Wordless Wednesday

A certain someone decided they wanted short hair and took it upon themselves to take scissors to their own hair. We couldn't leave that hack job so we took Alena to get it fixed. Well, she got her wish, it's short. And look how good it looks, so grownup!! *tear*

Perfect for picture day which happens to be today!

The Red is Dead

So I mentioned last week how I was going to paint the bedroom. Well I did... Sort of. I got the wall primed. Half of it. But that's beside the point! I just need to get it out there so I can get the umph to finish the job. And I will, oh yes I will.

We had this big dream when we bought the house of having a half red wall with a chair rail and it was going to be glorious... And then life got in the way. We had to move in before the painting was done, I was pregnant, then we had two kids under two, and yada yada. Long story short, the red was AWFUL and it's one of those "What were we thinking?!" type of things. We've been discussing for a while now a much better color of blue for the bedroom and I think I finally hit the breaking point and just decided to go for it.

So here is the somewhat before... (we moved some things and I've already got plastic down but you get the point)

Yeah.... that's quite an obnoxious color of red, isn't it?

I used a High Hiding Primer from Valspar and one coat covered it great. I was afraid it would take more because of the darkness of the red but this did the trick and I'm very happy with it.

The color I've picked is Turquoise Mist from Olympic. It has a hint of green to it. I debated going with a blue that had hints of grey since that is really popular right now but I like green.

One of these two walls will be the blue wall but I just can't decide. Any suggestions? Should we paint just one wall, both pictured, or just go for the whole room?

Noah - 4 Months

Weight - 15 lbs

Height - 25.5 in

Appearance - Your hair keeps getting lighter and you still have that swirl on the crown of your head. You are looking less and less like a little baby. :(

Eating - You nurse every couple of hours but you are easily distracted. If there are other people around making noise, you turn to head to see and momma is not a fan of that! It's getting much harder to nurse you in public because of it. (I would end up flashing everyone!)

"Hurricane hair"

Sleeping - You sleep from around 8 or 9pm - 730am waking up around 1 and 4 to eat. You would sleep longer in the morning but I always have to wake you to take Alena to school. On the weekends when we get to "sleep in", you are awake around 830. You will nap during the day but because of having to take and pick the kids up from school at different times, I'm usually waking you up so there is no real schedule yet. Poor thing!

Sizes - You are in size 2 diapers and 3-6 month clothes. When wearing your cloth diapers, I can usually get you into a 6 month size without it being too big.

Milestones - You found your feet shortly after turning 3 months and it is the cutest thing to watch you hold them!

You can giggle now too! Of course, you are picky about when you will laugh for us. If you don't want to, you will usually just grunt instead.

You are really making your presence known to those around you! Instead of talking like a sweet little baby with coos, you will grunt excessively and screech really loud.

 

 

 Likes - taking a bath, chewing on everything, watching Alena and Christian play, people watching
Dislikes - waiting to eat, being put down when you are tired (you like to be held or nursed to sleep)


Noah, you are such a great addition to this family! You are quickly becoming Mr. Personality and always making us laugh with your silly grunts. You are becoming more aware of what the rest of us are doing and are very curious. I see you staring at us while we eat but mommy and daddy want you to wait just a couple more months before starting solids. You are trying to become mobile and will actually crawl like a little inchworm. Unfortunately, it usually involves you dragging your face on the ground when your feet propel you forward! I love seeing you discover new things. We love you so much Honey Bear and are so glad that you are ours!

Hummmm

The other weekend we got to see something and touch something that most people never get the chance to do. Southern Arizona is a huge highway for hummingbirds to migrate through. Our local bird observatory does hummingbird banding during the spring and late summer when the birds are migrating north and south. The have it open to the public so people can observe how they capture and tag them. It is really fascinating!

First they drop a netting over them using a remote control as they take a drink. Then they carefully catch them and put them into small netted cages.

Then we are able to carry them over to where they will be weighed, measured, checked over, and tagged.

It's quite a process and the lady doing it was very informative and explained everything she was doing.

After checking them over, they allowed us to help release them! They were put into our hands where they remained until flying off. Poor Christian's bird only gave him about two seconds before peeing on him and bidding him farewell! Alena's bird sat for a minute and then the lady asked if Christian would like to try again. Apparently, Christian is not the bird whisperer because that bird flew off within a few seconds too!

Gabe's bird loved him and sat there forever. The lady was nice enough to let Christian have a third turn at getting a bird to stay in his hand. Again, no such luck!

One of the neatest things was the finding of part of an eggshell stuck on a fresh out of the nest bird! The lady gave it to Alena to show around. Alena felt very important because she was the only person to touch a hummingbird eggshell.

Kind of blurry but it's the tiny white speck.

Here's a look at our hummingbird experience last year.

Thoughts This Thursday

1. It only took a month but we are officially unpacked from our vacation. Yeah... I know.
2. Noah is becoming less and less like I baby and I don't like it.
3. Please let our Challenge Party be successful tomorrow!
4. www.challengearizona.com
5. Where is my coffee? I know I set it right here!
6. Whew, found it.
7. I am LOVING that the kids are in school and I can accomplish tasks without having to stop to break up a fight or get something for them. Well, as long as Noah is content but that's beside the point.
8. I need to stop writing and start cleaning.
9. Last one, promise. I can't wait to paint the bedroom! Keep an eye out for a post about that.

Vacation - The Cottage

Every July we travel home to visit family and friends in Michigan and Ohio for a couple of weeks. The entire vacation was nothing but go go go and we were on our death bed EXHAUSTED by the end. We love the visits and dream of moving back some day. Until then, our short trips home each summer will have to do.

Normally we travel by plane from Arizona. Not this year. This year we went the crazy route. We chose to take our chances on driving. Yes, we drove from Arizona to Michigan in just TWO, I repeat, TWO days with THREE kids in the car (post on that coming soon).

Our first stop on this trip was to the Walters' family cottage. We've stayed there the past three years so the kids remember it and were excited about being able to swim in the lake again. But to our surprise the weather was just downright chilly. But we made the best of it and the kids still had fun jumping on the trampoline, finding snails at the beach, and learning to ride their bikes without training wheels.

Note: Alena was NOT a fan of having her training wheels off and any wiggle of the bike caused her to dive off. Therefore, I was not able to get a picture of her.

Aren't these pictures great?! I took them with the new Galaxy S4. LOVE it! As a matter of fact, the top two of Christian on his bike are from my Sony hand-held camera which I love but I think my phone may have taken clearer shots.

So back to vacation... Doesn't Noah just look sooo thrilled to be sitting on the beach taking "selfies" with me? I can't believe I just used the term selfies. I will never do that again.

Seriously mom?

And then we have the game that never ends... Parcheesi. Ugh, that darn game went on for-ev-errrrr.

The weather wasn't ideal for staying in a VERY old and hardly insulated cottage for these warm weather only Arizonans but we made do and survived. The kids are already looking forward to going back next summer.

WBW

Yesterday wrapped up World Breastfeeding Week and I'm so glad I got to "participate" this year. Last year I was just barely pregnant at the time. I posted this photo to Facebook and sent it in to one of my favorite blogs, Birth Without Fear. Well, to my surprise they posted it onto their Facebook page!!! I was beyond excited. Their FB page has 125,000 fans and growing! The response and comments I got from people on there was very encouraging and gave me even more confidence to keep doing what I'm doing.

Here is the photo and same caption that I wrote and submitted.


I had debated and debated about whether or not to post these photos because it might offend someone. But then I thought "This is ridiculous. Breastfeeding is our God given way of feeding babies and there is NOTHING wrong with that. If I were in a swim suit, I would be showing more skin and for no real purpose. I am PROUD to be able to give my baby the best and no one should be made to feel like they have to hide it. It is World Breastfeeding Week. I am going to show my support and hopefully I can encourage even just one mother to feel empowered to breastfeed without fear.

Delicious and Easy Chocolate Cookies

So let me introduce to you the easiest to make cookies that are *out of this world* good. They're so easy, I'm even going to say they are fool proof too!

Ready for this? Here it comes...

Take a box of cake mix. Betty Crocker, Duncan Hines, whatever. Follow cake mix instructions (usually just needs water, oil, and eggs). Now, you're going to add in just ONE CUP of flour to the cake mix. Spoon cookie mixture onto a baking sheet and bake at temperature on box but for only 10 minutes.

Ta-da!! That was it.        Whew! You still with me? I know that must have been so tough, right?

These are not your run of the mill average everyday sort of cookie. No, these are much more. They're easy to make. They are super soft but not the fall apart crumbly kind. They taste phenomenal. My kids(and church members) devoured them! Did I mention how easy they are? Not only all that, but you can do this with any boxed cake mix.

I had signed up to bring in snacks for church this week and come Saturday, I still had not planned or thought about what I would make. (Please tell me I'm not the only procrastinator here?) Digging through my cupboards I found several boxes of cake mix that I had every intention of using to make glorious cakes which, come on... let's be real here and admit that they would probably just sit there until expired. Quick thinking and a phone call to my mom and I had the perfect "recipe" for cookies.

I had other intentions of making another batch of cookies, this one from scratch, buuuut, yeah I was too lazy. So 11pm Saturday night, I couldn't go to bed knowing that only 55 people from church would get those delicious cookies (fyi -the batch made 55 cookies). Also, what if someone is dieting or they just don't want sweets? What to do, what to do... I quickly rifled through the cupboards and fridge in search of something a little healthier that I could bring that would take minimal effort. Aha! My wonderful husband had brought home two large bags of grapes the other day which would go perfect with chocolate cookies, no? Oh well, they were quick, easy, and healthy so I took the grapes and some scissors and snipped them up into smaller bunches of 6-8 grapes. Took me all of five minutes and I was off to bed to enjoy the few precious hours before my little alarm clock (ahem, Noah..) needed a feeding.