10 Months

This month was really really hard to get pictures of Bongo Boy:) He is one wiggly fellow...not too willing to sit still. I even enlisted my helper, Aislynn, but he wasn't cooperating. Here's what I got: He has got some long legs, like his Daddy!!!

I had to post this picture because 1) it's adorable. Love his teethies! and 2) He looks SO much like my brother Andrew here!!! If he had curly hair, he could totally pass as a baby Andy!

Some things about Kieran at 10 months:

• As I said, he will not sit still. This becomes a maaaaaaaaaaaaaajor challenge during diaper changes. He is a busy busy boy...
• He claps. Sometimes, he will clap when I just say "Yay!"
• He calls Aislynn "na-na" (pronounced naw-naw). It is really really really cute and I love that he just made it up:)
• He has 7 teeth.
• He cruises...along the sofa, bathtub, entertainment stand, bookshelf, even the wall. Pretty much anything he can pull up on, he walks along holding on to it.
• Likes to chew on things (gotta watch the poor book spines!!!), but he checks things out for longer periods of time before they go in the mouth.
• Babbles, screams, screeches...just likes making noise in general:)
• Likes to bang 2 things together or bang a toy on the floor or wall.
• Is really liking the cause-and-effect game of throwing something on the ground and having someone get it back for him. Then repeat. Aislynn usually plays longer then Shaun or I will:)
• is still SUCH a happy guy...he has lots of smiles to hand out:) Hard to believe in 2 months he will be ONE YEAR-eek!!

And a couple pictures from the weekend: Mmmmmm...books.Really excited about the weather this week, the 10 day forecast has weather sunny and 70 degrees:) Hope to get some more springy pictures!!

Outside

I know I said it in the last post, but spring is here-yay!!! I just want to be outside all the time now, the weather has been so gorgeous! Yesterday we played outside for a long time, came in for lunch and then went to the playground for some more play. Here are a few pictures... Kieran was content to sit and watch this pinwheel and watch Aislynn. He looks like a cute little man:)

I think the texture of the grass was strange to him...he didn't really try to crawl, just wanted to sit and observe.

I really love how the streamer is framing her here, got lucky on that one!!!

I have to smile at her outfit. It rained the day before and we had taken a walk. I asked her if she wanted to wear her rain boots, but she didn't. Well, of course on our walk there were tons of puddles and she wished she had worn them. She told me she would wear them after breakfast the next day. The puddles were all dried up by then, but she still wanted to wear them. Oh, and she didn't want to change from her jammies:)

Some hopscotch. I really want to remove that broken up bench (darn neighborhood boys) from the background of the pic, but when I tried to read up on how to do that-it seemed too complicated for me. I think I need to learn the basics of Photoshop first;)

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Spring:)

It is officially spring now and this week, the weather report definitely reflects that-yippee!!! Seems like winter was longer and colder this year. Time to have cute painted toes (check), springy clothes (check), and sandals (check-gotta love payless!). Now I just need to shave my legs, ha!!We took a walk yesterday before dinner:

(Brynne-I exchanged the sweater for a medium and now it is big?? Oh well, maybe it will shrink. ON and their sizing, grrr...) And this guy is super happy on walks:) He especially likes when Sissy and Daddy are walking in front of him so he can "talk" to them or when the wind blows on him:)

On a side note...when I was painting our toes yesterday....Aislynn asked if her big toe was called her thumb toe:) Last week she was asking me what each one of her fingers was called, so it makes sense for her big toe to be a thumb toe, right? ;)

Catching Up

Seems like I have barely had a chance to do much lately. I have been trying to spend less time on the computer and actually attempt to go to bed earlier than usual, plus we went out of town this weekend and I am now a soccer mom:) So let's try to catch up:)

On St. Patrick's Day last week, we went to Seaside to see some Irish music and dancing, plus there was a leprechaun handing out "gold" (chocolate coins) which was really the reason Aislynn wanted to go:) She did like the dancing and she kept saying she wanted to meet the princesses:) Here are a few pictures we took before we left:

I love the one below-love both of the kiddos faces-so cute!! And my hair looks really good and shiny from my new shampoo:D

Kieran was looking at the camera at all the self-timer shots...but making this grump face in all of them:( I think he was over the pictures;) Just a random sleeping baby shot from last week...I love those squishy cheeks:)

This weekend we went up to Guntersville, AL to visit my Dad. He had shoulder surgery not too long ago and developed a blood clot, so we picked up my sister on the way up and we headed there to help him out this weekend. Aislynn read lots of books:) It was good to see my Dad and see where my sister is living now...so sad that she moved away from us:(

And today Aislynn had her first soccer practice. It looked a lot like this: Mainly because it was freezing and because she was watching the other kids:) It will be interesting:) She has her next practice Wednesday and her first game is April 10th. Shaun and I are wondering how the game will actually go...the team had a lot of practicing they need to do;) Oh well, it's all fun!

Recipes

I like to cook, but with these 2 crazy kiddos, I am all about fast/easy/not a whole lot of dishes, etc. I have discovered some really good recipes that have been on repeat here, so I thought I would share a few of them here:

*Smothered Buttermilk Chicken*

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast

3 medium carrots, sliced (I usually just throw in a bag of baby carrots)

1/3 cup onion, chopped (I don't measure-just throw in half of an onion, chopped)

1/2 cup water or chicken stock

2 tbsp butter

1 bay leaf

1 pkg of chicken gravy mix

1/3 cup buttermilk

2 tsp flour

1 cup frozen peas

salt, pepper to taste

1. In a 4-6 qt crock pot, combine chicken, carrots, onion, water, butter, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Mix well.
2. Cover, cook on low for 6-8 hours. About 20 minutes before serving, remove and discard bay leaf and stir gravy mix into crock pot.
3. Blend together buttermilk and flour until smooth. Stir into crock pot.
4. Add frozen peas, increase heat to high and cook until peas are done.

*Tangy BBQ Chicken* 1 1/2 cups of your favorite bbq sauce 1/2 cup Italian salad dressing 1/4 cup brown sugar 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 1.5-2 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breast (we have used pork tenderloin too and it was yummy!)

1. Place chicken in crock pot.
2. Mix all of the other ingredients and pour over chicken. Cook on low 6-8 hours.
3. Usually 1-2 hours before we plan to eat, I use 2 forks and shred up the chicken.

This is sooooooo yummy...better than any bbq around here! We have eaten it on salads, sandwiches, or tacos and it is really good! It freezes well too!

*Lasagna* We love this because it is so easy!! My Mom gave me the recipe:)

2 jars of your favorite spaghetti sauce 2 eggs 32 oz ricotta cheese 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese 1 lb. ground beef 12 lasagna noodles (no need to cook them!)

1. Brown ground beef. Add sauce to ground beef.
2. Mix 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese, eggs, and ricotta in a large bowl.
3. Cover the bottom of a lasagna dish (I use a 13x9 inch dish) with sauce mixture.
4. Put 4 noodles on top, then add more of the sauce mixture.
5. Add half of the cheese mixture, then 4 more noodles.
6. Add more of the sauce, the rest of the cheese mixture, then 4 more noodles. Then add the rest of the sauce.
7. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
8. Uncover, sprinkle 1 cup of mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese on top and bake for 10 more minutes, or until cheese is melted.

This freezes well too:)

And some pictures from today:

I love this one because of all the marker marks:) She loves coloring pretty much all day, so this is what her hands usually look like:)

A concert, ponies, and more...oh my!

Today we went to Michaels for a craft (really LOVE that they are doing these make and takes pretty much every weekend!) and picked up a princess recorder (although it says flute-but it's a recorder) for $1. Aislynn kept wanting to put on a concert, so before bed, her and Shaun did:)

She got that paper and scribbled on it and that was her "music instructions," also known as sheet music:) I saw a layout in the most recent issue of SB Etc. about a girl and her obsession with Littlest Pet Shop, so I decided I wanted to do one about Aislynn and her ponies. When I told her I wanted to take pictures of her ponies for a scrapbook page, she was really excited:) She lined all her ponies up for the shoot:) This picture was the best one I could get with her in it:

I made these layouts this week:

This one was based on the Studio Calico 3/7 Sunday Sketch. Been wanting to do this page for awhile now...

This page is based on Pencil Lines Sketch #177.

This was based on a layout by Leigh Palmer in the Jan/Feb 2009 issue of Simple Scrapbooks. Love that shirt in the picture:)

We had a low key weekend. Took a drive Saturday down 30A and took a walk today...windy but the weather was so nice! Spring is here=lots of pollen (yuck) and lots of spring breakers here (double yuck). At least we get this gorgeous weather though!

4.5

4 years ago...3 years ago.... 2 years ago (she grew some hair!)... 1 year ago (she lost all the baby)....Today. She is 4 1/2 today. What a wild, wonderful ride:)

She currently:

• loves reading. When we are out and about, she reads everything she can from what she sees out the car window, in stores, restaurants, etc.
• her favorite shows are Angelina Ballerina, Curious George, and Olivia.
• loves to play with her ponies, princesses, and games such as Candyland, Memory, and Hi Ho Cheerio. Oh and she loves playing computer games. www.starfall.com and www.pbskids.org are her favorite.
• LOVES to color...like all the time. She is getting so good at staying in the lines too! I love when she draws her own pictures, especially of the family:)
• loves ballet and dancing in general. When there's music, there is dancing.
• her favorite foods are pizza, cheeseburgers, strawberries, watermelon, and oatmeal.
• her favorite color is red.
• her favorite movie is currently The Princess and the Frog (although this changes weekly!)
• is one strong willed little (I guess I should say big since that is what she insists on!) girl. She def. knows what she wants and is pretty good at getting it...most of the time:)
• is an awesome big sister. She really adores and loves Kieran and loves making him smile and laugh. It's a bonus if what she is doing to make him laugh irritates Shaun or I:) She always says, but Kieran likes it!!

We love her so much!!!!

In other notes...we have all been battling some yucky colds the past week. I think we are finally getting over it...Yay! Also, Aislynn went to her 6 week follow up appt. from getting her cast off and everything looks great!!!! The doctor said you wouldn't even know she broke it except for the scar! So glad that is behind us now:)

We have been enjoying some wonderful warms temps lately and now that we are feeling better, I hope we can enjoy them this weekend!!

A Tea Party

On Monday, Aislynn decided we should have a tea party (actually on Sunday night as she was getting tucked in to bed, so I told her we would do it the next day). There was one problem though...she didn't have a "round hat with a flower" as she put it. So we pulled out her beach hat and I dug into my scrapbook stash for some big flowers and ribbon and viola! The perfect tea party hat:) I even surprised her with apple juice in the tea pot for tea:)Just a pic of K clapping...for the scrapbook:) He had is 9 month check up yesterday and everything looked good! He had to get one vaccination that they were out of at his 6 month appointment, so he was kinda cranky yesterday and last night. He ran a teeny fever and his nose is now runny, which are both signs of teething too, so maybe that was part of the reason he is a crank too.

I made a couple new pages this week, so here they are:

Any fun weekend plans? Lately our Michaels has had some kids crafts each weekend, and this one they have some both days, so I think we are going to hit that up. Then Sunday we will be watching the Oscars!! Each year Shaun and I predict who the winners will be and I have won (whoever gets the most right wins) for the last 2 years! Hopefully I can get keep my streak going and score some new scrapbook supplies;)

Yay!!!!

Just a cute video of Kieran's new trick he started doing today....clapping!!!

And he has been taking baths in the big bath tub for a few days, so today I snapped this:

Love the mohawk;)