Mr. Awesome

So last Friday night we took Preston to his first football game. We met some friends down at the Hoover Met for the Hoover vs. Mtn. Brook game. Blake's boss' son is the quarterback for Hoover and he had been wanting to see him play anyway so we thought it was a good time to introduce Preston to the world of football. I was pleasantly surprised at how much he enjoyed himself. He had refused all but 30 minutes of a nap the entire day and was already fussy on the way to the game. I wasn't planning on making it through the first quarter...but as soon as he caught glimpse of the busy field and all the people around him he was fascinated and totally absorbed in the chaos. I have this love for ball park hot dogs (It's a must for any athletic event) so we made our stop by the concession stand and headed towards this grassy area in the visiting section. We had a whole section of bleachers to ourselves with a huge area of grass in front of it. I spread out our blanket and Preston was free to roam.

Preston dined on a scrumptious meal of french fries, diced apples cheerios and cookies while I devoured my hot dog and nachos, yum. Blake graciously shared his fries with Preston so he wound up with a second trip to the concession stand. That's how I ended up with a huge tub of popcorn too...and did I mention I brought a huge batch of oatmeal scotchie bars for everyone. Gotta love eating at the ball park. Anyway, enough about food.

Meanwhile...a few boys (around 10 or 11 in age) were hanging around by us and caught the attention of my husband. Anyone who knows Blake can tell you he never meets a stranger and this includes people of all ages. He has this gift of being able to befriend someone immediately. It's quite amazing to watch. So anyway, they start talking baseball and football and then the boys make their way back towards the main crowd. A little while later they are back but with more boys. They start throwing a football so of course Blake joins in...before we know it Blake is arm wrestling with these boys on the bleachers and just having a great time with them. Preston is having a blast just watching them run around and play, probably wishing he could join them. I'm watching these boys rough house and get grass stains all over their clothes and wondering if I'm ready for this in the future. I guess I better get used to it :) So anyway, after a while, one of the boys walks up to Blake and they have the following conversation:

Kid: "Hey, so what's your name?"
Blake: "My name's Blake"
Kid: "Oh, cause we were just calling you Mr. Awesome"

Ha! It was so hilariouis. Blake had the biggest grin on his face after that. He loves kids and I'm so proud that he takes such an interest in making a kid's day. Those boys would just light up when Blake would talk to them about their sports and they seemed surprised that he was actually interested in their responses. I'm so thankful that Blake really is "Mr. Awesome" to Preston and I and I look forward to him playing with Preston and his friends one day like he did with those boys. Fun times ahead! But for now, my baby boy is a Mommy's boy and that's just fine with me :)

Guy on the Go

So I'm having to adjust to my son's new found mobility. He has hit exploration mode in full force. I'm used to him being content just scooting around a room playing with his toys. No sir, not anymore. He follows me to the bathroom, chases the cat into the closet or just excuses himself from the room and starts padding down the hallway. I'm sorry, when did you become so independent, Preston? His two favorite things to do are close doors and play with cords. Safe, right? What a stinker. So now all the cords have to be put away but not sure what to do about the doors. He gets mad if they are open just a crack so he slams them shut...geez. He likes our dog because she tolerates him but he loves the cat because he can't actually get to him. I guess it's the "hard-to-get" that fascinates him. Preston goes as fast as he can to catch him, excitedly calling "ki-ki" (kitty kitty) but as soon as he's within arm's reach, "ki-ki" scadaddles (sp?). It really is a joy though to watch him "find the world" and see where his curiosity takes him, under supervision of course. Preston's first birthday is two weeks away from today and I can't believe this first year is almost behind us. I'm so thankful for every moment that I get to spend staying at home with my boy...even if he is a little mischievous :)

Hashbrown Casserole

This recipe has always been one of my go-to dishes for potlucks. We had a girls movie night this week and boy did we have a smorgasbord of tasty treats. I love pot luck! So anyway, I took some pictures of the hashbrown casserole while I made it so enjoy! It's definitely one of my favs!

You will need:
30 oz bag frozen shredded hashbrowns
1 can cream of chicken soup
8 oz sour cream
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 sleeve Ritz crackers
4 tbls butter, melted (optional)

Mix first four ingredients until completely combined. I also add the melted butter to give it a little more flavor but this is completely optional. I also add salt and pepper to taste. Pour mixture into a greased 9x13 casserole dish. Crush Ritz crackers and sprinkle over the casserole. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Side note: I have also made this without the Ritz crackers and it's still delicious, just a little creamier without the crunchy topping.

11 Months Old

Yikes! My baby is almost a year old! He has started so many thing this last month. I can't believe he's changing so quickly. We're slowly but surely moving into toddler-hood and I'm just not sure I'm ready. I love seeing him learn so many things though - makes a momma proud! I really don't know his weight and length but we'll get those stats at his 12 month check-up.

Let's see what all our little stinker has been up to...

-He started sitting up from a laying down position. He's always sitting up when I go in his room in the mornings or after he wakes up from nap.
-He's crawling! I call it a gimpy crawl. He uses one leg out and "walks" it while he drags other knee behind him. It's so cute to see him getting from one place to another. This also means he's into everything! I feel like "No-no" is my new favorite phrase :)
-We have a TOOTH! His first tooth popped through about two weeks ago and it's adorable! It's not all the way in yet so I can't really get a good picture of it yet. I'll be sure to post that when I get it.
-He's still nursing about 4 times a day. My plan is wean him at a year old so we will see how it goes. I want to do it slowly but I also want to make sure he adapts to cow's milk first.
-He's becoming a picky eater. He loves snack foods, cheese, crackers, puffs, cereal. However, we're having some problems with real foods. He eats a bite or two and doesn't want it anymore. This goes for potatoes, mac and cheese or any other "real meal" type foods. He also refuses some 3rd food baby foods. But I can always get him to eat pureed veggies or bite-sized fruits. Oh well, it's a working progress.
-He loves his musical table and will stand up against it and play for the longest time.
-He is very sensitive to loud noises and will get upset easily over them. When that happens he only wants Mommy :) I'm sure he will grow out of some of that though.
-He loves to ride around in his cars. He has an indoor push/ride car and an outdoor one. He holds onto the steering wheel and is ready to roll!

We're enjoying our first fall with Preston and his first Halloween is coming up! He was born 4 days after Halloween last year so we just missed it :) And his costume is adorable! We went to the Pumpkin Patch and Homestead Hollow with Preston this past weekend so stay tuned for more on those! In the meantime, here's two pictures of Preston in the "big car" and yes, we are parked and the motor was off :)

Bunko Menu & Recipes

I hosted Bunko at my house last night for my awesome group of girls and I wanted to share the menu and recipes. It was about 40 degrees last night (kind of crazy this early into fall) and we played outside. So under the circumstances I wanted to make sure we had some warm comfort food to "stick to our bones."

Our menu consisted of:
Chicken Spaghetti
Oven-Baked Green Beans
Legendary Lionhouse Rolls
Blackberry Cobbler


Chicken Spaghetti - I tried the Chicken Spaghetti recipe from Mommy's Kitchen and it was fabulous! It's a lot easier to just give you the link to her recipe instead of me typing it all again so here it is! Chicken Spaghetti

Oven-Baked Green Beans - I used a recipe that a friend and fellow bunko player made for us one night and it's still my favorite! And so easy! This is not an exact measurement kind of recipe. You just add to your taste.

You will need:
Canned Green Beans
Brown Sugar
Bacon Bits
Butter

Rinse and drain greens beans. Add to casserole dish. Add remaining ingredients to your taste. I usually add a few tbls of each per can of green beans. Mix together and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Stir and serve!

Legendary Lionhouse Rolls - This is also a recipe from Mommy's Kitchen. Can you tell I love her blog? This was my first time making homemade rolls and it was a long but fun experience. It's not hard, you just have to allow time for the dough to rise a few times. I made the dough and rolls early in the day and then put them in the refrigerator until time to bake. My first mistake was not taking them out in time to rise back up before baking. My second mistake was baking them on the lower rack of the oven (the top was full of chicken spaghetti). Therefore my rolls ended up a little less puffy and a little too brown on the bottom. HOWEVER, they still tasted great and I would definitely recommend the recipe. Next time I think they will be just perfect! Here's the link Legendary Lionhouse Rolls

Blackberry Cobbler - This has become my husband's favorite dessert since I made it the first time a few months ago. He made me promise to save him some to eat after Bunko was over. This is a great recipe for this fall and winter. I found it over at Allrecipes - love that website too. However, I did tweak the "putting together" process which I think is lots easier. I have included the original directions as well as my own notes on how I did it.

You will need:
1 cup butter or margarine, divided
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour*
1/3 cup milk, room temperature
2 cups fresh or frozen blackberries
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons sugar

In a 10-in. round or oval baking dish, melt 1/2 cup butter; set aside. In a saucepan, heat sugar and water until sugar melts; set aside. Place flour in a mixing bowl; cut in remaining butter until fine crumbs form. Add milk, stirring with a fork until dough leaves sides of bowl. Turn out onto a floured surface; knead three or four times. Roll out to an 11-in. x 9-in. rectangle 1/4 in. thick. Spread berries over dough; sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll up, jelly-roll style. Cut into 1/4-in. thick slices. Carefully lay slices in baking dish over butter. Pour sugar syrup around slices (syrup will be absorbed). Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. Sprinkle sugar over top and bake 15 minutes more. Serve warm or cold. (*If self-rising flour is not available, use 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus 1/4 teaspoon salt and 2-1/4 teaspoons baking powder.)

My Notes: I only melted 1/4 cup of butter in the pan and it is plenty. Instead of doing the jelly-roll style method, I opted for rolling out my dough into two sheets of dough the size of the pan. I put one sheet of dough on top of the melted butter in the pan, added the blackberres and cinnamon, topped it with the second sheet of dough and then poured the sugar syrup on top.

I hope you enjoy!

Ten Things I LOVE about You

Preston in his airbrush shirt from the beach!

We have made it to double digits...10 months old! In recognition of his age, I thought a list of ten things I love about my boy seemed appropriate. But before we get to that, here's Preston's current stats!

Eating is pretty much the same. He nurses about 4 times a day. He has increased his variety of table food though. Some of his favorites are string cheese, mini pancakes, frozen waffles (still frozen, feels good on his gums) and Ritz crackers. He still loves diced fruit too, particularly pears, peaches and apples. Some new ones are sweet potato fries, tortillas, and ravioli. He is very interested in everything we eat so I try and let him have a taste of anything appropriate for him!

On a good day, he has a morning nap and an afternoon nap. Some days he has no problem with both but other days (like today) he rebels and fights a nap all day long. I got him down for about an hour today and that's it. Hopefully we'll have fewer of these going forward because today was a bit rough on us both.

He can stand up against something for a few minutes at a time but then forgets his balance and plops down. He's getting better at it each day. He gets around a room but doesn't do your typical crawl. He is more of a scooter.

Still no teeth yet...maybe by next month!

Ten Things I Love about You, Preston Blake:
1. I love that you smile right after you sneeze
2. I love to hear your sweet voice "talk" through the monitor
3. I love to watch your chubby fingers reach and grasp hold of food/objects
4. I love that you reach to me for comfort
5. I love how you grab my hands to pull yourself to a standing position
6. I love how you stare at people
7. I love that you demand attention by yelling/squealing
8. I love seeing features of your Daddy and I in your precious face
9. I love that your arms and hands move nonstop
10. I love being your mother

Happy 10 months, Pookie!

Beach Boy

We just got back from our first beach trip with Preston. We went down to Panama City with my parents and my brother and family. Our whole Reeves clan was there minus my older brother, Shane. He lives in South Carolina and wasn't able to make it down with us.

Now, not only was this our first beach trip, it was our very first vacation with Preston. Until our trip, he had never spent the night away from home. Needless to say, I was stressing myself out big time getting us prepared. I started packing several days in advance and as a result, we ended up with 1 large suitcase, 2 big duffel bags, a beach tent, a pack-and-play, a full beach bag, a food supply tote bag, a full diaper bag, a shoe bag, a car ride bag, Preston's little backpack and a blanket and pillow. Yikes! We also had my parents riding with us in the car so their luggage had to go too, of course. Thankfully, my Dad and Blake are used to my ridiculous over-packing and managed to snugly fit everything into the Pilot. Whew :)

We left out at 4:00 a.m. Thursday morning in the hopes that Preston would sleep the majority of the drive down. I was really worried about him being confined so long but he did surprisingly well. After only one stop to the gas station, two naps for Preston, some snacks and juice and his favorite Nursery Rhymes DVD, we made it to PC by 10:00 a.m. He's such a good boy!

Our condo was wonderful. We stayed at the Splash Resort which has a mini water park inside. They have something for all ages. One end has a small splash pad for the little tykes, then there is a lazy river (mine and Preston's fav), two pools, and a water playground-type thing for the older kids. It was great because the lazy river was halfway shaded as well as one of the pools so there was not much worry for sunburn for the kids. The water playground was covered as well. My two nephews loved it there. However, there was one negative side to the playground...the huge bucket of water that dumped every two minutes or so. It was MASSIVE and when it dumped, A) there was so much water that anyone standing beneath could easily be washed away and B) it was incredibly loud and scary for little ones. We found this out the first day when we walked down there with Preston. He was scared to death! And he didn't forget it the whole time we were there. You could hear it from the beach and he would strain to see that it wasn't coming for him. poor guy. He also got scared of the ocean waves because they sounded similar to the bucket. Oh well, Maybe next year he won't remember it :)

As for the things he did like, he loved to play in the sand and he loved to splash in the pools. His favorite, as well as mine, was to float in the lazy river in our laps. It was so relaxing.

We had a great time with our family. We took some family beach photos and went out to eat and just relaxed as much as possible. Preston was a trooper but by 7:30 each night he was ready to get in bed. So, some of our dinners were cut a little short but we didn't mind. Vacations are definitely different with a little one but we wouldn't have it any other way. My parents stayed in with Preston the last night and Blake and I went out for a date night. We had some great seafood, play putt-putt and picked up some Dippin Dots, yum. However, we had our boy on our minds so we bought him a pair of squeaky shoes and got him an airbrush shirt. It has his name and a crab on it. You have to get an airbrush shirt the first time you go to the beach, right? We also picked him up a pair of Nikes that are just adorable. I can't wait until he's walking around in them.

We headed home Labor Day morning and made a stop at Peach Park in Clanton. We always stopped there on the way to/from the beach when I was a kid so I hope to do it with Preston each time too. It's so pretty there and the ice cream is fabulous. My Dad and I each got a double cone, one side peach and the other banana. Nothing much better than that! And of course I had to bring home some peaches. We took a few pictures by the giant peach and headed for home.

We had such a great time and I can't wait to go again. Stay tuned for Preston's 10 month update!