The Nuffer Nest

Well we did get new callings at church, but that's just an excuse to post more pictures!  Jim is now the 2nd counselor in the Sunday school presidency and I am an assistant to the Activity Days coordinator.  I think it'll be a lot of fun!  I can't wait to work with the girls.  Anyway, the boys wore my favorite outfits of the season on Sunday, so it was picture time at our house on Sunday. How cute are these boys?!  I can't believe how big Jackson is these days.  In my mind he's still Austin's size. Notice the socks with sandals that Jackson is sporting?  That was Daddy's idea.  Thank goodness I realized that he had socks on with sandals before Sacrament even started.  I promptly took them off.  Men.

Jackson is at Grandma's house for his first ever sleepover right now (I'll post about this later), and I was cleaning up when I found this paper of "drawings" that Jackson made.  I had nothing to do with this, I thought he was drawing pictures of his friend, Maggie.  I looked at this piece of paper and just started to cry.  My little boy is only 3 years old and he is reading and writing.  WHAT!?!?  Where does the time go?? Now, this isn't a "what an amzing mom I am" moment because I did not teach him how to read or write or even recognize letters for that matter, Jackson did ALL OF THIS on his own.  He pointed at letters on Sesame Street when he was Austin's age (15 months), correctly naming each letter.  I was amazed!  Then I started working with him on letters.  By the time he was 2 he recognized most of the letters, both lower case and upper case.  I did work with him on letter sounds, and by 3 he knew all letters, both lower ...

Jackson knows that he gets to start school after his birthday this year and because he knows this little piece of information he asks me every day if today is his birthday.  Sometimes he'll even ask me a couple times a day just in case I wasn't sure the first time, I guess.  Anyway, he did the same thing last Christmas and the solution at Christmas was an advent calendar.  Well, that made me come up with the idea of a birthday advent calendar.  I googled the idea and checked Pinterest (of course), but I didn't find anything that wasn't ornate and time consuming.  I just wanted something simple so that Jackson could count down the days till his birthday himself.  So here's my creation, a cupcake with star stickers as sprinkles.  It took me about 5 minutes to make and he's going to LOVE it!  I think I'm going to make a fancier-shmancier cupcake and make it a general birthday countdown that we can use over and over again for anyone's birthday, so st...

So there used to be a show, and maybe it's still around, called "Where Are They Now", and basically the whole premise of the show was to give updates on actors that were famous (or infamous) back in the day.  Anyway, it's time again for the Nuffer rendition of "Where Are They Now" featuring my favorite little bugs, Jackson and Austin!  If you want to see the last Nuffer rendition of "Where Are They Now" you can find it here . First up, Jackson !  Jackson is 3, but he'll be 4 next month! **Fresh from the horses mouth! Favorite toy:  "Uh, blocks." Favorite past-time:  "Um... read books." Favorite color:  " GREEN !" Favorite clothes:  "Hot dog shirt!"  And sure enough he asked to wear his hot dog shirt today, how appropriate!  PS  I bought him this shirt because last summer his favorite shirt had a hot dog on it and it said, "What's up dog".  He loved that shirt, so when I found this sh...

So awhile back I let the boys plant some grass in cups because it went along with an FHE lesson one night. Well, that grass never grew.  My fault.  Anyway, we finally got around to planting new grass, this time it should work, and I planted a few veggies and one little white flowering plant that I don't remember the name of.  Anyway, this was our "Make Something Monday" project that didn't get done until Tuesday.  ;) Hopefully, we'll get some yummy tomatoes out of this!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Jackson is very fashion forward.  The other day Jim called me from the store to tell me that Jackson put on two different shoes.  Neither of us had noticed, and this is the result of not paying attention.  I think it's adorable!!  ...and even if I had noticed, I would have let him do it anyway.  ;)

The other night Jackson kept asking over and over again to watch "Chubaka" (I loathe Star Wars and I pride myself on not knowing how to spell Chubaka) so we finally gave in and let him have a movie night with "Chubaka". This is Jackson's "smile for the camera" face.  It always looks more like he's in pain than happy, but I find it hilarious. Much to my dismay, Jim introduced Austin to Star Wars at a VERY young age and he loved it.  Austin is only 3 months in this picture and he is sucked into watching Star Wars. Apparently, he still loves it.  As soon as the music started he raced over to the TV and was sucked in once again... Their movie treat is usually popcorn.  Austin very wobbly walked around holding his bowl of popcorn proudly.  Every once in awhile he would stop to dump the popcorn out just so he could pick it all up and put it back in his bowl. It was a good night.  And for once, I didn't mind watchi...

Part of Jim's Father's Day/birthday gift was a smoker.  I was just going to buy him one, but a good friend of ours offered to help him make his own (apparently it's better quality).  Anyway, we tried it out for the first time last weekend and it was DELICIOUS!!  The steaks tasted just like Texas Land and Cattle's smoked sirloin steak (my favorite).  Mmmm, good!  Honestly, the thing is kind of an eye sore (which fits right in with our backyard right now), but it sure does make some good food.  Good job Jim!  And thanks Mike!

The 4th of July is such a fun holiday!  This year we started the celebration a day early by making fun hats and holiday treats.  We were lucky because we got to share our fun with our friends Maggie and her mom, Sarah.  It's always more fun when friends can join us!  We made cupcakes and cake batter rice krispy treats with fun 4th of July sprinkles.  FYI, the cake batter rice krispy treats taste no different from regular rice krispy treats. They just have more calories.  The kids had fun decorating the cupcakes.  I didn't get a good picture of the cupcakes, but you can see them in the picture with Jackson and Maggie. Then the kids decorated the bags that we gave our treats away in.  They had a good time with star stickers! You can see the hats we made in the picture with Jackson.  Jackson LOVED this hat.  He wore it for 3 days straight.  I actually had to get rid of it because it was falling apart and Austin was...

"I would live with the masses and help to solve their problems that their Earth life may be happy Well, June's challenge was super easy only because I hope I am making life a little easier for at least one person in the world.  It's the least I can do.  I won't go into detail about what I've done for others because I don't think it's appropriate, but I have tried to be thoughtful of others.  And for every act of kindness I've given I've always had many many more in return. July's challenge:  "I would avoid the publicity of high positions and discourage the flattery of thoughtless friends"  -This is why I'm a stay at home mom.  I'm just trying to avoid the paparazzi.  ;)