Sneak Peek

We had James' six month pictures taken a few weeks ago and we're on pins and needles waiting to see the whole session next week.  But in the meantime here is our sneak peek of pictures!

We're thinking that this might be our favorite sneak peek so far!  We love Erin and if you're in the area or want to come into the area we highly recommend her for pictures for all ages!  She also has a new venture called Twist for tweens and teens so that the Erin brand can follow you throughout your child's entire growing up years!  And she has a new location opening up this summer, The Cottage, where she can take pictures if you're out of town or just want a new location!

You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream!

James' six month birthday was a crazy day with Charlotte having school that day (school picture day no less), then naps, then almost immediately having Mrs Erin come and do pictures.  Needless to say, after all that we were exhausted.  But we had promised Charlotte that if she waited patiently while James got his pictures taken and then cooperated with Mrs Erin that we would go and get ice cream after dinner.  She was so excited and was even more excited when she asked if James and I were coming and we told her YES!

There was only a little bit of drama about whether Daddy filled her bowl too high.  Case in point, she had almost as much as Jason did piled high with gummy worms and marshmallows as well!  And she was determined to eat every bite!  Thankfully she was tired enough when we got home to still go straight to sleep but Momma will be in charge of making her cup the next time that we go!

Recipe Wednesday - Baby Food Peas, Carrots, and Sweet Potatoes

When I had Charlotte people would mention making my own baby food and I would almost convulse at the thought of it.  So Charlotte ate 100% store bought baby food and while I did try to buy organic most of the times, often they didn't have as good a variety of combinations in the organic section so I would get non-organic.

But for some reason I had an itch to make my own baby food for James.  I'm not sure why since I have four times less time as I did when I had Charlotte but, regardless, I decided to try it.  A well meaning family friend gave me The Baby and Toddler Cookbook when James was born and I finally put it to good use once James turned six months old.

On my first baby food outing I made sweet pea's and carrots.  Then, over the weekend I made sweet potatoes.  Not the most fun baby food but they have to start with the basics.  I did make a run to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to get some needed items -- namely a steamer basket and ice cube trays -- but other than that I already had everything that I needed.

I think the cookbook will come in more handy when I'm trying to think of new things to feed James but since this was pretty basic I just needed to know how long I needed to steam this stuff since I had never steamed anything before.

I was very happy with the end product (even though James still isn't a fan of the pea's) and especially with how easy it was.  It took me less than an hour to make both of these batches and I got 24 cubes of baby food out of it.  I'm sure that it will take less time when I'm more confident with what I'm doing and don't want to do one step, slowly, at a time to make sure I'm doing everything right!

And as far as storage goes, the cookbook that I have says that homemade food can be kept in the fridge for 3 days in an airtight container and in the freezer for 3 months.  If you are defrosting frozen food defrost in the fridge and not on the counter.

I am going to try and share recipes as I come across them but I also started a Pinterest board for it too in case you're interested and want to check it out.  Before you start cooking I'd check out the "Dirty Dozen" list to make sure you buy organic produce that's listed on the dirty dozen.

Baby Food: Sweet Pea's
1 package frozen pea's

1. Fill pan with 1 inch of water. Bring to a boil.
2. Place steamer into boiling water and pour pea's into steamer.
3. Let pea's steam for about 5 minutes, or until they are bright green and easily smash-able with a fork.
4. Run pea's under cold water to stop them cooking.  Reserve cooking liquid.
5. Pour pea's into a food processor (or blender).  Puree until they are the desired consistency, adding cooking liquid/milk to help thin out the mixture.
6. Pour into ice cube trays and cool until they are room temperature.  Cover with saran wrap to seal them.  After they are frozen you can transfer the cubes into a plastic bag.

Baby Food: Carrots
1 bushel organic carrots

1. Fill pan with 1 inch of water.  Bring to a boil.
2. Place steamer into boiling water and pour carrot's into steamer.
3. Let steam for 6-8 minutes or until they are tender.
4. Remove carrots and run under cold water.  DO NOT reserve cooking liquid.
5. Pour carrots into a food processor.  Puree until they are the desired consistency, adding fresh water/milk to help thin out the mixture.
6. Pour into ice cube trays and cool until they are room temperature.  Cover with saran wrap to seal them.  After they are frozen you can transfer the cubes into a plastic bag.

Baby Food: Sweet Potatoes
2 sweet potatoes

1. Scrub the sweet potatoes clean.
2. Bake at 400 degrees for 45 - 60 minutes or until they are soft when you prick with a fork.
3. Scrape the insides into a food processor or blender.
4. Blend until you reach your desired consistency, adding water/milk as needed to help thin out the potatoes.
5. Pour into ice cube trays and cool until they are room temperature.  Cover with saran wrap to seal them.  After they are frozen you can transfer the cubes into a plastic bag.

(Step 5)

Even though James wasn't the biggest fan the first time he tried them, he ate the peas better than cereal!

Sweet boy

I got some sweet pictures of James while I was taking his six month pictures with his bear and wanted to share them.  I'm in awe of this sweet little boy.  He is so laid back and so cuddly and growing up entirely too fast!

The birthday before...

So far I've considered Jason and I to be in our mid-twenties but I think with Jason's birthday just past and mine approaching I don't think I can consider ourselves by that title anymore.  This was Jason's last birthday before the big milestone and it probably couldn't have been celebrated in a less low-key way!

It always amazes me how quickly Jason's birthday approaches after Christmas.  I know March should seem like a long time since December, but somehow I'm always taken aback when it rolls around!  This year I had a meeting in Tuscaloosa the day after his birthday so we celebrated the night before his birthday.

When we started talking about his birthday Charlotte decreed that he would have a birthday cake with polka dots.  By the time it was time to make his cake it had morphed into a cake with polka dots AND sprinkles! Such is the life with a two year old little girl making your cake decisions!  Thankfully, she did acquiesce and let us make the yellow cake with chocolate icing that he requested, she just had rule over the decorations!

I wasn't sure how to make polka dots but remembered a pin on Pinterest about making candy dots.  I figured that candy dots on a larger scale would be perfect so Charlotte and I set out to make them.  They turned out great but to warn you, this recipe makes a TON of icing!  We still have three almost full cookie sheets of dots and hearts and letters in addition to what went on our cake.  That being said though they were really easy to make and very fun to write with and they still taste yummy a week or so later!

Charlotte chose purple, pink, and green polka dots! Sorry Jason!

This was the point I realized we had waaaay too much icing!  I had done all this, still had most of the bag of pink and the larger bag of purple and the smaller bag of green!

Thankfully Jason is easy to please and he didn't care what his cake looked like as long as he 

got to eat it!

Charlotte loved the cake!  She ate it in big huge bites!

However, when she finished her piece it cracked me up so much that I had to take a picture.  Charlotte takes after Mom and I in many ways, and one of them is eating salty things along with her dessert.  Case in point here, she was eating her cake along with sweet potato fries and a dill pickle (that's what's on Kitty's head).  The funny thing is that she ate around the icing (which is also what my Mom does) but then took one bite with the chocolate icing and refused to touch the rest of it!

James enjoyed our celebration from his bouncer with his elephant!

Even though our celebration was a day early it was still a day to celebrate the wonderful husband and father that Jason is.  We are so blessed to have him and are so thankful for all that he does for us!

Trimming the Tree

One thing that I love about having kids that I'm not sure I ever thought about, was how much fun it is decorating for holiday's.  I don't ever go all out (honestly, I don't decorate much at all and only for the big one's) but Charlotte loves helping me get decorations out!  When we were cleaning out the garage a few weeks ago she saw the box with the Easter decorations in it and asked when we could get them out.  So a few days later I asked Jason to get them down for us and we started our decorating journey!

Charlotte loved getting to help hang the eggs on the low branches!  (Thanks Mom for thinking ahead and buying me some non-breakable eggs before I even knew I needed some!)

A lot of the ornaments on our tree are ones that my great-grandmother, Granny, made.  Here's C modeling one such ornament that is a hat!

Once the tree went up the Easter baskets came out and Charlotte has since remembered how to have an Easter Egg hunt.  The good thing for us is that she likes to hide AND find her own eggs which saves us a lot of trouble!

Dance Me Daddy

Have you heard of the book Dance Me Daddy?  It is one of Charlotte's favorite books these days and it is so sweet to hear Jason read it to her.  Somehow, she always only asks him to read it which I think is sweet.  It's a story about a Daddy dancing with his daughter when she's a toddler, and a teenager, and at her wedding.  It's a good reminder of the fact that while things will change some things will remain constant.  Jason gave it to Charlotte for Christmas which I think makes it even more special.  If you're looking for a sweet book for a little girl this one is great!

PS I gave James You are My I Love You.