Jack's Fun!

Jack continues to enjoy himself.  He has had quite a busy couple of weeks...

He celebrated Father's Day a few times, including time with his Grandpa Mike!

He visited Top of the Park with his Great, Great Aunt Betty!

He visited the zoo! 

Next week, he will take his first family vacation!  After seeing this picture of Drew Brees and his son after his super bowl win, I was motivated to do a bit of research about baby hearing protection.  I work in a loud industry and have been too at least 20 training sessions about hearing protection.  Once you lose your hearing, it is gone.  I found that you can purchase safe and reasonably priced hearing protection for babies on Amazon.  

Jack now owns his own!  Thank goodness, he doesn't mind them!  He will wear them when we visit the fireworks at the National Monument next week.  They should fit for at least 2 years so we will surely get our money's worth with all of our future adventures.  

Matthaei Botanical Gardens

Yesterday I attempted to take Jack to the botanical gardens but we were rained out!  Today we tried again and SUCCESS!  It was looking to be a super hot day so we tried to get out as early as possible, which ended up being 10:30.   

This picture taken WITHOUT a zoom lens!  Bees aren't THAT scary.  Ha!

This is from inside the conservatory.  

The grounds are very pretty and almost free.  Our "offroading" style stroller definitely came in handy as the trails are grassy.  We stayed less than an hour total but it was plenty of time on a hot summer day.  Next up: U of M Art Museum.  

Grandma Sheila

Last night, Eric's mom (aka Grandma Sheila) came over and we headed downtown on foot.  Our plans were to eat dinner and then hit Top of the Park but the super organizer in me didn't realize that Top of the Park is "dark" on Mondays.  Sad.  So instead we walked around after eating dinner at Pizza House, visited the library, and had ice cream treats!

No Bake Golden Oreo Truffles and Chicken Tacos

This weekend, I made a couple of recipes that I found on two of my favorite blogs: Sally's Baking Addiction and Fitnessista.  First, I made these WONDERFUL No bake golden oreo truffles.  I took them to my parent's house for a Father's Day celebration on Saturday.  They were definitely a hit.

The recipe for the truffles was super easy!  We do not have a food processor so I used our blender to process the oreos.    

I used this tasty chocolate for the coating.  

Here they are ready to be eaten!  

A couple of things to note.  Two chocolate bars barely covers all of the truffles.  They would be so much prettier if I had had more chocolate.  Also, having them out at room temperature for any length of time makes the chocolate melt pretty quickly.  It is hard to keep them refrigerated though when you want people to eat them! :)  I wonder if the white candy coating that they sell at Meijer would work better in the summer. I might try that next time.  

On Sunday, I decided to try an easier way of making shredded chicken taco meat that I found on another of my favorite blogs.  Again, this was super easy and also very tasty.  I made it earlier in the day while Eric was gone and then we had it for dinner.  This method kept the chicken much more moist.  

I really enjoy cooking and baking but find it hard to find the energy when I am working.  Luckily I have a couple more weeks to keep this up!  I am hoping to find a few favorite/new/easy recipes to add to our rotation before I go back to work.  We will see!

Adventures with Jack

The adventures continue.  Thursday, Jack and I visited Gallup Park to try our first jog together.  It was very hard but worth it!  He did great and I felt like I got a great workout with the added job of pushing him.  It was such a beautiful day.   I needed to get at least one short jog in before the 5k on Saturday.  I don't feel ready but I have to be!

Today our adventures took us (along with Grandma Julie) on a trek to downtown Ann Arbor (about a 2 mile walk each way) to have lunch at Amer's and ice cream treats at Ben & Jerry's.  It was fabulous.  

Jack was pooped afterwards and fell asleep (again) during tummy time.   He definitely has his own agenda when we put him on the floor.  We hope for him practicing lifting his head and moving around a little.  He hopes to take a nap.  He wins.  

Goodbye Gregory/Kaiserville/Unadilla Township

Moving...

First morning in our new place. Couldn't find a bowl or spoon for oatmeal so I improvised!

Moved

With this move, we made a few upgrades that we had planned and discussed for a long, long time!  New couch (Value City Furniture), which meant new side tables (Pier 1) and lamps (Home Goods) and a new chair (Art Van Clearance Center).  The couch and chair that we had in our living room were things Eric bought used SO many years ago.  They were long overdue to be replaced.  We love our couch and its 2 recliners!

New t.v. stand from Target

Happy to have all of that closet space (and a storage unit in the basement)!

Crafty Secretary!

The bathroom situation is a bit odd.  We have 1.5 baths but all of that 1.5 is connected. :)

  Jack finally has a nursery and he LOVES it!!

We absolutely love our new place and it seems that Jack and Presley agree.  As you can see from the pictures, Presley loves to be photographed. She also loves Jack.  We have all settled in very well and are loving living in Ann Arbor!  

For the first time in our lives (and many, many moves later), we hired movers.  I really wanted to go local so we hired Men on the Move. They did a great job!

Merged Blogs

I am quite proud of myself right now because I just figured out how to merge my "I love Martha" and "Compton's Chronicles" blogs in to just this one.  This may call for format updating but having two blogs with readers primarily being close family and friends seemed a bit silly.  So now I'll just have this one blog where I write about the crafty things I do as well as family updates.  I believe Jack will provide many topics to write about so I'm pretty sure I'll be posting more often.

Jen

Life with Jack

Life with Jack is pretty awesome!  He is such a great buddy to have around.  We are finally getting a bit more than 2 hours of sleep at a time too!  

Quite the snuggler!

Such a personality!

Today we walked downtown (about 2 miles each way) to visit the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market.  It was a good experience but being slightly vegetable adverse prevented me from buying anything but a few cookies for Eric.  

Relaxing in his wonderful Jeep stroller!

We picked up cookies for Eric from a vendor called "Grandma's Kitchen" and she really looks like a grandma!

We also visited some of our favorite shops in Kerrytown.  

Afterwards we visited Zingerman's for lunch and then walked around downtown for awhile longer.  

A fountain outside the Michigan League. 

It was a little chilly earlier so Jack wore his hoodie for the walk back.  He loves riding in the stroller so much and is quite an easy going companion!  We have just finally started to really enjoy maternity leave now that we are moved and settled.  It is marvelous!