pictures, pictures, pictures

first up, are wedding photos:

the boys before we went into the church

patiently waiting

after a beautiful ceremony, it was time for the reception:

mr. and mrs.

bubba had talked about eating cake for DAYS before the wedding. he was not let down

1st dance

halfway through the first dance, bubba and belle-belle snuck out onto the dance floor.

father-daughter dance

mother-son dance

and finally we all got to dance!

peanut was content watching. he did however stay up til 11pm!

pookie and me dancing
throwing of the bouquet and garter belt

next set of pics will be from graduation :) coming soon!!

no i didn't die, although i almost wish that i did

i'm going to humor myself by thinking that all 5 of my followers of my loyal readers missed me. no i didn't die, i just almost died. okay, so i didn't almost die. that was a stretch of the truth. but i do sorta feel useless. okay, i feel completely useless. i didn't die but i did severally sprain my ankle to the point where i can't walk on it. or put ANY amount of weight on it. for an entire week. it swelled up all super huge, then turned this great shade of black/purple/blue/green. fun stuff. here is a craptastic cell phone pic:
i apologize for the crappy quality but given the crutches, i couldn't exactly carry myself and my DSLR over to the counter.

so you might be wondering, what in the world did she do? well here are a few choices: i hurt my ankle while running away from a rabid pack of wolves. or maybe i sprained it while skydiving and landing on jagged mountains. i bet it happened when i stepped out of a truck. or it was when i was trying to save that family of kittens from the burning building.

okay okay, i sprained my ankle by stepping out of a truck. that's it. i was hopping out of the backseat of a truck and landed on my ankle wrong. my ankle rolled and i landed on top of it. (so completely clumsy and boring, i know!) it hurt like hell and i kinda thought they were going to have to amputate but alas i have an ace bandage, a prescription for 800mg motrin and a set of crutches. on monday i am suppose to switch the ace wrap out for an air cast and try to start walking (still with crutches) but placing weight on my foot as well. if i am still in pain then, they will re-xray and i'll probably have to start physcial therapy.

great, just what a stay at home mom with 3 small kids wants to hear. i can't carry peanut. i can't chase pooks. i can't help bubba up the 13 steps to the bathroom to go potty. so i am sitting on the couch (or nanaw's couch) watching everyone else do everything for me. and let me tell you , it's not as glamourous as one would think! i feel like a total idiot, i hate having people take care of me and overall i'm bored out of my damn mind.

the silver lining is that i'll be editing/enhancing wedding pics in my free time this week (which i have plenty of) so i'll have pics up from uncle matt and aunt rachel's wedding soon.

chillin' at the holiday inn...

the boys take to hotel life pretty well...don't you think??

soon the little angels will wake up and we will head down to the church to watch uncle matt and rachel get married. i'm sure that once there, they will turn into little devils but i'm prepared! for now, i'll just focus on how angelic they are!

6 months!

happy half-birthday to you! happy half-birthday to you!

i can't believe that my tiny little peanut is already six months old. it is insane! he is sleeping through the night, he's starting to sit up, he's rolling around in both directions, he found his chubby little toes. he is taking set naps now and he's attempting to grab food off of our plates. so, to ring in the fact that he is growing up so fast (*tear*) i spent this afternoon making baby food for the little guy. so far he's tried rice cereal and oatmeal. he did awesome on both so we've decided to slowly introduce fruits/veggies starting today. i told him what i was going to do and well...i don't want to brag but he was pretty excited:
so while the little dudes slept today we whipped up pureed carrots, pears and mangoes. some of you may be like ''what? she makes baby food? why wouldn't you just buy it?" well it's super easy and i like that it is healthier, fresher and i know exactly what my baby is eating. i can use organic produce and i can make sure that no nutrients are wasted. and let's face it, it is WAY cheaper. a jar of baby food is between .35 cents and $1 PER jar. i can buy an entire pound of pears for $1.29 and that yields 16 servings.

are you wondering how one goes about making baby food? well here is the run-down. it is quick and easy. today in less than one hour i made 16 servings of 3 different things. seriously people--easy peasy. you'll need a steamer basket, ice cube tray and a blender or food processor.

so first things first, you clean and dice up your fruit/veggie. then fill a saucepan with about an inch of water and place a steamer basket. fill basket with produce and steam until overly soft.

(pause to notice my new caphalon saucepan i got for my birthday)

once you've steamed it, drop it into your daiquiri/margarita maker blender and use your pulse button to mash it up. slowly add the water from the bottom of the saucepan* (you know, the water that is chalked full of yummy nutrients and vitamins from the food you just steamed?) and slowly add it into the blender until your puree is the consistency that you want it. once well blended, pour into an ice cube tray.

(forgot to snap a pic so i stole this one from google images. i make my trays neater, but you get the idea.)

pop the tray in the freezer and freeze until solid. once frozen throughout, pop the pureed cubes into a labeled ziploc baggie and stick it in your freezer.
when you want to feed your baby you simply thaw the cube (on 1/2 power in the micro or let it thaw on it's own. you can add warm water, breastmilk or formula too) and feed. viola!

see, wasn't that easy? he sure enjoyed it! here is the happy 6 month old later this evening...
tomorrow we'll make/prepare apples, pumpkin, green beans, and peas. yumm-o!

*i want to clarify, the only exception to this is for vegetables with high nitrate concentration, such as carrots, broccoli, and spinach...when cooking those, use new fresh water in the blender

sweet little pookie

i cannot believe that you are 2 years old today! the time has simply flown by. i can't imagine life without you in it. you make each day so much sweeter and a lot more interesting! your smile is contagious and your belly laughs make me so happy to call myself your mom. happy birthday big guy!

on the way home from the hospital, 2 days old

almost 6 months, learning to sit up

first time eating cheerios, 8ish months

maybe 11 months? not sure

first hair cut, 12.5 months old

15 months

18 months old

20 months
2 years old!!!!

Congratulations Uncle Matt!

we are SO SO SO proud of you!! who would have thought my little brother would have graduated college before me? okay okay, so we all knew that three kids awhile ago but it was awesome to see you out there today! best of luck in med school, i know you'll kick ass! here is one pic and i'll get the rest up soon!

(btw, thanks to aunt judy for her mad photography skills....first ever photo of all of us AND we're looking at the camera?! give that woman a prize people!)

i can't keep up!

ugh, i've just had one of those weeks where i cannot keep up with everything. we've been so busy this last week and we're only going to be even MORE busy this week so blogging has been shoved to the back burner which really kinda stinks because blogging help keeps me sane! blogging is my unwinding at the end of the day, it's how i vent and how i reminisce all at the same time and oh how i've missed it! the month of may could not be more cram packed full of activities for our family. between birthdays (papas, auntie s, mine & pooks'), mother's day, B's drill, uncle matts graduation and wedding--then you add in playdates, doctor appointments and all the errand running to for the previously mentioned activities--in a word: WHEW!

let's see, if you don't count the not me! posts and the wordless post....where did we leave off? mother's day? i never shared any pictures did i...well here is a picture of my beautiful flowers:
gorgeous and my whole house smells wonderful!

and rather than post every story and/or mishap that occurred this week i'm going to make a little installment that shall called THINGS THAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK:

-my kids have been rewired to wake at 6:30am regardless of what time they go to bed. all three kids.

- apparently peanut will not drink from a bottle. the few wonderful, glorious and well appreciated "dates" that i've had away from my kids necessary times that i've needed to be away from peanut i have always pumped milk and he had no problem accepting his meals from a plastic knockoff. well not anymore as i learned friday night. it was my ''girls'' night with nanaw; we were getting pedicures then going shoe shopping and finally enjoying a peaceful dinner. the pedicures were first and they were amazing! while waiting for nanaw to finish up, i decided to phone home and see how bedtime was going without me. ''well everything is okay i guess. peanut didn't really eat. i gave him like 6 ounces but he wouldn't really take it....i don't think he even ate an ounce. he's not very happy but maybe he's just tired." right, that's it. or he could be starving! so i did the motherly thing and had nanaw drive clear across town so that i could nurse him. he ate. and ate. and switched sides. and ate some more. i cannot remember the last time that a feeding lasted that long. but he nursed and was happy as a clam afterwards.

-pooks can say starbucks, help me, peanut's name, flip-flop, no way, whoa...cool and a ton of other random words and phrases that suddenly are exploding out of his mouth.

-bubba and pooks are fans of the black eyed peas. (the group not the food!) a few days a week, after the boys' nap we occasionally watch Ellen. the black eyed peas were on this week (no clue what day) and they preformed their new song "boom boom pow". it was mildly entertaining; it's a song that definitely will get stuck in your head. not just your head either, but the little noggins of two and three year olds as well. so much so that once they are buckled in their carseats they request ''da boom boom song''. okay so i switch to "the hits" station and lucky me, it was on.

well with the main lyric being ''gotta get dat boom boom boom...gotta get dat boom boom boom" it's an easy song for toddlers to sing. so much so that i hear it all.the.time. bubba can't recite his alphabet yet but he can sing ''i like 'dat boom boom pow....gotta get dat boom boom pow''. i know what you're thinking: Wow Shannon! What amazing and responsible parently skills you have! (eh, i can pretend). heck i'll even do one better and try to get a short video clip of them singing.

-the TV gods are out to get me. the 4 shows that i regularly DVR and wait to watch until the boys are asleep and B is at poker (you know, so i can actually hear and see the show) all had/are having their season finales this week. house, grey's, survivor and desperate housewives are all ending for the summer. what the heck am i suppose to do now...laundry? dishes? riiight, like that will happen! ha!

well it's getting late so i'm gonna wrap this up...this week we have uncle matts/rachels/michelles graduation, mine and pooks birthday and then the wedding festivities so we will be busy! i'll try to take lots of pics though! here are some to hold you over though ;)