Noah's Despicable Three Birthday Party

On Saturday, we held a family party for sweet Noah who turned 3 this month.  He LOVES the Despicable Me movies, so when I saw the Despicable Three idea on Pinterest, we ran with it.

Aaron made the cake out of a regular rectangular sheet cake.  The eyes are Oreos.

We created a "Box of Shame" like Ms. Hattie had in the first Despicable Me movie.

We had a variety of food and snack choices. The party was held over dinnertime so I wanted to have some substantial food options.

I didn't know what else to call the macaroni and cheese, but they mention stuffed crust pizza in one of the movies so I went with that.

Lemonade:

My mother in law, Heather, made these cookies which turned out so cute!

Overall, the party was simple and filled with family which was just perfect. Noah had a great time and loved the special snacks of cheetos and cake!

Until next time,
Much love, Reba

Big boy beds

For the longest time, my boys have slept on crib mattresses.  Michael has slept on a toddler bed frame with a crib mattress for a couple of years now, and Noah has slept on a converted crib-to-toddler bed for about a year and a half.

When we moved into our new home in April, I still wanted the boys to share a room. They are not quite 17 months apart, and I feel like sharing a room is the best set-up for them now.  They get along pretty well, and they don't disturb each other at night (whether that's from Michael's blood sugar checks or Noah's request to be covered up at 3:00am).

I knew that Michael would outgrow his crib mattress soon since he is so tall.  So, lately, I've been on the search for twin mattresses for them. Eventually I think I want them to be in bunk beds, but I don't think they're responsible enough right now.  It might be more of a temptation to pretend like it's a mountain and jump off.  Therefore, the twin mattresses would reside on the floor.

I found a good deal on wayfair.com and decided to take the leap. I had never ordered a mattress online before, but I felt pretty good about the quality and I couldn't pass up free shipping!

The mattresses arrived about a week ago and they've sat in our living room untouched.  Taking apart a toddler bed and a crib was not motivating us to get our act together.  However, today I was off of work and highly motivated. Therefore, I moved the toddler bed into our spare room and I'll have Aaron deconstruct it later on.  I then grabbed our Allen-wrenches and deconstructed the crib.  Once the little beds were out of the way, I opened up the mattress boxes.

These mattresses were wrapped up so tight and deflated of all air!  As soon as their fabric touched air again, they started inflating!  It was really cool.  The little instruction card said it would take 2 to 3 hours to fully inflate.

I spent part of that time rearranging their room. I had to move out their yellow rocking chair to the living room. I'm hoping to have it reupholstered this year.  I moved their bookshelf across the room only to have to move it right back where it was. I wish I hadn't put ALL of the books in it as soon as I moved it this first time because I had to empty it again and move it right back across the room.


I had to change the direction of noah's mattress. His crib had fit into the little nook in the room but this new mattress was too long for that nook. 


To while away the rest of the 2-3 hour period, we loaded up and headed to Target for the boys to pick out their own sheet set. I didn't have any twin sets so I figured having them pick out their own sets might be fun.  Noah picked Mickey. Michael picked Pokémon. *insert major sigh from me here*


Here's our "before sheets" picture:

And here's our "after sheets" picture:

Naptime didn't go as planned. Neither one of them slept. They stayed in their beds but did not sleep. I'm hoping bedtime goes a bit better!

Until next time,
Much love, Reba

2017

Our Christmas and New Years holiday was very relaxing.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was spent with both sides of our family (my parents on Christmas Eve, and my in-laws on Christmas Day).

The garlic herb cheese bombs were a hit!  In fact, I'm making them again tomorrow to take to a food fellowship at the women's Bible study I attend on Wednesday nights.

On Christmas morning, the boys opened up their stockings from "Santa."  Michael was disappointed that he didn't get a Wii-U in his stocking.  I told him that sometimes Santa tells Mommy and Daddy what he wants, and Mommy and Daddy get to go buy it.  Therefore, about 20 minutes later, Michael and Noah opened one of their "joint gifts" to find a Wii-U!  Michael is obsessed with it.

Noah did not care a lick about opening gifts.  He was more interested in his bag of M&M's in his stocking and in his "Holiday Pooper" candy toy-- which Aaron and I bought on a whim for their stockings.  Both boys got one-- Michael got a snowman and Noah got a penguin.  It's a little plastic toy where you insert candy balls into a trap door at the back of the head, and then you wind up the toy and it walks while pooping out the candy.  Noah must have played with this little penguin non-stop all morning until it was time for church.

The day after Christmas is my dad's birthday, so we enjoyed dinner over there that evening.  Michael and Noah both enjoyed the ice cream cake.

It was back to work for us the following morning-- me for a 4 day workweek, and Aaron for a 3 day workweek as he was given Friday the 30th off of work.  He was also given December 23rd off of work, so he had two 4-day weekends back to back while I got two 3-day weekends.  Friday the 30th was such a long day for me since Aaron and the boys were home and I had to work (from home).

We really soaked up this past weekend in full relaxation mode.  Although the Christmas holidays were fun, they were busy and we did not get a full chance to unwind.  Plus, I kept thinking that Monday December 26th was actually a Saturday and was then quite disappointed to keep reminding myself that it was actually a Monday and that I had to return to work the following day.  This weekend was much more low key, and I did not have trouble remembering that yesterday was a Monday.

Last night was a very rough night on us.  Michael went low twice before 2:00am.  So we were both up at different times to administer chocolate milk and jelly.  Then, poor Aaron has had a respiratory issue for about 3 weeks now which means much snoring at night.  Unfortunately, this is something my body simply cannot stand and I wake constantly during these episodes.  I so desired my bed, but I was torn between going to the couch just to get some sleep!  :)  We have both remarked to each other today that we are very worn out from lack of sleep.  I have a feeling it will be an early bedtime for us tonight.

This year will be full of changes for us.  I've been very consistent with my workouts and eating habits for a couple of weeks now and am feeling very good!  I even fit into a couple of pairs of pants that I had not worn since last January!

I'll write soon about our very busy January and February.

Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba