Sunday Dinner at My Parents

You'd think I'd see my family more since they all live within 15 minutes of my house, but I really don't. I wish I did! We do get together for Sunday dinner at my parent's house once or twice a month. We had dinner last night. It was fun to see everyone and it was such a nice evening outside. The kids played on the grass while the rest of us sat by the outdoor fireplace my parents recently installed. It was nice to sit and visit & enjoy not only each other's company, but a great night outside. We missed you, Sam! It will be nice when you don't have to work weekends anymore.

{Photos courtesy of Ali}


my little family


Nate looking at Daisy....


and Daisy looking at Nate.


me and my dad

Wes & I with Daisy

Abbers and Kyle playing on the grass

Uncle Jerry & Halene

Nate with Grandpa

Nate with Grandma

The Daisers

Abbie

My 7 month old

I can't believe I have a 7 month old.

He's been giving me a run-for-my-money lately with his crazy "I don't want milk from mom" and his "flips" while he sleeps. He's been flipping himself over and getting stuck throughout the night and his naps which has been interesting. He's quite a character!

He is definitely more of a little boy to me than a little baby. He's so interactive & I love seeing his personality develop. This month he really started doing things on his own which is WONDERFUL for me! We moved on to Stage 2 food and he loves it. I also started giving him the Gerber puffs as a snack and he LOVES being able to feed himself! It only took him a few tries before he could get them in his mouth on his own. He sees the can of puffs and starts kicking his legs and reaching for them. His other favorite snack is to suck on fruit through his mesh bag. He still throws his mini-tantrums when I take the bag away to re-fill it. He also loves his sippy cup. It's nice to be able to leave something in front of him knowing he can get it when he wants it. He really likes to drink water.



He's been sitting up for a month or so but now he rarely falls over. I LOVE that he sits in a highchair at restaurants and he loves sitting in the shopping cart at the grocery store. He especially loves Target for some reason. He holds on tight to the cart and makes a bunch of noise & looks around at everything going on. It makes me not dread going grocery shopping because he loves it now.

Prior to getting sick, he was sleeping through the night. When he finally gets better, I'm hoping we get back to that.



My favorite new things are: He shakes his head no at you. He isn't saying "no"....he just likes to shake his head. It's funny to watch. He's a little bashful. If you're holding him and someone makes him laugh, he buries his head in your shoulder as he's laughing. Changing his diaper and getting him dressed is definitely a challenge. He flips over in what seems like less than a second! We have to pin him down to get a diaper on. I don't think he's going to crawl anytime soon because he still hates being on his tummy. If we put him on the couch he does this army crawl but the minute he's on the floor he is too focused on getting off his belly than moving. He does like to pull himself up on things, though! He's such a joy in our home. He keeps getting more and more fun!


{sick of pictures}


{on a walk in our jogging stroller}


{he loves being outside and on walks}


{sitting outside on a nice day}


{the first time he ate a puff}


{playing with his cousin, Abbie}

Nate LOVES his dad. Wes can get him laughing more than anyone else....





{Wes playing "peek a boo" after Nate was done eating}

{Nate loves to "fly" with dad}

{Nate LOVES hair. It's quite painful!}

My Quirky Kid

We all have a quirk or two. Nate's is that he won't drink milk from his mom.

Let me give some background. When Nate was 2 months old, he refused to nurse. I tried and tried but he would not do it. Instead of arguing with my baby every 3 hours, I decided to pump my life away to give him breastmilk in a bottle. So, since he was 2 months old he's been drinking solely bottles. I gave him formula every few days so he'd drink it if necessary. He's never been picky about his milk.

A few weeks ago, Nate decided that he didn't really want milk anymore. At least that's what I thought. Really, he just doesn't want it when I feed it to him. He will not drink milk out of a bottle if it's me trying to feed him. The minute I hand him to someone else he eats right away. There's another trick to this....I can't even be in the room. If he sees me, he won't eat. Tonight, we were putting him down for the night & I literally had to leave the room before he would start eating. Earlier when I was at my mom's, I started to feed him but he wouldn't eat. As soon as my mom tried, he ate the whole bottle. What a quirky kid. Anyone have any ideas as to why this is or how I can fix it?

Wes is going skiing this weekend with the young men so if I show up on your door step with a baby and a bottle ~ please feed him for me!

Here are a few pictures of Mr. Quirky....

sucking on a cold carrot.

laughing with dad before church

his new favorite thing is to climb the kitchen chair!

It doesn't get any better than this

Perfect Weather. A Laughing Baby. Time with Friends & Family.



Can I just say that the weather has been {PERFECT} for the last week.

• It's 70 degrees.
• The sky is bright blue and the sun is shining.
• My windows at home are open all day long & I drive with the sun roof open and the windows down.
• We take lots of walks.
• We eat outside.
• We have on short sleeve shirts and flip flops.
• Nate hangs out in just a onesie so I can stare at his chunky thighs and little feet all day long.

I looooveee Las Vegas this time of year. It definitely makes the insanely hot summers worth it to be able to have weather like this the majority of the year. I realized today that I need to take advantage of it even more so I'm sure Nate and I will be at the park next week a number of times. Anyone who lives here want to join us?

Another thing that brightened my afternoon was Nate in his highchair. He seriously loves food. It's by far his most favorite thing in life. I finally got out his teething mesh bag thing and put some fruit in it today for him and he loved it. Loved it. Loved it. When the fruit was pretty much gone inside because he sucked it out of the bag, I took it away from him to give him another piece and he threw his first little mini-tantrum! He calmed down when he realized he was getting it back with more fruit. That will be our new late afternoon routine because he just laughed and laughed and laughed with his fruit.

The weather, a mesh bag with fruit, lunch at Cafe Rio with Nikki & Tessa Treese & dinner with my two favorite boys made today a great one.

5:00pm & Salsa

Not sure if you have a certain time of day that is just bound to be crazy. Mine is 5:0opm.

Tonight was no exception. I had oven timers going off telling me dinner for my sick neighbors was ready, boss calling me with one crisis, reading an email about another work crisis, Wes calling to tell me his plane is 1.5 hours delayed so he'll be home late, all while Nate tried his hardest to be patient in his highchair but lost it at about 5:30pm.

Go figure. The one night I actually make us dinner, Wes' plane is super delayed and so his dinner will be in the Ontario, California airport.

This brings me to the reason of my post. I love getting recipes from other people on their blogs so I thought I'd post one about part of my dinner...one of my favorite things in the world: salsa.

If you don't like cilantro, this one isn't for you. But since I love cilantro, this is one of my favs:

28oz. can diced tomatoes

1 can green chiles

1 bunch green onions, chopped

1/2 bunch cilantro

(I have a small food processor so I stick it in there. I also put a little more than a 1/2 bunch).

1 TB. garlic salt

1 TB. chile powder

Combine them all and you have a yummy, somewhat homemade, salsa. Can't wait to put Nate down so I can sit with a bowl of chips and salsa and watch some TV.

a happy boy

{ These pictures have nothing to do with this post. We took them a week or two ago and I've been meaning to post them. Since this post is all about Nate, I figured now is a good time.}

We can tell Nate is feeling better because he has been MR. HAPPY this weekend. You know those times when your baby is just extra happy? That has been Nate. This weekend was so fun with him.

On Friday, he started shaking his like he's saying no. It is so funny. He'll even do it back to you when you shake your head at him. He also was talking and laughing like crazy. He sounds like he's saying "mama" but I'm pretty sure it's just babbling. He also sticks his tongue in and out while he's making noise. He cracks himself up.

He's also a little bashful these days. If I'm holding him and Wes smiles and laughs at him, he buries his head in my chest & vise versa. Then he looks up and wants you to smile and laugh at him again. It's fun to see him develop in to his own little being.

Since he got sick last week, we've been having him shower with Wes in the morning and at night. The bathroom is super steamy & it has really helped drain his head of all the congestion. He LOVES the shower ~ he insists on facing the water so he can try to drink it. The water splashes off of Wes' shoulder on to Nate so he tries to lick the water that's splashing him. He loves it & it's so cute to watch. It was interesting trying to get a picture because my lens steamed up within seconds of being in the bathroom!

It's amazing how many phases kids go through. I love the happy phases. It helps you get through the not-so-happy phases & I've learned to truly appreciate and enjoy whatever phase he is in. I feel like his personality has really started to develop & it's so fun to watch. Wes and I found ourselves laughing with him all weekend & it was really fun & exciting.

a good day

Today was a good day. It started off with the usual. Wes played basketball at 6am. I went to WW to weigh in at 9:00 and on my way home I went grocery shopping, to the post office & to pick up dry cleaning. The rest of the day was spent together....just the way a Saturday should be!

{It was a BEAUTIFUL day today. We were outside & since I'm never in any pictures with Nate because I'm always taking them....Wes took a few of me and my little man.}

Wes, Nate & I ran a few errands in the late morning. We were near Sam's house & needed to drop off a few things to her so we hung out at her house for a bit. Nate took a great afternoon nap so Wes and I were able to relax and watch some TV together. We then met our friends, The Earls, for dinner at Red Robin. We really enjoy Sam, Anya & the boys & we don't see them nearly enough. It takes Noah and Ikey about 30 minutes to warm up to us but eventually they do and we love their cute personalities. It will be fun when Nate is a little bigger and can join in their crazy fun. Nate didn't off to a good start with Noah though because he got a hold of Noah's hair a few times! Noah was not very happy about that but quickly got over it and was back to being Nate's friend.

Here are a few pictures of the boys....