Sharing Crackers

11 Months---Eeeek!

Yes my little guy is already 11 months....it blows my mind. It makes me so sad how I longed for so long for a baby, but ironically after he got here the baby stage is so short!! His daddy had to help distract him for these pics; I fear we may have to start a new pose! Next month will be his last monthly portrait--after that, I will only do one every 6 months.

At 11 months old you:

• are still a good eater for the most part, and you haven't really had junk food yet
• use a sippy cup all the time now
• drink about 4-6oz half formula/half milk 3 times a day
• demand that your milk be WARM
• take two 2hr naps a day
• sleep from about 9pm-9am
• use your paci when going to sleep
  
• are still wearing size 3 diapers, but getting close to 4
• have already been swimming a few times and seem to like it!
• are crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything
• still have 8 teeth
• like to clap your hands
• haven't been away from us for longer than 8hrs
• like to babble and repeat sounds we say
• absolutely love bananas and strawberries--pretty much all fruit
• are wearing 12mo clothes and almost in a size 4 shoe
• have already had 2 haircuts so far!
  

I don't really think he's any closer to walking right now, but maybe in another month or two. I already have his bday invitations addressed and enveloped--just need to put stamps on them! I plan on mailing them out within a week or two.

Just about 2 1/2 more weeks until we all head out to Lake Texoma! I reserved the boat rental today, so everything is taken care of! I know we are going to have a blast hanging out with each other, and just getting OUT of the city. Thanks for reading ;)

Festival, Swimming, and Friends

Sooooo, I've had a busy weekend! This summer is pretty much going to be nonstop for me with working extra, taking trips, birthday parties and cookouts! I love it! I had my first Saturday off in forever so I took advantage of it and spent the day at the Sam Noble Natural History Museum with Bradley and my friend Sara. She had never been there before, so we enjoyed taking our time and checking out all of the exhibits. Right now they are featuring the "Chocolate" exhibit which tells all about the discovery and history of the cocao plant and how chocolate came to be what it is today. No, there weren't any free samples but we did pick up some exotic flavors in the gift shop! Bradley was an angel the whole time in his stroller.

Sunday was a VERY busy day because we planned to attend the Italian Festival in McAlester, OK with my father! Bradley was going to go with us, but my mother-in-law requested that he spend the day in Elmore with them so we said OK since they don't get to see him very much. We all woke up bright and early Sunday morning then made the 70 mile trip down to Elmore. I had a bag packed for him and he really enjoyed being able to spend the day with his grandparents, aunt Sara, and cousin Zoe.

After driving back to our house, we met my dad there for a quick breakfast then hit the road for a 2+ hr trip to McAlester. We finally got there around 1:30pm and braved the 90° heat for some Italian fun!

Of course like some good Italians, we had to hit up the food tent first! For a flat price we got a plate full of yummy food and a drink. Fill 'er up!

Each table had a jug of Parmesan ready, and a little Italian flag! I took the closest flag and plopped it right in the middle of us!

After checking out the vendors and grabbing some souvenir Tshirts, we headed into the Expo building for the craft booths. Our favorite one was run by a winery called Whispering Meadows right there in McAlester! We got to sample several different wines, and we all ended up buying a few bottles to take home with us. Yum, vino!

Forgive me for this being out of order, but last Wednesday the 3 of us went to my mom's house so that Nick could repaint her front door. To keep Bradley entertained since he can't nap over there, I had the idea to put some warm water in a big tote and for a makeshift "pool"! We threw a few toys in there and let him go at it in his birthday suit. He loved it!

Yesterday after our day was all done (after driving about 700 miles total) we took our first official dip in the pool! It was a bit chilly, and almost dark, so we didn't stay in very long. But Bradley seemed to enjoy his baby floatie and I think it will be a great summer!

To end with, today I got together with an old friend from high school days. We were both choir brats and had a lot of good times together before she had to change schools. Now we are all grown up and have kids so we got to hang out and catch up today while the children swam in the summer heat. Fun times for all!!

Photobucket" border="0">

Pics From the Week

Let me start off by saying exactly ONE year ago today I was 35 weeks pregnant and this is how big my baby was!Nowadays he is so big I can barely hold him for longer than 5 minutes! He needs to start walking pretty soon cause momma's arms aren't strong enough.

I finished up a couple projects I've been wanting to do for Bradley. One is a plain tee that I got on sale for this summer. I added a guitar applique on (all cut and embroidered freehand by me) and embroidered my own unique phrase on it! It is very fitting because Nick is the best guitar player around and Bradley loves to watch him play. "Guitar Hero" is for people who just wish they could really play ;)

The next one is {finally} Bradley's birthday onesie! I pieced together a cupcake from different fabrics and appliqued them all on, as well as a little flame. Then I hand embroidered the candle and a number 1 on it.

I had a couple of new recipes for desserts I wanted to try out, and they were both strawberry-oriented which is perfect because strawberries are in season now and VERY cheap! First I made this two-layer strawberry swirl cake with homemade icing and sliced strawberries all over it. Nick just loved it and pretty much ate the whole thing...

Then I made these "Strawberry Sandies" which are made with a box of strawberry cake mix and a few other ingredients. They turned out delish as cookies, and I took these to work Friday night for my friends to enjoy. They loved them! I got the recipe from my Sandra Lee magazine.

And our big news is we have our new fridge!! We bought it using the Oklahoma Appliance Rebate that started May 8. It isn't fancy at all, it is just like our old fridge except it is black and brand new! It is a bit smaller than I anticipated, but it is perfect for the three of us. We ended up getting a great deal on it after the rebate, 10% off, and free delivery/haul away!

That's about it for now. Our pool is coming along nicely and will be ready to swim in as soon as the water warms up! We broke in our new charcoal grill last Sunday and I grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for my family. Nick loved the taste of grilled food so much that he insists we grill often this summer! Speaking of Nick, he is finally done with his spring semester and will be starting two new classes for the summer in a couple of weeks. He is still on track to finally graduate with a degree in December!! I am sooo proud of my baby.

Blessed Sunday

I ♥ days like this! Slept for a bit today after working last night, and got up early to get ready for a cookout we were hosting for some family. We recently got a new grill and have been dying to break it in! We didn't have any cookouts last year b/c our grill sucked, and I was ginormous pregnant. So it has been long overdue. While I was sleeping, hubby went and got lighter fluid, put the grill together, and chopped up onions, tomatoes, and lettuce and arranged them on a relish tray! Isn't he the sweetest? When I got up he was sure to show me all the things he had done.

Before it was time to get the fire lit, we were playing with Bradley in the breakfast room listening to the music channel when out of the blue the weather alert flashed and said there was a tornado warning in some counties. As far as we knew, it was sunny outside! So we turned it to the weather channel and saw that there was a small storm cell NW of us moving SE. They said there was a lot of rotations in it and big hail. We thought well great! Just our luck. It's been beautiful all day and as soon as we want to cookout here come the storms. But I said who cares?? Let's cookout anyway and deal with whatever comes! As it progressed closer, we saw it was going to be just north of us in Norman and we probably wouldn't get anything anyways.

Long story short, I lit the coals around 4pm and grilled us some chicken to put away first. While that was cooking, my brother and his wife showed up with chips and pop, then my mom and stepdad showed up with brownies, pasta salad, and baked beans. The burgers and hotdogs turned out just delicious and we all had a great time sitting out on the patio chatting. As the storms got closer, the weather cooled way down but we didn't get any rain until after we were done eating.

The timing worked out perfect because we put Bradley down for a nap just as we started cooking so he slept the entire time! He woke up after everone ate so I brought him out and let him crawl around and see his family. After everyone left, he sat in his highchair in the kitchen with me and ate homemade roasted potatoes, carrots, and chicken while I cleaned up the dishes. He had fresh strawberries for dessert, then I put him in his stroller and walked him down the road to the park. He loves to swing so we did that for awhile and watched the storms in the distance.

When we got home, Nick played with him outside while I picked up dead branches from the driveway. Then I put him to bed, and am getting ready to hang out in the craft room with Nick before we call it a night. Ahhhhh, that's my kind of day!

Funny Boy

My little guy...his personality is really coming out these days and I love it! He has had a fever off and on every day since Sunday, but hasn't acted sick or anything. I imagine he is teething but I am keeping a close eye on him. Otherwise he has been his happy-go-lucky self. Yesterday he got our plastic back-massager thing and carried it around in his mouth while crawling everywhere. It was so cute!

He's too funny. He has gotten very good at crawling around, and unfortunately I have caught him CLIMBING up onto our bottom stair! Time for a baby gate.

Today he has been a little cranky but maybe he'll be happier when he gets up from his nap. He hasn't had a fever yet today so keep your fingers crossed!

Last Saturday marked the beginning of an Oklahoma appliance rebate program and I woke up early to get in on it. We bought a new (but simple) refrigerator from Lowes and it is getting delivered today! We have never had a brand new appliance so this will be fun.

Sunday was my FIRST Mother's Day as a momma!!! I am absolutely so blessed to have my baby boy to call my own. The three of us went out for lunch, then Bradley and I went to my mom's house in the city for the evening. I took her a handmade card and a new coffee pot.

Then Monday night while I was doing my usual laundry load at my mom's, we had some very bad weather move in! We personally just got some big hail and lots of rain, but a very large tornado started in Norman and caused a lot of damage in several towns East of here. Thankfully it passed over West Norman and we didn't get any damage.

To end with, I started working on Bradley's birthday onesie! In just a few short weeks he will turn 1 and he won't be a baby anymore. Makes me sad, but I look forward to seeing him grow. When I get all done with it I will put up a picture!

Baby Playdate 2

Tuesday afternoon was Bradley's second playdate with a mommy-group I am in on the internet. It was at a woman's house in NE Norman. There were 4 moms and 4 babies there.

There was a 7mo boy, 9mo girl, 9mo boy, then my big boy. I think he had a good time. He crawled all around and would pat the other babies on the head, then try to stand up on their shoulders and they would fall down. I would have to go corral him. I brought snacks and poured him a sippy cup of apple juice...but I forgot to bring the juice. So when all the other moms had their bottle/sippy cups out, Brad would start crawling towards them to steal a drink! Had to keep an eye on him!

We all basically just sat on the floor with a bunch of toys ready for the babies to go at it. We talked about how they are eating/sleeping/crawling, and babysitters and getting out. I think the other girls were SAHM so we didn't talk much about working....I stayed for about 2 1/2 hrs then brought little man home to have a real lunch. I told them I would probably host one later in the summer since I am the only one with a pool :)

PS. I gave Brad another hair cut yesterday outside while daddy mowed and trimmed bushes. He looks like such a big boy now! I did it short on the sides/back and longer on top--basically just like I cut his daddy's hair. Except I used scissors. I will probably use trimmers next time cause it was VERY hard! He wanted to keep moving around and looking at everything. (these pics are before the haircut in case you are wondering)

My Backyard

Yesterday after sleeping a bit from working all Saturday night, I got up and around outside. I already bought my begonias and spike on Friday, so all I had to do was plant it! Our backyard is very prettily landscaped--unfortunately it also requires a lot of upkeep...which we are bad about. So slowly bit by bit I have gotten back there and trimmed ivy and bushes and weeded. I am making a bit of a dent I think. I keep the flowers pretty simple and stick with what I do good with--begonias! A couple of years ago, I planted a few different things to see how they did. Some were annuals, some were perennials. I don't like having to buy new flowers every year, but none of my "perennials" came back except for....

....my dianthus! They have come back every year whether I water them or not, and seem to be very hardy (and pretty) little flowers. Begonias are also a flower that I can't seem to kill, so I plant bunches and bunches of them. This year I got white, pink, and red and put them in several pots in the backyard, and two in the front on the porch.

I added some spike in the middle of this one because my mom does that, and it always grows so beautifully with the begonias. I know they all look pitiful now (don't judge me!) but they bush out nicely so I'll take pics later on in the summer when they look better! This big pot ^ is by the pool and gets a lot of sun.

While I was planting flowers and Brad was eating grass, Nick was wrestling with the pool cover. This is usually a two-person job, but he likes to be stubborn and do it himself. Keep in mind we didn't open our pool last year because we had a newborn to keep us busy and because we didn't live here for a few months. So this is what was underneath to greet us....

Can you see swamp thing peering up from the side? After some investigation, we were happy to find that there really isn't much debris on the bottom to scoop up--it is mostly just algae. That means we can just shock the crap out of it and put algaecide in and {in theory} it should be clear within a week. That was my task today--go to the store and buy our chemicals to begin the purification process. We don't do all the fancy test strips and pH this and that--we just do the simple stuff until it's clear and we have never had issues doing it that way. So poo on the fancy pool stores! Nick put a bag of shock in today and turned on the pump. We are going to leave it going for a couple days and put some algaecide in tomorrow and see what that does.

We went over to the skimmer on the side of the pool and wondered what would be waiting to greet us underneath. We have found frogs, bugs, and all kinds of creepy crawlers under there before, but this one is by the far the most deadly we have found!

I'll give you 3 guesses what that is, and the first 2 don't count! UGH. I squealed and ran away like a girl when I saw that. There was also a wolf spider hanging out on the side. These bugs have NO purpose to me. Nick did away with them....

After that small problem was taken care of and Nick went inside with the boy, I stayed outside and practically destroyed an ecosystem with all of the bushes, small trees, and ivy I cut back in my flowerbeds and around the pool. I still have tons to do of course, but we only have 2 yard trash cans which are emptied every Tuesday. So after tomorrow, I can fill them up again! Yay.

While I was in the back, I noticed our wild strawberries are blooming! Don't they look yummy??

That's about it for the backyard stories. I think after Nick trims the bushes and stuff up we will have a cookout on our new grill before it gets too hot. We really didn't do much last year since I was so discombobbled with Bradley and all. But I've got my act together this summer and we will make up for it!

On a side note, my friend Sara and I started the low carb diet last Tuesday (which is how my mom lost 150lbs last year). She is getting healthy to try and conceive, and I am getting my last few muffin-top pounds off to look good for this summer!! I weighed yesterday and the scale had NOT moved...I was getting a bit discouraged because Sara had already lost 7lbs. Well today I weighed and guess what?? I lost 6lbs!!! Yay me.

Roses, Vacation, and Crafts!

First my happy boy!

Some roses my hubby cut out of our backyard....

Now for the best part!! I am very excited to say that we are taking a family roadtrip to Lake Texoma (on the border of Texas/Oklahoma for those out of state) in June with my mom, stepdad, brother Eric and his wife! We are all splitting a lake house by the water and renting a pontoon boat for a day. We will be there 4 days and 3 nights. It's only a little over 2 hrs away.

This house was by far the best deal that I found. It is on the Texas side of the lake, and is already booked up the whole summer except for a couple of weeks!! It is 2800 sq. ft, 4 bed/2 bath. Has a 12 seat dining table, huge fully equipped kitchen, flat screen TV w/DVD player (and wifi), and a big patio with chairs, a chiminea, and a grill! It is just a short walk to the sandy beach. Cannot wait to get away!!

We have been overdue for a trip--our last one was to Biloxi, MS last October. The drive was so long each way that we were exhausted when we got home! Plus Brad was only 3 months old, so he was still a little handfull. Now adays he is a hoot to watch crawl around and everyone will have fun playing with him. We are going to get him a little life vest to wear on the boat, and I'm sure he'll love building "sand castles" on the beach! Now I just need to find him a little sun hat with a chin strap...

On the craft side, a friend at work requested a John Deere theme taggie blanket for her 8 month old boy. So while out and about, I found this adorable soft flannel print and got some matching ribbon. This is what I came up with!

I got a half yard of fabric, so out of the leftover scraps I made a matching bib and plush cube toy. She got it last night and loves it! The taggie blanket is available (choose your own colors) in my store if you likey!

The coworker that I did my craft show with last week asked me to embroider her name on a work jacket. I am always a little nervous sewing on other people's clothes because I'm afraid my machine is going to flip out and ruin it! She let me know this jacket was not cheap, so I was a little anxious! Other than her last name being too long to fit in, it turned out great and she will be picking it up tonight.

To end with: who doesn't LOVE a sleeping baby!!!!????