Spoons

Preface: The Pioneer Woman blogged about some wooden spoons that a friend gave her as a housewarming gift. I thought the wooden spoons were amazing. They almost made me drool.

That being said, I have never owned a wooden spoon.

Yes, you read correctly. I used to have a hatred for them. But I blame that on my parents for using a darn wooden spoon to spank me when I was younger.

I have become fascinated with wooden spoons over the past few months. I have had a desire to go out and purchase a bundle of them. But I am not sure why I would use them. I mean, I have plastic spoons, metal spoons and silicone spoons (which I LOVE).


So that leaves me wondering... why do I need a wooden spoon? What will it benefit me? Do you have wooden spoons? Do you prefer wooden spoons?

I need feedback. I really want you people to convince me that wooden spoons are amazing. Because I REALLY want to go out and buy some.

And because I have some lurkers who NEVER comment (ahem. you know who you are), here is a poll. But I would still like some specific answers in the comment section.

So there.

Wheeeeee!

Sorry for the delay everyone. I know I promised you a post yesterday, but I had one heck of a busy day. I had to do grueling things like play the Wii, eat my mom's food, take a nap, and color with my adorable child.

With all that hard work, I am lucky I made it out alive!

Well, the other day I posted an uber cute picture of Zachariah here. That picture is one of the many from our North Carolina trip, and this particular day he was all smiles, all the time.

Why? Because of the kick butt playground we played on for about 3 hours, that's why.


We started out on the small playground. And quite honestly, I assumed that is where we would stay.



But Zachariah eventually got bored and started climbing up the slide. So we moved on to bigger and better things.



The big kid slide!!! Woohoo!

He loved this thing. He went down with Daddy the very first time, but from then on out he did everything himself. He climbed the 20 flights of stairs (with one of us halfway up just in case he needed something) and wend down the slide. All. By. Himself.

I had issues with that. I mean, I know he is almost two, but I was remembering the very first time he went down a slide. And I had to hold both of his hands. It was adorable. And now he is grown up. Sliding all by himself. *sniff sniff*

After I was finished balling my eyes out, I got busy taking pictures.



Because this is way to cute not to capture on film.



There was never a time where he did not have a huge smile plastered on his face while going down this slide. And he had an audience cheering for him every single time. Which he loved.



And every time he would slide he would say "wheeeeee!" That in and of itself was cute. But then when you factor in his facial expressions and giggles on the way down? It was almost too much for me to handle.


So yeah. We had a blast. And how can you not have a blast playing at a park with it being only 67 degrees?

What? Your tired of me talking about the amazing weather? Well too bad. Because I am on a North Carolina high. :)



And I am on a Zachariah high as well.

He is just so DANG CUTE!

Cutest Kid Ever

I bet your wondering what made him so happy, aren't you?


Come back tomorrow to find out!

Picture Perfect

As you may know, Daniel, Zachariah and I went to North Carolina last week. We spent two days with my grandmother, and 6 days at a retreat center. Daniel was the speaker for this youth camp and we had an absolute blast!

The weather... oh the weather. The highest it got all week was about 75 degrees. In the evenings it got down to the 50's and we were wearing jackets. Who would have thought I would be wearing a jacket in the middle of July???

So yeah. We loved it. We didn't want to come home to this awful heat. It is 92 degrees today, but it feels like 99. (thank you, weather.com) Oh the joys of living in the hottest state there is. Ugh.

Okay. I will temporarily pull myself out of my seasonal depression for the remainder of the post.

You are welcome.



If you have ever tried to take a picture with a toddler, you may be able to empathize with me a little bit here.

Right behind the retreat center there was a small creek. It was beautiful. So I decided this would be a good time to grab a quick picture or two of me and Zachariah. (We are long overdue for an updated picture)



It started out as well as could be expected. We start with the usual routine of taking a picture with a squirmy toddler. I picked him up and I either point to something near Daniel, or Daniel does something silly to get him to look at the camera and smile.

Usually it works.


But 10 seconds into this he decided he would rather play with his doggie friend by the water.

Thus begins the squirming.



Let me just tell you, it is very difficult to hold onto a 30 pound toddler when he has his mind set on getting down.

So the rest of our pictures were... well, not anything to write home about.


Yeah. I think you get the idea.

The picture taking stopped there.



What, Zachariah? You want a picture with Daddy?

Of course you do.

*sigh*

On any other occasion I would be VERY bitter about that. But we got some decent pictures later on in the day. I will post those later. Along with the hundreds of other pictures I took from the trip. :)

Ta ta for now.

I Heart NC

We are officially home from North Carolina. We are completely exhausted, but we had an absolute blast. Our welcoming party was a bummer though. It consisted of a flat tire on Daniel's car and a dead refrigerator. Our house is apparently confused on the details of a welcoming party. Finding out we need to buy new tires and a new fridge upon arriving home is NOT what we were expecting.

Such is life, I guess.

So, while we tackle the daunting task of unpacking and cleaning out all the spoiled food from our fridge, I will leave you with this image from yesterday's excursion.



*sigh* I want to go back so badly.


More about our trip in the upcoming days! :)

My Little Musician

I know I have been a horrible blogger this week, but I have had very little down time. We are having a blast here at the retreat center, but we keep very busy!

Until I get a chance to sort through the hundreds of pictures I have taken so far, I will share with you one of Zachariah's favorite things to do during his free time.

Introducing my son, the pianist...

He has started giving lessons to some of the counselors here at camp, but today he let Tad join in. (Tad is his new best friend. They met on the drive up.)




They love each other.

More to come later. Until then, I will sit here on the porch in the breezy 70 degree weather, enjoying the beautiful mountain view.

Be jealous.
:)

Matchbox Cars

You see this tin box? It is the home of more than a dozen old matchbox cars.




These matchbox cars, to be exact.

My siblings and I played with these same cars when I was growing up. It is one of the many things that I remember vividly from our yearly visits to see my Grandparents.

The cars were actually my Dad's and Uncle's when they were young. Grandma just kept them around for future grand kids. How cool is that?




I'm going to be honest with you. I didn't think their poor little wheels would be able to roll. I mean, they are 50 something years old. But low and behold, they did just fine. And Zachariah was beyond thrilled to play with them.




There is just something completely surreal about my son playing with my dad's old cars.


And there is just something completely adorable about that picture. :)

North Carolina and The Big 400

First things first... thank you all for my birthday wishes!! Since we celebrated with both sides of the family last week, today didn't really feel like my birthday. I have been forgetting all day actually. But seeing your comments on my blog and facebook and the text messages during the day made me happy. So, thank you. :)

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My hubby, son and I are currently in North Carolina! Yay! We drove 10 hours on Friday and spent a couple days with my Grandma, then we drove 5 hours today to get to another part of the state. Daniel is speaking at a youth retreat center here this week, so Z and I tagged along. We are completely exhausted, but cant wait for the camp to start. Zachariah is already having a blast running around and making friends with the "camp dogs".

But more on that later. Today and tomorrow I am going to post about our traveling day and our visit with my grandmother. THEN I will share more about camp.

Sound good?

I don't really care anyway. I am the birthday girl and I get to do whatever I want. :)


This trip is one of the many times that I am SOOOOO thankful we have a mini van. I am more than willing to get over the fact that I am way to cool to be cruising in a van for the space that comes with it. I mean, seriously. You can pack the heck out of this sucker.



Of course it helps to have a husband that has some type of magical packing skills. He seriously does an amazing job at packing the van. I mean, look at this thing! In this van is everything we (hubby, wife, and toddler) will need for the next week (including a crib and mattress). And then some. Because I pack lots of extra stuff... just to be on the safe side.


Luckily Zachariah took a nap during our 10 hour dive. It was only half an hour nap, but it was a nap none the less.


Here he is watching Winnie The Pooh ("ooh-ooh"). He was attempting to go to sleep by putting his giraffe blanket to his nose, but he didn't want to stop watching Pooh. So he played peek a boo for a while.


And not two minutes after I took that picture he fell asleep. My sweet little baby was so tired!!



Later on down the road (*snicker*) we got stuck in a traffic jam. Bla. That was no fun at all. But what can you do?


So while we were going ZERO miles an hour, I decided to take a picture of the traffic for you. You know, since you were just dying to see the cars lined up behind us.

Your can thank me later.

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Oh, and you know what?? In all this craziness, I forgot to post a post saying that it was my 400th post! Sheesh. I am such a horrible blogger. Oh well.

Just for the record, this is my 103rd post. So you know, yay for me!

:)

Happy Birthday To Me!

Yep. Today is my birthday! And I am 24 whopping years old. Which is still young. So I am totally fine with turning 24, just in case anyone was wondering. Next year may be a different story. But I will enjoy this feeling while it lasts. :)

My family and I are currently out of town (more on that later), so we celebrated my birthday earlier last week. My sister was in town too, so we had a joint b-day celebration, per our usual. Our birthdays are only 10 days apart, so this happens often. Yay for July birthday's! :)


This is me and my sister, Amanda. You may have seen her in the comment section before, but she is a LAZY COMMENTER, so its not often she actually pipes up. :)


Take note of what we are holding in our hands. My sister has her cake of choice, which would be dirt cake. And I have my cake of choice, which would be cheesecake. Half with cherry topping, the other half with blueberry. My mom made both of these scrumptious cakes. Yes, she is quite amazing like that. :)



Speaking of my mom, here she is with Zachariah and my dad. He mooched quite a bit off of their plates. AFTER he finished off my cheesecake. He is such a little sneak.

Anyway. That is my birthday post to myself. Happy Birthday to me!

I will be posting more later, once we get settled in to our location. :)
Ta ta for now!

Child Labor At It's Finest

We have a new form of punishment around here. It involves one messy kitchen floor, one handy SwifferSweeperVac one naughty toddler.


Ha. Just kidding.

Zachariah is at the weird age where he begs to help with stuff. He wants to be included so badly. So by golly, I let him vacuum the kitchen when he asks! And he is actually quite helpful!

(Well, with this one thing. The rest of the time he "helps" mommy, its quite the opposite. )




And he is just so darn cute while vacuuming. I mean, seriously. Cuteness is oozing out everywhere.



And I will frequently catch him making the noise of the Swiffer during the vacuuming process. Not like you can really hear him, but seeing him do it cracks me up.




And after a hard couple minuets work, he comes and tells me all about what he has accomplished.

What a cutie patootie.

Now, if only I could get him to do the dishes...

Book Review Thursday

Happy Thursday everyone!

Lately I have resembled a chicken running around with its head cut off, so please excuse my lack of blogging yesterday. :)


Today's book is called Sounds Tough! by Kevin Somers. You see that white sticker on the book? That means this is one of the many books we borrow from the library.

We LOVE the library. We go about once a week and Zachariah picks out some books and movies to take home. He picked out this book last week and has LOVED it. I am pretty sure its because he has a fascination with all things that make noise. Regardless of the reason, he loves this book. So I thought I would share it with you.

I am pretty sure this is Zachariah's favorite page. But he really does enjoy all of them. He just has this thing for trains lately. He will stand in front of the mirror and admire how he looks in his Thomas The Train PJ's. Its pretty funny.

Anyway! Z loves this book, and I think any little boy would. The pictures are super colorful and what kid doesn't enjoy hearing their mom or dad make silly noises? :)

That concludes this week's book review. Stay tuned for another riveting review next week!

Silly Ol' Genetics

When it comes to being graceful, my kids don't have a fighting chance.





I'm sorry little man, there is nothing I can do for you. But just for the record, its your father's fault.

:)

Firworks and Horse Rides and Funnel Cakes! Oh, My! {Independence Day Post #3}

I am FINALLY wrapping up my Independence Day posts. Regardless of how late I am, here it is. The final post of our 4th of July weekend. I know you have all been waiting with great anticipation (ha!), so I will just get right to the point.

Sunday afternoon/evening we went to an event put on by a church here in town. There was jumpy things for the kids, horse/pony rides, a drum line, marine corps band, a couple church choirs, cake walks, carnival food, and fireworks.

Despite the rain that postponed everything, it was a lot of fun! Due to a guy talking for WAY to long before the fireworks started, Zachariah stayed up way past his bed time. We seriously didn't get him home and in bed until midnight. We were all completely exhausted, but I came home with a few cute pictures and a lot of funny stories. :)

Lets start with the drum line, shall we?

A local high school's drum line came and preformed. I think its safe to say that everyone enjoyed it (I mean, who doesn't enjoy a good drum line?), but I am pretty darn sure that Zachariah enjoyed it more than anyone else there.

Seriously. He loved it. He would play the "air drums" and dance his heart out. We had strangers standing around video taping him instead of the drum line. It cracked me up. I took a couple pictures of his dancing... but they do NOT, under any circumstance, do it justice. He was just so funny!

Here he is. About to break it down. Feeling the rhythm... becoming one with the drums.

And then BAM! He breaks it down. He was dancing like there was no tomorrow. When the drum line left, he ran after them and said "I want that". His first three word sentence. We are going to have to get him a drum set, or some bongos at least.


Immediately after the drum line came the Marine Corps Band.

Lets just take a moment and discuss how much I love Marines. Okay?

I love Marines. I feel week in the knees when I see a group of handsome men in dress blues. That is all there is to it.

End of discussion.

Back to our regularly scheduled program. *ahem*

Zachariah sat with my Dad (a former Marine, mind you) for the first bit of the band playing. And then he started feeling the rhythm again. There was not a thing he could do about it.

So he got up and danced some more. And drummed. And danced. And drummed.

Have I mentioned how funny this was??

Ok. Moving on to the horses.


Zachariah loves animals. He loves making animal noises, and he loves seeing animals. So when he saw the pony rides, he went a little crazy. He wanted so badly to get to them. So we waited in line... all the while it was obvious he was pretty pumped.

Getting on the horse was apparently not what he had been expecting. Because he sure enough freaked out.

This picture makes me laugh every time. This is Daniel walking Zachariah to the exit after the meltdown. Haha.


After the pony rides, we decided to head on over to the big dogs. Errr... horses. Yet again, Zachariah was going CRAZY in line, whining because we couldn't get him there fast enough. But as soon as he got close, he freaked. But dad gum it, mommy wanted to ride a horse. So ride it we did. Screaming toddler and all.


After all the drama, all the activities were closing down and we went to find our places to get ready for the fireworks. Little did we know it would be 2 freaking hours before they actually started, but ah well. Such is life.

While we waited we indulged in a nice healthy snack. Grease and sugar are healthy, right? Right?

Despite the lack of nutrition, Zachariah ate about half of that sucker. I am surprised he didn't puke.


Due to Zachariah's cuteness, he had captivated everyone's attention around him. So while waiting for the fireworks, Daddy and Zachariah preformed some tricks for the crowd. :)

Here is Zac with his Nana. Aka: My mom. She went and stole a balloon from some kid that was not so deserving. That kept him occupied for a good while. Thank goodness for Nana's!


And now, the fireworks.

Say it with me now....

Oooooo!

Ahhhhhhh!

Daniel took this set of pictures. I loved the whole sequence of the fireworks thing going on here. :)
Well folks, that concludes our Independence Day Weekend. We were one tired crew, but we had a lots of fun with our family and friends!


Hope everyone had just as much fun as we did!! :)