Happy Halloween

Homemade baby food

I decided to make Hazel some homemade baby food. The stuff in the jars smells and looks really weird. Jonathan & I both tried all the batches and we thought they tasted great. Hazel, on the other hand, did NOT want the food. I don't know if you can tell from the pictures but it is all over her--she was desperately trying to not eat it. Then I got the camera out, and she posed and thought that was fun.

The good news is that on day #2 with the baby food, she decided she liked it!
She is still not sure about the couscous and chicken...I guess I will keep trying!

Friends & Family

Hazel has had lots of visitors lately. My Aunt Catherine came through on her move to Minnesota. Hazel LOVED her! When Catherine came in the door Hazel waved and smiled at her. They were instant pals.

Hazel also got to meet our dear friends Scott & Claire. They all had a pretty good time hanging out. Hazel thought Scott was pretty interesting. Claire & Hazel got to spend the afternoon together when I went to my class

Hazel is pulling up on everything--which also means she is falling a lot more. She had a rough few days...and one bruise:( I can't believe our daughter is big enough to stand on her own, and to be able to reach our kitchen table...how did that happen?

you can dance if you want to

baby gate

Last week, I tried to find the perfect baby gate. I didn't realize how expensive a piece of plastic could be. So, I got the cheapest one, made out of wood that I thought would do the trick. Well, of course, it didn't. So in the mean time Hazel has figured out how to climb the stairs. By the time I get around to getting another gate that works properly, she will probably have figured out how to go down the stairs.

Did I mention that our pumpkin weighs 40 lbs? I was at Safeway last week and they had a pumpkin for sale that is the same size as the one we grew. It was $60!! If I wasn't so attached our pumpkin I might try to make a little bit of money.

Our 5th Anniversary

Yesterday, Jonathan & I celebrated our 5th anniversary! As a standing tradition since year #2 we have made ravioli. Each year, we get better at making ravioli. Just to give a brief history on our ravioli--the first year we made it, we stacked all the ravioli on top of each other after we had filled them. So, when we went to cook the ravioli--we had one giant blob. The next year we decided we needed to redeem ourselves and made better ravioli. We ended up with WAY too much and again, we decided since the ravioli stuck together, to layer them on wax paper...well, you can imagine how that went. we had lots of floaties in the water and a lot of cooked dough without much filing. The next year--we remember our mistakes and made pretty decent ravioli.

This year, we had written notes to ourselves as to "what not to do" and we made the best ravioli yet. We made a spinach, ricotta filing and for our sauce we made a butter, sage sauce. It was really simple, but quite delicious!



We also decided to make creme brulee for dessert...we have leftovers we are going to enjoy all week!!

A good friend, Laura Martin, makes ravioli every thanksgiving with her italian side of the family. We asked her what was the key to making good ravioli, since we had such a hard time with it. She said, "lots of wine, make sure you can read newspaper through your noodles, and lots of wine." We added cheese to the "lots of wine" advice.

Hazel was much happier with this whole process after dinner and when she got to rip some tissue paper to shreds!