Holy Freaking Rice Balls!

So yesterday I tried another recipe in my "Deceptively Delicious" cookbook. And it went horribly, horribly wrong. They are basically pureed veggies, cooked chicken and cheese mixed with rice, rolled into balls, coated in bread crumbs and pan fried. I love starch and this was starch three ways all in the same ball. Woo hoo. I was very excited. After I made the puree part, they seemed to loose to form into balls. I had to double the amount of rice just to get them to stick together. But even then they only kind of stuck together. They were sort of squishy. But they did end up looking like nuggets so I thought maybe I could trick Hayden into eating them. No dice. They did taste good dipped in BBQ sauce though.

Then today.....something wonderful happened. I got me some Mini's.

That one on the top in the middle is my friend PB Fix. I know I've talked about them before but they are good enough to speak of again. Hello my pretty, pretty tiny cake friends......I've missed you.

Top Teeth!

Can you see them? Jake's top teeth? He's got three up there now and I'm not looking forward to when number four shows up. Oh and he's eating the best thing ever in this shot. I read about it somewhere on the internet. You crush up cheerios or graham crackers in a baggie and toss in some cut up fruit and shake. Ta da! No more slippery bananas!

Muffins

I just tried out a new recipe from my new cookbook today(thanks Denise). I made Applesauce Muffins from "Deceptively Delicious". You might remember hearing about this book a while back. It was written by Jerry Seinfeld's wife and she was on Oprah talking about it. Anyway, the theory behind it is to puree different fruits and vegetables and add them secretly to kid friendly foods to add some freaking vitamins and nutrition to their diets. Well, until I figure out a way to get spinach secretly into some Ramen I think I'm the only one who will be eating well. The muffins are good. They have applesauce and butternut squash in them and they are still good. I did get Hayden to take a bite of one. He thought it tasted minty. I explained to him it's the cinnamon. Baby steps man, we are taking some baby steps. I am going to try again with the next recipe called "Rice Balls". So now Brandon and I get to eat fifteen muffins by ourselves, which isn't a bad thing.

Drums!

Other than the occasional "Da Da"s (and possibly a "Daddy")that I heard in there, I wish I could understand what he was saying in this video. He seems very passionate about it, whatever it was. He just really, really likes hitting things I guess. He's been watching mommy play drums for almost a month now. For Christmas, we got "Rock Band" for our Wii. It has been our fun evening activity ever since. I think Jake is going to want to join the "band" soon. I guess I'll have to learn to play bass since Brandon is our lead guitarist and Hayden sings. At the end of the video you can hear Hayden talking about buying a "Rock On" poster. He saw it on his online game to buy for his character's room. He said he was going to buy it for us since we are in a band. Isn't that funny?

My Boys Make Every Birthday Better

I asked Brandon to let Hayden pick out my birthday gift this year. I wanted to see what he'd get me. Guess what the cutie bought for me......... a new hairdryer. Isn't that cute? He got one with a turbo button so I could get done faster. He showed me all the features and attachments. It's one of the best gifts I've ever received. Thank you Hayden! And thanks Brandon for the trip and movies and room service. And a huge thanks to Jake who decided a week ago to start napping again. I'm so lucky to have such sweet boys. Can't wait until my next birthday!

Weird Things Make Me Happy

That's some funny stuff. Lisa snuck this into the boy's bathroom on Christmas day. I'm sure one day I'll have to take it off, but right now I think it's too awesome.

I Need a Break

Oh my gosh! Teething sucks. Poor off track Hayden and teething Jake are about to do me in. It was not the best week to try to lower the frequency of my "f" bombs. I think by midnight last night I said it ten times. But I didn't start saying it until around 5 p.m. Maybe I'm just a nighttime potty mouth. Jake has thrown up six times already today and it's just a little past noon. He's in his fourth outfit of the day. I did laundry (sorry Denise, but I could only take one day off) but I can't seem to put it away. It's just sitting there, folded, mocking me on the table. I have a baby who crawls. Everywhere. All day long. And my vacuum is broken. Well, it's not broken exactly.....Do you remember that episode of 'Seinfeld' with the b.o. car? No matter what they did, they couldn't get the mystery smell out of the interior of the car. That's what is wrong with my vacuum. It smells. Not like burning belt, dying motor, rubber/engine type smell, but more like....death. Death and stink. It's pretty hard to describe. The only part of my vacuum that cannot get wet is the part that STINKS. We can't clean that particular part. So we ordered a replacement part a couple of weeks ago. We called last night to check the status of our order and they inform us that they did inventory last week and no shipments were made. So there is a ridiculous amount of crud on my floors with the crawling baby. I am picking up things by hand (I love you Brandon, but sunflower seed shells? Seriously?). So now I have another six days at least with no vacuum. I think I'm going to buy the baby prison (aka playpen) now. And poor Hayden, my mood mirror, is grumpy today too. He has been screaming at his Nintendo DS all morning because it's too slow/too boring/too hard. If the baby ever naps (fat freaking chance) Hayden and I need to chill on the sofa with "Wall-E" and ice cream. Or get our aggression out on some drums.

Resolutions Usually Suck

Since all the resolutions I make, I break ten days later, I figured that it was time to stop setting myself up for failure. But then I thought about it. The resolutions I make are too big. They are things like "pay off credit cards" or "lose weight" or "stop eating a pound of chocolate a day". They are just not going to happen. So this year I decided to start small. We waste a lot of food around my house. Not freezing leftovers, forgetting that bag of salad in the bottom drawer until it's slimy and brown, thinking that we will eat that much sliced ham before it gets all dried up and metallic looking- stuff like that. So, starting this week, I'm going to work on not wasting food. Because I figure that it's okay to spend a little more on my food if it means I will actually get my money out of it. Oh and I'm going to try to use the "f" word only twice a day. If I say I'll stop using it entirely I'll use it three times just on my f%*ing way to work.

Jake's Nine Month Appointment

Jake is getting old! He's already nine months. He is working on getting his two top front teeth, trying to figure out how to get around the chair blocking the stairs and he has started feeding the dog cheerios and puffs. His life is very busy. He weighs 16 pounds 14 ounces and is 29 inches tall. We have been able to put him in high chairs at restaurants instead of just his car seat. That makes him quite happy. Only another few months until he's a year old. I'm sure he'll be driving by then.

So Much to Love

(I was giggling, so the camera is a little shaky)

My husband is great man. He has many great talents and we love him. One thing the man cannot do is sing. Oh he really can't sing. He can't sing like I can't fix computers. Another awesome thing about him is that he has no shame. None. At all. It is very endearing though. This Christmas, Brandon gave me the best gift I've ever had. The gift of tune-less song. Let me set the stage here. We got Rock Band for Christmas. Brandon is usually on guitar, Hayden singing (more on that later), and me on drums. When everyone was over for the holiday we had a great time playing and taking turns. I'm not sure who passed the mic to my husband. The best part of this video is his swaying and the straight faces Jen and Ron manage to keep. Enjoy.........