Waffles in the morning, waffles in the evening...

...waffles at suppertime! I love waffles. Homemade ones! When I was pregnant with Blair, for the first several months I ate waffles for at least one meal probably about every other day. I think I ate them for supper more than for breakfast (and still do!). And I wonder why my butt got so big! It didn't help that peanut butter and jelly was the other meal I seemed to eat all the time. After never having liked PB&J, I started eating them when I was pregnant and have continued since. Yum. I love a PB&J made with Linsey's blueberry preserves or her apple butter!

I eat my waffles plain and just like I would eat a piece of toast -- I just pick a one up and bite it! And I like to stand them up on my plate so they don't get soggy. One of my favorite parts of the waffle is where the batter runs over and makes the little parts on the edges.

I have a two Villaware belgian wafflers and adore them. A Villaware is a must have if you are waffle lover like me! I had a small one and just got a larger farm animal one for my birthday from my mom! Now Blair can have fun pig and cow waffles when she gets bigger!

I love this waffle recipe. It makes four regular Belgian waffles. As I said, I eat waffles a lot, so I usually double the recipe and keep the batter in the refrigerator in my Pampered Chef Batter Bowl. Its top and pour spout are super convenient.

The Yummiest Waffles Ever

1 egg
1 T sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup self-rising flour
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla

With a whisk, mix together all ingredients and cook in a waffle iron. Makes 4 Belgian waffles.

Figs!

My neighbor has a fig tree from which he graciously lets me pick, so I decided to make some fig preserves. I tried to pick with Blair playing in the pack n play, but she is getting two teeth and is Miss Fussy these days, so I had to take her back to the house and come back after she went to bed. The tree is loaded with figs.

They are perfectly tree-ripe right now: plump, juicy, and cracking on the bottom.

And there are some really big ones!

Buddy and the puppy like figs too. They spent the entire time scavenging underneath the tree.

My loot at the end of my picking session.

I boiled the figs in syrup for almost an hour.

They turned out nicely!

I put them in the jars and covered them with syrup.

And there they are!

I told Kim when she stopped by this evening that I really don't even know why I make preserves. I rarely eat any type of jam, jelly, or preserve. I guess I just enjoy doing it, and I do like to give them away!

Teething

Mischief at Aunt Linnie's

Under the coffee table...

Hey, look at all those others!



I think I might fit them all in at once!

Puppies? Yep, we've got that too.

We got rid of the ferrets, and now we have a puppy. FANtastic. (We don't actually have her; we're just keeping her until someone else can have her!)
Last night I was sitting in the den about to go to bed, and I heard some noises on the back porch. I went out there and found a small black lab mix puppy behind the washing machine. I tried to get her to come out, but she was scared, so I just left her. I didn't want to have to get back there and get dirty when I was about to go to bed. Yes, my laundry machines are on the glass porch. Yes, it's dirty out there -- it might as well be outside since there is a screened window that lets in dirt and bugs. I don't even take dirty clothes out there unless I'm going to put them directly into the washer for fear that they might get dirtier waiting in line to be washed. I just separate and line up the loads of dirty clothes in the hallway instead. I love my old house, so it's ok that my laundry room (really unroom) is not nice. And by the way, what is it about laundry detergent that makes spiders want to live in the box? Brad says they must want a clean house. Ha ha. Seriously though, they make webs overnight in my detergent box. Yuck.
So back to the puppy. At 4am, she was yelping, so Brad climbed up on top of the dryer, fished her out from behind there, and put her out. This morning she was on the front porch. We keep our front door open during the day, and the puppy saw Gus through the glass door and started crying. Poor thing.

She just looks in. And she put puppy marks on my door.

I'm such a sucker. She was covered with fleas, so I gave her a bath. And I fed her. Then she followed me around the house.

She's really sweet. And she swims! I took our dogs swimming and let her tag along. My guess is that she's 8 or 10 weeks old, and she was swimming out there with the big dogs!

She jumped right in after Buddy and Gus.


Swimming after the big dogs.


Look at these goons.


Teaching the puppy how to share?


Please share, please share!

She loves Buddy and Gus. She followed them around everywhere at the pond. Right now she's in the pen with Buddy, and she seems to be happy (not crying). Who wants her?!

Pea Pickin'

Last year, thanks to a neighbor's allowing me to raid her garden, I picked and put up peas for the first time. We are just about to run out of the peas I got last year -- just in time to pick some more! Molly, her friend Rhiana, mom, Blair, and I headed out to the garden early in the morning and went to work.

Blair played in the pack 'n play the whole time. She was so good, like always! I think she had a good time watching the cats.

Yay for yummy peas in my freezer again!

Nine Months

Our sweet Blair,

I really don't think we realize how good we have it with you. You are the absolute best baby in the world. Not only do you make us laugh constantly, but you are also so easy. You are almost always happy with only a hint of a temper every now and then. It's the best feeling in the world when I look at you, and you smile so big. You reach for me now when I go get you out of your bed. I love that. You are so excited to see us when we come in your room.

This is what happened during the nine month photo session.

You pop your mouth (smack your lips) all the time. We think you might do it when you're interested in something or you like something, but sometimes you look like you're trying to mimic us talking our eating! You love when we do it as well. You smile every time. You laugh the most at your daddy though. You love when he plays with you while you're in your bed. You scream and fall down you laugh so hard.

Everyone says you have big eyes. You have big beautiful eyes!

We play in your room every day, but you also play very well by yourself. You just found out you could move from room to room, so we are in for it (and so is Gus)! You are one tough little girl. God knew what he was doing when he made you. There are times when you hurt yourself, and I'm sure you're going to cry, but you don't. Sometimes you do though, and it will break anyone's heart. You can put on the biggest frown.

You still scream a lot.

And you laugh a lot!

You are now crawling really well, and you pull up on everything. You have had several small boo boos, mostly when you get too ambitious and knock your head on the floor. Your crawl is quite funny. You use your left knee and your right foot. You right knee never gets dirty, because it hardly touches the ground. Your left knee and the top of your left foot, however, stay dirty. I guess I need to do a better job on our floors!

The crawl: one knee, one foot.

You drank out of a cup for the first time. You loved it. We are about to try a sippy, but you don't even hold your bottle, so I don't know how that's going to work out.

This is your new "thing."

I put you on the floor in the kitchen while I'm working, and you play with the fridge farm. You don't quite get the concept, so it starts over and over again as you press away on all the buttons. You love your sing along stage. You know all the right buttons to press and love looking at the baby in the mirror.

You are also still in love with your paci and the dragon mask. You make a beeline for both.

• You go to bed around 6pm and get up around 7am. I still feed you before I go to bed, but you never wake up.
• You take two good naps and wake up talking every time. You put yourself to sleep and go back to sleep on your own if you wake up too early.
• You wear size 3 - 6 months clothing and size 1-2 or 2 diapers. Last week, you weighed 13 lb 1 oz and were 25 1/2 inches long. We are now putting oil in your bottles to try to help your little lungs grow faster. You eat two meals a day (if we're lucky). You love carrots and hate fruit. You don't gag, but you shudder when I give you fruit as if I had given you a lemon!

You love playing with your dresser and looking out the window.

• You are still on oxygen at night, but you are doing very well. We went to the doctor last week because you were wheezing more, but he said it was just a bump in the road and that we didn't need to change anything.
• Yesterday, I felt a very small part of your first tooth! How exciting! You have gnawed on everything in site for months, and I didn't notice any change in your behavior. I hope all your teething goes that well!

We love you very much!
mommy and daddy

You like to "kiss" the ducky!

Peas make me happy.

July Fourth

With baby, pumping, breathing treatments, and other stuff we don't get to do much on a whim stuff. I get so frustrated about the amount of time it takes me to get ready to go somewhere. The pumping really throws a kink in things sometimes, but I'm willing to work around it for a while longer. It's waaay cheaper than formula, it's good for Blair, and I have the time, so why not? Anyway. Sorry men if this is too much information for you. It's just how it is!

We did, on a whim, head over to Lane Packing Company for lunch and their Fourth of July celebration.

The fire trucks were there to fly our beautiful flag!

Kim, Blair, and I went and met my mom, John, Hank, Molly, and Rhiana. It was packed. When I worked at Lane's as a high schooler (many great memories made there), I never saw that many people there. Wow, it was really crowded. The lunch was delicious too! They had the best ribs I think I've ever had. The plate included ribs, beans, slaw, bread, and corn on the cob -- YUMMY!

We had to situate Blair so that she couldn't see the stars. She was enthralled.


Finally checking out those stars.


Blair had fun with her Aunt Kimmie!








Me and Molly

Later that night, Brad took me, Kim and Blair to eat Mexican and then to watch fireworks over the lake. They were beautiful. Blair watched them for about 20 seconds. Then, she wanted to climb all over everyone.

Waiting on the fireworks with daddy.

She was asleep in the car before we ever got out of the parking lot. And we lost the red bow. Again. I had a fun day with my family though! Happy birthday to the USA!