In a Nutshell: Housiversary, Preschool, and Pears

2012

We have now had our 1 year Housiversary.

The year has been quite eventful. Most notably, the addition of a child.

We have had a wonderful year and have all adjusted well to our move. We have spent the year filling our new home with memories and making it our own. We are still in the process of hanging pictures up...not kidding folks, I still have many a bare wall. However, we have done redone four rooms...all while I was LARGE with child.

Our boys love our new home and have made many friends. Our neighborhood is just marvelous and the best if I do say so. I can't believe how much they have grown in this last year.

2011

Crazy right??? Did anyone notice that Little doesn't look like he has grown much...hahaha. We are still waiting for him to hit is growth spurt.

This week was also the first week of school. Not just for the older two, which I wrote about HERE, but also for Little.

We haven't done a legit preschool before. I was always on the fence about that fact that I was able to do it at home weighed with the cost that preschool can have. For many reasons, we decided preschool would be a good thing for Little.

He has been so excited and was quite disappointed that he didn't get to start school the same day as the older two.

On his first day he was super duper excited.

He got his very own first day of school photo shoot via Mom.

He wasn't very happy about it at first.

He was upset that I was cutting into his preschool time.

He perked up quickly when I told him just a few more and then we would head off to preschool.

I got to go with him for the first day, and let's just say I was amazed and astounded at the very lovely preschool he is able to go to.  I am happy to know the teacher, happy that it is so close, and happy that he has his very bestest friend in class with him.

I am so excited for him.

With 3 out of the 4 starting school, I was looking forward to some extra quite and peace this week. I even thought for a minute that I might get to sit on my fanny for a minute.

False.

I forgot that I had 40+ pounds of these lovelies.

When I canned peaches a couple of weeks ago with my mom and sister, my mom informed me that canning peaches was no big deal, it was pears she hated to can.

Really, I thought. Worse than the sticky mess that was canning peaches?

TRUE!

Who would have thought it. They were worse.

I may never want to peel another pear. Well at least until next summer. I think that will be enough time for me to have repressed the memory.

Over two days and with the help of my magnificent husband we turned all those pears into 80+ pints of canned goodness.

I can definitely say that the result was worth the trouble.

I love seeing my growing supply of canned goods. They taste better than store bought and they are cheaper. Plus there is something to be said for seeing all those jars and saying, "Dude! I totally did that!"

Have a marvelous Sunday!

5 Months

I am about a week late posting about our blue-eyed happy baby turning 5 months old.

I know every month I blather on about how time is flying and how I can't believe how old he is...

So this time I won't blather on...

But know, I am thinking all that blather in my head.

Besides getting a little...and I stress a little...bigger, the most noticeable changes in Bean is his control. He is much more in control of his little body. You can see him starting to want to call the shots, and his teeny body is close to listening to his plans. 

He is still the happiest baby we have had. One of the first things that almost everyone will notice about him is how much he smiles. 

He really does bring all of us so much joy.

He is getting more hair. His eyes are still shockingly blue. He is better than any of our other kids at being happy on his belly. That is unless he has decided he is through and has forgotten how to roll back over.

However, most of the time he is still happy chilling on his belly.

Here are some happy belly time pictures for you.

I hope you enjoyed that sweet teeny mug. We sure do.

A Pinteresting Wednesday: Gift for Teacher

School started this week. Yippee!

I haven't ever brought a present to the boys' teachers at the beginning of school before. I am not sure why, but probably it was mostly because I had never thought of it.

Sorry previous teachers!

Several weeks ago, I came across a cute idea on Skip to My Lou. I immediately pinned it to my Delightful Downloads pinboard.

pinned from HERE

I know I say this practically every week, but really what would we do without Pinterest? Well, besides fold the laundry...

Anywhoooo...

I knew this idea was simple enough that I could accomplish it even in the hustle and bustle of getting ready to go back to school.

I didn't find hand sanitizer as cute as she had, but I did find little bottles of hand sanitizer lotion.

After downloading her tag, I printed them off on a color cardstock.

I also decided that if I really wanted her to give me a call I might want to make an info sheet to go with the tags.

I made this cute info sheet in PicMonkey, my new favorite photo editing site.

I made a blank one to share with you. Simply save it to your computer as a photo. Then you can open it up in PicMonkey and fill in the info you want.

I printed the info sheet on white cardstock.

I tied a scrap of fabric around the lotion bottle. Then I used a painted clothespin to attach the tag and the info sheet.

An easy and simple back-to-school gift for Teacher.

I am excited to be in my boys' classrooms this year. Hopefully I will be able to really get to know their teachers and I will be able to experience this school year with my boys.

Boredom Buster: Rice Krispies Legos

This idea was originally supposed to be a part of my Project No More "I'm Bored!"

Well, the last little bit of Summer was so busy and jam-packed that there really wasn't an "I'm bored!" to be heard.

Since I still really wanted to do this activity, I set aside some time to make it happen. Even after I "set aside some time", it still took me almost an additional week to "make it happen". Hahaha. Oh well.

We eventually got to all our Rice Krispies Lego building fun. The much anticipated activity totally lived up to the hype. A totally boredom buster when there is boredom and a fun activity when fun is needed.

Making Rice Krispie Legos was really easy.

I gathered enough Rice Krispie cereal, marshmallows, butter, and food coloring to make four batches of Rice Krispie treats.

My original intention was to make blue, green , yellow, and red. Eh, well, red turned out more pink. The boys didn't seem to mind.

After I made each batch, I turned the pan over onto a sheet of plastic wrap. The whole pan of rice treats just dumped out in a solid brick. I then wrapped it up and let it set on the counter to firm up.

Now you simply let it set over night...I uh wanted to make sure it was good and set so I let it set for a couple of days...totally meant to do that.

After they have set and are firmer, unwrap each brick and start cutting.

I cut mine into rows and then cut each row in either small squares or rectangles. You know like the different size Legos.

Then I put them in bags according to color where they proceeded to store for another several days waiting for me to find the time. I think my boys were getting to the point where they didn't think we were ever going to build with these.

I was good to my word and we finally got around to building with our Rice Krispies Legos.

I of course made them all wash their hands...because I knew an equal amount of building and eating was going to be happening.

Then they started building.

Fortresses.

A fleet of ships.

AND...Um...your guess is as good as mine...

Oldest did bust out some kind of robot. He did request the use of toothpicks to make the arms stay on.

He found out that his robot tasted pretty darn yummy.

They boys and their friends had a great time. They enjoyed the building almost as much as they did the eating. I enjoyed watching them have fun almost as much as I enjoyed eating a lot a few treats myself.

Legos--good.
Rice Krispie Treats--good.
Rice Krispie Treat Legos--awesome.

Boredom officially busted.

First Day of School 2012

Today was the first day of school.

We now have two kids in school. Crazy!

Middle has been ready and excited for awhile.

He went armed with his Super Hero backpack.

Speaking of super...

Oldest was SUPER silly this morning. I just chalked it up to all his excitement to head back to all that learning.

I can't believe how big he is getting. He is so handsome...I am also grateful that he still let's me pick out his clothes.

How much longer do you think I have?

My camera battery died right after the front porch photos. Sigh. Yeah I realize I should have probably charged it last night...I mean I knew I would be taking photos!

Oh well.

I didn't get to take pictures of  Middle getting on the bus for the first time (wipe my eyes). He was so excited to get on the bus with Oldest. He looked completely at ease.

We may or may not have followed him to school in our car...

There we waved Oldest off to play on the playground. He doesn't need around now...hahaha. Then we walked with Middle to his classroom and waited with all of the other new kindergartners...and their parents of course.

We quickly walked him in, expressed how excited we were for him, and then we made a fast exit.

The house was pretty quiet this morning. Little was at a loss as what to do without big brothers.

When Middle came home, I took it as a sign of success that he kept repeating, "I wish I was still at school."

What a great day!