{gui} tarrrrrr!

I am unashamedly obsessed with taking pictures of Jack.  We had to buy an external hard drive just so we could have somewhere to store the (literally) thousands of pictures that I took of him in his first year (now two years) of life. I really don't need an excuse to get my camera out- he is just so darn cute!  He is my joy and I love these precious moments with him.  Sometimes I feel like he is getting so big, so fast! I love that we can capture some of the funny, adorable, and just plain cute things that he does!

He loves his daddy so much and I adore how they play together and how Jack wants to imitate everything Sean does.  He therefore is obsessed with guitars.  He has been strumming the air guitar and yelling, "tarrrr" since he was about 18 months old. He also loves to drum furiously on any and everything, letting us know, "drumming mama, drumming"- just so we know he's not just hitting :-) 

The other night he had on his "tar" shirt and Sean's guitar was on the floor in its case and he just laid down on it and said, "ahh..Daddy." It was so sweet and he looked so cute, I couldn't resist!

    

Little Rockstar in the making!

XO

Giving Thanks

{the bump: 27 weeks}

I'm not sure where November went. It literally FLEW by, which I guess is a good thing! Pregnancy can sometimes make the hours feel like days and the days feel like weeks, but not for me recently! I'm 27 weeks pregnant now and baby Claire is about 2 lbs and 14 1/2 inches long! We have so many "big" events/holidays to celebrate in the next couple of months, I feel like she will be here before we know it!

Gobble Gobble! Every year, all of the kids would each have a
See's Candy Turkey from Nana and Grandpa as a part of our place settings.

We had a lovely time with family on Thanksgiving! We usually run the Father Joe's 5k in the morning, but being preggo we decided to skip it this year. I missed it, but I am really trying to avoid massive crowds of people (especially since last year all 3 of us got sick after the 5k). It is one tradition that Sean and I started on our own.
 Anyway, this was our year to be with Sean's family for Thanksgiving, but luckily their desert Thanksgiving was cancelled (I'm not a desert goer), so we were able to see both our families! We went the Bradford's around 2 and enjoyed some yummy food and family, although we missed his sister and her bf!! I made Cranberry Jello and Sean's famous "Pumpkin Dump Cake." My family gave him a hard time a couple years ago, so this year he tried to re-name it "Pumpkin Strussel" but it just didn't stick. Dump is just one of those words that shouldn't be part of anything you are eating, especially a dessert!
   Then we were off to my Nana's house for our 2nd {and oh so delicious} turkey feast! My sis and her family were with her husband's family, so we missed them too! We still had a wonderful time though! I wasn't very diligent about taking pics though, I only got a few!

Love my Parents :-) I'm so thankful for them!!

  Now I'm so excited for Christmas! Bring on the egg nog and jingle bells!!

       xo

Parties and {more} Pumpkins

I realized that I totally skipped over Jack's little birthday party...so here it is! His party was rescheduled because we got sick, and then it was supposed to be at the pumpkin patch, but we got rained out so we ended up at my sister's house, which was great! The only bummer was that since we had to change the date (and location) twice, a few people couldn't make it. We missed the Gonsalves' and the Molchanoffs!! I made apple cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting- a less processed, fake, sugary type of dessert for the little ones, but still super delish!

We love our boy!

Jacky loves "Sofunky" {soft monkey}

Cuzzies

 On his real birthday we went to Nana's house for yummy banana bran muffins and coffee! We celebrated Isabella too, because her birthday is 3 days before Jack's!

"Fighter" truck from Nana!!

Who's the boss

It is so fun (and funny) living with a toddler who is learning to speak. I'm sure most moms would agree that it is so cute when your little one starts to babble, and then say little words, and then speak in short, often disjunct sentences. It is literally like a little cave man; and while I can pretty much always understand what Jack is saying, it often requires some translation on my part so everyone else understands too. He is in the nouns, verbs, and adjectives phase, but every day I'm noticing his sentences becoming more and more complete and complex. 


Jack started talking really early for a boy. By the time he was one, he could point to many objects and give them their correct names, but his favorite thing to say was, "Wasat?" {what's that?}. He literally asked "wasat?" about everything. I could just see his little mind encoding and processing all of the information he was taking in about the world around him.  At Thanksgiving last year, we were at my Nana's house and Jack was going around pointing to various breakables saying, "don't touch, don't touch" Smart boy.  


Smart boy is also a very funny boy...sometimes by accident. 


The other night Sean was sitting on the floor playing the guitar, or "tarrrr" as Jack calls it, and he all of a sudden shouted,


 "Daddy, SOPPP" 


and he kind of swatted at Sean's hand that was strumming. Sean told him no no, and I commented to him in passing that Jack is definitely in the stage of pushing boundaries and trying to figure out who the boss is. 

My lil boss (wearing Papa's hat)

What happened next was one of the funniest things ever...this typed version will never do it justice since it is lacking in timing and intonation.


Sean jokingly looked at Jack and said, 


"Who's the boss? Daddy's the boss."


and without a single second of hesitation, Jack retorted, 


"No, Mommy's boss."


Like I said, he's a smart boy. Sean and I both cracked up, and luckily he is not one of those men who let their egos overtake any kind of rational thinking, so he was not offended at all. {Although he did tell Jack several times over the next half hour or so, that Daddy's the boss...} haha. 


Some of the humor in little one's early speech is not what they say, but how they say it. For example:


Giden Fider: giant spider
Zizard: lizard
J-bug: Jacob 
Gobbles: goggles
Fighter truck and fighter men: fire truck, fire men


I'm just happy he knows who's boss :-)

Mmm D' Licious: Chicken Curry

In an effort to add some variety to our dinner hour, I'm trying some new recipes! In this case, a delicious Chicken Curry over rice! Although, I have to be honest, this recipe comes from my mom's kitchen, so its not exactly "new" to me. However, this was my first at attempt at it. 

{Bell pepper and onion for the Curry sauce
& zucchini squash for our side dish}

Recipe: {this will feed about 6-8 hungry ppl...I only made a 1/2 recipe, and we ate it for 2 dinners and a lunch}
4 chicken breast halves
2 Tbs butter
1 Tbs oil
1 large red bell pepper
1 med. onion
16 oz sour cream (I used Knudsen's fat free)
2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup 
1/2 cup chicken broth
4 Tbs Yoshida 
2-4 Tbs Sherry ( I used Marsala instead)
2 tsp curry powder (into sauce) 
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp salt
dash nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp chili powder
dash: pepper, Worcestershire's, garlic powder, paprika (1/4-1/2 tsp)


To cook chicken: cover in pan with broth, a little sherry, and garlic.
Bring to boil, then simmer till white (about 15 min.) Remove from pan, sprinkle with curry, garlic, and Lawry's seasoned salt. Dice.


Saute onion, bell pepper in butter & oil
Blend in curry powder
Add soup, seasonings, and sour cream
Add chicken.

I like to taste and add anything else I think it needs, although my palate is not super sophisticated, and I'm really still learning. I basically left this one as is, because I was afraid I would add the wrong thing and ruin it. 

I served it over Trader Joe's Organic Brown rice, which if you ever cook rice, this will save you tons of time and effort....it's microwavable! 5 min in the good 'ol micro, and you are good to go!

I forgot to take a picture the first night...hence the lack of side dishes accompanying the curry.

Curry is also one of those dishes that allows for all sorts of tasty toppings. I chose coconut shavings, cashew pieces, and raisins. YUM! It was so good, however, the first night I didn't think it was as good as my mom's. Magically, and this is no joke, the second day it was amazing! All the flavors had time to mesh together I guess...Sean and I both said it was better the second night! 

Enjoy!

A Pumpkin, A Pirate, and A Puppy

We are so blessed to have wonderful friends, and it is so fun to have our boys so close in age. This week we finally made it to the Pumpkin Station in Bonita, after several foiled attempts (thanks to sickness and rain). Trevor {the Pumpkin}, Ryder {the Pirate}, and Jack {the Puppy} had so much fun together at the Pumpkin patch!!

It is always a challenge trying to photograph three 2 (and almost 2) year olds!! They have so much energy, they don't want to be bothered by poses and pictures! At one point, Jack was furiously drumming on one of the pumpkins, Ryder literally made a run for it (no certain destination in mind), and Trevor just wasn't sure what was going on. 

My little Puppy Boy

Of course the day we finally go, it ended up being almost 80 degrees!!! My lil puppy was over his very warm costume!!

{Pumpkin Station Train}

There was so much for the boys to do, and we were lucky enough to go on a weekday morning, so there was hardly anyone there. They had most of the things to themselves! I loved it too, because then we didn't have to worry about big kids, rude kids, or too many germs. The boys loved the Giant Pumpkin Slide and the Giant Pumpkin Jumpy! There was a tractor to sit on and a car & motorcycle merry-go-round type ride!

Our last stop was the petting zoo where the boy got to see the goats, chickens and bunnies! We had such a fun day! My friends Tawny (Trevor's mommy) and Heather (Ryder's mommy) are the best!! So thankful for sweet friends! 

Happy Halloween!!

Mmm D' Licious: Vita Mix Pumpkin Spice Latte

First Recipe Post!! My recipe posts are titled, "Mmm D'licious" as an ode to my tiny son, who so loves his food, that this is literally what he says at the beginning of almost every meal or snack. Although he doesn't really pronounce the "d."

In honor of Halloween weekend, I tried a recipe from my Vita Mix recipe book for a Pumpkin Spice Latte. I love all things Pumpkin, and I am also fully aware of my {probably unhealthy} addiction to coffee, so for me this recipe was a dream, complete with my "happy punkin" mug.

Recipe: {sorry- you have to have a Vita-Mix for this one}


1 Cup Milk
1/4 cup strongly brewed coffee (hot) or 1 1/2 tsp instant coffee granules
1/4 cup pumpkin
1 Tbs white chocolate chips
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg


Place all ingredients into Vita-Mix. Turn on and increase speed to 10 and then High. Blend for 6 minutes (or until steaming).


My Review: It was definitely not a Sbux beverage, and it was strangely thick, but it was tasty! Annddd it was pretty cool that it actually got HOT in the blender!


 Side note: the Vita-Mix is the best thing ever. I use it every day and highly recommend it!!!