Easy Berry Cobbler

I have made this cobbler several times for several different groups of people. I absolutely love this recipe and several people have asked for it so I decided to share it here.

I love the recipe not only because it is SUPER easy, but also because I can always have the ingredients on hand for that last minute "need".

(adapted from Southern Living Magazine, July 2008)

Ingredients

• 4 Cups fresh blackberries (alternatively I use one package frozen mixed berries when berries are out of season; you can also use any other fresh berries/fruit; peaches and strawberries are a great combo when they are in season)
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 6 tbsp butter (I use less, maybe 3-4 tablespoons)
• 1 tbsp Lemon Juice (I just guesstimate this)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Place berries/fruit in a lightly greased 8-inch square baking dish
• Sprinkle berries/fruit with 1 tbsp Lemon Juice
• Stir together 1 large egg, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup all purpose flour until mixture resembles coarse meal; sprinkle over fruit
• Drizzle butter over cobbler evenly (this is what makes it crispy and YUMMY)
• Bake at 375 for 35 min or until lightly browned and bubbly (mine usually takes closer to 40 or more minutes)
• Serve warm with whipped cream

The frozen fruit works great because you can always keep the ingredients for this on hand AND it makes LOTS of juice J

New Favorite Pictures

I love my Angel Eyed Addison; these are a few of my new favorite pictures!!

CHEESEBALL!!!

She looks so grown up here...maybe because you cant see all her baby chub on her cheeks from this angle.

10 Months

Happy 10 Months Addison Joy!!

I cannot believe I am writing this post; 10 months? My baby is growing up so quickly and is almost, dare I say it, a toddler!?! January has been an exciting month, in fact as I type this Addison and I are at Gambrell Manor while Matthew is away on business for two weeks.

The Stats and Milestones

Weight: Not much more than her 9 month weight I would imagine; she's losing a lot of her baby chub but getting long.

Height: Never sure unless it is done by the doctor, but I would guess 29.5 or 30 inches maybe?

Diaper Size: 3 during the day and 4 at night still

Clothing: 12 Month except for PJ's (18 month is most of those, brand depending)

Personality: Still a little scientist and loves to get a laugh; what a clown!! She has thrown a few brief tantrums when she does not get her way or you take something away from her but (thankfully) recovers quickly. Addison is also starting to really show excitement when Matthew comes home from work and is clinging to him lots (which is a relief for me sometimes). I have always said she is a people pleaser and that still seems to be holding true. She wants so bad to do the right thing, maybe she is a rule follower like me. She is just as sweet as she can be most of the time, especially when she wakes up from sleeping, she just wants to give you sugar!!!

Mobility: On January 26 she FINALLY started to consistently sit herself up from crawling/laying. She had been doing it in her crib off and on prior to 1/26, but now she does it all the time! She can stand up on her own for short periods of time, cruises along furniture a bit and tries to pull up on many things (especially ME). She is still an army crawler but man she is FAST. She loves walking around everywhere while holding on to you.

Breastfeeding: Whew, it has been a challenging month in this department. We are in it for as long as we can this month, but any day we might start making the switch to cow's milk. No matter what, I am so thankful we were able to reach our ultimate goal!!!!!

Routine: Addison is most definitely a creature of habit, as are most babywise babies I assume. She sleeps 12 hours at night and takes two naps (one morning and one afternoon) about 1.5-2.5 hours each. From time to time I still have to wake her up from naps to ensure she does not sleep too much during the day. I am so thankful for such a great sleeper!

Talking: JABBER JAW!! She talks almost every moment she is awake and thinks she is saying actually words. In fact, she even jabbers what sounds like a sentence and looks at you for a response. She has said a few words but they maybe on accident: Mommy, Daddy, Dada, Out, Duck, Dog and I think that's it. There are many words that she says the same gibberish for every time as if the gibberish is the actual word. She totally understands most things you say to her now, it is so neat.

Independent Play: Addison LOVES her independent play time. We do independent play in the play pen for 20 minutes in the morning and 15-20 minutes in the evening while I cook dinner. She seems to enjoy this time tremendously and gets so excited when the timer beeps and she gets to turn it off.

Teeth: She still has eight teeth, but this month has exhibited all the signs that her pre-molars are coming. Yikes!

Food: We are doing lots of table food now so she is getting lots of finger food practice. She loves anything with LOTS of flavors and herbs and spices. We could not be more proud of her high chair manners and are SO SO SO glad we started this so young. We continue to work on sippy cup etiquette (she knocks it off the table when she is finished) but are very pleased that she is so proficient with the cup so young.

Visitors: We enjoyed a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Grant in January. Addison loved some one on one time with her Grandparents while Matthew and I enjoyed a very very rare night out alone.

Sweet Miscellaneous:

• Music: She has always loved music but when she hears Matthew playing at church (he leads worship for the contemporary service we attend) she watches him in awe saying "oooooo" while clapping her hands.
• Blowing Kisses: She LOVES blowing kisses to everyone!
• Dancing: She will thrash her head around when you say "dance, dance, dance"
• Monkey: When asked "What does a monkey say?" She makes a monkey face and noise.

Coming up......I am leaving Addison OVERNIGHT with Matthew in February while I go to part of my church's women's retreat. Matthew will do a fantastic job (better than I do I am certain), but it is going to be so odd to be without her overnight. I am so nervous, isn't that weird??

Video and Pictures

(I did not have many pictures on the laptop I brought to Gambrell manor)

She loves to fed you a bite every now and then.

She can stand all by herself now, but....she tips over quickly or dives at you so you will catch her.

Mia made a very very yummy meal so we let Addison try some. She LOVED it!!! She ate all this AFTER nursing AND 3.5 oz of squash! WHAT!!?!??!

What a clown!

Video Cameras Rolling

This blog is for my dearest friend who requested a little dose of Addison on the blog :)

I love this little girl more than words could ever come close to describing, she is so sweet and BONUS...a RIOT!

Sticking her tongue out. She can make a monkey face/noise but I couldn't get her to do it here.

She gets so shy on camera hence the grin and roll away. She really will stomp more than once but this is the best I could capture on camera.

Every time she hears "dance, dance, dance" this is what we get

I caught her monkey face at the beginning of this video and then it took her a while to do it again, HA!!! You can almost hear her trying to get "bye bye" out but it comes out as "dada".

The New Place---FINALLY

I received an anonymous request that my blog was in need of an update, so here we go and I hope this will do. However I think they meant one of Little Joy :)...soon soon soon!

We moved from our apartment to our new place in October but between the holidays and everything else I have not had time to take pictures without Christmas decorations up. We absolutely love the new place. It is the perfect size for us, not too big and not too small. We are in a fabulous area: walking distance to pool, play grounds and elementary school (should we stay here that long), close to our church, lots of places to go walking and close to our favorite suburb in D.C. The best part (to us) is we are still renting, I still cannot describe how it feels to still be 100% debt free. Perhaps one day the Lord will lead us to buy a home again but for now we rest in his current glorious plan!

Below is a "tour" of the new place...enjoy and by all means, COME VISIT and see our nation's capital!

End unit. Only bad thing about this is, we have much more snow to shovel than non-end units :)

MAIN LEVEL

Living room to right as you enter and stairs up to your left.

Living room facing front of house and back to kitchen entry

Eat-in dining area

Kitchen with dining behind you. Complete with half bath in a totally awkward area (but we are thankful to have a half bath on the main level) and a huge pantry!!

Off the kitchen/dining area. This is our favorite part...we used it tons in the fall!

Stairs down to the grass for Piper. No more leash to let her out AND we do not have to climb to the basement level to let her out like in most places we saw. YAY!

BASEMENT LEVEL

Large recreational room, TONS of storage, laundry room, full bath

Basement level full bath. The laundry room is in a separate room down the hall and although I do not like having to climb so many stairs to do laundry I am SO INCREDIBLY THANKFUL for a full sized washer and dryer again. In the apartment I had to do laundry every other day just to keep up, no I only do it once a week.

Recreation room/guest quarters side

Recreation room/office side of the room. Its a great place to work out too because its so big.

SECOND FLOOR

2 "Master Bedrooms" joined by a jack and jill styled full bath with tub and double sinks.

Our room.

Our room. That door leads to the jack and jill bath which joins our room with Addison's.

Addison's very own room!!!!! No sharing right now!!! YAY!!! Have I mentioned how much I LOVE that glider?!?!!? Oh man, it changed my life when we bought it upon our move in.

Addison's room and her lounging in it. She gets this pose from her Daddy.

She has two huge closets; we use one for her and one for all the outgrown clothes and paraphernalia. However, right now we have a friend borrowing everything...I LOVE that someone is getting to use our things. Seems like such a waste since babies only wear and use things for such a short time.

In case anyone was wondering what I am doing with all Addison's monthly pictures, here you go. This is hanging in Addison's room.