2011~ Reflection....

Merry Christmas friends, family and followers!  Just wanted to give a Happy-Shout-Out on this fine day, in the remembrance of the birth our Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ.  We hope you all have blessed and beautiful day!

I have an entire gallery of pictures that I've been wanting to post. Enjoy.....

   

Petra on the trolley earlier this year

A visit from the family...I love this shot!

Daddy's Birthday...he turned 30 this year.

Papa came for another visit, over his birthday~It was a very special treat!  & my first attempt at cake balls!

The girls at Zion's Christmas program, this was taken in Thea's classroom  

My beautiful girl....growing up too fast

 

Our Christmas tree...  (Petra was being a pill...you can see her hiding out under the kitchen table)

Ivy doing what she does best....being herself!

 She gives the best candid looks!

Thea, my girl with all the poises

I finally got her to smile  ;) though she wouldn't come out from under the table.

Happy birthday to Petra!  She is now 6 years old (gosh, where does the time go?!)

We invited some of friends from school our our neighbors to the local McD's play place...They had a rip-roaring ball of a time!  

Make a wish Petra!  The cake was super cute (a pink & red Santa frosted cookie cake)

Home-made gingerbread house...it was awesome. After a while, I had to remove Ivy from the scene...She ate more candy than she put on the house.

Petra, my calculated thinker (sound like anyone?)

Our non-convntional gingerbread house (if you notice, there are no windows & no door)  It's more like a ginger bread sod house.

Ivy was very proud of her 'cross' cookie

I think Thea was trying to give the 'smolder' 

Merry Christmas from the Elrod family

& Happy New Year.  Love to you all!

~Ami

Ami and Ivy on TV

Ami and Ivy made it into a NBC Dallas-Fort Worth news spot about the CitySquare Thrift Store.  You can watch the video here.

~Jewelry Show in Dallas,Texas~

I met a wonderful Greek lady who owns a whole foods cafe up the street from our apartment. Long story short: she's had significant time in the 'designing industry' and has taken me under her wing and now I'm partnering with her & doing shows again!  Here's the flyer I designed for our upcoming event:

~ Thanks to all who have supported me throughout the years & encouraged me as I've grown in my business!  Love~  Ami E.

Thea the Evangelist:

I went into the other bathroom  to wipe Ivy the other morning, and heard Thea 'preaching' to her stuffed animals. Apparently she was holding a 'service' in her room. Truly, a priceless moment. Here's just a few things I overheard:  'You must must love Jesus! You will be tempted to laugh at someone if they have a broken arm! You will be tempted to laugh if you see someone with a broken cheek! You will be tempted to laugh if they have a broken foot! You have to pray to not be tempted! You must love Jesus! It does not matter if the cheetah is faster than any other animal! It does not matter if the giraffe is taller than any other animal! It does not matter if the elephant if fatter than any other animal! God loves all the animals! He made them, He made all the animals! (here's where she goes all fire & brimstone on their furry butts) 'If you eat the candy you will be cranky! It will make you kill people! It will make you go in hell! You can not eat the candy! You must eat the fruits of the spirit! And you will go to Heaven!' (I think we need to clear up a few theological points with her concerning grace :{  I thought you'd appreciate hearing about our daughter the 'preacher' it was pretty darn cute.



Love Ami

Fashion Show & Maud's visit

Ivy Joy: striking a pose. Great back drop~ an appropriate flair~

Have you seen anything cuter than this recently~ I think not!  

& the only reason Thea is not posted here (& not because she passed up the opportunity to stage her own dramatic flair) is because the camera just happened to run out of battery & instead of telling her, we had to pretend (hopefully she doesn't see this post~ I'd never hear the end of it!  :)

Maud came for a visit!  (aka, my mama) Here she is helping Petra on her two wheeler.

The weather here has been wonderful! Truly a very pleasant Fall.

Ivy Joy kick'n it on her wheels.

How did Thea get so big? I find myself asking this question a lot. It's true what 'they' say, little ones grow up too fast!

I love my girls & I loved having my Mama here.  A little piece of home, a precious visit and wonderful memories made.  Love, Ami

Pant + Britches = Branches

just a few updates. This will probably be a random post~ but I've been wanting to get some of our 'latest news' out to all our readers:

Ivy loves to give 'back- asausages'
She also refers to our pastor as 'password'
I used the words pants and britches one day and in Ivy's world it became 'branches'

Thea has just recently (as of this morning) lost one of her front teeth. I awoke to her frantically panicking & afraid that she had swallowed it, but later found it in the covers of her bed. She was so excited and she looks adorable!

Petra has continued to be an amazing little person (and cuter everyday) & there are two little boys in her class that think so too. She comes home with stories of their harassment on the playground and during lunchtime. Come to find out during PT conferences, she's not the perfect angel she's painted the picture to be and consistently engages in 'quiet-antagonism.'  I thought I had more time to prepare for this!

Our cat has decided that she's had enough of all the nonsense and took a flying leap off our balcony into the bushes and got away for one evening, and we now had the railing screened off to prevent any further suicide attempts (or escapes) Her one sole purpose is to provide us girls with furry-friendly emotional comfort--sorry Meow.

Andrew & I's schedules are crazy considering we have one car, work at our church which is apx. 45 min. away--keep up with private school schedules, fundraisers and activities--and somehow end the day with enough energy & grace  to pull off a family meal together (& not to mention the mountain of homework we both have to complete).  For example a typical evening looks like this: (& this just happens to be a ply-by-ply of this evening since it the freshest in my memory, but not much unlike any other) I arrive home from picking the girls up from school and making a quik stop to the Super-Walmart (which ended up being 1 hr, mainly because everyone has to take their afternoon 'poo' at different times) Ivy is riding her bicycle in the apt. with Petra who decides to chase her around the apartment with the scooter and ends up getting smashed in the face by Ivy's handle bar. So, I decide it's bath time for Ivy while I help nurse Petra's wounded nose. I set the table--check--dinner is ready--check--Andrew calls, he's riding his bike & almost home--check-- Thea is cooking a pretend meal in the play ktchen with dried beans and uncooked noodles--check-- Oh ya, get Ivy out of the tub. I walk into a lake in the bathroom as she is having her own 'tea party' on the ledge of the bathtub..I grab the towel and as I turn around she slides out of the tub face first (because Ivy does everything face first) into the toilet seat and busts her lip open.  Andrew walks in the door (drenched with sweat from riding as usual--bless his heart!) to Petra with an ice pack, on the couch crying about her busted nose--screaming from the bathroom because Ivy is 'blooding' everywhere (Ivy language--it really wasn't that bad)  and Thea trying to serve him a meal of raw beans & noodles--welcome home daddy!  Just a regular night at the Elrods!

I'll have pictures for you all tomorrow. Alls well now--everyone is sound asleep (praise the Lord) and I'm ready for that myself. We miss you, love you & pray for you.  Always ~Ami

The Criswell College Omelet

"In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love"...

And in the autumn the thoughts of the resident Criswell mycophagist turns to things fungivorous and culinary.  It appears that there is a healthy mycorrhizal symbiosis at work amidst the roots of the pristine oaks in the Criswell campus courtyard.  A relationship that has born much fruit:

What is one to do with such gems as these fulvous fungi?  Such fine specimens of boletus deserve far better than to desiccate unnoticed among the fallen oak leaves.  They deserve to be in an honorary omelet, an omelet dedicated to the institution that nurtured them--a Criswell College Omelet.

[Disclaimer: Please do not eat any mushroom that you are not certain you have properly identified using several of your senses.  It is best to have an experienced forager show you the ropes before eating things you find growing in the woods--or the Criswell courtyard.  There are many poisonous mushroom species, and a few are even deadly.]

Step 1:  Clean and cut these blue-staining boletes.

 

Step 2:  Sauté in butter, and salt to taste.  (Some blue-staining boletus have been known to cause "intestinal distress" when not thoroughly cooked.  So cook them well just in case.)  No additional seasoning is necessary as these have a naturally pleasant, meaty flavor.

Step 3:  Add onions and continue to cook.

Step 4:  Add kale, continue to cook.  The kale may require additional salt--add to taste.

Step 5:  Prepare three eggs--beat 2 full eggs and 1 egg white.

Step 6:  Grate cheese.  I prefer an aged cheddar mixed with fresh mozzarella and a hint of havarti for this dish.

Step 7:  On medium heat add the eggs to the boletes, kale, and onion.  Flip once it has cooked through, add the cheese to the top and fold.

Step 8:  Plate it.  Attempt to draw the Criswell College "logos" shield in sriracha, and serve.

Step 9:  Bon appétit!

*******

How did it go?  I will not leave you in suspense.  The omelet was exquisite.  And I did not experience any side effects--beside a new layer of appreciation for the Criswell campus.

My Parents Have a New Trashman

A large brown bear got into my parent's trash the other night (they live in Colorado).

Here's a video of the incident:

Let's take an Ivy moment:

If I took the time to type each time Ivy had her moments, that would be my full time job. Once her little feet touch the floor, she hits the ground running, and does't stop until I 'make' her go to bed at nite. And if I'm lucky, a nap (maybe) so here is another taste of Ivy:

Over the weekend I opened up the tupperware bins of Fall clothes for the girls. It is always fun foe them to pull out last seasons clothes, swap hand-me-downs, try on different outfits (& my job is to keep the peace b/c inevitably there will be a fight at some point). At any rate, Thea has many hand me down clothes from Belle & Shannon (my two little sisters) and she decided to wear a dark purple t shirt that she finally grew into that has a large green bugg-eyed frog on it. Cute t-shirt anyhow & Thea thought so too. Well Ivy didn't, at least she decided she didn't just to get under Thea's skin (which is entirely too easy to do) & Ivy knows this fact. Ivy walked up to Thea, cocked her little fist and slugged Thea in the chest. Thea screamed, so I instantly address the screaming (I can't stand the screaming) and I soon find out what happened. Ivy gets put in a time out (which at our house is sticking your nose in the corner in the kitchen) it's a understood disciplinary action, Mom or dad says, 'time out' and the girls know exactly where to go. After some time spent in the corner I pull Ivy aside & address the 'hitting' & go thru my normal reprimanding. I proceed to ask Ivy why she would do that, and she answers me with a sour-faced look and her arms crossed over her chest: 'Mom, I don't like Thea's lizard shirt!'

Even though it not a lizard it's a frog, it didn't matter, Ivy didn't like it, so she made sure Thea knew it. That's my girl, Ives!

A 'Snappy' start to the day~

   On our way to school this morning (almost 20 min. tardy due to a melt down) Moments before I walked out the door, Petra came barreling back up the stairs of our two-story apt. screaming 'turtle, mom there's a huge turtle!' I think she was more stunned than scarred, but certainly startled.  It's not every morning we run into a large snapping turtle on our way out the door to school!  Check it out:

 Least to say it was more startled than us, it hardly peeked out of it's shell! It turned out to be an 'eventful'       morning!!!  ~Ami out

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Everywhere

A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words.  So I'll leave the pictures to do the talking this time.

Here are the girls at the Dallas Arboretum--which was newly redecorated for the Fall.