The Crafts

A little someone in our house is getting awfully brave. Princess #2, CJ, has begun pulling herself up on everything.   And it hasn't stopped there. She is also climbing stairs and will occasionally let go and test her free standing abilities. She chases Kate (and the cat) everywhere. She has climbed the stairs bottom to top in about 30 seconds. And just this morning she did some slight cruising along furniture. Boy, oh boy, our world is about to turn upside down!! All in time for her 10 month birthday...which is today, by the way! In other news, we have had a very busy two and a half days so far this week. We have visited four parks, the pool, library, City garden, City museum, and have had two outdoor picnics. And to top it off, today we went shopping in Dysart with Grandma Craft. We stopped at a quilt shop there.  Boring, right?  No way. This place was cool.  Fun, funky fabrics.  A hip, young owner with cool designs. I bought two patterns.  The fir...

While neither Matt nor I finished our training programs for the Sturgis Falls half marathon, only one of us actually chickened out of running the race.  And that chicken is your's truly.  Bock, bock. So despite not training, Matt ran the entire half marathon. His proud wife and daughters met him at the finish line. And look, he is even smiling. Doesn't he look good in his cool running gear. It was a birthday present from me. I imagine the real reason he chose to run was so he could wear his cute outfit. Matt won a finisher's medal. Kate thought that was super cool. Oh, and that house they are posing in front of is awesome.  I wish I would have taken some pics of that place! After the race we went out for breakfast with Matt's folks. They were working the Iowa State University water stop along the half marathon route. And while Matt took an afternoon nap (an all afternoon nap!) I made us the most amazing muffins. Bake them NOW and thank me later. Seriously, these...

I love desserts...but who doesn't right? I read somewhere that desserts is stressed spelled backwards. That made me laugh.  And then I ate more desserts. I have some favorite desserts. LeAnn's monster cookies and lemon bars. My mom's kringla. My Grandma Holthaus' chocolate pie. My Grandma Smith's apple pie. My chocolate chip cookies. Sorry girls, but nothing beats this new favorite. Amazing.  Delicious.  I made it yesterday and it is almost gone. Key lime pie. I've never made it before.  In fact I've never even eaten key lime pie before. I've had Yoplait's key lime yogurt and it was kind of blah. Why I decided to make this pie is beyond me but man, oh man, am I thankful I did. I didn't even try to make this picture look pretty.  That is why it doesn't look pretty. I had to snap a photo fast before I ate yet another piece. Here is the recipe.  Hurry, fast, as quick as you can. Run to the store and buy the ingredients.  You won't be so...

I'm a little behind on my blog.  I think I have almost recovered from the icky salad attack last Friday.  I won't be eating salad for a very, very, very long time.  Blah...I can't even write about it. I wish I had some pics to share.  Kate, CJ and I spent a couple of days in Cedar Rapids hanging with my family.  It was nice to get away from the house for a bit.  I guess that is all I have right now.  When it seems to rain every day and you end up doing the same thing day after day, well, it doesn't make for good blogging.  Boring, eh?

This morning was the La Porte City 5K. We all finished and really did quite well. From left to right starting in the first row, Gary Smith, me, Lindsay Smith. Back row, Jess Vilsack, Matt Craft, Tom Joensen. I didn't meet my goal time.  Boo hoo. I ran a 25:21...51 seconds short of my goal. However, I am still very happy with my performance.  Primarily because I won my age division! That was a complete surprise! I have also felt sick since yesterday afternoon. Remember that pretty salad pic I posted yesterday? Well I ate it and have felt terrible ever since. I want to give up veggies all together.  Blah!

How does this make you feel? Hungry?  Grossed out? I like veggies.  Kate and CJ like some veggies.  Matt doesn't eat veggies. What about this?  How does this make you feel? I may like veggies but I like dessert a heck of a lot more. Similar to my granola recipe, I've been attempting to perfect a fruit crisp recipe. Most fruit crisps are not crispy.  They are mushy with too much fruit. The one above is by far my best attempt. I cut the amount of fruit by a little over half of what most recipes call for and I more than doubled the topping. How could that not taste good, right? It's still a work in process but it is getting close. Guess what?!  CJ is back to her normal self...and just in time for Festival of Trails (our town celebration.) I feel elated.  Like I won the lottery.  I LOVE to see her happy, crawling all over, big smiles and goofy grins. And sister Kate is looking pretty darn cute, too. Today was Kate's last day of swimming lesson...

When you read the subject title of this post I bet you thought I was referring to my girls. Nope.  I'm referring to myself. Today, I was spoiled rotten.  Instead of grocery shopping at Walmart where you are lucky to find cinnamon and no employee has ever heard of bagels, I visited Hy-Vee.  Big deal, right?  You betcha! It was amazing.  I saw foods I've read about in recipes that Walmart never knew existed. Panko bread crumbs. Truffle oil. Bean sprouts. Mascarpone cheese. Organic veggies and fruits. And the list goes on... Oh, but the fun didn't stop there.  When I went to check out, I couldn't put the groceries onto the conveyor belt fast enough.  Those dimple faced, little high school boys happily accepted my reusable shopping bags without a whine or complaint and filled those puppies with groceries before I could get my wallet out.  And then...Kate, CJ and I skipped to the van with our arms free because those high school boys pati...

I have something terrible to admit. I'm no longer running the Sturgis Falls half marathon. I'm kind of upset at myself. Most of you are probably saying, 'what, who cares... I didn't even know she was going to run a half.' Well I was.  And now I'm not. Life got too busy. It was becoming increasingly difficult to train for all of the obvious reasons which I won't go into. So instead of preparing for the half marathon, which is in one week and three days, I am going to just commit myself to running again. This Saturday is the La Porte City Festival of Trails 5K.  I'm really looking forward to it.  I'm running with Matt, my dad, my sister and some of Matt's friends.  Well...when I say 'running with' I mean we will all be running at the same time.  I'm sure we will scatter and spread out from one another. So my PR is 22:48 for 3.1 miles.  My worst performance ever in a 5K was five months after Kate was born at about 29ish m...

Kate and I had a super summer day today. After countless days of rain, I found Kate staring out the window yesterday crying, "rain, rain go away, come again another day."  How sweet and heartbreaking! Well, Kate got her wish.  Today was a sunny, happy, glorious day. Thanks to Grandma Craft, Kate and I had a mom and daughter summer fun day. We put on our bathing suits and spent two full hours jumping, swimming, diving and splashing. And on the way home Kate and I stopped for our absolute favorite ice cream treat...a hot fudge malt from Union Station. What a great afternoon! And remember this smiling face? I want her back. CJ is miserable. She spent the entire morning either in her bed or laying on my shoulder. I took her to the doctor and he said this bug has to run through her system. She is back in her crib for yet another nap.  She hasn't eaten anything in over 24 hours. I finally got her to drink some Pedialite and she showed a little energy...but that energy was ...

I have a little recap of the family weekend. I was hoping to get more pics from the party but the girls were both sick so free time was extremely limited. The weekend began with my cousin Matthew's baseball game. We arrived in Lawton about 30 seconds before the game began and as you may have guessed, the girls were ready to wiggle. Below left is Kate enjoying some GGMa (Great Grandma) snuggle time. Below right is Kate with my Aunt Val. I have a terrible memory so I'm sure to get some of this story wrong, but my Uncle Greg had actual stadium seats installed at the Lawton-Bronson high school baseball field.  To help pay for the renovations people could 'sponsor' a seat.  We sat CJ in my dad's chair and hoped for a cute pic.  It is kind of cute...all depends on how you view it. Below begins pictures from the 60th anniversary party. Both girls were sick.  Despite this, they were still cute as could be. Below left is my dad and sister, Lindsay. Below right is m...

After a weekend of family, fun, laughter, lots of food, swimming, playing and unfortunately two sick little girls we are home.  It was a whirlwind of a weekend.  I was sad to leave yet happy to be home. Happy 60th Anniversary, Grandma and Grandpa Smith!!

The blog is going to be shut down for a few days. We're heading out to Western Iowa for my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. Isn't that worth celebrating! Food week didn't seem too popular so I think I'll just end food week now, take a break from the blog for a few days and hope for new ideas. Hope you have yourself a good weekend.

Photo courtesy of the amazing Pioneer Woman. I recently bought a new cookbook. A wonderfully, delicious cookbook. In my new book is a recipe for enchiladas.  They are amazing. I want to eat them everyday....EVERYDAY! In my perfect world I would eat that squash Indian dish one day and the enchilada meal the next...and repeat...many times. Well it turns out the woman who created this cookbook has a great blog with a billion or so followers. She is awesome and has a fun story, if you care. If you want to impress your family and win friends through food, then you need to make these enchiladas. Click  here to see the recipe. Oh, and I highly recommend you follow each step.  I once made these without lightly frying the tortillas beforehand and everything fell apart.  But complete each step and you will have perfection.  Yum!