A Day in October

I meant to document our day in October a few weeks ago, but I forgot my camera that day while I was out running errands and then forgot about it by the time I got home. 

So today, on the last day of October, while packing this morning to come home from vacation I realized that I hadn't documented our day. 

So today was the day. We were driving most of the day, but I decided to document it anyway. 

Here you go: October 31st, 2010

Our day started out at 7 am, Ava let Orion & I sleep in on our last day of vacation. I got up to nurse her and Orion started packing and listening to ramblings on ESPN. 

Here's a quick shot of them before leaving our hotel.........

And of coarse a shot of me & Ava, plus I wanted to show you my cute new hat! Aren't we cute?!? Then we loaded up in the car for our 3 and a half hour car ride home. 

Ava was a trooper, we planned the trip home around her nap time (thanks, Alicia) and she slept the first two hours into the trip. 

While, I read a little of this aloud to Orion in the car, Ava slept and we had a good time chatting and discussing the book's topics. We're reading this book for our Connection Group at church, and going through the class. Truth be told, we're a little behind so today was a good catch up day for us in the car. 

1:30 pm.....We made a pit stop for gas & lunch. Here's my little road trip girl! She did so great! 

2 pm, after our little break we're back in the car. Gotta get a shot of our "driver" on the trip. Orion puts up with my road trip camera picture taking nonsense, he's a trooper too! :)

By, 2:45 pm we were pulling into the drive way and unloading the car and getting things unpacked. 

After a quick diaper change and change of clothes I set up Ava's "home theatre" so she could be distracted while I started unpacking. 

I also started some loads of laundry, folded and repeated till it was all done. While Orion entertained Ava and they watched football. 

4 pm, I made a trip to Target for some things and had a nice little "mommy break." When I got home, We made another costume change into Ava's cute lil' pumpkin outfit and headed outside to take some fall pics on the grass: 

5:30 pm Orion went and got take out, this Mama was to tired to cook anything spectacular. 

6:30 pm we headed over to our friend's house, to drop off a thank you card to them for watching Bentley while we were on vacation, and say "hello."

8 pm, back @ home! Putting Ava to sleep and getting stuff picked up around the house. 

8:30 pm I sit down to pay bills & blog. Sorry for the lack of pics during this time. Really who wants to see me pay bills?!!? yea, I didn't think so! 

It's now almost 9 pm, and I am beat! Heading to bed soon, tomorrow is a new and exciting day. Some changes coming this week to the Worley House trying by best to wrap my heart and head around them. So, I need my sleep!

Night, Night!

PS- I'm linking up with Mrs. B's Day in October posts! Click here, to read about all the other bloggers Days in October, oh and Mrs. B's. 

Happy Halloween!

I'm not the biggest fan of Halloween, but any good excuse to dress my girl up in a cute outfit I'm game. I got the little hat a couple weeks ago on clearance, and bought these cute "pumpkin" shoes last year on clearance. 

She's the cutest lil' pumpkin around I think. I'm not bias or anything.......... ;) 

Daddy got her this lil' pumpkin a few weeks ago when we visited the pumpkin patch together. He decided that she "needed" her own little one. 

Daddy's and their girls....... can't wait to see what else later on in life he'll think she'll "need." :) 

Happy Halloween from our lil' pumpkin to yours! 

We're back from our first family vacation, I'll be posting more on that and some other new things happening in our lives soon. 

Stay tuned. 

Linking Up this Post to:

Watch Me Grow: 7 Months

Seven months is already here! I can't believe how BIG she's getting and how fast it's going. I think I will say that every single month. But, it really is going by too fast! She started crawling just 1 day she of seven months. 

I can't wait to see what she does this month, how she grows and changes. We have a doctors appointment in two weeks I hope to see some growth from her last visit. 

Now, that she's more mobile I really have to keep an eye on her. I can't just put her in her Bumbo or her bouncing chair anymore, she tries to break free. She's keeping me on my toes! 

I love looking at these monthly photos and really seeing her changes and how she's growing.

Enjoy! 

Mommy Milestones: Making my Own Baby Food

I knew I wanted to try making my own baby food when I was pregnant, and this past week I tried my hand at making my own baby food. It was one of the mommy things I wanted to check off my mental list of things to do. 

I bought some Earth's Best food initially when we started her on solids, just because I didn't know what to make yet and didn't know what she'd like. I like this brand, I'd use it again if I didn't have anything already made. 

I followed the tips given by my friend Jessie on her blog Mama of M's. She has some really great and detailed posts about the "how to" of making baby food. Check out her blog and see. 

I made baby food Monday night after she went to bed. I made baby food while Hubby and I chatted and broke down the day. We talked and bonded over making baby food for our girl, it was a good time. You should try it. ;)

I made carrots & peas since they seem to be a big hit with her. 

I boiled both, and then put them in the food processor and blended them till they were the consistency I wanted them. 

I used these Glad Ware containers I had on hand, next time I'd like to get these containers I saw or use ice cube trays. 

But, for this first time these little Glad containers worked well for me. I let them cool down, before putting them in the freezer. 

Now, we have a freezer full (about 8 containers) of homemade baby food. I plan on taking some on our vacation for Miss Ava. 

Doing this homemade is pretty economical, you can get so much more food out of a bag of carrots or peas than you can in 1 jar of store bought baby food. 

I used all organic veggies in this case. 

Be Creative Challenge 

Week #41

What's For Dinner: Easy Chicken & Rice

This is easily one of my 'go to' recipes on any night of the week. It's one of my faves, adapted from a recipe that one of my college roomies Mother's made for us. This is my much easier, less time consuming  version of Chicken and Rice. 

My husband loves this meal, and well when my Hubby loves certain meals they tend to be the ones that I keep going back to. I'm gonna share it with you, hope you like it. 

Here's what you'll need:

4 bone less, skinless chicken breasts

Italian Seasoning

Salt 

Pepper

1 can Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup

1 and a half cups White Rice

13x9 inch baking dish

Here's what do to:

Season your chicken breasts generously on both sides with the Italian seasoning, salt & pepper set aside. 

In your baking dish add Cream of Chicken soup, and two cans of water (you could also use Chicken Stock for more flavor instead of water) whisk together till soup is dissolved into the water. 

Add your rice, whisk again to mix in. 

Then add your chicken breasts to the mixture. 

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes until chicken is cooked through. 

I always pair this with another veggie like green beans or corn and some dinner rolls. 

Eat & Enjoy! It's one of my fave comfort foods this meal. 

Family Vacations

Some of my favorite memories as a kid were our family vacations, road trips in the car with my siblings playing "Eye Spy", flights with my sister to California getting our first "wings." Orion and I have had some pretty fun vacations together, now that we're parents I look forward to planning and taking Ava and our future children on vacations and creating memories as a family. 

Now that we live in the West, I'm looking forward to trips and vacations to California and Nevada and other really cool locations that the West Coast boasts! Showing Ava and Orion where I grew up in California is for sure on the list of things to do someday. 

We're taking our first family vacation in a couple days, a little mini road trip (3 and a half hours), spending a little quality time together! 

For me, since I'm the planner of the Worley House a lot goes into picking a vacation spot that just getting out the map and picking a location. Like most of you I'm sure, time, when, where, budget, things to do, and travel all go into the decision making process of where to plan on going for your vacations & family vacations. 

For us, budget is the #1 thing we consider. It allows us to determine pretty much right away where we're going to go, where we're going to stay, flying or by car, taking in how much we want to spend. We haven't been on a BIG vacation since our honeymoon, everything else has been very local or just a crossing of a state border. 

#2 we generally like to go places where there's tons of stuff to do, and by stuff I mean free stuff. Sights to see, places to walk or shop, stuff that we can do cheap, free or in an affordable way. For us vacations aren't really about spending a lot of money on doing extra things they are about doing things together. This helps cut our costs a lot too since we're spending money on things already like food & lodging. 

And, now that we have a baby to consider everything really has to be family friendly or stuff that we can do, or places that we can go with a baby in mind. Ava is a really good traveler, she did great flying back to Iowa this past summer, and she's gone 1 and a half hours in the car already. So we're not to worried about the trip and how she'll travel. When we traveled to Iowa there was a lot that we didn't bring because I wanted to keep it as low key as possible since I'd be traveling alone with her. We brought just enough diapers to get us through the plane ride and bought the rest once I got there. Had my Mom get us a car seat so I didn't have to bring mine, already had a stroller there so I didn't need to bring that... you get the idea.

This time though we have to bring everything for her. And when I say bring everything I really don't know what that means besides the obvious clothing, diapers and pac n play since I haven't even started packing for her yet. 

So you may be asking yourself, why is she rambling on and on? This brings me to the point of this post....

What are some of your best traveling with a baby in a car for 3.5 hours tips?

What are your tips for vacations with a baby or kids? 

C'mon help a girl out and dish out all your best travel tips and family vacation tips! Here's what to keep in mind:

- she's 7 months old.

- we're taking a road trip, a short 3.5 hours.

- we're staying in a hotel.

Yup, I think that's it! While I wait for your tips and tricks from all you seasoned parents I leave you with two adorable videos of Ava to help get you in the spirit! 

Mucho thanks in advance! 

Milestones: Eating Baby Food

We shot this cute little video the first time Ava tried baby food. Of coarse, I wanted Orion to be there for the event. He video tapped and narrated while I fed her the goods, we make a good team! This video was taken a few weeks ago, but since then we've tried squash, carrots, peas, and sweet potatoes. Carrots & Peas seem to be the big hit with her right now. 

Our experience with baby food has been kinda touch and go, she seems to really like trying new things but then the next day will come and it's like she's got amnesia and forgets that she liked it the day before and won't even eat it. 

But, like I said peas & carrots are the only things she seems to consistently love, so we'll keep going with those and try some others ones as well. Last night, I started making my own baby food, it was so easy! (more on this later, obviously there will be a blog post all its own!)

Enjoy this cute little video of Ava and her sweet potatoes! 

Blog Roll Monday: Party Box Designs

Blog Roll Monday is a weekly feature where I high light one of the blogs off my reading list and tell you why I love reading their blog. For a complete list of all the blogs I love check the side bar to the right! 

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Meet Jessica of Party Box Designs! A couple weeks ago I entered a giveaway to win some custom invitations from her company Party Box Designs! Upon checking out her work and her blog I was totally inspired and in awe of her work! She's got amazing party skills! Her blog features all of her invitations, decor and design for parties. She's even featured her own daughter's birthdays on the blog for you to check out. She also has holiday cards and party invites, cupcake and favor tags. 

I love her whimsical approach to her designs and her generosity in sharing with others the 'how tos' of party planning! She's got a lot of really cool ideas!  

I decided on two invites for Ava's first birthday party, which is still 5 months away but the planner in me couldn't wait to get a handle on the details soon. I was so excited to have won this invite contest, I really feel like invites set the whole tone for your event or party. They let guests know what the colors or theme might me and what to expect at your party. 

Ava's first birthday is going to be cupcake themed, here's the two invites I'm deciding on, they are vastly different but I love them both I can't decide. I'm leaning towards option #2, but Hubby loves option #1, what do you think?: 

#1- Goes great with her nursery theme

#2- Totally different colors but I really love the swirls

I like the idea of doing something different than her nursery theme, which was the theme for all my baby showers. They are both really awesome designs, tough to choose! 

Jump on over to Jessica's blog, give her some love! You just might find yourself planning your next birthday party, or event!

images: Party Box Designs 

Weekend Mash Up

This weekend went by super fast, usually I don't have really busy weekends it was surprisingly busy and very fun. This past week on Monday was my birthday, Friday was my friend Jennie's birthday. For the last two years we've been able to celebrate our days together. 

This year Jennie called and surprised me on my birthday telling me she'd gotten us tickets to see Colbie Caillat in concert on her birthday. She's such a selfless and kind friend to me. I was over joyed to get to celebrate together again on our birthdays. 

Friday night, Jennie and Julie made the trip to Phoenix and we headed to the State Fair where the concert was held. Got FREE tickets into the fair from a very nice lady. Such an unexpected blessing!

After the concert we headed to Jennie's fave the Cheesecake Factory for dinner & of coarse cheesecake! It's been a long time since I've enjoyed a night of just girlfriends, laughter and friendship it was very much needed. 

The concert was so fun, it's been so long since I've been to a live concert. Colbie does a great live show, it was fun to see her in person. Her music is so happy, upbeat, hopeful and full of life. She's a pretty awesome dresser too, I was drooling over her boots and easy goin' style by the end of the night. 

We had 7th row center seats! IT.WAS.AWESOME! That's to Dusty and her mad ticket skills! I had a lot of fun with your girlies, thank you for taking me! Jennie, Happy Birthday dear friend! 

BIG, thanks as well to my Hubby for watching Ava and letting me have a night with the girls! I appreciate you so much. 

I love finding free things to do in the community that I can go to, or my family can take advantage of. Saturday, I found a Mommy & Me event that Destination Maternity was holding in Scottsdale. Ava and I went to the event, it was a lot of fun. They had a ton of activities to do, free food, and free goodie bags! You all know how much I love free, especially free goodies! 

Also, while we were there I got to hear a seminar by Scott Cohen author of Eat, Sleep, Poop. It was awesome to hear him speak and his take on "common sense parenting" as he puts it. Check him out here, if you'd like. 

Saturday night, Ava started crawling! And Sunday, she turned 7 months old! (more on those things later) 

How was your weekend????

Happy Monday!!! 

Milestones: Teeth

I've been trying to get a picture of this girl's teeth for a week now, she either sticks her tongue out or looks away but today I got one! 

See for yourself:

I think it's pretty awesome! 

The last couple weeks her changes have all been coming at once, a little to fast. 

She's sittin' up. 

BAM!

She's gettin' teeth!

BAM!

She's starting to scoot around, almost crawlin'! 

Today she had peas. 

She loved them.

She had her first bath sitting up in the tub. 

She's so fun and I truly look forward to each day with her. 

(today we shot her six month photos, can't wait to show you soon)

Oreo Ice Cream Cake

Hubby made me this cake for my birthday this week, I don't like cake but I love me some ice cream cake so this was right up my alley. Let me tell you, it was and still is amazing. I've been whittling my way through this cake since Monday. 

It's to good not to share!

Here's what you'll need:

1 tub (1.5 quarts) vanilla ice cream 

1 tub (8 oz.) cool whip

1 package oreo cookies

Do this:

Scoop out all your ice cream and cool whip blend together in a mixing bowl. 

Meanwhile, crush up oreo cookies in a bag, use half to line the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. 

Add the rest of the cookies to your ice cream/cool whip mixture. Spread mixture into baking dish.

Freeze for 2 hours and serve. 

Done! That simple, all your friends & family will think you're really fancy. 

And if you wanna get real fancy the Hubs & I were thinking you could use the specialty holiday oreos to jazz up this cake. You know like at Christmas they have the red & green ones, or at Halloween they have the orange oreos, it would be really fun and festive! 

Waking Up 28

Yesterday was my 28th birthday. Hubby had a full day planned, he took care of everything, made it really special and I was impressed and very surprised. 

He let me sleep in later, and he took care of Ava. We had a lazy morning together before getting ready and heading to lunch. 

You may have heard me gush about my green bag envy a few weeks back, well Hubby made my dreams come true and got me my green bag. He's so sweet & thoughtful. 

My Mom sent me these really pretty flowers for my birthday and all day long phone calls poured in from my very best friends. 

My Grandparents called and sang me "Happy Birthday" over the phone, and made me cry truly happy & blessed tears. 

My friend Jennie surprised me with tickets to see Ms. Colbie on Friday for our birthdays. Her birthday is 4 days after mine. 

 Hubby really out did himself, and made me enchiladas (just like my Mom) for my birthday. He also made an Oreo ice cream cake that is to die for. It's going to be the end of me this week. 

Who knew Hubby could cook! :)

Friends bought me this cookie cake, and it made me remember my Cookies Etc. days when I was the cookie girl making them for other people's birthday. 

I had an amazing birthday!

It made turning 28 truly special. 

Blog Roll Monday: The House of Wood

Blog Roll Monday is a weekly feature where we high light one of the blogs on my reading list. To see a complete list of all the blogs I love see the side bar to the right. 

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Hello everyone! Since yesterday was my birthday (more on that later) I took a little break from the blogity and spent the day with my family. It's not Monday, but let's pretend that it doesn't matter...because today I want to introduce you to Jen from The House of Wood!

Jen is a singer/songwriter living in Nashville, TN. By day she writes & performs and in her spare time she's one little creative Mama. She just recently had a baby girl named Evie. She's a beauty!

Jen's little blog is filled with all sorts of home DIY projects on her rental that her and her Hubby (and now baby) live in and Creative products that she makes for her Etsy shop. 

Stop by say hello, and take a listen to some of her music on itunes, you just might find yourself hooked!

Happy Tuesday! 

Milestones: Sittin' Up & Takin' Names

Ok, so maybe she's not so much takin' names but it sounded really good, huh!

For the last couple weeks she's been sitting up if you put her in the sitting position, still kinda wobbly though. I've been watching & waiting for her to figure out on her own how to sit up. 

Today she did it! 

Today while playing on the floor, I was sitting next to her, she rolled over and sat up. I was so proud, clapped my hands and cheered. I'm sure she thought I was a fool. 

But I'm proud! 

Today was also a BIG day because was finally conquered solid foods! Or shall I say carrots! 

So here's the deal everything I have introduced her to rice cereal, squash, sweet potatoes she wants nothing to do with it. The first time we tried rice cereal she ate it like it was her last meal. The next time she wanted nothing to do with it, shook her head and threw a fit. Same deal with sweet potatoes & squash. 

Today carrots were the veggie of choice, and to my surprise she ate them. We'll see if this is a fluke tomorrow or not but for today I'm happy to say that at least she was into trying something. 

Breast feeding has become her nemesis, she wants nothing to do with it. She trows a fit & refuses to eat. Which is hard on this Mommy's heart. But we keep trying hoping that the next feeding will be more pleasant than the last. 

She's growing so much and changing everyday. I think I sat that every day, but it's true. Some of our friends have children that are turning 1 or already have in the last few weeks and it's crazy to think how fast time goes by. She won't be small forever, but she'll always be our little girl. 

Next, up on mastering.... crawling. 

She's got one leg propped up most of the time. Now, if she could only get those hands moving and not just rockin' on her knees we'd have a crawler. Right now she just rolls everywhere it's pretty cute though. 

Our Lil' Pumpkin

Yes, I went there. Pun intended. 

I'm pretty sure I love all cheesy cliches & puns when it comes to my baby. 

We spent the day at the pumpkin patch yesterday, Ava is 6 and a half months old so she really couldn't enjoy all that this experience had to offer but we went anyway because I have been dreaming of the days where we'd sit on hay, hold pumpkins and smile!

We did just that. It was hot, a mere 95 degrees. But it was fun. I watched my Husband take our girl down a slide, show her the animals at the petting zoo and smile as I took a bazillion pictures of the whole thing! 

She was a trooper in the heat, smiling and making lots of squeals as she put her feet in kernels of corn.

We bought Ava her own lil' pumpkin to take home, it's cute and just her size. 

I can't wait till next year when she's older and running all over the place, she's going to love the pumpkin patch. 

We waited around till the crowds cleared and we could get our picture taken in front of the giant pumpkin. Took cheesy self portraits, and captured everything about this Fall day! 

It's a little different here in Arizona, fall is different than in the Midwest. I miss my Midwest falls, but we're making the most of our valley of the sun kinda fall days!

I'm so glad we made the trip and made some great memories for our little family. I love holidays so much, and I can't wait to make some really fun new memories with our new little family. 

Enjoy these pictures! 

Isn't she cute?!!! 

These pages will be going in our family album soon, I need to get moving 2010 feels like it's almost over! 

PS- Ava is going to be a lil' pumpkin for Halloween. Mom & Dad....We'll eat the candy! :)

Have you been to the pumpkin patch yet this year????

Stuffed Shells for Dinner

I've been wanting to make this for a while now. I remember having it while at a friend's home once. I couldn't get that exact recipe from my friend so I improvised and made up my own. I admit sometimes I don't follow recipes, and make up my own stuff most of the time. 

But, for the purpose of this I'll try to give you measurements. 

Here's what you'll need:

1 box of jumbo shells (I used Barilla)

1 16 oz. ricotta cheese

1 small package frozen spinach, thawed 

1 cup Parmesan cheese

1 cup mozzarella cheese

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

1 can spaghetti sauce (any brand or flavor you wish, if you like more sauce use two, you can see the amount used in the picture.)

2 cans Swanson chicken (I used the can kind, it was easier and handy but you could also used 1 lb. cooked and shredded chicken breast or 1 lb. ground beef)

Start boiling your shells to just under al dente.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

While shells are cooking, mix all of the above ingredients together set aside. When shells have cooked drain them, and run cool water over them till they are cool to the touch. Then fill your shells with the mixture. 

Pour sauce over filled shells. Add more cheese on top if you wish.  Place in oven and bake for 15 minutes. 

Take out. 

Plate it up, pair it wish bread and a salad. 

Enjoy! 

(for variations you could also use alfredo sauce instead, or add in chopped onion or garlic)

Digital Camera Dump

I finally got around to uploading some of the pictures that have been sitting on my camera since the beginning of October. I've sorted them and edited them for our family book. I make one of these every year for our family to have of all the things we did and memories we made. 2010 is almost coming to and end, and I'm excited to add the final events to our book. 

Here's a little bit of what we've been up to these past few days, and a little peek at our family photo book, enjoy! 

Family picnic, we love going on picnics at the park! They are free things to do and we love spending time together this way. 

We went to Sprinkles Cupcake Bakery, you all know I love me a good cupcake! I've been here before once while visiting L.A, they have a shop here in Scottsdale and Orion had never been so off we went last week! Orion had a red velvet one and I of coarse went for the chocolate! They were yummy! 

Ava lights up when Orion walks in the room, she's always so excited to see him when he gets home. And he's so good with her, they have a lot of fun together. I love capturing them together in photographs!

I love how our book is shaping up! It's a bit larger than last year's book with our new addition I admit I'm a little snap happy with the pictures even more than I usually am! 

iheart: Beauty Product Junkie

Oh, Lordy! It's been a while since I told you about some of the things iheart! It's so secret around my house that I'm kinda a product junkie. That cute little packaging and the promise that "it'll change your life." gets me every time! Especially beauty products, Y.E.S. 

Over the years I have fallen in love with some amazing products that work wonders for me. I'll tell you about'em, some are cheap-o drug store and some are of the department store/salon brand variety! 

Either way here's what keeps me goin' and lookin' fab!  

 Bumble & Bumble Deeep

This awesome little leave in conditioner works wonders for me. I use it once every two weeks instead of my normal conditioner on that day. I put it on right in the shower and continue about my business and then rinse just before getting out. Perfect enough time for it to do its magic! This stuff is awesome for me since I color my hair, blow dry it, flat iron it and pretty much all around torture my locks..this helps bring them back to life! 

Redken Glass Smoothing Serum

This gem, I've been using her since I was in 8th grade! Yes, you heard that! She's really awesome for smoothing away all those frizzies and helping your dry hair. I have naturally curly hair and when I was in junior high I had no idea what to do with my hair to control the frizzies my hair dresser introduced this stuff to me and my Mom bought it for me for years! I still love it to this day, it works great controlling all that stuff and giving you a great shine and smoothing out your hair! 

What beauty products do you love?