We Like to Party

Gavin was lucky enough this year to get TWO birthday parties. He must have been a really really good boy this past year! The first one was at nana and papa's house on March 12th and the second one was today at home with all of Gav's friends. I hadn't yet posted any pictures of G's pirate party at nana and papa's so I thought that I would share some photo's of that party. He was the cutest little pirate I've ever seen!

 BIG cheesy grin! Showing mommy his pirate party plates.

 "But, mom, I want it now!"

 Adorable cake by Dedra McKinney

 Captain Gavin

 He loved his cake!

 Cool reusable sticker pad. Thanks nana and papa!

 Owen even got some gifts too!

 Owen and Great Grammie Roxie

Both boys with GG

Today we got to enjoy lunch with some of our friends and their kiddos to celebrate Gav's birthday. I made chicken salad, fruit salad, veggies and spinach dip, and chips (ok...I bought these! lol). We have been so blessed to meet some awesome families who have kids right around our boys age! I absolutely love our group of friends. The mom's all stay at home with their kids and we share many of the same values. I enjoy getting to spend time with my friends while Gav gets to enjoy spending time with his friends. It's a win-win situation! Gavin had a great time at his Lightening McQueen party and is exhausted tonight. I think he partied too hard! Here are some photos from his party today.

 Lightning McQueen was the star of the show today.

 My McQueen masterpiece.

 Owen and Phoebe being best buds!

 Gav got a little shy when everyone was singing to him.

 "Come on daddy, help me out!"

 I love these two boys!

 Gav enjoying his cake with his friends.

Present time!

 Look at all those cute kiddos!

Gav and his buddy Judah.

Well we are all partied out for a while and I think we will have a little boy who sleeps well tonight....at least I hope he will! Tomorrow we will head to church and get to come home and relax for a while before Rem has youth group. I guess by "relax" I mean clean up the mess from the birthday party. We "accidentally" watched a movie with CJ and Steph after the party instead of cleaning the house. Oh well, I would much rather enjoy time with our family then clean anyway! There is always tomorrow......

How a Mom Can Change the World

/http://www.thebettermom.com/2014/02/19/stay-home-mom-change-world/

I believe the title of this woman's blog post should leave out the words "stay at home" and just say "mom". The things she writes about aren't exclusive to being a stay at home mom (well besides not getting dressed until three in the afternoon......I'm guilty), but pertain to just being a mom in general. I didn't write this but I couldn't have said it better myself. This is beautifully written and I think every mom, stay at home or not, needs to read this. I think that the role of "mom" is hugely overlooked in our society. Sometimes I feel as though people think that I (or any SAHM for that matter) have the easiest,think-less  job in the world. I had another mom once tell me that she has to work outside of the home because she has to have her brain "doing something" during the day. Right, because I sit on my couch staring at the television all day in a comatose state, day in and day out. No, I don't crunch numbers, heal sick people, teach other peoples children, (insert job here)....but I do think what I'm doing in the lives of my boys is pretty darned important. Truth be told, I don't think there is another "job"/calling that rivals that of being a mother (and this is just my personal opinion, not trying to start an argument here). Whether you are a mom who stays at home all day, works from home along with caring for your own children, or works outside the home, above all else, you are a MOTHER. And that's a pretty big job in and of itself. I think that ALL moms have a very important job and we need to do a better job of supporting each other. Being a stay at home mom isn't right for everyone and being a working mom isn't either. At the end of the day we are all just moms trying to do what we believe is best for our families. Being a mom matters, no matter what form it comes in! So here I am saying "Working moms, you rock." I couldn't do what you do everyday. Waking up before dawn to get yourself ready, then getting your kids ready and out the door by a certain time, only to work all day and then come home to still be a wife and mother. I was a working mom for a total of six weeks, all of which I came home a bawled every night that I didn't want to go back to work. I was not made to be a working mom and our family has been incredibly blessed so that I don't have to be (I understand that this is not always the case). Stay-at-home moms, you also rock. I DO do what you do everyday. It's tough, but in a different way. You don't get a break from your "job". If your kids are having a bad day, guess what?, you get to listen to it ALL DAY LONG, and trust me, it does get old after about the first hour of whining. Sometimes it's hard to have another identity apart from your children. I don't have another title that I'm known by. It's "mom" and that's it. I honestly don't mind that, but I know it's hard for some women to not feel like they are anything besides "mom." I really think that there are hard things about each kind of mom and we all need to be better about showing some respect to moms of all kinds! At the end of the day when we are tucking our kids into bed, we are all just "mom" and what a special job that is! We are making a difference in the lives of some pretty special people!

Car Seat Safety....What Are The Rules Exactly?

I think as parents, we have a strong desire to protect our children. One way we can protect our precious kiddos is to properly follow car seat safety guidelines. I know, they are a pain in the butt sometimes and it takes way more time to take off your child's coat, hook them into a five point harness, and make sure it is tight enough and the chest clip is sitting high enough. But, heaven forbid, if you end up in a crash, those extra few minutes could save their life. There are times that I'm in the grocery store or out in public and I see a sweet baby buckled up in their seat, with their coat on and their chest clip is well.......not on their chest. I of course get concerned for their safety but for fear of looking like a rude know it all, I keep my mouth shut. I'm not sure what the correct way to go about saying "Excuse me, but your baby isn't buckled in correctly," is. I know if I didn't know the car seat safety rules, I would appreciate someone letting me know how to keep my child more safe but I also know that I could really tick someone off by making them feel like they are not a good parent. So I'm hoping that this post can help to inform parents, who are not aware of the guidelines, what the guidelines really are, and not offend too many people in the process!

 I would have never thought about a coat not being safe to wear in a car seat if I had not seen a video explaining how, on impact, the coat can decompress and the straps you thought were tight, really aren't, and your child can be thrown from their car seat. Now, to me, knowing that information makes me absolutely not care about the time I'm saving by leaving my child in their coat and buckling them into their seat. If you are worried about them getting cold, just buckle them in, then cover them with a blanket (what I do with Owen since he's little) or put their coat on them backwards after they are buckled in (what I do with Gavin). Here's a video explaining why you should not buckle up your kids with their coat still on. Uhttp://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LRKi8nUlM4U. She does an awesome job explaining everything and even hits on my next point.

The other big deal when it comes to actually buckling your child in is making sure the straps are tight enough (you can't pinch any slack between your pointer finger and thumb) and in the correct position in relation to your child's shoulders (below shoulders for rear facing and at or above for forward facing) and the chest clip is in the right position (armpit level). Here's a video about why its important for the chest clip to be positioned right across the chest. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QRbNSWVVUm8.

I think it's also super important to make sure your child is in the correct seat for their height/weight. The AAP now recommends that your child should stay rear facing until at LEAST two or until they outgrow the height/weight recommendations of your car seat (which should be in the owners manual or the car seat manufacturers website). Once they outgrow the height/weight recommendations for rear facing they should be moved to a forward facing five point harness car seat. Once they outgrow those recommendations (usually not until at LEAST four) they can be moved to a booster seat/seatbelt combination.  The five point harness is still the safest for them and they should stay in that car seat until they have outgrown it (ours goes up to 65 pounds). I know it's so much easier to strap them into their car seat with the seatbelt but once again, is the few seconds it takes to latch that five point harness worth saving your child's life? I think YES! Here's a great illustration of all this information in one place. http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/images/child_passenger_safety/VS_cps_image_fullsize.jpg

All of this really doesn't matter if your car seat isn't installed correctly into your car so make sure you either take it somewhere that is certified to install car seats (police station) or you watch a video and read all the guidelines on how to properly install a car seat. I am also very aware of anyone who takes my kids in the car (which isn't too often without me) knowing the car seat rules. I'm forever telling my parents "push that chest clip higher." I would feel absolutely terrible and never be able to forgive myself if something happened to one of my boys, knowing that it could have been prevented by following the simple guidelines of proper car seat safety. I hope that if you didn't know or forgot some or all of these rules before, you can now implement them and keep your babies safer in their seat! There are so many videos on you tube you can reference if you are still wondering about the proper way to buckle your kiddo in or you can google the AAP guidelines for car seats.

How Do You Get Your Kid To Eat Spinach and Kale.....You Don't...You Get Them To Drink It!

Have you ever tried to serve your child spinach or kale? I have.......It doesn't go so well. I'm always trying to make sure G is being exposed to different types of fruits and veggies all the time. Besides the obvious reason of nutrition, I want him to be an adventurous eater. I was a picky eater growing up (I made my mom cook my food separately without the additions that I deemed "uneatable") and I just don't want my kids to grow up saying "I hate this" or "Make me something different." I have since outgrown my pickiness and enjoy eating new foods. I serve G exactly what we are eating and he has to at least try it before he says that he doesn't like it. I hope that if we start young eating all different kinds of foods, it will help in the picky eater stage that most kids hit. I'm not saying that he won't probably go through a picky eater phase but I hope that he can learn to love most foods before he gets old enough to think "healthy food is gross." He loves carrots and celery, quinoa, cottage cheese, and fruits of all kinds. Most things I would think a three year old would run away from (besides the fruit....most kids do like fruit) he eats right up. Now I'm not saying he doesn't love his fair share of chocolate and fruit snacks, but for the most part, I like to think he's a pretty healthy eater for being three. In an effort to get more greens into our family's diet, I started making "green smoothies" about a year ago. When I first started seeing these on Pinterest I thought, "There is absolutely no way that I am going to add spinach, kale, etc. to a smoothie......that's just NASTY!" I kept hearing people say "You can't even taste the greens" so I decided it was worth a try. We mixed up a batch of "green smoothies," took a taste, and have been drinking them ever since. They are DELICIOUS (unless you add a bunch of weird stuff like my husband sometimes does, right CJ). You really can't even taste the greens. If it tasted like you were drinking a salad, I don't think G would ask for one almost every morning. If you are looking for a way to get your kids (or yourself) to eat more fruits and veggies, why not try a green smoothie. If they hate it, they hate it and you can go on about life, but I'm guessing they will think it tastes pretty darn good! My little man does! Here are two of our favorite green smoothies.

 My personal favorite has spinach, banana, frozen peaches, and fresh pineapple. I also about two tablespoons of ground flax seeds.

 Next I add unsweetened original almond milk.

Thanks almond milk, you saved me. I almost stopped nursing and started using almond milk as formula but your warning saved me!

 Blend that baby up!

 I also add plain greek yogurt (you can use flavored but I buy plain to cut out added sugar) and a little more ice because I like mine pretty icy.

 Let it go for another spin.

 Stick a straw in it and drink it up! Yes, this one is VERY green but tastes amazing!

He loves his smoothie!

 Another favorite in the Dyas house has kale, banana, strawberry, and blueberry. Flax seeds and greek yogurt have also been added. Almond milk is the liquid of choice again.

 Some notes about what I have learned in experimenting with smoothies. 

1.ALWAYS use a banana (at least in our house). The banana gives the smoothie the sweetness it needs. We have run out of bananas before and tried to make our smoothie without it and the smoothie does not taste nearly as good. 

2. Keep it simple. Rem thought that he would make his smoothie "extra" healthy one morning and decided to add tomato, peas, celery, apple, spinach, banana, strawberries, blueberries, yogurt........you get the picture. It tasted awful. If something doesn't taste good, you won't drink it. Who cares if it has 10 different vegetables in it if it tastes so awful you won't drink it.

3.Keep trying until you find a flavor you love. We have tried many different combinations of fruits and veggies and the two I have posted about have turned out to be our favorites. Maybe they won't be YOUR favorites so experiment with fruit flavors you already love. Don't like yogurt- don't add it. These smoothies are super customizable.

A favorite breakfast of mine. Homemade oatmeal with blueberries and a smoothie. I actually eat this pretty much every single morning. I know, how boring! But, I love it and why fix something that's not broken. The other half of my smoothie usually goes to G.

And because who really cares about pictures of smoothies and oatmeal, here are some shots of my two cuties playing this morning.

Our day will more than likely consist of playing inside (kids) and trying to get this house in order (me). Can I switch with my kids? Rem has been busy this morning helping out at the Paden's farm (they go to our church and Rem has been helping them this past few years) and he will have FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes, he's the leader) right after school and following that he will have track practice. Think he's done? Nope, after track practice he will head to LIFT, which is a once a month community youth group, held up at our local teen center. The boys and I miss him when he's gone all day but we are so thankful that he is such a hard worker and is making a difference in so many people's lives. This evening the boys and I will probably go to our church's Lent soup supper. Gav loves seeing his little friends there and I don't have to cook! It's now nearing noon and I have accomplished about zero percent of what needs done around here and my kids are still in their pajamas so I suppose I should probably try to go make it look like I have been doing something so when my husband comes home for lunch he's super impressed with me ;). Oh wait......he's probably going to read this so my cover is blown! I guess it needs done anyway so off I go!

G is Three!

Three years ago today, I became a mommy. My life changed in that instant and someone else's needs would forever come before my own. I learned what sacrifice really looked like....it came in the form of waking up four times a night to have a baby nurse on your unrealistically sore bosom (I bawled through EVERY SINGLE feeding for the first 6-8 weeks......no I'm not exaggerating, ask my husband.....things did improve though and G successfully breastfed for 13 months).  I learned that yes, love at first sight truly does happen. There is absolutely no comparable moment in life that rivals that of meeting your baby for the first time. I learned that parenting is hard.....parenting an infant is hard, parenting a toddler is hard, parenting a child is hard.....I'm going to guess this does not change, no matter how old they get. But, above all else, I learned that being a mom is what I was made to do. I fail miserably at times, mostly when Gavin is in one of his "I'm gonna throw a fit about anything and everything" moods. I'm not gonna lie, it's so hard to keep my own anger in check when he is screaming and hitting me. It's no easy task parenting a strong willed child, and speaking of strong willed, I just can't fathom where in the world he got that from.........this is a lie, that strong will has ME written all over it! Anyway, I'm so glad that God picked me to be G's momma. Yes, he is challenging at times, but he is also amazing in so many other ways too! He is so incredibly smart for his age and loves learning, he has a very tender loving heart (just like his daddy), his imagination cracks me up, he says the sweetest things out of no where ("I love you mommy," "Mommy, you look pretty,"......it always melts my heart when he says those),  and he's just all around a fun kiddo. I have so enjoyed being able to stay at home with him and watch him change and grow over these past three years. I know every parent says this but it really has gone way too fast. I think it's pretty obvious that I love this kid A LOT! Happy 3rd Birthday to my sweet Gavin Reid!

 Labor is undeniably the hardest thing I have ever done.

No epidural and 16 hours of labor.....yeah, it was hard...... 

 But, when it's over, it's over and the awe of seeing your precious new baby completely takes over the pain.

And here we are three years later!

 Watching a movie on his ipad this morning

 There's that sweet smile!

 Yay! Presents!

 G's favorite toys are his Cars movie characters. He got "The King" for his bday

 He also loves Sandra Boynton's books!

 Pretty happy with his new car.

 King meet McQueen

And of course, our day wouldn't be complete without a meltdown. It's his party and he'll cry if he wants to!

Gav is now happily playing with his Cars toys and watching the movie. We don't have any huge plans for the day. Rem has a track meet (he is assistant coach for the Jr. High and High School) in Greenville and I was going to go to the grocery store but I've decided it can wait until tomorrow. We will have Gav's friends over for a party on Saturday to celebrate him turning three. Betcha can't guess what the theme will be.....Yep, it's Disney Cars! Well, it's lunch time and surprise surprise, my family want's fed so off I go to reheat some soup (working hard, I know!) and dig some other stuff out of the fridge to serve them! I promise I will make them a fresh, home cooked supper tonight! Bierocks are on the menu and I'm gonna try out the bread machine mom gave me. YUM!