Valentine's Day Recipe - Fusilli with Basil Garlic Sauce

If you're looking for a great romantic recipe to make for your special someone for Valentine's Day, you'll need to try my Fusilli with Basil Garlic Sauce. This is actually a recipe passed down from my mom and it's fabulous!

Follow my link to my professional blog on the What To Expect website and "LIKE" the recipe to help me win a $50 Amazon Gift Card. :) If I get the most Likes for the recipe contest, I win. :)

Here is the link. :)

Our New Home

Whoa. So I just got a message from Google telling me that I've reached my total photo upload limit on Blogger, and I have to purchase additional storage if I want to upload any more photos. Ummmm...so I knew this day might come, but didn't think it would be so soon.

So until I figure that little problem out, I won't be doing the 3 blogs I was planning to do tonight but just the one...About our NEW house.

Yes, please, after this applause dies down I will continue. Thank you.

Okay! So as you know, we moved 2 weeks ago. We have spent every single day, all day, and sometimes during the night unpacking and organizing. We figure the sooner we can get this place put together, the sooner we can resume our normal lives. We hope.

We're not done yet, but enough so that I could at least take some shots to give you an idea of where we moved to. However, silly me did not take any outdoor shots yet. So these are all just indoor. And I will confess that I've been taking them as the rooms are cleaned and organized - so some of them are daytime, and some are night just depending on when they were cleaned - Because I can guarantee that with a little hurricane running through the house (who shall not be named but starts with a capital "P"), the entire house is never EVER clean all at once.

Oh, and just a quick preface. This house is for sale - and we're renting it while it's on the market. It's owned by some friends of ours that I actually used to babysit for when I was in high school. Now their girls are off to college, and the parents relocated to Florida. Hence, the reason why the home is for sale. We've signed a year lease, or will move whenever it sells (whichever comes first). It worked out great for us because we didn't want anything binding right now, and it helps them out as well since they had to leave the house vacant to move to FL.

Okay, on with the tour...

Living Room

I'm actually going to be painting the walls in the living room to a dark beige color. And then I'll be sewing curtains as well - which will be my first sewing project since getting a sewing machine for Christmas (wish me luck). So if my curtains turn out horrible, you'll never see them on this blog. Haha. I know that we're just renting and what is the point to going to all the trouble - but I love to BEAUTIFY~! To me, it's worth the effort because I don't like living in an empty space. And I also don't mind painting or decorating. It's fun. :)

Also, I'd just like to say that that little black beauty of a piano is now all ours. After working hard at my music for the past 4 years, decent royalty payments have FINALLY started to come in as of late 2010 and it's been enough to finally purchase the piano (I'd been leasing it for 4 yrs). I just had it tuned today for the first time in 2 years and it sounds amazing.

Here is the view of the Entry Way from the stairs, which you can see into the living room again.

Here's the Dining Room - which you can access by way of the living room or kitchen.

Our hutch almost didn't clear the ceiling. Phew.

I love having a formal dining room. My decorating style is very much traditional with a touch of French Provincial - and I've been so excited to finally be able to have our formal table be just that - FORMAL. (it's been our "kitchen table" for the past 3 years).

Here is the Family Room.

It's nice having a closet in the family room - because we can store our movies and games right there (as well as toys). And Will and I are excited to be able to watch movies late at night again without fear of waking up the kiddos (since their bedrooms are upstairs).

The Kitchen...

I'm so pleased with my husband's taste in microwaves. He went and picked out that red beauty all by himself. Way to go babe!

Since we'd been using our formal dining room table as our "kitchen table" for the past few years, and now that it's in a dining room finally, we don't have a kitchen table anymore.

However...

This is just a little half-bath downstairs...again...we're so excited to have more than one toilet. No more standing in line. ;)

This is the StairCase and Entry Way.

This is Taylor's Room...

Taylor has the far-most corner bedroom of the house, and it's over the garage. This way, he can sleep soundly while the rest of us make a bunch of ruckus.

These are all the same nursery decorations from when Preston was a baby, and now Taylor gets to use them. I have loved this nautical theme - and especially now that we're living on an island, it's very fitting. The seashells on his name plate are from this island as well.

Here is my Music Studio...which we just got finished today actually.

I actually painted those walls. Before, they were white with lots of dirty stains and with pink stenciled cats around the top of the baseboards. I just couldn't get past the cats and thought my creative side would be better nourished with some sort of color on the wall. And to also cover up those cats. Just thinking about them makes me sneeze.

I totally felt vain putting up those photos of myself. But this is the first time I've had an entire room to myself for a music studio and I wanted to put up some of the artwork from my debut album. Which, by the way, I'm so grateful to Will for allowing me to use the room for my studio. He totally could have used it for his office, but that's why he's the world's best husband. :)

And don't worry, there are other people on the wall besides me. Like, Rachmaninoff and Paderewski. Those are 1924 Steinway ads. The ads say that you can buy a Steinway for $875. Wow...today they go for at least $60K and that's for a small one.

A nifty shelf to house CDs and mailers. Sooooo happy that I now won't have to go into the storage room every time I need to mail a CD out. It's like I have a little shipping station now.

This is the upstairs hallway bathroom, otherwise known as the kids' bathroom.

It's not finished yet...I have some little black frames that I'm going to hang. But first I need to get some photos printed. I want to put pics of the boys during bathtime in the photos (black and white), and then I have some lime green ribbon to hang them with as an accent color.

Here is Preston's Room...

Now, since we just moved all of Preston's bedroom items into Taylor's room (decorations, crib, dresser, and all), Preston's room is quite lacking in the decoration department so far. It's a work in progress, because where he used to have all the decorations, he now has none. Bare walls.

When we moved, Will bought Preston a Lightening McQueen (Disney Cars) Toddler Bed in order to make the transition into the new house (and a new bed) easier on him.

The first night was rough, as he got out of bed several times and played with his toys, but after that he's been just fine. The transition has been way easier than we thought it would be. I think it has really helped that he loves to sleep in his new bed. The side rails are also a huge help because I think it still gives him the sense of being in a crib where he's safe.

The only thing he needs now is a pillow. He's never used a pillow before and so I told him that I would sew him a "Car" pillow. Well, after I told him that, every night he's been asking me for his "car pillow". So a few days ago we went to JoAnn Fabrics and we picked out some "Car" fabric so that I can make his pillow. I got fabric to make a pillow case, and then also some other fabric to make a couple of throw pillows.

Again, I fear I might be getting a bit overzealous with my sewing project ideas considering I haven't sewn in 15 years and have yet to even try out my new sewing machine. All this talk of making pillows and curtains is a little intimidating. Hopefully I'll be able to shine through and deliver! Otherwise I will have one unhappy 2 year old!

Like I said...he's a bit lacking in wall decor.

But definitely not lacking in Lightening McQueens...haha

Oh, and just like the cats that were on the wall in my music studio room, Preston was lucky enough to end up with some bears and hearts in his room. We will be fixing that here soon enough as well...

Okay, last but not least, here is our Master Bedroom.

Now, I must warn you that our room is by FAR from being done yet. It's sort of been the throw-all room right now. I have curtains up, and our bed put together but seriously that's about it. It's really disorganized right now, so I apologize.

This is the Master Bathroom...which you can't see, but there is a nice big soaking tub with a view of the mountains and bay. It's wonderful. I've already taken a bajillion bubble baths in there.

And then this is the wall next to the door as you come into the bedroom. Will is going to be putting his computer up in the corner, and then that other tiny desk is my sewing desk. I hope to eventually replace that desk with something more condusive to sewing...but for now it works.

Anyway, that's all! Sorry I didn't take any photos of the exterior, but if you want, you can go to Elizabeth's blog (Will's sister) and she posted some pics from our move a couple of weeks ago and there are some photos of the exterior and the yard.

We have been so happy to be here. Yesterday we all went walking on the trail outside the house (there is a 1/4 mile loop across the street). It was gorgeous - you could see Mt. Baker perfectly and the sun was shining. It's so great to be in a place of our "own" - as this is the first house that we've lived in. Up until now we've only ever been in apartments, which the exception of our last place it was a "guest house" (a.k.a. "mother in law" apartment).

Will has been awesome and doing a lot of work around the house to make it more energy efficient. The home is about 18 years old and though it's been taken care of quite well, there are a lot of older aspects to it that make it not very energy efficient. Will has replaced all of the lightbulbs with compact florescent lights. He bought a new furnace pad that is digital so he could program the heat to come on and off at certain times. He bought space heaters for all the bedrooms so instead of heating the entire house, we just heat certain rooms (with the excpetion that the furnace comes on at 7:30 a.m.).

He has plenty more projects though...the dishwasher is broken and he's going to fix that. We have 2 ovens but only one works, and so he's going to try to fix that as well. He's going to replace the weather stripping on the backdoor because cold air comes in under it. He's going to organize our garage. :) And...yeah..there are a dozen other projects that he's going to do as well. Oh, did I mention he is going to make wooden feet for one of our couches? Yup. Who knew that my finance/real estate hubby was so handy? In all seriousness, the man can fix ANYTHING.

I'm going to try to get my new web cam up and running, as I will be continuing to teach my piano student via OoVoo (a service like Skype). I also need to practice the violin like mad because I'm supposed to be in the studio next weekend recording some tracks for my friend Glen Gabriel from Sweden for a Symphony that he wrote and is featuring me on (I composed the violin part and am recording it as well). While I have the part all composed and notated, I haven't had the time to do any practicing on it whatsoever. Yikes!

As for the boys, Taylor is a happy little squeeler. He's been sleeping a little better since we moved here - he definitely doesn't get the interruptions like he was getting before. Although, we still need to start sleep training him. He's still waking up at least 3-4 times every night and we are going crazy with sleep deprivation because of it. He is 5 and 1/2 months old, and we plan to start giving him some solids when he turns 6 months old. Maybe that will help him sleep better through the night...who knows. I mean, given how chunky he is, I highly HIGHLY doubt he's not getting enough nutrients and that he's just waking up out of habit - not because he's needing to eat. But perhaps with some solids, he'll get more satiated and sleep longer.

Preston is going through a "terrible two's" phase lately. Or at least we think he is. It could also be that it's a combination of the move and transitioning, as well as the fact that he's had a cold for the past week and a half. I think it's actually probably a huge combination of everything. There's been lots of screaming, tantrums, and "No!". We are trying very hard to be patient with him. Don't get me wrong - he definitely has his ultra cute moments too. He's a very good little boy. We just hope that this little tantrum phase will pass quickly and we'll have our always-happy boy back. The one thing that he's been doing lately is being more aggressive towards Taylor. I've had to get after him a few times for hitting Taylor, or pushing him over. Yesterday I came to Taylor's rescue after hearing him cry his "I'm hurt" cry, and found that Preston had been sticking his fingers in Taylor's mouth doing who knows what. I don't think Preston means ill towards Taylor, honestly, I think he's just trying to give Taylor attention. But sometimes he just doesn't know how to control the intensity of it and it's too rough.

Taylor LOVES Preston though, and Preston LOVES Taylor. As soon as Preston comes into the room, Taylor will whip his little head around and look for Preston and then turn his entire body towards him and just stare. Taylor watches EVERYTHING that Preston does. And Preston is always coming up to Taylor and giving him hugs and kisses. It's just when Taylor starts to get tired and whines/cries that Preston gets a little frustrated and starts being too rough with Taylor. Even though I don't like it when Preston acts that way, I do have to say I find it somewhat comical that it irritates Preston when Taylor cries. Taylor will cry and then I'll hear Preston start to whine as if he's trying to say "Stop crying...you're bugging me." Ahhhhhh brothers.:)

Well that is the update for us. Thanks for enduring the long post.

P.S.

Oh, and yes I know we need to put a new header on our blog as it is no longer Christmas. Just waiting for a good new picture. :)

A Quick Update

I just wanted to write a quick update. Unfortunately I don't have any photos to share yet because we're too busy unpacking and being sick to find our camera and upload the photos to the computer. And on that note, let me just say that putting forth physical labor every day 2 weeks straight, not getting good sleep, and then getting a cold bug will WIPE. YOU. OUT.

So we're all sickies here and it's no fun.

BUT we are LOVING our new home and so I just had to write a quick note about it.

Things that we love so far:

- That Taylor has his own room and it's upstairs, in the far corner of the house, and over the garage. This means that we can be downstairs making noise or watching a movie and he can't hear us. AND it means that Preston can go up and play in his room and not even be anywhere near Taylor when he's asleep.

- We love the SPACE. Ohhhh my goodness! It's not that our 1600 square foot apartment that we were living in before didn't have enough space, technically, but the layout just wasn't working for us. It had one huge room and then 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. We now have 2300 square feet with seperate rooms (family room, living room, dining room, kitchen, etc) and it's just really nice for everything to have their place. And it's also really nice to be able to go somewhere else in the house besides just one room.

- Having a GARAGE. We can now pull our car inside and not get rained on. It's a luxury that we've never experienced before.

- Lots of CABINET space in the kitchen. We can now put all of our appliances in the kitchen instead of having them all in storage.

- Windows that are LOW enough for Preston to look out of. In our last place, the windows level was about where his nose was, and so in order for him to look out, he would have to climb onto a chair and look out. Now he can walk up to the windows and look out all by himself. It's such a simple pleasure, but we have enjoyed watching him have fun with it. Just yesterday he was looking out the window and we hear "A reindeer! A reindeer!". There was a deer standing in our driveway and he was able to stand there and watch it.

- Taylor having his own room. I know I already said this, but we can't emphasize enough how excited we are to have our master bedroom back to ourselves. We can actually go to bed at night and talk to each other without being afraid that we're going to wake up the baby. And we can crack the window too without being worried that the baby will catch a cold.

- A YARD. Our new backyard is a little over an acre and it's all grass and FENCED. We are soooo excited. Preston has already been outside to run around. And I'm happy that I won't have to worry about him going out into the street or anything.

- No more BEARS. I'm so excited that we will no longer have to worry about black bears. No more having to store our garbage in our laundry room until garbage day so that the bears won't smell it, and no more worrying that we'll spook a bear on our walks outside. No more worrying that if I let Preston play outside that a bear will attack him.

- We can see the sky! This sounds funny, but at our old place there were so many trees that we couldn't really see out anywhere. Don't get me wrong - the trees were lovely but we were very enclosed. Now, across from us is a huge open nature preserve and a huge view of the sky. Last night Will and I went outside and were able to see all the beautiful stars.

- A driveway. We can now park our cars in our driveway whereever we want and wash them as we please.

- A secret playroom for Preston. Under the staircase there is a little storage room and it's Preston's little toy room. It's great because we can throw all of his toys in there and he loves to play in there and he stays pretty quiet in there too. :)

- More than 1 bathroom. We now have 3 toilets. So technically three people could pee at the same time. Pretty exciting. No more waiting in line.

- Close to the beach. Now we don't have to drive 30 - 45 minutes to get to the ocean. It's just down the hill, about 3 minutes away.

- Close to Grandma and Grandpa. G&G are now 5 minutes away. :)

- BEAUTIFUL scenery and small town. We are loving the beauty and the smalltown atmosphere. I grew up here, and so it's a bit surreal to be back here living as a married women with a family - but the town has also grown a lot and so I feel like I'm relearning everything.

I could seriously go on and on....Hopefully soon I'll get some photos up. We've spent the last week unpacking and have most everything put away, with the exception of some boxes in the kitchen. I still need to hang up the boys bedroom decorations. Our master bedroom is still completley unorganized and I don't know here half of my clothes are (I've been rotating the same 2 outfits for a week). We still need to put the TV/Entertainment center together, and my music studio is not put together yet either. I have a pretty beefy desk that will take a while to assemble. We have one computer set up in the kitchen (where I'm typing this), and still have to put up my music studio computer and Will's computer.

But other than that, we're doing good and happy.

Oh, and we REALLY need to go grocery shopping.

Come visit us!

A Taylor Post: 5 months!

Here are some photos of both Preston and Taylor at 5 months old. They obviously have their similarities (they look like brothers), but they also look very different in a lot of ways too.