Saturday Baking

Marlena checking to see if we added enough sugar.

Scott doing precision lattice work

The final project.

We had a great family activity this weekend, baking a cherry pie! Marlena did a great job of mixing the ingredients for the filling. She had to taste everything. The sugar was her favorite but the salt and the vanilla extract did not get a good response! I put the crust ingredients together and Scott did my least favorite part and that is the rolling out of the dough and the lattice work. He has to have the lattice work on a cherry pie. I made it one time without it and I think I ruined his whole experience. Baking this way was a great family project and made the process a lot more fun for me! I think there may be more weekend pies in the future.

In Search of the Duros

I have been craving duros. Every once in a while I get a strong craving for duros, I can't blame it on the pregnancy. Straight out of the frying pan or with a little cayenne pepper. I used to be able to get them at HEB and then I could only get them at Walmart. I went to search for them and they were no where to be seen! I was about to search for the nearest Fiesta Foods then I remembered we had a grocery store that was once a Fiesta Foods and EUREKA, they were there. I got some duros, pan dulce and even found some tres leche cake. It is going to be a good Friday evening.

Fortunately for me I will not be arrested by the library police. I found the missing library book. I turned the house upside down looking under all the beds and in all the drawers. I finally found it right there on the shelf at the LIBRARY!!! Next time I will look there first.

Chicken! It's what's for dinner!

Nothing like having a big chicken come out right before you have your chicken wings! It did not seem to bother Scott to much, he enjoyed his wings.

Weekend Activities

My parents came for a visit this weekend and we all had a great time. Marlena showed them her necklace making kit. This kit gives me about 30 minutes of time to clean or do other household chores. I bought an assortment of beads for about 3 dollars but then I bought some pasta. Marlena's abuelos actually dyed the pasta different colors and my dad found a good use for those colorful straws I bought earlier. He cut them into smaller pieces. Now I need to find other inexpensive things for her kit.

Here is instructions on dying pasta if you want to try it.

Need:

Pasta

Plastic bags

Food coloring

Rubbing alcohol

1. Add about a teaspoon of rubbing alcohol to each bag of macaroni and several drops of food coloring desired to each bag depending on how much pasta you are looking to dye.Close the bag and shake until the pasta is coated.

2. Lay out wax paper and spread out pasta so that it can dry. We left ours out over night. I think it worked great!

Let's see if this works

Let's see if my tech skills are up to date. I found out I can post
blog entries with a cell phone, or can I? Humm I guess we shall soon
find out. This could be handy for long park stays. I feel I should get
caught up with all this technology before Lena starts kindegarden. I
have two more years to learn HTML!

Wjjmpatd

10:30 pm

I should be asleep by now. I've been trying to get more sleep because I know that after December it will be awhile. I have to soak it all in while I can. Mmmmm, I love sleep. Our little girl has been kicking up a storm. She is wide awake when I'm supposed to be deep asleep. Scott got to feel her kick for the first time this evening. Marlena is fast asleep. . . I hope. Around 9:50 pm I kept hearing a noise coming from her room (she is in bed by 8:00 pm). When I went in her room and I caught her on her trying to climb her dresser. "What are you doing," I asked. "I'm sleeping," she replied as she jumped back into the covers. She wanted me to sleep in her bed. I told her that we could take a nap together tomorrow. I didn't think I could survive the night with my two girls kicking me. One on the inside and one on the outside.

The Remodeling Begins?

Remodeling the guest room/office into a baby room. Three months to do this can it be done?!?! As you can see we have a lot to do. Notice the clothes on the bed. We are currently trying to organize all the clothes that are too small for Marlena and get them organized and ready for our new baby girl. We are going to leave the bed in here but the crib somewhere. We need to clear out the office and make it back into a closet. Where all that will go I do not know. We are thinking of pictures instead of a mural like we did in Marlena's room because Scott just does not have the time to do it. I will keep you updated on the process.

Hunting

In search of the missing library book, ugh. Where or where can it be? I had to do a google search just to remember what the book looked like. Marlena has lead me on several wild goose chases claiming she remembered where it is. I've heard of stories where the library has turned people in for over due books. Here is one example of many that can be Googled.
http://http://www.wisn.com/news/17258567/detail.html
I have renewed this book three times already. I'm a little worried . . .

Friday Cuteness Overload

Just a little cuteness for your Friday pleasure!

My Bright Idea

I was running low on straws. When I went to the store they had some colored straws on sale! I knew Lena would get a kick out of these instead of the plain clear straws that I had been buying. Never, never buy colored straws. Every meal it is "I wanted the pink one", " I wanted the green one". I can never predict the right color for the right meal. This is why plain clear straws are the ones we are buying from now on.

Pretzannabutteraisin bug

Mac and cheese and peanut butter banana caterpillars. I was quite proud of my creation. Marlena kept looking at it. "What is that?" she said pointing to the antennas."Those are the antennas," I told her pointing at the pretzels. "No mama those are pretzels," she looked at me like I lost my mind. She did not buy that the raisins were eyes either. She did like them though and ate them until there was nothing left. Scott decided to name them Pretzannabutteraisin bugs and I think she liked the name so that is what they are!

It's a girl!

We found out we are having a girl! I'm about 19 weeks in this picture. Marlena thinks that we are all pregnant,including her daddy. She keeps wanting me to feel her tummy for the baby in there. I think Marlena is happy that she is having a sister even though the other day she told us that she wanted a boy sister! We explained that boys were brothers and girls were sisters.

3rd Birthday Invites

This is the invitation Scott designed for Marlena's third. She was disappointed that she was not on a horse! I told her maybe next year. It was a great party with hamburgers, family and friends. We got to share our news of our new arrival at this time also. We filled a giant box with balloons and attached was a shirt that said Big Sister. It was nice to finally let everyone know i was getting paranoid that it was a little obvious.