Homemade Baby Food:

i feel the need to explain why i was buying sutton a can of pumpkin...i've been making sutton's baby food for the past few months. it's lots of fun and i'm sure saves lots of money (though i've only ever bought one jar of baby food, so i don't know how much we're saving). i like to use organic whenever i can, and i do use premade baby cereal, applesauce, and canned pureed pumpkin to make life easier sometimes.

i just puree a bunch of steamed veggies or soft fruit and freeze it in this ice cube tray then transfer it to ziplock bags. then you just thaw (in fridge or microwave) what you need for each meal. each cube is right at one ounce, which makes it easy. we are giving sutton mostly table foods now (unless chris and i aren't eating as healthy as i like my baby to!) and we didn't start him on baby food until 6 months, so i really only had to make his food for about 3 months.

i know it's not for everyone, but i had so much fun doing it i thought i would share the things i loved about making baby food:
1. we always had lots of extra fruits and veggies on hand, so chris and i were eating better
2. each cube is just 1 ounce, so it's easy to mix flavors (and vitamins and minerals) and give baby something he likes that's good for him! (green beans = yucky!, green beans + carrots = yummy!)
3. saves money because store bought baby foods are pretty runny, so you figure there is a lot of water in it
4. texture is more like real food
5. i knew where the food my baby was eating was coming from and that it was nice and fresh
6. learned a lot about nutrition during the process
7. learned some fun new recipes (sweet potato fries are chris' fave!)
8. fruit baby food cubes make good smoothies!
9. a big bag of carrots goes a LONG way!
10. i was always a little freaked out that the jar of banana baby food never turned brown

here are a couple good references if you're interested:

Wholesome Baby Food
Super Baby Foods
1 2 3 Cook for Me

Answering my own question:

so, thanks to an article in the memphis flyer i picked up at our neighborhood grocery, i was able to find two local farms that provide csa (community supported agriculture) programs. i was almost too excited to sleep when i found out about them (and when i did sleep i was dreaming about organic fruits, veggies, and grass fed beef - for real!).

i'm planning to go down to the memphis farmers market on saturday (if casey and sara are up for it, since they will be in town for the DMB concert! yay!) to talk to the farmers and find out more about joining. i hope it's not too late to sign up for some fall veggies. i could go for some pumpkin, greens, pecans and broccoli...YUM!

here are links to the two local farms in case you're interested :)

whitton flower & produce - they do a half share, which may work best for us
downing hollow farm

speaking of pumpkin...i accidentally bought sutton a can of pumpkin pie filling instead of a can of pureed pumpkin. thinking he didn't really need all that extra sugar, but mommy did...i made these yummy muffins (i added some walnuts...too good!)

Another fave site:

ETSY!

you should check it out if you haven't yet! maybe someday i'll be on there...

these capes are AWESOME! i may have to try my hand at making one for sutton.

Catching up with all my little monkeys:

we have all had an exciting couple of months around our house!

we'll start the catching up with the late may "zoom-through-the-zoo" four-miler i ran/walked with the bible study girls. it was stinkin' HOT that night...the first hot weather we'd really had and my body was sayin', "what the heck do you think you're doin'??". the after party made the 4 miles totally worth it. you know, a run through the zoo sounds really fun, until you realize that you only really get to smell the animals...

BEFORE::

AFTER::
HIGH FIVE, OUR MOMMIES DID GREAT!!

after that sutton and mommy took a trip to nashville for natalie's graduation. daddy stayed home to do some tile work in the bathroom. i'm so bad about taking pictures, especially when chris is not around so no pictures of natalie or the graduation party to share, but here's one of me, mimi and sutton (enjoying my ellaroo that i got for mommies day!) at the farmer's market in franklin. my grandmother is off in the back on the left...why we didn't have her join us in the picture i have no clue...maybe mimi has some better pictures from the weekend she can send me :)

this picture isn't really related to our travels, but i just love it! i think bathtime pictures are my fave!

the NEXT weekend we were all off to clemson for betsy and wes's wedding! yay!! it was beautiful and being in clemson made it twice as fun :)

rehearsal dinner fun at pixie and bill's, mmm....

GO TIGERS!! (please try to ignore the fact that i look a little poofy in this pic...i'll blame the dress!)

dancing the shag with mommy::

kiki and granddaddy-o dancing the...um, well.......hmmm..... taking a quick snooze on aunt susan's shoulder...too sweet!

the bride and groom with aunt kiki, poopsie and granddaddy-o:: here's a picture of sutton getting his first hair cut. our friend, beth, gave him his first trim...he's already needing another one!AAAHHH, i'm sooo cute in my shirt great-grandmother and louis brought me from hawaii!!

the next weekend after the wedding it was back to sc, but this time to isle of palms outside of charleston for a week of sun, sand and surf!!

cheerio time with granddaddy-o::

at the beach with mommy:

at the beach with lots of peeps!splish-splashin' with nana and cousin sophie::sutton in his "manly"-bug float::sutton looooves the water and thinks sand is deelish!

the 4 generations of alley men::

that's all i have time for now!! whew...i'm sure you're too exhausted to read anymore anyways!!

Lovin' the Angry Chicken!

so, um ya, i know i'm way behind and leaving y'all thinking i must have super fun and exciting things going that cause me to be too busy for blogging - maybe a little true - but since i'm not at home and don't have access to all my cute sutton pics, i just wanted to share this one thing:

I LOVE THIS BLOG --

the "Angry Chicken" blog from the author of this book that i really want to buy. she is super creative and shares all kinds of fun ideas for sewing, art, cooking, kids activities and so on! she's the kind of person i am in my mind but have no time to be because i like to sleep 8hrs a night (well, lately it's been more like 6 hrs, but that's for another post). i realized how much we are alike (again, mainly in my mind) today with her post on her love of kitchen gadgets (i share her love of salad spinners, zesters, hand blenders and have been considering a butter pot for a long time but am afraid of what the increase in my consumption of hot buttered bread would do to my waistline)

anyway...i'm sharing this because i know a few of you out there will love her posts as well!

by the way...i'm actively looking for a CSA program in the memphis area. does anyone know of one? the closest thing to it i can find is our downtown farmers market, which i love