Bragging Time!

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

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...

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

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....

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

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

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

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!!!

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