Pin It Do It - Caramel

It's not Friday, but here's a Pin It Do It that was super easy, cheap and delicious.  All you need is a can of sweetened condensed milk and a crock pot.  Submerge the condensed milk in water in the crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours and voila you have the most amazing caramel.  One caveat though is that it is not as amazing the next day, so make sure you've got your apples or what ever you are going to use it with ready that day.  Here's a link to the pin and below is a picture of my result.

9 months

okay, so this is a little bit late (and by that I mean almost a month) but here goes.

Parker:
At 9 months, this child can pretty much be described in one phrase: 'on the move.'  He just doesn't stop.  He loves food and will eat almost anything, except carrots, which he still just doesn't like that much.  He has recently discovered how much it is to roll a ball around the room and chase after it, just to roll it again.  He really loves the animals and plays with Mr. Kitty and the dogs all the time.  This leads me to his 9 month pictures: 

what kind of mischief will I get into today Mom?

Yep, it's official, he's learned how to crawl out the dog door.  Because that was exactly what we needed a baby that just doesn't stop moving to learn!

Father's Day Photo Dump

Father's day was really nice this year, Mike just wanted a relaxing day.  Hailey and I walked over to get donuts in the morning and brought him breakfast and coffee in bed.  We hung out for a bit and then walked to the park and spent a couple hour just hanging out and kicking a soccer ball then headed home.  He smoked an amazing au jus injected sirloin and we made sandwiches and a salad that were out of this world (recipe to come later this week).  So here is a quick photo dump of the weekend.

Hailey was so tuckered out after soccer that she fell asleep with Mr. Kitty

The Evolution of Bathtime

Bath time has always been something Parker enjoyed.  From the baths after first bringing him home until now, bath time seems to be very soothing and fun for him.  A few weeks ago I was thinking about how bath time has evolved, so here's a little view of our world:

Soccer Star

I’ve mentioned it a few times now that I am coaching Hailey’s soccer team.  I’m not going to lie, in the beginning I really hated it, mainly because I just didn’t know what I was doing.  Just because you’ve played soccer, doesn’t mean you can automatically coach soccer, especially if you haven’t played in years.  The hardest part for me was really finding a way to be assertive and commanding with the kids – the boys in particular – which for anyone that knows me should find that statement ironic as I am usually pretty quick to take control and be assertive in situations.  It was difficult too that Hailey liked the idea of soccer, she played at school all the time, but has never really put out a lot of effort when it comes to sports.  When she played softball, it was really half-assed on everyone’s part except Mike and Dennis who always made an effort to go out in the yard and throw a ball with her.  But as parents, we were just as bad about getting her to practice every week as she was about putting in 110% when she was there or at games.  So walking into the soccer season, she was really excited about getting to play on a real team, but lacked the skill set – having never played before – and lacked the passion for the sport that really drives you to give it your all.  

Over the past three months, I have come to really enjoy coaching.  We do not always win – we actually just won our first game last Saturday and tomorrow is our last game of the season – but that isn’t the most important part.  It has been so amazing to watch these kids grow and learn how to work together as a team.  The most amazing part though has been watching Hailey blossom.  From the first game where she flinched every time a ball came near her and slowed down when an opponent came running at her to the last series of games where she is fearless and determined to be the best.  She moves with a quickness she never had before.  She plays with a passion that is inspiring and reminds me of when I first started playing and fell in love with the game.  I look back and can remember the game where everything clicked for her; right before the game I pulled her aside and was telling her that she needed to be more aggressive, that she couldn’t be afraid of the ball or the other team, that as a defender it was her job to put herself in between the opponent and the goal and do whatever she needed to get the ball out of there.  She was pumped up and ready to go.  The ball came towards her and she connected perfectly and sent that ball driving hard down the field.  The look on her face of shear pride in her accomplish beaming across the field made us all smile.  From that game on she has really stepped it up and gives 110% every game.  She hustles to be the first to the ball, she is always where she needs to be and is aggressive in both defending and attacking and is playing amazingly well.  

She wants to play again next season and I am going to coach again.  I am definitely looking forward to an all-girl team and a more traditional season and so is she.  She is also looking forward to many years of playing soccer; a few games ago she was telling me how she wants to play soccer in college now.  My boss’s daughters are soccer players too and I mentioned it to him.  He quickly made the offer for her to come out watch his girls play on their club teams and said that she can be the ball girl for the university’s women’s team next season and she is so excited.  My hope is that she continues to have this passion and continues to play as well as she has this season.

Hopefully tomorrow’s game is another great one!

What happened in May?

May was a really busy month for us: I hyper-extended my knee, had my first ‘real’ mother’s day, had lots of soccer games, checked out a bunch of day cares, enrolled Parker in day care, got ready for Mike to go back to work, worked with Hailey on her Golden Gate bridge project, went to evening events for work, weddings and baby showers, worked in our yard, changed my mind and finally planted those infamous bulbs, got the back room set up for a new renter, had a fun Memorial day barbeque, and lots of other less than exciting stuff.  Sadly, I wasn’t able to keep up with the photo challenge with so much going on, but this month I am back on track and am finally able to crawl out of the hole I’ve been living in and rejoin the blogging world.  Thank goodness!!! I have definitely missed it; I’ve missed writing and I’ve missed reading all the other amazing blogs out there that I usually follow.  

So I am going to start this month off with a 12 To-Do’s recap.  Half the year has almost completely flown by so hopefully half my list has too!

1: Finish fixing up the guest bedroom – DONE!!! And we have a renter who moved in at the end of last month.  Yay for us!!

2: Paint and set up the outside living room – In April, I said this was about 15% finished.  This month I’d say we’ve taken a step backwards since we had to clear out our furniture in the guest bedroom so the renter could move in and we have acquired a few other hand-me-down pieces of furniture since, so its kind of unorganized out there right now and we definitely haven’t painted or put in carpet.  With the extra income from Mike working now, hopefully we can get this done by the fall.

3: Finally plant the stupid hyacinth and narcissus bulbs that have been in the cabinet for over a year in the front yard – mostly done!  I still have a bunch more because each bag had like 50+ bulbs in it, but I got one whole planter finished!  I have really gotten into gardening recently, and have surprisingly enjoyed it so much.

4: Paint something worth putting up in our house – I put it up in a Pin It – Do It post, and yes, I have finally painted something worth putting up in our house, using a mixed media style (collage and acrylic), I painted the lemon picture.  I turned out great.  We aren’t actually going to put it up because the teal that I used doesn’t quite match our dining room like I hoped and I think I’d like a slightly bigger one for us, so I am actually going to sell this one on Etsy, just haven’t gotten around to putting it up yet.

5: Take a refresher course on photography and work at taking better pictures – I didn’t take any Photo a  Day pictures this month, but I did continue to take family photos.  I have been reading a lot of great tutorials on using lighting and on editing techniques as well.  I really need to get Lightroom so that I can really have full capabilities for editing, but right now PicMonkey and the basic edits in Picasa are working just fine.

6: Find a really awesome new hiking spot (maybe even one that is less than a 45 minute drive away) – Not yet, but maybe for Father’s day.

7: Wean myself off the snooze button – The snooze button is still my kryptonite.  After I hurt my knee, we really stopped working out.  I have been waking up extra early this week to do at least the Abs dvd, and because I have been really trying to be on time to work on a more regular basis.  But still the snooze button seduces me every time.

8: Create a photo collage wall for our living room – Mike and I talked about this one, and we’ve decided we want to do something a little more interesting than a photo collage in the typical way.  I have been searching on Pinterest for some good ideas but haven’t found anything that really strikes me just yet.  

9: Go on a vacation – So tentatively we are planning to go to Solvang with my parents again in October.  Hopefully it works out.

10: Start saving money for our eventual move out of California – hahahahahahahahahahaha…no.

11: Find my voice for my blog – Seeing as I essentially took a month off, I’d say this one has taken a step back.  My goal for this month is to have at least two substantive posts and one photo post a week.  Let’s see how things go.

12: Get pregnant again :) - not yet but hopefully soon!

Apparently, I’ve got a lot of work to do in the next 6 months…