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. 

Park Review: Lebanon Hills/Shultz Lake Beach

We are so lucky to live in an area that has A LOT of parks. There are very nice trails just blocks from our house that we go to almost daily. This particular day, however, we decided to go to a park a little further away so we packed up the stroller, the leash and the "kids" and drove to Lebanon Hills Park in Eagan. Specifically, we stopped at Schulze Lake Beach, where our church has their annual picnic. 

This is a fantastic park to visit year-round. The visitors center is really nice and you can rent canoes and kayaks there, or even camp!

There is a VERY nice, sandy beach with big umbrellas for shade. Just watch that you don't get there after all the geese, if you know what I mean.

I hope you get the chance to explore some of your own neighborhood parks this summer!

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...

My Little Valentine

Just for fun, Haley and I did a little Valentine's Day photo shoot this weekend. Isn't she cute? She is just over 5 months now and doing more and more each day! <3

Shaped Bokeh

Even since I started using Pinterest, I wanted to try this- shaped bokeh! Now that I have such a cute little model (who can't run away yet) I thought it was the perfect opportunity to give it a go! I followed the directions in the link above, practiced a little before setting up my shot (discovered that the closer you are to your subject and the further your subject is from your background, the bigger the effect - thanks, Laura) and poof! Snowflakes in my Christmas tree!

It helps to have an awesome assistant, too!

PS - This is also my submission for this month's Rock the Shot contest! www.rocktheshotforum.com

13 Weeks Old!

I can't believe Haley is 13 weeks old already. Here is her most recent rocking chair photo! She has grown so much (although she is STILL in newborn clothes!).

More photos to come!

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!