All Day Night

I fixed the kitchen....

2012-01-01T23:52:00.002-05:00

Out of no where, Lucas started talking to me about him "fixing the kitchen". "Are you glad I fixed the kitchen?" :-) Of course, when I turned the camera on, he admitted to having help!

Ring of Fire!

2011-12-06T12:50:00.004-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T18:07:00.006-05:00

I am thankful! Today, Lucas tried everything I prepared, except for the turkey and mashed potatoes with gravy. He ate dressing, mac and cheese, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and a roll. He probably would have eaten the potatoes, but his daddy put gravy on them and he doesn't like gravy. Logan was even proud of his brother. He said, "Wow! That's the first step to not being a picky eater." Then he leaned over to me and whispered, "I should know". :-)

I am thankful! After we finished dinner, Lucas got a book and sat beside his daddy and actually listened to the whole story. Then, Logan went and got a book to read to his brother. :-)

I am thankful! My boys mean the world to me, and I am so happy to have them home with me. I love watching their light bulb moments. :-)

Happy Thanksgiving, from my family to yours!

Pony Ride!

2011-10-31T21:38:00.004-04:00

They had pony rides at the fall festival. Lucas loved it!

Soccer....

2011-10-17T10:49:00.005-04:00

I have been intending to sign Logan up for soccer for a while now. He played t-ball one season and did NOT like it. According to him, there was too much standing around. Since then, I've been trying to get him into soccer, but I always thought about it too late and sign ups were over. This year, I managed to remember in time! In looking at the league, I discovered that they also have a team for special needs kids. So, I was able to sign both boys up. Score!

Yesterday, Logan's team had a make up game and it seems that a few of the kids forgot. At the start of the game, we only had 6 boys, so all of them had to play. Another boy showed up and so we could sub one player out at a time. Logan played the entire first half and was sooo tired at half time. The whole team was, really. Poor boys! The other team was subbing out pretty much their entire team at a time! Our boys were exhausted. They lost, but they really played a great game yesterday! Here are a few pictures of the season so far:

This picture of Lucas totally cracks me up. Part of the goal is making him look like he has ponytails! His team does scrimmage each other, but they don't really have games. It is taking him a little while to warm up, but he does love getting out there and kicking the balls! The fields were too wet on Saturday for them to meet, but last Saturday they did. They had "buddies" (teenagers) there to help the kids. Lucas warmed up to his buddies and then had to make his rounds kicking the ball to all the buddies and all the parents on the sidelines!

As I was saying....

2011-09-29T19:00:00.003-04:00

not a cookie cutter. And I'm perfectly okay with that! :-) I love his sense of style. I think my boy is going to be a trendsetter.

Cookie cutter.....I think not!

2011-09-09T22:08:00.001-04:00

We were at the thrift store last Monday with my friend Andria. She had to head home (30 minutes from here), so the boys and I went with her while she paid for her things, said our goodbyes, then kept looking around. I was looking at the books and had given Lucas a book to look at. He was asking me questions about the book (it was a book about different jobs and had a dog dressed up as different professions). I had already answered lots of questions and he was asking me questions I had already answered. I was browsing the books and he'd say, "And what is this one, Momma?". Well, without looking, I couldn't answer, so I'd look at a few books, then turn to look at his book and answer him. But, before I could answer, he'd ask a few times. Never did he yell, but would just get a little louder each time. A woman (probably 60 or so) came over and said something to him. I don't even remember what, but I think it was "excuse me". Lucas paid her no attention, so I said, "Lucas, someone is trying to talk to you." Lucas briefly acknowledged her, so she began talking to him. "How about I join you with your yelling. Do you think we'd make a good team?" Lucas answered, "Yes." She laughed a bit and said, "No, I don't think so. Are you in school?" I told her that he would be starting kindergarten. I didn't say I'd be homeschooling (or that he had already gone to a year and a half of pre-school through the public school system), so she proceeded, "You know what they are going to tell you at school? To use your inside voice." At this point I told her that he is Autistic. Now, I have had a couple of doctors tell me they think he is, but he has never been diagnosed with it. His current doctor actually says she doesn't believe it is Autism, but ADHD and that is the diagnosis she has given him. Regardless, he does have a lot of the characteristics and I wanted this woman to back off. I said, "Well, he is Autistic, so that is a hard one." "Oh. I know. I worked with kids for 20 years." I let it roll off my back pretty easily and she probably thought she was helping me out. Had her tone been a bit different, I might have responded differently, but it does bother me that just because my child looks "normal" people think it is okay to comment on his behavior. It just makes me wonder, if my child appeared handicapped and was being loud, would a person still think it was okay to try to quiet him??

I should add. I don't let Lucas just yell and carry on. I do try to quiet him and if it becomes too much, one of us will usually leave with him. I have to admit that I've learned to tune a lot of it out (as his doctor's have told me to ignore the bad if it isn't too bad and give lots of praises for the good). So, I'm not constantly reprimanding him for being noisy. I try to quiet him if we are in public, but usually my efforts are useless. I've really gotten to the point that I don't care if people don't get it. It isn't fair to me or my boys to try to shield them, so we go and carry on just like anyone else, we just happen to be a bit noisier about it. It just really makes me wonder when everyone is going to realize that we don't all fit into a cookie cutter mold.

Words!

2011-09-05T12:52:00.003-04:00

When Lucas is upset, he bites his fingers and yells. His poor, poor fingers are so calloused. They are actually starting to look better because we've been working really hard to stop him as soon as we see them in his mouth and encouraging him to use his words when something upsets him.

This morning he and Logan were down stairs in the living room and I was upstairs. Logan was supposed to put Epic Mickey on for them to play. Well, Lucas came upstairs and said, "Momma, why'd Logan not put Epic Mickey on?". I asked him what game was on and he didn't know the name, but he knew enough to tell me about a character on it so I would know which game Logan was playing. I called Logan up and asked him what game he had in. His eyes got big and he said, "The one that Daddy was playing". I told him that he better start doing what I tell him to because his brother can use his words now and tell me if they aren't playing the game they are supposed to be. Lucas let out this little laugh, "Ha ha!". Oh, my sweet boy, how I laughed! Yes, at 5.5 years old Lucas has finally figured out how to tattle on his brother and as strange as it may seem, I am one proud momma!

So excited!!

2011-09-03T23:07:00.006-04:00

No. I haven't fallen off the face of the planet, but I have been busy! We went on a vacation to Yellowstone (and I took over 800 pictures!!) and since we've returned, we've been trying to come to some decisions regarding schooling for our youngest son. He is special needs, as I've talked about before. Obviously I would love to homeschool (as I already do my oldest son), but ultimately I want to do what is best for my boys. I've been searching and searching to find a place to take Lucas to therapy that would be covered by my insurance. I finally hit the jackpot!

We haven't been yet (our first appointment is on Tuesday), but I'm really crossing my fingers that they can offer us the help we've been looking for. School also starts on Tuesday, but neither of my boys will be getting up and heading out the door. We've decided that I will give homeschooling both of them a try and see how it goes. My feelings are that Lucas being gone approximately 8 hours a day for kindergarten and then us driving about 45 minutes one way for therapy, have a session, then drive home would just be too much. Of course, I could take him during school hours, but I don't think the school system would like him missing school so often. Obviously I have no clue how often he will have therapy yet, but considering his developmental pediatrician has recommended occupational and speech therapy, I'm assuming it would be at least once a week.

So, I've been busy, busy trying to prep for our new normal. I was trying to get the homeschool room done already, but the decision to have both boys home made me move a little faster. I know that I need to be as organized as possible so that I can use our time each day wisely. I'm so, so excited to be mostly done with the school room!! I still need to hang our calendar and do a few final things with filing and such, but I'm pleased with the results!

I took some pictures, but it was after 10 PM and dark, and they just didn't turn out so great. They are a little blurry, but after spending about 7 hours down there today, I was too tired to go attempt taking them again. :-)

Let me give you a tour!!

This is looking down the hall into the schoolroom from the playroom. I just hung our world map in the hall because it was so big and I don't have a whole lot of open wall space in the schoolroom.
Here is my new homeschool cabinet. We bought this from a military family that bought it in Germany. It comes apart into two large pieces, which made it nice for transporting! It only had two shelves on the inside, so my husband added more.
We decided to go with a system that will allow me to move the shelves around if I want to and I love it!! I'm really excited about having it more organized than I have in years past!
Above the bookshelf, I'm planning on hanging a clothesline of sorts to hang the boys artwork.
Close up of the bookshelf. I haven't filled this yet, but I (or my husband, really) did move all the books down from the over-flowing bookshelf in Logan's room. I'm going to love having all these educational books in the same room as us (the chapter books are all still in Logan's room). Before when were doing school at the dining room table and wanted something, we'd have to go up a flight of stairs to get it. It got tiring and annoying!!
We got the corner desk on Craigslist and I love it!! Also got the filing cabinet on Craigslist. I have some plans for it, but that will have to wait a bit.
I'm going to hang our calendar on the wall above the little white bookshelf. Since we have to change things out on it often and I can't really laminate it, I'm going to try something new with it this year. I had been using that sticky putty stuff to hang it, but it didn't work very well and would fall. I'm afraid if I just use push pins that it may rip. So, Costco has a large dry erase board that is magnetic and I'm hoping that I can put that on the wall and then use magnets to hang our calendar up. I'll have to measure it and find out.
So, that's it. What do you think? I'm so excited that it's hard not to go wake the boys to try out our new room. :-)

Time for some more funnies.....

2011-05-24T19:01:00.004-04:00

My boys always have me laughing!

Lucas was in my bedroom opening the drawers on the table on my side of the bed. He kept saying, "Where is Daddy's recipe?" I had no idea what he was talking about. Finally he said, "Can I play Daddy's recipe?" Ding, ding, ding. PSP. He meant PSP (Playstation Portable). I said, "Oh, you mean Daddy's PSP?" "Yes. Where is Daddy's PSP? Was it stolen?" (For the record, it was stolen.) It did give me a good laugh, though.

A few days earlier, we were in his room and he was frantically searching through his dress up clothes. "My antenna. Where is my antenna?" I had no clue what he was talking about. When I looked and saw he was getting his pirate stuff out, I realized. "Bandana. It is a bandana!" :-)

Yesterday while driving to pick Lucas up from school, Logan told me that he wished his grandma lived in North California. I said, "She does. She lives in northern CA." Logan: (sounding hopeful) "You mean she lives in the state right beside us?!?" Me: "Oh. You mean North Carolina!" Haha! :-)

Also yesterday, Lucas found a piece of a cardboard box....a very small piece. He was laying on the floor holding it up to his mouth insisting that it was his mustache. When he couldn't make it stay and was getting frustrated, I added a piece of tape to it.

He was still wearing his mustache when his daddy got home. His daddy decided to have a snack of salt water taffy and turned his purple huckleberry flavored taffy into a mustache. Lucas thought it was awesome and had to make it his own!

Last weekend, we rented the Tangled Wii game (Lucas loves Tangled aka Rapunzel). Guess who is playing the game?? Logan and Shaine! Too funny hearing Shaine tell Logan to let his hair down. "Logan, cross the bridge. Now go over to that stump and let your hair down."

After Shaine put a movie on for the boys, Lucas came up to me and said, "Momma, is it Cloudy with a Chance of Heatballs?" Ummm. No!

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-06T17:31:00.001-04:00

I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day. Thought I would share a picture of me with the two boys that make me a mother. I love them both more than words can say!

Menu Plan Monday....

2011-04-04T11:31:00.004-04:00

We are watching our cholesterol intake around here, so I've been on the search for some tasty food for us. I've not been doing so great on menu planning and I'm trying to get back on track. It isn't just menu planning, but household schedules in general. At one point, I was so great about having a cleaning schedule and menu planning and I long to get that back. My household really did run so much smoother then. It isn't that my house is a pig pen because I haven't been great about a schedule, though. The thing was that I had things that I did each day and now I just do it all at once. Breaking it into smaller sections was so much easier, though.

Anyhow, on with the plan for this week! :-)

Monday-- pasta with "alfredo" sauce, salad

Tuesday--veggie burgers and fries

Wednesday--veggie stir fry with Chinese noodles

Thursday--artichoke tomato pasta, veggie meatballs, green beans

Friday--baked tilapia, coconut lime rice, steamed veggies with basting oil

My recent visitors!!

2011-03-25T18:21:00.003-04:00

We live in a very diverse neighborhood. It's true....just check out who has been visiting the last few days! :-)

A construction worker....

Spider man...Amazing!!

And a cowboy! What cracks me up is he is wearing a bandana (with skulls and crossbones that is intended to be worn on the head as a pirate) around his neck to be a cowboy! :-)

Menu Plan Monday...

2011-02-27T21:19:00.005-05:00

It's been a long, long time, but I'm trying to get back into menu planning. My bank account will thank me for it. :-)

Monday-- Not sure yet....I need to grocery shop tomorrow, so may just grab something easy
Tuesday--Chicken pasta, steamed veggies
Wednesday--Philly cheesesteak and fries
Thursday--chicken fried rice, stir fry veggies
Friday--baked tilapia, coconut lime rice, steamed veggies with basting oil

Also going to make some pasta salad to have on hand for lunches and some granola bars for snacks. I'm also going to make these granola bars. I'm searching for a good recipe to do homemade ones because Lucas loves them so much.

Five!!

2011-02-26T00:37:00.002-05:00

Five years ago, I worked all day to finish up the little details to have a clean house and a stocked pantry. I picked my dad up from the airport and we went to Costco. That night, my back was super sore and I realized....I was in labor!!! I was supposed to be induced the next morning, but my sweet Lucas wanted to come early. I'm so glad to have him in my life!! :-)

As a side note, our home was robbed and my camera and laptop are gone, so I currently don't have any pictures to post of my sweet boy. This has made me treasure this blog even more.....I have so many pictures and memories here and they can't steal that!

This is fun.....

2011-01-30T14:54:00.003-05:00

I can't believe it, but my baby will turn 5 at the end of February! It simply does NOT seem possible!

And since he will be 5, I figured it was probably time that I take down the baby gate in the hall (it was up to keep him out of the kitchen, bathroom, and from the stairs going up to the bedrooms)! :-) I mean, he CAN open it now and all! So, today while cleaning house, I took the gate down and did a little bit of re-arranging of things.

Lucas loves routine and structure, so he wasn't so sure about the changes. I moved the bookshelf from the living room into the hallway and moved the entry table back into the living room from the hallway! Funny how just those few things can make such a difference. As my husband said "taking that gate down made the hall look a lot less claustrophobic". I must say that I agree. :-)

And just for fun, here is a video of the boys playing. Just another normal day in our household.....

Snow!!

2011-01-29T17:57:00.001-05:00

Lucas LOVES watching the snow....oh, and "Icspicable Me"! :-)

Date night!!

2011-01-05T21:48:00.008-05:00

Tonight, Logan and my husband went to see Harry Potter and Lucas and I stayed home. We had lots of fun! We watched Beauty and the Beast. Lucas started the movie in one of his favorite spots to sit (the coffee table)....
and ended the movie in his other favorite seat (my lap!). :-)Lucas tried on all of his Christmas hats. The boy loves hats and his momma loves a good deal. I found them on clearance for 25 cents!! He is wearing two Christmas tree hats and one Santa stuck in the chimney hat!And, we listened to a song (and watched the video on Youtube) that I've been singing to Lucas and he loves, but he had never heard the whole song before:

Money talks!

2011-01-03T23:15:00.001-05:00

My husband was upstairs trying to get Lucas to come up so he could get him ready for bed. I was ushering Lucas that way and he spotted his train puzzle all apart on the floor. We had just finished putting it together and Lucas was looking for something else to delay him when his daddy said, "Lucas, I've got some change to put in your piggy bank." Lucas has never gone up the stairs so fast...LOL! :-)

New Year, New Funnies!

2011-01-02T12:58:00.005-05:00

So, I've kind of fallen off of the blogging wagon. Sorry about that. There have been a few funny things said/done that I want to make sure to get down so I don't forget!

You need a bit of background for this to be funny. A friend gave me a holder for my scissors similar to this one. For Christmas, Lucas got a Buzz Lightyear and Woody from Santa. The other day Logan brought Woody to me and said, "Look, Momma. Woody has a scissor holder on his belt." Oh how I laughed!

We were at a friend's house on New Year's Eve. She recently got new furniture and Logan was admiring it. "Look! It even has butt holders!"

My husband is great about helping me clean house. Typically I keep things pretty straightened up during the week and on cleaning day, I dust and vacuum and wipe down the kitchen and he cleans the bathrooms and keeps the boys occupied. Well, Logan has been making a mess in the bathroom and we decided that he needed to start cleaning it up. I try really hard not to try to make my husband clean the way I do. I try to just let him do it and if I see something I want done, I'll just do it once he is finished. The way I have tried to start looking at it (took me a few years to get to this point) is that him cleaning it and me wanting to do a little more is still better than me doing all of it! Well, the other day my husband was showing Logan how to clean the bathroom and was telling him that when he makes a mess, now he'll have to clean the bathroom in the same manner that he was being shown. Logan was all excited about it and as his daddy was cleaning up, Logan kept pointing out more things to clean. Yep, Logan takes after his Momma in that department! :-) I also find it funny that at 8, cleaning the bathroom is fun. Of course, this morning he was cleaning the other bathroom and complaining about having to touch the toilet where the pee was. My husband told him that is why he will be cleaning the toilet. It is his pee and we don't want to touch it either! YUCK!

Another project completed!

2010-12-04T23:06:00.007-05:00

Having company is truly a great motivator for getting projects done. I know that I absolutely don't have to get things done for my friends and family to come visit, but sometimes that is just the kick I need to get things done. :-) So, my friend and her family motivated us and now my inlaws are coming in a couple of weeks. Truth be told, we decided that we were tired of having things half done and want to keep going and finish things up.....including unpacking the few boxes left in our closet from when we moved in almost 4 years ago!! Obviously we must not need what is in those boxes!! Although, I did just get some tent poles out of one for a tent the boys have been wanting to play in. :-)

Anyway, back to the project. Today I scraped up the remainder of the old sticky tiles in our house (the pantry) and my husband got the new ones installed. There were two layers of tiles hidden under a piece of carpet in the pantry.

Here is a before shot (this was an old picture that I found because I didn't technically take a before shot today, so I don't have a great shot of the floor)...

and here it is now!

Also, I finally got the drawers painted and I've been promising my dad I'd take pictures!
Before (if you look closely near the pantry door, you can see where we had stopped the installation of the new flooring)...

After...

Oh, and here is a picture of the light in the pantry. Before doing work in the kitchen, we had to walk in and pull a string to turn the light on (you can see it in the first picture above). My dad helped us get a switch outside the pantry to operate the light . What a brilliant concept, right?? :-)
Slowly we are getting things done around here and every little bit that we accomplish feels good....especially when I can look at it and know we did it ourselves!! :-)

Thanksgiving Feast....

2010-12-03T20:26:00.003-05:00

On the 22nd, Logan and I joined Lucas at school for their Thanksgiving Feast! When we got there, the kids were all in a circle playing "pass the turkey". When the music stopped playing, if you were holding the turkey, you were supposed to stand up and say, "I'm a turkey. Gobble, gobble!". To watch Lucas participate without prompting was so much fun. Him sitting quietly and participating without a teacher right beside him (there were 2 kids between him and the teacher) is HUGE progress for him. In the past, I've watched as they've physically made him do the motions to a song to get him to participate. Now, I won't say that he doesn't have his moments still, he most certainly does....but he is really making huge progress and I'm proud of him. His screaming is far less than it once was, too. Here are a few pictures of our day!

Playing pin the feathers on the turkey.

It's coming together....

2010-11-28T23:20:00.004-05:00

We just have the finishing touches left to do on the room in the basement we've been working on. My inlaws will be here for Christmas and we are going to try our best to have it done (except for the crown molding....have to replenish the funds!) before they arrive. Once Christmas is over, we'll work on moving the school stuff down there and it will be our new school room! I'm super excited! Right now we just use the dining room. I have a large cabinet in Logan's room and a small cabinet in the dining room, but I hate running between the two places all the time. Anyway, go to the post here for pictures of the basement before and how it was up until recently. And here are a few pictures of the way it is now! :-) I know it is not perfect, but I love looking at this room and knowing that we did it ourselves!!

The proof is in the picture....

2010-11-23T19:30:00.006-05:00

It's that time of year again! You know, the time of year to start thinking about Christmas cards. Yes, I still send out Christmas cards, though my list is a lot smaller than it used to be. These days, my list mostly includes only family. Looking back at our Christmas pictures is always a fun way to see just how much our boys have grown. Check it out for yourself!!

Here is our 2007 card...
our 2008 card...
and here is our 2009 card!Getting that perfect shot is always a challenge when kids are involved. For the 2007 picture, getting the boys in the shot with the whole tree in the frame and no strangers in there, too....yeah, not an easy task. I was practically laying on the ground while my husband tried to hurry me along because I was in the way. In 2008, I just pulled some shots of the boys that I loved and in 2009 I went for that perfect family shot. I won't even begin to tell you how many shots it took for me to get just one that I was happy with! :-)

So, this year I'm not real sure what we will do, but I have certainly been thinking...and looking! Shutterfly has tons of cute cards to choose from! There are sooo many choices out there, but I'm really liking this one! Or maybe this one, or this one, or this one! So many cute choices, for sure!! Next up, calendars!! This will be the 3rd year that I will put a calendar together with pictures of the boys for my husband to have at work. :-)

Full disclosure: Shutterfly will be compensating me for this post by providing me with 50 free holiday cards!

Tonight, I'm sleeping in the "closet"...

2010-11-12T23:34:00.008-05:00

Tonight the boys were put to bed a bit early and I went to get dinner at Wegmans from their $6 meal options for myself and my husband. We had just finished our meal and I was refilling my drink when something in me decided to look up the stairs. We have a cabinet at the top that we keep extra blankets and towels in, essentially our linen closet. Well, I noticed the door was open on the cabinet so I turned the light on to get a better look. The following is what I found.....

Hmmm. I don't recall having a camouflaged blanket with planes on it.

Wait....could that be a boy sticking out of the cabinet??

By golly it is a boy! And when we tried to wake him, he just found another "comfortable" (??) position. :-)

Also note, upon looking at these pictures on my laptop instead of the little screen on the camera, I discovered that Lucas not only likes to use the cabinet for sleeping purposes, but also to store empty paper towel rolls!

Ramblings....

2010-11-03T00:51:00.012-04:00

Sorry I've been MIA. We were super busy working on projects around the house preparing for a friend and her family to stay with us. They were here for almost two weeks and have now headed to visit family for a few weeks before heading back to this area to settle into their first home! We've been friends since 8th grade when we both lived in TX. It is amazing to me that both of our husbands joined the military (different branches), yet here we are both settling down in VA.

Speaking of the projects around the house, I will be sharing pics soon. I just haven't taken the time to take pictures. We finally got the drawers in the kitchen painted and we have just about finished the room in the basement! Super excited about that because it will be our homeschool room!

While our friends were staying with us, we went to Mt. Vernon for their Fall Harvest Festival. The boys really enjoy going and the weather was perfect! The boys enjoyed running through the hay bale maze, playing corn cob darts, hay rides, and more!

Lucas especially loved spinning in circles in the barn, riding the shuttle bus, and saying "cheese" for the camera!

And most recently, they enjoyed dressing up as Luigi and Robbie Rotten while scouring the neighborhood for candy! :-)

Some funnies....

2010-10-02T23:49:00.002-04:00

There have been a few things lately that Lucas has said that I knew I had to remember to add to the blog. Tonight Logan said something that had us laughing, too! :-)

A few weeks ago, we bought Lucas a sock monkey on clearance for $5. Truth be told, I think I wanted it more than he did. Anyway, he keeps asking if we have a "shoe monkey", too!

This one is something that he has been saying for a while and I keep forgetting to share. He LOVES Mr. Potato Head. Honestly, I wasn't sure how he would do with them, because he STILL puts things in his mouth. However, they have them at school and he was doing well with them there, so he got one from the Easter bunny this past Easter. I'm sure you all know that Mr. Potato Head has a little compartment to store all the pieces in. Well, Lucas loves to take things apart, so he is constantly taking the door to that compartment off. Then he can't find it and he wanders around saying, "Where did the butt door go?".

Speaking of butts.....tonight, we were all laying in my bed snuggling and I told Logan to stop picking at his butt (the boy has some sensory issues and can't stand things to be bunched up). Anyway, his response was, "Well, it is that season you know!". I said, "There's a season for butt picking? I knew there was a strawberry picking season, but I didn't know about the butt picking one." He said that indeed there is one and today was it. Oh my!

He likes it, he likes it!!

2010-09-30T21:29:00.003-04:00

Lucas LOVES the show Lazy Town. Thing is, it was on all last year and through the summer, but it isn't on any more. Luckily, I have some recorded episodes for him. You can't find toys for it at the store, but I've been keeping my eye out on e-bay and just found him a Robbie Rotten (the one he is wearing in the video) and a Sportacus costume (2 of the main characters). I'm not sure, but I think he likes it!

Oh, and sorry for the loud Weather Bug alert. It decided to warn me of flash floods and coastal flooding right in the middle of my video. :-)

Somebody stop me!!

2010-09-29T21:38:00.002-04:00

Seriously, it might be a problem! I went to Safeway again last night....

Transaction #1:
1 pkg. OreIda southern style hashbrowns = $3 (reg. 3.50)
1 pkg. OreIda curly fries = $3 (reg. 3.50)
2 pkgs. OreIda tater tots = $6 (reg. 7.00)
6 small containers Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, these have 5 in them, I think = $6 (reg. 11.34)

Total before tax and coupons = $18

-$4.04 OreIda Safeway coupon ($1.01 each times 4)
-$6.00 OreIda manf. coupon ($3 each times 2)
-$3.00 Pillsbury coupons ($1 off of 2 times 3)

Total after tax and coupons = $5.31

Club card savings of $7.34, coupon savings of $9.00 for a total savings of 80%!! Plus, I got $3 off future purchase by purchasing 6 Pillsbury items.

Transaction #2:
2 small containers Grand biscuits, 5 biscuits per can = $1.98
4 small containers Pillsbury crescent rolls, 4 rolls per can = $4.00 (reg. 6.76)
1 container Rocky Road ice cream (my husband's request) = $3.99 (reg. 4.99)

Total before tax and coupons = $9.97

-$2.00 Pillsbury Crescent rolls ($1 off of 2 times 2)
-$1.00 Pillsbury Crescent rolls ($1 off of 2)
-$3.00 (coupon from Pillsbury purchase on transaction #1)
-$0.75 Lucerne ice cream coupon

Total after tax and coupons = $3.45

Club card savings of $3.76, coupon savings of $6.75 for a total savings of 77%!! Plus, I got another $3 off future purchase by purchasing 6 Pillsbury items.

Transaction #3:
4 bottles Pepsi, 2 liters = $3.96 (reg. 7.96)
1 Amp energy drink = $1.19

Total before tax and coupons = $5.15

-$3.00 (coupon from Pillsbury purchase on transaction #2)
-$1.19 (free Amp when you buy 4 bottles, 2 liter, of Pepsi)

Total after tax and coupons = $1.06

Club card savings of $4.00, coupon savings of $4.19 for a total savings of 89%!!

So, my total for the entire trip was $9.82!! Now, looking at this week's sale at Safeway I'm thinking I may get some Toaster Strudels as a treat for Logan (he likes the ones with eggs) and after coupon, they will be 88 cents. Also if I can find creamer in the flavor that my husband likes, those will be free after coupon!

Adding to the invenotry.....

2010-09-27T19:03:00.002-04:00

Super excited about my Safeway trip today! And, in case you are asking yourself, "Gee. Didn't she post an inventory of her pantry and freezer to use up what she has instead of buying more?". Well, the answer is yes and no. I seriously can't pass up a good deal. As long as I know we'll use it and we have the money to buy it, I go ahead. Now, if there are no more good deals for a while, I'll steer clear of the store.....LOL! The Pillsbury stuff was actually better than free and the OreIda stuff was 49 cents each. The Triscuit and Wheat thins I had coupons to try them for free by signing up at Kraft First Taste. They periodically send you coupons for free products. The fish after coupons was $2.99. I guess that isn't super cheap considering it is only 2 filets, but it makes for a super fast, healthy, relatively inexpensive meal.

My purchase:

Safeway mayo (no coupon used) = $1.99
2 containers Velveeta easy Mac (no coupon used) = $2.50
1 box Triscuit thins = $3
1 box Wheat thin stix = $3
2 packs Ore Ida steam and mash = $6
2 packs Pillsbury Grand biscuits (the small packs) = $2
2 packs Pillsbury cinnamon rolls (the small packs) = $2
2 packs Pillsbury crescent rolls (the small packs) = $2
3 pound beef brisket = $11.73
1 pack Waterfront bistro Tilapia = $6.99

Total before coupons and tax = $41.21

-$0.30 e coupon for biscuits
-$0.30 e coupon for biscuits
-$0.50 e coupon for crescent rolls
-$0.50 e coupon for crescent rolls
-$0.40 e coupon for cinnamon rolls (not sure why only one came off)
-$2.00 e coupon for Rancher's Reserve meat
-$2.00 paper coupon for Rancher's Reserve meat
-$2.00 e coupon for fish
-$2.00 paper coupon for fish
-$3.00 (two) paper coupons for OreIda steam and mash
-$1.00 off 2 paper coupon for biscuits
-$1.00 off 2 paper coupon for crescent rolls
-$1.00 off 2 paper coupon for cinnamon rolls
-$3.59 on Tricuits (made 59 cents here)
-$3.59 on Wheat things (made 59 cents again)
-$1.01 store coupon for OreIda
-$1.01 store coupon for OreIda

Total with tax after coupons = $16.79

I saved $13.70 with club card savings, $17.18 with coupons, for a total of $34.92 saved. That's a savings of 69%!!

I also got the $3 catalina for next shopping trip for the Pillsbury purchase. I applied that catalina in my next transaction for 2 pieces of cake for dessert, making them $2.10!

My dad brought me some marinade for brisket when he came to help with the kitchen and I've really been wanting to try them. I'm pretty cheap when it comes to buying meat, but I'm super excited with my deal on it today!! Yay!

I pretty much get all my coupon matching info from The Krazy Coupon Lady. Seriously, you need to check her out!!

And so it begins....

2010-09-14T22:15:00.002-04:00

Today was one week since pre-school started back up for Lucas. This morning it was 10:30 and he was still sleeping. I was just about to go wake him to get him ready for school (we leave at 11:45) when he started crying. I went upstairs and he was talking about throwing up. He hadn't, but I could tell that he wasn't feeling well. So, one week in and already he is sick.

This is how he spent almost the entire day.

Normally my boy is LOUD. It was so quiet here today. It is how I know when he is truly sick. He let out one yell and it startled me. After that he was talking and hanging upside down off the couch and drank a cup of water, so I thought he was feeling better. Turns out it was short lived. I could barely convince him to eat or drink, he just wanted to lay there.

At about 8 o'clock, the door bell rang and I headed to the door. Lucas started crying and screaming, so went to him instead. At the door were two little girls going door to door selling things for a fundraiser (I had already bought cookie dough earlier from a different little girl). They were peering through the door as Lucas was screaming and puking. I couldn't help but laugh. I called my husband to answer the door for me. He said there was no adult out there at all. I know these girls had to be in elementary school, but they were very young. I couldn't believe they were out walking door to door that late.

After we ate dinner (a late one because my husband was working a 12 hour day and didn't get home until around 7:30), I went out to get some gatorade and medicine for Lucas. I had all kinds of meds, but no fever reducer. I just wanted to give him some to hopefully help him sleep tonight. I made it back home just in time to hold the bowl for Lucas to puke some more.

I managed to get him to take the Motrin and sip some gatorade and was going to let him stay up for a bit longer. When I announced it was bed time, he declared it wasn't. "No. It's not bed time. I need lunch. I missed it." So, he is presently sitting beside me on the couch eating the crackers that have been here all day.

Pantry inventory.....

2010-09-09T15:27:00.010-04:00

I said I wasn't going to do it, but I couldn't take the mess anymore. I figured that once I had it clean and organized, it wouldn't take much more to inventory the contents, so I just went for it. As you will see below, we seem to have a thing for condiments. :-) I'm going to try to update this as I use things, too.

Prepare to be bored (When I buy new things, I will add them in red to make it easier to see what was part of the original inventory.).....

Pasta/rice:
3 boxes thin spaghetti
2 boxes elbow macaroni
~~1 box Farfalle~~
1 box rotini
~~1 box med. shells~~
1 box mostaccioli
~~1 box mac and cheese~~
5 ½ bags (1 lb. each) brown rice
1 bag white rice
10 pounds Jasmine rice

meal kits:
1 box Hamburger helper (got this free in the mail somehow)
2 boxes Macaroni Grill kits (garlic herb and chicken penne)
1 box Cajun style rice and beans

Misc. side dish items:
1 box chicken flavored rice
2 boxes potato pancake mix

Sauces:
1 jar Trader Joe's curry sauce
1 jar Trader Joe's Masala sauce
1 jar gourmet antipasto sauce
3 jars pasta sauce (Arrabbiata, Artichoke pesto, and Tomato Alfredo)
1 can four cheese pasta sauce

canned goods:
1 large can Hatch green chilies
4 2 small cans diced green chilies
4 3 cans chili beans
12 11 10 cans green beans
1 can coconut milk
9 8 cans 4 oz. sliced mushrooms
7 6 cans Rotel
3 cans tomato paste
10 98 cans diced tomatoes
1 3 can cream of mushroom soup (I bought more)
3 cans cream of chicken soup
2 cans Golden mushroom soup
1 can French onion soup
10 9 cans tomato soup
3 2 cans sliced carrots
5 cans black beans
4 cans garbanzo beans
1 can black beans and rice
4 cans black eyed peas
~~1 can field peas with snaps~~
1 can hoppin' John
3 cans cranberry sauce
2 cans pumpkin

dried beans:
1 bag pinto beans
1 bag lentils
½ bag red lentils
2 bags 15 bean soup mix
3 pounds black beans
1 bag red calypso beans

Grains, etc.. :
32 oz. bag Pungo Creek Mills Indian corn meal
½ bag Harvest grains blend
1 box Israeli couscous
4 pounds of Quinoa
1 box steel cut oats
1 container old fashioned oats
1 bag organic barley

Condiments, Marinades, salsas, and dressings:
2 1 jar pepper relish
1 bottle Mexican chili and lime marinade
1 bottle bbq sauce
1 bottle Tuscan style basil herb dressing
1 spray bottle Balsamic vinaigrette dressing
1 bottle honey teriyaki marinade
1 bottle buffalo wing marinade
1 bottle mango curry marinade
1 bottle peppercorn steak marinade
1 bottle Caribbean jerk marinade
1 jar salsa verde
1 can salsa verde
1 jar olive medley bread spread
3 jars Herdez salsa (hot, medium, and chipotle)
1 bottle Louisiana Gold hot sauce
2 bottles brisket marinade
2 bottles fajita marinade
2 bottles spicy brown mustard
1 bottle dijon mustard
1 bottle yellow mustard
~~1 bottle mayo~~
2 jars Trader Joe's vegan mayo (my husband got these to try)
3 bottles ketchup

Peanut butter, jams, syrup, etc.. :
4 3 half pint jars homemade apricot jam
2 pint jars homemade apricot jam
2 bottles Agave nectar
1 jar 26 oz. almond butter
1 jar natural peanut butter
1 jar strawberry fruit spread
1 jar organic peanut butter
pancake syrup
1 jar simply fruit (blueberry)

Misc. soups and lunch items:
2 containers noodle soup
2 boxes pad Thai
~~1 package microwaveable rice~~
~~1 container New Orlean's style chicken and rice~~
2 cans curry beans
~~1 container microwaveable chicken noodle soup~~
3 cans minestrone soup
1 can lentil soup
3 cans chicken soup (2 Spongebob ones and one Cars one)

Misc.:
1 giant bag French fried onions (from Costco)
4 3 boxes taco shells
2 boxes Ritz crackers

The above is what I figure I will mainly use to make meals. Here is the remainder of the pantry. These lists are not complete, but a general idea of what else is in my pantry.

Baking goods and nuts:
pecans
almonds
walnuts
pine nuts
pumpkin seeds
dry milk
flour
sugars (organic, Splenda, brown, powdered, and sucanat)
chips (chocolate, cinnamon, white, mint, toffee bits, etc..)
marshmallows
2 boxes brownie mix
3 boxes jiffy cake mix
1 container frosting
50 pounds wheat berries

drinks:
soda
Nestle flavored water
Sobe life water
Lipton 20 oz. bottles half and half (tea/lemonade)
Arizona gallon half and half (tea/lemonade)

snacks:
organic fruit rolls
animal crackers
pudding
crackers (wheat thins, gold fish, cheezits, saltine, graham)
gummy fruit snacks
trail mix
cashews
dried fruit
chips

cereal/granola bars:
3 bags granola
2 boxes frosted mini wheats
3 boxes cinnamon toast crunch
1 box apple jacks
1 box corn pops
1 box fruity cheerios
1 box chocolate cheerios
granola bars (blueberry, strawberry, peanut butter, chocolate chip, Fiber one, Kashi)

Back to School.....

2010-09-07T23:41:00.000-04:00

Sweet boy's first day back to pre-school. The report was that he had a wonderful day with no screaming. That is HUGE! Tomorrow is a new day, but I am thankful for the good day today! :-)

Menu Plan Monday...

2010-09-06T17:05:00.004-04:00

*= new recipe

Monday--?? spent too much time going through the freezer making an inventory and cleaning it

Tuesday--breakfast casserole, fruit (Edited: ended up making quiche minus the onions instead)

Wednesday--chimichangas (baked instead of frying), salad

Thursday--Letcho * (got to find something to use up the summer sausage!!) and rice

Friday--beef stroganoff over egg noodles (with the addition of celery because I need to use it before it goes bad!), green beans, salad

Lunch:
chicken pasta salad (using some more of my celery)
sandwiches
hot dogs

Time to get organized....

2010-09-06T15:51:00.011-04:00

It's Labor Day and labor we have! We are finally trying to finish the room in the basement that had the massive brick wet bar and 70's paneling. We had hung most of the drywall down there and did the electrical work, but in May we finally finished tearing down the little bit of paneling in the room and hallway and got the rest of the drywall up. This weekend we got tape up and corner bead and the first coat of joint compound is currently drying.

Once we finished that, I took inventory of what is in our freezers to more easily plan meals around what we already have. While everything was out, I cleaned the freezers and put it all back in neatly.

I'm trying to get more organized because Lucas starts pre-school tomorrow and Logan and I will start school this week as well. I had planned on starting tomorrow, but I procrastinated with ordering some of his curriculum. However, we have plans to meet some friends at the park for a bit while Lucas is at school and we also need to go to the library to pick up books for our first week of school!

I'm excited to get back into a routine. My husband is now working four 10 hour shifts a week, with Wednesdays off. We will use that day for any appts. that we may have (most especially for Lucas) and he will also be teaching Logan science. I love having him home an extra day, but I don't like him getting home later each day. Now he gets home right around 6. It is only an hour later, but I typically would wait until he got home and start dinner then. Now if I do that, we don't eat until closer to 7! That just won't work with school starting back up.

So, it is time to get back to planning out my meals and being organized! I have enough food to cook for a while, too. I'm listing out the contents of my freezer and will start planning my meals. If you have any recipes you wish to share based on my freezer contents, I welcome them. :-) There is lots in my pantry, but I'm not going to inventory it at this point. I know most of what is in there for meals and I'll try to plan using things in there, too. One thing I'll obviously still have to buy is any fresh produce needed for recipes. I'm going to update this list as I use the items.

Anyway, on to the list (I've bought a few things since the original inventory, so when I buy something new, I'm going to put it in red text to make it easier to spot.):

Meat:
9 8 quart size ziplocs ground beef (appx. 1 pound each)
8 hamburger patties
1 pound maple sausage
8 4 boneless rib eye steaks
4 flat iron steaks
2 T-bone steaks
4 petite steaks
1 4.5 pound roast
3 packages hot Italian sausage
~~1 package cube steaks~~
3 pound beef brisket

Chicken/Turkey:
~~1 pkg. boneless buffalo chicken nuggets~~
2 pound bag breaded chicken chunks (like popcorn chicken)
18 16 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I stocked up when they were on sale!!)
1 pound ground turkey
3 pounds breaded chicken strips
5 lemon pepper boneless, skinless chicken breasts
8 smokey bbq boneless, skinless chicken breasts
8 Italian boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Seafood:
1 Tilapia filet
3 pounds shrimp
1 pound jumbo shrimp
7 tuna steak filets
~~1 bag (2 filets) Sesame Chili Tilapia~~
1 bag (2 filets) Tortilla crusted chili lime Tilapia
1 bag (2 filets) Herb crusted Parmesan Tilapia

Veggies:
1 pound bag corn
1 pound bag sugar snap peas
1 pound bag field peas
1 pound bag crowder peas
1 pound bag winter veggies

Misc:
~~1 pie crust~~
~~four veggie patties~~
~~1 24 oz. roll summer sausage~~
1 ham bone
1 pkg. of 10 med. flour tortillas
1 pkg. of 30 corn tortillas
1 pkg. roti bread
1/2 gallon of orange juice (I got several for free with coupons a while back and froze them)
10 mini cinnamon raisin bagels
10 homemade biscuits (ready to be baked)
5 bags OreIda French fries (2 zesty, 2 steak, 1 curly....I got them on sale for 49 cents each!!)
2 packages OreIda tater tots
1 package OreIda southern style hash browns
3 packages of cream cheese (I got them on sale for 49 cents each!!)
2 1 bag OreIda steam and mash potatoes

Sweet, sweet boys....

2010-08-23T12:50:00.001-04:00

Breathing it in!!!

2010-08-20T14:49:00.002-04:00

This absolutely NEVER gets old!!! :-)

Random post of the day.....

2010-08-19T16:48:00.002-04:00

My organized junk drawer! Yes....I really am that proud of it....LOL! I don't have a before, but let's just say that it was very difficult to close the drawer without a cord hanging out the top of it! I love this drawer organizer, too!! :-)

Sorry about picture quality. I have to reformat my memory card before I can use my camera.

Bedtime Stories....

2010-08-17T22:59:00.004-04:00

I've talked on here a little about Lucas being developmentally delayed. One of the things that he is delayed in is his communication skills. He actually has a large vocabulary, but getting him to use it can be difficult. Just recently he has started holding longer conversations and taking more turns in the conversation. He is also starting to get out of his bed nightly again.

Last night my husband went upstairs to check on him and get him back in bed. It was 11 PM and Lucas had not gone to sleep yet. When my husband entered the room, Lucas started talking to him about frogs. Lucas said that the frogs were mad at him and that they were hiding under his bed and in his closet and were going to bite him.

Tonight the frog conversation continued. I learned more about the conversation that my husband had with him last night, too. It is possibly a tactic on Lucas' part to delay bedtime, but I just can't make myself leave. I love listening to him tell stories. I have no idea where he gets things sometimes.

So, as I said, tonight the conversation continued. Lucas is a little anal about how he is tucked into bed. He likes his arms under the covers and right against him. I asked my husband if he had noticed that and he said that he had and that he likes to take them out and watch Lucas put them back where he likes them. Tonight he did it and he told Lucas that this way his arms were out to defend himself from the frogs. He said, "This way you can punch the frogs", as he punches the air with his fists. "Like this! Punch the frogs, Lucas". Lucas stayed perfectly still watching his daddy punch the imaginary frogs. "Is Daddy shooting the frogs?" "No, I'm punching them." Again Lucas watches and asks again if his Daddy is shooting the frogs (mind you, we have no guns real or play in our house). Finally my husband says, "Sure. Daddy is shooting the frogs. Peeeeew-peeeew-peeeeeew! Peeeeew!" Just so you know, the gun sound effect that he made was a joke. That is the sound effect that Logan makes for guns. I'm guessing because he has only seen them on Sci Fi movies he watches with his daddy.

Anyway, back to the frogs. My husband pretended to shoot the frogs and Lucas started crying. He was sooooo upset that his Daddy shot the frogs. "No. I want more frogs!", he cried. We both started laughing. My husband said, "Lucas, they are just pretend. If you want more, just imagine a new one." That wasn't good enough. I actually had to put out my hand and offer a new frog to him.

Happy now, he started more talk about the frogs. "I don't want to eat the frogs. Frogs are yucky. I don't want to hold the yucky frog. I want to hold the clean frog.........."

Happy Birthday, PaBob!!

2010-08-14T13:19:00.004-04:00

Happy birthday, Dad. We love you!

Bowling fun.....

2010-08-13T00:28:00.004-04:00

The boys really enjoy bowling.......I really enjoy having some fun where there is an AC!! :-)

Target and Safeway shopping trip!!

2010-07-31T22:52:00.007-04:00

Up first, my Target trip. I'm most excited about this trip. Although, upon getting home and looking at my receipt, I discovered that my BOGOF coupon for Bear Naked granola did not go through. I asked him because I saw it come up as $0, but when he scrolled up, we saw a -$3.50 and assumed that my coupon did go through. However when I looked more closely, I discovered that was my $3.50 off for the special promo of by 2 Dannon yogurts get one Bear Naked granola free. One of my 50 cents off Bear Naked granola coupons did go through, but I should have spent $3 less than I did. I still got an awesome deal, though!So, I got all of the above for $20.74. I should have paid $17.74, but I'm still super pleased. I saved $77.74!!! The only thing I didn't have a coupon for was the bread. I'm not going to list out all coupons used, etc. because I just used sceanrios from Krazy Coupon Lady. If you haven't checked her site out, go do it! Just so you know, I do have 3 laptops and a desktop that I had running printing coupons from! :-) I will say that I got the Chef Boyardee, Sobe water, one of the Bear Naked granolas, the first aid bad, and Red Baron pizza slices free. I paid 29 cents each for the candy bars, 29 cents each for the Bagel Bites, and 29 cents each for the Benadryl itch relief sticks. Since it is hard to see in the picture, here is a breakdown of what I bought:

6 cans Chef Boyardee
2 bags Bear Naked granola
6 boxes Kashi TLC bars
2 tubs 32 oz. Dannon yogurt
2 boxes Red Baron pizza by the slice
1 loaf of bread
1 (10 ct) Papermate pens
4 Benadryl itch relief sticks
1 first aid bag
8 bottles Sobe life water
2 bags Dole salad
4 boxes (9 ct) Bagel bites
8 Willy Wonka candy bars

Above is my Safeway shopping trip. I spent $33.24 at Safeway. I saved $45.83! I did 2 transactions at 2 stores to get the cheeses that were on sale for 99 cents each. The only thing not on sale and I didn't have a coupon for is the Lipton tea. The Jimmy Dean sausage was marked down to 99 cents, the Pepsi's were 99 cents, and the Gatorade was 99 cents. The string cheese was $2.49, the Lipton tea was $3.69, and the cereals were 78 cents each (after a 55 cent off manufacturer coupon that was doubled and a store coupon). The avocados were on sale for $1.25 each, but I had two coupons for $1.50 off of 4 and I also had a catalina that printed yesterday for $3 off a $10 purchase of produce that I used. So, I got my avocados for 50 cents each. I couldn't find the $1 off 2 avocado coupon anymore or they would have been even cheaper. $33.24 seems a bit high, but when I look at my stockpile of cheese, I'm okay with that. Good thing I have a deep freezer!

3 boxes Cinnamon Toast Crunch
4 bottles Pepsi
2 bottles Gatorade
1 jug Lipton tea
1 bag string cheese (16 oz)
6 bags shredded cheese (8 oz each)
6 blocks cheese (8 oz each)
2 rolls Jimmy Dean suasage
8 avocados

Memorial Day Weekend....

2010-07-22T22:31:00.004-04:00

I know this is really late, but we had a great Memorial Day Weekend. We took the boys to two different parks. The first one has a lake, train, carousel, and playground. The other one we took them to so they could ride their bikes/tricycle. Where we live, there just isn't much room for the boys to get out and play. People fly through here even with speed bumps, so I don't let them ride here. Lucas finally learned how to pedal his tricycle and he was very excited. Logan is pretty cautious, but he was a bit more adventurous on his bike this time, too!

Love...

2010-07-19T00:19:00.002-04:00

I love him.....

dirty face and all!

Menu Plan Monday...

2010-07-12T00:30:00.003-04:00

*= New recipe

Monday--leftover tomato artichoke pasta (we haven't had this in a while, but love it....it is so fast, easy, and yummy!) and jalapeno cheddar bread (new at Costco's bakery). Oh, a note on the pasta--I double the recipe, but don't double the artichokes.

Tuesday--cocktail weenies in crockpot (with chili sauce and grape jelly), corn on the cob, and BLT pasta salad (recipe below--got it from an online message board years ago)

Wednesday--T-bone steak, baked sweet potatoes, steamed broccoli

Thursday--pan grilled chicken, leftover BLT pasta

Friday--tuna steaks*, and not sure what else yet

BLT Pasta Salad

2 cups uncooked pasta
5 green onions, finely chopped
1 large tomato, diced
1-1/4 cups diced celery
1-1/4 cups mayonnaise
5 teaspoons white vinegar
1/4 tsp salt, 1/8-1/4 tsp pepper
1 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and rinse in cold water. In large bowl, combine the pasta, onions, tomatoes, and celery. In small bowl, combine mayonnaise, vinegar, salt, & pepper. Pour over pasta mixture and toss to coat. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours. Just before serving, add bacon.

4th of July!

2010-07-11T00:58:00.006-04:00

I had so many pictures that I decided to just do a video. It is just too hard for me to choose! The first two pictures are from Mt. Vernon's day time fireworks. They had them for the first time last year and Logan asked to go back again this year. Also, I took a few shots of the Washington Monument at different times while waiting on the fireworks and included them. I thought it was neat to see how the lighting changed.

Sorry that the quality is not great if you try to watch it in full screen. I really did get some awesome shots of the fireworks, but it is hard to tell that on this slideshow. :-(

Sneak peek....

2010-07-09T00:38:00.002-04:00

Today I finally got my 4th of July pictures off of my camera. This year I told myself ahead of time that I was NOT going to take pictures of the fireworks, but I can't help myself. I took over 160 while we were in DC! There were also a few from earlier in the day at Mt. Vernon.

Just like years past, we sat very close to where they were setting off the fireworks. We sit between the Washington Monument and WWII memorial (where they launch the fireworks). I would love to sit between the Washington Monument and the Capitol building so that I could get some good shots of the Monument with fireworks in the background, but the boys always outnumber me with wanting to sit close. We are so close that it feels like my heart is pounding out of my chest during the finale....it is a very strange feeling! We had lots of fun, though. It was super hot during the day, but we got there 2 hours before the fireworks were due to start and it was cooling down. We bought chairs and stopped at Subway to pick up some dinner on the way. We got all set up, ate dinner, played for a bit with some bubbles and then it was time for the show to start. Here is a picture of the boys before the fireworks started. I'll try to get more pictures up very soon!

Boys!

2010-07-02T15:14:00.004-04:00

Yesterday morning, Logan came up to my room to show me something. He had put these beads on each of his fingers.

I asked him if he remembered to hold the rail when he came up to show me what he had done. Of course I knew there was no way that he could hold the rail with them on his fingers.

Later that day, he showed Lucas his new trick. Lucas was amazed and had to try it himself. The problem with that is Lucas' fingers are much smaller. The beads slid all the way onto his fingers and then didn't want to come off. I really had to pull to get one of them off. I told Lucas not to put them on again because I really didn't want to have to take him to the hospital to have it cut off. Both boys' eyes got big. Little Lucas looked at me and said, "You take me to hospital to get my finger cut off?!?!?". I could tell that Logan was thinking the same thing. I explained that I didn't mean they'd cut his finger off, that they would cut the toy off of his finger.

That night I caught a glimpse of one of the beads as my husband and I were headed up to bed. It reminded me to tell him about what happened earlier in the day. He got a laugh out of it, but told me I need to stop scaring the babies. :-) Honest, I didn't mean to!

I-pad giveaway...

2010-07-02T12:19:00.000-04:00

Want to win an iPad? Quick....go here. The giveaway ends tonight! I have an iPod, but I'd love to win an iPad!!

Menu Plan Monday....

2010-06-20T23:02:00.003-04:00

*= new recipe

Monday--chicken stir fry, simple sesame noodles

Tuesday--pork chops with mustard cream sauce*, steamed broccoli, baked sweet potato

Wednesday--turkey burgers, steak fries

Thursday--zippy summer shrimp*, pasta, steamed California blend veggies

Friday--Chicken Tikka masala (Trader Joe's), jasmine rice

Bedtime Tactics...

2010-06-19T23:58:00.002-04:00

Lucas' new bedtime delaying tactic:

Me: Lucas, it't bed time.

Lucas: No. No. It's not bedtime. Good morning! Good morning!

And, just because I thought it was cute. This is where he insisted he wear his sticker....

MIA...

2010-06-18T21:58:00.003-04:00

My laptop that is. Last week the fan started sounding funny, so I took it in to the Apple Store. Thankfully, it is still covered with Apple Care, but I have less than a month to go before it isn't. They ran a diagnostic on it and indeed, the fan was going out. There were a couple of other issues, so they fixed those as well. I just called and they said that it is ready. I've been using Logan's laptop and I'm just not used to it. It is Windows based and I'm a Mac girl now. Even the keyboard spacing is off, so I am backspacing a lot....LOL!

Anyway, I have a few posts I've been wanting to do with some pictures, but they are on my laptop. I'll be picking it tomorrow, though!

Menu Plan Monday

2010-06-14T14:49:00.002-04:00

Last week went pretty well. We didn't get to Friday's meal. One night we had turkey burgers instead, Saturday we went through a drive way on the way home from Logan's NICU reunion, and Sunday we had a free for all (I wasn't feeling well).

Monday--tuna steaks*, Harvest Grains Blend* (from Trader Joe's...cooked according to directions--->it has Israeli style couscous, orzo, baby garbanzo beans, and red quinoa), green beans

Tuesday--beef stroganoff, egg noodles, steamed broccoli

Wednesday--burritos (using turkey meat), chips and guacamole

Thursday--turkey burgers, steak fries

Friday--chicken and rice casserole, green beans

Menu Plan Monday...

2010-06-07T18:26:00.000-04:00

* = new recipe
Monday--enchiladas, rice, and beans (using homemade corn tortillas)--->I made this over the weekend (pictured below), but have more tortillas and we all enjoyed it!

Tuesday--PW's shrimp pasta, homemade wheat bread, salad

Wednesday--beef roast, baked sweet potatoes, field peas with snaps, salad

Thursday--Trader Joe's lemon pepper pasta with lemon cream sauce*, lemon pepper chicken, and steamed Normandy veggies (never had this a couple weeks ago)

Friday--tuna steaks*, Harvest Grains Blend* (from Trader Joe's...cooked according to directions--->it has Israeli style couscous, orzo, baby garbanzo beans, and red quinoa), green beans

My good deal of the day!

2010-06-07T12:28:00.006-04:00

I got some coupons in the mail from Safeway for several free items with a $10 purchase. This morning I stopped by Safeway and got some major deals!!

1 bottle of Lipton Diet Green tea with citrus (love this stuff!) = $3.69
8--2 liter bottles of diet caffeine free Pepsi on sale for 83 cents each (reg. price $1.99 each)= $6.64
1 package of S'mores poptarts reg. $3.29, but half off due to damaged package = $1.64
1 bottle Safeway Select salad dressing (reg. $2.79) = FREE
1 bottle Safeway select marinade (reg. $2.99) = FREE
1 jar Safeway select salsa verde (reg. $2.50) = FREE
1--4 lb. bag of boneless, skinless chicken breasts reg. $9.99, but had $4 off coupon = $5.99
1--1 lb. bag brown rice (reg. $1.69) = FREE
1 package 10 count Mission flour tortillas (reg. $2.49) = FREE
1 bag California blend frozen veggies ($1.50) = FREE

TOTAL spent with tax = $18.41
SAVINGS = $28.89---> over 61%!!

Woohoo! Sad that this is all it takes to make me happy. :-)

TEN!!

2010-06-04T08:15:00.000-04:00

Today, my husband and I celebrate 10 years of marriage! It truly doesn't feel possible. Every day I grow more in love with him. I know that sounds so corny, but it is absolutely the truth! Watching him with our boys, makes my heart melt. Knowing that he loves me just the way I am, makes my heart swell. I absolutely can not imagine life without him. In a lot of ways, we are opposites, but you know what they say about opposites. I love that he is still a kid at heart, even if that means that he gets upset at "those stupid video games". I love that he doesn't let what others think ruin his fun, even if I sometimes get embarrassed. I love that he is ticklish, even more that I can make him laugh like the Dough boy (shhhh....don't tell him I said that). I love his eyes, even if he can't open them wide enough to put contacts in. I love him because he is the one that can make my tears turn into laughter and can make me laugh until I cry. I love him, I love him and I can't wait to see what the next 10 years bring!

Click here for previous anniversary posts!

Who needs a maid?

2010-05-26T15:07:00.005-04:00

Sorry, the words are a bit off from my mouth moving. Just imagine me as Jackie Chan....LOL! Oh, and everything is backwards when you record on the Mac, so I kept moving the laptop the wrong way to keep him on the camera. :-)

Cherry Blossom Festival 2010

2010-05-24T22:10:00.000-04:00

My sweet, goofy Lucas!
My sweet, silly Logan!

Menu Plan Monday...

2010-05-23T13:16:00.003-04:00

Looks like I have a Trader Joe's theme this week! :-)

Monday--Lemon garlic tilapia, rice pilaf with pine nuts, steamed veggies

Tuesday--Penne a la Vodka and green beans--->taking a short cut here and using Trader Joe's Organic Vodka sauce...it is very good!

Wednesday--breakfast for dinner--->sausage gravy, scrambled eggs, homemade biscuits

Thursday--Trader Joe's lemon pepper pasta with lemon cream sauce, lemon pepper chicken, and steamed Normandy veggies

Friday--chicken curry over Jasmine rice--->I use Trader Joe's Curry Simmer Sauce, but add chopped tomatoes, onion, and bell pepper

Head over to Laura's blog for plenty more menu plan Monday's!

Easter 2010

2010-05-22T00:32:00.007-04:00

I know, I know....Easter was almost 2 months ago! Time is going by so quickly. I've been super busy, but wanted to share some pictures.

We went into DC on Easter with some friends to enjoy the cherry blossoms, but first we had a little Easter egg hunt! I'll share some DC pictures soon. I'm having trouble getting Blogger to upload them.

I just loved this picture.....a little help from Daddy was needed. :-)

Logan had to go check and see if all the eggs were found and Lucas had to check out the goodies the Easter Bunny left!

Saying the words......

2010-05-07T21:40:00.005-04:00

I haven't really posted about this here, but I've decided to just get it out there. Lucas is small for his age. His ped wanted him to be tested to make sure that everything was okay (this I have posted about and it was a while ago). Everything was okay (as I suspected), but once that test came back normal, I felt she was just trying to find something wrong with him. She referred me to a couple of specialists and I never went.

To me, I thought perhaps he was a bit behind on things, but not too far. Lucas is a very stubborn child and when his doctor would ask him questions, he pretty much refused to answer....even if he knew the answer. Because I knew he could answer the questions, I did NOT take him to the specialists. Something changed in him. Looking back now, I've been trying to put my finger on when it happened. I don't remember. I do know that in November of last year, it came to a point that I realized that there was something going on with him and I needed help. I took him to Child Find to have him evaluated. It was a lengthy process, but they determined Lucas to be "developmentally delayed". I wasn't prepared to hear those words. I had actually heard them from his ped before and brushed them off. She used the words "globally developmentally delayed". Child Find told me that he is delayed, but they don't think he is globally delayed. Regardless, no mother wants their child to have something wrong with them. Obviously I love Lucas very much and I don't want him to have to struggle in life. As his mother, it is my job to give him every opportunity to succeed. As I already said, I realized that I needed help with him. Something is going on and I don't know what it is.

Because of this, I made the very, very hard decision to send him to pre-school (through Child Find at the public school in a class for special needs kids). Being that I homeschool Logan at 7, it was not an easy thing for me to send my 4 year old off to school. Lucas has been in school for about a month now and he loves it. Even though I know he loves it, I still feel like I am missing out on a big portion of his day. I have to keep telling myself that I am doing this because it is what is best for Lucas.

I finally did call to make an appointment with a specialist, but they can't get me in until September! In the meantime, we have our good days and we have our bad days. Since he has started school, I do see some major changes in him. Then we also have the days where he comes home so exhausted from school that it is immediate melt down mode. He goes to school 5 days a week for a half day and his teacher comes to the house every other week. Before he started school, his teacher was coming every week to get to know him. We also went to the school so he could meet his class mates and see his room.

I know that Lucas was given to us for a reason. I truly can't explain the love that I have for him. He knows how to push my buttons, but he also knows how to make my heart melt without even trying. Just tonight I put him in the tub and I looked at how little he looks in the tub and my heart melted. Watching him play with the "baubles" in the tub made my heart melt. Tucking him into bed and him giving me "two nose-noses" made my heart melt. There is just something about my Lucas.

I think I am rambling and I'm not really sure why I am posting all this, but I am. I'm just now getting to the point that I can tell people that he is developmentally delayed.....and you know what?? It's okay!! I love him just the same.

As a side note, I've talked to a friend about Lucas and she pointed me towards sensory processing disorder. I think this could very likely be what is going on with him.

And because I thought you might enjoy them, here are a few pictures of him on his first day of school!!

The sun is bright, Momma!I'm ready!
This backpack is BIG!
I AM smiling, Momma! (This truly is how he smiles if you say smile!)
Multi-tasking!
See you after class, Momma!

Recently....

2010-04-29T16:13:00.000-04:00

Recently, my boys have said/done some thing to make me smile. I've posted most of these as my status on Facebook, but I like to have them here, too.
--Logan was just on the phone with his grandma. He told her that his daddy likes to watch really weird shows. He proceeded to tell her that there were "dumb askes" on the show. Ooops! :-)

--Today Logan and I were talking about age and it came about that I was born in 1979. His eyes got big and he said, "That means you're really old and your skin isn't even wrinkled!" :-) Amazing!

--Hubby and Logan are playing tennis on the Wii. Hubby left the room and Logan came over and whispered his secret about how to beat daddy at the game. "My secret is to hit the remote really hard." It must be working because daddy asked him how he was hitting it so fast. :-)

--Logan was just reading his weekly Proverb to me (Proverbs 14:14): "The faceless will be fully......". We both got a good laugh. :-) Logan covered his face with his hands and said, "Look. I'm faceless!".

--A few nights ago we were driving home and Lucas saw a steeple on a church. "It's DCC's mall." He calls DC, DCC and he thought the steeple was the Washington Monument! :-)

--Lucas calls macaroni and cheese macky-owner and cheese. Makes me smile every time!

--I was in the basement sorting laundry when Logan came down. "Want to see how fast I can flap my arms?" "Sure", I said. He starts flapping as fast as he can. "Do they look blurry?" :-) That kid makes me smile. Here is a video I took later that day when I caught him flapping his arms again. So, here you'll see Logan flapping like mad and Lucas excited to see himself!

Menu Plan Monday

2010-04-19T00:01:00.000-04:00

I have been absolutely horrible about cooking lately. It is time that I get back to it. We are trying to limit our meat intake (and fat/cholesterol), so will be having lots of salads. They are just easier for me to do.

Sunday--fish tacos--these were super easy and pretty tasty! I just used Gorton's tilapia fish sticks, wheat/corn tortillas, shredded lettuce and mayo/sour cream/salsa as the sauce (1/2 cup of each....next time I would add a few dashes of Cholula to add more spice)

Monday--pan seared red snapper, rice pilaf with pine nuts, and steamed Normandy veggies

Tuesday--quinoa taco salad--We love this! I omit the cilantro and we just top ours with salsa, no cheese. I like mine on the spinach best, but hubby likes his on a salad blend. When I didn't have black beans, we had it with black eyed peas and that was really yummy, too! This makes a lot, so we eat 2 meals off of it.

Wednesday--Black Bean-Taco Salad with Lime Vinaigrette

Thursday--leftover quinoa salad

Friday--not sure if we will be home. Some friends are moving from Italy to Hawaii and stopping over in Baltimore. If they make it out of Italy (due to flight delays from the volcanic ash), then we will be heading to Baltimore for the weekend!

It's been so long since I've done a Menu Plan Monday, but I'm sure, like always, there are plenty more menus to check out at Laura's blog!

Want to win an iPad??

2010-04-09T14:25:00.002-04:00

Last night I entered to win an iPad by making a donation to a worthy cause. You can enter to win, too, by heading here! The donations are to help babies and their moms in developing countries. Every baby deserves the best start possible!

Time to change the station....

2010-03-31T12:56:00.000-04:00

While on our way home from our date last Friday, Lady Gaga's song Bad Romance came on the radio. I must say, I am more one to listen to the beat of the music rather than the words. It might be time that I start listening to the words, because Logan does listen to the words and on more than one occasion recently has let that be known.

Anyway, while the above song was playing, he said, "Why would you want someone's disease anyway?". Yep....it might be time to change the station.

Date night....

2010-03-30T15:41:00.003-04:00

This past Friday I went out on a date with my favorite 7 year old. We went to Chili's for dessert and had a great time! We got to sit at a booth made just for two and it really made Logan smile. I had the chocolate chip paradise pie and Logan had a trio of sweet shots (key lime pie, brownie and warm cinnamon roll). After Logan finished his dessert, he came around to give me a hug. His eyes were a bit teary and I asked if he was crying. "Yes, but I'm crying because I am so happy." I must say, that made me a bit teary and pulled at my heart strings.

Logan really is a sweet boy and I have loved watching him grow up. Last night I went in to check on him before I went to bed. He was already asleep and didn't even budge as I whispered "I love you" and snuggled him for a bit.

What can I say....I love this sweet boy, missing teeth and all!

Monopoly and Connect 4 for $2 at Target!!

2010-03-24T11:20:00.005-04:00

Target has Monopoly and Connect Four on sale for $7 this week (so you MUST do this by this Saturday). Follow this link for a $5 off coupon on Monopoly and a $4 off coupon on Connect Four. After the coupons print, click the back arrow and you can print another set.

Then, go here and there is a $3 off coupon for Connect 4 (again, after the coupon prints, hit the back arrow to print another one). That makes Connect Four free and Monopoly $2!!

For this price, I picked up one set for us and one set to put aside for Christmas gifts!!

Being sick is hard to do....

2010-03-23T16:45:00.003-04:00

My sweet Lucas is sick. It actually all started a little over a week ago. Logan got sick on Sunday and was fine by Monday. I think it was Thursday when Logan got a cough and that night ended up throwing up after gagging while coughing. Then Lucas woke up and threw up on Friday morning and was fine by about 1PM. Now here we are on Tuesday and Lucas is sick again. I HATE seeing my boys sick and miserable.

Yesterday we went out to dinner and Lucas refused to eat. On the way home, he was whining (which is common for Lucas), but this Momma knew that this whine was different. He was saying something hurt, but wouldn't tell us what. I was driving, but glanced back and saw him touching his stomach. I kept assuring him we were going home and were only 2 blocks away! We keep a collapsible bowl in our van for throw up emergencies and I had my husband get it ready "just in case". Of course, he gave me a hard time and thought I was over-reacting. Lucas let out a cough and for some reason that tends to be my clue that they are going to be sick. Anyway, we did make it home.

The boys were all about to get in the shower and I was in my bedroom printing out some coupons. My husband called for me and I knew what had happened even though I didn't see it or hear it. Lucas was standing in the hallway and had thrown up a little bit. I hesitated just a moment while I tried to decide if I should just wait in the hall with him for what I knew was coming or make a mad dash to the toilet. We were literally right outside of the bathroom, so I picked him up and headed in. Too late! That moment of hesitation cost me a good scrubbing of the bathroom. While I am thankful that we now have tile in the bathroom rather than the carpet that was in there when we moved in, I didn't like how the throw up splattered everywhere as it hit the floor. And when I say throw up, I mean projectile ALL O.V.E.R the bathroom. I got Lucas stripped down and into the shower while I got to work cleaning up the mess.

After his shower, he seemed to be better. So much so that I had to keep asking him to stop running and jumping. We put him in bed and it was a bit of a struggle. I brought a baby monitor down stairs to hear him in case he got sick again. It wasn't long before I thought I heard something. When I headed towards the stairs, I thought I heard a leak. I stopped and looked around and realized the sound was above my head (Lucas' room). Ummm. Yeah. This is nasty, but we have wood floors and the throw up was going between the boards! I ran upstairs and Lucas was at his door covered in throw up. I took him to the bathroom and he got sick a few more times. He refused to let me catch his throw up in a bowl, so I sat in the bathroom on the edge of the tub with him for a while. When he throws up, he lifts his feet, so I literally have to hold him over the toilet with one hand and tilt his head down with the other. Good thing he only weighs 30 pounds!! What is it with kids and tilting their head back when they throw up, anyway? He sipped some ginger ale and I gave him a chewable Pepto Bismol, but it all came up in a matter of minutes.

My poor guy was so tired and lethargic that he finally fell asleep in my arms as I sat on the tub. I carried him to his bed and he didn't even wake. We put a towel on his bed in case he got sick again. He did, but not too bad and pretty much didn't even wake. We changed out the towel and he didn't even seem to notice. At about 4 this morning, I heard a cry and then, "I need my drink". We typically let him take a cup of water to his room, but I took it out because every time he drank anything he was throwing up again. I just wanted his stomach to get a rest. I went in and let him have a little drink, but he cried and cried and wanted to keep his cup. I emptied most of the water out and let him keep the cup. He went back to sleep and didn't wake until 10:30!! It was to the point that I was getting worried about him and was just about to peek in and check on him. I hadn't done so up until then because I didn't want to wake him. However, just as I got to his door, I heard his feet hit the floor and I opened the door before he could even get to it!

So far, he has barely drank anything and eaten one graham cracker (he refused the saltines). He has gone through periods of play and then comes and lays down to rest. This is him currently.

He NEVER naps, so this is how I know he REALLY doesn't feel well. He has been running a low grade temp and has gagged some, but hasn't thrown up anymore since during the night. I'm hoping his little body is fighting away this nasty bug while he rests. Being sick is hard....on both the boy and his Momma!

Heard round here.....

2010-03-22T12:18:00.002-04:00

There has been a lot going on around here, just nothing blog worthy at this point. However, the boys have said a few things lately that made me smile and I wanted to share those....

1. Lucas was wearing his brother's cowboy hat and sucking his thumb. Logan said to him, "Lucas, I'm pretty sure that cowboys don't suck their thumbs". :-)

2. Lucas, while pointing to a paper towel: "Momma. Is that a taper powel?"

3. Lucas, while riding in the van at night and looking at the moon: "Is the moon going to set me on fire?"

Lucas somehow took getting a sunburn the wrong way once. Now he thinks the sun, moon, and pretty much all lights will burn him and set him on fire. We're working on that fear.

My sweet, sweet Lucas!

2010-03-16T23:16:00.005-04:00

It took me longer than I hoped, but I finally finished Lucas' video! The hardest part for me is choosing a song. I finally just settled because I could have kept looking until he turned 5.....LOL!

Lucas, we love you so much!

I posted these links in my last post, but I wanted to post them here, too. I like to watch all the videos just to see how much my boy has grown!

--Lucas turns 3 video
--Lucas turns 1 and 2 videos

Rewind....

2010-03-02T18:47:00.005-05:00

My sweet Lucas turned 4 last Friday (Feb. 26). Last year on the day of his party, we discovered the leak in our kitchen that lead to tearing it apart. I just realized that I never posted birthday pictures for his 3rd birthday. As always, I am working on a video for his birthday as well, but I haven't finished it yet. Because we've all been sick, we've not had his party yet for this year, but probably will have it this weekend!

Until then, enjoy the pictures from last year!!

Here are some previous birthday posts for Lucas. I can NOT believe that my "baby" is 4!!
--Lucas turns 3
--Lucas turns 3 video
--Birth story and pictures
--Lucas turns 1 and 2 videos

Christmas in March??

2010-03-01T08:54:00.000-05:00

My life has seemed ho hum lately. The most exciting thing I've got going for me is that I got a speeding ticket last week. It wasn't a good day. We have all been sick and that day I decided to go ahead and take the boys to the doctor. Lucas tested positive for strep, so I was on my way to pick up his meds at CVS. I was thinking of taking myself to a walk in clinic, but decided to just go get the medicine and go home. If only I'd gone to the doctor, I would have missed out on the ticket. It isn't pretty. I was going 41 in a 25. I thought the speed limit was 35, which would have been speeding, but not near as bad! My court date is set for April 6th. I looked up the fine and it is almost $400! YIKES! Anyway, we all seem to be on the mend now.

Since I don't really have anything too exciting to post, I thought I'd share some pictures from back in December.

Sharing the love!

2010-02-25T11:52:00.004-05:00

Beth at Laugh Until You Cry gave me a couple of awards a while ago. Thanks, Beth!
The rules:
1. Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
2. Pass the award on to 12 bloggers.
3. Link the nominees within your post.
4. Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

The rules are:
1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award and insert a link to their blog.
2. Pass on the award to about 15 other bloggers who you recently discovered and think are great (in no particular order)!

My nominees (some new reads and some that I've been following for a while!):

1. Robyn at A Likelee Story
2. Samantha at Mom of 3 in VA
3. Tammy at Three Little Pixies
4. Teri at The Infertility Chronicles
5. Beth at The Angel Forever
6. Sandy at Pardon My Dust
7. Melissa at Life with Two
8. Low Expectations
9. Keesler Chaos

Air and Space Museum

2010-02-24T22:03:00.005-05:00

This was a while ago, but I still wanted to share.....

During my husband's time off at Christmas, we took the boys to the Air and Space Museum. We've gone to the one in DC a lot of times, but had never been to the one in Chantilly. The boys had so much fun!!

Here are some pictures from our day.

Bringing Out the Big Guns....

2010-02-17T20:08:00.004-05:00

Snow. We've got.....lots of it! Our community pays a guy with a plow on the front of his truck to clear our road. However, his poor pickup and plow just couldn't keep up in this last round of snow. We had to bring out the big guns to take care of the snow this time around. Today was day number 3 of them clearing the roads, parking spots, and sidewalks with bob cats and a front loader. People were working frantically to uncover their cars and toss the snow out for the front loader to pick up and haul away. Once they got their car uncovered, they would move it and the front loader would clear thier sidewalk. Hmmm. Maybe I should have just waited 2 weeks to shovel and saved myself the trouble of tossing all that snow into a pile that was taller than me. Let me tell you, that was HARD work!!

Anyway, good neighbor that I am :-), I went out and helped a neighbor clear off their car so they could move it. Then I helped another neighbor shovel the snow off the sidewalk and his car and toss it into the parking area. His car isn't working (it is the one almost completely covered in snow in the picture below), so he couldn't just move it and have the front loader clear his sidewalk.

And just because....here is another picture of the ice. This is running along our down spout on the back of our house.

Healthy blueberry banana muffins

2010-02-16T10:00:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I decided to try my hand at coming up with some healthy muffins (as the vanilla loaf cake that my husband bought at Safeway for the boys was calling our name!). I think the results were tasty enough to share! These would have been even lower in fat without the flax seeds, but I decided to add them in for added fiber. I used egg whites and applesauce to keep them cholesterol free and agave nectar because it is low on the glycemic index.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 cup flax seeds
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. lemon zest
3 large ripe bananas
3/4 cup agave nectar
3 Tablespoons of liquid egg whites (can use 1 large egg, slightly beaten)
1/2 cup applesauce (can use 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted)-----> I used pineapple sauce this time because I had some
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (if using frozen blueberries, do not thaw)
1 tbsp. all-purpose flour

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line the muffin tray with paper cups.
2. Combine flour, oats, flax seeds, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest in a medium bowl. Use a whisk to mix together and make a well in the center.
3. In another bowl, mash bananas; add agave nectar, egg and applesauce (or melted butter); mix well. Pour mixture into well. Mix batter until just moistened; do not over mix.
4. Toss blueberries with 1 tablespoon flour and gently fold into batter.
5. Fill prepared muffin cups about 3/4 full bake in the oven for 18-20 min or until its golden brown. Remove and cool on wire rack.

*Please note. These stick to the paper cups when warm, but once they cool completely they no longer stick.

Mmmm......toast!!

2010-02-15T17:41:00.002-05:00

This morning when I looked out my kitchen window, I saw a partially eaten apple sitting on my fence. With the amount of squirrels I've seen running around back there, I knew one must have sat it there. A few days ago we saw a squirrel frantically digging in our yard and then it must have given up hope in ever finding its supply of hidden nuts. Well, I thought I'd try tossing a few nuts out there for it. However, they all just sank into the snow. The next morning we woke and our yard had been torn apart. The squirrels had been digging, but obviously not all the way to the ground....I guess they found the nuts I tossed out after all.

Back to today...I was sitting at the table and my husband was looking out the kitchen window.

Husband: "There is a squirrel sitting on our fence eating a piece of toast."

Me: "Toast?"

Husband: "Yes, toast."

This I had to see. Not only did I have to see it, I had to take pictures. The little guy ate almost the entire piece before being discovered by other squirrels. He had only a small piece left when he took off up the tree to try to gobble the rest of it down before the others got to him.

Got ice?

2010-02-13T12:45:00.003-05:00

We've been battling icicles here. These are a few shots I got around the neighborhood. We've been opening our windows and knocking ours off with a wooden stick. Afterall, we don't want to have any icicle deaths here. "The television show "Mythbusters" even tackled the issue of icicle danger, determining that a four-pound icicle dropped from 15 feet could indeed be lethal."

We've had a few large ones that my husband has put in the bath tub. Logan enjoys checking on them to see if they have melted away....LOL!

The fun part...

2010-02-12T20:06:00.018-05:00

The fun part about all this snow, is that the boys have been able to go sledding. It is also nice that after putting in so much work to set up the sledding area, it gets to be used more than once! The bad thing is that with this much snow, we found you couldn't simply just take them to a hill and let them go. No. In order to get to the hill, we had to dig a trail out. These pictures were taken on our second trip to the sledding hill, after the second round of snow. Poor daddy got to dig it all twice!

Then we had to compress the snow and dig a trail to get back up the hill.

The boys waiting patiently. In case you are wondering, that is how Lucas smiles. For some reason he thinks blinking his eyes is smiling. :-)
Alright, everything is finally ready!
And they're off! Logan was cracking me up because he was trying to smile for the camera the whole way down the hill!

That was fun!
Up next....Lucas! When we got our big snow in December, we sent him down on his own and he wasn't that fond of it. He liked going, but insisted that he go down with me. This time, that wasn't the case. As soon as you sat him on the sled, he would start rocking forward trying to go!

Lucas was a bit panicked here....his boot fell off on his way down the hill.
A few more of my favorites from the day (from the near 100 that I took...LOL)....

Now that we're done sledding, anyone want to go play on the slides? Anyone?

More pictures from Snowmageddon....

2010-02-10T20:41:00.004-05:00

Tomorrow marks 4 days of the federal govt. being closed. My husband said this is the longest weekend ever!! If you care to know, closing the federal govt. for one day costs tax payers close to $100 million dollars!

Here are a few more pictures of what they are calling "Snowmageddon"!

The above picture is at the entrance of our neighborhood. The snow pile is halfway up to the traffic light!!
Sledding is fun! The aftermath left for momma to clean up....not so much!
This picture was taken on Tuesday (Feb.9th) night just as the snow was starting again. The above picture was taken on Wed. night (Feb. 10th) after the snow stopped and shoveling was done. The tree is in our neighbor's yard and the pile in our yard is now at least as tall as me (5'6"). Throwing snow onto the top of a pile as tall as you is NOT easy work! I don't think the tree liked me throwing snow at it. At one point, I threw a shovel full and the low limb on the left of the picture caught the snow and threw it back at me....hitting me right in the head.

Anyone care to guess when all this snow will be melted away??

A few more pictures from today.....

2010-02-06T23:10:00.004-05:00

Got one side of the van dug out. The snow plow didn't really go close behind the vehicles, so there is a 4 foot wide area to dig out still (and the other side of the van)....the snow is about 3 feet deep, too!
Looking up the road....
Looking down the road. If you look closely, you'll see the pile the neighbors threw in the road. The snow plow couldn't even move it. My husband was out shoveling and he thought we did it and threw his hands up at us. We told him we didn't do it, so don't keep pushing until it goes behind our van. His truck couldn't even push the pile!

Blizzard 2010...

2010-02-06T13:27:00.010-05:00

This time, I knew a storm was coming. When I went to bed on Thursday, reports said 16-20 inches. When I woke on Friday, it said 18-24, but by mid-day on Friday, it was saying to expect 20-30 inches, with some areas getting 30+. I put in my request of only getting 20 inches, but it doesn't seem it was noted. When my husband went out for round one of digging us out, we probably had about 20 inches. Weather.com says to expect another 4-8 inches. Then, we are to get a few flurries on Tuesday and Wednesday. One good thing I see is that it was supposed to remain in the upper 20s Sunday through the first part of the week, but now it is saying mid 30s on Monday.

Here are a few pictures I've taken so far. I'm sure I'll have more before it is all over. It is supposed to taper off around 8PM tonight (it is 2 pm now).

9:30 PM on Friday night
10 AM Saturday morning

A neighbor tried to uncover her car. She got the windshield and hood done and gave up.
11:45 AM
The snow was up over our door! Has anyone seen my porch??
Digging out round one.
Oh look---there is a porch after all!
Oooh! We have a sidewalk, too! It took about 20 minutes to uncover it (and along the parking area in front of our van) and by the time it was done, there was another inch on it! Cleared that and there is another 2 inches now!
Logan keeps himself busy building a track.
Lucas keeps himself busy convincing himself he CAN fit on the boat!
As seen here! :-)
This was just after my husband finished shoveling. It was really picking up!

Momma got a Vitamix!!

2010-02-01T15:45:00.003-05:00

We finally did it. I've been wanting one for a long time and just after Christmas we finally bought a Vitamix! Lucas loves smoothies and has recently started pretending that he is making them. Today I caught it on video. What I didn't catch is him licking the wooden screwdriver that he uses as his tamper to taste test his smoothie! Hmmmm. I wonder where he got that idea.....

I've really been enjoying making smoothies in it! I've even used it to make potato soup (pretty good), hummus (really good), my husband made ginger carrot soup (we didn't care for it), and eggs (Don't do it!! The time and effort it took to clean it afterwards wasn't worth it!!). I'm pretty sure I've used it more in the month that we've had it than I did my old one in the 8 or so years that I had it.

Here is one of my most recent creations. I pretty much just throw in what I have on hand, but this one turned out especially yummy, so I thought I should write it down!

Logan named it Orange Surprise, but you can't really taste the orange.

1 whole apple (I think mine was Pink Lady, but it probably doesn't matter much)
1 whole orange with peel removed, pith left on
1/2-3/4 cup coconut milk (I use the brand So Delicious in a carton in the refrigerated section---plain milk would work)
1/2 cup red grapes
10 frozen strawberries
4 handfuls frozen blueberries
2 handfuls spinach
2 Medjool dates, pit removed

My chicken and dumplings creation....a winner!

2010-01-30T20:21:00.009-05:00

Tonight I made chicken and dumplings for dinner. I started out looking at a recipe, but then didn't follow it. I actually combined bits and pieces of a few recipes to make my own. I tasted mine before my husband tasted his and I told him that I needed to write the recipe down. He said, "I thought you followed a recipe". Well, I am known to not follow recipes, but I typically follow them more closely than I did this time around. He took one bite of his and told me to write the recipe down now. "No time to waste. I don't want you to forget this", he said. After dinner, he told me it was the best chicken and dumplings he had ever eaten and one of the best soups, too! Woohoo! So, I thought I would share my creation with you all and have it here so I know exactly where to find it! I've made chicken and dumplings many times and always seem to have issues with the dumplings. This time, they were cooked through and so yummy! I don't think I've ever made chicken and dumplings the same way twice, but my husband told me he thinks I should make sure to make them like this from now on!

Chicken and Dumplings

13 cups water
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
6 teaspoons Knorr chicken bouillon (I buy mine at Costco)

Combine above ingredients and bring to a boil. Continue until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken and shred. Add back to soup.

Add in:
1 teaspoon ground thyme
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 Tablespoon dried parsley flakes
2 bay leaves
2 carrots peeled and sliced
2 ribs celery and their leaves, sliced (I left the leaves whole and tossed them in...they broke down in the boiling soup)
2 small onions, diced
1 can Campbell's cream of mushroom soup

Stir and simmer until veggies are tender. Remove bay leaves.

For dumplings:
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar (I used sugar in the raw)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 T butter or margarine
1/2 cup milk

Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add butter or margarine and cut in to dry ingredients until crumbly. Stir in milk. Drop dumplings by rounded teaspoon into boiling soup. Do NOT stir! Move pot in a circular motion gently, then place lid on. Simmer for 15 minutes and do NOT remove lid until time is up!

Serve and enjoy!

Jumping John Deere....

2010-01-22T23:09:00.005-05:00

I know that my dad checks my blog daily for updates (hi, Dad!!) and well, it has been almost a week since I've posted anything. So, this is for you, Dad! I found a shirt to match the wagon that you bought last Christmas! :-) Here is Lucas wearing it while jumping on the gift that you bought this year!

Texas talk....

2010-01-16T23:57:00.004-05:00

Tonight we FINALLY took down the Christmas tree. Logan got to stay up late to help. I don't remember exactly what I said, but my husband was giving me a hard time and told me that I didn't use proper English. He said, "Come on, Candi. English is your first language, right". Logan piped up, "No. Texas-talk is her first language". :-)

He might could be right! ;-)

For fun, here are a couple of pictures from Logan's first trip to Texas!

The birdy's tweets are mine....

2010-01-15T11:03:00.002-05:00

Lucas LOVES Lazytown! One of his favorite songs on the show is Stingy singing The Mine Song. Stingy goes on to claim all kinds of things as his, even the birdy's tweets!
Last night I was sitting on the loveseat and my husband was sitting beside me. Lucas crawled up into my lap. Well, his daddy could hardly stand it and snatched him out of my lap. Lucas said, "No. I want Momma!". His daddy told him that if he gave him a kiss, he could go back to momma. Well, Lucas gave him a kiss then crawled back to me. As he snuggled into me, he said, "Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine". My heart melted. Yes, I certainly am his and he is mine, mine, mine, mine, mine!!!

Poor Man's Turtles....

2010-01-14T13:24:00.003-05:00

I originally posted this post on December 4, 2007. Since then, I've had lots and lots of hits to my blog for "poor man's turtles". Here I thought I was making up a name for them, but apparently plenty of others call them that as well! Anyway, we make these every single Christmas. This year I made them for a friend that doesn't like pecans, so I did them with cashews (the only nut she really likes). I also did some with M&Ms because Logan doesn't like nuts. Both of the new varieties were also tasty! I also took a picture to go along with the recipe, because I like pictures with recipes!!
*****************************************************************
Easy Turtle Candies aka Poor Man's Turtles

I got this recipe from a friend on a message board a few years back. It is soooo easy to make and super yummy. My sister has a recipe called Poor Man's Eclairs and I joked with her saying these are Poor Man's Turtles.

Poor Man's Turtles

Ingredients:

* 30 rolo candies, removed from wrapper
* 30 pecan halves, toasted (the original recipe didn't say to toast them, but I think they taste better)
* 30 butter snap pretzels (they are square)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Place pretzels on a baking sheet and place one rolo on each pretzel.
3. Place in oven and bake for about 4 minutes or until chocolate becomes shiny.
4. Remove from oven. Using a pecan half, press down on the rolo to smash it out to cover the pretzel.
5. Cool completely.

Crockpot Cookoff....

2010-01-14T00:56:00.005-05:00

One of my friend's daughter is in American Heritage Girls and they were having a Crockpot Cookoff to raise money for a food pantry. They invited us to come and when I told Logan about it, he was very excited. He wanted to make something, too! I do cook in my crockpot, but thought we'd look online and try something new. I looked on the Year of Slowcooking Blog and ran across a recipe that I thought Logan would like and he could do a large portion of the work, too.

Here is Logan serving his soup.

They had bags in front of each person where the people that came could drop tickets in if they wanted to vote for your dish. Logan watched as tickets were dropped in his bag and was really excited! Well.....

He won first place in his category. And his friend, Jackie, she won first place in her category, too! It was really fun and Logan is already talking about what he should make next year!

The soup was very good and we will make it again for sure!

Crockpot Pasta Fagioli
--1 pound lean ground beef, browned and drained
--1/2 large red onion, chopped
--1 cup carrots, chopped
--2 celery stalks, sliced
--2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes (and juice)
--1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
--1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
--4 cups beef broth
--1 jar (16.5 oz) pasta sauce (I used 14 oz)
--2 tsp oregano
--1 T Tabasco sauce
--1/2 tsp salt
--1/4 tsp black pepper
--1/2 cup dry pasta, to add at end of cooking time

Use a 6 quart or larger crockpot, or cut the recipe in half. This makes a lot.

Brown the meat on the stovetop, and drain well. Let it cool a bit.

Chop up the carrots, onion, and celery. Add it to the empty crockpot.
Drain and rinse the beans, and add them. Add the whole cans of tomatoes, and the pasta sauce. Add the beef broth. Add the salt, pepper, oregano, and Tobasco sauce. Stir in your meat.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4 (I cooked mine for 3). When the vegetables are tender, stir in the 1/2 cup of dry pasta.

Cover and cook for another hour on low, or until the pasta is tender. It will swell quite a bit.

Serve with a bit of parmesan cheese if you have it (we didn't take cheese with us, but did serve it with crusty French bread).

Ivy rots the bones....

2010-01-06T14:01:00.003-05:00

Logan learns a new Proverb each week. He just finished reciting this weeks for me. "A heart at peace gives life to the body, but ivy rots the bones. Proverbs 14:30". :-)

You may recall Logan saying that Jennifer is the first book of the Bible. Yesterday while reviewing the books on our first day back after Christmas break he said the 5th book is Deusus. I laughed and told him no, it is Deuteronomy. His response, "Oh. I thought they all ended in 'us'". :-)

Alright, I think this tops the "ivy rots the bones". Logan is working in his Bible Notebook. He is illustrating day 5 of creation by gluing fish in the water and drawing birds in the sky. I look over to see black dots coming out of all the birds. "Look, Momma. They're all pooping!". Yep---all BOY!

It's the little things.....

2010-01-05T22:02:00.005-05:00

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-27T12:04:00.000-05:00

Blizzard 2009!

2009-12-19T14:25:00.002-05:00

Wow!! I had no idea until 2 PM yesterday that a blizzard was headed our way. My husband called me from DC. "Go buy a sturdier snow shovel". Last I had checked, we were to get about 5 inches....no big deal. Ummm. As of 2 PM today, we have 16 inches and it is still coming down heavy! It says we are supposed to get 12-22 inches through the night! The last storm we had like this was in 2003 when Logan was just a few months old.

After the boys and I finished up a few things at home yesterday, we headed out to get a sturdier snow shovel. Costco was our first stop. They ran out at noon. Picked up some toilet paper while there...don't want to run out of that. Drove to Home Depot and saw a worker outside. Stalked him in my van until I was close enough for him to hear me. "Excuse me. Before I drag both of my kids out, can you tell me if you are out of snow shovels?" " Yes. We are sold out". I didn't bother going to Lowe's because it is right across the street and I figured if Home Depot was out, Lowe's would be, too. Headed to a Ace Hardware that is kind of tucked away and not in the main area of town. They were out, too, but expected a truck around 7 PM. Drove across to a grocery store. Stocked up on a bunch of food and found some ice melt there. Drove back to Ace...it was now 7:15. The sign on the door now said they expected the truck around 8 PM (possibly). I entered and saw a line. I went to the end and asked if it was the line waiting on the truck. Yes, it was. I called my husband, who was on the bus on his way home, and asked if he really expected me to wait in the line. Of course, I was only kidding when I asked him because I had no intentions of waiting.

Headed home and got all the groceries in and put away. I needed to mail a package and thought we could grab some food while out. Well, the snow came early and it was pretty bad when we finished eating. Should have gone straight home, but decided to stop at the Post Office since it was on the way. There was a line at the 24 hour kiosk. I was watching people drop their packages in the slot and hoping it didn't get full before I got to it. Sure enough, the woman before me dropped her packages in and it was jammed. I was out of luck. I had already bought my postage, so decided to take the route home that took me close to the other post office in town. Well, a lady was just going to leave her packages there and when she heard I was driving to the other post office, she gave me her packages, too. Guess I look like a good person :-). Made it to the other post office, but saw one person had slid into the curb, and another had crashed into a pole. Dropped my packages in and we were on our way home. Turned onto the road we live off, but had about 2 miles before we got to our neighborhood. Saw a few other people that slid of the road. I drove slow and steady. Made it 2 blocks from our house and the road going the other direction was closed to through traffic. We had just come down a hill and had one final one before turning into our neighborhood. The light was green, but the cars weren't moving. The person at the front of the line was just stopped in the intersection. I guess they just decided they didn't want to go up the hill. Several people got out from behind them and headed up the hill. I watched as they all slid around. I figured the roads were only going to get worse, so we went around. There was a pickup two cars ahead and they were literally almost sideways going up the hill. I passed the car that was just sitting and switched lanes. I headed up the hill and passed the sideways truck. Wow! We made it up the hill and I've never been so happy to turn into my community!!

Here are a few pictures that I've taken so far---The picture above was taken at about 1 AM on Dec. 19.This picture was taken at noon on Dec. 19.This was taken at about 2 PM on Dec. 19--about 16 inches, so far!!

Prim and Proper!

2009-12-17T11:01:00.000-05:00

Last Friday, we took the boys to get their haircut. We use a barber shop and the boys LOVE it! Logan gets his hair cut by the same guy just about every time. He calls him his "friend" :-). There are a couple of ladies that I have cut Lucas' hair. They are both mom's and have lots of patience. He does pretty well, though. He has to go often because his hair grows so fast!

Anyway, Lucas was able to get in the seat right away for his hair cut. When she was all done, the lady spiked his hair up a bit. I, of course, thought it was cute! I told her that Logan wouldn't like it because he is very prim and proper when it comes to his hair. When we went and sat by Logan while he waited for his "friend" to be ready to cut his hair, he noticed Lucas' hair. "That is horrible! Just terrible", he said as he made a mad dash towards Lucas and began smoothing his hair down. I told him that I thought it was cute, but he insisted that it wasn't. Finally I told him to leave it alone because it wasn't his hair. When his "friend" was finished cutting his hair, he walked past me (on his way to get a lollipop) with his hair all perfectly combed and laying flat, I asked him why he didn't have his hair spiked, too. I got the "are you crazy" look!

This morning I decided to spike Lucas' hair up a bit after I got him dressed. He immediately got offended. "NO!! I wanna smoov my hair down". Oh my, I was laughing so much. I would spike it up, he would smooth it down. By the end we were both laughing and momma got her way! I can't help it, I just think it is cute! It also makes him look older than the 3 that he is! Here are a few pictures of my styling boy:

Santa Train

2009-12-16T12:38:00.006-05:00

Last weekend, we took the boys on a train ride with Santa. They really enjoyed it!Lucas especially liked the candy cane that they handed out!After the train we did some shopping, had lunch, and then that evening we went to see a friend's daughter in a play. It was certainly a fun-filled Saturday!

In the beginning....

2009-12-10T12:43:00.000-05:00

The curriculum that I use with Logan is Christian based, so just recently we have started learning the books of the Bible. It had been a few days since we had done school and Logan was having a hard time remembering the first book. I was trying to prompt his memory and offered the beginning sounds to him.

me: "Gen....".

Logan: "iffer".

Oh my did I get a laugh over that one. Yes. The first book of the Bible is Jeniffer! Ha!

Story Time with Grandma....

2009-12-09T12:26:00.003-05:00

I just wanted to share a wonderful idea that my mother in law had. A few years ago, she started recording herself reading children books. She loves to read, but doesn't live close enough to read to our boys very often. We typically only see her once a year. So, to make up for this, she has been sending recordings of her reading various books to the boys. Just recently, Logan has really enjoyed being read to. We put the cds on for him and he listens to his Grandma read to him as he drifts off to sleep. It is fun for him to be able to talk to her on the phone about the story that she has read to him. Just today a Christmas package arrived with the last few chapters of The Wind in the Willows and a couple of other stories, too. I know that Logan will be so excited to open the new cds from Grandma!

Bed time....

2009-12-08T12:31:00.003-05:00

Last night, in an effort to put off bed time, Logan announced that his food needed time to congest. I was on the phone with my dad and my husband had no clue what Logan was talking about. Ummm. Digest. I think he means his food needs time to digest. Good thing these boys have their momma to translate for them. HA!

The Christmas tree....

2009-11-30T13:40:00.005-05:00

On Saturday, we got our tree up and decorated. Does it make me a bad mom that I waited until Lucas was in bed to do the decorating?? He was so excited just to have the tree up. He laid underneath it and talked about it all day. Once he was in bed, I shaped it and Logan and I decorated it. My husband helped some (like putting the angel on top), but it was mostly Logan and me. We were up pretty late getting it done, but it was so nice to sit on the love seat and cuddle with Logan admiring our hard work!When Lucas woke the next morning, he was very excited to see that the tree was decorated! We do Hallmark ornaments....we typically buy some each year, but my MIL sends each of us one yearly. She always asks for my help in deciding which ones to get for the boys. Funny thing is, I think we discuss in Oct. and then I totally forget which ones they are getting by Christmas time! Anyway, last year Lucas got a Pat Pat rocket ornament that plays the theme song. He loves it! I put it down low so that he can press the button all by himself. Logan and I had do some thinking before placing ornaments on the tree. The cute little snowmen with tiny twig arms went up high--those twigs can't withstand a curious 3 year old. I figured some ornaments would get broken, but I think we are already down 3 and the tree has only been up a full day!! They can mostly be put back together. Lucas broke the cover off of one of my Winnie the Pooh books (my MIL has been buying me this series ever since it first started in 1998!), so once I glue it on, the book will permanently be open. He is still touching the ornaments, but he is being more careful with them. He was pretty sad that he broke one. Logan broke one, too. He was a cranking the handle on one a little too hard and a bear's head popped off (it moved back and forth with the music)!! He was sad, too. I think they both learned their lesson that maybe the ornaments aren't toys after all. And momma learned a lesson that ornaments don't hold up well when they are dropped.

Does this look like a lot?

2009-11-24T10:04:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, the boys and I went to the thrift store. Logan gets pretty bored while I look through the clothes, so his entertainment is to collect empty hangers. Yesterday he had a handful of them and he held them towards me. "Does this look like a lot of hangers to you?" I told him that it looked like a few, but not a lot. "Well, it is 5 hangers. If you think that 5 hangers isn't a lot, then why do you think that 5 dollars IS a lot?" I'm wracking my brain. Why is he comparing hangers to dollars? Oh yes, I've got it!!

When Logan lost his second tooth, the Tooth Fairy brought him $5. This was while we were working on our kitchen and our ladder was in the dining room (and no, Dad, we've still not done anything else on it....maybe once the holidays are over). Well, for some odd reason, Logan decided that he should slide his $5 into a slot on the ladder. Not too bad, except that it went inside the foot of the ladder and there is no way to take the foot off. So, that $5 was basically wasted. I told him that $5 was a lot of money to lose. Of course, I don't think that $5 is a lot of money, but when you are 7 (well, he was 6 at the time) and got it from the Tooth Fairy, I think that IS a lot!

Logan's logic was that if 5 hangers isn't very much, then $5 isn't either! I thought it was pretty clever of him.

~~All Day Night~~

I fixed the kitchen....

Ring of Fire!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pony Ride!

Soccer....

As I was saying....

Cookie cutter.....I think not!

Words!

So excited!!

Time for some more funnies.....

Happy Mother's Day!

Menu Plan Monday....

My recent visitors!!

Menu Plan Monday...

Five!!

This is fun.....

Snow!!

Date night!!

Money talks!

New Year, New Funnies!

Another project completed!

Thanksgiving Feast....

It's coming together....

The proof is in the picture....

Tonight, I'm sleeping in the "closet"...

Ramblings....

Some funnies....

He likes it, he likes it!!

Somebody stop me!!

Adding to the invenotry.....

And so it begins....

Pantry inventory.....

Back to School.....

Menu Plan Monday...

Time to get organized....

Sweet, sweet boys....

Breathing it in!!!

Random post of the day.....

Bedtime Stories....

Happy Birthday, PaBob!!

Bowling fun.....

Target and Safeway shopping trip!!

Memorial Day Weekend....

Love...

Menu Plan Monday...

4th of July!

Sneak peek....

Boys!

I-pad giveaway...

Menu Plan Monday....

Bedtime Tactics...

MIA...

Menu Plan Monday

Menu Plan Monday...

My good deal of the day!

TEN!!

Who needs a maid?

Cherry Blossom Festival 2010

Menu Plan Monday...

Easter 2010

Saying the words......

Recently....

Menu Plan Monday

Want to win an iPad??

Time to change the station....

Date night....

Monopoly and Connect 4 for $2 at Target!!

Being sick is hard to do....

Heard round here.....

My sweet, sweet Lucas!

Rewind....

Christmas in March??

Sharing the love!

Air and Space Museum

Bringing Out the Big Guns....

Healthy blueberry banana muffins

Mmmm......toast!!

Got ice?

The fun part...

All Day Night