Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Meeting Great Grandma!

We headed to Azle last Sunday b/c Andrew's grandmother flew in from Tennessee for a few weeks! She was going to come last Christmas, but changed her mind and decided to wait and come in the summer so she could meet the newest edition to the Herrell clan!

We got all dressed up in a cute new dress and bow and hit the road!



I could tell how happy Andrew's grandma was to meet Reese!! And Reese loved being held by her! They just looked at each other!! She brought lots of cute dresses and outfits for Reese!



Margaret and Houston grilled out hamburgers for us with lots of yummy sides. Andrew hung out with the little tooter (new nickname) while we all ate. We had delicious coconut cream pie for dessert!

After lunch Reese got some lovin from everybody!


Mack gave her a kiss! So sweet!

It was a great day full of fun family time!

Just wanted to share the my sister got hired as a dietician in Oklahoma City at the OU Medical Center!!!!! WOO HOO!!!! So proud of my baby sis! Now she will be 2 1/2 hr drive away instead of a plane ride!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Mini White Pizzas with Vegetables

RUN do not walk to your nearest grocery store and buy these ingredients! We made these last night and they were SOOOO good and very pretty! We have been working our way through Cooking Light: Fresh Food Fast Weeknight Meals and have yet to be disapointed!

-4 whole wheat pitas
-cooking spray
-1 medium zucchini, thinly sliced
-1/4 thinly sliced red onion, separated into rings
-1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
-1/8 tsp salt
-1/2 cup light garlic-and-herb spreadable cheese (such as alouette light)
-6 tablespoons shredded asiago cheese (i used parm)


1. Preheat broiler

2. Place pitas on baking sheet; broil 3 minutes.

3. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; coat pan with cooking spray/. Add zucchini, onion, pepper, and salt; saute 3 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender.

4. Remove pitas from oven, and spread 2 tbsp garlic-and-herb spreadable cheese over each pita. Top evenly with vegetables and asiago cheese. Broil 3 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and cheese melts.

Easy Peasy!!!! I made a pasta salad and cut up some watermelon to serve with these and it was such a good dinner! I wish I had taken a picture!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Father's Day/Anniversary Weekend Extravaganza!

The Herrell's hit the road last weekend to celebrate Father's Day and our 2 year anniversary! We went to the Hyatt Hill Country Resort in San Antonio and had a blast!!!! We will definitely be revisiting this fun hotel! I rode in the backseat with Reese and kept busy popping her paci back in her mouth, pumping, making bottles, and trying to entertain my girl! This was her first road trip!


She loved this little dog that I put on her carseat! She kept staring up at her!


We stopped in Waco (Go Bears!) for a lunch/stretch break for everyone at Cracker Barrel. Andrew and I always stop here on road trips! Reese was so happy to be out of her carseat! She even let us eat lunch without any meltdowns! I had the delicious chicken fried chicken and Andrew opted for breakfast for lunch and had biscuits and gravy.

What is normally a 4 hour trip for Andrew and I took nearly 8 hours with all the baby related stops we had to make! We finally rolled into our hotel around 7 just in time for Reese's 7 pm bottle. We got to our room and noticed it was 2 full beds instead of a king. So in true Herrell fashion we got upgraded to a 1st floor room with a balcony! We also got a free bottle of chardonnay and a basket full of king size candy bars as an anniversary present!

Reese and I relaxing in our new room...

That night we all walked around the hotel grounds checking it all out. There were several swimming pools, hot tubs, a lazy river, and lots of pretty trees and flowers! They had movie night out on the lawn for the kids. They were playing Toy Story on this big projector screen. There were lots of restaurants, cafes, coffee shops, and ice cream stands! Totally up our ally!

Then we ran up to Target to get a few essentials and pick up some inexpensive dinner (Taco Bueno). We made it back just in time for Reese's 10 pm bottle. We tucked her into her crib and she was out for the night! We enjoyed our Bueno and got ready for the next day!

The next morning we were all up bright and early at 7 for little miss's morning medicine and bottle. We also gave Daddy his Father's Day presents! I have been looking forward to this all week! Reese made daddy a stepping stone with her footprints, name, and date in it! We also got him John Mayer tickets for September! He was so excited about his gifts! He LOVED the stepping stone with the tiny little tootsies in it!







Andrew went out to put some towels on some lawn chairs and I got bikini girl all ready for the morning!
We headed out to the pool and Reese took her morning nap out there while we ate some breakfast from the cute general store in the hotel. It was so peaceful and relaxing especially since it wasn't crowded yet. We got great lawn chairs to people watch.


Reese woke up and we had fun playing around with her. That girl just loves being outside! She was so fun and happy!




Really, is there anything cuter than a baby in sunglasses and a beach hat????


Then we took her swimming for the first time! I had no idea how she'd do so we just went for it! We started with the hot tub since it was nice and warm and then took her over to the shallow baby pool. She loved it and just looked around and around!


After all the swimming little girl was exhausted! So we headed back to our chairs to let her take another nap. We ordered some lunch while we were sitting there. It was such a nice morning!

We went back to the room for a bit and then headed back out to our station after her 1 pm bottle. This time we took her into the big pool and just sat on the steps with her. Once again she loved it! After a while we went back to our chairs and she passed out once again. She even sleep ate her 4 pm bottle and didn't wake up until we were back in our room at about 5.


After we all got cleaned up we took the nice camera and walked around the hotel and took some pics. Reese got so tired towards the end and fell asleep mid picture!













We are still learning how to use it but I think the pics turned out really nice! We headed to the Springhouse for dinner with a sleeping Reese in her stroller. I got the buffet and Andrew got a burger. I had a feeling she might wake up mid-dinner so we got some to-go boxes just in case. Sure enough I had just started my salad when her little eyes popped open! She looked at us like "Wait a minute...last time I checked we were outside and I do NOT want to be inside right now!" and started screaming! Andrew had to take her outside while I frantically packaged all our food up! If it's one thing I've learned after having a baby, it's that you have got to be flexible! We headed back to the room and ate there and put her to bed.

The next morning we pretty much did the same thing except we tried a new site to camp out. There was this neat beachy area with sand that faces the lazy river. Reese got to put her tootsies in sand for the first time! She kicked and kicked the sand!




Daddy got to go down the lazy river while we hung out in the shade.

She is so happy and smiley in the mornings! We love it!

Daddy and daughter on Father's Day!

We packed it up and headed home around 12 since we knew the ride home could potentially be long. We stopped in San Marco's for lunch and to check out the pottery barn outlet. The highlight of our stop was I got majorly pooped on in Johnny Rockets where we ate lunch! I had to wear Andrew's t-shirt for the rest of the ride home! We were like an hour away from home and about an hour away from her 7 pm bottle and we SOOOOO thought we'd make it! But the little toot had other plans. She wanted to eat at 6! So we made a quick stop at Taco C and all got some dinner. They didn't have a changing table in the bathroom so I had to change her in the car and she peed all over Andrew's backseat! All we could do is laugh at that point. But we had a happily fed and changed baby for the remainder of the ride home.

What a fun weekend!!! We can't wait to take Reese back when she can enjoy the fun activities even more! Yesterday was our anniversary and I so wanted to cook something yummy, but had no desire to hit the grocery store. We had a chili's gift card and decided that was the way to go!!! I am such a lucky girl to have my wonderful husband and sweet baby! We had so much fun celebrating all weekend!

2 YEARS!

Wow! I seriously blinked and 2 years have gone by! 2 years ago today I married the love of my life Andrew Houston Herrell! And now we have a baby! It certainly has been a fun whirlwind couple of years, and I can't wait to see what the next 2 years brings!