Fall festivities

This weekend, we spent a lot of time packing boxes!

We are still shooting to move before Thanksgiving!

We also decided to FINALLY get in the fall spirit and carved a pumpkin! I just knew Noah would be so excited to stick his hands in the pumpkin and get all messy.

Noah tried to help Daddy cut the top off the pumpkin.

But then Daddy decided that he was going to do this the redneck way and brought out the Dremel…

As soon as Brad took the top off the pumpkin, Noah ran over and peeked inside and said, “Oh look at those butterflies in there! They are so cute!” I have no idea about that one.

He stuck his hand in one time.

And would not touch it again because he “didn’t want his hands to get yucky”.

But he is in LOVE with the finished pumpkin. He asks to check on him every day!

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And speaking of FALL, yesterday when we were leaving church, we were walking to the car and apparently my heel slipped off the sidewalk so I started tumbling forward and ended up splatting on the asphalt in the parking lot! I broke my FAVORITE pair of heels, tore up my pants, messed up my hand and my pedicure and tore up my knee! Thankfully we left church a little later than everyone else so I don’t think anyone saw me!

Here are pictures of my knee yesterday and then today!

It hurts so bad!

We also had our annual Fall Festival at church yesterday, but this post is already running long so I will post about it (hopefully) tomorrow!

Parties and such

My oldest nephew turned 10 this past week, so we celebrated his birthday at the McWane Science Center in Birmingham!

In the party room, the kids got to pet different reptiles. Noah fearlessly touched each one!

There was also a tarantula….I HATE spiders. Like with every fiber of my being. And which animal was Noah’s favorite? You guessed it. He was so disappointed when they wouldn’t let him take it out of the cage. 

And since Griffin was the birthday boy, he got to hold one animal of his choosing. He chose the snake!

After we had cake and ice cream and opened presents, it was time to explore the place! Noah had never been there before (and I haven’t been in several years) so he had a lot of fun! The very first thing he ran to play with was the train tracks, of course!

He LOVES trains. And Thomas.

Next, we uncovered dinosaur bones. Noah wasn’t too crazy about that activity because the “dirt” kept getting in his shoes and hurting his feet.

We chased him around from exhibit to exhibit to exhibit!

Needless to say, he slept hard that night! (And so did I!)

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So have you seen the idea on Pinterest of putting a glow stick in the bath tub for extra fun? We tried it and it was a HUGE success!

Could that smile be any bigger? We have been freezing the glow stick after bath each night and it is still glowing!

Noah has also mastered the art of taking self portraits with my iPhone. I frequently find these pictures…

I sure do love that sweet boy!

And a house update!

This picture was taken while they were putting on the shingles. They have since finished the brick work and are supposed to start putting up the vinyl siding and sheetrock this week! We really need to get to packing! It won’t be long now!

The Color Run

So Saturday, my little family and my sister’s fam all got together and ran walked The Color Run! We had SO MUCH FUN!

Here we are before the race:

Photo by Skip Baumhower

How cute are we?!?

I was too scared to take my iphone with me during the race so I didn’t get any pictures of us actually in the race. But we got plenty of before and after!

Here we are after the race, but before the big color throwing at the end.

After the race, the runners gather together and everyone throws up some color at the same time. It was an awesome experience!

My boys after the big color throw:

And our whole crew!

I scrubbed my hair and arms about 4 times before most of the color came off! We had a blast and I can’t wait to do it again next year!

Sickies and a house update

We have had an interesting few days!

Monday evening, I noticed that Noah seemed to be coughing a lot and had a yucky, runny nose. We gave him some cold medicine and put him to bed early. The poor guy kept waking up with coughing spells and it actually started to sound like a croup cough. Tuesday morning, his eyes looked sickly and he had a fever of 101. (How do you take the temperature of a 2 year old? I tried to put it under his tongue, but he was having none of that. I tried under his arm, but he wouldn’t hold still long enough for it to get a good reading. I eventually opted to go the other way. I was shocked that he laid still and let me take it!)

Anyway, I decided to take him to the doctor to get him checked out. We got there at 8:30am and there was literally ONE seat in the waiting room that didn’t have someone sitting in it. We stayed in the waiting room for about an hour and a half. That was SUPER fun….. And we also went to the potty about 578 times with no luck. The exhaust fan in the bathroom was kind of loud and it was freaking him out a bit.

We finally got called back to a room.

The doctor said that he just had a cold/virus that would clear up in a day or so. She gave us some cold medicine to try, with the warning that it may just wire him up. Fun times.

So we went home to snuggle a bit and watch Kung Fu Panda 2 and Thomas.

Wednesday, I gave Noah the medicine the doctor gave us and went in to work for half a day while my Mom watched Noah. (Thanks Mom!) When I got back home, I put Noah down for a nap and put a movie on for him. (He always goes to sleep watching a movie.) Two hours later, I heard him playing in his room so I went to go check on him. I opened the door…

Noah: “Hey Mama!”

Me: “Hey baby. Did you have a good nap?”

Noah: “Oh I not nap, I watch my movie!”

Me: “You never went to sleep??”

Noah: “No, I watch my movie!”

Me: “The WHOLE MOVIE??”

Noah: “Yep, I do.”

SOO I would say the meds definitely wired him up! :) That child loves his sleep and always has. I don’t think he has ever not taken a nap!

He never ran another fever and started acting like his old self as the day went on. He went back to school today so hopefully we won’t have the sickies again for a while.

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Now for a house update! My Dad has been out of town a lot lately so the crew has been a little slow without his supervision. But we are still moving forward, even if it’s a slow pace!

This was taken yesterday afternoon. It’s starting to look like an actual house! I’m so ready to move!

But I will miss living in the ‘country’ and being able to see beautiful sunsets on my way home.

And on yet another note, we (Me, Brad, Noah, April, Josh, Griffin, Peyton, Reece and baby #4) are doing The Color Run this weekend! We are so excited and I can’t wait to get pictures of that!

House progress

We have made a lot of progress on the house this week! Monday they started framing. It’s nice to have walls up and be able to actually see how everything will look!

By yesterday afternoon, they had the exterior walls blacked in! (And how gorgeous was the sky?)

The roof trusses were also ready and waiting yesterday afternoon, so hopefully they will start installing them today!

Have a great weekend!

Lemon and garlic shrimp with chickpeas

If you know me in real life, you know that I do NOT cook. I have zero interest in standing over a pot and pouring 572 ingredients in at different times and then spending 2 hours cleaning it all up. No thank you. 

BUT I am trying to get away from eating so many Smart One’s and Lean Cuisine’s so I’ve been on the look out for easy and simple low calorie meals to make. I came across a blog called Eat Yourself Skinny on Pinterest and I fell in love! I got this recipe from her blog! Enjoy!

Lemon and Garlic Shrimp with Chickpeas

· 2 (15 oz) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

· 1 1/2 pounds shrimp, peeled with tails intact

· 2 Tbsp olive oil

· 3 Tbsp lemon juice (1 lemon)

· 3 cloves garlic, minced

· 1 tsp. grated lemon zest

· 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

· 1/2 cup parsley, chopped

· 1 1/2 tsp. salt

· 1 lemon, sliced

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Rinse and drain your chickpeas and toss with one tablespoon of olive oil and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Arrange chickpeas in a layer on the bottom of your baking dish and bake for about 20 minutes, until golden. 

Meanwhile, toss your shrimp, one tablespoon of olive oil, juice of one lemon, garlic, lemon zest, red pepper flakes and one teaspoon of salt in a large bowl.  Allow shrimp mixture to marinate for 10 to 15 minutes.

Once your chickpeas have finished baking, spread your shrimp mixture over the roasted chickpeas and place a few lemon slices over top.  Return your dish to the oven and bake for 5 to 8 minutes longer.  Shrimp should be pink in color.  Once done cooking, squeeze additional lemon juice over top and garnish with chopped parsley.  Enjoy!

It really was very tasty! I wasn’t sure that I would like the chickpeas, but they were awesome! I will definitely be making this again in the near future!

I will say that her website says that one serving of the dish is 186 calories, but when I calculated using my ingredients, the calorie count came to 259 per serving. But that’s still super low and super healthy! I was stuffed after one serving!

Happy eating! :)

A fun, fabulous weekend

Friday night, we had a little family date! We had dinner at Full Moon BBQ, checked on the progress of the new house, and then we finished the night with some ice cream at DQ!

The slab was poured Friday at the house. We were hoping the cement would be a little wet so we could write on it, but it was already completely dry!

A few of our new neighbors came over when they saw us there to introduce themselves. Everyone was super nice and welcoming. We are going to love it there! We practically had to drag Noah, kicking and screaming back to the car. He has so much fun digging around in the dirt!

Saturday, we packed a few boxes and cleaned out our garage. I love being productive! We also spent some time enjoying the sunshine and playing in Noah’s fort.

Saturday afternoon, we got to keep my niece, Reece, while her family went to the game! She and Noah played so hard! He loves playing with her and she loves Mommy-ing him! After Noah went to bed, Reece and I crawled in my bed and watched Reba while eating pretzels!

Sunday, I never manage to take any pictures! :) We went to church, then out to eat with friends, then we took naps, went back to church and then came home and went to bed! Phew!

A fun, fabulous weekend!