Catching Up

Well, I guess you can tell that things have been very busy at work and home -- so I am going to pretend like it is a month ago and post some (or a ton) pictures from E's sixth month and Christmas:



Six months was full of family and holidays. Derek got tickets to the Vikings/Redskins game on Christmas Eve and was in heaven.



Eleanor looked really cute in her Christmas Eve dress from Grandma Prosser. We even made it through church without any major meltdowns.





We each opened up one present on Christmas Eve...Reggie was very interested in his (a Christmas Cow that was destroyed about 5 minutes after this picture was taken).



Christmas morning was a little different this year. First off, there were approximately 759 more presents under the tree than last year...all of them for E.







My parents flew in on Christmas Day, so we did a whole other round of presents when they got in.



We gave my mom a picture calendar of all the families and grandkids, and as you can tell from this picture, it was a success.



My mom knitted Eleanor a top -- she loved it!



Something E did not love, however, was peas. She actually gagged out loud right after this picture.



Another one of my mom's creations, a knitted purple sweater.



We took Eleanor to the National Zoo while my parents were in town. She fell asleep in the car on the way there and did not open her eyes until we got back in the car to go home...so I'm not sure it really counts for her first visit.





Like Father, like daughter (this may or may not have been at 8:15pm on any given day).



Lots of family pics in the dress Grams made:













And my new favorite picture of Reginald.



Coming up next (or at least before her first birthday), E's 7th month and our trip to ND.

5 Months...a little late

With one week to spare...here is Eleanor's 5 month old picture.



Lots of happenings going on here in the last month or so...Eleanor rolled over the day before I went back to work (I think she knew I wanted to be there to see her do it for the first time). She sits up unassisted for a few seconds at a time, or for long times with the help of her Bumbo or Boppy. She loves her jumperoo and continues to be mesmerized by Reggie (even giving him a few "pets" here and there). So far, she likes sweet potatoes, bananas, apples, pears, and carrots. She does not like peas (just like me), but she tolerates them enough to finish them.





She celebrated Halloween by dressing up as a pumpkin and even went trick or treating to a few houses (Derek was nice enough to collect her candy for her).







We took her to the park, and she sat in the swing for the first time and really seemed to like it. We've gone on a few jogs in the jogging stroller, and she absolutely loves being outside. A few not so fun things happened this month as well...first cold, first ear infection, and first rash (which means that Derek and I have also been sick for the last month...oh, the joys of daycare).



In other news, I made dressing balls for the first time without the my mom's supervision (phone calls don't count), and I think I did a pretty good job...but there is always room for improvement. My pumpkin obsession continues: I made pumpkin cinnamon rolls and pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting (thanks to my mom).

4 Months and Pumpkin Patch

Check out our little 4 Month Old:



She is WAY more vocal now -- lots of squealing, screeching, giggles, and smiles. She seemed to be getting a little bored with our routine and seems happiest when she has a toy in her hand. She is desperately trying to crawl, but her arms just won't move. This results in her going in circles on her playmat. No rolling over yet, but we are doing "assisted rolling over" with Mom and Dad's help.

Stats:

Head: 60%
Height: 24.75 in. - 70%
Weight: 14lb 8oz - 71%

Pumpkin Patch

Derek and I took Eleanor to a little farm about 35 miles east of here to pick pumpkins. This place will be awesome when E can walk around, but for now, we just carried her in the Bjorn and showed her some farm animals, pumpkins, etc. Even though she probably had no clue what she was looking at, she seemed to have a good time.




(if only I knew how to photo-shop the spit up out of this photo)








Sporting her John Lennon shades

The Lone Star State

Eleanor made her first trip to Dallas two weeks ago, which also involved her first plane ride (and my first trip solo with an infant). Overall, the flights went well. The plane gods must have been in a good mood because we had two empty seats next to us on the way down to Dallas and one empty seat on the flight home. Who knows what it would have been like if we didn't have that luxury. The toughest part was going through security at National...the TSA agents pretty much just watched and laughed at me as I tried to put all of my crap through the X-ray machine and fold up a stroller while carrying an infant (who also happened to be spitting up at the same time). The TSA agents at DFW, however, helped me do everything and were really nice (imagine that...East Coast people = generally rude and Southern people = generally nice).

E had a great time in Dallas. She hung out with Grams and Grandpa and Hobby and Kora and went to church to see the blessing of the animals. She also met my best friends, went to her cousin's birthday party, and was introduced to the best burrito restaurant in the world (Freebirds...seriously, one trip there confirmed my hatred for Chipotle).



Hanging out with Grandpa


Chillin with Grams


Lounging in Grandpa's seat


Eying my Freebirds Hybird

Recipes

Dinner

Derek and I were getting a little bored with our dinner routine, so we started a search for some new recipes. Around the same time, the new issue of Real Simple came, and it had an entire section devoted to four weeks of meal planning, complete with shopping lists. We started with Week 2 and made four different meals: Chicken with Wild Rice and Grapes; Shrimp Tacos with Black Beans; Steak with Cognac Sauce and Salad (we substituted Bourbon because we didn't have any cognac); and Pasta with Sausage and Tomatoes. (I completely forgot to take pictures, but the recipes at Real Simple have photos). Overall, we really liked the recipes -- our favorite was probably the Steak, followed closely by the Chicken and Shrimp for me. All of the recipes were really quick and relatively cheap.

After a week off, we tried four of the Week 1 recipes: Tomato Soup with Roast Beef Panini; Pork Chops with Roasted Beets and Oranges (we left off the beets...gross); Chicken with Potatoes, Bacon, and Cabbage; Tortellini with Butternut Squash, Mushrooms, and Fontina. These were also a hit, minus this: I still hate cabbage...even when there is bacon on it (and that is saying a lot), so I think we will do spinach next time. My favorite was the Tomato Soup and Panini, followed by the Tortellini, and the Pork Chops.

I even remembered to take a picture of one of the meals -- Pork Chops (with couscous).



One other recipe we discovered (from Rachel Ray) that I am in love with is Lemon Spaghetti (I could seriously eat this everyday and not get sick of it). You can find the recipe here.

Pumpkin!!

Now that Fall has officially arrived, I started my annual pumpkin obsession. I was in search of some new recipes and found a few on Pinterest. I followed this recipe to make pumpkin bread, and it was awesome.



My second pumpkin attempt, however, was not as successful. I tried this recipe for pumpkin/chocolate chip brownies, and they were just ok. The consistency was off or something...they just sort of tasted like pumpkin bread with chocolate chips rather than brownies.

Derek and I took Eleanor to the pumpkin patch (post on that to come later), but we picked up some little gourds and stuff for decorating, so now our house looks a little more ready for the Fall.