Growing up

I am just so amazed at all the new things Chase is doing! He is counting everything he can, and can count all the way up to 20! He also recognizes lots of letters......in fact, yesterday he was trying to show me something he had but I was having a hard time understanding what he was saying. I looked in his hand and I asked him what he had and he said "letter X!" and sure enough, he had a piece of Lucky Charms cereal that was shaped like the letter X!! And in the van he has an Elmo school bus toy that has the alphabet on it and when you push a letter it says what it is. It also sings the alphabet song and will play a game with you by asking you to find the letter that starts a certain word. Well, Chase can correctly find at least 10 letters! And as for colors, he knows at least 4 different colors and is always pointing at something and telling me what color it is!

*sigh* It seems like just yesterday I found out I was pregnant with him.......time goes by way too fast......

Yum, yum!

I'm so sorry i've been a little scarce. I've been trying to keep up with things around the house, as well as pack AND hunt for a home for us and i'm wiped out!!! Mail hasn't been too bad lately, but I haven't been signing up for too many goodies since we are hoping to move very soon. I did get a Schick Hydro Silk razor that I can not WAIT to try!! But today I got an amazing package from Psst and General Mills: 5 boxes of cereal!!!

Chase was SO excited when he saw the Cheerios and Ty was excited about the Cinnamon Toast Crunch! :)

Varolo

Ok, a few weeks ago I joined Jingit, a site that pays you to view ads. Well, they have slacked off big time (not that I was expecting to make a fortune, but no ads in a few days isn't a good sign) so i went searching and found a site called Varolo. They seem fairly legit and offer tons of ads/videos to watch so you can earn money. And obviously, you won't get rich doing these sites, but any little bit helps, right?!? Varolo pays you through Paypal, which I love because I use that for my "scrapbook/mad" money! Here is a link to join, and yes it is a referral link. On Varolo, you can refer people into something called your "village", and the more people who join your village the more money you can earn!!

8 years ago today....

At 5:29am, after 3 hours of pushing and finally needing a vacuum to get him out, we welcomed our first born into the world!! He weighed 7lbs 2oz and was 20 inches long and was the most beautiful person I had ever seen.

Happy birthday, Tyler Kenneth!!! Mommy, daddy and Chase love you so very much!!

Thank you for making us a family.........

Christmas has come and gone

Each year I am shocked at how fast the holiday goes by. This Christmas seemed to go by even faster since I took the decorations down the day after! I usually leave them up until at least New Year, but we really needed the room. I still keep finding decorations here and there, but I think I got it all up now. I foudn a few Christmas cards that we got this year, and I must say I don't think we will be sending out cards next year. And if we do, it will only be a small few. I am truly amazed at the lack of cards we got this year. I know it's really not a big deal, but it always meant so much when we got cards from family and friends......it really showed they were thinking of us. We got a total of 6 cards this year. So yeah, i'm not really thinking about doing cards anymore. (and I hate being that way, as I LOVE doing Christmas cards )

As for Christmas, we had a GREAT day!!! The boys got so much and loved everything they got. Some things we had to put up until we move, since we just don't have the room for everything. I think Chase's favorite was the Fisher Price Stand and Play Rampway. Actually, we ALL love playing with it!! And some of the reviews were people complaining about the cars flying off the track....well, Chase cracks up everytime one of his cars goes flying!! I'm hoping to get him a few more cars to use with it, although he loves to use his Tonka Chuck & Friends as well as Hotwheel cars on it. Ty's favorite thing he got was his Spongebob Lego sets!! In fact, he is getting a third one for his birthday! But he plays with them every day. They both also love the Crayola paints they got from my sister and her family. All in all it was a great Christmas.

Well, Ty has been on Christmas break for 2 weeks now and he is BEYOND ready to go back to school!! I'm SO thankful we had decent weather since he loves to play outside. If he would have been stuck in the house for most of his break I think I would have lost my mind. I love him so much, but he needs to be around other people!! He goes back this Monday, thank you Lord. He's also excited about this coming week, since his birthday is a week from today!!! How is it he is going to be 8 years old?!? We're going to actually celebrate his birthday on Wednesday, since Z is off that day. Ty had asked Z if he could get home a little earlier on his birthday so they could have dinner together, but Z's work is moving to a new shop and he has to stay late that night. Z mentioned about celebrating on Wednesday and Ty said he would love that!! He's asked for chinese food for dinner and an ice cream cake for dessert.

Poor Chase has been having issues yet again with his ears.We had to take him to see the doctor on Wednesday because his right is was now bothering him. The doctor checked his left ear but couldn't see much since he had so much wax in it, but he said his right ear was really infected and it looked like the eardrum may have ruptured. They gave us some stronger antibiotics and he said he wanted to see him back in two weeks so he can make sure the fluid is going down. If not, Chase will need to see an ear specialist and may possibly need tubes in his ears. I mentioned to the doctor about Chase's speech and he said it could very well be because of his ears being infected and that he isn't hearing well enough to speak clearly. So, if it does come down to him needing tubes it won't be a bad thing, as it will not only help his ears but possibly his speech. I just feel so bad for my boy, though.

Well, Chase is now awake so it's time I get off of here. Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!!!

Happy New Year!!

Wow, how did I not post this already?!? We've been so busy around the house I totally forgot about it! It's SO hard to believe yet another year is starting. 2011 wasn't one of best years, that's for sure. Between finding out Z has cancer to him losing his job thanks to his asshole ex-boss....well, I think that was a blessing actually. He was SO miserable there....between his boss's mood swings and another co-worker that treated everyone in the shop like shit (karma will get her, though ) he was dreading going to work every day. But the way he was let go was not right at all. Then with the issues we had with where we are living, it's been a rough year. 2012 should really be our year, though. Yes, Z has to have surgery again but this time he has short term disability so we should be ok as far as bills go. Plus we plan on putting some income tax money away to get us by...but the best thing, we are moving!!! (we have moved 6 times since being married and i've always dreaded it, but not this time!!) Hopefully within the next 2-3 months we will be out of this neighborhood and into something permanent...meaning all ours!! I can't wait to feel safe in my own home again.

I don't really have any resolutions for this new year. Just to get the boys through it in one piece is enough resolution for me!!! Hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed new year!!!! 

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes!!

I had seen this recipe and just couldn't wait to try it!! I had some pineapple, but it was in syrup so I couldn't use those....so last night when we went out Z picked up another can of pineapple tidbits in juice so I could make the cupcakes. Here is the first batch, ready for the cake batter: (I went back and added more pineapple after I took the pic)

The second batch, ready for the oven! (I forgot to get a pic of the first batch after I added the batter...LOL)

All done!!

YUM......

I was really proud of how well these turned out! Some of the topping did stay inside the pan, but it was easy to just scoop out and re-add it to the cake. And i've only had a tiny bite of one, but it tastes SOOOO good.