— my little corner of randomness —
Now that Maddie is rolling all over the place, we need to start baby proofing. But really, what’s the harm in her learning about computers early?
In this next picture, do you see all these toys behind her? Yet she insists on going right to the laptop. 
This one was just taken today.
I was going to a neighborhood BBQ and I was hankering to bake something new. Then I came across this recipe. It was the strangest, yummiest cookie. It was so unique and such a hit. I thought it would be a fun summer cookie.
You’ll need:
Mix the sugar cookie mix and 3/4 of the jello. Then add one egg and a stick of butter. Then the extracts.
In a separate bowl, mix the remaining jello and the sugar.
Roll the cookie batter into small balls, then roll the balls in the sugar mixture and put on a cookie sheet.
Bake for 7-9 minutes and don’t over bake them.
Cool on a cooling rack.
Feed yourself and your neighbors!
I was a little surprised they used peppermint extract instead of regular mint because it would have been more like a mojito drink (which I will admit, I have never had). But I imagine they used peppermint because it tastes sweeter for a cookie. They had a very interesting flavor and I couldn’t stop eating them.
These would be so easy to make with different flavors of jello and different extracts. I will definitely be trying this again for birthdays or gifts for people. What a fun gift. Now I want to bake again!
Chuck is a builder. He can build anything! He is currently building us a porch/deck in the back yard. Here is a rendering of what it will look like when it’s done.
The porch will be screened in and the grill will be on the deck. We will also replace the window in the porch with a sliding door at some point. It is looking amazing so far! Chuck did a fabulous job laying all the deck boards.
We have had a bit of help from my brother, my dad, Chuck’s sister and her husband. I am sure I will be calling on people to help again when we get to the roof part!
HERE is a link to the gallery of photos I have been taking throughout the process. I’ll be adding more as I take more.
Chuck has been working so hard and I am so thankful he is so handy. Have you done any home renovations/remodeling lately? Do you like to do things yourself or hire out your projects?
UPDATE: When I came home today, Chuck and my dad, with the help of our neighbor, had made a ton of progress! Check it out!
That is the start of the roof! It’s going to look AMAZING when it’s all done!
I found the most delicious cookie recipe online. It has easily become my favorite cookie and I would eat the entire batch! The only change I made was to add a teaspoon of vanilla. But they are really easy. No harder than any other cookies you would make. Here are some pictures I took.
Put everything into a bowl and mix together.
Spoon onto cookie sheet.
Bake.
Put on cooling rack and eat.
They are so chunky and full of goodness!
I highly recommend you make these when you get a chance!
I made some other cookies recently, too. I’ll post those soon. They are unlike any cookie I have ever made. Hint: they have the same name as a drink!
Maddie and I have gone to my mom’s house a couple times to go swimming. This video was from a couple weeks ago when we were there swimming. Maddie LOVES the water. We were there again today, and she was even more active than she is in this video. It’s so fun to watch her go. She never stops moving! 
A while back, I posted about a little garden I was planting. I started with some seeds. You can read about it HERE.
Then Chuck cut out grass in an area of our yard and made way for my garden. We decided to make it a nice shape in case I hated gardening, the area could be turned into landscaping.
I planted my seeds and hoped that some of them would take.
They did.
Then, what felt like over night, my garden looked like this:
From left to right: onions, green peppers, cherry tomatoes, hot peppers, carrots, cilantro, (behind the tree) spinach and a raspberry plant, yukon gold potatoes (there are LOTS), then on the far right, rosemary and garlic.
Onions and green peppers…they are just starting to flower.
Cherry tomatoes…I fear I am going to have a TON of tomatoes.
The hot peppers I planted were a mixture. I am not sure what I am going to get when they grow.
Carrots. I pulled one because I thought it was going to be huge, but it was just tiny, so I put it back in the ground.
Cilantro. I didn’t know cilantro would flower after a while. I have to pick some of the ones that haven’t flowered yet and make myself some cilantro-lime rice like they make at Chipotle.
Spinach. I have never grown this before. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. But it turns out I needed to pull some of the leaves earlier than now, because most of them are sprouted and there aren’t many green leaves left. A lesson learned for next year.
Raspberry plant. I was hoping that this would do something. Turns out that it never did anything. I just have a stick in the ground.
Potatoes. I planted one bag of potatoes I got from the garden store. I had no idea one bag would make so many plants. But I have potatoes popping up out of the ground.
Rosemary.
Garlic.
So, I am quite proud of myself. I’ll do another update when I actually pull some of them when they are ripe!
I think I might like this gardening thing!
How did my baby get to be 5 months old already? Where does the time go? I think I this same thing every month. I am sure, as a parent, you never really stop feeling this way and wondering how your kids grew up so fast!
Maddie is a rolling machine. Last month I said she was rolling over. Now she rolls across the room and back. She doesn’t want to sit on her own. I think it’s because she would rather be moving and playing with toys than sitting. She really likes to roll right to the laptop cords. 
Maddie has gotten really good at reaching for toys and will try SO hard to reach something she can’t quite get. It’s so fun to watch her try to figure it out and learn!
She can’t sit in her Bumbo (blue chair) any more because I had her on the floor in it and she rolled herself right out! Little stinker! She is VERY determined! I have no idea where she gets that!
A friend gave us a jumper thing they weren’t using. The way this one works is the part she stands on bounces. Maddie likes it because she just wants to stand up. So she just stands there and plays. She loves it.
She is starting to get her feet under her. While I write this, her butt is in the air and she is kind of on her tip toes. She’ll be crawling before I know it!
She rolls all over her crib. It’s a surprise where I am going to find her in the morning. I love that she can make her way all around the crib, though. It makes her like her bed more.
Speaking of bed, Maddie has been putting herself to sleep. Up until a few weeks ago, I could nurse her to sleep if I needed to help Chuck with something and needed her asleep fast. Not anymore. She doesn’t want to snuggle to sleep, doesn’t want to nurse to sleep, so she’s left with putting herself to sleep. She usually cries for a minute then falls asleep. Nap time is the same way. Some days, she will take longer at nap time to sleep, but bedtime goes pretty smoothly. My mom was even able to put her to sleep when Chuck and I went out for dinner. So I am very happy about that!
Now we need to work on her eating out of a bottle. She just bites it or licks it. I imagine she would eat from it if she were really hungry. Eventually she will have to learn! I’m not nursing her forever.
We haven’t started solid food yet. We are waiting a couple more weeks until she is closer to 6 months. But I am going on a girls weekend trip in August, so she better learn to like bottles and some food (so there aren’t all bottles for feeding) before I go! At least the sleep thing should go all right!
Maddie is still a super happy baby and really goes with the flow. She loves everyone! Well, everyone except Scary Grandpa Dave, my step-dad. When she sees Dave she wails. He is the only person she has ever done that to. She is so suspicious of him. So we’re going to need to see Dave more often so she doesn’t think he is so scary!
I love her little personality and how her face lights up when she sees us. When we leave a room she follows us with her whole body to see where we went. I couldn’t have gotten luckier with a better baby! I love her more every day!
Now for some pictures. I couldn’t get her to be happy without the spoon in her bed. So the spoon stayed.
Here are the 5 month pictures I took.
4 month pictures & 4 month post
3 month pictures & 3 month post
2 month pictures & 2 month post
1 month pictures & 1 month post
It’s been a long time since I have posted on here. I think I am saying this a lot these days. 🙂 Maddie has been keeping me busy. She is rolling all over the place and I think she’s getting close to getting a tooth, so nap time has been thrown way off and she’s just been a bit cranky.
Some days I wonder why I don’t get more done. But then I remember I am rescuing Maddie when she gets stuck on her playmat, a chair, under the coffee table or her pack-n-play (seriously, I turn around and she’s on her way to getting stuck somewhere else. Most of the time she can figure it out, but sometimes she needs a little help. 🙂 Between the rescuing, I’m changing diapers, feeding her, trying to get her to nap and then repeating it all! I love every minute of it. But before I know it, POOF! My day is gone and Chuck is walking in the door. Then it’s time for dinner and getting Maddie day for bed.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Thus why I have oodles of pictures to post, many things to blog about, a lost a mile long of other random things I want to get done and I haven’t been keeping my handful of readers up to date!
Chuck has been spending all his free time building our screened porch and deck. I have lots of pictures and there will be a whole post about it eventually. It’s coming along great and it looks awesome! We have some family coming tonight to help for a bit!
On Saturday, Maddie will be 5 months old. So I’ll be taking pictures and getting a 5 month post done soon. (I have to keep up with those…I have family that bugs me about them if they aren’t on time!)
So there you have it. I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth. I am still here…and will return soon! But really, why would I sit inside and blog during the summer when I can be outside at the pool or on walks with my neighbor friends?! That’s what winter is for! 🙂
My mom took this picture of Maddie last week when she was over. Maddie has learned she has hands AND feet! I love this picture. It cracks me up!
I’m a little late posting this. Time just got away from me.
My little peanut is growing up so fast. On the 16th, she was 4 months old already. She has learned so much in the last month. She rolls over….lots! She has been doing great sleeping. Since she started rolling over, we had to take her out of her Woombie. She would sleep like a champion in this thing. So it took us a little while to get her used to sleeping without it. And now she’s back to sleeping really well!
Maddie is very interested in faces and touching everything. She wants to put everything in her mouth. She especially likes putting her feet in her mouth. She has such a little personality and knows what she wants (or what she doesn’t want). It’s so amazing to see how much she has changed in 4 short months.
Today Maddie had her 4 month doctor’s appointment. She is 13 pounds, 10 ounces, 26 inches long and healthy as can be. She was such a good girl while the doctor checked her out. She had an oral vaccine and two shots today. She cried for a minute after the shots, then was happy as could be expected. She stayed happy the rest of the day, too. Such a big girl!
So here are some pictures I took of her on her 4 month birthday. Eventually she decided she was done with the pictures and threw a fit! 
Here are the rest of the 4 month pictures I took.
3 month pictures & 3 month post
2 month pictures & 2 month post
1 month pictures & 1 month post