Mommy sheds a tear with daycare

Carter had his first day of daycare at Country Home Learning Center last Tuesday.  They miraculously had an opening for Tuesday/Thursday, so we snagged it and signed him up last week.  I spent about 45 minutes labeling all his bottles, bibs, clothes, etc., with his name and got his bag packed with the laundry list of things the daycare requires.

Chris and I both drove to him to daycare for his first day at school.  He’s in a classroom with mostly 6 – 12 month olds.  Since he’s the youngest in his class, because the other classroom  is full, the teachers said he will learn quickly.  They said he’ll watch all the other babies sitting up and crawling around, and he’ll want to quickly learn how to do the same.  Hmmmm….as long as he doesn’t learn all of those things TOO quickly!

His first day was a success.  I had an extremely productive day and Carter received rave reports from his teachers.  They all commented on how happy he was and how much he smiled.  They also told us that he already has a girlfriend!!  This little girl is just fascinated with him and supposedly crawls over to sit next to him, to make sure he’s doing ok.  Love her already!

Real estate has kept me super busy this last month!  I’m excited to report that we have found one of my best friends a home in Fair Oaks Ranch.  Kate, Michael and Sanders are selling their house in Fort Worth and moving back to Boerne!!!  I’m thrilled that the boys will get to grow up together.

For Memorial day weekend, we took Carter swimming for the first time.  We went to Sonterra with Ginna, Brodie and Carter’s best friend Davis.  The boys were too cute in their swimwear and sun hats.  They both loved the water and practiced splashing and kicking.

My best friend Corrie flew in from Dallas last weekend to meet Baby Carter!  As always, our time together was too short, but full of some much-needed, quality girl time.  We also got to see Uncle Nick again!!  Carter was excited for some quality guy time.  🙂

We’ve been able to have friends over more often, now that Carter is going to bed around 8:30pm.  I’ve included some fun pictures from one of our recent dinner parties.  We themed it Caribbean and started off by serving pain killer drinks!  Our friends brought over some elaborate appetizers and desserts and we grilled a citrus marinated pork.  You can find both recipes on my Mom’s cooking blog.  It’s a menu that I will definitely do again!!

Tomorrow will be Chris’ first father’s day.  We’ve got lots of fun surprises in store for him!  🙂   Happy Father’s Day to all of you wonderful Daddies out there!!!

xoxo

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First dinner party in our new house!

Last night, we hosted our first dinner party in our new house.  It was fabulous!  We were celebrating the recent marriage of our good friends, Lindsey & Will Oldham, so we broke out one of our favorite recipes!

19 weeks pregnant!

Chris seared ahi tuna steaks and served them with a ginger and shiitake mushroom cream sauce.  The sauce is to die for, so we served it with fresh mashed potatoes to soak up any extra sauce.  Here is a link to the recipe, on Epicurious.com.  Britteny and Chris Schaal brought all the ingredients for bananas foster and cooked it up after dinner.  I have 3 words for bananas foster; rich, decadent, divine.

The food was delicious, but it was our close friends that made the night so fun.  We love to cook and entertain, so really, last night was our perfect night!  Our puppies always enjoy the company as well and it’s fun to watch our friends dote on them!!  Soon, our friends will be doting over Baby Weigand.  The very thought of close friends bonding with our baby makes me smile.  🙂

I’m now almost 20 weeks along, which is the infamous half-way point.  Pregnancy is sheer fun right now!  I can no longer button my pants and a stranger can tell I’m preggers.  I have felt the baby’s first kicks and each day, I feel a couple more punches.  The kicks and punches are pretty faint, so I’m looking forward to the day when Chris can feel our baby kick.  He always goes to bed with his hand resting on my belly, so it’s only a matter of days now! 🙂

I’m going to end with a shout out to my dear Grandma!  Happy Birthday Grandma!!  We are counting down the days until we come and visit you in Portland! Only 30 more days!!! 🙂  Love you!!

Mr. & Mrs. Oldham & Chef Weigand 😉

Britteny & Chris making bananas foster!

"I wear my sunglasses at night!" -Miss Bailey

Dinner outside!

Mom’s Chicken Cordon Bleu & NEW BLOG!!

chicken cordon bleu

chicken cordon bleu

Click on the link above to view a .pdf of Liz’s Chicken Cordon Bleu! You can then print it out and try it for yourself!

I just got off the phone with my Mom and she was raving about her dinner that she cooked last night, (a Tuesday night!), for some friends. After she talked me through the recipe, I could only laugh. “Do you know what Chris and I had for dinner last night?!,” I asked her! We got home from the gym around 8:00pm and quickly slapped a sandwich together and made protein shakes. We then headed off to check out a new puppy. I don’t know how my Mom does it! Before we got off the phone, she also talked about her recipe for tonight. So, tonight, a Wednesday night, my Mom is entertaining more friends/Clients and trying a new and exciting recipe. I envy her enthusiasm and everlasting energy that she has for cooking. Chris and I love to cook, but with our schedules, we seem to get 2, maybe 3 recipes from scratch a week. She has recently started her own cooking blog! I’m super excited, because now I’ll have access to all her recipes ONLINE! I’ll be honest, we usually let her try out new recipes and then Chris and I will try the ones she raves about! Give her some time, she JUST started to put together the blog. WordPress.com can take awhile to learn. Go ahead and bookmark www.LizsKitchen.wordpress.com for now, so you can stay up-to-date with all her fabulous recipes!!

Molten Chocolate Cake

What is better than finishing a fabulous dinner and ordering a warm Molten Chocolate Cake?! Not much! Chris has such a sweet tooth, so we are always trying new chocolate cake recipes. I found a winner!! It’s a little timing consuming, but here it goes.

1. Drive to Costco
2. Head straight to the frozen section and pick up a box of Molten Chocolate Cake by Sweet Street Desserts
3. Speed home.
4. Plate one and pop it in the microwave for 45 seconds.
5. Indulge!

So I know you are rolling your eyes, but I’m not kidding. These are like magic. The melted chocolate flows over the cake and onto the plate as soon as your press your fork to it. Chris and I just split one and are still in heaven. It’s a very rich, dark chocolate, so splitting one turned out perfect. These would be so quick and easy for a dinner party! Mess free, guaranteed success! Now I get to think of a creative and fun way to plate them. 😉

P.S. OMG! I just googled Sweet Street Desserts and you can buy this same 9 cake package on their website for $56.95. I just double checked my Costco receipt and I bought the EXACT same thing for $14.99. I love Costco!

Sentimental Family Recipe

Today was a very restful Sunday for me. I seem to have caught the same thing my Mom recently had. I’ve got the basic cold symptoms, but have been extremely tired.

When I finally made it downstairs this afternoon, Chris had done some organizing in our office, already cleaned and waxed both our cars, and was chopping veggies for dinner. When I inquired as to what we were having for dinner, his face lit up. With excitement in his voice, he said, “we’re having my Dad’s spaghetti!” When he was sorting through a couple boxes in our office, he found a letter from his Dad. His Dad had written it to him during his last days in the hospital. It’s three pages of fully scripted hand writing, front and back, on college lined paper. Wayne, his father, started off with a 3/4 page note to both his boys.

“You’ve both always told me that you liked my spaghetti and turkey stuffing (I hope you were being honest!), so I thought I’d write them down for you. The stuffing recipe was your grandmother’s (my mother), and every time I made it, it always brought back memories of her. Cooking these recipes always brought back childhood memories, so perhaps one day you too may decide to make it for a holiday meal, and remember me as well. It’s a small thing, but I hope you each enjoy making something for someone else, that your father made for you, that your grandmother made for your father.

It may be awhile before either of you wants to make one of these recipes, but I hope you’ll put these on a computer disk to save,  just in case the urge hits to do some cooking! Love, Dad”

How sweet is that?! So, Chris and I sat down to a wonderful meal of his Dad’s spaghetti. Chris substituted the ground beef for the ground venison we had in our freezer, but other than that, he followed his Dad’s recipe exactly as written. It was a rich, tomato based sauce, full of Italian sausage, bell peppers, parsley and lots of spices! I never got to meet his father, so it’s these little things that give me an insight into the man that he was. Chris has cooked so many flavorful, new and impressive meals, but this lazy Sunday dinner, will forever be one of our most memorable dinners.