It's the little things

It truly is. Like a shower curtain. We've just been using a liner for basically 2 years. I've been eyeing this beauty for at least 6 months. The stars finally aligned and I love the bathroom so much more now.

January in a nut-shell

John has had to travel twice during the month of January for work. I have learned first-hand that parenthood is not meant to be tackled alone. Dean was a champ (mostly) and we did have a lot of help from John's family playing with him (thank you!!!), but at the end of the day, I was sooooo happy to put him to bed. :) Dean has also decided that he wants to do pretty much everything by himself that he possibly can. He will get all of his things ready for his bath (set out clothes, diaper,etc), turn on the water, put his hand under the faucet to feel the temperature, try to climb into the bath tup to plug the drain, then turn the water off. He is really our Mr. Independent and loves his freedom. I have also discovered the joy of asking when he's grumpy "Are you ready to take a nap?". If he is, he shakes his head yes, grabs his duckie, and bolts for his door. It has made nap time soooo much better now that he chooses when it's time to sleep. He is learning so much and constantly saying "Oh!" and "Uh-Oh!" We are anxiously counting down the days until nursery.

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas in Texas! We were there for a week and loved spending time with my parents. Dean loved getting to know Nana and Papa better and they loved getting to know our sweet, little Dean. Dean was sick basically the entire time we were there, but he was still a champ. He didn't do very well on the plane ride home, but who can blame him? Since we had all of my family together, we took the opportunity to take a new family photo. Please enjoy a picture of all of the grandkids and the adults trying to keep them smiling and entertained.... We took a lot of pictures, so I'll just let them do the talking. We miss being in Texas already.

15 Months?!?

We cannot believe that our not-so-little-anymore Dean is already 15 months old! He has his check-up tomorrow and I'm sure as usual, he'll be skinny, tall, and have a large head. :) I feel like he's grown so much taller and heavier since his last appointment that I'm curious to see what the official stats are. Dean is such a joy. He is the sweetest boy and just loves being around us. I've recently discovered that he likes to lift up his shirt and I couldn't figure out why. Now I know. He loves having me rub his belly and back on his bare skin. His vocabulary is really increasing. He can say the following (that John and I could immediately recall when we were talking last night): duck, dog, shoes, milk, mama, dada, and he can meow, woof, and quack. Why quack, you might ask? Just google "elmo's ducks" and all of your questions will be answered. Any time he sees a computer, ipad, or cell phone he starts quacking thinking that we will play him his favorite video. He does a very good quack for a 15 month old. We bought him a stuffed mallard duck toy for Christmas and can't even wait to see how much he does or doesn't love it. He's not huge into stuffed animals, but the duck might do the trick. His molars are coming in so we've had a rough few days, but he is just the best little boy. Whenever he's being grumpy or refusing to nap, we know it's because something is wrong. He is such a good-natured little guy and loves hanging out with us. He has also taken to piling pillows up and laying on them. I left the room for a minute, heard him chuckling, and then came back to see this:

We love you Dean and are so grateful you're part of our family!

Egg Rolls & Sauce

Some of you might have noticed a blog I have linked on our sidebar called Egg Rolls & Sauce. What you didn't know is that it is a blog my older sister Kat, her sister-in-law Kate (who has studied culinary arts and makes amazing things and has great tutorials), and myself started a few months ago. We have been posting recipes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday sharing things that are already in our repertoire as well as new things we've found on the internet. I hate figuring out what to feed my family for dinner. We started this blog as a way to help every other mom (and dad) out there have more options of delicious, simple, fast, easy, cheap, etc. recipes to use for their own meal planning. I won't bring it up again, but we finally decided there is enough content and we are happy-ish for the moment with the overall look and feel of the blog. For tomorrow's post I am sharing the recipe for these bad boys:

We do have a pie crust tutorial from Kate as well as several pie recipes planned for the next few weeks, so tune in if nothing else to learn now to finally master that pie crust that eludes all of us every single year. I always give up and go buy Pillsbury crusts...

Take your chickie to work day

Dean is the sweetest boy ever. Lately he will feed us some of his Cheerios as we're feeding him. He is so caring and always likes to help wipe up any messes and be helpful.

To illustrate another story of his sweetness, today as we were saying goodbye to John for the day, Dean kept giving his favorite chickie toy to John. John kept giving it back, but then I asked Dean if he wanted to let daddy take the chickie with him to work. He got so happy. What 14 month old wants to share his favorite toy?? So, John took chickie to work. Here's some pictures of chickie's adventure with John. John is just as sweet to take pictures to show Dean when he gets home.

Halloween

This year I wanted to make sure Dean could dress up. We didn't go anywhere last year, since he was only 2 months old. I was worried we were going to have a repeat of last year. He woke up burning up and screaming. I think it's just molars coming in since he keeps grabbing his mouth while he's screaming. :(

I found some inspiration on Pinterest and made a bow tie and suspenders. Dean went trick or treating as a nerd. He looked so cute. I'm pretty sure I had more fun dressing him up than he had being dressed up.