It was in the 50's and sunny today.  We didn't have any wind.  It felt wonderful to be outside in the sunshine.  Willa and I took a walk around the block stroller free.  We both loved it.  Days like today make me feel so blessed and lucky and happy that I get to stay home with Willa.

Bosch

Matt spoiled me big time at Christmas.  He got me a super fancy, super nice Bosch mixer and everything to go along with it...cookie paddles, blender attachment, chopper/shredder attachment, a wheat grinder, loaf pans, wire cooling racks, bags to store homemade bread in, a rolling pin, baking mat, dough slicer, and lots of yeast.  (I think that was everything).  (Wayne and Marcia were part of the gift givers as well - Thank You!)

So now I have all of the equipment any bread maker could possibly desire, but I must admit I am VERY intimidated by all of it.  I've never ever made a loaf of homemade bread before.  I was excited when Matt ordered everything, but when the 2 or 3 giant boxes were delivered to my front door, I got scared.  The boxes sat in my kitchen for a good three weeks partially opened and I didn't touch them.  I swept and mopped around them.  Then when I finally got the courage to empty the boxes and find a home for everything in my kitchen, another few weeks passed before I actually turned the mixer on.

But I did it.  I used my Bosch this week.  No, I didn't bake any fabulous loafs of homemade bread but I used it.  And I loved it.

1 - We used it to shred cheese.  LOVED IT.  One of my least favorite things to do in the kitchen is shred and slice cheese by hand.   I am sooo bad at it.  But NOW we are fancy and have jars of freshly shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheeses in the fridge and freezer.

2 - We shredded chicken, too.  While we were at it, why not shred some chicken breasts.  Um, I fell in love AGAIN with my Bosch.  I baked the chicken in the oven and then Matt popped the chicken in the Bosch mixer and a few seconds later, ta-da, we had 4 freshly shredded chicken breasts.  It tasted very YUM-O in our baked chicken burritos.  And I am looking forward to it on our BBQ chicken pizza.

3 - And we made smoothies.  Strawberry, blueberry, and raspberry smoothies to be exact.  Matt was the chef behind this treat.  I love that the blender just pops right on the Bosch base...so easy and so much less clutter.  Now I have a blender that actually blends.  Our old blender used to just turn stuff around and smoke a bit, not very useful.

I bought the ingredients to make homemade pizza dough (with yeast) so I'll attempt that this week.  I've read that pizza dough is forgiving.  Keep your fingers crossed that it's true. 

Willa hung out in the cabinet below the mixer while we were at work.  She loves it in there.

easy, healthy, AND tasty

Can't beat that!

We tried a new recipe last night.  Spaghetti Squash with Sautéed Veggies.  I know, it sounds a bit too healthy to actually be good.  But it was good so I thought I'd share...


Ingredients
1 spaghetti squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, chopped (orange would work too)
1 can Italian style diced tomatoes, undrained
spices - salt & pepper, basil, oregano, red pepper flakes, etc. (whatever you feel like pulling out)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cut spaghetti squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds with a spoon.  (It reminded me of cleaning out a pumpkin).  Place spaghetti squash cut sides down on the baking sheet, and bake 45 minutes, or until a sharp knife can be inserted with only a little resistance. Remove squash from oven, and set aside to cool enough to be easily handled.

3. Meanwhile, heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sauté onion and garlic in oil until tender. Add bell pepper and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the can of Italian style tomatoes, and cook until tomatoes are warm.

4. Use a large spoon to scoop the stringy pulp from the squash, and place in a medium bowl. (It comes out kind of resembling spaghetti, hence the name).  Lightly spice up the squash.  I used salt and pepper, basil, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Toss with the sautéed vegetables.  Serve warm.
 
I served it with yummy, toasted cheesy bread.  And it makes good leftovers.  Bon Appétit! (picture from allrecipes.com)

ouch!

Willa slipped in the tub trying to stand up and got a little abrasion and black eye.  Poor girl!  But she didn't learn.  She was still trying to stand up in the tub last night.  I wish she would just sit and play in the tub.  She loves the water and taking baths, but she also loves trying to stand up and walk in the tub which is much, MUCH too hard for a 1 year old to do.

I bought Willa two dolls last week.  She loves them.  I was trying to get a picture of her eye.  Of course, it doesn't really show up on camera.  You can see it a bit better if you click on the picture to zoom in.

1st birthday bio

Walking - Willa took her first few steps a couple days before Christmas.  She's still pretty wobbly on her feet though.  Her record is about 10 steps.  If she wants to get somewhere fast, she still crawls.


Talking - She has about five words (mom, dada, du for duck, Biggie, and uh-oh).  She jabbers all day long.  She also points at everything she wants...which is everything.

Signing - We've been signing with Willa for months. She does all done, more, shakes her head no, and waves hello, good-bye and good-night on her own. We've just started working on water, milk, eat, help, up, thank you, and please.

Animals - Willa loves, loves, loves animals, especially dogs and ducks.  Her third word was du for duck.  Her fourth was Biggie which is my sister's boyfriend's dog.  Really, she clearly says Biggie.  She started saying it on her own while we were in Florida over New Year's.  We were sitting around and she said it a few times.  We were laughing saying, "haha, it sounds like she is saying 'Biggie,'" and then we realized she really was saying it.  She also barks and quacks (same sound).  Whenever she hears a dog bark or hears the ducks or geese outside, she stops whatever she's doing and starts pointing and barking/quacking.  She loves live animals, pictures of animals, stuffed animals, and plastic animals.  And the silly thing is that I am not an animal lover.  I have bad allergies to most animals (cats, dogs, horses, farm animals, etc.) so that's my excuse.  I always said I didn't want pets.  But I think if Willa's love for animals keeps up, she is going to be begging us for a dog or something very early.  Maybe I'll give in.  I know Matt will be on her side.  Maybe I'll have to spend some time with some hypoallergenic dogs.

Sleeping - She sleeps great.  She goes to bed easy, naps easy (most days), and sleeps through the night.  I love spending all day with her, but I also love shutting her door at 6:45 and knowing I have a good 12 or so hours of uninterrupted time to relax and sleep.  She takes a morning and an afternoon nap.

Fearless - This may change with age, but so far Willa is a curious, fearless little thing.  She wasn't a bit scared to reach her hand in a tank of stingrays at the Tampa zoo to pet them.  She loves petting the farm animals at the zoo.  She loves crawling through things and climbing on things.  She doesn't mind the dark.  She spends lots of time these days in our kitchen or bathroom cabinets.  She used to just empty them, but now she pushes the stuff over and climbs right in.  She'll sit in the dark in the cabinent if I shut the door. 

Sensitive - She definitely has a sensitive side.  I wouldn't call her tough.  When she falls down, she wants to be consoled.  When a friend steals her toy or pulls her hair, she cries.  She's not one to fight back or just brush it off.

Reading - She loves books.  Her favorite book is Good Night Moon.  She has strarted to crawl over to the bookshelf, select Good Night Moon, bring it to me, and then climb into my lap.  I guess this isn't too surprising since we've read to her pretty much every day of her life.  She used to just empty bookshelves, but now she'll also take a couple books off of the shelf and then sit down and page through them on her own.

Binkie - She doesn't have a lovey or a favorite blanket or anything like that.  She just wants her pacifier.

Laughing & Smiling - It is super easy to make Willa smile, but you have to work harder for laughs.  If you catch her in the right mood, she'll crack up laughing.  Her daddy can always get a good belly laugh out of her by tossing her in the air or swinging her around.  (It's a good thing she has a daddy to be a little rough with her and toughen her up a bit.).  FYI- video was taken with my phone so it is REALLY bad quality.

Stranger Anxiety - She doesn't seem to have stranger anxiety.  She smiles and waves to strangers when we're out and about.  She doesn't mind when the young women pass her around at church.  We hired our first babysitter Friday night.  It didn't bother Willa in the least bit that we left her with the babysitter.

Social Butterfly - She loves being around other kids and adults.  She loves storytime at the library and the park because of all of the kids (and the swings).  She loves music and loves to dance.  She's always clapping or clicking her tongue or babbling or smiling at us to get us to smile or laugh at her.

Eating - Meal time has gotten better.  We don't have tears anymore.  Willa eats table food and blended fruits baby food.  She definitely has opinions and loves things one day and will refuse them the next, but she'll at least try everything now (I'm not looking forward to that changing).  She prefers fruits over vegetables.  She loves cheese, and she loves meat.  She won't eat baby food meat or mashed up meat, but she'll devour regularly prepared meat.  She's had and seems to enjoy chicken, turkey, beef, pork, elk, deer, walleye, rainbow trout, tuna, mahi-mahi, snapper, shrimp, lobster, crab...  You name it, if it's meat or cheese, she'll eat it.

Growing - She's tall and skinny.  At the pediatrican's office this week, she was 29 1/2 inches tall (75%) and weighed 18 pounds, 12 ounces (10%).

a HAPPY birthday

I think it's safe to say Willa had a great first birthday.  And Matt and I enjoyed ourselves also.

It started out with pink balloons and lots of attention from mom and dad. 

Then a visit from the ducks and geese in our backyard.  (The lake froze during that cold spell, but it has thawed and the ducks and geese are loving it...diving and quacking and honking a bunch.)

(Matt's grin is a bit cheesy in this one, but I love Willa's face...pure excitement)

Next, we were off to the zoo.  It's been super cold in Memphis but it warmed up nicely for Willa's big day.  It was in the 60's and sunny.  Willa LOVES animals.  The zoo is one of her favorite places.  She squeals and points the whole time we're there.

The plan was to head home for lunch and naps after the zoo, but Willa fell asleep in the car (before we were even out of the parking lot) so naps were out of the question.  Instead, I pushed her on her swing and then she helped me (as much as a 1-year-old can) make her cake.

Presents followed.  Her big gift was a miniature shopping cart and little baskets of plastic fruits and vegetables.  She adores it.  She spent a good hour pushing the shopping cart from one end of the house to the other.  And I just have to add (because I love a good deal), I found the cart for $3.50 at a consignment store and the baskets of fruits and veggies were $1 at the dollar spot at Target.  Big spender, I know! Gotta love it!

We ended our evening with candles, singing, cake and dinner (in that order).  As you can see in the video, Willa didn't eat very much cake.  She just stuck her fingers in it, licked her fingers a little, and threw pieces on the floor.  We weren't surprised.  She seems to prefer salty food (cheese, bread, crackers, etc.) over sweet food. 

She was so hyper and happy during dinner.  She was jabbering away and smiling and laughing.  We love our sweet, little ONE YEAR OLD.  Thank you to everyone that remembered our little one's big day!  What a perfect day!

ONE

Happy Birthday Willa!  We couldn't imagine life without you!

January 2009 - newborn

February - 1 month old

March - 2 months old

April - 3 months old

May - 4 months old

June - 5 months old

July - 6 months old

August - 7 months old

September - 8 months old

October - 9 months old

November - 10 months old

December - 11 months old

January 2010 - ONE YEAR OLD!
(she found the duck page - she loves ducks)

a good day

Nothing special happened.  It was just a typical day, but I couldn't seem to get enough of Willa.  I just wanted to play with her and kiss her and hug her all day.  She just seemed so stinkin' cute.

boating

While we were in Florida in January, hence the cold weather gear, we spent a day on the ocean with my family.  Ahh, the breezy, salty, ocean air.  Gotta love it.

Willa HATEd her life jacket.  We gave in and let her unzip it.

The guys (Matt, my dad, and my brother-in-law) dropped off the gals on the beach for a bit and they took off to fish.

It actually warmed up a little so we could strip off some of our layers and play in the sand.

Willa loved crawling around and exploring and trying to eat shells.