Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and you got all you asked for (and maybe more). Here's are tons of pictures of our Christmas which was fantastic (and hello Rock Band rox).
I'm sitting here designing a new layout and dreaming about bigger and better things for BTBW in 2010!
As this year comes to an end I am reflecting on the fact that I am entering my second year of motherhood. Terrible two's here we come!
I'm sure everyone is still super busy with final Christmas preparations, but I wanted to take a moment and thank all my readers (old & new). I thoroughly enjoy blogging. This year was my second blogging experience into this world. {As my first was filled with single girl angst and shoe speak I figured I needed a more "appropriate" blog for my new life.}
But I have loved every minute of it and looking forward to being able to blog some more about poop, food, TV shows, and toddlers.
Here are my favorite blog post's of the year
My Emotions Runneth Over
Mommy Intuition
Failure to Thrive
Secrets of Motherhood
Ode to my Baby Daddy
Happy Birthday My Baby
Memories of the Monkey
Wasted Breast Milk
Chicken Basil Stir Fry
Monstrous Mushroom Poop
Top 10 reasons I'm a bad mommy
New Brand of Diaper
Guilty as charged!
The War!
Vertigo Days
Scratching the Baby Itch
10 things...before having a baby
If arguing was a sport
Before I was a mother
Embarrassing Mommy Moment
Boys Will Be
What's in your bag?
A perspectful Thanksgiving
Every Friday night Shawn and I have date night. Some nights its dinner & a movie, some nights we go shopping (fun) some nights we stay home bake cookies and watch Dateline (our favorite)
A few Fridays ago we ventured out to see "2012". This movie was extremely intense and gave me a huge pit in my stomach the entire time. I actually found myself getting angry with Shawn because insisted on seeing this movie and it was so emotionally distressing. But I digress...
Before the movie we went to Macaroni Grill and had their Toscano Soup which was the best part of the meal.
I decided I could recreate this soup at home...and I did last week. Super scrumptious.
The recipe I started off with can be found here. But it lacked some serious flavor (plus it was only for 2 servings. Mine is 4) . So below is what I did.
Olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 cup chicken broth
1 cooked chicken breast per person
1 ripe tomato, chopped
7 ounces packaged gnocchi, cut in half
1 cup cream or half-and-half
1 1/2 cup fresh baby spinach leaves
Herbes de Provence (about 2-3 dashes)
Oregano
Salt (kosher)
Pepper
Parmesan cheese
Fresh basil
For Chicken:
I used chicken breast (1 breast each = 3). Seasoned with s&p and garlic salt. And then baked them. I'm sure for easier dinner night you could use a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket also.
Cook onions and garlic in olive oil (I used a big soup pot for easy cleanup). Add salt to this. Cook until the onions are soft and you can smell the garlic (5 minutes)
Add the chicken broth and bring that to a boil. Once broth has started to boil add chicken, gnocchi {I didn't cut mine in half because they we're frozen and I figured that would be an added step that I didn't have time for}, and tomatoes. Season that with a few dashes of herbes de provence, oregano, and s&p.
Side note: I love fully flavored food and find that seasoning each step brings out more flavor. But I hardly ever measure my spices or herbs so just do what taste good to you.
Simmer all for about 5-6 minutes. Then add the cream (again I seasoned this a bit too) add spinach last and cook until spinach wilts.
When serving sprinkle Parmesan cheese and basil.
And serve with bread for dipping.
This soup was super easy to make and pretty fast. I actually made it the night we got our tree so while Shawn got that all set up and straight I did the soup.
It was seriously delicious and want to make it everyday! Actually just typing it out has me thinking I might just make it again for dinner tonight!
And the bonus part was Phoenix LOVED it which as we all know is awesome, because its so hard to get a toddler to eat anything. Whenever I make something he actually eats I make all the time!
Most of the recipe I got from here, but tweaked it slightly.
I am so tired after a full days shopping trip to get all of my last minute stuff done.
One draw back of living in Frederick, MD (which is a bit{but not extremely} rural) is the best malls are about a 35-40 minute drive.
So I decide to make the drive for ONE store. H&M. And not just any H&M would do but an H&M baby & kids.
I love this store so much for me and my husband, but fell in love when we went to New York in June with the baby clothes.
So I dragged my husband all the way out there only to be slightly disappointed with only leaving with 3 things. Boo. My favorite being a black button down shirt with white stars and an orange tie. Love it.
But after.....6 hours of shopping I am left with only 2 quick stops between now and Thursday to be finished.
I did drive to two Walmarts looking for Handy Many wrapping paper. And wore really cute ballerina flats today that of course resulted in me having to dry my feet off because of the insane amounts of snow on the ground.
And of course we haven't been home since Friday evening so when we pulled in early this morning, this is what greeted us.
The wreaths on the windows had been twisted around and two ribbons flew off!
And of course every store we went to was sold out of shovels (we had one last year but for whatever reason...its gone now.) except CVS. A emergency travel one with extend-able handle. Not the most efficient, but at by the time we returned home at 8 PM all we cared about was our parking spot.
I also wanted to know if anyone had any good recommendations for sign language baby books to read to Phoenix? I loved the feedback I got the other day and looked at Waldens (200 of them are closing, so everything is on sale!) but didn't find any I loved. I found one that was a pop-up book, but looking to see what else is out there.
I would love to hear some of your favorite titles.
Thanks! Sorry for my random snow & Christmas shopping post, but I had an itch to post.
There is insane amounts of snow outside right now. I'm 5" tall and the snow is way past my knees.
And this picture doesn't even completely show the ridiculous amounts of snow right now.
I've always fancied myself to be not much of wintry weather type of person. And at my core I'm not. But I have found myself really enjoying this weather. I grew up in Virginia Beach where "blizzards" are slight dusting.
My first winter in Maryland my Dad said snow was coming and we would be "snowed in" I was like "Um what does that even mean?!" but boy in these 5 years have I quickly found out!
Phoenix didn't enjoy the snow as much as I thought he would, but I was able to snap a few photos to document this most momentous first snow occasion.
We we're also able to dig out enough to go cut down my parents Christmas tree.
Phoenix stayed sleep the whole time. I fell and almost froze my toes off.
Now we are sitting cozy and warm waiting for burgers and homemade Christmas cookies.
Go to my Picasa album for tons more pictures of my family.
