Happy Birthday Shannon

What happens when you get add hot moms, martinis, and karaoke??? A stinkin fabulous time!!!!

Last week, some ladies from my mom's group got together to celebrate my friend, Shannon's, birthday. We had a wonderful time. Thanks to my husband's friend, Daniel, we got a little hook up at Martini Park, one of the hottest spots in North Dallas. Shannon is my best friend and I wanted her to have a great time! She deserves it for all the hard work she puts in as a fabulous momma to her little man, Jesse. I definitely think she did!

On Tuesdays they do this really cool karaoke where you get to sing with a live band instead of a music machine. For those of you who knew me in my previous life, you know I had to try out my hand at the karaoke. It being a band, they didn't have a huge choice of songs. I ALWAYS do Britney for karaoke and they only had Toxic which is not my favorite. So, the next logical choice is, of course, Madonna-- Like A Virgin!

Another wonderful Caney weekend

            Friday morning, I hosted a playdate for our playgroup. I figured out a while back how to make steel cut oats in the crockpot and thought it would be fun to make for a group! So I supplied to oats and some toppings and everybody brought a topping to share! Here is my work before everyone got here! 

                       

It was fun! Only about 10 mommies and kiddos were here so it was not too crazy. I hope everybody enjoyed the oatmeal. Michael and I eat it everyday!

            

                                                     CrockPot Oats- for 8

2 dry cups steel cut oats

6 cups water

dash salt

Put water and oats in crockpot. Cover. Cook on high for 2 hours OR low for 4 hours OR warm overnight. (Check, stir, and add water if necessary!)

We had a fabulous weekend and got to spend lots of time with friends and family. 

Saturday night, we celebrated our friend Ellie's 2nd birthday. I am kicking myself now for not taking more pics of the AMAZING decorating job that Ellie's mom, Michelle, did. I have never seen such a party! The entire house was decorated like Sesame Street! There was a bounce house, a face painter, and tons of yummy food. Lots of our other 'friends with kids' were there as well. I am so thankful that I have made some friends with kiddos that can go through exactly what I am going through at the same time. This past summer, our husbands have all met and become great friends, too. I think we all needed each other! Michael (sr.) loves hanging out with the other dads almost as much as I enjoy seeing the other moms. 

After Mikey went to bed, daddy and mommy decided on a friendly little game of Scrabble!! Yep, we are getting old! This is so much fun though! We have done it twice in the past couple of weeks. I always start out so strong, but somehow Michael uses 3 letter words the whole time, then sweeps it at the end. Regardless who wins, it is something fun and silly that we like to do together. Honey- you may win, but I always have the more intelligently sounding words!

We decided to take it easy on Sunday and met my parents at the Cracker Barrell for a late breakfast. "Cacker boo", as Mikey calls it! I don't know if I have ever seen my baby eat so much. You would have thought he hadnt eaten in 3 days. He shoveled in the eggs, grits, bacon, and biscuits! (No, we are not healthy ALL the time!) I let him sport his Roll Tide gear for this occasion. He looks like a little hunk in this outfit. I love it!

                                                                                              

What a nice weekend. Family, friends, food, and relaxing! What more could you ask for!

Best Buddies!!!!!

Michael Jr just wants to give a shout out to best buddy Jesse. I took these pics last week one day when Jesse came over to play. They are so hilarious together. We have known Jesse and his parents for a little over a year now and we are so thankful to have them as friends. Watching Michael and Jesse together is like watching 2 puppies. They run in circles and chase each other. They have these screaming competitions that are too funny! Jesse likes his personal space and poor Michael always wants to hug and kiss him. We can't wait til they are 10 and we can tell them about how they used to kiss when they were babies!

Last night, I had a Mom's Night Out over at Jesse's house. Jesse's mommy, Shannon, brought Jesse over here for daddy to watch both boys until her husband got off work! Of course, within 5 minutes of us leaving, BOTH boys had dirty diapers for daddy to change!! I guess its payback for all the dirty ones I change. :)

Tag from Lindsay C

Thanks Mrs. Brian Andy.

Okay this should be interesting. 

Go take a picture of things in your house AS THEY ARE RIGHT NOW! No fixing before you snap the picture! 

1. My Closet- Not awful, much much room for improvement. I'm in transition now between my summer clothes and fall clothes, but saving room to hopefully (if all efforts work!) fill with some maternity clothes. Yes, I know it's sinful the amount of clothes I have. This is just the back wall, there are 2 side walls equally full. 

2. Kitchen Sink- I m so neurotic about having dishes in the sink. If there are dishes in there, even a single spoon, I have to get them out before bed or I feel like I can't rest! EXCEPT- my special hospital water cup. I keep it out all day and drink out of it make sure I drink my 100 oz of water. I was about to have people over so I had it sitting in there instead of up on top. 

3. Toilet in Main Bathroom- This is our powder bath which I guess you would call the main bath b/c it gets used the most traffic. The other downstairs potty is in our bedroom and its just a tiny potty closet in the master bath. This one is much prettier!

4. Kids in their best form- Michael is usually in his 'best form'! HA! JK. about 15 mins after he gets up he is usually in a super mood. He gets al silly and starts dancing around a lot. I took this pic this morning about that time, trying to capture the slogan on his tshirt. He was drinking his chocolate milk and his shirt says "Conserve Water, Drink Chocolate Milk". 

5. A Beautiful place I want to visit: Maui!!! This is my favorite pic from our honeymoon in Maui. 

6. Something I do not enjoy: Unloading the dishwasher. I HATE doing this. I think it's because I wait and fill it so full and it takes me forever. Give me a toilet to clean or laundry to fold, but don't make me empty the DW. 

7. My Fridge and freezer: We always said we would never have a fridge full of clutter. When you have a baby and you must display their first finger painting, preschool art projects, etc that all changes. 

8.  My Favorite room- I love this room because I did it ALL myself! Yep! I know its just a powder bath, but I did the faux painting complete with handpainted quote around the border. I picked out the decor. The coolest part is I installed the vanity, mirror, hardware,  new light fixture, AND the faucet and hooked it all up!!! Well, I had some help from my mom! Who is a rockstar?

9.  Self Portrait- This is me today- rockin my Palin shirt b/c thats how we roll in the Caney family! Forgive the unwashed hair! Yes, I made the shirt myself!

10. My favorite shoes- This is really a hard one. I don't know that I could ever pick just one!!! The others would be so jealous! Well, here are 3 that I was able to narrow down. The red ones are actually a couple years old and I rarely get to wear them, but they are SOOO dang cute and actually pretty comfy for heels. The 2 pairs of boots are new that I have bought for fall and am getting excited about wearing!!! The middle ones are my 'sexy' boots and the dark brown ones are the "I'm-refusing-to-give-in-and-buy-Uggs" boots. They were cheaper and MUCH more hip!

Now is the part where you are supposed to tag others to do this task too. But I don't think enough people read my blog yet to start tagging anyone- so lets say this: If you read my blog and you are cool enough to do this, then you should. 

Mr. Fabulous

We are now in our 3rd week of school and it just gets better and better everyday. Michael's teachers are falling in love with him. At nap time he tells them "lay down" because they keep telling him to lay down. Today, he was sitting in the corner with a book about transportation. The teacher told me he had all the other little boys circled around him and he was telling them the name of all the other objects in the book! Hmmm, center of attention, leader,  know it all... Where on earth could he get those traits from??

The point is, Michael jr is the coolest little guy in the world!

When Daddy's Away...

Last weekend, Michael went out of town on his annual Dove Hunt leaving Michael, jr and I at home along all weekend. I was nervous at first, but I planned a weekend full of activities to keep us busy!

On Friday night we went to Chuck E Cheese with our good friends the Shams and the Glasses. Michael jr has has not been since he was tiny and so he really got to experience it and have a fabulous time! He learned the word "money" that night well which I am sure makes his daddy really proud!

 

He was calling Daddy on the phone here! And he HAS to kiss everything and be all dramatic about it, so of course, he was kissing Chuck E Cheese!

         

Saturday was also a big day for us. Michael's best friend in the whole world is Jesse Cunningham. We went to Jesse's birthday at the Little Gym and celebrated with all of our friends. Poor Michael, though. Missing Daddy was getting to him and the last 2 molars coming in the roof of his mouth didn't help either. He was not himself at this party poor guy. 

Finally Sunday morning rolled around and it was almost time for Daddy to be home.  To cheer him up, I took him to the My Gym which was having an open house freeplay PLUS Elmo was making an appearance!!! We got there in time to see Elmo make 2 appearances. Mikey LOVES Elmo and wanted to kiss him. The look on his face when that huge, life size Elmo came out was priceless. Some of our other friends, the Shams, and Consers, joined us for some good playing time. 

Mikey was dancing!

We tried to get all the kiddos to get a picture together, but like always, they were not interested!

Daddy finally returned home safe and boy we were happy to see him. I am so thankful to have  husband who rarely travels with his job and rarely goes out of town. I just don't know how we would function without him. 

My Baby Einstein

Somehow in the last week, Michael jr has made HUGE strides in his development. Here are some the cool things he can now do:

• Words: he is repeating EVERYTHING we say. His favorite new word is oatmeal which he pronounces 'ot-mooh'.
  
• Puzzles: he is way into puzzles. He has moved on from the individual peg puzzles and is now working hard on putting together actual jigsaw puzzles. He did a 12 piece almost all by himself this morning!
  
• Points to all colors when asked and can name 6. (Purple is 'pee-poo'!)
  
• Can name about 5 letters, mostly vowels
  
• Can name all body parts including 'elbow' and 'eyebrow'
• Must shut every open door he sees and pick up things off the ground. 
• He does this weird thing where he lines up all of his cars and trucks in the bay window. He will line them up front to back in size order or he will park them all right next to each other in a perfect line. Not sure what this means but I am going gonna go ahead and say it must mean genius!

Back to School

Michael Jr started preschool today!!! We are so excited!  

I was a little nervous this morning! I made sure we spent lots of time cuddling and talking about his teachers. I think this was probably more for me than for him! We did not have the best experience at our Mother's Day Out last year so I was just praying for a good day. 

                  

I made sure hew started his day with his a good breakfast. He is always in a much better mood if he has a happy tummy!

We had a take a few pics in his super stylin' first day outfit! That little stinker knows when he looks cute. To explain the crazy movement- he was dancing here! 

After we got our hair combed and pictures taken, we headed out to school. He was so excuted when we first got there. He kept saying "Teacher, teacher, teacher!". His teachers are Cinda and Jill, they are both just precious. Michael is able to say "Cinda" but he calls Jill "Joo". He was just a tad apprehensive when I finally put him in the classroom, but I was hoping it would be over in a minute or so. 

So I finally had a day all to myself. Of course, I went to the gym. Then instead of running errands, I came home and spent some Becca time in house. It was nice to have a quiet house all to myself. Around 1:00 I started counting down until I could go and pick up Michael, jr. My first day jitters were crazy. I was just so nervous that he did not have a good day. I was afraid that he was sad that I left him or that he got mad and bit somebody!

When I picked him up, the teachers both had a big smile on their faces and the first words out of their mouth was "He had an awesome day". I peaked around the corner to find Deuce and he looked at me, then went back to what he was doing. He didn't care that I was there! He was having the time of his life. Phew!!! 

Of course, I have to brag a little. They told me that they were amazed at his puzzle skills. Everyone in the class had a puzzle to work on. Michael finished his first then went around and put everybody's else's together! Definitely OUR kid! 

I feel so blessed to have found this place, thanks to Shannon. Last year was awful and I regret sending him to a place where they did not love him for who he is. I feel SOOOO much better about the school year ahead and everything he is going to learn!

She's Crafty...

....And she's just my type!!

I had to post a pic of this! I love making Diaper Cakes. I have made a few before but never gotten around to taking any pics of them. I had a baby shower last weekend for my friend, Caroline. The colors of the shower were green and brown and so I thought this turned out pretty cute!  The "V"is for the little guy she is expecting, Victor.