Noah’s birthday party

Noah wanted to start his birthday RIGHT, so for breakfast we went to Waffle House and had a chocolate chip waffle and some ‘coffee’. Right now, he loves to pretend that whatever he is drinking is coffee. I guess I’m starting to wear off on him! :)

Then we went to Noah’s cousin’s bowling birthday party. He was interested in bowling when it was his turn, but there were a lot of kids there so he had to wait a while in between turns. So he ended up just running around the place most of the time.

Then after nap, it was time for Noah’s party! I knew he would have fun getting to run around in the gym.

But he was most excited about playing in the big foam pit! He would have just stayed there all day if we would let him. He loved walking on the balance beam and jumping off into the pit.

It took him a long time to decide what kind of party he wanted. We debated between Shrek, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Big Al. He finally said he wanted a football party!

He doesn’t really like cake (what is wrong with the kid??) so I made sure there would be a Big Al made of icing on the cake just for him! He LOVED it!

He got so many presents and had so many friends come to celebrate his big day!

When we got home, he got to see his present from Mommy and Daddy! A blue PowerWheel truck!

His favorite thing to do when he gets home from school every day is to ride up and down the street in our neighborhood!

Happy birthday Noah!!

Saturday my little fellow turned 3 years old! He is getting so big and so smart! I just love him to pieces!

I mean, for real. So stinkin’ cute! Friday, my sister and I took cupcakes to school to celebrate Noah’s birthday with his classmates. Just say the word cupcake in a room full of 2 and 3 year olds and you are instantly awesome!

See?? :)

I have several party pictures to show you this week, but for today I am going to post Noah’s annual birthday questions! I started this tradition last year and am SO glad that I did. I loved looking back at his answer’s this year!

1. What is your favorite color? blue

2. What is your favorite toy? a tractor

3. What is your favorite fruit? strawberries

4. What is your favorite tv show? Barney (This is a new thing at our house. He watches Barney at school, so I bought him a cheap dvd of Barney and now that’s ALL he wants to watch.)

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? a sandwich (I send him an Uncrustable pb&j every day to school. He loves them!)

6. What is your favorite outfit? a Big Al one

7. What is your favorite game? Rudolph (I have no idea on this one!)

8. What is your favorite snack? nuffin’ (I get this answer a lot when I ask him what he wants to eat.)

9. What is your favorite animal? a lion

10. What is your favorite song? Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

11. What is your favorite book? Mickey Mouse

12. Who is your best friend? Noland

13. What is your favorite cereal? Cheerio’s

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Ride in the powerwheel (We got him a powerwheel truck for his birthday!)

15. What is your favorite drink? chocolate milk

16. What is your favorite holiday? decorating (I asked him about Christmas, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day…he said, no…decorating!)

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? my blankey

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? suckers (I promise I don’t feed him suckers for breakfast!)

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? 38 (At this point, I think he was just tired of answering my questions! )

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? baby Jesus

So there you have it! Hopefully I can post some party pictures this week!

Let’s catch up

So Noah got to experience his first snow! He was at school when the snow first started coming down and his teacher sent me this picture. I was a little sad that I wasn’t with him when he first saw it, but school got cancelled later on in the day so we were able to experience it together! He didn’t really want to play in it. He just liked looking at the snow and asking “What’s that snow doing on the ______?” (insert grass, house, road, car…)

This was BIG TIME snow in Alabama! :)

Here is my little helper at work!

The hubs got a new job (yay!) and started this week. He loves it!

We took Noah to the mall to get Brad some new work clothes. He was fascinated with the Crock-Pots and toaster ovens. He kept ‘cooking muffins’ while we were there!

My middle nephew celebrated his 9th birthday at Super Skate. Noah had a BLAST and by the end of the party, he didn’t even need us to hold his hand as he was ‘skating’.

Unfortunately for Noah, the only skates they had in his size were PINK. But since he had on a pink shirt, he just rocked it! He actually likes the color pink pretty well so he didn’t mind at all.

We finally got Noah’s twin sized bed put together and he’s sleeping in it now. His comforter has dump trucks, police cars, helicopters, fire trucks, etc. on it and he LOVES it. It wasn’t my first choice but hey, it’s not my room!

Hubs and I had a date recently. We went geocaching as usual!

As far as the potty training situation goes, I now have an official plan. My sister referred me to this website so next Friday, I’m taking off work and we are throwing out the pull-ups and having potty training boot camp at our house! Woo hoo!!

We also have a little boy that is turning THREE this Saturday! I will not cry, I will not cry, I will not cry.

Potty Training

We introduced the potty a while back. We talked about the potty, read books about going, sat Noah on the potty, etc. It took a long while, but one day (several months ago) he finally pooped and peed in the potty! We gave candy as a reward for every time he went. He would go when we sat him on the potty most times because he knew he would get candy afterwards. So in order to NOT rot his teeth out, we switched from candy to a potty chart. Every time Noah went, he got a sticker to put on the chart and when he filled up a row, we went and bought a special toy. A few weeks into the potty chart and Noah lost interest in that. We tried putting him in underwear and letting him feel when he got wet. The boy could care less! We waited a few months and tried again to press the potty issue and Noah pressed back.

A few weeks ago, I told him that we were only going to wear undies now and that he would have to go in the potty. 30 minutes into it, he had had 3 accidents and he had been on the potty 3 times!

We have even tried threatening and spanking him when he poops in his pull-up. And when I say spanking…he makes faces and strains/grunts when he is pooping so it’s very obvious what he’s doing. When we see him do this, we ask him to sit on the potty. He says no. We say, “If you poop in your pull-up, you will get a spanking!” He says, “I not have to poop.” and then poops anyway. And if we try to place him on the potty, he freaks his freak and won’t go.

So I’m really at a loss with what to do now. He will sometimes pee if we ask him to sit on the potty, but nothing consistent. I am feeling the pressure because he has to be potty trained in order to promote to the 3 year old room at preschool in August. So give me some feedback Mommy’s!

Gluten Free Recipes

Here are a few recipes that I’ve found online that are gluten free and that I’ve tried myself!

Crockpot BBCola Chicken

This recipe is SUPER EASY! My kind of cooking! I used 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, Jack Daniel’s Original #7 BBQ Sauce, an onion and a can of Coke. I just threw it all in the crockpot on the way to church, turned it on high and when we got home four hours later, it was done! The chicken just fell apart and we didn’t even use knives! Brad LOVED it and wanted me to make it the next day! :) This recipe is definitely going on our rotation.

Mini Frittatas

These were also easy to make and would be perfect for breakfast! A word of warning though…CAREFULLY chop your ham…and not your finger! I speak from experience! :)

Roasted Pork and Potatoes with Creamy Applesauce

As I was browning the pork on the stove, I seriously started doubting my cooking abilities! But this dish came out better than I thought! It needs some tweaking, but I plan on cooking it again soon! Also, I wasn’t too sure about the applesauce dip, but it really did enhance the flavor of the pork!

Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole

I completely forgot to take a picture of this dish. It was tasty! I couldn’t find Progresso’s Chicken Enchilada soup like the recipe calls for, so I used Progresso’s Chicken Tortilla soup instead. Yum!

Mr. John’s Meat-Stuffed Bell Peppers

I opted to use 1 lb of VERY lean ground beef instead of half beef, half pork. I was just sure that the hubs would turn his nose up at the sight of stuffed bell peppers. Still I slaved over the cutting board and stove (this is probably the hardest recipe I’ve tried so far). And when I served him a pepper, he fell in love! He said that it was my best recipe to date! Score! I’m sure they would be awesome with some melted cheese on top, too. And next time, I’m thinking about adding in some lime juice for extra zing.

Happy eating!

Christmas Happenings

We had a lot of fun things to do during December!

Our gym had a float in the town’s Christmas parade. The sister and I and all of our kids rode on the float with Frosty, the iron pumping snowman! :) Noah liked waving to the crowd and saying “Mewwy Cwissmas!”

My niece had a little play at her school where she was Mary! She is not a fan of people staring at her, but she will belt it out at home!

We took Noah to Tokyo for a date night. Luckily we were the only people in there so we were in and out pretty fast. He loves when they make a train out of the onions and when they make a big fire! He loves rice and beans at Mexican restaurants, so I thought he would like fried rice but he wouldn’t even try it! He’s going to turn into a chicken nugget one day.

We went to the mall to see Santa and Noah rode on the train in the middle of the mall. He LOVES trains. He sat so still the entire train ride….didn’t even crack a smile! But as soon as it was over, he was so excited that he got to ride!

And here’s our picture with Santa (and Noah’s cousins). He wasn’t too sure about Santa, but at least he didn’t cry! He told Santa that he wanted a Chuggington for Christmas. Santa told him to be sure to leave him some milk and cookies on Christmas Eve and ever since then, Noah has thought that Santa was leaving HIM milk and cookies! Haha!

My niece also had her 5th birthday party at All Fired Up! Noah had never been there and I just knew he would love it!

And he did! Anytime there is cake and ice cream, Noah has a good time! :)

We also tried out a new hair cut place for kids. Noah got to ride Thomas the Train and watch a Diego movie all while getting his hair cut!

He also had a PJ (Praise Jesus) Party at church! Notice the Lightning McQueen shoes. He would wear them everywhere if I would let him.

And then there’s Christmas morning! Noah was so excited with what Santa Claus brought him that we literally had to FORCE him to open his presents from us!

One of his favorite toys is his new guitar!

Another favorite is his new bicycle! Luckily we don’t have much carpet in the new house so he can just ride around inside!

A few more favorites are his Home Depot tools/work bench (he loves doing anything Brad does), his Batcave and his Chuggington train set!

Christmas was so fun this year! Noah is an expert at unwrapping presents now!

We spent Christmas morning at our house with my family and that afternoon with Brad’s family. And Noah said that since it was Jesus’s birthday, we had to have some cake!

I hope yall had a Merry Christmas, too!

Our Christmas card!

 

For all my bloggy friends!