The New Fresh Prince

While we were in Best Buy yesterday, we discovered these new headphones called Beats by Dr Dre. Will loves them! He stood there for 15 minutes listening to the thump.
We also discovered that Will loves him some Hip Hop! The 3 white buttons were for a sampling of Hip Hop, R&B, and Rock; Will chose Hip Hop again & again & again. The red button was for LOUD, and LOUD is Will's best friend!

Brent was telling Will that it was time to go. That little stinker just looked at him and shook his head "No". Many times. He would just push the red button. Amazing how they learn as early as 2 to tune you out! He refused to leave.
All the fun came to an end when Daddy had to pick up Lil Dre and carry him crying from the store. Life is hard for a little rapper. Where's the luv?!?!?

Saying Goodbye to the Nursery...

and hello to a new big boy room makes Mommy and Daddy just a little sad. We loved this nursery! It was so calm and peaceful, and a wonderful little spot to rock a baby. Both boys grew up (too fast, I might add) in the same nursery. On the walls, hung baby pictures of their grandparents and great-grandparents, almost as if those that have always loved them, even before they knew them, were watching over them at night. The crib is packed away in the attic and Brent told Jack that we were saving it for his children to sleep in when they come to visit. And the thought of seeing Jack's and Will's babies sleeping in the same crib as their fathers made me smile.

Then we set up the big boy bed. And one soon-to-be three year old was beyond excited about this rite of passage. For months, he has loved crawling into Jack's big boy bed and pretending to fall asleep. Tonight, he had his own big boy bed to crawl into. He looks so tiny in the full size bed, reminded me of how tiny he looked as a newborn in his crib. We read a story, gave kisses, said "I love you, sweet dreams, see ya in the morning!", and turned out the light. And he fell right to sleep. I had anticipated that he would be in and out of bed celebrating his new freedom, but we didn't hear a peep out of him.

The big boy room should be finished over the next two weeks. Of course I am having a decorator help me, because I hope we have established that I have exactly zero talent in the interior design field. I will share pictures once the room is complete. It is exciting!

Delicious! Delicious! Delicious!

I had to go grocery shopping this morning...in the drizzling rain (I am so tired of this rain!). We were out of just about everything except ketchup, pickle relish, and a couple of cloves of garlic, and try as I might, I could not come up with a single recipe for dinner using solely ketchup, pickles and garlic. Since Starbucks is just a couple of doors down from Kroger's, I needed to fortify myself for the mega grocery shopping I was about to embark upon in the rain. I treated myself to this wonderful concoction, and let's just say, I hope it is raining next week when I have to make the groceries!

Starbucks has a new Holiday drink...Caramel Brulee Latte! Oh my, the deliciousness! I haven't met a Starbucks seasonal drink yet that I haven't loved...the Pumpkin Spice latte, the Peppermint Mocha latte, the Eggnog Latte, and now, the Caramel Brulee Latte. Love them all, but the Caramel Brulee just may be my favorite (I'm so sorry, Pumpkin Spice latte). It is rich & creamy, creamy & rich, and I love the little caramel pieces on top.



Have you tried these specialty chicken sausages? They are so good! We've tried the chicken & apple, the Italian sausage with mozzarella, and the spicy mango with jalapeno. The spicy mango is fantastic...a nice combination between the sweetness of the mango and just enough of a kick from the jalapeno! What Brent and I like is that these sausages aren't greasy and heavy like regular pork sausage. And the boys loved them as well, which is always a bonus. For the past couple of weekends, we have grilled out several varieties of the sausages along with some stoplight peppers & onions. So easy and so delicious.


I love a good apple, but am somewhat particular about my apple...it has to be a sweet apple with a good crunch. For the longest time, I was a Fuji devotee and then I discovered Honey Crisp apples. The Honey Crisps are delicious and have been a reliable fall snack, but this year I have discovered the perfect apple...the Ambrosia apple. It is crisp, juicy, so sweet, and very fragrant! It has a faint honey taste. Also, the Ambrosia doesn't seem to brown as quickly as other varieties of apples. I like to core and cut my apple into wedges, and none of the wedges turn brown before I can finish the apple. A nice bonus =). I have found these at Kroger's; see if you can find them at your store and definitely give them a try!


Kroger's Private Selection brand Garden Salsa is one of the best salsas ever! It is restaurant quality salsa. It has become a weekend staple at our house, along with the football and nachos. Truthfully, I could skip the chips and just eat the salsa with a spoon.


I am so hungry now, and it is too late to eat. Well, those are all of my recent food finds...please share any gems that you've discovered!

JPEG of the Week

New Smile

Halloween

Anakin Skywalker

Go Diego Go

Halloween was alot of fun this year. Will understood about dressing up, and wanted to be Diego. Great! Although Diego is impossible to find these days, Jack was Diego when he was 3 years old and fortunately, I saved the costume, so we were all set for Will. Jack enjoyed being Anakin at school and decided that he would shelve Darth Vadar for next year and be Anakin Skywalker again Halloween night. I'm pretty sure it was all about the fact that he couldn't take the new lightsaber with him to school on Thursday, so Anakin was just itching to break it in. All good Jedis would understand.

We started our evening at the neighborhood clubhouse for the annual Halloween party. Because I hadn't seen the Anakin Skywalker costume in the stores, I thought Jack might be one of a kind. Boy, was I surprised; Jack was 1 of 3 Anakins that night! And Star Wars characters were the popular choice by far...lots of Anakins, a couple of Obi Wan Kenobis, Darth Vadar, etc. One of our neighborhood families all came dressed as Star Wars characters...Mom was Princess Leia, Dad was a Storm Trooper, one child was Darth Vadar, the other was Luke Skywalker, and the baby was Yoda!

I got a couple of pictures of the battles that were raging poolside....
...and then Will walked right out onto the pool cover and nearly gave me a heart attack! So I thought it was probably best to put away the camera and actually watch my child, lest he pull another 'Walk on Water' stunt. You understand =).

Brent offered to stay home to pass out candy this year (wouldn't have had anything to do with Miami playing on TV, I'm sure!). Jack went trick-or-treating with the large Star Wars contingency, so that I could take Will trick-or-treating on our street. Will loved the treats! Without fail, he would try to double dip in the treat bowls after the neighbors had given him 2 pieces of candy. We are going to have to work on trick-or-treat etiquette with our little beggar for next year! While we were out gathering our loot, the temperatures dropped and it started to drizzle, so once we had completed our street I dropped Will off at home to pass out candy with Daddy. Will thought it was just as much fun to pass out the candy. He would drop 2 pieces in everyone's bag and then run drop a piece of candy in his own bucket. Very clever, that boy!

I went back out to meet up with Jack's group. They were die-hard trick-or-treaters, spending 2 1/2 hours in the cold drizzle scouring the neighborhood for loot. Finally, Jack decided that Halloween was over when his bucket was completely full, literally. I have never seen so much candy! As soon as we got home, Jack put on warm jammies, had a snack, and went straight to bed. He was exhausted!

Well, I think that pretty much catches us up on October. Stay tuned for new stories and pics.

Halloween Parties

Halloween is a special time for the kindergarteners at Jack's school. They are allowed to wear their Halloween costumes to school and they have a parade, walking all around the school to show all of the other classes their costumes. Jack decided to be Darth Vadar, so we got the costume a couple of weeks early and were all set. Then I get an email requesting "no masks and that the costumes allow the students to be self-sufficient, especially in the restroom." Well, that pretty much put an end to Darth Vadar because the costume is a one-piece jumpsuit, and can Darth Vadar even survive without his life-supporting mask?!?!? So, I found an Anakin Skywalker costume (with a really cool mask...look for it in the upcoming Halloween pics) that was 2 pieces, a long tunic over pants. Perfect! Jack thought it was a great idea...for school, he would be Anakin, and then 2 days later, Anakin would cross over to the Dark Side and he would be Darth Vadar for Halloween.

From the report of the teacher, the parade was fun but exhausting. The children paraded through every classroom, walked over to the church so that Monsignor could join the fun, and then back to the school. Alot of walking for little feet. That afternoon was the Halloween party. We started off with a Jack-o-Lantern Krispy Kreme donut and juice. Nothing like alot of sugar to get ya in the party spirit. Then the teachers took turns dipping their hands in "gooey brains and guts" to pull out spiders, eyeballs, and other equally gross stuff! And finally games! We had 6 different game/craft stations set up, divided the class into 6 groups, and then rotated everyone through the games. I was helping with the pumpkin ring toss, so wasn't able to get many pictures, but here are a few to share.

Waiting patiently for the treats


Make a Mummy station

I think I recognize that cute mummy


Jack the Mummy

Will's class party was a bit more low-keyed compared to Jack's. At this age, the party is basically decorations and lunch with a treat. Jack was out of school that day, so Will was excited that Jack and Mommy would be coming to his party, and made sure that his teachers knew that Jack would be there. I told Jack that I was going to bring a Halloween book, just in case we needed a little activity. Well, Jack got it in his mind that he was going to read the book to the class. I explained over and over that I wasn't sure there would be an opportunity to read the book, that the book was a Plan B, etc., but when Jack gets an idea in his mind....

While the children were at the playground, the mothers decorated the tables and got the food ready. The children returned to the classroom, but the mom who was bringing the plates, cups, and napkins hadn't arrived yet. The teachers asked if we would like to do an activity. Hallelujah, Plan B!! Why yes, Jack would love to read a Halloween story!

Jack reading Peek-a-Boooo! by Marie Torres Cimarusti. A very cute book introducing Halloween to the youngest trick-or-treaters. Both of my boys have loved this book.


Enjoying a yummy lunch

So much fun for our little ghost and goblin!

Have You Seen This?

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/

Some people have no shame....

Pumpkin Patch

We had so much fun on our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. The day started out a little crisp and warmed up into a beautiful, clear fall day. Just perfect for enjoying the outdoors!

One of our favorite things to do at the pumpkin patch is the ropes course. And because we go each year, it is nice to see the improvements in gross motor skills for each of the boys.

Last Year.................... This Year

Jack's balance has really improved this year, so much so that he felt confident to give me a wave.


Will attempted the ropes by himself, but then decided that he was "too busy" and hopped down to try something else. This was an improvement, because last year at 21 months, Brent had to pretty much carry him through the ropes.

Last Year.................... This Year

Will enjoyed being a big kid on the step pads (I just made that up because I don't know what these are called).


Jack doing great on the zip line.

This picture just cracks me up....Look who put on his own shoes this morning!

And the sad thing is we didn't notice until we were at the pumpkin patch! Will assured us it was "fine, just fine", but we got the shoes on the right feet after the photo op.


New this year was the inflatable obstacle course. Jack loved this! Two people go at a time, and each time Jack decided that he was racing against the other child. Jack won all of his races and was just over-the-moon excited! (Now, I'm not sure whether the other kid knew they were racing or not, but to Jack that is inconsequential.)
The impressive thing is that he could scale the wall like Spiderman! He was so fast! I was absolutely shocked. A couple of years ago, he would have never been able to do this without help. I had to laugh at myself because when Jack was diagnosed with hypotonia at 9 months, I remember crying to Brent that "all I want is for him to be able to walk" and here he is scaling a wall like nobody's business. Bless his heart, this child will be just fine if only his neurotic mother will step out of the way!


And of course if big brother does it, then little brother has to do it, too! But the obstacle course was really too hard for Will, so poor Brent had to go with him and heave-ho Will all the way through.

Peek a Boo

The rest of the afternoon was spent having a picnic lunch on the lawn, riding the train, picking out your own bag of candy, and playing at the ball barn.

Nobody wanted to leave, but we look forward to our trip again next year. Thanks to Aunt Bethany for sharing the tickets with us...you're the best!

JPEG of the Week

Snug as a Bug

A Little Bit of Random

The maids are coming tomorrow (yay!); I need to straighten up the house so they can actually find surfaces to clean. That doesn't leave much time to edit the hundreds of pictures I took of our visit to the pumpkin patch. I'll work on that tomorrow. Tonight, you'll just have to settle for some rambling and a few jammie pictures.

This morning, Jack bit into his toaster pastry and said that his tooth was loose! He seemed a bit concerned at first until he saw my excitment and then seemed quite pleased at this impending rite of passage. But it is such a bittersweet Mommy moment. He was just cutting this now-loose tooth yesterday! He couldn't wait to tell the girls in carpool this morning and was going to tell his teacher as soon as he saw her. Tonight, he asked me what the tooth fairy looked like. I said that I didn't know, to which Jack replied, "Maybe we can look it up on the internet." I had to laugh because that is always my answer for when he asks a question that I don't know the answer. Oh Technology, what would we do with out ye!

New monster jammies tonight and the boys were thrilled, and compelled to make their best monster growls.

Don't you just love the monster faces on the feet?!?!


The little monsters

File this under You Can't Fight the DNA...I went in Jack's room tonight to put some clothes away and this is what I saw.

Jack is sleeping with his head wedged between 2 pillows, just like his father sleeps! It's funny when you see genetics at play in the little mannerisms.

Playhouse Disney Live

The fun with Gramma and Granddaddy continued when we went to Playhouse Disney Live. Mom and I took Jack, Will, C and B to the show Sunday afternoon. This was Will's first character show (Jack has been to Disney on Ice Finding Nemo and a Diego production) so he was beyond excited about the experience.

Mom got us awesome seats...we were sitting front and center on the third row! Once we got settled into our seats, I decided to take a group picture for the scrapbook. Easier said than done...

Take 1


Take 2


Take 482
Well, this one will just have to do! There are 4 boys, looking somewhat civilized, and Gramma visible in the picture. Experience documented!

The show was really cute...Mickey Mouse was having a party at the Clubhouse for all of his Playhouse Disney friends. Each of the friends is supposed to bring a song to share, so we visit with each of the friends as they decide on their musical selection.

Mickey at the post office delivering the invitations.


My Friends Tigger and Pooh did a cute nature song that required audience participation. Although the big boys had mumbled about this being a "baby show", Jack and C were totally into the singing and dancing.


Handy Manny and his Tools.

So about this time in the show is intermission...a very long intermission. Giving you plenty of time to take your darling to the lobby, which is loaded from floor to ceiling with every overpriced Disney souvenier that your heart desires. The Mouse knows how to market!

Now back to the show....

Mickey and his friends at the Clubhouse getting ready for the party.


The Little Einsteins bring a medley of songs from around the world to the party.

The finale of the party!

It was a cute show that held each of the boys attention. We had a great time! And each of the boys left with their own overpriced treasure. Thanks, Mickey!

Alabama Homecoming

It has become somewhat of a tradition that the boys and I go to Alabama's Homecoming game because Jack loves a parade and Will loves Mimi's house! We got up early Saturday morning and drove with my parents to Tuscaloosa so that we could get good seats for the parade. It was a tad bit chilly (read highs in the 50s...brrrr!), but that didn't get in the way of our fun one bit.

Here we are making sure that our shakers still work with a few pre-parade cheers.

Hey, Big Al!

The Million Dollar Band playing "Yea Alabama!" Never fails to give me chills =).

Jack loved getting High 5s from the pretty sorority girls! That boy has always been a big flirt. Will always loves doing what big brother is doing...it makes him feel so big!

Does it get any better than seeing Storm Troopers and Princess Leia in the parade?!? Not to a 6 year old boy who LOVES Star Wars!

After the parade, we decide to walk around the Quad for a bit. The tailgating on the Quad is absolutely amazing and I love having all the activities for the kids. The boys enjoyed some banana split Dippin Dots, which makes perfect sense because when it is a balmy 50 degrees outside, ice cream is so refreshing. After the snack, they decided that they were cold (really?!?!), so we decided to head to Mimi's.

Here we are in front of Bryant Denny Stadium.
Notice how tall Will is; now remember that he is only 2!

At Mimi's house, my cousin Laura and her daughter A were waiting to play. A and the boys became fast friends! Mimi, Mom, and Laura held down the fort while Dad and I went to watch Alabama defeat South Carolina (woo hoo!). From what I heard, they all had the best time.

Here we are having our own homecoming parade!

Will and A really enjoyed each other. They loved playing "Going to Starbucks". No joke! I'm not trying to start any rumors, but I wouldn't be surprised if Laura joins me in Starbucks rehab...I'm just sayin'.

Have you seen the Talking Toucan? From my experience, talking/singing stuffed animals are a big hit with the 2 year old crowd. And Mimi loves to foster a passion! I just look forward to the day the batteries die. But look at that happy little face =).

Isn't A just the cutest thing?!?!

Before we left, Brent made me promise that I would put the boys in their Miami jerseys for the game. So here is Mom's photographic evidence that they were dressed appropriately.

Dad & I didn't get back from the game until after 10 pm and then we had to drive back to my parent's house. The boys were such troopers and had the best time!

We are all looking forward to our next trip to Mimi's house!