Relaxing Weekend

Last weekend was pretty relaxed for us...we took Nate to play his first game of mini golf, watched Lila crawl and ate Star Wars pancakes.

And took pictures of our too cute for words children. :)

Lila pulled up on everything this weekend. It seems like she did this sooner than Nate but maybe I just don't remember. Let the baby proofing begin!

Eight

Sweet Lila, you are 8 months old. Stop growing, really, please stop. Thanks. Love, Mom

Some of Lila's notables this month:

• Lila is officially crawling! She couldn't quite figure it out at first and was so frustrated that she couldn't be mobile. But now everything is connecting and she crawls with a purpose.



• When she is not crawling, she prefers to be standing. Maybe an early walker? Maybe not. We shall see.



• Lulu Bell does not have any teeth yet, but sure has the symptoms of teething. Nate got his first tooth at 9 months so for now, we wait.



• She is eating baby food 3 times a day in addition to her bottles. We've found her stomach is a little sensitve, sorta like her skin. Don't get me started:)



• Lila says MaMa really well. She also says Hi. She will sometimes say DaDa. And we are trying to help her with Nate. It will probably be NayNay or BroBro first. Nate's happy with either.



• Sister Lou can go from laying down to sitting up all by herself. Freaked me out completely the first time I walked in her room after she woke up and saw her head peering above the bumper.



• Lila gives kisses or something like it. Especially to Scott. She really really loves Scott. Not that she doesn't love the rest of us but she adores him.



• She has what I call the "Kitty Paus Squeal" - each time she sees the KP, she lets out a high pitched shriek. And now that she's crawling, KP is keeping a low profile. But Lila still managed to get close enough to pull her tail this week. And for those of you who know our cat, that closeness is just not something that comes easy.



• Lila is trying to learn to drink from a cup. She likes to do it if you will hold it for her. She's got 4 months to master the task. We quit bottles cold turkey at 1 year 'round these parts.



• Lila is having fun wearing hair accessories, or maybe that's me having fun. Either way, it's all good.

Lila DeLaney Boyle, you are the sweetest daughter a mother could ask for...although I'm sad you are no longer a "baby baby," I'm looking forward to all you are going to be doing in the next few months!

Recipe Monday

Side dishes never get enough attention in my weekly posts, but truth be told, I could make a meal out of side dishes. Here is one of our favorites...

Baked Chips (Barefoot Contessa, Family Style, by Ina Garten)

4 large baking potatoes
4 tblsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
3/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced rosemary

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scrub the potatoes, cut them in half lengthwise, then cut each half in thirds lengthwise. You'll have 6 long wedges from each potato. Place the potatoes on a sheet pan with the olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic & rosemary. With clean hands, toss all the ingredients together, making sure the pototoes are covered with oil. Spread the potatoes in a single layer with one cut side down.

Bake the potatoes for 30-35 minutes, turning to the other cut side after 20 minutes. Bake until they are lightly browned, crisp outside, and tender inside. Sprinkle with salt and serve immediately.

Note: These go great with grilled chicken or steak!

Enjoy!

Lila's First Word

Of course, I think it's her first word. I know I say this a lot, but is there really anything sweeter? I especially love the evidence at the end of the video that she really is my child:)

Summer Canoe Trip 2011

***Edit***A few more pictures of the canoe trip that were sent my way. The first one by a great photographer, Kevin Willoughby. I absolutely love it - Thank you!

And my mom found one more of my boys...they really are the best pair. My mom was nice enough to take a few pictures on the canoe trip last weekend. Nate had such a wonderful time. He has looked forward to this for months. Nate, Myra and Thompson chilling out on a log. My sweet brother Hamil was nice enough to teach my 5 year old the many things you can do to a horse fly. Thanks Bro. Nate just about kills himself laughing when he tells me about Hamil eating a horse fly. Definitely a good kid party trick if you ever need one:) My precious little boy was EXHAUSTED from all the fun he had on the trip. I am so thankful that he has opportunities like this to enjoy nature and a more simple way of being. I'm also thankful that I married Scott and that he will take our children on canoe trips. Because as sad as it may be, I gave that up years ago. I like indoor plumbing just a little too much.

The Other Sides of Lila

I tried to do a little photo shoot with Lila last weekend. This is what half of the pictures turned out to be. I guess they are almost as cute:)

And for all you women out that are mothers of girls...your ideas for shoes in the 6-12 month, pre-walker stage are appreciated. I am at a loss. I see so many cute shoes but can't pull the trigger because they won't match with everything - so many flowers and bows that are colors that many outfits don't coordinate with - I know, I know, but help me out?! Where do you buy your little girl shoes? Please comment or email me!

Not So Extreme Couponer

Some of you have asked about my coupon strategy so I thought I'd tell you some of my secrets - although they aren't really secrets since there are a million blogs on couponing out there. But here are some of the things I do to save money with coupons.

1. Set a realistic savings goal for visiting big box stores - Grocery, Target, Wal-Mart, etc...My goal is to save at least 10-20% and I feel really good if I hit 20% or more on an entire purchase. You don't have to be an extreme couponer to save money. But if you can save $100 a month, that's $1200 a year you could be spending on something else.

2. I cut coupons from the Sunday newspaper, Red Plum, Smart Source, and Target. Occasionally, I will go to another site for a coupon if it is advertised on Money Saving Mom. But I don't go out of my way to get every coupon that is out there.

3. I stack manufacturer's coupons with Target coupons - did you know they let you do that? I've always been a pretty loyal Target brand customer, but when you stack coupons, you end up getting brand name product for less than the generic. Usually between $2-$3 savings per product.

4. I match up coupons to what is on sale at that particular store each week. The goal is to stay far enough ahead that when you need something you always have a coupon for it (or better yet, you already bought it with a coupon and it is in the pantry). If you can score an on sale deal at Target plus a manufacturer coupon, plus a Target coupon, well then that's when you get very close to getting products for free.

5. I signed up for an account on Vocal Point. They send you a product or coupon for a free product to try it out. They ask for feedback on your use of the product.

None of this is hard or takes a lot of time (good thing since I don't have much free time!) but it allows me to meet a savings goal that makes me happy. Happy Saving!

Stock Up & New Space

One of the things that I did to get caught up last weekend was to make freezer meals. There is just not a good time to get these done unless I stay up until midnight - and I'm just not doing it. But with the boys gone, I had a few more quiet hours to myself. So I stocked us up. The back drop was our new table and living room setup.

I've been wanting to change the living room around for a while but I just didn't think anything else made sense. One Saturday, Scott came home to furniture in disarray and Nate and I arguing about what was going to go where. We had not discussed it beforehand, it was just one of those let's see if this can work moments. And I think it works!

I wanted Lila to have some space to move around and the way we had it was not conducive to moving around. We got rid of our dining room table and got a pub table instead. It was just what we wanted and so much more functional in this space.

See? Doesn't Lulu Bell look happy in her new environment? She loves it. And I love how spacious it makes this room look.

I also created this new sitting/reading area with a new table and lamp. I really love how it turned out! I am really into lamps right now for some reason. I don't really like the overhead lighting in our living room so lamps are the way to go for me.

I want to add a bigger rug but haven't had time to look into that yet. Of course, I know just when I get our house the way I want it, we'll move. It certainly happened in Nashville and I don't expect STL to be any different!

Recipe Monday

One of my loyal readers asked for a lower calorie recipe so I searched through my archives for one that I hope meets most of the goal:)

Zesty Slow Cooker Chicken Barbecue (www.allrecipes.com)

6 frozen boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 bottle bbq sauce
1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Place chicken in slow cooker. In a bowl, mix the barbecue sauce, Italian salad dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over chicken.

Cover and cook for 3-4 hours on High or 6-8 hours on Low. Serve on hamburger buns.

Note: I have a probe on my crockpot that sticks in the meat. You can set it so that when it reaches the "cooked" internal temperature, it switches the pot to warm so that you don't come home to scorched food if you have to be gone more than 8 hours a day.

Enjoy!

Sweet Sweet Little Girl

I got really caught up yesterday in case anybody was worried. It feels good. And I played with this little one, which feels even better. My sweet, sweet little girl.

Nate Swimming

Golly molly, I'm behind. Behind on blogging, behind on taking pictures and behind on cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping and sleep. Basically behind on life. Except loving my husband and kids, not behind on that and that's most important.

Here is a video of Nate swimming last week. I know it may not seem like a huge deal to you, but before he started taking classes at Little Fishes Swim School, he would not go under water.at.all. He liked to swim but did not want his face to get wet. I am so glad we decided to send him there because in just 4 lessons (there are 10 total) he has learned to go under, put his face in, come up for a breath and swim across the pool. I'd say it was money well spent!

It's Always Something!

We had a pretty low-key weekend, if you don't count the disaster involving the upstairs bathroom sink and the downstairs bathroom ceiling and a sweet little boy who was trying to "help" out. It truly is ALWAYS SOMETHING.

Lila Lulu Bell looking ever so sweet on an outing to the park with Scott & Nate. And lest you think I was off doing something fun for myself, I'll go ahead and burst that balloon - I was at the doctor. All of us did not make it through the illness without paying more money to well-trained healthcare professionals.

I had to take a picture of what Nate has turned my coffee table into - Lego central, all.weekend.long. I was very patient and let it go until Sunday morning when I asked him to clean it up. It wasn't a popular request but we did manage to see the table for part of the day on Sunday. Gotta love the laptop - kid is too smart for his own good.

Lila and Nate both abandoned their blissful nap hour at the same time on Sunday. I had to put Lila on the couch with Nate while I got something out of the oven. She was SO excited! She was eye level with the TV and was so happy to be getting to do what Nate was doing.

Nate used his imagination and built many creative structures this weekend. He wanted me to take a picture of his make-shift General Grevious. It was definitely ingenious and I'm constantly amazed at the "real-life" things he can make.

Recipe Monday

One of my all time favorites...if you've visited my house in the last couple years, you probably had Lemon Blueberry Bread. Scrumptious. Absolutely scrumptious. I found this recipe in a Vera Bradley Holiday catalog a few years ago. The staff members submitted their favorite recipe and this happened to be the one submitted by Becky Bennett, Vera Bradley Product Development. Thanks Becky! It's become a staple at my house.

Lemon Blueberry Bread

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
6 tblsp butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp lemon zest (usually 1 lemon)
1 cup blueberries, tossed with 2 tsp flour

Lemon Glaze:
1/3 cup sugar
3 tblsp lemon juice

Heat oven to 350. Grease 5x9 loaf pan. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk, beating well after each addition (begin and end with the flour mixture). Fold in the lemon zest and blueberries. Pour into loaf pan. Bake 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Pierce the warm bread with a fork. Pour the warm glaze over the top. Cool in pan for 30 minutes or longer.

Notes:

I usually double the batch and split between 3 small loaf pans (see below). That way we have some for now and later!

Enjoy!

Night Time Reading

One of the most special times as a parent, in my opinion, is reading to your children at night. Nate likes to join us when we are reading books to Lila before her bedtime, even though the books are way below his interest level. Usually Nate pays more attention to the book than Lila does, but that's ok, she'll get there some day.

Faces

No earth shattering news in our neck of the woods today. We are all recovering from a bad cold and I hope we can all make it through without a visit to the doctor. Here are some of my favorite faces to wake up to everyday.

Nate's face is a little puffy here - it was taken when he was on steroids. But still awesomely cute if you ask me.

I can't remember if I posted this one or not, but if I did, it's worth some more air time.

Eating peanuts - painful. It's a pattern.

I love the look of concentration on her face - Lila is getting very good at playing with her toys. Hope your weekend is fabulous! Happy Friday!

Need Sleep

Me: Nate?

Nate: Yes?

Me: Why do you always call for Dad when you need something in the middle of the night?

Nate: Well. I don't want to wake YOU up...(reaches up and puts his hand on my cheek)...I know you need your sleep, Mom.

I guess I've been talking about sleep or lack thereof, a little too much lately.

Fourth of July Festivities

Mimi & Paka joined us in St. Louis for a fabulous 4th! We started off our weekend by attending the VP Parade downtown. Here's my #1 cutie patootie in his stars and stripes.

And here's my #2 cutie patootie in her red, white & blue. I never got a picture but she had bloomers that said "Lil Fire Cracker" - sooooooo cute! I never knew what I was missing with girl clothes!

Mimi and her first grandson. Nate was in heaven to have Mimi here for so long (and Paka too!)

I wanted a family photo since we were all dressed up in our patriotic garb. Sometimes with Nate you have to take a silly one before you can take a serious one. So Nate and I were playing along, but Lila & Scott were not so much.

I think this is our first picture as a family of 4 - besides the horrible horrible I'm not letting anyone see picture that we took in the hospital.

Mimi & Paka - taken by Nate!

Just because you can't have enough photos of red, white & blue baby.

I was able to accomplish a big item on my to-do list while Mimi was here - we went shopping for a new table for our living room. When I get it all put together, I'll post some pictures!

Patriotic themed outfit #2. This shirt was Nate's and I paired it with a skirt to make it girly and wahlah!

On the actual 4th, we cooked out and did some small fireworks in our yard. The spectators...

Nate was the chief firework performer...

I think Nate wanted to light the yard on fire...AGAIN.

Paka was Nate's assistant because he is lighter challenged - as in we don't let him have a lighter.

I hope you had a wonderful 4th!

Recipe Monday, I Mean Tuesday

I'm recovering from all things patriotic today, so while I get my pictures and thoughts together, I wanted to give you a taste of the great 4th of July dinner we had last night. These little ones were lovely! And yes, that is really a picture of my very own cooking. More to come!

Cherry Cream Cheese Tarts (Paula Deen, Big Oven)

2 8 oz packages cream cheese, sofftened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
12 vanilla wafers
1 can cherry pie filling (or other pie filling)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place paper cupcake liner in each cup of muffin pan. Beat cream cheese with handheld mixer until fluffy. Add sugar and vanilla, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Lay a vanilla wafer, flat side down, in each muffin cup. Spoon cream cheese mixture over wafers.

Bake for 20 minutes. Allow tarts to cool completely. Serve with cherry filling on top or pie filling of your choice.

Yummy! Enjoy!

Green Eggs & Ham

Nate loves Dr. Seuss and his favorite story is Green Eggs and Ham. He has been asking to make green eggs and ham but I just didn't really know how I was going to do that without making a total mess of it. Well thank goodness for Paula Deen.

Nate got a kids cookbook for his birthday and lo and behold, Paula has a recipe for green eggs and ham and of course it is quite easy. Scott helped him make them yesterday morning and they turned out really good! I think he liked the ham better than the eggs.