Can I share some pics of my cutie pies?

It's hard to believe that Xander is already 3 years old and Zachary is already 1. Where did my babies go??? *sob* Here are their birthday pics we had done at Picture People in September:

Xander in the birthday box:


Xander sitting:


Xander standing:


Zachary in the birthday box:


Zachary sitting:


Zachary "standing":


Xander & Zachary going on a high flying adventure:


My birthday boys:

Getting too comfortable...

So, the other day, we decided to make some Mandarin Country Style Ribs for dinner. Sounded simple enough. A handful of ingredients thrown into a crockpot and voila, dinner! It smelled so good while it was cooking and when it was finally done, we sat down to eat. It tasted just as good as it smelled... maybe even better. It was delicious! So, we're eating. I'm feeding Zachary and munching away on salad and ribs and rice. And Andrew is eating and helping Xander cut up his meat.

We're practically finished with dinner and I look at Xander and he has a couple of red dots on his face. Great. What could be causing that? (Side note: for those who don't know, Xander has severe food allergies.) We mentally go through the ingredient list for the ribs trying to figure out if the red dots are just coincidences or if Xander is reacting to something he's eating. It couldn't possibly be the ribs. We have been trying to make Xander-friendly meals so that we wouldn't have to cook him a separate meal every night. Let's see... the ingredients: soy sauce, but we substituted with Bragg's Liquid Aminos since Xander can't have soy sauce, ribs, ketchup, orange marmalade... did someone check the label for the marmalade? Sounds dumb, I mean, it's orange marmalade! Surely there couldn't be any dairy, eggs, wheat, or nuts in orange marmalade?!?!? So, I go to check the jar and there it is.

"Produced in a facility that also produces items containing wheat, dairy, and nuts."

Fabulous.

I guess Andrew and I were getting too comfortable. We need to remember to read ALL labels, even for foods that were previously safe. You just never know when a company might decide to "improve" the recipe. I really hope and pray that Xander outgrows all of his food allergies.

11 years ago...

On October 9th, Andrew and I celebrated our 11th "dating" anniversary. (BTW, I use the term "celebrated" very loosely. "Celebrating" consisted of me saying to Andrew, "Is today the 9th?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Oh, happy anniversary!" This was at 5:00pm. Oops! Haha!) I cannot believe it was 11!!! years ago that Andrew asked me to be his girlfriend. I know, sooo cheesy. Haha! It doesn't seem like it could have been more than a decade ago that we started dating. In the same vein, it's hard to believe that we've been married for 7 years. Where does the time go? I must be getting old...

Ahhhh... heavenly!!!

I did something today that I haven't done in a looooong time. Well, not that long, but not since I was pregnant with Zach. Today, after church, we came home and ate lunch. Then, I put both boys down in their cribs for naps and Andrew headed out to the gym to work out. What would I do with my time alone? Why, hop into bed for a nap, OF COURSE! It was heavenly! All 45 minutes of it. I woke to the sounds of Zach crying in his crib. I went to get him and brought him to our bed and nursed him. All he wanted to do was crawl around and give me heart attacks by trying to catapult himself off the sides of the bed. Okay, I get it buddy, naptime over. Why don't I have kids that like to lie down with me in my bed? Hmmm...

Soggy Saturday

So, my family and I were supposed to go to an apple orchard in Charlottesville today. It's the last weekend for this orchard's annual apple festival. And what happens? Rain. It's been raining pretty steadily since last night. So, we decided to stay indoors today (except for my quick run out to Curves to work out). Ho hum... guess no apple cider donuts for me this year. They are to die for! Well, I wouldn't really die for them. Heck, I wouldn't even get scratched for them. But, they are VERY good. Guess it's better for my waistline anyway. It's too bad, though... apple picking in Charlottesville would have made for some great photos. Oh well, there's always next year. :)

Welcome!

So, I finally decided to join the 21st century by starting my very own blog. I've been reading friends' blogs for a while now, but never started my own. Never had a desire to. I mean, what is there for me to say? My life is pretty normal, hardly any drama, nothing too exciting. And, I didn't want the world to be critiqueing my grammar, misspellings, and way of parenting. Oh well, guess I can bore you all to death with pics of my cutie pies! Anyway, hope you visit often, but not too often. I don't foresee that this will be updated daily, or weekly, or heck even monthly. ;)