FSU or Florida

Sure, you see our son doing the Gator chomp. What you don't see is the man behind the scenes forcing his little tiny hands to do the chomp. What you don't hear is him actually singing the FSU chant. Since it's all syllables, it's a bit easier to do. Plus, it's in a song, so I have an advantage. What I want to know is, what team do you think he'll go for? Florida or FSU? Take notice that he is in fact wearing his FSU outfit that Susan bought him. Thanks Susan! Any other FSU wear you can find send it this way! Nevermind the fact that FSU lost to Miami, of all teams. That's okay. By the time Blake can understand football and which team is the best, FSU will be whipping Florida all over again and will be National Champs! High hopes? Maybe! But you can't stop my imagination!

Recipe Sunday

Clean Chicken Divan

Calories: 260

Ingredients:

• 2 cups low-fat, low-sodium chicken broth


• 1-1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast (3 to 4 medium breasts)


• 2 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil


• 2 leeks, sliced very thin and cleaned (we left it out)


• 1/2 pound cremini or buttom mushrooms (8 oz.; about 15), sliced and roughly chopped (left out as well because we don't like mushrooms)


• 3 cloves garlic, sliced


• 1 pound broccoli, florets and stems cut into small bite-size pieces


• 1 cup cooked cannellini beans, or one 15-oz. can, drained and rinsed


• 1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese


• 1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, freshly grated


• 2 tbsp. fresh chives, finely chopped


• 1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves, chopped


• 1 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice (from about 1/2 lemon)


• 1/4 tsp. fresh ground black pepper


• 2 oz. reduced-fat cheddar cheese, grated

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


2. In a wide, medium saucepan with a tightly fitting lid, bring broth to a boil. Add chicken, cover pan and reduce heat so broth and chicken simmer for 5 minutes. Then remove pan from heat (do not uncover) and poach chicken in hot broth for 12 to 15 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.


3. While chicken poaches, heat oil in a large saute' pan over medium-high heat. Add leeks and mushrooms. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are very tender and liquid has cooked out, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add garlic and saute for 30 seconds before removing pan from heat and setting aside.


4. When chicken is done, lift it from the broth and transfer to a cutting board. Cover saucepan and return broth to a boil. Cut chicken into 1/2-inch cubes and set aside, keeping warm. Add broccoli to boiling broth, cover pan again and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook broccoli until it is fork tender, not mushy, about 5 to 7 minutes. Lift broccoli from broth with a slotted spoon and distribute it onto the bottom of a 13x9-inch baking dish. Set aside. Reserve broth.


5. Add beans, cottage cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano, chives and thyme to a blender or food processor. Add cooked leeks, mushrooms and garlic. Carefully pour broth into blender or food processor and puree mixture until very smooth, taking care to avoid escaping steam or hot liquid splashes.


6. In a bowl, mix lemon juice and pepper together with hcicken. Pour half of the puree over chicken and stir to combine. Spread chicken across broccoli in baking pan and then pour remaning puree over top. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and transfer to oven. Bake for 15 minutes and then, if desired, broil for 5 additional minutes to brown the top of the casserole.


7. Serve a heaping spoonful of casserole on top of steamed grains, like brown rice or barley pilaf. Be sure to ladle the flavorful juice from the bottom of the pan onto hot cooked grains.

Taken from: Clean Eating Magazine (May/June 2009)

Helping Daddy

The other day, Raun got the notion to wash his car. Since we had been inside all day and it was getting close to his bedtime and an increase in irritability, I decided that I would take him outside to watch Raun. He is in the stage now where he wants to try to do whatever it is that you are doing. Fun, at times. Kinda annoying, at others. But that's okay. I put him up on the top of Raun's truck so he could help wash the windows and he loved it! I made Raun stay put until I could run inside to grab the camera. Maybe I can teach him to wash my car. And maybe my tires...

How to celebrate a birthday?

Since it's been a month since his birthday, I figured I should finally post the rest of his birthday pictures. We had a great time. Once he woke up from his morning nap, we went to meet Raun for his birthday lunch at Jimmy John's. He proceeded to eat an entire 4-inch sub with cheese. Where he packed it, I'll never know. We left Raun to go to work and I took Blake to the zoo. He loved the gorillas. He would sit there and watch them forever, I think. He would laugh at them and never moved his eyes except to blink.
________
Birthday mornings are rough....especially when Mommy makes you wear this hat just for a silly old picture! Moms!


But they get better when as soon as Cheerios come into the picture.

Lunch at Jimmy John's

The gorillas at the zoo:

He also enjoyed the goat that had it's head stuck in the fence because it almost touched his foot. Lots of laughs then!

Off to Build-a-Bear, Chick-fil-A, and Baskin Robbins:

Presents!!!

Nanny made him a crochet hat that he loves. He carries it around when he's sleepy. So she made another one so he can wear it this winter. It's adorable!

Happy 1st Birthday, beautiful boy! We love you lots and are so proud of all you have learned in the past year. You have grown so much. We feel so blessed to be your mommy and daddy.

Love, Mommy and Daddy

Delays

I have greatly delayed in writing on this blog. Not because I don't want to write and share what's on my mind. Not because I was afraid that no one would read it (sometimes I do it just for me). It's because, believe it or not, I haven't had a chance to sit still for longer than 2 seconds. I didn't even get on the computer for two days straight this past week. Unheard of for me! I have lots of pictures to put up, but that requires sitting still for longer than 2 minutes. I think I'll just put pictures up in a single post so I don't have to do all of the clicking and dragging. We'll see, but I will try to do it soon for those family members and friends that live so incredibly far away!

We were hit by the stomach virus this past weekend. Raun had to work out of town, so I rode with him to work and then took the car to meet my friend Heather and to go to the zoo, since I am a zoo member now. We had a wonderful time and saw lots of animals. It was a pretty big zoo and we learned lots since there weren't too many kids around because of it being a school day. Oh...and it was also raining. That helped our situation a bit, too. We went to the mall to eat and I got a call from Raun begging me to come pick him up because he was sick. After a stop for gas, medicine, 2 stops off the side of the interstate, and a 45-minute stand still because of a wreck, we finally made it home close to 3 hours later. I started to have nausea while we were waiting for the wreck, but I thought it was just indigestion. I was wrong. Not long after we made it home, the vomiting started. Yuck! However, on the up side, it was the best ab workout. It was a great way to help tone up my leftover babywear. Apparently Blake had it too, but he never had the vomiting part. I was thankful for that because I don't think I could see him go through that. It would have been awful. Raun's mom came on Saturday to take Blake for a few hours so we could rest and get a little better. We were thankful because we couldn't stand up, let alone chase a baby through the house. She ended up getting sick on Sunday, so we have since learned that it was a stomach virus and not food poisoning, like we had originally thought. We were sad that we didn't get to go to Dollywood with our friends like we had originally planned. Looks like we'll try again this month, hopefully.

We have also learned this week that Blake has allergies. He is on Zyrtec to help stop his horrible coughing and runny nose. We were hoping he wouldn't get Raun's allergies, but it looks like he may have. This has made for a much more whiny and crabby baby, but that's okay. He likes to cuddle with me and he at least sits still for 30 seconds when he's not feeling well. Hopefully this is all it is. When we went to the doctor, our pediatician's office made us stay outside because the swine flu had been hitting the babies hard. She said that they had seen a bunch of that and the regular flu already so they didn't want Blake to get it. We weren't there long, so hopefully he won't get that.

I can't believe that we're already into the month of September. Where June, July, and August went to, I'm not for sure. I feel like it was a whirlwind with something happening every single weekend. I think I'm in the homestretch now with nothing but football (FSU first and then Raun gets his Florida game) and a consignment sale this weekend. I love consignment sales! And the fall weather that has hit. Oh...and the best part? My pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks!

birthday party pictures

This is quite a short post...a welcome relief to some, I know! My friend, Jennifer, who took the pictures of Blake's party has a sample of some of the pictures up. Go to http://www.jmeyerphotography.blogspot.com/ to see them. She did such a great job! I can't wait to get the CD of them! Thanks Jennifer! I haven't had much down time lately, but birthday pictures will come as soon as I sit down. He had a wonderful birthday, though, and I made it through with only a few tears. But that's okay because Raun teared up once, too.

Party Time!

We made it through the birthday party weekend! And I only teared up once when Mom and I were talking. I think that's pretty good, if I must say so myself. Not for sure how I'll do on Friday, but I'll let you know later.

I wanted to make his invitation special, so I decided to make them myself using my Creative Memories program. I didn't tear up until I looked at the final product and saw how much he had changed within the 3 month spans. He looks like a little boy these days.

We had such a wonderful time with both sides of our family coming to party with us. We had it outside in the heat, but it was cooler under the shade. By the time we had finished it was really cool and ended up storming. We had one of my friends from Tech, Jennifer, take pictures for me so I didn't have to worry about getting good photos. It allowed me to relax a bit and not feel the need to run and grab my camera. She is the same girl that took them when Blake was first born. When she has them on her website, I'll post it here so you can check them out. She does great work!

Blake loved all of his presents. He enjoyed tearing the paper and pulling things out of the bags. He has played with them all week so far and I have been able to get a few more things done thanks to the new toys. Thanks everyone! For those wondering, no...he hasn't been allowed any more icing. We decided to do cupcakes because we could easily limit the amount of sugar that he ate. He did like playing with it and stuffing it into his mouth. He had absolutely NO trouble going to sleep that night, thank goodness! I think I'll make him something for his birthday, but we don't want him to have sweets all of the time. I know some people will think we're weird, but we don't want him to crave sweets. Right now he LOVES his fruits and veggies and I'd like to keep it that way as long as possible. That means that we are limiting our sweets, too.

Uncle John and Aunt Molly bought Blake his first UT jersey. In case you don't know us, Raun and I are NOT UT fans. Raun is a Florida Gator fan and I am a Florida State Seminole fan. However, we MAY let him wear this around his aunt and uncle. I wonder how much they'll pay us....

Raun trying not to hyperventilate when he saw it was a UT jersey. He's already hoping Molly and John have a baby really soon so he can flood it with Gator things.

I had to make him wear this hat...just for a bit. He'll hate me when he's older!

Jerri Lynn and her family gave him his first John Deere hat and shirt. He likes to carry it around the living room. Shockingly, he leaves it on his head until he remembers it.

Blake liked to take the cones off of the poles and carry it around. As soon as you put it back where it belonged he was right behind you to help you take it off again.