Our Lives Lately...

My Valentine's present to Bradley...heart-shaped pizza.


Yum! It was surprisingly the best tasting homemade pizza I've ever made.


Valentine's Pizza for my Valentine. It doesn't take much to make him happy. :)


Over the last several weeks I've been packing up all of Claire's clothes that are too small for her and hanging up and unpacking all of the new clothes and hand-me-downs that we have that are her size now. It's like she's got a whole new wardrobe. I found this t-shirt in a pile of clothes my sister gave me. Nostalgia took over...I'm not that big of a TCU fan...but I miss Ft. Worth and it reminds me of home.

This weekend I opened up the front door a few times waiting on friends or family to arrive at the house. Claire has jumped on the opportunity to just sit and look outside. Thankfully, I had my camera nearby and was able to snap a few shots.


Gosh, she's adorable...love her to pieces!!


I've been trying to give Claire more and more foods lately. She's about to be 1 year old and I'm so tired of pureed food! We had some meatballs leftover from the Super Bowl Meatball Subs we had last week and so I gave it a shot. She loved them!


At the Kids Exchange (huge consignment sale in Raleigh twice a year) my parents got Claire this ride along toy. She mostly likes to push is around the house herself and walk behind it, but she also has a good time riding and letting someone else push.


Coming down the hall with dad!


This makes me crack up...she looks so studious. Papa (the cat) is so needy lately. When Claire was first starting to get around (rolling over, scooting, crawling and walking) she'd always lunge at him, kiss him, grab his tail. And he loves the attention. Now, she's not as interested but he's still needy. He'll walk over to her and step in her way. She just goes around him though. One time I even saw her crawl right over him.


Another meal...this one I took a pic of because of all the variety. Peas, carrots, cheese and chicken and rice casserole. She loved it all.


During the winter, our house has MAJOR static electricity and Claire's hair is quite the conductor!! She loves this new game where we count, "One, Two, THREE" and then she "falls" onto the bed, couch, chair or our arms. Bradley was playing that with her one day and her hair was standing on it's end from static electricity. It was hilarious so I tried to take pics of it. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to capture the hair...but her faces that she made in these pics are priceless.


"I love to play games with Mom and Dad!"


"Weeeeee"

10 Months!!

It's really hard to believe but our baby girl is 10 months old today!! And what a month we've had!! Right at the new year she began to wake up early. At first I thought it was a fluke, so I rushed into her room, patted her back, laid her back down and she just cried and cried. The next day I thought that maybe it was a diaper thing...so I changed her and put her back down. She cried and cried. Then I thought, maybe she's cold...so we turned up the heat at night. The following day I thought maybe it was a hunger thing...so I nursed her and put her back down. She was quiet for about 15 mins (like she'd gone back to sleep) and then cried and cried. Ugh...at this point I wasn't sure WHAT was going on!! I decided at this point to stop going in to get her. She ended up just playing in her room from the time she woke up (anywhere from 5:15 to 6:00) until the time I went and got her at the normal wake up time (7:30). Finally after 3 weeks, she's settled back down and is sleeping until 7 or 7:30 (at least I think so...if she's awake, she's quiet as a mouse). SO, all that said...THAT was new to us this month! Here are some more things that we've noticed about our little munchkin this month:

~She's standing steadily on her own now. In fact, just this week she took a couple of steps.
~She's FAST at getting around the house. She follows us from the living room down the hall to our bedroom.
~I've said this before but, OH BOY, she's a TALKER!! From the moment she's awake from a nap until the moment she falls asleep again, she's talking.
~Her appetite has increased! She's now eating 8-10 oz of puree every meal. I'm also giving her finger foods at the beginning of each meal. She's now eating cheese, biscuits, pasta, rice, tortillas, crackers, toast, cheerios, peas and diced carrots for finger foods. I'm ready to be at the point where she feeds herself all food at every meal. She's getting better at it.
~She weighs about 19 1/2 pounds. HUGE weight gain this month!
~She associates certain things with different people. For example, she knows that Grandma likes it when she snorts...so when she sees Grandma, she snorts. She knows that Nana likes her to stick her tongue out and go, "ah, ah, ah" so she does that when she sees Nana. She knows that when Mommy sits in the floor with her, she can jump on me and I'll catch her...so she does that with me. It's precious to see that she is playing games but also that she knows people.
~She is a social bug. She loves to be held by people, even total strangers. She loves to watch people talk and kids play.
~She's become an imitator. If I cough, she'll cough. If someone grunts, she'll grunt. If you make any kind of sound, she'll imitate it.

Claire, we love you more than you'll ever know. You've truly been a joy in our lives and we love every day that we have with you.

My New Hobby

A number of years ago I visited a friend of mine that had 2 small children and she introduced me to the world of making your own baby food. I never thought that it was possible before then...but she showed me that a jar of baby food ingredients were just the food itself and water (which is added to thin the food into a puree). I thought to myself...well, I could do that! And years later, I am. :) It's something that I knew that I was going to do from the moment that I got pregnant with Claire. A lot of people like to make their own baby food because they control what goes into their babies tummies (i.e. organic foods, whole foods etc). And yes, that is nice to me...but my main reasons are a little different. For one...I'm saving my family a ton of money!! And the second reason is that Claire is a picky eater and I enjoy that I can control the mixture of the foods that she eats and the texture (thickness) of the purees. I actually make my foods a lot thicker than the purees in the jars and she does great with them! As far as the money is concerned...with some foods, I'm not saving a ton of money. For instance, yesterday I purchased 3 winter squash for $5 which yielded approx 40 oz of baby food. This saved me about $1.50. BUT, I also purchased 7 bananas for just $1.23...this saved me approx $5.50!!

Another reason that I've enjoyed making Claire's baby food is that I've really developed a hobby of cooking. Before I was married I was NOT a cook. Don't get me wrong...I LONGED to be...but I never learned how. I knew how to make a box of Hamburger Helper and heat up a can of veggies but that's about as good as it got. Slowly but surely over the last 5 1/2 years I've learned and last year when I stopped working it became a fun hobby for me. I all of a sudden had time to spend in the kitchen. (And thankfully, I have a husband who will try out anything). Making dinner is no longer a burden...it's fun for me. I love to have a wholesome meal for Bradley when he gets home from work. I love to hear the words "this is delicious" from him. Anyway...I'm going off on a tangent. I mainly just wanted to share that I love making Claire's food. I feel like I'm not only helping her to eat healthy, but I'm also saving my family a lot of money. And it's super easy...if I can do it...you can too!!

Check out this website for more info on making your own baby food.


A can of prunes in the food processor about to be pureed.

Pureed prunes in ice cube trays. You freeze the puree in ice cube trays (each cube is approx 1 oz of food). Once the food is frozen, you pop them out of the trays and put them in a gallon size freezer bag. Then, when you need food for baby...you open up the ziploc, grab however many oz you need and thaw in the microwave.

Winter squash about to go into the oven.

Cooked winter squash cooling before getting pureed.

3 Winter Squash yielded approx 40 oz of puree.

Claire's 1st trip to Boone

This past weekend we were able to visit Jarrett, Lara and Colby in Boone. (Jarrett and Bradley were roommates in college). Bradley and I LOVE to go to Boone. I love to ride around and just look out the window. It is beautiful!! It was COLD this weekend though! The high on Saturday was around 18 degrees and the wind chill was around 0. That's ZERO! This TX girl isn't used to that kind of cold! Claire did really well though. Jarrett and Lara even babysat on Saturday for about an hour while Bradley and I had a "date"...we went to Walmart, the Christian bookstore, Food Lion and Chick-fil-A. :) I've got to tell you about a DEAL I got a Walmart too...let me preface it with saying that for YEARS I've wanted a pre-lit Christmas tree. But, I haven't ever been able to justify buying one just cause I "wanted" it when I knew I had a perfectly good tree. Every year though, Bradley and I hit the after Christmas sales looking for one and every year I talk myself out of a purchase. Even $75 for a tree that I don't "need" is too much for me. :) When we moved into the house that we're in my "needs" kind of became a little more justified because our living room is smaller and I have to SQUEEZE my tree in a corner...but, it still works. Well, last Thursday as I was taking down my tree I broke the base of it. The tree will no longer stand up on its own. So, while we were in Boone, we browsed the Christmas tree section at Walmart. And I found what I was looking for!! A slim, pre-lit, 7 foot tree for (drum roll, please)...$24.50!! It was 75% off!!

Okay, now that I've shared that...here are pics from our weekend. We had a blast hanging out with good friends and comparing notes on raising our first born children. :) (Colby is just 4 months older than Claire)

"Dad, can I check email too?"

Colby had a super-fun Lightening McQueen riding car. She loved it.

Loving to ride.

She snorts when she's happy.

Again, snorting cause she's happy.

Playing with Colby. He has some fun toys!

Colby was supposed to be in his room playing by himself...Claire was having no part of that. :)

They were so cute together. Claire loved playing with Colby (and I think Colby had fun too!)

Riding Lightening McQueen together. I love how Colby's hands are on her shoulders. :)

Ha ha...it looks like she's honking the horn.

All bundled up to go outside.

NOW she smiles...she's all ready to go outside...it's COLD.

We thought we'd get some pics of Claire in the snow...turns out it was pure ice. Boone was so cold that all the snow had a layer of ice over it.

She's not so sure what to think about it. She was slipping and sliding on it. Plus is was unbelievably cold!

Posing for a pic.

Okay, we got a smile out of her...:)

Family pic in the snow/ice.

Claire and Colby were constantly interested in what the other one was doing. Colby is supposed to be eating but Claire had other plans.

Christmas!

I know, I know...I'm late getting this post up...but it overwhelmed me to even think about weeding through all of my Christmas photos to put up on the blog...until today. :) We had such an amazing holiday. Bradley had 4 days off of work and we just got to hang out as a family. On Christmas Eve afternoon, my family in TX were opening up their presents and so we decided to open our presents from them during that same time. Then that night we went to the Wilkie's to open presents there. Then on Christmas Day Bradley, Claire and I opened presents (and stockings) for our family. Beforehand though we read Claire the "Christmas Story" in Luke. Years ago, I gave Bradley a family Bible and had our name engraved on the front of it, with the intentions of it being used for moments like this. We opened that Bible and read the story of Jesus' birth as a family. Our heart's desire is for Claire to grow up knowing that the reason why we give and receive presents at Christmas is because Jesus gave us the ultimate present in Himself. And we celebrate his birth at this time of year.

Bradley's giving me "the look" when I said, "Look at the camera, honey!" with such cheer. :) He he he...He's putting together the wagon that Nana and Grandpa gave to Claire.

Claire LOVED the wagon!

Our beautiful stockings.

Santa Mom passing out presents!

"All of these are for ME?!?"

The wrapping and ribbons were more fun at times.

"Thank you, Nana, for wrapping my presents in this super fun ribbon!"

"A ball popper?? That makes LOTS of noise? And will have Mommy and Daddy chasing balls all over the living room when they fly out of the top of the toy? THANKS Aunt Angy and Uncle John!!!!"

Claire LOVED the blocks that Uncle Jr sent to her!!

She's about to open up her stocking from Mom and Dad.

Helping Daddy open up her gift from us.

"It's a riding/walking toy! I'm super excited!!"

A yoga mat for the Wii! (I must be fair and put embarassing photos of me on the blog too)

Christmas morning Belgium waffles. Cooked on my NEW waffle iron that Uncle Jr sent to me. THANKS Uncle Jr!