What's Up Wednesday

Linking up with Mix and Match Mama for What's Up Wednesday!

What we're eating this week

Pulled Pork!  We had some friends over Sunday evening to celebrate David's birthday and he requested BBQ Pulled Pork.  I found this recipe last year and I've made it several times and it is always a big hit.  In fact when our friend Matt got to our house Sunday he asked if I'd made my "famous pulled pork."  It's so easy to make and it feeds a lot of people.  We had it Sunday with Buns as well as Chips and Queso for nachos.  It makes a lot of pulled pork and we have a lot left.  Usually I just freeze the leftovers, but I thought before I did that I'd try out a few new recipes using it.  So we are having Pulled Pork Quesadillas and BBQ Pulled Pork Pizza for dinner this week.

What I'm reminiscing about

David turned 30 on Sunday, so on our date Saturday night I was asking him some reflection questions.  So we talked about things we were glad we did in our 20s as well as what we're hoping for in our 30s.  My 30th year has come and gone, but it was still fun reminiscing about college, Young Adults Group, and early married life.

What I'm loving

Our new car!

Saturday we bought a 2016 Nissan Pathfinder and we are loving it.  We decided to go ahead and trade in David's Explorer since it has seemed to be on its transmission has been on it's last leg for a while.  We found a great deal on this Pathfinder and it was an extra bonus that it is BLUE because that's exactly what I wanted.  It's so fun having a new-to-us car.  And I'm enjoying driving it around during the week.

What we've been up to

Car Shopping and Birthday Celebrating took up our weekend.  Then Monday I listed our dining room table on a Facebook garage sale site and someone bought and picked it up that night.  And we had a new one delivered last night!  We loved our table, but with starting to focus more on family dinners we were looking for something more kid friendly.  Our table was great for big groups and games, but with the tall chairs it was not the safest for little kids.  So I'd been looking online and found a guy who makes Farmhouse style tables and we got a good deal on a table and 2 benches.  So we sold our old table to get this one set up.  Looking forward to lots of years of memories around this table.

What I'm dreading

The continuation of the summer heat!  Luckily we've had some rain to cool things off this past week, but I know we've still got a few months of heat ahead of us and it just makes it so hard to get outside and do anything.

What I'm working on

I'm throwing a baby shower for my friend Yali next month, so I have been busy working on that.  I designed and sent out invitations this week, so now I'm working on decorations as well as a few gifts for her baby boy!

What I'm excited about

Redecorating our Dining Room.  I've got a few plans to go along with our new table, so I'll be sure to share once I get it figured out!

What I'm watching/reading

I have book club on Friday and this is the book our friend chose, so I finished it yesterday.  I actually had read it a few years ago, so it was easy to go through it again and remember all of the little details.

Otherwise, I'm still working on the same books from last month :)

What I'm listening to

Nothing new really.  I've been listening to more of the Risen Motherhood podcast that I mentioned last time.  I've gone back and listened to several older episodes and am making my way through all of them.  They are a perfect thing to listen to during Cooper's feedings!

What I'm wearing

Still a lot of yoga pants and tank tops around the house.  I did recently get my first Lularoe Carly and I am loving it so much.  It's so comfortable and versatile.  Mine is a coral color and I just love it so I'm wearing it a lot right now too!

What I'm doing this weekend

We are heading to Oklahoma to see some of David's family!  It is Cooper's first out of state trip and we are excited for a long weekend with family.

What I'm looking forward to next month

Cooper's first 4th of July, our anniversary, and Yali's baby shower!  We are also discussing taking Cooper to his first Ranger's Game, so we'll see if we decide to try that out!

What else is new

Well, I couldn't leave here without some picture of Cooper, right?  So here he is trying out his high chair for the first time!  We usually eat dinner at our coffee table and just have him in the bouncy seat with us, but last night we had our first dinner at our new table, so I set up his high chair so he had somewhere to sit with us.

Birthday Date

This past weekend was David's birthday and we had fun celebrating.  When we were talking about his birthday a few months ago, I asked him what he wanted to do-- a party with lots of people, some small family time, a baseball game, etc.  We decided to have some friends over on his birthday since we usually have our Community Group on Sundays and we would be meeting with them anyway.  But David also requested a birthday date just me and him.

 When we were planning the date I asked if he knew what he wanted to do or if he wanted me to plan it.  He chose for me to plan it and to surprise him with what we were doing.  So Saturday night we got dressed up and headed out to McKinney.

 First stop was Hutchins BBQ.  We had never been, but it is a popular BBQ place in the area.  The line wrapped around the building and we waited for about an hour to get to the front of it.  But we had planned for a long dinner wait, so we settled in and enjoyed some time to talk without a baby crying like he tends to do at dinner time :)  

 We enjoyed brisket, ribs, and sides.  They also had free dessert, so I had their peach cobbler and David had their banana pudding.

 We thought it was all very good and we were glad to have tried it out!

Then we headed toward Downtown McKinney for a comedy show, which was our main event for the evening.

 I had seen an advertisement about Comedy Sportz a few months ago and thought it seemed like something David would like, so I bought us tickets for this weekend.

It was a comedy show where 2 teams competed against each other in a variety of Improv games to try to earn points.  It was similar to Whose Line is it Anyway and we had a lot of fun

 We bought blue and red glowsticks so we could vote for which team we thought did a better job.  We both really liked the blue team, but the red team ended up winning to most points

It was a great night out on the town with my favorite guy!

Cooper's Baby Dedication

Sunday we also had Cooper's Baby Dedication!  Our church does Baby Dedications on Mother's Day, Father's Day and then again in the Fall.  Since we were still figuring out our schedule, we didn't sign up for Mother's Day, but by the time June rolled around we were feeling a little more confident in our ability to get to church.  We got Cooper up and ready Sunday morning and headed to church early.

Cooper was dedicated alongside a few other babies and we pledged to teach him about Jesus.

And our church gave him a little gift with this verse.  

Father's Day Gifts

For David's first Father's Day, I spent some time searching for good gift options.  I had been planning to make him his own set of suck pads for our Lillebaby carrier, which is part of the reason that I made the first few sets the week before--because I needed to try out the patterns first!

So I picked up some Rangers fabric and sewed up this set.  I figured it might make him more likely to help wear Cooper in the carrier :)

When I was searching Pinterest and Message Boards for ideas, I found this one to spell out DAD with 3 different pictures and put them together in a frame

So one day while David was at work, Cooper and I had a photo shoot with the letters that I painted.  David seemed to really like this gift and he took it to work to put at his desk.  

Here's our sweet boy closer up:

Had to get one with his serious face in addition to the smiles because this is how he looks a lot of the time! 

And we finished off his gift with a few books for him to read with Cooper!

We're so thankful for David and I had fun putting together this gift for his first Father's Day!

Father's Day

We had a good time celebrating Cooper's Dad and Pappaw over the last few weeks!

 David's dad had to work Father's Day weekend, so we went and saw them the weekend before to celebrate Father's Day and David's birthday.

 Cooper was a content little guy most of the day and did well to show off his smile for Pappaw and Nanny.

 And he crashed and took a nap with Pappaw holding him as well!

 This past Sunday we got up and got Cooper dressed in his plaid shorts and turtle shirt.  We actually had bought this outfit before he was born.  When he started measuring big, we bought a bigger outfit as an option for Easter.  Two and half months later, it finally fits!

Cooper is a lucky little one to have this guy for a dad!  We spent the morning and lunch with family celebrating Cooper's baby dedication.  Sunday night we went out for burgers and custard just the 3 of us!  It was a good weekend together.

Reunited with my Sewing Machine

Before Cooper was born, I spent a lot of time crafting and sewing.  I knew I wouldn't have the same amount of time once he was here, so I was glad to get a lot of projects done while we waited for him.  But I was starting to miss sewing.  Last week, Cooper took a few good naps (longer than his usual 30 minutes) so I sat down at my sewing machine for the first time since he was born.

I decided to make some suck pads for our Lillebaby carrier.  Right now we don't necessarily need them, but Cooper is starting to drool a lot so they will be nice to have.  And they add some fun color/patterns to our gray carrier.

The first set I made followed this pattern for straight suck pads.  I used this cotton fabric for the front, the light blue flannel for the back, and a cut up towel for the inner lining.  I decided to use Velcro for the enclosure because I already had some.  I also added a few ribbons along the bottom to attach toys, teethers, or pacifiers as needed.

This set was very easy to make and I was able to knock them out during 2 of Cooper's naps last week.

Here they are on our Lillebaby: 

While I was looking for a pattern for suck pads, I also came across this pattern for curved ones (I used the pattern for the Tula since it is similar in size to the Lillebaby and the Ergo).  The curved ones fit more tightly along the curves of the carrier, but I've read they can make it difficult to raise the headrest.  But I decided to try out a set of these as well and then see which ones we liked better. 

 I found this fun dinosaur printed cotton for the front of the suck pads and  used 2 layers of flannel for the inside.  I again used Velcro for the enclosure and added a ribbon to attach things as needed.  These ones were definitely more difficult to make than the first set.  The pattern was more complicated and it involved more steps of sewing different pieces together to get the curved look.  They were still fairly easy to make, but definitely took more time than the first set.  I did a lot of this one while David was home to help with Cooper.

I think they turned out well:

I think if I make another set I will probably stick with the straight version (the first pattern) just because it was so much simpler and I still think they fit well and look cute on the carrier.  But maybe once I use them more I'll really like the curved ones better.  Either way, it's fun to have a few options to "dress up" our carrier.  And I really enjoyed being back at my sewing machine creating things!

And thanks to this precious burrito baby for taking a few awesome naps so I could get these done!

Walmart Grocery Pickup

Today we tried something new and decided to experiment with the Walmart Grocery Pickup.  If you're not familiar with what that is--basically you place an order online and then go to the store and they have a place to park outside and they will come bring your groceries to your car.  A few Walmarts in our area started doing this a while back, but none that were super close to us so I had kind of brushed it off.  But when we went to Walmart a few weeks ago, I saw that the grocery pickup had come to one closer to us so I tucked that away for future reference :)

Now I'll admit that I actually like walking around the grocery store.  Cooper does pretty well in either his stroller (if we only need a few things) or in the K'tan (if we need a lot and I need a full cart available).  And it gets us out of the house and gives us a little time walking around not in the Texas heat.  But I still thought it'd be nice to try out the grocery pick up on occasion.

Since I've been trying to do better at meal planning, my shopping list has been pretty well planned out.  And this week we are taking dinner to some friends one night so we have a few more groceries than usual.  So I decided last night to try out an order for the Walmart pick up.  I placed the order and chose a pick up time between 11 and 12 today.

On our way to Walmart we actually stopped at Target because there were a few things I needed there that I didn't/couldn't get at Walmart. 

My sweet boy along for the ride in his stroller while we went for our walk in Target.

The Walmart confirmation email I got said to check in about 10 minutes before we would arrive, so I checked in as we were leaving Target and it showed me my route ;)

We pulled in and found the pickup spot.  They were helping someone else so we waited our turn

And about 5 minutes later the groceries were loaded in the back of the car and we were ready to head home!

The Walmart associate reviewed everything with me and told me any substitutions they made (the only one on our order was a different type of grapes).  It was very easy and relatively quick.

The downside?

 Since the car was parked (not in motion) for about 5-10 minutes and Cooper was awake he was NOT a fan.  He got upset and I replaced his pacifier several times while we waited.  He was a little fussy when we left, but I figured once we got moving he'd be fine.  But it was just too much for him so he cried the whole (short) drive home and this was the sad little boy that I got out of the back of the car.  He needed a nap badly and usually will take one in the car, but today he was not having it and the wait at Walmart made it even worse.

Of course I still had groceries to unload, including quite a few cold and frozen things. So I loaded Cooper into the K'tan so I could hold him and unload everything.  He calmed down once I put him in and patted him a little.  And in less than 3 minutes he was asleep.  

So our overall experience with Walmart pickup was fine but not as amazing as I imagined :)

A few positives:

1. It's FREE.  The fact that they offer this service and don't charge for it is so awesome!  And the minimum order is only $30 so you really don't have to get too much to make it worth it

2. We definitely saved money.  As much as I love strolling around the store, that definitely means I end up with things I do not need and spend way more on our groceries.  This would be a main reason I might likely do the grocery pickup again!

3. They were quick and efficient.  Even with someone else ahead of us in the "line" we still were on our way with a loaded car in 10 minutes or less

A few not so positives:

1. Whenever I've tried to set it up, you can't do same day pickup, you have to reserve a time for the following day.  Which overall is probably not a big deal for a weekly shopping trip.  But with a baby who has no consistent schedule, it's hard for me to know when is going to be a good time to get out every day.  So it can be easier to just go to the store when it's a good time for Cooper rather than having to get out at a specific time

2. Overall they are really good about getting the exact amount of what you need--they measure out produce by the pound and everything.  So my list today probably had one of the few exceptions.  I needed a chuck roast for one of our dinners this week.  And it's the dinner that I'm also taking to friends so I need a little more than usual (about 3-3.5 lbs).  When I ordered the chuck roast, it says it will be 1.5-4 pounds and you can't really specify beyond that.  So I only got 1 thinking I didn't want 2 huge roasts and the 1 I got is only 2.4 pounds.  It might work for what I need, but if I need a certain amount of meat like this roast it's easier for me to be able to go to the store and pick the right one.  I think ground meat, chicken breast, and other meat have a much smaller range of size/weight, but it just so happened that this meat that I needed couldn't be specified as easily.  

Overall, I'd definitely recommend Walmart pickup to others.  It is an awesome service.  My order was completely correct.  It was easy to set up the order online and quick to pick it up.

But for us, we'll probably continue to do our shopping in store or use it on a day when David can pick it up or I can go while he's home with Cooper.  I do know a day is coming (maybe quickly) when it will be much harder to take Cooper grocery shopping.  It was always hard when we had our foster kids and had a 3 and 4 year old with me.  So I can definitely see us using this service in the future!  Cooper just says not right now :)

Cooper's Cubbyhole: 2 months

2 months old!

Weight: 10 pound 7 ounces

Height: 22.75 inches

Diaper Size: 1

Clothing Size: 0-3 months

Things you Love: Mommy--you’re definitely showing a preference for mommy and want her to hold you most of the time, Your playmat--you’ve become more interested in the hanging toys and will stare at them for a long time and hit at them; Pacifiers, Music

Things you Don’t Love: Tummy Time--it seems to have gotten more difficult for you this month and you have trouble lifting your head so you just get mad.  Evenings--you are fussy most of the evening and just want to be held and fed most of the time.  

Milestones: You laughed for the first time this month.  You’ve been doing a lot of cooing to talk to us and definitely recognize Mommy and Daddy and smile for us!  Your visual tracking has become much more consistent and you will follow toys with your eyes.

Sweet Cooper, you have been so fun this month. I love that you are already showing a preference for us and that you save your biggest smiles for me. You've been sleeping a lot less this month, but in exchange we get so many fun smiles and lots of talking and cooing from you. We just think you are the best baby and you fit so perfectly into our lives. I can't wait to see what this next month brings!