the strawberry love continues.

 Click here to jump over to my recipe blog to find out how to make this delicious (and super easy!) Strawberry Pie.

So far this weekend…

Yesterday Stephen and I spent the day in Texarkana getting my amp replaced in my car.  We’ve had it for 6 weeks and I’ve gone the whole time with no radio!  It’s not been too bad since I haven’t been on any long trips with it -- just around town.  But it’s really nice to be able to listen tunes now.  =)

We had a nice day together, even though Stevo wasn’t feeling to well.  We had lunch at Ruby Tuesday (loooove their salad bar) and browsed around at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and TJ Maxx.  I got a new Pyrex pie plate and Stephen got a meat thermometer from BB&B; at TJ Maxx I bought Christopher some new onesies, new bibs, and an outfit.

I love these Carters onesies.  I’ve gotten several different kinds since he was born.  There are 5 onesies (of a similar design) and you can always find them at TJ Maxx for like 8 bucks.  I bought him these since it is getting HOT and they are nice and cool little one pieces. No need for shorts when we’re just hanging out around the house.

Stephen and I also went to watch Iron Man 2.  It was just okay.  I would have rather seen Letters to Juliet, but it was Stevo’s turn to pick the movie, and that’s what he picked! 

Today we’ve had a low-key day.  Stephen is sick with a cold (?) so we’ve he lounged around today.  I didn’t mind it much though because I was missing my little man after not spending any time with him yesterday!  Christopher has two teeth coming in on top, so he’s been a little bit cranky - but not too bad at all.  He is such a good baby!

I was able to mow the front yard this afternoon after my boys woke up from their naps!  We’re both hoping that Stephen feels better tomorrow because he has to mow the back yard, weed eat the whole yard, and power wash the front of the house.  I have to work on picking up sticks and cleaning up the back yard.  Maybe if I have time I’ll finish digging up the holly bushes in front of our porch…. although what I’d really love to be doing is spending the day at the lake!

Have a great memorial day weekend!

a tip for pet owners!

So, everybody knows that I love my puppy babies - Baxter, Bella, and Kodi.  But I absolutely haaate fleas and ticks.  They are so bad here in the summer months, and it is so hard to keep fleas off the dogs and out of my house.  Stephen and I have found that Advantage works the best for keeping fleas and ticks off our dogs.  The bad thing is, it’s not exactly cheap to keep THREE dogs medicated.  But, I can tell you one thing that helps make it easier on our checkbook.  And no, it’s NOT 1-800-PetMeds!  It’s a site called CanadaVet.  They are WAY cheaper than PetMeds.  I order my supply for 1 year at a time, because that is the best deal.  12 doses of advantage for extra-large dogs (which is what I order; keep reading to find out why!) from CanadaVet costs me $118.90.  The same thing would cost me $161.48 from PetMeds. That’s a savings of $42.58!  (Except I just looked at their site and they have it on sale for $124.98. But I’m still getting a better deal through CanadaVet even with it on SALE at PetMeds!)

Here’s another tip:  when I order Advantage, instead of ordering the correct size dosage for each dog, I order the package that is for Extra-Large Dogs (55+ pounds) even though none of my dogs weigh that much!  I get it because it is the best deal.  I get twelve 4.0 mL pipettes that looks like this…

then I use a (needle-less, obviously) syringe to measure out how much I need for each dog.  The pipette fits on most syringes perfectly!

Baxter and Kodi are both 10-20 pounds, so they each get 1 mL; Bella is 21-55 pounds so she gets 2.5 mL. (Except to tell you the truth, she only gets 2 mL - I give her what’s left in the pipette after I measure out Baxter and Kodi’s 1 mL each.)  If you don’t use an entire pipette at one time, you can put the cap back on it and store it for later use!  =)  How handy is that!?!

If I were to order twelve 1 ml pipettes for Bax, twelve 1 mL pipettes for Kodi, and twelve 2.5 mL pipettes for Bella, it would cost me $316.70.  But by ordering the “Extra-Large Dogs” 4.0 mL pipette and measuring it out myself, I’m saving $197.80!!! 

I hope that makes sense!  And by the way - my dad is the crazy one who figured out that it would be so much cheaper to measure it out ourselves.  I’m not sure I would have ever thought to do that!  Props to him.  =)

whose blog? my blog.

There are some days when I wish I had more “followers.”  More people who read my blog.  Pretty much the only people who read this are mine and Stephen’s family.  And over half of the family who read it are right here in Mena!

But then there are days when I am really glad that I don’t have to put up with strangers giving me their opinions or telling me that I am raising my child wrong, etc.  I know that I would have a really hard time biting my tongue and not getting ugly with people who try to correct my parenting or blogging techniques.

Let me just say this:

This is my scrapbook.  This is my diary.  This is where I, Stephanie Nicole Speer Olmstead, write about what is on my mind and on my heart.  I write about Christopher, my family, my job, my life, and my day-to-day (sometimes week-to-week) happenings.  I write about my husband, Stephen - sometimes it’s good, and sometimes it’s bad. ;)  If you want his opinion or his thoughts, ask him to start a blog.

I don’t write this blog so that other people can read it.  I write it so that I can look back in twenty years and remember what it was like with 9 month old Christopher.  So that I can remember some of the things we did.  No, I’m not the best at always updating and no, I don’t write every little thing that happens in the Olmstead house, and I’m fine with that.  It is, after all, my blog.

Chocolate makes everything better. Seriously.

Strawberries are in season right now, and they are tasting sooooo good.

But what makes them even better -- chocolate.  (Because seriously, it makes everything better.)
Mmmm… Heaven.




Go ahead, go make some.  You know you want to!

Happy 21st, Bubba!

Today is my little brother’s 21st birthday.  He is my one and only sibling and I love him more than words can say.  He is truly one of my best friends!  I have so many great memories of Ty and me together.  We’ve always been close (except for a few years when I was a brat in middle school.) and I am so glad that I have such an awesome brother.  I’m glad I had a son that I could name after him.  He really means a lot to me.  =)

 
This is one of the few pictures I have of us on my computer.  Thanksgiving 2007.

Not only is Tyler a great brother, but he’s a great UNCLE, too.  Christopher loves his Uncle Tyler (Uncle Bubba) and I know that C will always look up to him!  Tyler is great with Christopher.  Christopher loves to play with him and I hope that they can do other fun “uncle/nephew” things together in the future.

Have a GREAT 21st Birthday, Ty. Stephen, Christopher, and I all love you VERY much!

Don’t Eat Rocks, Son.

So -- Christopher and I argued this morning about whether or not he should take a morning nap.  Since I am a pushover (and because I can’t stand the thought or sight of him in his crib, standing up and crying big crocodile tears while reaching for me to hold him) I decided to just take him outside with him while I cleaned up his stroller.

A few weeks ago, we had a bird pick a fight with itself in our front window.  ALL MORNING LONG, he pecked at his reflection in the glass.  His perch?  Christopher’s stroller.  His bathroom?  Christopher’s stroller.  I have been putting off cleaning it, so this morning I decided to spray it off with the hose then let it sun dry.  I have really been wanting to go for a walk, but I haven’t wanted to use the poopy stroller.  I used our umbrella stroller one day, but it’s hard to use if you’re wanting to walk fast.

I laid out a blanket so Christopher didn’t have to sit on the concrete.
(And yes, that’s a [computer] mouse in his hand.  Don’t ask why - but he likes it. He is his daddy’s son!)

But obviously I was smoking crack.  Stay on the blanket?  Ha!

He realized the concrete wasn’t too comfortable, though, and didn’t venture to far. 

When I went to turn on the water, guess what I found!

A wild strawberry!  I was excited.  

THEN, after I washed all the bird poop (and pollen!) off the stroller, I went to wrap up my water hose, and I found MORE plants.  Except this time, it was ones I had actually planted. I just didn’t expect them to come through, cuz my thumb ain’t green - it’s poop brown.

Also - I can’t for the life of me remember what these are called.  I know I planted one elephant ear, then I planted several of these little leafy looking plants. Some were green and white, and some were green and pink.  Mom? Britney? Anybody?

Keep in mind I’m about to show you several photos of the same kind of plant.  Feel free to skip over them, because I know they’re not as exciting to everybody else as they are to me.

       
I’m not positive, but I think that the green plant in the pic above and below (same plants just different photos) is the elephant ear.  But I’m not positive.  I’m seriously not a gardener.  There’s another plant coming up right behind it.  I think it’s the same as all the other photos, it just hasn’t started opening up yet.
 

And this is my hydrangea that my mom planted for me last summer. She found it growing somewhere else in my yard and transplanted it to this corner and it bloomed just a few weeks later!  It’s really grown a lot since, but no blooms yet this year.

Christopher crawled over to the stroller after I was done washing it and had pushed it over to the concrete to dry.  He wanted to play in the water dripping from it.  Then he discovered wet grass on the wheels. (You can see it on his right hand.  This was after I told him not to eat it.)  Then he found about 3 rocks and tried to eat them.  At that point, Mommy decided that “outside time” was over.

I Heart Lee

From Week 1…


to this week…

he’s been my favorite all along!  And the song he sang this week is a favorite of mine and Stephen’s so we were extra excited and impressed with Lee’s version.
I L-O-V-E him.  And yes, Stephen knows it. 
I think Crystal is good - but I don’t think I’d ever want to buy her CD and she’s gotten on my nerves with some of her performances.   What about y’all?   Who are you voting for?

Congrats, Aunt B!!!

Last Friday night, we attended RMCC’s graduation ceremony.  Britney graduated with her Associates in Science (I think) and we are very proud of her!  She will finish up her LPN certification in July and then she will be moving away to Ft. Smith to attend the RN program there.  I know I’m going to MISS HER and so will Christopher!

Recipe Blog!

I've been putting it off for awhile now, but I've really been meaning to start my own Recipe Blog like so many other people have done.  Even if nobody gets any recipes off of it - I'd like to have a place to store many of my recipes that have been given to me (mostly by my mom) since Stephen and I got married.  I don't have a recipe book, so I've been keeping them all in "chip clip" up on the fridge for the past year and half.  I'm really excited to get them all posted in a more permanent location.  I hope y'all check it out and find something yummy for your tummy!

http://www.stephaniesrecipebook.blogspot.com/

Wordless Wednesday: Bed Head

Christopher is NINE months old!

Where has the time gone?  I can’t believe another month has gone by - C-man is just 3 short months away from turning one year old!

Christopher --

 

**You are crawling all OVER the place! And you are so FAST too!

**You are wearing some 12 month clothes and pj’s, and 18 month rompers.

**You wear a size 4 diaper.

**At your last appointment, you weighed in at 22.5 pounds of pure love!

**You love your Granny and smile so BIG and reach for her when you see her. Then most of the time you don’t even want to come back to me. Stinker!

**You still just have 2 teeth, but you’ve been teething some this week and I think we may get a few top teeth in pretty soon!

**You l-o-v-e to walk around while holding our hands with your chubby little finger.  You could walk alllll day long, I think!

**You sleep from 8pm to 8 or 9 am most days, straight through.

**You are SUCH A GOOD BABY!  We went to your Aunt B’s college graduation last week and - despite it being HOT and uncomfortable - you were a perfect little angel and didn’t fuss or get mad at all!

**You love other babies!  When you see them you will say “UGHH!” and reach for them and usually you want to touch their faces and give them kisses.  You’re so sweet!

**You love cords. As in, electrical cords.  Your daddy has promised to teach you all about them one day, but for now we’d prefer it if you’d leave them alone.

**You haven’t tried a food that you don’t like. This morning, in honor of your 9 month birthday, I let you try a new table food -- toast!  You loved it and would go “Mmmmmm!” when you were eating it.  You also LOVE baby yogurt.

**You pull up pretty much anywhere and everwhere.  The crib, the coffee table, the couch, and if I’m standing still - my legs!  I think you will be walking pretty soon.  You’ve even stood by yourself for about 3 or 4 seconds.

I promise your nose isn’t that orange in person, it’s just the lighting and my camera!

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it a million more times before I die -- you are the best thing that has ever happened to me and your daddy and we love you to the moon and back!  Happy NINE months, sweet little man!

Wordless Wednesday

Christopher’s sleeping position from a few nights ago when I went in to cover him up…

Show Us Your Life - Baby Names!

Today’s Show Us Your Life over at Kelly’s Korner is Baby Names!  I have always loved baby names and throughout my teenage years I was constantly coming up with different names.  As I’m sure most of you know, my son’s name is

Christopher Tyler

Christopher is a name I have always loved, but I’ve had a lot of different middle names before I finally decided on Tyler. In middle school, I liked Christopher Wyatt; in high school, I believe it was Christopher Hunter, and in college, it was Christopher Elijah.  I really, really, REALLY loved the name Christopher Elijah when Stephen and I got together - and so did Stephen.  (Stephen just liked it because of the initials - CEO.)  I also loved the name Grayson Tyler. (And again - Stephen liked this name because of the initials GTO.)

When we discovered I was pregnant, we started throwing around these two names for boys.

The name Christopher comes from a friend of mine who passed away when we were young - in the sixth grade, actually.  It has always been my favorite name for a boy. A few months into my pregnancy, I decided that Christopher was definitely the name I wanted if we were having a boy.  As much as I loved the sound and flow of Christopher Elijah, I also knew that I wanted to use the name “Tyler” as a middle name - because Tyler is the name of my one and only brother, and he is one of my very best friends and I am so very thankful to have such a great boy man as my brother! And as much as I loved the name Christopher Elijah, it was more important to me to use the name Tyler as a middle name - because what if I only have one son, and never got the opportunity to use the name Grayson Tyler?
So, my wonderful husband agreed (he loves my Bubba too!) and we settled on the name Christopher Tyler Olmstead for our firstborn son. =)

It was a good thing we had a boy, because we couldn’t agree on a girl name.  I liked the name Madilynn Marie, (Marie is my patneral grandmother’s middle name) but Stephen was not a fan of Madilynn.

If/when we have any more children (a long, long, looooooong way into the future) we like the boy name

Carter Andrew

…but that could change at any point in time!

(Stephen’s middle name is Andrew - so it is likely that we will keep that as a middle name if we have another boy.) 

I have no clue about girl names.  I like the name Harlie Jane, (my mom’s middle name is Jane!) but then her initials would be HO… and I don’t think I’d want to do that to my daughter.  I guess I better freaking have several years to think about it.  =)

Wordless Wednesday

Christopher….
 

does not…
   

like grass.

(P.S.  It totally cracks me up how he’s holding his right leg up and out of the grass. Silly boy.)