Bo Strikes Again

Independent children are great, and very helpful, after a certain age.

This little guy decided he would like some more Fruit Loops. So he took it upon himself to pour his own, on a plate, and the floor.

The good news is, this motivated me to vacuum.

Once Again, My Children Prove Candy Advertising Is Aimed Directly At Them

Tell a child something and most times, they'll take it quite literally.

Here, I'll show you.

Sam and I had dentist appointments today. After we got through all the debate about whether or not he was going to go with me, (he said he was NOT going to go, I told him he was), and decided what his treat would be afterwards, we headed out.

I was elected to go first. Yay. Sam kinda watched while I was scraped, poked, polished, and flossed. The rest of the time he snorted at me, ran his toys around the wall, jumped up and kicked the wall, and drank my swish water...oh and pushed all the water buttons he could find. Obviously he was getting away with more of this than usual because my mouth was full of dental tools.

After his turn, during which he did just fine, I had my final check from the dentist. He got part of his treat, a few Skittles, one of each color to be specific. Now, I had been talking up the Skittles, telling him it was like tasting the rainbow because of all the different colors. You know, employing their own advertising strategy.

While I'm laying in the chair, with him at my feet and the dentist checking my bite, I hear the hygienist (who was great by the way and had lots of experience with pediatric dentistry) say, "oh! Sam, do you need a paper towel?!" To which he replied, "noooo, I was just looking at the rainbow." I busted out laughing, knowing he was filling up his hand with Skittle spit.

Who can blame him? Well done Skittles, well done.

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

I know what you're thinking.
Bleh, I do.not.like.cauliflower.
Why would you mess with pizza?
Dis-gusting.

Well, I don't particularly like cauliflower either.
I would mess with pizza for a gluten free eater and to cut down on calories.
And it is most definitely not disgusting. Add some cheese, garlic and oregano, top it with some yummystuff and you can make just about anything taste delicious!

Unfortunately I did not take pictures, however, I almost** copied this recipe and her picture is pretty much what mine looked like.

This is a cheaper, more low-cal option for pizza.
The crust is thinner than normal pizza crust and I'm not trying to sell that it takes just like pizza, but it is really, really good. Why not give it a shot?!

**My changes:
    I microwaved the cauliflower for only 2 minutes. (Tried 8 and it was WAY too long).
    I cooked the crusts for about 17 minutes.
    The recipe says it serves 2. Maybe if you eat like a bird... I made a pizza for Bob, one for me, and one for  
    kids to split. On that note, Sam and Bo scarfed their's down. Grey, my picky eater who happens to be
    sick, didn't eat too much but I have high hopes for him and will try again!

Rosemary & Feta New Potatoes

If you haven't tried the broccoli recipe yet, do it.
Yep, it's been posted for a day.
Get on it. It's that good.

Here's another delicious one.

And I promise I'm not going to just start posting every good recipe I find on Pinterest.

It Was Like a Breath of Fresh Air

*If you can believe it, I started this post quite a few weeks ago. I’m finally getting around to posting it. Just keep that in mind as you read the part about me just getting on top of the laundry. I have since, gotten behind and back on top of it roughly 3 times.


Bob and I just got back from a 4 day vacation...without kids. I have 2 main points.
1 - It.was.amazing.
Getting the house back under control is a tough task. We actually got back Monday night and I'm just beginning to feel like I'm getting on top of the laundry. It's beginning to look like we vacation in search of cooler weather, even to the beach!

Bob and I consider it to very important to take time out for each other. I'm talking about regular date nights or meals out with friends as well as overnight and (gasp, is it possible!?) multiple overnights away with just each other.
I can't tell you what the quiet does for me.

Let's sit for a minute and just sit...


I'm typing this while the kids are asleep and/or resting so it is actually quiet in this house. That doesn't happen often. I've got nap times lined up and it seems like there are just never many days where everyone sleeps as long as they should or stays in the bed when they should be resting, ahem,
Sam, I'm talking to you.

So yea, back to the quiet.

Bob's parents and mine were so, SO gracious to watch our 3 little bundles of energy while we took a much needed and thoroughly enjoyed vacation. As always, the anticipation of the trip was half the fun. On particularly challenging days, we'd look at each other and say, "just think...in a couple weeks, we'll be all alone." We expected it to be great.

2 - It was wonderful.

At the beginning of the year, I begged and pushed for we decided to plan a trip for the two of us. Lots of stuff needed to be taken care of but the big one was childcare. Cue amazing grandparents. Both sets live relatively close by and we recognize what a huge blessing that is. Our kids will know all of their grandparents very well. And most importantly, they love spending time with all of them! Being able to leave the kids with our parents, knowing they will be cared for, loved, disciplined if need be, and knowing they will have fun makes it easy for us to leave for a couple days and really, really enjoy ourselves.

Nana & Pop-Pop, Ebee & Poppa, thank you.
I suspect you know how much I mean that, since you obviously have  children, but seriously, thank you. It may seem like it, but we do not take you for granted.
Anyway, here's what our "days away" looked like:


A beautiful, long beach with only a few holes of golf between it and our hotel.

And speaking of golf. Bob played quite a bit and I drove the golf cart, quite a bit.




Bob played really well, especially considering it had been about 5 years since he had hit. There were a few of these moments though.


Playing oceanfront, with Victor, a little guy we picked up along the way.



Sick houses on the golf course / oceanfront.



Plenty of beautiful scenery.



A fun meet-up with an old friend , Stephanie (who just had her first son a couple days ago!!!)



Lots of delicious food. As in, every meal we ate was either amazing food or really good food with a great atmosphere.  We ate at this one, Pepper’s, twice.



This place served as much as they could from local farmers. It was like an old farm house, situated on a quaint downtown street. We ate outside on the front porch. So fun! We walked down the road afterwards to listen to a band we spotted (and heard) while eating.



My made-to-order omelet from the hotel restaurant. It was delicious!! The resort even had a huge assortment of fresh fruit and cheese, as well as a gluten-free table complete with a few types of baked goods, bread, a dedicated GF toaster, and a couple cereals. Great news for anyone with a gluten allergy!



We rode bikes quite a bit. I borrowed one from Amy. (and now I want my own) This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. The weather was fantastic so it was great to be outside so much!


And lots of self-portraits that I’ve narrowed down to two.

I love, love, love that guy.
Hey Bob, thanks again for taking me on vacation! I love living our lives together!

Roasted Broccoli Recipe

I'm completely stealing someone else's recipe that I found on Pinterest here, but oh-mah-goodness, please make this broccoli.
It's delicious!

I made it just like this recipe, leaving out the pine nuts and basil. (I actually also left out the lemon zest since I didn't use fresh lemon juice. Gasp!) I'm not sure how it would be with them but I can't believe it wouldn't taste good.

Trust me. You'll thank me later.

Do You Take Dis…Black Card?

Bear with my videography and obnoxious laugh. And pay close attention to around the 25 second mark.

Does my son have The World's Most Prestigious Card?

Also, Grey takes a lot of abuse.

It's a Free Show

When the grass needs to be cut during the week, you can usually find our children clamoring at the window to watch Bob. This week I decided to go ahead and feed the kids while Bob was cutting so I just set them up by the window.

Waiting...



And here comes the main event.





I'm so glad these boys love their Dad so much. I'm even more glad he's such an awesome dad!

Today Was the Perfect Day

The perfect day for eating lunch outside.

Eat at Your Own Risk

Sam helped me make some cookies for Bob for Valentine's Day.

Can you tell which ones he worked on?



Top left and the very obvious one on the bottom row. Sadly, I just realized there are quite a few on here you may have thought he did... So I don't roll perfect ball-shaped cookies. Bob still ate them.

Come to think of it, after Bob and got back from dinner out last night, I realized someone (between my sisters and parents) ate the poop cookie. And since they make up 90% of my readers due to my failure to blog frequently...fess up. Who was it?

50% off Tazikis

We love Tazikis around here. It's fresh, delicious and affordable.

Having bought their Whole Baked Chicken dinner for 4 for small group, as well as people who have just had kids, I can attest to the fact that (1) it's a ton of food and (2) it's delicious!

Today, they have a deal going on where you can purchase up to 3 for $10 a piece. (They're normally $20 or a little more.)

If you're interested, I'd love it if you use my referral code http://tinyurl.com/3yowvhp.

Thanks and enjoy!

What's the Best Part of Baking?

I Won't Lie

This stuff makes my life better.

The Many Uses of Diapers and Why I, Now, Keep a Roll of Paper Towels in the iVan

Dear Sam,

Today we went to meet Daddy for lunch. It was supposed to be fun, a special treat we don't do all the time. It didn't start off so well and it ended even worse.

Spilling milk all down your shirt was no fun for anyone. Sadly, I don't carry around extra clothes for you anymore so you just had to keep that one on. Also, whoever said, "Don't cry over spilled milk," obviously wasn't around a toddler, on a hot day, with dried milk on his shirt.

Ending the meal with a free Frosty was nice, even though you yelled, "Don't eat-it-all!" every time I took a bite. Way to make me feel like even more of a chunk.

However, when we got to Target (an errand we were running after lunch) and you crawled up on the center console (a no-no), picked up my very full cup of Mr. Pibb, ignored my, "No! Sam, put the drink down! Get off that! Put it dow-....", I'd say it ended badly.

I didn't react like the calm, cool, collected mom I am. Ahem.

I groaned, probably said something like, "Ohhhh Saaam. Ugh." BUT, I quickly caught myself and reassured you that it was ok, I could clean it up.

Too late.

You were completely flipping out. Full-on tears, yelling at me to clean it up and shaking those hands. I felt pretty bad thinking I made you feel like you messed up big time. No, no. You were upset because you didn't get a sip of the drink. After trying to explain 3 or 18 times that you couldn't have a sip because it all spilled, I finally just stuck you in the cart and headed inside.

I had about 4 napkins in the van. You probably don't know how much Mr. Pibb 4 napkins can soak up. The answer is not a whole lot.Now I have a roll of paper towels in there.

Thankfully, I thought to use these to catch the Pibb that was spilling onto the floor.

Do you still want a sip?

I love you (even more than clean, dry carpet in the iVan AND Mr. Pibb),

Mom

If We Were Hanging Out...

Here are a few things I'd tell you about.

Tomorrow, through May 16th, between 3 and 5, you can get a half price frappacino from Starbucks. Wahoo! It's offically called Starbucks Happy Hour.

Next Tuesday, May 11th, which may or may not be my birthday, you can get a free small iced coffee fom Dunkin Donuts. (no purchase necessary)

THIS

I have two picture posts on the way. One - Grey's 9 months and two - my 3 month belly picture.
I read a blog of a girl who did belly pictures and she included all kinds of stats - weight gain/loss, cravings, signs of pregnancy, etc. I always liked reading her stats but when thinking about putting them on my posts, it seems self-indulgent. Is it? Would you wanna know?

Who Knew Our House Could be So Quiet?

A couple weekends ago, our friends Amy and Tyler, along with their two boys, came to visit.

In case you missed it earlier, Tyler just wrote a book, Everyday Absurdities, and if you haven't bought it yet, do it. Do it now.

Anyway, we had such a fun time hanging out with them, playing with their boys and Amy and I enjoyed a great chat on a nice long walk. This was one of the weekends with awesome weather!

We had loud, crazy, fun meals and a silent, restful night. I went to bed thinking that I love having a house full of people and that I can't believe how quiet our house could be with 4 adults and 4 boys under the age of 3.

I don't know how I let it happen, but we didn't get a picture of everyone together :(. Here are a few of the ones I did get.

Baylor entertaining Sam.



Curious George entertaining Bay and Sam.



Fun at the park.



Dinner. Crazy, fun dinner.
Amy, Tyler, and family, please come back whenever you want!

Winner

Some of you were amazingly close and some not so much. In fact, I'm wondering if I need to learn a little more about couponing from y'all! Rebekah? Them giving me $.10? That would've been impressive!

With a guess of $32.94, only $1.58 off, Angela is the winner. Wahoo! Ang, email me with your address and I'll stick the Starbucks card in the mail :).

In case you're curious, here's the breakdown:

Not on sale - black

On sale - blue

On sale and coupon - red
- 1 baguette $1.79

- 1 bag of Doritos $1.99

- 1 box of Lucky Charms $.97

- 1 box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch $.97

- 2 pouches of Uncle Ben's Ready Rice $.97 each

- 2 pouches of Fisher's trail mix $.50 each

- 2 boxes of Betty Crocker Supreme Brownie Mix $.90 each

- 2 blocks of Kraft cheese $1.17 each

- 1 box of Uncrustables (are these gross? never tried them before) $1

- 6 cans of Progresso soup $.42 each

- 6 cans of Green Giant corn $.48 each

- 1 can of Pam $1

- 1 carton of Egg Beaters $.67

- 1 gallon of Publix organic milk $4.99

- 1 pkg. of strawberries $1.67

- 1 pkg. of organic carrots $1.50

- 8 bags of Green Giant Steamers $.32 each

I'm off a couple cents somewhere, but you get the idea.

So, who all is couponing? I'd love to hear about one of your best runs.

A Giveaway Using the Money I'm Saving from Couponing

I started couponing about 2 months ago. It has become a game, a challenge, like everyone says it has to...if you want to stick with it.

This isn't going to be a long explanation of how to coupon. If you're interested in that, I recommend this site. It's awesome and, really, it's all I use. (Check the tutorials at the top right of the page). One thing you'll see here is how beneficial it is to stockpile - buying things are their rock bottom price.

This is a game for you guys!

Below you'll see a picture of the items I bought recently at Publix and a list of everything in the picture just to be fair (in case you can't see everything).


- 1 baguette
- 1 bag of Doritos
- 1 box of Lucky Charms
- 1 box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch
- 2 pouches of Uncle Ben's Ready Rice
- 2 pouches of Fisher's trail mix
- 2 boxes of Betty Crocker Supreme Brownie Mix
- 2 blocks of Kraft cheese
- 1 box of Uncrustables (are these gross? never tried them before)
- 6 cans of Progresso soup
- 6 cans of Green Giant corn
- 1 can of Pam
- 1 carton of Egg Beaters
- 1 gallon of Publix organic milk
- 1 pkg. of strawberries
- 1 pkg. of carrots
- 8 bags of Green Giant Steamers
Total before coupons and tax = $91.37

The challenge is to guess what I paid out of pocket, before tax for all this stuff. I'll send the winner a shiny, new $5 gift card to Starbucks. (Whoever guesses closest, over or under, wins!)

When I announce the winner, I'll tell you how much I spent and how much I saved. So fun, right?!

You've got until next Monday, March 8 at noon CST to guess. (I'm looking for dollars and cents here). I'll post the winner sometime that afternoon.

Moon Pie, Whaaat?

My dad has taken on the arduous task of introducing Sam to any and all kinds of dessert. (Love you, Dad!)

Last weekend, Sam learned about Moon Pies. For some reason, he just started saying this...



"Moon Pie, whaaaat?" And he thinks this video is hilarious.

When the Naps Align

We're finally to the point where the boys' naps line up , on most days, for at least an hour or so. Did you hear that? The choir of Hallelujahs? Ok, maybe it was just me.

Anyway, most days, I try to clean up a little, tackle some laundry, catch up on emails and blogs, etc. Today? Today was different. Bob, here's what I did today while the boys were sleeping, instead of picking up Sam's toys for the eight hundred millionth time...

Microwave Chocolate Cake

Totally stole this from Lauren.

Yes, I know I have to stop eating like this soon. I didn't finish the whole thing and that makes me feel just okay enough to blog about it.