Jade, Cutter and me

My Kids

2012-01-01T08:53:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of the year, look how cute and young they looked. Jade had just turned four here.

Cutter was just at the scooting from here and there stage, but not actually walking. Not quite a year old here.

Then summer finally came (it was really late last year!) And suddenly Jade is this big four year old, doing swim classes and gymnastics and asking every day if we can play with friends or go to the park

Cutter starts walking around 15months and is into EVERYTHING and clearly loving his more mobile life!
At the end of 2012 Jade is clearly an old four, her play time with her friends is a big deal to her and she gives her girlfriends hugs good bye and hello. She enjoys AWANA, school and helping me around the house
Cutter starts talking a bit more, instead of just "Dada and Momma" he also says "baby" and "ni night" starting to sound out words like more "mooo" and please, "peas" and thank you "ank ou" He pretty much runs every where, in his little toddler toddle run

It's so much fun to see the progression of my kids in just a years time. Not just physical differences but even the way they interact with friends and family. Love my little bundles and can't wait for another fabulous year with them!

Oh, and here is my superman opening gifts at Christmas. The spoon rest is a joke gift, but I love that I captured his obvious enthusiasm over the gift. hee, hee

He's grown and been amazing this year too. With all his responsibilities as CEO of the Freedom Foundation, you'd think the man would go batty and never have time for his hot wife and wonderful kids. But he does and clearly has tried very hard to keep family first. I appreciate his dedication and the sacrifices he makes and I'm so proud of his accomplishments, and through it all that he can still strike an awesome pose at Christmas over a spoon rest! haha!

A little end of year post

2011-12-31T12:51:00.000-08:00

Since my last post in September Jade has truly excelled in school. She loves everything about it and then some.

We only do school Mondays and then Wed-Fri for around an hour, hour and half. Because of this, many afternoons Jade is asking me "is it school time yet?"

We just started reading the week of Christmas, and Jade is very excited for school break to be over so we can hit the books again.

In cooking updates, there have been many new recipes I've tried, and loved. Ones I've actually remembered to take pictures of are as follows:

Pumpkin mousse pie

Starbucks inspired Pumpkin Spiced Cupcakes

Now, this one I can't say I really "loved" it, but it gets an honorable mention because it was the first (and perhaps last) time I ever cooked with quinoa. Granted, I was missing many of the ingredients for the recipe, so that may be why it wasn't my favorite thing ever. LOL

Quinoa Cakes

Cranberry Salsa with cream cheese

Coconut Chocolate pie

I don't have a recipe for this one, as it was a combination of ideas. A devils food chocolate cupcake with meringue frosting and just a piece of chocolate and graham cracker. I had owned a small cooking torch I would have toasted the tops to make it more like a s'more :-) On my wish list!

This is also a combination of ideas. I took a cinnamon bun recipe from my Mother-in-law and then twisted the dough up like a tree. Made a little glaze and added sprinkles for the kids:-)

And then, there is this cake. I'll attach the link for what I was attempting to copy but sadly this cake did not come close to what I had hoped.

I made this for a friend's baby shower, and it was a very last minute plan. Thus, I didn't really do any research on the actual cake recipe I used and didn't even scroll down on the inspiration link to see what the real recipe was.

So my "chocolate" cake turned out very, very, very, dry and very, very, very bland. The frosting was good, and the malt balls were fabulous. But I did run out of malt balls and had to use whoppers. Which, are nice...but the real malt balls had a LOT more chocolate coating, and thus, more delicious.

Also, not pictured, was right before I boxed it up, I brushed the top of the malt balls with edible gold dust powder. See the inspiration link for why:-)

I'm not gonna lie, there were a lot of "ball" jokes thrown around at this shower when they saw the cake. hee, hee....we are a mature bunch of women.

Malted milk ball chocolate cake

With this year now coming to a close, there are a few things I'll continue to look forward to. Spending as much as time possible with my wonderful family, continuing to workout and be fit (despite the lack of weightloss, lol), continuing to eat healthy, and finding LOTS and LOTS of wonderful, new recipes to try at home (thanks mostly to pintrest!)

My resolutions for the new year is to continue to spend time in the word and in prayer every day!

Continuing to workout four days a week

Make smart food choices

Spend time with friends and family as much as possible (this I know I can keep!)

And avoid gossip and negative conversations

I'm excited to see what this New Year holds and can't wait for it to get started!

Kindergarten

2011-09-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

One year ago I started Jade in homeschool Preschool

Even though she is half a year to young to start Kindergarten, we decided to go ahead and start her early anyway. She's been teaching herself how to read this summer, learned to count to 100 just for fun and has been aching to return to school, daily asking me "is it Fall yet".
So here we are, one year later and just as eager as she was at 3.5yrs. LOL
baby Cutter isn't so much a baby any more, and while he took his morning nap during our school hour (yes, just one hour...though tomorrow we may need to go longer. Jade was disappointed when I told her we were done) he too was eager to start a new year!
we are doing some sing, spell, read and write for Phonics, here Jade is coloring away on what she called the "easy page" LOL

I don't post any more:-(

2011-08-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

It's kind of a bummer I don't feel like posting any more. With facebook so many of my immediate blog needs are met, that I don't really care to post pictures and update my blog.

I guess most casual bloggers drift away after a few years, so my time has come.

Sometimes I think I'd like to turn this into a food journal, post pics of all the new recipes I try. Like recently trying Giada's Lemon Hazelnut Tiramisu ,
but sadly, though I probably try a new or super yummy recipe at least once a week, I'm awful about taking pics of said food, and defiantly bad about the step by step process. I enjoy cooking, but I'd rather have someone watching over my shoulder taking pics, then break up the blissful routine of making my meal. lol

Anyway, I don't plan on deleting my blog, cause you knows, maybe I will update it every 6mons or so, and I'd hate to lose all the wonderful pictures of the past that I've posted on here.

I guess I'll see what happens:-)

Mantou or steamed rolls

2011-07-30T08:26:00.000-07:00

I hosted bookclub at my home last night. Every time we meet we try to provide foods that were talked about in the book or are some how related to the book.

Our book club read "Safely home" which mostly takes place in China. While googling "traditional chinese foods" I came across the blog "Almost Bourdain". I immediately fell in love with the recipes chronicled there and decided to try her Mantou, or steamed buns.

While my pictures are not as beautiful, nor my result as perfect. I'm very excited about my first attempt at steamed buns (which, like Almost Bourdain, I did deep fry half my batch and served them with condensed milk)
I think one of my favorite things about this recipe, is needing to borrow my neighbors kitchen scale to measure the ingredients.
When not given to me in "cups" and "teaspoons" I do find myself very lost. However, measuring my sugar and yeast and flour, using a kitchen scale, I did feel like a culinary master and can't wait to try another recipe that requires measuring weight, apposed to volume:-)

if you try this same recipe, I recommend not trying to fit four rolls in your steamer at a time. Instead, copy "Almost Bourdain" and do just three. When they steam cook, they rise even more and mine stuck together a bit.

I wish I had take a picture of the inside for you to see. Perhaps mine were slightly over cooked, but they were still fairly fluffy on the inside. The deep fried ones were perfectly golden and crisp on the outside and the milk added just the right amount of sweetness to each bite.

It was well worth the effort and was a surprisingly simple roll to make. I will be making these again!

I also served my guests, beef and broccoli with steamed rice and Singapore noodles with beef instead of chicken. Oh and I also managed to find, pre-made chocolate covered fortune cookies with little love fortunes inside:-)

pics

2011-07-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

This was taken about two weeks ago. We are starting the beginning stages of potty training. hee, hee
Here is Fourth of July, around 8am, kids doing "poppers" in the front yard. Good morning neighbors!

Jade doing a cute little "Cheese" face

Cutter at the fourth of July festival:-)

This was taken today at a "Tangled" birthday party Jade was invited to. All the little girls got braids and flowers in their hair.

Some pictures from this week

2011-06-30T08:11:00.000-07:00

With no plans yet made for my day, I've spent the morning just playing around on the computer. I thought I'd post some pictures from this week that I'd taken on my phone.

Jonathan took me on a date last Friday, we played a round of miniature golf and then bought the largest bucket of golf balls we could get and practiced our very poor golf swing till our arms were tired. LOL

Jade was invited to a gymnastics birthday party on Sunday. I'm thinking I need to sign her up for Gymnastics, the girl was going wild! Here she is getting ready to jump into the pit full of foam blocks

and the action shot

Cutter is in a silly stage of discovery. Jade has a toy egg that he found and attempted to keep on his head while running across the living room.

"see mom, it's half an egg"

he found walking kept it on his head, but running made it fall off.

Jade in all her fabulous-ness

Showing Cutter how she can balance the egg on her head on one foot! She's amazing;)
Monday I got to watch a friends two children. The two girls spent the entire day playing together and while the boys were very different in age...they too spent the day together. Here Kameron is teaching his very eager student about the tiny piano

snack time feeding. I may need to hire Kameron out from now on, he kept Cutter happily distracted most of the day!

I recently started buying free range, farm fresh, eggs from a friend of mine. She was short an egg in the dozen I bought from her on Sunday. Her husband said they'd give me an extra egg this week "but let me know if you get a double yolk...cause then we won't need too" (joking) and what do you know...I got a double yolk!! hahaha!
So there ya have it.

Watermelon!

2011-06-29T16:37:00.000-07:00

I know I posted these pics on Facebook already, but they are so sweet I had to post them on here to. Plus, we've had so few sunny days this summer...and it's another rainy one today...I needed to post something to remind me that I do love living in Washington.

Cutter enjoying his little slice of heaven

Jade says watermelon is one of her favorite things

sheer bliss

My cannoli's

2011-06-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

I made cannoli's a few years ago for a friends get together. They turned out "okay" but nothing fabulous. This time around I did a lot of searching for a really good cannoli recipe (which I found) and I borrowed my friends pasta maker for perfectly rolled dough (same thickness all around). My dough came out perfectly and the pasta maker was a dream to work with!
the cannoli's were for an International potluck event at our church, I made 40 bite sized cannoli's (the recipe below I just doubled and it was more then enough)
every last one of my cannoli's were gobbled up before I could sit down and enjoy my dinner (at the potluck), so lucky for me I had extra pastry dough at home to make more for myself and friends.

cannolis
makes 16 servings.

shells
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 eggs plus 2 yolks
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup marsala
1 egg white, beaten
oil, for frying

filling
1 lb whole milk ricotta, drained
3 Tbsp confectioner’s sugar
1/4 lemon, juiced (optional)
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)
mini chocolate chips (optional)

1. make the shells: place the flour mixer. In a separate bowl mix eggs, yolks, butter and marsala, pour into flour and mix on low for just a few minutes. Dough should be smooth and moist. let rest, covered with a damp cloth, about 30 minutes in the refrigerator. roll the dough very thin and cut into 4-inch circles or which ever size you wish (I used a biscuit cutter for small cannoli's)

2. loosely wrap the dough circles around the cannoli tubes and seal the overlap with beaten egg white. deep fry at 325F until golden brown. remove from oil and carefully slide off the tubes. cool on a wire rack.

3. for the filling, drain the ricotta in a cheesecloth-lined colander in the refrigerator for at least an hour (overnight works best). whip in the confectioner’s sugar with a fork. just adding sugar keeps the ricotta flavor very pure, but for a more varied flavor, add the lemon juice and vanilla.

4. in a pasty bag (or a sandwich bag with the corner snipped), pipe the filling into the shells just before serving. sprinkle with chocolate chips and serve!

My kiddos

2011-06-08T08:42:00.000-07:00

The past few mornings jade has been entertaining the newly "put in a booster seat at the table" Cutter with funny antics, quotes from her favorite films and has really put in an effort to teach him how to speak "Say STRAW-BERRY...strawberry!". I decided to film some of it this morning to share with you all

Memorial day 2011

2011-05-31T19:31:00.001-07:00

While some families took their children to parades, some did BBQ's and gathered with family and friends...we, well, we took our kiddos to the children's museum for some hands on play-time and learning.

Here Jade is selling tickets to a fabulous show
She sold her tickets for $6 each, in case you are wondering...
and what do you know, it was to hear her sing...live!
Cutter was a fan of the pastry counter. He manned that booth till I made Daddy move him to another.
and that would be the meat counter. He was a big fan of the lobster and mussels.
after picking apples and harvesting vegetables, Jade tried her hand at ambulance driving. She multi-tasks well (EYE's on the ROAD!)
The emergency response life wasn't Jade's favorite. She favored (like Cutter) something that involved two of her loves. Bread and driving. So she and Cutter drove around in the bread delivery truck.
stopping to make a delivery.
All that pastry and bread made Dad and Mom hungry, so after the museum, we went out to lunch!

Cutter's new hat

2011-05-30T10:08:00.000-07:00

Cutter is not a fan of hats, at all. So when on a recent trip to Marshall's he spent the entire visit wearing a baseball cap he found on a low enough hanging display...I decided to splurge and buy him the $3 baseball cap.

He'll only keep it on a for a few minutes at a time, but I'm trying to get him use to wearing one. Summer is nearly here and we've had a fun sunny days. It would be nice if his delicate skin were more properly protected. Plus...I took him bike riding the other day and he half way through the ride he went a bit crazy due the fact he couldn't get the bike helmet off his head. So it's really all about his safety, not the cute, fashion factor that I'm trying to get him use to wearing hats.

Well...and he just looks so cute when he wears one!

NW Trek

2011-05-22T06:48:00.000-07:00

With the past week full of beautiful sunny days, a friend and I decided we'd finish off our sunny week with a trip to NW Trek! It was the first time for me, so I was pretty excited...apparently, so were the kids!
okay, here is a more normal picture.
amazing tree stump...very old.
on the tram checking out Bison, caribou, rams, deer and other random wildlife.
Bison with baby!
lunch time and stretching of the legs time
don't ask me what they were doing. LOL
having fun in the great outdoors!
ooo...Cougar...
inthralled.
bears
in the activity center, checking out the "Bee" chair
I have two baby bees
We had a great time at the park, and it was the perfect end to our sunny week. We went on Friday and Saturday...we got clouds:-(

had to capture some video of my little guy walking!

2011-05-18T16:33:00.000-07:00

French Macaroons

2011-05-03T10:42:00.000-07:00

I tried my hand at French Macroons today! Check it out here to see the results. Can't wait to try again to get a smoother texture!

Happy Easter...and Easter cupcakes

2011-04-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

So last time I posted I said I wanted to try to copy the Trophy cupcakes "Hi Hat" cakes. So last night I attempted them. A yummy devils food cupcake for the bottom and then whipped up some marshmallow meringue for the frosting.
considering I planned on dipping these in melted chocolate...in hinds sight...I wish I had made the meringue a bit stiffer.
Because dipping was a problem. Either it smashed my beautiful ice-cream design, or it pulled half of the frosting off. In the end I just drizzled a ton of chocolate over the top and refrigerated the cupcakes.
this is what my first attempted looked like after trying to dip in chocolate.
and my second. While it was much better, it flattened the frosting and the whole point of a "hi hat" cupcake is to have really high frosting. But that's okay, next time I make these they will be amazing! LOL (they taste great, btw)
So now to Easter. Here Jade is saying "Happy Easter, praise the Lord"
and here she is holding her basket, eagerly awaiting egg hunting.
Cutter had no interest in his basket, just the egg with fruit gummies he found inside. LOL
Here is my handsome family right before heading off to church!
We'll be spending our Easter dinner with a bunch of friends, complete with an Easter egg hunt that will have over 200 eggs to find:)

I want this cupcake!

2011-04-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

Still on my cupcake kick I was browsing some cupcake websites and found the info about a Seattle Cupcake company Trophy Cupcakes. For one, sort of two, days only they offer their Hi-Hat cupcake for Easter. You can pre-order (for $4 a cupcake) these amazing confections...or....I could try to make them myself with cheaper products but get the same effect?
I'm now on a mission. I plan on using just a plain chocolate cupcake recipe and will be attempting my own pastel marshmallow frosting. Then using some kind of delicious baking chocolate I want to hand dip and serve to my family for Easter. I'm pretty sure I could make two dozen for less then $96:-) Perhaps I should only try for a dozen though...these may be a bit time consuming! LOL Will post if I master this. And if not...I may be heading up to University Village to sample these rare specialties myself!

Feeling Easter treats

2011-04-16T16:06:00.000-07:00

This past week I have some how been bombarded with Easter cupcake recipes. Either through random blogs my husband saw, or a new cupcake business starting up in town, or various magazines I've flipped through showing great Easter cupcake inspiration. So...with friends on their way over for dinner. I decided to spoil us all with some fun Easter cupcakes.
Milk chocolate cupcakes with vanilla butter cream frosting. These below are topped with toffee bits and little peeps marshmallows.

Cadbury creme egg cupcakes complete with an entire cadbury cream egg baked inside the cupcake. Topped with vanilla butter cream frosting and a milk chocolate cadbury egg.
proof there is an entire creme egg in my cupcakes.
It's gonna be a good night;)

Art class Wednesday's

2011-04-14T10:23:00.000-07:00

I had taken a break from Art class due to illness and a crazy schedule. But now, we are back at it.

Yesterday were two little projects centered around Easter. We read the Easter story and talked about what God has done in our lives. We decorated cross shaped foam chains and did tape art with flower and easter egg shapes.

The kids are becoming quite the little artists!

Here is a picture of Jade's foam cross chain that we hung in the living room
and all three of the tape art pictures

Matching girls

2011-04-07T12:44:00.000-07:00

Jade and I sported our matching t-shirts. Thanks to Target and their wonderful clearance section (seriously $1.24...how could I say no?)

We even wore our jeans jackets earlier in the day. Thankfully the sun has been peaking in and out all morning, so we were able to spend some time outdoors...with NO jackets! Perhaps spring is on it's way!

Monkeying around

2011-04-06T12:45:00.000-07:00

Jade likes to pull up a chair, sit at a table, and play with her toys in a very organized manner. Cutter is at the age where following and copying everything Jade does, is his top priority. So when I asked Jade to play with Cutter I shouldn't have been surprised to find them both sitting at chairs playing together.
looks like someone is up to something.
Jade is becoming quite the photographer. Here she takes a picture of herself
and a picture of Cutter and me!

New make-up that has me smiling

2011-04-06T12:16:00.000-07:00

My dear girlfriend, Kristen, bought me the E.L.F. 32 Eyeshadow collection at Target 2 weeks ago. I'm in love. With so many color choices, my eye's are getting a fabulous new make over every day! (First I was Cleopatra, than I was smoldering and sexy, next I was pink and cute, etc)
Right before I got the fabulous new eye color set, I had gotten a free sample of Sephora's "Hello Kitty" glittercute purple eye liner.

What can be more fabulous then a big chunky pencil, in a flattering plum shade...filled with tiny sparkles? NOTHING! My eye's look amazing even if all I'm wearing is this liner and mascara.

Still...getting to play with 32 eye shadow's is to good to pass up. To bad my baby (and husband) have been sick for nearly a week. Or else the world would be getting to see my eye lids and all their fabulous-ness. Next week world. Watch out!

Jade's first trip to the dentist

2011-04-05T11:49:00.000-07:00

Perhaps I am a bit behind in taking Jade to her first dentist trip, but at 4 years old she was VERY eager to go to her very first appointment.

Her hygienist was amazing, super sweet and talked about every aspect of the cleaning process. Even let Jade hold and use the "slushy" tool to suck out her own mouth. hee, hee. Jade had fun with that.

She was happy to have the "sunglasses" and told the lady that she had brought her own too (which she had, even though it was raining outside).

The only thing that didn't go as Jade imagined was the attempt at taking X-rays. When Jade failed to chomp down on the film correctly, on the third try, the hygienist told her she didn't have to do it. With that Jade burst into a fountain of tears. Bewildered the lady kept assuring Jade she didn't have to do the xrays, that's when I jumped in and told Jade she wasn't bad by not doing the xray properly. Jade said, through a flood of tears, "I just want to do it right the first time, and I can't!"

We tried it again, one more time, and assured Jade it wasn't a big deal and we'd do it again next visit.

here she is being shown the special tool used to make her teeth "shiny"
and away we go
Jade was pretty happy with her new tooth brush, her two "I went to the dentist" stickers and actually picked out a tiny G.I Joe doll from the treasure box as her special prize.

After we left she said "that was fun Mom, let's go again tomorrow"

Just a little update

2011-04-04T09:51:00.000-07:00

This past Wednesday was busy for us, running errands, going to the library (we tried to catch a reading of "Alexander and the horrible, no good, very bad, day" we were late).
Daddy was on a short business trip in Oklahoma, so while he was gone we bought/watched "Tangled" and ate snack-y foods for every meal! (healthy snacks mind)

When Daddy got back he presented Jade with a new cowboy hat! Boy was she thrilled!
Cutter, not so much. He's not really a hat person
Unfortunatly, Cutter was sick on Thursday and then Daddy was sick all weekend. I thought my baby was over his cold...but I thought wrong. My baby still has the flu:-( Here he is in his figure flattering pj's.
I'm cleaning like a mad lady (something about sickness really helps kick up my game), doing laundry and holding my baby whenever he isn't sleeping. Thankfully jade seems healthy as a horse. Up beat, and happy as can be. She really is my little gem right now:-)

Cutter's first birthday!

2011-03-21T13:51:00.000-07:00

5 years baby!

2011-03-18T08:35:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe that five years ago today Jonathan and I said our "I do's".

And look at us, so cute and as happy and silly as ever. (this picture was taken this Fall)
Two kids, two cars, two homes, one state, new job (well, promotion), tons of wonderful friends...it's been a good five years. Thank you Lord for blessing us! Looking forward to the next five years and plenty more after that!

Crazy hair day and St. Patricks

2011-03-18T08:26:00.000-07:00

Jade got to have her first sleep over on Wednesday night (while Mommy and Daddy were on a super cool Anniversary date) with her friends Ashlynn and Drew. It also, just so happened, to be "Crazy Hair" night at AWANA. So my good friend, Amber, did up the kiddos in funky hair with colored hair spray!!!
Home again on St. Patricks day, I spent most of the afternoons working while the kids napped. When they got up, we still had grocery shopping and errands to do. How boring:( To make it a bit more fun, I painted up my kiddos as tiny Irish babes. With freckles and rainbow/shamrock paint! LOL

yes, we got a lot of stares and pointing at the grocery store. Eat your heart out, people who just put on green shirts. LOL

2011-03-11T10:18:00.000-08:00

My Jade is 4 my Cutter is 11 months and today it snowed ALL DAY!

2011-02-24T18:05:00.000-08:00

I wanted to do a post about Cutter being a month away from a year. But today it snowed all day and Jade got to spend most of the day outside eating snow and making snow angels. She is VERY happy:)
Cutter hasn't spent much time outside in the snow yet, but he enjoys watching Jade play
there is my little bug, all grown up...er...growing up...
And me:)
To see Jade at 11mons go here

Craft Day

2011-02-21T17:35:00.000-08:00

inspired by this post I attempted to get the kiddos to do some scrap paper art.
at first they were really excited...but as they realized just how tedious the task was...their attention spans quickly dwindled. lol
here is Kyri's
Emma's
Jade's
Stacia's

I am currently painting my nails

2011-02-09T10:35:00.001-08:00

Aphrodite's Pink Nightie

gearing up for Valentine's day!

clay bowls and football tarts...er puffs:-)

2011-02-09T10:27:00.000-08:00

So I am a few days behind in my posting, but I thought I'd have a completed project to show by now. For Art/craft Monday Jade and I modeled together some heart shaped bowls. We just used our fingers and air drying modeling clay. Tomorrow (or later today) we plan on painting them, letting them dry and filling them with heart shaped candies for Valentine's day!
For super bowl sunday my little boy was getting over a cold/ear infection. So me and the kiddos stayed home while Daddy went to a Super bowl party. But, not before we sent him off with some manly treats:-) (we filled them with organic strawberry jam...yum!)

Sometimes I love JoAnn Fabrics

2011-02-05T11:23:00.000-08:00

Today I had to go to JoAnn's for some modeling clay (art class on MONDAY!) and couldn't pass up the 60% off home decor. See my new pictures? I LOVE them! They don't go with my very "classic" styling to my home...but I think I'll just "change it all" and go with this funky modern-ish flare. Hee, hee

Baby food

2011-02-04T14:12:00.000-08:00

While Jade was at a friends house for movie day and Cutter was napping the morning away. I decided to whip up some baby food. For lunch, some oven roasted carrots with whole garlic and olive oil and for snack time (when baby woke up) some pan fried plantains
If you have never fried up your own plantain chips, I'd highly recommend the scrumptous snack. Cutter ADORES these. Granted, they are fried and sprinkled with a bit of salt...so how could he not love them?
When their near being done (nice and golden) I flatten them a bit with a spatula. Then let them dry out on a paper towel and sprinkle (lightly) with kosher salt.

yum! My house smells warm and delicious!

Raspberry pancakes with bananas and maple syrup

2011-02-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

I'm getting excited about Valentines day. Not because I'm such a hardcore romantic that the idea of a day set aside, each year, just to celebrate love thrills me. No, instead I'm excited because I have a four year old daughter who loves Princesses and dress up, and red is her favorite color and telling her friends how much she loves them is one of her top priorities in life. And this year, she is looking forward to Valentines day!

Not to mention, my brother, his wife, and their two daughters and son will be visiting here in Washington and I'll get to have a whole passel of kiddos to celebrate Valentines day with!

With Valentine's day on the brain, our morning breakfast was thus inspired.

Raspberry pancakes (regular buttermilk pancakes in which I dumped a whole bunch of raspberries in) with sliced bananas and 100% pure maple syrup drizzled on top. YUM!

That combined with my hazelnut flavored coffee creamer coffee...and my morning has been off to a good start.

Oh, and I have a really cool neighbor who was able to stop by and got to indulge in our little morning treat as well. Then she carted off my daughter to go watch a movie for "movie morning friday!". And here I am, home with a sleeping 10mon old...writing a blog post about pancakes. What could be better?

Painting day

2011-02-01T16:17:00.000-08:00

Today for our "art/craft" class, we talked about words beginning with the letter "c", we read a book on being a princess and we created tiny crowns out of old paper towel rolls

here our girls are modeling them

and then we spent some time just doing a bit of free style painting:)

Vogue braid

2011-02-01T08:14:00.000-08:00

Do you have a Vogue catalog on hand? Turn to page 177 of the February issue. It's the photo spread on "Gangs of New York". I can't stop looking at the girl in the long, white, lace, ralph lauren dress with the riding hat and messy braid. I would like to be her for a day. Or an hour. Or a moment. Anyway....I was all inspired to copy her messy hair braid, but I have found, that braids are not something I am gifted in doing (Jade's poor pig tail braids are living proof of this)

But, since I have a great sense of humor and a killer "photo booth" app on my Mac...I've posted pics of myself. Enjoy!

this is the dress, btw...but not the hair do

Oh wait, duh, I can just take a picture of the picture! Here ya go!

and the lighting is better out here, so another picture of my fabulous hair. do you see how is glows with the morning sunlight bouncing off it's luscious...lusciousness?

I made Risotto tonight!

2011-01-31T19:12:00.000-08:00

I had bought arborio rice a few weeks ago with high aspirations to make some tasty risotto with it. And...I never did.

So today, I decided I'd go ahead and make some. I've never made it before, I was scared off by people telling me how time consuming it is. I no longer had the ingredients needed for the original recipe I wanted to try

so I used this Red Wine Risotto with Peas recipe and just didn't add the red wine, the onions or the fresh parsley. LOL

it still tasted really good. Cutter loved it, Jade loved, I loved it...Jonathan liked it. hahaha! And, I found the 40min it took to cook, I was able to make Italian chicken and a tasty salad, and still spent my usual amount of time cooking dinner in the kitchen. I will be trying new risotto recipes in the future!

2011-01-31T15:02:00.000-08:00

I don't think I ever really thought I'd be that Mom who could only post pictures of her adorable children and the life that only seems to revolve around them. And yet, almost all my blog posts are about something precious and adorable that they have done (or someone's birthday, lol). It's not a bad thing, I just am surprised when I see that I really am "that" mom. *grin*

So in attempt to show myself I can post about my children AND myself. Here is a picture of one the many activites that make my life so much fun. I am apart of "Christian Fiction" book club. We meet once a month to "talk" about the book we have read (or I have attempted to read) and play games and eat food. Back when we started this club (was it in May?) We started a tradition to cook food for our get together that was talked about in the book. In some cases it has made coming up with food difficult. This last book we read, "The Shape of Mercy" one of the only foods discussed (well...I guess there was some fancy brie and thanks to Julie we were served delicious baked brie at our party) were eggs. So our meal was devils eggs and baked brie and an egg casserole
I love that I have this group of ladies, who most of which, love books, love God and love to read. I haven't been a fan of all the books we have read, but it doesn't even matter. Just hanging out makes it all worth while. (Oh and this last book was really sweet. Sad, sweet, interesting...I liked it, very cute)

I'm still apart of a women's bible study that meets on Wednesday mornings. Our last study forced us all to analyze our hearts and lives and I found nearly every meeting either I was in tears or someone else was. While it was a very good study, I'm REALLY enjoying doing a bible study on the book of Hebrews. I haven't cried yet! LOL

Tuesday's I attend MOPS. Love my ladies!

Jade enjoys going to AWANA and I'm teaching her Cubbies class:)

So I can't post without adding pictures of my kids. Here is a picture of Jade from a few days ago playing with her "magnetic" wooden paper dolls.
Cutter, from a few days ago, crawling rapidly after me as I tried to snap his picture before he ate the camera
Mornings when we are at home (so maybe 2-3 days a week) I spend doing school with Jade. We have an hour from 9-10am where Cutter usually naps. We work on her AWANA bible study verse, we say the pledge of Allegiance then we spend 20min working on spelling words the alphabet and whatever else I feel we should cover. Next is Math. Jade LOVES math "One more page Momma? One more page?"

Thursday morning's Jade goes to a friends for science class. And Mondays or Tuesday I teach a little craft class. I'm changing the theme of the craft class to art. We'll start working on more drawing and painting skills with some crafts thrown in. I'm very excited about that!

My husband brought home some flowers for me on Friday. They are unique enough I had to take a picture. I'm not sure what they are, and neither was he. But I love that they are so unconventional. I wish I had more tables and shelf space, I'd love for my home to overflow with beautiful plants.
Speaking on plants, all my little tulip bulbs think that spring is coming early. While I'm sure it's not coming any time soon, I can't help but get excited with the thought.
I've planned out my planting schedule for my little square foot garden and I'm anxious for the months to change so we can get planting.

Today is just a laundry and cleaning and errand running day. I do love my Mondays:-)

Birthday fun

2011-01-23T11:48:00.000-08:00

So my birthdays for this month were lots of fun. For Jonathan's birthday, on his actual birth day, we went to dinner and then a movie. Then yesterday (Saturday) we met up with some friends at Gameworks in Seattle and had fun playing like kids in an arcade.
Jade got to have a fun, monkey themed, party, where she got to invite "four" friends for her fourth birthday party. She also had a lot of fun...most likely a little movie of her special day will get posted on my blog:)
in other news, my homemade marshmallows turned out pretty yummy. They don't look like anything spectacular...but the pretend "foodie" in me, thinks I'm pretty amazing for having made them:-)

Jade is 4 today!

2011-01-22T13:24:00.000-08:00

my baby girl is four today! (no, we didn't buy her a boy bike for her birthday, just a cute pic). She had a monkey party and got to invite "four friends".

Can't believe it's already been four years! To see the post from the day she was born go here

It's my husband's birthday today!! Oh...and I'm attempting to make homemade marshmallows

2011-01-21T09:55:00.000-08:00

My man is 30 today. Look at him, all grown up. Just makes you want to look at baby picture albums doesn't it? Or post pictures in black and white? Here ya go
Look at us, our little family minus Cutter. This is us in Michigan at Christmas time...so long ago, back when my husband was only 29 *grin*

In other news...tomorrow is Jade's 4th birthday and I'm preparing some yummy snacks for the occasion. One of which is my first attempt at making homemade marshmallows. Apparently they have to sit overnight to dry out properly. So far I can tell you the batter tastes...A.MAZING!

You really should call before you come over...

2011-01-18T21:07:00.000-08:00

...because you never know if my kids will have clothes on or NOT! hahahahaha!

do you wanna come over and eat them yet? LOL

My little bunny

2011-01-18T21:02:00.000-08:00

Aunt Vicka brought Jade this adorable bunny hat, back from Russia with her. Gj and Vicka had a layover in Seattle for about 12hrs, and we were able to spend some time with them...and also be given some presents! At first Jade wasn't to keen on the hat...but now it's all I can do to keep it off her head! LOL
here my little bunny is outside near our little garden. Can you seem my garlic growing? I get to harvest it in March, I can't wait!

Work Christmas party

2010-12-20T06:07:00.000-08:00

Earlier this month Jonathan and I attended the Freedom Foundation's annual Christmas party. I just recently recieved a few fun snap shots from the affair. Here we are during the gift exchange, I believe Jonathan was gifted with some books on the Communist party (hee, hee,)
not satisfied to keep my gift I decided to go ahead and steal a fabulous "Santa" coffee mug from a wonderful Gentleman a few tables across. He obliged, only to open yet a second coffee mug about three times larger then I one I just stole. LOL
There was a bit of dancing. Jonathan and I, being Fred and Ginger, were naturals, of course.
and if desired, couples pictures were taken. "Cheese"
It was a really fun Christmas party!

My first little video using my new UltraHD Flip camera!

2010-12-14T12:24:00.000-08:00

What is this new life I have?

2010-12-12T09:35:00.000-08:00

My son is crawling and crawling well. I've gone from blissful Mother of two (ha.ha.) to crazy mother of TWO! Not that I can't handle it mind you. I'm just near crazy, exhausted and a nervous break down...but I CAN handle it.

This past week was one that tested my breaking points from every angle. With my husband, my children, my friends, my family...well, maybe not my family. I think the hype of getting ready for our family Christmas, events taking place EVERY day, multiple trips, babysitting, activities, preschool and the onsetting thoughts of preparation for our trips out East...I started freaking out. Freaking out bad.

Cutter crawling is just one of the many things on my list of first for this past week. And I have to say, the blissful ignorance that was my first child (she never got into anything naughty. My only "bad" picture of her was when she unrolled a toilet paper roll while trying to wipe her bottom) is being gently peeled away by my second. His precocious grin and contagious giggles and constant "aaa's!" have me laughing, not yelling, when he pulls down my bathroom beauty stand...but good grief. I'm thinking about investing in a miniature straight jacket just so I can have short breaks throughout the day.

We installed locks on our bathroom and kitchen cabinets when Jade started crawling. But they were never needed. They just proved to be an annoyance for all the adults trying to get into the cabinets. I told my husband to leave them since we knew one day we'd have a second child (er...hope to have a second child) and perhaps they would be useful. They. are. Cutter tried pulling out all the cleaning supplies while I was loading up the washing machine, and I was grateful his pudgy hands and the size of the bottle he was yanking at, equaled to thick a circumference to fit through the small slit that the cabinet lock provided. hee, hee

Saturday morning was our family Christmas (since we will be heading out East to visit Bechtle Sr. and Mangione's and Ridley's for multiple Christmas's). Leading up to this week I haven't had much time to breath. Not that it's anyone's fault but my own. I have a lovely habit of planning something or somewhere to go every day of the week. But this week it all culminated to a climax and I found myself crying out to God and my husband for a much needed break.

I think we found the break in what looks to be some baby colds for my children. While the colds themselves I am not thrilled about, they are my excuse to cancel everything from today till our trip on Wednesday. No MOPS, no shopping, no babysitting, no play dates, just home, cleaning, laundry, preschool, reading and playing with my kids and creativly figuring out what meals we can make with our limited supple (I don't want to buy more since we'll be gone for awhile!). I am sure by tomorrow afternoon I'll be clammering for a trip out, library, gas station, ANYWHERE. But some much needed bordom and stir craziness is needed. For my stuffy nosed kids and for my own sanity. LOL

Why am I typing this all out for the world to read? Because this is my blog and I rarely get to do personal updates. But today, my husband is vacuuming the house, my baby is napping and my girl is coloring beautiful pictures on her new art easel. So I have time. And I have no plans for now:)

I'm really looking forward to our trips East to see my family!

For our family Christmas my fabulous husband bought me a pair of tall boots and a new video camera!!! I've been wanting a new, small, simple, camera for months now and didn't dream I'd get one so soon! I'm thrilled. Already taking new film and looking forward to editing it down a bit and positing it for the world to see. I love making little home videos! And can I say HOORAY for boots!!! HOORAY!

I feel spoiled rotten and I'm thrilled!

Saturday afternoon we got to take Jade to see the Nutcracker. I LOVE the Nutcracker so really we were going for me. Jade enjoyed most of it, with a few moments of bordem and wishing she could talk through the show. I only saw Jonathan doze off for a few moments once or twice...and he said he enjoyed it as well. hee, hee.

Anyway, I think this is a long enough post for now. Just needed to talk out some of my thought, regroup and gear myself up for this week. Can't wait to have a boring few days and then off to see my FAMILY!

p.s. for those who don't know...this past month my husband was promoted and is now CEO of the Freedom Foundation...I'm pretty proud of him;)

Gingerbread Houses

2010-12-09T17:19:00.000-08:00

For our craft this week, still on a christmas and gingerbread kick, we tried our hand at making home made gingerbread houses. I used the same gingerbread dough recipe as I used for our gingerbread men last week. I didn't really let it cool in the fridge for very long, nor did I let the cut house pieces chill in the freezer for the recommended 15min (maybe 5) so if anyone tries this at home...don't skimp on that part. It helps to keep the dough from warping in the oven.

here is the first few steps, piecing the houses together. My icing was really watery but I had run out of powdered sugar. After the third houses third fall...I got the kids and we all ran over to a near by neighbors home and borrowed a cup of powdered sugar. That helped a lot!
perhaps there was more sampling going on then decorating, but the girls had a lot of fun. Ben (not shown) wasn't as excited. Perhaps it was because he had to share a house with his sister and didn't get his own to decorate:-(
here is Jade licking sprinkles off her fingers.
and poor Kyri was just adding the finishing flourish of sugar crystals when her house, once again, collapsed. Poor Kyrie!
Jade's stayed in place pretty well, but she didn't have as many candies on her roof (sampling ya know)

it was a lot of fun but also a LOT of work. I'm glad I'll only be attempting this once every year. LOL

2010-12-07T15:31:00.000-08:00

Crafts and cookies

2010-12-03T16:58:00.000-08:00

For craft day this week we painted glass ornament bulbs with glitter glue and tied stretchy plastic string through to hang them up.
Then we whipped up a batch of playdough and played around with cookie cutters and flour, like we were making actual cookies. A few of these treasures we attempted to dry out in the oven to make as playdough ornaments. I say attempted, because a few of them kind of exploded in the oven after I forgot I left them in there. hahaha

Then today, we had some other friends over and we made the most scrumptious batch of gingerbread cookies with royal icing ever!

after making a delightful mess in the kitchen/house, we went outside to burn off some of the sugar energy and Jade's friend, Tyler, let her try out his super cool "Toy Story" bike. However, this is a posed shot...she didn't actually pedal with it:) we are still working on getting her to ride the pink tricycle in the background. hahaha

We are all set for Christmas!

2010-11-29T16:18:00.000-08:00

Jade found the tree

and Cutter added the topper! LOL

A story of Thanksgiving pie

2010-11-28T16:55:00.000-08:00

...but first pictures of my kids. Here is Jade with her babysitter, Yumi, at the Taylor's home where we spent Thanksgiving.
and my little Cutter butterball rolling around while I attempted to make a....pie.
There once was a tricky ol' pie crust,

that I found on the website right here

it looked super tasty

this fabulous pastry

I thought I had nothing to fear!

but then I baked up this pastry

complete with baked weights and good cheer

It shrunk down quite sadly

and made me quite madly

I knew all my friends would just jeer
I baked it up twice and it failed me.

The pastry that took up my day

Now I feel like a failure

an old rugged sailor

I won't type the words I would say

But the caramel now ladies and gents'

Was delicious and worth 50 cents

the cream, oh how scrumptious

Made me feel scrumdidli-umptious

And turned out quite perfect, I'll say.

The pie when done was okay dear

I layered the bananas with cream

Then Jade helped drizzle

The caramel-lious fizzle
and this story is all but a dream.
The end.

hiccups, sounds, food

2010-11-23T09:03:00.000-08:00

He is 8months old today!

snow day, cherrios and giggles

2010-11-23T08:49:00.000-08:00

Jade playing in the snow

Cutters first time eating cherrios (and lovin it)

not so into the snow

Jade tickling cutter

Christmas PJ's from Grandma Bechtle

2010-11-21T19:44:00.000-08:00

Grandma Bechtle sent us a Christmas box this weekend. We got some new Christmas socks, now PJ's and a really cool multiple mini bundt pan for making yummy cakes this Christmas.

Jade was VERY excited to wear PJ's that came with attached "Feet" she said she is the big version of Cutter's pajama's now.
Cutter wasn't as excited, but he won't turn down a photo shoot...so here he is in pj's and super adorable bib! LOL

Craft day

2010-11-11T10:28:00.000-08:00

Jade and I started "craft day" a day early (Wednesday) by beginning to make a little red hat on our super dupery easy hoop knitter.
Jade really enjoyed this project on and off all day Wednesday (I did a few rows...okay...a lot of rows in between)
and then early this morning (Thursday) she helped me tie it off and try it on for size.
Red is Jade's favorite color after all:-)

Then today, for our "official Craft" time, we made little clay pot turkey's to celebrate Thanksgiving (we won't be able to meet for two weeks after today!) The kids did a great job tracing out their hands. I helped the girls with the cutting part, but Ben did everything on his own!

Cutter trying to Crawl video

2010-11-09T09:45:00.000-08:00

To see Jade at this same age crawling go here

Craft Day

2010-11-04T11:58:00.000-07:00

Today I only had the girls for craft day, so I was thrilled to get to do a more girly sewing craft. We made "tooth" pillows. The girls helped trace the patterns, cut out the fabric and attempted to do some of the embroidery to write out the word "tooth". They tried to help with sewing but in the end just methodically put away the straight pins while I sewed up their little squares.
When it came time to stuff their pillows, however, they were more then eager and did a fantastic job with zero help from me! Then I finished the tops for them and here they are!

They say "tooth" on the felt with a funky drawing of a molar:) Good job girls! Now you only have a wait a year or two or three before you actually get to use them!
in hinds sight, I think it would have been fun to have added a handle to these pillows so they would have the option to hang them on their bedpost or door...making it easier on the "tooth fairy" to make the switch;)

Dresses and a Dinosaur

2010-11-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

The day after Halloween I packed the kids in the car bright and early to check out clearance costumes. Jade was in desperate need of some more play dresses...and look what we found!

Southern Bell

Medieval Princess

Jade is thrilled with her new costumes for play time and I'm thrilled with the cheap prices:)

Jade has started to become a bit more artistic these days. We no longer have to ask if her stick figures are people or not. Her art work being proudly displayed on the fridge on a daily basis. This morning I heard her growling upstairs. I asked what she was playing and she said she was playing with her pet dinosaur. I said "what dinosaur?" She came running down the stairs and said "the dinosaur I made Mom!"

It really does look like a dinosaur right? LOL

Pumpkin parties and baby dedication

2010-10-24T14:48:00.000-07:00

In preparation for a pumpkin party we were to attend, Jade and I spent the day before, first decorating our pumpkin(s) and then cooking one and roasting the pumpkin seeds.
Then we took our fresh cooked pumpkin and turned in into pumpkin spiced whoopie pies. Yum!
The pumpkin party was super fun, with fresh pressed Apple cider...
...and JB is holding a freshly baked pumpkin fritter/donut
Then today, we were able to have Cutter dedicated, Mr. wiggle britches did pretty good during the prayer...
whoops, there he goes crazy...but now you can see Jadey Lady!
Here are some more pics of Cutter and Jade (and Jonathan) on Cutter's special day
Cutter is now seven months old. Time goes by quickly
The beautiful sweater and booties were made by Grandma Bechtle:)

Craft day

2010-10-21T14:08:00.000-07:00

My little craft class didn't meet this week so I wasn't as motivated to work on a craft project with Jade as I normally am. However, we did find some time to get out the glitter glue and work on coloring in Jade's "make your own" calendar kit. Then I found Jade's book that has idea's for little girls to "bejewel" everything and anything they own. She was given the book with the jewels as a present before Cutter was born (I think she got it at my baby shower). And I have avoided showing her how to use it. Until...today. Today we bejeweled one of her head bands. You can't see it to well in this picture, but she proudly placed three big, red, hearts on my headband...because "Red is my favorite Mommy!"
modeling for you all
and then it was Jade's turn to take a picture.

Pumpkin patch

2010-10-18T18:23:00.001-07:00

We went to the pumpkin patch over the weekend with some friends. It was a perfect Fall day, cool, crisp and SUNNY! Riding to the pumpkin patch was the highlight for Jade
I think Cutter enjoyed the tractor ride as well:)
Most of the pumpkins were either squashed or still a bit green, so we didn't find to many "good" ones. Still, it was fun searching for them.
Jade found and picked a flower while we were out, she is holding it in this pose.
After picking our pumpkins, feeding the goats, letting Jade slide down the super slide, we headed home. I put Cutter in his seat and took off his baseball cap, only to reveal is funny, sticking up, hat hair. Hee, hee...gotta love it!

Silly sock day at AWANA

2010-10-14T14:29:00.000-07:00

Jade is a Cubbie this year in AWANA and I have the privilege of being her cubbie leader. It's so much fun for me to see her interact with the other children, learn bible verses, play games and remember stories that were told weeks ago. Sometimes on AWANA nights there are silly themes for the kids to dress up as. One night we had "inside out and backwards" night, and we all had to wear our clothes inside out and backwards. Last night was "silly sock" night.

Jade and I tried to pull off a bit of santa's helper look with our stripped red and white socks (Jade's light up on the sides!) And then Jade told me we should pose serious and silly....so we did
I really love teaching in AWANA, but I love to see how excited Jade is to go even more!

My precious kiddos

2010-10-12T16:36:00.000-07:00

Today was one of those beautiful Fall days you want to take advantage of, go to the park, play outside...just be out in the wonderful, cool, sunshine. We didn't make it to the park but we did play outside for awhile. My little Cutter bug likes to sit in the grass and pull at leaves and twigs and eat them:)
Thankfully Jade is a big helper and kept trying to keep him from eating icky things.
this didn't bother him, he likes attention...he likes A LOT of attention. Some ladies in the MOPS nursery today accused me of entertaining him to much and that's why he can't sit still and must have constant attention. I thought it had something to do with him being human, but apparently not. hee, hee
Jade likes to play tennis the way you'd play ball. I throw the tennis ball at her and she swings at it with her racket. She wanted to pose for this pic and got upset with me when I snapped it while she was talking. I love my little diva.
She says the funniest things these days. When I repeat them it's never as funny, but in the moment I don't know where she comes up with these things.

She bit her lip yesterday and was crying. I tried to sooth her and asked her what happened "I bite myself" she sobbed" I bit myself with my sharp teeth!"

This morning while I was feeding Cutter and she was cooing over him, she put her arms as though she were rocking a baby and said "Wouldn't daddy be so cute if he were a tiny baby?" and then she started laughing.

She likes to talk about when she gets big, a few days ago she declared "I want to get big Mommy, I was to grow and be HUGE, just like you!"

I have to wrap this up as my baby is crying...but I just wanted to say that Cutter hasn't been to interested in food as of yet. But I did try him on some turnips yesterday and he actually seemed to like it! Turnips!

When gushing over this to my friend at the gym, she said "what are turnips?". hee, hee (Gym partner, if you read this...well...we'll talk later. I love you!)

Shrink art...it shrunk...and shrunk...

2010-10-07T10:26:00.001-07:00

I was so very, very excited to try shrink art with the kids today for our weekly craft. The kids were very excited too!
we picked out our designs and they all couldn't wait to watch their art shrink before their eyes.
Oh, it shrunk alright. Despite covering our little pieces with parchment paper and also trying without and trying a lower setting on the oven and a higher setting....our art didn't really shrink the way it was suppose to. These below were our best pieces.
and these were some of our worst :-(
not to be discouraged we spent the remainder of our craft time stringing animal shaped beads onto plastic string to make bracelets and necklaces. Perhaps I should have called on some professionals in trying the shrink art. LOL

Friday Craft Day

2010-10-02T15:27:00.000-07:00

This weeks Friday craft was making "finger kites" ours didn't quite work out very well, but the kids had a blast painting them.
After craft time we headed out to Lattin's Cider Mill to play around and...
feed the goats:)
we didn't have warm sunshine like the weather man predicted, but we still had a really great time!

Kale

2010-09-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

I often think of myself as a pretty healthy person, I feel I cook fairly healthy and I think I eat fairly balanced. However, I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to trying new vegetables. I don't say I'm to picky until I start going down the list of vegetables I won't eat: squash, mushrooms, eggplant, onions, etc.. Every now and then I get inspired by a new recipe and find myself sampling something new. But outside of that one recipe I'm clueless how to cook this new vegetable.

A few months back I was craving Olive Garden's Zuppa Tuscana and found a copy cat recipe for it online. The recipe I found called for "Kale". I had never cooked with Kale before and was unfamiliar with it's taste and texture. In the soup I found it to be DELICIOUS! I've since made the soup a handful of times, buying the large head of Kale sold at the store. However, outside of this recipe I don't know what to do with my Kale, and sadly my kale has gone bad before I've had time to finish the whole thing.

Right now I'm reading "The Jungle Effect" and I'm all inspired to go back to my roots (er...at least back to how Mom mom cooked when I was growing up) and start cooking and eating more healthfully.

Under the diet recipes recommended for Crete, Greece, I found an omelet recipe that called for...Kale!! I was so thrilled. I now have TWO recipes to cook with kale and both of them are FABULOUS!

I was thrilled to find I had all of these ingredients in my fridge this morning without needing to go to the market. If you want a super yummy omelet recipe that includes yummy kale...try this one!

Horta Omelet:

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups chopped kale (or swiss chard or spinach)

2 Tablespoons crumbled feta

3 or 4 eggs, lightly beaten

3 Tablespoons, kalamata olives, chopped

1 lemon wedge

saute garlic in olive oil until garlic is soft (not brown) add greens and stir till soft. Evenly distribute the greens on the bottom and then sprinkle with the feta, add eggs. Cook to your liking then top with olives and tiny bit of salt. After you serve squeeze a bit of lemon (really brings out the flavor) and enjoy with whole wheat toast or whatever you have. SO good!

Friday craft

2010-09-25T09:43:00.000-07:00

Pretty much everything that Mother Lode posts I want to do with Jade. Fridays are "craft day" that I do with Jade and two of her friends. Having her friends there help me to make sure the craft happens instead of putting it off.

Last week we did Alphabet Rocks and this week we tried tracing and embroidering our hand prints. Now, I originally had planned a craft that involved paint and blocks and lots of mess, so last minute I decided to do the hand print craft. Because I didn't plan out this craft, we used regular fabric that I had on hand, and regular sewing thread instead of embroidery thread.

If you try this yourself, I would recommend using the correct fabric (I'm not sure what it's called but it has the little holes in it, like burlap) and embroidery thread.

Even still, we got the needed effect and Jade was VERY excited to try her "hand" at sewing. Hee, hee. Was that a funny pun? LOL

Craigslist find!

2010-09-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

When Jade was around 5-6mons I got a used high chair at a garage sale for about $15. After she grew out of it I switched it for a booster seat and sold the high chair on Craigslist for $15. Now that Cutter is almost 6mon I decided it was time to find a high chair. I didn't think I'd be able to find something that was nice for $15...but I was wrong. Hurray for grandparents who buy extra high chairs for their grandkids and then need to get rid of them! LOL
Cutter seems to enjoy his new chair, happily munchin' on a teething biscuit and...
...trying to drink his water. LOL
Jade is also thrilled she doesn't have to share her booster seat quite yet, though she is a little worried about how messy Cutter gets when he feeds himself. hee, hee
my little neat daughter:)

Alphabet craft day!

2010-09-17T15:49:00.000-07:00

My friend and I are swapping educational/babysitting days with our kiddos once a week. Today was my first day with the kids and we decided to try a version of "Alphabet Rocks!' that I had seen on Mother Lode's blog. In our version, we used stickers on the rocks that we then covered with a thick layer of mod podge to keep the stickers from peeling off.
during our craft time Kyri become a little photographer and got some shots of me and then Cutter
Cutter LOVES Kyrie, every time he see's her he lights up. Seriously! It's really sweet
Here is little Kyri spelling out "spiders" with her rocks. (while the rocks dried we all went outside searching for bugs. LOL)

can you see?

Ben first spelled "slugs" with his rocks...but then got inspired and instead spelled out...

...Washington D.C.

After craft time the kiddos got to put their alphabet rock collection in their own little fabric bags. The girls especially enjoyed having little bags to keep their rocks in.
and proceeded to give me plenty of poses to snap pictures of. Love it!

Crafty projects day

2010-09-16T11:43:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Mother Lode's play square give away...awhile back...I decided to pull out my random scraps of fabric and make Cutter his own set of play squares. I put crinkly material on the inside so they are fun to grab and chew on.
Cutter has a little cold today, so sitting around playing...not leaving the house...is the plan for the day
so far he isn't letting his cold get to him. He is happy as a clam. Perhaps mostly happy that I'm not dragging him around to a million places today. LOL
Tomorrow (if baby is doing well) I plan on going to a friends house to do a teaching craft with the kiddos, these little baggies will some how be included in that craft. I got the "how to" from the gigantic Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts sent to me as a birthday present from my Mother-in-Law (Thanks Peggy!)
I also made these out of random left over pieces of fabric. In the book old suiting material was used. I did come pretty close to finding a pair of old pants or a suit coat of Jonathan's that needed to go to Goodwill...but decided this fabric will have to do. Busy day at home so far!

2010-09-14T18:16:00.000-07:00

1st day of Pre-school

2010-09-09T09:07:00.000-07:00

Despite my best efforts, Jade's first day of pre-school was moved back to...today. LOL! But today we got started bright and early, even had time for some pre....school...pre-school pics! Jade took these very seriously.

okay, so maybe not THAT seriously. But she is VERY excited about starting school even if it is taking place, at home.
We started our school with prayer, the pledge of allegiance (to a picture of the American Flag on my computer...since we don't own an American Flag), Phonics, Math and then of course, some fun craft time using glitter glue!
Jade had lots of fun during her first hour of school and thankfully Cutter enjoyed himself on the floor, playing with toys and baby talking non-stop.
my little goober bug being super cute, in his old man pants and football shirt. FOOTBALL!
Okay, school's over, Cutter's down for a nap, Jade has play time, it's after 9am and now I need to get dressed and start MY day. LOL

My birthday weekend

2010-09-07T07:20:00.000-07:00

I feel like I have been on a long weekend since last Wednesday. Why? Because it was my birthday week!

Wednesday evening I joined my husband at a nice restaurant for a work related dinner. I had an excuse to dress up and we got a sitter for the kids.

Thursday (my birthday, and my mom's birthday...Happy birthday Mom!) I met a friend at The Bread Peddlers in downtown Oly for lunch. Following lunch more friends came over in the afternoon to hang out with us and watch movies!

After dinner (I made home made Gyros!) Jonathan and Jade surprised me with a special birthday cake. If you look closely you can see this cake is covered in crushed graham crackers (for sand), air head candy's were stretched and smashed together to create beach towels and then he used a flip flop cookie cutter and gel icing to make little flip flops. SO cute!
Friday night a few couples joined us at "Hop Jacks" for happy hour appetizer and drink specials. After dinner, having time to kill and nothing to do, a few of us took a walk over to the near by Lowes (yes, I said Lowes) to just kill time. Here is a pic of us ladies trying out some patio furniture.
Saturday was also super fun, I spent pretty much the WHOLE day at South Center, shopping with three of my friends (Kristen isn't pictured in the pic below). We all had a really great time
Monday (yesterday) made the weekend that much longer since Jonathan had the day off. It was great having an extra day to get stuff done around the house and hang out together. Another friend of ours had his birthday, so we joined them for a fancy steak dinner and some yummy dessert after.

Good morning

2010-09-01T07:44:00.000-07:00

This is usually what happens every morning. I have the kids eating breakfast, I'm catching up on emails and I'm fighting with Cutter to drink my coffee without spilling it. He is very interested in my coffee...er the bright shiny mug that I keep bringing to my lips. What would I do without photobooth on my laptop?
Jade wanted to join in the photobooth fun. So here we are, this is what we look like first thing in the morning. Before hair brushes and day clothes.

aren't we just a beautiful bunch?

Tomorrow is my birthday...just in case anyone wanted to know:)

Granola

2010-08-31T07:50:00.000-07:00

Last week I slaved over a mixing bowl and two cookie sheets worth of delicious, homemade, cherry and coconut granola for my family. My daughter turned her nose up and wouldn't eat a bite. She claimed it was "spicy".

This morning she requests Kashi granola over her rice crispy's and LOVES it. WHAT? How on earth? My homemade granola was ten times better then the slightly cardboard-ish, though okay tasting, Kashi granola. That's it, from now on, homemade granola for me, Kashi cardboard for Jade.

Sunshine, you are my sunshine

2010-08-30T20:37:00.000-07:00

Here is my little sunshine. Jade made this sunshine mask in church a few weeks ago. But I haven't thought to post it till now. She also made a little clock, she has it hanging in her room and religiously sets it at 2pm for nap times and then to 8pm at bed time. I love my little girlie, she is so smart:-)
sorry I haven't been posting much. Life has been busy but mostly busy with boring stuff not worth posting about.

Today, however, is my Dad's birthday so that is worth posting. And Thursday is Mom's and my birthday. Hurray for us! I hear a rumor that Jonathan and Jade plan on making me my birthday cake on Thursday. I can't wait!

Hope all of you are enjoying the last bit of summer we have left!

and on such a pretty day

2010-08-23T17:25:00.000-07:00

Headaches and laundry should not be allowed when one has such a lovely, sunny day. Why? Oh why? Hoping for a better tomorrow!

Summer is here and it's nice and HOT!

2010-08-15T11:38:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a fabulously warm day here in the Washington. I was thrilled to get to pull the kiddie pool out and not have to wait a day and a half for the water to warm up. It was nice and warm by noon! Jade had to wear her shades in the pool because it was SO sunny! lol

sticking poses for me. She is so funny!

my little man, I think he was just eating his fist when I took this picture.
the two of us making funny faces. Well...I'm making a funny face at least.
and my man. :) So glad we are having such wonderful weather!!

A good day

2010-08-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

It has been a good day. My morning started with happy kids, followed by swim lessons and getting to spend time hanging out with a dear friend.

Home for lunch and nap times. I got to watch "Ugly Betty" while folding laundry and playing with my dear little baby Cutter.

I even found time for a 30min nap and ironing of shirts.

I didn't really have to cook all day today, just ate leftovers. Then after dinner we went to a friends house and I got my two children watched while I went for a 20min run/walk. The weather was warm but with a cool-ish breeze. The sky was blue, my music was up beat...such a good run/walk. When I got back Rachelle had brownies in the oven so her home smelled amazing and Jade and I were sent off with delicious treats.

Now I'm home, 20min till both my kiddos go down for the night, I have "Top Chef" recorded waiting for me to watch and now a yummy brownie to eat while I watch it. Ya gotta eat something when you watch Top Chef after all.

Not that this has anything to do with my day (other then the fact the sun was shining and the sky was so blue it had me thinking along this line...) I spent time reading "All new square foot gardening" I'm hoping to start my own little 4x4 box this Fall or at least get it built so this spring I can start a mini little salad garden. I really hope, hope, hope, I can have a little garden. I think it would be wonderful for Jade to watch things grow (and help plant and harvest) and it would make me feel so domestic. Plus, I want to be like my Mom and Nic who both have gardens. LOL

Anyway, I'm just in a very zen place at this moment and just had to type and tell you all. :)

should I?

2010-08-11T06:42:00.002-07:00

If my child wakes up at 6am to eat but then goes back to sleep, do I go back to sleep as well? I've spent the past half hour trying to figure out if I should sleep or stay up. So I have stayed up, but now I'm wishing I had gone back to sleep. LOL

Swim lessons

2010-08-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

Jade has started up swim lessons again. I had signed her up for swim lessons last month, but sadly she got very sick and only made it to two classes. Today is day two of classes and I am crossing my fingers hoping we can make the rest. LOL

She loves it, of course, and all I can hope for is some sunnier/warmer weather for her to enjoy the remaining time. She is in a class with two other little boys her age. Her teacher is a young man as well, she asked me if I could get her a girl teacher. She is so cute

That's all. bye.

Up and running

2010-08-09T08:08:00.000-07:00

Trying to get back into the swing of things after having a baby can take some time. While I have been working out since three weeks post pregnancy, I've kept my workouts pretty basic. Simple stuff, mostly easy pilates and walking. I keep saying I'm ready for more, but haven't been able to organize my self enough to really do much about it.

As we all know if you want something bad enough you figure out a way to find the time to just do it. I miss working out and the lack of a gym membership shouldn't keep me from doing what I love. Heck, if I can find time to paint bird pictures and watch reality tv, shouldn't I be able to find the time to do a longer, harder workout?

So Sunday morning I could think of no excuse not to go running...so I went. It felt great...all six minutes of it. Throw in about 40min of speed walking and it felt like a pretty good workout.

Todays stretches and running only totaled about 27min but 10 of those minutes was running. Baby steps, that's what it is.

I'm excited to do more with my routine and hopefully gain back some of my body confidence that has eluded me for over a year now (perhaps over three years, but we won't get into that)

Here is to priorities, running and being a stay at home Mom! Cheers *holds up coffee mug*

Tummy time and art

2010-08-08T14:10:00.000-07:00

Cutter is spending more and more time playing on his blanket staring at his little play toys. He's just now started to stick is bottom in the air and push his chubby little knees under him, in an attempt to get in a crawling position. Below he is exhausted from his crawling attempts but he did successfully reach and grab one of his play toys. I am very proud of him.
staring at his little toy.
if you read my earlier artwork post...here is the completed bird/flower pic. I can't say I think it's very good, but for a beginner it will have to do. Plus, it's for a kiddie room, maybe people will just assume a kid painted it! LOL!
The colors are fun at least! On to a new project now.

UPDATE: I decide to take a pic of my art next to Jade's. I love Jade's artwork, I wish I had a million frames so I could frame all of them!

FOOD!

2010-08-06T08:24:00.000-07:00

After his morning feeding Cutter still seemed hungry. He also kept reaching for my coffee cup every time I took a sip. So I decided to give my little pumpkin pie some rice cereal.

He isn't quite ready, he kept trying to suck the spoon like a bottle...but boy did he like that cereal. Making happy grunting noises that sounded like "aaaYummmmgrrrr aaa" lol you got that right?

My little Cutter bug, has the cutest smile...

2010-08-04T15:52:00.000-07:00

Art on a Tuesday afternoon

2010-08-03T15:59:00.000-07:00

I was planning on working on my art projects while my kiddos were taking naps today. But...they didn't go down till later. So, instead of waiting I decided to let Jade paint and Cutter scream (well, not the whole time) while I fit in some fun art time. Below is the beautiful masterpiece that Jade created. What is it about children's art that looks like so much fun, full of depth and character? If I were to scribble on a page...not the same thing. :-(

I thought under taking the task of copy this picture would be fairly easy. I knew I couldn't get it to look the same but figured I'd at least get the colors and essence of the picture. Ya...not so much.
mixing paint colors is hard and layering is time consuming. This project is taking longer then I thought...and I have to say I'm a bit discouraged. So...this is as far as I have gotten today on it...maybe I'll do more tomorrow or later this evening.
now, my pottery barn kids art for Cutters room...that is going much easier. I know it's not the same (and I switched the truck for an anchor to stick with my theme)
but close enough. I love my new pics! And I only spent $8 on the canvases!!
I will probably hang them on the big wall, but for now (since Cutter is finally napping) I just put them up so I could take a picture of them:-)
hurray for summer time lazy afternoons and fun art projects!

My silly little boy and some Lake time

2010-07-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

This morning I set Cutter down on the rug while I went to fill my coffee cup. When I came back I found him hanging out under the coffee table. Happy as can be.
He seemed pretty proud of himself. He is starting to be able to roll where he wants to go. LOL
Wednesday I went with some friends to Shelton and got to hang out by the lake. Cutter mostly chilled on a beach towel
while Jade spent a good deal of time sitting in the water digging up rocks.
Later she did convince Yumi (also her babysitter) to take her out on one of the rafts. She is the little red blob on the right, sitting on the blue floaty thing.
And Cutter continued to hang out under a big beach umbrella.
It was fun to have a change of pace and get to play by the water!

hello

2010-07-29T17:12:00.000-07:00

I'm staring at Cutter while he's playing in his little excer-saucer. He is giving me goofy faces and gooey grins. I love his little slobbery, toothless smiles. They get me every time.

Being a Mom of two leaves me either crazy or bored. Crazy because it's hard juggling two crying, cranky kids at the same time and bored, because when they both are napping I have zero energy left to do anything really productive.

Though...I am inspired to learn how to paint on canvas. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this canvas on potterybarnkids.com and I've been looking at it on and off today and thinking "I could paint a knock off that isn't quite as good or as cute but you get the jest of it...for a heck of a lot less, right?" I haven't convinced myself quite yet, but I also want to paint these flash card inspired canvases for Cutter's room..I was hoping to make it to the craft store tonight to see how much blank canvas are anyway. I wanted to go alone but the hubs man won't be home till late. Waa. I'm thinking I'll just take the kids. I have nothing else planned and I'm tired of watching tv, folding laundry and trying to keep myself from eating every snack in the kitchen. hee, hee

So, that's all. Just sitting here with my lap top and figured I'd post an update.

UPDATE: I went out yesterday and bought three different canvases (50% off at Micheals) and this morning I'm watching "how to paint with acrylics" videos. LOL I've done it before, but it was awhile ago. Jonathan doesn't seem to have any faith that my paintings will turn out very good...but we'll see.

Uncut, unedited movie of Cutter and me in the morning

2010-07-23T07:40:00.000-07:00

Just one reason I love my Macbook

2010-07-22T09:04:00.000-07:00

My husband likes to throw around fancy words sometimes. Words he thinks should be used in every day conversation but I think should be reserved for fancy novels and deep historical fiction. Since I don't read fancy novels or historical fiction (much) it can be difficult for me to decipher the meaning of the words used...but then I realized...I have a fancy little "dictionary" app (or icon, I don't know what you call it when it's ON your computer and not a fancy iphone or something) on my Macbook and I can just type in the word and ta da! Definition, right at my finger tips. Don't have to go trudging upstairs and search my own dictionary for the meanings.

I enjoyed having it today after watching "Accidental husband" yesterday. There were a few words they threw around in the movie that the characters pretended not to understand. It is fun to look up words you don't tend to use on a regular basis in your vocabulary. I remember as a young child my Mom use to use fancy words and when I would repeat these words to other adults they would look at me as though I were a genius child. I miss that rush. Who thinks of me as a genius now? No one. Doesn't take much to look like a smarty pants when you are six, takes a heck of a lot more when you are 26.

Ah well. At least I have my fancy little dictionary at hand so I can verify the meaning of a word before using it in a sentence. LOL

Now if I only had a spelling master app...I'd be all set.

2010-07-21T07:54:00.000-07:00

And now it's time for silly songs with Missi. The part of the blog when Missi comes out and sings a silly song:

I wake up every morning

feeling pretty great

I hear my baby screaming

cause he can't articulate

I run and feed the baby

Then quickly change his clothes

I also spend a lot of time

Just tickling his toes

Then next we get his sister

Who is hanging in her bed

She likes it when I wake her up

by singing near her head

After morning cereal

and coffee for this Mom

we play a little "let's clean up"

which never lasts that long

sometimes we go for real long walks

Some times we stay at home

I'll work myself to the bone

Mondays I do laundry

Tuesday I clean house

I will cook bread, until I'm dead

And feed it to a mouse

Nap time is my favorite

It's when my children rest

Then i pull out my laptop

Cause Hulu is the best

I catch up on my sitcoms

And watch my silly shows

I like suspense and guys who fence

And stylishly dressed Ho's

When evening time starts nearing

I begin my culinary skills

It's a good thing J won't complain

and always eats my meals

This poem now is boring,

I can't type any more

I'll only say, what a great day

Now go and shut the door

Riight

2010-07-20T09:41:00.001-07:00

I have the passion to be creative, but not the skills. Not the skills and not the materials. Not the materials and only a tiny bit of patience. A little patience but only so much time.

Time, I have. I'm home. Waaa! Home with ideas. Ideas that I've stollen from Mother Lode, Who, strangely enough, gleaned these fabulous ideas from others...

Why don't I have a huge stash of glue and paper and paint and crayons and ribbons and fabric and thread and yarn, all wrapped up in a cozy little cupboard in a perfectly little craft room in my house? Why?

On gloomy, cloudy days

when my life is a haze,

A sorry little maze

Like a "Rat Race" phase....of boring repetition?

I need in my hands

twenty colorful paint cans

Perhaps some ceiling fans

And a few kitchen pans...and some decision.

okay, that poem sucks. On to the next thing. My children are sleeping. Cutter napping and Jade still asleep from her long evening nap. It's nearly 10am! You know a child is sick when all they want to do is sleep. I better go check on her.

Gosh, I wish I had something to keep me busy today. Why? Oh why did I do so much yesterday?

Being domestic

2010-07-19T14:03:00.000-07:00

The one good thing that comes of having sick kids, is I'm forced to stay home all day. This is both a positive and a negitive, as I'm going stir crazy like no other. The positive though is I've gotten a TON of stuff done. I've scrubbed the house (literally) from top to bottom. Done many loads of laundry, cooked a delicious meal for a friend who just had a baby, spent time reading and playing with both my kids, and started "to do" lists for later this week.

I feel like I should be wearing a poodle skirt and pearls while I continue to dust and vacuum my house. I also have this huge urge to bake pies and cookies all day. I'm not, just cause I'd feel bad to make all the yummy goodness and then tell Jade she can't eat any of it till she is better.

I do wish I had some fabric to work on some projects though. I may leave Jonathan home tonight with the kids and run to JoAnn's so I have something to keep me busy later on this week.

Poor Jade sounds like a dying old seal, that and a chain smoker. hee, hee. Her throat is so thick and raspy that when she talks it's hard to hear her.

She finally seems to be getting some sort of an appetite back though, so that's a plus. Trying to get her to drink fluids isn't going to well. Yesterday I crushed up ice in the blender and poured orange juice over it to get her to drink something. Today I made popsicles. :-)

Any hoo...the kids are napping and I'm waiting for the dryer to finish so I can do yet another load of laundry. While I wait, I think I'll read a book!

Sick kids and another day spent at home

2010-07-18T08:46:00.001-07:00

My little baby Cutter woke up with a fever on Wednesday morning. His sad little face was so hot and flushed I spent the entire day holding him, rocking him and trying to get him to eat and sleep and stay cool.

I had just signed Jade up for swim lessons that started on Monday, she LOVED the swim lessons on Monday and Tuesday but sadly had to miss Wednesdays' appointment due to her brothers fever. I hoped all would be better the next day. After a long, exhausting night Cutters fever broke and he woke up Thursday morning a bundle of smiles.

Sadly, while he was all smiles Jade was sporting her own little fever. So we canceled swim lessons and hoped for another 24hr recovery. To my relief Jade's fever broke by Thursday afternoon. I let out an exhausted sigh and looked forward to a nice weekend.

Before I continue let me add quickly that my week started with my car in the shop to get the A/C working, while babysitting for a dear friend, Jonathan's Audi was accidentally backed into, a rat was discovered living in our garage and the "fixing" of my cars A/C resulted in other "must be repaired charges totaling $1000.

So Friday morning Jade seemed fine and Cutter seemed fine. I hoped to take the kids to the zoo, but it just so happened to be closed on Friday. So I took the kids to Chuck E Cheese instead. Friday night I was delighted when Jonathan took us out to dinner, and even more delighted when Jonathan told me our rat trap worked and we were rid of our pesky pest. Jade seemed "off" but I hoped she was just tired.

However, Saturday morning Jade woke up with a horse voice and a slight cough, only to later be followed by yet another fever.

Jonathan I spent the morning (mostly Jonathan) cleaning and rearranging the garage. I had seen another rat disappear behind some shelves and freaked out. We were able to clean and rearrange the whole garage and put out food poisen in hopes of killing any additional rats that may try to take up residence in our garage.

Jade's sickness has turned into heavy, raspy breathing, a barking like cough and what seems to be a stuffy nose that doesn't really require tissues.

Cutter, thankfully is fine and dandy, I am fine and dandy. But I'm home again, missing church and wishing for good health in my family. It's summer after all. Isn't there a summer rule that says "no one shall have colds or illnesses in the summer time, due to the need to never miss a day enjoying the sunshine" ? Right? I'm sure I read that rule some where. Oh wait. I just made it up. But I'm sure we can all agree there SHOULD be a rule that reads something to that effect.

Needless to say with the car repairs, JB's car getting hit, the rat and the sick kids, not to mention swim day lessons being missed...I'm feeling like I need some extra prayer and extra lovin'. So please, pass on the prayers and pour on the lovin'!

In other news I'm reading my second "book club" book. I think I'm on page four. hahaha! It's called "Rooms: A Novel" my book club is planning on reading only novels during the summer months "to keep things light and fun" and we are also going to try to stick to Christian authors.

Cutter is in his bouncer yelling at me for neglecting him while I type this weeping saga of my past four days and Jade is zoned out on the couch watching "Clubhouse Disney". The online recommended remedies for croup was to keep your child "calm", let me tell you, nothing makes Jade more calm then putting on the television. Gosh, I'm SUCH a good nurse.

Excersaucer take two

2010-07-13T18:59:00.000-07:00

When Jade was about five months old we got her this little exersaucer at a garage sale. See here. Cutter is not yet four months and he is already enjoying some play time
complete with happy boy smiles. I have to say, this saucer was a lifesaver to me today. With what seems to be a nasty sinus headache and husband away for the evening, I've needed to not be holding my precious little angel all day long.
I'm so glad he likes it!!

Swim lessons

2010-07-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Rachelle I have pictures of Jade taking her first swimming lesson!
she and her friend, Kyri, got to be the only two little girls in a class together. Both of them seemed very excited and didn't mind waiting their turn to swim with their teacher, since they got to play with such fun pool toys by the stairs.
We have lessons three more days this week and four more days next week. Jade is VERY excited and it's all she has been talking about this morning.

Just a quick update

2010-07-12T18:44:00.000-07:00

Here are the handsome men of our household. I just bought Cutter his first pair of sunglasses and had to take a quick picture of him with them. He was smiling right before this pic was taken.

Cutter started rolling over while visiting my grandparents (his great grandparents) in Michigan. He's quite the little talker now, gurgles away baby talk to himself and Jade while driving in the car. He also likes to make his presence known with loud screaming type outbursts. I'm not very excited about this, but it is fun to see his personality shining through:-)

He'll be four months old next week, where has the time gone?

Jade started swim lessons today! (pictures later) she and her friend signed up for class together and ended up being the only two kids in the class! They loved the first lesson and are eager to go back tomorrow.

Jade is my little social butterfly, when friends aren't already over playing she is asking me when friends are coming over to play.

At 3.5yrs Jade is quite my big helper. She will talk with Cutter to calm him down when he's fussy, plays toys with him, sings to him and is constantly giving him is pacifier. Jade found me in another room this evening and peaked her head in to say "I'm gonna go find Cutter and tell him a story, maybe he will smile at me!"

I love her eagerness to be a good big sister and I'm so very grateful for the help, especially on long hard days when nothing seems to go right.

This has been a fun summer so far. I got to travel to Michigan last week with my two kiddos to visit my family and my In-Laws. We are now enjoying some great Washington weather (finally) and have big plans to do some day trips and make this summer as special as we can.

I guess that's a good enough update for now. Enjoy your summer every one!

Playing around with my brothers

2010-07-06T14:47:00.000-07:00

Just a few pics of our wonderful evening in Michigan

2010-06-30T17:24:00.000-07:00