Wordless Wednesday

Reading to his brother :)

WHY CANT I GET THIS IN MY MOUTH!?

 

We Are Catholic

I saw a wonderful video on "O Beauty Ever Ancient, Ever New" that I wanted to share with you. The description reads:

We Are Catholic.
It isn't something we 'do', it is who WE ARE.
We are something positive, wonderful, and special.
We are loyal to the Church, to the Pope, our tradition, and our God.


Hopefully this video will do its small part in leading you towards the truth of the One True Faith. I pray that it gives you hope and fills you with joy. Please share it or use it for educational and evangelization purposes!

Enjoy!

Growing with God

Andy had his 1st day of Sunday School yesterday! And he gave us the sweetest coloring page and letter!

The letter reads:

Dear Mommy & Daddy, 

I cant wait to go to Sunday School!! I have so much fun singing, playing, and learning about God with my teachers and friends.

Did you know that God made me? And, I am special!!  God made angels, apples, monkeys, and a man named Zacchaeus, too. God even made mommies and daddies. No wonder you are so special! God made everything from A to Z!

Please take me to Sunday School so I can learn about more things God made. Is it Sunday yet?

I love you!

Your special,

ME!

How cute is that!? He loved it! He enjoyed playing and coloring. His teacher even told me that he was a big helper! Love it! We are so proud of him!

This Week at the House

{Sunday}

Andy's first day of Sunday School - Growing with God! We are so excited for him!

{Monday}

Fall Cleaning week at the House. Ew.

{Tuesday}

Andrew's 2nd week of preschool - but 1st time carpooling! I love Lindsay - she rocks! :)
Clean up of the boys' room while Mr. Mess is at school. LOL

{Wednesday}

Morning at the Library

{Thursday}

Grocery Shopping Day. I know, I said it was going to be Tuesdays...but eh...

{Friday}

Morning at the Zoo to meet the new lion cubs!!
Freezer Cooking Friday

{Saturday}

 Family Day!

{This week's quote} 

"Having a two-year-old is like having a blender that you don't have a top for." Jerry Seinfeld

The Simple Things

I had to post this picture again. It was my absolute favorite picture of last week. The only picture I was "allowed" to take. I can't believe that I captured his excitement in one shot! We just love this little guy so much! We are so very proud of him and all the amazing things that he is doing!

Freezer Cooking Fridays

Another Friday has come and (almost) gone! I made some yummy things today and "fall cleaned" my kitchen. It took all of naptime and then some, but oh well. Now the kitchen is ready for birthday party decorations and whatnot (once I get all of it organized). YAY!

Today's freezer cooking:

Whole Wheat Sugar Cookies - YUM!
Cinnamon Raisin Muffin Bites
Honey-Apple Cheerio Cereal Bars
Ground Beef Base - for recipes that need just the basic browned ground beef.

So, yay! 1 yummy dessert/treat. 2 delicious breakfast items for my little preschooler. And 1 step that I get to skip the next time I make spaghetti or whatever. NICE :)

I didn't take many pics of the goods, but here's the goodies! LOL

Wordless Wednesday

Waiting for Daddy: 

There is a Preschooler in the House!

Last night, after getting ready for bed, Andrew and I read "The Night Before Preschool" (thankfully found by Rachel!). He really loves that book. We have been reading it every night for about 2 weeks now. Except this time he knew that he was going to be going to school for real in the morning!

 Pajamas! 

After story time & goodnight kisses from everyone, I got all of his stuff ready for his big day:

 His school bag with his folder and snack :) Isn't that the cutest snack bag? I got it from Pineapple Spice on Etsy - another addiction of mine! She has a ton of great reusable bags if you are searching for one.

I put together the pancake mix, so it would be ready in the morning. Like the flag? Hehe!

Pancakes! He calls them "cakes" On the weekends, he always asks, "Mama, cakes?" 

 Then, I headed into his room to get him up for school. LOL He's sleeping away and Alex, on the other side of the room, is "talking." I'm amazed at what kids will sleep through. 

Not quite awake but happy about his "cakes."

All dressed and ready for preschool!!

In the car rider line! Almost there!

Aw! So, I really wanted to get pics for the drop off/pick up, but couldn't so, oh well. But, he was soo cute!! One of the teachers got him out of the car to go into the school. He was not 100% sure about that, but then he realized that just what we do and he was fine. Honestly, I did not think I was going to cry. And, I didn't, but I got teary-eyed! And, I was fine until he waved "good-bye" Ugh, getting teary-eye just typing that! LOL!

When it was time to pick him up, he was even cuter! The director was holding him and he was looking all around at the kids getting into their cars. We all have name signs in our cars and they call the kids via radio. I had my windows up and I heard him say "MA-MA!" as we got to the curb! He was so happy! And this time, his teacher brought him to the car and told me that he was sooo good! YAY! He was excited to see that I had his Tusker, too :)

Made sure I packed him before heading out!

  We ended the first part of our preschool extravaganza day with lunch at Chick-Fil-A! He was so happy that his Daddy had lunch with him, too. :) 

It was a great morning! I asked him a million questions which only received answers of "mmhmm" and random squeals of excitement. LOL He said he had fun! I'm so happy for my big little man :) 

We love you, Andrew!!

The Simple Things

My favorite picture from the park yesterday. I just love those little feet of his!

This Week at the House

This week is going to be a busy week!

{Sunday}

Early Mass & Growing with God Orientation for Andy! He will start Sunday School this year! YAY! We are super excited for him and cannot wait to help him grow in his Catholic faith. Don't worry, it's starts off simple since he is only 2 (almost!) - things such as God made the trees, the birds, etc...

{Monday}

Consignment Sale Drop Off Extravaganza - I finally have enough stuff to participate in a consignment sale this year. Alex is growing so fast (he wears 9 month old clothes...he is 4 months old people) and a lot of Andy's things are not going to work out for Alex after all.

{Tuesday}

Andy starts preschool!! I will have a special pancake breakfast for him (he loves them - he calls them "cakes!" ha!) and...YES! I will be taking a LOT of pictures!!

{Wednesday}

Library books due and time to get some more.

Grocery shopping - this is going to be moving to Tuesdays by the next week.

{Thursday}

Consignment Sale Shopping Extravaganza since I will only have 1 child with me and my BFF is working the sale :) YAY!

{Friday}

Freezer Cooking Friday

{Saturday}

 Family Day!

{This week's quote} 

"A house is not a home until you can write, "I love you" in the dust on the furniture."

Saturday Morning Fun

After breakfast this morning, we headed over to the park. Andy played and played at the splash pad and on the playground - he loves it! Alex even enjoyed it! He would see some kid running by and he would laugh like it was the funniest thing ever. Then, of course, he fell asleep for a bit. We had snack time out here, too. And, Alex and I laid out in the shade. It was so hot out, but it was a lot of fun!

Freezer Cooking Fridays

Well, I meant to post this last night, but I was tired and ended up going to bed after the little men did. Anyhoo! I wanted to start a new thing on here: Freezer Cooking Fridays! I thought it would be fun. I've been doing it for a while now and figured I'd share.

So, I made my batch of whole wheat waffles for Jason again. He loved them when I made them a while back, so I have kept on with this.

Then, I made some whole wheat bagels. Which, only four out of 6 worked out... I had no idea that you boiled them before baking them... Weird. They are good, but I need a better recipe I think. Or maybe I made them way to big. I have no idea.

While I had those going, I had a Chicken Corn Taco (minus the black beans - I didn't have any. Lame.) dinner in the slow cooker. We ended up having that for dinner tonight. It was just one of those days where none of us wanted to do anything. So, I am super happy that I had a freezer cooking day. I made so much of it that we have some for another night later on.

There you have it! Next week, I'm going to get some bread going, desserts, and lunches.

What do you think of making this a link-up type of thing?

Car Tag Blanket

A few weeks before Alex was born I got all crafty and made him my version of those taggie blankets. I had a lot of left over fabric from Andy's car blanket I made for him a while back and a ton of ribbon, so why not make one for this little car lover to be, too? And he does love it!

The size is about 15x15 - perfect to take anywhere.

So sleepy from all the playing :)

Toddler Reward/Chore Chart

I've been contemplating this idea for a couple of weeks now. And, this is the topic for this week's Toddler Talk Thursday, too. So here are my thoughts on this :)

Andy knows that he has to help make his bed, brush his teeth, etc...etc... But lately when we get to the "clean up toys" part the end of the world happens. Maybe a reward chart may be a good idea. He loves getting a "prize" for doing a good job. So hmm...

I want to do something simple.
It needs an obvious picture of the thing he needs to do.
It should have simple words to help with the learning to read.

Here are some great ones I found on my new obsession, Pinterest!

Source: oopseydaisyblog.com via Stacy on Pinterest

Source: biblicalhomemaking.blogspot.com via Debbie on Pinterest

Source: dandee-designs.com via Makayla on Pinterest

Wordless Wednesday

I promised a picture of Andy & Alex's height marks in my last post about their room.

So here is Andy pointing to how tall he is on the chart - 33 inches!!

Alex's height was measured at the doc appt yesterday - 26 1/4 inches!! 

He grew 3 WHOLE INCHES from his 2 month check up. Whoa!

My guard dog keeping me safe from the birds. LOL

This is How I'm Going to Die

I swear this office/playroom is going to be the death of me. I love my house. Granted, I would love it if I could pick it up and move it to a better school system. But, we have 4 years, so whatever. I can deal. That is problem though. I have 4 years. I have to fix this office before I lose it.


You have seen this place before...but recently, it got worse. Much worse. Oh, the horror.

I can explain! No...I can't.

Ok, see, what happened was this... We got a king mattress and the queen had to go into waiting until we both agreed on a mattress. After about a month, we decided the king was the winner. But the queen had stayed in the office against the window. And, you know...once a pile starts...it's just continues. Well, now the queen has been donated and I'm back to the reality of dealing with this horrible mess. YAY.

Now this room is small. The smallest our house besides the laundry room...but I don't think that counts. Anyway, we want to turn this into an office/playroom with enough room that a much nicer airbed (the really nice ones that don't seem like airbeds so much) can be place without blocking the doors or computer area. So, ugh...today I started the very long, headache filled clean-up.

I finally fixed the hall closet to be the actual linen closet for guests with towels, blankets, etc since we got our entryway taken care of with a fabulous coat rack. :) Then, I cleared out most of what I could in the office/playroom space. I'm looking at the mess that I still have to conquer and it looks like I didn't do anything... I HATE THIS ROOM!

Breathe...

Ok, so here's what we are going to work on in this room:

1. Jason, being Mr. Engineer Man, is going to bring in laptop home and get the layout scaled to size and do some fancy stuff like that. He wants to make sure my idea(s) work before getting into this. 
2. Get everything out of this room that isn't a)computer/craft/hobby related and b)playroom related
3. Get supplies for new DIY 2-person desk (more on this later - we have a few plans, but will narrow it down when #1 is completed)
4. Bon fire in backyard Sell monster desk
5. Sell my desk/chair
6. Get my chair to match Jason's
7. Either sell or fix up shelf to hold kid's books/some toys
8. Get table/chair set for boys
9. Get area rug
10. DIY wall art (fun ideas on this one!!)
11. New and improved airbed for guests.
12. Accessories and such to finish the look. 

I hope that is everything. I'm glad I just now made the list out. LOL Now, it doesn't seem as scary. The plan is to not spend a lot on this room since we do not plan to be in this house longer than 4 years. But, we do want it to be a kid-friendly area, but still be a place for guests, too. We will see. It will take the rest of the year. We plan to do this all in baby steps. Besides, I want to hit up a few thrift stores for the 2-person desk ideas that we are playing around with. Wish us luck! :)


Until then, we will dream of this playroom:

Source: weheartit.com via Nicole on Pinterest

I'm joining Pin It Tuesday over at Crazy About My Baybah!

Cool and Breezy Morning

LOVED this morning!! It was fantastic!! It was 65 when we woke up this morning!

65 degrees!!

Of course we went outside to enjoy that while it lasted! Andy was super excited to be out there and Alex enjoyed it so much that he took a nap. LOL! I actually had an enite cup of coffee WITHOUT NUKING IT! Whoa...that is amazing! Normally, my personal best with microwaved coffee is 400. Ok, maybe 5 times once. Still, that was awesome! I even checked my email on my phone, listened to birds singing instead of a cartoon character, and took pictures

all while sitting in my fakerondak sippin' my coffee!!! 

Hello! Cannot WAIT til tomorrow morning!

Loving the outdoors

Ha! Alex looks like he is reaching for the club :)

He was getting ready to go do something, but then a plane flew by and it was lower than what he usually sees. He was completely fascinated!

 Hmm...he took his golf bag over to the dirt. Why?

Simple. It is not a golf bag. It is a bucket with wheels. 

He said to me, "Mama. See. Ocks. Dirt." (Yes, rocks has no "r" for the moment) What a cutie!!

I just love that hand :D

 Fast asleep. 


What a lovely morning!!

A Work in Progress

The boys' room is still getting it's personality here and there each month it seems. It will get finished by the end of the year LOL! I still am working on fixing the horrendous man cave... I finally got a semi-ok from the hubby. For whatever reason he is in love with the monster desk... Ew. It has got to go.

Anyhoo! Here are some before pics of the boys' room:

 

Our list so far:

1. Get bedding
2. Set up big boy bed for Andy
3. Get play rug
4. Art work for over changing area
5. Plane decals/wall art
6. Growth chart
7. World map or map of USA 
8. Globes or planes hanging above beds
9. Clock area for times around the world - have 1, want 3 more
10. Chalkboard or bulletin board for their little memories

See just 4 more things to take care of and my little men will have a completed room. :)

For now, here are the new additions to the room thanks to Paper Coterie (growth chart) and my brother, William, and my mom (sign):

I will be marking Alex's height tomorrow after his doc appt. I'll get some pics of the marks to share then :) But, Andy is 33 inches tall!!