Our little bit is growing up! Saturday we converted her bed from a crib to a toddler bed. Because we had bought it off of Craig's List, we never got the hardware needed for toddler bed conversion which consisted solely of two bolts. So I went online, did a little bit of research, got the bolt size, made a trip to my local Lowe's, bought the bolts for a whopping 39 cents total, and then proceeded to convert the bed all by myself! This little red hen is quite proud of herself :o)
Billa was very excited by this change and loves being able to climb in and out of her bed. This means however, that we must now remember to crack her door open each night so that she can leave her room if need be. We had originally hoped to wait until Billa was 18 months old before Conversion, but we changed our minds after she *almost* climbed out one day and given that we got really tired of having to go rescue her every morning when she woke up at the buttcrack of dawn. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, kids are way smarter than we give them credit for.
We figured it would take a couple of weeks if not days to adapt to this new change and figure it out, but without showing her, our little engineer figured out in one night how to sleep in her bed without falling out (or playing all night as we thought she might). In addition, she also figured out that the door was cracked enough for her to exit the room and make her way into our room, which she did precisely at 6 am Sunday morning. It was a bit of a shock for all of us, especially since she didn't cry at all when she woke up, like she normally does and we hadn't shown her what to do.
I am a little bit saddened by this change, as it means my baby isn't that much of a baby anymore. Everyday she is growing into a little person with personality and while I love seeing her learn and grow, part of me doesn't want her to get too big that I can't hold her in my arms...at least not yet anyway!
Anyhoo, I should sign off now as it's been a long day of baking and cleaning and playing; I will have to post on some new Billa Babble later this week as Billa had many new words this week and weekend!
Until then,
Kelly
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Happy Birthday Papa and Memorial Day Weekend Happenings
After a looooong three day weekend, I am left wanting a weekend from the weekend. Michael started at Harley on Friday, and his second day was on Saturday, so Billa and I hung out all day. We went out in the afternoon to go see Daddy at his new job and meet all the nice people he works with. I tell ya what, bikers are some of the nicest people. They really get a bad rap thanks to motorcycle gangs. You don't believe me? Then Google BACA, aka Bikers Against Child Abuse. That'll make you run up to the next biker you see and practically throw your arms around them for a hug. Saturday evening we FINALLY went and saw Star Trek, thanks to Kellie and Anthony. They paid for the tickets and even babysat for us so we could go out for our anniversary! Love you guys!
Sunday we went to the lake. We visited with Michael's dad and stepmom and had a lovely day relaxing, although it was a bit stressful for me really. I am NOT a fan of lakewater, so I was a little anxious being near the lake and then totally worried that Munchkin would go and take a dive. It also got REALLY hot and I didn't drink nearly enough water. No sunburn though! No tan either, boo.
And then finally, my daddy's birthday was on Memorial Day this year, so on Monday we went to visit him and my mom and have some BBQ, chocolate cake, and homemade ice cream. Yum! Billa had so much fun playing in the garden and the fountain that she can't wait to go back next weekend when Michael and I go to Papa Carl's birthday party on the lake. My dad enjoyed the chocolate cake I made for him, which incidentally is the first time in years he has not made his own cake. After a long day, we came home exhausted but well fed.
Tonight, I am making a cake for Kellie's baby shower at school and I am ever so grateful that tomorrow is Wednesday and not Tuesday. Yay four day work weeks! Anyway, I will post some pictures later from this weekend when I am not covered in MMF and cream cheese icing.
Until then,
Kelly & the Gang
Sunday we went to the lake. We visited with Michael's dad and stepmom and had a lovely day relaxing, although it was a bit stressful for me really. I am NOT a fan of lakewater, so I was a little anxious being near the lake and then totally worried that Munchkin would go and take a dive. It also got REALLY hot and I didn't drink nearly enough water. No sunburn though! No tan either, boo.
And then finally, my daddy's birthday was on Memorial Day this year, so on Monday we went to visit him and my mom and have some BBQ, chocolate cake, and homemade ice cream. Yum! Billa had so much fun playing in the garden and the fountain that she can't wait to go back next weekend when Michael and I go to Papa Carl's birthday party on the lake. My dad enjoyed the chocolate cake I made for him, which incidentally is the first time in years he has not made his own cake. After a long day, we came home exhausted but well fed.
Tonight, I am making a cake for Kellie's baby shower at school and I am ever so grateful that tomorrow is Wednesday and not Tuesday. Yay four day work weeks! Anyway, I will post some pictures later from this weekend when I am not covered in MMF and cream cheese icing.
Until then,
Kelly & the Gang
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
The best choice I ever made...
Today is our third wedding anniversary! Hooray for us! Michael's step mom and I have an inside joke about being "here by choice", which we usually incite whenever Michael or his dad crack a really lame joke or particularly bad pun. Well, I am here to tell you that it was the BEST choice I ever made! Here's to three years, love...and many more!
From our rehearsal...so young and in love :o)
To celebrate, we splurged and bought a pork tenderloin to roast. I know, I know, I am not normally a pork eater, but I have slowly been won over to the other white meat team now. I still hate ham, however. I just can't fathom why people like it. I googled how to cook pork tenderloin and lemme tell you, I stumbled upon the best recipe and method ever. And because I've had two glasses of wine and am feeling quite benevolent, I shall share it with you.
First of all, purchase pork tenderloin! TENDERLOIN, people, not loin. It looks like a baguette of meat. About a pound or so will feed two people quite handsomely with leftovers. A couple of hours prior to cooking, prepare a brine. This brine will consist of 1 quart of COLD water, 1/2 cup of sugar, and 1/4 cup of salt (I prefer kosher). You can do three cups of water and then add in ice until it hits the 4 cup line to get your H2O cold. Place aforementioned tenderloin in a dish deep enough to hold it and the brine. Pour in brine, then place in fridge for about 30 minutes. Pull out and turn pork over if needed. I left it on the counter for 45 minutes after the initial 30.
Preheat your oven to 425F. In an overnsafe skillet (yes I said "overnsafe"...I think it's a hilarious typo and I refuse to fx it), heat up some olive oil and then sear the tenderloin over medium high heat on all sides (will take 4 to 5 minutes). Turn off the heat and pour off the excess oil if you have any. Glaze the tenderloin with a sweet fruit sauce. I used Fredricksburg Farms Pomegranate and Mango Chipotle Grilling Sauce and brushed it on all over the meat with a pastry brush. Now place the entire skillet in your preheated oven for 15 minutes. When 15 minutes is up, insert your meat thermometer (yes, you really should have one of these) and check to see that it is a minimum of 145F. You want the internal temp to be between 145 and 160, which is hot enough to kill off the bad bacteria. Once it's there, you're done cooking, but you're not out of the woods yet! Now comes the important part. YOU MUST LET THE MEAT REST. This means removing the meat from the skillet, placing on a plate and then "tenting" foil over it. You simply place a large piece of foil over the plate making sure that it doesn't touch the meat. Let rest for 5 minutes minimum. Once your 5 minutes is up, slice and serve kiddies!
You can use the same grilling sauce as a dipping sauce. The pork will be a little pink in the center, but so long as your temp reading came out to 145F minimum, you're A-OK. So there you have it, the perfect pork tenderloin. It melts in your mouth and is almost better than just about anything you can think of. We had ours with a veggie mix from the freezer and some garlicky bread and a Norton Reserva Malbec. DEE-vine!
And now that we're fat and sassy, I'm going to make some homemade brownies (no mixes here!) to eat with the rest of the wine. [sigh] It's been a good year...
Sealed with a kiss...
Adios amigos,
The Guerra's
From our rehearsal...so young and in love :o)To celebrate, we splurged and bought a pork tenderloin to roast. I know, I know, I am not normally a pork eater, but I have slowly been won over to the other white meat team now. I still hate ham, however. I just can't fathom why people like it. I googled how to cook pork tenderloin and lemme tell you, I stumbled upon the best recipe and method ever. And because I've had two glasses of wine and am feeling quite benevolent, I shall share it with you.
First of all, purchase pork tenderloin! TENDERLOIN, people, not loin. It looks like a baguette of meat. About a pound or so will feed two people quite handsomely with leftovers. A couple of hours prior to cooking, prepare a brine. This brine will consist of 1 quart of COLD water, 1/2 cup of sugar, and 1/4 cup of salt (I prefer kosher). You can do three cups of water and then add in ice until it hits the 4 cup line to get your H2O cold. Place aforementioned tenderloin in a dish deep enough to hold it and the brine. Pour in brine, then place in fridge for about 30 minutes. Pull out and turn pork over if needed. I left it on the counter for 45 minutes after the initial 30.
Preheat your oven to 425F. In an overnsafe skillet (yes I said "overnsafe"...I think it's a hilarious typo and I refuse to fx it), heat up some olive oil and then sear the tenderloin over medium high heat on all sides (will take 4 to 5 minutes). Turn off the heat and pour off the excess oil if you have any. Glaze the tenderloin with a sweet fruit sauce. I used Fredricksburg Farms Pomegranate and Mango Chipotle Grilling Sauce and brushed it on all over the meat with a pastry brush. Now place the entire skillet in your preheated oven for 15 minutes. When 15 minutes is up, insert your meat thermometer (yes, you really should have one of these) and check to see that it is a minimum of 145F. You want the internal temp to be between 145 and 160, which is hot enough to kill off the bad bacteria. Once it's there, you're done cooking, but you're not out of the woods yet! Now comes the important part. YOU MUST LET THE MEAT REST. This means removing the meat from the skillet, placing on a plate and then "tenting" foil over it. You simply place a large piece of foil over the plate making sure that it doesn't touch the meat. Let rest for 5 minutes minimum. Once your 5 minutes is up, slice and serve kiddies!
You can use the same grilling sauce as a dipping sauce. The pork will be a little pink in the center, but so long as your temp reading came out to 145F minimum, you're A-OK. So there you have it, the perfect pork tenderloin. It melts in your mouth and is almost better than just about anything you can think of. We had ours with a veggie mix from the freezer and some garlicky bread and a Norton Reserva Malbec. DEE-vine!
And now that we're fat and sassy, I'm going to make some homemade brownies (no mixes here!) to eat with the rest of the wine. [sigh] It's been a good year...
Sealed with a kiss...Adios amigos,
The Guerra's
Monday, May 18, 2009
Silly Saturday...and Sunday!
This weekend was a doozy, that's for sure! First up was Friday night. I can't even remember it now. Michael and I were so wiped out, Michael made a Wendy's run and we had a "picnic" in the living room while we watched CSI. I then stayed up way too late blogging, reading, watching TV, etc.
Saturday started out slightly overcast and then turned into a rainy mess. Our good friend Josh has just arrived home from Iraq and his welcome home party was postponed as a result of the rain. Instead, Michael and I took the time to do a little housecleaning, play with the baby, and do some grocery shopping. Michael's sister Caitlyn is also active in theatre and her high school's UIL One Act Play made it all the way to state! Both of us were in One Act in high school, but we were never lucky enough to make it to state. We went to see the play and then out for an impromptu birthday dinner with Michael's dad and stepmom and his other sister, Michelle. It was a lovely evening that was then topped off with Billa throwing up everywhere on the way home. We had to pull over and strip her down it was so awful. We don't think she was sick, just that she had eaten too much, too fast. We got home and everybody crashed hard.
Sunday dawned bright and early as Billa decided 6:45 is never too early to start one's Sunday! Yargh. We've been slowly starting to wean little munchkin from her wake up feedings, but she HAD to have one yesterday. So I let her for a few minutes. When she was done, she smacked her lips and then said "Mmmm, that's good!" (Really, it sounded like "Mmm, dat goo!") Michael and I just about died from laughing so hard. I'm sure our neighbors found the situation as hilarious as we did. After some homemade muffins, we briefly went back to Mike & Trisa's to pick up laundry (and run another load thanks to the vomit the night before). From there, we headed to Josh's party! We had a great time but since Little Bit had refused to take a nap, we packed it up early. We were pleasantly surprised by a visit from my little brother Philip who is in town to visit friends when we got home. After he left, I took a quick catnap to regain some energy to make dinner. Billa had had so much fun playing in the Ingersoll pool that she wanted to take her bath early so she could play in the water some more! Silly little Pisces baby...
After dinner, Billa suddenly had new found energy and she went to town undoing all of the cleaning we had bothered with on Saturday [sigh]. As you can see below, every room in the house is becoming Billa's personal play land...every room except her own! She was not very happy that we wouldn't allow her ballpit in the living room.
Once we put Billa to bed, I baked a lemon cake in anticipation of our third wedding anniversary on Wednesday and Michael went to join my brother and his buddies for a couple hours of poker. Finally, these two pumpkins called it a night at midnight.
Hope you enjoyed the wacky weekend recap!
Until next time,
Kelly & the Gang
Saturday started out slightly overcast and then turned into a rainy mess. Our good friend Josh has just arrived home from Iraq and his welcome home party was postponed as a result of the rain. Instead, Michael and I took the time to do a little housecleaning, play with the baby, and do some grocery shopping. Michael's sister Caitlyn is also active in theatre and her high school's UIL One Act Play made it all the way to state! Both of us were in One Act in high school, but we were never lucky enough to make it to state. We went to see the play and then out for an impromptu birthday dinner with Michael's dad and stepmom and his other sister, Michelle. It was a lovely evening that was then topped off with Billa throwing up everywhere on the way home. We had to pull over and strip her down it was so awful. We don't think she was sick, just that she had eaten too much, too fast. We got home and everybody crashed hard.
Sunday dawned bright and early as Billa decided 6:45 is never too early to start one's Sunday! Yargh. We've been slowly starting to wean little munchkin from her wake up feedings, but she HAD to have one yesterday. So I let her for a few minutes. When she was done, she smacked her lips and then said "Mmmm, that's good!" (Really, it sounded like "Mmm, dat goo!") Michael and I just about died from laughing so hard. I'm sure our neighbors found the situation as hilarious as we did. After some homemade muffins, we briefly went back to Mike & Trisa's to pick up laundry (and run another load thanks to the vomit the night before). From there, we headed to Josh's party! We had a great time but since Little Bit had refused to take a nap, we packed it up early. We were pleasantly surprised by a visit from my little brother Philip who is in town to visit friends when we got home. After he left, I took a quick catnap to regain some energy to make dinner. Billa had had so much fun playing in the Ingersoll pool that she wanted to take her bath early so she could play in the water some more! Silly little Pisces baby...
After dinner, Billa suddenly had new found energy and she went to town undoing all of the cleaning we had bothered with on Saturday [sigh]. As you can see below, every room in the house is becoming Billa's personal play land...every room except her own! She was not very happy that we wouldn't allow her ballpit in the living room.
Once we put Billa to bed, I baked a lemon cake in anticipation of our third wedding anniversary on Wednesday and Michael went to join my brother and his buddies for a couple hours of poker. Finally, these two pumpkins called it a night at midnight.
Hope you enjoyed the wacky weekend recap!
Until next time,
Kelly & the Gang
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Billa Babble: Balloon, Book, Popo
It's been awhile since I posted any Billa Babble. She says so much all the time, but none of it has really been consistent. There are some words that she now uses regularly, like "ball" (which she now has approximately 493 of them in her ball pit), "milk," "Mama" & "Daddy." And she gestures. A lot. Maybe too much as we have begun to wonder. But we still hear words like...
Balloon: It actually sounds more like "bah-roon." I don't know how she does it, but Billa manages to spot EVERY single balloon in the grocery store and has a conniption fit when we don't get them for her. Sorry, honey, but Mommy isn't 20 feet tall and can't reach the DEFLATED balloons in the rafters for you...
Book: I was actually pleasatly surprised when Billa pulled a book off the shelf the other day and carried it away, saying "Booh. Booh." (Like book, but without the 'k') She definitely has a favorite one too that is one of those touch and feel and learn books. She likes the bumpy green frog page the best!
Popo: No, our child is not referring to a Pissed Off Police Officer. Michael's family grew up calling a pacifier 'popo.' So we've adopted that as our word as well. I got Billa to say popo the other day as she took one from me and wandered off. She yelled at me not too much later when she couldn't find it and practically screamed "Popo!"
So that's our Billa Babble for now. Now enjoy some silly pictures of our girl Billa!
Love,
Kelly & the Gang
No!!! They be takin' my paci!
Mommy makes such good cake, I can't wait to sit down and eat it!
(Michael is actually holding her as he's walking to the table)
I am just so tickled!
How Billa spends a good portion of her time: stuffing her face.
Rockin' her Charlie Brown inspired outfit
Balloon: It actually sounds more like "bah-roon." I don't know how she does it, but Billa manages to spot EVERY single balloon in the grocery store and has a conniption fit when we don't get them for her. Sorry, honey, but Mommy isn't 20 feet tall and can't reach the DEFLATED balloons in the rafters for you...
Book: I was actually pleasatly surprised when Billa pulled a book off the shelf the other day and carried it away, saying "Booh. Booh." (Like book, but without the 'k') She definitely has a favorite one too that is one of those touch and feel and learn books. She likes the bumpy green frog page the best!
Popo: No, our child is not referring to a Pissed Off Police Officer. Michael's family grew up calling a pacifier 'popo.' So we've adopted that as our word as well. I got Billa to say popo the other day as she took one from me and wandered off. She yelled at me not too much later when she couldn't find it and practically screamed "Popo!"
So that's our Billa Babble for now. Now enjoy some silly pictures of our girl Billa!
Love,
Kelly & the Gang
No!!! They be takin' my paci!
Mommy makes such good cake, I can't wait to sit down and eat it! (Michael is actually holding her as he's walking to the table)
I am just so tickled!
How Billa spends a good portion of her time: stuffing her face.
Rockin' her Charlie Brown inspired outfit
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