Roy says I should blog...

.....but I don't have anything on my mind. I made the most delicious chicken tortilla soup for dinner. The other day Walmart had some soon-to-expire chicken breasts marked way down so I got a package and of course didn't get around to doing anything to it till yesterday, it's expiration date. I threw most of it in the crock pot to be shredded. Then today I took about 4 cups of the shredded chicken, two cans of chicken broth, a can of tomato sauce, a can of diced green chilies, a can of black beans and a package of McCormick Chicken Taco Seasoning Mix (I use the packaged mixes because I am lame-o with getting the seasoning right) and threw it all together in the crock pot. Actually, I took half of it and threw it in the freezer and the rest went into the crock pot. Then, when I'm in the mood for it again I can take the frozen stuff and let it thaw/cook in the crock pot. I cooked it on low for about 5 hours. I'm sure you could put the chicken in raw, let it cook with everything else and then take it out and shredded it. And it'd probably be good with corn or diced tomatoes too, but I don't like too many different things in my soup. I topped it off with "tortilla chips" which were actually strips of egg roll wrappers leftover from this project. I cut them up, sprayed 'em with cooking spray, sprinkled a little salt on them and crisped them up in the oven. Delicious. And of course topped it all with sour cream, cheese and salsa. So good. Even the kids liked it. I have a little bit leftover for tomorrow and another batch in the freezer. Perfect for the fall weather we've been having.

Next I'm gonna try my cousin Olivia's zuppa toscana. (If I can find kale in stinky K-Ville)

The decorated playroom

Since Ashley isn't blogging today, I figured I'd post this:

The kids' playroom

Rae and Blaise are constantly asking for tape -- I think Rae mainly uses it to stick her pictures and notes to the walls as you can see, while Blaise uses it to build random objects out of paper.

Broaden my horizons

I don't consider myself a picky eater, but I eat very basic foods and eat the same thing all the time. Our week usually consists of tacos, some kind of italian meal, grilled meat, leftovers and maybe some chicken stir-fry or meat and potato type meal. On nights when I have a meeting or activity I'll usually just make chicken nuggets or mac & cheese for the kids and I'll eat something of my own. I want my kids to have exposure to different foods. And I want to start now before they get used to the same things I grew up eating! So I am enlisting the help of my dear readers. Instead of just asking for ideas, I'm going to pick an ingredient every few days that I'd like to incorporate into our lives. This week: fresh baby spinach. I like to buy a bag to eat with lettuce, but there's so much of it and I want use it in some sort of recipe. Also, I cannot seem to find frozen spinach at our Walmart and I think the canned stuff is gross. So if I wanted to put some spinach in manicotti what would I need to do with it first? Last time I just added it to the sauce, but I'd like to add it to the cheese mixture instead. What else do you do with spinach? I want spinach to be something we eat more often!

And I know there are a million websites out there to get recipes from, but I want recipes from people I know and trust that know and trust their recipes.

Oooh, while I'm at it - I got some egg roll wrappers to do this project and now I need to do something with the rest of them. Anyone have a good egg roll recipe? I'm counting on you guys!

Silly boy

I took this video this morning to show Isaac's crawling progress. He's learned how to push himself forward, but as you can see in the video, he lands on his face! But he's definitely further along than Rae and Blaise were at this age. Crazy kid just wants to move! Unfortunately, he always wants to be on his belly, which is making it difficult to go for walks in the morning. He tries to get himself to sleep in the stroller, but he wants to sleep on his side or tummy. Hopefully he'll get used to it!

Some stats *Edited to add a few more pictures*

I've gotta write this down somewhere and this is the only place where I won't lose it! Isaac had his four month check up today. He weighs 16lbs and 9.6 ounces and is 27 1/2 inches long (BIG GUY!) I also want to note that he has been getting himself up on his hands and knees and pushing himself backwards. He can get himself all over the place. Well, you can see for yourself - I just had to get a video of it. Seriously guys, this guy is the sweetest, most easy-going, happy baby (at least this week!) and he keeps amazing me with his developments!

Oh, and I wanted to mention that I've been working on the way I speak to my kids and acting as if there is always someone watching and things have really improved! I took all three kids to Aldi today (HATE doing that!) and it actually went really well. The bishop's wife was there and she is totally one of those women that I want to be, so I decided I'm going pretend that the bishop's wife is always watching.

Oh, and I gave up sugar. Go me.




Just for the heck of it, here are some pictures I've been meaning to post:

Roy left this screen up the other day and when Rae saw it she said "ooh, it's math, I better go find my calculator!" Then she sat down and did some "math".



Awww, so sweet. But so glad Rae doesn't really suck her thumb! I'm already worried about how long Isaac will keep it up! This is coming from a gal who would still suck her thumb if it wasn't considered weird!

Quote of the day

Blaise was trying to get a drink from his water bottle and was having trouble getting any water out. He said "It's broken! Put some new batteries in it!"

I posted this earlier today but I just have to add this other funny Blaise quote.

Blaise's feet fall asleep quite often (should I be concerned?) and when he complains that his foot hurts we will say "it's okay, just move it around and it will wake up and feel better". Well, Rae has been complaining today that her head hurts and Blaise said "I think Rae's head fell asleep!"

It's been a good day :)

A couple more pictures from the trip

Blaise and Dale hanging out

Isaac fell into a box of oversized stuffed animals at Costco.
We barely pulled him out in time!

Weekend Trip

Roy's mom and Dale flew into St Louis on Friday and we met them there to spend the weekend with them. We didn't get there till 6 Friday night, so we just went and got some dinner and then went to bed. In the morning we got ready as fast as we could and headed over to the Gateway Arch so we could be there when it opened and beat the crowds. It worked! We got to ride to the top of the arch and check out the view - very cool!

We rode in an incredibly small, futuristic-looking bucket

At least we didn't take the stairs...

Western view from the Gateway Arch

The ground under us

There were no level surfaces for the camera, so Roy took this

There's a similar picture of Blaise, but he's not happy

The kids loved it and now we can check that off our list of things to do in St Louis. :) That day they happened to have a "Park Palooza" going on outside the arch with lots of demonstrations of things you can do in the Missouri State Parks. I'm glad we came early because the palooza brought extra crowds to the arch and when we left the lines were getting longer and longer!

Rae in a tipi

We went to Olive Garden for lunch - YUMMY and then went back to the hotel to let Isaac get a decent nap. Then we headed back out to look at a few vans (I just wanted to get an idea of what kind we wanted next and there aren't any good dealerships in Kirksville) and we ended up buying one! It's a 2008 Hyundai Entourage and it has 850 miles on it (so, pretty much brand new) It's got power everything and a DVD player. We are really excited. We didn't want to trade in our van and we also didn't want to drive both vans home, so the dealership delivered it to us yesterday. (They had to come this direction anyway.) I'll post pictures of it soon.

(Oh, we also went to Costco and the mall.)

One of those bouncy bungee mall things

Rae and Blaise rode a carousel while poor Isaac watched with interest

Happy Birthday Mom!

I already called her, she already got a present from me, she already had her birthday party....but I can't resist posting a big:


HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE GREATEST MOM EVER!!

Sounds like life to me.....

I heard this for the first time on the radio the other day and really liked it. For some reason sometimes I get caught up in this idea that sick kids, busy husband and a messy house should be less common in my household and that things are "just too hard". Oh brother Ashley, it's just life. I guess I better get used to the fact that this is what real life is like, it could be worse, and I need to enjoy things a little more! Even if you don't like country you should listen to this song! So, now when I write about bleh stuff, I don't mean it as "poor me" and I'll try to make it sound a little more upbeat.



We are heading to St.Louis this afternoon to meet my in-laws for a quick visit. Be back Sunday night!

Should have kept my big mouth shut

Every time I brag about one of my kids sleeping well it comes back to bite me in the butt. Isaac was awake SO much last night! He didn't really want to nurse, but he just couldn't get comfortable or something and was squirming all night! Then around 5:30 I noticed he was wet all over. I tried to get him to sleep one more time but it wasn't happening, so I woke up Roy and made him get up. Around 6 Isaac had a big poop blowout diaper and I woke up when Roy came in to change him. Then Roy brought him back to nurse around 7. He finally went to sleep but I had to get up and get Rae ready for school. Now it is 9 and he's STILL asleep. Must be tired from all of that restlessness last night!! Ugh! Hopefully it was just a one-time occurrence and he'll go back to sleeping well tonight! The nice thing is that even though he was awake a lot last night he never cried or anything, he just couldn't sleep. Maybe it was all that poop that was in him! No more blogging about my kids' sleeping habits :)

Happy Life

On Monday,Wednesdays and Fridays we pick Rae up from school at noon and head over to the park for a picnic lunch. The weather has been so great lately that we've been doing it almost every MWF. (We'd do it on Tuesdays and Thursdays too, but I babysit in the afternoon) It's so relaxing, the kids gobble up the lunch without any whining, and then when we get home they are happy to leave me alone for a bit. Today was a little warmer than usual and we went to a different park that didn't have much shade, so we didn't stay out as long, but it was still fun. The park we usually go to has a ton of shade, a nice play structure, swings, and Rae's favorite - a merry-go-round. I thought we'd try something new today, but I think we'll go back to our regular park next time.


Another thing that makes me happy lately is this little guy:

He has been sleeping so well at night (usually 7pm-4am) and he's so tolerate and happy. He does have a high-pitched scream that he likes to do when he's bored, but it's not an angry scream, just something to do to hear his voice. When I'm busy in the mornings and evenings he often gets put on the floor of the living room on his back. He'll immediately roll over and is usually content on his belly. If he's really tired he'll just pop his thumb into his mouth and go to sleep. This morning he was struggling to stay awake and Rae put the blanket on him and said "it's okay, just go to sleep". I thought it was so sweet. Too bad I had to wake him up to take Rae to school. :( Sometimes he'll sleep in till 7 or so and doesn't need a nap till after we get home from taking Rae to school, but sometimes he wakes up earlier and is too sleepy to wait for his regular nap. He's just such a precious little guy - he's the kind of baby people always brag about but you don't think really exists :) I think 30% of it is that I know better what I'm doing and other 70% is just his personality. I nurse on demand like I did with Rae and Blaise but he usually only nurses when he's hungry, not so much for comfort. So I don't feel like a human pacifier like I did with Rae and Blaise. And I was better this time at putting him down before he was totally conked out, so he has learned to get himself to sleep. Plus the benefit of him liking to suck his thumb!

At the park today there were several other families there and I found myself being extremely calm and patient with the kids. Do you ever find yourself doing that? If Rae were to hit Blaise at the park I probably would have said "Honey, we do not hit. Please tell your brother you are sorry and go sit on the blanket". If we were at home and she hit Blaise I'd probably say "Rae, what the heck is wrong with you!? Do YOU want ME to hit you like that?? Go to your room NOW!" (What? You don't talk to your kids like that? Oh, oops.) So, my new goal is to talk to my children in a way that I wouldn't be embarrassed if someone heard me. I'm noticing that Rae is starting to yell at Blaise more often and I know it's because of my bad example. I know I'll slip up sometimes, but if the majority of my words are calm and gentle then maybe Rae will treat Blaise better too. Basically, I want to be as calm as Michelle Duggar (whoa, when I googled her to get a link I saw that she is pregnant with #19- wowza!)

Um, I got busy with the kids and lost my train of thought and don't know how to end this now! So, um, THE END. :)

Sigh

I started a big long post about how grumpy I've been feeling lately. But I was rambling on and on and not making any sense. So I'll talk about this instead: Rae got her first book order from school. I LOVE book orders! I want everything in there! I loved them when I was a kid too. I'm going to have to restrain myself from ordering too much! How often do they usually get them anyway? If it's monthly then I'm in big trouble :)

Don't worry - I'm just grumpy because:

-Kids have colds
-My back hurts
-I want to eat whatever I want and still lose weight OR not care about being fat
-Roy is back at work and is busy :(
-Isaac enjoys listening to himself scream. Not in anger, just for the heck of it.
-I can't keep up on the housework
-I want a cool new van, just for the heck of it

So, nothing serious, just minor annoyances. I'm going to bed early in hopes that my back will feel better and sleep will help me be less annoyed. And then maybe I'll have something more interesting and upbeat to blog about :) For the most part, life is good:



PS: A few weeks ago, Blaise got a little paper cup full of dirt in nursery (no pun intended), with some cosmos flowers planted in it. They sprouted almost right away and have been growing. Yesterday Roy took Rae and Blaise out to do some stuff and picked up a bigger pot for them:


Hopefully they'll bloom someday...

Does this happen to you?

I'll get on the computer to look something up real quick (recipe, phone number, etc) and then notice that I have an email (I have a gmail notification thingy). Oooh, a comment from someone on my blog. Hmmm, I wonder if anyone commented after me on Katie's blog - lemme go check. Oh, Lindsey commented on Katie's blog....maybe Lindsey updated her blog - lemme go check. Nope, well, maybe Christie updated her blog. Nope. Well, maybe someone updated their facebook status. Then I spend a good 10 minutes wasting time on facebook. But before I can get off the computer lemme check my email (yahoo this time). Then I usually find myself getting into something else (just "real quick" of course) and 40 minutes later I'm finally off the computer and then realize I never even looked up the thing I got on the computer to look up!! Ugh. So, I'm going to start turning my computer OFF more often so that it takes more effort to pop on real quick. And maybe I should set a timer or something? Sigh, I've gotta get less attached to technology!

My sister Katie blogged about whether carrots (raw) give you the hiccups. Do they? They give me the hiccups. So does bread and sometimes apples. I can't find a reason for either one. Another question I have - when you go from dark to light do you sneeze? It's called photic sneeze reflex and it's genetic. Roy does it and Rae and Isaac do it. Do you? At least there's a reason for this weird trait!