Making Apple(sauce) for Emma

I finally continued the baby food making.  It seems like it's been a while since the butternut squash introduction and we've just been enjoying our vegetables.  We did try bananas but Emma does not like them, at all.  You can sneak in about 1 bite and she'll not take another.  Her mouth is clamped shut and if you sneak another bite in she will gag.  We've tried it with cereal, sauteed in butter and whipped, you name it.  Bananas just might not be her thing......and that is the go to fruit that is easy to make on demand!

So this past weekend I purchased some apples and pears.  You might be thinking...hmmm...didn't you guys already make a bunch of applesauce?  Yes we did, but it has sugar and cinnamon in it and I haven't been giving Emma food with sugar yet.  After consulting my cookbooks the recommendation was Golden Delicious Apples.  We don't eat those unfortunately, we're more Honeycrisp, Braeburn, or Pink Lady apple eaters.  As Tim says "Golden Delicious are mushy".  So we got a smaller bag just for Emma.

So my tools were all set out an ready to go.  My handy apple peeler/corer and stand, a bag of Golden Delicious ($4.37 from Wal-Mart) and reading my recipes about 10 times to make sure I wouldn't forget.

I don't get to use my apple peeler/corer that often.  Usually just for apple pies, but since we weren't using the Foley mill we had to peel and core the apple.  It is so quick and easy, I had it done in no time.

And they make cute curly cue apples.  I had to cut off a couple spots and remove a couple of seeds but I did that when I was cutting them up.  Then I just added 1 tbsp of water for each apple (I did 6 at one time) - and I might have added an extra tbsp just to be safe and put them in a pot.  Here's where the applesauce making unfortunately kicked in - I set the stove temp 8 to boil them, since we're not putting them through a mill they don't have to be mush.  As I was re-reading the recipe one last time I caught my error and it's supposed to be on LOW.  Quickly turned that down and no apples were lost due to my error.  The recipe called for less apples than I made at a time so I cooked them longer and stirred them to get them softened, probably about 15-20 minutes.  Then just dumped the whole thing in the blender and vooolah!

6 apples made 15 servings and Emma's dessert for the night.

Survey says:
Emma:  Lip smacking sounds, and "Heee, hee, hee", which I translate into "YUM"
Abigail:  "This is warm, but it tastes okay"
Megan:  "I like it, can you make me some?"
Ann:  Very sweet, not to bad.....as I take another bite and remind Megan to feed her sister and not herself.
Tim:  (Insert typing sounds because he's at work)

Overall we have 30 1 oz squares freezing.  Megan has put apples on the grocery list for herself, Abby wants us to bring up a jar of applesauce just for her, and I'm happy that Emma likes a fruit!

After dinner I put her on the floor to play and she was rolling around with her thumb in her mouth clutching her bib and passed out.  Happy full baby!  She stayed like that until her sister tried to pick her up because "I never get to hold a sleeping baby" and you can guess how that went.....

Lost Tooth, Butternut Squash, and a Baptism

This weekend turned into being a lot busier than expected.  We had a birthday party on Saturday and Baptism on Sunday and then smushed a bunch of other things in the middle of all of that.

The weekend started off with Abigail losing her 5th tooth.  It is the first one on the top she has lost.  We knew it would be coming out on Friday at school as Friday morning was full of drama because she bit her spoon wrong and it was barely hanging on, but she wouldn't let Tim pull it - and I don't pull teeth unless absolutely necessary.  Don't ask me why, just gives me the creeps.

So here we are with our tooth pillow all ready for bed with a sneaky little sister behind her.  Abby did end up pulling the tooth out at school by herself, and of course it was not big deal there.

Saturday was Carter's 6th birthday party at Going Bonker's.  It was probably the busiest I have ever seen that place.  There were birthday parties galore!  Lots of kids, lots of cake, and A LOT of chaos!  Poor Emma didn't get to play in the 3 and under side because it was just too crowded.  She had to deal with being snuggled by everyone.

Since we had an evening at home I decided to actually bake a decent meal for dinner.  One that did not involve the toaster oven (okay, so maybe it was slightly involved).  Made some bread in the breadmaker by utilizing the timer so we came home to a house filled with the smell of bread.  Decided to utilize what was in the freezer and made some chicken Parmesan from scratch with Megan's help.  She was my bag shaker to bread the chicken breasts.  Then we took on the butternut squash.....

I think this bad boy cost a little over $3 from our grocery store.  It's been sitting around since last week as there hasn't been time to make it yet.  So Megan and I cut it in half and scooped out the seeds.  She did not want to touch the slimy part.

Tim's half looked like this - he had "called dibs" on half of the squash.  We added some cinnamon accidentally in addition to the brown sugar and butter but it still tasted good.  The cinnamon gave it a different but good taste.

Emma's half looked like this.  Similar to sweet potatoes but definitely a more liquid consistency.  We still had a couple plastic containers to serve Emma out of so a whole squash probably would have made 30+ 1 ounce servings easily.  Pealing a squash to steam it was not easy.  I started trying to peel it, then went to just cutting the skin off and peeling off the rest after that.  Worked much better there, probably a little wasted, but it saved time and my sanity as I had a 3 year old helping with everything, and random "I'm hungry" about every 15 minutes.

Sunday we got up bright and early and headed to Collinsville, IL for our nephew Owen's baptism.

Here's a random group shot with the Godparents (yours truly) and Mike Dietz.  Theo also popped in and out of some photos.

Couldn't help but post this photo too.  Abby is snuggling with Owen.  She loves to hold her baby cousin, he wiggles less than Emma does.

Must have been a rough day on the babies!  Mike and Emma finally became friends by the end of the afternoon when she snuggled in and passed out.  Poor kid was out of sorts with the afternoon activities this weekend. 

It was a great weekend and many family and friends showed up to the baptism which was a great surprise to see them.  It was a quiet drive home with exhausted kids (and parents) to end the day.

Sweet Potatoes

This weekend continued the introduction of new foods for Emma.  With my trusty helper Abigail we worked on prepping our ingredients.

Snagged a bag of these for $3.28 at Sam's Club, not too shabby.

Putting the help to work.  Her first peeling experience.  I was kicked out from helping peel and reduced to just cutting up the potatoes.

Sweet potatoes are usually only something I have had to deal with on Thanksgivings - like 2 years ago when the in-laws came to our house.  Our family prefers the sweet potato cousin at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  So a new experience to get them ready to steam.

Very pasty consistency no matter how much water I added.  Much like regular mashed potatoes.  So with that bag of sweet potatoes it ended up making 54 1 oz. servings plus a couple small Tupperware servings to feed Emma with during the next few days.  For $3.28 - that is amazing savings!  My penny pinching is still going strong, although it's only January 13th, so let's not get too excited.

Survey says:
Emma:  I'll take another hit of that!
Tim:  Pretty good (takes another bite for himself)
Ann:  Sweeter than I thought it would be
Abby:  I just want to peel them
Megan:  ZZzzzzzzzz (napping)

Abigail also worked very hard with Emma to help her learn how to sit up.  She's already conquered "rolly polly" as Megan likes to call her rolling skills.  Emma is pretty good at it, but will still kick back or tumble a little bit, but that's how they learn!  We introduced some new baby toys she could play with while sitting that she enjoyed as well.

Here's my Abigail all dressed up and ready to roll this morning.  She received some new boots with "high heels" on Sunday and wore them all day and had to have an outfit picked out for Monday to match them.  She said to me "Mom, don't I look all grown up?"  Yes you do baby girl (insert watery eyes).
Never fear - Megan also got some new shoes but they are dress "high heels" and she is not allowed to wear them to school so she just wears them around the house now to make stomping noises on the wood floors (the deciding factor for this shoe selection as she originally wanted boots, but they didn't stomp as well) and wearing them with her footy pajamas or just carrying them around.

It was a busy weekend and Monday came to quickly and a bit on the chilly side!

Making Peas....

Last night I had the time to make some baby food peas for Emma.  I followed the cookbook recommendations and went with a bag of frozen peas (which costs almost the same as 1 2-serving pack of Gerber 1st peas).  The cookbook recommended to use a food mill to make sure there were no chunky skins so I followed along diligently.  This however did not work out for me at all.  It's one thing to make applesauce with the food mill - but peas was another story.  It was just one big pea smushed mess, and barely any peas in the bowl that made it through the mill.  So I busted out the trusty blender and "liquefied" it all.

I am not a big fan of the smell of peas and they had an interesting color from being steamed which was pretty cool. 

They came out very smooth - less chunky than what I got from the food mill actually.  With the 1 bag of frozen peas I made 30 1-oz servings and a small Tupperware of extra to serve the next couple of days.  I believe the bag of peas was $1.89 or something along those lines, so again GREAT SAVINGS!  2013 is our year for penny pinching and we're off to a good start.  From recipes I have read about for 2nd foods peas are often used to mix in with other vegetables so it will be a good one to have. 

But what did Emma think about them???

She took the first bite just fine, then what you see in this picture is about a 3 minute stand off where she wouldn't open her mouth.  I thought this might be the first food she doesn't like.  We tried different sounds, airplane noises, you name it, that jaw was clamped shut!

Then I brought in reinforcements - the entertainer of Emma.  Megan can get her to laugh at about anything she does, so between the two of them she started eating them again.  I'm glad to see I am not the only one who has an open mouth when feeding a baby :).

This was actually the first time I have let the girls help feed Emma.  I showed them how small her bites should be and how to get food she might spit out with the spoon.  They did really great with her and had a good time.  Even cleaned her up with a wipe when they were done. 

Next up: sweet potatoes!

Emma is 6 Months!

Hard to believe that 6 months ago we became a family of 5 and our little Emma Josephine was born.  But yes, time marches on and she is now 6 months and changing so quickly it's hard to keep up!

She doesn't have her 6 month Dr. appointment until the 22nd so the height/weight stats will have to wait - I fully expect a 20 pounder with this one though.

• Has 3 - 1/2 teeth currently.  3 on the bottom and 1 incisor peeking through on the top, however there are 3 teeth on the top almost ready to cut as well.  Our kids tend to get teeth pretty early - a lovely trait they inherited from their mother :).
• Drools....a lot.  See above note concerning teething.  If you pick her up in and hold her above you, you might have to duck and cover because you will be bombed with drool.
• Wearing 6-9 and 9-12 month clothing.  Pants are becoming a deciding factor on what fits - they need to be stretchy!
• Does not like wearing socks, loves to play with her feet.
• Started eating vegetable solids.  So far green beans and carrots have been tried.  Others will get introduced as soon as I can make them.
• Can roll and scoot about anywhere she wants to, it's not baby gate time yet, but we are getting closer.
• Can sit up for about 15 seconds, but then will lean forwards and won't really prop herself up with her hands yet.
• Still sucking her thumb when she is tired but that's about the only time she does.
• Will sleep 11-12 hours at night
• Takes a morning and afternoon nap, usually totaling about 3+ hours
• Has tried a sippy cup with water
• Moved from her infant car seat to a rear facing convertible car seat.
• Finds her big sisters to be the most entertaining things out there
• Likes toys that crinkle the most
• Only cries when she is tired, hungry (and has seen her bottle), or is poopy
• Possibly likes her Dad more than her Mom because he has facial hair she can pull
• Has the best giggle ever

That's just a small recap of all things Emma.  She is growing and changing so quickly, we might have to try to drag out this baby phase a little longer.....

Weekend Wrap Up

The weekend didn't exactly go as planned but we still managed to get a couple things accomplished.  Christmas is almost officially down from the inside of the house.  Just a couple more little things to put away and then organizing it all back in storage - because you know it has to fit in a certain way to get it all to fit in one space.  Tonight the "activity scene" comes down, the kids wanted to leave it up since they actually listened at church on Sunday and heard about the 3 Kings.  So the Kings have been moved into the manger now for a couple of days.

We also had another item added to the list thanks to Dave Cowan - Abby had to make jerky since he made some at the lake over new years and all she could talk about was how she liked it so much.  Oddly enough we are actually out of deer burger since Tim hasn't shot a deer this year (however he did shoot a rabbit on Saturday, first kill on the farm) so we had to buy some beef which is not usually what we make jerky with.  It was a lot fattier and I'm not sure I like the taste all that much, to used to the leaner meat I guess.

So we made Abby help since it was her project.  End results:
Tim:  Look at all that grease (from the dehydrator)
Ann:  It's okay, a little chewy
Abby:  It's not spicy like Dave's
Megan:  Ummmm, no thank you

The other project we did was to start, or make an attempt I guess at our 26 Acts of Kindness.  Something Ann Curry started after the Newtown shooting.  It's a big twitter thing, which twitter is something I choose to not even try to understand until I win the Powerball and have cool things to "tweet", or my girlfriends decide to all get on and we can tweet together and be cool with our 5 followers.
So - our first act of kindness was to donate our litter boxes, 1 pet taxi, litter scooper, bowls, and food mats to our local humane society to help with someone who was going to adopt a cat/kitten.

I'm not sure why Megan does not look all that happy.  We did browse the rabbits, cats, and dogs and discussed several times why we will not have a chihuahua as a dog.  There was a cute black lab that was already adopted, and a yellow one that can't be adopted until the 9th - but he'll go quickly.  There was a coonhound that I wanted to take home immediately.  Although he looked nothing like our Buddy, he reminded me of him.  The girls wanted to know why there were no fish to adopt......

Emma also had a couple new things, the first being the introduction of the sippy cup...

Not only did she grab it like a champ, she started sucking the water out of it immediately.  She could be the smartest baby we know.  She has also learned to drop it on the floor and laughs when we have to pick it up.  Tilting it up will be another story though, we have to keep it pretty full so she doesn't suck air.  She gets this at lunch and dinner feedings while she's at the table with us.

Emma's other food intro this weekend was carrots.

Getting the first taste Friday night, didn't even spit them out.

My first batch to freeze.  One bag = 15 cubes =  $.92 = AWESOME! 

Survey says:  All gone!

So I will admit I am enjoying the whole baby food making way too much.  The orange cubes are even cuter than the green cubes.  The cook book said to add some non-salted butter to help with the beta keratin and add some fat.  I think it kept them a little sweeter.  However there was a learning curve again.....carrots absorb water when steamed very fast!  Then the butter just burns in the bottom of the pan and carmelizes.  Good smell, messy clean up.  Added more water for the second batch.  Emma had plain carrots, carrots and green beans mixed to together, and carrots with cereal.  And the survey says:
Tim:  These are really good, I'm impressed
Abby:  I'll try them next time
Megan:  Ummmmmm, no thank you
Ann:  Not too shabby
Emma:  Grrrrrrr (she growls a lot, new favorite noise)


Next on the list is peas, have to use a food mill for this one, going to take an attempt at it tonight.  Abby and Megan are up for it and Abby actually wants some peas - as long as they stay in circles.

Currently...

This is for you Jenn (remind me to do it in February)!
Currently January:
Watching: Guys with Kids

Reading:  Top 100 Baby Purees:  100 Quick and Easy Meals for a Healthy and Happy Baby
 by Annabel Karmel  (I know I am exciting!)

Listening:  101.5 KPLA - missing Christmas music a little bit.

Making:  Baby food!

Feeling:  Exhausted (12 "stay at home days" in a row and only 3 were actually spent at our house)

Planing:  Something to do during the kid's spring break and how/what to do to de-clutter the house.  Goodwill will be getting a donation!

Loving:  Every day I can get with my family, they are growing up too quickly!

Baby Food!!

So with baby #3 I am making the effort to save a little money and make my own baby food.  Why I didn't do this for the first 2 is beyond me because it is so easy and saves a ton of money with minimal investment.  So I put on my Christmas list a couple baby food making essentials, browsed the web on how to make things, borrowed a cookbook and BAM - baby food!

Green Beans were my vegetable of choice to start with for Ms. Emma.  So what you see is my pureed 1 oz servings all packaged up and ready to be frozen.  Out of a bag and a half of frozen green beans I got about 50 1 oz servings.  A 2-pack of Gerber baby 1st foods from Toys r us costs $1.29, I probably spent $5 on green beans so on average saved between $10-$15 depending on how much we feed Emma at a time.  I should have read if my silicone trays were 1 or 2 oz servings before I threw away the wrapper, but I think they are 1 oz.  So easy to pop out and we just bag them in freezer bags and pull out a cube or two to defrost for dinner the next day.  We'll be able to mix them up with other "flavors" later as well.  Carrots and peas are next with some sweet potatoes not far behind.

Survey says:

"Yummy!  I like to eat."

All gone!!

I'll have to admit, I did a little party dance when I popped them out of the trays because they look so cool.  Tim was even impressed.  Half a bag went to day care this morning for Emma to enjoy.  I'm excited for carrots tonight!!

Holiday Recap

The holidays are finally over and the words I can think to describe it was wonderful, happy, friend filled, stressful, and exhausting.  The Thank you cards have all been written and mailed and Christmas decorations will start coming down this weekend and we can officially put the 2012 holidays to bed, and maybe I'll get a nap in there too.  The girls were overly spoiled by their friends and relatives, we ate WAY too much, and slept very little it seemed.

Here are a couple of photos from our adventures:

Christmas Day at the Bovee house. 

Megan teaching Theo how to paint in her new book.  He had never painted before and Megan was a very good teacher.

Schmidt/Bovee Christmas Day - these two were the sorters, hard to tell where actual piles are.

Owen and the quilt I made him, finished in time for Christmas thankfully.

First Christmas for Emma and Owen, they look like they have matching outfits almost.  Emma is wearing Megan's and Owen might have Theo's on from the 2009 Christmas - so there is a chance they are matching.....

Christmas with our neighbor's the Roddy's.

Visiting Santa at Carrollton Christmas - and yes, Emma is crying.  The whole room cheered as they have missed a crying Schmidt Christmas photo.  Just wait until next year.....

The Schmidt great-grandchildren exchange before opening - Abby and Megan are in there somewhere.  There are 21 great grandchildren now and only 1 on the way that we know of for 2013.  Doris and Joe would be so proud.

Emma enjoying her first mechanical horse ride on New Year's Day.

We spent New Year's at the Lake with our usual crew minus the Resnik's who decided to have a baby on NYE.  I'm counting on Jenn to post pictures for that in her December Daily posts.

Finishing up the 12 Days

A goal of 2013 is to complete unfinished projects instead of starting new ones...so:
On the 12th day of Christmas my children left for me:

12 extra hangers

11 times slipping/falling on the ice

10 royal Little People (we have 2 princes as well)


9 candy balls on the kitchen floor
8 Christmas decorations
7 minute wait to see Santa
6 Hannah Montana songs
5 infected ears
4 brand new tires
3 new prescriptions
2 stinky pumpkins
and a toilet that runs by itself.

And that my friends is the end of that.