Hadley is 22 Months And Now it’s November?

I’m blaming the fact that another month has passed since I’ve blogged on the weather.  It simply doesn’t feel like it could be November outside as it’s been in the upper 80s! 

I thought I’d try something a little different for a quick Hadley update since she turned 22 months old yesterday.  I took some pictures of her in the greenbelt across the street the other day and this is literally the best picture of her out of over 50!  I put some of the basics of what she’s up to on the picture for a quick snapshot of this age!

She is doing really well at her Mother’s Day Out program.  She goes twice a week and although it runs from 9-2, I’ve actually started picking her up at noon right before they put them down for naps.  School days were becoming days that we both were dreading because she wasn’t getting enough of a nap at school and then it was a loooong time to go before bedtime.  She was only getting maybe an hour long nap at school and at this age, it’s just not enough sleep for her.  Picking her up at noon, coming home to play for a bit and then going down for nap is working MUCH better for us!  The first day I tried it, she napped for 3 hours!  Pretty sure that means she was needing some more sleep.   Other than picking her up before naptime, she has adjusted so well – walks right in with no tears and her teachers say that she is so sweet and compliant all day! Makes my momma-heart so happy!

She’s adjusted to our new house (I promise pictures will come soon!) pretty well, too.  At this point, I’m not sure she even has much of a memory of our old house!  We’ve met some neighbors and she waves (from afar) and yells hi to all the “friends” on the trail across the street.  {As long as they don’t come too close – then she runs and hides behind my legs.}

Overall, this is such a fun age as she communicates more and more with us and we get to know more of her personality!  We do spend some days in time out quite a bit, but even those days are going by too quickly! Hard to believe she will be two in just two months!

cue the tears…

Skeleton Pajama Party

Last night Meredith organized and hosted a skeleton pajama party linkup via Instagram and Twitter. It was so cute to see all the kiddos in their skeleton pajamas!

Hadley was feeling extra silly last night in her skeleton jammies so I got some cute pictures (and a video) of her playing with daddy!

Hadley playing with daddy

Another Month Gone By

Well, I fell off the wagon again.  Can I bribe you with some cute pictures from the State Fair while I try to get back to blogging yet again?  Between moving, being pregnant and chasing a toddler around I just haven’t taken the time to sit down and document our lives recently. 

I promise I want to have pictures of our new house to show soon, but I feel like there are so many things I want to change before posting a “house tour” – would y’all rather just see all “before” pictures?  I have so many projects floating around in my head, but being pregnant doesn’t exactly make it easy to check them off my list. 

I’ll try to get a catch up post written soon to update on what we’ve been up to, but we just went to the state fair this past weekend with my sister/brother-in-law and I want to get those pictures up now before I forget! 

Right when we walked into the fair we noticed a little pitching mound where you could pitch and it clocked your speed.  Matt and Eric obviously had prove their athleticism.  Eric actually got his name up for having one of the fastest pitches that day! 

Sweet girl checking things out from the safety of her stroller.

She loved these tractors… too bad she couldn’t reach the pedals.

This tractor, however, was not as fun…

The petting zoo at the fair is legit.  We saw a giraffe, zebra, ostrich, emu, kangaroo, camel and about 10 other animals that I can’t remember now.

She was so proud of herself for feeding the goats.

And once we saw the ostrich we were done.

I should have known the ostrich would do her in… see last year’s picture in the exact same spot as an example…

Annual picture in front of Big Tex

And last year for your reference…

And Hadley’s FAVORITE part of the fair… the Merry-Go-Round! Unfortunately, I couldn’t go on this with her due to “my condition” according to their rules.  Seriously, what can happen to a pregnant woman on a merry-go-round??  Aunt Katie stepped in to save the day and Hadley was so glad!

I just love this time of year!  We’re off to the pumpkin patch tomorrow so hopefully I’ll have some more fun pictures to share soon!

Menu Monday

It may be 8:30pm, but it’s not too late to share our menu plan for the week!  I’m going to try to get better about meal planning.  I tend to go through phases where I’m really good at planning our meals out and then I get lazy which = stressed out at the last minute about what we’re going to eat.  So, I’m linking up with Rachel for Menu Monday!

It’s a…

Boy or Girl?

When I was pregnant with Hadley, I remember anxiously counting down the weeks until we found out the gender.  This time, it has seriously snuck up on me and it’s TOMORROW!  I blogged about what the old wives’ tales predicted last time and thought I would do the same this time around so we can see if they’re right (again). 

• Baby’s heart rate:  If the HR is >140, then it’s a girl; if it’s <140; it’s a boy
• = GIRL
• Acne: If your skin gets worse during the pregnancy, it’s a girl; if it stays the same or gets better, it’s a boy
  • = GIRL
• Maternal Grandmother: If the maternal grandmother has gray hair it’s a boy; if she doesn’t (whether natural or dyed) it’s a girl
  • =GIRL
• Sum of the mother’s age + the month conceived: Odd = girl; even = boy
• =BOY
• Hair on legs:  If the hair on your legs grows faster it’s a boy; if it stays the same or stops it’s a girl
• = GIRL
• Carrying: If you’re carrying low and all in front it’s a boy; high and wide = girl
• This one is a little hard to tell so far and I really am not a good judge so we’re just going to leave this one off this time
• Feet:  If they are colder than usual it’s a boy; normal or warmer it’s a girl
• = BOY (although they are now basically back to normal, my first trimester they were definitely colder than usual)
• Morning Sickness:  If you had it = girl, if you didn’t = boy
  • = GIRL
• Chinese Gender Prediction: predicts based on the mother’s age (you are supposed to calculate your ‘lunar age’ and I have no idea how to do that.  Probably why I can’t get similar results on them) and the conception month. 
• If I go with my regular age, the charts say BOY
• If I go with what some pages calculate to be my “lunar age”, then the charts say GIRL
• Here’s the one that calculates those things for you - http://www.babycenter.com/chinese-gender-predictor – and it says: GIRL

TOTAL:
Boy= 2 out of 8
Girl= 6 out of 8
{Here’s a quick picture from 16 weeks – I’ll be 18 weeks tomorrow so I’m a little behind on the bump pictures!}

So, according to the wives’ tales, we’re having a girl!  What do you think?!

The Proof is in the Pin {Link Up}

Today I’m going to link up with one of my favorite blog-friends Sarah from Life {Sweet} Life.  She is starting a new series called The Proof is in the Pin where you can share your successes and failures from actually trying something you saw on Pinterest. 

 

When I was looking through my pins I realized a lot of my favorite ones have been food-related so I thought I’d make this the recipe-edition.  Here are some of my favorite Pinterest “recipes!”

Pin #1: This “OMG Chicken” is also known as “Melt-in-your-mouth Chicken” and has become one of my favorite chicken recipes.  It’s super easy, super tasty and we almost always have the ingredients already on-hand.  The recipe is here - http://theenchantedcook.blogspot.com/2011/10/parmesan-crusted-chicken-hellmanns-mayo.html 

All you need is mayo, yogurt or sour cream (sidenote: I do NOT like mayonnaise, but we have it on hand b/c Matt likes it.  That’s all I had the first time I made this recipe and I still LOVED it!), parmesan cheese and italian bread crumbs!  I also usually sprinkle a little garlic salt into the mixture for added flavor.  It’s super easy and comes out tender and tasty every time!

Source: theenchantedcook.blogspot.com via Brittany on Pinterest

 

Pin #2: Zesty Italian Chicken

This one is not nearly as healthy as the last one, but it is tasty and easy!  I usually throw in zucchini or asparagus, or any other favorite veggie that I have on hand to add a little nutritional value.  Another minimum ingredient dish – just chicken, cream of chicken soup, cream cheese and a packet of zesty italian dressing mix.  And I love anything that I can toss in the crockpot!

Source: the-girl-who-ate-everything.com via Brittany on Pinterest

 

Pin #3: Pumpkin Muffins {We add chocolate chips}

This is one of those pins that if you haven’t seen it already, you are either living under a rock or you’re not on Pinterest.  It is SUPER easy (can you tell we like easy around here?), health-ish, and DELISH.  I seriously can’t keep these in the house when I make them.  Just a box of yellow cake mix and a can of pumpkin is all you need!

Source: bigredkitchen.com via Brittany on Pinterest

 

Enjoy!  And head over to Sarah’s blog to check out everyone else’s Proof is in the Pin links!