Dear Luke, 7 months

Dear Luker,

You are on the MOVE!  6 months and 2 weeks you became mobile.  I literally had to convince your new doctor that you are in fact crawling- not army crawling, not scooting, but a true crawl.  When she finally believed us she responded by saying, "This is WAY early."  We thought so too!  You somehow look smaller to me now that you are crawling.  Probably because you are too small to be doing it.  You are in the 25th percentile in height and weight at a mere 25 inches tall and 16 lbs, respectively.   If you start walking at only 25 inches tall it might be some sort of Guinness Book of World Record.  Not a dare or a challenge (in case you took it that way).

About 3 days after you started to crawl you began to pull yourself up to standing.  I believe you see my legs as your personal obstacle corse, making a bee-line towards them whenever they are in your sights.  You are also on the hunt for any object slightly above your head to pull yourself up on.  This makes you much more accident prone!   Chasing you around the house trying to catch you when you are about to fall helps me burn a lot more calories these days.  So I guess this new skill has it's perks for me too :).

You are still doing a great job eating.  You have breakfast and dinner now and have no problems eating anything we put on the spoon.  We thought you didn't like peas, but that turned out to be a fluke because the next night we couldn't shovel it in your mouth fast enough.  I'm pretty sure you will be more than thrilled to find out you will be getting 3 square meals a day.  Which brings me to what's been going on with the other... end.  Oh dear.  Why?   Solid food make your diapers soooo ewe.  Funny story (you'll thank me for it later... probably)- last night we had our first Nashville dinner guests over and we were hoping they might become our friends.  However, after dinner we all took our spots on the living room floor watching you play... and wow.  When there was a break in conversation you decided to fill it with a not so pleasant sound or smell.  I don't know why, but I got red-faced for you.  You are one funny kid and you most definitely take after your Dad in that way.

You have battled sickness for almost this entire month.  You have a lot of slimy, crusty, gooey boogers..... all the time.  Which means your Dad and I have those precious little presents ALL over our clothes ALL the time.  Being a parent brings out the strange in your Dad and I.  We don't seem to mind that your boogers have become our new accessories.  Today, I found myself purposefully allowing you to wipe your nose on my shirt just for the satisfaction of seeing the snot off your face.

One of my favorite things to watch this month is your interest in your Dad.  You love to watch him do... well, anything.  You already have a love for music and always listen contently to anything we sing to you or play for you.  Now that you are crawling you love to stand up holding onto your Dad's knee while he plays the guitar for you.  It is SO ADORABLE.  I LOVE it.  I think you are going to continue to have a great appreciation for music as you grow.  I hope you have your Dad's drive to learn and master anything you are interested in.  Your Dad has an incredible thirst to learn, to try, and to do.  He has done a great job modeling this for me and he will for you too.  We are really lucky to have him, aren't we?

 

I still can't believe I was picked to be your mom.  You fill my heart so full until it overflows into a slightly uncontrolled squeeze to your little body... Sorry about that.  Even with all the love I have for you, being a parent can still be really tough.  It's horrible to see you sick, to stay up late into the night trying to soothe your poor sick self,  and to try to find the time to take a shower!  But the cool part about the hard part is.... God uses it for his glory.  He is using it to bring your Dad and I closer, to be more understanding of each other, and to serve each other.  He is using it to bring us to our knees when we are weak and when we are tired.  He always fills us back up and surprises us with grace every day.  Being a parent is cool in that way. Being your parent is cool in all ways.  

I love you Pica Boo,

Mama

Organization Redo

Oh Real Simple.  I never get tired of reading your clever ideas about
new uses for old things.
My 2003 ugly blue nail polish just became useful again! Here are a few of the ideas I LOVE.

 via

Desk organizer = cupboard divider

 via

nail polish= key coder

 via

File Folder Lables= Cord Identifiers

 via

Pant Hangers = Gift wrap holders

 via

Shower Hooks= hand bag storage

 via

Magnet = tweezer holder

 via

Paper Clip Holder = bobby pin holder

 via

Old shoe box =  ribbon organizer

via

Old lader = jewelry display

The "Sweat Pants" of the car world.

I love my sweat pants.... practical and comfortable.

Climber

Luke has been sick for 3 weeks and counting...  And now is on medicine for an ear infection.  Will it ever end??!?!   Despite his poor sicky-poo self, he still finds moments where he is able to distract himself from how miserable he feels.  It mostly comes when he finds something to climb on or when he finds a very small piece of paper known as- a tag.  

Exhibit A:  Wipes Box that flips over too easily and is too small to fit his body = Luke's perfect object to climb on.

Exhibit B: TAGS.  He loves tags and it takes him .003 seconds to find them on anything.

Fix it and forget it.

Does the title have you interested already?  It did for me too.  I came across this post and was soooo happy I did, simply for the ease in which it can be made.

Ridiculously easy +  

Having everything you need to make it in your kitchen already + 

Fries as a side = 

Goooooooooooood.

Ok, go HERE if you would like the recipe for the yummy BBQ Shredded Chicken and homemade steak fries.

Who can resist a laughing baby? :)

Luke does not laugh that often, but when he does, it ranks up there as one of best sounds I've ever heard.  It's a mix of shear joy and possibly pain.
Just try not to smile when you hear it.... just try.

Feeling soooo French!

I'm in my new kitchen and find myself missing my old kitchen quite often.  However, being the new year and all, I decided I can no longer dwell on the past- so in honor of that line of thought, I decided to try something new in my new kitchen.  I saw this post a few months ago and have been wanting to try it ever since.  I finally remembered to pick myself up a cast iron skillet the last time I was at the store and wanted one solely for this recipe.  I now believe owning one of these makes my surprisingly southern kitchen more legit, don't you?  Ok, so here's what this is.  Apple Tarte Tatin.  Say that 3x's fast.  Fun huh?  OH MY... you will not be sorry you tried this.  ONE, because it really is so delicious and TWO, which is the most important part in my opinion, you really feel incredibly accomplished when this beauty makes it's debut from the pan.  I love Joy the Baker and I especially love the cute and helpful video that accompanies this recipe.  Enjoy!

1 stick melted salted butter + 1 cup sugar.  

We've started off well don't you think?

Whisk together and spread out evenly over the pan.

Cut and peel 6-7 apples- Fuji and Granny Smith.  

Arrange over the butter/sugar goodness.

Place on the stove and cook over medium high heat for 10-18 mins.  

Until you see the carmely goodness begin to bubble and brown.

Purchase Puff Pastry and thaw.  While apples are cooking roll out puff pastry so it fits over the cast iron skillet.   I don't have pictures of this process because my hands were too floury.  Plus this part made me very nervous, but it turned out you really can't make a mistake- unless you touch the bowling hot sugar... that would be a mistake.  Once the apples are done, remove them from the heat and carefully place puff pastry over the top.  Place cast iron skillet in the preheated 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.

Watch in amazement as the puffing happens!

Cool 30 mins.  Run knife around the edge and 

VERY carefully flip the cast iron onto a plate.

How about that?!?!

BEAUTIFUL and DELICIOUS!

Holland, MI- my hometown

I just got home from a week and one day trip to Holland, MI- my home town.  My older sister lives there with her hubby and 2 kids.  It's been several years since I've spent any significant time in Holland, and I found this trip to be one of the sweetest times I've had there in years.  The snow was incredible.  Every time I looked out the window I was in awe of the beautifully large fluffy flakes floating quietly to the ground.  It was truly spectacular.

The major highlight of the trip was spending real quality time with my sister and her family and the long overdue reunion with my dear friends who have been apart of my life since high school.   I also got to see my best bud Allison, who drove all the way from Ann Arbor for a Friday night visit.  I cannot explain how much fun I had with everyone!Obviously, I could not tell you about this trip without mentioning the massive amounts of delicious food I indulged in.  I ate like a CHAMP, enjoying all my local Holland favorites.   Everything tasted even better than I remembered! I spent my last day of the trip in Spring Arbor with Eric's family, who so graciously drove me back to the Detroit airport.  Also, in case you were wondering, Luke was the perfect traveler (which I know was due to the massive amounts of prayer I asked for concerning our travels).  Such a GREAT trip reminding me again of how grateful I am for the meaningful relationships in my life.

His first Crawl

This was taken almost 2 weeks ago around 8:00pm Jan. 9th.  He looks so small to be doing this!

When in doubt.... just don't.

Thursday December 30th, 2010.  Yet another day to add to the faith portfolio.

Through a series of incredible events only God could string together, we found ourselves quickly packing up our Tuscaloosa Alabama life and moving to Nashville Tennessee.  After a lot of prayer, Eric and I felt it was in our family's best interest to go ahead and find a place to rent in Nashville, despite not having our house sold.  This caused a lot of anxiety for me, for obvious financial reasons.  We knew the real-estate market was bad.  We knew not only was the market bad, but we were putting our house up for sale at probably the worst possible time you could put a house up for sale (the Christmas Season).  All of these negatives left us wondering how long we would have to pay our mortgage and rent at the same time.  Despite all the overwhelming odds, God showed up like he always does and proved to be faithful yet again.  We had the perfect offer on December 18th with the buyer wanting to close on the house by December 30th.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  All of the things that needed to be in place for this quick sale were, and we were able to close 1 day before the end of December.  God shows up in all kinds of ways in our life, sometimes meeting the exact prayer we prayed and sometimes answering it in a different way.  We are incredibly humbled by the grace he has given us in this process and I don't ever want to forget this day, December 30th, 2010.  Yet another day to add to my faith portfolio, always reminding me of how He is the giver of life, our sustainer, and our provider.