Like everyone else, I'm addicted Pinterest...the good and the bad. 

I can easily get sucked in looking at clothes, crafts, nurseries, gardens, and of course FOOD. 

I'll admit that I used to go thru my cookbooks on Sundays looking for new recipes for the week, now I'm on my Ipad looking at what I've pinned.  I thought I would give you some of the recipes that I've pinned that have actually been very tasty. 



Italian Chicken - It was pretty good. 

The link that it goes to is actually incorrect - Here is the correct directions -
Crockpot Italian Chicken: 4 chicken breasts, 1 packet Zesty Italian dressing seasoning, 1 8 oz. cream cheese (softened), 2 cans cream of chicken soup; Cook on low for 4 hours. If sauce is too thick, add a little milk. Serve over pasta.

I made my own additions - I added garlic and diced onions because, well I add garlic and diced onions to everything.  I also added button mushrooms.  I still think it needed something.  Next time I would add broccoli or canned artichokes or something else.  It needed more veggies for me. 


This is hands on the easiest dish and actually pretty tasty. 

Here are the directions from Pinterest - 4 raw chicken breasts, new potatoes, green beans. Arrange in 9x13 dish. Sprinkle with a packet of Italian dressing mix and then top with a melted stick of butter. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Enjoy!

I added mushrooms to this original version, what can I say I love mushrooms.  I have also made a version where I did various fresh vegetables - peppers, onions, mushrooms, squash, and broccoli instead of potatoes and green beans and served it with a side of pasta. 


Crockpot Beef Stroganoff - I made right before Miles was born and made it again shortly after.  Its pretty tasty.  But a couple of pointers... 1.  don't add the noodles to the crockpot.  If you have left overs your noodles are mushy.  2.  I preferred using stew meat.  I used cube steak the 2nd time, I didn't like how it broke down in the dish.  But that's just me.  3. Of course I added garlic. 


Mexicon Dip - I've made this 3 times for parties.  Its yummy, but is spicy.  It gets spicier the long you let it sit. 

Directions from Pinterest - Mexicorn Dip - 2 cans Mexicorn, 1 can hot Rotel, 2 cups shredded cheddar, 6 green onions (sliced), + 1 cup each mayo and sour cream.



Everyone and their mom has made these amazing treats... if you haven't do it.  So good.  I add raisins and dried cranberries to mine. 

Finally, I made these last night... 

Skinny Sour Cream Enchiladas - they were good.  I generally don't like enchiladas but one of my fellow military wives brought us some after Miles was born and I seriously devoured them.  This recipe looked somewhat similar to what I thought was in hers (since I haven't gotten my hands on her recipe yet).  These were different, but they were super tasty.  I can't wait to see some leftovers this afternoon. 

So there is just a couple of the recipes that we've tried from Pinterest that were actually good.  I'll admit I've had a few that weren't that great.  I may share those as well. 

Anyone else have some good Pinterest recipes they want to share :)

Before I started back to work we took a lil weekend trip over President's Day to Park City.  We live in Idaho and its about a 5 hour drive down to Park City.  While I've been to Salt Lake City a number of times I hadn't been to Park City.  Unfortunately, I couldn't hit the slopes like the boys did, but Miles and I tried to have fun just the same. 

We went shopping, had great sushi at The Flying Sumo, and enjoyed some good quality time in front of the fire. 

Here's my lil nugget not happy at all about hitting the outlet mall.  He doesn't seem to share his mama's love of shopping :(

Daddy and Miles rocking out in our hotel room.  We rented a suite, I love have a full kitchen in your hotel room. 
Our lil family of 3.  We still can't believe we're full grown adults...haha 

Oh and last but not least, check out lil man rocking his gift from his "uncle" Sully.  Surprisingly, he likes it. 

Today is a big day in our household.  Today is my first day back to working full time.  Today I become a "working mother", which is weird saying because first and foremost, all moms are working mothers whether you have a "paying job" or stay at home with the kids.  That being said, now I have to juggle my work commitments and everything that comes with having a baby. 

Can a tell you a secret?  I'm already overwhelmed just thinking about having to juggle it all, especially when Mr. Jetplane is gone for a week or more, or when he's deployed. 

That being said, we have hired a nanny and she's been working part time for 2 weeks she started full time last week.  She is as sweet as pie and Miles seems to like her and the pug child likes her, so she's in.  (p.s. she also has a pug which definitely helped in the interview process)

 He has taken Miles' toys/rattles/etc and assumed they were his.  The cutest thing is that he has taken Miles his toy, which we call his baby and dropped by Miles when he's crying.  Its adorable. 
Overall, he has been a wonderful big brother and we tell him that every day.  We still miss Charlie immensely and talk about him a lot, we wonder what he'd be doing right now and how he would interact with Miles.  We're pretty sure he's watching over his lil baby brother. 

Thank you all so much for your kind and supportive comments, tweets, etc.  Motherhood is great, but its honestly the most challenging feat I've ever undertaken.  But rest assured it has also brought with it the best results.  I just wanted to share with you my experience, because I think at times the blog world is a little too Ms. Mary Sunshine and not enough of the real deal. 

That being said my lil man turned 2 months old on Jan 20th... I can't believe it. 




I thought I would share with you some the many faces of Miles... 

Hello out there... not sure if anyone is still with me considering I fell off the face of the earth, well blog speaking I did. 

I've been doing the mommy job 24/7 and its been wonderful.  Well to be honest, its been exhausting, overwhelming, scary, and crazy but wonderful all at the same time. 

While we're on the honesty train, the first couple of weeks were probably the strangest and hardest of my life thus far.  You see I was in labor for a very long time before it was time to push and then after a little over 2 hours of pushing we decided it was best for us to proceed with a c-section. 

I had a temperature at that point, I'd been in labor for a long time, the baby was still face up (we'd been trying to move him for several hours), and his head felt like it was stuck inside my hip. When I pushed I felt like they were ripping off my right leg.  I was also experiencing severe pain in the top of my uterus every time I pushed.  The doctor looked at me and said I'll let you push for another hour if you'd like to.  I told him if you can't pull this baby out right now then let's do the c-section.  I told him that I was mentally, physically, and emotionally done.  I had absolutely nothing to left to give. 

Then the next 10 minutes were a blur, so many people rushing in and out of the room I was totally over whelmed.  I was having a c-section, I wasn't prepared for this.  Ripping out my contacts, taking off my jewelry, questions being asked, and I was just totally clueless of what to really expect. 

I was scared to death.  I have never had any surgery or been admitted to a hospital.  I've only been under once and that was to have my wisdom teeth removed.  I wasn't prepared and this wasn't the plan. 

Let's just say I wasn't the best patient.  Mr came in and sat by my head, I told him thru my own tears that I was really scared.  I was asking the anesthesiologist a ton of questions.  What should I feel, what shouldn't I feel... I thought I was feeling too much.  Which scared me even more.  Let's just say I was very vocal. 

They pulled Miles out and I heard him cry right away.  That was amazing.  Then I asked the anesthesiologist, how much longer... He said "Well once they put your uterus back in probably about 30 minutes..."

Let me just tell you that was probably the last thing in the world you should have said to me.  I thought to myself and I may have even said it out loud "My uterus is out... 30 more minutes... you have to be f'n kidding me!".  Like I said, I wasn't the best patient.  At this point, my upper body began shaking and my lips quivering and I couldn't get myself to calm down.  I was periodically shaking throughout the whole labor and delivery.  It was really annoying. 

Mr had left the room with the baby by this point and I was totally losing it.  Thankfully they knocked me out for the rest.  It turns out that I had an infection that we didn't know about.  My placenta was infected and that was causing me to feel my contractions stronger than they were appearing on the monitors.  Thankfully I didn't pass on the infection to the baby. 

Sidenote-I actually apologized to the anesthesiologist for being such a pain in the ass when he came in to see me the next day, since one of the techs blew a vein and he came in to do it for him. 

But to get back to my point, Miles' birth wasn't what I had expected.  His birth wasn't the labor and delivery that I had imagined or dreamed about.  I felt like I was mourning the birth I had envisioned and that made me sad.  To top it all off, I had to be readmitted to the hospital 2 days after leaving the hospital due to eclampsia, which I didn't even know you could get after birth.  I had horrible headaches and severely high blood pressure.  I had to be put on a magnesium drip for 24 hours.  I wasn't really back to normal for over a week after be discharged the 2nd time.  I had to be put on various meds to control my headaches and blood pressure for the next 6 weeks. 

I kept breast feeding that entire time and I tried to sleep when I could.  Thankfully my husband and my mother were both huge help.  My mother is a saint, I don't know what we would have done without her and my stepdad here.  These first 2-3 weeks  were not was I had envisioned for the beginning of our lil family.  I didn't have the glow of a new mommy.  I felt run down and sick.  I felt like I was just a milk cow for my son and the only time I spent with him was feeding him.  I didn't feel like we were connecting. 

You see all these pictures of new moms in the hospital and they're all cute and polished and I looked like absolute hell and I felt even worse.  I didn't feel cute.  I felt horrible and then I felt even worse for even thinking about myself instead of my son. 

But I'm happy to say, things are better.  Do I still have some baby blues, oh yes I do.  My husband asked me where the happy me went to.  Well, the truth is I'm not unhappy at all, I'm just not happy happy if that makes sense.  I'm still trying to figure out the new me, the mommy me. 

I adore my son, make no mistake about that.  I am so thankful to have a job that let me take maternity leave to spend this time with him, its been amazing.  But this isn't easy and my hormones are cray cray.  Breastfeeding is hard and overwhelming.  Your life revolves around your boobs and your baby.  I've had to supplement with formula because he wasn't gaining weight.  That stressed me out even more.  Getting out of the house, especially in the frigid temps we have out here, is a full on event.  Your life has been turned upside down and you can't prepare for all that you're going to have to deal with. 

But I wouldn't change it for the world. I'm thankful that I suffered the health issues and not him.  I'd rather take all that pain and more, instead of him feeling an ounce of it.  I'm so grateful that he is healthy and happy. 


And I am forever thankful that this lil nugget calls me his mommy.  Please don't get the wrong idea, I love my new life.  But I wanted to be honest about my new life.  I wanted to let other new moms know that they aren't the only ones that feel this way. 

Hello everyone...

Sorry I have left you all hangin.  Thank you all for the sweet emails, texts, and comments asking about our baby boy. 

He didn't enter the world in quite the way we have expected but he is perfection.  We have a rather long and "painful" birth story that I'm not ready to share just yet but I plan to share it soon. 

That being said our sweet lil man, Miles Freeman, entered the world via c-section at 11:55am November 20th weighing 7 lbs 11 oz and 21 inches long.  Daddy thinks he's going to quite a lucky kid.  I will say (sorry for TMI) that he was conceived in between all of his daddy's TDYs back and forth to Vegas for 2 months so who knows...
Here is the first time daddy held his baby boy, pretty darn cute if I do say so myself.