Cain 2012?

This man looks very promising! I can't wait to follow him to see what he has to offer in the future!
Read this article. You will be impressed:

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=181961

Homemade Cheese

Since Jeff decided he was going to get into making beer, we saw that the website that he orders his ingredients from also sells cool things like kits for homemade cheese. So, of course, how could we pass up trying something like that out?! We chose the Mozzarella kit since it seemed the easiest.

Reading the instructions, it sounded pretty complicated, but after doing it, it was so easy. (I have to say that I pretty much just watched my dad and Jeff do all of the work. I was the photographer ;]. )

Here are a few pictures:

Preparing the ingredients

Heating 1 Gallon of Whole Milk

Watching the Curds and Whey separate

Pressing the Whey

Straining the Curds out of the pot

This is what Whey looks like... weird!

Pressing as much Whey out of the Curds as possible

Kneading the curds into a "dough" like consistancy. Alternating Kneading and heating to get it to the texture of Mozzarella Cheese.

Giving the Cheese an ice bath

Time to eat! It's already about 1/4 gone by the time I got a picture. This made a block of cheese about 4" x 4"... Can you believe that this is all you get from a whole gallon of milk?! I can now understand why good cheese is so expensive. It's really yummy on some salami and crackers. :)

Did You Know?

Disney celebrates it's 55th birthday tomorrow?

Political Humor

A Few Milestones

1. The past few nights Avery has only woken up 2-3 times for her Binki (Pacifier) and has not wanted to eat until 6am. That is huge! She is basically sleeping from 9:30 to 6:00 with only a few cries. We are almost sleeping through the night... hopefully the 2-3 times will start to dwindle fast :)

2. She sat in her high chair! We have started to attempt cereal again. The doc said to just give it another shot to see if she takes to it better but its still early so we don't have to push too hard.

3. She is getting the hang on supporting herself to sit. She is still very wobbly but she will use her hands to prop herself up for a few seconds. As soon as she sees something to grab, though, then she looses her balance.

This is right before she fell over to the side and so I didnt get a very good face. lol

4. We got our Joovy and I love it! That's not really a milestone, but I thought I would throw that one in there. :)

Avery... 5 Months

Picture Taken By Tanya Pabor

Today we had our 5 month check up. (Her pediatrician was out last week so we had to do it a week late) She weighed in at 16 lbs 7 oz and is 26.5 inches long. That puts her in the 75% for weight and 90% for height.

Her little personality is really starting to blossom, too. She is starting to laugh a lot! Her favorite movie is Baby Einstein's "Baby Noah." I guess it's all the animals, but she will daze out and sit quietly when that movie is on. No other captivates her like that one does (including Barney).

I will admit that I did break down and buy her 2 Barney DVDs. I can't believe that I did, let alone I am admitting it! I have to swallow my pride on that one! lol The sing-a-long ones aren't that bad, I guess. ;)

She is beginning to tuck her legs under when she is laying on her tummy and starts to push. It's really funny 'cuz then she ends up scooting on her face. She doesn't do it on a regular basis, but when she isn't tired already, I can get her to do it. Here's a step-by-step:

Her arms are not quite strong enough to support her yet but she will sometimes push up out of frustration like the last picture.

She is also rolling over a lot! I will set her down to do something and turn around and she has flipped herself over. Here she is rolling over to grab one of her toys:

She is trying so despiratly to sit up, too. She crunches up and strains to pull up but she can't quite do it yet. The doctor tried to get her to sit up but she kept pushing up to stand. He said that he was impressed at how active she was and that "she is her own worst enemy" on learning to sit since she wants to stand more. lol Thank goodness for the exercauser and jumperoo 'cuz my arms would fall off without them to give me a break.

All in all she is growing so fast and making huge strides. As her doctor puts it, "she's perfect!"

4th of July

We went to my parents' lake house on Lake Livingston to celebrate. Of course, we had a blast. Unfortunately, I didn't get that many, but here's a few pictures:

Happy July 4th!

Camera Strap Cover

I decided the other day on a whim that I wanted a cover for my camera strap. Every photographer needs one of these! I love it and I can't wait to make some more. Once I figured out how to do it, I made one for Allyson for her birthday since she is getting into photography. Here's how I did it (don't look too close at the craftsmanship... this is the first run, so it wasn't perfect.) :

1. I cut the chosen fabric to the lenth and width that was needed for my camera strap. 6"x19.5" was good enough for mine). Then measured how much padding I would need. I actually only ended up using 1/2 the width shown here. Then I pressed the edged at 1/4" twice all of the way around.

2. I cut the lining to be 1/4" shorter on each edge then made a seam down the middle to create an edge for the padding. (Padding on both sides was reaaly too thick and more than you really need anyways). Then, I sewed down the short ends.

3. I placed the padding under the lining on one of the sides then sandwiched the two long edges together

4. Voila! The finished product! Such a quick and easy project. I love those!

I Have to Brag

...on my mother-in-law. She made these little outfits for Avery. Aren't they Precious?!

This dress is lined and has matching bloomers. I can't wait for her to wear it!:

These two go with dark purple Ruffle Butt bloomers:

This one is hanging with it's matching bloomers: