Blueberry eating Blueberries and Momma in Focus

When I was first pregnant I was talking to my Dad and told him that the baby was the size of a blueberry.  My Dad thought that was hilarious so he started calling the baby Blueberry.  Blueberry is now baby girl's nickname.  The other day Blueberry got to try blueberries for the first time.  We make our own baby food so I took fresh berries and pureed them in the food processor.  They stained pretty much everything they touched as I was making them so I was prepared for a big mess when it was time for baby girl to try them.  Little was I to know what a mess it would be.  We stripped her down to her diaper in preparation....

Needless to say she loved them as she does all of the new foods she tries.  She loved them so much she had to get a good spray down after we were finished. 
This week's Momma in Focus was pictures with your mom.  These pictures aren't from this week but it shows the mother figures in our life.

My Grandmother, Katie and I at Spavinaw Creek on Memorial Day.

My Grandma Sue, Aunt Vicki, Katie and I last November at my Dad's wedding.  Katie was about one month old...so tiny.

Reality Cooking: Bruschetta

Cooking is one of the hobbies that I enjoy.  I love trying new foods and making new recipes.  It's a wonderful hobby for me because I can enjoy it at home and make good food for our family.  Since Katie has arrived I have had to adjust the way that I cook.  I can still make all the same recipes that I used to enjoy creating it just takes more time and more preparation.  Sometimes one dinner recipe can take all day to prepare just because I have to stop so often. 
One of our favorite summertime recipes is bruschetta.  Bruschetta is actually describing the toasted bread.  In traditional Italian cooking the bread is toasted over hot coals and then rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil.  You can then top the bruschetta (toast) with a combination of many ingredients.  The bruschetta we enjoy includes tomatoes, basil and garlic.  We have a small garden and one of our main "crops" is basil.  It is incredibly easy to grow, needs little watering, loves the hot weather and the more you pick it the more it grows.  It adds such freshness and pop to dishes.  So here is the recipe we came up with for tomato and basil bruschetta along with adjustments made to accomodate an 8 month old.  It feeds about 3 people.  Some of the pictures are a little blurry.
You will need:
6 roma tomatoes
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
2 tbsp good quality extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp finely chopped black olives
10 fresh basil leaves
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 loaf french bread

Step 1:  Remove baby girl's shirt and place in high chair.  Add diced sweet potatoes to high chair tray to keep her occupied.

Step 2:  Cut french bread into ~1 inch slices.  Place on cookie sheet.  Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with italian seasoning.  Place in a preheated 425 degree oven until golden brown (around 10-15 minutes).

Step 3:  Give baby girl more sweet potatoes.

Step 4:  Cut tomatoes in half lengthwise and remove seeds.  This prevents the toast from getting soggy later on.  Chop the tomatoes into small cubes.  Place in medium sized bowl.

Step 5:  Peel garlic cloves and finely chop.  Add to tomatoes.

Step 6:  Realize that baby girl has finished her sweet potatoes.  Add cheerios to tray and continue.
Step 7:  Finely chop black olives.  Add to tomatoes and garlic.
Step 8:  Remove toast from oven.

Step 9:  Notice that baby girl is done and is in serious need of a spray down.  Maybe next time just add cheerios.

Step 10:  Remove diaper and spray down baby girl.

Step 11:  Pick basil.  To do this you need to put on a baby carrier and add baby.  Then walk outside and brave the wild beast (the gigantic bouncing german shepherd).  When you make it to the garden pick about 10 basil leaves.  Don't worry about picking too many off the plant.  The more leaves you pick the more leaves the basil is encouraged to grow.  Try to keep the baby from reaching out and pulling the basil plant out of the ground...this action will not encourage leaf growth.  (Note:  You can also go to Wal-Mart or your local grocery store and buy fresh basil).

Step 12:  Remove baby from carrier, change diaper and put down for a nap.  

Step 13:  Stack about 5 basil leaves.

Step 14:  Roll the stack of leaves.

Step 15:  Slice the roll as thinly as you possibly can.  This will create ribbons that look really nice and also brings out the best flavor of the basil.  Add to tomato mixture.

Step 16:  Add salt, pepper and parmesan cheese.  You can adjust all of these ingredients to your taste or to serve more people.  This recipe gets better and the flavor intensifies the longer it sits so if you make it in the morning it will be perfect for lunch or dinner.  Fresh grown basil does tend to have a stranger flavor than basil bought at the store. 

Momma in Focus: Bubbles

It's been pretty warm weather recently so Katie and I haven't gotten to go on our walks.  We have been spending more time outside under the shade trees.  Katie's Daddy loves bubbles so he picked her up some at the store and we've been playing with them often.  This particular wand can put out some mighty big bubbles or some teeny ones, depending on how you use it. 
Momma in Focus this week was a freebie so we headed outside to blow some bubbles.

You can see Zak in the background.  He liked chasing the bubbles too and got a little tooe excited about it so we had to tie him up.

Momma in Focus: Blue/Turqoise

This week has been awesome!  The hubby has been off work so we have enjoyed spending time together...Monday we went to Spavinaw Creek with my side of the family, Tuesday we went to the zoo, Thursday we went to the hubby's family's house and today we're getting to smoke some brisket (yum!).  We have gotten tons of wonderful pictures and I wanted to share a few along with the Momma in Focus pictures.

Katie loving on her great-grandmother

My grandparents

Cousin Caleb and Katie

Cousin Christina and Caleb

Katie and her great-grandfather

At the zoo's rainforest

At the zoo's rainforest

Katie and cousin Hannah

For Momma in Focus this week my plan was to get Katie and I in our blue outfits with a bright blue sky in the background but that darn Oklahoma weather...there wasn't a day one that wasn't cloudy.  Still I'm pretty pleased with these photos.  They show how goofy and happy our baby girl is.



Momma in Focus: Love

Not much time for a lengthy post today...baby girl is teething and the poor thing is kinda miserable and clingy.  Even though she isn't feeling well it gives us some extra time to cuddle and love on her.  The love theme this week was wonderful.  We love giving that baby girl kisses and hugs.  We went on one of our many walks down the trail this week and the hubby took this pic.

During our nightly reading ritual that sweet man of mine took these.  This book is appropritely called "Kisses" and was given to Katie by my dad for valentine's day.  She gets plenty of kisses throughout the story.

Momma in Focus: Fun

There is no end to the fun with Katie around.  Today she turns 7 months old and she is absolutely brimming with energy!  Although she tends to be a bit reserved when we are out, inside our home she is a complete goofball.  She is always trying to get us to laugh....she sticks out her tongue, babbles and talks, does a fake laugh just  to see if we will laugh back at her and anything else she can do to try to get our attention.  She is so much fun to be around and we enjoy doing so many things with her.  One thing that Katie and I do every day is go on walks.  We are lucky enough to have a walking trail that goes right by our neighborhood and we go on a walk at least once a day. Daddy comes on walks with us in the early mornings or in the evenings but, during the day it's a Katie/Mommy ritual.  It was pretty cool and rainy this week but, between thunderstorms we managed to get a few of our walks in.  The look on her face in this picture is so sweet.  I know she's thinking "Okay Mom, can we just take a walk?"

Monday Adventures: Geocaching

Katie will be 7 months in a few days and we can't believe it.  She is getting to the age where she enjoys getting out and doing things.  Rich is off on Sundays and Mondays which is nice because there is hardly anybody out on mondays so we can go to the zoo, park, etc. and it's not very crowded.  We decided it was time to start building some memories!  This week we decided to go geocaching.  Geocaching is a "real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. You navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location."  Here's the website http://www.geocaching.com/guide/default.aspx  This was our first geocache hunt so we decided to start simple and stay as close as possible.  Luckily someone had put a geocache on the trail that runs right next to our neighborhood.  It was a beautiful 70 degrees outside...perfect weather and Katie loves going on walks!

Daddy strapping Katie in.

She's ready to go

We started heading down the trail...this is the part Katie and I go to on our daily walks

This was the location.  We parked Katie in the shade and started looking for the geocache.  We had no idea what the container would look like.  I was looking on the ground and walking around the tree.  Rich spotted the geocache...

It was attached to the tree branch...

You can tell Katie was very excited about finding the geocache...

We opened the geocache.  Inside was a pencil and a log book.  There are different types of geocaches but this one was the simplest kind.  You just sign a log book.  There were signatures from Mustang, OK and KS. 

We signed our name and started heading back down the trail.  It was a gorgeous day...there were tons of wildflowers blooming and rabbits were hopping around all over the place.

We'll definitly do another geocache.  There are a lot in our area especially around the lake.