Terrific Tuesday

How in the hell  is it already Tuesday again?!  Weeks are flying by at a lightening pace. I was thinking about what I should blog about today, and then I realized it was Tuesday! Holy cow! A few updates before I get started:

We have Sully's 9 month picture session on Thursday and I can't wait.  He is going to be so stinkin' cute.  We are doing them on our Park Point sandy beach.  Love it.

Last night at 1:30am, Robert and I both woke up to giant boom sounds, almost like bombs going off in the alley. We got up to look and our neighbor's house was on fire!  Luckily it is new construction and they haven't moved in, but it was still scary.  It was a HUGE fire!  I haven't seen anything that close and I was pretty freaked out.  I called 911 and the fire department was out there quick. The fire knocked out our cable and power so I showered in the dark this morning and since we have no AC without any power, I am a sweating mess this morning.  Let's just say that my hair today is not a good look.

Also, I am back on my mission of losing my baby belly.  I have been pretty lax about it and I am starting to feel the flub.  We are planning a trip to see my folks in North Carolina in December and I would love to not hate taking pictures of myself. Hahah!  Wish me luck!

Now, on to things I love this week!



Morning O's!  They are the Whole Foods brand of cheerios and Sully loves them.  They aren't overly sweet and they are really tasty.  They are a little too hard for his two small teeth, so I mill them down a little and add some fruit to them and he chows down like it's his job.  This morning he has Morning O's and nectarines and he Lyle Lovesit! :-)





Tavern on France is my new favorite place to go in Minneapolis. We went there for lunch on Saturday and it was amazeballs.  Their "thing" is Build You Own.  You can BYO pizza, burger, salad and bloody mary.  I chose to BYO burger (see?  I told you I am off the diet wagon!)  I made a angus burger, cooked medium with gouda, cheddar, bacon, pickles, onion straws and parmesan garlic aioli dipping sauce, all on a ciabatta bun with a side of garlic mashed potatoes.  Does that sound heavenly or what?  Everything was extremely good and I will be back for more!




Diet Coke.  Yep. The nectar of the Gods.  I am just finishing my first pill pack of birth control, after not being on it for almost FOUR YEARS and AF showed her wicked face on Sunday.  I am NOT loving that so I have been chugging the DC like it will be outlawed at any minute.  I forgot how awful it is to have a full blown period.  UGH.  I am massively crampy, bloated and tired. I really don't care for it one bit.  But, I do enjoy a frosty diet coke at 8am.





The guy is the most underappreciated musician in the entire world.  This is Mr. John Prine.  I love his all weeks, but I get into these spurts where I listen to him a lot and this happens to be one of those weeks.  Every night, I sing Sully his songs.  I have done so since Sully was born and sometimes it is the only thing that will get Sully to calm down and sleep.  My dad sang them to me so it is extra special that I get to sing them to Sully and he enjoys them. "That's the Way that the World Goes 'Round" and "Sabu Visits the Twin Cities" are two of my favorites.




This is the beyond adorable tie that we got Sully to wear for one of his pictures on Thursday.  I am so excited! One of his outfits will be these little pair of distressed Abercrombie looking jeans with no shirt and this tie.  Are you just dying when you picture how stinkin' cute that will be?!  Ahhh!  I can't stand the wait!





This is Park Point.  This is where we are taking Sully's 9 month pics.  How pretty is it there?  My friend is also getting married on this beach on Saturday so it will be a pretty busy place for us this week!  Woo hoo!



Well, I hope you all are doing well!  For those of my bloggy ladies who are TTC right now, know that Sully and I are praying for you and thinking about you guys.  Hang in there!  We are thinking about you preggos too! :-)

Happy Tuesday! :-)

Terrific Tuesday

I need to start off by saying that I am so angry at myself.  I started Terrific Tuesday so I would be more diligent, and I have completely not followed through!  Come on, Courtney!  Get it together!
Anyhow, I am back in the saddle and we are ready for the 2nd Edition of Terrific Tuesday!




I love the Baby Bullet. I can't say it enough.  I love that I can mill my own rice and oatmeal and I love how easy it is to clean and use.  I don't like buying processed, store bought baby food and this thing just rocks.  I know exactly what Sully is eating, and it is obviously fresh.  Most people have the misconception that making baby food is too time consuming, but that really isn't the case.  It is quick and simple and much better for your little one!




If you are not listening to First Aid Kit, you are missing out.  I have loved them for years, but I have been turning more and more people on to them lately.  They are sisters from Sweden and they just rock.  "You're Not Coming Home Tonight" is one of my favorite jams right now.




This is the ridiculous game that I should never have downloaded to my Nook.  It is so stupid, yet entirely addicting.  I pretend that I downloaded it to show Sully the bright colors and sounds, but let's face it, I am hooked.



Speaking of my Nook Color table 16GB; it is awesome.  I love this thing.  It was my first Mother's Day present and I am obsessed with it.  I devour books and this just makes it so much easier.  It also has a function that you can download children's books and there is a "Read to Me" option where a lovely sounding British person will read the stories aloud.  It is really nice for when Sully is sick of hearing my voice or we are in a waiting room. 




Ahhhh, the Bubble Guppies.  Sully is enamored with this kiddie show.  It is on at 7am and we leave the house shortly before 7:30, so when I am doing last minute things and packing his bag, I put him in his high chair and he just laughs and squeals at this show.  They are really fun and sing lots of songs.  I still have the theme song in my head, "Bubble Bubble, Guppie Guppie...WE'RE THE BUBBLE GUPPIES!"




I have like 3 eyelashes on each eye, so I am constantly on the hunt for the best mascara.  I have found the pot of gold with this little tube of awesomeness.  It is the best mascara I have ever used.  It stays put and doesn't rip my eye lashes off during the end of the night face wash.  And it is only like $6, which is a steal nowadays!


And as always... the biggest love of my life:



My Sully Bear!  He is growing up so fast!  He is looking more like a little boy than my teeny baby.  Slow down, buddy! :-)

Well, those are the things I am loving this week!  Hope everyone is doing well! :-)

CourtneyAnna

Liebster Award

I want to thank the Academy.... and God... and my family.... and all the little people I had to step on to get here.

Haha!

Seriously, I was just informed that another blogger Valerie, has given me the bloggy Liebster Award.  How cool is that?  I love getting these!  This blog is so special to me and it is always nice to know that someone out there cares about what you write.  Thanks Valerie!





This award is given to up and coming bloggers with less than 200 followers. Liebster is German and means sweetest, kind, lovely, endearing and welcome.




How it works:


*Each person must post 11 things about themselves.

*Answer questions that the tagger sets for you and then create 11 questions for the bloggers that you tag.

*Choose up to 11 bloggers and link them to your post

*Go to their page & tell them

*No tag backs :)

*And lastly, have fun!!

So... here goes!


Eleven Things About CourtneyAnna

1.  I hate people who are late. If we set a time, and you are to be there by that time; get there.  Punctuality is all about respect.

2.  I love my job.  I am definitely one of those freaks that loves going to work every day.  I work at a legal aid program and we are busy all the time.  I also am the United Way chair for my firm and I love that too.  :-)

3.  I can cook and bake my ass off.  I love new recipes and perfecting my old ones.  We host a lot of dinner parties and they always have a theme.  Food must match the theme.

4.  Being a mom is my dream come true.  My hubby and I struggled through infertility and  loss, and the day Sully was born was the happiest day of my life.  I still get choked up thinking about the first time I heard his cry and saw his sweet face.  I even tear up when I am watching shows about women having babies and especially via C Section... I am a sap.

5.  I am obsessed with Diet Coke.  Not drinking it while I was pregnant felt like withdrawals from heroin.

6.  My favorite shows are Will and Grace, One Tree Hill, Sons of Anarchy and anything on Bravo. I love trash TV.

7.  My musical taste looks like something Sybil would have written down.  My iTunes library consists of First Aid Kit, Lil Wayne, Blind Willie Johnson, Paul Thorn, Ludacris, Paperboy, Backstreet Boys... you name it.  With the exception of Tool and screaming death metal.. I like it all.

8.  I feel like my struggles to get pregnant made me a tougher person. I am not saying that I am better than those who didn't struggle, more power to them, but I feel like it made me more appreciative.

9.  My son and I both had surgery at newborns.  My son had open heart surgery and I had surgery to correct pyloric stenosis 12 days after I was born.  After the surgery, I contracted a staph infection and it left me with a 5 inch long, indented scar that required an abdominal reconstruction in 2007.  Couple that scar with my hip to hip emergency c section and it looks like my belly is winking... Hahah!

10.  I could eat peanut butter toast every day. Peanut butter toast with butter on first and a glass of cold skim milk is DELICIOUS!

11.  Blogging confuses the hell outta me. I can post just fine but the finer points like "linking up" and "buttons" make me completely lost.  I can't believe I figured this award thing out!

Questions from Valerie:

What is your biggest fear?

Anything happening to Sully.  I hope there comes a time where I am not paranoid.. I just don't know what I would do with myself if anything ever happened to him. I feel like such a spaz checking in on him all the time at night, but I just can't help myself.

What is your favorite word?

Suckerdoodlebears.  It technically isn't a word, but still.  Robert and I have a habit of adding "doodle" or "bears" or a combination of the above to the ends of words, ever since we had Sully.  We call him our Monster Bear and it has snow balled from there.  Diapers are doodles, etc.  When I am trying to be nice, but yet still frustrated, I say, "Well doesn't that just suckerdoodlebears!"

Are you a morning person or night person?

Morning... definitely.  I have never been one to stay up late.  I was always the teen that conked out at 10om during sleepovers. 

If you could do things over again, would you?  Any aspect of your life. 

Nope.  All my trials and tribulations made me who I am today.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a nurse for as long as I can remember.  I worked in that field for seven wonderful years before I needed a change.  I have been at Legal Aid for four years and I will never go back to nursing.

Nature or Nurture?

I think it is a little bit of both. God is the Creator and gives you some of who you are by making the clay for you; but I think how you are raised determines how that clay is formed and what shape it makes. 

What is your favorite movie?

Oh gosh, this is hard. I will have to do top three:
"Goodfellas"
"Knocked Up"
"Crash"
Wow... That's hard. I could probably add a zillion more. Robert and I are movie buffs.  We have a TON of DVDs and now Blu Rays.  I love movies.

If you could change one thing about yourself, would you?  What would it be?

I would be less sensitive.  I take things to heart to easily and I am a huge worrier.

What has blogging done for you?

It has saved my sanity.  There has been many times I have needed the support from other women who have walked in my shoes. Thank you.

What would you like to do when you retire?

I want to spend tons of time with my family, travel and cook time consuming meals.  I love to cook but we are always so busy that I don't generally have all day to cook a meal.  I would love to spend days in the kitchen.

Describe yourself in one word:

TOUGH.

My eleven questions for my nominees:

1.  What is your biggest pet peeve?
2.  If you could go on an all expenses paid trip to anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
3.  What would your dream home look like?
4.  If you won the lottery, what would be the first thing you would do/buy?
5.  What is your favorite food?
6.  Have you been to any amazing concerts?  If so, who did you see?
7.  If you could have dinner with anyone famous, dead or alive, who would it be?
8.  What is your favorite guilty pleasure?
9.  If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?
10. You're stuck on a deserted island, what three things do you bring?
11.  Who is your celebrity crush?

My nominees are:

Heather @ The Road Less Traveled.  She is such a hoot and is so supportive of her fellow bloggy mamas! And her son Aiden is so stinkin' adorable.

Katharine @ Grow Baby Grow.  Katharine and her husband are preparing for another IUI cycle.  She is TTCAL and she is so tough.  Send her positive vibes.  She deserves it! :-)

Kristin @ Dear Stevie.  I am pretty certain she has more than 200 followers, but she deserves to be recognized anyhow. Kristin is an inspiration.  She is a champion for baby loss mamas and now she is an awesome mom to her "rainbow" Elliot... who is basically too adorable for words!

Betsy @ Betsy in Bloom.  She was my first bloggy friend.  We talked about RE frustrations, loss and FINALLY getting our take home babies. Although she isn't blogging as much, she deserves recognition. :-)

Salisa @ Small Miracles.  Salisa always seems to comment at the right times when I need to hear a kind word.  She has an uber cute little boy now!  And we have the same birthday so that is good booga booga. :-)

Well, I guess that's it!  Thank you again to Valerie for the nom!  That was so cool!

Have a great Thursday ladies!

Waving the white flag

Hello and happy Thursday to all.  I would like to start off with something to get you to chuckle this morning.  I was so tired because Mr. Sullivan James is going through yet another growth spurt, which means he is up about 1am to chug a bottle.  Ergo, when Mama's alarm goes off at 5am, she is exhausted. 
When my phone started screaming for me to wake up, I all but crawled into the bathroom this morning for a shower.  I felt like an extra on "28 Days Later."  I turned the shower on and flung myself in; only to almost fall to my death when I tripped on a water plane and rubber ducky from Sully's tubby last night.  So graceful...
In other news, I have waved the white flag and conceded in the war of breast feeding.  Most of you know that I have dealt with a low supply and I have been pumping my tatas like a psycho since Sully was born in November. I swear, my nipples are forever going to look like the torpedos from the Super Mario Bros. games.
Anyhow, Sully has been eating a ton more and my ladies couldn't keep up.  With the stress of going back to work and everything else, it was making my milk decrease further.  I was pumping 8 times a day and getting maybe 10 ounces.  Sully can pound that in less than 2 ounces.
We knew my milk was decreasing so we have been giving Sully half and half bottles and he seems to be tolerating it just fine.  He originally didn't like formula at all, but the first full formula bottle we gave him, he chugged like an all star.  He has had zero problems with it.  Formula is definitely more expensive than breast feeding though!  Wow! 

I will say, I felt horribly guilty the first day.  I cried and cried and thought about how I was failing Sully and my boobs were failing me.  I googled everything about formula feeding.  I was a mess.  I could barely drag myself to make the full formula bottles, knowing it wasn't the way I had wanted to feed him.

::Cut to the very next day::

Guilt?  What guilt?  Sully was sleeping just fine and I had my body back.  After 2 years of fertility treatments, 37 weeks or pregnancy and almost 8 months of pumping, it was an amazing sense of freedom!  I was me again.  Albeit a flabbier, stretch-markier me, but me nonetheless!  Sully is also now eat 2 meals a day of baby food that I make, so he isn't eating 6 or 7 bottles anymore. He eats about 4 bottles now, depending on the day.  He loves yogurt, oatmeal, nectarines and blueberries. He hates all veggies unless I hide them in his fruit. Mr. Sully James is definitely an eater. :-)

I am proud that after all the adversity, I was able to pump as long as I did and keep him on breast milk for 7 months.  I was able to pump through a life flight, two open heart surgeries and all the recovery time.  That's quite a feat.  I will try the breast feeding again should God bless us with a sibling for Sully down the line, but I will be sure not to be so hard on myself next time. :-)

CourtneyAnna

July 11, 2009

Happy Anniversary to my amazing husband!

It has been 3 wonderful years. This man has comforted me, made me feel beautiful and supported me.  We have been through so much together and I love him more every day.

Here is to many more years!  I love you 23!

Engaged October 2008:




Married July 11, 2009:



                                      Mr & Mrs. K :-)







Frazzled!



Let's do this!


I love my hubby!

CourtneyAnna

Terrific Tuesdays

I decided I needed a little motivation to write more because I always get wrapped up and because I love it so much, and I adore all the people I have met through the blogisphere, I have decided to start Terrific Tuesdays.  I'm going to talk about the things I love, books I love, products I love, etc.

So, let's start our first Terrific Tuesday!

Organic Baby Mum Mums



I am obsessed with these.  I make all of Sully's food, but let's face it, I don't have the time to make rice rusks.  I am not that out of touch with reality. These are a life saver. Sully loves to eat while we are eating and giving him one of these awesome snacks is the ticket.  They dissolve super easily and he loves them!  I actually think they have helped him with his picking up abilities.  Thank you Mum Mum!




And pinning and pinning and pinning. I swear, I could stay on this site all day.  I have found so many things I want to try with Sully and little crafty things I want to make. The nice part about Pinterest is that I have actually made a TON of recipes I found on there.  In fact, I have a shredded chicken recipe that is now a staple for me.  It is scrumptious!




The Fisher Price Rainforest Jumperoo; aka the Sully Entertainer.  This thing can keep Sully bouncing for hours.  He has bounced so much he has actually fallen asleep sometimes.  It adjusts as your little bugger grows and the seat swivels!  It is much cooler than the Johnny Jump Up that my my parents vice gripped to the door when I was a kid.





These books are the bees knees.  I add my own commentary when I read them to Sully and he just laughs and laughs.  "If that pig gets sticky, we will have to give him a tubby!  We don't have time to give that piggy a tubby!"  ::cue the adorable baby laughter::



If you are not reading this book, you are missing out.  It is written by a friend of mine from high school and it is spectacular.  It is about a futuristic Minneapolis society where the homosexuals have taken over as the ruling entity and made heterosexual breeding outside of the set parmeters illegal.  Heteros are engineered and one girl finds herself breaking all genetic rules when she ends up pregnant.  What does she do?  It is a page turner and brilliantly written.  Do yourself a favor and indulge.




The new SOA season starts in September and I can barely stand it.  I am rewatching all the seasons on Netflix and DVD and I am drooling.  I love me some Jax Teller.




I love waking up to this adorable face every single day. :-)

And the most important:



Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow.  You're only a day awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
July 11, 2009, I walked down the aisle and became a Mrs. :-)
Tomorrow marks three years of marriage with my awesome hubby!   Hooray!

Have a great Tuesday!  And I will say, looking at all the stuff I love, makes this stressful work day a hellova lot better!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

CourtneyAnna

Too happy for words

Hello & Happy 4th of July!

We're coming out of a huge heat wave & it's finally getting bearable outside again. Obviously Minnesota is not known for it's scorching weather, but when it's 90 degrees & 94% humidity, it makes it super sticky & uncomfortable. I wanna hug the person that invented air conditioning.

Anyway, I was going to originally going to post about how bummed out I am about some bloggers. I'm even irritated I guess, but I don't want to put that negativity out there.
Instead, I'm going to write about how incredibly happy I am. I'm so fulfilled & content with my life, that I actually can feel it in my heart. God has blessed my family so much & now we are reaping the rewards.
I bought Sully a little pool yesterday & he loves it. I filled it up & he played boats in the yard while I snapped about a trillion pictures.
We grilled some tasty brats. We cheered the signing of 2 big name players to the Minnesota Wild. Robert & Sully are napping & I'm basking in the glow of all the joy in my heart. :)

On another exciting note, we've decided to move to our dream neighborhood. Our house should be on the market by the end of the month. I'm hoping it all goes smoothly. Pray for us! We've decided that there is no time like the present to get our dream house.

I'll send you off with more cute pics. Enjoy!