Cook books

Okay lets face it, certain things in this world should be left the hell alone.

Kool aid that come in those bad ass little bottles? Leave that shit alone. Kraft singles are another. I like my crap cheese to taste like wax. If I'm going to eat crap I want it to be real crap!

But more refined things should also be left alone. Cook Books is what I'm getting at, I mean, yeah you can find just about any recipe you could ever want just googling it. But some things there are tried and true methods. I have book shelves full of cookbooks that I thumb through, but some of my favorites are the old ones, the ones my mama used, the ones my grandmama used, but my absolute favorite is one my Great Granny had. I'm not totally sure of the story, but she gave it to me for my wedding. I love it.

Chris and I were recently on the coast at this awesome used book store and I was thumbing through some of these really old (read: expensive) cook books and I realized, yeah I can find almost all these recipes (with updates, and all that jazz) online but some things should be left alone. Nothing beats my mothers cook books that are scribbled in and you can still see flower thumb prints and marks from her sitting her coffee on it. I hope to someday have a daughter, or daughter in law to share my cookbook collection with. I hope to never see cook books die out. 

Some things in life need to be left the hell alone 

Diaper Bag for two review

I recently ordered the Skip Hop Bento Diaper bag. I got it as a "Christmas" gift from the boys. But really I realize that even though Carson is potty trained now. I almost have more stuff for him to take with us. At least when he was in diapers a day out might include 4 diapers and a small thing of "just in case" wipes.

However, potty trained/ing? I have to put at least one extra pair of pants, extra undies, his Potty Seat which takes up some space. Not as much as those not folding ones, and way better than those non folding ones.

So far (I've only taken it out once with Carson) but, it was for an entire day. Which we do NOT do very often. If we go out its usually just for an hour or so. It worked great, I had that puppy stocked FULL with both of our things, mine and his.

Here is a list of things I was able to put in this bag with more than enough room for more

• Carson
• Potty Seat
• 2 Pull ups
• Columbia Jacket
• Hat
• Lunch + snacks (I totally used the snack containers and ice pack that it came with, LOVE this feature! 
• 2 sippys (1 water, 1 milk) 
• Blanket
• Bunny
• Myself
• Nikon D3000
• Wallet
• iPhone
• Chapstick
• Hat
• Snacks
• Sani-wipes for us after bathroom breaks

I easily had a ton of space for Oliver's things as well. We'd have to rearrange since I packed the bag in a hurry things didn't all go in the best places for what they are. Also this is NOT a day to day bag. I am going to keep my Coco Lapin bag stocked as well. The only thing I was a bit disappointed with, with my purchase was the changing pad. It is totally cheap and pretty much sucks. I won't be using it at all. 

I can't wait to fill this bag with cute little tiny baby diapers and Carson's stuff! 

Maternity/Christmas Photos

My best friend Emily who is an awesome photographer took our maternity photos at the beginning of the month. Oh yeah I'm lame, its been over 3 weeks since I finished editing these photos and I never shared them.

But here are a few of my favorites

Mama, CB, and Daddy

CB and Daddy

<3 

Mamma and her boy

walking

My love

My loves

My arm was so tired we "flew" for like 10 minutes 

Woosh! 

I love these of Mr.C and I 

My favorite shot 

This face is SO CB

Tree Climbing

Leaves EVERYWHERE

My baby and his bunny

Christmas Photos

As promised! 

Nothing like the love of a boy and his dog

Pat Pat

<3

Look at my grown up boy!?!

After santa came....oh yeah he's OCD too

Christmas Morning was a total hit

<3 these stockings, we all have them courtesy of Gramma (Mr.C's mom)

The "Big" Gift 

Was a huge HIT! 

Time really flies. First Christmas, This Christmas

Happy Holidays!!!

I've sucked at blogging recently, I'm going to catch ya up really quick and then get on to the holidays. I have a bunch of pictures to share and I want to brag about some awesome gifts I gave and received.

Mr.C and I potty trained CB! He's still having random accidents, but otherwise he is potty trained. It actually wasn't that hard. We started day one while Mr.C was at work, tons of accidents + he peed off the couch onto the dog. Day 2-3 went great, and day 4 was like day 1. But we stuck with it, and by day 5 he was accident free. He's even staying dry at nap.

Then Mr.C went on his business trip, I was sad. I cried, CB cried, Mr.C teared up. But we all survived. Mr.C had an amazing time in NYC receiving his award! CB and I painted while he was gone, I painted CB's room, Mr.C and my bathroom and the boys rooms. Pictures and an update to come. 

Now its Christmas time, today was amazing, it was the first time CB has really LOVED the holiday! and understood the idea of opening presents to get to the fun stuff inside. Earlier this week we spent the "holiday" with my family, CB is going to grow up thinking holidays happen over and over.

CB got a ton of really nice stuff from my parents and my brother and his friend gave him these really cute M&D trucks to complete his set. We gave him a ton of Cars stuff (his favorite thing ever) and a T-rex that roars and moves, he got an actual digital camera as well cultivating his love for photography at a young age! Also 900 pairs of jammies.

Mr.C got a really awesome gardening book, this cool heated planter for his garden starts for next spring! (Holy crap thats RIGHT around the corner)  He also got a really awesome sweatshirt (which I may or may not steal)  I gave him 2 Craftsmen tool boxes, and a pocket knife. My dad made Mr.C hooks for our deck, since my dad is an artist they are AMAZING. I can't wait for Mr.C to put them up so I can get some nice pictures of them.

My mommy and daddy spoiled me (like always) But I think my favorite thing my parents gave me was a pink fishing pole and the reel lights up with you reel it in! I know, how fucking cool is that? Next weekend I'm going to take Carson out to work on our casting. We have Steele head to catch this winter! My husband gave me a Cast Iron Skillet, and some other awesome cooking supplies. He knows where my heart is, thats for sure. I am so in love with my skillet though, I told him he should get me a new one for every gift giving holiday. I'm going to take one of our old skillets to goodwill every time I get a new cast iron one. Same with our pots, I think the boys will be getting mama some dutch oven ware. I want to have a total and complete set of cast and dutch cookware by the time we move to our forever home. Carson gave me the most beautiful necklace its simple little heart. I love it, and him. He's always my favorite present. 

I have more to post, and pictures to come. But I really need to pick up my house a bit, Mr.C's mom and sister are on their way in the AM and I would like to have a semi decent home when they get here....pictures in the AM....PROMISE! 

Well here we go again....

Attempt three of potty training. We started trying when he started showing interest in his potty seat at 18 months old. I figured some kids do it, might as well try. He just wasn't physically ready yet and after 2 days of cleaning up pee and poo I gave up.

Then we tried the week before his 2nd birthday. He was getting it, but then we got sick. Potty training + diarrhea = Not happening. When you can't even keep shit in your diaper, you sure aren't going to keep it in your butt long enough to get to the potty.

Today was Day 1! He is already doing so much better and trying so much harder than the last two times we tried. He had a lot of accidents, but thats to be expected. It was just day one.
HUGE success, he stayed dry during his nap. From 2:10-4:00 and peed in his potty almost as soon as I got him up! IT was awesome and it made me so proud.

Best moment of my life

Hanging ornamates with my little man

Mommy Saves Money: Laundry crazy....

Alright, I've gone kind of money saving crazy now that I know how much I LOVE my home made laundry detergent. I used it on all my laundry today (4 loads. Mother fuck. I just did laundry) I don't know how we go through so much laundry. But we do.

So a quick recap on the homemade laundry detergent (which can be found here) I've been using it all day, and my clothes are coming out, fluffier, cleaner, and softer.


But then I was thinking, if I really want to stop buying laundry detergent, and things that keep our clothes clean, especially with a messy 2 year old and if I remember correctly, babies are really good at crapping up their back. I remember soaking a LOT of shit covered baby clothes. So instead of spending 8$ on a small tub of baby oxi wash and 4$ on Zout stain treater.

So today I set out to make oxi clean and stain treater! With just 3 or 4 ingredients each. Instead of paying for pretty much water with some cleaning agents in it.

Home Made Zout:

Ingredients: 

2/3 cup Dawn

2/3 cup Amonia 

6 table spoon Baking soda

2 cup water

Wisk it all together, and pour it into an old zout bottle or into another kind of spray bottle. 

All done! seriously 5 minutes to make and cost pennies

Home made Oxiclean

Ingredients:

2 cup water

1 cup Baking Soda

1 cup Hydrogen Peroxide

All done. Maybe another 5 minutes to make. Also pennies.  I read that this is better for soaking than it is for putting right in the wash. But tonight I'm going to gather all of Mr.Cs and CB's gross brown bottom socks and see if this helps them at all. Nothing has worked so far, I haven't tried bleach yet. I hate to make CB wear stiff socks.

Mommy Saves Money: Laundry and Dish Detergent

Laundry Detergent and Dish Detergent Review and Recipe

This is such an affordable and green way to get clean clothes, and dishes! I spent less than 10$ on all the ingredients, and it only took me 20 minutes to make both Laundry and Dish Detergents.

Laundry Detergent Ingredients: This is Doubled

2 Cups Borax

2 Cups Washing Soda

2 Bars Fels Naptha

Dish Detergent Ingredients:

1 Cup Borax

1 Cup Washing Soda

1 Cup Sea Salt

2 Packs LEMON KoolAid

Grate up the 2 bars of Fels Naptha, this part was kind of a pain in the ass. I should have just used my food processor but I didn't want to get it out. 

1(2) cups washing soda

1(2) cups Borax

I mixed it all up in a bowl, but you could easily just put it in the container and mix it up. 

The Dish Detergent was made basically the same way! Just add Salt and koolaid as apposed to fels naptha (I didn't have as fancy of a little container for the dish soap.)

Laundry Review:

The Test: Ketchup rubbed into the shirt. First using our normal detergent

It came out clean on the Arm and Hammer side. Now lets try my home made detergent

BOTH SIDES CLEAN! (The husband was very happy since this was his shirt)

Dish Detergent Review: 

I found that it works better when you add a few drops of Dawn dish soap into the "pre-wash" section. otherwise you get some spots. Everything was clean, and smelled fresh, not like lemon. Just fresh. 

Hope this is helpful! 

Thanksgiving...

I absolutely love Thanksgiving, the smell of turkey wafting throughout the house, the stolen bites of turkey during carving, the pumpkin spice lattes and egg nogg. Even the start of Christmas music. I will not lie, I listen to Christmas music while making ThanksGiving turkey.

Even though I've been enjoy Peppermint Mocha's since the beginning of the month, I will still enjoy one the morning of Thanksgiving, I will enjoy one at 5 am the next day during black friday. I can not wait to wake up early Saturday morning and put my turkey in the oven. I absolutely love the ambiance that Thanksgiving brings. I love putting name cards out on a pre-set table. I love making the center piece. I love everything about this holiday. 

So here is the tentative menu 

The Turkey

I'm going to attempt Alton Browns Brining method. I'm not nervous. Alton always makes things as simple as possible. I am really excited to have a beautiful roasted turkey. Especially one that locks in flavor and juicyness. 

Feta Asparagus Salad

I think my mama is going to make this one and bring it. Even if she doesn't its still totally on "the list" because it just sounds AMAZING! Its so easy, I probably wouldn't bother grilling them. Just tossing them in the frying pan with the oil. Toss it with the feta and lemon zest and serve in a bowl! 

Roasted Red Potatoes

A nice throw back to the potato (don't worry, we'll have regular mashed potatoes too.) I think these just add so much, they are pretty, and look absolutely delish! 

Green Bean and Leek Casserole

This one was a HUGE hit during the summer party time. Its a great fall food as well though, plus I saved a HUGE bag of fresh green beans Mr.C grew in his garden this year, JUST for Thanksgiving. 

Mashed Potato and Stuffing Casserole

This one doesn't have a hyperlink. Mainly because I haven't found a good recipe for it yet, and also, because I thought of it myself. My plan is to make Stuffing (from the box, going old school) Put a thin layer of stuffing on the bottom, layer of mashed potatoes, and another thin layer of stuffing. It just sounds like to good of an idea to go wrong. If I find a recipe I will update with a good sounding recipe. Otherwise I'll make my own and share. I'll have this done tuesday before the holiday so I can just stick it in the fridge and bake it on saturday. 

Most of this I will make ahead, before our trip to Seattle just so I don't have so much to do friday afternoon after black friday shopping. Pumpkin pie will of course be present, as will dinner rolls and wine. 

Did I mention this is my favorite holiday?

25 weeks down, 15 to go.....

::hyperventilates::

If I am going to be completely honest and say, I am so scared I wound up crying friday night over how nervous it makes me having another baby. Don't get me wrong, I'm so excited. But SO nervous. I am scared of how CB will do, I'm scared of going to the hospital and leaving him home, even though I know he'll be in great hands and in his own bed. But I worry, what if he wakes up and needs me? and I'm not here. What will he think how will he be calmed down. I've never left him. Never overnight.

Its scary. Having a second child, is not just a huge change for us. But I have CB to worry about. What will he think of the new baby? Will he do okay? Will he resent me for taking away half his attention? Will he hate the baby when he cries? Will he feel lost in the shuffle? I know I should just stop worrying, people have more than one child all the time, the kids do great and don't turn out to be parent hating sociopaths. I know part of me will miss it just being him and I. That probably sounds terrible, but its true. I am so afraid that I will resent Bean when he's here, for taking away those special moments CB and I have when we are out doing things, "just the two of us" I like to take him to lunch, will we still do that when Bean is here? or will he make it to hard? What if he's colicky and CB can't handle the crying and hides away in his room to get away from the screaming.

My biggest worry, What if I don't instantly fall in love with Bean? I was one of those people that was just so in love with CB from the moment I found out about him, when he was born I could have burst I was so full of love for such a little being. But I know thats not always the case, some people don't bond instantly. What if that happens to Bean and I.
I haven't been as "into" this pregnancy. I'm excited, I'm living healthy and exercising. I don't have time to eat, breathe and sleep being pregnant like I did with CB.

I'm almost in tears writing this. I feel so terrible about not feeling as bonded. I love Bean, I can't wait to meet him. But the feelings are so different than when I was pregnant with CB.

A new grown up apartment

We've been working really hard on getting our apartment to feel more, well like a home. I posted a while ago that we'd decided to stick around longer because its so affordable and its in the perfect area for us. Since we aren't ready to buy for a while, and we don't want to live in the city/metro in the long run we've decided to stick around. Probably for the next 2-3 years. Since we gave Luna to my parents and Abby and Scout are older they don't need to be walked as frequently (read that as once a day) So we decided to just take the plunge and paint! The apartment looks amazing, I can't even believe how much of a change it is having it painted. It seriously feels like we moved. 

After we had painted, I took this amazing idea off Pinterest and decided to use an old antique door as a head board. Since ours wasn't really cutting it. 

This was the inspiration

We've since moved the headboard down about 6 inches and it looks a lot nicer