Happy Halloween!!

Since Trick or Treating was last night, we stayed home today and relaxed. Andre let me sleep in till 12:30pm! He also has been taking care of Jamal all day while I did some grocery shopping and cooked dinner. It's a Halloween tradition of mine to cook chili on Halloween. I only cook chili once a year. I also bought prepackaged cookie dough to make Halloween cookies with the kids. I'm not a big baker or have time to be so this is really just to give the kids something to do.
I wanted to try out a new chili recipe this year. I found this recipe on Foodnetwork.com. It's a Neely recipe called Pat's Famous Beef and Pork Chili. I always like trying out their recipes and watching their show.

Here is the recipe....
Ingredients
6 slices thick-cut applewood smoked bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon chipotle chili powder
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound 85 percent lean ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1 cup beer (recommended: Budweiser)
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15-ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (24-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 (24-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with juice
Lime wedges, for garnish
Sour cream, for garnish
Shredded Cheddar, for garnish
Sliced scallions, for garnish
Directions
In large heavy-bottomed Dutch oven, cook the bacon over medium heat until lightly crisp, stirring occasionally. Once the bacon is browned, add the garlic, onions, bell peppers, chili powder, cumin, chipotle chili powder, oregano, and smoked paprika and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook until the vegetables are tender and seasonings are aromatic. Add the beef and break it up with a wooden spoon. Once beef is broken up and beginning to brown, add the pork. Break up with wooden spoon like the beef, and brown, until no longer pink, roughly 4 minutes. Stir in the beer and beans. Toss together, then add the crushed and diced tomatoes. Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper, if necessary. Transfer the chili to serving bowls and garnish with lime wedges, sour cream, shredded cheese, and sliced scallions.

Happy Halloween!!

Jamal = 2 Months Old!!

You are 2 months old today!! Tomorrow you have a doctors appointment so I don't know how much you weigh yet but I'm sure you are around 13 lbs by now and you now wear a size 2 diaper. Daddy says you are getting fatter by the hour. You are still wearing 0-3 months clothes. You drink 6 ounce bottles and still wake up once a night for a bottle. Jamal, you are the cutest baby ever! You are smiling all the time now especially when you see your mama and dada. You "coo" to us when you see us. You are one spoiled baby. You always love to be held and cry when no one is cuddling with you. You love sleeping on your belly just like Ronde and your mommy. You still can't keep a paci in your mouth and when it falls out, you always try to put it back in with your hand balled up in a fist.

We are so happy to be your parents Jamal! You are such a blessing and the great addition to our family! We love you dearly and so does your brothers :)

Trick or Treating

We went Trick or Treating on base tonight with another Harris family. We were pooped after Frontier City but the boys were so excited to finally go trick or treating. AJ was Buzz Lightyear and he sure acted like he was. He would run really fast up to the doors, get his candy, and run really fast back to me to show me what he got. AJ did a lot of running tonight..ha! Ronde looked so adorable as Woody! We even gave him a toy gun and belt for his costume. It was kinda windy so his hat kept blowing off. Some houses were playing spooky sound effects and it really scared Ronde. Jamal was a little cranky and I don't blame him. We were out and about a lot today and we were all tired. Andre and I took turns holding him while we walked around. He is going to be so spoiled!

Once we got home, the boys were carrying their candy buckets with them everywhere they went in the house. Both boys wanted to sleep with their buckets but we didn't allow it because I know I would wake up first thing tomorrow to see them pigging out on candy!
AJ melts my heart..he was just so excited to be Buzz Lightyear for the night. I'm sure he will get good use out of that costume for the next couple weeks..ha!
About to go trick or treating.. I love this picture!!
Jamal wore a Halloween sleeper...
And Ronde is just the cutest thing ever...

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween tomorrow!

Frontier City Theme Park

Today we went to Frontier City with our new friends Julie and Emerson. We met them at the playground a week ago. It's funny that we are adults and meeting friends at the playground. They are really nice people who also have 3 kids including a newborn girl. We met up at noon and headed to Frontier City. We went on a couple roller coasters and the kids went on a lot of kiddie rides. I was amazed at the rides my kids were allowed to go on. AJ and Ronde, accompanied by us, went on the big swinging ship ride. AJ went on a wooden roller coaster and Ronde went on a big metal roller coaster twice! AJ was still a little scared on all the rides but Ronde loved it! I didn't get great pictures but here are some from our day...
You can tell that AJ was a little scared in this pic...



This was the roller coaster that Ronde went on twice. It's huge for a little boy but he laughed and smiled the whole way!
Andre won a Rasta hat..He wore this hat the rest of the night because Oklahoma changed trick or treating to October 30 and don't allow trick or treating on a Sunday. It's so funny that people ask him "What? Are you suppose to be a Jamaican?" because he really is 100% Jamaican!

It was a lot of fun! I was so glad to get the boys out of the house for a day of fun with new friends.

Bath Time

Such a cutie!!!
And Ronde still loves brushing your hair after your baths...

A little smile :)

Halloween Art

After the pumpkin patch, AJ wanted to do art. I thought Halloween themed art would be fun. I cut out the pumpkin shapes and AJ glued them together and pasted them onto construction paper. I told him how to spell "Pumpkin" and he wrote it on his art and also signed his name at the bottom of his masterpiece. He amazes me!

Pumpkin Patch

What scary looking faces..lol

Jamal and daddy stayed home so they could take naps but here is a picture of Jamal after his nap..

A Relaxing Sunday..

The weather was so nice today, t-shirt and shorts kinda weather. We took the kids to the playground to play and got snow cones. After we left, we picked up some Taco Bell and headed home. Andre hooked up the Wii in our room for the boys to play so that Andre and I could have some quiet time and watch a movie together, Shutter Island.

I love my boys..


Jamal was smiling but I wasn't able to catch it in a picture...

Jamal loves laying on his play matt and looking at the toys. When we sit on the couch with him, he always looks up at the portraits on our walls. Andre picked him up and put him in front of the portraits so he could get a better look..ha! I wish I took a picture because it was so cute. Andre said that Jamal kept looking at me in the picture :)




It was a very relaxing day. Andre goes back to work in the morning. I love having him around all weekend. He really helps out a lot. Andre woke up with the baby all night Friday and Saturday. It was so nice to get a whole nights sleep..I slept in till 11am!

It's cold outside..

I'll start this post off with a cute smile from Jamal. He gets so excited when he sees me or hears my voice. He is trying hard to smile and I know he'll be smiling a lot in the next week or two.Today we got out of the house to do a little exploring around Oklahoma City. The weather was really cold and windy today so we had to dress warmly. The boys got to wear their winter boots, that my mom bought them, for the first time today.
Jamal looks sooo much like AJ, when AJ was a baby, in this picture...
This is AJ at about 3 months old....
I also put shoes on Jamal for the first time today....

We went to Olive Garden for lunch. The boys were so good and ate all their lunch and earned dessert. Jamal wanted to be held the whole time. After lunch, we went to Penn Square Mall. I bought myself and the kids winter jackets. I also bought a couple shirts and jeans. It was a great family day!

Decorating - Living Room

Even though this apartment is just temporary (6 months--boy I'm sick of apartments and moving!) I still want it to feel like a home. I'm just so happy to finally have all my furniture back and out of storage! I missed my big comfy couch and bed! Here are a few pictures of what I've done with our living room so far. Our sectional came with the blue throw pillows but I want to ditch those. I'm really into the colors brown, red, gold, and green. I want to buy an assortment of different colored throw pillows. I'm sure I've mentioned that I really dislike white walls!! When we buy our home, the first thing I'm doing is painting the walls. I still have a lot more pictures to hang on our walls but this is my living room area.
This is my favorite corner of my living room. I love seeing AJ, Ronde, and Jamal's baby portraits hung together(AJ is on top with the sailor outfit, Ronde is on the bottom)They all look so different from one another. I'm always comparing who Jamal will look like but I guess he just looks like Jamal :)
I love that I can have AJ take pictures of me now...lol...
A picture of my baby cakes from this morning..

The little things..

Today we did nothing! In fact, the kids are still in their jammies. I'm not ashamed to admit that because we deserve it. Things were so hectic around here with the move and getting settled. I am happy about the little things like, the kids cleaned their room (even though I asked them 10 times and when daddy comes home from work and only has to say it ONCE!..at least it's finally cleaned), I used my leftover spaghetti and meatballs and turned it into meatball subs ( I should have opted for a salad..blah), Jersey Shore comes on tonight, and I have Internet again!! I filled out all my financial aid stuff for school online and tomorrow I will start my enrollment process for college!

Anyways, here are a few pictures from today. Jamal has become a little piggy lately and I had to start making 6 oz bottles. After this last pack of size 1 diapers, I think I will bump him up to size 2. Mainly because a size 1 just isn't enough diaper to catch the massive blow out diaper's I've been changing first thing every morning! ha!

Toy Story Themed Party and Costumes

The boys are so into Toy Story this year. About 2 months ago we received a magazine in the mail with pictures of Halloween costumes. The boys argued over who was going to be Buzz Lightyear. Ronde finally said he would be Woody. I bought the boys their costumes a week ago and of coarse they had to try them on as soon as we got home. I think Ronde makes the funniest Woody. If anyone knows Ronde, he's more of a super hero, action figure, toy gun type of boy. Where AJ is more into cars and has a sweeter personality. I think the costumes should have been the other way around, AJ as Woody and Ronde as Buzz Lightyear..it fits their personalities better. AJ always has me say "Goodnight Buzz Lightyear" to him every night when he goes to bed. Then he says to me "Goodnight Horse!" HAHA!

AJ's 4th Birthday is approaching, November 6, and since he is so into Buzz Lightyear I'm going to order him a Buzz Lightyear Petite Cake from our Commissary on base.

We also bought him this as a gift..

AJ's birthday is on a Saturday this year. Since we just moved here and haven't met any friends, we are just going to do a family party this year at the bowling alley. AJ loves bowling. Since he won't have any friends at his party, I want to make sure he feels really special that day!