I have really done it this time!

I don't know whether to be happy or sad. I have created a MONSTER in the kitchen. All the little guy talks about when he gets home now is cooking. The only problem is he has decided that he doesn't want to help me cook anymore. He wants to make his own dish. He told me today that he wants to be an Iron Chef and a ninja when he grows up.

The Next Iron Chef

We like to watch the Challenges on Food TV. We watch the cake challenges, the throwdown's and the Iron Chef series. So tonight while I am making dinner Maddox tells me that he wants to add a special ingredient of his own to dinner. I didn't realize at first that this meant he wanted to cook his own special dish.

 I had left a quarter of an onion on the cutting board. Thankfully I had put the big knife I had been using away. Next thing I know he has cut it into chunks using a spoon and put it in my liquid measuring cup. He brings it over and puts in the small skillet I had just finished using to saute my onions. He pulls up his cooking chair and starts stirring. He tells me we need more special ingredients.

So he adds: some ground turkey that I had just cooked, some mashed sweet potatoes, some apple juice and apple sauce, a quarter of a banana, some honey, and pinch of salt & pepper. Right about that time I send him on an errand so I can do something with the HUGE onion slices and banana in the skillet. He thinks they are going to cook down. So I decide to throw it all in the blender and puree it for him. He comes back when he hears the blender and thinks that is a great idea. We return the blender contents to the skillet for further cooking. He then decides his master dish needs a little something more.... ketchup! Oh and of course more honey.

So he tries his lovely mix and declares it a winner. He then makes me try it. I will give him props, it was better than I thought it would be. A little sweet for my taste but it wasn't the worst thing I had eaten by far. He was so excited for Daddy to come home to judge our food to see who would be the winner. Lets just say that even though mine was a good meal Iron Chef Maddox got points for creativity and plating in the snowflake Christmas bowl. So as you might have guessed this evening Iron Chef Maddox reigned supreme. He came out the victor of the first Vige Kitchen Challenge. I have a feeling there may be a few more of these in our future. He really had fun.

Park & Pizza

This weekend was marked by pizza & the park. We made homemade pizza's. Maddox was a big help even though he was pining for his friend who ended up having a very rough weekend with a stomach virus and couldn't come visit. (Get well soon!)
My little man made himself a pepperoni, canadian bacon, hamburger, shrimp and black olive pizza with extra cheese. Maddox said it was the best pizza he had ever eaten.

He also helped make our pizza which was hummus, ranch, cucumbers, tomatoes, avocados, black olives, shrimp, basil, green onions and feta cheese. I can personally say that our pizza was wonderful.

We actually got a little nice weather this weekend and decided to go to the park. It was a nice day to play. Maddox played on the slides and swings a little and then we spent the rest of the time kicking around the soccer ball. It was nice to get outside for a bit.

Sleeping Beauty

I absolutely love this picture from a night last week when he was so tired he fell asleep on the couch next to his daddy.

A BIG Crush

So my little man has a crush on a girl. He has always been quite the ladies man and has always noticed pretty girls/women. I figured it wouldn't be long before he came home saying he had a girlfriend at school. Well he has a crush, but it isn't any little girl at school. It is a Food Network star. I bet your asking yourself... Paula Deen, Rachael Ray, or even Ina Garten. All lovely choices but the lucky lady of Maddox's heart is Giada De Laurentiis. He asks about her all the time. She has a new kitchen line of products at Target. He was so excited to see her picture while shopping the other day. He sits mesmerized by her cooking demos on the computer. So I may use this to my advantage.  Have him watch a demo and then help me make the meal. This might be the key to getting him to try things he might not normally go for. Then again he is a 4 year old boy so he might still think it is yucky no matter what it is.

Valentine's Day

So this year for Valentine's my little man was dead set on having this item at his Valentine's party at school...guess? Chocolate..No, Candy.. No, Girls.. No, Valentines Cards..No...Give up? He was dead set on having cornbread for his party at school. Don't ask where he got that idea. I have no clue. His teacher asked me when I got back in town if I was actually planning on making cornbread. I told him we would see. At the school you can't bring homemade items anymore everything has to be store bought so I wasn't sure if I would be able to bring any cornbread at all. I asked his teacher who sent me to the front to ask the lovely ladies in charge. Believe it or not they said sure as long as he didn't share with the other kids. I really didn't think that would be a problem since the day before most of the kids in the class told me they didn't eat cornbread it was yucky. I decided to make his cornbread a little festive and put a few drops of red food coloring in the mix which made it a very pretty shade of pink.

Haven't you all thought of bringing pink cornbread to your kids school for Valentine's day? The cornbread was sort of a hit, I mean next to all the cookies and decorated cupcakes and pure sugar I couldn't imagine it being the star of the show. He did eat a little cornbread so as not to break his mom's heart for going to all that trouble.

Wii

The little man got a Wii for Christmas. He has really enjoyed playing the games. His favorites so far are the boxing and the sword fighting. He wants to play all the time. The other weekend he had all of us playing so much I thought my arm would fall off. The funny part is that he always asks "Mom can we play the Wiid (pronounced weed)?" I smile every time he says it.

A Rocket & A Turtle

Before I went away to Florida to support STS-130/20A space shuttle launch I asked the little man what he would like for me to bring back for him. He told me very emphatically that he wanted a Rocket and a Turtle. Not exactly sure why he wanted each of these. So while I was there I was on the lookout for each of these items. I knew I could find the rocket very easily, but I wasn't as sure about the turtle. Well while I was away he would check on my progress daily on whether I had obtained his items. As the conversation grew about the rocket & turtle it grew into a rocket with a man & a turtle with a man. He also decided that in Florida one must attend the Circus (Also not sure where this information came from). So I brought him home a Rocket pencil holder, a turtle that swims in the water and a surfer that glides across the water. With all the grief he gave me about the Rocket & the Turtle his favorite is the Surfer. I must admit the surfer is pretty cool.

The Chef

My sous chef and I were in the kitchen making new items again this evening. He loves to help so it is making things more fun for both of us. Tonight we had chicken noodle soup for dinner (homemade). It was pretty good. Daddy and I had ours with broccoli in the soup but my sous chef had his on the side. After we finished dinner we made breakfast muffins and a breakfast loaf. I only have pictures of the muffins. They turned out superb. If you like what you see let me know and I can share the recipe with you.

Face Plant Acrobat

Yesterday when I went to pick up the little man he had a Boo Boo report. If you have never gotten a Boo Boo report count yourself lucky. It means somehow your child got hurt at daycare, which isn't good but is better in a way than an Oh No report (your child hurting someone else).

It said that he was swinging from some chairs and bumped his head. He is always getting dings and scratches, so I wasn't too worried. I got to his classroom and he had what looked like carpet burn on his forehead. It wasn't carpet burn though it was from him hitting the ground so hard the carpet left an impression on his forehead. His nose and upper lip were also scratched. Once I was there his teacher gave me all the details. I can say I was disappointed that they didn't call me since he had head trauma, but we have that all ironed out now.
So as soon as we left daycare we headed to Daddy's office to get him checked out and make sure that nothing was wrong. No teeth loose, nothing broken, no concussion, etc. After a thorough check by Dr. G and by Daddy he was cleared. I was relieved but had thought he was fine. He has complained a little about he spots being sore but overall he is doing just great. When I asked him why he was swinging on the chairs...."Mom I was being an acrobat!"
Today his head looks so much better. I can say the pictures really don't do it justice.

Mom taking my mug shot

Are you done yet?

Ok I am cheesing for you are you done?

If you click on the pictures it gives you a better look.

Random Pics of the New Year

Noah's Pirate Birthday

Davis Christmas

Christmas Lights

Instead of fighting the crowd at the parade we decided to go to the lighted park in Dickinson. The boys enjoyed it again this year and so did we. I promise I was there but I was behind the camera. Lots of my pictures didn't come out so here is what I have that looked decent.

Getting in the Holiday Spirit

Today Maddox and I got festive by trying our hand at making a Gingerbread House. For our very first one ever I think it came out pretty good.

Maddox can't wait to eat it. He did eat the Gingerbread men that he made already and sampled lots of the candy used on the house before he decided it was good enough to be put on the house. I don't think he will have room for dinner.

Tonight we are going to meet up with the Rhodes' to check out the League City Christmas parade. With the trees and decorations up in the house and watching the snow fall yesterday it has been very wintery down here in Southeast Texas.

Can't wait for the real thing

I am looking forward to seeing how the photographers pictures came out, but I love the one that Max got of Maddox & Ali from that day. We had their very first Christmas picture taken together as a present for MawMaw Betty when Maddox was a little over 3 months old and I believe that Ali was just 3 weeks old. It was a precious picture of my big boy and his tiny angelic cousin. This year we decided to have them take another picture together. I really can't wait! They almost look like brother & sister in the picture that Max took. They truly love each other and I wish they could spend more time together. I hope you enjoy this preview picture as much as I have.

Turkey Day!

One of very few but certainly a favorite photo from Turkey Day this year... Maddox & Landon decorating their jello. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with a full house. Nothing like conversation and good food with friends and family. We are truly blessed! Thank you all who shared the day with us and my hope is that everyone else had a Thanksgiving as good as ours.

Let's Dance

Last night Max had a mixer at the bank, so while he was mixing the little guy and I went shoe shopping. He helped me try on lots of pairs of shoes and showed me the correct path to walk around all of the shoe benches. After we finished we met Max for dinner at La Brisa. Dinner was really good and as we were packing up to leave Maddox noticed two sisters dancing by some tables near us. He kept saying "Mommy & Daddy you go dance to!" I asked him if he would like to dance with me and he said yes. So we got up and starting dancing by the table but the whole time he was watching the little girls. After a minute of dancing the girl's mom noticed that we were dancing too. She asked her little girl to come ask Maddox to dance. She was too shy and ran to the table. So I asked Maddox if he would like to dance with the girls and he said yes. So we walked over to where they were and he asked the older girl if she wanted to dance with him. She said yes and proceded to teach him how to dance with her. He was a good student and spent the whole time watching her feet. I think he had a really good time. I was so proud of my little man for not being too shy to ask the girl to dance. It was so sweet to watch.

Happy Baptism Day

Today is Maddox's 4th Baptism Anniversary. Once again he celebrated by taking his Baptism plate down and eating cookies that Auntie Shyra & Uncle Gilfred sent to him. He wasn't crazy about the white chocolate chips or raisin cookies so he is saving them for when they come visit. Good thing they are coming for Thanksgiving.