In honor of the World Cup

Cason playing soccer with his basketball… not sure what Ryan is going to think about this.

8 Weeks Old

I can’t believe he is already 8 weeks old.  As everyone says, it goes by fast.  4 more weeks at home with him then I’m back to work. 

Ryan has the big camera with him at work so I had to use the old point and shoot.  The coloring is just not right but I didn’t have time to mess with the settings.  I might re-take one of these when Ryan gets home.

Zesty Italian Crescent Casserole

HOLD THE PHONE!  SARAH COOKED SOMETHING NEW!!!!  It’s been a LONG time since I’ve really cooked anything and longer since I’ve tried a new recipe.  I guess that’s what having a baby does.  Really, we have just been blessed to have wonderful friends and family bring us food in the first weeks after Cason arrived so I haven’t HAD to cook much.

Ryan’s Mom brought it to us right after Cason was born and we both really liked it.  I was in the mood to try it again so I did a quick search on Pillsbury.com since I knew it had Pillsbury Crescent rolls on it and found the recipe.  This recipe is the epitome of “easy” which is all I can handle these days.  I didn’t get very good pictures (the one on Pillsbury’s site is WAY better) but I don’t like to post without a picture.

Zesty Italian Crescent Casserole
by Pillsbury

1 lb. lean ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 cup tomato pasta sauce
6 oz. (1 1/2 cups) shredded mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1 (8-oz.) can Pillsbury® Refrigerated Crescent Dinner Rolls
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

Heat oven to 375°F. In large skillet, cook ground beef and onion over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes or until beef is thoroughly cooked, stirring frequently. Drain. Stir in pasta sauce; cook until thoroughly heated.

Meanwhile, in medium bowl, combine mozzarella cheese and sour cream; mix well.

Pour hot beef mixture into ungreased 9 1/2 or 10-inch glass deep-dish pie pan or 11x7-inch (2-quart) glass baking dish. Spoon cheese mixture over beef mixture.

Unroll dough over cheese mixture. (If using pie pan, separate dough into 8 triangles; arrange points toward center over cheese mixture, crimping outside edges if necessary.) In small bowl, mix Parmesan cheese and butter. Spread evenly over dough.

Bake at 375°F. for 18 to 25 minutes or until deep golden brown.

Camera phone picture = horrible quality. But I wanted to get a shot of the pretty, rounded top before it fell when I took it out of the oven!

To prepare ahead, go through the steps up to adding the crescent rolls on top.  Add the crescent rolls, butter and parmesan cheese right before baking to ensure that the crescent roll top “puffs” appropriately! 

Bumbo!

The past couple of days we have seen Cason’s neck strength really improve.  I was walking around the house last night gathering up laundry while holding Cason on my hip.  I noticed that not once did he plop his head forward.  It was either leaning back on my arm or he was holding it up on his own the whole time. 

This weekend I was talking with Natalie and Suz about trying out the Bumbo and laughed with Suz about the first time she put Luke in it.  He was about the same age as Cason so I decided last night was as good a night as any. We were actually pretty surprised at how well and how long he was sitting up before his heading started falling forward or to the side.  Regardless, he seemed to like his newfound freedom to sit up and look around without being manhandled by mom and dad!

And I couldn’t resist a couple of pictures of his toes. 

We've already had more Bumbo time today and he's doing better and better!

I have a video to go along with this, but I am not “checked out” (as my Pop would say) on the new video camera yet so I’ll have to post that later.

7 Weeks Old – Cason’s Many Faces

Today is Cason’s 7 week birthday.  I didn’t take a growth picture but will next week.  I’m being lazy and don’t feel like going upstairs to get the blanket and Pooh Bear and Cason is very happy on his play mat right now… why mess up a good thing!???

Yesterday was a sleep day.  Cason pretty much just slept and ate all day.  This was the case really for the past couple of days.  But today, no way.  He’s back on his schedule.  Eat at 8, very alert and ready to play until 9:30 or 10, sleep.  Eat at 11, sleep.  Eat at 2, alert and playful.  I suspect the afternoon sleep is about to hit.

This morning I needed to go to the Post Office to send out the rest of the birth announcements and our tax return (refund!!!) so we stopped at the hospital for a quick weigh in.  Our last home weight was somewhere between 10.8 and 11.2.  The official weight…..

11 pounds 1.4 ounces!!!!

Growing boy.  He’s been so alert and happy today and making lots of cute faces, including a couple of little smiles that I tried to catch on camera.

This is what I call his Elvis Face. I didn't catch it at exactly the right time to get the full effect.
And a picture from yesterday... sleeping. :)

Not-so-much-playing Playdate

Cason finally met his future girlfriend, Campbell and her mom Ashley today.  It was great to see Ashley and as any get together with other moms it was great to trade stories.  Campbell is 3 weeks older than Cason so Ashley and I had not really had much time to share birth stories and all that good stuff.  It was a nice visit.

The “playdate” was more of a snuggle-with-mom-and-take-some-pictures date since there is not much “playing” between a 6 week old and 9 week old.  :)

When Ryan got home, Cason was fighting sleep (or rather, we were trying to keep him awake for a bit) but had some good cuddle time with Dad.

Which resulted in nap time for both…

Surprise Playdate

Cason and I left the house today around lunch with plans to go to Babies R Us to return/exchange a couple of things.  As we were leaving Woodforest our friend Sarah called from Suz’s phone.  Sarah and her little man Carter arrived from China last night so Suz had her boys over to play with their cousin.  They wanted me to bring Cason over so we ditched BRU and headed straight to see Cason’s future best friends.  It was our first time to meet Carter!

I’ve stolen a couple of these pictures from Suz as I did not have my camera.  Sarah’s friend Laura brought her little girl, Elle, over as well.  We had babies of all ages… 8 months (Hudson and Luke), 6 months (Elle), 4 1/2 months (Carter) and 6 1/2 weeks (Cason).  We all had a blast and there were no meltdowns!

Me and Cason; Suz, Hudson and Luke; Sarah and Carter; Laura and Elle


Luke, Hudson, Elle, Carter and Cason (oldest to youngest)

Luke and Hudson were very interested in their BFF Cason.  I didn’t get a picture when Hudson crawled over to greet Cason but I did get this cute one of Luke and Cason getting a little fist bump!  ;)  I promise this was NOT staged!


As Suz and I were packing our boys up to head home, I couldn't resist another picture. We grabbed the Bumbo for Carter and got a quick shot of what could be four of the starters on a future basketball team. (“Future” as in when Sarah and John move back to The Woodlands area!! If I say it enough, maybe it will come true one day! We miss y’all!)

These pictures are from my phone so they are a little fuzzy. 
It was a great afternoon!  Thanks for the invite Sarah and Suz!