Free Indoor Fun!

You are looking at our Monday Morning free indoor activity! Now I just need to teach him to scrub dishes in the process!

Recognition...Kind of??

You have all seen my Post Entering(s) for the weekly contest over at I♥Faces. Obviously, I have never been selected as a contest winner...but tonight I went to their site to read the contest rules for the upcoming week and saw this:This collage is posted on the I♥Faces site. They pick several from all of the previous week's entries to make the collage(s). You'll notice the 1st Column, 2nd Row is Ryder!!! I was totally excited...proud Mama moment! Touched my heart just a little bit and thought I'd share my joy (no pun intended)!

Living Vicariously through Matt

Our day is finished here...Ryder and I started our week together early. Matt had to leave for a short business trip this morning. That left Ryder and I here to play in the pool, slide down the play-set, swing really high, eat a yummy lunch, take a 3-hour nap (hallelujah!), wash some clothes, read lots of books, watch a little T.V., eat some dinner, take a bath, sing songs, and go night-night!

Meanwhile, Matt was traveling and landing upon this beautiful country-side. It made me realize that there are so many awe inspiring places in our country that I have failed to notice. So...I am going to vicariously live through Matt for a moment, close my eyes, and imagine I am there.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We were blessed with friends at our home this weekend and Ryder had his first encounter with a Baby in the house! He loved her...now he just needs to learn "gentle". He also painted a plate to give his Great Grandma for her 89th birthday! That little painting event turned into a fiasco that is worthy of a whole post by itself...but I'll save that for later!

Wordless Wednesday...taken on our way to out the door to the Dr. this Morning

I♥Faces "All About Boys" Weekly Challenge

So I haven't participated over at I♥Faces (a fun photography blog that I know a lot of you follow) in awhile. In honor of Father's Day, this week's theme is all about Boys, so I couldn't resist submitting a photo! I am officially outnumbered by them at our house and there will be one more to add to the mix in September! I took this picture of R throwing Rocks with his Dad in the River. I love it so much...it is absolutely a still shot of his personality!

Be sure to go check out all of the photos by clicking the button below.

The Verdict is Out....

....Surprisingly Good! I think his exact words were, "It's actually not Bad". The more he ate, the better it got. He said the peanut butter gave it a little bit of a salty flavor. I have to admit, I took a bite and concur! See this Post if confused! If you get the nerve to try it at your house, here is how I assembled:

1. Toasted Bottom Bun with just a dab of mayonnaise and mustard
2. Lettuce
3. Tomato
4. Hamburger Patty
5. Fried Egg topped with a little cheese
6. Toasted Top Bun spread with warm melted peanut butter

We served it with some Sweet Potato Fries. Ryder loved these as well and they are full of vitamins and relatively low in fat! Hope you guys enjoy... should you dare!

Man Vs. Food

Have you guys ever seen the show Man vs. Food on the Travel Channel? I have become addicted to the program. The host, Adam, travels around the country finding great places to eat. He usually competes in a Food Challenge, where he will attempt to conquer a restaurant dish, in order to get his picture on their wall of fame.

On one of last night's episodes, he was in California at a hamburger joint. They had all kinds of crazy burger combination(s). One of them happened to be a hamburger patty with lettuce, tomato, red onion, cheese, a fried egg and finally melted peanut butter smothered between a kaiser bun. O.K. seriously, peanut butter? I am preggers and that doesn't even sound good to me!

Matt promised me that if I made that for dinner tonight he would eat it. Guess who was at Target this morning picking up a fresh box of eggs and a jar of peanut butter (since we just ran out over the weekend)! I'll take a picture and let you know how he says it turns out!

Happy Father's Day!

We love you so much! Thanks for being the BEST DADDY EVER!!

Free Tea!

I ♥ McAlister's! I was there yesterday after my 3-hour Glucose Test (ick..) and saw this promotion! Thought I would share it with you all!

Abundant Blessings

I can not believe how blessed we are! We went to see Dr. Goldaber this morning and he said that he could hardly see the echogenic bowel anymore. In fact, if he hadn't known it was present before, he wouldn't have noticed it at all! All of the other measurements were right on for this little man's age and there are no other markers that indicate anything is wrong. Basically, he was given an absolute clean bill of health! Thank you all so much for your prayers! The picture above was from this morning..in case you are a horrible sonogram reader, like myself, he is looking at you!

Off to the Doctor

We are off to the Doctor this morning to see if little man's echogenic bowel has miraculously disappeared! Please keep your fingers crossed and say a quick prayer that we get good news!

Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies

Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

1 package of Krusteaz Fat Free Blueberry Muffin Mix

3/4 cup quick oats

1/4 cup brown sugar ( you can substitute splenda brown sugar)

1/3 cup cooking oil

1 Tablespoon skim milk

1/4 C Egg Beater (this is the equivalent of one egg)

Mix all of the ingredients except for the Blueberries. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and make an indention on top. Rinse Blueberries and place 5 to 10 blueberries on top of each cookie. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

I made these very Yummy cookies last night. Embarrassingly enough, we finished them all...just the three of us!

Blog Surfing = Dinner Idea

I was Blog Surfing and found a New Dinner Idea. Since I just mentioned how frustrating it is to figure out new things to fix, I thought I would share. Sounds like Ryder might just love it which is greatness! Keeps me from fixing two different meals. That is something I said "Pre-Ryder" I would never do, and now do almost every night. I was just thinking the other day about all of the things I was NEVER going to do...Never say Never people. I am always doing what I was NEVER going to do.

Chili Dog Casserole

Ingredients
8 hot dog buns
8 hot dogs
1 (15 ounce) can chili
1/2 cup chopped onions
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Fritos

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. Tear up the hot dog buns and arrange the pieces in the bottom of the dish evenly. Slice the hot dogs into bite size pieces and layer the pieces over the buns. Pour the chili over the hot dogs, sprinkle with the chopped onion, then spread the mustard over the chili and the onion. Top off with the cheese. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. The last 5 minutes add Fritos. To give credit where credit is due, this came from the The Young Family.

Disclaimer: Your cheese will look more bubbly and brown. I made some modifications in an effort to be semi-health conscious. Substitutions included: Whole Wheat Hot Dog Buns (for one side and white buns for the other side...Matt prefers white), Fat Free Turkey Dogs, Turkey Chili and 2% Reduced Fat Shredded Cheese. Still very Yummy!!!

Things I am Wondering....

1. I wonder why we have a large room upstairs, full of a zillion different types of toys, when the boy of the house only wants to be downstairs playing with the answering machine and other things not boy related?

2. I wonder what we should name above said boy's baby brother? We've tossed several names around, but I haven't found one that I felt was "It". Whenever we have made a large purchase, like our home, Matt has always said..."I want you to be excited and say this is the one..not well this is the best of what we have seen so far". I feel like this is what I have done with names so far. There are a few which are the best of the ones we have come up with, but none that I have totally fallen in love with. I think God will tell us what to name this sweet boy...just waiting to hear what he says.

3. I wonder what is so intriguing about trash, toilets, alarm clocks and cell phones to a 20- Month old?

4. Update: This wonder has been deleted. Matt decided it did not put me/us in the best light, LOL! If you read this earlier...you know what lunchtime incident I am talking about.

5. I wonder if I am going to have a "Bed Battle" on my hands tonight after the above said boy finally figured out how to get "out of bed" at the nap we just finished?

6. I wonder why it is always so hard to think of something new for dinner?

7. I wonder what it will feel like when I am able to bend over to pick things up again?

8. I wonder if I'll ever get tired of hearing the sweet southern drawl of the above said boy saying "Bye".

9. I wonder about inevitable changes...I also wonder about frivolous things...ex. Why do I hate to dry my hair? Seriously, I dread taking a shower just because I hate to dry my hair. Or why do I feel like Ryder looks like an old man wearing no belt with his pants pulled up too high every time I try to put a "Onesie" on him? And, I just realized I have a dryer full of clothes and a dishwasher full of clean dishes...why don't clothes fold themselves and dishes magically fly into cabinets?

10. I wonder....

PS...Here is audio of No. 8. It's actually video, but close your eyes and listen so that it becomes just audio. I guess what I am saying, is that I am a horrible videographer (word?)!
Also, let me just give some insight that might help translate what you are listening to: In Ryder Language Phone = Ba. This is how a conversation on the Ba goes: Hi! zzbzbzbzbzbzbzbzbzbzb. Byyyyy-e!

If I could be a Child in the Summer Again....

I loved the summertime growing up! I especially loved the feeling you'd get that last day of school. The days grew longer and there were no rules about getting homework done or being in bed at a certain time. We'd stay outside until the mosquitoes had eaten us to a pulp and we couldn't see each other anymore!

Yesterday, while Ryder and I were outside, I caught a glimpse of what it was like to be a child in the summer again. It made me wonder if I went back and did it all over, would there be anything I could do differently to make it even better than I remember? He gave me a few ideas:

I guess I could have pretended to be a Dog and drink water from my "Bowl".

I could have challenged my strength and endurance a little more by always insisting on climbing up the slide while wet instead of using the stairs to get to the top.

I could have challenged my brain a little more by trying to fix the leak under my Dad's Ice Chest.

I could have eaten chocolate chip cookies, then lay in the grass looking up in the sky, contemplating what I could do next that would be better than this.

I could have looked for treasure in a banana tree forest.

I could have smiled this big!

We hope you all are having a wonderful start to your summer! We are enjoying every minute of it here!

Brag Bag

I am so proud of my husband! This is the project that is keeping him busy right now and putting food in our bellies! It was featured in New York's Times Square.

The Photo on the Screen is a Mock-up of the new Baylor Cancer Center that when completed will be a 12-story, 660,000- square foot outpatient cancer treatment center at the Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. It is expected to be among the premier cancer centers in the nation.

I can only imagine the stress that he carries while working on this, yet never brings home to Ryder nor I. I am so grateful that he puts in the hours he does and is still able to come home and be the BEST husband and father! I love you, Babe....Congratulations on the Feature!

Hugs!

Just walked in on this...how could Miss Blue not LOVE him??? He was just showering her with hugs, kisses and laughs. Unfortunately, she showed no amusement and gave him no love in return...an old girl set in her ways!

Sometimes I just feel like I need to make a post...

Sometimes life seems so boring that I don't really think there is anything to post about, but feel like I need to. Ever have that feeling? I guess life hasn't really been that boring, but when it is your life it all seems to start running together and become the same. I guess I should be thankful for the relative quietness that life has been dealing us lately. This was literally a few minutes ago when R woke up and was waiting for me to come get him out of bed. I don't think we've ever shown the notorious green blanket on the Blog before. Everyone in our family knows it well. One day this poor, tattered blanket will go into retirement. So too will go the almost daily washings to rid it of "Stink". I'll be sad, but Matt will be doing a Happy Dance! He's not Linus, but a close second!

Busy Bee...

Busy Bee this week with a toddler who only wants to be outside and has entered full-fledged back on the floor, kicking legs in the air, fit throwing stage. I don't know what to do guys. I try to ignore it. We sit in the corner. I don't want to give in, but sometimes I am so tired of hearing the fit that I do. I don't want to be the person who has the kid nobody wants to be around, but disciplining a 20 month old is like walking a fine line. I feel like all he hears me say is "No". Anyway, I'll take any advice! Generally he is a very good kid...he is just a little on the stubborn side and very set in his ways!

I've also had to work this week, which I am not complaining about since it is very sparse these days! For those of you who don't know, I consult as a 3rd Party to Financial Institutions on the Construction Loans they issue. Guess what isn't going on these days...Construction. Guess who has no money to lend, especially for construction work...Banks. Guess what that means...Joy's workload has dropped tremendously! I tell myself it is a blessing in disguise and I should just feel happy that my husband still has his job! My Costco fund has just decreased slightly!

I ventured out to Sonic last night for the free Rootbeer Float. When I saw the line down the road, I thought that if I calculated the time and fuel that it would take to wait for the float, Sonic would need to pay me money. Guess who waited in line. I really wanted some ice cream! By the time I got my float, it was half melted..sigh...I ate it anyway!

I'm in desperate need of making a Target run and going to the Bank, neither of those I have managed to work into my schedule. It just seems so much easier to lay my big self on the lounger in back while Ryder plays on his new playset and splashes in the pool and sprays himself with the water ball, than to load him into the hot car and keep him occupied as I maneuver down the aisles of the grocery.

My dryer is still full from laundry I started two days ago...sorry babe. I promise I'll finish it! Now it is dinner time and I once again am out of ideas. Ryder is eating our left over Mac & Cheese from last night and I think I hear plates hitting the floor...so off to tend to him. Love to All!