BEEP! BEEP!

Ian is getting SO big!! He really has become a "little man" as Clark would say. We went grocery shopping and he got to ride in the "cool cart." He LOVED IT! Thank you Auntie!

Our first experience with spaghetti. We also had our first Heimlich episode that night. Somehow he choked on a noodle an hour later?? That's all I could get him to throw up. Scary!

Ian leaving Target with his new potty!

I thought since he does his "duties" in the tub everyday an easier way to deal with it was to try to get him to do it in a potty in the morning. It went well for the first week...and then we had super late nights and early mornings at the house. I think I'll leave this one on the back burner until he's a year old and we're back home. I think he'll do well (4 out of 7) but I realize it's just as much "Mommy-training" as "potty-training." Mommy just needs time first!

Ian is also learning a lot of stuff. He is RUNNING everywhere! He frequently gives kisses and "hugs." He also has been really silly. One of his favorite "tricks" is to slap his tummy and say "ooo." That would be him being a monkey! SO FREAKING CUTE!! He is a little stinker about eating lately. We have to be very careful with when we eat so he doesn't scream until we let him eat all our food. He'll do it even if he's not hungry...especially if he knows we're having ice cream! Ian is also using the phrase "whahistit." He usually says it with a fairly confused look on his face so we think he's saying "What is it?"  

Since last time we have gotten so much done at the house. Everything on our list is done and we have finished hanging sheet rock! I spent all day Saturday (12 hours) measuring, cutting and hanging drywall...by myself! Can you believe it?!?! I dare say I may be a true DIY-er!

See the drywall right here? The little pieces...

so...those may have been my first pieces of drywall...ever!! I was so proud of myself!

27 pieces later....

MY PANTRY!! I put up 4 sheets of drywall in the pantry...by myself!

Hello! They are heavy and I was tired after 12 hours!

Anyway, we have a guy coming this week to tape, mud, sand, texture, prime the whole downstairs and paint the ceilings. So glad I won't have to deal with that mess. We were planning to do it ourselves, but this guy could come when we needed him, doesn't cost a ton and he will be done in a week with what would take us several weeks! He will be done Friday so we can paint this weekend.

I am going to be stenciling this for my back splash. Not exactly sure how it'll look but I can always paint over it right? I love the design and can't afford tile right now. I did find another argyle pattern I liked but a stencil seems like a lot less work.

Following painting, we will be hanging cabinets, ordering our countertops and laying our laminate. Carpet goes in on the 29th! The next few weeks will be busy...but we'll get to move back home soon! I almost get a little excited about it...KINDA!

"MOM...do you see what I have?"

"GRR! I AM SO STRONG!"

He just swung that piece of sheet rock around like it was a baton! His father is so proud!

He's such a good helper...not really!

Lastly...my $2 rummage sale find...

A little paint and new handles...cute craft desk! It has the gliding drawers even...not the old kind! Two bucks...can you believe it?!? LOVE IT!

Deadlines and Birthdays!

Ok...so I have to be the worst blogger ever! In my defense, I have been super busy! Changes in plans have been keeping me on my toes. We now decided to just rip out the whole downstairs, stay with my in-laws and remodel the whole thing at once. Our deadline is October 7th, Ian's birthday. So far we're done getting all the plaster and lathes off, flooring out, walls ripped out, header beam put up, and walls in the bathroom up. We also have the plumbing done and alot of the electrical roughed in.

Our next step is to finish a little duct work, a couple walls, pantry (which I'm more than a little excited about!) and closet. After that will be sheetrock! We're getting there!! I am optimistic that we'll be done on time...my husband...not so much! We have 7 weeks left....EEK!!

On to more exciting stuff...Ian!! My little man is walking already! He started about two weeks ago and has been going nonstop. He goes to the trash can about 50 times a day and recently tried to eat a toilet brush...so gross! He didn't actually get it in his mouth, but he didn't really love the fact I kept saying "NO." Ian has also learned to patty-cake, high five, give kisses, do so-big and "try" to feed himself with a spoon. He is such a loving little boy! While he is very naughty sometimes, I wouldn't give it up for the world! His smile is just so precious...

I've been trying to figure out what I want to do for Ian's 1st birthday. I'm thinking monsters. I have a couple ideas...monster cookies, cupcakes made to look like monsters with candy, some type of hat thingees to look like monsters. That's all I've really got so far. Does anyone have cool ideas for me to try? I'm open to suggestions.

Have a great day! Til my next blog post...

**I really wanted to put pictures up, but my phone isn't working for pictures right now...bummer!**

REMODELING!!!

While at Home Depot the other day I found a great deal on the cabinets we wanted (in 6 months). So now it is full steam ahead to get sheet rock up before the cabinets come in. We have to order by July 10, so as soon as we are home from Wyoming we will be ordering. We are focusing on the Bedroom to Laundry/Bathroom redo and then we'll remodel the whole kitchen...with a 7 foot island!!!

During the remodel I have a feeling there will be a lot of grilling and frozen pizza....sorry! No new recipes probably this summer...but once I have a new kitchen...then we can talk!!

We are heading to my parents' land in Wyoming for a week and a half tomorrow. Ian and I will stay the whole time and James will head out and back both weekends to drop us off and get us.

Ian has an ear infection, so that should be fun on a vacation. We took him to acute care tonight because he has been tugging on his ears for a week and today started running a fever. Sure enough...Momma's right! Ear infection. Just a single this time so hopefully because it's just the ear infection instead of everything he had before he'll heal just fine.

Little guy is on the verge of walking...he walks next to everything and can stand without holding onto anything (if he doesn't notice.)

Off to pack!! Have a great day!!

Whew! I'm exhausted!

Ian is taking a nap, I have a few seconds...blog I shall!

Very busy few weeks...

I did a gall bladder flush. Sorry to disappoint, but I have no pics of that!

I weeded this 8x4 area for an herb bed...by hand!

James put down the retaining wall. I couldn't get the dirt level so I "let" him do it!

 We still don't have dirt.

I made some garden picks to label my seeds and plants in my garden.

Don't have a finished picture yet..they are cute though!

I'll try to get a picture up when I get my other projects done.

Ian was loving being in the garage with me. He just LOVES being outside in general!

 Chicken Florentine...Delish!

Chicken Florentine Recipe

 Packed and ready for Grandma's house!

Ian went to Grandma's because....

I took a motorcycle safety course that focused on familiarizing yourself with a motorcycle.

I only crashed once before passing the class...SUCCESS!!

Not the greatest picture of Ian..but "His Royal Cuteness" still shines!

"MOM!! Are you looking at me!?!"

He walked the whole edge of the couch!

**Gasp! There is stuff on the floor!**

I'm a grown-up now with a Sam's Club membership.

Guess what they give you for your $40 donation???

**That hamburger on the front is Yummo! It involves marinated fresh basil and mozzarella cheese.**

Last picture...Ian likes grass! He was afraid at first but now enjoys it.

**Look at them lil toes!**

Umm...not what we were expecting!

 Ian helping himself to his Easter Basket.

It wasn't a super exciting basket, just juice, peach yogurt bites, biter biscuits,

sippy cup, and a banana masher thingee.

 "See mom! I'm ready for a sippy cup!"

 Trying out his banana masher with an orange...didn't have banana's.

Apparently, not a huge fan of oranges yet.

My new recipe this week sounded delicious...I was so excited to try it! I watched Rachael Ray make it one morning and it sounded like something we would like. Doesn't Pasta Ribbons with Peas, Prosciutto, Cream and Spring Pesto sound amazing? It wasn't. Maybe our palette just isn't sophisticated enough...but yikes! I thought it tasted more like mint and citrus gum mixed with noodles.

 It looks yummy....

 What we really had for supper...frozen pizza...and it was AWESOME!

In other news...Ian is crawling. I try to get pics of him as he goes but he's very stubborn (much like Daddy). So this is what I got of him today...he was crawling across the living room to his empty bottle.

 "Ready Mom? Here I go!"

 "See...I am the cutest kid you know!"

 ZOOM!

 "Mom, you should totally try this! It is so much fun!!"

 "Don't you dare move...I just crawled all the way over here to get you!"

 "Ha! Gotcha!"

"Num. Num. Num."

Yesterday my mother-in-law and I sat down to draw up my gardens. It was so fun...but now James is mad. I was planning to just do my garden I had last year and maybe an herb bed...yeah I'm not doing that! I am building another main garden near my old one, an herb garden, and a little flower bed down the edge of my garage. They might not all end up "built" this year but I will still plant stuff there. It's expensive to build new beds...sad face. Anyway, I have a plan and my rhubarb is planted, my chives and some leftover garlic is coming up, and my next order of business is to find my "new" strawberries.

Due to a change in plans it appears that we will be starting a remodel on the house this winter/next summer. So now I don't know what to do...do I finish the bathroom and rip all my hard work out in 6 months-1 year...or do I just leave it as is and save the money for my new bathroom, laundry room, remodel?? This is why there have not been pics of my new bathroom up yet...it's not finished!

Roast, Eggs and Babies...oh my!

A couple weeks ago I tried a new recipe but never put it on my blog. It was the day we took Ian to acute care so a friend actually finished it for me (thanks Angie!). Anyway, it was a shredded pork recipe that was delicious!! It was called Spicy Dr. Pepper Shredded Pork, from the Pioneer Woman's blog. It was very good! I tried a little straight out of the pan...awesome!

I ate it on hamburger buns with a little Swiss cheese...amazing!

I think my favorite was to eat it was on tacos...with some of my canned jalapenos from last summer!

I think the only adjustment I would make for myself is to use chili verde sauce instead of the chili peppers in adobe sauce. Also, next time I'm going to cook it in the crock pot. Gives me a little versatility to leave the house as it cooks. I actually only made a half recipe and it lasted our family of two a week! Definitely try this one!! It's PORK people!! Those of you who don't know me might not know that I as a general rule don't like pork...but this was SO GOOD!!

See the baby play! He is feeling like his old self again! Ever since he's felt better he has not stopped. He started by getting up on his knees...and then rocking on his knees. Then it progressed until now...he is in his crawling position and then he stands on his back legs! He is SO SMART! I'm going to try to get a video of it posted...as soon as I figure out how to get my camera hooked up to the computer!

Here are some pictures of Ian being himself...

Eating like a pig.

Exhausted from playing so hard!

 Thinking about causing chaos with his bottle...

Causing chaos with his bottle!

This picture is so dark because I had to walk away before he would play...stinker!

The last thing I wanted to share with everyone on this "catch-up post" are the Easter Eggs I made. I made them following this tutorial by Samster Mommy. 

The materials you need...plus toothpicks and paper! They didn't make the picture.

My pretty glitter!!

My eggs in all their glittered splendor!!

Aren't they beautiful?

I layered them in a bowl with some basket filling.

I love my eggs! Thanks Samster Mommy for the great idea!

That's the end of my "catch-up post", hope everyone has a great week!

Remember...all that glitters is AWESOME!

No new recipes...However, a very eventful couple of weeks.

Let's just get right to it!

After Ian's acute care visit on the first of April (no joke here) he really wasn't doing much better and actually seemed to be feeling a bit worse. As the days progressed his breathing was getting more raspy, which I thought may have been because of the meds loosening him up...it wasn't. On Wednesday (the 6th) I woke up early so I could make him a doctor appointment for that day (at 10:45).  I called Amy (James' sister), who's a nurse, to let her know I planned to take him in because he wasn't breathing well. We decided it would be best to head to the city and at least be in the waiting room in case he would be able to be seen right away or suddenly got worse. Turns out we made the right decision. On the way to the city Ian started grunting because he was breathing so hard. We took him to the ER (per pediatrician instructions) after a quick call to the doctor's office on our way.

The ER visit was totally useless. I was told "Babies grunt because they are pooping, playing or have stomach aches." He was on antibiotics for 5 days and had a fever when we arrived..."Oh, he probably just has a different upper respiratory infection." His blood oxygen level was at 93 (down from 96 on the 1st when they told me that wasn't good) when we arrived and at 92 when we left..."That's perfectly normal." Quick check in his ears..."Those look good." After a screaming kid has his 2nd chest x-ray in a week..."Those look a little better." They had us in and out in an hour...with more albuterol treatments (every 4 hours).

I called Ian's doctor's office while still in the ER and told them I wanted a second opinion. They fit us in the next day (7th..Happy Birthday to Me!). We went to his appointment...I'm sicker than a dog and Ian is appearing to be feeling fine. Doctor says it could be a fluke and babies will change their behavior from day to day and still be sick. After I hack my head off and doctor thinks I may have whatever my child has, they decide to run a panel of blood tests to see what exactly is wrong with my baby, who has been sick for a month now.

Turns out...
1) Shouldn't you be on a different antibiotic if the one you're on isn't treating "the upper respiratory infection"?
2) They like to see a babies blood oxygen at 94 or higher. They don't get "concerned" until it's under 90.
3) He still had a double ear infection...that the antibiotic was being used to treat (not the upper respiratory infection).
4) There was no change in his chest x-ray.
5) His blood tests all came back negative, which means whatever he has is viral.

They put him on 5 days of steroids and albuterol treatments only as needed. Since they didn't call with test results until 4:30 on Friday afternoon, I wasn't able to go to doctor to get whatever it is that I needed. I figure "No biggie...I'll tough it out til Monday." Sunday James brings me to acute care after I cough til I gag on the phone with my mom. I have a severe sinus infection (for sure had it 2 weeks) with a cough. They had me continue my Mucinex for the congestion, take Tylenol 3 (codine) for the pain and cough and start a high dose z-pac to avoid infection in my bronchials.

 Anyway, I went to my mom's all day on Monday so I could sleep. I dealt with a screaming kid on Tuesday. Wednesday, I was finally feeling better and babysat for a friend for 2 hours. She in turn watched mine so I could catch up on sleep. Thursday, back to the city for a check on Ian's lungs...clear!!! Hung out with my grandma. I finally stayed home all day on Friday and we had a date night in with rented movies. Today, James, Ian and I went to the city, yet again, and finally purchased me a new wash machine! Yay.

So that is why there are no new recipes this week and I have no energy left to try and post pictures with this...I'm exhausted! Goodnight all!

Meds and Flops

Ok...So this week we will be doing baby things first. Ian has been doing nebulizer treatments for the past three weeks and seemed to be doing really well with them.

Thursday night, before I put him in bed, I noticed he had a temp, he's teething now so I didn't think it was anything to worry about. Friday morning he woke up with a low fever.

Look at those eyes...

His temp continued to go up, even with Tylenol, so I called his pediatrician. They called me back right away and said to take him to acute care so he could be seen right away. We packed up and headed to the big city. Checked in...waiting...temp 102.8.

Poor baby!! Looked him over, took blood, did chest xray, nebulizer treatment. Turns out his white count was fine, his chest xray showed he still has fluid in his lungs and the different nebulizer meds worked better for him. They also found a double ear infection. Looks like the ear infection is what was causing the fever. They sent us home with baby Advil, an antibiotic and the new nebulizer meds.

Today my little man is feeling WAY better! Hasn't had a fever all day either!
**Sorry about the horrible quality of the pictures...used my cell phone.**

On to the "apron" part of my week. I made some Asiago Hash Browns with the leftover cheese from an earlier recipe. I made meatballs to go with it for a little protein. My "smelly brother" was over for supper on a break from loading piggies. Overall the boys (Dirk and James) liked the hash browns, I didn't. The meatballs didn't turn out AT ALL! They just weren't...right.

Asiago Hash Browns (found on allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:
30 oz bag hash browns, thawed
1 1/2 cups grated Asiago cheese
1 medium onion, chopped
8 oz sour cream
8 oz heavy cream
1/2 cup butter, melted
paprika to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350*. In a medium casserole dish, mix the hash browns, Asiago cheese, onion, sour cream, heavy cream and butter.
Bake 1 hour or until hash browns are fully cooked and the top is lightly browned. Season with paprika, salt and pepper.

I don't even want to get into what I did to the meatballs. I'll try them some other time and make them correctly then...hopefully! The flavor of the hash browns wasn't bad it was more of a texture thing. So...

Since I'm new to this whole cooking thing, I'm wondering if anyone has tips on how to get your fresh onions in baked hash browns to get soft??

Weeks 8 and 9...baby legwarmers...and a cute baby!

 "Are you my mother?" Ian's Christmas gift from Uncle Peppers

 Just being stinkin' cute!

 LOVE YOU!!

By the way...It has been crazy around here the last couple weeks! It may not have actually been busy but running on the little sleep my delightful little boy thinks I need....I'm running on empty. Anyway, I have been keeping up on my cooking just didn't have time to post it! This week (last night actually) Ian rolled all over the floor! He could only go one way until he got stuck and we had to turn him to go the other way! Such a cutie! On to the recipes!! I made Gorgonzola Chicken Penne last week...well kinda. I asked my Gma what kind of cheese Gorgonzola was, and then decided that much of such a strong cheese would be too much for me. So I substituted Parmesan. SO...here we have Parmesan Chicken Penne! This is from...where else...the Taste of Home cookbook I got for Christmas!

 Ingredients
1 pkg (16 oz) penne pasta
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup white wine
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 cups (8oz) crumbled Gorgonzola cheese (I used Parmesan)
6-8 fresh sage leaves, thinly sliced (I used ground sage)
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan and minced fresh parsley

Instructions
Cook pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium heat, brown the chicken in oil on all sides. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Add wine, stirring to loosen browned bits from pan.

Add cream and broth; cook until the sauce is slightly thickened and chicken is no longer pink. Stir in the cheese, sage, salt and pepper; cook just until cheese is melted.

Drain the pasta; toss with sauce. Sprinkle with the grated Parmesan and parsley.

This is SO GOOD!! I messed up the chicken so it was a little dry...I'll make it right next time!

This weeks recipe is one that I have had for 5 years!! Can you believe it?!? I think I have had this at my mom's house but I have never made it or helped to make it. So this one is Garlic Salmon Linguine.

Ingredients

1 pkg (16 oz) linguine

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/3 cup olive oil

1 can salmon, drained, boned, skinned

3/4 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Instructions

Prepare linguine according to package.

In large skillet saute garlic in oil. Stir in broth, parsley, salt and cayenne pepper. Stir in salmon. Cook until heated through. Add salmon mixture to linguine (drained) and toss to coat.

Let set, covered, for 10 minutes. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

I really liked this. James isn't a huge fan of salmon so he isn't over the moon about it. I think next time I make it I will try adding half chicken broth and half whipping cream. Maybe try with different kind of meat sometime...for James...just 'cause I love him!

These are some little baby legwarmers I made. I used a tutorial at Samster Mommy's blog to make them. LOVE THEM!! Can't wait to make more! Do we think Ian needs some little Spider man legwarmers??