It is Official

I
am
addicted
to



Josh & I literally spent our whole evening
watching the first season together.

It
is
so
good.

I think I uttered the words,
"Please! Just one more episode,"
about a hundred times.
No lie.

Where have we been all this time!?
Do you watch LOST?

My Little Ray Charles

Cupcakes Galore

I can't get these pretty little cupcakes out of my mind.



Tempting, huh?

I mean, technically it is a holiday weekend,
so you're supposed to splurge, right?

No, Libby.
Those lovely, delicious looking cupcakes
will go straight to the hips.

Okay, I guess I am resisting this time.
They probably don't taste very good anyway.
Or at least that is what I keep telling myself.

Want to try them out for me?
Click here for all the recipes.

p.s. Have a wonderful Memorial weekend!
And a big thank you to our Veterans
for all of their courage & sacrifice.
We are so very thankful for you!

C & C Winner!

The winner is...

Shanna!!

Congratulations lovely lady!
You won the $15 credit to Cindy's fabulous
Etsy shop Cranberries & Capers

Email me & I will get you in contact with Cindy.

------------------------------

And for the rest of you who didn't win {I know, bummer!},
guess what I have for you?!

Cindy is giving all of my wonderful readers
15% off an order until May 30th!
How sweet is that?

When you check out, there will be
a box that says "Message to Seller."
In that box put: Bonjour
Cindy will then refund the discount after
the money has been received.

Isn't she just fabulous!?

So, what are you waiting for?
Click here to start shopping!

By the way, I was kind of in a girly mood tonight when I
was making the collage, can't ya tell?
There are very cute items for baby boys too!

Growing by the Day

Noah you are 21 months today. I know I say this all the time, but how do you grow so fast? You are such a big boy now and growing up by the day. Let's see Mr. Noah, what are you doing these days?

1. For a while you quit playing in Einstein's water bowl. So Mommy and Daddy started keeping Einstein's water bowl on the ground. Then all of a sudden, you decided you were missing out, and now I cannot keep your little fingers out of it! You also love to transfer Einstein's food into his water bowl. Quite a stinker you are!

2. You are becoming more & more ornery by the day; you are always doing something to pick on Einstein. Lately you have started this thing where you will just fall on him. And you think it's pretty funny. I don't know how many times a day I tell you to, "Be nice to Einstein," or "Be gentle."

3. You are starting to get the hang of brushing your teeth now. Yay! You are very cooperative now and willingly open your mouth for Mommy to brush your teeth.

4. Like any growing boy, you love to eat. Some of favorite foods are, bagels, grilled vegetables, string cheese and cheerios. Oh yeah, you also love orange juice; you'd drink a gallon a day if we let you.

5. You are a BIG Momma's boy, and you hate it when I leave to go anywhere without you.

6. You love cups and bowls. Anytime you see one sitting on the counter or in the dishwasher, you want it! The other night I let you take your three cups to bed, and when I went in to check on you before getting into bed, I found your three cups lined up along the edge of your crib. You are always doing something to make Momma laugh. It was too cute!

7. You love TUMS {yes, the antacid}, and the red ones are your favorite. You can thank your pediatrician for giving Mommy & Daddy the ok to give them to you.

8. You are pointing to everything wondering what it is. Your favorite things to point at are lights and lamps. And every time we say, "light" you start laughing. It's so cute. Even though you aren't saying many words yet, you are soaking it all in, and I bet it won't be long before you are telling us everything!

9. You, Mr. Noah, have quickly learned what "time out" is. In fact, now most of the time all I have to say is, "Do you want to go to your room?" and you stop whatever mischief you are doing. Such a smart little boy.

10. You still give the sweetest hugs and kisses ever!

11. You love to splash water everywhere when you are taking a bath. Tonight, I was sitting on the floor outside of the bathtub watching you play, and you almost soaked me with all of your splashing.

12. You are a pretty independent little guy throughout the day. But the one time you always want me to hold you is when I'm cooking dinner. Of course, I just can't resist those little arms reaching up to me, so most of the time you are on my hip helping me get dinner ready.

13. You love sweeping your hands along Momma & Daddy's dusty TV stand. Then you look at your dirty fingers, and do you know what you do? You come over and wipe your dusty little fingers on Momma's pant leg. What in the world? How did you learn that?

14. When Daddy is leaving for work, you love to go on the porch and watch him get into the car. You wave "bye-bye" to him and talk to him from the balcony until he leaves. It's the sweetest thing ever!

15. You are really picking up signing so well. We are very proud of you. In the past few weeks, you have added cracker, thank you, ice cream, your name, eat, and many more signs to your vocabulary.

You amaze us everyday sweet Noah bear. You are our greatest blessing! Mommy & Daddy love you so much.

p.s. Don't forget-- today is the last day for the giveaway! Winner will be announced tomorrow.

Cereal

I'm so proud of my little guy!

Guess what Noah did for the
very first time the other morning?



He ate cereal all by himself! Cereal with milk.



All you Momma's out there know how
very messy that can get.



But he did it! All by himself!



And he was proud of himself too. Can't ya tell?



You should be proud of yourself mister!
That is a big accomplishment.



p.s. And a weight loss update for this week--
I've lost 10 lbs {yes, you heard me right} since I started
2 weeks ago! I'm here to tell you Weight Watchers works!

And-- don't miss out on the fabulous giveaway below.

Surprise!

Surprise!!!
It's giveaway time again!
Told you the next one wouldn't be far off.

I came across this adorable little Etsy shop called
Cranberries & Capers not long ago, and I fell in love
with every single item in the store.



Cindy, the designer behind Cranberries & Capers,
started creating all of these lovely handmade items
while she was pregnant with her third baby.
And the rest is history;
once she got started, she just couldn't stop.

Take a look at some of her goodies.

Cute Little Bird Clippy Holder:



The clip holder is probably one of my favorite items in her store.
I guess right now it wouldn't be much use in my household of boys.
But still, it's cute!

Hair Clippies!! Love them all.
But seriously, look how cute those little birdies are!

Just wait until you see all of the pacifier clips! Oh my!
It just doesn't get any cuter than these personalized pacifier clips:

Or, maybe it does:

And for the sports fanatics out there:

I just adore this pink flower headband. Oh so pretty {and girly}!

Cute, cute stuff!

So my friends, let's get on with the giveaway, shall we?

Cindy is generously giving one lucky winner
a $15 credit to her shop, Cranberries & Capers
{that'll go far - her prices are great!}

To enter into the giveaway:

First entry: go visit Cindy's shop by clicking here.
Then come back and leave me a comment
telling me what your favorite item is.
That's all you have to do to enter into the giveaway.

If you want extra entries,
you may do any of the following and leave
me a comment to let me know what you have done:

1. Follow Cindy's blog
2. Follow my blog -- anyone can follow whether you have a blog or not
{let me know if you already follow}

So, you can have a total of up to three entries into
the giveaway! Sounds like a good deal to me.

And for those of you don't have little ones in the house, go ahead and enter.
I don't know about you, but I could always use a birthday or shower gift!

If you have any questions at all, just click the "email me"
button on the right and ask away.

You have until this Thursday, May 27th to enter.
The winner will be announced this Friday, May 28th.
Good luck everyone!

Something Sweet

I love Smoothies! How about you?

Tonight I have three yummy new flavors for you to try:
Triple Berry, Strawberry Kiwi, & Very Blueberry.

And guess what?!
Everyone of them are less than a 100 calories a cup!

Triple Berry recipe: click here.
Strawberry Kiwi recipe: click here.
Very Blueberry recipe: click here.

Enjoy!

Also, new recipes for this upcoming week are now available!
Don't know what I'm talking about? Click here.

p.s. Happy Birthday Darrell! Hope you have a wonderful day!
We will be thinking about you and we love you very much.

Warning: Don't Look!

Oh boy! I knew this would happen, but I did it anyway. I went to Pottery Barn's website tonight to "browse." Um yeah right. I can't ever just "browse," I always end up buying something. I mean sometimes I resist, but not tonight. Oh no, I just can't resist these adorable sling chairs!



Aren't they cute?!? I know, just try to resist the temptation.

But I, on the other hand, have pretty much decided my little guy needs one of these to lounge around in. I mean wouldn't it be the perfect chair to take camping or to relax in and watch the fireworks on the 4th?

And the cuteness doesn't just stop with the chair itself, you can personalize them too! I love personalized stuff, don't you?

Look at the girly pink and polka dot ones! Oy!



I'm lovin' the blue and white stripped. I just think that one looks like Noah.



Which one is your favorite?

I'm pretty sure by now you just can't resist buying one either, so you can find one of these cute patootie chairs here.

That's My Momma!

Sunday morning I was in the nursery at church helping take care of the children, and we had three children ranging from 6 months to 4 years old. I just love each one of them; they're all so precious. We also had a visitor who brought her 4 month old to church, but she decided to keep the sweet bundle of joy with her. I don't blame her. I remember how hard it was to leave Noah for the first time; it's definitely not easy. Anyways, it wasn't long before her sweet baby was crying in church, so momma had no other choice but to bring him to the nursery.

I ended up holding the baby, and at first he was content looking up at me with his big bright eyes. Baby fever had suddenly hit me again. But it wasn't long before the little guy realized that I was not his momma, and he wanted her now!! So, then I panicked {just kidding}. But, I did think to myself, "Ok, what did I do to calm little Noah when he was a baby?" It's amazing how quickly that stage passes by. Sad really.

Anyway, I tried rocking him. Nope. He just screamed louder. Then I thought, "Oh, maybe if I change his diaper! Yeah that will work." Um, negative. So then I ran a check list in my mind of what I hadn't done. Oh, yes! A bottle should make him feel better. But, he refused it and continued to cry. So, I stood up and started bouncing him on my shoulder to see if I could calm him, and lo and behold, he began to calm down. What is it with standing versus sitting? It always seems to work that way, doesn't it? So, I finally got him calmed down, at least for a minute, and then guess who started bawling?

You guessed it, Noah! He did not like that his mommy was holding another baby. He buried his head against me, wrapped his arms around my legs, and just cried and cried and cried. I felt so bad. Of course I wanted to sweep him up in my arms and hold my little guy, but I just couldn't at that point because the other worker was holding the other baby. Thank heavens, the other baby fell asleep after a few minutes, so I was able to hand off my little baby and tend to Noah.

Of course, as soon as I wasn't holding the baby anymore, guess who stopped crying.

My jealous little Noah. Oh goodness.

Don't you worry sweet little guy, you will always, always be my baby.

"Where is Noah?"

While we were at the dinner table the other night,
Noah created a new version of "Where is Noah?"

Oh, I love it! What a little cutie!

Silly Ol' Pug

Remember this blog post I wrote about our Lord Protector?
Yeah, well, Einstein is determined to live up to that name.

So, I guess my only other option now is
to buy myself some ear plugs.
Silly Ol' Pug.

Ice Cream

Noah is a pretty big fan of ice cream, as you can see.



And surprisingly he keeps himself pretty clean while he's eating it...



...which makes cleanup afterward a breeze.



Can someone please explain this mystery to me?



Aren't toddlers supposed to make messes?



Hm. Guess not.

p.s. I've been a very happy girl today. Wanna know why?
I lost 6.6 lbs my first week of doing Weight Watchers!!
Talk about motivation to keep going! Yay!

This Week's Recipes

Update: The recipes are better organized and now formatted for easier reading. Enjoy!

So, let's not waste any time and get to the new addition to the blog, shall we? I know you're just dying to know what all the fuss is about.



This is the new button the hubs made for me, and it will go underneath the email button on the right side of the blog. You do know I have an email button, right? I'm so excited I can hardly wait to tell you what this new button is all about.

This past Monday I started Weight Watchers, and I am totally loving it. I love it because it doesn't feel like a "diet." It is all about portion control and learning to choose the right foods that fill you up. And part of being successful with Weight Watchers {or just eating healthy in general} is having a dedicated meal plan each week.

So, last Sunday night while I was planning my menu for the week, I thought to myself, "What if I created a button on the blog that links to my menu plan for each week to share with all of my wonderful friends & family?" And then I thought, "Heck yes that is a good idea!" So, I begged Josh on my hands and knees {ok, not really} to make me a This Week's Recipes button, and he sweetly obliged.

Each week, on Saturday evening, I will post my menu for the week. All you have to do is click the This Week's Recipes button {again, located on the right side of the blog underneath the email button}, and it will take you directly to the recipes. If you look over it, and it looks like a good menu for you and your family then you can just print the sucker off, and voila, you have your menu for the week. All you have to do is the shopping. Sounds like a good deal, huh? Or if you see some meals that make you want to gag, then you can just pick and choose. Be forewarned, most of these recipes will be new to our family, so it will be a trial and error for all of us. But it's fun trying out new recipes, right? Seems like I always get in a rut and cook the same things {ahem, chicken} over and over again, so this will help all of us branch out. So far all the recipes we've tried this week have been wonderful!

And also, obviously there will be times when I go out town or when something else comes up, so there may be a few weeks here and there when I don't post a new set of recipes. But for the most part, there will be new recipes every week for you to enjoy.

So what do you think? Please, leave me a comment and let me know. Or if you have a suggestion, just email me. I would love to hear it.

I hope you enjoy this new addition to the blog!



p.s. I just want to thank you again and again for all of your votes for the Overall Awesomest Blog contest. It was a close race, but we ended up in second place. It sure was an honor being nominated though. We truly appreciate your support!! Thanks so much!

Kansas City Part 2

I'm back with the second half of our trip to Kansas City. If you missed the story of Noah & our, um, interesting flight to Missouri, you can read it by clicking here. I'll wait for you to return.

Ok, glad you're back. So, we finally arrived, and I was as relieved as ever to be off the plane. I'm sure Noah was too. We walked hand in hand through the airport to the luggage claim to get our stuff. By that point, Noah hadn't napped, so he was tired and not in the mood to run around the airport. Thank the Lord. He was the sweetest little guy and stood with me the whole time as we waited for our luggage. My sister, Abby, met us at the luggage claim, and somehow between the two of us, we managed to get Noah, his huge bulky car seat, and the suitcase safely to the car. On our way back from the airport we stopped by Bibi's work to say hello, and then we decided to grab some lunch. We went to Panera Bread, ahhh one of my favorite spots to eat, and we stuffed our faces. Yummm it was so good. We decided to head back to Abby's apartment to rest and wait for my mom to arrive. I had never seen Abby's apartment, so she gave me a tour of the place. I wish I would have taken some pictures of her beautiful apartment; I loved how she decorated it. It wasn't too long before my mom arrived, and we all decided to take Noah on a walk around the apartment complex. Of course, Noah loved being outdoors and was all boy exploring everything around him.

That evening we met up with Bibi and we all went to Red Robin for dinner. They must have had a party or something going on, because there were balloons every where in the restaurant. Noah loved the balloons, and of course he wanted every single balloon he spotted. Somehow {ahem, thanks Bibi!} the little guy ended up with two balloons at the table, and one of them kept hitting me in the head every five seconds. I was wishing I had a needle to pop that sucker. Oh, did I say that out loud? Oops. After dinner we left with full tummies and two balloons. Noah wasn't about to let go of those things. The little guy had a death grip on them. I don't have many pictures of Noah at the restaurant with his balloons. The settings on my camera were all wrong, and a lot of them turned out blurry {insert sad face here}. I hate when that happens.

I love this picture of Noah and Bibi at the restaurant. Let me tell you, they were the best buddies the whole time we were there. And boy did Bibi spoil him rotten!

After dinner we all made a quick trip to Walmart to get Noah a jacket {since Mommy forgot to pack one} and a few other things. We split up as soon as we got there, and Abby and Bibi went off to look at the toys {for little Mr. Spoiled}, and my mom and I went over to the clothing area to find Noah a jacket. Of course, Noah still had a death grip on one of his balloons, so the balloon came along with us into Walmart. Pick and choose your battles, right?

We looked around a little bit, and finally found a good jacket for Noah. But we weren't sure on the size, so we decided to try it on him. Remember, Noah and his balloon were inseparable, so you can imagine the fuss he made when we tried to take it from him so he could try the jacket on. My mom and I both thought we had a good grip on the balloon, but apparently, we did not because the balloon slowly began to drift to the ceiling. We felt horrible!! He kept reaching up to the ceiling at the balloon, and we couldn't do anything about it. But, guess who came to the rescue: Bibi!! He stood on top of a clothes rack and captured the balloon! Yay!

When we got back to the apartment the real fun began! Bibi bought a whole bag of balloons and blew every single one of them up for Noah. He had so much fun! He was running through all the balloons and kicking them everywhere. It was so cute.

"Mom, seriously, put down the camera."

The next couple of days were full of wedding planning. We had so much fun. I am so glad I was able to be a part of helping Abby plan for her big day. And it's sure nice to not be the bride this time! Abby made a bunch of appointments, so we were busy running all over the place. Sweet Noah was so good the whole time. He was probably wondering how he got stuck wedding planning with the girls. Where was Bibi when he needed him? Anyway, here are a few of my favs:

All the wedding planning wore the little guy out.

The whole trip was just so much fun. We loved every minute of it. But I have to say, "Where's Noah?!" was my favorite part. When Noah got a reaction from all of us when he jumped out from behind the blinds, he did it over and over and over again. I think I could have watched him do it all night long. It was soooo cute!

Stop right here. Before you push the play button, turn the volume on your computer down. We were a little excited and didn't realize how loud we were. So just a word of warning before you watch it.

We love you Mom, Abby, and Bibi. So glad we were able to come visit you. Hope it's not too long before we hang out again.