A Box and Grilled Cheese

Today I had to go to Sam's to get more diapers. On the way home I realized that Derek and I had been terrible parents because we had yet to let Kyle play in a box. When I got home I unpacked all the diapers and put them in the proper place and then waited for Kyle to get up from his nap. When he finally got up I ran upstairs, got him, ran back down, and plopped in him the box! He was so confused at first, but then he really loved it! Especially when Derek gave him rides around the room in it!

Playing with the box came to a halt when Kyle found the rest of Derek's grilled cheese sandwich from lunch and decided he wanted to eat it. It's so rare when Kyle want's to eat, instead of us forcing him to eat, that we just took his pajamas off and let him have it right in the middle of the living room. I'm now working on getting melted cheese out of the carpet.

Peach Cobbler

A few years ago I was addicted to the blog, Bakerella. On her site she had this recipe for amazing looking peach cobbler and I kept telling myself I was going to make it, but didn't get around to actually making it until yesterday. My only regret is that I waited so long to make it because it's DELICIOUS! and more importantly, super easy! And it does make an excellent breakfast the next morning too, I would know, just make sure you don't forget the ice cream! Your brain can be a little on the foggy side in the morning. 

Ingredients:
24.5 oz jar of sliced peaches in light syrup
1 package yellow cake mix
1 stick butter (1/2 cup), cut into 16 pieces
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Layer ingredients in a 13 X 9 dish, in order starting with the peaches.
Bake for about 40 minutes.
Serve warm or cold, with or without ice cream.

For a step by step photo tutorial be sure to check out Bakerella's!

The First Father's Day

Today was Derek's first Father's Day so I wanted to make sure that I spoiled him rotten. I think mission was accomplished! For Mother's Day Derek had gotten me 3 Mother's Day related children stories that I could read to Kyle and our other future children. I decided to return the favor and got Derek 3 Father's Day related children's books: The Berenstain Bears: We Love Our Dad!, Daddies, and The Night Before Father's Day. I also got him and Kyle matching ties since it's a tradition done by Derek's older siblings and their families, and I can't resist an opportunity for matching clothes.

I then further spoiled Derek by making him some German Pancakes with berries for breakfast. After confirming that my recipe and his mom's recipe were the same, and adding a little more butter like she told me to do, Derek said, "It's really close, there's just a little something that's different...", whatevs, this is how he's getting them from now on... Until we go to Idaho for Christmas, then he can get the real deal! For dinner we had marinated steak, mashed potatoes, and green beans, with peach cobbler for dessert (recipe here)! We're so full!

In other news, we bought our plane tickets to go to Idaho for Christmas! We only paid $180 for the three of us to get there so it was awesome! We still need to purchase our tickets for the way back, but we're planning on being there Dec 18- Jan 3! We're so excited to be gone for that long and that we get to spend so much time in Idaho! We LOVE Idaho!

Hong Kong

Last night for Derek's Father's Day date night we decided to go get some Chinese food at a little place in Hope Valley called Hong Kong. The food was pretty good, but a little over priced for your typical Chinese food. And they didn't have high chairs which was annoying. We thought we could handle eating with Kyle on our laps, but the wiggle worm was too wiggly, so we went home and finished our dinner there!

It's a pretty big pet peeve of mine when a restaurant doesn't have high chairs. This is the second time this has happened in the last 2 weeks. I thought that it was some health code or something that all restaurants have them, but apparently not.

The Playground and Garden

The last few days here have been so gloomy! With hurricane Andrea coming through the coast it's been nothing but thunder and lighting on and off for days. This morning when we woke up it was bright and sunny so we thought we would take advantage of it before it turned to rain again! We got ready and went to the play ground. Kyle had a great time swinging with Mom and Dad, watching us blow bubbles, and playing on the playground equipment.

After we got Kyle tired at the playground we went to Lowe's to get some tomato cages for my garden since the hurricane winds had blown my plants over and I didn't want them to die! We drove home and got the cages in and even saw a bunch of tomatoes coming in! I'm having pretty high hopes for my little garden!

 "Whoa!"

 Cherry tomatoes coming in!

Cucumbers are starting to flower! 

^this one was 1 tomato plant and somehow split into 4! so we have a total of 9 tomato plants now!

National Doughnut Day

Derek and I are obsessed with Krispy Kreme. I told Derek this morning that every trial in my life could be ended if I could just have burgers and doughnuts everyday! But alas, I would die, and so I have to enjoy my doughnuts on the special days we get them! This morning we made the short drive to Chapel Hill to get our free Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. We also had a buy one dozen get one dozen free coupon so we got lots to share with the missionaries for lunch today, and Derek's going to spread the joy of National Doughnut Day at work today!

Happy Friday Everyone!

Kyle is 10 Months!

This is so crazy to me. My little guy is already 10 months. Time to start planning that birthday party! Just kidding, if you follow me on Pinterest, you'll know I already started planning a couple weeks ago! But I'm so excited! Anyways, as far as Kyle updates go, physically, he is doing everything he was doing at 9 months, walking when we hold his hands, pulling to stand, cruising along the furniture, crawling up the stairs, and standing for a few seconds when we put him up on his feet before he falls over.

However, there have been big cognitive mile stones this past month. Kyle now says Momma, and Dada. When you say clap your hands, he does it. When you say give me a kiss, he'll eat your nose. When you say "Where is my nose?" he points to it. When you crawl behind him and say "I'm gonna get you!" he crawls away faster, and laughs! When you say turn off the light, he flips the switch. He's a smarty pants, just like dad.

He loves watching nursery rhyme songs on Youtube with Derek in the morning. Today he was even clapping at the right spots (by himself) during B-I-N-G-O, I wish I got it on video, it was amazing!

He's doing better with eating solid food, meaning he eats real food about 3 times a day now, which was better than once every other day before.

He has been sleeping through the night with no 1am wake up for the last couple weeks which has been spoiling me and I really hope it lasts! Especially since he doesn't wake up until 8-9! We've been feeling so refreshed each morning which is good since we've been going to be a lot later now that Derek gets home at 12:30am from work!

Size 4 diapers and 12 month size clothes, this little boy is so big!

A Shout Out to High School

Sometimes I really can't believe that it's really been almost 4 years since we all graduated together. 4 years have come and gone, an we've all taken such different paths. Many of you have completed your 4 year degrees on time, and to that, I congratulate you. Many people, like myself are still working on their degrees, and to those like me, I say, keep pushing. 

The main reason for this post is because over the last 4 years the person that I was in high school desperately haunts me. We're talking like, laying in bed for hours sometimes regretting all the really dumb things I've said, and did, to all of you. The fact the some of you still talk to me today is nothing short of a miracle. Clearly you all were capable of seeing me for the person I had the potential to become rather than just as the person I was. 

The truth is I guess when your home life is bananas it sometimes might get taken out on your friends, for which I'm sorry. The reason why I think I lied to so many of you, about such dumb things is because my real life was so pitifully depressing (in the mind of a high school kid, in hind sight it really wasn't that bad)  that I just needed to create my own world to everyone else so that they would think I was something better than I really was. 

To everyone who still spoke to me after lying about having my drivers license for 6 months, when I really had to take the test 5 times, I say thank you. To everyone who had to put up with my 18 month lie about being color blind, I say thank you. To everyone who let me borrow countless amounts of lunch money from them before I figured out the last 3 months of senior year that I got free lunch, I say thank you. I also say, one day  I promise when I come home I'm taking all of you out to lunch as a payback, promise. To the countless people who gave my undeserving bum a ride to or  from track practice (or anywhere for that fact), ever, I say thank you. 

To every guy that I ever told I would be their girl friend, only for me to dump them the next day, I say sorry. To every person who ever wanted to bash their face into a desk every time they saw me walk into a room, I say sorry. 

So once again, to each and everyone of you, even those not in any of the pictures above, I'm so sorry you had to put up with me, and so grateful that you still talk to me today! I promise you each get one free punch the next time you see me. Just not in the baby maker, I still need that. 

German Pancakes

This morning Derek and I were feeling pretty reminiscent about Idaho and so I decided to fix us some "oven pancakes", as Derek's mom likes to call them. This recipe was pretty good, and definitely better than my first attempt at making them, but Derek still wants me to get his mom's recipe because, as always, nothing is ever as good as the way mom made it. Which is definitely true 9.9/10 :)

There are few things in life that are as exciting as when you first pull these out of the oven!

Ingredients:

2 TBSP butter, melted

6 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400°. Melt butter in the bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish. In stand mixer on high with whisk attachment, mix eggs, milk, flour, and salt until smooth. Pour in casserole dish and bake for 20 minutes. Serve with fruit and/or syrup of choice. 

Life of Pie

Last week while watching the season premier of the American Baking Competition, I found myself craving so much pie. Mainly because last weeks challenge was for each contestant to make 3 different pies. 30 pies total in one show. My mouth was watering and I've been thinking about pie, (and how it's not in my body as often as I would like), and how I need to make more of it! Since we live in a place where we can go and pick so much fresh local fruit from the farms all year long, I've been thinking about how fun it would be to try out new pies every couple weeks, using fresh local produce and ingredients! While searching the internet for all things pie, I've found some recipes that I really want to try this year! Check them out below, in the order in which I hope to try them!

Blueberry Pie

Strawberry Pie

Blackberry Pie

Banana Cream Pie

Mississippi Mud Pie

Peach Pie

Pecan Pie

Sweet Potato Pie

Lemon Meringue Pie

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Dutch Apple Pie

Pumpkin Pie

Traditional Apple Pie

Sorry I had to put you all through that. Truth is, if I manage to actually make one of these that will be a miracle! I've kind of been in an anti baking/cooking mood lately, if you haven't noticed with the lack of recipes lately. Anyways, this should help me get out of my funk and into the kitchen! What are your go to pie recipes?