Recipe Friday, Birthday Edition

biscuits & gravy

This is probably Nate's favorite breakfast. This recipe serves him and me with sometimes a little left over.

1/3 lb sausage

2 tbls butter or margarine

2 tbls flour

1 c milk

1 can of 10 biscuits from Wal-Mart (or make some from scratch, see if I care)

Preheat oven and start baking your biscuits. Brown sausage in a skillet. Remove sausage. In the same skillet melt butter and stir in flour until combined. Add milk and combine. Sauce will thicken as it cooks. It doesn't take too long. Add sausage back in when desired thickness is achieved. Salt and pepper to taste. Tear up biscuits however you see fit—some like them in halves, some in teensy bits. Pour gravy on top. Enjoy. 

(Can you tell I was just remembering this off the top of my head? Hopefully it's complete.)

family pictures

These are just a few of the pictures we've had taken in the last two months. Some were with my family and some were with Nate's. I played with some photoshop effects on some. I might post more if I remember. Please to be admiring how beautiful we are!

Santa's coming! I know him!

Yay for Thanksgiving. And yay for it being over and for us being back home. It was great to visit with our long lost family members, but it's also nice to be done traveling. Here are a few pictures from our trip and a few from this week.

Before we left Colin was being awesome and balancing his pacifier on his nose. Awesome.

We were going to take family pictures the same night that we got to Iowa. Nate waited to shave until we got there. He wanted to leave his mexi-stache, but then he decided just to let me take a picture of it and then get rid of it. He's going for the Uncle Rico look from Napoleon Dynamite. 

Colin finally got a picture with his great-aunt Gina. They share the same birthday, so I'm sure they'll be BFFs.

Scott and Lenna looking very powerful at Granny Charles's house where we had Thanksgiving dinner.

The girls all sat and colored while we waited for lunch. Hannah is such a pretty princess.

Colin loves playing with Papa. He can always make him laugh.

This is a picture of Granny Charles's refrigerator. I took a picture because I was so proud that Colin and I made it on there. (He's in a few other places too, but not in this picture.)

Donovan was a crack up playing Ring Around the Rosies by himself. His "all fall down" is hilarious. 

What a handsome kid. 

Great-Granny Charles with Kaylee and Rachel. The girls looked so classy with their hair done up in Princess Leia braids. (Rachel's had come down by this point.)

We all hung out at Lenna's apartment before half the group went back home to Utah.

Colin looks like such a goof in this hat, but I still think he's awesome.

Nate was playing with/tormenting Mason, who took refuge under the laundry bin. Nate captured this shot while Mason was peeking out.

On our last night in Iowa the grownups and Colin went out to dinner in Omaha. Colin looks awesome in this hat. It almost looks like an old school army helmet in this picture.

And now we're back home. When we got back I started feeding Colin rice cereal with a spoon, and he loves it. The first time he was pretty good about just letting me put the stuff in his mouth (and whining when I wasn't fast enough with the next spoonful), but this time he wanted to hold the spoon and help me make a mess. 

These pictures don't really do justice to just how messy he was. 

Sometimes I can't help taking pictures when Colin isn't doing anything other than lying on the floor being handsome. He's just so darn cute!

Colin's really good at playing with his toys now. He rolls over to get them and can keep them in his mouth long enough to get some satisfaction out of chewing them. Here he is being oh so happy playing with his Ikea dragon.

Hannah bought Colin the cutest shirt for Christmas, and since we had our ward Christmas breakfast today I put it on him. Thanks for helping Colin to continue to look good Hannah!

Santa and Mrs. Claus made an appearance at the party. I figured that since I'm not taking Colin anywhere special to see Santa, this was his only chance. We were kind of being hustled along since there were so many people there, so I didn't get the world's best picture. Colin was more interested in his hands than he was in Santa.

Nate told me he didn't want to be in any of the pictures, and I said fine. But Santa was having none of that. He made Nate come and sit on his lap. I love this picture. Classic Nate face.

Then someone volunteered to take a picture of all of us, so I got in there too. 

Yay for Santa. And yay for him making Nate be in the picture!

Recipe Friday

crepes with cream cheese filling

This is actually a conglomerate of several recipes I found online. I had never made crepes before, so I had no idea what I was looking for. They turned out really good. I was pretty proud of myself.

Crepe Batter

2 eggs

1/4 c milk

2 tbl water

4 tbl flour

1/8 tsp salt

Whisk ingredients together. Heat and grease the pan, pour in a few tablespoons of batter, swirl around to just cover the bottom of the pan (you don't want them too thick is my understanding). In a minute or two flip it over. Wait another minute and you're done!

Cream Cheese Filling
8 oz cream cheese

1 1/2 c cool whip

1 1/4 c confectioners sugar

Sometimes I also add 1/2 tsp vanilla or some cinnamon or both. I really just make it up as I go.

Optional Toppings:
I put some frozen strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries on the stove with a little sugar, water, and cornstarch to make a sauce. It was delicious. My family also enjoyed whipped cream and chocolate syrup too.

Fill crepes with cream cheese filling, roll up, top with extra cool whip or what-have-you, and enjoy!

colin rolled over!

Yep, he can now roll from his back to his tummy. He's been really close for a few days now, but today he finally did it on his own. I'll work on getting some pictures or video of it up, but for now just know that he can do it. I know I do.

Also, his second tooth has come through. Yay Colin!

Laughter

Colin really liked this game. We were trying to help him poop. Something between a 6-7 would be ideal.

This one is sort of long, but was hilarious. He only laughed at "What's New Pussycat." Who doesn't laugh at Robert Goulet impressions?

Recipe Friday

Chocolate Eclair Bars

I got this recipe from Brad who got it from Rachelle Moss. It's one of my favorite desserts. I take it to baby/bridal showers and ward functions and such. Also, I can eat about half of the pan all by myself. Enjoy!

Crust:

1 1/2 sticks of butter

1 1/2 cups of water

1 1/2 cups of flour

6 eggs slightly beaten

Filling: 

8 ounces cream cheese

8 ounces cool whip

3 cups milk

3 tablespoons milk

2 packages vanilla pudding

hot fudge topping

Combine butter and water in a pan. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add flour. Stir until it forms a ball. Add beaten eggs slowly. Stir until smooth. Spray large cookie sheet with oil. Spread dough out on cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool completely.

Mix cream cheese with 3 tablespoons of milk until smooth. In another bowl, beat pudding and 3 cups of milk. Mix cream cheese in. Fold in cool whip. Spread over crust. Drizzle hot fudge topping over filling. Cut into squares or just dig in with your hands. Don't just dig in with your hands. Show some class.

colin's first tooth!

Colin cut his first tooth! Huzzah! I noticed it yesterday, but who knows when it actually came through. He's been a little more fussy than his usual self lately, so it's nice to have an explanation. Well, that is all. Yay for Colin!

Here are some pictures from the week. I got a bunch of hand-me-downs from a friend I used to work with, so I decided to make sure all of my clothes were marked. I pulled out all of "Colin's" clothes and made sure they were marked. While they were out on the floor I decided to take a picture. 

He's got a lot of clothes, and he looks so cute naked. 

We went for a walk one morning, and since it was kind of brisk I bundled Colin up good. He was wearing so many layers he looked twice as big as he is. Here he is in hood, looking a little like the sith lord from Star Wars. 

What a cute boy! We still love those pj's DeAnna!

He tried to escape from his crib this week. He rolls all around and tries to grab things outside of his crib. 

He's also discovered his dragon. He plays with it sometimes when he wakes up from his naps.

Here he is this morning in all his exersaucer glory. Can you see that tooth peeking out? Me neither.

help!

So I changed our blog background, and doing that made me lose all of my links off to the side. If anyone can remember what other links I had there, please tell me. I miss being one click away from satisfying my blog reading addiction.

poser

Not much going on this week. Colin and I enjoyed the chilly weather by cozying up to the fire. He was fascinated and just sat quietly and watched the flames. 

He also enjoyed some time on the floor just being handsome.

It lasted for quite a while. He has a hard time not being handsome.

One morning he went out for a walk with Nana. You might think none of his clothes really go together, but if you look closely they are all soccer-themed. (Oh, and I guess they're all red too.)

The exersaucer is starting to be a hit. He'll sit in there for more than 3 minutes at a time now. 

I think he likes it more because he's better at getting the animals into his mouth. He also likes it when he turns on the music and I dance like a drowning retard.

Yesterday morning Colin started posing in the recliner. It was hilarious. Too bad as soon as I pull the camera out he decides he doesn't have to smile. Here are some of the pictures from that photo shoot.

I like the eating the picture one...

And the kind of confused one...

But I think the showing off his legs one is probably my favorite. Woo woo. 

We watched the BYU game at Caleb's house yesterday, which was fun. But playing Rockband was way more fun. Now that I get a chance to play the guitar every once and a while I'm really starting to rock, though I say so myself. We had a really good time despite sometimes crying babies. Granny and Kaylee and Rachel even took turns on the vocals. As we were packing up to leave Granny held Sara up to have a chat with Colin. They seem to get along okay. Colin paws at her face while Sara stares around.

That's all for now. Los Tres Silveys out.

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(Colin wanted to help me type that last part.)