Latest Project

Q: What do you get when you combine too much going on and not enough time? 

A: 

Meet my mess!  This has been getting worse and worse this semester. My weekdays are tied up something like this:  5:50 start fighting alarm 7:30 arrive at work (well lets be honest 7:35) 5:30 arrive to pick up Caleb from daycare 9pm sleep until Caleb wakes me twice.  Weekends: fight alarm clock set appropriately to allow enough time to set up for photo session.  Spend over half my day doing photography related things Sunday: church, family time, photography related things.  Notice a trend- I fail to have down time.  A problem I'm working on fixing soon!  But this room just has become my junk room.  And let's not even tell you that I may have another junk room.  Well lets not show at least (I don't know that there will ever be hope for that room.)

Anyways, this was the progress after 1.5 hours (during Caleb's nap) yesterday.  I'm hopeful this will be more promising still after this week.  Please pray for me! ;-)

Yes, Caleb is sitting amoungst this mess

Shopping buddy

Today I got several errands checked off.  

* oil change

* return shirts Caleb outgrew before he ever wore

*PetSmart for doggie food + splurge on cute new toys

* Sam's trip

Caleb stayed home with daddy while I did the first three items.  Then daddy met me at Sam's so that daddy could go to work.  He was a sweet little shopping buddy and even made some small friends at the store.  We got home and Cooper was thrilled with our trip! ;-)

So close to crawling!

Freezer Meals: My rendition

So my good friend has been coordinating freezer meal groups since May now.  I have learned a lot from her.  My brother was interested so I coordinated one with meals that I hope he will like.  We split the cost and it was definitely more pricey than when I've done it with larger groups.  I attribute that largely to the fact that we made food with a variety of meats: beef, pork, chicken, and turkey.  I think the food prep went fast and I had fun with my brother.  I made the pulled pork right away and it was melt-in-your-mouth amazing.  Then, I made this: BEEF STROGANOFF and it was amazing!  I loved how tender it turned out.  I just stirred in egg noodle at the end to complete the dinner.  We served it with mashed potatoes but other veggies would be good too!  

Clean up

For Christmas Chris got me Rachael Ray pots and pans.  He seemed to think mine needed update.  Or perhaps he remembered two years ago when I swooned over them.  Either way we said goodbye to these tonight.  They were well loved and I hope they continue to be used! My sister took them and promised to use them or donate to Good Will.

Built Tough

Here he is, my tough little man sitting there with a fever smiling for mama on demand.  Gotta love him!

Bath cool down

Caleb has had a low fever all day.  I suspect an ear infection.  Here he is playing in the tub to relax.  Watch out, your seat may be in the "splash zone".

Natural vitamin d

Today was nearly 50 degrees, sunny and gorgeous out!  So we bundled up and went for a stroll, Cooper was thrilled.  I think he has given up on walks with me. 

Christmas Eve & Day

Christmas came with little fanfare this year.  I was just trying not to be exhausted, yet thrilled to be off work.  My husband was not so fortunate and had to work today.  He has put in crazy amount of hours for UPS lately and I feel for him.  Caleb and I enjoyed a low-key day and even got a nap in because we knew it would be a late night.  We arrived to my brother's house so he could ride with us to Grandma's place.  Grandma made an amazing melt-in-your-mouth filet for dinner and we all enjoyed each other's company.  We went to mass and when we got back everyone tore into their gifts. It is always so much fun to see everyone for the holidays.  I'm so thankful that with all the sickness around, it didn't get to us.   I feel so blessed and thankful for all that I have!

Christmas morning we were up early to head to my mom's place.  We had a lovely cinnamon roll & egg casserole breakfast followed by tearing in the massive stack of gifts!  Caleb and myself did well this year!

Caleb is 8 months

Eating:
Caleb takes 4 oz bottles every 3-4 hours. His night feeds have been inconsistent. Some nights, he gets up one (rarely) and others it is two times.  He is eating many solids now.  We introduced asparagus mango, and rice this month.  He loved the mango but the asparagus I had to mix with applesauce for it go down. Also, he still prefers everything to be pureed but I have continued to offer chucks.  In related news, I will not be offering cooked mango chunks of any size in the near future. He nearly choked on one and I think I'll stick to soft food like banana chunks.

Sleeping:
He continues to be a great sleeper!!  He has been going down easily but then waking up around like 10-11 pm which makes me exhausted.  I entertain him for a bit and then he goes back to sleep.He prefers his crib in his room to his swing- he is getting so big.

Interests:
He loves playing with Cooper.  It is the cutest thing.  When Caleb sees him getting closer, he kicks and giggles.  It is the sweetest thing to see him have such a personality (and his parents love for animals)!

Other:
We dedicated Caleb at church and had everyone who was available over for dinner afterwards, it was nice!  It wasn't a big affair but we had good conversations!  Walmart did all the food preparations (fried chicken, potato salad, slaw, rolls and cake) so I got to enjoy it too!

Caleb seems very interested in figuring out how things work.  He has a couple of toys that he flips upside down as if to really inspect how it works.  I laugh watching him do it because he looks like a little engineer student.  I am so curious as to how his little personality will turn out!

Ruth's funeral and Painter family Christmas

This year we lost Grandma Ruth.  She was an amazing person.  She always had a smile and laugh and was just generally easy-going and fun to be around.  Her heart was always for others.  She loved to knit, play piano and boat.  She was always making gifts for the family for Christmas. I'm happy that we have several scarfs and neck-warmers from her.  We left a day early for Christmas break for her visitation and funeral.  I felt the service was extremely fitting for her.  The priest knew her well and was able to speak specific facts about her.  I find that rare at a funeral that someone can speak so accurately about them.  He shared her love for others as she played piano at countless funerals in their church.  He also spoke of her love for the lake and how she probably "could have numbered the trees" along the river.  It was great getting to spend quality time with family too.  

The following day we did her graveside service and it was brief but sweet.  The church had a nice luncheon provided for us.  Everyone had different obligations to get back to so it was just a few of us back at "The Point".  I'm not really sure why but that is what they call grandma and grandpa's house.  After dinner, we opened gifts.  I didn't take many photos of this because I was busy playing with the niece and nephews and their new toys.  ;-)

On Sunday, M&S left to go to their family Christmas party and we stuck around for lunch and left right about Caleb's nap time.  That worked out perfectly.  When he woke up, we stopped in Springfield to stretch a bit.                    

Below are pictures in reversed order:

First visit to Scheels in Springfield

Springfield is about the two hour mark from Chris's grandparents house.  We like to stop there to stretch on the way back frequently.  This time, it was to stop and see this store. I think we stopped in the parking lot before but I can't remember why we didn't go in.  This time it was perfect. Caleb got to see his first aquarium, make lots of friends with random shoppers, and even meet Santa and Dasher.  It doesn't get any better or more fun than that!!

Baby food

Aunt Teresa popped by!

I've been very happy with making my own baby food and I'm happy to know exactly what Caleb eats.  Tonight, butternut squash.  It definitely took much longer without Chris helping me.  And butternut squash isn't exactly the easiest one I make.  It does seem to be in Caleb's top five favorites though: applesauce, peas, avocado, squash and oatmeal.

Here is me in the process but I really should have taken a shot of the other direction.  The kitchen gets crazy messy when I make this stuff.  There are blenders, cups, *FreshSqueezed, etc.

If you are curious as to how I make my food I actually stumbled across this video tonight thanks to BabyCenter.com's regular emails and this is basically very similar to how I prep my food.  Take a peek!

http://www.babycenter.com/2_how-to-make-baby-food-at-home_10345849.bc

Deck the house with strands of lights

My uber-impressive hubby lifted our super-heavy ladder and climbed up and down to hang our icicle lights this year.  I stood on the base with the monitor while Caleb napped indoors.  We had to take advantage of the warmer weather but it was so windy.  Chris worried that a good wind would knock him down.  I didn't get any good pictures when he was up really high but I do have several when I felt more comfortable snapping pictures.

My baby- 7 months

I find it crazy that I am posting this already. How can this be?  

Eating:

Caleb takes 4 oz bottles every three hours. His night feeds have been rather consistent lately:8 pm, 2-2:30 am and 5-6 am.  It's been nice for me too because I haven't had to pump before work.  

Sleeping:

He is such a great sleeper!!  He sleeps about 12 hours each night and gets a short morning nap in most days and a long afternoon nap; usually 2 hours.  He will often take a cat nap on the car ride home from day care too. 

Interests:
His interests haven't changed much from last month.  He is so strong.  He can stand up for long periods of time.  He is really working on crawling but not there yet.  

Other:

He just had his first upper respiratory infection and I absolutely hated that.  It is awful when your little one is sick and there isn't really a thing you can do to help.  He seems to be getting better though.