Stream of Consciousness

• Mia started smiling this week (she is 6 weeks old!) I promise I will try to get a picture soon.

• Speaking of pictures, I made an appointment to get the girls picture taken on Friday. I loathe the idea of taking them to Portrait Innovations because Annie is all over the place right now and shy around strangers which is not a good picture taking combination. Plus when she is posing for a picture she is screaming "Cheese"and her mouth is wide open! I was going to shop for new matching outfits for their pictures however they don't really need clothes and I found matching outfits that Kara had bought Elly and Dora so I plan on dressing the girls in them instead of spending extra money on outfits. I'm not looking forward to it but I really want the picture to remember them as new sisters :o)

• I finally remembered to take Mia back to the Pediatrician this morning for her Hep B shot. There was a glitch in our insurance when she was there for her 1 month appointment and so we opted not to give it to her in case she was not covered I didn't want to pay for it. It ended up getting fixed and so today was her day. She barely cried for a few seconds and has pretty much been sleeping ever since. Annie was so concerned as to why they were touching her sister, the nurse suggested I take Annie and walk away so she wasn't traumatized because I had mentioned that we would be back in less than 2 months for her 2 year appointment!!!! I don't think either girl knew what happened and we were on our way.
  

• I have been back to the gym 3 times now and I am LOVING it! It feels sooooo good to work out again. One of the other moms who's kids are in the playroom said she didn't even know I was pregnant and everyone is surprised that Mia is here! I realized that I pretty much wasn't at the gym for my 3rd trimester. I wasn't working out while I was packing up the Bellevue house and then just didn't feel up to it while we were living with Char & Noon. Then delivering a month early I am back to working out right around when I should have been delivering ;o)
  

• Speaking of delivery here is a picture I have been wanting to try to capture for a while now and I just stopped blogging for a minute to take it the best that I could.
  

This is the after dark scene outside our big bay picture window in the living room. As I was up all night laboring with Mia I was drawn to the street light in the cul-de-sac and the way it lit up the little tree in the middle and the cute little house next door. I kept thinking of how much I already love our neighbors and what they must think of me dancing around, squatting, kneeling, and anything else I could think of that would make the contractions bearable if they are up looking out their windows right now. I am quite certain that I will think of that night every time I look out our front window and I am blessed to have such a fond memory to recall so often.

• Joe bought me flowers "just because" a few weekends ago for the first time ever! Mia and I went with my parents to a wedding one Saturday morning and Joe kept Annie. They went to the park, had skyline (she LOVES it!) and picked out flowers for mommy and a red balloon for Annie :o) The balloon alone makes my heart melt let alone the BEAUTIFUL flowers.

• Our family went to McGlassons to get peaches for ourselves and Mom. We went after church and then rode the Anderson Ferry on the way home. I love the ferry and was excited to take Annie. She and I walked down to the riverbank and watched the ferry come across with the cars and then when we went back to the car to get on Mia was hungry so I fed her in the car while we crossed and Joe took Annie out onto the deck to watch the water. She enjoyed the short $4 ride and I have a picture of them on Joe's phone that I am going to try to get off so I can post it soon.
  

• The prettiest son Joe will ever have! This is a Daddy's girl if I have ever met one! She loves everything Daddy. Tonight she was playing her little toy recorder (you know like a flute) and wanted Mia to try to blow into it. I told her Mia couldn't because she only breathed through her nose (she was nursing at the time)... so Annie decided to try to play it through her nose. Her father assisted and her efforts were a success. Of course he had to play it with his nose as well and they found themselves very funny. Ok I'll admit I found them funny also but when she asked me to play it with my nose I politely refused and told her I was a lady and ladies do not play musical instruments with their noses :o)

• Grandpa Neal, Aunt Lan & Randy came to visit for the weekend. They made the rounds to all of my siblings houses because Aunt Lan has never seen where we all live. They also got to meet Amelia for the first time. You can tell she fell in love with her "Grampa Neal" right away. :o)
  

• I asked Joe to take me to Findlay Market last saturday morning because I have never been before (I know!). I was IN LOVE!!!! I want to go back every saturday morning for the rest of my life! It was amazing! All the sights and smells were wonderful! I took kellys little camera because I knew I would want pictures, however I did not get one single picture! Mostly because I didn't have a free hand but also because I just didnt think it would do justice and Seriously missed my wonderful camera. I want to go back, child free, so that I can wander around and take pictures of everything and everyone and not worry about who is getting tired or hungry :o) We bought really good local Buckwheat honey, fresh bread and green beans. I could have spent so much more $ but I reined myslef in for Joe's sake :o)
  

Healthy Cooking

Alright I will admit to you all that I am on some sort of health kick lately. I am not sure what it is yet, all I can say is there is a stirring in my heart to eat healthier and a strong power in my heart to eat Ice Cream for lunch (hello yesterday). I have absolutely no will power when it comes to sweets especially in the frozen and/or chocolate form. A few weeks ago I tried to start back on weight watchers core plan which I have never done before. Its just a list of approved foods that you can eat paying attention to when you are full. The "approved foods" are just all those that are good for you (fruits, veges, whole grains, & ff dairy) I really liked it because I was feeling better. When you count ww points you can eat ice cream all day as long as I only at 34 points worth, and cherry coke zero is no points so I could drink that all day too! Its a ridiculous way to live!
Anyhow I started feeling so good paying attention to what I was putting in my body and I started getting curious and reading blogs from women who focus on healthy eating, especially healthy baking. I wanted to know the story behind High Fructose Corn Syrup and other such foods that carry stigmas so I was googling like crazy!

With all of this research I found myself at Trader Joes yesterday! I have heard about it from so many of you and I was really curious what it was all about. I wanted to price compare and wander the isles and read lables so I left Annie with her Gram so that it was a possibility. I have to say my curiosity was fed and it left me wanting more... litterally! Its such a tiny store and there are limited options on so many things I felt like I was missing something! How could a store that is known for healthy whole foods not have Rapadura? It was one of the few things on my list to research! I took a list so that I didn't buy everything that sparked my curiosity and end up spending a million dollars on things I "just want to try". Price kept me from buying too much (hello dairy dept!) but I did come home with a bag of dried plantains that I thought Annie would like and a box of cereal bars that I know she will like and they were a steal! I also got peanut butter that was a good price however I thought I could probably get the same thing at Kroger, and sugar but I am not sure I got the right thing! I also felt that Kroger had a better whole wheat flour selection so tell me if I am missing something there. I now know where to get some things if I want them in the future (like whole flax seed, Kroger only carries ground).
I was sad that everything was sold in such small packages, I wanted to see big bins of bulk flax seed and whole oats :o)

I want to start baking from scratch more with good whole ingredients until my entire pantry looks like this.

Ohhhh I LOVE it! Jars from Ikea!

And a baby who woke up early from her nap in a coughing fit and spent the next hour on the couch looking like this. :o)

Pink Eye?

Maybe I should rethink letting her stick her paci in her eye seeing as she now has some sort of eye infection. Could it be from the snotty little paci? Certainly Not!

Sleep Rituals

Do you have one? I do, I must have my reading pillow up against the head board, two under my head and one at my side (that one started with my first pregnancy and I never stopped) that's right folks, four pillows, Joe has three as well. I have to sleep on my stomach way down on the bed so my feet hang off the end of the mattress. I have to have the door closed and I used to have to sleep away from the door, because of boogy men you know, but that has since changed in the new house. In addition to all of this I now have to sleep with the box fan on, but not blowing on me, thanks to my hubby who brought that vice into the marriage.

I was recently telling someone about Annie's sleep rituals and they asked me if I had a picture of it. I was so glad they recommended it because its something I never want to forget.

As you can see she has three paci's and three blankets, the one over her head is called the "snugga, snugga" she has three interchangeable pink snugga's which is nice for when one is in the wash or lost in her toy box. And even with all this tucking in, she actually sleeps on her stomach with her legs under her and her butt in the air, but you won't catch me taking a picture of that for risk of waking a sleeping baby :o)

Oh and I forgot to mention that she sticks her "finger paci" in her eye as well :o)

Amelia

I am feeling some serious Mommy guilt about not blogging enough about Amelia. I seem to remember talking nonstop about Annie when she was born and all the wonderful things that came along with her. I feel like Amelia is this adorable little addition to our family who is a good snuggle buddy and excuse to stay home during the day and not go out into the heat, a reason to not get anything done during Annie's nap because I must spend quality time with her! I mean honestly when Annie was born I spent my days staring at her and... well... I am not sure I did anything else! With Mia's first month I have spent a decent amount of staring time but honestly I can't believe how little she does, she doesn't smile or laugh or sing silly made up songs about her loved ones like her crazy big sister. She just sleeps, poops and eats like every other 5 week old! I love her though! She is my little squishy face, my dark haired beauty, our little Monnie :o)

She had her one month check up yesterday with Dr. Brunson (love!) and she weighs 7lb 4oz and is 19.5 inches or so. She wouldn't hold still on the length measuring thingy and the nurse said 2o in but she seemed way off! Anyhow she is 10th percentile in weight and length & head and is proving to be a tiny bug just like her "big" sister.

Her one month birthday was on my due date July 8th which I found quite ironic. The day I had her my mom just kept exclaiming "June 10th!" in disbelief, she was the one who kept reprimanding me when I would tell people I only had a few weeks left when I really had 6, It was wishful thinking on my part and she was trying to bring me into reality that I may have gone to, or even (gasp) past my due date with this one :o) To this I say "Ha!" very cautiously that is so as to not jinx myself for next time and go way overdue :o)

Daffodil Surprise!

I know I have talked about my flowerbeds before and I don't mean to bore you but this is BIG! I finally got my husband all to myself this past weekend and we (read:he) tackled the flowerbed that needed it the most. I realize I should have taken a before picture but this stinkin little flowerbed had 7, that's right, 7, yucca plants in it! Do you have a history with yucca plants? They are awful! They are ugly and poky and cactus-like and grow like crazy and you can't kill em! I hate them and I don't know anyone who likes them. There was also a plant/flower that I kept waiting to bloom and it just kept getting taller and taller until it was nearly up to my chin with no flowers to be had! I couldn't take it anymore and so (much to Susans chagrin) we just went ahead and took it out. So far it is the only thing besides the yuccas that I have just gotten rid of.



As Joe started digging he came across daffodil bulbs. I had forgotten that there were daffodils in the bed because I had clipped away all the dead leaves months ago and we were out of town when they bloomed. I remember Kelly calling to tell me that my flowerbeds were Amazing and I was sad that I didn't get to see them. So I set them aside so that I could replant them in the fall... but Joe just kept finding more and more so I went after a paper bag to put them in... but then our bag started to fill until it was overflowing!

Don't let the picture fool you I cut the grocery sac in half so its not a full bag.

I can't wait to replant these babys and see them bloom in the spring! I set the sprinkler out when we were done because we had moved so much dirt we didnt want to hurt the tree. However I accidentally forgot about my precious little girl sleeping on a blanket under the shade tree... she might have gotten sprinkled a little...oops! :o) Oh well she is no worse off because of it!

Funniest part of this story was that when the bag began to overflow Joe said "wow you will have something fun to blog about here!" Haha, I love him!

New Recipies (and pictures of course)

I have been hearing a lot about Tammysrecipies.com from my blogging friends and I had never checked it out until this week. You guys are right, its Great! Last night for dinner I made Italian Cream Cheese Chicken over Pasta. Naturally I couldn't just follow the recipe completely. I added some minced garlic butter to the sauce, used tenderloins so I wouldn't have to cut chicken. It was really yummy however it tasted like a simpler version of the garlic chicken that our family has been eating for a long time. The nice part was that it was REALLY easy and didn't take any time at all! Annie sat on the counter and watched me cook and chop veggies and I talked to her about what I was doing the whole time and let her taste anything she wanted (except the raw onion). It was so much fun, she was so into it!

Today after I let her make another batch of chocolate pudding (don't judge its a cheap easy project with a tasty low fat result) I decided to make Cinnamon Crunch Granola. I picked up the ingredients yesterday at the grocery store because I had just run out of flax seed! Oh no wait I have NEVER had flax seed in my house the wheat germ I had for 4+ years so I thought it was time for a new jar :o)
I knew Annie would be the perfect baking buddy when I pulled my giant bowl out of the cabinet and she gasped, said "Ohhhhh" and clapped her hands. Oh thank you sweet Jesus, my thoughts exactly!

Baking Buddies

Ready to get started, she loves the step stool!

She loved adding and tasting all the different ingredients, the shaved coconut was her favorite

I have a feeling when she gets older she will be one of those classy women like Melissa who likes to drink wine while she cooks... lets just hope she manages to keep the granola out of her wine glass unlike my glass of juice. ;o)


She decided to sit down and sing a song while we waited for the granola to bake... I love her!

Ahhhh a cooking buddy, I foresee great things in our future...