Valentines Day!

I love Valentines day! I honestly can say I've never had a bad one. Even when I was single I didn't resent all the love birds around me. My family has done a Valentines dinner for some time now that I love doing. Usually we get each other something, have a special meal and my mom does some kind of awesome dessert. Which is what we did this year as well.

Last year I made my mom, mother-in-law and all four of Dax's great grandmothers Valentines. This year I wanted Dax to help me so to Pintrest I went searching for a perfect little craft. I found an idea where you use a toilet paper roll shaped into a heart as a stamp. It seemed easy enough for Dax to help me with so we tried. After making the six I originally planned on Dax seemed to be enjoying himself so we made almost thirty more! And really I only finished off about five of them for him. Here is one finished product though because my mom hasn't gotten her valentine yet I'm only posting a picture of one of the extras we made.

For Ryan this year I decided to do fourteen days of Valentines. I was actually gone on the first so I had to hide his first one and tell him where it was. All the days except actual valentines day were corny sayings that went with a treat. Some them were a little bit of a stretch but I thing Ryan enjoyed getting a treat every day. Heres a list of the sayings and the pictures(minus two) to go with them.

1. I'm NUTS about you and love you BUNCHES.(Honey Bunches of Oats w/ Almonds)
2. We make a great PEAR. (canned pears, or any pears Ryan just likes the cans better)
3. You're COOLER than the rest.(Capri Sun Pacific Cooler)
4. You're my BIG HUNK. (Big Hunk candy bar)
5. You make my heart FLIP.(Flipz chocolate covered pretzels)
6. Of the guys I could CHEWS my choice is PRIME.(Gatorade Prime Energy Chews)
7. You're EXTRAodrinary.(Extra gum)
8. I don't care if your RIPPED or have ROLLS I love you.(Rip Rolls candy)
9. You're outta this world(Milky Way)
10. HONEY, I love you beary much(honey in a bear container)
11.You make me BANANAS.(Banana)
12.(You're the APPLE of my eye.(Apple Juice, or any Apple but ryan likes juice more then regular apples.)
13. You aMAZE me.(A maze)

Number thirteen was what I was most excited about. Even more then what he actually got on Valentines day. If you didn't know, Ryan likes to make mazes for fun. It has been a while since he did one other then my moms Christmas present but he has a three ring binder full of mazes that he has drawn. He told me once that he draws the path first and then fills the rest in so I used a piece of his fancy engineering graph paper and made a maze. Ryan's mazes take me a minute or two to get through but Ryan got through mine in about ten seconds but he still liked it!

Originally, it was my plan to finish a photo wall collage as the big last present for Valentines day but it didn't get done. However by random luck the first thing that I got to go up on the wall that wasn't a picture or something we already had came last Thursday so I put it up while Ryan was at class on Friday. Here it is! I'll keep you updated on the pictures that start to go up around it!

Like every year Valentines Day for me was full of love and fun. As a kind of closing I'd like to share a quote from my good friend Phil who I think hit what I feel the true meaning of Valentines day is.

"Valentine's Day might indeed be a "marketer's holiday", but if even one person that you know or love gets a little joy out of it, isn't it worth it? I'd like to think so." -Philip Clevinger

Biscuits and Gravy!

This is just a short post of triumph! I got some grands biscuits at a decent price and was thinking of all the cool Pintrest recipes for pull apart bread or doughnuts but then I thought "I want to make biscuits an gravy!" Now I've never made gravy, an usually with something that other people consider easy I really mess it up. (I'll tell you about pancakes later.)

So I was kind of aprenensive about trying. But then the stars alighed and sausage was on sale for a really good price so I knew I had to try. So tonight that's what I did. About a half hour later we had biscuits and gravy, and Ryan had eggs, and aside from the gravy being a little thick from sitting it was really good! I kept telling Ryan that I was so happy I didn't mess it up! Now I just needed to find a biscuit recipe that I like and can actually make:)

 

What Went Down In January

I've heard there are a lot of people that dislike the outcome of Groundhogs day this year, or a lot the don't even know the outcome because the Superbowl was the same day. Anyways I'm actually quite happy for six more weeks of winter because it is starting to actually feel like winter here! Mostly though I'm excited for it to be baseball season.

Aside from the weather I feel like there is a lot to update on. Since Dax's first birthday, he has started sleeping through the night most of the time, started drinking only whole milk, and is completely using a sippy cup instead of a bottle. He already walked everywhere pretty well but now he goes up and down stairs, with a little help, and climbs on top of things he isn't supposed to. Also, the cutest thing is he knows how to pull his little wagon behind him. Its pretty adorable. And lastly in this past weekend he learned how to knock on the door when its closed and has nearly perfected signing the word more when he's getting fed.

He he is last night right before heading out to get Frozen Yogurt. Fro Yo is definitely his favorite treat.

Today marks the half way point in my current pregnancy. I'm so excited to have two little boys come June! Ryan and I had hoped for a girl but in the back of my mind I was pretty certain we would have another boy. I've been the only girl in my family before and I'll keep being the only girl for a while longer. I'm really excited to see how Dax reacts to a baby. 

Ryan has started school again this semester which is so nice. Durning vacations from school he has almost no regular schedule for work and it kind of drives me mad. Now, for at least four months, I'll know his schedule. I start back to school in about two weeks and that will make things that much more predictable scheduling wise.

This past month I've done a few projects that I'll be posting. I made a birthday wreath and some skirts that actually turned out exactly how I thought they should. Also, this months projects are turning out well even though its only the fourth.

I hope you have great February!

Books to read in 2014

Last year, with all the hubbub of becoming a new mom my reading severely suffered. I started the year by not even getting close to finishing A Casual Vacancy, which previous to Dax being born would have taken me five days at most, and ended with me having only read one or two books I hadn't read before. I reread The Hunger Games, and Sisterhood Everlasting. I know I read more than three books last year but I can't for the life of me remember what I read. I don't like that. This year I decided to make a list of books to try and read all of them and when I get to the end read more.

 I have 11 books, I've already started the Walt Disney Biography and it feels great. I'd forgotten how nice it is to read a new book! If anyone has any suggestions based on what I have listed please tell me!

Walt Disney: An American Original

Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

How to be a Hepburn in a Hilton World

The Spectacular Now

The Aviators Wife

Where'd You Go Bernadette

Z: a Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald

The Darcy's of Pemberly (I have possibly read this but I love Pride and Prejudice based fiction so much I don't mind if I read it again.)

The Chaperone

The Art Forger

Divergent

Also, as I finish books I might write a blog post to review the book. A friend of mine, Jaimie, did this and I thought it was pretty cool so I'm going to try it out.

Tater Tot Casserole

Whenever I find a new recipe on Pintrest I'm pretty excited when I have all of the ingredients. When I found the tater tot casserole last night I decided to look because I had literally just bought some tater tots. After looking at the recipe I found I had all the ingredients and it looked really easy so i decided to try and make it tonight.

Like I said its a really easy recipe. Nothing too fancy but the end result as pretty good!

The original recipe is here. But I'll type it out for you as well.

Ingredients:

1 lb Ground Beef

1 Diced Onion(I learned I can't dice an onion so next time I'll use dried onions.)

1 can cream of mushroom or celery soup

1/4 cup sour cream or milk

1 Cup grated cheddar cheese

1 bag frozen tater tots

Pre-heat oven to 375. Brown ground beef in a skillet. Add onion when the meat is almost done. When browned remove beef from heat and add soup and sour cream/milk. Try it and season to taste. Pour mix into a 8 or 9 inch square glass pan. Top with cheese and put as many tater tots as you can fit in one layer on top. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!

Some things that I noticed were:

~I could have cooked it longer. I like really crispy tots and 30 minutes was just barely crispy.

~I had to use mozzarella cheese because I forgot our cheese grater broke. It tasted fine with the different cheese but I think cheddar would have been better. 

~Obviously this recipe is pretty basic so next time I have a few ideas to spice it up a little!

It was an easy, fast recipe and I think it's going to become a regular for our house!

You've had a birthday, Shout Hooray!

Its about a week and a half late but Dax turned one on the third and got to celebrate a lot! On his actual birthday I made him pancakes with fruit for breakfast. Also he got a drum with different shaking instruments from Ryan and I.

Then after Ryan got home from work his family came over. We didn't do much more on his actual birthday because the party was planned for Saturday.
The big party was supposed to have both sides of our family but a lot of my family was sick so the party was done in two parts. On the day after Dax birthday his Gram and Grump Dean and Aunt Lea had pizza with us, played games, and had cake and ice cream. It was pretty fun having them for the week-end even though the original plan was altered. We also got to open presents from Ryan's Aunt Margaret which I had wanted to open since we got the package before Christmas.

This past Saturday, My family came down and we had Dax's birthday part two. We did pretty much the same thing as the other party but we had more people! Dax probably didn't really care what was going on but he seemed to enjoy his visitors both times.

Here are some pictures of mainly the second weekend because Ryan took the pictures on his phone the first weekend.

A Wonderful Christmas Time

Happy holiday season! It has already been a busy one here at the Dean's. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with just the tree of us. I was supposed to help Ryan cook but Dax ended up wanted to take a nap right when almost everything needed to be prepared. I made breakfast though! I wanted to start the tradition of making cinnamon rolls on Thanksgiving so I did. They turned out pretty great the second time after doing a test run on Monday. After breakfast we went to a turkey bowl that some guys from church put together. I had every intention of watching Ryan play while taking Dax for a stroll but Dax decided to fall asleep on our way over so I just watched from the car.
On Saturday morning we went to my parents house for breakfast and decorating the Christmas tree. My mom had a little toy nativity set for the little boys to play with but they weren't to interested in it. Dax was much more interested in the sparkly red balls that go on the tree. After that we headed to Barstow to spend the rest of the weekend with Ryan's family. When we got there his aunt and uncle were there and we got to catch up and play card games with them. Playing cards is a staple at Ryan's parents. We play some kind of card game every time we visit. Then on Sunday we relaxed and played more games. Ryan helped his mom print some family history to send to family back east and Lea made a delicious dinner of prime rib and fish. Its definitely a blessing to have someone who went to culinary school in the family!
Now we are geared up for a busy December. We've already been to Christmas parties and have a few more to come. We both finish school about the same time and then we are heading up to Utah for a little bit. Also, we will be getting ready for Dax's first birthday at the beginning of January!
 We hope everyone of our family and friends has a lovely, safe holiday season!

To get you in the mood here is one of my favorite Christmas songs.

And just for some fun Dax and I had a little photo shoot this morning. These few are my favorites of what I took.