Cuter by the second!

Noelle does something unbelievably cute every day I think. Probably much more than once a day, but at least each day it seems to be something new and cute that she hasn't done before.

I think her official first sentence is "I got you!" Mostly from playing lots and lots of games of trying to catch her.

She is recently obsessed with carrying her blanket around and trying to wear it. I think this is partly my fault since I am almost always sitting or walking around with a blanket, and also the fact that she likes to pretend it is a dress.

Being coy and snuggly

Just surveying the yard with her blanket.

She likes to dress up in other things too - like the poncho! She thought it was so fun to wear it, and even started calling it a "tent" at one point.

Ponchos are cheap fun!

Everything looks pink...

Mama, how does this work?!

Poncho model in the making

She also is so very attached to all her stuffed animals. This past week it was Mr. Peanut ("Peanut") and a baby My Little Pony doll ("Pony"). And for whatever strange reason, she associates them together. So when I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk, she grabbed Pony & Peanut and asked if they could come along. We got some strange looks along the way, but she was happy to have her buddies on the walk with her.

Pony & Peanut

She is mixing up her pronouns now, which is extremely common for toddlers. There is lots of "hold you" when she wants to be picked up. And I just realized she also says "down?" when she wants to get on a chair and also when she wants to get off of it.

She so sweetly will call for me to come play with her or color with her. She make her voice really high & gentle and says, "C'mon Mama, coolioo?" or "C'mon Mama, go play?"  Lately she has even been asking me to dance on occasion which would be so fun if she didn't constantly want me to spin around. Old people get dizzy fast!

And whenever she is looking for something or knows that I am looking for something, she calls out to it. This is something I taught her along the way - though it wasn't intentional. But I LOVE it when she does it. She might know that I am looking for my keys and so she will walk around as if she is searching for them and say "KEY! WHERE ARE YOUUUUUU? Oh KEY?!?" Sometimes she is looking for something on her own, maybe her Ariel doll, and I hear her in her room...."ARIEL! WHERE ARE YOUUUUUUU? ... THERE SHE IS!"

2 is turning out to be super cute and I know it is only to get cuter as she adds to her vocabulary and is able to communicate exactly what that precious mind is thinking!

Grandma Johnson's Scones

I guess I am on a recipe sharing kick!

This Sunday we had a little baby shower for 2 girls in our lifegroup that are having their 2nd children...their due dates are about a month apart and they are both having little girls (both of their first borns are boys).

So we decided to throw them a little girly joint shower. We had made all our plans but then my dear friend Mel decided maybe we should try to make it into a "tea party" and asked if I would consider making scones.

It's been a while since I made my scones...I used to make them alot - but it's probably down to 2-3 times a year tops at this point. I found this recipe at random, just after I was married I believe, and they are truly some of the best scones on the face of the earth. I can say that because I didn't come up with the recipe, I just follow it. Anyone can do it - I promise!

So, I happily obliged, and while I was making them I decided I should blog about this! I think sometimes people are intimidated by scones - but these are really easy. You can't really mess them up - they always come out very edible!

**Disclaimer** - if you love an authentic British scone, this probably won't be anything like it. I have actually not had one myself, but I love British things and I bet I would love them too. Having said that, these are still REALLY good scones :)

I'll start with my SUPER cute cookbook (sarcasm). My mom got me this when I was in college to hold recipes in. Glamorous, I know. Cock-a-doodle-doo.

Here is my ancient print out of the recipe (from allrecipes.com) - and here is the link if you want to look it up yourself! 
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grandma-johnsons-scones/

nice little scone bit on the recipe if you look closely...

Since I was making a batch, I decided to go big or go home. So I made a DOUBLE batch. Some for the shower, some for me, some for other friends, and then some more for me. In making a double batch I find it most helpful to use my extra large mixing bowl. Josh got me this mixing bowl as a gift a long time ago for 2 reasons... (1) I asked for it; (2) I was making double batches of scones so often that I really needed something huge and wide to mix it in.

I tried to capture just how large this mixing bowl is...

Here you have my hand for comparison...still doesn't quite do it justice.

I tried. I just can't prove it's hugeness through photo. Feel free to come visit the bowl any time to see just how large and amazing it is.

Ok, back to the actual recipe. I thought to help some of you random folks out there actually have the courage to make these, you might like to see some helpful hints along the way.

First the ingredients:

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 1 cup raisins (optional & I never ever use raisins!)

1. In a small bowl, blend the sour cream and baking soda, and set aside.

The baking soda and sour cream react and it gets really fluffy. I usually mix them together and then mix the dry ingredients and then when you are ready to use the sour cream mix, it looks like this:

Looks so tasty. But its plain sour cream and baking soda.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a large baking sheet.

Please note - I have never greased a baking sheet. The scones have never stuck. So no worries there!

3.  In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar, and salt. Cut in the butter. Stir the sour cream mixture and egg into the flour mixture until just moistened. Mix in the raisins. (or your mix-in of choice!)

So here you will see all my dry ingredients mixed together and then you might not know how to "cut in" the butter. You can actually "cut" it into the mixture by using 2 knives. I did that for a long time before I got my pastry blender!

This mixture is so HAPPY to know it will be yummy scones!!

This is a pastry blender. It makes the "cutting in" much easier. 

Once you have blended that all well, the mixture will have little lumps of butter in it. That is fine, and that is what you want for this type of baked good. And make sure your butter isn't too warm. These will be a better texture if the butter is cold-cool. Doesn't have to be frozen, but cold is better. My favorite mix ins are blueberries and also mini chocolate chips. You can do a bazillion different combinations, but those two are a favorite.

4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead briefly. Roll or pat dough into a 3/4 inch thick round. Cut into 12 wedges, and place them 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.

Ok, if you cut these things into 12 you would have the thickest and biggest scones you have ever seen. No no no. I make them much smaller. Serving sizes people, serving sizes!! And I like cutting mine in random shapes. I just kind of make a rectangle and then go to town. They look home made, which is how I want it to look. Not like a Starbucks scone.

Ready for cutting

5. Bake 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown on the bottom.

Ok, I don't know what kind of super-oven Grandma Johnson baked with, but I have never had an oven that these scones went for 12-15 minutes in. And if you did them as thick and as large as her recipe says, well then just forget it. You wouldn't even be close to done! I usually don't set a timer as I just kind of check on them and know when they are ready. But I timed it just for you all (that's so kind of me)!  And it took exactly 18 minutes in my oven for them to be softly golden along the bottom edges.

This is the final look you are going for!

So I hope I gave you the courage to go for it with these scones. I promise that they are a crowd pleaser and they do not disappoint!!

When stuff goes bad...

And by "stuff" I mean bananas.

Noelle goes on banana kicks and then decides they are a lesser fruit to be eating. So I will buy bananas fairly consistently and they will be eaten - and then one day they won't.

I find that when this happens I have 2 leftover bananas...maybe 3, but almost always 2. And those lonely bananas are brown and gross.

When you have brown bananas, you make banana bread. Or in our case - muffins!

I found this recipe through googling and it is very yummy, very simple, and I can make it in a hurry.  It makes 1 pan of 12 muffins, which is perfect. One and done!  I wish I could remember how long I bake it for....I think it is somewhere between 18-25 minutes. You can always just make the loaves like the original recipe calls for if you are terrified of ruining muffins!  I usually just let them bake and check on them once or twice with a toothpick to make sure they are done.

Here's the link to the original recipe:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/bananabread

And here it is pasted in :)

Banana Bread
Makes 1 full-sized loaf or 2 small loaves
2 eggs
2 or 3 very ripe bananas
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional - but I add it!)

**Abby's add** - 1/2 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips (because we need our chocolate!)

Preheat the oven to 350.

In one bowl, combine:

1/2 stick (4-5 tablespoons) butter, softened

Use a potato masher, fork, or spoon to squish the banana and mix the ingredients together. It is alright for there to be small (1 centimeter) chunks of banana in the batter, but you want most of the banana to be reduced to mush.

In another bowl, combine (**Abby's add** I also just combine it all in one bowl b/c I am lazy) :

1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix until the ingredients are blended together.

If you like, stir in additional ingredients here, such as chopped walnuts or pecans, dried cherries or apricots, or chocolate chips. A handful (about a half a cup) is about right.

Pour the dough into greased baking pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Small loaves take around 30 minutes, a normal-sized loaf takes around 50 minutes.

Remove from the oven. This bread is great warm, but it is excellent cold too.

After they have cooled for 5 or 10 minutes the loaves can be removed from the pan to cool. Once they are cool they can be individually wrapped and frozen.

The next time you have some bad bananas on your hands I hope you give this a try! It is so so easy and makes for a very tasty breakfast treat!!

A Rainy Saturday

Usually in the summer rainy days really bum me out. I love the sun and I love being outside - and Noelle loves everything about being outside too. But this Saturday it was rainy and just overall kind of yucky - and it was such a nice change of pace!

I realized just how little it had rained so far this summer, so it was such a relaxing day. Instead of hurrying off to make the most of the sunshine at the pool or the park or something like that, Noelle and I lounged in our pajamas for the first half of the day.  We ate a leisurely breakfast and then snuggled up on the couch to watch the new Tinkerbell movie which just got added to Netflix.

Sadly enough, I was the one who mostly did the watching and Noelle was enthralled with playing with the ipad under the blanket (also known as "tent"). I had downloaded a new app that morning and she just LOVED it. It was a very well spent $1.99 I have to say. For those of you wondering - it was a Daniel Tiger app.  She was literally laughing out loud while playing with it a few times that morning.

We ate a snacky type lunch because we had had a late breakfast and sometime around 1:30 Noelle wanted to play "bed" but she brought along her blanket and pacifiers...so it was pretty clear to me that she was ready for a nap. She had a nap and I was even more lazy on the couch actually getting to enjoy my ipad - which let's face it, really isn't mine.

Around 3 she woke up and we played with some puzzles and then decided to run a few quick errands. We wrapped that up and splurged on some Chick-fil-a for dinner because I have been craving their cobb salad since before my birthday. If you are still thinking about a salad for 2 weeks, it is time to cave and just go eat it!

After dinner it was a bath, which she got REALLY mad at when I had to rinse her hair, and to recover after that traumatizing experience she requested some Ariel. I obliged and she got about 15 minutes of The Little Mermaid in before it was time for books and bed.

She is getting so funny at really "experiencing" a movie as she is watching it. She does the hand motions, the body language, all the movement of her favorite parts as if she is the character. I tried to capture some of it last night but it was pretty dark in our living room. I used instagram to try and lighten it up so you can see a small clip on there. I made a longer one and put it on youtube and it is below! It is so very cute in person, and if you watch that part of the actual movie on youtube you can see what she is doing during the "burn" and "above"! For reference you can watch the youtube clip of Part of Your World. Josh and I will be working hard to capture her rendition of Let it Go. It is awesome!

It was such a quiet Saturday and it was just what Noelle and I needed after a very busy couple of weeks!  Not sure if it was rainy by you, but hope you made the most of your day too!!

The Accessory that Ties it All Together

Today, I'm talkin' bout nail polish.

I always enjoyed a good nail painting back in the day. And of course, painted toes in the summer are an absolute must (I am really lazy in the winter though...if I can't see them, I don't care!)

But something happened in the last 1.5 years. I decided I really really liked my nails painted. Somehow it made me feel like I was put together and polished (pun intended) - even with a potential chocolate stain on my shirt from a kiddo or hair messily in a pony tail. I also found that my nails were getting really weak. From constantly washing my hands, changing diapers, giving baths, wiping stuff down, etc... The nails just couldn't handle the pressure of being a mom. But if I had them painted - well they were strong! They could hold up to the job. They reflected my inner strength as a mother!

Now comes the other problem...when you are rough on your hands, how on earth do you get your nail polish to stay on? I'm not paying to get my nails done gel or shellac or whatever every couple weeks. I don't have the time or the money. So began my quest for an at home manicure that could last for more than 8 hours.

I stumbled upon my solution quite by accident. At the beginning of 2014 I wanted to participate in the nude nail polish trend that was everywhere and there was a shade I fell in love with at the grocery store  - Essie "Sand Tropez" - just a perfect neutral nude.  It just so happened to be my first Essie nail polish and I randomly read a review (while contemplating the purchase) about how great their 3 way strengthener/base/top coat was. So I gave it a go and bought that as well.

I was shocked. I got 3 full days no chips...and then just minor chippage and I think I made it to 5 days before I took it off, which is huge for me! I had always loved the OPI colors and names, but the longevity of Essie got me hooked, and I fell hard. Suddenly I NEEDED more. Now, Essie is $8-8.50 a bottle most places...and that adds up quickly! So naturally, I took to eBay and I padded my collection quite a bit. There also was mother's day and my birthday...and then the odd $4 bottle I happened to find at TJ Maxx or Marshalls on occasion.

Here are some of my favorites:
Sand Tropez - so pretty :)
Ballet Slippers - an Essie classic that I just got for by birthday
Meet Me at the Altar - sadly a limited edition wedding collection one, but sooo pretty!
Geranium - it couldn't match a real geranium much better!

I was all excited about my new Essie love affair...but I was kind of bummed about my other nail polishes that I now no longer wanted to use because they didn't make my 3 day minimum rule (I really don't want to paint my nails if I can't get a good 3 days wear out of it).

What is a nail polish loving girl to do?!?

Enter Sephora Formula X "The System." I had read a few random reviews and it had sparked my interest. Then with some extra income I had, I decided to treat myself just a week before my birthday. I am so excited about this system! It is like it turns any nail polish into an "Essie" quality nail polish! It comes with a cleanser, base coat, top coat and you get to pick one polish. But you can use it with any nail polish, and I haven't found a brand it hasn't worked well on yet!  So if you find yourself in the same nail polish boat as myself, go check it out...I doubt you will be disappointed!

A Crazy Couple of Weeks...

Consider this just a catch up post...

I'm not sure what happened to my quiet summer over the last two weeks, but it just kind of exploded! It probably started around the last week of June. Suddenly there was a huge influx of work, and then Noelle and I got to go on a little "getaway" for the first week of July.

Last year I started working part-time from home and part-time in the office. Since last summer I hadn't truly tried to take advantage of my flexible schedule and this summer seemed like the perfect opportunity. Especially since July 4 landed on a day I normally would have needed to be in the office (and couldn't because the office was closed!)

So off to Marietta we went with the help of Pop-pop and Mala (grandma's new name). I had warned Pop-pop pre-trip that he would have to suffer through multiple rounds of Part of Your World the whole way down to Atlanta. I was NOT wrong sadly. Noelle only napped for about 30 minutes in the car, unlike the normal 1.5-2 hours we get when she is at home in her crib. We arrived safely to Marietta and were ready to listen to something other than Ariel.

During the week I actually worked alot, just from my parent's home instead of my own. I had a random case of hives and was a little uncomfortable so my first few days there weren't filled of pool afternoons as I had hoped. It was great to get to spend time with family and friends though, and eventually I did manage to squeeze in some pool time.

Noelle had a great time, but mostly she fell in love with my parent's new orphan they adopted...a sweet little orange cat named Buddy. Buddy is a girl, and she is a great cat - and Noelle took advantage of that. She managed to only get bitten by Buddy once (and it was Noelle's fault, she just was so excited to see Buddy!) Each morning she would wake up and ask to see Buddy and then start her sweet little meows. Poor Buddy was not a fan of all the attention, but I figure if she REALLY didn't want to be found by Noelle that she should try to find a better hiding spot. Instead she went to the same spot every time in the basement, and Noelle always knew exactly where to look.

After our adventures in Marietta we came back to Lexington and I went straight to a rehearsal dinner party for our friends who were getting married the next day. That next day was also my birthday! So I had a really long day at work and then quickly got ready for the wedding. Mostly at the wedding I tried to keep an antsy 2 year old occupied during the ceremony and then I chased her around the party at the reception. Josh was in the wedding party, so mostly I was flying solo (respect to the single parents out there!)

Needless to say, I was exhausted having turned 31 and slept well that night. Mom (aka Mala) had stayed a few days to help me out so I could get more done at work since there was so much to do. In between work sessions, she and I went with Noelle and did a little post birthday shopping. Normally shopping with Mom is the best, but having Noelle makes it a challenge. Mostly one of us is entertaining Noelle and the other is going as fast as we can to finish what we came to do. Oh well. It's only a season, right?!

The rest of this week has been just as busy and crazy! I had such high hopes of having some time to do random blog posts while I was in ATL, but alas, I did zilch.

I always say that summer is nearly over by the time my birthday hits and it is just all a very quick trip downhill from there. So here begins the FAST 2nd half of summer. I think I will sneeze and it will be fall!!