Venturing Out the House (Photostory)

Today is the day that Kendra and Cameron are venturing out to do a little visiting.  Kendra sent Nate into work because he was starting to get on her nerves.  She loved having him home to help with the baby, but it was definitely time for him to go back to work.

Both the baby and Kendra are clean and ready to be dressed.  Kendra is enjoying a hot cup of chocolate and watching a little HGTV.  Cameron has fallen back to sleep and she is trying to give him time to wake up on his own.

Kendra sits down on the bed, hoping this may cause the little one to stir a bit.  No luck.

"Now why can't you sleep this soundly at night time?  I guess that would be too easy, huh?"  (Kendra)

Kendra decides to go ahead and get dressed.  She usually likes to dress Cameron first in case there are any baby mishaps.

She throws on her orange sweats.  Not much else fits yet.  She is still carrying a little baby weight.  She sits on the bed and reaches for her tennis shoes.

Before she can get the second shoe on, Cameron starts to whine.

"Shhh.  Mommy's right here."  (Kendra)

"Well hello sleepyhead."  (Kendra)

"P U!  What's that smell?  Cameron how could you?"  (Kendra)

"How can something so small, produce something that smells so bad.  Let's go get you cleaned up."  (Kendra)

Kendra heads to Cameron's nursery.

"Alright little stinkpot.  Why couldn't you have waited until we got to your uncle's house.  We would have made him change your stinky diaper."  (Kendra)

"Are you laughing?  Are you laughing little cutie pie?  You must be picturing your uncle Darius changing a stinky diaper.  Yea, that would be funny."  (Kendra)

Kendra gets him cleaned up and heads back to the bedroom.

There she gets Cameron dressed in one of his baby shower gifts.

"It's a little big, but you will grow into it before you know it."  (Kendra)

Cameron starts whining, and Kendra realizes that it's time for a feeding.

She thinks, at this rate, we are never going to get out of here.  

After fixing Cameron's bottle, Kendra kicks off her shoes and watches a little tv.

"You know we are going to have to figure out how to get out the house in a timely manner."  (Kendra)

"Hmmm.  Maybe we will venture out tomorrow instead."  (Kendra)

Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone!  I have been swamped with puppy duty and spending time with the young kids in my life.  I will be back to my regular schedule in a few days, if all goes well.

Potato Salad and Puppies

 I finished the Thanksgiving order yesterday and..... the puppies opened their eyes!  I think I'm in love.

Here's the potato salad.

This is the complete meal.  I added candied yams with marshmallows, macaroni and cheese (in the middle), the potato salad, and collard greens with bacon.

WARNING!!!  PUPPY CUTENESS AHEAD

Can you say adorable? 

Seems like all four pups opened their eyes around the same time.

They are stealing my heart to say the least.

Here's another picture of Muff's favorite.

I didn't get a picture of the brown one with his eyes open, but I caught him just lounging on his back   He looks like a little squirrel in this position.  I could watch these pups for hours.  They are constantly moving about and ending up in the cutest positions.

Hey guys, I need your help with the picture below.  It's not my picture, but does anyone know which furniture set this is?  One of my readers wants to know.  Thanks for your help. 

I will do a doll story tomorrow.  It's cold in Atlanta, which means it's freezing in my basement where Morristown resides.  So I haven't ventured down there for a couple of days.

Are You Thanksgiving Ready?

I was commissioned last week to do a 17 piece Thanksgiving dolly dinner.  So I've been busy.  I still have 5 items left to make; macaroni and cheese, candied yams with marshmallows, chicken pot pie, potato salad, and collard greens.  Those dolls are going to have some feast!

This is the spread so far.  I'm a lot happier with my cornbread dressing this year.  The julienned carrots with dill are new this year.  I made the turkey and the ham bigger this year.

I just hope my real dinner looks just as good.

Antoinette Tends to her Garden (Photostory)

Sorry this story took so long to get back to.  I've been working on a commissioned Thanksgiving dolly dinner, and I had to take an all day real estate course yesterday.  

"Well girl, I better get going, or I will never make it to Jordan's"  (Dominique)

"Alright.  It was nice chatting with you.  I'm going to get back to this vegetable garden."  (Antoinette)

"I wish I had the time and the space to do a fresh garden."  (Dominique)

"You could always do a little container garden.  It doesn't take a lot of time to take care of those."  (Antoinette)

"I am many things.  A gardener is not one of them."  (Dominique)

Dominique finally leaves and Antoinette turns her attention back to the kids and the garden.

"Mom! Can I ride my bike?"  (Nikaya)

"Did you finish straightening up your room?"  (Antoinette)

"Yes.  All finished."  (Nikaya)

"Kenaz, hurry and get in.  I have to drive us to park so we can play with our friends."  (Zahara)

After receiving permission to ride her bike, Nikaya heads out the yard.

"Zahara, don't turn that on while Kenaz is standing in the back."  (Antoinette)

"Okay, but I can't get him to sit down."  (Zahara)

Nikaya begins riding her bike up and down the street.

Just then, Tony emerges from the house.

"I thought you were working on the garden?"  (Tony)

"Dominique stopped by, and we talked for awhile."  (Antoinette) 

"Oh.  Well, I'm headed to the barbershop, then I'm going to stop by to see dad."  (Tony)

"Will you be back in time for dinner?"  (Antoinette)

"I plan to be.  If something changes, I will give you a call."  (Tony)

"You know your dad is welcome to come have dinner with us."  (Antoinette)

"I'll see what he's doing."  (Tony)

"Daddy, can I go with you?"  (Zahara)

"Not today.  Stay here and help your mother."  (Tony)

"Daddy, daddy?"  (Nikaya)

"What?"  (Tony)

"There's something wrong with my bike."  (Nikaya)

"Are you able to ride it?"  (Tony)

"Yeah, but it doesn't feel right."  (Nikaya)

"I'll take a look at it when I get back."  (Tony)

"Mommy, can I help you?"  (Zahara)

"I think that would be wonderful.  There's nothing like playing in the dirt and not getting in trouble for it.  Let me get the wheelbarrow, and we can get started."  (Antoinette)

"What's that for?"  (Zahara)

"We are going to put the excess dirt in here."  (Antoinette)

Tony heads out.

"Beep, beep!  Watch out dad."  (Nikaya)

A Garden and A Pie

I've been gathering stuff for Antoinette's garden for quite some time.  About a month ago, I found this perfect little trellis at the thrift store for $1.91.  I had to make a couple alterations, but now it's perfect.  I'm just going to show a few shots.  We will come back tomorrow for the actual story.

I cut the middle out to make a gate.  I took a couple of the cut pieces to raise the height of the trellis.

Here's Antoinette conversing with Dominique, who just happened to be strolling by.   Looks like Dominique is carrying the Coach bag.

Nikaya is waiting for her mom to finish, so she can ask if she can ride her bike.

Zahara and Kenaz are busy playing.

The garden area.  This is what Antoinette wants to tackle today.

This is the swing from one of the Disney Princess playsets.

The yellow sunflowers are from the thrift store, too.  I've had them for more than a year now.  I just stuck them in a styrofoam piece of packaging.  Tomorrow, I will do an actual story here in the garden.

And now for my latest dessert....Butterscotch Banana Pudding Pie

The crust is made from crushed vanilla wafers, pecans, and butter.  I had to bake it, and then while it was cooling, I covered the bottom with finely chopped toffee crunch candy bars.  It melted into the crust.  Once cool, I covered the bottom completely with sliced bananas.

I then made homemade butterscotch pudding for the first time, out of brown sugar, egg yolks, and a couple more ingredients.  I poured half over the top of the bananas.

Then I covered that with a layer of vanilla wafer cookies.  I topped that with the rest of the pudding.

Here is my homemade whipped topping.  I was quite pleased for my first time.

I put that on top of the second layer of pudding, and inserted vanilla wafers around the edge.

Here it is fresh out the oven.  Once cool, it had to chill in the refrigerator for 4 - 6 hours.  So I didn't get to try it until this morning for breakfast.  LOL!  It is pretty good, but very sweet.  I think next time I will make vanilla pudding, which is probably not at sweet as the butterscotch pudding.