the smallest of the smalls is four

Yesterday we celebrated our sweet baby's fourth birthday. My how time flies! I love this top photo of her. It was taken a couple of weeks ago and I think it captures her perfectly. I love that sweet little smile. And what birthday would be complete without a party dress? A few weeks ago I bought this adorable corduroy at the quilt shop to make a jumper out of it. I didn't have a pattern, so I just drew one up based on this one. I was just happy it turned out and Lucy loves it!

My parents and my grandpa came into town for the day and we visited the aquarium and went to lunch at Lucy's favorite spot. When we went out she wore her black mary jane's, but once we came home for cake and presents and she got these pink cowgirl boots from my parents, there was no going back. She didn't want to take them off!

Happy Birthday my Lucy!

a lot of pecans and a little bit of cotton

Lucy holding the outer husk of the pecan that she calls a flower

My grandpa pretty much lives in the middle of a pecan orchard, so this time of year always holds an abundance of pecans for the taking. And they are so much better than the store bought kind. Seriously, the ones at the grocery store are a joke.

If you have never shelled pecans, just know that it can be hard work (even if you take them to get them cracked first). The shells are hard and can leave your fingers numb if you shell a lot of them. I have such vivid memories of my grandma sitting and shelling pecans. She loved it. The phrase "a bag of grandma's pecans" carries a lot of weight in our family. She would shell the pecans and then put them in bags in the freezer for all of her children and grandchildren. Now that she is no longer with us, there aren't very many bags left in the freezer. And we all cherish what we have left. Like they are a little bit of her that we still have with us. I still have over half a gallon bag in my freezer, which can cause quite a problem. Why? Well, when I am going to be baking something to share, I want to use those pecans because they are so delicious. The problem? I don't want to share them! (I know, I know. I'm an awful person.)

I decided the best way to solve the problem was to go and pick some up at my grandpa's and shell them myself. So, my mom, the kids, grandpa and I ending up picking up about twelve pounds in just a short time. I then took them to get them cracked and then I commenced to shelling them (with the help of Michael's dad). My fingers were so sore that warm water hurt them! I got two gallon bags of them, which is the equivalent of about fifty dollars worth of shelled pecans. Whoa! And it only took a little over an hour total. And these I can actually share! Here is Lucy "wielding" the Nut Wizard ) or as we refer to it, "The Pecan Picker Upper."

There is also a cotton field next to my grandpa's house and the kids always love picking a boll of it to play with. I wonder why Larkin looked so concerned...
And what post would be complete without a photo of my grandpa, right?

cowboys and ballerinas

We just spent a fun-filled week visiting both my family and Michael's family. We were there for Halloween. This is the first year that I have not sewn their costumes. I felt a little bit sad about that, but we have been so busy lately that I just didn't have the time. I still didn't buy a costume, so I guess that made me feel a little less sad. The cowboy...

Notice his first two fingers on his right hand are bandaged. Yeah, not so good things happen when a six-year-old gets his hands on a rotary cutter. And the ballerina...

She was doing a little dance for me. And I have mentioned before how much I love my grandpa. Well, you know I must if I am willing to post this photo of me without even a smidgen of powder, much less the other bits of makeup that go into making me more presentable. But I had to because I love this photo of us!

More photos of our fun to come later this week, as well as a celebration of a little one turning four.

finger paint and pictograms

The kids came running to me last week with some finger paint from the classroom. Now, I am not one to initiate a finger painting session. I always think of how messy it is and how it is going to get all over their clothes, etc. (I know. I know. Get over it.) Well, after a moment or so of trying to find a reason for them not to use it, I realized that we were studying ancient Chinese pictograms in history that day. Perfect...except that the finger paint was also ancient (no surprise there since we never use it). The kids were quite disappointed so I had to quickly come up with an alternative. And I figured since we have made play-doh (I like this recipe substituting half a pack of jello for the kool-aid) that surely we could make finger paint. It was as easy as brushing your teeth. Here is the recipe:

1 cup flour

1 cup water

food coloring

Yep. That's it. And I didn't have to worry about it staining clothes or being toxic (Of course I am pretty sure the store bought kind wasn't toxic either, but you know...) As you can see above, Lucy wasn't all that concerned with the pictograms, but Larkin did manage to "write" house...

banana bread

I love banana bread. I have made it many times in the past, but it seems that the last several times the bread would get too brown on the outside while undercooked in the middle. This past weekend I found a new recipe online and as I was reading the review of it, several people mentioned having the same problem with banana bread having a gooey center. One reviewer posted an idea of baking the bread in a bundt pan rather than a loaf pan and decreasing the cooking time. Hello! It worked perfectly! Here is the recipe I found at Recipe Zaar (great site for recipes with lots of reviews) for Banana Banana Bread. It had a near five-star rating with over 600 reviews...I figured it was a pretty safe bet :) The bread was delicious!

Banana Banana Bread

(submitted by Shelley Albeluhn on recipezaar.com)

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 2 1/3 cups mashed very overripe bananas

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Lightly grease 9 x 5 loaf pan. (I used a bundt pan.)

3. In large bowl, combine flour, soda and salt.

4. In separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar.

5. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended.

6. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten.

7. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

8. Bake in preheated oven for 60-65 minutes until a toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean. (I decreased the baking time to 40 minutes with the bundt pan.)

9. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

dear friends

My last post was in September? My goodness! After we returned home from our visit with my family we had a few days before a ten-day visit with some dear friends that we haven't seen since our wedding day over eight years ago! We laughed about how no matter how long it has been since we have seen each other, that in some ways it seems as though no time has passed at all. There is an ease in being together. Before they flew out yesterday afternoon we took a stroll through Centennial Park. Lucy seemed to enjoy one tree in particular...

We had a ton of fun while they were here and I hope we don't have to wait that long to see them again. What a great start to fall!

nice surprise

Yesterday morning I slept in a bit because I wasn't feeling well. When I got up this is how I found my little guy. It made my heart smile. We are off to visit my family for my dad's birthday. I hope you all have a great weekend and that your hearts are smiling!