The Math Fam

Long time, huh?

2012-10-17T08:08:00.000-04:00

Is this thing on?

I admit that I've been a horrible, horrible blogger lately. I've been extremely busy with work lately and by the time I get home, the last thing I want to do is write out a blog post. Having a glass of wine sounds so much better anyway, right?

I've got several posts that I hope to get lined up soon, but in the meantime I'll leave you with this super cute video of Kellen brushing his teeth like a big boy. He tries to do every single thing that Connor does and he will not take no for an answer. I can't believe how fast he's growing up on me.

Kellen at 2 years

2012-08-25T17:52:00.000-04:00

TWO years?? How is my "baby" 2 years old already?

We had Kellen's 2 year well baby check up yesterday and it went great! His pediatrician is very pleased with how far he has come. It's hard to imagine that this little guy once weighed only 2 pounds. We talked with his pediatrician about communication, which has been a concern for us since Kellen doesn't really have any words. His doctor didn't seem to worried right now, and wants us to wait until after Kellen's developmental clinic appointment in September to make a referral for speech. At the clinic he'll be evaluated by a speech therapist and if they feel we need speech, we'll get a referral. That is honestly the only concern we have. He seems to be doing great in all other areas.

Stats: 25lbs 12oz 34in

Daily Happenings: Kellen is so easy going. He's a good baby. He's truly into everything now and some of his favorite things to do are read (especially anything with Elmo), play with cars and trucks, building towers out of blocks and climb on everything in the house. Connor was never a climber, so I'm having to get used to always saying "Kellen you can't stand on that" and "Kellen you can't sit on the back of the sofa". He loves to play outside and is a very fast runner.

Eating: Kellen eats just about anything. Some of his favorites right now are any type of fruit, pasta, chicken, fish, green beans, sweet potatoes, bread (especially raisin bread for breakfast), applesauce, pudding cups, any kind of crackers and frozen yogurt. He still loves his milk and we just recently started him on 2%. He's nothing like his picky big brother. This kid will literally eat anything you put in front of him.

Sleeping: He still sleeps great. He takes about a 3 hour nap daily after lunch, usually between 12:00 and 1:00. He goes to bed nightly around 8:15, and is up for the day during the week around 6:30 and on weekends he sleeps in until around 9:00. We've always been blessed with great sleepers! I'm glad because this mama needs her rest!

Phone Dump Friday - August #3

2012-08-24T15:00:00.000-04:00

Waiting to the see the doctor at Kellen's 2 year check up.

Playing basketball and sweet smiles from my boys.

Who doesn't love a little Sir Mix-A-Lot on their morning drive to work? I've fallen in love with this Peach Tea from Publix. Even Connor loves it! And enjoying beautiful temperatures on Thursday morning.

Looks like Connor is off to a great start in Kindergarten! My big guy has had a great day every single day so far! I'm one PROUD mama! =)

Kellen's 2nd Birthday Party

2012-08-19T22:05:00.002-04:00

We had Kellen's birthday party on yesterday and we all had a great time!

It's still so hard to believe he's TWO! I didn't have a lot of time to plan this party because I was a slacker mom. :( I had a conference to attend for work earlier in the week and just didn't have a lot of time to get things together. I threw this entire party together with less than 24 hours prep time. I think I did a pretty good job considering. :)

Now onto the pictures..

I think he liked the balloons more than the gifts. :)

Lemonade and water.. since we're keeping it simple. :)

I stayed up late Friday night making these tissue poms to hang from the ceiling. I didn't want to do balloons this year since I'm cheap and couldn't pay the grocery store I use $1 per balloon. Insane!

The setup. I picked up some cupcakes from our favorite bakery the morning of instead of making them myself. Much easier.

Opening his birthday gifts. His big brother decided to give him a hand.

Ummm, cake.

My daddy decided to get this cake for Kellen after he and my mama got here. He said no party is complete without a cake. I can't complain though since it was yummy!

That must be some goooood cake!

Playing with his new basketball goal. They both love this thing.

Daddy and his boys. I love these pictures!

Too bad I didn't get a good picture with the birthday boy. He was so tired after his party and went straight to bed. He's such a party pooper! :)

Happy 2nd Birthday Kellen!

2012-08-18T22:41:00.000-04:00

I still cannot believe my little 2 pound miracle baby is TWO years old!! Where on earth has the time gone?? It seems just like yesterday that I was traveling back and forth to the NICU to see him. I remember that 8 week stay just like it happened on yesterday.

So now that I'm in tears, here are just a few pictures that I found on my computer really quick that I like.

August 18, 2010.. the day you came into the world 11 weeks early.

Daddy giving Kellen a bottle.

On the way home from the NICU in his car bed. I had never even heard of one of these things!

11 months old

1st Birthday.. my what a difference between 11 months and 1 year!

Enjoying his breakfast.. somewhere between 20 months and 2 years.

Phone Dump Friday - August #2

2012-08-10T12:09:00.000-04:00

Us at Connor's open house this past week. Even Kellen had a blast! :)

Spending a little time with daddy.. Candy Land and story time.

Getting a green apple = a great day on the first day, and ready for Kindergarten, day 2.

First day of Kindergarten!

2012-08-09T09:11:00.000-04:00

Okay, breathe.

I cannot believe I have a son old enough to go to kindergarten.

Just cannot believe it.

I have never seen so much excitement in his eyes as I did this morning. He was so excited he could barely sleep last night! Of course I cried, I mean, doesn't every mom shed a few tears on the first day of kindergarten??? I was so proud of my big guy.

He walked right in his classroom and told everyone good morning, and before I knew it he had almost forgotten we were even in the room. He saw a friend from his pre-k class and went and sat at the table and began coloring. My heart just beamed with joy. My "baby", in kindergarten. It was so hard to hold back the tears.

Here he is all dressed and ready to go!

Daddy and his boys.. of course Kellen is ready to take off. :)

Me with my boys. I hate that this picture is so blurry. Unfortunately my husband isn't very camera savvy, and never takes the "let's take another one just in case shot". Boo.

In his classroom putting his stuff in his cubby.

Starting the day off with coloring sheets and talking to his new classmates.

I hope my big guy has a great first day and a wonderful year! Can't wait to see what this school year brings!

Phone Dump Friday - August #1

2012-08-03T09:15:00.000-04:00

Kellen licking a spoon that he shouldn't even have, Connor pouting and car seat smiles from Kellen.

Storm skies, preparing for Kindergarten and supporting Chick-fil-a

Me hanging out at my sister Robin's birthday party, me with my beautiful sister, me with my Mister and me with my Robin and my friend Tesheba.

Have a great weekend!!

ADHD

2012-08-02T15:32:00.003-04:00

ADHD.

Four letters that sound so simple, yet they mean so much. I wasn’t sure if I would blog about this, but then I thought to myself, this is MY blog so I should be able to talk about what I want to, right?

Back in January we had a conference with Connor’s Pre-K teacher at the beginning of the semester. This is standard for all students in the Pre-K program. His teacher told us that Connor is very smart, exceeds in quite a few academically, and is very friendly and very sweet. When we began to talk about Connor’s behavior his teacher had a few concerns. She told us that Connor has to be redirected often, has to be told things 2 or 3 times before he’ll do them and often talks out of turn and is impulsive. These things really took us by surprise but once she said it, I thought about his behaviors at home. As a parent I often thought “oh he’s just being a child”, “all 5 year olds do this” and “it’s just typical behavior”. Some of it is, but his teacher seemed worried. Of course mama bear here began to be concerned so we decided to set up an appointment with our wonderful pediatrician.

When we went to see Connor’s pediatrician, within 5 minutes of the appointment he said that Connor displayed classic symptoms of ADHD. It was very hard for him to sit still during the appointment and he talked out often which made it extremely difficult for us to talk to his doctor. We love our pediatrician and we know that he wouldn’t just toss “ADHD” out there if he didn’t see something that was alarming. He said the first step would be to refer Connor to a child psychologist for a psychological evaluation. So we did.

A few weeks later we got in. The psychologist was so patient with Connor and he responded very well to him. He broke the test down into parts because he knew that it would be difficult to test any child Connor’s age for longer than a few minutes at a time.

The first part of the test was rather easy. He asked Connor a lot of questions regarding school and home life. Even during this test it was difficult for Connor to be still. He was all over the place and daddy had to get very stern with him to get him to sit still.

Part 2 of the test was a week later. This was a little more difficult. I saw during this exam that Connor was very impulsive and often didn’t think before he responded to a question. The part that hurt so much was knowing that he knew the answers but he just couldn’t concentrate and answer the questions correctly. My husband sat behind Connor and physically held Connor’s head straight to get him to concentrate and he answered every single question correctly. Every single one.

When we received his written report, the psychologist stated that some of the test scores weren’t valid, but Connor did score in “average to above average” in almost all areas. He scored lower in the areas regarding spelling and writing.

Some of the things that were noted were excessive anxiety, excessive dependency, withdrawal and poor impulse control. The psychologist also recommended that we get Connor tested again at age 6, because sometimes as kids get older some of the behaviors are controlled better. We've been trying some different things with Connor and so far things are going better. There have been a lot of changes to his diet, and we all made changes to make things easier for him. We still have a ways to go, but we're better now than we were when we started. His pediatrician sees him every 3 months to get updates and see how things are going, and he has been so good to us through this whole process. I love my little man and he is such a wonderful kid!

I also decided to join an online forum for parents of children with ADHD, and it has helped so much. It always helps to know others that are going through similar situations.

For more information on ADHD try this link or this one.

Phone Dump Friday - July #4

2012-07-27T16:49:00.000-04:00

I've seen a lot of blogs that post "Instagram Friday" or something similar. I take so many pictures with my phone so I figured what better way to show them off than by posting them here. So, here's our first installment of "Phone Dump Friday"!

Yummy Five Guys for lunch, Connor showing off his new backpack and Connor smiling after he lost his 4th tooth.

Connor helping me cook dinner, jamming on my way to work to "Whoomp there it is" (love 90s on 9 on Sirius), Zaxby's yummy Roadhouse Zalad for lunch and my new favorite shade of nail polish.

Connor and Kellen enjoying their bath, Kellen playing in Connor's bed.. don't think Connor is too happy about it, and both of them playing together nicely.

Have a great weekend!!

Toofers Update

2012-07-24T23:25:00.000-04:00

Last week Connor lost his 4th tooth. He's had a very busy summer when it comes to losing teeth. He lost his first tooth back in April, and then of course there was the incident that almost gave me a heart attack when he lost his top 2 front teeth.

Needless to say, at this rate the Tooth Fairy will need to get a loan. :)

Look at that big space in the front! I'm so glad that the first tooth he lost is coming back in. His smile still melts my heart, toothless and all.

When Connor knocked out his top 2 front teeth, I called his dentist because I of course wanted to make sure that everything was okay. He definitely wanted to see Connor, and I'm happy to report that everything looked great. No tooth pieces left in his gums or anything.

Here he is getting his first x-ray. He did so well!

While we were waiting for Dr. W, Connor decided to read a Dr. Seuss book.

When his dentist came into the room with the results from the x-ray, we found out a very interesting fact. Connor has an extra tooth on top. How weird is that?! Definitely something we weren't expecting to here, but I was glad to hear that it will be an easy fix once it's in. Dr. W said he'd just pull it and he doesn't see any problems because of the extra tooth. He did tell us that this does happen often so it wasn't anything to be too worried about. That's good to know.

He goes back to the dentist in October and at this rate, I just hope he has teeth for the dentist to look at. :)

Jumping on the Instagram bandwagon

2012-07-15T21:12:00.001-04:00

I'm probably one of the last people in the world that hasn't jumped on the iPhone bandwagon. For months I contemplated getting an iPhone just so I could use Instagram. Pretty lame, right? So you can only imagine how excited I was when Instagram came to Android! I literally squealed out loud!

I joined a few months back and I'm really loving it so far. Some of the photos on there are amazing.

Now I just have one more thing to add to my list of time wasters. :)

If you're on Instagram I'd love to know! Oh, and I'm "carlamell" if you'd like to follow me and my randomness. :)

4th of July, 2012

2012-07-07T18:06:00.000-04:00

4th of July was great! There's nothing like a day off from work right? The only thing that sucked for me was having to go back to work on Thursday, while my hubby got to enjoy a vacation day. Boo! My parents came over and we decided to grill out. The men took care of all the grilling while the ladies (just me and my mom) took care of all the inside goodies.

I started off the day by making some homemade salsa. I could seriously make a meal out of chips and salsa. Can't you? No? Well you are lying. :)

I've been using this recipe from The Pioneer Woman for about a year now and we all love it! One added bonus this time was being able to use homegrown peppers and a few tomatoes. Nice!

I ate good that day. As you can see I have absolutely no shame in showing you my plate. It was SO good.

Later in the afternoon we just hung out and did pretty much nothing. I did get a quick picture with the boys, but as you can see Kellen isn't that interested...

We planned on going to see the fireworks but that was a bust. Both of them were fast asleep at 7:30. I was actually looking forward to going, but my kids had other plans. Connor doesn't nap at all and Kellen refused to nap all day, so they were both pretty tired. Oh well, hopefully next year.

Hopefully all of you had a fabulous 4th!

A little weekend decorating using free printables

2012-06-28T07:12:00.000-04:00

Over the past few weeks I've seen some very nice free printables on . I pinned a few and decided to do a little decorating this past weekend.

I couldn't believe how easy it was to print them and frame them.

The first ones I did went in the kitchen. I found them on Pinterest but you can view them by clicking here.

I love how these turned out. They really helped to fill in this empty space in the kitchen.

I couldn't stop so I found this printable to go in the entryway. Kelly picked out the color. If you click on the link, you'll see this printable is offered in other colors. I even had a frame for it already that I picked up at Michael's a few weeks ago on clearance for $3. Score!

Definitely not the best picture, but you get the idea of how it looks in the entryway.

And as if that wasn't enough, I made my way into the boys' bathroom, where I used these wonderful printables. I found the frames for these and the ones in the kitchen at Dollar General for a grand total of $3.18. Totally cheap weekend project!

These projects cost me less than $7. I keep cardstock on hand and I scored the frames for pretty cheap, so it was a win-win all around!

Wordless Wednesday: My little Lowe's helpers

2012-06-27T06:30:00.000-04:00

Father's Day, 2012

2012-06-26T15:42:00.001-04:00

Father's Day this year was great! Even though I'm posting about it um, a week later? It's very hard to purchase a gift for the man that has everything, so we went all crafty this year.

I saw this idea on Pinterest a few days ago and decided to give it a try. Connor had so much fun doing it, but Kellen on the other hand wanted to play with the paint and didn't want to open his hands. I think it turned out great though. :)

Daddy with his 2 buddies. It's very hard to get a picture where all 3 of them are looking at the camera. Kellen doesn't like to cooperate, as you can see. I tell him all the time he better be glad he's cute! Don't they look nice as we head out to church?

And because I just had to have a picture with my favorite 2 little guys. I just love them to pieces!

I hope all the wonderful father's out there had a wonderful day!

Meal plans for the week of June 24

2012-06-24T22:01:00.000-04:00

Sunday: Stew beef and rice, steamed cabbage, squash casserole and cornbread (we like to throw down on Sunday's) :)
The rest of the week:
Taco Salad
Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy and steamed broccoli
Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken and Rice (from Pinterest)
Baked chicken, sweet potatoes with homemade cinnamon honey butter and green beans
Pizza night!

Wordless Wednesday: Little cookie thieves

2012-05-30T06:30:00.000-04:00

This is what happens when you forget to put the Nilla Wafers up after making a banana pudding.

Kellen at 21 months

2012-05-29T08:49:00.001-04:00

It's hard to believe that in 3 months I'll have a TWO year old! The months are just going by way too fast. I've been looking at ideas for Kellen's 2nd birthday party and I think I've finally decided.. though you'll have to wait to see what I come up with. :)

Here's a picture of my big guy before we headed out for his 21 month visit. Nothing about this picture says baby. :(

Stats: 24lbs 4oz 32 in. He's up from 23lbs 6oz 31in at his 18 month visit. I guess all the running he does is keeping the weight off!

Daily Happenings: He continues to be into everything. Kellen has no fear whatsoever. He's much busier than Connor ever was. He climbs, jumps and is such a little dare devil. He definitely gives me a daily heart attack.

Eating: Kellen continues to be a very good eater. His breakfast favorites are oatmeal, bananas, french toast, pancakes, toast, sausage and cheese grits. For lunch and dinner he eats whatever we eat, and some of his favorites include chicken, any kind of beef, green beans.. he LOVES those, peas, squash, zucchini and sweet potatoes. He's also a big snacker and loves to snack on dried cereal, oatmeal bars, granola bars, applesauce, pudding cups, peaches (we can't get enough of those sweet Ga peaches), yogurt and ice cream. We've been enjoying that a lot since it has been so hot lately.

Sleeping: Kellen is up for the day during the week around 6:30. On the weekends he'll sleep in until 9:00 or 9:30. Bedtime is by 8:30 but there are a few times when he'll go earlier or later, depending on how tired he is. He takes one nap daily around 1:00 and usually sleeps for up to 3 hours.

My week from hell

2012-05-28T22:27:00.000-04:00

Last week was literally the week from hell. Kelly left for a business trip early Sunday morning, so I was on my own after that. My parents came over to visit later that afternoon, so the first day at home with both boys wasn't that bad. After lunch I noticed that Kellen seemed a little warm and was drooling excessively, so immediately I thought he was teething. He seemed just as happy as a clam so I didn't really think he was sick.

As the day went on his fever never went away, and he started getting a little fussy. He ate okay and was still pretty active, so again I thought all was okay. After his bath I gave him some Tylenol and rocked him to sleep, but that sleep was very short lived.

Kellen was up every other hour after that. I had no idea what was wrong but I was finally able to get him back to sleep around 1:00. I was exhausted. I already knew I had to be back up at 5:30 so going to sleep was almost pointless. When I woke up he seemed okay, but his fever at that point was low grade (99.7)

When I got to work that morning I called his pediatrician and told him what was going on. They asked me to bring him in later that morning so I did. I can't tell you how glad I was that I went with my mommy gut. My poor sweet baby had strep throat!! How does this even happen? He doesn't go to daycare and isn't around many people, but his doctor thinks that Connor might have picked it up at school and passed the germ along to Kellen. So we got a prescription for amoxicillin and were on our way.

My mom decided that she would stay with us a few nights this week, but when she found out Kellen had strep throat she decided to come over on Tuesday instead of Wednesday like she'd planned. Tuesday was great. Kellen stayed at home with his "Manee" and got plenty of cuddles.

Wednesday seemed to be going okay. I got home around 6:00 because I had to stop by the store, but when I got home both boys were running around like mad men so I figured that Kellen was on the road to recovery. My mom had already cooked dinner so when I got in I got the boys washed up so they could get ready to eat. Connor was sitting at the table eating his dinner when all of a sudden I hear "bam". I look around and Connor is on the floor and all I see is blood. I freaked out and ran to him and noticed that his mouth was bleeding. As I looked closer I noticed that his top 2 front teeth were gone. Oh.my.God. What in the world?? I just burst into tears. How in the world did he fall? Did his face hit the ground first? So many questions running through my mind and I really didn't know what to do. I picked him up and took him to the bathroom and got him cleaned up.

We were both scared and at that point I just broke down. I was so glad to have my mom there with me, but there was just something about Kelly not being there that made me sad. Children just seem to bounce back so quickly, and within a matter of minutes he was all smiles!

Thursday and Friday were much better, and Kelly got home on Friday around 11:30 am. Thank God for an early flight! We had a great long weekend, and I'm hoping and praying that this week is nice and quiet.

Mother's Day 2012

2012-05-19T22:56:00.000-04:00

I know Mother's Day was so last week, but I'm just now finding a few minutes to sit down and upload pictures! This past week was crazy at work and I have been so exhausted in the evenings so of course the computer is the last thing I think about.

I had a wonderful Mother's Day this year with my family. It was pretty low key, but it was just what I wanted. :)

Connor showered me with these wonderful gifts that he made at school. I love them! Nothing like gifts from my Connor man!

Me with my handsome little guys after church. I'm so glad that they are both smiling!

Connor striking a pose.

My 2 handsome fellas. They were actually being nice to each other. :)

I hope all you wonderful moms out there had a wonderful day!

Liebster Award

2012-05-08T08:20:00.000-04:00

My friend Heather nominated me for a Liebster award and I'm so excited! Heather is a working mother of and has a beautiful daughter, and will soon be welcoming a baby boy! I'm very excited for her! I'm a big fan of her food blog, and one my favorite recipes of hers is Cranberry Upside Down Cake. I made it for Thanksgiving last year and everyone loved it. I made 2 actually and the first was gone within a matter of hours. You should definitely try it!

Here is a little bit of info on the Liebster award:

The Libster award is a "Share The Love Arrangement" given to inspirational bloggers with less than 200 followers.

Once you are awarded the Liebster award there is a To Do list to follow so don't break the chain!

1. Thank the person who presented you with the award on your blog. (This is a good way to track who has had the Liebster award and who hasn't, it also helps us track back to where the Liebster award came from!)

2. Link back to the blogger who gave you the award on your blog.

3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 2-5 other bloggers with less than 200 followers.

5. Let them know you've chosen them by leaving a comment on their blog.

And here are the bloggers I'm passing the award on to:

Tutus and Tantrums

My life, according to Caleb

Life with the Boire Family

Chicken Casserole

2012-05-06T21:51:00.001-04:00

I haven't made this recipe in over a year and I really don't know why. It's a favorite of ours, and it was the first dish I made for Kelly after we started dating. :) Awww! My mom gave me this recipe years ago and it's very simple and easy. We always have leftovers and everyone loves it.

Ingredients:
2 cups cut up chicken
1 cup cooked rice
1T lemon juice
2/3 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 chopped onion (I don't like a lot of onion so I use half of a small one)
3 chopped boiled eggs
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 stick margarine
1 sleeve of Ritz crackers
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients together and pour into a greased casserole dish.

Crumble the sleeve of crackers on top of the mixture. Melt the stick of margarine and pour over the crackers. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

Fresh out of the oven.

Yum!

This was before I fixed the rest of my dinner, but I wanted you to see how it looks before I loaded up the rest of my plate. :)

This should serve 8-10 people. Hope you enjoy it!

Sprinkler Fun!

2012-05-05T22:50:00.000-04:00

We had high temps in the 90s today, so what better way to cool off than to run through the sprinklers?? Good and free fun! Kellen had a blast! He wasn't very happy when it was time to come in though. His brother was a different story.. as you'll see below.

And here's the crank. He wasn't too thrilled about running through the sprinklers, but not 24 hours ago he was splashing away at the beach with no problems. Go figure.

Footloose. :)

Connor's first Field Trip

2012-05-04T22:49:00.002-04:00

Connor had his first Field Trip today at the beach. He was so excited about it, and has been talking about it all week long!

As I sat in my car this morning a few cars behind the school bus, I couldn't believe that I was about to go on his first Field Trip. I saw the kids walking out the back of the building holding hands with a partner and then I saw my big boy. Holding the hands of one of his classmates and looking so big. I broke down crying in the car. Yeah, I was that mom this morning. I can't believe I cried, but I also can't believe that he's growing up. He just looked like such a big boy getting on the bus.

Getting off the bus and receiving their beach pails.

He didn't see me at first, but once he did he ran and gave me a hug and told me how much fun he had on the bus. :)

All smiles!

Building sandcastles. They all had so much fun doing this.

Getting his feet wet in the water. The high temperature at the beach today was only 78, so the water was rather cool.

One of the many jellyfish that we saw. The kids were so fascinated by them.

Splish splash!

After spending about an hour at the beach we headed to the pavilion and playground area for lunch. The kids were so excited that they barely ate, and chose to go play on the playground instead.

When we left Connor told me he had a great time but he was sleepy. He fell asleep on the car ride home and finished his nap once we got home. He has Field Day next week and he's excited about that too! So many fun activities at the end of the school year.