Romper Redo

If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know I love a good monogram. Once we found out Luke was a boy, I finally started putting Claire's name on her stuff instead of just a "C" since I knew we wouldn't have any little girls to hand down to. (I do have a younger Claire and C-name girls of friends that get her hand-me-downs.)

For David, I still put his name and initials on a lot of stuff, with plans to either not reuse it or "fix" the monogram so Luke can wear it. I could do that by (1) picking out the old monogram or (2) covering the monogram with a patch. The first option is tedious and sometimes doesn't look all that good after the monogram has been picked out depending on the type of fabric. The second option is much easier and there are lots of cute options.

These two rompers were handed down plain to me from a friend. I put David's monogram on them.

Here is the blue romper with a cute sailboat fabric patch and Luke's monogram.

Here is the seersucker romper with a cute tractor patch. (Luke wears this outfit all the time. I love it.)

If you're keeping score, that's 3 kids who have worn these outfits. Hope this helps keep nice monogrammed items in the clothing rotation!

A is for Apple ...

I won't bore you with a lot of homeschool stuff, but I do want to keep track of what we are doing so I'll throw some homeschool posts in every now and then.

We started David's first week of preschool with the Letter A. Shocking!

Actually, the first day, we read his most favorite (and mine) alphabet book. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. We watched this video based on the book on YouTube and made a tot book that covered shapes, letters, colors, numbers, etc. (We watched the video and reviewed the tot book daily.)



We sampled 4 different kinds of apples for a snack. Claire still remembers the names of all the apples 2 months later.


We made handprint coconut trees and stamped the alphabet. (Claire participated in many of our crafts this week after she finished her school for the day.) My dormant scrapbooking supplies have come in handy for our homeschooling projects!


Making "A" with playdough.


Apple pie. It looked a lot prettier than it tasted or I would share the recipe. If you have a great apple pie recipe, please share!


This was a favorite ... apple stamping.




David loved these foam crafts from Totally Tots.


A little handwriting practice. Actually, we need a lot of practice.


Egg-carton ants.


Our "A" week on the board. Our "A" verse was "A soft answer turns away wrath." And, he actually memorized it by Day 3. I was super-impressed.


David's bible curriculum came from RRSP and most of our other curriculum is from LOTW.

Random Summer Wrap-Up

Okay ... these are just some random pics from this summer that I thought were cute and wanted to "preserve" for memory's sake.

Luke chillin' with his bottle at a Chick-Fil-A playdate.



Claire with her two best buddies from preschool. K and A.


A has a little sister (also A) who is one of David's church buddies. Truth be told, she really has a thing for baby Luke. I love how David is looking over at her in this picture.


The big kids went to gymnastics camp for a week this summer. They had a blast, but I was a little apprehensive about dropping David off. The camp had kids from 3-10 together and who was going to help him with his lunch? Big sister took really good care of him though (she even took him to the bathroom) and they both had a really fun time. I really liked it because most of the time, Luke napped the entire time they were there (10-1) so I had a little mommy stay-cation of sorts.


Here are the only pictures I have from camp. (It's hard to take photos when the kids are all the way across the gym and you are carrying a baby.) This is a craft the kids made the last day of camp.

David on the pommel horse.


Claire on the beam.


Will and they kids love to watch Looney Tunes after dinner. You know, that awkward 30 minutes or so between dinner and bedtime (on nights when the kids don't need a bath). I caught all 4 of them snuggled up in the recliner one night.



BTW, David has named his "baby" Porky Pig (it's this plastic pig toy from a happy meal that he pushes around in a doll stroller all the time). Thanks Looney Tunes!

Luke: 12 months old

This will be the last monthly post I will do on the little guy for a while. I'll probably switch to doing an update every 3 months for the next year.

A few bullet points from the 12th month:

-weight: 20 lbs., 8 oz. (20th percentile)
-height: 29-1/4 inches (35th percentile)
-standing alone, but still not taking any steps
-pushes his bottle away when he is finished
-pushes the spoon out of his mouth with his tongue when he is finished eating
-he "yells" when he is ready for another bite (like "bite, bite, bite")
-clap hands and waves bye-bye
-drinks from a sippy cut at meals (but he still gets a bottle at morning and night)

Here's a cute picture of Luke on his actual birthday. We had a little impromptu birthday hat photo shoot in the backyard.



Here's to a great 1st year!

Menu Plan Monday

It's back! I think it has been close to a year since I did a menu plan Monday post. I've still been cooking and pulling things together, but formal menu planning has been tough. I've kind of been in a rut.

I've found a new meal planning website that I am trying out for a little help. This nice thing about this meal plan is that I prepare 5 meals at one time in one hour. Then, during the week, I just take the prepared meals out and cook them. The meals from the sample menu look good and should make enough for our 5 eaters plus leftovers for a couple of lunches for me. (I'm getting tired of eating sandwiches now that I am home everyday.) A lot of these meals are freezable too.

Monday: black bean and corn quesadillas, chips & salsa

Tuesday: chick-fil-a kids' night after soccer

Wednesday: slow cooked Asian beef & broccoli, brown rice, egg rolls

Thursday: spaghetti & meatball casserole, salad, garlic bread

Friday: leftovers

Saturday: plans out

Sunday: leftovers

Visit Laura @ Organizing Junkie for more great menu plans.

Well, Hello Fall!

It was a cool 49 degrees here this morning when we left at 8 am for Claire's soccer game. Will was headed to Tuscaloosa to watch Bama take on Arkansas. In addition to college football, colorful leaves, cooler weather and pumpkins, one of my favorite things about fall is eating soup.

Even though it ended up warming up to 70 degrees today, I threw together some soup for lunch. And I mean I literally threw it together with a bunch of random stuff from our pantry and freezer. It was really yummy so I thought I would share the recipe with you.

Southwest Chicken Soup
3 cups shredded chicken (I used leftover rotisserie chicken)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 c. salsa
2 cans chicken broth
2 cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 c. frozen corn
1T. dried onions
1t. chili powder
1/2-1t. cumin
1/2t. garlic powder

Bring to boil. Lower to simmer. Cover and cook for 1 hour. Serve with shredded cheese and tortilla chips.

Some of my other favorite fall/tailgate recipes are:

Buffalo chicken dip (serve with fritos, celery sticks and/or chicken crackers)

Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins

Feta black bean dip (serve with tortilla scoops)

Enjoy! Happy Saturday! Roll Tide!

Sew What: Summer Edition

I've kept my mom's embroidery machine HOT this summer. Here are some completed projects.

"C" tee for Claire. (The C is much better for hand-me-downs, although my neighbor's niece is Claire so she gets a lot of our stuff.) This is the petal patch from AC. Not sure about the applique C.

"Lil' Firecracker" onesie for Luke. This was a free design I got somewhere. And he is definitely a firecracker.

I cut this outfit out a while ago. It's a size 4. It's almost too small. I LOVE this fabric. The pattern is the Mod Kid Ava. I love her patterns. I think they run pretty true to size. I should have made a 5. Will definitely make again.

This is another easy pattern. I made this entire dress in about 3 hours (while C & D were at gymnastics camp and L was napping). I found Carrie's sewing blog and started borrowing ideas from her about the same time she started selling patterns. This is the Addison dress.

Super-cute bow in the back.

A girl bib, burp cloth and romper baby gift. Note the elephant in pink.

Another baby girl bib and burp cloth. Note the elephant in brown. I'm not sure if I like it better in pink or brown.

I bought these shorts from Zulily for $10 each. I made these cutes tees to match for David.

Another pair of outfits for David. These cute plaid shorts came from Wal-Mart for $3.50.

A white terry swimsuit cover-up for Claire.

I made this dress ages ago and I finally got the buttons on. It looks so cute on Miss C. It's the round-neck top/dress pattern from this Etsy store.

My mom made this cute dress for Claire. Too much cutting and piecing for me!

Cute tees for Claire (birdhouse design from AC) and skorts bought on clearance at Hanna Andersson.

White knit dress for Claire. I love this peacock design from AC.

Lastly, a seahorse tee for Claire (design also from AC). Love the pink and aqua!

That's it! Now it's time to get busy sewing footballs, pumpkins and turkeys!