Tulips

CS and I have never really celebrated Valentine's Day. I'm fine with that! I don't need a dinner date, flowers, chocolate, or uncomfortable underwear to prove love.

But it was nice to get these the day after. CS said he did it on purpose, a little love a little late.

They took a few days to bloom, so I got to enjoy them for over a week. We celebrated the actual Valentine's Day with me going to photo class and he stayed home with Jacob and sang nursery songs.

Baby Tossin'

Occasionally, we like to engage in an event called Baby Tossing.

To do this, you need at least one baby. Two would work but three is one too many. Babies don't like to take turns, you know!

This one is called Baby High Jump. Instead of asking for Baby Tossing, he took it in his own hands to jump up and fall down.

And this is what happens when you say Cheese in a really loud, and screechy voice!

Not pictured, when CS tossed him onto the bed after swinging from his feet and Jacob's teeth crashed together. There were tears and tissues were needed to make it better.

Spaghetti!

I'm going to tell you a secret. I used to hate spaghetti sauce. As an Italian, that's pretty terrible. I loved pasta but spaghetti sauce was terrible. I couldn't eat it. When I moved in with CS, I made spaghetti and jarred Ragu with ground beef. CS liked to spice up the jar with different things each time and I didn't mind the sauce as long as it had beef in it. But I still wasn't a huge fan.

Then I went to visit a friend and she made her own sauce. It was great! So I started making my own and have since created the version below.

Spaghetti

1 Onion- diced
1 or 2 stalks Celery, diced
1 Bell pepper (I prefer the red or orange), diced
2 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound ground beef

1 12 oz can Tomato Sauce
1 6 oz can Tomato Paste
1/2 cup milk

1 TBSP Oregano
1 TBSP Basil
1 TBSP Parsley
Salt and pepper

1 pound spaghetti

Boil water in a large pot, add spaghetti when it reaches a rolling boil.

In a large skillet, saute the onion, bell pepper, and celery until soft about 5-7 minutes. Add garlic and ground beef and cook through. Turn the heat down and add tomato sauce and paste, stir. Add in the milk, stir. Add spices, salt and pepper and allow to simmer for 10 minutes or so.

When the spaghetti is al dente, drain and rinse under hot water. Serve with sauce and Parmesan. Even better with garlic bread!

Leaptop!

Jacob has his own Leaptop from his Papa for Christmas. He has been fascinated with toy laptops for a while, most likely because WE have them and he's not allowed to touch them. I bought one for him at a garage sale in Alabama last March but it didn't fit in my suitcase for the return trip so I left it with Baby Carter.

But now he has his very own and it plays songs for him. I crack up every time because he copies the little Bear in the screen when he dances but instead of putting his hands on his hips, he puts them under his armpits and squats down. It also plays the A C's and it's his favorite song right now. Although, Glee's version of Baby, Baby by Justin Beiber is a close second....

Mohawk

My baby has a mohawk. He even let me put gel in his hair to make it. Usually he hates the gel when I try to give him spiky hair.

Like the mess he made on the mirror, as well?

The mohawk only lasted 30 minutes or so, but Jacob remembered the next time he had a bath and CS's mom had to give him one as well.

He's talking like crazy and I can't believe how much he knows. He can still be a little terror of fury and rage but also full of cuddles and sweet baby kisses. He loves Zoomycar (Team Umizoomi) and Scooby Doo. Jayden is his best friend. He loves me and CS equally. He refused to tell Daddy to "buy Mama flowers" for Valentine's day. But I forgive him anyways.

Ice, Ice BABY

On Saturday, we went up to Cripple Creek to see the Ice Festival. I was really disappointed with it, but it was still fun to get out. We have been home bound from cold, snow and lack of funds for a while so even though we went to go look at ICE, it was nice to go for a drive and show Jacob the slots. Which of course he wanted to touch because it looks like a room full of video games. Way to go, Casino. Hook 'em young.

They had an ice slide, which he didn't notice until the end of the trip, even though we passed it first. He went down first with CS, but only because CS slipped on the ice and fell down.

The best one was set up like a maze so the kids could run around and look through the ice.

This was a chariot pulled by polar bears. Ice is terribly difficult to photograph. I really have no tips for that!

Photo Tuesdays

My photo class is going well. We are learning to meter which is a lot of work when you are still unsure if you want a low or high f-stop or what shutter speed you need for daylight, clouds, night, etc.

I took this at night, in my room with only the overhead light on. I was in manual mode, my f-stop set to 5 (or as low as it can go) and my shutter speed was 1/25 (or 25). I set my ISO to 1600 and my White Balance to Auto, I believe. Anytime you are using a shutter speed of less than 1/60, you might have camera shake, so beware!

This is a blur action shot. I sent my ISO to 400 or 800, since the room was quite bright. My White Balance was also on Auto. I set my f-stop as low as possible, either 3.5 or 4 and my shutter speed was around 1/100. I had to play with it a bit to get it to blur. But it's much brighter than the stop action shot below.

ISO set to 800. White Balance on Auto. Shutter speed was around 1/60 and my f-stop was as low as I could set it.

This is the Arkansas river down the road from us. On Sunday the temperature was over 70 degrees so around 4 PM, CS, Jacob and I went down to take some pictures. I had to trek around a large pond in the middle of the road to get down to this point, but I'm glad I did. My instructor said she liked this one, and she doesn't like many of our photos! My ISO was 400, White Balance was set to shade. I set my f-stop to 5.6 and my shutter speed was 1/200.

Next week I have to take pictures downtown (only) so wish me luck. I don't know if I will have many cute baby shots to save me!

Case Against Mondays

This weekend was a break I needed after a long week. Temperatures were in the negatives or hovering around 3 degrees, so no one was venturing out. I started working more hours to make up for the student loans going up, so that means more sitting at my desk instead off playing with the baby. I do love my job, but anyone who has ever worked in customer service knows that it is hard. Even when you get just as many nice people as difficult people, the bad always takes more from you. So it was good to relax on Saturday and have friends over on Sunday for the game.

On Saturday, I got my act together and sat down with my Tufted Tweets quilt sandwich and quilted it. Straight line quilting uses a lot of thread! I admit that I did not do the best job because I was just ready to be done with it. I have no doubt that it will hold up but it might look better with a few more lines. I put it on the bed on Saturday night and was totally amazed at just how warm it is. I had been sleeping with two down comforters, one in a duvet as well. I have been freezing when I get into bed, even with my little bedwarmer. Now with just one down comforter and the quilt, I am warm in seconds. Truly. It's so warm.

my next project is to finish the king sized quilt I'm making for an old co-worker. She got the backing for me last week so quilting is all that's left. I'm semi-confident that I will be able to quilt it on my little machine, as long as I take some time to roll up the sides when I get to the center.

We'll see! I have no idea what the weather will be like this weekend. If it's going to be nice, I might not have a whole lot of patience. I may live in Colorado, but cold weather and freezing temperatures are not normal for us!

Too Cold!

I think the cold weather has brought back my pregnancy carpal tunnel and I am not excited about it. Either that or the extra three hours I'm now working a week is taking it's toll.

I know most of the country has has terrible weather and I am very thankful that I have a warm place to be when it's -20 degrees out. We live in the basement portion of house so it's not the warmest of homes but we have space heaters and a fake fireplace to keep warm. I'm grateful that our pipes did not freeze, although I'm feeling very terrible that the pipes at my mom's house did freeze and I'm worried that they will have burst by now. She's on vacation, on a cruise, no less! I went over later on Tuesday night but they were already frozen by the time I checked. I completely forgot about her house since I had her dog already with me. The good thing is that she can't check her phone or Facebook so at least she can have a good time until she gets back!

I have been a bad crafter with all these cold nights we've been having, so I have very little to report! I finally got the backing for the king size quilt I'm making but I can't pin it together until I get my quilt finished because all the pins I own (and some I borrowed) are in use. I need to get it together and quilt it up so I can use it!

So much for my plan to get all three quilts finished in January!