James' 2nd Birthday!

We had a crazy fun weekend with lots of different activities including celebrating Memaw's and James' birthdays.  Sunday, November 14th was James' 2nd birthday, and we had a little party at Lita and Pop-Pop's (my parents) house and invited Memaw and Gramps (Rich's parents) to come over.  The menu was spaghetti, garlic bread, and broccoli, since that is a meal that James likes to eat.  He especially likes broccoli, which is funny, because he's pretty picky otherwise.  I also made a truck cake since he is into all things with wheels, but especially likes construction vehicles.  Rich and I got him three vehicles--a bus, a delivery truck, and a tractor--which all go speeding across the floor when you pull them back.  He got a big Tonka dump truck from Memaw and Gramps that used to be Rich's when he was a little boy.  Gramps repainted it, and it looks great!  He will have great fun with it outside in the yard and in the sandbox we are hoping to get soon.  Lita and Pop-Pop gave him a fire engine that makes siren noises, lights up and the ladder rotates.  Mom also found a fire hat that says "Goose Creek Fire Department" on it--perfect!  He (and Anna Ruth) have been enjoying his new toys since then.  Here are some pictures of the day:

James is happy to be 2!

eating his second helping of broccoli

My first attempt at a truck cake--I was happy with the outcome, and James liked it too! 

James enjoying his chocolate cake

James trying to figure out how it all works and enjoying every minute!

playing with his truck at home while wearing his new hat

Fall Smocked Dress for Anna Ruth

Here is another dress I smocked for Anna Ruth.  I like how it turned out.  I had a hard time figuring out what kind of design or picture to go with.  But I wanted it to be elegant, so I think the geometric design accomplishes that.  I am also working on a matching outfit for James, so I'll post pics when I get that finished.  I am enjoying smocking more and more as I get better at it, though!  I have two more dresses to work on for Anna Ruth for the winter.  But if I don't have time to get it all done, I'm sure they will fit her next winter as well, so that's good. 

Here are my two cuties all dressed up for church!

Puppy Chow

Puppy chow is a really good treat that is easy to make and very addicting!  I made it today to take to a fall festival because it's easy to fill up a cup and eat it while walking around.  Here's the recipe if you want to give it a try.  Bonus:  It's a yummy gluten free dessert, too!

1 C chocolate chips
1/2 C creamy peanut butter
1/4 C butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla
10 C Corn Chex cereal
2 C powdered sugar

Combine chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter in a microwaveable bowl.  Heat on high for 1 min., then stir.  Add vanilla and stir well. 
Place cereal in large bowl.  Pour chocolate mixture over ceral and toss lightly to coat.  Sprinkle 1 C of powdered sugar, toss to coat, then repeat with the remaining sugar. 
YUM!  Here's what the finished product looks like:

James' Words at almost 2 years old

It's so interesting to see the difference between boys and girls.  It really is neat to see how from the very beginning of their existence, they display different characteristics.  James and Anna Ruth have been so different, it blows me away!  James is so into vehicles of all varieties--cars, trucks, airplanes, trains, tractors, etc.  He plays with his cars ALL DAY LONG!  He rolls them on different surfaces, pushes them across the kitchen floor, and rams them into stuff.  When he's not doing that, he's climbing, throwing, running, or destroying.  He also loves to be outside digging in the dirt or throwing and kicking balls.  He is obsessed with Pop-Pop (my dad) and his Daddy.  So with all that activity, he doesn't have much time for talking.  Now, he certainly gets his point across, just not necessarily with words.  I remember at this age, Anna Ruth was speaking in complete sentences and already talked incessantly.  I don't think I even attempted to make a list of her vocabulary, because it would have been such a long list.  But I'm finally getting together a small list of James' words now that he's almost 2 years old!  Lately, he has started trying more, instead of just shaking his head when we would ask him to say a word.  So, a lot of these are pretty recent new words.
Here's the list:
Mama
Dada
Anna (for Anna Ruth)
Pop-Pop
Bi-buh (Bible)
bye-bye
eyes
all done
mine
ni-ni (night-night)
hi
bus
ball
boo-dah (he says this for shoe, and we have no idea why)
nana (banana)
buzzzz (birds)
uh-oh
Hun (he calls me this sometimes, because he hears Rich saying it)
gah-gah (lollipop)
my-min (vitamin and medicine)
Amen
He will also answer the first two catechism questions:
Who made you?  Gah (God)
What else did God make?  Aaaall tins (all things)

Blue or Pink?

You can see the arm and hand above the head.

On Monday I had my ultrasound to find out if the baby is a boy or girl as well as to make sure everything is developing normally.  It went well; so far everything looks good.  She did have trouble getting a good look at the face, so I am scheduled for another ultrasound in a month to look at that again.  The baby will be a good bit bigger and so it will be hard for him to hide then! :)  They want to check for cleft lip and palate, but she said she doesn't suspect anything, it's just routine to check it.  Anyway, during the ultrasound the baby was moving all around and I was thinking to myself that it probably was a boy because of how active he was.  But I asked the ultrasound technician to write the gender down in an envelope and put the pictures in another envelope for me to keep.  I then took the envelope to Bi-Lo where I got them to make a cake with white icing and either a blue or pink inside.  They don't technically do that, but when they heard what it was about, one of the ladies in the bakery said she would bring her own stuff from home to make the cake since she thought it was such a fun idea.  She did a great job, and it was funny because all the ladies in the bakery were telling me to come back with pictures so they could see the reactions.  They really got into it!

 

The pretty cake from Bi-Lo

The next night my parents and Rich's parents and us all went out to dinner at Sesame Burgers & Beer.  If you've never been, you should try it!  Tuesday night is $3 burger night, so it's a great deal for a huge, really good burger.  And they let you choose how you want it cooked, so it's not a well-done dried out burger.  I always get sweet potato fries to go with it, and they are so good!  Anyway, after eating, we cut open the cake to find out all together what this next baby will be.  It was a fun and exciting way to discover it was a boy! 

Rich and I cutting the cake



We pulled up the piece and it was blue!



We are all excited about another little boy!



Little Girls Tea Club

Anna Ruth recently received this invitation:

She is so excited about her new tea club!  She loves to dress up, and she got to pick out a special tea cup and saucer that I had been given from my grandmother to take with her.  Her tea cup was the most admired one there.  The girls learned about good manners (sitting the correct way in your chair, saying "Yes, please" or "No, thank you" when asked if you would like something, keeping elbows off the table, chewing with your mouth closed, putting your napkin in your lap, asking nicely for something to be passed to you, etc.), and they listened to a story about a girl who has a tea party and learns some Christian character qualities.  After the eating and drinking, they played dress up.  Anna Ruth had such a great time, she keeps asking me when the next tea club will be.  A month is a long time to wait when you're 4! 


Look at all that cute and pretty food!




Anna Ruth enjoying her strawberry cream cheese sandwich




All the pretty little girls



Old project

This is an old project that has been completed for a couple months, but I never got the chance to post a picture of the finished product since I was not keeping up with blogging at that point.  I smocked this dress for Anna Ruth.  Her favorite color is purple, so she loves this dress.  This was my third smocking project, and the most challenging one so far.  The small little roses were hard for me to get the hang of.  The funny thing is, the ones on the back look the best since they were the final ones I completed, but they just get covered up by her hair when she wears the dress!  Oh well.  Now I am trying to figure out a pattern for a maroon dress for Anna Ruth for the fall that will match a maroon outfit for James.  I was thinking of something like fall leaves on her dress and rakes on his outfit or something like that.  Any bright ideas?