Friday, July 27, 2012

Someone call the landlord!

Oh wait...  we don't have a landlord.  

If you've been watching the news I don't need to tell you that it's been raining rather violently here lately.  Last night was crazy!  Look what happened!!  

That's our neighbor's tree on our front lawn.  


And that's our lamppost that got beheaded (which is fine by me since I secretly wanted a new one).

But this morning when Bryan and I surveyed the neighborhood we realized that all the other houses were perfectly fine; as if nothing happened.  We were the only house that got hit!  ... which reminded us of this scene in "The Life Aquatic."  Gotta love Bill Murray.






Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Lately...

It's been a little hectic around here but I wanted to share some random pictures and stories with you!

Luke went in for his 6 month check up and aced it!  90th percentile for weight and 75th for head circumference and length.  He also got two shots and barely flinched -- I think the bulk in his meaty thighs served as a good pain blocker.




We made a trip out to the Bronx Zoo last weekend for the first time and it was a hit despite the oppressive heat. 






I don't know if you knew this, but we had a huge storm last Sunday.  Do you know why it poured so hard?  I think this is why:






Here's a random picture of Luke after his nap.  He slept HARD.





Oh and Bryan and me?  One day, we played hooky from work and went into the city.  It was so fun!  How cool is this pool in the middle of Soho?






And finally, I made an icebox cake today!  It seemed like the perfect thing to do in this hot weather -- no baking involved.  I followed this recipe from Smitten Kitchen (http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/01/wafer-wonderland/), but decided to add coconut to it.  Looks pretty good, huh?  How was it?  I don't know.  I have to wait 'til tomorrow to eat it!  I'll let you know.  :)



Hope you're having a great week!  


Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Yum!

It's been a while since I've consistently cooked dinner.  I usually try and pull something together a few nights a week, but with working full time and the two munchkins, by the time I get home, I'm completely wiped and all I really want to do is veg on the couch, eat Cheetos while watching the Kardashians (did I just say that?).


Anyway, tonight was different!  I recently picked up this great cook book and decided that I am really going to make an effort to make dinner a fun and exciting time as opposed to a chore.



I made Porcupine Meatballs (I love the name "Porcupine Meatballs" -- because there's rice in it that makes it look spiky!) but since I didn't have everything I needed for the sauce, I used the sauce in this recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Sweet-and-Sour-Meatballs-869.  

I pretty much followed the Porcupine Meatball recipe to a "T" but with the sauce, I halved it and then added a bit of apple cider vinegar and cinnamon and then took my emulsion blender to it.  (Now, that I've made all these little alterations, can't I technically call this recipe mine?? :) )

Here's what the dish looked like after I got all the elements in the pot (thanks to the Smalleys for leaving the Bud Lite in our fridge!):


And because I love to layer my carbs, I decided to cook up some noodles to have with the meatballs and sauce.  Here is what it looked like:


OK, I know, I need to work on my food photography, but believe me, today I was part of the Clean Plate Club.  

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Best invention

Baby flip flops!!



Lukey has an amazing "Blue Steel" look, doesn't he?



Catching up

It's been a bit nutty around the Santee household but in a good way!  Luke got baptized last Sunday and we had the WHOLE family in town to watch -- how lucky are we??  Truly, I am so grateful to have such an amazing family who will travel to great lengths to show their love and support.  I've got some great shots of his big day (and his adorable outfit) thanks to my "shutter enthusiast" parents -- "harlmoni and harlabogi."  More on that in another post.

It's been so hot around here...  The air is so still so there's hardly any breeze and the mosquitoes are out in full force!  Poor mommy and Malina, we just get eaten alive (must be because we're so sweet...  actually, it's a fact!  The woman here is one brave (and itchy) soul!  http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7413464n&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cbsnews%2Ffeed+(CBSNews.com

Enough editorial!  You're probably reading this blog to see cute pictures of the kids, right?  Here we go!!

I just love these shots of Malina.  Makes me think of endless summers and reminds me of how innocent she is.





Whenever we can, we try and spend some one on one time with Malina.  My favorite thing to do is to take walks with her.  I love seeing who she brings with us on her walk.  It used to always be Pete the Cat.  Sometimes it's Lamby, but lately it's been Maggie (named after Amma's cat in Ohio).  Yesterday, she decided to take Maggie on a stroll... checking every once in a while to make sure she was OK -- checking to see if her sun shade was adequately covering her, giving her a sip of juice, giving her a snack.  It's really sweet.



And this morning, I came down after getting ready for the day and found our two kids sitting side by side in their high chairs.  Wow!  We have two kids in high chairs...  in diapers!



That's about it!  It's been a pretty lazy summer.  But we're having fun and finding joy in the small things...  like having ice pops before lunch, snuggles, baby giggles and monster thighs...