How Do You Watch Cartoons?

When I was little, I had to eat a carrot while watching Bugs Bunny cartoons.  For Nate -- every morning he puts on his superhero cape and mittens to watch Team Umizoomi.  Spaceship pjs and OJ are also a requirement.

Warm Up with Chili

It's been a chilly day here and it's going to be an even colder night.  What better way to warm up than with a hearty bowl of chicken chili.  This recipe is in heavy rotation in our house during the winter months.  It's easy to make, smells great and tastes even better.

Southwest White Chicken Chili (serves 6)

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into cubes

4 tsp. chili powder

2 tsp. ground cumin

1 large onion, chopped

1 medium green pepper, chopped

1 can condensed cream of chicken soup

3/4 C. water (see note below)

1 1/2 C. frozen whole kernel corn

2 cans (15 oz. each) white kidney beans, rinsed and drained

Optional: sour cream, Cheddar cheese, cilantro

Heat oil in 4-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add chicken, chili powder, cumin, onion, and pepper and cook until chicken is cooked through and veggies are tender, stirring often.

Stir soup, water, corn and beans into saucepan and heat to a boil.  Reduce heat to low.  Cover and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Sprinkle with sour cream, Cheddar cheese or cilantro to serve.      

Note:  adding only 3/4 C. of water will make this chili very thick, especially the leftovers.  I like mine to be almost like a soup so I add additional water or chicken stock.  

Be Still My Heart

My Valentine #1:  didn't want to cooperate yet resigned himself to a photo while he held his Valentine's Day craft and treat.

My Valentine #2:  had no choice but cooperate while I took her photo since she can't maneuver her own limbs.

My Valentine #3:  my partner in raising #1 and #2.  My love.  My best friend.  My gardener (grows his own lettuce).

Wardrobe Malfunction

It's vital that all members of the Cook Household show their support for our favorite sports teams.  There's a lot of blue and gold in this house (Go Bruins!) and a lot of black and gold (Go Saints!).  So it's only fitting that just after Chelsea was born, I purchased this onesie:

I loved that it was over-the-top girlie and would look super cute next to Lee in his Drew Brees jersey.  The tag says "0-6 months."  It looked pretty big and I kept eying it in the closet and waiting for the perfect moment for Chelsea to wear it.  Of course, this has been a depressing season for the Saints but it's still Chelsea's first football season so she was going to wear it regardless.  Last weekend after watching numerous playoff games, I grabbed the onesie and decided this was the moment.  Oh, yes, this was the moment....see for yourself:

Um, not quite what I had in mind.  I could barely get it on one arm and then I thought I'd have to cut it off of her.  Ruffles on onesies do not stretch.  Like, not an inch.  It was so sad.  So I took it off and that was the end of my girlie Saints onesie.  Back to the drawing board...

I Blinked and Christmas was Over

As much as I love decorating for Christmas, I was dreading the 2+ hours I spend unraveling light strands and bringing boxes in from the garage.  Soooo we broke down and bought an artificial tree.  Christmas is long over and I'm still a little sad about it.  But getting the tree all decked out in 30 minutes was pure bliss.  Maybe we'll go back to a real tree one year...

 

Most of our decorations have remained the same but I try to shake things up as much as I can.  Here's our dining room light fixture -- the ornaments are new for Christmas 2012.  Thank you Pinterest for the idea!

 

Love this boy so much!

Another Pinterest steal.  The lights got hot really quickly so this photo shoot lasted all of 3 minutes.  They also took a beating when Nate dragged them down the driveway so I guess we'll need new Christmas lights next year.  Oops.

 

I think this way Nate's favorite Christmas activity.  I put a small artificial tree in his room while he was at school.  There was also a nice selection of ornaments on his table (Mommy-approved for possible breakage).  He was so excited to see them when he got home.  And I did a good job of letting him decorate on his own....I had to calm my inner Type A and suppress the urge to "help" him balance out the decorations.  He was thrilled with how it turned out and it was fun seeing him so happy.

 

Photo props are hot right now so we created some and took them to a friend's party.  Everybody seemed to have a good time with them (PS Chelsea was asleep during this photo).

 

There she is!  Chelsea on her first Christmas morning.

Had to include this pic of Nate's nativity set since it appears he has the Walker organizer gene.  Everybody is grouped appropriately.  I'm proud.  And a little scared.

Balancing

I have wanted to update this blog many times over the last 2 months but you know how it is with a new baby. Busy, busy, busy! And crazy, crazy, crazy.  This is what it's like with a newborn:

• I once realized, on the way to pick Nate up from preschool, that I had forgotten to brush my teeth that morning.  Altoid Mints in the glove compartment = brushing your teeth.  Yes or no??
• I'm starting to think that my hair actually looks good when it hasn't been washed for 4 or so days.  Yes or no??
•  I now know that Little House on the Prairie and I Love Lucy are on at 4am.

You get the picture.  Anyway, here's a quick recap in photos of what's been happening with us since Chelsea moved in:

Lee and Chelsea back in October.  

Love her Elvis snarl. 

 A happy boy with his new swing set.

 Chelsea slept through her first Halloween 

(that's a baby orange...cute!)

 One cool baseball player and his little sis

 get ready to go trick-or-treating.

 Lobster club sandwich -- yumo!!  

Our 7th anniversary lunch date...

 Somebody finally realized that bike riding is super fun.

 Live a little -- eat a quesadilla with chopsticks.

Chelsea's sorority pose.  

She often sleeps with one hand tucked under her chin.

 Girlfriend is large and in charge.

She wears 3-6 month clothes at 7 weeks.

Played around with my camera after this weekend's rain storm.

Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving!  Now, on to Christmas....

Introducing...

Miss Chelsea Walker Cook

Born October 9, 2012; 7:29 a.m.

9 lbs. 5 oz.

21.5 inches

Twiddling My Thumbs

My due date is tomorrow and Little Miss Cook is taking her sweet time in making her debut.  I honestly never imagined my pregnancy would last this long since Nate arrived early.  But here I am, week 40.  Gotta say -- not a big fan of the last 3 weeks.  Now I understand the "the last trimester is a killer" comments. 

Here's what we've been up to while we've been waiting:

Nate practicing being a big brother (the role of little sis is played by Ruby the Bear). He was a little rough with sis/Ruby so we'll have to work on what "gentle" means.  Oy vey.

 Finally hung up some artwork in Baby Girl's corner of our bedroom.  These illustrations came from an old book I bought at the Salvation Army.  Gotta love 2 bucks for pretty pictures.  The book was fairly damaged on the spine so I tore out the pages I liked and glued them on foam core....in California you don't put anything heavy above a baby's crib (earthquakes!!).

This is how I know that 40 weeks have flown by....I'm constantly refilling my weekly pill box with prenatal vitamins.  I take 4 prenatals and 2 vitamin D pills a day.  Plus Levoxyl for my thyroid condition.  Then the doc decided to add this to the mix ---

That's an iron supplement.  I take 2 of those a day.  And I have to be careful when I take it so that the absorption isn't affected (not with dairy, not with antacids, not with the Levoxyl, etc).  Having so many pills to take has made my head spin.  I'm constantly asking myself "wait, did I already take my iron?"  So it finally dawned on me to quickly write the date on each pill backing. That's my tip to you. It has helped my foggy memory tremendously.

Got started on my Christmas quilt and sewed all 40 of my blocks.  Now I just need to sew the blocks together.  Not sure when that's gonna happen.  I'd really love to get this quilt done before this Christmas.  Isn't that chevron print the best?  I'm in love with these fabrics!

 I found this little dress on a doll that I had as a kid.  I'm going to try putting it on Baby Girl. 

When there was a slight twinge of Autumn in the air last Friday, Nate and I made gingerbread cookies.  He picked out the cookie cutters from my collection: a pumpkin, a heart, the #s 2, 3, 4 and 8.  He was a really big helper and did a great job using the cookie cutters.  I was so proud of him -- and a little sad that he's growing up so fast.  I see plenty of baking days together in our future.

4th Birthday Interview

I'm a little late (okay, a lot late) in posting this but I wanted to have it written down somewhere:

Nate's 4th Birthday Interview

Nate replies to my questions

Favorite color:  light pink and dark pink; light red and dark red

Favorite toy: Alphie (also said it's his favorite robot)

Favorite fruit:  pineapple

Favorite TV show:  Octonauts

Favorite thing to eat for lunch:  fish sticks

Favorite game:  soccer; Uno

Favorite snack:  graham crackers and juice

Favorite animal:  elephant

Favorite song:  Cool, Cool Summer (Vacation Bible School song)

Favorite book:  Henry in Love

Best friend:  mommy (I swear, I didn't prompt him to say that!)

Favorite thing to do outside:  play with my slide

Favorite drink:  orange juice

Favorite holiday:  Christmas

Favorite thing to do with Mommy:  share my toys

Favorite thing to do with Daddy:  helping me clean up (what?!?)

Like to take to bed with you at night:  Buzz Lightyear

Favorite thing to eat for breakfast:  pancakes

What do you want to be when you grow up?  said the following very quickly "When I'm 5, I'll go to Uncle Eric's; drive in my own car; when I'm an adult, I'll fly a rocket ship to outer space (100 planets I need to go to); I'll be a big boy and maybe I'll get to climb a ladder."