Aa.Bb.Cc.Dd.Ee.Ff.Gg....

I have been trying to figure out a cheap and easy way to help Max learn the letters of the alphabet by sight and as we were coloring today it hit me! Make flash cards (kinda) with each of the letters of the alphabet capitalized and not and hang them on the dining room wall at his level. Then everyday we will go over them...(as many times as I can take) and hopefully he'll get the hang of it!
So I did just that!
I started with different colors of scrapbooking paper (always) and cut it into six rectangles.

I then painted a letter on each of them.

And then I taped them all to the wall in the dining room

Hopefully he will catch on quickly and I'll be able to take them down. They don't exactly go with my decor. =)

Talk to you soon,
J

Whatcha Eatin' Wednesday's-1

Tonight I made one of the hubby's favorites,  

sausage spaghetti!  

(Actually EVERYTHING is his favorite!)

I buy hot Italian sausage links (in bulk) and separate them into baggies (2 1/2 links per bag). 

I use one bag of links, a jar of spaghetti sauce, and a box of whatever noodles I choose, tonight I used thick spaghetti (Max likes fun noodles better than regular ol' spaghetti noddles).

I remove the meat from the casings and cook it just like ground beef I just sometimes have to add water to the pan if its cooking faster on the outside than the inside. I add the sauce, boil the noodles and serve it up! 

Its a super easy alternative to regular spaghetti. Since we don't eat beef anymore this sounded soooo good and I happen to like it so much more than the regular kind!

Talk to you soon,

J

Just because it makes me smile. Number 1

This is the outfit Max decided to wear today. It definitely made me smile. Luckily we aren't going anywhere.

Talk to you soon,
J

Max the photographer.

Max took a few pictures today and we were happy to be his models.

Talk to you soon,

J

So this is what letting go feels like?

I know I know. I'm supposed to keep my composure at all times and let these things roll off my back...cause as my husband lovingly tells me "They have to grow up sometime babe." After thinking about it and talking about it, we finally decided we would put Max into preschool. I know you're saying, "what the eff is there to think or talk about?!". But I struggled with this decision a little bit. I was hesitant to put him into a new environment, with new kids, and with different adults telling him what to do. (I think I might have some control issues when it comes to my kids...sue me) I was just thinking that since I stay at home anyways, whats the use of putting him into school just yet and starting his school career already? Well anyways, we finally just decided to do it because I was put into preschool and look how smart I am!! That's not the real reason but I had to throw it out there. Really we just figured it would do him some good to be exposed to the daily school routines now when it doesn't count as much as it does in kindergarten and it would help him adjust now to being around a bunch of kids. Something he's obviously not used to. He was in daycare temporarily and he LOVED it. So this shouldn't be too hard. I hope.

Soooo...this morning we enrolled him into a state funded preschool. (I wasn't okay with paying for something I hardly wanted to do) It's the same school program that my 16 & 17 year old brothers went to for preschool! We took the kids with us, and Max was more excited than I have seen him in a while when I told him we were going to his new school. That of course calmed my nerves a little bit.

As I was sitting there filling out paper after paper of questions about his short life I couldn't help but flashback to this day. When he was about a month old and I was still trying to figure out the whole mommy thing.

And then we came home and I was looking at my boy being his goofy self and I realized that time has flown by quicker than I ever thought it could and he has grown into this little man, with a future as bright as the sun. I'm sure when August 31st gets here and we are dropping him off for the first time I will feel even more like a piece of me is being ripped away...and I'll blog about it again. But until then I am going to enjoy the fact that I get 24 hours a day everyday with my firstborn.


Talk to you soon,
J

Happy Monday!!

These are just a few fun pictures from the last few days!!

Talk to you soon,

J

Remember those things called disposable cameras?

SOOOOOO....this weekend was FUN!
On Friday the husband, kids, and I hung out at home allllll day! His dad and step-mom came over and when they left they took Max with them to spend the night with them. (EXCITING!) Soon after they left Gabriella was asleep for the night so essentially we had a night to ourselves!! WOO HOO!! We just hung out watching Charmed of course. We got up on Saturday morning, got ready, and headed out to Victorville. We went straight to Juice It Up (my favorite smoothie place) then went and did some damage at Target (LOL). Surprisingly I didn't break the bank this trip (the hubby was grateful for that). While we were there I picked up an $8.00 disposable water resistant camera to try out. WOW...I haven't bought a disposable camera in at least two years. It was so weird to wind the film...and not to be able to see the picture right away!! So we headed over to Ryan's brothers house and swam the day away and enjoyed our last day with Ryan's dad, step-mom, and step-brother. I ended up handing the camera over to Max and I let him take most of the pictures (he's a budding photographer I think). So here's a few pictures from this weekend!


ENJOY!

She always thinks she can get something from the straw. =)

Another view.












And here's the pictures from the disposable. I think it gives the pictures some kind of "vintage" quality LOL. Not that I know much about photography...but I feel like they look oldish.

Look at that smile! Oh yeah! We bought her this floaty thing to try out. Of course she loved it!

Both of my kiddies! Max LOVES the life jacket. It gives him free reign of the pool.

Here he is jumping in =) he's a brave little boy!

Max sprinkling water on baby Love.

Hahahaha!











He's such a party pooper sometimes!

OMGahhhh!! Baby's face right here is hilarious!!

Our niece MichalAnn.=)

Another pouty face
from the big brother.

And this of course is how little sister ended up.

Mom and Dad
<3










I hope you had a good weekend as well!!
Talk to you soon,
J