Busy October!

Hello all! I hope this blog finds you happy and healthy! Well, we had a busy October. We hosted a few visitors during the month, Cole was dedicated in church, he turned 6 months old and Chris and I both did alot of traveling! While Chris went on an elk hunt in Colorado with his dad, Cole and I traveled to Northwest Arkansas to visit with some college friends! What should have been a 5 1/2 hour drive ended up being a 7 hour drive. Traveling by yourself with a 6 month old is hard work! There are no such things as "Quick Stops". Anyway, we got there on Thursday and got to stay until Tuesday. It was an awesome, long visit that I won't forget. It was also Cole's first Halloween weekend. He was the cutest pumpkin you ever did see. Chris called it child abuse for me to dress Cole up because it was for my pure entertainment. I'm like..."Hey! There are other people that will be entertained by him too! It's Halloween...this is what you do!" Oh hunny...I love you! All in all, we had a fun and busy October!

Cole at 6 months old....already standing at the coffee table!

Cole's Baby Dedication at church!


Before Chris and Jim headed off to Colorado for their big elk hunt!


Matt Turner is a family friend and is a news anchor in Fayetteville. He let Cole be on the 6:00 evening news! I was so excited and proud! Cole was a good boy.


We found a little country store that had a free pumpkin patch! We took the opportunity to have a little photo shoot.





Me and Cole with two of my best friends from college...Julee and Stefan! Love you two!

Cole and Brody Francis (as a duck) on Halloween night!

3 Easy Recipes

So a few of my friends here in DFW asked me to post these 3 recipes. They are super easy and very yummy to eat!! Try them and let me know how it goes!!

My Momma's Parmesean Chicken

3/4 stick butter, melted
Parmesean cheese
Italian Bread Crumbs
5-6 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast, thawed

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix together equal parts (I use about 3/4 Cup each) of Parmesean Cheese and Bread Crumbs. Cut chicken breasts into 3 to 4 inch pieces. Dip chicken in melted butter then coat with dry mix and arrange in a 9x13 glass pyrex dish. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown. (Depending on your oven, you might need to check it at 30 and see from there how much longer.)

***If you arrange chicken so edges touch, it won't be so dry after baking.

My Momma's Dirty Rice

3/4 stick butter
1 med. onion, chopped
1 1/4 Cup uncooked rice
1 Can (4.5 oz.) Sliced Mushrooms*
1 can French Onion Soup
1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 Cup water

*IF you don't like mushrooms (like me!) you can leave these out!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium saucepan, melt butter and saute onions. Add rice and mushrooms. Stir on stove over medium heat for 5 minutes. In a casserole dish (sprayed with PAM), mix mushroom soup, onion soup and water. Add rice mix and stir. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour.

And for a yummy desert try this chocolate eclaire recipe! SOOOO good! And the great thing about this recipe is you can buy all sugar free/fat free items.....well, except for the chocolate icing. There's NO substitution for that!

Chocolate Eclaire

1 container chocolate frosting
2 small boxes Lowfat Vanilla Pudding
3 1/2 Cups Lowfat Milk
1 small tub of Fat Free Cool Whip
1 box of Fat Free Graham Crackers

Blend pudding, milk and cool whip until even. In 9x13 pan (sprayed with PAM) place 1 layer of graham crackers, covering the whole bottom of pan. Spread half of pudding mix, followed by another layer of graham crackers. Repeat. Frost with chocolate frosting. Refrigerate for a few hours....(or you can do it the night before you need it to save time!)

I want to hear how it goes!!!

Roadtrip to Mississippi

So over Labor Day Weekend, Chris and I decided (...well, I decided and Chris tagged along...) to make the long drive (10 hours) to Columbus, MS. Columbus is where my dad is from. Dad and his sister have decided to finally put my grandparents house on the market, but it needed some desperate cleaning out! I haven't been to Columbus in over 3 years, since my grandfather died and I have always wanted to go back over there before they sold the house. I have MANY memories in Columbus and I just wanted to see it 'one last time'. Friday, we split the trip up and stopped in West Monroe, LA where all of Chris' extended family lives. We had dinner and spent the night with Chris' grandmother, Vivian. Saturday we drove the rest of the way to MS and got there that afternoon. Our trip was filled with cleaning out my grandparents house, eating at some family favorite restaurants and visiting with lots of family! It was so much fun and I am soooooo glad we did it! Here are some pictures from the trip!

Cole was ready for the road trip, as long as he could drive! This picture cracks me up every time!

Cole's Great-Aunt Judy

Cole with his Great-Grandmother..."Mammaw"

Chris with his Uncle Jeff and cousin Paul in front of his grandfather's tire shop.

Pulling up at my grandparents house...

One of my two favorite restaurants in Columbus. If you are ever there, I highly recommend eating there!

All of us, along with Jean and Howard, the couple that run the Parker Furniture Store.

BATH TIME!!!



The Parker Furniture and Appliance Store in downtown Columbus, MS. My grandparents opened it's doors in the 1950's.




Another Parker family favorite restaurant in Columbus is the Mexican Kitchen! Amazing hot sauce!


My brother and sister....Uncle Will and Aunt Katie!

Family photo!

Finding his Feet

So...I'm a little late in this post but last Monday, we marked another milestone as Cole is growing and growing. He found his feet for the first time! Yay Cole man! It was so adorable! I was in the middle of changing his diaper and he just up and grabbed his toes. I couldn't believe it...I knew it would happen any day now but it's like he knew what he was doing and was saying, "Look at my new trick, Mom!"

And then he did it again at the doctor's office later that day!


Here's me and my little man.... (Shhh! Don't tell Chris, but I think he's really starting to look like me!) Cole weighed 15 lbs 4 oz and measured 24 3/4 inches long! He's a growing boy!!!

I just love this shot of Cole hanging on to his daddy's legs. He sure does love his daddy!

I just love this little frog pj outfit. (It's a 6 month size, by the way.)

My Birthday Weekend

Well, last Friday was my 26th birthday! I decided I wanted to go to Tyler, TX, where my in-laws live, for my birthday weekend. I asked my parents to come down too so it would be a big weekend of fun, food, fellowship and dominoes!!! We had an awesome time.

Me, with my two favorite guys on my birthday!


The best birthday dinner ever! Sweet tea, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and chocolate cake!!! My mother-in-law made it all, even down to the flowers on the cake. So good!


My parents with Cole man. (I think they really came down to see him, but who can blame them?!)


Jim (Papa) with the little man.


One of the mares, Glory, had a little pony 2 weeks ago. Her name is Lacey. She is so cute!




I wanted to play on a horse-y too, so Chris saddled up Belle, the other mare, and walked with us as we rode "off into the sunset". And Harley didn't know where her momma and daddy were going she had to follow us too!



Cole had fun out at the barn too. I just know when we go to Tyler, he's always going to want to go hang out with Papa and his daddy at the barn! I can see dirt pies, mud pits, fishing poles and tractor rides already!






On Saturday night we had another birthday dinner with ribeyes, baked potatoes, salad...all that good stuff! They surprised me with a bouquet of balloons. So fun!

Happy 4 month Birthday Cole Man!

Happy 4 month Birthday my little man! Chris and I cannot believe it has been 4 months since our little man came into our lives. He is just growing so big and so fast. He no longer wants to lie on his back, he needs to sit up and be able to see everything. He loves his exer-saucer, especially the pig (for some unknown reason). He loves being outside when mommy can stand the heat. And his new favorite thing to do is to blow spit bubbles and talk at the same time. It's pretty darn cute. Hasn't anyone come up with a "pause" button yet??? So we can hold onto these moments when they are sweet and innocent and don't know how scary and unpredictable the world is.



Chris and I pray for Cole to grow up loving our amazing GOD, for him to lead a successful life, to be happy, to find the girl of his dreams (which I better hold this position for the next 25 years....or so) and to make his mommy and daddy proud. WE ARE SO IN LOVE!!!! Thank you Jesus for giving us this sweet and precious gift from above.

O...M...G!!!!!

So, first of all, I apologize to the few of you who read my blog, as you can tell, I'm not the greatest blogger yet. (I said "YET", Julee Bell) I hope I can get better at this. I feel like I'm doing good if I upload new pictures onto Facebook, let alone work on my blog. So here it is.... my first real Blog with an actual story to go with it!

I hope this doesn't gross anyone out....all of you mothers out there hopefully won't be! But one morning this week I pumped and after what seemed like FOREVER...when I was finished I had pumped 15 1/2 ounces!!! What??!! That is by far the most I have pumped since being a Mommy. I couldn't believe it. Cole drinks about 4 to 5 ounces at every feeding now so it won't go to waste, but Geez! isn't that alot? I also looked in my freezer today and counted how much milk I had stored up. Around 354 ounces! I haven't had to use any of the stored milk yet. My mother says I'm a good cow! What! Thanks Mom! I guess this is the only time in a woman's life that it's ok to be called that. Oh well, whatever it takes to take care of my little man!



By the way, I LOVE BEING A MOM! It's a blast!