No Manners!

You have to see the cute video of Clay below! While I was finally getting around to video taping his big accomplishment of rolling over, he also graced me with another one of his talents which totally overshadows his rolling over. You'll need to make sure you sound is turned up - and please excuse the annoying baby talk from me :)! It happens after the big "roll over"!

I think he learned this from his daddy!

Clay's First Christmas

Wow! Sorry this has taken me a while to get to. It has been NON-STOP around here!! I'm in my busy season for work so that's been taking up a lot of my time and the holidays are always crazy around here. With all the craziness going on, I did manage to take a gazillion pictures of my baby and his first Christmas! Since we had celebrated Christmas with my parents and sister in ATL a couple of weeks ago, we decided to stick around town for Christmas Eve and day. We went over to my sister-in-law's house and had a great time! Christmas morning we stayed here at the house and opened gifts - just the 4 of us (Monte included, of course!) - my sweet little family!! Saturday we went over to my grandmother's in Gadsden and celebrated it with some of my mom's side of the family. Here are some pictures from all the festivities:

Christmas Eve

Clay and his Nan and cousins, Ellie and Grace

Clay with Grace and Ellie
Christmas Morning

Wow! Look at all the presents! (And that's not even half of what he got!)

I'm sure Clay asked Santa for this for Christmas! :)Christmas Day

Family Picture

Ray, Lea Anne (Mark's sister), BJ (Mark's Mom), Me, Clay, Mark, Grace & Ellie in the back

Ellie, Clay, Grace and their Great Grandfather

Tasty Tuesday!!

While I'm waiting for my crazy long work reports to run, I decided to go ahead and post my Tasty Tuesday recipe for the week. I was asking Mark the other day what were his favorites that I make and here is his list:

1) Jambalaya (this is made from a box - Zatarans to be exact)

2) Gorditas (this is ALSO made from a box - Old El Paso)

3) Beef Tips and Gravy (not made from a box, but so easy it should be)

Obviously, my husband does not need fancy meals to please him! So, since the first 2 are straight up open the box and cook, I'll go with the 3rd choice - Beef Tips and Gravy! This recipe is quite yummy and VERY easy to make. It's a recipe my mom used to whip together when we were growing up. I usually double the recipe because I like to have enough for 2 nights... and Mark REALLY loves him some Beef Tips and Gravy. So here's the recipe!

Beef Tips and Gravy

Ingredients:

1 lb of Beef - I usually use that Top Round (or Bottom Round - can't remember which one). It's the cheap steak looking type meat - but you could use any type of beef (except ground beef).

1 can of Golden Mushroom Soup - Make sure it's GOLDEN MUSHROOM - not the same effect with Cream of Mushroom

1 Package of Brown Gravy Mix - I use McCormick's

1/4 cup Sour Cream

Dried Minced Onion - I don't measure, but it's probably about a couple teaspoons.

Pepper

Noodles - I used the extra wide egg noodles

Water - About 1/2 a can full (use the Golden Mushroom can)

Steps:

1) Cube the beef and brown in a skillet

2) Stir in the Golden Mushroom soup

3) Stir in 1/2 can of water (more or less depending on the consistency you want the gravy)

4) Stir in the brown gravy mix

5) Add the Minced Onion and Pepper - to taste

6) Cook over medium heat until heated through (you may need to add a little more water if it's too thick)

7) Add Sour Cream when it's close to being ready. Heat it a little more and serve over the noodles.

Make sure you start boiling your water when you brown the meat so that the noodles will be ready at the same time the beef tips and gravy are done.

This is some good stuff!!! It's even really good reheated in the microwave or the stove the next night.

Oh, and by the way... since this is a cooking post, I have to tell you about my new favorite kitchen item I got from my sister and her husband for Christmas... it's a Quesadilla Maker!!!!! I haven't used it yet, but I have a friend who made me a quesadilla on it and it was the best darn quesadilla I've had (thanks, Leigh!)!!! Here's what it looks like:

I was also watching TV this morning and came across an Infomercial that "sucked" me in and this may be my new kitchen gadget I need to try out:

It's called the Big City Sliders Station and it makes those cute little hamburgers! The infomercial made it look so easy (of course!). I may have to look into getting me one of these!!!

Well, all this talk of food is making me hungry! Thank goodness it's time for lunch! TaTa for now!

Blog Award!!!

Yea! I won a blog award! My first award... Thanks, Lori for the nomination :). Now I just have to figure out how to follow the instructions:

A. Put the logo on your blog.
B. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
C. Nominate a blog, add a link to this blog, and leave a message for your nominee on their blog.

So I figured out how to put the award on my blog... now onto the link part (I think I got it now).

I started my blog back when I was pregnant to keep family and friends updated on everything because I'm terrible at calling/emailing/etc. I also have a TERRIBLE memory so it's been good for me to keep all those memories in one place so I can go back and reminisce.

Now onto my nominations... I would like to nominate the 2 friends that inspired me to start blogging. My nominations for the Butterfly Award are: Melissa and Christy!!! These 2 have the cutest kids and I always look forward to reading their blogs. They also are great photographers, so I love it when they post pictures! So, you two... follow the instructions above and Congrats on the blog award :)!

Photo Friday!

Here are some cute pictures for Photo Friday! The first couple are from Clay's Christmas Card Photo Shoot and the other is of him and his new best friend.

Christmas Card Photo 1
This is the one we went with because of his sweet little smile! It only took me 28 shots to get this one :)!

And here is Clay and his beer... um, I mean MILK gut! That's his new best friend beside him. Right now his name is Mr. Monkey, but we're trying to come up with a better name. He loves him! I think I may need to buy Target out just in case he ever loses Mr. Monkey and we need to replace him!

Tasty Tuesday - a Day Late!

Sorry... I was not able to post my tasty Tuesday recipe yesterday because I opted to fall asleep on the couch with Baby Clay instead. Anyways... the recipe I was making Monday night turned out REALLY yummy! My friend, Gina, gave me a bunch of slow cooker recipes... and I LOVE a slow cooker meal! The one I tried was called Slow Cooker Sausage and Kraut. I didn't follow it exactly, so I'll put my version of it on this post. Here it is!

Slow Cooker Sausage and Kraut

Ingredients:
Bratwurst - I used 1 package of Johnsonville Brats (original) - the recipe actually calls for 1 1/2 pounds of keilbasa or smoked sausage
20 oz. Sauerkraut - I used a 16 oz Bavarian Style kraut - but it doesn't matter how much you use. If you use less you may want to reduce the brown sugar and dijon mustard.
1 Onion (sliced)
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1 tbsp Dijon Mustard
3 tbsp Water (I actually started off with 3 tbsp, but added a little later on to keep it from drying out. I also added a little beer towards the end for special effect!)

1) Arrange Brats and Onion in slow cooker and add water.
2) In a separate bowl mix kraut, brown sugar, and dijon mustard. Pour over the brats and onions.
3) Cook on high for 2 hours - add more water (or beer) if necessary to avoid dryness
4) Cook on low for 2 hours

After I cooked it on low for 2 hours... I'm VERY anal about making sure meat is fully cooked, so I flipped it back to high for about 30 minutes. I then got fancy and turned the grill on and grilled them for about 10 minutes to get that "grill" flavor. While I did that, I heated up the kraut/onion mix on the stove (because it was cooking with the meat - see, REAL anal about that meat thing).

Then slap the brats and kraut on a bun and throw in some tator tots and you got a meal! :) Enjoy!

Christmas in the ATL

Sorry for the lack of posting... it's been a little crazy with the holidays and all! This past weekend we headed over to Atlanta for the annual Gibson Landscape Christmas party as well as Christmas with my side of the family. The company party was Friday night down in Jonesboro, GA and we had some fun! I don't have any pictures from it, but there were my 3 favorite "D's" - Dining, Drinking, and Dancing! I even won a Bath and Body Works gift card in the raffle -Woo Hoo!! I never win anything!

Saturday my sister, brother-in-law and niece came over to my parents and we celebrated Christmas. We had a great time eating and opening presents! Clay had a great time too at his first Christmas celebration! He got some cute presents and played with his cousin Cadence. My parents live in a part of Atlanta called "Atlantic Station". It's in downtown Atlanta and is kind of it's own little town. They have stores, restaurants, Target, and Publix all within walking distance of where they live. In the middle of Atlantic Station they have a big, beautiful Christmas tree and at night, every so often they make snow! We took Clay down that evening to see the big tree and the snow - of course it was good for photo ops!

I also have a little update on Clay... today I had to take him to the doctor because he was very stuffy and had a little cough. Last week I got a note from daycare saying he may have been exposed to RSV from another baby in his class. Of course I freaked out because I've heard nightmare stories of RSV... so I was sure he had it when he came down with congestion. The doctor tested him for it earlier today and he does not have RSV - thank goodness! He does have a little virus, but it's nothing to be too concerned about. They did weigh the little butterball and he weighed in at a very HEALTHY 16 pounds 15 ounces!!!!! He's only 14 weeks and is above the 97th percentile in weight! Holy Cow!!! He's a biggin'! He's changed so much in the last week... he's now sitting up like a big boy in his Bumbo seat and loves to play with his toys Nana and G got him for Christmas. He's also discovered these little squealing noises and makes them all the time!

Enough of the words... I'm sure you're just interested in the pictures!!! Oh, and by the way... I'm cooking a new recipe tonight, so maybe I'll have a Tasty Tuesday post for tomorrow!!! If it tastes as good as it smells... it's definitely going on the blog!

Ready to open Christmas presents!!

Mimi and Monte enjoying the view out of the 20th story window!
Uncle Mark reading a book to Cady

Playing Peek-a-Boo with Cady

All bundled up to go see the snow!

In front of the big tree in Atlantic StationFamily Photo

Playing with all the fun toys Nana got!

No Monte! These are my toys!
Sitting up like a big boy in the Bumbo seat!

This one cracks me up! Mark is playing the Wii while Clay watches intently... He loves to watch us play the Wii!

I am SO Grateful!

Yesterday my baby had his 3 month birthday! 3 months!!!! I can't believe how time has flown by! I'm already on my 2nd week of full-time work and Clay is on his 2nd week of daycare. It just doesn't stop - or slow down - and sometimes I wish it would.

Last night I had dinner with two good friends of mine - one I've known since 5th grade, the other since high school. We all blog and love to discuss other blogs that we read. We talked about some blogs of people who have amazing stories - stories of how they have overcome huge tragedies and are somehow still standing. There is one family who was pregnant with a baby who basically had no chance of living, but was born perfectly fine and another where the family lost the baby only a few hours after delivery due to a fatal diagnosis given while she was pregnant. Now I have a new one to keep up with (thanks, Lori) that is about a woman who lost her husband and then her unborn baby all within a few weeks of each other. Now why would I even want to read about such tragedy, you may ask? I don't really know... I think it gives me inspiration seeing how strong these individuals are during these times of such terrible tragedies. It also reminds me of how precious life is and to NEVER take anything for granted.

Now back to my sweet baby... Clay's nightly bedtime routine used to consist of me (or my husband) feeding him his last meal and then we would put him in the swing because that was the only thing that consistently put him to sleep quickly. "Quickly" is the key word in that sentence... rocking him to sleep seemed too time consuming and I wanted to relax and watch one of the 500 shows I've got recorded. This past week, all that has changed. I've realized how little time I have left with my baby being a "baby". Instead of letting the swing put him to sleep, I now rock him to sleep - sometimes it takes forever... sometimes just a few minutes, but nothing is more precious than watching my sweet baby fall asleep in my arms. Once he falls asleep, I continue to rock him and just stare at him... amazed that God allowed me to be his mommy. This has now become my FAVORITE time with him.

Many of you know my long journey with trying to get pregnant and after reading about other people's journey, mine is no where near the trials other couple's have been through. For those of you that aren't familiar, here's the short version. We had to go to a fertility specialist in order to get pregnant. We got pregnant in July of 2007 and I had to undergo emergency sugery to remove it due to it being an ectopic pregnancy. We went back on fertility drugs after a small break and conceived Clay December 2007... and now a year later we have a healthy, beautiful 3 month old! My pregnancy was not an easy one either with insulin-dependent gestational diabetes, but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!

Mark and I wanted to wait a while to have children. For many reasons - some selfish :) and some not so selfish. We wanted to enjoy our time together as a married couple, but I also wanted to make sure we were financially stable to support a child and be able to provide everything they need. Now that we have Clay, I can't imagine my life without him! Yes, our lives are changed forever... but it's in the best way possible! Having change in your life is important and it's easy to handle when you're married to your best friend.

I know of so many people who have needed assistance to get pregnant - some successful, others still trying - I am just so grateful that last December was "my time"! My time to become a mommy and I am vowing to never take the time with my child (or my family and friends) for granted because you never know what God has in store. You never know how long we have on this earth. Children grow up so fast - and I don't want to be selfish and miss out on any part of Clay's life because I was too busy - too busy with work... too busy with my 500 recorded shows :)... too busy with anything! I still get sad about the baby I lost, but I know God had other plans for me. I have 2 scars on my belly - 1 from the baby I lost and 1 from my sweet little Clay - so I'm reminded every day I see them of how precious life is.

Everything that happens in life happens for a reason... good or bad. I've just been lucky and blessed to have mostly good things happen to me. I guess I read those other blogs because it makes me feel even more grateful for the things I have in my life because I know they can be taken from me in an instant. So please, don't take life for granted! Be GRATEFUL for everything God gives you - good or bad - because you never know what's in store!

So now that I've rambled on for a VERY LONG time, I will end on a light note... with pictures of course!!

This was his daddy's doing!

Merry Christmas from the Marshalls

So my friend Melissa has me cracking up with her "Elf Yourself" video so I just HAD to do it! I think everyone needs to go do this and post it to their blog! It's hilarious!!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Photo Friday!

Wow! I just noticed I've blogged every day this week (work week actually)! I didn't want to mess up the streak I had going, so I've got a couple of cute pictures. They are actually of my other sweet baby that I've neglected since Clay was born. Monte has been really good with Clay! I was worried that since he was an only child and my baby before Clay came along that he'd be jealous and act out, but he loves Clay! He's very protective of him - always goes to his nursery when he cries and sits near him whenever he's playing on his play mat. We couldn't have asked for a better dog! Here are a couple of pictures of his new favorite thing!

He loves to lay in the sun!

And... you didn't think I'd forget to put a picture of Clay up, did you!??!! That poor child probably doesn't recognize me without a camera in my hand :)! Here's one of him standing up - He loves to stand up and has got some strong little legs!!! And that darn paci... we've got tired of picking it up all the time, so now it stays attached to him! I can't wait for the day when he can put it in his mouth by himself!

Home Sweet Home!

I haven't even blogged about the new house we're in the process of building on Lake Guntersville in Scottsboro, but I finally got some pictures downloaded of what it looks like so far! A little background on this massive project we've been working on since July or so: We bought the lot as an investment a couple of years ago and then tried to sell it. Well, with the economy so bad, land is not selling AT ALL so we decided to build a house on it. I found a plan online that I LOVED and we started building this summer! So far, my husband has been taking care of almost everything and I haven't had to worry about a thing - yet! Once we start on the inside, it will probably become my baby! I'm very excited about it and think it's going to turn out gorgeous! We're hoping it will be finished by the end of February or early March!

Here are recent pictures we took last week:

View of the Front

Side View - garage is off the back
Back of the house

And here is what it is supposed to look like when it's finished:

Front of House
Back of house (we won't be doing that nice pool, boo!)

Second Day of Daycare

Ha!! I'm really not going to blog about every day of Clay's daycare, but we did have a bit of an eventful day! Mark and I went to pick little Clay up from his 2nd day of daycare (he was sound asleep again!) and as we are driving through the parking lot, some girl backed right into our car! I'm thinking she was around college age because she worked there and had to call her "daddy" when the accident happened. I saw her backing out and LAID on my horn for a good long time - plenty of time for her to hit her brakes and not hit us, but she plowed into the front passenger side of my car (ok - it wasn't really a "plowing"... I guess you can't consider going a couple miles an hour "plowing"). I'm sure you are all wondering why she didn't hit her brakes when surely she heard me honking my horn... hmmm... let's see... Maybe it was because of the BLARING rap music coming from her car! As soon as the accident happened Mark and I jumped out of the car and could hear the loud music coming from her electric blue Kia. She gets out of the car and I ask her if she heard me honking the horn and she said "no" (to which Mark responded - under his breath, of course - "Probably because of that darn music!" - yes, folks, I cleaned that statement up a bit for this rated "G" blog.) Anyways, because it's on private property, the police couldn't do anything about it, so we have to settle it amongst ourselves. I've already called their insurance agent and hopefully this will all be settled quickly. Everyone involved in the accident was unharmed (even little Clay - thank goodness!) and the car is still drivable... it's mainly now an inconvenience to get it fixed! Oh well! Hopefully Clay's 3rd day of daycare will not be as eventful!

On a lighter note, I did manage to take a couple cute pictures of his outfit he wore to daycare today. I guess you could say that this is in honor of poor Tommy Tubberville for getting fired... I can't believe we fired him after 1 bad season! Ridiculous!

First Day of Daycare

Well... Clay made it through his first day at daycare - and so did I :)! Mark went with me to drop him off because he was afraid I would lose it and not leave him, but I did good! I didn't cry once (so far)! I teared up a little bit on the ride over, but no actual tears fell. We took him to his room and Miss Velma said that if she had a gold star she'd give it to me for doing so well with packing up his diaper bag and labeling everything! Of course I had packed it up the night before - just to make sure I had everything my baby might need! I knew I was leaving him in good hands because Miss Velma and Miss Martha have been there for years! Before we left the lady in the office said that I could call and check on him if I needed to... but I resisted the huge temptation and didn't call. When it was time to pick him up, I couldn't get there soon enough! When we got there he was sound asleep. He got an excellent report - drank all his milk, went for a couple of stroller rides, played with Payne and Patrick, and loved the mobile with the toys hanging from it. Hopefully it will get easier taking him each time!

And, of course, I got some pictures before we left the house! I did resist the urge to take the camera with me and take pictures at the daycare (I think that would have REALLY embarassed Mark). We'll save that for kindergarten :)!

See... No tears!!

All ready to go!

So Much to be Thankful For!!!

Better late than never on my Thanksgiving post!

This year I have so much to be thankful for. I have a wonderful husband... wonderful family... wonderful friends... and 12 weeks ago today I was blessed with the most beautiful baby in the world! For Thanksgiving we went to Atlanta and celebrated with my parents, sister, brother-in-law and niece with a yummy lunch. I, of course, ate WAY too much! After that we went to Mark's cousin's house and had a few beverages and snacks. This was the first time his aunt and cousins got to meet Clay and the first time we got to meet his cousin's 5 month old baby, Kayden (which, by the way, Clay is pretty close to the same size - if not slightly larger). I took tons of pictures!!! Enjoy!

Clay sporting his VERY cute sweater vest compliments of my mom

Family Photo in Atlantic Station

Another family photo - Clay was not thrilled with getting his pic taken

My sister, Juli and I
Clay and his cousins: Grace, Cole, Ellie, Ansley, and Kayden
Pooped out after a long day

Clay in his cute overalls