A Touch Of Tyrell

About two weeks ago I had a dream that I gave birth to our daughter again (second dream about this) but this time instead of Jake delivering the baby, I delivered it. I was alone in my hospital room, not a person in sight. She was calm and happy and I remembered she only opened one eye at first. I weighed her myself (7 lbs 11 oz) and then measured her (20.75 inches). And then the strangest thing happened... I left her somewhere (I have no idea where) and went home and told Jake that I just had the baby. He didn't really believe me because I still looked pregnant and then I started to get worried that she'd die because I hadn't fed her yet. Then I found her and nursed her. I couldn't stop starting at her and thinking about how happy I was and how much I loved her. It was kind-of a strange dream and I'm a little worried that both dreams I've had about our baby girl don't have doctors or nurses! This was the third dream I've had about our baby....

You wouldn't really expect a recipe off of a coupon add to be amazing.... but these mini pumpkin muffins were TAAAAASTY!  They're made with whole-wheat flour, pumpkin puree and topped with granola so they seem to be a tad bit more healthy than lets say.... the costco muffins (their first ingredient is sugar!) although these muffins do have their share of sugar.  Mini Pumpkin Muffins 1 cup whole-wheat flour 1t pumpkin pie spice 1/2 t baking soda 1/2 t baking powder 1/4 t salt 1 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1 can (15oz) pumpkin puree 2 large eggs 1 cup lowfat granola cereal, crumbled Combine first 5 ingredients, set aside Beat sugar and oil until blended Add pumpkin and eggs; beat well Gradually stir in flour mixture Spoon batter into prepared mini muffin cups and top with granola.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  They are seriously SO good. 

Yesterday was amazing. Like perfect-afternoon-weather amazing. Hair in a pony tail, t-shirt, capri and flip flop weather. Not too hot and definitely not cold. The days you just dream about.  Everett and I went for a long walk. He fell asleep so I made it an extra long walk because it was so beautiful out. My heart was happy and jam-packed with gratitude. Too bad this weather didn't come a week sooner. Some good friends of ours came from WA to see the beautiful sunshine, swim in their heated hotel pool and enjoy vacation away from the rain. But it was cold or rainy almost the entire time they were here. And their hotel closed the pool due to the rain. That's some bad luck. Real bad luck. But we tried to make the best of it. We took them to our favorite BBQ place, Rudy's. We played games but not nearly enough, took a scenic drive out to the Tonto National Forest,  went to Fuddruckers, watched Pitch Perfect (a hilarious movie in...

It's been pouring for days! Sometimes we like to sit outside and watch it rain and rain and rain. And then Everett puts his hand on my leg and says: "tut-ties! tut-ties!" He wanted me to make some cookies.  He is such a funny kid.  So he sat outside in his Cars camp chair while I made some whole wheat & oatmeal raisin cookies. He came inside just in time to eat spoonfuls of tut-tie dough.  But the fun didn't stop there... It's been fun but we are anxious for the sun to come back... especially because we have visitors from the Seattle area who were supposed to be on a vacation from the rain. Oh the irony!

Everett is talking a little big more and it's the sweetest thing.  He really loves this hand-me-down book that my mom gave us called Blue Hat , Green Hat.  After we read it to him the first several times he started to laugh and think it was funny. Now he likes to read it to us. It's adorable.  Most of the book goes something like this: and it always ends with the "oops" turkey.  He knows his colors and can say them, but he usually just points to each color/animal and makes a noise and then says "oops" and laughs when he gets to the turkey. It's fantastic.  Most likely he'll still go to speech therapy preschool once he turns three, but these little successes along the way are so cute and I'm loving every new word he tries to say!

I finished decorating the nursery a few weeks ago... so I made a blanket out of the left over scraps.  I'm pretty sure it's my most favorite handmade blanket ever.  It was my first attempt at a 'quilt' and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out {although I would love to learn how to do the fancy embroidery stuff someday (instead of just the straight lines)}.  I doubt the blanket will actually be used for warmth until next winter, but until then she can look cute playing on top of it!

I would have never imagined all of the things I've learned about the human body before becoming a mother.  In the past 3+ years of being pregnant and raising a little guy, I've learned a lot about the body and how it functions (especially how your bottom works, lol!).   Everett was sick during Christmas with a runny nose, fever, weird red blister bumps, two days later he threw up for the very first time (ever) and he was just a sad sight. It's always hard to see your child sick.  But he got better.  Then we noticed a large bump behind his ear/on his neck.  And it wasn't going away.  We did a lot of research and reading via the Internet (which is NOT always a reliable source, but still had good information) and called the 1-800 nurse line attached to our health insurance plan.  His lymph nodes/glands behind his ear were swollen (most likely from his Christmas sickness). They were very big and not going away. Th...