If you read "Special Delivery", you know that Myra likes pretending to drive. Well, Josh took my black car to work yesturday so Myra had to drive "Daddy's red car". Things were great! The weather was nice so I took the kids outside. Hannah was playing under this tropical animal musical playgym thingy and Noah was having a ball in his walker. Myra was crying?
Myra has a habbit of being rough with Noah. Josh and I both wonder why Little Man puts up with it and why in the world he's laughing. Here's the story...
Here lately, Chris has had a higher interest in using the computer to edit photos, blog, and do other nerdy-geeky related stuff. Normally, I wouldn't mind a bit, but since we only had one internet connection, she was starting to cramp my style. When you're shooting virtual terrorists with your buds, it's not very manly to say, "Hey guys, I gotta go. My wife wants to look up a recipe." Enter the wireless router!
We got this puppy at Newegg.com for dirt cheap! It is an 802.11B router which moves a little slower than the new G models. That's OK, because it meant big savings to us! We also picked up a no-name wireless card for 12 bucks with a 12 dollar rebate to complete the package. Installation SUCKED. It looked like it would be simple. I plugged them in, installed the software and nothing happened. I had to call in a heavy hitter to help me get this motor running. Ricky spent an hour or two playing with it while I spent some time talking to some good friends of mine in India (SBC tech support). Finally, we were able to jump back on the net! If you have a laptop and you don't have wireless, do yourself a favor and cut the wires! After rebates, we were able to join the 21st century for less than 20 bucks delivered! Do it!
I got this recipe out of the Variety Pack Favorite Recipes cookbook put together by members of St Louis Catholic Church in Stroud, OK. This particular recipe was submitted by Sherry Hayes (Thank you). This beer bread is very quick and extremely easy to prepare. It takes about 5-10 minutes to put everything together and it comes out fluffy. There's no waiting for the dough to rise or kneeding involved. Anybody can make it and I highly recomend that you try. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
3 C Self-Rising Flour
3 Tbsp Sugar
1 (12 oz) can warm beer
1/2 C Melted Butter
Directions:
Mix first three ingredients well. Place in greased loaf pan and top with melted butter. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.
Personal Touch:
I used beer from a bottle instead of a can. I'm not sure what kind of a differnce it makes. It was good bread! Also, try the bread warm with some honey (Ricky's great idea). Yum!
We're shamelessly stealing an idea from the Gode Blog. When Ricky told me about his idea for their new topic, Blast from the Past, I just had to do it, too. We have plenty of great old pics of us lying around that the world should must see. So I went to the Davis archive to see what I could dig up. Guess what we keep all of our old pictures in? That's right, a shoebox. The same type of shoebox that the Barenaked Ladies immortalized in song. It doesn't have a fancy topic picture yet, but it already has its very first entry. Here's a look back at simpler times. This is Chris and me beginning the journey. Here we are walking out of the church hall after our wedding. There are a few familiar faces in the background. Ten points to the first one to name all of them correctly!
Answers are inside.
How's this for a family portrait? Our brother-in-law, Walter, "gave" us the idea. Ricky was kind enough to let us use his "studio" this evening before eating a delicious Easter dinner prepared by Anna. When we arrived home, Josh gave me a quick lesson on Photoshop and I took it from there. So what do you think?
Chris and I were awakened this morning by a very excited Myra. She was babbling about presents and eggs and a SECRET MESSAGE! It seems that the Easter Bunny paid us a visit last night and he was very good to us. Eggs that we had painstakingly colored the nightbefore , as well as some other goodie-filled plastic ones, were hidden around the house. Since it rained all night here, Peter Rabbit decided that we could do our egg-hunting inside. I thanked him for that.
We got up and headed into Noah's room to get him out of bed and what did we see? He was STANDING in his crib quietly saying "Da-da, Da-da." What a great Easter gift for Chris and me! This is the first time he's been able to pull up all by himself. We sat him back down a few times and he quickly (and proudly) demonstrated his new-found skill and each time finished off with a cute little dance just like the one that Myra used to do at his age.
We went back into the living room and opened up gifts. Noah and Myra both loved Noah's new workbench toy and Myra was very excited to see some Play-doh, school books, and a cute little tic-tac-toe game. After a quick once-over of all the loot, we picked up our baskets and the hunt was on! Myra helped Noah hunt for eggs and was very good about sharing them with him--as long as they weren't the ones she colored! With a little help, we found them all. I'm glad we didn't have to do it outside. I can just see myself running over a month old egg with the lawnmower the next time I cut the grass.
All in all, we had a GREAT Easter. Myra's enthusiasm was icing on the cake for us. I hope all of yours was as fun as ours. Happy Easter!
If you want to see more of the greatest Easter in River Oaks history, click here!
Noah is learning to pull up to anything within reach. Most of the time, it is solely for the purpose of trying to eat something, ANYTHING, no matter the size, texture, or taste. Here he is chowing down on Aunt Doo-Doo's coffee table.
Myra has been thinking about what she wants to be when she grows up. One day, she wants to be a teacher and the next day, a builder. The other day, her mind changed once again. She was practicing to be a delivery girl.
Did you ever play Hot Potato when you were young? It's the ball game where you roll the ball back and forth as fast as you can. I don't really remember the point to the whole thing but I do remember having fun. Apparently, kids still have fun playing today.
I can't believe we've already made it through our first 100 posts. This thing started out as a way for us to remember all the little things that make parenting so much fun. It's grown into a little more than that, and we're loving it. It's been a lot of fun writing about the kiddos and sharing pictures with everyone. This blog has been a team effort from the start and it would not have been possible without a lot of attention and enthusiasm from my lovely wife, Chris. Thanks, baby!
We recently visited Greg and Anna in Center and while we were there, we did a little fishing in Lake Stuever. Myra is a BIG fan of fishing ever since Leon took her out to one of the ponds around his house and she hauled in a mess of small bass. We caught a few there and Myra caught the fishing bug again.
This time, we went down to Bob's Fishin' Hole, a local catfish farm. Myra was looking sharp with her brand new Nemo fishing pole. After being told that we had to pay by the pound and couldn't throw any fish back, Chris and I tried hard not to catch too much. We only hauled in one each, but one of them was a real monster. He weighed about 5 pounds, which makes it the biggest catfish I've ever caught. Of course, it's still a wee bit smaller than the biggest striper I've ever caught! All in all, we had a blast. The best part was, they cleaned them for us. So, if you got any good catfish recipes, drop me a line!
Check out the photo album by clicking here or by visiting the Photos link on the menu at the right.
It's WAAAAAAY over in east Texas, almost in Louisiana, and that suits me just fine. Why, you ask? Because they're located in Crawfish Country! We took a weekend trip out to Center to hang out with Greg, Anna, Nathan, Zoey, and Allison and it was a lot of fun. A nice big helpin' of of country livin' and Cajun Crawfish is well worth the 4 hour drive. We drank beer, grilled brats, watched basketball, and even dipped our lines in the water a little. Didn't catch much, but that's OK by me. I couldn't clean a fish to save my life. Capturing it all on camera was Photo-Mama. View the fruits of her labor here.
I have always known this dish as Mexican Corn, but that's just not a good description for this yummy stuff. It's not very spicy, doesn't really have much corn in it, and it definitely doesn't make me think of Mexican food when I eat it. Don't let that fool you, though, this stuff is GREAT! Here's the details.
Ingredients:
1 cup chopped onion (1 medium onion)
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1 lb of hamburger
16 oz of tomato sauce
1 can of corn (drained)
1 tblspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of garlic salt
1 tblspoon chili powder
1 dash of pepper
1 cup of regular sized corn chips (Fritos or tortilla-style)
1 cup of grated cheddar
Brown hamburger and drain.
Add green onion and pepper, cook until tender.
Add next 6 ingredients and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
Put into a casserole dish, top with chips and cheese
Bake for 15-20 in a 375 degree oven.
For a printer-friendly version, click here.
Today I took Myra to the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw Administration Building to register her for PRE-SCHOOL! Myra was very excited! She told the receptionist all about how she's going to turn four at her next birthday and then she can go to school. After registering, we drove by her "new school" so she could see it. It upset her, just a little bit, that she couldn't go inside (it's not quite built yet) but just knowing that she has a school now makes her happy. She's been wanting to call everybody to tell them all about it. So, Granddaddy and Mimi, Granny and Papa, Grandma, and everyone else, when your phone rings tonight, be prepared for a BIG GIRL to be on the other end.
A quick personal thought: So many moms that I have talked to have mentioned crying at registration or when dropping their "baby" off for their first day of school. I can honestly say that I don't think I'll be one to cry. I'm excited for Myra. I think she's going to have so much fun and make lots of new friends. I can't wait!
What a BIG girl!
Walt and Angie Cox have finally jumped on the blogwagon and started their own blog. Their homesite has always been listed in the links because they have some great pictures of Kennedy there but now, they've finally decided to give the whole blogging thing a try. Check it out. It's got a nice clean site design and Walt has already wowed me with a killer idea for a family portrait that just takes a few nice pics and a smidgeon of Photoshop know-how to pull off. Swing by and take a look. You won't regret it. If you like photo tips and cute babies, click here.
Today was a busy day for Mommy. There was so much to do and not a whole lot of time to do it. I had to go to the store and to the bank. We had lunch to make for a pot luck at school, dinner to start in the crock pot and then we had plans to visit Baby Zeke (and his family). I'll just tell you about the fun stuff.
I love my/our new camera! I've taken so many pictures that Josh has decided to teach me how to make my own pages for our photo album.
My first album is our trip to Benbrook Park. We go out there every-so-often to feed the ducks and let Myra play on their "castle" and other fun things. On this trip, she made a new friend. HIS name is Chris and he's 5, almost 6, years old and only about two inches taller than her. (You know, everyone mentions how tall she is, but it never really hit me until I saw her standing next to him.) Myra enjoyed it and I had fun taking pictures (I took a little over 100 of them).
To see my first album page, click here.
Do you remember being in Science class learning about static electricity? You would take a balloon, rub it on your head and make your hair stand up. All the kids in my class loved that "experiment".
Well, here's Noah's first lesson on static electricity...
I don't know about you, but I lubs me some Calvin and Hobbes. It was a sad day for me when Bill Waterson decided to stop drawing my favorite 6 year old and his "pet" tiger. I ran across the COMPLETE archive of C & H on the net and a just HAD to tell you all about it. I only read about 3 months worth and I've already nearly peed my pants twice. If you like Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs and can't wait to read the next issue of Spaceman Spiff then you should click here.
I finally got a good picture of Myra! She really should to let me take more.
(You have to imagine the music for "Dora the Explorer".)
Now that Noah can crawl, he's going anywhere and everywhere. The no stopping him now.
I went in to pick up Noah this morning before work. He was awake and got real excited when he saw me. He normally does his "Floppy-Fish Happy Dance" and then gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth like a drag racer waiting for the green light. This time, however, he rolled onto his side and tried to push himself up into a sitting position. He almost made it, too. With a tiny bit of help, he did. I was stunned. At that very moment I realized just how big my baby boy was getting and it made me kind of sad.
Things seem to be moving faster and faster as I get older. A school year used to last forever in my mind. We've only got about 10 weeks left on this one and it seems like we just started. Noah is becoming a big boy right in front of me and I feel like it's all happening too fast. Didn't we just bring him home from the hospital? Myra is behaving like such a big girl. Hanging out with older friends, asking me tons of questions, and trading in Blue's Clues for Rugrats. It seems like yesterday when I first saw her, upside down, hiccuping, and staring right at me.
There are a lot of things I don't miss about having tiny babies around, but I do miss the cuddling, the quiet midnight feedings, and the feeling you get when you see a first smile, giggle, or coo. In a way, I still get those feelings, but now it's for different things. I guess being a parent is about trying to keep things feeling the same in a state of constant change. You can't stop the march of time so I guess I really have no choice. I'm going to suck it up, sit back, and enjoy the ride.
Our little digital finally called it quits. For the price we paid for it, it did good. We've now invested in a new digital camera. It's a Canon Digital Rebel (recomended by Ricky) and I L-O-V-E love it. Between the new camera and learning Adobe Photoshop CS, I'm having a blast! I'll keep practicing and you keep checking back for better pictures.
Take a look at some of my "work"...
This weekend Granddaddy and Mimi came to visit for Granddaddy's birthday. Myra was so excited. She called them every night to tell them very important information. "You can sleep in my bed and I going to sleep in Noah's room on the floor" which is what always happens when we have guests. Then there was "We're going to have Granddaddy's birthday at my house!" But my favorite of all was ...
I went into Noah's room to get him up in the morning a couple of days ago and he was so happy he couldn't contain himself. He would get up on his hands and knees and then drop to his belly and twitch his arms and legs frantically while giggling. It got me to thinking about "happy dances." I know that there are a lot of us out there with a "happy dance". You know what it is. It's that crazy set of movements that takes over your body when something really great happens like you get a new job, you find a 5-spot in your jacket pocket, or your little one poops in the potty for the first time. Back in college, I used to have one called "da Butt" but now, my dance is a more reserved fist pump with some booty-shakin'. Christina's looks kind of like a double thumbs-up with a head rattle. The humor of Ben Cantwell's happy dance is only surpassed by it's indescribability. Myra has had a few different ones, but none of them are as good as her "Thunder Dance". She puts her arms out to her side and flaps just her hands while running around screaming "THUNDER! THUNDER! I SCARED OF THUNDER!" Do you have a dance? Are you willing to admit it?
This old-world German staple has never tasted so good. Use my simple recipe to impress your guests with down-home cooking with an international flair. Perfect for football Sundays or just any old cookout that involves men and beer.
