Lists

I am a serious list maker.

I absolutely adore them.

I absolutely have to have them.

Seriously.

Somewhere between child #1 and child #4 my brain decided to take a vacation. As in it decides at random to simply hang the "Gone Fishing" sign on the door frame...or "Out to Lunch", "Gone Shopping", "Be Back Shortly", whatever and whenever and never with advanced notice. (This has been a source of comedy relief to my husband on more than one occasion.)

So, not only do I simply love lists, but I have to have them to get any job of any real size accomplished. Plus, I think I get some sort of immediate gratification from being able to mark things off. I get this sense of accomplishment when I have a neat little list of to-do items all marked off. Oh, yes! I really did something today! See! See!

I prefer to explain it that way. The other alternative is to equate my love of checking things off with the same pleasure a toddler gets when she adds a sticker to a chart and while my attention span may rival that of a toddler...well, anyhow...

And while organizer/list apps for my Droid are great and all...but there's nothing like having a list on paper that I can scribble on, doodle on, mark up, add to, and vent all my frustrations and celebrations upon.

Mmmm....Roasted Chicken & Felippo Berio!

 Time for that chicken! I love deli-roasted chicken It's so easy to tear apart and eat as is or use in other easy meal recipes, and my kids LOVE the crispy, delicious skin....but, honestly, the chickens at the deli seem to be getting scrawnier and scrawnier while the price is going up, up , up and away....so I've been looking into roasting my own. No, I don't have a rotisserie, but I have discovered you don't have to have one to make delicious roasted chicken.

  To start you need a chicken...preferably already dead and plucked...um, yes. These are about 3.5lb-4lb each. Let your chickie sit at normal room temperature for about 30 minutes.

  Next, oil or butter your chickens, then apply your seasoning. Don't forget to salt/season the cavity of the chicken...this will help flavour the meat all the way through. You can also loosen the skin on the breast and stuff seasonings right up underneath it, too. 

I wanted to see how yummy the olive oil I'm using from Felippo Berio is, so I stuck with really simple seasoning on these chicks...just salt and pepper. If you want, you can add all sorts of herbs/seasonings: rosemary, thyme, sage, herbs de provence, lemon pepper, lemon slices, onions...if it tastes good with chicken you could probably use it.

Another thing: you can truss up your chicken by tying the legs together with kitchen twine. This will help your chick retain it's shape and cook more evenly...but I didn't have any, so I didn't, it's not mandatory. ;)

 (Sorry about the lighting in my pictures.)

You can also place a layer of onion slices on your baking sheet and then put your chickens on top of the onions to have a simple edible rack for them to roast on. This will allow the juices from the birds to drip off and your pan gravy (should you decide to make one) will have additional flavouring from the onion. Again, I didn't do this...it's not required...so if you don't have any onions on hand don't despair.

Once your chickens are oiled and seasoned you just stick them in an oven that's been preheated to 425 degrees fahrenheit. Easy, peasy!

And cook for 60 to 90 minutes. To make sure they are cooked through, check your bird's internal thigh and breast temperature with an instant read thermometer. The thigh should register about 190 degrees while the breast should be about 180 and all juices should run clear when the bird is pierced.

If you don't have a thermometer, you can also just check the juices, and wiggle the leg...if it's really loose you're probably good. Just to make sure, I like to slice a bit into the meat and double check that there isn't any pink left. Pink chicken meat is not a good idea. At all.

Should the outside of your chicken cook faster than the inside and you worry about burning, just use a sheet of aluminum foil to tent your savoury chickies and deflect some of the direct heat.

Lovely, crispy, golden chicken skin...my kids love the stuff and I figure they are getting a good dose of vitamin E when they eat it. Plus, they're still young and skinny...

All that golden juice in the bottom of the baking sheet can be used to make a delicious gravy. And I just realized I never mentioned that you really do NEED to use a rimmed baking sheet to cook your chickens on, otherwise, all that lovely, golden, good-ness will end up on the bottom of your oven in a nasty, not so golden mess.

Definitely a cheaper alternative to picking up an already roasted chicken at the deli. Plus, if you cook a couple birds early in the week you'll have them ready whenever you need one.

And for the record: the EVOO from Felippo Berio worked wonderfully and tasted absolutely delicious! A winner! Thank you Bzzagent for sending me a free sample and letting me in on this fantastic product!

Mmmm....olive oil! Or EVOO...whatever tickles your fancy either way it's delicious.

So, via bzzagent.com I have the opportunity to try out Filippo Berio Extra Virgen Olive Oil: YES!

Project #1: Roasting Chickens...coming up!



Live Below the Line

 Introduced to me via bzzagent.com the Live Below the Line campaign introduced our family to an interesting challenge, here's what the LBtL site says:

The challenge?

Spend 5 days feeding yourself with $1.50 a day – the U.S. equivalent of the extreme poverty line.

The reason?

To give a glimpse into the lives of 1.4 billion people who have no choice but to live below the line every day – and who have to make $1.50 cover a lot more than food…

Live Below the Line is an initiative of the Global Poverty Project, an education and campaigning organization whose mission is to increase the number and effectiveness of people taking action against extreme poverty.

The Global Poverty Project educates and activates citizens to become effectively engaged in the movement to end extreme poverty, and is best known for its world-class multimedia presentation 1.4 Billion Reasons. This feature presentation has been seen by over 100,000 people since 2009 and is delivered in schools, businesses and communities around the globe.

We're passionate about equipping people to make a real difference in fighting poverty, and so we focus on connecting people up to the organizations and issues that have the biggest impact. We run Live Below the Line because we think that to really fight poverty, we've got to try to understand it – and the challenge provides a glimpse of what it is like to live on $1.50/day – a challenge that is faced by 1.4 billion people in our world today.

We've teamed up with some of the best U.S. charities that fight extreme poverty around the world and have provided you with the opportunity to support their work through personal sponsorship as you undertake Live Below the Line.

In 2012, Live Below the Line iis running in the U.S., UK, and Australia simultaneously, with more than 20,000 people spending 5 days living below the line.

Our family decided to partner with Malaria No More as we attempted to Live Below the Line.

I wish I had blogged, photographed, discussed each day, but life was busy and I didn't. Instead, here's a recap of what I did manage to do...post updates to my facebook page:

"Live Below the Line update #1:
So this has been an interesting couple of days...and harder than I thought.
On Monday we went over our $9.00 (family total) for the day. I had a small pork roast in the refrigerator that I had thawed the week before and intended to cook over the weekend....but never got to it. Letting meat go bad in the name of poverty just seemed wrong somehow, so I cooked it and added to our supper. Monday's total = $12.90 ($3.90 over)
Tuesday was a better day. We managed to eat for $8.35 ($0.65 under). We're hoping to balance out from Monday by the end of the week.
Today is going well...so far.

My kids like cereal(on sale) and berries(u-pick in the freezer) for breakfast. Milk was on sale. Breakfast like that has worked out to about $0.80 for us. For lunch I made rice and sauteed some veggies and leftover pork roast with a little soy sauce to flavor...it came out to about $1.60. Snack was lightly salted popcorn $0.45. For dinner we had potato soup and homemade breadsticks $5.20. And I had 3 clearance packets of easter chocolate that were $0.10 each that I let the kids have when they wanted a sweet.

My biggest challenge has been balancing out the meals so they aren't so carb heavy. I want us to eat balanced even on this project, but it is definitely harder.

Michael has said he thinks this is something we need to every year just to keep our blessings in perspective.

 

Live Below the Line update#2:
Well, here's our Wednesday and Thursday update:
Wednesday we totalled $10.79 (over $1.79).
Thursday we totalled $8.58 (under $0.42).
To make it to our goal of $1.50 per person per day for 5 days (6 people = $45.00 for the week) we'll have to keep it under $4.38 today.
I honestly don't know if we'll make it or not, but we are trying.
This has been a pretty eye opening experience. I thought I had a handle on how cheap things were/were not...and I kind of did...but it's definitely more of a challenge than I thought.
I had to remind Jonathan last night that Ranch dressing wasn't in the budget and Michael had to forego the pickles with his beans. Seems like small things...
On Wednesday night we had a missionary service with Bro. Craft from Eastern Europe. Michael shared with the congregation what we have been attempting in the Live Below the Line campaign and Bro. Craft shared some further info with us on E. Europe.
Did you know there are a lot of people in E. Europe that only make $10-$20 a month for food? That blows the $1.50 a day per person out of the water. And seriously, Europe was one of the last places I would have labelled as fitting this description. Africa, yes...Asia, yes...Europe, wow. Bro. Craft told us that they typically eat a barley mush one to two times a day to fill the belly cheaply.
Michael looked at me and asked if I would please not try that! I had to tease a little so I shared with him the fact that I *do* have some barley in the cabinet...and at the rate we've gone we may have to eat it to make the goal, lol!
Well, off to finish our day. :)
God bless you! And if you have a roof over your head, food in your refrigerator/cabinets, and clothes on your back He definitely has. ♥"

And now it's over.

On our last day we totalled up the cost of our food for the week. Our grand total was $45.47...$0.47 over what our goal amount was. All things considered, I was very proud of my family. Each of us is a little more aware of how blessed we are...and we're definitely planning to get under the target amount next year...stay tuned...

BzzAgent

So, what's the buzz?

A couple years back I got connected to bzzagent.com. It's a word-of-mouth advertising type thing-a-ma-bob...basically, company's contact Bzzagent because they want their product promoted, Bzzagent puts together a sample pack/offer for the product, locates people who are potentially interested in it, offers the opportunity to try the product out, and what they ask in return is if the sampler(bzzagent as we are called) like the product would they please talk about it to their friends/family/sphere of influence.

So, in the last couple years I have had the opportunity to sample a variety of products...milk to shampoo to car related stuff (that I declined because I wasn't interested) and have really enjoyed the chance to try new stuff and talk about it, too.

I say all that to give you a heads up...the next couple posts are going to be related to things Bzzagent has introduced me to recently.

These posts are NOT the start of an advertising campaign that is taking over my blog. Only the opportunity to share with you some things I have enjoyed.

I really am planning to start blogging more about all the different areas of our life: faith, fun, and family. And as I think I am getting a new computer (oh, please!) sometime this summer, blogging should get easier for me. Hooray!

Pinterest

Wowzers! Who knew? There are some things that really ought not be invented (but I am so glad they were!)...and currently topping that list is www.pinterest.com . Awesome! And seriously eating up any extra time I happened to have had in between teaching my fifth grader (um, is it actually possible that I have a FIFTH grader?!?!?!) about past participles with irregular verbs and attempting to figure out what happened to the January budget because I think December ate it.

(By the way...I love run-on sentences...)

So, without further ado...if you haven't seen/heard of/checked out Pinterest yet, hurry! Your time will never be the same and your head may actually expand a little with all the amazing inspiration you find. Seriously.

When life gives you lemons....

Make lemon curd!

Or not...since in my case it wasn't lemons, but oranges. In which case, you make orange curd! (Although, I must admit, a good lemon one is my favorite. Shhh...wouldn't want the oranges to get jealous.)

Actually, before I start this off, I am going apologize and say that from this point on I will no longer tell you that I will have something out on such and such day. I homeschool, and cook, and homeschool, and sew, and homeschool, and chase a hyper german shepherd mix puppy out of my house, and deal with an awesome husband who is currently pursuing his Master's degree in Math (UGH! to the Math not the husband), and did I mention we homeschool? I love blogging things, but I'm finding my time doesn't usually go the way I plan, sooo.....I will spare us all the anguish of waiting around for something I promised and then can't seem to get to when I say I will (I'm also sparing myself a HUGE guilt trip!) and just let my posts be random surprise things that are fun and maybe a little informative.

Back to the oranges.

A couple of the recipes I tried out from the January SL citrus stuff used orange curd as a base. I've made a lemon one before and, honestly, it wasn't that great, so I figured I'd give this one a whirl.

Oh, and in case you're curious, you can find this recipe right here: Buttery Orange Curd.

You'll need orange juice, it doesn't have to be fresh squeezed, granulated sugar, corn starch, butter, salt, an orange, and an egg.

First remove the zest from your orange. That's the orange part of the skin. You don't want the white stuff underneath because it's really bitter! I have a microplane grater/zester and absolutely love it. All you have to do to remove the zest is pull it across the skin of the fruit and, viola! (Make sure you only pull it across the fruit because if you miss and get yourself, OUCH!) You don't have to use a microplane, the fine side of a regular grater will work too, you just have to be extra careful not to include any of the white pith.

Next, whisk together your sugar and cornstarch in a good heavy pot on the stove.

Then whisk in your orange juice.

Just mix gently until everything is nice and smooth.

Then whisk in the egg. I got a litttle carried away with the whisking and it really foamed up. I was worried, oops!

But no worries, after bringing it to a boil and whisking it constantly as the recipe stated...

It all evened out and I was able to add the orange zest, butter, and pinch o' salt.

Pour it into a bowl...

And cover it with plastic wrap. You want to press the plastic right onto the curd. This keeps the top from forming a thick skin. Ew! (Please, forgive the reddish pink color...I'm still trying to use up all the holiday plastic wrap I bought by accident at Christmas.)

Now, stick it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it. I used this as the base of a Panna Cotta (that recipe will come next) but this would also be good in miniature tart shells topped with some sweetened whipped cream, or on a toasted English muffin. The recipe says to only store it for 3 days and this is a good guideline. I kept some of it in a bowl for a couple days longer, just to see, and the curd began to break down and got rather watery.

Also, next time I make this I will probably omit the zest. The curd had a good orange taste, but I thought it was a little bit strong. I think if I cut out the zest or at least halve it, the flavour will be just right for me.

Delicious Inspiration

Michael gave me a fantastic cookbook for Christmas: Bon Appetit Desserts! I already have the previous cookbooks released by Bon Appetit over the last couple years and was so excited to receive this one. There's only one small problem, well two, but who's counting...1) With over 600 fantastic recipes at my fingertips, where do I start? 2) Why did they change the size of the book?

My family couldn't really care less about #2 when #1 means there may be a delay in them tasting yummy goodness, so, I decided to put off ruminating about cookbook coordinating and settle down to solve the problem of what comes first, a one whisk recipe or a 4 whisk-er, a cake or a candy, and then my January issue of Southern Living came and brought along with it some guidance. (And just in time since the deep chicken vs. egg debate was next and chickens only belong in desserts so long as they are chocolate.)

Mmmm...citrus! What a delightfully delicious way to start off the new year, so....unfortunately, the recipes in Southern Living were yummy looking too, so, diving in, I'll do a bit from both.

15 Months!

Wow! I can hardly believe it has actually been 15 months since the last time I blogged. Talk about writer's block! Well, the long dry spell is over. Starting tomorrow, I will be posting several recipes I've tried recently that are based around sunny citrus fruit. Southern Living magazine got me started and between them and the cookbooks I got for Christmas, I am ready to go...look forward to seeing you!

Life Abundantly

A few days ago my children and I were sitting in the living room reviewing some school work. It had been a long, rough day. The kids were fighting amongst themselves, and, being sulky and snappish towards me. Truth be told, I wasn’t responding the best, either. We were in the middle of a Bible verse when my son responded with a particularly sullen remark to my correction. I stopped. We could not continue in this vein. It wasn’t making our relationships with each other any better and it was surely not pleasing to God.


Calling my son and daughter to sit next to me, I began to talk to them about the harm bad attitudes and responses cause to our spirit. It was during this talk that I felt God give me a little nudge of inspiration; and, of course, as is often the case, by the end of our conversation I felt I had been ministered to as much as either of my children had been; perhaps, more so.


Our conversation went something like this:


Our spiritual person and our physical bodies have a lot in common. They can both be hurt and wounded. Our body may be wounded by someone or something. Usually our spirit is hurt by someone; sharp words and bad attitudes are like little knives attacking and wounding us. How we take care of our wounds determines how healthy we are both physically and spiritually.


If I get a cut on my arm, I can go to the medicine cabinet, get antibiotic ointment and a bandage, clean the wound, put salve on it and a band-aid, and move on. If I keep the cut clean and well cared for it will probably heal well and I will be able to move on with my life and will possibly one day even forget I had a cut.


However, let’s imagine for a minute I decide the band-aid is not something I want. I take the band-aid off and go outside into a messy, germy world and go about my business. Germs are able to get into my body from the cut. It gets infected. I could still at this point stop and take care of it properly, but the healing is delayed and may even be harder to come by than it was at first. It will also be more likely to leave a permanent scar, making it harder to forget.


Let’s say, for whatever reason, I choose not to stop and take care of the infection. Eventually, it is going to travel from the wound to my bloodstream. Now, my body is going to get sick. I will probably have to go to the doctor and get special medicine and treatment to heal what was originally something easily treated. It is even possible that if I let the infection go for too long no treatment will be possible; and, what was originally something quite small will end up killing me.


There are times when someone or something comes along with a mean spirit or wrong attitude, and my own spirit ends up feeling cut or wounded. Sometimes this is deliberate and others times it is an accident, but either way, how I respond to the wound is what matters. I can take my hurt to the Lord and allow him to cleanse, salve, and bandage my spirit. If I let Him continue to care for my wound, eventually it will heal, I will move on, and one day I may even forget there was ever a wound.


The healing of a wound takes time and care. Jesus wants to handle our hurts and offenses. We can let him, or we can decide to go it on our own into a sinful world. If we choose to turn from His care and tear off the bandage he has placed on our spirit, the “germs” of this sinful world will infect our cut and infection of the spirit sets in. Even now we could turn to God and allow him to doctor us, but sometimes we choose to roll down our spiritual sleeves and ignore that there is a cut there. A person can hide a hurt and an infection for a long time, both physically and spiritually, but eventually it will make its presence known.


The infection gets worse and eventually our entire spiritual being is in a place of compromise. Even now it is possible for the power of God to resuscitate us, but the process is long and hard, and often impossible to forget.


Eventually, if we continue in our refusal of treatment our wound will end up being fatal to our soul.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


This conversation has played itself over and over in my mind since it happened. I truly believe God gave me the analogy to communicate a great truth to both my children and to myself. We can let the hurts of this life wound us, infect us, and eventually destroy us, or, we can turn to the Great Physician and allow him to heal us. Sometimes, it takes many treatments on a daily, or even hourly, basis for the healing to occur.


We always have the choice to walk away and refuse His ministrations at any given time, but the end result, if we do, is spiritual death.


In John 10:10 (KJV) Jesus said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”


Let’s determine to have, not only life, but life abundantly.


May God’s blessings and peace be with you all,
Tamara

Memory Lane

Take a walk with me today, a little stroll down memory lane in honour of the fact that 4 years ago we had been home from the hospital a bit over a week and were learning all about juggling the needs of twin daughters. They were tiny, couldn't regulate their own body temps well, and were close to clueless about the whole eating process, but, they were so precious, and they were all ours.

I was only 8 weeks along when we found out our number of children would be doubling. Emalea, our oldest, had been praying for twin siblings so that she could be like her best friend Alyssa. Alyssa's mommy had given birth to boy/girl twins in August, and for the previous months Em had been petitioning God. So, there we were in March discovering that we should never underestimate the prayers of a 3 year old!

Our girls, as we discovered at 15 and 17 weeks, grew well and I did my best to stay healthy and eat lots. My Dr constantly reminded me that with my height...or lack thereof...I was at risk of an earlier delivery. She lectured Michael about what I was and was not supposed to be doing, and generally did a good job of putting the fear of God in our lives over the well being of our little treasures. Emalea and Michael Jonathan were just excited that they would *each* get a baby.

And throughout the long hot summer, I grew. I was determined to hold out to 36 weeks. After all, if my good friend Karen, whom we discovered was also carrying twins, could deliver healthy 7 lb, 36 weekers then so could I...right?

Apparently, that wasn't the plan...at 34 weeks 5 days Michael and I found ourselves in the emergency room and then the operating room. At 4:19am on September 7, 2005, Caitlin joined us at 5lb...and just a couple minutes later Elizabeth completed our family, weighing in at 4lb. 9oz. Absolutely fantastic weights for their gestation, but still so very tiny.

An itsy bitsy hand and knee.

NICU was stressful, but thankfully didn't last long. Four days after delivery, we were able to leave the hospital together, much to everyone's surprise...all thanks be to an awesome and powerful God!

C in the back, E in the front.

Elizabeth on the left, Caitlin on the right.

And I have no idea which baby they are each holding.

There are so many stories and pictures that cover the next 4 years, but I'm sure you all have lives and a walk down memory lane that would last 493 hours is probably not in anyone's schedule...so, I'll just share tidbits now and then. For now, here's a brisk jog (and lots of pictures)...

Jackson, Elizabeth, Caitlin, and Kendall (5weeks and 2 weeks)

Elizabeth and Caitlin (3 weeks)

Our Family, Dec. '05, girls are 3.5 months (C,E), MJonathan is 2.5 and Emma is 4.5.

April 2006 - 7 months (E, C)

1 year old! (Elizabeth, Caitlin)

18 months (Elizabeth, Caitlin)

Elizabeth (2), Emalea (6), Caitlin (2), MJonathan (4).

Easter 2008 Elizabeth and Caitlin 2.5.

A visit from Aunt Mimi. E & C, 2.5.

At the Patch, October 20008. MJ (5), Emalea (7), Caitlin & Elizabeth (3).

NICU Reunion, Summer 2009, Caitlin and Elizabeth (3.5) with mommy.

September 7, 2009 - Caitlin and Elizabeth (4).

Happy 4th birthday my sweet girls. You have been a blessing and I thank God daily that He saw fit to give you to us. I love you!

Be still my heart....

It's official....I'm in love!

With take-out containers....oh, and bakery boxes....and itty bitty panettone papers. Hooray! My life just got easier and my husband is going to faint away at the amount I want to charge to his credit card. That, or just get really still....and quiet....and stare at me as though I have lost my ever lovin' mind.

Seriously, though, have you ever tried to take multiple baked items to point B from point A without lovely bakery boxes? It's a tragedy waiting to happen, and, no, Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake does NOT look good decorating a sidewalk. Not that this has happened to me yet (it was actually strawberry jam) but in my nightmares I can totally see this happening. Hours and hours of labour down the drains....or splattered across an otherwise lovely cement walkway...all for the lack of a box.

Now, I realize there are likely a few naysayers out there that will remind me how completely possible it is to drop a bakery box. In the face of all that logic, I am here to remind you: It's a whole lot easier to scoop up and eat Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake from the inside of a box than off a sidewalk.

Plus, you won't have to worry about all the extra grit.

Yummmm! Already thinking about the holidays!

Today I made a pot of Veggie Beef Soup for dinner. That got me thinking about the changing of the seasons....well, sort of...I live in Texas so there aren't exactly 4 different seasons, but in the next couple months we should go from hot to cool, sooooooo.....

Thinking about soup made me think about the coming cooler weather, and thinking about that led to thinking about Thanksgiving, and then Christmas.....and all the delicious yummy foods that go with those holidays (I am explaining the thought process here because from time to time my leap from one thing to another has been known to cause whiplash) and thinking of that (the food, not the whiplash) reminded me of Southern Living.

I love Southern Living. The food, the travel information, the food, the pictures, the food...oh, and did I mention the food? They have some of the best recipes to be found and most of the time said recipes are fantastic. I try hard not to dwell on the not so fantastic times. It can be rather traumatic. There have been times when my family was very thankful we have a Pizza Hut in town. Actually, come to think about it, there have been a few times I have been thankful there is a Pizza Hut in town, but I digress (I do that so easily, *sigh*.)

I decided, in honour of the coming holidays, I want to share some of my Southern Living favorites with you. Here is the first. Hope you enjoy. We did.

Southern Living’s Black Bottomed Pecan Cheesecake Pie

½ (15oz) package refrigerated pie crusts (I admit I made one...I'll share that recipe later.)
1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
3 Tbsp whipping cream
1 (8oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
4 large eggs
¾ cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla, divided
¼ tsp salt
1 cup light corn syrup
3 Tbsp butter, melted
1 ½ cups pecan halves
Chocolate syrup (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Unroll piecrust; fit into a 9” pie plate according to manufacturer’s directions. Fold edged under and crimp.
3. Microwave chocolate morsels and whipping cream in a small glass bowl at MEDIUM (50% power) 1 to 1 ½ minutes or until morsels begin to melt. Whisk until smooth, set aside.
4. Beat cream cheese, 1 egg, ½ cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, and salt at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Pour chocolate mixture into piecrust, spreading evenly. Pour cream cheese mixture over chocolate layer.
5. Whisk together corn syrup, melted butter, remaining 3 eggs, remaining ¼ cup sugar, and remaining 1 tsp vanilla. Stir in pecans; pour over cream cheese layer. The pie plate will be very full.
6. Bake at 350 for 55 minutes or until set, shielding pie after about 45 minutesto prevent excessive browning. Cool completely on wire rack. Drizzle each slice with chocolate syrup if desired.

Mmmmmm.....

Happy Birthda, Emalea! (6/4/09)

June 4, 2001 was a momentous date in the lives of my husband and I. That is the day we became more than just a married couple, that is the day we became parents to our very first child: Emalea Lynn Boatman...and our lives have never been the same.

This year marked Emma's eighth birthday, and if you read my previous post, you already know how strange that is for me to dwell on...being the mother of an eight year old...so I won't go into it all over again (yes, I hear those sigh's of relief!), we'll just get straight to the celebration! (And TONS and TONS of pictures, don't say I didn't warn you! =oP )

Ever hear of The American Girl dolls? They are awesome, high quality, can I add insanely expensive, dolls that have more accessories and furniture than I do (something is very wrong with this picture!). The Galleria in Dallas has a store that is a near Mecca for lover's of all things AG. Two stories of pink, pink, and more pink and all the dolls and accessories a girl's heart could desire. They also have a yummy bistro on the second floor, so with Em and two of her dearest friends, Emalee and Alyssa, (and her father, brother, twin sisters, Nonnie, and Granddad) we set out for a day of eating, shopping, and fun, but first....

We had to make a stop in Terrell at Starbucks. Yum! What would a trip to the city be without a stop for a caffeine hit? Have you ever seen young children after they have been given large amounts of caffeine? We have. The results of a two year old who finds Daddy's chocolate covered espresso beans and refuses to sleep for 257 consecutive hours is not pretty. So, needless to say, Mommy and Daddy got the caffeine...the girls had hot chocolate, vanilla milk, and girlfriends to chat with. =)

(No worries Jenn and Jules, I did not corrupt your children....much.)

After several arguments over whether those overpasses and 72 story sky scrapers really indicated that we were nearing "The City"...we finally arrived...they had to lift their mouths off the floor when we walked in. Wow!

(Alyssa and Nikki, Emalea and Samantha, and, Emalee and Mia)

Of course, since Starbuck's was an hour prior, re-fueling was at the top of the list.

There's room for each girl *and* special seats just for her AG doll.

(Elizabeth with her Bitty Twin "Elizabeth" and Caitlin with her Bitty Twin..."Caitlin". So original, I don't know where they come up with this stuff!)

The AG Bistro charges a flat rate per person ($14.50) and the girls loved the fact that they got to pick whatever appetizer and entree they each wanted...and portions weren't exactly child sized, lol, Caitlin thought her Fresh Basil and Tomato Bread was a personal pizza, and Em went back to her bunny roots with delight over the Veggie Tray...and those were just for starters. Other choices included a bowl of tomato soup with a star crouton, a warm, soft pretzel with cheese dip and mustard, and cheese fondue with bread squares.

Each napkin ring was printed on the inside with a virtue: loyal, honest, brave...etc., awwww....

Pink Lemonade was the most popular drink of choice, but Emalee and Alyssa caved to the temptation of a Fresh Strawberry Smoothie.

And speaking of temptation, not one of the five girls could resist the utter cute-ness of a miniature hamburger and hotdog with curly fries...

...and a fruit skewer shaped in hearts and stars.

While the girls were indulging in all that pinkness, the guys were having their own brand of fun:

On the ice....

And at the 5 Guys Hamburger joint (btw, they have awesome burgers and fries.)

But this post is about a certain 8 year old's bday, soooo...

After the lunch we ladies commenced to do what we do best.....SHOP!

We started at the American Girl store, checked on the guys, made our way to Godiva (ooooohhhhhhh, and free samples of chocolate covered strawberries!), and also managed to hit up Bath and Body Works, and Williams Sonoma (okay, so I snuck that last one in there just for me.)

And afterwards everyone just HAD to relax at the play area on the top floor,

Wait....we're missing one...

Ah, there she is, whew!

......oh, and stop by the family restrooms to check out the kid sized lavatories (no worries, I left the camera outside for *that* one.)

And finally, after hours of fun, laughter, and fun we made our exit...and our way home.

Happy Birthday, my girl!