The School Picture

My daughter is perfect to me in so many ways.  

Since I am her mother, I think she is absolutely beautiful.

This past week when I received my girls's school picture, 

she looked neither perfect nor beautiful. 

I will let the photo speak for itself.

  

Sonya has experienced her first bad school picture.

Hopefully there won't be too many to follow.

When I think this is the photo they chose, I would hate to see how the rejected ones looked.

Here is her last year's photo.

Adorable, right?

I asked Sonya which photo she liked better, and she said,

 "The one with the black and white shirt."    

Right now in Sonya's school picture career she is batting 50%.

I hope she raises her her average as the years go on.

What We Are Eating This Week

Monday:

London broil, grilled asparagus, and baked potatoes

Tuesday:

Chicken Picata (homemade picata sauce), and sauteed brocoli

Wednesday:

Multi-grain spaghetti with tomato basil sauce, homemade meatballs, and kale chips

Thursday:

Grilled pork tenderloin, roasted brussel sprouts with shallots and roasted carrots

Friday:

Homemade cheese pizza

Plus some homemade M&M cookies for Sonya's teacher's birthday.

What are you eating?

18 months

What's going on with Theodore at 18 months:

• He is 36 inches long above the 97%
• He is 30.8 lbs. in the 90%
• He still wears a size 6 diaper, but they are big on him because he lost 2 lbs.
• He wears anything from a 2T to a 4T in shirts and pants.
• He wears a size 8 shoe.
• His favorite books are Hop on Pop, Baby Beluga, and all of the Eric Carle books.
• He loves trains and cars.  If you ask him what a train says he says "whoo whoo!"
• He is an almond milkahloic.  
• He can finally drink out of a straw.  Better late than never.
• He LOVES to play outside.
• His favorite activities to do are swinging, climbing up the ladder and going down the slide, pushing his cozy coupe around the deck, pushing little cars all over the floor, walls, bodies, faces, and reading his favorite books.
• He and Sonya hold hands in the parking lot when we walk into places.
• He is a very good eater.  His favorites are all fruits, sweet potatoes, green beans, pasta,  asparagus, kale chips, fruit bars, yogurt, black beans.
• He still gets up in the middle of the night for no reason A LOT!!
• He doesn't talk much.  He says, "whuzzat"= what's that, "all ga"= all done or all gone, "ma"= mama, daddy or milk.
• He always has his hands in his diaper touching his junk or is touching his belly button.
• He loves to play chase with Daddy and Sonya.
• He loves to play with our instruments.
• I still think he is a leftie.
• He is really clumsy.
• His nicknames are Teddy, TR, Big Baby T, Tedward, Hambone, Teds, Tedwardo, Big Guy, Big Man, and Jerk Store.
• He is cute and he is loved.

Monday Manifest

These are my confessions:

1. I read blogs of total strangers, and people who are just acquaintances.  Josh calls them my fake friends.
2. I only shower 2-3 times a week.
3. When I wear sweatpants to drop Sonya off at school I wear sneakers to give the illusion that I have worked out, or I am going to work out.  I don't think I am fooling anybody, but I still do it.
4. I love all of the Real Housewives shows on Bravo, Secret Life of the American Teenager, and Make It or Break It.
5. Even though I truly enjoy cooking, I will never turn down take out when Josh offers to bring dinner home.
6. I am useless between 1pm and 3pm.  I physically and mentally shut down.  I could and should be spending that time with Sonya doing all types of activities, but I pretty much ignore her for those two hours.
7. I always fall asleep when I read.  So it takes me forever to finish a book, if I even start one.
8. I don't know the last time I cleaned my shower.
9. I have some gray hairs on my head.
10. I spend way too much time on my computer.
11. I have screamed in Sonya's face.
12. The bottom of my feet are gross.  They look and feel like pads on on dog paws.
13. I listen to Phillips and Company on Y98 FM in the morning at my house.
14. My left breast in bigger than my right breast.
15. I know nothing about politics.

What are your confessions?

Monday Manifest on Thursday

The Names Of All Of The Kids In My Wive's Bible Study (grouped by family)

1. Sonya
2. Teddy

1. Winnie
2. Rush

1. Finn
2. Ainsley

1. Claire
2. Mary-Jane

1. Judah
2. Adeline
3. Harper

1. Noah
2. Luke
3. Henry

1. Sadie
2. Ruby
3. Poppy
4. Charlie

1. Riley
2. Cooper
3. Campbell
4. Reese

1. JJ
2. Henry
3. George
4. Emma

I Heart Faces- Orchard

This week's I Heart Faces Challenge is orchard.  

I couldn't make to an orchard, but here is my sweet boy having his favorite orchard snack.

Click the button above to see all of the other great orchard images from I heart faces.

Doughnut Store

Sonya has been very into writing letters and drawing lately.  I love to see what her little brain cooks up.

This is a picture Sonya drew last week of her favorite things, and I love it.

I wrote down how she explained the picture.

Awesome.

My Lunch

I made my self a truly delicious lunch the other day.  
I had picked up a box of these flatbread crackers from Whole Foods the other day.  
I read about them here.

They are very crunchy and have a great nutty flavor.  

I also picked up this mustard.

It is so good!!  A great balance of flavors, and perfect as a pizza sauce.  So the idea hit me to spread the mustard all of the cracker, sprinkle it with mozzarella cheese and chia seeds.  The cracker is already so crunchy you don't have to bake it to long, just until the the cheese is melted.  On the side I made kale chips, my latest food obsession. 

I read about them here.  

To watch on video on how to make them click here.

Basically you wash and dry the kale.  Make sure it is really dry because the it will wilt in the oven instead of getting crispy if there is too much moisture.  Coat the kale with cooking spray or about two tsp of olive oil, and season with kosher salt (or your favorite seasoning).  Place them on a baking sheet, and do not over crowd them because again the kale will wilt instead of getting crispy.  Bake at 350 for about 12-14 minutes.  The kale is so tasty, and satisfying.

My final plate.

What is your favorite lunch?

I Heart Beef

This week on I Heart Faces, it is a beef challenge.  We are supposed to showcase our favorite beef dishes.  I have to say my plate is not too exciting, but it is pretty tasty.  I picked some boneless top sirloin at Whole Foods, and I marinated it Andria's steak sauce for a couple of hours.  Then when I placed it on the the grill I sprinkled it with a little Citizen Kane's steak seasoning, both of these steakhouses I have mentioned are local to my area.  I seared the steak on both sides for 10-12 minutes total for medium rare, and got a really nice result.  On the side we had fingerling potatoes that I cubed, boiled, and then roasted to get a little crunch on the outside.  I added a little sauteed onion because I had half an onion in the fridge that I didn't want to waste.  We also had steamed broccoli and fresh baked bread.  Get the bread recipe here.

Check out all of the other great beef dishes by clicking the button above.

PROUD!!!!!!!

I am one proud mama today!!!!
Sonya wrote her name all by herself today.  She has known how to spell her name for over a year but writing her name is a whole new level of being a big girl.  She has been writing all different letters for a couple of weeks, and then wrote all the letters in her name separately.
Finally today she wrote them in order and did a great job.

Such a grown girl.
I will say it again, I am so proud of my girl.

Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend we took an impromptu trip to the pumpkin patch.  We thought we were going to spend a quiet day at home because Teddy was getting over a case of croup but he rallied and Sonya was loosing her mind stuck in the house so off we went.  We ended up going to Stuckmeyers Farm in South County.  It was a cute little farm, not too crazy busy or too big.  

There was a chicken coup right when you walked in that the kids loved.

  

There were a bunch baby chicks that escaped.  
They were too fast for me to photograph, but here is Baby T looking under the wood pile for them.

As we walked into the farm, there were some bales of hay that were had perfect light.  
So I tried to get a nice shot of my two beautiful kids together.  
Here is what I got.

I was looking through my photos and I noticed I have lots of photos of Sonya that look like this.

The reason is because if I even ask for some type of smile, this is what she gives me.

She looks like a possessed cabbage patch kid.

Moving on, there were lots of great activities at the farm like a playground, bounce house, corn maze, pumpkins in the field, wagons to put your pumpkins in, and our family favorite kettle corn.

It was incredible Autumn day, and sky was just amazing.

I also tried to get a nice photo of the kids with daddy.  

Here is what I got.

A ludicrous family picture.

Stuckmeyers had tons of wagons for people to load up all of their pumpkins.  
The kids loved riding in the wagon.

Here are the obligatory pumpkins shots.

Happy October!!

Monday Manifest on Wednesday

The Names of Our Animals Growing Up

1. Runner - guinea pig
2. Snowy - hamster
3. Dixie - hamster
4. Skippy - hamster
5. Hoover - hamster
6. Wimsy - hamster
7. Soulard - hamster
8. Socks - hamster
9. Mickey - mouse
10. Minnie - mouse
11. Conrad - parakeet
12. Prince - parakeet
13. Murphy - parakeet
14. Pauper - parakeet
15. Nicholas - ferrel cat
16. Mike - the best dog ever
17. Floyd - cockateel
18. Harvey - cockateel

People I grew up with, did I miss any?

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had photographed this recipe for I Heart Faces for the recipe week, but it ended up being a dinner theme.  I had already photographed these cookies because I have wanted to share these on here for quite some time.  They are so good, and have some healthier ingredients to you can feel a little bit better about eating them.  It was quite a challenge because my kitchen has terrible light for taking photographs.  So I was basically chasing the light as it moved all afternoon to make this work.  

Here is the recipe:

    Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
• 1 cup soft butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups old fashioned oats
• Optional:  1 cup chocolate chips, 1 cup raisins, 1 cup craisins, or 1 cup walnuts.  (whatever tastes good to you :) 

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees
2.  In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, wheat germ and flaxseed.  
3. In a large bowl cream together butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth.  Beat in one egg at a time, then stir in vanilla. 
4. Stir flour mix into the wet ingredients mix until thoroughly blended.  
5. Then mix in oats, and whatever else you want to add.  
6. Drop heaping spoonfuls onto parchment lined or greased cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 12-14 minutes.  Remove from cookie sheet and cool on a wire rack.

Here are the photos

1 1/2 cups whole wheat four

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt (I used kosher salt)

1/4 cup wheat germ

1/4 cup flaxseed

2 sticks of butter

1 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs 

(that is bubble bath nail polish, if you were wondering)

I forgot the vanilla.  Whoops.

The wet and dry ingredients mixed together.

3 cups of old fashioned oats

1 cup mini chocolate chips

I had about 1/4 cup craisins left in a bag, so I added those, too.
Here is the batter all mixed together.

Drop heaping spoonfuls onto a parchment lined or greased cookie sheet. 

Bake for 12-14 minutes and place on a cooling rack immediately.
Cooling in the late afternoon sun.

The finished product.
A soft, chewy, nutty, sweet cookie.

TRY THESE!!!
I promise you will love them.