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