Picture Perfect

Picture Perfect

Cutie Pies!!

And look who got a new big boy haircut!  No more baby curls.  Sad, but he sure is cute!

Catch Me Up!

At the end of the month I always see so many things that I never posted.  Things have been really busy around here lately so I'm just going to post some fun, random off the wall pictures!  I can't believe July passed so quickly.  It seems like each month flies by faster than the one before!  Hopefully I can start taking more time to blog more often because I love being able to record what we're doing and I love looking back on my blog and seeing what all we were up to!

So what has July held for us?!

For some reason Matthew is the one who loves to help wash Noah.  He loves to pour water over him and help wash his hair!  It's so sweet!

Just a sweet Noah picture!

I took Noah to his first "girl" outing!  We had a girl's night get together and we had THE best time. I love to sit around and talk with all the girls from our Sunday School class.  It is so nice and refreshing.  Laurie is holding Noah, as she is the designated little baby holder!

Here are all of the newest little babies in our class!  We're going to keep the nursing room busy at church the next few months.  Maybe they'll add some more rocking chairs?!

I love Matthew's new "cheeeeeese" face!  He looks so cute in his little watermelon jon-jon!

After much thought and consideration we let JM watch just a little bit of Star Wars.  A friend told him about it and he talked about it for forever and ever so we decided to have a family movie night and watch Star Wars.  I fully realize I am now greatly outnumbered by boys so I'll probably always have family movie night with stuff like this!

We popped popcorn and snuggled together as we learned about the Force!

I survived my first day with all 3 boys!  Tummy time was fun!

Can you tell the boys love their brother?

We finally made it to our pool!  We've been a bit busy this summer and I feel so bad that we haven't taken the boys swimming.  We went after dinner and the boys had a great time!

This picture cracks me up.  Matthew is built like a football player! 

 

I stayed out with Noah, because let's face it, I'm not getting into a swimsuit this summer!

Oh these boys love their daddy!  He's the best daddy ever!

Homemade Goodness

I've been into making things a little more homemade lately.  Not all the time (it's hard to do with a newborn) but I like to do it when I have the time.  I thought I'd share a few of the things I have made lately.  I have a really good recipe for blueberry muffins (compliments of my friend, Julie) and a recipe for homemade basic balsamic vinaigrette (compliments of my friend, Amy)!  Perhaps I'll get a chance to add those in a few days!

 These cute little veggies are from our garden.  We didn't do too many things this year because we knew our summer was going to be very busy.  I'm super excited for the tomatoes to start ripening so I can have tomato sammiches everyday!

Oh yeah, and we killed all of our herbs, a little random flower, and our hibiscus too. I guess that happens when you forget to water them...ever.

 The last time I made Strawberry Pretzel Salad it was WAY better than this one I made this week.  I want to make it again in a few weeks and tweak a few things that I messed up on in this recipe.  Either way, it is so good and cool and fresh.  Perfect for summer!

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

2 1/2 cups crushed pretzels

1/3 c margarine

3 tablespoons sugar

1 8oz package cream cheese, room temp.

1 cup sugar

1 13oz carton whipped topping

2 3oz boxes strawberry Jello

2 cups boiling water

2 10oz packages frozen, sliced strawberries 

Prepare:

Heat oven to 350.  Mix first 3 ingredients together in a small bowl and press into a 9x13 pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely.

In a large bowl, mix cream cheese with 1 cup sugar; add whipped topping and mix well. Spread over cooled pretzel crust. (OR pipe in onto the pretzel crust, this works well for me!)

Dissolve the Jell-O in the boiling water and add the frozen strawberries.  Break up the strawberries with a fork as they begin to thaw. Chill until slightly thickened.

Pour strawberry mixture over whipped topping layer. Chill and serve!

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Sun Dried Tomato Hummus

I got this yummy recipe for homemade hummus from Taste of Home magazine!  I like that it is so fresh and tasty, but also takes little to no time to put together!

My handy helpers helped me whip it together and add my ingredients.  They love to help!  I usually half the recipe and then make the rest later!

 

 Ingredients:

2 cans (15 ounces each) garbanzo beans or chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 jar (7 ounces) oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, undrained

2/3 cup water

3 tablespoons Crisco® Olive Oil

2 garlic cloves, halved

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Chopped fresh basil, optional

Prepare:

In a food processor, combine the beans, tomatoes, water, oil, garlic, pepper flakes, salt and pepper; cover and process until blended. Place in a bowl; sprinkle with basil if desired. Serve with pita chips and/or vegetables .

We like to eat ours with pita chips or Ritz crackers!

 

I'm A Little Biased....

I might be a little biased, but I believe this is the sweetest baby I've ever seen!

 

 

 

 

I could just eat him up and stare at his sweet face all day.  I am so glad my multi-talented friend Bethany came over and spent way too much time working with Noah and getting just the right shots. I am thankful for these beautiful pictures!  Also, my boys were BEYOND thrilled that she brought her boys with her when she came!

Stuck In The Middle

So now that we have 3 boys, Matthew is officially a middle child.  I don't know if there's anything to the myth of being a "middle child".  I hope each one of our children will feel happy, special and cherished as they grow up.  BUT, Matthew is so different from his older brother!  Matthew throws caution to the wind and just does whatever.  He doesn't understand NO and he is constantly stealing my drinks around the house!

But then I see his sweet little scrunchy smile and his antics usually melt my heart.  He is just such a hoot most of the time.  JM is our cautious, sensitive first child and it has been so good for him to have a wilder brother to show him how to loosen up a bit at times.  They each have learned so much from each other already.  I am so glad they are going to be growing up so close in age!

Typical Matthew!  Just being silly!

I have loved his summertime curls!

Can you see the expression on his face as he messes with the lock? So what's Matthew been up to lately?

John Michael usually says "Matthew makin' that mess" and he's usually right.  Matthew likes to empty cups upside down, throw food, slam golf clubs or bats into furniture or the fireplace.  He also likes to constantly get into the pantry and either try to get food or get Jack's food and put it into his bowl or mess with Jack's water bowl. He also likes to sweep and swiffer.  He has discovered baby pacis and he tries to take them whenever he can and chew on them!  He is SO strong and he recently hit a HUGE growth spurt.  He gained two pounds and I'm starting to wonder if he truly might be built like a lineman like my dad.

He still loves yogurt and grain bars with a mighty passion.  He has started turning his nose up at a lot of fruits that he used to love.  Some days he eats like crazy and then other days he eats nothing.  I guess that's life with a toddler!  He's not so much into books on most days but he still loves to play golf with anything that he can find that could be a club and a ball!  Matthew loves all sports and loves to play basketball outside and he loves to play with all the other balls we have inside the house.

He really is such a sweetie!  I love his deep brown eyes and his sweet little brown curls atop his head.  Yep, he might be a middle child now, but he's all mine and I hug him and squeeze him everytime I get the chance to stop him from tearing the house apart and make him huge me back!