Botanical Gardens Playdate

We went to the Botanical Gardens the other day with our playgroup. My camera battery didn't last too long, but I was able to capture some pretty fun memories...

Looking at the birds...poor birds didn't know what had just happened by the time we came and went :)

Then we got to help release the Monarch butterflies in the butterfly house!!! 

This was SO NEAT! Do you see the envelopes full of butterflies above? You opened up the envelope, and they came out and sat really still for a while until they warmed up and flew away. The kids loved it!!!

Carter had a friend on his shoulder for a long time. He was fascinated. Love his sweet face!

Miles tried desperately to get his hands on some butterflies...I tried desperately to save the butterflies :)

We saw turtles.

We got to pet box turtles.

Walked under waterfalls.

Hopped on stepping stones, and YES - ended up in that water :)

We rode see-saws.

The rest of the gardens were filled with the theme "Giant Garden, Little Me." There were really big things to see and play in. I got a few more pictures, but we have to go back sometime with a full camera battery! It was such a fun day.

Enjoying a fun day with my two buddies.

11 Months Old

Dear Miles, 

Here I am writing your 11 Month letter. I cannot believe you are already 11 months old! You're almost 1...where has the time gone? This has not been an easy year for me - adjusting to being a mommy to 2 children has been a difficult transition, but here we are...almost a year later. I cannot thank you enough for what you've taught me as a mommy/person/Christian. You are precious to me. More precious than you will ever know. You have such a passion for life. You go after everything with your whole heart. I can already tell that you're going to be a lot like me. You have got to be one of the cutest lil' guys on the planet. You have a huge grin, and you're one of the wiggliest worms I've ever seen - you want to be on the go at all times.

Here's your 11 month picture: 

Here's you and your dog. 

Here's a picture of me, you and your brother (2 years 8 mos):

You and your brother are growing so close. You are by his side at all times. You don't even like to be strapped in to eat because that means you cannot get to where Carter is :) I love that about you. Carter likes to keep you informed of EVERYTHING. He has started to tell you things. He'll let out a huge (fake) burp and say "Heard that burp, Miles?" When we are riding in the car, I'll hear him say, "See that Jeep, Miles?" When we finish with a meal, he says, "Tum on Miles, let's doe play in playroom." He bosses you around and you do exactly whatever you want to which makes him very mad most of the time. Brothers. We are in full brother mode around here from sun up to sun down.

Here are some of the things we did this month: 

• You got to experience your first Easter. You got to see the Easter Bunny. You sat in his lap, but you weren't too sure about him. We died Easter Eggs. You got to hunt some Easter Eggs too. You ended up sick on Easter Sunday, so we decided to stay home from church, but we had a nice restful morning at home with family. You got to check out your first Easter Basket - it had all kinds of fun things in it.

• We went to Auburn to see Nana, Papa J, and your Aunt/Uncle/Cousins. It was Nana's 60th Birthday, so we all celebrated together! We had a fun weekend.

Yes, that finger ended up in the cake :)

Here are some things you are doing now: 

• You weigh 21 lbs. and I need to measure you.
• You nurse about 4 (sometimes 5) times a day. We start the weaning process this next month - here's hoping that goes well! 
• You are slowing down on baby food. You prefer meat (especially in casseroles/pastas mostly) and carbs. Your favorite foods are fried chicken, yogurt, and baked beans. It's really hard to get you to eat fruit or veggies. I try to sneak in some babyfood here and there still, but you do not like them anymore.

• You have 6 teeth (4 on top, 2 on bottom).
• You sleep about 10-11 hours every night. When you're not getting sick/sick/getting over being sick,  you sleep through the night until about 6:30 - 7am now. That is a blessing.
• You take two naps a day. When you get tired, you bite people.
• You are getting better with a sippy cup.
• You are cruising around everything - you can even cruise with one hand on things....maybe soon you'll let go and walk soon!
• You are a super fast crawler!
• You love your push and walk toy. Unfortunately, Carter does too - he steals it from you on a regular basis.
• You love to climb. You climb into the toy box, up your little slide, onto diaper boxes, up into Carters chair, on the hearth, and up the stairs. One problem with this is you cannot get down from any of these places without falling. You've gotten a few bumps and bruises along the way. 
• Your worst accident yet was falling and hitting your face on the rocking horse. Your teet cut your lip. I thought you would need stitches, but you didn't. You're a tough guy!
• You learned to throw a ball this past month and you LOVE IT! When you were sick during Easter, we couldn't get you to go to sleep one night. You cried and cried. We figured out that throwing a ball would soothe you, so we threw a ball back and forth late into the night that night...you didn't want to stop. 

• It's warmed up finally, but at first you HATED being outside. The feel of the concrete and grass totally freaked you out, and you screamed like somebody was trying to kill you when we put you down. Over the course of the month, you've figured out that it's not so bad. Your favorite activities now are swinging and sliding. You love going down the big slide at the playground (with an adult). You also like to sit in Carter's cozy coupe. Carter does not like you to sit in it. When you get in it, he automatically climbs on top...that's quite a site.
• You also discovered the joy of building towers with blocks and knocking them down. You could do this forever!
• You said "mama" this month!!!!!! We were on the phone with Grandmama the first time you said it. She claims that you were trying to say "Grandmama," but I know you were saying my name :) You are also saying "Dada" and "Nana" 
• Your favorite toy is ANYTHING your brother is playing with! 
• You know what "No" means, and you listen a lot of the time. 

Here is your typical schedule...

6:30am - Wake up / Nurse / Breakfast Babyfood (yogurt / dry cereal) then Play

8:45 - 9am - Naptime (1-2 hours)

11:00am - Nurse then Play

11:30 - Lunch (PBJ) when brother eats then play

1:00 pm - Naptime (2-3 hours)

4:00-5pm - Mealtime (Nurse & sometimes babyfood) then Waketime

6:00pm - "2nd Supper" when we eat :)

7:30-8pm - Bathtime (on bath nights) / Nurse / Bed

REPEAT...

My next letter will be written to you when you turn 1! Part of me feels like this year has flown by, and part of me feels as if I cannot remember our family without you in it. We all love you so much, Miles. Your Daddy, your brother, and me (your mommy) are so blessed to have you in our lives. 

Love,

Mommy

PS. This is what your brother did when he was 11 months old. 

Design World

I've been having a little fun with some graphic design these days. I really enjoy designing things, and I really like how these things turned out!

Miles's 1st Birthday Invitations

I made this design (using some ideas I got off of Etsy), and used Vistaprint to order them for a total of $11.99 (including 30 invitations, shipping, and envelopes)! Got some coupons here. 

A Placemat for Carter

He's a messy guy, and I wanted to have a nice, laminated placemat that can be easily wiped clean. I designed and ordered this placemat (again, using ideas I got off of Etsy) at InkGarden.com for a total of $7.99 (including shipping). Got a placemat coupon here.

Carter @ 33 Months

Funny Conversations We've Had Lately

Scene: Carter and Miles playing in playroom while we get ready to go somewhere.
Miles: starts crying
Me: Did you hit Miles?
Carter: Yes
Me: Where did you hit Miles?
Carter: Right in the face
Ha! At least he's honest...now we just need to work on kindness.

Scene: Hiking at the state park about to go play on playground.
Me: Do you want to go play on the see-saw?
Carter: No, I like see screwdriver
Boys and their tools...he didn't want to see a saw...he wanted to see a screwdriver. A man's gotta have his preferences...

Scene: Boys and daddy in playroom shooting basketball. I go do some videotaping. After a few minutes of videotaping, Carter walks toward the camera....
Carter: Mommy, go back and cook my supper.
HAHA! Kevin did NOT tell him to say this nor does he speak to me like that :) So glad we have this on video. We had just eaten dinner - this was Carter's way of saying to me that this was daddy time and girls weren't allowed...

Scene: Dying Easter Eggs, Carter peeled an egg and was eating it.
Me: Is that egg yummy?
Carter: Yes. I not like the cheese (yolk).

Background: I have a good friend named Erin.
Scene: Getting ready to go a few places.
Me: Carter, let's get dressed, we need to run some errands today.
Carter: Looks around for a few minutes...looking very puzzled. 
Carter: Where, Erin? I not see Erin.
The English language is tricky!

Scene: Getting ready to go to church.
Me: It's time to get in the car.
Carter: TUM on Miles. TUM on Miles. Doe-ing to church.
Miles: Sitting in playroom not moving.
Carter: TUM on Miles. RIGHT NOW.
Miles: still not going anywhere
Carter: Miles need a panking. Slaps Miles on the arm. 
Me: Picks Carter up and has a long conversation about how I am the only one allowed to spank Miles....

Scene: Driving to church.
Me: We are going to church.
Carter: Yes my am. Doe-ing church - eat pizza.
Me: Yes we will eat pizza at church (they serve pizza for kids on Wed nights).
Me: Do you learn about Jesus at church.
Carter: No. Just play toys and ride trucks.
Ha! I am told that they have lessons, but I guess they haven't started to sink in yet :)

Scene: Babysitter (Eden) arrives - we are still trying to get boys bathed and get dressed upstairs...Carter is bathed and dressed...
Kevin: Why don't you go downstairs and play with Miss Eden?
Carter: reluctantly walks downstairs...a few minutes later walks back upstairs
Carter (to Kevin): I not like Miss Eden.
Carter (to me): Mommy, I doe with you.
He totally knew we were about to leave him. It turned out that Miss Eden wasn't so bad afterall he had fun :)

Carter-isms:

He LOVES to give me and Miles our goodnight kiss. I am always nursing Miles while Kevin is putting Carter to bed. At different points (after bath, after brushing teeth, after reading his book, etc...) he will say "Doe give Mommy and Miles tiss." Then he will ruuuuuun in Miles's room and give us our kisses. This happens up to 3-4 times a night, but never less than once! They might be on the cheek, shoulder, lips, knee, foot.... I love all my kisses :) Kevin, however, is not comfortable with the mouth kisses...he will turn his head at the last second :)

Yes, my am / Yes, my do / Yes, my is / Yes my can = he pretty much always says "my" for "I"
Where our doe-ing? / Our doe-ing to church / Our doe-ing Greemama's house/Nana's house = he uses "our" for "we"
*Needless to say we are still working on our pronouns...

He LOVES going to church!!! He likes school too, but he LOVES church. He tells everyone and everything "See you tomorrow at church." Seeing as how we are at church 3 days a week - most of the time he's fairly accurate :)

When he gets hungry in the evening, he runs to the kitchen and starts raiding my pantry saying "Mommy, I hungry. Cook my dinner/supper."

He is very observant - especially in the car. He can spot a tractor/truck/fire truck from a mile away!

He loves bugs. He gets down close to them and checks them out. On our walk the other day he sprawled out on the sidewalk to look at a bug and said "Hey, lil' guy." H also plays with/tortures worms - he makes them swim, swings them around like a helicopter, rides them in his dump truck, etc... poor worms.

A Few Favorites

Favorite Food: Candy (if I'm honest), but Pizza is probably still his favorite supper - he will ALWAYS eat pizza - everything else has it's days. Fruit - he loves apples, Veggies - he likes broccoli.

Favorite Show: still Mickey Mouse Clubhouse - he calls it "Mickey Mouse Tah-house Tum Inside Tah-House." If you watch the show you'll know that he is adding part of the theme song to the title :) He also loves Monster Truck Adventures.

Favorite Book: Dear Polar Bear
*He has started really "reading" his books. This activity includes him taking one book flipping through every single page and setting it aside, getting another and doing the same, making a GIANT stack of all of his books. He will clean out a bookshelf doing this, but I am not allowed to help him read during this time.

Favorite Activity: Playing with Matchbox cars (or any cars for that matter) and going to the playground and on walks. He has started to ride his motorcycle some on our walks. It ends up in the stroller by the end of the walk though.

I love this boy more than words can say. I'm blessed to be his mama! 

Spring Clothes

I've been in my sewing room having some fun. Here's what I've been working on:

Matching appliqued shirts with matching seersucker shorts! 

These little outfits are so nice and comfy - not to mention one of the reasons I love spring and summer!

More shorts for a friend...

Last but not least, the result of a challenge from my friend, Amanda. She sent me this picture from the Hannah Kate 2013 spring catalog and said she thought I could probably make something similar...

...so I gave it a shot and ended up with this little beautiful bubble...

Soooo, I didn't EXACLY copy the outfit...I didn't feel like making sleeves or a collar (lazy!), and to make up for the lack of "interesting-ness" I made the applique a little more prominent. I think it turned out just about as cute! It was also about $50+ cheaper (hooray!!!!). 

Here's one more gym that I finished up during today's naptime. I got this shirt new with tags for less than $5 at a consignment sale. Add a monogram and throw together some shorts from fabric that I already had - WA-LA! A beautiful summer outfit! Loving it.

That's all for now folks!

Family Hike

We went to the local state park for a day hike today, and it was such a fun time! Kevin and I spent many days playing and hiking in the woods while we were growing up, and it's so fun to take our boys out to enjoy being in "the woods!" They loved it. We could not have asked for a more glorious spring day!

Poking centipedes and checking out beetles.

Climbing up big rocks.

Balancing on fallen trees.

Banging walking sticks against rocks screaming for chipmunks to come out (don't ask me..I haven't got a clue:)

Sliding down steep banks.

My personal "fravorite" from the day was the "Field" of Blue Bells!!!

Then we had a picnic and played on the playground.

We told Carter he could ride the see-saw with Miles, and he said "No I want to see a screwdriver!" 

Ha! Boys and their tools.

Such a fun Saturday!!!