Walking!

Olivia took her first steps last night and we captured her new moves on camera this morning. She's growing up too fast!

Dinosaur Cake

This past Saturday, we celebrated Kim and Ryan's impending bundle of baby boy joy with a shower at Lisa and Al's new home. The party was a lot of fun and Kim and Ryan received a lot of great baby stuff! One of my contributions to the party was the cake. The shower had a dino theme, so I decided on a T-Rex cake. I found some pictures online that I used as my guide. I'm really happy with how the cake turned out, but would have been more detailed had I been able to work on it while the kids were awake (1am was late enough Friday night). I don't think I would have done a very good job with Olivia climbing up my legs! This was the first time I made the cake and buttercream frosting from scratch, and I have to say that both were very good. I'll definitely use those recipes again. Andrew really liked the cake and keeps saying he wants dinosaur cake for his birthday so I may get a second shot at it soon!

Olivia's 9 Month Birthday

Olivia turned 9 months old yesterday! It really is unbelievable how fast the time has gone. Over the past month, Olivia's personality has developed a lot more to reveal a girl that likes to giggle and smile, an explorer, a bit of a dare-devil, and clear expressions of likes/dislikes. She loves standing and walking with our help and will protest loudly when you try to sit her down or stand her next to furniture before she's done walking. She is very interested in other babies and children to the point where she screeches and grabs at them and gives big open mouth slobber kisses. Feeding time has evolved as Olivia wants to feed herself and will sometimes refuse to be spoon fed. It's great that she will feed herself, but there are only so many finger foods one can eat with only 2 partial teeth! We celebrated as we do every month, with a photoshoot!

Chocolate Shakeology No Bake Brownies

If you drink Shakeology, you've probably seen the recipe for No Bake Shakeology Cookies. They're really tasty, but I was wanting something a little different so I created these:

They have the texture of a fudgy, chewy brownie. When divided into 4 generous servings, each brownie is about 200 calories.

Chocolate Shakeology No Bake Brownies
1/3 Cup Oats
1/3 Cup Cashews (or other nuts)
1 Scoop Chocolate Shakeology
2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder (unsweetened)
2-3 Tbsp Honey
2 Tbsp Natural Peanut Butter




1. Place oats and cashews in food processor and process into a fine texture.
2. Add Shakeology and cocoa powder and pulse to combine.
3. Add honey and peanut butter and run until combined. Mixture will be crumbly, but moist. Add more honey if needed to get mixture to stick together.
4. Pour mixture into a small container and press into a brownie. Put in refrigerator to set. Cut and enjoy!

Learn more about Shakeology here.

Adults and wine

Andrew on adults and wine:

"You're not an adult. I'm an adult. I can drink wine. Daddy's an adult. He can drink wine. You can't drink wine."

Tooth

I'm a few days late, but Olivia's first tooth came through a couple of days ago on the 1st at just a few days over 8 months old. Two whole months earlier than her brother got his first tooth! Between the tooth, fast crawling, standing, pulling up, cruising, and walking with a little help, this girl is on the fast track to checking off milestones. Her determination means that she wakes up looking for something to pull on so she can stand. She gets mad when you sit her down because you're tired from being bent over helping her walk. I guess she feels that she has so much to do in life that she better get started now!

My New Nephew!

Sweet baby Logan

On Friday afternoon, I got one of the best, most exciting calls ever. My sister called and after exchanging hellos she asked, "do you hear that?". It sounded quiet from my end, so I said no. She said, "it's a baby crying," and then I heard a little cry in the background. The tears started flowing and all I could say repeatedly was, "oh my god, Nicky!". It took a couple of minutes, but I was finally able to get my thoughts together to congratulate the new parents and ask to hear the story of how it all happened. After more than two years or waiting, Nicky and Ken finally have a son. I had imagined getting that call for so long and it was even better than I ever thought it could be. Right away I made plans so go see the new family on Sunday and started gathering any useful items I could think of. I would have gone immediately on Friday afternoon, but the family needed bonding time and then I had Saturday to get things together.  When I got to Nicky and Ken's house and saw Logan, I felt like like this is the way things should be and the thoughts of how long they had waited were gone.  You could see that Logan already knew he was home and who his Mommy and Daddy are.  I really enjoyed my time cuddling Logan and watching Nicky and Ken with him.  Luckily, I get to see them again in less than 2 weeks and will get to see how much Logan grows in that short time.  Logan is an amazing, perfect tiny boy and I know he will bring endless joy to their lives (probably a little trouble too...that's what boys do!).

7 month old Olivia looking monstrous next to 2 week old Logan

Mommy and Logan :)

Cute cousins