Friday Five-My date with PW

Last night I met PW (obviously since I am in a picture with her).  She was as nice as I imagined she would be and as expected about 1000+ other ladies in Tulsa also feel that they should be besties with her.  So today's Friday Five is all about my date with the wonderful Ree Drummond.  And just so you know...her and I really would get along fabulously (both OSU fans, both love her cooking, she homeschools and I am thinking of homeschool, the list could go on and on).  So here goes, five things to know before a PW book signing.


1.  When you go to a Pioneer Woman book signing be prepared to wait a very, very, very, very long time.  PW takes time to talk to everyone who is there and is happy to take a picture (or two) together, and sign your book (or books in many cases).  If there are babies involved it will take even longer as PW held lots of babies. 

2.  If you are lucky enough to be at an event where they are serving food from her recent cookbook you must try the Pots de Creme.  Pronounced Po de Krehm.  If they don't have any, you should go home and make some.

3.  Do not practice over and over what you are going to say to PW, because then when you actually do say it, you sound like a MAJOR dork.  At least that is what I have heard.

4.  Take a friend with you.  See #1.  It would have been nice to have someone to chat with during the three hours I was there.

5.  If you are standing less than six feet away from Marlboro Man try not to stare too much.  I was for reals that close to the MM himself and didn't even realize it.  Once I did, I noticed I kept looking at him.  There is something about a good looking cowboy in boots, starched shirt and cowboy hat.  Speaking of cowboys, I also got Cowboy Josh to sign my book!  Don't know who MM and Cowboy Josh are?  Here are a couple of pics.

Cowboy Josh

Marlboro Man

I had a great time and am glad I waited the three hours to get my books signed.  I took both cookbooks and Isabelle's Charlie the Ranch Dog book.  My obsession continues!

Embracing Lawson

I think this might be the first picture of Lawson and me together since he was born.  Pathetic, I know.  It is just so hard to take pictures with three kiddos.  I don't know how Emily does it with seven!  Anywho....here we are at the zoo.  He did amazingly well considering how long we were there and how cold it was.  He is a pretty great baby.  I am one blessed momma!

And while I realize that it isn't the greatest picture of Lawson, I am so glad that we took the time to get a picture together during his first ever zoo trip.

Do you embrace?  You should.  Check out Emily's blog here.  She is one amazing momma and her blog is great!



Zoo Fun

This past Friday, my sister, her kiddos and I took my kiddos to the zoo. I was a little nervous about the trip considering the last time we took Isabelle to the zoo she was less than impressed and I think we left after about half an hour and one tantrum.

This time was much better. Everyone had a great time. And while it was a little cold while we were there, by the time we left there was an insane number of people and cars waiting to get in to the zoo. I was glad we froze rather than waiting forever in line!

Here are some pics of our trip.

Isabelle before the zoo opened.

Molly (who refused to look at the camera) with my beautiful sister.

No matter what we did, we could not get Isabelle and Molly to both look at the same time!

See what I mean?

We could, of course, get them both to NOT look!

We decided to buy a family membership this year and I am glad that we did. I see many more trips to the zoo in our future.

Lawson at Two Months

Hard to believe, but Lawson is two months old (actually two months and two days)!  These last two months (and two days) have pretty much flown by.  Much more so than with Isabelle or Molly.  Having three kids has moments of pure joy and pure exhaustion.  Some days I want three more, other days I want to return the three I have.  Pretty normal, I think.

Here are some facts about Lawson at two months.

Weight: 10lbs 4oz.  20th percentile.

Height:  22 1/2 inches.  35th percentile.

Clothes: 3 months with a cloth diaper....otherwise could probably still do some newborn

Diaper size: 1, but we mainly use cloth

Eating habits:  Eats every two and a half to three hours during the day, but will go 4-5 hours at night.  Typical night involves eating at 10 p.m. and then again between 3 and 4 a.m., and then back up at 6 or 7 a.m.

Sleeping: several naps during the day, and sleeps from 10 p.m. until 6 or 7 a.m. with one feeding in there somewhere

Likes:  being held (mostly by mom), chillin' in bouncy seat, playing on playmat, eating, sleeping and pooping

Dislikes:  the carseat, tummy time, being mauled by his sisters

Other fun things to know:  Lawson has stopped pooping as much....PTL.  He only goes about once a day now.  And we have really only had one serious blowout which happened yesterday.  He has started smiling (his first was on March 6th) but doesn't smile unless he really has a reason!  Of all my babies, Lawson is the smallest so far.  I know he will catch up, but it is an interesting fact nonetheless.  Lawson has started taking a bottle when I am gone, which is nice because I can be gone for longer than a couple of hours at a time. 

Being a mom of three is pretty crazy.  There is never a dull moment.  While I do think that it was harder to go from one to two kids than it has been going from two to three, I also feel much more tired and mentally exhausted.  Maybe I felt this way before, I just don't remember.  And while I felt like a bit of a rookie initially, that feeling has passed.  The thing I think that is the most different this time around is me.  I am much more relaxed about my parenting (not sure if that is good or bad).  I am not so concerned if Lawson falls asleep in the bouncy seat, or in the floor, or wherever.  I don't wake him up during the day to eat like I did with the girls.  He isn't on a regimented schedule and I don't seem to worry as much about every little decision.  If he sneezes, I don't call the doctor.  In fact, I haven't had to call the doctor about anything for Lawson at all.  Mostly, I don't have the same amount of time that I did with Isabelle and Molly to worry and fret about things.  I am trying to take just as many pictures and write down just as many pieces of information in the baby book, but it is harder.  Getting anything done around here is harder.

Regardless, having Lawson is pretty spectacular.  He is precious, and I love him.  The end.

Adventures in Cooking

I think I may have mentioned the new Pioneer Woman cookbook and how excited I was to get started cooking my way through her delicious recipes a few days ago.  Well, we have already had three of her recipes and I am excited to tell you about them.

First up, Lemon Blueberry Pancakes.

To be honest, Jason made these bad boys, not me.  I just ate them.  They were so yummy.  Jason made them exactly according to the recipe and for some reason ours turned out much thinner than they appear in the picture.  They were still very good.  Jason did say that they were quite a lot of work for just pancakes and that he preferred her sour cream pancakes better.

Next, Knock You Naked Brownies.

You must make these.  Like now.  Seriously.  Go to the store, buy the stuff, and make them.  Today.  They are delicious. 

Easy to make.  Easy to eat.  I would only change a couple of things if I made them again.  First, being that I would use slightly less caramel.  Second, I would use more chocolate chips.  But, if you are a mega caramel lover and don't want extra chocolate, don't listen to me.  I just found that the bags of caramel at the store contain 50 not 60 (like the recipe calls for) caramels and I don't think it would have made that big of a deal to have 10 less.

Lastly, BBQ Chicken and Pineapple Quesadillas.

We had these last night for dinner and I was in love.  The kids, not so much.  Jason liked them, but I don't think he was in love like I was.  I did leave out the jalapenos because we were making them for the girls also, but who knows, maybe next time I will add them in and see what I think.  I normally do not like anything quite that spicy, but I would be willing to try.  I think that perhaps this meal would be better to make after we have had bbq chicken for dinner and use leftover chicken rather than grilling a chicken breast just for these quesadillas.  All that to say, I loved them and would eat them over and over again.

I love PW and I love the new cookbook.  In the next couple of weeks I will be making her sloppy joes, beef and bean burritos, and her mexican rice.  Can't wait!

ps. all photos are pw's from her website.  if you click on them you should go right to the recipe!

Pinterest Fun-Cloud Dough

I found this recipe for something called cloud dough on pinterest and thought it looked like a fun activity for the girls.

So this morning after breakfast I whipped up a batch and let the kids go wild.  Okay, not wild really, but I did let them have fun. 

Cloud dough is easy to make and provided a lot of fun for my kids.  Truthfully, they would have played for much longer, but their mom was beginning to break out into a full on sweat thinking about how big the mess was.  The recipe calls for 8 cups of flour and 1 cup of baby oil.  If I had given it any thought at all I wouldn't have made it.  After all, is there anything messier than flour and oil???  About 4 cups of it ended up on the floor.  Or, maybe if I had thought about it I would have taken it outside, but I didn't.  So, I cleaned up the mess and put a lid on the tupperware and said we could play again tomorrow.  If you have toddlers it is a fun little activity that your kiddos will love!

Embrace the Camera March 15th

Two weeks in a row???  What?  I can hardly believe it.  Of course, last week's pic and this week's pic were taken during our trip to Little Rock, but who cares?

My sister is a pretty amazing gal.  One of the many amazing things about her is that she is a runner.  A marathoner to be exact.  I attempt to make it to all of her races and this time we traveled to Little Rock to watch her run and get a HUGE medal.  It is the biggest finisher's medal EVER.

Here we are after she completed the race, picked up her medal and drank her chocolate milk.

I honestly have no idea why I am standing like I am.  Maybe to try and hide my still huge self while standing next to my incredibly skinny sister.  It didn't work. 

Anyway....She is pretty awesome.  I am blessed to have her as my sister.  She rocks.

Do you embrace? You should.  Check out Emily's blog here.