Summer Update

Summers are always so incredibly busy.  This summer has been no exception.  In fact, it's been one of my busiest ever.  I haven't had a single free weekend yet.  We keep trying to get some things done around the house (like cleaning our basement, which has become a dumping ground), but every time we try to find some time on the weekends, it ends up booking up from Friday till Sunday before we know it.  I even wrote "Clean Basement!" in the calendar for this coming up weekend, but it has since been marked up with a child's birthday party, a swimming date with some friends and their kids and a meeting on Sunday with our new sitter who will be watching the munchkin while our current sitter is on maternity leave.  So naturally, blogging has been on the back burner.  Which sucks, because then I get behind and don't even know where to begin.

This past weekend was super crazy with a friend's wedding, in which Joe was a groomsman.  I have some pics to post of that later.   In the meantime, I have some pics I have had accumulating in a folder for posts that I might eventually get around to.  I figured I might as well throw them all together for an update or they may never make it on the blog.

I can't believe I haven't posted much this summer other then a few recipes!  Here's my mom hanging out with the girls on Father's Day.  The were swimming in her little baby pool and playing with the "fishing poles".

This little bikini just cracks me up.

We had some friends over for Joe's birthday party near the end of June.   Usually it's always hot for his birthday.  We got lucky this year.  It was beautiful outside.  In fact, I think it was the last nice weekend we have had.  It's been pretty much scorching hot ever since.  We hung out with some friends, drank some wine and even enjoyed a fire in the fire pit.

Here's me and my oldest and dearest friend Anna chillin in my garage.
Her baby is due in about a month!!

My sis Amy and I.

My  friend Gina breastfeeding her beautiful baby boy.
I just love this shot.

I have had great luck with my herbs this summer!  It's been so nice walking right out to the back deck to grab what I need to toss in with dinner.  I had been waiting until we moved again and could have an actual garden, but who knows when that will be.  Container herbs work just as well!!

Currently, I am growing basil, parsley, thyme, oregano and cilantro.

This little dude has been hanging out on our little deck for weeks now.  He's super cute and tiny (only about 3/4" long).  The munchkin points and yells "Froggy!! Ribbit! Ribbit!!"  She then proceeds to squat down and hop around like a frog.  It was so hard to get a decent pic, but I'll share anyway.

I just really can't believe it's August already.  I have started planning the Munchkin's 2 year birthday party with will be on Sept 10th.  Two Years!  I just can't believe it's been that long already.

She picks up so much new stuff all the time.  She's been talking in sentences now and uses words to describe things instead of only sticking to mostly nouns.  She can point out letters of the alphabet, colors, shapes, and can count to 12 all on her own.  I am sure this is all typical for her age, but to me she's a super genius! Only a year ago, she could barely talk at all!  It's just so crazy.

When she does something she wasn't supposed to, she'll say "sorry guys!",  even if it's only me.  She loves pointing to the food on my plate and saying things like "those are mommy's eggs" or to my seat, "that's mommy's seat".  Some parents count how many words their kids have, but I am too lazy for that.  I wouldn't even know where to begin.  Her vocabulary exploded so fast, I don't know if I could even guess within a decent range at this point.  She's definitely a talker.  She LOVES puzzles.  It's one of her favorite things to do.  She'll ask me to get them down for her and we'll sit at the kitchen table and put them all together.  She likes to hold up her cup and say "cheers" until you clank your drink with hers.  She is still only drinking water and milk and loves them both dearly.  She is a cheese freak, just like her momma.  She also loves her eggs.  Her other faves are, salmon, tacos (which is really just a bowl of seasoned grassfed ground beef, cheese, avocado, tomatoes and some sour cream), avocado, broccoli, pretty much any green vegetable, carrots, mushrooms, any she especially loves berries.  We got pretty lucky with this one actually, she'll eat just about anything I give to her.

I feel like she gets cuter and cuter every day.  How is that even possible?

I hope everyone else is enjoying their summer so far!

Chili Night

Normally I wouldn't dedicate a post to what my daughter had for dinner. But she was cracking me up last night and I had to share.

I cooked up the hamburger meat, sauteed the onions and garlic and threw it all together with some beef broth and spices and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight. Yesterday morning, I put that, along with some black beans, kidney beans, tomatoes and some pureed pumpkin into the crockpot. I left out some of the hotter ingredients, like the chile peppers I would normally use. I also left out the green peppers, since I knew she doesn't like them. I let it sit on low for 9 hours until dinner time.

I wasn't sure how the Munchkin was going to react to chili, if she would like it or even try to eat it. She loves spaghetti and has eaten most of the ingredients in the chili in some form or another with out any trouble. I have always seasoned up her food with lots of stuff to get her used to intense flavors, I even put herbs and seasonings in her scrambled eggs. But I thought with the chili powder and cumin and everything else all put together, with that spicy extra kick that comes with chili, might have been a little too much.

Boy was I wrong.

I did mix in a hefty dollop of sour cream to cool it off a bit, along with some shredded cheese. I gave her her bowl and she immediately went to town. After the cheese melted down it became all stringy, so of course she had to play with that for a while. When she would pull her spoon up out of the bowl, she had to break apart the string of cheese, pile it up on top of her spoon and make sure there wasn't any hanging down before she would put it in her mouth. These made her left hand very cheesy indeed.


Once all of the cheese strings had been cleared and removed, she shoveled that chili in like nobody's business.


She finished her first bowl pretty quickly, then started eating the stuff she had spilled all over her tray. I asked her if she wanted more and she shouted "More!", with a huge chili faced grin. So I filled up her bowl again. Halfway through, she wanted to start feeding me some.


So I opened my mouth and took a bite. She would shake her arms around, wiggle like crazy in her chair, all excited with her face all scrunched up and shout "yummy"! She seriously LOVES feeding other people. I was already pretty full from my own bowl, so after a few bites of hers, I had to say "all done" and even gave her the sign for it. She was a little disappointed, but moved back to feeding herself.

When she started having trouble scraping the bottom of the bowl with her spoon, she resorted to using her fingers to pick out the remaining beans and tomatoes.



I seriously can not believe how much she loved this chili. She never eats two full bowls of anything and she might have even eaten more if I had given it to her.


And its a good thing I didn't. After dinner we headed out to run a few errands. I opened up the back door after pulling up to our first stop, and found her sitting in her seat, with a sour look on her face and about 2 Tb of puked up chili running down the front of her shirt. It might have been my dad's fault for spinning her around and tossing her on the couch right after she ate and right before we left, but maybe we'll stop after one bowl next time, just to be safe.

After I got her cleaned up, we headed in. I walked around the store, kinda embarrassed, thinking everyone could smell puke on us as we walked by them. I would sometimes catch a whiff of her myself and my gag reflex would start to kick in. Oh well, what are ya gonna do?

She was totally fine the rest of the night. Not even any crazy poops or anything.

Happy Thoughts...

It's been a good day today. Which I needed, as the last couple of weeks of utter exhaustion, crazy busy scene at work, the munchkin's teething and other things I won't bore you with, have taken its toll and I needed a good day of reprieve. So I am going to take a moment to brag about some stuff that is making my happy today. It's the little things after all.

I got some sleep last night. Other then my usual 4:00 trip to the potty room (this has been going on ever since I gave birth), I slept soundly through the night.

Our new bed (with the help of the mattress topper) has finally allowed me to wake up without any back pain, shoulder pain or hip pain. That, coupled with some good sleep, has made me feel like a new woman today.

The Munchkin has slept really well the last two nights even though she has several teeth all pushing through at once. She gets pretty crabby about it towards the end of the day, but somehow it isn't affecting her sleep too much (for now).

The next book in the Earth Children Series by Jean Auel FINALLY came out yesterday. It's the sixth book in a series that has been in the works for over thirty years. I am sad the reviews haven't been that great, but I absolutely loved the others, especially the first 2, so I am ready to read the last book and finish the series. I ordered my copy and it should be in my hands by Friday. I have been waiting for this book for YEARS. And I am flippin excited about it.

Our "Parents as Teachers" representative came over last night and gave the munchkin her DENVER test. She is doing great and for that I am thankful.

We had bought a new comforter for our bed a couple of weeks ago and its been balled up in the corner waiting to be washed. It doesn't fit in our washer, so I have been trying to figure out how I am going to wash it. Here were my thoughts... "Should I take it to the laundry mat?" "The dry cleaner?" "How far out of the way is it gonna be?" "I don't have time for this shit!" Then I got a coupon in the mail from a dry cleaner that just happened to be right on the way to my work (don't even have to turn on another street) for washing a comforter for a really cheap price. Hot dog. I dropped it off this morning.

I have three dates planned with three of my girlfriends in the upcoming days. One is coming to visit me tonight. We will hang out at my house and sip on some wine. Another is meeting me for sushi tomorrow night at my favorite sushi restaurant. Good company, sushi and wine... need I say more? And Saturday night another good friend and her hubby are coming over for dinner and a little fire in the fire pit. We are supposed to have nice weather here this weekend.

The sun is shining. It has been awfully gloomy around here the past couple of days.

So I am going to enjoy and relish this day. I am going to be grateful for the little things that come along and tomorrow, when things go back to normal, I'll try to remember today.

A Day at the Park

Spring is finally here! I called up my sister, we grabbed our families and took the girls to the park today. They had a blast!

My New Lens Finally Came In!!

My new lens finally came in the mail today! It's been on back order for what seems like forever. I actually wasn't expecting it for a few more weeks, so getting it earlier was pretty fantastic. Here's some pics I shot with it. Obviously I am a big ametuer, but I gotta say, these didn't turn out half bad!

I hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend!

A Birthday Party and Some Fun With the Cousins!

Last weekend we went to my friend Gina's son's bday party. The munchkin had a blast. I couldn't believe how much fun she was having! It was a big room with HUGE inflatable slides, bounce houses, animals, really just a bunch of stuff to run around on and jump in and on.

It was definitely her idea of the perfect party.

It was fun playing around in there with my new camera. The lighting was so weird due to all of the crazy colors reflecting off of everything and the fluorescent lights, but it's all a learning process.

On a side note, my new lens that I have been waiting for and that has been on backorder forever has finally shipped!! I should have it by Monday. Yay!!

Here she is peering into the entrance of one of the giant slides.

Crawling around checking things out.

She's always been a sucker for a ball pit.

It was fun for us too! We got to carry her up and slide down with her.

After a few times, she was even brave enough to climb up on her own.
We still slid down with her though.

Crawling through an obstacle course...

Here's Gina and her adorable little man G. Seriously, how cute are they?

The munchkin just loves to feed people.
Here she is sharing her crackers with another little girl.

Snuggling up with daddy.

She pulled some "food" out of Joe's shirt and fed it to Michele (that's her new thing).
I bet Michele loved eating whatever was found in Joe's shirt.

Feeding dad.

She was so wiped out after the party. We came home, ate lunch and she crashed. I think I thanked Gina and her hubs B for planning a party at 10:00am, several times. It might seem early to some but it really couldn't have been more perfect for us. The munchkin takes a nap like clockwork every day at 1:00. And girlfriend gets crabby if things are thrown off schedule. Seriously crabby. The party was from 10am-12pm, and after going home and eating lunch, she was down for her nap by 1:00.

Sunday my family came over for dinner. Both of my sisters came and brought their girls. My parents and my grandparents were in attendance as well. I love it when all of the girls get together. The munchkin has so much fun with them.

Here's her oldest cousin Aubrey. Isn't she sweet?

Starting from the back left, The Munchkin and her (6 weeks) younger cousin Q (Amy's daughter), then in the front Aubrey, who will be 4 in June and Alex, who just turned 2 in December (Erin's girls).



I am excited for the munchkin. She gets to grow up with all her cousins, so close in age and living so close by. Me and my sisters are pretty close with one another, so these kids are gonna be together alot!

It's amazing how much destruction four little girls can do to a house. By the end of the evening, it definitely looked as if a small tornado had made its way through our home! Ahhh to have that kind of energy again!

I am so glad it's Friday. It's been a long hellish week at work and I am so ready for the weekend. My bestie Anna has agreed to blow off work early and meet me for some retail therapy. I am really excited! I haven't seen her much lately and I miss her gobs. Plus she's pregnant and I need to rub her belly. We are going to head to the outlet mall to hit up Gap and Old Navy with our 30% off coupons. I haven't bought the munchkin clothes in a while either and poor girl is looking sad with her short pants and belly-showin-out-the-bottom shirts. We went to a friends house last night and I caught grief for her super short skirt. Yeah it was a 12 months skirt... I still thought it was cute. Ooops. Hopefully I can stock up on some new clothes for her this weekend!

Happy Friday Everyone!!