The Modern Housewife

Jonah's Dedication Weekend

2012-03-08T20:32:00.002-05:00

Last Sunday we dedicated our little Jonah Bear to the Lord. It was a very sweet service, and we had a bunch of family come down from up North to be there!

The weekend started with my Dad, Step-mom, and brother coming down Friday, my Mum and Step-dad on Saturday, and then Justin's parents and grandparents on Sunday. My family stayed until Tuesday when they traveled back home.

It was super busy, but a lot of fun. Here are a few photos from the weekend.

Jonah with Uncle Adam

Grandpa and Step-grandma Leslie

Jonah enjoying the ball Grandma Wendy gave him.

Another major development this past weekend: WE BOUGHT A HOME (pending inspection...)! Yep! All that house searching, and trusting God, and we found a lovely place! I'll be posting much more once everything is final. We are super excited.

Three Months Old

2012-03-08T19:52:00.001-05:00

My little Jonah Bear is three months old today!

He's getting so big! Justin and I weighed him tonight and he is up to 10.24 pounds! He just keeps getting longer and longer... so long in fact that he doesn't fit in his 3 month pajamas anymore. He has no problem filling out his 3 month onesies. According to the pediatrician, Jonah is 5% for weight and 25% for height. (Still trying to figure out how Justin and I made a tiny baby...)

As for diapers, he is in cloth diapers now! I LOVE using cloth diapers, I'll be posting about it a little later.

He still eats every 3 hours (or sometimes a little sooner) during the day, and every 4.5 to 5 hours during the night. He's made it a few 6 hour stretches here and there. (He usually only wakes up once during the night to eat.) I'm looking forward to when he sleeps though the night. I hope it's soon.

His big milestones this past month are holding his head up by himself, and throwing toys. He got a ball from Grandma Wendy and he loves it. He's slowly getting bored of his gym. I'm not sure what toy will entertain him next.

My happy boy!

Laughing at Mama.

I love you Jonah Bear!

Tornados 2012

2012-03-06T20:33:00.004-05:00

Yep, we had Tornadoes again this year, and they were bad again. This year they hit even closer to our house.

It's funny how having a baby changes everything. Including how you view Tornadoes. Last year I was pregnant with Jonah. This year I was hiding from the crazy storms with him. Thankfully our whole family is safe. However, this year, hiding in the main floor bathroom didn't seem safe enough... because I had him to think about.

Finding a new home with a basement is suddenly very important...

Waking Up Is Hard To Do...

2012-02-26T17:19:00.001-05:00

WARNING: This is a total mom-blogger post.

I wanted to post this sweet video of my little Jonah Bear waking up. I think he is just so cute when he struggles to come out of a comfy nap. He makes it look so hard!

My favorite parts are the silly faces he makes and his "spring loaded" arms when the swaddle wrap is opened up.

My little man is growing up so fast.

Chicken Taco Chili - Crockpot

2012-02-24T20:03:00.000-05:00

This is basically my hubby's new favorite meal. He can't get enough of it, and it's easy for me to make! I found it on Pinterest here. Bonus points: if you don't add the cheese or sour cream, it's actually pretty healthy.

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili

1 onion, chopped
1 16-oz can black beans
1 16-oz can kidney beans
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
10 oz package frozen corn kernels
2 14.5-oz cans diced tomatoes
1 packet taco seasoning
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
24 0z. (3) boneless skinless chicken breasts

Combine everything but the chicken. Place chicken on top and cover. Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 6 hours. Half hour before serving, remove chicken and shred. Return chicken to slow cooker and stir in. You can try it with cheese and/or sour cream. We love to put crushed tortilla chips in it for a little crunch.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Mardi Gras

2012-02-21T22:57:00.000-05:00

Last year for Mardi Gras Justin and I ate jambalaya and beignets. This year we basically did the same. However, this year I didn't use Tiana's recipe, instead I used beignet mix by Cafe du Monde.

It was WAY easier, and tasted just as good if not better. We found out about Cafe du Monde when Justin's father went to New Orleans for work last year.

Mardi Gras was very low key with Jonah this year, but I think it was just as fun as last year! I'm looking forward to more things we get to share with Jonah in 2012.

Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T14:39:00.001-05:00

For those of you who know Justin and I well, you know that we can't ever wait to give each other gifts. As a result Justin gave me a valentine's gift early... like last Saturday.

It's actually a long story, starting with our honeymoon. We spent ten days at Walt Disney World for our honeymoon (surprise, right?). And at EPCOT's Japan you can pick out an oyster that the lovely Japanese ladies will open for you and hopefully (almost always) you can get a pearl! So of course we had to do that because I love pearls so much, and Justin thought it was a fun idea. So he picked out the oyster, and they opened it for us. The neat part is there wasn't just one pearl inside our oyster, there were two! Twin yellow pearls. We had them turn these beautiful pearls into stud earrings for me. Well, I loved these special earrings so much that I wore them practically every day for two years. Then one sad, sad day, a pearl fell off of it's post. No more magical-Disney-honeymoon-pearls for me. Or so I thought...

The lovely Japanese lady opening our oyster.

My magical-Disney-honeymoon pearl earrings!

Jump to last weekend. We had agreed this year that we weren't going to do the whole "gifts" thing this year since we are in the process of finding/purchasing our first home. Silly me, I should have known that my sweet hubby wasn't going to abide by our no gifts resolution. So last Saturday he hands me this little box... I opened it and inside were my magical-Disney-honeymoon-pearls... fixed! He had taken them to a jewerly store in town to have them repaired. I had no idea he was doing this. He's so sweet.

Now I can wear my magical-Disney-honeymoon-valentines pearls almost every day again! Yay!

Southwestern Egg Rolls

2012-02-09T16:33:00.003-05:00

I found this recipe on Pinterest, and decided to make it for the Superbowl. It's really yummy, and is now one of my husbands favorite treats.

Southwestern Egg Rolls (Baked)

Ingredients

2 cups frozen corn, thawed
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (10 oz.) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry (chop if stringy)
2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend
4 green onions, chopped

1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
1¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
1 package egg roll wrappers (about 24 total)

Directions

In a large bowl, combine everything but the egg roll wrappers. Mix well to blend. Lay an egg roll wrapper out on a work surface so that one of the corners is pointing toward you and place ¼ cup of the filling in the center. Fold the tip closest to you up over the filling, roll a bit, then take the points pointing outward and fold them in toward the center. Continue rolling into an egg roll shape until a small part of the remaining point is still free. Dip a finger in a beaten egg and lightly brush on the edges of the free corner. Finish rolling and press to seal closed. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling.

Preheat the oven to 425˚ F. Lightly oil a baking sheet with cooking spray. Place the sealed egg rolls on the baking sheet seam side down and spray the tops of the egg rolls with cooking spray. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until lightly brown, turning halfway through baking. Serve warm with salsa.

Rolling the filling into the egg roll wrappers.

Baking the egg rolls.

Hope you enjoy them like we did!

Two Months!

2012-02-08T19:56:00.000-05:00

Well, as of today, two months have gone by since Jonah was born!

Look how much my little man has grown!

Jonah now weighs just over 9lbs. He is crazy long! So long in fact that he is wearing 3 month old pajamas for their length, and he actually is long enough for them. My little man still isn't chunking up, but he is gaining weight, so I'll just ask the pediatrician about it later this month. As for the rest of his clothing, he is officially out of newborn onesies, but his 3 month old onesies are a little big as you can see from the picture.

He is still in newborn sized diapers, but not for long. They are getting kinda tight, and we are ready to move on to cloth diapers. We tried them out last weekend, and they fit, but they look ridiculous because he's so skinny. So as soon as we run out of newborn diapers it's cloth diapers for the Jonah Bear.

He still eats every 3 hours (or sometimes a little sooner) during the day, and every 4 to 4.5 hours during the night. (He usually only wakes up once during the night to eat.)

His big milestones this past month are smiling, laughing, and falling in love with his baby gym. Seriously, he LOVES his gym. He's also copying mama and daddy's facial expressions and is able to copy our basic sounds like "ooooh." He is so much fun.

Last month Jonah was not in the mood for his picture to be taken so I just posted a few of the funnier grumpy pictures. This month Jonah was in the mood, but kept spitting up, sneezing, and looking at us like we were crazy. So here are a couple funny 2 month old pictures.

Caught mid-sneeze. Bless You!

Looking at us like "Seriously? I'm trying to chill with Pooh here."

And finally, just for kicks, his week old, and one month photos to compare. This just blows my mind!

Blanket, newborn onesie, and then 3 month old onesie!

The past two months haven't exactly gone by quickly, but things are so much better than when Jonah was one week old. I'm looking forward to the next month and seeing how much more he changes!

Mama loves you Jonah Bear!

Jonah's New Toy

2012-02-07T11:50:00.000-05:00

Last night Justin and I pulled out a toy Jonah got for Christmas.... He loves it! It's so much fun to watch him stare at the mirror and kick the piano. He likes to talk to and smile at his reflection! So funny! This morning he realized there were toys hanging around the mirror as well and has started to grab and bat at those.

My little man in his Mike Wazowski onesie enjoying his reflection.

Kicking his new piano... and staring at himself.

Jonah's growing so much! Right now he's in between sizes so he doesn't fit in his newborn clothing, but his 0-3 month clothing is a tad big.
I love my little guy.

Jonah's Newborn Photos

2012-02-05T20:50:00.001-05:00

Here are the professionally taken newborn photos of Jonah that I promised. Aren't they sweet! They were all taken by Captured Photography.

I love my little Jonah Bear!

The House Search

2012-02-05T17:07:00.000-05:00

Well, we have officially started to look for our first house. We've been renting the past few years, but now with Jonah, and all that comes with a baby, we know we need a house. Plus we are ready for home projects, and more privacy.

Justin is looking forward to yard work, and little projects like fixing the sink, or putting in a new light fixture. I'm looking forward to painting, and doing permanent house decorating... not the kind you do in a rental. We are both looking forward to more space and storage.

To start off our search we drove around to a few houses we were interested in. And tomorrow a realtor is coming to our townhouse to talk with us about what we are interested in.

Our 'must-haves' are a single family detached home. It must have at least three bedrooms, at least a bath and half (hopefully more), and at least a basement or garage. Our last must have is the zip code. We want to stay in a certain part of the city. (aka: mama doesn't want to drive more than 10 minutes to get diapers or milk.)

The next year is going to be very interesting... Let the search begin!

A Little Adventurous...

2012-01-30T11:15:00.000-05:00

We were a little adventurous this past weekend.

Thursday night, at about midnight, we had our good friends the Wilson's arrive at our house. They were going to be staying at our house for the weekend.

Friday morning Justin went to work, and I hung out with Jonah. The Wilson's woke up and got ready to go see a few other friends they have in town. Around two, Justin came home from work, and we packed up to go to Gatlinburg for the weekend... His parents came down from Michigan for the weekend. When Jonah woke up for his 3 o'clock feeding the Wilson's came back and we all talked for a few minutes while Jonah ate. Then we loaded up the car, said goodbye to our friends, and drove to Gatlinburg. We spent most of the evening talking with family.

Saturday Justin and I got to "sleep in" because Grandma (Jonah's grandma) took care of him for us. Yay for sleep!

Grandma cuddling Jonah!

After Jonah's nap we all went to Tanger for a little shopping. Jonah got a few new clothes from Carter, as they were having a sale. Speaking of my sweet little boy. He fell asleep during the car ride to Tanger and slept the whole shopping trip! He was such a good little boy! After shopping we all went to Olive Garden for a late lunch/ early dinner. Again, my little man fell asleep half way through dinner. He was such an angel! After Olive Garden we all went back up to the cabin. Justin and I packed up, I fed Jonah real quick and we headed home.

On the way home we stopped at Starbucks and when I was ordering our drinks, Jonah filled his pants. So I went to change him in the car and he wiggled so much that my jeans got poop on them... As I was trying to contain the wiggly little boy, Jonah proceeded to pee all over me, the backseat of the car, and himself. It reminded me of this Huggies commercial:

Well, I was soaked, but we were on our way home, so I just dealt with it... Honestly, it was really funny.

Sunday we went to church, and they had the "iServe Awards." Basically they were thanking everyone that served in the church in the past year. It also was a nice ending to pastor's sermon series on servanthood. The rest of the day we just chilled at home. It was a great weekend.

P.S. Just for good measure, I wanted to share this sweet photo of my sleeping angel.

Smiles!

2012-01-23T11:56:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to share a few of my happy boy's smiles!

Laughing at Daddy.

A fading grin

Cutie Pie.

Sweet Dreams...

2012-01-20T14:42:00.000-05:00

I am so excited about what has happened around here the past couple days, I just had to share. Jonah now sleeps in his crib, and falls asleep by himself! And to top it all off, he is constantly happy, and smiles all the time!

I have to admit, it was really hard to begin with. I let my sweet little man cry-it-out yesterday for 15 minutes before he fell asleep the first time. I wanted to cry too! I felt like such a bad mama. However, the next time I did it, he only cried for 10 minutes, and Justin was so impressed too that I decided to try it again this morning... this time he only cried 5 minutes. And the rest of today? He just smiles up at me with his sleepy eyes and then goes to sleep! No more crying! Now I'm sure we'll have our tough days when he does cry a little more, but he is just so happy when he's awake now... so full of smiles, and so content, that I think it's worth it!

The only bummer part is we have a pretty strict schedule, and I'm not looking forward to when we have to veer off it for an appointment or church or something. He wakes up at 6am, feeds, is up and happy for about 45 minutes, goes to sleep, and at 9am I wake him up to eat, he's up for about 45 minutes, goes to sleep... The cycle repeats at 12, 3, 6, and 9pm. Then he only wakes up once during the night to eat at about 1 or 2am.

I'm sure we have a few kinks to work out, but Jonah and I are really enjoying our time together, and I'm feeling like a good mama!

We got this idea from the book "On Becoming Babywise" that a few friends suggested we read. Now I'm suggesting it too! It's working great for us.

Busy.

2012-01-16T16:17:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was busy, but wonderful. This past week was busy... we'll just say busy.

As it turns out being a mommy to a newborn is hard! I learned that the hard way last week. Things are going better now, but last Tuesday I learned a few lessons the hard way.

I spend most of Tuesday on little to no sleep, no liquids, and one granola bar. Yes, I know, looking back it sounds ridiculous, but I was sleep deprived with a screaming infant who would not calm down. I ended up calling my hubby at work while bawling my eyes out and he came home early with chicken nuggets, took Jonah, and sent me to bed. After eating, and getting a couple hours of sleep, it's amazing how much better the world looked. Jonah was still having a tough time, but I was able to handle it a little better.

As for last weekend, it was fun! Saturday I went to my breastfeeding support group and took Jonah. He was a perfect angel with all sorts of crying kids around him! It was nice finding out that crying kids don't make him cry too! After the support group Justin babysat Jonah and I went to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D by myself. It was so nice! I loved the movie (my favorite growing up), but I also loved having some alone time that didn't involved the grocery store!

Sunday we went to church, and Jonah was wonderful, he slept once worship was done. Sunday afternoon we cleaned our house so our connect group could meet there, and then Sunday evening we met up with Justin's grandparents who came down from Indiana to meet Jonah for the first time!

Grandpa Biddle holding Jonah.

Grandma Biddle enjoying Jonah's funny faces.

Busy, but wonderful.

Jonah's One Month Old!

2012-01-08T21:24:00.000-05:00

Today my precious little man is a month old!

Jonah with Pooh Bear at One Month! (He's not too happy about getting his picture taken.)

We think Jonah weighs about 7.5 pounds, and he is definitely getting longer! We are thinking about taking out a head support from his car seat because he is kinda squished in there.

He is still in a newborn size diaper, and newborn or small 0-3 month clothing. He's skinny, but long! I'm hoping he chunks up soon. He eats about every 3 hours unless he is out cold during one of his 5 hour napping stretches. It takes him at least a half hour to eat, but usually closer to 40 or 45 minutes.

Big milestones so far are rolling over, finding his hands, and being able to sleep in 4 to 5 hour stretches. He has a lot of control over his head. My sweet little dove likes to coo all the time!

Justin and I took a picture of Jonah and Pooh Bear when Jonah was about a week and a half old... It's crazy to see how much he's changed!

Jonah all bundled up at about a week old.

Now we had to take quite a few photos of my grumpy boy because he was not in the mood for a photo session... so here are what most of the pictures looked like. Poor guy.

A very unhappy little boy. Don't worry Jonah, you can always cry on Pooh Bear's shoulder!

Daddy trying to calm Jonah.

It's been a long month, but it's been a good one. Looking forward to what the next month has in store for us!

My Little Man Rolls Over!

2012-01-03T18:16:00.001-05:00

Tonight my little man was fussy and not happy, so we figured it was a great time for tummy time because he is usually not happy during that anyway. So we put him on his little quilt, and this is what happened:

Hurrah Jonah Bear! Your crazy mommy is very proud of you!