Brrrrrrrr! It's cold here!

This winter has been very cold, but today was the coldest day by far. I think it warmed up to 1 degree above zero today with a wind chill of negative twenty something. It was the coldest walk from the car to inside the church building I have ever had. Of course when we get back in the car to go home, my daughter who is bundled head to toe, decides to take her shoes and socks off.

Happy Tuesday!

Today is a special day and we decided to play dress up. Sydney is a *bling* girl so I knew she would love this play jewelry. Most of the beads are from New Orleans, when David and I went to the Final Four in 2004. I have just had them in a box and thought this was a great day to get them out for Sydney.

So you may be wondering why I am celebrating Fat Tuesday, well I really am not. Today just happens to be Fat Tuesday, Super Tuesday in Politics and..... Sloan's birthday! Our nephew/cousin turns the big 4 today!

Happy Birthday Sloan!!!!!!

The Snow Fort

Today daddy and Sydney built a snow fort. Well, daddy built it as Sydney watched. She loves to be outside, but does not understand why we bundle her up so much. She still refuses to wear gloves.

Kitchen Experiments

Several moms in the MOPS group I am in have been discussing 30-day Cooking or Once a Month Cooking. While I already make extra of freezer friendly dishes when I can, I had not thought about cooking chicken breast or ground beef in bulk and then freezing it. So after talking with several moms I decided to give it a try. Here is what I did...

Chicken Breast

Prep:
I took 7 large chicken breasts (I buy the big bags of Tyson Boneless Skinless breasts at Sams) out of the freezer and put them in the crock pot. I covered them with water (though not completely covered as they were frozen solid and I knew they would thaw and fit better),seasoned them and put the crock pot on low.

Cooking:
Chicken was done in a couple of hours when we returned home! The chicken smelled so good from the slow cooking and seasonings. I took the chicken out of the crock pot to let them rest before I cut them up. They were super moist and very easy to cut compared to boiled/poached chicken breasts. I cut them up and got about 7 cups of cubed chicken.

Total Cooking Time:
3 ½ to 3 ¾ hours
7 large frozen chicken breasts

Freezer Prep:
Here is where I experimented. I put 2 cups chicken in 2 separate Reynolds Handi-vac bags and 3 cups in another. I let the chicken cool before I sealed the bags. I am not sure if it was the bags or the chicken but when I used the little handi-vac, it sucked the air out and then started pulling the juices out too! I think the chicken was just that juicy. After the bags were sealed to my satisfaction I put them in a Gladware storage container, closed the lid and put them in the freezer for later use.

Overall results:
I was very pleased with the time to cook the chicken (3 ½-3 ¾ hours), the chicken was super moist and it was not much work at all. I was able to put all the meat up in about 20 minutes.

Other thoughts:
I might try cooking some chicken breasts in the pressure cooker some time. My mom does this a lot and says the meat is very moist as well.



Ground Beef

Prep:
I pulled 3 (three) 1 lb. bags of ground beef out of the freezer and set it in the sink to thaw for a couple of hours. I then placed the semi-thawed meat in the crock pot and turned the crock pot on low.

Cooking:
I checked the meat about 20 minutes later to pull the thawed portion off so the frozen portions could thaw; I continued to check the meat about every 20-30 minutes until it was completely thawed. All the meat was thawed in 1 hour. I stirred the pot to break up the meat further and seasoned the meat with basics like salt, pepper, garlic, onion. I put the top on and let the meat cook, stirring 2 more times to turnover uncooked meat.

Total Cooking time:
3 hours
3 lbs. semi-frozen ground beef

Freezer Prep:
I pulled out several spoonfuls of meat and placed in a colander to drain. I had the colander on several layers of paper towels stacked on a dinner plate. (The grease drained through the colander pretty well.) I then measured about 2 cups of meat and placed in various containers to continue my freezer experiment (regular Ziplock freezer bag, handi-vac bag, Gladware small bowl), let the meat cool, then closed the containers and placed in freezer.

Overall results:
I was very pleased with this method of cooking ground beef. I think I “stirred the pot” more than I should have, but I was so curious as to how everything was going. The crock pot I used will probably not hold more than 3 lbs. at a time, but I have a larger oval crock pot that should do more.

Sunday Morning Fashion Show

This morning I decided that I needed to have Sydney try on my old dress (I wore this when I was 18 mo.) to see if she could wear it. Well it fits now and my how the styles have changed! This dress is really short! Just walking you can see her diaper, and no it was not a saggy diaper but a fresh new one. She really liked having the white sandals on...remember her shoe fetish.

We still have a shoe fetish this week.

The little mommy

Sydney is starting to get more into dolls. She got several dolls for Christmas and particularly likes the ones with eyes that move. She is fascinated with eyes- her eyes, your eyes and baby doll eyes. Well she also got 2 baby bottles for the dolls at Christmas. She loves these bottles, however the dolls don't get to use them much. Sydney tends to put them in her mouth and doesn't seem to mind that she is not getting anything out. I am fascinated with this as the last time she got a bottle was in May.

Anyway, Sydney finally showed us how she is now feeding her dolly. Notice how she is sitting in the baby carrier...she thinks this is her recliner.

I feel like a new woman!

This week was not too bad and we got a lot of stuff done last weekend. However, for some reason I felt like I had been run over by a train- the Sydney train. She was not necessarily bad this week, but she was a bit "diva-fied" these last few days. Anytime she did not get what she wanted she had a tantrum. Last night my neck and shoulders were killing me so I decided to call the salon and spa where I go to get my hair done. They recently started offering massages and I have one booked for Feb 16, but I knew I needed some help now. So I called up and asked if they had any cancellations for today (Sat)...I had my fingers and toes crossed but really expected to hear sorry. To my surprise they said they had an opening at 10:15 for a massage. I booked it!

I was so looking forward to this massage all night and this morning. I was not disappointed. The masseuse, Sara, was fabulous and really worked on my neck and shoulders. They feel so much better. I really do feel like a new woman now! Plus, when I got home the darling husband was napping along with the darling daughter. Ahhhhhh, the bliss continues.

The Weekend ProjectThe were all so excited for the 3-day weekend to get here. David decided that he would work on one of the projects on our (my) honey-do list- building shelves and a bookcase for our little reader in her (Sydney's) room. We drew up the plans and purchased all the material for the project, last August. Needless to say we have been pretty busy and this was the first opportunity to tackle this project.

After 23 hours of hard work (David actually working on the shelves and I keeping Sydney out of the way) and only 2 additional trips to the store (which is a new Smith Family record) we have beautiful shelves in Sydney's room. David got to use several power tools on the project including the miter saw in the garage. Did I mention that the garage was probably about 20 degrees as the highs over the weekend we in the single digits? Sydney was very interested in whatever daddy was doing and even has a new sound effect for the drill. We are very excited about the final product and I can't wait to fill the shelves.

Shoe Fetish, Already???

Sydney loves shoes, her shoes, momma's, daddy's, Kiki's, Papa's, even Granny's shoes. She will pull shoes out of her closet and put them on herself and wear them- even on the wrong feet! She loves our closet and always finds a new pair of shoes to wear. Do you think it is too early for her to have a shoe fetish?

Merry Christmas from Sydney

We spent Christmas in Texas this year. It was a big change from the freezing temperatures and snow to the mild 50's and 60's and sunshine in Texas. Sydney had a wonderful Christmas and learned lots of things from her cousins. She was a good girl this year as Santa Claus brought her all kinds of stuff including a couple of baby dolls and a stroller. However, the baby dolls do not get to ride in the stroller much. Sydney likes to put other things inside.

Snow Play for Sydney

With the additional 3-4” of snow we got on Saturday, we decided it was time to take Sydney outside to play. She loves looking at the window to see the snow, and she loves to play in it too! We got the girl all bundled up in her snow suit, gloves, hat and all just to have her shake the gloves off every chance she got. Her poor little hands and cheeks were so cold.
Daddy got the sled that Uncle Allen gave him and strapped Sydney in, the second time he pulled her in the sled. She LOVED the sled. She had a big smile on her face each time she made it down the hill.

March of the Penguins

We took Sydney to a local nursery that decorates for Christmas with neat stuff. They had a display of penguins that Syndey loved.

In the Holiday Spirit

Sydney is loving the holidays this year. All the lights, Santa and snow! We have had 2-4" of snow on the ground for over a week now and Sydney thinks it is just great. She loves to see the Christmas lights on the tree, has her favorite ornament(s) and loves to point at Santa and say "O,O" or something like it. We are going to have a great time this year.

Sydney meets Santa

Sydney and I went to the Festival of Trees today. There were all kinds of Christmas trees for Sydney to look at and Santa was there. Sydney wanted out of her stroller, but when it came time to actually visit that strange man she was not interested. She was very weary of him and leapt for mommy. I had to get up there with her and she still was not interested.

Halloween 2007

Sydney was once again in Texas for Halloween this year. She was the cutest little piggy that you ever saw! She also got into the candy thing, however she prefers to eat the candy through the wrapper! We quickly took care of that and now she is a candy lover even though she only gets a small few bites.

Weekend with the Cousins

We recently had a weekend with the cousins. We met up at a hotel, that had an indoor pool, and let the kiddies play, swim, and play some more. Everyone was amazed at how big Sydney has gotten and mobile and busy she is. It was a great time and we look forward to spending more time with cousins at Thanksgiving.

The Hoovers Visit Iowa

Our old neighbors from NC, the Hoovers, came out to Iowa for a visit last weekend. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed watching Harrison and Jackson play with Sydney. She is much bigger and more mobile/busy than the last time they saw her in June. She slept well while they were here and really enjoyed having someone other than mommy to play with.

We took them to Corporate so they could see where David works. There is a display floor with all kinds of equipment for kids to crawl all over.

Daddy Time

Sydney loves her daddy and runs to the door when comes home from work everyday. On the weekends she loves playing with him. They play blocks, read books and have tickle time! Daddy thinks Sydney has the cutest laugh ever.

Mommy's Little Helper

Sydney loves to follow mommy all over the house. She is very good at sneaking into places that she shouldn’t be. Lately she has been infatuated with the refrigerator. Anytime mommy (or daddy) open the door, little girl makes a mad dash. She used to just play with the water bottles on the bottom shelf in the door, but now she is trying to help mommy cook dinner. She is so proud of herself.