random

I'm sitting here wondering how people have time to regularly post on their blogs. I have things to post about, but the time is just lacking for me right now. Anyways, we had a really fun week. I'll get around to telling about it soon, just may be a little dated before I get around to it. :)

Boys will be boys!

We got brave and ventured out in the heat the other day. We have been to this playground several times, but this was the first time the boys noticed this little dirt area. This mama does NOT like dirty little boys, but I just couldn't take them away from so much fun. 

Nathaniel found it first.

It wasn't long before Ethan joined. Sean was smart enough to stay out of it. I don't think his mom would have handled it so nicely. :)

We decided that since they were so dirty, might as well go to Sean's house swim. Here they are jumping on a wet trampoline.

And then Ethan found some mud!

 But they sure did have a good time! Here they are all cleaned up, and enjoying the ipad mounted on Sean's bed. Isn't he the luckiest that his dad would put it there. ha!

I'm happy to say that all three boys took great naps after all this fun.

Mashed potato soup

 This was dinner last night...mashed potato soup. Yep, we were feeling pretty thrifty because this was made with Sunday's leftover mashed potatoes. It was really good, and super easy to make! 

Find the recipe here.

Still Here

Nope, we haven't fallen off the face of the earth. We have been out of town for the past week. Stefan took a one week doctoral intensive at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, and the boys and I spent the week with family in South Carolina. It really was a great trip. The boys are great travelers. We will definitely be doing more trips in the future. I'll post photos when I find my camera. :-)

Friday, Friday

We haven't done a whole lot today. We spent the morning waiting for my piano to be delivered. So Exciting!! A little back story on the piano. SIL bought it for me while I was in college. I had to practice for hours and hours, and I loved it. We lived with her for a little while before moving to Memphis. The piano was moved into her house for what was supposed to be a couple of weeks, and turned into 4 years. So, after all this time she had it moved here to our house. She is beyond generous for doing this for us, and I am so thankful. Yes, God has really blessed me with wonderful in-laws!

This was Ethan last night. He loves to look at this book, and he is getting pretty good at pointing out the pictures I ask him about. He will sit in my lap and we go over them for awhile.

And this is Ethan's typical morning. This was Nathaniel's waffle. Ethan was up first and had already ate a whole bowl of oatmeal. Nathaniel tried to fight him off, but Ethan was persistent and won the waffles. He used to wait until Nathaniel was finished and steal the leftovers, but today he just stole them right away. Silly boy!(yes, I did make Nathaniel another plate:)

Watching Curious George together. They always make me laugh. Nathaniel was pretending that remote was a train, and acting out the movie with it. 

Playing on the piano right after it was delivered. This is a spot I made for it in our dining room. I was a little worried about how it might look there, but I think it looks great now! I am just so happy to have it here!

We typically go to Chik Fil A at least once a week for lunch. The boys like to play there, and it's just a nice place to be. I completely forgot that it was Cow Appreciation Day. I'm sad we weren't dressed up, but we still had a good time. Thanks to Cat and Reilly for going with us. Note: We always go to the CFA on Poplar across from Kirby Woods. Not only do they have the most young kid friendly play area, but it is also the cleanest. The owner actually came up to me once and talked about how much they clean it. He said his wife always wished for clean play areas for their kids when they were young, and he promised her that they would do that here. It just made me feel good, and you can really tell a difference between this one and others. 

Now the boys are napping, and I need to actually get some work done around the house. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Thursday Funday

Usually Thursdays are our big days for fun. I'm supposedly done with all the housecleaning for the week, and we are ready to get out! Well, this morning started off a little rough to say the least. Typically Nathaniel wakes up at some early time, but he will get in the recliner and sleep a little longer. I don't mind that at all. I have my alarm set for 5:30-6 in hopes of waking up before the boys and having a nice quiet time. Lord help us on the days that doesn't happen, and sadly this was one of them. I heard Nathaniel crying before 6. Assuming that the door accidentally got shut to their room(he and Ethan share), I ran up the stairs to get him out before he woke Ethan up. Well, the door was open, and he was just crying because he could not find growlers. By this time Ethan was awake, and I'm getting upset. I find growlers and send Nathaniel out of the room, and then find Ethan's paci and cover him back up. I think he went back to sleep, but Nathaniel kept crying. He wouldn't tell me what he wanted, and I wasn't the nicest mommy that early in the morning before my quiet time. I eventually got him to settle down and we went on with our morning. Looking back, it wasn't a horrible morning, but it sure did feel like it at the time. By the time we got breakfast and everything done I knew we had to get out of the house, so to the playground we went.

Here are some pictures of our morning which turned into a pretty fun day.

We met up with our good friends Sean and Andrea. I am so thankful for them because I would probably never be brave enough to get out otherwise. Ha. These three are going to be best friends!

 The only way Nathaniel will swing.

 Sweet brothers.

 Nathaniel loves this one. 

 Ethan loves to slide!

And he took it upon himself to dry off all the slides. Ha!

After some playtime we headed over to story time at the library. I used to take Ethan while Nathaniel was in school. He didn't always do great, and honestly story time stresses me out! I decided the boys might do ok today, and I thought Nathaniel would really enjoy it. He did, but I was stressed trying to keep them seated. Nathaniel was actually doing so great until another boy pulled out a train. There is just no controlling him when something like that happens. 

 A little reading time since we got there too early. 

My sweet boy.

 Love this!

And this!

We came home, had lunch, watched a little tv. Now Ethan is snoozing away, and Nathaniel is still awake even though he woke up so early this morning. Good times, good times.

I'm editing to say that we also had a great time at the park yesterday with some new friends. It was hot, but the boys had a great time, and they both napped. I just wasn't on my game enough to get pictures of it. Next time for sure!

Meet our best friend Growlers

Meet Growlers the tiger. He has been Nathaniel's best friend since the beginning, and I'm pretty sure he will be a part of our lives forever. Growlers is part of the Ty beanies babies pluffies line, and wouldn't you know, he is now retired. So, that means only way to replace Growlers is Ebay, which we recently had to do. I think we have had about 6 Growlers in our family now. Crazy how I can remember each one. lol We still have the original. He is beat up, and has a smell that no amount of washing can get out, but he is still the favorite. It has taken some time for Nathaniel to accept the two newest ones that joined us a couple months ago. And we have to have a few around for washing times and things like that. 

Here is our trip down memory lane with Growlers. 

Sleeping with Growlers around 6 months. It wasn't long after this that Nathaniel would not get out of bed without his tiger. 

He can't sleep at all without Growlers now.

Couldn't have made it through the first haircut without Growlers.

Transitioning to toddler bed.

 Right after Ethan came home with us.

 Meeting Ethan for the first time.

He is always around. :)

Growlers at 2 years old.

There is a picture in the previous post of Nathaniel sleeping with Growlers at almost 4 years old.

I'm sure Growlers will be with us for many more years. If he ever does give him up, I'm going to have to put him in a shadow box or something. Maybe Nathaniel will take him to college. lol

Wordless Wednesday

Love These Boys!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Our 4th of July in iPhone pics

We had a pretty relaxing day with no plans. We did end up spontaneously going to see some friends in Blytheville. We love taking trips in our new van anyways. By the way, yes, we have a mini van, and yes I love it!

We spent the morning all laying on the couch together.

The boys really enjoyed frozen yogurt!

We shot fireworks. Nathaniel really loved running from them!

Ethan enjoyed the fireworks, but he loved watching them from the inside with Molly even more.

I'm pretty sure they are best friends!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone