Goodbye sweet summer

I guess summer time is up. Kris has class tomorrow. It technically started last week but we were out of town, so he missed. I am a stay at home mom, so seasons don't matter much at this point, except hopefully it will start cooling off.  We had a wonderful summer. A couple highlights,

     We started out with our trip to DC
      We bought and moved into our house
        We unpacked and settled
          We celebrated Independence day
             Wesley and I went to Utah
                We had friends visit from Tuscaloosa
                   We went to Utah as a family and had a blast
                      Kris ran his first half marathon, and is thinking about doing another
                        We both got callings in our new ward, miamaid advisor and gospel essentials teacher
                           We have relaxed and enjoyed sweet summertime, especially with our house and yard

I can't believe how fast time has flown. Wesley is two next month!! What! When did this happen? And soon it will be all the fall holidays. I need life to slowdown just a little. It would be nice.

Tasty Tuesday

I love pinterest, as I am sure many of you do as well. Lately, I have loved all their homemade snacks that have been popping up on my feed. Well I decided to put a few to the test.

The first was the peanut butter granola. I am a huge fan of granola. I will eat it plain, in yogurt, or cereal. Well this granola may be my favorite by far.  It was sweet and crunchy. Just a the right tasty treat without grabbing something really unhealthy. I really would recommend this recipe to try. Next time I may try to make little granola ball bites. It would be a little less messy and a little easier on the go.

Here is the link to the recipe:


http://m.shape.com/healthy-eating/healthy-recipes/10-healthy-peanut-butter-recipes?page=2

It is just after the second picture. 

The next recipe I tried was a homemade vanilla wafer recipe. I love vanilla wafers, always have. These seems to easy not to try so I decided to whip up a batch during nap time. They came together very easy, and with all ingredients I had on hand. The batter was delicious, which is always a good sign. 

The end product was delicious. A little soft and a little brown around the edges. But they were pretty Good. I will make them again. Here is the link. 

http://bakingbites.com/2008/07/mini-vanilla-wafer-cookies/

I like this...

I like the idea of living on less. Of no clutter, no debt, happy healthy family members, and wholesome time spent with children.

I like the idea of these new blogs I follow about minimalists ( some are a bit extreme but it's still a great way of thinking )

And then I stumbled on this post..  And I think it is very well written and true.

 See for yourself.

http://www.theminimalistmom.com/blog/

Project Life

I have heard a few different people talk about Project Life by Becky Higgins. I love the idea of it. But I am not sure I want to commit to buying her kits and what not. I have tons of scrapbook paper and embellishments so I think I may be able to tackle this myself. It's like scrapbooking but much simpler. I have made a few scrapbooks before, so I am thinking I can do this.

Basically every week she has a two page layout with pictures and journaling of what happened that week. I love the idea because you get to print your pictures so they aren't just stuck on this computer of mine, and it adds words so you just don't flip through photo albums years from now and wonder what in the world was going on. So next week hopefully i will have a layout to show you guys.

I know it's not ideal to start in the middle of they year, but if I don't start now I will never start. So here it goes, maybe if I post it on here I will even be more apt to do it. This will also help me get out my camera and use it more often.

As i was blog hopping about this idea last night, I came across some great ideas that also help with photo organization which I need greatly. Every month they burn all the pictures from that month onto a CD and include it in that binder. So that's my goal. I have a feeling this is one of those things I wish I would have known about a long time ago.

Everyone needs a little vacation..

Last week, my mom, Wesley, and I headed out to Utah. It was a spur of the moment trip that my mom invited me along. With no serious plans there was nothing stopping me from saying yes. I am so glad I went. I love spending time with my mom, I think Wesley may enjoy it even more. And we got to hang out with some much missed family. That's the downside of living across the United States. But oh well.

Anyways, It was a very fun filled week out there. We enjoyed naps almost everyday, as long as some very fun activities.

Our first day, we went to go see my cousin Mindy's baby horse. Wesley loved it, and wanted to ride the baby horse. He talked about it the whole rest of the trip and still asks for baby horses.

 Next, my mom's brother owns a great pizza shop. We had a little family reunion there with all my mom's brothers and sisters. They were all there for the first time in a few years. That warranted for a few pictures. Wesley loved his great grandpa the whole time we were out there. They were quite the buds. Grandpa even took Wesley to see some baby rabbits. They would also sit in there matching recliners and play on their Ipads together.

 On Friday, we went to the zoo and to see Gina and Kenley. Wesley loved the zoo. The tiger scared him when it jumped in the water and swam right up to the glass where he was at. The polar bear was very friendly and would swim right up to the glass over and over again. We only were able to see Kenley and Gina for a few hours, but it was still fun.

 We also made at trip to Ikea while we were out there, a couple different stores, and all my favorite restaurants. We hung out and played games.  We also went down to the farm so Wesley could see big horses, And he cried when we left. I think this picture below is so sweet of him.

Wesley and Hair

A while back Wesley started this hair obsession. When he is tired or nervous or sick or even in his sleep he wants to be playing with hair. He prefers it to be my hair, but anyone's will do. Sometimes I just have to pick him up, he will stroke my hair a few times, and then he is ready to go. It's really odd, can be somewhat annoying when he pulls it (especially cause I am very tender headed). Here are some pictures to prove it.

He even pulls my ponytails, bobby pins, braids out so he can freely play with my hair.

Hawk

We have a hawk that frequets our backyard. Sometimes two.. They are little intimidating, so when they are out there we stay inside. One of them has brought birds and ate them on our deck. It's pretty disgusting. They just look around with their little hawk eyes. They are huge. They each probably stand about a foot and half tall. The first time they came we Kris and I watched them for a good thirty minutes. When they land on the roof it sounds like someone is trying to break it. The first time it happened i was super nervous, but now i have gotten used to it. I hope they don't stay too long so we can get back to using our backyard more.

Best Friends

Wesley and Carson are almost six months apart. They have known each other since Wesley was born. Well now we live close again and get to play often. The boys love it and always ask for each other. It's pretty cute. Sometimes it's a love/hate relationship.

Independence Day

On the Fourth this year, my family rented a party barge and we decided to go out on the Tennessee river. I was super nervous, because I wasn't sure how Wesley would do. Well he loved it. He wore his life vest or water wings. He would jump into the water off the boat. He loved swimming. He sat on his little chair on the boat while we hung out. He even fell asleep on the way back it. It was such a fun day.. And I was grateful to spend it with my Dad a wonderful soldier still to this day, and some of his buddies that have served in years past. What great men to be around on such an important day in our nations history.

I am so grateful for this great country we live in, for our freedoms, for great soldiers who dedicate their lives past and present so we can live so happy and free, and I am grateful for the Founding Fathers, their great courage and perseverance to establish this great nation. We are truly blessed for the great country we live and the opportunities we have. It' something I think about and pray for daily.

Wesley-isms

Wesley says some hilarious things constantly or he just does something completely ridiculous that makes me laugh. A few examples Today, I was putting him the car, he signed and said eat. I asked what would you like. He said I eat Carson (his BFF). What?!?!? A friend from Facebook put a picture up of her son hitting a ball she string from the ceiling. Wesley loves baseball, constantly has his bat in his hands. So I thought I would give it a try. I hung it in our foyer doorway because it's supper wide area with nothing breakable near. We has swinging away, and he steps to swing like you are suppose too. Well sometimes he would lift his leg to high and fall backwards. It was so funny. Wesley does this thing where he closes his eyes and runs. It's really odd and makes me really nervous. And yes he has ran into a few things and gotten some pretty big goose eggs. Wesley is polite. He has yes please and thank you or nothank you down. Now if we hand him something he says thank you almost immediately. If we don't say you are welcome back immediately, he repeats thank you welcome over and over until we say welcome loud enough. And we thought we were teaching him? He will talk on the phone to his grandmas and just says hello over and over In public places, people will wave or say bye to Wesley. Most of the time he waves back and says "bye, love you" and I laugh every time. At night Wesley is in a toddler bed. So if he wakes up in the middle of the night or early morning he can come into my room and crawl in bed with us. Well I usually hear him when he gets out of bed, he says mom the whole way. I guess one night I was sleeping good (not a common occurrence) and I was woke. Up by Wesley standing next to my bed, slapping on me on my shoulder screaming mom in my face to wake me up. I laughed so hard. Mr. Wesley mAkes me laugh and smile everyday it is so wonderful