Fruit Picking Day!

Andrew got really excited about this once we told him it was fruit picking day, just like on Daniel Tiger.  Seriously, that kid loves Daniel Tiger.

My mom was visiting while my dad was out of town helping my brother move.  We decided to spend a day picking some peaches and blackberries.  It was really fun and now I have a whole bunch of fresh and frozen fruit to snack on!

We did blackberries first.  Andrew was loving this part.  Some of the best berries were within his reach and it was easy for him to tell which ones were ready to be picked.  And of course he got to snack on some :)

Next we got peaches.  We ended up with way more than I had originally intended, because we just kept finding more beautiful fruit!

All in all a great (and a little expensive...) day!

Finishing Up 2014

I was reprimanded by my good friend Johanna for not updating my blog recently.  Oops.

Since my last post we've had a period of "nothing is happening, therefore there is nothing to blog about" and a period of "I'm too busy to even think about writing on the blog."  Both were good, but I'm glad life has calmed down since the holidays and we can breathe again.

We did our own Thanksgiving this year!  Normally we get together with my parents and whichever of my siblings are in the area that year, but my parents decided to go up to Boston and spend the holiday with my brother there this year.  So we decided to be brave and make our very own feast for our little family.  We considered doing a turkey breast, since it was just the three of us, but I was feeling adventurous, plus a whole turkey was such a good deal that we decided to just go for it.  We had so much left over, it was great!

We made turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, stuffing, homemade gravy, and a caramel apple pie.  It all turned out great.  Andrew actually napped through our big Thanksgiving meal, so Aaron and I even got to eat it without having to worry about cutting his food (and all the rest of the fun that comes with feeding a toddler).

Right after Thanksgiving we switched into birthday and Christmas mode.  We got Andrew a play kitchen for his birthday (which is awesome!) but we didn't really have a place to put it yet.  We knew where we wanted it to go, but for that to work we had to relocate the big metal shelving unit we had in our kitchen, which meant finding a place for all the stuff that was there too.  So getting ready for Andrew's birthday meant some massive reorganizing in the kitchen, which meant a few late nights since we didn't want to be doing all of that while Andrew was up.  This was something we wanted to do anyway, so it was kind of nice to have a deadline.  And now we have some nice new shelves up on the kitchen wall too.  I'm really happy with how everything turned out!

Before- Kitchen Storage

After- Andrew's Kitchen!

Christmas is only 10 days after Andrew's birthday, so we had to switch gears again to make sure to get all of our Christmas gifts purchased, wrapped, and mailed on time.  It was a little bit crazy sometimes, but we got it all done.  We headed to my parents' house on the evening of December 23 and spent the next 4 days hanging out with them and my sister's family.  Andrew and his cousin, Graham, were so cute together!  They followed each other around, giggled together, snuck upstairs when the adults weren't looking, and generally just had fun (as long as they didn't both want the same toy!  Silly toddlers...).

A couple of days after we got home from Christmas, Aaron woke me up before he left for work and told me that our heat pump was making a weird sound and asked me to look into what was covered by our home warranty and what it would cost etc.  By the end of the day, the heater had stopped working completely and we had submitted a work order to the home warranty company.  The heating people came out to look at it the next day (Tuesday) and told us that they don't even make the part that's broken, plus we had a freon leak, so the whole unit would have to be replaced.  Oh and the outside unit is leaking freon and has issues too, so that would need to go too.  We sure are glad we renewed our home warranty!  We still had some out-of-pocket expenses that weren't covered by the warranty, but the unit and installation were all covered 100%, saving us thousands of dollars!  Whoo hoo!  We had to bundle up and borrow space heaters for a few days while all the parts were ordered but we got our new units installed on Friday before Andrew's bedtime.  So now we're all toasty warm with a brand new heating system.

So that's how we finished up our 2014!  It was a great year, and we're looking forward to 2015!

Let's Review: Arla Dofino Cheese

My family usually sticks to the basics when it comes to cheese.  We keep mozzarella and cheddar on hand at all times.  And the little canister of Parmesan to sprinkle on pasta.  That's it.

But I got a coupon to try a free 8 oz package of Arla Dofino cheese from BzzAgent, so I was pretty excited to try something new and different.  I chose the Havarti cheese and made this recipe of mac and cheese, but without the dill weed.  I've made homemade mac and cheese before (but with cheddar) so this wasn't overly difficult.  And it turned out great.

It's much creamier than cheddar mac and cheese, and reminds me a little bit of an alfredo sauce.  It would be really good with added chicken, bacon, spinach, and/or broccoli too.

I loved it, Aaron liked it, and Andrew is happier with the mac and cheese from a box (but he ate this too).  I don't know if we'll be buying it regularly since it's more expensive than our usual cheeses, but it sure was good this time.  (Locals, I have some coupons if you want to try it!)



*I got the product for free with a coupon from BzzAgent, but all opinions are mine!*

Birthday and Easter Weekend

This past weekend was a double feature of special days!  Aaron's birthday was on Friday and then Easter was on Sunday!  Aaron's parents even came down for the weekend, so that was a bonus too!

On Friday, Aaron took the day off.  I got a haircut and then we just had a fun and relaxing day.  Andrew had lots of fun getting reacquainted with his grandparents (he was pretty shy when they first walked in).  We went to PF Chang's for dinner, and then had angel food cake for dessert after Aaron opened some presents.

Saturday started off with a breakfast and Easter egg hunt at church.  Andrew was too little to do the hunt last year, but this year he loved it!  He had no idea that there were goodies inside though, so there was a heavy mom-tax (and dad-tax and grandparent-tax) on the candy.  After his nap, we all headed over to Annapolis for the afternoon.  We went to a maritime museum, did some walking in and around the State House, and went to dinner at a place that serves all local crabs (and other seafood).  We all got crab cakes and it was delicious!  A trip to Coldstone finished out the evening :)

I was excited that we had company over for Easter Sunday.  I had a lot of fun preparing for it.  We had an Easter basket with goodies for each of us, German pancakes for breakfast, and an Easter egg hunt.  The eggs were all over the main floor and contained pieces of a puzzle that we all put together after finding the eggs.  Church was nice (I sang with the choir for 2 numbers) and then we came back to the house for dinner.  I was quite proud of myself for the Easter dinner: Ham, candied sweet potatoes, asparagus with lemon sauce, rolls (shaped like bunnies, of course), hard boiled eggs, and sparkling cranberry raspberry juice.  It turned out great and it was awesome to have people to share it with.  And Andrew looked especially adorable in the suit my mom made for him :)

All in all a wonderful weekend to celebrate Aaron and Christ.

Family Weekend

For Columbus Day/Canadian Thanksgiving, my family all got together at my parents' house.  It was such a good weekend- I think we all got together last in March.  It just doesn't happen often enough!

Cassie's birthday was on Sunday, so we made her a cake, inspired (but not totally followed) by a recipe I found on Pinterest.

We walked through the Paw Paw Tunnel (even though it was "shut down").

We ate lots of good food.

But mostly we just got to hang out and play.  I got some cuddle time with baby Graham.  Andrew did some rough housing with Uncle Doug.  Aaron (and his team) won a few rounds of Tri-Bond.  All in all, it was great.

And we even managed to get a picture of all the cousins sitting together.  That was seriously an accomplishment!

First Feeding

Andrew had his first taste of "solid" food yesterday!

I only partially consider this rice cereal to be solid because it's still mostly breast milk.  And (probably because of that) he actually liked it a lot!

We were ready with his arsenal of bibs!  (Don't worry, he just wore one at a time!)

After each bite he would open his mouth and lean toward the spoon for more.

We gave it to him twice, and he didn't finish the bowl either time.  I think he's used to getting his food so much more quickly when he nurses or takes a bottle, so one tiny spoonful at a time got a little frustrating for him I think.  Maybe it'll be a little better as we add less liquid to it.

But I think he did really well, considering it was his first time!

I wasn't planning on starting him on solids until closer to six months, but his pediatrician told us that he's ready to start because of where he is developmentally.  I'm not looking forward to needing to buy or make baby food, but it's still exciting to see how Andrew is growing up!

Donuts

Donuts are so fun.  And delicious.  And fattening.

I love them.

So I was super excited when I got a donut pan for my birthday.  So now I can have donuts whenever I want, and they're baked instead of deep fried, so they're not QUITE as fattening.

And they're fun to decorate too!

YUM!

Thanksgiving!

We went down to my parents' in Manassas for Thanksgiving this year.  Austin, Mariko, and Harrison were there too.  It was a day full of family and food, and it was awesome!

Mom's been working on making a mini dessert cup version of nanaimo bars and they turned out great!  And they're cute, in addition to being delicious!  Aaron and I were in charge of snacks/appetizers, drinks, and rolls.  I made a cheese ball and cracker tray, fruit and fruit dip tray, and we brought a few different sparkling drinks.  For the rolls, I came up with this awesome idea to make them shaped like turkeys!  Some of them ended up looking really cute (and others... didn't...) and I was pretty impressed that my middle-of-the-night idea actually turned out well!

On Black Friday, we went shopping, but not crazy middle of the night/early morning shopping.  We went to the stores between 9:00 and 10:30 am and still got some good deals without having any lines and craziness to deal with.  Awesome! After shopping, we went with my parents to spend the day at their new lake house they just bought!  (They're planning on renting it out sometime in the next year or so, and then when they retire they'll sell the Manassas house and move into the lake house.)  It's a really cute house and we spent the day changing locks, testing appliances, putting up blinds, and cleaning.

So we had a really good weekend with family!  I'm so thankful to have my family living so close that we can see them often.