For kicks

Maggie a couple weeks ago with Day Off Dad. Can you name the location? That's her little dog Howie that she doesn't go anywhere without these days. He's usually tucked underneath her arm and she loves to hug him.

She's 16 months old tomorrow!

Developments:
-saying more words: mum, dada, uh-oh (yesterday), dog (today), what's tomorrow?
-signing more signs (loves things in the air and likes to sign bird and airplane)
-imitating everything, even the burp at the dinner table last night which had me cracking up :-)
-eating really well
-sleeping through the night and going to bed at 7 most nights
-recognizing our neighborhood, grandma's neighborhood, parks, friend's houses
-likes to ride in the car now
-likes to clomp around the house in my shoes
-understands everything (we're having to watch everything we say for REAL now) and will do things we ask which is pretty cool to see the connection (diapers went back in the bin tonight, shoes go back in the drawer, and she actually sits down in the shopping cart)
-I could go on but my eyes are tired. Love you Miss Magdalena,

Mommy

Week(s) in pictures

Pizza craze

Funny story...

Last Saturday we get a knock at the door from our mail lady. She woke Maggie up from her nap while doing so and she needed a signature for certified mail being delivered to me. Michael signed for the letter and started probing me about it while the baby was crying in the same moment, so for a second it was chaos. Quickly, I had baby in my arms and I caught up with him in the kitchen as he was opening the envelope (which I told him to do among the chaos...I totally thought it was junk mail). Keep reading.

It all started last summer when I was on maternity leave, cooking often, and trying to save a few bucks. Our friend Ken had hurt himself and we wanted to bring him food once he came home from the hospital. I made a few pizzas and experimented with ingredients as I often do. One of the pizzas I made was unique and well-recieved. I had seen on the packaging of the crust I had used that the company held a recipe contest for new pizza creations. I stored the information away...

Fast forward about 6 months. I was at home one day while Maggie was napping taking care of stuff on the computer and I decided to write down my recipe and submit it online. It was really easy and after that, I totally forgot about it.

What I recieved was a letter telling me that I am a semi-finalist in their 2010 pizza contest! I not only won 52 voucher coupons for free pizza products from my local grocery store, but I also won an espresso/cappuchico machine in exchange for the company using my recipe for promotions/website/packaging. How cool is that? Michael says that for about 48 hours all I could talk about were subjects involving pizza. My mind was reeling.

Looking back, I wish I would have perfected my recipe even more, but heh, I won, right? and maybe if I had put too much thought into it I would have lost the simplicity of it all.

I'm guessing once 2011 rolls around, I'll find out if I am one of the winners of the grand prize, which is $5k (1/2 of which goes to a charity of my choice) and a trip to Disneyworld. I've never been and now we have Maggie in our life. This just gets better.

If you know me, I love game shows and cooking contests. I love coupons. I love free stuff. I've won a few things in the past, but I think this is the biggest yet. With our family on a major budget, I was thinking this past weekend how we love to travel but our trips these days involve camping and staying with friends and family. Don't get me wrong, it's been great, but I would love to go somewhere big, like Thailand. Seeing as that idea has to wait, Disneyworld in 2011 would surely satisfy my travel bug. It's a slim shot, but here's hoping for a little bit more luck!

Pancakes

Sharing a recipe I discovered. I needed to use up kefir, a drinkable yogurt that I like to buy occasionally. Needing to use up ingredients is the best way to discover new recipes. Kefir comes in a container similar to milk, so it's easy to store, and online it says kefir is healthier for you than yogurt. They seem pretty similar, just different consistency. Yogurt and kefir can be homemade too. I've made yogurt cheese before but haven't tried my hand at making kefir yet.

I made the pancakes for a second time with the last of the kefir and yogurt, so I added a little more milk to mimick the consistency of kefir. The pancakes turned out just the same and just as delicious. Aside from my sister's banana pancakes, these are the best I've had in a long time. Try them out, I think you will be suprised!

And along this line, check out this 4th of July recipe. Yum!

Celebrating dad

A belated father's day to all the dads. We ate chicago-style pizza with my dad after he returned from a fishing trip in Mexico. It wasn't the best fishing trip but it made for some great stories as always. Maybe too much blood and guts during dinner though. My dad is famous for his stories.

The pic above is last weekend when we ventured to San Francisco for some festival fun. First time for Mags.

This is for you Ken!

Ken turned us onto the "I'm on a Boat" video. This is the exact opposite in content but the rapping is similar. I think it's fresh and creative. I stole this off my friend's blog-thank you Pat, hilarious!