The beach!

This last weekend we went on a mini vacation with Russell's family to Lincoln City. It was a great weekend full of lots of fun and laughter! There were 12 people +one dog under one roof: us, Russell's parents Don and Pam, sister Kacie, Kacie's boyfriend Danny, Uncle Dave, Aunt Dawn and cousins Lauren, Hannah and Lizzy. It was a house full!

Every morning the guys were up early to hit the beach to look for glass floats. Each year from October to May, Lincoln City hides glass floats that equal the year (this year 2011 next year 2012 and so on). The glass floats are hidden along the 7.5 miles of Lincoln City Beaches. March 20-27th (spring break) 200 floats are hidden on the beach. Unfortunately they didn't find any this year. Maybe next time.

Other then searching for glass floats we spent time playing games, shopping at the outlet mall, watching the rain, watching movies and eating good food!

Here are some pictures from the weekend...

Blake loved riding on Russell's back!

Can you spot Don looking for glass floats?

More float searching...

We pretty much only saw the sun the first day we were there,
but that was to be expected in March on the Oregon Coast :)

Blake isn't so sure about that funny Uncle Dave

 The couch was just the right height for Blake to pull himself up

 He was so proud of himself!

 Blake and Aunt Kacie

 Lunch at Mo's! (that's a must for our family when we go to the beach :)

 A rainy walk (notice all the hoods) on the beach at sunset.

 The whole group.

 Just the girls.

 One, two, three.... JUMP!

 Sleepy baby.

One last group shot (left to right: Lauren, Dave, Dawn, Lizzy, 

Don, Blake, Kacie, Danny, Pam, Russell, Me and Hannah

It was such a fun weekend!

Welcome Baby Luke!

Baby Luke is here! On March 25th my friend Becca, had her little baby Luke! We are so excited and happy for Erik and Becca and their new little baby! On Sunday Blake got to meet his new friend Luke. We wasn't quite sure what to think about him. But I know in time they will become great buddies!

Blake meeting Luke for the first time

I think Blake is trying to tell Luke to come play with him!

Becca and I with our boys :) (Blake looks so big compared to Luke)

Baby Luke! 

Happy Spring!

At 4:21 today spring officially begins! Yay!

Now if it would just stop raining... 

He can clap!

He claps! Its so cute and fun! Love how he looks at his hands like "how did that happen?" One of the things I love most about being a mom is watching him learn things! (I think that's also what I enjoyed most about teaching.)

We have started doing a little bit of sign language with him as well. Right now we are really focusing on the sign for all done. A gal who teaches ASL came to our live and learn class (it's like a play group) a couple weeks ago and showed us a few signs and talked about the benefits of sign language. I am really excited to do this with Blake. I think it will be a great way to be able to communicate with him before he learns how to talk!

I would love to hear if you use sign language with your baby!

Our Weekend

Our weekend was great! It was full of friends! But I am sad to say I have no pictures to document it with. Oh well, maybe next time I will be better at the pictures.

Friday we joined our friends Erik & Becca, Drew & Ashleigh and Brandon & Noele for happy hour at Cloud 9. It was a perfect way to start the weekend. I love happy hour for a few different reasons: smaller portion sizes, the price is less, its early and "Blake friendly". It had been while since we had gone to happy hour, but I could see this becoming more of a Friday night tradition. Oh and all of the couples we were with are expecting their first babies! Erik and Becca are expecting Luke any day now. And Drew and Ashleigh and Brandon and Noele are due this summer. So fun!

Saturday we headed up to Portland. We first made a stop at Babies R Us. It had been a long time since we had been in that store and had forgotten how overwhelming it can seem, even after you have a baby and everything it needs, haha! We were in search for a highchair. The highchair we had for Blake was given to us and it just didn't seem to fit him right. We found a great deal on a Chicco one and it fits him much better! After Babies R Us we headed to Jeremy and Kira's. There we hung out with our friends, Chris and Becca, Greg and Megan and Kelli and Jordan. It was so fun to see everyone! Blake had a great time watching (and wishing he could join) Bennett and Lucy run around. We played a very fun game of telephone pictionary (if you haven't played this game, the next time you are with a larger group of people say 6-10 you need to play, so much fun!) And then we all went out to dinner. It was great to see all of them and I really wish we would have taken pictures. Oh well.

Today with the time change, we didn't make it to church. Blake slept till 8:00! Which was great but then that meant he didn't go down for a nap till 10:00 which is when church started. It was kind of nice to just have a relaxing morning at home. This afternoon we had lunch with Kendra, Mary & Andy and Kristin & Nate and their two girls. Kendra, Mary, Kristin and I all lived together in Azalea house a co-op at OSU while in college (Becca and Kira also lived there). It was great to see all of them!

This weekend made me realize how blessed we are with great friends! Thank you for being a part of our lives, we love you guys!

Wow, this ended up longer then I anticipated. Sorry for rambling and the lack of visual stimulation. Thanks for reading and I hope you had a great weekend too!

(I forgot to mention... Blake clapped for the first time by himself today! I have been working with him on this for oh, probably a month or longer so I was so excited when he figured it out on his own! We got it on video but he was in the bath so I'm not sure I want to post it, maybe I'll try to get him to do it for camera out of the bathtub. He seemed so proud of himself!)

Babies grow too fast.

I was just thinking this morning that in 3 months I'll have a one-year-old. One. Year. Old. How is that possible?!!!

It's just hard for me to believe that he can go from this...

To this...

in 9 months. 

And before I know it I'll be writing about his first birthday. Almost makes me want to cry. Seriously babies grow too fast.

Chicken and Eggplant Casserole

So last night I did something I have never done before... I made Eggplant for dinner. I had never eaten Eggplant, let alone cook it, so I was a little nervous about trying this recipe. But I was pleasantly surprised with how good it turned out! (I wouldn't be sharing it with you if it hadn't :) The recipe came from the South Beach Diet Cook book. It was pretty easy and healthy!

Chicken and Eggplant Casserole
Ingredients:
1 eggplant, peeled and sliced into 12ish slices
2 T parmesan
1/2 t garlic powder or 1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 pound chicken breast (I only used one frozen chicken breast and that was plenty)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 med onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup mushroom sliced
3/4 t dried Italian seasoning
1/4 t pepper
1/4 cup shredded reduced-fat mozzarella cheese.

Instructions:
Arrange slices on a cookie sheet, mist with cooking spray (I didn't have cooking spray so I brushed them with some olive oil) then broil for 2 or so minutes until golden brown.

Then flip them over and mist and sprinkle with parm and broil for another 1 minute or until golden.

Spray a skillet with cooking spray or drizzle with olive oil then cook the chicken till no longer pink. Add the tomatoes (with juice), onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, Italian seasoning, and pepper stirring occasionally. Bring to boil and then simmer for 5 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 

Coat a 8" baking dish with cooking spray (or olive oil). Arrange half the eggplant in the bottom of the dish then top with the chicken mixture and then top with the remaining eggplant. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese cover with foil and bake for 30ish minutes. Then enjoy! 

It really was good! And there was enough for Russ and I to eat it for dinner and lunch the next day!

9 Months!

I know I say this every time, but I seriously can't believe I now have a 9 nine month old! He has now been out of me for as long as he was in me. He is only 3 months away from being one (let's not think about that!). It is crazy how fast time goes by when you are watching a baby grow.

He has really become challenging to take a photo of

He kept wanting to crawl and grab the camera

So I let him hold the camera lens cover and he was happy!

And then he tried to eat it.

Blake stats:

Loves: Peach puffs, army crawling, bath time and playing peek a boo!

Nickname: Blakers

He is finally fitting into 9 month size!

He is a great sleeper! Sleeps from 7-7ish and still takes 2 naps

Still no teeth.