Creative Cookies

We all know its difficult financially to become a stay at home mom. Living on one income is not the easiest thing that we have faced but we have gotten by. One thing that has helped me make a little more income while still being able to stay at home with my boys is to make cookies. At least I get to use that creative edge that I miss from the Edible Art days.

I started by doing cookies for my boys' birthday and for a Union County Mommies event. Now, I have thankfully continued to get orders for them! Take a look at some of the ones that I have done -

Let's Paint Mommy!!!

This is the phrase I have heard A LOT in the last 24 hours! I decided yesterday to do a fun rainy day activity. We didn't have pudding (which was my first thought) but I knew we needed something that the boys could eat if we were going to do any painting around our house. It seems that everything that is put in front of them still goes straight towards the mouth! And also, this helped kill 2 birds with one stone - a fun activity to keep the boys entertained on a rainy day AND snack time!

I took vanilla yogurt that we had in the fridge and put it in small containers. Then I used food coloring to dye the yogurt pink, blue, green, and yellow. I happened to have a couple of paint brushes that I had never used too so we broke those out. And for easy cleanup, I covered a big area on our kitchen island with wax paper that I taped down. I handed the boys the materials and just let them explore. What a hoot! You can tell both of them have a little of their daddy in them because when I stuck their hands in the yogurt, they both freaked out!

Soon, they figured it out and were painting up a storm. Talk about a fun and educational (yes, the teacher in me had to make it educational) activity. They had to ask for the colors - so that right there is practicing colors, we drew shapes and they named them for me, we wrote our names and Whit told me what letters I was writing. We used paint brushes, spatulas, straws, and even basting brushes. It was great!!

Now, about 5 minute into this activity, Parker thought, "humm...I wonder if I can eat this?", and therefore, painting stopped, and snacking began. We started running low on "paint" and I didn't want to waste ALL of our yogurt so I added a little applesauce and let them go to town again. Of course I HAD to take pictures of all of this. By the time we were done, Whit was begging me to take more pictures. He kept saying "Mommy CHEESE!!" What a ham!!

I love letting the boys explore and seeing their reactions to it all. It was a lot of fun and took up a good hour of our morning - a good hour that we didn't have to watch Choo Choos (Thomas the tank)!

Blessings

I feel like lately, we have been incredibly blessed in our home. I have wanted so bad to enroll the kids in some sort of "mommy and me" classes for a while. In our home, the price tag was just a little too high to enroll both boys in a class at the same time, so therefore we had kind of decided that it would be something to save up for.

This spring, we had decided that it was time for us to do something. So we decided on soccer. We figured this would give us a chance to do something on a Saturday to get out of the house and get some energy out. While it is a little pricey, I knew it would be a lot of fun for the boys. Well we sign up for it and then a week later, I find out that thanks to CMOMs and their scholarship program, they have paid the majority of our fees for soccer. Wow. I was so happy to know that we would be able to really afford to do this!

I know what you are thinking.....soccer for 2 year olds??? How does that work??? Well it is more of a parent/child class. And no, we don't play actual soccer games. We play games like red light/green light, we build towers out of cones and then practice kicking them over, they blow bubbles and the kids have to kick or stomp on them, the do obstacle courses, and of course they break out the soccer balls and the kids just score as many goals as they can. By the end of the class, the boys are exhausted and so are mommy and daddy! :) And who can resist all of these little kids in these HUGE soccer jerseys?

You can tell by the last picture just how tired Parker can get! :) And this was only 10am!

And who would have known, soon after we found out that we would get the opportunity to join another Mommy and Me type class!! This time it was Union County Music Together. What an awesome program!!

http://www.ucmusictogether.com/. The first week, the boys didn't really know what was going on. For the most part, they ran around and every once in a while came to sit with me while I sang along. Since that first class, we have really come a long way though. Last week, both boys even came to sit with me and clap along with the songs. Their favorite part is the instruments. It's so much fun seeing the kids trying to figure out what to do with all of them. With the class, you receive a song book and 2 cds to take home. The boys love to listen to the cds while we are playing downstairs and in the car when we are driving all over town. We did have a moment the other day when I knew that Music Together was really starting to make sense to the boys. I went to get Parker up from his nap when he began singing "Hewo everybody...see you....Hewo Mommy....so see you!" (translated as Hello everybody, so glad to see you and Hello to Mommy, so glad to see you too). And its just icing on the cake that a lot of the people that are in our music together class, are all friends from Union County Mommies!

Like I said before, we have had A LOT to be grateful for lately! Without such amazing people in our lives, we wouldn't have been able to give these opportunities for our boys. And now that I have seen just how amazing these things have been for our family, we can now save for the future so that we can do these again!

Whit & Parker turn 2!

Yes, so they actually turned 2 a month ago but I had to take a moment to update everyone on what they have been up to recently and of course some pictures from their party.

If you have been around my kids anytime recently, you know about their obsession with Thomas the Tank. Is it sad that your 2 year olds can name more trains from a picture than you can?

So of course, we had to have a Thomas the Tank birthday party. Decorations, plates, napkins, cake....everything Thomas! We did most of the decorating while the boys napped that day and let me tell you, I have never seen such excited faces when they came down and saw Thomas stuff EVERYWHERE!

We of course had the family but what was fun was that the boys actually got to have some of their friends come over. Most of these friends we have met through Union County Mommies and the boys have had plenty of playdates with these kiddos.

The cutest thing was seeing all of the kids sitting at the table together enjoying their little personal train cakes. We spent lots of time playing outside on the new swingset, which we got for the boys for their birthday present. We also had lots of indoor play time, eating, and present opening. It was a great afternoon! By the time the party was over, Whit was already sitting next to Nana with his Yertle in mouth exhausted!

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY WHIT & PARKER!!

Welcome Back!

Ok, so I took some time off from the blogging since there has been so much to do lately. Here is a quick update on the boys ....

Whit - He is still my tough guy that could "wreck a junkyard" as Gramaw would say....and it's soooo true! Lately, he could almost talk your head off but half of the time no one understands what he is saying. He does a lot of jabbering but there are some words you can understand. Right now his favorite words to say are "Chi Chi" (Choo Choo), "Zackson" (Jackson), "Whoa", and "Pane" (Plane). I love how much he loves to read. Granted I get super tired of reading the same books OVER and OVER and OVER again but I think a love for reading at this age is wonderful. And it doesn't hurt that the books are all about 7 pages long! :)

Parker - Parker is my quiet little guy for the most part. He is as happy as a clam as long as he is watching his "Choo Choo Chains" or when he is lying in the floor with a train and making it go back and forth. Parker is still the slowest eater on the planet but I have learned that he is also a junk food freak. He can eat graham crackers, goldfish, chips, and french fries all day long....but you bring out a regular meal and he wants nothing to do with it. Parker is also a kid that likes to talk...not quite as much as Whit but he knows some. His favorite words are first and foremost "Choo Choo Chain" (Choo Choo Train), "Okay", "Hewo" (Hello), and "Hey dere".

We have had an amazing summer around our house. We started out the summer going to the beach with the Wilson clan. It was WONDERFUL!! Whit had a wonderful time in the sand, Parker ran straight for the water, and I think their favorite part was the baby pool at the hotel. There was so much going on and we all had a blast. Chip and I even got to go out with all of the other adults one night for dinner. It was GREAT! The older cousins got to watch our boys and they did wonderful. We can't wait until next year!

We also did a mountain vacation with my family. We decided that we would stay around the Brevard/Arden/Asheville area and do day trips and such. We really did have a great time. We spent a day going to Dillsboro, we had a cookout at Mom's house, we had a fried chicken picnic at Mimi's house, Chip and I had a date night, one night Chip and I got to go out to dinner with Lesley and Andy, we went to the Fiddlin' Pig, and mom took us to the Nature Center. On the trip to Dillsboro, we discovered the wild world of trains and Thomas the tank. After that trip, our house suddenly became all about trains. It was great spending time with the family even though it was difficult to get everyone together for various reasons.

Now we are back to the old grind. Chip has started a job working as a school resource officer. His hours have changed but he now has weekends off. Starting next week, I am starting babysitting a 6 week old along with my boys during the day. I think it will be a lot of fun. Whit seems really excited to share his toys with Cole....he just doesn't realize that Cole doesn't play ball or do puzzles. Now also starts the world of Appalachian Football! Chip and I will be going to lots of games this year and I can't wait to tailgate with my friends and see everyone at homecoming.

Hopefully I won't be too busy to add more to the blog....

UPDATE

WOW! Didn't realize that I haven't posted since November 1st! Lots to catch up on...

Can you believe it???? The boys are almost 10 1/2 months old! Holy cow! It has been great lately though. Everyone has said from the get go that it gets better and to just keep hanging in. Well I did and it is finally managable. NO, that doesn't mean that I am never tired and that I am always in a good mood..but I can work with it and I'm not always completely sleep deprived. We are for the most part, sleeping through the night!!! YAY!!!! Unfortunately, Parker got my early-riserness (yes, I made up a word there). He wakes up most mornings around 5:30 and just stands up in his crib and rattles the bars. I figure I had it coming since I was always an early riser growing up.

Parker now has 4 teeth and I am afraid we are working on more...he has been in a fowl mood lately and drools all over the place. Whit has 2 1/2 teeth and we are DEFINITELY working on more. So we are having fun with the wild world of teething. Whit got his first tooth first on his 7 month birthday.

Both boys have flown through the whole crawling process. I feel like it was just yesterday that Whit was doing the army crawl. Now, Parker is cruising pretty well and climbing. Whit is a master cruiser and has taken his first steps....the most we have counted is 5 steps and plop!

They eat up a storm! I definitely have boys! Whit loves sweet potatoes and ANY fruit. If you put a pile of food on his plate, he will go through it until he has fished out all the fruit. He always leaves the peas and carrots. Parker loves anything...not too picky. He just isnt the cleanest eater...I mean he shovels it into his mouth. He always ends up with food in his hair and all over his clothes. Oh well...thats the fun of being a kid...it doesn't matter...we can always change clothes.

We went to Disney at the end of Nov and early Dec. That was GREAT! It hardly feels like we even went. The boys were amazing. We went back for nap during the day but they did great to work around our schedule and do everything we wanted them to do. We were sooo happy that they LOVED the characters. Parker even tried to suck on Minnie's nose and left pancake crumbs all over it...OOPS! I know gross huh??

Our first Christmas was great. The boys got TONS of stuff. If you don't believe us, come look at our living room...it looks like a day care blew up in it...not to mention the stuff in the playroom upstairs! It was great though! Some of their favorites have been their computer and their activity table. The also love thier Mega Blocks...mainly to suck on but still, its a favorite. I wish I could list all of the wonderful things they got...but that would take me all day.

And last but not least, we had our first Valentine's day. This was the first time I have ever gone all out for a small holiday but it was fun. We had pink heart shaped pancakes for breakfast, we had heart shaped grilled cheese sandwiches and soup for lunch. And we had a pizza with pepperoni in a heart shape. The boys had little heart shaped toast pizzas. They LOVED those. What they really liked were the cupcakes for dessert. I made them minis and they loved them!

Ok, now for the pictures...here are some of my favorites from the past few months....

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Yesterday was a wonderful day in our house. Of course it was Halloween but that also meant that Appalachian was playing Wofford at the Rock. Of course Appalachian WON! As always I am proud to be a Mountaineer.

So back to the real reason for my post...

I had to share with everyone a few pictures of the boys in their costumes. They were little skeletons. They had a great time greeting trick or treaters at the door last night. They were so tired it was ridiculous but they had a good time. Of course Whit seemed to like the candy basket the best. Here are a couple of pictures to enjoy!

Also, the boys are doing more and more everyday. Parker has found that he can crawl into the coffee table. It is one of his favorite places to hang out these days. Whit is just getting faster and faster. They both are babbling fools these days...if its not one, its the other....or sometimes both at the same time. We are also learning baby sign language. So far, I think we have mastered milk (even though I think for them it means drink). This morning I saw them doing the cutest thing...Parker was in the coffee table and Whit was on the floor and they started playing peek-a-boo. Parker was laughing so hard it almost sounded like he was cackling.

Last but not least, we went to the ped. last week. Whit weighs 17lbs 3 oz and Parker weighs 15lbs 3 oz. Whit is average but Parker is just plain skinny. He just isn's very interested in eating...he is too curious about what is going on around him. Oh yes, and a couple of weeks ago, they just started wearing their 3-6 month clothes. I am sure they will catch up sooner or later. Hope everyone had a great Halloween and has a great rest of the weekend!