Happy Easter!

Evelyn is the cutest little bunny I ever did see!

 

Bunny Gone Wild!

 

40 Things that make it all worth it.

1.     My Husband

2.     My Daughter

3.     My Family

4.     Warm Baths

5.     Hot Showers

6.     Coffee

7.     Smell of Roses

8.     Pasta

9.     Green Grass

10.  The Ocean

11.  Sunsets

12.  Sunrises

13.  Fresh Food

14.  Books

15.  Movies

16.  Cats

17.  Comedy

18.  Harmonious Music

19.  Camping

20.  Road Trips

21.  Hiking

22.  Feeling Loved

23.  Sleep

24.  Thunder Storms

25.  Swimming

26.  Sound Of a River

27.  Sound Of Wind In The Trees

28.  Soft Blankets

29.  Friends

30.  Breakfast For Dinner

31.  Christmas Time

32.  Fireworks

33.  Sweets

34.  Human Connection

35.  Smell Of a New Book

36.  Fall Leaves

37.  Learning New Things

38.  Going on Walks

39.  Fire Places

40.  Holding Your Loved Ones Close

MomMade® Baby Food

So I promised you all a post on baby food making. I know it's long overdue, sorry! As you all know I work and go to school so I'm not a person who has a ton of free time but I still manage to fit in baby food making time periodically. It costs a lot to raise a child these days especially when you feel like your child needs every new product known to man. I personally have tried to cut back the costs by first cloth diapering which I love! Secondly I make my own baby food. Have you seen the costs of baby food these days! I wasn't exactly planning on making my own food until I took a look at the price and calculated how much I would spend in the course of my daughters infant hood. So instead of buying the packaged baby food I went back to my produce aisle picked out a few sweet potatoes and some apples to try out my hand in baby food making. No, you don't need a fancy baby bullet or an industrial steamer. We simply use our stove top steamer and a blender or food processor. There is no sense in buying another appliance to take up room on your counter top. So I will be going over two type of ways you will be making baby food. One is by steaming and the other by baking. I will be showing you how to makes applesauce and  in another post we will make butternut squash. So lets get started!

 

Things You Will Need

 

• 8 Apples of your choice (except Granny Smith too tart)
• Cinnamon (optional
• Butter Knife
• Blender or food processor
• Steamer Stove top or electric
• 2-3 Ice cube trays
• 1 Gallon size freezer bags
•  Sharpe

Applesauce With Cinnamon

 

First you will want to rinse and peel your apples.

Best apple peeler ever! Found this at the dollar store!

Slice down each of the 4 sides of the apple until you are left with a square core.

Lay each piece flat side down and slice into same size chunks

Place in your Steamer and cover for 8 minutes.

Should look like this when done.

Place apple in the blender

Use as much or as little of the excess steaming water to thin out the apples.

Once pureed, add cinnamon if desired and blend in.
 

Pour in ice cube tray

Cover with seran wrap.

Place in freezer overnight.

Once frozen, use a butter knife to loosen each cube the don't come out like ice.

Pour cubes into a freezer safe bag.

 



Label and date. Place back in freezer. You're done!

So this is how to make baby applesauce. You can do this with any fruit or veggies. Try doing broccoli, peas or spinach. Pears are exactly the same process as well. Root vegtables should be baked I also would advice you to bake large squash such as spagetti or butternut so check out my next post for a how to on that. I encourage you to add spices to flavor up to baby's food! Rosemary and sweet potatoes is one my daugher loves and it is surprisingly delicious. My moto is if I wouldn't eat it I wouldn't feed it to my daughter so I always test everything before I give it to her to make sure it's delicious. Have fun and feel free to ask questions if you have any!

Stay At Home Mom For A Week

          I got the wonderful opportunity to be a stay at home mom for a week! So I've had a lot of extra time to get things that have sitting on the back burner done this week. I made a bunch of baby food, we went on a play date, we deep cleaned the house, danced to Yo GabaGaba, banged on pots and pans, took naps, went shopping. Oh what a fun filled week but alas all good things must come to an end sadly. I'll miss being home during the day with my sweet baby girl. It's so amazing how much I never notice when I only get a couple hours a day with her only to do the bedtime routine with her which is dinner, bath nurse and bed. She has such a big personality!! She is actually starting to do intellectual things like reach for me, put her pacifier in her mouth, try to grab the animal, crack up at sounds, pick grass, eat finger foods, saying mama. She is just growing up too fast and I feel like I've been mising so much of it.

My Giggly Girl

Today after feeding Evelyn I sat her up and was talking to her and she burped and started cracking up. So it prompted me to make more fake burping noises to see if she would react the same way.This is the most I have ever hear her laugh!! Sorry about the poor lighting!

Evelyn's New Toy

She has finally figured out how to use her Christmas present and she loves it!!! It was such a nice day out today too, had to have the door open!

Too funny not to share!

Happy Valentines Day Baby!

I took some pictures of Evelyn for Valentines Day. Took me three days of grumpy baby but we got some salvagable shots haha! No matter what though I love this girl more than anything in the world!! Happy first Valentines day sweetie! I added some candid ones in because a photo shoot just isn't a photoshoot wothout them lol!

The only smiley one I got, she is so adorable here!

Mid cranky haha!?

Love this one looks like she is pointing at love,

but in reality shes about to pull it down lol!

Nom Nom! See!

Sweetheart!

I could barely keep her from consuming the sparkly hearts.

I ended up giving her crakers to chew on lol!

Cranky face!

My beauty!

 

Happy Happy 7 Months!!

7 months already and it still feels like we just brought her home...

Now

&

Then

 

Evelyn's First Swim

Sunday we went on an impromptu swimming trip to the Jackson Wellsprings in Ashland. Evelyn didn't have swim gear so we stopped by Target to grab some swim diapers and put her in a onesie to go swimming in. She had a blast! She was all smiles the entire time. She was kicking as we guided her in the water. She constantly trying to lap up the water haha! Good immune system builder! Anyway here on some pictures from our day.




 

Half Birthday Girl!

Evelyn turned 6 months today! I can't believe how fast time goes by! It seems just like yesterday that we were bringing her home and now she is half of a year old! Happy half birthday baby girl!!

Cheese!

 

Merry First Christmas Evelyn!!

          Like most families our Christmas Celebrations began Christmas Eve. Hubby and I enjoyed the better part of the morning enjoying each others company and playing with baby girl. We had a wonderful breakfast and relaxed. It has been far to long since we have been able to spend this much quality time with each other. Around noon I went up to my grandmothers house to help her prepare for all the family that would arrive there later. We made all kind of appetizers or pupus as she likes to refer to them haha. A big Hawaii fan. Just before the guests arrived hubby arrived with Evelyn. She was dressed up in her little Christmas dress that we received from my dear co-worker. My cousin was already there and hadn't met her yet so she was ooing and ahing over her. Evelyn finally got to meet her great great grandmother too. There were 5 generations in that household! It was just a really awesome night and everyone enjoyed Evelyn and Evelyn enjoyed everyone. By the end of the night we were exhausted. We out down Evelyn straight away when we got home as it was WAY past her bed time. We tried to stay up and watch a Christmas movie but as soon as we turned it on we were both dozing so we called it a night. I guess being a parent kind of does this to you haha!
            Christmas morning came very fast. Evelyn only slept in an extra 30 minutes regardless of her late bed time. I guess she was just too excited to sleep. When she woke up we decided to open our stocking from each other and let Evelyn "open" hers with some help. She got some utensils, a car, 2 winter hats & mittens, finger puppet glove, some small bath books and bubbles. She loved the bubbles and was trying to catch them! By the time we got done my dad finally arrived to join our little festivities and watch Evelyn open her presents. She got to sit right on Grandpa's lap while daddy helped her open presents and mommy recorded the whole thing! She was just hilarious to watch. She tore into those presents like a pro! She was interested in a few of the presents right away like her little frog and miniature stocking that held her personalized ornament from grandma. Of course they both went straight to her mouth. Other than that like I thought she was chewing on wrapping paper most of the time haha! By the end she was so overwhelmed with everything we put her down for a nap so she could take it all in. After her nap we went out to breakfast all together and had a great time well not really Evelyn, but we got through it!
        After breakfast we departed company with my dad and went straight from the restaurant Hubby's Mom's house. She lives just over and hour away so it was a great chance fro Evelyn to get a nap. As we trekked over the mountain passes and through the woods we started getting into some snow and began getting a little nervous. We were just in my tiny little car and prayed that the roads would be clear all the way there. Thankfully they were and we made it just fine. Although as we pulled into his mom's driveway that was not clear and slipped and slid a little but were able to get out of it and parked in a dry area.  We had a wonderful time visiting with everyone there and exchanged gifts and ate some delicious food. We didn't spend as much time as we would have liked though. It was starting to get dark and we still had a long trip home. By the end of the day we were once again spent! Evelyn took another nap on the way home. When we got home we tried to put her to bed but it seems she wanted to stay up and play with her new toys right along with us so we let her stay up and play on her new around we go for a little while, while hubby played with his new ps3 and I set up my new photo printer.

 

Humor of the day!

End of the world humor! Thank goodness it's already the 21st on the other side if the world hehe!

Peas & Sweet Potatoes! Yum!

Well aren't we enjoying our food!

I have been making my own baby food lately. I started with just experimenting but found it to be so quick and easy I have just continued. I love knowing what is going into my baby's body from start to finish. Not only that but I can't fathom spending .60 a jar on something she will eat in one sitting. I'll have to write up a segment on baby food making as well. So far I have made applesauce, peas, and sweet potatoes. carrots are next on my list. I will probably take photos when I do it just to show how easy the process is. Even a working mommy like myself can find time to do it!

Evelyn's First Snow Day!

This morning was a cold one for us Southern Oregonians. I stepped out the door to head to work and much to my surprise there was snow falling. Today marks the first snow of the season on the valley floor. I personally love snow! Maybe because we see it so rarely or maybe because it makes the whole world seem so perfect. It continued to snow throughout the better part of the morning while I was at work. It was really starting to stick and build up. I called Ernest who was with Evelyn at the time and asked him to get some photos of Evelyn in the snow. Snow being so rare around here and it being the first in her little life I wanted to make sure we captured the moment. It will also make great first winter photos for her baby book! So these are the photos he shot and I am so pleased with them. I thought they turned out so good! Props to my wonderful hubby! Such a good daddy!