Living life and loving it

Birthday fun on the farm

2012-02-11T22:22:00.000-08:00

Our family went to a birthday not long ago where everyone had a great time on the 'farm'.
First of all you cant go to the party with out bringing a little something for the birthday boy. I found this pattern a number of years back but I just never got around to making the pattern until I got the invitation to this party. Now I think I might just be hooked. The pattern was easy to follow and the end result was amazing.

I see myself making more of these in the future.

My favorite thing about the apron is the Velcro for the back strap. It makes it easy for the kids to take it on and off without having to ask for help with the strings.
I think that the birthday boy liked his gift and I have a feeling he will he wearing it often in the kitchen helping his mama.
While at the part The Hubby got some ink.

He may of been a little chicken to get the chicken. HAHAHA I know thats a corny joke but I just had to post the picture of him
The Little Lady found a chicken of her own.

She saw this blowup chicken when we first walked into the party and it was love at first sight. She kept asking to see it. I finally gave in and she played with it until we left to go home.
She even took it for tractor rides around the room.

Both of The Littles had a great time at the party and even came home with cowboy hats.

Now The Little Man has a new hat to wear when he plays Sheriff.
Watch out there is a new Sheriff in town and he mean business!!

Thawing out

2012-01-21T15:09:00.000-08:00

The snow came this week and now it is almost gone.
We ended up with about 6 inches or so at our house.
The Little Man enjoyed playing in it but The Little Lady did not like it very much when it got deep.
The Little Man liked sledding but The Little Lady cried and just wanted to be held when we were at the hills.
When we we not out enjoying the snow we were inside staying warm and thawing out.
The cloths rack set up by the fire worked well to keep all of our snow gear in one spot. Everything was all nice and toasty by the time we were ready to bundle up again and head back out into the snow.

We also drank too many cups of cocoa to count to help stay thawed.

I have been using this recipe to make homemade hot cocoa powder that The Littles just love.
2 cups non fat dry milk powder
3/4 cup sugar (powder, regular or cane sugar)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 powdered non dairy creamer (try Ripped Cream Coffee Creamer to avoid the hydrogenated oils)
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
Mix all ingredients in a quart size mason jar and shake or stir. Mix two or three scoops in with a mug full of hot water and enjoy. Add a little whole milk to make it extra creamy or cool it off for little hands.

Nature has been doing a great job the past few days thawing everything out and creating amazing ice cycles that The Littles enjoyed collecting off of the truck.

This afternoon most of the snow has melted and out outside temp. reads 44*.
Goodbye snow. You were fun while you were here but I am not really sad to see you go.

Enjoying the winter weather

2012-01-17T21:36:00.000-08:00

Sunday morning we woke up to a light dusting of snow. Not much but both kids were excited.
It snowed off and on most of Sunday and Monday and we got a little bit more today.
The Littles enjoyed getting and playing in the white fluffy stuff.

They worked together today to make a snow castle. As they kept adding more and more snow to the castle it changed into a snow person, says The Little Man.

The Littles were able to go out in the front and ride their power wheel quads in the snow.

The Little Man did a great job of driving his quad all around. He told me today that he will be ready to get his drivers licence soon. We will see buddy.

Once The Little Man got off of his quad The Little Lady was right there to climb on. She thinks that she can do anything that her big brother can do. Not so fast little girl, you dont need to grow up any faster.

I even remembered to take the camera off of The Littles long enough to get a picture of The Hubby and me.

The weather men and women are saying that there is lots more snow to come. Its supposed to start snowing tonight at 10 and not stop until tomorrow afternoon. They are thinking 10 or so inches in the next 24 hours and 3 feet in the mountains.
Winter weather is finally here and we are going to enjoy it.

Boys and their toys

2012-01-12T21:19:00.000-08:00

With the help from The Little Mans uncle and The Hubby he got a radio controlled truck for Christmas.
At first I wondered who really got a new toy, The Hubby or The Little Man!? The Hubby showed him how to do the controller and before long he was driving it pretty good.
Here are few pictures from the other morning when he was so excited to drive that he did not even bother to get dressed.

This moment

2012-01-06T13:42:00.000-08:00

This moment - A Friday ritual. A single photo - ~~no words~~ - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. -Amada Soule

Pants on ~~fire~~ by the fire.

22 months

2012-01-05T15:00:00.000-08:00

It is so hard for me to believe that my baby girl will be two in just two short months.
She is getting so independent. She wants to do everything herself (even if she cant do it she is going to try). Her new thing now is that she wants to wipe herself. Not yet little girl. So even thought I have asked her not to play with the toilet paper as soon as I walk out of the bathroom thats what she is doing (most of the time it is left off the roll out of her little reach). Then I find little pieces of TP all over the bathroom.
I am glad that she is wanting to learn to do new things but I just feel that somethings are not for little girls to do yet.
She saw her boots today and said 'my boots, my rain boots.' I had no idea she even knew that they were called rain boots. It was just one of those ah ha moments when I realized how big she is getting. And then when I was still in ah of the rain boot moment she said something else that just blew me away.
We were walking in to The Little Mans school with a very full bag of magazines. I was holding the bag on one side and she was riding on the hip on the other side. I must of made some type of noise because she says 'Me heavy?' I said 'No dear you are not heavy.' So she then said 'Bag heavy not me but bobah (brother) heavy.' All I could do was give her a kiss and smile.
Thank you daughter for the 22 months of amazing moments.

First day of the new year

2012-01-04T22:39:00.000-08:00

I have been neglecting my blog lately but I am guessing that you have noticed that,
I kept telling myself that I will post tomorrow or next week. Then as the new year got closer and closer I just said that I would post on day one of the new year.
Well day one of the new year has come and gone. Here I am fourth day into January posting. Better late than never, right!?
Sunday was a new day and a new year and the weather was beautiful.
We got dressed and ready for church.
The Little Man saw how beautiful the weather was and wanted to ride his bike to church.

He is always full of great ideas.
The Little Lady is working on her two year molars and not feeling so hot these days so she just stayed close to mama in the Ergo on the walk.

On one of the blogs that I read she does a photo on the first of the month of her kids. So I decided I was going to do that also and maybe it will help me to get a few 'good' pictures of the kids together. So maybe when Christmas comes around again I have a few 'good' ones to chose from. So here is my first one...

Not bad and not great but it captures The Littles on the first day of the new year.
Loving it.

Picture outtakes

2011-12-11T20:55:00.000-08:00

Taking pictures of kids takes the right kind of person, and I dont think that I am 'that' kind of person.
Christmas is creeping up and I still have not put together cards. If I cant get a good picture of them both here soon I might just have to use one of these.
Here are the best of the worse pictures over the past week.

Brotherly love= head lock.

I just love it that I now have two kids that like to 'cheese it up' for the camera.

Those are my Littles and I love every moment of them!!!

O' Christmas tree

2011-12-07T13:24:00.000-08:00

Last night we bundled up the family, packed into the truck and headed off to find the perfect tree.
Normally we just put up our 'fake' one but this year we loaned it to some amazing friends so we could venture out and get a 'real' one.
We headed over to the local fruit stand in hopes that they had just the right one for us.

In years past we have not had the greatest of luck with real trees but this year we were going to put the past behind us and enjoy the experience of a 'real' tree.
We found 'our' tree hiding in the back row where it was very heard to see its beauty. It it a little crocked and not so full but I just knew it was going to look (and smell) amazing.
After a little sawing and trimming the tree finally made it into our house.

The Littles were very excited to start decorating it and both did a great job.

Lets just hope that the fire place does not dry it out too much and it will last til Christmas.

(Only one ornament was broke in the decorating of the tree.)

Paint, puzzles and a whole lot more

2011-12-06T21:53:00.000-08:00

The Little Man found these wooden cars the otherday while cleaning up the playroom. We got them almost two years ago for him to paint and we forgot... until now.

I dont think that this kids can forget anything.
So we pulled out some paint and brushes and got to work. He quickly learned how to make orange, purple and his all time favorite green by doing a little mixing.
He has now decided that these three cars will become gifts to give his love ones. I am so glad to see that he is thinking more about what he is going to give as gifts than get as gifts.
But along the line of gifts I think that both of The Littles will be getting a puzzle or two and some more drawing supplies.

The Little Lady is enjoying working on the wooden peg puzzles. She has figured out how to turn the pieces around and get them to fit without getting upset.
The Little Man has been having fun working on 24 piece puzzles.

He has also been showing off his drawing skills.

I dont know if it is my mom side or my creative side but every time he draws a picture it just melts my heart and puts a HUGE smile on my face to no one can wipe off.
Here is his drawing called 'When Mommy and Daddy got married.'

LOVE it!!!

Very thankful

2011-12-06T21:33:00.000-08:00

We turned our Thanksgiving into a mini vacation by hooking up the trailer, climbing in the truck and heading out of town.

We had fun spending our time with family and people we just met.

The weather was wet and cold but what can you really expect at the end of November?!
The kids were able to get out and ride bikes or go putt putting most days. But when the rain was coming down and the wind was blowing we were stuck inside. We watched WAY too much TV and now we are on a much needed TV diet.
Some of our time inside was spent playing games and drawing.

If The Little Lady finds a pen she will then be on a mission to find some paper. She just loves to draw. If no paper is found she might just start drawing on her belly.
On Thanksgiving morning The Little Lady even decided to leave a little turkey hand print on the trailer window.

It reminds me of this little hand print from a few years back.

This Moment- Sleeping hero

2011-11-11T14:16:00.000-08:00

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. -Soule Mama

A big thank you to all the real heroes out there on this Veterans day.

My two little monkeys

2011-11-10T10:51:00.000-08:00

I know that it is a week an a half passed Halloween but I guess I better post about Halloween now or I never will.
The Littles dressed up as monkeys.

They were the two cutest monkeys that I have ever seen.
The costume was so fitting for The Little Lady since she is such a little monkey. She just loves to climb, hang and swing. When you pick her up she wraps her legs around you and hold on tight.

The Little Man liked his monkey costume until he saw his friends at the harvest party wearing cooler costumes like cops, rockstars and super hero's. I tried to tell him that he gets to be those cool things everyday but only on Halloween he gets to be a monkey. It helped a little.
I also told him that next year we can work together and make him whatever costume he wants. He liked that idea and wanted to start right away. So to hold him off a little I made him a t-shirt with the COPS logo on it.

I just cant believe how big my biggest little monkey is getting.

I have really started thinking about him starting Kindergarten a lot lately. I am really up in the air about want I am going to do. Not only with myself but with him. Do I put him in school like most do or do I sigh up for a virtual or online academy? I just dont know. I am just glad that I have a few more months to think about this before I have to make a decision.

Even though the monkey costume was so fitting for The Little Lady she was not all that happy to be wearing it.

Even if you dont want to wear the costume Little lady you are still my littlest little monkey.

I dont know if next year I will be able to get The Littles in matching or 'themed' costumes but either way I just love the amazing memories we are creating together.

Last year they had themed costumes of a cowboy and a horse. Here is The Little Man sporting last years costume this year.

He decided to wear it a month ago to a friends wedding. They got married in a barn so the costume was very appropriate. I just love his creativity.
I wonder what he will choose to be for Halloween next year?

A pumpkin afternoon

2011-10-23T21:14:00.000-07:00

On this beautiful fall afternoon our house was filled with three pizzas, one grandpa, one grandma, two great grandmas, an aunt, an uncle, a cousin, our family of four and 3 pumpkins.

This is the first time that the little man has carved a pumpkin. He said that he wanted to carve it into a trailer but than changed his mind and drew a face or three on his pumpkin.

When the pumpkins were carved and the seeds were roasted I tried to take a picture of the littles on the front porch with the pumpkin but tried was the key word.
Take one-

Take two-

Take three-

Today was a wonderful day filled full of amazing memories.

Playing in the kitchen

2011-10-17T21:34:00.000-07:00

Our kitchen play set is one of the most used toys in our house.
It is used for cooking up felt pancakes, wooden pizza and the littles.

Its good to change things up every once in a while.
I am just having a great time watching the littles. Everyday they are doing something new and amazing.
Thank you littles for being who you were created to be.

Between the rain showers

2011-10-07T20:46:00.000-07:00

The littles are missing being able to play outside. Just a few weeks ago we were spending most of our days outside and now our days are spent inside longing for a fire.
So today, in between the rain showers,we got outside and enjoyed some fresh air.

The little man found some wood in the garage and managed to build a ramp to jump his balance bike off of.

When we first got outside I did not bring the camera with me but when the ramp started forming I knew I need some pictures of this.
In the time that it took me to run inside and get the camera and come back the ramp was finished and the little man had his helmet strapped on.

After the little man went on the ramp for a few times the little land knew it was her turn to try it out.

Life is full of rain showers (especially here in Washington) but they wont slow me down. Sooner or later there will be a break and I will take the opportunity and get out and enjoy it. Maybe I will even put on helmet and take a little bigger leap.

The magic of dirt

2011-10-05T14:55:00.000-07:00

I read this post last night and it reminded me of these pictures that of the littles from our last camping trip.

By letting your kids play in the dirt not only will you get these cute pictures of them but you are also exposing them to good bacteria that helps them to be happier and could boost there IQ.

Good bacteria that can boost immune systems and help heal wounds.

So play in the dirt a little.

Then after a long day of playing in the dirt its time to hop in the bath and get cleaned up a little.

Only to go back out and play in the dirt a little more.

When was the last time you got out and played in the dirt?

This moment- They just melt my heart

2011-09-23T07:39:00.000-07:00

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.- Amanda Soule

Welcome fall

2011-09-23T07:05:00.000-07:00

The signs of fall are all around.

Fall is...

Bike rides in the fallen leaves and making it home before it gets to dark, which comes way to early at 7:30

Homemade treats for teachers

Riding the little yellow school bus to school and being the big man in school

Wearing long sleeves and leg warmers and learning the joys of pockets

Pulling out the almost forgotten needles and starting a fall hat (in an amazing shade of orange)

Finding ways to bring nature in

Hunting for your favorite leaf and having a hard time finding just the right one.

Canning and enjoying your harvest all season long

Welcome fall.. I have missed you.

Blueberries for the little man

2011-09-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

As summer is coming to a end I have been trying to saver every last bit.
Last year was my first time canning.
This year I have done a bit more and I still have more to do. I have a freezer full of blackberries that will soon become yummy pies or some sweet jam to enjoy through out the winter months.
I have many apples that will soon be applesauce and many that I plan on drying into apple chips.
Along side the blackberries in the freezer there is also an almost bursting gallon sized bag of blueberries that we picked from the lake house.

The littles did a great job helping me pick and eat most of them. It took a few pickings before the little lady understood that she is to pick the blue ones not the green.
The little man and I have been filling our special time while the little lady naps will reading and 'school' work.
We have been reading lots of Jamberry and Blueberries for Sal. I even found these free preschool printable worksheets to go along with Blueberries for Sal.

I laminated some of the sheets and matching cards so that he could do them over and over.

I dont know if he understands that his is learning. I think most of the time he just having fun and that is what matters most.

Life

2011-09-20T21:22:00.000-07:00

Life feels like it is in fast motion right now. I will try and find sometime to blog soon or maybe even a pause button.
But all in all we are still living life and we are still loving it.

Friends

2011-09-11T13:54:00.000-07:00

You know you have a true friend when..
-she dose not mind sleeping on your couch
- she helps you fold laundry and wash your floors
- she dose not mind that your daughter puts her bottom in her face
- she dose not feel scared to ask if they can host her sons birthday at your house.
I am so very lucky to have a friend like her and my son is so lucky to have a friend like her son.
I just love to see the two of them play together.

Just a few weeks ago we created a very special gift for her son by converting a bike that they got for free into a homemade balance bike.

So with a little help from my whole family I was able to pull off the peddles and chain so that the boys could learn to balance together.

The little man has now learned to coast. He is still a little on the cautious side but he will get it really soon. I have no doubt in my mind by this time next year he will be riding his big two wheeler like a pro.

Eighteen months

2011-09-05T22:04:00.000-07:00

Eighteen things about the little lady at eighteen months.

She can climb to the top bunk with out the ladder.

She enjoys coloring and most of the time it is only on the paper.

Her four eye teeth just popped through.

She loves her big girl bed.

Loves to play in the dirt and get all messy.
Just started talking up a storm and still uses many signs.
Animals make her squeal with delight but only from a far unless its on her terms.
Her hair is just now long enough to put into piggy tails and I can almost get it all into one pony.

Drinks from a cup like a pro.
Like to play with baby dolls but still enjoys playing cars with her brother.
Loves keys, cell phones and remotes.
She still loves to do things herself.

Still loves to brush her teeth and go potty on her own.
She does not let anyone push her around unless its on a swing.
She loves swings and could stay in one all day if I let her.

Loves to give kisses before bed.

She gives amazing hugs.

And she has a family that loves her right back.

Soaking up summer

2011-08-26T08:13:00.000-07:00

We have just been soaking up summer around here.

Our days have been filled with..
Playing in the water
Eating outside
Digging in the dirt
Eating and picking LOTS of berries
Walks around the neighborhood
Trying new home cooked dished (and many old favorites)
Cooking outside
Cleaning up after out family meals together
Many trips to the library
Canning summer favorites to enjoy this winter
Trips to the park and friends houses
Daydreams of our soon coming camping trip.
We are truly enjoying our summer.

Around our neighborhood

2011-08-17T18:10:00.000-07:00

We went for a little walk to visit some friends that live a few blocks away. We have walked there many times but this time we all walked (no stroller).

(Dont you just love his outfit?! We were just about out of the house when the little man thought he might get cold. I tired to tell him he was not going to need one but he thought he did. So he went back to his room and showed up with his Greg coat. So yes, it was my son that you saw walking down the street in the middle of August wearing a brown crushed velvet coat with orange flip flops and plaid shorts.)

It took about double the amount of time to make it there but I think both kids enjoyed it.
The little man lead the way while I tried to make sure that the little lady did not wonder too far into the street.
Every time a car drove by the little lady had to stop and watch it. It was really cute but made for a long walk. I did bring the Ergo just in case but I did not have to put her in it till the walk home.
On the way home the little man spotted a very cool leaf that he wanted to bring home.We also picked up some ferns.
So when we got home we did some nature walk pictures and furn rubbings.

Yesterday was also garbage and recycling day, so we waited around outside until the recycling truck showed up.

The little man just loves watching the robotic arm on the truck pick up the can and toss its contents into the back of the truck.

We had a fun filled day only going a few blocks from our home and never having to start up the car.

Splashing with friends

2011-08-16T18:46:00.000-07:00

We took a drive to visit the amazing park with the water again. And like always we had a great time. But I dont think that you can ever have a bad time when you mix kids, friends and water.

The weather was a little over cast so the littles did not want to put on the shorts so they just ended up playing in there jeans and just changing into dry clothes before the ride home.

The little man and his friends did a little more exploring of the banks around the river.
One side is flat and ends up leading to the play area and the other side is a hill that also has many trees to play among.
One of the large trees fell down over the years so there is a large log and massive roots to hide under. He boys made a camp out of the log. After they were done camping they had fun trying to catch fish in the river.

The boys did a great job of letting the little sisters join in on the fun also.
Toward the end of our playing at the park the kids learned that flip flops float. So the shoes ended up magically turning into boats that the kids had to catch before they got caught under the bridge.

Fun was had by all even though the day at the river ended in tears.

Twist, turn, jump and climb

2011-08-15T20:28:00.000-07:00

For the little mans birthday he was given a pass good for 4 classes at The Little Gym.
He was totally unsure about it when we first showed up at the gym three weeks ago but I know he has enjoyed every minute of classes even though he wont admit it.
Each week they have a theme that lets the kids imaginations run wild.
He has experiences sports week and got to use different type of balls and even some tennis rackets. There was prince and princess week where they pretended the gym was a enchanted forest and a magic well that the little man tied not to fall into.

His favorite theme was probably pirate day, complete with a sunken ship that they had to raise.
On the morning of the pirate day he did not want to go to classes. But when he got there and started talking with his teachers he decided he would try it for a little while and ended up playing and enjoying the whole class.

While the little man is in the gym using his imagination I am using mine to keep the little lady occupied during the hour class.
We spend so time playing in the dance room exploring the wall of mirrors.

We always have to visit the bathroom a few times, not to go, but to use the little paper cups to get a drink and a wet paper towel to wash everything.
One day it will be her turn to explore the gym but until then she enjoys watching.

Playing in the dirt

2011-08-10T14:22:00.000-07:00

The hubby mows the lawn at his grandmas house every other week.

Since it has been so dry lately the grass has not grown much. So this last week he did a little more than just mow. He ripped out three Rhody bushes that were in the front of the house.

The littles just loved watching.
Than Grandpa pulled out the excavator. It got a little louder but the littles knew just what to do.

Twenty Five

2011-08-03T16:05:00.000-07:00

On Monday I turned a quarter of a century old.
To help celebrate my twenty five years of life here are 25 things that have happened in my life since I turned 25.
-I had two amazing dinners out with my wonderful parents and in-laws.
-I bought an eighth of an all natural, hormone free, antibiotic free, gain feed cow.
-Shared coffee with a good friend.
-Spent lots of time outside enjoying the weather.

-The littles had there first play in the sprinkler of the year.
-They learned really fast that the water was very cold and the sprinkler shoots the water out very hard.
-The little man learned how to play checkers.

-He also thinks that silly faces count as smiles.
-I finally found and bought a dehydrator off of Craigslist.
-Right now I am drying bananas and apples. I am super excited to try them tomorrow when they are finished.

-The little lady woke up dry from bed last night.
-The little lady has mastered how to take on and off her pants and she does not want any help.

-Her taking on and off her pants will keep her occupied for a while.
-All of my laundry in my house is washed.. put away is a different story.
-I was able to dry some of my clothes and towels outside in the sun.

-Anything is free game to use as a drying spot outside. Fence, drying rack, bench, play toy.
-I learned that when you turn your back to the clothes drying outside some might walk off and become a fort.
-The little man learned that there are little green frogs in the back yard if you look close enough.

-He also learned that they are a little slimy and that they eat bugs.
-So he than tried to make a trap to catch more.

-I also had to teach him that we dont eat the frogs that are in our back yard when I noticed him walking around with a butter knife 'hunting.'
-The little lady enjoys playing with play dough.

-She now know it does not taste very good.
-These two just light up my life...

But I am pretty sure I already knew that.

-I think that life must gets better with age.

Playing in the park

2011-07-21T15:08:00.000-07:00

Our ~~fall~~ summer weather here has been very fall like. It has been very cloudy in the mornings and as the day goes on the sun eventually comes out and so does the wind.
So our family have been spending many evenings up at the school.

The hubby is back on a kite trip. He has been thinking about kites night and day since we got back from the ocean. So this weather has been nice since he has be able to get out and fly as long as as it is not raining.

The littles have fun exploring the playground at the school.

It is just amazing that in just a short year the little man will be going to school here. *sigh*

During this trip to the park the little lady decided that the bridge was not scary and spent most of the time running across it.

It just bring such a big smile to my face to watch my children play together and do fun, spontaneous things as a family.

Clothing optional house

2011-07-19T15:03:00.000-07:00

If you were to stop by our house to surprise us, you might be the one surprised.
Clothing is very optional in our house and when it comes to the little lady it is discouraged.

When we are home she spend most of the time at least naked from the waste down. This is mainly to help make potty runs smoother.
The little lady like to do most things herself. She knows how to pull down her pants but does not always want to or if she does than she wont want help pulling them up and she ends up getting very frustrated. We have had a few times where she has sat down to go potty and ended up peeing on her pants so we just decided to do away with pants in the house. We will go back to them once she understands the concept a little better.
She does still have accidents every once in a while but not many.
I even found her in the bathroom the other day, sitting on her little potty, in the dark, going poo. She was very proud of herself when she was all done. She only needed my help to wipe her bum and dump the potty. Over this past month I dont think that she has had one accident during nap and when she is waking in the morning her diapers dont seem to be as full.
Hopefully we will be on track to be out of diapers by 2, just like the little man was and a little less laundry for the mama.

Playing house

2011-07-18T22:07:00.000-07:00

I spent most of the afternoon going through our bedroom.
It looks better but I am still not done.
Five garbage bags of stuff have been filled to be given to the thrift store. Thats just from my bedroom and the laundry room and neither one are clean yet. Yikes!!
I have always felt the need to ~~collect, hoard, pack rat~~, keep stuff. I dont really know why. All this stuff does not make me happy and I dont feel lost with out it. I feel way more lost with rooms and closets in my house with piles of stuff in them.
I was always the kid growing up that had the pig sty for a room. I guess I thought I would just out grow it. When I got married the stuff followed and when I had kids the stuff multiplied. I have not out grown it yet and with another birthday coming up in just two weeks, I dont see me out growing it them either. I think that this is going to have to be something I am taught.
I have read many books and seen many shows on getting rid of stuff. Now it is time to put them into action.
So I am asking myself three simple questions; Do I love it? Do I use it? and is it beautiful? If I can answer no to any of these questions it gone.
Tomorrow is day number two and I hope that more bags get filled full of stuff and make it out of my house because it sure feels good.

Sunshine and rain drops

2011-07-11T22:20:00.000-07:00

Today the sun was out, just like it has been for the past few weeks (Maybe summer is really here).
So after out morning get together with some great mamas we came home, stripped off our clothes and played in the water in the backyard.

Filling up the ~~little pool~~ Rubbermaid tub is one of the only ways that I keep the little lady from digging in my garden or whats left of it. She has already pulled out most of my starts that were in the garden. Between her and the slugs we have only enjoyed some spinach and a hand full of carrots and radishes. The little man loves to help in the garden. He is always asking me if it needs watered but he wont anything out of it.
We were not out in the sun for very long before the clouds started rolling in. Just before they opened up and started dropping these huge raindrops we pulled in all the clothes that were sprawled all over the backyard.
Once inside the littles did an amazing job playing. The little man chose to play with a toy computer (a hot toy in our home). I was so surprised that the little lady did not try to take his but walked down the hall and found the other one.

The little man likes to play the different activities that are on the computers while the little lady just likes to sit on it our pound on the buttons.
We had a great day living life and I am loving every moment of it.

Getting back into the swing of things

2011-07-10T18:45:00.000-07:00

We have been back from the ocean for 5 days but I feel like I am just starting to get back into the swing of things... but lets back track to the ocean for a little while longer.
Most of our days were spent on the beach.. well I guess that was one of the only places I remembered to pull out my camera.
WARNING very photo happy post.

We showed up at our camp spot at about 1 and headed to the beach shortly after.
This was the first time that the little lady was able to really play at the beach. She loved it.

The little man loved running around in the sand bare footed. As soon as we would come to the top of the dunes and you could see the ocean he was pulling off his flip flops.

While the littles played in the sand the hubby had a blast flying his kites. He was a little unsure that he was going to be able to fly since he hurt his shoulder just the week before... But he was able to fly just fine.

We spent most of out time at the beach playing on this little hill just outside of the dunes. The hill helped block most of the wind for me and the hill was fun for the littles to play on.

One day just before we were headed off to the beach the little lady face planted off the picnic table and scraped up her head pretty good. I really did not want her to get too much sand in it so I put a band aid on it and tied a bandanna around. I did not know how well she was going to keep it on but to my amazement she left it on and no sand made it into the cut.

While the little lady napped in my arms in the warm sun the little man build a 'boat' and went off 'sailing and fishing.'

On the evening of the fourth we drove down to the beach, built a little fire and enjoyed the evening.

It was a great camping trip. Relaxing and low key.
The drive home was twice as long as the drive down thanks to traffic and road work. Not having A/C did not really help the drive either.
It was nice to be home. Our house felt so BIG. It was kind of eye opening for me to realize that we could fit everything that our family needs into a 8X18 trailer but yet out 2,000 square foot house is crammed pack full of STUFF. So I feel the need to start operation de-junk.
I have read may books on simplifying but its way more than just reading it the DOING part that I need to work on. Hopefully this time I can go it since it is really starting to get under my skin.

And Im off

2011-06-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

I hear the ocean calling my name...

Here I come!

Living life and loving it

2011-06-23T22:24:00.000-07:00

Just a few of my loves in my life.

The power of four-

I just love the new joys that a four year old brings.

The other night at dinner the little man was not real interested in dinner. Most of the time I allow him to listen to his body but other times we do the X number of bites. Our new favorite number to use is four.

The other night at dinner he eyes lit up when he realized that the fork has four prongs (unlike the three prong forks that I grew up with). So he decided the was going to put his bites of meat on each prong.

He was counting the bites of meat in the picture.
Toothpaste-
Sometimes when the little lady is sitting on the potty she needs a little something to keep her busy so that she will sit and get done what she needs to do. Toothpaste and a toothbrush fit that bill.

Other times she want to sit there longer and I dont listen. I think after today and having to wash a dirty pair of panties I will listen. Lesson learned.
Heart shaped sunglasses-
The littles really do love each other.
They have there times when they argue and dont get along but there love for each other really shine through.

Sunsets-

One of the amazing signs that tomorrow is a new day.

Today 06/17/11

2011-06-17T22:53:00.000-07:00

The little man had a fun night last night with his uncle. He was even a little bummed when I got there to pick him up. He even made it through the whole night with out his blankie. He is just getting so big.
His fun day kept going.
Tonight the hubby took the little man to the M's game. They also went with 4 cousins and two uncles.

To their surprise it was even jersey night.
The little man is even holding the ball that he caught during batting practice.
So the little lady and I had another nice calm evening together.

We enjoyed some sunshine and homemade ice cream.
What do you think of the pony? I just love it. It makes her look older but it is just so cute. She even asked for it this morning.
Here is another view from a few days ago.

Today the clouds were just amazing.

The day was not all amazing.
We did get a phone call at 4am this morning. The hubbys grandpa had passed away. He is going to be missed greatly.
The hubby sat down with the little man and told him that great grandpa went to heaven. The little man seemed a little sad and than he said with a smile 'So he is not hurting anymore and he is all better?' Yes little man you are very right.

August 2007

August 2009

Ikea

2011-06-16T21:11:00.000-07:00

The little man is spending the night at my brothers tonight. I figured I should catch up on some blog post but I hear my bed calling my name. So here goes...

A month ago we took a trip to Ikea with another friend. The adventure started before we even left the driveway.

After a little while we managed to fit the three car seats and kids in the back seat of my friends truck. They were packed in like sardines but it was well worth it.
Once we got there the littles caught eye of the little carts and so both had to have their own.

I was really surprised how well they did with them. They ended up pushing them through most of the store. The little lady hopped in the cart with her friend for a little while but soon she was back to pushing.

We ended up taking many pit stops but ended up with everything we needed and more.

Both littles just loved the child size sinks in the bathrooms.
No trip to Ikea is complete without lunch.
I think we will have to make this trip more often it. It just a fun place to be.

Ok Bed you win... here I come.

Schools out

2011-06-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

The little mans last day of school was on the Friday the 3rd.
On his last day of school he organized a band and built a guitar and microphone out of blocks.

So when I got there to pick him up he showed me how he jammed out.
The last day of school was followed up an end of the school year BBQ that evening. I made crock pot baked beans to share. It was my first time making them and I thought they turned out great. I even have a jar left over in my freezer to enjoy later. I think I will be making them again.

Since his last day of school we have started working through the book Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We have been working on letter sounds. He know knows mmmm, ssss and aaaa. So anytime he sees any of the letters out or in a book he gets so excited and tells me the sounds.
Its so amazing to watch him learn and discover the world around him.
Speaking of discovering the world I think that our bird nest by our front door might have some baby birds in it. I hear lots of chirping but I have not been able to see inside of the nest yet. I enjoy hearing all of the bird sounds just outside our door.

Weekending- 06/12/11

2011-06-12T23:17:00.000-07:00

This weekend the sun was shining.

The littles still wore long sleeved shirts most of the weekend but at least the sun was out. The even enjoyed Popsicles.

They were made with homemade yogurt, bananas and blue berries.

They both enjoyed them. The little lady was a little more messy.

(She has now decided that she needs to tilt her head and cheese it up in pictures just like the little man.)
The little man even took the little lady for a ride. He was happy to except for when she decides that she is done and ready to move on to something else.

He is doing better and talking to her and listening to her. He still like to do what he wants and most of the time she is happy to do what he is doing. But her personality is coming out more and she is not afraid to give you a piece of her mind.
I am still trying to work with him to remember to talk to her before he just pushes her or grabs something from her hands.
All in all he is a very loving and kind big brother.

I was telling the hubby this weekend that I feel like I will be taking the little lady to the ER before I take the little man.
She is cautious in some ways (like sliding down the slide feet first on her belly) but not in other ways (like climbing to the top of a 6 foot high ladder by herself to get there).
I looked out the kitchen window this weekend and saw her standing on the top of the sideways tractor tire. I just stood there and watched her come down the same way she got up there like it was no big deal. I thought for sure she was going to come crashing down. I guess she has more balance than I thought.

Night walking

2011-06-07T14:48:00.000-07:00

After the littles took baths last night we went on a walk in our pajamas.

The little man sported his elmo pj's. It wade me a little sad when he put them on and they were getting a little snug but put a big smile back on my face that he was not embarrassed (yet) to go out in public in them. The little lady wore her hand me down glow in the dark bone pajamas. They are getting a little small for her also but they are just so cute I put them on her almost every chance I get.

The little man shared his tricycle with the little lady before we started walking.
The little man did a great job pedalling almost the whole walk. Soon he will be able to ride his bigger bike on our walks. The little lady hung out in the ergo and slept most of the walk.

When we got home the hubby had us go and look at the front door. This is what we saw...

Some bird has decided that the corner of our front door is a great spot to build a nest.
Its going to be fun to have a new neighbor so close to watch and learn about. I wonder what type of birds make nests out of mud and straw... so much to learn about.

Our time spent in the hills

2011-06-02T12:57:00.000-07:00

I days in the hills were very laid back and enjoyable. I just wish the days leading up to our trips were not so stressful. But maybe the stress makes the relaxing even more enjoyable.
We got into the area a whole day before our friends so we spent the first night camping alongside of the hubby's parents. The little man even spent the night with them in their trailer.
In the morning we hooked back up and drove the 10 miles or so to our friends property.
The weather was so iffy that one minute the sun was out and the next it was dumping. I tried the set the littles up outside for lunch but almost before they eat there first bite the rain was back.
Between the showers they were able to explore the outdoors just the two of them before there friends showed up.

The small pieces of wood in the wood pile made for nice building blocks.
On Saturday we headed into town for Packwood days. The streets are transformed into a giant flea market. And not flea market is complete without fair food.

We found a few items at the sales but nothing amazing. Of course the hubby found lawn equipment. I come home with a few cook books.
Its always fun to look even if we dont buy anything. Plus the littles have fun hanging out with their friends.
On Sunday when the hubby went back into town the little man ended up being naughty. Him and his friend found a pair of scissors and even though they are 4 and 5 years old they both thought it would be fun to cut their jeans and hair. I am just thankful that I checked on them when I did since the little lady was in the trailer with them and who knows what could of happened then. So the little man is now sporting a new hair cut.

Also on Sunday one of the families there decided to bring down a whole truck load of snow for the kids to play in. How many kids get to play in the snow in the end of May in 55 degree weather? The little lady had a few issues of falling on it but other than that fun was had by all.

All in all we had a great time in the hills.
Hopefully now I can get back into the groove if things before our next trip.

Lost in the hills

2011-05-31T21:10:00.000-07:00

Our family has been lost in the hills for the past six days.

It was only the past six days that our family was off in the hills but I feel like I have been there for weeks. My head is just lost in the clouds somewhere.
More pictures and stories from our camping trip to come... right now I am off to bed... being lost can really be draining.

The little mans day

2011-05-17T21:58:00.000-07:00

Today my little man turned four.
We started off the day when he joined me in my bed at 745am. I think he was just so excited about it being his birthday that he just could not sleep any more. This was probably one of the best parts of the whole day. It brought me back to when he was a little baby and we would lay in bed til 10am most days just soaking up each other.
We got to lay in bed for a little while before the little lady started calling my name.
Last night before we went off to sleep the little man and I made chocolate dipped pretzels to share with his friends after play to learn.
So when he got up we had to try them again to make sure that they were still yummy.
We just melted up some natural chocolate chips and dipped Trader Joe's honey wheat pretzels in to the chocolate. Put them on some wax paper and let them dry.
All his friends and their mamas enjoyed them.
Today was a beautiful day so we were able to play at the park and go for a walk up to the library and the store.
When I asked the little man what he would like for his birthday dinner he replayed 'pizza and hot dogs.' There was only one place I could think of that we like to eat at that has that combo, so we had dinner at Costco. There were a few things I needed to pick up there also.
You cant have a pirate birthday party without Pirate Booty.
I also decided last night that it would be fun to knit all of the kids pirate patches. I dont know why I come up with these crazy ideas. I guess I like to be stressed. So on top of getting the whole house clean by Sunday I now decided that I am going to knit up 20 or so pirate patches. Why!?!
They are very cute though.

I am using the scarvy eye patch pattern on Ravelry. The only thing that I have going for me is that they knit up really fast. I think that it took me all of 30 minutes last night to make one.
So one down 19 more to go.
The little man has now decided that he is no longer a baby since he is four. But in my eyes he will always be my baby.
***Sorry about being MIA for a week and the lack of photos in the posts. The little lady is working on her top molars so that is really disrupting my sleep lately. I dont know why but some days I take lots of pictures and other I take none but its getting them on the computer that is the hardest part. So then I just end up resorting to the ones that are on the phone. Not the greatest but better than nothing. Maybe things will get better, one can only hope.

Oh what a day

2011-05-10T22:22:00.000-07:00

Next week is the last week of play to learn before the long summer break. We will be celebrating it with a dance party and little get together after to celebrate the little mans birthday. He is very excited. He wants to make chocolate dipped pretzels to have as a treat.
I am looking forward to a break from play to learn. I know that we are not forced to go but it so much fun to see all of our friends every week and play together. But after today I think a break will be nice.
I spend 95% of the class picking her up off of the tables. She has learned that the 'good' toys are up at the table. She does not want to just do the table activity once but she wants to do it the whole time. She also cant just sit in the chair she has to be up on the table.
On top of all the table climbing she also managed to break the glass canning jar her snacks were in. ERRR. Before I knew what was going on glass was all over the floor. I normally dont let her walk around with jars but this all happened so quick. Jars drop at home all the time and dont break but today was just my lucky day.
This afternoon the sun decided to come out.
We went for a short walk and played with some friends for a little while and then we made it home just as the hubby was pulling into the driveway.
We hopped into the truck with him and joined him as he mowed two lawns. I had dinner all planned but instead we had pizza and pop. I guess every once and a while we are aloud to be spontaneous and eat junk food, right?
One of the lawns that the hubby mows is his Grandmas. The littles had a blast running around playing 'tag'.

For the longest time the little man would say 'tazer it' instead of 'tag your it'. (Yup thats my son.) He has just started saying 'tag your it'. I never corrected him cuz I dont think he would of believed me and it was really cute.

He did end up helping her up after this picture was taken and we had a nice talk about playing more carefully. The little lady was not fazed much by the push. She was right back up and running as soon as she brushed her hands off. (Thats my girl)
It felt like spring today. Sunshine, bare feet, fresh cut grass, and family fun.

Today 05/04/11

2011-05-04T22:32:00.000-07:00

We were awaken to the beautiful sunshine this morning. To bad the hubby is not feeling so hot. I dont know if it is a cold or allergies but either way he is not feeling so good. He even called in sick and spent most of the day in bed.
The littles and I got up and got ready for a play date. The weather was so nice we decided to walk the 10 blocks. I was not so worried about the walk there but more worried about the walk home.
If you dont know our small town is a large hill. Our house is just about on the top. So for me to walk to this play date it was all down hill there but than on the way home I was pushing a double stroller and two kids (50+ lbs) up the hill. But I made it, and it felt good.
The little lady fell asleep on the walk home and moved into her bed without even waking. And to my surprise she took a 3 hour nap. It was nice. While she was napping the little man decided to crawl into bed with the hubby and they both took naps also.
So I had the whole quiet house to my self for a good hour and a half.
So while everyone napped I sewed a Mei Tai for a friend. I just loved how it turned out.

I think that I am going to have to sew myself another one. They are just too cute.
I used it a lot when the little lady was smaller but then for some reason I now just always reach for my Ergo. I like the Ergo but its just not nearly as cute as the Mei Tai or as soft or made with as much love.
First I have to get thought my large pile of items that need to be sewn and than maybe I can sew me something... oh wait.. than I need to go through my knitting pile.
Why cant there just be a few more hours in the day?

Panties

2011-04-28T21:36:00.000-07:00

I got asked the question today 'Is she (referring to the 13 1/2 month old little lady) potty training?'
I had to stop and think for a little while. I have been ECing for over a year now and I guess I dont really think of it as potty training I think if it more as just a part of my life. It has become second nature. After she nurses I offer the potty, when she wakes from her nap I offer the potty, when she starts grabbing herself I offer the potty. Doesnt everyone?
I dont make a big deal about accidents. We just clean them up and go about our day.
So I answer with a smile 'Yes, she is potty trained.'
The little lady has been wearing panties for over two weeks now. Some days are filled full of accidents and other have none.. so I guess it keeps things fresh and exciting.
If I really feel like living on the edge I will leave the house with out a change of clothes. But most of the time I have a little backpack full of pants and underwear, just in case.
The hardest thing about the little lady wearing panties has been finding pants that fit her. Before her cloth diaper held up her pants very nicely and now with out that extra padding they just fall right down. I guess that the price that I have to pay for ECing.
Last nigh the little lady woke up just after 9pm. I could hear her saying 'Ma.' I went in to check on her. I picked her up and started rocking her. She started telling me that she needed to poo by starting to push (many times she will use the ASL sign for poop, but I guess not when she is half asleep). I asked her if she needed to go and she shook her head yes.
She then sat on her little potty on the counter in the bathroom and pooed. She was so cute half asleep leaning over and laying her head on my chest and wrapping her arms around my back.
It was so nice to just wipe a bottom than having to change a poopy diaper in the middle of the night.
Yay for Elimination Communication.

The little lady helping her dolly go potty

Better late than never

2011-04-28T11:57:00.000-07:00

So I just got around to editing and going through our Easter egg hunt pictures last night.
I was already to post them and than the little lady woke up wanting to poo.. so that was the end of that idea. For some odd reason she slept really bad last night and now I am just kind of in a fog today. That kind of come with the job title of being a mom doent it. Anyway on to egg hunt pictures.

Before the hunt started the littles thought it would be a great time to pick flowers and there were lots to chose from.

The weather was amazing. I want to say that it was in the 70's. I even ended up with a red neck.

The little lady decided to start the egg hunt before everyone else. She just slipped under the caution tape and found herself an egg.

When it was time to start she was not sure about the eggs. At first she thought that they were balls so she started throwing them.

With help from the whole family pretty soon her little basket was over flowing.

There were so many eggs in the first timers hunt that were were tossing them over the tape into the 3 and under hunt.

The little man knew just what to do when it was his turn to hunt.

He has done this a few times before. (you can see the posts here, here and here)

The egg hunt post from last year.

Until next year Easter eggs.

This moment

2011-04-22T16:35:00.000-07:00

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. -SouleMama

2011-04-20T21:03:00.000-07:00

I think that the sun is just pulling all of the energy out of the littles.

Both were sound asleep by 7:30 tonight.
I am not complaining just still in shock a little by my quiet evening.
There is so much I should of done but nothing got done. Why is it that sleeping babies feel so amazing in your arms? I just did not want to put her down. With the little man sleeping soundly next to us was just the icing on the cake. I just wanted to curl up with them and sleep the night away.
I know in just a blink of an eye the littles will be all grown. They are already getting so big.
Tomorrow the little man will be riding the bus to school for the first time. He is very excited but I think that I might just cry. He is so little and the bus is so big (even though it is a just a little bus). Hopefully we dont have any big battles in the morning and he can make it to the bus on time. I can just hear him now freaking out because he missed the bus. My goal is to be ready ten minutes before the bus is to arrive so that there is no way that he misses it.
The little lady has now learned to climb up onto the kitchen chairs and the dining room chairs. So I pulled out the booster chair for her to use every one and a while. She seems to enjoy sitting in it as long as there is food in front of her. I have not found a chair that the little lady can not climb or squirm out of.

Spring is in full bloom

2011-04-18T21:22:00.000-07:00

And we have been soaking it up.
We did get stuck in an April shower on our walk up to the grocery store but nothing too bad. It feels great to be able to get out for a walk everyday.
I have been doing some spring cleaning around the house and we are planning on having a garage sale next weekend. Our sale pile keeps growing everyday. I just cant wait to get all of this 'stuff' out of my house and hopefully it wont make it back in.

Color my world

2011-04-12T20:52:00.000-07:00

I made the little man a journal to draw and write in.

Today I asked him to draw what he would like to grow in our garden.

He drew a carrot, lettuce, an eggplant and some soil.

Well he is in luck, all those items will hopefully be growing in our garden soon.

After his garden drawings he wanted to do some writing.

He has learned how to spell a few three letter words with the help of the word wammer. All on his own he learned off and cat. Both words are located on the word wammer but he hunted for the letters on the fridge and put them in the correct order.

I also helped him spell cop because I knew that he would like it. After we put the letters for cop in the word wammer he then wrote the letters in his journal.

The little lady wanted to color with us also.

I think most of her drawings ended up on her hand.

Weekending- Boys only

2011-04-10T21:18:00.000-07:00

The little man and the hubby had a boys weekend.
They packed up the trailer and they were off to the hills.

Their weekend was filled with lots of boy activities.

Gas guzzling construction equipment.

Fishing.

Guns.

And quads.

I think that the boys had a great weekend.

Cooking and eating

2011-04-09T21:15:00.000-07:00

I have a love/hate relationship with cooking.
I know that it is something that I want to do as a wife and mother but it can be draining. Maybe I made it that way by putting eating healthy way up on my list of things that I find important in life.
Its hard if not imposable to eat healthy without cooking. I mean I guess I could stock my freezer full of Kashai and Amy's frozen meals but I dont have the money nor desire to do that. Then there is all the waste from the packaging but I am not going into that right now.
So ~~until~~ unless our family decides to go on a raw food/ vegan diet, I am going to have to cook.
Sometimes I get adventurous and try new recipes but most of the time I will stick to the basics.
Cooking with the littles under toe is both fun and challenging.
The little man can be a big help.

The little lady on the other had is not as helpful yet. She tries but most of the time she ends up helping by getting on my back in the Ergo.

She is still in the action but not right in it.
There has been a few times when I have been cooking dinner and she will some in dragging the Ergo behind her wanting to get up, snuggle and help.
But the best part of cooking is getting to eat.

A hubby post

2011-04-07T08:43:00.000-07:00

I interrupt this post with an announcement.
My point and shoot camera has been found and you will never guess where it was hiding?
Did you guess?
Are yo you ready for the answer?
It was in my closet and guess who found it? The little man. I am guessing that the person that found it was also the person who put it there in the first place but I still gave him a big hug and kiss when he appeared with it last night.
On a side note none of the pictures in this post were taken with it but I am still very happy it was found.

Back to my post about my hubby.
When the hubby got layed-off two years ago he started mowing lawns. Because he started mowing lawns he started buying used lawn equipment. And because used equipment did not always run right he learned how to do small engine repair.

So now he does not just fix his stuff he also fixes friends.

It normal for our garage to have 3 or 4 lawn mowers, 4 or more weed eaters and an edger or two in it at various levels of being put back together.

The hubby has come across some good deals. Sometimes he will keep the item. Other times he gets it running and sells it for a profit.

His motto is 'Preventive maintenance.'

Thanks hubby for getting your hands dirty.
And for having a birthday this week. I know that you just think that its another day but its not. Its your day. We love you.

Monster post

2011-04-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

Story and drawing thanks to the little man.

This is my green monster.
He likes to eat grass and fruit. That's monster food
He lives in the woods and his mother lives in the water. He is a good swimmer. He jumps in the water (splash) and goes all the way to the bottom and hits his head (bonk).
When he grows up he will be a big monster.
He wears pants, socks, underwear, boots, shoes, jeans, shirt and a coat. He has a little tail.
His friend is a monkey.
Monkeys have long tails.

Weekend- highs and lows

2011-04-03T21:06:00.000-07:00

High- Had a great dinner on Friday with my parents and kids.
Low- The little lady came down with pink eye on Friday.
High- Breast milk has been known to clear it up.
Low- I am still waiting for the breast milk power to start working.
High- Spent most of Saturday hanging out in our Pjs.
Low- Misplaced my point and shoot camera sometime on Saturday afternoon.
High- It did not rain too much on Saturday.
Low- But it just had to start raining just as I went to pull out the BBQ.
High- My Kindle is not broken, just refreshing.
Low- I still have not found my point and shoot camera.
High- Both kids were out by 8pm thanks to our fun filled weekend.

Our bathroom

2011-03-30T21:43:00.000-07:00

Next to our kitchen, our bathroom gets used the most in our house. It may only be something like 3'x8' but it gets used, a lot.
It gets used for playing in.

A few months ago this was the little lady's favorite room to play in. We would have to keep the door closed so she would not play in the toilet. Yuck.
Now she will still go over to the toilet and bang on the lid but thats one of her ways of telling me that she need to go potty.
The toilet paper is still one of her favorites. As soon as she sits down on the potty the reaches for it. I have tried keeping the roll off but the little man gets upset when there is no TP on the holder.
The little man enjoys playing in the sink. He will fill it half full and 'wash' it. 80% of the water stays in the sink.
He also thinks that it is funny to drink 'sink' water. Most of the time he drinks water from our fridge, so he thinks that the water from the sink is a different kind of water. Silly, silly boy.
Just like most bathrooms out there we use ours for bathing.

We also use it for the obvious.

It would be nice if it was a little bigger, never smelled like pee and was self cleaning. But since none of those things will ever happen we will just keep using it the way that it is.

Lunch with the hubby

2011-03-29T14:33:00.000-07:00

Most days the littles and I like to go up and have lunch with the hubby.
I have really enjoyed not having to have a lunch packed for the hubby before he leaves for work in the morning. He does not leave early but it one less thing to do as soon as I get up in the morning.
Most days lunch is just leftovers from dinner or a sandwich. Today lunch was leftover chicken and brown rice and PB and J sandwich's on fresh made bread.
The littles enjoy having lunch with the hubby also. But I have noticed over the past week or so its not as enjoyable for me. The main reason is because the little lady is always wondering off, climbing the stairs or getting into something.
Most of the time the little lady is hungry also. I cant just give her some food because she ends up walking around with it leaving a trail everywhere she goes. I dont need to create more work for the the hubby. So I end up holding her and giving her bites of my food.
I really enjoy holding her and I know real soon she will be too big to be held but holding her when she wants down is like wrestling a soapy alligator. No joke.
She is so strong that I get a full upper body work out in just a few minutes. I have to stand because if I sit it givers her the advantage and she will use her legs also and climb right out of my arms onto the table.
By the time I get home I am ready for a nap. Good thing most of the time she is also.
After we are all done eating comes the fun part. Most days the gym is empty and the littles can run or play basketball and other days the hubby might have the dollies or the lift out and it is time for some rides.
The little lady will go climb right into the dolly and sit nicely waiting for someone to push her around.

Why is it that she can sit so still here but not during lunch?!?

I was just telling the hubby the other day that we need to go have a picnic as a family and the little man reminded me that we get to have a picnic with daddy at work. You are so right little man. I hope that you remember these wonderful little times we share as a family when you are big and grown.

Sunshine, seeds and a salamander

2011-03-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was beautiful.

I walked the mile and a half to pick up the little man from school. It was tough but I made it and I will do it again (I do feel the burn today).
Then we walked over to the park to play with some friends. When we go home the littles still wanted to play outside so we did, even though I just wanted to sit down and give my feet a rest.
It was so warm that the little lady ran around diaper free.

She enjoyed watching her brother explore but when he started having 'lots' of fun she just had to join in.

{I just love the flip flops on wrong feet}

The wonderful weather got me really thinking about all of the seed packets that I have that need to be planted.

So today we went over to the lake house and I was able to start some seeds in the greenhouse. I planted tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. I have never grown eggplant before, so this is a first for me. I dont think that I have even ever ate it before.

I dont really know much about gardening at all. Everything I have learned just from talking to people and reading this site.
Next week my Holistic moms group will be chatting about gardening but I knew I had to get these few seeds started now (they should of been started a few weeks ago). I am hoping next week that I will have a little more knowledge about this subject.
While over at the lake I got to show the little what a salamander looks like. Neither one of the littles were very interested. I thought it was cool.

Its spring. I am so happy.

Weekending- 03/19/11

2011-03-21T16:22:00.000-07:00

Saturday was beautiful.
The day started out with lots of wonderful sunshine. We just had to get out of the house and soak up some vitamin D.

So the littles and I went for a walk.
The evening sky was filled with a huge moon. (I tried to capture it but no such luck.) But the hubby was able to capture this photo inside as I rocked the little lady to sleep with the watch full eye of her big brother.

I could not of planned for a better start and finish to our day.

Guack-a-rolly

2011-03-17T21:40:00.000-07:00

We all got dressed this morning in our green shirts.

The little man has two St. Patties day shirts but he did not want to wear either because neither were green. So he chose to wear his big brother shirt that I made for him over a year ago to wear when the little lady was born.
The little lady sported a shirt that the little may wore when he was younger. It says its not easy being green. I have always loved this shirt and I am so happy to be able to see it on the little lady. It reminds me of the 'little' little man.
Tomorrow we are going to celebrate with corned beef and cabbage but I still felt the need to make a green snack, guacamole or in the little mans words 'guack-a-rolly.'
*Last years green treat. I had fun looking back and just had to share =} WOW how the kids have grown!!

My Guack-a-rolly recipe
2 ripe avocados, diced
1 (about 1/4 cup) dollop of plain yogurt (or sour cream)
1 diced tomato
seasonings to taste (chili powder, garlic powder, sea salt, and pepper)
Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

I served it along with semi- homemade corn tortilla chips.

Semi- homemade corn tortilla chip recipe
Package of corn tortillas
Olive oil
Sea salt
Preheat oven to 350*
Rub olive oil on both sides of the tortillas. Place in a baking stone and cut into 8 triangles. Sprinkle with sea salt and bake for 10- 15 minutes until crispy and the edges start to curve.
Cool, dip and enjoy.

05/16/11

2011-03-16T22:04:00.000-07:00

For the first time in weeks I remembered to take some pictures with something other than my phone.

I dont really know how she does it but the little lady has learned to hold her pee. Today it was for five hours!! I took her to the potty at least 3 times during that 5 hour stretch and every time she refused to go. So when she finally woke up from her nap and still had a dry diaper I knew the pee had to be coming soon. And it did, in the potty where it belongs.
She has been doing a great job of telling (signing) when she needs to go. Some days she only goes through one diaper and others its a little more. Soon we will be over this hump and onto another one.

The little man and I are not butting heads as often. We still get frustrated with each other but we are learning how to work with our different personalities.

He learned today that he needs to tell me that he is tired (or just go lay down) before he starts whining non stop and I start getting frustrated at the situation. If he is tired than by all means take a nap but if you are just going to start whining because you are board or did not get you way, thats when I start to loose it.

Its getting better. I am learning also.

We were even able to play outside on this beautiful evening. Having more light in the evenings is so nice. I am looking forward to spring. This March has been so windy and rainy. Hopefully its true if March comes in like a lion it better go out like a lamb... I am ready for the lamb.

Life

2011-03-15T21:07:00.000-07:00

I have been having a hard time finding a time to blog. It not that I am super busy right now, it just that I feel sometimes that I have nothing to blog about.
But really I have lots to blog about.
I started this blog to have a place to write down the things going on in my day to day life, so that I dont forget the little things.
Then why do I feel the need to only blog about the bigger things?
Since I have not been blogging much lately I know that there are going to be many memories (big and small) that I am not going to remember one, two or more years down the road.
So I have come to the realization that if I want to have the memories saved, I have to type them. So even if they are not an amazing story or filled full of beautifully edited pictures I am going to write about my life. It may be a little boring sometimes but feel free to keep reading along. This is my live and I am loving it!

Awwww

2011-03-09T10:44:00.000-08:00

I have just been in aw of my kids lately. Its not that I am not always in aw of them it that I have just really started to take the time to notice it.
Since the little lady's birthday party on Sunday I just really started to notice how much they are growing up and how fast. (A big thank you to all of my ~~crazy~~ wonderful family that came out and celebrated with us. We are truly blessed to have every one of you in our lives. A picture post from the day to come, hopefully.)
Since her birthday the little lady has decided that she can now walk down stairs.

She can not but she thinks she can. We only have two steps in our house that lead into our sunken living room. She fell down them many times before learning to turn around and crawl down bottom first. But I guess now since she is walking all the time, and so close to running, the crawling is no longer needed. I dont know how many more falls it will take before she figures out how to do it, but we will see.

She has also learned how to put toys away, climb up into the learning tower, put on our shoes, sign poop (and then walk to the potty and go), flush the toilet, throw things away in the trash (not always a good thing), and climb into her rocking chair and rock.

The little man is just getting so creative. He can turn anything into something fun.

On Monday we were up at the church and he found a princess wand. With in minutes it was no longer a wand it had become a telescope, than it became a gun, a drill, a jack hammer and even a fishing poll before he was off to explore something else.

He come home from school on Friday very excited to show me that he could write his name. Up until last week he was only writing the first letter and now the whole thing.

Really, kids when did you get so big!?!

Happy birthday little lady

2011-03-05T05:33:00.000-08:00

It has been a great trip around the sun, little lady.

Today 2/24/11

2011-02-24T19:47:00.000-08:00

We got some snow last night.
Not much, but enough to sit in.

Enough to eat.

Enough to throw.

Enough to enjoy.

Snow!?!

2011-02-23T14:44:00.000-08:00

My littles are waiting for the snow to come.

We got a light dusting this afternoon but not much. The weather men and women are saying there will be more snow, so we will see. Its not like they have never been wrong before, right!?!

The little man went to the farm

2011-02-18T12:53:00.000-08:00

The little man went to a farm, EI EI O

And on that farm was lots of produce, EI EI O (Our new word for the week)

With a chomp, chomp here and a crunch, crunch there. Here a chomp there a crunch every where a chomp and crunch. The little man went to the farm, EI EI O.

And on that farm he met a friend, EI EI O.
With a giggle, giggle here and a giggle giggle there. Here a giggle, there a giggle, every where a giggle, giggle.
The little man went to the farm EI EI O.

And on that farm he found some puddles.

With a stomp, stomp here and a splash, splash there. Here a stomp, there a splash, everywhere a stomp and splash. The little man went to the farm EI EI O.

And on that farm there was a tractor.

With a dig, dig here and a lift, lift there. Here a dig, there a lift, every where a dig and lift.

The little man went to the farm EI EI O.

That's the way the story goes. We also met some animals along the way.

(This cat followed us almost the whole way around the farm)

(This goat must like to get its picture taken. As soon a I walked over to the fence it came up closer. Or maybe it thought I was going to give it a treat?)

(This was the little lost chicken. On the other side of the farm were all the rest)

Just another day

2011-02-14T21:13:00.000-08:00

Today was filled full of hugs, kisses and love.

Just like all of our wonder-filled days we live.

Camera tricks

2011-02-08T20:37:00.000-08:00

My little left handed artist has been at it again.
This time is not a drawing of me. Lets see if you can tell what he drew.

What do you see?
If you said motorcycle than you were right on. He did a good job if I can say so myself. To bad once again it was on his dry erase board. Oh well I guess that is what cameras are for.
I have been playing around with my camera a little bit more lately. It may be old(er) technology but it can still take good pictures. Editing them is part of the fun also.

I edited this picture to give it the fish eye effect without spending the hundreds of dollars on the real thing. I just love the way it turned out. I am warning you all now that you might see many more fish eye photos to come.

Its a new week

2011-02-06T21:17:00.000-08:00

Some how I got lost in last week. I guess its a good thing to do every once in a while but it makes a very boring blog for all of you to read.
Here is a quick recap of what last week involved; a few hair cuts, many loads of laundry, and lot and lots of great family time.
It a new week now, so we are starting fresh.
The littles got baths. They both love to splash around in the water but neither one likes to get their hair washed.

It was so nice to curl up with both littles in the rocking chair and snuggle until both were sound asleep. It hard for me to believe that in less than a month the little lady will be a year old and even harder for me to believe that the little man is almost four. WOW!!
Not only do my kids get to start off the week clean but so does my sink.

This is the first time in ~~forever, months~~, a long time since there has not been one dish in my sink. It feels good.
Its also nice knowing that there is a large batch of bread dough sitting in my fridge just waiting to be cooked tomorrow.
Its a new week.

This moment- Popcorn

2011-01-28T10:13:00.000-08:00

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember- SouleMama

These shoes were made for walking

2011-01-26T21:10:00.000-08:00

On Friday the little lady decided to start walking.
I knew it was coming but I was still a little shocked to she her do it. She is only 10 1/2 months old. The little man did not walk until almost 13 months. I knew that she would be early since she started crawling at 4 months. So I guess 6 months of crawling is enough.
I find my self saying dumb things like 'She is walking more and more every day.' Well... ya, that is what they do. Its better than walking less and less.She started off just taking a few steps before falling and now she can make it half way across a room.
She still does lots of crawling. She prefers the bear crawl to the hand and knees but sometimes her little feet get going too fast and she face plants. I am still surprised that her little feet can hold her up. She is still wearing her 0- 6 month leather shoes. They are getting a little snug but the next size up are big and she can take them off. The weather is starting to get a little warmer so she has been able to go shoeless in the house more.
Today was even nice enough to play outside.

She gets so bummed when the little man gets to go outside and play with out her so today was her turn.

My house at 11:04am

2011-01-20T11:31:00.000-08:00

Its quiet right now. The little lady is sleeping, the little man is off at school and the hubby is working. So that leaves me in in the quiet.
Well I guess it is not all quiet. My fingers are make noise as I am typing and in the kitchen you hear the sound of beans boiling. If you listen very carefully beyond the noises in the house you can hear cars driving down the street.
The heater just kicked on so that kind of drowns out all the other noises.
We have decided to do a Daniel fast for 10 days. (Eating only food that started out as a seed or is a seed and has not been polluted by man or fermented.)
We are on day 2. All is going well.
Its a very exciting experience for our family. We are very excited to see what comes out of it.
This is a big jump for the hubby. To not have meat in his meals and no sugar. I am very proud of him. He is eating new foods and learning that his body can do with less.
I may be surprised it may be harder for me than I think.
I am very excited to see where God can takes us through this experience.

Tomorrow is a new day

2011-01-18T21:34:00.000-08:00

That pretty much sums up my past two days.
I may be exhausted, worn out, drained and dragging but I am still living life and loving it.
In the words of the little man 'peace', until next time.

Five randoms from this week

2011-01-13T20:29:00.000-08:00

- Its mid January and our tree is still up. The little man and I took off all the ornaments after we got back from our camping trip. So for almost two weeks our tree has been standing in our living room naked.
- The little lady is climbing and standing ALL the time but she is not walking yet. Sometimes I try and encourage her to walk and than I wake up and say 'what am I doing.' I feel like I am going to miss her first steps unless I give her a little push when I am looking. She is just so darn independent, so she will do it when she wants to even if I am not ready.

- One of my goals for 2011 was to stay up on my dishes. I am doing better, not great, just better at it. There always seem to be a few stragglers hanging out in my sink that just did not seem to find there way into the dish washer. The little man has been helping me unload while the little lady tries her hardest to help me load by standing on the dishwasher top, splashing in the water and throwing thing out and onto the floor.

- We are now a two Kindle family. I used my Christmas money to get a used (four months old) 3rd generation 3G white one. The hubby could not keep his hands off it so he ended up getting a black one last night with his Christmas money. I like it. I am a little bummed that I cant check out books from the library onto it. So I will still be reading many paper books. I guess I know what I will be spending my Swagbucks on, Amazon gift cards. At my rate I should be able to get a book or two a month for free. (If you are interested in doing Swagbucks sign up here. It is a great, easy, fun way to earn free money or gift cards just for searching.) Sorry to sound like a sales women but just wanted to let everyone know (or reading) that Swagbucks is a great way to get free money and who does not like free money!?!
- My house is so quiet right now. Both kids are sleeping, the hubby is gone and I have no idea where my phone is. I think that I might just have to curl up in bed and read.

A letter to my daughter

2011-01-07T22:29:00.000-08:00

Dear Miss little lady,
Four o'clock in the morning is not really the best time to have to go to poop. Morning is a great time to go but AFTER the sun is up. I dont mind taking you to the potty you just have to tell me. But sometimes when I am have asleep I have a hard time listening so tell me loud and clear.
I understand that there is so much going on right now. You are starting to say words and communicate with us, you are learning to climb everything and you are very close to walking but still there has to be some down time once in a while. I am not as young as you so I dont have as much energy as you and I enjoy sleep. One day you will enjoy sleeping also. Maybe that day will come soon but until then I guess there is coffee.
Sleep well tonight little girl.
Lots of love,
Mama

{This moment}- Mama

2011-01-07T11:33:00.000-08:00

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember -Amanda Soule

Deep in the woods of Washington

2011-01-03T21:42:00.000-08:00

Far into the foot hills of the Olympic Mountains, hidden beneath all the trees lives a great woodland creature.

It is not a myth.
Some people might call him big foot or Sasquatch but not me, I like to call him my brother.

Since we were only staying a short drive away from my brother, we decided to stop by unannounced. He was very excited to see us and show us around the 120 plus acre commune that he now proudly calls home. It is a beautiful place surrounded by trees, ponds and animals. We enjoyed walking the trails. We never knew what we might find around the next corner.

There are many little houses built all over the property. Each one built by hand.

And each one unique.

This is the place my brother calls home.
It was a home like the little man had never seen before. After crawling in the small door it was really very spacious inside.

In the middle he has a wood stove that he uses for heat and some cooking.
I am so glad that we where able to do this surprise visit.

Until next time brother.

New years

2011-01-01T12:58:00.000-08:00

Ready or not 2011 is here.
I am so happy to be starting the new year off finally feeling better.
We are enjoying a little R and R with the family.

2011 I am ready for you.

Phone post fail

2010-12-25T21:43:00.000-08:00

I guess this is what your post look like when you do your first and last ever post via phone.
? l6? ^?Au8(?f???9?L ??t??N ?A????v?At?? ???n2??>?? t9Lv)??7??>??.

That is not what I typed at all.
It went more along the lines of...
I am going to call it a night. I am not feeling so hot and tomorrow is a big day. I have cin. rolls to make and lots of family to see. Hopefully the little lady lets me sleep. That would be a great Christmas gift.
So I have a large cup of peppermint tea and I am going to crawl into bed and hopefully wake up all rested, with out a burning throat and foggy head.
Goodnight.
December 23, 2010

And to make things even worse I started getting texts from blogger about 11pm saying that my post was successful. I wrote and sent this post at 9pm.
Blogger could not just send me one text they had keep sending me texts every 15 minutes until I text them back to STOP.
By this time I was already out on the couch trying to go to sleep with a very unhappy little lady. Once I finally got her to sleep I grabbed my computer and checked my blog to see what my post looked like. All I saw wasnot one but two post of all those question marks and numbers. I quickly erased them so that no one would think that I completely lost it.
Then come to find out today when I finally had a few minutes to check my blog there was another one posted on there.
No thank you mobile blogging. You dont seem to work for me.
I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

Love love love

2010-12-21T21:17:00.000-08:00

So since my last post on Friday the little man and I have started tossing throwing up also. Now four days later we are all feeling much better.
And since I am already 4 days behind on the 12 days of Christmas I am just going to have to call it quits for this year.
I ended up taking the littles to the doctor yesterday to get checked out. The little man woke up with red, watery eyes and a cough. The little lady had a rash covering her chest and still had diarrhea. The results... we have Adenovirus. Its just as contagious as the common cold but each child can have different symptoms.

The little man has been much better today. He is still really mellow but his eyes are not nearly as red anymore.
My love for Hylands is growing. I found some tablets for Sniffles'n Sneezes. The are homeopathic (like all of Hylands products) and they did an amazing job at helping his cough and red eyes. I think that he still likes the Hylands cough syrup better but the tablets seam to work better.

The little lady still has a rash and diarrhea. My love for Elimination Communication is growing also ( I did not know it could grow more but it has) since she has been sick. I have still had to change a good share of poopy diapers but she has made it to the potty many more times. I dont think I would want to see how red her bum bum would be if she never made it to the potty.

My one more growing love is for soaked oatmeal.
If you haven't ever tried it, you need to.
All I do is soak some oats in some water over night in the fridge. When we up and ready for breakfast I just bring the oats to a boil and then I let it simmer for a minutes. Eat and enjoy.
This was the first food that we could keep down and it was amazing. I have some soaking in the fridge for breakfast tomorrow.
Maybe my shirt that I wore yesterday and today had a little something to do with the love, love, love post.

I am still living my life and loving it... no matter how unglamorous it maybe.

5th and 6th day of Christmas

2010-12-17T19:59:00.000-08:00

On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me five piles of throw up... four little hand prints, three Amazon gift cards, two orange purees, and one romantic date night.
I wont elaborate on this one. All I will say is the little lady is sick and I am filling my family full of vitamins and herbs so that none one else gets sick either.
On the 6th day of Christmas my true love gave to me six plus loads of laundry... five piles of throw up, four little hand prints... three Amazon gift cards, two orange purees, and one romantic date night.
Oh... the joys of all the laundry that comes along with being sick. Enough said.

4th day of Christmas

2010-12-15T20:29:00.000-08:00

On the 4th day of Christmas my true love gave to me four little handprints... three Amazon gift cards, two orange purees, and one romantic date night.

We got together with my friend who just happens to have two little one the same age as my littles. Four littles in one house equals lots and lots of entertainment.
The older boys had so much energy we had to come up with a ~~somewhat~~ structured activity. The conclusion baked hand print ornaments.
They turned our really cute. We decided to bake them for slower and longer so that they would not brown too much or crack. So we went with 200 degrees for an hour but they were still soft. So after bumping up the heat and flipping them over. They finally got done when it was time for us to leave. So I ended up leaving our hand prints there since they were much to hot to transport.
If you are looking for a great handmade Christmas gift these simple cute hand prints should fit the bill.

3rd day of Christmas

2010-12-14T17:28:00.000-08:00

On the 3rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me three Amazon gift cards... two orange purees and one romantic date night.
I dont think that I have ever talked about this here but just over a month ago I started using Swagbucks.
Swagbucks is a search engine and so much more. When you search sometimes (not every time) you can earn Swagbucks (FREE money). The Swagbucks can be used to buy many items in there store like gift cards.
So in the past month I have gained enough bucks to get three $5 Amazon gift cards. Just for doing what I always do plus answering the daily poll and doing a few surveys, I got $15 in Amazon gift cards and you could do it too. Just for using there tool bar you get a buck a day, its that easy.
I have heard from many that the best way to earn bucks is by having referrals. By getting people to sign up under you earn every search buck that they do until they reach 1,000.
If you are interested in signing up with Swagbucks please use this link and sign up under me. I would greatly appreciate it and you can start earning FREE money also.

1st and 2nd days of Christmas

2010-12-13T21:43:00.000-08:00

On the 1st day of Christmas my true love sent to me one romantic date night.
This weekend the hubby and I went out for dinner to celebrate six years of marriage. We had a gift card to a restaurant that we had never been before so we figured we should check it out.

We dropped the littles off at the in laws and off we went, just the two of us.

The atmosphere was nice but the food was just ok. We were very thankful that we had the gift card. I dont think that we will ever go there again but it was fun to try something new.

Afterwords we walked around downtown for a little while in the rain. We checked out a used bookstore but found nothing. Our night was cut short but that was fine. It was fun to get out just the two of us but I was glad to see these two when we got back.

On the 2nd day of Christmas my true love sent to me two jars of orange purees... and one romantic date night.

Tonight's dinner was not as fancy but much more tasty. I made Spaghetti pie with two different orange purees in it.

I started off with leftover spaghetti noodles and sauce but it could be easily made with fresh made pasta and sauce.

One cup shredded mozzarella cheese

One egg

One jar of squash baby food or half cup pureed squash

One jar of carrot baby food or half cup pureed carrots

Preheat over to 350
Put everything in a large bowl (leaving out half the cheese) and mix well. Spray pie pan (I had too much leftover spaghetti to fit in a pie pan so I used a 8X8 glass baking dish). Put mixture into the baking dish and top with leftover cheese bake for 30-40 minutes (I cooked mine for almost an hour because I like it extra crispy).

The hubby even had two helpings, the little lady like it... but the little man still did not want to eat. He will eat when he is hungry, right?

Proof that he does eat. Eating the heart shaped snognog (eggnog) french toast the other night.

Fails on Friday

2010-12-10T21:34:00.000-08:00

I can write a whole list of reasons for not posting very much on my blog lately but I am not going to. I am just going to start from today.

Today started out like any other Friday.
I dropped the little man off at school. He was very excited to wear his police coat and hat.

Kisses were exchanged and the little lady and I hoped back into the car. Instead of heading home we kept driving until we made it to Ikea.
We found a parking spot right away. I started gathering my items together and I noticed something was missing. My wallet. REALLY! I could not believe it. FAIL
I started thinking and I could picture in my head exactly where it is sitting at HOME. How am I going to get the Christmas gifts that I took this trip out here for?
Then a light bulb came on. I have some CASH in the car. I was very excited to see these crisp green bills.
I ended up having just enough for ALL of the items.
So maybe my Friday was not a total fail.

Can you guess who Santa is in this picture of the littles?

Did you guess?
Yes it is who you think it is.
The hubby.
The little man said tonight at dinner 'Daddy is Santa.' Yes little man the hubby does make a pretty good Santa.

Father daughter dance

2010-12-04T22:26:00.000-08:00

Last day of November

2010-11-30T16:51:00.000-08:00

I cant believe that in just a few short hours it will be December.
December is such a fun but busy month.
The hubby and I will be celebrating our 6th year of marriage, the little lady will turn 9 months old (sigh), we will be going on our first winter camping trip, we get to celebrate the wonderful holiday of Christmas and we will say goodbye to the year 2010.
There were so many things that I needed to do today but none were as important as spending some time with the littles.
So today we went on a magic adventure in our very own living room. We turned off all the lights in the house and switched on the Christmas tree.

We hunted for berried treasure and found a box full of treasures from Christmas's from years past.

Five or more years of Christmas cards. Sometimes its good to be a pack rat.

The littles had fun looking at all the pictures. The little man thought that it was fun to go hunting for people he knows in the pictures.

We played make believe. The little man drove the lift truck with daddy inside and the two of them put up all the Christmas light on our tree.

By now the little lady was getting tired from all of the fun play.

Until she finally gave in and the two littles napped peacefully under the twinkle of the Christmas tree lights.

And I was able to tip toe away and get a few of the house hold chores done.

Preparing for Christmas

2010-11-27T13:14:00.000-08:00

We have been busy around our house getting ready for Christmas. The little lady does not know what to think of all preparations. She keeps wanting to eat the lights on the tree.
I have been working on my Christmas cards and I wanted to share.

Red Revamped Christmas Card

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Turkey day 2010

2010-11-27T12:54:00.000-08:00

We started off our Turkey day with the breakfast of champions.

Turkey hand print cookies.

I came across this hand print cookie cutter at a garage sale this summer and I thought that it would make some cute turkeys. Mini chocolate chips for the eyes, M&M's for the beak and waddle and a little colored coconut flakes as the feathers.
Then we were off to my dads house for the family dinner.
The little man watched Toy Story 3 while the guys watched football.
My mom and I worked together in the kitchen and it would not be Thanksgiving with out a little mishap. This year it was just a few burnt marshmallows.

The little lady enjoyed her first Thanksgiving dinner also.

The little man did not want to eat a thing.

I am so thankful.

Snowed in cooking

2010-11-24T10:58:00.000-08:00

With all this fluffy white stuff on the ground just makes me want to spend all my time in the kitchen and not being able to run out to the store has made me be a little more creative in my cooking.
I dont measure when I cook so I am not the best person to write a recipe but here goes.

What you will need-
About 5 cups of soaked dried beans- I used 1 cup red beans, 1 cup black beans, 1 cup kidney beans and 2 cups of pinto beans. I did not remember to soak them over night so I quick soaked them in the morning. Canned beans would work also just omit the bean cooking step.
2 cans of tomato paste- any tomato product would work.
1 package of ground turkey- any ground meat would work or just omit the meat.
Lots of seasoning- Taco, chili powder, garlic, onion powder or even a little hot wing sauce all work great.
The ingredients that you dont tell the kids or the hubby that you put in the chili!
1/2 cup diced green bell pepper- I used frozen.
1/2 cup diced onion- I used frozen.
1 cup pureed carrots- I used two jars of carrot baby food. I started with one and then thought it needed more. Shredded carrots would work also just add them while the beans are cooking.

Start by cooking the beans in a large pot with about 12 cups of water over medium low heat until almost tender (about two hours). Once the beans are cooked add the two cans of tomato paste, the seasonings of your choice and the cup of carrot puree (or baby food). I also added a little more water but not too much because the hubby likes a thick chili (about 4 cups). I cooked them on medium low for a few hours until it the beans were nice and soft.
In a large skillet brown the meat along with the onion, green pepper and celery. Season with pepper if you like. Once everything is brown and tender add to the chili pot.
Let everything cook together for 20 minutes or so.
Serve with cornbread and a green salad.

I made this for Monday's dinner and Tuesday I served it over homemade macaroni and cheese and green beans. I dont think that I will use it in tonight's dinner but you never know. You can always put the extra chili in pint size canning jars and place in the freezer until the next time you are craving some Snowed in Chili.

Snow day

2010-11-23T10:30:00.000-08:00

It started snowing Sunday while this guy

was putting Christmas lights up at Church.
And it never really stopped snowing on Sunday.

My not so good attempt at getting a family snow picture.
Good thing I finished the little ladys snow hat just in time for her first snow.
I kind of followed this hat pattern. I wanted to use some worsted weight wool yarn that I had and also size 4 needles. So after two froggings I ended up with this hat. Its a little big (it even fits the little man) but it will do. I added a chin strap and bottom to help keep it on her head.
Monday it snowed most of the day and the littles spent some time outside enjoying it.

The day could not be complete with out a few snow balls.

Today is going to be a whopping 26 degrees. Brrrr. Even though its cold the sun is shining today and who knows how much longer the fluffy white stuff will be here so we are going to get outside and play.

Playing in the kitchen

2010-11-19T11:23:00.000-08:00

Most days I feel like I spend all day in my kitchen. Most of the time it is a good thing. I am not the greatest cook but I do enjoy making my family ~~mostly~~ healthy meals that we get to enjoy together. It it is even more fun now that the little man wants to help me. He climbs up into his learning tower and helps me cut celery or kneed dough or do whatever I need help with.

I have a sign in my kitchen that reads 'A messy kitchen is a happy kitchen.' That is very true about my kitchen. Most of the time my sink is full of dishes, the floor is littered with crumbs and you can hardly see my counters. Dont get me wrong having a clean kitchen makes me happy also but when my kitchen is messy I know that I just got done creating something that I hope my family will love.
We dont always just cook food in the kitchen. Some times we make play dough or paint or just splash in the kitchen sink.

The little lady even had her first taste of play dough this week in the kitchen.

We even have toys in the kitchen. The littles favorite is the leapfrog letter magnets. We have two of the toys that make the letter sounds and one that you use to create three letter words.
*Just a side note* WOW after seeing the prices of these items new I am really glad I did not buy them new. They are great toys dont get me wrong but 65 bucks just for the lower case letters is a little crazy. I got the two readers and the upper and lower case letters at a garage sale for 4 bucks and the word speller with a few letters at the thrift store for $2. If you are interested in these letters check used like Craigslist before buying new.
The little man is enjoying learning how to create different words. He thinks that it is really neat that we can spell mom, dad and cop. We even spelled arm and pit the other day and he thought that was real funny. The little lady just likes to chew on the letters and take them off the fridge.
And no matter how messy or dirty my kitchen floor is it always looks amazing in black and white pictures. Dont ya think?

Getting ready for Christmas

2010-11-13T13:44:00.000-08:00

41 days till Christmas.
Really!?!
I am bound and determined this year to send out Christmas cards unlike two years ago. So when I heard that Shutterfly was giving away free photo cards to those that blog about this amazing deal I knew that this deal was for me.
I first started using Shutterfly when I got a $20 gift card when I was pregnant with the little lady.
I have have spent hours looking over all the great holiday card styles that they have on there site.
I have not taken our Christmas photo yet this year but there are many styles to chose from for whatever style of picture I end up getting of our family.

I really like this one if I can end up getting a great picture of the four of us all looking at the camera.
There are also many others to choose from if one photo does not turn out the best and I choose to use more than one photo for the card.

They even have cards that give back.

When you choose this card or any of these 10% goes to the lung association.

Or if you like this card or these better 10% from it goes to the LIVESTRONG foundation.

There are so many choices to choose from that I am going to have a hard time picking the one that I feel is just right for our family.

So if you are interested in getting free Christmas cards also just click here and fill in the blanks and have fun creating.

The trail

2010-11-12T16:15:00.000-08:00

We were all in the playroom playing. The little man was sitting at his table playing legos and the little lady was chewing on toy on the floor. I got up to take care of some laundry.
From the time that it took me to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer the little lady had made it all the way down the hall. When she meet me I knew what she had done.
She had pooed.
Oh and did I forget to mention she was not wearing a diaper or pants.
So there was a nice trail coming from the pile that was left in the playroom, through the room and out the door. It was just like a slugs slime trail.
There was not a trail down the hall because she does not like to crawl on her knees on the hardwood. So she got up onto her feet and crawled that way all the way until I picked her up.
I stripped her down and got a bath going for her. Luckily the bathroom is right across the hall from the playroom so the little man watched her in the bath while I got to cleaning up the floor.
I am so thankful that I found the Seventh Generation carpet cleaner. It is amazing. It gets everything out of the carpet. It says that its active ingredient is hydrogen peroxide, so I am guessing that you could mix up your own very easily. I got this cleaner for an amazing price of $1.50 at Big Lots.
And speaking of home made cleaners, I made my own dishwasher soap this week also. I ran out of dishwasher soap this week but instead of running out to the store to get some I made some of my own. It was really easy to make, it cleaned pretty and it was super cheap. It is just equal parts borax and baking soda. That's it. Place a few table spoons in the soap dispencer in the dishwaher and press start.
I dont know if I will use the homemade dish washer soap everytime but I am glad that I learned how to make my own for the next time I run out of soap.

Rainy day fun

2010-11-09T20:49:00.000-08:00

The little man informed me today that he does not like the rain. I am sorry kid but it rains a lot here.
But the rain is good for this...

We have been trying to keep our rain filled days full and busy.
The little man is really getting into learning about letters so I picked up a alphabet poster today at the dollar store.
He has learned that every word starts with a letter. So after most words he will stop and ask me what letter does it start with. 'What letter does blanket start with?' What letter does car start with?' What letter does poo start with?'
He has also learned how to spell his name. He is still working on writing it but that will come soon.
We have been playing games together. We have a number of 'kid' games and he is just now getting the idea of taking turns and following directions.

It is so amazing to watch him learn.
** I had a couple of you ask what park we were at back in this post and it was Steel Lake park in Federal way. Sorry it took me so long to answer your questions.

Good morning Tuesday

2010-11-09T07:51:00.000-08:00

7:39am- I am writing this post as I sit in a quiet house, already showered, enjoying my hearty breakfast of leftover sloppy joes and coffee. 7:41am- Cue baby waking up and morning poo.
7:46am- The little lady is enjoying a banana and my food and coffee is getting cold so this blog post will have to wait till later. Life is calling my name.

The old become new

2010-11-04T11:46:00.000-07:00

Last week my plans changed so instead of getting together with some friend we went to the thrift store and I found this...

I was so excited about this find. It is a Learning tower. I was not really looking for one of these but for the price I could not pass it by. I paid $20 for it and just the night before I saw one on Craigs list listed for $180 but after doing a little research I found it at Costco for $175 but either way $20 was a great price.

The little man loves to stand in it and help me make dinner, bake and wash dishes. He even likes to eat his lunch in 'the tower'.

The little lady also got a new potty recently. One of my friends was no longer using her Baby Bjorn little potty so she passed it on to us.

The other little potties that we have are from Ikea. I like both of them but the Baby Bjorn potty is much easier for her to sit on all by herself.

Here is a video of the littles playing together with a sheet. Who knew that these 'old' items only needed these two kids to help bring them back to life.