birthday month

It's my birthday month! Welcome, beautiful April. Naturally this is one of the best months of the year. Spring is in full bloom and the weather is low 80's and gorgeous. It's time for planting and *almost* time for a little kiddo pool to make an appearance. Honest. It's 85 here today and it's feeling warm in the sunshine. 

I really cannot believe we are already into the double digits and before ya know it Damien will be 3! Wait, what? Let's skip last that and I can pretend he is never growing up....

Hopefully the saying "April showers bring May flowers" is true because we have had several showers and absolutely no flowers going on here. We have a pretty large flower bed in the front of our house and it doesn't appear as though the previous owners had much of a green thumb-- it's disastrous. Jj is determined to beautify it though, so maybe by May we will have a few flowers :)

April has been a fabulous month so far. It started with the Oklahoma Catholic Woman's conference which was great. It has also brought plenty of late evenings (or should I say mornings) for JJ at work. Seriously, Monday night he was in at 6am-- home at 1am. Not cool, not cool. But April had also brought a few early afternoons where he is blessed to be home so I really cannot complain too much. 

We have also spent some good nights with friends this month- one night inparticular that taught us how to remove permanent market from tile and somewhat from a white refrigerator. Vinager and resolve people. 

Let me take you back-- not that I want to relive the experience but rather so you can learn. 

So we are all sitting blissfully watching the National Championship game at our good friend Josh and Jamie's when Jamie had a nice mother intuition that 2 yr old Emma and 2 yr old Damien were being awfully quiet in the kitchen. Her husband Josh proceeds to the kitchen where suddenly we here "Jamie you are not going to like this." I walk in to find two toddlers with pens, and plenty of abstract art on the tile floor and white refrigerator. Immediately all adults grab their smart phones and begin to google search 'how to remove permanent marker from tile.' Plenty of good ideas came up: tooth paste, vinager, denatured alcohol, and my personal favorite "nothing!! It's called permanent maker for a reason!!" Thank you, Yahoo answers for that mind boggling answer. Well Jamie grabbed a bottle of vinager and I started scrubbing! Alas- to our surprise it started to come off! Then we grabbed the resolve ----because what doesn't resolve get out. And whala! The tile is now permanent marker free! Thanks to vinager, resolve, and a little bit of elbow grease. The refrigerator was a tad bit more difficult. However, with a combination of goo gone, magic erasers, vinager and resolve-- a lot of it came off. 

Damien came around the corner half way through the scrubbing and gasped "what did you do!!" Yaaa-- get outta here. 

Later that night as Jj was dressing him for bed he found evidence of Damien's involvement. 

Nice try, kid. 

Damien really has been such a joy in my life. I cannot tell you how much love my heart has for him-- literally I could burst. He is turning into such a beautiful little soul. This morning while we were saying our morning prayers he told me, "mom, I want to be a saint... and an alter boy." Gahhhhhh. I must be doing something right. I love that little man. 

And Owen, ohhhhh squishy little Owen. He is REALLY trying to babble and has little conversations with himself throughout the day. He has recently learned to crawl on top of everything and the right side of his face is constantly bruised. 

But beyond permanent markers and bruised faces we have had quite the exhausting past few days. I really haven't seen any of JJ--- maybe a few hours, tops-- so tomorrow we are having a date night! A little Thunder basketball :) it will be a much needed night out together, but it won't just be the two of us! JJ's second cousin, Louie, is from London and on a three month holiday with a friend to the good ol' US OF A. So they are coming to the game as well. It has been really fun meeting extended family members, and if we are ever in London we know who to contact! 

But in the mean time I will just dream of my own Euro trip and soak in every moment of my beautiful life just as it is.

Enjoy :) 

so apparently it's Monday---again.

I have always had a love hate relationship with Mondays. Mostly a hate. There is something about a Monday morning that makes you want to cling to your pillow that much longer in the morning or have three cups of coffee because 'it's Monday.' 

And after a weekend like we had here at the Pedulla household, I dispised this morning even more.

Thursday was a glorious spring day and we had a little play date set up at my SIL's house with our friend Jamie. That meant if I could make it through the morning then I would be home free until JJ got home!! Well, my Thursday got even better when my hubs texted saying he had lunch time free so I packed up the boys and we headed to "the lizard food" as Damien calls it, which is more formally known as Iguana. It's this SUPER yummy Mexican grill that has the best salsa in OKC (that I've tasted) and has massive fake Iguanas all over the place. So after we indulged I headed home for a quick nap with the boys until we could walk to my SIL's-- and of course no napping took place and instead it was a battle of "can we PLEASE go over NOW" for almost a complete two hours. I may have showed up a few minutes before the designated time but I couldn't take it anymore haha. Jj worked well past the dinner hour, which around here is about 6, and I don't actually remember when he got home but I passed out at like 8:30. ZzZzzzZzzzzzz. And we all know how I like thoseZzzzzz.

Friday was an exceptionally slow day for Jj at work, which can be pretty typical on Fridays since doctors are out of the office early-- but there is always that dreaded lingering case that keeps getting pushed back and back which means my handsome hubs has to stay in the city and cannot home even though he is just hangin at the office. BUT, alas, it was not one of those Fridays. He was home early and the afternoon was ours :) 

Jj decided that since he had the afternoon free he would take Damien on a little father/son date. I was texted photos of Damien enjoying fish fillet from mcdonalds and swinging at the golf range. *heart melting* he is so darn cute. 

Saturday was an attempt to get a few home projects done; such as finally finish my tv console from an old dresser, but we only ended up pulling weeds from the garden and eating pancakes. And taking selfies... Lots of selfies. That evening JJ and I (along with Owen), went to the annual Birth Choice dinner which is an organization that offers help to woman in need who find themselves in planned or unplanned pregnancies. This is the third year we have gone along with JJ's parents and it is always such a beautiful and inspiring event-- not to mention the mashed potatoes are worth going for alone. We dropped Damien off at a good friend of ours home and he didn't even bat an eyelash when we left. He is getting so old and mature and I need to find a DIY to keep him young forever. 

Sunday morning my hubs played golf with our BIL, Jon, while I did three loads of laundry and vacuumed, twice. I have a weiiirrrddd OCD with vacuuming. It's weird. Then we went to lunch and Jj took the boys to the park while I knocked out the weekly grocery shopping in what would have taken twice the time if I had the boys. I love grocery shopping by myself. It's therapeutic. 

Now here we are, Monday. We meet again. It was a-okay though. It was almost 80 degrees, my tv console is finally sanded, more weeds were pulled, the boys played outside for hours and we went on a family walk after dinner.  Oh, and we got a dog! JK... But Damien did stop to see puppies for sale on the side or the road. 

The boys fell asleep in an instant (so did Jj) and I actually get to sit down and write this. 

 I love days like today. 

:) 

outings.

This past week was full of crock pot meals, dates with the cousin, outside projects, dates to Braums, oil changes, cookie making, a DIY, and scoring a brand new Ergo at Target for 50 bucks :) Score.

It was one of those weeks that never seems to slow down, and while I would prefer that most of the time, I am happy that this week has been a bit slower due to colder weather and rain.

During one of our pretty low key snow storms this past winter one of our little tyke neighbors hit our mailbox with his  fourwheeler "sled" *ahem* and so it had been propped up against our cement driveway for the past few weeks. The teenage kid that delivers our mail way out here in Logan county never cared that our mailbox was laying on the ground. He would manuver his go cart like vehicle and drop the mail in....... but apparently thats against USPS rules or whatever it is they tell you and so an older woman who came by to deliver our bills and junk mail refused to drop it at our house or in the box. Annoying. So we finally made a trip to Home Depot to gather up our supplies for the new post.

I cannot say I really contributed to this project, except for looking up how to do it and telling JJ....so I guess I did contribute, except for the physical labor which is the hard part. Thank goodness for my wonderful husband :)

Aside from household projects we spent time meeting JJ between cases, taking a trip to the park,  evening dates at Braums for family ice cream and trying to find a better way to store rice then those flimsy plastic bags they come in. And I was successful.

Spring has been flirting with us and we have had gorgeous 75 degree days and then days like right now...rainy, cloud cover, and cold.

I really need to learn how to upload videos to my blog because I have some hilarious ones of Damien shenanigans. Last night he kept asking me if the cheese was different then the cheese we had at his friends house a few weeks ago. I didn't realize a child could ask the same question 100 times until it happened to me last night. Each bite he took came with the same "is this cheese different from Eli's house."

NO. IT IS THE SAME CHEESE. OMGGGGGGGGGGGGG.

Okay, Owen is clinging. And for the moms you know what that means. Snotty nose rubbed against my freshly laundered jeans that I was planning on wearing more than once (which I still will... I was just planning on wearing them more than once, snot free).

I guess I will just have to upload pictures. Which is what I was planning on doing anyway.

Enjoy!

-waiting for our oil to be changed-

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Today is not only the Feast of St. Patrick of Ireland but also the celebration of Owen's baptism! Last year St. Patty's Day was on a Sunday and Owen became a member of the church.

Every year it is a tradition of my husbands Irish Granny to have a traditional meal at her house.

Yum.

Irish soda bread, corned beef with mustard (optional), cabbage with turnips and carrots, collard greens, and of course--potatoes.

I didn't take a picture of the food because obviously I was much too busy stuffing. But you can just take my word that it was one of the best meals I had all year (so far)! The best part is that I get to take home the extra soda bread and eat it with eggs for breakfast---there was obviously no picture of that meal either.

Typically we all watch the movie 'The Quiet Man' after dinner, but this year Granny had good ol' Irish music playing and the kids were too busy dancing around to sit down and watch a movie.

It is always a fantastic night and even though this is only my third time enjoying this meal with my husbands family, I hope we have many more together!

And obviously, we wore green.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Cheers :)

untitled.

I have no reason to be posting this particular post, except for the fact that I NEEDED to share these pictures with you.

For those who know Damien, then you also know his many faces.

Oh how he makes me laugh.

And a picture of Owen for a dose of sweetness. 

Oh, and this is what we did last night. Don't ask.

Happy Wednesday!

mustachio bashio.

Owen is One!!

So I have decided that with each child we are going to throw a first birthday party! Who knows when they are going to have another party, so it has to be a good one.

For Damien it was beach themed with snacks in sand buckets and turtle cupcakes. For Owen I went with the ever so cliche idea of a mustachio bashio! I didn't go crazy... but it was still cute (or so I thought). I actually think my favorite part was the invitation we sent out!

It was our first small party held at our house and we had a great time. The weather was absolutely perfect and so even though we had about 40 people at our house it didn't really seem like it since all the kids were outside running around. My mom and siblings who are still at home made the trip down from Nebraska and I am so happy they did.

I tried two recipes that I had never made before (risky risky) and they were a hit! I'll have to post a recipe sometime...but for now... you wait.

I honestly cannot believe that my little man is already one. It seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital. He is such a joy and I absolutely love seeing him grow into a toddler. Damien loves being an older brother and is so proud of Owen.

It is so crazy that Damien will soon be three! Oh where has time gone.