I love this little person...

We're working hard on teaching her bad habits.

 

Operation: Date Night

As I previously mentioned, for Matt's Valentine's day gift I planned 12 dates to be used once a month for the next year. I put a lot of effort into finding a mixture of things to do; some for the whole family, some just for us, some with friends and some that are cheap or free. As this next year goes along, I'll post pictures and a brief recap of our dates! Here are the activities I have planned for the next year:

March 

• Dinner at Oakwood Cafe and Ben Folds and NC Symphony concert at Meymandi Hall

April

• Strawberry picking at a local farm, then making jam and/or syrup afterwards

May

• Picnic lunch in Pullen Park then tour the NC State JC Raulston Arboretum 

June

• Dinner at the Village Draft House and walk around the NC State Rose Garden

July

• Durham Bulls game with friends on the grass

August

• Movie's by Moonlight at Koka Booth Amphitheater

September

• Concerts at the Hopscotch Music Festival in downtown Raleigh

October

• A day at Carowinds of Busch Gardens (this has been 7 years in the making!!) 

November

• Renaissance Festival with our friends in Charlotte

December

• Cinderella play at the Raleigh Little Theater

                    ~or~

• Ice Skating at Raleigh Winterfest and dinner at Mellow Mushroom

January

• Swing dancing in Durham

February 

• Indy Evening (We'll pick up a copy of the Indy and pick that week's date from there) 

I'm so excited about these dates! I'm so happy that for the next year, I'm guaranteed at least one date a month for the next year! Wahoo! And if anybody is interested in going on a double date for some of these, let me know! I think it would be fun to get a huge group of people together to go to the Bulls game this summer. If we can get at least 20 people going, we can get a group ticket discount. Any way, here's to Operation: Date Night!!

Happy Valentine's Day! Our baby is two months old!

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Matt and I are celebrating with a "French" theme tonight! I'm making, french toast, french fried, french bread, french dip sandwiches, and french onion soup. Ha ha! And for Matt's present, I've planned 12 dates (one for each month) for us to use over the course of the next year. His biggest challenge to date night has always been coming up with things to do, so I think this one is a winner!

But onto the big news, yesterday Baby Girl turned 2 months old! I can't hardly believe how fast the time has gone by (after those first 2 weeks...)

Here are some stats:

"This is my "stop-shoving-that-camera-in-my-face-mommy" face" - Everly

• Baby Girl weighs about 10 lbs.
• Finally fits into her 0-3 month clothes
• Is sleeping longer at night (we had our first sleep through the night last night!!)
• Has rolled over several times! Countless times from tummy to back and once from back to tummy
• Has discovered her hands and is mesmerized by them (and trying to find her thumb to suck on)
• Smiles a lot, but only if we're face to face
• Will say "How" (sort of) back to you if you say "Hi" to her a couple of times
• Loves to listen to the piano and mommy singing Primary hymns
• Has been officially accepted in to the family by Truman (he rubs on her dangling feet if he can find them) 

 

Just falls asleep in Dad's arms.

That's my girl! Being so advanced! :) And I can't believe how big (and fat! I mean seriously! look at that Buddha Belly!) she is! I keep looking at her new born clothes and think about how far she's come. And she's looking more and more like Matt everyday. Which annoys me. So don't mention it.

And now that I realize it, I don't have very many pictures of Evie and me together... I'll have to remedy that this next month. :) Here's hoping it goes by just a smidgen slower.

Life without the Moo

So, unfortunately, Baby Girl has gastrointestinal issues. At 4 weeks old, she had blood in her stool and being the first time mom that I am, instantly freaked and called the doctor. He said it was most likely due to a sensitivity to something in my diet; the most likely candidate being dairy.

Since then, I've cut dairy almost completely out of my diet. And let me tell ya, a sandwich just isn't a sandwich without cheese. I don't really miss drinking milk, although I do miss milkshakes! I have never wanted a cookout milkshake so badly in my life! However, when I cut out the dairy, her fussiness went way down, so here I sit... cheese and milkshake-less.

So in efforts to make the best of it, I've gone in search for some yummy dairy-free recipes. Here are my favorites so far:

• "Loaded" Black Bean Soup
• Here's what I put in mine: avocado (this replaced the creaminess I would've gotten from the sour cream), cilantro, crumbled bacon, andouille sausage, lime (I squeezed this on at the end and it was wonderful!). And I didn't miss the cheese at all!
• Bourbon Chicken with my yummy green beans
• I served the chicken over brown rice and served my yummy green beans to go with. They's super easy to make. Here's the recipe!

Teri's Yummy Green Beans - serves 4

• 2 T butter
• 4 handfuls of frozen green beans (I like the long skinny kind, not the cut ones)
• One or two shakes of Lawry's Seasoning Salt
• 1 T dried minced onions

Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the green beans, seasoning salt, and onions. Toss to coat and allow the green beans to warm through.

• Steak and Mango Salad (made this for a lunch date with the lovely Carla)
• I used frozen mango chunks because fresh mangoes are hard to come by this time of year.
• Crispy Coconut Chicken Fingers
• So crispy and delicious, but it wasn't as good the next day, so only make as many as you think you'll eat!

What's with this weather, eh?

I'm not complaining! Far from it! I'm wondering what NC did to deserve such a wonderfully mild winter. And Baby Girl and I have been taking advantage of it fully! I try to go for a walk with her everyday whether it's just down the street, at the shopping center or at my favorite park, Lake Johnson.

I foolishly tried to walk around Lake Johnson the whole way with Baby Girl the other day...It took us an hour and a half to get all the way around. And about half of the way around, Baby Girl decided she was done being in her car seat and started wailing. Well, there wasn't much I could do, but press forward. And I was sore the next day. From walking. That is how out of shape I am. (But in my defense, Lake Johnson has some pretty serious hills to it) 

Any way, I hope you have been enjoying the weather as much as we have! :)