Owen is twenty-one months old!

    We don't have a doctor's appointment this month, but according to our bathroom scale, Owen weighs around 26 pounds. I have no idea how tall he is, but we don't have to roll up his pants any more if that's a sign. Because it has been so cold outside, I haven't been able to go do an "official" photo shoot, but I have included in the post some pictures from the past week. 

Eating:

• Owen eats three meals a day and an afternoon snack normally. 
• He still eats basically whatever we eat unless we are having something super spicy. He has been eating really well for the most part, but we're still struggling a bit since Owen got spoiled with lots of Christmas treats at his respective grandparents' houses. 
• Owen's favorite foods are pizza, Cheddar bunnies, oatmeal, yogurt, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apples and pears. 
• Owen loves to "dip" his food, fingers, and pretty much anything else in ketchup or other sauces. He frequently asks to "dip it?"
• Owen drinks whole milk with each main meal and water in between. 
• Owen adds the word dinner to whatever food he wants to eat, regardless of whether it is dinnertime. For instance, when you ask him what he wants to eat, he will sometimes say, "Hotdog dinner?" or "PopTart dinner?"

Sleeping:

• Owen naps in the afternoon and generally goes down just after lunch around 1 p.m and sleeps for between an hour and a half to two hours.
• Owen goes to bed at night at 7:30 p.m.
• He wakes up at around 8 a.m., sometimes earlier, sometimes later.
• Owen's going to bed routine consists of a bath, pajamas, reading a few books, and then snuggling and rocking in the chair with either mommy or daddy for a few minutes before putting him in his crib. 
• We read Owen a Bible story a night out of his Jesus Storybook Bible and he loves to have us read his "Bible stories."
• Owen has become attached to a small tiger stuffed animal that we bought at the Cincinnati Zoo and sleeps with it every night. He calls it Kitty Kitty. 
• Owen loves his new Twilight Turtle nightlight and talks about going to "see the stars" all the time. He is also really proud that he can turn it on himself and wants to show it off to anyone he can. 

Things He Knows:

• Owen has a super large vocabulary and it seems to grow by the day. Sometimes he will say a word and Tim will look at me and say, "Did you teach him that?" and I'll say no and we have no idea where he learned it. 
• Owen can count to 10. He can even do it when we take turns filling in numbers for him.
• Owen has learned some of the words to several songs. He already knew "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Jesus Loves Me." This past month, he learned "Old MacDonald Had A Farm," "Row Row Row Your Boat," "Hush Little Baby," and "Baa Baa Black Sheep." 
• He has many of his books memorized and will sit "reading" them to himself.
• Owen learned to recite his ABCs this month.

Other Things I Want to Remember:

• Owen is wearing mainly size 18-24 months clothing. 
• Owen wears size 6 and 6.5 wide shoes, depending on the brand. His boots are size 7's and without a couple pairs of socks, they still fall off his feet.
• Owen is wears size four diapers.
• Owen has 16 teeth completely in now.

• Owen loves when we read to him and looking at books by himself. His favorite books are anything with trucks or animals. He really loves "Trucks Go," Taro Gomi's "My Friends," and his new Littles books by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. He also loves his Chugga Chugga Choo Choo book which he lost in the grocery store yesterday.  
• Owen loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Thomas and Friends. He is especially into Thomas and has several toys and DVDs and even pajamas after Christmas. 

• Owen loves bathtime. He enjoys playing with his squirty Thomas the Train toys, his foam puzzle pieces and his tug boat. He generally gets upset when we go to take him out of the tub. But a game of towel Peekaboo generally helps.
• Owen still enjoys playing outside and will cry pretty much every time we bring him back inside. It has been really cold lately so we haven't been outside as much as he would like. 
• Owen still displays some separation anxiety and fear in certain situations. He cries every time as soon as we pull into the church parking lot, but he calms down once he's in nursery and playing. After nursery, the workers always comment on how well he did and how smart he is. 
• Owen loves playing with cars and trucks and trains. He also really likes puzzles. 
• He loves to stand on things and try to climb things. So far he has not seriously injured himself.

Owen on his "reading" chair.

Menu Monday

      I have a couple new recipes that I am excited to try this week and some old favorite comfort foods to round out the week. Tim and I are trying to cut down our grocery budget so I only have a certain amount of cash I can spend per week at the grocery store. Last week, I came in under budget and I'm hoping I can do the same this week, though I am a little nervous due to the amount of meat and dairy products I need to buy today. Eep! Wish me luck!
     Anyway, here is our menu for the week. As you can see, we are leaning heavily on some Pioneer Woman recipes this week because I just love all her soup recipes and I love having soup when it's cold and rainy outside. Also, while I love Skinny Taste, she hasn't be posting many dinner recipes lately so I'm hoping she'll have some new main course meals coming soon. To link to the recipes, click on the name of the recipe. What are you eating this week?

• Monday: Perfect potato soup. I have never been a big potato soup fan because most recipes call for cheese and if you didn't know, I don't do cheese other than on pizza. But after having potato soup at my mother-in-law's house during Christmas, I have been craving it ever since. And when I noticed this new recipe on Pioneer Woman's blog this week, I knew I had to try it out. The recipe uses bacon and cajun spice, two ingredients that I'm curious to see their affect on potato soup. Yum! 

• Tuesday: Stuffed buffalo chicken breasts with a side salad. This is a newer Skinny Taste recipe that is similar to her other recipes using rolled up chicken cutlets and a filling of various cheeses and vegetables. We love her zucchini roll-ups and because I have leftover celery from last week, I thought these would be yummy and help use up the rest of my celery. 

• Wednesday: Easy mulligatawny. This is an old favorite and Tim's request for the week. This Pioneer Woman soup recipe is super easy to make and surprisingly good despite it's strange assortment of ingredients. Green apple is soup? What?! This soup is especially good when you dip crusty French bread in it to sop up all the yummy broth. 

• Thursday: Leftover Dr. Pepper shredded pork sandwiches with coleslaw and sweet potato fries. I have had leftovers of this pork in my freezer for several months now and we need to use it up before it gets all frosty and gross. It will also help us stay in budget this week for our grocery bill. I am curious to see if the meat will be spicier since it's had longer to mingle. I don't exactly know if flavors can mingle when they're frozen, but I feel like spaghetti sauce flavors always seem to get better after they've been frozen. Maybe that's just me. 

• Friday: Chicken pot pie with cheddar crust. This is our favorite chicken pot pie recipe and one I found in Food Network magazine last winter. I haven't made it since we lived in Washington and it's about time. The recipe is very time-consuming, but it tastes so good and we will for sure have plenty of leftovers to eat the next day. I am positive that Owen will love it too. (He was still eating purees that last time I made this). P.S. I leave out the mushrooms because I don't trust fungi in my food. 

• Saturday: Leftovers. 

• Sunday: Corn chowder with chiles. This is my favorite recipe for corn chowder. But beware, it is spicy! The heat comes from both green chiles and chipolte chiles in adobo sauce. I also love the addition of corn meal to thicken it and add a nice corn flavor. If you've never made corn chowder, please give this a try. You won't regret it. Also, I recommend cooking the bacon, but instead of leaving it in the soup to get soggy, I would crumble it on top after the soup is done cooking. 

Christmas recap

     I know this post is long overdue, but this week we have been getting back into the swing of things, settling back into our routine as our little family of three after more than a week with family for Christmas. It's always an adjustment being back, especially for Owen, after having non-stop attention from all his grandparents and aunts and uncles. 

     Not much can be said about this Christmas other than it was one of my favorites of the past few years. Not that each Christmas isn't special in its own way, like our first married Christmas, the Christmas I was pregnant, and Owen's first Christmas, but this one seemed different in some way. I will always remember how Owen's precious toddler presence energized the room at my in-laws on Christmas Eve. How everyone remarked afterward that it was different somehow with Owen. And I will remember how much he loves everyone in our family despite the fact that we don't live nearby and see them on a weekly or even monthly basis sometimes. He knows all of them and loves each of them so much. He was particularly attentive to his Papa's presence this year and would notice immediately anytime he left the room, asking, "Where Papa?" 

      At my parents house, opening presents and spending time together on Christmas Day took over and we forgot about everything else. So much so that our afternoon Christmas dinner had to become an evening Christmas dinner. And how Owen spent more time climbing my dad's new mechanic's chair than playing with any of his toys. 

      I guess that maybe this year Owen reminded us all to appreciate the simple things in life.  The little moments and the little joys. How a room full of toys is nothing compared to being pushed back and forth in a cardboard box by a grandma. 

Painting sugar cookies with Aunt Leah, a Rumely family tradition. 

Owen's completed cookies. 

A small sampling of our decorated Christmas cookies.

Uncle Joseph can always be counted on to get Owen wound up before bed.

Checking out his new Mickey Mouse slippers with Aunt Jenny.

Little boy silliness.

Family photos before the candlelight service at church.

Books are always a hit with our little reader.

Helping other open their presents was even more fun than opening his own.

Mommy's proudest moment: a toy that held Owen's attention for more than 15 minutes. Batteries not included.

Vroom vroom. Honk honk!

Another winner this year.

As always, Owen has to check out the "cowboy" at Grams' house. 

In addition to a great jungle gym, Grandpa's new mechanic's chair also makes a good desk.

Who cares about presents? It's all about the boxes!

Outside adventures with Grandpa are always lots of fun.  

Running toddlers crack me up.  

An outside boy.

  

Julep NYE Mystery Box

      Julep offered a New Year's Eve Mystery Box last month for $19.99. Each box was advertised as containing between $100 and $500 worth of Julep nail colors and products and one person would win an iPad Mini. Technically, the $100 to $500 thing was misleading because all the boxes were between $100 and $125 and the only box worth more than that (the $500 box) was the one that contained an iPad Mini. 

   Regardless, I received my box right around Christmas and was happy to get only a couple duplicate colors from my collection that I wouldn't mind having two of. I was also happy to receive a product that I've never tried before. I think these mystery boxes were a great improvement over the last few mystery box offerings, but more variation in value might have been better. Still, they definitely contained enough product and polishes to make it worth the price. For $19.99, I received at least $120 worth of product, not including the samples.

The products that came in my box were:

• Julep Sicilian Orange Foot Soak - Pacific sea salt infused with Sicilian blood orange essential oils makes our foot soak smell as good as it works. Enriched with Vitamin E and trace minerals, it's also a great bath soak for the whole body. Retails for $26. 

• Julep Boho Glam Lengthening Mascara - Espresso brown. Lash growth enhancement ingredients and micro-fiber applicator separates, lengthens, and conditions individual lashes to lock in moisture and protect from breakage. Retails for $24. 
• Georgia nail polish - Peachy microglitter polish. Retails for $14. 
• Sienna nail polish - Sophisticated shimmery gold polish. Retails for $14. 
• Lauren nail polish - Hot tropical pink creme polish. Retails for $14. 
• Cindy nail polish - Emerald green with gold micro-glitter metallic polish. Retails for $14. 
• Mystery glitter polish (Some bottles were labeled with the name Erica) - Like all Julep mystery polishes, this one is unnamed. It has a semi-clear base with a black tint with different sized silver, black, and other metallic glitter. Retails for $14. 

• Three One-Step Polish Remover Pads - Each no-mess, lint-free pad is infused with aloe vera to moisturize and condition your nails. A great on-the-go solution for polish removal. Retails for $9.99 for a pack of ten. 
• Two samples of Age Defying Hand Brightener - .07 fluid ounces each. 
• Julep nail file. 

      Want to join in the fun of receiving nail polish and other beauty products in the mail each month? Joining the Julep Maven program is the best (and cheapest) way to buy Julep products because you get discounts on everything and access to colors before everyone else! Plus, you can join now for just a penny (see the code below). Here are some others benefits of the Julep Maven program. 

• $40-$60 worth of nail products delivered to your door each month for only $19.99.
• You get to preview the colors you will receive each month.
• You can skip receiving a box if nail polish isn't in your budget for the month or you dislike all the colors. 
• You can switch to one of four other styles if you like them better than those in your style profile.
• You can choose to send your box to a friend.
• Free shipping.
• 20 percent off your purchases on julep.com.
• You can earn a free month by referring two friends to the program using your referral link. (Mine is below and I'd be so happy if you used it!)
• You can cancel at anytime simply by giving Julep a call.

     Sound good? Then fill out a style quiz HERE so Julep can tailor your boxes to your personal style (one of five different style profiles) and use the code JULEPVIP or PENNY to receive your introductory box for just a $0.01. 

January Julep Maven review (ft. Bombshell box)

    The theme of the January Julep Maven boxes was "Escape & Unwind." All of the colors this month were neons or neutrals and are part of the Julep Resort Collection. The theme was further carried out with the products all nestled in a neon peach tissue paper and tied with a hot pink ribbon. 

     Tucked in the box along with the nail products were three neon hair ties. I am so excited to try them because I've been wanting some like this because they are gentler on your hair and don't cause as much breakage. I thought these were such cute extras! The box also included new swatch labeling stickers that you can attach to the lids of your nail polish bottles with a swipe of the color on them so you can identify your polishes from the top. 

    While I'm not really a neon polish fan, I really love the combinations in this month's boxes because each one came with a neon and a neutral. I typically wear a more neutral color on my fingernails, but I'm up for anything on my toes. This month I chose the Bombshell box for the first time. 

The products that came in my box were:

• Bette nail polish - Electric neon purple creme. I am currently sporting this color on my toes. I really like the color. I would not call it a "neon" exactly, but it is bright. I had trouble applying the color because the polish dripped down the brush and 
• Ava nail polish - Ballet slipper pink frost. I used this recently for my manicure and I really liked it. It's pretty opaque after two coats and is a nice just barely pink color. I was really happy to get a neutral not too in-your-face color this month since Julep's selections recently have been pretty bright and glittery. I would love a month where they offered more neutral colors.
• Hand and cuticle stick with shea butter and peptides - Moisturize and protect in one easy step. Restore the youthful appearance of your hands with a peptide punch to strengthen and repair your skin. Vitamins C and E nourish and soothe. No parabens or sulfates. Retails for $22. 

      Want to join in the fun of receiving nail polish and other beauty products in the mail each month? Joining the Julep Maven program is the best (and cheapest) way to buy Julep products because you get discounts on everything and access to colors before everyone else! Plus, you can join now for just a penny (see the code below). Here are some others benefits of the Julep Maven program. 

• $40-$60 worth of nail products delivered to your door each month for only $19.99.
• You get to preview the colors you will receive each month.
• You can skip receiving a box if nail polish isn't in your budget for the month or you dislike all the colors. 
• You can switch to one of four other styles if you like them better than those in your style profile.
• You can choose to send your box to a friend.
• Free shipping.
• 20 percent off your purchases on julep.com.
• You can earn a free month by referring two friends to the program using your referral link. (Mine is below and I'd be so happy if you used it!)
• You can cancel at anytime simply by giving Julep a call.

     Sound good? Then fill out a style quiz HERE so Julep can tailor your boxes to your personal style (one of five different style profiles) and use the code JULEPVIP or PENNY to receive your introductory box for just a $0.01.