Rowan the Wonder Boy

Hi. Have you seen my boy Rowan?  I can't help but adore him.  I think he's Rowan the Wonder Boy because he's SO good. He only wakes once at night (and sometimes he sleeps the whole night through like last night!), he smiles and coos all the time (even in his sleep), he usually only cries if he's hungry or sleepy, and he's just a generally happy kid.  I couldn't ask for a better 2nd kid.  I think God knew we already had alot going on when he decided to send us this little boy.

Lately I've been thinking TONS about his upcoming surgery.  Until this week I've blocked it out of my mind.  In my head I figured I'd been through 2 surgeries before with Rylie, I know how to handle the feeling of handing your baby over to the nurse and trusting that they'll bring them back a little bruised and broken but generally ok.  Well this week our little friend Patrick had surgery.  He had the same surgery, at the same hospital that Rowan will have in less than a month.  I've been forced to face the fact that even if I don't want to think about it, my boy will have major surgery. Stitches I can see (from ear to ear), a fair amount of swelling and probably visible blood (when they take the bandages off).  Far from the slightly swollen and red eyes we had with Rylie.

I faced it, worried about it, cried about it and after all that I'm realizing that I WILL be ok.  HE will be ok.  Patrick is recovering so wonderfully I can't help but to be encouraged that Rowan will do the same.  I feel very blessed that I have a friend like Karen that will give me the low down on things to bring to the hospital, things to be aware of and just the reassurance that we will all be just fine.  Until then I'm going to hold my baby tighter, gaze into his pretty blue eyes and kiss his sweet velvety head as much as possible.

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday

Morning! Hope your Wednesday is wonderful. Rylie has school, Rowan and I have a few errands to run and I have family dinner with my family tonight, yay!  Here are some cute pics I've taken over the last few days. Hope ya'll have a good day!

Look how happy this boy is!  He truly is one of the sweetest

babies I've ever been around.

How cute is she in her little crochet hat?  She likes when I say phrases in French. 

That's how I got this adorable smile, I was reading a French travel poster.

This boy is a sleeper.  A sleeper AND a keeper =)  He's getting up 

about once a night. Night before last he slept the WHOLE night through.

At 2 months old ya'll!

I don't realize how much bigger than Rowan she is until she

does something like this.  Wow she's long-legged.

This boy is fascinated by his mobile. He'll sit under it and talk, coo or just run 

in place under it.  LOL. SO cute.

Rylie vs. The Water Sprinkler

How's it going?  I'm a cute BeeBoo!  Also I am the 

best little sleeper there ever was!!

Morning!  How was your weekend?  We had a low key weekend here.  Friday night we had dinner with my sister Amy and her family.  I'd had a contractor in my house for 2 days, so for me, cooking anything was impossible. Amy is such a wonderful cook and it's so nice when someone else cooks a homemade meal for you to enjoy!  Saturday was low key as well.  Jason and I did some housework and then Jason went to work for 1/2 day.  We like when the Daddy is home on the weekends but sometimes he just has to work.  Rylie and Rowan and I watched a few episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba and I thought this picture was so cute.

Snacking and watching tv together. Oh the fun they'll have together

in the years to come =)

Sunday evening Amy, Elliot and my Mom joined us for a walk to the park and then some hamburgers for dinner.  I love having my family here for dinner.  The boys played on the floor side by side (they don't really get playing with eachother yet) and we spent as much time as we could outside.  After dinner Jason turned the water sprinkler on and before we could stop her, Rylie ran straight for the water.  This was Rylie's first experience with the water sprinkler and we just had to let her play.  She had NO fear and ran straight for the water, gasping and grinning the whole time it would fall on her.

Run run run from the "rain"

 Face the water and scream with joy!!

Take a spill on the wet grass and  never miss a beat.

Sit under the water and enjoy the view  =)

The water sprinkler made this girl happy and exhausted!

I hope ya'll had a great weekend!  We have a fun week ahead to look forward to.  My Uncle Mark will be in town (my Uncle Mike is already here) and we are planning at least one family dinner to visit together.  I love being around my family, especially my Uncles.  They tell the MOST fantastic stories and they remind me so much of my Pop.  It makes me miss Pop so much but I feel happy that my Uncle Mark and Uncle Mike remind me of how wonderful he was.  We also have a play date on Tuesday which is exciting!  I love coffee time with my favorite ladies, and our kiddos have fun too =)  Have a great Monday ya'll!

Just a Day in the Life

Lately the weeks have seemed to go by in a complete blur.  How did I used to have time to count the days until the weekend?  Don't get me wrong, I still love the weekends, but lately it's like I blink and another week goes by.  Tuesday I attempted to take pictures of my day, just a typical Tuesday around here.  Breakfast, play date, lots of coffee, family dinner...you know, that sort of thing.   I'd love to see a day in YOUR life too.  I think you get to know someone even better when you can identify with them on a basic, everyday level, you know?  So here's my Tuesday!

• Around 6:00 I started my day by feeding this boy.  He's been doing one middle of the night feeding and one early morning feeding lately.  The time change has worked in his favor.  He usually takes this bottle and goes right back to sleep, YAY!

• After that I had coffee with Jason and then he got ready and went to work. When he got in the shower, Oliver and I got back into bed for 20 minutes.  I believe Foster (the cat) also joined us).

• After Jason left I had the breakfast of champions (ha ha). More coffee and a PB&J (hey, it was natural pb, low sugar jelly and whole wheat bread).  I watched DVR'd Bethenny Ever After while I ate breakfast and then jumped in the shower and got dressed.

• After I got ready I fed this boy and got Rylie dressed.  I try to make her eat breakfast but she really is not a breakfast eater. She's more of a brunch girl.  It was pouring rain, thankfully it let up a bit and I loaded us up and we headed over to Amy's for a play date with Amy, Elliot, Erin and Kendal.

• On the way to Amy's we listened to the Glee Soundtrack Volume 4. I happen to love the Glee soundtracks ya'll and I'm not afraid to admit it  =)  It was cheerful music on a dreary and wet day.

• At Amy's house Rylie got to play with Kendal and I think she had a blast!  Kendal is 11 months older than her and it was so cute to see Rylie trying to help Kendal build a lego tower and Kendal spin Rylie around in Uncle Matt's computer chair.  She had a blast and I had fun chatting with Amy and Erin.

• As soon as we got home I had to eat (it was nearly 1:30) so I had a salad and a little flatbread pizza.  YUM. Again, not really healthfood, but not too bad either.

• I strapped this little boy on and got down to cleaning up around here.  Every single day I make the beds, sweep, pick up around here and do the dishes.  If I'm lucky I also do a load or two of laundry.  Wow. That's just basic upkeep around this house!  I didn't take pictures of chores...all of you Mom's know, they aren't cute, but they ARE neccessary.

• I settled Rowan down for a nap and went to read to Rylie.  After we read about 10 books I put her in bed with her juice and a stack of books for her to read.  This usually keeps her happy for 90 minutes or so and it gives me sanity.

• After the kids were in bed I settled in for my three C's. Coffee, computer time and cuddling with Ollie. I love this time of day.  I can take a deep breath.  Catch up on my google reader (or blog) and renew myself for the 2nd half of the day.  Of course 10 minutes into this, Rowan woke up.  Oh well.  It was fun while it lasted.

• I forgot to get pictures of family dinner but it was great.  It doesn't matter what we eat or where, I love my family!  The showcase of this dinner was dessert anyways.  Amy made this  beautiful (and delicious) Chocolate Chip Walnut Pie.  BEST part of dinner (besides the company of course).  

• The past few days, as soon as dinner is over we head outside until it's bath time for the kids.  Rylie LOVES it outside.  On this day she had a blast with her Daddy =)

• Ollie wanted to come outside too but each of us had a kid...so on this night he had to watch.  He's still adorable.

• When I made Rylie come in she cried and cried.  Poor girl, she could live outside and be happy.  Snuggling in bed with her brother made her happy though!

• Next up was bath time for the kids.  I always bathe Rowan first and then I either hand him off to Jason and then bathe Rylie or I take him and Jason bathes Rylie.  Good to know we've already found our groove as far as bedtime routine with the kids goes.

• I know this is Jason's favorite part of the day.  No matter what's going on I make sure he gets to do this.  Last night alone he read her 12 books at bedtime while I put Rowan down.  I'm so happy they love doing this together.

• After some cleaning up around here I hopped in bed with my laptop (and Jason with his) and we did this until  bedtime.  Sometimes we watch tv and sometimes we decompress on our computers.  We don't care as long as the time is spent together!

SO...maybe busy, maybe mundane, but that's a typical Tuesday here.  Hope you enjoyed.  Today we're headed off to drop Rowan off at Nana's and then take Rylie to speech at 9:30.  It feels impossible to get us there on time but somehow we always make it.  I hope you have a great day!  What does a typical day look like for you??

One Fun Weekend

Good morning!  I think it's safe to say that the DST time change is kicking my booty.  My busy weekend isn't really helping on meeting my sleep quota either, but the fun I had was worth it the lack of sleep that I experienced!

Rylie's favorite part of the weekend  =)

On Friday Amy, Kathlyn and I (and Rowan) headed up to Atlanta for a meeting (for her), some fun browsing the mall and meeting The Pioneer Woman at a book signing.  I was a bit nervous about how Rowan would do on the drive up and I don't know why, he slept the entire drive.  After Kathyln's meeting we headed over to Borders and had an hour or so to kill until they started giving out book signing writstbands so we  walked across the street to a place called Tw!st.  We were excited to see their huge tapas menu so we each ordered something and decided to share.  Here is a pic of our dishes.

Our selections from left to right: Crispy  Duck Confit with Warm German Style Fingerling Potato Salad, Queso Fresco with Chorizo, Roasted Poblano & Fried Flour Tortillas, Grilled Pork Ribs with Balsamic Glaze & Jalepeno Slaw

They were all SO delicious and plenty of food for all 3 of us!  Rowan was such a sweetheart!  He just chilled out in his Baby Bjorn or in my lap while we ate.

My sampling plate and Rowan and I at Tw!st

We walked back over to Borders, grabbed our wristbands and were informed that we were in group D.  Yep, we'd gotten there about 30 minutes after they started handing them out and were already in the 4th group!  People are serious about meeting Ree Drummond, that's for sure!  We stashed our wristbands in the car for safe keeping and headed back to the mall.  Immediately we found Starbucks and were delighted to discover that this weekend you could get a free mini-treat with the purchase of a coffee!  We each got Birthday Cake Pops and 2 mini Red Velvet Whoopie Pies to share.  Heaven!  I do have to say that I'm more of a cake pop girl. It was like cake and icing all rolled together and dipped in chocolate.  How can you go wrong there?

Shopping, coffee and cake pops, what more could we ask for?

After our little snack we headed off to browse the mall.  We stopped in Teavana (which was amazing) and Vera Bradley and even drooled over kitchen supplies in Williams Sonoma.  In the far back of the shop I found a kitchen supply I HAD to have, but I'll get to that later.  Around 4:30 or so we headed back to Borders and WOW was it busy already.  Women everywhere with Ree's books and many of them wearing her favorite boots too!  When Ree speaks (about something she loves) women listen apparently!  I love that so many women read her blog and her books because I think she's such genuine person and a real trail blazer as far as women bloggers go!  After drinking even more coffee, she finally arrived and when she let us know that her husband (who she calls Marlboro Man) and boys were there, the poor man got swarmed by women wielding cameras and books for him to sign.  I think his big cowboy had was like a magnet!

Marlboro Man and their boys before they got swarmed.

Here we are waiting in line. We had so much fun chatting while we waited.

Rowan...passed out. This is how he was ALL day  =)

Finally after all the waiting and lines we made it up to Ree.  We tried to think of something clever to say and never came up with anything so we just made small talk.  Ree was SO gracious and charming.  She even told me twice how beautiful Rowan was!  Everyone knows that The Pioneer Woman loves babies!  

Yay!  We finally meet!

I could not have had a better day, and Rowan was amazingly easy.  We got home late and then I chatted with Jason until late.  Since Rowan had been asleep all day he woke up nearly every hour that night.  Great!  He loves to travel, but he slept the entire day and was awake all night.  So Saturday was a fog.  We did some cleaning and organizing and then on Sunday morning I finally made use of what I'd found at Williams Sonoma.

Star Wars pancake molds!!

When I saw these I knew I had to have them!  I'm sure I'll use them for years to come.  Hopefully Rowan and Rylie will like Star Wars as much as their Daddy does.  Sunday morning we were a bit out of sorts because of the time change so around 10am I made pancakes with these.  They weren't perfect at ALL, but good for my first attempt.

YUM!

So that was our fun filled weekend.  How was yours?  You know, after all this talk about blogging (because Ree Drummond started out as just a regular "mommy blogger" it got me thinking, what are some of YOUR favorite blogs?  I'm always looking for new ones to follow!  Hope ya'll had a great weekend!

Easy Delicious Bean Burgers!

Do you like beans?  I do.  I don't think I've met a bean that I dislike.  I like some more than others but honestly Rylie and I could crack open a can of kidney beans and nosh on them all day. Beans are delicious and nutritious too!  They've got protein and fiber AND they're tasty.  I love veggie burgers too, so why not combine my love and make a yummy burger. I got the idea for this from this recipe on Kath Eats Real Food website (which is a wonderful site).  Kath is a R.D. and has wonderful recipes on her site.  Here is my take on her Bean Burgers.  This is a single serving recipe, if you want to make them for the family...just use more beans and veggies!

• First I sauteed a few veggies.  You can use whatever you like or have in your fridge.  I had some bell pepper, garlic and green onion.  
• While those softened I took 1/3 cup of beans and mashed them with a fork.  I had navy beans but black beans and kidney beans would also work really well.  I'd already opened a can of navy beans, so that's what I used.

• Next, I threw the veggies in with the beans, added 1 tbsp whole wheat flour and some seasonings (I used salt and Tony Chachere's seasoning) and form into a patty.  
• Cook in a flat nonstick pan (with cooking spray)  for about 4 minutes on each side.  I plopped mine down and when I could shake the pan and the burger slid back and forth, I flipped it.

• When the burger was browned on each side I toasted a whole wheat english muffin, melted 1/2 a slice of sharp cheddar cheese and added a bit of ketchup (because I love ketchup ya'll).  This burger was amazing!  Crisp on the outside and creamy and delicious on the inside.  Plus it's so easy.  Just use what beans, veggies and seasonings you have!  Let me know if you try it and what you think!

I hope ya'll have a great weekend!  Today I'm having fun in Atlanta with Amy, Kathlyn, my little Rowan and The Pioneer Woman!!  Can ya'll tell how excited I am about this?  LOL.  Expect a full post on our fun day and follow me on twitter if you want updates in real time  =)  Also, if you see my husband, give him a hug because he is AMAZING for taking off 1/2 a day to watch Rylie so that I could do this, he really is THE best husband.  Happy Friday Ya'll!

Rainy Wednesday + March Madness Update

He looks cute here but wow has this boy been grumpy since he got his shots  =(

How is it going on this dreary and rainy Wednesday?  Today has been a bit crazy around here.  I got Rylie off to school, got myself ready, cleaned up a bit, caught up on my DVR'd stuff (important, I know, ha) and then off to Rowan's 2 month check up (in the pouring rain).  The news was all good.  Rowan is 22 1/2 inches long (he's grown 2 1/2 inches) and 12 lbs 8 oz.  So he's definitely growing but still smaller than Rylie was at 2 months old, she was really a chunk of a baby!  My pediatrician said he's on target for all of his 2 month milestones and looks perfectly healthy.  She wrote down his surgery date and said she was going to add him to her prayer list at church (how sweet).  Then he got 3 shots!  Ugh, Rylie barely cried for her first shots, Rowan screamed like I've never heard in his whole 2 months.  My poor baby. After Rowan's appointment we ran through and got lunch for me (a salad, yay!) and picked Rylie up a little early since we were in the area.  Look how adorable she is in her rain coat.  I love this girl!

Tomorrow we're planning on taking it easy around here because Friday will be SO busy.  We're headed up to Atlanta to meet Ree Drummond!  I'm so excited, not just to meet one of my favorite blogger/authors, but to spend a day with my sister and sweet friend Kathlyn.  Who knows what else we'll get to do while we're up there, hopefully lunch somewhere cool and possibly a little shopping!  I'll be leaving Rylie here with Jason and bringing my boy.  He's usually pretty easy going, so lets hope Friday is no different.  Now onto my March Madness update.

If you remember my post from last week, I was joining with a few other bloggers and vowing to get fit together.  Last week I introduced myself and my goals for the month, so today I'll tell you how I'm doing on my goals.  My first goal was to drink 8 or more cups a day of water.  Easy. I've been doing that everyday without a problem.  I rarely drink more...but I easily reach my goal, so yay!  The second goal was 3 structured workouts plus 1 or more long walks with the kids.  Done!  Last week I did 2 days of Jillian Michaels DVD's.  I have a full arsenal of her workouts but lately I've been sticking to Shredding one day and 6week6pack one day and the third day I always run as my workout.  I'd like to add one more day of working out eventually to make 2 running days and 2 cross training days.  Someday.  I love the walks with my sister because those make me sweat AND their fun.  My last goal was to make healthier choices and eat more REAL food.  I've done well, not perfect, but I've done much better.  I've really tried to eliminate the junk and just think about what I'm eating and I feel great.  I'm all about the 90/10 rule.  90% of the time I'm trying to eat really good and 10% fun.  I still need to get my booty to the store and buy more fruits and veggies, but it won't be today!

Friday I'll be posting a recipe for a Bean Burger that I tried yesterday and LOVE.  It's super simple, great for you because it's high in fiber and protein, and great because it's one of those "use what you have" recipes that you can just improvise with.  I will definitely be adding them to my lunch menu each week.  I hope ya'll have a great day and stay dry!