Beckster

Beck is getting so big!! Tonight Chrissy was playing with Beck and she said that he started clapping. I thought no way because he is only 7 1/2 months old. But sure enough I looked over and he was clapping and then I had him in my lap later and he was clapping again. Ugh!! He is getting so big and I am so sad and happy at the same time. He is such a different baby than he was just a couple of weeks ago.

Beck is on the move...

Beck is officially crawling and I am in real trouble now. Beck is a very active and squirmy 7 1/2 month old. He has been scooting, rolling, and stretching to get places the last few weeks but last night he saw a toy that he really wanted and decided that he had to get it. He has finally figured out the coordination between the moving of this hands & knees. My world is in for a big change. I am so proud of him and sad at the same time...I want my newborn back. But I guess that he must grow up some day just didn't think that this day would come so soon. He is sitting up too something he mastered a while ago. Aubrey crawled first and then sat up-she's backwards. Sorry I don't have any pics I will post tons when we get back to Austin next week.

The real recipe to Cut-Out Cookies & Icing

Cookies

Cream together:
3/4 cups Crisco shortening
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup evaporated milk } Mix together and let stand for 5 minutes
1 tablespoon lemon juice} and add to creamed mixute above.

Add dry ingredients in 3 or 4 parts:
4 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp BAKING soda
pinch of salt

Wrap in saran wrap and refrigerate until cold. Makes dough easier to work with. Also easier to work with the dough in thirds and leave the rest in the fridge.

Have quite a bit of flour on rolling surface. Pat dough on both sides to flour both sides. Flour rolling pin. Cut into shapes.

Bake @ 350 degrees around 11-13 minutes. Frost when cooled.


Frosting

Melt 4 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup water
Add powdered sugar to desired thickness (1 box)
Add 1/2 tsp Almond extract

Place in several small dishes and add food coloring as desired.

And them bring the cookies to my house because I love Sugar Cookies with Icing they are my favorite. Nummy-Nummy!!

My Sissy Chrissy

Aubrey calls my sister Chrissy "Sissy". We are staying at her house this week and this last Saturday she hosted an Easter Egg decorating party (I will post pics of the party & Easter next week when we get back home). She asked me to make sugar cookies with icing for the party. She went to the store and got everything and when I got to her house on Saturday she had set out all the ingredients for me. I scanned the counter, all the usual suspects were there flour, sugar, powdered sugar, vanilla, almond extract, crisco, Sprite, salt, lemon juice, eggs, evaporated milk. WHAT?!? SPRITE?!? Yes, A can of Sprite. I looked at my recipe that my mom had emailed both Chrissy & I a few months ago and sure enough 1 tsp. of soda is listed as one of the ingredients. You know and I know that by soda it means baking soda because you are BAKING. But to my sister it means Sprite actually when I asked her she thought that soda meant soda water and she was going to go back to the store but then she thought that a Sprite would do. And she said "I am so glad that you are making the cookies b/c I would have made them I would have really messed them up". I am the baker of the family-I love sweets and Chrissy is the cooker. If the brownie recipe says to beat the mixture for 2 minutes she sets a timer for 2 minutes.

Also as I'm typing this entry she asked me if I was blogging about her, of course I said No. And then she said "Good because if you were I would cry".

We love you Sissy!!!!

Don't Bite the Mommy that Feeds You

I started Beck on formula today. Ugh!! I am feeling bad, and little guilty. I have been so dedicated to breastfeeding. I breastfed Aubrey for 7 1/2 months and that is exactly how old Beck is now. But he has started biting me during all the daytime feedings and he is such a destracted eater that I feel like my production has gone down a little bit. But to remedy this he has started night nursing quite often like a newborn. Like I feed him at 9:30 pm and he usually wakes again around 2 am and nurses 3 or 4 times to eat before 8 am. I have been exahusted and not sleeping well. So when he started biting the last few days I have decided to exclusively formula feed him. I am so sore from the biting that it hurts now when he is just eating and not biting. So I have ended my breastfeeding for good and Beck will most likely be our last child. I am feeling a little sad to miss the quiet private time that I shared with both of my beautiful children but at the same time a little free. Now I can have my body back and not worry about if I can nurse in the shirt that I am wearing plus I get to wear real bras again. It was such a hard descsion to make, and now I am second guessing myself I guess. I keep going back and forth.

He did take the bottle fairly well though (one of my fears about switching him to formula). He took 4 oz after fussing for about 10 minutes around 6ish and the he ate some green beans and carrots around 8ish. And then he had over 6 oz around 9:30 and then passed out. Maybe he will sleep all night. So I guess that I need to figure out how many ounces that he needs everyday and get him on some kind of a schedule. He pretty much demand fed while I was nursing.

And I was bummed about having to go buy formula. It's so expensive!! I registered on the formula website this evening to get some coupons. And I am pretty sure that I am going to look like a porn star in the morning with some huge boobs.

My Sweet Aubrey

The kids & I (Brad went to Ft. Benning for some training) are in Tulsa for the week, we have been here since Good Friday and will stay until Sunday. So this was our first night without Daddy and sometime early this morning (it was still dark outside) I heard Aubrey saying "Mommy Mommy" from her room so I went to get her and bring her to my bed so we could all go back to sleep. Beck was already in my bed since like 2 am, he has been doing alot of night nursing lately (more on that later). So I tucked Aubrey in next to me with Beck on my other side and all of a sudden she said "Mommy, I love you!" I just melted!! It was the first time that she sponteneously said that she loved me. She has said I love Mommy when we prompt her. I told her that I love her too. I have the sweetest little girl. I LOVE HER!!

New Glasses

I ordered new glasses today, they are kind of a caramelly brown with green. They should be in in 5-7 days-perfect so I won't be waiting for them b/c I will be out of town the whole week. I also ordered some Rx sunglasses just basic Ray-Bans. I am pretty pumped about both. I was told by my eye doc to stop sleeping in my contacts and wear my glasses every night. So I told Brad that I had to have new glasses. I found 2 that I liked & the pair I ordered was on sale for $160 but the other pair was $275. So since I got the cheaper pair I also got the sunglasses because they were on sale for $150. Makes perfect sense to me, for some reason Brad doesn't understand my math and how much money I save him. The pic is totally horrible, please don't look at me or my face or my bad hair (I had a doc appt this morning I didn't have time to straighten my hair). Just look at the glasses.Oh yeah, as for the doc appt. My gastro doc wants me to stay on my meds for my GERD, as this is the best that I have ever felt with my reflux on these 2 meds. And I have an appt in April to talk to a surgeon about surgery. We will see...they say that I would be a good candidate for the surgery b/c I am young & in decent health and my meds are working. Plus it would save me over $80 a month that I spend on my meds. I just realized that I could get 2 pedicures a month for what I spend on my reflux meds. Man, I gotta get this surgery and get off these meds and get my toes done. :)

Beckster in a Basket

The other morning I was making Aubrey's juice & water. She like one cup of OJ & one cup of water, and she can't have any apple juice in the afternoon until she finishes her water, which really isn't a big deal b/c she usually has 2-3 cups of water a day. Anyway she came into the kitchen and said baby in the basket. And I didn't get it. She recently learned the word basketball b/c we went to an OSU basketball game. And she has learned basket b/c we have been playing with her Easter basket when we went to that egg hunt the other day. So I asked her what and she said baby in the basket. I go into my room and find Beck, see pics... Every morning while I am getting Aubrey's breakfast and getting dressed I put Beck on my bed with some toys and surround him with pillows. So he rolled over really quick and was free then of course Aubrey had to get into the basket too. What cute kids!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day...Late!!

So I am a slacker mom and just getting to download some pics from Monday night of the kids in their green. And I really meant to get one of them together...like I said I am a slacker mom.

I have no idea what she was fussing about.

This is totally sanitary, right? I guess that I should feed him more. He would have had more sweet potato puffs but he emptied the entire bag on the floor when Daddy was watching him.

Easter Egg Hunt

Today we went to the Southwest YMCA for an Easter Egg Hunt. We had so much fun, it was just perfect for a 2 1/2 year old. First Aubrey had a pink bunny painted on her face. There was an egg hunt and the age groups were divided up so Aubrey got a ton of eggs. We saw the Easter bunny, Aubrey was not impressed. Just like Santa she would not sit in his lap and when placed on his lap she screamed and cried. They gave us a poloroid of Aubrey & Beck on the Easter bunny's lap and Beck is so content and Aubrey has outstretched arms towards Brad screaming and crying...Priceless. Love it!! We had a nice lunch and ice cream. We did the bean bag toss and the egg toss with Cascarones (confetti filled egg shells). There was a small petting zoo, we saw goats, ducks, chickens, rabbits, a pony, and a pig. And a jupiter jump, which Aubrey loves to JUMP. And fishing for treats. She is totally full of sugar and ready for the real Easter next weekend and for more sugar. This was so fun because she is finally old enough to enjoy and participate in all the activities. Beck is next-he is ready too, today he pulled a frito chili pie into his and my laps. We had chili & cheese everywhere. I having been calling him Chili Sauce since-he laughs hesterically b/c I am the funniest Mommy ever, well to Beck I am anyway.

Bunny Face!

Egg hunting!
Our Friends Grace & Kate!

Beckster!
Not cooperating for the Easter Bunny!

Goats!
Bunnies!

More Goats!
Baby Chicks!

Pony!

Jumping!

Fishing!

For my Roomie Lindsay...

http://www.peepresearch.org/

Happy Easter!!

Baby Shower for Estes Family

Yum, Chocolate covered Strawberries!! Nummy!! I am pretty sure that Aubrey ate her body weight in the chocolate covered strawberries that I made. Everytime I saw her she had a new one in her hand.

Saturday night Brad & I co-hosted a Baby Shower for our friends Brian & Soriya (B-daddy & Mamma) but it wasn't a stupid girly boring baby shower it was more of a couples party with BBQ. Brad smoked a pork shoulder for 12 hours the night before to make some excellent pulled pork sandiwiches. We had to much food it was so good. I made the centerpieces and I am pretty proud at how they turned out, if I do say so myself. And I did the mini-champagne bottles. I made the labels they read: Estes Estates est. 1997 2008 Vintage. I would love to be a professional party planner!! I have been trained by the superb Party Planner Shelly. I meant to take more pics, here are some highlights.

Rodeo

Our friends Noah, Tovah, Kate, Grace & Aubrey.

Grace, Aubrey & Kate at lunchtime. Yum!! Fair food, in addition to their pb&j sandwiches the girls had fresh french fries & Funnel Cake.

Whiplash the Cowboy Monkey

On Wednesday we went to the Star of Texas Rodeo & Livestock Show. The kids had a great time. There were pony rides (Aubrey opted not to ride), petting zoo. We saw a cow being milked, had free ice cream twice. There was even a Monkey named Whiplash that rode a dog and hearded sheep. Aubrey rode a ride at the fair for like 2 minutes, she was screaming so much the Carney took her off and let the other kids ride some more.

RaceCar Shopping

Sorry I haven't posted lately, we have been super busy as always. Here are my cute kids Friday night at the grocery store. Aubrey loves the Racecar shopping cart. She will throw a huge fit unless we get one, and the store only has 3 racecars. Beck even enjoyed it and was turning the steering wheel.

My Celebrity Lookalike...

I totally look just like Jackie O, yeah right, I wish!!

Tea Party!!

The kids and I went to San Antonio today to pick up some tables for a baby shower that we are co-hosting this weekend for Brian & Soriya. Aubrey and THE GREAT had a tea party, they had so much fun. The Great got out Aubrey's table and a teapot and some raisans to snack on. And Aubrey got to spend some time with her puppy Fritz. The Great is so happy to have the Grand Dog stay with her. And Beck got some much need tummy time.

Happy 7 Months Old Beck!!

Beck is 7 months old today and I can't believe it. For the last few days he has been getting up on his hands & knees and now he is starting to rock. First he puts his head down then he scoots his knees underneath himself and then he pushes himself up on his hands and raises his head. And now he has added the rocking bit. He will be mobile so soon. He can already scoot pretty far. He is so proud of himself when he finally gets up. What a CUTIE!!

GO POKES!!!

This afternoon we went to the OSU-Texas game here in Austin. Basketballs games just aren't the same when their not in Stillwater at Gallagher-Iba Arena on the Eddie Sutton Court!! But we had fun anyway. We lost by 4, I think but the Cowboys played a great close game. Aubrey cheered for both teams. She loved Bevo!! But we had been telling her that Pistol Pete was going to be there and he wasn't. No Pete and no OSU cheer or pom-kinda weird. She was devasted and asked for Pete the entire game, luckily the Chick-Fil-A Cows came out at halftime to make her happy. Plus she had her first Coke, well the first coke that I said that she could have. Dee Dee & Shelly have been sneaking her Coke or Dr Pepper for months.