My latest favorites

In the past week I've found some awesome deals and new favorite things around my house...just thought I'd share (that's how excited I am about them!).

Don't you just LOVE this face?

Besides Devin being among my favorites, this little beanie, 50 cents! My boys have rather large noggins so he's in a big kid one and Luke is in an adult one...

These bowls. A.d.o.r.a.b.l.e.

49 cents!

  

Wait, it gets even better...

The adorable bowls were wrapped in these sheets of paper, which kept my 3 year old occupied for at least an hour.

Awesome? I'd say so.

Last week I threw my good friend a baby shower and used some of the cute bowls (I just couldn't give them all away) and filled them with chocolate covered pretzels as the prizes for the games.

Cuteness.

Then at JoAnn's (I haven't been in forever, but I'm starting to get my craft back on) I got this fabric for $5.00 a yard (50% off). I am SO excited to make curtains for my boring kitchen.

Speaking of crafts. I made this cute pillow for the love day. The best part was I had everything to make it!

I found it online somewhere...but not sure of the site.

Another favorite...these girls. At Marilyn's baby shower, we had a grand ole time, until 1am...gesh!

Still going....

This vegetarian (I am not vegetarian btw!) stew....so good! You won't be sorry. Here's the link.

And the girl that I got this delish recipe from, also gave me these super cute vintage alphabet cards. Love them!

I've struuuggled with decorating Luke's room, but it is very, very slowly coming along. 

I found this pig at the dollar store (for yes, a dollar) and it has inspired me for his whole room, strange? Maybe.

One of our favorite things is to hit up the after-holiday sales...where we usually just get way too much candy, but this time I found this too! A cupcake stand for only $2.50!

On the big V-day, I made these fortunate cookies. You heard me right, I made them! Here's the recipe for those. 

And what's Valentines without our favorite sugar cookies???

Oh and another favorite thing, I found some Van Huessen (sp?) zipper ties for Luke at JCPenny...for $2! Score. He looks so handsome too. Sorry no picture.

What are some of your favorite things?

Happy little Devin

I have been meaning to (and tried a few times) to post a video of little Devin. Since none of my family or friends have ever met the little cutie. And he is so fun and giggly. So here is a little video of my little pumpkin!

I'm five months old.

I love to jibber jabber and squeal and squawk.

I am getting use to rice cereal.
I love to smile.

I can roll over.

I love to grab my toes and play with my feet. My mom says it's the cutest thing ever.

I love jumping and bouncing in my exersaucer.

I love tag blankets.
I can almost sit up all alone, sometimes I crash.

I have lots of toys that I like to play with.

I'm usually very happy.

I love to laugh.

I'm very ticklish.

I love to hug my mom and attack her by eating her shoulder, when I get really excited.

I like to grab at faces.

Sometimes I suck my thumb.

I sleep a lot. 

I like having an older brother.

I still have to be swaddled when I sleep.

I like to suck on a pacifier when I nap.

My mom still uses cloth diapers on me (most of the time).

I've started wearing 9 month-sized clothes.

I'm a big boy.

I'm healthy.

I'm chunky and tall for my age.

I have strong legs.
I roll all over the place, get rolled up in blankets and end up in funny places like half way under the couch or 3 feet off the run onto hardwood floor.

I like to hear my mom and Luke play "name that tune."

I like music and bright lights.

My mom loves having a cuddly, little 5 month old baby around the house.

Everyday a Snowday

The great thing about having young children and being a stay-at-home-mom is that I usually don't have to go anywhere if I don't want to. Especially if it's a blizzard or in the negatives outside. We can sleep in, stay in our pj's all day if we want to, bundle up and go out to play in the snow, have hot cocoa and snug under 5 blankets to watch a movie afterward.

Cleveland winters really don't seem a whole lot different than Utah winters. The only difference is the sun seems to shine more often in Utah, especially after a storm. That makes a big difference too. 

This winter has been so much better (I can't believe I'm saying this!) than the past Cleveland winters I've experienced. I think not being confined to a 2 bedroom apartment and having a car, makes all the difference. 

Almost every day Luke and I go out to shovel or play in the snow, sometimes 2 times a day. Devin takes 3-4 naps still. We don't stay out too long, but it's so nice to get some fresh air. Playing in the snow for 30 minutes will wipe him out and sometimes I get lucky enough and he'll take a nap, or be a completely exhausted cranky-pants the rest of the day with several melt downs.

We've experienced some bitter cold days, so windy and in the negatives. On those days we stay inside, and my old windows do this...and I think it is so cute! I hear it's bad for your windows, but it reminds me of old Christmas movies or something.

We haven't had any snowman-building success yet, the snow is just too fluffy, but we have built a giant "mountain" according to Luke, for us to sled down in our backyard. These pictures were taken several weeks ago, so the mountain is much bigger now. He thinks it is so much fun. Now it goes about to my shoulders.

 

When it was just small I put Luke on top and he couldn't get down. He didn't want pictures taken so he chose to throw snow at me as I was taking pictures...which resulted in this...

Don't worry, he was only out there for seriously less than a minute. I had to wipe off my camera and take it inside.

We seriously need a fence back there, it's so ugly!

Winter hasn't been bad, but I'm ready for a change.

Thing 1 and Thing 2

is what we call them.

Having two boys is so much more fun than I thought it would be. And I know, it will get crazier, more wild, more messy, more everything, but this phase is so sweet and fun.

Luke seriously LOVES Devin and Dev loves watching and laughing at his older brother. It is so nice to have Luke around to entertain Devin (not that I don't, but a little extra entertainment is always nice). Every time I lay Devin down on the ground Luke likes to hug him, tickle him, talk to him in baby talk, read books to him and tuck a blanket around him when he thinks he's cold. But don't get me wrong, even though he loves him and is usually a great big brother, he's still a three-year-old and occasionally will do little not-so-nice things to him.

Here are some more adorable pictures of my two cuties.

Love those dimples!

I seriously do not coach Luke on how to pose or to do this or that for pictures sake. Most of the time I just sneak up and start snapping pictures because they are being so cute.

In a recent post, I mentioned how Luke is really into taking care of his animals. Well, here he lined them up to put them to bed (on the hard floor). He insisted on him and Devin in the line up.

Jeff the giraffe, Sam, Chip, Lucky the penguin, Bruce, Goose the moose, Eeyore, Ted, Sal the duck, Devin and Luke.

Story time...

followed by a little wrestling...

What funny boys.

The Birthday Bash

Monday, January 31st, was Luke's 3rd birthday and it was a cold, but beautiful and sunny day!

For weeks, seriously, we've been counting down (we even made a chain) for this day.

I thought it would be fun to have Luke have a little birthday party with his friends. Don't be offended if you weren't invited, he was very specific on who he wanted there. He especially wanted "Spencer, Yogan, Julia, McKay, Sam, Dave, Meg, Doug and Katie (his cousins, aunts and uncles)" there, but I tried to explain to him (showing him a map, several times) that they all lived too far away.

I know that the trendy thing right now is to have lavish, over-the-top, adorable and themed birthday parties (which I would totally do if I could pull it off!), but I wanted to keep it simple and that was enough work for me! 

We had quite a few little friends and their mommies over for games, snacks and fun!

The spread.

I didn't want to serve cake and ice cream to kids ages 19 months-4 years old at 10'o clock in the morning, so I found these adorable little cupcake boxes (top left in the picture) and sent each child home with a cupcake.

Luke asked for "cone hats and cupcakes" for his birthday. My friend made the cupcakes and they were so yummy! Maybe it had something to do with me not having to make them!

I think my favorite thing on the snack table were the animal crackers. I dipped them in Wilton vanilla flavored melting chocolate. They were a hit and quite addicting.

I planned two games and that was just enough for all those little hoolagans. 

We played "Don't Eat Pete" and it was a hit!

We played with Skittles (the Crazy Core kind-they are so good) and it was hilarious to see how almost all of the kids kept sneaking and eating them, it was just too tempting.

Then we headed downstairs (where the music was set up) to have a cup cake walk. Each kid got a little wrapped present, a nurf ball. I think they all had fun.

Here are some of the guests.

Isn't she the cutest little thing?

Marilyn, one of my closest friends out here, who is most likely leaving me very soon (sniff, sniff)-holding my baby on her 8 month pregnant belly. Kate and her baby Eliza, who is also leaving me (in fact almost all of my friends are leaving this year), and Janelle, who is one of the few not leaving!

These hats were just so cute!

Luke even got a few gifts. I had to snap this picture of him, sitting in front of all his guests, digging for gold and his mind off somewhere in la la land. Classic.

Here are some after-party pictures of my sugar-high, messy-faced three-year-old.

 He is so silly and he knows it.

During the party and throughout the rest of the afternoon, every now and then Luke would sneak away from me, go up to my room and find an unopened gift (that he was suppose to wait to open until Dad got home), open it and bring it down stairs to show me. He was so spoiled this year by his friends and family-especially the grandparents! 

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing several games (thanks mom!), his latest favorite thing to do these days. We made a Fun-fetti birthday cake (I think it was more for Matt). He picked the frosting color and wanted lots of sprinkles. I think it ended up looking like a giant doughnut. If you've ever seen Better Off Dead, it looked like the nasty jello thing his mom makes, that walks off the table. Haha. But it's what Luke wanted.

He also got to choose what we had for dinner. Which was green eggs and ham, orange juice and blue waffles.

We sang, blew out the candle, had cake and ice cream, nearly died from a sugar overload and then opened a couple more presents.

We all put birthday hats on to sing to Luke. We put one on Devin and he instantly started screaming (and this kid rarely cries). We thought it was funny, because of his reaction and then we realized the string probably snapped on his face. Poor Devin.

Couple of toy highlights: 

The bow and arrow (he loves Robbin Hood) from us. We soon realized he's not coordinated enough for it, no wonder it says ages 8 and up. But check out that face, that's his "fight off the bad guys" face.

Matt gave him his old Palm Pilot and Luke thinks it's the coolest thing ever. It has games and he can draw on it.

Gma Johnson gave him a doctor case full of doctor "tools" that light up. He especially likes pretending to throw up in the emesis basin-or as normal people know it-one of those barf tray things. Matt was teaching him all the correct-doctor words. And he loves turning into an evil villain doctor and giving us shots.

Whew! It was a fun, but exhausting day. I was so happy to hit the sack that night. 

Luke said he had a great birthday and is already asking for toys he wants for his next birthday.