Cyber Monday?

We took advantage of the deals on Monda y and ordered Marley's new car seat. Her current one weight and height restrictions are 29" tall and 22lbs. According to my measurements and scales she was 17lbs and 27" tall so we knew it wouldn't be long into the new year that we'd be needing to upgrade.  Over the weekend we had been in Savannah and looked around at Babies R Us for some ideas and get an idea on what it was going to cost. 

We decided on the Graco Nautilus 3 in 1 car seat. She could ride in it now with the rear facing and 5 point harness, and it would upgrade to forward facing, then a high back booster to just a regular backless booster. And had a reasonable price tag of $179.99.

Monday morning I realized that most stores were having online sales after the crazy shopping weekend. (it was not fun working on Friday) So I decided to check out what deals they had going on at Babies R Us and our car seat was 20% off! Although we don't need it right now we took advantage of the sale and free shipping and ordered it. It's exactly the same pattern just instead of the yellow on her current car seat this one is pink. . Marley's growing up to be a big girl. Can't believe she'll be 6 months in just a couple of days.

We're on the move.

Marley is sort of crawling.
She's got a way of throwing her body around, using a booty scoot, and body rolls to get to where she wants to go. We think she'll be properly crawling by Christmas.

Watch out everybody here she comes!


Paddington has no idea what's about to happen.

Peppermint Squares

I made these for Thanksgiving. I first made them in September for Becky's birthday as she loves grasshopper pie. I still need to work on the middle layer the consistency of the icing isn't quite right yet. But they are yummy!

Ingredients:

Bottom Layer:
1/2 cup hard margarine (or butter), softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa, sifted if lumpy
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
Middle Layer:
2/3 cup hard margarine (or butter), softened
2 cups icing (confectioner's) sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon peppermint flavoring
5-6 drops of green food coloring
Top Layer:
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons hard margarine (or butter)

 

Directions:

Bottom Layer:

Cream margarine and brown sugar together in medium bowl. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla. Mix.

Add next 4 ingredients. Beat until moistened. Turn into greased 9 x 9 inch pan. Bake in 350°F oven for 15 minutes. Do not overcook. Cool thoroughly.

Middle Layer:

Beat all 5 ingredients together in separate medium bowl. Spread over bottom layer.

Top Layer:

Heat and stir chocolate chips and margarine in small heavy saucepan on low until melted and smooth. Spread over mint layer. Chill overnight until set. Cuts into 36 squares. 

Recipe and Picture form The Nest.

Manners

 Didn't you know it's rude to eat with your mouth full? 

This is Marley's new thing. Trying to walk while getting a spoonful of food which means not only is she needing a bib but so do D and I as lovely baby food is sprayed around the kitchen as she blows raspberrys between her "ooh's" and "aahs". Which pour out of her mouth all day long along with the gallons of drool (I can't keep up with the soaking wet shirts/onesies).

At least we're beginning to get the whole baby food thing down. She has a vegetable at lunch time and fruit at dinner time. So far we love squash and carrots and getting use to eating the green beans and we'll be

trying sweet potatoes next week. For fruits she absolutely loves her bananas but will occasionally eat some peaches. We'll also be adding apples at some point next week too.

Anyways, I'm off to Ocala for the weekend. Photographing the little sisters horse competition on Saturday and I'll be baby free. D has Marley all to himself for daddy-daughter bonding weekend and maybe some Christmas shopping too. Be back Sunday.

Movie: A Nightmare on Elm Street

This was never posted about a week before Halloween...

So with Halloween just around the corner we rented A Nightmare on Elm Street and invited a bunch of friends over for a late, late night movie night.

There was a much richer mysterious element to the original film and to my surprise, much more creative. I thought the kills and nightmare sequences would be vastly improved upon, but alas, gigabytes, green screens and CGI can not compete with hands-on creativity.  

You know you have problems when Freddy is revealed five minutes into the film. Not in a silhouette, but in full make-up. Right away we know the writers aren't looking to create suspense. That's what made the first one work. It's never a mystery as to who or what Freddy is. Granted, with all his popularity, it might seem pointless to keep him hidden, but it would've made his character a hell of a lot scarier.

I hate you Jillian Michaels...

but hopefully I won't be saying that in 30 days.

I started the 30 day shred today and it was a workout. Hoping to get in a little better shape before flying to England for Christmas in 30 days.

Can you believe it's November? Marley is 5 months old. Thanksgiving is a week away and our trip we've been looking forward too for so long now is only a month away! Time is definitely flying by. When you're having fun right? Definitely.

We've been busy...

I never posted a picture of Marley in her Halloween costume...

 

5 Months Old

What have you been up to?

• Well you just keep on growing. 27" tall and weigh about 17lbs. We'll be getting a new car seat for you very shortly into the new year.
• You're beginning to eat real food, although you're not to sure about all these new flavors and textures we're slowly getting the hang of eating from a spoon. We've had green beans and peaches. You also sometime enjoys sucking on those rice cereal biscuits that taste like bananas.
• You still sleep great. Although with the current time change were going to bed early and waking up earlier too. We cant complain as you slept 12 hours last night. You fight your naps during the day so hard, which I wish you wouldn't, you get so upset and irritated when you don't get naps. I promise I won't let you miss anything if you fell asleep. You still move all over your crib and you almost always sleep on your stomach now.
• I can feel those teeth coming in, and sometimes that makes you grumpy too, but for the most part it's just made you drool non stop. And chew on those fingers of yours. You don't suck on your thumb but you definitely favor your "pointer" finger to chew and suck on.
• You always want to be sitting up or standing up, with our help. 
• When you roll on to your stomach you are determined to try and crawl. You've got this little scoot thing you do to get around your play mat. It won't be long until you'll be army crawling around the house. 

I can't wait to see what next month has in store. 

Birth – 7lbs 6oz /// 21” June 9th 2010

1 Months – 9lbs 4oz /// 21”

2 Months – 11lbs 12oz /// 23”

***3 Months - 12lbs 8oz /// 24”

4 Months – 16lbs /// 26"

 ***5 Months - 17lbs /// 27"

***According to my measurements