The Great State Fair

Amaia experienced her first trip to the Iowa state fair this past weekend.  If you don't know the state fair is kind of a big deal in these parts  :)  People seriously love it so much!  Personally, I have never been a huge fan of the fair.  Other than eat a ton of food that is really bad for you (albeit very tasty), I'm just not sure what people get so excited about.  With that being said....I will say that I think I had more fun than ever before at the fair this year and I did recognize that there is a lot for kiddos to do.  I'm looking forward to having kiddos old enough to enjoy it.

I realized that I take a lot of pictures of Amaia by herself, so I am attempting to get more family photos.  Thus, we started off our day with a little photo shoot...you know while Amaia was sure to be in good spirits :)

My lovey dove doves

Sadly the only picture that includes Aunt Ashley and she is hidden.

Family portrait ala Ashley

 This year was the 100th anniversary of the butter cow and cow sculptures were abounding.  I thought this was pretty darn impressive though.  Love the way they used different colors of greenery to make the spots.

Amaia hates having the sun in her eyes. She takes after of her daddy in this way.  We need to get her some sunglasses of her own, but she looks pretty cute in these ones.

I forgot to take any pictures of the main thing we did while we were at the fair - eat!!  I had JR doughnuts (my fave!!), porkchop on a stick, strawberry ice cream cone, root beer and also had tastes of cajun cheese on a stick, pineapple whip cone, fried oreos, fried snickers bar....and I am fairly certain I am forgetting some things.  Wow, right?!  That was a lot of food.  

The last thing we did was my favorite.  We parked ourselves in the shade for the one man band!

Amaia and I relaxing on the curb.

One man band!  He was surprisingly quite impressive.

Adam & Ashley's neighbor from their growing up years is an awesome swing dancer.  He and his wife had a guest appearance in the one man band show.  They were so fun to watch!

I considered our day very good practice for our vacation to Colorado next week.  Going with the flow is by far not my strong suit, but we stayed at the fair longer than planned which included impromptu diaper changing, on the go napping and nursing in public.  I think it was good for both of us, as we will be going a lot of that next week!  

If anyone has any tips on vacationing with a  6 month old I'm all ears :)

6 Months

To the sweetest girl in my world,

Wow, you are 6 months old!   That sounds so old to me, at least as far as babies go :)  You are such a sweet baby.  "Sweet", that is the word that so many people use to describe you.  I know, I know I say this all the time lately, but you are changing so much all of the time and you are becoming much more aware of the world around you.

Okay, let's get down to it.  Here are your official stats:

Weight: 15 lbs. 3 oz. (50th percentile)
Height: 26 inches (65th percentile)
Head Circumference: 17.5 inches (90th percentile)

So.... it seems that you have a big head :)  Just kidding!  Obviously that is only because you are such an intelligent girl. I am so, so happy to see that you are growing right on track.

You are a very observant baby.  You love to look around and you love to know what is going on around you.  Your eyes get so big when you are looking at something new!  You are so observant and curious that most of the time I can no longer talk on the phone or even to talk to someone else in the room while I am feeding you.  You are just too curious about what is going on and you get distracted from the task at hand.  I don't mind though.  It's so cute the way you look around and look up at me as if to ask me who I am talking to when I am on the phone.  Also, you are a much more efficient eater than you used to be.  When you were first born it took you 45 minutes to eat and now it takes you 20 minutes or even less sometimes.

You are still sleeping like a champ.  You usually sleep 10-11 hours at night and you take 3 naps a day.  At night daddy and I always sing you "Goodnight Sweetheart".  You smile at us and we kiss you goodnight.  Then we play the song from your doggie Patch and bid you goodnight.  You almost always fall asleep without a peep.   You very much prefer to sleep on your tummy.  I put you to bed on your back but you flip over to your tummy every time without fail.  It made me nervous at first, but clearly you have good neck control.  When I come in your room to wake you up you always have your head up and you are looking around the room.  When you see me in the morning you flash me a big smile --  You are too cute!!

You have mastered some new skills this month too.  You are quite good at sitting up.  Unless you lean backwards, then you fall over.  BUT if you don't lean backwards you can sit up for quite a long time.  We are working on crawling, and you try to scoot yourself, but your leg strength is just not quite there yet.  You are still a big fan of your jumperoo.  You can get quite crazy in there jumping and dancing around.  Sometimes when you are in there I dance and sing to you and you follow by dancing yourself.  You make me laugh :)  You also love to put pretty much any toy, burp rag, or basically anything you can get your hands on in your mouth.  Oh, and how could I forget you are laughing now!  Your laugh is low-pitched and like your momma, you are not an easy laugh.  You are very selective on the things that you think deserve a laugh OR you just get a laughing mood sometimes.  Things that you think are funny so far are your dad's scruffy face, doing airplanes, touching noses and clapping.  You are also semi-obsessed with your feet.

We have grown leaps and bounds in your spoon skills this month.  You open your mouth and suck the food off the spoon now.  A month ago you had no idea what to do with a spoon.  You have been eating rice cereal for a few weeks now and after we get back from vacation I am going to get some sweet potatoes from the store for you to try.  I'm not a fan of sweet potatoes, but most other people seem to like them and they are good for you so I hope you will like them :)

I will love you forever sweet girl!  And don't you ever, ever doubt that.

Love, 

Mommy

Date Night Revisited

Date night looks a bit different in this season of our lives.

Last night was our "date night".  We hung out at home, ran an errand at the mall and came home when Amaia just couldn't take it any longer.  Not the most romantic you say??  Well, I would agree with that, but get ready for reason # 23,257 that I love my husband.  

On the way home, I mentioned how divine it sounded to me to go to a coffee shop, drink warm drinks and pretend it was fall on this rainy night.  My love for fall never ends :)  Then Adam had an idea, "let's make our own coffee shop at home.  You put Amaia to bed and I will go get our drinks."  He doesn't get down, he gets creative!

So we sipped caramel apple spice, sat in our candle-lit kitchen, listened to the rain and did my favorite thing.  We talked.  

Best coffee shop I have ever been to. Hands down.

Some August Happenings

Top of the morning to you!!

 Can you believe that this little girl is going a whole half-year old tomorrow?!  I certainly cannot!  We have her doctor's appointment on Monday, so I will have a full report on her official stats next week.   All I can tell you right now is that she is my super sweet sunshine girl.  I know that I am supposed to be savoring every day with her and not wishing the time away, but personally I am so excited for her to get older.  It is SO fun to watch her learn new things.  She is laughing now.  I am always figuring out new ways to get her to laugh. She is sitting up on her own now too!  I can't wait for the day when she can talk with me and tell me what is on her mind and help me in the kitchen and dance around in the living room.  We are going to have so much fun together!

Now, I'm just forwarning you - the rest of this post is going to be random....

We celebrated Adam's birthday last weekend.  Just the two of us went out to a really lovely dinner last Friday evening.  The resturaunt was actually in the first building that out church met in when it first started.  It was a really cool place.  And the food was wonderful.....very fresh and unique and served on pretty plates! I made Adam trade appetizer plates with me because I thought his plate was prettier - ha :)  Here is a picture of Adam and I on the way to dinner taken by our wonderful babysitter aka.  Amaia's grandma-ma.

Love him so much

In other news, sometimes I try to make cute things in the kitchen and sometimes I fail!  On my new favorite toy Pinterest, I saw this recipe to make a calzone with a pretty lattice style design.  You might think that it looks good, but here was the problem: approximately 10 minutes into baking I realized that I had totally forgotten to the put the cheese in the calzone - duh!!  I am seriously absent minded more often than I should be.  I don't think I can blame it on pregnancy brain or baby brain any longer. 

See how pretty it looked!

Then I had to put cheese over the prettiness :(

I thought it was still pretty good.  However, I also tried to make this a healthy version of a calzone - whole wheat dough, lots of veggies....Adam gently informed me that he would prefer some meat next time around :)

Here is more proof that I have absent minded tendencies

Yes, I put piping-hot corn on the cob onto my dinner table and have these gorgeous white heat marks to prove it.  Has anyone else had this happen to them?  If you know of a way to fix it that doesn't involve me purchasing a new dinner table please do share :)

28

My super sweet hubby turns 28 today!   Yes, I robbed the cradle :)

28 things that make him the man that I love...

1.  He is a super hard worker! He works two jobs right now to support our family - I didn't have to ask him to do this, he just does it.
2.  He has a passion for chocolates....chocolaterie stam....need I say more??
3.  He has three expectations of me: love God, love him, love Amaia.  That's it.  I stay at home and he always acts he should do his own laundry.  What a guy!
4.  He is just plain fun! He makes me laugh.  He jokes around.  He lightens my mood all the time.  And let's be honest, I need that :)
5.  He surprises me with scones when I am down.
6.  He is thoughtful.  While I was in the shower earlier this week, he put my bathrobe in the dryer so it would be warm when I got out.  Seriously sweet.
7.  He is smart, but not a smarty-pants.
8.  He is so kind and compassionate.  One of the first things that attracted me to him was that he genuinely cares about people.
9.  He kills bugs so I don't have to.
10. He loves Amaia.  He sings and plays the guitar for her. He misses her when he doesn't see her.  He is such a great daddy already.
11. He inspires me to know and understand the Bible more.
12. He genuinely wants what is best for me.
13. He is a great guitar player.  What girl doesn't love a musician :)
14.  He makes me and Amaia a priority - even with a lot of other responsibilities going on.
15. He insists on holding Amaia during church so I can focus and really listen to the message.
16.  He is a great cook and grillmaster!  Probably better than me, but I'm working on that!
17,  He is my bff.  He calls me several times a day just to check in and talk.  He calls when he knows that I need to talk to someone.  This doesn't come naturally to him.  He just does it because he is a really great friend.
18.  He goes to broadway shows with me - pretty positive that this doesn't come naturally either :)
19.  He loves lemurs and cats and all kinds of other animals.  The little boy in him I think.
20.  He is a great roadtrip partner!  he is a great driver.  I always, always feel safe in the car with him driving.
21. He loves going out to eat.  I love to not cook for every meal :)
22. He tears up at movies sometimes.  Maybe I shouldn't be telling people that.  Ha. But I love that about him.  It shows that he has such compassion for people.
23. He has sacrificed many of the things he enjoys during this season of our life and he doesn't complain about it.
24. He plays with my hair, rubs my feet.  Need I say more? :)
25. He is a great tipper.
26. He's got style.  He knows how to dress well.
27. He is a clean!  I always think how I really lucked out in this category.  I rarely have to pick up or clean up after this guy.
28.  Last, but certainly not least he is committed to me.  I don't fear him leaving me ever.  Not at all. Not one bit.

Jumping on the bandwagon

Soo....have you all heard of Pinterest?  Because it is my favorite toy!!  It is like a bulletin board of all the things that catch your eye on the internet.  Honestly, I have spent too much of my time on their lately, but I have found so many ideas of things I want to make or eat or do one day!

I am on a mission to find an cheap, old dresser so I can make this...

I just love the idea of taking a drawer out to function as a shelf.

And I think this looks so yummy....

If I had a kitchen that looked like this someday I would be extremely okay with it.

I love the combo of the dark cabinets and white countertops

I want to make one of these to hang inside our house.

And I want to make one of these every Thanksgiving, especially when Amaia (and hopefully her future siblings) can participate.

Are you pinning??  

In Case You Were Wondering...

The Bible is true.

And in case you needed some proof....

I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works,  And my soul knows it very well. --Psalm 139:14

Seriously she is SO wonderful!  Those big eyes, those kissable cheeks....please don't mind that her headband totally does not go with her outfit.  That was my fault, don't blame Amaia.

At the risk of being to mushy-gushy we just love her so much!  Adam and I were just talking the other night about how amazing it is that God allows us to take part in making life.  That seems like just a normal part of life most of the time, but when I really think about it I realize what a blessing and privelege it really is.

Adam got tickets to the I-Cubs game last night from work so we took Amaia to her first baseball game.  I had good intentions of taking lots of cute pictures, but this is the only one that actually happened.

It's a winner though, right??  She looks so sweet and content in her daddy's arms.  She really enjoyed our walk to the game. She was looking all over the place - so many new sights to take in I guess.  I knew that we would not last the entire game with Miss Amaia, but we only lasted 1.5 innings.  Ha.  Truth be told - Amaia does not last long at anything at this point in her life, especially in the evening hours. We think she is just highly intelligent and gets bored easily :)  Scratch that - I am actually hoping that this is completely and totally normal for her age.

I was a little down on the way home from the game.  Not because we didn't get to stay for the game, but I get down when I feel like I don't know what I am doing, which in this stage of life is fairly often :).  Amaia is a complicated little lady.  Over 5 months and she is still a mystery to me much of the time.  This is when I remind myself, "You are not managing an inconvenience, you are raising a human being".  BUT, Amaia knows how to cheer me up. She is really into grabbing people's faces lately and last night we discovered that she thinks it is hilarious to touch her daddy's scruffy face.  I have never heard her laugh so much before!  I have been able to get a bit of a chuckle out of her lately when I try really hard, but not like this.  She had Adam and I laughing right along with her.  It was just one of those special moments that I want to remember.  And now I will, thank you blog :)

Mmmm Mmm Good

I have been trying out some new and at least semi-healthy recipes lately with some success.  I always enjoy what I call "real people" recipes, so I thought I would share a few of mine.

Healthy-ish Blueberry Muffins  (Fair warning - Adam and I both really liked these, but they do taste very bran like, just in case you don't like that)

1 1/2 cups wheat bran
1 cup nonfat milk
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 egg
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or use paper muffin liners. Mix together wheat bran and milk, and let stand for 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, mix together applesauce, egg, brown sugar, and vanilla. Beat in bran mixture. Sift together all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir into bran mixture until just blended. Fold in blueberries. Scoop into muffin cups.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until tops spring back when lightly tapped.

Chicken Nuggets with Honey Mustard Sauce  (I'm excited to make these for Amaia some day soon!!)

• 3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 1 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1 egg, beaten

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F 
2. Cut chicken breasts into 1 1/2-inch sized pieces. In a medium bowl, mix together the bread crumbs, cheese, salt, thyme and basil. Mix well. Put beaten egg in a bowl or dish for dipping.
3. Dip chicken pieces into the beaten egg first, then coat with the breadcrumb mixture. Place the well-coated chicken pieces on a lightly greased cooling rack placed on top of a cookie sheet, and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

• 
  
• Honey Mustard Sauce
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise (I use the kind made with olive oil - half the calories and less saturated fat!)
• 2 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Whisk all ingredients together and refrigerate.