That's the way we became the Beagle Bunch

SLACKER

2010-01-15T11:45:00.004-05:00

Yeah yeah.. .I admit it. I am a SLACKER. I haven't updated in forever but a lot has changed for us recently. I have friends now. I joined a Richmond moms group and have playdates all the time. So the boys and I stay on the go! At night when I used to blog, I am now reading or crocheting. But I have promised myself to get back into blogging. I know I will never be able to keep up with daily stuff... but weekly I think I can handle!

Because I can't figure out how to link directly from facebook... here is the FB link....

http://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.beagle?v=app_2392950137&ref=name#/video/video.php?v=1332070504181

Ahhhhhhhh, kids say the darndest things. And I do take full responsibility for this one. This is all me. I love that work. Use it all the time. Now I am trying to cut back! ;)

Oh and a little Jake for everyone too!!

Yep he is trying to walk.... a lot... all the time... he is sneaky too!

xoxo

Video Time

2009-09-24T09:23:00.000-04:00

I love videos of my kiddos and these are just great! BigJ has been singing lots of songs lately. I am sure preschool has helped that along since I don't even know the words to "Wheels on the bus" but BigJ does!! And the little guy is just being cute lately. He loves to sit up and play. He also loves to stand and play but there is a little more assistance involved in that one. I tell my husband it has to be hard for littleJ to carry around all that weight ( 19 pounds at last check).

xoxo

Wordless Wednesday... a sneak peek

2009-09-23T11:02:00.007-04:00

xoxo

My Crafty Self

2009-09-21T10:27:00.000-04:00

I have been a busy bee lately. Have I mentioned I love cloth diapering?? Well I do! I never thought I would love this so much but I do. I love LittleJ's bum covered in fluff!! I love bright colors though and my favorite diapers were not very colorful. Prefolds come unbleached or bleached, basically beige or white. So I dyed mine. I love my beautiful rainbow colored dipes.

Oh and I also made a few flats. I am really having fun!

xoxo

First Day of school

2009-09-18T08:29:00.000-04:00

My how he has grown. BigJ's first day of preschool was Thursday. He loved it. He wanted to go back immediately! I kindly told him that he would have to wait until Tuesday. He had no accidents and said that he listened to his teacher. Oh where has the time gone!!

xoxo

Family Ties

2009-09-17T09:14:00.001-04:00

I love any time we get to spend with family!! I love how my kids light up around their grandparents and their great aunt and uncle!! I completely feel the love!

xoxo

Wordless Wednesday

2009-09-16T15:49:00.001-04:00

xoxo

I just don't understand...

2009-09-15T10:37:00.003-04:00

I don't understand how a kid that won't eat simple things like spaghetti sauce or hot dogs will eat things like scallops and edamame. I will never understand!!

Brothers!!

2009-08-15T07:49:00.017-04:00

I am very lucky. My boys love each other so much. I know that it will not stay this way but for right now it is so sweet. BigJ is such a good big brother. He comforts his brother when he cries. He picks up the suckie if it dropped. He helps entertain him while in the saucer, swing or bouncer. He talks to him and tried to play ball with him. Anytime littleJ is on the floor, bigJ wants to help him roll over or help him sit up. BigJ always lets me know when his little brother has spit up and sometimes will take it upon himself to try and clean it up!

The love I see between the two of them already takes my breath away most days. I thought I was going to be dealing with some serious jealous when the little guy got here but so far not much at all, if any. BigJ is so caring and concerned about his brother. And littleJ just looks so adoringly at his big brother. He looks like he is just counting the seconds until he can run and play with him!

Have I mentioned how much I love having 2 boys and that I can't get enough of their love for each other?!

As if I wasn't busy enough...

2009-08-06T09:35:00.006-04:00

So being that I have sooooooo much free time I have decided that I hate the wallpaper in the great room and want it gone. When we bought this house, I wasn't a fan of the wallpaper ( I am never a fan of wallpaper ) and I figured we could easily change it when I wanted to. Well I decided that I wanted to change it yesterday. Of course I had to call the hubby and get permission before I start ripping it off. Since he is putty in my capable hands, he agreed if the walls were OK underneath.

So I started with a small patch to see if they were OK. They seemed fine to me but I ran into another problem. There are 2 layers of wallpaper. UGH!!I think I may have mentioned it already that I HATE WALLPAPER. I have removed a border once in our old house but as many of you know this room is MUCH bigger and wallpaper covers the wall. See exhibit A B and C below but disregard the chaos that is our great room.

So that is the room and I have already started the removal process. I can get the whole first layer off and most of the second layer except the back and glue. I know I will be using wallpaper stripper for that part. But I am at a loss for what color to paint the room when done. The wood panel will be staying and the hubby thinks that something neutral will work best. I am really thinking about a robin egg blue. I think that will work great with our cream couch and warm honey wood color. Any suggestions????

Trying to get back in the swing of things!

2009-08-04T14:39:00.003-04:00

I have been on a extended long weekend and am trying to get back into the swing of things... in the mean time... enjoy the boys!

Wordless Wednesday- My new favorites

2009-07-30T07:06:00.008-04:00

Online purchase review-Banana Peels Diapers

2009-07-23T12:39:00.004-04:00

Since I have become a cloth diapering mama, I have been trying to find as many great places to buy fluff that I can. I always need to get a good deal since the hubby is very money conscious. I had a recent opportunity to use http://bananapeelsdiapers.com/ . I needed to buy some new covers because littleJ, the chunk, has outgrown his covers I bought 2 weeks ago. Crazy huh? So I decided to give Banana Peels a go since they had the covers I needed and I also wanted to get some extra hemp doublers for nights.

So I placed my order of 3 thirsties covers and a few hemp doublers. Perhaps 30 minutes later while checking my email I see I have 2 emails from Heather at Banana Peels. I assumed one was my order summary and didn't know what the other one was. Turns out that my hemp doublers were out of stock from the manufacturer and she was emailing me to ask whether I wanted to wait until they come in or get a refund. This happened maybe 30 minutes after I placed my order. Before I could email her back she sent another email explaining that she had already shipped my other items. WOW.. that was super fast!

I emailed her back to find out how long the wait would be and she advised me that she had emailed the company to see when they would be back in stock. Luckily it was only 2 weeks so I can wait 2 weeks- no big deal at all. But the customer service at Banana Peels was so great! Above and beyond! And super quick. I would recommend this company to anyone looking for cloth diapering needs. Thanks to Heather at Banana Peels Diapers http://bananapeelsdiapers.com/

Jan-Feb updates

2009-07-23T08:44:00.008-04:00

January was busy! We were unpacking those first few weeks. Since we were displaced through Christmas we decided to have our family Christmas with bigJ in January complete with tree and gifts! We decorated the tree and acted like it was Christmas morning one Sunday morning. It was a lot of fun. bigJ didn't seem to know any different.

February was just as busy as January, but with a few rather large differences. I was travelling back and forth to Roanoke for Dr. appointments. I didn't want to start with a new OB and new hospital in Richmond so I knew I had to do some travelling and go back to Roanoke to stay around 36 weeks just in case.

The hubby and I took a babymoon to Williamsburg for a long weekend. It would be the last time we would be alone together for quite a while and we knew it. We had a pretty nice time. We did some outlet shopping, eating, siteseeing, eating, relaxing and did I mention eating. I think that the innkeepers where we stayed were afraid I was going to go into labor but alas no baby yet.

When we got home from the babymoon, there was no rest for the weary. I had to pack bigJ, the baby in the bellyand my stuff up to move back in with the IL's for the last 4 weeks of my pregnancy. After the first appointment, we had a bit of a scare that this baby would be here sooner rather than later. I started doing some serious last minute shopping with my mother in law- baby bedding, diapers, swing, boppy, etc. But things calmed back down and we settled into a kind of routine in Roanoke. We spent a little time in Martinsville as well but we accidentally got snowed in there! It was bigJ's first real snow but we were not prepared. We hhad no snow clothes or gloves or boots, but we made do.

It would have been absolutely perfect if the snow hadn't completely stopped us from getting to Roanoke and me being about 37 weeks pregnant. The snow did eventually melt and we made it back just in time to finalize details for bigJ's birthday!

Recipe - vegetable soup

2009-07-21T14:10:00.006-04:00

So around this place, lunch is whenever or whatever you can find to eat. Well thanks to my mama I don't have to worry about that this week. My moms recipe for vegetable soup with noodles is wonderful and oh so easy. But it makes quite a lot of food so be prepared to eat it all week long!

Ingredients:

Can of tomato soup

Can of water, stock or broth

2 cans of Veg-all

1 large can crushed tomatoes

1/4 box of elbow macaroni

salt

pepper

italian seasoning

Open all cans and place in large pot. Season to taste. Bring to a boil. Pour in macaroni. Turn down heat and simmer until pasta gets tender 10-15 minutes. Enjoy.

This recipe makes around 60-70 oz. of soup. Now you can tweak this to make this to suit your family. You can use fresh veggies, only certain veggies, whatever seasonings you want, you could add meat, use a different pasta and it still works.

When I store this it tends to thicken up on me. So i just add a little tomato paste and chicken broth to the bowl before I add my soup. It just makes it a little more soupy and less stewy.

Enjoy!!

Wordless Wednesday-Thanks for the idea Stephanie

2009-07-21T10:09:00.025-04:00

I got this idea from Stephanie over at http://www.greenkiddos.com/ Hope you enjoy my boys and trying to figure out which is which!

Yeah I know... my kids look a whole lot alike!!

The past year..

2009-07-21T09:33:00.007-04:00

It is crazy how different my life is now than it was 1 year ago.

One year ago ( probably to the day), I was trying to get over the SHOCK of being pregnant again. Shock you ask...yes we were quite shocked. We were not quite ready just yet. But that is OK- everything happens for a reason. And littleJ has been a wonderful surprise addition to our family.

Last September, the Hubby started getting recruited by a company in Richmond VA. He wasn't looking but wasn't going to turn anything away. Staying at home with the kids was my ultimate goal and it was something he wanted too. This new job would afford that opportunity. So in October he accepted the job and started living in Richmond. He would come home when he could to spend time with the family. We also travelled up to Richmond to try and find a home. Luckily we found a great house, close to family, in the right schools and that we could afford.

We bought the house in November, sold our house around the same time and we considered ourselves very lucky considering the housing market.

In December, I had my last day of work and the closing and moving of our house. I had to stay in Roanoke during this time with my in laws. Lucky for my ever rounding belly, the Hubby's new company relocated us complete with movers to pack our crap. And oh the crap we had and still have.

We spent Christmas homeless. We were with my in laws, my parents and then finally in Richmond with my aunt and uncle.
Crazy times!! But we closed and moved into our new house on Decemeber 31st. Talk about last minute of the year!! Thankfully we have a wonderful family and they helped us move in and get settled.

January-March9 thurs.

Why this blog will be different...

2009-07-21T09:21:00.004-04:00

First, I created a new blog because I felt soooooooo bad that we have another kid and he wasn't included on the last blogs name. I have to have things equal for the kiddos ( or at least try to).

Second, I had not updated in almost a year. Now in my defense.... oh my goodness what a year it was. When I looked back I saw my last blog post was in September- Basically that is when my whole world turned upside down. Not in a bad way so don't worry but in a way that made internet time scarce. I can give a thorough rundown tomorrow.

Third, I have big ideas... really big ideas this time around. I read enough blogs to get some good ideas. A few new ideas Wordless Wednesday ( thanks Steph), internet shopping reviews ( I shop enough online that this should be easy) and of course keeping up with the kiddos.

Hope you enjoy the new and improved blog!!