CaTcH uP iN 10...

1. Braxton's party was the bomb. See my little Peter Pan, there, having a sword fight?

2. Our niece Brie was with us for the first month of summer. Here they are having movie night.

3. We went camping! Fun, fun!

4. We did lots of fun things- Like the Creative Discover Museum.

5. Braxton learned how to swim! And he's sooo good!

6. I dyed my hair. Brown black.

7. Braxton got stitches! Surprise! Just kidding- it doesn't surprise you at all does it? See the little blue things? 3 stitches.

8. Daddy had a birthday and we made him a yummy peanut butter cake! See their precious aprons? We just got them and they love to wear them, all the time.

 9. We had a 4th of July cookout/pool party! Lots of great friends, good food, and fun times!

10. We took a good family picture! Oh my, everyone is looking and smiling!















That's the gist of it, though we have done much more- like going to the lake, fountains, aquarium, and playworld downunder...visiting with family, planning vacations...yes, vacationS :) Disney AND the beach...and it all starts in 17 days :)

What's Happenin?

Yes...I said happenin.

:)

As I mentioned before, May is full of awesomeness for us.
I had a great birthday, had a great Mother's Day, and today is our anniversary!
I'm very excited. We get to go out tonight. Dinner AND a movie! We are going to Geghis Grill and then to see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. We are going to the Majestic 12 and I might just get Kettle corn :)

More happenins:

 THIS BOY....

IS TURNING 5!!!!

Whaaaaaaa????

On Thursday, Braxton will be 5! My, my, my...

We will go out to eat where ever he wants and he wants to make dirt pudding again on his actual birthday since we'll have cake at the party. Then, he will get a couple presents and we usually go to ToysRUs and let him pick something as well since they send that birthday coupon.

Then, on Saturday, we'll be having his big Peter Pan party! I can't wait!

I'd love to show you a picture of him in his costume because it is precious, but I'll have to save that for the party post!

Photo Challenge: Food

I am entering this photo of Maddox in the food photo challenge. This was on his 2nd birthday and he was enjoying and ice cream treat!

Find this photo challenge at:



My first grocery deal photo!

Yes, I know...I am blowing up the board with my posts today!

Anyway....I have finally gotten a deal so good that I felt like I should take a grocery picture! I see them all the time on other money saving blogs....and I wanted to share my awesome deal with you! I got all of this a Food Lion. I never shop there but they have been putting out all these commercials for "new and improved stores and prices" AND sending out these ridiculous coupons...so I went.

I got all of this for......

$28!!!! Yes, please notice the $20 box of diapers there!!!
(I know, I wish it was like $1.90!!!! But this is good for me. If I was on a hit series on TLC, it would have been but I'm not that crazy lucky.)

With those diapers, there is 2lbs bananas, 2 apples, 5lb bag of red potatoes, 1 dozen eggs, 1 box of instant grits, 2 boxes of instant oatmeal, 1 box of cereal, 2 packs of toilet paper, hair conditioner, 1 box fruit snacks, 1 box granola bars....and please don't forget the $20 diapers.

Should I remind you my total was $28???!!!

The coupons used were:

one $5 off $20 purchase

one $5 off $25 purchase

$1 off total purchase

free lb. of bananas

$1 off $4 or more in produce

$1 off Food Lion products of $5 or more

.35 off Quaker grits (on sale for $1.50)

$1 off 2 boxes of Quaker oatmeal (closeout for $1.50 each)

$1.50 of Pampers diapers

These, combined with some great sale prices, brought me to my total.

WooHooooo! I'm happy.

Our little birdies

We have this little bird house hanging on a fence outside of our house. Matt bought it a couple years ago and it has hung there that long. We've had birds and eggs in it before but we didn't pay a lot of attention to them.
This year, we noticed tiny blue Robin's eggs in there. Braxton was very interested now that he is older. A couple of days ago the baby birds hatched and we like to peek in there a couple times a day.

I tell Braxton not to move it or touch it, but just peek. His innocent curiosity is so cute.

He came to me yesterday and said, "Their mouths are wide open!" I said, "Yeah, they're hungry..." and before I could finish telling him that the mom  would be back to feed them he said, "Yeah, I gave them birdseed!!" Oh boy. I couldn't help but laugh. My boy is so sweet. Kids are so funny.

We have a bird feeder, as well, which is where he got the birdseed. I asked him how he put it in there and he said he just dropped it in (following that "no touch" rule).

Here are some pictures of the little beaks.

They stretch up and open their mouth anytime the bird house moves, even just a little bit. We found this out b/c if someone touched the fence, it would shake the bird house just a little and then they'd stretch up.

Last night, we sat on our porch (very still!) and watched as the mom and dad came and went with food.

 They watched us closely.

We aren't positive which one is which, but we think the bigger one is the mom.

Here is a picture of each in the bird house:

This one cracks me up. She was like DO NOT come any closer.

 Here's my little reporter. Every time the mom and dad flew away, he'd check on them and tell me what they were doing.

 And one time he wanted to look in while one of the parents was in there. Like they were really gonna let him just peer in...Well, she flew out when he got close. It scared him and he ran back. I was laughing so hard!

As we sat there, I gave B a little lesson on birds and baby birds. He learned quite a bit. He was retelling it to me today. Love moments like that!

We are looking forward to the little birdies getting feathers!



Pizza Night!

Last night, the boys and I made homemade pizza! I've had the ingredients and been wanting to do it for a while. Matt worked late last night so I figured it was a good night to have a little fun in the kitchen.

First they washed up.

Then, they played with this stuff. They liked that.

Spreading the sauce.

Sprinkling cheese. This was probably their favorite part since they got to eat some cheese. Maddox had no part in sprinkling cheese on the pizza...it only went to his mouth! They made a mess but our dog was happy :)

The boys' crazy pizza! I added some tomatoes and onions to one side.

THEY GOBBLED IT UP!

I made a second pizza on my own while they were eating. I seasoned the crust of this one and it was round like a pizza :)

We've made homemade pizza before. I think my favorite to date was out BBQ chicken pizza! YUM!

Next time:

1. Season both pizzas' crust

2. Have a pizza stone.

May GOALS!

Oh, yes! I am setting goals again! I've missed doing it!!

May is my favorite month. Why you ask? Well- my birthday (the 11th IF you were wondering), Mother's Day, our anniversary, Braxton's birthday, warm weather and all the fun stuff it brings...

Okay, to the goals...

FUN:

Go to the movies for my birthday- I want to see Water for Elephants. I just finished the book two nights ago.

Go to the movies for our anniversary- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides premiers on our anniversary. Matt loves these movies. I haven't seen them all but I am trying to watch them all before May 20th!

Watch all the Pirates movies!

Go to dinner with the ladies of Sunday School.

Have friends over for dinner.

Throw a spectacular [Peter Pan] 5th birthday party for Braxton.

Go fishing and hiking (maybe the same day!) and have a picnic while we are there.

Read 2 books

HOME:

Kitchen cabinets- help Matt finish painting them and putting on new hinges and knobs, and putting them back on.

Stay on top of laundry.

Paint the handrail on stairs.

Touch up baseboards.

Clean and declutter- this might include taking some personal things and packing them away (see next goal).

Put the house up for sale!

Clean inside of car

DIY/CRAFT:

I'd like to do that monogram I never did last year!

TEACH:

Have Braxton continue practice handwriting and reading.

Start geography lessons on the states

COOKING:

Have one freezer cooking day

Cook one new recipe

MONEY:

Fine tune our budget and start using the envelope system.

HEALTH/FITNESS:

Go to the gym at least 3 times a week.

Take vitamin everyday.

Wash face every night.

GENERAL "TO-DO":

Sign the boys up for a summer MDO

Sign Maddox up for Fall MDO

Register Braxton for kindergarten

Springing back!

Hi blog friends! We don't have to go over the obvious fact that I haven't posted in a very, very.....very long time. If you cared, I'd say sorry, but I know I wasn't missed...that much.

So to sum it up very quickly=

I graduated. (WOOOOHOOOO!)

We had a wonderful Christmas.

We got lots, and lots of snow. We even got to wake up to a white Christmas. It was wonderful! This is Braxton with my sister, his Aunt JoJo.




We got a puppy. Her name is Kinley and she is a chocolate lab. She is 4 1/2 months old now and 10x's bigger than this.







I got the flu. (Sorry, no picture. haha) I got it 5 days before we were leaving for our vacation. I was extremely worried the boys would catch it and our trip would be ruined. They didn't, though (PTL!!), and I was 95% better by the time we left.



We went to Disney World!!!! Ahhhh...magical, as always.









I got a new car! It has a 3rd row! YAY!



Maddox is now paci free. The boys got bunkbeds so Maddox is in a big boy bed now! My baby is growing up. I'm holding on to the changing table for dear life. I can't take it all at once.

Yep, he turned 2!!!! (and had a puppy dog party!)

Other happenings....

The decision is final: I will stay at home instead finding a job!! I am very happy about this. It was a really sensitive topic there for a while. Either way, I was going to feel guilty. But if I worked, I was going to feel guilty AND stressed AND very sad AND tired AND etc, etc... Matt got a promotion and even though it isn't anywhere close to how nice it would have been with two incomes, it makes it easier. Plus, with this promotion in his company, he is putting his plans to go to school one day on hold. We had originally said that if I got a job, he would go to school and stay home... but that's not happening. I just can't stand the thought of sending my child to daycare full time. It is really just the thought of someone else getting to spend the majority of the day with my child, 5 days a week, and then me coming home tired, stressed, and busy. I was lucky enough to have a full time sitter when I was student teaching, but I just can't be away like that again. I have full intentions of teaching when my kiddos are all in school :) and I can't wait, because I do truly love teaching.

Braxton starts school in the fall. I'm in denial. But, I feel 100% better about it now that I know I'll be home. Big factors in the internal work/stay home debate was, "Who will take him to school? and pick him up? I don't want my baby on a bus! I will never get to volunteer in his class or go on field trips!" Yes, it would be ideal if I worked in the same school, but that was just very highly unlikely. Plus, my Maddox! I got all this time at home with B, and Maddox (and any future child) deserves it, too!
Okay, I could go on....and oooooonnnnn about this. So, even though we aren't gonna have 2 incomes, and when we go to buy another house, our budget will be way lower, I AM WAYYYY HAPPIER BEING A FULL TIME MOMMY!