Texas

At the end of February we went to Texas to meet some of the family on Ryan's mother's side that I have not met yet. Tessa has not met any of them! So we decided that we should go and so Tessa can also meet her Great Great Grandfather. 

Here she is sitting at the airport drooling and waiting

We went out to lunch with everyone. Theses are Ruth's (Ryan's mom) sisters and her (Missing one sister Amy).  We did eat a lot of yummy food there. I really wanted to go near the coast, but we didn't have enough time. 

Ryan and his cousin Sean. He is an awesome guy! 

I think these girls would be Tessa's cousins? They are Tessa's great grandma's brother's son's kids. They are so sweet. They just wanted to sit by Tessa. They even fought over who gets to sit the closetest to her.

Her first time at the wheel. While we were there we rented a Ford Flex. It was a really nice car to ride in. Will I ever drive one? Prob not (Ryan pretty much drove the whole time), It was a very large car. 

Meeting Papa for the first time (great great grandfather). I think he is in his 90s now. Can't remember now old he is. He is still quite alert, age has caught up to him and he is very tired and hard of hearing. 

She was exhausted 

The 5 Generation picture

Ryan has a uncle mike that lives on .....a lot of land. He has long horns and they are just so fun. They have tons of little calves running around. 

I could not help but admire their house. 

Mike's wife made some volcano cake? it was delish...I know it looks like Tessa really wanted some, but I think what she really wanted was the silver fork I was using.

It was beautiful up there. I want to live there.

They had a garden that I just loved. I know it does not look like they have a lot growing, but we got to taste some of the turnip that they grew and it was awesome!

Tessa and Nana (great grandmother)

It was such a good visit and I hope to go back again. Tessa did great on the flight as well. Only fussed a little bit and no screaming. She did so much better then all the other kids on the same flight.

Painting a table

There are so many ways of painting a piece of furniture. This is what I picked for this particular table. With any furniture that you would want to repaint, please do yourself a favor and take the time to sand it down!!!

After sanding I started with a coat of Ivory. I almost always use spray paint because it is much easier especially around those decorative legs. 

After the Ivory coat dries I painted my last coat. The purpose of the Ivory coat is just so when I sand down the brown the Ivory will peep through.

Here I have the Brown all done above. Below you can see that I started to sand it down.

Here is the finished piece in my living room. Big mistake that I have made was the direction I spray painted and sanding. I should have spray painted length wise because that is the direction I was sanding. Oh well, Not going to sand it down and redo again. Still looks great!

Next project...painting those curtains you see on the windows. 

Family Fun

I know, it is kinda wrong of me to say family fun when all the pictures I have is of Tessa. She is just so cute, we love to watch her and sometimes laugh at all the funny things she does. We had our first little outing in our back yard yesterday on Ryan's day off. 

 First Tank top of the year!

We had a little picnic out too...she was the only one eating though. :)

Strawberry Cake

I love this strawberry cake recipe. Every time I make it before you know it, it will be all gone! (Sorry no pictures. I would take one, but I already ate half of it)

Ingredients:
half package of vanilla cake
1 package of cream cheese
1 tub of whip topping
1C powder sugar
1lb of fresh strawberry hulled
1tub of strawberry glaze

Bake cake according to package in a 13x9 pan (preferably glass)

Soften cream cheese and add in powder sugar. *Mix very well. Then add whip topping to the cream cheese mix

Chop strawberry to little pea size pieces

When the cake is cooled spread the cream cheese mixture on top and add the chopped strawberries (spread it around) then add the glaze (spread that too)

Refrigerate for a few hours and it is done!

I have made my own whipcream instead of buying the whip topping. It is still delish, but it does not firm up as well. You can also make your own strawberry glaze if you chose to.

Enjoy!

Photos

Yes I know I promised photos 2 posts or so ago and I still have not posted them. Well it is 8:33 at night and I am ready for bed. Lucky for you I just found my camera! I think I left it at my friend Megan's house. Anywho....this is what we have been up to the last week (I will back track a little later).

 We went to the Chinese New Year festival over at the Chinese Cultural Center in Phoenix. Here are baby Tessa and Olive.

Here are the dads

Here is Ryan and I at the garden. There was tons of people there and it was a good time. 

Megan and I. 

We hung out later that eve as well with the Nelsons and our other neighbor the Ayers. So this is what happends when we get together. Everyone is just hanging out and Ryan is off by himself playing video games. Silly boy. 

This week we have nothing really going on, but I will for sure post more pictures now that I found my camera (Thanks Megan!). Will post updates soon of the house...

The best steak tacos

So as most of you know I have been married a little over 2 years now and for the last 2 years I have been perfecting my cooking skills. Poor people Chinese food is what I am actually pretty good at but it is not the most delish to the average people and it does not always look fantastic. So since I married Ryan I have been branching out to other things and making some yummy yummy delish food.

Steak Tacos (or whatever else you want to use the steak to make)

Story: My friend Emily posted on her blog about Backyard Mexican. BM is actually not a restaurant but a family cooking in their backyard every weekend and you can go and buy food and sit in their backyard to eat. Delish Mexican food might I add. Well, I learned how they cooked their meat and I have not been back since. They used just steak and salt, but I added a few other things. Here is my version.

Steak:
Thin sliced chuck
Sea salt
chili powder
garlic powder
cumin
smoking chips (I think mesquite is best but I use hickory cuz it was what I had)

Rub the chuck with sea salt, chili, garlic and cumin. I would go easy on the cumin because cumin is a really potent spice. Let it sit over night in the fridge.

BBQ the meat till the edges is a little brown and crispyish or to your liking. Remember the wood chips*

Chop up the meat to small pieces for serving and serve with pico, guac, chopped up cabbage, hot sauce, etc.

You can use this for tacos, steak salad, tostatas, I don't know...whatever you want.

My recommendation for tortilla is use the uncooked ones and cook them fresh when serving. It is totally worth the work!!!

Mommyhood and Why can't I see YOUR blog?

So I am trying to stalk blogs and I realized that I have now lost access to half of the blogs I stalked.Seriously? If you are on my list of blogs to stalk please add me on your private thing-a-ma-jig so I can stalk your blog!

So now about mommyhood, I love it! I love my little cheekers. Today I went on a date with Ryan for our little valentine outing and I miss that little bon bon like crazy. The way I describe it so Ryan would understand was to try and leave his iPhone at home for a couple of hours and tell me how you feel. Yeah, he would go absolutely insane. Not only does the child have to go through separation anxiety, but so does the parent(s).

There are so many little moments of joy with Tess I can't even count them. She is so amazing and learning so fast. Here is a list at no particular order:

• I love the way she squeals
• I love how strong she is (she was able to push herself up at 5 weeks?)
• I love how she just learned to blow bubbles with her mouth
• I love the way she tries to talk
• I love it when she rubs her eyes when she is tired
• I love it when she would laugh at the weirdest things...
• Freedom makes her laugh
• noise a paper makes sometimes makes her laugh
• bouncing up and down makes her laugh
• tickles
• me laughing makes her laugh
• oh there are so many things that makes her laugh
• I love it when she tries to swim on the floor
• Her smiles are heavenly :)
• She will make funny faces before she starts to really cry

I can't even list everything there are so many. I love being Tessa's mom. She is so perfect!