Wezzy

Wes loves to suck on his lower lip, which makes him look so funny. He does it a ton tho, it's a Wes-ism for sure.
I am working on getting him into a routine, and it is slowly evolving.
He is usually up about 7, so I put him on the floor in front of his Praise Baby dvd and he watches that while I sleep or do chores.
He then nurses about 10 and goes down for a nap in the boys room til 1-ish, at which point Judah goes down for his nap.
Then the rest of the day just happens. No routine has been attempted.
I am not a routine type of person. But Paul thinks I should be. So the morning routine is for him.

Wesley went to his first hockey game on Saturday night. Some friends invited us, and they have a little girl about a month younger than him. The babies didn't care much for each other. Or the game. But I had fun with the other mum, and Wesley was given the puck that opened the game. That was kinda cool.

Judah

Judah has entered the stage where he loves to take his clothes off. I often find him with one arm coming out the opening where his neck is and the other arm through its proper sleeve.
And several mornings when I go to get him up for the day he has managed to strip himself of his pjs. He keeps his diaper on, but I think only because he hasn't figured out how to take them off. He gets double diapered at night, a regular diaper and then a pull up.

The double diapering is one of the greatest tips ever, shared by own momma. Judah pees in abundance. Before August (when I learned this tip!) we were awoken every single night because Judah was soaking wet with pee. We would change the diaper, pjs and sheets at least once a night, pretty much every night. We wouldn't let him drink after 5pm, and yet we still had this abundance of pee at night.
So then my mum shared this double diapering tip: put a regular diaper on, tear through the front part of it a bit, put second diaper on top (we use a pull up for the second diaper.) We have not been up with him once since then due to a wet diaper/pjs/kid/crib.
It has saved us sleep, laundry, diapers and our sanity!

Anyways... back to Judah. He loves to help me. In the above picture he is washing the windows with baby wipes. The other day he helped me do laundry, and some how managed to throw some raisins in there when I wasn't looking.
He loves being given pots, pans, mixing bowls and spoons to 'help' me cook. The other day Paul and a friend were cooking in the kitchen and Judah threw a fit because they wouldn't let him in to 'help' them. They gave him a mixing bowl and spoon (but wouldn't let him in) and he stood by the kitchen gate happily stirring and chattering away.

He's also a gadget geek, just like his daddy. One of his favorite toys is Paul's cell phone, and Judah's recently acquired some of our dead electronics - a hand held electronic game and Paul's old MP3 player. He is currently walking around the house holding the MP3 player (which does not work), with head phones on and bopping his head, as if he is listening to something. But I checked.
Nothing is playing.
He just thinks he's cool.

The K Family

I did a photo shoot today, and I am just itchin' to spend time on the pictures! But I've got a massive to-do list that I need to tackle first. I looked through all the pictures and these three stuck out to me, so I did some quick edits and here they are.
It'll be a few days til I get the chance to do anything with the rest of them, but I wanted to share something! Love you K family :)

Breakfast Burrito

I keep meaning to blog about our favorite breakfast, but haven't taken the time to until now.
About two months ago we discovered Breakfast Burritos and they are the best breakfast!! The best part about them is you can make them in large quantities and freeze the rest to have a delicious, healthy breakfast in minutes.


Here they are in our freezer:
The recipe is on my other blog. Click HERE.

Sweet Potato Fries

I used most of my Sweet Potatoes to make Sweet Potato Fries. YUM! If the stores weren't so crazy right now I'd go back and buy 20lbs or so to make more fries. That would be $5 for 20lbs of fries. I think that's a great deal!
Maybe after Thanksgiving they'll still be on sale and I'll buy them then.

I made Judah and myself about a pounds worth yesterday and the rest of the fries are in the freezer. I am hoping that they work out just as well as fresh! Once you get on a roll peeling and cutting fries it's not such a big deal to do 5lbs verses 1lb. We'll see if I think that way about 20lbs verses 5lbs if I do buy more!!

These fries are delicious! CLICK HERE for the recipe. SO worth making!

Picture This

A couple of weeks ago I found a listing on craigslist for 73 pictures frames. I contacted the man to see if I could buy just a few of the frames - what would anyone do with 73 frames?! Anyways, he said I could, so we went out there one evening and I picked out my favorites and ended up with 13 frames.

A good friend had recently done some decorating with picture frames. She painted five of them red and has them hanging in the hall on the way into the kids play room. The kids art is displayed inside the frames. I love it! But it's not "us" (*ahem*, the Paul part of us) so I can't copy her idea!

Here's what I've got so far;

Two of them I left alone, as they have a lot of character and got a lot of compliments and I couldn't think of anything better to do with them. They hang, empty, by our front door.



Ten of them I spray painted a champagne color. Spray paint is seriously so much fun!! These are hanging in our Family Room. They're also empty.



I can't decide if I want to put something in them or leave them hanging empty on the walls. If I were to put something in the frames, what do you think I should do?

Oh yes, and the 13th frame is in our kitchen. We had a super ugly phone jack in there so I covered the frame in paper and covered the ugliness up. It looks nice, I promise.

Cutie

Howdy

Ideas

Sweet Potatoes were .25 cents a pound at Walmart, so I bought 6lbs of them. The truth is though I have never bought sweet potatoes before, so I'm not quite sure what to do with them! I don't like sweet potato casserole, so that is out.
What is your favorite way to eat sweet potatoes?

Seems like a lot of people saw the mistake on the recipe, but it's fixed now!
So I hope you didn't try making it with 1/2 CUP of milk! It's suppose to be a half gallon!

I like to keep myself humble by making mistakes like that every now and again...

Effortless Egg-less Eggnog

I made this drink Friday night and it is seriously so yummy and so easy! It tastes very festive - I definitely recommend this for your holiday gatherings.
Isn't the jug so cool? I picked it up at Target a while back. It's huge!! It's got 1/2 gallon of milk in there and it still has plenty of room.
Anyways, check out the recipe blog for the Eggnog recipe and enjoy!

Jokes on Me

I have this horrible habit of not being able to remember jokes. Up until this week I have never shared a joke (unless I am reading it from somewhere!) with anyone, simply because I never remember.
So this week I was talking with two friends and they start cracking jokes. I had just read a whole bunch of great jokes a couple of hours earlier, so I thought I'd join in.

"Where does a one eyed man buy clothes?"
They didn't know. So I answered;
"A second hand store."

They looked at each other.
And then looked at me.
Totally confused expressions on their faces.

I didn't understand why, and I was like; "What?! Don't you get it?"
And they said "No... not really."

And so I repeated it, only this time correctly;
"Where does a one handed man buy clothes?"

And they started laughing.
Very hard.

And told me my mistake.

And I think I turned red.
And have decided joke telling is not for me.

How I Spent My Friday Night

click to see larger.

Gourds

Remember when we went to the GOURD FARM way back when? I made a center piece out of 5 of the gourds I bought, and am finally blogging about it. I think it looks kinda cool. Definitely different.
I spray painted them all silver and then found an old wooden tray and spray painted it to match. I added acorns in the bottom of the tray and placed three gourds and three candles in the tray. Then there is a gourd on either end. And that, my friends, is my fall center piece.
Five gourds down, two to go!

Our newest addition

I got it! And the camera has been dubbed Frank, after the wonderful customer service man that I placed the order with. He (the camera) is now a big part of our family. And the boys are already sick of him.
I took Frank with me to get Judah up from his nap and this is the face I got:


I think I am more in love with Frank than the boys are. Which is fine by me since they aren't allowed to touch him.

Welcome to my world sweet baby Frank.

Wouldn't it be cool if Frank won a Shoot Sac from Jessica Claire - it'd be the sweetest New Addition gift ever. Jessica Claire, who is an amazing photographer and designer of the Shoot Sac, has teamed up with Mammoth Men and is giving away TWELVE Shoot Sacs loaded with the mens favorite things. Cool, eh?

The Boy in Blue

Wesley sucking on Judah's toes.

Judah trying to get his toe from his brother.
These boys make me laugh.

Money Saving Tips

Looking for unique ways to save money this holiday season? Take your kids shopping with you.
If you don't have kids under the age of two then borrow mine. Just before nap time. *smirk* I guarantee you'll stick to your pre-made list and not endlessly wander the aisles and needlessly pick up "stuff."

It works.

I promise.

Want another money saving tip? Of course you do.
Try not activating your debit card next time they send you a new one. Not having any access to it will keep you from spending money. I know this because I have been too lazy to activate my card. I got it back in JUNE people, and I have yet to activate it and carry it with me.

All of my money-spending outings must be pre-thought out - either having gotten the cash to carry with me or borrowing Paul's card.

Several times I have thought to myself "I think I'll take the boys to the mall today and just wander around to kill time."
And then I remember - I don't have money. So even though I hadn't been planning on spending money at the mall, I won't go without money. I probably would have ended up spending money. Thus (does anyone really use that word any more?!) not having a debit card saved me money.

Sheets

Is there a right way to fold sheets? Particularly the bottom sheet?
I am organizing closets today and that question was on my mind, so I took a break to come ask that question :)

Once my Grandma said to me;
"Jessica, do you know how to fold bottom sheets?"
Thinking she was going to tell me I said;
"No, how do you fold them?"
She said;
"Oh, I don't know. I was hoping you could tell me."

I have lived our whole married life kinda rolling/folding/stuffing the bottom sheets, and then hiding them under the nicely folded top sheet when placed in the closet.
I have just started putting both sets of sheets and one pillowcase in side the second pillow case, it looks kinda neat, the sets stay together, and you can't see how the sheets are folded :)

But I still wonder - is there a proper way to fold the bottom sheet?

A Statistic

I have been reorganizing our office and I found an old notebook that I'd had with me while I was in Nigeria four years ago. I found something I had written about one of the women whose story was shared with me. This woman and her two children were very special to me.
This is what I wrote four years ago;

You don't know me. You will probably never meet me.
To you I am just a statistic amongst the African AIDS victims.
But I have a story.
And I have a passion.
Both of which I want to share with you.
I married a good man, but he ended up straying from me.
It broke my heart to see him go.
But then he changed, and he came back to me, asked my forgiveness.
So I took him back.
The return of my husband brought me great joy.
We had three children - and then tragedy struck.
First, my oldest child died. He was such a lovely, lively boy.
He was never tested,
But I know in my heart why he died.
Next, my husband died.
We discovered he had AIDS.
His family was furious -
with me!
They blamed me for his death,
Even though I had always been faithful.
They wanted to take my other two children from me -
And so I fled.
I went to a new village, I made new friends,
And I tried to make a new life for myself and the children.
And then I discovered that I have AIDS.
This is my story, and tragic as it may be I know God is in control.
My passion is my children.
I want to live to see them grow up, I want to be able to provide for them.
I want to know if they have this terrible sickness or has God has spared them from it -
But I am too scared to find out.
My story and my passion have been told.
But who cares?
I am just a statistic.

Life has been busy. Something about being the sole diaper changer in this house, on top of being sick, on top of trying to figure out how to build a website to market my photography has left me with little time and motivation to blog.

I didn't make much money last week, but I have more than made up for it this week as I've made $150 between yesterday and today selling stuff. I am rather excited about that. Still a long way from getting the camera, but I'm closer than I was last week :)

The boys have had an eventful week, Judah somehow got a hold of a bottle of glass cleaner and sprayed a bunch of it in his mouth. Then the very next day Wesley got a hold of a piece of popcorn and choked. Seriously, our house is safe and we don't leave those things laying around. We're still not sure how it happened. We're thankful that both boys are fine.

I walked into the room today to see what was so funny as both boys were laughing. Judah was letting Wesley lick his spoon, which had been covered in whipped cream.

Judah has started saying "Thank you" unprompted and at the appropriate time. It is so sweet.

Wesley is on a sleeping strike and hasn't slept for more than 45 minutes at a time since early yesterday morning.

So we're a fun lot today :)

The Name

The name Wesley has to be one of the coolest names for little kids to say :) Judah pretty faithfully refers to him as "Wezzy" - which we totally encourage. It's adorable.
Judah's best buddy, Baynham (who is almost 4), has many cute variations of the name. My favorite of his I think is "Wetzley."

Baynham is a pretty fun name too. Judah currently calls him "Bay-Bay." And Baynham almost always responds with "That's not my name Judah. My name is Baynham."

A Day At The Zoo

Friday was spent with good friends and our kiddos at the zoo. It was the boys first trip, tho Wesley didn't care where he was and hung out in the stroller most of the trip.

Here was our group, minus Wesley, who was sitting off to the side.


Judah adored the gorilla. The gorilla was right up at the glass, and Judah would have sat there all day staring at him I think.
Judah got to feed the giraffe. He wasn't as thrilled as I thought he might've been.

He loved the bubbles in the fish tank!

Taking a little break. He did super well - he walked for most of the five hours we were there.

His loves at the zoo included: the gorilla, the penguins, the bubbles in the fish tanks, the electrical outlets and the lights in the cages.

A Boring Update

Paul made an amazing potato soup this past week - it was so flavorful and delicious! He's wanting to get into making more soups - they freeze so nicely for quick meals, and they are just so yummy. Do any of you have favorite soup recipes to share?

Paul was off work on Saturday so the four of us hit up some yard sales... one of the (many!) benefits to living in the south - yard sales are still going strong the beginning of November. We found a great church yard sale, and just before we were done browsing they said that they were about to close so everything was half off the already low prices. I think my favorite thing from there were two Praise Baby dvds. The boys both love watching them, and I don't mind listening to them, so it's a win-win situation.

My camera fund was gifted $50 this week. My efforts to sell things on Craigslist wasn't very successful. I didn't pursue it very hard at all tho as I got distracted with another website I am working on. I am making progress with it tho, so maybe, hopefully, this week I'll do better with listing items.

Paul is off again for the next three days, starting tomorrow, and we've got lots of fun plans, so this blog will remain un-updated for a bit longer.