This and That...

I took this pic this morning and when I pulled it up on the computer I thought...oh my God, look how big my baby is getting! Doesn't she look older in this pic? When she wears jeans, she thinks it's really cool to put her hands in the front pockets. She'll walk around the house like this after she gets dressed.


Today she actually wore the bracelet that Michelle made for her and didn't take it off all morning, even through a trip to the store.

I made my first recipe from the Pioneer Women's cookbook this past week...Chicken Spaghetti. The only thing I did differently was I cooked the chicken in the crockpot overnight instead of boiling it on the stove. A friend of mine said she cooks chicken this way all the time and that it gets very tender. She was right, it was falling off the bone as I was taking it out. The messiest part of the recipe is shredding the chicken. It was super easy, but it's not my favorite thing to do...


Here's the completed recipe ready for the oven...


and here it is with the cheese nicely browned and ready to pop into my insulted bag to head out for our Wednesday evening girl's night/play date.


It was a hit with everyone and Lauren loved it. Can't go wrong with chicken, cheese and pasta for the kiddos. This recipe will be a regular in our house for now on. Also, the leftovers taste just as good, if not a little better, than the first day.

Update and Pioneer Women

Yes, it's been a good couple of weeks since I've checked in here. I'll tell ya, sometimes life just gets in the way of blogging. That darn full-time job while trying to keep a semi-clean house, an occasional home cooked meal on the table, and clean clothes on our backs is what's getting in my way! All this stuff is also getting in the way of spending quality time with my girl, so I'm not ashamed to say that some of my standards have been lowered. The house isn't nearly as clean as it used to be, I find myself wearing those jeans a couple more times before throwing them in the laundry, and meals are a lot less complicated.

Actually, I've been using a lot of recipes from the Pioneer Women over the past year. I love how simple her recipes are and how she takes photos of each little step so you can't possibly miss a beat. Most of all I love how she writes her descriptions of the food as she's cooking and outlining her steps. She's so funny.

If you're also a fan of hers, you know that she's on a book tour right now for her first cookbook. Lucky for me that she was here in the Phoenix area last night and I was there! It was a mob scene and there must have been easily 400 or so people there, but I managed to elbow my way in for a few pictures during the question and answer session.

The crazy scene...


and here's Ree herself looking absolutely adorable (her sister-in-law Missy to the left)...


I caught her taking a pic of us...


Because of the massive crowd and needing to be home before midnight, I didn't get to meet her. Although, I did leave my cook book at the store for her to sign at the end of the night.

From listening to the question and answer session, I can tell you all that she is as sweet as can be and exactly what I had imagined from reading her blog. Also, if you haven't ordered her book yet, you should. It's a really pretty book full of photos and great looking recipes. Actually, I think I may cook through the book ala Julie and Julia. Anyone else up for the challenge? Maybe I can post ahead which recipe is up and do one of those link lists for everyone to post their outcomes...might be kind of fun.

On another note, Halloween was SO much fun this year and Lauren loved it! We went to a kids party during the day and trick-or-treating with her cousins in the evening. I'll post more later once I have a chance to do a couple of scrapbook layouts, but here she is in the super adorable costume made by Grandma...

Family fun weekend...

Wow, this week has flown by...busy at work and busy at home! I know for all of you still waiting for your referrals to come in, time seems to stand still. Please believe me that once you get home with your little one time starts moving at rocket speed and you'll wish it would slow down.

I wanted to post some pics from last weekend, since we had such a nice one. On Saturday night we had my mom, my brother and his family over for a belated birthday celebration (my brother's b-day). Lauren doesn't see her cousins very often because of busy schedules for everyone, so it has taken her a while to really be comfortable with them. She has definitely come around and she had an absolute ball on Saturday and followed Josh around all night. It was so cute. Josh loves to scoop her up and carry her around and she doesn't seem to mind at all, as you can see in this layout...


Here's my brother with Josh and Lauren...


On Sunday, we had dinner at Joe's parents' house for my sister-in-law's birthday. Lauren had fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa and her Aunts and Uncle...she really is coming into her own at this point and opening up quite a bit with our extended family...


We stopped at Starbucks for a snack on Sunday and I snapped these cute pics...

Fall is finally here!

I love fall. It's my very favorite time of year and I love everything that comes along with it. Here in the Phoenix area, we finally get a break from the scorching hot temperatures, which in itself is reason to celebrate. I love pumpkin pie; the smell of cinnamon and cloves; the warm, soothing colors of fall; baking; hot chocolate; and just taking time to reflect on what we are thankful for. This year the season is even better shared with Miss Lauren.

Since we don't get the cold weather and changing of the leaves outside, I have little touches of fall all around the house...

Pretty hair...

Lauren doesn't like to have clips or ribbons in her hair, but this past week was a landmark achievement. She went almost half an hour with a little ponytail and ribbon.

We were at our weekly get-together/play date with a couple of friends and Nancy (who's mom to 3yr old Lily, who loves ribbons and flowers in her hair) styled Lauren's hair with a pretty bow. It was so cute and looked so girlie compared to the usual plain look of Lauren's hair...



Nancy would be proud, because I did her hair again today in the same way and she actually wore it for a little while. Of course, she had to be totally distracted while getting it styled and I had to be sure she didn't see herself in the mirror. Oh, and no one could mention it or acknowledge that she looked pretty...that would have been the end really fast. Finally, a couple of hours after having it in, she put her hands up on her head and felt it. That was the end...it was out in mere seconds! Oh well...it was cute while it lasted.

Weekend fun...

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes when Lauren was sick last week. Her fever broke the day after our hospital visit and she was up and running soon after that. Not much keeps her down!

On Saturday we had lunch at a new McDonald's that has a toddler play area in place of that big jungle gym that they usually have. This is the first one in our area and it was a big hit with Lauren. It has that spongy flooring and a big tree slide in the middle...it's actually pretty cute. Does anyone have one of these near them?


Yesterday we were just hanging out at home and getting ready to do the laundry. Lauren won't let Joe carry a basket in without hitching a ride...


We also took Lauren in for a hair cut this weekend since her bangs where hanging down over her eyes again. I SO wish she would let me put hair clips in! As you can see by the pics, she's not too happy about the haircut although she didn't cry. The car seat helps to keep her busy and I wouldn't go without it. Her first hair cut was in a regular chair and she screamed and cried.

Sick baby...

This past Saturday everything seemed fine until Lauren felt a little warm late in the afternoon. We gave her Tylenol and she started to cool down. By bed time she warmed back up again to 101, so we gave her another dose and put her to sleep in our bed. By 1:30am she was tossing and turning and woke me up. I reached over to feel her and couldn't believe how hot she was! We jumped out of bed, gave her another dose of Tylenol and started running a lukewarm bath. Her temperature was 104.5, which seemed scary high to us! She screamed and cried in the bath and we couldn't get her to calm down. We called our HMO's emergency pediatrician line, but started getting really worried while waiting for the call back so we took her to the emergency room.

They checked her out and gave her a dose of Motrin. She was so good while they checked her ears, throat and listened to her chest. Everything looked fine, but they wanted to do a urine test by catheter. It was horrible holding her down for that...I felt SO bad. She was screaming and crying and she was all sweaty from the fever...my poor baby! Three hours later, we were leaving the hospital with the diagnosis of a stomach virus. She was so much better by the next day.

I'll tell you, as a new parent that first high fever is really scary! I kept thinking she would have a seizure...I felt so helpless. It's so hard when they are sick and all you can do is give the medication, love them and wait.