Lion King 3D; a Jones Family Nightmare

The first Baker movie experience = EPIC FAIL.

Being the brilliant parents we are, we thought Sunday would be a fantastic day to take Baker to his first movie. Afterall, the boy LOVES movies. He will sit quietly at home and watch an entire movie sometimes. So we thought, since the Lion King is in our theatres in 3D for only a short time, he will love it...(Stupid thought #1)

Well, here is how the story goes. Read on if you want to feel better about the behavior of your own child.

First, we should have seen the enormous-slap-you-in-the-face red flag when he started a tantrum before we ever got in the car. He has been sick and is on medicine that makes him cray-cray, but we still wanted to take our chances. (Stupid thought #2)

We get there and Baker enthusiastically states "I go to MOOBIE" Great. He's excited!

Immediately he wants to get down in line for the tickets. "No, you can't there are cars all around and lots of people."

The walk to our theatre, equally protested.

Brent thought if we made him sit down in a seat from the beginning he would know this was not a playground. One of many ways we were wrong. (Stupid thought #3)

Tired of fighting him, we allow him to do one walk through of the theatre, up the stairs, down the stairs and across the front hoping he got it out of his system. Nope. (Stupid thought #4)

The final attempt at making him sit in a seat (we are on about preview #2 at this point) resulted in high pitched screaming and many many stares. I was that person I hate in movie theatres that bring their 2 year old to the movies. 2?? Come on lady? Who brings a baby to a movie?

So, I take him "out" into the hallway where he continues his fit of screams. Brent stays in the theatre with our stuff. Finally, I gave up and realized if we ask for our money back now they will surely understand. So, I find a manager (Baker still screaming) to ask for our money back. As I'm talking to her Baker uses all of his body weight to shove her as hard as he can. Excellent.

I can't even take him back into the theatre to get Brent so another employee has to do that.

I bet the Lion King 3D is great fun. We will never know. I do not plan to attempt the movies again until around age 7?

Again I say, Epic FAIL.

Cammy Cam

Aw, I wish this post was about Cammy Cam Newton, but alas...its about my new camera.
Here are some of my first snaps. Keep in mind I have no idea how to use this thing. In fact, I am overwhelmed at all the settings and how when I read the manual I only know what 20% of the words mean. I am so afraid I just won't learn this stuff an keep it on AUTO forever and just roll with it. The pics are still pretty good without anything fancy though. A lot better than my point and shoot.

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

I am excited to share that I will get to be onstage again in this super fun, hilarious musical with Theatre Tuscaloosa!

First let me tell you how this came to be. Brent has been trying to encourage me to audition for a show in town since I moved here 3 years ago. Once I had Baker I knew it would be a while before I was on stage again and that was fine with me. He strongly believes in keeping your own identity even though you have children. Its just hard for me because I hate guilt more than anything in the world. So, I just don't want to feel guilt every night when I leave for rehearsals.

With that being said, I decided I would only audition for a show if one came around that I really really really wanted to do. Well, that show came around. I was only right for 1 part. ONE part. So, I knew it was a slim chance anyway but I went for it.

So, I will be playing Logainne Schwartzandgrubinierre (yes) aka "Schwartzy". She is awkward, has a lisp, and wears high braided pigtails.

The show opens Nov. 13 and the cast is excellent. We start rehearsals Monday. I am very excited about this for several reasons.

For those of you worried about Baker, he goes to bed at 7:30 and rehearsal start at 7:00. (Honestly, I am reiterating this point to make myself feel less guilty).

Come see me debut my lisp!

Here is a description of the show:

THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE is a hilarious tale of overachievers' angst chronicling the experience of six adolescent outsiders vying for the spelling championship of a lifetime. The show's Tony Award winning creative team has created the unlikeliest of hit musicals about the unlikeliest of heroes: a quirky yet charming cast of outsiders for whom a spelling bee is the one place where they can stand out and fit in at the same time.

Weekend

We had a lovely weekend. My parents decided to come for a night on Saturday and although it was a short visit, it was lots of fun.

First, I found Baker like this, watching TV Friday night.

We watched football and went to the playground, ordered wings, and just had fun visiting with them.

Sunday after they left, we went to church and played in our bouncey house.

Now for a recipe you HAVE to try.

In keeping with my cookie kick, I decided to try a new recipe that was calling my name. Oreo Pudding cookies. So, so so good.

Oreo Pudding Cookies
Source: Sweet Treats And More
1 cup butter, room temperature

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 (4.2 ounce) package instant Oreo Pudding mix

2 1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 Hershey's Cookies N Cream Candy Bars broken into small pieces (I used 2.6 ounce King Sized bars)

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips ( I only used 1 cup and it worked well for me)

Note: I found Oreo Pudding mix at my grocery store but I also saw it at our Walmart and Target.Directions:Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Cream together butter and sugars. Beat in pudding mix until blended. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add the flour mixture and mix to combine. Stir in cookies n' cream pieces and chocolate chips. Batter will be thick.Using a cookie dough scooper, place golf ball sized dough balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. You do not want to overbake these! Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet before moving to a cooking rack. Store in air-tight container. Makes two dozen.

Last, after bidding and losing and bidding and losing on nice cameras, I finally got a nice camera! My friend Katie sold me her Nikon and I can't wait to get started taking great pictures.

Bakerisms

You know how its never as funny or cute when you try to explain the cute things your kids are doing verses actually being there? Well, I'm doing it anyway. Try to use your imaginations.

Trying his best to look around me to see the TV



I won't say this is my favorite age because I feel like that makes all the ages look un-fun, but I am really enjoying where Baker is right now. He is talking so much, in full sentences and just able to communicate, which makes him less frustrated with life in general. Its a win/win.


I want to remember the cute things he is doing right now because they will change in an instant. All I know is that we laugh a lot and I stand amazed at him every single day.


- From the beginning Baker says "Hold you" instead of "Hold me". Well that is cute enough on its own, but now he wants the characters painted on the wall at school to hold him and I encourage this. For example, he always goes up to the mouse and says "Mouse, Hold you?" and presses his cheek up to him. Hilarious. Then, the other day, he did it to the car. "Car, hold you?"


- If we ask him if he wants to do something and he does, he replies "Do want to walk" or "Do want popsicle"


- I can't begin to do this justice but he prounounces blue- "Beloooooo"- very stretched out and hilarious.


- When one of us leaves the room he immediately asks "Where'd Daddy go?"


- When we say goodnight to him, he now says "Sweet Dweams"


- "Dees way" is a common command when he wants us to go a certain way.


- Lately he likes to say "Thank you, your welcome" in the same phrase.

- If he wants to color its "Color paper" and never just "color". He saw ink on my hand the other day and said "Mommy, color paper"


-In order for him to agree to have his teeth brushed each night, we have to say "Gar Gar Gar" like a pirate. However, everyone has to be "gar gared" first before he will take his turn.


my pretty girl with his "gar gar"

- As soon as I pick him up from school he says to everyone "Bye evwybody, see you lader"

Love, love, love that boy.

Burlap

First let me make you aware of my new obsessions: Pinterest & Burlap.

I'm not sure why I was a late comer on the Pinterest train, but I am on board now. If you havent browsed around Pinterest, let me urge you to do so now.

Now, be warned you will probably feel less creative, like your house is ugly, and that you don't make enough fun meals, but it is sure to give you new ideas.

Ideas that I have had to form a spreadsheet for since there are so many I would like to try. So far, I have only tried some of the recipes- I am 3 for 4 on success rate with Pinterest recipes. I told you about Smores Cookies-those came from Pinterest, I also made Nutella cookies. They were not my favorite. They were easy, but just not that great to me. Fail. I posted about the Cinnamon Blondies- total success...

Last night, I made Chicken Cheesy Lasagna and it was a huge success. SO good.

I will be eating these leftovers today.

Now, there are several "crafy" things to do from Pinterest and honestly, my mind explodes when I see all of them. I am really not crafty, don't claim to be. Its just not my thing. However, Pinterest is really encouraging me to be more crafty. I was going to post about the many things I want to attempt, but then it would spoil the fun of me actually doing them. I will give you a hint though:

I've had my eye on this guy for a while now. Mainly because I love the burlap background and the project as a whole seems easy enough. In fact, ALL of the burlap ideas call out to me. I have a fall burlap project I WILL be doing. I just love it. More on that if I accomplish this anytime soon.
I also think these are cute:

Burlap Halloween pillows

The blog world these days is all about crafts and recipes and outdoing each other with the better ideas. I am fine with simply stealing said ideas (as long as they are easy and not very time consuming or expensive) So, hopefully I will be posting many completed projects/recipes from here on out.

Wow

"Wow" is all I have to say to summarize my gameday feelings.
I am equal parts happy/relieved/impressed and sad/ disappointed and scared for the rest of the season.
If you saw the Auburn v. Utah State game I'm sure you felt the same way. Of course Auburn has not been predicted to be very good this year (which is exactly how I like for it to be- fly under the radar) so that didn't bother me, but I have never seen us have to fight so hard to win our season opener. I had accepted our "loss" after Utah State's last touchdown. I just prepared myself for a long season and tried to come to grips with "there's always next year", but then a miracle happened. I am so impressed with the comeback and unwillingness to give up. That speaks volumes to me. A win is a win is a win! I know coming into this season as the reigning national champs is not easy. I can't imagine the pressure they were under going into this season.

As I mentioned in my last post, the deal was that if Baker wore his Bama jersey to school, then he wore Auburn on gameday. And he wore it proud, I might add.
I took this picture myself (obviously) right after the game and just told Baker to smile. I wasn't expecting this hilarious expression when I looked at the picture. What in the world?
And a little less enthusiastic...

The rest of the weekend was low-key, but fun. I really enjoyed the overcast weather. It was a nice change of pace from the sweltering heat. Saturday after the games we spent a LONG time in the pool. I love it when Baker will play and play and not try to get out after 10 minutes.

We have done aLOT of this all summer. Sitting in the swing, eating popsicles. Boy can put away some popsicles. I think he would eat them for breakfast lunch and dinner if we let him.

Yesterday rained hard the entire day so we blew up the bouncey house and put it in the garage. Again, I was SO glad Bake lasted more than 10 minutes. I think he had to do with it being cool and not sunny. I prefer not to play in the sun as well.

We went to church, Barnes and Noble, TCBY and did various other activities throughout the weekend, but it was nice to be at home with pretty much no plans.

And last, we had a "first" over the weekend. Baker tee-teed in the potty! I have not been rushing into potty training at all. I don't feel strongly about him hurrying to the potty and losing the diapers. So anyway, we have mainly just been talking to him about it to get him excited about going one day. In fact, we just bought a potty seat yesterday. He begged us to go "tee-tee" in the potty even though I knew he didnt really have to go. So, it was time for dinner and I was finishing that up while Brent let him try on his new seat. Lo and Behold, after some waiting, he tee -teed in the potty! It was glorious! We cheered and cheered and he was confused, but excited. Zoe was by far the most excited though! I don't think we are quite ready to go full out pull-ups, but its a start.

Almost time...

War Eagle everybody!

I'm in total gameday mode! We shall see what the Tigers pull out tomorrow.

Brent and I worked a compromise. Today is school spirit day and I told Brent he could choose for Baker to wear his Bama jersey at school or tomorrow in exchange for wearing his Auburn jersey the other day. He didnt want Baker's friends to make fun of him so he chose Bama jersey today.

War Eagle and Happy Gameday!