Giggles and Thumbs

So James laughs too, but he really makes you work for it. Today he was crying so I started talking to him and making those silly noises that babies get us to make just so we look like fools... and he started randomly laughing at me. This was the first time he's laughed at being tickled. Usually he's like "what the heck are you doing, lady?" 

Nicholas learned a cool trick from his Grandma Rhoda the last time she visited. It was "thumbs up!" which is not so easy for him due to his preference toward using his middle finger for everything.
So, to help we started singing the Thumbkin song. :)

Pic-pic in the Park

We love to go over to the grassy area next to Lake Alice to let Nicholas run around and play, so today we went and had a picnic there. Nicholas brought one of his soccer balls to play with, and I packed pbj's and juice boxes.

Pinterest recipes

Last week I tried 2 Pinterest recipes. Idk what got into me, I had pinned a lot of foods but never actually wrote the recipes and made them for my family before. I wasn't disappointed, so I am definitely going to try more. I picked them because they looked so EASY and I had all the ingredients in my home already!

Here is the first:
Crescent Pepperoni Roll-Ups
1 can refrigerated crescent rolls
40 slices turkey pepperoni
4 pieces of mozzarella string cheese, cut in half
garlic powder
pizza sauce

Preheat oven to 375.

Unroll crescent rolls and separate into 8 triangles. Place 5 slices of turkey pepperoni on each crescent roll. Top pepperoni with string cheese half and roll up. Sprinkle crescent rolls with garlic powder. Place rolls on baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve with a side of warm pizza sauce.

www.plainchicken.com


Here is the other:
Ingredients
2 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
4 cups Cooked Brown Rice
¾ cups Frozen Corn
15 ounces, fluid Can Black Beans, Drained And Rinsed
1 cup Plain Greek Yogurt (or Sour Cream)
4 ounces, fluid Can Green Chilis
½ cups Salsa
1 cup Low-fat Cheddar Cheese, Plus More For Topping
2 Tablespoons Fresh Cilantro For Garnish

Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except for cilantro and mix thoroughly to combine. Make sure the yogurt and cheese are stirred in throughout the entire bowl. Season with salt and pepper if desired. Transfer to an oven-safe dish and top with extra cheese if you would like. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until heated through. Garnish with chopped cilantro.


The rice recipe could EASILY be cut in half. Mine actually made a ton of food, so I put 1/2 in a bag in the freezer for another day and baked the other half for that evening. Tyler liked it, Nicholas did not.

A Bit of Heaven :)

Nicholas Singing

Nicholas loves to sing these days. He makes up all kinds of songs, as well as singing along to ones we sing to him a lot. Anytime one of the babies is crying, I ask him to sing to them. The babies love it and always stop crying to listen to their brother. He usually sings the ABC's because it's his favorite, but when he sings it to the babies he rushes through it like he's doing me some huge favor and just wants to get it over with. Haha! such an attitude on this one... Some of his other favorites are "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star," "Jesus Song" (My Heavenly Father Loves Me), "Nicholas Song" (You are My Sunshine), "Flower Song" (I have no idea...), "Family Song" (Families Can Be Together Forever)... and many other songs that he's made up. For example the last song on the video. I think he got bitten by a friend on the finger and so all day he was a little obsessed with biting. So it's the "Bite on Me" song. LOL

Dreams

Every morning, and every afternoon when Nicholas wakes up and I go get him out of his room he says, "Mommy! I jus' dream about something!" So I say, "What?"
He thinks about it and tells me what he wants most for that day.
Today he said "I dreamed that friends came to my house again!"
Some days he "dreams" about the park, or his Grandmas, or swimming...

Goin' for a walk

So... I have not been so great at this blog thing lately. I have been taking pictures, but it's so easy to just post them to Facebook and then I neglect the blog. It's too time consuming to get on the computer to do it "right" and I tend to WANT to get it perfect. I like to put the pictures in the right order and comment on them in the right places. I can post from my phone but it mixes up the order, posts small size pics and doesn't let me caption. I'm posting from my phone right now.
Anyway, the point of this blog is to let friends and family that are interested, see what we are up to and feel like they aren't missing out on our (mostly the kids') lives while we are living far away. So, I will try and post more. But it probably won't be as detailed as it has been. We're talking survival mode here, folks. If you really want to know what's going on with our fam, it's chaos. A whole lot of it. :)

Anyway!... We have a runnin arrangement with Nicholas's "girlfriend" for play dates. It was our turn to go to their house and since our car is in the shop Tyler had the van. Nicholas thinks Daddy stole it from us. :) I thought to myself, "This will be a great opportunity to get some fresh air, and excercise for me!" So I loaded up the double stroller that I have with Nicholas and one baby. Then I strapped the other baby to my chest and we headed out! It was a bit over ambitious... And hot. But when I was done, I decided I liked it. :)