Spring in January!

Today I had a fun and relaxing Friday with the kids. Even though Eli is cutting four teeth right now and has been pretty irritable all week, he had a GREAT day today. Hailey is finally sleeping through the night (11-12 hrs.!) and even napping pretty well during the day. So, all in all, we are hanging in there. :)

Eli looked pretty goofy most of the morning since he insisted on wearing his swimming trunks (over his fleece PJs) along with his winter hat. A few times during a diaper change I tried to lose the swim trunks but he quickly found them and requested me to put them back on. Ha!

Marc was off after lunch today so we took the kids to the park after Eli's nap. It was 72 degrees here today!!! It was beautiful and the weather man said that today was the warmest day on record for January 28th. It is hard to believe that cold and snowy days will be here again next week We will certainly make sure and enjoy the nice weather while we have it, Marc decided to run with Eli to the park in the jogging stroller so I took Hailey in the car to meet them there. We had such a great time. Eli loves this park and it is so great that it is walking distance from our house.

I was so surprised that Eli went right up to this random dog to pet him! I know he likes dogs but I thought he would be a little more scared. I think we will have to work with him on not approaching strange dogs. Yikes! Fortunately, this one was friendly. :)

Well, both kids are sound asleep so I should probably take advantage and get to bed myself! Sometimes, I feel like "me" time is hard to find anymore and when I do find some time, sleep usually sounds a lot better. :)

Call Back Weekend

This past weekend was call back for our residency. This is a weekend in January every year where the residency's favorite applicants are invited back for a second look. We asked my parents to come help out with the kids for the weekend so Marc and I could attend most of the events on Saturday. We met lots of great people who were visiting and enjoyed listening to all the great things said about this place. It is nice to be nearing the end of residency and still feel like we have been in the best possible place for us over the past three years. We have loved it here and have made some great memories (and a few babies! Ha!) along the way. :) I think Marc has really appreciated the quality of training he has received and we are looking forward to staying one more year for the international medicine fellowship.

It was so great getting to spend some time away with Marc this weekend. Sometimes it is easy to not get away when you have two young children. Especially, when Hailey isn't old enough yet for me to leave her AND Eli with a babysitter. My parents do a great job with the kids and we are so thankful for their help. I somehow never manage to get many pictures with them and the kids when they come into town so I need to work on that one. Marc and I got dressed up on Saturday night for dinner and had a great time visiting with everyone. Not to mention enjoying our last year of hearing the faculty band! It is great to see doctors with interests outside of medicine.:)

So, now we are back in the swing of another busy week. I found this ice cream on Sunday at the grocery store and it was the perfect way to end a long Monday. Even Eli had to get his share (he ate seconds of his baked tilapia for dinner so I thought he deserved a sweet treat!). These are our favorite kind of girl scout cookies and they were delicious mixed in ice cream.

We are looking forward to dinner this week with a family who just returned from Zimbabwe, Africa doing what we will be doing next year. It is crazy to think that this time next year we will be in Africa! We are very excited about this and will certainly have more to share in the coming months. Have a great week!

Whatcha got cookin?

What do think of when you think of comfort food? If you looked it up in the dictionary, you would probably find a picture of a Paula Dean meatloaf (right next to the picture of my Memaw's chicken and dumplings!). I love meatloaf and used to feel bad about saying that in public because meatloaf just has a bad reputation.  Or it could just be that meatloaf had a bad reputation in my house growing up. Apparently it was one of the few things my mom knew how to make when she first married my dad and I guess made it a little too often. So, I don't remember eating meatloaf much as a kid because it had already been banned at that point. :) It really is so filling though and well, just comfortable. I love this recipe from Paula Dean. We ate this for dinner last night and it was delicious with some twice baked potatoes. Be careful to not pack down your meatloaf in the pan too much or it will end up really dense. Here you go! Happy dishes ya'll. :)

Paula Dean's Basic Meatloaf

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
8 ounces canned diced tomatoes (without juice)
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats

Topping:
1/3 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon prepared mustard

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Mix all meat loaf ingredients well and place in a baking dish. Shape into a loaf. Mix ingredients for topping and spread on loaf. Bake for 1 hour.

Hailey's New Trick

Hailey turned 3 months yesterday! She is such a happy baby. She is not as great of a sleeper as Eli was, but we are still working through that one. :)

I love her dark blue eyes..

 ...and these big smiles!

 But I am not sure...

how I feel..

 about another THUMB SUCKER!

I found her thoroughly enjoying her thumb today when her paci fell out. Eli quit taking his paci at this age and his thumb has been his best friend ever since. :)

I put up a post today from New Year's Eve since I just uploaded those pictures from our new camera. I dated it for last week to keep my posts in order but you can see that post here.