Weekend of "Nothing"

Remember when I told you we had no plans? Yep we did NOTHING. Really...it was glorious and because we didn't do anything.

Friday I got home from work and Baby Fox did boy things and played in the dirt and mud

yep, he refuses to wear sandals without socks, he's channeling his inner asian

 Friday calls for homemade pizza right? This is the Trader Joe pizza dough (in the fridge section) and pizza sauce, we split into two, so we can get our own toppings. Of course cheeseless because I am allergic, Mr. did add cheese just before it came out of the oven.

The kids had this...well when I say kids I really mean Baby Fox because Mini Fox doesn't like two things, mashed potatoes and Yams

That really dark burnt spot there? That was from the other yam that I made...pictured below

 This is how much Baby Fox ate, he loves yams the most.

Mini Fox...no she's not walking...she's barely standing. See how it's blurry? It's because she can stand for 2 seconds before falling. Mr. and I have a bet as to when she'll start walking, I have 13.5 months and below, Mr. has everything above...he's  convinced he's going to win.

She looks stable, but she's not even close to walking...don't tell Mr. but I think he might win. I can't remember what we bet, but I do know that if I win, I will never let him forget.

We watched World War Z...we had no idea what the movie was about but we really liked it, you should see it too, really it's a zombie movie, but a good zombie movie.

Saturday, lazy day, we barely made it to the park.

Baby Fox picked out his outfit...can you tell?

Trying to help Mini Fox "walk"...

Exploring

Daddy's girl, through and through

She just wants to be included too #littlesisterproblems

yep she's pantsless

 Milk, it does a body good (okay it's not really milk, it's actually egg yolk, lol)

Mr. put that flower on the top of her head

We watched The Host, wasn't sure what to expect, but we really liked it, not a movie we'd watch over and over again, but it was good too.

Sunday:

Church time and then an impromtu concert: Introducing Mr. and Baby Fox with their rendition of "Dinosaur Train"

Baby Fox realized his guitar wasn't facing the same direction...

After naps we had some friends over for pool time and BBQing. Good times

Dinner time!

Ready for bed

Lots of people, a big mess but our hearts are full with such great friends to spend our time with

What did you do this weekend? Post your link so I can read about your weekend.

Linking up with Faith, Sarah and Heather for Mommy Moments

and with Bella & Lisa

Hip Hip Hurray, It's Friday!

Woo hoo, Friday! Hello Friday, I've been waiting for you all week!

1.

I sort of love this video and this song, it's just so catchy, don't hate, I like Taylor Swift, okay I feel better, it's out in the open. 

2.

It's my birthday next weekend and I need a new leather jacket and I'm sort of loving this jacket, hint, hint Mr.

3. 

I also need a new purse, this will do

4.

While we got rid of diapers (including night time) for Baby Fox, we still take him to the bathroom when we go to bed, 13 hours is a long time to hold it...I love how sleepy Baby Fox is, he used to wake up fully when we took him, now he just stays sleeping.

 

5.

I'm nursing Mini Fox here, and Baby Fox always wants to be right near her, loving on her. I love the bond that they've already created.

We actually have no plans this weekend, yay! We'll see what kind of trouble we can get into. It's suppose to be hot, so I know it's going to involve some swimming.

Linking up with: Erika, Andrea, and Narci for Friday Favorites and September Farm and The Farmer's Wife for Oh Hey, Friday!

5 Tips to Eating Out with Your Kids

 Only two more weeks left of the One Year and Beyond Series, for this round at least. This weeks topic is Tricks For Eating Out with Your Toddler.

Hmmm...tough one because I really do think it depends on the kid. I have really mellow-ish kids so taking them out isn't necessarily hard. What's hard is that I have so many food allergies that I am limited to where I can eat. But that's a different story, for a different day.

Tip #1: Something we do, rather don't do, we don't let him use our iPhone or iPad while eating. We think that sets a bad precedent, often times we'll look around at a restaurant and half of the tables have kids on some sort of electronic, not talking to their family. We value family and want that family dynamic you get when you're just sitting at a table with each other. Yes our kids are only 3.5 and 11 months, but we still expect them to sit there with us. Maybe that's it, we expect them to sit there with us, we tell Baby Fox when he wants to continually get up while we're eating, do you see Mommy or Daddy getting up and down while we eat our food? That's rude, and you need to sit back down. We've said it so many times that he doesn't do it as often any more.

Tip #2: We learned the hard way, NEVER get their food before your food. We did that ONCE and never again. We had to wait a bit for our table, so we told them to bring out Baby Fox's food right away, well guess what, he was done and we hadn't even gotten our food yet, and then what? He got antsy and wanted to go outside to play. We distracted him, but it was hard on both of us. So now we make sure his food comes with ours. Easier to distract him before our food comes, so we can all eat together.

Tip #3:  While we don't go out to eat very often (again the whole food allergy thing), we usually go to places with a kids menu, crayons and pictures to color.  We play tic-tac-toe and draw random things, that usually takes up about 5-10 minutes. If we went out more, I would probably have a little bag of things that he can do before our food comes. It's all about wasting time until the food gets there. Sometimes we play i-spy, now that he talks more, usually we can ask him about his day or he asks us random questions about EVERYTHING.HE.SEES. EVERYTHING.

Tip #4: Since Baby Fox is  pretty picky eater, we usually bring his dinner with us, and then order french fries for him (yep our criteria for a restaurant is, do they have french fries?), so for the first 10 minutes or so we have him do random activities and then the next 5 or so minutes we have him eat what we've brought him for dinner. We tell him he can't have any french fries until he eats what we've brought for him, that usually gets him to eat, and is a major time waster. We've never had a problem bringing our own food for him.

Tip #5: The last one...since having only 4 seems weird...be consistent. If you make a rule at a restaurant you should follow suit at home. We don't let him get up and down from his seat at home, so why would he be able to do it at a restaurant? side note: If you're having problems with them getting up and down, we usually give him a choice. We'll say you have a choice, you can either sit down at the table and finish or you can go straight to bed, since you're done eating you're telling us that you are ready for bed. Usually he picks the eating. We always give him a "choice" but the other choice is ALWAYS way worse than just sitting there and doing what we want, so far it's been working. One day he'll figure it out, but until that day...

Oh and one other thing, we don't usually go to places that is going to be longer than an hour, we find that 1 hour is Baby Fox's limit on patience and sitting still...so we go to places that won't take longer then that. Unless my mom insists on the kids coming to a fancy dinner and it taking over 2 hours. We let him get a hot fudge sundae at the end of that marathon dinner.

Us at that fancy dinner, I tried to get a picture of the ice cream eating, but Baby Fox was too excited to sit still for a picture.

Baby Fox feeding Mini Fox before our food got there

It helps when Auntie is there to distract them too.

Do you have any tips or tricks?

Now go check out these lovely ladies to see what they have to say.

 What is your secret trick to eating out with your little one?  Check out the other mama's blogs for even more tips!  And be sure to link up with us below if you also have a post on this.  

Like a Morning Cup of Coffee// From Here to Eternity// The Not Quite Military Wife//

A Cowboy's Life// My Delicious Adventure// Sadie Sky Boutique// Meet the Sullivan's//

Love and Life//  Foxy's Domestic Side// Everyday Love// Life of Faith

July 10:  Keeping your marriage alive with a toddler

July 17:  Favorite summer toddler activities

July 24:  Helping Your Toddler to Communicate (Words, emotions, etc.)

July 31:  Dealing with Separation Anxiety

Aug 7:    Car Trip Necessities

Aug 14:  Deciding when the time is right for baby #2 (and/or how to handle these questions)

Aug 21:  Tricks for eating out with your toddler

Aug 28:  Feeling confident as a mom (How to feel this way, Your struggle with, etc.)

An InLinkz Link-up

The Girl Next Door

This is the Kimono I got, because Katie said so, and it was back in stock. It's the one that Mr. said he wasn't sure of, but said that it looks good from the front, but wasn't sure about it from the back, and Baby Fox said that it wasn't his favorite. What do they know? I like it and that's all that matters.

Shorts - Target, Top - Old Navy (old), Kimono - Groupdealz, Shoes - Toms, Earrings - Target, Hat - Target

Other Randoms:

If you follow me on IG you might have seen this happening.

That's the neighbor's granddaughter, she likes to talk to us, and I have no idea how Baby Fox knew she was out there...we were in my bedroom and he just walks over to the window and lifts up the shades and there she is. Like a 6th sense thing?

Anyway, they pretty much love talking to each other and they stood her for a good 5 minutes.

The only problem? Baby Fox kept asking where her older sister was, you know the 5 year old. Uh oh, so I sense competition, could mean trouble. It's already starting I thought I had at least 10 more years... Every time Baby Fox walked away from the window she would yell out, Baby Fox?! Where are you?!

It was super cute though, and I'm glad that we get to watch their grandkids grow up. I'll have these to look back on when she asks Baby Fox to Prom.

Linking up with Because Shanna Said So, Get Your Pretty On, The Pleated Poppy, and Tucker Up
Also Linking up with Ashley and Jess for "It's the Little Things".

Mr. Suggests

Last night I was telling Mr. I don't have a blog post for tomorrow, what should I write about? He says, tell them how awesome a husband you have. So here it is, reasons why Mr. is awesome.

• I'll start with my birthday (which is in 11 days, in case you wanted to know), he decorates for my birthday.

okay he had some help here, but he did buy everything

• Makes me homemade chocolate covered strawberries (my food allergies prevent me from eating store boughts ones) and then documents it, because he knows I like documenting everything.

• He indulges me in my costume ideas - I made these bear costumes, and he wore it with excitment and actually went to JC Penny to get professional photos done. Now that's love.

 

• Takes yearly family photos, even though he dislikes taking pictures...actually I should just say lets me take picture of him whenever I want, cause he knows how much I love picture taking, and when we go to weddings, always secures an isle seat so I can get good pictures. And he lets me dress him however I want...this year we're taking pictures at the beach...So excited, I have no idea what we're going to wear!

2011

Picture we used for our Christmas Card

2012

Picture we used for our Christmas Card

2013

Picture we used for our Christmas Card

• He loves our kids something fierce. He says he's not a big sucker for them but if you ask Baby Fox who the biggest sucker is Mommy or Daddy 100% of the time he says Daddy. He's a big softie for the kids, they adore him and I couldn't ask for a better Daddy for our children. Okay sappy part over. Here are some silly pictures.

Play "bump" where they literally race around the house and bump into each other

 

Showing us their mean guy look

 

Letting Baby Fox show him how to walk under water

 

Water balloon "fight"

They brought a gun to a sword fight and they are playing "Save Mini Fox" - this is where Daddy is the bad guy keeping Mini Fox captive and Baby Fox is saving her.

Being silly

Love these guys...and turns out Mr. doesn't have too many silly faces, they all sort of look the same, hehe

So there you go Mr. - 5 reasons you are an awesome husband. Oh did I mention he does the dishes almost every night too? And ALWAYS takes out the trash because it's the job I hate the absolute most...I would rather do anything than take out the trash. Oh and he takes all of my outfit pictures for me and likes doing it :)