Great Green Beans

Tenley loves her water table. The cup she's holding is used to turn the water wheel, but the other day I noticed our geraniums needed a good drink of water so I used the cup to water them. Now, the first thing Tenley does every time the water table comes out is to water the geraniums. We try to limit her to just two cupfuls per plant, but she sneaks a few extra cupfuls in every chance she gets. Our poor geraniums might drown before the summer is over!

When I was a kid, I spent more than one Sunday afternoon huddled over a newspaper breaking beans with the sound of the pressure cooker whistling in the background. Breaking beans? Yes, it's when you snap off the ends of the beans and then break them into small pieces so they can be canned. Tenley's not quite old enough to break beans, but she's becoming a pro at picking them, and they are coming on abundantly. Even after whipping up a few for dinner, I still had beans coming out my ears. In lieu of canning (I won't attempt it without the Grandma Patty!), I started freezing a few batches at a time. Even if you don't grow you're own green beans, here's a great, super easy recipe for some fresh beans that you can pick up at the grocery:

1. Bring water to a rolling boil.

2. Snap off the ends of your beans and boil for 4 minutes. The beans will turn bright green.

3. Drain your beans and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle garlic salt and shredded Parmesan cheese over them. Toss to coat. Enjoy!

Baby Baa Baa's

Over Spring Break, we took a day trip to Frankfort to visit Papaw LeRoy, Grandma Ginny, and their new lambs. This year's introduction to the lambs went a lot better than last year's!

There were 5 little lambs (or baa baa's as we call them! Tenley can't say lambs yet, but she knows what sound they make and can replicate that) that need to be bottle feed, and Tenley was just the girl for the job!

After our afternoon with the lambs, Tenley went right home and started offering her sippy cup to the dogs!

Hair!

Hair, we all love it or hate it at some point or another. Tenley's hair is starting to get long....long and fine, just like both mommy and daddy. There were probably two certanties we knew when she was born. She likely wouldn't be tall, and her lovely locks were destined to be fine. We try to contain those flyaways with hair ties and barrettes, but one of Tenley's favorite past times is pulling them out (always with a mischevious smile on her face, of course!) and handing them to us. When she gets distracted and forgets that her hair pretties are in, she always seems to relocate them during nap time. I found her like this after a nap not too long ago. At one time, earlier in the day, she had two cute pigtails.

Santa and His Reindeer

A visit to Santa was extra special this year because we petted real, live reindeer. One of Nick's offices told him about this spectacular event. Each year on the Saturday before Christmas, the Plainfield Kiwanis sponsor the reindeers' visit while you wait in line to talk to Santa at the Plainfield Plaza where the Ace Hardware is located. Above is a picture of Nick and Tenley with the female reindeer named Mistletoe.
We tried to pet Spirit, too, but he wasn't quite as patient as Mistletoe.
Did you know that reindeer lose their antlers ever year? In fact, one of the little elves told us that the antlers stop growing in August and they usually lose them before Christmas.

Spirit and Mistletoe live with one more reindeer, Nutcracker (they say he earned his name:)). Apparently, he's quite the firecracker and he doesn't get to travel with the group even though he and Mistletoe are brother and sister.

Ho, Ho, I don't think so!

So his reindeer are great, but the jury is still out on the big man in red!

Merry Christmas to me

"Hello Lover"

I am no Carrie Bradshaw and this beauty certainly isn't a pair of those Manolo Blahnik's

she covets. Meet my dual fuel, double oven free standing range. Yes, for those of you who had the pleasure of meeting my "Lady Kenmore" (yes--"Lady" was part of her actual model name. Apparently, being "PC" wasn't a concept the marketing folks worried too much about in the late '60s), finally met her metal maker a few weeks ago. Her illness was short. She didn't suffer. One Thursday evening, it seemed she was having difficulty reaching the 400 degrees I begged of her. The next night, she couldn't muster any heat for a Papa Murphy's pizza. As I began to give her the once over, I found the culprit of her demise--the lower heating element had actually deteriorated to the point that it cracked. While she served me well for the last eight years, I must admit that I had been thinking about a replacement in the months leading up to her departure. And that my friends is where this GE Profile came into our lives. Let me list a few of the features that I LOVE about this range:

*Dual Fuel: Yes, cooking with the best of both worlds. This range has a gas cook top for excellent temperature control, while the oven is electric allowing for more even heating. I've read that electric heat produces a drier heat than that of a gas powered oven--important when wanting to make crisp things just that--crisp.

*Convection option: I didn't know much about convection and have only used this feature twice, but I'm already a fan. Convection heat circulates the heat around the oven via a fan producing more even cooking temperatures. It browns the outside of things while keeping the inside nice and moist. Just last night, Nick said, "Hmmm...12/20/10, the day I found out what cookies are really supposed to taste like." Last night I did something I had never done before....I cooked two cookie sheets of cookies at the same time. I didn't even rotate the shelves and they came out beautifully. The manual says you can actually bake three cookie sheets of cookies at the same time. I don't even own three cookie sheets! Thank you convection heat!

*Griddle: Once I started exploring new ranges, I quickly spied an option I knew I had to have--the cook top griddle. In the middle of the range, there is an oval shaped burner which you can cover with a burner grate or the griddle. Today, I made three grilled cheese sandwiches right there--no electric skillet:) I'm anxious to make pancakes, fry bacon, and brown sausage right there!

*Baking Drawer: So the bottom drawer of this range can be used for more than just storage--it can actually bake up to 450 degrees. Perfect for baking a ham in the larger upper oven while simultaneously baking scalloped potatoes in the lower oven on Christmas Day!

Nick loves it because all I want to do is cook and he doesn't have to shop for a Christmas present for me. I have all I wanted this year!

Snow Day

There is nothing better than waking up to fresh snow. Three fluffy new inches of snow joined the blanket we already had. With the below normal temperatures and all of this early snow, we haven't been able to walk as often as we'd like, so the girls took full advantage of some backyard playtime. Lainey loves to play fetch. Nick kept throwing snowballs for her. Her she is looking for one. We finally just started tossing them straight up in the air so she could "find" them. She caught every one and promptly ate each!
Abby, Daddy, T-Bird, and Lainey Lousie

Tenley is getting really good at coordinating "Hi!" with her wave. I didn't venture into the snow this morning opting to serve as photographer in the comfort of my jammies from the door:), but I caught some big smiles and waves!

Daddy, are you sure this is how you build a snowman?

Happy 1st Birthday!

My friends from Maine know all about handling the cold weather. I found this birthday present waiting for me. Thanks Peter, Allyson, Andrew, and Olivia!
Cake--I can't believe I have been deprived of this tasty treat for twelve long months!

My birthday cake was a FunFetti cake. It's my favorite and Daddy's favorite, too.

Grandma Patty and Grandpa Steve got me this cool little kitchen. My mom always wanted a play kitchen set, but never got one and reminds Grandma Patty of it often. G-ma P wasn't going to make that mistake again!

I got a lot of miles out of this cool pink curly ribbon. It's a staple in the diaper bag now and it keeps me entertained at church.

What? I got a new winter coat and a snazzy pair of jeans? Did you see my ribbon?