Anniversary and Father's Day

Recently we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! The 5th just sounds like a big occasion to celebrate and so we did! Shawn and I are highschool sweethearts so we have been together now for 11 years! In some ways it's hard to believe that it could be that long and in others it seems like another lifetime that we started flirting at the lunch table. Through the years Shawn has been my best friend and continues to be! I am so blessed to have a husband who is such an excellent friend, provider, protector... the list could go on forever. This past year has really been one of our best! Becoming parents together has made our bond even stronger and we are better partners in life as we partner in parenting. Shawn has also really embraced his developing faith and I love sharing that as a family!

To celebrate we left Conrad overnight for the first time and stayed downtown at he Conrad (yes, I know this is funny; and no, that's not how he got his name). This is where we stayed on our wedding night when it was new and so we thought it would be fitting. We had a really wonderful time just being able to walk around downtown, go swimming, and enjoy a little free time together. As per tradition we ate at the Capitol Grille which was delicious as always.

We also recently celebrated Shawn's 1st Father's Day. We didn't do anything too big but spent some nice family time together which is what counts. We also met his family out for dinner at Monical's and enjoyed some pizza. Conrad loved it and sat in the highchair using his cover for the first time. He did awesome and was dancing to the overhead music the whole time.

 Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband, my loving Dad, and of course my father-in-law too!

Baby Food

Conrad has been eating rice cereal for a little more than a month now and worked up to 2 meals a day and has been enjoying it. We decided it was time to add some real food. Since before he was born (okay, before he was conceived) I have been looking forward to making homemade baby food! It's not so much that I think there is anything wrong with store bought baby food- in fact I think those companies spend a ton of money to provide the most nutritious food they can.  Really, it just sounded like a fun idea to me and plus I can make it using breastmilk. I probably haven't mentioned before how crazy I am about breastmilk but I really think it is a miracle food for babies so I'm glad he can get that little extra nutrition. Anyway, I digress. As you know I am really into cooking and sewing and being a homemaker right now so doesn't making your own food just sound perfect? I decided to make sweet potatoes first since every baby likes sweet potatoes and they are my favorite vegetable. I have a food processor but in the end decided the blender would puree better. I didn't get any good pictures of the process but I baked the sweet potatoes first and then blended them up with some breastmilk and water (I know that doesn't make it sound so appetizing). In the end it came out perfect.

Conrad was a little unsure the first day but by the second day ate the entire serving and loved it! Baby food is about 1,000 times messier than rice cereal and he loves rubbing it in his hair, up his nose, all over his high chair. I think we can put up with the mess though if it means he is liking the food I make. Since then we have had carrots and now peas. Don't you just love how vibrant the colors are?

In other news- Conrad is now in the 2nd half of his 1st year of life! It's really hard to believe how fast it has gone but is already 7 months old!

We've also been able to do a little sewing during nap time (napping is another BIG accomplishment which could take a whole post of its own)! I was able to complete another little taggie blanket. This one was for our friend Landon. According to his mom he loves it!

Hopefully I'll have some friends having more babies soon because I love making these!

A Disaster of a Day!

Well, disaster might be an exaggeration but that is certainly how it felt at times. Remember how I told you that our lovely photographer, Elisabeth Smith, was kindly going to squeeze us in this week? Well, Monday Shawn had a day off work so we scheduled to do pictures in the morning. We got up and made ourselves camera-ready first thing in the morning. Everything went smoothly, we all looked nice and started heading to Danville with our just fed, happy baby in tow. As we were driving we noticed the sky in the direction we were headed looked very ominous. I decided I should check my email and sure enough, she had just sent me an email to say it just started raining there. After talking to her on the phone, we decided to reschedule. We were majorly bummed and had flash backs to when it rained on our wedding day in the midst of a month-long drought!

We decided while we were out (and hungry) we should go enjoy breakfast at Le Peep. It was delicious as aways and helped get our minds off our spoiled picture plans. We decided to do something fun for the day and spontaneously drove to Edinburgh Outlet Mall. Spontaneity is really not our thing but a trip to the mall seemed pretty harmless. We've been wanting to go for quite awhile. Conrad enjoyed the hour drive and got in a good morning nap. Shawn and I had time to talk and catch up which was nice. We arrived to the mall and started to unload the baby. As I opened the back of the SUV to get out the stroller I found an empty trunk- NO STROLLER!! We still had not put the stroller back in my car after I worked the weekend. This has never happened in the 6 months of Conrad's life and yet it happens when we are an hour away from home!

I thought about crying, and I tried blaming Shawn but neither of those solved the problem. We quickly learned, after one store, that you cannot carry a squirmy baby through the outlet mall. After looking at our stroller rental options (yuck!) we drove another 10 miles south to Walmart to get a cheap umbrella stroller. Easy, right? Well, the cheap ones were too cheap and I was worried Conrad would tip right out of it at his age. There was a great little one with a 5-point harness but of course it was out of stock. We finally bought one for $55 (more than we planned) that had a tray to help keep him contained. Shawn assembled it in the parking lot while I fed Conrad in the car. It was quite a vision to see.

Eventually we got back to the mall and actually wound up liking the stroller.  It was light and easy to maneuver and Conrad liked it. He even took another short nap while we shopped. We were able to finish the trip as planned and got some good clothes for all of us. We finished the day with dinner at Max & Erma's. I wish I had a picture to share but that was the last thing on my mind. Overall, it actually turned out to be a pretty nice day with my two favorite guys!