Birthday

  Baby J turns 2 this Sunday!  We decided that even though it's just going to be the four of us we're still going to give him a party.  I bought the farm themed supplies last year while we were in Texas and the bag has been sitting in our pantry ever since.  We are now trying to figure out what cake pan to use for his special birthday cake.  The ice cream cone (which is the easiest), Bert & Ernie (cause he likes Sesame Street), a clown, Thomas the Train (he hasn't really watched the show all that much) or a tractor.  I guess the tractor would go best with the farm theme now that I think about it.  What do you think?  I'm glad he'll actually be somewhat aware for this birthday.  He'll be able to open his presents by himself and feed himself.  Speaking of food, still trying to figure out what to make him for his birthday dinner.  Maybe hamburgers and sweet potato fries, he likes those.  Hmmmm...  I need to get to work planning his big day menu! 
   He is such a big boy now.  We just got in from raking the front yard.  He mostly raked the sidewalk but that worked out cause that's where all the cuttings that I was raking went.  He's a good helper.  :-)
   I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures of his big day to share with you all.  What's the first birthday you remember?

Wowie Zowie!

   I just had a Nerd shake and it was amayzazing!  Da & I first tried this delectable wonder at Mister Whippy in Chincoteaugue Virginia on our one year anniversary trip.  We tried to recreate it before with no success.  Mister Whippy was able to make every bite taste of fantastic Nerdy goodness, we however, were not.  Leaving the Nerds whole didn't get much flavor into the ice cream and crushing them didn't work either.  This time Da mixed the Nerds and the ice cream in the blender and then let it sit in the freezer for a bit before eating.  Super terrific!  If you like Nerds you really must try.  I just wanted to share.  If you're ever in Chincoteaugue I highly recommend going to Mister Whippy and trying a Nerds Cyclone.  You won't be sorry.

This is Mister Whippy, Hi.

   We have a very tight grocery budget so we decided to go to Wal-mart tonight hoping to get some better prices than at our local grocery store.  I think we have been conditioned to think that Wal-mart always has the lowest prices, guess their marketing did it's job.  Anywho, walking around the store tonight we discovered that Schnucks kicks Wal-marts butt in pricing on most grocery items.  I like knowing this because with WM we have to drive and with S we can take a nice walk to get our groceries and I also like supporting the little guy in this case.  They are a very customer service oriented store, something that WM is not.  So they still where those vests at WM with the smiley face and the "How may I help you?" on it?  Cause the people there are never smiling and certainly don't want to help.  At least in my experience.  I'm a little obsessed with food prices right now, but thought this could be interesting to people.  
    I had a pretty productive day today.  I got on up after C's first morning feeding, today it was about 6:30, where I usually go back to sleep for another hour or so or until J wakes up and calls out to his Mamaaaaaaa.  I was able to get the laundry all caught up, the dishwasher emptied and reloaded, the yard raked and then mowed with our hippie mower (i.e. manual push, no gas) & made chicken and broccoli for lunch before taking a walk around the block with my boys.  Whew!  That's a lot for a girl who's gotten used to a relatively sedentary life here lately.  I am so sore but I was in a super good mood.  I so miss being active.  My job at the nursery was very physical and I miss that part of it very much.  I have such a sense of accomplishment and I don't think I'm going to have any trouble falling asleep tonight.  I didn't turn the TV on once for J.  He followed me around the house helping with my various tasks.  He's a very good helper, I think tomorrow I'll let him use his little rake to help his Mama rake the yard.  He's a sweet boy who is turning 2 on Sunday.  Eeeek!  What do you do to keep yourself occupied throughout the day? 

Weather

   I went on weather.com this morning and watched the videos of the tornado that touched down in Alabama.  I am happy that my family & I were spared from harm but so sad that so many people have died from these storms.  Where I used to live in Virginia is under a tornado watch until 3pm today.  At least here when a tornado touches down some very loud sirens go off, back home there's nothing to warn you if you're not tuned in to the radio, internet or tv.  I started thinking about all my loved ones and realized something, none of them have basements!  I grew up with a basement and we took cover in it once when I was little and a storm came through.  I think it was a tornado, not for certain though.  Mom, do you remember?  You're told in the event of a tornado, where there is no basement or storm shelter, to take cover in an interior room.  We don't have one of those and unless you live in a rather large house I don't think you're going to find one in most homes that isn't a teeny hall closet.  I guess the thinking with that is to find a place where glass can't get you if your windows get blown out, but if a tornado decides to hit your house there's really nowhere safe.  That thinking has surprisingly helped me.  I can't do a thing about it if it's my time to go, so I shouldn't make myself sick with worry.
   I read this morning that there have been about 800 twisters reported across the US this April, the average for this month is about 163.  Are there really that many more or are there more people who know what they look like and how to report them?  I have no idea but it's a little bit scary to be reading about watches and warnings happening in places that don't normally have any.  If you get a minute go to weather.com and watch the videos of the tornado in Alabama.  It's terrifying and amazing at the same time.  I hope you all have a wonderful day, sorry for all the tornado talk.  Baby J is awake and calling his mamaaaaaaa.  I will type to you later!

Pretty

I just felt like posting some pretty flowers.  I took these pictures on Sunday while walking to the park.

Peony, pronounced Pee-o-knee  :-)

Not as fragrant as the ones I grew up with, but super pretty!

Jap Maple

I usually don't like when people shape plants but this one is an exception

Bonita Rosa

Closet

   When we moved into this home I was pretty happy when I opened the door to our master closet.  It's a good sized walk in with plenty of shelving and places to hang clothes.  I really liked it.  I really really did.  But.  BUT, I have spent about 4 hours over the past 3 days in said closet while the tornado sirens wailed outside and I tried not to let my sons know how freaked out I was.  Dampens my excitement for it a bit.  We are working to make it more inviting since we're apparently going to be spending a lot of time in there.  I think the past tenants must have as well as there are children's footprints on the wall.  Memphis Tennessee is in an area sometimes referred to as Tornado Alley, and you know what?  They don't build their houses with basements!  Geeze to pete.  According to Da it's because the water table is too high and they would always flood.  I would still feel safer there than my closet.  Anywho, these recent storms have me a bit rattled.  Last night we had some pretty severe ones all through the night.  Lightning kept illuminating the room, I finally had to take cover under the blanket, both from the lightning and because I'm a scardey cat.  We were under a tornado watch until 5am this morning so we had both J & C sleeping in our room.  I tell you what, our boys are some noisy sleepers!  J snores and goes oooh! when a noise wakes him and C snores and sounds like he forgets to breathe so he then gasps and scares the crap out of me.  It was an interesting night filled with not a whole lot of sleep.  Thankfully we made it safe and sound through the night and no damage was made to our home.     
   I would now like to share with you a video of my darling C laughing with his Da, if you're feeling down it'll perk you right on up and put a smile on your face!  (Yes, that is me snorting in the background)

My doll baby

This, that & Easter

   We were in charge of dessert for Easter dinner at our friend's house and we made brownies & sugar cookies.  I froze half the dough from our last batch of cookies and J & Da rolled and cut little bunnies.  I'm mentioning this because we tried something new by using powdered sugar instead of flour to roll the cookies with.  It made such a difference in taste!  We put a layer of foil on the cookie sheet before baking and it made the cookies brown perfectly on the bottom and the powdered sugar baking made the cookie have a hint of jelly roll taste to it.  I really want a jelly roll.  Anywho, I highly recommend using powdered sugar next time you make cookies that need rolling.

J with his new rolling pin that his great granma Fair sent him.

Gotta taste test

Yum

J figuring out the white stuff is pretty yummy

   This weekend we made a list of everything in our freezer and pantry and planned out our menu for the week.  It is so much quicker for me to get everything together being able to look at our list and see exactly what to make.  Makes it easier to make meals with everything else going on.  Tonight we had vegetable curry.  I love curry, you can throw whatever you have on hand in a dish with some curry and it tastes great!  Tonight it contained sweet potatoes, onion & carrots.  I was supposed to put corn but forgot.  It was super yum over rice.  Do you ever cook with curry?
   We went to our friends house for Easter lunch.  J hunted a few eggs and then had a ball playing with tupperware and water.  We took a walk to a park down the road and J quacked at the ducks and honked at the geese and then took a turn on the swings before going crazy on the playground.  He started on the small slide before trying out the bigger one.  After having a taste of that big slide he refused to go back to the "baby" slide.  Once we got home we hid the eggs and since J got a lesson in hunting earlier in the day he knew just what to do.  We didn't have to show him where any of the eggs were.  He would find one, pick it up, open it and then carry the egg and toy back to his bucket.  He passed out at bedtime which was most wonderful.   

Like the matching outfits?

He doesn't like to take a shower but he'll get sprayed by a hose

HONK!

J made a friend, he's waving here

Showing Da & C his haul

    C's Easter shirt is one that I picked up because J had one in a different color when he was C's age.  Aren't they cute little boys?

J

C

   Stormy weather is coming again, hopefully no tornadoes blow us away tonight!
      

Easter Memory

    With this year being the first year that J will really be able to participate in the fantastic tradition of an egg hunt, I started thinking about my favorite Easter egg hunt memory.  I was about 11 or 12 and we were living on our 17 acre farm in Virginia.  My older brother Josh put together the most super awesome hunt EVER!  It covered all of our acreage and our neighbors land on either side as well.  We split into teams, I was with my Dad and my sister with my mom.  This was no normal hunt, there were clues in the form of riddles leading us to each egg.  Our first clue was found in a little pond, floating in a bottle.  I don't remember the exact progression of clues but I do remember that one brought us to our neighbors hill with an awesome view all around.  The clue had something about an arrow pointing to three large sticks.  Turned out there was a stick shaped like an arrow pointing to three electric poles going up the valley towards our other neighbors property.  That clue drove my dad & I crazy and also helped me to see how many different ways something can be perceived.  That started a love of puzzles that I still indulge today.  That hunt is actually one of my favorite memories growing up.  My brother now has two sons of his own and I'm so envious of them having him to do cool stuff for them like that.  I hope to one day have some land where we can attempt an epic Easter egg hunt.  I might be calling ol Josher for some clues though, I couldn't even begin to come up with the riddles that he did!  I hope everyone has a splendid Easter, do you have a favorite Easter memory?

Liberry

   I remembered seeing something last Saturday that got me super excited but I couldn't remember what it was until today.  Dang babies stealing my brain cells!  When we were meandering around Memphis I saw a most glorious site, a three story library!  Wheeeeeeeee!  My inner nerd was all atwitter.  We spent a lot of time in libraries growing up, my favorite book was anything in the Papa Smalls series.  I still remember exactly where I would find them in the stacks too.  The Lynchburg library had an awesome childrens area filled with awesome toys and colorful rugs.  Once we began homeschooling we went even more often, when my sister got her license we would go just about every Thursday.  We would have lunch at the local Chinese buffet and then head to one and sometimes two libraries.  At one time I had 4 different library cards, yes, my name is nerd, nice to meet you.  We would load up on books and movies and dork it up.  Library movies are a breed all their own.  We would watch all the old movies based on the Bronte and Jane Austen novels, Jeeves & Wooster, Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett, Fairytale Theater and lots of musicals.  When we still lived in Virginia I would take J to the library quite often and we would load up on board books for him.  I haven't ventured to any of the branches around here yet but after laying eyes on that three story majesty I plan to asap!  Makes me sad that libraries have turned into a place more for computers that books.  I love books and am never more happy and relaxed than when I am able to sit and read a good book.  That is a rare occurrence now with the two babies.  Le sigh.  During the last trimester of my pregnancy I read about 9 books in a month.  Happy days...  What were some of your favorite books growing up?  Do you have any books to recommend to me?  I need to find some new ones, preferably ones that can be read in 10 minute bits.   

This is a LIBRARY!!!!!!!  Waitwaitwait, is that FOUR stories???  SQUEEEEEEEEE!!!

Stormy Weathuuuuurrrrrr...........

   We had some heavy storms come through last night/early this morning.  Scared the crap out of me!  A few minutes after putting C to bed the tornado siren went off so I went and got J out of bed and brought him into our room.  When I got back the sirens were already off again but we were under a watch until early this morning so we kept him with us until it calmed down.  Super loud thunder and bright lightning and at one point a very strong gust of wind that lasted a good 2-3 minutes.  I was very worried our wall was going to come down or something!  This experience taught us that J is as scared of thunder storms as his momma is and he also likes to sleep spread out, just like his momma!  J was between Da & I, horizontal, with his foot in Da's armpit and his head on my leg.  Every time the weather radio went off (which was quite often) he would life his head up and go "OOH!" before falling right back asleep.  We finally put him back in his own bed around 1:30am.  The deciding factor, besides Da & I not being able to get any sleep, was he kept moving down towards the foot of the bed and I was worried he would eventually go off the end.  Not a good thing at all, for his noggin or for the inevitable waking up of baby C.  When we got up for C's feeding around 3am Da noticed that the top window in the dining room looked different.  When he looked out the blinds he found that the tree in our front yard had fallen over.  Looks almost like it twisted and snapped, you'll see in the following pictures.  We figure the big gust of wind took it down.  So glad it went the way it did or else we would have had a very wet dining room!  I do like that we're renting though, Da called the leasing office and they sent someone out and got the tree all cut up and on the curb.  Nice not having to worry about that, especially since we don't have a chainsaw anymore.  So, it was an eventful night in which neither Da or I got very much sleep.  On top of that J has become extremely clingy these past few days.  If I'm sitting down he wants to sit with me, even trying to climb the chair I'm sitting in while on the computer.  I like the cuddles, don't get me wrong, but when it's constant throughout the day, even when I'm feeding C, it gets a bit trying.  Here's hoping that the storm that is currently raging outside passes quickly and we can have a peaceful night tonight.

How in the world did this happen?

Kind of looks like it may have had some rot

Doesn't it look like it kinda twisted?

J checking it out

Rearview

The root still going in the earth

That's our neighbors garage, glad he was able to get out and not scratch his fancy Jaguar

Rarrrrr

This cat came to the window and scared the crap out of J, he retreated into the room a bit and then he felt safe enough to talk to it and laugh.

The slug that was inside our window.  How did it get inside?

Poor cut up ol tree

So naaaaked!!!

What a handsome fella (For Family)

   This post is mostly going to appeal to our family.  I was going to write about our Sunday but when I was looking through the pictures from our time outside I decided I wanted to share my sons facial prowess.  He's an expressive guy for sure!

   Now I realize that babies are really only cute to their parents, so I apologize for such a baby centric post.  I just couldn't help myself!

Baby C smiling at his big brudder

I thought this was a great pose

   Which is your favorite Baby C expression?  I know you family members have an opinion!