Pictures

He likes to hold on to it so he can chunk it to cry :)


He slept so soundly like this for all of 10 minutes while mommy stood at the end of the bassinet looking at him & trying to make sure he was asleep. As soon as I walked off, he woke up crying.


Drying off with our puppy dog towel.


Sweet boy!


He's this alert pretty much all day long. I think we have the only newborn that doesn't sleep all day - or even half of it! I can't believe how much he has changed and how much his personality has developed in just 3 weeks! He'll be 4 weeks old on Tuesday. Oh, how time is flying!

Cheesy Zucchini Casserole

Before Denver was born, I cooked up a lot of stuff and filled our deep freezer so that I wouldn't have to worry about cooking once we got home. One of the things I made was a Cheesy Zucchini Casserole that I found on allrecipes.com We had never tried it before but one of the fabulous things about allrecipes is that you can type in ingredients that you have and then search recipes based on them. A fantastic way to ensure your ingredients don't go to waste because you don't know what to do with them. Anyhow, I layed the casserole dish in the fridge yesterday morning and then about an hour before D was supposed to get up, I put the dish in the oven for an hour at 400 degrees. It was delicious so I thought I'd share the recipe (I didn't take any pictures): Ingredients: 1/2 cup uncooked white rice 1 cup water 1 pound pork sausage 1/4 cup chopped onion 1 cup diced fresh tomato 4 cups cubed zucchini squash 2 (4 ounce) cans sliced mushrooms, drained 1 (8 ounce) package velveeta cheese, cubed 1 pinch dried oregano salt and pepper to taste Directions: Combine the rice and water in a small saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until tender. Remove from heat, and set aside. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Cook sausage and onion in a large skillet over medium heat, stirring until evenly browned. Drain excess grease. Stir in zucchini and tomatoes, and cook until tender. Stir in rice, mushrooms, and cheese. Season with oregano, salt, and pepper. Spread into a 9x13 inch baking dish, or a 2 quart casserole dish. Bake, uncovered, for 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned and bubbly. Because I was freezing the casserole, I didn't bake it. I let it cool, put on an airtight lid, labeled and dated the contents and then stuck in the freezer. Enjoy!

Getting my freezer ready for a baby!

In the few weeks before Denver was born, I spent time cooking up a bunch of stuff and stocking my freezer for when we got home and we didn't want nor feel like cooking. We made a trip to the Farmer's Market and spent about $75 and then went to the grocery store and spent about $100 (on meat, butter, oil, eggs, cheese, etc.) and then got home and got to cooking! My plan was to make as much as I could with as little as possible and not waste anything! (We're bad about getting stocked up at the Farmer's Market and then stuff going bad before we use it). I stretched things as far as I could while still making everything "hearty" to please my husband. For example, I bought two whole fryers and boiled them (with poultry seasoning, chicken bouillabaisse and pepper) then split the chickens in half and used half for a chicken pot pie and the other half for chicken and rice. Then split the other chicken between chicken enchiladas and chicken tortilla soup and then used all the broth from the chickens instead of buying chicken broth. I bought various dry beans, a 5 pound bag of rice, tomatoes (lots and lots), tomatillas, peppers, carrots, potatoes, celery, onions, garlic, squash, zucchini, corn, okra, lemons, bananas, cabbage, mustard greens, purple hull peas, and zipper cream peas. I cooked all the peas and greens and put those up. Then I started cooking beans and put some of those up and then used the rest in recipes (chicken tortilla soup, gunk, etc). Then I stewed tomatoes and split them up between okra & tomatoes and spaghetti sauce. I continued on like that until everything was all used up! Then, I started making pancakes, muffins and bread to put up. I kept a serving or two out (of muffins and pancakes) to eat the day I made them and then froze the rest. Here is the stuff I made: Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Beef Burrito Pie Chicken Pot Pie Chicken Enchiladas Cheesy Zucchini Casserole Baked Potato Soup Ham & Baked Potato Soup Chicken Tortilla Soup Gumbo Squash Casserole Cabbage Roll Casserole "Gunk" (pinto beans, stewed tomatoes, hamburger meat & rice) Black Beans Pinto Beans Boiled Cabbage Steamed Squash Glazed Carrots Tomatilla Salsa Zipper Cream Peas Purple Hull Peas Sausage & Veggie Medley Okra & Tomatoes Mustard Greens Potato Salad Chicken and Rice Lemon Bars Buttermilk Pancakes Light Oat Bread Banana Bread Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins Orange Juice Muffins Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice Then, I finished my freezer with some ready-made things to make life a little easier: Frozen Vegetables Frozen Fish Garlic Bread Frozen Lasagna Cinnamon Rolls Crescent Rolls Grands Buttermilk Biscuits Hot Dogs Hot Dog Buns Denver is 3 weeks old and this is what my freezer looks like:


Believe it or not, it had more than this in it!


We'll be eating on this "stash" for awhile! This definitely was the smartest thing I did before Denver arrived. It has been a lifesaver!

Just My Luck!

Because if I didn't have bad luck, I'd have no luck at all my "new" dryer is messed up! The first few times I used it, it worked fine. Then as the days went on it was taking me longer and longer for everything to get dry. Then, I noticed the dryer wasn't getting hot at all - even after I ran the 70 minute heavy duty cycle. Then, we knew something was really wrong when after 5 or 6 of those heavy duty cycles, even Denver's clothes weren't dry. That's a serious problem. Because I'm a firm believer than Google holds the answer to just about everything - I turned to google to do some research about the dryer and possible solutions to our problem. D got busy following all of the instructions that I found - checking the vent line, breaker box, continuity of some lines on the back of the dryer and then ultimately the heating element. We didn't want to assume that it was that off the bat "just in case" but it wound up being that. So, D ordered a new one because we found directions on installing a new one. It should be here in 3-5 days and then hopefully my laundry service will be back in business! Do you know how hard it is with a newborn not to be able to wash and dry quickly? Wish us luck that we'll (I'm clearly referring to D) be able to fix it and not have any more issues! :)

My Babies

Coco has been very good with Denver. She gets upset when he's upset - especially when she can't see him, like when he's in the bath tub or on the changing table but they have been sharing mommy's attention & lap well.


Here they both are sharing my lap, just looking at each other. Aren't they sweet?

Sunday Funday

Before my in-laws left to go back home, we decided to go eat lunch. Since Denver is colicky, I was very apprehensive about taking him out. I didn't want to get there and him start screaming and then spend the rest of lunch in the car trying to calm him down. D insisted that I get out of the house so I got Denver dressed and decided to attempt an outing. I was able to get him to sleep for about 45 minutes while I packed his bag and got ready. Here he is asleep in his pack-n-play (in the bassinet).


Doesn't he look adorable? Then when we got home, we hung out, watched tv and did a lot of rocking (when Denver got fussy again). D took him and was able to get him calmed down and they snuggled for awhile so mommy could eat dinner.


My sweet boys. Both of them getting tired!


I just love those two! All in all, we had a fun day and although there is still a lot of gas issues and crying - Denver seems to be doing a lot better than he was. Pray that he continues to feel better everyday!

Grandsons

Pops was finally able to hold both of his grandbabies at the same time today since Bridgett, Andy, Clay, Jackie and him came into town for Jackie's birthday to see Denver. Here is Pops, Clay (10 months) and Denver (18 days).


Can you tell he is in Heaven?