Friday, July 29, 2011

Introducing....

So a couple of the other blogs I follow do something called Foodie Friday where they highlight a few of the things they cooked that week for lunch or dinner. I love reading these…. but Lord knows I have no ability in the kitchen other than baking or making finger foods for Dax. I also think it's really fun to hear/see what other people with little ones are feeding them and to share ideas with them. So from there, I've decided to do my own version of those oh so fun blog post. This week I'll actually list Dax's entire menu from the week so you can get a feel for how food works for us. But in the future, Foodie Friday will online highlight a few of the things I made that week.And if you have any questions on anything I listed please ask!! It will make my day :)
I've made Dax's baby food from the time he was 5 months old and have had so much fun doing it! But now that he's on finger foods I'm having even more fun coming up with fun combinations of food and watching him try them out. Despite the fun, I am constantly worrying about making sure Dax is getting all the vitamins and nutrients he needs (ok… so I may be a little obsessive with that… but it's not a bad thing right?). Daniel reassures me that I'm doing great and I'm starting to feel pretty confident in the foods I"m feeding him. So here goes nothing…. Foodie Friday: Toddler Edition

Saturday
Breakfast: Half of a whole wheat bagel thin with a really thin layer of low fat cream cheese cut into bite size pieces & sliced strawberries. This is probably Dax's favorite thing to have for breakfast!
Lunch: Butternut Squash
Dinner: Yogurt & Plums

Sunday
Breakfast: Bagel w/ mixed fruit
Lunch: Carrots & Cauliflower
Dinner: Pasta with hummus cut into bite size pieces. Dax loves pasta and we have a lot of hummus that needs used so I thought I would try it out. Dax loved it!

Monday
Breakfast: Oatmeal & papaya
Lunch: Pita with hummus and peas and bite size pieces of red bell pepper. I found mini whole wheat pitas at Target so I spread hummus over those. I also wanted to get another veggie in there so I spread pureed peas on the pita with the hummus. We also had some steamed red bell peppers left from making the hummus so we cut those into bite size pieces as well. He absolutely loved this meal!
yum yum yum... he loved it!
Dinner: Yogurt & applesauce

Tuesday
Breakfast: toast & pears, mango, & plum
Lunch: Butternut squash & apples
Dinner: Pasta w/ asparagus & parmesan. I had some whole wheat penne  and parmesan in the fridge but wanted to get a veggie in there somewhere so I mixed in  some pureed asparagus. Dax LOVED this and we'll def. be making it more!

Wednesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal w/ pears & papaya, strawberries
Lunch: Pita w/ hummus & chicken
Dinner: I wanted to get some dairy, fruit, and veggie in with dinner tonight so we tried something new. I have seen those premade pouches of baby food with things like spinach & pears on it, and I looked on the homemade baby food bible for things that mix well with yogurt and found that it suggest carrots & mango. I was out of mango so we went with a combination of yogurt, pears, & carrots. It was delicious (sort of tasted like a creamy sweet potato) and Dax loved it!

Thursday
Breakfast: Egg yolk & parmesan omelet. In one of my baby cookbooks it has a recipe for egg yolk, asparagus, and parmesan omelets that we've had before and Dax loved. We are out of asparagus so I just followed the recipe without the asparagus and make one for each of us for breakfast! Yum! And Dax gobbled it up really fast!
Lunch: Carrots, cauliflower, peas, & eggplant
Dinner: Yogurt w/ papaya & pear

Friday
Breakfast: Bagel w/ cream cheese and blueberries
The blueberries always leave quite the mess...
Lunch: Whole wheat pasta w/ parmesan, carrots & asparagus
Dinner: Yogurt & apple/strawberry sauce
 
And just a side note about Dax's meals. He still, at 11 months, doesn't have  a single tooth! So almost all of our finger foods are steamed so that they're super soft and pieces of bread and pasta and strawberries are cut small enough for him to gum and not choke on. We only feed him whole wheat/whole grain pasta and bread and we go by the dirty dozen on organic fruits and vegetables. We also usually give him yogurt at dinner which may seem weird, but yogurt has a ton of protein in it and your body uses that protein to help you grow most while you sleep so we figured it was a good time to give it to him. Our little man also has a pretty sensitive tummy, with a lot of things giving him gas. Because of that I try to give him something I know will be easy on his tummy before bedtime and we try all of our new things at breakfast or lunch. Snack usually consist of fresh fruit or veggies cut up and occasionally organic puffs, and he has a sippy of water out all day he can get a drink from as he needs it.

That's it for our first Foodie Friday! I know this one was super long but from now on it def. won't be! I'm excited.... and I hope you are too!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Birthday Cupcakes!

Well in a month from yesterday we'll be having our little boy's first birthday party!! Everything is about 90% done which is really exciting! This past weekend I decided to go ahead and try out a very yummy recipe that we'll be using for some of the cupcakes for the party. For Dax's smash cake we'll be using this banana cake recipe that my best friend used for her little boy with a substitution for the cinnamon... b/c apparently Dax is allergic to it (something I found out about 2 days ago). For everyone else we'll be doing a dozen regular, boxed cupcakes and then a dozen of these yummy goodies you're about to hear all about!  Introducing the low fat, about 80% organic Strawberry Banana cupcakes!
So here's what you need....

2 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup of firmly packed light brown sugar
2 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of chopped fresh strawberries
1 cup skim milk (we had 1% so I used that)
1/3 cup low fat banana yogurt (we had plain yogurt so that's what we used)
1 mashed banana
1 large egg lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla

Ok so this was absolutely delicious! I loved that it was low fat and used whole wheat flour. I used everything organic or all natural except the salt baking powder and vanilla. Here's where you go from there...

1. First, preheat the oven to 400 degree and spray or line the cupcake tin. This recipe made a total of 18 cupcakes for me.

2. In a large bowl combine the flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt. Once you get that mixed well stir in the strawberries.
3. In a small bowl combine milk, yogurt, banana, egg, and vanilla and mix well.
4. Add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.Then fill the cupcake tins about 2/3 full
5. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the tops are firm and golden (ok so the golden part is sort of hard since it's whole wheat flour...mine cooked for 16 minutes and were just perfect).
6. Let cool completely and then ice if you want. These would be great just plain (I was thinking for breakfast) but since we're serving them at the party we decided to put a thin layer of cream cheese icing on top.


These were a definite winner! They won't only be served at the party but I plan on making them here pretty often as well! We figured they're about 180 calories each which is really good for your typical cupcake which apparently are on average 300 calories each!  Winner for sure with the low fat strawberry banana cupcakes!

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

and the story goes from there...

To finish off my series on Daniel and I, I have a couple more special pictures to share...

While I was pregnant I was completing my last year at OU for Early Childhood Education and Daniel was completing his first year of medical school. It was a very, very busy and eventful year for us. We were both reaching a very big personal goal of ours while starting a brand new chapter in our lives as parents. One door was closing, while a million more were opening. Looking back I am so proud of both of us for remaining so dedicated and doing so well in school while having other big things on our mind (you know, like that little person growing inside of me). Without Daniel's love and strength and support there's no way I would have been able to do it. This picture was taken the day I graduated college, 6 months pregnant with our future little sooner <3 This little boy is 100% sooner born and bread.
And this my friends is our very first family picture. There are simply no words to express this moment. You can read my birth story here if you want to hear about this chapter of our lives. Who would have thought ten years ago, when we were only 14, that this is what the future had in store for us. Our story is far from being completed... but so far... I'd say we're on our way to our fairytale happy ending.

Happy three year anniversary love (yesterday). I love you more than words can express and I can't wait to see our what the next ten years has in store. 

Monday, July 25, 2011

Three years ago today, rehearsal was done, dinner with all the special people my life was over, and I was at my moms house with the best friends a girl could ask for trying to stay calm and rest up for the big day. That was nearly impossible, because I knew when I woke up in the morning I would be marrying the love of my life.

For our one year anniversary we went on a cruise with my brother and sister in law. It was the absolute funnest thing I had ever done! I had never been to the ocean before and neither of us had been on a cruise so this was a whole new, fun experience for us to share with each other. We ate way too much food, played BINGO with hundreds of other tourist, shopped, rode on a catamaran, snorkeled, laid by the pool, and watched the sun rise and fall together. It was 110% stress free and gave us time to really enjoy each others company before Daniel would start med school. We also knew that we would soon want to start a family so having a getaway like this was something we really wanted to do before then. It was the absolute best getaway possible.
A couple months after our cruise Daniel received his white coat and began his journey through medical school. Medical school was something that Daniel worked so hard for and seeing him start that journey was one of the proudest moments of my life.  This man surprises me everyday with how amazing he is and his love and compassion for people blows me away. He doesn't want to become a doctor because they make good money.... he wants to be a doctor so he can help the people who need it. If doctors got paid the same as teachers, there's no doubt in my mind that he would still do it. That is probably one of my favorite things about Daniel. How again did I get so lucky?
This picture is so, so special to me. This was taken Christmas Eve 2009, two nights before I found out I was pregnant. At this point we had been trying 6 months to conceive. I know that time is nothing compared to what many couples go through but it was still very hard for me. Month after month I "knew"  I was pregnant, but would end up being really disappointed each time. It was really, really tough. And this may be possible TMI, but we finally resorted to ovulation test in hopes that we would finally be able to start our family.  At the time this picture was taken I had a slight suspicion that I was pregnant simply because of the extreme exhaustion and headaches I was having... but tried hard not to get my hopes up again. Well the day after Christmas came and though I had originally wanted to wait a few more days before I took a test I just couldn't do it because this time something felt different. I woke up first thing in the morning, took a test... and waited patiently for what seemed like forever. When a faint line showed up I was ecstatic! I had planned out all these ways I wanted to tell Daniel but those all went out the window and I went and woke him up with the news. We were both really excited... but since the line was faint we wanted to make sure.... so I ended up taking two more test and sure enough they all had two lines. This was the day we had been waiting for and a day I will never forget. Our family of two was now a family of three.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Mr & Mrs

Day three... ready... set... go...
So Daniel grew up an OU fan and I an OSU fan (if you aren't from around here those are the two major universities in Oklahoma  and are huge rivals). In high school it was always fun on game day to watch and see who's team would win and then that person would rub in in the others face for an entire year, until the next game. Well when I started going to OU this boy quickly converted me into a die hard Sooner fan. For 4 years of our lives we spent every Saturday together during football season. We would walk to the stadium (about a 20 minute walk) four hours before the game started, sit in line for 2 hours to make sure we would get good seats, run to those seats once the gate opened with the rest of the sooner "cattle" running to stake their claim, and then would sit there in the elements (either 100 degree sunshine or 30 degree windchill) for two hours until the game started (if you've never been to an OU game in the student section it really is an event you MUST experience once... it's awesome). We would then stand for the entire game, about 4 hours, and yell and scream and high five as we watched our team win. It was always so much fun and I feel completed our college experience. It's another thing that will be really fun to tell our grand kids about one day.  OU football became such a big part of our lives that we actually decorated Dax's room in it.... complete with a mobile that sings Boomer Sooner :)
My family absolutely adores Daniel. He really is everything that I would hope my future daughter, cousins, and nieces find in a man and I think that's why my family loves him so much. My family loves going on trips together so because of that Daniel and I have had a lot of opportunities to go places together. One of my absolute favorite places to go is Crested Butte, Colorado. I've been there twice and have told Daniel that I would move there the day he says "go". This picture was taken on a family trip there where us and about 15 other family members rented a ski in/ski out condo and spent 5 days soaking up CB. It was so much fun getting to experience such a beautiful place with Daniel... and also a lot of fun watching each other bite it pretty hard a couple... okay maybe a lot, of times.
And then there was this. No doubt the second best day of my life, next to the day Dax was born. This was the day I married my best friend and showed all of our family and friends an outward expression of the love we had inside for the last 7 years.  It was absolutely perfect and everything I had hoped it would be. I always hear people talk about things they would have changed about their wedding.... but I can't think of one. I remember the doors to the chapel opening and seeing Daniel for the first time, and from there it's a blur until this exact moment in the picture. This was immediately after the preacher announced us husband and wife and was one of the happiest moments.ever. I remember looking around and seeing everyone that we love just as happy as us and feeling so lucky to share that moment with them. This picture is also really special to me because I feel like it really captures the feelings that we were both having at that very moment. Again, best.day.of.my.life.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

A Growing Love

Well here's day two of my anniversary series for me and my hubby....
For our junior and senior year of high school Daniel went to Oklahoma School of Science and Math. During this time he would live in the dorms at that school and we would only see each other on weekends (if that) and could only talk for about an hour or so each night... usually over AIM. The first year of this was a rough adjustment for us and we ended up separating for about six months, the only time in the past 10 years we have been apart. Despite that time being the hardest, longest, toughest six months of my life, I think we can both look back now and attribute who we are and the strength of our relationship now to those six months being apart. Needless to say, after those six months we both new we didn't want to spend another day away from each other for the rest of our lives.
Senior year was great. Though we still only got to see each other on the weekends and occasionally throughout the week when I would bring him McDonalds for dinner, our relationship was better than ever. When he could, he would go to DCHS football games with me and I would go to events at his school with him. We went to each others prom and went to youth group together every Sunday at church. Summers were spent at the lake with my family, at church camp, or just hanging around at each others houses. Our youth group was just awesome and there's no doubt in my mind that our time there and at our AMAZING summer camp (Dayspring) played a huge role in the success of our relationship.
After graduation we decided to both attend the University of Oklahoma where we would spend the next five years together. Our freshman year we both lived in the dorms with awesome roommates and had the best experience I could wish for. Some of my favorite memories of college were late night runs to Burger King in the dorms and walking to and from the library late at night with sushi, coffee and other random snacks and studying in the private rooms with our friends Jacob and Shirlene. Daniel taught me a study ethic that I was not taught in high school and without him there by my side there is no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't have made it through college. He helped me and pushed me and always had confidence in me when I didn't. Daniel joined a fraternity and I joined a sorority that were both small and community service oriented and allowed us to have our own separate thing that we both loved and were passionate about, yet gave us chances to form memories together as well (this picture is from one of my sorority formal). College was an awesome experience and sharing all of those memories and the enormous amounts of growth that happened there with my love is irreplaceable. I think it will be so much fun to be able to tell our kids and grand kids someday about our times together in college... and I look forward to that so much!

Friday, July 22, 2011

Three Years

In four short days me and my love will be celebrating our three year anniversary! We get so wrapped up in being mommy and daddy and students that I don't get to write much about us. So in honor of our anniversary I thought it would be fun to post a couple pictures each day until then and have a short something on "us" as a couple.   Here goes day one..

So Daniel and I are junior high sweethearts. We started dating when we were in 9th grade... only 14 years old. If I remember right (it's been 10 years), this was our very first picture together, taken at our schools weekly football game.  At this point Daniel and I had been really good friends for a year. He had tried a year previously to get me to be his "girlfriend" but  I had my "heart" set on someone else. Over the next year Daniel and I talked every day on AIM (wow) and became really good friends. Luckily he's persistent and with the help of our good friends Dillon and Kerry on October 16, 2001 he asked me to be his girlfriend at a school dance and I gladly said yes. We've been stuck at the hip ever since.
This pic was at our freshman formal and the hair on that boy makes me laugh every time!  At this point we had been dating seven months and though we were only 15 at the time, we already knew our hearts were set on one another. Little did we know what all our future had in store for us.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Let's Explore!!

So I feel like a total slacker because until yesterday I hadn't done any art with Dax while we've been at home together all summer! I taught toddlers for over a year and it has been my absolute favorite group to ever teach. They're so curious and their tendency to learn through their senses makes for some very fun art projects!  I've done pudding paint with kids but didn't really want Dax to have the sugar and preservatives that come in pudding. So instead I thought I would try painting with yogurt!  It's something that Dax can smell, taste, see, and feel so I thought it would be perfect!  Here's my adventure in Yogurt painting with little man yesterday :)
So we started with yogurt (which we just happened to have because Dax eats it almost everyday with his dinner), food coloring, and a couple bowls. I only had red and green food coloring left so 2 bowls were all we needed.
I put one big spoonful of yogurt in each bowl but I really could have used about half of that. A small amount of yogurt went far!
I added one drop of food coloring to each bowl and mixed it up really good.
If you look closely you can see that the paper is taped to the tray. Another very handy tip I learned teaching toddlers. If you don't tape it down it will more than likely end up on the floor making for a bigger mess than you want. When I tape I also tape all.the.way.around. the paper. I don't leave any little untaped spots because little finger will instantly find that spot and end up tearing their artwork.... breaking your heart more than theirs :)   You also want to make sure you use construction paper or finger paint paper. If you use just regular printer paper it will wrinkle up when it dries. I didn't have white so black it was :/
He loved it! Something else to remember is to do art without close on....  because as you can see it always ends up on their belly!
We added a spoon in a little later. He really liked it... mostly because it was more effective at eating yogurt than licking his fingers was :)
The finished product!!! When it dried the color was still there. I would def. recommend painting on white paper to anyone planning to try yogurt paint out because when it dried completely the color wasn't very bright on against the black.

Well that was our art adventure yesterday! Hopefully now that things have calmed down around here we'll be able to do things a little more often... if so, you'll be  the first to know!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Birthdays...

Happy First Birthday Caedmon Michael!!!

Today is this very special little boys first birthday. He doesn't know it yet but he is very lucky to have two of the best parents a little boy could wish for! His mom just happens to have been my best friend since 1st grade and is more like a sister than friend. She is beautiful, smart, fun, a wonderful mom, and not to mention and awesome blogger (like how I threw that plug in there).  We have yet to meet this special little boy in person but I already love him so much. I remember being 7 1/2 months pregnant and anxiously waiting every day to get word that he was here, and then finally getting the message that he was and feeling like a little boy of my own was born.  Now I'm anxiously waiting for our family cruise in March so that I have the chance to spend a whole week with 3 of my favorite people that I rarely get to see. I can't wait to see Daxton and Caedmon play together for the first time... I'm predicting a lot of emotions will start streaming through my head.   Once again though, Happy first birthday sweet Caedmon.... your family in Oklahoma loves you!

Dax's first birthday is around the corner! Decorations are coming together and invites are almost done. My mission today was to find recipes for Daxton's smash cake as well as for the cupcakes for the guest. I think I'm going to use the Banana Cake recipe that Melissa used for Caedmon's smash cake and for the guest cupcakes I think I'll do some with a  basic vanilla recipe and some with a yummy, pretty healthy Strawberry Banana recipe I found this morning. I plan on trying that out soon and when I do I'll give you all the yummy details!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Hello World!

Well hello world! It's been awhile!  We have been one busy house the past two weeks. We'll start first with Daniel...
Well Daniel start his rotations! He was very excited to finally be out of the classroom and in working with patients! For those of you not familiar with the med school lingo (trust me... it's a language of it's own that I'm just now catching on to), rotations are done you're third and fourth year of medical school. During this time you'll spend six weeks (i think) in several different fields of medicine, letting you get a taste of each. Daniels first rotation is OB/GYN which he originally wasn't looking forward to but has since realized that it isn't so bad. His first week was working the night shift of labor and delivery. He really enjoyed it and really learned a lot in one week. He got to watch an emergency c-section lasting a total of about a minute and got to help with some of the not so glamorous parts of childbirth. This week he's in the clinic and while he's not enjoying it as well as labor and delivery he is still learning quite a bit. And once again, other than being a great soon-to-be-doctor, he still a great chef!
Cedar plank Salmon with garlic, shallots, and onion, and grilled asparagus.
Now on to the star of the show... Daxton :)  This little boy has been up to so much! We spent nine days at the lake and during that time he had so many first! While we were there he said Papa, Yie Yie (chey chey... his cousin), makes a boat noise, and yesterday he tried to say puppy (which ended up just being the p sound) and woof (minus the f). That makes is repertoire of "words" up to  seven plus some great sound effects for cars and boats! He's getting way too big way too fast! I love watching him learn... it's possibly one of my favorite parts of motherhood. At the lake he once again fell in love with the golf cart and being outside. By the end of the week he would make his way to the door and cry wanting to go out and would then squeal with excitement when we got near the golf cart. He also had his first wave runner ride!

Oh yeah... and one other special little development while we were at the lake.... FITS. This boy can throw some fits! I knew he was strong willed and stubborn but man these fits get me every time. They mostly happen when I'm cutting him off from eating (bc he would literally eat ALL day). He pushed my hands away while I'm cleaning him up and as I try to get him out of the high chair he will twist and turn and arch his back. Oh boy I am not looking forward to the terrible twos with this little boy!
As for me I am enjoying my last month and a half as a stay at home mom... which is a full time job in itself. We're completely settled in and unpacked now and most of the pictures are up on the walls. Being a mom is getting more and more fun as the time goes by. Food with Dax is getting fun and lately I've spent a lot of my time thinking about and planning finger foods for him. He loves to munch on berries, peaches, carrots, toast, pasta with EVOO and parsley.
This was not for Dax but since we were talking food I figured I would throw it in! We had this recently and is one of the few things I can successfully make. Tortellini, black olives, spinach, cherry tomato's, and Italian dressing. Yum-O!
I have lots of things on my "to make for Dax soon" list and I'm very excited about start new and exciting things! I have also been staying busy planning Dax's first birthday extravaganza which I am WAY excited about! Here's a peak at the invitations.

Lake vacation as a mom was a completely different experience but it was still enjoyable nonetheless! I love getting to spend time with my entire family and my favorite part of the lake isn't the typical swimming and boat riding.... it's the time in the morning when everyone is just sitting around in the cabin together eating breakfast, drinking coffee, and talking. Those really are priceless memories that I wouldn't miss for the world! I can't wait until Daniel & I buy our own place right there by everyone!
And here's one more precious pic for your viewing pleasure :)