Happy Five Months, Baby Boy.

Dear Emmett,

You are five months old today. You weigh more than double your birth weight. You have grown so big, so fast! I look at you now and forget what it was like to have a new born. Your old clothes seem comically small, like they are for a doll. I can't believe that some of the outfits you wear are size 6-9 months! (It's because you're so tall, of course). You can do so much these days! You laugh and smile almost on demand, you recognize your name, you know your Mommy and Daddy. You are so smart already!

Emmett...Ode to an Easy Baby

Dearest Emmett,

Thank you. I can't say thank you enough for what an amazing baby you are. Ever since you were born, you have given me at least 7 hours of sleep a night. Granted, for most of those nights those 7 hours were split into 2-3 chunks, but that's nothing to scoff at! You have been so generous to grant me so much rest and I thank you profusely.

Also, I gotta say, you're not much of a crier. You cry, but only when you need something specific. And it's always either a burp, hunger, or a poop that you're working out. And once in a while you're a little overstimulated. But really, that's it! You also tend to fuss for a while before the actual crying starts, which lets me try to figure out what it is you need before you have actual baby tears running down your face. Those tears are heartbreaking, baby. Also (and you get this from me) you turn beet red. Which is cute, except for the screaming and sweating. Which, again, happens so rarely that I can't even start to complain!

Dad's Famous Baked Beans

This recipe (which is so easy, it can barely be called a recipe), comes from my dad. When he was in his early 20's, he worked at Deloitte as an auditor. While at a company pot luck (of a business he was auditing), he was first introduced to this recipe for baked beans. He enjoyed them so much, he asked for the recipe and started making them himself. Years later, he was working as the CFO for Calply, and brought these beans to a potluck. They were lauded by all as Doug's famous beans, until a woman that had been recently hired claimed them as her own recipe! (In good humor, of course). It just so happened that the woman who made them years before and gave the recipe to my dad had been hired by Calply and was at the potluck! What a small world. 

Without further ado, my dad's famous baked bean recipe ;) - 

Brown 1 lb of ground beef and add a chopped red onion. 

Add 3 cans of Bush's Baked Beans (we use Maple Cured Bacon flavored and Original).

Sausage Braid Recipe

As an adolescent in the Homet household, we were witness to a lot of hostessing. Monthly, my mom would host "Stamp Camp" at our house, and a party of around 8-12 women would come over on a Saturday morning to make the cards and crafts my mom had prepared and snack on some pretty classy breakfast treats. These breakfasts were one of the perks to having a mom who was a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. (Other perks included having access to TONS of craft supplies for school projects, passing out pretty bomb Valentine's Day cards to friends at school, and having the skills needed to be a professional card critic.) 

Jim, Laney and I (and probably dad too), would sneak into the kitchen on Stamp Camp mornings after the women had eaten and, like vultures, fill up our plastic tupperware plates with berries, Costco croissants, Bisquick coffee cake, and on especially wonderful Saturdays, slices of this sausage braid. 

It's creamy and full of meat and flavor and it goes fast. Here's a shot of it baking (and oozing...yum). 

I always double this recipe, so the following measurements will make 2 rolls. 

DIY Decorated Porcelain To-Go Mugs

This Christmas, I decided to make as many gifts for friends and family as I possibly could. I wanted to give out personal and special gifts, and since I was extremely pregnant, I spent lots of time crafting!

These to-go mugs were super easy and fun to make. I first designed the images either on my computer or on a scratch paper. Then I traced them onto the mugs using graphite paper. (There were a few mugs I did without prepping, but for most I needed to). 

Christmas 2014

This post is similar to my Thanksgiving 2014 post, except for the one HUGE difference! Baby Emmett was here to celebrate with us! Most of these photos feature him... here's a little peek at our extremely special Christmas of 2014. 

Aunt Laney got to meet Emmett! She fell in love pretty instantly. 

Homet Christmas Morning Quiche Recipe

One of my all time favorite foods is Quiche Lorraine. Egg, bacon, onion, cheese, pie crust...what's not to love? Growing up, it was our Christmas morning breakfast every year. Once a year is not nearly enough, however. Since I got married and started my own family, we've had quiche quite a few times. I even started making my own crusts, and I've gotta say, they're pretty delicious. 

I won't lie and say this is easy or quick to make. The steps are simple, but there are a lot of them and it takes a while to make a quiche. It is SO worth it, though. My tip would be to make 2 or 3 quiches at once because they heat up so well and one just isn't enough! (I mean, look at that. Just look at it.) I am listing the measurements for one quiche, so you'll have to do your own multiplying. 

Holiday Cardamom Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

Christmas is a time for sharing. And gift giving. And love. So, with love, let me give you a wonderful gift by sharing the recipe for my absolute favorite holiday cookies (which aren't necessarily 'holiday' at all, I make them all year!). 

These cookies are easy, delicious and surprising. It is a basic oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe that replaces the cinnamon with cardamom, and let me tell you! The difference is both subtle and obvious. There is something decidedly unique when you take a bite out of one of these, yet they are familiar and homey. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add 1 stick plus 6 tbsp softened butter, 3/4 cup packed brown sugar, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar to mixing bowl. 

Beat in mixer until creamy.

Homemade Egg Noodles Recipe

Well, Thanksgiving is over and I don't know about you, but we had a ton of leftovers this year. I guess that's what happens when you make two large turkeys for 8 people. Anyway, this year we decided to turn some of our leftover turkeys and (forgive me for saying this) turkey carcasses into some broth! After boiling the bones and innards for a few hours in a huge pot of water, we strained and cooled the broth. Now it was ready for soup! We added turkey pieces, carrots, onions, celery, salt and pepper, and these homemade egg noodles. What a delicious Thanksgiving twist on chicken noodle soup.

These noodles are so easy to make, and are big and doughy in the soup, like a kind of dumpling. They can be frozen and used later, or use them immediately! 

Start by mixing 2 and a half cups of flour with a pinch of salt. Place in a bowl and create a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour in 1/2 cup of milk, 2 eggs and 1 tbsp of melted butter. Mix together with your hands until the ingredients come together. Place on a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. 

Place dough in a small bowl and cover with a cloth. Let sit for 10-15 minutes. 

Roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick. Don't leave it too thick or the noodles will be too big when cooked. 

Thanksgiving

This year, Thanksgiving was extra special. Alex and I are back at my parents' home, my sister flew in from Northern California, my grandpa was over and Jim and Nadine shared the day with us. I'm also just about 39 weeks pregnant! After our pie baking on Wednesday night, I was absolutely exhausted! It's hard being on your (swollen) feet all day when you're the size of a small whale. 

Here's some of the preparation the day before Thanksgiving.

Cat Lady

I've been practicing photography lately, since I want to be taking some (a bazillion) really good photos of Emmett once he's here. Who better than to be my models than Baby Kitty (full name: Trace) and Cooper?! (Can you tell that I get lonely at the house when Alex is at work? I'm sure that won't last long when I have my hands full with a baby!).

For these and other close ups, I've been practicing with my Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens. This lens lets in a ton of light when the aperture is set to 1.8 and will cause a lot of background blur on a photo. This is definitely the look I'm going for with close-ups, especially of the baby. For wider shots, like the ones in the Christmas decorating post, I used my Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II SLR Lens, which does not create the same depth of field as the other lens (so, less blurry backgrounds). I have one other lens that is a super-zoom one, but I rarely use that because I generally am trying to take more close-ups, and I haven't been on a stake-out stalking anyone lately (or, you know, ever). I'm sure I will find a use for that lens someday though!

Just for fun, here are the kitty photos that I thought turned out pretty good. I haven't done any editing of these in iPhoto.. no brightening or adding contrast or changing the saturation or cropping. Nothing! I'm definitely getting excited for my new model, I can't wait to capture every little expression and smile and fat roll of that little man!

DIY Glitter Letter Canvases

When we left Kansas, I was highly encouraged (read: forced) to cut back on my possessions. We had to fit everything in a crate to be shipped, after all! When we arrived in California, I quickly realized that we had a lot more wall-space for frames and art and photos than we had before, and I had just recently trimmed back my wall-art collection. (Not by much, we still had multiple boxes full of frames, but I just love my wall collages!) Our bathroom upstairs had an especially large empty wall, so I rifled through my craft supplies in the garage to see what I could come up with for that space. The result was the following. A super easy, super quick craft that adds just the right feel to our "vintage" (1970's) bathroom, and moderns it up just a bit. 

I started with two large, blank, white canvases. 

I used painter's tape to block out stripes horizontally. I eye'd these and tried to separate each length of tape the same width as the tape, as to create even lines. It's not as hard as you'd think to make these straight. If you start with one end of the canvas, using the edge as a guide, you've got your straight line. And with painter's tape, I would just remove and re-set every time it looked a little off.

I did two canvases, but this project could be done with one or more, and of any size, depending on the space needing to be filled!

The Perfect Carrot Cake Recipe

Like all good traditions, I'm not sure exactly when this one started. My mom has always made us homemade cakes for our birthdays. I know when I was younger, some years I would ask for chocolate. On my dad's birthday, though, my mom always made carrot cake. At some point, my brother, sister and I all realized that this was also our favorite birthday cake, and so now for any and all Homet birthdays, there is a perfected carrot cake under those ever-growing candles. 

My sister and I have birthdays 4 years and 4 days apart. This year, my mom made me a beautiful carrot cake for my birthday and a couple weeks later, Laney came down from Northern California for my baby shower and we got to surprise her with a little (belated) birthday celebration as well! This time, I was prepared with my camera. Now that I'm starting my own little family in a couple weeks or so, I am going to need to have this recipe documented somewhere, and where better than my blog? You all are learning this one along with me.... How to make the Perfect Carrot Cake! 

Start with fresh, peeled carrots. You'll need 3 cups of packed shredded carrots by the end of this. 

Finely shred the carrots. The smaller these pieces are, the better! You won't want to be eating big chunks of vegetables in your cake. Trust me.

Baby Shower!

My sister Laney, sister-in-law Nadine, and mom threw me an incredibly beautiful and precious baby shower yesterday! It was at Nadine and Jim's house in Lakewood, which is such a special place to me! I lived there for a couple years and it was on that front porch that I met Alex in person for the first time before our first date.

The colors of the shower were blues, oranges and grey, which are the colors of little Emmett's nursery. The theme was Baby Lumberjackson (of course!) and there were such detailed and adorable decorations and foods that reflected the theme so perfectly. I am so excited that I get to use many of these decorations in the nursery! It's all feeling so real. The shower was on November 8, which is exactly a month before Emmett's due date. 

I've included a ton of photos below, documenting the special day! 

The pinecones are from the backyard in Big Bear, Nadine framed a bunch of photos from the maternity shoot, and my mom found the adorable woodland animals for the table! I love how the flowers are in tin cans and the feathers and moss add so much to the forest-y theme.

Laney loved how the verse in this frame really matched the "birth" theme... "go out in joy... get it?!".

Our Maternity Photo Shoot!

Our dear friend Lyndsey took these photos for us when I was just about 34 weeks pregnant. I feel so immensely blessed to have gotten some intentional maternity photos, because the past 8 months have been so full of upheaval and change and moves and tiiiiight budgets that I knew I wouldn't be able to hire a professional photographer and pay hundreds of dollars for a session. When I thought about that, it made way more sense to wait until after the little guy is born and get those awesome photos with his sweet little face in them! But spontaneously, our close friends Josh and Lyndsey, were coming up for a visit in Big Bear and even more spontaneously, I asked if she'd be ok with taking a few photos of Alex and I, like a maternity shoot. I knew she was awesome at taking photos, and she had a fancy camera, and she took most of our wedding photos a couple years ago, so I was PUMPED when she said she would! 

I am so grateful, Lyndsey, and these photos turned out so beautifully. They hold an even more special place in my heart because I genuinely did not think I would be having maternity photos taken, and it means so much to me to have some last professional quality photos of Alex and I before our little boy enters the world. I think next time I need to start paying you! :)

Big Bear Living - In Pictures

After almost two whole months in California, I'm finally getting around to posting some Fall photos that we got the chance to take in Big Bear this season! It has been so breathtakingly beautiful up here in the mountains. Watching the seasons change is remarkable and something I am so grateful to witness.

Christmas Decorating at the Lumberjackson Lodge!

This is the first Christmas for Alex and I as a family, and being in our first home, it is even more special. I wanted to share some pictures of what we did to decorate. I also wanted to capture the house in this festive state because it's so. darn. clean. Alex and I spent our Friday night cleaning the whole house until 1am. Now the countdown is on to see how long the house can stay clean!

Without further ado.. A Lumberjackson Lodge Christmas!

You've gotta have a little village at Christmas. You just do. 

Corn Chowder with Beef Sausage

This is the season of soups. Thanks to my handy dandy immersion blender, I've made at least 5 new (to me) types of soup this year. I've never made soup in my life (unless you count opening a can and putting it on the stove) so this is a big step for me.

Tonight, I'm making a meaty corn chowder. The recipe is from Laura, one of my closest friends, and I am SO glad she introduced me to this soup. I made it when Caleb and Louisa visited, and then again for the kids in the Youth Worship band. Every Sunday after church, Alex leads the band practice and I heat up something for lunch that I generally cook the night before. They've had this soup once a couple months ago and loved it, so I figured it was time to whip it up again. 

I even have a little helper at my feet. 

Start by slicing up 2 packages of Beef Sausage into 1/2" discs. Then quarter those discs. (Nice and bite sized.)

Brown the sausage in a skillet. Drain most of the fat once they've been cooking for a few minutes. I like getting them REALLY browned...even a little black. But that's just me. Add 2 chopped onions. If you have any tricks for chopping onions in a way that prevents crying, please tell me in the comments. Please. 

Turkey, Brie, Bacon and Cranberry Sauce Grilled Cheese Thanksgiving Leftover Sandwich Extravaganza

Yes. This post needed a two line title. You'll see why.

We are still eating Thanksgiving leftovers over here at the Lumberjackson Lodge. It's been over a week and we still have little containers of green bean casserole, stuffing and turkey. (I should probably check on a couple of those, just to be safe...) Our lunch on this cold, white Friday is a wintery twist on my favorite sandwich of all time. Grilled cheese.

This morning at breakfast, I cooked up a couple extra pieces of bacon. A couple months ago, I started to bake bacon instead of cooking it on the stove, and I've never looked back. Somehow, putting bacon in the oven preserves the right textures in the right places, lets me get it really crispy without obliterating it, and makes it super easy to pour out the extra bacon fat in a mug to use later. (I heard via the Paleo diet that this is 'healthy'. We still eat bread, cheese, fruit and lots of the other stuff Paleo recommends eliminating, but saving bacon fat is something from the Paleo diet I choose to listen to. Ha.)

I have a sliced Italian loaf today. If I were in California, you can bet I would be using sourdough, but out here in Kansas, a good loaf of sourdough is hard to come by, and way too expensive for our grocery budget. Ergo, I use either French bread or Italian. Still turns out pretty good, if I do say.

My father in law sliced the turkey on Thanksgiving into nice thin sheets. (Massive, if you're comparing it to turkey in the deli meat section, but who wants that watery, paper-turkey anyways?) I think the white meat is the best in this kind of sandwich. The moisture from the brie and cranberry will infuse into the drier white meat.