Hanley Family Vacation Part I

We recently took our first family vacation to California. We had a wedding to attend so we made a whole week out of it. Since we flew into San Francisco I had two things on my to-do list.
1. Golden Gate Bridge (obviously)
                &
2. See the "Full House" house (silly, but c'mon you wanna see it too. Oh, you don't? Well, anyways.)

Unfortunately we drove by the "Full House" house so quick I couldn't get a good picture, but I promise you aren't missing much. 

The stars must have been perfectly aligned because we were able to catch the U.S. Open in San Francisco before having to drive to Fresno. I would love to share pictures with you but they didn't allow us any cameras or cellphones! Instead I'll just give you the run down. It just so happened to be Father's Day when we planned to be at the U.S. Open, so appropriate! Mikey's face lit up as we entered through the gates, it was like looking at a five year olds face seeing Disney World for the very first time! Loved it.

It was so special to see Mikey and Liam enjoy the U.S. Open together on Father's Day, but I'll admit I was a bit nervous. I had watched golf tournaments on television and was well aware how quiet everyone must be while the golfers Tee off, Putt, etc. I also knew that Tiger Woods is known to have a temper and I could only imagine how he would react to a screaming 6 month old!  It was a questionable decision bringing him along, but I'm glad we did. At one point we were only a few feet away from Tiger as he was putting for birdie. Mikey and I weren't worried because Liam seemed to be in a deep sleep, until Tiger leaned down to read the green. His eyes opened wide and we were sure a scream was to follow, probably the most nervous I've ever been in my life! By the grace of God he was quiet. Matter-of-fact he was the most perfect baby all day!

After the tournament it was off to Monterey/Carmel. Although there was a much quicker route we chose to take Pacific Coast Highway, and I'm so happy we did!

 Gorgeous. 

I didn't want the drive to end. 

Cows! Suddenly I felt right at home.

Wouldn't you love to be these farmers!? 

All of my pics from Monterey and Carmel are on my phone which I have yet to put on my computer so I'll catch you all up on the rest of our vacation later. 

To Be Continued...

This Just In: Liam is crawling!

Yep, you heard right, crawling!

 One day he's rolling around the floor playing with his toys... 

the next day he's halfway across the room chasing them! 

Bubba has taken off and hasn't slowed down since. He doesn't let anything get in his way, he is one determined little guy. 

The same day he started scooting around the floor he sits himself up from laying flat on his back.

 Liam tackled two huge milestones in one day, you can only imagine what proud parents we are! As far as we know this is unheard of and he's gotta be the smartest baby on the planet. (Yup, we're those parents.) Anyways, this has been the fastest 7 months of my life. Where is all the time going?!

  

As Liam reaches new milestones I can't help but reflect on these past months and how much our lives have changed for the better. I could have never imagined I would enjoy being a mommy this much! I could care less if my shirt is soaked with slobber, I don't gag at a blowout here and there, and I quite enjoy the challenge of using the aspirator. I know, I know. I guess that's what they refer to as "motherly love".  It's bitter sweet watching him take off so fast. I know there will come a day when he'll be too cool to hug and kiss on his mommy, but with every new thing he learns I couldn't be more proud. 

So maybe I'm having a bit of a hard time letting him grow but there's nothing I can do to stop him! (We've looked into it) For now I guess there's only one thing to do...baby proof.

Homemade Pie Crust 101

I can officially report our first attempt at making pie crust was a success! I found a foolproof recipe compliments of a fellow Okie whom I pay homage to almost daily in my kitchen, thanks Pioneer Woman!
So here it goes, one of the best pie crusts I've ever tasted.


Recipe makes 2 9-inch pie crusts

Ingredients: 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

                     1 tsp. salt

                     1 Tbs. Sugar

                     1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter, cut into chunks

                     1/4 cup cold water

Directions: 

Mix the two cups of flour with salt and sugar. Cut butter into the flour with a pastry cutter (or in a food processor). Add the other 1/2 cup of flour and work in. The mixture should look like large crumbs. DON'T OVER MIX! Sprinkle the cold water over dough and with your hands or wooden spoon mix until the dough holds together.

Now shape the dough into two discs.

 From this point you can wrap the dough and store it for later use or you can go ahead and roll the dough out for your pie. (Or in this case, for your quiche!) 

I gave Mikey the honors. He loves stuff like this.

 If your dough starts sticking sprinkle a little more flour over top and that should do the trick. 

I mean is there anything more awesome than a husband who loves to cook with you? Nope. 

 And look who else loves hangin' around the kitchen....

Mommy's little buddy! I'm a lucky girl!! 

So here's our dough almost ready to fill. (If you look really close you can see the chunks of butter in the dough, ahhhh)

 We decided to use our crust to make a breakfast quiche. We roasted mushrooms, sauteed green onions in some butter, yummm, added swiss cheese, prosciutto, and combined all the ingredients with eggs and heavy cream. The quiche baked for 45 minutes at 400 degrees. 

                      

Voila!

This crust is perfect, and flaky and just delicious. 

And the mushrooms, I die! 

Back With A Brand New Addition

While taking a year off from blogging a lot has happened!!

1. We got pregnant.

2. We moved to Oklahoma.

3. We had a beautiful baby boy! 

& baby made 3!  

After 7 months I think I'm finally getting the knack of this "mama" thing, and I've decided it's the best job I've ever had! Now that we've established somewhat of a schedule with our little cowboy mama has time to pick up blogging where she left off, well, sort of where she left off, you get me.  

Happy to be back with a brand new addition! 

Bullheaded

A few weeks ago we had to herd the bulls so that we could finally put them out on the cows. The bulls are usually, surprisingly, well tempered and easy going. Nine times out of ten it's a breeze to round up the bulls and pen them. This day just happened to be that one time that they were a pain! It went a little something like this.

I drove into the pasture with the cake truck honking my horn, waiting for the bulls to hear me. As they climbed up the hill I arrogantly thought to myself,"I could gather all these bulls with the cake truck alone."  Then it all began.

After about five minutes of enticing them with my cake truck they were fed up. They had had enough. One bull in particular had a real problem with my luring of the horn and no reward for his long travel up the hill, and he was going to show me who was boss (or rather the cake truck who was boss). These bulls don't play, they are serious creatures and although for the most part they are lazy, they have short fuses.

 I started to sweat a little as I continuously beeped my horn albeit the bulls insisted on putting up a fight, while threatening to split. I kept my eye in the rear view mirror for the boys to bring up the rest of the bulls. I was getting anxious, putting the truck in drive and inching forward, then putting it back in park, all the while glancing behind me. Ahhh, if only I could just talk to these bulls and explain the pay off from this penning will be glorious, 25 head of cattle per bull waiting to be bred! But it's just not that easy.

They were becoming so impatient that they started turning on one another. 

Finally, in the distance I see the guys bringing up the rest of the bulls.

Meanwhile the bulls around the truck were still fighting one another.

The bulls were giving them problems too. It was going to be a miracle if we could get all these bulls penned with only two riders and one cake truck.

I would see the guys top the hill then run back down the hill, run right, 

then run left.

 I was getting pretty discouraged when all of a sudden.....

 I see the most handsome cowboy topping the hill with bulls! 

Hallelujah!

It took longer than expected, but we penned the bulls, and now they roam happily in a pasture full of cows. 

Springing Forward

The last couple of weeks it's been so beautiful here, aside from the wind, it's getting so warm and the skies couldn't get clearer. I've been finding any excuse to get outside and soak up some vitamin D, I've even been able to lay out on the deck in my bathing suit, one of the greatest joys in life. Recently I decided I really needed a garden below the house, it would keep me busy throughout the summer, and we could potentially save a lot of money on produce. It didn't take too much convincing before my husband, and father-in-law were on the tractor piling dirt for a garden. We spread the dirt behind the pump house that sits right below our house and put a wire fence around the perimeter. It's only a little garden, but it's just enough for us, and I love it!
It's plenty warm enough to plant, but the wind has been so strong, gusting up to 65 mph some days, we worried our vegetables would blow right away. For now I've been tending to my starters on my porch.

 Many folks around here will set up wind breakers around their houses and gardens using trees, bushes, and cedar posts. After inquiring about the cedar posts I learned that they cost $7 a post, and just for our little garden we would need at least 100. Needless to say we scratched that idea pretty quickly. Luckily, however, the fence lines on the east side of the ranch were held up by old cedar posts that the settlers axed down by hand. These posts were cut in the early 1900's, and not long ago had to be replaced with metal T posts, leaving the retired cedar posts laying in the pasture. We gathered the old posts and hauled them to our garden and began tying them to the fence. Although they are different in size and shape, they do the job, and look really nice. I love knowing that they were cut by hand and spent a century or more holding up fence on our ranch. Although free of cost, they are rich with history, and I believe whoever spent the time cutting and driving them into the rocky terrain would be pleased to know they are still of use.

Since it seemed to be no problem talking my darling husband into a garden why not ask for some chickens? They seem easy enough to take care of, inexpensive, and rewarding! Also we could use the chickens' manure to fertilize our garden!! And they are just so darn cute, please, please, pleeeeeeease?!!

You might have guessed this took much more persuasion than the garden proposal, and you might have also guessed (based on the fact that I have the greatest husband in this world, and he loves me so much) that soon after the garden was finished I had a chicken coop only a few feet away! Ahh, I love him!!

A couple weeks later my chickens arrived, and have since been laying eggs regularly.

From Left to Right: Me, eggs, Pico(our chick), & handsome

I love spring. After being held captive inside by the snow, constricted in layers of clothing, & fighting  that extra heated blanket at night, it's nice to feel the freedom of springtime. To beat it all lookie what I found...

STRAWBERRIES!

As if these weren't enough to make my entire month I gave my local nursery a visit to find this beautiful rose vine and had to grab it to put by the new garden fence!

And on the way out I spotted these beautiful flowers and took them with me too...

They call these Bubblegum Supertunias (It's a petunia hybrid)

I have a feeling that won't be my last trip to the nursery. I've got lots in mind for my little haven below the house. Did I mention how much I love spring?

I don't know what I love more, being outside, the reward of seeing something you've planted bloom, or the process of it all, spending time with my best friend in the world. Most definitely the latter. 

I just love spring time.