Showing posts with label Ephraim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ephraim. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

My Kitchen

This morning I got up to this:
Labor day weekend was a bust....everyone headed in different directions: Garners to Vegas, Claire to Texas, and everyone else here had there own schedule happening. Thus it is with adult children....they do whatever they want and you have no control. (dang, I hate that free-will stuff) Anyway, Monday proved differently...they all came home, not all at the same time granted...but they all made it back to see what was happening in my kitchen.
The Kitchen I had growing up was small, dark, and seemed to more often than not offer up burned dinners. Even with that, there were alot of really good memories made there. I remember doing the dishes with my sister, Maureen, and we would sing camp songs and harmonize old timey songs like "you are my sunshine". In the summer, it might end up with a water fight. I miss singing like that....
When Rob and I moved to the house on 27th street, we had small children and proceeded to remodel like crazy.One day I came out (I was busily getting ready for girls camp) and Rob had taken a sledge hammer to the wall! "What the....!" He decided that while I was gone that week, he was gonna remodel the kitchen...6months later it was done. Ok...It was worth it. We had so much fun in that kitchen. After dinner we would get all the kids to help clean up....we would turn the music on loud and sing and dance around while we were all doing dishes and wiping counter tops. the kids never wanted to stop, so we would dance around for a couple of hours. I have vivid memories of them doing these crazy dances to Ravel's Bolero, or Ella Fitzgerald....our music selection was all over the map, so they got a very diverse education in music. ( not to worry...we mostly listened to rock...Rob and I are children of the 60's and 70's you know)
(we bought these great big strawberries that looked like tongues...heh, heh,....ok so we're a
little dimented.)


(there at Easter...)

I absolutely had the kitchen of my dreams, when we built our house in the valley. We had great parties there...it was made for having lots of people and lots of good food....the dancing continued....

This is a picture I took right before we sold the house. Don't get me started...that is a whole nuther post.So where was I...Oh ya...labor day....well on Monday, we picked Claire up from the airport with Levi and on the way home, decided that we needed peaches, which were not on the way home...but DPR being the sweet pirate that he is drove us to Willard to get a box of peaches. =)


So, last night I made some wonderful (sugar-free) peach pie that is to die for...and viola'everyone showed up. I guess it's not the size of your kitchen, but the size of the love in your kitchen that makes them come back for more....or maybe it's just peach pie.....ok...whatever.
anyway, so here I am eating peach pie for breakfast and thinking of my kitchen and that I need to clean it up. Maybe I'll turn on a little music....






Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Let's Play

Sweet E boy came to visit today.


1st we played with this...



Then...we played with these....after that, he showed me this...



Then, I tried to take this away....but he just smiled.

Then he put these in here....

In the Kitchen, he played with these on the fridge...and ate some of these, too.
Grandpa came home for a minute to play, then he tried my glasses on....(very smart)

Then he looked up....and mom came in the door!

It was very good.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

The McCullens

It was so nice out today that after dinner we all went outside to hang and a
baseball game broke out!!! (it is the American past-time, you know...)
I love these guys.

(click on the pics to see them up close and personal)


Even Sweet E boy got in the game...but then got distracted by the dandelion puffs that were in abundance....mmmm...yummy.





This is Jeff's impression of Alice Cullen....man I'm gonna miss this guy.


Monday, March 16, 2009

Where's my mitt?

Sweet- E boy and Danny came over yesterday to play.
They said,
"it's time for shorts and baseball". (I agree)


The grass is in need of some TLC...but the weather channel says another storm is coming.
(I can dream, can't I...green grass, planted garden, sipping lemonade...
don't interrupt me...
I'm dreaming.)



Kit secretly told me that Ephraim got dressed first...

Monday, February 9, 2009

Kit Kit Bo Bit Banana Fana Fo Fit Me My Mo Mit...

Today is Kit's 25th birthday !
(man I feel ol_....I mean.....established.) So of course CAKE is in order.
How I love cake. even the word is kinda yummy. I made this cake for Daniel's B-day last year and it was a hit...so Kit needed a repeat. ( last year it was totally sugared out!!)
sweety-boy was there, too:)

But.........You guessed it...I wanted to eat it... so it is all pretty Healthy, and pretty light considering the changes I made. I used a simple recipe from the Good Housekeeping Cook Book and tweaked it....WW flour and replaced the sugar with pure Maple. No processed sugar anywhere in sight. I can make a cake and eat it TOO!


My next goal is to try to figure out a sugar-free and dairy free frosting. I'm thinkin'..... "air".?

Happy Birthday GOOFBALL!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

"Mark it with an E!"

Today is Sweety-boy's 1st Birthday! I can't believe it has been a whole year!
We had a party at my house to celebrate. I made 2 different kinds of cake...one for Daniel that is an "unhealthy" cake and one for me that was a "healthy" cake. ( Ephraim had healthy cake, too.)
Daniel's cake was a recipe that I usually use for wedding cakes that is really good. It is orange-almond with buttercream. My "healthy" cake is a chocolate cake made with whole-wheat and is sugar-free...YAHOO! I frosted it with cream cheese and whipped cream sweetened with a little agave...so not completely vegan. but better than the alternative. we were in heaven. If you want to try the recipe you can find it here. (I tweaked it with a little orange peel and extract)
We started a tradition with our kids to make them their own little cakes, and just let them "dive in" so we had to keep the tradition going.
One year of bliss for the Garcia family!












He was a little Timid at first but all of a sudden realized..."This is for me!! By the time he was done it was everywhere!







That's what I'm talkin' about baby...OH YAH!










I love you sweety-boy.


Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Gene Pool



"sweety boy" came to visit me today!!



the Baird gene pool never goes too far away... look how much he looks like his aunt Kindle. she was just around a year old.












Ephraim.
Kindle


The Bairds










(I think Ephraim and I have the same hair cut...or maybe that runs in the genes too.)

You gotta love this.....

...and this!