Baby Matthew!

Baby Matthew is here! And how cute is he wearing one of the onesies my sisters and I made for him?!



So if I am not posting for a little while, you know why! :)

Animals Sensory Bin

John is 20 months!

I am kind of taking it easy this week as far as activities go. So, I thought I would share what we did today since I doubt I will be doing much before the big day on Thursday!

I have been wanting to make some sort of sensory bin for a while so I thought I would do an animal-themed bin. I decided to use Rice Krispie cereal because I KNEW that John would try to eat it. Plus I knew we weren't going to eat it and it would be thrown away soon anyways. So, I dumped the cereal in a box, tried to hide some of his plastic animals, and let him have at it!








I put out the little rake and shovel, but John didn't really want to use them. He did take out each animal and name them- so cute! A tip is to do this activity on a towel or mat for easy clean up. Not only did John try to eat the cereal but he also dumped the whole box out on the towel. I figured that would happen too and so the towel made cleaning up much easier! He also liked walking over the cereal and hearing the crunching sound so I didn't mind that he made a mess.

Other Random Animal Stuff
-We have been reading "Bark, George" and "Cock a Doodle Quack Quack" over and OVER and OVER again the past couple days. They are really cute animal books but after reading them for the hundredth time...I am getting tired of them! John LOVES them though!

-We also played with animal flash cards. I used my pocket chart for the first time {yeah!!} and put a bunch of animal cards up and asked John to hand me the bear, or the fish, etc. He did it almost perfectly which is awesome, but a very short activity that was too easy for him. He enjoyed it so I guess that is all that matters!

-If I have my act together, I would like to make animal puppets from paper bags since John loves puppets. This may have to wait until after the baby is born.

So there you have it! The next time I post, I will have TWO precious boys...YIKES! :)

Family Weekend!

Since Matthew will be here on Thursday (as in FIVE days from now!) we decided to have a 'family weekend' and try to do fun things with John before the chaos begins.

Friday we started out with a super fun doctor appointment for John and then headed to Frisco Commons park. John played on the playground for a little while and then we hit up the splash area. John LOVED the splash area...Brad and I loved it too because it is the only place we have found so far that we can sit and watch John run around. Usually we have to be following him everywhere he goes to make sure he either doesn't run off somewhere or fall some playground equipment!















After lunch at Chick-fil-A (free coupons!) and naps, Brad and John baked chocolate chip cookies together. We used an egg free mix that weren't too bad. Just like when we made cupcakes, John didn't care about eating the cookies once they were baked. What a silly kid!





We finished off the day with a little pool time in the back yard. And yes, John was in the nude. :)





Saturday morning we made colored pancakes. While I was mixing up the colors, I gave him a bowl of water to mix up (I knew he would make a huge mess if I gave him the actual batter!) and he kept drinking the water with his spoon. haha! This was a yummy egg-free pancake recipe I found online that we tried out during the week. Although John liked it on Wednesday, he didn't want to eat his 'J' pancake this morning. Again, he is a silly kid!









After hanging out and relaxing in the morning, we went to the library to get some new books to read and then went to Build-A-Bear. This was John's 'Big Brother' gift since he LOVES his Brown Bear. So he now has Black Bear! I was shocked that with all the bear outfits they had, they didn't have any big brother or big sister shirts! So, I got the most plain shirt I could find (which was a really cute hoodie!) and I am going to try to paint or sew 'Big Brother' on the shirt to make it personalized for John. {check back to see how that project turns out!}. And you can tell from the pictures of me, I am freaking HUGE! and very uncomfortable!









We finished off Saturday with Chili's (horrible service but again we had coupons and gift cards) and once John was asleep Brad and I had our own little date night! We made dessert and then relaxed in the pool. Tomorrow's plans are to make donuts for breakfast from bicuits (egg free!) and then hang around the house. I think I am done with running around- way too big and starting to be painfully uncomfortable. I am soooo looking forward to Thursday! :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Big Brother design

As you may know, John is going to be a BIG BROTHER! Baby Matthew is coming next week so I really wanted to make John his very own Big Brother shirt. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, I created this design on microsoft two nights ago. I think it is really cute and was thinking I could make a freezer paper stencil with it and paint it onto a shirt. Easy peasy.



So, John and I took a trip to Walmart this morning and they had NO PLAIN SHIRTS! What?!?! (and sidenote: I get SO frustrated everytime I shop for John because the selection of boy clothes is miniscule compared to the girl clothes. Ummm...boys have to look cute too!)

So, for the time being, John may not have his own shirt. If I can drag myself to search for a plain shirt this week then John will be all cutesy. (my stomach reached full capacity a couple weeks ago and shopping for a plain shirt doesn't sound like something I want to do right now!)

BUT, I wanted to post this in case anyone wants to make one for their own kiddo...or friend, relative, stranger... {I am pretty sure you can click on the picture and save it. If that doesn't work and you want the file, just email me! :) }

If you make one, I would love to see it!