I want that

A 1st birthday post is coming soon...but first I need to blog about this giveaway because I would LOVE to win it!  Here is the link if you want a chance to win too!  It's a long shot but I believe in Christmas miracles. :) http://mckgiveaways.blogspot.com/2009/12/hp-touchsmart-giveaway.html  Ok so there are actually 5 different blogs that I love that are giving these away... http://kellyskornerreviews.blogspot.com/2009/12/hey-who-wants-to-win-free-computer.html 

Behind on the Times

So apparently I didn't get the memo on how the new downloading pictures on blogspot works...and since I'm trying to post everyday (except for the weekend, whoops) :) I uploaded tons of pictures.  I hit ok and apparently only the last one that uploaded shows up on my blog...So anyway this is my blog today...the last picture I uploaded and it is of me C.  Hopefully tomorrow I will try again, now that I know things are different since the last time I posted.  I guess this is what I deserve since I have neglected my little blog for so long. :)

Thai Chicken Pasta

So I thought I would share our very favorite recipe...we seriously eat this like once a week and then of course leftovers for lunch the next day.  I might would have to say it tastes even better the next day.  Anyway I should have taken pictures which would make this much more intersting but oh well...

Thai Chicken Pasta

chicken (we usually do like 2 breasts, maybe 3 if they are small)
1 cup Toasted Asian Sesame Dressing
12-16 oz thin spaghetti (more or less)
3 Tbs. peanut butter
3 Tbs. honey
3 Tbs. soy sauce
1.5 tsp. crushed red pepper (more or less depending how spicy you like it)
1 pkg. asian medley vegetables (Steamfresh) This has like broccoli, peapods, carrots, and those little corn things...don't know if they are really corn but I sure do love 'em

Cut the chicken breasts into bite sized pieces and pour 1/4 c of the dressing and let it marinate for an 1 hour...or 5 minutes if you are impatient like me. :) 

Cook your noodles...

Make the sauce...the rest of the dressing, the peanut butter, the honey, the soy sauce and the red pepper.  Whisk it together, this is the easiest way because of the pb.

Put the vegetables in the microwave for 5 minutes and saute the chicken.  I don't really know if that is the correct term but I just put the chicken in a pan on the stove and cook it until it's done...probably not sauteing.  Anway, after the chicken is cooked put the veggies in and the noodles and sauce and mix it together and done!  It tastes better if you let it sit for a couple of minutes to let the sauce soak in.

This is so easy and so good.:)

Just a Little Rant

Soo.....this isn't exactly how I had wanted to start back after not blogging for a while but I just needed to get this out and off my chest.  I wanted to show a bunch of cute pictures from our last few months or talk about our fun Halloween and I will, but not today.

I am so sick of people talking about babies and their weight.  It makes me so mad and I think it is just rediculous.  Whether it is "ohhh that baby is too small" or "ohhh that baby is so big" either way it is inappropriate in my opinion.  As a mom we see our babies as perfect no matter how big or how small and for people to constantly comment on it just infuriates me.

I have heard it since Caden was born at 9.2 pounds and 22 inches long.  Yes he is a big boy and that is how God intended for him to be.  I have breastfed C and continue to and personally I am proud of how well he has thrived, as is his doctor.  She has even made the comment that I have "super" milk. :)

When Caden was young I had certain people constantly question me about how often he was eating, how long he was eating, and how much he was eating.  Was I over-feeding him, was I just feeding him every time he cried, have I talked to his doctor about how much he is eating even this comment, "You can't just give him everything he wants aka milk (at a month old)".  I mean are you serious....he is a newborn baby and you are seriously asking these questions.  Especially to a brand-new first time mom who is hormonal and wondering if she is doing everything right, these questions were hard!  Talk about questioning myself and what I was doing for my baby.  Luckily I had Jason, my mom, great lactation consultants, a great peditrictian and a lot of knowlege from researching everything myself that I stuck with it and didn't listen to the ignorant questions.  They all assured me that everything that was happening was normal and that Caden was doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing.

The sad and crazy thing is that this has not ended.  When he started crawling I heard, "Oh he'll start to lose weight now that he is crawling".  Umm...no he shouldn't lose weight and I don't want him to he's perfectly fine.  Now that he is walking guess what I hear...yep..."Now that he is walking he'll slim down."  Umm...once again why are you so concerned about my baby's weight...he is perfectly healthy and wonderful the way he is.
A. He doesn't take a bottle, thank you.
B. He may not be able to understand you but his momma does.
C. It's not like he is eating ice cream and potato chips or anything else unhealthy...he has breastmilk, fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and meat...that is all...how on earth could any of that be unhealthy?? 

I know this is getting really long and probably nobody is reading this anyway, but it is more to get this off my chest and on the off chance that anybody who is in this same position can understand they are not alone.  The whole point of this is to say, that nobody deserves to have themselves questioned and that if anyone ever feels the need to comment on how big or how small a baby is to learn to keep your mouth shut because you probably are not an authority on babies anyway.

A picture of my sweet, perfect baby. :)

NABLOPOMO

No that is not some of Caden's typing...it stands for National Blog Post Month.  Obviously I haven't updated my blog in a long time...considering my last post was some 6 month pictures of C and he is now almost 1!  Ack!!

Anyway, the point of NABLOPOMO is to write one blog post per day for the month of November...yes I realize I am already a couple days behind but nevermind.  I am starting today and am going to try to follow through with this...we shall see how it goes. :) 

Professional Pictures

We had some 6 month pictures of Caden and our family done by Melissa Cockman Photography. She is awesome to work with and I highly recommend her! We didn't get many of Caden smiling...he didn't take good naps this day and was tired...but Melissa did a great job and still got a couple of him with a little grin. :) We just got our cd with our images on it so I thought I would share some of my favorites!

I love me some baby feet!

If those aren't the sweetest hands ever...

Show Us Your Life - Wedding Flowers and Wedding Party

Kelly's Korner...a blog that I read everyday and LOVE does a different "show us your life" each Friday. I've been meaning to participate but Fridays always sneak up on me and I forget! But I finally remembered! Also, my best friend got married this past weekend and it made me want to get married all over again...to Jason of course! :)
This week is show your flowers and your wedding party, and because I forgot last week I'm going to show my wedding dress as well!

We got married June 9, 2007 at Lake Lure, NC. Lake Lure is very special to us and we always knew that is where we would get married. It was a beautiful and HOT day! I don't even know how everybody doesn't look like they are melting in our pictures because it was scorching.

Our colors were pink and brown, and the majority of the flowers were pink. At the reception I did use some cream colored hydrangea but other than that I used pink roses, carnations, stargazer lilies, and I think that's it! Well actually now that I'm looking there are some other sort of pink flowers but I have no clue what they are. :)

My beautiful bridal party!

A close up of some of the flowers on my cake.

My wedding dress was by Maggie Sottero and I absolutley loved it! I got it at Poffie Girls in Gastonia and it was one of probably a hundred dresses I tried on. HA! It is a gold color and the lace was ivory. I never thought I would get non-white dress...I actually told the sales lady who was helping me that I didn't want to take the time to try it on, but she convinced me that it would look completely different when I put it on and she didn't lie! I'm glad she was stubborn. :)

I loved the back of it!
Right after we were married. :)
And...just one of my favorite pictures! :)

I hope you enjoy!

Houston We Have A............

TOOTH! I can't believe it! Caden finally has his first tooth. I actually had no idea he was "teething". I mean he has been drooling, putting anything he gets his hands on in his mouth, etc. since he was around 2 or 3 months old. So there haven't been any other signs that he was actually getting a tooth...no fussing, no sleepless nights, no inflamed gums, no fever, nothing out of the ordinary.

Anyway yesterday I was nursing him and he "gummed" down and I thought it hurt a little more than normal but still didn't think anything about it. A little later in the day we were sitting in the glider in his nursery and I saw something white in his mouth and felt and sure enough there was a jagged little tooth!

I was very excited and couldn't believe it broke through without any major drama! Of course I'm not anticipating that all of his teeth will come in this easily but a girl can dream right? :) I will try to get a picture of it soon, but Caden's not too keen on letting me look in his mouth so we'll see!

4th of July Weekend

We had a great 4th of July weekend. I just love the 4th...I would have to say it is one of my favorite holidays, next to Christmas and Thanksgiving....and Easter. What am I saying? I love any and all holidays, but nothing says Summer like the 4th. We started off with going to the pool on Thursday. Caden loves it! He is such a people watcher (like his mom and dad), I'm surprised he doesn't get whiplash because he jerks his head from one side to another looking at all the kids. He also had some cantelope for the first time in his mesh feeder. He loved it!

Look Mom, no hands! He's already so talented!

On Friday Jason and I went and played golf. I haven't played in like two years and before that I probably played like 5 times. Needless to say I'm almost a professional! HA! Anyways I love to play and it is something fun for Jason and I to do together. I actually made Par on the very first hole! I went downhill from there but we still had a great time!

An action shot of Tiger.....uhhhh or Jason.

Then we went to Babies R Us to get Caden a new carseat. He has outgrown his infant seat (which was supposed to last until he was a year old) because he is so long. I can't believe he is so big already. :(

I also took a picture of Jason and Caden and his Father's Day gift. A little late is better than never. Right?

On the 4th we went up to Blowing Rock for the day. Caden loved it! Here he is swinging for the first time!

Caden and Daddy went sliding for the first time too. They didn't have very far to slide with Jason's long legs! ha

He wanted to climb the "rock" wall but they said he was too little. :)

He loves to touch the trees, the grass, plants, anything really.

His absolute favorite thing is to ride on Jason's shoulders! He can be crying and fussing and if Jason puts him up there he starts grinning and laughing immediately.

He loves to hang out in his stroller and look and smile at people.

After we went to Blowing Rock we went to Quint and Melissa's for a cook out!

Melissa and Caden!

May and June Pictures

So since it has been so long since I blogged and therefore haven't posted any pictures I thought I would just put the link to my facebook albums from May and June. If you don't use Blogger then you can't even imagine how long it takes to upload pictures and you can only do like 5 at a time. So here are the links to the pictures!

May - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2309632&id=11800481&l=ad6fe4f498

June - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2310122&id=11800481&l=691d434d55

Also, if you do use blogger I need some tips on uploading videos. I've tried and tried but it will never upload. I don't know if the format is not right or what? Anyway if you have any ideas leave me a comment! Also, a 7 month post is coming soon, hopefully before Caden turns 8 months old :). We are leaving for Seabrook Island tomorrow so we will be gone for the weekend. Hope everybody is having a good summer!

Who's Bad?

That would be me and my blogging (and a little shout out to MJ). I can't believe it has been almost 2 months since I last blogged. Ugh....honestly I've looked at it several times and it has been so long that I feel overwhelmed with everything that I've missed blogging about so I just don't do it. Basically I keep digging a hole that gets deeper and deeper. Anyway, I digress.

Since I last blogged we have been insanely busy, with just about every single weekend being taken up. It has been busy and oh so fun! I believe a bulleted list is in order to highlight the things have happened and things that we have done.

• Jason went to Oregon for a week. Caden and I survived! (even though he was sick with croup)


• Caden turned 5 months old.


• I had my first Mother's Day, and got the sweetest cards and a new digital camera to keep in my bag.


• Went to Pamela's bridal shower in Pinehurst and Jason got to play golf at Pinehurst.


• Caden started eating solids.


• Caden has his first boat ride on Lake Norman and we got rained on. :)


• We went to Lake Lure with Jason's family.


• David and Claire had their little girl, Katelyn and we went to visit them in Charlotte and met up with Ashley on the way. :)


• Caden turned 6 months old. :) He weighed 20 lbs and 7 ozs (91%) and was 28.5 in (98%) He's on the small side, but we we're working on getting him healthy.


• Jason and his friends went to Lake Lure for Jay's bachelor party.


• Jason and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary.


• Went to my cousin Maribeth's wedding.


• We went to Hilton Head with my family for a week.


• Jason had his first Father's Day. He got a "picture project" from me and Caden...picture of the picture coming soon. Got it?


• I went to Raleigh for Paemla's bachelorette party, and left Caden for the first time overnight. Jason and Caden survived! :)

Ok, so that is quick and dirty recap of what we've been up to and I'm sure that I have missed some things but you get the idea! I will do a current post tomorrow...since my baby turned 7 months old today! Craziness!

Update coming soon

I realize that Caden turned 5 months last week, but he's been sick for the last week and I haven't had much time to update....or much sleep for that matter. :) Also, Jason has been in Oregon since Sunday for work so it's been a loooong week. We're going back to the doctor tomorrow so hopefully he'll get better soon.

Also what is up with Allyson (sp?) being voted off American Idol. ugh

Peace Out:)

Things you hear in a house with a baby

Jason: "I think he's pooping!" (after about 4 days of not pooping)

Me: "Really, just sounded like farts to me?!"

Jason: "Let me check what we got....definitely poop!"

In Unison: (clapping) YAAAAAY!!

Never thought we could get so excited because another human being pooped. Oh the joys of being a parent. :)

Caden's First Vacation

My brother, Dillon, and cousin, Logan, had Spring Break the week before last so my mom and my Aunt Becky decided to take a trip to Pigeon Forge, TN. Caden and I tagged along for his first little vacation. We ended up leaving LATE Wednesday night, like around 11:00. Which was good because I was pretty sure Caden would sleep the whole way…which he did.

The only scary part was driving those curvy mountain roads in the middle night with all the 18 wheelers. My legs were tired the next day from being so tense the entire time I was driving. We got there around 2 or 3 am…I’m not sure which, I was pretty tired, and so was Caden, he never woke up even when I took him out of his car seat, swaddled him (yes he still gets swaddled :) and put him in his PNP to sleep. He slept amazingly well the whole long weekend.

We did some neat things there. We watched Dillon go indoor skydiving, Caden got to go swimming for the first time in the indoor pool, we watched Dillon and Logan do the Zorb and ride go-carts. Caden was also lucky enough to get to go shopping at the outlets too. ;) He actually does love to go shopping, for now anyway. Jason is determined that this will change. We had such a good time and Caden was such a sweet baby the whole time, even when we kept him out way past his bed time.

Believe it or not this was my first time to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg and I had a great time…I definitely want to go back, just not during the Hot Rod week this time, and with Jason in tow. We missed him being there with us for sure, and I’m pretty sure he missed us too. :) The traffic was insane…although, I had a very good time people watching. Apparently some very “interesting” people really like Hot Rods. Pictures are below. Enjoy!

The "Zorb"

Dillon and Logan at the Zorb