God Made Dirt...

...so dirt don't hurt. This is the mantra I repeated in my head about 100 times while scrapping the dirt out of Ozzie's mouth! He decided to help himself to the dirt in the veggie garden while I was snipping some parsley for dinner.

Some of these pictures are super fuzzy but I had to post all of them because as you can see he thought the whole thing was hilarious and got quite a kick out of himself. The more I told him to open his mouth to show Mommy the dirt, the more he laughed hysterically.

Here is where I remembered to turn off the flash on my camera.

This last one absolutely cracks me up. The shear joy on his face is too funny. It's so fuzzy because by now I was hysterically laughing right along with him. Thank Heaven for little boys!

Ozzie's 1st Haircut

Another milestone, Ozzie got his first haircut. You never really know what you are gonna get from an 11 month old so you can imagine our surprise when Ozzie enjoyed it! At first he was a little apprehensive but he got over that quick since Oscar and I were cheering him on. A little limelight goes a long way with babies. How can you be upset when Mommy, Daddy and the hairstylist are all clapping our hands and chanting, "Yay Ozzie!"?

We took wayyy too many pictures and I posted wayyy too many of them but do you really expect a new Mommy to pick one or two pictures from her son's first haircut. In fact, if this isn't enough for you click here for more photos AND a video!

He was pretty cautious at first, not to sure what was going on.

You can see he started to warm up to it.

Now he's having fun!

Full view of the plane.

Checking himself out in the mirror.

Eating the steering wheel. I love that she kept cutting.

Smiling at Mommy and Daddy when it's over.

Happy Father's Day!

This year marked Oscar's first Father's Day and I really wanted to make it special for him. I thought it would be fun to start off his first with the first of many cheesy homemade gifts from Ozzie. After all, nothing says Father's Day more than a cheesy homemade gift from the kiddo, right? So off to Michaels I went for card stock and inspiration.

First I spotted some royalty stickers and then found matching crown card stock. Which resulted in this card. After all, he is the king of this castle is he not?





Add a great picture of Ozzie and him boating on Memorial Day and viola phase one of cheesy homemade gift complete.




Next I wanted to make him something that he could hang on the wall at work so after finding more card stock and stickers, I decided to add a print of Ozzie's hand in red hand paint to match his red card.


Great idea except when it was done the red hand print resembled a bloody hand print a la horror film. Whoops! I decided to go with it since it was supposed to be a cheesy homemade gift after all. Don't most Father's Day gifts come with some kind of mistake anyway? I figured it would fall under the category of the ashtray that looks like a blob or coffee mug missing the handle. I'm sure he's got plenty of those gifts in his near future.


Here's his bloody wall art- hee hee...

Unfortunately Ozzie caught a horrible virus and he was out of commission for the next 7 days so that ended Oscar's Father's Day gift. Dad's always get the short end of the stick.

Luckily I had enough forethought to order him special rib eye steaks from Omaha Steaks . Nothing makes up for the lack of a gift better than a rib eye flown in from corn fed Nebraska cows. But since Ozzie was sick we did have to cancel our Father's Day bbq with my Dad which was a major bummer.

Ozzie made Pepa his own bloody card too. {I'm still cracking up inside}

But the show must go on so Oscar barbecued the steaks, I tried a new appetizer of prosciutto wrapped scallops since Oscar loves scallops and added one of his favorite sides of garlic mashed potatoes. Since it was Father's Day I skipped veggies all together in my husbands shear delight. After a morning of pancakes with strawberries and whip cream {pretty much a redo of our Mother's Day breakfast} we had a day of feasting. Oscar was slowly forgetting his lack of a gift as his tummy got more and more full with each meal.

If I'm being honest I've had a better steak. I'm not sure that I'm a fan of a boneless rib eye but I had to try the famous Omaha Steaks once so Oscar's first Father's Day was the perfect occasion.

Garlic mashed potatoes- we're fans of leaving the skin on and not mashing all of the lumps out of the potatoes. The perfectly smooth mashed potatoes don't have that same homemade texture that I love.

The prosciutto wrapped scallops were deeelicious! Just toss the scallops in olive oil, sea salt and pepper. Wrap with 1/2 piece prosciutto sliced vertically and bake for 10 to 12 minutes in a 425 degree oven. I used the chili pepper olive oil from Oil & Vinegar. It added a little bit of heat to each bite.

For dessert we had our favorite Oatmeal Raisin cookies from Smitten Kitchen, I've blogged about these before. So good! Except I didn't have any raisins but did have some chocolate chips so I just substituted the chips and the cookies were still great.

Overall I think Oscar had a good first Father's Day even with a sick child and cancelled party we made do with what we had. I know I appreciated spending the day with my two favorite boys. Hope your Father's Day was a good one!

My Favorite Etsy Shop

If you follow my blog, you know how much I love birds nest, bird cages, bird eggs, bird, bird, bird, bird is the word. Interestingly enough I don't love birds as family pets, I prefer my pets soft with fur and paws not claws. But pretty little bird and nature inspired decorations are my all time favorites.

But I digress, back to my gal Brooke and her cute cute cute Etsy shop, Little Retreats. So I've blogged about her fabulous paper bird cages before and when I saw these lovely bird nests I had to send her another shout out!

This comes at an especially great time because as I mentioned earlier my little Ozzie is on the mend from a horrible virus and scary high fever so these pretty treats made me smile.

Cradled in a handmade nest of aspen wood and adorned with vintage inspired tags, these delicate little eggs are so sweet.

Make sure to check out Brooke's shop filled with paper goodies and other fun chotchkies, you won't be disappointed!

*photos courtesy Little Retreats

I wish I may, I wish I might...

Do you think if I wish hard enough I could find the time between now 9:02pm on Friday night and Father's Day to make these-nothing-short-of-amazing cupcakes from Bakerella as a surprise for my dear hubby's first fathers day? Okay probably not seeing as our little guy is on the mend from a four day fever and has been clinging on me more than usual.

Cake mix + brownie mix + cut out sugar cookies + food coloring = an easy {yet difficult looking} fun treat! Click here for complete instructions or just to be inspired. I'm saving the link for next year!

This meal comes complete with sugar cookie fries.

Now that is one happy meal!

*photos courtesy of Bakerella

Gargoyles Wanted

Did you know that "legends says gargoyles ward off evil spirits and protect your castle and loved ones?" Who doesn't want a little extra protection if the alarm system suddenly goes on the fritz?

Several years ago in my early twenties one of my roommates added a gargoyle to our yard to protect our house full of young ladies. Ever since then I've wanted a gargoyle of my own.

Now that I have my own house and my garden is finally a place I want to be this summer, I've been searching for the perfect gargoyle friend to welcome me and my guests.

How cute would Maxwell, the thinking gargoyle, from The Gargoyle Store look protecting my newly planted azaleas and hydrangeas?

Or contemplative Dedo? Coincidentally Dedo is the gargoyle who protected me and my friends many moons ago.

Or possibly sweet little Irving who looks lost and pouty?

I'd welcome any of these cute statues to my lovely new garden. Wouldn't you?

Thriftbooks

I just saw this site on Stephmodo and wanted to share. If you love reading but are looking for ways to cut spending during this recession {as I am} check out Thriftbooks. Based right here in Washington state, Thriftbooks is an online used book retailer. Pretty great huh? I figure because I'm buying it online I'm saving even more money than going to a used book store because I don't have to drive anywhere. Plus who doesn't love shopping online?

My favorite site feature, their books on sale for a penny. Hundreds of books for one penny- can't beat that. This is especially great for my little guy since his books get pretty used within minutes anyway.

Off to browse their penny books...

From the Garden

Yesterday for dinner I made an old staple in our house, turkey spaghetti. We always have frozen ground turkey, whole wheat spaghetti, onions, garlic and pasta sauce. It's my go to dinner when I'm not in the mood to cook and still want to get a decent meal in our tummies.

As I've said before, I started an organic herb and veggie garden this year and we had our first harvest last week of cilantro, parsley, oregano and spinach. So I decided to add some fresh herbs to my spaghetti sauce and made a side of spinach. Turned out pretty darn good if I do say so myself. In fact, I was so pleased with myself I decided to share with a quick post.

Here is my turkey spaghetti {well fusilli} with fresh oregano & parsley.

Ingredients:

Olive oil

1/2 yellow onion- sliced thin

2 garlic cloves- minced

Sliced mushrooms

1 lb. lean ground turkey

Few sprigs of parsley chopped

Few sprigs of oregano chopped

Your favorite jar of tomato sauce

Whole wheat spaghetti, fusilli, penne, angel hair- you pick

Directions:

Saute onion in olive oil about 2 minutes until clear

Add garlic and saute a minute or two longer {careful not to burn garlic}

Add mushrooms and saute until soft

Add ground turkey and cook through

Add tomato sauce and herbs

Simmer about 10 to 15 minutes

Cook pasta as directed

Add drained pasta to sauce

Sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan cheese if you have it.

Spinach and garlic sauteed in chili pepper olive oil from Oil & Vinegar with toasted pine nuts. I really like toasted pine nuts so I definitely add more than your average cook.

Ingredients:

Chili pepper olive oil

Handful of pine nuts

2 cloves garlic- minced

Spinach

Sea salt

Ground Pepper

Directions:

Saute pine nuts in olive oil

Add garlic saute about 2 minutes longer {careful not to burn nuts or garlic}

Add spinach and saute until soft

Sprinkle with sea salt and fresh pepper

Probably the easiest dinner to cook and I really didn't need to share the recipes but such a good family staple I figure why not?

Also, remember that hydrangea plant my hubby planted for me? Well a few blooms were ready to adorn our kitchen table. The only thing better than veggies from your garden is fresh cut flowers from your garden!

Dinner tasted great and I was so excited to use fresh herbs and vegetables from my own garden. Can't get more local than that!

Grow Garden Grow

As I've said before I was truly inspired after reading Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. So inspired that I decided to plant an organic herb and vegetable garden on Mother's Day. It was a small gift to myself in my quest to become a domestic goddess. I have never grown a garden before, don't have much of a green thumb as I've killed all my houseplants {God bless them} and I didn't do my usual preproject research {slight type A personality} so I have been really curious to see what would happen.

Drum roll please...

The garden freshly planted on Mother's Day

The garden today and this picture is after I harvested some spinach and removed bad leaves. My tomato plants, lettuce and spinach are basically taking over!

Remember my little heirloom lettuce I was so excited about?

She's not so little anymore! And strangely enough not so red though you can see a few read leaves in the middle.

Our 2nd harvest from our garden- spinach, cilantro and parsley. Cilantro was our 1st harvest last week. My husband is Hispanic- go figure our 1st harvest would be cilantro!

It's a pretty awesome feeling to cook vegetables grown from your own garden. I didn't know I would enjoy gardening so much. I already know what vegetables and herbs I want to add or omit next year. I can't wait until Ozzie gets old enough to play in the garden with me!

Mommy's Little Helper

Ozzie has decided to start helping me around the house. If I need to start a load of laundry he's right there taking the clothes out of the washer as I'm trying loading them in. If I need to load the dishwasher he's climbing on top of the dishwasher door trying to reach the top rack. A few weeks ago I caught him opening the lower kitchen cabinets and swinging on the doors like a monkey. Mind you he's only 10 months old and isn't even walking yet. I can hardly wait to see what that new skill will bring us.

Someday I will post a video of his reaction when I say, "Ozzie that's a no no" or "Ozzie Mommy said no". Let's just say he doesn't listen and he doesn't think I'm serious. He often responds with a fit of laughter and just keeps right on doing what he was doing.

The only way I can get a load of laundry in the washing machine is to put him in the clothes sorter. He thinks it's a fun game and I get him out of my way for 2 minutes, just enough time to load the machine. On this day we decided to take a ride around the house for fun.

I really love being a Mom!

Apparently the clothes sorter tastes good too.

Peekaboo!

How can I say no to those big brown eyes?

Frozen Yogurt Pops

Believe it or not it's been H.O.T. in Seattle for the last two weeks. Sadly two weeks in a row of sun gets us Seattlelites all wound up! Anyway, I wanted to make Ozzie some homemade popsicles because they are all the rage now and I thought it would be a fun way for him to cool off from the sun.

I decided to go with blueberry because I just checked out Jessica Seinfeld's book, Deceptively Delicious, at the library and she had a berry pop recipe with yogurt. On a side note, checking out cookbooks at the library before purchasing has really helped me avoid some not so yummy cookbooks cluttering up my shelves. Never tried that before the recession- a silver lining?

Jessica's book has some good recipes but don't believe the hype about the spinach brownies. They do not taste delicious and will not fool you or your toddler! But the blueberry pops were good.

I used baby yogurt because Ozzie is only 10 months old but will move on to regular yogurt in 2 months. I can't believe he'll be 1 year old in 2 months! Time really does fly by with the little ones.

Frozen Yogurt Pops a la Jessica Seinfeld

2 cups plain low fat yogurt

2 cups frozen berries (I chose blueberry since I have a gigantic bag from Costco in my freezer)

1/2 to 3/4 cup confectioners sugar (since Ozzie is only 10 months old I skipped sugar completely but I'm sure sugar only makes the pops taste better)

Combine yogurt, fruit and sugar in a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze.

Ozzie sure did like them! Unfortunately for him, I decided that 10 months is still too young to handle his own popsicle so that will be his last for awhile. Oscar ate the rest and he gave me a thumbs up even with baby yogurt and no sugar!

Check out the awesome straw at the end of the popsicle mold. Kids can use this for drinking the melting pop instead of making a mess. Ozzie didn't quite get it...