oatmeal pancake

my oldest always loved oatmeal for breakfast and when she was small we'd just spoon feed it to her. but now that we've got 2 goober to feed at once spoon feeding just isn't an option. i tried just giving them oatmeal and well, that was a messy disaster so i went in search of a less messy oatmeal and came across this one. both boys love it and eat a serving apiece almost every morning, unless we are out of bananas or applesauce. it's also super easy and quick to whip up each morning fresh ;)

OATMEAL PANCAKE

1/4 cup oatmeal1/2 smashed banana2 spoonfuls of applesaucedash of cinnamon

mix together and form into a cake. toss into microwave for 3:15 sec.let cool and serve

yogurt melts

these suckers are super easy and always a fan favorite - even for my 2 year old.they don't have the sustainability of the freeze dried ones you buy at the store, but they are way cheaper, and lets be honest - i never leave the house anyway so that doesn't matter :)

i don't really have a recipe for these but i can give a general idea

YOGURT MELTS

couple scoops of plain greek yogurt (around 2 cups)1 mashed banana/couple handfuls of mashed blueberries/applesauce/etc

put 2 ingredients in a bowl and mix. put resulting mixture into a ziplock baggy and cut the corner so you can squeeze the dots out on some parchment paper - then toss into the freezer.

once they freeze peel off and put in a container for freezer storage

lunchtime

early prep with this group is the key to less grumpies. i tend to pick a few recipes to make and freeze each week to have quick, easy food on hand as well as incorporate some fresh food and leftovers from the fridge.

todays lunch was leftover pasta noodles with smashed avocado, turkey meatballs (freezer - recipe below) and butternut squash smashed with some cinnamon.

TURKEY MEATBALLS

1 pound ground turkey2 spoons of applesauce (or 1 egg)1 zucchini, shredded and squeeze out any excess water1 carrot, shredded1/3 cup oatmeal (add more if too moist)1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

Roll into balls and bake @ 350 for 15-20 min

first christmas + 9 month olds

This has been a big year for this little (not so little anymore) family.

Our first year as a whole family(growing from 3 to 5 members was quite an adjustment).

first christmas dottie can kinda 'get' santa

first christmas where we didn't have massive construction/leaking in some part of our home(our addition has been amazing and i'm not sure how we would've fit everyone together without it)

the boys are a whopping 9 months old now and are EVERYWHERE as well as huge. they eat everything in sight and scream if you're eating something that they want. we're venturing out of the house on our own more and more - i've even tackled the park and santa - HA! it only truly hit me that i might need a double stroller when we went to see the big man at the mall. being ever so grown up, dots usually likes to walk and be a big kid. unfortunately upon arriving to the mall and seeing all the cars - she refused to walk through the parking lot. So i was forced to schlep all 3 of them to the front door under my own power - thats around 70lbs of baby. boy did i get some looks. needless to say my christmas present to myself has been a new double stroller to keep in the car, for just such emergencies ;)

dottie is so grown up from the baby she was when the boys arrived. she is now speaking in sentences that other people can understand and has quite the opinion on what she gets for snacks and the clothes she is wearing.

looking forward to what the next year brings and all the giggles that go with it :)

Merry Christmas everyone -

settling in

Routine. That has been our main goal for the past few months and I'd like to think it's working. the boys still wake up way too much at night, but atleast they, typically, go to sleep without much fuss. They've also started crawling, every where. They went from moving backwards to full on crawling and standing overnight. Nothing in the house is safe as they put everything in their mouth aside from actual food. These 2 are going to keep me on my toes.Dottie has grown up so much in the past few months it's amazing. She has become a great little momma to her baby. Whom she feeds, changes, puts down for naps, takes for walks and rocks to sleep. She rarely goes anywhere without her.The days are getting colder and Dottie is fascinated by the sky still being darker when she wakes up and the leaves falling from the trees elicit great gasps of excitement. Fall is here and we are going to get the most out of our time outside :)

me + 3

the last of our help has come and gone - we are on our own. it's a lot to take in having 3 babies under 2 and just one adult most of the time. but someone's got to bring home the bacon. most days are honestly pretty good. dottie does amazing and the boys somewhat cooperate. then there are days like today - where there seems to always be at least 1 of the 3 crying (and lets be honest sometimes all 3 and the dog to boot) and i didn't even put real pants on until after 1pm.

every time i think i'm getting the hang of this, we have a bad day and someone throws me for a loop - but i guess that's just parenting. the boys have stopped sleeping where they lie. we've adjusted by setting up a "nap room" downstairs for them. they nap side by side in a pack and play for now with a sound machine and fan to drown out some of dottie's noise. we're lucky if they go 45 min. on the rare occasion that they do try to go longer, one of them usually wakes up early which means #2 gets woken up 15 or so minutes later. :(they can sleep through each other crying right next to their face but the dog and dots are a whole other story.

the newness of brothers has started to wear off and dots is becoming increasingly jealous. mostly while i'm trying to put the boys down for their gazillionth nap of the day and have to stop what we are doing to check on them - inevitably one will take 3-4x before they are actually asleep, can't say i blame her...totally

i've started venturing out a bit with all 3 - mostly to places i can keep them contained, like the target cart or a friends house - as i have the help of said friend. the older kids mostly entertain themselves so it's a nice break for everyone.

this is life - 3 months in

next on the bucket list sleep.

they're here

the boys have arrived, yep BOYS :)

julian shepherd and hooper walton

born march 15th at 6:07 and 6:22 pmweighing in at 6.13 and 7.9

(first few days home)

it has been 3 weeks and we've all survived(thanks to a lot of help from my parents - and soon my in-laws)

dot's is handling her new title of big sister like a champ.always giving them hugs, bringing them blankets, and well, stealing their binkies.

(a princess & her minions)

she is now the 'princess' of the house and has taken to decorating the boys with stickers and whatever else she can find, along with the dog - which he is quite thrilled about

dots is upstairs

We took the plunge this weekend and moved Dottie upstairs to her new room in hopes that she will have a chance to get used to it for a week or 2 before the new littles arrive.

The transition has gone fairly smoothly. I guess we'll see how the rest of the week plays out.

She also had a chance to hang out in studio with daddy for a bit. Definitely liked all the glowing buttons to push.

Poor booger doesn't realize how much more change is coming her way :(

down to the wire

We might be cutting it a bit close on this one. 4 weeks away from our due date and still have much to get done.

(cooking with Nan)

Thanks to our awesome families we have a lot less though. You all have been such a great help - I hope you know how much we appreciate you coming down to help tile, stain, paint, clean and of course play with Dots :)

We have officially moved upstairs, leaving our guest room open for anyone who dares offer a hand.

Martha helped me pick out some awesome new dressers and a vanity for our bathroom while they were in town, I can wait to get everything put away and in place. These are going to look amazing!

Kids bathroom is mostly done (functional) as well as their room. Moving Dots into her new digs will be our next step this weekend when John is back and can lend a hand.

Our master bath is the last big piece of the puzzle. John and Kent worked tirelessly to get the place waterproofed and the tile going. John was able to finish up the floor tile over the weekend and install the toilet - huzzah!

we have progress!

Well, it took a few months longer than expected, but, the contractors are GONE. Out of our house, GONE! So excited to have my house back - even if it is still unfinished. Now the real work begins.

My father-in-law was kind enough to fly in the day after christmas to help us get our hardwood floors installed. He and john worked for 4 days straight and finally got them all in - and they look fabulous.

Dots' was pretty excited to hang out with "Boppa" too.

This pic doesn't do them justice - they really look great!

We had some kind friends volunteer to help us paint while we waited on the tile to arrive. The kids room and the master bedrooms are painted thanks to all their help. John has been working tirelessly to get the trim, vents, and doors stained and installed to keep us moving forward.

With roughly 2 months before these twins are due, we've still got a lot to get done.

Baby-Steps ;)

4 more feet coming

Funny thing happened. Dots is going to be a big sister.(Guess I'll have to change the title of this section)

And to make it even more fun, it's twins - the identical ones -

Say hello to the new additions 'A' and 'B':

Yes, I realize this is crazy and with all our construction going on it is going to be a hectic couple of months, to try and get everything done, livable, and ready for when they decide to make their debut. We're still not sure how we are going to handle having 3 under the age of 2 (holy cow!), with a minivan search underway we are plowing ahead and hope to have   somewhere to put them in March - our new closet is the #1 choice so far.

Wish us luck!(we're going to need it)

rain rain go away

Construction has stalled for the week and a half of rain we've been getting, sigh. And last night was a doosey, with all the acorns and branches falling it sounded like a war zone inside. Luckily Dottie somehow managed to sleep through it all. Perhaps it was her cozy sleeping den complete with fan and personal heater (man I need to get one of those)

I have to admit I'm ready to have my house back - we are steadily losing storage space. Last week we had to take everything we'd stored in Dottie's closet out, so the plumber could run a pipe. So now everything is strewn around her room, on the bed and out into the front room. To combat our shrinking space I'm trying to sell other stuff off, with little luck :/

BUT

We did pass our last inspection, so now all we need is HVAC and skylights installed, insulation (which will be greats it's freaking cold in our house at the moment), and drywall. Then the real fun can begin.

We did manage to spend most of saturday looking at flooring and according to John, who is now in NYC, the sun does still exist - he sent me a photo to prove it. Hopefully we'll be seeing it again soon.

Dots made the most out of all that time spent shopping for floors and has been practicing so she can help with the install.

let it begin

The build out has begun! Well to be honest it's almost done, at least the contractor part of it.

We've been so lucky with the weather - nice and cool so turning the AC off didn't even phase us. The rain - well - we were mostly lucky with the rain. We had one awesome night of battling the rain flooding into our downstairs bedroom/bathroom thanks to a giant hole in the tarp and a nonfinished roof. But, thankfully it was just one night, and we survived.

the kiddos new room

Kiddos room inside

Master bath

master bedroom inside

master outside

another great benefit to the renovation is that the ceilings in the kitchen will all be the same height - woot!

The roof is complete, the framing is mostly done, now on to the plumbing and electrical - hoping to have the contractors out by the end of the month so the real work can begin.

Did I mention that our timeline for this project got shortened by some unexpected news?

There will be a few more nowaks in the house come March (yes, I said a few). More to come on that later.

For now let the renovations continue!

permits!!

we have finally been approved and have our permits,

let's get this party started!

little miss

Everyone always says time passes by quickly when you have kids - they are all right.

Little miss Dots is 10 1/2 months old already.

She's got 6 going on 8 teeth, crawls, is on the verge of walking, plays hard, loves music and being tickled.

She also LOVES reading.

And climbing.

And playing in the tub - whether it's inside or out :)

upstairs here we come still...

Yup still living on the first floor of the house. Seems like a year ago we had the plans in hand ready to go,

oh wait it was! The city of Atlanta is very helpful when it comes to building anything on your own property. After taking months and months to find a contractor who would work with us and let us do some of the work (9 contractors later), we finally have one and are making at least a bit of progress. Our plans have finally been approved by the UDC with of course more money going to the architects to revise plans they said were "all we would need".  Dropped off the plans to get their literal stamp of approval. Now all we have to do is go downtown and walk them from one office to the next one across the hall - yes, I'm serious - and then the real fun begins - PERMITTING!

So it looks like our spring 2015 start date will be closer to fall 2015, if we are lucky.

In the mean time we've been doing small improvements around the house to keep ourselves and the in-laws busy.

We have replaced the hall lights with some mush prettier tiffany style ones.

John built us an arbor going down into the garden area with rock stairs coming soon.

And Martha helped me rough up these all to shiny, new, and perfect chairs - they look great!

the colonel

This week we said good bye to our sweet bun Frank.

aka. the colonel, fluff butt, gin bunny, bun of the future, bun, frank the tank

He was 11 years old and has been a part of our family for most of that. I'm so glad we got to spend one last Easter with him.

And that we managed to get in one last photoshoot with him and Dottie before he left us. He was always such a sport when it came to photoshoots, whether it was getting "nibbled" on by the baby or put in the oven to help announce her arrival.

I never thought about how much he was integrated into our daily lives, there's a 5lb bag of carrots in our fridge.... and yesterday I finished an apple and walked into the living room with the core for him to nibble on, forgetting that he wasn't going to be there.

Sweet Frank we loved you so much our lives will not be the same without you.

Hope you are enjoying your shady spot under the tree.

6+ months and we're all still alive

 

Yes, yes yes, I am a tad behind. The snuggle bear above takes up quite a bit of my "free" time.

The last few months have been full of new things. She sits on her own and can stand pretty well as long as she's leaning on something. Rolling over is a piece of cake now a days. It's the actual moving part that is still very hard. She scooted herself into a corner the other day and got "stuck" since she can't go forward yet ;)

We discovered 2 teeth coming in (i have yet to be able to get a photo of them - she's too wiggly) just about the time we broke down and gave her some real food. She was trying to steal anything and everything off our plates, so we figured she might just be ready. So far i think she's more excited about the prospect of playing with the spoon than actually eating. But i know some gets in there as her poo has peas in it...hahaha.

She's adding food to her list at lightning speed:acorn squash, butternut squash, sweet potato, apples, banana, avaocado and peas.

Made some teething biscuits today - bunnies for frank (yes he's still here - but getting mighty old)

so far i think they are a hit

It's starting to get warm outside and we can't wait to spend our days outside playing.

a skeleton pirate & 3 months old

We were racking our brains trying to think of a good costume for Dots this Halloween. And we had a lot of good ones, but in the end we went with the cheap target sleeper route. I'm glad we did as she was only wearing it for 3 hours and we never left our porch. Halloween was cold and rainy and she was being a bit of a fuss-pot. We sat on the porch and handed out candy until the wee hours (aka 7:00) which is when bedtime starts and trick or treaters don't bode well for sleeping babies when there's a dog around. Needless to say we had a lot of candy left over and are still picking through it.

Now it's November, geez. you'd think time would slow down when you're not sleeping, but somehow it goes by even faster.

Sadly it was time for me to go back to work and start sending Dot's off to daycare (which is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do). I've got it worked out so i'm not working full days and can leave by 2:30 which leaves the afternoons for some fun.

3 month Loves:

Taking bathes, having long conversations with all of the fans in the house, eating, smiling, funny faces, "sitting", and munching on her hands.

In honor of her 3months we took her into the studio for a quick photo shoot.

Behold the many faces of the Dot's:

munchkin is here!! (and 2 months old)

Wow time flies, I can't believe it's already been 2 months since Dorothy Mabel made her entrance on August 15th 2:18am -  9lbs 4 oz, 20" long.

Now that we're getting a bit more sleep (knock on wood) we're able to get a few more things done, like update this blog, and introduce her to the world.She is quite the little stinker with loads of personality already.

We've been setting up photo shoots with her around the house and she humors us for now and I've only been peed on once during (so far ;)

She's already had so many 1sts:

1st visit from grandparents:

(Mimi and Pops)

(Nan and Grandpa aka Mad Dog)

1st Snooze on the porch:

1st Bath (this little one LOVES her bath time):

1st Smiles:

1st Plane Ride:(She was such a trooper. We had a 7 hour flight delay and didn't hear a peep from her)

1st Play Date:

(Gemma Clark - 4months and Dots - 2months)

We give little Dot's a lot of guff - but she's a pretty awesome baby and we love her a ton already and can't wait to see what the next year brings.

Per Kent's request here is "where'd my weekend go?"