Happy Halloween

Argh! We were going as a family of pirates but Kevin decided last minute to go as a pinata. It was fun and Ryan loved it! Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!!!

We have had such a fun weekend - lots of pics to post! 

Shark Attack

I love Halloween! Especially with little kiddos - everyone looks so ridiculously adorable in their little costumes! Last Thursday we got together with our Square One friends. It was so much fun seeing all the kiddos again - everyone is getting so big! It's crazy that we have been friends for over a year now...

Anyhow, back to Halloween, costumes and general cuteness.

Introducing....

My favorite little shark!

 Elle the fish!

 Henry the Giraffe!

 Lily the Poodle girl! (Her mom made her outfit! so cute!)

 And Conner the baseball player!

I thought I got solo pictures of all the kiddos but I didn't get a close-up of Madelyn in her tinker bell costume. 

Here is my little shark playing with Conner

And doing his silly face

The whole gang! I wish I had a picture from last year (but we forgot to take one with their costumes)

 And apparently sharks like acorns....

Dear Ryan (15 months)

Little man is 15 months today! (October 24th)

Giddy up cowboy! Biggest news this past month is that you started WALKING! That's right, no hands - full on walking! Yee-haw! With that being said you are still a huge fan of crawling and walking with support...love my little cowboy!

Routine:
Not much has changed on the routine since last month. You seem to love your routine and so do we. One happy family!

Meals/Solids:
All is well on the eating front as well. One of your new favorite things to eat is the chicken salad from Whole Foods. It's a little random but you just love it. You also are a huge fan of yogurt covered raisins. Another favorite that you just discovered is KETCHUP - yum yum yum! Apparently your dad was also a huge fan of ketchup growing up - thats how Grandma got him to eat his green beans!

Development/Milestones
Walking!
You are also working hard on some new teeth and we can't wait for them to get in. Your bottom left one popped though (Mommy first saw it when we got back from Houston) but when we went in for you 15 month appointment it was gone! Dr. Neely said that sometimes happens and it has to recut its way back up - gee wiz. Anyhow, we also can see that your molars are about to come through as well.

Firsts
You had your first weekend away from us (mommy and daddy). Grandma & Grandpa watched you Thursday and Friday and then Yia Yia and Papu came in town to watch you over the weekend. You did great and had a lot of fun with them. Mommy and daddy were so happy to see you when we got back from our trip.

Sizes:
Weight: 21lbs 3 oz - 8%
Height: 30.5 inches - 30%
Clothes: 12-18months
Shoes: thinking 5!?! He grew out of his 4s so we are headed to the mall tomorrow!
Teeth: Four top front teeth, two on bottom. NEW: bottom left (October 4th)

Words:
Da - Dad
Mooooma - Mom
Ba - Bob or Dog, sometimes Ball, Book or Bubbles
Uh oh - uh oh

Love my boys!

Random notes:
You LOVE turning on your noise machine. It entertains you for quite a while. Sometimes you walk over to your machine, turn it on then head over to your crib and grab your sleep sheep to turn on. So silly!

You are a fan of reaching up. You love to reach for door handles and anything else that is out of reach - its really cute to see you try.

Love you bunches! Love, Mommy!

Grapevine Reunion

On Saturday we headed out to Grapevine for a last minute mini reunion with friends! The Terry's came in from New York, the Paprocki's came in from Austin and the Itz's came in from Keller :) We were still missing a few from the crew but had a great time seeing everyone that was there.  It's also getting more fun for the kiddos since they are getting older and can play with each other. Reese and Ryan had a ball crawling around - they loved hanging together!

Reese is 9 months - I guess she digs those older boys :) haha 

Here is Ryan showing Reese the door- he is a BIG fan. It's gonna be trouble when he figures out how to open them!

Here are these two playing on the couch together. Ryan LOVED jumping on the couch - he was having so much fun with Scott. If he could talk he would have said "Again, again, again.....and again"

And check out these two scrumptious little men! Jack & Ben!

One quick pic before the kiddos had to hit the hay! Wish everyone could have made it - now that we don't have any weddings its hard to get us all together. We started planning a trip so hopefully we will actually pull it all together because I think it would be super fun!

Meal Plan Mondays

So I guess that's what I am calling it these days. When Sunday rolls around I just don't have the gusto to plan our meals out AND make it to the grocery store. It's always way too crowded and they are always out of stuff so I wait until Monday. Ryan and I usually do something fun in the morning and then after nap time we head to Central Market to get food for the week. Ryan digs the carts with the cars on top and he also is a BIG fan of the balloons so it works out well. Plus CM always has a ton of yummy fruit and bread for him to snack on. Anyhow, here is what we are working with this week:

Monday: Chili-lime Tilpaia, Herbed Basamati Rice and Fresh Spinach.

Kevin and I were both pretty big fans - it was just what we needed after a weekend of not so healthy food. Kevin rated this guy a solid four starts.

Chili-Lime Tilapia (or any white flaky fish) Servings: 4 Time: 20 mins

Ingredients 6 tilapia fillets

1/4 cup olive oil 2 teaspoons lime juice 1 teaspoon chili powder 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions 1. Preheat oven to broil. 2. Place fillets in a baking dish. 3. Drizzle oil and lime juice on fillets. 4. Sprinkle with chili powder and salt. 5. Cook for about 10 minutes watching to make sure it doesn't overcook.

Herbed Basmati Rice Servings: 4-6 Time: 30 mins

Ingredients 1 1/2 cups basmati rice

3 cups chicken stock ( low sodium fat free) 1 teaspoon kosher salt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 2 teaspoons parsley

1 teaspoon dill, dried 1 tablespoon fresh scallions, white and green parts 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions 1. Combine rice, stock and butter in a saucepan. 2. Bring to a boil over high heat; reduce the heat to low, stir once, and simmer for

15 minutes. 3. Add herbs, stir, cover and continue to cook for 5 more minutes.

Tuesday: Manicotti with Turkey Sausage and Mushrooms

Wednesday: Braised Beef Stroganoff

Thursday:  Halloween Party @ LCC

Friday: Dine out

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Boo Bags!

Today Ryan brought his teachers (he has three of them) some Halloween goodies! Yes, I realize he is only 15 months and he is only with these ladies for a total of 10 hours a week, but what can I say - I just love holidays.  I found these super cute felt halloween goodie bags at Target and thought they would be perfect to stuff with something fun.

I raided the Halloween aisle and ended up getting stuff for Halloween cupcakes - mix, icing and sprinkles and baking cups. All of his teachers have kids so I am sure it will be fun for them to bake with them. I also saw the cute little Halloween soap - who doesn't need soap? Then I threw some candy in there to top it off. I made cute little tags with some halloween card stock that I had and wrote a little note from Ryan. All in all it wasn't expensive just something a little Halloween-ey! Boo!

Jamaica Mon!

Kevin and I just got back (Sunday evening) from our first trip away from Ryan. Well, I guess MY first trip away from the little guy. I have never been away from him for more than 24hrs, so going away for four days was a BIG deal!

I was nervous leading up to the trip and really sad (especially when I realized our flight out Thursday was at 7am, so I wouldn't get to see R before we left for the airport) but I knew he was in good hands and would have so much fun with grandma, grandpa, Yia Yia and Papu. We are so fortunate to have our parents so close and that they were willing and able to help us out! They tag-teamed the weekend taking turns to watch the little guy.  I know they loved hanging with the little man - who wouldn't?!? I missed him SO much but we had an AMAZING time and am so glad we were able to celebrate Jessica & Johns wedding day with them!

And on to the pictures....here is Kevin and I before dinner the first night. We pulled the curtains (which  made a pretty cool backdrop) for a few pics.

The next morning we boarded a catamaran for a nice outing. Sounds nice and fancy, huh? Well, it was a really a booze cruise and it was wonderful. Don't let the weather fool you - that was about the most sunshine we received until the morning we left. 

We did a little snorkeling, a little drinking (ok, a lot), some dancing. We also stopped at Margartiaville and played on the 2-story slide and water trampoline - it was amazing. 

This is the slide - there is a pic below of me shooting out of it. Kevin said everyone came out all normal and then when I came out I was just crazy twisted - thats what I felt like too. goodness. 

Moving on...here we are at the rehearsal dinner that night. 

 And here we are before the wedding!

 Love my Mk!

 The boys

The view

 Walking down the aisle with her dad! Jessica looked beautiful!

Fun photo booth at the wedding! So Cute!

Jessica & John! Congrats!

 My J Bird!

All the ladies hanging out on the beach after the wedding!

And the boys! Why are they sitting and we are standing? Goodness!

And here are even more pics ( I have about 200 of them! yikes!) We had so much fun the entire weekend but it's probably a good thing we were only there for a short while - I don't think we could have made it any longer. We acted like we were back in college and boy oh boy is that hard on your body. I am so happy to be back in Dallas with my little man and not drinking. ok, so maybe a glass of wine tonight :)

Congrats again to Jessica & John! 

Halloween Decorations

One of the reasons why my blogging has dropped off recently is because I have been busy decorating for Halloween! I feel like my house is always "in the works" so I don't have any pictures to share yet. However, since it is October 4th (forgot to hit publish until now) I should hurry up and get them done so I can relax a bit (before I move on to my next holiday!)
Anyhow I finished a wreath today and actually took some pictures to share. Here is a picture of the original wreath that I created.  It was super easy to make but it did create quite a glitter mess when I was making that bow! Wowzers.

After a couple of weeks I decided I was over all that snazzy glitter. Plus every time we came in the front door Ryan would pull on the ribbon. 

I found a super cute wreath on Pinterest and decided to make it

It looks a little wonky in the picture but in person I think it looks normal.

You are suppose to hot glue the roses on but I just used T pins so that I could change them out for other holidays.

Happy Halloween! 

Arboretum fun

On Friday the Hale kiddos had the day off from school so we decided to join them for donuts and a trip to the arboretum!

At the donut shop all the kiddos sat together at one table. Ryan was tickled pink when he got to sit with the"big kids". He just sat there in awe watching them eat. It was so cute!

And we got an adorable picture of all the kiddos! I am sure Grandma is going to want a copy of this pic!

Ryan loved playing with the straw that was on the ground. 

Ryan LOVES Ethan. He lights up every time Ethan plays with him and gives him special attention. He was hugging on him and resting his head on him - so sweet!

TX OU Weekend Traditions

Back in the day I loved getting decked out in my burnt orange and cowboy boots, tailgating all day, goofing around at the fair and watching the game. About five years ago I realized it just wasn't my thing anymore. It was my first year living here in Dallas and I went to the game with all the boys. I missed having girlfriends around to talk to. I think I spent more time watching Bevo than I did the actual game (let's be honest, I probably did the same thing back in college).  We were winning by a lot (which I thought that meant we could go ahead and leave, you know, since we knew the outcome) and the boys were in no hurry to leave. And as we stood in the stands until the VERY end I thought to myself, yup I am definitely not doing this again....and I haven't regretted it since. Don't get me wrong, I love the longhorns but I love my new tradition more. Now instead of going to the game, all the wives go shopping! Hook-em!

This was the first year I was able to fully experience the tradition that my sister-in-law Sarah and her friend Amy started and it was so much fun! My new TX OU tradition now involves a babysitter, shopping all day, a martini lunch at Bistro N and dinner out somewhere fun! Oh and don't worry, Nordstrom's announces the game score every so often over the loud speaker (although I am not so sure we really wanted to know this year!). 


Our day was super fun (minus my iphone getting stolen) and we ended it with a fun dinner at Alma. We had a great time and I thought I would share some of my favorite Fall Finds!

1. Colored Jeans

As we were headed to the mall my friend Terra was telling me about the new Joe's Jeans that come in 55 different colors AND are super soft! Ummmm amazing!  I knew I would need to secure a pair of those! We found them at Nieman's but they only had a few colors. You can preorder a lot of the colors online (and they have free shipping). They are super comfortable and I am excited to wear my new fiery red jean! Thanks Terra!

2. Faux Fur

I saw this vest in Anthropologie back in August when I was shopping with my mom. I tried it on and thought it was super cute but it was just so darn hot outside I couldn't bring myself to make the purchase. Since then I had tried on a few different ones, but a lot are so puffy my head looks so tiny. I decided to go back and get this one and can't wait to wear it out!

3.  Silk Blouse

Love the Lucinda Silk Blouse at JCrew. It's super cute with jeans and skirts. I love that you can dress it up or down so it's a must for me this Fall. It was on sale so I ended up with two fun colors! Yay!

Still in the market for some peep-toe booties, metallic flats and a gold watch (I know rose and chocolate gold are the rage but I still want just regular gold!) and a few other items but my time was cut short when I realized my iphone was gone. What a sad sad day - I am so glad I uploaded the video of Ryan's first steps to facebook & YouTube or I would have been even more upset! 

All in all it was a super fun time with the girls!