Knitted Hoodie

I finally finished a project.  Can you believe it?!

I started this ages ago.  Over a year ago, I think...

Its the Favorite Hoodie pattern by Lion Brand Yarn.

I am proud of myself for actually knitting something, but on the other hand, I didn't quite do that well with it.  the knitting is fine, but the reason it took me so long to finish it was the sewing of the seams.  I'm not very good at it and I don't know what I'm doing and it shows.  My other complaint is that it seems to be rather short.  Perhaps it would fit better for a shorter, fatter baby?  Ha.  My babies aren't exactly thin, though.  It seemed a bit tight on his neck.

I am glad I did it, though.  I feel like I learned with it.  And I'm glad its done.  Ha!

Its Another Beautiful Day

These little feet need to go outside and play.
My feet are getting reacquainted with my treadmill. Today.

Behind

I feel like I am finally starting to get caught up with things around here. Christmas and New Years are over. All of the junk that goes along with the start of a new year (for work me) is done. Spreadsheets are updated, payroll changes done, year-end financials and annual reports done. Audits completed. 1099s out. Taxes submitted to the CPA. Check, check and check!

Little brother is going to be six months old in a couple weeks. Really? I'm a little sad that's all gone already. He sleeps wonderfully and he's a smiley happy little guy. I love him to pieces. In a couple weeks, we'll be feeding him real food. This makes me sad. I like baby diapers. I have no idea what a baby on formula smells like, but breast milk diapers don't bother me a bit. Its just part of the baby stage and I suppose will always just remind me of when they were babies. The thing is, I missed having a baby. I didn't realize it, but I did.

I am starting to think about baby food though. For being disappointed that he's already at this stage, it seems silly that I am thinking about food already. I bought some brown rice and ground it all up today. I'm starting to think about what else I want to feed him. Making all the baby food is a bit of pain, but I guess that I enjoy it. Actually, I do enjoy it. Its a pain in the butt, but I can actually stuff that little bugger full of fruit and veggies and he doesn't even know enough to wish for anything else. Ha!

I can't seem to get my two year old to eat a meal for the life of me. He loves apple sauce, yogurt, peanut butter, Honey Chex, bananas and mangoes. Everything else is hit or miss these days and it frustrates me. I hate cooking, but I want him to eat healthy. It doesn't seem to matter though. He will probably not eat it.

I have been dying to get my house cleaned up and organized and have not been making much progress. I'm trying though.

I finally got started on getting wills done for The Man and I. Just have to review the initial drafts and get them back to the attorney. We've only been married for 11 years and have 2 kids. What's the hurry? Ha. I will love to have that crossed off my list.

I have been meaning to make a budget, since I haven't done one since Big Brother was born. Lame. And its already March. I started on that a week ago and went down a rabbit trail putting together spreadsheets and stayed up till 3 am. Oops. I am a nerd.

Anyway, that is some of what I'm thinking about these days. Very exciting.

Another Hat

One last baby photo post . . . maybe.

I bought this hat pattern a couple years ago for his big brother. I've made it a ton of times since then, but I always have a hard time getting the sizing right. I crochet too darn tight, I think, and it all depends on the yarn as well. It always wants to be too small. Or maybe my babies have big heads? I think his head size was 90th percentile at the last appointment, so perhaps that is part of the problem.

Anyway, this one I made before he was born and it fits just fine. I added a band and buttons this time and I really like how it turned out. So cute.

Now, I would really like to make something like this. So darn cute.

Zuppa Toscana

This is a copy of Olive Garden's soup. Yum!
(can't remember where I got it - sorry!)

Ingredients
1 lb Italian sausage
1 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 large diced white onion
4 Tbsp bacon pieces
2 tsp garlic puree
10 c water
5 cubes chicken bouillon
1 c heavy cream
1 lb sliced Russet potatoes
1/4 of a bunch of kale

Directions:

Saute sausage and red pepper and drain off excess fat.

In the same pan, saute bacon, onions and garlic over low to medium heat for approx 15 minutes or until the onions are soft.

Heat boullion and water until boiling.

Add sliced potatoes and cook until soft, about half an hour.

Pour in heavy cream and cook until thoroughly heated.

Stir in sausage and kale, heat thoroughly and serve.

The red pepper can make it a bit hot, so use less if you don't want a lot of heat. I usually add quite a bit of kale because I like it and its the good-for-you part!

Thimbleanna posted a similar recipe the other day that has kielbasa instead of sausage and doesn't have the cream added. Sounds good to me as well - its on my to-try list. I'm all about soups right now, and I probably shouldn't be eating cream anyway, since I still need to lose weight and the baby doesn't much like my eating dairy yet.

Sorry that there's no photo - the little one is teething and he was tired and fussing when we made this the other night. I was too lazy to get a photo of it. My table isn't clean anyway. Ha!

Striped Pixie Hat In Use

Hello again.

I still don't really have any time to get very much done outside the basics, but we're doing well. Little brother is sleeping wonderfully - love that kid! - and eating constantly. Big brother is a crazy little monkey and he makes lots of work for his Mama cleaning things up.

Work is a bugger from December through January, so I'm running behind on everything right now. Here's hoping that we'll sorta catch up soon.

The whole new year thing motivates me to get lots of things accomplished, and it's frustrating as all get out that I never seem to get any of them done. But I have big plans! I intend to clean/purge/organize this house from top to bottom. I doubt that will happen, but I guess we'll see how far I get. I also need to get reacquainted with my treadmill and finish getting rid of the baby weight.

But I thought I'd show you a few more pictures of my little monkey. Here's the little striped pixie hat that I showed you awhile back. I can't get big brother to cooperate for semi-posed photos for the life of me - he's two after all! - so here's little brother wearing his. These are from back when he was brand new, of course. He's grown a little bit since then!


I could eat him up! I'd forgotten just how much I love baby smells. The soft warm fuzzy head and yummy milk breath kill me.