The Tillotson Family

We've changed our Blog Address!!!

2011-01-14T21:06:00.002-05:00

Hop on over to our new blog address!
http://texastillotsons.blogspot.com

Bragging Time!

2010-12-22T17:02:00.002-05:00

I wanted to "brag" about the boys for a minute. Its more for my "virtual baby book" that I am able to remember these milestones.

Ollie is saying so many words its crazy. He is starting to use his signs a lot more too. He loves watching the signing time dvds with Brigham! He walks so fast its pretty much running. You know speedwalkers? imagine my 32 inch little man doing that, its pretty hilarious to watch him go!

Briggy is an amazing memorizer like his father. holy cow! He is so crazy about the alphabet and numbers and has been for the past 6 months or so. He of course knows al his ABC's {capital and lower case} can recognize and count up til 30 and I just did a little reading "pop quiz" with him {his favorite game with mommy} and these are all the words he got right:

{on the magna doodle i write the word, he tells me what it is}
Dad-correct
Ollie-wrong
Tillotson-correct
Briggy-correct {and then said, Briggy Wills Tillotson!}
Home-wrong
Food-correct
Apple-correct
Cheese-correct
Up-correct
Go-correct
Mom-correct
Farm-wrong
Joy-correct
Run-correct
Pig-correct
Cow-correct
Horse-wrong
Love-wrong
Peace-correct
Ho Ho Ho-correct
Santa-correct
Jesus-correct
Pop-correct
Boy-correct
Toy-correct
Fish-correct
Cat-correct
Church-wrong
Bat-correct
Fun-correct
Water-correct
Eagle-correct {I have no idea why he always remembers that one!}
Poop-correct
Pee-correct
Boo-correct
Book-correct
Look-correct

He knows SO many words. Im probably forgetting lots, but he knows tons of 3 letter words. He sees them in the activities we do and on the tv and just remembers them! Scramble them up, whatever--he know them! Im so impressed with him. He knows SO MANY signs, and is almost on his way to knowing all of the alphabet in sign language.
Of course I think he is the smartest kid ever!
He is soooo super sweet---Oliver on the other hand, hes IS FIESTY!!! He is for sure my spit-fire son---but so sweet looking, he gets away with so much!
okay, enough bragging. Love my boys!

Gingerbread Decorating-palooza

2010-12-10T14:19:00.005-05:00

Its always so fun and crazy when you have a room filled with toddlers! Throw in LOTS AND LOTS of sugar and it makes for a palooza of sorts. I worried a LOT less during this party because I made sure that all the food that I provided and all the candy and treats were all egg/milk/peanut free! I only had to worry about Oliver stuffing mouthfuls of giant gumdrops in his mouth. geesh! Briggy found his santa suit from last year and has been begging me to wear it--when we tried it on, the top fit okay, but the pants were HUGE in the waist and like floods on his tall legs! We scrapped the pants, but I let him be "santa briggy" and wear the top. He had fun greeting all his friends with a hearty "ho ho ho!"

I had pre-assembled all the graham cracker houses with hot glue. So, not edible, but sturdy! That way the kids could just have fun with the frosting and all the candy! I love the cinnamon toast crunch roof tiles. So cute! Ollie was too busy swiping treats to participate, but Briggy finsihed about half a house. We'll make our own little gingerbread village this Sunday with all the extras.
I made snow men for the kids to decorate too. They were the BIGGEST marshmallows I had ever seen and knew I had to incorporate them somehow. They are the big campfire roasters, stacked together and "pinned" with pretzel sticks. I had initially planned on just using the normal sized marshmallow as the head, but realized I bought mini's instead--so I actually cut the big campfire ones in have to create an oval marshmallow face for the snowman. I thought it was pretty clever--and cute!

We snacked on "Rudolphs Rootbeer Cupcakes" {Duncan Hines Butter Cake mix doesnt contain any milk or ollie-allergens--so in replace of the eggs and oil, you add 12 ounces of soda pop {we added rootbeer} and they came out great!!! They are frosted with pillsbury vanilla frosting {which also doesnt contain milk--yea!}
"Christmas Krispies" are just regular krispie recipe but with soy margarine and I threw in lots of green sprinkles to color the bars, and topped with more sprinkles}
Lastly, I made a vegan mint cookie recipe that were shaped like candy canes.
Heres the recipe if any of you need it!

Candy Cane Shaped Cookies:
2 1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup margarine
1 cup powered sugar
Substitute equivalent of 1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/4 teaspoon liquid red food coloring
Pre-heat oven to 350* F.

Mix flour and salt together, set aside.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat margarine until creamy, gradually beat in powered sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy. Beat in egg replacer, vanilla, and peppermint extracts then lower mixer speed and gradually mix in the flour mixture, beating just until blended. Remove slightly more than half of the dough from the bowl and set aside. Add the red food coloring to the remaining dough and beat until evenly mixed and colored.

For each candy cane, scoop out 1 teaspoonful of the plain dough and 1 teaspoonful of pink dough. Roll each dough portion between your hands to make a 4 inch rope. Twist the ropes around each other like a Barber Pole and shape into a cane shape. Arrange cookies on a greased baking sheet, about 1 inch apart. Bake for about 8 minutes until firm to the touch.

For the party favors I copied some cute cocoa cones I saw at the Hallmark store. They had a hefty price tag--$7.95 each! Who on God's green earth would pay that much? BONKERS. So easy to make on your own! My friend Sarah and I whipped them up and she will be posting the quick tutorial on her blog http://alittleofthis---alittleofthat.blogspot.com soon.

Basically its hot cocoa mix, candies, marshmallows and disposable pastry bags!

The kids had lots of fun, and thats all that matters! Ive got a big mess ahead of me --but that can wait til Tom gets home---all I need is one giant garbage bag and make a clean sweep!

Toddler Christmas Party...

2010-12-04T20:07:00.004-05:00

Briggy and Ollie are hosting a Christmas party next friday! It's a gingerbread decorating party! Im so excited to be making lots of christmas goodies and projects! We are handing out our invitations to all of our nursery friends at church tomorrow. I thought I'd document the projects we'll be working on leading up to the party on friday....

Invitations wrapped with a little "snow"

hopefully i'll be able to post a few recipes, and the favor tutorial mid-week!

fa-la-la-la-la! we are so in the christmas mood! tomorrow we are decorating the tree!

Thanksgiving

2010-12-01T19:15:00.003-05:00

We had such a nice thanksgiving down at my aunt and uncles in southern texas. my aunt was gracious enough to have us, stuff us full of thanksgiving grub AND take us into Gruene and get some great family photos. {and pick out a very cute texas ornament--which has driven me to make an entire "tex'mas" tree for next year!}

this was one of the silly shots she got of us. the other good one is going to be on christmas cards....so that'll have to wait!

Getting in the groove of christmas...I have most of the decor up, and hopefully a tree up this weekend! Next week Briggy and Ollie will also be hosting a Gingerbread Decorating Party! Ill have lots of fun pictures of that coming soon!!

A few crafts from the past week....

2010-11-19T11:53:00.005-05:00

In trying to keep the Thanksgiving spirit alive, I've been doing a lot of thanksgiving-y crafts with the boys and a few myself:

Gobble Gobble! Just some 2x4s. The turkey didnt stand out as much as I would have liked, should have used a darker brown--I'll probably fix it for next year.

Meet Henry. We couldnt have ANOTHER Tom Turkey around here, so we decided that Henry was the perfect name. Or "Hey-reeee" as Briggy calls him! Just made of a 2x4, paint stick, popsicle sticks, paint and paper!

This was a fun FHE activity we did with the boys. Everything is their hand or finger prints! {except the ABC stamps Briggy used to spell out Gobble Gobble!} I love using their hand and feet prints in crafts!!

And today, I finished up my first Christmas craft. I know, I cheated! I wanted to wait until the weekend after Thanksgiving to start, but we needed a countdown! I love doing the block countdowns, but I wanted something a little different for upstairs!

I used an old frame without glass, a wooden plaque that I painted chalkboard paint on, my FAVORITE wrapping paper, and paper diecuts for my BFF {the cricut}
I thought the red would really stand out, but not so much....and i cut the Christmas font a little too big. Not perfect, but functional, and matches great with the upstairs decor!

Happy Crafting!

Snapshots of Life: 9 pm

2010-11-19T09:25:00.003-05:00

Last night was my first attempt on a sewing machine! ahhh! I made some burp cloths and diaper wipe cases, etc. with help from my awesome friend Sarah {check out her AMAZING craft blog! shes got the best tutorials!}
http://alittleofthis---alittleofthat.blogspot.com/

here are the fruits of my labor--burp cloths for my cousins new little baby girl, lyric! I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS HOT PINK FABRIC {its like a beehive pattern with polka dots and little bees randomly throughout}

We didnt quite finish everything because it was getting late....and I had to get home to watch Greys Anatomy and the Mentalist with the hubber! {and of course Real Housewives...but thats a naptime/folding laundry treat!}

Snapshots of Life: 10 am

2010-11-12T09:47:00.003-05:00

This was a snapshot from 10 am yesterday:

Yesterday morning we were able to play with a little friend while his mommy had an appointment, so that was a big thrill for the boys--while they played they watched Toy Story {per request of Briggy}....we ended up watching it another time...and another time....

Little Ollie got pretty into this time, he got up right to the screen and was squealing with excitement when he saw his brother aka "woody" on the screen!

Snapshots of Life: 8 am

2010-11-04T15:03:00.005-04:00

This was the scene at the Tillotson home at 8 am this morning!
Eating Breakfast--Ollie...cereal mix. Corn flakes, Cheerios, Kix, Krispies...Im all out of fruit other than apples...and for some reason, he wont eat apple dices!

Briggy: ate a waffle AND a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I made his waffle like usual, he scarfed it down so fast--and then one of the characters on the cartoons was eating peanut butter and jelly....so he got a craving... the really good kind too, on that bad-for-you white bread {im all out of wheat, and the only bread i could find at walmart without milk {for ollie} was the sunbeam white bread. Im sure there are others, but in our price range and my hurriedness, thats what I found!}

---Don't you just love their bed head?! hahaha lovin' thier messy locks!---

What a great breakfast. What did mommy have? 14 ounces of diet pepsi and 3 pretzels. I know this because I started a food diary so I could SEE how horribly and unhealthy I eat--hoping it would trigger some better food choices. Im pretty much the worst eater ever.

Trick or Treat!!!

2010-10-31T21:10:00.010-04:00

Last night at our wards Halloween Carnival, the boys were able to play lots of games and win candy!

{I love how little Ollie blends in with the decor haha!}

I was nervous that I wouldnt be able to go out with the boys tonight because ever since take-out last night I have been feeling.....rather ill {to put it nicely} you dont want details, TRUST ME. Ugh! Im feeling a little better...but I can only handle water...otherwise I feel like crap again---rolaids and water....officially old!

Anyway, the boys {I should say just Briggy--Ollie just was NOT HAPPY in his costume last night or today. We only went to a few houses and then I took him back home to give him dinner....he was a cute pumpkin...but not happy with his momma or daddy!}

The most HILARIOUS part of the night is that Briggy ran into not ONE but TWO people's houses. They were talking to him and for whatever reason he felt like he was a welcome guest to just pop in, eat their candy and look at all their decor! We were right there with him--but we were NOT expecting him to do that!!!

The "Great Pumpkin" made his annual delivery at the Tillotsons! I stuffed their Halloween bags while they were eating dinner with ABC magnets, lots of dinosaurs and jungle creatures. Thats all the rage here, good thing the Great Pumpkin pays attention to things like that...the boys were VERY EXCITED to play!

Briggy had a special Halloween dinner--nothing fancy--unfortunately he has a very limited palette--but a pumpkin shaped grilled cheese and apple mouths went over really well!

lots of candy, we recycled half of his bag to trick or treaters and saved quite a few candies for him to gobble down the next few days! Overall, it was a great weekend {other than my gurgling stomach}
We were Jack Mormons tonight, taking in all the spooky festivities and trick or treating....We've got to be extra good and grateful this Thanksgiving season to make up for our Tom-foolerly! :P

#5 at 5pm: Halloween Fun?

2010-10-28T20:06:00.006-04:00

One of the blogs I visit frequently http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/ started a new thing where you take a picture on a thursday at a scheduled time of day {snapshots of life}. Today's time was 5 pm. I thought it would be fitting to pick the 5th picture I snapped since it pretty much encompassed the mood of the evening.

We had been planning on doing pumpkin carving on monday for FHE, but each day things or meetings got in the way, so finally today was the day! Ive been so excited, thinking Briggy would totally want to DIG IN! and get all gross and ooey gooey. I figured Ollie would try eating the glop, and then play with the scoops---I figured out Ollie just right, Briggy on the other hand DID NOT LIKE the pumpkins! As soon as I pulled the top off and he saw what was inside---he started to freak out!!! He was screeching "NO THANKKKK YOUUUU!" over and over again. At least he was polite about it?
I thought a 2-almost 3 year old boy---especially a BRIGGY BOY would be all about this, but he was so grossed out! I touched him with my hand that had some of the goo on it, and he insisted on washing his hands. He better grow out of this sissy stuff fast! Maybe its just a phase....anyway, here's the Tillotsons at 5 pm!

here are a couple other snapshots....we had to take a break and feed the boys {and blog of course} and then while the boys are watching Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin, mommy will be carving all by her lonesome!

Sneak Peek

2010-10-21T15:34:00.003-04:00

I have been planning a few projects in my head for the past....year, 6 months? I dont know--long time. One for the diningroom and the other for the upstairs between the two bedrooms in the hall with the playroom. For now, I finished part of the diningroom project with these sillouhettes! I love them! Since the whole diningroom is family/family history themed, i've got more to work on, but these sillouhettes are going to be the focal point.
Of course I took pictures of them in the hallway carpet that is always littered with cheerios and oliver crumbs...oh well, if i cared enough i could have cropped it off, but such is life!

Random Halloween Decor

2010-10-16T13:41:00.010-04:00

Since hardly anyone ever comes over, and we're pretty much the only one who sees how i decorate, i thought id show a few pics of some halloween stuff we've put up. There are still a few projects I want to finish, but im not sure if they'll get up before Halloween comes! It takes me A LOT LONGER to finish projects than I would like!

I think these are my favorite! i love the little pumpkin and bat jingles when you open the door. I found these at Ocean State Job Lot when I was home in CT a few weeks ago.

These little ghosties hung in my home when I was a child. I convinced my mom that it would be a good idea to pass them down to me! I always loved them so much! I want to put up garland in that entry way that says "beware" or something...havent got around to it yet, but hopefully within the next couple days.... The boys love them :)

Jessie snagged this BOO sign from the DI in Utah. Some forgotten little Super Saturday project. It deserved a good home :) Its a little old-school, but Briggy loves it because he can spell it. B-O-O- BOO! mommy! Boo! I hear that WAYYYY too much throughout the day, but I can't complain, Briggy has got his ABC's down and loves to spell! We're so proud of him!!! {I swear I can see Ollie shaking his head like "okay, brigs--enough---just like I feel after the 4590000 times he said and spelled it! ha!}

Our "Spook-ified" Diningroom table. When the boys get a little older I want to have a spooky dinner and have them feel all the gross eyeballs and brains and stuff. I think they are still a little young...but for now, its merely decoration!

I had originally planned on spray painting those fake pumpkins white and stenciling "BOO" on them. but most everything I have is orange and black, so I thought it would look out of place. So I just left them the way they are. Maybe I should have glittered them orange--oh well, there's always next year.

Here's the entryway table. Its missing something, well a few things. I had attempted to make these cute fluffy yarn spiders, but im incompetent, and they came out looking HORRIBLE! I am going to try to find some cute spiders to add the the web. I made that spiderweb-memoboard---i thought it was pretty neat.
I feel like the table needs something on either side of the EEK blocks, but havent had any inspiration on what that should be. Maybe just some small pumpkins? Oh well, for now, it gets the job done!

Last but not least, the cutest boys in matching shirts {we were about to have a fun day out at the Christmas Tree Shops and the Mall play area with the "Ga-gos!" {The Salgados}

Briggy has been potting training the last few days and doing AWESOME at it. When we put underwear on him, not so awesome. So we've had a little naked boy running around--hopefully he'll get the hang of the underwear thing in the very near future! Ollie has been walking SOOO many steps here and there this past week! He is totally on his way to becoming a full-fledged walker! The goal we established with his Occupational Therapist was 18 months, and I think he will beat that by a few months!! Go Ollie!! Go Briggy!!! Our boys are the BEST!!!

Sweet & Sexy Soiree

2010-10-07T16:52:00.020-04:00

Last week was total MAYHEM. I flew back home to CT for my best friend Ambyr's wedding. Because I'm out of state and wanted to throw her bridal shower, we had to wait until a couple days before the wedding to throw it. I was able to purchase and pre make a lot of things for the shower, but only so much can fit in suitcases, so lots of it was made a couple nights before with my other best friend {and wedding photographer} Jessie. {did I mention shes also my big sis? shes amazing and puts up with all my craziness}

Here are the preview shots from the online store I bought the invites from {vistaprint} they always have so many deals, I got these for free and just paid shipping!

Normally I am not into "Sexiness". Ambyr is GORGEOUS, but thats just not me. Id rather things be cutesy and do a homemaking shower over anything else--but she really wanted lingere as gifts, so I went with it. I tried to incorporate as much SWEETNESS and cuteness with a little hint of sexiness here and there. The color scheme for the party was Red, Black and Polka dots! Fun! The shower was held in the evening in an old lounge room off of a bar. Perfect spot--even the chairs had red and black leather with studs on them! It was a small room, but perfect for girl talk, gossip and present-opening peep-shows!

I got a little cheeky with some of the food labeling. Originally we were going to have a "make your own whoopie pie" set up called "Makin' Whoopie" but we had a few minor issues with the recipe and ended up buying some last minute at the grocery store. We still kept the sign "Makin' Whoopie Pies" love it. Hopefully everyone got the play on "makin' whoopie" and well....wedding night activities.

The other cheeky labeling was "Cherry-poppin' corn" dirty for a mormon girl, right? how could I resist? The candied cherry popcorn was SOOO good! I love those little cones!

Other treats were dipped marshmallows, red velvet cupcakes, white and dark chocolate dipped strawberries and raspberry infused water {although most of the ladies sipped on red-colored champagne}

Here is one of the Bridesmaids "Sassy Cassie" with the red-tinted champagne!

There were 6 tables, and each table got their own cute centerpiece. Stryofoam spheres were wrapped in polkadot fabric and stuck with a dowel to give a lollipop apperance. One of the spheres was stuck with hundreds of red valentine tootsie pops. I made one of those crepe paper rolled rose topiaries that TOOK FOREVER AND A WEEK to make. Ugh! too much work--I wouldnt recommend it. Instead of making a second just like it the other crepe paper ball is just ripped pieces with diamond floral pins. Cupcake wrappers and red polka dot scrapbook flowers were pinned to the other styrofoam ball centerpiece.

The floating tissue pom poms are from Martha Stewart {actually part of her blood/vampire halloween line in stores now for the holiday!}

Originally I planned on making lingere cookies for the favors. I bought a bikini cookie cutter set online that looked like a bra and panties, and was going to frost them red and black---unfortunately we ran out of time and I used plan b favors--these black and white candle favors from michaels. They smelled really good--and said Thank you on top. Fast and Easy...just what we needed!

We took some really cute bride-to-be and bridesmaids shots before the night was over. I love them! Im the chubby maid-of-honor choking the bridezilla! told you she was GORGEOUS! It was a really fun night, and everyone seemed to have a great time and complimented me tons on the decor. Thanks to sleepless nights and all of Jessies help my Sweet and Sexy Soiree vision came alive!

All digital images are courtesy of My Sugar Sweet Digital Photography!

excited to show off all the hard work and fun ambyr's bridal shower was!!

Meeting Uncle "Ick"

2010-09-11T17:08:00.004-04:00

We have been looking forward to having Tom's brother {and hopefully soon the rest of the Eric Tillotson family!} meet our monsters! Briggy was practicing how to say "uncle eric--but most of the time it came out as ICK!" Eric was here in Dallas on business and was able to spend a little time with us. I had to get the pictures of the boys separate because Briggy was covered head to toe in yummy pizza Eric brought over to eat and watch football--and Ollie was just about ready for bed. I'm horrible about getting pictures and always forget, and I was on a mission!
Eric also bought the boys realllllly snazzy shoes--actually, ollies first pair of sneakers--that they will be able to wear on sunday!

messy pizza face watching football!

Preschool Blog!

2010-09-06T16:13:00.004-04:00

I thought I would dedicate some "free time" to compile all the resources ive been gathering and post our daily preschool info, ideas and more that I am doing with briggy. If you have toddler age kids, I think you will find it a helpful resource!!

http://teachingtoddlerstogether.blogspot.com

I know its mostly just a few family members and friends that check our family blog, but if you let your friends know about it and i get a good amount of followers, ill be able to do some fun giveaways. I had been approached a few times when I had my homemaking blog about some sponsorships and giveaways, but I wasn't that into the that blog--but im really gun-ho about activities for briggy {and soon ollie} and i'm hoping for more followers!

*kelly

Monnnnnssssstttterrrrrrrs!

2010-08-17T11:38:00.005-04:00

Thats what I yell when the boys are driving me bonkers....just kidding. okay, maybe not! I do call them kooky monsters when they get wild and fiesty. Briggy's favorite things right now are Blues Clues {only the episodes with Joe...not Steve!} and Monsters. {and Ollie likes everything Briggy does, because Ollie thinks Briggy is soooo cool!} I hope he still likes monsters around his 3rd birthday, because I've been stashing away cheapy monster finds and color ideas for his upcoming birthday party....which is six months away! Im hoping that I can find some monster halloween clearance at the CHRISTMAS TREE SHOP {yeahhhhH!} now that Dallas is getting one!
After making a turtle clipboard for Jane's birthday, I set aside my last 2 blue clipboards for the boys to make monster project holders! {Ollie will be coloring away before you know it!} and this clipboard is nice because it has a cover and I can keep Briggy's weekly alphabet and number activities as well as save=worthy drawings.
Ollie was taking a morning nap {now that he is waking up at 6:30-6:40 am and NOT nursing, he stays up and has his rice milk, eats breakfast, watches cartoons with Briggy and is pretty tired by 10 am. He'll sleep for *1:30-2 hours* and be ready for play time and lunch. Briggy goes down at 2-2:30 for a nap, and Im hoping Ollie does okay with his second nap around 2:30-3 so I can at least get an hour or so to myself in the afternoon. Its only day two of trying this schedule, so we'll see how it goes.
so, while Ollie was sleeping this morning, Briggy has coloring time, and I finished their notebooks---briggy had to carry it around for awhile before I could stash them for safe-keeping.
Arent they cute? The only problem i have with them is that Briggy's yellow monster is a bit see-through, so you can see the polka dots through the body. oh well. I like how the open mouth lets in the dots and they look like pearly whites! :)

ps--the font that I printed their names out with is called "smiley monster" its one of my fav-go to fonts...isnt it adorable, and the name is very fitting!

Proud Mommy!

2010-08-05T22:48:00.004-04:00

Today was super busy for some reason. Or it felt super busy because Ollie is now waking up at a normal time (8:30ish) and awake and getting into things for those few hours that used to be low-key hours for me and brigs. A lot of whining, bumping into things, trying to climb up my leg, spilling drinks and oozing buggers. phew! the day and the life of a mommy!

During Briggy's coloring sessions today he made some really great drawings. This first one is of him {I usually talk about the pictures with him right after wards, and maybe I put the thoughts in his head after the fact, but its cute to hear his responses} He was quick to tell me that "No! mama! Nose!: after I pointed to the center circle thinking he was drawing his favorite one-eyed monster mike wazowski {we love monsters inc!} turns out that was "briggy's nose" and the eyes were the circles on the very top of the head. DUH! hahaha. So I asked what was all around him and he said "Balls, Balls, Bubble and loooonnnnnnn!" {balloon} Its pretty good, but not as good as the one he did a few weeks ago of Daddy.

Then we got to talking about monsters {because even though we are ending our SECOND week of M's {I got a little behind with the birthday party planning...and there was so much fun M stuff {not to mention thats a sound we are working extra hard on!} and he was drawing for a while, I was feeding ollie, and then I glanced over and saw this really awesome picture!

If you are familiar with Monsters Inc, this looks a lot like the skinny mean monster Randall. I asked Briggy if that was the mean guy Randall and he said. Yes, momma! but he nah meeee he freneeeeeee!" {hes not mean, hes friendly} so this is the friendly twin of randall :) I was really impressed. Im saving all these drawings and laminating them. I love his creativity and enthusiasm for doing "projects" with mommy. He is such a good boy. His vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds and hes making so much progress. He can do almost all the signs from the signing time dvd's that grandma tina bought for ollies birthday--he says the word, sings along AND does the sign. He knows them by heart even when the dvd isnt on {although its usually on constant repeat to avoid crazy temper tantrums....he is OBSESSED. We listen to the cd that came with it too....He is so stinkin smart!}

AND....if that wasnt enough.....

Oliver is pulling up and crawling amazingly well. A lot sooner then I think the OT even imagined. I can't wait til shes here next week so she can see the progress and have him show her how he can climb up the stairs! He did THE ENTIRE set up stairs this afternoon!! Of course I was right behind him the whole time and had to help him in the beginning get the hang of it, but he managed and did it! I was sooooooooooooo PROUD! That is HUGEEEEE. Hypotonia Schmypotonia---He is showing who's boss!! I am more than confident that we will reach our goal of him crawling properly and then walking by 18 months. At the rate he's going it could even be 15-16 months! But I dont want to get my hopes up....he is progressing so much, thats all that matters!

I love my buggery boys!

Here is all of us at the bday party!

{courtesy of the duttons--thank you!}

Diaper Cakes

2010-08-03T15:30:00.007-04:00

While I've been trying to DITCH the diapers with Briggy {day one, today--not so great. im really thinking hes got no clue and not interested AT ALL with the potty...im going to give it another try tomorrow, and if its as bad as it was today, just wait a little longer...}
a friend of mine asked if I wouldnt mind making one girl and one boy diaper cakes for some baby showers she will be attending this month. I was kind of suprized she asked ME since there are professionals who do this stuff--or even craftier chicks in the ward, but..hey! i like making them, and it would be a good first experience in "selling my wares" ha! well, I am IN LOVE with the girly diaper cake. SO CUTE. The boy one is ALMOST as cute as I'd envisioned, but I really struggled with getting the onesie {the top layer} to not look messy. it just didnt fit very well on the cake and as much as I've fiddled and pinned it, it still looks a little lumpy to me. Still very cute, but not PERFECT.

The lollipop girly diaper cake is 65 pampers diapers, 8 washcloths, a fleece recieving blankey and a onesie!
I plan on "serving" it on a hot pink tray with yellow polkadot paper for it to sit on.

Here is the back of the cake {which isnt as glam as the front--but its not supposed to be. Just wanted it to look a little bit finished in case it was used as a centerpiece}

The request for the boy diaper cake was to be blue and brown--when I was at the store and saw this cute blue and brown squirrel onesie, I knew that was my theme!
This diaper cake has 65 pampers diapers, squirrel onesie, fleece recieving blanket and cute nut, squirrel and other woodland creature cake toppers.

The NUTSO part of me wants to take it all apart and try to fix the onesie {i tried it on the second tier before and I didnt fit right either} but then the other part of me has lots of other projects that need to get done this week and I dont want to start over again! Do you think im being too critical and it looks fine? Be honest!
Here's the back:

I had fun making them. Im hoping some other ladies might ask her who made them and want me to make more...I would love to do different themed ones..there are so many possibilities!

While I was working on finishing touches this morning, this is what Briggy was *trying* to do....

THIS! hahaha! play bouncey ball and pee at the same time. NOT HAPPENING!

Bananas & BBQ Birthday Bash!

2010-08-02T16:53:00.011-04:00

I wish I had a better camera and skills to take better photos, but I'll post a few up now just to show how much fun my little ollie man had! Some friends {with a much better camera} got some fun pics of the kids in action and even a family shot of all four of us! hopefully I can post those later in the week...but for now, here is the party set up:

this was the main "treats" table with all the cupcakes and snacks. I had banana cupcakes with yellow cream cheese frosting and chocolate sprinkles and chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and yellow sprinkles. They were topped off with cute monkey cupcake toppers {from the martha stewart party kit} I had 2-tiered yellow treat trays that I made filled with slices of chocolate chip banana bread. In the monkey cups was "monkey munch"! {pretzels, popcorn, banana chips and craisins} I really wanted to make a banner that said "treats" to sling on the front of the table, but the polka dot trim had to do...i ran out of time!!

When you first walked in the house you were greeted by the one and only banner {can you tell im a little ticked i didnt get around to doing more?!} It says OLIVER and 1s--im actually going to back the individual banner circles with heavier cardstock or chipboard and make a scrap flipbook of a few of the favorite pics from the day.
The present table {before guests arrived} also had all the favor bags lined up on it. I couldnt fit the monkey beach balls in the bags, so I had to put them in the baskets below. The kids had fun playing with those all throughout the party. {Briggy found those REAL quick and was throwing them around at everyone!}
Inside the favors were little treat bags that said "Im bananas over you" with monkey and banana stickers with banana runts and banana chips inside as well as a little bottle of monkey bubbles. fun!

The kitchen bar with alllllllll theeeeeeeeeee fooooooooooooooooooood. of course i went wayyyyyyyyyy overboard as usual and made wayyyyy tooooo muchhhhh foooood! but all the salads and bbq pulled pork came out yummy, so leftovers are welcome :)
Just a small detail, but the brown forks and napkins were placed in glass jars with yellow polka dot ribbon and the yellow cups all had monkey name tags on them for everyone to write their names. with all these summer BUGS going around, I thought i'd limit exposure as much as possible!

Ollie getting EXCITED to monkey around and PARRRRRTYYYY!

I LOOOOVVVVED their yellow and brown polo shirts! when I saw these on clearance a while back I had to snatch matching shirts for Briggy and Ollie! I love themmm! they matched perfect with the party theme/color scheme! {mommy wore yellow and brown and daddy wore brown too! awhhhh! we're dorks!}

Eating a yummy banana birthday cupcake {with no yummy frosting...so sad!} he didnt mind at all though, he loved his new sweet snack! I bought the cutest bib that said "1st birthday" with a monkey dangling on it. And of course I forgot to put it on him! oh well. I may just take a pretend shot of him in it later....

Here are some of our fun guests! Ollie had lots of little girls attend....he is SUCH a stud muffin :) The Romney's little boy Scott thought Ollie's hair was "soo cool!" :P

Ah! I just realized I dont have any pictures of Briggy on my camera! the duttons took lots of great pics of him getting MESSY! with chocolate cupcakes and having fun. So as not to leave him out, here was him the other day trying on his new swim gear for the pool. The neighborhood pool was closed because someone rented it out for a party...but after getting him all suited up we didnt have the heart to not play and "swim" so we went out in the backyard. He loves his "super hero" swim suit. hahaha! it was hilarious watching him move, dance and play in that!!

We had lots and lots of funnnnnn! I can't believe my little chunky monkey ollie is growing up so fast!

Im linking up to one of my favorite party sites!
*almost all decor and bits and pieces were homemade--however, the monkey cups and cupcake toppers came from a martha stewart party kit {that i believe is discontinued}

Snack Stash!

2010-07-26T19:46:00.003-04:00

After making that cute teacher appreciation gift awhile back

I bought some of the small ones {im kind of obsessed with these containers..they are $2 for the big, med. or small ones!}
I thought this would be great for the boys during sacrament meeting...or in the car...or anytime!
i think i might just buy all of these boxes. i love organizing buttons, crayon bits for the molds, paper clips...crafty stuff....im sure ill find more uses for them!
anyway, just thought id share...

Briggy likes lots of options and thinks its fun with his food choices in their own little box. i found these trays that ive had forever {or since my bridal shower!} and thought he would like his lunch served in one. He loves it! I was hoping they would have some different colored ones now in the summer section at walmart {because its already 50% off soon to be 75% off!} but I coudlnt find any! :( Oh well.

I decided on taking some advice from one of my favorite preparedness bloggers {preparednotscared.blogspot.com} and use a coloring coding system for the family. Each person {mainly children} are assigned a color. Briggy is blue and Oliver is green. So towels, toothbrushes, plates, cups etc. are all their own color and you know who's who's and who left their towel laying on the ground....hehehe. she has a lot of ideas and thats one I think is fun and practical. She has a large family and each member's color makes up their family flag {so cute} someday I want to do that, but for now its just us and our two rascals! I would really recommend her blog--she has so many great ideas, printables, recipes, fhe activities....everything. she is a pretty amazing lady! {look at me gushing over a complete stranger!}

thats all folks.....Ollies Banana's & BBQ party is rescheduled for this saturday so lots of fun photos will be posted asap!

Oliver turns 1!!

2010-07-21T15:11:00.005-04:00

So....we ended up having to postpone the Banana's & BBQ Birthday Bash for Oliver that was supposed to be on the 17th because Tom and I came down with a NASTY stomach bug. UGHHH. It was horrible. Anyway, the plan is to have it rescheduled for the 31st---I hope people come! You'll be able to catch a glimpse of the color scheme with the entryway birthday banner for Ollie--It was the one decoration I got up so he had SOMETHING on the 20th. I made an experimental birthday cake with applesauce instead of eggs...it was kind of mushy, but the boys seemed to like it. I didn't have any shortening, so I couldnt make a quick frosting with the rice milk and sugar--so I just sprinkled it with a bit of powdered sugar. For the birthday party I hope to concoct a 'vegan' buttercream--we'll see!
Briggy was very loving and playful with Ollie all day...even sharing better. We listened to the Happy Birthday! song OVER AND OVER AGAIN! and danced and had a nice time. Ollie was a total mess after eating/playing with the cake so we had to give him a bath {which is almost like torture because he hates the bath soooo much} and then konked out! We had a good time, but I'm really looking forward to having friends and some family over for the party.
Thank you to all the aunts, uncles, grandmas and granddads that sent oliver lots of love and presents. He is one spoiled little monkey!!

a few little projects ive been up to....

2010-07-11T21:21:00.006-04:00

ive been doing a little less cleaning the past month and doing a few little quick projects during nap time. i should probably be doing more cleaning...oh well...heres a little peek:

Part one of laundry room silliness:

Part two of laundry room cuteness:

Part three of laundry room frivilousness:

Kitchen Decor {aka trying to fill in that awkward wasted space}:

As part of a gift to Briggy's little friend Jane, I made one of my decorated clipboards filled with turtle activities {confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com--she has great preschool printables!} she loves turtles and had a turtle birthday party--so cute! I have to make Briggy and Ollie ones, I plan on doing super cute monsters for them...hope to get that done after this week's ollie bday party-poolza.:

Craft room cuteness:

I heart polkadots.

While Mommy was away....

2010-07-05T17:06:00.004-04:00

Briggy had fun and play PLAY PLAYYYYYYYYYYED!
Here are some cute snapshots from Briggy last week while I was away in CT and my friend Sarah was babysitting him. She totally gets my "kind" of parenting--and is such an example to me in a lot of ways-- I don't think she reads this so I can brag about her! I did not have to worry about Brig's at all because I knew what a great mom she is! She has a 3 year old daughter, Jane {who Briggy is crazy about!} and a son, Adam who's a few months older than Ollie. They are such a great family and blessing in our lives! Oh my gosh.....he has hair here....*waahhhh* he looks so different now!!

He had a blast and did NOT want to leave them!! We're grateful for such nice friends!

Fourth of July 2010!

2010-07-04T20:00:00.003-04:00

We are so bummed...but we didnt see fireworks this year :(
They had them last night, but it had rained a lot, and finally did stop later in the evening before the fireworks show, but Tom thought soggy muddy ground wouldnt be fun--which I totally agree, but really love fireworks and am sad we missed them. Next year!

Today we tried feeding Briggy a hotdog, but he was pretty content on just eating doritoes {dipped in ketchup--yuck!!} and quite a few slices of watermelon. He would live off watermelon if he could! Its his favorite!!!

It was so hot outside after naps that we didnt stay out for more than an hour. Briggy played in the sandbox and got covered head to toe in sand, and Oliver swung in his swing and got covered head to toe in sweat!! all my boys are sweaty sweaty sweaty!!! Texas summers are so stinkin' hot...im just grateful im not pregnant this summer like last year--ughhh it was dreadfully hot lugging around a huge baby belly!!
Can you believe Mr. Oliver will be ONE YEAR OLD in just 2 weeks!?! We are throwing him a Monkey Birthday Party on the 17th, hopefully some friends and family will be able to come.
Its pretty much impossible for us to get a photo of all four of us, but we always try! here are a few pics from the day!

Meet Baldy Briggy!

2010-07-04T19:45:00.005-04:00

Tom and I had a BIT of a miscommunication on how I wanted Briggy's hair trimmed. Apparently this is what you get when you ask for "a cute short military cut...but not bald"
this is what i consider bald. tom said he would have had to bic it to be bald. like i said....miscommunication! :P

At least it'll grow back. I had a hair mishap too---my hair didn't take well to blonde and bleach and turned half yellow half orange--after mulitple tries, and no luck, I opted to hack off almost all the orange...but the tips were still orange. Just the other day I put a dark blonde dye over it. I know it'll fade and not look so great after a few washes, but it gives me some time to figure out what the heck to do with my hair! ugh. its always something with me!!!

Here is "Briggy Daddy" all dressed up to go to work. It was the cutest thing. He got dressed like that in our bedroom and found me in the laundry room gave me a kiss and said "Briggy Daddy!" like my little husband coming home to greet me with a kiss. *swoon* he gives me hugs and kisses all the time, he loves his mommy!!!
Oliver got a kick out of Briggy's outfit and while eating lunch in his chair got a fashion show. He clapped along and just loves watching his big brother!!
{notice that weird finger thing briggy is doing? he copies steve on blues clues--who does two thumbs up, but briggy puts up the fingers next to his thumb instead...i have no idea why...he is such a riot!}

Briggy's New Menu

2010-07-02T09:29:00.004-04:00

The past couple months I have become......lazy......when it comes to Briggy's menu. I was getting frustrated with throwing lots of food away, because he flat out refused to eat pretty much anything other than the dreaded basics--nuggets, sandwiches, waffles. I decided to put this out on the blog so I would be more motivated to stick with it. The recipe ideas all come from Jessica Seinfelds book, Deceptively Delicious. Im going to try and take a picture of him chowin' down everyday on a new recipe, until I've gone through the book. I know most people just feed their kids what they eat--wouldnt that be nice? The problem with that for our situation is...we dont realy eat regular meals. A lot of times Im on some diet eating packaged food or salad...and Tom *fends* for himself (just kidding) so we aren't eating meals all together at the dinner table {timing is also an issue because of work, etc.} anyway, our family eating situation isnt what I wish it was, but Im trying to do what works for us and is healthy for my growin' Briggy. Oliver is still eating pureed baby food, fruits veggies and meats---we dont stray too much from that because im so fearful of his allergies. The wait list for the Allergist is a few months away....ugh! Im nursing him {but only twice a day} and just started giving him Rice Dream twice a day...but im not so happy with the nutritional content of it. I read some mom's comment that she adds 1/2 tsp of canola oil and 1 tsp of rice protein powder to it to make its nutritional content better and closer to milk--I've got to look into that more, any moms out there with babies with dairy/soy allergies? Whats the best thing he should drink now that he's not nursing as frequently?
I haven't been able to get Briggy to eat noodles/pasta/rice/soup. Extremely frustrating!!!!!! {or anything green for that matter} So this is my first's week breakdown (I'll include the recipes on the day that he eats them) but I have a feeling this weekly menu will be in rotation for a bit, until I can get him to broaden his food horizons...

Sunday- {my easy day because of church!}
Breakfast: Waffles
Lunch: Chicken Nuggets w/ fruit and veg
Dinner: 4th of July BBQ

Monday-
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Hamburger & hot dog leftovers
Dinner: Spaghetti Pie

Tuesday-
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs
Lunch: PBJ & Mozzarella Sticks
Dinner: Chicken Nuggets, veggie medely

Wednesday-
Breakfast: Banana Bread
Lunch: Quesidillas
Dinner: English muffin pizza

Thursday-
Breakfast: Pancakes
Lunch: Chicken Nuggets w/fruit and veg
Dinner: Apple Yogurt

Friday-
Breakfast: French toast
Lunch: Chicken and Rice balls
Dinner: Sloppy Joes

Saturday-
Breakfast: Applesauce muffins
Lunch: English muffin pizza
Dinner: Grilled Cheese

FHE dessert: Chocolate Pudding with fruit (has avocado in it!!)
Saturday dessert: Choc chip cookies (has chickpeas in it!!)

With all meals I offer Briggy one fruit and veggie--and usually the veggies are on the floor. :( Thats why these recipes are great because they incorporate lots of veggie purees.

Wish us luck! I hope I have lots of cute pictures of Briggy chowing down and eating all this food!

A few snap shots from Connecticut

2010-06-26T21:19:00.003-04:00

I forgot my memory card when packing for CT! Thank goodness my sister took some really nice photo's of Oliver! There are a few more to come, but here's a little taste of our trip back to new england!

Our new AWESOME Sandbox!

2010-06-01T00:16:00.002-04:00

Last year I was looking through a Pottery Barn Kids catalog and drooling over all the things I *wish* I could buy for the kids but no way in HECK would ever pay their crazy over-priced amounts. One thing in particular I wanted for the boys was their oversized sandbox with a canopy. It was priced at $600 {not including shipping, cover OR sand} INSANE!! But I loved the special look of it. I think the turtle sandboxes are cute--thats what I had growing up, but they are so small! I wanted Briggy and Ollie to be able to play with friends in there...and even ME! So after finding this AMAZING website: www.knockoffwood.com I messaged the lady who runs the site about possibly doing this PBK knockoff--she said she would try to get around to it...and sure enough, she delivered. Right around early spring she posted tutorials and plans {all FREE! by the way} for great outdoor stuff. {adirondack chairs, picnic tables, and of course the sandbox!}
I bought all the wood supplies, screws, paint, cover {I decided to use a canvas dropcloth--way cheaper then buying outdoor material} and sand---and we spent $167. When you compare it to over $700 from PBK--thats a pretty sweet deal---and I was able to customize it with the colors that match our swing set. I am SO happy with how it turned out. Our friends {The Duttons} Daniel and Dayna were AMAZINGLY helpful in showing us the ropes with power tools and general building skills. I envy their know-how, but am grateful for the time they took to teach us and help us out so much. They truly made my vision come to LIFE! I think I am going to have a big piece of plywood cut and painted to cover the actual sand part....with the stormy and windy weather we get, I think it will help protect the sand even more. I plan on having Briggy and Ollies foot prints painted on with the date...and hope to add theirs {and future babies!} footprints each summer. I am so excited to play in the sand tomorrow with the boys!
Seriously, check the site out---she has a bazillion amazing plans for just about every kind of furniture you can think of. you pay like a tenth of the price to do it yourself...and there is such a satisfaction in creating your own projects. Hopefully the boys will appreciate the hard work and love that went into making it.
Thanks again to the Duttons---great, great people! loveeee you guys!
Happy Summer gift to the Briggy and Ollie--the SUMMER HAS BEGUN!!!!!!!!

Splash Park at the Tillotsons!

2010-05-23T11:05:00.004-04:00

We have a great splash park in town, but we've got a pretty fun set up in our own backyard too! Yesterday my friend Miranda brought over the pool for us (we couldnt fit it in our little car!) In the early evening time we took the boys out...we had filled it with water a few hours earlier, so it was warm--Ollie watched from his swing. He makes these groany/relaxing sighs when he swings in that thing, its like its his hammock and hes totally relaxed and zoned out. It was funny to see how wild and crazy Briggy is, and how calm and relaxed Ollie was--just having a nice time watching big brother! I have a feeling there will be a lot of water adventures in our near future! Summer is in FULL SWING here in Texas at the Tillotsons!

Big Boy Fun!

2010-05-23T01:10:00.006-04:00

Friday night, Mr. Oliver had his very first BIG BOY BATH with Briggy! It started out a little rough--he clenched his fists and sort of grumbled and whined for the first 5 or so minutes, but then he eased into it with all the fun toys we had in there for him. Because of Ollie's pretty bad eczema [he is pretty much all clear right now..and has been for awhile!] I limit his bath time to like....every 5-6 days. I know that sounds crazy, but actually it made a big difference in the quality of his skin and the frequency of his breakouts. Of course he gets spot cleaned if he's dirty---but full on bath, is not as frequent. I might start doing it every 3 days now that he is getting into more *trouble* crawling around, eating, drinking sticky juice...
Briggy loved having Ollie with him in the bath, just as long as he didn't take any of his toys..."NINE" is how Briggy says "mine!" and hes been saying that a little more frequenty lately...We've been having to explain to him pretty often that everything that is "nine" is also "awh-eee's" :)
In these pictures more and more I am noticing such a difference in their skin tones. Briggy is SOOOOO Casper-y white like his momma, and Oliver has more of the Tillotson olive-tone.

Here is a few of them toting around in their "car" the other day. So cute. I love that I can get these interactive pictures of them together now. They are both growing up so fast!! I can't believe my little Ollie is going to be 1 year old in just 2 monthhhhhs. Craziness.

I started to give Oliver a new snack other than cheerios and rice krispies [I havent given him much finger food, because I fear he has some allergies--and right now with no insurance, I don't want to risk him getting sick...so, no yogi, cheese, bread...These are called "Baby Mum Mums" there "Rice Rusks" whatever that means. Organic, Gluten-free....seemed safe enough--he loves them!

We hosted playgroup for this week at our house. It was Potty Party themed---normally playgroup is on a monday, but for scheduling purposes, we had it today--and only 2 families of kids came--when usually there is about 5-6 different moms. Needless to say it was kind of a bust. I overplanned [as usual] oh well. I had fun making my toliet paper cake!
I also showed the moms my potty system I was working on, that I will be starting *soon* with Briggy. Im hoping by August I'll feel like hes more ready.

This potty chart will hang up above the potty, and the sheets will get filled with stickers with each successful trip to the potty---once the spots get filled up then Brigs gets to pick a "potty prize" I hotglued closepins to the board, so I can interchange the sheets as they get filled up. I plan on having a chore/behavior chart similar to this for the boys in the near future.

Little Helper

2010-05-17T00:56:00.004-04:00

Briggy has become quite the helper lately! He likes handing us the clean dishes from the dishwasher, when I come home with bags of groceries, he'll take a few things out of the bags and bring them into the kitchen [of course lining them up..its his favorite thing to do!] If he finds something that's yours [ie-my bra that he found in our bedroom, or toms belt] he'll run up to you with and say "here daddy" "here nahmmeeee" he is seriously too cute. even with his screaming outburts that have been more frequent than we like...he is definitely trying to use better words and actions to communicate his feelings--which is major progress for him! From the beginning of his speech and developmental evaluations he has been 6 months behind with the "average" communication standard. He is still proportionally behind, but having him be able to say a handful of words now and mimicking verbally has been so amazing to see and really helpful.
let me try to list some of his words:

nana-banana
daddy-daddy
awh-eee-ollie
nahhhmeee-mommy
ball-ball
buhh-ble-bubble
dye-bye [he cant say his bs, but for ball and bubble he can...weird]
eeeeeeeeeee!-briggy
oooose-shoes
ide-outside
heyyyylll-help
uhhhhh-up
noun-down
gooo!-go
oooooze-juice
dir-eeee!-dirty [thats the newest]
yea! (major filler word)
uh-ohh!
oh-no!
dawh-eee!-doggie

Im sure im forgetting some, but thats what I can think of off the top of my head
The developmental therapist has told me from the get go he is a "sensory seeking" child. its an off-shoot of a sensory processing disorder {SPD}
In the beginning, the occupational therapist didn't think it was nessecery for her to come out as long as we incorporated some of the texture and other sensory activities in his daily routine. but, we just had his 6 month review, and they are feeling like there needs to be more intervention in that department. There is an informative book I've been reading "The Out-of-Sync Child" by Carol Stock Kranowitz that really describes all different sensory disorders. I guess we should count our blessings because some of the other sensory disorders seem really problematic and really get in the way of the childs day by day activities. Briggy's little body and brain just crave an excessive about of sensory. He needs sensory OVERLOAD to feel fulfilled. I have been able to find a lot of activities that really help him, but the first official visit with the OT will be in a couple weeks and Im hoping she can shed more light on ways to help him focus and calm down--I know he's only 2, but I worry about him as a school age child. It is very difficult for younger children with that sensory seeking need to be confined in a school setting...If he doesnt mellow out a bit by kindergarten age, I might have to homeschool until he understands better how to cope with the hyperactivity. Im sure the OT will have lots of ways to get us on the right track.

[ps--she is the same OT that will be working with Oliver for his Hypotonia.]
[pps-which by the way, oliver has made majorrrrr progress in the sitting, crawling, drinking from his sippy cup...within the last 2 weeks. He has very mild hypotonia, and with a little physical therapy and excersize, he should be on track too--he also just cut his first tooth, just shy of his 10 month birthday!!]

Mothers Day gift...to me!

2010-05-06T22:05:00.005-04:00

I made myself another Mothers day gift! Walgreens has a photo freebie going on right now....and 8x10 photo collage for FREE! with the code: GOODTHOUGHTS
I also had a collage made with our anniversay date and a picture of Tom and I, but I haven't made that one yet...still have a couple weeks until the big 1, 2, THREE! Third anniversary!! :)
I thought it would be fun to find their birthday numbers. An homage [is that spelled right?] to the day I gave birth to my two sweet boys.
They still need another coat of paint, but that will have to wait til morning. Thought I'd get the post up tonight since you only have til Saturday to get that photo freebie! [they are regularly $4] I made my mom/tina some that spell out JOYS and a picture of the boys. Cute and fun! These red/yellow polka dot frames will be up in my craft room. Love the fun colors! What do you think?

My little monkeys [in their cute matching monkey pajamas!] were playing with blocks before bedtime. They play SO WELL together. It is the sweetest thing. Briggy is the only one who can really get Ollie giggling good! Oliver has really blossomed this past week with sitting up LOTS better, mimicing some sounds and even WAVING when I wave to him and say HIIIII! So cute! We had an occupational therapist come out the other day to do an evaluation on him because he really has been behind on a few motor skills and we were a little worried....{when setting up the appointment a week earlier, he was still not sitting up without help...thats been a new thing the past few days) She said he has MILD hypotonia, which basically means he has low muscle tone. I had my freak out, but then really prayed about it and feel SOOO confident that its going to work itsself out with some exercises and practice. I really dont think its going to get worse, and I'm hoping that its not a symptom of an underlying problem that we havent figured out....those are worse-case scenarios that I had initially freaked out over after researching hypotonia, but we are staying POSITIVE and PRAYERFUL that it will just not be the case with our Ollie-pop. We will find out more hopefully next week when she comes out for her first scheduled visit. Briggy as been continuing to do well with new vocabulary...we are so proud of our boys!

Binder cover

2010-05-03T00:01:00.002-04:00

Im re-doing my home management binder, and was trying to come up with a pretty cover, can't decide if this is the right one. Im picky picky.
The colors are happy...thats what I'm going for :)

Teacher Appreciation Gifts!

2010-04-29T17:09:00.001-04:00

(I just posted this on my homemaking blog, but for some reason it was giving me problems, so I wanted to test it out here. Facebook is giving me grief too--I dont know whats going on with my computer today....)

Since I only have small babies, I don't have teacher appreciation gifts to make normally....but....this year I got to help make one! Our wards Relief Society President happens to be her son's "Classroom Mom" in charge of the gift! She had an idea in mind [to make a sign for her classroom door] and asked me if I could come up with something cute that was blue and brown [her favorite color combination] So I whipped up a set of coordinating teacher gifts--File folders, bookmarks [both from Hobby Lobby] Decorated Clipboard, Front door frame, pencil holder and desk drawer organization box! [that idea came from: http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/2010/04/box-of-teacher-goodies.html] and put it all in a cute chocolate brown tote box [from walmarts new office line]
I was going to decorate the outside of the box, but im thinking the teacher may just want to use that in her home and not want "mrs ranes" on it...so I think they'll probably just temporarily tape the card on the front of the chocolate colored box.

Take a look!

Random moments

2010-04-17T21:39:00.007-04:00

I haven't been very good at blogging regularly and taking pictures...I don't know why, I need to be better about it! A few weeks ago I started Alphabet weeks as part of my teaching schedule with Briggy. He loves ABCs and numbers, so I thought this would be a good way to start off pre-k "homeschooling" I get a lot of great ideas and inspiration from these two blogs: http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com and http://chasingcheerios.blogspot.com/ Confessions of a Homeschooler in particular has a lot of resources for Pre-K teaching and printables, etc. Sinces Briggy needs EXTRA sensory activities to really help him focus and just plain enjoy, I am really trying to find different activities that I can combine with the letter of the week. These photo's are from last week "week B" were we did a special activity with whip cream. I wanted to buy the cool whip in a can because its a little more dense and thicker than cream, but couldnt find any for some reason. Anyway, I've seen it done with shaving cream and thought I better get something edible because I know Briggy will try to eat it [which of course he did and thought it was so fun that it tasted like i-creeeee!] We also did a bubble activity that I wasn't able to get pictures of because my hands were all soapy and the bubbles popped before I could grab my camera! The tutorial for it is here: http://www.somewhatsimple.com/2010/04/bubble-snakes.html I also have a big container [not shown in photos] of different dried beans that Briggy can dig through and find 'hidden' little toys. He loves that! (do you see the purple swirly circle with the line coming down from it? he did that a few different times, but I figured I'd spare you of all my photographs of his drawings--Im just so impressed!) I hope you can see in the photo's of his drawing how stinkin' artistic Briggy really is---Its actually pretty great for a just-turned 2 year old to be able to mimic so well my drawings of Balloons. He really has an artistic nature about him--I can't wait to see how it develops as he gets older! Lastly here are some pics of the boys outside enjoying the sunshine. Don't mind our icky not-grown patchy grass. Tom hadn't mowed it yet. Oliver has been EATING and sleeping a lot lately. I think hes going through a little growth spurt....He scoots around in his little walker all day long! He loves that thing. Tom calls it his "TANK" Briggy gets nervous when Ollie starts coming at him [heck, so do I] that thing hurts when he runs over your toes! The video is really dark, but you can see Ollie cruising along [don't mind my nasally stuffed up voice--I've been getting over a cold...]

Last but not least, we tried to jazz up the front porch a bit with some decor...here's what it looks like now. There are still a few things I'd like to add...but it all depends on if I can score some good thrift shop finds! [I spray painted one of those log-rustic looking loveseats that originally was just a plain light wood--spray painted an old barn star that I used to have in Briggy's nursery and covered some old ratty throw pillows with burlap and painted on our initial and house number...and planted some pretty begonias and gerbera daisies]

Hippity Hoppity Easter!

2010-04-04T15:35:00.005-04:00

Besides me being pretty under-the-weather with (allergies? I dont know if Im sick or its allergies--but its been pretty miserable :/)
We had a great Easter morning!!! We are SOOOO blessed to magically have BYU-TV (that COMES with our basic tv package!) So we are able to watch conference at home today. Can pause and watch during naptimes, etc--its been great! We just took a little lunch break and put the boys for a nap, so I thought I'd post some fun pictures from this morning!!! Both boys were up about an HOUR earlier than normal. Ergh. 7:30's not bad, we're just spoiled with a 8:30-9 am wakeup. Briggy was excited to see what the Easter bunny had brought!! Oliver was just hungry..hahaha. As I was setting up the baskets last night, Tom came home from Priesthood session, and we started talking about other people's way to celebrate Easter with children. Some people are doing the Easter basket thing on Saturday, some are for-going it, many down play the bunny and amp up the Savior. To be honest, Im not sure how we are going to handle things---We talk about Jesus alot, Briggy knows who Jesus is by looking at pictures in the house and books---He's been having fun coloring a conference booklet/coloring book while we've been watching conference---but I was raised with BIG HOLIDAYS. My parents always went all out for every holiday. I love doing over-the-top stuff to celebrate FUN! I think next year Briggy will start to understand The Savior's role a little more---we'll just have to wait and see.
This year we got some fun spring time gifts, the two best presents aren't pictured--We got a swingset (it came a couple weeks early, so briggy has been playing with that for a while now) and I made a 8 foot Chalkboard for the backyard. Since I've been not feeling well this week, I still need to coat it with the Chalkboard paint, so hopefully we can play with that in a couple days--and I'll be sure to take pictures---It is soooo coool!!!!

PS--Thank you to the Grandma's and Grand-dad's for the fun easter suprizes. Those chocolate-scented bunnies are so neat! I was able to purchase quite a few disney movies with some of the easter loot they got too! We love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!

All about EGGS!

2010-04-03T19:26:00.005-04:00

These past couple days have been all about EGGS! We read about the "real easter eggs" in the Bearenstein Bears book (We started colleting them for Brigs and Ollie) We hunted for candy-filled easter eggs at church yesterday, and today we decorated easter eggs! (and had a yummy pizza party!)

Tomorrow morning we plan on playing with toys, eating lots of candy, watching conference and rejoicing in our Savior! Hope you all have a blessed Easter!

Easter Craft Eggstravaganza!

2010-03-25T14:02:00.006-04:00

I do a lot of craft projects with Briggy because he loves doing "art" and it really helps him focus. For each holiday I always do special projects, and lately I thought we should invite friends over to do it, and make it a kid-craft party....(we had a fun valentines party last month, but i forgot to take picturs :/ I made sure to get a few today!) I invited a few friends from the ward and they made bunnies and treat-nests. For a special treat Briggy gave each friend a "carrot" filled with jelly beans and some peeps for his peeps. (you can find this freebie download here: http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/2010/02/peeps-topper.html )

(Ollie is MIA from the pictures because he was snoozin' away! he takes his morning nap from 9 am-11:30)
It was a fun morning. Briggy's already had his fair share of "annnndddeeeee!" today and its only 1 pm ;/

Here are a few springy decorations I put up. I was hoping to have an easter egg tree, but that looks like it'll have to wait til next year.

Awesome Baby Products Giveaway!

2010-03-23T16:50:00.003-04:00

I had to stop and think for a second and change my post title. Originally I had "Awesome Baby Giveaway!" There will be NO GIVING OF BABIES---okay, maybe Briggy...just for a few hours! ;)

One of my favorite coupon blogs, DealfindingChik is having such a nice giveaway. Every day she posts a ton of awesome deals that keep my grocery/everything budget WAY IN CHECK! (under budget most of the time!) With awesome ladies like her I have saved over $1300 so far this year (thats less than 3 months!!!!!!!!!) She's giving tons of much need practical baby stuff--wipes, soap, medicine....you name it. check out the link here....and seriously check her site everyday she always has great stuff posted!!! (my favorite deal from this past week was the bow tie and clip on tie for the boys I ordered online for A DOLLAR because of the coupon code she posted---perfect for church and not a ton of money!)

GIVEAWAY LINK

Snacky-Snack Time

2010-03-21T16:22:00.003-04:00

Oliver [just turned 8 months old yesterday!] loves puffies and cheerios. He starts to shake when you show them to him--its hilarious! Briggy loves JELLY sandwiches. He won't eat the slice if it has PB on it.....but I started to trick him and put a thin layer of PB then a thicker layer of JELLY over each slice so he can't see the PB--He needs all the protein and fat he can get! We have NAKED PBJ sandwiches at the Tillotsons---at least for Briggy because they are INCREDIBLY MESSY. It makes cleaning up a lot easier!

It SNOWED a couple inches here last night in TEXAS. What the HECKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!?!?! Its supposed to be in the 60s and 70s this week--I can't believe we started the Spring Season off with snow! :/

Happy St Patricks Day!!!

2010-03-17T16:41:00.004-04:00

Today has been a fun day so far. I decided to start a little tradition this year of "Lenny the Leprachaun" My dad always nicknamed us funny names, and for some reason he always called my sister Jessie "Lucky Lenny or Len" so the name came to me when Briggy and I were making pictures of Leprachauns earlier this week. So I devised up this story that if we drew a beautiful rainbow Lenny would leave treasures at the end of the rainbow. And because leprachauns are so small, we had to put the picture where Lenny could easily see it. So last night Briggy and I went through all our colored markers and made a rainbow. (Briggy pretty much knows all of his colors--he gets a little goofed on purple and black, but other than that hes good)
This morning we hurried downstairs to see if Lenny found our Rainbow!

I can't believe Oliver will be 8 months on Saturday! He's not crawling or cruising around like Briggy was at his age, but hes getting the hang of sitting unsupported for a minute or two--hes just taking his sweet time. Thats kind of the over all personality he has. (He is VERYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY Tom) Where is Briggy is much more like how I was as a toddler. Oliver is such a sweetheart. Such an observer---and LOVES PUFFIES! He literally starts to shake when you pull out the container and he starts going nuts and grabbing them like a free for all when you put them in front of him--its hilarious! This boy does not miss a meal! We had to purchase a convertible carseat (we actually got another one just like the one Briggy has) because he has exceeding the weight and height limit of our infant carrier! Oliver is about 20-20 1/2 lbs and Briggy is 30. Both my boys are growing like weeds!!!

Briggy looks so like hes up to no good in this picture. Hes got something all over his face--which I have no idea what it was---maybe twisler juice because I let him gnaw on one.....and he just tipped over his bike. Whoops!

Stay tuned for Oliver 8 month pictures and Naked PBJ...I'll post those tomorrow :)

Lucky Charms

2010-03-09T15:15:00.004-05:00

I felt I needed to make at least one more little st patty's project so I rifled through some old frames I had and found these long skinny green ones I bought from the Christmas tree shop many moons ago (Gee-golly I wish we had that store out here...I have been having major withdrawls.) They had a nice spring embroidery saying, but were clearanced to 25 cents each, so I bought.....8. I've painted a few black and have an idea to jazz up my dining room walls, but it was already green and distressed, so that meant alot less work for me!
My little charm tags are of Briggy and Ollie's thumb prints (that are supposed to look like shamrocks....that wasnt as easy to accomplish as I thought it would be!) I think it turned out cute.

Briggy had fun coloring and glue-sticking some shamrocks! Im excited for all the green and Irish fun, but looking forward to making a few Easter projects in the very near future!

(dont mind my sideways fridge shot)
I found this fun St Patricks craft party at this great blog!!!! I love looking at everyones crafts!

Lucky Mama

2010-03-01T11:21:00.002-05:00

I really am a lucky mama. My two boys are the sweetest, cutest little guys I know.
Getting in the St. Patricks mood with some shamrock crafts today with Briggy. Last year I had this post
http://homemakinghaven.blogspot.com/2009/03/getting-ready-for-st-patricks-day.html
And I'm on the hunt for new and fun St Patty's crafts. Let me know if you find anything fun!

The Tent is up! (as well as a few other projects)

2010-02-23T21:36:00.004-05:00

We finally had time to put Briggy's bed-tent up....HE LOVES IT! I WOULD love it if it wasnt so DANG WRINKLY!!! :(
Any suggestions on how to fix it? I'm afraid to put it in the dryer because its sort of a nylony-plasticy material. We dont have a steamer....hmmmm. We have SOOO much more work to do in that room--I can't wait til its cute and all done. We have another bed-tent for Ollies bed for next year. Im wondering if I should get some big storage bins of some sort to go under the bed, there is quite a bit of space. Some woodsy looking basket-bins perhaps....and our poor lone tree needs friends! One of these days I'd like a few more to make it look like a forest.
Thanks Daddy for putting up the coolest bed EVER!

These are some magnet boards that I put up above my 2 craft tables. I really like the red polka dot one much more...but I ran out of red-ribbon :/ and of course I'm too impatient so I just used my other color for the room--yellow. Still cute. Black and white pictures of the boys were FREE courtesy of all the KODAK gallery credits I had. Score! I love my photo freebies!!!!

This magnet board is in the playroom over the toy storage. All of Briggy's masterpieces (and soon Ollies!!!) hang with pride!

This is a flannel board I hung on the wall near the reading/imagination corner. It originally had chipboard letters above it that said "Laugh and Learn" but Briggy picked them off the wall leaving lovely marks! Ill have to cover that up with some vinyl that he cant pick off in the near future.

(The Tree is a cutout I made from a big load of felt I ordered. I have some Yo Gabba Gabba felt characters I made too, but I thought I'd make a few cutouts for him to play with--the apples are fun for him to pick on and off and practice counting--don't mind my less than professional cutting/artistry--I'ts alot harder than I thought to cut out!) I will be making a lot of these felt cutouts...you can see the tutorial on my friends blog:
http://alittleofthis---alittleofthat.blogspot.com

It'll be great for teaching my boys, and also for FHE lessons!
There you have it.
February projects and fun!

Families can be together Forever

2010-02-23T14:02:00.002-05:00

A couple weeks ago I was able to put up our dining room vinyl. I needed something to really fill up that awkward space where I planned on having a family photo wall. As you can see from the photo, the only picture missing is OUR family photo! :/ We were going to have one taken during Briggy's bday celebration, but my aunt was feeling well, Ollie had an eczema break out on his face, and we all were feeling a little under the weather. Im hoping for a nice photo soon--we'll see what happens! Just thought I'd share the outcome--I put it up myself (my first time doing it alone!!) and I think I did a pretty good job. I noticed that the second line looked a little crooked--but it was hard without a ladder and with the cursive writing to really get it level. To the average onlooker, I dont think they'll notice. At least I hope not! Just thought Id share!! I get all my vinyl lettering from friends at church that have a business
ddvinyl.com
They are so great about capturing what I want and having very reasonable prices. I hope to have a vinyl party soon so everyone can order their goodies!!!
I really think it MAKES the room. Im totally addicted!
My aunt had a cute saying over her guest room bed that we stayed in
"I love you to the moon and back" I think Im gonna get that for over our bed one of these days.

Briggy's Bday Weekend

2010-02-21T19:12:00.006-05:00

Auntie Katie and Uncle Bob got Briggy such a FUNNNNNNNNN present---an ALL TERRAIN RADIO FLYER! Briggy is seriously in HEAVEN. He was so well behaved IN the wagon--I can't say the same for OUT of the wagon....but when he was cruisin' it was all good! We went from blizzard to beautiful sunny day in the park as soon as we headed down to New Braunfels. Here's us having fun and feeding ducks! Ollie had a fun time just observing all the excitement--I cant wait til I can cart around both of them in the wagon!! Then after naps, Briggy was able to eat lots of yummy Gabba cake and open more presents!!! It was sort of bizarre and out of character for Briggy, but when we all started to sing Happy Birthday! he started to cry and cover his face with his hands! It was hilarious, but not his typical "Everyone LOOK AT ME! THIS IS A BLAST!" sort of behavior!!!

We got Briggy a Muno Guitar, A Gabba bath-boat toy, a Dance cam---this thing is PERFECT for Briggy, because he loves to dance in front of a blank tv, stove, or dishwasher to look at his reflection...now he can see himself dance on TV! and we also got him a little tikes golf set. With other birthday money from family, we were able to take him to Babies R US and he picked out a Fischer price grocery cart and register! Auntie Amy, Uncle Jeff and Addy sent him Gabba squirters for the bath tub and A fun magnetic toy. He was so spoiled and had such a fun second birthday!!!
With birthday money from the granparents we plan on getting this awesome play kitchen (Briggy always plays with the one at church!)

Favorite random weekend photo: Briggy really wanted to try on Bobby's bigboy cowboy boots. I really wanted to get some for the boys, but they were CRAZY expensive....$75 for little kid boots. SERIOUSLY!?! thats alot for an ADULT pair. Geez. Hopefully I'll come across a great sale one of these days! Overall, we had such a nice time. Poor auntie Katie got SOOOO sick....but now that we've done the drive (4 hours) and it was actually WAYYYY better than we thought--Oliver slept or was quietly playing THE ENTIRE TIME and Briggy was actually realllllllly good--very minimal screeching. I hope we can go down when it gets a bit warmer!!! They were the best hosts and Briggy loved it there!!!!

A TEXAS SNOW STORM!!!!

2010-02-21T18:48:00.005-05:00

Last Thursday-Friday it snowed NON-STOP here and it snowed about 10 inches! It was the day before our drive down to New Braunfels to visit Auntie Katie and Uncle Bob for Briggy's 2nd Birthday!! Right after Briggy woke up from a nap I bundled him up in about 4 layers of outfits and went to play outside with him. He only lasted about 5-10 minutes before he had had enough of the cold white stuff! I left his pacifer (ergh) in because he wasnt giving me the easiest time bundling him up like crazy. Oh well. As you can see from the video we werent very well-equipped for such weather, but we made do!

Love is....

2010-02-07T15:43:00.002-05:00

not only a feeling, but an action. We should be diligent in serving and helping those we love. The greatest product of love is children. They are the ultimate blessing from our Heavenly Father.

Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward... Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
Psalm 127

Love is....my eternal family! I could smooch these boys all day long!!!
Happy Valentines Day!!!

(This is a little photo contest through island life's blog. im linking up if you want to participate!!!)

Think PINK!

2010-02-06T17:03:00.003-05:00

I have 2 friends that are having/had girls one shower was today and another next week! That, along with Valentines Day coming, I've been in pink OVERLOAD! which is nice for a change because...well....I'm a mom to boys!! For my friend Amy's shower I decided to try my hand at a diaper cake. Her daughters room is pink, brown and butterflies....so I tried to incorporate that into the cake. The main problem I had was finding receiving blankets that were pink and brown! the only store that I have nearby to shop at is Walmart...and for some reason they didnt have any!!!!! so I bought thicker square blankets and a brown pack-n-play sheet. The main disapointment I had with it, is that the bottom layer is quite bigger than the second tier, but because the brown sheet was so thin, and the second sheet was pretty thick, they look like the same size--but the square blanket couldnt fit around the big bottom layer, so I had to stack it that way. Oh well! Live and learn! It was fun...and I loved the diaper cake I recieved as a gift from Jocelyn, so I was certain amy would at least appreciate a couple weeks worth of diapers!! :)
Here is a little peek of the party--Amy's sister-in-law decorated, cant take the credit here!! I just thought covering the vases with the outfits was such a clever idea! so cute!!

Briggy and I worked on our entryway banner all last week, coloring, painting, scrapping pink and hearts! We plan on having a few of Briggy's love interests (ha! all his friends around here are girls!!) over for some valentine card making and treat tasting! Im hoping to have them over on Tuesday so I can send out all my valentine goodies on wednesday! I know its not fancy, but I love Briggys coloring and homemade construction paper hearts....we painted and scrapped closepins to hang them up! on the "closeline"

Love is in the air at the Tillotsons!!!!!!!!!!

We will be celebrating Briggy's BIG NUMBER 2...haha wait a minute, that doesnt sound right....it sounds like im celebrating one of his imfamous "stinkbombs"
let me rephrase that....
We are celebrating Briggy's SECOND BIRTHDAY valentines weekend at my Aunt and Uncles house down in New Braunfels. It'll be nice to be with family. I really wanted to plan a big Yo Gabba Party but things didnt work out with the location...Im glad though, I'd much rather be with family....One of these years will have a big crazy birthday for him!!!

Made with Love

2010-02-04T19:35:00.002-05:00

I dressed the boys up in red smooches and took their photos today for Valentines Day cards! I thought they came out pretty cute. I was planning on having my sister Jessie make the red stand out more because she has photo-software...but I just used picnik and this is the best I could do on my own...I wanted to red kisses to stand out more, but whattya gonna do. She might get around to it soon...if not these are my backup plan. I know shes a crazy busy florist right around Valentines Day!

Tomorrow we are having a visit with a behavioral counselor to see what I can do to help Briggy with things. Crossing my fingers that questions will be answered and methods will work!!
More valentines goodies to come! Briggy and I worked on a banner for our front room today and its almost complete! I might be able to post it tonight if I get my act together!!!

Crazy in Love!

2010-02-01T16:11:00.004-05:00

I don't know what it is this year, but I am all about valentines day!! Sometime this week I hope to get a couple of Briggy's friends over to make and decorate some valentines.
Essentials: Pink, Red, and White construction paper
Glitter (ahh! i think i might regret that one)
Glue, Markers, crayons = fun fun fun!

Pink snacks for this week include Briggy's favorite--Watermelon! Strawberry banana smoothies and I realllllly want to make these!

I also have a very cute photo session planned for this week that will include 2 cute boys and lots of love!
I had to get all my pictures put on a disk (already! only 2 months of photos) so I have space on my camera. I guess my SD card doesnt hold that many hi-res photos...anyway, hopefully I'll have pictures up by the end of the week with all our fun projects ahead!
I am also working on a girly diaper cake, valentines day/baby shower favors, and my Feb visiting teaching....hopefully I'll have that done by the end of the week too! I've got a lot to do this week!! and then of course SUPERBOWL SUNDAY is almost here, which means football for the men, and new baby admiring for me (The Romneys just had baby number 4--Chase!)
THENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN its off to visit my aunt to celebrate Briggy's SECOND BIRTHDAY! I can't believe that stinker made it to 2, and all my hair hasn't fallen out (although there are many white hair patches!!!!!!!!!!) thank goodness for hair dye!!!
I know the florist loves of my life are ultra busy right now, but what cute vday projects are y'all working on? (okay, that was a forced texas thing...I don't really talk like that....yet!)

Flip Mino Camcorder GIVEAWAY

2010-01-10T18:03:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite sites: thriftyandchicmom.com is offering a great giveaway! A flip mino camcorder is about $200 and you could win it! I won something from a giveaway from hers back in the summer...so you just never know! thought I'd let you know about it--we need one because we havent been able to afford a camcorder...and its nice to have with little ones!! and this little guy could fit nicely in your purse!
Good luck!!!
GIVEAWAY LINK

Our Blessed Nest

2010-01-07T15:43:00.005-05:00

I needed to make a quick project for our front entryway because I had nothing to put on it after the Christmas Decorations were put away! Im sure with more time I could have made it nicer, and I'll probably take it down and fix it or make something else and have it there in the meantime, but I thought I'd show it because its my first project for the family that I used my christmas present (cricut) for. Love love Love my cricut!!! Im working on the Relief Society bulletin board and have been able to use the Cricut and it makes it look so much nicer and I don't have to go searching for Chipboard letters or draw on stencils....its awesome!
I used a vintage graphic of the nest from thegraphicsfairy.blogspot.com (love her) she seriously has some great images you can use for fun projects...and just used an online photo program to add text (picnik.com)
I couldn't find an image that had a nest with a momma and daddy bird, so I cut out birds with the cricut and added them to the image and voila! our little family. For the time being it gets the job done.

I love our little nest, we are truly blessed!!! :)

Haircuts, Bananas, Sweet Potatoes and Smiles....

2010-01-07T15:17:00.004-05:00

Here's some pics from our first week in 2010!

Briggy's hair has been getting really shaggy. We have been procrastinating on taking him to the kids haircut place because it costs $20! I was nervous about having Tom cut Briggy's hair with his buzzer...but Tom convinced me to give it a try..and it worked out well--

Briggy before the haircut:

Brigham after! He looks older with the shorter hair! My little guys is going to be TWO next month, ai carumba.

Oliver started off the week with Bananas, and ended the week with sweet potatoes! Both went really well. I couldn't get him to eat rice cereal, but so far with the fruits and veggies he's doing well...so I can sneak the rice in now when I mix them. Im hoping he'll love avocado as much as Briggy did...thats on the menu this coming week--just waiting for it to ripen!!

Nursing + food = Happy Ollie!

Our first Texas Christmas!

2009-12-26T15:22:00.007-05:00

Oliver's first christmas, and our first Texas Christmas. It was a nice day full of playing!!! Briggy and Ollie made out like bandits thanks to a *frugal* mrs. claus, and generous family members!
We tried to not think about how much we missed our families--but that didn't last long. It just doesnt seem like a holiday without grandmas and grandpas, aunts, uncles, cousins....hopefully we'll get more used to it being this way....it was still a lot of fun--of course Briggy always adds an element of fun and disaster to any occasion. Tom dressed up as Santa so the boys would get a sneak peek at the Big guy in Red that gave them so many fun toys! Briggy was pretty much oblivious to Santa, and just wanted to look at and open presents! It took him a little while to figure out how to open the presents--its OKAY to rip, Brigs!!! I had said that so many times, because he kept looking at me like we were doing something wrong by shreading the paper! Once he got the hang of it he went WILD!

The last little bit of snow left on the ground Christmas morning! (We got a dusting the day before)

Christmas eve....

2009-12-26T15:18:00.002-05:00

Oliver Eats!

2009-12-26T15:07:00.005-05:00

These are from last week. Oliver really wasn't liking the cereal this day or the few days after that I tried. We took a break, but I think I'll be starting it up again this week but instead of cereal I think I might try banana or avacado. We'll see. Still nursing him every 3-4 hours!!! (ahhh! was hoping he'd be sleeping through the night by now...wishful thinking, I guess)

One of my visiting teachers, Sarah, made these adorable gifts for the boys! The bibs are sooooooooo adorable! The crayon-roll is perfect for mister artiste, brigham!

Santa's workshop!

2009-12-15T17:19:00.004-05:00

When my oldest sister and I were younger, we always dedicated a week right around this time of year to making all things Christmas. We pretended we were elves, decorated, crafted, listen and sang to christmas music....it was all very organized its one of my favorite christmas time memories/traditions.
I carried on the tradition with the boys starting this week. We made gingerbread houses, cut and pasted lots of construction paper loops, dressed up in elf & santa gear, and rocked out to Christmas music. We still have plenty days left to go, but I thought I'd post up a couple from these past few days!

Hmmm...the pictures I took of today arent loading for some reason....I'll have to try to fix it and add more later....

Santa baby!

2009-12-06T17:42:00.002-05:00

I bought this little hat last year at the Christmas Tree shop (of course) it was marked down to like 10 cents, so I grabbed it..but when I got home I realized it was for your pet!!! I was only a month or so pregnant with Ollie so I thought a tiny baby would fit it--why not!? :) I had to stretch it a bit, but I got it on his head! and the little strap that goes around his chin kind of looks like a santa beard!! I hope to get some pics of Santa Brig and Ollie tonight in front of the tree--Its really hard to get Briggy to sit still for a pic....but I'll try my best!!

Its beginning to look alot like Christmas!!

2009-12-06T17:20:00.003-05:00

Right after Thanksgiving dinner was done, I started searching and pulling out all of our Christmas boxes. I am convinced we are missing a box, because there are quite a few decorations I remember buying last year at the Christmas Tree shop Clearance sale that are no where to be found--and I know Grandma T gave us a gingerbread house kit and I can't find that either...I am going crazy looking for it, but I've checked every nook of the garage and all the storage closests and NOTHING! The decorations are a little sparse in the front room area (and non-existent) on our front porch area except for a wreath--I hope I can snag some good clearance deals after the holidays this year...I REALLY WISH we had a Christmas Tree Shop down here in TX....

Our Christmas Tree! Nestled in the corner of our family room--Hopefully Briggy can keep his paws off the decorations, he's been pretty good so far...I have to take some picture of him and Oliver in front of the tree later tonight....

Our entryway table.

A little arrangement on our diningroom table. I made the two little cardinals smooching!

We made these plates the other night during an Enrichment activity! I love vinyl lettering!!! I thought this font was fun and so adorable. It'll be a tradition for us to put cookies on the cute plate every year!!

Going up the stairs to the "kid zone" I put up some kid-friendly decorations. Auntie Amy, Uncle Jeff and Addy gave us the nativity scene last year, fun fun fun!

Playtime!

2009-12-06T16:29:00.004-05:00

Here are some fun photos of the boys playing. Briggy loves playing with the boxes that I have been getting lately--i've been doing A LOT of online shopping! Last night I placed my lassssssssssssttttt order...I'm DONE!
Oliver is growing like a weed! He really loves the Jumperoo--it's definitely his favorite thing to do! He is really good with tummy time, but hasn't attempted to roll over yet....I think he's too heavy! He loves sitting up, and likes to have his feet planted on the ground and pretend to walk--I wonder if he'll be one of those babies who never crawls and just starts walking!!! Briggy was a crawling machine, so we'll have to wait and see over the next month or two....

Yo Gabba Gabba: Party in Dallas!!!!!!!!!!

2009-11-28T20:27:00.005-05:00

Today was THE BIG DAY! We've been waiting all month to suprize Briggy with a live Yo Gabba Gabba concert! It was about an hour away at the Dr Pepper Arena in Frisco. Brigs has been sleeping in a lot later than normal, which really threw off his routine, which led to a slightly sleepy/grumpy Brigs when we first got there-- it only took his Gabba friends a minute to convince to have fun! The show was at 3, we left a little after 1...so he didnt get a nap today ;/ needless to say I was worried about him, but he held up alright...it was just hard to keep him still! They released balloons out to the crowd and he went wild playing with them, it was hard to keep him contained to a seat! All I have to say is these shows are a nice TREAT but seriously, way too expensive. Maybe once a year we'll do something like this for them, but it really added up....and if we bought all the fun sovenior stuff, it would have been really crazy!

Here are some pics (Oliver slept almost the entire time! But we were able to get a pic of him before he fell asleep in Daddy's arms!)

About 2 minutes after getting into the car, Briggy was all Gabba'd out!

I am so excited to plan Briggy's 2nd Yo Gabba Gabba birthday party!

Thanksgiving at the Tillotsons!

2009-11-27T16:43:00.005-05:00

(It tasted a lot better than it looks....)

Brigs seriously DEVOURED the food! I have never seen him eat so much or so willingly!!! Im taking that as the highest compliment, since he has hardly been eating ANYTHING these days!! He loved the pumpkin pie too...but I figured he would, since his favorite breakfast is pumpkin oatmeal!!

Random Cuteness

2009-11-27T16:23:00.003-05:00

I havent been taking too many pictures of Ollie lately...which is a little stupid, but he is soooooo scary looking right now (and I mean that in the most loving way, Oliver) His 4 month checkup is on wednesday, so hopefully the doctor can figure out whats going on and give us something to make him better--but he has crazy skin. Briggy had bad red bumps and cradle cap when he was a baby up until 4 months and then it pretty much just vanished one day. Olivers has been bad like Briggy's but he also has these hard calloused feeling bumps on his arms and legs. His facial "issue" was starting to clear up last week and I thought "finally!" it must be the same weird thing as briggy....but then a few days ago it got really thick and icky...and must have been extra itchy because Oliver rubbed his little face raw. I have him wear socks on his hands because its the only thing that covers (and stays on) his little claws. I was clipping his nails EVERYDAY and still the way he would dig in his skin gave him cuts all the time....but even with the socks he managed to make a disaster of his face. It looked so painful. I didn't know what to do, and since it was thanksgiving I couldnt call the doc, so I initially thought to cover it up so it could dry and heal over without him touching it, but that lasted about an hour before the bandages came off (as you can see in the pic) so then we searched for some of briggy's swaddles....all the swaddles up to six months DONT FIT OLLIE! Luckily, I remembered Devon sent us some and it was a little bigger so it JUST BARELY fit him! thank goodness...its the only thing keeping his hands away, and overnight the skin crusted over...and it looks....really bad. Im thinking its maybe eczema? I really have no idea, I havent seen any info or pictures online that look anything like Ollie's. Im just hoping its not some crazy skin disease or anything....I know its SOOO uncomfortable for him, because hes been so fussy, not sleeping well, and extra itchy and wiggly. Poor little guy. So thats my explanation of why I have like 5 new pictures of Ollie and like 20 of Briggy!

Awesome picture

2009-11-15T21:43:00.001-05:00

I have been finding so many great photo deals lately, so I have been searching for pictures and having my sis add text to them for me. I've made a few presents....and the Sacred Grove picture that I put as my header I have printed for my living room! Isn't it beautiful!!?
Thanks jessie, for helping me with my photo vision!

The Dreaded Photo-Shoot

2009-11-13T19:04:00.003-05:00

I took some pictures of the boys yesterday dressed in cute matching outfits for our christmas cards. I had been postponing it because Briggy has been a little under the weather, (runny nose, cough) but I wanted to make sure I would be able to design the card and get them in the mail by the end of november, so I could send them out the first week in december.
So I waited until after their naps, gave them yummy snacks....and still no love.
briggy is usually so fun loving and smiley, and I could not for the life of me get him to stop making mean, grouchy, bratty faces! then when I would threaten to not give him his "chocolate shake" (kids boost essentials) he really went off his rocker and was crying up a storm, which in turned Oliver into a baby beast!!!
Here are some of the *funny* bratty pictures that will NOT be on the christmas cards (however, the ones that I ended up using arent much better!)

Oh, and I wanted to let you in on this great deal.
You can get 50 photo cards HERE for FREE. TOTALLY FREE. EVEN FREE SHIPPING!!!
When you checkout, just use the code:
freebies4mom-1109

We are thankful for FHE!

2009-11-11T01:16:00.002-05:00

This past week's FHE was starting out our November being THANKFUL!

Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things (D&C 59:7)

I thank thee, dear Father in heaven above,
For thy goodness and mercy, thy kindness and love.
I thank thee for home, friends, and parents so dear,
And for ev’ry blessing that I enjoy here.
(“I Thank Thee, Dear Father,” Children’s Songbook, 7)

Did you know that being thankful is a commandment? In Doctrine and Covenants 59:7 we read, “Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things.” One of the ways you can show your love for Heavenly Father is to thank Him for the blessings He has given you.

Our lesson was loosely based on the Friend article, "Every Blessing that I enjoy here"

on www.lds.org they offered the idea of making a thankful memory game--which will be fun in a couple years...but for Briggy's age we decided to make a THANKFUL JAR
We can write what we are thankful for everyday and slip it into the jar. We also made another TURKEY! from cut-outs of Brigham's hands and feet! He really loves to color and likes helping mommy with projects. So far, Briggy is thankful for:
Juice, Snacks, having a baby brother, and having a mommy and daddy that love him!
Mommy is thankful she gets to be a momma! and Daddy is thankful for two sons!!
(The thankful jar is an empty oats container that Briggy colored!)

Ben&Jerry aint got nothin on my Chunky Monkey!!!

2009-11-11T00:56:00.004-05:00

Oliver is such a rollie pollie-chunky monkey!!!!

Its so funny having this chubby little guy--Briggy was so skinny compared to Ollie! He grows and grows and grows--in the blink of an eye he's another pound!! His four month appointment isnt until Dec. 2nd--I can't even imagine how much he weighs...He's gotta be pushin' 16 plus pounds---CRAZY!!!!!!!! Their personalities are so different too. Briggy was a very screechy baby, but he slept a lot during the day...I may not have thought it at the time, but he did sleep alot!! Oliver on the other hand doesnt sleep very often--hes OKAY during the night (not great, but getting better) but during the day his eyes are WIDE OPEN, taking it all in. But if im not right there with him, he is NOT happy!!!!! He is very very clingy and always wants mommy to hold him---Briggy was just NOT like that. I always wanted to hold Briggy and he wanted to chill in his bouncey or lay around on his own....maybe things will change in the next couple months--I keep forgetting how YOUNG ollie still is...he just reminds me of a 6 month sized Briggy!!! I planned on starting Ollie on cereal right around Christmas-time, but he's already eyeing food and ALWAYS ALWAYS hungry and holding his head up sooooo good---I wonder if he's ready? I'm still feeding him every 2 hours....when I'm lucky he'll make it to 3....honestly, I'm a little worn out over it! I really thought his feeding would be spaced out a little further now since he's so BIG! We'll have to wait and see what the doctor says early decemeber! He has the same rashy/acne/cradle cap like Briggy did...same thing! its weird---it most likely has something to do with my hormones....Oliver's is a little worse than Briggys--because its clustered on his arms and legs---He has super dry skin...I know it bothers him, because hes always trying to scratch and itch--I have to keep gloves (or socks!) on his little paws---but he always manages to break free from them and gives himself little nicks here and there...poor guy. Briggy's cleared up by 5 months, so I'm sure Oliver's will too (I hope!)
Anyway, thats the late breaking scoop on my Chunky Monkey, Oliver!!!

PS--In Briggy news, his developmental and speech therapists are really nice and will be meeting with Briggy each week to work on his communication skills. He is pretty far ahead in phsycial things (about 6 months ahead) but hes about 6 months behind in his speech/communication....so there is a lot of work/playing/learning to be done! Pray for my little guy that he'll get the hang of it!! I know hes a smarty-pants....but his busy-body takes over!!!

Messy Briggy--Church Briggy

2009-11-11T00:47:00.003-05:00

My little dude can get messy real quick, but he sure cleans up nice :)
Here he is digging into some fries and ketchup--I'm not sure he got any ketchup in his mouth--I think he used it more like finger paint!!!

Lookin' Sharp!!!
Seriously, my boys are crazy handsome!!!

Halloween at the Tillotsons....

2009-11-02T02:39:00.004-05:00

means GABBA GABBA! and GOODIES!!!!!

Briggy had so much fun dressing up as his favorite guy, DJ Lance Rock! (Thanks so much Grandma Tina and Granddad for the costume!!)
Earlier in the week we worked hard during craft time to make his Gabba Gourds!! He has been very careful playing them all week--I only had to re-glue Toodee's ear twice ;)

Oliver looked so snuggly and cozy as a sweet pea. I strolled him around the block while daddy and briggy went trick-or-treating. I was hoping Briggy would bust out talking with "TRICK OR TREAT" and suprize us...but no such luck. Tomorrow (Nov 2nd) we are having speech/child development specialists come over the house to meet and evaluate Briggy...just to rule out any problems and get to the bottom of him not saying any words. If there is anything wrong we want to nip it in the bud asap!

Briggy was allowed to take a couple bites of candy (from our own stash..we re-handed out the candy he got!) and was a fan of the 3 musketeer bar! But he only ate a tiny bite because he learned on the Yo Gabba Gabba halloween special that...
TOO MUCH CANDYS GONNA MAKE YOU SICK, TOO MUCH CANDYS GONNA MAKE YOU SOOOOO SICK. CANDY, CANDY TASTES YUMMY BUT--IT GOES CRAZY IN YOUR TUMMY!
(We have been watching that one show ALL WEEK...that song is fried into my brain!!)

Halloween FHE

2009-10-31T03:19:00.004-04:00

On monday, our family home evening was a lot of fun. We of course incorporated halloween into it, so we carved pumpkins and drew pictures, practiced how to trick or treat and ate yummy pumpkin cookies. We centered the lesson around sharing and giving...since you give candy to those who ask and knock at your door!

Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away
Matthew 5:42

I had the scripture written on a piece of paper (that he colored on) Im thinking about doing one of those scripture color pages every monday and at the end of 52 weeks laminate them and make them into a little book. We'll see!
Anyway, here are pics of the night.
ps-I love my halloween apron!!!!
pps--our camera totally died after taking these pictures so I jetted off to walmart and bought a new camera. Another kodak...the cheapest one, but it has more than double the megapixels than our old one--so it'll be awesome to us!

Briggy's first sloppy joe!!

2009-10-31T03:12:00.002-04:00

I have been having a really hard time getting briggy to eat beef and vegetables--so I pureed some carrots and cauliflower and added it to the tomato sauce with the beef slapped it on a roll, and hoped for the best!
Briggy loved it! he ate so much, I was soooo happy. Hmm, maybe tomorrow we'll have it again, we havent had it since I took this pic a few weeks ago!

Snack-time!

2009-10-31T03:05:00.003-04:00

I usually give Briggy his juice/water and snack around 4-4:30 pm everyday. Well, this day I was a little late caught up doing something on the computer. I had the cheezits out on the counter and planned on giving them to him, but had forgotten. Briggy was sitting with me in the computer room when all the sudden I noticed he disapeared...a minute later I see him nibbling on some crackers on the futon thats in the office...he just couldnt wait for his snack, and if mom wouldnt give it to him, he'd find a way! I thought I'd just go with it and let him eat from the box...but of course it didn't end well!

Briggy plays dress-up

2009-10-31T02:54:00.004-04:00

This day was so cute. Briggy ran into our bedroom closet and pulled out a few of toms items that were in his reach...I was in the kitchen, when out comes briggy trying to put on daddy's clothes--as I was taking the photos I kept thinking I would think this was staged if I just saw the pics...but I promise, he did this on his own! I think almost every little kid has a picture of themselves dressing in their mom or dads clothes--(It was still pretty hot when I took these pics..late september...thats why you'll see briggy alot half dressed!)

This was after a family lunch at Jack-in-the-box! Briggy made good use of the halloween bucket as his hat! He was doing it in the restaurant and had every laughing and clapping as he put it on and off on and off on and off....thats pretty much all he did the rest of the day, and of course checked himself out in the mirror doing it too!

Oliver smile-fest

2009-10-31T02:26:00.002-04:00

Oliver first started smiling right around his 2nd month birthday. Id say this was around Sept 25th--since that was the day my camera decided to stop uploading pictures to my computer! thats the reason all of these photo's are over a month old now...anyway, here he is waking up from his nap. what a doll.

2 month check up

2009-09-24T12:56:00.004-04:00

Oliver's two month check up was the other day. He is growing like a weed!
he's 14 lbs and 1 oz and
24 inches long
He's in the 90% for his weight and height, and his head circumference is in the 50%
What a difference from my two month old Briggy!

I have some great pictures of Oliver smiling away and Brigham dressing up like daddy...but for some reason this new kodak photo software I downloaded is not cooperating. Hopefully I can fix it sooner than later!

We are planning our halloween outfits...Brigham is going to be DJ Lance Rock from Yo Gabba Gabba and Oliver is going to be a cozy peapod. (thank you grandma tina and awesome target clearance last year!)
Can't wait for all the tricksters and treaters this year!

All about Oliver

2009-09-05T15:27:00.006-04:00

We had to restore our ghetto computer for the gazillionth time this past week, so I lost all my photo-downloading software (and everything else) for that matter...so its taken me awhile to post these pics.

The first set of Oliver's tummy time is from his one month mark--and the "blanket" photo shoot pictures were taken last week.
(the ones where he's half under the couch--was a funny story. I placed him on the pillow to run to the bathroom. Gone about a minute, came back and he had (spit up as you can tell from the wet mark) and shimmied down and get his legs under the couch...He is a crazy wiggle worm!)

Ollie won't have an official weigh-in until Sept 23...but I'm pretty sure he is at or has surpassed the 12 lb mark. He is growing at alarming speeds! Well, Briggy grew really super fast too--he just was so small to begin with it didn't seem like he was a mutant 6 week old!
Oliver is VERY VERY VERY needy--I know, you're thinking--He's a newborn, duh--oh no no! He does not stop crying unless held or fed...and he hardly ever naps...ever. He's just very alert and clingy--Briggy could lay on the boppy and be okay for a little while, but not our little ollie!!! his cry isn't quite as shrill as Briggy's but its sure loud! Needless to say with the new job (oh yes--have to pay off the whopping $10K the hospital charged for our little post-preeclamspia mishap--fun!)
I'm working 8pm-2am, pumping when I get home, feeding Ollie at 4, then 6, then 8....not getting too much sleep. I'm hoping he starts sleeping for longer spans ASAP!
Other than being half-zombie momma throughout the day we are having fun (Ollie does like the swing, so I am able to play with Briggy just fine in the playroom)
Hopefully I get used to my new schedule soon so I have a little more energy! Anyway, here are some adorable photos!

Rolling Register Rewards Plan of Attack

2009-09-03T13:18:00.002-04:00

Normally at Walgreens I get great deals when I use manufacturer coupons combined with walgreens coupons plus register rewards. I usually make 8-10 dollars pretty quick in RR (register rewards) and then just buy diapers with them...but tomorrow I have a different plan of attack (and I hope it works!)
In the beginning of the week they ran out of everything...but I am told they will be restocked tomorrow...sooo...providing they have everything on my Rolling RR wishlist I'll be in good shape--wish me luck...and if youre in the mood try it out yourself!

Transaction #1
Mens Zone 6 Blade razor (comes with 2 cartridges!!) = $3.99
Get $4 back in RR
(I have a $3 RR from a purchase earlier this week)
Out of Pocket Amount (OOP) 99 cents!

Transaction #2

Theraflu cold/cough syrup = $4.99
$2 off (Walgreens Healthy Savings Coupon booklet)
they also have $2 off coupons from theraflu.com (but I used those with my transactions earlier this week...but if you try this out, you can combine the two coupons and buy this for 99 cents!)
Get $3 back in RR

Carefree ultra-protection pads 16 count = $1.99
$1.00 off manufacturer coupon
Get back $2 RR

Total= $4 (use the $4 earned from transaction #1)
OOP= FREE! PLUS $5 RR

Transaction #3
(I don't think this is official walgreens protacol-- but the asst. manager at my walgreens has told me she allows 2 of the same products in one order and will ring out the second RR separately--so make sure to check with your walgreens manager)

Buy 2 Reach products (toothbrush or floss)= $2.99 each
$1.50 off two reach products (www.mrreach.com)
Total=$4.50 (use $5 RR from transaction #2)
OOP=Free!
Get back $4 RR

Transaction #4

2 Carefree pads = $1.99 each
Use 2 $1 off manufacturer coupons (www.startsampling.com)
(Get back $4 RR)

1 Mens Zone razor = $3.99
(Get back $4 RR)

Total= $6
Use $4 RR from Transaction #3
OOP=$2
Earned $8 RR

Transaction #5

Buy 1 Huggies Jumbo Pack (Sale Price with Walgreens In-Ad Coupon) $8.99
Use $1.50 off manufacturer coupon
Total= $7.50
Use $8 RR from Transaction #4
OOP= FREE!

One thing that still confuses me a little bit (but I just come prepared with) is cheap "filler" items. You can only have as many coupons as items...so when you have more coupons than items you need filler items..this week with the in-ad coupon you can get folders for 20 cents or those little notepads for 25 cents. I grab a handful and leave them in my cart and pay for them with loose change! I take it slow and ask questions to make sure I'm doing everything right...the walgreens workers have been very helpful and never given me any problems....
Crossing my fingers I'll get everything on my wishlist--If so I'll have gotten all that great useful stuff for only $3!!!!! Not bad! :)

Huggies Rewards Points

2009-08-27T00:42:00.002-04:00

It occured to me that many of you buy Huggies and might not have heard of the website:
www.EnjoytheRiderewards.com
its a Huggies website where you can play games and win prizes...I've come across a few coupon codes that I entered today and I actually just won a jumbo pack of diapers--so I thought I'd share my codes with you all!

ZXLRK - BTBBM - NNPGB(5 pts)
DDCHK - GCBLZ - DSPGB(5 pts)
HKNZJ ZGMDN KBPGB(5 pts)
XZRSS FHSQG FLTMN (5 pts)
KCPBH XMNRB TDPGB(5 pts)
NBDKD QZGDT FJPGB (5 pts)
BBKFF JNGDJ GFPGB (1 pt)
BBMCJ MBDWF CCPGB (1 pt)
BBLPG NZFFN QLPGB (1 pt)
BBRZW – BPBWW – NZPGB (1 pt)
BBWLP – MKKWK – MFPGB (1 pt)
BBWJL – NMMWK – XHPGB (1 pt)
BCPTK – XPTCQ – TJPGB (1 pt)
BGSTD HNGXC WZPGB (2 pts)

Have fun and Good Luck!

Random pictures from the past week

2009-08-10T16:05:00.004-04:00

I was just trying to get a picture of Briggy with his blue-clog shoes. He looked so cute in them and they finally fit (5/6) His feet grew this past month!! Now all his sandals finally fit him!

The Green Monstah! Briggy pigging out and getting plenty messy eating Ollie's cupcakes. This picture was taking prior to him rubbing all of the frosting in his hair....grandma washed him up real good afterwards :)

Ollie's first real bath! He was good about it just like Briggy was...I'm sure he'll be a little fish just like Briggy is--can't get enough of the water!

Briggy and Daddy lounging on the couch...look at Brig's pot-belly!

Briggy's first offical Sunday in the nursery (Praise the Lord) Truly, I don't know what I would do if there wasnt nursery--chasing and rangling Briggy for three hours is hard enough without adding a new baby to the mix...He loved it!!="

Oliver's Blessing Day

2009-08-08T13:01:00.006-04:00

**Sunday, August 2nd 2009**

What a beautiful day! We were surrounded by so much love, family and friendship---Its been quite awhile since we've seen Mom and Dad Tillotson...and it was wonderful---I really underestimated how difficult it was going to be moving so far from family....they all need to move here soon! Alot of Tom's close friends were also able to come. My aunt, cousins bobby (and his wife ashley) and andie were also able to come...it was nice to have a little representation from my side too :) My Aunt Katie took some great pictures of the day that I wanted to share with all of you!

Oliver Daniel Tillotson!

Olivers special cupcakes!

I love my little mans tie!

Briggy hammin' it up as usual!!

Bobby and Ashley gave Ollie this cute cozy little froggie. So cute!

Andie and Ollie. Awhhhh :)

Mommy loves her Ollie

Once you start..its hard to stop. He's so smoochable!

Bobby, Ashley and Brigham

Grand-dad fixing our mexican feast :)

Grandma takin' care of business in the kitchen!

Daddy holding Ollie

What a big boy Oliver is! almost four inches longer than his big bro at this age!!!

Silly dancing in his "undergarments"
Big smile for the camera! Brigs really livened up the party!

Sneaky, Sneaky! Briggy showed off his sneaky-skills by opening his bathroom door and making off like a bandit with tp! luckily for me the tp trail led me straight to the little stinker! Katie made sure to take a pic for proof! :)

Sweet little Briggy!

Andie, Bobby, Me and Brigs, Auntie Katie

Oliver's 2 week Checkup!

2009-08-04T10:45:00.003-04:00

I love this picture! It was from his blessing day this past sunday! Monday was his 2 week appointment and I am excited to say he has gained back all the weight he lost during my lousy stay at the hospital (he dropped from 8 lb 15 oz to 8 lb 8 oz by the end of the week)
Oliver is now 9 lbs 2 oz! and somehow grew another INCH...so now hes 21.5!! crazy!! He reminds me of a 2 month old briggy!! He is so long and strong!!! He is very alert and sweet as can be--and he sure has an appetite! He eats CONSTANTLY!!!!!
I am feeling sooooo super great....I really couldn't have asked for a more speedy recovery--as soon as I left the hospital I was feeling so much better...thank goodness that fiasco is all over. Our family and friends all came over for an Oliver celebration on sunday...so I'll be able to post a ton of great pictures that my Auntie Katie took later on today...(or tomorrow)
Grandma and Grand-dad Tillotson are here for another day or two so Briggy is loving all the toys grandma smuggled in for him :)

Oliver doesn't have another check up until the end of September....I'm interested to see if he'll gain as much weight (and as fast) as Briggy did during the first few months of life...if he stays on that path he'll be one big 2 month old!!
Thanks for everyone who came to the party and for all the support, prayers and help...it means so much to us---we only wish my immediate family could be here to celebrate with us....but hopefully that will be sooner than later. Love you all!

Big Brother Brigham would like you to meet his new little brother!!!

2009-07-31T12:46:00.003-04:00

Birth Announcements by WiddlyTinks.com

Ooops! I forgot to post some 4th of July pics of my Briggy!

2009-07-12T02:27:00.002-04:00

It was a great fireworks display in our town, extra nice because we had an extremely well behaved Brigger on our hands. We laid out a blanket with some snacks and toys and he sat, ate and played on that blanket the ENTIRE night. He didn't even attempt to walk off and play around in the grass with the surrounding kids...I thought I was hallucinating! Very much not typical-Brigs behavior...but we'll take it!!!

I thought he might be frightened by the noise of the fireworks, but they were lit farther away so the noise wasnt too loud...and Briggy loved it! He clapped and cheered and sat with Daddy during the whole display!

*Thanks for being so good for momma and daddy, Brigs!!!!

Quick snapshots from inside our house!

2009-07-02T21:05:00.013-04:00

I wanted to take some pics to show off all of our hard work these past three months...we are ALMOST done with everything...the kitchen is painted but I haven't decorated it yet...our guest room/office isn't quite done and Oliver's "room" is decorated or painted because sooner than later he will be sharing a room with Briggy (making way for baby # 3... I know, I'm getting way ahead of myself on that one...that won't be for a couple years....)

Here is the front entrance:

There is a half table on the side that I haven't decorated yet, so I didn't show it--but once its done the entryway will look nice!

To the left is our dining room. Above the buffet table with the vases will be a mirror, and I have some framed skinny panel pictures that will go on either side of the window...and the wall that you can't see will be a family photo wall with all our immediate families portraits and I'm thinking of centering it with the quotation:
"I always want to be with my own family.....And the lord has shown me how I can"
and then a picture of the temple would be next to it...I haven't worked out the details yet, but I'm excited to plan it out.

I also need to make tie-backs for the curtains...if you can't tell from the picture they are a light tan and gold leaf motif...and the rod is bronze/gold with leaves on either side...I carried a "leaf" theme throughout the downstairs....

The living room:
I still haven't decided on what to put on top of the media cabinets. I bought big fraames (11x20 and 8x10) that I think I'll have up there with pictures of the temple, the first presidency, Jesus and Joseph Smith...) The bottom shelves are "reserved" for holiday/seasonal decorations--but I really didn't have a real collection of patriotic/summer decorations...I'll have to *hopefully* hit some clearance sales after the summer for next year.

If you can't see it (my camera plus bad lighting) the vinyl quotations between the photos says "Blessings count them one by one"
and above the tv between the media cabinets says "A happy home is but an early heaven"

The guest bathroom:

The "guest room/office":
Black, white and charcoal grey is the theme. We want to buy some black and white framed pictures of our favorite musicians and hang them on the wall. Other than that, it just has a little pull out sofa/futon, computer & desk and bookcase....

The Craft room:
The basics are done, but the decorating hasn't started yet. I want to get some fun vases and fill them with daisies and get red/white/blue trinkets and raggedy ann and andy dolls to fill up the top of the big white cabinent. Above each desk will be huge posters of each boy done in red and white coloring (and framed in white) (at picnik.com you can do crazy things to your pictures!) and on the wall you can't see will be an oversized red memo board of sorts....
We haven't set up the computer equipment yet, but its moving along...it was on the bottom of my priority list since its sort of selfish I get the whole room to myself...(although Briggy hangs out more in there and dances to the radio than in the playroom lately.....)

The dreaded gate that took WAY too long to put together and isn't actually assembled correctly...can't wait for grandad tillotson to help us with that one!

The boy's bathroom:
Is right next to Briggy's room and off the craft room--its the same color as my craft room...which happened to match perfectly with the shower curtain we bought a while back!

Briggy (and soon to be Briggy and Olivers) Room:
We plan on buying pine bunk beds in a few months, that we are going to have as two separate twin beds..and then the tents on top (I posted all those camping pics awhile back)
Right now, the only camp-themed decor we have in there is the curtains, wall color, and 5 foot vinyl pinetree. I should have it all decorated by Christmas...because Briggy will be in the BIG BOY bed by then (AHHH!)

We have a linen closet between the two bedrooms upstairs that I love...because I can have all the extra blankets, bathroom supplies and extra cases of diapers and wipes all organized and close by...I'm not sure why I'm showing the picture of such a silly thing...but I love all the space!

"Oliver's room" which he'll be moved into after the first few months is currently the least exciting of all rooms. Its not painted, the curtain in there is hanging up by painters tape....its pretty much the "changing room" for the time being. I don't think he'll mind..plus the two guys will have a blast sharing their room next year.

Last, but definitely not least (its my favorite room!!!) is the boy's playroom!!!!
A few final touches will happen over the next few months or so...when Briggy gets to be in his 2's I'll have an easel where the little leap frog table is at the moment...I also plan on having a big 5 foot bulletin board above the toy storage unit so I can hang up all of Briggy's masterpieces! And underneath the clock I want to have a red vinyl growth chart (I have to design one that I can use for multiple children...haven't seen one online that tickles my fancy)

There you have it! The Tillotson Casa! I am so thankful for my kind hardworking husband who worked 12 hour shifts, ate dinner quickly and painted and built things for hours into the late late night to get this all ready for our end of June deadline. I feel a lot more calm knowing almost all the work is done before Oliver has arrived!
Tom Tillotson is the best!!!!

Should I......?

2009-06-30T18:59:00.006-04:00

I haven't decided if we are going to send out announcements for Oliver. I love announcements and cards in general...and I am definitely the type to keep them up on my 'fridge for months and save them...with Briggy's fast and unexpected birthday we never ended up sending proper announcement cards....so with Oliver coming in a few weeks I haven't totally decided If I should or not. Because I didn't with Briggy I didnt want to seem "unfair" to him (like he would really care) but I found some "Big Brother" announcement cards that are super super cute. Of course they're from tinyprints.com my favorite online card store!!!

The cartoon one is SOOOO cute but it doesn't show a picture of Ollie--so I would just include a photo in the envelope.....

or I could just go the photocard option....which is nice....but I am so in love with the cartoon brother card....although this one is a little more practical (but of course more expensive.)

I'm also considering my sister making one up on the computer because she makes some really awesome ones using photo software.....which would be cheaper, I suppose.

What do you think? Do people expect/like receiving announcements or do they usually just end up in the trash?