ho hum

i feel bad for not blogging as much as i used to,

and its not that i'm running around with two girls

and have no free time.

(although, that does count for something.)

but no,

i still get a few free moments in the afternoon and

each night after they go to bed.

but really, i feel like i don't have much to share.

it's winter and we're cooped up a lot.

this week our highlight out of the house was storytime.

besides that, we cleaned, did some laundry, yada yada yada.

not a whole lot.

but here we go, my uninteresting week.

 

1 - we moved the daybed out of the playroom.

we were running out of space and my brother needed it,

so it was a win - win.

now we're in the market for a pull-out couch.

we need something for a guest to sleep on.

we also need another shelving unit to set up brette's "kitchen" properly.

 

2 -  reid is sleeping through the night.

i hesitate to write this because i might jinx myself,

but the day after i complained about her still getting up,

she stopped doing it.

she is now sleeping 7:30 to 6:00, give or take 30 mins.

and then she goes back down until about 7:45.

i'm loving it.

 

3 - ronnie came home wednesday night sick.

he swore he had what i had, only worse.

then he went to the doctor and they told him he didn't have

strep throat or an ear infection or a sinus infection... just a fever.

just goes to show that ronaldo is actually a big pansy.

(or another P word that i will let you fill in)

 

4 - i am obsessed with scandal right now.

does anyone watch it?

a girl at work let me borrow the first couple seasons.

i just finished season 3 and now i'm trying to track down season 4.

(so maybe THIS is why i'm not blogging as much...?)

 

5 - we had a small fire lit under our

ass to start working on the house again.

don't get excited, just a few small projects,

but progress is always a good thing.

i plan on having a complete house update next week.

 

so that's it.

like i said,

not a whole lot.

 

hopefully your lives are much more interesting.

 

 

 

what's next

oh my gosh.

this last week has been crazy.

i've been crazy sick

and crazy busy.

not the best combo.

last weekend i had a baby shower

for my dear friend lindsay.

so fun. and i got to hang out with

all my pregnant friends.

literally, everyone is with child.

 

 

 

but that night i was up almost all night

long with a killer sore throat and congestion.

i made ronald take me to urgent care the next morning since it was a sunday.

i had a double ear infection and strep throat.

sa-weet.

that was followed up with headaches from hell.

it was definitely a loooong couple days.

my mom and dad came up to help me,

because for real, i'm not sure i could have "parented"

for a whole day straight.

even now, 8 days later, and i'm still

not back to 100%.

lets just say we spent the majority of last week in our jammies.

 

 

and even though i wasn't on the top of my game,

i felt much better by the week's end, so

we headed over to dana's on thursday for our monthly pizza night.

the kids get to run around and eat cookies and

i get to hang out with my friends.

its a win-win.

 

i worked all day friday.

then i had my second baby shower on saturday morning, this time for jana.

it's such a nice treat to meet all my besties for breakfast on the plaza.

for real, i need more of that in my life.

 

 

 

saturday night we had my work holiday party.

the food was delicious.

seriously, i dominated dinner.

and sunday i got up and headed to st. louis to

visit margie and her brand new baby GIRL, clara sue!

(marge is a mother of two boys so this little girl was a complete surprise and

i'm not kidding when i say everyone is completely dying over her.)

 

 

now here i am,

another monday night.

we just got done with family dinner and

i am worn out.

this week should go at a much slower pace.

i need it.

 

 

now excuse me,

i'm going to go lay in bed and watch scandal.

 

 

 

the big enchilada

i just finished the last of the leftovers for lunch today

and reminded me to share my newest recipe.

 

i always need something easy for dinner.

nothing that takes all day.

heck, nothing that even takes an hour.

it's got to be fast, easy and good.

i read a recipe the other day on pinterest

and i thought it met all my requirements.

i changed a few things because i

a) didn't have it

or

b) didn't want it

 

the original recipe called for a pound of hamburger

but we had just had chili the day before,

so i went with chicken.

i didn't even cook the chicken.

i took out my trusty bag of tyson grilled chicken strips

and cut them into pieces.

i measured out a cup of frozen stir fry veggies (onions, green & red peppers) 

diced them up and put them in with the chicken.

once it was hot, i added a packet of enchilada seasoning and

one can of rotel - - stir.

i decided that corn sounded good with this,

so i added a pile of frozen corn to the mix.

(probably like 3/4 cup)

i was also going to add a 1/2 can of black beans,

but we were out. wah wah.

meanwhile in another pot, i cooked 8 oz of pasta.

you can use whatever you have in your pantry.

i had thick, flat noodles.

they weren't egg noodles, but they were shorter than fettuccine.

i don't know exactly what they were,

but i liked it and i already had it.

once the noodles were done, i added it to my chicken

and mixed it all together.

then i poured it in a casserole dish,

topped with lots of shredded cheese and

backed it at 350 until hot. (20-30 mins)

serve with sour cream.

 

brette is a huge fan of mexican food.

she eats it better than anything,

hence her 2nd birthday party.

so i'm always looking for easy mexican

and i thought the noodles were a surprising change from rice,

which B doesn't eat very well.

overall, it was a hit and i'm adding it to the "keeper" pile.

 

 

here it is, right out of the oven...

 

reid: six months

 

 

it's here.

the half way point.

she's rounding the corning and heading into

the second term of her first year.

just. like. that.

 

 

growth:

i am currently sick.

i am sporting a double ear infection AND strep throat.

not to mention, my cough and stuffy nose.

so when reid didn't sleep through the night like normal

and was congested as well, i decided to take her into our pediatrician.

she is not sick (yaaas!) and weighed in at 17 lbs.

her 6 month appointment is tomorrow so i will have better stats,

but i know she's growing and that's good enough for me.

she's still in size two diapers and 6 month clothing.

she's grown out of the 3 months stuff and i've started

putting her in 6-9 months stuff even though its a little big.

if its warm, she wears it. 

i've stopped giving her reflux medicine because

she seems to have outgrown the puking thing.

in fact, i don't even burp her anymore.

just another sign that she's getting older.

still no teeth, but i swear they're on their way.

 

 

sleeps:

i don't want to complain because

i know there are people out there that have it

W A Y  worse than me, but i'm a

little frustrated by her lack of consistency at night.

we always have her down by 7:30.

some nights she's back up by 11:00,

but then she'll sleep until 5 or 6.

other nights she's up at 3 and then back down until 7.

but no matter what,

(except for like 4 nights)

she is always up once a night.

not a the same time,

or even for very long,

but definitely up.

and i always nurse her because

she IS sleeping long stints and i feel like

she is ONLY 6 months old.

but i'm ready.

i'm ready to put her down at 7:30 and

not see her pretty little eyes until 7:00 the next morning.

fingers crossed its coming soon.

and yes, still sleeping for the most part on her tummy.

i try to flip her over but she always goes right back to her stomach.

i'm going to ask the doctor about it tomorrow.

i don't know what else to do.

my next problem is the dreaded nap.

so important.

so needed (for baby and mom).

and reid is not having it.

she still takes FOUR naps a day.

FOUR.

do you know how hard that is to do with a two year old

that needs s o m e t h i n g  constantly?

its hard.

but reid will only sleep for 30-45 mins.

obviously that's not enough, so she gets tired every few hours,

i put her back down and pray for a long nap,

but it never happens.

i just want her to sleep from 9-11 and then from 2-4.

now if someone will just tell her...

 

 

 eats:

she is still nursing every few hours.

but she's also drinking water out of a straw or

a sippy cup. (mostly because that's what we have out for brette)

and you know we started food.

she normally is fed twice a day.

this week she's trying out apples and peas.

she's not loving the peas, but i poke them in there.

next week will be sweet potatoes and pears.

ronnie forgets that she eats now and he pretty much took

over the kids this weekend since i've been sick.

reid only ate once.

whoops.

i guess i need to remind dear ol' daddy that he has

two girls that need to eat now.

 

 

plays:

she's a people watcher.

she loves to watch brette run around and dance.

she loves anything that allows her to sit up.

i can get her to sit on her own for a while,

but i only do it on my bed so it doesn't hurt when she falls or

when i'm super close by and can catch her.

she getting closer.

she also loves activity mats.

we don't have one, go figure.

but shan does and every time i'm over there,

reid will just lay on paige's activity mat perfectly content.

 

 

firsts:

she made her way into her first new year.

she had her first solid food.

and she can semi-sit up under supervision.

 

 

i think these next 3 months will bring big changes for reid.

i know a certain little girl down the hall that cannot wait

for her little sister to sit up a start playing with her.

i'm excited to see it myself.

 happy 1/2 birthday, chicken little!

 

 

 

 

reid eats

 

 

 

 

someone was hungry.

as in, crying and reaching for our spoons when we ate.

it was too much.

so even though she was shy of being six months,

like i had planned.

we went ahead and started giving reid food.

i wanted to start with cereal and peanut butter,

but i am borrowing the rest of shannon's cereal she has leftover

from paige and since i don't have it yet,

and reid was getting demanding, we went ahead

and gave her carrots.

and then the next morning, bananas.

she had to get used to the consistency,

but each day she gets better and better.

she only eats about a tablespoon,

but i think she's enjoying it.

we're going to be adding cereal, sweet potatoes,

pears and peas soon.

its so fun. i just love when they start eating.

 

 

next up, steak.


AND, does anyone remember this?
how cute are my little girls.
 

 

the need for tinted windows

soooo... lets talk about my boobs for a bit.

 

i don't think the bank i work at has ever

had someone that needed to pump.

or if they have, they act clueless.

when i first came back in september,

my boss told me i could use the men's bathroom

because it had a lock on the door and a bench.

ew.

but i tried it out.

1. the bench is too far away from the plug-in,

so i had to stand in front of the mirror while pumping.

weird.

2. it smelled seriously awful.

3. i had to go tell the men in the bank that i would

be in their restroom every time i needed to use it.

awkward.

 

with a little advice from my friend dana and her legal expertise,

she convinced me that i should be a little bit more pro-active

in my pumping demands.

(i guess its illegal for your place of employment not to provide

you a place to pump and it cannot be a restroom.)

i am so not good at confrontation, so i took it upon myself

to find another place more suitable.

unfortunately, all the offices have glass front walls,

so there is no such thing as privacy.

but, being the genius i clearly am, i brought in my old

shower curtain and tacked it up over the opening.

yesssss. i just scored myself my own little pumping room.

 

fast forward to october and we had a community service project.

everyone had to meet at this ladies house to fix it up for her.

i emailed the guy in charge to see if there was somewhere i could go,

since i knew we'd be there several hours.

he said the house would be in no condition to actually go inside

(ps- who lives at this place?!?)

but there was a QuikTrip a few miles away.

not ideal.

i was trying to figure out how i was going to lock the QT bathroom

door for 15 minutes without causing a riot.

instead, that morning another guy in charge said i could use

the generator he brought if i moved my car close enough to

run an extension cord.

so just imagine me, crouched down in the backseat of the 4runner,

outside this dump of a house, while all my co-workers are right outside working.

it. was. heinous.

and the generator was SO LOUD.

like a freaking motor off a muscle car.

there was no being discrete.

 

and now here we are today.

i think the number of women in the company

that needs to pump must have grown.

i got an email on friday saying they reserved an extra room for

our annual all-employee meeting at a local convention center, just for nursing moms.

can you believe it!

there would be a key left in an envelope outside the door, so

you could lock yourself in there and we could all take turns.

a big step up from the men's bathroom or the backseat of my car.

i'll take it!

  

i'm so glad i only do this a couple days a week.

pumping sucks.

only five months to go.

picture me rollin'

i mentioned that ronnie was gone all weekend.

he decided that we needed to add another vehicle to

our garage (also known as cox's used car lot) and

this one was located in illinois up close to his mom's.

he drove there with a friend and spent the weekend.

and then he brought back a yukon.

 

it's getting ridiculous.

i did agree that we needed a new vehicle because

ronnie's truck has a regular cab and the

jeep is a pain to get the girls in and out of.

so my suggestion?

sell the jeep.  sell the truck.

buy a newer four-door truck that's family friendly.

unfortunately, ronnie is not down to sell his truck.

apparently, there is something special between a man and

his 1998 regular cab truck that we cannot all ride in.

smart, right?

but he did decide to sell the jeep and

look into a suburban.

we were going to do this a year ago, but

ronnie got cold feet and ended up taking it off the market.

so as of right now, we have the truck,
the 4runner, the jeep, the yukon, ronnie's work truck shed, and a harley.
i'm. not. kidding.

but ronnie promises to sell the jeep as soon as possible.

let's all keep track of how long it takes him, because

if there is one thing i know for sure about ronnie,

nothing is fast.

 

my advice?

never marry a man with a love for all things auto.

(unless you're willing to spend a few extra minutes everyday moving

around cars so you can get the right one out of the driveway.)

 

 

b u t

i have to admit..

i am loving this new addition.

heated seats in the winter,

sunroof for the summer

third row for the puppies,

extra storage in the back

and leather for easy clean-up when the kiddos spill.

not to mention, i feel a little gangsta.