Pillows, Pillows and MORE Pillows!

When I peeked at Shannon's entry over at 'Bless Our Nest' the other day and saw her beds filled to the brim with pillows, I knew there was a reason I liked this girl!!! ;) I love pillows, too! Bryce's bed has 8 of those puppies on there! Of course, he's a boy and I could not get away with ones too fluffy or frilly~ they're just plain old normal pillows... 2 aloha ones that go with his bedding, 2 red gingham ones (because I loved them and talked him into them!), another 2 that are the same as his bedding only with a blue background instead of white, and the quilt shams that go with the quilt. So, there you have it~ a lot of pillows for one little boy!!!

Just one more quick pic tonight...

This is Bryce's closet. We painted it with chalkboard paint when we moved in almost 3 years ago and it has been the most fun thing in his room! We all love leaving messages on it, making 'to do' notes and reminders, playing tic tac toe, drawing pictures~ It's so FUN! I had just wiped it down tonight so it's rather boring and plain without the normal busy doodles and such. Sorry, I wasn't thinking! Bryce's dresser and nightstand have baseball knobs so we put them on the closet, too. They were a Target special when we lived in Germany (courtesy of one of my Mom's goody boxes.....thank goodness she got extras back then!) XO

I See 4 Rugrats Headed For Showers!!!

Our friends came over this weekend to have some wine and laughs with us. Their two kiddos (Em on the left and Mathew on the left side of the couch), the neighbor down the street (Tyler, on the right side of the couch) and Bryce (sitting on the ottoman) had a KILLER game of 'ball tag' on Saturday night. Jason and Matt played with them and this is how they brought the boys back in to Therese and I!!! They were big sweaty messes! But oh my goodness gracious did they have some serious F-U-N! It doesn't hurt that these two dads are big kids at heart now does it?!? I had a blast, too, because Therese and I got to sit inside and visit over yummy wine and watch Miss Priss in action~ pusing her stroller about, playing with her train, and that silly dancing and singing Elmo. Oh my did Elmo have us cracking up! All the while, we could hear the kiddos having a grand ole time outside. So, double bonus! As you can see from their shirts and hair, they needed some major down time with AC blasting... so they all played a few games of Wii Mario Kart.

I am so proud of my girlfriend, Therese. She is the sweetie who I blogged a photo of her tree tag back in June at the StL Race For The Cure. YOU GO GIRL~ She finished her radiation recently and looked AMAZING, as always! Thanks for a FUN TIME! XO

Oh, and P.S. Therese....'Crazy Lady' never came a knocking on my door so she must not have noticed Matt's flip flop prints ;) He, he, he! To my Blog world friends...now THAT is a story for another day! Oh My!

It was FINALLY Friday~ Quitin' time...

...Get those motors running for a 'WILD WEEKEND' with these two goofballs!

Yahoo! Bryce made it through his 1st week of 3rd grade with flying colors and Hershey chocolate to greet him for an after school snack (which he has part of in his mouth and in his hand for this photo op!). He likes his teacher and of course, his most favorite part of the day is either recess or PE class! (P.S. This door was my project late last night. I spray painted the 'builders brass' handle on it silver and am going to paint the doors and hinges later this week~ fun, fun, fun! )

After snack time it was PLAY TIME!

Or wait, maybe I should really call it 'beat up on my big brother time' ...oh she misses him so when he's away at school! (Like our handy dandy 'keep Caroline from climbing and falling down the stairs' trick with the board? Oh so classy, hey?!? We couldn't put a gate on the spindles so this will have to do for now! The spindles and rails are getting painted, too. Can't wait for the finished product, but not too fond of the 'getting there' part of the deal!)

She stole 2 mini basketballs from one of Bryce's games. I thought it was so funny how she just sat in this chair clenching them and sliding further down and down and down, but not wanting to let go and sit up because she knew she wouldn't get them back!

The paci says it all!

Oh boy she loves her new stroller!

I guess she needed a break!

So, lets see~ Started our afternoon off by playing around with Bryce, pestering him by taking parts to his toys, lookin' cute sitting in the chair for a break with a paci, playing Momma and pushing one of her babies around the house, taking another break to sit in the baby stroller, and then the MELTDOWN above (that Jason was ever so kind as to document for me with a click of the camera as I fed our little princess din-din!) Hmmm, She's not quite all cuteness, hu?!? That's our hot little mess for you!!! XO

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins...I'm ready for you!

A new 'fall time' use for my cake stand!

It's getting so close to PUMPKIN time!!! I can smell it now~ all of the yummy recipes I'm finding on your blogs that I just can't wait to try when it's not TOO HOT to use the stove daily! Candles simmering, all my lamps on, music on the kitchen CD player, kiddos running about playing all loaded up on Halloween sugar ;) , laughing, not hot sticky sweaty messes, and in GOOD MOODS ready for all the fun times ahead for FALL!!!

My boys love, love, love this chicken recipe. We were deciding today what we would have for each of our dinners this week and Bryce's request was for this one! So, if it's requested by Bryce-ster, it must be good because he can be a bit finicky, I'll admit!

It's from a neighbor of my parents when they were stationed at McGuire AFB, NJ in 1974.

Chicken A La Ritz

4-6 chicken breasts...cooked and diced
8 oz sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 stick melted butter
30 crushed Ritz crackers

~Layer chicken in 9x11 or 11x13 (depending on how much chicken you use) baking dish
~Mix sour cream and soup; spread on top of chicken
~Mix melted butter with cracker crumbs; spread on top of soup mixture
~ Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes, until cracker crumbs are brown and the casserole bubbles.

Serve this over white rice as your main course. YUMMY!

*This is a GOOD recipe to make ahead, too. Say ... when the little ones are napping, kiddos are in school, etc... Pop it in later when it's crazy busy dinner time, as most homes are with busy schedules! If you do make it ahead of time, Don't put the butter/cracker combo on until right before you pop it into the oven. You can even make it the night before (don't put topping on this either, until you're ready to bake) and store it in the fridge. Now doesn't that make for an easy meal paired with Minute Rice and a salad or fruit salad?!? XO

Going WAAAAY Back!

This post is for my friend, Jeni, over at At Home In Georgia. I know Steve is away and I wanted to try to make you SMILE some this weekend, thinking back to all of our FUN times in Germany together! So, get ready for a waaay back in the day flashback...

Ben, aka Spidey, Bryce, aka Mr. Mummy, and pretty little Miss Madi, aka the Good Witch! Jeni, myself and a small handful of other Moms at Rhein Main AB, Germany were bummed that there wasn't a local preschool for our little tykes. So, we banded together and made our own! The base 'Family Support Center' supported us and were kind enough to let us use their 'Our House' (an apartment used for Family Support things in our housing area which made it VERY convenient!) twice a week for 2 hours a morning to 'teach' our kids. We had a letter and number each week, we did activity pages, an art activity, play time, snack time, story time. It seriously was a REAL preschool! Jeni, we had so much fun doing this with our kids, didn't we? I loved teaching weeks when I got to teach with you! Jeni and I both LOVE Halloween so we planned to teach the week of our Halloween party. We took goody bags in, decorated cupcakes, had the kids dress up, Jeni read a Halloween story to them. And even Madi got to join in on the action!

Aww, look at all the little stinkers! This was our preschool group one year. See, told you it was a small group! A super fun gang though! And look at Bryce huggin' on Miss Madi! He sure was protective over her and loved her to pieces every time he saw her! Remember how it used to make us go 'Awwww', Jeni?!?

The little goody bags I made back then for the kiddos to take home from preschool with them that day! Some for the neighbors we shared a stairwell on base with, too!

The class took a trip to a local farm to pick our own pumpkins. I remember it being COLD that day even though it was sunny. Brrr! Ben is on the far left and Bryce is smack dab in the middle

A dentist field trip we took. Bryce is in the chair getting ready to have his tiny teeth looked at while Ben looks on.

Ben's turn!

Look at those 3 little hams! Bryce, Miss Madi and Ben. They came over for a playdate. My goodness it's hard to believe Madi was this small then! She's a big school goin' girly now!

Bryce, Connor and Ben. Connor was also in preschool with our boys and it was like the 'Three Musketeers'. Our boys all got along so well and really loved each other. Michelle is Connor's Mommy. They live in Texas now. Want to know how small of a world it really is though??? Her Mother in Law (who is a sweet, sweet, sweet lady with a doggy Bryce LOVES!) happens to live in the subdivision I live in! How cool is that?!?

Remember my 'Puddle Play' post a couple days back? This was one of Bryce's puddle play days in Germany (which we seemed to have a lot of there!). Jeni, he was in the shoppette parking lot. Probably on the way to preschool or your house girl! If you haven't been to Rhein Main or a base in Germany, the oh so lovely buildings you see in the background were our houses. They were apartment style. Each building had about 6 stairwells and each stairwell had anywhere from 8-10 or so apartments in them. Busy, busy, busy and noisy but always someone to play with or have coffee or late night wine sipping with while hubby was away or working those crazy shifts! Kinda like a real life 'Army Wives' (a show both Jeni and I are addicted to on Lifetime, Sunday nights!)

Babies Need Breaks, Too!

The kiddos were literally chasing each other around the house, squealing, laughing, clapping...and then all of a sudden there was SILENCE! Bryce was hiding from Caroline and she was hunting for him (truly a favorite game of both of theirs!). The TV had been on as background 'noise' while we played earlier because it was a soft music time on the channel. Well, it had switched to cartoon time for babies (Dish Network baby channel~ it's a super neat thing!) and when I peeked around the corner to make sure all were still alive and kicking, this is what I saw....
Awww!

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

Wait, Wait! On Second Thought, DON'T Go Away! We're having WAY TOO MUCH FUN!

On the way home from picking up Bryce from school it started POURING DOWN rain! I mean rain so hard and so fast I had to turn the wipers on HIGH! It was warm out and Caroline has never been out in the rain so out we went to create a new adventure! We hung back under the cover of the front porch until it started to slow down.

She LOVED it! Look at how quickly her little arms and hands were moving in this pic above! She was beyond EXCITED to say the least!

Miss Priss couldn't get ENOUGH of this wet stuff coming down! The neighbors were walking by to pick up their kids from the school a few houses down, and they all waved, laughed, and hollered over at our little hot mess of a tot as they passed by!

Oh my, Oh my...Getting really WET!

I'm free from the porch now! Mom let me out to explore! Yippee!

Oh boy, Oh boy! I'm so excited to RUN down to the culdesac to check out the mini river my big brother is already stomping around in!

Here I come Bryce... Watch out... I just might splash you buddy!

Uh oh... Looks like Bryce might splash the princess first! Hmm, I wonder how she took it?

Yep, you guessed it! She LOVED it! Looks like I need to find some cute rain boots, a rain coat and a nifty umbrella for her for next springtime! We just might have a puddle jumper on our hands!

Fun, Fun, Fun!

Taking a little pause to look up at the school kids walking by.

The PediPeds are resting on the dryer~ they were sopping wet! They're calling for more rain tomorrow in the 'Lou'. Round 2 anyone?!?

Wait...I thought FALL was on the way?!?!?

The crazy Midwestern weather has FOOLED me again! Just as the early mornings and evenings were getting a bit cooler, and I had my hubby dig out the fall decoration storage tubs because I was getting so excited... it's stinking HOT and HUMID again. Oh boy! But, I'm still going to push on with 'Plan A' because I'm beyond ready for fall to come to us. So, during Miss Priss' naps next week, while my little man is in school, I will be packing away the below Americana/4th decs to bring out the FALL! Woo hooo...here come the pumpkins guys!!!


So, this little silver tree and the decs on it are my FAVORITE patriotic thing! When we lived in Germany it was hard to come by seasonal decorations, except for the things at the local BX/PXs, which were not that cool. Whenever I'd make a trip back to the 'Land of Shopping Galore', I'd always try to come back with something neat for myself and my girlfriend Jeni, over at 'At Home In Georgia'. Jeni and I LOVE to decorate in the same style and we always had SO MUCH fun finding new goodies! Well, Jeni surprised me one year with the BEST EVER patriotic ornies. They're the ones on the silver tree above! They're little firecrackers, red white and blue top hats and balls...really Neat-O stuff!

Just a few things on a table in the kids 'gameroom'. Can't put too much on it right now because Miss Priss can, and will if I'm not in the room, reach up just to check something out! Hmm, fall decs should be interesting since there are a LOT more of them to put out!!! Some trees and decs on the dining room table. The cake stand is a fav of mine. My Mom flew over to hang out with B and I for a bit between her chemo treatments while Jason was working crazy 7 day a week , 16+ hour days, during the start up of OIF. She was with us for about 1 1/2 weeks and he was able to get a day off to hang out at home so she and I could take a quick trip to Czech~ where I found (among many other neat things!), this cake stand for the equivalent of about $14. I think that was a pretty good deal! Now, the funny part of the trip was when she and I got home at about 3am and didn't realize the front door to the apartment was left unlocked by Jason for us, and I was ringing the doorbell, knocking on the door...trying to get my hubby to get up and let us in with all of our loot! We were delirious from being awake for 2 days to get there, shop, and back and had just shopped ourselves plain silly I think!

And a few more on my jelly cabinet...

Now...THIS is why I can't decorate or get ANYTHING done when Caroline aka 'Wild Thing' is AWAKE! This is what she did in my craft room when I left her for literally seconds yesterday. She is a hoot and I wouldn't want to spend time away from her though, so I can live with not doing anything other than being a Mommy during her awake time! Being a Mommy is the most FUN thing EVER, isn't it?!? XO

Bryce is BACK TO THE GRIND!

My little buddy is in the 3rd grade now! My oh my the summer just flew by. I wish I could have frozen it for longer. There was so much more on our 'To Do' list that just became 'To Donts'. Bummer... But, those can still almost all be made 'To Dos' during the year, I'm sure! Look closely in the background and you can see the neighborhood school right over B's shoulder...where the DHL truck is pulling out of. But he's gone to K- present in our towns local Catholic grade school~ hence the uniform. Bryce's other backpack lasted for a LONG time~ kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade..and is still up and running, but it's always fun to get new things so he picked out a navy blue one this year. Thank goodness, too, because this should camouflage dirt really well and make my spot cleaning job MUCH EASIER! Good choice Bryce!

Can you see the up close of what he chose this time around? Oh yes, our little soccer fiend chose a soccer ball and his initials (we've only ever allowed him to get his initials because it worries me that someone would be able to call his name, get him to stall and think twice..... Now, I drive him to and from school so not a lot of chances for this to actually take place, but hey...A Momma bears gotta do what a Momma bears gotta do, right?!?)

Bryce & two of his buddies~ Ben on the far left and Quinn in the middle. His school just let them start wearing monogrammed green shirts. Since it was the 1st year with them, B was nervous to wear one on day one not knowing if it would be the 'cool' thing to do or not. Oh brother...it begins! But, he saw lots of other kiddos had them on so he was fair game today. Boy oh boy did it look great on him with his hair and eye color. I loved it! I'll have to go buy some more!!!

Alright, this post was supposed to be all about Bryce starting the 3rd grade, but I couldn't resist this funny pic. Miss Priss was 'Speed Crawling' downstairs while playing a game of chase with me. To move faster she goes up on all fours and doesn't let those little knees touch the ground. Not sure how aerodynamic a diapered booty sticking way up in the air is...But hey, it seems to work for her royal heinous!!! XO