Happy 5 Months Emma!!!!!

Our baby girl is growing up! She's 5 months today (since there aren't 30 days in February). 

Eating: We are still exclusively breastfeeding! I feel like this is a huge accomplishment because it requires dedication, patience, and persistence to be successful. We started introducing organic rice cereal once she recovered from RSV at 4 months. We have gone very slow with it and I need to start making it a daily routine. 

Size: She's a little over 14 pounds now! She is now wearing 6mo clothes and has been in size 2 diapers for a while. 

Sleep: She nurses around 8:30pm (after I have been able to get Reese down for the night) and goes to sleep. She then wakes up at 10:30-11pm to eat again and then sleeps until 3am. I feed her then and she sleeps until 6am, eats, and then sleeps until about 9am. I WISH she would drop a feeding at night but she has been pretty set on this schedule for a while now. Once she drops the 3am feeding we will move her upstairs to her room.

Personality: Emma is just a "ham"!! She is FULL of smiles :) She has the sweetest little giggle too!! Cody "thinks" he heard her say "dada" the other day....I HIGHLY doubt that happened ;)

Teething: She is working on cutting her bottom two teeth already!! I can feel them and see the white through her gums but they aren't starting to break through yet. She isn't a fan of chilled teethers (doesn't like anything cold in her mouth) and she is still completely paci free (not our choice...hers)! Her fingers and Sophie work perfectly fine for her :)

Activity: She ALWAYS has her feet in her hands when she's laying flat. She loves her activity chair from Santa and loves the activity mat that Reese had as a baby. She has recently figured out how to actually jump around in the jumper and enjoys banging on the piano keys on the Around We Go (this is by far one of our favorite baby gear toys). 

Here are some pictures from this past month (since I got behind on blogging):

Patio Time

Rice Cereal:

WW: Week 7

Main Course
New Favorite Recipe: Baked Chicken Parmesan

This recipe would be AMAZING with some minced garlic on each chicken breast as part of the breading. I also sprinkled Italian season on top of the cheese while it baked that last 5 minutes. Hint: watch the cooking time though because mine were almost overcooked.

Portion: 1 breast fillet 

Served with: Pressure cooked green beans with sauteed onion and garlic and a side salad

Breakfast/Dessert
Personally, I love Bosc pears (they are the only kind I buy). So I got excited when I found this recipe:
 Glazed Pear Muffins

Yes...I used left over birthday cupcake liners :)

I was informed they aren't very sweet so I added 1tbsp of Splenda with Fiber to the batter for a bit of extra sweetness. They were very good freshly warm for desert and just as good reheated for breakfast. However, they do not peel away from the liner very well. I only had 11 lines and it makes 12 servings so I used a silicon cupcake pan and put the last on straight into the silicon cupcake hole with a spray of PAM cooking spray. That single cupcake came out nice and clean. Next time I do this, I will just skip the liners and make them straight in the pan. Also, I only baked them 20 minutes when my toothpick came out of the centers nice and clean. These are easy to over cook. You can also do these with apples. Note: these did ferment fairly quickly.

Week 7 Weight Loss: 1.5 pounds

Total Weight Loss: 15 pounds!

You Guessed It...Part 2

Part 2: Emma is now sick! She has had minor intestinal issues for the past two days and this evening the vomiting hit her....hard!! She can't keep anything down (even pedialyte). I wish there was a way to calm a baby's tummy. We will have to watch her closely for dehydration....

As for Reese: finally no fever yesterday....BUT....now she has hives! 

Can we please catch a break for our girls!!!

You Guessed It...

Reese is sick....AGAIN!

She has "we believe" an Enterovirus. She started having nausea/vomiting/diarrhea Saturday and continued on Sunday. On Monday those symptoms ceased and she starting having a fever. Monday it seems to stay low grade (101). Tuesday she woke up from her nap and was inconsolably crying. Cody took her to the after hours pediatric clinic near us since we couldn't get her into the primary pedi. They said that GI issues followed by a fever is most likely the enterovirus and that she should be over the hump and start getting better. 

Well Reese doesn't like to follow plans. She spiked to 103 right before bed, shivers, blue lips...the whole shebang! We got her fever under control before putting her to bed. At 3am Cody went up to check on her since I was up with Emma and Reese was 102. When the clinic called this afternoon to check on her I told them about the night and continued high fevers. She said to bring her back for flu testing. This is not the easiest when having to transport both the sick toddler and a 4mo baby!!! Her flu was negative...so why the constant high fevers every month with Reese....?

Next step: test her immune system. She will have a quantitative immunoglobulin panel drawn tomorrow at the lab. This may give us insight into why she seems to catch "everything". This is something we have been discussing with our primary pediatrician for a long time now. The clinic pediatrician said "it's time". 

Please pray for our baby girl that all is well!!

How To Make Mini Cupcake POPS

A few friends asked me to reveal how I made the cupcake POPS for Reese's party, so here you go :)

Need: 

1 Box of Cake Mix (any flavor...I used Strawberry Cake Mix)

1 Can of Cream Cheese Frosting

Candy Melts in desired colors

Sprinkles/Decoration

Lollipop Sticks (I used plastic ones since they came with my lollipop wrappers which are optional)

Powdered Sugar for dusting your hands

Wax Paper

Egg Cartons (help drying process of the mini cupcakes...not necessary if making standard round-shaped cake POPS)

Mini Cupcake Mold (helps if making mini cupcake shaped POPS)

I bought My Little Cupcake mold from Amazon

Step 1: Mix cake batter as it says on box

Step 2: Bake cake as it says on box

Step 3: Once cake cooled, crumble into a large bowl

Step 4: Mix in cream cheese frosting (might not need the whole can. Mine were very "gooey" for lack of a better word by using the whole can but they were very yummy!)

Step 5: Dust hands with powdered sugar and roll cake mixture into 1 inch balls and place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet

Step 6: Refrigerate cake balls for at least 30 min or freeze for approx 5 min to firm up the dough

Step 7: Place a dough ball into the mini cupcake mold and close. Remove excess batter that is squeezed out and open mold back up. Use index finger at the top of cupcake and thumb at the bottom to gently pull it out of the mold. 

Step 8: Place mini cupcakes on wax paper lined cookie sheet

Step 9: Return to the fridge or freezer to re-firm the dough

Step 10: Melt the candy melt (the desired color for the bottom half of cupcakes) as directed in a small bowl

Step 11: Dip bottom half of the cupcake into the candy melt (do not stir!) and then while still wet dip lollipop stick into the melted candy and then into the bottom of the cupcakes.

Step 12: Place cupcakes upside down in a cleaned egg carton to help the candy melt dry (takes approx. 5 min)

Step 13: Melt candy melt (desired color for top of cupcakes) in a small bowl as directed

Step 14: Dip top half of cupcakes into the melted candy (do not stir!)

Step 15: Add sprinkles while still wet (I used valentine M&Ms for the top)

Step 16: Store upright into a Styrofoam block

For this I used a shoe box lid, hot glued on ribbon at all 4 corners of the box and cut Styrofoam to fit.

Step 17: Once completely dry- If you want your POPS to be "to-go", wrap them in lollipop bags

Step 18: Once at party site location top Styrofoam with candy (I used remaining M&Ms)

They tasted amazing and were good even a week after making them. The candy melt really helps seal in the cake moisture!

There are other recipes available that are no bake, ex: Oreos & Cream Cheese or Oreo Fudgees, Choc. Chips & Milk 

(but these do have to stay refrigerated until ready to serve)

I know this looks like a lot of steps but it was actually super easy to do!! I plan on doing them again :)

Helpful videos:

 My little cupcake pop

Bakerella

WW: Week 6

This week didn't involve cupcakes, cake POPs, etc. However, my loving husband brought home 7 boxes of girl scout cookies he had ordered at work prior to me starting WW. I have managed to stay away from them thus far but I do love me some thin mints!! I'm hoping Cody puts a dent into them before I cave and start eating some.

Favorite Recipe Yet (I mentioned this one a few weeks ago): Roast Pork Dinner
We added green beans & a red bell pepper (you can have all the veggies you want on WW) and used Celery Seed (2tsp) instead of Fennel Seed. It has a big punch of flavor...Love this recipe!

Portion: 3oz Pork, 1/2c potatoes, 1/2 c veggies (although you can have as many veggies as you want)

Another Healthy Recipe: General Tso's Chicken

Very filling and a good copy to popular General Tso recipes (just not battered and fried). We added a lot of Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce to add some extra spice!

Milestones:

1. I have lost 5% of my weight

2. Last week I was officially pre-Reese weight (just forgot to blog it)

3. The pair of jeans that I couldn't squeeze into a month ago are now TOO BIG!

4. The even smaller pair of jeans I couldn't squeeze into two weeks ago now fit!

Week 6 Weight Loss: 2 pounds

Total Weight Loss: 13.5 pounds!

Our Beautiful Girls

I took this picture on my iPhone last night...

CHECK OUT THOSE CURLS!!

 Bathing Beauty!

ABCs

Another attempt to capture Reese singing the ABCs

(She talks so quiet it is hard to get it on video)

Videos of Reese

Reese singing the alphabet for the 1st time for us...I hope you can hear her!

Reese now knows her full name and how old she is!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day 2011

Reese got a Valentine Princess Purse

...filled with candy bracelets!

Emma got a baby Eeyore & Abby Cadabby Wand

The Sweetest Valentines ... we are so Blessed!

WW: Week 5

Well this past week of eating bad has finally caught up to me. I have had left over cupcakes in my house all week and lots of visitors...which leads to eating out. My goal this next week to stick to the plan like I had been.

Favorite New Recipes: Skinny Baked Jalapeño Poppers and Roast Pork Dinner

Week 5 Weight Loss: 1 pound

Total Weight Loss: 11.5 pounds!

Reese's 2nd Birthday Party!

Reese's 2nd Birthday Party was a BLAST!

Emma

Meme & Granddad

The Birthday Girl!

Mason

Aunt Ashley

Audrey

Joshua LOVES Reese

Victor

Zachary & Ezekiel

The Haberland Men

The Sweatman Men (& Emma)

 Max

Charlotte

Jackson

Audrey & Elise

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED MAKE REESE'S 2nd BIRTHDAY VERY SPECIAL!!!