Gav turns 10

I know I know two post within a day... Shocking but I have had these pics for awhile and want to get them up. My nephew Gavyn turned 10 at the end of February. Nate threw him a fun family party at my parents complete with pizza, root beer floats, candy, rock band, and Halo. We all had fun. We don't usually let William drink soda but I splurged this time. He told me "momma I like beer." hmmm... It was funny!

Gavyn playing some Halo with James
The group playing Halo. I truly hope Wills gets Nick "gaming" ability because he will be embarrassed if he gets my inability. He has proven to already be more interested then I.

The above picture is of Joe Thornton, Wills Thornton, Rach, Gav, and James Thornton

Nate and Gav opening gifts. The doll wasn't a gift. LOL, just Kate's baby.

Wills loves birthday parties. We get to celebrate Becca's on Saturday so that should be fun.

getting exercise and turning 8 months

we try to get out and get some exercise or William goes insane in our apartment. His gets really naughty if he is cooped up to long. He listens worse he picks on Allie all together just trouble!So We took his bike to the park and let him get some energy out. He loves to ride his bike. He still needs some work on his braking ability but other then that he does really well. He is like me and likes to feel in control at all times so uneven road can make him a little hesitant but he loves to ride around. His favorite place to ride is in my parents house. He does a loop from the living room around the island in the kitchen. Yesterday he came blazing through and got the back tire to slide. He crashed shortly after but it was impressive! As a side note we were never allowed to ride bikes in the house as kids. The grandparents have gone soft! I love it!

He was actually telling me not to take a picture. Stinken 2 and half year olds!

My baby turned 8 months! It goes by so fast. She is doing all kinds of fun things. She officially started crawling this week. She has been making attempts for a few weeks now but she can now actually get from one place to another by crawling forward. My sister said I was a hard judge and that just because Allie wasn't proficient at it didn't mean she couldn't do it :) i thought that was funny. Allie also is clapping. It is very sweet. If you sing patty cake she starts clapping. She waved bye bye to grandma very intentionally the other day. She put her pacifier in my mouth, I politely declined but I thought the offer was sweet. She dances to music and claps her hands and she tries to sing, especially at church. Wills loves to dance and sing as well. Nick said they get it from him... uhhh lets hope not!! (LOL)

Allie also LOVES to eat. She is starting to eat more table foods and she really likes them. Her favorite thing to eat is Popsicle's. She loves daddy's Popsicles. She gets so mad at Nick when he doesn't share fast enough. She takes huge bites. I am shocked she doesn't get brain freezes because her bites are seriously like Nick's size. It is funny to watch her eat them because she grabs Nicks hand and pulls it to herself.

Allie is also difficult to hold because she tries to dive out of your arms. She is a squirmer. She likes to grab everything and put it in her mouth. So she is always reaching somewhere. She is going to be a handful as she gets older. She hates to be told No and she gets upset when she doesn't get what she wants. She is over all a good baby but I see us going rounds in the future. we love our sweet little Allie girl!

here we are playing on the swings. She thinks it is pretty fun stuff.

William wanted to face that direction for some reason but the sun was in his face so I put her in the other way. They are sweet little monkeys! I love how much they are able to interact.

Hanging out at home

the cold that the kids and I have has been hanging on for a couple weeks. Allie has been feverish all week, Wills is feeling pretty good but still coughing, and I am right in there somewhere. We have been spending more time at home lately just laying low. The kids both seem to need me so our days have been long. I have been trying to take them out for walk to get fresh air which has been nice. Other then that we haven't done all that much.

Aunt Rach goes to college right around the corner from our house so she comes over when she has breaks. Nick parents gave us Mario Cart for our Wii and Wills loves to play. He can't do it all on his own yet but he enjoys playing the "motorcycle game." He loves quads and motorcycles!

he loves his vest. so cute!

Allie loves to put everything in her mouth!

She loves to eat PAPER! seriously she eats any paper that is in the area. she is learning to crawl so she gets around and grabs various paper article then I have to go fish it out of her mouth. It get's stuck on the roof of her mouth.

She can now go from laying down to sitting up and she is gets up on all fours ready to go. It won't be long. She actually went forward crawling this week but just a little.

hi

We were having breakfast the other day and Wills hoped up on the table to hang out with Allie.

they make me smile

she is so fascinated by him. Especially this week, while she isn't feeling well, she gets gets mad at him really quickly. I can't blame her he gets right in her face. I feel like I am constantly telling him to be careful or leave her alone. He can make her laugh so hard though! It is adorable.

moments later he was jumping off the table.

hello again

We haven't been feeling well for the last week so we haven't been doing to much. Wills got the yucky cold that seems to be going around, cough, fever, congestion, snaught nose, achy body, you know the one. He passed it along to sister and so now she is going through it. (I feel like I have had a touch all along.) We took a trip to the Dr. to make sure it wasn't anything serious and she said nope just going to run it's course. So Wills has been sleeping back in our bed and about half of the night I sleep in his. He keeps me up every time he coughs and it doesn't seem to rattle Nick so I let the boys snuggle and I try to get a little sleep in between big coughing fits or baby crying. Fortunately he seems to be on the mend. He still tells me he doesn't feel good, which I believe, but I also think he knows it gets him what he wants.
Allie has some weird rashes we are trying to get worked out. One of her back and one on her rear. The Dr. said she thought her back was from product use. I hardly put any "products" on her so we will see. Her bottom is looking much better so I am thankful for that since now we have the cold to deal with. Oh and Allie is sitting up all by herself now. To help with the back rash she has been taking baths siting up like a big girl. She looks so cute.

here are the pictures of the week.

Nick and Wills snuggling. Wills always sleeps this close. If I get into bed he just makes sure to touch both of us. If we both get up he wakes up with in ten minutes.

I felt bad taking this pictures. It was a completely dark room and the flash kept firing so I could get the shot. Didn't wake either of them up.
Wills in allies walker

he stands up and walks around then sits back down .silly guy

he climbed into the diaper box. he folds up so small.

Wills loves to climb into Allies crib. On occasion I will go in there after her nap to find him telling me "she woke up on her own" hmmm.

Allie looking a little desperate. Umm Mom you see this big guy don't you.
Playing together in the crib

Sitting like a champ. eating some books. what else do you do with them? she actually likes to look at them with me but then she tries to eat them.

Some pictures daddy took while playing with Allie.

She is getting pretty close to crawling

playing

Nick can't really do anything without Wills wanting to be a part of it. If daddy's not at work or school you are sure to find William close by.

February

We are all doing well this February. The kids and I seem to have head colds but they have been pretty mild. They seem to be hanging on but it is just snaughty noses, congestion, and a cough. No fever or throwing up. I am very thankful! We don't have anything huge to report so I will just ramble a little about the kiddos.
Our biggest news is that William and Allie are both going to be in their own room. Wills still wakes up and will come to be with us but he consistently goes to bed in his own room. He also slept the whole night in his own bed most of the week. WOW! I can hardly believe it but I love it! William doesn't always wake up happy and all week he has woken up with a smile. You don't understand how nice that is! One of the down sides to the kids sharing a room is that they wake each other up earlier. We have been consistently getting up before 7:30. You might not think that is all that early but Wills rarely goes to bed before 9:30. He doesn't like to take naps any more so we try to get him to take a "relax" time. He hates it! I need to get in a better routine with him on this one. If he wants to have a good attitude I don't mind him being awake I just need a break. At least 30 min, is that really to much to ask? We will be working on this this week hopefully. If I can get William to calm down for 10 minutes he will go to sleep. If I put on one of "my movies" on he will fall asleep or if we drive anywhere. It is just not easy to get William to slow down. Our schedule got readjusted because Nick started school three weeks ago so we have been trying to re-adjust life to that. He goes to class on MW so he is gone till 6:30 and Thursday nights from 5-9:30 so our days are long. We miss him when he is gone but we are so proud of him for working hard!

Our sweet little lady is doing well. I am really enjoying watching the boy girl differences between she and William. Her fine motor skills are much more developed. She loves to pinch things and she grabs everything, my hair is paying for that one. She knows that if she cry's she gets attention (she is such a girl!) when she is being honery she will just yell for no reason so she can get picked up. She yells sometimes when Wills comes over. We have started telling her to have a good attitude and stop whining (we know she doesn't really understand) but it is seriously ridiculous. She also started saying momma. She doesn't call me momma per say she just says it when she wants something so in a lot of ways she knows its for me :) It is super cute and of course it works like a charm on my soft heart! I am thankful that both my babies are doing great. Speaking of babies when William was sitting on my lap the other day I told him " I love my baby" he said Allie your baby. I laughed and said I know but your my baby too! He said NO my not I'm big! (Nick has taught him to say my instead of I) He tells us all the time he is grown up now. It is cute but it makes me sad. He is getting so big. He is a sweet little guy. The other day Nick had just come home and Wills was grabbing his leg saying I LOVE YOU DAD I LOVE YOU DAD I LOVE YOU DAD. It was adorable. That is one of my favorite moments as a mommy! Another William thing is that he loves to take all his clothes off and wrap himself in a blanket. It makes me laugh! Well that is all the disjointed information I have for now.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!


Here are some pictures...

Allie doesn't crawl yet but she rolls to get places. She gets stuck sometimes. Here she rolled herself under this stuff. (it was recovery Monday and things needed to be cleaned up) It is pretty funny to watch I will try to get some video soon. The other day I was on the computer and I looked over and William was lighting matches. Oh yeah he can light matches! Daddy taught him how! After telling him very strictly that he had to be with mom or dad to light matches I helped him light them and blow them out. Maybe I should move those higher?

Here he is a little embarrassed that I was taking a picture

Ok so I was serious about recovery Monday. We have busy weekends where the house gets well used so Monday I usually go through a full house clean. I spent several hours cleaning house and for what? It takes Wills 5 seconds after lunch to go from the table to the bathroom and make a disaster! I was discouraged so i took a picture.

Allie loves to eat real food. Nursing not as much unless at 2 am. here she is sucking on one of those pacifier bag things. It had cantaloupe in it.
we went to a Valentines party at Chuck E. Cheese with a bunch of Williams friends. I didn't bring the camera so here are the pictures got there.
they have this fun machine that does "sketches."

wills and Becca

:)

We had a fun time. it was our first Chuck experience. William spent most his tokens and time on one ride. the monster truck. He loved it!

whats for dinner tonight

I don't usually share recipes on my blog because I don't really cook anything that is extremely interesting and it is our little family blog not just my personal blog, however, this is the easiest tastiest recipe in the world and I just have to share! We have been making it for awhile and we love it. I enjoy the fact that is a slow cooker and also that the leftovers are DELICIOUS. You can do all kinds of stuff with the leftovers. Nick's previous coworker Stevie gave us this one last year and it is a keeper. so here it is

here is the link just in case you want to change the amount the recipe is for or read the reviews of how people altered the recipe. I make it straight up and love it.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-and-Corn-Chili/Detail.aspx#nutri-box


Chicken and Corn Chili
INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 (16 ounce) jar salsa
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
1 (11 ounce) can Mexican-style corn
1 (15 ounce) can pinto beans
DIRECTIONS
Place chicken and salsa in the slow cooker the night before you want to eat this chili. Season with garlic powder, cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper. Cook 6 to 8 hours on Low setting.
About 3 to 4 hours before you want to eat, shred the chicken with 2 forks. Return the meat to the pot, and continue cooking.
Stir the corn and the pinto beans into the slow cooker. Simmer until ready to serve.