28 week belly

Um, we were supposed to take this last week, when I was actually 28 weeks, but didn't get around to it until tonight. Close enough

And, yes, nice slippers...

Bluebonnet Baby 2010

Spring is here! The bluebonnets have been lining the roadsides for a little over a week. It occurred to me yesterday, that if I wanted to get a cute picture to the grandparents for their Easter cards I had to get a picture taken and in the mail fast!

I have nothing but the utmost respect for childrens photographers! It's stressful to take your child's picture! First, there was scouting a location of wildflowers that wouldn't have him accidentally running into traffic on one of Austin's busiest thoroughfares (the only places I'd seen wildflowers in bloom were off of Mopac- not a good idea). We wound up driving almost all the way to the airport in a hotel parking lot for this one. Then, JM was drooling like a mad man and I didn't bring a towel. Then, I couldn't get him to even look in my direction, let alone smile. The smile only came when I sang "The Wheels on the Bus" and the part about the babies going "wah! wah! wah!" I swear I took 100 pictures and burned a good 100 calories!

Mike says this outfit is straight off of Steel Magnolias, when Shelby's cute little blonde son is running around collecting Easter eggs at the end. It's funny that he should say that, because that is exactly what I was going for! I love little outfits like this and hope to embarass my children for years by forcing them to wear them come springtime!



p.s. look at JM last year! :(

Hot Chick (Moms) Weekend

Five out of six of my Marquette college girlfriends met this weekend in downtown Chicago for our annual Hot Chicks Weekend. Since college, we try to meet once a year for a weekend. As we've gotten older and some of us turned into mamas, it's much harder to get away, so our weekends have become more condensed. They've also become less about boozing and more about relaxation. None of us live in Chicago, but it was a nice central meeting spot. There was lots of chatting in our hotel room over coffee and cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory. There was a lot of eating (it was Chicago, after all). There was a nap and sleeping in. There was a little shopping. There was a morning at a spa. It was the perfect weekend for a harried mom. My friend Karen coined the trip "refreshing and positive" and I totally agree. It was also COLD in Chicago. Man, walking down Michigan Avenue with that wind in my face chilled me to the bone. Like a moron, I didn't bring a warm scarf or hat and regretted that. You may notice that I am wearing the same sweater in all these pictures.


Although I hated living in Chicago, I LOVE to visit. I am so blessed that my boys let me go and see the ladies. A bonus was that considering it's still March, I consumed not one, but TWO Shamrock Shakes over the weekend!

MB's Enchiladas Suizas

MB's Chicken Enchiladas Suizas
Serves: 4 with leftovers

3 good-sized frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts
salt and pepper
1/2 packet taco seasoning
1/4 cup olive oil

12 (8 inch) corn tortillas (I like the thicker ones, Guererro)
canola oil for frying
15 oz can green chile enchilada sauce (I use mild)
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup shredded mild Cheddar cheese
1 cup half and half
1/4 cup chopped white onion

1. Lightly salt and pepper chicken breasts. Add to Crock Pot and cover with taco seasoning and olive oil. Cook 3-4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low. If using fresh chicken, reduce cooking time.
2. Preheat oven to 350.
3. Shred chicken in Crock Pot with a fork. Heat a shallow portion of oil in a large heavy-duty frying pan and lightly fry tortillas for 30 seconds on each side, making sure to remove from heat before they get hard in any way.
4. Combine cheese (saving half aside for topping). Spread two tablespoons chicken and two tablespoons cheese over each tortilla. Add 1 teaspoon of green sauce to the top of each one and roll. Place in shallow 13x9 casserole dish. Mine wouldn't stay closed, so I put a toothpick in each one. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
5. Spoon remaining enchilada sauce over top of enchiladas, then half and half. It seems like a lot of sauce, but it will soak up in the oven. Top with remaining cheese and white onion.
6. Bake for 25 minutes.

Notes:
-If you wanted to make this lower fat, you could use fat free half and half and substitute Pam for the oil in the pan. Obviously, this one isn't getting me closer to my weight gain goal, but JM, Mike and I all gobbled it up! JM ate two and can say enchiladas. My heart swells with pride, one for the fact that he likes my food and two for the fact that he's not even two and he'll eat an enchilada.
-This tastes especially good with a swish of sour cream and red salsa on top.

28 weeks

I just finished a few bites of a celebratory pint of Ben and Jerry's Fudge Brownie. It took THREE, yes, THREE!!! hours today at Dr. S's office to complete my glucose test and 28 week check-up, but there was good news abound. 1. I do not have gestational diabetes. 2. Noodle looks great. I got to see him/her with a surprise ultrasound (I think they do this when they make you wait a long time and they feel bad...). She's 2lb 13 oz and her brain and body are growing normally 3. I don't have anemia, which I did have the past two times, so I'm shocked.

Apparently, there were 4 deliveries this morning that tripped up my sweet OB. It's been a long time since I've had to wait so long to get into an OB appointment there. Thankfully my OB is a saint, or I'd have a tough time being patient that long. I finished my book! Hopefully that's my one long wait of the pregnancy. I made the rest of my appointments today (early morning appointments!), which is completely surreal.

So, eh, I've gained 25 pounds so far in this pregnancy. With JM, I gained 35 and I don't want to gain any more than that, so I gotta reel in the Fudge Brownie, but for tonight, I celebrate my lack of GD.

Slippered Contessa

I really need to knock on wood as I write this (knocks), but lately I'm finding my child and our routine, the weather and our life, in general, so delightful. Being the pessimist that I am, I wonder how my cup can be so overflowing with riches and when will it all end. Horrible, I know. Since the time change, JM has been sleeping in until 8 or later every morning! We have officially switched his bedtime to 8 and it seems to be working well. He's never slept in that late before. Before that he was waking up around 6:45 or 7, with a 7:30 bedtime. I'm sure to be struck by a 5 am wakeup call tomorrow for sure and may perhaps get struck by lightning, or the like. It's been so weird and wonderful waking up in the morning and not having immediately to be at his beck and call. Again, bring on the lightning.

We wound up getting a sitter for our kids and Joe's and having a blast on St. Paddy's, starting off meeting Mike's cousins at Gueros and then met my siblings who were somehow at the Ranch in a scene that was neither St. Paddy's nor SXSW, but enjoyable nonetheless. It's fun to see what I'm (not) missing in the bar scene. My kidneys are in excellent health for all the free cranberry and sodas I consumed.

Joe and Pam stayed Thursday night, too, and we switched off sitting the kids. Thursday afternoon we briefly took JM to his first SXSW alley party at Yard Dog, full of darkly-dressed tattooed people smoking cigarettes and drinking free beer. I have to say there were quite a few other kids there running around. It's Austin, after all, where kids and dogs are quite the accessory come music festival time. JM and I only stayed for about 30 minutes and then left Mike and the other freeloaders and had a date sitting on the curb at Home Slice Pizza and I'm happy to report that my kid can eat an entire New York City sized piece of cheese pizza from there, including gnawing on the gigantic crust for the entire drive home. Smart boy! He was incredibly happy all weekend, being unbelievably patient with us as we watched game after game of NCAA basketball. I'm so saddened by Marquette's close loss at the last minute, but I'm thrilled that my number two team Baylor made it to the Sweet 16. Go Bears!

Do you need a good book? I honestly can't remember where I got the recommendation, but I'm reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and cannot put it down. It's a murder mystery set in Sweden with a complex plot. Best of all, it's the first book in a trilogy and I hear the other books are good, too. Edited to add: I stayed up until after midnight last night reading this dang book and it really is good, but there is quite a bit of disturbing hard-core violence that had me feeling a little ooky as the only one up in our house. Considering I also recommended this to my mom yesterday, I thought I'd also give you a forewarning.

Not only does a good book lighten my mood, but sire and I also spent part of the afternoon making Barefoot Contessa's Turkey Meatloaf. Making any of the recipes in my Barefoot Contessa cookbook makes me feel incredibly domesticated. I'm not sure what it is, perhaps the fresh herbs her recipes usually call for or the fact that there are a lot of easy, rich ingredients I get to saute and baste in my beloved All Clad pots and pans. Anyway, this is a favorite and will hopefully keep the boys fed for a meal this weekend when I'm in Chicago commiserating with the Hot Chicks for girls weekend (woo woo!). And, hopefully the high protein content will help me pass my glucose test tomorrow morning. I've had an incredibly sweet tooth this pregnancy and it's going to take every ounce of my being not to get the Girl Scouts thin mints nor Little Debbie Swiss cake roll I'm craving tonight, but I don't want to fail my test.

Anyway, the recipe....
Turkey Meatloaf
from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, by Ina Garten

Serves: A LOT! I halve this recipe and I'd say it'd feed 6.

Ingredients:
3 cups chopped yellow onions (2 large onions)
2 tablespoons good olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (1/2 teaspoon dried)
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
3/4 cup chicken stock
1 1/2 teaspoons tomato paste
5 pounds ground turkey breast
1 1/2 cups plain dry bread crumbs
3 extra-large eggs, beaten
3/4 cup ketchup

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In a medium saute pan, over medium-low heat, cook the onions, olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme until translucent, but not browned, approximately 15 minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce, chicken stock, and tomato paste and mix well. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Combine the ground turkey, bread crumbs, eggs, and onion mixture in a large bowl. Mix well and shape into a rectangular loaf on an ungreased sheet pan. Spread the ketchup evenly on top. Bake for 1 1/2 hours until the internal temperature is 160 degrees F. and the meatloaf is cooked through. (A pan of hot water in the oven under the meatloaf will keep the top from cracking.) Serve hot, at room temperature, or cold in a sandwich.

10 on St. Paddy's

1. Happy St. Patrick's Day! My in-laws were supposed to be coming today and watching Joe and Pam's kids and JM so we could do St. Paddy's/SXSW today and tomorrow, but my FIL got sick, so we're trying to figure out what to do now. :(

2. Sirius Spectrum/18 is playing a mix of Irish jigs and normal music this morning in honor of St. Paddy's and I LOVE it! They just played a jig about whether the devil was dead or did he join the British army in between two songs I love, Chocolate by Snow Patrol and Domino by Van Morrison. Love that station so much! If you have satellite radio, check it out.

3. Lately, it is a major battle to get our son to sit down to eat breakfast and I am so sick of it. After he wakes up, he wants to play. I have resorted to sad tactics on this one. Elmo and multiple trains join us for breakfast some mornings and I "feed" them, too. I do "into the tunnel." I sit him on my lap and read a book whilst spooning. I think he'd be happy if I let him graze in front of the TV, but I'm trying to be strong and save our carpeting and keep him at the table. Sigh....

4. Speaking of saving our carpeting, I convinced Mike to agree to try out a white slipcover on our family room sofa. I was inspired by the Nester's thread about this last week. I love the look of white slipcovers, but am afraid they'll be super impractical with our growing family, so I got a super cheap one from WalMart and if it is a disaster, I figure no harm done.

5. I've had two dreams in the past week about moving back to Greensboro. Seriously, if I ever had to move anywhere, I'd move back to NC. I wonder why I'm having these dreams all of a sudden. Last week, I was doing topicals at my old job at the CBS affiliate and last night, I was going to a junior league meeting.

6. Yesterday, I finished the chalk wall in our playroom. Not sure if it's a good idea to teach JM to draw on the walls, but if I were a kid, I'd think this was super cool. And, no, this is not my best paint job. :)






7. Monday, Chad's friend Leah came over again and helped me get more of our house organized. She's a professional organizer. Look how awesome my closet looks!

8. John Michael can now say his own name and it's the cutest thing! It kind of sounds like Da Mehchael.

9. Have you watched "How to Make it in America" on HBO? It's a new series about these guys in NYC trying to start a denim line and I am loving it so far. I don't watch a ton of TV, but I like this show a lot.

10. Speaking of NYC, Mike entered the lottery for the New York Marathon in November and for about an hour the other day, I was going to do it, too. Considering our baby will only be 4 months old at that point and I would have to start training in July, I decided I didn't want the pressure of training in such a short time. I am going to do a long distance race sometime next winter or spring, though. I am!

Erin go braugh!

P.S. 11. I would pay $10 for a Shamrock Shake from McDonalds right now. We don't have them in Texas and it's a damn travesty.

Spring! And, a break

The weather this weekend was perfect! It's Spring Break week, so that means we have company coming for SXSW. Having company, even our sweet family in this case, always inspires me to maniacally do all the projects and decorating in my house that I've been meaning to do. This weekend, that meant Mike and JM cleaned the 2nd story windows on Saturday and I painted chalkboard paint on the walls of our tiny toy closet downstairs. It really felt good to get that stuff done.

With those things crossed off the list, we headed out to the lake house Saturday afternoon to meet up with spring breaking Pattie, Wesley, Joe, Pam and their 4 kids. Our lake house isn't very big, so it's always fun to see how many bodies we can cram in there. It was great to see all of them. Carly and Kayla are getting SO big and showed off their cool first grade tricks, including art and jumproping. Between the breezy lake winds, the food, JM's seamless (so far) adaption into the time change and life with a house full of people, it was really hard to leave last night, but some of us had to get back to work!

Coloring with Kayla















Lounging with Brooke











Swinging with Mimi (sire has decided he's graduated from the baby seat)














and Grandpa!













How did I get to be in the 3rd trimester? 27 weeks!

Chicken with Pasta, Sun-Dried Tomato and Asparagus

I've been looking for springy recipes and made this one tonight.

Chicken with Pasta, Sun-Dried Tomato and Asparagus (courtesy grouprecipes.com)
* 10 oz of your favorite pasta shape (I used penne)
* 1 lb diced boneless chicken breast
* 2 T butter
* 1 medium-size diced onion
* 6 oz crumbled feta
* 1 c chopped sun-dried tomatoes
* 1/2 asparagus bunch (cut into inch pieces)
* cream or half and half (approx 1/2 - 1 cup)

Directions
1. Boil water, add pasta
2. Heat butter in large saucepan
3. Add onions and cook about 3 minutes
4. Add chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, asparagus and cream
5. Cover and simmer approx 6 minutes
6. Mix in feta (simmer about 2 more minutes while stirring)
7. Mix with pasta and serve

I really can't handle this

With sunny temperatures around 80, it was a day for the park, yesterday.
Sire noticed a digger on the far end of the park, working on the street and decided it was far more interesting than the rock digging he was doing (btw, thank you City of Austin for 30 fascinating minutes of entertainment!).
On the sidewalk, with a little orange polo on and a brown baseball cap, he ran ahead of me full speed toward the scene and my heart broke. His little body is getting so tall and no longer is he a baby. Seeing him, you would call him a little boy. Some would argue that it's good that we are expecting another one in June and that it will ease this pain, but I beg to differ. It's really John Michael getting older that I can't handle. It's happening too fast. He's playing more independently, now. I'll look across the room and he'll be laying on his belly coloring on the floor or playing with a truck. He now can fully say his own name. He says things like "I fall down." These all seem far too grown up. Before I know it, he's going to be graduating from high school. My friends have said that each stage just gets better and I have found that to be true, but I just want time to stop so I can forever have this small boy. I want this and this and this forever....

The Ides of March

I, for one, am sick of looking at this blog and seeing my snow entry, so even though I'm not feeling pressed to write anything nor do I have cute pictures to share, I'm going to post.... Lately, I'm not updating this blog enough. Time is passing and JM is doing adorable things and I feel guilty about that, but I am TIRED. Every day I tell myself I'm going to update once he's in bed, but I just don't have the energy to do anything besides stare catatonic-like at the TV. Today, we reached the end of the day and I just could not envision what in the heck I was going to cook for dinner, so thanks to a coupon from Kim J. and the trusty ValPak, we did a little Curbside to Go lasagna from Buca and it was delish. We never get take out so that was fun. I can see where that could be an easy and expensive habit to get into, take out.

Over the weekend, we drove to Waco and watched Baylor win a great game against UT. It was fun to go with our friends Chad and Kim, who live in our neighborhood, but whom we don't see nearly frequently enough. Baylor is now my number 2 team next to Marquette to cheer for. My friend Z started this thing a few years ago where you get to pick a "buddy" from a team and all season you root for them, hence, I have a Marquette buddy, Jimmy Butler. And for Baylor, my buddy is Tweety Carter and it's been a blast watching him play this season. It was really fun to get to see my buddy in person, especially at a small arena like Baylor's.

I love March in Austin. The cool mornings and the warm, but not too hot days. March Madness. St. Patricks Day. Spring Break. SXSW. Budding trees. Afternoons at the park. Restaurant week. Tomorrow, Mike and I are going out for Restaurant Week to a place we've always wanted to try and I'm excited for that. Next week, his family is coming for two days of SXSW and I'm looking forward to that, too. Yay, spring!

Snow: The Lost Footage

Last Tuesday, while my awesome sister Lauren was watching JM and we were on our way back from Mexico, it SNOWED in late February, here in Central Texas! We got a few inches and it shut down the whole city to commence making snowmen, having snowball fights, etc. Today I was downloading some video to our hard drive and found these videos she took with our camera. I think they adequately capture our son's complete and utter disregard for the white stuff. No snowmen for JM. As you can see, his main focus is "play" and "monster trucks." I also love how he says "snow" through his nose. He says tunnel through his nose in the same way. Thanks, again, LaLa and Wrigley, for entertaining sire in our absence!

Spinach Cheese Manicotti

I freakin love manicotti, like so much that I feel freakin is an appropriate way to describe. JM and I spent the morning stuffing shells for this recipe and we both had fun. He loved mixing the cheese and spinach and spices together in a big bowl. The stuffing was a bit labor-intensive, but mmmmmmm, the outcome was GOOOOOD (two syllable good)!

Spinach Cheese Manicotti
Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients
* 1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
* 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
* 1/2 cup minced onion
* 1 egg
* 2 teaspoons dried basil
* 1/2 teaspoon pepper
* 2 cloves chopped garlic
* dash red pepper flakes
* 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
* 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
* 2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce
* 1/2 cup water
* 1 (8 ounce) package manicotti shells

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine ricotta, spinach, onion and egg. Season with basil, pepper, garlic and red pepper. Mix in 1 cup mozzarella and 1/4 cup Parmesan. In a separate bowl, stir together spaghetti sauce and water.
3. Spread 1 cup sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Stuff uncooked manicotti shells with ricotta mixture, and arrange in a single layer in the dish. Cover with remaining sauce. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 55 minutes, or until noodles are soft.

Note: stuffing the shells probably takes a good 30 minutes, so give yourself some time for that. I did all my prepping this morning and put it in the fridge all day until I was ready to cook it. I've actually made this before and frozen it before cooking, too. You'd better bet I'm going to make a batch of this and freeze ahead for when Noodle comes along. If you're going to freeze, thaw completely before baking. Bon appetit!