Behind On Blogging

I started this blog as a way to keep in touch with our families. I knew we would eventually have kids and I wanted a way to share pictures, videos, stories, etc with our families since they all live in other states. I have not been doing a good job at posting updates on the boys, so I'll try and do better. The boys are still eating every 3 hours, so we don't have a ton of free time. I'd say that once they start going further between feedings or sleeping through the night, then I'll have more time, but I know that's probably not the case. When they hit those milestones, then they'll also probably start new things, like being awake more during the day, crawling, etc. that will keep me equally as busy, so I'll try harder at making time to update our family blog when the boys are sleeping.

Evan is due for a feeding in 10 minutes, so I'll just post some recent pictures that we've taken, and I'll do a longer post with how they're doing later.

Both boys have been smiling and cooing. It's so cute. It's hard to catch it on camera, but I we were able to catch Evan smirking. I love his little fist up there, like he's posing.

The picture is blurry, but I think it's such a cute picture of Evan. We were trying to catch both boys smiling, but it didn't work out that way. But, we were able to catch Evan with a big grin on his face.

The boys started sleeping in their cribs a week or two ago.

Evan sleeping in his crib.

Greg was grilling out, so he posed with the boys wearing their "Daddy's BBQ Buddy" onsies. They are size 0-3 months, but still a little big on the boys.

Getting both boys to look at the camera is quite a challenge. It's hard to get either of them to look a the camera.
We have so many footy pajamas. We have over 30 pairs. I love them. I think the boys look so cute in them. I look forward to getting them ready for bed, so I can put them in their cute little pajamas. I wanted to get a picture of them in their cute matching pajamas.
I don't know why this picture uploaded sideways. But, I think it's a good one of Carter. We were trying to catch him smiling, but of course he would only do it before I got the camera out and after I put it away.


Well, Evan is starting to stir, so I better get a bottle ready. I'll post more again soon.

Monday's Meals-Chili

Every Monday, Lindsie over on "A Love Worth Waiting For" has "Monday's Meals" where her readers share recipes so everybody can get ideas on what to cook for dinner. I decided last week to make a pot of chili on Friday so Greg and I could eat on it all weekend. My mom left Friday morning, so it's just the 4 of us now and I thought we could use an easy meal for our first full weekend alone with the boys. It's so easy and delicious. It's the perfect meal for fall (it was perfect fall weather when I bought the ingredients but today it's 86 degrees out!). I like to cook the meat and cut up the vegetables the night before and then in the morning, put everything in the crock pot and cook on low for 10 hours.

Dad's Crock Pot Chili

1 lb. coarsely ground beef chuck
1 lb of inexpensive steak, (flank, top, round, etc)
2 (16 oz) cans red kidney beans, include liquid
2 (14 1/2 oz) cans tomotoes, include liquid (I used Zesty Chili Style tomatoes)
1 small can tomato paste, and 1 can of liquid
1 (16 oz) jar sliced jalapeno peppers
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
1 green pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peel and crushed
3 heaping tablespoons chili powder
3 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon seaston salt
1 teaspoon tenderizer salt

Add oil to pan and saute garlic for 1-2 minutes, add ground beef,add pepper and season salt. Brown meat and drain. Cut the steak into small bite-sized pieces. Add oil to pan and saute garlic for 1-2 minutes, add steak, add pepper and tenderizer salt. Brown and drain fat. Add meat and all other ingredients to crock pot. Stir well. Cover and cook on low for 10 hours. *I cook the meat and cut up the onion & green pepper the night before, so all I have to do in the morning is combine all the ingredients*

Monday's Meals "Simple Sesame Noodles"

Lindsie over on "A Love Worth Waiting For" is having "Monday's Meals" where everybody shares a recipe that they like. It's a great way to get some fresh ideas on what to cook for supper. I've been so lucky to have my mom here helping with the boys so I've been able to cook some this past week. I tried a couple new recipes as well as some of my go to favorites. This recipe is from Pioneer Woman. I love her, I know if I get a recipe from her website that it's going to be delicious. Simple Sesame Noodles are so easy to make. Greg doesn't think it counts as a meal unless there's meat, so I marinated some chicken breast in teriakyi sauce all day and then grilled and it went great with the noodles. Some other recipes that I made this week were Paula Deen's Cheeseburger Meatloaf, Pioneer Woman's Tomato Cream Pasta, Italian Chicken, Pumpkin Cheesecake, etc. I'll try and post the recipes for those later.

Simple Sesame Noodles

Ingredients
• 12 ounces, fluid Thin Noodles, Cooked And Drained
• 1/4 cups Soy Sauce
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• 4 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 2 Tablespoons Rice Vinegar
• 3 Tablespoons Pure Sesame Oil
• 1/2 teaspoons Hot Chili Oil
• 4 Tablespoons Canola Oil
• 2 Tablespoons Hot Water
• 4 whole Green Onions, Sliced Thin



Instructions
Whisk all ingredients (except noodles and green onions) together in a bowl. Taste and adjust ingredients as needed.
Pour sauce over warm noodles and toss to coat.
Sprinkle with green onions and toss.

Fall Decorations

I was able to put up my fall decorations last Sunday, but haven't had a chance to post since then. The boys were having such a great, easy day that Greg and I took advantage of it and cleaned the house up and I went outside and planted my mums that Greg's parents bought us and put up some of my fall decorations. My mom got in later that evening, so it was nice to have that stuff done before she arrived. It's rained so much since planting my mums, and now they're starting to bloom. I need to take a picture of them in full bloom.

Show Us Where You Live-Dining Room

It's "Show Us Where You Live-Dining Rooms" over on Kelly's Korner. This is the 3rd week of Show Us Where You Live, but it's the first week that I've had the time to take the pictures and do this post. I hope to be able to continue with the rest of the tour. Here's our dining room.

Believe it or not, Greg loves this purple color.

We got the picture from Kirkland's. I love that store, I find something in there everytime I go and they have such good prices.

My goal for this year was to fill this wine rack with wines from local vineyards that we've visited, but being pregnant for 8 months out of the year prevented us from going wine tasting, so I probably won't get this done for a while.

First Day Alone

**I wrote this Thursday night, I'm not sure why it didn't post, so this is a few days late**

Since coming home from the hospital, we’ve been lucky enough to have family here helping us. My mom drove up from Georgia the night before we were released so she was here to welcome us home from the hospital. 3 weeks later, Greg’s parents flew in from Arizona. My mom actually left the day morning after they got in, so there’d be no lapse in help. Greg’s parents were here for 2 weeks, leaving this morning around 9:30. While they were here, we realized that we wouldn’t mind having help for a week or two after they left and since Greg has Friday off, we figured it’d be silly for her to be here the day Greg’s parents left since I’d only be alone for a day, so she’s driving up on Sunday.

So, today was my first day being home with the babies by myself since they were born. Greg’s parents did run to the grocery store while Greg was at work one day, so I was left alone with the boys for less than an hour once. And Sunday they went out for lunch and a little shopping, leaving Greg and I alone with the boys for the first time ever for about 4 hours. Greg has a little time saved up, so he offered to take today off if I wanted him to, but since he was already taking tomorrow off to give us a 3 day weekend together, I didn’t think it was necessary to take today off too. Before he left, he said that he would come home whenever I wanted, just to call him and he’d leave right then if I needed him.

So, here’s how my first day went. Greg’s parents left at 9:30, while I was feeding Evan. Both the boys had been put in Huggies this morning, which apparently don’t fit as well as the Pampers that we’ve been using do because both boys leaked, so after changing both of their clothes, and then another outfit change for Evan because he spit up all over the new outfit while I was throwing their leaked on outfits in the dirty clothes. I fed both boys (not at the same time) and after burping and holding them, they fell asleep. I used the hour to eat a slice of pizza for breakfast, do some laundry, clean up the kitchen, pick up downstairs, mail some more announcements, put away bottles, and call Greg. Then both boys woke up. Carter wanted to be held while I was feeding Evan, so I put our boppy to use, using it to prop Evan up and feed him with Carter in my lap. Then, it was time to feed Carter using the boppy and Evan in my lap. Evan then went to sleep and Carter was wide awake. I took some pictures of the boys and then started to get really sleepy, so I laid down on the couch with Carter on my chest hoping he’d get sleepy too. Thankfully it worked, and we had a nice little nap that lasted less than an hour. It was perfect and I felt so refreshed afterwards. I then made some more bottles (we make several up, so we have them in the fridge ready to go when the boys are ready to eat). The boys had been getting closer and closer to eating at the same time throughout the day. Evan was due at 3:00 and I knew Carter was going to be hungry shortly after that. Carter did not want to be put down and Evan was starting to stir. I was so eager for Greg to come home and start our 3 day weekend, so I caved and called him and asked him to go ahead and come home at 3:00. I was sitting on the couch holding both boys waiting for Greg to come home so I could feed Evan without juggling both of them and as soon as Greg opened the front door, Carter started crying with gas pains. He and Evan ended up getting them and having them for an hour or so before we tried something called Gripe Water that the pediatrician recommended yesterday. Almost immediately the boys stopped crying and seemed completely fine. After the boys calmed down, we watched Survivor, ate some dinner, did the dishes, and got the boys ready for bed. Greg ended up going to bed about 7:30, and I stayed up with the boys. It’s 1:00am now and the boys are still doing good. I think my first day by myself with the boys went great and our first night together with the boys went great after we tried the Gripe Water. I’m feeling so confident now that we can actually handle this. I know we’ll have good days and bad days, but it just feels good that we did it today and it wasn’t bad. I think having the next 3 days alone to figure out what works when it’s just the two of us here is great, and then to have my mom out for a week after that so we still have some backup while we work out any kinks in our routine is going to be so helpful, mentally, I really needed her to come up for one more week. I just wasn’t ready or prepared to do it on my own yet, but now I’m feeling really good and ready to do it alone starting in a little over a week.

We’ve been so lucky to have so much help, I don’t know what we would have done without everybody. I’m so thankful for everybody and every second that they were here. The way I look at it is I can dwell on how helpful they were and be sad/scared about not having them here after next week or I can be thankful but look for the positive points about having it just be the four of us after next week. Personally, I’d rather not focus on the negative parts of not having any family here, I’d rather be excited about starting our life as our own family and getting into our own routine. I hope nobody thinks that we’re not grateful for everything because we are and we know we couldn’t have done it without everybody, but we’re also excited about what’s to come. I think I’ve learned a lot over the past month and I think Greg’s a great father and husband and I have faith that we’re going to be okay after my mom leaves next week.

Here's some picture I took from today.

I think the boys like the boppies.


I tried to get a picture of each of the boys smiling.

1 Month Old

I cannot believe you boys are 1 month old (5 weeks actually, I’m a little late in posting this). So much has changed since we brought you home from the hospital. When you came home, you both weighed 5lbs 14oz, you were so tiny that we had to put you two in preemie diapers and you were swimming in all your newborn clothes. Boy, how things have changed.

Carter, you now weight 8lbs 8oz. I cannot believe how much you’ve grown in a month. You used to not even fit into the newborn clothes we had for you and now you can fit into 0-3 month clothes. You have outgrown the newborn longsleeve white onsies we bought you to sleep in. They fit around your waist, but they are just too short now. A month ago you hated to get a bath, you screamed and screamed when I’d undress you and place you in the tub. We nicknamed you “Pigpen” because we didn’t think we were going to be able to bathe you very much since you screamed so much. It broke my heart because I had visions of a fun, nightly bathtime routine. Now you don’t mind baths at all! You don’t cry or scream, you seem to enjoy the warm water, which makes me so happy. You have developed quite a personality. You are definitely the dramatic one. When you want something, you want it right then and there. You like to let out quick, high pitch squels to let us know that you want something. I can’t believe how alert you are. You love looking around and seeing what’s going on around you. You’ve started to coo the past couple of days and it’s the cutest thing. You are a great eater and you make your daddy proud with your powerful man burps and farts.

Evan, you now weight 8lbs 1oz. You can still wear most of your newborn clothes and the ones you can’t are only because of how long you are. You fit well into the sleepers we put you in at night and look so cute. You are definitely going to be chatty. You are always making noise, grunting, cooing, etc. All the time! It makes it hard to sleep in the same room, but we don’t mind. You still love baths and love having you hair washed. You are a little more patient than your brother and don’t usually mind if there’s only one of us that we pick him up first. You can stay up for hours just looking around and don’t mind doing while we hold you or while laying down in your changing pad. You make the funniest faces that make us laugh. I’ve definitely seen some social smiles from you and it melts my heart every time. You eat a little slower and have less powerful burps but you make up for it with your powerful farts. I don’t know how something so stinky comes out of something so cute. After we feed you, you like to hold on to the burp cloth like it’s your blankie. It’s adorable.

You both are really easy babies. Besides gas, you only cry when you’re starving and sometimes when your cold. We went to the pediatrician yesterday and she gave us some great suggestions on what to do for your gas, and we are very hopeful that they are going to work. You guys are great sleepers, loud noises, lights, tv, talking, running the vacuum, etc. don’t bother either of you at all. You’ve really seem to have your nights and days straight. A couple of weeks ago you both would wake up at night and want to be held and spend that time looking around, now you know that after eating, it’s back to sleep. It makes life easier on both of us and we think as soon as you don’t have to eat every 3 hours, we’ll be getting plenty of sleep. I can’t wait to see how much you both change over the next month. I’m looking forward to more smiles and can’t wait to hear you both laugh. We have our first family tradition planned for October—a trip to the pumpkin patch. I can’t wait. I know you guys are too young to enjoy it like we do, but I think it’ll still be fun. Greg and I have pretty much gone every year since we’ve met and we always have a good time, it’s exciting to think that something we did last year for fun is a “family tradition” this year. You already have outfits for the occasion that your Aunt Caroline bought for you. Y’all are spoiled rotten, that’s for sure. ;)

On another note, on your one month “birthday”, I weighed myself and have officially lost all the baby weight. On one hand, I’m so excited and relieved to have lost the baby weight so quickly and easily, but on the other hand, I was overweight when I got pregnant, so by no means am I at or close to where I want to be. Now, I’ll start Weight Watchers and start exercising to get to my goal weight. Not only do I want to be healthy for myself, but it’s important to eat healthy and exercise to set a good example for Evan & Carter. It’s also a necessity to be healthy so I can keep up with my boys. Soon I’ll be posting updates on how the weight loss is going and weight watcher recipes that I find that we like and don’t take too long to prepare.

Now time for some pictures. We had a hard time getting them both to cooperate for their 1 month picture, so I posted some of them separately as well. Next month, I promise that I'll get a good picture of the two of them in the chair. The pictures here are not that great, I'm still figuring out everything on my camera and the pictures in the chair were taken in a hurry before they started crying. the other ones of them by themselves aren't the best pictures, but I wanted to post ones of them in their footy pjs and that showed pretty much their whole body.

This was a picture we took just a few days after they got home from the hospital. Those blue bottoms are shorts--you can't tell because they're so big on them.


This was taken on September 18th. Now they look like they're wearing shorts. I tried to put them in the same outfits that they wore in the picture above, but spitup happend.
Carter in his footy pjs. So cute, we cannot get enough of them in their pajamas, they look like such "big boys"


Evan in his pjs right before a diaper change.
I love this picture! Carter looks so cute and comfy, I love it when they sleep on our chests, it's so sweet. I know that it won't be long that they'll be too old to want to cuddle, so we're eating it up while we can. Evan's pose cracks me up, he's looks like he's just chillin', watching tv with Daddy. They are sooo cute!