Ryan's 1st Father's Day

I didn't write anything for Father's Day last week, but we had a great weekend! Ryan's work is trying a new thing where they work 9 hour days, instead of 8, and then get off at noon on Friday. It's almost like a three day weekend! So we went and got sushi at our usual place(mmm, Tiger roll!) and then went across the street to Central market to pick up steaks for Sunday. Ryan insisted he wanted the entire 16oz ribeye, so I got the smallest NY strip they had. At around $17.99/lb, I told Ryan he better do one mean job at grilling and not ruin them! 

Saturday morning we went to Costco to get Ryan's Father's Day present...a long awaited waffle maker! Yum! In the afternoon, my in-laws came up and we had a late lunch at Beto's and got ice cream at Brindle's. Since we were still semi full by dinner, we had smoothies, popcorn, and brownie sundaes. Random I know, but I always feel sick if I eat popcorn on an empty stomach and Ryan wanted brownies for Father's Day. 

Sunday I made waffles with Ryan's present. We went to church, came home and Ryan grilled some amazing steaks! 

So happy Father's Day to my wonderful hubby who is doing such a great job at being a daddy! And to both of my Dads, love you and thank you for everything you do. 

 

Cinnamon Rolls

Aw the sweet smell of cinnamon rolls baking in the oven! We always had them growing up on Christmas Morning (from a can as my mom doesn't really bake, but delicious all the same). My step-mom makes some killer cinnamon rolls too, but alas, when all of us are together they disappear.  And if you're sick in the basement, nursing a sinus infection, you'll miss them in the 30 seconds they last between being pulled out of the oven and frosted.

My new obsession is Our Best Bites. I've tried at least a half dozen recipes in the last couple weeks and have yet to be disappointed! I made their "Everyday Cinnamon Rolls" this morning, and they were absolutely heavenly!

They only had to rise for 30 minutes, so it was almost instant gratification. They may look so pretty, but they were delicious! I'm rationalizing our choice of breakfast/lunch because I also made apple/cucumber/carrot juice an threw in some romaine lettuce(eww, not so great).

Check out their blog! You won't be disappointed.

Now excuse me as I slip into a mini cinnamon roll induced coma before we have to leave for church!

Walking

I'm probably the most out of shape I've ever been in my life(besides maybe 10th grade and junior year of college). I did do yoga twice a week and walked a lot while pregnant. But towards the end I would have contractions with any kind of aerobic activity, and even though they were just Braxton-Hicks, they were still uncomfortable.  As I've settled into motherhood, exercise has not been my top priority so far(I've kind of just been trying to stay afloat!) That being said, I know I need to get back into shape ASAP, so I'm starting with walking.

Poor Blanca is pretty out of shape too. Today was the first day I ventured to the park with both Rylee and Blanca. The dog gets terribly excited when we go somewhere and is either overly crazy once we get to the destination or scared by the cars, people, *insert other terrifying things*. Needless to say, it's always taken two hands to walk her at times. I only ran over her once, and after that, she seemed to get that she needed to stay on the side of the stroller. And by the time we got about 10 min into our walk, she was tired and had calmed down considerably. 

So hopefully I will continue to go on daily power walks and work back up to jogging.  At some point, maybe we'll even have enough money for a gym membership(not likely anytime soon though)! And I'm going to have to go earlier in the morning, because it is seriously too hot and I can't stand being sticky and sweaty. Although it is better when I'm in workout clothes and intend to be sweating, versus being in cute clothes with makeup/hair done. That is really unpleasant. Oh Texas summers, how I have not missed you!

Memorial Day Weekend & Other Randomness

We had a great Memorial Day weekend! Family, friends, BBQ, swimming, and baby free Star Trek date!

First time swimming at Grammy and Grandpa's pool!

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Dressed up to show off the baby at my family's ward

Rylee got to hang with her cousin Belle Sunday!

And I finally got my Trudys stuffed avocado! If you haven't tried one of these, go now. It kind of changed my life!  I blame my mother for my obsession!

Stuffed avocado=stuffed my face!

It took forever to get home because a certain little person needed to eat and have a diaper change...twice!



While we were gone, San Antonio had major flooding and lightening struck one of the buildings in our complex! Our's was fine, but still scary!

On another note entirely, we brought home my mom's old juicer. After a trip to Costco and pounds of fruit later, we had some delicious juice! I tried some vegetable juice today...apple, carrot, cucumber, and gulp...kale.  Is kale an acquired taste? I've tried it a couple times and I just can't get into it.

Also, my new food blog obsession is "Our Best Bites." I made their breadsticks and Ryan and I devoured them! Unfortunately while cleaning up the kitchen I dropped a glass on the counter and it broke EVERYWHERE. So Ryan threw away the breadsticks in case they had shards stuck to them. I might have cried a little. 

Rylee has been chewing on everything lately, mainly her hands.  So we went and got her a Sophie giraffe.  So far she has covered it in slober and driven the dog crazy with the squeaking!  Hopefully Blanca does not get a hold of it, as it was kind of an expensive toy!

Hanging with Mom in the kitchen.

I also bought some Avengers fleece and made a couple more diaper covers.

Rylee Smash!

Lastly, we "borrowed" my in-laws' copies of Star Wars, Harry Potter, and the Bourne Series. We're going to have a major movie marathon if the kiddo ever cooperates!

Woolies!

Here are the wool soakers I made this week! The whale was the first one I did, but it was a little big because the sweater was so stretchy. The bird one fits her best. Then I made the pink and white one, but the legs are a little too big. The last one I made is the red one, and it was super thick, so it was a little harder to sew. It's also big on her, but she'll grow into it.

First sewing machine project!

I had been looking at buying some fleece and wool diaper covers because they're so much more breathable than my PUL covers. But wool can run anywhere from $20-50 a cover! And fleece is around $10-15, but you can't use them as much between washes, so you need more than you would with wool. So I did some research, watched ALOT of YouTube videos, borrowed a friend's sewing machine, went and bought some fleece to start with, and some sweaters from the thrift store to upcycle and felt.

Popping tags!

 

I decided to start out with fleece and not ruin my awesome thrift store sweaters! Some of which were 100% cashmere sweaters from JCREW and Ralph Lauren! Unfortunately they were too small on me, otherwise I would have kept them!

I used  Katrina's Free Soaker Pattern that I found on a dozen other people's blogs, got some adorable pirate fleece on sale at Hancock. The first diaper attempt is the picture on the upper left.  I messed the legs up pretty badly. But it still functioned! The rest of the pictures are of my 2nd attempt and it turned out MUCH better and even kind of cute! 

Next up, I will attempt to not ruin all the wool sweaters! Pictures to come soon when the first one is finished(if I don't completely botch it!)

Almost 7 weeks...A Rylee update!

I can't believe it's almost been 7 weeks!  Our life right now is very much about feeding baby, holding baby, changing diapers/clothes and then washing said diapers/clothes.  And taking pictures of said baby.  Rylee is such a joy to have.  She's starting to smile more and is making more babbling noises.  She's also getting super big fast, so I thought I would post some of my favorite pictures from the last several weeks.

Eating at Beto's with the family.

Tummy time with Blanca!

Easter Sunday. We didn't take her to church, but she got stuffed into her cute
Easter dress (compliments of Grandma Sue) anyway!

Watching General Conference with Dad. She loves sleeping with her arms stretched out!

Loves her play mat!  Occasionally she'll also fall asleep with her head propped up.

5 weeks old. First Sunday at church!

Getting so big and chubby!!!

We took our first mini road trip to go back to Austin General Conference weekend to go to our friends' little girl's birthday party.  Rylee snoozed most of the way there and back!  Weekend before last, two of my best friends from college came down to see the baby.  We went to the Alamo, two of the other missions, and ate at the Cove!  We were out pretty much all day that Saturday, so Rylee and I were wiped!

My besties all the way from AR & OK!

 

Cloth diapering is going really well!  We love it!  I had some weird smell issues for a little bit after a week of diapering and I had to try everything to get rid of it (finally resorted to bleach).  But then I bought some Calgon water softener to use and we've been good since!  We have extremely hard water, so I think I was already getting some mineral buildup on the diapers.  I bought a couple new diapers to try out (we've been using all prefolds and covers) so I'm pretty excited!  I know, it's sad I'm excited about diapers, but if you cloth diaper you might understand.  One of these days I'll post about our cloth diaper experience and what we've liked so far, for anybody interested.  

I'm having problems taking too many pictures of this sweet little baby!  My photo stream is overrun with Rylee pictures.  I'm trying really hard not to post too many on Facebook!  I had always promised myself I wouldn't overrun my blog with baby pictures and baby posts, but that might not really happen, at least for a little while.  Bear with me, baby is kind of my life right now!

On a last note, Rylee has been pulling at my hair, it gets continually knotted, and I have no time to do anything with it, so it's been getting thrown in a ponytail.  I loved my haircut last year when it was at my shoulders, but it required blowdrying, straightening, and styling before I went anywhere.  I've been seriously thinking about getting a pixie cut for awhile now.  I found myself envying anyone with short hair, but I wasn't sure if I was ready for it yet.  Today I took the plunge!

And I love it!