Lately....

We've been laying low here lately as we slowly start winding down from a crazy and stressful summer.  Noah got a great check-up at his 2 month check-up.  He weighed in at 14 pounds 1 oz and 24 inches long.  That makes him 94%ile in weight and 91% in height....another BIG boy!  No surprise here!

Noah has been sleeping pretty good lately.  I generally get up once or twice a night with him.  Noah generally wakes up around 7 or 8.  He eats, gets changed for the day, and stays up for about another hour or two.  He feeds again and I wrap him up in his miracle swaddle and put him in his swing on level 1! 

He sleeps for a few hours and gets up around lunch and stays up for a bit before I wrap him back up again around 1 or 2 and he sleeps until 5 or 6 usually....awesome!!  He has really loved being wrapped up and put in his swing for naptime.  I'm so glad he is a good sleeper.

Noah's only issue has been the carseat.  He really, really hates his carseat.  He will only tolerate it so long and then he basically screams his head off the whole time we're in the car.  It kind of makes it hard to run errands or go just about anywhere because he's such a screaming mess by the time we get there.  I am hoping he will get better about his carseat soon because all the screaming is getting old!

Jack hasn't been on the blog lately, so here's a picture for Bop!  Jack's been a bit naughty lately stealing the boys' food and eating a few things that are too gross to even type!

We've been fortunate enough to have a visit from Uncle Judd and his girlfriend Jennie!  We've been to the pool, First Friday downtown, and watched the Alabama football game on Saturday!

The boys had fun playing with them in the pool.  I dunked Noah's little toes in and he didn't seem to mind. 

John Michael said, "Oh look, Noah's getting wet!" and then proceeded to splash him in the face.  This was the result:

The boys ate snack, swam, threw a ball and waded in the water.  We then came home and had lunch and we all took a HUGE nap!  The pool wore them out!

It's been a fun week!

3 Weeks and A Recipe!

Look who is 3 weeks old now!  I can't believe how fast all the really new, newborn stage passed.  Before we know it he'll be a month old!  I'm trying to savor this time because who knows if this might be my last time to have a wee little one in our home!

So far, Baby Noah is so super sweet!  He generally sleeps, wakes up to eat and get changed, looks around a little while and then goes back to sleep.  He's also been a great sleepr at night.  He usually always gets up around 2 or 3 and then again at 5 or 7!  I can't complain one bit.  I've been so happy that he is so sweet and such a good baby!

I feel so bad that I haven't taken many pictures of him the past few days.  We've been pretty busy dealing with poopy potty training (which, don't even get me started on this...we're at our wits end with this the past few months) but I've got to do a better job of taking pictures everyday!

I did, however, take time to make my favorite peanut butter pie recipe.   I found this recipe on allrecipes.com (love it!) and to me, it is by far THE best recipe out there for peanut butter pie!  Generally, I add more than 1/2 cup of peanut butter to my pie, but to each their own!

Ingredients

• 1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust


• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened


• 1 cup confectioners' sugar


• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter


• 1/2 cup milk


• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, whip cream cheese until soft and fluffy. Beat in sugar and peanut butter. Slowly pour in milk, beating mixture until smooth.


2. Fold whipped topping into mixture. Stir in nuts if desired. Pour mixture into graham cracker crust and freeze until firm. Store any leftovers in freezer.

I hope you like it!

Our Newest Addition!

We very joyfully announce the newest blessing to our family!

Sweet Baby Noah Maxwell

I am SO very glad my doctor changed his mind at the last minute and decided to induce me yesterday.  It was a great decision.  Noah weighs in at 9 pounds 10 ounces and he is 22 inches long! 

As you can see, I look about ready to pop and I was so ready to get this baby here!

We frantically packed Thursday night and I spent most of Wednesday catching up on laundry, since we had been out of a washer for nearly 2 weeks!  Nightmare!  Mom and Dad made it in on Wednesday and we spent most of Thursday out and about in hopes of making some cervical change happen by my induction on Friday!  Jordan and I also took a nice, long walk together around the neighborhood to talk and have a little alone time together!  Jordan's mom and sister arrived Thursday evening and we all breathed a sigh of relief that everyone was in town and ready to meet our new little one!

We woke up around 4:45 Friday morning and got ready and finished packing and left right around 6am.  The induction got started and we hung out for the rest of the afternoon. Once I got to around 7, it didn't take but around 15 minutes for me to be a 10 and ready to push.  I won't lie, even with a great epidural, it was rough.  Luckily, I only push about 3 contractions and he was out!  We were SOO excited to see if we were having a boy or a girl!  I LOVE not finding out! 

We immediately noticed he was a boy!

 Jordan and I are so excited and blessed to add a third little boy to our family!  I can't believe we have 3!

 Our boys only saw Noah through the window that day, but they got to see him today.  John Michael is REALLY excited and happy.  He keeps saying "MY new baby!"

 We're extra tired and I hope to sleep for a quick hour or two before I have to feed Noah again!  I hope to add more pictures tomorrow!

 

We Might Have A Problem!

We are doing a ton of baby-list crossing off around here lately!  Jordan has gotten some things out of the attic and we've been going through boxes of baby clothes and blankets!  It has definitely added to my huge never-ending pile of laundry to be done.

Jordan got the Graco baby seat out of the attic and Matthew keeps wanting to sit in it everytime we go into the garage!

It's so funny to see him in this seat now that he's so big and long.  I can't believe he used to be so tiny and fit right inside of it!

What a sweetie pie!

Our Safari!

I started working on this Safari post days ago, but alas, my blog lost it while I was still working on it.  That's highly frustrating considering I don't have a lot of time to blog lately!  Anyway, I started over and uploaded a few fun pictures to share.  We love our drive-thru Safari!  It's so fun to be close to something where the boys can really do and see things that are very different and fun too!

Just like last time, JM had to ride his camel and it ended up being the same one...Jewel the camel!  He still talks about her, so I was glad she was there for him to ride again!  So fun!

 

We love driving through and seeing so many cool animals up close and personal.  The zebras were all over the place that day!  They just hung out at our car for awhile!

The camels were also pretty interested in the cars that day, too!

Matthew wasn't afraid of too many of the animals at the petting zoo part.  JM was NOT having it with this donkey and neither was I.  I was pretty scared of most of the animals there, but I wanted to put on a brave face for the boys because I don't want them to be scared!

Even though JM wouldn't pose with the pig, he claims it was his "favorite" animal of the day.  He also kept talking about the baby "secrets" and we couldn't figure out what he was meaning...

he was talking about these precious baby PIGLETS!  Aren't they so cute!?  I loved them!

This peacock was hanging out in the kangaroo pen.  We stood there while she fanned her feathers out and it was just beautiful!  I'm so glad we got to see it. 

The boys also LOVED these baby monkeys.  They were pretty cute, I have to admit!

Matthew was into petting most of the animals, even this goat-thing.

They have some pretty big turtles that I think are cool because of all of the geometric shapes on their shells!

And of course, I can't get enough of those CURLS!  I love them and I love this sweet little guy.

We had a fun time and ate lunch at our favorite little pizza place, Pioneer Pizza in downtown Gentry.  It's super-close to the Safari, so we stop there when we go.  It's pretty darn good and they have the best sweet tea outside of Alabama, if I do say so myself.  I LOVE their tea!  I want some now!

After we ate a late lunch, we walked across the little downtown street to a local resale shop and found a few little pairs of shorts for the boys for like $1 and then I found a tiny little pair of white shoes for my "just in case it's a girl" coming home outfit!  It was a perfect Saturday with all my boys!

Catching Up

I have had no time to blog lately at all!  I'm usually so tired during naptime and then at night once we get done with everything and sit down, I'm too tired to blog then!  We've been having a great time this Spring and I've got the pictures to prove it!  This is what we've been up to:

We have a recent addition to our backyard!  We love our new swing set.  The boys have had a great time climbing, sliding, and swinging on it!

 

I have loved having something really fun outside to play with while I work on dinner or lunch inside!

John Michael is now done with his twice-a-week Mother's Day Out.  I'm sad and I know he is.  He loved going to school SO much and he loved his teachers too!  He ended up missing the very last day due to us being at the church storm shelter because of tornadoes until 1:00 am the night before. I hate he missed his last day, but we got in so late and I hated to wake him up and make him go so early!

On one of the last days they had a luau and he made this flower necklace just for me!  I love it! The boys really miss each other while JM is at school and on this day JM gave Matthew tons of hugs and kisses when he saw him!

So sweet!

My all grown up 3 year old!  He will officially be in preschool next year.

I happened upon the clearance aisle at Wal-Mart and came upon these Medela products.  I was SOO happy and I decided to get a really good Medela pump this time around.  I've never really had a good one so I was so excited to see that I got it on clearance!  Only a women in her 3rd trimester would be this excited about getting such great deals on Medela products.

Also, Jack likes to walk up the ladder (with our help!) and then slide down with the boys.  I need to get a good picture of him sliding down!  This is also the dog who likes to sled down our driveway with the boys!

John Michael found Jordan's shoes and walked around with them on.  It was really sweet!

My grandfather really wanted to get John Michael his first bike, so we got it for him and a matching little Lightning McQueen helmet.  He likes it and I know he'll eventually learn how to pedal on it!

Fun times on his new bike!

18 Months Already?!!

I can't believe my little Baby Matthew is already 18 months old!  It seems like so long ago that Matthew was little like this:

Matthew really was the sweetest, happiest baby and he was a great sleeper.  I can't believe that John Michael was Matthew's age now when Matthew was born:

I have been so blessed to be the Mama of two awesome boys!  They are so sweet, precious, and pretty darn cute!  I have loved so much about my life the last 3 years and these two are a big part of it.

So far, Matthew is pretty darn big.  We just know he's going to be big, tall, dark and handsome!  He still has his curly hair and it's looking more and more light brown every day.  Matthew looooves his "bubba" and he always is looking for John Michael around the house.  It warms my heart so much when they play alone together, or more recently, when they hold hands in their carseats.

Matthew can say SO many words.  I can't think of all of them right now.  Matthew loves:

-fruit, drinking water, and grain bars!

-playing in the bath, water table, or splashing in the sink. 

- to wash his hands and brush his teeth a lot!

-to give hugs and be hugged.  He pats my belly, kisses it, and says "baby"!

-He's a great sleeper, but I wish he would sleep in past 6 am.  We're working on it!

It has been so fun being the mom to this little guy! He's so sweet and snuggly, but I have to admit that he's pretty destructive a lot of the time, too!  He's all boy!

He still has his happy, sweet personality that I knew he had when he was born!

Happy 18 months Matthew!!!

A Trip to the Zoo!

I never had a chance to get our pictures up from our trip to the Birmingham Zoo!  My family went and my grandparents drove up from Tuscaloosa to meet us for the day!  We left early that morning so we could enjoy the morning, have lunch, and then head on home during the middle part of the afternoon.

I must say, they've done a lot of work since the last time I was there!  We were pretty impressed and we had a great time!  It was HOT that day too!  It was fun having our family together for something kind of out of the norn!

My boys were dressed in matching blue jon-jons, but the funniest part of the day was how "at home" it felt to be there because literally every child we passed either had on a cute little jon-jon with animals on it, or a smocked outfit with little animals on it.  Leave it to a Southern Mama to coordinate her children's dressy clothes with going to the zoo!  Only down South!

 

I think the boys had a good time.  They got to see lots of animals and they had tons of attention from grandparents and great-grandparetns!

Matthew was tired!  I expected him to fall asleep in the car that morning, but he never did.  He took a good nap in his stroller while Papaw pushed him!

 

The boys munched on Whale crackers while we went through the primate house. 

I think Uncle Ray was pretty thrilled that Matthew wanted to ride with him in his wheelchair.  I think it tickled him that Matthew wanted to sit witih him and eat his crackers up high instead of in his stroller!

We looked at pretty flamingos....

'had a super yummy lunch in a cool African hut...

and saw some new baby storks!

JM wanted to feed swans so I sent Matthew on the train with Uncle Judd.

They all ended up riding the train except Jordan, JM, Papaw, and myself.

JM posed with a gorilla!

I think he was showing us how strong they are!

He got to ring the train bell, which he loved!

And then Matthew wanted in on the action too!

There wasn't nearly enough time to do all the things there that we wanted to do.  With little kids you just do your best and do what you can do.  It was getting late and they were getting so tired so we had to go ahead and leave, but we could have stayed longer for sure!  We'll have to go back next time we go home for a visit!  Oddly enough, the whole ride home, neither JM or Matthew fell asleep so it made for a very long and tiresome afternoon!