Brownie

While we were in North Carolina we visited my grandmother and her hubby. Remember?


Well while we were there Zachariah pretty much fell in love with their dog, Brownie. And you know what? Brownie fell in love with Zachariah too. Every time Zachariah would go outside of Brownie's electrical fence boundaries, he would cry and whine until Z came back. It was SO cute. And pitiful. That dog desperately needs a friend. :)


Now fast forward to earlier this week.

I was standing in the kitchen eating what ended up being the first of 10 brownies I devoured that day, when Zachariah came and stood next to me with puppy dog eyes. I asked him if he wanted a piece and he responded with an eager "uh-huh!!"

Since he is learning new words on a daily basis, I try tell him the name of the food(s) that he is eating... and every now and then he will try and repeat it after me. So as I was handing him a piece of my brownie I said to him, "This is a brownie, ok?". And he promptly barked at me.

Over the past couple days when he sees a brownie or wants to eat a brownie, he barks. And it makes me laugh, each and every time.



He loves this dog. Almost as much as he loves my brownies.

Ramblings

- I am tired.
- I am tired of my neck being so stiff. I need a massage.
- I am overwhelmed with the amount of pictures I need to edit.
- I then need to post said pictures to facebook.
- I need to practice my photography. I just cant seem to find the time.
- I want my son to have fun during the day. But its too dang hot do go outside.
- I want to do yoga, but I cant afford to take classes and the DVD's are not encouraging me. Seriously, what normal person is THAT flexible?
- My son cracks up laughing when he sees me doing yoga.
- I am afraid I have gained 45 pounds with all the brownies I have eaten in the past three days.
- Forget yoga. I need to do the 30 day shred or something.
- My son is turning two in a month. Someone pinch me.
- I didn't get to go see my brother graduate from boot camp this past weekend, and that depresses me. Watching video's and seeing pictures makes me cry.
- My son came up and randomly hugged me today. That came close to making me cry.
- The garbage men did not put our trash can back where it belonged. That almost made me cry too.
- I am apparently emotional today. Dang hormones.

Yogurt

Last week I bought a whole tub of organic plain yogurt. I had no clue why I decided that I needed this, but I plopped it into the shopping cart and went on my merry way.

The day after I bought it, I put some cut up fruit in the yogurt and gave some to Z. I had hopes of him saying "Mmmm! Dishis!", but he hated this stuff. Apparently the plain yogurt taste was still too strong. He definitely preferred Daddy's yogurt with all the preservatives and junk. Of course.


So there it sat, a tub of plain yogurt, with no one to eat it. Seriously folks, who eats PLAIN yogurt? Blegh.

Not more than a day after I had convinced myself this yogurt was going to rot in the fridge, I read a post that MckMama wrote. It gave a recipe of how to "make" your own yogurt using (drum roll please) ... a tub of organic plain yogurt! WOOHOO! (Click here to see the recipe.)

I was pumped. Seriously, Zachariah and I made that sucker about an hour after I read the recipe. And it was SO EASY. Luckily I had all the necessary ingredients on hand (yogurt, honey, vanilla, strawberries, blueberries and banana). We just threw them into a blender and whabam! We had a huge container full of yogurt that Zachariah will actually eat.


Doesn't it look yummy??

MckMama's looks more pinkish. I think I may have skimped on the strawberries. But at that point, I didn't too much care. I am just glad that tub of yogurt did not go to waste. I would have never heard the end of it from my hubby.

:)

Brief Update

Zachariah has been in a jibberish stage for a while now. Don't get me wrong, he has a list of about a dozen words that he will throw around on a very regular basis, but he loves the jibberish.

Personally, I find it to be one of the most adorable things ever. He will just come up and talk to us (in what seems like another language), and he will be so passionate about what he is saying. I just wish I knew what he was trying to communicate to us!

All that to say, I have been amazed at how much his vocabulary has grown over the past week. Seriously, he has added about ten words to his vocabulary in just a few days. And it isn't like he says it just once... he has incorporated them into his daily schedule. He will go out of his way to find a reason to say "tu-tle" (turtle). It is SO DANG CUTE.

Anyway. I decided to list the words that he has learned and added to his vocab over the past week. If this doesn't interest you, I apologize. But I needed to write this all out so I had a record of it. And what better place to do it than my blog? :)


New words... and a few phrases.

"Pu-ple" (purple)
"Tu-tle" (turtle)
"Ta-tor" (tractor)
"Dumb" (yeah. this one is my fault)
"Basketball" (seriously. he says every letter of this word. this is one of my favorites)
"Et's-doe!" (lets go!)
"Dishis" (delicious)
"Cak-cakes" (pancakes)
"bowl"
"I each" (I can't reach)
"Oo, at's dat?" (Ooo, whats that?)


And on a somewhat related note... Z has been kicking butt with his animal noises. He cannot tell you the name of the animal (except a very select few), but when asked to identify a certain animal, he will do a VERY realistic sounding noise. It has seriously blown me away. His favorite animal noise lately has been an eagle. And if you have ever heard an eagles squawk... well, lets just say I am hoping he moves on to a butterfly noise soon.

I am hoping to video tape some of this, but I have to be sneaky about it. Or else he will just want to watch himself in the video camera. So once I can figure out a plan of action, I will hopefully have some videos up here! :)

Off We Go, Into The Wild Blue Yonder

Remember my brother, Wesley? He got super sick about halfway through boot camp and was delayed quite a bit. If none of this sounds familiar, you should probably go read this post. :)


I am super excited to announce that Wesley graduated this weekend! And he was promoted to Airman First Class as well! How cool is that?






My brother has officially become and Airman, and I couldn't be prouder.

Broccoli Casserole

I do not like broccoli. I do not like it, Sam you see.

That being said, my mother in law makes a superb broccoli casserole. So superb, in fact, that I got the recipe from her a couple years ago and I make it about once a week at our house. It is one of the only veggies Zachariah will eat on a regular basis. He will get seconds and thirds of this stuff. Its fabulous.

Seeing as how my family loves it so much, I thought I would share the super simple recipe with you. You know, just in case you wanted to try it. :)



First, the ingredients. You will need some broccoli, mayo, cream of chicken soup, shredded cheddar cheese (sharp), eggs and Ritz crackers.




First, cook the broccoli according to the packaged directions. Drain really well, then set it aside. We will use this in just a little bit.

(You need a 16 ounce bag of broccoli. Winn Dixie carries the PERFECT size bag for this. Other stores may have a 16 ounce bag as well, but I have yet to find it.)




In a decent sized bowl, combine two eggs, a can of cream of chicken soup, and a cup of mayo.




If you have a cute and eager helper nipping at your heels, you can have him stir it for you.




Don't forget to shout, "Keep the spatula over the bowl. OVER the bowl!" a few times. When that doesn't work, just try and will the spatula not to drip all over the counter.




After you accept the fact that your "little helper" is going to make a complete mess of your kitchen, take your cooked broccoli and throw it into the bowl.




Then have your cute little helper pour in one and a half cups of shredded cheese.




We do it in half cup doses. That way he gets to do it three times and feels like he is being more helpful.

But you may feel free to measure it all out at once. And then let me live vicariously through you.




Now stir in the broccoli and cheese into your mixture.




Now is where the phrase "Keep the spatula over the bowl!" comes in handy again.




Whew. That was a close one.




Once you have successfully mixed all of your ingredients, pour it into a 9x13 casserole dish (or something similar).




Remember the Ritz crackers? Well now you need to pull out one sleeve from the box and crush them up.

(I recommend the Honey Ritz. It adds a touch of sweetness to the casserole. It's delish. But you can always go the plain Ritz cracker route. There is no shame in that.)

You can do this one of two ways. 1) Put a few in your hand at a time and crush them up, sprinkling them across the casserole as you go, or 2) put them in a bag and smash them.




Since I had a willing helper, we went with option number two.




My "willing helper" got a little bored and decided to try a new technique. Rolling the crackers with his stomach, or the steam roller effect.

I don't recommend it.




That's better... back to the hitting.

Geeze. It sure is hard to find good help around here.




Ok! After you have crumbled all the crackers, sprinkle them all over the top of the casserole.


Note: these may look like they are already golden brown from being in the oven, but do not be deceived. I used whole wheat Ritz crackers, and they are just naturally a darker color.




While we are on the subject of whole wheat Ritz crackers, let me give you a piece of advice. If your spouse does not like things made with whole wheat, do not, I repeat, do NOT try to trick them into eating them. They will not be fooled!

But I don't speak from experience or anything. This might have happened to a friend of mine. Ahem.




After it cooks for about 25 min. you may dig in! You know, after it cools off a bit. Try to resist. Often times I cant help myself and eat a chunk soon after its out of the oven. But its quite painful, so I recommend waiting a short while.


And that's it folks! Below are the ingredients and directions without all the blabber.

Go try it. You will not be disappointed.

Scouts honor.



Mother in Law's Broccoli Casserole

16 oz package of chopped broccoli
2 eggs
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 cup of mayo
1 1/2 cup of grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 sleeve of Ritz crackers


Preheat oven to 350
Cook broccoli, drain well
Combine all ingredients together (except Ritz) and pour into 9x13 casserole dish.
Crumble crackers on top
Bake for 25 min. or until crackers are golden brown

Book Review Thursday

I know, I know. I have missed the past two Book Review Thursdays. I apologize. But my guess is you didn't even miss them! So I am hopefully in the clear. In fact, I thought about just skipping them for the next couple weeks anyway... but then realized that I still had quite a few books that are definitely worth sharing. So I will continue on until I run out of good books.

Then I might turn this into Books I Want You to Buy My Son Thursday.

Hee hee.

Okay. On with the book review.


This weeks book happens to be made by the Baby Einstein company. We LOVE Baby Einstein. We have all of their DVD's, quite a few of their books, a couple toys, and a play mat from when Z was a baby.

I'll say it again. We love the Baby Einstein company.

This book is one of Z's favorites. But then again, he loves all of the Baby Einstein books. This one especially because it teaches him about the body parts. The real fun began once he was able to point to and identify the body parts though.


One of the great things about this book is that each page has a little mirror on it. Zachariah loves to point to the body part as we read about it in the book. On this page they ask the child to hold up their fingers to the mirror, and Zachariah usually wiggles them around like crazy. Its cute.



This is one of Z's favorite pages. He gets to hold up his shirt and find his belly button. And he likes the fact that the monkeys are taking a bath. Because well, he loves bath time. So he gets joy in reading about it.

So overall, it's a cute book, educational, and fun for kids. Zachariah has had it for almost a year now, and has loved it from day one!

Gem Mining

While we were in NC, the youth group decided to do a little gem mining in Boon. Seeing as how it is not the most toddler friendly activity, Daniel kept Zachariah back at the retreat center and I got to go hang out with the kids WITHOUT a toddler! It was so refreshing to be able to have adult conversations with other counselors there without having to throw in a "Do you have a poopy diaper?"


So here I am... mining for gems. Except you don't really mine. They give you a big bucket of dirt, and you scoop a pile or two into your sifter. Then you put your sifter in a water trough and sift away all of the dirt. Then you decide what rock like objects you want to keep and you put them in a bucket.



Here I am, scooping my dirt, hoping for some massive diamonds or something.



No diamonds were found, but check out this massive rock I found. Its called a geode. You can get it cut open and there are crystals inside of it. Its pretty cool, except their machine was too small the cut mine open. Boo.

Oh, and you see how nasty my hands and fingernails are??? Yeah. That water was MUDDY. It was gross.

I don't like getting dirty. Just ask my parents. I am a real wimp about certain things, and dirt is definitely high up on the list.



Here are my rock findings! I kept A LOT of the rock like objects I found. Just in case they ended up being something important.



Here is a nifty little chart that they give you. This guy put the rocks in their appropriate places on the chart, then used some heavy duty packing tape to seal them in place.



And here is my finished chart! I had a good bit of emeralds and garnet. The rose quartz and amethyst were my favorite though! Oh, and look closely at the top right hand box. That stone is one of the three rarest to find. And woohoo! I found it. I don't know why, but I was pretty excited about that.

It apparently doesn't take much to entertain me. Just give me some dirt and rocks and I will be happy.

Anyway, the nifty thing is you can have the stones cut and set, making some beautiful jewelry! I am sooo looking forward to that. One day. You know, when we have money to spare. When I decide to have the stones cut, I will probably mail them back to this place in NC, because they do it for CHEAP.

So yeah.., that concludes my gem mining experience. I had a TON of fun and would love to do it again one day!

Like Mommy, Like Son

Someone forgot to tell him his lens cap was on. Poor kid.

:)

Z-isms

Zachariah is sitting on a large storage container in our living room...

Me: Zachariah, do not stand up on that box.

Z: (Stares blankly, pretending he does not understand, while slowly moving to a standing position.)

Me: Do NOT stand up on that box, you need to sit on your bottom. You don't fool me. I am not dumb. (the latter was muttered under my breath)

Z: (shouting) DUMB! Dumb, dumb, dumb!


Fabulous.

Spoons

Preface: The Pioneer Woman blogged about some wooden spoons that a friend gave her as a housewarming gift. I thought the wooden spoons were amazing. They almost made me drool.

That being said, I have never owned a wooden spoon.

Yes, you read correctly. I used to have a hatred for them. But I blame that on my parents for using a darn wooden spoon to spank me when I was younger.

I have become fascinated with wooden spoons over the past few months. I have had a desire to go out and purchase a bundle of them. But I am not sure why I would use them. I mean, I have plastic spoons, metal spoons and silicone spoons (which I LOVE).


So that leaves me wondering... why do I need a wooden spoon? What will it benefit me? Do you have wooden spoons? Do you prefer wooden spoons?

I need feedback. I really want you people to convince me that wooden spoons are amazing. Because I REALLY want to go out and buy some.

And because I have some lurkers who NEVER comment (ahem. you know who you are), here is a poll. But I would still like some specific answers in the comment section.

So there.

Wheeeeee!

Sorry for the delay everyone. I know I promised you a post yesterday, but I had one heck of a busy day. I had to do grueling things like play the Wii, eat my mom's food, take a nap, and color with my adorable child.

With all that hard work, I am lucky I made it out alive!

Well, the other day I posted an uber cute picture of Zachariah here. That picture is one of the many from our North Carolina trip, and this particular day he was all smiles, all the time.

Why? Because of the kick butt playground we played on for about 3 hours, that's why.


We started out on the small playground. And quite honestly, I assumed that is where we would stay.



But Zachariah eventually got bored and started climbing up the slide. So we moved on to bigger and better things.



The big kid slide!!! Woohoo!

He loved this thing. He went down with Daddy the very first time, but from then on out he did everything himself. He climbed the 20 flights of stairs (with one of us halfway up just in case he needed something) and wend down the slide. All. By. Himself.

I had issues with that. I mean, I know he is almost two, but I was remembering the very first time he went down a slide. And I had to hold both of his hands. It was adorable. And now he is grown up. Sliding all by himself. *sniff sniff*

After I was finished balling my eyes out, I got busy taking pictures.



Because this is way to cute not to capture on film.



There was never a time where he did not have a huge smile plastered on his face while going down this slide. And he had an audience cheering for him every single time. Which he loved.



And every time he would slide he would say "wheeeeee!" That in and of itself was cute. But then when you factor in his facial expressions and giggles on the way down? It was almost too much for me to handle.


So yeah. We had a blast. And how can you not have a blast playing at a park with it being only 67 degrees?

What? Your tired of me talking about the amazing weather? Well too bad. Because I am on a North Carolina high. :)



And I am on a Zachariah high as well.

He is just so DANG CUTE!

Cutest Kid Ever

I bet your wondering what made him so happy, aren't you?


Come back tomorrow to find out!

Picture Perfect

As you may know, Daniel, Zachariah and I went to North Carolina last week. We spent two days with my grandmother, and 6 days at a retreat center. Daniel was the speaker for this youth camp and we had an absolute blast!

The weather... oh the weather. The highest it got all week was about 75 degrees. In the evenings it got down to the 50's and we were wearing jackets. Who would have thought I would be wearing a jacket in the middle of July???

So yeah. We loved it. We didn't want to come home to this awful heat. It is 92 degrees today, but it feels like 99. (thank you, weather.com) Oh the joys of living in the hottest state there is. Ugh.

Okay. I will temporarily pull myself out of my seasonal depression for the remainder of the post.

You are welcome.



If you have ever tried to take a picture with a toddler, you may be able to empathize with me a little bit here.

Right behind the retreat center there was a small creek. It was beautiful. So I decided this would be a good time to grab a quick picture or two of me and Zachariah. (We are long overdue for an updated picture)



It started out as well as could be expected. We start with the usual routine of taking a picture with a squirmy toddler. I picked him up and I either point to something near Daniel, or Daniel does something silly to get him to look at the camera and smile.

Usually it works.


But 10 seconds into this he decided he would rather play with his doggie friend by the water.

Thus begins the squirming.



Let me just tell you, it is very difficult to hold onto a 30 pound toddler when he has his mind set on getting down.

So the rest of our pictures were... well, not anything to write home about.


Yeah. I think you get the idea.

The picture taking stopped there.



What, Zachariah? You want a picture with Daddy?

Of course you do.

*sigh*

On any other occasion I would be VERY bitter about that. But we got some decent pictures later on in the day. I will post those later. Along with the hundreds of other pictures I took from the trip. :)

Ta ta for now.

I Heart NC

We are officially home from North Carolina. We are completely exhausted, but we had an absolute blast. Our welcoming party was a bummer though. It consisted of a flat tire on Daniel's car and a dead refrigerator. Our house is apparently confused on the details of a welcoming party. Finding out we need to buy new tires and a new fridge upon arriving home is NOT what we were expecting.

Such is life, I guess.

So, while we tackle the daunting task of unpacking and cleaning out all the spoiled food from our fridge, I will leave you with this image from yesterday's excursion.



*sigh* I want to go back so badly.


More about our trip in the upcoming days! :)