"Henry, what does Brett Favre say?"

Hee hee! I really couldn't help myself with this one. :)

I finally got the pics from the camera uploaded, but I have to check with the store I print my pics at to see if they can accept them in the format my crazy photo editor saves them in before I can delete them from the camera and take new ones. Grrrr.

Meanwhile, we're anxiously awaiting the Packers/Giants game this weekend and having a little fun in the process! At one point we had Henry throwing two arms up whenever someone yelled "touchdown" but now he's slacking and only putting one up, which is similar to his sign for elephant so who knows what he's saying! He really doesn't actually know what Brett Favre says (doh!), but I thought the picture looked like a classic Favre pose so I had to post it!


Here is another pic taken in December before the holiday parade (or was that late November?). Henry loved his snowsuit, but it didn't fit for long, so we've passed it on already! It's still a cute pic with Grandma!

Bad Mommy/Blogger/Stamper!

Hi all -
I'm getting some flack for not posting regularly lately. Please bear with me! This is going to sound terribly lazy on my part, but the memory card on my digital camera is full and has been for over a month now... so there is no picture taking going on of Henry or cards or anything! And of course the scanner doesn't seem to be working with our new laptops so uploading our 35mm photos isn't even an option.

I'm hoping to get things taken care of and be back up to speed soon, so don't give up on me! :)

All is well here. The baby is kicking like crazy, and Henry is growing like a weed. He was close to 3 ft and 34lbs (95th percentile for both) at his 18 mo appt in late December. He is starting to try to talk a little more, so that's exciting. The new word for today was "bubble" (there is a small one and a large one in his book of opposites that we read each day). Speaking of books, he still loves them. He'll bring them to me one at at time and will sit patiently turning pages as I read each one. We go through all the books two or three times each day... his godmother would be proud. ;o)

Keep checking in on us... I'll post "good stuff" soon!

Sarah

Ooey Gooey Brownies

I made these brownies last night for my husband to take to work (today is his birthday :o) ). I typically am not a fan of brownies, but I have to admit that these were AWESOME! I found the recipe on Allrecipes, and adjusted a little to account for not having enough eggs on hand. Soooo good! And definitely ooey and gooey all at the same time. ;o)

1 cup butter, melted
3 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 eggs

3 Tablespoons mayonnaise
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F . Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish.

2. Combine melted butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each, beat in mayo after eggs are all in. Blend thoroughly.

3. Dump flour, cocoa powder, and salt in a separate bowl, and mix together well with a fork. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture until blended.

4. Stir in the chocolate morsels. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking dish.

5. Bake in preheated oven until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove, and cool pan on wire rack before cutting.

I did the blending with my hand mixer and stirring by hand, but in hind sight the kitchen-aid mixer would have made things so much easier (mine has a stir setting). The batter gets a little hard to stir once all of the flour mixture is added.

Enjoy!

We've been Elfed!!

Yes, it's that time of year again, and the family (including Luke, one of our cats!) has gotten into the spirit with a little elven fun. Click HERE to view the show. It might take a few minutes to load, but is well worth it! Be sure to have your speakers on. :o)Merry Christmas!

Ho Ho Ho!

Well, we tried to get a picture with Santa the other day, but no such luck. Henry was fine with it, loved pointing out the snowmen, the bears (all decorations along the long walk to the big guy). He even liked Santa....until he moved. It was all downhill from there! They did get one picture, but it looked kind of like one of those you see on the Ellen show (you know, the "worst Christmas pictures ever"). So, needless to say, I passed. On the way home I thought I should have bought one just to send to the show. LOL! I bet we totally could have gotten on!



So, for now, all we have is this one from last year. I just love this pic. I remember backing him up to Santa that day so he couldn't see where he was going and wouldn't cry. Santa complimented me on it afterwards. ;o)

The only good news is that I didn't make the drive just for that. We were at the mall doing some Christmas shopping, and there was no line, so I took a chance. We might still head to the FDL or Mayfair mall this season, so maybe there is still hope.... but I'm not counting on it!

Nineteen Minutes

by Jodi Picoult

Another fabulous book by my newest favorite author! Nineteen Minutes revolves around a typical high school in the US and the bullying that is present within it. One student can't take any more and retaliates in the form of a school shooting, killing ten students and leaving even more injured. As someone who was bullied in school, this book was really an eye opener for me to the fact that to some degree it happened to everyone (contrary to my belief at the time that I was the only target, though the things that happened to me were no where near as severe as what was happening to the main character of this story). I think this would be a great book for everyone to read, especially students and educators.

I just visited the authors website and it looks like they have made this into a movie (there is a trailer available on the site but I can't view it for some reason). They are also beginning filming on My Sister's Keeper (review a few posts ago) starring Dakota Fanning and Cameron Diaz. Although I don't think the movies are ever as good as the books are, I'm still looking forward to seeing them!

I'm currently reading The Guy Not Taken by another favorite author - Jennifer Weiner. Look for a review in a week or two!

Henry's First Haircut

Here is a picture that was taken by the stylist who did Henry's first hair cut (after she was finished). It's kind of hard to see any difference, isn't it?! The biggest impact was the removal of his baby mullet. ;o) He really hasn't grown too much hair on top in his 16 mos! I thought I'd share the picture anyhow though...

An uneventful month... sort of

A friend of mine reminded me recently that it has been over ten days since I've updated my blog, so I thought I'd come out and post to let you all know that we are still alive and doing well... Just haven't been doing a whole lot to warrant posting this month. We did attend the holiday parade last weekend, and Henry had his first hair cut the same day but I don't have any photos of either event to share. Hair cut photo's will come eventually, but we're still waiting on those.


Last weekend I had my first Stampin' Up! workshop outside of my home - I've done a few here, but never any where else. I was terrified that I would forget half of my stuff, but thankfully I did not. The ladies seemed to like the cards we did. I'll have to get pictures posted of those soon too! So much to do and not enough time in the day to do it.


I've been spending my free time working on the jigsaw puzzle from hell (I'm pretty sure that's the title - argh), and trying to read Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes. It's such a good book, but I get into my puzzle and before I know it, it's bedtime. OH - and did you know there is a new book out called Rhett Butler's People? I know I'm getting it for Christmas and I can't wait! I just loved the GWTW story, and the sequel Scarlett (by a different author).


Tomorrow night my Mom and I are going to see the musical White Christmas. I'm really looking forward to that, as the movie is my favorite movie of all time. When I was very young, my Aunt and Uncle sent me a copy of the movie on VHS that they had recorded from the television and I watched that thing over and over and over on the weekends. Literally, I would play the movie, watch it, rewind it, and play it again about three times per day. I used to spend the weekends at my grandparents, and it got to the point that when I went to put the movie in one fateful time (after easily 300 total viewings) my grandpa said something to the effect of, "if you put that g*d d*mn movie in one more time..." Well, you get the picture. ;o) Apparently every man has a Bing Crosby breaking point and I had found his. Over the last 25 years I'd guesstimate that I've seen the show at least 500 times, and no I'm not exaggerating! I know almost the entire movie by heart. I'm hoping the play is just as good!


Next week is also Thanksgiving. We will be spending the day with my Mom and Grandma and watching the Packers (hopefully) beat the Lions to further their division lead. *fingers crossed*


That's about all of the excitement we have! Like I said, it's not much for blog fodder!

An Apple A Day

Little Henry has entered the "I want that!" phase. Meaning, whenever I am snacking, he wants to try it no matter what it is (needless to say my snacking habits have changed dramatically!). This time it was an apple. I wouldn't have given in on this one, but it was very soft and easy to chew (almost "over the hill") so I let him try it. HE LOVED IT! I guess it's not all that surprising because he loves his applesauce (gerber, motts, home made, whatever!).

Life is going well for us, nothing really new to report there. Henry has his first hair cut this weekend, so I'll have to post pics of that later. It's late in the day on Saturday, so who knows how cooperative he'll be for that! The little one in my tummy is constantly perfecting his/her swift kick to the ribs - a treat I rarely experienced with Henry. The kitties are driving us crazy being super cuddly now that it is colder. That's about it! My next OB check up is Friday, I believe that makes 18 weeks? I'm honestly not sure! I don't think there will be anything new to report on that front until we have the ultrasound (which may now be postponed until after the first of the year for insurance purposes, but we'll see).

Keep warm and take care!

My Favorite Puppy

Here is Henry in this year's halloween costume. I decided to make his costume this year, but it's nothing big. Just some felt glued to a white hoodie over some matching sweatpants with a little eye shadow on his nose for good measure! :)

Since Henry really doesn't have any concept of halloween yet, we decided to skip trick or treating this year in favor of visiting Henry's godparents (Julie, Ryan, and their son Caden) and grandmas. Here is a pic of Henry and Caden (a.k.a. Tigger). Henry is 16 mos old, Caden is roughly 9 1/2 mos old.

And finally, here is one more pic from our vacation. We went to a restaurant in Opry Mills (similar to Gurnee Mills for those from this area, but in Nashville) called Johnny Rocket's. It was a fun 50's diner themed restaurant, similar to Ed Debevic's, but with friendly waitstaff. :o) LOL! (For those who don't know, the staff at Ed's are paid to be rude to the customers... I know it's hard to believe, but it's kind of the whole reason you go there!) They even took a dance break for us! Anyhow, they gave him one of their paper caps. I thought the pic was too cute and had to share!