This Yellow Brick Road

Corben These Days

My awesome little boy,

You are so cool, did you know that? I love being your Mom. You are so smart and so sweet and I want to hug you every 2.5 seconds. You've really hit a language boom and getting to hear what's on your mind is something I've been looking forward to for a long time. The only downside is you've developed a love for trying to claim everything and like to say "Mine! Mine! Mine!". I hide from you how cute I think it is when you say it because I want you to remember to share with others.

You're saying several new things every day and man you are so smart! Thanks in part to the show Super Why you know all of the letters of the alphabet and can say 20 of them. As I type this you are spelling out D-E-L-L on my computer. You know some of your colors and are getting better at counting. You shocked me when one day we were watching the movie 'A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventure' and you said "Oh two turtles!" and then when one got swept up in a net you exclaimed "Oh mama! One turtle!". You have really started using your imagination when you play and it's so adorable.

You are completely obsessed with Elmo and ask me to go see him at Sea World at least 15 times a day. They have the Elmo show there that you love. Afterwards we get to hug and give high fives to the characters and when it's time to go you get so upset. You have a little Elmo and Murray plush doll that you love. Guess what! I got you a Ernie one for your Christmas stocking! I can't wait for you to see it. I also got a Cookie Monster for your sister, but I don't doubt that you will confiscate it. Also at Sea World they have a little train ride for Christmas time that you love. As we wait in line you say "My choo choo ride!". Out of nowhere you have started liking cowboys. You have a cowboy hat from one of your Halloween costumes that you like to wear and whenever you see a cowboy on TV or someone wearing a cowboy hat you get excited and yell "Mama cowboy!". You also love to help me cook and do anything that involves helping me with your sister. When she cries you pat her back and tell her it's okay.

You surprised daddy and I and decided to branch out from the very limited list of things that you would eat. Thank God! Now at dinner time we serve you something we know that you like, such as applesauce, and in order to get it you have to eat what a few bites of what we're having for dinner first. After that you willingly eat both.

We got your twin bed awhile back and you love it so much. Daddy and I love to snuggle with you in there and often when your Daddy goes to check on you at night he almost falls asleep in there with you. I still need some finishing touches on your new room, but I already think it's awesome.

Poop. Oh freaking poop! You have decided that pooping in the potty is torture and will not do it. You were doing awesome with it thanks to some dum dum bribery, but now not at all. It's frustrating, but you'll get there when you decide that it's your idea to do so. You're still doing great with pee though.... please start pooping in the potty again soon though mmkay... please!

You are on the go all day long and don't sit still very often, but overall you've been a pretty easy 2 year old. I'm so thankful for that! I'm so blessed to be your Mom and am so thankful for every time I get to hear you say "Hold me mama". I love you very very much.

Telling me you want to give Elmo a high five.

What I get most of the time I try to take a picture of you these days. "No mama!"

After helping me make smoothies.

An oldie, but a goodie.

Quinn- 6 Months Old

Sweet baby girl,

On one hand it seems like you've always been a part of our family and on the other I can't believe 6 months has gone by since your birth. Yesterday I was looking back at pictures of you around a month old and my heart hurt; you were so tiny and fragile and fit perfectly in my arms. It would be nice to go back in time and breathe in just a little bit more of that newborn time. However, now is pretty good too. You're rapidly becoming this little person. You are interactive and have likes and dislikes, you play with toys, and you love your family. There is no feeling on this earth like the love that you show towards us.

You are so vocal! The amount of squeals, grunts and growls that come out of you is so entertaining. Yesterday you were carrying on quite the conversation with your doctor and she said you felt very strongly about whatever it was you were trying to tell her. You just started making Mmm sounds and I've been trying to get you to babble "mama", haha. I think it's only fair since your brother did "dadda" first. You are my snuggle bunny and I don't think you would mind one bit if you were held all day long.

Now on top of rolling like a pro you have started scooting a little and you drag yourself in the direction you want to be. You sit up completely well- no more tripod sitting for you my dear- and you stand up on your own when you're holding onto something. You're so strong! Next week you'll probably be bench pressing your brother.

You absolutely love to eat! You nurse every 2-3 hours and thank God I have a freezer stash because when your growth spurts hit you are so hard to keep up with. You hit a growth spurt at 5 months that luckily wasn't as bad as your 3 month growth spurt, but you would NOT sleep without getting topped off with some pumped milk. We started solids with you about a month ago, but a few weeks ago you started getting 3 meals a day. You made it clear you wanted some real food and you wanted it right away. You would grab for our food and cry. I tried nursing you, but you didn't want any part of it. What really shocks me is the amount of food you can consume. There was no learning curve with you figuring out how to eat and getting used to it. I've had a lot of fun making your baby food for you. So far you've liked everything except for avocado. That you would have no part of.

Unfortunately teething has hit you really hard. This past week has been especially rough. At night you've been waking up every 2 hours needing some comforting and snuggles. Ooohwee it has made for one tired mama! It's wiped you out too and during the day you've been so grumpy and clingy. I took you to the doctor yesterday just to make sure there wasn't anything else going on, like an ear infection. Last night I finally gave you some ibuprofen and you did so much better. I hate giving you medicine, but it's not fair to make you suffer either. Since you got some good rest last night you've been a much happier girl today.

I love you to the moon and back, my sweet Quinn. While it's sad how quickly you're growing I really am enjoying it and seeing your personality blossom.

Stats: 17 lbs even and 26 inches

Taking your 6 month pictures was so hilarious! You kept making the funniest faces. As your mother who loves you and to save your future self from having to yell at me, I won't post the bad ones.

You love your brothers cars and trucks.

Just looking at your face makes me so happy!

Keeping your brother company while he takes a bath.

On a rare chilly day here in Texas.

This picture is older, but I love it so much.

Proof that you and your brother are twins 22 months apart. The two of you at 1 month old.

Coffee Revolution

I am a coffee addict. I could drink it all day long if it wasn't so bad for you, but as it is right now I have about 2-4 cups a day. In line with my desire to eat healthier and more naturally-- and lose the 6 lbs of pregnancy weight I have left, which is all sitting on my stomach... UGH!-- I've been looking into clean eating (here's a great resources that also has tons of recipes). The biggest obstacle I knew I would face is sweetening my coffee. Awhile back I switched from flavored coffee creamer to half & half and sugar. I knew I needed to make changes, but couldn't imagine enjoying my coffee unless it had sugar in it. However, I did some research into some healthier options and tried them out. I'm amazed! I personally prefer my coffee on the sweeter creamier side, so what follows suits that and I like it so much better than my drug of choice... Starbucks Cafe Mocha. It could easily be tweaked to be stronger and more traditional if preferred.

Put a small dollop of honey at the bottom of your coffee mug, add a splash of half & half, pour in your coffee, add a dash of cinnamon, stir, then top with whipped cream. Obviously it would be best to leave out the whipped cream, but to me it really makes it seem like such a treat. Eventually I'll try leaving out the half & half or the whipped cream. If you're trying to cut refined sugar out of your diet and are a coffee addict like me I definitely recommend try replacing it with honey. I was so pleasantly surprised!

Salmon and Asparagus with Cranberries, Pine Nuts, and Feta!

My yummy in the tummy food series continues, haha! Last night I made a few more pinterest recipes and my husband ate his dinner in about 2.5 seconds and I don't know what's up with Mr. I Won't Try Anything New (aka my son), but even he ate this last night (minus the asparagus). The best part is I think this was the easiest dinner I've ever made.

Tin foil, lemon, salmon, butter S – Bake for 25 minutes at 300 °

First up is the salmon. The picture above is pretty self explanatory, but I'll give the instructions anyways. You tear off large enough pieces of foil to surround each fillet in a foil packet. I made 2 pieces of salmon. You place lemon slices on the foil, put the salmon fillet on top of the lemons, top it off with some butter patties and salt & pepper. Then fold up foil into a little tent and bake in the oven at 375* for about 20-25 minutes. The salmon is done when it flakes really easily with a fork. Mmm my mouth is watering reminiscing about this and I'm not a fish person.

The asparagus recipe is from here, but the pinterest pinner also added feta cheese, so I typed that into the recipe. I love feta! I could eat it on everything. Pine nuts brown really quickly, so make sure you constantly stir them and I would turn the heat a little lower than the recommended medium setting.

Ingredients:

1 bunch asparagus

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/3 cup pine nuts

1/3 cup dried cranberries

feta cheese

1 pinch salt

Directions:

1.	Break off or trim the woody ends from the asparagus and discard. Set the spears aside.
2.	Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the pine nuts, cranberries, and salt. Cook and stir until the pine nuts start to look translucent, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the asparagus spears and cook, adding a little more olive oil if needed, until stalks are bright green and tender, about 5 to 8 minutes. Serve on a platter with the cranberries, nuts, and feta spooned over the top of the asparagus.

I also made some rice for an additional side dish. This dinner was just bursting with flavor and was also very visually pleasing to the eye. I still can't get over how easy it was to make! This is one of those recipes that proves you don't have to eat out or serve junk food to your family when you're in a hurry-- (guilty as charged). I love it!

Pesto Orecchiette with Sausage

As a busy mom I'm always on the lookout for yummy recipes that are not only (mostly) healthy, but are fast and easy to make. I just don't have the time to make labor intensive meals anymore. When I find recipes that impress me I like to pass them along to others in hopes of spreading the food joy.

I found this recipe for Pesto Orecchiette with Chicken Sausage on pinterest. I freaking LOVE pinterest! When I first heard about it I was like "That's really stupid. What's the point in that?!". Now I'm a pinterest addict and the hubs agrees that pinterest has been very good for our tummies. So back to this recipe. It was a huge hit in my household. Corb.en gobbled it up and he is a stinker about trying new things and won't eat vegetables. My husband said it looked like something from a gourmet restaurant and took all of the leftovers to work.

A few notes: My grocery stores don't carry orecchiette pasta, so I substituted for farfalle (bowtie) and my husband requested beef sausage instead of italian sausage.

Ingredients

12 ounces orecchiette
1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup frozen peas
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 ounces fully cooked Italian-style chicken sausage links, thinly sliced
1/3 cup pesto
1/2 cup grated Parmesan (2 ounces)

Directions

1. Cook the pasta according to the package directions, adding the green beans and peas during the last three minutes of cooking. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking water; drain the pasta and vegetables and return them to the pot.

2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook, turning occasionally, until browned, 6 to 8 minutes.

3. Add the sausage, pesto, Parmesan, and ½ cup of the reserved cooking water to the pasta and vegetables and toss to combine (add more cooking water if the pasta seems dry).

I really hope you try and enjoy this recipe. It was so good! I'll be posting another super easy recipe that my husband has declared as a new staple in our house.

Looking Back

Next week I will be checking something off of my to-do list that has been hanging out there for years and I will be taking a concealed handgun class. As I was filling out the state application I needed to verify some dates and where better to look than the ol' blog. In doing so I got side tracked reading some of my early posts. It was pretty emotional and took me back to those days of pain and uncertainty when I didn't know if I would ever have a baby. I wanted to be able to tell my old self "Don't worry and don't be sad, you will be holding your sweet son in a year". I imagine that's how God feels when we're hurting and he knows that things will be better soon. It was also fun to see how much I've grown as a person since that time. Well... it wasn't so much fun to see how much my body has grown since then heehee. Man I used to be a skinny little hotty. It's all part of having those beautiful babies though and that is definitely worth it.

Happy Halloween!

This Halloween was so much fun. I love that Cor.ben is at the age where he gets joy out of experiencing things. I wasn't sure how he would like trick or treating because he still gets shy from time to time. Luckily he loved it! He thought it was so cool getting to go up to people, say "trick or treat" and put candy in his Elmo bucket. Of course Quinn had a blast, haha... She got to be warm and cozy in a ladybug costume while our friend held her the whole time.