Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Iowa!



We have a lot more snow on the ground now but it's not snowing today. Or at least not yet. That picture was taken in our backyard almost 3 weeks ago and it came out so nice for our Christmas card. We had a fun morning with Rex opening all his presents and Rob and I even had a few to open too. But mostly, Rex had all the presents.



I think we wore him out by the time we were done with the presents.



I made a bunch of goodies to give out to our neighbors and Rob took one of the tubs to work. There were mini doughnut muffins, "garbage" cookies, Ghiradelli ultimate double chocolate cookies, eggnog sugar cookies and white chocolate/pretzel/peanut bark.



I wanted to make us personalized stockings so about a week before Thanksgiving, I went out and purchased my supplies. I got Rex's mostly done but then I was not real sure I like it so I stopped. Last night I decided I wanted to finish them so we each had our own stocking Christmas morning. I'm so glad I did because they turned out pretty cute after all!



I am not even sure what we will be having for dinner- we have a few options so we will see how we feel at dinner. I did so much cooking while my parents were here, all the baking I just mentioned and then I made a roast last weekend too so I never got inspired to cook a big meal for Christmas day. Anyhow, its just a nice lazy day around here. We hope you all are having a nice day too with your family- Merry Christmas!

New Tricks

Rex has a few new tricks these days. He likes to pull his socks off:



He likes to turn over and grab everything off his diaper caddy when I try to change him (it has been relocated now):



He has a new funny face that he makes- there is also a loud snorting noise he makes when he does this and it all is absolutely hilarious.



He also likes to blow raspberries at you and make a whole assortment of crazy noises with his mouth. And the louder he can get, the better he thinks it is. He has learned to make the "ma" sound and does that to where he sounds like he is saying "mama" but he does not know what he is doing yet. I think Rob thinks we practice that all day at home but I swear we don't. He'll be on to something else soon enough and eventually he will learn how to say "mama" and know what that really means. We're still working on two more tricks- rolling over from back to tummy and sitting up by himself. He's getting pretty close to accomplishing those so be looking for pictures of that to be coming soon (I hope!).

The Weather Outside is Frightful

The weather outside is frightful. The fire is, indeed, delightful. But we had so many plans and I just did not need it to snow right now!! My parents were here visiting for a week and luckily they got out okay. They got a pretty good dose of snow and cold though while they were here! We all enjoyed their visit and had a nice little Christmas celebration their last night here. Here they are spending some time with their grandson.



So I was supposed to host Bunco at my house last Friday night. I went out Wednesday and bought all my supplies just in time for all the craziness to hit last Thursday. We ended up canceling it. Boo. I had to cancel my dental cleaning for last Thursday afternoon because of snow and possible ice. It did not start snowing until later so I could have made it but it's just so hard to know. Rex's 6-month old pictures were scheduled for 11:00 a.m. on Saturday morning and we had to cancel that because of the snow and blowing snow. I was able to take him today because it actually was not snowing for once. Of course, it was -3 degrees (and I think about -20 with the wind chill) out then so I had to bundle us both up and take lots of extra precautions to try and protect Rex from the weather as best I could. We've had blizzard warnings, ice storms (very little of that thankfully), snow, blowing snow, sleet wind and all kinds of craziness. Brrr. We stayed in our jammies for a while Saturday morning since there was no way we were going out anywhere. Here's Rob and Rex hanging out on the couch that morning.



Rex turned 6 months old on Saturday so we bought him some big boy food to eat. We got him green beans, peas, carrots and bananas. We tried the green beans tonight. Here's how it went.

He was definitely interested in them to start with.


We thought it was going well.


But then Rex just totally broke down into a puddle of tears and screams. Apparently, he doesn't care for green beans. Glad I bought 3 more containers of them.


We made him rice cereal after the meltdown and he couldn't have been happier.


We decided we will wait until his 6-month check-up that is scheduled for next Monday before we try feeding him food again. We'll talk to the pediatrician about how we should go about feeding him and tell him about our experiences this far. He fell asleep after the rice cereal and a bottle- I think we just wore him out today.

Sleepy Boy

Good luck trying to ever get Rex to take a nap- he will fight it to the end, just like I used to do. It seems the trick to getting Rex to take a nap is to just wear him out and let him sleep where he crashes (as my mom learned to do with me). It turns out the kid can fall asleep just about anywhere. Like after working on rolling over and sitting up during tummy time...



Or while playing in his jumperoo (I did take him out of the jumperoo and moved him to a more appropriate location for napping as soon as I took this picture)...



And while running errands around town in the car with mom.



You'd think with all that napping going on, he must be partying like a rock star at night. Umm, no. He sleeps about 9-10 hours every night in his crib. Yay for having a kid who's a good sleeper!!

Recipe Rundown- The Good, The Bad and The Sound-Good-But-Have-Not-Tried-Yet

I have been cooking a ton since becoming a stay-at-home mom. I really enjoy it and have discovered some things that I think everyone should try and things that I think no one should try. Here's a quick rundown.

Winners

Asian Lettuce Wraps- Rob said it was in the top 3 of best meals I have ever cooked. I also made some Mu Shu Chicken Wraps from my Dream Dinners cookbook and some steamed rice which were both good but the lettuce wraps were killer. And I don't like Chinese food. If you follow the link to the recipe, make sure you read through people's comments to find the sauce to make with the wraps because that's awesome too.

Fall Salad with Cranberry Vinaigrette- I love me some Gorgonzola cheese. I'm not too adventurous when it comes to soft cheeses but that stuff is tasty! The dressing is sooo good but read the reviews because everyone says to cut back on the vinegar. I didn't cut back enough and had to add more of everything else so it still came out great.

Doughnut Muffins and Cinnamon Bread Pudding- Both recipes came from the Gooseberry Patch Christmas Cookbook I recently got. I'm not really into their knitting or craft stuff nor I am into the country look for my home but they have some excellent recipes in that book and those are two of the best- at least that I have tried so far. The muffins tasted just like cake doughnuts. Mmmm.

Weight Watcher Oven Fries- I love french fries and you might think I would be skipping them while I am dieting now. But you'd be wrong. These are so good and they are only 3 points a serving! Recipe is found in this cookbook. I also made the pot roast from this cookbook which was excellent- despite the fact that it caused my first ever kitchen fire. I blame it on a terrible dutch oven that has tried to burn the house down before. I have never had any problems like that except when I use that pan. Said pan has now been turned over to Rob for use on one of his future projects where it will be treated badly, as it deserves.

Losers

Whoopie Pies- From my December issue of Better Homes and Gardens. They looked so Christmasy and really had that "Wow" factor that I thought would be good on plates of cookies to give away. However, they don't taste very good and they are some high-maintenance cookies. Because of the cream cheese in the filling, they have to be refrigerated and are only good for 4 days. I can see why their popularity died out decades ago.

Gorgonzola and Herb Steak- This was from Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals show. It looked so tasty and easy when she did it but I smoked us out of the house trying to grill up the steak in a pan on the stove. Such a bummer because as I mentioned earlier, I love Gorgonzola.

Things to Try

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies- Martha and Paula Abdul made these this morning and they looked so yummy and far less labor-intensive than most of Martha's recipes. Since these are not exactly on the Weight Watcher approved list, I should probably only make a half-batch since a full batch yields 90 cookies!

Sweet Potato Cupcakes- I have seen recipes for these twice lately and they sound so good. Not sure if I will try the Better Homes and Gardens version or JustJenn's version but I'm sure either will be great.

In non-food news, my new camera arrived on Monday! I got the Canon SD790 and I am loving it. And, of course, on Tuesday I found the charger for the old camera. I think Rob's suspicious but I swear I did not know where it was and thought it was gone forever. Hee hee. No, seriously, I really thought it was gone. You'd think this post will be full of photos but I have not gotten any onto the computer yet. I think I have a picture of Rex at least every 5 minutes since I got the camera so there will be plenty to share next time.

Thanksgiving Review and Photo Updates

Thanksgiving Day was really nice at our house. It was a little chilly outside but no snow like we had last year on Thanksgiving. We cranked up our new pellet stove though so it was toasty warm in our house. We watched some of the parade on tv in the morning. Rob worked on getting the new bookshelves together in the living room and hanging the tv on the wall while I cooked the dinner. He did help a little- he cut up the apple for the stuffing but when he cut his finger doing that, we decided maybe I should just work on the food while he worked on his projects and watched Rex. We had a menu similar to last year- turkey breast, mashed potatoes (they may seem a little crazy- I had never heard of putting cream cheese in mashed potatoes- but they were the best I have ever had), cornbread/apple/sausage stuffing, sweet potatoes (just used large can of sweet potatoes instead of acorn squash), green bean casserole, cranberry jello salad and crescent rolls. Tons of food for two people but to cover everyone's favorites, it's necessary.




Rex's latest favorite thing to do is make the coughing sound. He's not actually coughing, it is just a new noise that he likes to make. Over and over and over... Rex is getting the hang of eating now. Most of it is actually getting swallowed instead of it coming right back out and landing on his bib. You just have to be careful of flying arms because he gets pretty excited sometimes and there have been a few times the bowl and/or spoon have almost been launched from the highchair.




And finally, our projects. Now that the stove is in and running and the bookshelves and tv are also in place in the living room, we can finish getting that just the way we want it. It's not quite there yet but it's getting better all the time- looking better and being more organized.



The "trucker bath" as it was known has been done for a while but I just never got pictures up of it so here are some.

Before:


Rob putting down the floor tiles ("You're a bad, bad tile and no one will ever love you!"- just kidding.):


And the vastly improved "Guest Bath"- it's kind of hard to tell in these photos but trust me, it's way better now:


There used to be a cabinet with doors here but we took it down to install open shelving which works much better for us. Now we have a place to store laundry baskets and Rex's bathtub.


Update on the camera situation. We still have not found the charger for our camera so most of the photos above were taken using our videocamera which I now know takes horrible still shots. I had to doctor the photos up a bunch and still some are not so great. We can't decide what to do about the situation. I am still in favor of getting a new camera but I've yet to convince Rob. You can't find a charger in stores because the camera is 4 years old and is certainly out of date. I spent $350 on it and you can get a better one now for $120. I will keep working on Rob though and hopefully we'll get a new one for Christmas!

Lost and Found

Rob and I both seem to be losing a lot of things lately- some have turned up but others have not. I'm convinced there is a gremlin in our house and he has a stash of all our stuff somewhere. Most importantly, he has the charger for my camera battery. I have no idea where the thing is. I think I packed it in my suitcase that made the solo journey last month to California and back and I don't think I have seen it since. I am starting to think it may have been swiped out of my suitcase during its travels. Sadly, there will be no pictures with this post because the battery in the camera is dead and I can't charge it. If the charger does not turn up by this weekend, we will get another one. Besides wanting to post pictures of Rex, we have a lot of projects we have been working on around the house that I want to share!



We took Rex on his first roadtrip this past week. We left for Minneapolis late Tuesday afternoon and the kid slept almost the entire way. He woke up for about 20 minutes during the trip but just kind of looked around and did not need to be fed or changed. He did great at the hotel too. I think it freaked him out a little at first but once he got in his bouncy seat and had his mom and dad right there entertaining him, it was just fine. I was nervous about him sleeping in the Pack N' Play because he had not spent one minute in the thing prior to the trip. He slept the whole night through, just like he usually does. Rob and I both woke up a lot to check on him though so our sleep wasn't so great. We stayed at the Radisson in Bloomington which was a change for us but we really liked it and would definitely recommend it (just in case any of you CA people happen to find yourself in the Twin Cities area) and will stay there again on future trips to the area. On Wednesday, we went to IKEA which was the main reason for the trip. Well, the main reason was that I had not been on a trip since February and I had to go somewhere because I was about to lose my mind. We bought some bookshelves for the living room and a wall shelf for our bedroom. Rob was able to get the first bookshelf put together but he still has 2 more. They are only about 3 1/2 feet tall and the idea is to line them up and then mount the tv on the wall above them. We are trying to minimize the electronics in the room and think this is a good way to do it. We had to motor through the store pretty quickly to keep Rex happy so we didn't have much of a chance to look around like we would have liked to do. Rex also did really well on the ride home though we did have to stop and feed him and change a poopy diaper. Awesome.

One project I wanted to share is the update to our guest bathroom/laundry room which was known in our house as "The Trucker Bath." I had given it that name because I thought it was ugly and looked like something you would find in a truck stop. It truly was not that bad but it got the point across that I didn't care for it. We took out one of the wall cabinets and put in open shelving which is more attractive and more functional. We also put in new flooring and painted it "Honeysuckle Beige" which is a nice yellow color- if you follow the link, it's one of the muted yellow colors and it looks much more yellow in person than on the computer. When I say we did this and we did that, I mean that I picked the things out and Rob did the work although I did help get the cabinet off the wall. The vinyl floor tiles were a tough sale but Rob finally agreed to use them and they went in super-easy and look good, especially for the price. I didn't want to do a major overhaul but we spent less than $200 and it looks so much better. I promise to share pictures of it as soon as I can!

The other project that has really taken a while is installing a corn/pellet stove. Our house had no fireplace when we bought it and that was something we both wanted. We started discussing this summer about our plans to put in a fireplace and Rob brought up that maybe we should think about a stove. My first reaction was "NO WAY!" but the more we looked at all our options, we both realized that if we were going to spend the money, it needed to put out some serious heat. A fireplace is much more appealing to the eye but we live in Iowa now and we need something that is going to heat the house up. So we bought the stove and Rob's been working on putting some tile down for it to sent on and he has all the venting in place too. Our neighbor was kind enough to give us a hand so the three of us were able to get the thing in the house yesterday. Rob just has a few more things to do and it should be ready to go in just a couple more days! It's not any prettier in the house than it was when it was sitting out in the garage but since it is going to keep me toasty warm, I can deal with it. We got about two inches of snow Saturday morning which was the first real snow we've had. We've had a few flurries but nothing has really stuck. Yesterday was pretty warm though and it's all gone now. Looking out our windows and seeing everything covered in snow makes me very happy we have the stove.

Finally, the Rex update. He got his second tooth about four days after the first one and again, he was pretty crabby that day but it was not too bad. We had a big milestone last night with the first solid food. We finally got the kid a highchair last weekend and I put it together Saturday and we fed him rice cereal on Sunday. I didn't expect for so much to come back out of his mouth when I put it in but it did. He got the hang of opening his mouth when the spoon was coming but swallowing it was the hard part. Overall, I would say it was pretty successful. Rex is going to have to learn how because we are done with the breastfeeding as of Sunday. We were down to just once a day and then he bit me twice and I said, "That's it! We are done." Anyhow, he really didn't make any funny faces like I was expecting when I fed him the cereal. The best part was sitting down at the table together and having all 3 of us eat our dinner- that was pretty cool.

The First Tooth

We had a big development on Friday here at our house. Rex was being kind of crabby which is unusual for him so I wasn't sure what was going on with him. Rob left work at noon so we could all go to a store about 25 minutes away so we could look for stone or tile to set our new corn/pellet stove on. I wasn't too sure how Rex would do with the trip since he was clearly having a rough day but we tried it anyhow. He actually did great until the last 10 minutes or so on the ride home. He grabbed at my finger and started chewing on it and I thought I felt something kind of sharp in there but wasn't real sure. After we got home and fed the guy, I looked in his mouth and saw a little bit of a tooth poking through his bottom gum! Poor guy- at least I finally understood why he was feeling a little grumpy that day. I would love to get a picture of it but I think it would be easier to get a photo of the Loch Ness Monster- he's just not real big on letting anyone even look in his mouth. His other big thing lately is attempting to crawl but I think it will still be a while. Here are some pictures of him trying though.





There was also excitement when we woke up last Friday morning and discovered that it had snowed! It snowed a little more that day and on Saturday too but melted pretty quickly. It makes me so excited for Christmas! It's hard to believe I took Rex on a walk just three days before and it was so hot (in the 70s) that I was wearing shorts, a t-shirt and flip-flops. I took this picture Friday morning but a lot of it was already gone.



I am starting a new routine this week so I can fit some time in at the gym. I only have 7 more pounds to go to get back to my pre-Rex weight. The problem is those 7 pounds are being very stubborn and it looks like I am going to have to actually work out more than 1-2 days a week to get them off. I got up this morning at 4:40 a.m. so I could be at the gym at 5:00 a.m. when it opens. Everything went really well- at least so I thought until I got home at 6:10 and noticed the kitchen lights were on. Uh oh. I thought Rex was finally sleeping good enough that going to the gym in the morning would work out perfectly. He would be asleep, Rob would be asleep and I could be back and showered before anyone woke up. Hmm. Seems Rex woke up at 5:15 this morning instead of his usual 7:00-7:30 time. I'm going to keep it up though because this had to be a fluke- I'm sure he'll do better tomorrow :o)

Happy Halloween!

I know there are a lot of people out there who think Halloween is an awful and evil day but I refuse to let it be that. It is a fun day where kids and adults can dress up in costumes and eat candy. What's not to like about that? How can a day where I get to dress up Rex to look like a penguin be bad? He's adorable! So I got Rex his penguin costume a few months ago thinking that the nice padded outfit with feet and a hat would be good because certainly it would be cold on Halloween. HA! It's almost 70 degrees today. We took cookies and candy to my former place of employment so he could wear his costume somewhere since he's not going to be trick or treating. We were going to take cookies to Rob at work too but one outing in the outfit was all he could handle. So more cookies for us- that's not so bad.

We've had a lot going on lately. We had a wonderful visit from Rob's sister (Rachel), her husband (Jon) and our niece (Lucy) about two weeks ago. They had not been to Iowa yet so Rob showed them around a little and they were able to meet Rex for the first time which was great. I was trying to get a picture of Rachel with the kids but trying to get a 20-month old kid and a 4-month old baby to both hold still for a photo at the same time is impossible.



The day after they left, the three of us headed to the airport so we could all go to California. Rob was going to work on a race car and Rex and I could visit family. Rex did great all through security and waiting to get on the plane but when we were seated on the plane, I thought he started looking a little iffy. I knew he was not too sure about what was going on and was definitely uncomfortable with all of it. Then the pilot started talking and the speakers were pretty loud and Rex just totally lost it. He's only cried like that two other times where he was just screaming and inconsolable. I realized that the flying thing was not a good idea. So Rex and I got off the plane and Rob went to California to race. He had a pretty good time when he was racing but we were all pretty miserable other than that. We decided the family being apart for a week was not a good idea and that we would not be doing that again. Hopefully he will get better about it but I don't think we'll be trying flying again for a while.

Pure Genius

I was having trouble getting my pictures to upload to my blog here and to Flickr so I decided to make an appointment with the Genius Bar at my local Apple store last Sunday. Then I noticed there was a workshop on the new software that I use for photos and video so I signed up for that too. I learned so much at the workshop and was so glad I went. I had my appointment right after and the guy that helped me with my computer was totally a genius- they don't call it the "Genius Bar" for nothing. He synced up my email with the mail program on the computer, he figured out how to get my computer to recognize the video camera and solved my problem with uploading pictures. Flickr and Blogger need to help us Mac users out though because their sites don't work with the new iLife '08 software and I have to do more work to get my pictures up. This probably isn't too exciting for anyone else, but for me it was huge. So here is something probably everyone does want to see..



Notice the rolls on the legs. Oh yes, that's a lot of rolls. I tried to weigh him a week or so ago and he weighs 18 pounds. Whoa! That's a big kid. I took out all his 6-9 month size clothes this morning and started washing them up because it's about time to move up to that size. His pants are looking a little Payne Stewart-ish these days.



On my trip to Des Moines I also stopped at Old Navy where I got Rex a cool "Super Robot Ninja" shirt. I also went to Barnes and Noble and got him a stuffed T-Rex and this awesome book. Seriously, how cool is that book?! Rob thought I was a little crazy for getting our baby a scary T-Rex when most kids have teddy bears but he seems to like it just fine.



The visit with Rob's parents was wonderful. We all had a really good time. Pop did some chores for us around the house, like putting together Rex's jumperoo which is going over really well.



We didn't do too much as far as going out places or even eating out anywhere- it's just too difficult still with a 3-month old baby. Now I'm preparing for our next set of visitors that arrive on Friday. Yay!! Here's some pictures of Rex with his Gram and Gramps and then I better get going because I have a long list of chores to get done and Rob wants to know when I'm going to make the Chex Mix that I bought all the ingredients for a while back. I have caught him eating the peanuts that go in it so I better get to it before my ingredients all disappear!