Wordless Wednesday

Homemade ice cream

Last Saturday, we packed up our trusty ice cream maker and headed to Paw Paw and Valerie's for supper and some yummy peach ice cream. Why peach? Glad you asked. Paw Paw had recently taken a trip to Georgia to see family and had brought back some fresh Georgia peaches. 

When we got there, Marlo and Heath were busy finishing the ribs on the grill, so I blended up all the ingredients for the ice cream and got it all ready. I loaded it down with ice and salt, and we were set to go. I plugged it in, and ... nothing. What? 

Yes, our trusty ice cream maker had indeed bit the dust, but enter into the story Topher, Valerie's youngest son who is staying with them. He investigated the situation, took the top off of it, loosened some screws, and still nothing. Heath came in to see what was going on, plugged it back in and Taa-daa! it worked!

So here's what it looked like. Ice cream maker humming away, with no top on it, and a drill close by in case we needed to do some more tinkering.

Here we are on the back deck enjoying our phenomenal peach ice cream. Don't worry. B's not having ice cream. We brought him his own special dessert since he can't eat ice cream. He wasn't upset at all, as you can tell.

Cash seemed to really enjoy his. He kept saying, "It's cold!" Yes, dear, ice cream usually is. :)

Paw Paw loved it, too. He said he hadn't had any homemade peach ice cream in over thirty years. WHAT?! We must get together soon and make some more.

I wonder what they're do next weekend.... :)

Next to the last ...

Did I say that there were four sections of concrete for the pad out next to the garage? I think I did. Well, somewhere in between starting the first one and getting to the fourth one, one more was added to the plan.

Heath poured the fourth section (the largest) last Monday night, August 22nd. Marlo came over to help out, and of course, the boys were on stand-by in case an extra hand was needed. Because it was a bigger section (9 yards) Heath decided to borrow a vibra-screed (sp?) from work. It was a good thought, but after working with it for awhile, the two Doggett concrete finishers decided that they could do a better job without it. In Marlo's words, "I'm old-school."

Getting started...

Cigarette in hand, Marlo got to work on the edges.

It was great weather for it, not too hot.

B was there for support, but it seemed he was getting a little too comfortable with wet concrete. It's been getting harder to keep the boys away from it while Heath is working.

Here B is checking out the vibra-screed.

The boys love it when Paw Paw comes over to help. They now associate any concrete pouring with a visit from Paw Paw. 

Although he looks sleepy, I was busy keeping up with him that evening.

It's done and looks great. Heath cut the joints and went on to forming up the last section. He actually poured the last of it Saturday morning. Done! We are so excited to have it completed. We're going to wait a few weeks so it can cure, and then Heath will seal it and we'll be able to drive on it. Maybe we'll finally get to park in our garage!

Until the concrete cures and is ready for sealer, Heath will be busy working on the retaining wall around the pad. I know, there's never an end, right? Does Heath complain? Maybe a little, but we definitely love and appreciate our "hard worker guy."

17 months

You read that right.

17 months

Can you believe it?

Our little B is almost a year and a half. Crazy! 

Heath and I were talking just the other night about B, or Britches, as we sometimes call him. Honestly, B was quite the handful during his first, oh, full year of life with us. Yes. He was fussy, stubborn, rarely slept four hours straight at night, and was puny. We struggled to figure out this little guy for months, and it seems just as he has turned a year old, we've had some calmer waters and smooth sailing. 

I mean, look at him. He's all smiles, giggles, silly faces, and he's quite honestly the cutest little goofy guy around.

God really tested our faith with Baylen. I'm not sure we passed the test every time, but we tried to cling closer to Him with each uphill battle that we had. 

So what's up with Baylen? 

• He is still a very picky eater. He tends to stick with meats and fruit, and yes, potato chips. It's amazing how healthy food conscious I was with Cash, but with Baylen, I'll seriously give him anything he'll eat because he's a bird. Somedays I wonder how he eats enough to survive.
• We are staying away from whole milk and raw milk products for now. If he has whole milk or ice cream, he gets congested and fussy, so we stick with almond milk, and he loves it. It has, go figure, more calcium, vitamin D and iron than whole milk does, but it doesn't have the fat calories...
• which leads us to the next point. B is a little guy. He's breaking the scales at just over 20 lbs which is around the second percentile. He's a long baby though, so maybe we're looking at a basketball player. Ha!
• He loves, loves, loves to read. His favorite right now is Where is Spot? He loves this book because it has flaps, and he loves to make animals sounds. He's also partial to the Usborne series That's Not My ... He'll bring me a book, chanting "book, book, book," I'll sit down and he'll reverse into my lap and we'll read. When I'm done, he'll say, "more, more, more."
• Yes, he's the talker of the family. He says everything! Cash didn't say his first word until he was 18 months old, and at that point it was "meow." Baylen will repeat just about anything you ask him to say, and he's even starting to put two words together. For example, tonight he asked for a "pear." When Heath cut it up, he gave him a small piece, and B shook his head and said, "big pear."
• He's sleeping through the night. Yay! He usually goes down around 8-8:30 and sleeps until 7am. On occasion he'll wake up earlier if he's teething, but for the most part, he's my consistent morning wake up call.
• He loves playing with big brother. Right now they are enjoying the concrete pad outside. B loves being taken for rides on Cash's tricycle or being pushed in his red and yellow car. He hammers nails, loads dirt in the dump truck, shovels gravel into the loader, explores the yard and teases the cat -- just like Cash does. I get so tickled (and feel so blessed) when I sit and watch them together. Whatever Cash does, B will make sure he does it to EXACTLY the same way. Don't get me wrong, they aggravate and tease each other daily, but there are so many sweet moments. 

We're starting to get more comments about who Baylen looks like. A friend told us yesterday that Cash was looking more like Heath and Baylen was my little look-alike. That was a first. He does have my ears, though. See? They tend to stick out a bit from his head, just like mine. :) I still think he favors Heath more. What do you think?

No matter who he looks like, he's definitely forming his own unique special personality, and we are so thankful for each day with this sweet boy. 

Carpet

There were some people that questioned us when we decided to put carpet in the living room downstairs.

Why carpet? Hardwood floors are so much nicer.

Here's one of our biggest reasons...

The boys love to play in the floor, and it's so much more fun to play and wrestle on carpet.

These two waller (is that a real word) in the floor every day.

Wrestling and tickling and doing what brothers do best...

just rough housin' and enjoying the closest friend they'll ever have.

 


Even if it may mean a carpet burn once in awhile.

Flashback Friday

For this week's Flashback Friday, I thought I would go back and see what Cash looked like around this time of the year in 2008. This is the picture that I found. It was taken August 26, 2008, exactly three years ago today.

This is our lil' man with Nana, Heath's mom. He was two months old, and we had taken our first trip down to Alabama with him. Renee, Trent and Brenda had come to visit and see Cash, and Heath and Marlo set a recliner on fire in the backyard (on purpose).

This is a very sweet picture, because it's one of the few that we have with Cash and Nana. We lost her when he was only four months old. Although I'm sure he won't have memories of his Nana, he knows who she is and recognizes her in pictures, and if you ask him, he'll tell you that Nana's up in heaven.

Time with daddy

Heath sent me this picture the other night. 

It was taken by his trail camera while Heath and Cash were out in the woods together checking his cameras where he hunts. It was just the two of them enjoying some outside daddy-Cash time. Cash was 18 months old.

Heath wrote in the email that he wanted to spend some daddy-Baylen time sometime soon. He said that he felt like all his time with Baylen also included Cash, too. I guess that's just how it is sometimes when you're the second baby.

But the other weekend, I caught Heath and Baylen enjoying some time together while Cash was napping. It wasn't anything special, just some time on the Bobcat working on the driveway.

B looks very serious in all of these pictures. He wasn't scared though, just focused I guess.

He didn't take his eyes off the scoop. He watched its every move.

  

Daddy-Baylen time

I guess what I thought was "doing nothing special" turned out to be some pretty special time with daddy.

A little help from Paw Paw

Pour number three went down without a problem at all. It was last Thursday afternoon, and Paw Paw came to help. How fun! My mom and dad were also in BG, but not to help with concrete. They were coming to take the boys to a baseball game. Anyway ...

Here's Heath and Marlo getting ready to pour. Maybe they're getting a game plan ready. I doubt it though. I think they were probably laughing about something on Sandford and Sons or bringing up old concrete pouring stories from back in the day.

This was a smaller section than the other two. It was only about 4 yards, I think. Marlo always swore he'd never do concrete again. When he heard the concrete truck coming down the road he said, "I hear trouble." He's still got the touch though.

This boy LOVES concrete trucks. He loves the noises, the spinning, the chutes, the water hose on the front, the huge tires ... I could go on and on. (He could, too, if you ask him.)

Boots on and edger in hand -- he's ready to help, too.

Do you see this? This is three generations of Doggett concrete finishers hard at work.

It makes me wonder what Paw Paw thinks of it all. Did he ever think he'd have a son that loves to finish concrete and two grandsons who want nothing more than to get in there and "help," too?

I'll have to ask him sometime.

Either way, I loved watching these four guys working together. 

Wordless Wednesday

A deal and a sword

Yesterday, the boys and I took a trip into town to visit Walgreens. I had been doing some planning, and I thought I could get a good deal on some things that we use. The boys were on their best behavior while I was searching for the deals, so I gave in and bought them each a fun treat in the summer clearance aisle. 

Here's the morning in two pictures:

All this for $3.83. I think it's safe to say we don't need body wash or soap for awhile. :)

Do you see what Cash picked out? He had been wanting a sword for quite some time (he saw Tom and Jerry fighting with one on his cartoons). So for 99 cents, he got his own foam sword. He fought every imaginary mouse at the park that morning. (B picked out a lumpy ball that bounced funny. He had more fun climbing on the playground equipment though.)

So that's what we've been up to. What about you?

Flashback Friday

Note: I love looking back at all the older pictures on my computer. Sometimes it will completely side track me from what I'm supposed to be doing, but it brings back memories and makes me feel really blessed with everything in my life. From pictures of Cash when he was itty bitty to pictures of Heath and I before kids, and even pictures of Baylen just months ago, they are all so special. I'm going to try to start including some of these on my blog to share with friends and family. I'm calling it Flashback Friday, because I'm cheesy like that. Hope you enjoy!  

See what I mean? Look at how much Cash had changed!

This was taken August 22, 2009, it's obviously salsa making time. We had just gotten back from visiting Heath's dad in Alabama where we bought cases of beautiful, red tomatoes. 

Looking at this picture, I see that Cash is probably teething (wet shirt), he had just gotten his first haircut at the end of July, and we had just found out only two weeks earlier that we were expecting Baylen.

Happy birthday, Paw Paw!

This past Tuesday, August 16th, Heath's dad, Marlo, a.k.a. Paw Paw, celebrated his 67th birthday. How exciting! He had always wanted to eat at Cherokee Steak House down on the lake in Lebanon, TN, so Valerie made reservations and the entire crew met down there to spend some time together and enjoy a yummy meal.

The boys were complete troopers on the ride down. I had been worried that they would get hungry on the way down and then be cranky (reservations were at 6:30), but we had a good snack before we left, sang songs all the way down, and were ready to see everyone with smiles on their faces when we arrived.

Like I said, Cherokee Steak House is on the lake, and when we got there, we were greeted by lots of ducks in the parking lot (and a few geese). The boys had a blast chasing them. Thankfully, none of them chased back. 

Here are the boys checking out the ducks for the first time. Hmmm... I knew then exactly what they were thinking.

We snapped this picture in between supper and cake time. We tried to get Nick in on this picture, but he was busy running from the ducks.

This cake was super delicious. Valerie bought it at a Publix. I sure do wish we had one of those in Bowling Green.

Paw Paw with all three of this grandboys. What a happy looking fellow!

And of course, only Paw Paw would let three little boys stick their fingers in his birthday cake.

Baylen would poke his finger all the way into the cake and then sit and suck on it and lick it all off. Then he would go back for more. Geez.

When I finally pulled him out of Paw Paw's lap, Baylen said, "Mess, mess." And he was right!

Here's the crew, minus Valerie (she took the picture). It was the first time in a long, long time that we had all been together. Hopefully, we'll be able to do it again real soon.

Happy birthday, Paw Paw! Hope it was special!

Another deal

Here's my favorite deal of the week. It's not such a huge deal, but because I found a new squash casserole recipe that the family loves, I wanted to stock up on some of these soups.


Campbell soups are usually over a $1 at Kroger and Wal-Mart, but this week Walgreens had them for 79 cents each. I also had a $1 coupon for 5 cans. So I got each can for 59 cents. What a deal, right?

In the picture, Baylen is holding the shaving cream. It's usually $2.42, but I price-matched it with Walgreens where it was $1.99. I also had a printable coupon for 50 cents off. 

So I guess I shared two deals with you this week!