Good Pal Pooh Bear

 Here is some adorable entertainment for your Friday :) 

Hey Pooh, nice to see ya.

This hat keeps getting in my eyes... 

Hi, I like your shirt. 

I like you, Pooh, but I'm kind of tired of sitting here, it's not so comfy.

Ah, yes. A paci. That's much better. 

I think I'm gonna spit my paci out and fuss a bunch. It's fun. You should try it some time, Pooh. Maybe Mama will hold you then. 

Happy weekend to you all

spring find

Don't you just love those days when  you go out shopping for something specific in mind: a pair of jeans, a swimsuit, a coat, a pretty new dress... and you find it?! I sure do. I feel like those shopping trips are somewhat rare though. I cannot even begin to count the number of times I have go shopping in hopes of finding the perfect dress [or swimsuit or you name it] and not found it. I have money, I have time, I have energy, but there is no dress to be found. I feel like this happens to me all the time. Is it just me or does this ever happen to you to?

Anyhow. Today must have been made special just for me. Emerson's Grammy and Poppy were here visiting us and asked me if I wanted to go shopping [his Grammy asked, not Poppy] for a Spring dress/outfit. Yes, please! So off we went, an adventure with to the mall. While I walked around and perused through a few stores they walked with Emerson around the mall. The first store I went in I had no luck so I walked to a second store and as soon as I stepped in the store I saw dresses galore. Pretty dresses too. Dresses I would actually wear. I was so excited! This never happens to me. I picked a few dresses to try on and loved the first one I wore. I can't even remember the last time that happened. Actually, I can. It was five years ago when I was shopping for my wedding dress, the first one I tried on was the dress. Anyhow. I was sooo excited to find such a pretty dress. I can't wait to wear it.

please excuse the fuzzy picture, it's the best I could get 

... at least it gives you an idea of what it looks like :)

via

What a happy day. I was so excited to actually find what I was looking for [even though I didn't know exactly what it was I was looking for :] Don't you just love it when that happens?!

new treat test

Recently I have had a lot of time to sit around and well, sit. It's pretty tricky to do a whole lot while you are nursing a little baby. Thankfully we have an iPad and the Hubs has an iPod so whenever I am nursing I am able to have one of those handy devices in case I am looking for something to do instead of well, just sit. So anyhow, after reading all the blogs I could, and checking my email a thousand times I got on Pinterest. And I found a recipe for homemade Twix bars. Holy moly. Pinned it. And then I decided to try these little suckers out on some friends we had coming over. So I whipped up a batch. Sadly I only got half of it done before the friends came over... some one decided he was hungry and wanted to eat. What was I to do? I just finished them the next day because I couldn't leave them half made. Now I have a big fat pan of twix bars all to myself, hubs doesn't like caramel.

Homemade Twix Bars [with my alterations]

1 cup salted butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp. vanilla 

2 cups flour

2 1/2 cups caramel (I used the little vanilla caramel candies that are already in little squares)

3 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream

2 - 2 1/2 cups chocolate chips 

Crust: 

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Spray a 9x13 baking pan. Combine butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add flour and mix well. Press dough into pan. Prick with a fork and bake for 30-35 minutes. After removing from oven run a knife along the edges. Let cool. 

Caramel: 

Melt caramels and cream in a saucepan. Pour over cooled crust. Let cool [stick in in the fridge for a half hour or so]

Chocolate: 

While the caramel is cooling melt the chocolate. You can melt it in the microwave in 10 second intervals stirring every 10 seconds or you can use the double boiler method [which is what I did]. Once melted, pour over caramel layer. Let cool. Then eat some yummies! 

I hope you all had a good weekend :) 

Friday's Letters

I have seen lots of letter writing in blog land on Fridays and thought it sounded like fun. I always loved writing letters and getting them in the mail was even more fun. So, I'm writing Friday's Letters. 

Dear Friday, I love that the day after you is Saturday and that means I get to see hubs a little more than I do during the week. 

Dear Hubs, you are wonderful! You are so helpful and encouraging to me during the time of adjusting to life with a baby. I couldn't ask for a better friend. You are a wonderful daddy and husband, thanks for picking us to be your family! 

Dear Baby Carriers, I am so glad I have you. It's nice that I have a few from my sisters to work with too, you know, find the perfect fit. Except, today, you are not cooperating and I do not appreciate it one bit. I mean, should you really be that difficult to put on? Should it be rocket science to figure out how to put the baby in you? I think not. But for some reason... please play nicer tomorrow and forever after that, mmmk? Thanks! 

Dear Emerson, you are so stinkin' adorable! I can hardly stand it! Also, it would be nice if you could sleep without being held. So, just keep that in mind ok? Thanks! Oh, and I love you. 

Dear Mom, thanks for flying half way around the world to come and visit us and help with Emerson. It has been so nice having you help with everything. 

Dear Weekend, I like you and I hope you are a good one :) 

simplify my closet

Sometimes I look into my closet or my dresser drawers and I just want to throw everything out and start fresh. I feel like I do go through my clothes pretty frequently and get rid of the things I don't wear any more, but lately I just want to get rid of everything. I feel like I have more clothes than I really need and I know I don't wear them all. A lot of the clothes came into my closet from family or friends who were getting rid of their clothes, which is nice because it saved me lots of money. And even though I only took the things I liked, there is something to be said for shopping for brand new clothes. Not that I don't shop for new clothes, it's just not  a frequent thing around these parts.

Anyhow. I want to simplify some things in my life. While I was pregnant I had a small collection of clothes that I wore for the six or so months I needed maternity clothes, I liked it. I liked having a few nice tops, a few nice pants, a dress or two, and some sweaters. It was simple.

When I was in college my wardrobe was simple too. I liked it. I had probably had three pairs of jeans at the most at one time, a dozen or so tops, and a hoodie or two. All the staples for a college student. All of the clothes I owned fit into half of a regular sized closet and two dresser drawers, or more importantly two suitcases with some room to spare. I didn't have to put clothes away or pull clothes out for different seasons, they all fit and stayed right where they hung or lay all year long. Which might be why they got worn out pretty quickly.

Nowadays? Not so much. Not that I'm complaining about having clothes, I love clothes, or that I am not thankful for what I do have, I am. I just miss the good ol' simple days when all of my clothes fit with plenty of room to spare in my closet and two dresser drawers. I've been feeling this way for quite some time now, and maybe I'm thinking about it more and more these days because all of my clothes are fitting funny right now. I'm not pregnant any more and even though I fit into my old shirts, they do not look flattering at all, the maternity shirts still fit the best because they help hide the little belly I have yet to work off. Which is fine, I know it takes time to loose all of the baby weight. But it makes me think about my collection of clothes. I have too many.

I have too many clothes, so I want to get rid of all of them and just buy all brand new ones. Start fresh. Maybe keep a few pieces that cannot be replaced, but pretty much start over, kind of like what they do in What Not to Wear. Does this make sense? Does this sound crazy? Have I lost my mind? If I were to tell the hubs that I have too many clothes, that I want to get rid of them all, and that I want to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe, he would just laugh. Even though the clothes I buy would not be many...

This is crazy. It's okay, you can tell me. But I'm still going to think this way. I'm still wanting to simplify my wardrobe. ... and I think that's ok. And I think I will go through my clothes and really get rid of some things ... and maybe buy a few new things, maybe. I will let you know how that goes. But over the next few days I will be sharing what I think would be the perfect wardrobe with you all. It's pretty awesome if you ask me. So make sure you come back to check out what I would like my collection of clothes to look like, mmk?

bilirubin check up

We went back to the doctor today so the doctor could check Emerson's bilirubin levels and see how he was doing. I am so happy to say that 1. He gained more weight, he weighs a whole 8 lbs 6.5 oz. now! What a big and growing little boy he is and 2. His bilirubin levels were down to 6.5 from 10.1 when they were checked at the hospital last Wednesday night. Praise The Lord! We are still working on getting his levels even lower and getting rid of the jaundice altogether, but this truly is wonderful news. Another plus is that the doctor said it's ok to stop supplementing with formula and go back to nursing full time. What happy news :)

Anyhow, I just wanted to share that tidbit of exciting news! I hope you all had a lovely Wednesday.

rainy days

What is it about rainy days that just make you want to curl up on the couch, pull a fluffy blanket over you, have a hot cup of tea in your hands, and read a book (or take a nap)? All I know is that it all I want to on this rainy day. Not that I have done a whole lot, but I haven't curled up with a book in a while. Any chance I have to read, I choose to sleep instead. It's really quite nice.

What's even better than a nice rainy day is when the rain turns into snow. Watching the fat white snowflakes fall from the sky makes the world go quiet, everything seems to calm down, to be still. My soul feels content when the snow falls. I love the peace that can come with a snow fall.

Happy National Pig Day :)

I think I used to appreciate Fridays a little more than I do now. Mostly due to the fact that all of my days seem to run together now. I hardly ever know what day of the week it is and what the days date it. Something that I was always incredibly aware of when I was teaching. But today it was easy to remember that it was Friday because 1. the doctor called me the other day reminding me of my appointment on Friday (the next day) and 2. it is National Pig Day. It's true. And I love me some cute little piggies. It's true. I've talked about this before. What a great day!!

This morning I had my 6 week postpartum check up and all was good. The doctor said everything looked good and that I could resume all of my normal activities again. The thing I am most looking forward to is going back to Zumba. There is an amazing Zumba class that I regularly went to before I was pregnant, I am very excited to go back. And I think that it's crazy that I just admitted I was excited about the thought of exercising again. Too bad my two Zumba buddies won't be able to go with me... one moved away and the other one is pregnant. I guess I'll just go by my lonesome :) Another reason I might be a little excited about going to Zumba is so I can really start working on getting rid of the baby weight I acquired while pregnant. Though I am very excited today because I put my regular non-maternity jeans on this morning and they fit. It is an amazing feeling to be wearing regular pants again :) I love my jeans.

I also love this Boba wrap one of my friends got for me. It is simply ah-mazing. I love that I can hold Emerson and still have the use of both of my hands :) This will be especially helpful when I have no one here helping me any more and I have to do everything on my own.

I also love these little shoes. Emerson needs them. He told me so. And right now they Zulilly is having a super sale on them. I'm just not sure what size or which color I should get for the little guy... thoughts?

aren't they the cutest little shoes you've ever seen in your whole life?! 

Oh, and this is pretty awesome too. I always use ziplocks to store the opened bacon, but this is just too cute that I have to get it :)

What a cute and practical little bacon saver. 

Happy National Pig Day to you!