7 Months Old—World Peace Declared: Tea Party Wins

Wait, what?

Not that kind of Tea Party. The more fun kind with actual tea cups instead of crack pots. Tea parties will most definitely save the world from destruction. Who can be angry when there are sweet baby smiles and tiny tea cups?

She had to get dressed up first

She had to taste the tea cups before she could be certain about her feelings toward them

After much consideration, baby E decided she likes tea parties 

All in all, a successful tea party

Also, baby E is seven months old! She's getting so big :( Why do babies grow up so fast?

Some updates on baby girl:

Food Likes: Sweet potatoes, prunes, squash, chicken and rice
Food Dislikes: Peas, bananas
New Activities: Drinking from a sippy cup, scooting around the house backwards on her tummy, trying to crawl, trying to feed herself

She is a little chatter box now too. Always babbling away about (I assume) her grand adventures. She says mama when she is upset and wants to be held/fed and she said dada once.

She's been teething for months, but it has kicked into overdrive. Excessive drooling, biting, gumming of anything she can get her hands on, etc. It gives her some super grumps by the end of the day. Poor baby :(

We also got her ears pierced (as you can see in the tea party pictures). She did not like that one little bit, but now she doesn't notice they exist.

She's recently discovered the cat. I'm pleasantly surprised by how well behaved Nona is with her. Nona is a giant scaredy cat and usually hisses and runs away when she gets scared. Nona made the mistake of wandering up to E and sticking her butt in her face (how nice, Nona). E immediately grabbed a fistfull of fur in one hand and Nona's tail in her other. It only took a few seconds for me to disentngle the two, but Nona sat calm as could be through the whole thing.

Speaking of cats, there is a stray orange cat that wanders the neighborhood. It's very friendly and comes up to the house when I call Nona in at night. It tries to come in our house actually, it's cute and kind of sad. I asked around assuming someone owned it, but I was told it's a stray. I haven't seen it in a few days, so I'm hoping somebody took him in.

House Update

This last month has been insane and it is finally winding down. Hubs got home in mid July and then we went on vacation and visited family for the last half of August. Then we sold our car, got a rental, moved across the country, bought a new car, found a house, and moved in over the course of a week.

E did about as well as could be expected on a cross-country journey. Nona hated it and let us know her feelings the entire journey.

The house is unpacked, but we still need to hang up photos and curtains in some rooms. It is a 5 bedroom 3 bathroom house, so we have plenty of room for visitors. Here are some pictures supplied by the realty company.

Front of the house

Main living area upstairs. 

Kitchen

Dining area in kitchen.

Stairs down to basement.

Basement living area.

Different view of basement living area.

This is a picture I took from the backdoor in the kitchen.

It's so nice to finally live in civilization again. Camp Lejeune was a hole. In our new home we are three miles from a major shopping center, 8 miles from another ridiculously oversized shopping center, and fifteen minutes from hiking trails. This location is a vast improvement over our last, but it has the major drawback of being on the other side of the country from the bulk of our family.

Easy Breakfast Skillet

It's been awhile since I posted a recipe, and this one was too good to pass. It's great because it only requires one dish (a skillet, duh) and tastes awesome. It's also highly versatile, so feel free to throw in different veggies or meats (or take out the meat entirely to make this vegetarian friendly). This recipe yields two servings.

Ingredients

• 3 small bell peppers (red, orange, and yellow) or one large bell pepper (any color)
• 2 red potatoes
• 2 slices of turkey
• 1/4 of a Vidalia onion
• 1/3 cup cheddar cheese
• 1/2 tbsp coconut oil
• Spices: thyme, pepper, and salt

Directions

Dice all of your ingredients.

Add the coconut oil to your skillet and heat it up, then add your potatoes. Sprinkle with thyme, pepper, and salt to taste. 

Brown the potatoes over medium high heat, then add your remaining ingredients. Sprinkle with more salt and pepper if so desired.

Reduce heat to medium, and continue cooking until the turkey browns and the veggies get soft. Add half the mix to a small plate. My husband also wanted scrambled eggs, so I added his half to a larger plate to accommodate the extra food. Sprinkle each plate with half your cheddar cheese. 

Hubs used the same skillet to make his scrambled eggs. He used 4 eggs and added some salsa and mozzarella. 

Truncated Directions

1. Dice all ingredients
2. Brown potatoes, add spices to taste
3. Add remaining ingredients, add more spices if desired. Continue cooking until turkey is browned and veggies are soft. 
4. Plate and sprinkle with cheddar

Nutrition Information

	Calories	Fat	Carbs	Sodium	Fiber	Sugar	Protein
Bell Peppers	60	0	8	0	1.6	8	2
Red Potatoes	220	0	52	0	4	2	6
Turkey	60	4	0	420	0	2	8
Onion	16	0	4	2	0.8	0	0
Cheddar	110	9	0	180	0	0	7
Coconut Oil	60	7	0	0	0	0	0
Total	526	20	64	602	6.4	12	23
Total per serving	263	10	32	301	3.2	6	11.5