hunting eggs

Happy Easter!  This year we got to do 2 Easter egg hunts!  The first was in our neighborhood and he was super excited!

 

patiently waiting for the start! 

 Dada had to work but he got to come by and say hi

 the shadow's kind of crazy, but you can see the excitement!  

He did great and didn't even have to fight off any other kids!

 Mommy made him take a picture with the bunny - we were not thrilled.

 Then... we went to the ranch to see Mamaw for Easter weekend

  and dyed some eggs!

 he was unsure at first

 and then excited.  "oooh. red."

 "Mama, I help"

 showing the colors to Pops and Mamaw (Nana was photographer)

 I want to hold an egg by myself, Mama

 that's better. "lellow"

and then the hunt...

 "aaaaaaah!"

 found one!

and a bunch more!  he wanted to open each one as he found them.

 sharing m&ms with Pops

 

Look Dada.  Stickers!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter.  We are so thankful for Jesus and his resurrection.

what's in a name?

 

(according to babycenter.com these are the top names from 2010)

We're about 2 1/2 months away from meeting our new little guy.  And we still haven't decided on a name.  B and I both have fairly unusual names, so we like for it to be a little different.  Not too weird - just slightly different.  I just finished going through a book of 50,001 names and there were some definite weird ones (and their meanings) that I thought I would share. 

• Saffron: means spice/orange hair
• Rio Grande: a river in Texas
• Toopweets: strong man
• Zero: nothing
• Kee-Bun: good news
• Hoolihan: hooligan
• Desperado: renegade
• Biffy: popular

Yes these were all actually listed as BOY names in the book so I'm assuming that at least one male out there has each of these as a name.  Thankfully I read in Freakonomics that no matter what you name your kid they have the same chance of turning out okay.  (It's more about the parents, etc. than the actual name they were given).  Otherwise these kids are in for some trouble.  Although if you name your kid hooligan you might just get what you asked for. :)


Easter pics coming soon!

cooking with spinach

I had some fresh spinach that I needed to use, so I thought I'd share two recipes that I tried.

Spinach & Egg Casserole 
from allrecipes.com (but I changed it a little)

Ingredients

•  8 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup onion, chopped (optional)
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained (I used fresh spinach)
• 1 (16 ounce) package small curd cottage cheese ( I used low-fat)
• 1 (8 ounce) package shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• a few dashes of Paprika and Basil
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Prepare a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl with the onion and flour until the flour is no longer lumpy. Stir in the spinach, cottage cheese, cheddar cheese, butter, salt, and pepper and other spices until evenly combined; pour into the prepared dish.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until the casserole is bubbly and the top is golden brown, about 45 minutes. 

Cheap & Easy Pasta Salad
as named by my friend Amanda :) 
the recipe is also from her, I just added measurements for people like me that need them. 

1.  Cook and drain 1 box of pasta (I used elbow, but you could use penne or whatever you like.
2.  Stir in 1-2 bunches of fresh spinach, 2-3 minced cloves of garlic and cook over low heat until spinach starts to wilt.
3. Add 1 container of cherry or grape tomatoes (halved),  1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese, and
   1/4 cup ceasar dressing. (you might need more dressing depending on what dressing you choose)
4. Stir and serve!

 

 

lately

 E's current likes: 

• walking on his tip toes
• eating popcorn
• refusing to wear a band-aid of any kind
• saying "eeewwwwy"  or holding his nose about anything related to dirt or garbage or skunks
• smelling flowers (or even pictures of flowers)
• DIP - any kind of dip - salsa, mustard, ketchup, syrup, ranch, guacamole, etc.
• saying "help mama"
• putting his feet on the table and waiting to see if I notice
• saying "duuck duuck" when he really means "quack quack" and roaring like a dinosaur
• saying "go dada go" or "go mama go" encouraging us to drive or bike faster :)

Here are some pictures of outings lately

j

playing at the park 

we still love trains 

such a handsome boy :)

fishing with dada and some friends 

at the arboretum with mama and dada

I love this one

silly boy