May goals

I feel that I must set some goals for myself so I figure if I write them down, I might actually do them?



I am going to do better this month with blogging.

I am going to do better this month with scrap booking.

I WILL run more this month.

I am going to do better this month with Tuesday night prayer at church.

I am going to do better this month supporting my husband.

I am going to do better this month organizing and throwing stuff away.

I am going to have a yard sale this month.

I will spend less money this month.

I will enjoy every minute I have with my little men (even more than before)



Any suggestions? Seems like I have alot to do...

First Haircut :( and other firsts.

                                                            We did it, another first.

Peyton had his first hair cut today. And I'm pretty sad about it. Of course I took lots of pictures to put in the scrapbook even though I wasn't too stoked about seeing him grow up so fast.

We took him to Tim's barber. It was so cute

Unfortunately, we had to wait about 20 minutes before it was our turn. Peyton used his time wisely and got some practice at sitting nicely in the barber chair. Daddy showed him how.

He wasn't too sure about the guy at first. They had this "home-made" chair to put on the real one. It was perfect for him, it kept him from taking a flying leaper out of the chair. I guess these guys have had some experience with little fellas.

Daddy had to help him hold his head still and I was feeding him gummies the entire time to make sure he was appropriately distracted.

Now, I know he doesn't have much hair but what he did have was getting pretty long and crazy looking. If there's one thing we don't want it's a little guy with a little mullet.

He LOVED the vacuum that they used to get rid of the extra tiny hairs.

We also had experience this week with letting Peyton feed himself with a spoon. He really had fun with the yogurt.

 

Bad Blogger Tuesday

I've been terrible at blogging this week, but really, I have a good excuse. Our days last week were filled with fun and vacation :)
Peyton learning to ride the big boy mountain bike with daddy.

After trying to ride the mountain bike, Peyton moved on to more conquerable things, like riding the vacuum

Then we went to Virginia to "vacation" with family and friends. It was  a nice break from work and studying

Me and my sissy, Aunt Junie

Peyton LOVED riding the 4 wheeler with Poppy

And checking on his cow, Cameron.

And learning how to drive the tractor, a real John Deere.

So this was our vacation, our week and the reason I didn't blog too much. We were too busy relaxing!

A really big....birthday

So, this happened almost a month ago, but I FINALLY have my pics :)

Me and the birthday boy at our construction themed party, he loved it!

We had super cute bunting and cupcakes. And personilized water bottles thanks to Aunt Meggy* she can be seen here. (She's uber creative and helped tons)

Plastic ware wrapped in caution tape...and lots of crackery like foods for hungry toddlers. They had grilled cheese for the main course and the adults had made to order panini's.

A yellow tractor cake...Oh my!

Favors...super cute if I do say so. I scored these pails at Michaels for 1/2 price (total 0.50 ea) and the hard books at the dollar store (2/ $1).

The cupcake tower. Yes, you are seeing this right. We had the main cake (chocolate with cooked icing) recipe here and vanilla cupcakes AND P's yellow tractor cake. We were eating cake for weeks after the party;)

I can't believe how fast my litle man is growing up, time flies so I try not to blink.

Potty duty...

What an exciting week it has been already. Little P is quickly learning, and I am running around behind him trying to keep up, at least a little bit.

Cleaning has been quite a challenge for a while, he loves to pull things out but I think he may have a tiny bit of his dad's perfectionism (this is good and bad). I mean as a grown up, being married to a perfectionist gets me a clean car, help with the laundry and everything tended to outside. Sometimes too well, all this takes time that could be spent with me you know ;) But as a baby it means random things put in random places. He LOVES to carry things around, and then put them away, and then secretly laughs at me while I search for the hidden item like a crazy lady. UGH...that is the frustrating part. Now to add to this, my little "angel" has learned to flush the commode.

BAD NEWS! Because the commode is one of his favorite places to put things away. Now it can be gone forever, permanently. Add this to his other favorite place, the trash can. Awesome.

Another new lesson learned, how to open the screen to get to the backyard. And just today he mastered walking over the screen door threshold. It's a little bit of a step down, but that doesn't stop him anymore. And he can open the door to the garage. I don't know how I'm going to keep him inside anymore.

Don't get me wrong, I am NOT complaining. I don't ever want to complain because I have a smart, curious little guy. It's just more of a blessing and keeps me on my toes :)

Oh yeah, my boys matched on Sunday, super cute!!

Menu Monday

So, I'm starting to menu plan. I've been doing it for a few weeks now and let me tell you it is the most amazing change to my routine!
I don't know how or why I never did it before, it really is essential for a working mom. And it helps so much with the budget. Every week I just set down and look at the sale flyers, then I look through my recipes and match them up accordingly. One day is super easy, a given...salads. And I don't plan the weekends because we usually end up going out one day a week and so the extra meal gets moved to Saturday.
So it has helped tremendously with budget, food waste and avoiding restraunts (which blows budget and diet :)
Recently, I decided I would go through my old cookbook magazines and pick at least 2 new recipes week. This has been good, getting new ideas. After you've been married awhile you tend to do alot of repeats.

Monday: Chicken fajitas
Tuesday: Greek Salad
Wednesday: Roast Beef
Thursday: Tilapia, couscous and veggies
Friday: Left overs cause we're going out of town!!
Hurray!

I smell smores!!

So we did it, we had our very first cookout for the season. We LOVE this time of year!

Here's the shot of the kiddos having a blast and all hopped up on sugar.

We ate barbecue and coleslaw. Homemade macaroni and green beans.

And....SMORES!

Everyone had a great time..and we're ready for many more this season.

I wasn't going to blog anything today...

But here I sit with my computer, in the warm sunshine pouring through the window, with the little space heater at my feet and I'm thinking, "this is the life".
I headed out to some sales this morning, but not much luck with that. I did find 5 like-new pairs of Old Navy jeans for a baby girl. No, I do not have a baby girl. I do have some friends that are pregnant and we don't know what they are having yet. And, worse case scenario, I'll save them for my girl- that I'm sure to have one day :)
Every Saturday morning (that I don't have to work) Tim and I make waffles and eggs. Now that Peyton is here, we have to make a lot more but it is still my favorite daily tradition. It is so fun watching the baby house 2 waffles and 2 eggs- Yes you heard that right TWO waffles and TWO eggs.
And then I look at the baby right now, he's in his little bouncy chair watching Praise Baby. It's the ONLY time he will hold still or sit in that chair. And thank the Lord the video is 25 minutes long. Do you know what a mom can get done in 25 minutes?? Anyway, watching him "sing" and clap and enjoy listening to the praise and worship makes me cry every time. What a beautiful innocence he has! And I just love how he props his feet up on the leg of the bouncy chair and reclines back a little bit....I tell you it is the sweetest thing you've ever seen.

Anyway, Tim is studying now but the test is in 3 days so there's an end in sight for that (thank you Jesus) and I have to get ready for our first cook out and fire of the spring season! I hear barbecue and s'mores calling my name already!
Have a great Saturday!

UBP

UBP style:
I'm a brand new blogger.
I am in my 20's and I'm a new mom. I've been very happily married for almost 9 years to an amazing man. We love the Lord and strive to raise our son to do the same.
I am a Registered Nurse, have been for 9 years and work in the emergency room. My husband is a CRNA.
We love to travel. We love our family. I love to cook and organize and scrapbook.
That's pretty much me in a quick minute :)

Birthday Recipes

So, I thought I would share our favorite birthday cake recipe, the ones that made these awesome cupcakes.
It's semi-secret family recipe. By that I mean everyone loves it but I don't know anyone outside of our family that makes it...so...

The finished cupcake, with yellow icing

Chocolate cake:

1 3/4 c. flour

2 c. Sugar

3/4 c. cocoa

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 c. milk

1/2 cup veg oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 c. boiling water

Combine dry ingredients. Mix liquid ingredients except hot water and gradually add dry ingredients. Mix well then add boiling water. Bake 30-35 minutes in greased and floured pans

Note mixture will be thinner than normal cake batter.

Icing:

5 Tablespoons flour

1 c. sugar

1 c. milk

1/2 c. crisco

1/2 c. butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

Cook flour and milk until thick , on low heat stirring constantly. Cool completely in refridge. Mix sugar, butter, crisco and vanilla then add the flour/milk mixture. Beat on high heat until miture thickens.

And because I couldn't resist some fun photos from our birthday dinner out :)

Busy Day

Not much to blog about, actually I'm just typing this while I'm getting ready for Home Meeting (a mid-week church meeting).
What I can say is it's stinkin' hot here. I resisted turning on the air condition until dinner time, when I couldn't cool down and it was 87 degrees inside:)
But I did have a very busy day. To start off, it is Tim's 30th birthday and he requested french toast. That woulda been so easy except we had not bread or eggs...so I had to run to the grocery store first thing in the am. By the time I got the breakfast mess cleaned up and layed the baby down I figured I would make Tim some mint chocolate, chocolate cookies.
Then it was time to make lunch. Tim had his classmates over so I made them grilled chicken, barbecue...yum!
Unfortunately, I forgot about the babies doctors appointment, so I was few minutes late. And by the time I got home it was almost dinner time. Whipped up some baked zitti and birthday cupcakes with cooked icing. His favorite :)
So that's about it..NOT exciting but busy none-the-less.

Easter!! (and scrapbooking)

Yesterday was Easter. Thank the Lord for giving His Son, Jesus. Loving and serving Him, a risen Saviour, is what makes life worth living.
Unfortunatley, I had to work yesterday and missed church. Although I realize the awesomeness of the holiday and celebrate Jesus' resurrection, I don't feel that one missed Easter service will do me in. The reason is that I celebrate Jesus and His resurrection every day, in my normal life :)
I did get to have fun though after church, with the dinner and egg hunt. Really, it wasn't much of an egg hunt. The kids trapsed through the woods finding gifts, candy and bubbles. Peyton had a great time and so did we!

Timmy and Lily

 

I also thought I would show some of my newest scrapbooking pages...I'll have to figure out a better way to get pictures of them though. And yes, these pictures are from 2006- I'm a bit behind, but I keep at it :) I just love the combo of the bright pink and green for a beach page, very unexpected I think. I also used transfers on these pages, my new favorite for white graphics.

Good Friday

Well, I did it today...I worked 12 hours today. Not really a big deal, except that I haven't done it in a while and it gets harder the LESS you do it :)
Another win for today, I "exercised" during work by running up 10 flights of stairs...not once but twice. Again, this may not seem like a big deal, but a major win for me :)
And one more, not that I'm tooting my horn or anything but when I got home, I managed to scrounge up enough energy for a nice walk/jog with Mr. Amazing and Little Mr. Amazing (before Mr. Amazing had to head to his football game tonight).
So, by getting this all done, I had to skip something...dinner. Tim had to fend for himself before I got home and I had a bowl of cereal. NOT super :(

outside fun

What an amazing day! The weather is awesome and warm and since my little fella loves to be outside, we spent loads of time out there.

This is his first time being bare foot outside-he loved it and it didn't slow him down for a minute!

He loved playing in the rocks and grass...Tim even took a much needed break from studying to help take pics!

and here are some photos of my newly cleaned out pantry...ah-MA-sing!