The Adventures of Mommaloo

100 day notice?!?!?

2012-07-17T11:33:00.000-04:00

Hey You :)

So with the move to Prince George in our near future I subscribed to receive county emails. I clicked through and chose the ones I would be interested in. Parks and Rec, ya know that kind of stuff. I usually only do subscriptions on my yahoo account, which has a redonkulous amount of mail in it. So I just got my first email and let me tell you, MommaLoo is not happy. Yes, I referred to myself. I am having a moment, bear with me. In all realness, they were just the bearer of bad news. The email subject read

Prince George County:

100 Day Notice for 2012 General Election- 11/6/2012

So what is wrong with this you might be saying to yourself.

Let me tell ya,

11/6/2012 is my 30th Birthday!!!!!shhhhhhhh!!!!!

I am now realizing that there is going to be an official countdown to a huge birthday for me. Reminders are going to stare me down from here on out. I can already see the countdowns in the corner of screens and the ticker on news channels reminding me.

Oh, joy.

xo♥xo♥

lydia

Its been a while...

2012-07-16T12:02:00.002-04:00

Did you just start singing that old Staind song? I did. It use to be one of my faves over ten years ago, dang I am old. Anywho...

So I know I have been more that distant as of late but its only cause I am trying to spare you. Its my attempt to keep every post from being: I'm stressed, I have anxiety, this house stuff is going to be the death of me, etc., you get it.

How about a few updates though.

We are buying these 88 wooded acres in PG county which has meant a lot of work with planning and zoning. It has been a process for sure. I am anticipating most things with the county to be finalized this week so we can start moving ahead. I have actually started packing already. I need everything about where we are in life right now to feel as temporary as possible. It is what will inevitably keep me sane. In the meantime, we, okay well not me, but the guys and some friends, have been working on clearing the property. I am absolutely convinced there is nothing that my husband does not have the ability to do. He's the man :) Speaking of, the 5th of July marked 10 years that we have actually been together, crazy!

Jay is doing great. We finally finished all his state testing and got his scores back and he passed. As I looked through the test before he took it I was sure he would ace it cause it was all stuff he knew well. He missed a few but not many. I am still so nervous about him going into 3rd grade this school year and hoping he adjusts quickly back to public school. In short, I am just hoping I did not screw my kid up this past year homeschooling. We had planned on him playing football this season but with everything we have going on, we had to pass. We have made quite a few sacrifices this year to get things lined up to buy our home. I feel like we have had a semi-crappy summer but he is not the one to complain, thankfully. I am so unbelievably proud of the man he is becoming. He is at this age where so much is changing with himself and in our life as a family and I can see how it is molding him into something even greater than he was the day before. The size of his heart is overwhelming at times. I love this boy so much ♥

and Little Miss Blakely Boo, let me tell you, she is growing up so fast. 8 months has gone by so quick! I would say she is well over 20 pounds. We had to upgrade her out of her infant seat. She loves her new Britax though cause she gets to sit so high up and see out the windows, and it means Mommy carries her everywhere now. She crawls, but only to the nearest object to climb up. She has even perfected the gentle fall to her bottom, after many times of not falling so gracefully. She wants to eat, like everything. Loves her some spicy food. I made some Jambalaya last night and she went crazy over the rice and andouille. She says her "ma, ma, ma, mas" and "da, da, da, da, das" and "bu, bu, bu, bu, bubs". Here a few minutes ago Jay let out a "boom, boom, pow" while playing Lego Star Wars on the Wii and she sure nuff copied him with her own "boom, boom, pow". It was another one of those moments that just made me wanna eat Jay up. He gets so excited over everything she does, that's his girl. She fusses just for her bubba sometimes. I love their bond.

I am still only at ten followers, but finally hit a mini milestone with over 1000 page views. I know most bloggers get that in a day but as someone who is super new and doesn't post much, I am happy bout it.

So here are a few random, unedited pics of the last few weeks. No collaging, No picmonkeying, just all as is.

sweet cuddles.

big girl seat!

playdate with our fave lil guy.

what the guys do when they aren't chopping trees, see Jays tongue, that means business!

no more baby tub!

"you looking at me"

No, you cannot have any.

bubba and B

told you I can stand up!

xo♥xo♥

lydia

4 Questions, 1 Answer.

2012-06-20T07:53:00.000-04:00

Hey Y'all. So I have been beyond busy lately but promise to catch up super soon :) Until then, how about another dose of

4 Questions, 1 Answer.

Take one question, answer fully and the others, one word only. Get it, got it, GOOD!

1} What has been your favorite vacation destination? OBX.

2} What is your least favorite feeling in the world? Anxiety.

3} What song pulled you through that tough spot? "I Can Only Imagine." by Mercy Me. This song was released back before my Aunt had passed away. It was one of her favorites. Our family choose this song for her Memorial Ceremony in Louisiana and her burial in Alabama. I remember the first time I heard it after I had gotten the news. I was just driving in my truck and listening to this song and crying. Those moments when you are completely alone and can let it all out. At that moment though, I did not feel alone. I felt her with me. In the seat beside me singing her song. I randomly hear it from time to time when I am scanning the radio. Alone, but with her. Sometimes, I cry. Sometimes, I talk. Mostly, its both. It pulled me through then. It pulls me through, when I do not even realize I need it, til I hear it. It makes me just slow down and feel things I so often try not to, but need to.

4} What item of clothing do you feel most confident in? stretchy.

Play along and get in on this new link up at

xo♥xo♥lydia

I scored ;)

2012-06-07T14:26:00.000-04:00

Hey.

So in case I had not previously mentioned I am a Craigslist stalker.

I stalk the free section of Craigslist so much that I went set up notifications on my phone so that I know as soon as something new is posted. I have got quite a few things this way. A lot of junk is posted but the only way to get some gems is to be the first one to jump. None the less all that was for nothing cause this righteous find was not from the free section.

As I was perusing the Baby & Kid section I saw an ad for Blakelys formula.

I had the guy send me the info so that I can check for recalls and since all was good we met up. Now let me tell you what I got...

Two Boxes of Gerber Good Start Cooler Bags. 12 Bags/box. Total 24 Bags.

In each bag there is an ice pack and a can on formula.

Yes, a 12.7 oz can of formula. At retail you can get a 6 pack of these cans for about $82. I now have 24 of them, retail about $328.

Jay and I set up an assembly line to remove all bags from the plastic and pile the ice packs and cooler bags and I let him form a pyramid with the cans. He was ecstatic about this mundane task just cause he got to make a pyramid, another score for this Momma.

So now my 7 month old daughter has enough formula to last her til she is on cow's milk. Awesome! We can always use ice packs for something or another, especially coming into the hottest time of the year. So are you wondering how much I paid for this $328 worth of formula....

$25!! Yep!! How great is that!?!?

Now, I am left with one problem.

What the heck do I do with 24 cooler bags?? Any ideas??

xo♥xo♥

lydia

Round One 4Q1A

2012-06-06T06:00:00.000-04:00

Hey you guys! (I totally said that in my Electric Company voice)

So finally a change up from a Wordless or Wordful its the all new...

"Four Questions, One Answer"

done by the amazing Lacey in Love.

The instrucciónes are simple. You choose ONE question to answer at length and answer the rest of the questions with ONE word only.

I favor simplicity so I dig it.

1} What is your least favorite nickname/pet name? Sissy.

2} Where were you when you received your first kiss? I was in a boys bedroom, and super young, like first grade! Looking back I was there a lot, where the hell were my 'rents? I would ride over there on my bike and stay for hours with only his teenage sister watching us. I was either really trusted or really neglected, I will get back to you on that...

3} Do you believe in karma? indubitably.

4} What is your favorite Summertime treat? frozen.

Click here to link along too.

xo♥xo♥lydia

He raised the bar.

2012-05-31T10:32:00.002-04:00

HELP!!?!!

I am so in need of help as to what to get my husband for Fathers Day and his birthday. Fathers Day is June 17 and his birthday is June 20.

I have been racking my brain on what to get him.

First off, as a person who does not work, my funds are crazy limited. He really went all out for Mothers Day. I got clothes, shoes, jewelry, tanning package, a weekend of no cooking, and all the loving I could handle from my family. He definitely raised the bar. Ideally, I would love to get him a gun but my budget will not allow for the one he has been eyeing. He is incredibly hard to shop for too.

He is a guys guy. He is a country boy. He is amazing. He is mine :)

and yet I have no idea what to get this man!

The 5Gs don't really apply to him.
No Gadgets, its not his thing. Golf, no. Gift Baskets, impersonal. Grooming, he is good. Grill, he is pretty covered. I thought about getting him a brander with his initials, but honestly, he could make it for less.

I NEED HELP!

he deserves it.

xo♥xo♥

Wordless Wednesday ~ I get around.

2012-05-30T11:05:00.000-04:00

xo♥xo♥

lydia

And it went a little something like this...

2012-05-29T11:49:00.002-04:00

Our Memorial Weekend was pretty rad.

The hubby has been putting in a ton of hours the last few weeks working and working with little, if any, time off. We had been looking forward to his weekend so much. No alarm clocks and not waking up before the sun. Its something I have to many times before taken for granted. Spent my whole Friday shopping. It was crazy out. It reminded me of a major storm prep. All the essentials were missing off shelves but instead of toilet paper and flashlights it was like no hot dog buns and no solo cups. My oh my the weather was humid here. Also reminded me of before a storm, hmm, my head is very gulf coast right now. Sidetracking...

I really wanted to make the jello shooters going around on pinterest that look like watermelons. I was so stoked about it and even got watermelon flavored vodka. Let me tell you, a lime is really hard to get right without breaking skin. It could of been I accidently bought a bag of key limes. I gave up very quickly on this. I next went for the oranges, they have got to be easier, right? Ha! I partially think I may have just been out of patience from my long day shopping. I gave up quickly on it too. My hubby and BIL had to show me up and make it look all easy until I went ahead and finished the oranges. I am super happy I did too. Everyone loved them! They did not make it to a photo. Sorry. The last time I had made jello shooters I had got these plastic shot cups that were just long enough to annoy the hell out of you cause you were hurting the bottom of your tongue trying to get it out. So yea, I got much kudos on the ease of these shooters. I made some Madagascar jigglers for the kids, they were happy too and didn't even need the vodka :)

So Friday was spent shopping for me, yardwork for the guys. Blakely had the very important task of being a sweet baby while we finished our to-dos, she rocked that out.

Saturday we fired up the grill early to get the cooking out of the way. As I have said before, the hubby creates magic on that thing.

3 Racks of Ribs, 2 Pork Shoulders and 1 Brisket later... oh yeah, and we had dogs and burgers. Everything was amazing!! I made my "you don't have to like slaw to love this" coleslaw and my infamous cheese dip and. I 'wo'manned the magic bullet pumping out frozen margaritas and banana coladas. So good!

I had my first jello shooter at about 10am so by 10pm, I was ready for bed, I felt so old. Even more so my lil BIL had his girlfriend and a couple of her friends over. I felt extremely old at that point. Some great friends of ours drive down from Louisa and some of our local people came over also. All in all, it was a really great day filled with amazing food and amazing drinks.

Our Sunday was filled with laziness and left overs. Also, magical.

We raided Redbox and closed the blinds and laid around all day long. Blakely stayed naked and was happy for the lounging and constant snuggles. Her first tooth finally broke through and she is handling teething way better than her big bro did.

Our Monday...
So for my husband and his family Memorial Day weekend feels more about the memory of his brother. He and I had met during our senior year of high school but did not really know each other. He died Memorial Day 2000 when his car hydroplaned and he ran off the road at the age of 19. I know it is hard for everyone in their family this time of year. We had his parents and brother over for a delicious dinner and just spent some time together.

♥1981-2000♥

Four days went by way to fast!
This morning all I wanted to do was sleep in with the hubby. Back to work he went though. To often I take for granted what an amazing man my husband has grown to be. Then he reminds me, without even trying. I am one lucky lady to be loved by this man. He is everything I never even realized I wanted and needed. ♥

8, really 8?!!?

2012-05-24T08:05:00.002-04:00

Hey Y'all!

Enough with the pleasantries, let's dive right in shall we...

So I have a weight issue. I am coming to terms with the fact that its serious. I have never exactly been the skinny you see now a days but I always thought of my self to be skinny back in the day. When I met my husband is when my weight gain really started in my eyes. He is an amazing cook and he really liked to show that off back then. I started seeing the weight I was gaining and started trying to lose weight. I was doing really well and found out I was pregnant with my son so I had to stop. Honestly, that was the last time I took trying to lose weight serious, my son is 8 years old now. I feel like I have set a really bad example for him, weight wise. He has been gaining the last two years and has some extra chub. I do not want to pass this struggle on to him. A change is mandatory.

My plan was to take the drastic weight loss after having Blakely as motivation to really get moving. I was losing weight for a while. Then I started my bout with extreme anxiety and moments of depression, packin them lbs right back on. My weight has actually rose to within a pound of what I was when I went into the hospital to deliver. I had stepped on the Wii fit and balance board did that "Ooh" thing it does making you want to throw the remote through the tv. I hate that so much! It was like I took it to a real personal level all of a sudden. I decided it is time to get serious again.

I planned the day after mothers day would be the beginning of my change. I feel like I am to big to exercise. I know how stupid that sounds. My plan is to just do dietary changes for the first couple weeks then to start working out. I am to uncomfortable to go to the gym and it is impossible for me to work out at home. There is always something that needs to be done staring my down. So for now, I drastically dropped my caloric intake down to about 500 per day. Let me tell you, it is not easy. The last two days have been the hardest. I finally broke down and had a glass of sweet tea. I think that has been the absolute hardest thing. I can tell what a difference my water drinking is making for my complexion though and I am loving it. Something in me is feeling like today will be a lot easier. I do not plan to do this 500 calories for more than a month. Just enough to drop some serious lbs and shrink my stomach. Cause truth be told, I simply eat to much. I broke down and binged on a bag of Chex mix the other day, then I felt really crappy about myself for the rest of it. Pretty sure that alone was about 1000 calories. My point is though, I am trying. From Monday to Saturday I had lost 8 POUNDS! How amazing is that! They say big people lose weight quickly in the beginning though and this was before the sweet tea and chex. I will weigh again this Saturday. I am fearful of the holiday weekend. We are having a two day cookout and I make amazing dips that people expect when that partay round these parts. The drinking will be hard too. The hubby is plotting on margaritas, another friend is bringing the ingredients for me to make my famous banana coladas. I really want to make jello shots in some limes or oranges too, cause they look super cute. I need to remember that while I am doing a drastic diet right now, it is suppose to be in prep for a true lifestyle change, so I need to learn to use self control, which I am super low on.

This is not going to be easy but it is so necessary. If you can take a little moment and say a prayer for me, some strength, self control and belief in myself. I would really appreciate it. I promise to keep you posted on how it is going. Its crazy how writing this, putting this out there, is already making me feel a bit empowered. Thanks for the love y'all.

xo♥xo♥
lydia

Wordless Wednesday and the Teething Slim Jim

2012-05-23T09:54:00.000-04:00

xo♥xo♥

lydia

Sunny Sweetness

2012-05-18T08:42:00.000-04:00

forgive me ~~father~~ bloggers, it has been 6 days since my last ~~confession~~ post.

hope things are going well for you all. ya know my ten loyal followers ;)

time for another Fill in the Blank Friday by the Little Things We Do.

1. Something that is very near and dear to my heart is, my relationship with my husband. We are at such a wonderful place in our marriage and life.

2. Today is my brother in laws (aka) my husbands best friend (aka) my sons favorite uncle, 19th birthday and that is good cause to celebrate .

3. The most fun I ever had was posting this blog. Jk. I seriously have no clue how to narrow down one fun moment in my life. It just seems like I would be doing wrong by other memories.

4. True friends are hard to come by.

5. Something that makes me terribly happy is watching Jay and Blakely together. The relationship these two kiddos have is beautiful. He looks at her with such love and pride and she the same but with this amazement and idolization to boost. It is a wonderful thing to witness.

6. A good way to spend a sunny day is at the lake! I am missing our lake house so much right now. A trip to BRS is in our very near future.

7. My favorite celebratory food is usually grilled and accompanied by a cold drink. It seems like my hubby never misses an opportunity to fire up his grill. He made it at work one day. It is pretty badass. All who have ate off this grill swear it is one of their best meals ever. Doubters are welcome for dinner. I am not overweight on accident, we cook amazing around here!

hope you all have a fabulous weekend.

xo♥xo♥

lydia

beyond AMAZING!

2012-05-12T10:29:00.000-04:00

My husband is as titled, beyond AMAZING!

We have been pinching pennies more so than usual lately with everything going on with getting our home. (s/n:the process is taking forever) He could tell that this momma was in need of a lot. More so than anything he told me how he could tell that I need to become healthier mentally. Something we both feel starts physically in my case. I need to feel better about myself inside and out. As far as the mental, he works on that everyday. Constant kisses and even when I know I look a hot mess, he tells me I am beautiful. The physical, well the hubs decided to spoil me with with some gift cards and a tanning package for mom's day. He has to give gifts early, I am all over our accounts. I went out yesterday and killed a gift card. Feeling good about my warm time wardrobe and my super cute wedges. I still have more shopping to do too! I gave him a little fashion show last night and heard him not just tell me I was beautiful, but gave me the
"You look hot!"

Score! Now that's what I am talking about.

thanks for being my reason to smile Mr. Thompson,
I love you more every and more every day.

xo♥xo♥

lydia

Smiles all the way

2012-05-08T07:43:00.000-04:00

Hello darlin!

Hope everyone had themselves a fabulous Monday, although that is probably an oxymoron. Lil Miss Blakely had her six month shots yesterday. After the last trip to the doctor I was super nervous. I thought it would be good to get a before picture. I was hoping like crazy this smile would remain.

We went to her doctors other location in hopes it would help keep her calm, guess what, it worked! THANK GOD! I do not think either of us would have been able to handle another episode like before. Our girl is a very healthy 18 pounds and 27 inches long. The doc did this thing with mine and the hubs height and predicted that Blakely will be at least 5'8'' and Jay will be at least 6'1''. Both my children are going to tower over me! I guess that is what I get loving a man who is 13 inches taller than me.

Blakely's happiness continued throughout the day as I hoped for. I hope this makes your day a little brighter, cause who does not love some baby giggles!

xo♥xo♥

lydia

let it go

2012-05-07T07:54:00.000-04:00

Truth be told when I began this blog it was with the intent for the content to be way juicy. I have all these drafts unfinished. Some because it was to much for me to process. Most because it was the realization that I am not ready to publish this info for anyone to see. My life is full of many regrets. I try to tell myself that, I am a different person now, these things do not matter. But they do. I try to remind myself that, it is only a reminder of how far I come. But then I think, I could have been much further in life and accomplishments by now. One of these days I believe I will muster up the courage I need to evict the skeletons from my closet, til then here is a snippet of a past life...

I used to be really close with a friend of mine, we will call her Cici. I love her tons. She is hilarious and fun. She has the crappiest parents which resulted in a lot of hell in her life when she was young. Cici had three kids by the time she was 21. In fact she had to go back a month after her last was born to get her tubes ties cause they wouldn't allow her to before she turned 21. I love her kiddos so much. That last baby, was my baby. I was referred to as his other momma.

My husband and I had just moved out of the place we were renting out in the sticks that happened to be to close to people we needed to cut from our life. Our new place wasn't ready yet so we moved our stuff in to storage. Cici had just moved into a new place about five minutes from the hubs shop and offered to let us stay there while we waited for our place. We were there about three weeks. All this was right after the birth of her third baby. It was the longest three weeks.

Cici had just had some dental surgery. The dentist prescribed her Oxycontin for pain. For someone with an addictive personality, that was a stupid move. Very soon she began abusing it. Taking more than recommended. Breaking them. Crushing and snorting them. This lead to a huge problem. I started recognizing how rapidly bad it was getting. Not eating or sleeping for days at a time. I talked with her and she broke down. She didn't know what to do. She had done coke more times than she could count but had never felt so helpless to something. The house went on lock down. She began to detox. I took care of her kids while she laid in bed sick. I held her hair back when needed and held her hand and promised her we would make it through. There were many tears. We were about four rough days in and things were seeming to be better. I had to leave out for a few hours and when I returned her mom was there.

Her mother, ughhhh! An old coke head for sure. Her boyfriend was an addict so much so that he took daily trips to the methadone clinic. Since this was around Thanksgiving the clinic would be closed for a few days so they would give people enough doses to last them through til they opened again. She said how she couldn't stand to see her daughter sick so she had brought her some methadone. Undoing all that had been done. The high she had been wanting so bad was now there. I lost. I knew that if this was her path that she was choosing, we could not be there. My child is my number one. This timed perfectly with our new place being ready.

She would call. I would avoid her. Her boyfriend had told me how bad it had got. She began to use heroin cause it was the easiest to get. They were no longer together now. He told me that she robbed the place he had moved in to in order to feed her addiction. I ran into her and she told me how she had just got out of the hospital. In a matter of a month she had become completely strung out on heroin. Lost crazy weight. Lost custody of her children. Contracted hepatitis. Her liver began to fail her and she was hospitalized for it and jaundice. She swore to me she was trying to get better. I did not see her again for a while...

This time I ran into her at a gas station. She was even smaller now. She had track marks all over her arms. This once gorgeous girl was now hard to look at. She was dope sick and waiting there for her dealer. She told me how sorry she was. How desperately she wanted her life to change but knew she was not strong enough to make that change. I hugged her. I told her I loved her. I walked away hoping it was not the last time I would see her.

My husband had ran into her a few times at a gas station near his work. Sometimes she would seem better. Other times, she could hardly stand up.

She moved away from here to get the fresh start she needed.
Her father had a bad motorcycle accident and so she started making her way to this area a lot on weekends and such. Her new life still going well.

I had checked out at the grocery store the other day and was grabbing a couple movies from redbox when my phone rang. She said she wasn't far, wait there. So I did. It had been years since we have seen each other. I watched from my truck as she put her long sleeve shirt on in 85 degree weather to cover the marks on her arms. She looked smaller than I had ever seen her. Her eyes could hardly focus on me as we spoke. She said after her fathers accident she began to use again. Only on weekends though, as though that made it okay. Her life was still in tact at home. She works for a doctors office and has her own super nice place still. She just bought a new car. Her life is good. Do not worry.

I love who she used to be. That is the person I want to remember, but I cannot. It is clouded by this 90 pound, marked up person that stood in front of me swearing she is okay as though she was not trying to convince just me but herself too. I know this is it. I feel the next time I see her, will be at her funeral. It has been weighing on me so hard the last three days. I have prayed many times for her. I pray I am wrong. I pray she will be better. I pray she will find the help she needs. I pray her children forgive her. I pray she asks God to forgive her. I pray she is able to forgive herself.

I hugged her, told her I loved her and to be careful.

I said my goodbye.

xo♥xo♥

lydia

BLANKS, Blanks, blanks

2012-05-04T09:20:00.000-04:00

Hey Y'all! Its FRIDAY!!!

So onto the only thing I have been consistent with, time to fill in some blanks...

1. My bedtime routine includes, turning off Jays tv that he feel asleep to, pulling the blankets up high on Blakely and crawling into my cold bed. Once there I remember all those girly things I am suppose to of done, told you here I have to put effort into all that. Then I wipe my face with my make up cloth and put on some moisturizer and hope my anxiety doesn't keep me up.

2. I am stressed, anxious and all that jazz here lately. I think once everything gets completely finalized with the house it will ease up.

3. I can't stand dog hair because no matter how hard I try it is still all over my house. With a nearly crawling baby, I may have just had enough.

4. My idea of relaxation would be an hour of silence. With a six month old and homeschooling an 8 year old, there are no quiet moments. Most days I feel like I get mommied to death. I know very soon I will be missing this but right now I would give anything for just some silence.

5. If I had an extra $50, I would buy some silence, just kidding! I really want to get crafty. I would blow every cent at Micheals.

6. The best thing about a bloggy friend is it gives you the chance to really know someone, its not a sugar coated facebook status. I do not really have any bloggy friends, but I do have a pretty sweet cousin I have learned so much about and its made me feel a lot closer to that side of my family. If you are reading this, you wanna be my bloggy friend ;)

7. A recipe I've been dying to try is well after Lauren mentioned Banana-Coconut Beignets with Chocolate Ganache, I really want to try that. Aside from that I have actually been trying alot of the recipes I see on Pinterest lately. One thing I really want to try is getting into the crock pot meals. Between Scouts and Baseball our weeknights get full and I really need to plan some stuff out.

thanks for reading.

you can play along with Fill in the Blank Friday too

over at The Little Things We Do blog.

xo♥xo♥

lydia

Wordless Wednesday ~ A hike in the park.

2012-05-02T05:58:00.000-04:00

xo♥xo♥

lydia

Half Birthday ♥

2012-05-01T12:01:00.001-04:00

Today is lil Miss Blakely's half birthday!

I decided I would take her outside, in my yard that needs to be cut some kinda bad, and take some photos to mark this day.

She was so psyched for her little mini photo session.

this one here is my fave. at six months her hand is always in her mouth, this seemed to be the most natural pose. then she got diva on me...

a little bit of duck face...

followed by, i am to cute to smile...

then the, i am to good to look at your camera... but
seriously, are her eyes not just ridiculously gorgeous!?!

and then the, just kidding with you momma!

xo♥xo♥

lydia & blakely too!

A Pinterest Review or Two

2012-04-29T06:05:00.000-04:00

A show of hands please, how many of you are crazy pinners?
Whoa, that is a lot of hands.

The top 3 boards I pin the most to:

1. Yum, Yum, Yummy: Recipes.

2. Stuff for baby Blakely Boo.

3. Inspire: Quotes and such type stuff.

Recently I have been trying quite a few of these recipes.

I have a couple planned out for this week. Very anxious to try these spicy crab cakes. Here are some of my faves I have tried so far.

Pasta With Mascarpone, Chicken, Sun Dried Tomatoes & Spinach

I tend to change things to our families preferences a bit. We always use whole wheat pasta, it just tastes so much better, so we used whole wheat penne. Another friend who tried this had mentioned that she added a little red pepper so I followed suit and added some red pepper flakes. My husband topped it with a spoon of ricotta. I thought it was pretty amazing. The sun-dried tomatoes were perfect in this. The original recipe can be found here. Be sure to reserve that pasta water as recommended cause it does try out rather quickly.
★★★★

Basil Pesto Chicken

This was so crazy easy. You can find the recipe here. The only place I varied was I kicked it up to broil for a few, after foil before cheese, to give it a good crust, then added cheese and broiled it another 5. I served it with some whole wheat penne, its my go to pasta, with basil pesto lightly added and some sauteed mushrooms and green onions tossed in it. yum :)
★★★★

Double Crunch Honey Garlic Fried Chicken

I actually made this one for dinner last night. It was great! I stuck right to the recipe on this one. I served it up with some steamed broccoli with lemon juice and grated parmesan. I wanted to put a balance to how sweet it was with the honey. My husband said this would be the perfect 'chicken and waffles' style chicken. He liked it so much he is plotting on the next time I cook it.
★★★★

So there are a few of the recipes I have tried lately for more stuff I have tried, click here.

This would not be complete without a lil more from my other top boards so. here are a couple faves.

from my Baby B board:

Adorable right!?!?! I am so going to be getting some of these super soon for Blakely from FORGET ME KNOTS CROCHET. Did I mention they are only $10? Very cute!

from my inspire board:

yup, I have that on my inspirational board, cause, it inspires me ;) You know cause he does yoga and stuff, check it out here. That look on his face on the right side, oh my!

Enjoy your day y'all!

xo♥xo♥
lydia

Blank-ity Blank Blank

2012-04-27T10:07:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone! Hope you have had a wonderful week.

Time for another round of

fill in the blank friday by The Little Things We Do blog.

1. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is, hit the alarm clock and hope sleeping baby B doesn't wake before I can get daddy out the door. Super hard being half asleep, cooking him breakfast, packing a lunch and holding a baby, but its been done plenty.

2. I can hardly wait for to be living in our new home on our pretty land.

3. The quickest way to my heart is with a scalpel because it takes me a while to really trust and love people.

4. A little known fact about me is that I have no self control.

5. The best part about my job is I do not miss anything. I get to be there for every first moment. I get to be at every game. I get to kiss every booboo. I get to show my children that family is what is most important.

6. Something I just couldn't live without is my husband. He makes me want to be better. He is intelligent beyond belief and has a way of putting everything into perspective and make this crazy world, that consumes me way to often, make sense. He keeps me sane and feeling like a woman.

7. Something useful that I wish I knew how to do is oh my goodness, SEW. As soon as we move it is on! My stepdad has this old sewing machine built into a table that I want to learn on but was told it would be easier on a new machine. Boo! I may just take both ;)

xo♥xo♥

lydia

not my words, WORDLESS

2012-04-25T10:27:00.000-04:00

Source: myboohatesme.tumblr.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Christy on Pinterest

Source: twurl.nl via sharolyn on Pinterest

Wordless Wednesday and the Triple

2012-04-25T05:52:00.001-04:00

thats my boy :)

he had a great game Saturday, a triple, double and a homerun.

xo♥xo♥

lydia

My Blank Friday

2012-04-20T10:39:00.001-04:00

Yay, I found something to blog about today. Taking a cue from Lacey in Love and headed over to The Little Things We Do and discovered

fill in the blank friday.

1. Today is a great day because, I decided to make a goal and run a 'RAD' 5k in July. More details on this to come later.

2. Tomorrow I will be hanging out at a baseball field with my Blakely and Bella watching my guy do his thang.

3. My favorite time of day is late night because after Blakely and Jay go to bed its those moments that I get to just love on the hubby.

4. Sometimes you just have to sing at the top of my lungs like its a reality show audition. This is a daily thing.

5. A song that I just can't get enough of lately is SOJA, here I am. Something about spring time totally brings out my Rastafarian side. The sounds just go with warm music. Btw, happy 420 :)

6. My favorite accessory is earrings. I feel like I look to much like my lil bro if I do not have something shiny on my ear lobes.

7. My favorite thing about this week was hanging out in my model home yesterday. I know that sounds so ridiculous. It was just so great to see my future home. 2432 square feet! So much room for activities!

Involuntary Yummy Sound-Smoked Paprika Thighs

2012-04-19T07:17:00.000-04:00

So a few days ago as I sat watching some Food Network, as I often do, I saw Alton Brown make this awesome looking chicken recipe you can find here. I decided to give it a go but change a couple things up too. Its pretty easy for the most part too.

My husband loved this! He said it was the best thing I had made in a while. The brininess of the olives with the smokey flavor is pretty amazing. I do not even like olives but wanted to make something I thought my guy would like and was surprised that I liked it as much as I did.

Ingredient List
Garlic Stuffed Olives
Cherry Tomatoes
Lemon Zest
Garlic Cloves
Smoked Paprika
Olive Oil
Kosher Salt
Fresh Ground Pepper
Bone In-Skin On, Chicken Thighs
Russet Potatoes (its the kind I had on hand)
One Sweet Vidalia Onion

I chopped a handful of green olives stuffed with garlic, chopped a couple cherry tomatoes and grated a few extra cloves of garlic and added a good bit of some lemon zest. (Sit to the side)

Next I took about 5 tablespoons(+/-) of smoked paprika and two tablespoons of olive oil, kosher salt and fresh black pepper to form a paste. (Sit to the side)
Time to de-bone. This is the most difficult part of the whole recipe. I hate to de-bone stuff.
Put your chicken skin side down and cut the meat away from the bone and remove. Next, toss thighs into your paste.

Take some peel on, 1/4 sliced potatoes and french cut sweet onions. Toss with some salt and pepper and put on a foil lined cookie sheet. Place a baking rack over your potatoes and onions. Next take your olive mixture and stuff under the skin of your thighs and place it skin side up on your rack. I kinda did this roll up, tuck type deal when I was put them on the rack.

I lightly dusted the tops of the skin with smoked paprika, garlic salt and pepper.

Put in the oven on 375 for about an hour, depending on the amount of chicken you cook. I did 11 thighs cause I like to have plenty to pack for my hubbys lunch the next day. I cooked 11 for about 75 minutes or so. The house will fill with a pretty awesome smell.

xo♥xo♥

lydia

Wordless Wednesday and the loophole video

2012-04-18T07:33:00.000-04:00

xo♥xo♥

lydia

In a nutshell :)

2012-04-17T11:41:00.001-04:00

Hey Y'all. Time to do some real writing here. My random few lines of post to try and keep this going have not been doing what I have hoped they would for me and my sanity.

Lets start with the here and now...

Time management is not my strong suit as of late. When you watch stuff like Property Virgins on HGTV it totally fools you. I admit I have never seen one about purchasing land and putting a house on it. That is probably for good reason cause there is no way to edit this process for a 30 minute time slot. Model homes, land development, surveys, land clearing, well, septic, corp of engineers and wetland development, driveways, burying electric lines, establishing an address, PAPERWORK etc. etc. It is quite overwhelming.

All this while my real life is still going on. Our refrigerator went out. So that totally sucks. I hate to have to buy a new one when we already have a stainless steel one as part of our home package. Even more than that I hate to have to throw away everything in my fridge currently. I also hate having to wait on delivery guys who from my experiences are never on time. Let's hope they are today cause I have an appointment with the surveyor.

Homeschooling has took a major backseat and I am totes not proud of that. We just finished his science project for the virtual science fair. Go check it out his project is Juicing Energy. Give him a few stars. It does not affect the judging of actual winners but it makes him feel good :) The Pinewood Derby race for Cub Scouts is this week and we have not even finished his car yet. We are such procrastinators :( Would you like to know another example of my procrastinating? I still have to file my taxes today!

Baseball season is in full effect for my lil guy and consumes most of our evenings and weekends. Jay has played machine-pitch the last couple years and is having a hard time adjusting to an unpredictable ball flying at him at a fast speed thrown by his inconsistent coach. Sometimes these practices are the best moments. No dishes staring me down waiting to be cleaning, no floor begging to mopped, no piles of clothes longing to be out of the basket. When my only job is to sit on a blanket with my honey B and watch bubbalicious practice.

My kids are seriously phenomenal. I almost feel bad for as much help as my son gives me. I could not do anything without him. He knows how to make bottles, change diapers and feed his baby sister when I need him to. He has recently started cleaning his own bathroom and unloading the dishwasher. I realize that I was crazy hormonal when I decided to home school him and but thank the Lord I did cause he makes my life so much easier. Blakely is pretty fantastic as far as five month olds are concerned. She is on an excellent routine which makes outings pretty easy to plan for. She is not a fussy baby at all.

My hubby has been working overtime and when he is not he is out doing stuff at the land. We hiked the property this past Sunday and let me tell you, that was a huge reminder on how out of shape I am. I was so sore Monday morning. The good part though, when we got home the hubby checked me for ticks, ya know, in that Brad Paisley sorta way ;) By the way, I had five ticks, so gross right! It was so great to really get deep in the woods though and get a feel for the plans my hubby has been talking about.

I cannot wait for us to begin this new phase of our lives.

xo♥xo♥

lydia