Festival of Tree's

Today was the day that my sister & I decorated a tree for The Festival Of Tree's. It was so AWESOME!!!! My mom ended up sticking around too to help us which was great because we got it done pretty quick. It only took about an hour to do.

This is me at 8 am after a night of no sleep. Attractive? I think so!



Finished tree. It looked awesome.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[kids table]

Well yesterday was Thanksgiving. I cant think of anything that is NOT good about thanksgiving. Besides the too full feeling often felt by everyone after dinner. I believe my husband is one of those people who feels it the worst. He eats WAYYY too fast and WAYYY too much. Its hilarious to watch him after he's done eating because he just lays down anywhere that is available. This year it was in front of the fire place, behind the kids table at Allyson's house (Allyson is Rich's sister for those of you who don't know)

[Amir & the Twins, Tess & Elli]

This year was especially awesome because Amir is two. Which means he can sit at the kids table and can play with the other kids. That is exactly what he did. Unfortunatly he was feeling sick so he wasn't his usual crazy self and by the time we were getting ready to leave he felt really icky and was so grumpy that either Richard or I had to hold him. Poor little guy, I'm pretty sure he was sick on thanksgiving last year too. :( I hope next year he will be feeling better so he can taste the YUMMY food.

[Mason, Rich & Caden]

[Ruthie jumping to get in outside]

[Critter, Jasper & Hank.... Molly was there too but she didn't hang around the other dogs too much]

Pumpkin Pie Recipe...

I've had a few people ask me for the recipe that I used to make pumpkin pie. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving I'm posting it. haha.

For the people that I haven't sent it to yet who have asked, here it is:

Ingredients:

a pie pumpkin - I use one 6 inch pumpkin or two 3 inch... you should end up with about 3 cups of pumpkin insides...

1 cup sugar (or 1 cup splenda, or 3/4 cup honey - honey makes a heavier pie.)

1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract (optional)

1/2 teaspoon salt (optional, I don't use any)

4 large eggs

All of the Sieved cooked pumpkin (should be about 3 cups)

1.5 cans (12oz each) of evaporated milk for best results.

If you can't get canned evaporated milk, make your own from nonfat dried milk and make it twice as concentrated as the directions on the box call for!

If you can't get nonfat dried milk, just use milk.

Note: if you do not have cinnamon, cloves, allspice and ginger, you can substitute 3 teaspoons of "pumpkin pie spice". It's not exactly the same, but it will do.

Prepare pumpkin for cooking:

Wash the exterior of the pumpkin in cool or warm water, no soap.

Cut the pumpkin in half. A serrated knife and a sawing motion works best.

Scoop out the seeds.

Cook the Pumpkins:

Steam the pumpkin in a steamer or double boiler for 15 minutes. (or until cooked)

You can also cook in the microwave, just put some water in the bottom of the bowl and cover it. It still takes about 15 min.

Scoop out the pumpkin, the skin almost always just falls off when its cooked all the way. Puree or mash the pumpkin. It should be smooth with little or no chunks. A blender or handblender works fine for this.

If the pumpkin is watery after you puree it let it sit for 30 min and pour off any free water.

Mix all of the ingredients together with the blender (or whatever you used to mash the pumpkin. For best results use the seperate spices rather than pumpkin pie spice.)

Pour the filling into the crust. If you feel that your filling is too runny, ITS NOT!

Bake at 425 F for 15 min then at 350 F for another 45-60 minutes, until when you stick a knife in the center it comes out clean.

Does This One Match?

Last year Amir got the game "Mickey Mouse Club House Letters & Numbers" He was too young to play it when I got it (3yr+) so I've been saving it for him. I got it out today because he does pretty good with numbers and letters.
When I got it out and all set up he was already at work trying to match the numbers. He holds a number up to another and says: "Does this one match?" if it doesn't he says "nooooooo" and holds it up to another and another asking the same thing every time until he finds a match. When he does he says "YES!" and claps his hands.
My baby is awesome. :)

Getting Ready For Christmas!

This really makes me want to vomit. If you listen to it take my advice, its easier to listen to it in parts. So pause and take a break every 30 seconds or so. I'm still not all the way through the song... If this doesn't get you into the Christmas spirit early NOTHING WILL!

Funny side note: While playing this song my cat proceeded to pee on the Christmas Tree Skirt. Lovely. And the dogs ran around the house barking because they couldn't figure out what the awful sound was.

Goal

I've made myself an ongoing goal, to keep my house CLEAN. Not perfect but still clean enough for me to not go crazy. I started this week and so far its working out pretty good. The only unclean part of my house is currently the kitchen and I'm being a little neglectful of it because IHATE unloading the dishwasher. Thats pretty much all that needs to be done, dishes. Other than that my bathroom is SPOTLESS and the livingroom floor is staying pretty toy free except for when Amir is playing in there. Amir's room is still a mess buuuut what can ya do?

The reason for this goal is because Rich and I have decided to start trying for another baby.HOOORAY! I get insanely tired, grumpy and TIRED while pregnant so I have to get into a groove now. I have been driving myself crazy trying to keep my house perfect and I've finally come to the realization that it will never be perfect with the animals and a two year old.

We put our Christmas stuff up early. Just a few things here and there and the Christmas tree. The cats likes to climb the Christmas tree so that drives me a little crazy because he knocks the branches and ornaments off. Most of my Fall stuff is down except for my leaf bowl and Thanksgiving tablecloth. I cannot wait for thanksgiving this year! Rich is taking extra time off next week which will be nice. He's so great.

Amir's Well Child Checkup

I blogged about his immunization so I thought I would also put up his percentiles and stuff...

Something to celebrate: HIS WEIGHT IS UP TO 37.71%tile The last time we went he was in the low 20's.

Height:26.95%tile - The doctor said to expect a growth spurt because the last time he was in he was in the 74th %tile

And finally his head circumference.... 85.8%tile. He's always had a big head.

The doctor said everything looks good and we go back next year to do it all over again (besides his immunization schedule)

Hib

Today my baby got his first vaccine ever. Luckily we found a really great doctor who works with us with the vaccines. Amir got the Hib vaccine. (http://www.vaccineinformation.org/hib/) He was such a good sport about it. Before the nurse came in to administer it I told him that it was going to hurt but I would get him some fries after. So when the nurse came in he said "hurt?" and she told him that it would hurt but not for very long. We laid him down on the table and she stuck the needle in his thigh for two seconds (literally) and then it was over. Amir didn't cry or anything. He just whispered "owe" when the needle first came in and as we were walking out. She gave him a Ming Ming sticker and a Spiderman bandaid so it was all better. On the ride home he complained about some pain but when we got to my mom's house we gave him some children's tylenol and then he was fine.

After the tylenol wore off he complained a little more and the injection site was red and swollen and he had a slight fever so we gave him some more tylenol. Now he's back to his old self getting into the cat littler and chasing the cats. I'm guessing that he reacts to vaccines the same way I did so he should be pain free in a couple of days. We go back in two months for the DTaP.

Like I said, our doctor is really great and we have an awesome schedule lined up for his vaccines.

Pie Monster

Yep, he took his stool in there to play with the leftover pie on the counter. It was all over the wall, counter and oven door... Good times. haha

Funny of the Day...

Amir just tried to flush the male cat. Thats right.. When I barged into the bathroom to see what he was doing the cat was half way in the toilet (in the water) and Amir had already flushed twice.

I guess cats aren't flushable.

Birthday

The Saturday following Amir's birthday we had his birthday party. We went to the park to celebrate. I decided to not rent a pavilion because it was too expensive and I didn't think there was going to be anyone doing anything in mid-October. We arrived and set everything up and shortly after we got there a wedding party came over and started setting up. Turns out they didn't have it reserved either. The place they did reserve wasn't covered and it had already started to rain. We only needed two tables so we didn't care that they were there as long as they didn't care we were there either. And they didn't.

Right before we started some people showed up and said that they had reserved the pavilion and that they had a whole bunch of pumpkins coming etc. So we moved over under a little snack bar shelter thingy. We had to wipe off all the tables because they had been out in the rain. I just want to go on record here and say that the people that kicked us out only used 4 tables and didn't say anything to the wedding happening on the other side. I'm a little angry that they kicked us out and had a bunch of tables. Plus, they had a birthday party too so I don't think it would have mattered. OH WELL. We still had fun. We sang happy birthday and the wind blew out the candles for Amir. I think he was a little confused when everyone cheered for him when he didn't do anything. HA! He was so cute when he saw the cake. He kept saying "MMM! Cake! Birthday!" He didn't even finish his piece before heading back over to the cake to have another taste of the frosting. Yes, I let him take a little swipe of the cake before we cut it. He is so cute. After that we opened presents.

Shortly after that, we got Amir out of his clothes and took him home. He was so cute in the puddles but I'm pretty sure those boots he was wearing are ruined forever.

For pictures please see facebook... If you don't have a facebook then you're missing out!

I AM Awesome!

Yesterday was a GREAT day. I cleaned the house (with the help of my awesome husband) Amir had fun playing outside most of the day and Rich even made a "Sanctuary" for the cats downstairs. Now my bathroom isn't overpowered by cat poop/litter smell. AND the dogs cant eat their food which also means that Ruthie will stop throwing up. (Yipee!!) We have decided not to get our carpet upstairs professionally cleaned again. We are going to replace the carpet as soon as possible with something that has yet to be determined...Something that doesn't stain, wood, tile, whatever. lol.

I also baked yet another pumpkin pie. Which tasted awesome once again. I also organized the cupboard with all of the cooking stuff etc. I wish I had taken a before and after picture but I just have an after...

Awesome, right? I've been looking at that for weeks and have been too lazy to clean it out. I think today I'll move onto bigger and better things... Like organizing the pantry. Haha.

Things have been a LOT easier with the cat litter/food downstairs. Now Amir isn't getting into it every morning and the cats stay downstairs more so there are less trips down the stairs in a laundry basket ;) But there is still the occasion like today when I couldn't find one of the cats and it was stuck in Amir's Jammie drawer :) Too funny.

Pumpkin Pie

This last weekend I made pumpkin pie. Thats right.. REAL pumpkin pie. From scratch. It was SO YUMMY! I normally hate pumpkin pie. Hate hate hate. But having a pumpkin pie made with real pumpkin is amazing. I cannot even put into words how awesome... So here are some pictures...

The only other thing I can think of to say is: "I know what I'm making for thanksgiving!!"

Halloween

This year for Halloween we went Trick or Treating with Amir. It was AWESOME! At first he just wanted to push the stroller around the neighborhood but once he realized that he got candy just for going and knocking on someone's door (He wouldn't say 'trick or treat') he was totally okay with sitting in the stroller or walking to the next house. He was so cute. We all dressed up as pirates this year.

P.S. a blog about Amir's birthday is coming SOON!