picky

Joe can be a pretty picky eater.  There is not one vegetable that he particularly likes.  But, I have a solution.  What toddler/kid doesn't like cheesy quesadillas?  Take a whole wheat tortilla, add your choice of shredded cheese and throw in any kind of chopped vegetable that you please.  Add meat and/or beans if you choose, too!  I've added spinach, corn, carrots, tomato, avocado, green beans, chicken, beef, bell peppers, black beans etc.  Cook it on both sides in a  sauté  pan until the cheese is melted and you are good to go.  (I usually use a little bit of olive oil, but butter or cooking spray would work, too!) I've also made a fruity quesadilla (because he doesn't always like fruit, either.)  I spread some cream cheese on the whole wheat tortilla and add any chopped fruit you like.  Joe likes honey in his, too.  Quesadillas are great ways to hide healthy food!  

If you have any ideas for me in my endeavor to get healthy foods into Joe's little tummy, let me know!

let me know!

Just curious.  Who reads my blog??  All I want is to know that I am not writing to myself :)  Do I have any friends in the blog world?? Also, do you have a blog? I would love to read it!    Leave me a comment! 

adventures in time out

Joe has been a pretty well behaved toddler thus far.  However, the terrible twos are beginning to make an appearance.  Joe is beginning to push boundaries throw tantrums, which i know is all a part of their healthy development.  Anyways, now and then he needs to be reprimanded for his naughty behavior.  I have decided not to spank, at least not at this point.  He has gotten little pops on the hand or leg a few times, and it doesn't work for him or me.  He thinks its funny or he thinks that since I have popped him, it would be a fun game to try and pop mommy right back.  So, we have begun using time out as a punishment and after a couple of days of trying this, it has really begun to work.  He is understanding the whole cause and effect thing of his actions.  I didn't think he would understand that he had to stay put in his time out spot, but after a couple of times he has gotten the hang of it.  I'm so proud of him and so glad this is working.  I know people have different views on spanking, but i would much rather not have to inflict pain on my child as a means for punishment.  If time out stops working, maybe we will re evaluate...who knows?  

I still havent gotten pictures from the lake onto the computer, but as soon as i do, you will see them!  I miss being with all of my family already.

Tonight, I am super excited about a charity event that John and I get to go to.  Leanne and Taylor are watching the boys for us...Joe loves them so much.  The event benefits Ovarian cancer research.  It's on top of the Redmont Hotel downtown and there will be a band, silent auction and tons of great food from Birmingham's best restaurants.  N Vogue is one of the partners in putting the event together.  There is even supposed to be some celebrity appearances.  It should be a fun time for a great cause.  It's always fun to spend some one on one time with john, too. :)  

Hope you all are having a great Thursday!  It's almost the weekend! Yaaaaay! 

Celebrations and Doctors

Yesterday was my grandmother's (Bibby) birthday!!  All the girls in the fam had a great time celebrating over dinner and the bachelorette at my Aunt Amy's house.  We had lots of laughs and even some tears (bc of the bachelorette of course).  I love my family and I love celebrating different occasions with them.  Noah went with me because John had a meeting at church and Joe spent the night with my parents last night, so my dad kept him while mom was partying with us.  Joe had a great time with his grandparents like always!  

Noah had his 2 month check up this morning.  He is one big boy apparently.  He weighed in at 12 lbs and 14 oz (90th percentile) and he measured 23 1/2 in long (95th percentile).  Dr. Hamm said he is pretty much the biggest boy in his class.  Noah had 2 shots, which made him pretty mad, but he got over it pretty quickly.  What a tough guy!  I'm so thankful and blessed to have two very healthy boys.  I praise the Lord for guarding their little bodies from illness and injuries.  

Last but not least, I just want to say how proud I am of my sister.  She graduates today and will soon be entering the dental world.  She is going to make an awesome dentist assistant.  She has worked so hard and made great grades in this program (is this really my sister i am talking about?!?!?) Just kidding, Ash.  I love you and am so very very proud of you and what you have accomplished.  WAY TO GO!!!!

P.S.  I am working on getting pictures from the lake onto the computer.  I'll be posting all about it soon.  With 32 people in the most fun lake house ever,  you can imagine that it was AWESOME!!! 

weekend, hair cuts, and vacation!

We had a great weekend! It was a little different than usual...  we didn't have John's undivided attention all weekend :(  He had some friends ( Coach and Tim) come down from St. Louis to visit for a day and a half.  John had a great time fellowshipping with them.  Coach was John's mentor and basketball coach in highschool.  He mentored John and two other guys, Tim and Vance during their high school years.  For those of you who don't know, John grew up in St Louis.  Vance lives in Birmingham also, so Coach and Tim came down to hang out, eat, and play golf with the Bham guys.  So, Saturday, I took the boys over to my moms and we all went to Star Lake in Hoover to walk.  Since we burned a few calories, we ended up at Johnny Rockets and I downed a plate of chili cheese fries.  We had a great time! (Besides that fact that Noah spit up all over his out fit and I had forgotten to pack an extra....ewwww!)  Joe loved seeing all the ducks and geese at the lake, and he certainly enjoyed his cheese burger and ice cream at Johnny Rockets.  We went back to Mom and Dad's to feed Noah before we needed to head home for Joe's nap.  While Mom and I fed Noah, Joe went outside and helped my dad pick up the yard. 

I sang at church Sunday, and it wasnt John's week to run the computer, so he stayed home with the boys while I went to church early and they met me for the service.  It's so great that John can get the boys up and going on his own, and on top of being able, I think he loves to do it.  I totally don't remember what we did for the rest of the day on Sunday.  How horrible is that? I think we probably just chilled out together.  Anyways, today Joe had his 4th hair cut and he did AWESOME!  I'm so thankful that my mom owns N Vogue because everyone there knows us well and they all had a great time entertaining Joe, which made the hair cut go smoothly.  He looks adorable.  I havent taken any pictures of him yet, but I will soon!

On to vacation! I am packing up the boys and meeting my mom's entire side of the family at the lake tomorrow! Thats a whole lotta people, folks!  John is going to head that way after work on Friday.  We will come home Saturday night because John and I both have things to do at church on Sunday.  We are so excited to go! It's going to be a blast.  It will be the first time I have seen my Colorado cousins this year, and may be the only time....not sure yet.  Joe is going to have so much fun...mostly at the pool, but i'm sure he will love the boat, too!  I love seeing my boys with the family.  We are so blessed to have family that love and care for them so much.  Everyone is such a huge help, and not because they are trying to help, but simply because they love them and want to be with them.  I'll post pictures of the lake when we get back!  Hope you all have a great weekend!

Star Lake

Sweet Noah chilling in the back of the double stroller

Joe helping Pops in the yard

My beautiful baby

Me and Noah

Kicks and Giggles

What a funny boy he is! 

P.S. Look a few posts down for the beach post!!!

Noah Russell, my sweet 2nd born

Let me just tell you that my 7 week old perfect baby boy slept through the night last night! From 10:45- 7:30 this morning.  Yessss!

Pictures!

Well, for some reason, blogger is being soooo slow uploading my pictures.  So, i'm going to try again later.  However, i just uploaded three new photo albums to facebook, so you should head on over there and check them.  Lots of pictures of the boys and the beach!  Click HERE and it should take you straight to my profile.  Hope you all are having a fabulous week.  I am still sick...very slowly recovering.  Joe is pretty much back to normal, though. Praise the Lord! He is napping right now (hallelujah! 3 - 3.5 hrs of rest for me!) and Noah is asleep, too.  They are both doing well.  Joe is starting to love his little brother.  He gives him lots and lots of slobbery kisses.  I eventually have to pull him away because he would kiss him forever.  Noah doesn't seem to mind, but if Joe gets close to his mouth, Noah starts licking him and Joe thinks its soooo funny. 

While you go check out my photos, I am going to contemplate whether or not I should do Tae Bo.  Should I conserve all of my energy for fighting off this sickness??  

in progress

Beach post in progress. Thanks for your patience :)

The Beach!!!

Oh, the beach! I must say that the beach was terrific.  Even with two baby boys in tow, it was awesome.  We drove down on a Wed night ( i don't remember the date... i don't remember much of anything these days, actually).  We thought we would be smart and drive down after John got off of work, because, surely, Joe would fall asleep on the way down and we would arrive and simply be able to put him in the crib for a good nights sleep. WRONG! Joe did great (thanks to our new fantastic DVD player and Handy Manny DVD) but he never slept.  Nope.  Little man never fell asleep.  He got a little grumpy towards the end, but not too bad, and wouldn't ya know that when we arrived he would get a surge of energy and stay awake playing with our family, who all stayed awake to kindly help us unpack our stuffed to the max pathfinder. (i realize that was a run- on sentence :) )  Yes, we arrived around 11:30 with a wide- eyed Joe who was ready to explore the huge house and play with his cousins, aunts, uncles, granparents, and great grand mother.  By the way, Noah did great on the way down.  We stopped once to feed him and change him, which only took about 30 minutes.  (And for those of you wondering, John did indeed get his Steak N Shake fix on the way down...and back home! For those of you not wondering, you must know that John LOVES him some Steak N Shake and desperately wishes Birmingham had one.) By 1:30 we were all asleep...i think.  Joe slept in a nice crib in my parents room, and Noah slept with us in the loft room in his pack n play.  We didnt want Noah waking Joe up during his 3 a.m. feeding!  The next 3 days were spent at the beach, at the pool, and in the house, which was super nice by the way.  We ate great food and enjoyed the family.  Everyone helped us with the boys so much.  Especially my parents and my grandmother. And boy did Joe have a blast with his second cousin Maggie.  She is six...and the funniest six year old I have ever come across.  He loves playing with her, chasing her, and unfortunately, playfully biting her.  He does it because he gets a shrieks and laughs from her. 

Here comes the funniest story of the beach trip.  The last couple of times Maggie has been over to our house, bit her on the boob.  Of course he doesnt know what that is yet, and he didnt purposely bite her there, but it happened. She even made up a hilarious song about it.  Anyways, before John, the boys, and I got to the beach, my mom saw a padded hot pink bra at the  target down there that was just her size.  (I don't know what the world is coming to....making padded bras that fit six year olds!!) Once we got there, she wore that padded bra as a shield from Joe's teeth.  Sooo funny.  

John and I got to go out one afternoon, and we also got an evening date.  It was awesome having a few days away from the norm and craziness of life.  

The boys did great while we were there.  Noah ate well, slept well (not quite as well as at home, but not bad), and enjoyed being passed around and kissed on for a few days. Noah stayed inside...no beach or pool for tiny man.  Joe on the other hand, had a blast at both!  He loved the sand and the fact the he had wide open spaces to run and explore.  He was covered in sand from the moment we put him down in it.  The water was pretty rough, so when we took him out in it, he eventually would get splashed in the face, and that, he did not like at all.  But, he loved playing along the shore line, splashing in the water as it came in and out.  He and Pops (my dad) did that together a lot.  We spent a good amount of time at the pool too.  It was a nice break from the sand!  Joe didn't love his floaty as much as he did last year, so everyone took turns holding him in the water.  There were many pools in the community that we stayed in, and one had a kiddy pool which he really enjoyed.  He had fun playing with other kids' toys while they enjoyed his.  The Carillon community is awesome by the way.  It's like a little town.  It's a gated community between Seaside and Panama City.  It has its own general store, restaurants, coffee shops, gym, etc.  There are pools and playgrounds and events during the afternoons and evenings. Everyone rides golf carts around.  We were there on the 4th of July and that morning they had a golf cart parade around the community.  People decorated their carts in red, white, and blue and paraded around.  None of my family was up early enough to decorate our golf cart, so we didnt participate, but we line up on our big balcony with our flags and coffee and waved at everyone in the parade.  Joe was so cute running back and forth along the balcony waving his flags in the air to the patriotic music playing in the parade.  I think John was sleeping in, so he missed it.  He had Noah duty the night before.  Also, they had bands playing in the town square ( i dont remember what the area was really called...but town square sounds good!) bar-b-que cooking, and big blow up water slides.  Joe looooved them.  He was too small to go by himself of course, so John got to take him down the slide quite a few times.  They also had a huge blow up Disney bouncy house and Joe loved that too.  He was the youngest in there, but you would never know.  He did a great job jumping around.  He had lots of firsts while we were at the beach.  He loved riding in the golf cart also.  That night my uncle Jimbo cooked some DELICIOUS ribs.  Seriously, the best I have ever had...and I am picky about ribs.  There was a fireworks show on the beach, but it was after Joe's bedtime. So, the family went out on the beach and John and I took Noah on the balcony and we watched from there. Sadly, we left the next day.  We had more Steak 'N Shake on the way home.  Noah did great and Joe did okay.  He had a low grade fever that I thought was from cutting teeth (which he was doing) but the next day he woke up with a cold.  (He is still getting over it) He had one melt down, but he got over it, and we made it home quicker than we made it down there.  We can't wait to go again in September!  Maybe Noah will make it to the pool this time :)  

Now, I'll leave you with some pictures.

Playing in the sand.

running from daddy

thirsty

looking out to sea

waiting for the waves to get his feet

joe LOVED roaming freely

Touching the water

Joe loves Daddy

...and Pops!

Running in the courtyard by the pool.

Waterslide Time!

Pool

apologies!

i promised a post and have not delivered on my promise :(  I'm sick along with Joe. Hopefully tomorrow I will feel up to it!  Sorry! I'm sure you are all just dying to see pictures of Joe playing in the sand :)   I'm also going to post some recent pictures of Noah.  I don't think I posted any newborn pictures of him on here, but you can find them on my facebook profile!  (They are from when he was just born)  

Hope your week is starting off well!

about the beach...coming soon!

So, we had a fabulous trip to the beach! Traveling went better than expected and Joe had an absolute blast! Probably the best few days of his life thus far :)  However, when we got home, he came down with a cold. I have been taking care of the little sickling and a newborn, so that is my excuse for not blogging about our trip yet.  Since John will be home all weekend to help me with baby duties, I plan to post alll about it...pictures included!  Hope your week has been great and I hope your weekend will be even better!  Post coming soon....