Upward Weekends

Every Saturday morning you can find us at the SEMO Rec Center helping with our church's Upward basketball season.  This season I am...drumroll please...coaching first and second grade girls cheerleading!  HA!  When I was working full-time I always felt way too busy to commit to doing this, but now that I'm working part-time I feel like it's something I can do.  No joke, in the middle of the night back in November I woke up and felt like God was saying "you need to coach upward cheerleading."  The next day I called my friend Kelli, who coordinates the cheerleading, and told her "you are going to think I'm a nut job, but I think God woke me up in the middle of the night and told me to call you about this!  HA!  She was like "we need more coaches...yes!" 

Well, my friend Heather and I are doing it together, and her daughter is on our team.  It has been a really fun experience so far.  Ryan has coached basketball in year's past, but this year he is just volunteering as a ref and hanging out with Brynn and watching our squad cheer.  It really is a fun way to spend our Saturday mornings.  SO MANY kids and families from our church participate, and we are always getting to see our friends and their kids play.  There are three games going on at one time, so the place is crazy and so much fun.  The only downside - I had to get up and do the halftime cheer with my girls during the first game...that was a little embarrassing...HAHA!

I don't have any pics of my girls, but I snapped a few on my phone this past weekend.  

Ryan reffing...

Our friends were coaching their son's team and Ryan
was doing that game.  We stayed and watched some with Bella and Brandi.

Someone also likes to explore the place...

And then Brynn and Bella and I went for a walk around the track...
will these two be playing or cheering in a few years?
What a FUN Saturday morning!

I can't even imagine what it feels like to watch your child play or cheer.  I can't believe that will be us in just a few short years! 

GREAT WEEKEND...no pics...and a mommy vent about the "two's."

We had a great weekend, but unfortunately I DIDN'T TAKE A SINGLE PICTURE!

Lindsey and Curt came into town on Friday night and we got to visit with them and have dinner at my mom's.  Then on Saturday morning Ryan, Brynn, and I were at Upward games (more on that in the next post) and then my grandparents came into town for lunch to see Lindsey and Curt.  Later that night my mom and dad watched Brynn so we could all four go on a double date!  We had so much fun!!  We went to eat at Olive Garden and hung out until about 10.  Sometimes a fun meal and grown-up conversation is just what this mama needs!  Then on Sunday we had church and Sunday lunch at my mom's.  Get the drift...when they come in town, suddenly my mom's is the PLACE to be.  HAHA! 

They got to see Brynn a lot, which is so fun because they hadn't seen her since Christmas.  Unfortunately, they got to see her sassy side as well.  Whew...that child can be pretty strong-willed at times.  Most of the time she is so fun-loving and playful, but when you tell her no or it's time to leave and she isn't ready to go, WATCH OUT.  I knew this stage would come, but sometimes I'd rather it just be in the confines of my own home and not have it play out in front of everyone!  HAHA!  I know I"m going to have to get over that...she is almost two and she's going to act out from time to time.  Please tell me other mom's know what I'm talking about!  I'm so bad about wanting everyone to think she's so sweet, but clearly that's just my pride getting in the way!  This seriously is SUCH a fun age...she's saying new things all the time and she can make the funniest expressions and have Ryan and I rolling!  BUT...with this stage there are also challenges, and we seem to be experiencing those "FUN" times as well!  I seriously think parenting is one way God causes us to look to him and say "clearly, I do NOT know how to do this without you Lord!  HELP!"  =)

Discovery Playhouse

We have been to Discovery Playhouse twice in the last couple of weeks.  It is such a fun place to go!  We went with Erin and Frankie a couple weekends ago (but of course I didn't take any pictures!) and then the other day we went with my mom just for an hour or so.  I snapped a few pictures on my phone (although I hate how my phone's quality seems so bad).  Anyway - Brynn was in HEAVEN going to to the "grocery" section and we had lots of fun playing. 



She LOVED using the computer and pushing all the buttons!

Then when you scan the food, it always makes that "beep" sound like at the real store.
I have to admit, I LOVE that part.  When my sister and I were little we were always playing grocery store
or library and trying to make that "beep" noise! HA!

Picking some eggs...

And picking some veggies...

Sandbox time!

What a fun place!  It is so fun to watch her play and hear the things she says!

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Dining Room Chair Makeover...Part 1

Woohoo...I am REALLY excited about this little project we are attempting!  Back in December we went on the big "home tour" here in Cape.  One of the houses on the tour this year was owned by a designer and she had completely renovated her home.  It was AMAZING.  In her kitchen she had a cute little brown table.  Then around it she had a completely different set of chairs that she had painted black and reupholstered the seat cushions.  We were all like "that is ADORABLE."  I thought "man, I wish I could do that" but our dining room set is borrowed from Ryan's parents and I didn't think I should do anything drastic to a borrowed table!  Well my super sweet mother-in-law (who was with me on the home tour) turns to me and says "YOU SHOULD DO THAT TO YOUR CHAIRS!"  I'm like "REALLY?  You will let me paint your chairs!"  When she said yes I decided right then and there that we WOULD be attempting this project!  So...the plan is to keep the table the same, but paint all the chairs black and reupholster the seats.  

Here is the chair and tables BEFORE...
don't get too excited, there are no AFTER pictures yet.
You will have to wait a week or so for those.

Somebody wanted to "help" daddy take the seat cushions off.

Okay, so clearly part one wasn't very exciting, but I'm hoping that the finished product is!  Pam (my mother-in-law) is also re-upholstering some of her chairs, so we had a little party doing the cushions.  And sadly by we, I mean Ryan!  I am so bad about following through on projects.  I have these great ideas and think I could really do them all myself, but he is so good at stuff like this, and I get A.D.D. so bad!  I DID help him with the first seat cushion, but then he did the rest while I supervised!  HA!  Hopefully more exciting pics coming soon!

Fair Food Fix in January

Back in September I stumbled across a recipe on Pinterest for "baked corn-dogs."  Since September is "fair time" in our city I immediately pinned it and fixed it to get us in the fair "spirit!"  It was so yummy and WAY healthier than a fried corn-dog!  This past week when I was planning our meals I was looking through my recipes on Pinterest and saw it again, and thought..."oh, that sounds yummy!"  So...without further ado..here is the easiest (and one of the tastiest...if you like a corn-dog that is) meal you will ever make!

Buy two boxes of Jiffy corn bread mix and prepare as directed on the box.  Cut up 6 hot dogs and stir them in.  Bake for about 15 minutes at 400.  ENJOY with lots of ketchup and mustard...just like you would at the fair!  

Helping stir the batter...

We face-time a LOT with Aunt Lindsey but her wireless wasn't working so today while we were cooking she
was just on speaker phone....HI LINDSEY!

Add in your hot dogs...actually we use turkey dogs because they taste so similar but are a little healthier.

Put them in muffin tins and bake.

ENJOY!  Then dinner turned silly...haha!  After we were done eating Brynn started playing with Daddy.  She was hilarious!  She was trying to put her messy fingers all over Daddy!

If Brynn ends up being an overly dramatic child, we KNOW who is to blame!

LOVE THESE TWO and LOVE some delicious "healthy" corn-dogs!  Hope your family enjoys it as much as we do!  

Big Girl Nap

Nonna sent me this picture last week.  She had been telling me that she thought after Christmas she would try having Brynn nap upstairs with the big girls, instead of down in her pack 'n play.  I was subbing in a pre-school room and watching all these little three year old's lay down on cots, and sent Nonna a text to ask if she was trying it with Brynn.  She sent this picture back.  I literally almost started crying right there in the room!  HA!  She sent it to Ryan too and I believe his response was something like "my little girl is growing up; oh my gosh my eyes are welling up right now!"



I literally think I could stare at these pictures all day.  She is getting SO BIG!

NEW SHIRT MAMA; ME DO IT!

I snapped these pictures the other day because this is SO Brynn these days.  First, she's really into getting a new bib or a new shirt if she spills something on it.  She doesn't really like to get her hands messy (actually, that's not true. She doesn't mind sticking her hand in a cup of applesauce, but after a few seconds she realizes she NEEDS it to come off!) But then if she spills her applesauce on her bib she will say "new bib mama, new bib!"  It's really funny, until we've gone through three bibs in one setting...lol!  Then if she gets it on her shirt or spills water on her shirt she will say "new shirt mama, new shirt!"  So we have to take off the dirty one and put a new one on.  She also likes to attempt to put things on herself.  I usually let her try it by herself for awhile before she realizes she ACTUALLY CAN'T do it herself.  Then she's usually more apt to let me help, but if I try to help too early I usually hear "no mama, me do it."  She is GROWING UP!

"WHY WON'T THIS GO ON??"

That's usually the point when she lets me help!  HAHA!

Our Sunday Best

Sunday before church we actually had a few minutes to snap some pictures...GASP!  That usually never happens....actually we've decided that instead of eating breakfast around our table, on Sundays we are just going to eat breakfast bars in front of the TV.  HA!  Brynn usually doesn't eat a ton for breakfast anyway, but especially doesn't like to eat much if we drag her out of bed, get her dressed, and make her eat all within ten minutes so we can get out the door on time.  So we decided we'd just try this new approach, and clearly IT'S A WINNER!  When have we ever had time to do this before church?

Caught Daddy in the middle of a bite...I think we are watching Thomas the Train...blah!
Personally, I would much rather be watching Sesame Street!  HA!

Okay, so they aren't the greatest pics...but at least we had time to take some!

Grown-up Hair!!

The other night we were over at my parents and Brynn and my mom were playing upstairs. The next thing you know, here they come downstairs and my mom says "what do you think?" She had French-braided Brynns hair for fun and I thought it was so cute!!!










Doesn't it make her seem so grown up? My mom said she braided it in like 60 seconds (because someone is a major wiggle-worm!) but I still think its adorable!!

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Some Late New Year's Resolutions

At the beginning of January Ryan and I talked about some of the things we wanted to do or do better in the New Year.  We didn't have this big serious discussion about specific resolutions, but just generally some things we'd like to do.  For some reason the beginning of the New Year does always make it seem like certain goals COULD actually be accomplished, as opposed to deciding on some random day in May that we are going to start keeping our kitchen SUPER organized.  (What I mean is, if you decide on May 25 that you are going to keep your kitchen super organized, for some reason I feel like you are probably destined to fail.  If you decide it the first week of January, it MIGHT actually work! HA!)

First on Ryan's list?  That I have to promise to quit beating him up this year...

Just kidding...he played his FIRST city league basketball game the other night, got home at 10:30 after the game, and the first words out of his mouth were "welp...I'm going to have a black eye for work tomorrow!"  HA!  Poor guy...and it was ONLY the FIRST game of the season...what can I say?  He gets REALLY competitive on the court!

Another SERIOUS resolution is to keep our house more organized.  I like to keep things really straightened up, but some of our cabinets and things probably haven't been organized or cleaned out since we were married!  It all started back in November when my sweet mother in law (who is a crazy Black Friday shopper) bought us some brand new tupperware on sale.  She said "if I get you guys some brand new tupperware would you clean out your tupperware cabinet?"  HAHA!  Should I be offended?  Just kidding, I think she knew how annoyed we were with that cabinet.  It was one of those things where you would open the cabinet and pray that things didn't fall out and hit you on the head.  Well...back in November we completely cleaned out two cabinets and got rid of ALL the old stuff and put the new stuff in.  IT. FELT. AMAZING!

These are from back in November when we cleaned those cabinets out..YIKES!

AHHH...I feel calm already just looking at that!

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and somehow we just started cleaning out ALL the cabinets.   And by we I mean ME (and Brynn).  We went through EVERY SINGLE CABINET in our kitchen.  I found things I didn't even know we had!  A roaster, a steamer...it was like Christmas!

Brynn would sit there and pull stuff out and bang around...
I'm kind of a nerd about stuff like this, but I LOVED doing this!

 I know we won't be able to keep everything perfectly organized forever.  Things like the refrigerator INEVITABLY will have to be cleaned out every month or so.  But I really do think that our cabinets will stay organized from now on.  It feels SO MUCH better getting that done!

Another resolution is to eat lots of healthy fruits and veggies.  We eat pretty healthy anyway, but I just want to keep the stuff washed and READY to eat.  My new favorite store is Aldi and their produce is GREAT!  Brynn LOVES blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, and the weirdest thing is that she LOVES raw broccoli.  We can buy that stuff so cheaply at Aldi and then wash it and keep it ready to eat in the fridge.

Does that not look DELICIOUS!

Don't get me wrong...we don't eat this stuff all the time, nor do I have ANY problem with processed mac and cheese cups and hot dogs (that actually sounds really good!).  But Ryan comes home for lunch most days, and we almost always have sandwiches, chips and dip with veggies, and usually fresh fruit.  Then for supper we don't usually get any of this stuff out.  I'll make a casserole and we will open a can of veggies as a side.  But...it is SO NICE having all of our stuff washed and ready to grab out of the fridge when he gets home for lunch.

And just for fun...Brynn turns 2 in March, so SURELY by this time next year she will be potty trained?  That would be AWESOME!  

HAPPY LATE NEW YEAR'S!

iPhone pics and poo poo...

After the crazy whirwind of Christmas and New Year's, the last several days have been VERY LOW KEY...hanging out in our house, playing, doing some organizing and even some crafting.  =)  (By the way...isn't it funny that I just started this blog post like a normal person and I'm trying to be serious, but I just used the phrase "poo poo" in the title of this post.  HA!)

Here are a few pictures from my phone...

I decided to let Brynn paint my toe-nails...she LOVES playing with the polish and I paint her nails
about every other day!  (It comes off so quickly because somebody can't let it dry long enough!)

Here is what they looked like...HAHA!
I was just so glad we didn't get it on the carpet...my husband about had a stroke
when I showed him this picture...I know I SHOULD have put something under me!

We went to the SEMO vs. Murray State game and it was AWESOME!
It was even on ESPN U!
The place was packed (I guess I took this picture way before the game?)

We decided to just sit up way close to the top so she could run around and not bother people right next to us.
 

We all got rally towels when we entered the game.
She was HILARIOUS waving her towel around!

During the game the announcer was like "Attention fans...we are having a TWITTER contest...tweet us a picture as fast as you can and the first person will win a prize!"  I already had taken these pics on my phone so I tweeted them really fast...but then realized that part of the contest was that you had to tell your seat location, which I forgot to do.  So I figured I wouldn't win.  But then I thought "that's probably I good thing, I would pee my pants if they announced my name (or my twitter handle) and made me go down to the court to get a prize!"  Well about 20 minutes later this guy comes up to our seat and was like "YOU WON!"  He said "you forgot to text where you were so I've been looking all over for you!  HA!   I guess he could tell we were close to the top by my picture, so he decided to look for us.  We won a March Madness t-shirt (which Ryan loves and I gave to him), a free coupon for a Value Meal at Burger King (which I loved and already used!), and a replica of the Show-Me Center!  HA!  (which my dad loves and I gave to him! HA!) 

Somebody LOVES this little purse that Grandma (sounds like Nanaw) gave her!

And WAIT FOR IT...some exciting news from the Bandermann household...and disclaimer if the idea of a little person going number two in a pink potty grosses you out then SKIP this last picture! 

WARNING...
WARNING...
WARNING...

After her first two weeks of loving to go pee pee on the potty, she went about a month where she could CARE. LESS....she just wanted to carry the pink potty around and use it for a step stool.  Randomly like three days ago she started wanting to pee pee again.  Yesterday she sat down and started grunting...it was hilarious.  I didn't really think she would do that in the potty, but she got up and starting yelling "POO POO!"  I had to take this picture and send it to Ryan.  She earned some yummy marshmallows for her accomplishment (which I'm sure is so sanitary to have right next to the potty).

Her first NUMBER TWO in the potty!

Happy January!!