Shannon’s World

PlanetJill.com has unique jewlery that I just love.  Not only is it fashionable, but it shows off that someone special in your life.  I’ve been away from Libby for a week and I long for pictures of her (post more, Mike!). 

 I love a few things about planetjill:

- you can send your photos to the company and they edit as needed so the photos look great in the jewlery. 

- photographic jewlery is waterproof and coated in with a special UV treatment so your photo won’t fade and it will last a lifetime.

I love the fact that the locket comes with a photo permanently “installed”.  I’ve wanted a locket for a while, but hate how sloppy they look.  I also enjoy this bracelet - I am hoping Santa might leave one under the tree for me!

Our friend Steve took some great images of Libby on Saturday.  You can view them on his blog.

Libby is quite the souz chef!

For Mother’s Day, Mike got me the best diaper bag ever: thePackabe in perky perennials by Ju Ju Be. I LOVE THIS BAG because:

- it can be used as a backpack or a messenger bag (Mike bought me a very expensive diaper bag shortly after we found out we were pregnant and while it’s cute, I feel like my shoulder is going to break off when I use it - the backpack feature is key)

- Thinsulate insulated side bottle pockets to keep bottles cold or warm

- crumb drains to get rid of the yuckies in your bag

- removable changing pad made of memory foam

- light colored lining so you can actually find things - no black hole!

- magnet closures so you can quietly open and close the pockets

- there’s a “mommy pocket” with a space for your cell phone and a key clip

- the whole thing is water proof, teflon coated and has an anti-microbial coating

I can’t recommend this bag enough - you’ll love it!

Mike, Libby, my Mom and I headed out to the Zionsville Farmers Market on Saturday morning.  We bought half dozen ears of corn, green beans, a zuchini, 3 large cinnamon rolls to have on Sunday for breakfast (they were huge - 7 inches in diameter at least) and two duck eggs (Mike wanted to try them to see how they compared to chicken eggs).

I found a new, local vendor that I am loving: Sweet Lucinda’s Bakery.  Courtney has the cutest booth at the Market and a super cute website to boot.  I bought a sampling of cupcakes, banana cream pudding and a carrot cake cookie sandwich: all three were excellent!  The banana cream pudding rivals the banana cream pudding I get at my NYC favorite, Magnolia Bakery.  Eating your veggies is a lot easier when you have something from Sweet Lucindas to look forward to!

Next time you find yourself in Indy on a Saturday morning, stop by the Zionsville Farmer’s Market!

Now that Libby is older and sturdier we pulled out two new toys: the johnny jumper and the exersaucer. She seems to enjoy spending time in both. Mike and I love watching her bounce, bounce, bouce in the jumper. Special thanks to my brother and April for both toys! Mike and I had kids at the perfect time - when Sean and April stopped needing their baby stuff!

We tried a new recipe last night and are trying another new one tonight. Last night we made Potato and Corn Salad and it was good - a nice alternative to regular potato salad, it’s more like a German Potato Salad since there’s no mayo. I found the recipe in Parents magazine and we got some great tasting sweet corn at the Farmer’s Market.

Tonight we’re making Asparagus, Snap Pea and Avocado pasta from Everyday Food. It looks good and easy to make…I’ll let you know.

Potato and Corn Salad
1.5 lbs small red potatoes
2 c cooked corn, cut from cob
1/2 c diced red onion
1/2 c diced celery
1/3 c vegetable oil
1 T. apple cider vinegar
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper (we added more)
1/2 tsp. fresh thyme (didn’t have this, so we added Italian seasoning)
1 T. chopped parsley (substituted with the Italian seasoning)

Miss Libby Claire is 4 months old and our 90% girl.  We went to the Dr yesterday and she’s weighing in at 15 lbs 13 oz and is 25.5 inches long - 90% for both!  When I called my Dad to tell him, he responded “Buy her a basketball!”. 

Libby got 3 shots and one oral vaccination. . .she did great - only cried for about 20 seconds and then was “rescued” by Dad.  As with the last round of shots we went to Dairy Queen after for blizzards - just to make everyone feel better (I think my Mom and I cried more than Libby did)!

It’s amazing how much Libby has changed in such a short period of time.  She turns over and can push her torso up by her arms.  When Libby’s in this position her legs go a mile a minute. . .I swear she’s going to crawl soon!  We put her to sleep on her back but in the mornings we often find her sleeping on her tummy.  This weekend we are going to introduce Libby to rice cereal and I am sure there will be some very funny pictures to share!

To give you an idea of how much L. is moving - in the picture above, she started out laying under the bug gym, along the aqua blue part.  She rolled and turned her way out of the gym onto the carpet.  We’ve got ourselves a mover and a shaker!

My Mom did not leave when the rest of the Cross family departed last Sunday - she’s staying with us for a month to help out when I have to go up to Chicago for work.  While she’s here, Mike and I are going to try to sneak a date night or two in but don’t know what to see.  Any recommendations out there?  Is Ocean’s 13 worth our one date night?  I’d love to see Ratatouille, but I am not sure a kids movie is how we want to spend our night out!  The only movie we’ve seen this summer is Pirates. . .so let me know what we should see.

I can’t wait to see the last Bourne movie (Bourne Ultimatum) but it doesn’t open until August 3.

UPDATE:  We went to see “Knocked Up” and it was great!

… to 30! I had a great birthday last week; it was great to celebrate with friends and family. I met Tiffany, Nate and the kids (6 kids in total!) at Trader’s Point Creamery for a birthday strawberry ice cream cone - it was excellent! I was pleasantly surprised how close the creamery was to my house. It will be a great place to bring Libby when she’s old enough to appreciate farm animals and good ice cream!

My parents arrived from DC shortly after Libby and I got home from Traders Point and Mike arrived home early from work. Mike’s parents also came down and we had a great birthday dinner followed by the best birthday cake I’ve ever had. Mike made me an ice cream sandwich cake from the most recent Kraft Food and Family magazine - it was awesome and he said super easy, too. I hope I get this cake every year! (Note: per my request, Mike left the oreos out of the cake. I am not a huge chocolate fan, so I was afraid they would be too much).

The celebrating continued on Friday when my brother and his family arrived. Sean, April, Mike and I celebrated my birthday and their 11th wedding anniversary with dinner at Abuelo’s. . .a good time was had by all. I had my first margarita in over a year!! And also had a first - avocado enchiladas - they were excellent!

Special thanks to my parents for watching all 3 grandkids so we could go out and enjoy a dinner that they paid for! Even BIGGER thanks to them for all their help around the house: we got a lot of projects done in short period of time. . .I’ll post about those soon.

This picture was taken at my first birthday party (I am in the middle). Mike and I have been looking at baby pictures more and more trying to figure out who Libby looks like (we still think she’s a combination - Mike’s eyes and my nose/mouth). I always loved looking at pictures of myself as a baby and have started an album for Libby so she can look back like I did growing up.