New York Style Cheesecake with Raspberry Sauce

There is nothing better than a nice, creamy, smooth bite of decadent New York style cheesecake dripping in a tart raspberry sauce. Okay, there might be a few things that are better, or at least equal. But boy oh boy, do I love me some cheesecake.

Like seriously. I could probably eat an entire piece of cheesecake myself. Maybe I shouldn't admit that.

LINK: New York Style Cheesecake

LINK: Raspberry Sauce

Delicious Cafe Rio

I absolutely LOVE Cafe Rio. Unfortunately, it is only an occasional treat for me because the nearest location is in Great Falls, Montana.

Don't panic. This is where Pinterest comes in handy. You can find a link for pretty much anything on Pinterest. Well, I was able to do just that. I found a link to a blog featuring recipes for every component of Cafe Rio's Sweet Pork Salad (which is my favorite, and in all honesty, the only thing I have even tried). Trust me, it's delicious!

Although it is not a quick meal to put together as there is a bit of prep time required to make each of the parts, if you do what I do, which is make it in advance, then putting everything together right before you want to eat is actually quite fast.

LINK: Erica’s Complete Cafe Rio Sweet Pork Salad (Copycat Recipe)

Rhett's Nautical Nursery {Reveal}

Considering Rhett is already six months old, I figure there is no time like the present to show off his adorable nautical nursery!

Hanging on the back of the crib is the quilt that my mom made for Rhett. This was were my inspiration for a nautical themed room came from. As soon as I saw the fabric in the store, I fell in love with the idea of a nautical nursery for a little boy (at the time of finding the fabric, we still didn't know what we were having. My mom was just preparing for either). I also made the bed skirt using leftover fabric from the quilt. I just sewed three sections of fabric together and then using velcro, attached it to the crib under the mattress.

 Here are some close up pictures of the quilt.

I made the wreath using a circle foam form from Michaels, then just wrapped red and white yarn around it and finally added some jute along the outside edge. I also made the bunting using  some jute along with some leftover scraps from my moms quilt. The cute anchor pillow was a random find from Jysk.

Bought these display boxes from Jysk then spray painted them blue. Filled them with some sand dollars, star fish and sea shells that my mom had from a trip we took to Oregon when I was younger.  The red nautical vase was a sweet find from Ross that I found on one of our trips to Great Falls.

The adorable quilt on the back of the chair was made by my best friend Mandy.

The window valence was made using a piece of wood, covered in quilt batting and then finally with some of the left over fabric from the quilt (that also matches the crib skirt). And just to the right of the window you can see a really neat canvas with string art on it of a  boat in the sea. It was something out family friend Torrie had made a few years ago, and when she found out that I was doing a nautical nursery, she offered it to me.  I think it looks great with everything else in the room.

I bought four matching picture frames from the Salvation Army and had Bryan spray paint them blue. Then I filled them with some nautical images that my mom had bought the clip art for from an Etsy shop.

Six Months - Happy Half Birthday!!!

I am a few days behind, but happy half birthday Rhett! Six months old! I can't even believe it! I feel like I say this too often, but time is going by way too fast! That being said, I am thoroughly enjoying the moments now, where Bryan and I can actually play with Rhett and he can respond to us and our actions.

6 months - 15 pounds, 13 ounces

As always, this was a busy month with a lot of milestones. I'm thinking that every month for the first year will be fairly similar. Before we dive into Rhett's six month though, I am going to quickly share some photo evidence of those two little chompers that made their appearance last month. Luckily I have escaped being bitten by those suckers so far. And let me just say, I absolutely love the toothless grin that babies have. But I almost love Rhett's little 2-tooth grin even more. It is just sOoOoOo adorable!!! (I think I am probably a little biased as well).

We also spent a lot of time with family and friends this month, visiting, playing games, doing fun activities and just enjoying each others company. We went swimming at the beginning of February with my mom and my sister and her kids. Mandi sat on the side with little Maea but the rest of us got in and had a blast! Rhett continues to enjoy the pool and Alyssa, Abbott and Aedan had a blast with Grandma Marie and Uncle Bryan. We had so much fun swimming that 2 weeks later, we all went to the skating rink for another fun family activity. Rhett slept in his car seat for most of it but we brought him out and pulled him around with Aedan on the sled for a few minutes at the end. We were also lucky enough to be able to coordinate two games nights with our really close friends. They live out of town so we don't see them as often as we like. We took turns driving to each others house and had supper and games and got to play with the babes before they went to sleep for the night (they have a little girl, Brooklyn, who is just 4 months older than Rhett).

The Dreaded 'C' Word...

Croup.

This past weekend marks the very first time that Rhett has been sick. Unfortunately, rather than starting off with a mild cold, the poor little guy got croup.

It started sometime last week, just a mild, occasional cough. No big deal.

Boy, was I ever wrong!

On Saturday night, he had woken up and as I was walking into his room to nurse him, he started coughing. But this cough was different. It was more like a bark. I picked him up out of his crib, nursed him and put him back to sleep.

On Sunday afternoon, I put him down for a nap and decided to take a nap myself as I was quite tired. Next thing I know, it is almost two hours later and I wake up to Bryan yelling my name from the living room. I get up and go out to see what he wants. He is sitting on the couch holding Rhett who had just thrown up all over himself and Bryan. We get Rhett out of his clothes and gave him a bath. Once he was dressed again, I nursed him and as soon as he was done eating, I sat him up and he threw up again all of himself, me and the couch. Got him changed again, only to have him throw up all over himself and me AGAIN!!! Honestly, I am not even sure what connection the vomiting has with croup, but it is just part of the timeline of events.

The Book Thief

It would seem that I am on a roll! Here's to my second post of the day!!!

I recently finished reading 'The Book Thief' written by: Markus Zusak. As far back as I can remember, and I'm talking like elementary school, I have had a certain obsession fondness for reading books and stories about World War II. I'm really not sure why this particular topic and setting appeals to me so much, but I continue to be drawn to it even all these years later. I have to admit that I bought this book a couple of years ago and started it, but for some reason, life got in my way and the book ended up neglected and unfinished on my bookshelf. It wasn't until my younger sister asked put this book on her Christmas wish list and my mom went to the movie that I remembered that I even owned it! Poor book. So, I went into the office and rummaged around my very unorganized bookshelf and retrieved it. And so, for the second time, I started reading 'The Book Thief'.

I found the book to have a unique style of writing. The book is narrated by 'Death' who is recounting the story of a young girl in Nazi Germany. The main character, Liesel, is faced with the death of loved ones, a new home, new family and new friends, learning to read and write, adjusting to life during the war and overcoming many obstacles. I especially enjoyed how the story focuses on the trials and hardships faced by non-Jewish Germans (while still bringing to light the horrendous atrocities suffered by the Jewish populations) as this is a perspective that is told less frequently. I felt like the author did a great of creating and developing such lovable characters and giving enough back story on each of them that by the end of the book, I felt like I knew them and loved them as much as Liesel did.

It truly is a powerful and heart wrenching book and I would highly recommend it to everyone looking for a good read.

Five Months!!!

And finally, to catch us up to the present, a post on my little man's fifth month. And what a month it was!

5 months - 14 pounds, 11 ounces

The first thing we did was to celebrate Rhett's first Christmas. It was so much fun to dress him up in cute outfits and buy him presents and stocking stuffers (which was obviously more for our enjoyment than his). And boy oh boy! Who knew a baby could be so spoiled!! I guess that is what happens when he is so loved by friends and family! How blessed we truly are.

We also had the opportunity to spend a day with close friends of ours. We had so much fun skating, stuffing our faces with Chinese food, watching the kids play and interact and then playing Pictionary together once the babies had gone to bed. Christmas is good for that. It gives you a reason/excuse to spend time with those you love, stay up late, have too much fun (if there is such a thing), and eat more than you know you should.

Little fish in a great big ocean...or swimming pool.

A few weeks ago, our really good friends were in Lethbridge for the day so we decided to have a swim date. Bryan and I were excited but also a little unsure of how it would unfold as this would be Rhett's very first time swimming!!! Rhett absolutely loves bath time, so naturally we assumed that he would be fine with swimming, but you never know. The last thing we wanted was to have him freak out and be traumatized or something like that.

We went out and bought some swim diapers, and made sure that the swim trunks we had fit him and then we met up with our friends (had a delicious brunch first) and headed to Nicholas Sheran pool.

We had so much fun (although Rhett doesn't look overly impressed in these pictures). We spent probably about an hour in the kiddy pool which had nice lukewarm water in it so we didn't have to worry about Rhett being too cold. At first he did seem overwhelmed by all the noise and people but eventually he would kick his legs and splash his arms and we even got some smiles out of him! I missed the boat on signing up for an infant swimming class in the winter session, but I am definitely going to try to get us into something come spring. I really want Rhett to be comfortable in the water and know how to swim as Bryan and I feel that this is a very important life skill. So for now, we will just have to make a few more trips to the pool on our own!

Four Months

As promised, here is a summary of Rhett's fourth month, to help get me caught up to where we are now!

4 months - 13 pounds, 8 ounces

I think month four was probably one of the busiest months we've had! It sure felt like it at least. Shopping, visits from friends and family and road trips to Grandma and Grandpa Bullocks for Christmas!

It started off with a new addition to the family...my older sister had just given birth to her fourth child, a darling little girl named Maea! I was so excited back in the spring when my sister announced that she was expecting. I had always thought that it would be so fun to have babies close together, but was never certain that it would actually happen! It is going to be so fun to watch Rhett and Maea grow up together, hopefully as good friends! When my sister went home from the hospital, her husband was unable to get off work so I packed up Rhett and we went to help my sister out for the first few days. I truly cherish the time I was able to spend helping out my sister and getting to know my new little niece!

Moving along...as we were in the middle of the Christmas season, I of course was busy decorating my house, listening to Christmas music and subtly trying to pass on my love for Christmas to my 4 month old baby! :)

Newborn Photo Shoot

In my continued attempt to catch up on the last 5 months, I have decided to rewind again and share some of my mom's AMAZING photography skills as she was kind enough to dedicate her time to do some newborn pictures of Rhett! I offered my skills as her assistant in the photo shoot and we had a fun time arranging props and posing Rhett.

(Obviously she was well compensated with plenty of snuggles from her newest grand baby)!!

Bella felt left out, so she decided that she needed to have her own photo shoot!! :) 

The First 3 Months

Wow! It is amazing how fast time can pass. Tomorrow, my sweet baby boy will be 5 months old! WHAT?!?!?! What the heck happened to my tiny newborn baby??? Well, I guess there is no time like the present to write a little something about the first 3 months (I figure I'll tackle months 4 and 5 another day).

From day one, Rhett was very alert. He always had wide open eyes, taking in everything around him. One of the comments that we heard many times from people was how little he resembled a newborn, that he just looked like a little boy. Another popular comment was how expressive his face was! I would have to agree.

He was, and still is a very happy, calm baby. We have been so lucky to be blessed with such a good little boy. I can probably only count on one hand the number of times that he has cried for more than a few minutes and for no apparent reason. I learned quickly, that if he was crying or fussy, he was letting me know that he was hungry, tired, bored or gassy.

And then there were three...

Well, four if you include Bella ;)

On August 23rd, 2013 our lives changed forever. I suppose our lives were changed months before that, when I first found out that I was pregnant, but I'll save that story for another day. For now, here is the story of the birth of our sweet little boy, Rhett David.

**Warning - I have not been shy about being detailed in this story as I did not want to forget anything.**

I had gone for my regular weekly check up with my doctor, Dr. Koegler, on Wednesday, August 21^st. At this point I was four days overdue (my due date according to the ultrasound was set for August 17^th). Dr. Koegler checked me and I was not dilated yet and had still only been having irregular Braxton hicks contractions. Since Dr. Koegler was taking a week of holidays that Friday, we decided that it would be best to book me in for an induction on Thursday, August 22^nd.  I was overcome with various feelings. On one hand, I was excited at the idea of no longer being pregnant and uncomfortable as well as knowing that I was finally going to get to meet my son. On the other hand, I was very nervous. Knowing exactly when you are going to have your baby and having the night to get everything in order was just a weird feeling. Like we were getting ready to go on a planned vacation, except in this case, we were going to the hospital to have a baby. I called Bryan to tell him the news. After absorbing the news, we were both very excited to finally get to meet our son, hold him and love him.

Welcome Back - Attempt Number Two

Well, here I go again! After almost 3 years of neglect, I am going to take another stab at this whole blogging thing! Back when I first started this blog, I had just discovered the fabulous and ENORMOUS world of blogging. Although I did not expect that my blog would amount to much, I still put pressure on myself to write posts that were interesting and eloquent or to attempt DIY projects and post step by step instructions as well as before and after photos. I was reading blog after blog that had countless followers due to the creativity each blog possessed. I felt overwhelmed. Eventually, I gave up because I convinced myself that I had nothing worth writing about.

Fast forward two and a half years. A lot has changed in my life. I am still not convinced that I am a great writer and that anyone, other than myself, would take the time to read what I have to say, but I am starting to realize the value of having my own blog. This realization comes in the form of my sweet baby boy and my desire to document his life and life with him. No pressure. No expectations. Just a place for me to record memories that maybe one day will be read by my children, grandchildren and so on.

So, even though I have a lot of catching up to do...challenge accepted!