food, celebrating, and crafts!

this past week or two has been filled with so much fun!

4th of july = my parents were here.

and then this happened...

the week after = my friend katie was here.

so this happened...

and i made this art for micah's room!

 then, july 13 was my birthday = my friend susan was here. and then katie was back. 

and this happened:

and then last week, we filled our time with lots of play dates and time loving on micah in between intense bouts of bad mood due to teething, 

so this happened:

 picnic in the front yard after time at the library and explored toledo zoo!

matt put these up, making progress on the slowest room transformation in the history of the world, due completely to laziness.

so, so fun though!

 then, july 18 = our five year anniversary. and we still love each other!

some friends watched micah and matt surprised me with reservations to our classic celebration spot, melting pot. aka, pregnant woman's dream--lots of food and lots of kinds of food.  we went there to celebrate one year of dating and then one year of marriage a few years later!

 holy meat.

 the gift for five years is wood...

so i made jenga (made of wood, duh) into memory jenga from the last five years of marriage... thinking that it would be fun for our kids in a few years as a family game night game! 

matt got us (me) a long wooden votive candle holder, engraved with our initials and wedding date, to be a table centerpiece... it's just on order from etsy :) 

since then, we've just been loving summer. ice cream, pool, soaking up these last months of having an only child!

oh, and i've made a few new things lately! i had my free birthday loaf of zingerman's bread, so...

made homemade garlic bread, which everyone does, but somehow i never knew it was so easy?! and good?! why did i not know.

 just mix garlic, basil, garlic powder, parmesan cheese into the butter, slather it on, cook and add cheese after a few minutes. literally rocked my world.

and a sweet family gave me delicious treats from great harvest bread company for my birthday, including cheese bread, so i made pesto chicken breast sandwiches, grilled with mozz and dipped in marinara. literally all about that bread. i'm salivating thinking about them. and it's not due to pregnancy.

then i tried a new chicken recipe (ignore the pile of cucumber... i hate salad right now, but i'm trying to still eat vegetables...)

it's called chicken francese, and i got the recipe here

so great for summer!

that's it.

we have to keep soaking it up before things get crazy again!

Micah-Isms.

we're at a funny stage in life...
and I feel like I'll regret not documenting the crazy things Micah says and does. Feel free to skip this post if you don't care. just for my memory!

So here are a few...

Matt put shelves up in Micah's room, so every time Micah sees them, he says, "books! Shelves! Daddy did it... Thank you Daddy," like 10 times a day.

Whenever Micah wants more of something, he'll say, " A more." And hold up one finger intensely.

He's obsessed with David from David goes to school (by David Shannon), so sometimes he'll just randomly laugh to himself and say,"David!"

One book has a skunk, so he wants to read it constantly and says, "kunk, PU, stinky! Sour cheese!" (He says the same thing for a poopy diaper and feet)

He kisses every boo boo he sees. He thinks a mole on my arm is a boo boo. It gets a lot of kisses.

Whenever we're in public, he'll say, "People! Hi people!!"

He loves to spin in circles and say, "Circles! Dizzy!"

When being chased or chasing, he says, "Come back here!"

When we're not home, he'll say, "Back home now. Bailey!"

Oh, and speaking of Bailey... Bailey is his best friend. He'll drop food on the ground and say, "Surprise, Bailey!" Or try to ride her and say, "Ride Bailey. tail waggin!" 

He always needs to be clean--hands, floor, everything. No crumbs on the couch, no wood chips on the stairs at the playscape.

His love of the alphabet has no boundaries--he reads EVERYTHING. license plates, wrappers, stickers, books, shirts... and is constantly naming colors, shapes, and animals/animal sounds, and the names of all the people he knows.

He has crazy separation anxiety and does terribly with babysitters or at the nursery at church. Yikes.

He kisses baby and talks about babies, but the most common phrase is, "baby crying." How does he already know?!

He will imitate everything we say and do. I told him to be careful not to get his fingers in the door when shutting it, so now he pretends to do it every time and says, "Fingers!"... I told him not to eat play dough, so he says, "Play play dough now. Eat it! Pretend eat it! Nummy!"

Life is an adventure right now! Done with the obnoxious post :)

that day my brother got married.

we finally got pictures of the glorious day when Ben got married!

and Micah was ring bearer!

they're all copyright Cat Alkire Photography :)

Notice Matt standing in the background...

Micah officially spotted the cookie...

and he's now running to me, saying, "cookie cookie cookie!"

success.

New sister in the family photo!

and the reception...

hands down, favorite photo. That's the man I married!

so there it is! 

we got a new sister/aunt!

summering it up.

well, june was just kind of a month of bliss.

matt didn't work much, weather was sometimes good (lots of rain, but that's okay), and we tried to cram as much fun as possible into the month. 
parks, zoo, restaurants, lots of play time, lots of reading books, lots of attempting to eat play dough.

mom brag moment (feel free to skip...): also, we've had fun micah changes... he somehow learns everything! his colors, letters, animal names and sounds, numbers to 13 (random, i know), names of things and people... so much fun! he also kicks a ball now, runs a lot, is constantly challenging my patience, and sleeps in a big boy bed with no problems. okay, all done.

also projects, the biggest of which was matt spending an entire day (9 hours in the hot sun) re-staining our deck. let me tell you. it looks AWESOME. 800 square feet of cleaning and staining. yikes.

also: projects coming next post: pictures of micah's new room, our room redone to include a craft area, and the redecorated play room!

so, here are some pictures of the greatness that we just had...

cousins. everywhere.

loooooots of this happened.

started this, finally!

healthworks museum with grandma. 

homemade popsicles. 

don't get too excited, this is the only popsicle we were actually able to get out of the mold. so then i bought snickers ice cream bars. at least i tried, right? 

cousin time. be cuter, you two.

finally set up the awesome easel some friends passed down to us! painting just got more fun.

so artistic.

baby shower for kelsey. i looove this picture! haa

and then to kick off july, i went to indiana to visit one of my best friends  and her family and meet her new baby, blake!

learning baseball from lonnie, amanda's dad.

that's a smile of summer.

finally met this crazy character, blake!

camping, the best way. that and only for an evening.

bubbles. with amanda's mom, cindy.

indiana state dunes. beach style. he's a natural, amiright?

and i have no pictures of amanda and i together. luckily, she does, i just have to get them...

oh, and one food photo... white chicken chili. an ebright specialty that i just finally made for the first time!

recipe (stolen directly from matt's mom herself!):

2 lb. chicken, cooked and shredded(or use rotisserie chicken)

2 (15oz) can white beans, undrained

1 16 oz. jar salsa (Pace medium)

8 oz. Monterey jack cheese, grated

2 tsp. ground cumin

Combine in a 3 quart kettle. Cover and simmer 

about one hour, stir occasionally and add water or broth if too thick or 

3 hours in crock pot on high. Serve with white corn chips or scoops.

You can tweak the amounts to your preference. It 

starts out pretty thick until the cheese melts and you must watch that it 

doesn’t scorch on the bottom of the pot.

june may be over, and matt's back to work, but his july schedule looks to be the best for this upcoming year... so let the fun continue!

life, currently.

well, i'm now a stay at home mom. feels weird to say. it's my goal to blog more often, or at all, now that i'm not working.

i'm currently doing that from the top stair, outside micah's room. because that's how my life is right now. oh, and i'm serenaded by a mix of crying and climbing and talking and singing.

just so you can glimpse into my world, here's my night/morning:

8 pm: micah to bed in new room.

1030 pm: micah crying. put micah to bed again.

115 am: micah PLAYING. and unable to fall back asleep, even with both of us trying, until 3 am.

730 am: micah walks out of room. and i get up. and decide no swim lessons. because we'd be leaving at 8 and i just can't.

8-1230 pm: play. sing "let it go" about 20 times. say "no" to the request for cookie, outside (it's raining), park, zoo, veggie tales (about 1000 times), etc. go to the OB doctor, hold him while listening to baby's heart beat (really.)... have him offer guacamole to everyone he sees... yelling loudly every animal and animal sound he can think of, then alternating with counting and abc's. get home, handyman is waiting to fix the siding on our house that's falling off. change a big poopy diaper. feed lunch. 

1 pm: naptime = fight time. try to get him to relax and sleep. he just wants to play. i give up, leave room, shut door to him climbing and yelling "mommyyyy" in his silly voice.

ah, how life has changed. no more teaching elementary. no more baby... other than the one growing inside. and that baby boy is always kicking me to make sure i know that i've got round two coming soon. 

all of the sudden, we've got a full-blown toddler who touches his wee-wee in public and talks about it and throws a fit when he doesn't get cookies whenever he wants them.

all that to say, life is good. 

here are pictures to prove it.

our life in recent days!

first up, micah's first trip to the zoo!

moving on up, no more high chair: we all sit together like a civilized family. but one of us eats with his hands mostly.

speaking of civilized. lemonade straight from the pitcher. i don't know.

matt and i still love each other, so that's good. tigers game double date!

petting zoo. hand in goats mouth. whatever. 

pick your battles, right?

pool time with micah's pal, graham. i know. they look thrilled.

but really, they love pools!

first ice cream cone. i think the eyes are closed from pure delight. fast forward 5 seconds: running everywhere, YELLING "hi, hi, hi, hiiiii!" to everyone he saw.

ah, the big boy bed. someday, it will be less stressful. someday.

not pictured: lots of fun parties, dinners with friends, time with family, my brother getting married (we don't have the pictures... ah! need to get them ASAP!), end of the school year with students. etc.

and one recipe for you... a great one!
basil pasta with sundried tomatoes!

ingredients:

sundried tomatoes

basil pesto

pasta (we use the shell kind for this one!)

mozzarella cheese

parmesan cheese

asparagus

chicken (optional)

eggs

normally, you'd eat this right away, not in pyrex... 

what to do:

• mix asparagus and olive oil/salt on a baking sheet and roast in the oven until crisp, then cut into one-inch pieces
• cook up the pasta (and chicken, if you want)
• mix in a big serving bowl as much pesto as you like as well as the sundried tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and parmesan cheese.
• add in the asparagus and mix
• then, if you're brave, fry an egg (over-medium or so) and lay it on top--the yolk acts as a juice for the pasta, too. we normally only do that if we didn't add chicken--a great meatless (thus cheap!) dish.