Daddy Packed Snack Bags

As most of you know by now, Pete is now the co-host of the J105 AFTER AFTER Morning Show. With this, our schedule has also changed. It wasn't long ago that we were working out the kinks in our new schedule when Lily and I had wild afternoon plans. Pete dropped her off with me at Boise State at 11:30. We were both rather rushed. He got Lily out of the car, handed me her bach (1 year old translation: Milk), and a snack bag. This is Pete's own special Daddy Packed Snack Bag!!
Cookies and all!
Who loves Daddy the most? This girl!!!
They are practicing their dance for all the weddings we have this year. Its like Dancing With The Stars every night in the kitchen!

Recipe of the Month(??)

Chocolate Texas Sheet Cake ~ Yummm Yummmm delicious! I was introduced to this fabulously ooey gooey masterpiece by a friend at work. She went on and on about how it was better than brownies, and me being quite the brownie connoisseur, JUST HAD to try it out. You know what? I'd eat this cake then a whole pan of brownies all in one sitting!!

Texas Sheet Cake:
Preheat Oven to 400 degrees ; Prep cookie sheet/bar pan
Boil Together:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup Crisco shortening
4 TBSP. cocoa powder
1 cup water

While this is all boiling together:

Mix Together:
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour

Pour the boiled butter mix over the flour/sugar blend.
Add:
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix then pour onto cookie sheet. Bake 18-20 minutes.

Icing:
Melt together on low heat:
1/2 cup butter
6 TBSP milk
4 TBSP cocoa
2 cups powdered sugar

Let cake cool for just a few minutes then pour warm icing over cake.
It should look very gooey~WAIT until it cools a bit before taking a bite!! I did not and suffered the repercussions of such a stupid act.

The season finale of ER

Wednesday April 15~Lily's first ER visit. The day started out normal enough. While I was getting ready for work I heard some whining coming from Lily's room. It was about 6:45 am. Do I go in? Do I go to work? Pete can get her back to sleep. I go to work. All the while, my mommy gut is telling me something is not quite right. Lily hadn't had a "movement" in the nether regions for about 2 days. Pretty rare for her. Daddy calls me at work around 10:45am. Something is wrong. Lily has been crying all day. Nothing is working. She won't eat or drink. The poor kid needs to go to the bathroom. I get home as soon as I can. Not sure what that will do, but we are always able to come up with a plan when we are together. Lily is warm, naked and warm. She is sleeping??? This baby doesn't EVER sleep!! Unless its dark and she is sure all the parties are over. Strange.
I had to go to my Dr. for a procedure that I had been having tremendous amounts of anxiety about for a few months. I couldn't postpone this any longer. I had to take Lily to Auntie Grandma Myrna for the afternoon. We run to Walgreens. I pump her full of prunes, prune juice (she is not a fan!) and a few baby laxative drops. This should work. I let Myrna know what may happen, hoping that it won't until I get back. It did of course! I get to Myrna's after my appointment and Lily is all smiles, still somewhat lethargic, but smiling for the first time all day. We are all triumphant, "Lily Mae has returned!!" Then she gets her gigi and her brown bear and falls asleep right in the middle of Myrna's living room while we are chatting. This is not right.
We go home, she falls asleep in my lap. She is HOT now. Daddy gets home. Lily throws up. We do what we can to keep her hydrated. She throws up again. I try water. She seems to NEED it desperataly. She throws up AGAIN. She is on fire. We can't get a temperature read. One quick call to Nanny to see if she has any miracle cures and she tells us what we have known for a few hours. We need to get her to the Dr. ASAP!!!
We do, she is admitted. Her fever is 104.4 degrees. We did all we could to keep her calm as she is being poked and prodded. They give her an anti-nausea pill that disolves in her mouth, tylenol and motrin~ She falls asleep. Poor baby is exhausted. Her fever breaks around 1:00am. We get home and pass out. This day sucked for everyone!!!
*My procedure went well. Not as painful as I had anticipated. Had to have some pre-cancerous cells removed. This should bode well for the future. We will see!\
*I learned that Guy Fieri from Food Network was in Boise last month. Watch Diners. Drive-Ins, and Dives on May 11 to see Westside Drive Inn~ My favorite Burger place in Boise!!
* Lily woke this morning cool as a cucumber and chatty. Thank God!! She is very sleepy from this fiasco, but she is well and that is the greatest blessing of all!!
*A HUGE Thank you to Dick and Myrna for watching Lily while she was feeling yucky. We couldn't have made it through the day without you both!!!

Save the Trees!!!

Spring is upon us! Sunday - Tuesday in Boise was just about as gorgeous as it gets here, which is saying plenty as it is a beautiful place in which we live. We had a storm yesterday and today the sun is out again. YAY!!! Winter has been the guest that has waay overstayed its welcome.
Lily and I are becoming gardeners this year. We started a while back on a suddenly sunny day. We have been blessed with 2 very mature apple trees in our backyard. The sad thing is that no one has taken care of them in quite sometime. It is our goal this year to rescue them!


Monday, I began the task during nap time. This is the advantage to having afternoons off now! This is where I am currently at:


Here are some questions I have as we are doing this on a budget of $0.00~
1. What to do with a ton of dirt and weeds, I call them leftovers. Where do they go? Who wants a bunch of dirt and weeds??
2. How big will my muscles get by manually tilling the soil? I feel pretty buff already!
3. Does anyone have a chain saw we could borrow?

Other than this job, things are great! I had a Bunco party at the house last Saturday. We had plenty of wine and food. My advice: When having a party, make it an appretizer function. Who doesn't LOVE appetizers? Fun times!

Winners Table :)

The Losers Table :(

Pete got home in time to play one last game with us! Guess who has a new favorite game!! Good thing his evening consisted of hosting a casino night, so a house full of ladies was just what he needed when he got home!


I will post a new recipe for Texas Sheet Cake. It is too die for~

Dropping the ball

in Boise. We have had all sorts of weather today. Which brings me to a point, I have seriously dropped the ball on this whole blogging thing. I was super excited, but then life happened. Things got out of hand fast in March. We learned shortly after my last post that the Pete and Joe show was to be moved to afternoons. This put quite a damper on the schedule we had worked out with me and Lil in the a.m. and daddy and Lil in the afternoons. Our childcare situation was quickly helped by my glorious bosses. I met with them and they quickly let me know that my schedule could be as flexible as needed. WHAT A BLESSING!! Lily and Pete have the morning shift now, and Lily and I have all afternoon to play! This is not to say that there haven't been many bumps, but our immediate fears of having to put Lily in daycare were to put rest. We figure we can work out any future problems as they present themselves.
Lily and I took a quick trip to California, as it is/was(?) March Madness and daddy is more than entertained without us! Good times~ We got to see EVERYONE!! Almost ;)
Busy, busy, busy. Flying with a 16month old alone is not recommended, but we worked it out.
We learned upon our arrival that Bab's (Babaka, Babushka) had broken her hip and needed surgery. She made it through just fine, but this put a snafu in our return plans. Nanny and Poppy had planned to drive us home, but Nanny flew with Lily and I instead. I had to leave far too much wine at Nanny and Poppy's house ;( Wine that we desparately needed on the flight home!! They will be up in May to stay with Lily for a few days so Pete and I can go par-tay in Vega$ for my 30th!!!So scary, but I am not freaking out nearly as bad as I did at 25.
Lily had her 15 month appointment ( a little late. She was 16 months on March 21st!)
She is tall for her age. Her head is more of a normal size (whew!) she is now in the 95%. Her head had been at an even 100% for the first year of her life. Don't laugh! She'll hate us for years for sharing this! She is super chatty and is on the verge of turning 2, if you catch my drift. Granted , we have had a quite a bit going on, but come on, kid! She no longer goes to sleep like a princess. There is more of a struggle to eat and go to sleep. She is the master of stalling now. Holy moly, is this my kid or what??!!
Her hair is out of control~ Her new name is Philly Mae Spector.


Happy Spring to all! I say this on a super blustery day