Mexican Food, Cookouts and Father's Day

Mexican food, cookouts and Father's Day...those about sum up our weekend. Well, not entirely, but close. We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend and I'm sad that it went by so quickly.

Friday night we stayed in and had some friends over to grill out. We had burgers, salad and oven roasted potatoes...yum! Saturday, we got up, did some things around the house and then went to lunch at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, Deli Mexicana. It was so good! I got their red snapper salad (pictured below) and it was incredible. Light, fresh and delicious (and I didn't even have to leave feeling guilty for eating heavy Mexican food)!

Saturday afternoon, we attended a "Stock the Pool" party hosted by some good friends of ours. They just moved to a fabulous new house and invited everyone over to break in/stock the pool. It was a little overcast, so the water was too chilly for Emmie to enjoy it, but it was loads of fun nonetheless! I made my own version of Emily's vegetable quinoa salad (I subbed out edamame for the peas) and it was a huge hit! It was my first experience cooking with miso. Now I have a whole tub of white miso that I'm going to have to figure out a use for, but I think I'm up to the challenge.

(I forgot to take a photo of the finished product, but here are the veggies sauteeing for the salad)

Sunday was Michael's first Father's Day and it was perfect! Emmie got up early, but wound up taking a 2.5 hour morning nap (I think the pool partying wore her out!), which means Mom and Dad also took a 2.5 hour morning nap! What a perfect Father's Day gift! After she woke up and ate, we headed to brunch at Celtic Crossing. We have fallen in love with their omelets (veggie for me, Irish for Michael) and the live music they have each Sunday. 

(We entertained ourselves while we waited on our food by having a mini photo shoot with Emmie. I am obsessed with her outfit!) 

After lunch, we ran to Target, Garden Ridge and Home Depot so we could wrap up our latest house project...the sunroom (post on that to come this week!). 

(This photo is actually from Friday, but look who's sitting up in the basket like a big girl. Jeez. Where is the time going??)

We headed home to do some work and let Emmie nap, then headed back out for our second Father's Day meal of the day and second Mexican meal of weekend. El Porton on Sunday evenings is quickly becoming a weekly tradition for us. They have a huge patio, it's super kid friendly and it's pretty inexpensive. Oh, and the margaritas are awesome. While we enjoyed our food/drink, we let Emmie experiment with a sippy cup. She liked it!

We wrapped up the weekend by relaxing on the couch and getting in bed early. Not a bad weekend if you ask me!

How was everyone else's weekend?

Emmie - 4 Months

Well, somehow another month has gone by and you are now over four months old. A third of a year already! Here's what's been going on with you in the past month.

We moved to a new house (more on that soon), you spent the whole day away from me (while moving), you attended your first BBQ Festival and we went to the doctor for your four month checkup. We found out you weigh 11 lbs, 11.5 ounces and are 24 inches long. Tall and thin, just like your daddy! Your doctor said he was "very impressed" with your muscular tone and strength!

Loves: Going new places, being tickled, eating, shaking your rattle, sitting in your high chair, "talking" (attempting to repeat syllables and sounds). 

Eating: We've now graduated to nursing every three hours and it's great. It's amazing how much more free time we have now that you only nurse for 20 minutes (and not 45 like a couple of months ago!). You also started eating rice cereal a couple of weeks ago and you LOVE it. You grab the spoon from my hand and try to feed yourself, then cry if you think someone is trying to take it away. You've also begun to hold your own bottle when we give you one!

Sleeping:  You still sleep well, but we've hit a little bit of the "4 month sleep regression". For a few days a couple of weeks ago, you started waking up in the middle of the night. Not hungry, not fussy. Just wanting to be awake. Luckily, it only lasted a few days. Now, you wake up about an hour after we put you down and cry for a little bit, but we've started to let you self soothe and you fall right back asleep after 5 minutes and then sleep the rest of the night. 

Clothes: In some 0-3 month, some 3-6 month clothes. 

Firsts: First time eating rice cereal, first belly laughs, first time holding your own bottle, first time attempting to army crawl, first time riding in your stroller without the carseat adapter. 

Some recent pictures:

Emerson's Birth Story, Part One

Well, my life has changed drastically since my last post, in one way for the worse and in one way for the better. On November 7, 2011, my mother passed away unexpectedly, thus explaining my absence from blogging. I have not been able to bring myself to write about it, and I don't know when I will be able to.

On the other hand, another big change has happened since my last post. Emerson arrived! Before I forget too many of the details, I wanted to write her birth story down so that one day she can go back and read about it.

My due date was always January 17, but all along I felt like she would arrive early. Everyone who saw me also seemed to think that I "wouldn't make it" til my due date, as I had been carrying low throughout the whole pregnancy. But each week, as I went for my checkups and we neared January 17, I began to lose hope that she would arrive by her due date. I had made some initial progress early on (effacing to 50% at week 36), but from there, it just stayed the same until week 39. At my 39 week appointment, Michael went with me, as we knew we would be making some decisions regarding induction, as my doctor had mentioned it several times before.

When he went to check me, I was excited to hear that I had dilated 1-2 centimeters, which was enough for my doctor to do a "membrane sweep" (ouch!) and also enough for him to prompt us to schedule an induction. Now, I know many people are not fans of inductions, as they feel that they should let nature run its course and the baby come on its own, but as my doctor explained it, the longer the baby stays in there, the bigger it gets, thus the tougher the delivery may get. So, he had said all along that as long as I was progressed enough for him to break my water, an induction would be a good choice.

After we talked to the doctor, we got the induction scheduled for the following Thursday, January 19, which was the earliest date they had available at the time. The woman who scheduled it let me know that they often had earlier openings come available, so she would call if that were to happen. Once it was scheduled, we called our families to let them know that we would be meeting Miss Emmie by the next Thursday!

Fast forward to the next day -- Friday, January 13. I was sitting at my desk, knowing it would be my last day at work for a while, as I was going to take the whole week off before her birth to relax and get some things done, when my phone rang and I saw that it was my doctor's office calling. I answered and it was the lady who had scheduled my induction, letting me know that my appointment had been bumped to Monday, January 16 and to be at the hospital at 4:30 a.m. I immediately called Michael, who almost dropped the phone from shock and excitement. All of the sudden, we went from having nearly a week left just the two of us to having one weekend left!

This is getting long, so I am going to break it up into parts. Stay tuned! 

Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday! For some reason, today felt like it should have been Thursday all day. Since it is Wednesday, I wanted to play along and share some things I'm loving today!

1) I got the phone call today saying that our nursery furniture is in! We ordered it over 8 weeks ago, so I've been anxiously awaiting its arrival. Hopefully, we can swing by and pick it up after work on Friday. Once we get everything in place, I can't wait to share photos!

2) Our first shower is this weekend, which I am definitely loving! Some dear friends of ours are throwing us a couples shower and I can't wait to see everyone and celebrate Emerson's impending arrival!

3) Aveda hair products.

I broke down and bought some the other day after getting tired of my hair color fading too quickly after hair appointments. It smells so, so good and left my hair super manageable. I got the color conserve shampoo and conditioner as well as the smooth infusion glossing straightener and have loved the results so far! Definitely recommend.

4) My new camera! I had been wanting to get a new point and shoot before the baby came and did some research online to figure out which one would be the best bet for me. After discovering that Best Buy had this one on sale for a great price, I bit the bullet and picked it up yesterday and love it so far. We have a DSLR for high quality photos, so I just wanted something small and easy to use for day to day pics. The cute color is a plus, too! (I promise I did not pick it for the color alone . . . it really was the only one they had left at the store.)

5) My husband:

Obviously, I love him all the time, but he has been super sweet and thoughtful lately, which is extra fabulous. He has been working long hours lately, trying to get everything in place so he will be able to take some extra time off when Emerson arrives. On Monday, he even surprised me with a "happy". . . one of the items from my fall wishlist. 

What are you loving today? Link up and let everyone know! 

Menu Monday

This week, I actually made it to the grocery store on Sunday (a lot of times, this gets put off until Monday or Tuesday after work) and planned several good meals, so I thought I'd share. Here's what's in the lineup in our kitchen this week!

Sunday: Crockpot chili with cornbread. It was delicious (so delicious that I forgot to take a picture!) and well worth the heartburn it gave me!

Monday: Chicken tetrazzini with oven roasted broccoli. I am not the biggest fan of chicken (I know, I'm odd), but Michael loves chicken and pasta, so I try to throw in some chicken into the rotation every once in a while.

Tuesday: Amy's Organic Pizza with salad. Has anyone else tried these? They are delicious and we seem to eat one at least once per week. I usually sprinkle on a little extra goat cheese for good measure.

Wednesday: Dinner out.

Thursday: Crockpot Potato Soup with salad. I made this a couple of months ago and it was a big hit, so it's making a repeat appearance. This gal gave me the recipe. It's supposed to get chilly on Thursday so I thought it would be a good meal to warm us up. Here's the recipe:

Crockpot Potato Soup Ingredients: 1 30oz. bag of frozen, shredded hashbrowns 3 14oz. cans of chicken broth 1 can of cream of chicken soup 1 medium onion, diced 1 medium carrot, shredded 2 cloves minced garlic 1 tsp. kosher salt 2 tsp. ground pepper 2 tbsp. Hidden Valley Ranch mix 1 pkg. cream cheese Directions: Combine all ingredients except for the cream cheese in a crockpot, stir to combine and cook on low for 6-8 hours. One hour before you're ready to serve, cut the cream cheese into smaller squares (about 1 inch pieces), add to crockpot and crank the heat up to high for the last hour (until the cream cheese melts). Top with shredded cheddar, crumbled bacon, diced green onions or sour cream.

On that note, I'm off to clean up the kitchen and then relax with Michael. Good night!

Wonderful Weekend

Happy Sunday!  Between the great Sunday night TV (Dexter and The Amazing Race), cooking a nice meal and relaxing on the couch and just spending the day together, Sundays are quickly becoming one of my favorite days of the week.

We've had quite the relaxing weekend around here. We stayed in Friday night and ordered Chinese. Yesterday, we go up and headed downtown to the Majestic for brunch and then walked down to the South Main River Arts festival for a little while. We ran a couple of errands, and then I came home and finished (for now) our hallway gallery wall:

Today, we ran out to Collierville so that I could pick up a few things for Emmie at the Baby Gap sale. I got quite a few adorable items, including this little dress:

(available here)

Baby Gap's clothes are definitely my favorite that I've found thus far and today they were taking an extra 50% off all markdowns...score! Anyway, we ran to the grocery store and Target after that and now we are about to enjoy some chili and cornbread for dinner. Yum!

Have a great Sunday evening! 

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Happy hump day! I decided to play along this week with What I'm Loving Wednesday since I always enjoy reading everyone else's lists.

Here is what I'm loving this week...

1) Essie's Fall 2011 Collection

I bought "Case Study" this weekend and painted my nails Sunday night. It's a great, neutral fall color. There are a couple of others I'd like to try, too!

2) Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks

I know it's predictable, but I couldn't go without mentioning it. I think I've had 15 or so since they came back. My go to order is a grande, decaf, non-fat, 2-pump pumpkin spice latte (no whipped cream). So delicious!

3) This painting:

It has been the inspiration piece for the nursery, and I'm finally going to order it this weekend. Can't wait!

4) Banana Republic Leather Bracelets

I bought one last year in navy and got the one pictured above this past weekend and love it. They're great for layering and so versatile!

Go visit Jamie and see what everyone else is loving!

Weekend Recap

I can't believe another weekend has come and gone. It's always too fast. We had a great weekend...the kind where you get a lot done, which is my favorite! Friday, we grabbed dinner at Sweetgrass Next Door, which was yummy. A friend introduced me to it this week and it was so good that I convinced Michael to take me back there again. Egg & avocado sandwich? Yes, please.

Saturday, we finally swapped out all of the summer plants for some fall ones. Love it. Mums everywhere:

Saturday night we went to dinner at one of Michael's client's houses, which was lovely. Michael discovered that he likes gnocchi, which is very exciting. I'm hoping to find some recipes so I can make it one night soon.

Yesterday I had book club, which is always fun, and this week we discussed my pick, Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum. I didn't quite finish it (my own pick...for shame!) but I really enjoyed what I read. When I got home, I worked on my latest masterpiece (that may be a stretch!), but I am quite proud of it:

It was a little time consuming, but overall a lot of fun to make. I love it! I'm thinking I may want to take up knitting or something. It's nice to have something to do while we watch TV at night. Speaking of TV, Amazing Race started last night and it looks like it will be a great season. And finally, we are only 6 days away from the season premier of Dexter. Cannot. Wait.

That's all for now!