Summer Fun

Last weekend Naomi spent the weekend with Grandma and Boppa at the cabin so that we could get non-toddler friendly projects done around the house...thankfully we got all of our to-do list for the weekend done by 2:00 on Sunday afternoon and then we were going a little stir-crazy waiting for our baby to come back...I kept singing the song from the Chili's commercial to Ryan..."I want my baby back, baby back, baby back" :)  So, as it turns out, we are officially "those" kind of parents, not that we can't have fun without we'd just rather have her home with us.  She did have a great weekend with Grandma, Boppa and Auntie Jillie fishing, boating and playing at the cabin. 

I did get the chance to read a book I have been dying to read - It is called, Bloom, it was written by Kelle Hampton (her blog is addictive! www.kellehampton.com).  The book tells the story of her life with a special needs child, it talks about her fears, her failures and triumphs and is incredibly honest and truthful about the experience of motherhood in general.  I started crying on page 20 and I'm not sure if I stopped through the whole book.  It was a great story with amazing photography of her family. 

This past week was my birthday...I am celebrating my last year in my 20s this year.  I spent a lot of time earlier this week thinking back on what has all happened in the past nine years.  Luckily, I've had Ryan by my side for all of them.  Year by year, age by age, there has been a definite evolution of life; a shift of priorities and focus.  From the early 20s of being irresponsible and just living for the minute to the mid twenties which had a good dose of grief with the loss of both friends and family.  There were a lot of growing pains in those years; it's not that I wouldn't go back and change things if I could, because I would but I did learn a lot about myself in those years and found that I am stronger than I thought I was and that I truly am blessed with a lot of wonderful people in my life that have been a great support system for me over the years. 

The "later" years of my 20s have been what I feel is the best and that is largely in part because of Naomi.  We are at a point in our life right now that we are getting more sure of ourselves, as parents, as spouses as people in general.  It feels like the pieces of the puzzle of our lives are starting to come into place, and it is beautiful.  Not every day is rainbows and sunshine but my hope for each day, whether good or bad is to learn from it. 

Going forward with present day...That's what I hope to be, present, living the cliché of every day to it's fullest. To stop dwelling on anything in the past, worrying about anything in the future and truly enjoying this blessed adventure that I'm on. I have many goals and hopes for the coming year...I will continue to learn within new hobbies I've acquired in the past year – I will challenge myself to keep writing, keep trying to let that bottled up creativity see the light...I will be honest with myself and try to spend my energy on the good and not the bad, I hope to bring kindness to everyday - to others and myself.

Whew.  Enough of the deep reflections...here's what the week has brought in photos:

 

Naomi hamming it up while playing speedracer on her tricycle

 

Playing in the pool with Grandma on a hot summer night

 

 Someday, she will be really annoyed with me for this picture but I wanted to show all of you that think she is always smiling the "other" face of Naomi :)  Thankfully this one doesn't make frequent appearances, and it taken away with a big hug and a few kisses.  I think it was brought about because I wouldn't let her eat chocolate chips before supper...such a tough mommy I am!

We were out for a walk this week and she wanted to hold Ryan's hand...Awwwwweeee :)

 

 

She brought out her blankies, pillows, piggie and baby doll out and made a next between the arm chair and ottoman...and was "sleeping" does the picture below look like the face of someone sleeping?  Nope.  I didn't think so either :)

  

She then relocated her pile of bedding and was fake snoring...super funny.  She even purses her lips when she does it.  We certainly have a very silly little girl on our hands!

 Do you see the sneaky eye in this picture?  Stinker :)

Until next time, we are off on some adventures this sunny Sunday AM 

June Birchbox

The June Birchbox was not delivered late, I am just finally getting around to posting it!

 The lipstain is fantastic, it looks really bold in the tube but goes on with a nice summery color it can also double as a cheek stain, I L.O.V.E. products that do "double duty".  

The facemask was...odd...I felt a lot like an extra from Silence of the Lambs while wearing it (it is an actual cloth with holes for your eyes, mouth and nose that you wear for 20 minutes or so) but Naomi thought it was funny.  It felt good on and my skin felt nice afterward so I'm glad I got to try it but doubt I will be ordering it.

I have not tried the self tanner pads...frankly I'm a little afraid, I have been that orange girl with zebra stripes before and I can't think of a week coming up that I want to risk it...yet...

Lastly, the Supergood sunscreen - I haven't tried it yet and will most likely wait until we are away from home - the size is perfect for your purse and on the go.  

Oh yeah - they also sent a headband from Mod Cloth.com...mine has little deer on it - super funny.  It's cute on, I don't know if I would necessarily wear that particular print while out and about but I like the wire in the headband - you can put it in place nicely.  Mod Cloth has a TON of fun dresses on their site with a wide range of sizes, patterns and styles and you can find some good deals on dresses too.

Overall I've been very happy with my Birch Box experience and would recommend it to someone that likes to try new products.  I have not yet tried a product that has urged me to order a full size version but they do offer free shipping on any product featured that month as well as some other promos which is fun. 

Here is the link to their site: http://www.birchbox.com/

And she danced....And only in Taylor County....

We had a family wedding this past weekend, which is Naomi's first non-baby wedding. The last one we attended she was not even a year old yet and had just learned how to walk so this was the first one that she really could participate in all of the festivities...the singing in church, dinner at the hall, and the dancing...oh the dancing!

 

We had to wait for daddy to finish getting ready (no, he doesn't take longer than me to get ready, he just had a later start :) ) so we were keeping cool in the breeze outside and I snapped a few shots of her in her wedding finery. What a ham!

The wedding ceremony was beautiful, I had been getting Naomi geared up for the day by telling her all about the “princess” that she would be seeing later that day. We were nervous if she was going to be able to sit through the ceremony without causing too major of a ruckus. She is used to me toting my camera along with me everywhere and so she now has to have her camera with, which she calls her pictures. So of course we had to take her little camera into the church with us. She was so cute, holding the camera up to her eye and “taking” pictures, mainly of the pew in front of us but hey you have to start somewhere. She did wonderfully during the ceremony...only getting a little squirrely a few times but hey she's 2 and I really don't think anyone minded. The service was beautiful and the couple looked radiant.

We then went to Uncle Justin and Auntie Amber's to wait for the reception to begin, she loved to wander around their yard and they have a rose garden with a covered trellis in the middle that she kept calling her house.

 

She invited all of us over to her “house”...so six adults went to stand inside this little trellis thing under the direction of a 2 year old...she is quite the little leader already!

We then moved on to the reception and we walked in to the sounds of a bluegrass band – Ryan and I are both big fans of bluegrass so we were really excited...as was Naomi!  Gotta love this little girls boots with her dress!

 

There were a bunch of little girls already dancing in front of the band and we encouraged Nay to go join in.



She was a bit skittish at first so she needed some borrowed courage from Grandma and Mommy.

 

It was the sweetest thing to watch and all of the other little girls were so kind inviting her to join them dancing. It was so fun to see how Naomi interacted with kids she doesn't know all that well, she can be so brave and act so much older than what she is but still needs comfort to move into new situations.

Next came dinner time, there were fun champagne (plastic) flutes on the tables so of course she wanted to use that instead of her sippy cup...oh such fun! :)

 

A bit of a mess but oh well...all in the spirit of the day! She of course had to sit next to Boppa at dinner

 

and wanted to give everyone at the table eskimo (skimo) kisses...Rubbing noses with Auntie Jillie.

 

While the tables were being cleared and the dance floor readied we went to play at the park nearby which had a super fast slide but she didn't care and was so brave!

 

She also had a ton of giggles on the rocking horse.

The music started to play and we went back into the hall for dancing and we started with just the girls, Mommy, Grandma, Auntie Amber and Nay.

 

But that wasn't enough, evidently she didn't think our little dancing troupe was complete so she went running into the bar and brought out Daddy, Uncle Justin and Boppa.! Evidently Boppa dancing doesn't happen very often but everyone was in good spirits about it and we had a blast. Once we were all out on the dance floor with her she had no problem dancing, jumping and twirling...so she danced :) THEN after about 5 songs, she was D.O.N.E...she looked at me and said HOUSE. So, we said our goodbyes and went home and tucked away our little princess for the night.

Sunday brought on an early Father's Day celebration with my side of the family out at my dad's farm. My dad has a renter using the barn now so there are cows and kittens galore which all of the grand kids loved...then my brother Monte had a fun idea of taking a hayride to the park with all of the kiddos...only in Taylor County would you load up 10 kids, 10 adults and take a Sunday afternoon hay ride – love it!

 

Super fun.

All of the kiddos LOVED the hayride and playing at the park. I love, love, love watching all of the cousins playing together, some branching out on their own, others showing the younger kids how things work and others just running and giggling together.

 

It was a great celebration of our family and I don't think my dad could have smiled more. I love to see the look of happiness he has on his face when he watches all of the kiddos running around.

I love that we got to spend time with both sides of our families this weekend, it truly is a blessing to have those that we love so close.

Fenciful Fridays

My photography class is technically over for the summer but we were given little homework assignments to keep us moving, thinking, feeling and challenging ourselves...for those of you that are my near and dear, you will be delighted to know that in typical Mindy fashion, I wanted the homework...haha.

We were given a couple of different ideas for days of the week for shooting, Monday's are to upload a picture but let it speak for itself, Wednesday's are words, symbols and numbers and Friday's are fences. 

I've taken pictures of fences on days other than Fridays but today I actually did my homework on time....:)

Both of these fences are at Naomi's daycare, I see them literally twice a day four days a week and it took a homework assignment to really LOOK at them, not just see them for their structural purpose.

And what would a post be without a picture of Naomi?  Tonight was just a Nay and Mommy night, we love daddy being around but there is something so special about one on one time too...so we bummed around a bit, ate dinner outside and then played.  We have a family wedding to go to tomorrow so I told Naomi that after her bath tonight I would do her nails and that was all she could think about was, "Toes!? Finners?!" super cute....I am thankful to have another girly-girl under the roof :)



She is very intent on her coloring...and will make just about any sitting position do to make it work!



I adore this little miracle in my life!

Sitting oh so patiently for her nails to dry...that's a lot to ask for a 2 year old!

Her pretty's :)

Epicurious...

A few years back, a group of friends gathered in hopes of creating exciting menus and a unique dining experience in our own homes on a quarterly basis...through food we've traveled to far off places like Ireland, Namibia and France, this past weekend we celebrated our groups love of food, wine and laughter together in Madison.  It was the first Epicures dinner party that we had that had a Kid-i-cures scope to it, all of the Medford members were welcomed to the Bauer's home in Madison for a great weekend. 

The menu was fantastic, the point of the epicures dinner party group is to expand your horizon through food and to have a good reason for the group to get together and laugh aka the boys play sheepshead and the girls drink wine and giggle :)  The menu this time did not have a regional theme but was delicious through every course...


Course 1...bring on the signature cocktail and cheese and crackers.  It was an assortment of soft and hard cheeses that paired well with the signature cocktail which was a Ginger and Carrot Elixir spiked with Tequila...yum!


Course 2...Mini Buffalo Chicken Balls with Blue Cheese Dressing - YUM.  The balls had a good kick to them which was cooled off by the blue cheese - a great starter to wake up your taste buds!

Course 3 - Salad...Kale Caesar Salad...for anyone that has not had kale, it is a lettuce that holds up to being cooked, in this case it was broiled which made the leaves crunchy!  The flavor of the dressing seemed to infuse into the lettuce while cooking.

Main Course...Milk Braised Pork Shoulder with Semolina Gnocchi, served with Roasted Asparagus and various Chardonnay wines.  This was divine, the pork was fork tender and the seasonings were a-maze-ing.  There was a hint of sweetness brought on by cinnamon and clove that was unexpected and awesome.  The wine pairing was phenomenal - Ellie had a really good point, this was the best food/wine pairing I think any of us had ever had - the flavors complimented to so well, in the food world it was true love!  The Gnocchi was something I had never had before, on it's own it has substance but it is completely mold able as far as flavors, it was great with the sauce of the pork and added a great texture of creaminess to the bite.  I think people generally love or hate asparagus, I love asparagus and this was no exception, it was tossed with olive oil and toasted pine nuts.  I love the deep flavor of toasted nuts and it was a great accompaniment to the pork.

 

At this point, we all needed a breather and to put the six (six!!) kids to bed...so one by one, each kiddo either toddled off to bed or was hauled off to bed.  Clean up from dinner ensued and within an hour we were ready for dessert...

Dessert...I am a dessert person...although I rarely remember to leave room for it!  The Rhubarb Raspberry Crostata was a perfect ending to the this flavorful meal.  It was tart and tangy yet sweet and served with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.  Delish.  We all drank coffee with our dessert, we are such grown ups! And it was marvelous.

 

I love food.  I love that you can travel the world with your taste buds, I love that you can give comfort with it, I love that you can fuel your body, mind and soul with it, I love that you can share it with those you love.  The dinner table is a powerful place for a family.  A dinner date gives you time to catch up with an old friend, to reconnect with your spouse or to just take a moment to slow down and enjoy and talk about life. 

Even though the frequency of our little epicurean group has decreased I hope it continues on, it's a great time sharing food with friends and forces you to try something new.  Bon Appetit!