Video - Marli Playing

Marli Claire - 10 Months

WATCHING AMERICAN IDOL

BEING SWEET IN HER CORA DRESS

Marli's Music

Marli loves music ALMOST as much as I do. Everytime music comes on, she freezes! The sweetest thing is when I start singing around the house or in the car, she gets the biggest smile on her face, almost like she is proud of me. I LOVE IT! Move over Mom and Matthew, Marli might just be my biggest fan now. Anyway, I got a little carried away for a minute. The purpose of this blog was to show Marli's sweet skills on the morracas. When I took Marli to school the other day, the music teacher was there, so I used it as the perfect Kodak moment. As you can see, Marli is looking at me, smiling. When she hears my camera power on, she automatically poses and smiles. She probably thinks that her mom is part of the papparazzi as much as I take pics. I just love her school. She attends Legacy Academy where she does baby yoga, spanish class, and music. Although her teacher says that she is her best yoga client, music is her thing! What a wonderful life, to be 10 months old again.

Mondays

So, it hasn't been the greatest day that I have ever had. Everything seems to be grating on my nerves today. Surely, it's everyone else and not me, right? Things that got on my nerves today:

(1) Spending 45 minutes in just the waiting room at Eastside Pediatrics for Marli's checkup. That just burns me up! We finally got her all checked and good to go. Marli is now in the 3rd percentile in weight!!! 3rd!!!! She eats so much now and still isn't gaining weight. Other than that, she is doing well.

(2) The second thing that got on my nerves today are people that I don't know stopping me when I am in a hurry to talk to Marli. This to me is so ackward! I never do that to other people, and I don't understand it. I don't really know what to say, so I just give me best fake giggle and keep moving. I always say, "Marli, can you say hi to this lady?" NO SHE CAN'T SAY HI, SHE CANT TALK!!!!

(3) The last thing that just sent me over the edge today are the word verifications on Blogger. I can't really read them. I never EVER get it right on the first try. What in the worl is wrong with me? Am I the only person that can' see it? It's like those pictures that you stare at for hours and finally you see an image. Never have I seen the image. When I was younger, I would just pretend so that I wouldn't be the only one that couldn't see Jesus's face in the middle.

I guess that I haven't been in the best mood today. Pray for me! Tomorrow will be better!

Yum Yum Sticky Buns

OH MY WORD! That's all I can say about this recipe. Those of you who know me well know that I love The Food Network. I was watching Barefoot Contessa aka Ina Garten the other day and she made sticky buns that looked D-I-V-I-N-E! Although Ina doesn't make me jump out of my seat with excitement about her personality, SHE CAN COOK! I bought the ingredients before it started snowing last weekend, thinking that it would be great to make them for breakfast on our snow day. Due to the power outage, the sticky buns were put on hold. I finally made them Sunday morning for breakfast before church. How ironic that I made them on Sunday morning, and when I took one bite, knew that it had to be a sin to eat them? They were just as good as they looked. To top it off, they are extremely easy to make. Thanks Ina! Try them for yourself, and tell me that you don't want to slap yo' mama they are sooo good! (I forgot to mention that I left the raisins out because we don't like them in our bread.)




Easy Sticky Buns (makes 12)

12 tablespoons (1 & 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

1/2 cup pecans, chopped in very large pieces

1 package (17.3 ounces/ 2 sheets) frozen puff pastry, defrosted

FOR THE FILLING:
2 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place a 12-cup standard muffin tin on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the 12 tablespoons butter and 1/3 cup brown sugar. Place 1 rounded tablespoon of the mixture in each of the 12 muffin cups. Distribute the pecans evenly among the 12 muffin cups on top of the butter and sugar mixture. Lightly flour a wooden board or stone surface. Unfold one sheet of puff pastry with the folds going left to right. Brush the whole sheet with half of the melted butter. Leaving a 1-inch border on the puff pastry, sprinkle each sheet with 1/3 cup of the brown sugar, 1½ teaspoons of the cinnamon, and ½ cup of the raisins. Starting with the end nearest you, roll the pastry up snugly like a jelly roll around the filling, finishing the roll with the seam side down. Trim the ends of the roll about ½ inch and discard. Slice the roll in 6 equal pieces, each about 1½ inches wide. Place each piece, spiral side up, in 6 of the muffin cups. Repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry to make 12 sticky buns. Bake for 30 minutes, until the sticky buns are golden to dark brown on top and firm to the touch. Allow to cool for 5 minutes only, invert the buns onto the parchment paper (ease the filling and pecans out onto the buns with a spoon) and cool completely.

Marli Claire's First Snow Day

What a mess! It began snowing at 5:00 pm yesterday. At 7:55 PM, we were getting psyched for Amazing Race, when all of a sudden, LIGHTS OUT! That's right, we lost power. To make it even better, we were the only house in our entire neighborhood to lose power. It got colder and colder as the hours went by. At 11:00 PM, we decided that we had to get Marli warm. We packed up and went to sleep at Matthew's grandma's. It makes it so difficult when you take a 9 month old out of her routine, but we survived!!! When Marli woke up, she was so confused, she didn't know where she was. We took as many pics as we could before Marli got mad that the wind was taking her breath away. Enjoy the pics from yet another adventure in the life of Marli Claire.

Last night at our home.

NOT HAPPY!

This snowball is for Austin, Ches, and Amanda!

As you know, Marli Claire, recently started crawling. We just wanted to share this video of our little munchkin loving her newfound freedom!