Hiding Places

Brody has gotten in the habit of just putting his things all over the house. It seems that anytime we open up a drawer or cabinet, something is in there that doesn't belong. Last week, I found his Nike's in his kitchen drawer. I asked him to go put them in his room. I guess he figured this drawer was a good enough place for them.

I also found a car he had "parked" in another kitchen drawer.

One afternoon, I asked Brody to bring a diaper to me in the living room so I could change him, which he did. After I changed him, I asked him to take the dirty diaper and throw it away. He usually will take it and put it in his diaper champ. He walked away and then came back empty handed so I figured he had taken care of it. It wasn't until later that afternoon that I found the diaper in the toilet. I guess it makes sense to throw it in there! Haha!

In the past 2 weeks, Brody snatched both of our SD cards for our camera and hid them. Josh and I spent an hour and a half going through every drawer, basket, cabinet, and trash bag the other night trying to find it. We didn't find it. Every time I ask him where the blue card is, he says,"blue?" and points to the sky. Haha! We are probably going to have to go buy a couple more. Thankfully, I had copied all the pictures off of them onto our computer.

Hope you have a great Friday!

Using the Big Potty

Warning: If you don't like the word "poop" don't read this post. I use the word no less than 10 times. :) Last night, Brody pooped in the big potty! I had to hold him so that he didn't fall through, but other than that he did the rest.

I really feel like this was a fluke and will not happen again for another 6 months, but I am going to bask in my parenting glory while I can. After all, he is 15 months old!

Here's the real story before you decide my child is a potty prodigy and that I am parent of the year..... My childhood friend, Leah, got her little girl, Perri, to use the potty the other night. You can read about it here. I decided to give it a try since Perri is a few weeks younger than Brody.

Brody is a very scheduled pooper. It happens at the same time every day like clockwork. What can I say? He's a guy. They do that kind of thing. Last night, it was "poop time" so I told Josh we should try to set him on the potty and see if he would go. We took off his pajamas and his diaper and sat him on the potty. I was thinking it would be a good 15 minutes and then he would cry and we could consider ourselves failures. Well, we sat him up there and within a minute he pooped. We clapped and screamed and cheered and high-fived each other for our mad parenting skills. The best part was the poop wasn't smeared on his rear and all it took was one swift wipe and we were done! You can tell from the picture that he wasn't as impressed as we were. He doesn't understand the joy it brought to our hearts.

I think we may try the pooping in the potty for a while. He goes 3 times a day...morning, noon and night, so I think I can at least get a couple of times in the potty. I need some sort of reward like candy or something that he only gets when he goes. Maybe before long he will tell me he needs to go.

I'm not even going to think about getting the boy to pee in the toilet. That's a good 6-8 months down the road but at least we are slowly making are way there.....one poop at a time.

Bowling

Last night, my mom, sister and I decided we would go bowling. It was really random, but it sounded like a fun idea, so we met at the bowling alley after Jill and my mom got off of work.

The bowling alley up here is fairly new and it pretty big! We had planned on just bowling on the regular lanes but the guy at the desk was SO persistent that we do the Cosmic Bowling and even told us he would let us have 2 games for the price of one if we agreed to do it, so we did! We still can't figure out why he was so pushy, but we were happy about a free game.

These pictures aren't that good because the Cosmic bowling room is really dark, but it did have some nice comfy couches to sit on instead of those uncomfortable spinning chairs at most places.

We are the worst bowlers in the history of recreational bowling. I talked a big talk when we got there because I had taken bowling in college as a class. Yes, I know. Bowling is actually on my college transcript. I am sure it will be impressive during an interview one day. While in this class, we had to bowl 4 games a week, so I got decent at bowling. My score last night did not reflect a semester of bowling. It was ridiculous.

The order is Mom, Jill, and me. I won with a 179, but that was 2 games COMBINED!

What was even more ridiculous than my score? The way I was dressed. Check out this picture.

I didn't think about the fact that I had on brown footless leggings and cream colored socks with my boots. Of course, you couldn't see it in my boots, but it was rather obvious when I was bowling. Jill almost stopped breathing she was laughing so hard.

After we bowled, we went to eat dinner.

We had such a fun night! We all want to do it again soon!

When I got home, I found a cute little superhero at my house! We found these sweet pajamas at the Carter's outlet in Branson this weekend so, of course, we had to buy them. I took Brody to the doctor yesterday and he did have a little bit of an ear infection so we have some amoxicillin to give him. The doctor also said he was wheezing every few breaths when she listened to his chest so he has an inhaler that we are using until Thursday to clear up his chest a little. Super fun appointment. I'm glad I took him. He just isn't one of those fussy babies so I didn't even know if he was sick but I knew he kept rubbing his ear so I am glad we had it checked.

Have a great afternoon!

Easter Buckets

Some of you may remember Brody's Easter Bucket that I had made last year. This is what I use in place of an Easter basket.Isn't this so cute?? I ordered the Medium bucket and it was only $20!

Jaime is taking orders for Easter Buckets again. She will only be taking orders until March 1st, so make sure you check out her blog and email her your order. She also does canvases if you are interested in something besides an Easter Bucket. :)

Jaime also did a post on the info she needs from you when you email her, as well as answered some questions you might have. You can find that post here.

I just didn't want y'all to miss out this year since I told you about them after she had stopped taking orders last year. It's so crazy to me that it's time to think about Easter already!!!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Here is a quick review of our weekend.......

This weekend we went to Branson with our church for the young couples' marriage retreat. It was a wonderful weekend away! We stayed at a great hotel that Josh and I have stayed at a few times. We heard great marital advice during sessions taught by members of our church staff. There were a lot of fun games, including a Couples Amazing Race, which we played with teams of 4 couples. We laughed a lot during that game! We also enjoyed spending time with our wonderful friends that we love doing life with. It truly was a GREAT weekend!

The pictures above are the only ones from Branson. The black bag is a gift bag each couple was given when we checked-in at the hotel. It had lots of snacks, waters, cookies, marriage books, and it also contained a few items that are pictured at the bottom right. I almost didn't post the picture. Lets just say they promote growing the nursery at our church. :) It was really funny and we were all given the same "gifts" at the marriage retreat 2 years ago so we have come to expect it.

One not so exciting thing that came from the weekend away was the stomach bug that Josh and 6 or 7 others from our group caught. Josh got sick mid-morning during the session Saturday. By the time we got home, his fever was 101. He was much better yesterday. No fever or stomach problems. He is back at work today and I am wiping down everything he even looked at while he was sick. Hopefully, Brody and I will not get it.

Last night, we celebrated my mom's birthday with my family. I cooked swiss chicken, roasted potatoes, salad and rolls and we had birthday cake. My mom's actual birthday was yesterday so I am glad we had time to celebrate last night. Happy Birthday, Mom! We love you so much and we are so thankful for all you do for us!

This was the cake after we destroyed it. It said, "Happy Birthday, Gigi!" It was so cute with the pink paisley all over it!

Finally, last night ended our 21 Day television fast. We made it to the bitter end without watching tv. It was very anti-climatic last night when we were finally able to turn it back on. I have realized how much more I can do when I am not parked on the couch all night long. Josh was glad to be able to watch the football games last night. He was keeping the remote pretty close to his body! :) This morning when Brody got up, I turned GMA on and he clapped. I think he may have missed the TV a little, as well. I may share with you soon some of the things that came from the fast. It was a great 3 weeks!I think I am about to call the doctor and take Brody to have his ears checked. He keeps rubbing one of them and he is getting in one last molar so it could be tooth related, but I would rather be safe than sorry!

Hope you have a great Monday!

1,2,3!!

We have been trying to teach Brody how to count "1,2,3" lately. He is getting pretty good at it, although he says, "do, do, day" for "one, two, three". We got it on video the other night. It's so cute and so sweet! He always claps and cheers after he says, "day" because we clap and cheer every time he does it!

Watch at the beginning of the video...Brody is playing with one of his cell phones and he closes it on his fingers. The face he makes is hilarious!

Then, he gets in his car with his cell phone. I have no idea where he learned to do that! :)

Vinyl Signs

Some of you asked where I found the vinyl wall signs. All of the pictures were off of Etsy. Just search "monogrammed wall decals" and about a million should pull up and you will understand why I was completely overwhelmed. :)

I have a big "to do list" today that I am hoping to accomplish so I better get going. ;)

Hope you all have a great day!

Busy Tuesday!

First, THANK YOU SO MUCH for voting on the wall decal for our bedroom! I am so glad I posted those pictures because many of you made some good points that I had not thought about. I went with the majority and am ordering #2. Hopefully, it will be in quickly and I can show y'all what it looks like hung up in our room.

We have had a busy day today. We started the morning by going to church for Bible study, which met for the first time today. I didn't even know one person who was going, but I just signed-up anyway. I knew it would be good for me and I knew it would be OK if I got out of my comfort zone and did a Bible Study with people I didn't know. I knew like 4 people out of like 60 in the room today. Thankfully, my sweet group leader, Jill, is also my MOPS group leader, so it was nice to see a face I knew. It was one of those mornings where I really didn't want to go, but once I got there, I knew I was EXACTLY where I needed to be listening to Beth talk about a subject that I needed to hear. I'm looking forward to the next 10 weeks and I am also looking forward to the new friendships that will come from being in that group.

One of the sweet ladies in my group, happens to own a pizza place with her husband, her daughter and her son-in-law, so she invited our group of 6 to bring our kids there after we met and all eat together. It was so sweet of her to provide lunch for all of us and our hungry kiddos. We had a wonderful time visiting, plus the pizza is great there! If you live in NWA, you need to eat at Mad Pizza...they are a super sweet family! :)

After lunch, we ran by Jill's work because my internet has not been working on my phone for the entire month and although I claim to have a lot of patience, 3 weeks without the internet on my blackberry was starting to drive me crazy. Especially when they were still charging $30 for it! It took Jill an hour on the phone with customer service before they fixed it, but it is fixed! Thanks, Jill. While we were at her store, she gave Brody a few extra dummy phones that were no longer on display to take home and play with. Do you think he has enough? :)

We made one more stop by Josh's office to see him and then headed home. Can I please tell you how thankful I am that I froze food this weekend. Now I don't have to worry about cooking for tonight and I can get things ready for our small group to come over tomorrow night!

Hope you have had a wonderful Tuesday!

Decisions, Decisions...Someone Please Help!

Here's the deal. We have been married for 2 years and I STILL haven't hung anything over our bed. I know. It's ridiculous. A few months ago my friend, Melissa, suggested I hang a vinyl sign on a canvas over our bed. Our walls are textured so we have to put it on a canvas. I loved the idea and ever since then I have been searching for a sign and I can't decide because I like too many of them. Sooooo I need your help.

Could you just vote on which one you like below? They are numbered above each picture so if you just want to write the number in the comments that would help so much. I want to order it this week and I think if someone will just decide for me, then I can do the rest!! :) I am thinking I will have the sign done in the blue color of our curtains, so just ignore the colors on the signs below. You are just voting for the style. The sign will also be on a large off white canvas.

Here is a picture of the wall in our bedroom, in case you are a visual person like me. There is a matching curtain panel on the other window, so both sides are symmetrical.

#1 -This would say Francis#2

#3

#4

#5- This would be blue where it is brown and brown where it is orange

#6-I would keep the colors the same on this one

#7

#8-This is the one I lean towards on most days

Thank you so much for your help!

Chocolate Chip Scones Recipe

Some of y'all asked for the recipe for the scones I made on Saturday night...so here you go! These were so easy and so good! They were great this morning with coffee and they are also good with Diet Coke. :)

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup orange juice

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. With a pastry blender or a large fork, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the chocolate chips. Mix in the orange juice to form a dough.
Turn out the dough on a floured surface. Pat or roll into a 9 inch circle about 1/2 inch thick. With a 2 1/2 inch fluted biscuit cutter, cut out 12 scones, pushing the dough scraps together for the last few, if necessary. Transfer the scones to the baking sheet.
Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 12 minutes. Move to wire racks to cool.

Birthday Party and Cooking Party

We had a great Saturday!

We started off the morning by heading to The Stamp's house for Harper's birthday party. We had the BEST time! The party was just perfect. Kelly did a wonderful job decorating, which was no surprise, and was a fabulous hostess. All the little details made the party so special.

The best part of the entire morning, besides getting to celebrate with the sweet one year old, was getting to meet so many people that I already felt like I knew from reading blogs.

The first person that greeted us when we walked in was Harper's nonny. I have been reading Judy's blog for a while and I was just thrilled to get to finally meet her in person. We hugged like we had known each other forever. Brody reached out for her as soon as he saw her. He knows a grandma when he sees one, plus, he was trying to get in good with Nonny since he is so fond of Harper.

I also got to meet Hillary and Laurie!! I have read both of their blogs for a while, as well, and Hillary and I have a few mutual friends, so it was fun to get to visit with them. They are both SO sweet!

Every picture of Josh is of him around the food table! Haha! He had a great time, too!

The birthday girl working on her cake!

While everyone watched Harper, I kept my eye on this little guy. He kept throwing his sippy cup in Harper's toy basket and then would get it out, take a drink and throw it back in there.

He loved all her fun toys! When I went to change his diaper in Harper's room, he got one of her dolls off of her bed and started hugging it. I remind him that dolls are for girls...especially pink dolls!

Mommas of one year olds!

Josh and I usually spend Saturday nights at home with Brody. I cook dinner and then we watch TV, but since we are TV fasting, we decided to do something else tonight. We had a cooking party....kind of. I made a list of 5 meals I could make ahead of time and freeze, so that I didn't have to cook this week. I loved having frozen meals when Brody was newborn, so I thought it might be nice to try and do this occasionally so that I can have a week off from cooking. Tonight, we made and froze 5 meals. We had such a fun time cooking together. Josh was such a great help and it only took us 1.5 hours from start to finish!!! Yay!

I just put a note on each dish, so that I would know what it was and the cooking instructions. We made lasagna, enchiladas, taco meat, chili, and spaghetti meat sauce.

I finally took my breast milk storage container out of the freezer last night to make room for the food. I have no idea why I had left it in there since I stopped nursing in October. When I opened it I found this....The last bag of milk. I was so sad that the precious gold had never been used. I had a really hard time throwing it away even though it was old and Brody doesn't drink breast milk any longer. It's just hard to throw something away that you worked so hard for! Haha! Josh looked and me and said, "are you about to cry?" Haha!

After we finished cooking, we decided to make chocolate chip scones to have for breakfast before church. We might have had one for a snack last night, too! :) They were so good and so easy. I could have eaten all 12 by myself! Have a great Sunday!

Friday Night Fun

Last night, Josh and I dropped Brody off at church then, headed to meet Jill and Brandon to eat dinner at the Catfish Hole. I LOOOOOVE the Catfish Hole even though I order chicken tenders. :) They have the very best hush puppies I have ever eaten and they also have amazing fried pies. I think I ate at least 10 hush puppies, but sadly, I didn't get to eat a fried pie because they don't serve them on Friday or Saturday nights. So sad! Not that I really needed one, but I sure wanted one. We had a great time just visiting and eating and eating and eating.

While we were waiting for our food, I started telling Jill about the "Pants on the Ground" song from AI the other night. No, I didn't break my TV fast, but after having breakfast with some friends Thursday morning, I realized I needed to see this man everyone was talking about, so I watched the clip on youtube. It was pretty funny! Jill had not seen it, so we pulled it up on Josh's phone so she could watch it. She was dying!!! She gets tickled so easily and she literally wasn't breathing while watching this. It was funny!The Arkansas Razorback football team was having their recruitment dinner at the CH while we were there. All the coaches were there and a ton of big high school boys. People kept calling the Hogs while they were eating and the restaurant was playing the fight song over the speakers. It was very entertaining. I can't imagine what someone from out-of-town would have thought about us crazy Arkansas fans!

We had a great night and we are looking forward to a fun-filled Saturday! Hope you enjoy your day!

Potty Break

Brody was still taking his afternoon nap when Josh got home from work, so Josh and I went into the nursery to get him up. The room was dark when we walked in, but I noticed 2 wet spots on Brody's crib sheet. His legs were covered with a blanket, so I didn't realize what had caused the problem. Then, Brody stood-up and this is what we saw......Except the little black box wasn't there in real life! Yes, the boy was naked. He had been running around the house this afternoon in a diaper after he got food on his clothes at lunch, so I just put him down for a nap in his diaper. Well, he took if off, threw it on the ground, and peed on the crib sheet. We could not stop laughing and neither could Brody. He was so proud!See how excited he was?? Haha!

There is never a dull moment with this boy! And just know that I am very thankful he didn't poop. I am sure some of y'all have poop stories similar to this one!

Have a great Friday!

Temper Tantrums

I almost didn't blog this video because, as a parent, it's embarassing. But because I blog for our family and because this is something I want to remember and something I want to show Brody's friends when he is in high school, I decided to share it. :)

This is Brody's new thing this week. He finally stopped biting and now he is throwing temper tantrums. This has happened 5 times in the past 3 hours. The Lord is teaching me patience. He has to be.

Even on days like today. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be a mom. I am so thankful for a wild little boy who tests me and pushes the limits. I am so thankful that I get to spend every minute of everyday with him.

Can you imagine what the terrible twos will bring if he already bites, throws fits, and gets stuck in the toilet at 15 months?? :)

The fit went on for 2 whole minutes but I just couldn't keep recording it!

Cleaning and Baking

Josh and I have our small group Bible study at our house each Wednesday night. I love having everyone over and I look forward to it each week. I usually try and clean my house on Tuesdays so that my house is clean for our group to come over. Yesterday evening, while I was finishing up some cleaning, I noticed Brody was trying to help.

He was carrying around an extra thing of BBW hand soap from under the bathroom sink, as well as a rag. He would squat down on the floor and pretend to shake the soap on the floor and then he would rub that spot on the floor and then move on to the next spot. He did this all over the house for about 30 minutes. It just melted my heart because I knew he was trying to help me clean. Jill said it was sad that he knew what to do at 15 months. She said that's when I should have known I was obsessed with cleaning! :)

How precious this boy is to his momma!

He got a little carried away while he was cleaning and started throwing his clothes away. I opened the trash to throw something away and I saw one of his new sweaters in there.

I got it out and asked him to take it back to his room and he cried. I think he thought he was in trouble. :)

This afternoon, I baked these for small group tonight. They are a chocolate brownie with chocolate chip cookie in them. They are soooo good and soooo easy to make. This is what they look like when the go into the oven. Is it bad that I wanted to take a spoon to the batter and dough?? :)

And here they are once they are baked. These may be a new favorite dessert!While I'm on the subject of food, I thought I would share another soup recipe with y'all. I made this Creamy Tomato Basil soup tonight. You HAVE to make this if you like tomato basil soup. It is great!!!

Ingredients
1 large can of petite diced tomatoes with juice

3 cups tomato juice
8-10 leaves fresh basil
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Place tomatoes and juice in a stock pot over medium heat. Simmer for 30 minutes. Puree the tomato mixture along with the basil leaves, and return the puree to the stock pot.
Place the pot over medium heat, and stir in the heavy cream and butter. Season with salt and pepper. Heat, stirring until the butter is melted. Do not boil.

I put crutons on top of ours and made grilled cheese sandwiches to go with the soup. It was a great winter meal.

Hope you are all having a great week!