we seriously have the best friends ever. there’s a group of 5 couples that we meet with regularly from our church, some are old friends and some new but the support, love and fun we share is unmatched. they are the kind of people that you know would do ANYTHING for you and can always count on. they’ve been our prayer warriors through all of this, our gracious help when i was stuck on bed rest, and our entertainment when we need some social time. tonight a bunch of us got together for dinner @ one of our fave places joe’s farm grill- it was a great time! the highlight was our friend’s one year old daughter, evie, saying “bye claire, i love you” over and over and helping adrian push the stroller. too sweet for words. here’s a couple pics of adrian, me and claire bear tonight.

thanks to the thanksgiving shopping deals, we finally have a new camera again! so that means more pics and posts from me!

i also ordered some christmas cards from tinyprints.com with a sweet photo of Claire, i can’t wait to send them out! i am planning on using them as thank you notes too for all the wonderful gifts we’ve received for little Claire. hopefully Adrian can give me a little break to write them! it has been such a struggle to find time to do them since after my baby shower i was on strict bed rest and couldn’t sit to write anything, then in the hospital for three weeks, then going through Claire’s hospital time for the next eight weeks and then full blown new mommyhood with added rare issues and tons of doctors appointments. i hope no one feels that we don’t appreciate their kindness in my lateness of thanking them. we are overwhelmed with the generousity of our family, friends and even a few people we don’t even know! just that you are thinking of Claire means so much and the fact you took time to send her a gift touched our hearts.

claire’s smile count is at seven! i got four in a row on her four month birthday (the 20th). and i just got three more today at my parent’s house. claire was so attentive and engaged with me, even let out a few coos. it was like a happy pill and now i want more! i am hoping i don’t have to wait as long for the next ones, they’re too precious! it really gave me a speck of hope for her development. happy thanksgiving to all!

it’s been slow going replacing all the stuff that was stolen from me. adrian got me a new blackberry within a couple days so i am now reconnected with the world; i won a ebay auction for a new diaper bag and found a super cute wallet on sale. i’ll post on those later when they arrive. but one lifesaver product that was taken was my adorable travel wipes case. my friend amber found these on etsy and gifted me one at the baby shower. i am so sad that the shop she got it from no longer has any for sale, but the good news is tons of other ladies make them! i ordered from kahcouture’s shop and i can’t wait to receive it in a few days! if you search on etsy for “baby wipes case” you’ll find tons of variations to choose from. they make excellent gifts and are so handy for everyday use when you need to change a diaper. i love them!

sorry for the lack of posting. it’s been a rough last week for me and to top it all off my diaper bag was stolen out of the car parked in our garage in the span of a minute. bye bye to my blackberry, digital camera, designer wallet and misc. items. boo! i have never before actually wanted to commit an act of violence against someone but if i ever meet the rascal who did this, i would be very tempted to pull out their hair! at least our homeowner’s insurance is cutting us a check for the stolen goods (after the deductible is taken out of course.) so for now i am camera-less and phone-less. it feels soooo weird.

today marks the end of our stint trying the enfamil gentle-ease formula. we find it to be neither gentle or easy. instead it has created crying fits that last for hours and the smelliest farts ever to be emitted from a 12 pound body. we’re going to give this organic brand a try since it is corn-free and you would be surprised that most formulas have corn syrup solids as their number one ingedient. doesn’t sound yummy to me. crossing my fingers that this one agrees with miss claire’s bowels! feeding therapy is still trucking along. not much progress since claire’s acid reflux is still in full force so we are taking things slow. and still no smiley baby yet either which is breaking my heart but i am trying to remember that claire is setting the pace here and i cannot force her to do what she is not ready to do. she reacts to people with a bunch of little facial expressions anyway and is more alert than ever. i just wish we could calm her upset tummy and make her feel more comfortable! then maybe we could get her smiley.

yesterday i made my parents and adrian dinner and rediscovered my love for this unique spicy-honey cashew chicken recipe that i haven’t made in forever. it’s adapted from a rachael ray one. trust me, it’s got heat so if you are not a fan of the burn then don’t use the chili just the sauce from the adobo can. think if it as a southwest twist on a chinese food staple. hard to explain but sooo good! and it is a breeze to make!

Spicy Honey Cashew Chicken

ingredients

• 1 TB vegetable oil
• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1 inch chunks
• montreal steak seasoning (eyeball it)
• 2-3 TB soy sauce (eyeball it)
• 4 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 red bell pepper (thinly sliced)
• 3/4 large onion (thinly sliced)
• 1 small can water chestnuts, drained
• 3 TB chipotles in adobo sauce (1 pepper diced and 2 TB sauce) (find it in the mexican food section) or sub 1 and 1/2 TB ground chipotle powder
• 1 TB ground cumin
• 2-3 TB honey (eyeball it, 2 good size drizzles around the pan)
• 1/3 cup real maple syrup (not the fake stuff)
• 1 cup cashews (sometimes i use more to make it extra crunchy)
• small handful of chopped cilantro

directions

brown the chicken in the vegetable oil over med high heat. season with steak seasoning while cooking. after it’s done, drizzle with the soy sauce and move to one side of pan. add garlic, onion and red bell pepper to the pan. cook 3 minutes then add water chestnuts. mix veggies and meat together in pan. add chipotles and cumin and toss to coat. drizzle with honey and maple syrup, then toss to coat. turn off heat and mix in cashews and cilantro. serve over brown rice.

money saving tip

i buy frozen boneless, skinless chicken breast tenderloins in bulk from costco. so all i do with this recipe is put the chicken i need in the pan, season it while it cooks, then remove it when it’s just done and chop it into the 1 inch chunks on a cutting board. then i throw it back in the pan and drizzle with the soy sauce and follow the recipe from there. i also buy the chopped garlic in a glass jar. i think it’s 1/4 tsp equals one clove of garlic. makes it go by faster if you don’t chop it yourself!

claire was a cute tiny ladybug all for about 10 minutes on halloween before she started screaming from the uncomfortable costume! well it was adorable while it lasted! and of course miss lily had to match her! my parent’s doggie, gracie, didn’t want to feel left out so we slapped some angel wings and a halo on her. she is after all, very angelic compared to rambunctious silly lily.

it was a great night of homemade chili, time with family and of course halloween candy! hope you all had a great night too!

guess what? the phoenix suns season starts tonight against our arch-enemies, the icky spurs. get ready for hack a shaq, ginobli flops and tim duncan whining about every foul call! one thing i will be so happy not to see? robert horry and his nasty tactics on the court, bye bye horry! i think he retired or something. at least steve nash won’t be thrown into anything this game! oh how i missed nash, stat, the brazilian blur and especially raja. see, he isn’t so scary in this picture is he? just don’t get him mad! and now the game is about to start, bring it on spurs!

while browsing around at the expensive baby boutiques, i kept seeing cute little frames perfect for claire’s nursery shelves. only problem was those cute little frames cost over $40 each. i decided to expand my crafty talents and see if i could create them myself. all it took was $4 white frames from target, a glue gun, scraps of ribbon and some buttons. here’s my results, what do you think? i have to say, i’m pretty happy with how they turned out. oh and that one photo is of claire licking adrian’s scruffy face, it was hilarious!

i captured claire’s adorable sleep smile on film last night and wanted to share it with you all. come on baby, smile at mommy when you’re awake! p.s. – she weighed in at 10 lbs. 13 oz. at the pediatrician today, yay claire!