The Nuffer Nest

My oldest baby boy turned 3 this week. I know parents say this all the time, but I can't believe how fast the time goes. Next year he'll be getting ready for pre-school, then kindergarten, and I'm still wrapping my head around him being in a big boy bed. Time flies when you don't want it too. I planned on a Sesame Street party this year because he loved Sesame Street, but that was before he was introduced to Blue's Clues. Now it's Blue's Clues this and Blue's Clues that. So I switched the theme 2 weeks before his birthday, but Jim and I pulled it off. We made all the decorations ourselves and most of the party favors as well. So this birthday was exactly what Jackson wanted and it was a very frugal party too. Win, win! Austin ate some breakfast before the festivities began. Unfortunately, he fell asleep just as the party started. Happy 3rd Birthday Jackson! We made all the Blue's Clues decorations by hand with craft paper, marker...

I just had to post the process of Jackson's Blue's Clues cake because it's the first cake that I've made that has turned out pretty good. I'm not a professional (obviously), but I'm so proud of this cake! Thank you Lindsay for all the great tips. I seriously couldn't have gotten it out of the pan without you! PS Lindsay is a professional cake decorator, so check out her cakes at iheartmotherhood.blogspot.com. Lindsay taught me how to make a cake without a huge dome and it turned out great!! And I actually got it out of the pan in one whole piece! I've never been able to do this trick before. So proud! Let the sculpting begin... All finished cutting. The crumb coat was green instead of blue. Oops. Then the blue(ish) coat of icing. There was so much icing I was sick of cake and icing afterward. And the finished Blue's Clues cake, TADA!!! So the blues were a little off, but it's not too bad. -If I do say so mys...

Austin is sleeping through the night now in his bed, not in the swing, which is the one blessing of the swing breaking. BUT Fisher Price, or Fisher Poop as I now refer to them, was supposed to send a new motor on the 15th. That was Friday. No motor was sent. So I called this morning and they told me that the motor is out till the end of the month probably . It might be even longer than than the end of the month. The very helpful sales lady (insert sarcasm here) told me that if I just give her my credit card number they will charge me for a new swing which they will send in 6-8 weeks, and then at my leisure I can send back the old one. Then 6-8 weeks from the time I send back the old swing they will credit my card back. What!?! Really?? You want me to buy another swing from you? Um, NO! NO, I will NOT buy 2 crappy swings from you, I learned my lesson the first time. I learned not only is the swing a piece of junk (made manifest by your lack of motors telling me they go out...

We bought a fancy-shmancy swing for Austin because we had everything else left over from Jackson, so I put some decent money into the swing that I wanted. So we bought the Snugli Bunny swing by Fisher Price. The swing is adorable and Austin LOVES it, he even sleeps in it every night. I'm completely ok with Austin sleeping in his swing. I'm a much more laid back mommy with Austin than I was with Jackson. I figured I would just start sleep-training Austin at 4 months. I don't know what made 4 months the magical age, but that's when I was going to transition Austin from the swing to the bassinet/pack-n-play/crib. Well, Austin's swing broke during his afternoon nap on the 4th of July. Sad. And angry! I was mostly angry because of the money we put into the swing just to have it break so quickly, and I was sad because I just knew the sleep transition would be HORRIBLE for Austin. Making for a rough few nights for mommy and daddy. Long story short, Austin didn...

Even without the fireworks we had a really good 4th. We took Jackson to the local parade and he had a blast! He got to see horses and heroes, wave at funny people dressed up in costumes, drum daddy's head with the bands, and he even got a little candy along the way. Best of all, Austin stayed at home with Grandma, so Jackson had Mommy and Daddy all to himself. I know just being with Mommy and Daddy was his favorite part because when it was time to go home he started crying, saying, "No baby Austin! No baby Austin!". He'll learn someday how important his brother is, but Austin's not much fun right now, at least that's Jackson's opinion. I LOVE Austin's age! Daddy and Jackson waiting for the parade to begin. Mommy and Daddy waiting for the parade to get started. We tried to get a family picture in, but this was as good as it got... I do like our family picture because we captured Jackson's "smile for me" face. He's such a nut! ...

I don't actually work 9-5, but I do work a couple nights a week teaching business English at a local technical college from 6-9. And I LOVE IT!!! My entire life I have wanted to be a lawyer or a teacher. I even made business cards with my name and the word 'lawyer' when I was about 4 and I gave them out to strangers. I, consequently, got in trouble for talking to strangers, but that's how serious I was. The last 2 years of my undergrad I started praying about which career to go into and after 2 years of praying I got nothing. So I went to the bishop because I needed to know whether to take the LSAT to go into law or the GRE to become a college professor, he said that it is his belief that unanswered prayers just mean it's my choice. Hey, thanks! That's a lot of help! If I were able to choose between the careers I would have already done that. So I was back to square one and no time left, I had to make a decision. Awesome. I had several friends in law...

Last Sunday we "missed" (some say "skipped", whatever, it's all semantics, just don't tell) church and attended Critterfest 2011, so daddy could go with us. It was a blast! Both boys had fun, and so did mommy and daddy. Here's Austin, obviously excited about the day's events... First, we had to visit the bubbles because they're Jackson's favorite. Then we found some baby crocodiles. They were just 1 month older than Austin. The snakes were next. Not mommy's personal favorite. We found a craft booth and Jackson wanted a tiger mask. Daddy made Austin a little monkey mask. And then the fishies, soo many fishies... Don't judge the hair, it was 112 degrees that day. It was HOT! I even had make-up on, but it literally melted off. Lovely. And more fish... Even Austin liked the fish. Lions, Tigers, and Bears, OH MY! Well, really there were only Tigers, but we did see a bear being walked into the building. Apparently, the bear got...