Food for the baby!

It's about that time again.  We are starting Athaiah on big girl food!  I love watching them at this stage explore all the fun and different flavors of food.  I made our baby food last time and we decided to do it again this time.  It is way easier on the wallet than buying a whole bunch of the baby food in the jars.  The run down on the cost is usually between 4 and 11 cents for 2 oz, which is about what they eat in the beginning. 

I make a lot of basics and then I just mix them together to make a lot of fun and different mixes.  Here is what I have made...pears, apples, bananas, mango, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, and squash.  I need to make fresh of all the veggies as I had one small bag of each leftover from when Elijah was eating them.  They have been in the deep freeze so they are still good to use, but won't last us too long. 

 She has tried all the fruit so far and has loved it.  Last night she ate sweet potatoes for the first time, we mixed it with some pears.  She couldn't get enough.  My little eater is quickly turning into a big eater in just a few weeks.  It is amazing how good she is doing and how much she is loving it. Her current favorite is pears, she can't get enough of them.  She isn't too keen on bananas, it must be a texture thing, Elijah didn't like them until he ate them as finger food. Usually once she is done with all the basic flavors then I start to slowly add extras.  A big combination of fruit for a fruit salad feel, or a whole bunch of veggies together.  I love to add cinnamon and nutmeg to pears, apples, and sweet potatoes.  They just seem to make them taste so much better, and it is fun for them because then they get a taste of something different.

(Cute little messy lips!)

I can't wait to finish making everything and to have fun experimenting with different types of food.  I think this year I may make some pumpkin, it wasn't really too fresh when Elijah 1st started baby food, so I would like to try it this time.  Speaking of Elijah he still loves the baby food, every time we sit down for Athaiah to eat he comes and sits right next to us and begs for bites the whole time.  That boy and food, I tell you what!

New Shoes

Thanks to my wonderful family, I was able to buy some really nice, new running shoes.  This I think was by far one of the best birthday presents ever.  And thanks to a great friend, I got an amazing recommendation to a wonderful shoe store in Salina.  Let me tell you what, we had an amazing experience and it is definitely a place we will go back to time after time.

I was finally able to take these bad boys out for a spin today. 

 Can I just say it is about time!!  We got these on Saturday and with the kiddos because the kiddos were still acting a bit sick I didn't want to take them out in the cold for too long. The review so far....AMAZING! No shin splints, no sore knees, feet or hips.  And to top it off when I was running it felt like I was floating. Excited beyond belief for our next run!

Here are my bundled up walking buddies.  Aren't you jealous?  No better walking/running partners that two little sweet peas. (yes that is a cucumber in little man's hand, we picked it when we got home and he insisted on holding in in the picture.)

Life Saver

We have battling snotty noses and barking coughs all week.  Which make for some pretty long days and nights.  The kiddos seem more tired then normal. Take this morning for example Elijah slept until 11am! What where did that come from?  Athaiah has been still fighting her naps some and pretty much refuses to sleep unless I hold her(can we say princess?).

Any way on to my life saver...Vicks!  Elijah has been coughing a lot at night and it wakes him up, but he thankfully will usually drift back off to sleep without any help.  Athaiah on the other hand will not sleep.  I think the night before last she maybe slept for an hour total.  It was a rough night and surprisingly enough our day went pretty good even though we both didn't get much sleep.  Last night we pulled out the vicks.  Greg rubbed it on the bottom of their feet and guess what?  Athaiah slept the longest she has...ever!  She slept from midnight until 5:30 this morning, she ate, and then went back to bed until 8am.  Which gave mommy some much needed rest.  She also didn't sound nearly so bad this morning when she woke up.  My official new life saver and go to remedy when the kiddos are sick...vicks on the bottom of their feet. (We had footy pj's on them both, otherwise you may want to cover them with socks!)

6 months

Happy 6 months to my baby girl!

I can't believe it has been 6 months already.  Where has the time gone?  I feel like we were just welcoming you into this big world.

 You can roll over!

 You love to eat your toes!

 

 You try and stand by yourself, even though you have yet to conquer sitting.

You talk, giggle, and blow raspberries(one of your favorite noises).

You and your brother, get along so well.  You both love to snuggle and wrestle.

Happy 6 months to our little pumpkin! We love you!

Fresh Start!

Here's to a fresh start! In our yard that is.  Our front lawn(and back) have been a complete disaster.  It is going to take a bit to really make everything look beautiful, but we plug away at it little by little!

This weekend(ok Saturday) I worked my hinny off in the front yard.  Greg mowed to get all the grass really short.  Then I went outside and got to work while he went off to play! I raked the yard, oh my goodness was that hard.  There was so much junk in the yard(mainly acorn shells) all over the place I think it took me like an hour to do.  This was the hard part, I went through the whole yard with my little shovel and dug up all the dandelions-and yes there were a million of them.  Then I raked it again, with the hard rake to loosen up all the soil.  Next came the compost...we don't have a wheel barrel so lets just say a bucket and shovel were my best friend and it took FOREVER!  But I got it all spread out. Later that evening I put out all the grass seed and gently raked over it all and watered it to set it all in good. Here's to hoping it actually comes up, because that was a lot of hard work!

I went through all the flower beds, dug up all the weeds, cut back all the dying plants, and then planted new! YEAH!  Greg bought me some mums and tulip and daffodil bulbs.  We went to work on getting all those planted.

Now I can have a year round garden! Hooray for a beautiful yard all year.

Elijah had a lot of fun helping mommy in the garden!

I love to garden! Confession: I love to garden barefoot! I love to feel the mud and dirt on my feet-I know I'm weird.