17 Weeks and counting.....

Normally I do not allow pictures of me to be posted, but I wanted to share how big I am getting!!!  I am 17 weeks this week, our next ultrasound is the first week in January and we will find out if it is a boy or girl!! we are hoping for a boy for Noah (he really needs a brother to play with) I am finally feeling  better!!! That was a rough couple of months!  So look for update on the baby in January!

More Recipes to try!!!!

Yesterday we made Christmas cookies!!! YUM! Most of my family already knows this recipe but there are a few friends that read this blog that may want to try to make some for themselves. This recipe is actually my sisters', Dannettes and it is the best Christmas cookie recipe!

1 cup Margarine
1 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
1 egg
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 tsp Almond Extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Cream of Tartar

Mix ingredients together and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.  Bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned.

Frosting

1/2 stick margarine melted
dash of milk
dash of almond extract
add powdered sugar to desired consistency

then add food coloring of your choice. Then the fun part you decorate them, luckily I had three willing helpers!!!

For the next recipe I was trying to find something similar to what I used to have in Germany during the winter, Roasted Almonds! I am not exactly sure what they had in them, but they were sold all over in the wintertime at little kiosks outside at Christmas Markets. So this is closest I could find to the real thing, they are really good but not exactly like in Germany, and soooo easy to make, a great snack too.

• 
  Cinnamon Roasted Almonds
  1 egg while
• 1 tsp cold water
• 4 cups whole almonds
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Lightly grease a 10x15 inch jellyroll pan.
2. Lightly beat the egg white; add water, and beat until frothy but not stiff. Add the nuts, and stir until well coated. Mix the sugar, salt, and cinnamon, and sprinkle over the nuts. Toss to coat, and spread evenly on the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven, stirring occasionally, until golden. Allow to cool, then store nuts in airtight containers.

Happy Cooking!!

-Darcy

Noah's Birthday!

Here are some pictures of Noah's Birthday celebration, it was just us since we don't know very many people yet and really we don't know anyone with kids Noah's age, but we still had a great time!

Present from Greg, Kelly and Brianna

Present from the Ellis' it was a hit, he loves slippers and his are too small so he loved his new ones.

 A Woody towel which is now uses everynight for bath!

 Money from Lito and Lita, which he really did not care for!

 Sweatshirt from Lito and Lita.

 Snowsuit from Lita and Lito, I wonder if they realize we live in Miami, FL, I guess we

will just have to bring it to Iowa for Christmas.

 From Emma and Abby, the real hit of the night!

 Another puzzle, of course he had to put it together right away.

Noah said he had a great birthday!  We had lots of fun too!

Noah is 3!!!!!

Our little man turned 3 yesterday!! I can't believe how time has flown, he is definelty not my little baby anymore, he barely even lets me kiss him anymore.  Hre are some things about Noah as he turns 3.

*he loves chocolate milk
*he loves his sisters to death
*everywhere he goes he either skips or runs, he never walks normal
*he has to hang on to his tag on his blanket when he goes to bed
* his blankets have to be facing a certain way when you cover him up
*he is not too good at hitting the toilet when he pees
*first thing he tells me in the morning is that he wants breakfast and wont stop until I get up and get it for him
*LOVES LOVES LOVES to do puzzles and is very good at it
*loves to color and is also good at it
*he says cold, "told" he says pickle, "pitle" he says cucumber "cutumber"
*he is very stubborn just like his Dad and if he wants something he won't give up
*thinks a lot of things are funny when they aren't to his mom
*loves vanilla ice cream
*everynight before he goes to bed he has to give his sisters a hug and kiss...and gets upset if they forget
*loves Christmas and all the lights
*can count to 13...after that he starts over
*hates showers and has to take a bath every night
*recently just knocked his sisters two front teeth out!



There are about a 100 more things I can say about Noah!  He has a lot of qualities that the girls don't have. One thing is for sure when he looks at you with those big brown eyes you just can't help to love him!  Happy Birthday Noah!!

Decorating for Christmas!!

Last weekend we started decorating for Christmas, mainly because Sergio is going to be here for the next couple of weekends and we are going to Iowa for Christmas.  Christmas is all of ours favorite time of year. It just gives you such a great feeling.  Even though is was hot when we decorated we still had a great time, the kids wore their Santa hats, we listened to Christmas music (until Sergio couldn't stand it any longer) and the kids had a blast. They were a little confused about the fake tree though, for the last three years in Germany we had always gone to pick out a real tree, but this year being in hot sunny Florida we got our fake tree out again.  Here are some pictures of us decorating!

 Getting out the decorations!

 Sergio hanging the outside lights!

 Kids entertaining themselves while Sergio hangs outside lights.

 I found all three of them on the ground like this, too cute!

 Abby and I taking a break in the shade...it was starting to get hot!

Noah dancing to the Christmas music.

 -Darcy

Some Recipes to Try...

Here are a few new recipes I tried this last week and they were soooooo good and easy.

The first one I don't have a picture because I forgot to take one, we were so hungry!  I saw this on Food Network Giada's show and printed the recipe off of www.foodnetwork.com.  We usually don't eat pork because everytime I cook it, it is so dry but this time it wasn't and the house smelled so good while it was baking, even the kids loved it!  (I didn't use the whole grain mustard only the Dijon and it was good and mine took a bit longer to cook)

Honey Mustard Pork Loin with Bacon

Pork:

• 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard (recommended: Maille)
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary leaves
• 1 (3 1/2-pound) center-cut, boneless, pork loin roast
• 12 slices bacon (about 1 pound)

Directions

Special equipment: kitchen twine

For the pork: Put an oven rack in the lower 1/3 of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, add the Dijon mustard, whole-grain mustard, honey, garlic, and rosemary and mix together until smooth. Arrange the pork in a 9 by 13-inch baking pan and spread the mustard mixture evenly over the pork. Starting on 1 side, lay a piece of bacon, lengthwise, on the pork. Lay another slice of bacon on the pork making sure to slightly overlap the first piece. Continue with the remaining bacon, until the pork is fully covered in bacon. Using 3 pieces of kitchen twine, secure the bacon in place. Roast for 1 hour. Cover the pan, loosely, with foil and roast for another 10 to 20 minutes until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the pork registers 160 degrees F. Remove the pan from the oven and transfer the roast to a cutting board. Cover the pan with foil and allow the pork to rest for 20 minutes. Remove the kitchen twine and slice the pork into 1/2-inch thick slices.

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I have been craving Clam Chowder a while back I had some at The Cheesecake Factory and it was delicous!  So I searced for a recipe online that wasn't too complicated, I wanted simple.  I found this recipe and the whole thing cooked up in about half an hour.  I made a few changes..(First I halved the recipe and it still made alot I used chicken stock instead of clam juice, I used canned clams instead of frozen-I used two cans, I also used bacon instead of salt pork and I didn't add the worcestershire sauce because I didn't have any). I also found this recipe on www.foodnetwork.com  If you like Clam Chowder you have to make it, it is so good!

Clam Chowder

• 10 cups clam juice
• 2 pounds baking potatoes, like russets, peeled and diced
• 4 pounds fresh or frozen clams, shelled and diced
• 1/4 pound salt pork, diced
• 2 small onions, diced
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup flour
• 2 pints half-and-half
• Salt and pepper
• Dash hot pepper sauce
• Dash Worcestershire sauce

Directions

Bring the potatoes and the clam juice to the boil. Cook until thepotatoes are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add the clams and any of their liquid. Cook about 5 minutes. Set aside.

Add the pork to a saute pan and cook over low heat until rendered. Add the onions and cook until transparent. Add the butter and allow it to melt. Add the flour and cook until slightly colored. Add a bit more flour if necessary if the mixture is too soft. Bring the clams, juice and potatoes back to the boil. Gradually stir in the cookedroux. Bring to a rolling boil to thicken. Stir continuously while cooking. Beat the half-and-half and add to the soup. It may not be necessary to use all the half-and-half; the soup should be thick. Adjust the seasoning and add a dash of hot pepper sauce andWorcestershire sauce before serving.

Happy Cooking!!!

-Darcy

The Tooth Fairy Visits....

ABBY BEFORE...

ABBY AFTER...

Well, out little 4 yr old is going to be toothless for a couple years :(  A couple weeks ago her and Noah were playing, holding on to each other in a store, Noah was behind her giving her a hug holding her arms and she tripped and fell flat on her face, she immediately started screaming and I saw blood, but just thought she had busted her lip like so many times before.  So I gave her a napkin and told her it would be fine, well as I was checking out she said her teeth hurt...so I checked and sure enough her front tooth was very very loose.

So we waited a couple days and thought maybe the tooth we "re-root" itself but no such luck it was still very loose and she said it hurt, so we took her to the dentist and found out that the tooth had broken at the root and had to be pulled!  So a week later her appointment was set to  pull her tooth. She was actually totally fine with it.

A couple days before her appointment she was eating a muffin and the tooth fell out!  We took her to the  dentist and he did an xray and told us the root was still stuck up in her gum and had to be taken out, ugh!

So her appointment day arrived they put her under got the root part out and discovered the other tooth right next to the one that fell out had fractured at the root as well and needed to come out, so they took it out as well.

So now we have out little Abby with no two front teeth!  She doesn't care though, which is good. I just hope it doesn't affect her speech and hopefully no one will make fun of her.

So Abby got her first visit from the tooth fairy a little early, and she got $31!!! I wish I got that kind of money when I was growing up!  But I guess the tooth fairy felt sorry for her having to get her teeth pulled.

So that was our week last week!  How was yours????

-Darcy

Halloween 2010!

Ok,  little late, but finally getting around to posting.  Halloween was a little on the warm side here, so we didn't carve pumpkins until the day before and even that was too early, Noah's pumpkin didn't make it to Halloween.  Noah did not really like carving the pumpkins, the only thing he had to say was "EEEWWWW" the whole time, he never touched any of it!  Emma of course had a blast.  She even carved her pumpkin herself.  Here are some pictures of our day!

We went trick or treating Halloween night in our own development, there are some very large houses so it was a lot of fun!  Each one even picked their own costumes this year, I think they did a pretty good job!  The kids had a blast and once their little buckets were full they were ready to quit! Here are some photos of our night!

 Hope everyone had a great Halloween!!!

-Darcy