The Boys: 6 months and "2 half"

PARKER

It's hard to believe Parker has been a part of our family for six months now. He has grown into such a happy and (mostly) healthy baby. We haven't gotten to the bottom of his allergy/colic/screaming very loudly issues yes, but hopefully soon.

At his six month checkup, he tipped the scales at a whopping 24 pounds. He has already tripled his birth weight -- yikes!! Parker Man is a load to tote around, as you can imagine. He still just has the two teeth on bottom that came in at the end of four months/beginning of five months. I feel like he's constantly teething though (like every other infant out there). He laughs so hard when Connor plays "peep a boo" with him - it's the cutest thing. He is rolling all over and he sits up very well. He's a strong little boy! I can't even imagine what is in store for us once he's crawling. He is never still - unless he is asleep. Parker is constantly on the move and kicking those legs! It should come as no surprise that he loves to eat - especially mum mums and fruit. When we were at lunch a few weeks ago, he grabbed a piece of Texas toast off of Jeremy's plate and shoved it in his mouth -- are you kidding me?

Those rolls though!

Connor

Connor is learning more and more each day -- this is such a fun age, and he's got such a sweet disposition! He knows his ABC's and sings them all the time. He can count 1-20 (sometimes mixing up a couple of the teens) and he knows his colors and several shapes. He will tell you that he is "two half" and baby is "zero." He still calls Parker "baby" about 85% of the time, but gosh he sure loves his little brother! He likes for Parker to "watch me baby" as he shows off whatever he has just gotten into. He's incredibly curious and when we see new people he always asks, "What name him?". Cracks me up! Some of his other favorite phrases are, "I do it myself", "I don't want to" and "I don't like it". Have I mentioned that he's two? Connor's favorite foods are applesauce and raisins and he loves to drink "cold wa-er" (water with ice). His favorite toys are his fire trucks and choo-choo's (of course)!

I think my favorite part of the day with Connor is reading to him at night. By then, Parker is asleep and I can focus all of my mommy attention on Connor. We have silly time, read the books he has picked out, say our little prayers, and give kisses. I will ask, "Can Mommy have 5 kisses?" And he will giggle and say no, and then I change the number, and then eventually just smother him in kisses. 

They dressed him up in graduation gear at school. Can't even. 

I love when I pick him up from school in the afternoons. He drops whatever he is doing and runs to my arms with the biggest smile, "mommy, mommy, mommy!" This moment washes away the stress of the day as he makes me feel like as a mom, I'm doing something right. And sometimes, I so desperately need this affirmation. 

Mexican Chicken Spaghetti

This is my go to dish for when I'm bringing food to a friend. It's easy to freeze, or pop in the oven and bake and eat right away. And who doesn't love gobs of cheese, pasta and chicken all in one dish? It makes enough for 6 servings, so I often divide it when I make it and keep half for our dinner that evening.

It's a relatively easy recipe, you just need to be able to pay attention to it as you are cooking (read: no toddlers in the vicinity of the kitchen). I got this recipe from my sister-in-law, Misti, in a cookbook she made for me as a wedding gift. I've modified it to work for our family, and because it has a nice kick I call it "Mexican Chicken Spaghetti."

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
1 medium onion
1 small green bell pepper (or buy the tri-pepper pre-chopped mix)
1 can rotel
1/2 block of the large Velvetta, chopped into cubes
1 can of cream of celery soup
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 pound of chicken tenderloins, boiled or grilled to your liking (or see my shortcut below)
1 package of spaghetti noodles
1 package of frozen broccoli, steamed (optional)
1 cup of chicken broth (optional)

Directions

Dice the onion and bell pepper and sauté with the butter until both the onions and bell peppers are clear.

Next, add in the rotel and cook down for a couple of minutes. Then, add in the mushroom and celery soups and cook down for a few minutes.

Then, add in the Velvetta and constantly stir the mixture.

Allow this to cook on medium heat for 20 minutes. Starting to look like queso, eh? While this is cooking, boil water and cook the noodles.

Remember what I said earlier about my chicken shortcut? This is it. Easy, delicious and takes about 3 minutes to cook in the microwave. Get ya some.

Once the cheese mixture is cooked, add the chicken and noodles. If you are adding the steamed broccoli, go ahead and put it in now. You might notice that this doesn't look like spaghetti noodles. You would be correct. I forgot to buy spaghetti at the store, and substituted macaroni. It was a delicious accident and we liked the macaroni version just as much as the original. If you find that your sauce is too thick, add one cup of chicken broth until it thins. Put the mixture into a 9x13 pan and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. 

Dinner is served.

God Bless Texas {Bluebonnets}

Every spring, I look forward to plopping my babies' into a patch of weeds bluebonnets and taking their pictures. It's like a right of passage in the Lone Star State, one of which I've only been made aware of since having kids. Call me a follower, but I really buy in to the whole bluebonnet thing. My Texas pride swells up in my chest when bluebonnet season rolls around. I spend a fair amount of {what's left of} my brain power pondering what they will wear, where we will go and then I promise myself not to overgram my kids and fill up your news feeds.

Lucky for us, the greatest bluebonnet patch was about a 4 minute drive away from our house. On a beautiful Saturday morning, the boys woke up way too early - in my opinion, anyway - so we loaded them up and headed off to take pictures.

I'm really pleased with how the pictures turned out. I dressed Connor in pants this year, since last year he was in shorts and hated the tall grass rubbing against his legs. And since Parker has rolls on rolls on rolls, it was a no brainer to put him in overalls. And of course we didn't leave the house without M&M's and fruit snacks to bribe Connor to smile. Whatever works, right?

He is 2 years and 5 months old (exactly) here. 

I love that when we told Connor to get close to Parker, he had to be head to head. He loves his baby!

Look at all of those chins!

They're perfect! Can't even!!! Gah!

Happy Spring to everyone!

Our Easter

Easter is probably my favorite holiday. I like it even more than Christmas. There, I said it. I've probably lost a few readers now. But to me, Christmas has become so rushed, commercialized and overbooked that it's just too much freaking work. For Easter, I don't have to decorate a tree, buy presents for everyone that interacts with me or my kids, and go to parties. My radio stations aren't hijacked for six weeks with holiday music, and I don't have to be politically correct when wishing folks a Happy Easter. And don't get me started about that Elf on the Shelf. Easter is simple, and on behalf of all the moms who don't live next door to Hobby Lobby -- let's keep it that way. 

Now, where was I? Oh yes, Easter. 

Connor had an egg hunt at school on Thursday. He is so methodical about egg hunting, and it cracks me up. He picks up an egg, opens it, surveys (or eats) the candy, hands me the egg and then moves on. In the time Connor hunted 4 eggs, the older kids had already collected their 12 allotted eggs and had moved on. 

Connor's class. E-tee (Ethan), Tess Mer Clr (Mary Claire) and their teacher, Ms. Chely

Pondering what he thinks about the jelly beans in the egg...

On Saturday, our neighborhood had an Easter Egg hunt that was a blast. We have 50 kids in our little neighborhood, many that are right around the ages of Connor and Parker. The dads went and hid all of the eggs at 8:30 and then at 9:00 the kids were free to hunt. The 0-3 year olds hunted eggs on the opposite side of the street than our house and this time, Connor got more in to it. We practiced picking up eggs, putting them in his basket and then opening all of them at the end. He caught on and would run to each egg and say, "Oh my egg!" So cute! After the egg hunt, there was an appearance by the Easter Bunny (one of the dads on the street was suckered in to wearing the costume). Connor wasn't sure at first, but then he finally wanted to take a picture with him and kept giving him high-fives!

That's Connor's cheese face!

After the neighborhood egg hunt, we spent the rest of our day out in Deer Park with Grammy and Paw Paw. My mom put together an over the top Easter basket for Connor. I wish I had a picture of it before Connor tore in to it. Mom puts a lot of effort in to the presentation of gifts and I love it. His basket was adorable and filled to the brim with sidewalk chalk, bubbles, books, Veggietales, and an ambulance and firetruck that both make noise (thanks, Mom!). He had a blast hunting for his eggs in their backyard and playing with his new bubble gun. Then while Parker napped, we took him to the park to play. It was fun for us to just do something with Connor and give him our undivided attention!

Hunting his eggs to put in his choo-choo basket!

He loved shooting Paw Paw with the bubble gun!

We had a blast with him at the park!

Parker was there, too! Parker Man...you'll get to run around with big brother and hunt eggs next year!

On Easter Sunday, we ended up at Urgent Care with Parker and missed church. This was heartbreaking for me, as this was my first Easter morning to not spend at church. There were tears. But, Parker was okay and that's all that matters. We had lunch with my family at Lupe Tortilla and then went to Tiki for a crawfish boil. Connor did his first crawfish races and went on a boat ride with Uncle Pete.

We had a great Easter weekend celebrating Jesus and celebrating our family. 

He is risen, indeed.

Grilled Chicken Pesto Pasta

I love pasta as much (or maybe more) than the next person, so its no surprise it shows up on our menu at least once a week. This week, I had a big craving for pesto, so I used this recipe and modified it to work for my family. This is a really simple weeknight dish to throw together.

Ingredients

• 1 box of spaghetti
• 1/2 cup of prepared pesto
• Grilled chicken (I buy the frozen, pre-cooked kind...it's the weeknight, don't judge)
• 1/4 cup of sun dried tomatoes (optional...but why would you opt no?)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Parmesan cheese (optional)

Instructions

Cook spaghetti in 4 cups of boiled, salted water (the salt helps your pasta not stick together). While water is boiling, heat the chicken in a skillet over medium-high heat. Once your spaghetti is cooked and drained, return it to the pot you boiled it in. Add the pesto and stir until well blended. Then add in the sun dried tomatoes. By now, your chicken should be heated, so go ahead and add that to your pot and stir it all together. Sprinkle in the parmesan cheese so it melts in to the pasta, and enjoy!

Houston Rodeo

To say that Connor had fun at the rodeo would be a gigantic understatement. He had a blast! It was one of my favorite days I've ever had with Connor, and I loved that my mom came along to share in the fun with us (and let's be honest...I needed all the help I could get with both boys in tow).

When we got there, Connor said he wanted to "ride horse"...but knowing him, I knew we would get up to the pony rides and he would refuse to do it. WRONG. He was game for it! He even let the worker pick him up and put him on the horse. All I could think was, "he is going to lose it at any moment!". But, he never did. He had the best time and kept smiling and saying, "My ride horse!' and petting the horse. And he also asked me where his cowboy hat was...sorry, buddy. I don't even have a cute rodeo shirt to put you in like baby brother. Next year, I'll be more prepared!

The Houston Rodeo does such a great job catering to little ones. We had fun wandering through their farmer's market, pretending to ride the tractor, and petting all of the animals at the petting zoo. Connor did this adorable squeal when he would pet one of the animals. He wasn't timid at all. He would get in their face and greet the animals. "Hi, goat, hi" he would say. This kid of mine is hilarious! The best part was when he was saying hi to the llama, he went ahead and gave it a kiss. Are   you kidding me? My mom and I about lost it!

Parker came with us, too, and was a champ. He stayed in his stroller most of the time and loved just looking around. This little one does not like to be bored, so he enjoyed being out and about. I love this picture below. Connor at his first rodeo in 2012 and Parker at his first rodeo. How cute is this outfit? (Parker had already kicked off his boots before the picture was snapped).

What a fun day with my boys! Can't wait to do it again in 2016!

Spring Break

This sums up our Spring Break so far.

Little man has had a fever for FIVE days. Basically since the clock struck "Spring Break" on Friday, he has had a fever of at least 102. The fever has slowed him down some, and he's also got what I call a day care cold - runny nose and cough. I'm hopeful that this week will end with two healthy babies.

Parker got his first ear infection last week (at four months old). He never ran a fever, just stopped sleeping well. Luckily some meds cleared his infection right up.

And all of the family - in laws included - have shared a tummy bug for the past few days. So, yes, our Spring Break can only go up from here!

Before you feel too sorry for us, we've had a fun Spring Break despite all of the ailments. We are in Baton Rouge and we went to the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Ya'll - this was an absolute blast! People in Louisiana make everything into a party, and I love it! We were at the family-friendly part of the parade and it was full of music (mostly "Uptown Funk"), beads, balls (see Connor's new football, pictured above), candy, cups and toys. Connor had a blast with his cousins. He also loved seeing the "march bands" going by - he's obsessed with marching bands! This was such a fun outing and I hope it wasn't our last St. Patrick's Day Parade in BR!

So, here's hoping the rest of our Spring Break is filled with more sleep, fewer "nose yucks" and lots of fun with my boys!