Ruthie-style Cooking

So I finally answered my husband's prayers and said I would attempt cooking, IF the following conditions were met:
1) No watching me...this may sound silly, but his hovering eye and the fact that he knows how to prepare food is stressful dang it
2) No laughing...seriously, I have the most minimal kitchen knowledge that it is laughable to say the least
3) You cannot be mad at me if the house burns down

I began very small on Tuesday. I found some recipes from The Pioneer Woman and began my plan. This plan even included leaving early from work to begin the process without witnesses. I made steak tips and chili con queso and then made some Lemon Cream Cheese bars. I was shocked when Chad sneaked in the kitchen and took a sample of my cooked meat. Oh god. WHAT? It is edible and actually has yummy flavor?? Hell has frozen over people. So we ate that and I think he was impressed. Yay! Okay, I can do it again tomorrow!

Wednesday was to be a pork meal of some sort. Hmmm, what should I do that I could actually complete?? Welcome, Paula Deen. Paula and I decided to make Jamaican Jerk Pork Chops. This began with a trip to the grocery store because the rub consisted of like 25 spices and clearly, I don't own more than 2 spices and salt and pepper. I gathered my ingredients and was brave enough to begin this cooking with Chad and Aidan home. Holy crap that jerk rub is spicy to make! My eyes were watering after the umpteenth spice. I also made the cheesy potato crunchy stuff (I have no idea what the official name is, usually it's "That delicious potato thing that Ruthie makes"). I put everything in the oven and my lord, it was actually smelling very tasty!! One thing that I hadn't thought of or learned though, pork cooking makes some serious grease. Paula said put on a baking sheet so that is what I did. Well, grease falls off the side of flat baking sheets. So one almost Ruthie-Thanksgiving 2.0 smoking incident later, the pork was moved to a safer, edgier pan and we were all okay. And the food was actually even more delicious than the day before!

Well a while after I was beaming from my mostly-successful dinner, Chad can barely walk because he is ill. Oh crap, I poisoned him. He swears up and down that it was not "that kind of pain" and that he LOVED what I made and he just ate too much of my tasty treat. I thought about it and he did it an entire giant chop and 2 helpings of potatoes so I don't think he was just being kind. I had warned him previously that if he didn't tell me I was killing him, he would continue to have to eating this stuff. So I am taking his dying pain as a compliment to the chef :)

We will see what future dishes are in store!! LOL

Aidan was hunting in the living room again and accidently got his finger snapped by the trigger. This is what he said to me when I asked him if he was okay:

"It's okay, mom. It's just a little hunting accident."

I am afraid for the years to come when he is out hunting with his dad :)

Deer Hunting

It was a good weekend. Aidan went to Grandma and Grandpa Hogue's on Friday night. Chad and I were able to go out to dinner and then I made him go to Target. He is so lucky :) Saturday morning we slept in and headed to JC to get Aidan. First we had to eat at Lutz's BBQ which is the best stuff ever-especially considering it is located inside a gas station. We picked up Aidan and headed home with the intention of going swimming later. Well, he fell asleep and when we got home he said, "let's just stay home guys." So YAY no swimming :) SO INSTEAD...Aidan and Chad began deer hunting. What began as shooting the little cartoon animals mom drew on the cardboard box, turned into a trip to Bass Pro and Chad coming home with this: Yes, that is a deer corralled in our living room. To be exact, that is the deer farm. He spent the entire evening in and out of his "deer stand," shooting that deer. After that deer arrived, my "deer" didn't quite stand a chance:
Yes, but you don't even get to see the moose, skunk pig and bear I drew on the other side! This pic is a little fuzzy because it's off the cell phone, but you can see the intensity in which we kill deer in our home :)

Aidan and dad in the tree stand...well Aidan is in the tree stand. Dad is a little big for the pressure washer box...

Look how excited this game even made dad, lol...

The dogs just had to watch out for crossfire. They weren't even curious about the new deer in the house which surprised me. You can bet it scared the pants off of me Sunday morning when I let the dogs out at 6:30 and it was dark in the living room, and there is a giant deer in the middle of the room!

Aidan stopped hunting for like 10 minutes the rest of the weekend. He was even so kind as to color with me, the boring one, for 2 of those minutes before heading back to dad to wrestle and hunt. Guess big ol' preggo moms aren't that exciting :)
Aidan has a "mean face." When he is pissed about something he gives you this nasty little look. He was trying to replicate it here but kept giggling...

Ok, break is overand he is back hunting. This time with safety goggles as well. Safety first, you know.

And finally, here is another set up of the deer farm once Aidan had "put the deer to bed."

Aidan is actually a heck of a shot. Last night he was calling out where he was going to shoot the deer, and nailing it every time. He could even hit just the antler. I was super impressed!

Also, this morning we had a follow up doctor appointment for an ultrasound with the concerns about the placenta. The tech was super nice and they remeasured just about everthing. The placenta is moving where it should be at this time and they reconfirmed that we do have a little girl in there ;) They guesstimate the weight right now as about 1 lbs 8-10 oz. They also got the extra shots of the heart they were looking for since she wasn't being very cooperative last time. Everything looks good!

Aidan's Likes right now:

LOVES cooking shows, especially Paula Deen and Iron Chef...I am praying that he absorbs some of that in case he ever marries anyone like his mommy who doesn't cook :)

Clearly loves the hunting

Football on tv

Mizzou Tigers anything

Will call you out on "bad" words, watch out, he is the manner police

Started watching actual "boy" cartoons as I would call it, Ninja Turtles, some Hot Wheels thing on Cartoon Network

Handwriting

Aidan can officially write his name. He is so proud. We have this giant box in the living room right now that he has been using as a fort and has practiced his name all over it. I tried to get a picture of it, but it's too faint to really see.

Froggy Weather

We had a pretty mellow weekend. Aidan ended up going to our friends, the Smith's house on Friday night so Chad and I could go out. HE LOVED IT. Their daughter, Courtney, was "babysitting" Aidan. She is only 9 so he went over to their house to play with everyone, but officially, Courtney was in charge. He had a blast. They all loaded up and went to her brother, Clayton's basketball game. Aidan loves going to their games. He went to Clayton's baseball games this summer. We came to pick him up about 9:30 but they were having so much fun that we ended up hanging around until almost 11pm. LOL that is sooo late for us. Lordy, I can't even remember when I was up that late in the past 6 months!!


Saturday we took a road trip to St. Louis in search of baby bedding. We found what we, um I mostly mean me by we, wanted and headed over to the Mills so Aidan could run around.
Aidan spent a few minutes playing at the Nascar Park at the mall and then we stopped quickly by the cousin's house. He was WIPED OUT by that night. On our way home it was FOGGY!! You could barely see a quarter mile in front of you. Aidan was intrigued and kept commenting on how darn froggy it was outside! The frog continued for the rest of the weekend. It was really dense this morning too. Mama had a LONG day on Saturday to say the least, and my fantastic, amazing husband surprised me with these:

He is the best :)
Sunday we had church, then Aidan had a date with Gracie at the pool. They swam for quite a while until it got too busy with obnoxious older kids. We got haircuts and went home. Not a whole lot going on really. We have a whole lot of nothing going on this week. Hurray for that!

Arthur is a kickin

Chad was able to feel Baby Arthur kick for the first time last night. She is quite the mover and shaker. I thought she was possible trying to claw her way out.

We have been going to the gym every night this past week. Keepin up the cardio :) Actually, more like starting the cardio since we haven't seen the inside of that place in a LONG time! Aidan LOVES going to the playcenter there. There is always a gaggle of kids screamin and hollering. Definitely his type of fun...

Tonight Aidan has a date with Grandma and Grandpa so Chad and I can go to dinner. We are keeping up our tradition of White Trash Date Night. One would think we would be excited about a date and go somewhere fancy, but the last 3 date nights we have visited the likes of Lee's Fried Chicken and Bass Pro Shops a couple or times and then Golden Corral the other. SEXY. Tonight, we are headed to the Isle for a little casino buffet. I know. You are jealous of our FAYNCEE lifestyle :)

Tomorrow is baby shopping. We need to find Arthur some bedding! Columbia pretty much sucks for that so we will go to St. Louis for the day.

Sunday, Aidan has a date with Gracie. We are meeting her and her momma at the pool for some swimming. He is stoked. That's about it for these jetsetters. Have a fantastic weekend :)

Party at the Gym

This weekend it was STILL cold out (hopefully it really will get as "warm" as they say its supposed to this week, a whopping 38 degrees). Aidan had a birthday party to go to on Saturday at a local gymnastics place. He was super excited. He loved the giant foam pit thing and spent much of the time jumping in and digging out...

He told us this is where he wants his next birthday at. It was waaaaay calmer than Bonkers so I am definitely on board with that idea!

A shot of the whole group...lol you try getting a group of 3 and 4 years olds to all look the same way at once :)

We didn't do a whole lot else over the weekend. We are going to try and hit up Babies R Us this coming weekend to locate some baby bedding and a new stroller. We can't really paint anything until we figure out this bedding situation. That is really about it.

I had a doctor appointment today, the regular ol' check up. Everything looks good. Heartrate was 166, everything measuring where it should be. We have a second ultrasound in 2 weeks to check on the placenta. At our first ultrasound, they noted a low-lying placenta so they are going to check in at the end of the month to see that it has moved up to where they would prefer it. The doctor really isn't concerned about anything at this point, but they just want to be sure its doing what it should. I have gained 11 lbs total, UGH. I must say that I am much happier now not being sick in any way shape or form. FINALLY LOL

Snow Day

Yesterday we got an enormous amount of snow. I was in bed sick (ugh, I am so tired of this) and Chad was in charge of Aidan. When they got home from school, Aidan came running down the hall to show me what Dad had gotten him: a new green sled. He was so excited. The next thing I know, Chad is pulling Aidan around the house on the sled. Obviously, now Aidan really wanted to actually use the sled in the snow. So, they got all bundled up (as you probably know it is FREEZING here) and went out to take a quick jaunt up the sidewalk. Well Aidan was LOVING it so they come pounding on the window for me to come watch his new trick. I go on the back patio and Chad is pushing Aidan down the slope on the side of the house. Aidan is laughing hysterically. He couldn't care less that it was like zero degrees and SNOWING EXCESSIVELY. The video is pretty dark because it was close to 7pm when they were out, but you get the idea. Some of the pics show how big the snow is too.

Pulling Aidan up the little slope between the houses...If you look hard you can see Chad fetching Aidan from the back of the yard...As I was standing on the deck our "snow beasts" inside realized that Aidan was outside in the snow so of course they had to charge out there and roll around in it. Lacy actually decided it was quite nice and just plopped down to take a little rest...
Last time down the hill for the evening...We woke up this morning with about 5 inches-ish on the ground. Aidan was already asking if he could use his "sleigh." I said, "your SLED?" He said, "No, it's a sleigh because I can put presents and toys in it too. It's soo big, like Santa's." Ah, I see :)

Happy New Year!

We had a super low key New Year's (well like normal really, lol). The three of us headed out to dinner and Aidan wanted to go to the "peanut place," so we went to Lone Star. Aidan wanted to wear his "hunting coat" just like his dad. So here are my 2 hunters: We went home after dinner and I believe we made it to about 10 o'clock then I said I was exhausted and Chad gladly agreed and we called it a night. I did watch tv until close to 11 if that counts ;)

Chad's parents came back through town the next day. We just kind of hung around and did various things. Again, nothing to exciting. Saturday we all went to the MU v. Georgia basketball game. It was Aidan's first b-ball game and he was really excited. He had a great time.

We were sitting waaaaay up in the top of the arena but Aidan didn't care at all

This picture pretty much sums up the theme of our weekend:

Aidan and Grandpa playing with the tool bench. Aidan never let Grandpa off the floor.

Not much else really went on. I got some kind of bug/cold/crappy thing yesterday and spent the majority of the day in bed. I am feeling somewhat better today, but am definitely tired of the illness!! Hope the New Year brings many blessings to you!

On another note, IT IS FREEZING OUTSIDE. The high this week is like 15 degrees. That is amazing.