The Nativity Thief

Last year we had a large accordion gate/playpen encircling the fireplace and Christmas tree to protect them from the mobile 8-month old that was cruising around any and all things that stood still. This year I decided I didn't like how cluttered it made the living room feel, and Melanie is old enough to start learning that some things are off limits, so we took it down before Christmas. I set one of my nativity sets up on the hearth of the fireplace since that seemed to be the best place for it. With nothing to protect the nativity set, Melanie was instantly drawn to it (with it having animals and all - I think the sheep were the initial draw) and spent much of December rearranging who sat next to what animal and vice versa, but overall playing very nicely with it for a 20 month old. Mostly she just liked carrying them around with her. More than once we couldn't leave the house without Baby Jesus or Joseph in tow (we seldom leave the house empty-handed these days) I did however see a Fisher Price Little People nativity set in a catalog and we may be requesting one of those for next year, since there were a few minor injuries that took place (a camel lost his head, Joseph lost a hand and baby Jesus was detached from the manger) but nothing a little super glue couldn't fix.

Here are a few pictures of Melanie enjoying the nativity set

She seemed to group like-shaped items together. The shepherd and Mary were kept together since they are both kneeling, and the cow and donkey often went together since they're both lying down.

Joseph and Baby Jesus were the favorites by far

Apparently not in the mood to have her picture taken...

How to Make Egg Noodles

Homemade egg noodles from scratch is a Greenlee tradition at Thanksgiving and Christmas. When I was a kid my Great-Grandma Gebhardt would make them for those special meals, but was rather secretive about the recipe and technique. They were always magically yellow, which bewildered my mom when she married into the family since she saw the raw noodles and knew they weren't yellow to begin with, and the chicken broth they were cooked in wasn't yellow either (grandma was hiding a bottle of yellow food coloring in her apron pocket she later found out).

Well Great-Grandma passed away when I was a pre-teen, and a couple years ago I was talking about the noodles and Matt's Grandma Palmer offered to show me how she made her egg noodles, an offer I eagerly took her up on.

When word got out to the family that I had learned the secrets of homemade egg noodles, I was appointed the noodle-maker for the holiday meals. My mom had made noodles for a few of the in between years, but her recipe was one she found actually written down in a cookbook, and everybody knows that if something is actually written down for mass publication that it just isn't as good as the stuff you just know how to make because a family member taught you (even though I thought mom's tasted just fine), so they had switched to using the frozen Reames noodles, which are more convenient but I still don't particularly care for (too thick for my taste).

I made noodles for Thanksgiving since we would be spending it with dad's side of the family, but informed dad that I wouldn't be making them for Christmas since they aren't a tradition with mom's side of the family. This made him a bit sad, since he really likes his egg noodles. So as a surprise I made a smaller batch for his birthday dinner (not the usual full dozen eggs worth that I make for the holidays). He was very happy, and there were even some leftovers, so he got to enjoy them for a few days afterwards.

Since noodle making is a dying art (if you want to call it that) I figured I'd share my knowledge with anyone that may happen to actually read this (so basically Michelle, I would guess :) )

Beat together by hand 2 eggs, 1/2 eggshell of water (2 tbs. maybe? I've never tried to put an actual measurement on it) and a bit of salt

(Matt's grandma uses 1/8 tsp., but I usually just shake in a tiny bit. You'll get

more salt from the chicken broth when you cook them)

Well-beaten egg mixture

Incorporate as much flour into the egg mixture as you can with your fork. The dough may be sticky still, but you won't be able to mix any more in without using your hands.

Divide dough in half and knead in as much flour as you can to form a dough that is no longer sticky-firm but not tough - and can be rolled out on a well floured surface. Roll out to about 1/8 inch thick. Repeat with 2nd half of dough.

Put a generous amount of flour on the dough disks and roll the flattened dough jellyroll style. If you don't put enough flour on the dough it may be difficult to unroll later on. (This is 6 eggs worth of noodles)

Slice the rolls with a sharp knife using a rocking motion so you don't stretch out the dough, making slices to desired width (mine are usually between 1/4 to 3/8 inch wide)

Unroll the sliced noodles (this is a good place for kids or spouses to help out!)

Toss the unrolled noodles with flour to prevent the cut sides from sticking and spread them out into basically a single layer. Allow noodles to rest and dry out a bit on the counter, covered in a clean tea towel.

You can make these noodles in the morning and use them that evening for chicken and noodles, or once stiff to the touch they can be bagged up in a freezer bag and frozen for use at a later date. If you want to use them in soup don't keep the tossing flour in the bag with the noodles, if you want them to be in a thicker sauce keep the flour for when you cook the noodles.

Matt's grandma doesn't do the jellyroll part of the process, she just leaves the rolled out dough to dry and then slices her noodles from that. I don't have good luck with cutting my noodles from the flat dry dough - I tend to crack the noodles and end up with lots of short little pieces (I'm sure it's just a mental block I have since I was raised doing the jellyroll technique ) plus I think the tossing of the noodles when they're moist gives them more shape for later on - it all comes down to personal preference and if the extra steps are worth it to you.

I don't recommend making more than 2 eggs worth at a time since you're mixing everything by hand and it gets hard to incorporate the flour into a larger number of eggs. I just do 2 eggs worth at a time, let the bowl soak while I knead and roll, and then clean it out for the next batch.

What Not To Do When You're Pregnant

When you are pregnant, especially when you're around the 7 month mark and your belly begins to look like you're smuggling sporting goods under your shirt, it is inadvisable that you fall when walking on ice. If you should happen to find yourself loosing your balance, you should try to catch yourself or maneuver to a position that will cause the least injury when you do make contact with the ground. The preferred method of catching yourself would be with your hands, or even falling on your knees would suffice. If you can finagle a way to turn to land on your rump that wold be the best option of all. Whatever you do, do not do as I did and use your protruding stomach to catch yourself.

Belly flopping on ice is not a pleasant experience, for yourself or your growing baby. It will result in increased worry about the well-being of your baby, as well as a likely discomfort in your ribs and a general achiness all over your body for several days. You will undoubtedly be told to go to the hospital, where you and your baby will be hooked up to monitors for 4-6 hours to be sure that you haven't cause the onset of labor. A sonogram will likely be performed to be sure that there isn't any blood pooling in your uterus and to ensure that the placenta hasn't detached itself from the uterine wall. A pelvic check will be performed to check that you aren't dilating, and after you are given the all clear you will then be released to go home around 2 a.m. to pick your child up from your parents house, feeling sore from your bruised ribs and stupid for having fallen victim to one of the most common of winter injuries.

If you do have to go out on the ice this winter, I suggest wearing cleats. And always be sure your husband is prepared with crossword puzzles to keep you amused while you whittle away the hours, praying that your baby is ok. There are no T.V.s in the perinatal observation rooms, so you will have to have alternative forms of entertainment available. But when all is said and done, you will be grateful that your mind was put at ease with the knowledge that your growing baby will be ok.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hopefully everyone out there had an enjoyable and relaxing Thanksgiving. Nothing out of the ordinary here, just the usual run from one family to the next to see everyone and of course lots of food to be eaten. Nice and relaxing, and Matt even got all day Thursday and Friday off work - it doesn't get much better than that!

Here are a couple things we did to be a bit more festive about the holiday:

The outside of our Thanksgiving cards.

These proved a bit more difficult to make than I had anticipated (I mean, who would have thought that a 19-month-old wouldn't sit still to have their hand painted multiple colors for more than 3 mintues?), so they were a limited edition item with only 7 successful ones made, instead of the planned 12. So for those of you that didn't get a card, I'm sorry. Please imagine opening this up to a little note from our family to yours. I'm already trying to figure out how I'm going to mass produce something for Christmas yet retain the home-made charm so as to not have to go through the multi-night card making debacle these turned out to be. But it was fun, and Melanie will never be this size again, so I'm glad we did it in the end.
These are the sugar cookies my cousin Sara and I decorated using our new found talents after taking a cookie decorating class. We couldn't come up with a way to make leaves for the pumpkins that we liked, so they stayed pretty plain. The maple and oak leaves are painted with food coloring diluted with amaretto or clear vanilla extract (you just need something that will evaporate quickly, and water will start to break down the dried icing. The class instructor used vodka!). The turkeys looked the best, but the acorns were our favorites b/c the top part had chocolate flavored rimming sugar on it, which I was told at the store is a must for chocolate martinis. I'll have to take their word for it, at least for the next several months. Even then I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to try my light-weight drinking abilities on a single martini. I guess I'll just have to find more cookie designs to use the flavored sugars on. They had about half a dozen different adult-beverage flavored colored sugars available, including cosmopolitan among others. Should be interesting when Christmas cookie time rolls around :)

Melanie's Yogurt Beauty Treatment

This is how Melanie keeps her skin smooth as a baby's bottom
You have to dig in all the way to get as much out as possible

Smear a thick layer all over - don't forget your hair!

It's ok to eat some every once in a while, too.

Now to go wash it all off!

Odds and Ends

Melanie and her cousin Sara

Sara came over and helped me out on Saturdays while Matt was out of town so I was actually able to get a bit of house work done without constant interruptions from my little helper

I was eating a tootsie pop that was leftover from Halloween and Melanie took it from me!
I couldn't stay mad at her seeing as she's so cute, and I got the tootsie roll center anyway, which is what I really wanted :)

Melanie fell asleep on a chair in my parents kitchen, and this precarious position was just too cute not to get a picture of.

Tasty Confections

Just a few creations I've taken a stab at recently...

A couple different kinds of potato pancakes (latkas)

The top left one is a regular potato pancake recipe my family has

enjoyed for years, the other two are "confetti" potato pancakes, with

shredded carrot and zucchini mixed in with the potatoes. I enjoyed both,

my family preferred the old recipe, saying the new one was kinda sweet but

still good. We eat them with ketchup on top, but I know some people like

topping with applesauce (which we prefer on the side) or Greek yogurt or

sour cream. We also served them with baked beans and turkey sausage links.

Cranberry-Orange muffins ready to bake Muffins done!

I made an orange glaze to go over half, and topped the other half with streusel. They freeze really well, and then you can just pop a few in the microwave in the morning for 30 seconds for a nice warm treat!

Upside-down Cranberry Coffee Cake

Great use for fresh tart cranberries - a big hit with my younger sister

One of the perks of spending so much time at my parents house is that I have more

taste-testers to try new recipes on

Melanie enjoying one of the cookies I decorated at a fall cookie class

I took my cousins Sara and Christina to. Our cookies weren't the most

beautiful, but we had fun and learned how the technique worked. With all

the holidays coming up I'm sure we'll have opportunities to perfect our skills.

The completed cake from the Wilton Course II class.

All the flowers are made with royal icing, so they are a combined effort

of the first three classes. The final class we learned the basket weave and

rope border, then assembled the flowers and butterflies on the cake and

added in the leaves for the finishing touch.

We Have Carpet!

The carpet was installed in our basement last Thursday, so the basement is officially "finished"! We still have to pick out paint for the computer/sewing room and bathroom, but those aren't immediate necessities.

It took all day, and the installer finished right when it was time for me to leave for cake decorating class. I was so excited to get Melanie's toys out of the living room that I went ahead and let her stay up a bit later than normal so I could haul them all downstairs after I got home from cake class. She had not objections to her later bedtime, and joyfully ran back and forth from the playroom to the far wall of the family room, becoming more energetic with each pass she made. The wide open space was quite thrilling for her.

Here are a few pictures of Melanie enjoying her wide open spaces. The family room will likely remain without furniture for a while, seeing as furniture shopping takes an awful lot of effort as far as I'm concerned, and Matt will be working a lot in the coming months as they prepare to deliver the planes to Italy, so there won't be time for trotting about town gawking at all the furniture offerings to be had.

Returning to the playroom after tagging the far wall...

And heading back the other way!

Enjoying her reunion with her long-lost shopping cart that I banished

to the basement when she developed the bad habit of climbing on it

This is nice!

Baby #2 3-D Sonogram Pictures

We had a 3-D sonogram done for baby #2 on Tuesday. She's looking good - her head is measuring 31 weeks and her abdomen is measuring 28 weeks (which is what our actual gestation time is, but I went to the Dr. today and I'm measuring at 30-31 weeks. Gosh darn big headed baby!). I think the tech said her foot is measuring either 2 1/4 or 2 1/2 inches - I'm not for sure which - and her approximated weight is 2 lb. 12 oz. She's very active, but I didn't need a sonogram to tell me that! We were able to watch her take "practice" breaths during the sonogram, and it looked like she was practicing sucking as well. It's amazing how flexible they are in that tiny space - she basically kicked herself in the head during the sonogram!

Here are a few of the pictures. The sonogram technician (I'm not sure what the official title is for that job) tried to put some labels in on the pictures, so I won't caption them. They're pretty self explanatory. Some of them do look kinda funny since the computer doesn't always have enough data to put a full image up, so like the pictures of her feet cut off her legs early, which I find a bit creepy looking, but fear not, she does have legs - she'd have a tough time kicking me without them!

Oh, and no name decision yet - that discussion is ongoing at this time. I'll let you know when that changes.

Our Little Sweet Tooth

Matt's birthday was last Thursday and I still hadn't had a birthday dinner for him (we had gone out for both Matt's and his grandma's birthdays, but I hadn't actually made a meal to celebrate yet) so we had his family over to my parent's house on Monday night for a belated birthday dinner since my mom can't yet make it in and out of the house to come to a dinner at our place instead.

I was going to make him a cake with my newly learned craft, but seeing as Matt doesn't really like frosting anyway I opted to make a giant cookie and do minimal decorating (just enough so you could tell it was for his birthday). I had set the cookie on the dining room table after decorating it to get it out of the way and was straightening up in there while Melanie climbed on the chairs to amuse herself. I was cleaning away until I heard the tell-tale smack of Melanie's lips. I turned around and confirmed my suspicions - she was licking chocolate frosting off her fingers, with some of the evidence around the corners of her mouth. I instinctively said her name in a loud voice to get her to stop, to which she immediately started crying. I felt bad for startling her, but I couldn't help laughing at the situation all the same. I didn't try to fix where she had smudged the frosting since it wasn't that bad (just the Y, H, T and a couple of the stars) and it made for a fun story to relate at dessert time.The cookie cake of temptation

Melanie playing earlier in the day

She had eaten strawberries and gotten her shirt dirty so I had taken it off to spot treat it and then she wouldn't let me put her pants back on after changing her diaper, so she roamed around with more accessories than clothing for a while.

Melanie really feels she has to take something with her when she leaves the house, so I gave her this purse to carry her stuff in and to eliminate the multiple dropped items along the way. She tries to carry it on her shoulder, which is pretty funny (as depicted in the previous picture)
Here she's zapping my mom with her light-up Easter Egg. It's the little things...

Halloween

This year Matt got to choose Melanie's costume. I picked a Winnie the Pooh Honey Pot for her costume last year (which a lot of people didn't understand) so Matt got the honors this year. Right around when we were thinking of costume ideas Melanie started to say that a bunny goes "Bop! Bop!" (Hop! Hop! in Melanie speak) so Matt liked the idea of her being a bunny. We found her costume and were pretty excited since it was getting cold out, so we figured it would keep her nice and warm. Then global warming threw us a curve ball and it was unseasonably warm on Halloween, so the only thing she wore under her costume was her diaper, socks and shoes and we had the AC running in the van. Go figure!

Here are a few pictures of our bunny "Bop! Bop!"ing from place to place on Halloween. It will be nice when she's older and we can just take her around the block instead of all over Wichita to see people! We started shortly after 3:30 and didn't get home until just after 8:00. Luckily my sister came and handed candy out at our house for us in our absence.

Trick or Treating at Grams and Gramps house

She really liked this lawn ghost. I think it was the only one shorter than her!

Her floppy ears kept getting in her face, so we had to get some safety pins from my grandparents to solve the dilemma.

Grams took Melanie to trick-or-treat at a neighbors house and Melanie didn't want to come anywhere near the door, so Peggy came to the stoop to give Melanie her candy. Melanie promptly took the candy, put it in her bag and turned to leave. She's got this trick-or-treat efficiency thing figured out already! No time to waste!

Part bunny, part flamingo.

Melanie and her 2nd cousin Lila - too much cuteness for one family!

Josie isn't too sure what she thinks about this costume stuff

My cousin Sara made Melanie's trick-or-treat bag for her - isn't it cute?Thanks for helping G.G.!
Laughing with Auntie K

One pooped little bunny!

She fell asleep before we made it to Granny Em's retirement center

A sleepy bunny with Granny Em the Scarecrow

(Granny took 3rd place in the costume contest at her retirement center)

Finally we're going home!