another one I couldn't resist

Ole!

Just for mangos and tacos....

Meet Billy Ray

Ooops! I tried to "trim" Adler's bangs and ended up cutting them a bit shorter than I intended. (forgot about the whole "the hair gets shorter once it's dry" thing) Now Adler really is Business in the Front, Party in the Back. Stephen is calling him Billy Ray. Ooopps! Hopefully it's not as bad as when my dad cut my bangs with the Flowbee in 7th grade? ;)

theBEATdown

theBEATdown.jpg, originally uploaded by Stevo28andgrowing.

Adler loves to play the ole "throw the stuffed animals out of the crib so that Mommy/Daddy can throw 'em back in" game. It's a ton of fun, as evidenced by the image!

My little man is the best!

Help a brotha out!

Click the link and go vote for this image! if you think it's a good fit. Gracias.

iTunes Gift Card

I have a $50 iTunes Gift Card from Christmas. I haven't spent it yet because I can't decide what to buy. Any recommendations?

Bananas in hiding

When Stephen and I were first married, I moved into his "bachelor-pad". After a couple months, I noticed the house started smelling weird. I thought maybe I was a bad house-wife. I cleaned the entire kitchen with cleaner, cleaned out the refrigerator and cupboards. But the smell was still lingering and getting worse. I cleaned out the trash can, put lemons and arm and hammer in the garbage disposal. Now there were gnats flying around the house and I was about to loose my mind. I was so embarrassed when people came over! Maybe it was the dogs? Something died under the house? the attic? Finally, I was doing something and found the culprit....3 rotten bananas on top of the refrigerator...I could barely make out what they were because they were basically black mush. They had white stuff on them too...I'm guessing mold and were by this time, swarming with gnats. We concluded an old room mate had left us a wedding present? (by this time the bananas were a couple months old) After this, I made a house rule that bananas could not be stored on top of the fridge.

It thought of this story because we are back to storing bananas on top of the refrigerator. Adler LOVES bananas! If he sees them, he will start dancing around and crying saying "na-na-na-na" which means "banana" in Adlernese. He will cry for banana after banana if he can see them. Thus, we decided the bananas should go into hiding. We had an Adler "weigh-in" this weekend, and were glad to see his diet seems to be working. (has not gained any additional weight in the past 3 weeks) Here's a pic from his "weigh-in": (anyone new to our blog, we are not trying to turn our son into an anorexic, but have been put on a "diet" by Adler's doctor)

American Idol

Speaking of TV....I will only do one post dedicated to American Idol (I promise). Surprisingly, Stephen and I are watching and enjoying Season 7...anyone else feel the same? It's like the show is actually getting better... Anyways, I'm rooting for Brooke White. It's not that I really think she is the best singer, but I just really like her personality, or maybe I'm a sucker for the personality Fox has given her?


In other things Idol, can anyone tell me why this girl was busting out the ugly cry at the end of the show? (this picture doesn't do it justice) If anyone saw this, you know it was way over the top. And the cameras kept zooming in on her like a million times. It started to get really annoying. Was she really that sad that the other contestants were leaving? Was she just really happy she wasn't one of them? Ratings? Just thought it was a little much... Ok, that's all I will ever say again about American Idol...you're welcome! Anyone else willing to admit who they are rooting for?

Sesame Street

Why does Sesame Street put Adler in a trance?

Chicken Pot Pie

This is one of Stephen's favorites, and one I usually resort to when bringing dinner over to a friend. You can also buy an extra box of Pillsbury dough and cut out letters or themed cut outs to bake on top. For example, when a friend of mine had a baby, I cut out letters to say "Welcome Baby Mac" on the top of the pie - family members of the new mom took pictures of it and thought I was Rachael Ray.

Hunton Chicken Pot Pie
Boil 3 chicken breasts (add bullion cubes, celery leaves, salt for taste if have it) - cube and set aside

While chicken is boiling, chop veggies:
4 or 5 stalks of celery
1 large onion
4 or 5 carrots
frozen peas (about a cup or however much you like)
You may saute these veggies in butter until tender or for a lower fat version, you may steam veggies until cooked through

In a large bowl, mix well:
1 can cream of potato soup
1 can cream of chicken soup with herbs
cubed chicken
cooked veggies
salt, pepper, Italian seasoning to taste
splash of milk

In a 9x13 pan, lay Pillsberry pie crust on bottom. Spread chicken, soup and veggie mixture. Top with second pie crust. For a lower fat version, you can eliminate the bottom crust, but it's definitely best with both! Decorate top with cut-outs if desired.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Your friends will think you are Rachael Ray too! Let me know if you try it! Enjoy!

Chef Mama

OK, so I don't do this often, but when I do, I'm pretty much super mom. I planned out our next seven dinners, wrote down my shopping list, went to Wal-mart (how I loathe this place, but know I am saving us the green which means maybe I can go back and get that dress?), all while managing a 16 month old eating my shopping list. (I was literally taking pieces out of his mouth and trying to paste them back together with his saliva) Here's what's on our menu:

Tonight: Paula Deen's Shrimp and Grits
Wednesday: Potluck Chicken Tetrazzini
Thursday: frozen pizza (hey, we have community group and I've already learned that taking the time to cook a meal only to rush through it, half eaten, to rush out the door isn't worth the effort)
Friday: Grilled Salmon with Sweet Mustard Vinaigrette and Coconut-Cashew Basmati Rice (Bobby Flay)
Saturday: eating out
Sunday: Baked Ziti and salad
Monday: Potato Soup with Shrimp (Paula Deen)
Tuesday: Chicken Pot Pie

What's for dinner at your house?

Piedmont Park

Stephen had Monday off of work, so we to Piedmont Park. This park means a lot to me for different reasons, maybe for another post....part of the reason may be that I worked for the events department of Piedmont Park for three years until I had Adler. They have done a lot in the park over the past year and a half and have a lot they are going to do. Check out their plans to add 53 acres to the park...

This dress....

On Saturday, I ran up to the mall to get some makeup while Stephen kept Adler at home. I am easily side-tracked at the mall and saw this dress. I thought of a million reasons to buy it, but a million and one not to buy it. I even emailed this picture to Stephen from the dressing room in hopes he would be like "Oh, it is so cute, buy it!". Instead he said "I've never seen a dress made of makeup". I left the dress behind...oh well!

Ok, I did get some cute pics after all...

After making that last post, I realized I did have a couple pics that turned out...

Day at the Park

Saturday morning, we woke up and the weather was perfect! We called our friends and neighbors, the Huffs and Fountains (Presleys had a new baby and the Claytons were going to the circus) to meet us at the neighborhood park. The kids had so much fun running around wild, feeding the ducks, etc. Adler ate more bread than he actually threw to the ducks (definitely not a part of the diet), but he had fun.

I was thinking how nice it to have such great friends close by. I loved that we were all able to drop whatever we were doing, bring our coffee mugs to the park and hang out. What a blessing it is to have their love and support!

Before and After

Happy belated Valentines Day! I remember taking some great Valentines pictures of Adler last year. He was so cute and so easy to pose as my precious Valentine... This year wasn't quite as easy. I tried and tried to get a cute picture of Adler with his Valentine heart, but there was so cooperation on his part. All I got was this "stop it, mommy!" face....still cute, no matter what!

The cost of a date.....

Dinner at Horse Radish Grill = $100
Large "Mint Condition" from Caribou Coffee= $4.50
Two tickets to see the movie Juno = $20
Five hours of Babysitting = $55
Long over-due night out with Stephen = PRICELESS!

*Our dates aren't usually this expensive-this was our Valentines date/haven't been on a date in a LONG time

Pals

Pals, originally uploaded by Stevo28andgrowing.

Adler and Sadie love to play in the backyard...otherwise known as the "dog dooooo mine field".

Tonight....Yes, Tonight. YL "Valentines Day Club"

So, tonight is the "Valentines Day Club" for Young Life and I'll be giving the talk. Definitely say a prayer for me that I'll be able to communicate in a relevant way to these high school kids. It's also a joint club (two schools), so things usually get pretty roudy. Pray for their attention and that they'd get something out of it.

The talk is going to be about Kristine and I, how we started dating in high school, and although we've only been married for 5 years, this will be our 10th Valentines Day together...insert Banana Republic shirt Kristine gave me on Feb. 14th, 1998!!!


Isn't that crazy!

I'm going to play a song I wrote for Kristine a couple weeks ago called "baby, I love the way", which basically talks about all the little things I love about her. Not just the standard stuff that I'd obviously love about her, but the fact that I love the way she does everything...then I'm going to talk about God's word as the "love song" HE has written for us. I'll read a few verses that talk about "His love for us". I can physically see how Kristine feels about the songs I write for her, but the question to these kids is "how do you respond/feel/etc about this love song that God has written for you?"

I love this picture

Wouldn't this be awesome printed on canvas?

Peace on Earth

Zoo on Sunday

On Sunday, we took Adler to the zoo. He wasn't interested in the animals at all. He just wanted to run..without looking where he was going, following mommy or daddy...just running wherever his little heart wanted to take him. We decided to take him to the zoo playground to wear him out, which was a brilliant idea. The Atlanta Zoo has a great playground...Adler had a blast and then sat like a perfect angel in his stroller to see the rest of the animals. We will probably do this every time we go to the zoo now!

Follow these bloggers

Check out what this group of bloggers are doing on a trip to make a difference in Uganda.....

Date Night at Target

This seems to be a theme of ours....late night shopping in Midtown. This evening, we spent a couple hours at Target...you know how that can happen...you just get lost amongst the clothes, shoes, housewares, etc..all while sipping a cafe mocha from Starbucks. What could be better? Adler and I helped daddy pick out some new sun glasses.

Adler gets a Valentine

Neanie and Papa sent Adler a sweet Valentine gift....a "choo choo" card and Elmo back pack. Adler loved it and was so proud wearing it around the house!

My Reader Baby

Auntie Meg and Uncle Ben

Sweet friends in our and Adler's life came over for dinner Friday night....

A day in the life...

On Friday, I kept 5 year old Caleb while his mom and dad were at the hospital delivering baby Emerson. (welcome Emerson Ike!) So, for a day, I got to see what it would be like to be a mom of 2 kids. We took a quick trip to the grocery store in the morning. Here are a couple pics from the adventure. Did you know there were grocery carts with TV screens in them? I had no idea this cart was at our grocery store, but Caleb made sure I didn't miss it. Adler had fun admiring Caleb's every move....