Five Years

Five years ago today I married my best friend.  We had been dating for five and a half years and had known that we wanted to get married for a very long time.  That day was one of the happiest of my life.  God has blessed us so much through our marriage and I am so thankful for all that he has done and given us.  I couldn't ask for a better partner to raise children with or for a better friend to pick me up when I'm down and make even the best days so much better.

I love you Jason.  Here's to many, many, many more!

Reading Thursday - Parenting Books

In my quest to "get prepared" for this whole having two kids thing, I've turned to my long loved past time of reading up on a subject.  I've found some great parenting books recently that I've been enjoying and wanted to A) remember these titles later in case I need them again and B) pass my recommendations on in case you're looking for some good parenting reads.

Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches

After enjoying Rachel's Motherhood as a Mission Field blog post I thought that I might enjoy her book.  I was so correct in that assumption! This book was a really quick read (I read it one evening in about two hours) and had some great anecdotes on mothering and also some wonderful suggestions on how to be a better mother.  I'm looking forward to re-reading it once James arrives and really highlight and put into practice some of her ideas!

Some things that stuck out to me in the quick read that I did were (in my paraphrase of course):

- Removing the word "overwhelmed" from your vocabulary because this is just the new normal and being overwhelmed instead of just doing just makes (me at least) more overwhelmed!

- Making sure that your children understand that you have authority over your children because God has entrusted them to you and given you that authority, but that God has authority over you and your children.

- Fellowship with each other is the most important thing and if something or someone gets between that fellowship that they need to understand that nothing is worth breaking fellowship with each other even if that means removing whatever thing was breaking the fellowship.

From One Child to Two

In my panic thinking about going from one child to two I realized that I probably needed at least one book that focused on that transition.  I found this one on Amazon and after looking through the positive feedback I decided to get it.  I'm glad that I did because it validated that I'm not the only mother facing this transition that panics and it also gave me a lot of positive ways to prepare for the transition and make it as smooth as possible and also prepare for some of the negatives that could possibly accompany the transition.  While the book confirmed that we were already doing a lot of things to help C with the transition it suggested some ideas that I hadn't thought of like showing C pictures of when she was born and in the hospital and maybe visiting the hospital before hand so that she can see what it's like.  When we started talking about the hospital and showing Charlotte pictures from when she was born she ate up the idea and pictures and now asks at least once a day to "See pictures when ME (patting chest) born!" and is (hopefully) understanding some of the concept that Mommy will be in a hospital bed, etc.  This book isn't a quick read like the first but I found it very beneficial and would definitely recommend it for those facing this same transition!

Toilet Training Without Tantrums: from parent or child

I'd like to say that we're out of the potty training trenches but as I'm writing this (a few days before posting) we're still working on it.  And while I don't agree with everything John Rosemond says in this book I like his general premise on potty training.  And, so far, it's been pretty successful for us in potty training Charlotte.  Not that we haven't modified some, we have, but the general outline and guidelines work well for us!

Making the "Terrible" Twos Terrific

I absolutely loved this book!  I bought it back when Charlotte was around 18 mo old and just got around to reading it and even though Charlotte isn't demonstrating any terrible, horrible, absolutely no good traits right now I still found it so helpful to read and I feel like it's made me a better parent even when Charlotte is behaving much less when she isn't.  (Note: I haven't read Parenting by the Book but have heard fantastic things about it.  It's on my "To Read" list.  And, also, Rosemond is a very conservative parenting idealist which appeals to me but might not appeal to all.)

I took a lot of things from the book and thoroughly enjoyed it but one point that stuck out to me and helped me feel much better about parenting in general was this quote:

"You may not always make the very best decision you could possibly make, but you will surely make a better decision for your child than he would have made for himself." (p. 11)

This is so true and has helped me quit second guessing my decisions and trusting Jason and myself with the decisions that we make.

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If you have any great parenting books that you love I'd love to hear about them! I'm always on the lookout for help!

Recipe Wednesday - Crock Pot Chicken and Rice

This is my first recipe from Pinterest!  It sounded very easy and good so I tried it as my first recipe.  It turned out very good and was so easy that I'm sure we'll make it all the time!

Crock Pot Chicken and Rice

2-4 boneless skinless chicken brea sts
8 oz cream cheese (let it sit out to soften)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 packet Italian Dressing Seasoning
Rice

1. Stir the cream cheese, cream of chicken, and seasoning together in the crockpot.
2. Add chicken and spoon mixture so that it covers the chicken.
3. Cook on low for 4-6 hours (I cooked for 4.5 because that was when I was happening to put it in.  Make sure and check it about an hour before dinner to make sure that the chicken is done but that's plenty of time for thawed chicken to cook in the crock pot.)
4. Make rice before dinner.
5. Serve chicken mixture over rice.

A Big Girl Room for our Big Girl

I started thinking about what I wanted Charlotte's big girl room to look like back in the fall.  We knew we were, hopefully, about to have another child and I was over the pink nursery and ready to get Charlotte into a room that more fit her personality.  I had in my mind an idea of a room that was sort of the distressed, refined, casual look that we went with in our bedroom only on a little girl scale.  I was leaning towards purple because I love light purple's and Charlotte wasn't particularly drawn to pink or any other colors and liked purple a lot.

So I was on the lookout for items that struck me as "perfect" for this room that I had in my head.  While Kelly and I were at Mistletoe Marketplace in November I found the first item that I thought would be perfect.  A beautiful painting by Prayers on the Side entitled "A Time to Dance" that had the perfect mix of purple, pink, gray, and turquoise that I just loved.  Thankfully, I tipped Santa off and he came through with the painting for Charlotte for Christmas!

Once we knew the painting was a definite it solidified the purple choice in my mind and we set off to pick the perfect shade of purple.  If you've picked out paint colors you know what a pain this can be because the colors definitely don't look like the paint chip when they get on the wall!  Jason was a trooper and painted three different swatches for me and from that we picked out Benjamin Moore 1411 North Cascades.  We painted her ceiling and bathroom Benjamin Moore HC-83 Grant Beige which is much grayer in person and what we used on our walls in our bedroom.

The search then began for furniture.  We decided to use the headboard from her crib (which is a dark espresso) since it turns into a double bed headboard but we also knew that we wanted some distressed pieces that were lighter to balance out the dark wood.  I also had envisioned this long, open bookcase in my mind that turned out to be the hardest piece in the world to find!  We ended up mixing furniture so that the room is pretty balanced half and half with dark and light pieces (or at least it will be once her desk replaces her crib which is currently on one wall).

And the bedding turned into a bigger ordeal than I was expecting also.  It's surprisingly hard to find bedding that has purple in it that is not little girly and is something that I think she'll be able to keep for at least a few years.  And since I didn't really want a lot of pink in the room that narrowed our choices down even more.  I ended up getting a lady who helped my Mom in the past help me pick out bedding and curtains.  We found the Lindsey Lattice Duvet Cover at PB Kids that we liked and so decided to go with that and make the accessories (pillows, drapes, bedskirt) from the coordinating sheets.  I never would have thought to do that but I love the way that it turned out!  I think it looks so fresh and clean and much more girl-ish than toddler-ish.

We also balanced out the toddler-ness with a beautiful gray slipper chair that I found in a store in town and had a custom ledge built made to resemble this one from PB.  (If you ever need someone in town to make you something I definitely have the people for you because they ordered and stained the bookcase for Charlotte's room, HAND MADE and stained/painted the ledge for us, delivered and installed it all for a fraction of what we could have gotten it for anywhere else!  I'd love to recommend them to you so let me know if you're in the market for someone!)  I also added some more grown up accessories like the Dress Frame Jewelry Holder from PB Teen and some antique mirrored trays.

That's a lot of talk just leading up to the pictures so, without further ado, Charlotte's big girl room!

From the door coming in

Bow holder that I made that's on the inside of one of her closet doors.  Tutorial on how to make coming soon!

Cardboard initials that I covered in leftover fabric.  (These were much more tedious than I had planned but I like the way that they look!)

Close up of bedding.

Lamps are from Hobby Lobby and have acrylic bases instead of glass so they won't break in case a rambunctious toddler knocks them over.  The shades are the perfect gray color with velvet details so they match perfectly!

And the houses above the bed were a find in Mom and Dad's upstairs closet that I just happened to remember from our old house when I was trying to find something for above the bed.  I think they are one of the most perfect things that I could have found to go there!

Stained bookshelf and stained and then painted and distressed ledge.

Pretty much all the photos and definitely all of the canvases are by Erin Cobb.

I love that I got to use some things from Charlotte's nursery in her room and also some things from when I was growing up!  Can you see the painting of the flowerpot on top of the bookcase in the middle?  My parents brought that home from Pebble Beach for me when I was probably in 5th or 6th grade and I painted the frame that it's in to match my room then -- purple, pink, and green!

The Prayers on the Side painting and slipper chair.  This is where we do our nightly praying and singing now that we've graduated from the rocker in the nursery.

The view from the bathroom door.  You can still see baby touches in the edge of the crib and the diaper genie but we're pretty much in solid big girl territory now!

Thankfully the transition to the big girl room wasn't hard.  She loved her purple room from the second it got painted and as more and more got added to the room she loved it even more.  She was perfectly fine when one Saturday morning Jason started taking her crib apart in the nursery and moved it to her new room.  She hasn't had a problem with it at all and even calls her old room "Baby James' room" now.  (I am knocking on wood just in case you're wondering.)  Hopefully she'll still be as understanding about sharing her upstairs space with a little brother, but so far things have been good and Charlotte loves her big girl purple room!

Photobooth

Yesterday Charlotte discovered Photobooth on my computer and she has been loving taking pictures of herself on it!  Here are some of my favorites!

Recipe Wednesday - Sweet and Sour Pork

I'm always on the look our for slow cooker recipes so when I see them in a magazine I tear them out.  Therefore, I currently have a drawer full of recipes and no time or energy to try them! But I've been trying to try more recipes out and came across this recipe for Sweet and Sour Pork so I gave it a try.  It is a pretty easy meal to throw together and came out really well.  Even Charlotte liked it!  When she tried some she looked at us surprised and said, "This is tasty!" Hope it's a hit at your house too!

Sweet and Sour Pork
Makes 6 servings

2 T vegetable oil
2 lbs pork shoulder for stew, cut into 2 x 1 inch pieces
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
1 large green pepper, cored and seeds removed, sliced
1 can (4 oz) mushroom pieces, drained
1 can (14.5 oz) tomato sauce
3 T packed brown sugar
2 T rice vinegar
2 T soy sauce
1/2 lb egg noodles, cooked

- Coat slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray.
- Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Season pork with salt and pepper and add to skillet.  Saute 3 minutes per side.
- Add pork to slow cooker and layer in onion, green pepper, and mushrooms.  In a small bowl, combine tomato sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, and soy sauce.  Pour over pork and vegetables.
- Cover and cook on High for 6 hours or Low for 8 hours.  Serve over cooked egg noodles.

Sweet Baby James

We're looking at less than 9 weeks to our scheduled c-section date and with that shortened time frame we're getting more and more excited about meeting our little man!  It's hard to believe in that short amount of time we'll be a family of four but the days are passing quickly and we'll be there before we know it!

Thankfully we are pretty set in our preparation for James.  We bought him a new crib since 1) we didn't want to mess up Charlotte's sleep habits since she still sleeps so well in her crib and 2) Charlotte teethed a lot on her crib and we didn't want to give a new baby a tooth-scarred crib!  His crib came in in May and as soon as we got Charlotte moved to her room (post coming soon!) we immediately got the painters back in to paint James' room.  It was a very big transformation going from a light pink room to a light blue room but now that (most) everything is set up I really love the look of it.

We went with a Sherwin Williams color called "Bubble" that we matched it as a lighter version of the fabric in his bedding.  When the room was bare it was a little overwhelming but with all of the brown in the room I think the light, bright color balances out nicely. (These pictures are kind of blown out because of the sun but it's a really rich blue that doesn't really translate in these pictures.)

We chose the Harper crib from Pottery Barn Kids for James and I'm so happy with that decision.  It's a totally different look than Charlotte's crib which separates the spaces even more for me and I think it's a very nice, traditional piece.  We kept all of the other furniture from the nursery so we stayed with the dark espresso toned crib and I think it works nicely with everything that we already had.

The search for bedding was probably the most difficult for me.  It seemed like little boy bedding was either very theme-y or in primary colors and neither of those options really called to us.  And although I love the look of a neutral nursery, it's just not something that I am able to make myself go for in real life. So we ended up designing our bedding with help from the sweet designer at Mod Pea Pod designs.  I was very scared in the time between when we placed our order and when the bedding arrived, but it turned out really great and I love it!

We aren't done with art on all of the walls yet but we're halfway finished.  We kept the sweet shadowboxes that our Mom's made for us when Charlotte was born and I love that touch of something special in the room.  I also asked Kim Wheeler to paint James a painting so that he would have one like Charlotte's.  Kim is fantastic and did a wonderful job in reading my wildest dreams to create his painting and I LOVE EVERY PART OF IT!  If you ever need name artwork for your kids (and Kim is taking orders) you should definitely ask her to paint one for you.  They are fantastic!  We're going to get a canvas from James' newborn session with Erin for another wall but that still leaves one wall open.  So I'm currently looking for some black and white elephant photographs to frame and have a few good leads but nothing solid yet.  Once those get hung I'll repost pictures of the really finished room!

But for right now, I feel very good about where we are.  James could come today and we would only need new accessories like a changing pad.  Even though he won't sleep in his crib until he's sleeping through the night, it helps me feel so much more relaxed when his room is basically complete!  And the fact that I'm very happy with how it turned out makes it even better!

Recipe Wednesday - Shortcut Corn

I don't know about you but I'm pretty bad at making sides to go with meals.  I would much rather just make one casserole or something that we eat basically as our whole meal and add a salad or fruit and veggies with it.  But, I will make this corn to go with dinner because it's so easy and I almost always have corn in my pantry.  There's a good chance that you've been cooking your canned corn like this forever but I hadn't and so when I tried it out it was a miraculous discovery.  And one of the best parts is that Charlotte will eat corn when it's cooked like this so I can eat least get one veggie in her! But be forewarned, I'm guessing that this recipe is really not great for you what with the salt and margarine, but it sure is good!

Shortcut Corn
Serves 4

1 small can Shoepeg Corn
1 small can Yellow Corn
Salt
Pepper
2-3 tablespoons margarine

- Pour both cans of corn into a baking dish.
- Stir corn together until it's evenly mixed.
- Generously salt and pepper the corn and remix.
- Cut margarine into 4 or 5 pats of butter and spread them throughout the corn (i.e. spoon out corn, put the margarine in, and put corn back on top of butter.
- Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until bubbly.

A request from a tv fan

I've been a pretty avid watcher of tv since I got Tivo in college.  I've since moved on to the cable dvr but my love of tv has continued.  Jason and I watch a good bit of tv after Charlotte goes to bed thanks to our dvr and the ability to bypass commercials and watch whenever we have time.  We like trying out new shows for at least a few episodes and have a lot of tried and true staples that we watch season after season.

The biggest problem for tv-lovers like us is the summer when written shows are on hiatus.  We aren't reality people for the most part even though we have watched two seasons of American Idol and watched America's Next Great Restaurant this year.  Other than that we steer clear of reality so the summer poses a dilemma for us in what to watch.  So we've started watching entire shows on dvd or (this summer) on streaming Netflix.  But we're almost finished with our current show and need suggestions for what to watch next!

In the past we've watched Seinfeld, How I Met Your Mother, Gilmore Girls (mostly me when Charlotte was a newborn, but Jason watched a lot too), One Tree Hill, and we're finishing 30 Rock right now.  We will pick up with the last seasons of One Tree Hill and 30 Rock that we missed on live tv as soon as those seasons come out, but for now we're playing a waiting game for those shows.  When we were trying to decide what to watch after OTH we tried out a number of sitcoms on Netflix like Cheers, Parks and Recreation, and SportsNite but one of us kept falling asleep during them so those were nixed.  We're up for drama or comedies and would prefer something that we can get streaming on Netflix but don't mind doing dvd's through Netflix if it isn't streaming.  So, for you fellow tv lovers, please give us your suggestions on what we should watch next! We're almost out of 30Rock and need some help!

And in case you need show suggestions, we've enjoyed all of the tv series that we've watched and some of our favorites on tv currently are Bones, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, and Modern Family!

Breakfast Duties

It's amazing to me how tedious fixing three meals a day for a little one can be.  Even though Charlotte is a pretty good eater, it's still hard to come up with new and different things that are also well balanced and that she'll eat.  So sometimes I just need a break which is where eating out comes in.  But while we go out to dinner fairly regularly and lunch sometimes, we never go out to breakfast.

So last week I got up early, took a shower and got dressed (honestly, a rarity these days) and decided that Charlotte and I were going to go to breakfast.  An omelette was calling my name and I knew that Charlotte, who loves breakfast food, would be so excited for something different.  My plans were thwarted though when Charlotte refused to go without Memma and Papa or Daddy joining us.  So instead we went to Mom and Dad's for breakfast and I ate a pop tart.  Not exactly the culinary masterpiece I was anticipating.

The next day was Saturday so when I woke up I decided that since Daddy was going to be with us already that we would try breakfast out again.  Charlotte was on board with us and we headed to the club for a break from making breakfast.  Charlotte and Daddy enjoyed watching squirrels and golfers while we waited for breakfast and then we enjoyed lots of eggs and cheese grits and biscuits and bacon! It was refreshing to not have to fix breakfast for a change and I think we might do it more often on Saturday's until James is born!

Roll Tide Roll!

When Memma and Papa came back from Tuscaloosa in May they brought her an Alabama jersey.  We are currently letting her pick out her clothes each day which usually results in her wearing a dress but she finally picked out her Alabama jersey as long as she could wear her Alabama shoes with it.  So we got all dressed up in game gear in June!  We're definitely starting her early!

I got the biggest kick when I had her jersey laid on the bed and she looked at it and said, "Oh Mommy! Look, an 8!"  I was shocked since I didn't know that she knew any numbers, much less an eight but apparently Jason had been drawing them for her the night before and she picked it up.  Throughout the day she enjoyed throwing her Alabama football around and loved saying "Roll Tide!"  We took her outside after dinner to get some pictures and she enjoyed prancing around in her jersey!