Margarita Chicken in the crock-pot

I made this the other day for the family and Carson really liked it. I got the recipe from another blog that I read. It was really good and super easy to make.

6-8 chicken breast
3-4 minced garlic cloves
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/2 cup honey
2 T soy sauce (I used the lower sodium one)
juice from one lime
zest from one lime
onion chopped
broccoli

* you can add whatever veggies you like

Mix soy sauce, mustard, honey, garlic, lime and lime zest in a bowl. Place the chicken (can be frozen) and onion in the crock-pot. Poor sauce over chicken and onion. Add broccoli to the crock-pot when there is about an hour left to cook (if you put it in in the beginning it gets to mushy). Cook on low for 7-8 hours. Serve with brown rice.

Next time I make this I am only going to use 4 chicken breast because it made a lot more than the 3 of us could eat. I hope you enjoy this.

Holden laughing at Carson

Tuscan White Bean Soup

I made this soup the other night and it was a big hit, even with my picky eater Carson. Another plus is that it was easy to make and only took about 35 minutes. So, I thought I would share the recipe.

Here is what you will need:

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, crushed with a press

1/2 small onion chopped

1 cup baby carrots chopped

2 cans cannellini beans or great Northern beans, rinsed and drained

1 carton 9 (32 oz) vegetable broth or chicken broth

2 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, crushed

1 package (6 oz) fresh baby spinach

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

Parmesan cheese

In a 4-quart saucepan heat oil. Add garlic, onion and carrots and cook about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Lightly mash half if the beans . Then add beans, broth and seasoning into the saucepan; heat to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 8 minutes stirring occasionally. Add spinach to saucepan, stirring until spinach wilts. Stir in pepper and salt if desired. Place soup in a bowl and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Makes about 6 cups.

I hope you enjoy this soup as much as we did.

Holden in his room 4 months old

Carson Swimming 2010

Carson was 2 years and 3 months old when I took this video. I can't wait to see how well he is swimming by the end of this summer.

Carson and Holden

First Day of School

Carson started school at the beginning of September. He is doing a Mother's Day Out program 2 days a week for 4 hours a day. He seems to really enjoy it, I know I do. It is nice to have some time during the day to run errands and not have to take Carson with me. I also think it is important that he has some social interaction with others when I'm not around. Here are some pictures from this first day.



Carson is doing very well, he is all boy. I call him the wild man. He loves to run and play outside on his play set. He also really likes movies. He loves Jurassic Park, Avatar, Return to Oz, and lots of Disney movies. He pays attention to them and understands them, it is amazing to me. He also knows how to count to 20, say his ABC's and recognizes shapes and colors. Carson also speaks very well and you can understand him, he has a large vocabulary. He acts excited about meeting his baby brother, only time will tell how that goes.

37 weeks and counting

I am now 37 weeks pregnant. Most of this pregnancy has been uneventfully until this past Monday. For two nights I was having a hard time sleeping because I was having numbness and pain in my right arm. Monday morning I called my OB's office and they wanted me to go to labor and delivery for monitoring. After spending over two hours being monitored and having some blood work done, it turns out I have carpal tunnel. It is common for pregnant women to get and typically goes away a few weeks after delivery. My OB also told me that it gets worse with each pregnancy, which is true. I had a mild case with Carson's pregnancy and this time I didn't even think it could be carpal tunnel because it was so painful. I thought I had a pinched nerve or something. I got a brace to sleep in and used it last night and it really helped.

This is a recent pregnancy picture

The baby is doing great, he moves around a lot and makes me very uncomfortable. I had a checkup Tuesday and was 1 1/2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. I have been measuring big so I had an ultrasound at 34 weeks. They estimated the baby was 5 lbs 12 oz, that has me a little nervous. Carson was 7lbs 13oz when he was born 2 weeks past his due date. This baby could be close to 9 lbs at his due date, so I will probably choose to be induced a few days after my due date if he doesn't come before then.

I was ready to post this blog once I added some pictures which I was planning on doing yesterday and then I got sick. I ended up going to Labor and Delivery early this morning because I was up all night sick. Turns out I have a stomach virus and I was badly dehydrated. They gave me 2 bags of iv fluid and some anti nausea medication. After being there for 4 hours I was able to go home. They want me to take it easy this weekend and try and get lots of rest and drink lots of fluids. I really hope the next time I have to go to Labor and Delivery it is when I am having the baby.

New House

Well, we have been in the new house for almost 3 months now. We have accomplished a lot, or I should probably say Dave has. Being pregnant I haven't been able to help out that much. Dave has repainted just about the whole house and has removed wall paper. I had the fun part of furniture and accessory shopping. This house is more than double the size of our other house so I had a lot of shopping to do and I enjoyed every minute of it. Now that we have gotten most of the inside completed all that is left is the landscaping. We are hoping to get started this weekend and hopefully finished before the baby comes, my due date is 3 weeks away. Here are some pictures of the house.

Dinning Room

Living Room

Family Room

Kitchen

Master BedroomMaster Bath

Carson's Room

Boy's Bathroom

Holden's Room

Basement

Basement Bedroom

Backyard

Whirlwind

It has been a while since my last post and that is because things have been crazy here. Here is what has been going on.

We have been working on getting our house ready to go on the market. Cleaning, organizing, painting and doing a bathroom remodel. http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8643-Charlton-Ln-Saint-Louis-MO-63123/2855677_zpid/

We listed the house on March 28th and had our first open house. It was a success, we got an offer that night and accepted the contract.

Now we are packing like crazy, we have to be out of our house by April 29th.

The weekend after our open house we went house hunting and found a house that we really love. We made an offer and after some back and forth counters and another offer we didn't get the house. After this we decided we would just build a house. We were going to meet with the builders and we got a phone call from our agent telling us that the contract on the house that we loved fell through and would we like to make another offer. We did and we got the house.

We close on June 11th so we will be living at our parents house until we can move in. I will post some pictures of the new house once we get in and settled. We are very excited about this next step in our lives.

11 weeks

I am now 11 weeks pregnant. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday, and I was able to hear the baby's heartbeat. That was the second time I was able to hear it; the first was at my 8 week ultrasound. My doctor, Dr. Rockamann, whom I love, said that my ultrasound looked great and that all of my bloodwork came back fine. Everything is going well. I can't believe that I am almost through my first trimester. This pregnancy seems to be going by so much faster than my first. I guess that is because I have a toddler to chase around.

I have heard that with a second pregnancy that you will start to show earlier; I never imagined that at 11 weeks I would already need to start wearing maternity clothes. I was 20 weeks with Carson and it was around 23 weeks before I was really showing. I took a picture yesterday and I think you can already tell. It makes me wonder how big I am going to get by the end of this pregnancy.


On May 11th I have an ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby. I am so excited and I can't wait! This pregnancy has been completely different for me than my pregnancy with Carson was. With Carson, pregnancy was easy for me, I was never sick, and I felt great the whole time. With this pregnancy, I have felt bad since the beginning. I am hoping this means that I am having a girl :). I am trying not to get my hopes up because Dave comes from a long line of boys; he has nine cousins and only one is a girl. However, when I ask Carson if he is going to have a baby brother or a baby sister, he always says sister. In only eight weeks we will find out!

Family Update

It has been a while since we have posted anything on our family blog so I wanted to update everyone on what is going on in our life. These pictures of Carson best describe it.



That's right, Carson is going to be a big brother. I am 8 1/2 weeks pregnant and my due date is October 5th. I have had one doctor's appointment and one ultrasound and the baby looks great. I haven't been feeling so great with this pregnancy, so maybe this time we will get our girl.

We are cramped in our house now with just the three of us, so we are going to be putting our house on the market in April. We will be very busy next month making some updates and getting our house ready to go on the market. I just hope we can sell our current home and move into a new one before the baby is born. We are currently looking in the Oakville area, that is where my dad and stepmom and Dave's parents live. We seem to spend all of our time in that area now that we have Carson, so it makes sense for us to move close to our parents.

Carson update:
Carson had his two year checkup today and he weighed 25lbs 10 oz (20%) and 35 inches (70%). Carson is speaking in sentences and the majority of the time we know what he is telling us. He really loves hockey; he will walk around the house saying honk, honk, honnnnk...let's go Blues! He also wants to watch games on television and play hockey on the XBox. I am wondering if he will be into baseball like this once it starts back up.

I am going to try really hard, and at the minimum do an update once a month; hopefully Dave will do a few as well. So follow our blog and get updates on what is going on in our world.

My little mess

Here is what I found Carson doing when I got out of the shower this morning.



When I asked him what he was doing he responded brush teeth, brush teeth. I don't even know how he managed to get in the sink or how I didn't hear him climb up to get in. This sums up my child perfectly, he is into everything!

18 Months

Carson is now 18 months old and a lot has happened since last month:

Carson saw his first musical Dora Live. He really enjoyed it.
Carson also went to his first concert to see the Wiggles, which he loved.
He got his first haircut and he was so good, he didn't move around at all.
Learned to swim with water wings. He took to it the minute I put him in the water.


Carson had his 18 month check up on Friday he weighed 23lb 4oz (16th percentile) and is 33.5 inches tall (83rd percentile). His vocabulary has really expanded this past month. He is using over 20 words and is starting to put 2 words together. It is so great that he is able to communicate with Dave and I, it makes things so much easier. Physically Carson is also doing well. He can run, jump, climb, throw and walk backwards. I can't believe in 6 months he will be two. Time goes by so fast when you have children.

Ok, Brittany posted, now it's my turn. I just wanted to try a post via text message. The All-Star game was a blast, I'll post pics and vids later.

Here I go

Dave has told me he will not do another post until I do one, so here I go. I honestly don't like writing and I am a horrible at spelling and grammar so doing something like this is really hard for me but I will give it my best.

Carson is 17 months old today. I do not know where the time has gone. With each day that passes he is becoming more like a little boy. He has finally really started talking. I was a little worried because he wasn't really saying much of anything and then one day he said door. His favorite word right now is no. He uses it for everything. He will repeat almost any word that you ask and it is so cute to hear him pronounce the words. He also loves to do spins and forward rolls and tries to jump. Here is a video for you to enjoy.

I got my flippy floppys

Good day blogosphere! I've got a few weeks worth of updates here, so let's get started...

As usual, I will start things off with King Carson. He's growing up incredibly fast. He's really starting to walk now. It's as if he just decided one day to start walking, and he was off. I will upload a clip of him walking soon.

I think the biggest progress Carson has made is in the realm of food. He loves "real" food. He always wants what we are eating and likes to let us know when he wants what we have. He also likes some surprising food such as hummus, sautéed mushrooms, thai dumplings, and Italian style beef. Surprisingly, he also seems to like spicy food, just like mom and dad :). Now don't get the wrong idea, we're not feeding him habañero peppers or anything, but he does seem to like "Supremely Spicy Hummus". So it looks like we'll have a 3rd person to start cooking for around the house.

Carson recently had another "first", his first time passing out on the floor where he was playing. I was sitting on the floor with him while he was playing, and he decided to lay down. This was not abnormal, sometimes he lays down and plays. However, as he was laying there, he started to move less and less. Now I am really paying attention. Then I realized he was out. He was laying on the hardwood floor asleep. Brittany was off in the other room and noticed it was awfully quiet, so she poked her head out to see what was going on. I pointed to Carson and she saw he was asleep. Time to get the camera. As she came into the room, she snapped a picture. She wasn't close enough, so she tried to come closer. This woke him up, and he poked his head up, looked at us, and I thought it was over. On the contrary, after looking up at us, he proceeded to lay back down and go back to sleep. Now the hardwood floor is not the most comfortable surface, so he kept adjusting his hand and arm under his head to make it soft. After about a minute of this, he was out again. Time for more pictures. We found this quite amusing, and the pictures below are in sequential order.









Here are some other highlights from March...



That's about all I have for Carson, on to M-I-Z...Z-O-U!

I know the NCAA tournament has come and gone, but I feel the need to talk about it.

Awesome, terrific, kick ass...those words all describe this season of Mizzou basketball, but I think the one that sums everything up is elite, as in Elite 8. Mizzou pulled of some impressive wins and made it all the way to the Elite 8. They were very close to knocking off UConn, and in my opinion they should have, but a great run nonetheless. Thanks Tigers!

On a sad note, Rev. Dale Sterling Chapman, the man who married me and Brittany and dedicated Carson, passed away on April 4th. He was a veteran of WWII and a good man who touched many people's lives. R.I.P.





Brittany's birthday was on April 5th, and she decided she wanted to go bowling with our friends. We had a great time, my parents came over and watched Carson so Brittany could get crazy. And did she ever...she was out of control! Just kidding, she did have a good time though ;).

From the wide world of sports, baseball has started and the Blues made the playoffs! I guess that's not the wide world of sports, just St. Louis professional sports, but I digress...Opening day was a blast. The day started with heavy snowfall, that's right, snowfall. It was colder than a witch's titty, but it didn't stop us. People came over to our house, I stood by the BBQ grill and grilled our lunch. I didn't realize how cold it was until I stepped away from the fire. We proceeded to head downtown and meet up with the final member of our group before heading in. Did I mention it was cold? We had on sweatshirts, stocking caps, gloves, boots, the whole 9 yards...and we were drinking ice cold beer. Anyway, the game was great, and I managed to sneak into the Redbird club and out of the elements in the 7th inning, which was FANTASTIC. However, the Cards blew the game in the 9th and we lost. Oh well, we've been pretty good since then, including today's win against the Chicago baby bears.

I just thought of something, I have season tickets for the Cardinals, and I will not be going to every game I have tickets for. So if you have any interest in going to a game, let me know. I will also make a post on here when I am selling tickets. In fact, I have 2 tickets for 4/22 against the Mets, 2 tickets for 5/4 against the Phillies, and 2 tickets for 5/5 against the Phillies. The face value is $22/ticket, and that is what I am asking. They are in Section 511, Row 25, Seats 24 & 25. That is in the right field bleachers and the seats are on the aisle.

As I mentioned, the Blues made the playoffs for the first time in 5 years. It was improbable, as they were the worst team in the West in February, but they got hot and managed a 6 seed in the playoffs. We lost to Vancouver last night, but we can get them back tomorrow.

I experienced the joy of registering for my last semester of classes on Monday. I will be finished on the 19th of August, and commencement is on the 12th of September. The end is in sight and I am PUMPED! Now the only question is, after I am finished, then what? That could literally be the million dollar question.

Well that was a lot of updating, and I'm sure I forgot something, but that's OK, I can just post again. On that, I leave you with The Lonely Island's "I'm On A Boat". (WARNING: NSFW language).

The Ides of March

Happy March to everyone! Spring is just around the corner and it can't get here fast enough. I'm tired of wind chills, frosty mornings, scarves, and gloves. This Sunday morning is the first, and in my opinion, the best part...daylight savings! That's right, I will not have to drive home from work in the dark again!

Some Carson updates...

He is really getting in to walking now. He loves to stand up and he started to take a few steps on his own. They are very wobbly steps, but progress nonetheless. He also learned how to go down one step from a landing. He fell a couple of times, but he's fine. He claps for himself when he does that as well.

Just two short weeks after his first birthday party, we went to a friend of our's son's first birthday party. Carson had a good time and got to enjoy a bit more cake and ice cream.

Here are some pictures from February...



And a bully for ol' Mizzou...

I will not mention much about the whooping Mizzou got against kU, but I will mention how they defeated #5 Oklahoma to finish the season 18-0 at home! Also, kudos to the Zou Crew for finding the following picture of Oklahoma's Blake Griffin:



Original:



[Via: Mizzourah, via: The Lost Ogle]

A quick plug for my YouTube channel. You can view my videos, right now all of them are of Carson, at My YouTube Channel. Feel free to leave comments there (and here!).

This actually reminds me of something else, does anyone out there use Twitter or FriendFeed? I use both, and not a single other person from my e-mail address book does, unless I have an incorrect or missing address. So if you do, I am at Twitter and FriendFeed.

I am channeled my most hardcore inner nerd by adding Battlestar Galactica (TV series) to my Netflix queue. I have heard nothing but good things, so I am going to start with season 1 and see how it goes. If anyone watches it, let me know in the comments.



I leave you with a clip of Jimmy Fallon from his new late night show...

Carson is officially 1!!!

My apologies to those of you out in cyberspace that read this blog. More apologies for not posting for a while...on with the show!

First things first, Carson just celebrated his first birthday! February 14, 2009 was the big day. He enjoyed cake, presents, and the company of many friends and family. Below are some highlights from the big day...



We would again like to thank everyone for the gifts and for all the help we received to put this party on!

Breaking news...Carson stood up on his own for the first time, we have the exclusive footage...



Along with all of this excitement, Carson also had his 1 year check up. He is 20 lbs. 12 oz, and is 30 1/2" long. He got a few more shots, which is not fun, but he pulled through.

That's about all I can think of for Carson, on to moi...

I have officially jumped back on the wagon. I am working out 4 times a week in an effort to get back to where I should be. I'm running a couple of miles and doing the 100 push-up challenge and the 200 sit-up challenge. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Are you stimulated, because I sure am! Thanks to our fearless leaders in the government, I'll be getting a $13/week raise and there's enough pork in for a world-wide BBQ. Oh well, I can't complain too much, I still have a job.

On a final note, I am now really looking forward to taking Carson to the dentist when he's older [sinister laugh]...

Snow, Toys, Music, and Magical Mini Deer

Well, Carson had his first run in with snow last week. He didn't mind it, until he fell and got some on his face. Then, fuggitaboutit. He did not want to be let down out of our arms into that cold, white, powdery substance. And that's ok, we'll try again next year.

Below is video proof of the torture...

A trip down nostalgia lane occurred yesterday when I read this blog over at Wired. While I cannot say that I played with all of those, most of them make the list. I almost wept when I saw the Merlin. That was one of my favorite toys.



I also thoroughly enjoyed He-man and Voltron, having been given the action figures as gifts. I only wish I would have saved those.



Flight of the Conchords is coming to St. Louis at the end of April. I want to go, but I'm not convinced that $40 is a reasonable price to see the show. It is at the Fabulous Fox Theater, but I'm not sure. If you are not familiar with them, they are two fellas from New Zealand that have a show on HBO.

While I am generally happy with my current job, I want to apply for another job. It is only a 6 month assignment, but it pays well and has some nice fringe benefits. Here is the website dedicated to said employment opportunity. I have to submit a 60 second application video by the 21st of February. Here's a snippet from the website about the responsibilities...

Explore and report back

There’s so much to see and do, so you’ll have plenty to write about in your weekly blog. And with so much life above and below the water, you’re sure to capture some entertaining moments for your video diary and photo gallery. To keep you busy, Tourism Queensland will organise a schedule of travel and events on the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef. Your schedule could include sampling a new luxury spa treatment at qualia on Hamilton Island, trying out new snorkelling gear on Heron Island, or bushwalking on Hinchinbrook Island.

Feed the fish

There are over 1,500 species of fish living in the Great Barrier Reef. Don’t worry – you won’t need to feed them all.

Clean the pool

The pool has an automatic filter, but if you happen to see a stray leaf floating on the surface it’s a great excuse to dive in and enjoy a few laps.

Collect the mail

You’ll have some time on your hands, so why not join the aerial postal service for a day? It’s a great opportunity to get a bird’s eye view of the reef and islands.

It sounds pretty rough. BTW, the job pays AU$150,000 (about US$100,000). Is it too good to be true? There's only one way to find out.