My Little Man

First of all, I'd like to take a moment to apologize for the phone photos. I wasn't prepared for the handsomeness that happened!

Normally I lay Clay's clothes out at night. Last night I forgot so this morning Clay and I ventured into his closet to pick something out of his 8,675 pieces of clothing. Out we came and Clay was wearing this:





Ahh! So adorable!





Yes, I sent my son to daycare in a blazer.





Today I'm linking up with Trendy Tot Tuesday & Trendy Little!

Love,
Jess

8 months

Clay turned 8 months old yesterday!





Sometimes I can't get over how much love I feel for him. I frequently have the urge to get him out of his crib to cuddle at night then I quickly remember how grumpy we both are when we don't get enough sleep.





As you can tell, someone didn't nap long enough. Plus my son HATES the grass (even though he was on a blanket- it's like he knows what's under there). Yup, grass and sleep are right up there on Clay's hate list. The only reason he started smiling was because I started singing pat-a-cake.





Currently...

Clay's favorite toy is probably a tie between the yellow ball with a smiley face, Patrick, and anyone's cell phone.

Clay's diaper size is a size 3. We just moved up!

Clay's favorite food is everything! But really, he loves Mexican crockpot chicken and pancakes with fresh fruit on top.

Clay's clothing size is anywhere from 0-12 months on top and strictly in the 6-9 month range on bottom. Tall and skinny!

Clay's newest "tricks" are pulling up, giving kisses, clapping, and crawling.

Clay weight and height are: 17 pounds 1/4 ounces (the same as I did at 8 months) and 28 1/4 inches.




Cutie pie!

Today I'm linking up with Mommy Mondays Blog Hop for the first time!

Have a great week!

Love,
Jess

Saturday in Pictures

I'm finally finishing up Clay's room and Clay pulled up for the first time! Was I hanging the frames wrong?



I haven't ran with the stroller in forever. Wow.




Baby love and a yummy muffin!

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Love,
Jess

High Five for Friday

And it's Friday again! Today I'm linking up with Lauren for H54F!



1.



My friend Leah and I have conversations over messenger that consist almost solely of funny things we've found on Pinterest. You should try it. It's therapeutic.

2.



I ran by myself on Sunday and (gasp) had my best 5k time ever!

3.



Bahahaha. I love my cousin.

4.



Whole wheat pancakes with chocolate chips. Yum.

5.



I'm really starting to love this cooking and baking thing. These are whole wheat chocolate chip banana peanut butter muffins. I know, it's a mouthful. I shall just call them Rob Lowe muffins. He's yummy. The muffins are yummy.

Drumroll please........

H54F: Clay Edition:




It is so hard to just pick five pictures of Clay each week. You should probably just follow me on Instagram at jldunlap7 so you aren't missing out on any cuteness. :)

Have a great weekend!

Love,
Jess

Throwback Thursday and a Yummy Sandwich

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS A LOT OF PHOTOS OF AN ADORABLE SLEEPING BABY.

I'll get to this in a bit:




First, I'd like to discuss my son's hatred of naps (I know hatred is a strong word but it fits). When Clay Baby was born he slept all of the time...





I mean, there might have been a couple of times where I tried to wake him up to see those eyes.





I might have actually bragged about what a good sleeper he was.





I had visions of us on a blissful sleeping/eating schedule.





That was actually one of his hospital photos. My how times have changed...





Wow, I look JUST like my Pappaw here. Scary.

Back on topic, Jessica.





This was the last time I remember my child hardcore napping...his newborn portraits when he was three weeks old.

Now we're lucky if we get one hour nap. Sometimes I'll pick him up at daycare and his teacher will tell me he slept thirty minutes all day. Whaaaaaaaaaaat? It's not any better at home. It gets to the point where you can just see the pure exhaustion in his face. Honestly, I think he's too nosy to sleep.

So I longingly look at these photos of my sweet Clay Baby napping and remember the good 'ole days (you know, from seven months ago).

On to this amazing sammy...

I saw a sandwich similar to this on Pinterest a few months ago (see here) but didn't want to get into pesto making or going out just to buy blue cheese so I made up my own concoction.





Here's what I used:

2 slices whole wheat bread
1/2 avocado
1 slice low-fat mozzarella cheese
1 slice low-fat provolone cheese
Handful of spinach

Put ingredients on bread and proceed like you would with a regular grilled cheese.





Yum. I shall call it...green grilled cheese? Ehh, I'll work on that.

Well, thanks for visiting! Have a happy Thursday and don't forget Grey's and Scandal are new tonight...

Love,
Jess

Wordless Wednesday

Photo by Brooke Mayo

This Weekend and the Weekly Chase...

It was another super productive weekend!

On Saturday all of this happened...





So basically a lot of fun time with little man. He refused to look at me when I was taking his picture. We went on our weekly trip to Target and Clay got cute new shoes. He also fought sleep. A lot.

Sunday was also pretty awesome...





I found a new whole wheat pancake recipe so I had chocolate chip pancakes and Clay had his with blackberries on top. Clearly he enjoyed his. A beautiful run, delicious water, and amazing BBQ pizza (yum!). And Clay decided to help me with the laundry which meant him clapping for me and climbing on the clothes basket.

So on to the Weekly Chase...

This month my challenge goal has been to focus on becoming a healthier person, inside and out.

Let's recap last week:

Read three chapters in the nutrition book I picked up.
err.

Stick to my meal plan and make sure I'm drinking enough water!
Done! And done! I've been putting lemon, strawberries, and spearmint from Bennie in a pitcher with water and it is delicious!

Work on my 20 mile goal!
Done! I ran three times this past week! I finally hit 50 miles for the year!

Me time AND Clay time.
Done! I got to enjoy a bubble bath and spend some time just playing with Clay. Both were amazing!

On the agenda for this week:

Read nutrition book.

Work on a rough meal plan for May.

Run at least 3 times.

Me time and Clay time.

I really need to focus on relaxing more! It's just so hard when there's always so much to do!


Good luck this week!

Love,
Jess

High Five for Friday

This almost got posted last night. Almost. Anywho, I'm linking up with Lauren for High Five for Friday (a day late)!








1. I saw these cute little pots at Target for $3 and couldn't resist! They came with the seeds & dirt to plant strawberries, daisies, and cilantro.





2. Free eggs! My aunt and uncle have chickens and are kind enough to share the eggs. I'm so glad they do- it helps feed my addiction. Yes, I am addicted to egg/cheese/ketchup sandwiches. Delicious.





3. Meal planning like crazy! It has paid off already! I have Clay's meals prepared and frozen for the next two weeks and all the ingredients I need for my dinners this week. Plus I've frozen enough leftovers that I could just not cook for two weeks. Yesssssss!





4. I think I have an illness that prevents me from taking a normal picture. Please ignore how rough I looked- this was after my first trail run ever!





5. Run for Boston on Wednesday with Liz!


Dun-dun-dun...it's time for the Clay edition of High Five for Friday!





(I have to include a few embarrassing photos for use when he starts dating, right?)

Have a great weekend, guys!

Love,
Jess

Throwback Thursday

Yup, that's me. Yup, that's my mom's dress. Hehehe- but seriously.

While looking through old pictures last night I was reminded again how blessed I am to have a mom who documented my life so thoroughly. And no, I'm not being sarcastic! I love that my mom took so many photos (well, except maybe not the middle school era). I love being able to go back and look at old pictures. I will issue this warning to anyone thinking about marrying into our family: if you don't like to have your picture taken, run.




Some days he looks just like me. Other days he looks just like his daddy.

On another note Clay might actually kill me when he grows up. I've starting collecting photos for an album entitled "Dear Future Girlfriends." Bahahaha!





It's almost the weekend!

Love,
Jess

Wordless Wednesday

Fruit Salsa and Cinnamon Chips

The first time I had fruit salsa was at my baby shower last summer and I fell in love! I wanted to make it so I asked my friend Amy for the recipe. What did she say? "Oh, just cut up the fruit and add brown sugar." Uhh...

Fast forward to now. I had pinned a couple of fruit salsa recipes on Pinterest but everytime I pulled them up to make it I didn't have something. They all called for preservatives and sugar and brown sugar or lime and exactly two apples.

Yesterday I had enough. I was at work and brainstorming for snack ideas and thought, "well, we'll do it Amy's way."

Thank you, Amy.





This happened.

So seriously, pull out the fruit you have on hand and go for it.

Here's what I ended up using:

4 large strawberries
1/2 apple
Handful of grapes
Handful of blueberries
1/2 a mango

Chop it all up and mix with a tablespoonish of brown sugar.

You're done.

This probably made 3-5 servings depending on how quickly you can stop eating it.

For the cinnamon chips I looked up several recipes and consulted Amy. In the end, this is what I did:

Brush tortilla with butter (or baking spray).
Coat with cinnamon/sugar mixture (1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon).
Shake off excess.
Use pizza cutter to cut into 8 chips.
Bake at 375 for 4-6 minutes.

And there you have it. Enjoy!

Bonus! Do you ever have one of those days where everything you eat makes you weak in the knees? That was yesterday and lucky for you I like to photograph my food. A lot.




Mexican crockpot chicken. Recipe coming soon.




Toast with scrambled egg, cheddar cheese, and ketchup. I know I'm gross. I don't care. It was delicious.




Dark chocolate Guinness cookies. Recipe coming soon!

Mmmmm...

Have a great Tuesday!

Love,
Jess

P.S. Mandatory cute baby photo...




I think he was trying to hide under my bed because it was Monday.

This Weekend and the Weekly Chase

I was super productive this weekend and I'm not really sure where it came from but I'm grateful!

On Saturday I actually planned out meals for the next two weeks:





Then went to Target with my little helper and attempted to shop for the next two weeks:





And on Sunday I made these:




Dark chocolate Guinness cookies...recipe coming soon!

So this weekend was pretty awesome.

Now on to the chase!

The challenge goal this month was to pick an area of your life that you wanted to grow in and work on it. This month I decided to work on being healthier person- inside and out! All of my goals this month have been related to that and pretty similar each week. Let's see how I did!

Read the books on nutrition when I pick them up.
I just picked up the books yesterday but I read the intro to one last night!

Work on a shopping list & go this weekend.
I want to go through the recipes I want to make and go shopping this weekend for food to last til the end of the month. Obviously I'll still have to make weekly trips for produce but I'm hoping this helps!
Done! The only things I'll have to buy each with are smoothie supplies!

Work on my 20 mile goal.
I ran three times...unfortunately they were all in the 3/4-1 1/2 mile range; but I still did it!

Me time
Done! I took a bubble bath one night and spent some time reading this week- just reading! Not reading at swim lessons or reading while pumping!

This week I'm going to stick to the same(ish) goals:

Read three chapters in the nutrition book I picked up.

Stick to my meal plan and make sure I'm drinking enough water!

Work on my 20 mile goal!

Me time AND Clay time.

Have a great week and good luck to my fellow chasers!

Love,
Jess