2011 Resolution Update

1st Quarter of 2011 came and went like a flash. As you can see Gavin is clearly ahead when it comes to resolutions - he took this serious!

Gavin 2011 Resolutions

1. Potty trained before Santa visits on 12/25/11. not interested...yet
✔ Say the alphabet to our surprise this is complete
3. Throw & catch a baseball throwing is good, catching needs some work
✔ Hit a ball off of a tee loves it and giggles every time he does it
5. Write my name if only mom & dad would give me writing utensils
✔ Continue to try new foods and eat fruits & vegetables ate pancakes for the first time
7. Learn to ride a tricycle rumor has it he might be getting one for 2nd birthday
✔ Count to 20 to our surprise this is complete
9. Participate in 3 races with mom and/or dad have my 1st in one week
10. Learn at least 10 more sign language words oops, forgot about this one
11. Move to a big boy bed (& stay there all night) mom is working on colors and theme

Barb 2011 Resolutions

✔ Attend a computer class at least once a month
2. Blog at least once a week fell short in Feb/Mar - hope to make it up
✔ Send mail or call more (not e-mail or text)
4. No more "F" word was doing well, fell off the wagon - back on again
5. Publish Cute As A Button website
6. Start a blog for Cute As A Button in progress
7. Attend sewing classes
✔ Get new participants in the running club
9. Find a way to volunteer my time in my community
10. Lose 10 pounds Starting Biggest Loser Contest tomorrow 4/7/11
11. More time at the gym took a few classes, need to take more

Jason 2011 Resolutions

1. Help with the monthly banking reconciliation Never enough time, maybe in April
✔ Setup and manage family investment accounts
3. Focus on one-on-one time with Gavin outside of the house 1st MLB game this month
4. Train and compete in the Seville Triathlon coming up in May
5. Utilize the gym more; at least twice a week
6. Help Gavin achieve his resolutions in progress
7. Setup date night once per month; 12 new restaurants missed March, but will catch up
8. Plan & take my sabbatical what's that??
✔ Help more with Gavin, taking some pressure off of Barb
10. Break 1:45 at the Seattle 1/2 Marathon and 50 minutes at Bloomsday
11. No more "F" word oops

Scrumptious Sundays

Barb's Birthday Dinner: GROWN-UP Mac N Cheese

Bacon, Ranch, and Chicken Mac and Cheese

We're always trying to find ways to make recipes just a little bit healthier. Here are a few ways we modified this one: 1) whole wheat macaroni noodles 2) turkey bacon 3) olive oil.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces uncooked elbow macaroni
• 1 slice applewood-smoked bacon
• 8 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups fat-free milk
• 1/3 cup condensed 45% reduced-sodium 98% fat-free cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
• 3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded six-cheese Italian blend (such as Sargento)
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• Cooking spray
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded colby-Jack cheese

Preparation

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat; drain.

2. Cook bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving drippings in pan. Finely chop bacon; set aside. Increase heat to medium-high. Add chicken to drippings in pan; sauté 6 minutes or until done.

3. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat; sprinkle flour evenly into pan. Cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a whisk. Combine milk and soup, stirring with a whisk; gradually add milk mixture to saucepan, stirring with a whisk. Bring to a boil; cook 2 minutes or until thick. Remove from heat; let stand 4 minutes or until sauce cools to 155°. Add Italian cheese blend, onion powder, garlic powder, dill, and salt, stirring until cheese melts. Stir in pasta and chicken.

4. Preheat broiler.

5. Spoon mixture into an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle evenly with reserved bacon and colby-Jack cheese. Broil 3 minutes or until cheese melts.

Muscle Milkshake

Sundays are our "long run" days so we are typically running 10+ miles. Jason usually ends up making a protein shake at some point during the day. Gavin asked for a taste last week and probably ended up drinking more of it than Jason. This week he got his very own glass. He loves it. We're not sure if all the ingredients are baby appropriate, so you may see him tested for steroids at his first t-ball game...but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Hendricks Protein Shake

1 banana

Skim Milk

Almond &/or Peanut Butter

1 tsp vanilla

2 scoops chocolate protein powder

Squeeze of honey

Ice

So yummy! A great meal replacement or additional nourishment for heavy duty workout days.

Date Night with a Purpose

Mommy and Daddy finally got a night out. This time our dinner had meaning. Our good friend Jeff Hamilton invited us to a fundraising dinner for MS. He participates in the National MS Society's Bike Event. It was a really nice evening, we enjoyed learning more about MS and meeting the people that Jeff supports. For more on Jeff's story or to donate please check out his MS page.

Scrumptious Sundays

Scrumptious Sundays...that's our plan for now. We've posted several recipes on the blog and are finding ourselves trying more and more new eats. The trick is remembering to blog about them, and hope that we took pictures of our new creation. Sunday is almost always a guarantee for a new recipe at the Hendricks house. So look for recipe posts on Sundays - we'll try to keep up.

Slow Roasted Tomato Pasta

(We like meat with our pasta so we made homemade meatballs and added it to this recipe.)

Ingredients

• 3 pounds plum tomatoes, cored and halved lengthwise
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 2 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 6 whole peeled garlic cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 12 ounces uncooked fettuccine
• 3/4 cup (3 ounces) shaved fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• 3 tablespoons torn fresh basil

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 225°.

2. Place tomatoes on a jelly-roll pan; sprinkle with 2 tablespoons oil, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and black pepper. Bake for 4 hours.

3. Heat a large skillet over low heat. Add 2 tablespoons oil and garlic; cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove garlic, and chop. Combine garlic, tomatoes, and red pepper in pan.

4. Cook pasta in boiling water with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt for 8 minutes or until almost al dente. Drain pasta, reserving 3/4 cup cooking liquid. Increase heat to medium-high under tomato mixture, and stir in reserved cooking liquid. Bring to a boil. Cook 3 minutes. Add pasta; cook for 1 minute, tossing to combine. Remove from heat; sprinkle with cheese and basil.

*Side note* (& possibly our new favorite thing)

During Barb's travels she ran across a restaurant offering the ultimate healthy choice for pasta. Sure we've all seen whole wheat options on the menu, but The Bistro of Green takes healthy to a whole new level!! Yes they do offer whole wheat linguini but they also offer your dish to be served over spinach or zucchini & squash ribbons. Wasn't sure about the 'ribbons' but gave it a try because squash & zucchini seemed safe. They slice the vegetables as close to the shape of a noodle as they can. I had the Southwest Chicken dish and would never have known it was over veggies instead of pasta. So...I couldn't wait to try it when I got home. We used this Slow-Roasted Tomato recipe as our guinea pig. It was awesome and delicious! We sliced the zucchini and squash using a mandoline and steamed them long enough until they were soft and seemed to have the texture of noodles. All we can say is AWESOME!

Spring Training

Aunt Betsy sent Gavin a T-Ball set for Christmas. Now that Spring is here it was time to break it out and put it to use. Of course you can't have batting practice until the field is prepped. This kid does all his own work, he's great.

(seriously, how can you keep a straight face when you look at this picture?)



Not to shabby for the first time at the plate. He has a tough training schedule ahead of him when Daddy's home.

Busy Toddler

The photos aren't the greatest because most of them were taken on a cell phone, not an easy task with a moving, shaking little boy. Gavin has been hard at play! He has just been a ton of fun the last few weeks. His vocabulary is really growing, he really does repeat everything you say. Singing and dancing are two of his favorite things to do. We are enjoying being able to play outside now too.

Gavin loves the Wiggles and Imagination Movers music and movies.

As we're climbing up the toy to go down the slide Gavin turns around and says "No Mommy". Apparently he doesn't need help anymore. He went down the slide probably 20 times this day.

Ah, the sweet taste of chocolate milk...and from Nordstrom Cafe...it taste's even better. This was his first drink of chocolate milk. We're still trying to decide if he like saying it more, drinking from the cool milk box, or sitting on the bar stool.

Party Time

Gavin was invited to TWO neighborhood birthday parties on the same day. Both had bounce houses and he loved them. We thought for sure he would crash between parties - no way, this kid is a party animal. No naps and he went strong the whole day.

Birthday girl's baby sister - Lauren.

Normal kids are eating cupcakes while Gavin asks Miss Vanessa for some crackers please. Goofy kid hasn't figured out frosting yet :)

Painting, markers, stickers - what a fun party at Lily's house.

Bounce house mania. Anytime we go over to Renee's he now says "bounce, bounce, bounce" I have to try to explain to a 20 month old that the bouncing is all gone.

He spent a good 45 minutes sitting on this trike. Guess who's getting a trike for his 2nd birthday. He was about 1/2" shy of reaching the petals; didn't stop Gavin, he loved that thing.

Birthday girl Gianna!

The Keane toy room, always Gavin's first stop. Again passed up cupcakes to play in the toy room. As parents we can't complain.

Thanks to our neighbors for providing great Saturday entertainment for a toddler. We all had a wonderful time.

Vail Vacation

Not only did we take a vacation from work (yes a whole week), but obviously we took a vacation from keeping up on the blog. Whew, it's been a very busy couple of weeks...so much time doing, and not much time to document our doings. We hope to take the next week to catch up on all of our recent activities.



Vail, CO - a REAL vacation

We realized as our road trip began that it has been years since we've actually enjoyed an entire week off. We take lots of days off, but this was a real week long vacation....9 days! In beautiful Vail, CO to go skiing.

We are the luckiest parents because we invited Grandma & Grandpa Thew with us so they could spend quality time with Gavin while we went skiing. It was actually a really fun trip for all of us. These are just a few of the great things we did on our trip.

This was our first road trip in our new car. The drive to Vail is about 12 hours if you drive straight through. With an 18 month old in tow, we weren't about to tackle that. We split the drive over 2 days. Our first stop was Moab, UT, home of Arches & Canyonlands National Parks. Fun, eclectic little town. We arrived just in time to grab some dinner and head to bed.

The car ride was so easy and pleasant with the DVD player for Gavin. It was the first time we tried the headphones and he was in heaven. He was so mesmerized by the Wiggles DVD he didn't even notice he had the headphones on. We turned it off every once in a while and listened to Toddler Tunes; anything to keep the baby happy!!


One of the highlights of our trip was our dinner night out. We stayed at Marriott's Streamside Evergreen, a really great timeshare. We had all the luxuries of home: stove, oven, microwave, dishwasher, washer, dryer, etc. We cooked in most nights, but we wanted to have one night out as a BIG thank you to our parents. Beano's Cabin was a great restaurant hidden on the mountainside at Beaver Creek. One of our greatest dining experiences EVER! No exaggeration!

Dinner starts with a ride up the mountain on a sleigh pulled behind a snowcat. It was really fun and the view was specatular because it was still daylight out.

Not only was the restaurant and food wonderful, the service was spectacular, the live music was entertaining, and the atmosphere was extremely kid friendly. It was a 5 course meal portioned just right so you really could enjoy all 5 courses. It is definitely a special occasion kind of restaurant. However, if you're ever in or near Beaver Creak we highly, highly recommend Beano's!!

You can imagine how well a toddler would do for a 5 course meal, of which he has no interest in. We had leek soup, duck, scallops, seared Ahi Tuna, brussels sprouts, elk medallions, buffalo ribeye, chocolate trio, goat cheese crisps...hmmm, did I forget anything. We tried to each order a little different and share so we could try a little of everything. Gavin was a CHAMP! He turned his dinner into several courses too. He would eat a little and then get up and dance to the guitar player. He made himself his own little stage next to the musician. We're convinced the musician made extra tips that night because of Gavin. Gavin also made a friend, Isabella. She was quite shy but it didn't stop G from trying.

Gavin had lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa. He even gave Grandma a special treat during one of his naps. (Grandma wasn't quite aware how clever Gavin is at 18 months old). She put him to bed without pants, yes a diaper, but no pants. Gavin left a treat in his diaper, took it off & folded it up, and put it in the corner of the crib. He then pooped again in the opposite corner and moved to the far end of the crib, perched on top of his pillow that he peed through completely...patiently waiting for someone to come get him. That will teach Grandma to never leave a grandchild in just a diaper.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Well not really. It was so sunny we were sweating most days we went skiing. We couldn't have asked for better weather. The last day we skied it was snowing and very cold, but we still had an awesome day. Even Gavin was able to get out and enjoy the snow a little. He was too short and didn't weigh enough to do any of the really fun stuff; we're already looking forward to next year when he can.

The ride home was a long one. About 3/4 of the way to our destination (Kayenta, AZ) we decided to drive through to get home. We're still debating if that was a good or bad idea. We were happy to get home because we found out later that I17 was closed for over a day, if we would have stopped we more than likely would have been stuck in Flagstaff for another day or more. However the drive from Flagstaff to Gilbert was awful, the most snow we'd seen the entire week. Semi's, cars, and trucks turned on their side, in ditches, all kinds of trouble. Jason did a great job driving and keeping his family safe.

We can't wait to go back next year; we've decided this will be an annual vacation. Let's just hope Grandma and Grandpa agree.

Ever had a turnip?

Neither had we, until yesterday. Courtesy of our Bountiful Basket, we were inspired to try turnips. Holy cow, they were delicious! Who would have ever thought. The recipe was simple and we will definitely be buying them again when it comes time to mix up the veggies at our house. Thank you Bountiful Baskets!

Toss 1 pound halved baby turnips and 10 ounces small white mushroom caps on a baking sheet with 2 teaspoons chopped rosemary. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Turn the turnips cut-side down, then roast at 425 degrees F until golden and tender, 25 to 30 minutes.