We are having....

another bouncing baby
Three boys, can you believe it? Dr. F. said he was 1000% sure it was a little boy in there.... as you can see from the first picture, he labeled the part for us... It's so crazy to think about all these boys and what they'll be like. We see the features and personality traits of Ben and Chris, and who we think they came from, and we are totally curious to see what other combinations we come up with =) Will this one look a lot like one of the other boys? Or a totally different combination of genes? We'll see in July!

This one is a butt shot- butt is at the top, and boy part is pointing down between the legs....

This one is kind of a weird shot- little man was hiding his face- you can see the spine and then on the right is the head, facing down. It's always so cool to see them on the ultrasound. We took Chris and Ben so they could see. Not sure they got much out of it, but Ben thought it was pretty cool, and we'll be able to tell them they were there when we found out they were going to have another brother!

My Valentines...

Well, my big Valentine was sick with a migraine for two days- boo. But he was feeling so-so in the evenings, so at least was able to have some fun with us. Last night we ordered Steak Out and watched a documentary after the kids went to bed- really romantic, I know. But we were both feeling pretty yucky. I sure love my Valentine though- he's such a great guy, always working so hard to take care of us. He's so loving and understanding, and such a great dad. The boys just adore their Daddy. I love to watch him playing with them- they have such a fun time together. They are so excited to see him in the morning and as soon as he comes in the door after work, they are all over him. I love you Dave!





I had a fun day with my little Valentines too. I picked up Spongebob balloons and they were a big hit. We had seen them a few days before at Walmart- Chris saw them across the store, seriously, and was pointing and saying "Bu-bob! Bu-bob!" You can see how happy it made him to have one:




Since it was Valentine's Day, we of course had to make some treats, so we did cupcakes, which Ben kept calling muffins (their VERY favorite thing lately). All he wanted to do the whole time was just eat one. He wanted to lick all the frosting too!


Chris helped a little....

I showed them how to put the papers IN the holes of the pan, which he was good at, but then after a few, he decided it was more fun to take them back OUT and put them in a stack...

The hardest part was having to wait for them to bake and cool!!!

Mmmmm.... pink frosting...


Now it's time for frinkles? (sprinkles)

What a good frinkler!

Cupcake perfection!

Finally got to eat one!!! No, only one.... you can't have another one right now!

You should have seen Chris. It sounds mean, I guess- but if you know me, I'm kind of a sugar nazi with my babies. I know it's not healthy for them, and a little bit will affect them a lot more than a big person- they need the good stuff (plus they are picky and won't eat their veggies)! So anyway, while they're small and I have more control, I really limit what they get. Really, no sweets as long as I can get away with it, and then only rarely. Chris has had them earlier than Ben because of Ben having them, but I still really limit what they get. I gave Ben a cupcake and then I gave Chris one without frosting (sooo much sugar in the frosting), and he kind of wrinkled his eyebrows and looked at me, then looked back at the cupcakes on the counter, then back at his- and then was like "oh well" and scarfed it. No biggie. He's still little enough that I can usually "substitute" his treat and he's okay with it. It was just cute how he noticed, but then didn't make a big deal. I was so glad. Sometimes he does make a big (screaming) deal out of what he wants.

So we took cupcakes around to the family, which Ben loved. He was so excited to give them away. It was a fun day =)

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?

I realllllly need to put more videos on here. I need to take more, they're probably more fun- to see them in action. Dave usually takes a lot, but I don't. It's so fun to take them, then they want to sit and watch the replay. So cute. And it's on my phone, so it's not like it's not convenient!

So every Wednesday, we hit storytime at the library. They LOVE it. They always do some stories and songs, and then they get to do a little paper craft- Ben loves it when he gets to GLUE! It's really cute to watch them there. Especially Ben, he sits right in the front and gets really into the songs. He knows them so well.

One of the stories they do is a flannel board version of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" (Bill Martin Jr., Eric Carle). It's one we have at home, and Ben used to read it all the time and had it memorized (it's not too tricky!) So, yesterday for the craft, they got paper versions of the flannel board pictures to color and take home so they could tell the story. Last night, he showed Dave, acting really silly and shy at first for some reason, but then totally getting into it and wanting to tell it over and over and over. So we got it on video to share with all of you =).

If you're not familiar with this story (you probably won't understand him as well as we do), it's pretty basic- Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? I see a red bird looking at me. Then goes on and on, asks the red bird what he sees, etc... goes on to a yellow duck, blue horse, green frog, purple cat, white dog, black sheep, goldfish, and a teacher.. then the teacher sees children and asks them what they see, and they go back through the list....

(just hit play)

Manamana!

Dave has little video clips on his phone, which the boys just LOVE. They crowd around and sit on him so they can watch the little screen. It's pretty funny. Their favorite (especially Chris!) is Manamana (Muppets). He would watch it all day. I turned on the CD and that wasn't enough apparently, so he went over to Dave and sat there looking up at him and demanding "Na-na, na-na!", but Dave's phone is upstairs, so he said- why don't you pull it up on the computer. Bad idea! Whenever Dave has his phone out doing something, Chris sits there and begs for Manamana (or sometimes GooCoo, aka Blue's Clues). Now after watching it about 6 times, he is still sitting here next to me saying "Na-na" over and over and over....



Ben's favorite part is the end. He likes to say it to us "The question is what is Na-nop" so we'll say "the question is, who cares?" He thinks it's hilarious.

Food glorious food...

So, food and I... we have this love/hate thing going on. I usually love it, but lately I just hate it. This pregnancy has been way worse than the others. I've been totally sick, was on Zofran for a while for my nausea (haven't had to take it in a little while now) but mostly I just feel sick in general. Food doesn't sound good, I have to force myself to eat something.... dinner is a big pain- we've had way too much takeout... yeah. Not to mention the dairy thing- not being able to have milk or cheese severely limits your options.

But some nights lately I'm pretty hungry. And when I can plan some decent meals, it's nice. Last night was soooo good, and I had a couple of the leftovers for lunch. Had to snap a pic and share it. If you've never had a teriyaki burger, you are so missing out. My favorite way to make them is using King's Hawaiian sweet bread/buns. It's the perfect combination. A little mayo, some lettuce and tomato, and it's the best ever. I'm not even big on hamburgers at ALL lately, but teriburgers are different. Last night I made mini burgers on the griddle inside (too cold to grill) and put them on the King's sweet rolls-- so good, and perfect size for little hands.

They're super easy. If you live somewhere more west, you can probably find a powdered pack of teriyaki marinade- you can just mix that into your hamburger and voila! If you don't have that, I've found here that the Kikkoman liquid Teriyaki marinade works just as good. I just add a little at a time, mushing it in with my hands until it's pretty mushy, but not to the point where it will fall apart on me when I grill it. I think last night on a pound of hamburger, I used like 1/4- 1/3 of the bottle and they were perfect.



This morning I made these banana muffins that the boys LOVE love love. Ben loves his "nuffins" in general, and Chris calls them "muh mins". They would eat them all day if I let them. I made them last week for the first time, and they were okay, but I think a little overdone. Today I reduced the baking time just a tad (plus only made half the batch- one pan) and they were sooooo good. The recipe is from the Food Network website, from Tyler Florence. The recipe is from that show, "How to Boil Water" so it's really easy to make, stuff you have on hand (when you have a couple of overripe bananas) and very yummy... (ps I omitted the nuts, I didn't have any).

Banana Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 overripe bananas
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and lightly butter 2 muffin tins.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork in a small bowl so they still have a bit of texture. With an electric mixer fitted with a wire whisk, whip the remaining bananas and sugar together like you mean it, for a good 3 minutes. Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Fold in the nuts and the mashed bananas with a rubber spatula.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tins to fill them about halfway. Give them a rap on the counter to get any air bubbles out. Bake until a toothpick stuck in the muffins comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes before turning the muffins out. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The recipe is on their site HERE. It says it yields 12, but when I filled them 1/2 full, I got 24. This time I just made a half batch, it was quick and easy :) Also, for my oven, I reduced the cooking time, they only took 16-17 mins.

New header for love day...

They are so cute. Chris is a little stinker when I try to take his picture, though ;)

Uncle Jerdy again...

I'm trying to make sure I write stuff down more or I forget it =) They are so stinkin' cute and I haven't been taking many pictures or anything. I'm going to be better!

A couple weeks ago when we went to Little River Canyon, we saw this couple and for some reason Ben thought the guy was Uncle Jerdy (my brother, who we haven't seen in a year) I told him it wan't, but I guess he didn't believe me or something. Even though he didn't try to talk to the guy or anything...

This morning at breakfast, out of the blue: "Remember when we saw Uncle Jerdy? At the waterfall? And Keli too. Brady wasn't there...... he was still sleeping." It's so funny to me that he keeps mentioning my brother. Out of all the people in my family, he must remember Uncle Jerdy the best!

The last couple nights we have been watching our neice Nicole. I've had to tell Ben to not scream/ blow flutes/ etc. in her face, and also after she would go to sleep they would have to be quiet. So after breakfast, he saw a flute or something loud, and said: "Hey! There's no Nicole. Now I can be loud again!"

Today, Ben went to lunch with Grandma, so Chris got to have his own time with Mommy. He's been so cute today. Usually, he's pretty overshadowed by Ben, especially when we're out, but today he loved being the only one I think. He told the lady at Publix "thank you" and "bye bye" after she gave him the balloon. You have to know Chris to get why this was so cute. He's pretty quiet and he's only recently started to really get a lot of words out there on a regular basis. He's gotten so good at communicating with us. He's so cute.

All caught up!

Whew, I did it! If you couldn't tell, I just posted a TON tonight trying to catch up from the last month or so. I've been sick for months and spent a lot of time not on the computer- then every time I would get on here, I would feel like there was so much to catch up on that it would just take forever to try and blog. But I did it-- here ya go, all caught up! Now I can keep the blog current again. Well, first I have to start taking more pictures again. I've taken some, but not nearly as many as I normally do. Hopefully I'll feel better soon.

For those that don't know, I'm not terminal- I'm just PREGNANT!

This is the little bean at 9 weeks--

and at 13 weeks.

My doctor usually does an initial ultrasound to check everything and measure the baby. My first appointment got messed up, so I sort of had two initial appointments, so I've had two ultrasounds so far... you don't hear me complaining! It's so fun to see the tiny baby in there squirming around and the little heart beating- so amazing!

I'm 16 1/2 weeks along now, due on July 8th. We should find out if it's a boy or girl in about a month at our last ultrasound. I've been so much sicker this time around, and unlike my previous pregnancies, it didn't let up once the first trimester passed. But, we keep on muddling through. Some days are better than others. Last week, I had a terrible headcold that made it even harder to function, but now I'm back to just the normal pain and nausea... It's better than it was earlier in the pregnancy. I can function a lot better, though I don't really feel like doing much. We mostly hang out at home during the week.

Today was a comfort food day. I go back and forth, but right now I have an okay relationship with food. Nothing really sounds good, but once something does, it feels good to eat. I have to eat frequently to keep the nausea at bay, which is hard when even the thought of food is so yucky. Anyway, I made some kalua pig today, and it was sooooo good. It cooked all day in my oven, and I could smell it- it made me so hungry.

After dinner, Ben and I made some chocolate chip cookies- he loves helping in the kitchen so much. Especially cookies- he just wants to eat the dough though (we have NO idea where he gets that from). The whole time we were making them this time, he kept saying- "okay done, time to lick it it".... "stop mixing, it's time to lick it"... "I wanna lick it!".... haha! It was so cute. Once he got to "lick it" he was just in heaven-- but when I told him that was enough cookie dough, boy was he sad!!

Oh yeah, time to LICK IT!

Little River Canyon

Last Saturday, we went exploring at the "Grand Canyon of the South". We saw a show on PBS-HD about this place, Little River Canyon, and found out that it was only and hour or so away from us and had to go find it. It had these beautiful waterfalls- this was the main one, Little Falls I think it was called.

This was the view of the river at the bottom of the canyon from up on the mountain. It really was like a mini-Grand Canyon, it was a very cool place.

Unfortunately, it was FA-REEEEEZING that day. The first couple of stops we did fleece sweaters and hats, but we had to switch to full on coats, hats and mittens for the rest of the time, which poor nap-deprived Christopher got REALLY tired of pretty quickly. We didn't get to get out and see as much as we would have liked, because of the weather and the exhausted baby, but we had a lot of fun and will for sure be going back there in the spring and summer. They have a kind of beach on the river where you can swim and picnic and spend the day. They also have campgrounds and cabins to rent. We're excited to find such a cool place so close. You learn something new every day...

They had fun "hiking" down to the waterfall. Chris did NOT want to be carried- he walked a long way, he just loved it.

Chucking rocks in the water at the dam...

Dressing up is so much fun...

These boys are so funny sometimes. They have a big basket full of hats- some normal "real" hats- baseball caps and knit hats, some playhats- like cowboy and pirate hats. They both love to play with the hats. The other night, Chris put this one on backwards and Ben came over with a big smile, telling me- "Chris looks like Uncle Jerdy" (my brother). I thought that was so cute that he thought that, especially since he hasn't seen my brother in a year, and we haven't been talking about him or looking at pictures or anything lately- he just thought of that out of the blue. I guess it was the backwards hat... but it was so cute. And THEY were just so stinkin' cute....

Oh, did I mention they also have a couple of furry boas from the dollar store? I promise, other than that- their dressup stuff is not girly!

Wait, I guess maybe this furry hat... but I always thought it was more "pimpin".... haha

Snow!!!

We got snow again in Alabama- on the 16th, we were just home hanging out. This is only the second time I've seen it in 3 1/2 years. It had been raining for a while that day and really cold. Ben and I were looking out the window, and Ben goes, what is that?? SNOW? It was so cute, we both realized at the same time that it was snowing. We ran up to tell Dave who was upstairs, and hurried to put on socks and shoes and coats. They loved it. Unfortunately, it was wet and didn't stick, but it was fun to see anyway. Ben was running around crazy and they were both having Dave twirl them around. Chris kept climbing up on the patio chairs and getting all wet. It was good times.



Catching snowflakes...

More, more, more!!!

Happy Christmas!

Christmastime was fun. We did a lot- Dave's sister was was here with her family for three weeks, so we had a nice long holiday season. Ben and Chris had lots of fun going to Grandma and Grandpa's all the time and playing with their cousins lots. On Christmas Eve, we had the extended family over for dinner, then the kids got all snuggled up in their new pajamas, set out cookies for Santa, then it was off to bed. Chris is still too little to get it, but Ben was so excited for Santa to come. He was so cute.

The next morning, Ben woke up all happy and excited and told us that Santa brought presents. He got up and was jumping on his bed, "it's Christmas, it's Christmas!" I love how he says Christmas "kih-mess". And he loves saying "Happy Kih-mess".

Ben was so excited, we couldn't make him wait to go down and see everything, so we woke Chris up. He usually sleeps about an hour longer than Ben. He was so cute, all sleepy and smiley. It took him a while to get into everything, but he loved it all.

It was a fun Christmas. They loved their gifts, especially a couple of the books they got- Ben loved the Wiggles book that came with a little music player that plays a bunch of their songs, and Chris got a musical Spongebob book that he was soooo excited about. He LOVES Spongebob.

Here's an album with a few more pics of Christmas, and some pics of the fun stuff we did with the family over the holidays. On Jeanne and Steve's last day in town, we all went to the Aquarium in Chattanooga- the boys had a lot of fun. Here's a rare family shot of us--

and the rest of the pics...

Christmastime

New Blog Header for Christmas =)

Awww.. aren't my little guys handsome? We took these new pics today to send to the grandparents for Christmas. They cooperated better than usual! Not much to blog about. Trying to get the house in order for Christmas, send out Christmas cards way too late, finish Christmas shopping, etc. Dave's sister and her family are visiting so we've had a lot of cr-Azy cousin fun this past week. The boys have been loving it.