Back to Work

Today was my first official day back at school. Andy came with me and we got all of the furniture in place and most of my stuff put back away. He also got all the technology hooked up for me including 3 computers, TV, DVD/VCR, and Averkey. Thanks sooo much babe! We had a nice lunch together. It was so nice to spend time with Andy without our kids. We had a good day. My mom took care of the boys and they had a great time together too. Thanks mom, we couldn't have gotten anywhere near as much done today without your help! Tomorrow I'll be back to keep hanging posters and getting set up. Parent orientation is next week. Last night knowing that I was back to work today I had a little pity party complete with cheese sticks from Papa John's and a Blue Moon. Andy came to my pity party and had some cheese sticks! It's just hard to go back after being home since early June. I'll miss Luke and Ty so much. Wilson will be at school with me! Exciting though I don't know what to expect. For 8 years I've woken up and gone to work while the rest of the family is usually still snoozing. Now I'll be getting one of them up and ready to go early with me! Tyler is definitely a momma's boy and it was really hard to be away from him today. He did come up to school to nurse before his afternoon nap. Working on cutting out 2 daytime feedings for school...

Running Again...

So a few weeks ago I started the Couch Potato to 5K running program. It consists of 9 podcasts, 1 podcast for each week. You do each podcast 3 times. So you run 3 times a week. Last night I ran week 3 for the 2nd time. Not too bad- they are easing me back into running. Hoping I can keep up with running after school starts. It's nice running with the podcasts because it feels like I have a personal trainer with me!!

At Home...

So school starts two weeks from tomorrow. But today I find myself sitting at home with the boys because we're having unexpected enrollment changes and I can't set my room up until further notice! Crazy! I may or may not have to move my classroom so we've been advised to hold off setting up our rooms until we get the final word. So my classroom is one big pile of furniture, boxes, and stuff stacked and piled in the back of the room. Not sure how I am going to get ready in time for orientation next Thursday. I'll lose 3 days this week due to what I mentioned above. Next Monday Andy is taking the youth group to KI so I'll be home with the boys (though I might just hire a babysitter so I can work) and Tuesday I'll be at CCH with Ty for most of the day. That will leave Wednesday and Thursday next week to get set up plus this Thursday and Friday. Most likely I'll go in on Saturday too. Can't on Sunday because Andy will be working. This is going to be a stressful, crazy start to my 9th year of teaching! I'm trying to be positive and keep telling myself I'll be able to get it all done...

More! More!

I forgot to mention in Tyler's 10 month post that he started signing 'more' at the beach last week! He points with his pointer finger on one had to the fingers on the other hand and is SO proud of himself when he does it! He won't do the sign every time I try to get him to but he has signed more several times! Go Tyler!

School Shopping

I spent 2 hours with Wilson all by himself today for school shopping! We started with lunch at Puccini's. Wilson wanted pizza for lunch. Then we headed over to Walmart and bought all of his supplies for Kindergarten. He chose green scissors and counted out the right number of crayon boxes and glue sticks. He was excited! Then we went over to Target and he picked out a pair of plaid shorts that he liked. I found a matching shirt and we were done! He was very easy to shop with and is all set for the first day! I think our back to school shopping tradition will always be in late July before my hectic back to school time starts up. We had such a nice time together!

I added pictures!

To the 2 previous posts. :)

10 Months

Here he is eating pancakes!

Tyler is 10 months old! He is eating all table food now though sometimes I still feed him oatmeal cereal with applesauce mixed in for breakfast. He loves to eat, that hasn't changed! He is now saying "uh-oh" and it is ADORABLE!! He is not crawling or pulling up yet which is fine with me! He is getting up on his knees and rocking every now and then. He has taken to using me as a pacifier while on vacation so I am glad to be home and have him in his own room! He doesn't have much time left for that! He is pretty vocal and loves to watch his brothers. He thinks they are something special! He does not like sand. While we were at the beach he was sitting on a towel under his beach tent and the towel got scooted out from under one of his legs. He held that leg up so it wouldn't touch the sand! I had to fix the towel back under him. He did not like it when we tried to put his feet in the ocean or the sand. He would start screaming right away! He loves being at the pool once he gets over the initial shock of the water! His hair is getting really long around his ears and he still has just 2 teeth. He is as cuddly as ever and my sweetheart. We go back to CCH early August to the Hemangioma unit. His PWS looks dark today but I barely noticed it at the beach. Weird how it changes from day to day. He is perfect and happy and adorable! Love you TW!

OBX -'09

Last night in Rodanthe, NC

Fun with the boogie board

Surfer Dudes

Loves his new water shooter!

Getting very brave in the pool!

Lounging at the Pool

Cool sand art we saw at Kitty Hawk.

Ty's first time at the beach!

Walking up to see the beach after a LONG drive!

Wow, what a great week at the beach! We went to Rodanthe, NC with my family. We had a nice, relaxing week. We would usually spend the morning at the beach, the afternoon at the pool, and just hang out and relax in the evening. We went to Pea Island Nature Conservatory, had a date night with Cara and Jason, went out for seafood on our last night, did a little shopping, relaxed in the hot tub, and just had fun! We also had a bonfire on the beach one night. That was cool. The sand dunes at Jockey Ridge were amazing. We saw beautiful sunsets and just enjoyed being away. The beach is just good for my soul! I'll post pictures later!

Breakfast

I finally have Luke eating breakfast again! He hasn't been much of a breakfast eater the past couple months. He always used to eat a cereal bar. I guess he got sick of those because he started eating less and less of his bar each day. Then recently we switched to cereal. He would eat a couple bites. So I started giving it to him dry and he would just eat a little. One morning this week I offered him non breakfast foods and he ate! Since then he's been eating a cheese stick, gogurt, and crackers. I'm so glad he is eating breakfast again! He takes after his momma- I don't eat many breakfast foods for breakfast either!

Wilson on the other hand has taken to eating cereal with milk using a FORK! He loves cereal right now and will drink the milk when he's through. He's been eating fruity cheerios or Kix lately. He takes after his daddy who eats cereal everyday!

I'm addicted to cake pops.

Hi. My name is Alyssa. I'm a cakepopaholic! Really, they are that good! If you want yummy chocolate cake pops (those are the ones I'm addicted to) keep reading. I made more this past Sunday and Andy even dunked a few in melted candy and decorated them for the youth group. He took a bunch with him to youth that night and the kids ate them up. The boys and I have been enjoying cake pops too. After lunch and dinner they each wanted to choose a cake pop. They are all gone now and I told them we can't make them again until Halloween! They are too hard to resist :)

-Buy a chocolate cake mix and chocolate fudge icing. I think I used Pillsbury (blue box).
-Bake your cake according to the directions on the box in a 13x9 in pan.
-While it is warm crumble it in small pieces into a large bowl.
-Add the container of frosting and mix into the cake until it is uniform. Use your hands!
-Now form into balls (smaller than a golf ball, bigger than a little bouncy ball) and set them back into your 13x9 pan. If you make them too big they are hard to eat and too heavy for your lollipop stick.
-Place the pan into the freezer for 15-20 minutes or until the cake balls are chilled.
-While they are cooling start melting whatever colored candy melts you want in a deep bowl so you can dip the cake balls into the melted candy. You can buy these at craft stores. Add a little crisco in the bowl to thin the candy and heat for 30 sec at a time, stirring each time.
-Set the ball in the melted candy. Roll in around with a spoon. Dip the end of a stick in the melted candy and push into the center of the cake ball. Use the spoon to get melted candy all over the ball and then tap the stick on the side of the bowl to get rid of the excess candy.
-Immediately decorate the cake pop with whatever sprinkles/candy you choose.
-Then stick cake pop stick into styrofoam so the candy can harden upright. Store in tupperware or individually wrap in clear cellophane bags tied with ribbon to pass out to your friends.

A funny thing Wilson said...

The other day on the way to the pool Wilson said "Hey mom don't put any sunscreen on Luke so he can get a suntan like me."

I thought that was so funny! I always put sunscreen on both of them at the pool but Wilson thought if I didn't put sunscreen on Luke then his skin would tan like his does! Too cute.

Calling all little boys!!

Have boys? You need this DVD set. We rented one of the DVD's last week and the boys loved it! It is real life machines working in the real world and they have added voice overs for the machines. So its like the machines are talking to each other etc. Today my maw-maw and paw-paw brought the movie set over to the boys! They were thrilled! My paw had called around and found it after I told them about how cool the boys thought the movie was. I didn't even know there were 4!!

The T-ball Shrine

I have my camera back now that Andy is home. Remember the post where I described Wilson displaying all of his t-ball stuff on the mantel? Here is a picture to go with my words!!

Cake Pop Party

Shawna

Jenn and Laura

My sister, Cara

Sister in Law, Stephanie

Some of my cake pops. (I am not a photographer!)

Remember this post? Well I decided 4th of July was a great opportunity to try making cake pops! I emailed all the girls that commented on the blog that they wanted to come to a cake pop party. We got together this morning and tried making our own cake pops! It was much harder than Bakerella and Pioneer Woman make it look...but we did get the hang of it eventually! We all left with some cute cake balls. We had trouble make the cupcake looking cake pops. Jenn was able to make several cute stars and flowers. The rest of us stuck to the cake ball on a stick. Cute!I would like to make these again for halloween. I had trouble with my cake balls because I hadn't used enough frosting in my cake to get the cake to stick together. I added some extra frosting to some cake and mixed again which worked. I also used some of Cara's cake balls. We found that it was ok to add the frosting to a warm cake. Make sure you cake balls are very cold or they will fall apart in the candy coating. Make sure your candy is thin. We used crisco to thin the melted candy. I haven't eaten any yet other than one bite but I'll try one tomorrow!

We made it!

Andy has been in Costa Rica for the past 10 days. He will be home later today! We are so looking forward to having daddy back in the house. We have missed him so much. I've talked to him on the phone 3 times for about 10 minutes total and received 2 emails to let me know everything was going well and he was alive! I can't wait to hear all about his trip. When he called me yesterday it was honestly just good to hear his voice. The boys and I have had a good 10 days - lots of fun, some really hard moments of course, but overall a good time. His new milkshake maker from Father's Day is waiting on him. We also have cinnamon rolls to make for breakfast and some peanut butter M&M's waiting for him.

Thank you to my great family for helping us get through! Mom, Terry, and Carol have all watched the boys. Ma and Paw have been doing our laundry since we don't have a working machine. Dad got my air conditioning fixed and took us out to eat. Cara got us to go to a fun children's program with her and the kids last week at Southland. The kids made it every night and really enjoyed it. Uncle Bill took us out to dinner and helped me when the front glass door fell off in the wind gusts on Monday. Thank you everyone! I couldn't have survived without your help. Thank you so much.

We've stayed busy by: going to the library, swimming, building legos, working in the garden with Uncle Bill, having friends over to play, two days of PD for mommy, renting movies, playing outside with friends, sprinkler/water balloon/water gun fun, and coloring. That's all I can think of right now. I'm worn out! I've rented 3 movies for myself and highly recommend Bride Wars. Confessions of a Shopoholic was pretty good and He's Just Not That into You wasn't very good. Wish I'd chosen something else!