Posted on

Weekend Update


So Saturday morning, I got up bright and early because I find it practically impossible to sleep in these days and I took Sherbet for a ride. She and I had a lovely time. I hardly remember what I did for most of the rest of that day … cuz, get this, I had nothing specific TO DO. I think there was a nap in there somewhere.

That evening, we went to McCormick and Schmick's to celebrate my dad's and my own birthday. We had a very nice dinner and then returned to my parents' house for cake and gifts. Continue reading “Weekend Update”

Posted on

Belly Blessing


Friday night was the henna party for Holly friend and her next little guy. I was just a bit of a helper and guest. There was loads of good food and good people and we had a wonderful time. Holly had hired a professional henna artist to help out with the henna work, but there were extra bottles of henna so that we could all work on each other as well, so that was good fun. My tattoo is on the left. It's a good deal lighter right now, but looks very pretty.

Posted on

A New Friend

Tabby and Loki have definitely always shown some interest in each other, but lately, since Tabby has had improved motor control, she takes every opportunity she has to give him a pat. Some of these pats are quite gentle … she seems to be feeling his fur (she has a thing for textures), but others are rather … vigorous. Loki is always very gentle with her, and with all little ones. And he seems to understand that they can take more as they get older. He can be running around like a crackhound and you'd swear you should move the kid before he runs him over, but he always goes around the little ones. But he does get something in return … lots of licked up leftovers.

Oh yea, and despite myriad evidence to the contrary, we do usually have Tabby in clothes. Continue reading “A New Friend”

Posted on

Indian Spice Henna Cookies

from: Better Homes & Gardens Christmas Cookies

Ingredients
1 C butter, softened
3/4 C granulated sugar
1 egg
2.5 C all purpose flour

Directions
Heat oven to 375. Beat butter for 30 seconds. Add sugar; beat until combined. A dd egg; beat until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can do with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour.

Divide dough in half. Cover and chill one portion of dough. On a floured surface, roll other portion of dough 1/4 inch thick. Cut with cookie cutters dipped in flour; reroll trimmings and repeat cutting dough. Arrange cutouts on ungreased cookie shseets. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until bottoms are very lightly browned. Transfer to wire racks; cool.

Decorate as desired.

from: Holly & Jess Original

Ingredients
1 recipe of sugar cookie cutouts
1 recipe/can of frosting
food coloring
flavorings such as cardamom, coconut, almond, ginger, and cinnamon

Directions
Make up your sugar cookie dough and before you've mixed in all the flour, break off some dough and figure out how you want to flavor it (experiment, people!). We used cardamom (lots), gigner (some) and almond extract (some). Once you've figured it out, flavor all the dough accordingly. Finish up with adding the flour. Cut and bake your cookies accordingly.

While they're baking/cooling, mix up your frosting. We used a bunch of red, yellow, and green food coloring to achieve that brown shade and we flavored it with coconut. Then use your handy-dandy piping bag to pipe mehndi designs onto your cookies.

Posted on

Stuff to Share

Remember last winter when we went crazy went up to Vail and made a ton of cookies?? Well we made these amazing sugar cookies and I've been meaning to post the recipe since the because they were not only very yummy, but they also did not change shape AT ALL when you baked them. A very important thing when baking a billion cookies that sometimes try to run into each other as they bake. Anyhoo, finally got the recipe from my mom (it was in her magazine) and I've got it to share with you. Cuz that's what you really want right now, right? Christmas cookies.

Tabalicious has made great strides in hand-eye coordination. Her new favorite activity is banging on whatever is in front of her. Honestly, I don't know how she doesn't hurt herself. This banging is a problem when it's mommy's computer and she might hurt it. So I installed a nifty program called Toddler Keys that runs in the background and locks up your discdrives. Then when in active mode, it becomes a toddler's paradise, displaying user added images and sounds whenever a key is pressed. Tabby luvs the darned thing. Continue reading “Stuff to Share”

Posted on

Sugar Cookie Cutouts

from: Better Homes & Gardens Christmas Cookies

Ingredients
1 C butter, softened
3/4 C granulated sugar
1 egg
2.5 C all purpose flour

Directions
Heat oven to 375. Beat butter for 30 seconds. Add sugar; beat until combined. A dd egg; beat until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can do with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour.

Divide dough in half. Cover and chill one portion of dough. On a floured surface, roll other portion of dough 1/4 inch thick. Cut with cookie cutters dipped in flour; reroll trimmings and repeat cutting dough. Arrange cutouts on ungreased cookie shseets. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until bottoms are very lightly browned. Transfer to wire racks; cool.

Decorate as desired.

Posted on

Just out for a Stroll

I feel like I am at the end of a marathon. We've been going non-stop for almost two months solid. This week, we've been spending lots of time at home and I can tell that everyone, including Loki and Tabby, is enjoying it. We've done some really crazy things like COOKING and ORGANIZING and GOING TO THE GYM. I'd sort of forgotten you could do these things. I missed my house too … y'know??

Now I wanna catch up on Tivo and clean out s'more messy corners and finally make a dent in a few of my projects that have been on my to-do list for weeks (months?). Continue reading “Just out for a Stroll”

Posted on

Bicycle Meditation


Well despite the fact that I've owned her for more than a year, it took me until last night to have a real inaugural ride on my cruiser. See just after I requested her for my b'day, I found out I was pregnant. I don't know if you folks know this or not, but pregnant ladies aren't real coordinated, so I held off riding her. Then of course, Miss Tabby showed up and well … I don't know if you know this or not either, but new mamas don't have a whole lot of free time for bike riding. So last night, I finally got to take my cruiser on a long ride.

I don't know how long I was gone, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I went by myself. I didn't listen to music. And my mind was nicely blank. Yes, I thought, but it wasn't deep, it wasn't my to-do list, it was very in the moment. Afterwards I was a bit sweaty, but very relaxed. Continue reading “Bicycle Meditation”

Posted on

Weekend on the Lake


For the second year in a row, my uncle and aunt were kind enough to organize a trip to Grand Lake. They get a couple of cabins and we all go up and stay and hang out in the cabin, and do fun stuff on the lake (wakeboarding and water skiing and tubing and such) and whatever else we can dream up. We were lucky enough to have awesome weather and as usual, a great group of people to hang out with. There were three more babies than last year, Miss Tabby being the youngest of the additions and it was neat seeing the little ones interact.

We went for an awesome hike on Saturday, had great food that everyone pitched in to provide, had a wonderful time tubing on the lake on Sunday. Photos, as usual, are here.