Monday morning wakeup!

If anyone wants a homemade cinnamon roll that will knock your socks off you should try this recipe my husband got from a medical student. Sorry if you are one of those people that want to make your own dough because this recipe is for those that don't have the time to make homemade dough. (If anyone wants to share an easy dough recipe with the rest of us, that would be great:) Also, you should know this makes a large pan-ful so get ready to share with the neighbors or someone, otherwise you might need to buy a larger pant size:)

THE CINNAMON ROLLS

3 1 lb loaves frozen bread dough
1/2 stick butter (melted)
1/2 C white sugar
3/4 C brown sugar
1-2 T cinnamon
1/2 C raisins (optional)
1/2 C walnuts or pecans, chopped (optional)
1/4 C flour (for rolling out dough)

Let dough thaw overnight in fridge or in covered bowl on counter until doubled in size and at room tempurature. Roll dough out into a 10" x 16" rectangle of even thickness.

Pour melted butter onto dough and spread evenly. Sprinkle both sugars and rub into dough so evenly distributed. Sprinkle with cinnamon, raisins, and nuts out to all edges.

Carefully roll dough into a 16" long log. Pinch the ending egdge together to seal the log. Slice into 1" slices (half log then continue to halving until all slices are even thickness- should be 9-12 rolls)

Spray 13x9 inch pan or lasagna pan with Pam. Place rolls into pan so edges are just touching each other. Allow to rise in refrigerator overnight or on counter for 1 hour, covered.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-35 minutes (our 12 rolls in a glass dish baked for about 30 mins) or until golden brown on top and sound hollow when tapped with a spoon. Remove from oven and top with icing. Enjoy!

CREAM CHEESE ICING

1 stick butter (softened)
1 8oz block cream cheese (softened)
1 Tbsp vanilla
4 C powdered sugar

Combine butter and cream cheese until there are no lumps and it is well blended. Add vanilla. Add sugar slowly until well incorporated. Add more sugar if too soft or milk if too thick. Spread on warm cinnamon rolls.

ENJOY! (we did)

In the misted of our bakery endeavor our little man is getting ready to crawl! He is in "crawling position" here but cannot move from it yet:) So he grunts until we help him reposition himself. What a sweetie! I think the sugar from the cinnamon rolls transferred into the breast milk and gave him lots of energy today!

6th Month Day

Our little man has been with us now for 6 months! I can't believe what our lives would look like without him. Charlie is such a joy. His personality is exploding with each passing day. He is sitting up now all by himself, which is so fun to watch. He also loves to make fart noises with his mouth (that is the only way I know to describe it). He keeps drooling like crazy, but no new teeth yet. He likes squealing and talking throughout the day. He has the sweetest voice I have ever heard. Charlie still does not like rolling over so he does it rarely, usually assisted:) But it's not like the pediatrician in the house is worried, so why should I be? We purchased a new large rug for our living room in hopes that it will give Charlie some extra room to roll around and crawl when he feels ready. Charlie is learning to enjoy foods. He is eating fruits, veggies, and cereal. We will give his stats after his 6 month check up on Tuesday. We enjoy every moment the Lord gives us with this precious gift.

Playing in the toy basket

He loves to cross his legs...he does it constantly just like his daddy:)

He loves playing piano with his daddy!

6 month "birthday cake"

He loves fire...probably more than the carrots themselves.
He puts everything in his mouth, even the glass jar.
And the candle (we are going to have to watch him like a hawk esp. once he is mobile!)

Ready for bath time! Once he hears the water running he starts smiling:)

Scrub a dub dub! Happy 6 months Charlie!

Trip to Jackson

Our trip to Jackson Hole, WY was fabulous! We had a wonderful time skiing, eating, and spending quality time with family. Jackson Hole was beautiful! Charlie did very well traveling out west. This picture was taken at around 5:45 AM, our bright eyed boy was ready for the da' plane:) He was so cute all day, even with a layover in Salt Lake City.

Our room!!!

Charlie in his new snow bunting outfit, Charles kept referring to him as the Inuit Indian.

Our first day on the slopes! No falls, but it wasn't always pretty (at least for me).

Cross country skiing was one of my favorite parts of the trip. It was great exercise and very comical. At one point my crash caused Charles, Mary and Michael to fall as well. We were all laughing in the snow, especially me due to the crazy position I was in. We also saw 2 moose from a distance. And Charlie napped the whole 3 hrs were were gone, which was nice for our great babysitters (thanks RaRa and aunt Judy).

The whole gang at Aunt Biba's and Uncle Johnny's

Our family on the slopes...and no, Charlie did not ski even though Charles wanted to take him.

Our precious little man!

Great food! This is seared tuna Chuck cooked perfectly for us.

Gettin' hot in the hot tub

Yes, this is us in the snow in our swimsuits making snow angels!

Playing in the snow after sleding.

Downtown Jackson, on our way to go shopping.

While shopping Charlie met Sasquatch:)

The fam.
We were leaving for the airport while the rest of the family hit the slopes. We couldn't have asked for a better vacation (well, maybe more sleep). Thanks to all that made this trip so amazing!

Our last view of Jackson....BEAUTIFUL!

5th Month Day

5 months!

I have been seeing other mommies post about their children's month birthdays...so I think I will follow suit. I am a procrastinator so this post is a bit late...January 27th was the start of little man's 5th month of life. My my how time has flown by! It seems that Charlie has really started to notice the world around him. He is constantly looking all around trying to see what objects he can grab and put in this mouth. He has developed an interest in the remote for the TV, my cell phone, my glass of water, and any form of paper. I believe this might be the beginning of new phase in Charlie's life where he will soon hear the word "no" more and more frequently. I don't think hubs and I have been manipulated too much yet...but it is coming, I can feel it:) when can a baby learn what the word "no" means?
Among other more positive developments, little man is playing well independently in his exerciser. He loves turning around and standing up in it. He can grasp the objects well and I think it is helping him strengthen his trunk muscles. Because he is already learning to sit up. But we have to be careful where we sit him because he usually falls over and last night he hit is head on the floor kinda hard...oops!
The little one is still not rolling over which is becoming more of a frustration of mine more than a developmental worry for Dr dad. I have struggled with trying to get Charlie to sleep since he was born. I plague myself with questions like...should i put him to sleep awake or asleep?, on his back or on this tummy?, how long do i let him cry?, is he sleeping enough?, etc. So I am ready for him to be able to decide one thing...if he wants to sleep on his stomach or his back:) In the meantime, I am putting him on his stomach and i really think it is helping strengthen his little back and arm muscles.
Little man is now an experienced veggie eater. He has tried green beans, carrots, peas, squash, and sweet potatoes. I cannot tell if he likes any of them because he makes a terrible face when he eats the first bite but then he just keeps eating:) We are going to stick with veggies a little longer and then try some fruits. If he has a sweet tooth like his mommy he is not going to like the veggies after he tries the fruits.
I had mentioned in my last post that our tough guy had gotten his 1st 2 teeth in, well I finally got some pics of them. here they are!

These pictures were all taken the day Charlie had a fever and this nasty rash! Dr. dad took this picture and sent it to our pediatrician for a consult:)...moments later we learned that it was just a viral rash, nothing to be alarmed about. Thank goodness for technology!

January Picture Journal

Our little guy is almost 5 months old! I cannot believe it! Here are some of the happenings from this past month of FUN:)

Charlie started eating rice cereal. It took him about a week and a half to figure it out. And I am still getting used to the messiness of this new adventure. He has also learned that he can spit during feedings, which adds to the joy of the experience as well as making us both change our outfits mulitple times during the day.

Tummy Time....

Getting upset!

Giving up!

Little man is still not rolling over regularly. But we are not too worried. He likes rolling from side to side on his back and can push up well from his stomach. I think he lacks motivation or at least that is what I am telling myself:) We will keep working on it. On a positive note, he is sitting up with assistance pretty well. And loves his new toy from Christmas, below.

He is learning so many new things in this wonderful contraption. We love it because it provides him with some independent play. For a while we were stuck in limbo because he couldn't play on his own very well and did not like the bouncer anymore. So we were holding him or playing with him on the floor, which was getting old. So thanks RaRa and Papa! This new toy is wonderful and it is a real delight to watch him play in it (videos to come once we can figure out how to load them onto the computer).

Our egar reader has begun taking an intrest in books, especially our favorite Bible. I believe he actually wants to eat the pages rather than listen to his daddy read (with different accents:-) about Jesus. But in the meantime we have been enjoying family time as part of Charlie's bedtime routine.

My Love and I enjoyed a lovely date night last Friday thanks to Aunt Becks! We had a wonderful dinner together and saw Blind side. It was nice to have some time to ourselves. And the Rug rat did well at home without us:) He is actually working on a romace of his own...!

How sweet!

We had a play day with "Little Miss Fluff". Here they are in their matching car seats.

She is about a month and a half younger than Charlie and a joy to babysit. We have had so many fun babies to "play" with in our neighborhood of all ages and Little Miss Fluff is the only girl so I think Charlie has some competition:)

I think that about raps it up for now. Oh, I forgot to mention that little man has two new visitors...teeth that is! I noticed about a week ago that he had 2 teeth poking through his bottom gum. I have been trying to get a good picture of them but they have eluded me:) I will post them as soon as I capture them on film!

Back to blogging in 2010!

2010 has begun and many things have changed in our home since my last post. I am sure you all are on the edge of your seat waiting to see when and what I will post next. :) Sorry to keep you all in such agony...the truth is I have been busy adjusting to my new mommy life. I am now the proud mother of a handsome 4 month old. It has taken Charles and I a while to figure out what the heck we are doing just to come up with the fact that we don't know what the heck we are doing. I think that we have decided that not knowing what to do is an OK place to be. I haven't found his manual yet:). This leads Charles and I to one conclusion...we must pray and ask God, our Creator, for help. Thankfully He has not left us alone. We have sought God for answers to everything it seems. God has given me in particular more patience than I have ever known. My darling husband can attest to that:) Little man has been such a joy to watch even in this short amount of time that we have had him. I am amazed at how the Lord created such a sweet miracle for us. Little man has grown from 8 lbs 9 oz and 22 inches to an almost 15 lb 24 inch long sweetie. He can now see the world around him and you can tell that he is a great observer of his surroundings (maybe he will be a birder like his daddy!). He smiles socially and giggles randomly and when tickled. His hands are always moving about, and usually they find his mouth rather quickly. He drools and babbles often and sits up with assistance. He loves to stand up with his little legs so straight as if he is proud of himself. He doesn't like laying on his tummy which I believe is the reason he hasn't rolled over yet (I am easily persuaded to pick him up when he turns his lip out and cries). He is learning to sleep well by himself, although that has been a painful process for Charles and I. He wakes in the morning talking to himself with the sweetest little voice. I cannot imagine my life without him now. I cannot wait to see what 2010 has in store for our little family. Just thinking back to this time last year...we just found out we were pregnant and I was feeling nauseated throughout the day...We are very thankful for the changes in 2009. What a faithful and good God we serve!

Charlie Back at home....

Well since I am on paternity leave for the next 2 weeks, which makes me thankful for our over politically correct society in one way, I will be doing most of the blog postings; but fret not dear friends Rikki will be back when I hit the hospital on Sept 14th. For now I get paid to fall asleep in a leather chair with my boy, watching a golf tournament.....doesn't get any better than that.

We made it home from the hospital on Saturday. Rikki's dad filmed everything, including the staged drive into the driveway. Figuring out feedings, sleep, poops, and pees has been the agenda for the last few days. Last night charlie slept on a regular schedule eating every 4 hours @ 2 am and 6 am; don't worry I am a neurotic pediatric resident and he will catch up and make sure that he gets 8 feeds in a day :) There are way too many schools of thought for how much, when, where & how a baby should sleep, and eat. It is crazy and frankly frustrating(for me at least). I think that rikki and I have made a nice balance between babywise, AAP breastfeeding book, common sense and my scientific brain. We let him "self-soothe" aka cry himself to sleep and it wasn't as bad as expected; He was out after a few minutes.
We went to see Dr. Freeman at the continuity clinic where I see my patients on Monday. Everything went well. Rikki is an amazing mama. Charlie is an lucky boy, and by luck I mean blessed. It has been incredible to see how God has transformed my wife, even in the last few days, from fearful(though I am sure she still has some of that) to an incredible mom who loves, cares for and provides everything this almost nine pounds of joy needs. It has brought me to tears to see her feeding and talking to our son.
So I probably should go do something productive, but wanted to try to keep people up to speed. Thank you for continuing to pray for our family. As I sit here Charlie is making some little "newborn sounds" from his bouncer on the floor at my feet. Here are a few parting pictures for you to see him as he changes.