Snow Day

We actually had the rare occurance of snow the other day. It wasn't cold enough for it to stick to the ground, but it snowed some really big flakes for about 20 minutes. I thought the boys would love it, so I took them outside to play. Reece walked out and immediately said, "It too cold, I go back inside" and he went back into the warm house. Seth walked out, stuck his tongue out to catch a few snow flakes and said he was ready to go back in. We were literally outside about 1.5 minutes.
Wyatt was at the doctor, so he missed the fun.

Wyatt's Thanksgiving Program

The Kindergarten at Wyatt's school put on a Thanksgiving program for the kid's families. Some of the kids were dressed as Pilgrims and some were Indians. The kids looked really cute and sang several songs, but to be honest you couldn't understand a word they were singing because they were all singing at different speeds and it all got jumbled up. After the performance we all enjoyed a pie feast.

Wow, I've not been good at keeping up with this blog

It seems like I'm saying that a lot. This pregnancy has really turned our life upside down. I feel like I'm not keeping up with anything these days. Also, Wyatt had pneumonia for two weeks and that slowed things down as well.
I'm not promising anything, but I do have some things to post. Hopefully I'll get around to it soon.

$5 Costumes are A LOT of fun

I had to run by Target to pick up some medicine the other day and saw that all their Halloween stuff was on clearance. I thought I'd just take a look, but didn't really expect to find anything that I wanted because we don't do scary stuff at our house. HOWEVER, we found a Mr. Incredible and a Superman costume and they were $5!!!!

The boys have had so much fun playing in them. They would dress like super heros everyday of their life if I let them.

Pumpkin Carving

The night of our pumpkin carving we had "Spider Pizza," a cheese pizza that I put olives on to make look like spiders and the boys thought it was fantastic. Before we carved the pumpkins we read The Pumpkin Patch Parable and had a great discussion about how God helps us shine His light to the world when He takes out all our yucky stuff (sin).
Then we let the boys draw the faces that they wanted on their pumpkins and we got busy carving. I was so glad no one stole our pumpkins like they did last year. I would have been one very unhappy mama.

Pumpkin Patch

We made our annual trip to Sweet Berry Farms to get some pumpkins and we had a great time. We got lots of pumpkins, rode the hayride and the boys got to ride a train. It's so fun to have family time.

Row Row Row Your Boat

We got tons of rain last night and this morning and Seth and Reece had a great time splashing outside and playing with their boats in the little stream at the end of our driveway. Seriously, they sang "Row Row Row Your Boat" the whole time.

Making Jello Playdough

It's been quite a while since we made playdough, but the boys asked if we could the other morning and I had all the ingredients in the kitchen so we got right to it.
You can find the recipe that we used here.
We made one batch of Orange and one batch of Lime. The Orange wasn't very strongly scented, but the Lime sure was and for this pregnant woman it really made me want to eat some real limes.
Seth and Reece had a great time measuring out the ingredients and then they watched me cook it and kneed it.
When it was cooled we got out all the cookie cutters, rollers, plastic utensils that we have so that they could have fun playing and boy did they! They played and played and played, then when Wyatt got home from school he got in on the action too. I always forget how much they love playdough. It's definitely something we need to do more often.

My B-day

Yesterday I celebrated my 33rd birthday. It was a wonderful day spent at church and eating lots of great food (that I didn't have to prepare : ). I was banished upstairs after dinner while my presents were prepared and when I was called down I was attacked by three little munchkins with Silly String! I am so blessed and couldn't have asked for a better day.

Celebrating Seth's First Day of School

After Seth got out of Speech class I decided to take them to play on the big cows in the Arboretum. They had so much fun until we were viciously attacked by fire ants. Poor Reece I had too pull off all his clothes right in public, but he was getting eaten alive. Not having any rain has forced the fire ants out in droves.

Celebrating Wyatt's First Day of Kindergarten

To celebrate Wyatt's first day of Kindergarten we went with Gram and Papa to Sprinkles Frozen Yogurt. It's a great place for special treats. The kids get to pick their own yogurt and put it in a cup then pick out whatever toppings they want and put them in the cup. Then everything is weighed and you pay by weight.

Seth's First Day Back in School

On Tuesday Seth headed back to his Speech class. He has the same wonderful teachers that he did last year and he couldn't have been more excited to go back to class. He's been asking all summer when school started again. He had a great morning and made 3 new friends.

Adventures in Cooking

I'm continuing my Adventures in Cooking with two recipes from the 2002 edition of Taste of Home Annual Recipes. You can find the cookbook here . This is a great cookbook. There are several recipes that I make often from it, but I don't use it enough. I received it as a wedding present and I definitely need to use it more.

I made the Baked Garlic Chicken and Salad with Buttermilk Dressing from the Meals in Minutes section. It was so easy and really prep time took just minutes and then the chicken only took 20 minutes to bake. I wonderful combination in my book.

My family (all kids included) LOVED the chicken and the salad dressing. I had to modify the chicken recipe a bit. It calls for savory herb with garlic soup mix which I couldn't find anywhere. So, I ended up using a vegetable soup mix and it worked great. It also calls for dry bread crumbs and I ended up using some bread crumbs that I found that were flavored "Herb and Garlic", so I figured that balanced things out. I will tell you that this recipe is not healthy (you rub the chicken down with some mayo first), but the chicken was moist and delicious.
I've never made salad dressing from scratch before, but it was so easy and so good! The recipe called for 3/4 cup buttermilk and I ended up using a whole cup to thin it out a little and it was perfect. I will definitely be making the salad dressing again. This way I can guarantee that there is no High Fructose Corn Syrup and just pure goodness in what we eat with our healthy salads.

Go get this book! I promise you won't be disappointed.

Chutes and Ladders

The boys decided to play Chutes and Ladders using miniature Star Wars and Transformer figures. It was an exciting game and an Autobot won.

We did it!

We made it to Kindergarten. I managed to hold it together until I got out of the school, so he never saw me cry. He was so excited, but I'm counting down the hours until I can pick him up.

School Supplies and Open House

After MUCH shopping we were finally able to round up all the school supplies we needed. So glad I won't have to do that again until next year. It was a mess! Not good for this emotional pregnant momma. I almost had a melt down in Walmart when I couldn't find a folder we needed.

Wyatt's School Supplies

Seth's School Supplies

Last night we had Open House and got to meet Wyatt's new teacher. She seemed really nice and I found out from another parent that she is one of the most requested teachers at his school. We feel very blessed to have him with a good teacher. He got to see where he will sit and his eyes lit up when he saw the huge box of legos on a shelf in the class. We also went to Seth's speech class and got to see his teachers. He will have the same teachers that he had last year and again we consider that such a blessing; they are wonderful and Seth has really missed them this summer.

Monday is going to get here too quickly and I know that I'm just going to bawl when I have to drop Wyatt off at his class. I'm thankful that I probably won't be the only momma doing that.

Father's Day Gift

I know that I am so late in publishing this, but well...I've been busy. The original idea for this project came from here. I just put our own little spin on it. I got big cork hotpads from IKEA (or the best place on earth as I like to call it). I taped of different designs on each one and then let the boys paint them. After the paint was dry we peeled of the tape and each boy put the handprint on the pad that they had painted. I attached ribbon to the back of each (using thumbtacks) so that they can hang. The idea is for daddy to have them at work and he can hang them and use them as mini-corkboards or if he needs a coaster for his desk then he can take one down and use it as a coaster. I think they turned out super cute.

Adventures in Cooking

Last night I took my first dive into promise to try and cook new things. Both the recipes that I used were from the The Peachtree Tea Room Cookbook. Let me tell you, if you have never been to the Peachtree Tea Room in Fredericksburg, TX, you must. It. is. fantastic. Fredericksburg is great little town in Central Texas, full of boutiques, antique shops and lots of German food. The Peachtree Tea Room is a small restaurant and gift shop that is just perfect for stopping in and enjoying a fantastic freshly prepared lunch while your doing all sorts of shopping.

I've been going there since I was in middle school. My grandmother used to take me there when we would come visit her and now that I live only an hour away I try to go as often as possible. My husband and I spent three days in Fredericksburg a week ago at a bed and breakfast and the Tea Room was one of first stops to eat lunch. I had their chicken salad sandwhich, chilled avocado soup and then Jerad and I split a peach cobbler. Fredericksburg is famous for their peaches. Everything we had was so wonderful.

When we got back to Austin I asked my mom to borrow her Peachtree Tea Room Cookbook because I wanted to see if the recipe for the chicken salad and avocado soup were in it. Thank goodness they were! So, that is what I made last night, Cynthia's (Really Jo's) Chicken Salad and The Peachtree's Chilled Avocado Soup. I served the chicken salad as a sandwich in a croissant and (because I'm craving them all the time) I also served some nectarines on the side. I'm not going to provide the recipes for you because you can go online and order them here. I will tell you about the few modifications that I made to the recipe. The chicken salad called for homemade herbed mayo using raw eggs. Because I'm pregnant I was fearful of the raw eggs, so instead I just substituted real mayo from jar and added the herbs the recipe called for. I wish that I made the mayo in the recipe because mine was a little thin and the one at the restaurant was more creamy. When I'm not pregnant I will definitely make it again using the original recipe. The avocado soup calls for jalapenos and I was afraid that my little boys might not eat it if it was at all spicy (the one I had in the restaurant did have a little bit of a kick to it). So, I left those out. I wish that I had divided the soup and made part with jalapenos and part without. I really enjoyed the spice of the one at the restaurant, but I know my boys wouldn't have eaten it. Wyatt loved the soup and I did too. Seth, Reece and Jerad weren't big fans, but I think sometimes cold soup takes getting used to. So, I don't blame that on the recipe at all.

There are so many more recipes in the book that I plan on trying. My poor mom may never see her cookbook again. Although I do have birthday coming up, maybe that would be a good gift (hint to any family reading this : )

I definitely think this first time into cooking something unfamiliar to me was a success and I can't wait to decide what I'm going to make next!

He Has A Teacher

Well, I guess it's official. This afternoon we headed up to the school and found Wyatt's name on the list for Kindergarten and found out who is teacher is. I guess he really is headed off to school next week. We will meet the teacher tomorrow night at Open House and he's super excited about that. We don't know anyone in his class, although that's not surprising because we only know one other child actually going to Kindergarten at this school. I'm hoping he makes lots of freinds this year because he's been talking about wanting to know more kids in our neighborhood.

Yummy Snack for the Boys

I got this idea from Her Cup Overfloweth and I must say it was a huge hit with the boys! I put vanilla pudding in the cup and then crushed some graham crackers for the "sand" and sprinkled blue sugar for the "water", then I added chocolate fish.

Feeling Inspired

My sweet husband took me to see Julie and Julia this weekend. I loved it and he won't give me his opinion : )
Well, it has me completely inspired. I love cooking and I love cookbooks. I have TONS of cookbooks and I could seriously just sit and read them like most people would read a novel. However, if the truth be known, I only cook from a few and I have a horrible tendancy to cook the same things over and over again. I'm bored of the rotation and I know my poor family is too.
So, here is the thought I have going round in my mind. I'm going to try an experiment like Julie Powell (which, by the way, is one of my Aunt's names) does in the movie. No, I'm not going to be as adventurous as she was and give myself a deadline of cooking everything in a certain cookbook, I am pregnant after all and I never know how I'm going to feel from day to day. I am however, going to pledge to cook one thing that I've never cooked before from my cookbooks atleast once a week. That should change things up around here a little bit.

Confession

We're getting ready to start a short series on Confession at our church. I can't wait because I know it will be challenging and heart wrecking. I was thinking about that while eating lunch today. Man, do I have a lot to confess after my lunch. Seriously, these pregnancy cravings may be the end of me. I had left over sweet and sour chicken from our Chinese dinner last night and then I had not one, but two peanut butter and syrup sandwiches! I never eat syrup because it's just too sweet and makes my teeth hurt, but OH. MY. WORD. was it ever so good today. Here's the kicker...I waited until my boys were down for naps before I ate all that junk. I just couldn't let them see me eating that because I would never let them eat something like that. Is that shameful or what?!

Sorry I Haven't Been Posting

Our main computer is on the fritz (thanks to a lovely thunderstorm) so I don't have access to my pictures. I'm using my husband's laptop, but I promise to be back to posting soon. We've been doing a lot and I've been taking a lot of pictures.

Successful Naptimes

Naptimes have always been a struggle in our house. From the time Wyatt was born until he was almost 3 and I had two other babies I would drive them around in the car until they all went to sleep and then carefully and quietly bring them in the house, just praying that they wouldn't wake up during the transition to their bed. After almost 3 years of that routine I realized that I just couldn't keep doing it anymore. So, I would put them in their room (they all share a room) and hope for the best. Most days they would start playing together and not go to sleep. So, I would end up disciplining and sitting in their room making them be quiet until they all fell asleep. This is just how things have been at our house and I didn't know what else to do, but I also knew that I hated it and it wasn't working.
Last week I received a book that my wonderful husband ordered for me and it has changed our naptimes! The book is called Managers Of Their Homes. It is a Christian book geared at homeschooling families, but you don't have to be a homeschooling family to benefit from it (we are sending our kids to public school). The book is all about schedules for you and your children, but it also gives lots of tips on how to make your lives run smoothly. One of the tips in the book is to put your children down for naps in different rooms (if they share a room at night). This way they can't play with their siblings and they're more likely to rest. I decided to give it a shot last Monday and I cannot tell you the difference it has made. Reece still sleeps in the crib in their room, but now Seth sleeps on the bed in my room and Wyatt sleeps on the couch. Seriously, I put them all down in their naptime sleeping spots and they are all asleep with in 10 minutes.
Another great thing about this little set up is that it keeps me from falling asleep in their room while I try to get them to sleep and because Wyatt is on the couch it keeps me from plopping down in front of the TV. So, I am getting a lot more done while they nap too.
I highly recommend the book to anyone needing some more structure and sanity in their home. It really is wonderful.

Muffin Tin Monday and some special guests

This week there was no theme for Muffin Tin Monday. We had mini turkey sandwhiches (on Hawaian Rolls), Veggie Straws, Peanut Butter Filled Pretzels, Pineapple, Strawberries and Cottage Cheese.
We also had a couple of special guests join us for lunch; The Flash and two Ninja Turtles.

Stop by Her Cup Overfloweth and check out other Muffin Tin Meals.

Autobots Rule the World

My boys haven't seen the movie, but they love Transformers. Seth got the Bumblebee Helmet and Gun for his birthday and they've had the Optimus Prime Helmet for a while. They play with them ALL the time. It's nice to have defenders of the universe in our very own home.

Big News

I've posted this on Facebook, but forgot to post it here. We're expecting the baby on February 16th!

Fun in the Sprinklers

Several nights ago it super hot and the boys were tired of being inside. So, we set up the sprinkler for the first time and they had a blast. I also brought out the Spongeballs from last summer and they had fun throwing those too (they decided to peg me with them too).

Watermelon Granita

The boys love watermelon; Wyatt asks for it every single time we go to the grocery store. However, I hate buying it because we never seem to be able to eat it all and so we end up throwing it out and wasting it. A few nights ago I made Watermelon Granita, now we will have no trouble finishing up watermelons!

Watermelon Granita:

4 cups cubed watermelon (or just use a melon baller)

1/2 cup sugar

Juice of two limes.

Blend all ingredients in a blender until liquid. Pour into a baking dish and place in freezer. Stir with a fork every 30 minutes until slushy. Serve with a spoon in some cute glasses! You could even serve it with extra lime wedges.

Cousin Adelynne

Last week the boys got to meet their cousin, Adelynne, for the very first time. Let me just tell you that the were completely in love the moment that they saw her. Who could blame them, she's so stinkin' cute!! They loved playing with her and trying to help their Aunt Janaye take care of her. Wyatt even made a comment about it being really hard work to take care of babies. I just smiled thinking about when I had a newborn, 1 year old, and a two year old. Those were the days : )

Muffin Tin Monday, Copy Cat Theme

This weeks theme for Muffin Tin Monday was Copy Cat. We were supposed to look at other Muffin Tins from other families and copy one that we really liked. When I originally saw the fishing themed Muffin Tin that Michelle did over at Her Cup Overfloweth I knew the boys would love it and I was waiting for the opportunity to share it with them. I was right and they loved "fishing" for their food.
In our Muffin Tin we had crushed graham crackers sand at the beach, chocolate and cheddar goldfish crackers, banana starfish, pretzel stick fishing poles, blue sprinkle water, and peanut butter bait. The boys dipped the pretzels in the peanut butter and then stuck it to whatever they wanted to fish out to eat.
If you haven't participated in Muffin Tin Monday, you definitely should. You can check it out over at Her Cup Overfloweth.

Happy Birthday Seth!!!!

Happy 4th birthday little dude. You've come a long way from premie days in the NICU. You love to sing for anyone that asks and you are an awesome brother. You've also got your own rockin' style, including your love of "dino" hair (aka the mohawk). I love that you still want to cuddle every morning (even when your brothers are playing). You give everything you do 110% and I can't wait to see what God does with all the passion you have in your heart.

Muffin Tin Monday

I took a break from blogging about our Muffin Tin Monday Meals, although we've still been having them every week, but I decided to start blogging them again.
This week we had watermelon, tomatoes, grapes, cheese quesadillas, and Winnie the Pooh Crackers, as well as some milk. My kids love eating their lunch out of muffin tins, so if you're looking for a fun way to have a meal with your kids you should definitely try it. There's group of mom's over at Her Cup Overfloweth and they share their Muffin Tin meals every week. Sometimes there's a theme and sometimes there isn't. It's just a fun thing to do with the kids.

Camping Trip

We took our first camping to Inks Lake this last weekend and it was great. We swam, fished, hiked, roasted hot dogs and marshmellows and slept in a tent. I can't wait to do it again (when it is a little cooler).

This sneaky squirrel stole Wyatt's breakfast

The boys didn't catch anything, but they sure had fun trying

Swimming in the lake at Devil's Waterhole

Yes, I actually cooked eggs and sausage on an stove in the great outdoors

Jerad enjoyed the s'mores

The boys enjoyed the s'mores too