raising a 'good' girl

My sweet Savannah is displaying some very sure signs of being an independent, determined little girl. She wants to do things her way, when she wants to & is not happy when she can't do something she wants to do. I understand that some of this is simply her age, but my mom calls her a little firecracker & she is right.

I came across this post today about a mom not wanting to raise a good child, but a God-following adult. It is so good. I'm sure that I will come back to this article because I'm sure that my Savannah will be a fountain loving girl. {You'll have to read the article to see what I mean. = )}

Recipes

I'm sort of in a recipe rut. I'm on a mission to find new yummy stuff to make.

I tried 2 recipes that I found on Pinterest last week & they were not good. = ( In fact when I made the 2nd meal, Ken said, 'Um, I think I'd rather have the leftovers of that gross stuff you made last night over this...' Boo. I totally agreed, so my feelings weren't hurt.

I did find a delicious pizza recipe on a blog that I enjoy reading. We loved it! Savannah tore.it.up! {Thanks for the new recipe, Tea! I've never had goat cheese before & it was sooooooooo good!}

Tonight, I'm making Philly Cheesesteaks, which are always a hit & I've planned some good old standbys for this week.

I recently bought The Pioneer Woman's Cookbook. I love her blog! I'm sure I'll find some new favorites in there.

What are some of your favorite recipes?

Hmmm...I was kind of link happy today. = )

Saturday stuff

Savannah & I met my mom, sister Amy & niece Maddie at Logan's for lunch today. Maddie & Savannah tore up their macaroni & cheese!



I didn't get a picture of Maddie, but she was 2-fisting it! She was so funny!

Then we all went to Sears to get Savannah's 1-year pictures taken. {Is she really almost 1 year old already?!} They turned out sooooo cute! She was funny. She's usually such a ham for the camera but it was a BIG camera & the lady was kind of loud {but very nice & friendly}. Savannah takes a little while to process new things, doesn't do loud real well & hadn't had a nap yet so she wasn't too sure about all of this & was pretty shy. A couple of times, I thought she was going to start crying, but she didn't. We did get some really sweet pictures. And a couple hammy ones. = D I got a CD of all of the pics & I'll post them, but I'm not sure if I want to before her birthday or not. = )

And my little sweetie fell asleep pretty well in her crib about an hour & a half ago. She's starting to fuss, though. We'll see how long it lasts...or how long Mommy lasts...

OK, she's stopped fussing & Mommy didn't go upstairs. Both good signs. = )

new stuff

It's a big day in our house. Savannah & I went out & bought her 1-year birthday dress. Isn't it adorable?


The big news is that Miss Savannah has her 3rd tooth! Finally! She's been working on it for a while & we've been able to see her top teeth for a couple of weeks now. But...a bottom tooth broke through today... {Those top teeth are being so stubborn!}


You can actually see it better in the picture above, but here's a closeup...


Her new thing is that she points at you & when you point back, she will reach out to touch fingers with you. When our fingers touch, we make a buzzing sound {like you're getting electrocuted} & she cracks up so hard! It's so funny! I was doing it here trying to get another picture of her new tooth. But you can't see it.


Like I said, we've been able to see her teeth for a while now, so I'm thinking they're going to start popping out like popcorn. = D

sledding & birthdays

We took Savannah sledding for the first time today. Actually, we pulled her around the front yard for a few minutes. She loved it!




She really liked it when Daddy pulled her 'fast' & over the small bump in the yard hill. = )


Mommy didn't go as fast. = )




Afterwards, we went to my parents house to have some pizza & cake for my sister Amy's 30th birthday. Her little girl, Maddie, was sitting on her lap eating some cake. At one point she decided, 'Forget the fork. I'm going for broke!', grabbed the piece of cake & tried to shove the entire thing in her mouth. It was hysterical! = D


Here's my dad with both of the babies. I love this picture.


I hope you all had a blessed Sunday!

Yeah, I know this is random...

I got a 3 Tier Bake and Fill Cake Pan from my mom for Christmas. You get a 2-part cake pan that looks like this:


You put the inner part inside the outer part, add your cake batter, bake & when you're through, you have a hole in the center that you can fill with fruit, pudding, ice cream, etc. You get a beautiful cake that looks something like this:


We're going to my parent's house tonight for my sister's birthday party & I volunteered to make the cake. I thought it would be a great opportunity to use my new pan. I chose chocolate cake & am going to fill the center with strawberries.

First of all, the cake doesn't bake all the way up to the top, so my 3rd tier is only about half of what the picture shows. And the instructions say that when you take the cake from the oven, you just need to leave it in the pan for 5-10 minutes before taking it out. Let it cool completely. I'm just sayin'. {I'll be doing some gluing back together with frosting. Just a little on the top tier, though... = )}

It'll still taste yummy & that's what counts. = )

Have a great Sunday!

Sleeping Beauty

So my sweet girl has ended up sleeping in our bed. It started about 1-2 months ago when she had croup. She couldn't sleep very long laying down because she would start coughing. So we'd bring her down to sleep in her bouncy seat & one of us would sleep on the couch next to her in case she started coughing needed to sit up quickly.

Well, Savannah got used to being next to one of us at night & now she wants that every night. She sleeps really well in her crib during the day {although right this second, she is upstairs crying because she doesn't want to take a nap...}, but she will not sleep there at night. I will lay her down & she reaches for me & sobs & sobs & sobs. I can't take that. When I peek in her room & she's sitting on her knees with HUGE tears rolling down her face, I just have to scoop her up & give her some love.

We decided a couple of weeks ago to just let her sleep in our bed with one of us so we can get some dang sleep Savannah can feel secure. Either Ken or myself will sleep on the couch because our little 21 lb 3 oz, 28 1/2 inch long sweetheart is a HUGE bedhog. = D

2 nights ago was my turn to sleep with Savannah. She would sit up {in her sleep!} & flop down me & then flop on her pillow & then smack me with her arm & then pull my hair {HARD!} & then roll over next to me & then sit up...you get the idea. She.just.would.not.stop.moving. It drove me crazy! I felt wild inside & finally I got up & got her a bottle. Ken took her back to bed saying, 'I think you should sleep on the couch.' I took him up on it.

All that to say, we have got to get this little sweetie sleeping in her bed at night. It's crazy to me that the person sleeping on the couch gets the best sleep. Plus, Savannah can't be getting super great sleep if she's all over the place. I just don't know how to get her comfortable in her bed at night. We have a heater in there, I put a fuzzy blanket underneath her. I've tried putting the pillow she sleeps on in our bed in her crib. I've tried rocking her downstairs until she is knocked out & then putting her in bed. I've tried laying her down awake. She just cries so hard & is so upset. I'm just not sure how to get my Savannah-girl sleeping back in her bed. Any ideas?