Naptime Musings

2011-10-31T17:07:00.004-05:00

We went to the pumpkin patch last week and our goal was to buy 100 pounds of pumpkins, because if you get 100 pounds, then the price goes down to $0.25 per pound. One of Emma's friends was with us and all the kids walked around the patch, grabbing pumpkins of all shapes, colors, and sizes, declaring each one the "perfect pumpkin". I was pushing the pumpkins around in a wheelbarrow, and as the load got heavier and heavier, I had to tell the kids not to walk next to the wheelbarrow because I expected it to tip at some point and I didn't want to crush any young children with tumbling pumpkins. I think I said, "Okay, that's the last one," about ten times, but finally we made it back. It probably shouldn't have been too much of a surprise, then, when the people weighed our wheelbarrow and we had 180 pounds of pumpkins! Sheesh. So, we have a LOT of pumpkins this year. We tried to give away a bunch to Emma's friend, but were still left with a huge amount.Steve carved a cute little one right away, and ever since then Emma has been begging to carve her own pumpkin. I was kind of against it but Steve said he would get some safer tools for her to use. I felt slightly better knowing he wasn't going to be just handing her a big old butcher's knife, but still a little nervous.She worked very intently for about an hour - apparently the little tools are not only safer but slower as well. I only came in the kitchen long enough to take these pictures. I couldn't bring myself to watch her for much longer than that because I expected blood to start gushing from her limbs at any moment.
Emma's pumpkin is the one on the right, and the other two are the pumpkins that Steve carved for Noah and Allie.
We've had these jack-o-lanterns out for two nights now, and they are already pretty deteriorated, thanks to our squirrels. They ate the one Steve carved awhile back, and they are wasting no time with these new ones. We can't remember squirrels eating our pumpkins before, but they are sure into it this year. Almost every time we pull in our driveway, it seems like there is a squirrel gnawing on our pumpkins. Weird.Happy Halloween!

2011-10-18T13:56:00.006-05:00

I have recently made three new cooking discoveries about which I am feeling kind of excited. It's very likely that no one else will be as excited as me about these things, but nevertheless, here they are:
1. Steve sometimes eats breakfast, but sometimes not, usually because he is in a hurry to get to work and doesn't have much time. I saw a really great way to make breakfast sandwiches on Pinterest a couple weeks ago, and thought they would be perfect for Steve (and anyone else who wants them) to have for breakfasts.
I used English muffins and bagel thins, but the bagel thins aren't quite as good as the English muffins. I only got them because initially I, for some unknown reason, only got one package of English muffins. When I went back to the store they were out of the whole wheat ones and I couldn't bring myself to by the white ones, so bagels it was. Ah well, live and learn. I also included sauteed spinach, eggs, soy "sausage", and white cheddar cheese. I wrapped and froze them all, and they are easy to thaw in the microwave for a quick breakfast or snack. They ended up being pretty delicious, and I will be making more of these for sure.
2. I have been seeing baked donuts on cooking blogs for awhile, and the idea seems pretty clever. However, I figured that most of the deliciousness of donuts comes from their being fried, so I did not rush out and purchase a donut pan. Eventually I couldn't resist anymore, and I decided that our first batch of donuts should be chocolate with chocolate icing. More "treat" than the donuts I will probably make most of the time, but I wanted the kids to warm up to these non-fried donuts, and also, I had half a carton of buttermilk in the fridge that I needed to use up.
Noah was so excited about making these donuts with me, and we both impatiently waited for Allie to wake up from her nap so we could all eat them together. Unfortunately, even though they were cute, these donuts were NOT good. I guess the buttermilk should have already been thrown out! We had to throw those donuts away, and I was starting to regret my donut pan purchase.
Luckily, I came across another delicious-sounding recipe for cider donuts and this one happened to also be much healthier than the first. These, thank goodness, were a hit! This afternoon we made our second batch of them in three days. Even though we just had them, the kiddos were pretty excited to have them again today - too excited, apparently, to let me take a picture!
If you ever try making donuts, it's a good idea to put the batter in a gallon Ziplock bag with a corner cut out and pipe it into the pans instead of trying to pour it in. I learned that the hard way. We also found out that, when sprinkling powdered sugar on the donuts, you should do it right before you eat them because if you do it on all of them at once, the sugar on the ones you don't eat right away will disappear. Then, of course, your children will insist that you add more powdered sugar before they eat those.3. There is a restaurant that opened up here a few months ago called Unforked. It's like a fast food place but with actual good food. They have this kale salad that is amazingly yummy, and sometimes we will go there mostly to get the kale salad. The other day I looked online to see if I could find that recipe anywhere, and voila! I tried it out at dinner last night, and it wasn't quite as delicious as the one at Unforked, but pretty darn close. I'm going to try to tweak it a little to see if I can get it to be exactly the same, but in any case, I see a lot of kale salad in my family's future!

2011-10-05T12:36:00.006-05:00

I am pretty lucky, as far as cooking goes, that Steve and Emma will eat literally anything and Noah and Allie will eat most things. Even if something doesn't turn out very well, I know that Steve and Emma will still eat it, even if they are ("they" meaning Steve) making fun of it the whole time. In particular, I can think of a certain lentil casserole from a few years back that is still brought up around here from time to time. Still, even with his non-pickiness, Steve has always preferred to have meat at a meal rather than not.

Spicy African Peanut Stew served over Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread

Back on August 13th, Steve and I were having a discussion about how people in America eat so much more meat than anywhere else in the world, and Steve commented that maybe we could stop eating meat for six months, just to see what it's like. Because of his fondness for meat, I totally scoffed at him and said there was no way he would do it. I'm pretty sure that my skepticism encouraged him to do it even more, just to prove that he could. We were going to Waldo Pizza the next afternoon with my family, so we decided we'd still go and have our beloved Roasted Corn and Bacon Pizza there, but after that, no more. We did want to leave the option of fish in our diet, so for the next six months, Steve and I planned to become pescetarians.

Reuben

On our first meat-free day, we went to Blanc Burgers for lunch. I ordered the lentil burger because it's delicious and I order it regularly, but I was still in doubt that Steve would actually stick with it. I never thought I'd see the day when Steve would order a lentil burger, but he did, and now we are roughly seven weeks into it and neither one of us has had a bite of meat.

Broiled Tofu with Mmm Sauce and Veggies

So far, I really don't think it's hard at all and Steve says he is not missing meat, either. I've cooked lots of new things, most of which have really been delicious. I already had several vegetarian cookbooks, but I ordered this one for new ideas, and it's awesome. Really, really awesome. There are a number of things I've made from that book that the kids have asked to bring to school for lunch the next day, which is always a good sign. I wonder if they're the only kids at their school eating tempeh tacos for lunch!

Lentil Shepherd's Pie

We like to eat out quite a bit, and at first we thought that might be tricky, but it's really not at all. Of course, there are always fish options at restaurants, but most places we go have other delicious meat-free options as well. We've been eating Thai food a lot, because you can basically choose from the entire menu and just order tofu as the protein instead of meat or chicken, but that is certainly not a problem because we all love Thai food. We have been invited to a couple picnics/parties where we had to eat before we went, knowing the only options there were going to be hamburgers and hot dogs. Also, some friends invited us over for dinner one night, along with a couple other families, and we worried about feeling awkward if they served meat and we didn't eat any. They knew about our no-meat thing, and sweetly ended up calling us beforehand to make sure it would work for us if they made pasta with shrimp and scallops. Absolutely no issue - perfect!

Tempeh Tacos with Yogi Gracamole (from the Peas book but not online anywhere)

My grandma and my parents (and apparently some of their friends and co-workers!) are wondering what we could possibly be eating, so I've posted some pictures of recent meals to ease their minds. Contrary to what some people think, vegetarians do have other options besides macaroni and cheese and cheese pizza! It's usually getting pretty dark these days by the time we eat, so these pictures are not great, but you can at least get the idea.

2011-09-29T12:44:00.003-05:00

Somehow, over the last month or two, the kids have suddenly become involved in many more activities than we have ever had before. I feel like a good chunk of my life these days is spent shuttling them back and forth to school and their various practices and classes. Right now we have Brownies, soccer, dance, and Karate, and next week we will be adding tumbling and Spanish as well! A number of these things are just at our YMCA, which is pretty low key, thank goodness!

Today is Noah's half birthday, so tonight we are going to take him out for ice cream to celebrate. It's hard to believe that tomorrow he will be closer to being five than three, when it seems like it was just yesterday that he was turning four. He is still as sweet as ever, but his interests have definitely changed over the past few months. After years of being a huge Thomas the Train fan, he moved onto a Star Wars obsession, and doesn't give Thomas a second thought now. He won't even wear his Thomas underwear anymore, which makes me a little sad.

Steve bought two lightsabers awhile ago, and he and Noah play with them constantly. Even though he never "wins", Noah never tires of the game. Steve drew this picture of himself and Noah, maybe to give Noah the impression that he is better than he actually is. I'm sure if Noah decided he was tired of the lightsabers, Steve would be pretty disappointed!A couple months ago, Noah saw a Storm Trooper gun at Target and begged and begged to get it. I still don't love the idea of playing with weapons so I told him that he could save up his own money to buy it, thinking there was no chance he'd be able to come up with the $20 price of the gun. He obviously had more faith in himself than I did, because he immediately set out to get $20. We told him that when we go out for ice cream, he could skip the ice cream and we'd give him $2 instead so he did that a few times, plus he did little jobs around the house and looked in all our nooks and crannies for money. One night he found $6 outside of Peach Wave, and another day he found $5 on the floor of Target, so both of those finds helped him quite a bit. We had a random plastic tube hanging around our house and he saved his money in there, calling it (for some unknown but charming reason) his "money carriage".Last week he finally had enough money so we all went to Target, with Noah proudly holding the money carriage. He picked out the gun, brought it to the check-out line, and purchased it all by himself.He has been playing with it a ton since then, and still seems very excited that he finally owns it. Even though I have always been opposed to toy guns, I don't begrudge him this one because he worked so hard for it and it makes him so happy. So far he has been following the rule of "no shooting Mommy", but if that changes at any time in the future, I may quickly decide otherwise!

2011-09-12T20:14:00.003-05:00

I am so happy that September is here! Fall is absolutely my most favorite season. I am not the only around here who is excited looking forward to cooler temperatures, though. In the future, I should probably not buy Allie any fall clothes or a winter coat while it is still warm, because then I end up with a little girl who insists on either wearing long sleeves and pants when it is 98 degrees, or wearing a winter coat with nothing else.Allie and Noah started preschool a couple weeks ago and they both seem to love it. It's a four hour day, with Allie going two days a week and Noah going three. I thought Allie might cry the first day at least, but she barely glanced at Steve and me as we walked out the door. When I picked her up, I asked one of her teachers if Allie had been sad at all, and she said, "Not even for a minute!"
Several people have asked me if I felt sad, dropping my baby off at preschool. Although I certainly adore her and love spending time with her, I really wasn't a bit sad. It may be different when she starts kindergarten or something, but for now, the idea of having eight hours every single week all to myself is just too exciting for me to be sad. After more than seven and a half years of doing all our grocery shopping with the kids, I can now finally go grocery shopping all by myself! Huzzah!

My marathon training is going okay. The marathon is just over a month away at this point. Several weeks ago I ran 20 miles, my farthest so far, and it was rough. The last three miles were kind of on the miserable side, and I didn't do much but lay in bed for most of the day after I got back. Ever since then, I have been a little more nervous about the marathon. This weekend I will be going 22 miles, and I am definitely wishing it were already over. I ran a half marathon a couple weeks ago, which I really loved, although that's another thing that is making me more anxious about the marathon. While the half marathon was great, I didn't really want to turn around and run it again right away, you know? Anyway, Steve took this picture of me in the half, right before I crossed the finish line. I am the one in the purple shirt. I finished in two hours, six minutes, and six seconds.

2011-08-30T16:00:00.003-05:00

Two days before Allie's birthday, Emma and Noah cooked up a plan to make her some type of present. They came to me to tell me about it, and started with, "Well, first we need you to sew her a dress...". I had to inform them that, while it was certainly a lovely idea, I was probably not going to sew her a dress in the next day, and that their plan should maybe involve more effort on their part, instead of all the effort on my part. Emma asked if they could give Allie a shirt instead, and if she could sew it herself.

My initial feeling was that I didn't trust Emma to use my sewing machine and that it would probably be better if they designed the shirt and I just sewed it myself. I then started to remember when I was a kid, probably just slightly older than Emma, and my grandma let me use her sewing machine all on my own to make whatever I wanted. For a long time, my little brother proudly wore a satin-y, red, sleeveless shirt with no hems that I had sewed for him, and I'm pretty sure the handle of my grandma's garage broom is still sporting a couple "broom covers" that I sewed. One time, my friend Nicki and I spent the night at my grandma's house and stayed up most of the night, sewing "pajamas" for ourselves. I use the term pajamas very loosely, considering that our "patterns" were made by laying on the fabric and tracing around our bodies with a marker. Still, I remember having a lot of fun sewing at my grandma's house, and I think it was awesome that she let me use her sewing machine when no one else trusted me enough to use theirs.Keeping all that in mind, I decided to let Emma sew the shirt herself (albeit with plenty of supervision). I helped her trace one of Allie's other shirts to make a pattern, and then once she had cut out all the pieces, I showed her how to use the sewing machine. With the exception of a small amount of sewing around the arm holes and ironing on the applique, she made the entire shirt by herself.
Allie was so excited when she opened it, and has worn it several times already. One time in particular, she wore it three days in a row, only finally taking it off when she managed to somehow drop a huge glob of guacamole down the inside of it. In the end, I'm glad that I let Emma sew the shirt because it's a cute present regardless, but definitely much more meaningful because she made it herself.

2011-08-23T12:59:00.003-05:00

Our computer broke last week, and even though I don't actually sit down at the computer on a daily basis, after about a week, sending emails or browsing the internet exclusively on my phone was starting to get on my nerves. We bought another computer on Friday and set it up last night, but at this point it's mostly worthless to me because it's completely empty of all my bookmarks, songs, pictures, etc. I was backing everything up on an external hard drive semi-regularly, so while most of those things are not lost for good, I don't really know how to get them from the external hard drive into useable form on this new computer.

Last Sunday Allie turned three years old. We had kind of a busy weekend with my parents in town and Steve and I having our first overnight alone together in seven and a half years. Suddenly it was Sunday afternoon and my parents had left and I realized I had no plans for a birthday cake for Allie. We asked her what kind of cake she wanted and she said a Dora cake. Since I'm really not a huge fan of my kids being into "characters", I kind of tried to talk her into something else, but she insisted. And, of course, since it was Allie's birthday, if she wanted a Dora cake, then a Dora cake it would be.

Steve acted like he thought I blew it, like how was I going to come up with a Dora cake at this late hour? Not to worry. During Allie's nap, Emma and I went to Michael's and bought a Dora cake pan. We came home and baked it together, ate dinner while it cooled, and then I decorated it right after we ate. It came together pretty quickly, and even though it is certainly no masterpiece, Allie seemed to love it, which is the most important thing.All week she has been telling random strangers that she is three, and even though I keep hearing it over and over, it's still hard for me to believe. It seems like she was just born. We were so surprised when we found out we were having another baby when Noah was only seven months old, but she has been such a wonderful surprise. Our family really is so much better because she is in it.
Happy birthday, big girl.

2011-08-06T15:53:00.003-05:00

Now that we are nearing the end of summer, I thought I'd post an update before it's over for good. Our summer this year has been really delightful. With the kiddos all getting older - Allie will be three next week! - we've settled into a wonderful groove that doesn't involve the things that troubled me during their babyhoods, such as getting them to just take a nap already or toddlers demanding to nurse 24 hours a day. I feel like we have entered a new stage of our lives, and it happens to be pretty awesome.

This is the first summer I've felt comfortable taking the kids to the pool by myself, and we've been going three or four days a week. Emma and Noah have both learned to swim, and Emma has recently perfected the art of jumping off the diving board. I thought I might be tired of the pool by the end of the summer, but nope. I think we are all going to miss it when it closes for the year.

We also joined the YMCA this summer, which has been great. I've attempted to join various community centers in the past, but always had to give up the idea, due to somebody or other crying for me in the childcare. This time around they all like it and often ask to go there even more, even though we already go at least three days a week.

This summer I have also decided to train for the Kansas City marathon, which is in October. I signed up with a running group that does their long runs on various routes around the city every Saturday. Long runs by themselves do not seem that great, but running with this group is a lot of fun. This morning the run was in Lawrence and I was not too keen on getting up and driving an hour to get to Lawrence by 6:00 a.m., but I was also supposed to be running seventeen miles and I didn't want to do that all by myself. The kids and Steve and I all ended up going to Lawrence last night and staying in a cool old hotel for a mini-vacation, and the really great thing was that this morning I only had to walk out of the hotel and down the street to meet up with everybody and run my seventeen miles.

Steve and I had our eighth anniversary last week. We went out to dinner with the kids, but the real celebration is going to come next weekend, when my parents are going to take the kids to a hotel overnight while Steve and I stay at a bed and breakfast on the Plaza. It will be our first night together without the kids since Emma was born. We attempted it once when I was pregnant with Noah, but my parents ended up driving an inconsolable Emma to us at 2:00 in the morning. I hope this time ends up a little better than that!

That's about it for now, because we are off the the Royals game for the night. Go Royals!

2011-05-25T11:04:00.002-05:00

Over the weekend we had our Second Annual Girls' Weekend with my dad's side of the family. Last year we all went to Rocheport, but this year all the out-of-towners came to Kansas City and everyone stayed at my brother and sister-in-law's house. We managed to pack a crazy amount of fun into two days and nights. Our weekend included the City Market, pedicures, meals out, a play at the American Heartland Theater, shopping at the Plaza, and of course, plenty of plain old sitting around and chatting.Since I live so close, I came home late both nights to sleep in my own bed and check in with my family before leaving again in the morning. They made the most of my being gone most of the weekend by going plenty of restaurants where I refuse to go, but that they all like, such as Applebee's and Waffle House. Steve also took them to a Royals game, and I think they celebrated my not being there for that by consuming an extraordinary amount of junk!Like last year, all of the ladies were supposed to bring some sort of memento for everyone else to take home. A couple years ago my lovely friend Allison gave me some decorated magnetic clothespins, and I have been using them on my fridge ever since. I've often wished that I had more of them so I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to make some - I could make plenty to give away, but also keep some for myself! They ended up looking pretty cute and we liked them so much that Emma is making more for end-of-the-year teacher gifts.I am so happy that my family started this tradition and I am already looking forward to next year!

2011-05-11T12:38:00.002-05:00

Some more random tidbits...

~ Emma and Allie both have had a little trouble, for pretty much their whole lives, growing their hair. Emma has worked her whole life to get long hair, and after more than seven years, with only three trim-type haircuts, this is where she has gotten.A couple weeks ago, out of nowhere, she started saying she wanted to cut it. She kept bringing it up, so we brought her in to Great Clips to get it done. I sort of thought she'd back out at the last minute, but nope.I thought it looked so cute afterward, and she seemed happy with it. Happy, at least, until later that night when we thought she was getting ready for bed. In reality, she was in her room, crying her poor little eyes out. After a lot of reassurance, she finally stopped crying and since then there have been no more tears over the loss of her hair.

~ This past weekend, on Mother's Day, I ran a 5k race - my first race in almost fifteen years. Last fall I spent a few weeks trying to get myself into running again, and at that time I was running around twelve-minute miles. I gave up on the running pretty quickly, and didn't do any sort of working out until January when I started trying to do some sort of exercise video just about every day. When I attempted to run again in March or so, I was amazed that - just because I was in much better shape - I was able to run ten-minute miles. I signed up for the 5k to give myself some motivation and, since I figured I'd keep getting a little faster, I made a personal goal for myself to finish the race in under 28 minutes, which means my mile split times would have had to be around 9:30. I am excited to say that my actual race time ended up being 25:58! There were 448 people in my age group (age 30-35) and I came in 18th, so I was feeling pretty darn proud of myself afterward. I really enjoyed the race, and now I am looking forward to running a 10k in July and then a half marathon in October.

~ Remember how my car A/C was broken? Well, last Wednesday they fixed it (again) and asked me to bring it by in a week so they could check on it. Unfortunately, it didn't even make it a week because by yesterday it wasn't working again. Wait though, it gets worse. Monday night our house A/C stopped working! Consequently, I had no way to escape yesterday's scorching heat. When we went to bed last night it was 90 degrees in our house - blech! Even though I would have liked to avoid these problems all together, they certainly make me appreciate the luxury of having a temperature-controlled environment! I only have to suffer through until A.B. May gets here on Saturday (and my van should be fixed this afternoon), but some people had to go their whole lives with no A/C. I definitely feel for them after these last few days! Yesterday the kids and I spent most of the afternoon at Chik-Fil-A, just to get a little relief from the heat, and I expect that again today we will make an effort to spend as little time as possible in our house.~ This morning we took the kids to a charity breakfast for the Strong City School Fund. When we heard about it, we thought it was a good cause and wanted to go, but didn't know if it would be very kid-friendly. I called the lady in charge and she said we could bring them if we wanted, but I sort of got the idea from her that my kids would likely be the only ones there. We decided to go anyway, hoping for the best. This morning as we walked into the Downtown Marriott, into a sea of adults dressed in business attire, I momentarily regretted my decision. With our three little kids in hand, I felt like we totally stood out. In the end though, the kids really pulled it off. I don't think they annoyed anyone too terribly, and the only two incidents involved Allie's spilling her wine glass of orange juice and then later peeing on her dress a little when Steve took her to the bathroom. All in all, not too bad!

2011-05-01T13:01:00.003-05:00

Some random tidbits...

~ The Easter Bunny brought sunglasses for the kids, and they have been wearing them everywhere all week. The fact that sunglasses are usually just worn outside is totally lost on them. (The quality of that photo is so poor due to the very limited light that is available at the ungodly hour at which my children wake up.)

~ My driver's license expires tomorrow, so on Friday I was planning to go get a new one. It turns out that apparently you need your birth certificate for that, and when I opened our family's "identification documents" folder, I only found Steve's, Emma's, Noah's, and Allie's. Where the heck is my birth certificate? I wonder how much of a hassle it is to get a new one.

~ Is anyone else as excited as me about zucchini being in season? I am particularly obsessed with the zucchini-and-corn combo lately, as evidenced by our dinners this week. We've had zucchini, corn, and feta quesadillas, quinoa with corn and zucchini, and zucchini, corn, and goat cheese pizzas. Yum yum yum! What else can I make with corn and zucchini?

~ I've been getting my hair highlighted for years now, and I'm getting a little tired of it. It's expensive and it always takes so long. I'm considering coloring it myself, using the stuff in a box. Steve thinks that I will be sorry, but I think I really just am not that into hair color so even if it doesn't look great it won't be the end of the world. We will see.

~ Last August I paid something ridiculous like $800 to have the air conditioner in my van fixed. This spring, the first time I tried to turn it on, it didn't work. I took it back and they fixed it again (for free, thankfully). Now it isn't working - again. Come on, people! We are dropping it off again tomorrow, hopefully for the last time.

~ We made these little Easter treats for the kids' teachers and people in our family. They were the perfect project for the kids because they were able to do everything themselves except for tying on the ribbon at the end. I was kicking myself because I had just dropped off a bin of glass for recycling a couple days before we did this, so we ended up having to use canning jars. Other jars would have been better because they would have been plain on the outside, and also I wouldn't have been wasting my canning jars, but overall I think they ended up being pretty cute.
~ Tomorrow I will be 32 years old. So far my 30's have been pretty enjoyable so I am looking forward to another great year!

2011-04-14T11:40:00.003-05:00

For years, whenever we go to the library, I've just picked up whatever books I have on hold and then browsed around the juvenile section with the kids. Yesterday, however, we went there because we had some time to kill and I didn't have any books on hold waiting for me, so I decided to browse around in the cookbook section to see if I could find anything good to read while we were there. I can't believe I don't do that more often! I love cookbooks and, even though they were getting heavy and I knew I would feel kind of silly checking out so many, I kept adding to my pile. Look what I came home with!I've been having fun reading through these since yesterday, and finding all sorts of new delicious-sounding things to make. There was a slight downside to my random browsing, however. Allie was carrying her own bag for her books, and while I was engrossed in the cookbooks, she was close by taking other books off the shelf and adding them to her bag, completely unbeknownst to me. Then when we checked out, I was distracted by Noah's abusing the handicap door button and possibly smashing unsuspecting library patrons in the door, so I didn't pay much attention to the books that we were actually getting. You can imagine my confusion at home when I unloaded the books and discovered some real gems, such as Living with Diabetes and (sure to become a family favorite) Busting Out: Putting Your Best Breasts Forward.
Later in the afternoon, I wanted to make some strawberry preserves. I made a batch of strawberry/cranberry preserves back at Christmas to go in gift baskets and I thought those turned out really well. We have used up the last of that batch and we enjoyed it so much that I wanted to make more, except just a strawberry version this time. I found a recipe that didn't use pectin, which is a plus, and it had lots of good reviews so I decided to go with that one.The mixture was supposed to boil until it reached 220 degrees. In the reviews some people complained that theirs didn't set up and then other people said that was because they probably didn't wait until it reached 220. Because of this, I kept boiling and boiling and boiling mine forever, waiting for it to get hot enough. It was only up to about 200 when I started to get the idea that it was burning. There was the slightest burning smell, and when I stirred it, there was charred black stuff on the bottom. Finally I gave up and just put it all in the jars, hoping for the best. It did set up, but the flavor isn't wonderful. I'm not sure what happened. I did cut back on the sugar by half, so maybe that affected it's ability to get up to 220 degrees. Who knows? It's not great, but still good enough that I think we will go ahead and eat it. Emma used it to make some pb&j sandwiches and, thankfully, there were no complaints from the peanut gallery.

2011-04-11T13:25:00.003-05:00

Emma has been asking for a new bike for awhile, and we've told her that as soon as she learns how to ride without training wheels, we will get a new bike for her. Unfortunately for her, there isn't really a good spot to learn because there are no sidewalks in our neighborhood and I won't let them ride in the street. Finally last weekend, we loaded up the bikes and drove to a big, empty parking lot, hoping to teach both Emma and Noah how to ditch the training wheels.

Honestly, I didn't have very high hopes. When Emma first got her bike back in September of 2008, it was a disaster. She was terrified and as we walked along next to her, she kept letting go of the handle bars to grab onto us which, of course, is no way to ride a bike. We were all so frustrated that day that I think we put the bike in the garage and didn't get it back out again until the next spring. Even after that, it took her a long time to feel comfortable with it. I found this picture from her first day with her bike, and I was really hoping that getting rid of the training wheels would go a little more smoothly!Steve had the brilliant idea to stop and buy them protective gloves, elbow, and knee pads. Noah in particular fell down quite a bit and never once got hurt. The whole thing went much better than we expected - in fact, both of them were pedaling around all alone within five minutes! We were so proud of them!

Since then, we've been going to various parking lots and trails so they can practice riding. Emma has it down completely, but Noah has suffered a few mishaps. On Saturday he fell and hit his poor little face on the ground, resulting in bloody scrapes on his forehead and chin. Yesterday they were riding around a little trail loop that had a big mud puddle in the middle. They all loved speeding through the puddle, spraying muddy water into the air behind them, until Noah slipped and fell right in the middle of said puddle. He was a wet and muddy mess, but recovered quickly.Allie has been working on riding her bike with the training wheels, and has made some progress as well. Even with the training wheels, she still manages to fall quite a bit. There is a home video that my mom took of my little brother years ago when he learned how to ride a two-wheeler and at one point in the video he falls on the driveway, and I remember my other brothers and I rewinding that video over and over and laughing every time we saw my brother fall. Maybe someday my own children will look back on our videos and laugh:

2011-03-29T11:58:00.003-05:00

That was sweet little Noah, four years ago today. Whenever one of my kids has a birthday, I always find myself thinking back to the day they were born. This morning while Allie and I strolled through Target at 11:00, I told her that four years ago at that exact moment, I knelt down to buckle Emma into the stroller and my water broke all over the driveway. Allie didn't seem too interested, but I am happy to think back to that day when Noah came into our lives.

I'm convinced that kid might be the sweetest little boy who ever lived. He is super affectionate, and is a wonderful cuddler. He comes into our room every night, crawls into bed, and quietly asks, "Mommy, can we cuddle?" One night he didn't come in, and in the morning when Steve and I realized he had stayed in his own bed all night, we both felt sad that maybe his cuddling days were over. Luckily, that was just a fluke, and he has been in every night since. He is generally pretty sweet to his sisters, too. A few weeks ago my parents were visiting and the kids were going somewhere in their car. Noah told my dad that he wanted to sit next to Emma, and when my dad asked why, Noah said, "Because I love her." Awww. That really warms my heart. (When my dad then asked him if he wanted to sit next to Allie, his response was a little less sweet: "No. She bites!")The kids and I went to my parents' house over the weekend and we celebrated Noah's birthday while we were there, in addition to going bowling, playing laser tag (which was SO fun!), making a train out of chairs, and playing lots of games. Tonight he wants to go to Minsky's for dinner, and I made an Oreo ice cream cake to take along. I wanted to do something different than regular cake, since we just had that over the weekend, but yesterday he told me he was excited about his train cake. Oops. I hadn't been planning to do any special decorating, so hopefully he'll be content if I just pipe a train track and slap a toy train on the top.
We made M&M cookies for him to bring to preschool today, and Allie and I are going this afternoon to read a book to his class while they eat their treats. I'm starting to get a teeny bit nervous about it, even though I realize it's silly to be nervous about reading a book to a bunch of preschoolers. Still, I know Noah will be excited when Allie and I get there, and hopefully the kids will be too busy munching on their cookies to pay much attention to my reading!

2011-03-18T22:26:00.003-05:00

Last night we went out to dinner to celebrate my sister-in-law's birthday. We got a baby-sitter for the kiddos and it was fun to enjoy a meal during which no one crawled under the table or spit out globs of chewed food or stuck their hand in my water. Our baby-sitter is a sweet eighth-grader at Emma's school and this was her second time watching the kids. The first time she came, it was our first time ever leaving the kids with someone who was not a relative and I felt slightly guilty and uncomfortable about that, but the kids seem to love her and it's gone really well both times.I wanted to make a little treat for the birthday girl, and since it was St. Patrick's Day and also because I've been wanting an excuse to make these cupcakes for quite awhile, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to make them. They are chocolate Guinness cupcakes with a Bailey's ganache filling in the center and Bailey's buttercream icing on top. Seriously yummy, although they took most of the afternoon to make and I probably won't make them again because I don't think cupcakes are worth quite that much effort to me. When I was almost finished with them, Noah came and asked me if I would make those cupcakes to bring to his class for his birthday later this month. I had to tell him no, because not only would it be wildly inappropriate to serve cupcakes with alcohol in them to a bunch of preschoolers, but I think the only cupcakes in my near future are going to come from a boxed cake mix and premade icing!Earlier this week the kids and I made a healthy carrot cake which Noah has happily been eating for breakfast every day, and also a batch of peanut butter oatmeal sandwich cookies. The cookies were pretty delicious and I could have likely eaten them all in a very short amount of time, but luckily we had to bring them up to our church for a bake sale thing they have going on there this weekend. I have pretty much stopped making cookies for just our family to eat, but I always jump at the chance to make them whenever they are needed at the kids' schools or at church. That way the kids and I get to make cookies together and then we get to enjoy one or two (or maybe four or five) and then we take them somewhere where they can't tempt us anymore. It's win-win!Today we went to Kaleidoscope and the Under the Sea exhibit at Crown Center. It was a lot of fun but I think they were all worn out because they all fell asleep early tonight. Steve is asleep in there with them, so I have been enjoying an entire evening of peacefulness all to myself. Bliss!

2011-03-13T10:20:00.000-05:00

Since I'm trying to get more exercise these days, I'm also trying to be a little more aware of what I eat. Generally I think I have a pretty healthy diet, except for my darn sweet tooth that is always letting me down, especially at night after the kids are in bed. So, for the most part, I am just trying to cut back on things like deciding to make brownies at 9:00 at night or trying to convince Steve to run to Sheridan's for some ice cream when I should probably be going to bed instead. With this in mind, last weekend when we were at Mimi's for breakfast, I decided that maybe I should order something instead of my usual eggs Benedict. I picked out something healthier, but then I started to think about how I would feel when Steve's eggs Benedict showed up along with my less-delicious breakfast, I wanted to make sure it was absolutely worth it before I went ahead and ordered something else. I was frantically trying to look up the calorie counts on some website on my phone while our server was taking our order, and in the end I couldn't find it in time, so I went ahead and ordered my wonderful eggs Benedict (which, of course, was unbelievably tasty).

After that experience, I found an app that lists the nutritional information for every single thing at pretty much every chain restaurant there is. I was excited to find that because I thought it would be pretty interesting. Um, no. Interesting, yes, and probably really for the best, but now that I know the nutritional information on some things I eat pretty regularly, I kind of wish I could go back to my previous happily ignorant state! There are three places where we go quite a bit - Jason's Deli, Cheesecake Factory, and Chik-Fil-A. At Cheesecake Factory, I order the Chicken Bellagio every single time because it is SO delicious. Well, now that I know that it has 1,981 calories (!) I can, sadly, never order it again. Also, as a general rule no one in our family ever orders fries at restaurants, and we really like Chik-Fil-A because they have good options of fruit and yummy coleslaw instead of fries. I love their coleslaw and usually finish my own little cup as well as any leftovers that my family members do not finish of their own. I will not be doing this anymore, either, because one teeny tiny cup of coleslaw has 580 calories and 50 grams of fat! Jeez! We would be better off eating the fries! Lastly, every time we go to Jason's Deli we order our own things, but then always order a Plain Jane for everyone to share. A Plain Jane is a humongous baked potato that is loaded with everything that makes baked potatoes delicious - butter, sour cream, bacon, and cheese. Obviously, I knew it couldn't be good but split between the five of us, how bad could it be, right? Turns out, bad. Really, really bad. One Plain Jane baked potato has - are you ready for this - 2,291 calories and 146 grams of fat! So. I'm not sure if the lesson here is that you should try and find out the nutritional information for the stuff you get at restaurants, or if you shouldn't because they might end up being ruined for you forever!

Our weekend so far has been kind of a bummer. Emma has been really sick with a high fever and all day yesterday and all night last night she has gone back and forth between sleeping fitfully and crying because she is so hot and miserable. I don't remember her ever having a fever like this, but I hope it goes away soon. I feel terrible for her, and am also disappointed that we have not been able to do the fun stuff we had planned for this weekend.

And, just so this isn't yet another picture-less post, here is a picture of Allie in a dress that she has been wearing for four days now. I bought the girls matching dresses at Costco and I am glad that Allie likes her so much, although at some point I am going to have to wrestle it away from her because by now it's dirty enough that it's starting to gross me out a little bit!

2011-03-06T18:05:00.002-06:00

I think I mentioned here awhile back that I was doing the 30 Day Shred workout. I did it for thirty days in October, and I liked it, but when the thirty days were over I totally stopped doing any working out whatsoever. In January I wanted to get back to it, so I planned to do one of the workouts every other day. I also bought a few of Jillian Michaels' other videos and starting adding them in as well. I really noticed a positive difference in my energy level on the days I worked out so I started doing a workout every day, and after awhile I started to feel like I was ready for something more. I had heard other people mention P90X but it seemed a little more hard core than I wanted, and also the workouts are all between sixty and ninety minutes and I didn't think I wanted to devote that much time to working out every single day. Still, I was getting pretty tired of the Jillian videos, so eventually I caved and ordered P90X.

Now I am on day ten of P90X, and I am loving it! I'm sort of amazed at how much I look forward to the workouts every day. I'm guessing that after eighty more days of it, my excitement may be waning, but for now I am really happy to be getting in shape and actually enjoying it!

When I first started the Shred workouts - which are only twenty minutes long - my kids seriously drove me nuts during them. They would constantly try to crawl under my legs and would be in my space, making it very difficult for me to move. They learned pretty quickly, however, that mommy doesn't like it when you sit on her back while she's doing push-ups! Now though, they are more accustomed to it, and (surprisingly) they really don't interfere much at all anymore. Before I start I make sure to get out some toy - Legos, blocks, etc. - that will keep them busy, and I put a strip of tape down the middle of our rug. They are free to play and do whatever they want on their side of the tape, and I am free to move around as needed on my side.

Of course, occasionally someone will need help in the bathroom or need a snack or something and that's totally fine. The only time that bothered me was during the ninety minute yoga session, when they were really making it hard for me to concentrate. Tomorrow is a yoga day again, and instead of doing it at home, I'm planning to go to a Bikram yoga class with my sister-in-law, who goes all the time. I'm excited, but also kind of nervous about that. Not so much about the yoga itself, but about the temperature. They keep the rooms at 105 degrees with some crazy high humidity level, and I can see myself either passing out or, if not that, at least giving up and tearing out of the room to escape the miserable torture of the heat. Let's hope it does not come to that, but I will update and let you know either way. I'm sure you are on the edge of your seat!

2011-03-03T10:45:00.003-06:00

Last week one day, Emma asked me when she could get a cell phone. When I told her I didn't know, she asked me how old I was when I first got a cell phone. She seemed pretty incredulous when I told her I was 22, and even more shocked when I told her that cell phones didn't even exist when I was her age. We started talking about when different things were invented, and she asked if TVs were around when I was little. I said yes, but then told her that there weren't any TVs at all when her great-grandmas were little. "So they couldn't even watch movies?" she asked, as if she could hardly believe such a thing were possible. Noah, who had been listening to our conversation, thought about that for a second, then chimed in with, "Yes they could, Emma. They probably just watched them on their iPads!"

2011-02-25T22:24:00.003-06:00

So, remember how I mentioned that Emma had lost a couple teeth? Well, the first time around our tooth fairy behaved like a respectable little tooth fairy should, bringing her gift on the actual night that the tooth was lost. The second time around, however, she totally choked - not once, but twice. Both mornings Emma was disappointed, and I guess she wanted to make sure that she wasn't forgotten again, because when I finally stealthily reached under her regular pillow to grab her tooth pillow on the third night, I found it laying on top of this sweet little note:I wrote a sloppy reply, trying to disguise my handwriting, and I guess she fell for it, because she seemed to have forgiven the tooth fairy by the next morning. Hopefully the tooth fairy can get it together before any more teeth are lost!

Tonight we are having a sleepover at our house with two other little girls from Emma's class. I think they've been having a great time so far, but now they've been in bed for about an hour and I can still hear very loud whispering coming from the room. I am tired and would like to be in bed, but I can't really go to sleep while they are all still awake...hence the blog update! Steve said he would keep an eye on them for the rest of the night, but he is watching a movie with his headphones in the living room, which means he is essentially deaf to whatever is going on in Emma's bedroom. Also, being engrossed in the movie, he is completely oblivious to the little girls who are getting out of bed to go to the bathroom (again) or get a drink (again) or just to tell us they can't sleep.

Now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure that there was never very much actual sleep going on at the sleepovers when I was a kid. Maybe I'm being naive to think these girls are actually going to go to sleep? Do the parents really have to stay up as long as the kids are awake? Hmmm... I might have to give this some more thought before agreeing to any more sleepovers in the future! In the mean time, I suppose I better go find something to do to keep me awake for as long as I'm forced to stay up. Yawn.

2011-02-21T13:40:00.001-06:00

This sweet girl turned seven last Monday. Doesn't she look like an old kid? We had three celebrations due to different people being in town and different friends being able to come over other days, but it was just our own family on her actual birthday, which was perfect.I guess to celebrate being seven, she has been losing teeth like nobody's business. Her first one was loose for months, and she wouldn't let anyone touch it. Finally it was so loose she could turn it all the way around in her mouth, but it still was not out. My parents were in town at that point, and one morning we all went out for breakfast. Emma spent a good chunk of the meal crying about her tooth, unable to eat, yet still unwilling to let anyone get near it. I was starting to worry that this whole business of losing teeth might be more drama than it was worth. Luckily, that afternoon she was sitting on the couch, absentmindedly moving at around with her tongue, and it just fell out! I think she was surprised at how easy and painless it was. By then she had two more loose teeth, one of which just popped out Friday morning while she was brushing her teeth, completely drama-free. Hurray!

I had been planning to make little tooth pillows for all my kids, but when I mentioned that to Emma last summer, she said she wanted to make one herself. Even though I was the teeniest bit sad that I didn't get to do it, I let her pick out the fabric, plan the design, and sew it all herself (well, I helped stitch on the little heart pocket). So, when that first tooth finally fell out, there was a sweet little pillow already waiting for it. (For some reason, this picture is showing up sideways and I can't for the life of me figure out why. I'm not going to spend any more time on it, so just tilt your head a little and you'll be good.)

2010-12-30T09:49:00.004-06:00

The kids have this whole week off school and we don't have a single thing on the calendar. I was worried that we might start getting on each other's nerves with all this uninterrupted togetherness, but this week has been really delightful so far.We've had lots of time to use our new Christmas presents. My grandma gave Noah and Emma these gingerbread kits and they were really excited to put them together. Noah and Allie started decorating the train, but then pretty soon they realized they could eat the candy instead, so most of the candy went in their mouths instead of on the train. I guess bowls filled with colorful little candies are just too hard to resist! Once they had finished eating the candy in the bowls, they started in on the train, and by the next morning it looked like this:Emma's house has fared a little better, although every day it seems there is a little less candy than the day before.That sweet little girl pretty much just sits and works on projects all day long. We gave her a potholder loom for Christmas so she has already made several of those,and she also got some oil pastels that have been keeping her busy. She just blows me away with her artistic ability. At six years old, she is better at drawing than I have ever been.She also just comes up with random crafty ideas and then will spend hours working on them. Today she has been busy making an elaborate New Year's Eve banner. Yesterday she asked me for some aluminum foil, then drew and cut out a bunch of stars and a moon. She wanted me to hang them on the fan in the living room, "to set the mood", she said. For what, I'm not really sure, but I do think they look kind of festive.I am going to be feeling sad next week when she goes back to school!

2010-12-22T08:39:00.002-06:00

We have been busy making so many things here. I think my kids are at the most fun age for Christmas. They are so excited about every single aspect of Christmas, particularly the gift-giving one. Noah brings me his toys all day long, wanting me to help him wrap them for Emma and Allie, and Emma is hard at work pretty much every spare minute, making cards, ornaments, and presents for everyone she can think of.One of the things we have made so far is marshmallows. I made simple little baskets for Noah's teachers with hot chocolate, candy canes, and the marshmallows.They were really fun to make, and I think they turned out pretty well. Just one more reason to have more hot chocolate around here!

2010-12-13T21:39:00.003-06:00

It is cold, cold, cold here! We had some snow Saturday night and yesterday morning the kids insisted on going outside to play. I think it took about an hour to drag all the snow stuff out and bundle everyone up. Allie took the longest because she slapped on a hat and some ski pants and insisted she was ready to go, refusing to put on anything else for quite some time.Once they got outside, I think they lasted about three minutes. I snapped this picture of Noah through the window, safe inside the warm house. Doesn't it look miserable out there?!

2010-12-09T11:42:00.004-06:00

This year I participated in the the same ornament swap that I done for the last five (or is it six?) years. I almost opted out this time, mostly because I don't do much crafting these days and I didn't know if I'd have the time, but now that it's over I'm glad I did it and I'm already thinking about what I can make for next year's swap.

I made these little cupcake ornaments, and I think they turned out pretty well. I had an extra one that I made for myself, but I ended up giving it to someone else. I'd like to have one to keep, but I'm pretty sick of making cupcakes, so I don't know if that will happen!As always, I got some pretty adorable stuff in return. It's always fun to hang the new ornaments on the tree.Since I was already doing the ornament swap, I went ahead and did another swap that included making something for four other friends. I made them each a set of four cloth napkins.In exchange, I received a Christmas plate, two knitted washcloths, a hanging kitchen towel, and a decorated canvas that is now hanging in our living room.For both of these swaps, I am happy to say that I used only items that I already had in my basement. My goal was to not buy anything new, and it isn't as fun as going to pick out new fabric, etc., but I did it. There is so much fabric, yarn, and other random crafty stuff in my basement that I could probably do swaps for several years and still never have to buy anything new!

Last week I was reading through some of my old blog posts, and feeling sorry that I haven't blogged nearly as often in the last two years. I am feeling a little more inspired after reading old posts, so now I'm going to try to blog at least once a week. In the past I always tried to have pretty pictures on here, but now it seems like whenever I take pictures with the intent of using them in the blog, it just doesn't ever happen. The pictures sit in my camera for weeks and never see the light of day. So, I am hopefully going to be blogging more, but be warned that most pictures will likely be those of the crappy cell phone variety. Since I can take those and immediately email them to myself, I am much more likely to actually blog about them!

2010-12-02T13:04:00.002-06:00

Christmas season is officially in progress around here! We had promised the kids we would put up our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, and they were seriously beside themselves with excitement. I wanted to put up the little tree again, but I was outvoted 4-1. Sunday afternoon, we set up the tree and then immediately discovered that very few of last year's lights still worked (doesn't that always happen?) so we had to pause work on the tree for a run to the store. One store turned into two and then it was time for dinner and then we remembered that Emma still had homework to do, and before we knew it, it was time for the kids to go to bed.

They were pretty upset so we let them each pick out four ornaments to hang on the tree, with a promise that we'd finish the tree as soon as Emma got home from school on Monday, along with some hot chocolate and gingersnap cookies. We still had the cookies left from when I made them for Thanksgiving, but I immediately regretted offering up the hot chocolate. We don't ever have hot chocolate here, and I don't even really like it much, so I wasn't relishing the idea of a trip to the store just to get some.When I talked to my mom the next morning, she suggested I make it from scratch. Ah-ha! Why didn't I think of that, or even realize it was possible? So that afternoon, we had a fun time decorating the tree while munching on cookies and drinking some really really delicious hot chocolate. (It probably didn't hurt that I added some Bailey's to mine!) It was so easy to make, and so much tastier, that I will certainly not ever use the powdered stuff again. I actually made some more that night after the kids were in bed, just for Steve and myself. Yum!

Now that the tree is up, I am glad we ended up going with the bigger one. It hasn't been knocked over yet, although we've has several ornament casualties already. I thought I put all the breakable stuff at the top, but apparently the kiddos can find a way to break even non-breakable things!

And this is totally unrelated, but I got some new slippers and I am so in love with them. If you see me this winter, you can probably expect me to be wearing these slippers (and likely drinking hot chocolate as well)!

2010-10-26T21:45:00.001-05:00

Wow, I can't believe how much time has passed since I've updated here. It seems like our weeks are just flying by these days. Some random stuff...
~ For awhile I've been wanting to take turns with Steve, taking our kids on "dates" for some one-on-one time. Yesterday Emma and I went on our first date. We spent the afternoon at a Ceramics and Coffee Shop place, just painting, drinking delicious drinks, and chatting. It was really pleasant, and I'm already trying to think something fun for Noah and me for next time. I've already penciled Noah and Steve's date in for November, just to make sure we don't let another month slip by without a date.~ I love love love fall, and lately I've been going a little nuts cooking fall-type things. Towards the end of last week, I planned our menu for the weekend and didn't even realize until I was getting ready to make dinner Sunday night that pretty much our entire diet over the weekend had consisted of some type of fall vegetable. Friday night we had chicken enchiladas with pumpkin cream sauce, Saturday morning we had pumpkin quinoa parfaits, Saturday for dinner we had butternut squash bisque (which went so perfectly with these garlic knot rolls), Sunday I made roasted vegetable dip for snacking during the football game, and then for dinner we had pumpkin rigatoni. Isn't that ridiculous? I told you I went a little overboard, and it was even enough for Steve to make up a silly little song about all the members of our family turning into various types of squash. I haven't been taking too many food pictures lately, but I did snap one of the vegetables for the dip before I roasted them. They were so pretty, I just couldn't help myself. (Emma said, "Mommy, it seems weird that you like to take pictures of vegetables!") Also, the picture above isn't really the pumpkin quinoa parfait. It's actually a spiced quinoa apple pie parfait that I had a few weeks ago, but maybe if you squint, you can tell yourself it's the pumpkin one.
~ Since my children have started nursing a little less, I have noticed that those lovely old calories aren't burning quite as fast as they used to. Some of my clothes weren't fitting right (or at all) and I really didn't want to start going down that road. I had heard about the 30 Day Shred from a few people so, thinking that I could manage anything for only twenty minutes a day, I decided to give it a try. I started it on October 1st, so I am just about finished with my thirty days. I am happy to report that, even though the difference probably isn't noticeable to anyone else, my clothes that were previously a tad snug are now much more wearable. Woo! I keep flexing for Steve and he acts like he can't see my new rippling muscles (ha!), but I think maybe he is just jealous!

~ I just baked some cookies and cream cheesecake bars to take to Emma's school tomorrow for a teacher lunch, and I am so really really happy that tomorrow morning I get to cut them into bars before I take them to school. That means I can keep one (or two or five). They are cooling in the kitchen right now and I can barely control myself.

~ I started this post Sunday night and now it's Tuesday night. Ah well, better late than never, right?

2010-09-01T20:39:00.003-05:00

Noah started preschool yesterday, and it was apparently a huge success. This morning he was looking for his backpack before he even got dressed, and he started to cry when I told him that there was no preschool today.He was SO excited yesterday morning that I think it was killing him to have to wait until 9:30 to go. He wore his backpack for an hour before it was even time to leave, and he must have asked me how much longer about fifty times.When we walked in the classroom, his teacher greeted him and in response he said, "I'm excited to be at school!" He walked over to a shelf full of toys and sat down without even a backward glance at us. Steve asked if he wanted some good-bye hugs and kisses, and he just sort of shrugged and said no. Allie was a little too insistent for that, and after several shrieks of, "Kiss! KISS! KISS!", Noah finally looked up from the toys to give her a kiss.Of course, that still wasn't quite enough and she had to give him several hugs before we actually left. Luckily, she spent most of the time he was there taking a long nap, so she didn't even really have time to miss him. I did miss him though, and was glad when he happily jumped up and ran to me for a hug as soon as I picked him up.

2010-08-26T20:12:00.009-05:00

Ever since we've started trying trying to drastically cut down on our eating out habits, I've really been missing going out to breakfast. We used to go out pretty much every Saturday and Sunday morning, and starting our weekend mornings at home is just not the same.

I did, however, discover a nifty little trick that helps me feel somewhat better about the whole thing. I really love cinnamon rolls - and really, who doesn't? - but they're kind of a hassle to make and then there are always so many that everyone gets sick of them before we eventually have to throw some out. Well, awhile back I read a blog entry about freezing cinnamon rolls and it was such a great idea that I can't believe I had never heard of it before.
The kids and I made a triple batch of cinnamon rolls, which they all thought was a lot of fun. They like to knead and roll the dough, and also add huge amounts of flour to it as soon as my back is turned.
Once we had cut all the rolls, we froze them separately on a cookie sheet, then bagged them. We ended up with four one-gallon freezer bags full!Now, once a week, either on Friday or Saturday night, I get about eight of them out of the freezer. I place them in a round pan and cover it with saran wrap, then go to bed. They thaw and rise during the night and we wake up to perfectly risen cinnamon rolls, just ready to be popped in the oven. Making the icing takes about one minute, so it's pretty much the easiest breakfast ever. I still miss going to Mimi's Cafe for their awesome Egg's Benedict, but these cinnamon rolls help me not miss it quite so much.
Another quick, and similar, note - I also discovered this works with pizza crust. Probably everybody else in the world has been doing this for years, but I am still pretty excited about my ability to make a bunch of pizza crust all at once and freeze the dough in single pizza portions. I take the ball of frozen dough out of the freezer around noon on the day we are going to eat it, and by dinner time, it's thawed and risen and ready to go. We have been having pizza a LOT lately because of this, but no one around here is complaining. Last night's pizza - eggplant and goat cheese - might have been the best ever. Yum!

2010-08-18T14:56:00.000-05:00

We've had our dog, Jose, for over eight years now. We got him before we were married and we absolutely adored him. He dropped down on the totem pole once we started having kids, obviously, but we still liked him and he's always been a good family dog. He eats every single speck of food as soon as it touches the floor, and considering the amount of food that falls on the floor around here, this is my favorite quality of his. Nevertheless, there are still times when I occasionally wish we didn't have a dog, like when he refuses to go outside during a thunderstorm and instead pees on the floor. Grrr.

So last week we noticed that he was squinting with his left eye. He didn't seem to be acting any differently so we just sort of ignored it. On Thursday I noticed that he eye was looking kind of cloudy, but my grandmas were coming in to visit that night so I figured we'd just take him to the vet after the weekend. Well, by Saturday it was looking really bad so we decided we had to take him to the vet. On the way there he had his head hanging out the window in the wind, which was apparently a huge mistake because afterward it looked so terrible that I couldn't even really stomach looking at it. I felt pretty embarrassed walking into the vet with a dog who looked like he'd been totally neglected. The vet said it was so bad that she didn't even know how to treat it, so she referred us to a dog ophthalmologist, and called him in after hours so he would be there when we got there.

On the way there, I told Steve we should probably discuss what we would do if it was going to cost like $1000 or something. We have both said in the past that we would not pay more than $500 for our dog, so I figured we should make sure we were still on the same page, although I wasn't sure what page I was really on anymore. Steve shrugged that off, saying it was not going to cost very much because Jose probably just needed some eyedrops.

So, we got there and before the doctor did the exam, he wanted to let us know about pricing up front. He quickly looked at the eye, but didn't do an actual thorough exam. Since it was after hours, the exam alone was going to be $350. He said it was an ulcer on the cornea and we could try to treat it with medicine, which would cost $600. He thought it was too late for medicine anyway though, and said our best option was to have surgery, which costs $2000! We were completely stunned. The doctor left to give us a few minutes to talk it over and decide what we wanted to do.

The rational part of me was saying that we couldn't spend that much, while the rest of me watched Emma cry and ask if Jose was going to be okay, then noticed that Steve (who I have only seen tear up twice in ten years) was wiping away tears. Then I looked at that darn dog and he was looking up at me, wagging his tail, as if to say, "Hey, we're friends, right?" Basically the options were either put him to sleep or spend a total of $2500 to make him better. I told Steve that they were both terrible options and I didn't want to pick either one, so he could decide and whatever he chose would be fine with me. He said he just wouldn't feel right picking money over Jose, and also that it seemed cruel to kill an otherwise healthy dog just because he has an injured eye. I said okay, and we called the doctor back in and told him to go ahead and do the surgery.

We picked him up a few hours later and as we were driving him home, we both said we were sure we made the right decision. We have to take him back four more times for check-ups, but he is apparently going to be okay. They gave us a ton of medicine - three kinds of pills and three kinds of drops - that I have to give him multiple times each day. The drops need to be at least five minutes apart so it's not like I can just put them all in at once, which means my new full time job is to administer medicine to our dog. I made myself a chart to keep track of it. Also, the first day when he was really groggy from the surgery, I was surprised at how well he handled the drops. He hardly moved when I would put them in, but now that he is much more perky, he hates the drops so it's like a mini wrestling match every time I have to put them in. I will be so glad when I can stop!What a lucky dog. I hope he appreciates this!

2010-08-12T15:04:00.000-05:00

Noah ran around the corner into the kitchen, covered with marker, and exclaimed "I'm a wolf!"

We have some pretty big news around here. It appears as though Noah has weaned. I was ready for him to be finished, and although he really adored nursing, it went surprisingly smoothly and actually even happened mostly by accident. I am feeling really good about it all.

Several months ago I started limiting him to nursing five times a day: during the night, when waking up in the morning, before and after nap, and before bed. I liked that he wasn't nursing all day long anymore, but that didn't stop him from asking all day long, and he'd get pretty upset and whiny when he wanted to nurse but couldn't. I got pretty tired of that after a month or two, so we moved it to just once a day - before his nap. That seemed to help, and it worked perfectly because it gave him time to wind down and then (hopefully) fall asleep quickly. He still asked often, and I always said, "We can nurse before your nap, but I'd love to cuddle with you now," so we spent a lot of time cuddling on the couch and that seemed to satisfy him.

He will be starting preschool this fall, two days a week for four hours a day, and he won't be able to take naps on the days he has school. I figured we would just give up naps all together then instead of trying to get him to nap some days and some days not. A couple weeks ago, though, he started taking forever to fall asleep for naps, and then forever to fall asleep at night. Instead of forcing it for the next few weeks, I decided we'd just go ahead and stop with the naps now. It wasn't until after I made that decision and even told him he didn't have to take naps anymore that I thought about nursing. With no nap, there was no opportunity to nurse, although I didn't mention that to him.Every morning before we get out of bed, he asks to nurse. I always suggest we cuddle instead, and every single day he says, "But can I nurse before my nap?" and I tell him he can. Sometimes in the afternoon if he seems tired I will ask him if he wants to take a nap, and he always says no.

I think it's been about a week now since he last nursed. It's almost like he weaned and never even really noticed. This is so opposite of my experience with Emma that I'm still a little incredulous. I think the best part of this is that there is no door slamming shut; I never had to say there is absolutely no more nursing. So, if on some random day in a few days or weeks or months he decides he wants to take a nap and nurse first, no big deal.

He is really into cuddling now and asks to cuddle several times a day. Yesterday we were laying on the couch together and he said, "We sure do like to cuddle together, don't we, Mommy?" And of course, he is absolutely right.He is pretty sensitive to things that are "scary". Last time we went to the library, he picked out a book that involves a truck going into a spooky junkyard. It's a little too much for him to sit next to me and look at the pictures of the spooky junkyard, so he always hops down on the floor and covers his eyes until that part is over.

2010-08-06T14:00:00.002-05:00

Awhile back there was an amazing deal on Groupon for a photographer, and since the family picture we currently have displayed in our living room doesn't even include Noah or Allie, I happily bought it.

I should point out that, even though our picture is so out of date, that is not because we haven't had any others taken in the meantime. Last December we had a family picture taken by Olan Mills for our church directory. They turned out really, truly horrendous, but that didn't stop us from purchasing $156 worth of the photographs. (Steve can't say no to anyone who is trying to sell him something.) Allie's nose was running, Emma's hair looked dirty, Noah was grimacing in every photo, my hair was in my face, and Steve was doing some weird winking thing. Don't ask me how we all managed to look so terrible at one time, but rest assured that when those photographs arrived in the mail, I stuck them under a pile of stuff in my closet, never to see the light of day again.

Then, in April my whole family stood together in my parent's yard and I used a tripod and remote to get some shots of all of us. I also took a couple of my own family at the time, but none of those are anything that I'm willing to display on my wall, either.

So, when I saw the Groupon, I jumped at it. I was pretty excited, but the whole thing seemed a little jinxed from the start because we were doing an outside shoot and it was pouring rain. The photographer suggested we go under a bridge in the west bottoms, and under there we managed to stay at least 90% dry. Another strike against us was that Allie was a little sick, and consequently not feeling very cheery, but we hoped she could muster up a few smiles anyway.

In spite of the rain and the sick baby, things weren't going too terribly, until I noticed that we were standing by what is a local haunted house during Halloween season. I stupidly pointed out a werewolf figure in the window, which freaked Noah out enough that he refused to smile after that as well. I mean really, have you ever seen a more somber trio of children?
Zero smiles from those three, until I realized that Allie seemed to be chewing on something. Since there was nothing around us but a bunch of pigeon poop, I didn't know what could be in her mouth. I asked her to open up and show me. She promptly spit out a little glob of pigeon poop, much to the amusement of her siblings. Gag! At least that was the closest we got to having all the kids not look completely miserable.
And once again, there is not a single picture of the five of us that I think is worthy of actually being displayed in our house. We have tons of just the kids, but for now Steve and I will have to be content having only our wedding pictures on the walls.

2010-08-02T21:26:00.004-05:00

Remember how I was recently complaining about how I have no recycling in my area? Well, my friend Jaime informed me that there is a place about twenty minutes away where I can take all our stuff to be recycled. I am so excited about this that it might even be a little ridiculous. Upon hearing this great news, I immediately went out and got some bins to set up our own little recycling center in our garage. Today we made our first drop-off trip to the recycling center, so hurray, we are officially no longer loading up the landfills with our recyclable items!When I was taking this picture of our little recycling center, I opened the garage door to let in more light. Just as I was squatting there in my garage, taking pictures of our trash, the mail carrier walked right by the garage. If it had been our regular mail lady, I would have just told her what I was doing, but this was a guy I didn't know. He looked at me and said, "Um...hello..." and I felt silly enough that all I said before he walked away was, "Uh..." Pretty smooth.

In other news, today is Steve's and my seventh anniversary. Last weekend my family was joking about the seven year itch, but luckily I don't feel that in the least. Seven years seems like almost nothing in a whole lifetime, and I am happy that I have so much time left to spend with Steve. Some lovely flowers were delivered for me today, and although they were a very sweet gesture, they aren't the best part. Steve has many months worth of expenses built up at work for which he needs to be reimbursed, and I've been bugging him forever to run them through. He's in the living room, working on that right now. :)One more noteworthy thing...poor Emma has been sick with a fever, and today she started throwing up. Throughout her life up until this point, she has been terrible at puking into a bowl, or the toilet, or trash can, or anywhere where it is a slightly less disgusting mess than all over the floor or furniture. Even if someone was trying desperately to shove a bowl in front of her, she'd turn her head and throw up, thus completely avoiding the bowl. Anyway, the reason this is noteworthy is that she has finally developed the art not spewing vomit all over the place ever time she throws up! Three times today, she has managed to warn me that she is going to throw up, and then make it all the way back to the bathroom in time. Amazing. While I am certainly sorry that she's sick, this makes a huge difference in the misery level of having a sick kid.

2010-07-28T17:55:00.000-05:00

I always wait until pretty much the last possible minute to get gas. I figure that when my gas light goes on, I still have at least 35 miles left in my tank. In fifteen years of driving, I have never run out of gas. That is, until last week.

The kids and I were going out to lunch, and my gas light came on right before we got to the restaurant. After we ate, I had to run Emma to summer camp, which was probably a good twenty miles away from the restaurant. Once I had dropped her off, I drove past a couple gas stations in Kansas in order to get to a gas station in Missouri, where gas is cheaper. Just as I was pulling into QuikTrip, my car died. I felt pretty silly, sitting there completely blocking traffic into the parking lot. Luckily, several strong and helpful bystanders helped push my car up to one of the pumps. Embarrassing, but certainly not the hassle it could have been, had I been any farther away. I was sort of surprised that I had run out of gas, but I just chalked it up to waiting too long and resolved to get gas in a more timely manner from there on out.

Fast forward to today. This morning when I was running errands, I noticed that my gas was getting pretty low. We were all getting hungry for lunch so I headed home, but resolved to get gas later that afternoon on my way to pick Emma up from camp, in order to avoid another embarrassing experience running out of gas. I was totally patting myself on the back for planning to get gas before my gas light was even on. When we went to get Emma, in addition to getting gas, I had to run by my brother's house (which is about a mile past the gas station) and drop off a vase of roses as a congratulatory surprise for my sister-in-law, who is taking the bar exam this week. The gas gauge was low but not too low and the light was still not even on and I had plenty of time, so I decided to pass the gas station and drop off the flowers first. As I was sitting at the stoplight next to the same QuikTrip where I previously ran out of gas, in my attempt to drive past it and on to my brother's house, my car died. Wonderful. The light turned green and I was just sitting there, completely blocking the lane and feeling helpless and ridiculous. Could I possibly have run out of gas again? Luckily, I was on a slight hill, so I shifted into neutral and sort of coasted off to the side and partway into an empty parking lot that is across the street from the gas station. Being slightly distracted, I momentarily took my hand off the vase, causing it to immediately fall and empty itself all over the floor of my car. Lovely.

I was hoping that I was really just out of gas instead of something worse being wrong, but it seemed weird because, like I said, my gauge showed that I still had plenty of gas to be driving around. There was only one way to find out so I unbuckled Noah and Allie and carried them across the busy street to QT. I bought a small (and ridiculously expensive) one gallon gas can then went outside to fill it up. I was nervous that Allie and Noah would be trying to run around the bustling parking lot while I was filling up the can, and in my haste to get it done and make sure they were safe at the same time, I managed to spray huge amounts of gas all over myself and them. Nice. Because of that, and because I was trying to hold on to the kids at the same time, I ended up not filling the can all the way, because how much gas do I really need to drive across the street anyway?

Thinking that the ordeal was almost over, I carried Allie and the gas can and held Noah's hand while we again crossed the busy street with no crosswalk in the sweltering heat, and hoping that no one I knew was driving by. I buckled the kids back into their seats, poured the small amount of gas into the tank, and was ready to go. The car started, drove about two feet, and died again! GAH! Apparently driving across the street uses more gas than I thought. I think because I was parked on a hill that my gas tank was tilted in such a way that that gas I put in did me absolutely no good. So. Unbuckled kids, schlepped back across busy hot street again, put more gas in stupid small gas can without dousing anyone in the process this time, and trudged back across the same darn intersection again. I know I was hot and sweaty from the heat, but I think humiliation played a big part as well.

Finally it worked and I was able to drive across the street to fill up. Hooray! After all this, I have come to a pretty obvious conclusion: my gas gauge is broken.

I am glad that I left early enough that I was still not late to pick up Emma, even after all the gas shenanigans. I am also happy that it happened right across the street from the gas station instead of somewhere farther away, which would have been much more unfortunate, especially considering that Steve was in Tulsa at the time, and therefore pretty useless in such situations. The kiddos were in good spirits, despite the fact that they were also hot and sweaty, so overall I guess I should be thankful that the whole experience wasn't much worse than it actually was!
P.S. I think I have a number of run-on sentences in this post, so well done if you read it all and understood what I was trying to say.

2010-07-20T23:58:00.000-05:00

Sometime in May, I decided we should institute a No-Buy June. Other than our mortgage, we don't have any debt to worry about, but I figured there is nothing wrong with trying to be a little more mindful of our spending - eating out, in particular. We eat out a ridiculous amount. We've attempted to cut back in that area a few times in the past, but we never really stuck with it for any amount of time. So, I figured the best way to really make a change was to go cold turkey: absolutely no purchases other than groceries, gas, and bills for an entire month. (This was mostly for me and the kids because Steve wasn't willing to stop going out for lunch every day. I suppose he was still sacrificing by not going out in the evenings or on weekends, but since he was still eating out five times a week, he wasn't experiencing nearly the same level of deprivation as I was!)

To go with the money-saving theme of the month, I decided to read The Total Money Makeover. I had never read any of Dave Ramsey's books before, but I know a lot of people like him so I thought I'd give it a shot. I actually found it really interesting, and I sort of had this epiphany that I should start trying to live a more frugal life. For continuing encouragement, I added some interesting personal finance blogs to my Google Reader and soon was on my way to living a more thrifty lifestyle. Woo hoo!

A lucky bonus is that being thrifty often goes hand in hand with being more eco-friendly, and I am certainly all for that. I'm continuing to try to make small changes that will save a little money and help us be more green as well, and there are several about which I am particularly excited.

All the pants Steve wears to work need to be dry cleaned, so we get at least one big plastic dry cleaning bag every week. I have always wished there was some way to avoid using/wasting those bags, but couldn't come up with anything, so into the trash they went. BUT, I recently read a suggestion somewhere on a blog to use them as trash bags. Genius! I tie a hole in the top of the bag, flip it upside down, and voila! It doesn't hold as much trash as a regular bag, but otherwise works great. I snapped this picture of my first dry-cleaning-bag-as-trash-bag experiment.
(As a side note, this picture reminds me of something else. We don't have curbside recycling here - despite my calling the city and the trash pickup providers numerous times to harass them about it - and it bugs me. I bring our paper and glass to other places to be recycled, but does anyone know where I can take cans and plastic? Am I just out of luck with those?)

Another thing I have started to do a little differently is the way I'm setting the thermostat. We've always kept it on 73 because that's where we thought it needed to be for us to be comfortable. I started to bump it up, one degree at a time. Turns out, we are just as comfortable at 75! Seventy-six is pushing it, but I am happy that we made a change of two degrees. Also, I started closing the blinds and setting the temperature even a few degrees higher if we are going to be gone a long time. Now it seems wasteful to me that I wasn't doing those things all along!

This post is getting long, so I'm just going to mention one more thing. Several weeks ago we were pretty much at the end of a tube of toothpaste. Emma couldn't get any more out on her own and since it was basically gone, I was about to toss it in the trash. Before I could, my new little thrifty alarm went off in my head, and I got out a new tube for every one else, but set the almost empty one aside for myself. Every time I brushed my teeth, I squished and squeezed that tube until I got some toothpaste out. After awhile, I had to set my toothbrush down and maneuver the tube with both hands to get every single last bit of toothpaste out. It kind of became a silly little game - how long could I possibly keep using that toothpaste? And guess what? I used it for over two weeks before I was finally satisfied that every bit of toothpaste was out. Yay!

I was going to talk about my experience trying out coupons too, but this post is already too long so I'll save that for another day. I'm sure you are on the edge of your seats!

2010-07-18T07:44:00.004-05:00

I've sort of been missing this little old blog lately. There are a lot of things that we do that I'd like to share, and intend to, but then a week goes by and another week passes and I never get around to posting it. Before I know it, it's three weeks later and whatever it was doesn't seem nearly as interesting anymore.

I've also realized that when I'm not posting regularly on this blog, I don't take nearly as many pictures. Because I want to have a lot of pictures to remember these years when my kids are little, and also because I want (and need) to practice taking pictures anyway, I'm going to attempt to reinstate the blog in an effort to motivate myself do these things.
Last night Steve and I had a date night (!) and to get the ball rolling, I used my phone to snap a few pictures during the evening. We went to The Drop for drinks and amazing bruschetta, and then onto Pierponts for dinner. Seriously delicious.
We both had our phones with us, of course, and while we weren't talking on them or browsing the internet independent of each other, it is amusing to me how often we pulled them out to look on the internet to answer some random question. It sort of seems like speculation, at least about past events, is obsolete. For any question that arose in our conversation, we knew the answer in seconds. No need to wonder how many kids the average family had in 1950 (3.37) or how old Jonathan Lipnicki is now (19) or which movie won best picture in 1997 (Titanic)... Pretty crazy, I think.

2010-05-27T11:13:00.001-05:00

This last weekend was pretty big for me. I had my first night away, without any children, in over six years! For Christmas this year, all the women on my dad's side of the family gave my grandma a special Ladies' Weekend trip to Rocheport, MO. From the beginning, I was planning to take Allie along. Even though I knew our activities weren't going to be very kid-friendly and there certainly weren't going to be any other kids there, I didn't think we were ready to be apart overnight. Even though I have nightweaned her and Noah several times, they are sneaky and they always manage to somehow un-nightwean themselves. So, the main reason I didn't want to leave Allie was because I was worried she'd be crying for me in the night and poor Steve would be up all night with an inconsolable baby. Also, I've never been away from her for more than three hours, so being gone for over 24 hours seemed like too big of a step.

The more I thought about it, however, the more it seemed like taking care of Allie for the whole trip would be sort of annoying, while everyone else got to relax and chat and not worry about toddlers breaking antiques and spilling wine and disrupting meals. I brought that up to Steve, and he said I should just leave Allie at home because he was sure they would all be fine. I mulled it over for weeks, going back and forth many times, but in the end I really did leave her at home!The trip was filled with shopping, good food, fun conversation, and lots of wine. We all had such a lovely time on the little vacation, and it sounds like Steve and the kids had a fine time as well. There was ZERO housework done and they ate out for every single meal, but that was A-okay with me as long as everyone was happy. I was gone for a little over 24 hours, and even though I was enjoying myself while I was away, I was so happy to be back to my little nurslings because by that time I felt like I was on the verge of exploding.
The women on the trip all made mementos for each other, which I was sort of reluctant to do at first because I thought I didn't have the time, but in the end I think it was a great, fun idea. In the picture above, we are all wearing matching aprons made by my cousin. I decided to make little bird ornaments for people to hang in their kitchens or wherever for a little bit of cheerfulness. I thought they turned out pretty well.So, I'd say the trip was a complete success and now I know I have the freedom to do something else like that in the future. Steve may be sorry he ever agreed to this!

2010-05-04T12:04:00.004-05:00

Sunday was my birthday, but before I tell you what we did, I want to share another story with you. This happened toward the end of last summer, when I wasn't blogging, so I never wrote about it here, but I'm going to copy and paste from a scrapbook page I made about our ~~near-death experience~~ interesting excursion.We decided to spend a beautiful Saturday going to Lawrence for a family bike ride. Steve looked online to find a good trail, and saw a scenic nine mile loop right along the river that was ideal for “cyclists of all skill levels”. Perfect. After eating lunch in downtown Lawrence, we drove to the beginning of the trail. All we could see was a teeny dirt path leading into the woods, but there was a biker actually coming out of the woods at that moment, so we loaded everyone onto the bikes and set off into the woods. Right away, I was leery. The “bike trail” was crisscrossed with large tree roots, there were many very steep and curvy hills, most of the trail was sand or mud. As I saw Steve disappear around a hairpin turn with my babies in the trailer, flying through the air and bouncing off tree roots, I started to suspect that perhaps we weren’t on the right trail. Because I had to get off my bike several times to walk it up or down a hill, I soon lost Steve and the kids. When Allie and I caught up to them, he was perched at the top of a precipice, clearly ready to continue risking the lives of my children. I implored him to turn back but he went on ahead. When I saw the trailer starting to slide sideways off the cliff, my heart jumped, and I insisted we all turn back. Steve made fun of me for being a wimp, but I was just happy to make it out of the woods with all of my family members alive.
We decided to safely bike on the roads for a bit, and headed back in the direction of a park we’d seen on the way in. After playing for awhile at a second park, we noticed several people walking and biking nearby. So many people passed by, in fact, that we figured they must be on some sort of trail. We got back on the bikes and went over to try to take the trail back to our car. Once we were on the flat, wide, smooth, scenic trail, it became very obvious to us that THIS was the trail we were supposed to be on in the first place. NOT that insanely dangerous “River Ridge” trail. The last part of our trip was so pleasant that we are determined to go back to Lawrence soon and actually ride the nine mile loop. We did lose the flag off the trailer somewhere on River Ridge, and Emma complained for awhile about the sand that had flown in her eyes, but in the end we all made it home safely, and with a good story to tell.

So on Sunday, we finally did go back to Lawrence to ride the pretty trail along the river. A certain little girl has just woken from her nap, however, so I will have to save that post for another day. :)

2010-05-03T11:24:00.004-05:00

My parents got a new horse a few months ago - in October, I think - and as recently as Easter, the kids were riding her and my dad pointed out that she was starting to get pretty fat. We all wondered if maybe she was pregnant, but I didn't hear much about it after that. Then, about four weeks ago, a farrier came to put shoes on the horses and asked my dad when she was due! My dad had a vet come out, who looked her over and said he thought she was due any day. Since horses apparently usually give birth during the night, my dad started setting his alarm for 2:00 a.m. every morning to check on Kate (the momma horse).

A couple weeks went by, and no foal yet, so my dad starting thinking maybe they should have the vet come out again. Early last Wednesday morning when his alarm went off, my dad checked in the barn and saw Kate standing there, still very much pregnant. The next morning at 7:00, he went down to the barn and there was the foal! She was already completely dry, and was standing up and even walking around.
I wanted to take the kids to go see her when she was still so little, so I called Emma's school to tell them she would be gone the rest of the week and we drove to my parents' house. We stayed there for a few days and had a lovely time, as always.The little filly was just the cutest thing ever. Kate used to eat about half a bale of hay every day, but now she is eating a whole bale plus some high-nutrient grain all the time, and I can see why - this baby nursed a ton. I can certainly sympathize with that!
The kids and I feel so lucky that we were able to see little Skipper when she was just a few hours old, and we're looking forward to watching her grow!

2010-04-01T13:56:00.005-05:00

I am starting a new project that may very well take me years and years to complete, but I am pretty excited about it. I've always loved hexagon quilts, specifically the Grandmother's Flower Garden design. Despite that terrible name, and the fact that the entire thing has to be hand pieced, I have started one of these quilts. So far I have thirty hexagons down, and only 1,894 to go. Of course, then I have to hand sew them all together, so if you check back at this blog in about twenty years, you may see the finished quilt. Maybe.Since Emma was about ten months old, I have tried on several occasions to leave my children at a gym child care center so I could go to an aerobics class or something and work out in total freedom for an hour. It has always been a complete failure. The last time I tried was in November, when I left Noah and Allie. The both ran in happily without a second glance in my direction, so I left and went to my Zumba class. About ten minutes later, one of the child care workers came in to the class and waved me over, then told me that Noah and Allie were having a hard time. I left immediately and went back to the kids' room, where I saw both of my children sitting pitifully next to each other on the floor, covered in snot and tears and wailing like their world was ending. So, I gave up on that for awhile. Until today, that is. We tried it again, and Allie started crying pretty hard when I left, but I stood outside the door for a minute or two until I heard her stop crying. I waited a couple minutes more and when it seemed like all was well, I went to my class. The class was great, and it was a whole forty-five minutes in when the lady appeared at the door, holding Allie, and motioned for me to come over. Sigh. BUT, Allie appeared to be fine and the lady assured me that both kids were playing happily and I only needed to leave because Noah had wet his pants. Hurray! So, even though I had to leave a little early this time, I think next time it will work great, as long as I remind Noah to go potty beforehand. Yay for freedom!

We are heading to St. Louis tomorrow to celebrate Easter with my family. I am very much looking forward to it, especially because my brother - who has been in South Korea for the last year - is going to be home and I can't wait to see him. It's going to be a great weekend! I'm sure these three rascals will join me in wishing you a very happy Easter as well!

2010-03-29T13:12:00.000-05:00

Today Noah turns three years old. He has been looking forward to this for a few months now, and has been jubilantly telling random strangers all over town that he is going to have a Thomas cake for his birthday.

We celebrated his birthday last night at home with just our family and one of Emma's friends, whom Noah adores and wanted to invite. I made him this cake, which I thought ended up being pretty darn cute. When I was making it, I discovered I was one egg short so - after a quick search online - I threw in a banana to make up for the missing egg. After her first bite, Emma's friend exclaimed, "This cake tastes like banana bread!" We all agreed it was a very banana-y chocolate cake, but luckily bananas and chocolate go well together so it was still delicious.Noah was so excited about the reveal of his long-awaited Thomas cake that he apparently couldn't stand the suspense while Steve was carrying it over to the table.When he uncovered his eyes, he clasped his hands together in joyful anticipation. I just love this look on his face!He didn't even wait for us to finish singing before he leaned forward and blew out his candles. And really, considering how excited he was, I'm surprised he waited as long as he did.The only unfortunate part about the evening was that afterward I realized that I forgot to get out his birthday crown. It's okay though, because I think he was happy enough to wear his new Royals hat.Happy birthday, my sweet boy.

2010-03-24T11:59:00.006-05:00

A few weeks ago I read this post about homemade taffy. I thought it looked fun and messy and since I love taffy and my kids love making messes, I thought we'd give it a try.
The kids were excited and really into the prep work. They argued over who was going to smear the butter into the pan, and they both really really wanted to stand by the stove and watch the taffy mixture cook. Unfortunately, it took so long to cook that by the time it was done, Noah had pretty much lost interest. He and Emma started to pull it, which I thought he would like, but I barely had time to snap one picture before he ran off.
Emma worked with it awhile longer, but in the end it was good old mommy who did most of the taffy pulling. It started getting pretty stuff, so it was hard work after awhile! I decided it was finished when I started to feel like my arms were going to fall off.I stretched it into thin strips and then cut the strips into bite-size pieces, which Emma then rolled up in waxed paper. During this time Allie was clinging to my legs, crying about something or other. I couldn't stretch the taffy while holding her, so I sat down with her on my lap and helped Emma wrap the pieces that were already cut.Maybe three or four minutes later, I went to grab the huge glob of taffy that was still left and discovered that it had turned into a rock-hard glob of taffy. Stretching or pulling it in any way was impossible. We had to throw all of this out, so if you ever try this yourself, don't take a break - even a really short one - in the middle of cutting the taffy!I think they ended up being pretty delicious, although they remind me more of Now and Laters than of real taffy.

2010-03-21T22:09:00.004-05:00

Last week was spring break and it ended up being a pretty great week. That is mostly due to my brother and sister-in-law selling their house the previous weekend. They, along with my parents, came to Kansas City on Monday and we all went with them to look at some houses and make a final decision on which one they wanted. They made an offer and reached a deal the next day, so now they will officially be living here, less than ten minutes away from us! Hurray! They will even be going to our church and when they have kids, their kids will go to the same school as ours. I am so unbelievably happy about this!

The good news didn't stop there, though. My dad had to go back home Tuesday morning, but my mom stayed with us until Wednesday evening and I LOVE it when my mom is here. So, all that greatness coupled with the lovely weather we had Thursday and Friday added up to a pretty fantastic week. The upcoming week should be good too because I'm going to ignore the eight inches of snow we got yesterday and think only about the warm temperatures that are predicted.

A couple other random things...I crocheted this shamrock garland and I think it's so cute. Since I liked the Valentine's Day one and this one so much, I'm going to scour the internet and try to find a pattern for one for every holiday.
And here is Noah, sporting the ensemble he currently wears whenever we leave the house. He says he is a cowboy, but why he thinks cowboys look anything even remotely like this, I have no idea.

2010-03-12T22:05:00.002-06:00

Last week the Pioneer Woman posted a Sundried Tomato Risotto recipe, and in the post she also linked to her Roasted Red Pepper Risotto recipe. Yum. I love risotto, but I had never tried either of those varieties so I put them on my list of things I want to make very, very soon. Since I was planning to make them both, I decided to perform a little experiment.

Although risotto recipes generally call for Arborio rice, I heard once (before I ever made risotto) that you can use barley and it will get just as creamy and delicious as the Arborio. Assuming Barley was healthier, I've just always used that, with great results. This time I decided to get some Arborio rice and use it for one of the recipes so I could compare it with the barley.I made the sundried tomato one first, using the Arborio rice, and it was fabulous. Super delicious. My previous favorite risotto was Ina's Butternut Squash Risotto, but I'm pretty sure this was even better than that. I don't necessarily think the deliciousness was from the rice as much as it was just a really good recipe, although I guess I won't know that for sure until I try it with the barley.The next day I made the red pepper version and I used the barley. It was creamy and perfect, at least until the very end. Pioneer Woman says to add five ounces of goat cheese and a half teaspoon of turmeric (for color) to the risotto once it has finished cooking. I think five ounces was way too much because it completely overpowered the other flavors. I like goat cheese a lot, but "goat cheese risotto" might be overdoing it a bit. Also, the turmeric added a Kraft macaroni and cheese-esque neon color to the risotto that I found unappealing. The kids really liked this, but I wasn't a huge fan. Again though, I think that had more to do with the recipe than with the barley.
Since these results are somewhat inconclusive, I compared the labels of both products to make my final analysis. The barley had, among other things, almost half the calories, five times the fiber, and three times the iron of the Arborio. The only thing the rice had on the barley was protein, with five grams to barley's three. If you also take into account the fact that the rice costs about five times more than the barley, I think that barley is the clear winner in this experiment. Congratulations, barley!And while we're on the topic of Pioneer Woman, I thought I'd share these Coffee Toffee Bars I made last week. They were good and I plan on making them again, but will sub vanilla for the almond extract and sprinkle some Heath crumbles on top. Mmmm, I can't wait!

2010-03-10T21:16:00.000-06:00

On Sunday we wanted to make the most of the nice weather so we packed up the kids and their bikes and set out in search of some trails. Steve and I have high hopes that we will all be able to go on bike rides together at some point, but so far our plans aren't really working out.

I can't remember if I blogged about this before, but last year Steve and I got new bikes, along with a trailer for him to pull Emma and Noah and this awesome bike seat for me to carry Allie. It was all great and we can still do that this year, but Allie isn't going to fit in that seat forever, and at this point none of our kids are even remotely close to being able to go on an actual bike ride. "Actual" meaning a bike ride where one travels at a pace faster than a slug.
Emma got her bike two years ago and is still really timid on it. Like she'll consider pushing the pedals, but when she actually starts to move, she freaks and slams on the brakes. You can imagine this does not lead to speedy bike riding.
We got Noah a little bike last year, thinking he would love it, but he was too scared to ever ride it. We were sure this year he would hop right on and pedal away, but no. We had to beg and cajole him to just get on it in the first place, and in the end he spent most of the time chasing after poor Allie and trying to steal her bike.
Allie didn't sit on her bike, but stood up and ran with it clumsily banging around beneath her. At least she was less fearful than the other two - once she got going, she wasn't stopping for anything. I spent a good portion of the excursion yelling for her to come back, but I guess she was too invigorated by the wind in her hair to pay any attention to such things.Of course, a the best part of any bike ride is when Steve hops on Noah's bike. And, even though he looks hilarious as he peddles around on that tiny bike, he still leaves the children in the dust.

2010-03-08T11:33:00.000-06:00

I finished a quilt! Yay! I'm not exactly sure when I started this one, but I'm pretty sure it was over a year ago. It's called a ragged squares quilt, and Crazy Mom Quilts posted a tutorial for it awhile ago. Every bit of the fabric I used on the quilt top came from my wonderful - and sadly, rarely used - fabric stash.Sewing the top for this quilt was easy and fun, but the quilting of it was not. It took me forever and was very tedious. I had to quilt three squares in each block, and for every single square I had to rotate the entire quilt. That means I had to shove the whole bulk of the quilt through the middle of the sewing machine 154 times. All that fabric stuffing got very tedious very quickly, which was the main reason that this quilt took me so long.The backing of this quilt is my favorite part. A long time ago I bought some sheets at Target that were pretty ugly, but were on clearance for dirt cheap. I only ever put them on the bed when all our other sheets were in the wash. It so happens that those sheets were on the bed the day Noah was born. Even though I still thought they were ugly, after that I started using them more because they were a happy reminder of his birth. The elastic eventually wore out on the fitted sheet, but I couldn't bring myself to get rid of them so they just sat there. I was trying to figure out what backing to use for this quilt and I remembered those sheets, taking up space in the closet. Perfect. They're an exact match for the front of the quilt. Even more importantly, I love that the back of this quilt is made up of those cheap, ugly sheets onto which my sweet baby boy was born.

2010-03-06T13:36:00.000-06:00

Don't be fooled. This little girl may look sweet and angelic, and she usually is, but she has recently developed a fiery temper. Emma and Noah never did the whole temper tantrum thing very much, but Allie - wow. There are a few things that can really set her off these days. For example, she hates getting in her carseat. When I'm trying to buckle her in there, she arches her back and screams and kicks. It's a little ridiculous because I have to push my head against her torso to get her body to bend so I can buckle her. Once the buckles are closed, she's over it and completely fine.Her biggest issue is wearing clothes. She fights and screams and struggles and basically completely flips out whenever I attempt to put a diaper or clothes on her. She's been running around naked a lot, but I can't leave the house with a naked baby so we have to endure the struggle of trying to get her dressed at least once a day.

On the flip side, sometimes she'll decide she wants to wear a whole bunch of clothes at once. She'll bring me random articles of clothing she finds and insist I put them on. I am happy to do it because it's certainly better than the alternative - even if it means going to the library with my little girl wearing Thomas underwear on the outside of Thomas pajama pants.

2010-03-03T13:30:00.000-06:00

When I woke up on Saturday, I got out of bed and came down the hall to find this scene: the people (and dog) that I love most enjoying a sweet moment together and - for once - letting me sleep in a little bit. It was a good start to the day.

2010-03-01T13:13:00.005-06:00

One of the things we gave Emma for her birthday was a beeswax candle rolling kit. I like burning candles and she likes to make things so I thought it was an ideal present. We got the kit out over the weekend and I am so pleased with it! She worked diligently for over an hour and ended up with nine lovely candles.
I think generally candles are expensive for the amount of hours they burn, but this seemed to me like a great deal. I wasn't sure how good the quality of the candles would be, but they burn really slowly. We've been enjoying burning the ones she made so far, and there is still enough beeswax left for at least nine more!In an amusing but completely unrelated side story, on Friday afternoon I was looking through the papers Emma brought home from school. When her class is writing words that they don't know how to spell, Emma's teacher encourages them to sound it out and guess on the spelling. I love Emma's spelling of "nails" so much that I hung this one on the fridge so that I can look at it and smile all day long.

2010-02-21T10:39:00.000-06:00

Last week I saw a pattern for a crochet heart garland, and I immediately wanted to make one. It would be an adorable Valentine's Day decoration and I knew Emma would like to have it up as a birthday decoration as well. Even though I have been slowly working on my granny square afghan, I apparently still don't really know how to crochet because it took me forever to get this pattern figured out. I looked through the comments several times, thinking that some people would have written about mistakes in the pattern and how they didn't really end up with a heart when they tried it. But, nope, apparently it was just me.Finally, after spending two days' worth of nap time trying to figure it out, I got it. And duh, it really was actually very simple. Also very cute, don't you think?

2010-02-18T10:22:00.003-06:00

Emma turned six last weekend, and I think if you asked her she'd say she had a pretty fun birthday. One Saturday we spent the day at Paradise Park, along with two of her friends. Sunday we brought her cake and presents to a pizza restaurant that she likes and celebrated there, along with Steve's dad and his wife.For her cake, she wanted a simple pink heart, which was absolutely fine with me. After I iced the cake, she asked me to get out all our sprinkles and said she wanted to be completely in charge of putting the sprinkles on the cake. I remembered the inch deep layer of sprinkles on last year's cake, but of course it was her birthday and if she wanted a little cake with her sprinkles, so be it.First she started to put the sprinkles just around the edges, which I thought looked cute and seemed like a perfect amount of sprinkles. I said, "Hey, that looks great!" and started to put the cake up on the stove away from little hands. She immediately stopped me, saying, "I'm not even close to being finished!" And let me tell you, she was not kidding.

2010-02-10T12:45:00.005-06:00

One of the crafty blogs I like, Uncommon Grace, is written by a woman who makes beautiful Waldorf dolls and occasionally sells them. Every time I saw any of these dolls, I really really really wanted to buy one, but I couldn't justify spending $145 on a doll, especially because Emma isn't into dolls whatsoever.When I learned that Grace was going to be donating one of her dolls to Craft Hope, which gives all proceeds to the people in Haiti, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to buy one because, hey, now it's for a good cause! Perfect, right? Also, Allie is starting to show an interest in dolls so I think she would be happy to have it when she is a little older. So, once I decided I was going to buy this doll, I stalked Craft Hope until it was listed and I purchased it immediately. She came in the mail today and I am so excited! The details on this doll are exquisite and she is really beautifully made. Is it a little ridiculous that I want to put her in the sling and wear her around the house?I'm going to save her and give her to Allie when she turns two this summer (or maybe wait until she turns three, I'm not sure). I hope she loves her as much as I already do!

2010-02-08T11:55:00.003-06:00

Last weekend the kids and I went skiing with my parents, brothers, sister-in-law, and grandma. We went to Breckenridge and it was a lot of fun. It is SO nice to go somewhere and have so many extra people along who are willing - and happy - to help with the kids. I actually got to read a book on the plane!The only semi stressful part of the trip was at the beginning. I had to get three kids, two carry-ons, a humongous suitcase, and myself checked into the airport and through security all on my own. We managed to make it without hitting any major snags, although there was one particularly tense moment on the escalator. I couldn't hold Noah's hand because I was holding Allie with one hand and lugging bags with the other, so I nervously instructed him to hold onto the railing and told him exactly when to step on the moving stairs. As we were nearing the top, I told him to hop right off onto the flat part, but he apparently got nervous and dropped to his hands. I saw his little fingers on the top step as it was flattening, inching their way towards the floor that was swallowing up the steps, about to be chewed and mangled in the escalator's teeth. In a moment of panic, I didn't do anything reasonable like drop the suitcase and grab him, I just yelled, "Noah! Noah! NOAH!" and caused all the nearby airport patrons to turn and stare at us. Luckily, he stood up just in the nick of time and his fingers were saved. Whew!

(As I was writing this, I got curious about escalator accidents and did a bit of Googling. In the United States, escalators apparently send over 10,000 people to the emergency room every year, so be careful next time you're on one!)

2010-01-26T19:57:00.003-06:00

The kids and I visited my parents last weekend, and while we were there, it was brought up that Noah will be old enough to go to bible school with Emma at my parents' church this summer. Noah was really excited, at least until my mom pointed out that kids who go to bible school need to wear underwear instead of diapers. I can tell he's been thinking about this quite a bit lately, because a few times since then, completely out of nowhere, he has said, "I want to wear diapers to bible school!"

This morning he told me that he wanted to wear underwear so he could go to bible school so I gladly helped him put on a pair of his little Thomas underwear instead of a diaper. A little while later he said he had to pee, so he sat on the potty and did it. I sang our little "Noah peed in the PAH-TEE!" celebration song and we clapped and cheered. As soon as the fanfare was over, he stood up and said, "So, should we go to bible school now?"

He did great all day - enough that I encouraged him to wear his underwear while we picked Emma up from school and then stopped at Target afterward. Once we'd gotten everything we needed at Target, we went to check out and got in line behind a nice woman who turned around and smiled at the kids. She asked Noah his name, and he grinned proudly and said, "Noah, and I have underwear in my pants!"

(And because the pictures of Noah on the potty are a little too indecent to share with the world, here is a lovely G-rated picture of Allie, who is hopefully picking up some tips from her brother's new skill.)

2010-01-08T23:14:00.000-06:00

I picked up all the Girl Scout cookies last weekend and have been slowly distributing them to the Daisy Scouts this week. We did end up having snow days yesterday and today so I still have quite a few boxes in my living room. I will be so glad when all this cookie business is over. My kids, on the other hand, probably won't. No matter how many times I tell them to leave the cookie boxes alone, they just look at the stack of boxes and see a big jungle gym and they can't quite keep themselves away. Those boxes have been played with so much in the last week that I'm a bit concerned that, instead of Girl Scout cookies, everyone is going to be receiving Girl Scout cookie crumbs.This week has been a little rough for me. This is a really hard month for Steve at work and he will be working minimum fourteen hour days throughout January. Tonight we picked him up and went out for dinner, then dropped him back off at work, and that was the first time he's seen the kids all week. Which means that I've been alone, stuck in the house with these three, all week long and there's no hope for an end to it soon. Really, for the most part it's not so terrible, but doing bedtime alone stresses me out. By the time I'm putting them to bed, I feel like my patience for the day is completely spent. Of course, they never want to go to bed and there is SO much dawdling and messing around that most nights are not without some yelling on my part. :( At the same time, I know Steve is probably feeling stressed at work so I'm trying to find a happy medium between wallowing in my own misery and feeling sorry for him, too. Besides, now the kids are asleep and I'm free to do as I please, and poor Steve is still at work at 11:09 on a Friday night. I hope we will get to see him for a few hours this weekend, although I'm not really counting on it. Heaven help me get through this month!

Anyway, that's enough whining. Have a good weekend!

2010-01-06T13:05:00.005-06:00

Brrr! It's been crazy cold here and we've gotten quite a bit of snow recently. It's actually snowing right now with something like 3-6 more inches expected by tonight. I know a lot of people don't like snow, but I am perfectly happy to snuggle up inside (where it is nice and warm) and watch the snow fall outside. The public schools in our area have had four snow days so far this year, but Emma's school hasn't been off at all yet. I was joking with her other car pool driver this morning that her school isn't for the wimps, but it really does seem silly to call off school so much.
We've been getting a lot of citrus fruits in our weekly produce deliveries, and I've been wanting to try making some candied orange peels. Yesterday we gave it a go, and I think they were a hit. The kids liked them a lot, and I thought they were okay. After munching on them plain for a minute or two, Emma suggested we smear some Nutella on them. I love that kid. Candied orange peels + Nutella = a little bit of heaven.

2010-01-04T13:06:00.003-06:00

Inspired by all the snow we have here, Emma was on a bit of a snowflake making binge the other day. She cut out dozens of paper snowflakes and when she was finished, it looked like a snowstorm had blown through our kitchen. Our table and floor were covered with hundreds of tiny scraps of paper, so I handed her the broom and suggested she get to sweeping.Noah and Allie soon realized that they could make a snowstorm of their own by throwing the little pieces into the air. After many of her attempts to combine all the pieces into a single pile were thwarted by her little brother and sister, Emma tossed down the broom in frustration and said, "How am I supposed to get anything done with these little kids around?!" I had to tell her, honestly, I have no idea. I've been wondering the same thing for years.

2009-12-28T23:14:00.000-06:00

Since I last updated, we've been busy with lots of Christmas stuff and some not-so-Christmasy stuff.We made a bunch of treats, including what I think is now my most favorite cookie ever. This Date Spice Loaf was pretty awesome, as well.There was some crafting, although not as much as I would have liked. Noah made ornaments this year for the first time and I think we was pretty pleased with himself.For her ornaments this year, Emma devised an elaborate plan for embroidered Christmas trees with ornaments but once she (finally) finished one of those, she decided to wait and make those when she's nine instead. At the last minute, we went to Michael's and bought a kit that included everything needed to make twelve beaded tree ornaments. They ended up being really cute and all of them took her about an hour total. Perfect.We had a visit from Santa, which I think makes this the first year since we've been married that Santa has actually been organized enough to come before we leave for the holidays. Way to go, Santa!Pretty much everything Noah got this year (from everyone) had to do with trains. He is obsessed with Thomas these days and I thought he might get a little tired of the train gifts, but nope. We got him these train slippers and he has hardly taken them off since he opened them.We spent a couple great days at my parents' house, where it was non-stop fun except for one small part involving Emma puking all over herself at my grandma's house. Minus that, it was the perfect Christmas. I hope you had a wonderful holiday as well!

2009-12-07T21:50:00.004-06:00

Tomorrow morning is when I have to turn in all the paperwork for the cookie sales for Emma's entire Daisy Scout troop. The girls turned in their orders to me almost a month ago so I've had quite awhile to complete this ridiculous amount of paperwork, but so far I've done exactly nothing. That is, of course, why I decided to update my blog right now - I just love a little procrastination!I've sort of been dreading putting up our tree this year because (if this year is anything like last year) I don't want to deal with rehanging a bunch of ornaments every time it gets knocked down, but also because it takes up a lot of space, and space here is pretty limited to begin with. Our train table, which is in the exact spot where we always put our tree, gets a lot of use every day so I was reluctant to move that as well. When I was complaining about all this to my mom, she suggested a perfectly wonderful plan - get a smaller tree! The kiddos and I picked one out this week and it's itty bitty but I am totally thrilled with it. I went through all our ornaments and picked out the ones that weren't breakable, didn't have much or any sentimental value, and didn't have any chokable parts. I packed those away and gave all the rest to the kids to decorate the tree however they wanted. It still looks plenty festive, it doesn't take up much room, and so far it's only fallen once. What more could a person want?St. Nicholas came to our house over the weekend and, in addition to some fun stuff for the kids, he also brought me this necklace. My, but he has good taste! I can't say for sure, but I'm betting he got the necklace here.
Oh yeah, and we're still into "fancy" around here.

2009-12-04T22:07:00.000-06:00

Good golly, how can this week already be over? I've been meaning to blog about Thanksgiving, but now it's already been over a week so I'll try not to bore you with details.We spent a few days at my parents' house, which was great as always. The weather was amazing so we were able to enjoy some time outside before it got really cold.
We baked cookies, and one thing is for certain: Emma is still a huge fan of sprinkles.Steve was out of town for three days this week. This is the first time he's traveled in over a year, so I really can't complain, but I don't know how I did it when he used to travel all the time. Overall, everything went pretty smoothly while he was gone (even bedtimes!), so the biggest problem was just that I missed having him around.Emma had a little friend over today and they dragged all the old, forgotten fancy dress-up clothes up from the basement. It made me sad when Emma stopped wearing fancy dresses everywhere she went, but it looks like maybe Noah is trying to bring it back. Here he is traipsing around Cactus Grill tonight in his new "favorite dress".Now I'm off to go drink some wine and watch Love Actually with the husband. Have a great weekend, everybody!

2009-11-24T22:29:00.006-06:00

The kids and I did something fun this year that I think will become a family tradition for us. I came across the Samaritan's Purse website and I thought my kids would really enjoy preparing shoe boxes for their Operation Christmas Child project.

I was a little nervous that they might have a hard time picking out a bunch of stuff they liked and then giving it all away, but I didn't need to be. Other than one isolated incident involving Noah trying to take a Jolly Rancher from one of the boxes after they were all packed, they were really excited about sending presents to little kids who wouldn't otherwise be getting very much, if anything, for Christmas.
Emma, Noah, and Allie each got to send a box to a kid in their own age group, although we helped Allie with hers, of course. We went to Target and the dollar store and picked out a bunch of fun goodies to fill the boxes. After we bought the stuff, Emma and Noah drew pictures to put in the boxes, along with photos of themselves.Yesterday we brought our boxes to the drop-off place and watched as hundreds and hundreds of shoe boxes were loaded onto a truck. I'll be getting an email that will tell us where our boxes went and possibly some info about the kids who received them, so we're all looking forward to that. I already marked this on my 2010 calendar and am excited about continuing this tradition every year!

2009-11-23T11:59:00.005-06:00

Ta-DAH!I mastered the granny square, so on Saturday morning Steve and the kids dropped me off at the yarn store and drove around while I browsed and picked out yarn for an afghan. I take my kids a lot of places, but going into a yarn store with a five year old, a two year old, and a one year old is not something I am willing to do. I can just see the employees ringing up hundreds of dollars worth of expensive yarn that my kids managed to unroll, tangle, and destroy in a matter of minutes.

Since I picked out the yarn, I have been granny square-ing as fast as I can, which is admittedly not that fast. I have stayed up way too late the past two nights, working on my squares, so hopefully it won't be too terribly long before I have a completed afghan! Hooray!

A couple weeks ago I had to run into an Eddie Bauer store to check and see if they had something, and while I was there I stuck my hand into a fluffy-looking slipper. The inside of it was so wonderfully, incredibly soft and fluffy that I immediately considered buying the pair. I talked myself out of it, mostly because I always prefer to have bare feet and therefore have never been a slipper person, and also because the slippers looked like they should be worn by someone who is about 98 years old. Several times in the next week or two, I realized that my feet were a bit chilly and I thought longingly of those warm and cozy slippers that I hadn't bought. Saturday evening I couldn't resist anymore, so we went back to Eddie Bauer and I purchased the slippers. I am telling you, these slippers are absolutely heavenly, and I've been wearing them nonstop since I got them. And if I happen to look like I should be shuffling around in a nursing home, so be it. That's a small price to pay for comfort of this magnitude.

2009-11-19T23:14:00.005-06:00

Well, I never got the basement cleaned and organized (which probably shouldn't be a surprise to anyone) but I did make some progress in other areas. After studying various youtube videos last night, I made my first attempt at crochet. Are you ready for this? It's going to knock your socks off!Impressive, huh? Not sure why my stitch count seemed to be decreasing with each row, but it doesn't matter anyway, because I today I started another piece and apparently I corrected whatever I was doing wrong the first time. I know it's hard to believe I could create anything that would surpass my original work, but here you go:After that I was feeling confident enough to attempt a granny square. You might notice that there is absolutely nothing "square" about this at all, but don't let that bother you because I think I've figured out what I was doing wrong.Today I also managed to drag out and work on an old unfinished project,
as well as something new.Be ready for more crochet excitement to come soon! (And if you're asking yourself if crochet and excitement belong in the same sentence together, just wait!)

2009-11-17T12:46:00.002-06:00

My mom came to visit this weekend, and just left this morning. Her visits are always so great that I feel a little down in the dumps when she leaves, but today is not so bad. Right now it's chilly and yucky outside but warm in here, I have soup cooking on the stove and bread rising on the counter, and (best of all) both babies are sleeping. We will also be seeing my family again in less than two weeks so that helps too!

The only bad part about my mom's visit is that she played Candy Land with Noah, and now that's all he wants to do. I strongly dislike Candy Land to begin with, but Noah's version mostly involves a lot of throwing the cards around, and guess who is usually stuck picking most of them up. For that reason, Candy Land is now hidden back in the game closet, and hopefully soon forgotten.I have not done any sewing or knitting in quite awhile, but lately I am itching to start doing those things again. My goal this afternoon is to get the basement cleaned and organized so I can at least get to my sewing machine without having to wade through mounds of toys and clutter. In addition to new things, there are many (many, many, many) unfinished projects that are calling my name. I also need to learn how to crochet because I want to do this. Of course, it's so easy to sit here at the computer and be inspired by other people's projects; the problem is actually finding the time to work on projects of my own. However, today I am vowing to make that a priority, so hopefully I'll have some crafty things to show here pretty soon.

2009-11-11T23:47:00.000-06:00

On our first Valentine's Day together, Steve and I had been dating for almost a year. For his present, I made him a scrapbook of of our first year together. (I obviously didn't know him very well then because Steve doesn't care about that kind of stuff at all and, although he didn't say so at the time, I'm sure he thought it was a lame present.) Still, I really liked making it and I wanted to keep scrapbooking after that. I had good intentions and I still worked on scrapbooks after Emma was born, but by the time Allie was born five years later, I had about two years worth of scrapbooks and three years worth of photographs shoved in a shoe box. My last scrapped page was before Noah's birth, and the task of trying to catch up seemed pretty daunting - especially when I thought about the huge mess of scrapbooking stuff I had to drag out to do it.This summer I started looking at my friend Christina's blog, in which she posts pictures of her digital scrapbook pages. Her pages were so cute that I was inspired to give digital scrapbooking a try. It's cheap, fun, and best of all - no mess! I started scrapping current pictures and worked my way back and it didn't take me long at all to get several months finished. Once I had eighty pages complete, I ordered a photo book. I was so very pleased with how it turned out! The quality was excellent.
In addition to the first book I had printed, I now have almost two more complete. I am completely up to date, and have gone all the way back to when Allie was born. It's a great relief for me to get these pictures scrapped, and making the pages is a lot of fun for me as well.Right now, I'm feeling a little stuck because the next pictures I need to scrap are of Allie's birth. My friend Deanna took over 500 wonderful pictures during her birth and I need to go through them and pick out the ones I want to use. Mostly though, I am not sure how to create pages that can portray the emotions involved in her birth. I want to make them special, something more meaningful than just another typical afternoon-at-the-pumpkin-patch type of page.Anyway, I guess the point of this post is, if you are considering trying digital scrapbooking, I highly recommend it!

2009-11-09T11:55:00.000-06:00

Here's a tip. If your baby learns to spit her water and thinks it's funny, don't encourage her because she might never again take a drink without spitting it out afterward. Really, don't do it, no matter how cute it might have been in the first place.

2009-11-04T18:21:00.000-06:00

Emma apparently can't get enough of school, because every afternoon she sits at the table and draws and writes, and writes and draws, then draws and writes some more. She is very into learning to read and she spends a lot of time trying to sound out new words and writing them down. Yesterday afternoon she was working on something that she wouldn't let me see and she only asked for my help once, although I was kind of confused about why she was asking me to spell "ing".

Last night when I went to bed I found this on my pillow."Thank you for love ing me very much."

Thank you, Emma, for making it so easy.

2009-11-02T21:01:00.003-06:00

We spent the weekend at my parents' house and, as always, we had a great time. After Trunk or Treat at school the night before and then a day of general Halloween festivities, the kiddos were plum tuckered by the evening when it was time to go Trick or Treating. Noah, who has never ever ever in his entire life admitted to being tired, said that was too worn out to go on after only about two houses. Allie fell asleep in my arms a few minutes later, so it turned out that Emma was really our only Trick or Treater.

Every year we spend Halloween at the house of some good family friends, and I wanted to bring some sort of cute Halloween treat to share this year. I stumbled across Bakerella's Halloween cake pops, and I thought they would be perfect. While all of hers are super cute, I thought it would be a good idea to make mine a little simpler. Not only would they be way less trouble, considering I have three less-than-meticulous helpers, but they would probably be more pleasant to eat, given that there would be no black licorice or anything like that to pick off before eating them.Emma and I rolled the gooey cake mixture into many, many little balls. I thought that was the messiest job ever, but no. The part where we dipped them into chocolate was much, much worse, probably because we also enlisted the help of Noah and even Allie. You would not believe the huge globs of chocolate that were flying around my kitchen. Note a couple of those globs in the picture below.In the end, the cake balls were absolutely delicious, and I think everyone liked them. We also wrapped each one in cellophane and tied them with little orange ribbons so they were cute too, although not quite on par with Bakeralla's. Still, have you ever seen anyone look more excited about a cake pop?

2009-10-30T14:18:00.001-05:00

This is a random cute picture I took the other day. Emma likes to play games on the computer and Noah will sit there, watching intently, for a surprisingly long amount of time.

Yesterday Emma was asking me about saints, and what sort of things people have to do to become saints. I told her that to be considered for sainthood, someone basically has to spend his or her entire life doing really nice things for other people. "What about me?" she asked hopefully. "I obey the Girl Scout Law at all times!"

Last night at dinner, I think I qualified myself for some sort of bad mommy award. We were eating at Spin, and Noah and I were sitting in a booth seat that stretched along the entire length of one wall, well past our own table. He kept running along the seat, which was not such a big deal until someone else sat at one of the other tables along the wall. I didn't want him disturbing their meal, so I asked him to sit down and stay at our table. And I asked him again. And again. And again. Like a typical two year old, his impulse control is not the best and he just couldn't stop himself from running along the vast expanse of seat that stretched before him. I was getting so sick of chasing him down, and I really just wanted to sit and eat my delicious eggplant and goat cheese pizza. He is pretty sensitive these days to things being scary ("hairy"), especially dinosaurs, so without really thinking about it, when he started to take off again, giggling hysterically, I just casually said, "Well, watch out for the dinosaurs." Screeeech. I've never seen him stop so fast and stand so still. "Dinosaurs?" I didn't even say anything else, but immediately he was back and asking to sit in my lap. A few minutes later when I asked him to move, he said something about the dinosaurs coming for him. I told him that I was just teasing about the dinosaurs, but he still seemed a little nervous. I did feel sort of bad about it, but not bad enough to keep me from enjoying myself for those few peaceful moments!

2009-10-26T22:59:00.001-05:00

Our last week was really a drag, due to a sick baby. Allie was sick pretty much all week and I was up with her what seemed like all night, every night. When she gets sick her temperature gets so high and it kind of freaks me out a little bit. One night she was all the way up to 104.7 and I found myself wondering at what point I should take her to the hospital. Luckily, she seems to be a lot better now, which means a much happier baby and a much more well-rested mommy. I'm sure everyone in my family is thankful for that!
This weekend we raked leaves in the yard, just so we could have the opportunity to jump in them. Emma and Noah loved it. I've never seen two people more thrilled about having yard waste thrown at them.I thought Allie might like it too, so I put her in the leaf pile. I don't know if it was because she wasn't feeling well or if she just isn't into playing in leaves, but she apparently didn't enjoy it nearly as much as her brother and sister!

2009-10-15T22:37:00.000-05:00

Noah's latest trick:

2009-10-14T21:00:00.004-05:00

Well, the kids made it back from my brother and sister-in-law's house without any trouble, and they apparently had a great time while they were there. Noah woke up a couple times the first night and cried for a minute or two, and the second night he woke up once but went right back to sleep as soon as my brother carried him into their bed. Amazing! I am so happy that it all worked out so well.Noah's hair had been getting pretty shaggy, and I was getting a little tired of paying $14 once a month or so for him to get a haircut. My brother owns a set of clippers so I asked him to give Noah a buzz cut while he was there. I had forgotten about that, so when I saw Noah Monday morning, I was a little shocked. He looks like a completely different kid!He's been home for three days now, but I still do a double take every time I look at him. I think he looks adorable, but definitely more like some other stranger kid than my Noah. Of course, two seconds with him will confirm that it is definitely him. He thinks its a hoot to close his eyes when I'm trying to take his pictures, so most of the shots I have of him lately look like this.

2009-10-10T12:29:00.003-05:00

Well, this is weird. I'm sitting here at the computer with a baby sleeping on my lap and no one else is home to bother me. Meaning, I can sit here peacefully for her entire nap and waste time doing whatever it is I want.

My brother lives two hours away in Columbia, but he works here in Kansas City, so he usually stays at our house a couple of nights a week to save himself many hours of driving. Yesterday his car broke down and wasn't going to be fixed until today so he stayed here again, and offered to take Emma and Noah back home with him until Monday morning when he goes back to work.

Now, Noah has never been away overnight before, and he still isn't completely night-weaned (although we've been working on it lately) so right away I said no. Two hours away, for two nights? That seemed like way too huge of a step all at once. Still, Noah said he wanted to go, and Emma wanted to go, and Steve said he thought I should let them go, so I mulled it over a bit and I decided to let them go.

I sent them off this morning, although not without reservations. They both adore my brother and sister-in-law and I know they will be in good hands, but I'm just wondering what's going to happen tonight when it's time for bed and Noah realizes that he is not going to be able to nurse. I guess we'll just have to wait and see, but I certainly hope that it isn't too traumatic for him.

In the meantime, did you hear what I said? NO ONE IS HERE TO BOTHER ME! Steve is working today and going to the Chiefs game tomorrow so it will mostly be just Allie and me for the weekend. I'm not sure what we'll do, but with only one easy little baby to care for, the possibilities are endless! Hurray!

2009-10-09T12:30:00.004-05:00

Some random things...

~ I was able to get the beet stains off the floor using Magic Eraser. I love that stuff!

~ Emma is joining Daisy Scouts, and I volunteered to be in charge of cookie sales for her troop. I had to go to an informational meeting about it earlier this week, and I left feeling a little dazed and overwhelmed. They told us that the goal for each girl was to sell 125 boxes! Luckily, when I talked to her troop leader, she said I could keep it as low key as I want, which is a big relief. Still, if you get a hankerin' for some Girl Scout cookies in the next couple of months, keep us in mind.

~ I love fall! Love, love, love it! We've been going on lots of walks, during which the kids collect a multitude of leaves, acorns, twigs, etc. Their favorite thing to do of late is paint those objects with fall colors. I am plenty happy about that because it keeps them busy for a long time. Noah is surprisingly meticulous and will spend a good ten minutes painting a single acorn.
~ I made a great discovery today. I love banana bread, and because we often have overripe bananas that no one will eat, I make it a lot. I particularly like this recipe because it uses a lot of bananas - six bananas for one loaf! - but I don't like all the butter that goes in. Today I did a little experiment and replaced all the butter with peanut butter and then added about a tablespoon of oil, and it turned out great! I had to cook it a pretty long time, but it's really good. There is quite a bit of of sugar, but I feel much better about eating 1/2 cup of peanut butter than 1/2 cup of butter, and since I use whole wheat flour, I'm telling myself that it's actually pretty healthy!~ Last week one morning we woke up and it was 59 degrees in here so I turned on the heat. Where do you keep your thermostat? Right now ours is set on 64. It's fine for me (although I am usually hot when everyone else is comfortable) and no one is complaining, but sometimes Allie's little nose feels really cold. I can't remember where I set it last year.

~ Noah discovered our return address stamp, and he now he likes to be covered with our name and address at all times. Yesterday he got out of the bath and immediately ran to the kitchen and stamped up his legs again before I could get his clothes on.~ I still love Emma's lunch box and am having fun packing her lunch, but the novelty of taking pictures has worn off, so these will likely be the last ones you will see. (I can just see my brother heaving a big sigh of relief!)

Banana slices, celery with peanut butter, pistachios, and black-eyed pea salad.Orange slices, green beans, Yakisoba Chicken (this was SO good!), and home fries.
More black-eyed pea salad, raspberries, mashed sweet potatoes, and olives.

2009-10-08T10:01:00.002-05:00

Here is a lesson for you: If you are peeling beets and a baby comes along and flings the beet peelings out of the trash and all over the kitchen floor, do not wait until you are finished peeling (and after that another hour or so while you try to get said baby to fall asleep) to clean them up. They will absolutely stain your tile.

2009-10-02T12:33:00.003-05:00

Quite awhile ago, I started reading a blog called Vegan Lunch Box and then later bought the book from the same author. She packs really great lunches for her son in super cute, compartmentalized (Is that a word?) little lunch boxes. Recently Mothering magazine had an article about moms packing healthy, cute, and waste-free lunches for their kids using this same style of lunch box.

I finally got around to ordering one - from La ptop Lunches - for Emma, and ever since I placed the order, I've been stalking the Laptop Lunches Flickr group, ogling all the pictures of lunches packed in this particular lunch box. The group has almost 1200 members who have posted 8,484 pictures of their lunch!

Emma's lunch box came last weekend and so far she loves it. (I do too, maybe even more than she does.) Every day I've been really excited to pack her lunch, which probably makes me a humongous dork.The first day I packed her some Chickpea Salad with Roasted Red Peppers, raspberries, a kiwi, and carrots with ranch dressing for dipping. Doesn't it all just look so appetizing in there?The second day she got White Bean Roasted Red Pepper Dip, multi-grain pita chips, and glazed carrots and green beans that were both leftover from dinner. I realize that these two lunches are a little redundant, but roasting red peppers is kind of a hassle so I like to get the most for my efforts. Plus, Emma is a huge fan of anything with red peppers in it, so she was happy with it anyway.

When I told my brother about the Flickr group, he totally scoffed not only at people who are lame enough to take pictures of their lunches, but also at people who are actually interested in looking at them, so I won't torture you with any more pictures. If, however, anyone reading this is just dying to see more pictures of Emma's lunches, just let me know and I'll be happy to oblige!

2009-09-29T21:52:00.005-05:00

This baseball season, I think we went to eleven or twelve games. The beginning of the season was pretty fun because we were thinking that maybe, just maybe, the Royals might not be so awful anymore. But nope. Still terrible.Last Thursday we went to what will probably be our last game of the season. I think Noah really actually likes the baseball aspect of being at the game, but I'm pretty sure Emma is mostly in it for the junk food. Although I'm usually a bit of a stickler about not letting them eat crap, the regular rules don't apply at the baseball games. Hot dogs, for example, completely gross me out in my regular life and we never eat them, but we get them all the time - and LOVE them - at the ball park. Look at these two scarfing their cotton candy. They are complete savages!Even though the Royals are no good, I'm still sad baseball season is almost over. And even though their fielding is terrible and they can't hit and they have no speed, I'm still looking forward to next season. Because maybe, just maybe, that will be the season when we finally aren't terrible. Go Royals!

2009-09-25T09:00:00.000-05:00

Last week I was trying to think of something to order from Netflix for the kiddos, when I remembered Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. I saw that when I was little and really liked it, so I figured my kids would too. We watched it Wednesday afternoon, and both kids surprised me by being really scared during the movie. Noah started crying way before anything actually scary even happened, and pretty much continued to cry fearfully throughout the rest of the movie. Even though he was apparently so terrified for the pets' safety, he wouldn't let me turn it off. He continued to torture himself for the entire movie, completely unable to tear himself away. Then yesterday morning he begged me to watch the "scary dog movie" and even though I tried to talk him out of it, he insisted. I turned it on, and returned to the living room a few minutes later to find him hiding behind the couch, peering around the corner to watch the TV with one little frightened eye. I suggested we turn on Mary Poppins instead, and the relief on his face was evident as he shouted, "Yes! Watch Mary Poppins!" Unfortunately, I forgot to mail it back yesterday, and this morning he was again pleading to watch the "scary dog movie". Reluctantly, I turned it on. He wanted me to sit right next to him so I did, and he still sat there and watched the movie like this.About ten minutes in, he couldn't handle the terror anymore so I talked him into turning it off. Believe me, today I will not forget to send that movie back!

2009-09-21T22:00:00.000-05:00

Well, I was all set to abandon this poor blog but apparently some people are missing it, so here is an update, lest any of my readers think we all fell off the face of the earth. After such a long break, I think I should be able to manage at least semi-regular updates now.

Let's see...Emma started kindergarten, and I think so far it's a raging success. I am very pleased with her school so far, and she seems to love it there. I posted this picture - from her first day of school - on Facebook so everyone reading this might have already seen it, but it's the only one I have of her so far that relates to school.
Noah is pretty much the same, still busy busy busy, except now he is also quite the chatterbox. I love listening to him talk to me all day long. He is really into shoes these days, and is very particular about which shoes he wears, when. He never lets a single raindrop fall from the sky without pulling on his rain boots and running outside to play. Today, pretty much an entire day of rain, was no exception.This beautiful baby is still wonderfully sweet and cheerful. She has a new trick that she'll show off with enough coaxing. I wouldn't call her an honest-to-goodness walker yet, but it probably won't be too much longer until she is.

2009-05-30T13:51:00.000-05:00

Emma had her preschool graduation ceremony last night, which included receiving a diploma and singing a darling song about summer helping to recharge her batteries and getting a little "R and R". When my brother asked her what R and R meant, she said it means "when you go to sleep, in the night time". Personally, I am looking forward to sleeping in somewhat during the next few months. Hopefully my children will cooperate.

We've been staying home a lot lately, mostly because I've been trying (somewhat successfully - finally!) to get Noah to be a little more reasonable about nap time. I've also realized that staying home more has helped us settle into a comfortable routine and I think those relaxed, pleasant days at home are more enjoyable for everyone than rushing around to a bunch of activities. Anyway, now that Emma is going to be home every day, we will probably have to start getting out more again so she isn't bored silly this summer. When I asked her what she wants to do this summer, she said, "play school and learn gymnastics". I think we can handle that!

2009-05-25T00:47:00.000-05:00

Today I realized that I haven't written anything about Allie in awhile, which doesn't seem quite right because she has actually been very busy learning new things. She has been sprouting teeth, crawling all over the house, and - as of yesterday - pulling herself up.
She isn't eating any solid food yet. I've offered her a few things in the past month - banana, pear, sweet potato, and kiwi - but every time she has thrown her head back and grimaced as though she thinks I'm trying to poison her. She will gag and spit until the food comes back out, and since she seems to dislike it so much, I'm not going to force the issue. I'll keep offering occasionally and eventually she'll probably be a little more into it. For now, I'm certainly not complaining because nursing is so much simpler than dealing with solid food anyway.My mom was here two weeks ago and at one point she watched the kids while I went to Target by myself for an hour or so. That was my first time away from Allie since her birth so kind of a big deal, but she handled it like a champ. Then the very next weekend Steve watched the kids (meaning he drove around with them) for two hours while I got a much needed haircut. So, that means that I had three hours all to myself in one week, which sort of makes me feel like I'm moving out of the stage of being needed by babies all the time and into a stage of having a small amount of personal freedom. Woo!

2009-05-05T20:14:00.000-05:00

This stuff is taking over my brain. I've had Nutella before, but I never actually bought it until last week. Oh. My. It is so amazingly delicious and creamy and fabulous and I can't stop eating it. At first I was trying to eat it a bunch of different ways - on bagels, on toast, on pancakes, on pretzels, on any kind of fruit - but then I said to heck with that and I just started eating spoonfuls right out of the jar. When our little regular sized jar was gone, I decided to stop messing around and go for the giant Costco-sized two-pack.
The other night we were walking out the door to go to Cinzetti's and I actually debated stuffing the Nutella in my purse because there was bound to be something there that was just begging to be smeared with it's chocolate-y, hazelnut-y goodness. In the end I decided I needed to get a grip and left the Nutella at home.This morning it became apparent that the kids have picked up on my obsession. Emma woke up, immediately walked into the kitchen, and said, "So do you think we should just have Nutella for breakfast?" Upon hearing her suggestion, Noah actually pumped his fist in the air and shouted, "'Tella!" Hey, at least they have good taste. (As evinced by Noah's trying to steal it before I could take a picture.)

2009-05-03T14:48:00.008-05:00

Yesterday I turned 30 years old. My family - mainly Steve and Emma - made sure that it was a really great day. We did fun stuff all day and I also got flowers and many lovely presents.Thirty seems like kind of an important birthday, and I sort of feel like I'm leaving my youth behind and entering a new period of greater wisdom and maturity. I guess we'll see if that part actually comes true, but for now it's making me look around and evaluate my life a little bit. If someone had asked me when I was twenty what I expected to accomplish in the next ten years, I know my answer would have included getting my degree, getting married, having some kids, and staying home to raise those kids. So now, looking back, I can say with absolute certainly that I'm doing exactly what I always wanted to do. And seriously, I couldn't be happier.

2009-04-29T12:44:00.007-05:00

I actually sewed something! Woo! I have actually been working on a couple bigger projects here and there, so I guess my excitement should be over actually finishing something. Really though, I shouldn't be so quick to pat myself on the back because this shirt could probably be completed in a total of 45 minutes, but it ended up taking me almost two weeks. Ah well, I'll take what I can get.
She likes it and has already worn it to school twice, out of five days. I guess that means it's a success. Now I'm feeling motivated to carve out some more sewing time for myself and actually finish a few more things.

2009-04-22T22:54:00.001-05:00

The weather this week is amazing and we are loving it. There are so many flowers coming up in our yard that the kids are able to go out and each pick a new bouquet every day. We have a crazy amount of vases placed around our house, all stuffed with flowers in various stages of vibrancy. I didn't think "vibrancy" would be a word, but my spell checker isn't flagging it so I'm going with it. I love how Noah's "bouquets" are really just fistfuls of crumpled petals.Moments after I took this picture, but unfortunately after I had already brought my camera back inside, Noah managed to somehow shove one of these dandelions in his mouth. He grimaced, then opened his mouth and blew out, sending dozens of the little fluffy seeds shooting out into the air. Too bad for him, the rest stayed and it took him a good ten minutes to get them all out of his mouth. Is it wrong to, every once in awhile, laugh at your kids and not necessarily with them?Today we went to the arboretum and Noah was pretty good about only picking the dandelions and nothing else. He had a handful of them at all times, with a constant stream of little fluffy particles billowing out behind him as he walked. When we were getting ready to leave, he proudly handed me a large bundle of mostly naked dandelion stems - all of which are currently displayed in a vase on our kitchen table. What a sweet, sweet boy.

2009-04-20T14:14:00.008-05:00

In a surprising turn of events, during the past few weeks Noah has really started to grasp the concept of using the potty. Some days he will tell me all day when he has to go and I start to (hopefully, joyfully) think that I will only need to be washing diapers for one baby from now on. Other days, he's not into it and he just wants to wear a diaper all day.We had a Parents as Teachers visit last week, and Noah peed in the potty in our living room just as our lady was pulling into our driveway. Since she was about to walk in the door, I just closed the lid to the potty and reminded myself to dump it out after she left. About halfway through our visit, we were sitting on the floor chatting. Her folder of papers was open on the floor behind her. Before I caught on to what he was doing, Noah picked up his potty, tilted it, and started to walk across the floor. I jumped up to grab it from him but not before the pee all dribbled out exactly all over the papers on the floor. Great. Because who doesn't love to go visit someone and have their stuff get peed on? When our visit was almost over and I was still trying to recover from the initial embarassment, I got up to go get my calendar to schedule our next visit. At that moment, Noah came racing down the hall and skidded into the living room. Determined to show off his lack of potty related social skills, he had apparently pooped and then removed his diaper. He plopped down on the floor next to our visitor, oblivious to the poop smeared all down his legs. Wonderful. Before we could attempt to schedule another appoinment, she grabbed up her stuff, quickly said, "I'll just call you," and escaped out the door. I'm sure she can't wait to come back!

2009-04-10T12:26:00.003-05:00

Not much time to write these days, but I wanted to pop in to offer a recommendation for anyone local who doesn't already know about Door to Door Organics. You can choose all fruits, all veggies, or a mixture of both and what size box you need. It's all organic, and local whenever possible. You can sub up to three things every week, which is good news for me because I am sure that at some point onions will be on the list. Best of all, it's delivered to your house! Sweet! We received our first box last week, filled with beets, celery, avocado, red peppers, oranges, tangelos, romaine lettuce, zucchini, apples, chard, lemons, mango, and strawberries. Yum!

Today we are taking the kids to Opening Day. The sun is starting to peek through the clouds and it's going to be a beautiful afternoon. I am so happy that baseball season is here!

Have a wonderful Easter, everyone!

2009-03-31T23:01:00.005-05:00

For awhile now, Emma has been asking to get pierced ears. I kept telling her she could do it when she was older, but she finally wore me down and convinced me that five years is old enough. Still, look at those sweet little un-mutilated earlobes. I'm going to miss them.We went to the mall on Sunday to get it done. I'd heard stories before about little girls who get them pierced one at a time, but freak out after the first one and don't want to get the second one done. I figured that would be the sort of thing Emma would be likely to do, so I said we were only going to do it if there were two people there to pierce both ears at the same time. Well, when we got there we tried every single place that does piercing and not a single one had more than one person working. Against my better judgment, we went ahead and did it anyway, and she completely wowed me with her bravery!She was smiling until the first earring punched through. After that she looked completely somber, but when Steve asked if she was ready for the next one, she just gave a silent, but determined, nod. I was completely amazed and impressed with her.

So far I think she likes them and I have to admit they do look pretty darn cute. Sniff, sniff...my little girl just keeps growing up!

2009-03-29T22:46:00.006-05:00

There have been several events of late that I think are blog worthy, but I haven't found the time to actually sit down and write about them. Hopefully this week I can get all caught up. But first things first: Noah turned two years old today!Our whole day was unbelievably fun. We didn't start out planning to do a million fun things; it just ended up that way. One of the things we did was go sledding - just in time, because by the time we were ready to go back home, a lot of the snow had melted and we were sledding in half grass and half slush. We were all soaked, but it was warm enough that no one was cold. Even Noah managed to get completely drenched, even though Steve wrapped his legs in trash bags and his arms in freezer bags to avoid exactly that.I made Noah a birthday crown, which he loved so much that he wore it all evening, including at dinnertime. I guess next year when we get it out, we'll laugh about the cheese and ketchup that are smeared all over it. He also spent a lot of time messing with the train buttons on it so they are all hanging off precariously now. My plan was that these crowns would last throughout the kids' childhoods, but I'm suspecting Noah's may not make it that long.
We are planning to get him a train table to set up in the basement but we couldn't find a good one today so we just got him a little circle of track and two trains for now, which he absolutely loved. After he opened them, he sat on the floor pushing the train around and around and saying "Choo chooooo!" until it was time to go to bed.
Right now he is sound asleep in bed with Steve, still wearing his crown and clutching his trains in both hands. Happy birthday, my sweet boy.

2009-03-20T00:47:00.003-05:00

When I was five, I received a little tea set from my grandparents for Christmas. I saved it with the intention of letting my own kids play with it, but since my own kids seem to have a knack for breaking things, it's just been sitting in a box in the basement. This week, Emma finally wore me down with her begging and her promises to take super extra special care of it.

I gave it to her right before Noah's nap so that she would have something to do while I spent who-knows-how-long getting him to sleep, and also so he - the primary destroyer of everything - would not be around while it was in use. After he was asleep, I came back to the living room to find a lovely tea party all prepared for us. Is there any better tea party fare than grapes and roasted edamame? I think not.I guess I wouldn't really know though, because I apparently have a lot to learn about tea parties. When I took my first sip of tea, Emma shook her head at me disapprovingly. "Oh, mommy," she sighed. "Don't you know that people at tea parties are supposed to hold their pinkies out?" Oh. Right.
Also, in case anyone is wondering about the mice, I'm happy to say that they are gone. When the exterminator came, he told me it could take two or three weeks for us to notice a difference, which sort of seemed like a rip-off to me. Luckily, we have not noticed any evidence of the mice - no scratching in the kitchen, no fluff on the oven door, no mouse poop, no actual mice - since the day the exterminator was here. I'm pretty sure they were gone almost immediately, which makes the exterminator worth every single penny we paid him!

2009-03-17T22:43:00.000-05:00

My sister-in-law is doing a Menu Monday thing on her blog where each Monday she posts the menu she has planned for that week, and I like the idea so I'm going to do it too. I am not quite that organized because I never plan our menu on the same day, and of course today is not Monday, but I guess you just have to take what you get. This is what we will be eating this week.

~ Chicken Cheesesteaks with Peppers with grape, strawberry, kiwi fruit salad
~ salmon ravioli, whole wheat garlic bread, spinach salad
~ spinach salad with chicken, feta, grape tomatoes, and balsamic vinaigrette
~ baked tilapia, fingerling potatoes, spinach salad
~ Thai Pork with Peanut Sauce, brown rice, green beans
We had the Chicken Cheesesteaks on Sunday and I thought they were really good. I've been trying to pack the remaining sandwich in Steve's lunch for the past two days and he keeps "forgetting" to take it to work with him, so maybe he didn't like them as much as me.For lunches, we've been eating a lot of the most delicious salad ever: spinach, strawberries, feta cheese, and a basic balsamic vinaigrette. So easy, and so fantastically yummy. In fact, I was about to sneak into the kitchen and get myself some cookies 'n cream ice cream cake from the freezer, but I think I'll make myself one of these salads instead. (With maybe a teensy slice of the ice cream cake afterward.)

2009-03-12T23:38:00.003-05:00

Last weekend my brother Andy came in from South Korea for the first time in almost a year, so the kiddos and I spent a few days at my parents' house hanging out with him and catching up.
Even though they hadn't seen him in so long, Emma and Noah didn't waste any time suckering him into playing with them. But really, who doesn't love a tea party?He brought us all gifts, including some snacks. I like to think I'm fairly adventurous in trying new foods, but I could not bring myself to eat those little dried fish. They still have eyeballs, for crying out loud! No eyeballs for me, thanks.

2009-03-04T22:53:00.001-06:00

I realize that you're probably getting sick of hearing about the mice, but they are occupying a good portion of my thoughts these days so you'll just have to bear with me.

Steve and I are apparently both huge babies because, although we are not willing to share our house with the mice, neither of us want to set the traps and then dispose of the poor dead mice. I was planning to get some of the round traps, where you don't actually have to see the dead mouse, but then I read that mice give birth to a litter of three to five baby mice EVERY EIGHTEEN DAYS year round. Yeesh. No more messing around. I had an exterminator come out yesterday to check out the situation and give me a quote, then another guy came back today to actually start the exterminating.

Yesterday the guy told me that we also have mice in the basement. Now I don't want to go down there, even though we are about to be buried under mounds of dirty clothes and diapers. Then this morning I saw some little pieces of fuzz on top of the door of my oven. I thought to myself, "Weird. I hope this isn't mouse related." as I threw the fluff in the trash and promptly forgot about it. We left the house for a couple hours, and when I got home I was startled to see the entire 1/2 inch opening along the top of my oven door filled with more of the same fluff. I'm no mouse expert, but I'm pretty sure that is a bad sign. So, not only can I not do laundry, now I can't cook anything either.

Let the carnage commence.

2009-02-28T22:11:00.000-06:00

Bad news. I just saw a mouse in the living room. It looks like we need to step up the fight, which we had actually abandoned once we came home from the trip and were left with SEVEN unsnapped, yet completely peanut butter-free traps. I have never seen any evidence of mice - no mouse poop, no chewed open food packages - in the house (except for the actual mouse I saw) so I sort of didn't worry about who ate all the peanut butter off the traps and let myself believe the mice were gone. So much for that.

Since Emma started school and is slowly becoming a little more worldly, there have been a few times when I've been unsure of what is the right thing to do in a certain situation. Today she went to a party that was actually a birthday party for her friend's little sister. Her friend wanted to invite Emma so she'd be able to play with someone her own age. The plan was for me to drop her off at Tunnel Voyage, then later go pick her up at her friend's grandparents' house, where they were going afterward for dinner and cake. The friend's parents didn't get a birthday party package at Tunnel Voyage, but they were going to pay Emma's way in. So, when I dropped her off, I couldn't decide if I should send her in with any money. I felt like by sending her in with no money, I was just counting on the other parents to pay for anything she might need, which I didn't want to do. On the other hand, all I had was a ten dollar bill, and sending a (barely) five year old in alone with ten dollars seemed like a mistake as well. I can just see her at the snack bar, ordering a huge soda and every piece of candy she can possibly purchase with ten dollars. I thought about giving the other parents the money, but they likely wouldn't have accepted it. In the end, I didn't give her the money. Was that the right decision?Last thing - I have a tip for anyone who might be reading this. If you've never purchased a pineapple, you really need to. You won't be sorry. I love fresh pineapple, but I've never bought one before because they always looked sort of intimidating. A couple weeks ago, Emma convinced me to buy one, and it turns out they are really no trouble to cut up and SO delicious. The kids and I have been devouring almost a pineapple a day lately. So yeah, if you see some weirdo at Costco buying five pineapples, that's me. Ahem.

2009-02-24T22:59:00.000-06:00

We spent the last few days skiing with my family, which was great fun, as always. Emma skied for the first time this year, and honestly, I was a little apprehensive about it beforehand. When I learned to ski I was a couple years older than her, and I remember lying in the snow before I had actually even started skiing, crying because my feet hurt and begging to just skip the whole thing. Luckily, she wasn't that lame and she totally rocked! She took a lesson in the morning, then went out with us in the afternoon and then again at night. By the end of the day, she was a little speed demon. I was so impressed with her. I didn't get to ski as much as I would have liked because Allie has developed a little case of separation anxiety, but there is always next year.We drove back today, and after eight hours in the car with the kiddos, I am beat. We saw some bald eagles on the drive home, as well as on the way there. Steve was willing to stop and wait while I took a picture, but not willing to wait for me to change my lens so I could actually get a good picture.The mouse eradication is not going well. We set two traps in the kitchen before we left, and several more in the garage, all with big globs of peanut butter. We came home to find the traps in the kitchen still unsnapped, but there was no peanut butter left on them. Not a trace. We must have some very stealthy mice. I don't know yet if we caught anything in the garage - I'm afraid to look.

2009-02-18T22:00:00.002-06:00

Awhile back we noticed that a bag of birdseed in our garage had been torn into and strewn around the workbench. We figured there might be a mouse or two living out there, but we said they were probably just trying to get in from the cold so we let it go. Two times after that, I actually saw a mouse in the garage, and briefly searched online for humane mouse trap options. Really though, we don't much care if there is a mouse or two in the garage, so I forgot about catching them and setting them free somewhere else, and we left them alone.

This morning I was changing Allie's diaper in the living room and as I glanced over to the kitchen, I happened to see a mouse run along the length of the wall and then disappear behind the refrigerator. Oh. No. Mice in the garage is one thing, but mice in my kitchen is another thing entirely and I am NOT cool with that. We tried to be nice and let them be, but now they have overstepped their boundaries.

Right after I saw the mouse, we left to take Emma to school, and then came back here just so I could run inside and grab enough diapers to last us through the day. We left again, and since the thought of hanging out in a house with mice totally creeps me out, we didn't come back home until about 8:30 tonight. We bounced from one place to another all day and did whatever we could find to do just to avoid coming home. One of the things we did was buy mouse traps - the killing kind. I am feeling very bad about this. Still, I do need to go in my kitchen at some point, so I'm just trying not to think about it. Steve is going to take care of all the mouse trapping duties so I can continue to not think about it. Except that I obviously am.

I have not ever taken a picture of a mouse so I searched Google images to try to find a picture of a mouse for this post. I didn't want to get anything gross, so I searched for "mouse cute", which was clearly a mistake. What is wrong with me, wanting to kill those sweet, cute, innocent looking little furballs? You'll notice that there is no picture in this post because I can't put up a darling picture of a wittle bitty mouse and then come here and announce that I'm going to kill one (or more) without seeming like some kind of ogre.

And by the way, I am so thirsty right now. I am positively dying from thirst, but I can't make myself go in the kitchen and get a stupid drink. I've got issues.

2009-02-05T20:09:00.001-06:00

Noah pretty much always tells me when he needs his diaper changed, so I figured it might be time to start the whole potty learning process. I brought the old potty chair up from the basement, and gave Noah a little crash course on what he was supposed to do. He seemed to get it, and actually acted pretty excited about the whole thing. We've tried it several times now, and here's how it always goes down.

1. He sits on the potty.
2. About 2.4 seconds later, he gets up to look inside and see if there is any pee there. "Pee?"
3. He appears surprised that the potty is empty, then shrugs and wanders off.
4. About 3.7 seconds later, he pees on the floor somewhere.
5. Immediately after that, he runs to find me and show me the puddle, all the while clapping, pointing excitedly, and exclaiming, "Pee!"

I guess he hasn't really got it yet.

2009-02-03T23:07:00.000-06:00

My mom and grandma came to visit last weekend and we had a little pre-birthday celebration for Emma while they were here. I made and decorated her a cake, under her watchful eye and strict instructions. She dictated the colors, the shape, and told me exactly what she wanted it to look like. She wanted to do the sprinkles herself, so I handed them over and let her have at it. She worked very meticulously on those sprinkles for a good twenty minutes. While she was working so diligently, I heard her say to herself, "This just might be the best cake ever." I think she might be right.The other night I made her this birthday crown out of wool felt. I bought enough materials to make one for Noah and Allie too, and my hope is that they will each wear theirs every year on their birthday. Steve said he also wants one, so maybe I'll make one for him too. Emma seems to like hers so I'd say so far the birthday crown idea is a success.Even though it isn't really her birthday yet, it was a fun little celebration, and who wouldn't like an extra birthday party? And I, for one, am always up for extra cake.

2009-01-26T23:22:00.000-06:00

I've been having some issues with Noah lately. He is so sweet and cute and I love how he says new words every day and how he gets so excited about tractors and how he says, "Hi, moff." whenever he sees a moth and how he takes multiple baths every day because he loves them so much and how he looks so proud when he puts on Emma's clothes. BUT...

He is into everything. Always. He doesn't stop. Ever. For example, tonight while I was trying to cook dinner, he decided he wanted to bring Jose's food and water from the kitchen into the living room. Before I realized what he was doing, he spilled the water all over the kitchen floor. While I was cleaning that up, he somehow managed to sneak by me with the bowlful of dog food and fling it all into the living room, where a lot of it fell into and got lost in two baskets of clean laundry that were waiting to be folded. While I was cleaning that up, he pushed a chair over to the kitchen sink and splashed around in the dishes that were there, making another big mess in the process. When I stopped him from doing that, he ran to the bathroom and dragged toilet paper all over the house. Dude. Stop messing with stuff!

He also wants to nurse constantly. All day long I hear this ringing in my ears, and it sounds exactly like a little voice going, "Nurse. Nuuuuurrrrse. Nuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrse." I don't want him to wean yet, but really, I could do with a little less nursing.

He is also still doing the hitting thing when he plays with other little kids, although maybe not quite as much. And, as always, I simply just cannot get that kid to sleep.

He's lucky he's cute.

2009-01-23T23:58:00.000-06:00

Some random stuff, just because I haven't blogged in awhile and also because I have run out of other things to do to avoid going to bed.

~ We got a Wii Fit last weekend and I love it! I've been wanting to work out, but it's generally too cold to bring the babies out in the jogging stroller and it's pretty much impossible to go to a gym because I'm not going to leave Allie with anyone else at this point. The Wii Fit totally solved that problem. I'm sure the novelty will wear off eventually, but for now my regular after-the-kids-are-in-bed activities have been replaced by hula-hooping, yoga, boxing, etc.
~ Steve has been working a ton this month and I am SO over it. I swear, putting all three kids to bed all by myself is going to be the death of me. He has to work all this weekend again, but the good news is that he is going to work from home. It's ridiculous how happy I am about that.

~ Steve and I are buying life insurance to supplement what his work offers, and earlier this week a lady had to come to our house to give us each a health screening. I think my blood pressure is permanently raised after that experience. She arrived forty-five minutes early (well before Steve was home) and since I hadn't yet had time to pick up or clean dinner off the table, I was slightly flustered. Add to that the fact that Jose (who was banished to the garage) barked constantly during the entire visit, Emma inadvertently yelled in Allie's face while yelling at Jose to be quiet, causing Allie to scream uncontrollably, and the whole visit was rapidly going downhill. Of course, it all got even better when Noah spilled my urine sample all over the kitchen table, and then tried to yank the needle out of my arm while the lady was drawing my blood. Keep in mind that I hate having my blood drawn under normal circumstances, so all this was a little more than slightly unnerving for me. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see Steve get home in my entire life.

~ I got a membership to Costco and, seriously, why didn't I do that long ago? That place is way too much fun. I actually went there three times last week, which may be a bit extreme, so in the future I will have to control myself a little more. Once a week, tops.
~ These are just random pictures to go with this random post. Although Emma and Noah sometimes seem like they never stop fighting with each other, they've got nothing but love for their sweet baby sister.

2009-01-14T22:21:00.000-06:00

Due to it's not being used and also to my getting tired of constantly picking up various game-playing paraphernalia, our Wii has been packed away for months. Per Emma's request, this weekend we broke it out again. We spent most of Saturday playing Wii Sports, and then on Sunday purchased the old school Dr. Mario, which I'm pretty sure is the best video game ever invented. That night Steve and I stayed up until midnight playing, and afterwards I vowed to never waste that much time and stay up so late playing a video game again. My resolve is embarrasingly weak, because Monday night we stayed up until after 1:00 a.m. playing that darn game.
Last night, however, I actually managed to do something useful after the kids were in bed. I sewed this little artwork carrying case for Emma, using this for inspiration. When asked, she always wants to go to restaurants that have "drawlings", otherwise known as a kid's menu and crayons. I'm thinking she can keep this in the car and it will keep her busy even at places that don't provide drawlings. And, after I finished this, I destroyed Steve in a few (okay, many) friendly games of Dr Mario. It's all about balance around here, people.Also, this sweet baby is five months old today. Good golly. Could time be flying any faster?