Embrace the Camera - Family

It's another Thursday and another day to Embrace the Camera!

Last week I introduced you to two of Sweet P's great-grandma's on the husband's side of the family. This week I'm introducing you to some of her family on my side.

First off, her sister-cousin. This was one of the many times she visited her in the hospital. FireCracker insisted on her laying right next to her in bed. P received a LOT of headlocks hugs from her sweet cousin.

Next is her Pappy, aka my dad. P's pretty fond of her Pappy, after all, he's the one that has sneaked the first ice cream and chocolate to her!

And then there's great-grandma, my grandma. I think she's pretty proud of her little lady!

Last up this week, the husband, P's daddy. She has him wrapped around every finger!

So, now it's your turn to go embrace the camera with your loves.

Then and Now

One year ago I was 26 weeks pregnant with my sweet little girl. I wondered what she would look like. Would she have her daddy's smile? My eyes? What would it sound like when she laughed?

That was then.

This is now.

That sweet little baby is now 9 months old! Happy 9 months of life P. You do have your daddy's smile, his eyes and maybe even his nose. You have my chin and definitely have my cheeks. And that laugh, it's pretty awesome. Your mommy and daddy love you so much!

Creamy Deviled Eggs

I probably should have posted this recipe before Easter, but oh well.

It's my favorite deviled egg recipe and I've been using it for years. I started with Martha's recipe and tweaked it a tad.

Ingredients:
12 eggs
1/3 c mayo
1 T dijon (I always use Jack Daniels Old No. 7)
1 teaspoon vinegar
2 green onions - minced
1/2 dill pickle spear - seeds removed then minced (I always use Claussen Kosher Dill, they're the best)
1/4 teaspoon Louisiana hot sauce
sea salt and fresh ground pepper

Put all your eggs in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil then cover and remove from heat. Let stand 12 minutes then put the eggs in cold water.

While the eggs are cooling, make your filling. Combine everything else in a bowl and stir. After your eggs have cooled, take off all the shells (the longest part), slice lengthwise and put the yolks in the mixture.

I use a mixer to mix everything up because it makes it really creamy. Then I spoon it into a ziploc baggie and stick it in the refrigerator, along with the sliced eggs on a covered plate. I've put the filling right in the eggs and then refrigerated it but it always seems to gather condensation and nobody likes wet eggs! So, I just fill the eggs right before serving.

Take out your ziploc baggie, make a small cut in one of the corners and just squeeze out the filling into the eggs. Simple!

In other news, I thought my nice camera was broken so I've been using my point and shoot for the last week. It wouldn't focus and refused to take photos. I finally took it into the camera shop and the sweet little lady told me it was fine and did a couple little setting changes and fixed it. Turns out I somehow changed the focus on it without knowing! Yay for not having to spend a lot of money but head hung in shame for looking like a dork that doesn't know how to use my camera.

Easter Leaf Hunting

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend. Ours was filled with egg hunting, family, church and food

Sweet P had her first Eater egg hunt. I thought it would be appropriate that she wore her sister-cousin's first Easter dress from last year (Nana made it). I sat her down next to two brightly colored eggs and she passed those up for a leaf. I'm telling you folks, the girl LOVES the outdoors and loves leaves. She eventually put the leaf down to examine the eggs.

Later that day she was ready for her next egg hunt. First, let me show you how my family hides eggs.

Some are camo.

 

Some are hidden under things of the same color, like a fly swatter.

And others blend right in.

hint: the egg is gold

It's tough stuff so while the older boys were busy hunting, I sat P down next to an egg. And again, she went for a leaf first before she decided to check out the eggs!

Ha. Oh well. Maybe next year.

I'm saving a couple of my favorite shots for Thursday's Embrace the Camera, but for now, here's my little family's first Easter pic and P in her dress Nana made!

Hope you had a great weekend.

Good Friday and Easter

I had a post written for today but I scrapped it after I read this and watched the video.

So ditto to Kaylee's post.



I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and Easter.

Embrace the Camera - Grandma's

Already Thursday!? This week has flown by.

This past weekend and week have been a lot of great family moments so I thought I'd introduce you to the lovely ladies on my husband's side of the family.

Sweet P visiting Grandma M. (P's great-grandma)

And I love how happy Grandma L's face is in this one! (P's great-grandma)

And I'll wrap it up with one with me and my girl.

 

Head on over to Emily's blog to see what all the embracing is about!

Poor Man's Stroganoff

I'm going to share a super fast, super simple recipe with you that my mom used to make. Because it's so fast and requires only a few ingredients, we make it all the time. Plus it's really good.

We call it strogy around our house.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground hamburger or turkey (I've used both and like it either way)
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms (optional)
1 cup sour cream
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 package egg noodles
fresh ground pepper to taste

That's it. I told you it doesn't take much.

I usually season the ground meat with a little garlic powder, oregano and parsley to give it a bit more flavor. And, if I have mushrooms around, I'll slice those up and saute them with the meat.

Anyway, just brown your meat. Drain the grease and return the meat to your pan. Then just stir in the sour cream and soup and let it simmer for about 5 minutes.

Boil the noodles and drain the water. How easy is this so far?

 

Now, just scoop some noodles in a bowl and top with the meat mixture and add a little fresh ground pepper. And that's all there is to it.

We also found out how much Sweet P likes homegrown strawberries!

Her strawberry mustache!

From the Garden to the Table

With all the craziness of the last week, I kind of forgot about our radishes growing in the garden. I went out to check if any were ready to be picked and came back with a handful of pink beauties (that's actually the name of the radishes we planted) and a big bowl of greens.




I cleaned and chopped the greens, radishes, a couple of green onions and carrots for the salad.



And a fresh, spring garden salad is ready!



After yesterday I thought I better prove that I can eat healthy too!

And just because she's pretty cute. A picture of my P.

Happy Tuesday.

It's Open!

First off, thank you for all the sweet comments on P's nursery!!

Now, on to business! Over a year ago I had my first Tulsa Dog. I was at a concert at the BOK Center with my husband and it was the first time we heard about the Dog House. They had a little cart on wheels and offered a Seattle dog, Chicago dog and the now famous Tulsa dog.

We asked the owner what his favorite one was and he told us it was the Tulsa dog with cream cheese. Here's what's on it: all beef frank, mustard, onions, bacon, jalapeno relish and Head Country barbecue sauce. Sounds a little crazy right? Well, we had to try it and let me tell you, it was so good.



Every time I went to the BOK I hunted that cart down for my fix because it was the only place I new where he'd be. I heard he set up downtown somewhere for lunch but I never saw him. One evening we actually heard he was going to be at Cain's for the concert crowd so we drove over and got a couple of dogs.

We were hot dog stalkers.

Jump forward a few months. I was now pregnant and craving a Tulsa Dog. It was the cold of winter and I had no plans of going to the BOK Center. I looked him up online and called the number. I asked if he was set up anywhere so I could get one for lunch. No go. He was going to a meeting to finalize plans on his permanent location. I was bummed. No Tulsa dog for me.

Jump forward about a year to this past weekend. The Dog House recently had their grand opening downtown! I took Miss P in and got my much anticipated Tulsa Dog with cream cheese. It was everything I remembered it to be and more.



Now they have a place I can go get my fix any time. And what's more, they have all sorts of new meats, toppings and sauces to choose from. Look at that menu board with toppings!



Go check it out and let me know what you think. But remember, if you get the Tulsa dog, add cream cheese. Oh, and I forgot to do it on this one but we like spicy mustard instead of yellow mustard.

Say What!?

I was recently asked by BabyLifestyles.com to have my nursery featured on their website!!!

Say What?

I was shocked when they asked me to be included. I don't decorate and don't really DIY but I did a little of both for P's room. What can I say, she inspires me. Do you know who else inspires me?

Find out in the feature here!

Happy Friday!

Embrace the Camera - Cousin Love

Happy Thursday everyone!

Yesterday Sweet P got to have one of her cousins over and LOVED it. They played, laughed and hugged. We took the dogs on a walk and snapped a few pics with my camera phone.

Spiderman walked our little dog.

Then chased him.

Then he showed his cousin some kung-fu.

And gave her some love.

And, I tried to get some love from her too for Embrace the Camera.

Advice Welcome

Ok, I found this old metal tray at a consignment store and can't decide what to do with it.

Yes, those are Star Wars trading cards. I found those at the flea market for $5! So you know I had to get them for the nephews!

Anyway, I have seen so many repainted and they look fabulous! I can decide if I should paint the trays white, teal, red, teal...etc. What do you think? I also kind of like the strange, old wicker print on the top but I may be being a dork.

Source: fellowcreatives.com via Hannah on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Eva on Pinterest

Source: inspirationfordecoration.blogspot.com via Eva on Pinterest

This on isn't a tray but I kind of like the color.

Source: etsy.com via Eva on Pinterest

What's a girl to do?