Mom, the Tyrant

We don't always see eye to eye but this morning Kster and I have been getting along well. Which is why I was a little surprised when he informed me that he did not want me to go to Grandma's house for Christmas because he wanted to have fun.

News flash buddy. Grandma's not going o let you go commando either.

A commentary on my parenting?

Yesterday, being Thursday, meant I got to go through my children's Thursday folders. They are full of important notices from school, past schoolwork, and other school related pages. To be honest, its usually pretty dull. But, not yesterday!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of finding this treasure in my sons folder.

When I asked him to tell me about it he told me that it was a picture of him, throwing zombies off a mountain.  

And, this gem was found in my daughters folder. Last Friday her class dissected an eyeball. Apparently, they were also supposed to do a little write up of their experience. 

I swear that I never told her any of my squeamishness before the dissection. This is all her. 

Homemade Ornaments

We made ornaments!

I took the recipe from this site. Its only, cornstarch, baking soda and water.

I think it was a success!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

How are you feeling today?

Kster drew a picture. Can you see the smile and frown?

Ignore the drool...if you can

Here is the happiest baby on the planet. I think her only competition might be the quadruplets that got caught on video laughing at their dad but she is seriously happy a lot.

And look! She's sitting. All.by.herself. And of course, she's happy about it. What the camera doesn't catch is the fact that moments before she was eagerly trying to get the toy in front of her. I called out her name to take a picture. She looked up at me, lifted herself up with some amazing abs, smiled, and then when I put the camera down went right back to work on getting that toy.

Thankfulness

Overheard in the car on the way home from attempting to trot with turkeys.

Mster - I'm so hungry. I wish it was Thanksgiving.
Lster - it is Thanksgiving.
Mster - no the dinner part. Where we stuff ourselves.

So today I am grateful that my children do not have to know real hunger.

Happy Thanksgiving!

There's an app for that - potty traing edition

When discussing the currency factor of potty training my friend suggested the Huggies Potty Traing app. It's officially called Pull-ups Igo Potty.

I immediately loaded that puppy up and Kster has been on fire ever since. He loves the "stickers". He loves the games (they are vey basic but he doesn't care). And he loves the chance to use my iPad since I'm pretty strict about it being for me and not for the kids.

He hasn't had an accident since Saturday night. Hurray for finding the right currency!

Me with a perm...and a pogo ball

and awesome shorts

and a headband

and shoes without socks.

Look who's talking

More smiles and giggles

 

I love to see the Temple...

I just had to share this picture because I love it so much. Its my mom and her Uncle going through the open house of the Calgary Temple. 

Picking a Bale of Apples

We had a HUGE list of things we wanted to do over fall break and this day had to be a HUGE highlight. We went with some friends to an apple orchard and had the orchard to ourselves and picked till our hearts content. The kids had smiles on their faces the entire time.

She's All Smiles

I can't tell you how much and often this girl is smiling. We are all smitten.

Scary Men and Sugar O.D.s

Halloween has come and gone and here are some pics to show some good times at the Burrito household.

 Halloween night shot

Can you see the eager anticipation of running from house to house in their smiles?

Dressed up warm for a stroller nighttime nap.

Its always more fun to go trick or treating with friends and family.

I told Kster to draw a face on his pumpkin for me to cut out.

How was my interpretation? hahaha Mster was the trooper carving pumpkins this year. The boys gave up pretty quickly but she scooped out most of her gunk and started on Kster's too. I rewarded her by letting her carve her pumpkin all by herself. This picture was after the pumpkin carving and before our Church's trunk or treat.

Sadly at the Truck or Treat Kster and his friend got REALLY REALLY scared of the "scary guy".  We are still helping Kster get over his fear of the "scary guy" :(

These are the 2 of them peaking into the gym through the small slit in the door to see if  its okay to come inside. (They still never went back into the gym.)

Garage Party

The garage light went out the day Cster had his surgery so we've been walking in pitch dark in there for awhile. Today I finally bought the replacement bulbs and Cster put them in. 

The kids jumped for joy like it was Christmas and have been playing in there for over an hour.

They've never played in there before. Kster ran inside yelling how much fun the garage is, raising the roof with his hands and saying "it's a PARTY".

We have a whole new boy

Lster thinks its hilarious that he lost another tooth AND he can make his hair stick up. He told us today that we got a whole new boy. I love that new boy. Lster decided awhile ago that he no longer wanted the buzz cut and wanted to be able to spike his hair. Today, I bought him some gel and Cster taught him how to style it and Voila! a happy boy with styled hair.

Happy Birthday!

Somebody turned 6! He had a GREAT birthday. He really wanted Little Caesars pizza for dinner.

His siblings were happy with his choice.

He also requested a donut cake.

Hurray for turning 6!

Soccer is Fun!

Somebody LOVES to play soccer.

Goal Tree

For our family night we decided to set some goals. Everybody got a few leaves to write their personal goals. 

1 leaf = 1 goal. 

We LOVE fun mail!

Our Own Private Pumpkin Patch

Well, it wasn't really our own pumpkin patch but I wish I could have recorded the amazement and excitement when Grandma took the kids to her backyard and told them to pick out a pumpkin. They are HUGE!!! That was last weekend and we won't pick them up for another few weeks.

Mmmm...fingers!

You're a...!

I decided to tell you how Kster is awesome.

Today he did a 63 piece puzzle. He really likes puzzles and has mastered the 24 piece ones I've given him so I brought out the next level ones we have.

After he finished the puzzle I asked him who was a pretty smart boy who can finish puzzles? Here is the conversation that ensued.

Kster: You.

Me: I'm a boy?

Kster: You're a boy.

Me: Well, you're a girl.

Kster: You're a boy.

Me: You're a girl.

Kster: You're a boy. (killing himself laughing)

Me: You're a horse.

Kster: (now hysterical laughing) You're a cow. A little cow, no a BIG cow. You're a REALLY BIG cow.

Nice.

Pondering on the Booty

Puj Snug Product Tester

I just got a chance to try out a new and fun product. I think it was fate. I had three of my kids in the bath and one of them whacked their head on the faucet. I figured I would either have to split them up or get a soft foamy thing for the faucet. I figured I'd need one even if I did split them up because my 3 yr old is a maniac in the bath tub. He really likes to wear goggles and go deep sea diving. I wish that I could say that the goggles make him see better but I'm pretty sure he could possibly slam into the faucet if he was in the bath by  himself.

Then comes an email from Puj asking me to pruduct test a faucet cover. Um...yes please. Perfect.

And here it is...

Here are some of my thoughts in no specific order:

• My 8 yr old told me she whacked her head on it and it was "really really soft".
• It is soft and foamy.
• It does cover the entire faucet.
• It makes it difficult to pull the shower clip up. You can do it fine, you just have to get your fingers in there. 
• You can't hang anything off of the shower knob. (like a puff)

But its cute. And my kids like it. And its gender neutral. And I really don't think my kids will hurt themselves with it on the faucet (knock on wood). 

Thanks Puj. Another great product.

Here is the link to the product on Amazon.

3yr old logic

My 3 yr old is currently screaming in his room.

He wants me to pick out his clothes. I did. He doesn't like them.

But, he still is screaming for me to pick out his clothes.

Apparently I am to clairvoyantly pick out the clothes that he wants with no help or input from him.

But, he is allowed to throw a tantrum if I dont guess right.

And if I shut my door so I don't have to listen to his screams while I feed the baby, he will run over, open my door and run back to his room to scream some more.

Hurray for parenting 3 year olds.

New things

I really like trying new things.

Tonight I jumped on the energy ball bandwagon and made some delicious chia seed/oatmeal balls. The flavor was definitely there so I'll see how they harden up in the morning. 

So, I don't get a ton of comments on my blog but I do know that are out there. Blog stats do not lie. Here is my request to you.

Share something new with me. If you don't know if it's new to me, share it anyway. It might be new to somebody. Your new thing could be a food idea, a drink, a good book, movie, tv show.  I just want it to be something that you really like that you wish you coud share with somebody, 

I'm here. I'm listening and I ant to hear all your cool stuff. I've realized lately thaT a lot of my cool ideas come from other peoples cool ideas. 

Sugar Cookie Bites

A month or so ago we had a party that everything needed to be prepared ahead of time. And I wanted easy cleanup and no utensils. No cutting, scooping, or slicing and preferably no plates. My neighbor suggested these little treats she found and successfully made from Pinterest.

The cups are made of sugar cookies and are cooked in mini muffin tins. I refused to use store bought cookie dough which apparently if you use you can just drop balls of dough into your pan and they magically make cookie cups. My sugar cookie dough holds it form when cooking so I had to mold the dough in the pan before cooking. (Read: my great friend had to mold them in the pan because I was beyond frustrated with figuring out the drop a ball in the pan idea) The gooey inside is a cream cheese frosting. You can't go wrong with adding extra cream cheese. When I made these again yesterday I added double the cream cheese! Yum. Then top with whatever fruit you have lying around your house.

(This picture is for Monica. I had some leftover dough on my second batch so I tried doing it in a regular muffin tin. The result. The cup did not cook uniformly so the insides were raw and the outsides were overdone. If possible, the bigger muffin tin cookie holds too much frosting. Stick with the mini muffin cups)

Canning Salad

That's right folks, canning salad.

I found this idea on Pinterest and was instantly intrigued. Would it really work? Would it taste good? Would the vegetables get gross? Wouldn't the salad dressing touching stuff for a week compromise the veggie goodness. Well, let me tell you...it was AWESOME!!!

I used about a tablespoon or so of salad dressing on the bottom. I used carrots on the bottom as I figured they were the least likely to get trashed by the dressing. And then I just smashed in as much vegetables as I possibly could.

Actually, I was a little more methodical than that.

I placed my 6 pint sized jars on the counter. I got out my cutting board and cut everything in the order that I wanted it to go into the jars. So, first I dumped in the dressing. Then, I cut the carrots and put them in the jars and then cut the cucumbers and dumped and then the celery...you get where this is headed. I even hardboiled some eggs while I was chopping and added them in. Last but not least I washed and dried and dried and dried my lettuce and jammed in as much as I possibly could into the jar before shutting the lid. I had actually almost filled my jar with veggies before I even got to the lettuce part so there was some serious smashing.

This next step is most important...DO NOT WATERBATH OR PRESSURE CAN YOUR JARS!!! hahahahaha...I'm just imagining someone really thinking that these are "canned" salads.

While I was cutting up vegetables I had some leftover that I decided to just chop up and put in containers for snacks and lunches for the kids. I figured while I was chopping, might as well do it all...

Doesn't it look pretty...:)

Ok...so here's my confession. This is my second time around making these salads and I haven't eaten my second batch yet...But the first batch worked great. Vegetables stayed crisp as if I chopped it that day. I ate them all throughout the week and ate my last one maybe 5 or 6 days after originally putting them in jars.

This time around I experimented with avocado. I cut up one avocado and put it in one of the canning jars just to see if it would turn. I didn't want to pick out brown smushy avocado out of 6 salads. I haven't eaten it yet but they have been in my fridge for over 24 hours and the avocado looks exactly the same as when I put it in the jar. I say, SUCCESS!!!!