Wordless Wednesday

Sorry I haven't been posting as frequently lately. I've actually been procuring some freelance work that I can do from home (hooray!) to the detriment of my poor little blog (boo!) Hopefully, now that I'm in the swing of things, I'll get back to regular posting. I definitely have some new product reviews I want to share with you!

That said, here's an adorable Not-So-Wordless Wednesday photos of the little man with the big man. They've both got this mama wrapped around their fingers.

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To Andrew at 6 months

Dear Andrew,

You are 6 months old today and you are mama and dada's heart. We thank God for every single moment with you, every silly laugh and smile. How did you get so big so fast? It seems like just yesterday you were kicking inside mama's tummy. Just a couple days ago you were up on your hands and knees, ready to crawl. Is it wrong to think we have a genius on our hands? :)

I know its impossible, but I can't help but want to record each second with you so that when you're a big boy you'll know how incredibly special and fun this time was. I want you to know how you could just melt everybody's heart with one of your little smirks and how your funny laugh echoed your mama's. How you coughed just because you thought it was funny and raised your eyebrows for effect too. And how you just wouldn't wear your baseball cap forward, turning it to the side like a punk instead!

How you touched my face with your soft, soft hands when nursing, especially after mama and dada returned from our first date night and you cried until we came back (it broke my heart!) How you would stop eating to give me a little grin and how dada could make you smile or fall asleep without doing anything at all! When you're big, I want you to know that your red hair was the most wonderful surprise--and how we couldn't get over the little red tuft of "bear fur" right above your adorable butt (Ok, maybe you won't want that to be public knowledge, but we can't get enough of it!)

You are just the love of so many people's lives--mama and dada's, grandma and grandpa's, Papa Lou's, Uncle Frank's, Uncle Anthony's, and the rest of the gang's too (you're Irish-Croatian-Italian, you have many relatives!).  We love you so much our hearts are full to bursting, and we wouldn't want it any other way.

I can't wait to spend a lifetime with you, falling in love with every single moment and every little thing that you do. Boo boo, my mush, you are an amazing miracle and the best thing that has happened to us. Happy 6 months to you! Here's to us taking on the world together. <3

Every bit of my love,
Mama

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The Versatile Blogger Award

Wow--the wonderful Shandy at Domestically Challenged Momma named me for a Versatile Blogger Award. Thanks so much, Shandy! (Be sure to check out her site--her page banner alone will have you hooked!)

To keep the award going, I'm bestowing it on 15 other bloggers who really are a joy to follow. All you have to do to accept the award is:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award. 
2. Share 7 things about you.
3. Nominate 15 other bloggers.
4. Alert your nominees that they have been awarded.

I posted 10 things about myself here when I accepted the Honest Scraps award, and here are some more interesting tidbits about this Queens mama:

1. I used to like to read fantasy novels when I was younger, mostly for the magical love stories (I would fancy myself a damsel in distress.) I've just started to get back into these kinds of books and I'm really enjoying them. Right now I'm reading Kushiel's Dart, which is about political intrigue and trained pleasure-givers (ok, they are fancy prostitutes). Its super sexy!
2. Because of said fantasy novel fetish, I wanted to name my future daughter Gwenivere growing up. Yeah... not planing to do that anymore.
3. I'm really good at connecting AV equipment, so much so that my husband makes me set up our TV, DVD player, etc! 
4. I used to do flips off my parents diving board, until I got old enough and tall enough to become afraid of breaking my head open.
5. The first time I went skiiing, I was so terrified that I took off my skis and walked down the mountain. They next time (many years after the first), I took a lesson first and was a natural! My husband, on the other hand, didn't fare so well and wanted to throw me off the mountain.
6. One of my favorite pregnancy snacks was a peanut butter, honey and Honey Bunches of Oats sandwich.
7. Being a stay at home mom has renewed by love of Days of Our Lives, talk shows and televised court shows.

My 15 nominated blogs are NinjaPanza, Me and Mine in a Small Town, Cry Me a River of Love and Laughter, Expect Miracles, The Ish Blog, The Chickenista, This Loved Life, The Jakcsy Family, RaisingMy4Sons, Adventures of the Stay at Home Mom, Six Cherries on Top, Our Growing Garden, Miss Cupcake, Mom vs. the Boys, and New to Mom.

These are all among bloggers that I love to read and I hope you'll enjoy stopping by their blogs as well. Have a happy Thursday!

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Martha Stewart saved my (cooking) life!

God knows I have tried hard to become a good cook. Aside from baking, I just seem to fail miserably at making most meal recipes. Even the recipes I try from experts at sites like FoodNetwork.com are a bust. My poor husband was becoming doomed to a life of pasta and chicken cutlets... every day.

But now I have MarthaStewart.com! Have you visited the site before? Martha's recipes are somehow at once simpler and more delicious than anywhere else. Last week I made braised pork chops with cabbage and potatos, coconut noodles with spicy shrimp, cheddar-scallion paninis with green pea soup, tilapia with mango and avocado salsa, and a spicy coconut chicken casserole. I even made peanut butter chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. My husband an I were in heaven!

Even when I didn't have an ingredient (lemongrass for the coconut noodles) or made a substitution (curry powder instead of paste in the chicken casserole) the meals were delicious. I was also able to enter ingredients I had into the recipe finder to come up with on-the-spot meals for the evening. Everything was absolutely amazing. I couldn't believe my tastebuds.

Some other great things about Martha's site are that you can create an account to store recipes and you can send those recipes (and their ingredient list) to a virtual shopping list called Ziplist. With Ziplist you can access and add to your shopping list from your phone via simple text messages.

You can also have special newsletters sent to your inbox such as a "Dinner Tonight" recipe and the dangerous "Cookie of the Day" recipe. You can bet I'm on every newsletter list.

I can't believe I didn't stumble onto Martha Stewart online earlier in all my efforts to become a better cook for my family. Not only is my husband happier now at mealtime, but I feel like I'm putting some real, wholesome food into us all. It makes me one proud mama. Thanks, Martha!

(Credit where credit is due: gorgeous food photos are from the Martha Stewart website.)

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