Wednesday, December 4, 2013

4 months old and Happy Thanksgiving!

Life is SO busy! On top of the holiday season beginning, still settling in to our new home and life in Charlotte, family dinners, Christmas shopping AND keeping our now 4 month old baby boy happy (and alive) I have to admit that blogging is not usually the first thing I think of doing when I have spare time.

Spare time? What's that like?

In the midst of all the business though I am grateful for quiet moments. Sometimes they come during the day when Josh naps. Sometimes in the middle of the night when I wake up to check on my sleeping boy. And sometimes when the husband releases me for a grocery trip by myself (oh that is SO wonderful!) I am grateful for these moments to pause and reflect on the faithfulness of God. He is SO good and we are blessed beyond measure.

This past week we celebrated Thanksgiving and Jon's birthday with the Brown's, visited with family from out of town and Josh turned 4 (!) months old! The older he gets the more nostalgic I become that he's not my little 7 lb peanut anymore. But we are having SO much fun with him! This age of exploring, mimicking, smiling, talking, giggling is the best!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Brown's!
So excited! Gobble till you Wobble!

Our happy little man!

Josh and cousin Winnie

Typical...

Winnie LOVES her Joshie :)

Gobble butts!
Love him!
Give thanks
Wubba loves his Aunt Mini Moo!

And his Gigi!

Happy Birthday Jon!

A visit with the Cardell/Harper's!

Scrunchy nose smile
Wee!

Holding that head up high!

4 Months old!

Hands in the mouth ALL.THE.TIME.

Our big boy!

Here's a short little video of Josh talking to me the other day. I love how vocal he is getting!



Coming up this week we celebrate Christmas with the Brown's and then we are on our way to Orlando for a few weeks for Christmas with my family. I can't WAIT!

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Bananas Foster Pancakes

One of my favorite things to do on Saturdays is make breakfast with and for my husband. These days, he spends time with Josh on Saturday morning and I get busy in the kitchen cooking up something more special than just the usual cereal and pop tarts. This past weekend we had bananas and pancake mix on hand so I decided to be creative and "dress up" our pancakes a bit. They turned out super yummy and SO easy!

What you need (serves 2)

- 2 bananas, sliced diagonally
- 2 T butter
- 2 T brown sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon (or more!)
- GF pancakes


Directions

- Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat 

- Add sliced bananas and brown sugar


- Cook until golden and syrupy (about 5 minutes) stirring well


- Add the cinnamon and stir.

- Turn off the heat and spoon over the top of your pancakes


- We added a bit more syrup to ours (splurge!) but powdered sugar would be delicious also!


A fast and easy breakfast that looks difficult and gourmet...sign me up!!

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Cheesy Broccoli Orzo

I made this the other night as our side dish for dinner and boy was it delicious! It was so easy and the husband gobbled it up and declared it something he wanted again. Well ok then!

I had never had orzo before but I saw a GF version at WalMart and figured it was worth a shot! It looks exactly like rice in shape and size but it's actually a pasta!

*If you can't find GF orzo you could substitute your favorite rice, and just cook the rice and broccoli separately, and add on some cooking time for the rice.*

 The orzo cooks super quick and this dish took 10 minutes start to finish and I only used 1 pot. I mean does it get any better than that? Here's how to make it!


What you need (from Iowagirleats.com)

- 1 C GF orzo
- 1.5 C broccoli florets (I actually bought "cut broccoli" by accident but it was good too)
- 1/4 C shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 T shredded parmesan cheese
- 1 T butter
- 1/4-1/2 C milk









Directions

- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add orzo and cook for 3 minutes.

- Add broccoli and cook for 3 more minutes or until orzo is tender



- Drain well and return to pot, but off the heat

- Add the cheese, butter and 1/4 C of milk. Stir well and add more milk if you need to



- Season with salt and pepper to taste (I always use seasoned salt and only needed about 1/4 tsp)

- I served ours with some simple baked chicken and it was a quick and easy under 30 minute weeknight meal!


Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Lately...

Our life lately has been busy busy busy! We moved out of Taylor and Steph's house almost 2 weeks ago and are getting settled in our new home. We are renting a 3/2 house from good friends and we absolutely love it and are enjoying setting up all of our things! I am slowly working on decorating - first up is Josh's room since I didn't do a nursery for him before we moved from Florida. I'm having so much fun planning it!

Josh is doing awesome these days. He's in the middle of his third month and we just made the transfer to him sleeping in his room at night. So far he's doing really well. He usually gets up once or twice...sometimes to eat and sometimes he just wants to be rocked bounced back to sleep (we keep a yoga ball in his room for such purposes!). He's rolling over tummy to back - not all the time but has done it enough times that we know it's intentional. He loves his bath time and is so smiley and giggly, especially when you talk to him. He's cooing back and trying to mimic us when we stick out our tongues. It's so cute! We so love our little buddy!

Here's some pictures from our move and some other random ones. I take at least 20 pictures of him a day. That's my prerogative as his mom so ya'll just have to deal with it :)

Sweet welcome gifts from our landlords!

First picture together in our new home!

Eating chick fil a on one of Josh's blankets...classy

Painting Josh's room

I love his expressive faces!

My favorite crinkle nose smile
Here's our new home!
Yay! Doesn't Josh look thrilled?
All moved in!

Lots of work to do!


The beginnings of Josh's room
The master - deconstructed


Pops Fred (great grandpa) put together Josh's crib for him. I love it!

Playing in the new digs

Playdate with Winnie

Chatting with Pops Fred

Fun visit with Memere and Pops Fred

Sleeping in his new crib for the first time!

Where's Waldo?

My big boy all bundled up...it's getting cold here!

Cousin love

New crib sheet!
Front entry

The kitchen - pretty much all unpacked

The cutout into the living room is awesome

Living room - still a work in progress!

View from the front door

Josh's room coming along


Guest room / office

Guest bath & Josh's bath

Master Bath

Master bedroom

More updates to come!