Slides, Wreaths, and Comfort Food

As promised, here are the pictures that should have gone with a previous post.

My cutie before her first haircut, notice the scraggles...

I love the wary look on her face here.  She was really nervous that a haircut would be painful.

A little outdoor fun...

This might be my new favorite photo of those two.

Skinny jeans on a chunky baby are my new favorite thing.

I was glancing at photo albums with my cousin Kate before she moved to D.C. (insert me with a really sad face), and realized I haven't ordered pictures in over 6 months.  Whoops!  Which also means that the girls' baby books are completely neglected.  I'm leaning more and more toward ditching the baby book idea and just making them a blog book with all the posts about them and calling that good.  

Bella is changing so much right now.  She has started walking and talking in the last month.  She very clearly says mommy and daddy.  She's working on saying Evelyn and any other word I try to get her to copy.  She does the most darling roar you've ever heard.  Scott and Evelyn have roaring contests trying to be louder and scarier than each other and she has joined in the fun.  But she doesn't make r sounds yet.  So her roar goes something like this: mmmmmmmmMMMAAAAAHHHHHH!  It's h.i.l.a.r.i.o.u.s.  She's about 21 lbs. already and definitely in 12-18 month clothes.  Her feet have ceased growing though apparently as she can still fit in 6-9 month shoes that fit her in the Spring.  

Meanwhile, while my kids are growing up in ways I'm totally not ready for, I have been on a crafting spree.  The lovely and talented Jami Nato hosted a craft night at her place where 30 amazing women from our church got together and all made wreaths for our front doors.  Now we can all act like we're part of some crazy cult group and instead of Nikes we opt for homemade wreaths.  I'm ok with that though.  These women are fabulous and inspire me and I will happily associate myself with them.  Here's my creation. 

Note, the return of the poof with the addition of a button center.  I told you that you would find things all over your house that need poofed.  

The following night was Holistic Moms Network night which is always a highlight of my month.  I taught a group of ladies how to do freezer paper screen printing.  I will show you my projects later this week on that.  I would love to have lots of pictures from the night and even had my camera packed to do so.  Evelyn however is my budding photographer and ran off with it and took pictures of the whole house instead.  I forgot she had removed it from my pile of stuff, so I don't have any photos of the darling projects the other ladies made.  I do however have a couple hilarious shots Evelyn took of herself.  

And finally, because I am borderline longest post ever, a recipe idea for you.  I was having a particularly long day one day and was craving comfort food.  So I made bacon cheeseburger loaded french fries.  And now you're hungry.  Here's all I did.  

Oven roasted french fries:

Coat fresh cut golden potatoes with butter and olive oil.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake at 450 until they look like this (approx. 30-45 minutes).  

Saute onions in one pan.  Bacon and hamburger in another.  And make cheese sauce in a third.  

Cheese sauce: Melt 2 T butter with 2 T olive oil.  Add 1 T brown rice flour.  Whisk to thoroughly mix and heat to boiling.  Slowly add 1 cup milk 1/4 cup at a time.  Wait for each addition to heat and thicken before adding the next.  Melt in a couple cups of shredded cheese and stir until smooth and melty and delicious.  This will turn out if done right the same way melted Velveeta did, but you don't have to eat processed cheese product.  Double win. 

To serve, put a big pile of fries on your plate and pour some cheese over them.  Top with onions and meat.  Then rope someone else into doing dishes since you used a lot of pans and such.