Tickle-Me-Matthew

Last weekend we showed John Michael how to tickle Matthew.  As you can see, Matthew thought it was pretty funny!

Matthew started trying to get him back!

Tickle, tickle, tickle!!!

These two boys crack us up!  They are so funny.  We realize now why we never really watch TV anymore.  They're way more entertaining to watch!

Verse O' the Day:

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

2 Timothy 1:7

Suburban "Farming"

The boys are still working hard...

to bring in the harvest....

from our garden!

Our garden didn't do as well as last year.  It's just been ok.  We're learning every step of the way.  We already know what things we do and don't want to plant next year.  Even so, we've been able to share a small amount of veggies from our own garden with friends, and that's the best part of having a garden!

My Craigslist Chair

I found this cute little chair on Craigslist and I just had to have it.  It didn't really cost all that much and I think it's just darling!  The couple I got it from was so sweet, too!

Mainly, I figured it has character and I can recover it and even change the color of the wood.

I wasn't even thinking that it matched (ok, not really, but sort of) Matthew's green and cream room.  For some reason, he looooves this chair!  From the moment I brought it home he has crawled on it, pushed it, and pulled up on it!

Who knows what I'll end up doing with this chair.  Maybe re-purpose it and use it in our den with a little side table by the window?  But for now.....

I think I'll let Baby Matthew have fun on it!

About Last Weekend

Jordan and I had decided that we would like to have some neighborhood friends over one last time before football season begins and we all become football widows.  Little did I know that football season started this weekend, so we had to make it last weekend.  We are so blessed to have so many of our friends from church right in our own neighborhood and just one neighborhood away. 

I keep thinking, I wish we had a bigger house, or I wish I had a dining room with a table so that we could fit more people.  But, we don't and I'm happy with what we have.  We are so blessed with sweet friendships and a beautiful home that is just right for our season of life. 

I decided to make slow cooker boston butt since we don't have a grill - that's a long story too.  Maybe we'll have one by next summer and we can have people over for actual BBQs!  I put a HUGE boston butt in the crockpot on Friday morning and let it cook all day long.  I put salt, pepper, water, and just a little BBQ sauce so I wouldn't overwhelm the meat flavor.  I think it turned out great.

I tried to clean all Friday, but as my post from a while back showed, I got little done with Matthew hanging around the house!  My sweet, sweet husband packed up the boys and took of on Saturday morning to let me have a good shot at cleaning without interruption!

Even though Alabama football didn't start for a week, both my boys were ready!  They've both got their Roll Tide gear on!

 

 I made my BBQ the day before so I would have a lot less to do the day of.  It worked out great.  I shredded it really well and rehydrated it with some beef bouillion and BBQ sauce.  I then put it in pans and heated it in oven until we were ready to eat.  I made BBQ beans and we had fruit, potato salad, and macaroni salad and tons of soft drinks, lemonade, and lemon water (a personal favorite!)

Does it look like we had enough?!  Everyone brought something yummy and we ended up with THREE chocolate desserts!

 All of our neighbors have boys and so it's so fun when they all get together and play!  The bigger kids ate at the picnic table.

 Bless sweet Kaitlyn's heart, she's the only girl out of 8 boys! 

 The dads all played football with the little guys.  They had a really good time!

 And the little ones....

 scooted and cruised around the grass.

JM was ready to catch the football!

 We had such a fun time eating, visiting, and talking with everyone.  It was kind of sad to say good-bye to summer, but now we're saying hello to fall with all of its glorious drops in temperature! 

It was so nice to have friends over and I'm looking forward to doing it more often with more people.  There's something nice about filling your house with great food, friends, and conversation!

Verse O' the Day:

Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

Joshua 1:9

A-A-Apple & C-C-Consign

Last night I hit up our local Rhea Lana consignment event.  And "event" is the term for it.  It keeps getting bigger every year and I LOVE it!  I have no problems buying nice, barely worn clothes for my children.  I got a few things with tags on them and that made me happy.  It took me a long time and I really had to get my game plan together and dig, dig, dig, but I was happy with what I came out of there with!  I could have stayed longer, I'm sure!

Most of the longalls that I got are reversible!

Some of my favorites are all the dressy longalls that I got for Matthew.  I'm hoping he will be this size throughout the winter.  I planned this so that perhaps with some of the shopping we've already done, we won't have to buy any clothes for the boys until Spring.  Oh yeah, except shoes and some shirts.  That is my goal and I'm going to try to stick to it! Luckily, because Matthew is so big, he will be wearing John Michael's clothes from last fall.  He got his own clothes last night too, but I will definitely be supplementing his wardrobe with what JM wore last fall!  I got some really great things last night!  JM got his first rain coat and some winter coats too.

Since it was rainy today and we stayed in to let Matthew have a really good morning nap, I decided it would be a great morning to start my new "mom curriculum"!  I'm just going to start with the letter "A" and go from there!  We worked on painting an A and John Michael pretty much pitched a fit over some of it.  I helped him and we got it done.  We've had a fun day of block building, books, playing with dump trucks in a pan of rice, and play-doh. 

 

After lunch we used sesamestreet.org to learn about things that start with A, but not before we watched the "C is for Cookie" song.  I have to admit, it's so cute and catchy!

Of course we learned about apples, alligators, and other A words.  I like how he picked up his letter A and held it while we watched and talked about some of the videos.  We also played a few of the games, which I think is great for helping him use the mouse and use his pointer finger.

Matthew liked it a lot too!  He wanted to be in on the action so he sat in his high chair and watched and laughed and laughed!

That's a pretty big smile!

Our kids are learning things so differently than we did growing up.  They're so used to the laptop and computers!  I'm sure it's going to be a different world they grow up in.  What a fun day!