Four Years!

Four years ago today we welcomed this lovely lady into the world.

Here she is at one year...

Two years...

Three years...

And now at four years...

My how you've grown our dear, sweet, and strong-willed Abigail. We thank God for bringing you into the world four fast-moving years ago. We love you!

What's Cooking: Stealthy Veggies Edition - Part I

My girls love bean soup. When I saw a recipe for Cauliflower, Bacon and Cheese soup on Pinterest I thought to myself, "Hmmm, I wonder if they would eat that up like they eat up their bean soup?" I figured they would because it had a smooth consistency and because it might not taste too vegetable-y. So I gave it a shot.

Modifications/Substitutions: The only thing I did differently was using a hand blender instead of a standard blender.

Ease: This recipe was so easy to make - 5 stars.

Affordability: This recipe is very affordable. The most expensive ingredient was the bacon, and I only used a few slices (so the rest was plenty for another meal). I'll go with 5 stars for affordability.

Taste: Jonathan and I were very pleased with the final product. The bacon made for a perfect garnish. Because it didn't knock our socks off though, I'll only give it 4.5 stars.

Family-Friendly: Abigail kept asking me if we were having bean soup for dinner. I would only respond by saying, "It's like bean soup". The girls were off to a great start dipping their crackers in their soup and spooning it into their mouths. Once the soup cooled, though, they weren't as into it. I'll only go with 4 stars because they didn't quite finish.

What's Cooking Rating: 4.75 (rounded up to the nearest 0.25)

Fun at Daddy's Park

This blogging thing isn't as easy to do with three kiddos as I thought it would be. First of all, I don't have the camera out nearly as much. Second of all, uploading pictures and blogging about our adventures is hard to do with three girls needing my care and attention.

The weather here has been beautiful lately! Last weekend was no exception. On Sunday we ventured out to "Daddy's Park" for some fun in the sun. Daddy's Park is the one with no swings and a big field nearby (in case you were wondering, "Mommy's Park" is the one with swings and a fence). Mommy doesn't take the girls to Daddy's Park unless Daddy is there too.

They had fun running around and gulping in the fresh air.

Photo Fridays 03.23.12

Photo Fridays 03.16.12

My niece Bridget and sister Laura came for a visit on Tuesday so the girls could watch the new Winnie the Pooh movie together. They only lasted on the "couch" for a few minutes, but I'm glad I got the chance to snag a picture:

What's Cooking: Indonesian Ginger Chicken

For a while now we've been hosting a Community Group through our church on Wednesday nights. It involves sharing a meal and then discussing Sunday's sermon among other things. Every week different people take turns bringing a main dish, side, or dessert to share. This week it was our turn to "bring" a side. I found out the main course would be carrot ginger soup. What in the world was I going to make for a side? You know what I did? I googled "carrot soup side" and got the idea to make chicken. Then I headed over to Pinterest (surprised?) and searched for "ginger chicken". What I found was a recipe for Indonesian Ginger Chicken.


Modifications/Subsitutions: I pretty much followed the recipe exactly. The only difference was that I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead of two cut up chickens.

Ease: This recipe only had 5 ingredients, so I was sure it would be easy. Overall this was very simple and easy to make. The hardest and most time-consuming part, really, was peeling and grating the ginger. I'll go with 4.5 stars here.

Affordability: I had never worked with fresh ginger root before and thought of it as an exotic and expensive ingredient. It turns out that the honey was more expensive than the ginger (but not to the point where this recipe was not affordable) - 4.5 stars.

Taste: There were no leftovers, so I think everyone liked it. I thought it was great. I was worried the ginger would be too much, but it wasn't. Plus, I think doing the marinate thing and cooking in the liquid helped me to avoid my overcooking problem - 4.5 stars.

Family Friendly: Someone else brought pizza to share, so we gave the girls pizza instead of the chicken. It's funny, because Sarah gladly tried a spoon of my soup, but as soon as the chicken touched her tongue she decided she didn't want to really try it. I definitely plan to try this recipe again, but at the moment I won't rate it on family-friendliness.

What's Cooking Rating: 4.5 stars (I didn't even have to use my calculator for this one ;-)

Four Months!

There is not much to add to Lily's update from last week. Lily did have her first cold. It started out as mainly a fever with a little congestion. For the most part she was her same cheerful self. She had the hardest time at night. We ended up riding things out without medicine or having to visit the Doctor, which was a blessing.

The funny thing about the cold is that it seems to have knocked Lily out of her nice sleeping pattern. She's been going to bed later and waking one or two times more a night. Hopefully once she is 100% she'll go back to going to sleep earlier and waking only once during the night.

Photo Fridays 03.09.12

Sometimes I have a little too much fun playing with the girls' hair after bath time...

Fun Outside

This has been a pretty mild winter overall. Today was especially warm. As I type this I see that the weather for our area is 67 degrees. Bet you're wondering what I'm doing typing instead of enjoying the warmth.

The girls and I did get to take advantage of the warm weather for maybe an hour. We headed to "Nonna's Park" before Nonna had to go to work. It's a nice fenced-in park near a beautiful big lake. Turns out we weren't the only ones who thought it'd be a good idea to go to the park today. Abigail and Sarah had fun while Lily watched.

During lunch it became apparent that Sarah wasn't feeling well. I think she's coming down with the cold Abigail had earlier this week-which is why we are spending the afternoon inside. I'm glad we got to spend a little time outside though and look forward to more opportunities once spring comes for good.

Lily Update

Things are going very well with Lily. I hesitate to put this out there, but Lily has been sleeping amazingly! She'll go down for the night between 8-9:00 and will sleep for 5-6 hours. Then she eats and sleeps for another 3-4 hours! She also has a more predictable schedule of wake/play/nap times. She's even done this on occasion:


Yes, Lily has fallen asleep a few times on her playmat, despite all the noise and craziness going on around her.

She hasn't managed to roll over yet. She'll get onto her side and then is quickly distracted by her fist, which she proceeds to chew/suck on. With all her finger munching I'm beginning to wonder if we'll be seeing teeth soon.

What's Cooking: Garlic Cheesy Bread

There are one or two meals we have every week just to make things easier. One of those meals is pasta with tomato sauce. I thought I'd make it a meal worth looking forward to a few weeks ago by trying yet another recipe I found on Pinterest. I happened to notice a friend of mine pin a recipe for Garlic Cheesy Bread.

Modifications/Substitutions: I did not have bread flour, so I used all-purpose. Also, I didn't have garlic butter, so I made my own (butter, garlic powder, parsley, and a touch of salt). Because I was short on time, I didn't let the dough rise quite as long as I was supposed to (and I didn't let it cool as long as I was supposed to before slicing). I think my choice in flour and rising times definitely impacted the final product (which I'll explain below).

Ease: This was time-consuming (really only for the dough to rise), but very easy to make. I'll give the recipe 3.5 stars.

Affordability: I pretty much had everything I needed, and most of the ingredients are normal kitchen staples. Five stars for affordability.

Taste: This bread tasted pretty good, though it was a little chewier that I would have liked. I think this has to do with the fact that (1) I used regular flour and (2) I didn't let the dough rise as long as the recipe called. Four stars for taste.

Family Friendly: I think the girls would have liked it more if it wasn't as chewy. Jonathan and I ended up eating most of it and the girls did a little nibbling, but not more than that. I'll give it 3 stars because I think it was my fault they didn't like it.

March Already?

I can't believe it is March already. In just a few short weeks Abigail will be four years old. Plus, we've got a lot going on in the coming weeks with weddings and other fun happenings.

I'm hoping to post a few short entries summing up what has happened since my Valentine's Day post.

The weekend after Valentine's Day Papa Kapaldo came up for a visit. This was the first time he got to meet Lily. You might wonder from the pictures if Sarah was around that weekend, because she isn't in one photo. She was here, she just didn't want to be photographed I guess.

We spent most of Saturday hanging out. Actually, I got out for a few hours to look for a bridesmaid dress with my Mom. So, Papa Kapaldo got to spend time with just Jonathan and the girls. Later in the day we went out to dinner. On Sunday morning Papa joined us at church and then he headed back to Virginia. Thank you Papa for visiting!