Stay at Home Mom

Being a Stay at Home Mom is wonderful. I am so blessed that Alan and I were able to make it work so I could stay home with Adeline. 

 We are almost to crawling people!!! So glad I'll be able to see her crawling first!

 Big Girl Toys!

This is what I live for - holding my sleeping baby before I lay her down!

 These have been floating around on Facebook, they say it all...

State Fair of West Virginia

Adeline went to her first State Fair of West Virginia this past weekend. Hopefully there will be many more State Fairs in her future!

Growing up I had a friend who went to the fair every year as her dad had a booth (Check him out - Tuckwiller Gallery)  - so I started going. I hardly remember a year not going. So if you've never visited the State Fair of West Virginia head on out it is still going on with concerts every night.

She wasn't so sure about the bear.

Adeline got a purple ducky from a booth

Love this swing for her!

Adeline enjoyed it too

The goat scared Adeline when it stuck its head out. Full out crying in 3 seconds!

I don't like these animals - please move along!

Adeline napping during one of the livestock shows! - Photo Courtesy Amelia Tuckwiller

No I did not "stage" her arms! She stayed like this until some kid ran by yelling.

Adeline was constantly waving so her hand always looks blurry! Adeline with Paw Paw and horse!

Adeline with Maw and Paw

Big Girl!

We decided to move Adeline to a big girl seat! Adeline has been riding in a Chicco Keyfit 30, and it's been great but it makes her SOOO hot and sweaty. We started looking and really wanted a Britax, but it really wasn't in our price range.

I'm part of a Mom & Baby play group in the area and one of the other Moms posted a Britax Boulevard 70 CS for $80! So we tried out the seat in my Nissan Versa and it fit! So Adeline now has a super cute big girl seat. Thanks Heather!

She's not so sure....haha

After I installed it I was looking online at the different ways to install it and found out that you are not supposed to use the LATCH system for a middle seat connection, only on the sides. So then you would need to use the seat belt. So make sure when you install a car seat to read your car manual and the car seat instructions!

Adeline is very comfy in her new seat!

Water Baby

Adeline has been attending swim lessons, which at her age are more about water safety than swimming. She is doing great though. After her first week she learned to kick while on her tummy and is starting to kick while floating on her back. Adeline and I play in the shallow water at the end of her lessons. Here are a couple videos daddy shot today.

Adeline got to wear her first life preserver in water today. She wasn't too thrilled with it but did good.

We practice "jumping" off the edge and floating in the water.

We've been practicing going underwater - here Adeline caught her coming up out of the water. She does wonderful!

Adeline loves to play at the end of her lessons.

I Survived!

Sorry it's been a few days since my last post - but I have a good reason! I was spending time with my little family and extended family. Last week Alan was out of town from Sunday to Friday, so I was left all alone with Adeline. And I survived!

Alan had to go to Minnesota for work, which only happens maybe once a year. So I decided Adeline and I would stay busy and out of the house as much as possible!

I decided to enroll Adeline in swim lessons starting last week so that we'd have something to do each day and try to keep busy. So far we are one week down in lessons and she is doing great! She started out the week just floating and by Thursday she was actually kicking her legs when floating on her tummy. Here's are some horrible pictures from today's lessen - the camera didn't do too good! Hopefully Alan can come and take more with some adjustments.

Monday (July 30th) we had our swim lesson in the morning then around lunch time we met up with some Babies and Mommies at Mill Mountain Zoo. We have a Year Membership (Adeline is free) so our Moms Group goes at least once a month. Next we went SHOPPING!!!! I don't go to Kohls very often since it's way on the other end of town, and since Adeline was napping I stopped. She is such a good shopper, once she woke up she was a good girl. Then we headed home for the day.

Tuesday (July 31st) we had swim lesson and then Miss Adeline fell asleep before I got home! So I decided to go to Blacksburg to visit my mom for lunch. We took Adeline out to Panera for lunch where she ate tomatoes, fruit cup, and bread. We walked around downtown Blacksburg for a bit and I was highly disappointed. There are 90% resteraunts downtown now. I remember when I was younger I loved to walk around downtown while mom worked. 

Wednesday (Aug 1st) we went to swim lesson then a play date at another moms house.

Then Thursday (Aug 2nd) we had our last swim lesson of the week then Nana Weeks came over for a few hours so I could clean house and do laundry before Alan came home on Friday! And to give me a bit of a break. 

Friday morning Alan was home! Adeline was so happy to see her daddy. She waved at him as he walked towards her in the airport. Daddy was happy too.

Gained 10 lbs just baking these!

Earlier this week I came across this picture:

From The Plucky Housewives

It took some Google searching to find the original location of the picture and the recipe! So hoping this is the original location. However this is the page and recipe I used to make these tonight. Adeline decided she wanted to help.

Here are most of the ingredients I used, not a terribly expensive dessert but it did cost me around $6.50 for the brownie mix, Reese cups, and cookie dough. And of course a special trip to the grocery store to get the goods!

First I mixed up the brownie mix.

Then I put the cookie dough in the bottom of the muffin tins. There was some cookie dough leftover, so I put it in a separate cupcake tin and mixed with left over brownie mix.

Next I opened up all the Reese's Cups and placed them on top of the cookie dough then added brownie mix  to 3/4 full.

And now we bake and wait for them to finish!

I baked about 16 min., and I really think another minute or two would have been better.

Here is the finished product!

It was awesome! (Well the one I could eat)