Brand New!

This is Owen's reaction at finally being released to roam the house! I think he likes it.

A Glimpse

Here are a few pictures from our temporary stay in the kitchen.

Owen trying to hook up the tv.


Having a couch (also my temporary bed) and a tv in the kitchen is totally brilliant. Now we just need a bigger kitchen to pull it off all year long.


We made some banana bread to occupy our time (and to make the carpet guys jealous). Ok, really I offered them banana bread a few times and I think they aren't allowed to take any, or that's what I'm going to tell myself. I was pretty proud of myself since I couldn't get to the recipe book and made it from memory. My very faulty memory came through for once!

Handfeed a Chickadee

We were looking for activities on Sunday since our house was completely torn apart and decided to go to the park to try the "Handfeed a Chickadee" program. It sounds exactly like what it is except it didn't quite work out for us. We got there an hour into the program and as we approached we saw a large number of people silently (and somewhat creepily) standing in the snow with their hands outstretched waiting for a chickadee to land. I didn't see any birds actually eat out of any person's hand but Pat claims he saw one or two. Either way, any activity that involves standing still and being quiet is pretty awful for a 3 year old. We didn't try for very long but did discover a new park we want to explore when the weather gets nicer!

Pat is making a bit of an attempt here to feed a chickadee. You're supposed to stand by a tree so they can land on the branches and eat out of your hand. Pat decided a bench would work just fine.


We walked on a trail for a little bit since it was such a nice day and so the drive would seem more worth it:)

Almost Carpet Time...

Hurray! It's almost time for us to completely tear our house apart and have normal carpet installed! Can you tell how excited we are? We're pretty much going to be relocating everything to the basement so they can install the carpet. I can't wait to see how Owen and I entertain ourselves while it's being put in since we will really only have access to the kitchen and the basement (if there's any room left down there). Looks like we'll just be sitting around eating...

Pat and Owen before we ripped out the carpet in this room. I probably won't be posting pictures of every single room we're ripping up (you're welcome) but I'm not promising anything either:)

Conversations

Yesterday, first thing in the morning...

Me (and probably Pat too): Owen, Happy Valentine's Day!
Owen: Yeah, Christmas Eve is over.
Me: You're right, Christmas Eve is over.
Owen: Yeah. Let's go eat some candy!

So we did. Even before breakfast. Hurray for holidays!

Valentine

I may have coerced Owen into taking this picture...


A super yummy Valentine treat (Black and White Macaroons).

Pasta Casserole

I met Giada De Laurentiis a few years back. I said "I don't know what to say" while she politely shook my hand, smiled and moved on to the next person:) I'm smooth like that. Anyway, I have two of her cookbooks and I do believe that I've enjoyed every recipe I've ever made from them. This was called Baked Pastina Casserole from her book Everyday Pasta (recipe found here under a different name). You can watch Owen's review of dinner at the bottom of the page.

Pizza Bites

I saw a picture of these and thought they would be perfect to eat for dinner while we watched the Super Bowl (no, I still don't care about the Super Bowl, I just like to make food to celebrate it. I'll start caring when the Browns are in it...so I've got some time...). I used store-bought pizza dough, cut it into squares, wrapped it around some fillings and stuck them all in a pie pan. After baking you eat them dipped in marinara sauce. We tried chicken/broccoli/cheese and then ground beef/cheese combinations and both were good. Pat did inform me that they were even better the next day reheated for lunch.
Recipe Here

Carpet

We finally ordered new carpet for the house! It's going to be a huge pain moving everything and disposing of the old (and very nasty) carpet so I'm already looking forward to it being over. Our house isn't very big but, amazingly, we have 5 different types of carpet covering our floors. I can't wait for everything to match. Then I can go crazy and be all stressed about everything that falls on it. We've decided to get as much done as we can before the installers come in a couple weeks so today we finished taking out the carpet from our first room (there's a sneak peek of the color of the nursery for those of you who haven't seen it).

Owen got out his tools to help but in the end I think he took on more of a "supervisor" role. He thought the whole project was fantastic but I am a little worried about keeping him away from the tack strips bordering the room for the next couple of weeks.


Pat hard at work.

February

Owen took this picture last month but it definitely represents how I was feeling the other day. I've since decided to stop feeling bad for myself and embrace February. That means lots of celebrating random holidays, taking good care of myself and my family and looking forward to Valentine's Day. Eating lots of candy and heart shaped treats counts as taking good care of myself, right?

Blueberry Waffles

I know these are just waffles and not really all that interesting but they were so tasty that I wanted to remember them anyway. I had actually bought blueberries to make blueberry pancakes on January 28 for National Blueberry Pancake Day but then I forgot. When I remembered the next day Owen insisted on having blueberry waffles instead. I have another chance this month anyway because of National Pancake Week:)