Random Observations on the Beautiful Sunday

1. It is a Beautiful Day
     I haven't actually been outside, but it looks beautiful from my window
2. Big breakfasts are one of the best changes in our lives since having kids
     Almost everyday we eat a big breakfast now (something other than a bowl of cereal, which was our breakfast pre-kids). The kids don't require it, but now I have more time in the mornings and it means Danny has to eat fewer snacks before lunch
     FYI - today we had scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and tea/juice/milk (depending on the person)
3. I have become a fan of creating an art journal
    Visit my Pinterest board to see some fun examples
4. Watching football is different since having kids
     I used to be able to watch a whole game (or full afternoon of games) uninterrupted. Now I have to help tie shoes, wipe noses, get food for one then the other child, and I can't even hear the tv over the racket.
     One thing has stayed the same: Danny still doesn't like to watch
5. I'm a Broncos fan but it is pretty painful to watch
     Even when they are doing well

Heavenly Day

Oh heavenly day, all the clouds blew away

Got no trouble today with anyone

The smile on your face I live only to see

It's enough for me, baby, it's enough for me

Oh, heavenly day, heavenly day, heavenly day

Tomorrow may rain with sorrow

Here's a little time we can borrow

Forget all our troubles in these moments so few

All we've got right now, the only thing that

All we really have to do

Is have ourselves a heavenly day

Lay here and watch the trees sway

Oh, can't see no other way, no way, no way

Heavenly day, heavenly day, heavenly day

No one at my shoulder bringing me fears

Got no clouds up above me bringing me tears

Got nothing to tell you, I've got nothing much to say

Only I'm glad to be here with you

On this heavenly, heavenly, heavenly, heavenly

Heavenly day, all the trouble's gone away

Oh, for a while anyway, for a while anyway

Heavenly day, heavenly day, heavenly day

Rocky Mountain National Park - anniversary weekend June 2011

Farmers Market

The leaves are turning yellow and we have traded the 90 degree weather for 60 degrees and freak snow flurries. Fall is here and it is my favorite time of year. But there are still a lot of things that I love about summer (that I haven’t blogged about yet).

For the last 2 years I have been going to the local Farmers Market on Monday mornings. I get on my bike, put the kids in the bike trailer and head out. Really it’s only 4 blocks away, but it sounds more romantic if I can say we went on a bike excursion.

There are lots of booths, and it is fun to walk around and see what people are offering. One of our (i.e. the Blobster’s) favorite stops is for kettle corn. The man who makes it is legit – he has the biggest copper kettle I’ve ever seen.

After I bribe my son to be good with kettle corn, I chase after him as I try to make my way to the european artisan bread, and then I tug on him to follow me to get some fruit, and after excusing myself for grabbing my son who is running between people’s legs, we finish up at the veggie stand. It is great to pick out fresh veggies that are locally grown. It is so easy to go overboard and get way too much. (Really… they want me to buy a whole basket of onions?? What would I do with that many onions in a week? My husband doesn’t even like onions. But they are cheap. Humm)

Then once we have all our purchases we head over to the playground so the Blobster can let out some energy. It’s hard work for the boy to listen to mama, and stand in lines, and not touch things.

Then I get to decide what to make with what I bring home. This summer I feel like I made a wide range of dishes with fresh vegetables that I have never tried before and they all turned out really well. The Blobster even ate everything without complaint. I didn’t have a ton of leftover veggies that got thrown out either. So that’s a success, right?

One time this summer we were ‘blessed’ with a huge box of beets. It’s kind-of a long story, but in a round about way we got this box that someone didn’t pick up from their CSA share. I like beets, so I was excited at first, so I made beet puree baby food for the Sweet Pea, a ton of Borscht, beet salad, beet cole slaw, etc.  I started to give beets to my friends, my family, slipping them in people’s pockets if they got too close to me. We still had quite a few beets left when they started going bad and we had to throw some away. I think they were multiplying and having beet babies in the box while we weren’t looking. 

It's my birthday and I can cook if I want to

We celebrated my birthday on Saturday. It was awesome...a bunch of friends came and took over my kitchen, working feverishly on an amazing meal. I sat on the back porch, with those who weren't actively cooking, and drank a beautiful chardonnay. We ate: mini pizzas, shrimp, roasted fig and beet salad, garlic mashed potatos, brussels sprouts (on Sat I learned the correct spelling of that) with bacon, filet mignon, and the biggest crab legs you have ever seen! And to finish it all, we had homemade angelfood cake with strawberries. I'm truly blessed to have such wonderful friends who spent so much time, energy, and money to create the most wonderful birthday meal for me!
And did I get a picture of the fun night to share?? No, no I did not.

Did I mention we had crab legs? They were delicious.


My actual birthday was pretty low-key. It was the most beautiful fall day - clear blue sky and the leaves just starting to think about turning. It is a little warmer than it typically is, but at least it is not snowing yet. I decided I wanted to have a special treat so I drove to Starbucks for a cinnamon-dolce latte. I had to drive to the west side of town because I wanted to go through the drive through - it stinks trying to park and get 2 kids out of the car, stand in line with those kids, just to order a coffee and get back into the car.
I think all stores should have a drive-thru option for parents with small kids.

Then I took the kids to the park since it was so nice outside. It is always fun to watch my kids have fun.

 







I decided that for my birthday dinner I would make homemade ravioli. I really like to cook, so it was fun to work on something new.
I will definitely be making more ravioli in the future. The filling options are endless and I love fresh, homemade pasta.

Midnight

It’s been a really long time since I’ve stayed up until midnight. I mean truely STAYED UP until midnight, not woken up at midnight – that happens all the time. I usually go to bed around 9pm; that’s as late as I can stay up until my eyelids refuse to cooperate anymore. 

But last night I stayed up until midnight because we had friends over for dinner at our garage mahal and everyone stayed and lingered over one more drink, then one more… It was pleasant and relaxed. I enjoyed myself, enjoyed the music, enjoyed the talking, enjoyed the food, enjoyed the night.

As we were getting ready for bed I turned on the window fan. I think it carried in not only a little bit of remaining chiminea smoke, but also the remnants of laughter and jokes. It was contentment floating around my room when my eyelids finally stopped cooperating last night. 

Baby's first meal

This week the Sweet Pea had her first "solid food". (Incidentally I know several people who call it people food...as though otherwise babies are eating nonpeople food - what, like dog food?? who knows) Anyway...

I'm not sure she knew what to do with what I was putting in her mouth. Most of the food ended up on her face, bib, and washcloth. But it was kind of fun to try something new.

I have chosen to start my children with meat (specifically chicken) for their first food. My pediatrician pointed me in this direction and after some internet research I decided this would be a good approach for me. There are so many different ways to go when feeding babies, (fruits, veggies, cereal, meat...) and I don't think there is really a right or a wrong way, but many people get very passionate about it. There are LOTS of books about it. LOTS of websites. LOTS of experts weighing in with their opinions. But at the end of the day, babies all eat something and we all seem to be okay regardless of what it was. What did they do 200 years ago when there wasn't someone telling mothers what to do at each phase of their babies development??

I also make my own baby food. I have found it is so easy and a lot less expensive. I love having a freezer full of things for my baby to eat. I have already started to puree some things that she will eat later. Berries were on sale last week so I took advantage and did a batch of them. I'll do some zucchini from our garden soon. For my birthday, Goatee Man bought me a really nice food processor. It makes pureeing food sooo much faster. (I used my blender to make food for the Blobster). So I put in an hour of work and get enough baby food for a month or so. Easy.

Al Fresco

Last night we were eating al fresco. It cooled down nicely after a hot day. In the morning we cooked ourselves at the zoo, so it was so nice to be in our green backyard eating food that I made from our garden.
Here is what we ate.

Lemon basil penne with spinach and pork chops. The Blobster ate all of his and even said it was yummy.
Here is the view from our garden.

Here we are eating outside. It really was a great night.

And after dinner I had a lovely Avery IPA.

Such a nice night.
Makes me want to keep the kids up until the moon is out, but then we would have cranky kids on our hands. So I put the kids to bed and cleaned some lettuce for salad tonight.

Parade

Recently, we went to a parade for the Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo. We rode our bikes down and watched horses, horses, and more horses. The Blobster was thrilled!

The Blobster had the best seat in town.

Lucas and Jaime joined us too. It is nice to have extra hands to help with our children. And Lucas' office provided relief from the rain.

Grandma showed up too! The Blobster was spoiled with all the hands to hold him.

Ahh...the Sweet Pea loves her grandma!

And I think she is too cute for words.

Did I mention that we saw some horses??

Family Visit

We recently had some family visit from South Carolina. It was really nice to spend some time with them and get to know our nieces and nephew a little better.

Here they are: Honey, Heaven, and Tom - we caught them playing Angry Birds on Danny's IPAD

The girls took some time to go shopping in Old Colorado City. It was fun to have some girl time. The boys went hiking while we were shopping.

Heaven and Honey are very into music and are really talented. We were able to get them to sing for us a few times. They were nice enough to let the Blobster play with them too.

We had a nice celebration for Honey, welcoming her into womanhood. She is so pretty! (Another girl time! I think the boys were playing in the dirt. Seriously... they were in Bobcats)

We all got dressed up. The girls sang for us again; a lovely treat. We were going to have tea, but it was too hot, so we had punch instead. Susan used her grandmother's china - it was so fancy! I hope Honey felt like a princess.

Here is everyone. From left to right in back - Gage, Danny, Honey, Heaven (sorry you got covered up a bit!), Susan (holding Mia), Don. In Front - Sarah, Greg (Danny's brother), Tom.

Aside from our shopping, and girl time, we also had everyone over for dinner at our house, a bbq on July 4th, and dinner out. They also took a trip to the Royal Gorge and the Air Force Academy. I think overall they had an action packed trip.

So the Hankins' clan keeps expanding, and we are richer to have them all in our lives.

Summer Nursing

Can you believe she is already 6 months old??

Right now my sweet baby is wiggling contentedly on the other end of the couch with only one sock on and her hair plastered down with sweat. She just finished nursing, which in these hot summer days means it is hot, hot, hot. Lately, she has not been eating for as long and is quite happy to be out of my arms as soon as possible. While she eats we both start sweating, her head starts to stick to my arm and we both wonder why we aren’t sitting closer to the fan. When she looks into my eyes there is a sly smile because she knows we are both sharing in the same misery. We are melting into each other in a sweet time of bonding.

But I think I prefer the cozy snuggling in winter. 

What I’m looking at Today

I haven’t had much time to sit down and rest today. We are gearing up for the rest of the holiday weekend and are looking forward to some family visiting. Now it is afternoon, it’s getting cloudy (please rain, pretty please!) and I’m nursing a baby – so I have to sit down for a few minutes.

Here is what I’m looking at…

Vintage Chica: this was my first time to her site, which I jumped to from somewhere else. I love the look of her blog and liked the gardening section a great deal. Her discussion of swiss chard reminded me of what is growing in my garden and the pork chops with swiss chard that I made last week. I tossed the chard with truffle oil, lightly seasoned the chops and baked them together. It was easy and super good. (and made me smile because I’m starting to get to harvest things out of my garden.)

Anthropologie: love this tank! I’m not really in the market for new clothes right now, but I like to “window-shop”. This would be perfect for the hot weather we are having right now. 

So would this:

And a little of this:

I can dream can't I??

Skinny Kids

My kids are tall and skinny. I wonder where they got that from??

The Blobster went to the doctor last week and we got his growth chart. He is now almost 25 lbs and 36 1/2" tall. That puts him in the 92% for height and 24% for weight. 

He was even skinny as a baby. 

The Sweet Pea is in the 86% for height and 33% for weight. I think that is pretty impressive since she was a premie. She is obviously healthy now. 

She only weighed 5lbs 12oz when she was born.

Funny Things Kids Say

The Blobster is expanding his vocabulary every day and will repeat ANYTHING we say (so we have to be careful). One of the funny things he has started doing is when he gets frustrated or is doing something he isn’t supposed to be doing (ex. throwing his toys), he yells “Matthew”. That is his middle name. So he hears me say his full name and now he thinks it’s a curse word. It makes me giggle.

Recently we were in the car and the Sweet Pea started coughing. I asked, hypothetically, if she was going to choke and die. He was very serious and repeated “choke and die” over and over for a while. Oops, I probably shouldn’t say those things. But it did make me giggle.

One of the cute things he is saying is, “Right There” very emphatically when he is pointing to anything. I.e. where do you want a kiss? Pointing to his cheek, loudly saying “Right There”! Where is the bug? “Right There”! Where should I put your snack? “Right There”! At night he wants me to lay down next to him “Right There”!, pointing to the pillow next to him. It makes me giggle.

He is now saying his name pretty well, but just a few weeks ago he was struggling with it. Apparently G’s are hard letters to pronounce. For some reason when he tried to say Gage it very clearly sounded like Dave. The first time he did it, I looked at Goatee Man and introduced him to his son, Dave. It made me giggle. 

Hair Cut

 Before haircut, yesterday.

 Wow, look how messy it was!

 After haircut, today.

Look at my handsome boy!
I think I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself.