Weekend

Saturday we took the boys to get their 1 year old pictures done. We usually take them to PictureMe studios because they usually have great deals and we think one of the girls that works there is great with the boys and usually gets some good pictures. We've had somebody else there before and we were happy with how the pictures turned out then too. The girl we had yesterday was new and didn't seem to have much experience with taking pictures or with kids. She was very, very nice, but we were very unhappy with how the pictures turned out. We had several coupons that I received in through email since we've been there so much the past year, and one of them was for a free picture and photo shoot, we just ended up using that so we didn't have to pay any money out of pocket. I am so disappointed, but we've decided to get them redone with somebody else. We're going to schedule the shoot for the weekend after their birthday and I'm so excited to get some new pictures done. If the weather is nice, we might have them taken outdoors.

Saturday afternoon, Greg kept the boys while I drove to Xion Crossroads which is about 30 miles from out house to pick up a play kitchen we found on Craigslist. (I told you I was addicted) We decided to make a list of high cost items that we want to get for the boys that we don't mind getting gently used. We're going to start checking Craigslit for those items on a regular basis and when we find really good deals, we'll go ahead and buy it and save it for Christmas, Easter, etc. Well, the first day, I found a great deal on this play kitchen. We had considered making our own since most of the play kitchens we've found are either girly (with lots of pink) or really expensive. When I found the one that I loved for less than 1/2 the cost, we had to get it. I wanted to give it to the boys for Christmas since I think they have enough for their birthday, but it's so big, there's no where to really store it to surprise them with it at Christmas, so we'll go ahead and get it out for their birthday. It came with 100+ pieces of food and kitchen items, so I have to wipe down the entire kitchen with clorox wipes and then clean each toy before Thursday, I have my work cut out for me.

We were all going to drive down together to get the kitchen, but I had a feeling it wouldn't fit in the back, but Greg swore it would. He called the seller and asked and they said it would. I didn't want to get all the way there and find out everybody was wrong, so I insisted on just one of us going. Greg said he'd rather stay home with the boys. So, I enjoyed an hour and a half by myself with my music blasting on my relaxing drive. Luckily, I went by myself because this is what the car looked like on the drive home. You know, it never gets old being right all the time. ;)

Sunday morning, we got up and got ready to go to church. I've been excited about "church shopping" since the boys were born and have spent a lot of time on the Internet and talking to different people about the churches around here. I have a list of several churches that I think might work for us and we're going to start trying to go every Sunday until we find one that is a good fit. The first one we're trying out is downtown next to the University. I thought going closer might be easier, especially when I'm trying to get two, very active boys ready to leave by a certain time, but it's important that the church be a good size and have plenty of activities for us and the boys to get involved with. The churches close by are a little small, so we're trying out some bigger ones that are a little farther away first.  We got there early and took the boys to the nursery. The volunteers in there were very nice and welcoming. The service was an hour and I really, really enjoyed it. Greg prefers a more contemporary service and this one was pretty traditional. After the service, we picked up the boys and were told that they did very good.

After church, we ran some errands, I finally ordered the boys smash cake and I'm so excited to pick it up on Friday and see how they turned out. I cannot believe the boys are turning 1 this week. I also made 3 different tomato recipes to eat on during the week. We had so many tomatoes from our garden and it was either cook several recipes or throw them out. So, I made the roasted tomatoes with angel hair pasta for the 3rd time this month, it's easy and I think it's delicious, so I don't mind. I also made two recipes I found from Gina's Skinny Recipes, a tomato red wine vinaigrette dressing and a garden fresh tomato sauce. Next year I'll have to plant more of a variety of vegetables. so I can make something besides tomato recipes.

I hope everybody had a great weekend. I cannot believe I didn't get any pictures--especially of the boys' first day at church. :(

Evan's First Haircut

Friday morning, we took Evan to get his hair cut. I've been wanting to go for awhile now, I actually tried trimming it at home once and it didn't go so well, so from now on, I'm leaving it up to the professionals. We decided to take him to Snip-Its, a kids haircut place nearby. When we got there, they had toys in the waiting area for the kids to play with while the parents fill out a little client card. The girl called Evan back, put him in the chair and strapped him in. After she put the drap on him, he got a little antsy. They had bubbles there to blow to distract the kids during the haircuts. The girl that worked up front came over and started talking to Evan and blowing bubbles with me. He loved the attention. She gave him some graham crackers to eat while the girl who was cutting his hair finished up. Carter was such a trooper and waited so patiently the whole time. He even got some graham crackers to munch on. When they were done, they gave Evan his client card to put in this big machine which then dispensed his "prize" which was a little rubber ducky. I don't think Evan cared much about it, but Carter loved it. The cost of a haircut was about the same as Super Cuts and for $5.00 more, they had a "first haircut" special which included a frame, a picture, and a lock of hair. Well worth the $5.00.

Some before pictures of Evan's hair. It was getting a bit long. After his naps, he would wake up looking like a mad scientist.

A picture of Carter before we left.

Evan in the chair.

I think he looks like such a big boy here.

Smiling at the nice girl that came over to entertain him while getting his hair cut.

And after. It's not perfect, but we're very happy with it. Evan likes to be on the move all.the.time, so cutting his hair is not easy.

After his haircut, we went downtown to find the church that we're going to try out on Sunday. Since it's near the university we wanted to check it out and see where we're supposed to park. On the way home, we grabbed some lunch from The Carving Board. It's one of our favorite local restaurants and it's only open 11-3 during the week, so we hardly ever get to eat there. They have the best pasta salad that I've ever tasted and delicious sandwhiches. When we got home, Greg played with the boys while I tried to organize their birthday gifts. I've been storing it all in my closet, so I got everything out and put it in the basement and put together their playhouse/tunnel thing and rearranged some things. I'm going to wrap most of their toys, but a few of them are going to be already opened and put together and set up in the basement. Then we'll bring them down there on their birthday and let them play.

Playtime. The boys love my phone.

The frame that we got with Evan's "First Haircut Package" (these photos are a little out of order, but I'm having problems with blogger)

The basement. These are the things we've got for their birthday. I opened the playhouse/tunnel thing so it'd be ready for them to play with on their birthday.

We had to run to Walmart to get some things for dinner, so we stopped by a park nearby and let the boys swing a little before shopping. I really love Greg's long weekends. It's totally worth him working an extra hour each day to have a three day weekend every other week.

Our Week So Far

Monday morning I took the boys to Pen Park for a meetup of the MOMs group. It's my favorite park, so anytime the MOMs group meets there, I try and take the boys. It had rained the night before so the grass was a little wet so the boys got filthy. I pushed them in the swings for awhile and let them play on the playground equipment and then laid a blanket out on the grass so I could talk with some of the other moms. The boys were all over the place--anywhere but our blanket. They loved other people's blankets and crawling in the damp grass, but had no interest in being on our blanket.

Here's the boys taking off

Tuesday I took the boys to an infant playgroup. There was a big turnout and it was nice meeting some other moms. I think the boys really enjoyed playing with new toys and all the other kids that were there.

Here's some pictures of the boys playing at home that day. Evan stands so good now and is cruising like a champ.

Wednesday, the boys and I met my friend, Robyn, for lunch at Panera. The boys shared a grilled cheese kids meal and yogurt. It was nice to catch up since I haven't seen much of her this summer because of busy schedules. The boys did good, although it's definitely not as easy meeting friends for lunch as it was when they used to just sit in their carseats and sleep through our entire outing. I meant to get some pictures, but carrying two boys, a diaper bag, a purse, and a bag for our high chair covers, I just didn't have any room to carry a camera. If only I had a JoTote that carries a camera and the things I need from my purse. (Hint, hint--Greg, I know you read my blog :)

Thursday, I took the boys to Yoder's to meet up with some moms in my MOM group. We always have a great time when we go. Both boys had fun petting the goats (even Carter). The weather was so nice, so we set up a blanket on the grass and I was able to talk with the other moms while the kids played. After the boys went to bed, we watched "The Fighter". I had high hopes for this movie and was a little disappointed, it was good, but not great.

Evan is so happy, he loves to clap whenever he gets excited.

Haha, Carter does not look thrilled in this picture, but I promise he had fun.

These are some pictures I got at home. Apparently the new thing for the boys to do is to climb into the basket in their playroom. Evan usually gets stuck.

I had a great coupon for Bath and Body Works, so we went by and stocked up on handsoap earlier this week. They already have their fall collection out. I had to restrain myself. It's still summer, so I bought some summery scents like "Summer Vanilla" and a few others. Seeing the Halloween ones really made me excited for fall though. I also picked up this little impulse buy at the register. It's a pocket antibacterial hand gel, I also carry some with me, but the scent is Peanut Butter and Jelly!! I love it.

I also got these iron-ons in the mail that I ordered from Etsy. I love personalized shirts, but it's hard to find ones that aren't too expensive. They are usually 18-25.00 a shirt plus shipping and handling, and times that by two, it adds up. I found these personalized iron-ons for a GREAT deal. I'm really hoping they work out. I love the boys to have fun, festive shirts for holidays and special occasions. I got them one for Thanksgiving, a couple for fall since we do lots of things like The Apple Festival, pumpkin picking, etc. I also got a few football ones in UGA and one set in Tennessee for them to wear on our next trip to Tennesee. I am so excited. I'm going to iron one on a shirt this weekend, and if it works out fine, I will be stocking up on these suckers. Since I'll be putting them on white t-shirts, I found some long sleeve shirts in different colors at Target for $4.00, that I think would look cute under a white t-shirt in the fall. I can coordinate the colors of the stickers with the long sleeve shirts. Obviously, I've been thinking a lot about this. I actually already have it planned out in my head what they are wearing to the pumpkin patch--and it's 2 months away. I hope Greg realizes how lucky him & his wallet are that we didn't have twin girls.

Greg's off today and we're taking Evan to get his first haircut. The boys have their 1 year pictures tomorrow, which I'm very excited about.

I hope everybody is having a great week.

Day 5 & 6

Friday, Carter woke up at 6:20 and Evan woke up at 6:40. I had a nurse's appointment to get some blood drawn at 7:45, so I fed the boys their bottle and got them dressed. By the time that was all done, it was time to leave for my appointment. I went to the place that I used to work, so the girls in the office all held the boys and gave them tons of attention while I was getting my blood drawn. Carter refused to smile, he doesn't mind being held by strangers, but he can be stubborn when it comes to smiling. We came home and the boys played with their toys and I fed them some oatmeal. While they were sleeping, I found out it was one of my best friend's birthdays. I have been friends with Brandi since 6th grade and I still get confused about her birthday, I always get it mixed up and think it's the 7th when it's the 5th. Thank goodness for Facebook!! After the boys nap, the bug guy came by to spray the house, he comes every 3 months and started when I was about 2 weeks before the boys were born. As soon as he comes in, Carter charges down he hall, smiling and babbling away at him handing him his pacifier. What?! All the girls at my work were just making over him a few hours before--girls he's seen several times and he refused to smile and the buy guy comes over and he goes up to him? Crazy. After the bug guy left, we played some more and ate lunch. I put the boys down at 12:50 for a nap, and Greg came home at 1:00, completely exhausted, so he took a nap also. When all the boys woke up, we ran to the post office. I hate wrapping and packing gifts--I'm awful at it and have no patience to take my time and make it look nice. Greg does all our wrapping and this picture shows why.

Then we went to Target, drove to Walmart, met somebody in the parking lot from Craigslit to buy this. and then did a little shopping at Walmart. When we got home, I picked the tomatoes from our garden--their were a ton!! Fed the boys, bathed them, and put them to bed. We cooked orzo with feta and tomatoes from our garden and watched tv and went to bed.

Saturday-Day 6

Greg got up with the boys about 6:00 and let me sleep in. I could hear Evan fussing and got out of bed to help Greg out. Evan has not really been himself lately, he's been much more fussy. I looked it up and every website I went to had a lot of complaints from mothers of 11 month olds who were easy going and suddenly went through a fussy period. Some of the mom's said it was the babies getting their molars and there were some other suggested reasons. I gave him orajel and teethers, I thought maybe it was a food allergy, so I tried cutting a lot of different things out, etc. I tried everything. I kept hearing all these stories from mom's I knew that their kids were fussy and they went in for a routine checkup and turns out they had an ear infection. I'm been very paranoid about this, so I've taken the boys in like 3 times already and neither of them has ever had an ear infection. But, I decided to call our pediatrician and make an appointment. We are very lucky to have a pediatrician with Saturday hours. They got us in, after the boys nap, we got them dressed and headed over. The waiting room was pretty full and we ended up waiting almost an hour. When the doctor came in to look at Evan, she was doing her normal check, ears, stomach, etc. and when she looked in Evan's mouth she found all these blisters in the back of his throat and it turns out he has this virus (that i can't spell) and it's very common in the summer. She looked at Carter and he had it too and he's been great lately, we had no idea anything was wrong with him. She said the virus usually causes very high fevers, severe headaches, upset and cramping stomach, etc. and is very contagious and expected everybody in the house to get it. Since it's a virus, there's nothing you can do to treat it, you can just do things to make the boys more comfortable. She suggested tylenol since the blisters can be painful and switched Evan to soy formula since milk can aggrevate any stomach problems or cramping the virus can cause and also suggested a probiotic added to 3 bottles a day to help with the stomach problems as well. I feel like the worst mom in the world for not taking him in sooner. :( We came home and put the boys down for a nap, they slept almost 2 hours. We took it easy the rest of the afternoon. , just relaxing and playing with the boys.  and after switching Evan's formula and making sure he's getting tylenol every 4 hours has helped tremendously. He's acting like his old self again and it's great!!

The boys in the exam room waiting on the doctor. They love the paper sheet they put on the exam table. and the mirror.

Tomato Recipes

I'm taking a quick break from blogging about our week to post some recipes we've tried over the past couple of days. We have had a ton of tomatoes from our garden, so I've been making all kinds of tomatoe recipes. In addition to making these, I gave away two HUGE bowls worth of tomatoes because we couldn't eat them fast enough.

I made this tomato pie recipe that I found on Scissors and Spatulas. If you haven't been to her blog, you have to check it out, she always has the best craft ideas and recipes. I loved this dish!

Source: scissorsandspatulas.com via Samantha on Pinterest

I know I wrote about this on another post, but I wanted to include it in this post. We've actually had this twice in the past week. The first time I made it according to the recipe, but the second time I left out the shrimp and added 10 tomatoes instead of the 5 that the recipe calls for. I actually liked it better that way.

Source: realsimple.com via Samantha on Pinterest

I love this Orzo with Feta and Tomatoes from Rachel Ray. It's so simple and tasty. It would be good as a side dish, but we eat a bowl of it as an entree. It's really quick and easy to make. You should definitely try it.

Source: foodnetwork.com via Samantha on Pinterest

Day 4

Day 4 of a Week in Our Life.

Thursday morning the boys woke up about 5:40 and we did our normal routine. Bottle, play time, oatmeal and cheerios, followed by more playtime and down for a nap two hours after they woke up. While they were sleeping I looked for that Leapfrog toy. I found out that Walmart and Target were sold out online. I decided to order it from Amazon, but then checked Craigslist first. I happen to find a listing that was several weeks old that somebody was selling them for less than 1/2 the price of a new one from a smoke free, pet free home. I decided to email her to see if it was still available and it was, so we decided to meet in a parking lot in the Target shopping center at 10:30. The boys woke up from their nap at 9:45 or so, I fed them a bottle, got them dressed, loaded them in the car and we went to meet the seller. The toy was clean and in perfect condition. I was so happy to have the last thing that I really wanted to get them for their birthday. It wasn't even that big of a deal, but once I get my mind set on something, I'm not very flexible. I had an idea of what I wanted them to have for their birthday and that's what I was going to get. :)

Carter playing

If I put them on a blanket outside, they are off it in 2 seconds. If I put down a blanket in the middle of the living room, they love it. They think it's so fun to play on it.

I always see them like this and think "Aww, so cute that they're playing so close"

Nope! Not playing. Evan just wants Carter's pacifier.

He grabs it.

And he's off.

We came home and played with the boys, they played with their play kitchen and Laugh & Learn mailbox. Carter loves putting the envelopes in the mail slot, I have to get a video of him doing that this week because he's so good at it now. They took a nice long nap, almost 2 hour. Greg came home and played with the boys while I showered and got ready. We went and grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed to the county fair. They didn't open until 5:30, which was a little late, but I really wanted to take the boys this year. We went to the petting zoo area and Evan loved it. He is not afraid of any animal and loves petting them and when they get really close to him. Carter does not share Evan's enthusiasm. We walked through the fair and didn't see any rides that we could take the boys on. We didn't expect to, but we walked through just in case. On our way out we passed a kids play area. There was a circle made out of hay and some John Deere riding toys, play slides, etc. Then there was a tent with a sandbox full of corn kernals instead of sand, blocks, a big piece of carpet with a play kitchen on it, so we took the boys around and let them play for awhile. They had a lot of fun. I had already decided to get them a play kitchen, I was going to try and build one from an old tv stand like I've seen on some other blogs, but now I'm going to have to get on it because the boys really enjoyed playing with it. I thought they'd be 18months or 2 years old before they'd enjoy playing with one.

Evan threw a fit when we put shoes on him to go to the fair. I knew they'd be standing in dirt to pet the animals and wanted them to wear shoes. He fussed and tried to get them off, but couldn't. So, Carter stopped trying to take his own shoes off, crawled over to Evan and took Evan's shoes off for him. It was so sweet.

Carter watching Evan throw a fit.

As you can see from the following pictures, the boys won the shoe fight.

We got home and gave them a quick bath. We put them down about 7:25pm, Evan went immediately to sleep. Carter was a little overtired adn it took him 20 minutes or so. Greg then watched some old episodes of The Office on dvd before getting ready for bed. I laid in bed for awhile surfing my ipad for home binder ideas before finally going to sleep about 10:00.

So, Greg reads my blog sometimes and he informed me this "week in our life" is very, very boring. I know! But, I really want to look back and and see how we spent our time with the boys at different stages because I honestly can't remember how our days went when they were 2, 3, 4, 5 months old, etc. I've already forgotten so much and they're not even a year old yet. I do this blog as a scrapbook/journal of the boys life and I want to remember all of it--the good, the bad, and the boring. :) Only 2 more days.