Little Okie Homestead

Today is Rex's 3rd birthday! Time has just flown by. I can't believe that my little baby boy is going to be 3 already. It's crazy how fast it has been. We have a great birthday planned for him. He chose a dinosaur theme which means that we already have almost all the decorations. See for his first birthday we did a huge 50+ guest list T-Rex themed party because of his name. It was fun and really cute and now since he loves dinosaurs we are able to reuse what we have.  I found a great cake to make online and showed Rex and he is really excited.  I'm just hoping it turns out OK because I have never made a cake like this before. Actually M's birthday was in February and I made just a regular cake for the first time in about 5 years so this cake is making me nervous.  We are having a smaller guest list of mostly just family and 2 of Rex's closest friends over to my parents house to join in the fun. The weather is looking great and I think the kids...

Every week we head to the library and get new books to read at home. This past week I read Toy Boat by Randall de Seve and Loren Long almost every day and several times a day. Rex loved it! It is a really cute book about a boy who makes a boat that he loves and takes everywhere. One day a storm hits and his boat gets lost on the lake. There are a bunch of mean boats that don't want the little boat near them. Then a nice boat comes along the next morning and helps the boat get sailing in the wind right back home to the boy.  I think it's a really cute story. Not really to much of a moral or learning book but just a fun book to read over and over again. I think we will be getting this book from the library again soon and maybe even purchase it at some point in the future.

Rex has his first imaginary friend! It's adorable because he carries him every where. It's a character from a Word World that he watched yesterday.  This is one of his favorite shows to watch and I actually love it because of all the letter and words he is exposed to. In the one he watched yesterday was about the animals going camping and telling scary stories. They get scared and break the tent. When dog goes to find the letters in the woods he meets a monster. This monster is a friendly one, like only one should be on a child's show, and ends up joining in the camping fun.  I don't know why this one was so significant to Rex but it was. He loved it. About a half hour later he came barging into the bathroom to tell me all about the tent and the friendly monster. It reminded me yet again that as a mom I don't have any privacy in the house. He was so excited.  We headed out to the store and then to Popa's house because Mommy needed help just getting...

So as I promised "Our Family Name". Growing up I knew that my family was important. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents on my dad's side and was extremely close and spoiled. I realized around the time that I started dating that my dad had two girls and that our family name would end when I got married. This got me thinking. I figured that I would just have to marry a man that would take my last name as his so we could carry the name on. Little did I know then that it would actually be possible. Of course all the guys that I dated before M were no to keen with the idea.  I actually didn't bring it up to M until after we started planning the wedding. I brought it up to him because of how important it was to me to not lose my last name. I wanted to carry it on for my family. I told him that I would like him to think about it and just let me know how he felt about the idea. A few days later he told me that he would do it because he understood why it was so impor...

Dear Baby, This week marks our 23 week! That means we only have 17 weeks left until you are able to join us. We are all getting excited to meet you.  Two weeks ago you started having parties at 3am and they lasted about an hour. During this hour I wasn't able to sleep. Well you only did this for about a week and but since then I haven't been able to sleep past 3am. Every night (or early morning I guess) I wake up at 3am and can't sleep. I just toss and turn for at least an hour and then finally fall asleep. Even though I do get back to sleep I wake up exhausted. By 9:30am I'm so tired I can barley function. This is when I let Monkey pick a movie and I 'sleep' on the couch. I feel bad letting Monkey watch so many movies but I have to take care of myself and you so he just gets this time. It won't last forever. Luckily, Grandma and Popa took Monkey overnight on Saturday which aloud me to get some extra sleep without having to worry about waking ...

I'm not sleeping. For whatever reason every night at 3 am almost on the dot I wake up. Like wide awake. This means that I can't fall back asleep either. Ugh! It makes for a very nonfunctional mommy during the day.  It started last week when Pilot would wake up and have a party around that time for almost an hour. Now Pilot sleeps right through this time and instead of being able to at least enjoy feeling him move I just lay there trying to sleep. It wouldn't be a huge deal if I had a son that would sleep until 8am but instead I have one of those kids that sleeps super light and wakes up at the slightest sound which means when the neighbors let their dog out across the street and he starts barking and barking and barking, Rex wakes up. This all starts between 5:30 and 6:30am. I really hate that dog and I have plans to put a note on their door begging them to keep there dog quiet. If that doesn't work then I will report them because I have no patience the whole day due...

Dear Baby Pilot, It has been a crazy morning. I have been trying to sit down and write this for several hours today, not including the time I wanted to write this weekend. But here I am finally able to sit and write.  First, I want to tell you that you just might be a trouble maker when you get here. For the past several days every time Rex comes and cuddles next to me you start kicking at him. He can't feel it yet but I know that he will in the next few weeks. Your kicking very strong and I'm surprised that Daddy hasn't been able to feel you. Hopefully, very soon. We are all excited to have that experience again. This week I'm 22 weeks! It's coming along pretty quickly. Not compared to your brother but everyone says pregnancy goes so slow and this one just seems to be cruising along. I'm more than half way now and it seems like before we know it you will be here to join us. I'm now big enough that strangers are not afraid to talk to ...

Well it's not really a recipe but it's a quick lunch that is fun and Rex loves! Octopus Mac & Cheese.  All you have to do is cook your mac & cheese like normal. Then while that cooking you pull out your hot dogs and cut some legs. Depending on how fat your hot dogs are depends on how many legs your octopus will have. Then you boil them until they are warm. Put your mac & cheese in the bowl and then add the octopus on top.  Seriously, Rex loves this! We do this at least once a week and my parents now do it for all of the grandkids. It's a huge hit! I found this idea from another blogger a long while ago and I wish I could remember where so I could give them credit. 

Dear Baby, Actually I guess I could say "Dear Baby Boy" because we have found out that you are a very healthy baby boy and decided to share the excitement with everyone this weekend instead of waiting a couple more weeks.  So yes we are now sharing the wonderful news that your Mommy, Daddy and Monkey are excited to add another little boy to the family.  We have been trying to get Monkey to understand that you are his brother and that you are a boy. He has been getting confused about all of the gender and sibling names. He does know that your name is Goose and will refer to you as "Baby Goose". It is super cute. We let Monkey share the news with Grandma and Popa and it was adorable. He didn't' want to tell them and then he finally said he was having a sister even though we practiced and practiced in the car. I quickly corrected him and let everyone know that you were a boy.  Everyone is mostly OK with the name we have picked. Of cour...

I have been spending many hours on the internet trying to figure out what we need/want for this new baby. We don't know what we are having yet but I will share this we find out very soon and I'm super excited! I have found some great things but of course everything that I want is close to $200! Seriously, I feel like in just three years things have gotten so expensive! Maybe it's just my taste in things but oh well. So here is the stroller I want! It's the Graco Ready2Go LX Stand and Ride stroller. It is amazing! It has 12 different positions that you can do. The pictures above show how I will probably have it the majority of the time. The reason I want this stroller is because I will have a 3 year old (Monkey), a one year old (Sophia, the little girl I watch several days a week), and the new baby. When I head out with all three of them this will be perfect because I can put Sophia in the front seat and the baby in the back seat and then Monkey can walk. But the b...

Growing up my mom was very controlling. I hated it! Of course I started to rebel and require her to be controlled by me. Well that worked well. We fought all the time! I started to try to control everything I could outside the home just so that way I would have some control. My friends, my boyfriends, anything that would allow it. It didn't work out well. I had some good friends but lost contact over the years and personally I think some of the reason that they don't respond to me when I reach out now via facebook is because of the fear of how I was back then.  Over the years, and with a lot of M's help, I have became less controlling. Or at least learned how to channel it into things that are OK to be controlling about, like discpline for Rex, cleaning the house, ect.  I would really be upset about two things when it comes to controlling behavior in our household.  I would be devastated it I had the same relationship or anything close to what I had with my mo...

Dear Baby, Today is a late letter day. Why? Well the weather was nice so I opened windows and cleaned and organized like crazy. I'm not sure it that was because of the weather or if I'm nesting early. Either way I got a bunch accomplished today!  This week makes 20 weeks along! It's so exciting! This means at any point we can have our ultrasound and find out if you are a boy or a girl. As our appointment gets closer I get more and more anxious and excited. I can't wait to know so we can start the next phase of planning. We have names to discuss, clothes to buy or unpack and wash, and just general excitement to be had! Last week I stopped feeling you move for several days and I felt like I got smaller. Not a good feeling when I'm suppose to be getting bigger. I called the midwife to see what they wanted me to do and they had me come in so they could check your heart rate. So Rex and I piled into the car and headed down. They found your heartbe...

In our Bible study group we are talking each week about a Proverb and a controversial/important to us topic. This is the first one that we discussed.  In today's world this is something that isn't always easy to see. We wanted to look at what God said were the roles of the household and it wasn't surprising to me because we are living mostly this way but I know for some, these things aren't always easy to hear. Let's first start with the husband's role. Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. 1 Corinthians 11:4 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his boy, of which he is the Savior. Ephesians 5:23 Husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church. Ephesians 5:28-2...