potatoooooo...

So, I don't normally blog about recipes because I normally forget to take pictures or stuff doesn't turn out the way I want them too. I also don't bake much so sweet recipes are out; too much work and mess for something that will be gone in like 2 days. I'm getting better about it though. So today I thought I'd share one of the McKee families favorite recipes, it's actually one that I received at a wedding shower from my Aunt Marci. Thanks Aunt Marci!! We make this all the time.

Baked Potato Soup

So, this recipe is really easy but not for those on a diet. Lots of butter, sour cream, cheese and bacon.  You start out by baking the potatoes. We baked them straight in the oven (without foil) for 45 min.  Take them out and let them cool. This time made them the perfect consistency, when you cut them up they are firm enough to hold their form and soft enough to mash a bit too. 

Excuse the crappy pictures, not great lighting in my kitchen. I used 5 potatoes. Next you make a roux. This is where you add the large amount of butter, melt it and then add the flour, salt and pepper making a thick bubbly mixture to thicken your milk.

Add the milk to the roux mixture. I usually add a cup and make sure it's mixed and thickening before I add the next. I do that the first 3 cups or so then just add the rest. You bring that to a boil or until it starts to thicken. Next, you take the milk off the burner and add the sour cream, whisking it in. Then add the potatoes and cheese and bacon. That's it!! Enjoy!

There is the finished product. All ready for the fridge. This recipe is soooo delicious and so filling. Adelaide helped me out in the kitchen. That is to say, she rolled around and threw magnets off the fridge and ran into my heels with her roller and mushed up granola bar all over herself, all of this while yelling babble at the top of her lungs. At least she stayed occupied. 

There she is trying to get at the camera, granola all over her face. 

Cutie.

I do have to add, after my post of frustration over Adelaide's progression it was like she changed overnight and was going to prove me wrong. Within a few days she was sitting up all over the place and she just started crawling this week. She's also pulling up to get all of her books off her shelves. So exciting!! Our appt. at Children's was so reassuring and I'm so grateful for their input, especially our occupational therapist and prosthetist. They are so helpful and are very honest. They also love Adelaide. We also got to meet a new family at the clinic. Their first visit with their 3 month old. She had a little more arm then Addy but same side. I think it was reassuring to them to see a happy toddler bouncing around. 

I'll leave you with a another pic from Adelaide's birthday party. We're so blessed to capture pictures of Adelaide with her great-grandparents. 4 generations of women!!

5 little fingers, 10 little toes...

My sweet baby Adelaide turned 1 yesterday! It's hard to comprehend that it's been a year already. Tyler and I have had fun reminiscing over all of the crazy and fun and new and not so fun things that have happened since we found out our little bundle was on her way. It's been interesting to say the least but Adelaide has been such a blessing to our little family. She has taught us so much already, since the day that we found out that she would have 5 little fingers and 10 little toes. Those 5 little fingers love to feel my lips and face and love to point to say hello and wave goodbye. And that soft, chubby arm loves to stroke my cheek when I give her a bottle. 
Anyway, enough with my sentimental talk, it makes me sad at times to see her growing but I love the fun and talkative toddler she's becoming. She even managed to say a variation of "thank you" on her birthday and the whole family heard her do it!! So here's a few pictures from the festivities...

We went with Smallcakes cupcakes. Very tasty! This was Adelaide's personal cake. She demolished it as you'll see later. 

Part of the birthday table. The owl theme was a lot of fun! I know she'll never remember this party but everyone had fun and looking back at the pictures will be so worth it. Plus I made all of the decorations on the cheap. 

There she is demolishing. She loves chocolate and she almost ate the entire thing!! Notice that she even managed to get some in her hair. For some reason every time she eats she has to feel her head. That is the entire cupcake table. 

Present time!! She wouldn't even try to open the gifts, she just wanted mommy to open them quickly. 

Adelaide was definitely spoiled this birthday. But how can you resist this face! It just screams "buy me toys and cake" just to make her smile! Good things it's easy to get her to smile without those things. 

a $200 kitchen redo...

Tyler and I have finally finished our cheap kitchen reno! It took us 2 weeks, longer then we thought it would but it turned out pretty well for two people that have never really worked with cabinets. My dream is to eventually gut this kitchen, tear out a wall and all that kind of fun stuff but until we have the finances to do so, this will do. The kitchen wasn't that bad in the first place, just not our style. We needed a little more color or less color, however you want to look at it. So here is the before...

Again, not that bad, just not a fan of orange cabinets. We also were blessed to have my Grandma Sextro donate her oven to us, she got a brand new one and mine, the one pictured above, took about 20 min. to preheat. The new one doesn't match but it works well and some day we hope to get matching stainless appliances...we can dream. Although, as a side note, Tyler did find a free stainless dishwasher on craigslist that we picked up. Not sure if it works yet but the people giving it away just didn't want to deal with it and bought a new one...sillys. So, here is the after...

We put frames around the doors to give them a shaker look. It makes them look a little less homemade. These cabinets were literally built into the house in 1950, guess that's how they did it back then. We still have to get hardware but it feels nice and fresh. I'm working on getting some curtains made with the new sewing machine I got for Christmas! We're also stealing an idea from pinterest and making pendent lights above the sink with Ball glass jars. 

We are really enjoying the new look and are happy to have it pretty much finished. It felt like we were doing all of this for Adelaide's birthday party that's this Sat.!! Some day we also hope to add some cork floors maybe?? One project done and on to the next, that's how we work. Here's a look at some of the chaos that was our house while painting...

That's Adelaide scootin' down the hall, just saying hi! The vent that we uncovered was a mess, had to fix that one. And our dining room was turned into a kitchen. Happy to be back to normal. And I don't think I will ever paint this many cabinets again, it was horrible. But in total we've spent less then $200 and it was totally worth it. 

Need to post Christmas, guess I'll do things a little backwards! Our lives have been crazy lately.