Mother's Day

First let me start off by saying that Mother's Day is one of my favorite days of the year. I just love feeling so loved and appreciated by my family. I know they appreciate me every day, but on Mother's Day they have to show it :) Plus, many restaurants put on a mean brunch for Mother's Day. This year we returned to the same place as last year...The Copper Kettle. It's this cute little restaurant in downtown Nashville that does an amazing  brunch buffet. I pigged out and had a mimosa too...what a meal. Needless to say, I've only eaten once since brunch...and that was just some Raspberry Pomegranate sorbet from Sweet Cece's. Have I mentioned that I LOVE Mother's Day? LOL

Kiley and me after our meal. Love this girl

My girls and me before heading out for the afternoon

After brunch we headed back home where I snuck in a quick nap, then we headed out to Sweet Cece's for a quick treat, then to Dragon Park, our favorite park in Nashville. It's over in the Hillsboro Village area, and its just the coolest park. It has an old fashioned play area with a big hill, a fort, a tunnel, and a metal slide, a huge mosaic dragon you can climb all over, plus a modern play area. It's huge and we just love it.

Maddie wanted some Sweet Cece's too, so we gave her a spoon so she wouldn't feel left out

My babies wearing the flower headbands I made for them

Then, after the park we came home and Maddie took a very big step...her first rice cereal! She's been watching us eat with a lot of interest lately, and likes playing with spoons, so I decided to try it. I ground up my brown rice into a powder, cooked it down, then added some breast milk and voila...rice cereal!

All ready!

She did much better than we thought she would

As you can tell, I had a wonderful day. I love my family so much.

FitBF

1.   What I love most about my home is       the people in it with me.

2.  I'm excited because,    I am in the middle of a four day weekend, plus it's almost Mother's Day, which I love, and Joni is coming to see me tomorrow!

3.  My preferred method for blowing  off steam when I'm frustrated is     well back before I had kids it was to go for a long drive. Now, it's taking a shower. That's my only alone time.

4.  Currently I am craving   a deliciously greasy burger with grilled onions. Yum.

5.  The thing I love most about my mom is     she is truly the best mom ever. She helps me out whenever I ask her to without complaning, she goes on girl's days with me whenever we can, we talk on the phone at least once a day plus several text messages and she is an amazing Nana to my daughters. Really, I couldn't ask for a better Mom.

6.  If I was going to write a book about my life, the title would be       "U-Turn" because that's basically what I did when I met Casey. I should really thank him more for the life I'm living now, because he is the person who made me start growing up.

7.  If I were to eat one thing for the rest of eternity it would be       pasta. Yum.

Big Week for Kindergarteners!

This is such a big week for Kiley at school. She has a music program one night, an encore performance one day, and two field trips! Last night was her music program, and it was amazing! Music has been her favorite class all year, and last night showed me why. The program was so cute, you can tell the teacher really has a way with kids. I was expecting it to be pure chaos, what with 6 Kindergarten classes performing, but I was pleasantly surprised. The theme was Neighborhood, so the kids were encouraged to dress up like something you might find in your neighborhood-no surprise, Kiley picked a butterfly:

I was so excited when the curtains went up, because Kiley Hope was front and center!

They sang about 6 songs, with some speaking parts in between-Kiley had one of those too, naturally

Casey and I were so very proud of Kiley. Watching her up on the stage, I couldn't believe how big she's gotten, but at the same time it reminded me how young she is yet. I love her more every day, but I wish I could stop time just for a little bit.

After the program Casey, Kiley, Maddie,  Margaret, Emily, my mom and Dad and I all went out to Olive Garden. I wish I had asked our server to take a picture of us, but oh well. It was a great night.
Then today was her first field trip. We went to the Nashville Zoo, which is one of my favorite places here in Nashville. We have a membership so we get in free each time we go-the membership pays for itself after two visits! The field trip was chaotic for sure. I tried to help Mrs. Rosas keep the kids under control as much as possible, but we still ended up losing a kid at the meerkat exhibit! No worries, another teacher found him ad he spent the morning with her class. Maddie thankfully slept through the whole trip so I didn't have to take a nursing break. We got to see some cute animals, and even though the kids were crazy, I  enjoyed the trip.

This is the closest a giraffe has ever gotten to me there!

       

Kiley's class with the giraffes

I was very proud of Kiley at the zoo-she listens to Mrs. Rosas so well, and is very respectful. Once we got to the Jungle Gym, it came time for Maddie and I to leave which made Kiley cry and broke my heart. She thought she would get to cone home with me like she did after the pumpkin patch field trip. I'm sure she forgot quickly when she got to playing with her friends though.
Tomorrow she performs her music program at school during the day for all the classes, then Friday they go to the Frist. End of the year= busy busy busy!

FitBF

1.   I am looking forward to       swimming! I can't wait for the pools to open up

2.  Something kind of embarassing that I still love anyway is    Poison. That's no joke. I really, truly love Poison. And may I add that I appreciate my husband who bought me one of their greatest hits cds for Christmas, even though he is against my love for them.

3.  My favorite car is     a Corvette. Always.

4.  If I could pick one type of weather to live with for the rest of my life it would be   early spring here in Middle Tennessee. Low 70's, sunny, slightly windy.

5.  My favorite thing to do after a bad/stressful day is     to take an extra long hot shower.

 
6.  This weekend       I am working on Saturday (yuck) and really looking forward to a very chill day Sunday. We are not planning on going anywhere or doing anything and I couldn't be happier about it.

7.  If I were a color, I'd be       blue      because,      I had no idea how to answer this so I took an online quiz. Apparently  blue indicates that I enjoy friends and family immensely. True enough. .                                                                                        

Maddie is 3 Months!

That's right, Maddie Grace is 3 months old now. Where has the time gone? In the past month, she's changed so much. She is such a happy baby now, and is so close to erupting into belly laughs all the time. She still hates tummy time, so we haven't made much progress in the rolling over department, but she has super strong legs and can support her weight as long as we keep her balanced. We got her a bumbo seat since she loves sitting up, and she is a big fan!
She's also still got a head full of hair, and her eyes are starting to lighten up a bit-we may end up with another blue eyed baby. The jury is still out on which one of us she looks more like though.
In other milestone news, she's been sleeping in her bed for over 2 weeks now! Yay! We still get our snuggle time in at naps, so I'm not suffering too much. :)
She is eating about every 2.5-3 hours (although she went through a growth spurt earlier this week that changed that) and when I'm at work she is eating 6 ounces from her bottles. Pretty soon, we'll be starting rice cereal, which I have a feeling she won't love like Kiley did, but we'll see!

As you can see, she definitely has quite the personality, and she is loving stuffed animals!

Wordless Wednesday

Caught them in the act!

Something I'm Passionate About....

...is homemade baby food! When I had Kiley, at the young age of 21, I didn't think much about feeding her Gerber jarred baby food. After I found out I was pregnant with Madelyn, I did some research on it and decided to do homemade baby food-it's better for babies, as well as more economically and environmentally friendly. I am not one to judge people who do use store-bought baby food, just to be perfectly clear. I am just explaining my choice this time around. The best resource I've found for baby food recipes is Wholesome Baby Foods. Great recipes and feeding guidelines. I still want to get a cookbook of baby food recipes to keep in the kitchen, too. Yesterday I went ahead and made my first batches of baby food, since they can be frozen for up to 3 months. I made applesauce from some Granny Smith apples we had, and green beans from some frozen ones we had (frozen is the next best thing after fresh).  So with minimal effort and very little cost I ended up with 8 ounces of applesauce and 4 ounces of green beans. Next on the agenda-sweet potatoes and carrots! Pretty soon my it'll be time for my little princess to try these out: