Sweet Baby

Little Rileigh was born just under 3 months early.  We have seen her three times, once each in July, August and at the end of September.  It has been two months since I saw this sweet, little bundle.  Thanks to her mommy and her step-grandma, I get to see her getting bigger through pictures that they post on Facebook.  I ‘lifted’ both of the pics below from Grandma Kim’s Facebook page.

It is amazing to me to see how far she has come.  What a big girl!!!

I can hardly wait to see her for myself.  Ok, lets get real, I can hardly wait to hold her.

A Miniature Miniature Horse

Aaron went out to mow the grass on Sunday afternoon.  He had been out for a little while when he came rushing through the door from the garage to the house, telling me to get my camera.  He said, “There’s something that’s going to make you happy.”  He knows that I have been kinda down for a few weeks, so finding some happy is a good thing.  I assumed that he had found some baby birds, since that has happened so much this year.  As I walked through the Cypress trees that line the backyard, into the open field behind our house, this is what I saw:

Now, this picture doesn’t quite show why he would be so excited.  It’s no surprise to me that there are miniature horses in a field that backs up to our subdivision.

But this….

This is a first for us.

In the 4 1/2 years that we have lived here, we haven’t seen any bay-bee miniature horses.

As cute as the full-size miniature horses are (is that an oxymoron?), the baby was just heartbreakingly cute.

Look at that face!!!!

I think momma was trying to wean the baby, as she kept kicking at the baby when it was trying to eat.

What a treat to see this little cutie.

My Favorite Pumpkin Pie

I found this recipe while I was in college. Other than textbooks, the Holiday recipe magazine that this recipe was in is one of the few items I ever purchased in the campus bookstore.

For the pie crust, I now always use a deep dish pie shell. For several years, I used 2 regular 9” pie shells instead. But, I do find that I like the deep dish version better. I do not make my own pie crust. My favorite pie crust is Mrs. Smiths Deep Dish Pie Crust, which comes in a pack of two and is found in the freezer section at the grocery store.

Now, for the recipe:

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 2/3 cups evaporated milk
• 1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin (solid pack pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 Unbaked deep dish pie shell

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Combine eggs and sugar; add evaporated milk and blend well.

Fold spices into pumpkin; then combine with egg mixture. (It is important to fold spices into pumpkin first because they will float to the top if added straight to the egg/milk mixture, as it is very thin).

Pour into pie shell; bake for ten minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake an additional 40-50 minutes or until center is firm.

Cool. Serve with ice cream or whipped topping.

I store, covered lightly, in the refrigerator.

The combined pie mix that you pour into the shell is very thin (liquid-y). The first time that I made this pie, I was afraid that it wouldn’t set up, but it has always been the ‘perfect’ consistency after being baked according to directions.

Happy Birthday

I want to wish my nephew, Bryan, a big, Happy 18th Birthday. Hope it is the best birthday yet!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Pi-O-Neer Woman’s Cookbook

I have been reading Pioneer Woman’s blog for over two years and was very excited earlier this year when she announced that she would be having a cookbook come out this fall. So, of course, I had to pre-order it from Amazon.com.

What I can’t figure out is why I didn’t make her chocolate sheet cake long before now. Why did I wait until I had her cookbook? It has been on her website for a very long time.

This cake is absolutely divine. The cake is very moist and the frosting is just delicious. While I am generally not a fan of chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, this cake cures me of that.

YUM!!!

Time for a Change

Up until this weekend, every room in our house was this color: scone, with white trim throughout.

On Friday night, I tackled painting the master bath. While it took way longer to paint than I would have thought, the result was well worth the time spent. (Be prepared – we used this color in a total of three rooms)

After lunch on Saturday, we decided to start on the Kitchen/dining area. We actually chose this color of green to be used in the kitchen and dining area before deciding to also use it in the master bath. Once I realized that it would match my existing border in the bathroom, we decided to use it in there as well. The color looks a little different in the next couple of shots since one was taken with the light over the table on and one without.

And, in daylight, the color looks even more different.

Sunday morning, we started on the laundry room, which is really the reason why we decided to paint this weekend. We are expecting the new washer and dryer to be delivered tomorrow and this was the perfect opportunity to get the laundry room cleaned and painted. We matched up a blue paint color with one of the flowers that is in the border we already had in this room.

Aaron was saying what a relaxing color this is. I told him I might find it so relaxing that I might not want to do laundry…

When Aaron finished taping the laundry room, I asked if he thought we should go ahead and paint the main bathroom since we had about 3/4 gallon of paint left from painting the master bath and kitchen. While I painted the laundry room, he taped off that bathroom.

By around 4:30 this afternoon, we had the main bathroom ‘reassembled’.

What an amazing difference some paint makes.