He has his hands crossed under his chin so in some of the pictures his right hand is over part of his face. It looks like he's going to have Isaac's nose and my mouth in more ways than one. He was constantly opening and closing his mouth and sticking his tongue out so it's quite possible he'll have a lot to say.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Noah's First Pictures
He has his hands crossed under his chin so in some of the pictures his right hand is over part of his face. It looks like he's going to have Isaac's nose and my mouth in more ways than one. He was constantly opening and closing his mouth and sticking his tongue out so it's quite possible he'll have a lot to say.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Back Home
Monday, December 22, 2008
Almost Feeling Like Christmas
Over the weekend we had dinner with our friends Sarah and Aaron and then went to a Christmas light display at a local park. The decorations were nice and it was a very large park. It was quite cold though and the wind was not very kind to my face. It was so cold in fact that we bought hot cocoa while we were there and it was cool enough to drink within 30 seconds. They had a really cool display that had the lights coordinated with the music playing so we decided to stop and take a quick picture since I don't have any pictures of us together lately.
Isaac and I have been talking about taking a Christmas photograph for like two weeks now and we finally decided to get it taken today. So before he went to work we sat down and took a few snapshots for the dogs. I don't have a lot of pictures of me pregnant but this one turned out well and I think that we should at least have one to show Noah some day.
I'm busy working on scrapbooking the rest of our ultrasound pictures today and getting things ready to head home to Indiana on Wednesday. My mom says they're going to be having a winter mix of ice and rain Wednesday. Perfect traveling weather, yuck.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Thai Cashew Chicken Recipe
1 Tbs olive oil
1 large yellow onion, sliced thinly
1 of each: yellow, orange, and red pepper
3 Tbs ketchup
1 Tbs soy sauce
1/3 cup chicken broth
1 tsp white sugar
1 tsp thai garlic chili paste (or hot pepper sauce) or more to taste
3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
3 Tbs. creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup cashews
Jasmine rice
Heat oil in skillet
Cook onions and peppers until they start to get tender
Mix in ketchup, soy sauce, chicken broth, sugar, chili paste, and peanut butter
Add chicken to skillet and continue to cook and stir for 10 minutes
Mix in cashews before serving over Jasmine rice
A few things you want to keep in mind:
-You only want to cook the onions and peppers until they are starting to get soft. If you cook them until they are completely soft they will be a mushy mess by the time the chicken has been cooked.
-You also want to get the chicken breast in as soon after adding the sauce ingredients as possible or your sauce will dry out before your chicken is done. This happened to me and I ended up having to add more chicken broth to thin it out and I lost some of the flavor because of that.
-Make sure that you slice your chicken breast very thinly so that it will cook relatively quickly.
-Cooking this mixture is done best in a wok at a high temperature but you can do it in a regular pan if that's all you have. Might be a bit messier.
-If you're not a big pepper fan, you may want to use only half of each of the peppers as it is a lot of peppers and onions.
Give it a try and enjoy!
Monday, December 8, 2008
A Busy Little Weekend
Then on Saturday we had Sarah and her husband over for dinner at 5:00. I made Thai Cashew Chicken with sticky rice. I had never made it before but I think it came out alright. There weren't any leftovers so I guess that's always a good sign. I got the recipe from a friend and there are a few tweeks I'll make to it but all in all it was good and very simple. After dinner, we went to their house to meet their new puppy, Maggie. She's a yellow lab puppy and super cute. I think Isaac wanted to steal her. He kept saying how he wished we had Copper when he was a puppy over and over again. But just for the record, we are at our dog capacity. Three dogs and a baby equal my hands being very full!
Then Sunday we did our normal church thing and went and had lunch at the mall afterwards. We decided to redo our Christmas tree because it was looking pretty pathetic and I hated the decorations we had for it. Not to those that move to Hawaii without Christmas decorations, there is a limited supply for the island so get them early. Don't be like us and wait until December only to find that there is little to no selection left. We bought the only things we could find and I've pretty much always hated them. Anyway, Isaac has been on this kick about wanting modern blue lights for the tree, yadda yadda, so I finally gave in. We went to several different store and got blue lights and all these silver and blue decorations for the tree. It took forever to get it together last night but we did it and I really like it. The only thing we don't have is a star because we couldn't find one we liked. I'll have to keep looking. Here's our tree.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
The Best Little Camera Ever!
I have been wanting to get a small point and shoot digital camera for awhile now, since the flash is broken on our big point and shoot camera. The last time we went to DC and took pictures at the museums, nothing turned out because we didn't have a flash. It was very upsetting and disappointing. So I had been doing some research and reading what types of cameras people recommended and I found that overall people really liked the Canon Powershots. A few things that I required from the camera were that it has a fast click to capture time, a macro setting, and various settings for action shots, night shots, etc. So I started looking into the Canon Powershots and reading customer reviews on them. I was shocked to find that most of the $200-$300 Powershots have no settings on them. They are just auto. So that was discouraging.
Then I happened onto a few recommenations for the Canon Powershot A590 IS. I looked it up and found that it had all the features that I was looking for but the one complaint from people was that the body of the camera felt cheap. I picked out about 3 Powershots that I thought I'd like to try out and then started scouring through the ads. To my surprise, there were 3 stores that had the A590 IS on sale and it was very inexpensive. I have to admit that I started to think this wasn't going to be a good camera because it was only $135. I've never spent that little on a camera before. So we went out and I ended up purchasing the camera with the intent to try it out and if I didn't like it, to return it.
Well, I'm happy to report that this little camera is the best digital camera I've ever owned! I love it! It turns on SUPER fast and the click to capture time is almost INSTANT. Not only does it have all the other features I was looking for but it also has a setting for children and pets. Perfect! Now, I will say that the body of the camera is plastic, but that's something that I'm willing to compromise on. After all, the last camera I bought was about $250 and has a great heavy frame and I've hated it since about a month after we got it. It never worked right so word to the wise, never buy the display because it's the last one they have! So in the end I'm willing to have a lighter body casing on a fabulous camera then a heavy metal casing on a sucky camera.
If you're looking for a great little digital camera this year, I would say to try this one out. You can always take it back if you don't like it, but I have a feeling you'll be keeping it!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
A Great Thanksgiving
My mom and I cooked Thanksgiving dinner and it was super yummy. We tried out a brined turkey recipe this year that we hadn't done before and it turned out really well. The turkey was very moist and the meat had a sweetness to it from the brine. We made mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, rolls, pumpkin pie, and peacan pie. Here's a quick picture of our spread and below that is the recipe for the turkey brine.
Brined Turkey Breast
16 cups of water
2 cups sugar
2 cups coarse salt
5 gloves of garlic, crushed
1 Tbsp pickling spices
Combine ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until sugar and salt dissolve. Cool to room temperature. Poor brine over breast and refrigerate, loosely covered, overnight.
We also worked on getting Noah's nursery put together and I think that it's looking great. We put up the border around the room and did it at a chairrail height. It helps to break up the whiteness of the walls. I figure this will be easier to remove from the walls than having to completely repaint when and if we move again. We also hung a curtain rod and put up the window vallences and I'm working on a project to hang above his crib that will have his name on it. We got all the bedding out and put in on the crib to see how everything looks together and it's super cute. I'll post pictures once I get the room finished.
My etsy shop has been quite busy lately and I have to say that I am very thankful for that. I'm quickly approaching the milestone of 200 sales and I'm hoping that I'll hit that before the end of the year. I would just be thrilled. Over the weekend I added a whole new line of Amy Butler tins into my store and I'm excited to see how people like them. Today is another busy day so I'd better be off and start working on my to-do list. Ah, the never ending list.