Happy 4th of July!!

I swear my life has been on fast forward lately. We're suddenly in the midst of summer, my sweet boy will be 4 in a month and my little baby is 2 1/2 months old. How did that happen??

A few weeks ago was mi Madre's birthday, so I decided to make her the purse she requested a year ago. (oops!) My sewing machine has a broken part, so I borrowed my MIL's and went to work. It was obvious I hadn't sewn a bag in a while, and after much frustration and silly mistakes I finally got it done. (Phone pictures aren't the greatest. ;))

My brother and his wife were visiting last week so we went up to see them for a few days. Super fun! I watched the other kids while my parents took a mini vacation with them and also got the responsibility of picking up their new kitten, Snowflower. She's adorable!!! They moved to the country recently and need some mousers, and they definitely got that! Feisty but sweet . Check her out below too. :)

(Blurry again...)

It's been an exciting month! (or more...) So back to today! We went to a ceremony and breakfast at church this morning to celebrate Independence Day. Later on we're having a BBQ to celebrate the 4th and my hubby's very belated birthday. He read somewhere about a challenge/project for people to read the Declaration of Independence, so we'll be doing that tonight too. I think it's important to remember the real reasons for our holidays and not just eat lots of yummy foods. I hope you all have a fun and safe 4th!! :)

Potty training today!

We are potty training today! Woohoo! We've tried several times in the last year with resistance, and decided not to force it. He's seemed ready to try again for a while so I did some research and found some tips. Successful day so far and Xavier loves his big boy undies! Keep your fingers crossed for me. ;)

Hopefully if it stops raining I can go work on our new coffee table, but more on that later. Enjoy your weekend! :)

Food Friday: Buffalo Chips

For anyone who actually knows what a real buffalo chip is, I'm sure you're a little horrified to see a recipe for "buffalo chips". Just hang in there and keep reading. ;) When I was younger we had a tradition when family came to visit to go have a girl's night. So we'd all get in the car and drive a little ways to a fun pizza place in a "close" town. (It was not unusual for us to drive up to 2 hours to go out for a dinner out! Gotta love living in the middle of nowhere!) We always got hamburgers with fries, and lots of fry sauce *YUM*, and for dessert we'd have buffalo chips. Now it's time to use your imagination a little bit. For the buffalo chips they bring out a small cake pan right out of the oven, and inside is a piping hot cookie with some super cold vanilla bean ice cream. Totally awesome twist on cookies and milk! The other day I was craving these little beauties, so I decided to make a smaller version at home. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. :)

(Food photography is obviously not one of my talents. I need to work on that. You get the idea though. Ice cream, hot cookie, warm melted goodness? I thought so.)

"Buffalo Chips"

1 package pre-made cookie dough, any flavor
Vanilla bean ice cream


Preheat oven according to package instructions.

Push 2 pre-portioned cookies into the bottom of a ramekin.

Bake according to package directions. The dough will puff up considerably.

Take a spoon and gently press it down and let cool slightly.

Add a scoop or two of ice cream. Enjoy!



Super simple, right? They're also super delicious and would be awesome at any summer bbq or party. The ramekins are nice so you get individual portions, although you could share one if you really wanted too. You can also make them in a larger pan if you want one dish you can all dig into. :)

Happy Friday! Have a wonderful weekend. :)

One month!

It's been a month since I had Hunter! Can you believe it?? I sure can't.. It's been kind of a blur. I've been taking pictures of some of our fun, but haven't gotten on to share. Here are some of the things we've been up to!

Tie dye cupcakes {directions HERE}

Xavier needed a little Mommy time, so we made some fun cupcakes! I was a little lazy and used box cake and store bought frosting with some bright colored sprinkles. We had a lot of fun making them, and even more fun eating them. We called them "Rainbow" cupcakes though since Xavier loves rainbows so much. :)

Every year our town celebrates the start of the cherry season with a HUGE parade and street fair. This was our first family outing with Hunter. The parade was great and Xavier probably got as much candy as he did last Halloween. After the parade it gets a little crazy downtown, so we ended up heading home a little earlier than we'd planned.

A firefighter gave Xave a little plastic hat at the parade, and when we got home we decked him out with all the stickers they handed out with a few extras too. He was pretty excited about the whole thing.. and apparently missing his pants! :)

Hunter shares his birthday with my husband's Grandpa, and a few weeks after we had a BBQ with some of his family to celebrate. (75 years!) While we were all talking Xavier wandered over to the food table and started eating the beans right out of the pan. I was a little mortified but everyone just thought it was funny.

Xavier goes to a play group with some of the kids from church every week, and they got to go to a local children's "museum" where they get to play and do some hands on activities. I was still pretty worn out so Grandma took him, but it sounded like a lot of fun! Once I get to feeling more active and motivated we'll have to go again.

So I didn't really crave foods while I was pregnant, but I've craved foods like crazy in the last few weeks. Fruit pizza was one of them. I made a huge sheet tray of it and was a pretty happy camper! This is something I've had since I was a kid and is a fairly common recipe, but here's the one I used  just in case your like me and haven't ever actually made it! {Fruit Pizza}

We had a beautiful Sunday morning a week ago, so we took some pictures with our little man after church. Isn't he sweet in his little sweater vest? :)

We're currently living with my in-laws and they're re-doing their front yard, so Xave's been having a blast helping out. Every day he's come in covered in dirt and happy as a clam. He looks pretty darn cute in Daddy's hat too!



And here's our little guy. Still can't believe he's a month old already. What a joy he's been so far. :)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

He's here!

Okay, so he's been here for a week and a half, but I haven't had 5 minutes to get on here since then. I finally gave in and bought myself a Moby wrap, which came today, so I can snuggle and carry our new little man and still have my hands free to do other stuff. What joy some fabric can bring! :)

So without further ado, I would like to introduce Hunter Ross, born April 17, 10lbs 2 oz, and 20.5 inches long.

It was pretty late when he finally decided to make his appearance, so we were all totally wiped out. They began the induction with a foley bulb on Monday night at about 10, and he was born a little over 24 hours later. I had a pretty smooth vbac, and I couldn't be happier! The whole birth was a totally different experience and the recovery has gone sooo much smoother. I'm really glad we decided to continue without a second c-section despite a question about his size.

Big brother was pretty confused and a little afraid of Hunter at the hospital, and it wasn't until we got home that he really showed an interest in him. Ever since he's often coming over to peek at his toes or see what he's doing. There has been a little bit of jealousy, but nothing too terrible.

So for now we're just enjoying our two sweet boys. I'm not sure when I'll be back to blogging regularly since we're still adjusting to everything, but I'll try not to stay away for too long. Thanks for any positive thoughts, prayers, and comments about our little guy. We're so happy he's FINALLY here. :)

41 weeks and STILL pregnant!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to stop in really quick and say hi. :)

I'm 41 weeks pregnant today and in a little bit we'll be heading to the hospital to be induced. Yay! I'm super excited! I was totally devastated when my due date came and went and I still hadn't had this baby yet. I never experienced labor with my first, so I'm a little nervous about the experience, but glad to almost be done. What a beautiful but trying experience pregnancy is. Can't wait to finally meet our little man! I'll still probably be away for a little while longer, but I'll come share pictures of our little munchkin once I'm feeling a little better. For now, here's some pictures of him still refusing to come out. ;)

{41 weeks minus a day... My mom would like to add I look way smaller here than in person. Haha.}

 {Xavier trying to push Hunter out :)}

I hope everyone is having a wonderful spring, and hopefully not to many allergy issues! See you on the other side. ;)

Time for some rest..

I've managed to disappear for a few days again. I got home Wednesday night feeling pretty icky, and I have a full blown cold. It's taken any energy the pregnancy hadn't already, and it's made me realize I need to slow down a little. After a very long and hard debate with myself, I've decided to take a break from here until after the baby is born. There just isn't enough in me to be here and with my family, and they're much more important. (Sorry!) Hopefully I'll be back here soon with some new found energy and lots of fresh perspective and new ideas. Until then, I hope you'll understand my temporary leave. Can't wait to get back! :)