17 - Pie x 2

For thanksgiving I tested out my pie skills.  I even let jones help me.  His favorite part was pouring and eating streusel.  But he really got into it. 

We first make Hoosier Sugar Cream Pie (http://www.saveur.com/sugar-cream-pie-recipe).  This was super easy however one of my pie pans was missing so we improvised with a casserole pan and that seemed to work but we had more filling than pie shell.  

While we were letting the pie cook we made streusel for our other pie and tossed it in the freezer.  We just made it from brown sugar, butter, oatmeal and flour.  I don't have a recipe. I just use a stick of butter and about 1/2 cup brown sugar and maybe 1/4 of flour and oatmeal.  I used a pasty cutter or mashed potato masher to mix it. If needed I add more butter/sugar for right consistency.  We then sliced and peeked about 6 Granny Smith apples.  We loosely followed this apple pie recipe http://allrecipes.com/recipe/15683/dutch-apple-pie-with-oatmeal-streusel/ for the filling with no cinnamon add extra nutmeg   Jones loved the whole thing and keeps asking to make more pie.  

They turned out good although next time i will use smaller or less apples.  

Jonesburf 28 months (posted late)

Jonesy -

Daily is a fun adventure in the life of a toddler.

You have joy in the silliest things.

You love life with almost everything you have it's so amazing.  

We have conversations real conversations.

You often ask me about where dinosaurs are? (Thanks pumpkin patch).

We also talk about the weather and the seasons lately.  You ask about the leaves and why it's dark.  We say "winter is coming" as if we were in Game of Thrones.

We talk about how to be a friend and that hitting is a no no and sharing is a must.

We build things with blocks, Legos and other toys.

It's so neat to watch your imagination.  The other day you made a choo choo train castle and a monkey was the conductor and you fed him pretzels and then took him to the bank to money.  It was so great to see you come up with the story. 

The next day you had your people out.  You determined ranger Joe and the farmer wanted to swing and you reminded them as you were pushing them that the swing was really for babies and you had asked for a Christmas present swing for big boys. And then you added "Christmas is in a little bit."

You have such a sharp memory you recall things I told you a week ago. 

You often ask where is Thea if she's not with us.

And you try to include her.  Asking if she wants to play and offering her toys you don't want. 

You pick her up too and try and carry her. 

We started sleeping you in your big boy bed last month and you own it.  You don't even get out of bed when you wake up instead you call me. 

Your potty training is a constant struggle we have several good days and then boom back to using the pull ups.  

You have recently only wanted to eat protein and fruit I am not sure why but I can't even entice you with macaroni or French fries.  Silly kid.  

You are grow up so fast little man.  

Love always mommy 

And my favorite on includes Thea. 

Theaburf - 8 months

Thea lady -

8 months!  I actually caught myself telling people you were 9 months (shame on me).  You are just so smart and thoughtful.  We see you thinking all the time.  It's so cute.  Anyhow more about you at 8 not yet 9 months.

You like to go go go. 

You crawl and cruise with the fierceness.

You are starting to let go to walk but your balance is still not right.

You jibber jabber and sometimes we swear it's real works like "yes", "kiss", "no".  But I think it's jibber jabber.  

You don't have any teeth yet.  

You seem to like to poo and pee out of your diaper more than you keep it in.  It's so perplexing to me.

You love to eat.  Baby food. Adult food.  Things jones gives you.  Items on the floor (uh oh).  But you gobble it up and what more.

Favorites are probably baby Cheetos and apples and sweet potatoes.

You don't like peaches.

You dance to Music.

Hum the abcs.

You can clap, wave and kiss on command.

You understand the word "no".

You live to stay up late.

And napping seems to be optional for you.

Your hair is coming in and it's wispy blonde hair that sticks out all over.  

At you go to sleep on daddy.

You watch jones like a hawk. 

You like to splash in the bath.

You giggle when we blow raspberries on your belly it's so hilarious. 

Jones and I like to sing you the Tom Jones song "she's a lady".   We changed the chorus so it says "she's oh whoa whoa she's a baby lady".  

It's so fun to watch you grow little lady. 

Love always mommy

Charming Plus QAL blocks

Moving right along.  I finished piecing all my blocks I made two for the back as well which two not sure yet.  I practiced laying it out when I still needed to finish the last blocks.  I am liking it but wishing I had more balance of black to whites.  I thought about getting more black fabric to complete it but I am trying not to buy more fabric so I didn't do it.  Jonesy saw it and is ecstatic about the dinosaur prints. 

Jack-o-lanterns

File this under things I want to remember, pumpkin carving 2016.  Jones could not have been more enthusiastic...

As I dug out supplies. 

As we covered the table with newspaper and created a guts bin.

As he waited for daddy to carve off the top.

As he drew on his pumpkins.

As I let him hold a little carving knife and cut.

As we dug out the guts.

As he showed Thea what he was doing.

As he handed her tools baby safe.

As I pulled chucks of the pumpkin that were carved.  

As he decided it looked exactly like a snowman.

As he put the candle in and it lit up.

As he fed it pumpkin seeds and rocks while waiting for daddy to carve the second one.

His entire face was joy and awe.

To him this was all pure magic. 

Jones without hesitation wanted snowman pumpkin and spooky on Thea's.   Thea was very interested in the happenings and we had to keep her from eating the pumpkin seeds.  I cannot wait until she is helping too.

All Cut - Charming Plus Quilt Along Progress

So I did add in a few more green fabrics which I bought,  I still can't find my green bin of material. Perhaps the dinosaurs ate it???   I also got a few extra darks as well because this is going to be Jones's Twin size quilt and I thought it might need to be bigger.  

I cut everything to 5" despite what the tutorial recommended because I want the twin quilt to cover the bed and heaven knows it would have been a billion tiny pieces otherwise.  A billion people.  This also gave me some extras for my next charm square project.  

All Cut and matched up.  Ready for sewing.

For more details on the #charmingplusquiltalong check out Tisha's blog  http://quiltytherapy.com/charming-plus-quilt-a-long/

Pumpkins

Two is so good for the pumpkin patch.  Jones loved every single thing. Every single thing.  Thea was in awe of it as well.  It was such a good activity.

*Blogger keeps crashing with more words so this is brief.

Charming Plus QAL Fabrics

My fabric pull for the Charming Plus Quilt Along.  I need to locate my bin of greens to add a few more but it's missing at the moment.  Everything is scraps or stash except for that hipster print. 

More information about the quilt along here:

http://quiltytherapy.com/charming-plus-quilt-a-long/

Apples

A couple of weeks ago we went to the apple orchard.  Jones loved the whole experience - picking, the wagon, the playground, apple cider slushies, etc.  Thea was indifferent but she's a baby.  Of course it was hotter than it should have been for the end of September and the apples were overpicked.  But I managed to get a bushel and we have apples for days.  And I've made dried apples and apple crisp and I am planning on a pie and maybe apple butter as well.  Little jones almost everyday snags an apple from the bag.  It'a the start of a fun tradition.