My Favorite Vegetable

I am a pretty picky eater. While I've come a long way, there are still probably less than ten vegetables that I will eat.

I love, love, love sweet potatoes! I will eat them in any form, but my favorite preparation is to roast them.




I like to drizzle them in olive oil and maple syrup and then sprinkle them with salt, black pepper, thyme, and cayenne pepper. Roast in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes, stirring once in the middle of cooking.



Yum! They are the perfect combination of salt, spice, and sweet and the texture is perfect!

What's your favorite vegetable?

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Thursdays.

Thursdays are my day off during the week.  It is both my favorite day of the week and my least favorite.

I love it because I get to be with Liam bird all day long.

I hate it because I don't get to see my husby until right before I go to bed.

Wordless Wednesday

Snow. Again.

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Movie Review: Country Strong

While Ryan was at a men's retreat this past weekend, Kirsten and I (and Liam, who was an angel I might add) went to see "Country Strong," and I loved it so much!  Seriously, if you like slightly cheesy, depressing, predictable movies with great music, costumes, and acting then I highly recommend this film.  I thought Gwyneth Paltrow did a phenomenal job and I was very impressed with her singing.  It was also really neat to see a movie filmed in Nashville.  We kept saying, "I know where that is!"  One of my former employees was in the movie (as the doctor in the end), so that was really cool to see as well!

This is my favorite song from the film, I've had it stuck in my head since Saturday.

Five on Friday...

Confessions...

1). I have stooped to the very low level of watching The Bachelor. It happened by accident, but I got sucked in and now I cannot stop watching. It's like a train wreck of ridiculousness. And, I love it. Sorry. In all actuality, I hate the concept and lack of morals portrayed on the show. Every week it reminds me of how blessed I am to have Ryan. By the way, Emily is my favorite. Hate Michelle.

2). I have also been sucked into the Taylor Swift world. I can't help it, she's a catchy little writer. I'm not saying I think she's a good singer, I just can't get the darn songs out of my head! I also think her love life is a bit of a train wreck. Perhaps she should try out for the bachelor?!

3). I think I am completely abusing the "breast feeding diet." I'm pretty sure that I will regret being in the habit of eating ice cream and gobs of peanut butter everyday when I am no longer burning tons of calories. For now, it is nice to eat whatever I want and still lose weight. Did I mention I'm starving all the time?

4). I'm ready for a vacation. I love my job, and I'm glad to be back at work. But I definitely miss just sitting and holding my baby all day. That's the most fun job of all! It's a good thing I have three weeks of vacation to use by October. I need to start taking some long weekends!

5). There is a fine line between wanting your child to grow and thrive and wanting them to stay tiny forever. If you saw my last post, you can probably guess which side of the line I'm on lately. On the other side, that tiny little baby didn't coo and laugh and smile his head off at me!

Also, I just realized I never published my final pregnancy highlights post! Click here to see it!

Wordless Wednesday: Flashback

Where did my tiny baby go?

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a few of my favorite things, baby edition

I know a lot of people who are having, or have just had, babies. I'm still pretty knew to this, but I thought I would post a few of my must haves that we love for our little man.

This is the MAM pacifier. It's the smallest one that we could find at target and it fits Liam's little face perfectly. When he was in the NICU and just home we used the hospital paci that was vanilla scented. He really like them, but I was worried that he would get attached and we would be up a creek if we lost them since you can't buy them anywhere.

This is the Halo Swaddle Sleepsack that you can buy at Target. We have had a lot of success with Liam sleeping really well when he is swaddled up tightly. We used receiving blankets when he was tiny, but when he started to get stronger and bigger we switched him to the sleepsack and it works really well.

I am a big time Aveeno fan, so when I saw their baby products I knew that was what I wanted to use on Liam. We have loved the scent of the body wash and the lotion is wonderful on our dry little baby.

This is Liam's owl lovie from bocobaby. I am in love with this particular fabric and Liam has several items in this theme. I cannot recommend this etsy shop enough, I also cannot stop buying gifts from her lines! Love everything!

These are Norwex baby washcloths. They are micro-fiber cloths that let you clean and exfoliate without the need of soap. I use these particularly on Liam's face. The fabric is so soft and really helps to get rid of dry skin! I must admit that I've claimed the pink one as my own and I love it!

I'm sure there's a lot of stuff that I'm forgetting, but these are my favorites off the top of my head. What's your favorite baby item?

Wordless Wednesday

Bath Time!


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A Company of Heroes

Major Dick Winters passed away on January 2nd after a remarkable 92 years of life.

I've recently watched, and fallen in love with, the "Band of Brothers" series. Major Winters stole my heart a little bit. When Ryan told me about his death this evening I shed real tears (still shedding them actually). I think I truly thought I could meet him someday and give him a hug as a token of my gratitude. If you haven't seen "Band of Brothers," I cannot recommend it more. I was sad when it was over and immediately began researching the "brothers" that were still alive. The story of what these men did for each other as they fought for our country is truly remarkable and humbling.

Great States

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This is a map of all of the states that I have visited.  Can you tell I'm from the south?  :)  It's a dream of mine to visit every state during my lifetime.  I've got a ways to go, and I have no trips planned to visit any new states but I've got a lot of life left in me!  My grandparents were able to accomplish this dream for themselves after they retired.  Is it bad that I'm 26 and already looking forward to retirement so that I can travel?  I'm thinking Ryan and I need to come up with a fun vacation to one of those blank states this summer!

24...How many have you visited?  Which is your favorite?  Arkansas and Colorado are tied for my first place spot.  :)

Mom Brain

Last night around 6pm I roasted some delicious sweet potatoes. This morning around 4:45am I discovered that I never turned the oven off. Awesome.


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Striving for Goodness

"Children are great imitators, so give them something great to imitate." -Anonymous

This is a quote that I am truly striving to live by. I want to be the best version of myself in front of my son. Nothing frustrates me more than seeing someone behave in an ugly manner, and I know that I fall into that category sometimes. I would hate for Liam to learn from my bad example that it is okay to:

a). treat people badly

b). litter

c). curse

d). repay evil with evil

e). talk on the phone while ordering

You get the idea. I know he is a little too small to be hanging onto my every move, but before we know it he will be big enough to follow my example. I hope and pray that I can be an influence for good. And, I hope that when I fail I will be humble enough to tell him that I've done wrong.

3 on Thursday

1). Work kicked my butt yesterday. I was physically exhausted at the end of the day. We were busy, I am rusty. My boss and some of his peers were in the store pretty much my whole shift helping me get ready for a big visit next week. I managed to get all of my duties done as well as pumping, but did not have time to eat! I hoping it comes back to me quickly.

2). Today was my first day off since starting back to work and I was already needing it badly. I have pretty much just laid around the house all day snuggling with my little man. I have a feeling my days off aren't going to be very productive. :)

3). Ryan is making homemade chicken noodle soup right now and it smells close to being done, so I'm going to sign off and enjoy my little family before my 8:00pm bedtime.


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SMARTer in 2011.

I have some goals for this year. I'm not going to call them resolutions because I feel like that just sets me up for failure, but goals seems much more friendly. At work, I am frequently asked to set "SMART" goals for my business. This means that they are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. For example, if I were to say that I wanted to lose weight, that is not specific. If I wanted to lose 50 pounds, that's not attainable. If I wanted to lose 20 pounds by February, that's not realistic. You get the picture.

In 2011 (I keep typing 2001, why?!)...

I will print and frame one picture for my home each month. Currently, the only framed photos in our home are either bridal or engagement shots. We have been married for 4.25 years, it's beyond ridiculous that those are the only hard copy pictures on my shelves and walls.

I will make sure that we call our grandparents (all 7 of them) at least once a month. I am a self professed phone hater. I just really don't like talking on the phone. Since we live so far away from both of our families we rarely see our grandparents and I would really like to do a better job of keeping in touch with them.

I will mail handwritten birthday cards to our parents, siblings, nieces, and nephews. I used to never miss a birthday, but in recent years I have slacked off a lot. I don't think I mailed a single card last year! Sorry, family!

I will make sure we have one date night every month. Ryan and I are notorious for dates. I think the fact that we didn't really date before we were married has made us love dating each other so much. Now that Liam bird is in our lives this has the potential to fall to the wayside. I know we have had at least 12 people volunteer to babysit our little bird, so I intend to take them up on their offers!

That's all I am going to focus on goal wise. Of course, I am going to strive to be an amazing wife, mother, and friend, but that's not something I can really turn into a SMART goal. Hopefully, I will be able to blog about most of these things, too. Be on the look out! I'm excited!

Working Girl

I did it! Woohoo! First if all, thank you so much for your prayers, kind thoughts, and sweet words. You're enccouragement was truly what I needed to get through this day!

My alarm went off at 3:45am and I was miraculously out of bed before 4. I got ready, packed up, nursed Liam and hopped into my defrosted car (thanks Ryan!). I made it to work without any tears and only had a mini meltdown when I tried to figure out all of the things I needed to get done.

I pulled myself together and started with what I remembered how to do and just moved on from there! I've always had success in dealing with mountains of work by just taking it one thing at a time, I buckled down and got everything that I needed to accomplish done in record time! I even pumped twice and still left early!

It was so nice to be welcomed back by all of my sweet customers and my team, I think they really missed me!

Today was just an admin day for me, so I didn't have to work on the floor at all. I am hopeful that I will pick right back up on Wednesday when I'm on the floor all day long.

Ryan and Liam did great after a bit of a fussy morning, I got to come home to this...




Now, I'm going to love on my sweet baby!

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3 Months Old!

Liam Bird,
You're infancy is blowing past us! I cannot believe that you are a quarter of a year old (sob)! This month has been a really fun one with lots of firsts for you.

You took your first road trip to Arkansas, and got to meet 4 of your 7 great grand parents. It was so special to get to see them loving on you, especially Peepaw who was seriously ill this summer. You did fantastic in the car, basically sleeping the entire drive. You were also a champ at adapting to sleeping in two new places and being held by approximately twenty different people over the course of five days.

You also had your first Christmas! Your daddy and I were so excited to share our favorite holiday with you! We had a nice relaxing day at home in Nashville with just our little family. It was perfect. Santa brought you a baby einstein dvd and music player as well as some owl burp cloths, bibs, and lovey. We kept marveling at how you will be a toddler next year at Christmas, it's crazy!

You have grown so much this month! When we took you to the doctor for a cold two weeks ago you weighed 10 pounds 5 ounces! So, I would bet you are an even 11 now. You are in between sizes in both clothes and diapers which is a little frustrating. Your newborn clothes are a tad too short, but 0-3 month clothes swallow your skinny body. You have completely outgrown newborn diapers, but the size one diapers are still quite big. This further solidifies our need to get enough cloth diapers to switch over completely (the ones we plan to use are adjustable from 10-35 pounds, so we can customize them to fit your perfectly).

Developmentally, we were told to go by your due date which would make your 7 weeks old instead of 13. But, you seem to be developing right on track with your true age. You are getting really good at holding your head up and you can use your arms to lift up from your tummy. You have been looking around and observing things a lot more this month. You love to look at anything on the ceiling, fans, lights, chandeliers, etc. You have also been smiling up a storm. I love peeking over your crib and watching your face light up when you see me, even if it is 2am. You are especially smiley in the mornings. You have started using your sweet voice a lot recently and we love it when you "talk" to us with little coos and squeals. You are precious, little man.

You are a pretty good little sleeper and a fantastic eater. During the day you still eat every 3 hours, but at night you stretch it out to 4 or 5. So, we usually swaddle you up and put you down to bed after your 9pm feeding and then you usually wake up for a little snack around 2am and then again at 6am. You would prefer to wake for the day then, but you usually will take a nap with mommy and daddy until 8 or 9am. Hopefully, when I go back to work next week, you will adapt to eating at 4am before I have to leave.

Your daddy and I love you so very much. We love to snuggle with you and could stare at your sweet little face for hours. We are so excited to watch your continued growth and development!

Love you forever,
Mama