My little obsession

For someone who hated to cook, it's weird that I am obsessed with the Food Network, but it's true. I love that channel, and I can't get enough of it.

My favorites are The Barefoot Contessa and Everyday Italian- these women cook stuff that are right up my alley.

Oh, Ina. I love your house and kitchen. (so much so, that I patterned a lot of our current house on her house in the hamptons)

She's the Italian Goddess as they say. She is.

My favorites this week were the:

1. Roasted Potato/Leek Soup:

All you have to do is chop up some leeks, potato (and I added broccoli), roast it on a pan with olive oil and salt, once they are brown, put it in the blender with chicken broth, add garlic to your taste... and you've got a delicious and very healthy meal. [the roasting is great and adds a lot more flavor to the soup]

2. Orange Fennel Salad:

This was the oddest thing I've seen in a while because I had no idea what a fennel bulb was... well, I went to the store and bought it and made this, and we have had it 3 nights in the past two weeks. It's delicious, easy, unusual, and really healthy.

Basically, you cut up some oranges (cut them in wedges... it's kind of hard to describe- like they look when you buy mandarin wedges from a can? Cut the skin off around the whole orange so there is no white part, and then you go around the orange cutting the little pieces out of the chaff? Is that how you spell it?)

Cut the fennel bulb into strips. Put them with the oranges. A little bit of olive oil, salt...

Hmmm.

And- finally our big discovery: Kosher Salt. I've heard about it, but never used it. It makes everything taste SO much better? Who knew? What is in the stuff?

If you put Kosher Salt on fresh green beans with olive oil and roast them in a pan for 5 minutes, they are DELICIOUS. So delicious, that even MADDIE loves them!!

Probably watching all this TV is not good for me, but I like to think that I'm learning a lot? I have to say that Maddie eats like a champ. She no longer shy's away from vegetables. She ate the soup, salad, and everything inbetween. She even likes Pecorino Romano (pretty strong cheese)... so I think if you make it tasty, they will come around.

Our Secret

Here is our secret to getting your newborn to sleep in the night:

1. Get really really tired
2. Don't have enough strength to get up when you hear him/her calling for you.

I know this sounds horribble, but I think in the past I've been too overly anxious in getting up when I hear Emilie waking up in the night. I assumed that she was hungry, and I would feed her.

But, for the past week, I have been so so so tired, that although I hear her moving, and starting to make sounds, I just can't get up. I am still in dream land. By this time, Emilie is done waiting for me, and puts herself back to sleep. It has been perfect.

So, for 4 nights in a row now, she has slept from 10:30-6:45. It has been life changing. Thank you Emilie.

Of course, it will change tonight, but I have been appreciating it thus far!

As for other tricks that I really think have help our kids go to sleep:
1. Get some type of noise maker (we have a air purifier) so it provides background noise and blocks out all noises going on... it has been great for Maddie so she doesn't hear Emilie wake up in the middle of the night. And- it is great for our room so Emilie's little sounds don't drive us crazy (she sleeps in our room so far) and vice versa.
2. Rev up feedings until night time
3. Create a little nest wherever they sleep (big cribs are scary)
4. Swaddling
5. Don't let them sleep to much during the day (of course let them sleep, but not to let them think that day time is night time)
6. Bigger babies (I really think bigger babies just sleep well. So, I guess that's a benefit to having a baby that weighs more...
7. They don't really sleep "through" the night until they get older... some people swear by 3 mo, some people 6 mo... so far, ours started sleeping pretty well from 3-6 mos
8. "EASY"- Eat, Activity, Sleep, (You time when they're sleeping)... I can't remember which book this came from, but I swear by it. I am always in this cycle every three hours.

And, luck. It's just luck of the draw. I really think I have been lucky/blessed. It's really more just the baby? Not really sure. But, I think some babies are just easier than others...

Fri Morning

When Steve started his company, he started the tradition of throwing barbeque's every so often. Since then, they have become a tradition. I asked him why they don't just cater (because it's actually cheaper b/c he goes way out of control), and he said "because people were disappointed, and they wanted to have barbeque." Give the people what they want!

So... every so often, our house has cans of tomato sauce, ribs, avocados, salmon, potatoes... it's a mess. The entire night (while we're trying to sleep) our house smells like barbeque b/c he is cooking the ribs so they are "oh so tender" the next day.

This morning he woke up at some insane time and started getting the feast ready. He backed up the truck and started loading stuff...and of course little Maddie had to follow.



Maddie is daddy's girl for sure. She has him wrapped around her little finger every day that passes!

Just to show you how much Steve loves her, he dreamt the other night that Maddie was kidnapped, and responded by killing 17 people. Insane? Yes. But, that's how thick blood goes I guess??

Here are the cuties:

In love, right?

It's compost time!

Growing up, people in my neighborhood didn't recycle, and I never heard about compost before I went to college. But, now that we have our own little 4 x 4 backyard, I am so excited to compost!!! I know nothing about it other than what I've read, so I have a lot to learn...

I've already started collecting our "greens, " (vegetables and fruit waste) and now I'm in search for some sort of bin rather than just throwing it in a pile.

For some reason, it feels good to be self sufficient and not waste as much as we do. And- the science nerd in me loves to see how nature takes care of itself... now I just need to find a place to buy worms. (I've heard this helps a lot?)

Are there any composters out there? Do you have any advice for this novice?

Moments that make you love your life

Emilie spends 10-20 minutes a day laughing and smiling at us when we get her going. Usually it involves some sort of blowing on her feet or tummy- but it is pretty darn cute.

Yesterday Maddie saw some of my pictures packed away and wanted to play with the frames. I'm not sure why- but she really loved the frames and photos. She played with them for about 15 minutes while I was cleaning around the house. When I came back, I found her folding her arms with her head down and she says "Heavenly Father, thank you for pictures. Amen." So adorable.

Go see it!

Saw it. Loved it. Go now!!!

(Yes, you've seen/heard this script a thousand times, but the writing is hilarious and the acting was pretty good. If you're in for a light comedy, you'll have a good night. And yes, Mr. Efron is nice to look at- he has better hair than most girls I know!)

Hats!

What's better than going to Peru yourself? Getting an awesome hat from friends who went to Peru!!

Mmm? You want a smile?

Ok!!! Cheese :0

Thanks B and C...

Ups and Downs

This past week was probably the hardest in my parenting life. It all started with Emilie getting shots and screaming for 5-6 hours in the afternoon with Maddie not taking a nap. It completely wiped me out. Every muscle of my body ached. Steve came home and thought I had chemo.

The next day was probably about the same- so for the next couple of days, I was trying to recover. Steve came home at 3:30 one of these days to let me take a break, and I went and wandered the mall on Saturday for 2 hours.

Nothing will prepare you for parenthood until you go through it yourself, but I don't think I've appreciated my parents (or any parents for that matter) as much as I should have until now!!!

It definitely makes me appreciate the happier times :) (like now when they are both sleeping!!)

On other notes- after 3 weeks of planning to go to Disneyland and San Diego, we have decided to do something completely different. Crowds + heat does not really equal relaxation, so we are looking for something different. Maybe renting a house in the middle of nowhere on a lake? If you have any suggestions, send them our way!

Easter!!

We had lots of fun on Easter and I'm sad that it's over. We started the day out with putting Easter dresses on the girls and taking Easter photos before they got dirty...


As the days pass, we are falling more in love with Emilie. She sings all the time(?). I've never heard a baby sing before, but we can get her to sing (kind of like cooing) for 3-5 minutes. I need to get it on video...


Here's the little "princess." In order to put any clothes on her, I have to tell her it's a "princess shirt" or "princess pants," and then she'll cooperate. I'm trying to ease her out of this princess obsession (into something more normal!), so we've started to read Alice and Wonderland.


Experimenting with photo positions in our house.

After church, we got ready for a little Easter egg hunt and feast...

Really adorable!!! (I didn't make them! Good job H)

Since Maddie knows nothing about Easter, we've been talking about it for the past week, and I think it finally clicked. She FREAKED out when she saw that we were finally going on the famous egg hunt.

She put those eggs in her basket like nobodys business.

A quick shot of the three girls... (steve was back at home getting the food ready... mmm. lamb is so good).

Hope you had a great Easter!

Getting ready for Easter

Next to Halloween, Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I love the colors, the meaning, the springtime, the eggs! My mom sent us this easter bunny house to decorate and we went to town:


the blue bunny that you see on the right is now gone. i wonder where it went?


While preparing for Easter, our house has basically been one big musical. this is the star singer. she specializes in loud solos featuring the rare yellow piano.


um- mom, stop bothering me.

oh wait- let me me pose for the shot.

Refinancing

I haven't posted in a while because we have been trying to get our house ready for an appraiser to give us the big number on what he/she thinks our house is worth in this market so that we can refinance our loans and hopefully get a lower monthly payment and lock in... (that was a really long sentence).

But- the big things we have done is get sod in our front and back yards, put in the lights in the ceilings, and paint paint paint. The windows are DONE!!! HORRAY. It was a major effort, and I can't look too close because then I'll be too hard on myself. But, I have to remember, I'm not a professional... so they can't be perfect.

On other fronts- Maddie got a scooter that she has made 2 major wipeouts on already. (it will make her stronger!)

Emilie is an angel baby- she is sleeping around 6 hours a night, and basically has the cutest smile plastered on her face most of the time. (ok- she does cry, but she is adorable). We think she may be a talker because she can carry on a 1-2 minute cooing conversation with us about 4 times a day.

We are planning for a vacation. It may not be Greece, New Zealand, or Africa (all on our list before we die), but it will be so great. Seriously, staying in a hotel 3 blocks down sounds fabulous (if it has a pool)....