Thursday, December 15, 2011

Crafty dayzs

So today, we were outside 90% of the day, since it was semi pretty day. I decided to do something fun with the boys outside, besides the normal, side walk chalk. I put the side walk chalk into balloons, and let them have at it! I basically just sat the basket full of side walk chalk paint filled balloons, sat back and took pictures.

 Their invitation to play










I am so happy I am able to do these sort of things with the boys!! I love being at home!!

Until next time...

With love,
Courtney :)

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

RECIPE-Apple dumplings

Not that I am nearly surprised, but I made these apple dumplings for Christmas with my Dad, and Second Sunday with Evan's family, HUGE HIT!! So, as I promised, here is the recipe!

This is based on 1 apple, the ones I made were double batches.

Ingredients:
1- green apple
1- can of crescent rolls
1/2 cup of sugar
1- stick of butter
6 ounces of Sprite, Mountain Dew, or 7Up
Cinnamon

First, cut the apple into 8 slices, peel & core. Wrap each apple slice in a crescent roll. Place on buttered pan. Then melt stick of butter and add 1/2 cup of sugar to it. Pour micture over your crescent wrapped apples. Then pour the 6 ounces of Sprite, or equalivant, over it all. Top with cinnamon and bake, uncovered, at 300 for 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy!!

Until next time...

With love,
Courtney :)

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Our Sunday

The name of this post was going to be 'Sunday Funday', but while playing with the boys, I thought to myself, why do we celebrate Sunday like it's the end of the weekend. I mean, isn't really the beginning of a fresh new week? Which brought up another thing, while I was working, one of our patients made a comment about how we are always wishing it were the weekend, when we do that, we are just wasting the whole week. Wishing our life away. Although I do not work anymore, I still look forward to the weekends, when Evan is home to spend time with us, but you will not catch me wishing my week away.

Since today is the second Sunday of the month, we have lunch at Evan's Mawmaw Jerry's house. Awesome idea, everyone knows when we meet, and plan accordingly to be there. It is tons of fun!! The boys get to see all of their cousins they don't see on a regular basis, and we get to catch up with all the parents of the cute little cousins. GREAT time. Well, most of Evan's family lives in the country, when you are in the country you can have cute pot belly pigs and chickens!!

Aaden particularly liked the pig, I think mainly it was because she was too fat to move, so he was able to feed her and go about his business. It was quite funny whenever she stood up, because he said, "Oh my gosh, we gotta get outta here!".

Daisy, the pig, who was once big enough to fit in your pocket!!

Aaden chasing the chickens...

Each time we get together, there is always wrestling! It must just be a boy thing!! Funny when the big kids, {clearing throat} Evan Thomas, joins in too.




And the baby of the bunch comes out with the ball :)

Today was also Chris' 14th birthday!! Is there a better way to celebrate than with your whole, well mostly your whole, family??

Each time we drive in our drive way, and get out, Aaden says the same thing, 'I wanna pay outside', so, most of the time, that's what we do! We spent our last bit of savings around his birthday, in April, to buy them a swing set. I have to say, that was every penny, well spent! In addition to the swing set, Santa is bringing them a trampoline... shhhh ;)

 Sweet BB

A Man, and his candy!!

I went to Walmart this afternoon, and came across this adorable mask and cape set!! I mean really, how could I have passed this up. From the second I put it on him, he was running and jumping all over the house, saying he was, none other than, SUPERMAN!! Which is another thing I like is just instilled in boys, the love for superheros. We have never watched Superman with Aaden. He just knows Superman is a spectacular someone, who he adores.


Phew, we were busy today, we also made handprint ornaments... I need to do a little more research on 'how to', because ours kind of bubbled up in the oven, but it was fun just to watch Aaden play with the dough, he obviously was infatuated with it.


 BB liked to pinch the dough, but we did get a few good ones.



 "Of course we want an imprint of your head, Aaden"


We had tons of fun today, and are so blessed to have an amazing family, and healthy kiddos to do fun stuff with.

Until next time...

With love,
Courtney :)


Saturday, December 10, 2011

Shaving cream painting...

I posted something last week about how play time with the kiddos was now, going to be different. I stumbled across this super website, www.playathomemom3.blogspot.com, while on Pinterest. So they get credit for this whole idea :) and many more ideas that will be in the near future.

First, we took a trip to Home Depot for our stakes and plexiglass, which, on a side note, plexiglass is expensive!!! Anyway, we got home, and screwed the plexiglass to the stakes. Learning the hard way, to drill pilot holes for the screws, we have a chipped easel, but it is very much still functional. So, if you decide to make one, then be sure to drill pilot holes.

Eventually this will go in the ground, and eventually we will build a frame around it, to make it free standing.

 I thought painting with shaving cream would be fun! Easy to clean off, and quite frankly, it's super cheap! 98 cents for a bottle of shaving cream. best paint ever. I let Aaden mix the colors, so we had tons of fun, just getting ready to paint.

 First little paint stroke



 This was his TA-DA face!!! He was so proud of himself and his 'elephant'

 Believe it or not, I was just snapping pics, and he posed all on his own 

 2 brushes...


 I loved all the different colors he was creating

 Last but not least, it is only fun if you can paint with your hands




We had a blast, I love how creative his little imagination is, and how amazingly smart my sweet little man is. He is growing so fast, and I want nothing more than to bring out that creativity EVEN MORE.

I'm sure I will be posting many more 'projects'. I look forward to them, just as much as Aaden does.

Until next time...

With love,
Courtney :)

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

All about Brady

I made a comment in my last post, that I haven't been able to let go of, about how most of my posts are about Aaden, well I'm changing that, tonight.

I found out I was pregnant with Brady when Aaden was about 10 months old, quite a shock!! It was actually a funny story though, I was home from work with Aaden, we ran to Target to pick up his medicine, as I passed by the pregnancy tests, my heart raced a little, so, I thought, mmm, what's $10? I'll grab one. LOL. Since we weren't trying to have another little one, I hadn't been keeping up with things, I actually had no idea if I was 'late' or not. Well, good thing I bought the test, because it litterally took 2 minutes, and I saw both lines, and started crying. The feeling of missing out on Aaden growning up, and him being so young just broke my heart. I cried every day for almost a month.

I went to my first Dr. appt 9 days before Aaden's first birthday, and had an ultrasound, right then, my feelings changed, I was excited!! But, somewhat scared at the same time. My due date was November 20th. {Side note-- My birthday is November 24th, and Evan's birthday is November 25th.} Pregnancy wasn't too rough, the hard part was chasing after a very active toddler. Especially because I was working, and from month 7-9 Evan was working 7 - 12 hour night shifts... PHEW. Talk about wearing you out!

I spoke to Dr. Lewis about delivering via c-section with Brady, because of some difficulties I had with Aaden. When she agreed, I could not have been any happier. I know most people probably think I am crazy. But until you have been thru what I did, you wouldn't understand. I would rather have major surgery then go thru that again!!

Brady was born November 12, 2010 at 7:31 am. He weighed 8 pounds 2.4 ounces, and  was 20 1/4 inches long. From the minute I was able to hold him [the only down side of a section, you don't get to hold the baby right away], I knew he was going to be such a calm, easy baby. Which he was, in every way. He was just so laid back, and peaceful!!



Nursing was super easy with Brady! Our first night at home, he slept for 7 hours!!! He put on weight like no baby I've ever heard of!! When he was 3 weeks old, I had kidney stones, well they waited to tell me, as I was laying on the table, for lithotripsy, that I would have to pump & dump it out for 4-6 weeks. WHAT?!?! Pumping was not my favorite thing, probably on the top of my least favorite list. So I quit nursing, since I would be returning to work by then anyway. To this day, there is NOTHING the kiddo will not eat! He took to formula and a bottle, like a pro.

We are looking forward to this Christmas, since BB was so young last year...


He smiled since the day he came home from the hospital!! Just always happy!!

Christmas 2010

Brudder nap time <3



Like I said, the kid will eat anything, ALL the time!! Of course, we tried the normal, rice and oatmeal, and then veggie and fruit purees. By the time I realized it, Brady was eating $7-10.00 worth of baby food every. single. day!! Add that up in your head!! He was eating a HUGE hole into our budget. So I started making his food. Not only was it cheaper, but we were able to offer him a larger variety of foods, and it was super easy. I very much recommend making your own baby food!!

Our little chunky butt


Lashes that people pay for...


It's hard to believe my baby is already ONE!! I don't know if I should be happy, or sad. Happy because we actually survived having two small BOYS, or sad, because my baby isn't a baby anymore.

 Pretty sure it's safe to say, he LOVED his cake :)

 Hmmm... did I said LOVED or LOOOOOVVVVVEEEDDDD it!

I found a cute idea on Pinterest, to take pics of Brady with just one of Evan's ties on, this is what we got~ hehe

Well that is Brady's little story, summed up real short. But I'll tell you one thing, there is nothing else I would rather do than see his big ole happy eyes, and kiss is huge cheeks in the morning!! Even better, he likes to sleep until 9:30. :) I am so proud God gave him to me, and trusts me to be his Momma. Love me some BB.

Until next time...

With love,
Courtney :)