bunny rolls

so pinterest is my friend.  I pin and pin and pin… and actually make very few of the things that I pin.  Part of that is because I have zero free time during the school year.  I have blissfully enjoying the start of spring break…. and with Easter tomorrow, I decided to try out one of my pins and make bunny shaped rolls.  I used my pin on pinterest as inspiration  and made my own version with modifications.

First of all I used refrigerator biscuits because, although I am on spring break, I have a one year old. 

I broke off a small bit of a biscuit and set it aside to make the tail later.  I took the biscuit and started tucking it into itself so that I could make it a round shape instead of a flat biscuit, then rolled it in my hands to keep it together.  That would end up being the bottom of my biscuit.

I then took scissors and made two snips in the circle to make the ears.

Then I used a toothpick to make holes and put peppercorns in for the eyes and nose.  Next time I will poke them in further because some of my peppercorns fell out during baking.

I used a pair of scissors to make a slice in each ear to make it look more… ear like.

I gave a little pinch to the head . attached a ball of dough for the tail (be sure to attach these well so that they don’t fall off when baking), then brushed each bunny with melted butter.  I made sure to brush behind the ears so that they wouldn’t stick back to the body while baking.

Then I baked the rolls according to the directions.

Happy Easter!

perfect hard “boiled” eggs

So many people struggle with getting the perfect hard boiled egg.  Sometimes they are underdone and a chewy center and sometimes they are over done and rubbery with a chalky yolk.  Then there is always that mysterious green ring around the yolk to combat.

Well this is by far the easiest way to get perfect hard boiled eggs…. bake them. 

-Preheat oven to 325 or if you have a cooler oven then 350.  I have a convection so 325 was perfect for me

- Place one egg in each compartment of a muffin tin, then put them in the oven and bake for 30 min.  (don’t add water… you will literally bake them)

-While the eggs are baking prepare the ice bath.  You fill the bowl with ice then add cool water.  As soon as the eggs come out of the oven, use tongs to put them in the ice bath.  This will stop the cooking and make the eggs easy to peel.  Keep them in the ice bath until they are cool.

You will have the perfect hard “boiled” eggs.  Fully cooked yet tender and no green/blue ring around the yolk.

10 months

Height: 28 in

Weight: 17.7 lbs

Challenges:

She has started doing alligator rolls while being changed. 

I am still struggling with balancing everything.  Some weeks I feel like I am getting into the groove of being a working mom…. only to get lost under a mountain of papers to grade and dirty diapers to wash (cloth diapers).  Some weeks I feel like I am rocking things…. only to start failing miserably. 

My mood changes drastically and it is often in correlation to the cleanliness of my house. When my house is clean… I tend to feel better. Like life is in order. (now I'm not talking OCD clean…. because who has time for that). When things are messy my life feels messy.

She is also starting to through temper tantrums… already

Em’s new tricks, triumphs, and favorites:

Em is becoming more and more independent.  She is beginning to stand on her own, but she is only bale to do so for a few seconds at a time.  She is pulling up on everything and cursing the furniture.  She is also pulling things down on herself, stealing things off of the coffee table, and getting into wires.

She loves pulling all of her books off of the shelf, playing with her tea set, stealing mom’s keys, and she loves loves loves her musical Elmo.  She will push a button for a song then wave her hands around as it plays.  She still absolutely loves being outside.  Wagon rides around our new patio are a big favorite. 

Even though she is still a total mommies girl, she loves ride on daddy’s shoulders.  She gets so excited when dad gets home from work… but then freaks out if he tries to take her away from mom. 

She is starting to say mum and mama all the time.

She has two adorable bottom teeth.

She loves to eat.

Things that I love:

I love that she is feeding herself.  She is so good in restaurants… as long as she has food on her tray.  Now my options when ordering out are more limited since I am sharing with my little one.  The advantage though is I actually get to eat my food while it is hot :)

I love her goofy cheese ball grin.  So darn cute!

Best Shower Cleaner Ever

I hate cleaning the shower.  I also hate breathing toxic fumes of products that are supposed to make cleaning the shower easier.  So, I decided that I should try a natural approach.
I used some of my orange vinegar and equal parts of blue dawn.  I warmed up the vinegar first because I read that it helps with really hard water stains.  Put it in a spray bottle and mix.  I then sprayed it on my shower and let it soak for 15 min.  After that I wiped everything down and was shocked!
This mix worked far better than the harsh cleaners I have used before.  My shower hadn’t been that clean in a very long time.

Orange Scented Vinegar

I love vinegar…. I hate the vinegar smell though.  Vinegar is an excellent cleaning product.  It disinfects, is antibacterial, gets rid of mold, etc.  Pretty much… It a green cleaning rock star.  The only reason I don’t use it more around the house is because my husband loathes the smell.  I admit, it isn’t a favorite smell of mine either. 
A while ago I read about how you can use orange peels to take the vinegar smell out of vinegar and leave a fresh citrus sent.  I thought it was worth a shot.  I had about a quarter of a bottle left so I just peeled some cuties from my neighbors tree and dropped them in.  You are supposed to let it sit for a month for it to have it full effect, but after just an hour I saw a huge difference. 
To make your own:
Have a container with vinegar in it
Jam it full of orange peels.
Put it under your kitchen sink for the next month…. or if you are impatient like me…use right away :)
done!
Now that I have some yummy smelling vinegar, there may be a whole string of vinegar related posts ;)

9 months

 

Weight: 17.2

Height: 27.7

Challenges:

Em is still a total momma’s girl.  She has been super clingy and cranky.  She also hasn’t been sleeping great.  She went through a big sleep regression, and for a few weeks was back to waking up 3-5 times a night.  yeiks!  She is back to waking once at night…. but it is looking like it is time to do some sleep training.  Where is my baby that was sleeping 12 hrs through the night?

One of my biggest challenges has been time.  Which is why I was two months behind on Em’s blog posts.  Between working as a teacher full time, taking care of Em, taking care of the house, laundry… and then the holidays….there just wasn't enough time in the day.

Em’s new tricks, triumphs, and favorites:

Em has begun trying to stand on her own. She pulls up on everything.  She loves toy animals and anything with wheels.  She copies Lan and says Dada.  Now when you lay her down in her crib, she will stand up holding the side and cry.  She has also begun walking with her walker.

She is terrified of the Rumba and still hates the post office.

Things that I love:

Em is starting to get into everything.  She is so interested in buttons, paper, things on shelves… or pretty much anything and everything.  She loves to play with her toy food, and she will really play with you.  She thinks it is so funny when I drive trucks up her arm and on her head.  She loves sitting with daddy and hearing him read books to her.  She loves to pull things out.  Books off the shelf, toys out of a box, animals out of a bag. 

8 Months

so…. I'm a few months behind.  Oops.  Here is what I remember about month 8

Weight: 17 lbs

Height: ?

Challenges:

She has been cranky as she is working on those teeth.  Poor sore gums :(

Em is a total momma’s girl.  On one hand I love it… but on the other hand, I know it is hard on Lan.  He needs some baby lovin too.

Em’s new tricks, triumphs, and favorites:

Em has started showing interest in dolls.  It is so cute.  She is going to be a great mommy ;)  That is once she stops poking her babies’ eyes.

We officially have a crawler.  She still does her beached whale crawl…. but now she switches it up with real crawling too :)  She also was able to go from a crawling position to a sitting position without face planning.

She has started mimicking the things that we do and is learning how to feed herself.
 

Things that I love:

I love watching her grow and learn new things.  When she is upset she cries, reaches for me and says momma.  Lan says it doesn’t count as her first word because she only says it when she is crying.  But I love hearing her say it… even if it “doesn’t count”