Confession...

I have become a blog junkie.  There.  I admit it.

Being a stay-at-home mom-of-Brady has afforded me extra time to research things on the internet (baby rashes, teething tricks, organization tips, endless budget-friendly recipes, etc.) and in doing so I have stumbled upon a handful of blogs that I simply adore. 

I'm a writer.  Maybe I could turn this modest personal blog into something a little more meaningful?  I'm not there yet.  At any rate, I thought I might share a couple of my favorite blogs with you kind readers (S? Mom?) in case you're interested. 

Today's find:  Small Notebook.  This blog has tons of categories and the topics are excellent.


Fun mommy blog:  The Stroller Ballet.  And I love the title;-) 

Those are two I find myself reading this morning when I should be washing the sink load of dirty dishes.  I hope they make your procrastination just as enjoyable! :-D

A few of my favorite (baby) things... 0-3mo

Let's be honest, when Brady was born I had no clue what items I needed.  Sure, I did my research.  I talked to other moms, read books, subscribed to several Parenting magazines, discovered blogs online dedicated to parenting tips, and reviewed several online consumer reports listing essential baby items.  But, I am a dive-in-and-learn-for-myself kind of person.  It was inevitable that I would have to just learn on the job, so to speak.

From what I've learned thus far in the four months of raising an infant for the first time, here are a few of my favorite things for months 0-3.  I've included images of the ones we have, but most any brand will do!

RECEIVING BLANKETS
As a parent of an infant, you go through these things like water.  I didn't realize Mom would be right about this when she looked at my stack of them when Brady was born and said I'd need more.  I've since bought dozens!  Andy and I use these as burp rags, spit-up catchers, light weight blankets for chilly walks, floor mats when we travel to someone's house, wee-wee covers, drool absorbers, you name it.  They're versatile, rather cheap, and essential!!!

BOUNCER

A generous neighbor of ours surprised us while I was pregnant by giving us several key baby items we, at the time, did not know we would so desperately need.  The bouncer was the best of them all!  This sits on our kitchen table for Brady to join us at meal times and nap in while we prepare food, clean, or surf the internet on our laptops at the table.  He love, love, LOVES it and has developed the ability to kick his left foot to propel the bouncing motion and put himself to sleep or entertain himself while watching the dangling characters sway above him.  He even now curls his feet up to pull the chain on the froggie that plays music!  The bouncer our neighbors gave us was pink for a girl, so we have it upstairs covered with (you guessed it!) a receiving blanket.  This froggie one is downstairs.  They make it so nice to have hands-free time as a parent, while still being close by to your baby!  I use the one upstairs in the floor of the bathroom while I shower.  Brady loves being nearby to watch all of our daily activities:-)

Apparently this toy teaches children how to use their feet to grab things??? ;-D

THE GLOWORM
Best toy EVER!!!  I remember having one of these as a child, so you can imagine my thrill when registering for baby things at our local Babies 'R Us store when we came across the wonderful Playskool Lullaby Gloworm!  This has different modes, but the basic concept is you squeeze the center and gloworm's face lights up and plays music.  The tunes are nice, the light catches baby's eye from an early age, the little tassle ear things (what are they really?) are perfect for little mouths to chew and explore.  Brady loves this more than any other toy and I'm so thankful for my dear childhood friend E who gave this to us!!!  Brady's face always lights up (pardon the pun) when he sees his gloworm.  And for $11, what could be better?!

OCEAN WONDERS ACQUARIUM
Seriously, this thing rocks.  Dear friend E also gave us this wonderful crib soother (isn't she amazing?!) that continues to be extremely useful for calming and entertaining our Brady.  Since we have a crib bumper (yes, I ignore this SIDS risk) all the way around Brady's crib, there isn't much room for us to also attach this to the side of his crib.  So we use this by itself to prop near Brady when he's in his bouncer and keep him entertained while I shower, make dinner, etc.  Now that he's spending more tummy time, he loves having this to look at to encourage him to push up!  The toy has three sound modes (buttons to the right) which are nature (ocean) sounds, lullabies, and classical music.  I never get tired of the tunes (and I'm a musician!) and the water lights up an intriguing shade of sparkly blue with the sea animals moving around to hold Brady's attention.  When he fights extra hard to avoid napping, I can almost guarantee this thing will soothe him to sleep.  Worth EVERY penny!

ACTIVITY MAT
Okay, so there are a handful of things I've claimed (prior to becoming a parent, mind you) to never use/do with my kid.  One such thing I swore I would never buy is the activity mat/baby play gym.  For starters, we have a smallish place, so where would it go?  Secondly, it's expensive and seems like just another one of those Babies 'R Us gimmicks they claim you NEED when really it'll just clutter your house with unnecessary junk.  Right?  WRONG!


After a few weeks of life with Brady, I began to understand what people meant when they exclaimed, "He's such an alert baby!" when they saw him.  Brady did not EVER go through the sleeps-all-the-time newborn phase.  He is happy.  He is social.  He wants to be where the action is and he takes it all in with wide, alert eyes.  Sound familiar?  Perhaps I got my extrovert after all;-)  At any rate, I quickly realized that I would need more than a bouncer and a blanket for keeping my boy engaged and challenged.   

Enter Baby Einstein Baby Neptune Ocean Adventure Gym.

 

Yes, it is a mouthful.  Based on my research, though, reviewers claimed that it challenged their babies to begin reaching out to touch things and grabbing hold of objects.  Worth a try, I thought.

At first, Brady didn't know what to make of this most amusing contraption.  He love, love, LOVED the dangling octopus character with the rattle and began talking to it almost immediately. (Have I mentioned he's a talkative child?)  I took several videos of him chattering away with his fist held high. 

See?  No joke.

But then after a little over a week, I caught him doing this:

Need I say more?
It's pricey, yes, but you can get them used at garage sales or through craigslist.  Do yourself a favor and have one for your child.  You'll be so glad you did!  We usually keep it in the kitchen floor so B can watch us while we make dinner and eat.  I love this thing so much I'm actually tempted to buy a second one with a different theme!  Now that is excessive, says Andy;-)

A shower of pink and green

Andy's sister is getting married next month and to help her celebrate the upcoming nuptials I threw her a shower.  No, I didn't attempt to host it at our place... what with the Babies 'R Us explosion that has occurred here recently... but I was super excited to plan out the menu according to her wedding colors: pink and green.

The two main events at the sweet and salty buffet were both new recipes I was eager to try.  The first, pink, dish was Southern Living's strawberry swirl cream cheese pound cake.  It looked so pretty in last month's magazine!  The second dish, green, stems from a personal favorite of mine whenever I eat at The Cheesecake Factory but in miniature proportions -  mini key lime cheesecakes!  YUM, right?

Strawberry Swirl Cream Cheese Pound Cake

 The magazine that inspired it all:  Southern Living!

While I have a lovely bundt pan, I can only count on one hand (perhaps one finger!) the number of times I have attempted to make pound cake.  My Southern Grandmother made many a delicious variety of the dense cake, so it was with her in mind that I ventured forth in my pink-cake-for-the-bridal-shower pursuits.

The Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened
• 6 large eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup strawberry glaze
• 1 (6-inch) wooden skewer

I love any chance I get to use our Kitchen Aid stand mixer.  It not only does a fabulous job, but it's super cute and matches my red kitchen!  Here, the pound cake batter starts to thicken.  Of course I sampled some and boy was it good.  I have a theory that you can instantly tell if something is going to be tasty just by sampling the batter.  Perhaps that's just my excuse...

Click Here For The Full Recipe

You basically mix everything together and pour into a tube pan in thirds, dropping dollops of strawberry glaze over the bottom two thirds and swirling with a wooden skewer, but before you pour make sure the pan is greased and lightly floured.  

Now insert my shameless plug for Pillsbury's Baking Spray with Flour.  I generously sprayed my bundt pan with this stuff for fear of my cake sticking and falling apart when I tried to remove it from the pan.  IT WORKED WONDERS!  So before you attempt this recipe, go buy some of this great stuff.  I assure you, it works for all your baking needs.

After playing with the skewer and swirling strawberry glaze into the batter to my heart's content, I finally put the cake in the oven and then worried what the Rocky Mountain high altitude of Denver might due to the baking of this beautiful, Southern recipe.  So I called Mom.  We agreed to keep the baking temperature at 350 degrees for now and just cover with foil so it wouldn't burn with the added baking time.  Indeed, it needed 10-15 minutes extra in the oven.

 After almost 1.5 hours, it was time to flip the pan and hope the cake came out alright!  I was so anxious!  Andy kindly told me that in the event that it totally flopped, we could always go to the store and buy a cake for the shower.

Ta-DA!!!  

It's beautiful!  Whew!

Using fresh strawberries made decorating this beautiful cake a cinch.

And if I do say so myself... it was GOOD!!!

Mini Key Lime Cheesecakes

Now for something green... 

I decided to stay with the spring feel and flavor of the party and thought that my favorite kind of cheesecake, key lime, would be perfect.  Usually I like to make simple mini cheesecakes topped with cherries for special occasions, so I thought there must be a recipe out there for making a key lime variety.  I went with a recipe I found on another blog!

The Recipe

Instead of making my own crusts, though, I wimped out and used Nilla wafers.  Perhaps these delicious vanilla cookies used to be smaller and better fit in the bottom of my mini muffin tins, but on this day I had to break around each cookie to squeeze them into place.  A bit high maintenance if you ask me.  I seem to remember finding miniature Nilla wafers the last time I attempted making mini cheesecakes.  Yes, it had been that long since I'd done it!

  

The Ingredients

• 16 oz cream cheese, at room temp.
• 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 3 egg yolks
• 4 oz key lime juice
• pinch of salt

These wonderful treats turned out to be just as easy as could be.  The recipe called for all the ingredients to be added to a blender and mixed that way.  I was skeptical, but it turned out to be convenient so you had a spout to pour the filling into the mini muffin tins after blending!

What I didn't realize was just how many mini cheesecakes this recipe would make.  I made 60, but there was plenty of filling and Nilla wafers left for more!

Muffin tins of mini key lime cheesecakes filled all counter space in our kitchen!

Now to decorate, I toyed with the idea of using those gummy limes but they were too big.  Then I thought I could use green jelly beans instead!  To hold up under their weight, I would use a dollop of vanilla icing.  Andy and I sampled some before the party and I realized that the jelly beans I'd purchased were green apple, not lime!  Not the best flavor combination.  So, we decided to stick with the vanilla frosting and zest some fresh limes over top.  

Andy did the decorating honors and here's how they turned out!  They weren't especially green in appearance, but the garnish added a nice pop of color and boy were they DELICIOUS!  We had tons left over afterwards (forgot one of the tins in the back of the fridge!) and they tasted good days later. 

All in all, this pink and green food experience was a true success!

Light of my life...

So what began a year ago as a gleam in our eyes is now the preciously smiling, gurgling, squealing little boy in my arms.  What an amazing journey this has already been!  Brady is an absolute treasure and has forever changed our hearts and our lives.

Gimme the keys, Dad!  I'm a car man too!

The pregnancy and labor, I won't lie, were rather challenging.  I have never endured so much physically and I am left in awe of the woman's body and all that it can do!

A few words about the pregnancy marathon... but if a picture's worth a thousand words... here's a few k's...

FIRST TRIMESTER!

 

It's positive!  First try! 

(4 weeks)

We're going to have a baby!

Oh, hello nausea... 

(2 months)

Yep, there's really a baby in there!

Due date set for January 9th, 2011.

(12 weeks)

SECOND TRIMESTER!

Still feeling nauseous... oh yeah!

(17 weeks)

(20 weeks)

It's a BOY!!!

25 weeks of nausea later...

 Celebrating 3 wonderful years of marriage and we're just SO excited to meet our son!!
Can't you tell? ;-)

THIRD TRIMESTER!

HOORAY FOR NO MORE NAUSEA!!!

6 months!  

(Pregnant bridesmaid take one)

Almost 7 months

(Pregnant bridesmaid take two!)

32 weeks

Does this baby make me look fat? ;-)

Shopping for baby stuff is fun!

36 weeks and starting to set up the nursery

(Please come early!)

Full term (38 weeks) and waiting...

Merry Christmas!

WOAH, 40 weeks and ready to be induced January 10th!

Brady's Birthday: 1/11/11!

Wow.  We did it!

Braden Hawthorne Getz

Just seconds after delivery - January 11th, 2011.

Brady truly is the light of our life.  

We are so blessed to have him to love and to hold.

A few things I learned during pregnancy:

1. Old wives' tales are simply that - tales.  Even the silliest notion will be right 50% of the time when predicting a baby's gender.  
2. Coke icees/slurpees are a pregnant mama's best friend when she's nauseous.  They seriously help take the edge off.  When they don't, enter Zofran!
3. Sciatica/nerve pain is no joke.
4. Nine months is a very, very long time.
5. Old Navy has a great online maternity section. So does GAP and Target.  Buy a few key pieces you can mix and match to wear over and over and over again during your pregnancy.  (You'll need 'em during the postpartum phase too!)  Layering is key!
6. Every pregnant woman deserves a pedicure.
7. Pregnancy is like a second puberty... you sweat more, grow hair, are clumsy, your skin changes, you have growing pains and get stretch marks, your boobs grow, the list goes on...
8. Life is too short to surround yourself with anyone other than warm, loving, positive people.
9. The woman's body is a beautiful and powerful thing.  It should be celebrated, not criticized.
10. 'Tis a mighty God we serve... His creation is perfectly and wonderfully made... albeit painful!  Thanks a lot, Eve.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program... sorta ;-)

So in case you've been wondering why I've dropped off the face of the earth lately, here's a hint:

Introducing:  Braden Hawthorne Getz!
Born:  January 11, 2011. Weighing in at 8lbs 2oz!

Yes, things in the Getz household have changed drastically... and for the better!  We are now sleep deprived and happier than we ever thought possible.  Little Brady is a darling child.  He's already extremely social and loves "talking" to Mommy in between huge, toothless smiles. 

Watch out, ladies, he's a charmer!

I haven't quite decided what I want my next post to be yet, so stay tuned.  In between feedings, diaper changes, and nap times I'm sure I'll come up with something! ;-D

Breckenridge Beauty!

One of the perks of living in the land of the lovely Rocky Mountains is that it takes only an hour or two to drive to a cabin with a breathtaking view of God's glorious creation for a weekend trip in the woods.  That's what we and three other couples did last month to get away from it all and relax mountain style:-)

Here was our view:

 Looking out the back windows down on the valley of Breckenridge below.

To the left of our back deck, the view of the ski slopes preparing for the season's first run was incredible!

 More ski slopes!

Good morning, Rockies.

While we were up there, we enjoyed leisurely mornings with good coffee (hot chocolate for the two pregnant chicks!), great conversation, and many pauses for photo ops!

The Photographers:

 Andy uses the tripod to try and stabilize his camera for catching the early morning sunlight cresting the snow capped tips of the Rocky Mountains.

 Blake goes for an artsy shot looking out through the back windows, silhouetting and framing the mountains like so:

Jon and Andy enjoy the view.

Oh Sarah... :-)

On Saturday we took a trip into town to do some shopping and of course eating!

Naturally, we had to stop in the crazy hat shop:

 It's a good look for you, Blake.

Why the long face, Andy?

Someone's looking FABULOUS! ;-D

The first night we stopped by the Breckenridge Brewery for some tasty burgers and fries (and ales for some!) and the second night we all pitched in to make a delicious spaghetti supper in the house.  It was a great time of friends, food, fellowship, Die Hard, and fun with some great people!  Until next year...

The Breck crew!