A Holiday Spent With Friends

We spent the afternoon today playing games and hanging out with Daphne and Savannah! Thanks for coming over and spending the day with us!

The Cotter Men

We were so happy to get to have lunch with Chris' Dad on Sunday.  It was so great to see Grandpa Joe, Grandma Debbie, Desi and Courtney!! We love you all!

Ohh and I LOVE the sign above their heads!

Headed to the pool

We set Isaac up a comfy ride in Jordan's wagon to go to the pool!

Bye Bye Second Grade.....

Second Grade Awards

Jordan will officially be done with second grade on Friday.  Wow, where has the year gone?  He had a great year.  He made a lot of new friends and had a lot of fun.  They held their end of year awards this morning and he was awarded a certificate for A/B honor roll.  In addition, he was voted by his fellow classmates as being the student with the most sportsmanship.  We are so proud of him!

Honey Pot

This was delivered to our apartment complex today and I had to take a pictures for Angela...

Hand-Eye Coordination

Isaac mastered another important thing today.  He was sitting in his walker jabbering and picked up his pacifier "bappy" and stuck it in his mouth.  He's just growing up so fast!

Nachos

I made one of our family favorites tonight.  Its quick and delicious! But if you on a diet...probably not for you.  Take note of the large amounts of beef, cheese and sour cream!

First Swim

Today we are going to our first swim party of the year! Jordan has already been swimming in our apartment pool a few times, but today is the first time for me this season and the first time every for Isaac.  He loved it!  It took him a while to figure it out.  He is a very active baby but while in the water he just sat there....He didn't cry, until the kids starting jumping in right beside us and he got splashed in the face.  We had a great day!

I would have taken more pictures but someone forgot to charge the camera batteries and the backups were dead too!

FAIL!!

On January 25th I took on the challenge of posting a picture a day to my blog,  I made it to May 21st before I failed...I didn't not take a picture today......

We just had family time and relaxed.  I get tired of taking pictures of us dong nothing! How about I post at least 2 pictures tomorrow to make up for it!

Chris Feeds Isaac

While I was fixing dinner tonight Chris tried to help me out by feeding Isaac.  I say tried because, well, it didn't go so well.  After just a few minutes it became very clear that Isaac does not associate eating with Chris.  When he is around his Daddy he wants to play.  Take a look at how the feeding went.

Wow...what a mess! Everyone thought it was pretty funny! Thanks Jordan for capturing the moment!

(just a note, when I got done cooking and sat down to eat, Isaac was ready to eat too.  He went on to eat 1.5 things of baby food and then nursed! He's a hungry growing boy who will only eat for Mommy)

Using a Sippy Cup

Isaac seems to always be wanting something to drink or chew on.  He has not mastered the skill of putting his pacifier back in his mouth yet and since I breastfeed him he is not use to a bottle.  I tried giving him water in a bottle and he just wouldn't do it...so I found a sippy cup like one his big brother use to use and thought I would give it a try.  He LOVED it.  He is still trying to figure out how to hold it (mommy has to help) but he pacifies him between feedings! I highly recommend these cups to moms who breastfeed and need something in between.

Anniversary Cookie Cake....FAIL!

First of all I want to start off by saying Happy Anniversary to my best friend Chris.  We were married eight years ago today! We have been through a lot in eight years but I wouldn't change any of it!  Here is a short recap.

2 amazing little boys
4 Different Colleges (3 of which were mine, and I still have no degree)
8 different houses/apartments (7 total moves....)
2 states! We love living in Texas!
THOUSANDS OF LAUGHS!

Thank you Chris for marrying me and putting up with me for 8 years! I know I haven't always made it easy.

Ok, now on to the cookie cake.  Since it was out anniversary I wanted to do something.....but I wasn't really sure what.  Chris does not like cake, so I thought about cookies.  I knew that I had everything in the cabinet to make them and I love baking cookies.  Then I thought, why not make a cookie cake?  I have icing and everything I would need to decorate it real nice!  So I got online and searched for a recipe.  I wasn't sure if I could just make regular chocolate chip cookie dough.  I found a recipe that was similar to my usual recipe so I decided to give it a shot.  I made the dough, ate about half of it, then spread it onto a greased pizza pan.  I noticed that it seemed rather thick and I was concerned that it wouldn't get done in the center.  The directions said to bake for 10 minutes at 375.  After about 20 I decided I would just take it out and hope for the best.  I let it cool for what I thought was a reasonable time and then used a spatula to release it from the pan.  All was going well.....

Then, I tried to move it onto a board for easier storage....that is when it went wrong.  As I figured, the center was not completely done and while transferring it, once side folded over.  Sigh....My perfect circle was no more.  I decided to leave it where it was and just ate the part that broke!  I had been fixing our dinner while the cookie baked so I decided i would put it back in the oven, which I had turned off, and let is sit in there while we ate.  After dinner it was a little better but still not what I was hoping for. I think that it will still taste great but I didn't get to do the Happy Anniversary decorations I was hoping for.

Next time, I think I am going to try making my rolled sugar cookie recipe and then adding chocolate chips to that.  The problem with this recipe was that you couldn't roll it out and get it the thickness you wanted throughout the entire cookie.  Since I had no problems with it sticking to the pan, I am not concerned about that aspect.  I plan on trying this again very soon!

When I started this blog I promised that I would show you the good, the bad, and the ugly and I am keeping that end of the deal tonight.  If you have every made a cookie cake and have a great recipe, please share it with me!  Here is a photo of the huge white chocolate chip cookie! (I can't call it a cookie cake)

HI!

I just finished dinner...look at all the stuff on my face....and even up by my eyebrows! It tasted so good....

I WON!

J and I continued our monopoly game this morning and he probably wishes we had stopped last night.  I got all of his money and property!!  I love winning...he hates not winning!  But after a little bit he forgave me and all was well.  Play a game with your family tonight!

To Be Continued

J got tired so we are going to play the rest tomorrow!

Avocado Baby Food

Tonight I made avocado baby food for Isaac.  I made it the same way I made the bananas he ate the other day.  So did Isaac like it?  He loved them! Here are a few pictures of how it went.  I would have taken more but he was getting mad that I was taking pictures and not feeding him!

Not really sure what that face is all about but I LOVE IT!!

To cool....

 Stylin' while playing with Aunt Kat and Audrey

love those feet

Monkey Boy

Monkey boy!

Happy Mother's Day

I can not even begin to explain how blessed I feel.  I wake up every morning and thank God for the two sons he has blessed me with!  I wanted to take a minute to tell Jordan and Isaac what they mean to me, but first, I want to tell my Mom (s) a few things.

Mom,  thank you for being my mom.  For cleaning up all my messes as a child, taking care of me when I was sick, spanking me when I was bad, always being there when I needed a shoulder to cry on, holding me when I couldn't sleep, and never giving up on me when I made poor decisions in my life.  I am the person I am today because of the amazing Mom that you are.  Over the last few years I have enjoyed sharing stories of memories I have as a child.  None of them are bad! Even when I got in trouble I know I deserved it and probably should have gotten in more trouble than I did!  Happy Mother's Day!

Just a little blast from the past! How old was I? 3?

Darcy, 8 years ago when I married Chris i was so excited to have a Mother-In-Law that I considered my friend.  I know that we have had our moments where we may not have been each others favorite person but we have always made up!  You are such a great person.  You raised an amazing son!  We are so thankful for everything that you have and continue to do for our family!

Debbie, it has only been recently that we have begun to talk.  I don't know what took me so long!  I too consider you a friend!  I pray that within the coming weeks, months, and years we can continue to grow in that friendship.  I have seen how you have raised your girls and you too are an amazing mother!

I love all 3 of you Moms VERY much!

Now for my kiddos....

Jordan, wow, your 8 years old now! You are one of the smartest and most caring boys I have ever met.  You very often go out of you way to help me and your Dad, or to comfort your brother when he is upset.  You are kind and respectful, you make great grades in school, and you have so many friends!

I have enjoyed watching you grow and learn.  Your favorite things to do are build with anything you can find and you love to draw.  Often times you draw something and then build it.  You have the greatest imagination!  I know that you are going to go far in life and I look forward to seeing where life takes you.

I thank God that he gave me you!  I honestly don't remember what life was like before you were born.  Thank you for being who you are!! I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!

Isaac, you are now 5 months old!! Like you brother, you are very smart. You are constantly moving around and talking.  Last week you even started sitting up all by yourself!  You have found your thumb and love sucking on it and you also love playing with you feet.  Thank goodness they haven't made it to your mouth yet though.  You now have 2 teeth!  You have started eating real foods like rice, peas, apple sauce, and today you tried bananas!  Your favorites so far are peas and bananas.  I can't believe how fast you are growing. I love watching you learn new things, which you seem to do every minute.You weigh about 16 pounds.  Thats twice as much as when you were born.  Just like with your brother I thank God every day that you are here.  I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

I have had a great mother's day and I hope if you are a Mom that you have to.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

Happy Birthday Jordan

I am way to tired to do a big long post tonight.  I just wanted to share a picture of the cake!

This is my version of an "UP" cake.  I will do a step by step blog of how I did on Carrie"s Kitchen within a couple of days so be on the look out!

Cake Preparations

My oldest son Jordan turns 8 tomorrow! I can not believe how fast the past 8 years have gone.  I will tell you more about him tomorrow.

Jordan told me months ago that he wanted an "UP" cake for his birthday.  I called a few places and no one had any themed cakes for that movie.  After the shock of that went away, I decided I would just make one myself.  After doing some research online (which I found VERY little information) I made a plan.

I will be making a house, and balloons.  The house is going to be made out of chocolate cake and chocolate icing and the balloons will be cupcakes made out of yellow cake and vanilla icing.  The strings of the balloons will be Twizzlers. I will post a step by step blog of what I do at another time.  Anyway, since the movie is all about the balloons picking the house up flying it through the sky I decided that my cake needed that affect as well.  I decided that my cake board needed to be blue to look like the sky.

I found the board, ok, its a spare shelf from my pantry, and some blue tissue paper.  I knew that the tissue paper would be way to thin and tear to easily so I needed something clear to go on top of it.  I thought about using wax paper and cling wrap.  I decided against both, the cling wrap is just well clingy and hard to work with and the wax paper gave a very cloudy look to the sky.  I searched around my house and found the perfect thing. Well, at least I think its the perfect thing.  Its clear wrapping paper. Like the kind you would wrap a gift basket in.  So here is the finished cake board.

Come back tomorrow to hear more about Jordan and see pictures from his party!

Sesame Chicken

Take out makes me happy

Hello Mr. Lizard

This little guy (or girl?) wanted in our house.  We found him hanging from the screen on our patio door.

B-E-A-UTIFUL

We had out scout meeting at the Bedford Boys Ranch tonight and the weather was perfect.  The view was pretty incredible too!!

Sitting Up

Isaac has been trying for a few days to sit up and tonight he did it!!

He started out by holding my hand

Look at that face!!!

Then he figured out he could do it by himself!!

What a big boy!

Let's Eat

Isaac using his spoon

Brothers Building