Have You Had Your Vitamin C Today?

I don’t know about ya’ll but I know for a fact that all of the teachers at R’s school have had their daily allowance. Thanks to my friend K and me! (Remember back when I told you I was on a little committee for the PTA?) Each month we are responsible for teacher snacks at the faculty meeting. K and I have had so much fun coming up with fun seasonal ideas for each meeting. When R was getting his flu shot the first of this month it dawned on me that we are entering cold and flu season and that should be our September theme. K obliged me and my crazy “Vitamin C Bar” idea and we put together the cutest little meeting snacks. (at least we think it’s cute) Jason and I wrote a little poem together that set the theme.K and I made 125 orange Rice Crispy treats and mixed them with Clementines.  (Shhh, don’t tell them I’m sure they never knew the difference…haha)We thought we’d better give the teachers a little Warning in case our amazing Rice Crispy molding skills confused them…haha!We also made little cold season survival kits for each teacher. K was able to talk  our WONDERFUL Chick-Fil-A into donating Chicken soup vouchers. She also managed to talk our Target out of 60 prescription bottles, which we filled with orange jelly belly’s. I’m telling ya’ll K and I make a great team. She can talk anyone into anything and I can design a label for it…ha! My BFF, A, helped us stuff bags, tie bows and anything else we needed. We couldn’t have gotten it all done on time without her help! Our teachers washed down all of their orange goodies with lemonade.
     We had so much fun putting all of this together and hope the teachers enjoyed it as well. I’m already looking forward to next month’s creation. In the mean time I’ll be binging on Vitamin C before I run myself ragged.

Weekend Weary

We had another non-stop busy weekend. Daddy is still pretty much working around the clock so Rhett and I are doing the same trying to tame the little boys. I seriously don’t know what I’d do without my Rhett. He is my little hero and has matured so much the past couple of months. Don’t get me wrong he’s still crazy as a loon, but I really wouldn’t make it without him!

Rhett played baseball Saturday and we all managed not to sweat to death during the game. (please tell me it’s going to cool off around here before next summer) I guess the heat didn’t bother his team too much because they pulled out another victory. He’s starting to figure the whole kid-pitch thing out, now we just need him to hit the ball like we know he can. He got on base with a walk and was able to steal second and third. He was safe at home to contribute to our 11-9 win.Nothing makes this kid happier than crossing home plate and celebrating in the dug-out with his teammates!After Last Sunday’s epic fail on making it to church, I was determined that nothing would stop the little boys and me this time. Guess what? The littles and I all made it! The only potty explosion we had this time was contained in L-man’s diaper. I had to be THAT mom who knowingly drops off a smelly baby to the sweet nursery workers. My hope is that L’s charming personality overcame the nauseous stink he blessed them with…ha! By the looks of the cuddles he was getting at pick up time I’m pretty sure he’d been forgiven. We met daddy at home after church for lunch and Texans football. We were all a little depressed after the game so we decided to self-medicate with Baskin Robbins. What a great, and much-needed little family outing. As hard as daddy’s schedule has been on us, that moment made it all seem doable. There really is nothing a couple scoops of ice cream can’t fix!

Why Yes, We Do Have a Third Son!

Oh my word how is it that our little number three will soon be one? The saddest part is that I’m just now blogging his monthly block pictures. I have managed to get MOST of his months covered…oops! My only hope is that he’ll forgive me when he looks back and sees that I never missed number one or number twos monthly pictures. If he turns out to be anything like his current sweet, content personality then I’m sure he will. I hope he’ll know that while I may have missed a few pictures I have never missed a cuddle with him. He is just the cuddliest, sweetest easiest going baby ever!
Let’s go back to our sweet little 11 day old.
April 10th L-man enjoyed rice cereal and began his life long journey with food. He wasn’t too sure at first but by the end of the bowl he was a fan! (pretend like the food shots have blocks that say four and five months ok)

Oh how we LOVE our little L-man. He truly is our little blessing from God and we just couldn’t ever imagine our family without him. Some times I look at him and I see an exact copy of Rhett and sometimes I see Wyatt. But I’m starting to just see the happy sweet little baby that makes him unique. His personality is full of joy and I’m just so thankful for our little L-man! He is about to take off walking any day now and he has six teeth. Four on top and two on bottom. He’s wearing size 4 diapers and size 12 month clothing. I weaned him at ten months and he’s been on formula now for a whole month. He hit the eleven months old mark on the 21st. He loves to eat, play and chase Wyatt all around the house. He follows the big boys everywhere and they are so sweet to play with him. He really is just the sweetest little guy and he’s filled our hearts with so much happiness! I love you so much L-man even if I may have missed a few months block pictures.

What All Can Momma Make in a Muffin Pan

I’ve been meaning to share these recipes with ya’ll for quite some time now. These two breakfast recipes have changed our lives and sped up our morning routine by at least a million minutes…or maybe 15. But nonetheless they have truly been life changing. What kind of friend would I be if I with-held such amazing LIFE CHANGING information from you? Because I always want us to be BFF’s here you go. Drum roll please…

First up on our menu are Sausage, Egg and Cheese muffins. I originally started making these because they are NO carb and full of protein. We all need some protein to start off our days. We make two mini-muffin pans full on the weekends and stick them in the fridge for the week. Each morning my kids have a healthy breakfast that is simply heated up in 15 seconds! You can beat that!

Brown sausage in a skillet and drain the grease. It’s VERY important that you coat your muffin pan with Pam. Put a spoonful of cooked sausage in each opening. Next layer cheese on top of sausage. Scramble 8 eggs/pan and pour them over the cheese and sausage. Making sure the eggs fill the cups. I usually use a fork to move around the sausage to make sure the eggs make it to the bottom. Finally you bake them at 350 for 15 minutes. Spoon them out like little muffins and enjoy all week long. Or at least until Wednesday when you have to make more because you’re raising big healthy boys. I’ve also made these in the bigger muffin pans and added in spinach, mushrooms and onions…so yummy!

My next favorite quick breakfast is for a very similar recipe but a much easier one. (I know you’re thinking how can it get any easier than the one above…well it can people, oh yes it can!) For this recipe you will need your big muffin pan, a package of Canadian bacon, cheese and 12 eggs. Once again spray the heck out of your pan with Pam. (you’ll thank me later for that step) Then just put a slice of Canadian bacon in each cup, crack an egg on top and top with cheese. Bake at 350 for 12 min. If you want your yolks to be a little runny you can go for nine min. Easy Breezy, Right!Add some fruit and your kids will have a healthy start to their days!

While we are on the topic of muffins we also made apple cupcakes again for the boys teachers.I like to do this each year with a “Get to Know You” questionnaire that I swiped from The Other Momma. So far the sugar is working…no conduct marks for any of the boys yet. YIPPEE!

Now run and get to cooking. I expect a full report on how these muffins changed your life too.

Sports Weekend

Our lives are starting to get CRAZY around here and I’m tying so hard not to let the blog go like I normally do. (Your Welcome) One of the reasons I’m back into survival mode is because Fall Ball just started. Not only did Fall Ball start but guess who gets to be Team Mom this season…MUAH! Because between three children, baby sister’s wedding, L-Man’s first bday, my design business and PTA (which will get its own post soon) I had nothing better to do...HA!

Actually being Team Mom hasn’t been bad at all because we LOVE our coaches and the other parents are all super-fun! We are so lucky that our spring coach drafted Rhett again for the Fall. This Fall is already 0ff to a much better start than last Fall mainly because I’m not about to explode with child like I was last year at this time. One similarity to last Fall is that I’m once again single-momming it. Jason is on another case that is consuming all of HIS time and MY energy…haha!

Saturday morning I managed to get all three boys up to the fields for practice. I’m happy to report that I only really lost Wyatt ONE time, yes that is a record. After practice we met Daddy for lunch and then headed to Academy. This was a big day for our Rhett. He decided to trade his chore chart points in for a brand new bicycle. I’ll post pictures and more about that later. We were able to pull him off his shiny new wheels just in time to get him to his first ever Kid-Pitch baseball game.Gotta have a silly one because that’s how he rolls…ha! I don’t have any game shots because the weather was kind of iffy and I didn’t want to deal with fogged lenses and other camera issues. Good news is, our team won 9-2. What a fun way to kick off the season!

Sunday morning I got up with lofty goals of getting all three littles to church. I should have known the morning was going way too smoothly to be true. I was super lucky that Jason hadn’t left for the office yet when the Epic Potty Flood of 2011 struck. I’ll spare you the wet, stinky details but needless to say my church goals were trumped with a mop and a bleach date.

Once our potty issue was handled we headed to the next best place to fill your spiritual needs…HEB! After surviving HEB we headed home to wait for daddy. He made it home just in time for kick-off. The boys tackled, hooped, hollered, threw footballs, beat their chest and performed a multitude of other manly activities that can’t be blogged…haha! It’s amazing how civilized they appear for pictures though isn’t it? HA! (Click HERE for a flashback to the 2009 season.)L-man was cheesing it up big time for our Texans. I guess the boy’s crazy game day antics worked because we won. Which means all of the ruckus described above will be repeated next game…your jealous I know…ha! Gotta run…I’m off to put away breakables and check into padding the living room walls!

Rhett’s Shopping Spree

It’s book fair time at Rhett’s school. Which ordinarily means I go have lunch with him then take him to the book fair to pick out a few BOOKS. Because of babysitting schedules I wasn’t able to go through with our normal routine. So we picked out a book off of Rhett’s wish list and decided to just send the money to school with him. The book he chose was a Harry Potter Lego book which costs 21.99. (which just so happens to be the most expensive book at the book fair…ugh!) But since R has been acting like a super child the past couple of weeks we decided to go ahead and count out the exact cost of the book plus tax and let him purchase it himself.

My little man got off the bus beaming about his trip to the book fair. Just in case you were wondering what all 21.99 will buy you at the book fair here you go.Oh look no Harry Potter book. But we are so fortunate to be the proud new owners of an Angry Birds poster, a laptop eraser, a blendy pen and a super-cool Pokémon book. Don’t be too jealous…haha! Now I’m off to decide if I’ve got the poster perfectly centered above the mantle yet…ha!

The Puppy and the Lamb

The two little's officially began their MDO careers today (cue clouds parting and the Angel chorus singing Hallelujah…ha) The morning went surprisingly smooth. I laid everything out the night before and had one of those I really have three children moments when I saw all the lunchboxes lined in a row. It seriously just blows my mind that I’m responsible for these kids and they all expect their lunches to be full by 8:00 am.W was very excited about school because of the chocolate milk in his lunch box. (whatever it takes to get them excited for school right?!?)I told him he was so strong to be able to carry all of his stuff and he kept telling me, “Jesus made me strong”! Too cute! We met our buddy Miss K and Mr. C in the parking lot and the big kids were happy to show their little bro’s what this school thing is all about.Both boys very uneventfully went in their rooms with no tears. I’m always so thankful when this happens!

      

So there you have it we now have a Puppy and a Lamb. These are the first of many “first day of school pictures” and also the first of the many labels put on our kids. It all starts out very innocently like puppies and lambs then transitions to character labels. By college they’ll simply be labeled by their SS number. We can’t escape the labels that will be put on our children but we must always remind them of their most important label…Children of God! I love my sweet little babies that God has entrusted me with and I pray that I will always see them the way He does and not label them the way the world does.

No Weekend Laboring for this Momma!

I. HAVE. THE. MOST. AMAZING. HUBBY. EVER! People, my dear hubby took all THREE of our boys by himself out West for the weekend. He loaded them all up Friday and drove more than six hours to Grandma and Moopas. I had the luxury of hopping on an airplane and spending the weekend wedding planning with my baby sister. My first time away from my babies was wildly successful thanks to my WONDERFUL hubby! Don’t ya’ll agree I do have the most amazing hubby ever! They spent a lot of time out at the farms and from the look of the pictures the weekend theme was eat it or ride it…ha! Fall Fashion Alert: Bright Yellow Rope Belts are totally in! haha! At least they are if momma forgets to pack a belt.I had such a wonderfully relaxing weekend sleeping in and eating with TWO hands. But you’d better believe I was ready to come home and see all four of my boys. The time away from them totally refreshed my love and appreciation for all of them. On the plane ride home I felt a sense of overwhelming gratitude come over me. I’m just in awe of the incredible blessings God has given me and their names are Jason, Rhett, Wyatt and Landon. Thank you God for blessing me more than I deserve!