The characters we met

The boys are not very big on the characters at Disney World. Our first trip in December they would not get anywhere near them. It worked out fine though because we had more time for rides.

On this trip I wanted to have more opportunities for them to meet characters if they wanted. Andrew warmed up a little but was pretty insistent on only hugging Buzz Lightyear.

Owen wanted nothing to do with any of them.

Maybe next time.

Rite of Passage volume II

When we were at Disney Owen fell and got his first skinned knee. He was running around Tomorrowland with Andrew and tripped. He cried a little but I had Mickey bandaids in my bag so that cheered him up!

 When he's older and we visit Disney I can show him where he got his first skinned knee. Just another Disney memory :)

Strangely enough he and Andrew both got their first skinned knees at the same age, 21 months.

Over the river logs...

And through the woods...

To Granddaddy's house we go.

Just some things...

It's 9:38 and I'm laying in my bed with a sleeping Andrew.

When Perry is working I sneak Andrew from his bed to mine. I like having us all on the same sie of the house. Feela safe!

My best friend got married today. It was a perfect, she got married on the courthouse steps. Surrounded by family and friends.

I got misty eyed. So did he husband. He's sweet and he's perfect for her.

I brought them cupcakes from Gigi's. Heavenly is a good word to describe these cupcakes. I ate half of a grasshopper cupcake. The icing tasted like those cream cheese mints that southerns have a baby showers. Yum!

I'm going to a big consignment sale tomorrow morning. I gobto this sale twice a year. It's a good one.

I have been selling baby clothes on ebay. I have also been buying cute summer outfits for the boys. I need to sell more to pay for what I have bought.

My inlaws are coming tomorrow evening. I'm excited, we'll have fun. I'm also excited I will be able to get ready for our trip because they entertain the boys so well.

We leave Monday and I can't wait to drive under the welcome arch at Walt Disney World. It was going to be a surprise but Andrew knows. Not sure how but he does.

Owen is growing ao fast and he is saying new words all the time. He even says some sentences. Like "I cold" and "I want ball"

He loves his crib now and always has to take two toys to bed along with his baby. His baby is a small stuffed chocolate lab puppy.

Owen has become a huge Daddy's boy over the last few weeks. It's so sweet to hear him call for his Daddy.

Andrew is precious. I just want to squeeze him and I do, and he says, "Hey, you squishin' me."
He loves me and he loves to take care of me and give me kisses. He also loves to tell me he's a big boy with big muscles.
According to him, Owen is a baby, he is a big boy and Austin is a guy.

Last night he told me his knee hurt and asked me to go get him some ice. I died laughing. He saw my Dad icing his knee and wanted to be just like Granddaddy.

I could go on and on about those two boys.

Tomorrow I want to do another post with questions and answers from Andrew. Hopefully I will get to it.

Good Night.

Today

Today we....

Went furniture shopping. Furniture for the boys...bunkbeds actually. We found one we like and they liked it too!

They are going to be sharing a room. We'll probably move Owen into Andrew's room this spring. No rush really because he has finally learned to love his crib and sleep all night.

After the furniture store we went to the mall. The Mall of Georgia and had lunch in the food court. The boys ate Chick-fil-a and Perry and I had Japanese and it was so good.

The boys begged to ride the carousel so after lunch we let them.

Owen chose a bench to sit on

Andrew chose a horse, it's name was not Bullseye!

(See that smirk, it's my favorite and he does it all the time when he's thinking.)

After the carousel we went to a few stores. We didn't really find anything.

On the way out of the mall I turned the boys Chick-fil-a books in and got them each an ice cream bowl. It was a mess from the first bite to the last slurp.

On the way home we stopped by Kohl's to look for khakis for Perry. I didn't have any luck but I got Andrew's teacher a cute candle for Valentine's Day.

When we got home Andrew took a nap and Owen and I played outside. It was so nice out today.

He rode in the wagon

 Played a little baseball

Then rode his little truck around

Perry wanted to go run so I bundled Owen up and off they went!

Poor Perry, strollers are just not made for tall people.

When they got back Andrew was still asleep so Owen played trains by himself.

I see this face all day and it's not an adoring look more like an annoyed look.

Much better! There's my sweet boy!

He obviously had enough of me taking pictures. He blocked my camera then...

tried to run away!

I packed the snacks for Disney. We have lots of junk food that I have been buying when I find a good deal! Calories don't exist while at Disney anyway.

I popped dinner in the oven. Buttermilk roasted chicken and roasted broccoli. I wanted something other than just plain old steamed.

While dinner was cooking I stood on the counter and took these pictures of the boys playing together. It's hit or miss with these two. They can be so sweet but 2 seconds later be fighting.

Dinner is served. That thing sticking out of the rice is a parmesan crisp. I have a block of parm that I needed to use up. I love the crispiness and saltiness of parmesan crisps.

Owen loved the parmesan crisp too! Andrew called it a cheesey chip, which is really what it is.

After dinner the boys took a bath and I cleaned the bathroom while they played.

After bathtime I put Owen to bed and Andrew watched an episode of Mighty Machines with Perry.

I had a little sewing project in mind so I did that. It only took a few minutes.

It's a door bumper. I got the idea from somewhere online. Andrew is bad about slamming doors, everytime I hear one slam I cringe and wait for the cries from Owen and his broken finger. This little pad will do the trick though. I'm being proactive so hopefully no little fingers will get slammed in the bedroom door.

That's it for today! It was such a great day, anyway day that Perry is home and we are all together is a good day really.

I love spending time with my family. We are truely blessed!

Thursday in pictures

I recorded what we did yesterday with my phone camera. I meant to put this up last night but forgot.

So here was a regular Thursday with an extraordinary ending in pictures...and captions.

 Cutting up strawberries for breakfast

 Strawberries and chocolate chocolate chip muffins.

 Ready for our errands. Owen picked his hat out

 Last stop was the library for a stack of books and some fun in the playhouse

 Ringing the doorbell

 pita pizzas and strawberries for lunch

 Andrew's obsession right now is building garages for his boat and trucks

 Playing together so nicely

 night night hugs

We are booked for another trip to Disney World!

We'll be there February 6th-10th and can't wait!



Resolutions and fruition part 2

Another area in my life that I want to improve on is my cooking. I only struggle with this half of the time. When Perry is home I am on top of it. We both like to cook and we make meals that a great, lots of variety and most of them are healthy.

On the other hand when Perry is not home I struggle with making a full meal for just me and the boys. Together they eat less than an adult, unless it's breakfast. It's just hard to come up with creative meals that are healthy, kid friendly and only enough for 2! I try to avoid leftovers because I don't enjoy eating them.

It is also hard because I have made these rules for myself. Like if I'm going to make pasta I should at least use 1/2 whole wheat pasta. I can't use seasoning packets or condensed soup because those are full of salt and other junk! Those rules are fine but sometimes rules are made to be broken.
When I don't bend the rules I get frustrated and when I get frustrated we go to Chick fil a. Now, I know that sounds crazy and it is! Really fried chicken can't be better than enriched flour pasta. But I justify it because it's easy and everyone eats dinner. By the way, I get them fruit instead of fries. Does that help?

I'm not sure when I made these rules but I'm pretty sure it's from watching documentaries like Food Inc.


So my ultimate goal is this:
Make a healthy kid friendly meals and snacks we will all enjoy

My obstacles:
Andrew is very picky about veggies
My "rules"

My plan of attack:
Stop buying 100% whole wheat pasta. NO ONE likes it, its wasteful if no one eats it!
Allow myself to bend the rules.
Freeze extra portions so leftovers do not go to waste.
Make some meals ahead of time so it's ready when the boys are.
Celebrate success!


We haven't had very many dinners alone yet this year because Perry had been home and we've hung out with my parents a few nights. I did want to share some of my success so far though.

One of the first meals of the new year I planned to let the boys build their own pot pies.

We used little ramekins and I set out different veggies and chunks of chicken. They did a great job of filling their little dishes. I had to finish Owen's off because he got distracted eating the veggies. He's our veggie lover!

I served the pot pies with fruit salad. The results? Owen and I both gobbled ours up and Andrew picked out the chicken and ate his fruit. I call it success because he ate chicken that was not fried and we were able to spend time together in the kitchen.

For this meal I allowed myself to use some low sodium cream of chicken soup mixed with milk and I used store bough crust that I had leftover from Christmas (which the boys didn't eat).  I also used either fresh or frozen veggies to maximize nutrients (Did you know canned veggies only retain 40% of their nutrients and sometimes frozen veggies are more nutrient rich than fresh?) Also, we had no leftovers because I only made enough for one meal. So this meal is a keeper!

Another one of the first meals of the year was pita pizzas for lunch. These are not new but I made a few changes and got Andrew to help.

Andrew chose to put tomatoes on his because they are one of his favorite foods. We used whole wheat pita, I can get away with that because they taste like the regular ones. I put spinach and pesto on mine and Owen's. These were great. Andrew ate about 3/4 of his and Owen ate the rest and a piece of mine. Another success.

For a snack last week we used the rest of our pitas and made homemade pita chips. They were great with the hummus I made. Both boys ate that for a snack. The only downside is that there was a lot of hummus leftover and I ended up tossing it.

Also last week for dinner I found two recipes on Pinterest. One was baked sweet and sour chicken and fried rice. The boys loved the sauce on the chicken. Andrew picked around the veggies in the fried rice and Owen ate his and Andrew's. I'll count that as another success!

The other recipe was for mozzarella stuffed meatballs. I served them with spaghetti and Prego and they were a hit! Everyone loved them! I had leftover meatballs and we ate them with marinara sauce for lunch the next day.

Overall, I am feeling confident in the meals that I am making for the boys, we have only eaten at chick fil a once and that was when we were out and about. I'm looking forward to trying out more recipes on the boys. It's been a fun challenge so far!