Mama's Taking Us to the Zoo Tomorrow

In the wind machine.

I love happy, smiling kids.

The kids were so brave. hahaha

Pet a Wallaby, get a free ticket to the train. Yes, please.

I couldn't believe he wanted his face painted.

Such a great group of kids.

Poor guy. He's ready to be BIG!!

The zoo tired me out too.

(note the missing shoe. This kid takes off his shoes the moment he gets in his car seat. And even in his sleep, this kid took off his shoe)

Homemade Yogurt

After our green chile experiment, I've been pouring over canning books lately.

My kids LOVE yogurt and, if I let them, would eat it for every meal. But I have to set limits. Just like I have to set limits for berries (which they eat like candy). So, I decided to try homemade yogurt. After researching the process extensively, I made the final decision when:

a) I found a recipe for homemade frozen lime yogurt that looked amazing and that used the homemade yogurt recipe also found in the book.
b) When I was out shopping with a friend we happened to come across a candy thermometer on clearance for $2. It was definately a sign.

And so last night I took the plunge of fermenting dairy. Preparing the yogurt took less than 20 minutes (and will take even less time next time as I know what I'm doing. While I was sleeping the magic began and this morning I woke up to 2 jars of yogurt. Real yogurt!! So easy and it tastes...like yogurt! Can you gather that I'm still slightly shocked that it worked?

So, now I'm just waiting for my cheese cloth to arrive in the mail to make my frozen yogurt. Yummy.

The Daily 5

A while ago I read about The Daily Five on my friend's blog and the kids are obsessed.

I bought Mster, Lster, and myself notebooks.

Everyday I pick a category and they have to write 5 things that are in that category. Points are awarded to the items that are not picked by other players (ala Scattergories).

The kids wake up and beg to play. The trick is that I only let them do one a day so its really special.

Fish Tacos

On my list of blessings I've received since meeting my husband I can now add, knowledge of fish tacos and actual consumption of fish tacos.

Last Monday we had some Tilapia that needed eating and my husband came up with this delicious dinner out of the ingrediants in the fridge. It was so good, we made it again for dinner last night.

Start with putting your corn tortillas on a broiler pan. Add beans and cheese and place another corn tortilla on top. (we only had chedder) Put in the oven until beans are heated up and cheese is melted.

Cook fish in skillet (all my husbands doing). He's the master of opening our spice pantry and making a rub for any meat we are eating.

MY PART! MY PART! I even got to participate in the culinary creation. I was in charge of the salsa.

This one was a corn salsa. Last night we substituted mango for the corn and thought it was even better. Added just the sweetness we needed. Pretty much what you see, is what you get in this salsa.

And you can always squeeze a little lime juice over the whole taco once its prepared. This taco has a little green chile on top.

Pretty Yummy!

Happy Handstands

A Good Day

I'm not sure how this happens but with my oldest the moment a inkling of sound came out of her mouth, I understood. I look at videos of her really really young and she wasn't as clear as I thought she was back then but I really did understand her and we worked great together.

Then my second one came along and we struggled. I couldn't understand him and I was worried and I had a doctor that was way to proactive and it was a hard period of time. Things got better with a new doctor and when he finally decided it was time to talk, he spoke well and clearly.

And now I have my 3rd child who communicates in nothing short of shreeks, yells, grunts and frustration. Its actually frustrating for both of us. He is talking. He just isn't clear at all. And so he stomps his foot and throws stuff and gets generally upset at the whole situation. He has different versions of mama to tell us his thoughts, desires, needs, excitements. I can tell the difference in a couple of intonations. He's got a word for his older sister and a different one for his brother. He says grandma.

BUT...the last 2 days we have made progress. On wednesday he said "hello". It was a game and he thought it was HILARIOUS. If you ask him to say "hello", he won't. But if you play a game with him and hide and then pop out and shout "hello", he will join in and continue the excitement. And yesterday, he said "bubble" and "pop".

And I got them on video!

Mster's First Grade Field Trip at the Park

Plan B - Reality

Plan B of not going camping was in fact this:

Picked up Mster at noon on friday (her actual time off of school on fridays. we are going to miss that next year) and go out for lunch

Headed on over to glow in the dark mini golf (also known as "the dark side of mini golf" according to Lster). But, getting sidetracked by these:

But we did make it in to start putting.

Kster was done after the 1st 18 so I took him across the way to do one of his favorite things ever.

The next adventure was their favorite dessert place yoyo yogurt. Cster and Kster stayed home while I took the older 2 to eat dessert BEFORE dinner. (oops no pictures, which is a shame because I have never seen 2 kids eat so much candy in one sitting)

We came home to pizza and Prince Kster being fed by his daddy.

When it was time for bed the kids were very excited.

So excited that we let them do it again the next night.

Plan B

We were initially planning on spending the weekend camping with friends. But since this is our 1st time camping as a family EVER and the weather is bordering between doable (but not hot) and miserable, Cster and I made an executive decision (because we can do that sort of thing around here) to cancel.

It is, however, very difficult to tell your 6 and 4 year old that have been planning this adventure for months that we will not be going. Since Cster still has the day off, we decided to do really fun stuff locally instead. We came up with a some ideas ourselves but this morning the kids decided to take it upon themselves to write a list of all the fun things they wanted.

In no particular order (I think)...

go to yoyo yogurt
go to a haunted house
go glow in the dark miniture golfing
go to the park
go to the zoo
sleep in the tent in our basement
make s'mores
go to Grandmas
get ice cream

That's all they've come up with so far (Mster was still writing ideas on the way to school) but I'm pretty sure that they will continue to come up with treasures of excitement the rest of the day.

When your daughter asks for a 3-tiered cake for dessert

Sometimes I like to be that cool mom. The cool mom that when my daughter asks for sometime I don't always say 'no'. Sometimes I really want to say 'yes'

So yesterday was my 6 year olds 1st grade concert and since I had invited family for dessert beforehand I thought it would be nice to let her pick her dessert. I even blogged about it.

I thought about it and realized that I could probably incorporate everything into her ideas for a minimal amount of time and effort.

I made a pan of brownies. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com. I only put in 1 1/2 cups of sugar. I doubled the vanilla. I upped the cocoa to 1/2 cup and I split the oil in 1/2 with applesauce. (next time I'm going to try it with full applesauce)

I sprinkled the brownies with powdered sugar.

I cut the brownies in 3 different sizes.

I tiered the brownies.

I put a toothpick on top.

I thought about trying to find images of the characters that the kids wanted and decided that was too much effort and ink so I told Mster when she got home from school that it was her job to draw the characters that would go on top of the dessert. She very eagerly got to work and....tada!!!

Ariel looks gorgeous, don't you think?

The Wii Guy

My 4 yr old loves the Wii. I'm sure there are lots of parents out there who can judge me for letting my 4 year old play wii but to them I would say...he's 4 AND A 1/2. :) And he can read. And he can do 1st grade math and spelling tests. And he has a ton of friends. And he plays outside almost everyday. And he's got the greatest personality ever. So...yes, I let him play wii. We often play together. Its so much fun.

Today he told me about "Wii guy". I was fascinated so I asked him a ton of questions. I'll post his responses in interview format.

Me: So tell me about Wii guy.
Lster: Well, he has a lot of wii games and he gives them to people.
Me: Like Santa (which is a whole nother blog post)
Lster: Yes. He gives the wii games to Santa who gives them to the people.
Me: Cool. Where does he live?
Lster: He lives by Santa at the North Pole so its easy to get them to him and then he drives home.
Me: How does he get home? by car, by bus, by van, by truck, by airplane, by boat, by train?
Lster: None of those. He walks. Cause he lives VERY close to Santa.
Me: What does he wear?
Lster: Sometimes he wears clothes like Santa
Me: Where does he get his wii game?
Lster: He just has them. And he tries out all the games before he gives them out.
Me: What happens when he has no more wii games?
Lster: He goes out and buys more.
Me: At a wii store?
Lster: Yes. There is a wii store VERY close to his house.

Let me know if you have any more questions about wii guy? I'll ask the expert.

Guess what we are having for dinner?

Tonight is Mster's 1st grade concert. The plan is to have dessert before heading over the school and so I asked Mster last night what she would like for dessert.

Mster: Do we have 3 different size pans? A large one. A medium one and a small one?
Me: You want me to make you a 3 tiered cake?
Mster: Yes
Me: (laughing) seriously?
Mster: Yes...or brownies

and then this morning she woke me up eager to tell me all about her dream. She dreamt I had made her a 3 tiered cake and that I put everybody's favorite characters on their individual slice.

So...this morning she went around to everybody and asked what was their favorite character so I could get their dessert ready.

Mster: Ariel
Lster: Mickey (this was proceeded by a lengthy discussion on the placing of Mickey in front of spiderman)
Kster: undecided. they debated between a dog, a bubble guppy and dora.

So guess what we are having for dessert?

Some days are better than others

And right now I feel like covering my head in a shirt and not coming out till tomorrow. Though, I don't think I'd look quite as cute as this guy.

Computers do not make you giggle

Lster is eagerly waiting for me to get off the computer and go read Nancy Drew with Mster so that he can get back to minesweeper.

I said to him: "You just love the computer too much."
Lster: I do love the computer. (giving the monitor a hug and a kiss)
Mster: Computers do not make dinner for you, dance for you and computers do not make you giggle.

Happy Mothers Day!

Dance Party

We used to have dance parties pretty sporadically. But as of late, they have been happening on a daily basis. This is part to a fun new website we've discovered called grooveshark.com.

According to wikipedia, "Grooveshark is an internationally available[2] online music search engine, music streaming service and music recommendation web software application, allowing users to search for, stream, and upload music free of charge that can be played immediately or added to a playlist.[3]"

Its pretty cool. Someone in the family starts humming a tune and we goto the computer and put it on for everybody to enjoy and then before we know it we've got a real dance party going. I took some videos of some awesome dance moves from yesterday's clubbing. Unfortunately I had the camera so no shots of Squishy dancing. It was interesting to see what the kids did with Guns N Roses, Metallica, Buddy Holly, Justin Beiber (who apparently looks and sings like a girl, according the 1st grade girls on the playground), and as you can hear in the videos much more.

Who needs cereal?

I like breakfast. I like to wait a few hours before I eat it in the morning, but I love to eat real breakfast food. I admit I am one of those people that routinely serves breakfast beyond the regular breakfast hours.

With all the yummy choices of breakfast items, my children still love cereal. There HAS to be some healthy alternatives to cereal that can go beyond egg whites, and green shakes. And I'm on a mission to find as many as I can.

A friend of mine gave me this recipe for baked oatmeal. The recipe calls for the baked oats to be eaten warm (from the oven) with warm milk but I've found that I really, really like it cold, with cold milk and strawberries. It really is good. Really. If I don't have fresh strawberries I defrost some frozen ones and add them into the mixture (liquid and all).

Here's the recipe.

 2 1/2 cups combo of quick and old fashioned
 1/2 cup brown sugar
 1 1/2 cup skim milk
 1/4 cup butter, melted
 2 eggs
 2 tsp baking powder
 some salt shakes
 2 tsp vanilla

Combine ingrediants and pour into a greased 9 X 13in pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350F.

Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge.

I love firsts

This was the first time my husband has made green chile. (And for those people that do not know my husband, he is an excellent cook but he is not capable of making food in small portions). This batch of green chile was 2 stock pots full to the top!

Since we really needed to find a way to preserve his massive amounts of food, I asked for a pressure cooker for Christmas.

And so...this weekend was the first time we used my pressure cooker.

It was such a success that we are ready to make more vats of delicious stuff.

14 jars canned (in picture), 10 jars not canned (not in picture)

I heart my wheat grinder

Some people thought it strange that I got a wheat grinder for Christmas. But I LOVE it! I use it at least once a week. I think its the greatest. And yes, I've been mocked for my love affair.

I just think its stinking awesome that I can take this...

And turn it into this...

 

Which in turn makes this...

and this...

and this...

I'm thnking about doing a series of posts on wheat. Please step out of your lurkingness and let me know if you would be interests in more posts about wheat (educational focused ones).

I am not a vegetarian

We like meat. We eat meat. And today we purchased some meat. Yeah for meat!

Here is what a whole cow looks like on my driveway.



We divided it up between 3 families.

I like buying meat from a real farmer and then taking it to a real butcher. Its way more yummier. It costs less money. And my freezer always has a plentiful supply of yummy goodness waiting to be grilled, smoked, baked...

Mr. Fixit

 

About an eon ago, Lster put a nickel in the door hingey thingy peice. He's been bugging me ever since to get it out. I tried a few times to use my finger, a screwdriver and even a knife to no success.

One day whilest drying my hair Lster brought up the nickel dilemma yet again. I told him that someday we would probably have to take the whole thing apart some day.

That some day was yesterday. While I was dealing with the attack of the killer homework downstairs, Lster found a screwdriver, took out the screws and proudly got out his nickel.

Laundry Detergent by ME!!

A year or so ago my sister-in-law blogged about making her own laundry detergent. I thought that was an interesting concept but at the time had about 10 bottles of detergent tucked away in my laundry closet and moved on to other important matters in my life, like which child had the balloon first.

Jump forward a year and I couldn't find a laundry detergent deal and I was down to one bottle. I decided it was time to try out the new recipe. IT WORKED!!

Not that I didn't trust her...I just have this trouble with doing new things and changing my pattern and I get so excited when I do something new and it works. So yesterday I went and made a little bit more with my supplies. (Of course because deals always come around I picked up some new detergent yesterday for $1 a bottle but I'm pretty pleased that I have my homemade concotion as a backup when I need something to tie us over till the next deal since my husband has this funny request about wearing clean underwear to work. :)

The Recipe:

1 Cup grated Fels-Naptha soap
1/2 Cup Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda
1/2 Cup 20 Mule Team Borax

mix

It takes 2 TBSP per load.

My Life as an Open Book

I've been contimplating reentering the blogging world for over the past few months. The problem is that I always kept coming up with ideas for what I would blog about. Like, I'm super into healthy eating and I was thinking about writing a blog about healthy food. But...I'm also super into not spending too much on stuff, so I thought about writing a blog about being thrifty. I've also set some new goals for my life so I thought I could use the blog to help with the goals. And it seems my kids are always saying these amazing snippets of random hilarity or wisdom that I never track (if you don't count texting my husband, daily).

So I've decided that instead of a themed blog of one of my interests, I would bring back the blog about me. Squishy! (Sadly a little more squishy than I'd like). I'm going to change the layout, change the content, and hopefully blog often. The posts may be short as my life seems to run in 10 minute sprint, but there will be posts.

Thanksgiving Jar

Our family did a Thankful Jar this year. We had one week to fill the jar with tiny peices of thanksgiving papers.

Our List:
yummy food
princess guitar
lincoln
snow
my wife
michelle
miss. colburn
food
friends
grandma
kian
chocolate banana shake
our house
nathan
tv
ensign
volleyball
spiderman game
massages
homework
guitars
learning the piano
macaroni and cheese
chapstick
the weather
sleep
go diego go
thankful jar
mommy
mommy and daddy
medicine
music
my husband
kristen chenowyth
savannah and ellie
drinks
monster trucks
the friend
my chitlins
home
temple
princesses
hearts
music
friends
church
kian
days off
pie
family
candies
lincoln
flowers
food
a job
leapfrog
me
auntie lissa
daddy
popovers
prayer
emily
sleep
cooking
mommy and daddy
toys
the dishwasher
michelle
cars
animals and wall stickers
the heater
mommy
homework
michelle's smile
kian
mariokart
kian
family
soup and tv
daddy
hugs

My Day

I'm writing this post for my own record. So when my kids are grown and I look back and wonder what I did with myself, I'll know.

6AM - awake with Lster, read books
6:15 - Mster wakes up, continue to read but add in a game they are making with the reading
6:30 - Kster wakes up, nurse
6:40-7:15 - feed all three breakfast, empty dishwasher, make Msters lunch, make dough for bread, clean kitchen
7:15- Family scriptures
7:20 - get Kster and I dressed
7:25 - get kids in car to take Mster to school
7:26 - knock at the door from roofers who need me to move the cars
7:30 - leave to drive Mster to school
7:35 - watch kids play "sweet ol' tag" with Msters classmates while they wait for the doors to open
7:50 - eat breakfast, feed Kster a snack, put in a load of laundry, clean basement bedroom, teach Lster the new wii game, roll out dough for bread
9AM - put Kster down for a nap in basement bedroom because roofers are really really loud
9:15 - exercise
9:55 - shower
10:05 - forget to put bread in oven, race to get it in. finish getting ready, check email.
10:15 - get a snack for Lster and get him ready for swim lessons
10:30 - wake up Kster
10:35 - take bread out of oven (pray its done)
11:00 - swimming lessons for Lster, I walk with Kster who wants to practise walking all around the pool over and over again.
11:40 - 12:35 - help Lster after swimming, go pick up coupons, get home
12:35 - lunch, check email, get canning stuff together, switch laundry around
1:00 - go to friends house to can peaches (1st time for both of us)
2:55 - realize we are not going to finish before I have to pick up Mster from school, realize I need to clean my friends bathroom and change a certain boy of mine before we can get Mster from school.
3:00 - race home to make the change
3:10 - leave to pick up Mster
3:20 pick up Mster
3:30 - get kids a snack, bathe Kster and Lster, switch laundry around
4:00 - leave for Msters gymnastics
4:15-4:30 - participate in parent involvement portion of gymnastics (struggle with Kster who just wants to crawl all over the equipment)
4:30 - 5:00 - Costco trip
5:00-5:15 - back at gym, helping Lster with schoolwork, try and watch Mster, keep Kster away from the water fountain
5:30-6:00 - make and eat dinner, get Mster started on homework
6:00 - get tired of Kster screaming put him to bed (note: no afternoon nap)
6:20 - help Mster with homework, clean kitchen from dinner
6:45 - FHE, and bedtime for kids
7:00-bed - paperwork and some tv and folding 3 loads of laundry

Things I'm Thinking About

Thing I'm Thinking About...in no particular order

Healthy eating
Exercise
Educating Lster
Getting Kster to nap
Spending time with Mster
Hair accessories
Learning piano
Practising piano
Budgeting
Shopping responsibly
Cleaning my house
Christmas presents
Being an Aunt
Being a fun Aunt
When my Amazon present from Mothers day is going to get here

Pretend Play

Mster: Are you coming swimming today?
Lster: No. My mom said no.
Mster: I thought your mom was dead.
Lster: Wait...you're right...she is...I can come.

We're starting to eat real food again

I've been on a little bit of a kick lately. After Kster was born I was in survival mode and dinner was whatever I had that I could make in just a few minutes at the last minute. But now things are starting to go back to normal and we are actually cooking again.

Last week we ate a meal everyday of the week.

Sunday - Short Rib burritos
Monday - Almond crusted Tilapia, mashed potatos and pineapple
Tuesday - Green eggs and Ham
Wednesday - Chicken Penne
Thursday - Chicken, potatos and salad
Friday - Sloppy Joes
Saturday - date night
Sunday - Homemade spaghetti and meatballs (incl. homemade spaghetti)
Monday - nacho mountains
Tuesday - oven baked fish and salad

I oftentimes had dinner all ready prepped and Cster came home and just finshed it off or made the whole thing. Is been great. Its workng.

I'm also posting this because we are having visitors this weekend and already we are planning pizza and going out so I just wanted to remind myself that we are doing good.

Its not always trying

I just wanted to write that my life is not always trying. So, this is me acknowledging that I have good days. I just don't want my mark in the world to be me griping about how life is hard, because there are moments in life which make life really great. Its those moments that often get lost in the day to day of motherhood.

One Pound

Some weeks are more trying then others. I decided to write down a couple of memories of this past week. There are some good times and bad times. Its been a bit of a long week.

1. My children played a game where their bedroom was full of hot lava and they were on fire and had to get out. (I swear they haven't been watching the news)

2. We spent the weekend drawing with markers. I originally had let the kids use the markers whenever they wanted but got very tired of giving timeouts for inappropriate marker use. I brought them out this weekend after a long hiatus to a supervised marker time. Lster drew a picture of his family and then proclaimed "This s me when I was daddy and you were in my tummy."

3. Kster moved from a tummy position to a sitting position after attempting to crawl.

4. Kster decided he didnt like egg yolk so I mashed it into a banana and he ate it fine.

5. In the car, Lster asked me to let him know when we were going to get to a red light so he could eat his booger. Then immediately told me to "nevermind".

6. I asked Mster if she could pick out every food that was in her dinner...and she did it. We had a baked ziti (with penne noodles). She picked out celery, spinach, meat, noodles, sauce (made with tomatos). She did miss the 1/2 cup of cauliflower puree that I added to the sauce.

7. Lster got croup

8. Lster swallowed a penny.

9. Cster went to St Louis for 6 days.

10. Mster decided to wash the table with a green cloth. She picked a green cloth because it was Lsters favorite color and he would be really upset if she got something green dirty. (that was pretty indicative of how the 2 got a long all week.)

11. Mster got her finger stuck in a hole in her car seat. It required a very nice neighbor who coaxed her fr 10 minutes to wiggle it out whilst she screamed bloody murder.

12. I finally figure out that when Lster asks if I want him to try to go to the bathroom the answer is no, I want him to go to the bathroom.

13. Bedtime got pushed back an hour...permanently.

14. The kids divised a game where Lsters clothes had to go to jail. These would be the clothes he was wearing.

15. I got put on antibiotics that make me have a constant headache, no desire to eat and big desire to vomit.

16. I deep cleaned the entire upstairs of the house and 1/2 the main floor.

And after this entire week of craziness, I stepped on the scale this morning and had lost 1 pound. Sometimes its the little things that we have to give thanks for. I could have gained a pound this week.

Lster writes

Here is some of Lster's chalk writing.

He wrote "walk", "hop" and "jump"

pajama fun

Lster why are your pants inside out? - Me

Because I couldn't get them inside in. - Lster

I love Lster's randomness

Mster and Lster are playing school.

He just wrote out the alphabet. Here's how it goes.

Me: ABCDEFGHI "Hey Lster, what's this you wrote next?"

Lster: Its a funny boot. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I Can't Do it All

My house is rarely ever clean. And by rarely I mean there has never been a time except when we did a walk thru when we first move in that every room in the house was spotless.

The problem is that I always get distracted by motherhood. Like as I type this Mster is lying on the couch battling death and asking me to read her stories and Lster is climbing off the couch head first begging me to "pull (him) up". FTR I've read lots of stories today and already pulled him up numerous times. Kster's finally asleep with his second nap. For his first nap I spent the entire time playing games and then doing science experiments with both of them.

So I just don't know how to do it all.

I wake up in the morning with great ideas of what I will accomplish housewise but the list is never done.

One morning this week I sat down for my 5 minute breakfast and was just about to get up and fold laundry for Kster's nap when Lster asked me to play flash cards with him. Lately he has been obsessed with learning. Its a good thing. Its a great thing. I have never been one to force learning on my kids. They just beg for it. I don't buy flash cards. Stuff like that just falls into our hands. These flash cards were a part of Mster's Valentine's Day cards from kids in her class and Lster loves them. (sidenote they are princess cards which makes me kind of laugh). So we sat down with our beans and practised adding and subtracting. He's been trying to figure it out for a few weeks now but it hasn't sunk in. This week it sunk in. He figured out how to add/subtract 0 and 1 and he learned how to add doubles (3+3, 5+5). FTR...he's 3. He's not even 3 1/2. And I just don't know what to do with him but hang out with him and keep teaching him stuff. But that means that my laundry area is perpetually covered in clothes. The bathrooms are not cleaned as much as they need to be and I often forget to think about dinner till 5pm.

I know that a perfect house is not important but I just haven't figured out the balance. Like how dirty is it okay to leave my house? or how many days in a row can I forget to cook dinner? or how often do I need to change my clothes when I get spit up on at least 6 times a day and so walk around the world with perpetual puke on my shoulder and leg.

And so my house will never be perfectly clean. It will not only never be perfectly clean, there wil always be a room that is in desperate need of cleaning. But my family is happy. My kids are polite, intelligent, funny, well rounded (but not perfect by any means and I can guarantee I'm ready to explode between 4-5pm everyday - that's another post) and that's what being a mom's about.

The Valentine Weekend Read-a-Thon

Its Scholastic Book Fair time at Msters school. Normally, I'm generally frustrated with all the fundraising that goes on throughout the school year. For the most part fundraising through the school envolves one of these principles:

1. Get the kids super hyped to sell a bunch of junk to their friends/family in the hopes up winning prizes.

2. Get the kids to buy crap at a ridiculous price to give to other people as "presents".

3. Sell crap at a ridiculous price.

But this post isn't about fundraising...its about the Book Fair (another attempt at fundraising which I've decided to support. Books are not crap.) As part of the hoorah of the event the students are invited to participate in a Read-a-Thon. Students from each grade are competing with each other to see how many books they can read in a certain amount of time. The winner of each grade gets to have ice cream with the principal. Mster thought this was a pretty cool idea so I decided to go all out and help her win.

Over the past 2 weeks we've gone to the library twice (we used to go weekly but we've been slacking) and took out loads of books. After we read them all and there was just the weekend left I started to think of ways to encourage reading and not have to check out the entire library. That's when I came up with the idea of reading all of our kids books in one weekend. I wasn't sure we could do it but I figured it was worth a try. Mster was excited. It seemed like a great idea.

And we had a super fun weekend reading. There was fort building, hot chocolate drinking, popcorn popping, Olympic breaks, pizza dinners, and all in all we read 147 books over the 2 week period (probably 110 of them this weekend). We didn't read all of our books. We probably still have 30 more to go but I'm pretty proud of us. Nobody said "I don't want to read anymore". They just kept listening to the stories and Mster even read a dozen or so books herself. I told her if she wanted to count board/easy books she had to read them herself.

And so the weekend o' reading fun is done but what I think is awesome is that winning the competition will just be icing on the cake because we truly had a great time. The house is trashed beyond belief but we had a great time.

9 Days

Its been 9 days and I'm still sick. I'm done. Seriously. I feel like I haven't gotten a break.

Csters been super busy coaching a mock trial for high school students. He's been gone the last 2 saturdays and was gone 3 nights this week too. Thats leaving work to go straight to the events. 3 kids when you are sick, sucks. And then when the trial was finally all done yesterday and I was going to have my support back a stupid restaurant gave Cster food poisoning.

So I should probably stop whining now.

The good news is that Lster is well on his way to saying goodbye to diapers. This is VERY exciting news. Being home all week has been good for something. :)

Sick Little Baby

It seems that I have a head cold. It sucks. At the same time I was getting my head/chest cold Mster and Lster decided to get the stomach flu and couldn't keep anything down. They are done and healthy but I, sadly, am still living in a big daze.

What is super sad is that I seem to have infected my sweet Kster. Everytime he coughs (and its a yucky cough we have) he gives off this little pouty face and cry and looks at me in a way that says..."why, mama, why." I feel the same way when I cough. But with him it makes me sad.

Today I am finally feeling like I can get vertical after an almost full day of horizontal yesterday. Part of this is because poor Kster is sleeping. Yesterday he took a 3+ hr nap and last night he slept for 12 1/2 hrs without a feeding. I woke up at 4am and had trouble getting back to sleep but that was still 6 hrs straight sleep. I finally did get back to sleep for another hour and was ready to get my baby when he woke up at 5:30AM. It may seem early to you but 6hr of uninterrupted sleep was heaven.

He has already woken up from his morning nap and it was only just over an hr so I'm not sure we'll get a repeat tonight.

But until then...6hr!!!!

(he has slept for more than 6 hr before I just was poor at timing it with my sleeping. I put him to bed at 5pm, because that's when he wanted to go, and then I went to bed between 10-11 and he woke up at 1AM for a feeding. My issues of late with his getting up was that they were even more frequent than the 1AM feeding. A 12 hr stretch is exactly what I need :) )

Sleep, Precious Sleep!

After much training, my 2 older kids are great sleepers. They sleep 12 hrs a night, well probably closer to 11-11.5hr and are happy and smart and yeah for them...

But they had a heck of a time getting to that stage. And Kster seems to be heading in the same direction.

I think I jinxed myself when I kept telling everybody he was my best sleeper. But he was. He once slept for 11 hrs. Unheard of in my other two at the same age. But mostly he would sleep for 8-10 hrs, eat and then go back to sleep for 4-2 hrs to make it 12 hrs.

And then Christmas happened and we went to family and he was up all the time eating and eating and eating and I finally gave him cereal (far earlier than my other ones because I figured he must be hungry). He eats it and loves it and we were doing better for awhile but now we're back to very frequent wake ups. My problem is...Kster sleeps on his tummy and has since he was born. He recently figured out how to roll from his tummy to his back and likes to wake up, roll over, realize he doesn't like being on his back, get stuck and scream till I go in there. He hasn't developped the roll from front to back skill which is much harder (musclewise) and usually happens at 7/8 months.

So I'm left trying to figure out what to do. I can just let him try and figure out how to sleep on his back (but I did try one night to let him cry and he bellowed for 90 minutes straight. When I went in he was on his back. It was the first time it happened). or I can wait it out till he can roll himself back.

In the long run it doesn't seem like a few months is a big deal but I need sleep. I like sleep. I don't like to get up repeatedly to soothe a baby back to sleep only to have him wake up again 2-3 hrs later.

I like sleep. I look at some of the older ladies that go to my church who have older kids (and no babies) and I think to myself that that will be me one day. Sleeping whenever I want....

And on a side sleeping note - I do find the fact that I am even debating what to do with Kster funny because anybody that knows me knows that I am a strict mom when it comes to sleeping. Let them cry. Make them go to bed and stop coddling in the middle of the night. I've helped numerous moms in the past, which I say this not to brag but to reiterate that I have very strong feelings about this, which is why my debate is so odd. I guess I just feel that its not right to make him be on his back, crying when he is physically incapable of fixing himself. It doesn't seem fair. Make a child learn to sleep but make sure he has the tools to actually accomplish the task.

And now I'm rambling.

Maybe this will be funny at a later date

So today Lster has interrupted the napping process for Kster, on both occasions. I'm not really happy about it. I now have a tired, cranky baby who wants to be held and I need to figure out what to do with him. Do I just throw him in his crib and hope he cries himself to sleep or have a ridiculously early bedtime which means he won't sleep in which means I won't sleep in tomorrow morning and probably will get up extra early.

In the midst of all this Lster had 2 moments which will probably be funny when I'm old and gray.

Me: Lster it smells. Did you poop?
Lster: Nope
Me: Don't lie to me. You did. Did you poop in the car or while doing a puzzle? (I'm trying to get him to recognize when he is doing it in hopes of getting him to recognize that he needs to and will not go in a diaper)
Lster: I didn't poop.
Me: Well then what smells really bad? (by this time I've checked and he's clear)
Lster: Maybe its you. Maybe you should check your bum.
Me: Really? You think its me?
Lster: Yep...its you.
Me: I don't know. I'll take a shower in a bit, I guess.
Lster: Okay...you should take a shower.

5 minutes past.

Me: Lster it really smells. Are you sure you don't have to poop?
Lster: I didn't go poop
Me: Get over here again. I'm going to check again. (This time he was not in the clear)

What is slightly humorous about this is that he actually had me believing that I was the one that smelled.

And second moment...

After being really upset about the meltdown that caused Kster not to sleep, I decided to have a serious talk to Lster about the importance of Kster's naps and the importance of letting me put him down and not interrupting the process. He took that moment to interrupt me with a burst out laughter and the exclamation that he farted.

Lunch

Today I asked the kids what they wanted for lunch. One picked peanut butter sandwiches and one picked Mac N Cheese. I told them I was not making their own lunch each and that they had to go away and decide amoungst themselves what we were having.

They came back with this idea:

They would each have a peanut butter sandwich while they waited for the Mac N Cheese to cook.

Whats going on in my life?

Organizing House - I am determined to get my house in order. I am exhorting all of my family members to hold on tightly to all that they hold dear because there is a lot of purging going on.

Exercise - After enjoying p90x, Cster bought me Insanity for Christmas. I am really, really enjoying the workouts. They do not kidd...it is INSANE!!

Mster - She's reading!!! Her teacher has given her a real book to try out and a spelling list. I always just thought Mster was just a smart little kid (which she is) but this week I realized that Msters a hard worker and really wants to do well. I love watching her work.

Lster - I'm just trying to control him and the Wii. I could not have done better at describing my interactions with Lster regarding the Wii any better than my friend. I'm excited for Lster to start at the Little Gym this week. He loves his friends and he'll have so much fun.

Kster - Kster is the one that is truly keeping me on my toes. He's such a good sleeper at night (knock on wood) but he does not want to nap. This leaves me with a bit of juggling to do during the day. But he has the best smile ever and he loves me (even if it is because I feed him). I think he's the best.

I've got other goals and activities that I'm working on that I may share in the future but I'm just really excited for this year. Its starting off a little chaotic as I try and get things in order but I just feel this is going to be a great year for our family.

Its not too late to get excited for 2010. In fact now that you've been in it for awhile it might be a good time to actually sit down and think about what you want for the year.

Why I love Mster!

Today on the way home from dance...

Mster: Did you notice that I was spending a bit of time with the a girl at the beginning of dance class today?
Me: I didn't. Why this girl?
Mster: Because this was her first time at dance and I really wanted to make her feel like she had a friend.

Leaving aside the fact that she shared her good deed of the day probably with the hopes of getting a pat on the back, I just think she's really great.

Oh my...

Overheard...

Lster: Mster. I want some almonds. Can you open some for me?
Mster: Well...I want you to practise.

Would you rather go to a birthday party or to the dentist?

Lster has a birthday party today. Mster has dentist appointment. They are both very excited.

Lster ran into the room at 6AM this morning shouting "Its a 6 on my clock. Lets go to the party."

Mster came in shortly later, dressed. When I asked why she exclaimed she was worried she would be late for the dentist. She is currently coloring a picture for her dentist and proclaiming that her teeth hurt...alot...so its really good that I got her an appointment. (FTR its a checkup and we've had no real mention of teeth hurting previously).

Its going to be a FUN day!!!

PS - I did eventually find the Christmas Spirit.

PPS - I've had a sore throat for over a week now. Its now travelling to the right side of my head towards my ear. That's bad, right?

Christmas Spirit, Where Art Thou?

I'm having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit. I'm not a grinch by any means. I'm super excited about the presents we are giving this year. I'm super excited for all the festivities but I just can't seem to actually get into the swing of the spirit.

At first I thought maybe when its December. But December came and I still wasn't feeling festive. Then I thought if we decorated but we decorated and I still wasn't feeling festive. We made Christmas baking. We got all the presents. I even started wrapping last night. I just can't find it.

And then this morning I started to clean. Really really clean. I cleaned out the fridge. I cleaned a bathroom. I cleaned the kids rooms. And magically I started to feel better. I'm eager to attack the rest of the house to see if I can be in full blown Christmas cheer by the end of the day.

Puj Tub

I'm not good at trying new things. I'm one of those people that likes what she likes so why bother fixing whats not broken. But my static ways have slowly been changing this year with my introduction to couponing. I've tried a couple of new products because they were free and I now don't know how I lived without them. So I'm growing and I actually am starting to like to try out new products (or at least new to me). And it is with this newfound love of trying out new things that I agreed to product test some products so that others could hear about great new products that they might not normally think of buying.

A month of so ago I offered to try out the new Puj Tub. All I knew was that it was a baby bath tub. Last thursday I recieved my Puj Tub in the mail.

I think the concept is pretty AWESOME!! It stores flat and easily assembles into a bath tub that fits in your sink. Its so easy my 5 year old figured it out without any help.

I liked how the tub fit snugly and didn't move around. Part of it was the size of the bath tub and part of it is what the puj tub is made out of.

As a new parent bathing your child can be very daunting. I'm a parent of 3 and I have to admit that I still wanted Csters help with bathing Kster when he was first born. I'm always worried that the baby's going to slip right out of my hands. I'm worried about their head. I'm worried about their belly button, or their circumcision. I'm just worried. This bathtub, would, I feel, eleviate a lot of that fear. There is so little water actually in the tub that you could bathe a newborn in their without worrying about getting the stump wet. And I think its so snug you wouldn't have to fear supporting the head the entire time you were bathing your baby. (Kster's past the floppy head stage so its hard for me to judge)

So onto the practicality of the product. As AWESOME as I think it is, the bath tub did not work for us. The product says its for babies aged 0-6 months but as you can see my 3 month old Kster is way to big for the tub. He's holding onto the faucet and to get him in and out I had to maneuver around the faucet. There really wasn't enough water in there once Kian got in to do any bathing.

I later tried the Puj in my kitchen sink. It worked better. I could move the faucet away from the Puj and it fit a little nicer but Kster was still too big to actually get water onto him. Again, little water is something you want with a really young baby. You can see the holes just beside him that let all the water out if you try to fill it too high. (And I didn't want to get him naked again to try it out. Its freezing here in Colorado.)

So my final verdict. I would definately use this bathtub with a newborn but the age range is really not that realistic.

And here's a picture of us product testers to prove we're real. :)

Check out the Puj Tub for yourself at the new web site exclusively for baby bath tubs!

A day at the store

The other day I had to go to a certain store to pick up a prescription. Kster had spent the entire night either crying, throwing up, or wanting to be in the perfect position on me to sleep. Usually he is an awesome sleeper so this was highly unusual and meant that when he wanted to take a 3 hour morning nap, I let him.

But a 3 hour morning nap means shopping in the afternoon with all 3 kids.

We arrived, and I picked up my prescription. Mster said she had to go to the bathroom and Lster then yelled "I HAVE TO GO PEEPEE TOO!!" (FTR he's not potty trained, by his own stubberness). So off we went. I couldn't even get the troops organized because once we opened the bathroom door they both ran to separate stalls, locked the door and proceeded to go. Both of them. I'm deciding maybe I need to try a different technique with Lster in potty training. Instead of staying home for a few days we are going to just hang out at the store for a few days because he will only go to the bathroom in a public restroom.

After the bathoom adventure we went to the womens' delicates to get me some nylons. While trying to find them Lster decided to kick his boot as high as he could off his foot. It came down on a display of lingerie underwear which showered upon him producing peels of 3 year old laughter. I finally found the nylons and while I was trying to find the perfect pair as fast as I could, Mster turned around and found the thong display. "Hey mom...look...swimming underwear. I need some swimming underwear. pleeeaaaaase."

Phobias

I never really had a phobia. There are things I don't like but I breathe a bit and get through it and move on with life.

Last week I found my phobia.

I was in my storage room and smelt something rank. I knew. I knew we had a dead mouse. I had to clean the room out because we were having guests coming that night and they needed a place to sleep that wasn't filled with the stench of rotting rodent carcass.

So I started moving stuff around and I found the mouse. It was definitely dead. I screamed. I threw a suitcase in the direction of the mouse and ran away, crying, up the stairs to the kitchen where my daughter looked at me with the widest eyes possible.

"Did you see something scary Mom?" she asked. I gasped out "yes" and continued to hyperventilate. I calmed down enough to realize that I would not be able to dispose of the dead creature. Just thinking about it made my heart palpitate at an unhealthy rate. So I called some friends whose husband is sometimes home during the day but there was no answer. I called a couple of other people whose husbands do shift work in hopes that somebody would be home. With every call I got support from the woman but no husband. She told me I could do it and gave me a big pep talk full of ideas on how to get rid of it without having to touch it.

Mster watched me the entire time. At one point she opened the knife door and suggested that she take a knife and stab it just carry it outside. Yep she did.

And I called Cster too but he was trying to get everything done at the office because he was already taking the rest of the week off. He suggested that I let Mster dispose of it if I was really freaking out (which I was) and she wanted to.

So I told Mster that she was going to be the lucky girl to get rid of the mouse. Immediately her face fell and her eyes started filling and my heart broke. Of course I didn't make her do it but that still left me with only me to do it all.

I armed myself with a broom covered in a plastic bag, a cardboard box and a piece of heavy paper and made my way to the basement bedroom. When I got into the bedroom (the storage room is off the bedroom) I again started to hyperventilate and cry and turned right around and ran (yes ran) back upstairs.

I finally went through the Church phone list desperate to find somebody who would be home and a name popped up and I called him and he said he would be right over. When he came I gave him all my "tools". He looked at me like I was on crack and asked for 2 paper towels. I looked at him like he was on crack and gave him 2 paper towels. He did the job and I was ever so grateful.

And I now know I have a serious fear of dead mice.

Futility

Lster or Mster: mom can you...?
Me: You are going to have to speak up. I can't hear you.
Lster or Mster: MOM!!!! can you.....?

______________________________________

And the conversation I just had while typing this post.

Mster: What day is it tomorrow?
Me: Saturday
Lster: Sunday
Mster: um...what day is it tomorrow?
Me: Saturday
Lster: Sunday
Mster: No Lster, its going to be Saturday.
Lster: Mom, what day is it going to be?
Me: When?
Lster: on Wednesday?
Me: Wednesday
Lster: Oh it will be Wednesday.
Mster: No it will be Saturday.
Mster: What day was it yesterday?

Create

We do not have cable. We do not have direct tv. We do not have a DVR. But what we do have is an antennae. We watch a lot of PBS. We like the cooking shows. Well, we like most of the cooking shows. Some of them are interesting and educational and some of them make us look at each other and say, "really", like the guy from Norway that picked a bunch of vegetables and blended them with a raw egg and called it vegetable soup.

What makes me write a post about the Create series on PBS is that Mster loves to watch the cooking shows too. She asks for them. She can recognize chefs by name. I even overheard her pretending to be Katie Brown during a playdate (The other girl just looked at her like she was crazy). I just think its awesome to see her develop a passion. She loves to cook and loves to be in the kitchen. And she's good at it.

Last week we were in the Health Clinic to get the kids shots and they had the Food Network on. I told Mster to check it out and that it was like another version of Create. I watched it with her for awhile but it soon lost both of our attention. It was not as great as PBS. It made me happy for our antennae which introduced us to a world of small, but wonderful, choices in daily tv entertainment.