Meme Time!

1. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before? Move in with someone else
2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I didn't make any resolutions. I might make some for next year though.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My SIL gave birth to my niece, Abigail. I've had numerous friends get pregnant in the past year as well. Does that count?
4. Did anyone close to you die? Nope.
5. What countries did you visit? Just the U.S.
6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010? To maybe be engaged, another child?
7. What date(s) from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? March 12th (Dylan's 1st Birthday), a few others.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Moving
9. What was your biggest failure? None I can think of.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? We had a really bad flu when we first moved into our new place.
11. What was the best thing you bought? A new phone?
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Our whole family
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? I'm not sure. A few people I know, I guess.
14. Where did most of your money go? Moving, Dylan
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? EVerything related to Dylan. It's been a fun year in terms of him developing!
16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2010? Ah no clue?
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: i. happier or sadder? happier ii. thinner or fatter? definitely fatter! iii. richer or poorer? Richer?
18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Definitely enjoyed more of life.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Worrying about things
20. How did you spend Christmas? We spent the morning/afternoon with my parents and then with Cindy/Vern and Audrey/Vern. We spent the rest of the night at home by ourselves with our son.
21. Did you fall in love in 2010? Yup.
22. How many one-night stands? None.
23. What was your favorite TV program? Glee, Criminal Minds, Teen Mom, 16 & Pregnant, The Event, No Ordinary family, The Walking Dead
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? Nope.
25. What was the best book you read? Ive read quite a few that I've loved.
26. What was your greatest musical discovery? None?
27. What did you want and get? To move!
28. What did you want and not get? A new car? A baby?
29. What was your favorite film of this year? Hmmm, Toy Story 3?
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I went out with my parents and Dylan. We went to Cheesecake Factory. I was 26.
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Money for certain things.
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010? Being comfortable
33. What kept you sane? Family
34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? None
35. What political issue stirred you the most? None honestly.
36. Who did you miss? No one really?
37. Who was the best new person you met? Maybe a few friends from the Mom's group
38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010: Good things come to those who wait?
39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: Don't have any

Christmas morning..

Dylan was so funny Christmas morning. He ripped into the presents he received so very carefully, balling up each piece that he ripped and throwing it on the floor. It was amusing to see the neat little pile he made. I apparently have a neat little gentlemen. We'll see if he continues it up through the years.

As of right now, he spotted the Rubbermaid that I packed full of his "Christmas in Toy Town" train set. He managed to drag it closer to me and rip the lid off. Guess this is my cue to exit and set it up. Hope everyone had very Happy Holidays this year (no matter what you celebrate)!

Opening a lot of presents at Aunt Betty's house was just a small start for his Christmas. I don't know what he's going to do when he sees the million "Choo-Choo'ems" that he is getting for Christmas.

Santa came early..

Santa came a little early this year. We had an early Christmas with our family this weekend before they headed out of town. He loved opening his presents. Can't wait for Christmas now after I saw that!!

Menu Plan Monday (Week of December 20th)

I'm a little late posting over at Menu Plan Monday, but better late than never.

This week is pretty Pioneer Woman heavy. I'm obsessed with her blog lately. Most of her recipes that I've tried have been dynamite.

I'm doing Christmas Eve dinner for the in-laws this year. We'll be over at my parents on Christmas Day. YAY for a day of little to no cooking.

Monday- BBQ Chicken Wraps with Pasta-Roni

Tuesday- Sloppy Joes (Pioneer Woman) with french fries and veggie

Wednesday- My Favorite Burgers (Pioneer Woman) with cottage cheese and veggie

Thursday- Pasta with a tomato cream sauce with garlic bread

Friday- I'm making ham with a raisin sauce, au gratin potatoes, candied carrots, broccoli and cauliflower casserole, rolls, and an apple crisp with vanilla ice cream (Recipe from PW)

Saturday- Mom is making hot roast beef sandwiches. I'm making bread pudding with maple cream sauce. Yum!

For more menu plans and awesome ideas, visit I'm an Organizing Junkie

Santa's Chair..

Dylan sitting in Santa's chair. We snuck around the ropes after they closed Santa's shop down to take this picture. HA! Take that Bass Pro Shop. ;-)

Wordless Wednesday: Fascinated with Choo-Choos

I've linked this picture over at Wordless Wednesday

Menu Plan Monday

I've been menu planning since we moved into our place. So far, it's worked out pretty well. We've been pretty lax the last week or so with Christmas shopping and what not. Definitely need to try and eat at home more. It's healthier and cheaper. Hoping to get back into the swing of things now that our shopping is done until Christmas.

I'm a little late to the game this week. We've been following our menu pretty closely though so I'm happy. We're also going to be out much of the weekend so we'll be eating at those places instead of home.

Monday- Steak and Shake (FIL treat)

Tuesday- Lasagna (Pioneer Woman) with Garlic Bread

Wednesday- Biscuit Dogs with French Fries and Veggie

Thursday- Pasta with spaghetti sauce

Friday- Grilled Cheese with veggie for Dad and baby, I have women coming over for a cookie baking extravaganza so we'll have frozen pizzas.

For more menus and recipe ideas head over to

I'm An Organizing Junkie

I wish I had more people to follow on here. I'd definitely update more if I did. :(

Rockin' Green Giveaway..

Rocking Green Laundry Soap is teaming up with 29Diapers.com to give away a bottle of Rockin' Green Laundry Soap to one winner. Being that I'd love to try one of the new scents, this is my key moment. Posting it here and spreading the word if anyone else wants to enter...

http://www.29diapers.com/2010/05/19/rockin-green-cloth-diaper-laundry-detergent-giveaway/

Win free diapers!

Oh dear god, do I want to win free diapers!!

Glee...

I've become admittedly obsessed with Glee lately. It was always on after American Idol the first season it was on, but I managed to turn it every time. Can't figure out my reasoning for that. This year, I made it a point to myself to remember the premiere date of the new season. Boy, am I glad I did! I can't get enough of the new episodes and I'm sad when the episode does end. It means I have a whole other week to wait for the next episode.

As I write this, I'm sitting here downloading the Glee cast songs that they sing every week on the show. Why, you ask? Well.. simply because I love it! Dylan's also rocking out to the jams, and how can I deny my son a little dancing time?

Anyone else in love with this show?

Scrapbooking and cloth diapering..

I've been working on Dylan's scrapbook hardcore lately. I managed to get his 1 year pictures page done. It was pretty simple and matched the colors of the shirt he wore. I also cut out balloons and put those on the page too. I'm still halfway through his pirate outfit page. It's missing something, but I can't get a vision of what that is quite yet. I printed a ton of pictures yesterday which means I'll be able to start working on other pages too! YAY for being crafty. I needed an outlet and stress relief, and since I'm spending more time away from the laptop, this is perfect.

I'm trying to get motivated to work on this Mother's Day project. I plan on making two scrapbook albums of sorts for Mom and Cindy. I'm going to put something special to each of them in there; whether it be a footprint, handprint, whatever. I got the covers done already and they look great. I'll see what I can do about posting pictures when I'm done.

Oh I've been seriously considering switching to cloth diapering until Dylan is potty trained. I've done a lot of research, and I realize now how much money I'd save by going to cloth. Plus, they're cuter, better for the environment, and a hell of a lot safer than a lot of the disposables are. I'm asking around for people's opinions to see what they think.

I wish every day was the weekend...

Weekends are starting to become our "family" time. It never fails that when Friday rolls around, we are together as a family either relaxing or finding something new to do. This past weekend was one of the best we've had in awhile. Friday night, we packed Dylan up and went to Target. Dylan was in pretty desperate need of diapers so we grabbed those and ended up taking a long look at Mother's Day cards. I walked away, and while I was gone, Ryan and Dylan apparently chose a nice Mother's Day card for yours truly.

Afterwards, we drove across to the street to make a stop at Archiver's. Ryan walked around looking uncomfortable while I picked up some necessities so I could finish up his birthday pages and also start a new Mother's Day project. I'd heard people raving about The Patio so we stopped to grab dinner. We weren't necessarily impressed with the atmosphere at the Patio, but the food was great. Dylan ended up eating a whole meal by himself. About 15 minutes after we were there, the fire alarm started to go off. None of the employees seemed overly concerned which made me wonder if this happens frequently. This impression was further cemented when it took the firefighters 20-25 minutes to get there. They ended up doing a walk through and then leaving. Is it weird to anyone else that they just let us sit there while a fire alarm was going off? In any case, the food saved it. Probably won't be going back anytime soon though!

Saturday we woke up and headed to Navy Pier. We ended up watching a free magician, walking around, looking in stores, and then heading into the Children's Museum for most of the day. I think we spent a good 3 hours there just looking around and letting Dylan explore. Ryan and I might have possibly had more fun than Dylan though. Isn't that how it always is though? After, we walked down the way and ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. While we were there, a huge group of foreign exchange students from France came in. It was interesting to see kids from a different country. The girls paid a lot of attention to Dylan (naturally). The day ended with us walking over to see the botanical gardens. It was a nice outing and very relaxing. I'll have to post some of the pics I took from the day.

We're at another weekend, and I'm hoping it ends up as great as the others we've been having. I know I need to get over here and work on this project. How's everyone else's weekends starting?

A night for firsts...

Last night was a night of another "first" for Dylan. It was his first official visit to the Emergency Room. I plan on marking it in his baby book and also his scrapbook as his first official "scrape" as he enters his beginning toddler years. I know I can probably expect many more visits to the E.R. as he gets older if he is anything like his enterprising father.

At 6 p.m. or so, I was in his room cleaning and hanging pictures on the wall. I noticed him chewing on something and then swallowing it. In my naivety, I assumed it was a snack as he has a tendency to drag his snack cup everywhere he goes. It's often like a Hansel and Gretel trail throughout the house as he drops snacks in an almost perfect path back to his toys. I didn't think much of his chewing and swallowing something until I saw him pick up another. He placed it in his mouth, made a face, and pushed it out enough for me to notice it glittered like a new penny. Lo and behold, it WAS a penny! I ran as quickly as I could and rooted amongst his baby sharp teeth until I could manage to pull it out. I found another one grasped in his little palm and extracted those to put in a place that little hands could not reach.

I didn't think much of it until we went to visit Grandma at bowling. I casually mentioned that Dylan had swallowed a penny a few hours prior. She went and informed her bowling team of what had happened only to come back and tell me to call the doctor. I called the emergency room who informed me that he should be brought in and checked out.

Off to the emergency room we went with Grandpa in tow. While there, we managed to see a crackhead and also a dead body. Always fun times in the E.R.! I placed Dylan in the crib provided by the hospital where he proceeded to have an absolute ball. He bounced up and down and all around the crib in this fit of happiness that slowly led me to believe that the penny must not be doing much harm. We were led to the x-ray room where Dylan was held down for an x-ray and then sent back to await the results. My earlier suspicions were confirmed when the doctor came to tell us that they hadn't spotted the penny on the x-ray. It shows up as a bright white spot on the x-ray and they didn't see anything like that. They did think he may still have swallowed it and that it was further down and probably on the way out. I was told to follow up with his normal doctor in 3 days and to wait for the coin to pass. Now I sit and play the waiting game until that shiny penny makes it presence known. AHH, the joys of motherhood!!!

So now we have something new to document in Dylan's baby book and a story to tell him for years to come of the first time he swallowed change...

Top 3 Tuesday-Top 3 Favorite Names..

Over at another blog (Confessions from a Working Mom), they've posted asking readers to share their top 3 favorite names. As I love names, I can't resist joining in. When I was pregnant, I would pore over the name book for hours, hoping to find that one perfect name for my new little one. I eventually did, but the search was at times painstaking when you're faced with the wide variety of names they present in those books.

The List:

1) Dylan-We loved this name from the first, and I kept going back to it. It was one of those moments where you just keep going over a list you've made and one things pops into the foreground every time. That's how it was with Dylan. It's a name that is classic, normal, and will age well. Plus, it fits him perfectly.

2) Lily-My Father pushed hard for this name if we were having a girl. I can't describe why I like this name except to say I love how delicate and feminine it sounds. If I'd have had a girl, she'd have been Lily Grace. If nothing changes between now and my next child, this will be her name.

3) Eden- This is a new one for me, but one I've come to love a lot recently. A woman on my BabyCenter Board has a daughter named Eden, and I've managed to fall in love with it through that. It's also a classic and very pretty without being too "weird" or "different."

A close 4th for me was the name Beatrix. A little girl at our story time has this name. I find it to be adorable, quirky, and a little bit spunky. Plus, I love the possibility of the nickname "Bea."