Memorial Day Fun!

We had a great Memorial Day! Brody started swimming lessons yesterday morning. This is his 2nd year of lessons and he is taking at the same place he took last year. We love the place he goes and we were very excited to get to go again this year!  This is our little swimmer before we left the house for lessons.

It’s so crazy to me that I have a child in swimming lessons! It feels like I was just lifeguarding and teaching other children swimming lessons in the summers, and now I am the parent at the lessons! :)

Josh was off of work yesterday so he got in the water and did the lessons with Brody so that I could watch and take pictures! It was fun to just sit and enjoy watching.

Brody did so well!! He enjoyed lessons last year, but he really loved them yesterday and did a great job listening to his teacher and doing all the things she said to do in the water.

Mom and Jill came to watch as well, so they held Jillian while I took pictures! She loved watching her brother swim!

We are looking forward to a fun week of lessons together!

Yesterday evening, we went to a cookout hosted by our church for young couples. We had a great time eating and visiting with friends.

Brody loved getting to play in the bounce house with his friends!

Jillian had a great time getting attention from lots of sweet friends.

I was so excited to get to see my friend, Shannon there. The cookout was at her aunt and uncle’s house and her parents came and helped cook at the event. We had a great time catching-up!

My sweet girl!

After we left the cookout, we went to my parents’ house to hang out with my family. Jill and Brandon came over, too. It was the first time we have all been together since the wedding, which was a month ago yesterday!

Brody took advantage of the nice weather and road his bike around their neighborhood. I think he may be a professional tricycle rider after all the practice he has had this weekend! :)

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day as well!

Trail Ride

Tonight, we took Brody to ride his tricycle on the trail in our town. It’s a perfect evening for us to be outside! We parked at the hospital and walked past the little pond before we got on the trail. Brody loved seeing the ducks and geese at the pond.

Jillian was so excited to be out in the stroller for a walk!

We walked together while Josh chased Brody!

I have never seen Brody ride his tricycle as fast as he did tonight! He would peddle as fast as he could, then he would take his feet off the bike and coast. He got going so fast sometimes that his tricycle would almost fall over! He was having so much fun and we were having just as much fun watching him!

We rode in the tunnel that went under the street.

Love this picture of our little biker!

Brody stopped halfway so that he could get a drink. He rode with his water bottle in the back of his tricycle! Such a big boy! :)

Thirsty boy!

Jillian was such a sweet girl while we walked!

We had such a great time and we will definitely spending lots of summer nights walking and riding on the trail!

Saturday

We had a fun Saturday! Josh’s parents were up so we met them for breakfast at a fun coffee shop downtown. Brody had a great time!

I think Jillian wished she was still in bed instead of being up so early! :) I love baby yawns!

After we ate breakfast, we went to Josh’s work to do a few things to his office. They just moved into a new office space. It’s an older building, but they have done a lot of work to it and it’s a really neat place now! Josh’s office in their new building is the old vault/safe.  He loves it, but I thought it looked a little similar to a jail cell before today with the concert floor and cinder block walls. :) After a Target run and a little time, we were able to make it look much better.

 

Josh’s parents went back home this afternoon and then tonight, we went to eat at The Parrott’s house. The weather was nice so we were able to eat outside while the kids played!

Brody had a great time playing with Jack!

Hannah, Anna Kate, Brody, Jack and Hudson having a great time in the pool!

Jillian was the only one who didn’t swim, but she had a great time watching all the other kids!

The guys played bocce ball while the girls talked!

Jillian and her favorite guy!

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Best Friends

I took this picture of Brody and Jillian one afternoon this week. It was pouring down rain so we spent the day at home. Brody wanted to watch his Max and Ruby DVD so we put it in our portable DVD player so he could watch in his room. Jillian decided she wanted to watch, too, so she scooted herself right beside Brody! :)

There is nothing sweeter to Josh and me than watching our two precious babies become best friends. They love each other so much and have really started to enjoy playing together. I am so thankful that they have each other. I know they will have so much fun together in the future!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

A few Brody stories…

Brody got some fun bath paints from my parents in his Easter basket. He loves them and is quite the little artist in the bathtub!

When he takes a bath each night, he draws pictures on one side and on the other he likes me to spell out words for him. I write the word he tells me and say the letters out loud. This was his list from Sunday night. He wanted me to write Ryan, Payne and Dalt and then write “friends” next to them because they are his friends. Then he said, “hmmm, let me see…ok, spell fish, mommy.” I wrote fish. Then he said, “hmmm, let me see…ok, spell boat.” This went on until we had made our list of these random words! :) I love that fish, boat, garbage and cakes all go together somehow in his little mind!

I was cooking dinner the other night and making a recipe that called for baby carrots. Brody came into the kitchen while I was cooking and saw the bag of carrots. He started excitedly yelling, “I like carrots a lot!” The funny thing is, he never ever eats carrots, but he insisted I give him one, so I did. I mean, what mom tells their child they can’t have a vegetable when they are so overly thrilled about it? He skipped off chewing his carrot and headed into Jillian’s room to play with her. I kept thinking I he was going to come back and tell me he didn’t like it, but he never did. As far as I knew, he ate that carrot and loved it. I was telling myself that maybe we were turning a corner on his eating habits and maybe he was going to start branching-out and trying more vegetables. What I didn’t know was that he chewed-up that carrot, lifted the ottoman in Jillian’s room and spit the pieces under it!!!! I guess he was trying to hide the fact that he didn’t like carrots after all. Josh found this pile-o-carrots a few minutes later. Yum.

I bought these waterproof pants at Target the other day. I have been meaning to buy some in case Brody decides to potty train sometime soon. I handed them to Brody and told him they were for him and asked he put them in our cart. He looked at them and said, “Oh! I loooovvveee these! They so pretty!” I couldn’t stop laughing thinking about the sweet boy getting excited about plastic underwear. :)

Brody walked into the kitchen the other morning right as I had finished unloading the dishwasher. When he saw it was empty he said, “Yay! Good job, mommy! You did it!” I was so thankful for his encouragement that day! It made that simple, but dreaded task well worth my time! Now if I could just get him to cheer for me when I clean the bathroom, then maybe I will be a little more motivated! :)

We just love our funny boy!

Friday Night Lights

This weekend, we discovered this show….

and we love it! We actually love it so much that we finished season one last night!

We had heard so many great things about this show from our friends and from friends on Twitter, so we decided to watch it and see what we thought. I realize we are only 5 years behind on starting this show, but it’s totally fine because within a few weeks we will be caught-up with the rest of the world and starting Season 5, the final season.

So I’m curious, who else loves this show as much as we do?

Texas Forever. (You know I had to say it!)

Blog Makeover

Leslie, at Sweetie Baby’s Custom Blog Design, gave our blog a little makeover! I love the new look! Leslie was wonderful to work with and was very quick with designing the new header and installing the design.

Leslie is offering our blog readers $10 off of any blog design package from now through Monday, May 30th! Be sure to check out her website if you are needing a new design!

Rainbow Cupcakes

I saw these cupcakes online a couple of months ago  and decided it would be fun for Brody and me to make them this weekend. It’s been several weeks since we have baked anything together, so I was excited to find something new for us to try!

 

 

Ingredients

• One box of white cake mix
• Food coloring
• Baking cups
• Vanilla Frosting (We used Funfetti frosting because it had sprinkles!)

1. Prepare the cake mix according to box directions.

2. Then divide the batter evenly among six small bowls.

3. Dye each bowl of batter a rainbow color. (We did red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple)

4. Line muffin pan with baking cups. Evenly distribute the purple batter among the cups, then the blue, and so on, until you have used all 6 colors in each baking cup. As you go, gently spread each layer of batter with the back of a spoon to cover the color underneath.                                          

5. Bake the cupcakes according to your recipe directions. Remove the baking cups and top the cupcakes with frosting before serving.                                             

Aren’t these so cute and so fun?

Here is a picture of Brody after he helped me with the red food coloring! Ha! He had to take a bath while the cupcakes were baking! :) 

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Homemade Baby Food

A couple of months ago, I blogged about making Jillian’s baby food. I received a few comments and a few emails from people asking how I make it, so I thought I would share what I do.

I really enjoy making baby food! It’s very easy! I made all of Brody’s baby food and plan to continue making Jillian’s until she is old enough for table food. I still buy baby food for vacations or trips to see family because I would rather not pack-up every freezer bag full of food and take it with us.  I’m sure lots of people do, but I’m just prefer not to do so. :) And just in case you were curious, I spend about 3 cents per ounce for homemade baby food. Store bought for us would be about 10 cents per ounce.

Things you need: storage bags or containers, food processor or blender, ice cube trays, fruits and vegetables (can be fresh or frozen. Obviously fresh is preferred, but vegetables/fruits aren’t always in season), water, breast milk or formula. 

Here is what I do to make baby food:

1. Thoroughly wash the vegetables and fruits.

2. Cook the vegetable or fruit you are pureeing. You can steam, boil or bake them.

3. Once the vegetable or fruit is cooked, pour it into the food processor or the blender and begin pureeing.

4. Slowly add liquid of your choice. I use water. I prefer to save the liquid gold breast milk for her to drink, but you can use water, formula, or breast milk. Completely up to you! You can also set aside the liquid from cooking and use that as your added liquid since it will retain some of the nutritional value of the vegetable or fruit cooked in it.

5. You will want to puree it until it’s at the consistency your baby will eat. I would suggest fairly thin for a 4-6 month old. I leave Jillian’s a little thick now since she is 8 months.

6. Once the puree is at the consistency you would like, then transfer to the ice cube trays. I used a spoon this time since the food was a little thicker, but when it’s thin, I poured it into a quart sized measuring cup with a spout. Then, I used the measuring cup to pour the food into the ice cube trays. That’s a little faster and less messy.

7. Place ice cube trays in freezer until completely frozen. Pop cubes out and place into labeled and dated freezer bags.  I made carrots (I know there is the nitrate debate but our pediatrician said that that’s not an issue to be concerned with), peas and carrots, corn, green beans and mixed veggies this past weekend. Our favorite fruits to make are apples, peaches, bananas (great with ground oatmeal added in), strawberries, and mixed berries.

When your baby is ready to eat you can take the cubes straight from the freezer and heat in microwave or set them out far enough in advance to fully melt. Each cube is about 1 ounce of baby food. I mix rice cereal with Jillian’s food before I feed it to her.

I just made basic vegetables and fruits, but you can make a variety of baby food cubes by mixing vegetables, fruits, and grains. The possibilities are really endless! I love to mix oatmeal with the fruits or mix some of the fruits and vegetables, such as apples and sweet potatoes, or mix some of the fruits together such as bananas and apples.

These are my go-to websites for all things baby-food-making related!

www.nurturebaby.com

www.wholesomebabyfood.com

www.homemade-baby-food-recipes.com

I hope this helps! I am by no means an expert at this, but I enjoy it and would love to answer any questions you might have about it!