A little paint goes a long way

Dylan has been sick with a stomach bug and fever for the past few days. Luckily there was only one barfing incident. Now he is just fighting a fever. Dave has had the last two days off work so which has worked out nicely since Dylan needed to stay home from Daycare. Dave was outside and came in to check on Dylan and found this face!! I am pretty sure it's watercolor paint. Hopefully he is stating to feel better since we have a busy weekend with family coming into town for Harper's baptism.

Little Cyclone Fan!

Big brother, little sister

First bites

She wasn't impressed with her oatmeal....

Big girl!

Harper has out grown the newborn napper in the pack n play! Tonight is her first night in her crib, lets hope she sleeps well!
Dylan had a pretty easy transition to his crib so we are hoping it goes the same way for Harper. Fingers crossed!

Boring Dad

I told Dave he should tell Harper about his day and this is what happened...

Now we know an easy way to put her to sleep!

Christmas favorite

Dylan's favorite Christmas presents, transformers!

Smile!

One of Harper's biggest smiles!

Another first

Dylan had his first trip to the dentist last week! After reading all the terrible things in the news about kids having lots of cavities when they are young I thought we should probably get Dylan to the dentist and have his teeth checked out. Dylan doesn't eat many sweets, but he does like apple juice (still mixed with water) and the occasional chocolate milk. We didn't need to worry though, the dentist said Dylan's teeth looked great! Dave and I have both been blessed with good teeth, I didn't have my first cavity until I was in high school and I don't know if Dave even has one. Neither of us needed braces either. I am hoping the good fortune continues for Dylan! Dave said Dylan did great, he listened to the hygienist and dentist and did what he was told. His only worry was if the fluoride would hurt and when he was told it wouldn't he was ok!

Keeping busy

Dave's latest project. A workbench for the garage!

Always ready to help!

Oreo Footballs and Friends

What better way to celebrate Super Bowl Sunday than with oreo truffles shaped & decorated like footballs?

Definitely adding Dave-a-ritas, spicy pulled pork, roasted potatoes, green beans, chipolte shrimp cups, avocado salsa and white queso dip made it even better.

Five little boys running around, five good friends to chat and catch up with and one sweet baby girl made it awesome. Remind me again why we don't have people over more often?

His favorite thing

The first think we hear when he wakes up, "Daddy, we go golfing today?"

Happy Birthday Dave!

Happy Birthday to my awesome husband! I am so happy we found each other. I'd be lost without you!
I love you!! (and so does this little guy!)

Zucchini 5 ways!

Zucchini bread

Tis the season for zucchini! I purchased 3 plants earlier this spring and have just started to get zucchini from the plants. The first one I got was HUGE and the second one I had actually spotted before it got too large. So you might ask, what do you do with all that zucchini?
Here are a few of my favorite ways to prepare zucchini:

Zucchini bread - the recipe from my Cooks Illustrated New Best Recipes is excellent - my yellowish photo to the right isn't :(
Zucchini Parmesan - sooo good, seriously I could make this at least once a week. The recipe is from A Cozy Kitchen, seriously, if you like to cook and don't follow this blog you are missing out!
Tomato, zucchini and feta pasta salad - recipe from The Pioneer Woman, this is a perfect light, mayo-free summer pasta salad
Risotto Primavera - another recipe from The Pioneer Woman, I love this one because you can really use whatever vegetables you have on hand. And it's delicious!
Summer Vegetable Tostadas - this recipe is from Cooking Light, it's an awesome combination of zucchini, corn, red onion and chicken in a green salsa sauce placed on top of a crispy tortilla, top with Monterrey jack cheese. A great and fast weeknight dinner!

What about you? What's your favorite way to prepare zucchini?

Two-Fer Tuesday

I've had my camera in manual mode since I started my photography class last week and haven't had much time to play with the settings so you are only getting one picture this week!

Dylan was showing Uncle Kyle and Grandma Carolyn how good he is at riding his bike!

Peas hurry up!

The peas in my garden are sooo close to being ready. I seriously CAN NOT WAIT!  Look at all those pea pods!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful Mom today! I hope you are having a great day! Thank you for everything you have done for me over the years. I don't know what I would do without you! Love you!

Wedding present

Dave and I had a hard time deciding what to get Bob & Melea for a wedding present. We didn't want to get them something off their registry, we wanted something more original. Dave's initial thought was artwork, but that is difficult for us to buy, I can't imagine buying it for Bob & Melea, they certainly have their own style and have just moved, so who knows how they will be decorating their new place.

A few of the blogs I read (www.thepioneerwoman.com & www.dooce.com) have featured custom pet portraits by a few different artists and I really liked what I saw. This was also while I was looking for a present for Bob and Melea. The portrait style I thought would fit them and their style best was from www.doghousepetportraits.com. Kristin was awesome to work with and did such a great job capturing Mr. Fender from the photo I sent her. Bob & Melea loved the portrait almost as much as they love Mr. Fender!

Another red kitchen

Dave and I have been unhappy with our green kitchen for a while. The problem was that we didn't know what color to re-paint it. I'm not a big fan of light colors (melons, oranges, yellows, etc.) and while I liked our kitchen when we first painted it, I was beginning to want something different. I really like dark brown and thought that might look good, but after we got a sample on the walls we realized it was too dark. Fast-forward to 4 months later, the brown samples were still on our walls and now look like we started to paint bricks, but stopped. Not a good look. We were over at our friends Chad and Meredith's for dinner one night and noticed that we really liked the red that they have in their kitchen/dining area. It's a softer more burgundy red than the fire engine red (which, for the record I still love) that we had in our kitchen in our townhouse in Florida. So we got the paint color name from Chad and Meredith and went with it. Actually my mom and Carolyn did all the painting while they were visiting for Dylan's birthday and it turned out great. We do need to put a second coat of paint on, but overall we really happy with the red.