"What do you do all day??"

Surprisingly enough, that question was from another mother. She's my new hairstylist, and works full time. Young. With a little girl about three. I like her a lot, but still, her comment left me a little floored. What don't I do?
Adelei is now nearing six months old (that's 2/3rds of my pregnancy!), and she's hit a growth spurt, which means she's eating what seems to be 24/7, and continually attached to me. She's grown 2 inches since her 4 month check-up. Don and I discovered this after pulling out the tape measure due to curiosity, and the number of comments from people saying she was thinning out. Measuring her calmed my mommy nerves. LiLi also doesn't believe in taking naps. What's a mother to do? I try and tell her that she's a little baby who's growing fast and needs lots of sleep. Her usual reply is to grab her toes and coo. How can you argue with that??
In my spare time (ha, ha). I've been crafting. I'm doing my first craft fair. And I have to admit, it's been a lot of fun. I learned how to knit. (Just when I thought I couldn't get any more domesticated, I pick up knitting.) I'm actually kind-of proud of it. It's versatile, pratical, and an outlet--for art, for frustration, for zen. I'll keep you posted on the craft fair (or most likely tell you how it went). But until then, her are some pictures of my creations.

The "chirp" knitted hat:


Handstiched felted wool lamb (the felt was too thick for my dang sewing machine):



And my masterpiece:


This last one's not for sale. My little niece Madi already asked.

My Little Blossom-head Pixie

For Halloween Adelei was a fairy. I got ambitious and decided to make her costume. I haven't sewn anything serious ever since I got married. Don was a little surprised at my skills. He watched me at the sewing machine, scratched his head, and asked,
"If you can sew, then why do I have a bunch of pants with holes in them that I never wear?"
"Because you didn't ask."
I'm pretty proud of how her costume turned out. It took a while, but it was worth it to see it on her. It's so fun to have a little girl to dress up.



Don dressed up, too. For the first time he wasn't a cowboy. This year he was a...


Jamaican. I think he secretly wants dreads.
Four years of marriage, and this man still surprises me. Hope everyone had a good Halloween!

Adelei Update

My baby is now doing all sorts of fun things. She likes to grab her toes, and she's discovered her tongue, and likes to stick it out. She is now 4 months old, 24.5 inches tall, and weighs 14.19 lbs. Can you believe it? I can't. As of Sunday, she officially laughed. Before then it was more like a, did she just giggle?? Wait, do it again, Baby, I'm not sure if you did it or not. But on Sunday, there was no denying that my little 'Nilla Bean laughed. Ever since then she's laughed for me every day. It is the best thing in the world. Baby laughs are magic.
While I've taken an enormous amount of pictures of my little Lei-Lei, I decided to put some video on here just so you can see her cute little personality. She is so much fun. I'm the luckiest mom in the world.

Cooking Blog

I'm attempting to start up my cooking blog...again. Last time, my camera was at my in-laws for a month or two, and then by the time I got it back, I was so pregnant that I really wasn't cooking any more. So, here it goes! Fall is my baking season, you'll probably see a lot of that. There's a link on the side of my blog, and you can click here to view it as well.

Bon appetit!

Are you kidding me??

I have something to complain about. I went to two different stores the other day and both had their Christmas decorations out...it's early September, you ugly-little-money-grabbing-commercialized-store-mongers!!! (Try and say that five times fast. I dare you.) You ought to be horsewhipped. I know the economy sucks, but honestly...stop rushing the season. There are still at least two major holidays to go!
Which leads me to a question...why doesn't anyone celebrate fall anymore? Not Halloween. I'm talking fall, people. You know...bountiful harvest? I think that it was one of the most celebrated times through most of mankind's history and now it's not even noticed. Too lowly and unimportant to be noticed. So sad.
I'd get on my soap box and go off on how the human race is no longer close to the earth and how it's made us loose touch with our humanity, but it would sound a little too tree hugging/hippy child for my taste. Which I'm not. But really, it just might add a little bit of balance to our fast paced consumer society if we all slowed down, and took a deep breath of the approaching autumn air.



















*photo courtesy of wikimedia.org, and yes, there will be more posts of Adelei. Just had to vent, I feel so much better.

'Tis the Season

It's fun to show off your garden produce. I'm so dang proud.









































It's salsa season. Are you excited? You should be.

Because with salsa you can make things like this:





















Yes, please.

Erin's Nach-yos, Mine.

Ingredients:

• Chips (as many as you want)
• 1 Jalapeno
  
• slow cooker Mexican chicken*
  
• 1-2 cups cheddar cheese
• salsa
• (optional) sour cream & gauc
• whatever other toppings make your boat float

Layer first four ingredients, broil on low for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Add remaining toppings. As Don suggested, this would be good with pinto/kidney/refried beans as well. But I just happened to grab whatever was on hand.

Slow Cooker Mexican Chicken

Ingredients:

• 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 1 (6 oz.) can diced green chilies
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 1 (14 oz.) can pinto beans (I didn't have this on hand, thus the reason my nachos didn't have beans)

Combine all except pinto beans in crock-pot on low for 6 hours. Shred chicken with two forks put back into crock-pot with pinto beans. Cook for another 1/2 hour on high.

Salsa

Ingredients:

• 3-4 tomatoes, chopped
  
• 2-3 peppers (jalapeno, bell, habanero, whatever you like), diced
  
• 3-5 tomatillos, diced
  
• 3-4 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1/2 chopped onion
• 1-2 tsp. tumeric
• 1-3 tsp. lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients to taste. I like to try in with a corn chip to make sure it's just right. Chill in fridge, or inhale immediately.

Enjoy.




















We did.

2 Months

My little vanilla bean turned two months on Monday, the 27th. We had a check-up in Logan. Adelei has almost gained 4 lbs., and grown 2 inches. She is now 11 lbs. 13 oz., and is 23 inches tall. She is in the 75th percentile for heigth and 77th percentile for weight. And she's loosing her newborn look. She gets prettier every day. Where has the time gone?