I am happy it’s the last day of blogging everyday. I did pretty good by only missing one day. Things I didn’t post about and still need to:
Guest bedroom makeover
Holiday Cards reveal
Sting Concert
Basement reveal party
Master bedroom paint
Charlotte’s room paint
Playing pretend
Playing games
Charlotte has made a very good friend very quickly at school. Her name is Evelyn and she and Charlotte follow each other around all the time (see the field trip here). We got invited to Evelyn’s birthday party over the weekend at Monkey Bizness. It was over dinner time so we thought it would be an easy evening – dinner taken care of, fun time with friends, wear them out, and go straight to bed.
Mostly it was great. They both had a blast running all over. It was adorable that Evelyn and Charlotte stuck together almost the entire time. Evelyn hardly paid attention to any of the other kids. While we were eating pizza Cooper lamented ‘where awe all my fwiends? I don’t hab any boyfwiends. Dare awe onwe two boys here foe me.’ (Not sure if I blogged about this but he exclaimed one day after school ‘Only I hab boyfwiends. Charyotte hab gulfwiends.’)
And then it sort of went downhill. We were crammed into a tiny room and the kids were hungry and tired. There wasn’t enough food or drinks for the adults and the kids, so I got cranky too. Charlotte was distracted with everything and would barely eat and Cooper was obsessed with the cake. Then when it was time to get a balloon Cooper pushed the other kids around and some of the older boys got upset with him. He was mad that the green balloon didn’t have a green string.
s we were leaving they got really upset that they couldn’t play anymore. Thank goodness for Bob Marley on the way home! They did zonk out pretty fast, so that was nice.
(Side note: Evelyn is the only other kid in the class besides Charlotte who has a Thomas the Train backpack. It’s a perfect match I tell you!)
We put up the Christmas tree and some of the other indoor decorations. I sadly did not take any pictures this year of the kids decorating.
I am back to working out and it is TOUGH. I’m only doing 30 minutes of cardio and then 15 min of stretching and plank work, three times a week, and then pilates on the 4th day. I cannot believe how out of shape I am after taking 2 months off. I guess having surgery will do that to you.
Charlotte isn’t sleeping well at all. She wakes up nearly every hour all night and tries to stay up and play. She doesn’t fall asleep until nearly 9 and wakes up at 5 am. This is unusual behavior for her because she’s always been a great sleeper. This has been going on for about 4 months now. I’m wondering if it has to do with learning at school or the lack of sleep is causing sleeplessness. Not sure how to help her.
Cooper is sick and super cranky. He whines and cries most of the day and evening. He is super-glued to my side. I’m getting touched out.
Chris is getting stir crazy being a stay-at-home dad and being done with school (yay! he finished his business degree!). I wish we could do 4 days of preschool to give him more of a break (the class is full so we can’t until next year).
I started seeing a chiropractor this week. I’ve had a lot of pain in my neck and shoulders in the last few months. I haven’t slept well, couldn’t turn my head very well to the right, my hands and fingers were numb and tingling, my throat sore from the sinus drip, and was having headaches every day. Chris started going about 2 months ago for a lot of the same things and now he is feeling great with all of his symptoms gone.
I had xrays done last week and they showed quite a bit of misalignment. My right shoulder and hip are dropped and my head sits off to the right and turns to the left my almost 2 inches. My neck is off to the right, my mid back to the left and my lower back to the right. My hips are also turned to the left. My head sits forward 5 degrees on my neck, although it’s supposed to curve back 35-45 degrees. Basically I’m not aligned anywhere. Now I know why my all my photos are crooked!
I go to the chiropractor 3x a week for the next 8 weeks. I also have to do some ab stabilization exercises on an exercise ball, go to yoga and pilates to strengthen my core and increase my flexibility, and then do low impact cardio by walking, on an elliptical or a stationary bike.
I had 3 adjustments this week on M/T/W and I haven’t had any daily headaches. I can turn my head with no pain and my hands aren’t tingling. Of course we’ll see how I feel on Sunday when the chiropractor’s adjustment gets pulled out of alignment due to muscle memory. I’m happy to see some small improvement and can’t wait until it’s more permanent!
Note to self throwing a party, drinking too many martinis, dealing with a hangover (because hello I’m not 20 anymore!) and then following that up with dinner, a concert and staying out late only to get up at 5 am for work makes for some serious exhaustion. (That was a really long sentence.)
I still haven’t recovered. It’s a good thing we changed our plans and are joining Mikael and Che for Thanksgiving. I’m only making 2 dishes instead of making the whole dinner. Afterwards I’m going home and going to bed. Well if the kids will let me that is.
I think Cooper might be left handed. This is surprising to me because I don’t know anyone in my family and Chris doesn’t know anyone in his who is left handed. He has always held his silverware in his left hand but hasn’t seem to favor one hand over another when coloring.
We were making a card for Ryan’s 3rd birthday (my friend Heather’s oldest daughter) and he wanted to write his name. So I put a marker in his right hand and he seemed awkward holding it. Then I held his hand to help him write his name. When I let go he automatically switched the marker to his left hand and seemed to hold it much more naturally.
All this time I’ve been forcing him to put everything in his right hand! I think I’ll start letting him choose which hand he wants to use from now on.
(His teacher mentioned that he favors his left hand when writing, painting and cutting. She also said that it would be easier if he were right handed, especially when he learns cursive. Chris and I sat there dumbfounded that she would say such an antiquated thing and then Chris deadpanned, ‘Do they even teach cursive anymore?’. The teacher replied, ‘Well, uh, not so much. Not at all really.’ I responded, ‘Well then I guess it doesn’t matter which hand he uses.”)
We had a great party last night to reveal the new basement (still working on the post…probably tomorrow). We are both very tired today, which is not so good since we had a birthday party and then are leaving for ‘date night’. We’re going to dinner and then the Sting concert. I don’t know how I’m going to find energy to host Thanksgiving too!
We had teacher conferences a couple weeks ago. I have to say that it is really strange to hear someone else talk about my child’s skills. Overall it went well, but it makes me nervous to navigate the education system as the kids get older.
Both are doing well and are at the appropriate skill level. Cooper can recognize several letters and numbers, while Charlotte can recite the numbers and letters. Cooper is a leader, while Charlotte is a follower. Charlotte is quiet and goes with the flow, while Cooper is loud, aggressive and lets his opinion be known.
Charlotte is a little behind socially and rarely plays with the other kids and doesn’t seem to understand how to follow directions unless the teacher gets her to focus. Cooper can listen to one set of directions and follow through with the previous set of directions at the same time. Both need to work on cutting with scissors and holding a pencil.
Their teacher seems to have labeled Charlotte ‘the easy one’ and Cooper ‘the hard one’. This annoyed us because we think Charlotte can easily get lost because she doesn’t pay attention as well. We think Cooper’s aggressive and independent attitude is frustrating for the teacher. However she is also dealing with 15 preschoolers, so we can’t expect too much one on one with our kids.
We’ll see how the rest of the year goes!
(This is a catch up post.)
Chris’ dad, step-mom and one of his sisters all live in North Carolina. We make an effort to either fly the grandparents here or to take a trip out there every year. This year his sister was getting married so we made the trip out there in September. We had a really great time!
The kids are so much easier on the plane now. We took the iPads with us and they had their own little suitcases with wheels. We really didn’t have any problems at all and they were so amazed by ‘going on ‘cation again!’. We got delayed an hour on our second leg of the trip, but that just gave us time to eat something and let the kids stretch their legs.
The best part of the trip was leaving the kids with the grandparents for a few days while Chris and I made our way down to Myrtle Beach. We stayed at a hotel right on the beach, had great food, went out to the clubs, and just remembered what it was like to be adults again!
View of the pools from our room.
View of the beach from our inside our room looking out the balcony.
View after stepping onto the balcony. See the hammocks down by the palm trees before the beach? That was a fantastic reading/napping spot!
View of the palm trees while laying in the hammock.
While we were away we went shopping for the kids at the Disney store. Cooper LOVED his Phineaus, Ferb, and Perry toys.
The rest of the week was enjoying down time, spending time with family, and getting ready for the wedding. Charlotte and Cooper were the flower girl and ring bearer. They were adorable, although Cooper really didn’t want to wear his tux and overall just didn’t really want the job of ring bearer. He did great anyhow!
The trip seemed short and we left to go home pretty early in the morning. By the time we got home, we were all very tired and cranky. It was awesome to come home to a finished master bathroom though!!
We are bad pet owners as of late. We rarely if ever walk the dog anymore and we’ve lived here for a year and haven’t licensed Scout. Chris finally took her to the vet for a check up. She is a little overweight so we have to cut her food intake in half (she eats Blue Buffalo food, so she gets all the nutrition she needs in 1/4 cup a day and we were feeding her 1 cup a day) and then give her apples (no seeds) or carrots as snacks.
We also found out that her teeth are covered in plaque and she needs a cleaning. The big thing we found is that she has a heart murmur. We are going to do some additional testing to see if she needs medication to prevent it from becoming worse. That makes me worry a bit!
Now our little Scout is up to date on her shots and heart worm medication. We also licensed her (online!) so now all we need to do is find some motivation to walk her!
We were walking into Target the other night. Here is the conversation we had:
Cooper: [looks up and points] Yook, mommy, da moon!! Dare’s da moon! I need to doe in outer pace.
Me: It is the moon! Do you want to be an astronaut and go to outer space when you grow up?
Cooper: Yep! What do you want to do, mommy?
Me: [quickly thinks of a way to explain the oil industry to a 3 year old] Well, I’m already a grown up. I dig really deep holes into the ground and find oil to make it into gas that we put in our car.
Cooper: You diiiiggggg big holes!! [said in a deep growling voice while he motions his hands like he’s digging with a shovel]
Me: Yep, that’s right!
I took the kids to Target last night to grab a few items. I ended getting about 5x as many as a few. That always happens at that store. I swear things multiply in my basket!
We were waiting in line to pay and I started loading the conveyor belt. The mom in front of me was managing her ~1 yr old in her arms while her four year old struck up a conversation with my two:
Cooper: Awe you doe-ing to da pawty too?
Me: I don’t think he’s going to Evelyn’s party honey. (We got a birthday invite from Charlotte’s best friend, Evelyn, who they go to school with.)
Cooper: Tan we doe to your pawty?
Boy: No. I already turned 4 and had my birthday.
Me: Cooper you don’t even know this little boy, you can ask to go to his party!
Cooper: You want to tum to our bur-day pawty?
Me: Honey we can ask strangers as Target if they want to come to our birthday parties!
Cooper: No, mommy, he my fwend.
Me: You just met him in Target!
Boy’s Mom: Are they in the same class together?
Me: I have no idea. Maybe?
Boy’s Mom: I heard you say something about Evelyn’s party. At Monkey Business? I think they’re in the same class!
Me: Oh, wow, I guess they are friends! How funny.
We introduced ourselves to each other and laughed and then Ethan and his mom left while my kids waved. And this is what Cooper had to say: ‘See mommy he is my fwend. My fwend fwom school!’
If you have not heard of pinterest, you might be living under a rock. If you have not joined pinterest, you are definitely missing out. This is a new way to manage your ‘favorites’ on your computer and to do it visually. It reminds me a little of google images, but you can oraganize those images (and links) any which way you want to.
There are tons of recipes on Pinterest. We’ve been working our way through a few, so I thought I would give a review. Just click on the photo or the title to find the recipe.
I chose this recipe for our pumpkin seeds this year. I love garlic and I love pumpkin seeds, plus the recipe has 5 stars on Allrecipes.com. Just a few great seasonings: garlic powder, seasoning salt, and celery salt. I had to go buy some celery salt, but it was worth it. Also these are cooked in the microwave instead of the oven and surprisingly they came out crunchy (but not burnt which happens to me because I’m spacey)!
My only problem is that it took a long time in the microwave. I put them in for 3 min and turned because hopping every minute annoyed me. It also took about 9-12 min per batch instead of the 4 min the recipe says. It would have been faster in my double ovens and I could have just put them in and done something for 20-40 min instead of babysitting pumpkin seeds.
Bottom line: Flavoring is great, but use the oven next time! Highly recommend.
Chris loves anything that resembles apple pie, so I figured these would be a good hit. They are basically like apple fried donuts. You bread them like onion rings, fry them, put cinnamon and sugar on them, bake them for a short time to make them crispy and then lather some cinnamon frosting on them.
These taste like little bites of apple pie and are truly fantastic. I left more apple by only cutting out the core and I’m glad I did because they would have been too sweet otherwise. I used both granny smith green apples and honey crisp red apples. I preferred the tangy sweet of the red apples, while Chris preferred the tart green apples. Cooper didn’t like them and Charlotte didn’t care what color apple she got.
My only issue is the number of steps. There were a LOT of steps to this recipe and I was tired by the end of making them. Good thing they are delicious or I wouldn’t bother making them again.
Bottom line: Make them, they’re too good not to try. Be prepared for lots of steps. Highly recommended.
Only 4 ingredients – parmesan cheese, italian dressing mix, garlic powder and chicken breasts. This is such a simple recipe and we had all the ingredients on hand. This is probably one of my favorite ways of cooking chicken now! I LOVE parmesan cheese (if it’s fresh) and the italian dressing mix adds a kick to the recipe. The kids even ate this right up and they aren’t big chicken fans.
It took a little longer than the recipe recommended to actually cook the chicken. Also the recipe is for 6, so we should have cut the recipe down, since we had way too much extra.
Bottom line: New staple in our dinner rotation. Tasty and easy to make. Highly recommended.
This recipe seemed simple enough with very few ingredients—cream cheese, italian dressing mix, and cream of chicken soup. We have a giant crockpot and generally only cook a couple pieces of meat. I put this in for only 6 hours on low and by hour 3 it was starting to dry up and the cheese was turning brown on the sides of the crockpot. By hour 4, I turned off the crockpot, but it was 2 hours before dinner. I tasted it and although the flavor was good, the consistency was not. We ended up going to get food that night.
I plan to try this again, but maybe when we have guests over. Also this recipe needs a lot more liquid. I plan to put 2 cans of soup and some milk in the mixture next time. I can’t imagine putting this on rice, so I’ll probably use noodles.
Bottom line: Use a smaller crockpot or more food. Add more liquid. Need to try it again.
This is a recipe that I originally pinned and is one of my favorites. It is pretty easy to make and tastes delicious. Everyone else loves it too. I’ve made a few changes to the recipe to either simplify it or use what I have on hand. I don’t use flour/evaporated milk to thicken the sauce, I just use a can of cream of mushroom or cream of chicken to make the sauce a little thicker. I also just use a bag of frozen mixed veggies to avoid having to measure/cut/buy all the different vegetables. Instead of croissants I have also used biscuits and some buisquick mixed to make buiscuits.
Bottom line: Delicious and easy. Highly recommended.
These are so fun and so easy! Basically make pizza dough with all the ingredients mixed inside and then baked in a mini-muffin pan. I’ve made them full size muffins as well, but there is something more fun about a mini-size pizza muffin. These are great for a party or potluck (I’ve made them for both) and the kids gobble them up.
I’ve made plain cheese ones and used pepperoni as well. I want to try making them with other ingredients, since Charlotte is a ‘supreme’ pizza kind of kid. I’m pretty sure these can be made and then frozen too!
Bottom line: Fun, easy, and tasty. Highly recommended.
You can see other recipes I’ve pinned here:
I took the kids to Noodles & Company tonight for dinner while Chris went out with Mikael. There is a statue outside in the front of the restaurant. The conversation went something like this:
Cooper: Dare no water! Where da water?
Me: It’s too cold. The water will freeze into ice, so they turn them off in the winter.
Charlotte: What is dat?
Me: It’s a statue.
Charlotte: It’s da Statue of Liberty!
Me: If you say so, but I think the Statue of Liberty is a lot bigger and is in New York.
Charlotte: And we lib in Cah-ye-foe-nya.
Me: We used to live in California. Now we live in Colorado.
Charlotte: Caw-yer-ado?
Me: Yes, in Aurora, Colorado.
Charlotte: What dat mean? Awe-roar-ya?
Me: That’s the name of our city.
Charlotte: Yeah, we live in Awe-roar-ya, Caw-yer-ado!
Then later we got home and were getting ready for bed. They started pulling out the poles to the temporary closet systems that we have yet to take to Goodwill. This was the conversation:
Cooper: Mommy we awe bidding sumting.
Me: What are you building?
Cooper: A tower!
Charlotte: Da Eiffel Tower!
Me: Have been reading books on the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower in school? Or are you travelling the world while I’m sleeping?
Charlotte: Yeah, we weed books at stool!
Me: Oh okay. You remember a lot from your books that you read at school.
Charlotte, our little world traveller all because of books. So proud.
On the drive home from my sister’s house we were stuck in Broncos game traffic. I really get annoyed with traffic and it puts me in a terrible mood. Charlotte gets really annoyed with being in the car and it puts her in a terrible mood. Then Cooper likes to torment both of us because we are easy targets and that just puts us both in worse moods.
Charlotte asked for some music so I turned on Adele. They both love the CD since it’s the right mix of fast pace fun songs, and slower relaxing songs. I also really love the CD! On the second song into the CD, I hear Cooper in the back:
‘That’s me. I hab it! I hab it! Coopeh hab it! It my song!’
And then he starts dancing and rocking out. I was so confused until I listened to the song more closely. And then I smiled and just relished in the moment that my 3 year old is completely and utterly adorable and maybe I do like this age after all. Traffic seemed like a breeze after this little episode.
And in case you have no idea what I’m talking about, here is the song. Cooper heard ‘Cooper has it’ instead of ‘Rumor has it’.
It’s time for 30 days of blogging! I’ll start with—check out the book review and giveaway on the photo blog! I can’t promise I will blog on both blogs every day, but I will blog on at least one of the blogs every day. Hopefully this will put me back in a blogging mood?
And next – Happy Halloween!! We got pumpkins two days before Halloween, so we got them for buy one get one free. Basically the kids all around the little pumpkin patch making it in impossible for me to get any photos in focus.
Waiting to get started carving.
Charlotte’s ‘happy’ pumpking and Cooper’s ‘mad’ pumpkin (their choice on face style).
We had so much fun trick or treating this year. We went out with Mikael, Che and Maile. The kids really seemed to ‘get’ Halloween this year and had absolutely no problem running and cutting through yards to get to the next front door! Cooper was a little too exuberant and tried to open people’s doors and help himself to their candy. I think if he looked more like a 3 year old and less like a 5 year we wouldn’t have gotten as many bad looks.
Here’s what happens when you ask preschoolers what’s on your hat. (How cute are they…Thomas the Train, Tinker Bell and Iron Man.)
And then remind them you are going to get some candy!
We’re off!
Cooper was the first to the door, partly because he was the only one tall enough to reach the doorbell.
Have no idea what he was so happy about. I’m guessing the candy??
And how great do Mikael and Che look??
And our required costumes per Cooper and Charlotte’s request – a witch and black spiderman (AKA Venom).
