Molly's Nursery Tour

Better late than never, right?!? For the nursery I knew I wanted something soft, gentle and serene. I had an idea in my head and my mom and sister helped me make it a reality. They are the crafty ones in the family. Here is my favorite room in the house!

As you enter this is the wreath that hangs on her door, made with love from my cousin Josie.

Peek-a-boo! Look who was inside.

Looking in through the doorway.

Her walls are a gray color.

The curtains were made by my mom. They have a pink underlay with a white eyelet fabric on top. The ties are pink with white polka dots.

The glider is from Target.

Home made curtains

I found the window at an antique mall in Houston and painted it white and added a little blue owl on the glass.

The bird cage and side table were both painted by my sister. This is what I wanted for my night light when I was up late with the wee one.

 Every girl needs a pair of pink sparkly TOMS.

My favorite. This tree was painted by non other than my sister. I wanted something soft and serene and I think she nailed it. The beanbag on the side is her book nook.

I bought her bedding from Carousel Designs and I am that first time mom that needed the crib skirt and the bumpers to have the complete look and now I know why they say it isn't necessary. I used it for about 3 months and then never again. But it is pretty and I still love it. It is gray and pink damask.

This pillow was given to Molly on the last day of VBS and the bunny is from Aunt Nenna.

Book nook and monthly picture photo op studio

I bought the changing table from a resale shop and Jenna and Reece painted it. It was originally wood color, then they painted it white and then added a teal overlay so they could sand sections to get the vintage look.

The pictures were made by my sister....do you see a pattern here.

This mirror was painted by Jenna and used at my baby shower. You can now see all the finger marks from Molly. This is where she has pretty intense conversations with herself.

This is the wall next to the changing table. 

Those were shoes that I wore as a little girl.

I bought that bird before I knew I was having a girl or boy. I just fell in love with it and had to have it.

The dress was made for my dad before my Grandmother knew she was having a boy.

Her step stool that holds her sound machine. This was a great find from my MIL.

I bought the light fixture online and my mom made the shade.

This is the wall that faces the crib - her closet, FULL of stuff.

You can see two little teal owls if you look closely, painted by Jenna.

Closer look

Look who's coming in to find mommy.

Well, looks like that is it. Time for me to go play. Here is one last picture that I love. This was taken when the photographer came over to take all the pics for Texas Children's.

Happy New Year!

2013 is gonna be a great year. 2012 was a wonderful year, a tough year but a good one. 2013 though....I can feel it in my bones, it's gonna be a good one.  There is already so much to look forward to in 2013 including: my nephew, William, is coming in March, so many of my friends are having babies (a special one in July, the 25th to be exact), my sister is getting MARRIED in Hawaii in November, and of course Molly turning 1 and everything else that pertains to her. :) It's gonna be a great year - it just is.

So, to close out a good year we were the lame people that stayed in, ate a good meal, drank some bubbly (yes in wine glasses because we don't own champagne glasses - it's ok, we are classy like that) and went to bed early, at least I did. It was nice. I value my sleep since we have an alarm clock that doesn't have a snooze button. I had a big family meal planned but I didn't anticipate it taking about 2 hours to make (granted this might not be a long time for some but for me it seemed like it took all day, expecially when you have a child pulling at your pant leg wanting you to push her around in her new car). It ended up just being Danny and I that enjoyed it but Molly will get to have some tomorrow and the next day and probably the next because the recipe made a ton. I recommend the dish, IF you have that kind of time. Maybe it will be a NYE tradition, who knows. Oh, dish was homemade baked sweet and sour chicken with fried rice. It was really tasty if I do say so myself.

Here is the recipe, from non other than Pinterest, who got it from Life as a Lofthouse blog :)

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

The chicken coating:

3-4 boneless chicken breasts

salt + pepper

1 cup cornstarch

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup canola oil

The sweet and sour sauce:

3/4 cup sugar

4 tbs ketchup

1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tsp garlic salt

       Start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees. Rinse your chicken breasts in water and then cut into cubes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dip chicken into the cornstarch to coat then dip into the eggs.  Heat your 1/4 cup oil in a large skillet and cook your chicken until browned but not cooked through. Place the chicken in a 9x13 greased baking dish. Mix all of your sweet and sour sauce ingredients in a bowl with a whisk and then pour evenly over the chicken. Bake for one hour and during the baking process you will need to turn the chicken every 15 minutes.  

Fried Rice                                                                                             

3 cups cooked white rice (day old or leftover rice works best!)

3 tbs sesame oil

1 cup frozen peas and carrots (thawed)

1 small onion, chopped

2 tsp minced garlic

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1/4 cup soy sauce

      On medium high heat, heat the oil in a large skillet or wok.  Add the peas/carrots mix, onion and garlic. Stir fry until tender. Lower the heat to medium low and push the mixture off to one side, then pour your eggs on the other side of skillet and stir fry until scrambled. Now add the rice and soy sauce and blend all together well. Stir fry until thoroughly heated!  Yum!  

Oh and while we are closing out 2012 I forgot to show you our Christmas card. I have never sent them out until this year....probably because I had a good reason but anywho, here it is.

It's Coming Down

After almost a year Molly's big building picture will be coming down next week. Of course we took this as another photo op so Lolli and Pops were nice enough to come along to take the pictures and get a smile out of Molly. I can't believe how much difference a year makes. She was one month old in the building picture and almost 11.5 months in the pics we took today.

It feels like just yesterday I took that picture with Molly

Oh these two...

My little baby is growing up 

Walking like a big girl

Here is a little video of her walking. Her squeaky shoes crack me up!

Don't worry her picture will pop up again in the near future ;)

Christmas 2012

I can't believe it has come and gone. We had a great Christmas, celebrating the real meaning, starting family traditions and spending time with family. Santa went over and above this year - that is for sure!

This year on Christmas Eve we went over to Danny's parent's house to commence the Christmas celebration. We had a great time hanging out, eating chili, opening presents and watching Molly. Ha!

"This is how I open presents because paper is sooo good."

"It's a new car!!!"

"What - you mean there is more?????"

"Uhh daddy, Pops said I could have your football. :)"

A family tradition, saving the wrapping paper rolls and then beating each other. I conviently held the babe and watched with the preggers SIL. This is actually quite hilarious and entertaining to watch.

The Struzick family Christmas

On Christmas day we woke up and spent the morning at our house starting our family traditions. We opened presents and then had breakfast casserole and banana muffins. After Molly woke up from her morning nap we headed over to my parent's house to enjoy the rest of the day.

"No momma. I didn't just open your present by eating the paper....see."

"Perfect, I needed a laptop to email my friends."

Our family of 3 on Christmas morning.

Once we got to my parent's house Molly found the apple in her stocking and just started munchin. She was pretty protective of it. She NEEDED to eat it like a big girl.

Looking at Uncle Reece's cool camera trick.

"I got it! Santa brought me my baby doll."

"GET.THIS.BABY.OUT!"

"Oh, I love her."

"I'm pretty cute with my new tutu, I know."

"But I am not ready to go home!"

The Mitchell family Christmas

Molly did great both days. I was so impressed but then again she is always impressing me.

Got Milk?

Ok maybe a weird title but it is kind of a big deal. So we all know that when I had Molly the goal was to nurse her for a year, if I was able. Well, nursing didn't happen because of a variety of reasons so I turned to pumping. Let me tell you, lugging that thing around for almost a year was a lot of work but I am glad I did it. For some reason I produced a ridiculous amount of milk so we bought a deep freeze and started storing. The day after she turned 11 months I was done pumping and decided that I didn't want to deal with thawing the milk so Molly went to formula full time and I donated all my extra milk to the Texas Children's Hospital NICU. They sent me 3 coolers and I packed it all up and sent it to California where it will get pasteurized then sent back to the hospital. It ended up being about 1200 ounces and they pack it in 4oz bottles so that is about 300 meals for the little babies. So, if anyone is thinking about donating I definitely recommend it. It is an easy process, a little blood work, a cheek swab, they send the coolers and all you have to do is pack them and call FedEx to pick everything up.