Bananas for the little monkeys

We can't believe these two little guys are old enough to be eating solid foods! They were pretty amused at sitting in a high chair as you can see by the grins below.....

That might be my favorite picture of the boys together so far. They really look like they are laughing hysterically at the crazy woman in the kitchen who was singing "Deep in the Heart of Texas" while dancing around with a camera ; ) That song almost always guarantees a giggle!

We decided to retire the older high chair we inherited due to the disgusting factor with fabric, creases & layers filled with crumbs 4 years old...you get the idea. We did a little bit of looking around & went to Ikea to purchase the Antilop highchair for 20 bucks a pop.  We were down with the price but a little nervous about the wobbliness of it considering the two wild older siblings that crawl under the table & chairs frequently along with the unpredictable dog. So, we came upon these chairs (also at Ikea) that were $60 each.  I think that is a decent deal compared to many of the high chairs sold at baby stores. We definitely wanted a free standing chair versus one that straps on since we are always short on chairs with visitors. We are happy with the sturdiness, ability to tighten those straps to fit our little cowboys & most importantly, the easy to clean factor. They also match our kitchen table & chairs so they just kind of blend in.

It was so fun to get them in their chairs & ready for that monumental first bite of real food! We have started with bananas for all the Valentine kiddos which is strange because there is no food I hate more than bananas ; )

I think I will narrate for a moment....

Owen:  "Hmmmm,what is this? I think Eloise stuck one of these in my mouth a few times the other day. She moved with great force but I just can't quite get it to where it needs to go. "

"Maybe I will just lick it instead.  That seems safe.....and I am a safe kind of guy."

Anson: "Oh I know all about this contraption. Everyone in this family seems so happy when they are using it to shovel Blue Bell Ice cream into their mouths. Mom, I'm a little disappointed this doesn't have ice cream on it."

"Oh gosh, that is definitely not how to do it! Although that is not the first time a spoon hit my tonsils thanks to that loving sister of mine."

Owen: "What is that on there? I'm just not sure I'm ready. Oh that feels funny on my tongue!"

Anson: "Open up big, here it comes! It's what I have been waiting for!"

After Robby & I enjoyed watching those first bites we invited the official feeders in to help. They were elated & very serious about their job. So serious they couldn't even look at the camera. Anson's expression is hilarious here. It is like he is saying "Okay Eloise, I will do whatever you want, just don't shove that spoon in any further." In her defense she was very gentle & Anson actually ate more with her shoveling it in rather than with me. 

Owen doesn't look to excited in the next picture but he did really well with Charlotte feeding him too.

After the first feeding, Anson experienced what each Valentine child that has gone before him has...the clean up by a loving pitbull. Although this time, it was only Bella. Bennett would have enjoyed the height of these new chairs since he could have pretty much eaten things right off the tray ; )

Anson was pretty intrigued by all that licking & ended up with clean hands. I pretty sure I have it made. All I have to do is fix the bowls of food, hand them off to the girls to feed them followed by laying the babies on the ground for clean up! Just joking but as they say....there is a little truth behind every joke!

Anson was sad every time you stopped shoveling food into his mouth. That did not surprise me!

Owen did a great job eating quietly & then he got interested in his finger & decided to relax for a bit.

Now do these two look happy or what? I think they enjoyed their first taste of bananas & are ready to explore this whole new world! Up next are sweet potatoes & avocados!

Owen

Anson

Owen & Anson: "Wow mom, that was hard work...enough to wear a little buckaroo out!

Food Galore!

While my mom was in town a couple weeks ago, she had the grand idea of doing some batch cooking for our freezer. She came prepared with a book that had multiple menus to choose from complete with a grocery list, prep day list & full schedule for cooking day.

We chose a 2 week menu that had 12 entrees. The first task was to check the pantry & refrigerator to make sure we had staple items that were included in the recipes. Then we tackled the grocery store. We did not use coupons but were still pleased with our total bill of about $135. A fairly large portion of the cost was meat.

That afternoon, we followed the directions & spent about 2 hours doing all of the prep for cooking day. We cooked about 10 pounds of chicken & chopped it up as well as chopping all the veggies that we could.

The next day, we got started in the kitchen as soon as Charlotte went down for her nap. It would have been an intense task if I were to have tried to do it alone but with my mom there, it was easy (at least for me because she made sure I was resting). We went step by step cooking & assembling dishes & it worked great! The kitchen smelled amazing!

After nearly 5 hours, all of the dishes were complete and packaged for the freezer. With 12 entrees, we actually ended up with about 21 meals! Most of them have about 4 servings each.

Our chosen menu included the following: Chili Verde, Breakfast Casserole, Meatballs, Spaghetti sauce to be used in French Bread Pizza, Calzones & with meatballs, Chicken & Rice, Broccoli Chicken Casserole, Marinated Flank steak, Chili Hamburgers, Chicken Linguine, Mexican Stroganoff & one other that I cannot remember at the moment.

My plan was to save all of the meals for June when we are not sleeping much & not in the mood to cook although my mom kept saying that we should enjoy them now. Turns out, the tiredness is beginning to set in along with the swollen ankles therefore we have eaten something from the freezer 4 out of the last 5 nights : ) Everything we have had so far has been delicious!

Thanks mom for such a fabulous idea & for being the head chef with me as your assistant!

Amongst the cooking & various other projects, Gaga (as Charlotte started calling her) found plenty of time to spend with her sweet grandchild.

Here is the pair out to dinner

I love having my mom in town & cannot wait for her return on June 1st! She is going to spend a few weeks with us as we settle into the new normal with two babies in this household. Looking forward to it!

Food for little ones

Juanita & I spent a few hours yesterday morning cooking for our little sweethearts. We had a great time in all the mess of multiple recipes going at the same time. We both made quite a bit of pureed baby food in the earlier months but feel like we have been slackers as the girls are growing. We have these fabulous recipe books that we should use all the time so it is our goal to cook every 2 or 3 weeks together to stock up our freezers with healthy food for the girlies.

We each chose 2 recipes & provided all the ingredients with the recipes tripled or quadrupled. I am sure it would have been entertaining to watch us cook & manage two busy toddlers running all over! There was only 1 crash when I think Matilda was receiving an unwanted hug from Charlotte and they ended up on top of each other on the tile. After a few tears, they were best buddies again! They watched Elmo & ate snacks, read books, pushed around a shopping cart & tried repeatedly to climb on top of anything they could. Busy is the best way to describe them right now : )

Onto the chefs.....

The recipes I chose were from Anabel Karmel's Top 100 Finger Foods









Here are some of the most delicious muffins. They are carrot & cheese with Parmesan sprinkled on top.

My other recipe was for mini meatloaves that we cooked in a muffin pan to give you an idea of the size. They were pretty tasty as well!

Here is one of Juanita's. Chicken & Apple Balls which I thought were really yummy! This recipe is from another Anabel Karmel book. Juanita also made a 3 Cheese sauce to go on pasta but I failed to get a picture of it. Maybe I will snap one when Charlotte has it smeared all over her face ; )

I didn't get a good picture of the girls but here is Charlotte anxiously awaiting the muffins to be finished baking. Too bad she spit them out of her mouth immediately!

Great day of cooking & much more fun to do it with a friend. I already have some recipes picked out for next time. Also, I think I might hire someone to tend to the girls...maybe Hugo & Robby will volunteer. That way we can move faster & save some money!

Pierogi Day 2010

On New Years Eve, we along with Steve & Jenny hosted the 2nd Annual Valentine Pierogi Day. & it was a success if I do say so myself!

Robby's Grandma Virginia, his mom's mom was 100% polish & in honor of the family heritage, Bob & Jeannine, Robby's parents decided to set aside a day each year to make pierogies. This tradition has been going for at least 5 years in Dallas, maybe more. Last year, the Valentine's were at our house and hosted Pierogi Day with us as the helpers. This year was our first attempt at running the show. All said & done, it was a little more work than anticipated but so much fun!

We had nearly 40 people & made about 240 pierogies which were enjoyed with a delicious spread of sides including a few Polish dishes: red cabbage, chocolate babka & kielbasa shipped by Grandma Virginia from The Polish Place Butcher Shop in Detroit, Michigan. All of our cooking & eating was accompanied with Polka music that we have stuck in our head for weeks following ; )

One side note, according to Big Bob, you can only wear a Polish shirt purchased by him if you are Polish. He bought all the Pollocks the "You bet your Pierogi I'm Polish" shirts back in 2006. The next year they got the shirts that say "Polska" down the sleeve. Jenny & I were extremely jealous & tried to convince Bob to buy us some but he held his ground & forced us to make our own. We settled upon "The Polish love me" & surprised everyone at Pierogi Day 2007. This year, we had to make shirts for the girls who are 1/8th Polish....you will see what we decided on in a picture below.

Here are some snapshots of the day.....

Our welcome sign on the front door. When we were prepping for the day on the night before, we started adding "ski" to everything we said & basically could not stop laughing.

The 3 of us (4 if you count growing baby in belly)

Bella Blue in her "You bet your Pierogi I'm Polish" shirt. She wore it all day!

Here are the slaves to the kitchen to keep things moving along.....

Jenny was the pierogi boiler, Steve boiled the smoked Kielbasa for us

Robby manned the dough making & cutting while I fried the boiled ones out on the back porch.

What is not pictured is the rotating groups of 6 at the kitchen table rolling out the cut circles, stuffing them with potato & cheese filling then sealing them with a little water and a fork to press the edges together. This team of folks were quick learners & great Pierogi makers. We will invite them back next year ; )

Here are Charlotte & Karis in their adorable shirts their creative mothers made them ; ) Aunt Jenny surprised us with the matching bows!

Our neighbors Hugo, Juanita & Matilda joined us for the festivities. Their family moved here from Colombia & Juanita surprised us by revealing that she is part Polish as well!

And just for one last laugh, when one child arrived, she placed a sticker randomly on Charlotte's shirt. Our little Polish Chick became a Polish Hick in a split second.

We celebrated Jenny's 27th Birthday in the midst of Pierogi Day. She looked stunning in Charlotte's feather boa as we sang Happy Birthday : )

An amazing crew stayed after and tagged team whipping the kitchen & living area back in to working order. It was a DISASTER! Once it was all done, we spent the afternoon relaxing and definitely went to be long before 2011 began. I miss living in Texas where I could just stay up until 11pm & watch the ball drop in New York. I probably wouldn't even make it until then these days but it is a nice thought to think I would enjoy it ; )

The year would be incomplete without Pierogi Day & we cannot WAIT until next year when the Valentine's will be here to celebrate with us! We are wondering if we can reuse a "Polish Chick" shirt on Baby Valentine #2 or if we will, as Uncle Steve said, have to turn it into "Polish Chick Magnet." Both would be cute right?

Giving Thanks

Each year during this season, we are reminded of how thankful we are to the Lord who provides every good thing for us. He is faithful even when we are not, He causes us to persevere through trials, He guides us down a path where He is glorified most in every detail & we are refined to be more like Him.

This year we are thankful for more than could ever be listed in a blog post.......but, just to name a few things:

• our growing family
• the Lord's provision in our jobs that we both enjoy greatly
• seeing the beginnings of Charlotte's sweet personality, and her teeth!
• our friends in Orlando that seem more like family when we are all far away from home
• God's goodness in our marriage in keeping us faithful to one another & helping us deeply love & cherish one another
• the joy we are experiencing in serving at Celebration Community Church

This was our third year to host a Thanksgiving Dinner in our home & one thing we love is how the guests vary every year. This year we enjoyed time with Steve, Jenny & Karis, Eric & Jennifer, a couple from our small group & Diah, a neighbor.

Robby has become the best chef around especially when it comes to Turkey. The process begins at least 48 hours prior to Thanksgiving Day with making a homemade brine for the Turkey to soak in for 24 hours before going in the oven. After soaking, the Turkey is stuffed with an array of spices, apples & cinnamon sticks. As many of you have experienced, the smell of a turkey cooking is amazing.....and it was! We had homemade rolls that are Jenny's dad's recipe, Kickin' Potatoes (one of my favs), green bean casserole & stuffing topped off by some fabulous desserts.

Here we are with the Turkey......notice the growing baby bump.

It looked much larger after the meal if you know what I mean ; )

the fam, Karis is now 3 months old & Charlotte is 16 months

These two are so cute together : )

Karis gets LOTS of kisses every time she comes over!

Jenny, Steve & Karis eating dinner

I think the photo below belongs in a magazine! Seriously, this Turkey is to die for!

Jenny made our pumpkin & pecan pies & I made the mini chocolate pies. The chocolate pie is a recipe that my Grandmother Alene made for holidays for as long as I can remember. I will say it has never been replicated as delicious as she made it but I hope to get closer with each attempt : )


Black Friday for us involves NO shopping unless we are picking up a few last minute ingredients for our yearly supply of Turkey Soup. We have given the day a new name...."Dia de Zuppa." It involves pretty much an entire day of work returning nearly 7 gallons of soup. We did two types this year, one basic Turkey Soup with celery, onion, carrots & tomato base. The other, my favorite, Southwest Turkey Soup. This one has rice, corn, black beans, caramelized onion, jalapenos, rotel, green onions & LOTS of spice. I am basically assistant to the chef doing lots of cleaning and moving things around to make room for whatever he needs. I personally am thankful for the husband I have today & everyday, my personal chef, Charlotte entertainer, dog caretaker.....you get the idea. I spent a good part of the day on the couch fighting off pregnancy induced nausea & vomiting accompanied with major sleepiness : ) He was a wonderful husband today!

Here is the finished product & oh how I wish could capture the smell for you!

We pray your Thanksgiving was filled with thankfulness to the Lord for what He has done in your life & those around you. Crazy enough, can't believe Christmas is just around the corner! Bring on the decorations!

Date Night

Since Charlotte arrived, we have discovered our favorite date night in. Cheese & Wine night! We do this fairly often & have come to love our quiet time chatting on the couch or catching up on our favorite shows.

A few days ago, we decided to go all out & head to Whole Foods to prepare for our date. We picked up a great bottle of wine......

3 cheeses- Gouda, Blue & Goat, water crackers, almonds & walnuts

and a little (or big) dessert

If you haven't had a date night like this before, you should try it! My only advice...skip dinner : )