To Market, To Market

I didn't buy a fat hog but I could have! I love Findlay Market! I realized today that it will never be the same as it was the first time I went. It had a special glow to it that first time I went. It was all so new and exciting to me! This time it was exciting but there was no glow, the stands were all the same, the wares were all the same but the nice part was that the smells were all the same too! I love love love the smell of Basil. I stopped my dad in mid sentence to ask "Do you smell that basil?"

Joe had an early morning man breakfast date so I scheduled a OTR with my parents and Kelly.
I had no grocery list with me only my camera and an request from my husband to bring something fun home for dinner.

We ended up meeting Dick and Peggy there and had breakfast then meandered through the market until Dad and Peg found the proper fishmonger for me to purchase my shark from! Thats right I will report back to you later but the menu for tonight is Shark steaks, Pineapple, Corn & Roasted Red Peppers... I might even make the garlic cheese biscuits like Red Lobster has... yummy!

Annie eating whatever she wanted thanks to Grammy

I failed to notice the amazing flower boxes above our heads last time

Love the old man street performer on the bongos

Introducing Annie to the Lobster

She picked out what she wanted for breakfast and Grammy delivered :o)

No one had these little guys for breakfast... can you imagine, it would take a whole dozen to fill you up!

Peg bought one of these Belgian Waffles! AMAZING!

Ol Squishy Squish Face with her headband on... don't tell her daddy ;o)

Zoo Day

Went on a spur of the moment trip to the zoo today with Kris the kids and the Mama. I was going to head to the other side of the universe (Walton) to bring Kris the box of preemie girl clothes that we all pass around. It is fun to have a few preemie outfits when you have a newborn because they fit so well...

Anyhow she was headed to the zoo so I tagged along.
It was a good trip, each one gets better and better with Annie as she gets older she can see the animals easier all by herself. On the way there she said she wanted to see the "El-phants, Gaffs, and o o o ah ah ah" :o) Well we did see the monkeys to which JP said " Those monkeys have red butts... hehe I love saying butts" His mom did not hear this statement which made me wonder if he is allowed to say butts but he is 5 what else should he talk about?

Oh yeah and fyi they dont have lids or straws on their cups at the zoo "they are chocking hazards to the animals" ever given a 2 year old a slush puppy with no lid or straw?

The only picture I got of the day. This was what she looked like before we even got out of the parking lot.

Lately

We are on vacation detox... no more chocolate at our fingertips, no more Grammy's telling us yes, no more able arms to hold and cuddle all day long. There are schedules we must follow and rules we must obey that are making us girls grouchy and short tempered.

Other than that it is good to be home, I am loving this weather although it would have been appreciated last week very much!

I am in love with my girls as much as ever and loving watching them grow. Annie is as fun as ever and I never realized how even though I know she is two and she acts two I still feel like she is a baby! I thought that once I had a two year old they would be a kid. Its like she is stuck somewhere between baby and kid... I guess you could call her a toddler still?
She was SO much fun at the lake this year floating all around in her little swimmies. She loved it and wanted to play by herself and not hang on to Joe or I which was nice :o)



She has started calling Mia by her name about 40% of the time since yesterday and it throws me off every time! She was out with her Dad and called her Mia and ever since she has been saying it off and on. Its pretty cute... I wonder if "Monnie" will stick or not.

The Monster as I call her (get it Mon-ster hehehe) had her 2 month check up yesterday and she weighed 9lb10oz which is about half a lb smaller than Annie was at her age. I think Annie probably carried a half pound in her cheeks that Mia doesn't have so theres the difference.

I took the girls to the neighbors house this morning to swing in their backyard. They offered when we first moved in and I am happy to have a swing set close to our house when going to the park isn't realistic. Its crazy to me that the park is only about 1/4 mile away but loading the kids in the car on a hot day to drive there is silly and walking is a commitment that you must make so a few minuets of swinging was just out of the question until now.
Anyway... she climbed up on the swing that you see here on the right, I don't know what they are called, and I all of the sudden had an overwhelming desire to be 5 again! I can remember sitting on my grandmas swing just like this and eating popsicles or oreos or what have you. I couldnt believe how little space there was next to Annie on the bench or how little room there was for another set of little knees to be across from her but oh how I wish my knees would have fit, let alone my body supported by those metal bars holding it on. :o)

I have taken up running... there I said it, its true, its official and I will accept any accountability that this statement brings. Im going on 3 weeks now of running at least 4 days a week. I started at the gym alternating running and walking a lap. Then I increased the speed I was running simply because I wanted the lap to be over with quicker. On vacation I had the magical wonderful perfect running partner The Great and Powerful Woody! She was such an encouragement and pushed me just enough to make me feel good(ish) and stretch my abilities. The down side to running on vacation was 1. it was off set by the amount of cow tails I ate during the day and 2. it went from pavement to gravel to grass back to pavement and was super hilly! Those did a number on my knees and now my left knee is messed up a little. However I am pressing on, Im not sure if that is the right thing to do or not but I just can't let myself give up this habit that I have started! Now this week I have steadily done two 13 min miles two days in a row and am excited to increase that, I would like to stretch my distance by running more than walking and thereby decreasing my time... we will see how that works out, hopefully by next week!

Update in Pictures

Ok so its late and I haven't blogged in a while which means you get a bullet point post again just so I can keep track of all that is going on around here and not feel so bad about leaving you all while I go on vacation for a week :o)

• I taught Annie her name today. She says "Ahnnie Suerner" its the cutest thing ever! So today as I was drilling her I said "what is your name?" she said "Ahnnie" I said "Annie what?" she said "Ahnnie Girl" ! Oh she is so brilliant!
  

• I tried a new recipe tonight for Whole Wheat Banana Muffins. They are pretty good but I added Chocolate Chips to the second batch and something tells me that they are going to be better :o)

Annie helping, she peeled all the bananas for me. I couldn't let her eat them because she has been so devastatingly constipated lately but she managed to sneak in a few bites anyway.

yummy!

• Mia holds her head up very well now for just a little while, she is so strong it amazes me

• Aunt "Ku-Kuck" (Kelly) gave Annie a piece of Salt Water Taffy the other day and the result was smurf like :o)

• I have yet to get a picture of Sweet Amelia smiling her big cheesy grin, here is a good one of her being happy though which will have to do for now.
  

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!