Babies, babies everywhere

Seriously...is there something in the water?! I have found out (in the past 2 weeks) that 10 people are pregnant. I am happy for all of them but dang, when does this little guy get to be a big brother?!

I think pregnancy suited me quite well....

When is my next shot?!?!?

Finding my place

I feel like after 1.5 years in Little Rock hubs and I are still trying to find our place. We long for that place where we just feel comfortable and secure and SETTLED in our surroundings. Don't get me wrong, I like Little Rock and all it has to offer but I LONG for being just 3 hours north of here. This has been difficult since the day we moved and has gotten much easier but that longing still creeps in and takes over time and time again.

On that note, we are REALLY looking forward to traveling north for the weekend! We are probably going to leave Thursday night when Cliff gets off of work so we can maximize our time in Rogers/Springdale/Fayetteville. We have a birthday party to attend, Happy Birthday Jenn!! We also plan on seeing friends we don't get to visit often enough, and lastly, we will be going to a wedding reception on Sunday afternoon. I am so excited for all of this busyness and craziness. I especially look forward to seeing my family :-). We haven't been up in 2 months!

ANYWAY... the latest around here is that Sam has been the poor victim in a biting scandal that is happening at my place of part-time employment. This is the second time that he has been harassed by the same *cough* girl *cough*. We are trying to teach him to hold his own but he just can't bring himself to fight back against a girl. Ugh...what is the problem with these polite little gentlemen?!? (sidenote: He even opened the door of this play car for a little girl at the play date we went to today...then he tried to jump in with her...uh no, we are not ready for that just yet)

In other Sam news... what is a post without a picture or two?! Sam has been conquering the world one climbing aparatus at a time. This one is at an amazing park we try to go to at least once per week... Sam witnessed an older kid climb this and then had to show them up. He seriously has some mad climbing skills. Enjoy :-) He's up from his nap and screaming for me to get him!

Fall is falling

You all should take my title to this post literally... when we moved here we were so excited about all of the shade our beautiful trees provide!!! Well, shade NO MORE! We now have the fun task of weekly leaf collection.

As you can tell, Sam thinks this is great fun! Well, really, I am not complaining because I have had a ton of fun watching Sam enjoy the leaves each week!! He sees us making that huge pile and he gets excited... can't you see him saying 'oooohhhhhh' in this pic?!?

Yeah! It really has been an enjoyable fall so far. I am LOVING the cooler weather. The mosquitoes have been coming back each afternoon after it warms up- yuck but other than that things are just peachy!

Ok, who is this cool kid and what did you do with my baby boy?!? He found his pockets a few weeks ago and now cracks me up with what he tries to put in them. I'm going to have to start checking his pockets before I throw his pants in the washer.

Anyone that says Sam doesn't like his daddy is clearly lying. He is absolutely obsessed with him (that truly is an understatement). When dad is home, mommy is just not that cool anymore.

So, I am finding the time to blog this weekend because I am actually enjoying some alone time!! The boys headed to grandma's house for the weekend and I'm free to do as I please. I have enjoyed several movies, a book and some shopping. I also cleaned the house. This is something I have a hard time accomplishing with a toddler around. Those of you who keep up with having a spotless house amaze me! I just always find something 'better' to do- ha! I have enjoyed this time but I really am missing both of them tonight. The house is just a bit too quiet. I am not sure what to do without having to cook, do dishes, etc. I will try to enjoy this until tomorrow early afternoon!! What would you do if you had an entire two days to yourself??

Pictures!

I promised pictures last time so since I am on a blogging roll I might as well make it two posts in a row!!

My dear lovely eldest sister Julie bought my unborn baby some babylegs. I thought these were the most hilarious things I had ever seen! Adorable but I just didn't have a clue as to when I would use them. Sam pulled them out of his drawer the other day and let me try them out on him. They are so cute and funny on his chubby legs as seen here:

These are such fun things to have around. I will definitely dress up a baby girl (if I ever have one) using babylegs frequently! They would be perfect when the weather is a little too cool for bare legs.

This morning Sam was playing with Daddy's toolbox. Like father like son,

I find myself saying this ALL OF THE TIME!

And lastly, just because he is freakin' cute when he gives me a cheesy grin:

It is so very difficult to get cute pictures of Sam right now. We haven't pulled our camera out since we moved (awful I know) so all of these pictures were taken with the iPhone. I hope they don't look too crappy. Have a great day!

Making Jennifer Happy

Ha! Jenn has been asking me to post a few recipes for awhile. Today I had a friend request my pizza dough recipe so I had to type it up for her and thought I would just copy it over here to my blog. My highly unused unread blog but oh well! This is a really yummy homemade pizza crust recipe. I got it online somewhere... I use allrecipes.com frequently so that may be where I picked it up. I know I googled whole wheat pizza crusts.... ANYWAY! Here it is:

1 1/4 cups warm water (110-115degrees)

1 (1/4 oz) package dry yeast (I have used different kinds and they have all worked)

1 Tbsp honey

1 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup olive oil

2 cups whole wheat flour

Dissolve yeast in the warm water. Mix in the honey and salt. Then stir (by hand or with a dough hook) in the all purpose flour followed by the olive oil. Lastly, use the dough hook on your mixer to combine this with the whole wheat flour. Adjust the water and flour as needed to make a nice ball of dough. It won't be too sticky if it has enough flour in it. The dough should all combine into one ball when you are using a dough hook. When combined, remove from the mixer and kneed the dough for a minute or two (you can add more flour at this point if the dough is too sticky). Then place in a bowl, cover and let the dough rise for an hour or until it has doubled in size. Punch the dough down and let it rise for another 45 mins. Separate the dough into two equally sized pieces and make your crust any shape or size that you want. The rolling pin is very useful at this point. I use a pizza stone to bake mine... I put some corn meal on the stone before I put the crust on so it doesn't stick. I bake the pizza at 425degrees for around 12-15 minutes.

If you have a bread machine then just put all of the ingredients in and set it to the pizza dough setting. It will do the rest for you!

Another recipe Jen has been begging for is one that I inherited from my lovely sister, Liz. This one has been used for many different things. It is generally a shrimp sauce but could be used for chicken or as a topper for rice. It is a big spicy but delicious nonetheless!

"Shrimp" Sauce

1/3 stick of butter

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

2 Garlic Cloves

3/4 tsp salt

2 tsp chili powder

2 tsp black pepper

4 tsp Worcestershire

1 Tbsp Lemon juice

Mix all ingredients in sauce pan. Cook over medium heat until bubbling, then reduce heat to low. Pour some sauce over shrimp before cooking (grill, saute, whatever) and save some for dipping. YUM

Go check out Jenn and Dave's site, it's great! They have two adorable pups and were the best neighbors we could ever ask for. (I wish they would move to LR so we could be neighbors again)

I did it!

I clicked the 'new post' button on my home page! Yeah! :) I am sure that you all have been patiently awaiting my return to blogging. I have to say that my absence has been for so many reasons. We have been incredibly happy since moving into our new (rental) house!! We have been busy with getting the house set up and working on the yard. Sam is a HUGE fan of the larger space. I now can see how cramped he was in our 1200 sqft townhouse. 2400 sqft is much more suited to this busy little guy. At first he didn't want us out of his sight but now he has become comfortable in his space and will often play in the family room/basement area without having a parent in tow. This is great for laundry day for me!

I keep on saying that Sam has become more and more easy over time. The toddler years are so fun! He says a new word almost daily. Some of his recents are "bubbles", "jeep" and "mommy". Cuteness abounds!

So, how was your labor day? We enjoyed our 4 day weekend (Cliff works 4-10 hour shifts now) so much. Friday we went to the River Market to eat lunch then I got out to a movie by myself that afternoon. (Yeah!!!) I honestly can't remember what we did that evening. Saturday we started on the awful landscaping in our front yard. We hustled to get most of the area near the driveway finished before it rained. That afternoon we went to Best Buy, Sam's Club and ate at Jason's Deli. Sunday was church and delicious barbeque chicken by Cliff. That all led up to a buy laborous Monday! We went on a 2 mile (HiLlY) walk in our neighborhood. When we got back I was so gross already that I decided to start on the landscaping in front of the house. I worked for 2 hours, then Cliff came out and took over so I could have a break for about 30 mins. Sam went down for a nap then I went out to mow the yard. It was a humid day and I was about to faint. I had to stop mowing with only a few passes left. Cliff said I was more red than he has ever seen anyone. I made it and finished up after a water break. This afternoon we just played relaxed and I made some delicious banana bread. mmmm!

We have been out of town many many weekends since moving and we plan to head up to NWA in the next week or two again. We need to help Cliff's mom out (she broke her arm up by her shoulder 2 weeks ago) and we need to see my family.

I will be starting work this week at a local church for their Bible study childcare. I am looking forward to the extra $! Hopefully Sam will have fun playing with some kiddos too.

So, what was your favorite activity of the Labor Day weekend? I hope you all were able to relax and spend some much needed time with your family and friends!

I hope to get back in the swing of blogging soon. Pictures with the next post, I promise :)

Pack pack pack

Who wants to come help?!?! If I don't even want to participate I guess I can't expect any one else to jump in on the fun! It has been a pretty rough past week or so, I can't lie. Being a stay at home mom is not all peaches-n-cream. It is TOUGH. Sometimes you just want to go out of your mind when your teething toddler throws his lunch on the floor. Even better when he smashes it into the carpet and/or couch. (I definitely wouldn't know anything about this, it's all hypothetical). :-/ I am sure that Cliff wonders what I did all day when he comes home to me waiting at the door with no dinner on the table. I find that I lose my patience too frequently but I am imperfect- God made me that way! I strive to do better and I feel like I was more patient today than last Friday... thank God for that.

Lacy is still in the hospital in intensive care on the ventilator. It's so tough seeing my friend go through this. She is the model of a (near) perfect person. She is patient, kind, loving, nurturing, and has always dreamed of becoming a mom. I know she could have never thought up this situation she is now in. She has been a mom for 3 weeks and has only held her baby 2 times. I pray that she will remember when she held him for the first time but we definitely have pictures to prove it at least. If I think about her situation too much I just find myself in tears. She will get better and has been making vast improvements but I just wish I could give her the first 3 weeks of her baby's life to have in her memory. He is a precious little boy. I have held him and loved on him for her. He is so perfect and is doing amazingly well. He will probably get out of the hospital very soon- before his mommy. (don't worry, I offered to babysit) I have been emotionally drained. I can't imagine what Lacy and Ben's families have been going through. They are so faithful and it is so obvious every time I see them. They have held up better than I would ever expect anyone to under these circumstances. If you pray, throw one up for Lacy, Ben and baby Andrew!

TOMORROW we get the keys to our new (rental) house! We are so very very very excited to get out of this apartment complex. We cannot wait!!! Sam is going to stay with his Grandma Haynes Wed-Thursday and my parents are going to pick him up Thursday and come to LR to help us move on Friday morning! I am so thankful to have their help. I am also thankful that the weather forcast is expecting temps to be in the high 80's!!! We are so thrilled. This will help with our move so very much. A far cry from the 100's of this weekend and last week. YEAH!!

We are also ridding ourself of cable tv and our home phone. Tell me that we are crazy but we are going to try it out and see what we think. I think it could be good for us. I don't watch it that much anyway so why not save the $$?!? We will keep the tv and watch movies frequently, I am sure. Don't worry, we will still have the internet, we are not THAT crazy.

I LOVE reading all of your blogs... trust me even though I am bad at blogging I love catching up with all of you!