The 2nd trimester starts tomorrow!

I can't even believe it, but tomorrow starts the second trimester for baby surprise. I'll try and pull some facts and statistics together for all of you to let you know just what's going on in this not-so-much-expanding tummy of mine. In the meantime, 1 down, 2 to go!!

Hoooooo are you, hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo?

So last week I'm in bed at around 11pm, when I'm awoken by what sounds like one of the kids whimpering in their room. As I lay there, listening for which room it was coming from, I realized it was coming from outside. I then realized there was a pattern to the sound, and shortly thereafter, realized it was the call of an OWL. My experiences with owls only go so far as a character on Winnie the Pooh and a bag of Wise potato chips - so it was a bit disconcerting at first. The call had an eerie tone to it, a kind of muted moan - repeating over and over. So the next morning, I grab my Audobon bird field guide (yes, I keep one of those handy) and look through to see what kinds of owls are local here. I narrowed it down to a few, then started reading about their calls, and sure enough, one matched EXACTLY. "Hoooo-hoo-hoo. Hooo. Hooo." I even listened to a few clips of their call online and it was an exact match. I didn't even realize this breed of owl lived around here - what you see pictured, the Great Horned Owl. It had a lower call, so I know it was male - and they are smaller than females, but still REALLY big. Okay, not that tall, only averaging 22 inches, but these babies have a wingspan of 4 to 5 FEET! They are the only predatory bird ever known to have killed a human (granted it was trying to steal eggs from a mama's nest -bird brain). They're classified as raptors and are known to eat anything from rodents to rabbits (which they swallow whole) to turkeys, great blue herons, swans, or other owls. YIKES. Anyway, I told Nick and my parents about it... and sure enough a few nights ago, it was back and Nick got to hear it. I suppose I like knowing that it's probably taking care of our pest population outside, but it is still a little creepy to me knowing that such a powerful animal is sitting right outside my window some nights. If I by some miracle manage to snap a photo of ol' Hootie, I'll be sure to post it, in the meantime - this is what I could find. Quite a mug, eh?

So I suppose you might want photos of the kids...

Just a hunch. Let's see, here's a couple of them recently, within the last week or so. Their favorite things to do are still play with trains (Thomas and Friends, of course) and then play with blocks. I'll also throw in some of Riley's recent art projects, and show that he can write his name now - yay!!

A dreary day pick-me-up

Well today in the Hudson Valley is dreadfully dreary, so I figured I'd post a photo of a nicer day we had here recently - the end of October to be exact. Elliot looked out the window and said "a rainbow!" But he was wrong, it was TWO rainbows. I'd never seen a double bow before, so wanted to take a picture. This was taken out our back window. It's still just as amazing for me to look at every time. I hope it brings a little bit of brightness to your day as well!

Going to try adding recipes...

So I'm going to try adding some recipes. I think they'll then be searchable (if you're so inclined) by using the nav menu on the left. Tonight I'll be trying a new recipe for some quiche. Don't all show your enthusiasm at once.

SPINACH AND CARROT QUICHE - serves 16

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons butter
  
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 1 green onion, sliced
  
• 2 (10 ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed & well -drained
  
• 1/2 cup shredded carrots
• 1 1/4 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1 1/4 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 cup milk
  
• 9 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 (9 inch) pie crusts (frozen or fresh)
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
2. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat, and cook the onions until tender. Mix in the spinach, and carrots, and cook until the spinach liquid has evaporated. Remove skillet from heat, and mix in cheese, milk and eggs. Season with salt, and pepper. Pour 1/2 the mixture into each pie shell.
3. Bake 1 hour in preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a quiche comes out clean.

NOTE: I used reduced fat milk and reduced fat cheese and this turned out just scrumptious. So, need to go full fat!

Greetings to all (12 of you) !

Hello and welcome. As the vast majority of you probably have probably already realized, I have a not so stellar track record of keeping family and friends updated with how things are going for us, what's new, etc. I hope by getting this up and running it will be a way for me to keep you all posted on a far more regular basis. Check back frequently, I can't promise daily posts but I will try to update as frequently as possible. There's also a feature that you can leave comments, so feel free to post a note and let me know you've been by!

Thanks for stopping - and hopefully I'll keep this up for more than week.

love,
B