Mommy SOS - Baby biting Crib (no joke)

Man am I hoping some of your veteran moms can help me with this one!

Nora {aka beaver} has been biting her crib for the past couple months. It's terrible...there are literally chunks of wood gone from the sides of her crib. Crazy, huh?!!!

Have any of you experienced this? If so, what did you do to protect baby and crib??

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2 {photography} peas in a pod

You know you're two {photography} peas in a pod when you haven't seen each other for 8 months and when you finally do reconnect you take photos of one another for almost the entire time you're hanging out ;)

That's exactly what my friend Nealy and I did when we were in Minnesota a few weeks back. We were doing some serious multi-tasking....chatting, clicking, chatting, clicking, chatting, clicking...

Here's my favorite shot of Nealy and her sweet little girl Callie...and yes, they are in a field...

And here are a couple of my favorites that Nealy took of Nora and me...

If you're from the Twin Cities area and are looking for a photographer... check out Photography by Nealy! Doesn't she do an amazing job???!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Love you Nealy!!

xoxo

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Steph's Pick - Vinturi Wine Aerator

Introducing my new bestie - the Vinturi Wine Aerator. Here's how we met...

Awhile back my dear friend Laura (hey girlie!) was over and I was complaining (again) about how wine seems to go bad so quickly after being opened. It seemed as if I'd open a bottle one night and go to get another glass 2 or 3 nights later and it just didn't taste the same. Ugh....wine isn't cheap you know??!!! It was frustrating.

Well - Laura asked me if I'd seen a Wine Aerator. She said her and her hubby Phil are actually able to buy those large bottles of wine and keep them for up to 2 weeks. They just pour the wine through the aerator and it's practically like a new bottle of wine! WHAT??!!! I just didn't quite believe it...

Fast forward a couple weeks - my birthday - and surprise, surprise - Laura got me a Vinturi - YIPEE!!! I was soooo excited to try this puppy out.

Let me tell you ladies (and gents of course) - it really does work! So long to the days of dumping wine out - hello Mr. Vinturi. Where have you been all of my life?

Buy yours at Amazon or various local retailers sell it as well.

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Mommy SOS - Switching to Milk

Thanks so much for all who helped with your great suggestions for Mommy SOS: Teething Baby with Cold. Nora broke a couple front teeth and is doing much better thanks to a combination of teething tablets, Tylenol and extra lovin'.

For today's Mommy SOS I'm wondering how you transitioned your toddlers from formula/breast milk to cow's milk? We're coming up on Nora's One Year Birthday and I'm trying to determine what the best strategy is for this.

Leave your comments below...

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Steph's Pick - a Perfect Summer Drink

Sorry about last week! I know there were probably some of you out there that were a little disappointed there was no Steph's Pick last week :) We were on a bloggy-vacay.

Well I'm back at it again this week with my new favorite drink for these H-O-T-T - HOT summer months. Now if you know me, you know I drink mostly red wine. However, when the temps in AZ hit 100+ I need something much more refreshing.

I was at a friend's Memorial Day party and someone brought this drink. It was a perfect blend of sweet, fruity, tart and just enough kick. I HAD to get the recipe and have been making it in our home ever since. So thank you friend's neighbor lady :) Thanks also to Laura for the photo and post on this delicious drink.

Ingredients:

1 bottle of white wine (something fruity)

Equal amount of ginger ale

1 can of frozen pink lemonade concentrate

Fresh (or frozen) Berries (really whatever you have around will work and make it pretty)

Directions:

Mix everything together and enjoy!

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Minnesota Love

As I said in this post (if you haven't checked it out - you should - it has a SUPER DUPER cute video of Nora and Adelyn), we spent the past weekend in Minnesota visiting family and friends.

I'll be honest, there was a time when both Alan and I felt like we were becoming a bit calloused to "goodbyes." When you live so far away from all of your family you get used to dropping off people at the airport and saying goodbye often. However, ever since having Nora is seems like it just gets harder and harder to leave our loved ones. Sniff, Sniff.

Ok - enough of the sappy stuff.

I'll be honest - we flew to Minnesota mostly to meet this cute little girl...

AND see this other cute little girl...

When you have three of the cutest little peanuts in the whole wide world you MUST dress them alike and take photos. Thanks to Costco's Kids PJ selection and Nana F's purchases we got a number of matching outfit photos. So fun...

Although we spent plenty of time taking photos of the little one's we were also able to see some of our dear friends (shout out to the Klauser's, Waite's, Joyce's and Tom and Elyse for a great night!) and enjoy some great family time together.

Awww.... we miss you guys!!!

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xoxoxo

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a little preview of Minnesota

We spent this past weekend hanging out with our family in Minnesota (miss you guys already!). Although I'd love to get into the details of how wonderful our time was, I'll leave that for another post. For now here's a little glimpse into our time away...

(Please forgive the crazy commentary and voice...it's a little weird)

and because I'd hate to leave out the newest and snuggliest addition to the family...meet Ella... our sweet little niece! More to come...don't worry!

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Mommy SOS - Teething Baby with Cold

One of my favorite mommy blogs, BecomingMom, has a series entitled "Mommy SOS" where she asks her readers to give their insight into various mommy-matters. I've always loved these posts as I feel like all of the comments are always so helpful - not just for the blogger themselves but for anyone who reads the blog!

So in honor of helping one another, I'm going to also start posting my personal question's as well as other reader's questions.

Now I know some of you are a bit comment squeamish... I know this b/c I KNOW (Google Analytics kind of know) there are a decent amount of you that read this blog but never comment. But - here's your opportunity to shine!

So mommies - Nora has been crazy cranky and fussy the past four days. She's cutting two of her top teeth and in addition to this has over the past couple of days come down with a deep cough - so she has reason to be fussy. I want to know what YOU do (or have done) to make this transition less painful for your little ones. Spill it....

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Steph's Pick - Cakepops

Introducing my new favoritest dessert in the whole-wide-world - CAKEPOPS! Yes - you read that right. Cake - on - a - stick (aka: cakepop)

I met this new treat on the website Bakerella (thanks again Kristina for the introduction) and it was love at first sight. And after making them is was love-at-first-bite (hehehe).

They are the perfect alternative to the celebrations that call for the standard boring cake - birthdays, graduation, anniversaries, etc...

Here's how you do it...

Ingredients:
1 box any cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can cream cheese frosting (16 oz.)
1 package chocolate bark (regular or white chocolate)
wax paper
lollipop sticks

Directions:
1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can cream cheese frosting. (It may be easier to use fingers to mix together, but be warned it will get messy.)
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50. You can get even more if you use a mini ice cream scooper, but I like to hand roll them.)
4. Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)
5. Insert a lollipop stick into the balls before you dip in the coating.
6. Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package.
7. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.)

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summertime and some nora musings

I just realized that it's been far too long since I've posted an update on our little chicken (yes - we call her chicken - I'll highlight that later). So, here are a few Nora musings...

- Nora is a-cruisin' - all over the place! It won't be long till this girl is walking. She's got places to go and puppies to see! ;)

- Nora has a new bestie - Carly - the English Cocker Spaniel. Her grandparents just got a new puppy and Nora just lights up whenever she see's little Carly on Skype.

- Her nickname is chicken - yes - you read that right. Chicken. Although I'm not entirely sure how this happened, I think it had something to do with the fact that I used to call her our lil' chicky - as in the English Slang version of girl.

- Not only is she our chicken but she's a fish. Ok - we don't call her fish - she just LOVES to swim. We swim almost every day and she just loves it. What are we going to do if we don't live in AZ our entire lives????!!!!

- Nora is very excited about her upcoming first birthday party. Well - maybe mom's a little more excited - but I'm sure you are too! We'll be sure to post lots of pictures.

- And finally, I'll leave you with a few pics...

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