More on the Ranch, plus my latest project...

All in all, it was a fabulous time and a great way for Lane to spend his birthday. The boys did manly things together like building a horseshoe pit and shooting guns, and golfing. The whole Grover crew spent lots of time together by the "camp fire" eating delicious Auntie Ann baked goodies, and the daughters-in-law went on some excursions to thrift and fabric stores.

Now I just went along for the ride to the fabric store. What do I need to do there!?!?!?!? I only discovered recently that I'm a teeny bit crafty. Well, I saw the most darling little girl quilt ever! I just about died when I saw it. It's just too bad I don't know how to quilt right? Or that I've never sewn anything before in my life, or own a sewing machine, or even know someone who owns a sewing maching. But did this stop me from buying all the material and pattern to make this quilt?!?!?! no.

People, I decided if I can make a scarf, why can't I make a quilt? I figure I have time. Gabriela doesn't even have a bed, let alone a bedroom, right? 02122222 (that was Gabriela's contribution to today's blog)

How would you have been able to resist these patterns?!?!? Wish me luck, cos I'm gonna need it!!!

Time with the Fam

Here is Gabriela with almost everyone. We have to ask Uncle Noal for some pics of Gabriela with her Auntie Cati.

Happy, Happy Birthday!!!

We had a birthday celebration for Beau and Uncle Lane while everyone was up in Paradise. Everytime their birthdays come around I am reminded of when we first got news of Beau's birth (one day before Lane's B-day).

Lane: (into the phone to his brother) Cool!! He's my favorite nephew!!! Born on my birthday!
Elena: Uh, Lane??? Today is NOT your birthday.
Lane: (on the phone) Nevermind. He's not my favorite nephew.

Anyway, we had a great time singing happy birthday and having delish Auntie Ann Crazy Cake decorated by Auntie Meliss. mmm, mmm, mmm.

p.s. look how excited Chaney is about Beau blowing out his candles!!!

It's Too Bad

We went up to Paradise, CA where Lane's parents bought a pretty sweet place. All the Grovers came for the long Memorial Day weekend. It's just too bad there wasn't anything for the grandkids to do ;)

There was baseball playing, bug catching, uncle wrestling, tractor riding, slipping and sliding, fort building, chalk drawing, water fighting, playing in Grandpa's truck, horseshoe playing, bike riding, smores toasting, and all sorts of other things going on. Those kids were going nonstop from the time they woke up until they collapsed every night.

As you can see, even Gabriela got a taste of the slip n' slide action, although we're pretty sure she didn't care for it. Maybe next time.

Serious Blog Catch Up Coming Your Way

We have a lot to blog about, but not much time. We hope to update you soon on our recent adventures to California at Lane's parents' new property, some birthdays, and all sorts of other good stuff. Tons of pics too. And I just realized, I still never posted Lane's cookie recipe. Stay tuned.

Our Hollywood Starlet

Ten Months Old!

Gabriela's new favorite toy

Bubbles

Gabriela is just as delightful as ever. She has officially sworn off the army scoot for full-on crawling. Gabriela continues to cruise and recently even started letting go and standing for a few seconds at a time before plopping down on her cute little bottom. She now has two bottom teeth, her top two front teeth are showing, and I think she's working on pushing a couple more out. Gabriela weighs just over 18 lbs.

She loves to read books and is an excellent page turner. Gabriela also is very excited about turning the lights on and off, and seems to say something that sounds like "on" when she does it. She is an expert hand clapper now, which means she no longer smacks herself in the face while trying to find her hands. It's so funny how babies repeat their new skills like crazy. Yesterday morning she woke up and immediately started clapping. Gabriela also likes "this little piggie" and starts to giggle and smile as soon as you start and she loves "the itsy bitsy spider".

Recently, Gabriela started making a funny new face. She scrunches up her little nose and purses her lips. I haven't been able to catch a photo of it yet. She figured out how to click her tongue, and makes her new noise as often as she can.

She's also started to get a little more opinionated. The other day I put a couple of things out of her reach before she could get to them, like you know, the blender cord. Gabriela was apparently thinking about getting into some trouble and immediately started crying, upset that I'd taken her fun away before it even got started. sheesh!

Since the weather's been nice, I've started walking home with Gabriela from daycare. I put her in the baby carrier and we stop at the park almost every day for some swing time. She usually has a blast, laughing and kicking her little legs. But yesterday she was reaching out for me like she wanted to get out. I took her out and didn't understand why she didn't seem to be having fun when she usually is just beside herself with joy. Then she put her fingers and thumb together and put her hand up to her mouth. Is that the eat sign?!?! I took out some sweet potatoes (with cinnamon and cumin), sat her down on the grass and she gobbled it all down! I think she just told her mama she was hungry!! I'm so proud of her!!

Gabriela continues to be a good little eater. Last night she had pesto for dinner with a side of cantelope, banana, and raspberry.

What a Steal!

We spent most of Saturday shopping, shopping, and then - you guessed it - shopping some more. We just couldn't help all the fabulous deals we got. If you don't care about shopping deals stop right here.

First we stopped at Goodwill. We are going camping next week in CA with all the Grovers and Gabriela needed some clothes that she could get all dirty in. We found a couple items for super cheap, and even some cute non-camping dresses.

I've been wanting a subscription to the magazine Cooks Illustrated, but haven't gotten around to it. Imagine my surprise when I saw not one, or two, or even three, but FOUR hard bound copies of the annual collections of recipes. And not just the recipes, but each issue of the magazine in its entirety for the whole year. The best part?!?!? They were each $1.69!!! I can't wait to read them all cover to cover. It's funny because this book cost me nearly twice the price doesn't appear to be nearly as useful.

And oh my goodness, I never fully appreciated the wonders of Ross. We stopped there to get some more baby clothes and I got things for like 99 cents, and complete outfits for less than $5.00. My cooking skills are only going to get better after reading Martha Stewart's Cooking School that I scored for $9.99! Watch Out! And I'm sure I'll find a recipe to use with my new Cast Iron Cassoulet dish.
Lane scored a ton of finds as well.

Since I'm already gushing about great deals, I may as well share that I recently purchased a pair of Nine West shoes. I found them on the Nine West website and liked them, but they were $79! Ouch. So I searched around and found the exact same pair of shoes on Amazon for..... TWENTY THREE DOLLARS AND SIXTY EIGHT CENTS! No shipping costs either! I was so proud of myself :-D

Sorry for my totally not so interesting post. Well, it's interesting to me, anyway. Right now I'm waiting for some brownies to come out of the oven from one of the Cooks Illustrated books. This guy tried like 50 different versions of a recipe before he came up with the one that's making my apartment smell so delicious right now. I am dying to eat those bad boys.

Tomato Soup

Gabriela is also quite the fan of tomato soup

Gabriela isn't the only one who loved the ribs!

Hill Country BBQ

Sunday we had ourselves some serious BBQ at Hill Country BBQ. Feast your eyes on our pork ribs, beef ribs, bbq chicken, beef brisket, baked beans, corn pudding, cornbread, and bean salad!!! oh, and a bucket of beer. Did I mention it was 12:30 pm?

Here we all are. I can safely say that Gabriela is a fan of the ribs. See for yourself!!!

Otto

At Otto they start you out with brandied cherries, some crazy delicious honey, and another tray of apricots with red pepper flakes, breadsticks and lovely rustic bread. We immediately ordered a plate of Italian meats and selected several cheeses - a gorgonzola, a triple cream, a peppercorn goat cheese, you get the idea... Then you dip your bread and cheese in the sauces. Divine.

Here's a little sample of some of the side dishes we dined on - beets, muscles, green lentils, anchovies, octopus, shrimp and chickpeas, and one other dish that I can't remember. We also had some pasta and pizza. Our amazingly fresh Caprese salad. It was heavenly.

Gabriela sampled all sorts of dishes after she woke up from her nap. She tasted the sauce from the muscles, the beets, the anchovy croutons, pizza, chick peas, lentils, caprese salad, and she may have even tasted the octopus! Gabriela is quite the little foodie!But her favorite, hands down, was the gelato which Auntie Cynthia and Uncle David couldn't feed her enough of. They were her best friends that night!! I got sad puppy dog looks (from David) when I said she'd had enough dessert. Maybe I should have cut off dessert a little earlier because at bed time that night, Gabriela was standing up and shrieking in delight at I don't know what. I don't think she'd ever tasted dessert before then.

We all had a totally fabulous time together that night.

I love my Uncle David

Central Park

After a delicious Saturday brunch and a lovely nap -seriously, we ALL slept and we all needed it, especially David, Cynthia & Lane (I'm just sayin') -we decided to pick up some snacks and just chill at Central Park. We walked through the park, found a gazebo to snack in and talked and blew bubbles and just enjoyed each other's company.

This picture is just for Nana

On the way back we passed by the carousel. How could we just pass it up?!?! Gabriela had her first carousel ride. Uncle David, Auntie Cynthia and her Mommy AND Daddy joined her. I think we had more fun that Gabriela. She mostly just seemed to be wondering what the heck was going on.

Goof Balls :-)

Auntie Cynthia

Here are a bunch of cute pictures of Gabriela's reunion with Auntie Cynthia. They hadn't seen each other since October. Gabriela asked if she could please not wait that long to see Auntie Cynthia again.

Yakitori Totto

Manhattan was gorgeous Friday night. It was a breezy-no-need-for sweaters kind of loveliness. Since Gabriela slept most of the bus ride up, we figured she'd be down for a late night dinner, New York style. So we walked a few blocks to Yakitori Totto. You know it's authentic when the menu and all the signs are in Japanese, and the place is full of Japanese people. There was no sushi at this restaurant. Lots of different grilled deliciousness on skewers. We had these teeny fried fish with green tea powder, grilled chicken meatballs in roasted jalapeño halves, grilled scallops, lamb chops, grilled skirt steak, cold udon noodles, asparagus wrapped in chicken breast, mushrooms wrapped in bacon, mmm.

oh yeah, and ginormous entire shrimp on a skewer.

Gabriela had a blast. She was talking and talking and tasted almost everything. Her favorites were the fried fish, the chicken meatballs and the lamb chop bone.

I'm not sure what she enjoyed more - the chicken meatballs, or chomping on the chopsticks.

Okay, so Gabriela was going a little crazy in this picture. I posted it because you can see her cute top tooth that made its debut just the other day.

All tuckered out by the end of the night.

Where do I begin?!?

We had a whirlwind weekend in New York visiting my brother. Cynthia came down from Boston and we had a fab time all together. Tons of pics and stories on the way. I just don't know how long it will take me to chronicle it all.

Last Weekend & 9 Month Stats

I guess I better provide a report of last weekend since the new weekend starts tomorrow.

Friday morning Gabriela had her 9 month well baby visit, where it was determined that she weighs 17.75 lbs and is 29 inches long. The doctor says she's in the 10th percentile for her weight and 95th for her height. She's not worried at all because Gabriela is growing at a consistent rate. She's just a Skinny Minny, which is really no surprise if you look at her mama and daddy. Gabriela also had her blood drawn. She was very clear that this was not a pleasant experience. I think it was the red faced screaming with no sound because it hurt so bad she forgot to breathe face that really got the message through. Poor baby. As soon as that was over they pricked her other arm for a TB screening. Luckily, she quickly recovered.

That afternoon our office was closed so instead of taking Gabriela back to daycare, we spent the afternoon having fun. We took the metro to the Natural History Museum and explored the live butterfly exhibit. Gabriela enjoyed all the pretty flowers and multi-colored butterflies flying all around her. Before we met Daddy at work, she crawled around a little at the live insect zoo exhibit. We went out for Thai food with Daddy where Gabriela tried her first Tom Ka Gai soup and green and red curries. She especially loved the spicy coconutty soup. We were so proud :-)

Saturday was an exciting afternoon spent grocery and Target shopping. We finally watched Slum Dog Millionaire that night with a delicious homemade pizza dinner & wine.

Sunday, the boys went to see Wolverine. Sean & Jess and Alex & Matt came over afterwards for hamburgers and fries. Homemade fries. We had two different kinds of burgers - regular with grill seasonings and bbq sauce and greek - with fresh garlic, onion, fresh basil, dried oregano and mint and feta cheese all mixed in. yummy in the tummy.

When everyone first arrived, Gabriela acted shy for the first time in her whole little life. She immediately crawled right to her daddy's lap for security. By the end of dinner, she was clapping her hands and shrieking in excitement, loving being the life of the party.

A Couple More PIcs from CA

Group hug with Mina and Super Andrew
Snuggles with Nana
What luck! The week we came Grandma Grover was off work for spring break and Grandma Chaney was in town.

p.s. Check out that awesome sweater Nana made!