Weekend to-do list.

1. Staining the spindles on the back deck to a darker shade. Jon asked if I was truly up to such a tedious task. I said yes, but I can't guarantee my answer won't change. Pictures to come!
2. Picking up some furniture for mom's Living Room. Perhaps I'll take a teaser photo of the progress?
3. Attending a wedding for my friend Kate.
4. Designing some preliminary wedding invites for my friend Carly. 
5. Saturday evening BBQ with mi familia.
6. Signing up for a YMCA membership. I caught a coupon in today's newspaper for a $4 joiner fee (regularly $50)! I can't wait to take Cameron swimming this summer!
7. Lots of eating. We're talking juicy steaks, hot links and cold beverages with little pink umbrellas. We don't take holidays lightly around here- and it's supposed to be gorgeous all weekend!

Have a Happy Memorial weekend! Anyone have any cool plans?

Just for grandma.

So my mom got back from Hawaii a few weeks ago, and she brought tons of goodies back for us. Cameron definitely got spoiled with some cool Hawaiian gear, and today he sported his new Hawaiian shirt at church! The weather was perfect here today, so I took some pictures of Cameron. Mahalo, grandma! Next time you go, we'll have to join you!

My life = a series of un-blogworthy events.

I think that sums it up quite nicely. Sometimes I ask myself  "Does anyone really give a hoot about my boring little life? About my random ramblings and thoughts?" Eh, probably not. Sometimes I think this blog might fall off the face of the world wide web if it weren't for my uber-cute son. =) It's nice that in an attempt to keep regular posts coming, I can insert a few pics of him, and presto! out comes a new entry. In case you might be wondering, this is going to be one of those posts, okay?

Yesterday we went to the River Fest, a 9-day festival of food, events and concerts in dowtown Wichita. I had been craving a funnel cake all week, and I finally convinced Jon to take me to get one. Dad let Cameron take a few slurps of the Cherry Icee. They tried hiding that fact from me, but it was pretty evident by the red slobber all over Cameron's face and shirt!

We were going to see if Cam would like to ride some of the little horses they had there, but he wasn't having it. He started to get pretty fussy, probably because it was about 85 degrees and awfully humid. Makes for a sweaty little baby!

Blogging.

I tell you what. Blogging has led me to "meet" some of the coolest, most talented, and sweet people. The thing is, I've never even met anyone of them in real life. It's strange, because you essentially follow their lives, and it gives you a sense that you know them. If you follow for awhile, you share their pain and joy. 

One of my fellow blogging friends (whom I almost met!) is getting a baby placed in her and her husband's home today. Their hope is to adopt the baby. I admire her so much for putting her faith in God and trusting his masterplan. I've been tagging along through her journey, and I honestly couldn't be more happy for someone I've never met. Congrats Erin and Heath- you two will make beautiful and loving parents! 

P.S- I have a link to her blog (Dr. Erin) on the side. Stop by and congratulate them!

Cameron- 5 months

Cameron is 5 months old today! It's hard to believe he's nearly halfway to one year! We are finding ourselves scrambling to construct a baby gate for the stairs in the next week; Cameron is quickly making his way around the house these days! I used to be able to leave him on his playmat for 5-10 minutes while I did laundry or swept the floor. Now, he'll be across the room in a matter of minutes. Life with him is awesome. I can say that he just gets so much more fun each and every day! He's developing quite a cute little personality. He is very squirmy. He is always kicking his legs, and wiggling when you hold him, never still unless he's tired.

Cameron is also very "squealy." He is rarely quiet, unless we're outside where he just soaks it all in.

He has so many facial expressions and is always laughing and smiling!

He is definitely not a picky eater! He has loved every veggie and fruit he has tried. Today he inhaled a little green bean pack in record time- about 4 minutes. He gets mad when we don't feed him fast enough.

We think he'll definitely be crawling soon. He's getting up on all fours, rocks back and forth and then propels himself foward, often taking a hard nose dive straight into the carpet. Most times he finds it pretty amusing, but the other day he dove straight into his changing table and got a pretty big bump on his head to show for it.

Cameron still doesn't really like his baths. I think he'll like it better when he's able to completely sit up on his own, but right now we still bathe him in his infant tub, which he is just too long for. 

Funday Sunday!

It's been super busy around our house lately! Jon has been very busy with work and has been out of town several times in the past few weeks. I've been wanting to get in the garden and spruce things up, but with him being gone, and having record amounts of rain in April, it just hasn't left me anytime to dig around. While today wasn't particularly a nice day, it wasn't raining either, so I figure I had better get in there and plant some of the goodies I got the other day.

When I was at the florist 2 years ago getting bouquets ready for our wedding, I walked in, brought the color swatch from my bridesmaids dresses, and told her I wanted a flower that was similar in color. I never saw any of the bouquets until the day of the wedding (crazy, right?), but the florist couldn't have done a better job picking out the most beautiful arrangement, especially when I told her I wasn't picky and didn't care too much what they looked like! Anyway, I fell in love with the flower and have been wanting to plant them in my own garden ever since that day. I've been having a tough time finding them, but I stumbled upon them this weekend at Lowe's with my mom. And the best part? They were 50% off. So I bought every last one they had!

 

It's somewhat hard to see from these photos, but it's the purple flower, or blue agapanthus. The flower is native to South Africa, and means "love" from agape. **The white flower is an oriental lily. 

 

Getting dirrty in the garden. My nephew Timmy wanted to be in the picture.

Cameron helped!

Me and the Cam man.

Easy Cheesy Chimichangas!

I've never shared a recipe on my blog until now, but I've made these chimichangas a few times and decided they were too good not to pass on. And heck, with Cinco de Mayo coming up, you can make these, invite your friends over and have a little fiesta. I promise they'll be impressed (especially if you whip up some margaritas). 

I made this recipe up after having grilled chimichangas at a local Mexican joint, and I have to say that I think my version is better! You'll see that this recipe is far from "authentic" Mexican; the rice is directly from a box, and I didn't make my own tortillas.  If you feel adventurous enough to make your own tortillas or rice, be my guest! 

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. lean ground beef
  
• 1 package taco seasoning
• 1 package grated cheddar cheese or Mexican cheese blend
• 1 box cheesy Mexican rice (I used Old el Paso brand)
• 5-6 burrito sized flour tortillas
• Salsa, sour cream, queso or other toppings you like

Start by preparing the rice according to the package directions. Brown the beef, and add in the taco seasoning. Set aside until the rice is done.

Lay out the tortillas and begin by dividing the rice between 5-6 tortillas. Add a handful of cheese on top of the rice, and finish by adding the beef on top of the cheese, dividing it between your tortillas. 

Fold in the sides of the tortillas, and then roll them up. Place the seam side down into a buttered skillet on medium heat. Butter the top (go ahead and make Paula Dean proud) of the chimichangas, and carefully flip them when the bottom side has browned. Brown that side and they are ready to eat! I like them with sour cream and queso on top. Enjoy!

Though I haven't tried it, I think you could substitute shredded chicken in place of ground beef and they would be excellent. 

It's 7:40 am and Cameron is still sleeping! In his crib!
Usually we put Cam down for the night by 7:00 pm, and he will wake at about 2:00 am for a feeding and again at about 6:00 when I'll just bring him into bed with us for another hour of snoozing. But for the past 4 nights, he hasn't woken up until 4:00 am to feed, and then he will go right back down until about 7. And here it is, almost 8:00am and he's still sleeping. I'm loving this!

I've been faking my photography skills.

So, I got a new DSLR camera over a year ago, and I still haven't learned how to really use it. Most of the photos I take are edited quite a bit by photoshop. It's a bad habit I've got; since I use photoshop on a daily basis for work/ad designs, it's really easy to take a bad photo and make it look like I really know how to take a good one. Because of this, I've neglected a lot of the functions on my camera, relying far too much on the functions of photoshop to bring a picture to life. 

I decided I finally needed to learn how to use my awesome camera, so I signed up for a photography class! I'm so excited. I took a photography class back in college, but we used stone aged film cameras and dark rooms. That was nearly 6 years ago, so it will be great to freshen up my skills while learning the ins and outs of my camera. I hope to be shooting in manual by the time the class is over! I'll be sure to document my progress here when class starts in June. Did I mention how excited I am?

Dear husband: I present my Mother's Day wish list.

You always give great gifts. You know me quite well. But this is a "new" holiday celebration around our house, so I thought I'd help you out and give you a suggestion (or, 6) of what I really want for Mother's Day. If you didn't know already (and I'm sure you don't), Mother's Day is May 10. I know you like to shop for gifts at the last second, so with this list you'll be able to do just that. Oh, and don't forget our anniversary is coming up. You could just shop for that too and kill two birds with one stone. I know what you're thinking, I'm genius; that's why you married me!

I'd love to have a new video camera. This one is small, convenient, and inexpensive! You should know that it comes is a pretty pink color, but I'll settle for black so that you won't be embarrassed to use it.

Chopping garlic by hand is tedious and leaves my fingers smelling for days. A garlic press would solve that problem!

Every time we are in the checkout isle at the grocery store, I pick up an issue of BHG or Martha Stewart, and say "I wish I had a subscription to this." Welp, I guess you haven't been paying attention to my hinting, cause I still don't have a subscription to either.

A really tiny pair of diamond studs, perhaps?

A gift card to Forever 21. It's cool, I can still shop there for at least 6 more years.

 
And the thing I want most is to spend the day with my 2 favorite boys. Breakfast in bed would be nice. We even could take Cameron on his first trip to the zoo.

XOXO,
your wifey.

Thoughts, to-do's, and other random tidbits.

• I am determined to have a garage sale during our neighborhood-wide garage sale in May. We've got so much crap to get rid of. And when I say so much crap, I mean SO MUCH CRAP. The 3rd spot in our 3-car garage is overflowing with furniture, tools, and other random junk that has accumulated in the 4 years we have been at our home. I will get to the bottom of it and hopefully make a few hundred bucks in the process!
• My parent's living room re-do is coming right along. My mom is in Hawaii for a few weeks (no fair, right?) and my plan is to get those craigslist chairs (that are buried somewhere in the garage) re-stained while she is gone, and then we'll be back in full force decorating when she returns. My goal is to have the living room finished by the end of May. 
• I need to start making weekly/monthly to-do lists. I've seen a lot of people keeping their to-do's on their blogs, but I need one that I can see a few times daily so I can really keep on top of things. I was thinking about making a cute little chalkboard like this one I saw on Design Sponge to hang in my kitchen. I could update it every Sunday for the week, and erase things as I do them!  How do you organize your to do list? And where do you keep it?
  
• My blog is in desperate need of a make-over. I actually like the white space, so instead of adding a flowery background or colored template, I'm thinking about adding a fun header or something. Add it to my to-do list!
• And in Cameron related news, we started solids last week! I'm so glad we did; I felt like he was always hungry. So far he loves sweet potatoes and green beans! I'll be sure to post a few pictures soon. He, like his dad, is a messy, messy eater. 

My son prefers immunizations over baths.

True statement.
Here lately Cameron has been protesting bath time. I'm not exactly sure why, but he used to love splashing around, soaking me, the walls, and everything else within a 10 foot radius. Now, bath time= an absolute scream-fest, something that's really hard when you are dealing with such a slippery little fish.
Anywho, we were at his 4 month appointment today, and while I look forward to seeing how much he's grown, I dread seeing him get his shots. No one likes shots. Babies don't like shots. And no one likes to watch babies get shots, especially their mothers. So the nurses come in to give them, and you know what? Not a peep. Not even a tear. We did get the "pouty lip" for a few seconds, but that was it. It's not like I wanted him to cry, but I expected it, ya know? I was ready for him to cry, ready to console him. I wasn't ready for the silence and flirty smiles he flashed at the nurses. It's puzzling, really. I just don't understand.


And for the growth stats: 16 lbs. 4 oz, and 26 1/2 inches tall!