Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from The Purple Carrot family!

I reflect on years past I'm so grateful for where we're at right now. Just last year we had suddenly moved to a new town, began looking for a house, and found out we were pregnant. 

As I told Erik the other day, last year around this time I was terrified that I would miscarry again, worrying each time I'd go to the bathroom there would be blood. In fact, I convinced myself multiple times I was miscarrying. But each time, I felt God's gentle prod to trust him ... no matter what. It wasn't easy. I was a ball of emotions and was afraid to get excited or to buy anything or tell too many people. More and more time went on, we got past 12 weeks and then finally got to see our little girl moving around on ultrasound. 

Now here I am, walking around looking down at my precious sleeping girl at my chest. This journey of parenthood is by far the hardest one we've ever undertaken and at times it's so challenging. But it's also the very best thing ever and I wouldn't change it for the world, sleepless nights included. (Now that I've put that out there, Emersyn will probably be keeping me up all night tonight ha).

We are blessed and I'm so very grateful for my little smiling girl! Merry First Christmas to you, Emy!

Some Christmas shots:

This icicle was hanging outside our house and it was so huge we couldn't pass up the opportunity for an icicle photo shoot ha! 

Us and Emersyn

Emersyn at Grandma's

In about a month, other grandma and grandpa are coming to visit so we'll get to have a mini late Christmas then as well!

Easy roasted vegetables

I think my all time favorite way to eat vegetables is to simply roast them. Without fail, they always taste good and you can mix and match about any veggies together to create a delicious roasted combination!

It's a colorful, filling go-to side dish that really only requires chopping, a little seasoning and placing them in the oven. 

Easy Roasted Vegetables

Ingredients:

• Chopped vegetables of choice 
• I used:
• Rainbow carrots
• Fingerling potatoes
• Sweet potatoes
• Broccoli
• Celery
• Zucchini squash
• Mushrooms
• Large red onion
• Extra virgin olive oil (or try coconut oil for a fun different flavor profile)
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven at 375 degrees.
2. Chop vegetables.
3. Mix chopped veggies together with salt, pepper, and enough olive oil to lightly coat all veggies.
4. Place flat on baking sheets, place in oven for 45 minutes to an hour.
5. Stir/flip veggies at least once halfway through.

Three Months

Happy three months, my little love!

You're growing so fast and getting cuter and cuter with each day and every smile. Even though you're way too little to know what's going on, holidays are already so much more fun with you around, too! 

Three Months

What you weigh: --

Eating: You're a pro at eating, as always. Eating for you during the day is every two to three hours. We've only given you a bottle a couple of times since mommy's always home with you and though you didn't eat a lot from it, you didn't hate it either.

Sleeping: This months sleeping has gone pretty well too. Only a handful of times have you gotten up more than a couple times and you even slept 9+ hours straight multiple times. Without fail, I always feel like I need to check on you when that happens, ha. Overall, though, you probably average waking up once in the night which is totally okay with mommy! The only "issue" we sometimes have is that it takes you a long time to go to sleep at night and oftentimes, you'll fall asleep and wake up 5-20 minutes later only to have to start the process all over.

Clothes: You've been wearing 6 month clothes now and we had to get some new clothes since we're running out of baby gift clothes. Some 6 month are still a little bit big but overall, they're a pretty good fit.

Diapers: Still using BumGenius Freetime diapers. You've had a bit of a rash that hasn't wanted to go away so we're currently taking a mini hiatus from our cloth so that mommy can strip them and we can get rid of that rash.  So in the interim we use 7th Generation diapers. The good new is, whatever this rash is, it hasn't seemed to bother you at all.

Favorite Activities: Eating, smiling, laughing, listening to music and watching daddy dance and make funny faces, kicking your legs, tummy time, laying on your floor gym, looking at lights.  You still love being outside but as the weather gets colder, we haven't been able to do out outside walks as much because mom doesn't feel like getting us both all bundled up enough!

Least Favorite Activities: Bath time when you're sleepy, still not loving the car seat. You're starting to not like laying on your back as much because you like to see what's going on all around you. See? You end up lifting your head up as if to say, nope, I don't want to just lay around, you guys!

Big Moments/Other:

-- You slept for 9+ hours several times through the night

-- Baby's first Thanksgiving

-- Your hair really started to fill out in front and your cheeks have gotten chubbier and more filled out (aka very cute!) 

-- You really discovered your hands and have been sucking/chewing on them.

-- More and more sounds and squeals are coming out of your mouth and they're all oh-so-cute! They seem to keep going up in octave too ha.

-- This month you've really started to drool a lot and make chewing motions.

Pumpkin coconut pie

Now that Thanksgiving has come and went, I'm having a hard time believing it's December and Christmas is so very close!

Despite the increasingly cold weather and darker evenings, I can't help but love winter in the Midwest around Christmastime. The snow, hot beverages, cuddling up in warm blankets, a cozy fire, yummy food, etc. One such ingredient of the season being pumpkin!

I made this pumpkin coconut pie for Thanksgiving and we both liked it so much I'm definitely going to be making it more throughout the holiday season!

I don't typically enjoy pumpkin pie all that much but the addition of coconut milk really gave it an extra punch that made me love this version.

Pumpkin Coconut Pie

Ingredients:

• pie crust of choice
• 1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin
• 3/4 cup coconut milk, stirred (the full fat kind in a can)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten 
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Place all ingredients into a large mixer or bowl and mix well
3. Pour mixture into prepared pie crust
4. Bake for about 45 minutes or until pie is set up and slightly jiggly in the middle 
5. Let pie completely cool before serving

Enjoy!