My funny little munchkins

The other night at dinner, Joshua looked up at me and in the sweetest voice said, "I love you, Mommy." My heart melted, of course, and I said, "I love you too, Joshie." He then looked past me towards the garage and in the same sweet voice said, "I love you, door." David and I just cracked up. Given how much Joshua loves doors and windows, I guess I should take it as a compliment :)

Usually my Saturday morning grocery store trip during Leah's morning nap is a little "me" time, and Joshua stays home with David. He needed to come with me this past weekend, though, because David and his dad were working on the yard. Joshua loves Harris Teeter, partly because of all the numbers and fun things to look at, partly because of all the people he can talk to, and partly because of the free cookie :) As I was checking out at the self-checkout, Joshua points at the guy who was overseeing the 4 self-checkout stations and says (really loudly), "President Obama!" Now, this guy looks nothing like the President to me--first of all, he's white and much shorter and a little heavier than him. The only things that were similar is that they both have closely-cut hair and their ears stick out just a little. But for whatever reason, Joshua was convinced that this was President Obama. He kept saying it over and over and it just had me giggling to myself as I kept telling him that it was not President Obama, but Harold (I showed Joshua his name tag). What a little knucklehead :)

Joshua has added some more songs to his collection of favorites to sing. In addition to long-time favorites like "Jesus loves me," "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," "Wheels on the Bus," "I am a Child of God," the ABC song, and "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree," he also likes "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," the chorus to "My Girl" (which we sing to Leah), and the Leah-bug song. If you know the oldies song "Lollipop," you also know this song, sung to the same tune and made up by yours truly: "Leah-bug, Leah-bug, oh oh my Leah-bug, Leah-bug...buh dum bum bum." I know...you're amazed by my creativity and talent (haha). Simple as it may be, it makes Leah smile every single time and Joshie loves it too. Joshua also loves to sing all the songs on the TV show "Blue's Clues," which we have on our Netflix Instant Play. It is his favorite show by far, although he also likes Veggie Tales. We've tried Super Why, Sid the Science Kid, and Sesame Street as well, but he's not a big fan of those yet.

Joshie's still in love with reading, and he seems to have all of his favorite books memorized. He loves for us to read to him, but sometimes if I'm busy nursing the baby or getting dinner ready, he'll bring the book near me, sit down, and "read" the book to me. Leah loves all the pretty pictures in the books, so the three of us love to read together. The car obsession is still in full effect: on pretty days when we go for walks in the neighborhood, Joshua tells us all about the cars we see: "Look! A black Dodge truck. A new Honda CRV! A white Ford Mustang...vroom!"

Leah's second tooth has broken through right next to her first, so she's sporting her two middle teeth on the bottom. I'm hoping her top teeth will wait for a while to come through...if I'm lucky, she'll be done nursing before they show up! She loves to be loud to get our attention, and has graduated from just spinning in the doorway jumper to actually bouncing now. She loves all the little activities on the exersaucer, and she has become quite the pro at rolling across the floor from one side to the other, over and over. She does a lot of what I call "swimming" on the floor when she's on her tummy--those little legs are kicking and those arms are going back and forth. It is just a matter of time now before she gets up on her hands and knees!

Leah loves all kinds of baby food and is really chunking up these days! I think the added weight is helping her sleep better at night too. For the last number of months she's been up twice at night to eat (down at 8:00pm, then up usually around 1:00am and 5:00am, and then up for the morning at 8:00am), but for the last week, she's only gotten up once at night to nurse, anytime between 3-5:00am. Let me tell you...once a night is SO much better for Mommy! Shes's a good little sleeper in all--she goes down for her naps and bedtime at night with no problems, and goes right back to sleep after her nursing in the middle of the night. I can't believe she's only a few days shy of 7 months old--the time has flown by!

Just a little picture-less update for you :)

Sitting pretty

Leah's been enjoying sitting recently and the new view it provides. I keep the Boppy around her just in case she leans too far one way or the other--don't want her bonking her head!

Joshua decided he wanted to "sit" in the picture too :)

Leah obviously reclined to get more comfy...

love these two little munchkins!

Sharing style

Joshua decided that Leah needed a little swagger added to her sleeper this morning:

Hey, at least he's got good taste, right? :)

She sure does make that hat look cute!

Uncle Jon!

Joshua was SO excited for Uncle Jon to come and visit yesterday! We spent some time outside in the beautiful weather and we also went to Moe's for dinner (gotta love a coupon!) This was the first time we've ventured out to a restaurant with Leah since our failed attempt back in early January. She did MUCH better. I brought her evening solids with us and sat her in her Bumbo chair so she could look around at everything--success!

Uncle Jon with little Frog Face

Fly-away baby hair

What are YOU lookin' at?!
(Plus a view of our house in the back)

David gets very close to the baby when

he takes her picture ;)

(he was the photographer for the day)

Joshua and his tricycle...his legs are a little

short for the pedals, but he LOVED having

David or Jon push him while he steered!

He was also really excited to be able to wear

shorts. Such a stud :)

***

Beautiful weather, time with family, Moe's...

a perfect Saturday!

I've got sunshine...

Friday was gorgeous here in NC! Joshua and I spent the late morning outside in the backyard while Leah took her morning nap, and then we went out again this afternoon after naps. It was so nice for us to all be able to wear short sleeves! I found a bonnet that matched the colors of Leah's shirt and just had to put it on her...I shouldn't have. I could barely look at her without wanting to kiss her face off! I mean, seriously...

It should be criminal to be this cute, right?
(No idea why this picture won't center)
But back to the important question:
How can this baby be so cute with just a
floppy little bonnet on her head?!

Are you trying to wink at me, Leah-bug?

Sideview of the cutie in the hat


Sucking on her bottom lip
My dad would call this a frog-face
(I made this face a lot as a baby)


Deep in thought and lip-chewing

Joshua liked being a big helper by pushing

the baby in the swing

Joshua believes that all doors should be closed.

If you leave any door open in the house

(a room door, a cabinet door, anything), he

will close it...even if it is the refrigerator door

and you're still clearly getting items out.

I often find him closing doors on me because

he's too impatient to let me move out of the way!

***

Spring, feel free to send many more days like today our way!

Fun in the tub and exersaucer

David and I could not stop laughing at Leah in the tub last night:

Why on earth does she look like an old man in

a hot tub?!

That's right, Leah...make yourself comfortable.

Arm propped up, foot propped up...don't let

anyone tell you that there's a "right" way to

sit in that tub ;)

I was miraculously able to snap a few smiles

all by myself today (of course, I had to focus

the camera on her and hold it in place while

I pulled my face to the side to get her

attention)

Love that big open-mouth smile! :)

Haircut lessons

Joshua finally got his haircut--hooray! My friend Annalynn from church came over this morning and scissor-cut his hair, showing me along the way how she did it so that *hopefully* I can do it myself the next time. I wanted him to keep some of the length, but for all of the craziness to get trimmed back, and she did a fantastic job. She made it seem easy, so I really hope it will be!

Joshua, this isn't a mug shot or a DMV picture.

That's right--it would be okay to smile.

Side view of the new 'do

There's my favorite smile! My handsome little guy :)

Weekend fun

We had a really fun weekend with my mom and dad in town: playing outside, family walks, yummy food, reading books, watching movies, and just enjoying being together!

Grandma figured out how to get Joshua to smile:

tickle him!

These two are best buddies :)

As I was working on honey wheat rolls

yesterday afternoon, I looked out the windows

into the backyard to see my mom up in the

club house, playing with Joshua...I've never

even tried to get up there for fear I'd hurt

myself! Grandmas have no fear :)

Grandma enjoyed snuggle time with Joshua

before naps and bedtime...she's the official

story reader/singer/rocking chair rocker

when she's here!

Much to my mother's joy, Joshua constantly

asked her for kisses all weekend long.

Love, love, love these two :)

Grandpa is already wrapped around Leah's

little finger! As soon as she'd make a peep

after finishing a nap or waking up in the

morning, he was on his way up the stairs

to get her.

Leah smiling at Grandma and Joshua eating

breakfast. Leah's become quite the champion

eater as well...she's working her way through

all kinds of fruit and veggie baby food and cereal.

She also loves to play with her tongue, as seen

here. 3 pictures with no fingers in her mouth--

hooray! Must be Grandpa's doing :) We love

when family comes to visit!

Peace signs on foreheads and hands on cheeks

When Leah woke up from her morning nap on Saturday morning, David went up to her room to get her. I heard him laughing as he came down the stairs with her, and I soon saw why. Apparently Leah had fallen asleep with her hand under her forehead, and she was giving a peace sign in her sleep--can you see the imprint?

She seems quite concerned about all the attention.

But then she remembered that she absolutely

LOVES to be the center of attention ;)

What a little ham :)

***
Joshua's had a cold all week (almost every Sunday he is

in nursery, he's got some kind of bug the rest of the week),

so it has been even more difficult to get a smile out of him.

On our way to his cousin Janie's birthday party

on Saturday afternoon, we got him laughing by

putting our hands on our cheeks and yelling, "Cheeks!"

When he copied us, I caught a quick picture,

runny nose and all.

And yes, I realize he needs a haircut. We don't want to use

the clippers again because they cut his hair way too short.

A friend from church is planning to teach me how to give

him a scissor cut, but we may have to take up Great Clips

and their $6.99 haircut special this week to help us bridge

the gap until then!

Provident living rocks :)

Anyone who knows me knows that I love couponing and spending wisely. I've been looking for more ways to be self-reliant and do more things myself, which goes right along with other aspects of provident living in our family. A favorite website of mine, 5dollardinners.com, has been such a great resource for me. Not only are there a ton of delicious and healthy recipes for my family that allow me to make dinner for around $5 or less (and since our family is still small, these meals often stretch to feed us for 2 dinners), but there are a number of different how-to demonstrations.

I've typically been a boneless skinless chicken breast kind of girl because there's no prep needed before cooking. I only buy them when they're at their lowest price, and then I really stock up, but I've still wanted to branch out to other cuts of chicken, which are even less expensive. Harris Teeter had whole chickens on sale this week for $0.59/lb, which is a great price, but I had never cooked a whole chicken in my life. With a little help from my website tutorial, I cooked the whole chicken in the crockpot, shredded the chicken, prepared 2 meals for the freezer for nights later this month using the meat, and then made 10 cups of chicken stock for free for the freezer as well! This may not be super-impressive to anyone else, but I was really proud of myself. I also batch-cooked some sweet potatoes (also on sale at HT this past week) and we've got 3 dinners' worth of mashed sweet potatoes in the freezer and some baby food for Leah. I love being productive!

And anyone who knows David knows that he loves bread more than almost anything in the world, so he is loving all the homemade bread coming out of our kitchen. I've got a great whole wheat bread recipe from my friend Melissa in our ward that is AMAZING, and the honey wheat roll recipe that I've started using is like heaven in your mouth--seriously. This weekend, I'm planning to make some homemade hamburger and hot dog buns to freeze for future use, as well as some other things. My sweet friend Maria gave us a huge stand-up freezer that she wasn't using anymore--I have been wanting one of these forever! The extra space not only lets me stock up on sale items that I buy at the grocery store, but allows me to batch cook some items, freeze breads I batch bake, and store meals that I double or triple when I have the time. There are also 5 more whole chickens bought on sale in there just waiting for me to get them into the crockpot :)

It is really rewarding to be able to do things yourself, save money, and have really yummy food for your family :)