Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Happy Leap Day!

I never understood why every four years, we have an extra day in February. What's the point? I guess it's to keep sync with the seasons and the way the earth moves. Without it we probably would have said that the season right now is Summer but it's really Winter. Thanks to Julius Caesar for the extra day. It may be cool to those who are born on Leap Day. They are called "leapling". Imagine if you're 64 years old, you would be really celebrating your "sweet 16th" birthday. How cool is that? Although, in England and Hong King, it's probably frustraing for those who has to wait until March 1st to celebrate the offical age. What if you are in Ireland, the ladies are allow to propose to the man of her dreams (on this day only). So watch out men...you just might have to accept her bravery for proposing or else you'll have to pay her back with money or a dress. Depending on where you are. Whatever you are doing on this day, be sure to enjoy it! There might be a restaurant deal such as subway's free cookies. :) Go ahead. Take a bath, read a good book, do something fun with the kids, or go on a spontaneous date with your sweetie! Take advantage to have fun even though it may feel like another normal day. There's 1,460 more days until the next Leap Day. Enjoy and don't forget to leap as high as you can...for no reason at all. :)

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Moving day is coming!

This weekend is a "moving day" for my parents and I. We're going to rearrange the bedrooms and put some stuff in their new storage building. My dad is exciting about the new storage building mostly. :) There's a LOT of stuff still needs to be pack away. And cleaning...ugh! I can't even think about that. All the memories of baby stuff are already put away. Sad day! :( but on the plus note, I made me smile and be thankful that my son is a growing boy!

Conner just recovered from having a flu/cold over the last few days. We missed church. We almost had to go in for check-up but we called the doctor and they told us a few advices. Plus, the offices was full with sick kids. YIKES! Anyhow, Conner's fever went back to normal today. He had such a good day! Poor BG...he had to stay up for a few hours after 3am because Conner had some energy! Now...BG is sick. I'm not sure if it's the same thing that Conner had but it's definitely not a perfect timing to be sick. "Moving day" will happen even though he is sick. :/  Please pray for him. Thanks!

Oh by the way, I looked at my clock earlier today. It read 2:22pm on 2/22/2012. It's pointless but I thought that was cool! Did you made a wish? :)

Monday, February 20, 2012

Enjoy the small things

I have been finding myself enjoying the small things lately. Such as...

  • baking breads
  • trying a new recipe
  • drinking a cup of tea
  • reading true short stories
  • watching old movies
  • creativity play time with Conner
  • wearing my red toms while doing art
  • surfing for ideas on Pinterest
It's the simple things that make me smile!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

T-shirt Crayon Project

I saw a cool idea with crayons, a sandpaper and a t-shirt on Pinterest. Check this out! Sandpaper printed shirt

This was my first try at making a fun colored shirt for Conner. I'm hoping there will be a sale for kids t-shirts so I can make some more. It's so easy & fun to make!


Choose your design and colors. Make sure you scribble a lot of wax on the sandpaper.
Tip: the finer the sandpaper is, the more crayon will be iron onto the shirt.

Turn the colored side down and cover with a paper towel to protect your iron.
Iron until the crayon wax is printed on the shirt .

The finished project!
Conner, wearing the new crayon printed shirt!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Chocolate Dutch Baby

Last Monday, I was looking online for some Dutch style recipes. BG and I are part Dutch and I wanted to surprise him with something dutchish. Then I came across this, chocolate dutch baby? Ummm, what is that? This is awkward! haha not really. This is similar to pancakes/cakes. It's very easy to make, very light and sponge-like cake. It makes your house smells like chocolate! And best of all, you can eat it for breakfast! Give it a try today! Surprise your kids or your sweetheart with something different and yummy! Recipe here Chocolate Dutch Baby






Buffalo Chicken Pita Pizza

If you want something quick and tasty. And you love buffalo chicken tenders but you want pizza? This is the stuff!

For one pita bread pizza:

  • 3-4 small pieces of cooked chicken (buffalo style). Cut into slices or shredded.
  • small handful of diced red onions
  • 3-4 slices of sharp cheddar (or can used shredded kind)
  • small handful of gorgonzola crumb cheese
  • one pita bread

Put the pita on a baking sheet. Add slices of cheese, then the chicken tenders. Then the onions depending on how much you want it. Then the crumb cheese. Bake at 375 degree for 10 minutes. Voila! It is very quick & tasty!

  


-Erica

Monday, February 13, 2012

Showers of Valentine's gifts!

Ok, so I told my husband that I don't want any chocolates or flowers. I would like something different & unique. He went out tonight with my son to the mall. It was nice and quiet in my house. I had some me time by reading a book, practicing on my drawing skills, watching a old movie and texting to my cousin. It was such a nice & relaxing evening. Very much needed. Then...the boys came home. First, Conner showed me his Valentine's gift that daddy got for him. A mickey mouse plush! He looks so adorable carrying the plush around. Then, here comes the showers of gifts that the boys got for me. I was so surprised with what they had picked out. I love it all!

A huge shiny crock pot!

Funny story: This was the first thing that BG had purchased. The lady cashier told him "oh...I hope that this is not your Valentine's gift to someone special.". Of course not, BG had to tell the lady that it kinda is but it's more of a joke. We recently had to buried our former good ol' crock pot because it fell and broke into halves. So ta-da! Here's a new FAMILY-SIZE crock pot! I think he is trying to tell me something. I hope that I'm not going to be the only one using it to make dinner for a big family. :)

$15 Starbucks gift card!

BG knows my obsessions with Starbuck's awesome flavored coffee. On the card, it says "coffee=love" and I think so!
After that, this is when I thought OK that is all. Nice gifts! BUT noooooo....here comes more!



A lovely pair of red TOMs shoes!
Oh Toms!! This is the main reasons why I had asked BG for no flowers & chocolates. I'll like something red to wear on my feet. :) I never had owned a pair of Toms before but have heard it's really comfortable. Plus, for every pair of shoes that are bought, the company will donate another new pair of shoes to the kids in a 3rd world county. It's a pretty awesome way to help support those in needs. Did you know that kids can't go to school without shoes? It's sad to know that they have no money to buy a pair so they lose the chance to have an education. Read more about Toms here.

My new teavana container with fresh herbs for making teas!
This is very unique thing for me. Tea. I'm learning to love it! Making tea reminded me a lot of my old boss that I used to work for at my University. She always made tea and coffee for her students in the afternoon. We feel so elegant! This is my very first try at making my own tea without teabags. I already made a cup of tea and it's wonderful! It has citrus, lavenders and white tea. I added a little bit of hazelnut half n' half & sugar. Whoa! It really makes a differences! That taste reminded me a lot of the infamous Bubble Tea. A popular milk tea in Asia countries. The only thing missing are those little black chewy beans! What is bubble tea?

So that's my Valentine's gifts. BG told me to be ready to go tomorrow at 4:10pm, when he gets home from work tomorrow night. I have no clue what where we're going but it should be fun because I get to be with the one that I love! :) BG and Conner are my favorite Valentines!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!





Saturday, February 11, 2012

Valentine's Cookies

Happy Valentine's weekend! We decided to make valentine's cookies. yay! Here's the recipe we used. Soft sugar cookies! It was a mess! I burnt the first batch of the cookies. Typical! So BG helped me out with the rest of the batch. It turn out awesome! I considered him the baker in the family. Making the cookies took us a lot longer than we had thought. We had to firm it up in the fridge. Then Conner took a nap, we start cleaning out the storage and so forth. That's why Conner was wearing different clothes in some of the pictures. At the end it was all worth it because it was our first cookies that we had made together! We end our evening by watching a "Charlie Brown's Valentine" while eating our yummy cookies!
This is what the cookies suppose to look like...

what my 1st batch looked like...

I'm ready to make a MESS!

can I help?

let me taste it. hmm...(He's a weird kid. Eating flour??)

daddy, it needs more sugar!

let's squish it!

cutting heart shaped cookies with mommy

Piping the frosting!

This is Conner's cookie!
Don't these look really good? I didn't have enough room
for the word " Be mine" so I said "Be my". Whatever lol!

Best Buds!

Side by side, our dog will always be our #1 friend. I remember growing up with Popcorn. She was so much fun to play with, sneak treats in and follows my brother and I around. I hope that Conner will have the same fun relationship with Lyla too. :)

Friday, February 10, 2012

Having Fun With Conner

On a cold Friday day like this makes me wanna be a kid again. Carefree, crazy and to have lots of fun! My son and I took the opportunity to fill our days with loads of fun. We played games and play peek-a-boo with the dog (I'm not sure how entertaining my dog was). Then we set up Conner's barn and pretend it's a garage for cars. We read books together. We play fort and hide n' seek. We even finger-painted before lunch. Yes! The more tasty messy the paint is the better! Finally, we settle down for a good lunch of homemade Chinese food which is rice, water chestnut, chicken & lettuce along with spring rolls. Then we had rest time by watching Sesame Street. We learned a lot about the number "6" and the letter "Q". Conner fell asleep shortly after that. I put him down in his crib. Then I went to have "me time". It was such a fun day! I'm thinking up of more ideas to have fun after he wakes up from his nap. :)

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Encouragment Jar

Last Christmas, I decided to participate with the secret sisters program with my church ladies. I think this is the first time I ever got involved with a church's secret sister program. Each of us draw a name in secret. It's our person for a year until our next Christmas party. It takes time & dedication give encouragements and notes to whoever I have. For example: send a birthday card, write a encouraging note, remind her I'm praying for her and so forth. I prayed about doing this and I really want to make my sister feel special this year. I was very exciting to surprise my secret sister with something different than a traditional card.

So my first project idea came from pinterest. It's a jar full of origami paper stars. Click here to learn more about making these cute little guiding stars.

When you unwrap a star, it reveals an encouraging note such as "you are extraordinary!" along with a bible verse "I am fearfully & wonderfully made." I made 45 stars. Some of them has bible verses, some famous quotes, a few funny jokes and "You are...". I wanted my sister to pick a star whenever she is having a bad day or if she needed an encouraging note. I wanted her to feel special. This will last almost all year long. Unless she wants to open it all in one week. Maybe that is all she needed. Man! I wish someone will make me one because these are so fun to do and write. Yes, it took some time in making this but it is well worth it. God encouraged me to make something special. I also filled the jar with chocolate candies. You can't go wrong with chocolates! Unless she is allergic to it...then I'm in trouble! haha! Here's my cute little jar! My secret sister's favorite color is blue. I used two scrapbook papers. Only 0.19 cents each at Michael's!


Another Regular Doctor Appt

BG and I took Conner for his regular check-up today. I love our nurses & doctors at this childrens' clinic (Longstreet). We had took Conner there since we moved closer to my parents. Without a few good word of mouth, I probably wouldn't enjoy our doctor visits much somewhere else.

Anyway, Conner got three update shots (ouch!). Some crying going on here but he got over it when his daddy gave him a sweet hug. Can I hear any awwwws? I'm happy to say that Conner passed his check-up with flying colors. In case if anyone wants to know, he weighted at 26.6 pounds (75% for his weight) and measured at 33 1/2 inches tall (90% for height). He is seriously growing like a weed! A very cute one though! ;)





New Updates on Conner's favorites:
Fruit: Absolutely LOVES strawberries...just like his mama!
TV show: Caillou (He has been wanting to watch that show all the time ever since he first watched it with his cousin, Jack. Such a cute show!)
Activities: Playing and exploring outside. Play with his balls and cars. Collect small things to put in a fabric bag and carry it around the room. Cuddle with a stuffed animals at random times. Wear his shoes and be half naked. I'm not sure why. And this is kinda weird...put his toys away in the tote box. Ok, who's boy is this?! :)
Things he would love to do all day if he could: Talk on the phone to a family member. He doesn't use real words, he just makes noises like he knows what he is talking about. Also he would eat...eat...and eat all the time. If this is what it's like to feed a toddler at this age then I can't imagine what it will be alike when he is a teenager! Yikes!
Oh yeah, make a mess so he can clean it up later. haha just kidding!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

I like Free Stuff!

I got a $10 iTunes gift cards on swagbucks.com. It was on sale so I saved 200 swagbucks. It's still free for me!

Papa John's recently had asked America to vote on which heads or tails will be flipped before the superbowl game. Heads won and America voted right. So, all the Papa's reward members are getting 1 large 1-topping pizaa and 2 litter Pepsi max. Yes! I will take free pizza anyday!

I love free stuff...and food too!

Monday, February 6, 2012

A Typical Monday Day

I love it when Conner takes a nap. It gives me a break so I can take a deep breath and be ready for any "Conner's Dare Challenge".


I folded Conner's clean laundry while watching recorded final episode of Rachel Ray vs Guy Celebrity Cook-off. LDP won! Whoohoo! Now, that $50,000 will go to a charity of his choice, No Kid Hungry. It's such a good choice!

Enjoying my refreshment drink. It's a nice quiet afternoon...my typical Monday.   :)

This is when Conner woke up. He wanted to dance in his tote box...naked (almost). Now, who's kid is this? Definitely Brian's and mine!
My goofy boy!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Help Me Rhonda!

"Help Me Rhonda" is a silly title for such a silly song. I don't know why but it makes me laugh. I thought about that song when BG tried to cook some mini corn dogs for our super bowl snacks. Not the song itself but saying "help me!"  It's suppose to look like this beautiful corn dogs. Recipe here


But instead, we end up with almost a pancake-corn-cake dogs. I'm not sure what went wrong. Maybe our cooking oil wasn't hot enough or our mixture wasn't thick enough. Oh well, maybe next time "Rhonda" will help us!


The Giants won. I don't really care who wins though. 

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Homemade Poptarts

After looking on my pins on my pinterest last night, I decided that I want to make homemade pop tarts today. Perfect day for a raining Saturday evening. I'm not really a big fan of pop tarts. I'm more of a filling kinda gal. I like anything gooey! My husband usually likes to buy a box of pop tarts from the store as treat. I don't like them that much only because the pastries are too dry to eat alone. I usually toast a pop tart & slab on some butter and drink a glass of cold milk afterward. Brian thought the butter part was weird but whatever!

Here's the recipe that I used. Homemade pop tarts! What's cool is I could either make them savory or sweet. All I had was blueberry/blackberry jam, strawberry jam and nutella. My son and I already glob up the strawberry mix with nutella. IT WAS SO GOOD!! I couldn't believe how yummy those pop tarts could be. Quick, go run in the kitchen and make some today!
the dough

mix it up and cut it into equal size
Someone gave a good tip...roll it on 9 x 13 pan for the right size 
adding the jellies after brushing it with "glue" (egg)

add the 2nd roll-out dough ontop. then close the ends shut with a fork.
Dont forget to poke holes on top to let air vent out or you'll have a puffy tart.
bake and enjoy!

 Next time, I'm gonna see if I can make them pizza savory! Those would be great for a mid-snack.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

"Fake Spring Day"

The groundhog saw its shadow. Not that I care about it but seriously mother nature? It's 71 degree outside! It really feels like Springtime in March. I wish it was like that everyday. The bright blue skies and the warm sunshine makes me want to go for a drive in the mountains. Too bad, we don't live near the Lookout MT. in Chattanooga. That would have been an awesome day to drive!

But thank you, Lord. I did not waste this beautiful day with my lovely family. Here's daddy pulling Conner in our new wagon.



Swinging at Mimi's house! Such a fun day!


The yellow daffodils are already in full bloom.





Did you get to enjoy the lovely weather too? I hope you were lucky as I was!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The Next Betty Crooker

My mom told me that I'm turning into a regular "Betty Crocker" because I've been baking and cooking lately. Sigh...I don't think I'm that closer but I'm getting there.

So for dinner tonight:

  • I made Martha Steward's black bean burgers for dinner. It was tasty but the texture was a little different for me. It's still good & healthy though!
  • I also baked my own hamburger shaped buns from Our Best Bites. Oh I love the smell of fresh baked bread! It's very good too! 
  • Then I grilled some romaine salad, inspired by Guy Fieri's recipe. I guess you can pretty much grill anything except ice!

Now if only it's Summer time, I would pack my dinner and it to the park. Oh well, I still have 139 more days until it's officially Summer. I guess I better focus on this month's holiday, Valentines day! Lots of love and chocolates. OH YEAH!! What will you be doing for Valentine's day? I might be taking my boys to the Georgia's aquarium on that weekend. :)