Little Entertainer

This afternoon I caught Landon rockin' out on his cordless mic to Veggie Tales', God is Bigger than the Boogie Man. Pardon the quality...the closest thing I had around was my phone to capture this humerous moment! The sound is pretty low as well so you might want to kick up the volume....just make sure to turn it back down when you're done! :)

If you need an entertainer for your next party, just leave a comment and I'll have Landon get back to you!

A Cut Above

We've been talking about this for weeks now. Today we broke down and followed through. Reid got his first hair-cut! What is it about your baby getting his first hair -cut that is so tough? Is it because those first sweet little hairs that were there as you welcomed him into the world are now mere pieces of trash (except for the few that we kept for the baby book ofcourse)? This was our first visit to the kiddy barber as parents. Poor Landon only knows the buzzing sound of the clippers as they whiz past his ears. He doesn't get to sit in a space ship or race car as this happens. He gets to sit in his diaper outside on the grass as the whisps of hair fall all over him. Hey, we didn't want all our children to have buzz cuts! And thankfully, Reid's hair is actually laying down more these days! Refer to THIS post to see why that's so exciting for us. His new do makes him look like a little boy, and not so much a baby. I think that's another reason why Mommy's don't like this new milestone. They're reminded of how quickly this is passing...

These pictures are deceiving in that it would appear our little 9 1/2 month old sat still during his hair-cut. It I had this on video it would be a whole different story... I wish he looked a little happier here. This just showed off the finished product nicely! Landon got to enjoy the rides too!

Spaghetti a la Messy

MiMi, Grandy and Uncle Chris came over for dinner tonight! Chris is heading to a marathon in OK this weekend. Since he is loading up on carbs for his run we made spaghetti! We thought we would let Reid join in on the pasta fun! Besides, every baby needs a messy spaghetti picture, right? I think it also gave him a chance to practice for that birthday cake he'll be devouring in just 2 1/2 months!

Uncle Chris & Reid (after a bath)

Chinese Coleslaw

This has become one of my all-time favorites! This is a great addition to any Chinese meal. However, I've been known to whip up a batch and eat it by itself (in which case I half the recipe). This has a different flavor to it and may not be one for the whole family. But, if you're a fan of Chinese, you should give it a try!

1 package of coleslaw
5 Green onions (chopped)
2 pkg Ramen noodles (chicken or vegetable flavored)
1/4 cup sliced almonds
2 Tablespoons butter

Dressing
1/4 c rice vinegar
1/4 c canola or vegetable oil
1/4 c sugar
2 Tablespoons of soy sauce
The seasoning packets from the Ramen noodles

Mix coleslaw & onions. Mix dressing. Crush Ramen noodles. Melt butter in a medium pan and add noodles and almonds. Toast until golden brown. Add noodles and almonds with the coleslaw and onions. Toss with the dressing. Let sit in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.

Where's Big Bird?

This morning we went to the park for a lunch/playdate with some sweet friends of ours. It was close to nap time as we headed back home and both the boys were a tad fussy. I was able to keep Reid calm with a bottle, but Landon wasn't as easy to distract. So, I did what any tired and worn-out mother would do in this situation. I resorted to one of my favorite features of our new family assault vehicle....the DVD player! In somewhat of an "out of patience and frustrated" way, I reached up for the DVD player, yanked it down and quickly pushed the button on the stereo system which would start the disk. Thankfully, Landon calmed down and I was good to enjoy some silence for the rest of our treck home. About 5 minutes later, Landon was saying (what I thought to be) "Big Bird! Big Bird!" Of course, I acknowledged his excitment about seeing Big Bird on the video by responding with the typical motherly response, "Yea, it's Big Bird!" A few more minutes went by and Landon started saying something again. This is when I realized that he couldn't possibly be excited about seeing Big Bird, Elmo, Ernie or any other of his beloved Sesame Street friends for that matter, because for the last 8 or so minutes my poor baby had only been watching the retractable sunglasses holder as it hung from the ceiling of the car.

Before & After

In honor of our wonderful camera surviving a very tough weekend, I wanted to share some before (raw photos) and after (edited) pictures. I took these today while we were, ofcourse, outside. While I would love for you to think that my children always look clean and crisp, this will clearly show you the amazing things a little photo editing can do...

Our sweet little neighbor, Jack

Calamity Canon

As I've mentioned a few times recently, one of my newest interests is photography and editing pictures. Several years ago, we were given a really nice, professional-level Canon camera by my brother-in-law who is a photographer. Due to its size and "technical" look, I never really wanted to use it until recently when I discovered its relative ease-of-use, but more importantly the amazing pictures it's capable of producing! Now, I love it and don't like when I have to resort to my sony cyber-shot. Because I've been lugging this huge "can't just throw it in your purse and go" camera around everywhere, we had it outside last night as we ate dinner and played in the backyard. Imagine the SHEER LOOK OF TERROR ON MY FACE as I looked out the back door this morning to see how much it had rained last night and saw my beloved camera still sitting on the patio table! As if it were one of my own children, I ran the dripping wet camera into the bedroom where Aaron was trying to catch a little bit of sleep after a long night at work. If it helps you picture this any better, Aaron later told me that he thought one of the boys was injured the way I ran into the room. Aaron quickly ran the camera to the Canon ICU (on a towel in front of a fan) in an attempt to dry it out as much as possible before we tried to turn it on. After that, all we could do was wait.....and wait. After a few hours, Aaron said a little prayer (literally) and clicked it to the "on" position. Much to our surprise, she came on without a hitch. When I finally had the nerve to check it out, I was sitting at the desk and noticed my wedding rings right there so I used them for my first test shots. While I'm still not totally convinced that it will be the same, I'm thankful that all appears OK so far and am hopeful that it will stay this way (if you know anything about cameras, tell me what my chances are. Just give it to me straight....I can take it!). After all, we don't have near the amount of money that it would take to replace this precious gift! Matt, if you happen to be reading this, I'm sure you're cringing a little...Sorry!

The Great Outdoors

Like I'm sure most of you have, we've been taking advantage of this wonderful weather by spending a lot of time outdoors! Often times we'll eat dinner on the patio and then play outside until it's bath time. Today, we were literally outside in the morning, afternoon and evening. It was a great chance for me to get some fun pictures! I'm also going to add a yummy (and healthy) new recipe! I'm hoping to encourage some of my fellow blogger friends to do the same as I'm starting to get into this whole "cooking" thing and would love some new ideas!

Aaron picked up this neat little kite this morning while running an errand! Landon thought it was pretty cool at first, but quickly moved on to something else

Aaron has always been so wonderful at taking care of the yard! He even puts forth extra effort to make our flower beds look nice. Landon helped him out while he was working today!

All of these kids gardening items were $1 each at the Target dollar section...my home away from home!

One of the beautiful flowers Aaron bought for the yard.

Tonight I made these delicious and healthy boneless buffalo wings! See below for the recipe!

They're kid {and hubby} tested and approved!

Of course, Baby R had to stick with something a little more suitable for "gumming"

After dinner, it was play-time again! Notice we didn't even bother to clean Reid's face. We always figure that since bath time is just around the corner, why waste the wipe?

We found several ladybugs in the background. Landon was pretty interested until one flew by him and landed on his cheek. He flipped out! I actually got a picture of him screaming after this, but since I posted a pic of him crying in the last post, I thought that might be too much! :)

Boneless Buffalo Wings

This recipe was given to me by my mom and was taken from a book called Hungry Girl. It's a great book for low-fat, low-cal recipes and snacks.

2-4 boneless skinless lean chicken breasts (cut into nuggets)
1/2 cup Fiber One bran cereal
1 oz (about 14 crisps) of a low-fat BBQ Chip (Pringles or baked lays)
2 Tablespoons Frank’s RedHot Original sauce
Dash onion powder
Dash garlic powder
Dash black pepper
Dash salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a blender or food processor, grind Fiber One to a powder-like consistency. Crush potato crisps completely. In a small dish, mix crushed chips with cereal crumbs. Add onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, and salt, and mix well. Place chicken nuggets in a separate dish. Cover with Frank’s Redhot and toss to coat. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray. Give each chicken piece a shake so it’s not dripping with sauce, and then coat evenly with crumb mixture. Lay crumb-covered nuggets on the baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Flip nuggets over and bake for 6-8 more minutes, or until outsides are crispy and chicken is cooked throughout.

To make a yummy dipping sauce for these nuggets, mix equal parts ketchup and mayo with a dash of season salt!

NOTE: The Frank's Hot Sauce will not make this too spicy for little ones. Landon has always loved them! Also, this is a great way to get some extra fiber! I'm definitely not one who would eat Fiber One cereal, but you can't even tell that's what coats the chicken!

Another Marvelous Monday

After a few weeks of not having our Monday family outings, today we picked right up where we left off! We started by going to the doctor for Reid's 9 month check-up. This big boy was 20 lbs. and 6 oz. Our little chunky monkey was in the 50th-75th percentile for all his measurements! And, he was very brave when they did his toe prick to check for anemia. I took a couple of pics with my phone while waiting for the Doc...

The picture below is NOT posed. I was standing next to the table playing with Reid when I turned around to find my two older boys engaged in some serious reading!

After Reid's appointment, we headed here for some yummy breakfast...

Next, we headed here to spend {a little} $$$...

After that, we went to Celebration Park in Allen. It's a huge park with lots of shaded picnic tables. Landon loved it!

My serious, red-faced boy...

We put sunscreen on the boys before we left the car. I'm pretty sure some got in Reid's hair as it is looking a little Dapper Dan-ish.

Teeter-tottering with Daddy

MOTHER OF THE YEAR

I would like to use the last part of this post to mention the #1 reason why you should nominate me for mother of the year! A few weeks ago, while perusing Old Navy, I found some cute warm-weather shoes for Landon. I decided to buy these shoes a tad larger than what was currently needed for my eldest sweetheart. This would ensure that they would not cramp his feet as he continued to grow throughout the summer and early fall. It might also prevent me from having to buy more shoes mid-summer. In the last 24 hours, my child has tripped in these shoes at least 8-10 times causing some horrendous scrapes on his poor little knees. I would love to continue listing reasons why I should be nominated for this prestigious award, but I have to head back to Old Navy...