Recipes of the week!

Well, everything we own is in the house...now we just have to get everything in its place!

And since anything is better than unpacking, I decided I wanted to start my recipes of the week!

I didn't try a new main course recipe, but this is one that we love and don't have that often. It is Real Simple's Pork Scaloppine. AND the leftovers are used for Cuban Sandwiches! So cook once and 2 different meals are done!

For dessert this week, I made Gram's Best Brown Sugar Cake, from the Kraft Food & Family Magazine. This cake is really moist and yummy...and EASY! I have several recipes from the Food & Family Magazine, which used to be free. I received notice a few months ago that it is no longer free (which is disappointing because it was basically just a big advertisement for any and all Kraft products), but you can get all of the recipes from the website.

Happy cooking!

Our First Place

Tomorrow we will be selling "our first place". It is bittersweet as it will probably forever be referred to as our "project house." Over the last almost five years we have transformed this house into our home. There is not a wall that we haven't painted, a floor we haven't torn up, or a light fixture we haven't replaced. Here are a few links to some of our favorite projects:
Wood Floors
Kitchen Tile
Landscaping
Nate's Room

We've enjoyed hosting friends and family here (and our roommate Liz for a while), having Sammy join our family and, of course, bringing home our sweet baby, Nate!

We are very much looking forward to the new chapter in our next home. One that will be much less focused on home projects and more on family time together!

Yummy, Yummy!

One of my goals for the future is to try more recipes and make one dessert a week. I'm constantly tearing out new recipes to try (and most of them are desserts!) but I hardly ever make new dishes! This week I tried this recipe for Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches and it was a big success! I also made a Peach Cobbler- not a new recipe, but used up some peaches from the freezer. However, that only lasted 2 days...so I made Nestle Double Chocolate Dream Cookies! They were really yummy and last a little bit longer since we only make a few cookies at a time.

I'm looking forward to getting set up in our new house and kitchen (with double ovens, yay!) and trying out lots of new recipes!

Who told our baby he could grow up?

This is how I found Nate this morning...happily chewing on the side of his crib. It was partly my fault, as I apparently left the side rail down after a 12am wakeup call...so I was hoping that this was a fluke.
But this afternoon I turned my back for one second and turned around to see this:
Ohmygoodness! Nate continued to amaze us today with more new skills--picking up things off of the floor to eat (particularly Sammy's dog food-which I was able to swipe away before it was eaten), crawling from his room through the foyer, kitchen and all over the house, a sudden burst in language skills saying "bahh, bahh, bahh" AND opening his first drawer! Joel was home most of the day and was able to see these new skills for the first time right along with me...and we captured many of them on video for you to see. Our sweet little guy continues to amaze us!





Oh, and then Nate crawled in his exersaucer...so Joel thought he wanted to go for a spin...

Nate's new spot

Nate definitely has to be "contained" these days if I can't keep a close eye on him. I have resorted to leaving the pack and play set up in our living room as a quick place to put him. Thankfully he LOVES it!

And he may be spending more time here in the coming weeks as we will be packing to move! Our house was on the market for a little less than 2 weeks! We feel very blessed, as many homes are on the market for 6 months or more... and we have a contract on a home for us that we will be able to grow into! We are scheduled to close on our current house on Nov 18th and Nov 20th for the house we are moving into. As long as everything goes as planned we can move straight from our first house to the next, which will make things much less complicated!

Halloween

For Halloween, we were invited to have dinner and Trick or Treat with our friends, The Wallaces. We enjoyed a yummy chili and hot dogs, playing with the kids, and walking around the neighborhood!

Nate playing with cars with Ben. Ben was very good at sharing!

Nate was a lumberjack for Halloween night. I decided to change it up a little from the bear, as he had already worn that costume 3 times (and it was REALLY hard to get him in and out of it!)

Nate and Carlton...next year they will really love Halloween!

Trunk or Treat

Our church held a Trunk or Treat last night. We had never been to one of these events before, so it was fun to have it for Nate's first Halloween.

Our trunk, complete with spooky "witch's brew"

Nate with his buddies, Micah and Carlton

Nate at the end of the night...he was one tired bear!