My Son's A Ham

But he sure looks good in blue!

Buttons

Dace and I have twin belly buttons these days. We both have juicy outies. Mine enters a room before the rest of me. He loves comparing the two and gets a kick out of pushing his little finger into mine before giving brother zerberts. I think belly buttons on a pregnant woman are like the popups on a turkey- Bing! Baby's done! Now someone tell him that. We are so ready to get this show on the road.

ps- yes, it's true. I have no stretch marks. Yes I have a secret and yes I will share it- Udo's 3-6-9 Oil. I take 2 spoonfuls of it every morning of my pregnancy. Yup, ya gotta drink it, not rub it on. Added Bonus- it makes smart, alert and attentive babies. It's amazing brain food for them and works wonders for your own skin. Udo's- it's the right choice. (insert cheesy smile and wink here). And no, I'm not paid for this endorsement.

The bliss of a Whipped Cream Beater

It has taken many baking sessions and numerous friendly encouraging words to finally convince Dace of the awesomeness of licking the beater. Today, I simply put it in front of him and went about building the pie. In a matter of minutes, loud esctatic sounds of Mmmmmmm!!!!! were coming from his side of the counter and they were repeated every time he tasted the fresh whipped cream.

So what kind of pie was I building? Only the best banana cream pie I have ever had. I got a hankering for it a while ago and this is the 3rd one I have made in the last month. It seems to be the new tradition to share said pie with our friends Emily and Craig so we had them over for dinner so that we could eat the pie together. Yeah we polish the whole thing off minus the tiniest sliver left over. And this one was the best one yet. I have attached the recipe below for all those wanting and needing a piece of what you see before you. So, so good!!!!

This is a recipe I found on allrecipes.com and just made a few changes. Enjoy! It's the best I've ever had!
Ingredients:

3 Tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 C. water

1/2 can of EAGLE BRAND sweetened condensed milk

3 egg yolks, beaten

2 Tbsp. butter

2 tsp. vanilla

1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust

4 medium bananas

lemon juice

whipped cream

1. In a heavy saucepan, mix the cornstarch and salt with water. whisk together over medium heat. Whisk in the condensed milk and egg yolks. whisk over medium heat until thickened, about the consistency of pudding then remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla and set aside to cool completely (about 45 minutes- stirring it occasionally helps it to cool sooner).

2. Sprinkle a bit of lemon juice onto a plate and slice your bananas onto it. Give them a toss so they are lightly coated in the juice. You only need a little bit of juice! This is to prevent browning and no, it won't affect the flavor. if it does, you have used too much.

3. Spread half the custard into the pie crust. Arrange the banana slices on top of the custard then top with other half of custard. Spread a layer of whipped cream on top and you're done. I like to add a bit of shaved dark chocolate on top for extra pizzazz and flavor.

Bon Appetit!!!

These Are the Moments

Tonight I had the most perfect moment with Dace. Dallin had meetings in Savannah and left around 6. I cleaned up supper then Dace and I shared some chocolate mints on the couch then played for an hour. At 8, I had to get off the floor so I laid down on the couch. He came over and wanted me to recline it then he crawled up with books to cuddle. We read through 3 books, then Dace rolled over to his side and snuggled in beside me. We laid there with no books, no tv, no nothing, just each other spooning for almost 20 minutes. It was the sweetest, most precious moment ever. I had my left arm under his neck and my right over top of him. I moved it down to his leg and he reached down, pulled my fingers back up so that I had my arm around his tummy. He just laid there beside me and baby boy was kicking between us. I can’t even put into words how perfect the moment was. My cup runneth over, I was thinking. I finally had to get up because I had to go to the bathroom so bad but Dace was getting tired and probably would have fallen asleep there if I didn’t have to move. He is not your ordinary toddler. What toddler lays down to cuddle mama without any distractions and for so long? I love him so much and am beyond blessed to be able to call him my son.

Blue-Eyed Boy

I promise these are straight out of the camera shots- I didn't alter them in any way. it is crazy the blue color of his eyes- they look like demin sometimes. I love it!

We call these his Thing One PJs- you know, from Cat in the Hat.

First thing every morning, he needs his cup of OJ.

When the camera is out, he wants to be in front of it and behind it at the same time.

Dace's room tour

We have a couple small things left on the nursery side to do tomorrow and then baby's side will debut here as well. Enjoy.

The headboard project

I don't know where I got this idea but I think it is kind of brilliant and wanted to share it with you because I know there are some crafties out there that might want to put this new trick to use.

I wanted to do a custom headboard for Dace to match his quilt and so this is what I did. I bought this matching pillow sham for $12.99 and completely ripped the seams out of it so that back material could be reused. I totally felt like I was doing a challenge on Project Runway. I loved it!

Then we got this used headboard from a thrift store. $19.

With great advice from Kaelee, we used a one inch foam pad, then a layer of quilt batting then a cover material and stapled it all tightly around the back. $17

Ta-da! Looks pretty sweet, huh? Now if this were the final product, it would be a more lively fabric. But I had this idea to make a slipcover for the headboard so that it can be washed easily, changed for halloween, Christmas, or new bedding etc.

Booya! The final product. I took the backing of the original sham and extended the sides to fit the length of the board. Then I used an old sheet as backing and made it like a pillowcase, fitting extremely tight. It is open on the bottom so I can easily pull it off for the wash without dismantling the whole headboard. Genius, if I do say so myself. ;) If anyone does their own, I would love to see pictures. I think it's a great concept. Marketable, really.....