magnets around to the appropriate day/group and it is finished! If there is something that Travis wants to eat, he just pulls that food out of its group and places it below the current week’s menu. Then I will know to include that in next week. I LOVE my new menu and have had a ton of fun doing this.

Here are various pictures of the final product…

From January 2011

This week’s menu…kind of. I have since made a few changes when I realized I didn’t have any extra hamburger meat to do the Mini Shepherd Pies. Bummer!

From January 2011

All of my labels. Yes, there are a lot but I have the following categories: Bread, Breakfast, Crock Pot, Dutch Oven, Main Meals, Sandwiches/Wraps, Side Dishes, Snacks/Desserts. As I do new stuff I will add labels to the appropriate categories. However, I really think that is going to mainly apply to just the Bread, Dutch Oven, and Snacks/Desserts categories. I pretty much recycle through all the others.

From January 2011

Just one last view of the entire front of our fridge/freezer.

Steph

Sam and his moose

Sam LOVED playing with the ride-on reindeer (think Horse Head on a Stick) this Thanksgiving/Christmas. It is my dad’s and when you squeezed the reindeer’s ear, he sung Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer- apparently that is my dad’s favorite Christmas song. HA!! Anyway, this morning, Sam got creative and “rode” his moose around pretending it was like the reindeer. He had so much fun doing this!

Steph

Project 365- Week 3

1/15/11 Homemade Oreos for our church’s outreach to new students at the SEBTS Orientation Fair. Travis named them “Carolina Blue Come Go to Rome With Us” cookies.

From Project 365 (2011)

1/16/11 Sam and I goofing off after church. Sam had been trying to put a sweater vest on backwards.

From Project 365 (2011)

1/17/11 My Dad wearing his “plucked chicken” shirt because the Atlanta Falcons lost their Super Bowl playoff game on Sunday. He is actually wearing his Falcons t-shirt but it is wrong side out. (Technically, I didn’t Travis nor I took this picture- however, I want to use it to remember this week so that is why it is included.)

From Project 365 (2011)

1/18/11 This ridiculously good and ridiculously easy cheerios snack Sam and I put together this morning.

From Project 365 (2011)

1/19/11 Bedtime Bible Story

From Project 365 (2011)

1/20/11 Whole Wheat Bread from my bread machine. The house smells wonderful and this was the first time the top didn’t collapse on me.

From Project 365 (2011)

1/21/11 My first King Cake and it was made completely from scratch! I doubt I will ever buy one in a store again.

From Project 365 (2011)

Steph

My first from scratch King Cake

I have always wanted to try to make a King Cake. (If you want to know what a King Cake is, click on the different colored words in the previous sentence.) However, I’ve heard they are somewhat difficult to make because the bread gets dry, or something just doesn’t taste quite right. Well, after today, I doubt I will buy a store made one again- mine was DELICIOUS!!!

I got the recipe from AllRecipes.com and you can find it here. It utilized my bread machine so I thought this would be a fairly simple one to try. I put everything needed to make the dough in my bread machine and let it do its thing.

After the dough was made, I rolled it out flat on the counter and then put a cinnamon sugar mixture and some strawberry cream cheese all over it. The recipe didn’t call for cream cheese but Travis and I like fillings other than just cinnamon sugar in our King Cakes and therefore, that is why I put it in there. Then I rolled it up and formed a ring. I don’t think I rolled it out as big as the recipe intended for me to because my ring expanded while baking and met itself in the middle. However, for smaller king cakes this is not an uncommon thing. This is what it looked like after it baked…

From January 2011

While it had been baking, I made the glaze to go on top. After it cooled slightly, I poured that over my King Cake and then sprinkled Mardi Gras colored sugar sprinkles on top of that.

From January 2011

I then had to be more patient than I think I ever have been in my life because I wanted to wait until Travis got home before cutting into it and trying it. I managed to wait and so we all split one piece before we went to eat supper.

From January 2011

It was moist and amazing. It tasted just like store bought ones- only fresher!! If any of my friends want to make one, I HIGHLY recommend the recipe I linked to above. I don’t know how it would turn out if the cream cheese weren’t added but I am assuming it would still be good- just a bit drier.

Our little Boudreaux LOVED it!!

From January 2011

I will be making another one closer to my birthday and it will be my birthday cake. I then think I might make one and decorate it for Valentine’s Day for a V-Day brunch we will be attending. Then I think it will be awhile before I make another- they are super delish but super rich and it is probably a good thing that King Cake “season” is only for a few weeks each year. What is ridiculous is now knowing how easy AND CHEAP it was to make and knowing how expensive they can be down in NOLA- mail order ones easily run $40!!! Wow! Maybe I should start taking orders. Hee Hee!! 🙂

Steph

Sam’s Latest Creation

From Sam's Creations

Can you tell what Sam prefers to do with crayons? HA HA HA!!!

Honestly, I am just glad to see him “coloring” a bit more- he used to just put one mark on a page and be done. At least this latest one is colorful. This is what he colored at MOPS this morning.

Steph