easter weekend

i hope everyone has their eggs dyed,

their baskets ready

and their dresses pressed.

i personally can't wait for the age

when brette gets to wear little white gloves, a hat

and is running around searching for hidden eggs.

but this year she is going to rock a bonnet

and watch madeline and eden find their treasures.

adorbs, of course.

 

we're going to church with

mimi, papa, brian, jaime, madeline and eden.

should be... interesting.

and busy.

then back to mimi and papa's for a huge lamb dinner

with the rest of the family.

and since i gave up facebook for lent,

i will also be spending a few minutes hours catching up.

 

[note to self: do not give up social media when you are

a stay-at-home mom and it is your only way of

interacting with the outside world.]

 

 

i found this (easter) version of one of my favorite songs,

hallelujah.

perfect for the holiday.

enjoy!

 

 

 

want to see my favorite version?

go here.

 

hoppy easter!

 

 

party on

there are two ways to celebrate your kiddo's first birthday.

you can either have a quiet intimate party with just family.

or you can have a huge bash and invite everyone

to celebrate THAT YOU MADE IT A YEAR

... and so did your kid.

we are choosing the latter of the two.

a big ol' birthday party for my little girl.

especially since my friends and i made a deal a long time ago 

that we would only subject each other to our kids' first birthday

and then we were off the hook.

so this is my one and only year to invite all our friends,

and after that, just family.
(sorry family, you're stuck with us.)

i like it because i get to throw one huge party,

but i don't have to do it every year.

in fact, jaime and i already decided that after

this year we are going to have

madeline and brette's parties together.

their bdays are only 10 days apart so

it makes it easier on our family to combine them.

score. that will be fun.

 

i have a couple months before the big day,

but i've already started planning.

i was trying to decide between

a watermelon theme (hot pink, light pink and mint green) 

or hot air balloons (coral, mint green, light blue)

i went with hot air balloons.

they are so darn cute and since i'm

obviously going to try hard not to

spend a ton on the party this one was also

the cheaper option since i already have some items

leftover from my hot air balloon baby shower

and couple things from brette's room.
my artistic aunt is busy working on the invites and

my cool cousin offered up all the party decorations
from her daughter's bday a couple weeks ago.

um yes, thank you!

this changed my color pallet a bit, but it is so budget-friendly

and her decorations were so cute that i didn't care.

the new color pallet is aqua, yellow and coral.

so fun and fresh.

i can't wait.

 

here are a few of the ideas i'm working on.

 

 

if you have any money-saving party tips

or any great hot air balloon ideas

send them my way!

 

56 days left...

 



brette: ten months

we're in double digits over here!

it's spring and her first birthday is right around the corner.

and yes, i've already started planning.

but first, a little update on our ten month old.

 

 

growth:

we were at the vet on friday

so i took the opportunity to weigh brette on their high-tech scale.

she weighed 19lbs 7oz.

according to ronnie's measuring tape she is around 30 inches in length.

she's still sporting size 3 diapers and

has upgraded to 9-12 month clothing
and even some of the 12 month clothing fits.
she currently has FOUR teeth coming in.
yes, its as bad as it sounds.
none of them are actually in yet,
but by next month she'll have four new teeth across the top.
pray for me.

her hair has gotten longer and started to curl.
i'm pretty sure i could put little baby pigtails in the back,
but she won't sit still long enough to let me try.
it would be the cutest thing ever,
so i'm going to keep trying.

 crawling is still a no-go,
but it has gotten better.
she can push herself backwards,
but it think that is more frustrating for her
because she gets further away from what she is trying to get.
but her rolling skills are on point.
she rolls around all over the place.

 

sleeps:

she sleeps from 8 to 7 every night
and falls right to sleep during her bottle
so we have no problems keeping her asleep anymore.
she also gets a blanket now since
she's not swaddled.
still no pillow, but i plan on giving her one
once she is able to crawl or get herself up on her own.
naps are going well.
the new routine has been working really well for us.
every once in awhile we still have a rough go,
but for the most part,
its been a pretty easy transition.
 

  

eats:

brette is still eating with us.
just tonight, she had lasagna.
but she mostly lives off fruits, veggies, meat and cheerios.
i always have cheerios or puffs on hand, just in case.
we got the green light from our pediatrician to give her eggs
so she's been chowing down on those as of late too.
she isn't a fan of green beans,
but that's really the only thing i've found that she sticks her nose up at.
my girl is an eater.
as for nursing,
we cut out another session yesterday
so we are officially down to just one.
wahoo!
this is going great and
 i'm really happy with how easy its been for both of us.
i plan on nursing her once a day for a month
so we should be done done by her 11 month bday.
i also started a new thing today.
instead of giving her a bottle around 5pm where i used to nurse,
i just gave her an afternoon snack.
i figured a 10 month old doesn't still need five bottles a day,
especially since i'm eventually supposed to stop giving her any.
so her new schedule is:
7:00 - nurse
8:30 - breakfast
10:00 - bottle (nap)
12:30 - lunch
2:00 - bottle (nap)
4:00 - snack
6:30 - dinner
8:00 - bottle (night night)
when she hits 11 months and i take away her last nursing session
i don't plan on adding a bottle there either.
i'll just head straight into breakfast.
my goal is to get her to take a bottle only when she sleeps.
and then eventually, i'll have to break that too.

 

talks:
she's got dadadada down.
she relates it to ronnie and beer bottles.
go figure.
her new trick is waving.
she waves all the time and
ronnie and i get a huge kick out of it.
now we're just trying to teach her what it actually means.
right now she just waves at everything,
but its so darn cute.
even though she can't speak,
i know she is understanding language.
she knows drink, daddy, tater and punky (our dogs' nicknames),
 and i think she's finally picking up on her name too.
i try to use it a lot, but not sure if she gets it all the way.

she can "sign" for drink
but its not consistent.
and she grunts for more food,
but i'm still trying to teach her the sign for more and all done.

 

plays:

we've been going on a lot of stroller walks
when the weather permits and
we have a swing that we're going to hang in our backyard.
i'm basically trying to be outside as much as possible.
i sit her on the deck in her bumbo and let her play
or watch the dogs run.
i bought some markers, but
i haven't busted them out yet.
i'd like to see if she's ready to draw,
but i'm going to have to keep careful watch
because everything still goes straight to her mouth.
i also bought her a tambourine...
she's into anything that makes noise.
not that i love it, but at least she's happy.
i'm super ready for pool time
if summer would just hurry up.
 

 

firsts:
had her first popsicle.
started waving.
started eating 3 meals a day.
sits in a highchair instead of bumbo.

went to the store with just daddy.
(i didn't realize that this had never happened,
but ronnie told me a couple weeks ago that it was his first time.
apparently, i am always dying to get out of the house
so i don't let him leave without me. whoops.)

go baby go.  see you in a month.

 

 

 

 

pastaless salad

i've been trying to eat healthy since,

well, forever,

but i got more serious about it in december.

since then i've been trying to cut bad carbs.

you know the ones.  they're my favorite.

but one of my and ronaldo's staple meals in the summer

is to grill some sort of meat with pasta salad, corn on the cob and fruit.

we could both eat it every night.

since it was in the 70's yesterday
and since i made such a crappy dinner the night before, 

i thought it would be a good night to grill out and have
our go-to summer meal.

unfortunately, pasta salad would be one of those bad carbs.

dammit.

 

so i came up with my very own pastaless salad.

normally i would make this:

 

 so i took that as a jumping off point and created my own thing.

i had frozen peas,
cherry tomatoes,
green pepper,
avocado,
cheese sticks
and bacon.

then i just made the same dressing you normally would

out of mayo and a ranch packet.

i cut up all my veggies and cheese

and put the whole pack of bacon in the oven.

(i didn't use the whole pack on this salad,

but i like to have it all cooked so i can grab a piece for breakfast

or have it ready for a blt or broccoli salad.)

 

 

 

then i put it all together

leaving the bacon and the avocado out

until right before dinner.

i didn't want my avocado to turn or

my bacon to get soggy.

and guess what - -

it was delicious.

a definite keeper.

and still heathly.

score.

 

 

** i also made a 1/2 cup of elbow pasta for ronnie that he could stir into his own bowl and have real pasta salad. he doesn't have to watch his weight.  bitch. **

this and that

my blog has been lacking this week.

sorry.

it's because i'm sick.

the week started off so good.

dana and i took our kids to the zoo on monday.

no one was there and we basically had the whole place to ourselves.

um, awesome.

but tuesday morning i woke up with a stuffy nose.

i'm blaming the zebras.

they looked suspect.

by tuesday night i hit a wall.

ronnie got home in time for me to hand off brette

and spend my remaining hours on the couch.

i don't think he was impressed.

i know he was especially unimpressed when it was dinner

time and i offered him a hotdog rolled in bread.

sorry, i wasn't eating and i didn't care.

make yourself dinner.

i did manage to help put brette to bed and

i stole some children's dimetapp from her room.

by that time my head was pounding,

my nose was clogged so i walked around like an idiot mouth-breather,

(you know the kind)

and i was so achy that it actually hurt to dry off with a towel.

yes, i tried showering.

it's overrated.

if my mom wasn't working at the tax office this month,

i probably would have called her to come up and watch brette

while i laid in bed and slowly died.

but the show must go on

and i actually feel a bit better.

no headache

and one of my nostrils is useable.

sa-weet.

so instead of sitting around watching tv and blogging,

 i'm doing a little something

extra after my complete shut down the night before.

i mowed the yard,

vacuumed the house,

did a load of laundry

and made an actual meal.

which is why i have been way too sick and

then way too busy to share much of anything here.

sorry.

i'm almost back to 100%.

in the meantime, you can read this.

it will pass the time until i return

and it is still my favorite blog post. ever.

 

 

sprung

spring has sprung, ya'll.

 

march definitely came in like a lion

and out like a lamb.

by the end of the month we had out our deck furniture and

spent a couple evenings basking in the sun.

but now, april is totally living up to its hype.

april showers bring may flowers.

so right now we're wearing raincoats

and trying to avoid what the weatherman is

describing as vivid lightning.

fortunately for us, brette sleeps through

thunderstorms like a baby.

i don't know how because it was seriously super loud.

 

i also decorated for the season and easter.

i bought some new easter eggs to spread across my mantle

and put out these cheery flowers (from mr. mason).

 

i also put together brette's easter basket.

it's nice that i can leave it out right now

since she is still too little.

next year, i have a feeling we'll be celebrating the easter bunny

and i'll have to keep her things in hiding.

 

 

(since this picture i decided i didn't like this basket

because it doesn't have a handle and she'll need one for

the thousands of easter egg hunts we have in our future.)

 

so i bought her this one instead.

cute, right?

 

also, since she's too little for candy,

i filled her basket with bubbles, little rubber chicks,

a book, a wooden toy, a bunny tail and colorful bandanas.

fun. fun. fun.

 

i'd like to add a colorful banner around our doorway

so during brette's naps next week,

i'll be working on a version of this:

 

 

and i'd like to find a way to start displaying

all the fun free printables i've found.

like this one:

 

 

 

easter is around the corner!

i'm excited.

beer me

one way to make your wife especially proud

is to give your child beer bottles to play with.

 seriously.
don't call dfs.
 

but in other news,

i'm pretty sure your are the first

to see leinenkugel's newest ad.

who wouldn't buy beer from a nine month old?

i mean really.

summer shandy, anyone?

and now for the captions if she were 21...

(see dad, if you stick your arm out, it looks skinnier.  cheeeeeeese.)

 

(cheers, dude.)

 

(last call, i bought two.)

 

 

 (i can't feel my tongue.)

 

 

and if she turns out anything like my friends,

this will be followed by some late night taco bell.

 

cheers and happy hump day!