Memorial Day 2012

I was so sad to see this weekend come to an end.  It was soooooo nice to spend a weekend at home doing some projects around the house and hanging out with my family and friends.  After a baseball game Friday night, having Barry's family over for dinner on Saturday evening, and having some friends over for a cook out on Sunday, we spent Memorial Day at Stephen F. Austin state park - perfect end to the weekend!

We always pass the sign for this park when we are driving home on the weekends, so we decided to check it out.  We wanted to do something outside and near some water and this seemed like a better option than fighting the traffic and crowds in Galveston.

The park wasn't exactly what we were expecting; we had to hike about 20 minutes to get to the river and it wasn't very stroller friendly terrain!  But we made do...

And the bumpy ride put Sawyer right to sleep.

Once we got down to the water it was so beautiful!

Our friends, Matt & Hollie, met us there - so we hiked the trail again trying to find an easier way down to the water - no such luck.  Good thing there were four of us there, we had to get creative to get down to the river, but we made it work!

Me and the twins....they even smile the same

We had lunch in the park - Barry and Matt cooked us a wonderful lunch of leftovers from the night before.  Sawyer enjoyed some rice cereal.

After Sawyer's first experience at the wheel, we went back down to the river where Matt and Barry did some fly fishing and Hollie, Sawyer and I relaxed.

Looks like quite the pro, doesn't he?

Would have been more of a pro if they would have caught anything....just saying...

I know I say this all the time, but Sawyer is such a good baby and such a great little traveler.  It was hot and sticky and she wasn't anywhere she was familiar with, but she never complained, no tears and no fussiness all day.  I am amazed with her.  I am especially amazed that she didn't complain about the new glasses I bought her!

I'm so thankful for such a great weekend with family and friends, for the soldiers and veterans and for everything Memorial Day stands for!

PS...Sawyer turns 6 months on Friday.  6 MONTHS!!!

Baked Chicken and Squash

Quite the uncreative name I have come up with.  But, that's exactly what this is.  The night before we left for Florida a couple weeks ago I had some squash I needed to use, and I didn't want to make a mess in my kitchen.  And, in true Tara fashion (major procrastinator right here) I hadn't even begun to pack so I needed something quick.

Here is what I came up with to meet all of my criteria - use squash, minimal dishes, quick.

I chopped up the squash - this was one GIANT squash - and poured some marinara over the top, just enough to coat and cover it.

Place thawed chicken tenders on top of squash, add more marinara.

Top with Parmesan cheese and/or mozzarella.

Bake covered for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees.  I used chicken tenders so it didn't take too long to cook, would probably take closer to 40 with full chicken breasts.

This would have obviously been good with pasta, but that would have required more dishes and this way it was low carb and low calorie.

Super uncreative...and lazy... but maybe this will spark some more creative ideas for next time!

ENJOY!

Florida Trip

I had a conference to go to in Florida last week, and I am not quite ready to leave Sawyer for that long, so I brought her and Barry along with me.  I was super nervous about flying with her but everything went much smoother than I had expected.

She drank her bottle on the way up, played for a while, then slept the rest of the flight.

So dramatic...she likes to sleep with things over her face.  Traveling with a baby was much easier than I had anticipated, I thought we would be bogged down with tons of "things" but, it really wasn't so bad.

We left last Wednesday morning and my conference started that evening - so Barry and Sawyer had a couple days of some serious quality time.

She loved splashing in the pool and kicking her legs in the water.

We took her down to the beach and she thought the waves hitting her legs was pretty funny!  She was so observant just staring at the water and wiggling her toes in the sand.

The conference ended on Saturday morning but we stayed until Sunday so we got to spend some extra time on the beach.

She was quite happy laying on the beach chairs and hanging out with us, sleeping, eating, playing and watching all the activity...

Trying to put a wet swimsuit on after a diaper change was not happening.  Lesson learned - bring a change of clothes!

We have a couple more beach trips planned for the summer, here's hoping they all go as smoothly!!

5 Months

Another month in the books for Sawyer!

Can you even believe how big she is getting???

She now weighs between 13-14 pounds and has quite the personality!!  She is still really laid back...

But is such a ham...she smiles and anyone and everyone who says hi to her.

She has such a sweet demeanor, always smiling and laughing and talking.  She hardly cries - gets a little fussy when she is really tired and wants to be put down, she isn't so much of a snuggler anymore.  When it's bed time, she wants to lay in her crib.  Sometimes I wish she just wanted me to hold her all the time, but I am thankful that she likes to sleep in her bed.

Her favorite thing to do right now is to put everything in her mouth...clothes, toys, toes....whatever...

She is still a great sleeper, she usually goes to sleep between 8 and 9 and wakes up between 6 and 7.

We tried rice cereal once in the past month...she seemed to like it - especially the spoon.

She kept trying to take it from me.  I am pretty sure she didn't actually swallow anything, especially since she was trying to blow bubbles with the spoon in her mouth.  She ended up quite the disaster!

We are waiting to actually start solids until she is around 6 months old, we just did it on a whim this one time just to see what she would do.

She is now a roller!

She goes from her back to her stomach, but hasn't quite mastered rolling back over yet.  She gets onto her stomach and will lay there contently for a few minutes, but then she gets really mad about it so we have to help her back over.

But, as soon as we roll her onto her back, she immediately goes right back over to her stomach and gets mad all over again.

April was full of firsts for Sawyer.  She celebrated her first Easter - last Easter we told our families we were having a baby - what a difference a year makes!

Barry's family came and hung out for the day on Friday so Sawyer got to spend lots of time with her cousins...

They love their Saw-Saw!

And my family also came in for the weekend - which I got no pictures of for some reason!  We had a great weekend with all of our family...

Sawyer also experienced her first Wild Game Dinner this year.

She celebrated her first Earth Day at school...her class made these shirts to wear by tracing all their hands on their shirts.

I am amazed at all the projects they do with these babies.  She is doing really well at school - at least thats what they tell me!

And she went to her first pre-prom party with Aunt Brie!

Doesn't she look beautiful?!

Sawyer is still wearing 0-3 month and 3 month clothes, but I am going to start unpacking some of her 3-6 month clothes this weekend - its about that time!

And a Sawyer and Lori update...they are becoming fast friends!  Lori doesn't even mind when Sawyer pokes her in the eye.

The last 5 months have flown by, but they have been so much fun.  Sawyer is such a wonderful baby and we are so thankful that she has made our transition into parenthood a fairly easy one!  We are looking forward to another month of firsts - we are going to Florida in less than two weeks so hopefully her first flight goes well!

Happy 5 months baby girl!!