Snack Stash!

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!!

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....

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....

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!

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!

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

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!