Happy New Year!

This past week was another fun one, filled with more time with family, friends, and 'firsts' for James!

I had my own 'first' on Monday night. My parents took us to eat sushi! I honestly wasn't crazy about everything I tried, but really liked anything that had shrimp or tempura shrimp in the middle. Some of the textures weren't my favorite, but others I liked. My sister-in-law Elizabeth is 'sushi savvy' and gave me a few pointers on eating it. I actually really liked the pickled ginger they give you to 'cleanse' your palate.

At the end of it all, I was still a little hungry, so we picked up Oklahoma Joe's french fries on the way home...aaah, comfort food. And I'm sure a major no-no following sushi!

Sushi is really beautiful. Look at the colors and presentation! They aren't messin' around...I think we tried six different things...maybe eight, in addition to some outstanding shrimp and ahi tuna appetizers.

It was fun catching up with friends on New Year's Eve, as well as New Year's day. Here are a few high school friends of mine that were over on the first. Ooh, I tried a cheese fondue recipe that was really yummy. If you have a fondue pot and want the recipe, let me know!

James' first time in his exer-saucer. It's hard to believe he's already ready for this thing! We tried it no a whim and he loves it! He'll love it more when he can hold himself up a little better. He hold his head steady, but leans on the edges of the seat. He spend a good twenty minutes in it before he got tired of it! You wouldn't believe how thrilling it is to see him discover new things...we are just having a blast with him!

Tummy time is getting easier...and this past week he rolled over for the first time. He was on his tummy, I turned away for a minute, and when I looked at him next, *poof*, he was on his back! He had a look of confusion on his face, How did I do that? He hasn't done again since then! :)

His 15 Week picture! A friend of ours decorated this t-shirt, and I just love it.

We also tried out the hand-me-down Johnny Jump-Up in a doorway between the entry hall and living room. We tried this one before the excer-saucer, actually. Hilarious. He looked SO proud to be standing up on his own. He's not really jumping yet...just standing there.

I just love how he's staring at Mark's mouth in this picture...trying to figure out how talking works! James loves his daddy.

Christmas Photos

Here are some photos from our five Christmases. First we had Christmas just the three of us. Then we had our annual Christmas "Meat-a-Palooza" (more grilled chicken that we can possibly consume) with my Uncle Paul and Aunt Mary Ann. On Christmas Eve we celebrated Christmas and played our annual Trivial Pursuit game (the men won again this year) with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Then we drove to Mark's parents' house on Christmas day to celebrate with them. I love the tradition they have of visiting the home where Mark's grandpa lives to carol. The last two years his Aunt Mary has brought handbells, which makes a really fun addition to our 'performance'. Finally on the Saturday following Christmas, we spent the afternoon and evening at my parents' house. James was a really trooper through it all! He slept great and only seemed to get a little 'maxed out' a few times.

Can you solve this mystery?

Here comes an onslaught of postings....this is the first of quite a few. I could put it all in one post, but I can never get photos in the right order!!

Last week Mark went downstairs to "wrap" my Christmas gifts. No, this isn't the gift he gave me. It's what he found while digging through our major stash of gift bags in the basement. It's a baby gift we never knew we received. I don't know how it slipped by me...or how I didn't notice it when re-folding bags to add to the stash. If you or somebody you know gave us this gift, please let me know! There's a teddy/blankie, a set of three frames (mom, precious one, and dad), and a cute farm board book that has a rattle and chew toy attached.

Has this ever happened to anybody? The only other thing similar to this that we've experienced happened with a wedding gift. Somebody signed their name on a card and to this day, we have not been able to decode it. We passed it around to everybody in the family, looked through the wedding guest list, but never figured it out! If you didn't get a thank you from us then....thank you! (I don't remember what the gift was.)

Three months

James is three months old today! (He's also exactly 13 weeks.) He has been so much fun lately! He's giggled a few times for us in the past week. Mark and I have made total goobers of ourselves trying to get him to laugh over and over. And sometimes he makes this fake 'coughing' noise to get attention. It's pretty cute.

We're pretty sure he went through a major growth spurt last weekend, as he slept hours more than he normally does during the day. Most days he only takes four short naps (35-45 min) but then sleeps from 9pmish to 7smish in the morning, waking up only one in the night. So the long naps really threw things off. Post growth spurt, many of his newborn onesies are now too small!!

This little outfit is pretty cute. It has scooters on it! I think my friend Jenny W. gave it to James.

We're getting pretty excited to see family in less than a week! Our next three weeks are packed with friends and family!

One week away...

Christmas is just around the corner! Can't believe it's only a week away. This is the cute little "Bumbo" chair that Auntie Elizabeth brought us from Chicago. He loves being able to sit up and look around! In less than a week we'll be with my family, celebrating Christmas...and on Christmas day, we'll be with Mark's family! Can't wait!!!

A Post for "Foodies"

"Foodie" is a new term for me lately. I actually came across a game for "foodies" at Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago, with all kinds of trivia questions for people who love and know a lot about food!

Well, although much of my attention is given to James, I have found time to cook and bake a little in the past twelve weeks. I was even able to remember to grab the camera a few times to take pictures! The last two days were 'inclement weather days'...just too cold to take the tiny guy out and about. So I baked. Today Mark took a platter of Christmas goodies to work. I tried a few new recipes; Cookie Dough Truffles and Sugar Cookies!

Here's a picture of the cookie dough truffles before being dipped in chocolate. And that's my make-shift double-boiler. It worked great!

These truffles are SO rich...you really have to love chocolate chip cookie dough to dig these. It's a Paula Deen recipe found here. I tried them this summer at a friend's house and have been waiting for a great excuse to make them....a snow day is a good enough excuse, right?

I hadn't made sugar cookies for a long time. I used this recipe and then discovered I only had circle cookie-cutters. Oops. So I had to get creative and made ornaments and snowmen. The dough really did hold up nicely. I used this recipe for the frosting. It was really creamy.

Here's the turkey we made a week after Thanksgiving. I tried my friend Natasha's turkey rub. It was the best turkey I've ever had. I also 'brined' my turkey. Brining is a new concept for me this year. It all worked pretty well, except for the fact that our turkey was done two hours before our company was to arrive!! Oops again. It turned out to still be delicious. We had it carved and cleaned up before anybody came! :)

These were the easiest Pumpkin spice muffins to make...and so yummy! VERY vew ingredients and three of them are spices. I mad ethem a month ago. Here's the recipe.

A few weeks ago my Uncle Paul and Aunt Mary Ann were in town. I tried making Spanish Paella for the first time, shrimp, chorizo, saffron, and all! It was awesome and not too hard to make!

12 Weeks