‘Tis the Season!

Posted in Family, Holidays, Uncategorized by Karen

We’re loving the Christmas season around here. The Smiths are the type of people who listen to Christmas carols a little too much, decorate way too early, and head to the mall in the peak of crowds. We love spoiling our kids this time of year, but we’ve made a conscious effort to teach our boys the joy of giving. I’m not gonna lie-it’s a little tricky when so much focus is given towards, “what are you going to ask Santa for?” and “how many days until you get to open your presents?” Our hope is that they will learn that giving and doing for others can bring as much enjoyment as receiving gifts some day. After all, there’s nothing quite like putting a smile on someone’s face to make your heart happy.

Like this charitable act. “Put your heads in those things so mommy and daddy can get a good laugh!”

Since the boys are only 2 and 4, it takes a little creativity to think of ways to get them involved in the act of giving or doing for others. Here’s some of the ways we tried to get them in the “giving” spirit this year…

We donated money to the Salvation Army red kettles.

We made cards and artwork for our friends who donated money to our St. Jude fundraiser for sick children.

They delivered cards to all the kids in their class.

They picked out and purchased a toy for the Toys for Tots bin.

They each went shopping for a Christmas present for their brother. (Dollar Store finds- gotta love ’em!)

They went shopping for presents for Albert and Gato.

We made cards for the mailman and trash collectors.

The mailman’s surprise.

The trash collector’s gift and card.

We brought a small gift for each of their teachers. (Contemplated the ol’ alcoholic gift for Nolan’s teacher. Bless her patient heart.)

They gave a small treat to each of their classmates.

And probably the biggest sacrifice this Christmas season was cleaning out their old “baby toys” and donating them to a local ministry thrift shop. This was the toughest part for Nolan- he insisted that those were HIS toys. He had a hard time letting go (but was more willing once he realized that made more room for new toys!) We also gave away all of their clothes that they outgrew recently and donated food to a food bank- thankfully that was done with a more generous heart. It was so touching to hear Brady’s thoughts about how much he cared that other children might not have all of the things that he has. Kids can be amazingly empathetic.

I hope this is the start of raising children who have a love of doing things for others. While I still fully intend on taking part in all the sparkly, indulgent, over-the-top Christmas traditions, maybe, just maybe, it will be done with a charitable mindset that rubs off on our kids!

26Nov2015

Thankful

Posted in Family, Holidays by Karen

Happy Thanksgiving! Our day was spent cooking, lounging, eating, drinking, golfing, watching football, and spending time with family.

Now that we’re all fat and happy, I thought I’d take a moment to recap some of the things (big & small) that I’m most thankful for. After all, reflecting on your blessings is the key to happiness! (I’m not sure if I stole that from a decorative pillow or something, but you can quote me on that either way.)

In no particular order, here’s what I’m thankful for…

Our kids. (ok, I put them first for a reason.) They’re bright, healthy, funny, crazy boys. They epitomize all that is good and innocent in the world. To know them, is to know true love. Simply put, they make me happy when skies are gray.

My hubby. He’s exactly what you’d want in a husband- perfectly imperfect. He never lets me down and I feel like I’m a better person when I’m with him. He loves me through and through and you can’t ask for much more than that from someone you’re sharing your life with.

My parents. They always support my decisions and love me unconditionally. And now, they are the best grandparents to my kiddos.

Extended family. While I don’t get to see them as often as I’d like, I was blessed to be raised in a family where there was always lots of love (and food!) every time we got together. My Grandma Dot loved big family get togethers and around the holidays I am missing her more than ever, but I am so grateful for the memories and traditions that she created for us.

Fur babies. Albert and Gato make life so much more interesting. Yes, they cause me a lot of headaches and laundry, but they also bring us joy in the form of excited, jumping up and down barking, and late night purring and snuggles.

Chick Lit and Girly T.V. shows. As much as I love having my hubby around, I’m not going to lie, I kinda enjoy nights when he’s out of town and I get to catch up on episodes of Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy. And, I certainly couldn’t live without books. Shout out to anyone else who owns a book light that they attach to the top of their books!

Music. Country, classic rock, R&B, pop, Christmas music…you name it. We do not go a day without jamming out. Between dance parties with my kids, to listening to Pandora while I read, I’m so grateful for it.

Friends. I’m so lucky to have met my best friends in college. They know all my crazy stories, have seen me at my best/worst, and still love me. I’m also grateful for all the friends we’ve met over the last couple years as we’ve moved from state to state. Every place we’ve been, we’ve been so blessed to find people who have made us feel at home.

Wine. Not sure if that really needs an explanation, but, it’s tasty and I think life is better with it. The same goes for alfredo sauce, doughnuts, birthday cake, fresh picked strawberries, champagne, and tacos.

Faith. I’m grateful for the comfort of knowing my future is in God’s hands and that all of my blessings come from Him.

The University of Florida. It was my home for 4 years and still feels like it every time I go back. It’s where I got my college degree, where I “grew up”, where I found my best friends, and where I met my husband. Going there was most certainly the best, most life changing thing I ever did. (I should also add that I’m super thankful for college football!)

These are a few of my favorite things! While every day is not perfect, there are certainly blessings all around us each day if we take the time to look for them.

We hope everyone had a blessed day that was full of the 3 F’s- Family, Food, and Football. HAPPY THANKSGIVING Y’ALL!

4Nov2015

Fall in NC!

Posted in Family, Travel by Karen

Oh hey, blog. Nice to see you again. No seriously, it’s been forever since I’ve written a post. Time to get back at it!

I thought I’d do a quick re-cap of some of our Fall shenanigans. There’s been lots of football watching, leaf gawking, travel, and enjoying cooler temps.

We try to get in the Fall spirit with a little bit of decorating. Some pumpkins, leaves, and of course a Gator shrine help us enjoy the season a little more.

Grandma Dot’s Pumpkin Bread recipe is my favorite Fall decoration!

We’ve also been busy with school and soccer the last couple of months. Brady has loved school from day one, where Nolan took some getting used to. He liked the idea of school, but did NOT like mommy leaving. He has finally come around to the idea and now looks forward to it as much as Brady.

A happy, post school, selfie!

Brady had his first school field trip this Fall- a trip to a pumpkin patch complete with a hayride, goats, and a bounce house.

Brady’s Soccer Team…

Go Lions! Brady is so darn cute out there and tries SO hard!

We recently took a trip to Blowing Rock, NC with my Aunt Claudia. She got the best condo for all of us right in Downtown. We were walking distance from restaurants, bars, shops, and a park. The leaves were spectacular along the parkway, the boys enjoyed going back to Tweetsie Railroad, and we had fun exploring Downtown Boone. We even got to check out some cool views of Appalachian State and are highly considering brainwashing our boys to make that their back up school (if they don’t get into UF of course!)

Downtown Blowing Rock…

Driving the Blue Ridge Parkway…

Exploring Downtown Boone and App State…

One of the Boone Firefighters invited Brady into the station as we were walking past and let him get into all the trucks- so exciting for him!

Tweetsie Railroad…

Halloween was super fun this year. Both boys really got into it and were pretty much the cutest dinosaurs ever. They got to trick or treat twice. Once at the park near our house and then again in our neighborhood. They enjoyed the candy, but really liked just hanging out in our driveway with a fire pit and our neighbors. (And the T.V. Chris set up so we could watch college football, of course.)

Pumpkin Decorating…Can you guess which is Nolan’s and which is Brady’s?

All about the costumes…

Trick-or-treat the Trail at White Deer Park…

Halloween night at our house…

Nolan demonstrating how Triceratops walked on 4 legs.

He had the best time running up and “scaring” people with is ROAR!

Brady teaching our neighbor Sophie how to pose like a T-Rex.

So that’s our Fall so far. We’re looking forward to our first Thanksgiving in our new home and enjoying the last little bit of color on the trees. The days of playing outside without sweating or needing puffy jackets are numbered so we are trying to make the most of them! Happy Fall, y’all!

1Sep2015

First Day of School (2&4)

Posted in Brady, Family, Nolan by Karen

The boys (both!) started pre-school this week. This is Brady’s 3rd year of school so he’s an old pro by now, but it was Nolan’s first time (really, ever) doing anything without me. Both boys were so excited for the idea of school- new backpacks, packing a lunch, cool shoes, we just weren’t sure how Nolan would do with the reality of school being away from Mommy, Daddy and Brady. This year Brady will go 4 mornings a week and Nolan will go 2. That’s right, that means I will get a whole 8 hours to myself each week. Woot! Time to move the pile of laundry off my treadmill and actually use it! But I digress…

Brady started school on Monday, but Nolan didn’t have his first day until Tuesday. That was slightly confusing for poor Nolie as he was just sure he was supposed to go to school too.

Brady was a superstar on the first day. He was so excited to get into his classroom and get his learn on!

We were totally “those parents” taking hundreds of pictures in the classroom and even Brady’s teacher made a comment about how we really seemed into “taking it all in.” Ahem. Brady made up for his crazy parents by giving his teachers a sweet 1st day of school present.

Hey, I was a teacher. I know it doesn’t hurt to suck up juuuust a little. I’m not above it.

From the sounds of it, Brady had a great 1st day. When we came to pick him up he said, “Why are you here already?” He’s all warm and fuzzy just like his momma.

Now onto littlest man’s 1st day of school. He was so stoked. He posed perfectly and everything. That never happens!

We even got a couple shots with big brother (who was clearly an expert at this picture thing by now.)

Happy, happy, happy heading into school.

Oh, look! There’s my name! Happy, happy, happy.

First kid in the class- get the firetruck all to myself. Happy, happy, happy!

And then I left to take Brady to his class…

Sweet little Brady just working away, completely un-caring that I’m leaving the room. He’s so cool.

Apparently that’s when things got a little less “happy.” When Chris left the classroom, Nolan got a little panicky but was quickly calmed by his trusty blankie that we brought for this exact reason. We both made a quick get away and prayed that things would go well and we wouldn’t get a phone call mid-morning to come retrieve our traumatized child.

In true Chris and Karen fashion, I was all “Woohoo! Kids are both in school!” and he was all “Boohoo! They’re growing up so fast!” Love my big, emotional man.

Turns out we did not get any phone calls from the school. (Yay!) We actually got to take advantage of a rare kid-free, Chris not traveling, morning, and went out to lunch downtown.

I guess pork and grits can help ease anyone’s stress…

When we picked up Nolan he was playing happily! His teacher reported that he had a good day, although he did NOT want his diaper changed at all (guess we need to work on that potty training thing) and he would NOT leave his blankie in the classroom during playground time (we’ll work on that too.) One of my favorite parts of the day was seeing how interested Brady was in Nolan’s day. “Did you have fun, Nolan? See, mommy and daddy always come BACK!” Ahh, melted my heart.

We’ll see how day 2 goes for N-Dawg, sometimes that’s even harder than the 1st day, but at least we all survived day 1! Brady is loving school and Nolan is off to a decent start. Here’s a quick video of him breaking it down on the way home from school. Clearly he wasn’t too traumatized!

29Aug2015

August Adventures

Posted in Family, Travel by Karen

Summer is coming to an end. We’ve wrapped up the last of our family travels and the boys’ backpacks are all set out on the table to start school next week. While I am looking forward to the structure and routine that school provides our day to day life, I’ll miss our carefree days of summer. We were lucky enough to get to tag along with Chris on several work trips, visit family, and have visits from lots of our friends. Most of all, I’ll miss spending the whole day with my little guys. I know I’m beyond blessed to have the opportunity to spend every day with them, and I’ve especially loved getting to see new places and go on “adventures” with them over the last few months.

Some of my favorite times with my boys were the small, silly moments when they were just all boy-sweet, innocent, and loving life! They wore super hero jammies to the mall, rode their toy dinosaurs around the house, and made me laugh all the time!

The boys were super excited to have a visit from their Auntie Jill (my best friend!) We showed her around downtown Raleigh, all our favorite parks and took a day trip to Chapel Hill…where we had the best BLT’s of our lives! Brady gave it a big ol’ thumbs up- or is that a Donald Trump impression? Either way…

One of Brady’s favorite trips was when we went to Hickory, NC for Chris’ work. Not only did the museum there have an aquarium (Nolan’s favorite!) but they had a remote controlled dinosaur exhibit (Brady’s favorite!)

The boys also got their back to school haircuts. Have I mentioned how much Nolan HATES haircuts? It’s torture for all of us. But, we got it over with. These are the best pictures I got of their new do’s. Nolan is covered in a chocolate ice cream sample and Brady wanted me to get a picture “like this” so he could see what he looked like with his eyes closed. Sigh.

We had a fun day at Wrightsville Beach as a family this month. It’s about 2 hours from the house (our closest beach). I just love how much our boys have become little water babies this summer!

We also had a visit from our friends the Richards. It was awesome catching up with them and the boys loved hanging with their cute kiddos, Lynlee and Bennett!

We made another trip down to Savannah this month as well. This time we toured Fort Pulaski with Grandpa and Nana. The boys loved hearing the big cannon firing demos. Nolan wasn’t quite sure if it was fireworks or what.

It’s always fun when you’re taking a selfie on the second story of a big fort and you happen to see on the phone screen, in the background, one of your kiddos climbing over the super high wall of said fort. We were all, “cheeeese- AHHH!”

From Savannah we headed to Charleston for a few days. We ate yummy food, walked around downtown, hit up some cool parks, and checked out the South Carolina Aquarium.

Me and my love in Charleston!

I had to capture the boys on the way home from our last trip. We came home later in the evening and Brady slept the entire way. Nolan slept about half and then spent the rest of the time watching Pharrell sing “Happy” on repeat. So typical.

The boys and I spent one of our last days of summer at one of our favorite places, Pullen Park. It’s right by downtown and we had fun riding the train, playing on the playground, and we can never leave without getting a Loco Pop.

This has been a great summer. It was full of celebrations, travel, friends and family. We had big adventures and small moments that I’ll always treasure. The boys will never be 2 and 4 again, so I tried to soak up as much of their sweetness as possible. Boo for summer being over, but yay for Fall adventures to come!

Sweet, lazy days of summer!

3Aug2015

Mexican Street Corn- Kids Cook Monday

Posted in Kids Cook Monday, Meatless Monday by Karen

Mexican Street Corn

We love Mexican food around here. In fact my hubby lived in Mexico for quite a while, so he often talked about the corn on the cob they used to sell on the streets. When he described it with mayonnaise lathered on, I have to admit that sounded odd, but go figure, it’s delicious!! Brady absolutely loves corn on the cob, so I thought we’d give this Mexican Street Corn (or Elotes) recipe a try.

Ingredients:
5 Ears of Corn
Package of Mexican Crumbling Cheese
1/2 cup of Mayonnaise
About 1Tbs. Chopped Cilantro
1/2 tsp. paprika (or chili powder for some heat)

We started by picking up some fresh corn on the cob. It’s so cheap and tasty this time of year. Brady and I got to shucking.

Please excuse the shirt-less-ness. He’s 4 and it’s summer.

Then, the hubby brushed the grill with some olive oil and grilled up our corn.

Brady and I then lathered each piece of corn with some mayo using a basting brush.

We then rolled each piece of corn in some Mexican crumbling cheese. (Brady also ate handfuls of cheese during this process)

Last we sprinkled our corn with some chopped cilantro and a little bit of Paprika. Traditional recipes call for Chili Powder, but I wanted to keep the spice to a minimum since this recipe was for Brady.

He adored this recipe. Corn + Cheese= Heaven for Brady.

2Aug2015

July Adventures

Posted in Family, Travel by Karen

Is July seriously over? That went fast! It’s hard to believe we’re onto our last month of summer before the boys head back to pre-school. We had a fun month- it was a mix of relaxed summer days, travel, and visits from friends and family. Oh, and it was also the month of the big red cast.

Not that it slowed us down at all!

It was also the month that Nolan showed us that yes, he is indeed in his Terrible 2’s. That delightful mix of sweet and crazy.

We had a very All-American 4th of July weekend. We had sparklers, cookouts, fire pits, S’mores, time with neighbors, adult beverages, and of course, fireworks over the golf course.

Chris had meetings in Virginia Beach, so we decided to keep him company and tag along. I’m always surprised at how much I love that area. The boys were obsessed with all the fighter jets going over the beach, and we enjoyed some awesome seafood and great views.

And yea, that cast was very full of sand by the time it came off.

We had a fun visit from our friends, the Hootens. It’s so cute to see our kiddos growing up and getting to know each other.

Me and my sweet Goddaughter, Taylor!

After 3 weeks, Brady got his cast off. The bone did not heal completely, so he had another 2 weeks of wearing a boot, but he sure was excited to get that cast off. Although, I have to say, he really did not complain about it at all. He’s our lil’ trooper.

One of our favorite parts of the summer, has got to be our trip to the Outer Banks. Again, Chris has customers out there that he had to visit, so we tagged along. (The perks/trade off for having a husband who travels a lot)

Our first night, Nags Head greeted us with an amaaaazing dinner with the best view I could imagine. Right away, we knew we’d be coming back to Outer Banks as much as possible!

Cornhole and drinks on the water? Yes please!

While Chris was at work, the boys and I explored the beach at Kitty Hawk. Holy waves. It was truly the prettiest beach we’ve been to. (Sorry Daytona & Clearwater! We still love you!)

Nicholas Sparks, I so get why you love North Carolina.

After Chris was done working, we were able to explore more of the area/ plan our next vacation!

One of our most memorable parts of the Outer Banks was exploring the Sand Dunes at Kill Devil Hills. They were…breathtaking. Such a cool experience. So obviously, it goes wihout saying that pictures do not do them justice. There’s no way to properly capture the magnitude of how big and expansive those sandy hills are! If you look closely in each picture you may be able to see tiny dots in the background (people in the distance) that give you an idea of how far they stretched out. Oh, and props to Chris for carrying B up those hills with his big booted foot kicking him in the face. Poor kid. Poor daddy.

As soon as we got home from the Outer Banks, Grandpa and Nana came up for a long weekend and we celebrated Chris’s birthday. They kids had a blast planning his little family party. I let them loose in Party City and they picked out the best decorations!

This month also marked Nolan’s first time going to a movie. He did surprisingly well. For Nolan. We’ve been going to $1 movies they show for kids in the mornings, but we even went to see the Minion movie with Grandpa and Nana one afternoon. He mostly loves the popcorn.

We also had lots of ordinary, every day moments, that helped pass the lazy days of summer and remind us just how precious this time is with our sweet boys.

July…memory making at it’s finest!

1Jul2015

June Adventures

Posted in Brady, Family, Nolan, Travel by Karen

June might be my favorite month of the year. For our family it’s full of celebrations, travel, and enjoying summer to the fullest. This year, in addition to celebrating lots of birthdays, our anniversary, and Father’s Day, we also threw in a 12 day road trip to Florida. We were able to visit with lots of friends and family and hit up some of our favorite spots along the way (and only came back with 1 broken bone!) Here’s our recap of the month of June and our big road trip!

We started the month with a visit from my mom. She was able to come stay for a week and we got to hang out, eat lots of food, and she was a big help at Brady’s birthday party.

We celebrated Brady’s birthday early in the month because we knew we’d be busy traveling on his actual birthday. He had lots of friends from school and our neighborhood come help him celebrate.

In the middle of June we set off on a trip to visit with our family in Georgia and Florida. We stopped for a night in Savannah and stayed with my dad and step-mom (Albert stayed with them for over a week while we traveled.)

The boys shared a bed for the first time during the trip and we were nervous about how it would go, but they did surprisingly well. (Much better than when we tried it in Charleston and Brady threw up all over Nolan in the middle of the night…)

We then set off for Clearwater, but had to stop in Gainesville along the way to get lunch and show the boys where their mommy and daddy met!

Brady helped us find the Smith Family brick on UF’s campus.

Nolan was a BIG fan of “pizza by the slice.” (aka the pizza consumed by many a Gator student after a night of partying on University Ave.) Here’s his best “GO GATORS!” with a mouthful of pizza.

We then spent a few days in Clearwater. We spent our first evening visiting with Chris’s family. They loved hanging out with their Aunt Kim and playing in her pool. Then, we spent the weekend at the beach visiting with friends and celebrating my birthday.

Yay for Auntie Jill time!

Super happy that I finally got to meet baby Bennett!

From Clearwater we headed to Daytona to visit with my family. I was so excited I got to spend my birthday with so much of my family. We spent about 4 days there and got in lots of beach, pool, and boat time. Chris and I even managed to get a night to ourselves at the beach. We loved spending so much time with my mom and Aunt Claudia too.

Probably one of my favorite pictures ever! See the dolphin I’m pointing out to the boys?! Ahhh, an amazing day!

After we left Daytona, we headed back to Savannah. We took the scenic route and drove up A1A (beach front avenue!) and stopped in St. Augustine for a quick lunch/site seeing.

We spent our last weekend in Savannah visiting with Grandpa and Nana. We had fun eating, shopping, and celebrating mine and Brady’s birthday.

Check out the sweet yellow jackets Grandpa got the boys!

Somehow Chris and I were still smiling at the end of a 12 day trip. It was ambitious of us, but so fun! Leave it to us to dare to take a trip that long with a 2 and 4 year old.

After we got home from our trip, Brady had his 4 year check up. He had a slight limp from where he tripped over a mat at Monkey Joes when we were celebrating his birthday in Savannah. I didn’t think much of it, but the doctor had us get x-rays just to make sure it was ok. I should mention that Brady does not do a good job of communicating when he’s in pain or something is wrong. He was actually in a really good mood and the doctor was quite surprised to see that he had fractured the base of his big toe bone! So, June brought us our first cast.

Funny story- every time the x-ray tech would take an image, Brady would turn to us, pose, and smile. I’m not sure what kind of pictures he thought we were trying to get, but the tech said she felt like it was a magazine shoot!

Brady was excited about getting a RED cast. He asked about 12,000 questions during the process. The PA who did his cast was quite, um, “entertained” (annoyed) by him! I thought he was a champ during the whole thing.

On June 24th, Chris and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. I have to brag about the thoughtful gift he got me. I have always LOVED crème brulee and wished I could make it at home. For our anniversary, Chris surprised me with a cookbook from a restaurant I had visited on a girls weekend in Greenville, SC. I thought that was pretty thoughtful, and then I saw the rest of the gift. He pointed out a crème brulee recipe in the cookbook and gave me the ramekins, and a torch to make my own. He had also gone to the store to buy all the ingredients. He knows me so well! I think I will keep him.

We ended the month with a special Brady/Mommy date day. We spent the afternoon at the Science Museum and saw a 3D Dinosaur movie together and had lunch downtown. He was the perfect date!

Hopefully the rest of the summer will continue to be a perfect mix of travel & adventure and family time & lazy days.

Thank goodness for waterproof casts!

29Jun2015

Vegetarian Taquitos! {Kids Cook Monday}

Posted in Kids Cook Monday, Meatless Monday by Karen

T is for TAQUITO!

We Smiths have been on the go lately. We’ve celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, Father’s Day and took a 12 day road trip this month (more on that in another blog post!) It’s been a while since we’ve done a Kids Cook Monday meal so we were excited to get back in the kitchen. Today we made some yummy, vegetarian taquitos packed with veggies and protein. We baked them, so they are virtually guilt free. I mean, there is some low fat cream cheese in there, because you gotta live a little!

Ingredients

Corn Tortillas
1 pckg.low-fat cream cheese (softened)
1 cup of salsa
1 can black beans (drain and rinse)
2 ears of corn (cooked and cut off cob)
2 cups of spinach leaves (chopped or torn into small pieces)
Olive Oil (for brushing tortillas with)
A pinch of salt (to sprinkle on the tortillas before baking)
Shredded Cheddar Cheese (optional for topping)
Optional Dipping sauces: salsa, guacamole or sour cream

This is a super easy recipe. All we did was mix, blend, fill, roll, and bake! We started by blending our softened cream cheese with our salsa. You could seriously just eat this stuff with a chip. So tasty on it’s own!

Then, we prepared our veggies. You could throw in anything you like here. We used up some leftover corn on the cob, spinach leaves and black beans. Chopped peppers or onions would be tasty as would ground turkey (if you weren’t making this for Meatless Monday!)

Perfect way to use all that sweet corn that’s in season right now!

Look at this little helper getting in on the action- just ripping spinach like a champ!

Well this sums up life right now with a 2 year old and a 4 year old. “Whaaa! It’s my turn to stir!”

Still chip-worthy!

Then, we went ahead and pre-heated our oven to 400*. We brushed our tortillas with a little olive oil, and filled them with our cream cheese mixture.

We sprinkled a little bit of salt on the outside of each taquito and put them in our hot oven for about 10 minutes.

When they had just begun to brown and get a little crispy, we added some shredded cheddar cheese on the top of some of our taquitos for fun. Then we stuck them back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

Once the cheese had melted and the taquitos were all golden and bubbly, they were ready to come out!

These came out super hot and gooey. The outside is crispy but the filling is soft and yummy! The kiddos and I loved these because they’re easy to eat and have so many of our favorite ingredients packed inside.

I love all the hidden nutrition stuffed inside these little guys. Lots of flavor and fun to eat! Also, taquito is just plain fun to say. Taquito!

20Jun2015

Brady-Boo is 4!

Posted in Brady, Family by Karen

Our sweet Brady is turning 4. It’s amazing how much he has seen and accomplished in his short life. He’s lived in 3 different states and visited at least 10! He’s gone from a shy, momma’s boy-baby, to a funny, adventurous little man.

He loves exploring, analyzing and building. He takes everything literally and holds you to every promise you make. He’s a stickler for “following the rules” (especially if he notices his little brother breaking them.)

Brady dislikes too much attention, thunder, and friends who don’t share or “act grumpy.” It should be mentioned that he himself can be quite the grump when he doesn’t get enough sleep! He’s also a perfectionist and hates to make mistakes.

His favorite days are spent in water and he’s pretty fearless around it. He loves to play with Nolan and can be quite the bossy big brother when he needs to be.

When I did a little interview with Brady, here’s how he answered…
Q:What’s your favorite food?
A: Hot Dogs!
Q: Who’s your best friend?
A: Ava (from preschool)
Q: What’s your favorite show?
A: Paw Patrol (sang the theme song)
Q: What’s your favorite movie?
A: Dusty! (Planes Fire and Rescue)
Q: What’s your favorite animal?
A: A T-Rex. (Naturally)
Q: What’s your favorite color?
A: Red. (Tells us that about 10 times a day)
Q: What’s your favorite sport?
A: Golf! (Daddy’s heart melted)
Q:What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: Um, a firefighter AND a paleontologist.

We love Brady’s innocent nature and wish we could keep him this age forever. His love of books, space, airplanes, dinosaurs, and trains make him just about the cutest 4 year old ever.

Happy birthday B-Man! We love you to the moon and back, sweet boy!

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our blessed adventures

Finding the extraordinary in this ordinary life!

Author Archives: Karen

‘Tis the Season!

Thankful

Fall in NC!

First Day of School (2&4)

August Adventures

Mexican Street Corn- Kids Cook Monday

July Adventures

June Adventures

Vegetarian Taquitos! {Kids Cook Monday}

Brady-Boo is 4!

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