A Block Party and Some Catfish!

First things first, how in the world does a dead bird end up in a baby swimming pool?  We had no idea either.  It was the weirdest thing and gross too!  That pool is long gone now!

We had such a fun and eventful weekend.  Once again, I'm still behind on my blogging.  I'll just start with last Thursday since it's close enough to be considered the weekend!  We headed up the street to The Greens for a little block party.  There are 3 other couples from Sunday School that live close by so we finally all got together for a night of fun!

Croquet, anyone?!

JM helping Daddy play croquet!

Braxton and John Michael played with sidwalk chalk together!

Budding artist!  This was his first time for sidewalk chalk.

Three pregnant girlies!

We had a fantastic time eating at the Greens, but it was so hot outside toward the end of the night when we headed out!  John Michael slept great when we got home that night!

Saturday we got up kind of late because John Michael slept until 8:30. (As I'm proofreading this I just had to laugh..."we got up kind of late!! HA!!.....8:30 am.  A few years ago that would have been like 11 on a Saturday!  How times change!)   We had breakfast and headed to Fayetteville to look at furniture that we're not going to be buying anytime within the next two years.  It's fun to go look, right?! 

After the furniture store we were hungry so we found out how to get to The Catfish Hole.  I knew it was somewhere close by but we had never been.  Kacy has talked about it on her blog before so we headed there and had a great time eating catfish and hush puppies.  Did I mention we love anything fried?

Hushpuppies, please!

The fish were kind of neat to look at too!

That's all for now!  I'll finish up our fun weekend tomorrow.  It was just too much to put in one post!  Happy 4th of July week!

Verse O' the Day:

I will lie down in peace and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe.

Psalm 4:8

The Petting Zoo!

I am so far behind on my blogging.  I might get around to blogging about Father's Day next week!  I couldn't resist doing a post about this next series of pictures that I took.  It was so cute and it made me smile all day!

We are teaching John Michael how to nicely pet Jackson so they can be lifelong friends.  Here is our first big lesson!

We gently pet Jack's fur, not hit it!

Jack likes that!

Lifelong friends in the making!

Jack finally rolled over and let John Michae pet him!

That was so much fun!  Now we know how to pet our dog nicely!

I feel so productive today!  We went to the library for toddler reading time and it was so much fun!  We'll definitely go back next week.  John Michael is taking his morning nap and we might possibly head to the pool this afternoon.  John Michael loves his splish splash time!  Have a happy Wednesday!

Verse O' the Day:

I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”

Psalm 16:2

A Birthday (or two) and some BBQ!

Last weekend we had so much fun and part of the fun  included John Michael's friend, Sarah Kate, turning one!  I can't believe all of JM's nursery friends are growing up and turning one soon!  Time is flying by way too quickly.  Eh!

Sarah Kate was so much like John Michael when they were babies.  These two were fussy little babies (at times) who refused to sleep at night!  It felt nice to have Laurie around to have someone to bounce around ideas with about sleep!  Here are the two cuties from this past winter.  Look how little hair they both have!

Sarah Kate had a turtle theme first birthday and it was so cute!

Here are all of the kiddos.  It was hard to get a picture with all of them!

Wells and John Michaels thought it was time to stop taking pictures.

Sarah Kate and her turtle cake!

And here's John Michael showing Sarah Kate how you eat birthday cake!

John Michael and Me!

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Last week I forgot to say Happy Birthday to Jordan's sister, Janna!  She is a wonderful kid's PE teacher so I'm excited for her to teach John Michael how to play soccer and other sports that I really don't care about enough to teach him myself.  I know she's excited for him to get older so she can teach him all about sports.  I don't have a recent picture of her so I just won't post one!  Happy Birthday, Aunt Janna!  We'll see you on the 4th!

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Now, to the BBQ!  You know how I LOVE an easy, fast recipe in the crockpot and if it involves BBQ then I love it even more!  I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and it is a winner in my book.  I'm thinking about making it for the 4th for everyone because it was so good and easy!

BBQ Pork for Sandwiches   (I used a little over a pound of pork ribs instead of 3)

1 (14 ounce) can beef broth

3 pounds boneless pork ribs

1 (18 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce

1. 
   


2. Pour can of beef broth into slow cooker, and add boneless pork ribs. Cook on High heat for 4 hours, or until meat shreds easily. Remove meat, and shred with two forks. It will seem that it's not working right away, but it will.


3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Transfer the shredded pork to a Dutch oven or iron skillet, and stir in barbeque sauce.  (I just put it on foil-lined pan in the oven)


4. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until heated through.

And yes, that's coleslaw on top of it!

John Michael was so excited waiting on his BBQ!

The anticipation....

The Yum! 

Yes, he is a southern boy at heart even though we aren't in the Deep South!  He even got a few sips of sweet tea.  He loved it!  He kept crying for more BBQ so we gave it to him.  I hope that doesn't make us bad parents!  I can just see us a Dreamland  now!  Yum!

Saturday Fun

We had a great weekend!  I thought the weather was going to be awful on Saturday but luckily it ended up being great so we got to enjoy the day together!  First things first, we headed out to the Farmer's Market with Jackson in tow!  He always has such a good time seeing other dogs and getting lots of pets!

Grabbing some breakfast before we hit the square.

My three boys!

Listening to a local band at Art Walk.

Interested in folk music?  Not so much.

Then we headed home for nappy time and then had lunch and went to the pool!  I was SO hoping Jordan could go with us this weekend so he could see JM swim!

Snack time after swimming is the best!

That's all for now!  I've got more great pictures and recipes to post from our fun weekend!  I'll make another post out of all that.  Happy Monday!

Verse O' the Day:

Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.

Isaiah 25:9

Our Little Sprout!

Our little sprout is just growing and growing! 

NO, not this little sprout....

But these little guys!

My dad made us a little garden while he was out here and although the first few didn't make it, we replanted a few tomato plants.  Now those plants are thriving (shock!) and starting to sprout tiny green tomatoes!  We couldn't be more proud of our gardening accomplishment.

Everyday John Michael helps us water the garden and we check out the progress of our little sprouts!  All I keep thinking is how wonderful those green tomatoes are going to look sliced up and battered in my frying pan!  Mmmmmmm!

We also have these little grape tomatoes that are coming right along too!  This is our first year to try and grow anything of our own, so we'll see if it works out and next year we'll plant more.  I would like to have a blueberry bush next year, also.   

I'll leave you with a picture from after the storms the other night.  I just happened to look out the kitchen window and I told Jordan, come look, quick!! Isn't this the most gorgeous thing you've ever seen?! Of course the pictures don't do it justice!  The whole sky was hot pink and orange.  Happy Friday, everyone!

Walk This Way

Check out who started taking a few independent steps this weekend!!!

We started working with him a little bit and Jordan let go and he did a few steps and we got SO excited!  Now, picture him cracking up, cackling laughing in all of these pictures.  He thinks it's hilarious!  We let him walk back and forth between us and he went from taking about 3 steps to taking about 10!

I figured he would be walking soon and he's still not steady at all but, at least he's up and at 'em trying to walk!

He is so proud of himself!  He knows that he's doing something cool.  It probably helps that we're freaking out and clapping for him!  In every picture I'm in I've got my arms circled around him so he doesn't fall or hit his head!

And of course Jack had to get in the pictures!

Verse O' the Day:

For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?...And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?

Matthew 6:25, 6:27

Maternity+Swimwear=Terror

Since I'm now into my fourth month of pregnancy, it's just the beginning of June and we have a neighborhood pool, I'm unfortunately facing an icky Summertime dilemma: maternity swimwear.  I took John Michael last week for his first big day of pool swimming and we had a blast except my spf 70 spray didn't quite make it onto my back so I'm burnt like a lobster on just my back.  Attractive.

Now, I do have one leftover swimsuit from the last pregnancy and it's not that bad.  It's actually kinda cute, but here's the problem: In the beginning you're not really showing that much yet and you just look like you ate a ginormous sandwich and the maternity suits are kind of just hanging on you.  My regular swimsuits are just not really cutting it. 

Because we do have the rest of June, July, and August to go swim at our pool I'm going to be dealing with this almost daily.  Sigh.  I'm really not the only one wearing maternity swimwear this summer I know, but I did want to throw something at that lady at the pool the other day who was tanned, incredibly toned, and had cute hair all while wearing her two piece and nursing her 4 week old.  Life is just not fair sometimes!

Happy Weekend, everyone!  Our big trip today will be to Lowe's to pick out lights for our recessed lights and start looking at paint colors for John Michael's big boy bedroom transformation and possibly the baby's room! 

I have been a bad mom and not really taken any pictures this week.  We even went to Jessica and Wayman's for a yummy dinner last night and didn't take any pictures!  I'll leave you with a few pictures from a few Sundays ago.  John Michael is just so cute in these pictures.  Some days I can't believe he's actually mine!  JM is wearing his smocked Summertime Turtle outfit thanks to Grandmother!!

Daddy and John Michael

[caption id="attachment_968" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Such a big boy in his forward-facing carseat!"][/caption]

And, I guess I could include a few more pictures!  This is JM with his new BFF, Mickey Mouse, and that is a Mickey train in the background!

And here's JM on Memorial Day at a local garden center.  It was rainy and we were SOO bored so we just headed there and looked at all the plants and let JM play in the fountains!

Verse O' the Day:

I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make its boast in the LORD.

Psalm 34:1-2