Miller starts Pre-K...

Miller starts Pre-K tomorrow.....

Wow, I'm nervous, excited, and scared for him all at the same time.

Miller has been in PreSchool at a local church since he turned 2. The program was great for him but as he's gotten older, we've noticed a few communication problems and speech issues that have needed some special attention. Because of that, he has been qualified to attend a Pre-K program at a local elementary school for the remainder of this school year. I feel like he's starting school and I'm terrified. I know he needs this and I am ecstatic about the teacher that he is going to be working with, so mommie may just have to have a little cry tomorrow.

In the spirit of starting "school" tomorrow... Here's a interview of Miller. Hopefully we can compare it in a few months and see some great progress to make it all worth it.

Wish us luck tomorrow!! I know he'll do great, me on the other hand, I'm not so sure about!

Is January over already...

Wow, I can't believe the first month of 2012 is fastly approaching the end. We've had a great and busy January. It's flown by in the wake of Christmas but it's been an exciting time full of fun and family!

Wes & I were able to take the whole week after Christmas off. We had so much fun playing with the kids and their new toys, but after a few days, we all needed to get out of the house and have a little fun! We decided to take the kids to Discovery Place in Huntersville, and it was so fun! They had so many different discovery set ups for the kids to play with, from water tables to play centers & kid sized grocery stores to play-doh tables. It was amazing and the kids had a blast!

We spent New Years Eve with some great friends. We had an adult night out in Hickory and then came back to our house to watch the ball drop & celebrate with a little champagne. The kiddo's went to celebrate the New Year with Momaw & Popaw Hoyle. I'm not sure if they made it to ring in the new year, but I know Momaw let them stay up super late and have doughnuts for supper!

This month, Miller also started basketball. He is playing in a 3 & 4 year old clinic, where they teach fundamentals & play several games against each other. Each game & Practice begins and ends with a prayer & devotion. It's a great program and Miller is really enjoying learning basketball and playing with his friends.

We've also FINALLY finalized our house plans, got the land settled, hired a contractor, met with the bank, and are looking forward to starting the building process very very soon. We're in the planning stages and i'm looking forward to the building stages, I'm ready to see some progress on the lot! Wes & I are lacking in the patience department, so this process will hopefully move fast!

This month Miss Emma went to her very first movie! One Sunday afternoon, we tagged along with some friends to go see Beauty & the Beast in 3D! Miss Em did great at the movie, we got her a huge bag of popcorn, some juice, and of course some gummys, and she sat in her seat for most of the movie. She didn't really enjoy the glasses too much, so she seemed to watch most of the movie a little blury, but she didn't talk much and stayed very interested in the movie. We were so proud of her, she's growing up so much!

Em also has said goodbye to diapers this month! Santa had brought her some new big girl panties in her stocking and she couldn't wait to put them on. She had a few accidents and a few days of confusion, but for the most part, my baby is potty trained.

We spent a few days at the lake this month, staying with my grandmaw, while my parents were out of town. Em & Mills love to go to the lake house to play, because it's got a huge basement with lots of toys and fun things to do. We enjoyed spending some time with grandmaw & Em enjoyed Grammy's big bathtub. I think she took about 6 baths for the few days we were there, she was a clean girl when we got home!

Wes & I have been working like crazy and trying to spend as much family time as possible. We've managed to squeeze in a date night out with some friends and a few movie nights & game nights with the kids. January is always a fast month, coming off of the hype of the Holiday season, but I can't believe it's gone by this fast!

We've got so much planned for February to look forward to.... and it's coming so fast!

Happy January everyone!

and a bazillion pictures later...

Ok so I thought my next post would be a cute, funny, Pumpkin carving, Happy Halloween post, and although that's still coming, very soon, I have to write this one first!

Last night we decided to carve our pumpkins from the Pumpkin patch trip on Saturday with the in-laws! We had fun carving them and the kids really got into planning out the faces in the pumpkins, scooping out the seeds, etc, etc (like I said: Cute Halloween post coming later) Soooo this post picks up at the end of pumpkin carving.....

We had finished carving our pumpkins and they looked adorable! I was so excited to see them and the kids were super proud of themselves for carving and excited about how cute they looked. So taking all this into consideration what next... Picture's of course!

In my head, I'm thinking oh this will be great! Cute pics of both kids with their freshly carved pumpkin, all smiles in excitement of how wonderful they look, and of course the perfect shot of both kids and both pumpkins looking adorable!

Well instead of that picture this is what I got:

 One kid running away.....

 At least they are both sitting still.....

 Em thinks this is her best side & Mills decides he's going to sneeze....

 Em's so tired from all the "GREAT" Picture taking that she thinks she'll take a nap...

 then we decide we'll run away and roll the pumpkins...

Yep... aren't those just adorable!!!!!!!

At least the kids are cute ;)  & at least we have the memories of my silly crazy kids even if we don't have the pics to prove it!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Pizza for Lunch....

Today has been a nice calm Saturday at home with my sweet babies and my hubby! We have no plans for the day and spent the morning playing in the playroom and watching Cartoons!
Around lunch my creative side came out and I wanted to do something fun with the kids. This is a typical theme for us on Saturdays, since I'm never home with them during the week, we usually take Saturday morning to do some fun "projects" or in this case.. Lunch! The kids love to make pizza.. we usually make canned biscuit pizzas and they think it's way too cool that they can play with their food!

Well today I thought of something new.. Well.... Cough Cough.... I saw something new on Pinterest. Yet Again... sigh This was again one of those moments where I was like... "And why haven't I thought to do this." So todays project was.....

PIZZA Halloween Style!

Getting Ready to roll out the pizza dough!




Emma & Miller cutting out their cheese with Pumpkin & Ghost Cutters!



Happy with their pizza... Ready to go into the oven!


Miss Em a little unhappy with how long her pizza is taking in the oven!


The Finished Product! Pretty Cute little pizza!


Miller cutting the pizza in squares.

We all enjoyed the Pizza for Lunch. Miller told us that his pizza tasted just like "Pumpkin" and that we should make Pumpkin pizza more often! He has such a wild imagination! What a great morning with my sweet babies!

Someday I will be "Crafty"

Well, I've always said I don't have a crafy bone in my body, and well today's craft projects, or maybe we should just call them craft-failures, really proved that fact... once again!
So myself, along with the rest of the young-ish, computer literate, crafty wanna-be, recipe finding, blog-reading women in the world have formed an addiction to the great Pinterest. It's almost like it should have a halo and you should hear the "ahhh haaaa" church bells when you log on. There's always something new to see when you log on and I always think.. I can so do that OR how easy is that OR why didn't I think of that! One of the great things about Pinterest is the holiday boards and for my "desperate to be crafty mom and do adorable art projects with my kids that will make memories" self it's a black hole of ideas!

Of the millions of ideas out there, I decided that at least a couple of craft projects fit into the " how easy would that be and not to mention oh so cute" mold. I gathered all my supplies, which for me means actually purchasing all the said supplies at either craft store, where I end up spending way too much time and even more money getting in way over my head with little "projects" that I can do anytime or the less than fabulous craft department at the local WalMart.

Well here's Project #1: The adorable Polka-Dot Pumpkin
I thought this was super adorable and would be so easy to do! I mean it's circle stickers and black spray paint on a pumpkin. How hard can this be. Yay, a cute cheep Halloween Pumpkin idea. SO here's what a perfect Polka-Dot pumpkin looks like:
.....and...
This is what I did, following the directions super carefully. I purchaced the polkadot stickers, and me & the kids placed them all over the pumpkin.
Then we went outside and painted the entire pumpkin black, waited for about 10 mins until it was sticky-dry. Exactly like it said in the "directions" and..... this is what I got.

Cute Right... Baaahhhhaaa! I mean really, I followed the directions exact! I don't know what is the problem with MY Circle stickers- but obviously I don't have the "correct" circles, because, my pumpkin looks more like it's got a few sick polka-dots! Oh well, I tied a cute ribbon bow around it to try and make it look a little more appealing and set that thing out for viewing! That sucker took time & money to look that hideous.. I'm showing it off ;)

Project #2 of the day went a LOT smoother and I think turned out to be a winner! Goooo me for being somewhat "crafty"!
I have been loving all these cute art projects on Pinterest... I mean what, did you expect any different! Lots of cute kid projects like using your handprint as Santa's hat and beard OR making a giant Turkey out of hands and feet.... (just so you know, those are coming too- in a later post) But, one that caught my eye for the HALLOWEEN season is the oh so cute Ghost Feet! I just about had to beg my sweet sweet hubby into letting me do this as a "family" project... reluctantly he agreed, and up until today I think he agreed thinking this would be like my MANY projects before and never quite make it off the ground or in my over buying for project ideas- out of the bags! Boy was he surprised when he came home from work today and I greeted him with a hug, a smile, and a plate full of white paint and proceeded to remove his shoe! haha!
So back to project #2... Here's the example I found: Isn't that just the most adorable Halloween decoration you've ever seen! The ultra-crafty wanna-be in me smiled just looking at it, thinking of all the many years of joy it would bring me looking back to when my little "ghosts" were well.. cute & little! Like I said, I wanted this to be a family project and I even came up with a ultra cute, and I'll agree kinda "corny" family name for our little set of Ghost Feet!
I painted the kids feet and my own then added a few ribbon touches, I mean everything looks cuter with a bow.. right?!
It's that just adorable.. if I do say so myself! I'm pretty proud of my no-crafter abilities on this one. I even made a cute little title to go with it... Happy HOYLE-oween 2011!!

I guess 1 out of 2 isn't bad... My usual record on craft-y projects is a big ole zero! I've never had much luck with the crafts....
However, when it comes to pumpkins, this year we've got a couple cute crafts that I don't think I can even mess up!
Tonight in addition to our adorable ghost feet Hoyleoween & my not so adorable polkadot pumpkin, Ironman & Princess Pumpkin joined the festivities.
And here's one of my sweet babies happy to pose with their pumpkins..

And lastly... one of the reasons why I am not usually crafty... I just don't have the craft bone. There's always some casualties in the quest for adorable projects, tonight it was my dining room table! First, while trying to decide what eyes to use on my cute ghost feet, I used a sharpie to mark on paper. Who knew that sharpie would go strait through the paper. That ended up with several black sharpie dots on my table top. Attempting to scrub them off, I tried several cleaners, and then thought of trying goo-gone... mistake! The goo-gone took off the marker & also the finish on my table :( Now several small spots are one large spot! Ahhh well, the price to pay for the craft bug tonight......


And... One more pic for the day.
PUMPKIN PATCH day at PreSchool! All dressed and ready this morning in their Halloween gear to head to the Pumpkin Patch!

Cook for a day, eat for a .... ehhh a few days ;)

A few days ago a very dear friend of mine introduced me to this wonderful, um... interesting, um.. informative, um.. ADDICTIVE website, Pinterest. While browsing through this gem, I found a post to a blog that was titled, "Cook for a day, eat for a month." What a concept I thought to myself, only one day of cooking a month and still have healthy, yummy meals for my family- how is that possible! I read a little deeper and this woman had some great ideas so I was inspired. I do love to cook, but I also love to cook when I have time, and time is something that is scarce around my house these days! With a 2 & 4 year old, 2 preschools, working full time, attempting to stay healthy, and actually spend some quality family time, this sounded like a plan I might have to try.

So.. today while getting ready for my big grocery shopping trip for the week, I sat down with my notebook, coupons, store sale flyer, and of course my Coffee! I looked through all the sales and decided that there was a few cuts of meat that I would work for my inspired plan on sale for a pretty good deal and some vegetables too, combined with a few things I already had on hand, this could be a recipe for success!

I spent about 2 hours at the grocery store gathering all of the things I needed for the week as well as my "cooking for a month plan." I did spend a little more than I expected, but hopefully that will stretch over the next few weeks. My total before coupons and store card was $319... and after I paid $186.00. I was pretty happy with that total!

I started cooking about 4:20 and it really took me about an hour and a half from start to finish. I started prepping with my veggies, cut up potato's, green pepper, onion, carrots, squash, zucchini, and tomato's. Then on to prepping and trimming all the meat including, pork chops, chicken breast, chicken legs, chicken quarters, hamburger, and ground turkey. I also got all my sauces ready and made a few marinades before I started. I also put 2 boxes of pasta on to boil and browned the ground meats. Then I just started throwing stuff together. I picked a marinade, a meat, and then veggies or spices and .. Dinner's ready for the freezer! I had made a meal plan before going to the grocery store and basically I stuck with it, but added a few ingredients as I went along.

Here's what all I made:


2 servings of: Pork Chops with green pepper, zucchini, onion, squash, potato, and carrots in a Teriyaki marinade. I had purchased a value pack of pork chops so I separated them into 2 bags of 3 chops each with veggies. One bag is for dinner this week and one is in the freezer for sometime in the future!


BBQ Chicken Leg Quarters & Herb-garlic-Lemon Boneless Chicken Breast:


Salsa Chicken & Chicken in Italian Marinade with Onion, Carrot, & Potato:


Taco Meat: 2 bags of taco meat with rotel tomatoes:


2 pans of Baked Spaghetti with hamburger, pepperoni, green pepper, & onions:

Both pans wrapped in foil and ready for the freezer!

I also made a pot of baked potato soup and froze it into 3 cartons for later.


All together, I think I got about 16 meals out of my shopping trip today. Most of which will also have plenty left over for lunches for Wes and I so I guess I got more than that. I was happy with everything I made and think it will be great to have the ease of throwing something in the crock pot thats already marinated and preped from the freezer. Hopefully it will help with meal planning too. I really enjoyed the cooking and for the time it took it was well worth it to me to have those meals prepared ahead of time. I think the biggest problem with it was the cost of the meat and vegetables all at one time. It was a big expense, but I have meals prepared for the week and even some for a few weeks from now. I would think to cook for the month would take a small fortune, but with planning I think it's something I would like to do occasionally. It was really fun and didn't take very long.


Keeping with the "Prepared" theme of Sunday, I laid out all the kids clothes for the week down to shoes, undies, and even hairbows! I even laid out my clothes for the week... quite a large task for me ;)




All together a pretty productive Sunday and I'm prepared for the week! I've got my meal plans written out including Breakfast, Lunch for the kids, and dinner for all 4 of us. I've got all our clothes laid out for the week, and most of all I've got all the meals planned, prepped, and ready to be cooked, go in the crock pot, or added to salad and we're ready to eat! Fast, fresh, and hopefully healthy!

My sweet girl is TWO....

I can't believe my sweet baby girl is 2!! I had a really hard time on the week of her birthday but am so excited to start this new adventure in toddler-hood with her! We've gone through the toddler years with Miller, but something tells me that miss priss is probably going to be a whole different story in the Hoyle family book!

Anyways, EmmaLeigh had her 2 year doctor appointment this week and she was perfect, as we already knew, but it's always great to hear from an outsider!

I absolutely love Emma & Miller's doctor and really look forward to asking her questions about my kids and her opinions.

Emma was such a big girl and just put on a whole show for the nurses and the doctor. She was 35.5 inches tall (completely off the chart % wise) & she was 28.2 pounds (which is right at the 50% mark for weight) She has been off the chart for height since birth and she's keeping up her height even at 2 years old- I'm hoping she stays tall and slim.. she'll love that when she's a teenager!

I filled out all the paperwork and completed the questionnaire for her age group, answering all the questions on her stats and abilities. She passed them all with flying colors, I was amazed at how advanced she seemed just by the questionnaire. Dr. C came in and checked her out, she was growing well, no problems or concerns. She then went over the questionnaire and asked me a few questions about certain things, but most memorable, she asked me if Em "could put more than 2 words together." As Emma is being her wild self, and dancing around the room, she walks over to the door and attempts to open the knob, turns around to me and says, "Oh no door is locked, Mommie what gunna do." Dr. C busted out laughing and says- I think we can check that off the list!

Emma is right on track and doing wonderful. Dr. C is very pleased with her progress and says she is way too smart for her age! She is such a joy to our lives and it's great to hear she's as perfect as we all know she is!


A few things about Miss Emma as she enters the wonderful world of TWO...

Em absolutely loves her dogs, blankets, and animals. She must sleep with ALL of them every night and at nap! She has 2 dog blankets, 3 blankets, a stuffed pig, a stuffed kitty, 4 pillow pets (including one she stole from Miller), a blue dog blanket (also stolen from Miller), and a HUGE Pink dog (about 3 times larger than her- given to her by my sweet cousin Dusty). She sleeps laying all over the animals and must make sure they are all there before she can sleep!


She has really began playing house and playing with her babies. She loves to feed them bottles, sit them in the high chair, sing to them as she puts them in their crib, and of course put them in Time Out- complete with the finger pointing and "dont you dare get up!"


She loves to eat anything and everything! Emma's favorite foods are tomatoes and "Mackey Cheese" She will pick up a tomato and eat it like an apple. She is a great eater and will usually clean her plate.


Emma Loves to Sing & dance with her brother, and does anything he does!

Her favorite movie is Tangled and she loves to dress up in her Repunsal dress, shoes, and most of all the crown!

She keeps us on our toes and keeps us laughing constantly! I know I have said it before, but she is the most precious little girl, and I am So blessed to be her mommie!