Fall Fun at Applewood Orchard

Wow! It has been a while since I blogged. Lots to catch up on, but those are for another day...

Well, now that Haley is down to one nap/day it is SO much easier to do fun family activities since we don't have to try to squeeze them in during a 2-hour window that also included lunch. What did we do to celebrate this new freedom? We took Haley to Applewood Orchard for apple picking, hay rides, a corn maze, pumpkin picking and more.

We really had a lot of fun and got a HUGE bag of Honeycrisp Apples, too!

I was really impressed with all the free and low-cost things they had to do at the farm, too. Tractor rides...

the corn maze...

and finally, our little pumpkin picked out her own pumpkin! 

A good time had by all!

Baby/Toddler Recipe: Salmon Sticks

I thought I would share a quick, healthy recipe that I found that was a HIT with Haley! The best part is that I got to use up a bunch of baby food that I had made previously since she is growing out of that.

Salmon Sticks (from here)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup peas
1/4 cup corn
1/4 cup chopped frozen spinach (thaws out to 1.5 Tbsp. of spinach)
1.5 Tbsp. pumpkin or sweet potato puree

1 egg white (I prefer cage-free organic - they just taste better!)
1 6 oz. can wild Alaskan salmon

Milk of your choice (I used formula)
1/3 cup bread crumbs (I used Panko because I already knew Haley loved it from when I made this!)

More bread crumbs for rolling

Directions:

Mix peas, corn, spinach and pumpkin/sweet potato in a blender, food processor or bullet. (This is where my leftovers came in handy - I already had these pureed and frozen so I just thawed them up and mixed together!) 

Such pretty colors!

Then add in the salmon (drained), bread crumbs and egg white.

Roll into logs and freeze for 1 hour. Dredge frozen logs in milk and then breadcrumbs. Freeze until you are ready to eat. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes from frozen.

Done!

I think this took me all of 10 minutes. I just make 1 at a time for Haley when they are on the menu. They go great with sweet potato fries and applesauce!

Haley approves!

Tiny Cutie - 9 Months Old!

Yesterday, Haley turned 9 months! I can't believe how fast the time flies. Although she is still tiny, she is healthy, happy and getting bigger by the minute. I can't believe she started out at only 3 1/2 pounds!

This is Haley when we brought her home from the hospital at 3 lbs, 11 oz. 

Adventures in Making Baby Food

Now that Haley is old enough to start eating "real" foods, I thought I would try my hand at making some of my own for her. Inspired by this blog post, I ordered my groceries and got to work.

The ingredients:

Peas, apples, sweet potatoes, pears, bananas, pumpkin (canned), broccoli and carrots. I ordered organic for everything except the bananas, since you toss the peel anyway. The apples were Honey Crisp - the MN State Apple! What a lucky girl to have her first apples be Honey Crisp. They are seriously the best!

The tools:

I have a bullet-type blender from JC Penny of all places. It was only $30 and it definitely works the best for this. The nice thing is that it rinses off easily for the next batch of food, but the downside is that it doesn't hold a ton either. I have also heard that immersion blenders are great for making baby food. Perhaps I will have to pick one up. 

I also got a couple sets of ice cube trays from Target. I pre-washed them since you never know who might have touched them before you brought them home. Yuck...seriously, yuck.

I also picked up a pack of Ziploc Steam Fresh bags. They are super easy to use, make for less clean up and have directions for all sorts of fruits and veggies right on the bag.

The process:

Ummm...steam then blend. That is really about it! I put the food in the blender and let 'er rip until I see that it is VERY smooth. If your blender looks stuck - add water. I noticed the broccoli and carrots needed A LOT more coaxing than anything else. 

After everything was steamed and blended, I put the food into the ice cube trays, froze and then moved them into labeled freezer bags so I could do more batches. 

The results:

I am in love with the process - so easy! I started out with just 2 sweet potatoes, 1 bag of peas, 1 can of pumpkin and 2 apples and that filled up all SIX of my ice cube trays.

I have been making things in small batches here or there when I have time. For instance, when I am looking my own dinner I just do this at the same time and then freeze and bag what I made later (like after bedtime)!

I love that I know what is IN there - no preservatives  etc. I'm certainly not opposed to buying baby food, but this is so cheap and easy that I will probably just keep doing this as long as it is convenient for me. 

I can't wait until Haley has tried enough single foods to start making some fun combos. So far, she has done oatmeal and when she got sick of just that we started mixing in peas (liked), sweet potatoes (loved) and bananas (couldn't get enough!).

Combos I'm thinking of in the future (some are from the blog I mentioned at the beginning of this post):

• Pumpkin and banana
• Squash (or pumpkin) and apple
• Broccoli and apple
• Spinach, peas and pears
• Avocado (and fruit!)
• Mixed grains and sweet potato

I am excited to see what I can come up with and to see what Haley likes (and doesn't)!

Bigger, Bigger

Haley is getting bigger by the day, but she is still my tiny princess. At 6 months, she still only weighed in at 11 lbs! Too cute. Her favorite activities are chewing on things (no teeth yet, though), trying to pull Wally's ears and eyelids, grabbing and eating her feet and scooting on her back. I keep telling her if she puts all her energy into crawling instead of scooting, she'd be an expert. She doesn't listen...

Express Yourself

I LOVE accessories, so of course I am having fun accessorizing my little princess. I spent some time over the last week (an hour here, an hour there) making some super cute headbands for little miss Haley. I didn't do photos for a tutorial, but I posted the links with the instructions I used below!

How to:

Gray headband (this has a hidden loop to clip any flower on!): http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/2010/08/easy-stretchy-baby-headband-tutorial.html
Fabric flowers: http://cherrystreetcottage.blogspot.com/2011/03/fabric-flower-tutorial-at-last.html
Ricrac flower: http://www.u-createcrafts.com/2012/07/ric-rac-flower-tutorial-by-oh-for.html
The big pink flower is just a piece of ribbon that was a flower chain.

Here is a sizing guide for the headbands:
10" for newborn
12" for 0-3 months
14" for 3-6 months
16" for 6-9 months
18" for 9-12 months
I hot-glued all of the flowers to these: 



Finally, here is my model!

There will be MANY more accessories to come!

How Time Flies

Haley and I are both named after my Great Great Aunt Mae and I just happened to receive her childhood rocking chair when I was little. I am super excited to be able to use it each month to show how much Haley has grown. Of course, with her being so little I had to wait a little longer than I wanted to start this project, but here are her first two pictures. MANY more to come! I love it!

At Haley's 4 week appointment she was a whopping 5 pounds 10 ounces, so at 6 weeks she was probably close to 6 1/2 pounds. :)

At Haley's 2 month appointment she was 7 pounds, 5 ounces (the size I thought she would be when she was born!) and has grown almost 3 inches!

I just love watching her grow and learn. It is so fun to see her progress and see her little look of concentration as she is trying to figure out new things. Being a mom is the best!

Backing Up...Haley's Room

OK...I think this is the last big thing I need to get caught up on from before Haley's arrival! The Monday before she came (Labor Day) Jesse and I worked hard (ok...he worked hard and I watched) and we got her room all finished. The funny thing was, when we were all done Jesse looked at me and said, "Well, we are ready! I think she could come any day now and we'd be all set!" Little did we know...two days later she was here!!

Here is what her room looks like!

So many shoes already!

The beautiful quilt my mother made!

Backing Up...Showered with Love

I have some amazing friends and family who threw some great baby showers in honor of the little princess! Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera to my cousin's house (such a lovely shower, Heidi!) but I do have photos to share of the other shindigs!

Kristen and Laura started out the festivities with this shower, themed "A Picture Perfect Shower"!

My sister-in-law wrapped up the festivities a few weeks later with this shower themed "In Full Bloom"!

Cousins (and my poor parents)

Haley is blessed to have MANY cousins! She is slowly getting to know them all and they have had such a good time meeting her.

In fact, 6 days after Haley was born she got ANOTHER cousin! Yes, as you saw in the bump photos I posted previously, my sister Holly and I were due exactly 7 days apart. She was due first (9/16) and I was due second (9/23). It was so fun to be pregnant together, but even more fun to play with the kids together.

So...onto my funny story about my parents (I swear this is all related)...

My parents knew I had an ultrasound the morning of the 5th and were actually on their was from Duluth to Lincoln, NE to visit my oldest sister and her family and celebrate my niece's 1st birthday (9/8). After my ultrasound I called my mom to tell her that the doctor might want to see me that day, but that I didn't think would be a huge deal so don't worry about changing plans yet. Then the nurse called and told me I had to go the hospital for additional tests, so I called my parents and told them that they should just keep on going until we have a little more data.

Long story short, but the time the doctors finally decided that Haley would need to enter the world that day and scheduled my c-section, my parents were almost to my sister's house. After talking with them more we all decided that since it is such a long trip that they should just stay there as planned unless something is wrong and then they would visit the following Sunday and Monday.

So...they were able to celebrate Kinsey's 1st birthday and then drive back up to see us at the hospital and meet Haley! They visited again on Monday and then headed back up to Duluth.

Meanwhile...

My sister Holly had a routine appointment on Monday (9/10) and her doctor noticed she was a little further along than she would like to see 4 days before her scheduled c-section (set for 9/14), so her c-section was moved up to the very next day (9/11)! She called my parents and they were literally in downtown Duluth when she broke the news that their grandson was also making an early appearance. So, my sweet parents went home, did laundry, repacked the car and headed back to the Twin Cities the next morning to meet Max.

Wow! Talk about being devoted to your family! My parents are amazing (and are troopers) and are also lucky they are retired so their schedule allows for all this craziness!

Now for the pictures!

With cousin Andrew (8)! 

With Auntie Mysie!

With cousins Channing (almost 4) and Maxwell (born 9/11/12). 

Max's foot and Haley's foot...too funny!

Tummy time for all!