Sprinkler Mat is a WIN!

Not too sure what to think..

Starting to warm up to it. 

Alright, I will touch the water. 

This is soo much fun Mom!

Manic Meal Planning

I finally lost some weight y'all!
I have been hovering around the same weight that I was at 5 months pregnant for months. But after 2 weeks of steady exercise it is starting to come off. Slowly but surely, its going to melt away... I hope.
l am still searching for that runner's high, I haven't found it yet but am going to keep looking. Today, I muttered under my breath how much I hated this running thing my entire run. Stupid Ipod died and listening to my feet hit the pavement over and over again sucks. I'm just saying.

Our biggest issue lately is dinner. So I took this fancy new Ipad that my hottie aka the hubs got me and made use of the calendar app.

I read cooking mags, blogs and even books daily and am always setting aside new recipes. This week they are in my calendar for dinners and I even made a very easy to the point grocery list. And the best part is, I don't fret about dinner anymore.

Instead I prepped dinner during the afternoon nap like I always do and even had some time to spare since I wasn't poring through the cabinets for 30 mins figuring out what we are eating. Less stress about dinner will result in less take-out. I am sad to say lately I just threw in the towel and called it in more than a few times recently. And thats not my MO normally. I fell that we momma's are the pace setters for the family's diets and in our house the parents need to get healthier and we need to instill those good habits into our cutie.

What do y'all do to keep yourself from going crazy figuring out healthy meals and making sure dinner makes it to the table???

Birthday Week's- Lovin in the Oven

Have you ever stopped by Bakerella??? Oh my gawd that lady is creative. Actually, she surpasses creativity and is wandering around the imaginative realm. I love her, I love reading her ideas, I dream about creating perfect mickey and mini mouse cake pops. I drool. Then I snap back to reality because I am so not that patient.. EVER.  I want to be that patient and dream of dawning my SuperMom cape and producing cupcake pops by the dozen. But then I wake up, look in the mirror and look for my check book because I will totally pay someone for the pops.

However, I will twist her goodness to my standards of laziness and produce something great too just categorically not that cute at ALL. In fact, most likely a little rough around the edges and if we are being honest dog hair has found its way into it cause my two shed A LOT. But it will taste good! Real good.

Meet the lazy lady's truffles. Chocolate goodness. The made from scratch feel. The hubby will love it and you can be an apprentice of sorts to the Goddess of Baking.

The Cast of Characters Are...
(1) Box Chocolate Cake Mix (I buy fudge)
(2) 1 cup of sour cream
(3) 3 eggs room temperature
(4) 8 ounces of Cream Cheese (I use half a carton of whipped)
(5) 16 ounces Milk Chocolate (melted) or whatever your favorite flavor of chocolate is

In your mixer throw the first 3 ingredients in and mix it until everything is good and fluffy. Then pour it into any ol' pan and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. Check at 30 make sure that it is not burning. You want the cake to be slightly moist (awful adjective, I know, but the best word for it).

Let the cake cool and then crumble it into a big bowl. Once the cake has been crumbled mix in the cream cheese with a wooden spoon. This takes some elbow grease but it is good way to burn a few calories before ingesting a few lot more.  Roll into balls and let rest in freezer for about 10 minutes. While the balls are getting good and cold melt the chocolate. This is were you can get fancy and add liquors and other flavorings or have multiple types of chocolate for a couple of layers of chocolate. Dip the balls in the melted chocolate and let cool on wax paper.

The rest is up to you, enjoy all alone or share. Regardless, you will not be disappointed. They are just that good.

PS. I owe you pictures. I will add some, promise.  I just need to make some more.

A birthday twist.

Somewhere around my 5th month of pregnancy I was shopping for some new and bigger clothes.This preggo was A. very against all the maternity clothes I had seen so far, I was weird I thought they looked frumpy and I didn't want to wear them. B. I was hardly showing my stomach was basically a hard knot thanks to only being up 7 lbs (don't hate me I made up for later) and C. really hormonal... shopping with me was blast. I either cried or stormed out of the store mad.

Since I was just buying bigger clothes in the department store, I had to inform my sales lady that I was in fact, pregnant.  This woman was awesome,  helped me find clothes and was definitely a mom. She knew the hormones. She had felt the unbalance. She didn't tell me that the maternity section was elsewhere, instead she helped me get some staples to get through the next few months.  And she did what any person does when faced with a pregnant lady... she let me know her thoughts on labor & delivery.

Sales Lady- "You will never feel the same way about your birthday"

Me- ::Blank stare:: "Huh?"

Sales Lady- "Just wait, you will see"

Me- "Uh Ok"

Fast forward 4 months this was me...

Forced to lay on my side with one leg in the air (babe wouldn't move down) and pumped so full of drugs that one side of my body was numb. I am not complaining, I had back labor... all back and numb was way better than the other. People were coming and going and sticking their hands up me. My water broke in a few huge gushes that conveniently waited until the nurse had cleaned me and everything up and then did it again. Then it was go time and my mom was right there pushing my back up so all my energy was centered around pushing all 8 lbs of EJ out.

This year I spent my birthday thinking of my mom and what this day means to her, her memories not mine. How 28 years ago she woke up and went the hospital and labored and then delivered me. How I tore her so bad she was in the hospital for a week. May 19 is my Mom's day, not mine.

How thankful am I for her, she gave me life and then she helped me give my son life. What a sweet moment that was. Much sweeter than my poor husband's moment... holding my leg seeing a scene that I would have rather him not. Things just aren't pretty down there when babies come out. He is still getting over it 10 months later.

BYOB y'all!!

Go ahead and relax, release those eyebrows. No, I am not drinking a beer at 3 in the afternoon. I only do that when there is sand between my toes, don't judge you do too.
It's the D-List Mom Blogs Blog Party!



This event planner loves a good party!! Sorry I am fashionably late joining the party. It just couldn't be helped. You see it's my birthday week y'all. Yes, I claim a whole week, so should you. I get a free pass for my tardiness because I live in the great state of Georgia and they like to help us celebrate our birthdays by charging us a tax on the value of our car. Yeah, you read that right, Georgia takes my birthday money for themselves or I risk getting a ticket for an expired tag. Apparently the best of my intentions will go unnoticed this year because I failed my emissions test!
::bangs head against table for waiting until the last minute to get the car tested::
I am a mother, I have mommy brain... I know Georgia doesn't care but they should.

All that aside, Welcome I am so glad you stopped by! I am a third of the Holman's, an outdoor lovin' family living in the city navigating the great river of parenthood. We fish, we travel, we love good wine, we cook a lot and we have the cutest child E.V.E.R.  I dare you to try and make a cuter child!

I started my career planning parties on Capitol Hill got sick of pumps and pearls and moved back home to the south. Here in Atlanta, I have planned every type of party you could think of, sometimes they went perfect, sometimes wedding cakes fell on the floor and I had to put them back together with toothpicks. It was great fun but now I stay at home and love it 99.9% of the time, every few months I have a moment were I want to run into the woods alone, naked and screaming. No worries, never gotten pushed far enough over the edge to actually do it yet. Not to mention I would have to drive an hour to find the woods.

So take off your coat, pull up a chair and we can share a glass of wine. I will humor you with my weight loss attempts, gush on my desire to be The Pioneer Women without living on a cattle farm, talk green living for lazy people cause I am lazy, improve your DIY party planning and tell the tales of the everyday happenings with the Holman's.

Thanks so much for joining us today!
I hope you come back to visit regularly and you better let me know you stopped by. I promise to come visit you too!

Motivation

I used to love running. It was in a word, relaxing. There was nothing like a run in the crisp morning air, my ipod blaring and all my frustrations melting away. For me running was better than therapy, I could clear my mind and the world always seemed a little brighter after. Then I quit... it wasn't a conscience decision. I just stop having time for it and before I knew it the thought of running was scary, overwhelming and flat out exhausting to think about.  
I had always said I would work-out during my pregnancy, that I was going to be that healthy momma. But when you do not plan on the pregnancy a lot of your best intentions become just that, an intention that did not happen. I walked a lot and that certainly helped my delivery... I pushed all of 15 minutes ((fist pumps the air))! But then he came and life took over and I did nothing. Not a damn thing for months and now at 10 months old, I am seriously disgusted with the reflection in the mirror and embarrassed that I don't own clothes that fit.
I have talked a lot about doing Weight Watchers, signing up for Boot Camp, etc. Guess what? I haven't done a thing but run my mouth. Apparently I need a motivation so I found it.  Besides the looming bathing suit season and I want to be skinny enough to sport a bikini again, I needed something to get my butt in gear. If I have learned anything this past 10 months is that I need to exercise. It is my magic weight loss secret. I can eat a lot or not I am not going to gain or lose weight but if I work out, if I move, it works I get skinny. Well, I hope because I used to be skinny and I used to work out.
My motivation is my wedding dress, a beach, a setting sun, my husband in a white linen suit and a photographer. I am going to retake my wedding photos. Why would you do that you ask? Because I HATE mine. I think they are terrible, it rained so it ruined my hair, the sun was grey and honestly my photographers just didn't live up to their hype. My hair was matted by my veil and no one told me. That along with a few other issues, I look at the pictures and I honestly get mad. Every girl has their wedding dreams and one of mine was to have an amazing picture where I look the best I ever have with my husband staring at me with serious love and lust and have it big in my house. I want my daughter (if I have one) to look at it and say "Mommy was beautiful" the same way I did when I looked at my Mom's. I would just stare at it for hours and dream about my day.
So here's to running again I am a week into it and if it kills me I am going to renew my relationship with running and get myself beautiful so that I can put that dress back on and get a fantastic photo or two.

Me time.

Today, I sat on the couch alone and watched a serious chick-flick. Baby napped, dad was gone coaching a lacrosse game and my kitchen was so messy that there was an odor wafting around. I needed to break out the bleach, throw my hair back and clean but I didn't. I was good host, no great host last night and simultaneously watched and fed EJ, cooked a lot of food and mingled with old and new friends. I forgot to eat, but I did not forget to drink.

So with a pounding headache, I curled up on the couch and watched a girly movie and realized that I haven't curled up alone and watched a movie for me since I was pregnant. It was awesome. I forgot how much I loved a dumb movie and quiet.

Most days I do not stop, I move from one project to the next and sitting down occurs only when needed like playing with EJ or folding laundry. Nap times are a race to get as much done as possible before it is back to baby duty. I am a master at a quick deep clean and proud of it. But, I need to remember that occasionally the house can stay dirty, the projects can wait until another day and enjoying the quiet with a movie my husband would never agree to watch is needed... for me.

Check it out!

The Stroller Ballet Blog has started a great series, The Very Young Philosopher.  Talking about the life lessons that we learn from our kids.


Sarah asked for reader comments and I was featured. So stroll on over there and check her out. Its a great series!


And for those of you visiting today for the first please follow and give me some comment love. 


Happy Friday!

I have baby fever.

There are little babies everywhere and I want about 4 of them. Maybe because EJ is beyond easy, he is truly a perfect child. Or the new mom cloud has snuck in and those first 6 weeks that were so tiring are not in my memory anymore. Or maybe its seeing the previews for "Babies" all day... note to self you must turn the tv off more.
Regardless, I have little bitty baby fever for a sec and then I remember pregnancy, the lose skin on my belly and the dimples in my arms. I then remember that I am currently killing myself with Boot Camp regime that my husband set-up for me. Yes, I run up my big hill 5 times a day, run/walk 2 miles and lift weights. Yesterday a muscle in arm cramped and you know what went through my head? I did not know that muscle existed. And I get over it real fast, I enjoy a glass wine at night, I am going to wear a 2 piece and look good in it again. All it takes is to see those ice packs that we bought after EJ's birth (the expensive pea like ones that were plastic that I wore for weeks straight) in the freezer and I wonder if I will ever have another child. Cause damn y'all the l & d was nothing compared to the 3 weeks after. ((shuttering)) Not to mention, I have plans, big plans for this summer. I WILL retake my wedding photos so I can get a picture in my dress NOT PREGNANT. I want to have one pretty wedding picture and currently I look well... not pretty at all. I, also, have a honeymoon to take, yes before the year is over my husband has promised me a week of us, beach, some fishing, and damn it, romance.

I repeat that to myself as every random stranger in the U.S. of A ask when are having another. Yes, I know he is adorable and yes, my husband and I make cute kids but NO, there are no buns in the oven. Thankyouverymuch.

Que the babies trailer and then I am back to having baby fever. Anyone else suffering from the disease?? How do you cope with it because I am not falling prey to it. No ma'am I am not!

Mother's Day

Once again Atlanta forgot that it is a member of the South and Sunday was actually rather chilly. Well chilly for May in Atlanta. I woke up to an Ipad sitting on my bedside table and my son standing in his crib asking for "momma" (my heart melted). My sweet husband had gotten the Ipad all set up... loaded pictures and applications and even some music for me. Now I know why he was locked away in his man cave all Saturday afternoon. We had a great day together as a family and ended it with a date for me and my hot husband at the Zac Brown concert. It was fantastic day, one that I will cherish for many years to come.

I read once that becoming a mother is choosing to let your heart live outside of your body for the rest of you life. I get it. I totally get it.

This is my heart. 

Mom or Not?

Can you believe that it is already May? I feel like it was just yesterday that I was staring at this strange stomach that had appeared and overdosing on milk and marshmallows. And yet the reality is that was a year ago and here we are another year under our belt and another Mother's Day. Its my first Mother's Day where the entire world will agree to celebrate me.
This time last year I was about 32 weeks pregnant and boy was I big, EJ was already 5 lbs and siting all in front. I was miserable, I was contracting a lot, not braxton hicks but the real deal and enough for the doctor's to warn me that they thought I was going to go early. And of course I was hormonal, really hormonal. Sometime around this time last year my husband told me I was acting crazy and pretended to video tape me with his phone. Ole Crazy grabbed it out of his hand and smashed it into a million pieces on the floor. Don't mess with Preggo! Needless to say in my book I was Mother. I was caring him around in body for God's sake. There was a human inside of me beating me up from the inside out... that is Motherhood. A few people in my life did not agree and boy did it not go over well. Let's not forget how hormonal I was, I never said anything but inside I was pissed and if we are being honest I am still a bit miffed.
But this year, I am a Mother. I survived 39 weeks of pregnancy, I labored 10 hours, I pushed 15 minutes and I have survived 10 months and 1 week of being Mom. Its awesome, I love it. I was put on this earth to be a Mom, some days I want to run away from home but then EJ calls "Momma" and I melt.  A total stranger wished me Happy Mother's Day today and I stopped and thought Yay! No one can tell me I am not a Mother yet! That's me... Mom.

So what do you think? Are you a mom pregnant or is that titled saved for those who labor and deliver??

Not so baby anymore

Its been a constant theme lately, how my baby refuses to be a baby. He used to cry because he couldn't go anywhere and he would fight and struggle and roll. We even have a full on baby six pack to prove it. Then he cried because he couldn't crawl, then he wanted to walk and would fall over and now he wants to play with Mom and Dad's toys not his. Things like the remote, camera, kitchen appliances and especially Daddy's keys. If we put them out of his reach, lock up a cabinet or take something away it results in a total meltdown and mega temper tantrum.

However, the latest test of independence is hysterical and very nasty all at the same time. My 10 month old has discovered that he can take off his clothes and more importantly his diaper. Which has result in more than one poop on the floor, yes that's right he has been pooping on the floor and even once played in it. ICK! EJ sucks at diaper change time. There are only a handful of people that can change his diaper  alone. He bucks, twists (remember that baby 6 pack), and tries to get away. Forget changing tables, you have to wrestle him to floor and hold him down and be quick or you will certainly get some poop on you.  So the question goes do I make my life fun and duck tape the diaper to his body, make the switch to the cloth diapers that clasps in the back or do what my mother suggested and buy a potty and every time he removes said diaper make him sit on it for a few minutes???

Such a big boy! When did that happen??

EJ's New Trick

After doing this for an hour straight the other day I had enough and went to the store to buy this...

Which of course caused some of this....

But I got to drink coffee in peace and wasn't forced to chase him anymore. 

Mommy 1 EJ 0