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Saturday, May 30, 2009

Our Week in Food

We've had some great meals lately. Ok, we always have great meals and I've decided to dedicate a little more time to posting them. Be forewarned that you may be jealous and hungry after reading this.
Last Friday we went to Hatties with James, Tana and Lanisa. All our meals were amazing and we took turns photographing the person's meal to our right. I've never done this before but it was fun and I plan on doing it again. If you never been to Hattie's, I cannot recommend it enough.



Jalapeno-Stuffed Quail, With a balsamic demi glaze On a sweet potato mash with braised greens.

Homestyle, bacon wrapped meatloaf, With wild mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes & Seasonal vegetable

Grilled Salmon with roasted corn relish served on a bed of arugula with heirloom tomatoes


Grilled Bison steak with smoked potato salad and grilled asparagus

Butcher-block pork chop, with peach bleu cheese chutney, sweet potatoes & braised greens

Today was an unusual day and we were invited to friends/family for both lunch and dinner. For lunch we went to the Northcutt's and had bratwurst, homemade Mac-n-cheese and salad. It was delicious. It's hard to beat homemade Mac-n-cheese! More on our experience at the Northcutt's coming soon.
For dinner went went to Rick & Yvette's where we had...
Gouda cheese, grapes and crackers. Not pictured is the chili lime crab salad with avocado.

"Fancy burgers" with ranch dressing and jalapenos in the patties served with maple bacon on a rosemary roll with a delicious spread of green onions and jalapenos.

Vin's mini burger minus the jalapenos.

Mini cheesecakes, cannoli and pretzels with chocolate
All delicious!

Funny Lady

This morning Teri transferred our Cheerios and our Honey Nut Cheerios into gallon ziplock bags. These are her labels





Friday, May 29, 2009

Flashback Friday

Patty Buzzard Butt - no really, that's her name. Maiden name Buzzard, married name Butt.

A quirky name that totally fits her quirky personality.
I love love love this gingham dress!
Don't you just love the hair, especially the bangs.
I do really like the dress though. Mom - what color was this? In my head it's red with the ribbons being red and white striped.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Sleep Status


It's currently 8 a.m.

Vin went to sleep at 7:30 last night and slept solidly through until 5:45 a.m. Teri got up and put his pacifier in and he's still asleep right now.

Hallelujah!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Summer Inspiration

In the past few weeks with Mother’s Day and Vin’s first birthday passing I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on our year and thinking about our near future. Last Friday was Vin’s last day of daycare and so just as I finally adjusted to it – it’s over. Looking back I can see that sending a 3 month old is quite different than sending him now. When he began he was immobile so all his time was spent in a swing or in his crib. Now he spent his entire day playing with the other kids. Nevertheless, he’s now home with me for the summer. We have several trips planned to Llano and Spearman but will also spend a lot of time in the backyard, in our pool, at the library and the park. I am anxious about filling our days but excited to see him experience summer for the first time.

Each morning at our house we turn on the Today Show. I love watching this or at least I thought I did… Lately the segments on children’s health and safety make me concerned about issues that don’t even apply to us. I learned this lesson quickly with parenting magazines too, if you read the entire issue there are stories covering pregnancy to teenagers and it gets way too overwhelming.
In the media lately I’ve noticed there are two motherhood camps out there 1) The “motherhood is hard camp” which has gotten a lot of press lately. There are confessional websites where mothers can vent their frustrations with their children. They say things like – I didn’t teach my child to tell time so I could better control bedtime or some say that they pushed their child down when they were learning to walk so they wouldn’t have to chase them around as often. There is even a T.V. show based on these stories. I understand that we all need a sounding board and a place to compare stories however I am much more inspired by mothers who see creative possibilities in their children and with their families.

There is an entire world of Mommy bloggers whose focus is on inspiring creativity and getting back to basics. I am so excited about implementing some of these ideas into our daily life. First on the list was “unplugging” last week from the computer. Teri had 5 days off and I’ve got a short break before summer school begins. It seemed like the perfect time to shut off the computer and disconnect for a while. To be totally honest, I did periodically check my email but it was nothing like the time I usually spend on the computer. Once summer school starts I’ll be teaching 5 online classes so disconnecting just isn’t an option.

Some people I’m creatively inspired by lately are:

Teri – first let me say that the woman has worked wonders with Vin’s sleep. She implemented Vin “sleep training” last week and allowed me a 3 night escape to Rick & Yvette’s. During the 5 days that she was off, she completely turned him around. He had been waking up every 2 to 3 hours through the night. For the past two nights he’s only woken up a few times and he’s sleeping at least 12 hours a night. I think he and I are both in sleep shock because we seem to be more tired now than we were before. I guess we have a year’s worth of catching up to do.
She has also been making him some wonderful meals. I’ll post more on that later in the week.

Wendy – she’s declared a TV free summer and is always doing something fun with her kids. Also, she’s hand making the cutest fabric gift bags for birthday’s, but if you know Wendy you know she has always had a thing for gift wrap.

Tina – the job she did on Vin’s birthday cake was beautiful and then to top it off she handmade him a stuffed doll and a drawstring fabric backpack.

Lourdes – Sienna’s tutu was adorable

Ashley – Finley’s cupcake tree was so cute

As for me here are a few things I’m excited about this summer
· Hanging a clothes line
· Starting a vegetable garden
· My flower bulbs sprouting in the front bed
· Swimming & sprinkler play
· Family meals in our cafĂ©
· Sewing our Christmas stockings
Ok, I think that’s it for now. Geez… you’d think I hadn’t blogged in a week :)

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

See you soon

Before I post my Wordless Wednesday post I wanted to let everyone know I'm going on computer hiatus. I spend far too much time checking blogs and email while outside there are still a few days of gorgeous spring weather before the stifling heat of summer begins. As soon as I hit submit here, I'm shutting it down and putting it in the drawer for a few days at least.

So my friends I'll "see" you sometime next week.

Wordless Wednesday






Flashback Friday


I couldn't resist posting this picture of Teri's dad Vincent. Our son is named after him.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Vin's First Birthday Party


Pre-party practice on his new rocking horse. Thanks Uncle Mat & Aunt Jamie!






Mayme & Grumps setting up and trying out the new wagon. We've already used this twice already since Saturday. Once at the Lakewood Festival and then again for a walk around the neighborhood on Sunday evening. He thinks it's great.


Thanks Tina for such a great job on the cake decorating!

Cake sharing - what a sweet boy. He sure didn't learn that from me!





Friday, May 15, 2009

Flashback Friday

My step sister Cassie has started doing "Flashback Friday" on her blog and I'm jumping on the bandwagon. She's been posting childhood pictures of her Dad Terry who is adorable. Many of you will meet him at Vin's birthday party.


This is my dad, Gary Taylor, age 1 at Bear Creek South Dakota. What a cutie!

Does anyone think Vin looks like him?

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Birthday Season

Our household is buzzing this week with party preparations for Vin's birthday. Fortunately we had lots of practice this past weekend where we attended 3 birthday parties. Let me first start with my Friday night and then we'll move on to the birthday's.


On Friday night I had plans to go out with an old high school friend I hadn't seen in almost 12 years. I called Leslie on Friday afternoon and jokingly asked if she could catch the 6 p.m. flight to join us. She said sure but--- she had to be back in Amarillo by 9 am on Saturday.
There is a fine line between being a good friend then crossing over to crazy.

Sure we were a little tired on 4 hours sleep and yes I did have 3 additional parties on Saturday, but it's not very often you have the opportunity to be with those from your past.





SIENNA

Her very talented and creative Mom made this skirt. Isn't it adorable! She also did a beautiful job making delicious food for the party. Notice below that Vin and the other babies have their hands full of treats in all the pictures.




In Lourdes' blog she said that the flower headbands were for the girls. Can you believe that?!! Lourdes of all people trying to "genderize" the babies at such a young age! We felt the headbands were equal opportunity!

Check out his chow down!


I love this picture. It is one of my all time favorites. It's like he's practicing for his own cake and really contemplating the icing. "Hmmm, yes yes I do think I like this!"

Eddie - Saturday night Aunt Tara babysat Vin and we went to Eddie Hahn's party at the Wit Gallery. Look at all those balloons! Vin would have been in heaven!

Ashely - next we were off to the Belmont Hotel for Ashley's 30th birthday party! I went into labor at the Belmont almost exactly a year ago this night. All the girls really cut loose as you can see from the tequila shots!

Ashley's reaction to turning 30!




Are our friends pretty or what!