Happy 4th of July!

We decided to take Lea to her first fireworks show this year. I have always LOVED fireworks and have been excited to share it with Lea. We headed out to a local park for our town's annual celebration. We've had thunderstorms every afternoon for the past several days so we weren't sure what was in store for us.

Sure enough... we got poured on! Lea laughed as we ran through the rain back to the car, though. We were soaked! Luckily, I had Lea's dry pajamas in the car, so we got her changed and ready for bed. Then, we found a nice spot to watch the fireworks. It turned out to be an awesome spot. Lea wasn't even scared... just tired. We Oooed and Ahhed at the display of lights and "booms!" then, Lea promptly fell asleep once we were back in the car. :)

And here are a few pics from our weekend. Lea was adorable in her Red, White and Blue (and YELLOW... check our her awesome new shoes!).



Wish they made these in MY size!

And, finally, here's a nice comparison of Lea last year..... and this year!

My how time is flying by. My baby girl will be TWO in about two months!

Yummy Food

The past week or so we have tried some new and very yummy recipes. I thought I would share so you guys can try them, too!

Cajun Chicken Pasta (this one was so good, I have made it twice in less than two weeks!)

4 ounces linguine pasta
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, sliced into thin strips
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
2 tablespoons butter
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
4 fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 green onion, minced
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon lemon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add linguine pasta, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente; drain.

2. Meanwhile, place chicken and Cajun seasoning in a zip-lock bag and toss to coat.

3. In a large skillet over medium heat, saute chicken in butter until no longer pink and juices run clear, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add green and red bell peppers, sliced mushrooms and green onions; cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce heat, and stir in heavy cream. Season the sauce with basil, lemon pepper, salt, garlic powder and ground black pepper, and heat through.

4. In a large bowl, toss linguine with sauce. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese.
 

Chocolate Mint Cookies (I have made these before. They are SO easy and SO yummy!)

3/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons water

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

36 Andes Mints

Directions:

1. In a large pan over low heat, cook butter, sugar and water until butter is melted. Add chocolate chips and stir until partially melted. Remove from heat and continue to stir until chocolate is completely melted. Pour into a large bowl and let stand 10 minutes to cool off slightly.

2. At high speed, beat in eggs, one at a time into chocolate mixture. Reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients, beating until blended. Chill dough about 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

4. Roll dough into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake 8-10 minutes. While cookies are baking unwrap mints and divide each in half. When cookies are brought out of the oven, put 1/2 mint on top of each cookie. Let the mint sit for up to 5 minutes until melted, then spread the mint on top of the cookie. Eat and enjoy!


Orange Creamsicle Pops (I really like making homemade popsicles for Lea. The possibilities are endless!)
 

1 cup of milk (I used organic, whole milk)

6 oz of vanilla yogurt

2/3 cup of orange juice

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

handful of ice cubes

 

Directions:

1. Blend first 4 ingredients together in a blender until well blended.

 

2. Add ice and blend more.
 
3. At this point, you can either drink immediately as a smoothie or pour into popsicle molds and freeze.
 
I hope you'll try these easy and delicious recipes. Enjoy!

Happy Father's Day

Dear Kevin, You are the BEST daddy any little girl could ever dream of. Really!

I love that you take time out for your family, even when your work is utterly exhausting and time consuming. I love that you work so hard so I am able to fulfill my own dream of staying home with Lea. I love that you read children's books in character (even though Grover often sounds like he's from Tijuana!) and that you read the same one over and over and over, again. I love that you care about teaching things to Lea while you play together. I love that you help with bath time and bed time. I love that you help with getting dinner on the table. I love that you sing to Lea (even though it's so out of tune and you are obviously, slightly embarrassed, because you sing so quietly). I love how much you care for your family and want what's best for us.

You are not taken for granted. You are a fabulous husband & daddy and we are lucky girls to have you in our lives. Thank you for everything you do for us. We love you more than words can express!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!!!



Swimming on her own!!!

 

Trying to get her to blow bubbles...



Best daddy ever reading a bed time story. :)



Talking and talking and talking

Lea is talking SO much these days. She tries to say just about anything and everything. Sometimes it sounds correct... and sometimes I have no clue what she's trying to say! She is also starting to put words together (other than "all done", "night-night" and "bye-bye"). When we took Kevin to the airport earlier this week, she said "Daddy, airplane". And, yesterday, my mom & grandmother swear she said "Bailey eat cracker"! I'm not sure I believe them, though. lol

I've signed Lea up for some fun activities this summer. This month it's soccer. She has two soccer classes with about 10 other children. I think she's the youngest in the class, but she was one of the best behaved. The instructor had them "warm up" by touching their toes, jumping and marching. Then they got to practice kicking the soccer ball across the room, balancing their foot on the ball and kicking the ball into goals. Their "cool down" was playing with a parachute. Lea loved that part! They tossed the parachute up in the air and then climbed under it before it came down.

In July she will take a toddler "dance" class. It's four classes (one a week) and I am really looking forward to it! I think Lea will have a blast. She loves to dance around the house and she LOVES music. August will be basketball and then starting in September, she will go to "Wiggle & Worship" at the church. hehehe I just love that name... Wiggle & Worship! I image they will just be running around singing "Jesus Loves Me" and stuff. ;)

Lea's Great 'Gamma' is visiting right now and Lea loves the extra attention. I think it's so great to have FOUR generations together in one room. Really special.

Here are some pictures from the past few days...


Checking out the dinosaur at the Natural Sciences museum.

  

My happy girl in her favorite Elmo jammies!



Playing with Great Gamma



Working on their lawn mowers.



Helping mommy in the kitchen.



Balancing on her soccer ball!



Camping Success

Our first family camping trip was a success!

I spent the day packing and cleaning on Thursday, patiently waiting for Kevin to get off work. He was supposed to leave around 3:00, but didn't actually get out until 5:00, which meant he didn't get home until 5:45 AND there were a few things that he needed to do before we could leave. So, we hit the road by 6:30 and arrived at the campground about 7:00pm. It was late. Lea was tired and we still had to set up the pop-up, unload the truck and make the beds. Oh... and we hadn't had dinner, yet! Needless to say, our first night was a mess. Lea couldn't get to sleep. She was so wound up and excited with her new "playroom". I ended up sleeping with her (she didn't fall asleep until about 10 or 10:30pm!) and Kevin slept with the dog. Since I didn't have time to get everything set up before bed, the curtains weren't hung... which meant the sun came right in and woke up Lea bright & early Friday morning. :)

From then on, our weekend was very nice. Kevin actually had to head back into the office for a half day on Friday so Lea, Bailey and myself played around the campsite and went for a long walk before Lea was ready for her nap. She went right to sleep this time and slept for over 2 hours. (I took the opportunity to take a short nap, too, thank-you-very-much) I was awoken by my dad calling to say bad storms were headed our way. And boy were they ever bad?! It rained, poured and thundered for H O U R S. I took Lea and Bailey in the car to just drive around for a bit (away from the storms) because I didn't want to be cooped up in the camper alone (Kevin was still at work). My dad ended up coming to visit and then Kevin finally got back. We sat in the camper and talked... and talked... and talked... until my dad was bored enough to finally leave. Then, we drove the Target to get a board game (we forgot to pack some games... we actually forgot a lot of things). After a yummy, camping style spaghetti dinner and another nice, long walk, Lea went to bed. She went right down, again, and Kevin and I actually stayed up in the camper playing our game, quietly, while she slept.

The next day, Saturday, we had beautiful weather. We walked down to the lake to let Bailey & Lea run around before Lea's nap time. After her nap, we packed up and went back to the lake for a few hours. Lea had so much fun playing in the sandy clay and swimming in the water. Bailey went swimming, too but mostly stayed under the trees, in the shade. That night we had hot dogs with green beans and s'mores for dessert. YUM!

My parents came up Sunday, our last day there, to take us all out on their boat. Lea loves riding in the boat... Bailey? Not so much. lol Lea fell asleep on the boat and we headed back to the campsite to pack everything up. It took us an hour at the most to get everything packed, loaded and the camper down. We were home way before dinner time.

I'm very pleased with out little camping trip and am looking forward to many more in the future. Lea loves being outside so much and really enjoys playing with sticks, "pie-coes" (pine cones) and dirt. She didn't miss her toys a bit... but when we got home, she played with her toys so quietly for quite some time. It was like she was thinking, "Oh, I forgot about this... and THIS... oooh, and this, too!"

Here are a few pics from the trip. I forgot my camera when we were on the lake and in the boat :(



Spaghetti!

 



Peek-a-boo!

 

Waiting for daddy to cook the hot dogs.



S'mores!



Playing with daddy before bed.