No More Grilled Steak

Way back when on Valentine’s Day, I decided instead of trying to find a sitter and fight the crowds to go out, that I would make us a nice steak dinner. And also we have yet to hire a “sitter” other than my parents for Hadley.  Pathetic, maybe, but at least we’re saving money?  Anyway, typically, that has meant that I season/marinate the meat, and then one of us throws it on the grill.  I say typically because I decided to try something different this time.  Matt was skeptical when I told him it didn’t involve the grill, and I could tell he was a little bit disappointed thinking his steak probably wouldn’t taste as good as it usually does.  You’d have to ask him, but I’m pretty sure I won over the skeptic in him after one bite of this steak.

I found this pin on Pinterest...

Source: whitsamusebouche.com via Brittany on Pinterest

 

… and decided to give it a try, and y’all… I will never grill a steak again.  These weren’t even the best cuts of steak out there – they were simply basic filets from the grocery store – and this recipe made them taste like prime cuts. 

Here’s the recipe straight from Whit’s blog - Restaurant Style Steak

• 2 8 ounce filet mignons
• 4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 4 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
• 1 stick butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
• 1 tablespoon thyme, chopped
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

Take 1/2 stick of butter, softened, and mix well with the peeled, chopped garlic, the chopped herbs, and the lemon zest.  Form into a log and refrigerate.  Generously season the filet’s with salt and pepper, approximately 1 teaspoon of seasoning per side.

Heat the remainder of the butter (1/2 stick) and the olive oil in a cast iron skillet to a screaming hot temperature.  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.   Sear the filets in a screaming hot pan for about 2-3 minutes per side, or until a nice brown crust has formed. While the steak is searing, continue to spoon the residual butter in the pan on top of the meat while it’s cooking.  Once both sides are seared, place in the center of the oven for about 6-8 minutes, depending upon how thick your steak is.  In the last minute of cooking, take the log of compound butter and slice a nice thick piece to place on top.

Your steak will be ready when it is approximately 135 degrees in the center, or when you push lightly on the top center of the steak and it gently and slowly bounces back.  (Note, this is medium rare kids. Some people don’t like to eat cows while they are mooing, so clearly you can cook longer if you’re afraid of the pink.)

And because I like to have my favorite recipes on an easy to grab recipe card, here’s a digital one for y’all to save (or pin on Pinterest).

Baby Steps

I am not one to rush ahead and say my child is talking or walking when they’re really not.  So I won’t tell you that Hadley is “walking” because at almost 14 months, she still isn’t walking on her own.  But today, for the first time she was crawling and stopped in the middle of the living room and just stood up and took a step!  She had nothing to hang on to or pull up on, just randomly decided she wanted to give it a go!  She was so proud of herself and tried a few more times but after falling on her little bottom repeatedly she gave up and went back to crawling.  I don’t have a picture, but just wanted to document the day for the blog!  Of course, Daddy is out of town for work right now, so he missed it, but hopefully she’ll try some more this weekend! 

On a random note (and so I can include a picture with this post), this is what kept us busy for about 20 straight minutes this morning…

Taking a marker out of the pail, handing it to momma, then (after momma put her stack back on the floor), picking them up one-by-one and placing them back in the pail.  And then starting all over again. :)  When she finally decided she was done with this game, she turned to crawl away and accidentally knocked the pail of markers over with her foot.  When she turned around to see what happened she started bawling.  I helped her pick them all back up and she then she did it again.  We had an emotional morning. ;)  It’s scary how much of my personality she has.  Poor thing. 

Despite the emotional highs and lows, Hadley is at SUCH a fun age and we are loving watching her discover new things every day!

Tag! I’m it!

Maury at Life on Mars tagged me in this little questionnaire going around the blogosphere and it was perfect timing seeing as how I have felt like I’ve been lacking in writing material lately (read: can’t finish a project around here because of a certain little one running around keeping me busy!)

Each person answers a series of 11 questions from the blogger that tagged them, then they tag 11 more bloggers and ask them more questions. Just a fun way to get to know more about other bloggers. (And yes, Maury, I did copy those sentences directly from your blog… thanks!)

1) What is one thing you can’t live without?

If my husband were answering this question for me, he would say either my computer or my iPhone.

While I will admit to being addicted to them, the one real thing I couldn’t live without would be my family. 

2) What’s the most unusual thing you’ve ever eaten?

I’m not a very adventurous eater.  I guess maybe pheasant is unusual?   Unusual, but good when it’s wrapped in bacon!

3) Name one thing on your bucket list.

I already crossed a big one off on my first date with Matt when he took me skydiving! (Please excuse the goofy look on my face – you try smiling normally when you’re falling from 1500 feet in the air).

And although I’d like to steal Maury’s answer here about going to NYC at Christmastime, I think I’ll answer with seeing the Northern Lights.  I haven’t researched much what this would take, although I think I overheard the Today show talking about it this morning and saying you’d need to go to Greenland for it right now? 

4) What is in your purse right now?

A lot more than is probably safe for me to be toting around.  A wallet, sunglasses, lipgloss, more receipts than I care to admit, Wet Ones, Johnson&Johnson Baby face & hand wipes, mum mums, empty mum mum wrappers, a paci, 2 sippy cups and a sippy strap, a brush, a pack of gum, a snack cup, 2 hair bows, baby socks, and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?

5) Is there a 2012 resolution that you’ve already broken? What was it?

I actually didn’t make any resolutions this year.  Boring answer, I know.

6) What is one thing everyone should know about you?

This is a tough one to answer.  I guess I’d probably say that I’d want everyone to know that I love the Lord and want them to know He loves them, too!

7) What is one of your pet peeves?

Being flaky.  There are a lot of small things that can get under my skin, but I’m not sure there is anything that irks me more than someone saying they will do something and not following through.

8) How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?

It depends on whether or not I wash my hair.  Maybe I shouldn’t have just admitted that.  Do you really wash your hair every day?  If I wash my hair, it takes me 45 min – an hour.  If I don’t wash my hair, probably about 20 minutes total.

9) What is your dream vacation?

I am a beach kinda girl.  I love to soak up the sun and listen to the waves crashing while I dive into a good book.  That’s really all I need, so although I’d love to head to Fiji or some other far away expensive, beautiful beach, I am just as happy heading down to Cabo (and maybe even happier because it’s only a 2 1/2 hour flight from home).  The picture below was our view from the timeshare Matt’s parents own that we mooch enjoy along with them!

Although Matt isn’t one to enjoy lying on the beach and doing nothing, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t mind tagging along when he gets to enjoy this…

10) If you had three wishes, what would you wish for?

I couldn’t decide whether I should get all philosophical with this one or keep it simple, so I decided to go with both. 

1. I wish I could keep Hadley from ever experiencing pain, fear or loss (realistically, I know that wouldn’t produce a very grounded human being, but we’re talking wishes here.)

2. A house with a playroom.  Toys are seriously taking over every inch of our house and I would love to have a big room with lots of storage dedicated to playing! 

3. A magic device that would allow me to press a button and have clean, styled hair and make-up on my face.

11) What is the greatest gift you’ve ever been given?

This little beauty right here…

I’m going to be a rule breaker (now you know something else about me) and not come up with my own questions because Hadley is waking up from her nap and I’ll never get this posted if I don’t end it now!  Consider yourself tagged to answer the above questions, though!  Let me know if you do – I’d love to get to know YOU better, too!

Weekend Recap On Wednesday

Sure, it might be Wednesday already, and some may deem that too late for recapping a weekend, but not around here!  We had a really fun weekend soaking up time with daddy and catching up with our friends who are currently living in China and were in town visiting! 

Saturday night was a bit of a bust on one hand, but also a night to remember!  Morgan, Corbett and their daughter Brynn came over around 5:30 so we could let the girls play for a bit before dinner. 

After a little playing and catching up, we finally decided on Olive Garden and left the house around 7.  I had the bright idea that the girls should ride together and the guys could ride separate (we had to take two cars so both girls had their car seats).  Morgan and I hopped in the car and got so busy talking that I completely missed the turn I was supposed to take.  The guys were following us and by the time I realized I’d missed the turn, I also realized that I had forgotten my phone and Morgan had left hers in the truck that the guys were in.  By the time we made it to Olive Garden they were on an hour and a half wait and both girls were pretty cranky because they were so hungry and up past their bedtimes!  We wound up turning around and going to Chick-Fil-A.  As soon as we walked into Chick-Fil-A, I couldn’t help but laugh as I realized we were arriving at the end of their Valentine’s Date Night!  There were white table cloths on all the tables with red rose centerpieces, lights strung all across the ceiling, and… y’all get this… a harp player.  That’s right.  A giant harp in the middle of chick-fil-a on a Saturday night.  Thankfully, both girls were content with their chicken and we got to sit and chat for awhile before calling it a night to get the girls to bed.   It was definitely a chick-fil-a visit we won’t forget for awhile! 

{sidenote: there are no table cloths in the picture because apparently there was an end-time to the date night and they were cleaning it all up as we were arriving.  The harp player, however, did continue for a bit while we enjoyed our dinner. :)}

Matt We discovered a fun new game to play with Hadley; it’s almost a sure bet to turn a cranky mood around.  We put her in the corner of the couch and surround her with pillows.  (We’re rocket-scientists over here.)  She thinks it’s hilarious to push the pillows off and then pull them back and hide from us.   The pillow game has quickly become a favorite around here!  Love that each day her personality shines a little bit more these days!

That’s all I’ve got for now – hope y’all had a great Valentine’s Day!

Run. Don’t Walk.

Have you ever commented on a blog or asked a blogger a question only to never hear back from them?  Please head over to Cassie’s blog at Hi Sugarplum and read her recent bloggy tips post!   I LOVE to get comments, and try to reply to them whenever I can, but if you don’t have your email set up on your profile, I can’t reply!  I was going to work on a post of my own about this, but when I saw Cassie’s, I figured I didn’t need to!  Here’s all I’ve got for mine, so head over to Hi Sugarplum to get the full scoop!

Our Love Story

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon with everyone else at From Mrs. to Mama and her “What's Your Love Story Link-Up.”  I’m late to the game, as the link-up has been up since the 7th, but I thought Valentine’s Day was an appropriate time to post this!  So, without further adieu…

 

 

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

We’ve known each other since February of 2006, and have been “together” since November of 2006, so almost 5 1/2 years!  We’ve been married for almost 4 1/2 years.

This picture below is in Matt’s car the night we met – with our friend Anne, who introduced us!

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?}

Long story short, we met through a mutual friend.  I was living/working in Austin after college and he was living/working in Houston.  He was in town with some friends for a Texas basketball game and was planning to meet up with {said mutual friend} Anne for dinner/drinks the night before.  She convinced me into coming out with them, and the group of us enjoyed dinner at Hula Hut and some drinks downtown.  Although I was dating someone else at the time, it was sort of obvious that there was a connection between us.  Matt sent me a message on facebook the next day and we gradually got to know each other and became friends over the next 9 months.  We swapped a lot of emails back and forth and the occasional text, but that was about it until the weekend Matt found out I had broken up with my then boyfriend.  He basically told me that he had been waiting for me to become single so he could finally ask me out – which he did, and the rest is history!

{fun fact: our first official date he surprised me by taking me SKYDIVING!  AND – fun fact #2: we were married one year – to-the-day- from our first “official” date!}

3. If married, how long have you been married? If not, is this the guy you hope to marry? {do tell}

See #1 – we’ve been married almost 4 1/2 years.

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? If not, where would you like to get married? And will it be big or small?

We were married in Austin at the Smith Family Chapel and had our reception at Riverplace Country Club with about 150 guests.

 

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!

I wish I had a fun answer for this one, but I really don’t.  We call each other the usual pet-names… babe, hun, etc… but that’s about it!  Boring, I know.

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.

He is loyal; I never have to wonder if he’s going to have my back.  He would do anything for me and Hadley; seeing him love our daughter brings an entirely new level to love.  He’s a hard-worker;  he doesn’t ever ask for recognition, but works harder than anyone I know.

7. Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal?

I have to start with a little background first.  Matt and I were long distance until we were married – first with me in Austin and him in Houston, and then he moved to San Francisco for 6 months for work.  His work schedule when he lived in San Francisco was insanely busy.  We saw each other as often as we could, but even on weekends when I went to visit him, it wasn’t uncommon for him to still be working when I arrived late in the evening.  So, the weekend of April 14th was arriving and he was supposed to be coming into town.  He called me early that week and said that they had a huge project and he wasn’t going to be able to come into town anymore and he would schedule a flight for the following weekend instead.  On Thursday (I think) of that week, a fun delivery arrived for me at work – a huge bouquet of roses with a card letting me know that he was so sorry he couldn’t make it and he had scheduled me a massage appointment for Saturday morning to make up for it. 

Saturday morning arrived and I rolled out of bed, threw on some sweats and headed to get my massage.  Afterwards, I checked in at the front desk to make sure I didn’t owe anything and the girl had sort of a goofy smile on her face and said “Oh! Are you Brittany?”  I replied that yes, I was and again, just wanted to be sure that everything was taken care of.  She walked in the back room for a second and came back with an envelope and a flower and told me that I was good to go!  As I was walking to my car I thought “wow, Matt is really sorry he couldn’t be here this weekend – so sweet!”  I opened the card to find a single piece of paper that read: “Now that you’re relaxed, the real fun begins; A little game I made up just for you; Wander over to where you just had your nails done; You may just find your next clue!”

To keep this from getting longer than it already is, I’ll jump ahead here and let you know that my clues led me on a huge scavenger hunt to all of our favorite places around town (including a stop at a Sonic where he had a diet coke waiting for me with my clue & flower!) and ended at Mt. Bonnell (the highest point in Austin, overlooking the lake) where he proposed!  He even gave me time to shower and freshen up as my second to last clue was at my house (he told me I had ONE HOUR – haha).  After he proposed, he had made dinner reservations at a steak house downtown where my parents were waiting to celebrate with us!  (His parents were living in London at the time, otherwise they would have been there, too!) 

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?

Ummm, neither really?  I guess if I had to chose I’d say flowers & teddy bear (does anybody really give teddy bears outside of 8th grade?)

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?

Well, would anyone not like a sunset dinner on the beach?  That’s not exactly feasible for us right now, so we are much more of a “pop a movie in and relax on the couch” couple.  Especially after having Hadley, our Friday nights typically consist of going out to eat around 5:30, coming home to get Hadley down and then watching a movie on the couch.

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant other one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?

Once our kids are older, I’d love for us to travel more – particularly, I’d love to go to Greece and Italy.

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.

No big plans here!  I’ll probably make steaks and we may watch a movie on the couch. :)

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?

We’re not big gift-givers for Valentine’s Day, so no, I don’t expect anything!

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.

Be your spouse’s biggest fan.  If you’re always in each other’s corner, you approach life together and can get through anything. 

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you.

The One Where I Complain About Sleep

Hadley has never been a great sleeper.  I honestly don’t think there’s really anything we could have done differently; I think it’s just in her DNA.  We have tried all the tips & tricks (cry-it-out does not work with her personality – she cries so hard that she gags herself, and would go for hours if I let her).  She goes down great -  for both naps and going to bed at night it usually doesn’t take more than 5-10 minutes for her to be out.  We go through our routines and put her down awake and she goes right to sleep (most of the time).  It’s the staying asleep that we struggle with. 

When she was younger, it was naps that were the bane of my existence.  (This is probably because I didn’t expect her to sleep through the night at a young age, but I did expect her to nap a lot – she didn’t.)  We went through a phase of napping for 37 minutes at a time.  That’s right – I timed them.  Which made it worse for me because each time I knew like clock-work she would be up after 37 minutes.  I was going out of my mind.  Then, she slowly started napping better, and now we are in a pretty decent routine of two naps a day for about an hour and a half each. 

So now, what do I do?  Instead of being thankful for the napping consistency, now I start over-analyzing her nighttime sleep.  Confession: I have an app on my phone where I track her nursing, diapers, sleep and medicine (if we do baby tylenol or advil for teething, or her Zantac when she was younger for her reflux).  The other day, I decided to look back at her sleeping habits and see how many times she has slept through the night (meaning 11-12 hours straight).  63 times.  Out of about 405 days of life so far.  Approximately 15% of the time.  And then I looked at how often those days are consecutive and realized that she has NEVER slept that long for more than 5 days in a row (which only happened once), and typically only does it for 3 days in a row, and then we have some type of disruption.  Whether it’s teething, bad dreams, hunger, or just needing some cuddles (highly doubtful seeing as how she does NOT enjoy cuddling), I have no idea.  All I know is that being woken up by the sound of your screaming child is one of the worst things in the entire world.  The other night, I don’t think I ever fell into a deep sleep for more than about 5 minutes because every.single.time I did, Hadley woke up crying. 

I know she’s not the only child out there who isn’t a great sleeper, but I can’t help but feel like we did something wrong by her!  I also know that it could be worse and she could never sleep through the night, so I should be thankful for the nights that I do get to sleep soundly.  Easier said than done.  In trying to figure out how to “end” this post, I’m realizing I don’t really have a point to all of this, but simply needed to complain.  So, thanks for listening!  I promise to share some cute pictures and have some more positive posts soon!

p.s. I am almost done with our bedroom makeover!  I’m co-hosting my sister’s shower this weekend, and once we get back from that I should be able to wrap it up and take some fabulous “after” pictures for you!

Help a Girl Out

You may have heard me mention a time or two around here that my sister is getting married in March (wahoo!).  We are super excited to be welcoming Eric into our family, and I can’t wait to finally have a brother!  But, onto the important matters… what shoes do I wear with my bridesmaid dress?? 

Here is my dress… It’s Alfred Sung in dupioni silk and is in the color “Daisy” although it looks a little more lemony in real life. 

The only real stipulation we’ve been given for choosing shoes is that they should be a “neutral” color.  No flashy red heels for this girl! (too bad, I really did have my heart set on some 5 inch, shiny, lipstick red heels! *sarcasm*). 

Here’s what I’ve found so far…

source

Those also come in a gray/silver color…

Now that I look at the champagne color with the dress on the same page, I’m thinking those don’t go very well? 

We’ll most likely be switching to cowboy boots for the reception, so I really don’t want to spend a lot of money for a pair of shoes that I may just wear for an hour or so.  Thanks to the hubby, I have these babies to wear later that night…

source

Don’t you just LOVE the turquoise on the inside?  Me, too. :)

Okay, so that’s actually all I’ve found so far.  See?  I seriously need help.  Do you like those wedges?  What color would you choose?  Can you help me find some other (reasonably priced) pairs that would go with a lemony yellow dress to wear in March (oh and the ceremony is outside, so no stiletto heels, please). 

EDIT: I should add that the groomsmen will be wearing gray suits, which is why I had originally thought a light gray shoe might be pretty. Okay, that's all! Thanks for your help!

Life is Busy

Typically, once we get through college football season and the holidays, life slows down (yes, as a matter of fact, I did just list college football season as a reason to be busy).  This year, that is not the case.  We had Hadley’s first birthday party, I’m re-decorating our master bedroom, co-hosting a shower next weekend for my sister, then co-hosting another shower/bachelorette party next month, and then my sister is getting married!  These are all super exciting, happy, great blessings in life right now, but it can lead to feeling a little overwhelmed at times; especially when the life of a one year old is in your hands! 

I promise to have more exciting posts up soon, but I have been so busy working on things for our bedroom “makeover” that I haven’t had much time to sit down and blog.  I am super excited about our bedroom, but I still have 3 projects to finish before I can show the reveal. 

In the meantime, some cute pictures and a video of Hadley showing off her animal-noise-skills. :)

We went to Chick-Fil-A yesterday with our neighbors and let the girls play after we ate.  Did you know they now have grilled chicken strips in the kid’s meals?  I am so excited about that!!

This next one is just *seconds* before both girls fell to the ground.  Camry gets a little excited with her hugs (that and Hadley is not super sturdy). :)

You have to listen pretty carefully to hear the cow sound, but it’s there!

Our Week in Postcards

Hadley is 13 Months

In an effort to be fair to any future kiddos down the road, I decided awhile back that I would stop the monthly updates at a year.  I could easily keep going with Hadley, but I’m worried that once there’s more than one little one running around in this house, I won’t have the time to keep up with their monthly updates for as long.  These things take time!

That being said, I feel like so much has changed since Hadley’s last monthly update that I wanted to do a quick post to remember what she’s up to at this age. 

• I already posted about this here, but since Hadley’s 12 month post, she is now crawling, getting up from lying down, pulling to standing and cruising on the furniture all over the place.  It’s like she held onto 3 months worth of developing and decided one night it was okay to move on ahead. 

• She has quite the personality, and while she’s stubborn and hot-headed at times, she is super sweet and tender-hearted.  If you say her name in a stern or warning-type tone she will stick out her bottom lip and turn her head away from you like she’s just too hurt by what you said. 

• She is super social and just loves to meet and play with other people!  She LOVES teenagers.  We go to the Chick-Fil-A by our house for lunch sometimes and there is a high school not too far away, so lunchtime can be pretty crowded with the off-campus lunchers.  Hadley will sit and just stare at a table of high schoolers until they notice her and then she grins and giggles and waves in excitement.  It’s actually nice when they sit near us because she is completely entertained just watching them. 

{SIDENOTE: Is it sad that when I see them I don’t feel that much older than them?  And then I remember how OLD a mom with a baby looked to me when I was in high school.  It’s a little depressing when I realize the gap between how old I feel and how old I am.}

• She is still not a snuggler by any means, but she will dole out the kisses left and right!  It’s super cute – if she’s standing up and you come over to her and ask for a kiss she will turn and place her hand on your shoulder while she leans in for a smackeroo.  Melt.my.heart.
• 
• She signs all the time, and while she may not be that verbal yet, she definitely understands just about everything we say.  In an attempt to start weaning her a couple weeks ago, I wound up throwing her way off schedule (apparently she’s not quite ready yet).  When she woke up (for the 4th time) one night, I went in to comfort her (which during a typical night would take about 10 seconds of rocking and then setting her back down), and instead of calming down instantly, she grabbed at my shirt and did the sign for “more”.  How can you say no to that? 
• She signs “more", “all done”, “eat”, and just started doing the sign for “milk”. 
• She can make a monkey sound, point to her hair and her mouth.  And she can point to her toes about 30% of the time we ask.   We’re working on the other body parts – she currently thinks her nose is also her mouth. 
• She is excellent at finding things that my vacuum or broom missed.  Case in point…

ewww, momma… here you go…

• She has 10 teeth!  She just popped her top 2 molars a couple weeks ago
• She sleeps 12 hours a night and naps twice a day (each nap ranges from 45 minutes to 2 hours)
• Still nursing 3x a day, but she can (and does) drink almond or coconut milk out of a sippy cup really well.  She’s still a pretty good eater, too.  Her favorite food right now is grapes, but she also loves when we go out for mexican!  We went to Chuy’s the other night and she ate a spinach, mango & pear puree, and then proceeded to eat about 5 large slices of avocado, some rice, a bunch of chicken fajita meat, a few bites of beans, and some tortilla!  She also loves to eat a tortellini vegetable soup that I make. 
• Her favorite toys (so I can remember this when I’m looking back!) right now are: her new play kitchen, her cozy coupe, her cookie jar, My Pal Violet, puzzles and board books.  She loves to “read”!

Happy 13 months baby girl! :)  I can still call her my baby girl, right?