what's cookin'

As you know I have been trying some new recipes lately. We have had some fabulous things that we will definitely be trying again. Here are links to what we have tried.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

I made this last night. It was great. It cooked all day in the crock pot and made the house smell wonderful. I will definitely make this when I go back to work because it was easy and delicious!

Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff

This was DE-LICIOUS!! I served it over pasta, but I think it would be just as good over biscuits, in a bread bowl, in a pie crust, stuffed into dough and cooked as a calzone and served as a dip with corn chips. It's a keeper!

Apple Dumplings

I may have mentioned these before. So good. My mother substituted peaches for the apples and gave rave reviews! My friend Ruby said she makes it at Christmas time with cherries instead of apples.

Mini Meatball Sandwiches

These have been great too. The recipe made us enough for three meals.

Chicken Nachos

Quick and easy.

Tonight, we are trying....

Shrimp Quesadillas

**** update.... DE-LICIOUS!!!!

How we roll.............

Here is a video of Shelby showing off! Hard to believe she can do all this at 7 weeks!

scenes from the yard sale

As I mentioned before Karen and I stopped at a yard sale last weekend. Here are the treasures that we found......

A Christmas dress for Charlie... 12 months.... $2

I had hoped to find one for Shelby, but this one wasn't her size and then I thought.... Charlie! That's the good thing about Rylee, Charlie and Shelby being so close in age.

We also found these burp cloths ($4) and bibs ($3). The lady I met was my new neighbor and she makes them! They were a great deal!
And now for the best find EVER!!

This carrier of wooden trays... which you all know I love....

filled with all of these..........

for only ............................

SOLD!!! I love them!!

Fall.... the half hearted effort

If you read my sister-in-law and partner in crime Meredith's blog, you know that she put out less fall decor than normal this year. Well, here is a glimpse of what I am calling Fall.... the half hearted effort. My priorities are ever changing and decorating for fall is just not something that seems as important right now. Of course, once the ambassador of Halloween's (Mr. D.) mood kicks in, I am sure this house will look like Halloween threw up all over it. Right now, I just have "fall" stuff out and nothing Halloween specific .. except for the candy of course!

This cute memo board was a birthday present from my Mother. We have had SO much fun with it. I finally thought to purchase colored dry erase markers. It's from Willow House, which is the new Southern Living at Home. I paired it with my Southern Living at Home tray and it looks great there! The silver infant cups were Mr. D's when he was a baby. I thought they looked cute with the candy. They are left over from Shelby's open house party. The candy is candy corn taffy, which is delicious and already eaten by the time I got around to posting this.

This tray is an ensemble that my Mother-in-law Linda helped me to put together. The tray came from Walmart. They have some fabulous fall home items for a low price! We also picked up the fake acorns, and the pumpkin pie candle there. We got the ball and hour glass (or 42 minute glass) at Old Time Pottery. When I climbed up into my attic I found the fall potpourri which I put in the bell on my Southern Living at Home pedestal. And.... that's Fall folks!

remember when....

Remember when I said I was hoping to catch my blog up this weekend..... well, as you can see so far that has not been the case. I have actually been very busy taking care of some things in my house while Karen has cared for Shelby. One overwhelming task was sorting her clothes by size. I had already done this once, but with gifts and such it has all gotten jumbled again. This little lady has so many clothes!! I am not sure if I have mentioned that she is growing like a weed. She is already out of newborn sizes and is growing out of 0-3 month clothes especially on things that snap at the crotch or that have feet. She is LLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGGGG! She goes back to the Doctor in 2 weeks and I can't wait to see how much she weighs and how long she actually is.

We have had a great weekend so far. Karen arrived and visited with Shelby. Then we went to the potluck at my school. It was fun introducing Shelby to some of the families that had not met her yet. After the potluck, you know where I was too busy socializing to eat, we went to eat Mexican food. After dinner we played with Shelby and chatted. Karen got up with Shelby some in the night. I did the 2:30 and she did the 5:30 except Shelby was running an hour early on both occasions. We got up this morning and were going to get coffee for Karen when we spotted a yard sale. For some reason we stopped which I don't usually do. I am glad we did! But, dear readers, that is for a later blog entry! I can hardly wait to show our finds. When we got back a few of our college friends came by with doughnuts. We visited with them. After they left we just chilled out and then we went to the mall. After the mall, Mr. D. put baby back ribs on his smoker. They were delicious! Now we are just relaxing. Pictures and more later!

It works for us.......

Two night in the crib and everyone is happy! It works for us.

The first night I had to take her bumpers off of the crib for safety purposes. Then I thought....what am I supposed to do with this now? It's still folded up on the floor. Today the nursery is getting cleaned and organized so maybe I will find a place for it. Anyway... We got her settled and put her in the crib.

She fussed a little at first but then settled down in less than a minute and went to sleep. We got up at our usual 2:30am feeding. A quick bottle and change then back to sleep. At 5:30 I heard her making some noise and since we usually eat between 5:30-6:00 I just assumed she was waking up. I turned on the video part of the monitor and she was not there. My Mother was visiting so I thought maybe she had gotten up with Shelby. Being a high tech monitor, I was able to redirect the camera and look around the room. This little lady had scooted herself all the way to the bottom of the crib and had her little foot poking out through the slats.

So... when we were running errands today, we went and bought her....

The BREATHABLE bumper. This will keep all limbs in the crib and is much safer than her other bumper.

Last night was seamless. She went to sleep in the living room around 9:30. I put her in the crib and lights out until 2:30 and 5:30. I am so glad this transition has been a smooth one.

This little girl is growing so fast. Here is how big she looks in her car seat now.

We introduced her to the Bumbo seat yesterday.

She loves to sit up and since she is holding her head up so nicely, we decided to take the plunge. Baby steps- but she enjoyed it for a few minutes. She's still a little "bob and weave" like so this is the best picture I got. I am sure there will be more later!

She is smiling - A LOT! I haven't been able to blog this because she hadn't smiled at Mr. D. yet. I think the most respectful thing you can do for a parent is to let them discover things about their child for themselves. I wish and hope that other people will show us this respect. Anyway, I got my first smile (you know- purposeful and not just gas- but eye to eye smiling!) a few days ago. I have just been waiting for Mr. D. to get one. Last night he did! It was amazing seeing his excitement. Imagine if I had told him she already did that for me how he would have felt. Of course later we discussed that she's been practicing. Still, he had a great moment and I am glad!

She is about to move into 3-6 month clothes in anything with feet and most onesies. She is a long little girl. I had the prefect fall dress for her - but it is a 0-3 months... so as soon as I can get to Baby Gap, I will need to exchange it. I hope they still have the dress because I love it. I held it up to her yesterday and it looked like a shirt- not a dress.

Karen is coming today!!! Hopefully I can convince her to sit and love on Shelby for a little bit this weekend so I can catch up on my blogging!

SIX weeks

Last night, Mr. D. and I had a somewhat humorous conversations. It started with his telling me that tomorrow (today) Shelby would be 6 weeks old. Six weeks I said... are you sure? He then counted off the days of each Wednesday that has passed and held up fingers to correspond to each date. Then I said... are you sure that you have the date right because I think it's only been 5 weeks. I then had to look at the calendar and sure enough- she's now 6 weeks old. One reason I was just convinced that it was only 5 weeks is because several weeks ago I made a deal that she would move to her crib at 6 weeks. It just seemed like it was so far away at the time and then last night I was faced with it being the last night she was in the room with us. It was a lot to take in unexpectedly. It's really for the best because in 6 short weeks, we have gone from this....

to this....

As you can see we are outgrowing the Moses basket. So listen up family members on the Brown side.. it's almost up for grabs to the next baby in the family. Oh- and doesn't she have the most puzzled look on her face in the last picture. I think she was perplexed because I literally had to stand on my bed to be able to get a full body picture of her in the basket.

So, the plan is tonight. I am not sure how it will go. She will only be 20 steps away which isn't really THAT far. I counted this morning. We have practiced sleeping in our crib during our naps today. I am fortunate enough to have two great baby monitors.

This one...

and this one....

sometimes...........

When I get so behind on my blogging like this, I get overwhelmed in knowing where to start. So, I will just make some bullet points of things that randomly come to my mind. The baby is sleeping, the laundry is going, the house is (relatively) clean.... it's time to blog. I am not going to add pictures to this post because it is very time consuming. If I did added pictures now, then there would be no blog post again today. I promise dear readers more pictures soon !

Let's see.... on with the random thoughts........

* Shelby is still having visitors each and every day. In the 27 days we have been home, we have counted only one without a visitor. She is a very gracious hostess and just snuggles right in to everyone she meets!

* Shelby has a very special visitor coming for the weekend-- Her AUNT Karen! While Karen isn't technically her "Aunt" by the literal definition, she is Shelby's Aunt. Shelby has as many honorary "Aunts" as she has technical Aunts. Karen and her husband Jonathan are both only children- so therefore Shelby is the only niece they have. If it weren't for Karen's love, desire and constant prayers for Shelby (and God's intervention) we would not have our Sweet Shelby!! We are so excited about her visit!

*As you may know, I am a huge fan of the cheese filled Combos. My favorite are the cheddar-pretzel combos. Yesterday at the check out, I saw cheeseburger flavored combos. I got them and it is actually freaky- and somewhat creepy how much they taste like a cheeseburger. I am not convinced that I like them though.

* Going to the grocery store has been one thing that has been a challenge for me since Shelby has appeared on the scene. My cousin Maggie was delighted to hear this yesterday because she thought it was just her. My challenge is that if I put Shelby's car seat up on top to the buggy (southern for cart- in case I have any readers unfamiliar with the term) so that it latches in, then I can't see to efficiently drive the cart. I am just too short. If I put Shelby down in the buggy, then I am limited to what I can purchase because she takes up the entire buggy. Carrying her in and driving the buggy is too much work. I never remember to take the Baby K'tan. So, yesterday Shelby had her first "babysitter" so that I could go to the grocery store. Knowing she would be here at 3pm, I literally spent the entire day (you know, whenever Shelby napped) researching and planning our menus. Since I didn't know when I would be able to go again, I planned for a few weeks! I literally had a 12x12 piece of card stock with the list written in three columns, organized by categories! I am very excited because I am trying lots of new recipes. I figured I should take advantage of being off from works and try some new things. Lucky readers, there may be recipes posted in the future of things we try! This is the recipe I am making for dinner!

* Brady (AKA Brad) loves Shelby. However he is a bit over her when she cries. At first he would nudge me towards her as if it tell me to take care of it. Now he just ignores it. He loves to smell her, watch her, and go into her room in an attempt to steal her lovies (stuffed animals). I can tell they are going to be great friends!

*Even though it is almost October, we are still well into the 90's here. Sheesh! I am SO ready for fall and cooler weather. I can hardly wait until the first night Parker, Caleb and Austin come over to trick-or-treat! I love the 31 days of trick or treating more than you will ever know! I am ready to apples, pumpkins and fallen leaves. I am also ready for less sweat and less being miserably hot!

*All of those time I was at work and thought I might be missing something AWESOME on TV during the day- I was wrong! There is nothing on. I know, I try to find something to watch at some point every day. Mostly I am watching Little House On the Prairie and Bewitched.

* Shelby has outgrown everything newborn sized already. Many of her things were never even worn. I am boxing things up and dividing them between 4 people. This will make way for the 0-3 months wardrobe and soon the 3-6 month clothes. You would be shocked over the massive amounts of clothing this child owns! I am already trying to find cute things for her to wear during Thanksgiving when she make her debut to Mr. D.'s very large extended family.

* It's funny making these bullet points because I keep thinking of really awesome stuff to add.. but then remember I am not posting picture right now. I am making a list of things to blog/photo post about later.

* Yesterday I was at the grocery store as I already mentioned. There was a mother and son on the cake mix row. She told him to pick out what kind of mix he wanted for his birthday. I am guessing he was about 7 or 8 years old. The kids looked at her and said " YOU are gonna MAKE the CAKE- I wanted YOU to hire the CAKE BOSS" You can imagine his mother response! I was proud of her!

the fashionista

Outfit-- on clearance for a dollar.....

Embellishments ..... less than 5 dollars.......

Seeing Shelby asserting her independence.......

PRICELESS!!!

Actually... the outfit was super cute. It was for Eden's Mardi Gras themed 9th Birthday party.

As cute as it was, Shelby was less than thrilled but still the hit of the party!

Don't worry, she wasn't sad then entire time she was in it...

...only when she was awake!

Shelby is....

....doing a great job of holding up her little head.

one of the best days so far

Today, Shelby and I had a great day. We spent the WHOLE day.... well from 7-4 anyway just the two of us. I was able to get lots of things done. Shelby was great and caught up on some much needed sleep and got back into her feeding schedule. Believe it or not, my living room is spotless. There isn't a speck of dust to be found. I removed every single thing, cleaned and put it back. I even added a few new elements and rearranged some things. I use this lavender scented Swiffer dust and shine spray. It makes the house smell so fresh! When Mr. D. came home he asked if I had hired a housekeeper.... haha! It's amazing what I can get done when I have time to get something done. Around 4, Parker, Caleb and Julie came over. It was fun until the boys realized that the Wii remotes weren't charged. Then they decided to go home and play. Shelby and I also went to the post office today. I never realized how much postage went into having a baby! I have said I am going to start giving stamps as shower gifts!

Tonight I made a special dinner - Mr. D's favorite- roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy and popovers. Tonight we have just played with Shelby between her naps. It's been a great day.

Last night, Mr. D. and Shelby hung out while I went to my school for Montessori Philosophy and Methods night. It was GREAT!! I am fortunate to really love my job. I got to meet some of the new parents in our class. It was funny because I have been sending pictures of Shelby home for the kids. One Mom said that her daughter keeps them by her bed. Sweet! I sent some more pictures today for Kate to pick up and send home. Saturday is a baby shower for Shelby from my class. It's going to be great to see all of the kids and their parents again!

I have so much more to tell, but duty calls.... more later!

Shelby's first "tradition"

My mother, Shirley (AKA- Shelby's Nonnie) bought Shelby this sweet little plate and glass. She will always use it in the month of October- even though she isn't quite old enough just yet. As you all know the month of October is a big month in our house, one could say our FAVORITE month! It won't be long until the 31 days of Trick of Treating begins!

Are you wondering what I had for lunch on Saturday?

Fresh from my garden!!!!!

Darling Shelby Meets Her World

We have been overwhelmed by all of the love and support we have been shown for Shelby. She is a very popular girl! We had an open house for her and 72 people joyfully appeared at our home to welcome her. He have had visitors night after night after night. Here is a little movie I have put together to show Shelby's welcome into our world. I believe that it takes a village to raise a child and we have brought Shelby to the best village around! Please note that not everyone got their picture made with her and there are several close friends who must have missed their photo ops... the sneaky little devils!! We feel extremely blessed by all who have been so welcoming and loving to our precious little lady. And oh the people she has yet to meet..................................

P.S. Rumor has it there are many glimpses of the elusive Mr. D. in the video :)

Thursday 13: Thirteen things I accomplished today

As you all know, Shelby is a very popular girl. In fact today is only the 2nd time in the time we've had her home that we did not have visitors. Please don't get me wrong, we are very appreciative of the outpouring of love and support for Shelby. However, I am very guilty of entertaining and visiting instead of utilizing the time to get things done. So, here is a list of 13 things I was able to accomplish during our day on our own.

1) unload the dishwasher

2) hand wash and then dishwasher wash a load of bottles

3) take Shelby for a stroller ride

4) take out trash and recycling.

5) play with Brady giving him lots of extra love

6) work in the nursery- my new never ending project

7) wash, dry and fold 4 loads of laundry

8) Skype with Karen

9) change the plastic in the Diaper Genie

10) return emails and phone calls that have been long overdue

11) began working in our catch all laundry room... for about 5 minutes and then decided to move on

12) straightened the living room

13) blogged this Thursday 13.

All of this was of course on top of the daily feedings, changings, burpings and snugglings. It may not seem like much but it's the most that I've accomplished since I've been home with Shelby!

for the love of Huggies.....

A sweet gift from Aunt Meredith, Uncle Keith and Henry!

the one about the restaurant in Texas and dinner last night

I must warn you that until I get my blogging caught up you are in for a series of jumbled thoughts. It may make LOST fans think of all of the episodes spent in the flash back/flash forward/ flash sideways episodes. So anyway... before we went to San Antonio, a friend of mine told us about a restaurant called Rudy's that we had to check out. He warned me that it was a little rough... and he didn't lie. We passed the restaurant one day and I mentioned it to Mr. D. in passing and we decided to try it one day while we were in Texas. On the night we went to dinner to meet our birth parents, we asked if it was worth trying and they raved about it. Fast Forward - 6 days later, we invited our birth parents to eat lunch with us there. It was DE-LICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's a restaurtant/gas station/country store. We had a wonderful meal and they had time to say goodbye to Shelby.. but I will probably blog more on that later on. After we left there, we still had 9 more days. In those nine days, we ate at Rudy's 3 more times. We found one right near our hotel. I kept calling and teasing Kate that we were staying in Texas forever to eat there and then when we found the one near our hotel, guess what was right next door. .... You can imagine how this made it even funnier for me to tell Kate that I had found a job next door to the BBQ place.

So anyway..... Flash forward to last night. Mr. D.'s sister Laurie and her husband Travis came over for dinner and to meet Miss Shelby. We had a Rudy's inspired meal. Mr. D. smoked a beef brisket all day. We had bought a bottle of the Rudy's Sauce and served with white bread and cream corn. The CORN.... I found a copycat recipe for the Rudy's corn. It was YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMY!!!

Here's what ya do. In a crockpot put 1 lb of frozen whole kernal corn, 1 block of cream cheese, 1 stick of butter, 3 tbsp of sugar and a 1/2 a cup of heavy whipping cream. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook for 3 hours on low and MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!

Here's a picture of my tablescape...

Here is a picture of our guest.

That sweet sweet face............

Thursday 13: 13 things to share

1) While I was gone to Texas, I found a blast from the past.....

I loved these in High School. Even though Orange Juice gives me horrible indigestion, I had to have one for old times sake. It was De-licious!!

2) On our trip we saw a million signs for Buc-ee's Truck Stop.
We stopped and the signs were true. .... they did indeed have a beef jerky bar, the world's creamiest rootbeer and clean bathrooms.

3) I started reading my book again on the trip. It's fabulous.
I had to stop reading it because of one part, but I talked to the author on Saturday and he assured me that there wasn't anything else like that in the rest of the book. I can't wait to find the time to get back into it!

4) I am learning to use Mr. D's fancy-schmancy camera. I am not comfortable with it because it is SO bulky and big, but it takes better pictures that mine.

5) In New Orleans we went on the Haunted Tour.

It was probably the hottest night of my life! We were sweaty and miserable by the end, but it was fun.

6) I also had a wonderful dinner in New Orleans. It was red beans and rice served in a bread bowl. Yummy!!!

7) You don't see something like this every day.

8) Sunday was the Fantasy Football Draft. I put out snacks and it was a preview of the fall days ahead. The neighbors came over and it was FUN!
9) I might be growing watermelons.
10) I pulled this cucumber on the day I came home.
11) My birthday presents from Vera Bradley. I also got IHOP for dinner. It was fab!

12) I can not WAIT for the new fall shows to start- especially Modern Family.

13) I got a Kichenaide Stand Mixer for my birthday- I wonder what I will mix up first........

3 weeks ago today.....

Shelby came into this world and our world will never be the same again. Not only was she the most beautiful baby I have ever seen, she instinctively had the foresight to strategically place her foot in just the right spot so I could post this picture on my blog. She is brilliant.

Born weighing in at 8lbs and 2 oz, this little lady was 9 lbs and 2 ounces at the Doctor's office yesterday. She has also grown from 21 inches to 21 1/2 inches. She is outgrowing newborn clothes and diapers faster than you can say Shelby Kate.

Here is a picture just minutes after her birth...

Here is a picture taken this past Sunday. She's changing and growing so fast!

On a side note, this blanket was her Uncle Boomer's when he was a baby.

Shelby is a hearty eater and she eats 4 oz of Similac Advance every 3-4 hours. She sleeps like a champ for the most part. We have had a few rough nights (like last night) but there has never been two happier people to stay up all night with a baby! Adoption gives you a clarity that most people do not have.

She has beautiful long fingers and toes. She steals the heart of everyone she meets. Believe me- she has met a TON of people. Today is actually the first day since we got home from Texas (Thursday) that Shelby and I have been home alone. We have had a great day so far.

I know you are all dying to know the story of her adoption. I desperately want to blog it but I feel that it is such an important story that I would like to write about it when I have the time to devote to blog it in a way that is fitting to the miracle we call Shelby. But, I will give you bits and tidbits here and there until I can give it to you in one big post.

Today, I was reflecting on her birth. I knew the minute I saw her that she was the little girl we had been waiting for all of these years. We did sweat out the legal stuff, but I just knew. I think she knew too. She was placed in my arms before anyone else and she just snuggled in.

She is still a snuggler today and I hope she stays that way. I have never seen Mr. D. so scared in the 18 years that I have known him. The pictures reflect it, but of course, due to his confidentiality clause, I can't post them. It's funny, and sad though if you look at the pictures of him and the pictures of me, you can tell a total difference in how we were feeling. More on that later too.

For those of you who are thinking-- great another blog that is now all about their kid..... stay tuned because I am planning a Thursday 13 tomorrow that has nothing to do about Shelby.