Ready for the New Year

We are getting ready for the New Year in our household. We took down all the Christmas decor in the house last weekend. I was SO tired of chasing Tuff around begging him to leave it alone. We did leave up the tree because I am pretty superstitious and I have always heard it's bad luck to take it down before the 1st of January. Not that waiting has ever made a difference luck-wise with me. Ha. We plan to take the tree and the outside decor down later this weekend. We are planning to have some family over tomorrow night to bring in the New Year. Since I am expecting, everyone has nominated me the responsible one/ babysitter. Oh me. This should be fun :) We are really excited about 2011. Especially since we found out we are expecting our 2nd sweet baby this year. I am beside myself!!! :)

We got good news this morning!! Jordan had a consultation with the oral surgeon about his wisdom teeth being taken out. The top 2 have cut through and the bottom 2 are impacted. Since he had 2 of his top teeth removed when he was younger for braces, we knew he probably wouldn't have to have the top 2 taken out because he had room for those. Our assumption was right. But we also learned that he won't have to have the bottom 2 out either. We both agreed this was GREAT news. One, because it's expensive and we could use the money for so many other things (like the new baby) and two, because anyone who's had their wisdom teeth taken out knows it's NOT fun. (Me being a candidate) It was nice to get this news. After his consultation we headed over to TGI Friday's for lunch. We went one day last week and me and mom shared the Jack Daniels Chicken Sandwich and it was so good that I'd been craving it every since. I ate every bite while we were there. Baby was probably doing dances in my belly. :)

My mother turns another year older on Saturday. It's always another fun way to bring in the New Year for our family!!! I am truely blessed to have such wonderful mother. She is so special in so many ways. I know she doesn't hear it all the time but she truely is appreciated. If it weren't for her, I definitely wouldn't be half the woman I grew up to be. I will look up to her and her mother for as long as I live! I thank God for her often. That's for sure!!! We plan to take her out to Red Lobster for lunch and then we're headed to Opry Mills to see the Christmas lights since we never got around to doing that after Thanksgiving. I am excited to take Tuff. I think he is old enough to really be able to enjoy it this year. We usually go every year. Tuff has been every year since he was conceived. He was even there the year he was in my belly. :)

It will be so nice to have tomorrow off. Since I work for an accounting firm, we really start to get busy in the next 3-4 months. This is our last day off until Memorial day. Which is almost 6 months away!!! I think everyone around here is looking foward to this last day off.

I hope you all have a wonderful time bringing in the New Year tomorrow night. Be safe and enjoy your weekend!!!!!!!!!!!

The Alford's

Tuff's news... in detail.

Tuff was excited to share his news in our Wordless Wednesday post. :) Even though he is only 17 months old, he sure is smart. It definitely hasn't taken him long to catch on to the idea of baby being in mommy's tummy. When we ask him "where is baby?" He immediately comes over to me, pulls up my shirt, and points to my belly. Then he occassionally kisses my belly and covers baby back up. He's such a sweet boy and I have no doubt in my mind that he'll be a wonderful big brother!!!! I'm looking foward to seeing him interact with his new brother/sister.

We had originally planned to start trying in January. Not sure why I decided then. I just knew I didn't want Tuff and his future sibling to be any more than 2-2 and 1/2 years apart. My older sister and I are 18 months apart and we played great together growing up. Jordan and his sisters are all 5 years apart and they didn't play so great together. I realize that most people space out their children these days but that just wasn't in our plans. Tuff is definitely getting to the age where he could use someone to play with. Someone other than mommy and daddy to keep him busy. Anyways, I spoke with my OB doctor at my yearly exam back in August and told her of our "plans." She requested that I stop taking my birth control 2-3 months in advance and start taking a prenatal vitamin in place of it. Then she just said to use precautions until we were ready to start trying again. Well, I did as she said. Except we didn't always use precautions. It happened alot quicker than I thought it would but we are just as excited. Plus, it's the end of December. Only one month ahead of schedule. Jordan has been off work since the 23rd. He kept asking me over the holiday weekend why I was so hungry... I just couldn't get full for some reason. We joked a little about being pregnant and once I realized I was 2 weeks late... I thought hmmm... So I stopped and got a test Monday night after work. We took 2 test and both looked like this.

And then we looked like this....

Haha. Tuff's face is priceless. He looks like "Oh gosh. A brother or sister!"

We are very excited about our news. I can't wait to make our family of 3 a family of 4. Our first doctor's appointment is Monday morning at 9. I think it's just a confirming appointment because I am seeing the nurse practitioner. I am assuming I am about 6 weeks along since it has been 6 weeks since my last cycle. That's how they determined Tuff's due date. If I am correct, this baby should be here sometime in the middle of August. But I'll keep you all posted on the details.

I was wondering if anyone noticed this..........................................

In my Christmas post? Hahaha. Baby brother/sister is already sticking out there.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week. I know we are!!!

The Alford's

Wordless Wednesday (Tuff's BIG news)

The Alford's

Christmas with the Alford's

We had a busy but fun weekend. Mommy's break actually started a little early because of a late night ER visit with baby boy. Wednesday night Tuff woke up about 45 minutes after he went to bed, screaming. He acted like he was in so much pain. This continued for 2 hours before I finally decided to take him to the ER. Turns out, he had an inflamed ear. He's had quite a few ear infections in the past, but never one that caused him to act like he was in that much pain. Poor buddy. A finger prick, antibiotic ear drops, pain drops, and another antibiotic later, we were headed home. Buddy snuggled right up and went straight to sleep. Since we were out so late and didn't get back to bed til early morning, I stayed home Thursday. He seemed to be feeling better once he woke up Thursday morning although he had pain drops to keep his ears from hurting him. Thursday night we headed over to Baba and Poppys house to hang out with them for a while. Friday we got up and got prepared for Tuff's friend Easton to come over and play. We had this for lunch...

Taco Ring

I found the recipe here. It turned out great. I have tried the same thing before with chicken and it wasn't so good so we never had it again. But when I saw the same recipe with hamburger meat instead, I had to try it out. I really enjoyed it and everyone else seemed to enjoy it as well. It was very easy to make and will definitely be made again at our house! :)

Tuff wasn't so sure about baby Easton. He does so good with Ada and he did very well with Little Miss last weekend as well. I'm starting to think he knows the difference between a little boy baby and a little girl baby. He ended up warming up a little more mid way though their visit but he never showed as much attention as he would have towards a baby girl. I told Jordan we better have a girl next because I think Tuff prefers a baby sister. Haha.

This is the best picture I got of the 2 of them. Tuff looks so big next to Easton.

Friday night we went to the candlelight service at my sister's church and then back to my aunt's house to exchange gifts. Jordan and I got gift cards to Red Lobster, McDonalds and Walmart. Tuff racked up on a few outfits, cute pjs and a CUTE hat from Aunt April. We had a wonderful time eating, opening gifts and enjoying each others company.

Me and my Boogies

Our sweet family

Once we left my aunts house we headed home to get ready for Santa. Tuff was full of excitement that night. We bundled up in our Christmas P.J.'s, took some pictures infront of the tree, and baked cookies for Santa.

Tuff was up bright and early Christmas morning at 6:15. He was so excited to see all his toys from Santa.

I think he was pretty pleased with all his presents. He wasn't too into opening them this year. He pretty much made me and Jordan do all the work and then he wanted to play with everything after it was opened. Santa brought him a 4wheeler, a tool table, and a football. Mama and daddy got him 2 puzzles, ABC blocks, flash cards, 2 movies, a vacuum cleaner/ironing board, a flash light, and several coloring books with crayons. He's really been enjoying all his new stuff. :)

Christmas Day afternoon we headed to MeMe and PaPa's for Christmas dinner. We had ham and all the fixings. Yum. Then we stopped by Jordan's Nanny's to see his family. Yesterday we met up with Jordan's mom, dad and his sisters/their families at Outback for lunch. (This was Jordan's moms gift to all of us). We had a good lunch and good time. Afterwards we headed home to relax for the remainder of the day and night. Tuff didn't get an afternoon nap and Jordan and I only got 4-5 hours of sleep the night before so we were all in bed and asleep by 8 last night. It was a much needed night of rest. Now I'm back to work for the week. Jordan is off this week so Buddy stayed at home with him today. They are enjoying a nice daddy/son day. :)

Hope everyone had as wonderful of a Christmas as we did!!!! I sure am blessed with 2 wonderful boys, great family and great friends!!!! I couldn't ask for more!

Thought I'd leave ya'll with a picture of our family last Christmas!

Isn't it amazing how much baby boy has grown???

The Alford's

Wordless Wednesday

The Alford's

Christmas Traditions

I think most everyone has routine family traditions for Christmas. We have a few regular Christmas traditions every year. But since we've became a family and moved into our own home, we've added a few to the mix. I thought I'd make a post about Christmas traditions.

I'll start by telling about traditions in our own home....

Tradition Number 1: Christmas Card

Who celebrates Christmas without sending a Christmas card? If you don't do this, I highly recommend it. It's fun to look at the changes from the previous year/card.

Tradition Number 2: Elf on the Shelf

This is a new tradition for us this year. Although Tuff is still a little to young to understand the whole meaning, it's something great to start with him. If you haven't heard about the Elf on the Shelf, go here to read more about it. Typically, the elf keeps an eye on the children every day and then takes off to tell Santa every night whether the child(ren) were naughty or nice. Then every morning, the elf is in a different spot in the house and the child(ren) are supposed to find him when they wake up. It's fun. Like I said though, I think it may be a little easier for Tuff to understand next year. It also comes with the book that tells the story. You are supposed to name your Elf too. We decided to name our Elf, Snitch. Pretty fitting, huh? :)

Tradition Number 3: Christmas Morning at Home

Jordan and I are definitely on the same page with this one. We believe Christmas morning should be spent at home with immediate family rather than having to stress about where to be and what time to be there. It's important to take time with your husband/wife and child or children on Christmas morning. Well, it's important to us anyways.

So far, these 3 traditions are really the only traditions we've made for our own home. Maybe as Tuff and his future siblings get older, we will start some more. When it comes to family traditions for us, it's not too crazy. My side of the family goes to the candle light service at church EVERY year on Chritmas Eve. I remember when we were younger and traveled for Christmas, we would go to random churches just to be at a candle light service on Christmas Eve. I will always remember being a part of the candle light service on Christmas Eve. Now that's something Tuff will remember one day too. After candle light service we all get together, open gifts and eat. Usually on Christmas Day in the afternoon, just us girls and our families will head over to mama and daddy's for lunch or dinner. Or just to spend time together. I think I've told ya'll before but Jordan's family celebrates every holiday the Sunday after the holiday. So that's his family tradition. This year his mom has decided to take us all out to eat instead of cooking and we will do any gift exchanging then.

That pretty much sums up our traditional routines. I think I've mentioned in a previous post about having some things monogrammed for Tuff this year. I'd like to start making that a yearly tradition. At least until he's too old to wear monogrammed stuff. Ahhh... everything he got turned out SUPER cute. Here are a few shots of the 2 shirts....

April and I also had some jumpers made for the boys to wear in some pictures with Ada and a new dress she had made. We are actually meeting after work tonight to do that. I will post pictures of that hopefully tomorrow.

So what are your family traditions?

The Alford's

Chicken Tortilla Soup

I thought about going ahead and posting the recipe for the Chicken Tortilla soup I was talking about in my previous post and then it slipped my mind. Since the first commenter on my last post asked for the recipe, I decided I'd post it for everyone. She also mentioned she tried a recipe from a magazine and it wasn't so great. Well, I actually spent alot of time researching a recipe for this particular soup and everything I found had SO many ingredients and required too much time. With a 17 month old, I don't have alot of time to be spending in the kitchen. Anyways, here is the recipe for the soup I made. Which turned out great for me! :)

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts

1 onion - chopped

½ small can jalapeño peppers - chopped

2 cans petite diced tomatoes

1 bag frozen corn

2 cans white kidney beans - drained

2 packages fajita seasoning (next to the taco seasoning packets)

chicken broth

Boil chicken breast and shred. Keep broth from chicken to the side. In a seperate pan, sauté the chopped onions with about 2 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon vegetable oil until translucent. Add the chopped jalapeño peppers and fajita seasoning. Stir until seasoning is evenly distributed over onions and peppers. Add to crockpot with shredded chicken, tomatoes, corn, kidney beans and chicken broth. I didn't use a specific amount of chicken broth. I just added until I thought it was soup-y enough. We like our soup more juicy than thick. Lastly, salt and pepper to your liking. Cook on high in crockpot for 4 or 5 hours.

Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips.

Hope this was helpful for anyone else looking for a simple, but great recipe! Let me know how it turns out for any of you who decide to make it!!!

The Alford's

Weekend Fun

The weekend went by way to quickly, as usual. :( We had a pretty busy but fun weekend. Me, Mom and Tuff started Friday night by hitting the town for some last minute Christmas gifts, dinner, and groceries. We were home by 8:30 so I thought it went pretty smoothly. Mom made a comment while we were leaving Walmart when she saw several front parking spots, "Man the economy is bad!" Ha. Thankfully, we have all of our Christmas shopping done.

Saturday I made a big pot of tortilla soup for lunch. Man was it yumm-o. A girl I work with made it for us at work one day and I got the recipe from her Friday. I have to admit though, mine turned out better! Good thing she doesn't read my blog. Haha. After lunch and naps, we got up and ready to go visit one of my best friends Kel, her husband and their little girl. I made brownies and sweet tea. Kel made the lasagna. It was nice to get to spend some time with them because I hadn't seen or loved on little Miss in tooooo long! :) Kelly and Justin adopted Little Miss in July and since the adoption isn't completely finalized yet, we can't share her real name or pictures. :( Hopefully soon though. Here are a few shots of Little Miss and Tuff hangin out. Tuff just loved her. But I knew he would!

Hangin out and eating snacks

Tuff giving her kisses ;)

We had a wonderful time with them and enjoyed dinner too. Thanks for having us Kel!!!! Next time we'll cook for ya'll!

Kelly and Justin invited us to visit their church on Sunday morning so we got up early and went. Tuff looked so cute in his new outfit that he's just now fitting into. I got a picture but it's not too good because I took it with my phone.

Sweet boy is getting so big.

He spent some more time lovin' on Little Miss at church.

Sweet Boy.

After we got home, ate lunch and had naps, we headed to Aunt April's for Harrison's 2nd birthday party. Tuff was such a good boy and seemed to have a blast. Here are some pictures from the big monkey themed party!

Sweet Ada in her Christmas dress

Gettin ready to party

The Banana Toss 

Birthday Boy

Tuff's favorite part, the balloons

Birthday boy with mommy

Presents!!!

Busted in the snack table.

Sweet boy lovin his mama :)

All the kiddos at the end of the party.

As you can see, Tuff was having no part of the picture taking. I think he'd had enough!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We are getting closer to Christmas and we are ready for the family festivities at our house!!!

The Alford's

Blessed

I'm feeling pretty blessed this morning.

This is why.

Baby boy was 17 months old this past Tuesday. He is growing up so fast. I find myself constantly thanking God for blessing with me with such a sweet and fun-loving baby boy!!! I couldn't imagine life without him!

I'm so glad it's Friday. I hope everyone enjoy's their weekend.

The Alford's

On the road to recovery :)

I was so relieved to see MY primary nurse practitioner yesterday. I just loooove her. The last 8 days have been pretty miserable for me and I'm sure alot of that has to do with my stupidity of going to see anyone other than my very own NP. Lesson learned for SURE! Next time I will drop everything and schedule around whatever needs to be scheduled around to see her. As soon as she saw me, she was coming up with a fix. I got a nice little shot of steroid and a brand new antibiotic. As little as 2 hours later, I was feeling better! Woo hoo! Might I add that I slept like a brand spankin newborn baby last night. :) I'm so relieved. I'm sure everyone around me is feeling the same way. Haha.

The wintery mix they were making a big fuss about last night ended up passing us bye. Thank goodness. I could definitely live without wintery mixes. :)

It's Thursday and all I have to say about that is HALLELUJAH! Since my whole weekend last weekend consisted of my butt being on the couch, I'm looking foward to this one. We have a few things going on. Pictures for the babies, Christmas with friends, and possibly trying a new church on Sunday! :) I also want to take Tuff to see Santa this weekend. I'm sure he will be devastated when we try to get him up there on Santa's lap but an attempt has to be made. :) I can't believe Christmas is so close. Right around the corner. I got one of my gifts in the mail yesterday. A new purse. And yes, I'm already carrying it. I'd been wanting one pretty badly so I finally broke down and ordered myself one while I was online doing Christmas shopping for others.

Dalton has been playing basketball for about a month now and his schedules have been crazy! Almost all of his games are scheduled during my working hours. He finally has a game tonight at home that we will be able to make it too. I'm excited about finally getting to see him play. As for Courtland, everytime I get to make it to one of his games, he doesn't get any playing time. It's irritating actually. One, because I hardly ever get to go and Two, because every time I don't go he gets playing time. I was blessed with the luck of a Taylor (my maiden name). Taylor's never have had good luck. None of them. Ha.

Make sure ya'll check out the giveaway over at Babbling Abby's blog. I posted about it below. Have a good Thursday!!!

The Alford's

GIVEAWAY

I don't usually participate in these but I ran across Babbling Abby through my friend Lana's blog and just fell in love with the headbands she's featuring in her giveaway. So click here and hop on over to check them out. Maybe you can win one for yourself!!!! Good Luck! :)

The Alford's

Hi Ho! Hi Ho! Back to the Doctor I go!!!

I am now going on 7 days of being miserable and I can't take it anymore. Along with the pink eye, throat issues, congestion, and lack of sleep I have a 17 month old to take care of. I can't do it another day. I'm hoping and praying she will just give me a steroid shot and let it be over with. Please say a prayer for me cause I could really use them. I look foward to being able to enjoy a cold drink again. Anything other than hot chocolate and apple cider. Even though I am pretty fond of both :) (A really nice lady I work with has been making me apple cider the past few days.)

It's been a long week (yes I know, it's only Wednesday). It could be because I'm not feeling good. The weather is still throwing us all kinds of crazy curve balls. We are expecting a "wintery mix" this afternoon. I guess this is what they call snow/sleet/ice/rain mixture. All I can think is "Fabulous!" It's fun when you're younger and you get out of school but when you grow up and you have responsibilities (like work), it's not so fun anymore. I am something crazy while trying to drive on bad road conditions. It definitely isn't one of my favorite things to do.

We have plans to get the babies pictures taken in their Christmas attire Friday night after everyone gets off work. I am excited to see how they turn out! Mrs. Patty has been working hard to get the boys jumpers done in time. Hopefully they all cooperate for us. I guess we'll be seeing how that goes. (We could use some prayers for this too. hehe.) I can't wait to share pictures with ya'll. :)

We also have plans to do a little gift swap with my dear friend Kelly and her sweet little Miss Saturday afternoon. Kelly has been one of my best friends since High School. Her husband is the brother to one of my childhood (and current) friends, Lana. So we all go way back. Kelly and Justin adopted their first sweet miracle baby this past July and she couldn't be anymore PRECIOUS!!! I haven't been able to just sit and hold her and spend alot of time with her since July so I'm excited to get some down time with them. Hopefully we will have pictures to share.... although I won't be able to show little Miss' face because everything isn't completely finalized just yet.

I'll leave ya'll with a picture of our sweet boy eating a sucker at the ball game this past Saturday....

Hope everyone is enjoying their Wednesday!!!!

The Alford's

A very sickly, very snowy, and very cold kind of weekend...

Our normal 2 day weekend turned into a 3 day weekend because of this....

SNOW!!!!! :)

Our road Monday morning

The yard and porch

Chopper doesn't seem to be too concerned about staying warm..

And this is what Tuff thought about the snow...

Poor buddy.

 He started screaming as soon as his feet hit the ground and he heard that loud "cruuuunch!"

With baby boy not being at ALL interested and mama being sick, we didn't get out in the snow too much. It was pretty but it was bitterly COLD too. I was pretty surprised to see snow this early in December though. It's the first time in a LONG for us Woodburians. :) Praying we get to see it again for Christmas. Now that would be ideal.

Anyways, it was a rough weekend for me. Along with trying to get rid of the pink eye, I developed what I thought was strep, but later found out was a viral infection in my throat. Ewwww weeeeee is all I have to say about this. Today is the first time I got off the couch since Saturday afternoon. Along with the fungus in my throat, I woke up yesterday with ulsers to go along with. Fun stuff. I also have SO much drainage going on that I can't get rid of because my throat is toooo sore to cough it up. I have to add this to the top 3 most miserbale & uncomfortable moments/sicknesses of my entire life. Ugh. Bless my heart is all I have to say! Haha. :) Honestly though, I would never wish this upon anyone.

Not much else going on around our household. Just resting and trying to get rid of all the sickies before Santa comes to visit our house next week!!! :) I'm so excited for Tuff this year. Can't wait to see him open his presents from Santa. Speaking of which, we only have one gift left to buy. Woo Hoo!

And since I'm just now getting around to uploading the parade pictures from last weekend, I'll leave ya'll with a few! (Remember Tuff was sick last weekend so that's why he was being held the whole time and looking "not so pleased." ha)

cheeeeessseee... Haha

Sittin with mama waiting for parade to start

Thomas the Train

Watching Santa come with Daddy

Smokey the Bear

Beautiful!!!!

Hope everyone is having a great Tuesday!!!!

The Alford's