Dailies | What Happened in July

Dailies posts are our personal updates.  Photos in this category are our casual snapshots from our cell phones and are marked by rounded corners.  Unless I forget, which happens fairly often.  Whoops.

I blinked and suddenly it's August.  Does anyone else feel that way?  Around here, most of the schools are already back in session.  That's crazy to me!  I remember when school didn't start until after Labor Day.  Even though my school days are far behind me and I won't be returning to a classroom anytime soon, this summer has flown by, but that only means that fall, my favorite season, will be here very soon!

I decided to just smash the month of July into one single Dailies post for simplicity's sake.  So I guess this is more of a Monthlies than a Dailies.  Anyway, awaaay we go!

So let's start with some food, of course.  I had a fresh grilled chicken salad from Chuy's  that warranted a blog mention.  I used their fresh-made salsa as a dressing and it was a filling, satisfying, and healthy dinner.  Would recommend.

On July 4th we were invited to my sister's house for a cookout.  It was a wet and cloudy day, but the food was delish and we all had fun playing games and hanging out.

The weather didn't improve much throughout the rest of the holiday weekend.  Ah well, just a better excuse to be hermits and cozy up inside!

We try to go on long walks at least 5 days a week.  Because it has been so horridly hot and humid lately, our walks usually take place right before Jasper's bedtime so we can go when the sun is lower in the sky.  This arrangement has worked out well because the walk helps calm him down in preparation for his bedtime routine.

I never get tired of seeing the top of his sweet little head while pushing the stroller.  Best view ever.

Oh, uh, and this happened.  Dreary holiday weather doesn't mean you can't still enjoy yummy food!  Man, sometimes a hamburger just really hits the spot.  I don't even need anything crazy.  Just some juicy beef, soft cooked onions, a crisp slice of tomato, green leaf lettuce, and ketchup and mustard (yes, I'm a ketchup lover!).  Perfection.

Hot days call for lots of diaper playtime!  See the blurry red spot in front of his hand?  That's a block.  And that's how he lets go of things when he decides he no longer wants to hold him.  Just opens his hand up flat and lets it fall, haha.

Annnd this is him protesting having to sit in his Pack 'n Play while mommy does housework!

Jasper is absolutely obsessed with my cell phone.  He tries to grab it whenever it's in his line of sight.  When browsing Target the other day we came across this genius  Vtech Touch & Swipe Baby Phone.  It's awesome!  It has a touch screen with lots of different "apps" that play different sounds when touched.  You can store a phone number in the phone's memory, which I think will be great for teaching him mommy or daddy's phone numbers once he is older.  It also lights up!  Genius, I tell you, genius.  Now when he grabs at my phone I just give him his and he's totally happy.

We were jonesin' for a tasty breakfast, so we met our friends at Gourmet's Market for some grub one early morning.  The menu is full of simply options to please both sweet and savory cravings and it is allll delicious.  We love this place!

Grabbing on the menu, as usual.

Matt ordered "The Big Nasty".  We got a preview of this dish when we sampled it at the 2015 International Biscuit Festival.  It's now a more permanent option on their menu, and it is a seriously hearty plate of food!  The Big Nasty is cathead biscuits topped with spicy fried chicken, a poached egg, and then drizzled with chipotle cream sauce.  It's finished with ghost pepper cheese, a slice of tomato, and some basil leaves.

The icky fluorescent lighting really doesn't do it justice, especially with just a phone photo, but it's much prettier in person!

I was craving a comforting classic, so I ordered the biscuits and gravy.  Oh man.  Gourmet Market's fluffy buttery biscuit topped with creamy, peppery, sawmill gravy loaded with sage-y sausage... mmm....

Jasper's 6th Dolly Parton Imagination Library book arrived!  Sassy Baby's First Words has really held his attention.  The illustrations are so bright and colorful- it makes it easy for him to point at different things so I can read him the words beneath the objects.  We've been having a lot of fun.

Click here and then click on the book cover to get a peek at some of the art inside!

Have you ever eaten a scrambled egg sandwich using waffles instead of bread?  It's kind of life-changing.  I used Van's whole grain lite toaster waffles.

And speaking of breakfast food, specifically breakfast for dinner, we made this Skinnytaste sausage and egg bake and it lasted us for 4 days worth of dinner.  It's so good!!  It's fresh, colorful, filling, and chock full of veggies and flavor.  Give it a try!

A few weekends ago we got some more use out of our Knoxville Zoo membership and met up with our dear friends for some fun in the sun (read: we sweated our butts off!)

Jasper's outfit and sandals were both great finds on The Disney Store clearance rack.  We've only recently begun putting shoes on him when we go out and he's constantly trying to take them off - it cracks us up.  We'll be driving down the road and hear the telltale rrrrrrrrip of velcro coming from his car seat behind us.  We collapse into giggles every darn time.

I'm still nursing him, but we've started practicing with an AVENT transitional sippy cup that has two interchangeable tips - one looks like a regular nipple and the other looks more like a sippy cup, but it's soft so it's less of a shock to them.  He's doing really well with it so far but he's more interested in chewing on it than actually trying to get liquid out of it.  He'll get there.

The Knoxville Zoo recently celebrated the births of two baby gorillas! The gorilla habitat was closed for a period of time to allow the families to bond and adjust to the newcomers, but recently it was opened up again and we got to catch a quick glimpse of one of them, though it was very, very crowded! I put together a short lil' video of some clips I took throughout the day - don't miss the baby at the end!