Growing Girl

While Millie was in Mississippi, I moved some things around in her room. I moved her bookshelf out because she kept trying to climb it. I knew one day she was going to pull it over on herself. I put the bookshelf in our room, and put her play kitchen in her room.

Now Millie can play in her room without fear of injury. This has been life changing.

She will play in her room for most of the day. I'll check on her every so often or she will just walk back and forth from kitchen to her room.

Having the play kitchen in her room not only entertains her in a confined space, but it also keeps our living room a lot cleaner. Nick used to pick up all the kitchen pieces every night when he came home from work. Mil would usually pull them all back out a few minutes later. I've also been slowly moving more and more toys from the living room to her room. I LOVE it.

**Please excuse quality of pictures. Some are blurry due to excessive movement of a one year old and bad lighting.

Sometimes when I check on her I see this.

Just chillin' in her bouncy seat.

But then sometimes I see this.

  And she comes towards me if she hears or sees me.

There have been a few times I peek and can't find her. It usually means she is doing this.

 Staying hydrated.

We love that she is becoming more independent. She is communicating more and more. She likes to wear shoes all the time, even is she isn't wearing clothes. She usually likes to have a drink in her hand, even if she isn't going to drink it right away. And she likes to sit and eat at the dinner table instead of her high chair.

This girl is growing too fast, and I can't wait to see how else she will grow and learn this fall.

I love you Millie baby.

New Recipes

This past week I have been trying all new recipes. Sometimes I need a change in my menus, and I like to experiment with different dishes. There are too many recipes online to try and come up with my own.  

These first two dishes come from this website: weelicious. This part of the website list many recipes for babies, toddlers, and kids. My hope was that I could get Millie eating better and eat what we are eating. There is also weelicious.com where you can find even more recipes. 

Turkey Meatloaf Bites

They were delicious. They might not look very good, but we liked them. They are filled with carrots, bell pepper, zucchini, and a little cheese. And yes, Millie did eat some. 

I also liked cooking them in the mini cupcake pan because it was a change from our ordinary meat'loaf'. However, you can cook it in a loaf or baking dish. The recipe also gave freezing instructions.

Next is another ground turkey recipe. I bought a bulk of ground turkey at Costco for all these recipes. I still have two pounds left.

Crock Pot Mexican Tortillia Lasagna
This was so good! It also contains carrots and corn. One good thing about this website being geared toward kid recipes is that it tries to sneek in some veggies. And if I'm honest, I need to eat more vegetables whether mixed in a dish or out in the open.

I also used the organic Costco brand Salsa, and I think that gave this dish a lot of flavor. Any good salsa would be fine. And I left out the cilantro because I didn't have any, even though I love the stuff.

A Mexican dish called for a margarita.

To dress this up a little, eat with shredded lettuce and a little sour cream and salsa on top.

This is all Nick and I ate that night. We ate the left overs for a few days, and they were still good. This could easily feed a small crowd. And the best part about this dish was that I made it at 2:30 and didn't look at it again until after 6:00.

My next recipes came from the wonderful Pioneer Woman.

Sour Cream Noodle Bake
This dish wasn't full of veggies, but it was still delicious and easy to assemble. Millie enjoyed this dish as well.

Cajun Chicken Pasta

This dish was tasty too. I messed up the sauce because I used half and half instead of cream because that's what I had in the fridge. I also used two green bell peppers instead of one red because that is what I had in my garden. My last alteration to this dish was using canned diced tomatoes instead of dicing whole tomatoes myself. This is a little spicy, so Millie did not eat it. However, I had four chicken breast and only needed three. So I baked the extra one in the oven for her. 

Next time I make this I'll use cream.

 Happy cooking! Tomorrow we have dinner at church, and I think we are having fried chicken. I'm looking forward to it.

MS State

This past weekend we went to Starkville for the Auburn/Mississippi State game. We also went to get our Millie back. Millie was in Greenville from Monday to Saturday. Thank God for IPhones because Lovie would send me pictures of Millie throughout the week. We missed her so much! However, we also enjoyed ourselves. I enjoyed running errands, exercising, cleaning, watching TV, and resting. Nick and I were also able to go out to dinner one night and lunch one day. We had a good week, but we are glad she is home. Thanks again Lovie and Doc.

Back to Starkville. Nick and I got a hotel room for the weekend. We booked it a little late, and found the only room left in town. Americas Best Value Inn. We went expecting the worse. All the reviews were bad. But we really wanted to go.

So we took our own sheets, bed spread, pillows, towels, candle, and lysol.

Taking your own sheets really makes you feel cleaner. I might start doing it for every hotel.

We survived.

Now on to Saturday. Nick's family has always been Mississippi State fans. When Nick and his twin brother decided to go to Auburn, Nick's loyalty changed. He still pulls for State unless they are playing Auburn (most of the time). So we spent most of the game at his sister's tailgate with his family before walking around to see our State friends.

Aunt Lauren

 Cousin Carsten

 My favorite part of her outfit....the panties

 We tried to convert our cousin. 

 Attempt at mother daughter photo

The only picture I got with some of our friends we ran into.

We got to see a lot of friends both from Auburn and State. I wanted to take a picture with my friends, but I forgot. We were so glad to see so many people. I even had a man stop me and ask my name because "I look just like my mother." It turns out he went to med-school with my dad. We saw old high school friends, family, and old family friends. Nick and I had a really good weekend.

This game weekend is also special to Nick and me becasue thanks to a high school friend, Elizabeth Anne, Nick and I met eight years ago in Starkville. We were both freshman in college, and we had both come to the AU/State game. At the Greenville tailgate EA was talking to someone in an Auburn shirt. She turned and yelled my name. Then she said, "do you know him? He goes to Auburn." That guy turned out to be Nick. He called me month later, and the rest is history.

So I didn't really mind the loss to State Saturday. I had a better time tailgating and reminiscing. Win or lose, this is how we all still feel about Auburn.

WAR EAGLE!

Labor Day

We spent a nice long weekend in Mississippi at my parents' over the Labor Day weekend.

We arrived on Wednesday shortly after hurricane Issac came through Mississippi. Stephen Small was already there. It was tricky trying to entertain these two inside for two whole days. It felt like the rain would never stop.

Here are Millie and Stephen in the 'boat.' Stephen used the foam sword as a motor and made the 'motor' sound while Lovie pulled them all over the house.

 Trying to sneak a cookie.

 Millie loves to hug and kiss her cousins even when it is not wanted.

Once the rain stopped on Friday, Nick picked up the big sticks and limbs that fell during the storm and carried them down the street to the bigger pile of sticks. Millie copied him while Stephen followed on the tricycle.

Please forgive me for the amount of pictures below. I've mentioned before I'm working on my photography skills, and this was a good opportunity to practice. These pictures show how hard these kids were playing and running and enjoying being outdoors.

 

 

 Then Laurie showed up! Don't you just love an old red wagon?

All the men went hunting Saturday and Sunday. So we were one-on-one with the babies, and it was harder to take pictures. It wore us out a little. We had to put this sign on the door one day for everyone to get some guaranteed rest. 

We had a good time seeing friends and family, eating good food, and playing with cousins.

We came home on Monday, but we left Millie in Mississippi. We will get her back Saturday. We really miss her, but I am enjoying cleaning out closets, running errands, uninterrupted rest, and going out eat. 

I know she is having a good time. Thanks Lovie and Doc for a good weekend and keeping my Millie.