Zucchini Zucchini

Miss Ella seems to love all foods green!  Her most recent favorite is zucchini.. as long as I don't mix it with brown rice she will it as fast as humanly possible!

 Here's how to do it.

Step one: Cut zucchini in half lengthwise

Step Two: Place zucchini in a little water.. skin up.  Microwave covered for about 3minutes

Step Three: Cut the seeds and membranes out

 

Step Four: Cut into little pieces and put in food processor thingy

 

 Step Five: Put in bowl and feed baby!

8 months old!

Miss Ella-

Yet another month has gone by - so many firsts for you - holding a bottle, crawling, sitting from laying, new foods, new drinks, new textures - you overwhelm me.  By the way.. never say 'overwhelm' around papa, just say 'whelm.'  So a new month, and so many new hopes and dreams. 

I'm starting to understand what people mean when they say you'll never stop worrying.  At first, the worries were eating enough, pooping enough, sleeping enough (on your back!), etc.  Now its more like oh please don't eat that, don't touch that, don't pull on that, oh no thats a sharp edge, is the gate sturdy enough? 

The other day, I bought you new pjs.  I had to buy pants and a shirt!  No more footie pjs.. at least not until I can find some in your size.. 12months!  Daddy and I watched you sleep last night, like every night, except we realized that you are more than half the length of the crib now!  You used to take up like a quarter of it.  I'm honestly biting my nails as I write this because it makes me so happy, anxious, scared, and more due to you getting sooo big soo soon!  8months!  You are 3/4 of a year old!  If I knew you'd never read this, I would swear as to how that affects me.  (Did I use that word right or is it 'effect'? Hopefully you will be better at grammar than me.) 

Your crawling ALL over the place makes me smile soo much, but my favorite thing is watching you go from laying on your belly and moving backward to sit on your butt!  It is so darn adorable. 

I'm so excited for this month, so we can continue our 'firsts' together!  Hopefully it'll be cooler outside so we can spend more time in the sun.  You are amazing.

Love always and forever,
mama

p.s. I love hearing you say mamamamama and then look at me!  Daddy will love it when you say dada too.  Don't take too long to say it!  :)

a few pictures

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.6

Throwback Read

When I was a freshman in college I realized I loved to read.. and read I did!  Specifically I got into romance/mystery novels.  Technically they are romance books... but there is always a mystery in it and I don't like what some people think of them so I say romance/mystery.

Anyway.. the first one I ever read is this The Next Mrs. Blackthorne.  It got me hooked!

Title: The Next Mrs. Blackthorne
Author: Joan Johnston
Genre: Romance/Mystery

More info: http://www.joanjohnston.com/bookshelf/the-next-mrs-blackthorne/
                  http://www.fictiondb.com/author/joan-johnston~3886.htm
                  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Johnston

Joan Johnston is an amazing writer!  She has a way of describing her characters and their stories that I get so enthralled everything disappears.  I have read basically every book she has written.. that I can find.  I look forward to her next book.  What I think I love most about her books is how interrelated they are!  She does mini-series.  So three books are alike.. but the next mini-series is related too somehow.. whether by one character who is a descendant of the last or is a friend of another.. anyway.. I love the depths she has gone to create this world.  The Bitter Creek Series is my favorite, but her other ones are great too!  So if you have never read a romance novel before.. give it a shot!  You might pleasantly surprised.. I was!

Now get to reading!

Menu!

I need a menu for the week in order to figure out what to buy for food for both Ella and us.  I decided I'd do Ellas first.  We decided we were going to start out next week with adding a snack twice a day.. just a little snack.  I'm kinda hoping it will get her to be in more of a routine with food and naps for the day.  We shall see!  Also.. she still eats a lot from the bottle of formula and our doctor said we should start cutting it back.. ergo.. more food!  She loves food so yea it should work.  Generally speaking I try to batch cook.. so her meals look rather repetitious.  I give her new foods in the morning and I tried to split it up so she gets 2 servings of veggies a day rather than one bigger serving.  As she gets older I'll add more foods and rearrange some things as needed.. I'm only doing a couple weeks at a time.  Hopefully this helps me be more consistent!  They are a little light so I apologize but you get the idea!

who remember this?

This song came on the radio today! Ha! Brought me back to 8th grade! I think 8th... Pretty sure I don't want ella listening to this at that age... But not gonna lie... Knew these words by heart... Any family on here.. dont judge I was way young with older sisters! :) makes me smile now though looking back

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.6

Guess what??

Definitely need a new gate! I dont believe this will keep her away any longer!! Sorry about the length and background noise!!

So excited!!!

The Last Goodnight - reminds me of old times!

my lovely phone

My phone is wonderfully horrid.  A couple months ago.. maybe April or may.. I lost all my pictures. I mean ALL my pictures. Every picture of ella I had ever taken gone. Why? No idea. However... I'm gonna talk a little techy... On one of my screens I have my photos on it as a widget. I click on it and all my pics come up OR I can scroll thru the pics without actually opening it by sliding thru them one by one.. still with me? So I have one widget with two ways of using it.
Well when I lost all my pictures ... I opened the widget and there wasnt anything there. Folders empty everywhere. Curiously though all my customer settings were still intact .. my screen is still ellas first picture etc. So I go back to the widget and open it.. yep still no pics. So I try to look thru them the other way...low and behold.. they are there! How? No idea. Where? No clue. By dang it theyre there! So I go to Verizon the next day to say hey my pics are here find them. Blah blah blah they can't. So I never take the widget down in case I lose them even more so.. if u get what I'm saying.

Fast forward 24 hours.. my phone restarts randomly on its own.. and what happened!? ALL my pictures are back!!! Yay! I instantly email them to myself ... Fyi Droid and macs not compatible. But I have a dell at work so I find the pics and put them on it and upload to shutterfly! Phew!

For the next couple months I email myself all the pictures to myself daily. With my 365 love letters it makes it kinda simpler.

Two weeks ago.. I start to organize my pics to my mac from email.. and randomly a couple weeks prior my pics stop coming? Like there attached to the email but you open it and it says cannot open no file. Really? So now I'm uploading all 1200 pics to Picasa from my phone.. 20 at a time cuz my phone can't handle more. My reason for this post other than to rant? I am immensely behind on my 365 love letters and I feel an explanation is in order and it come down to my stupid phone. So mental note Liz... Stop taking pictures with your phone! rand

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.6

lovely night

Today started out so great! Ella was in a good mood. Mike went on a poker run? A motorcycles ride.

We went to papas and went to pick up a car for my sister and we drove my car.. so in the backseat was ella and my sister and my niece peyton.. ella was great until we were on our way back to my dads.  I don't know what happened but all of a sudden she was hysterically screaming.  She was tired basically. And you know the babies that will scream and cry themselves to sleep? Well ella is not one of them.. she's the I'm going to scream until I throw up! And throw up she did.. in her car seat.. all over her the seat and my sister. And did she stop? Oh no! She kept screaming until I pulled over and took her out.  Even then she wouldn't calm down. My sister ended up driving while I sat in the back with an inconsolable ella. Wow! Needless to say she was pretty much miss grumpy fussy pants until she went to bed 20minutes ago.. Phew!
Now it is a lovely night because I have a respite of a tired little girl .. but I still go in and look at her and watch her sleep and silently hope she will sleep good but at the same time wake up so I can hold her and rock her back to sleep :-)

Enjoy the weekend!

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.6

life and all that goes with it

life.  how it goes so fast.  i swear it had only been a day since i'd last was on here.. yet i look and its been almost 5 days!  and before that ... lets just say life has gotten in the way..

i can't believe its july and not only that... we are almost a third of the way through!  june was so packed and the beginning of july was much the same!

between family visiting on both sides... michaels vacation... me working more... appointments... day trips for just mom... chores... and the holiday... and more family... and more family...

you get the picture.  and with all this going on i was growing restless.  i really needed time to soak everything in, to enjoy my life, my baby, my husband, my dogs... i needed time to just be at home with my world.  luckily i was able to and just in time too due to my boss being on vacation until.. august 1!  I'll be the only one here until then so i'll be working more yet again.  in fact.. today i'm at work from 10-6!  i know i know.. thats not a bad day.. not even a long one for most people but for me it is.. need a reminder of my normal days? In fact.. I had that coffee again today! and it was so hard leaving my baby today... you see shes teething :) and she was tired and all she wanted was mommy... and all she was gonna get is daddy (which he is the best).  so for the first time that i know of.. she cried as i left.. and i could hear her cry outside :(  broke my heart........ worst still.. im not gonna be home until almost 630!!!!

oh sad day but its life.  its fast and it gets in the way.

while im at work however.. i've been making a list :)  i do love lists and apparently i love to mumble on with my posts... sorry.. but hey you read this and you know exactly how i talk and have a conversation! you just cant here the inflections in my tone.. ooh that was a good word i believe.

anyway.. my list for today/week/month... its just a list and i may not explain everything on it and i may end up writing about all of them.. until i decide what just take a look!

• budget
• books
• phone
• pictures
• house/deck/vaca
• picasa
• beginning month stuff
• max
• exercise
• goodwill
• baby food
• ella sleeping
• menu for ella
• menu for us
• portion plates?
• bees
• summer cleaning
• files at home and work
• box for old cards?
• picture frames for ella room
• picture frames for living room
• hot glue gun?

phew!  that didn't look like that big of a list on paper.. but the bullet marks make it look big to me! ha!  anyway... maybe i'll cross them off as i get them done!  it is my favorite thing to do.. i even put things on my lists that i've already done just to cross them off so it looks like i accomplished something!

enjoy this lovely monday! wish i was here.. dont know where it is but sure looks peaceful to me :)

Good Morning!

Heres a little of our mornings together :)

After a little bottle this is generally how it goes for the next 30ish minutes!

Ignore the tv in the background please

Happy Thursday!

missing those days..

I'm lying here in bed and I'm thinking sarcastically .. ok 7 hours of sleep here I come! 

My sister came to my mind. Jake is 2 months old and is sleeping 4 hours straight at night... Man 7 hours sounds good now.

I start to recall ella when we first brought her home.. me doped up on pain meds, crazy dogs who missed us, amazing husband helping me with unspeakable things, and little itty bitty ella.  A smile grows on my face as I remember. :)

What I don't remember and I blame it on pain meds is how we did the first several nights... I remember being on the couch with her and sleeping all cockeyed while she slept in my arms. I vaguely remember trying to get her to sleep in a bassinet. I don't remember Michael really... but I know he got up a lot. I don't remember getting up to get her food in the middle of the night .. and id expect to remember that since it hurt to get up. 

It's incredibly wonderful and scary what one remembers and what one doesn't. The good not the bad. The awe not the ew. The fun not the frustration. I understand how easy it can be to want another newborn... but even though I don't remember.. I have a sister to remind me!

Thank goodness for that! Otherwise we might have ten babies! Kidding kidding... but seriously ella was a great newborn. We got lucky. Now as an infant I guess we are even more lucky!

I'm going to go look at her one more time before I go to bed now :)

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.6