I Heart Faces

I Heart Faces is an awesome website that does weekly photo challenges and offers a plethora of tutorials to help photography enthusiasts of all skill levels. I've been telling myself for a while that I wanted to enter but I've been leery - I'm not that great =/ But this week... I'm entering my first challenge! People's Choice Photo Challenge - Best Face in February!

It took me a bit to figure out which Landon face to enter :) But we decided on this...

Love! :)

Update: If you'd like to vote for us, it's easy - just visit the challenge at I Heart Faces here, find his picture (alllll the way in the second to last row, No. 527), and click vote! Easy Peasy - no registering! I might add - there's no prize other than the pride of taking a good picture (and maybe that Landon is the cutest baby ever!).
So, head over to I Heart Faces and check out other entries this week.  There are bound to be a lot and they are sure to be gorgeous!

Meal Plan #1!

March 6th - 12th

Here's attempt 1 at my weekly meal plan! I'm going to try to do this post weekly and on Saturdays (yet another task to be completed during Landon's nap or meal times). It was SO much fun to hunt down these recipes so hopefully I'll be able to stick to it! 

Sunday: Chicken and Herb Dumplings

Monday: Stuffed Peppers

Tuesday: Aloha Pork Chops

Wednesday: Arroz Con Pollo

Thursday: Cheesy Meatloaf

Friday: Chicken Fiesta Salad

Saturday: Crockpot Beef Stroganoff

Now for the grocery list! I've taken the main ingredients from all the recipes to make sure I have everything I'm going to need so there's no last minute trips to the store! I've excluded spices and things like milk, flour, etc. because generally I'll already have all that. For my personal reference, I've bolded the things I'll actually need to go buy (not too much eh?) ;)

Shopping List: 

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

2 chicken thighs
Carrots
Celery
Frozen whole kernel corn
Chicken Broth

3 bell peppers

2 lb ground beef

4 Yellow onion

2 can tomatoes

5 cups long grain rice

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 can tomato soup

2 pork chops

Sweet & sour sauce

1 cup pineapple chunks

1 Red onion

Stir fry sauce

Velveeta

Fajita seasoning packet

Black beans

Salsa

Lettuce

Tomato

Cubed stew meat

Cream of mushroom soup

8 oz can of mushrooms

Mushroom gravy packet

There you have it! Our menu for the week! I'm so excited about it and I hope Adam and Landon enjoy it all!

New Me.

I'm in a bit of a funk lately. I don't like to admit that either. Now that I'm home, I have a lot of one on one with Landon of course (that I love so very much, don't get me wrong!) and not so much me time, unless he's napping. I use that time though to shower and clean so it's not really considered "me" time. So I decided some things need to change.

It started though with these new eating habits we've taken up - fresh foods and limit preservatives and JUNK as much as possible. I don't know if I've mentioned but Adam's been doing it hard core for about 4 months now, maybe too hard core, cause he's down about 30 lbs! It's been a month now that I've been going at it and I've lost a few pounds and I'm really learning how to read my labels but I have to admit, I haven't been very diligent about it. Mostly the boxed dinners and easy to prepare foods are out of our house but I'm not really eating balanced meals. I snack while Landon eats his healthy meals balanced with protein, whole grains, fruits and veggies. My "main meal" which is dinner, is generally my most healthy meal of the day. So I'm going to start meal planning. I found this site that offers some simple templates that I'm going to start with but the more research I do on tips to meal planning, the more I find. I follow the blog Meal Planning Mayhem and I absolutely am inspired by her dedication - maybe I'll do a weekly post about my menu... hrm, there's an idea! :)

Next, I need to work on my body. This goes hand in hand with eating right but I keep blaming the weather for why I'm not getting some exercise in which is NO excuse. I have Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred... which I failed at in these posts. I starting again this morning - and even if I don't do it every day, I need to get motivated and do something! I also bought the Wii Fit program - but it's pretty boring. So basically, it's my scale cause it weighs you and tracks your BMI. Maybe there's other games or something that work with it, I have no idea but I'll check that out in the future. I plan on getting Zumba for Wii - I'm SO stoked about this one but I just can't afford it right now. **tear** And last but not least, a little motivation, I registered for Bloomsday. A 12k and I plan to be at least jogging it. So I have 58 days to figure out how to not die while jogging more than a mile or two. Please weather cooperate because the only way to do this is get outside!!!

Ok, moving on, I need adult interaction and Landon needs some socialization. So what do I do? Trusty Mr. Google lead me to Mom and Munchkin Adventures. I haven't gone to any meetups yet but the girl I talked to when I was signing up was super nice and I'm so excited to go to my first one. They do morning walks at the mall a few times a week, they have play dates two or three times a month and it sounds like they are trying to do a Mom's Night In/Out once a month or something like that. Once the weather gets nice I assume they do other things at the parks and stuff too. I think I'd like our first time to be one of the play dates since it'll be easier to meet and talk to the girls, so our first one will be March 14th! :)

In one short week I'll be attending the Rocky Mountain School of Photography's workshop - I'm SO freakin excited that I cannot contain myself. From the itinerary they gave me it looks like it will be a lot of information rather than hands on stuff but I'm ok with that. You have to start somewhere! I always remember really enjoying my photography class in high school and I'm not sure why I didn't pursue it more?! Anyway, better late than never right?? 

So to recap... my goals to the new me:

1. Focusing more on healthy eating
2. Exercise more
3. Don't sit at home all day - get out, meet people
4. Work toward better photography skills

Now, for my Landon lovers... my smiley boy after his 2 hr nap this morning!!! Cheers!

I'm a Hot Momma!

Rather... Landon is hot, momma :( 

First of all, I thought he was spoiling me by cuddling with me yesterday morning until just after 9am! Wohoo! But further examination while we were getting him dress was that he was burning up - with a temperature of 103! Oiy! After a minor freak out by me, a dose of Tylenol and a call into Dr. C: we were to monitor him, dose him with Tylenol every 4-6 hours or as needed and if it's still over 101 after 24 hours to bring him into the clinic to see if there was something underlying going on. 

Side note: He's teething right? Did you know a lot of doctors don't believe that fever is associated with teething??? I've always heard that... but anyway, that's what Dr. C said. She says, for the most part she disagrees, but she also said that generally a "teething fever" is low grade and generally no higher than 100-101.

Let me say... I have one HAPPY baby for having a temperature above 100! He's smiley and running around like normal, a little clingy but for the most part alright. 

After getting up at 9am he surprisingly was ready for a nap by 10:30am. He slept for a good two hours and when he got up his temp was normal. Wohoo! Well, 4 hours later, he's burning up again and it's hovering right around 100. So I gave him anther dose of Tylenol and we went on with our day. When Adam got home from work he could just tell that he wasn't feeling well. His face was flushed and he was really whiny so when we checked him again he was back up to 102 :( Poor guy... I was thiiiiiis close to taking him down to the clinic but Adam thought I should give it the 24 hours like Dr. C said and wait until morning. So we waited. 

Ugh. Landon hasn't gotten up in the middle of the night in I don't know HOW long. But.... he was up at 3am, and 5am, and 6am, and then finally we got out of bed at 8:30. Momma.is.tired!!! His temp this morning was right around 100 so we gave him some Tylenol and he seemed to have an OK morning. He just played like normal, he ate fine, and was smiley! :) 

Well, around 3pm it spiked again... poor guy. Off to the clinic we go... He has a double ear infection and I'm kicking myself that I didn't just go to the clinic last night. He didn't act like he was in any pain and he regularly pulls on his ears when he's tired but I didn't even really see him do that?! So weird. But that's what they tell us - so he's on Amoxicillin for 10 days and we've got a prescription for Ibuprofen to give him as needed. Here's hoping my little man sleeps well tonight.


Sorry... no pictures today - I'm off to bed. :(

The Faces of Teething

This is what I've been seeing for the last week or so since tooth number one popped through :( Poor little man. It's only about 1/2 way up and his gums are all swollen right next to it so I imagine tooth number two will be making an appearance in the next few days

Overall, he's been pretty happy and we're dealing well with Orajel. I generally don't like taking medicine so I try not to give it to him unless he's obviously in pain but it seems like every night so far since we've seen it pop through is that he has a little meltdown after his afternoon nap. Around 3 or 4 every day, he'll have nothing but to be held - standing up. Don't you dare sit down with him or put him down!  

Here's hoping it passes quick! :(

Are my readers sick of bathtub picures yet???

Seriously, the bath is the only place these days I can keep Landon contained enough to get some good shots of him! So... enjoy some more bathtime pictures, I know grandma & grandpa won't mind :) Here's our fun from the other night, I couldn't pick my favorite so I'm just posting them all!!!

 

Walking, Sleeping and Teeth... Oh My!

Mr. Landon has been BUSY these last two weeks!!! On the walking front, he literally went from being a wobbly little stiff legged guy to basically running across the living room pretty much over night! He's also started climbing up on things...Oiy! The other night as he was reaching over the side of the tub for his toy the little guy picked up one of his feet and came tumbling over the side all wet right into my lap! And then he laughed about it!? Here's one of him today...

Speaking of laughing... up until this week we'd been rocking him to sleep for his naps and bedtime. Well we had a day or two where he WOULD NOT SLEEP. We rocked and rocked and rocked... we tried laying him down awake, laying him down drowsy... nothing would work. Then all of a sudden he'd start playing while we were doing our usual nap or bedtime routines instead of getting drowsy. He'd flap his arms and shake his head - and when you'd hold his arm down or say "No Landon, night night!" He'd start laughing hysterically?!?! =/

So that was the end of that - for 3 days now - no rocking him to a drowsy stupor! Adam started it cause I don't do well with letting him cry it out... but he gave him his blanky and binky, laid him down, said night night and that was that?! The first day was rough - he cried for like 20 minutes. Adam went in a time or two to calm him down and lay him back down but he eventually fell asleep. Same thing for his afternoon nap.... wow! I did cave for bedtime and rocked him a little but did lay him down awake where he proceeded to SCREAM. But eventually, off to dream land he went!

This morning was my turn for daytime naps... ugh. To my surprise, he laid down and hasn't made a peep for the last hour and a half now! Wohoo!!!

Oh yeah! Yesterday was mister's first Valentine's Day!!! AW! Guess what cupid brought him??? His first tooth!!! :) Yup, he's been drooling like a faucet this week and with that little bought of no sleeping I'd been wondering if one would makes its debut. Sure enough, as we were wondering how so much drool can come out of that little mouth, Adam stuck his finger in and there it was! Ever so slightly poking through - basically with no warning what-so-ever?! He hasn't really been cranky even!

And speaking of Valentine's Day, I'm a little bummed that I've been a slacker about Landon's pictures lately. My house is so freakin' small that it's really hard to find the space to set it all up. Plus I need someone to help me keep mister occupied and happy in front of the camera - now that he's SO mobile it's nearly impossible by myself and needless to say, it's not Adam's most favorite task. I'm still doing them... even though it's passed, but I just have to wait until my bff and her girls has a free minute to help me :) Hopefully this week sometime. Here's one from earlier today when he was just getting up from his nap...

Until next time.... Cheers!!!