Ellorie Lange

Last year was so crazy, did you know we had a BABY?? You would if I ever bothered to blog about it.... But between adding onto our house and learning the ropes of being a mother of two girls I just didn't have my act together to make it happen. Better late than never...

Introducing Ellorie Lange, born on Dec. 18, 2010 and weighing in at 7 lbs 2 oz and 18.5" long.

I would be lying if I told you we didn't have fun in the hospital awaiting her arrival. Having a baby is pretty darn exciting if you aren't dying in pain (like I was for 3 days the first time....). After a "cocktail" and a fabulous soak in the tub I had a really great epidural. Our nurse was one that I knew through my old boss and she was awesome. There were lots of stories told and laughs shared. It was an awesome experience for sure.  

Daddy being silly waiting for her to come...

Proud Mommy & Daddy holding her for the first time

Sisterly love

Super cute newborn(ish) photos courtesy of the awesome Caroline Meyers (thanks!!). You would not believe what our house looked like while she was taking these pictures. Let's just say there were quite a few people crammed into a tiny play room (the only room on our first floor that wasn't under construction....).

First laughs, captured by Granddad. Thank goodness he was taking pictures!

Matching big sister for Easter with the family. Not quite sitting up at this point.

More sisterly love, even the dog wants in!

She learned to crawl around 6 months, a little earlier than Maddie did. She decided that wasn't enough, she had to go ahead and master crawling to sitting and sitting to crawling the next day... We have to keep Mommy on her toes!

She used to sleep like this (and I'm the dorky Mom who takes pictures of the monitors):

Out walking with Daddy. She is SUCH a Daddy's girl!

Our mini vacation to DC, where I got the best call ever. Eeeee! I am a little strict when it comes to schedules and this vacation was the first time we had ever just not had one. There were quite a few naps in the stroller and thankfully she is a great baby who was willing to nap on the go. It made our trip so much fun!

They LOVE playing together, can't get enough! The girls really have become great friends. We still have daily struggles over toys but we're getting there. 

She had cake well before her first birthday (2nd child...) but you know she had to wear the same #1 onesie that her big sister turned one in. 

 She loves coupons (like her mama!) or maybe just ripping them apart and spreading them all over my office?

She's ALWAYS laughing and smiling and keeping me laughing and smiling

 She's totally the 2nd baby (who likes the get in the dog crate and chew on dog bones and instead of stopping her I whip out my camera......)

She's now 14 months old. She's into everything these days, climbing anything she can get her hands on. She demands to feed herself everything off of a plate at the table like the 3 year old she insists she is. She's a total mess most days. But she's amazing and she has brought so much joy to our family. We love her so much!

We are so lucky!

Super Bowl Menu

I'm one of those people who likes the Super Bowl for the food and the commercials, not so much for the football. Since there is way more football on during the Super Bowl than commercials I thought I would take a few minutes (while my husband is talking to/yelling at the TV) to share our menu. Our plans to get together with family were squashed due to never-ending sickness so we were on our own tonight. Since it was just us I didn't really plan much and found myself digging through the pantry and the fridge this afternoon trying to come up with something.

Here's what I came up with:

Sweet Chicken Bacon Wraps
Paula Deen

2 chicken breasts cut into 1" cubes
4-5 slices bacon (use a good kind that you really like)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp chili powder

Spray broiler pan with nonstick cooking spray. Mix brown sugar and chili powder in a shallow bowl with a fork. Wrap each cube of chicken with small piece of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Dredge in the brown sugar/chili powder mixture (I used the fork to pat it on). Place on broiler pan. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and bacon is crispy.

This was the hands down favorite. Andy and I loved it and both girls gobbled it up. Paula does not disappoint! I didn't even use half of the brown sugar/chili powder mixture so this was really not too high in calories. And can you believe no butter?


Franks Sweet Chili Cream Cheese Dip

Bottle of Franks Sweet Chili Sauce
8oz block of cream cheese (or whatever you have in the fridge)

Pour chili sauce over the cream cheese, voila! Serve with crackers.

This was beyond easy and I was pretty impressed. I got 2 bottles for free at Harris Teeter this week (on sale for 1.47 eVic and had a .75/1 coupon). I wasn't really sure it was going to be that good, but we really liked it!



Cucumber Sandwiches

Tub of chive and onion cream cheese
Sour dough bread (we used honey wheat since it was what we had)
Cucumbers, thinly sliced

You can be fancy and cut circles in the bread or be lazy (like I was tonight) and just cut it into squares. Spread the cream cheese on and top with a cucumber slice. This is always a family favorite, especially with the kids!


I also had a frozen Paula Deen Shore Is Good Seafood Dip and an Allouette Low Fat Garlic & Herb Dip as well. We served those with crackers and carrots. The seafood dip was good but I know it was crazy high in calories and not to mention salt. I'm sure you could make something better and more healthy. The garlic & herb dip was great and would be a good buy in the future if you didn't feel like making something.

What did you have?

Happy February!

How is is February already? Today when I picked up Maddie from preschool there was a big pink heart on her class' bulletin board for their upcoming Valentine's Day party. All of the kids are supposed to sign up to bring something and would it surprise you that my daughter ALWAYS wants to bring sweet treats? Always. No matter if Mommy feels like making them or not, ha. Nothing we can't handle and I'm drooling over some of the ideas on Pinterest already... 

But that got me thinking about Valentines, so fun! Last year she HAD to have Olivia Valentines to give to her classmates and they were super cute. Being the frugal lady I am, I saved the remaining ones hoping to use them again this year. Unfortunately for me there were 11 left and she has 14 classmates. So much for that idea! So needless to say we'll be buying new ones...

And you know I'm obsessed with Tiny Prints so naturally I swooned when I got an email about their Valentines. I had no idea they made personalized Valentines for kids, how did I miss this?! They're not even that expensive either (wallet excitedly screams "yay!"). 

How cute are these?

 Picture Puzzle

 Skunk Friends

 Owlways Friends

How cute would this be for both girls to send to their play group friends?

 Great Pear

 Nutty Squirrel

I think those are hilarious and I love them, hands down the sheep is my favorite. But I already know which one Maddie will insist on me buying...

Little Ballerina

What can I say? The girl is obsessed with dancing! 

And do you know what the best part is? Tiny Prints is offering bloggers 50 free classroom Valentine's cards for posting about their awesome Valentine Cards and Valentines Day Greeting Cards. I think they're super cute and am so excited to be participating in this campaign. I know Maddie is going to be thrilled to hand out her ballerina Valentine's :-)


I really love Tiny Prints. They have great, quality products and they are so generous to bloggers. They have super nice people too! If you want to get involved with them you can...


Follow them on Twitter
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Thanks Tiny Prints!