Five Months & a new Slideshow

This little boy is too much fun. Just as sweet as can be, he's becoming so observant. He watches us so intently when we're eating, talking, or just entering the room. He smiles when Mark comes home after work. His hands are always busy reaching for anything near and thrusting it into his mouth. And he's been drooling a lot. During dinner he sits up in his highchair (although he isn't eating solids yet) and keeps us company with squawks and babbling. All typical five-month-old behaviors, but I find each little 'new' thing so thrilling!

And now...here's a slideshow of pictures our photographer friend Sarah took a few weeks ago. I think she's incredibly talented. Here's her website, in case you're interested.

First video clip post!

This is my third attempt at posting a video. Did it work? This is a daddy/son moment right after Mark got home a few days ago. It's fun to see how excited James is to see him at the end of the day! Mark was fake coughing and James thought it was the funniest thing!

21 Weeks

I've tried lately to post some blogger videos I took on our camera, but they just aren't uploading. These are from last week. This little guy is more and more fun all the time. Tonight he was just giggling away every time Mark made a fake coughing noise. It was hilarious. Can't believe he's almost FIVE months!

And the winner is...

One week ago Mark and I attended his work's Winter Event. There were 1500 people or so there (we're approximating). It was a nice evening of mingling and eating appetizers and desserts! There was also live entertainment, a speaker, a video celebrating 20 years of business....and the annual drawing for prizes that they give away. Well, there are people that have gone for years and never won a thing. Since the company grows and grows, your chances are more and more slim each year. They give away gift cards to shopping centers, big tvs, etc. There were about 20 or so gifts. The way they 'select' names is through a computer program that sifts through names and pops up name one letter at a time on 'the big screen'. You better believe this is building to something exciting. The grand prize was a trip to Chicago. "Oh that would be fun...we could visit Joel and Elizabeth," I said thinking about my brother and his wife who moved there a year ago. Lo and behold, we watched the screen and my husband's name popped up!! Are you kidding me? We won a trip to Chicago! Two nights in a hotel, two plane tickets and some money on a credit gift card. Crazy, huh? So now we're planning a trip, prolonging it a little to stay with my brother, and going to take James!! Most likely this summer. If you think we're crazy feel free to tell me so. Four days would just be so long to be away from him.
20 weeks and lookin' good in his new duds from my Uncle Tom and Aunt Janet. This is one of the outfits they picked out and I love it!

Love this picture, double chin and all.

We were going on a walk with my mom and she insisted I dig out some shades. I found these hand-me-downs in his toy box! He actually didn't mind them once we were outside!

Little Cowboy James

Yee-Haw! 4 and a half months old--19 weeks, that is. Here he is wearing the bib my mom made him long before he was born. We haven't officially started him on solids...I think we'll wait til he acts a little hungrier. But we kind of can't wait--it'll be so fun to feed him in his high chair! (I know--new-parent-syndrome--everything sounds fun!) Today we gave him a few bites of mashed avocado (I read it's a great first food) and he slurped it down without even spitting it out! He loved it! I've forgotten to mention that James has been rolling over from back to tummy for the past week. This morning successfully rolled (and then pulled his arms up to support himself) three times!

Our week of eating vegitarian is coming to a close. Mark is just dying for some meat, and since we're going to his work's Winter Event tonight, we're calling it off so we can both consume yummy appetizers and desserts! Pancakes, Fried Eggs, and Breakfast Potatoes made a great dinner one night and last night we had leftover French Onion soup and Turkish-style baked potatoes. Kumpir is a popular fastfood in Turkey. They open the fresh baked potato up, mash the insides with white cheese and butter and then top it with a bunch of different toppings (including diced pickles, sliced olives, and sweet corn). Last night we used sour cream, jalapeno slices from a jar, salsa, and cheese...they were really yummy! Through the whole experience, I think we've decided we definitely want to try to eat a meat-free meal at least once a week. That may not sound like much, but before this week we NEVER ate meat-free meals. It should be healthier and better on the budget, too!

18 weeks is fun!

Just a quickie update...James has officially entered the phase where he's pulling everthing into his mouth. His hair a little spikey because we've started putting lotion in it to help with the dry cradle cap/eczema/crustiness that has persisted over the past two months. I thought it would be terribly greasy, but after an hour or so, the lotion 'disappears' so he just has a soft spikey hair-do remaining. I'm still getting used to it.

This past week James had a mild fever one day and has had a slight stuffy nose on and off. We've also entered a night-waking phase. It's somewhat sporatic, though, and was worse when we were out of town and he wasn't in his own room. He just randomly wakes up, not really to eat, just to cry in the middle of the night. It's hard to deal with, but we're learning as we go.
Over the weekend we visited Mark's parents and got to have a nice date at Freddy's Pizza Palace...it was such fun! Then we went to see the movie Valkyrie at one of the tiniest theaters I've ever been in. The movie was good, but intense. I'll leave it at that.

This week I'm not eating dessert. (I felt inspired by a fellow-blogger mentioning it a few weeks ago) It's only been 48 hours so far. I was just craving them a little too much. Mark said he'd do it along with me. I proceeded to point out that it wouldn't be too much of a sacrifice for him, since he doesn't really care for desserts anyway. So he decided to give up meat for the week. Which means I'm cooking 'vegetarian' for dinner this week. I found an awesome Thai Peanut Noodles recipe on a fun new blog...it was a great way to kick off the week and really does taste like something you'd pay $8 a plate for. Then last night we ate French Onion Soup, cheesy broiled topping and all. My friend Andrea had passed the recipe along to me. Tonight it's a crockpot potato soup recipe. Later this week we'll have baked potatoes and another night tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches. I'm excited about having more meatless options.

If you know of a great meat-free meal, let me know. Preferably a meal that isn't bean-based. Thanks!

A Week of Mystery Meals....

A few weeks ago I decided to attempt a week of meals without a trip to the grocery store. It was interesting to say the least. I'd heard a friend from church mention she'd tried it and thought it would be a fun challenge. It was pretty rewarding to make meals from all the 'stuff' we had on hand. I will say that we didn't suffer too much. I had meat in the freezer, plenty of staples, and several cans of veggies. The most exciting part of the week of meals was the stockpile of mystery cans I finally dug into. A year ago (yes, a year) I was 'gifted' a huge bag of label-less cans at a white elephant gift exchange. Thanks, Andrea. Well, until now I've avoided the cans. I decided I couldn't stand to see that bag take up space in our pantry, so I started opening a few cans every day. Some mixed veggies made a nice 'side' for a meal and two cans were tomato sauce, which I used for a really great spaghetti and meatballs dinner. Here are a few other recipes I discovered and tried out that week:

Spaghetti and Meatballs - I tweaked this one because I didn't have any onions by the end of the week, but it was really delicious anyway.

Refried Beans - I found a bag of pinto beans that had been on my (or my mom's) pantry shelf for years. I decided to try making homemade refried beans. They were awesome! The recipe is actually called 'refried beans without the refry'. They cooked in the crockpot all day long! Our tacos ended up being a little more like tostadas, with fresh tortillas made from corn flour (we were out of tortillas and chips).

Breakfast Pies - These aren't really pies...and they were for dinner for us. Basically, little biscuits with sausage and eggs baked in ramekins (or a muffin tins). They were yummy and warmed up great for breakfasts the next couple of days!

One of the cans I opened was of potatoes....canned potatoes. What in the world do I use them for? I'd love any ideas you might have, as they're still in a tupperware in our fridge.

This coming week we will be going without desserts OR meat! I'll explain why in another post, as well as the recipes I find to eat 'vegitarian'. The one we ate tonight was OUTSTANDING!