Flashback Friday - 1 Year Ago

I was looking through Clay's "old" pictures and came across this one...

This was taken almost exactly a year ago today! It is one of my favorite pictures! I love his expression.


How did we go from that to this...

There is a reason why he's looking all redneck... Someone (and I'm not saying who) tracked mud into the house and thought that they cleaned it all up. Well, Clay decided that the red mud looked yummy and was EATING IT!!! He had red mud all down his face and all down the cute sweater he wore. Yuck! I guess that's probably not going to be the worst thing he'll eat! I'm sure there will be bugs... worms... let's just stop there!

Look at that belly! Daddy got him some new add-ons for his Little People farm he is obsessed with. He's holding one of the cows that came with it. He LOVES that Little People stuff!

And speaking of redneck... There's just a hint of baby buttcrack poking out!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

It's Thursday...

And I have random pictures...

Last night we went out to our weekly ritual of Mexican food with Nan. Remember in the last post how I mentioned how he always has one shoe off and one on... this is how we spent most of the time in the restaurant...

I'm hoping that when it gets REALLY cold outside he's going to realize what shoes and socks are for and leave them on!!

This morning he got to wear a cute sweater his Nana (my mom) got him for his birthday. I had been holding out on letting him wear it because I was going to use it for his one year pictures... but we all know how that has gone down so far!
And it looks like this weekend we are going to really need to look into getting something to prevent him from doing this:

He LOVES the stairs and he's quick! I was in the kitchen the other day and thought he was playing in the den... I literally walked out of the room for 5 seconds and he was already half-way up the stairs by the time I figured out where he had run off to!

And is it possible that he's going through the terrible two's a little early?? Wow! He's got a little temper on him! Last night at dinner he was throwing handfuls of food on the floor barely missing the people at the table right behind us. Then he would take a drink of his milk and spit it all over me. I think the dinners out with our normally VERY good toddler are about to be coming to an end!

Wordy Wednesday - A Whole Lot of Nothin'

So last night I pulled the camera out and started taking random pictures of Baby Clay - I know it's not any different from any other night that I pull the camera out and take random pictures, but I got a few cute ones.

He's really into his blocks and those big legos. He likes to build things... well, actually I build things and he likes to knock them down. Then he gives me his evil laugh... like in this picture... he's already knocked half of it down and now he's going in for this kill! See that evil little smirk on his face! Pure Evil, I tell ya!
We're also going to have to work on his smile. Before we'd get the camera out and say "Cheese" and he'd make his cheesy smile. It was cute the first 100 pictures (and it's still cute)... but now he does it almost every time we point a camera in his direction. We're going to have to break him of that before his one year pictures (which, by the way, have been rescheduled for December 8th. I'm sure it will snow that day!)

And Clay seems to be the little trend-setter these days. He's always missing one shoe and sock... ALWAYS! I like to say that it's part of his style... you know like the Michael Jackson one-glove style... Clay is starting the one-shoe style. So it's only fitting that he rides his dump truck in his own style... backwards, that is. Hey... whatever works!

Since he's been crawling up on the rocking chairs at daycare and standing up, I decided that maybe now is a good time to teach him that chairs are for "sitting" and not "standing". This may be a long process, but I did manage to get him to sit in his chair for a few minutes.Mark is all about some holiday traditions and one of those is watching the Charlie Brown cartoon that coincides with the holiday coming up. He watched the Halloween one last month and last night we pulled out the Thanksgiving one. They even have a cartoon that explains the whole Mayflower/pilgrim/Indian story. I won't even mention the stupid questions I asked in regards to Columbus and the pilgrims... History is not my strong point. So, that was our ordinary Tuesday night with some random pictures. Now go find some other blog that is WAY more interesting than what you just read!! :o)

Tasty Tuesday - Crockpot Southwestern Chicken

I haven't done a Tasty Tuesday in a LONG time, but I've come across some really yummy recipes that I have to share! I made Crockpot Southwestern Chicken last night... and it was DELICIOUS and very easy! I found it on the Sister's Cafe food blog. They've got a ton of wonderful sounding recipes and I've emailed myself many of them to try! Here's the recipe:

Crockpot Southwestern Chicken

1 small bag frozen corn
1 can black beans
2 large frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 16-oz jar medium salsa, such as Pace medium picante sauce
Tortilla Chips

Toppings: (Be creative! I used all of the below and threw in some diced onion and jalapenos)
shredded cheddar cheese
sour cream
chopped cilantro
diced avocado

Pour bag of frozen corn in bottom of crockpot. Place frozen chicken breasts on top of corn and cover with rinsed and drained black beans and jar of medium salsa. Cook on high for 1 hour, and then on low for 4 hours. Shred chicken with forks. Serve with tortilla chips and add toppings to individual servings.

Make sure you use a good, flavorful MEDIUM salsa because it's what seasons the whole dish. I did add some cumin and cayenne pepper and stirred in my chopped cilantro towards the end of the cooking. We ate it on chips like nachos, but I bet it would be good in tortillas. I thought it would be a great thing to make if you have people over to watch a football game!

And I'm sure some homemade guacamole would be perfect with it as well! I now have the perfect person to make it for me!!


He's into the "food squishing" phase... everything gets squished up before it goes into his mouth! His favorite food to squish is avocado! Just what I need to make some good, homemade guacamole!

This is his surprise look...
He's such a stinker!

We were supposed to have his 1 - year pictures today, but it's not looking like it's going to happen with this 100% chance of rain! The pictures are supposed to be outside... and I don't think it's going to work out! We've already had to reschedule this session once since he was sick back in September! At this rate he's going to be 2 years old before he gets his 1 year pictures taken!!!

Photo Friday - Love of my Life

(Shhhhh... don't tell Mark!)

Oh, and yes, I did get a haircut... just bangs and the dead ends chopped off. Poor Clay! He may never need a haircut! I don't think his hair has grown at all in the last few months... maybe since birth!

On our agenda this weekend is Date Night (woo hoo!), shopping (double woo hoo!), and possibly Brunswick Stew and a hay ride. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

We've Got THAT Kid!!

You always hear stories about "that kid". You know, the one that gets in trouble all the time... the one that is always getting into something. Well, I think we may have THAT kid! Every day we pick him up from daycare, we are always wondering what he has done this time! It's not that he's being bad... he's just being a toddler... a toddler in a room full of babies. He's the oldest in the infant class and is definitely keeping them on their toes!

A couple of weeks ago, Mark picked him up and the daycare teachers told him that when they went to check on them while they were napping, Clay decided that he didn't want to wear his clothes anymore. He stripped down to just his diaper... with the exception of one foot in his jeans (only because he couldn't get it over his shoe).

They also have to isolate his crib away from everyone else's crib. They have wheels and roll... Clay has figured this out. He was reaching out to everyone's crib that was within reach and pulling them over to his crib. Party at Baby Clay's crib!!

The other day, Mark pulled up and there were toys outside the window in the bushes. He had a feeling that Clay might be responsible for the mess... AND he was. They had opened the window since it had gotten stuffy and Clay decided to clean up the toys by tossing them out the window. However, we were told he was not the only one... he enlisted the help of his side kick, Andrew.

Clay has also pulled the curtains down, learned to crawl up on the rocking chair and stand up, pulled other kid's pacifiers out of their mouth, steal other kid's food off their high chairs... Yeah... we've got that kid!

And here is "that kid" looking all sweet and angelic before I took him to daycare this morning

And here is that mischievious little grin... Oh, yeah... always up to something!

Happy Halloween!!

I think I should win the Bad Mama award for the most unprepared for Halloween! My mom found a cute little tiger costume for Clay and I waited until the last minute to try it on him. Let's just say it was a little small, but we managed to get it on him and show him off to a few neighbors around here and his Nan. Next year I promised him I'd go all out since he will be at actual "trick-or-treating" age. Of course by then, he may not even want to wear a costume!

Not too happy to have the tiger on his head, but he actually kept it on!

I loved the cute little tail!

See, it was just a tad too small, but I think he still looked adorable!

We did have a backup plan just in case... Baby Joe Dirt.

I think he looks pretty cute with a mullet!

Hard to believe this time last year he looked like this! He was so little!

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween!!!

Wordless Wednesday - 1 Year Ago

Look at how much he's changed!!