Judah

Judah is an instigator.

Every. single. time. we go outside he starts barking. Very, very loudly. Eventually our neighbors dogs start barking, which gets another neighbors dog barking, and soon there is a chorus of dogs barking.
And Judah? He stops his noise when the first dog barks and gets a gleeful look on his face as he listens to the "Oggies."

Camera Fund

I have a new-found passion to earn money now that I have a goal in mind. (That would be the camera!) I have created a goal for myself to pull in money each week. Still working out the details of *how* I'll earn the money, but to motivate myself I thought I'd do weekly updates.

I have a jar sitting on my desk that is holding the cash.

This past week I earned $43 at a consignment shop.

This coming week I have plans to sell stuff on craigslist and do more writing - writing doesn't pay much, but every little bit helps. And the articles continue to earn money. I haven't written anything in nearly two months, and yet this month I've earned $4. For articles I've written long ago. Kinda cool. Last month I earned $11. So, I hope to write more to earn more.

Will update in a week.

My Boys

I am slowly going through the other 700+ pictures I took on Saturday. So you'll slowly be seeing more pictures on here.
I have posted about 20 in an album on facebook - you can see it HERE.

I dream about this camera daily. Well, not the exact camera. I've decided to go for one many hundred dollars cheaper. But it's still a 'spensive camera. So I still dream. They are such pleasant dreams.

Steakhouse Rolls

Paul constantly amazes me with his bread making skills. He recently mastered these Steakhouse rolls. They are delish. The only problem is that he didn't make more.
There's cocoa and coffee in these buns. What's not to love about that?
These buns and Judah's Blue Bread will both eventually make it to the recipe blog.

Boys

Judah's favorite book right now is my favorite book to read. It's called "Heedley Pecked Me In The Eye" and the book starts like this;

"Heedley pecked me in the eye,
It did not bleed,
I did not cry.
It's not his fault he can't discern,
An eyeball from a juicy worm."

Now tell me, aren't you just dying to hear the rest of the story? I could read this book over and over again. Which I often end up doing. Last night I read it five times in a row. Judah loves it. I love it. We're all happy.
There are more books by this author and I want to find them. I like books that make me laugh while I read them. It makes reading them over and over again so much easier.



Wesley had a doctors appointment last week and he is nearly 15lbs. He's still a very happy, laid back baby and puts up with with his brothers affections quite well.
He has been dubbed "Wezzy" by big brother. I quite like it.

Lumps of Love

Camera Love

The camera came today instead of yesterday.

I got to keep it all day long. In fact it's sleeping over at our house tonight.

I took over 700 pictures today.

The boys patience wore thin after 300.

So I borrowed a friend and took another 300 of her.

And I took just over 100 of random stuff.

I won't show you all the pictures. I promise.

Here are three from today - one of each boy and my friend, Elizabeth.

If you want to see more pictures of Elizabeth check out the album HERE

Judah's Blue Bread

Judah helped me make Blueberry Orange Bread today.

First he washed the oranges and held onto the bag of blueberries.


Then he sampled the orange to make sure it was good enough for the recipe.

Next he helped mix up the berries and orange and nuts.

He stole a quick taste of it.

Despite the expression I managed to capture that looks disgusted, what he said was "Mmm!"

Next he grabbed my bowl for the dry ingredients, put it in the sink and filled it with water - all while I was getting the flour.

I grabbed another dry-ingredient bowl and he used the massive mixing bowl as a cup - he drank lots of water and thought it was very funny.

I squeezed the oranges to get the juice out and he sucked on the remains. He ate three oranges for breakfast and then sucked two clean while I baked. He just loves fruit!

"Wow!" "Oh wow! Oh wow!" Those were Judah's words while watching everything in the mixer.

Our blue Blueberry and Orange Bread. So yummy!

Baking with him was kinda fun :) Definitely a bit more work, but also a lot of fun. Wesley hung out on the carpet right by the kitchen and watched us.
Did you notice Judah's dish towel apron? Oh to have a waist small enough for a dish towel to tie around :)

Our new counter tops are featured in the pictures too - as well as some of the plaster I need to paint over!

Random

My friend MEL tagged me for a meme I think I've already done... but hey - if I can't quite remember if I have done it I don't think any of you will remember if I've done it!

So here it is;

Six Random Things About Me

1. I like to use the self check out at grocery stores because I take all our coins (think pennies and nickels) and pay for as much of the bill as I can with them. The other day I had $6 worth of coins. It humored me.
2. I pretend to sneeze throughout my day because it makes Judah belly laugh.
3. I just got new kitchen counters put in. The old kitchen counters were made from floor tile. They were so nasty. But our new counters are cool and were paid for by our land lord.
4. I wrote letters to both sets of my grandparents today. Now I just need to mail them.
5. Yesterday I had a cashier try telling me that to get 75% off a total of an item you take 25% off of the 50% off price. When I told her that you actually take 50% off of 50% to get 75% off she told me that you couldn't do that because that would be 100% off. This person was older than me. And when she discovered that I, in fact, was right she told me that the store trained her that way.
6. I have a super cool collection of post-it-notes. I rarely use them. But I think they look cool, so they sit on a shelf on my desk.

I am going to tag SHANNON, GARSY, AMY, BETHANY and anyone else that wants to play along!

Learning Some Essentials from Daddy

The other day I walked into the room and overheard Paul say;

"Ok Judah, we gotta stop.
We don't make fart noises on our arms when momma is around."

I guess no one noticed *smile*, but Judah had his hair cut two weeks ago.
His very first hair cut!

Judah and his best buddy Baynham went together.

Baynham's been through it all before, so he was cool about it. Judah was excited tho.


Judah had a bottle to help keep the fidgeting down. He did great!


Baynham looks like a pro, chilled back in his chair.


I love how they need to put hair clips in our boys hair in order to cut it.

Judah really was super good!


My three tips for keeping your kid happy for their first hair cut:

1. Give them their favorite drink.
2. Give them a snack.
3. Video tape them on your camera and play it back to them while they sit in the chair.

Have Your Pie And Eat It

Yesterday was Paul's first day back at work. That's both a good thing and a bad thing - it's good because he now has a solid structure, somewhat of a routine, something to keep him busy and lots of people around him every day. It's bad for, well, basically the same reasons that it is good.

But he survived his first day back, and now he's on day two back.

Tuesday night (yup, same night my camera came to visit me!) I decided to have a special "Going Back to Work" meal for Paul. I did a roast, veggies and bread and then Paul's favorite - I made him pumpkin pie. This man adores pumpkin pie. I like pumpkin pie only because it means I get to eat whipped cream. I usually eat the cream and give my piece of pie away. I'm not a pumpkin pie fan.

It was a real sacrifice to make a dessert that I don't really like. But made it I did. And I did eat it. More than just the whipped cream. And I still don't like it all that much. It's not as bad as I thought it to be, but it's not my favorite.

Love This Camera

I spent all night dreaming about it.
The friend thinks he might stop back on Friday. He's been storing stuff in our garage and he wants to pick the stuff up. He'll be over during day light hours. I hope he lets me play with the camera some more :) Sad, I know, but it's pretty much all I've been thinking of lately.

In Case You Didn't Believe Me...

My Love In Color

Me Drooling

Paul's friend came over tonight with his camera. I fed him supper in exchange for an evening of playing with his camera. For any camera nerds he's got a Nikon D300. For anyone who cares, it's a $1,500 body and the lenses are $600 - $800 each. The flash is about $500. It's a sweet prosumer camera. I want this camera. So badly.

These are my two favorite shots from the evening:

Fast Food Inspired

Mmm. McDonald's yogurt parfaits inspired me. I made these, along with eggs and toast, for a laid back supper. I layered plain yogurt, mixed berries and honey. Then I sprinkled walnuts on top. It was delicious! And so cute.

Hot Chocolate

It's the time of year for hot drinks. I just wish we had cute mugs to drink out of. We own Army mugs, Anthrax Kills mugs, massive 4 cup mugs ... I am a good wife and haven't broken any of the ugly mugs. Yet. I am just waiting for the day I can buy cute mugs. Till then I drink my hot drinks out of Paul's bachelor day mugs. The drinks still taste good. Like this rich, delicious Hot Chocolate.

From The Back Seat...

Judah barely slept on our four day trip. In fact he was annoyingly cheerful at 2 am Friday morning, and then equally as cheerful and wide awake at 8 am Friday morning.
The other days weren't a whole lot better. But he was cheerful and happy, even if we weren't.

We thought for sure he would sleep most of the way home, but he didn't. He slept for maybe one hour of our eleven hour drive. And he kept waking up during that time - to moan or to utter two or three words. I took this video at one of his drifting moments.

That's What Grandpa's Are For...

Wedding Album

To see an album of their wedding pictures click HERE.

Angie & Isaac

We are home now! It was a long drive home, but an enjoyable drive.
Here are a few more pictures from the wedding, I will add more tomorrow.

Click for larger image.

A Bride & A Groom

I wanted to get these up as quickly as possible for the family that wasn't able to be at the wedding. Between four cameras I got lots and lots of pictures, so will add more in the next day or two as I am able to edit and sort through them.

Angie was a gorgeous bride and Isaac looked quite handsome in his uniform. It was a beautiful wedding!

The Trip North

Judah befriended a trucker at one of our pit stops. The man let Judah into his truck to blow the trucks horn. I took a picture. Because that's what I do.


This city called "SOUTH OF THE BORDER" was advertised for at least 50 miles along the highway. So we decided to stop. It was a colorful tourist trap. Complete with giraffe, bear and coyote statues. We didn't get the connection. But it made us laugh.
We saw this road sign and it made us laugh. We thought of Amanda and Craig.

So pretty!

A Preview

We are in Virginia right now, Judah is going to be the ring bearer in my cousins wedding tomorrow. I am so excited :) Who doesn't love a wedding?

And to top it off there are lots of family members from all over the world here this weekend. Cool stuff.

Here are a few pictures from the rehearsal today.

Judah loving on the bride-to-be.

Angie and her mum, who flew in from Nigeria this week!

Judah is running on 7 hours sleep in the past 36 hours... he's a fun kid right now ;)

Wesley hanging out in his stroller... I seem to take tons of pictures of him in his stroller. He's a happy go lucky kinda guy.
Judah and my cousin Nathan.