2009 Goals

I was thinking today about the things I'd like to accomplish or do in 2009 and decided to write my list down to see if I get them done. I hope I can accomplish most if not all of these. I'm sure there are many more but these are what came to mind.

1. Of course, lose weight - especially baby weight.
2. Paint my family room
3. Go to the beach to visit w/ my brother
4. Go to Atlanta to visit friends/family
5. Go to NJ to visit John's family
6. Get in a better financial position by cutting back which we have already begun to do. We are also planning to start attending the Dave Ramsey "financial peace" classes which I"m really excited about.
7. Enjoy my husband & children more.
8. Read my chronological bible from start to finish - this one will be a toughy.
9. Worry less & simplify my life.
10. Be content.

What are your goals for 2009?

Caleb Video

Christmas

We had a very merry Christmas. Joshua was really great not being too overly excited...i.e. ripping through all the presents...but instead took his time and enjoyed each present. I don't think he got a single present that he hasn't played with. He is continuing to rotate them all and has even continually thanked everyone. I'm so proud of my little guy. Caleb slept through 1/2 of his presents being opened but was also blessed with many wonderful gifts. This year we pared Christmas down but yet it seemed fuller and more joyful than years past. I am so thankful for my dear husband, children and being able to share this Christmas with my in-laws and family.

Merry Christmas!

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! I apologize for the lack of posts lately - a cold bug hit me last week and this week is well, all about Christmas! So I wish you all the best and look forward to posting updates about our holiday soon!

Holding Hands

Joshua loves to hold Caleb's hand but today he decided to make Caleb hold the glow worm's hand. So cute. Caleb is also starting to babble quite a bit so today I asked Joshua what he thought Caleb was saying and he said, "Maybe something about dinosaurs." Well, of course!

A Gift for Joshua

I happened to have a canvas in my garage that I was going to use eventually and so I decided to paint this for Joshua's room. I had so much fun painting it so I hope he likes it. I mimicked the dinosaur after some clip-art.

A Typical Saturday Night

We were given this ball pit recently for free which has meant that we have balls ALL over our house. It has been lots of fun for everyone - Caleb & John included! This is pretty much a typical Saturday night at our house...it seems there is always a fort being built, a ball pit party, or some other silly thing happening. My oh my how my life has changed.

Santa

Walk Thru Bethlehem

On Saturday we went to a local church for their "Walk thru Bethlehem". They did an incredible job. They started out by giving us all gold coins to pay our taxes. Then you walk as if really how Mary & Joseph would have gone through town looking for a place to stay. You must pay taxes to the Roman guards and there were beggars looking for money. THere were shepherd's tending their sheep. We went through a town where you received a bread offering. All the way our guides kept asking if people had heard of the Messiah being born and no one knew. Along the way we did run into the 3 wise men traveling to see our newborn King and of course near the end we found the stable where the King of Kings had been born. It was really neat to see how Mary's journey may have been and a great reminder about what this time of year is really about. My pictures aren't great cause my flash no longer works and I need a new camera but it will have to wait.

Advent

I've been meaning to post and have been behind. Our church does a wonderful advent devotional book each year with ideas to get your kids involved...so we started that on Nov 30th but I have yet to make an advent wreath. So I found this fun craft/kid advent wreath to make for this year. It works well cause no real candles...yay!

Thanksgiving Recap

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!! We had a really great Thanksgiving that was full of activity! My brother and three nieces came on Wednesday. They were so great with the boys. They kept Joshua very busy playing and loved holding the baby. We had a nice traditional meal on Thursday. On Friday we were joined by my younger brother, his girlfriend, my nephew, and my sister and then were surprised by a visit from four of my cousins that live in California, D.C, and Georgia. So the house was really wonderfully full. The highlight was when Joshua got eight adults & three teenagers to play ring around the rosie with him in the middle of my family room. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of that! It was really so wonderful visiting with everyone. Saturday we worked on getting the Christmas decorations out and the tree up. Joshua has been so excited about the tree and the ornaments. He loved helping put the ornaments up. We have our big family tree and then Joshua has his own little tree that he is allowed to play with. What a fun Christmas season this will be!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving!

Thankful ABCs

I wish I took the opportunity more every day to remember all my blessings and all I'm thankful for. Here is my ABC list of items I'm thankful for:

A - Apples, Advent
B- Bible study group
C - Caleb
D - Dinosaurs and all the joy they bring in my house
E - Evenings at home each night with my family
F - Friends & family who make my life so complete
G - Grace, Good Health
H - Heat during the cold winter, Hot Chocolate
I - Ice cream
J - Joshua & John
K - Kindness of strangers
L - Love
M- Miracle pregnancy this year, Music
N - New friends
O - Old friends, Other moms who keep me sane
P - Preschool - Joshua just loves it! & Pumpkin pie that he made in class today that he was so proud of , Pacifiers
Q - Questions from a 2 year old
R- Roof over my head each night
S - Snow
T - Tiny toes
U - Unexpected blessings
V - Visitors
W - Weekends
X - X-tra time I get to spend with my family during the holidays
Y - Yummy food that we are blessed with every day
Z - ZZZZ's - Caleb has been sleeping through the night the last few nights! Yay!

What are you thankful for?

Good Job Joshua!

Joshua has been going through a bit of the terrible twos so we have been trying new things to try to encourage good behavior. I think most of his outburst come because he is either hungry, tired, or hasn't been given enough attention. So obviously keeping snacks available and encouraging sleep is something we are naturally doing. However, since Caleb has arrived it's hard to always give him all the attention he wants so I've been trying to make sure to fill his "attention meter" with a little one on one time before I have to do things like nurse, bath, clean, etc. It's really working out great but we still have other times that we need better behavior.

So I decided to try a good behavior chart and am focusing on 3 key things at a time. I added one item (cleaning up toys) that he already does pretty well so that he could see the benefits of the chart. The other 2 items we definitely need him to work on. He is proud of his chart and already thrilled to get his dinosaur sticker. He gets to put one sticker on the chart and one on himself for accomplishing anything on the chart.

Do you guys do anything similar? I'd love to hear about it!

Rub a dub dub!

Thanksgiving Menu & recipes.

This year my brother and 3 nieces will be staying with us over Thanksgiving. Here is my Thanksgiving Menu and some recipes.

I will probably have a Pecan Coffee Cake already made for snacking in the morning.

For our meal:
Turkey

Cornbread stuffing in the bird

Gravy

Sweet Potato Casserole (recipe below)

Green Bean Casserole (suggested by my sister-in-law - it sounds pretty good)

Rolls

Dessert:

Pumpkin Pie

Chocolate Pecan Pie (recipe below)

Sweet Potato Casserole: (Anne's recipe w/ some tweaks)

3 c mashed sweet potatoes

1/2 c milk

1/2 stick butter/marg

1 tsp vanilla

1 c sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp cinnamon

Topping:

1 c brown sugar

1/2 c coconut

1/2 c pecans

1/3 c flour

1/2 stick butter/marg

Mix together, put in 8 x 10 casserole dish. Top with pecan topping in diagonal lines leaving 1 inch space for marshmallows. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes. Remove and place marshmallows on top - cook for an additional 5-10 (watch to make sure it doesn't burn)

Chocolate Pecan Pie: (my mom's recipe)

1/2 c semi-sweet choc chips

3 tbsp butter

2/3 c sugar

1 c corn syrup

3 eggs

1 tsp salt

1 c pecans

1 pie crust

Melt choc & butter in a double broiler. Combine sugar and syrup in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Mix eggs, stir in chocolate, butter and whisk in syrup. (I often do this in my mixer cause you have to do it fast to keep it from cooking the eggs.) Stir in vanilla & pecans. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes then 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Snow!

What a surprise to wake up this morning to a blanket of snow. So we were out at 6:45am playing in the snow as I was afraid it would melt and I had to get Caleb to a 9:30am doctors appointment. Joshua had a blast but thought that snow meant that Santa was coming tonight. He also HAD to make a snowman - so we made a very tiny one. He was very proud but afraid to hold it - so that is why my hand is holding it in the picture. Silly boy.

Sweet Treat Ceramics

This is a plate I painted last week which will be used for our cookie plate for Santa. I did this at my friends house who has a pottery studio in her home where she hosts painting parties and she also does custom orders. She totally helps with the design and I just painted. Her stuff is super cute! So if you are looking for some great Christmas gifts go check out her site: Sweet Treat Ceramics

Harvest Swap

I enjoyed another fun swap hosted by Carrie & Monica. My great partner Hayley from Happy Hawkeye Homeschool House sent me all this lovely stuff. And she was so on top of it we got the package like a week early! Joshua especially enjoyed gluing all those leaves to some paper as a fun activity one afternoon. Thank you Hayley!

Turkey Wreath

Joshua and I did this cute little Turkey Wreath pattern craft today. It was lots of fun and super cute!

Caleb & Joshua

Dinosaurs!

Joshua is addicted to dinosaurs and there was a special traveling exhibit at one of our local musuems. So on Saturday we went to go see the dinosaurs. It was a great exhibit where the dinosaurs move and roar. Joshua had a blast.

Kids Corner

I just found this website Kidscorner.net and really liked it so I wanted to share it with others. It has great ideas for bible verses for your kids with the stories to go along. It also has this GREAT advent calendar that I found out about from MomAdvice.

Things I've Done

Things I've Done - I saw this over at My Heart is Always Home and thought it was cute and was impressed by my amounts of bold.

To participate just copy and paste in your own blog, and bold all of the things you have done. Happy discoveries!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Making Your Home A Haven: Clean

Today I am continuing to participate in Making My Home A Haven. I am amazed at how productive I can be if I say ok - work really hard for 10 straight minutes and refuse to be distracted.

Here is today's list which might not seem to aggressive but it's still tough w/ two under foot:

- Dishes
- Laundry - continued
- Organize Caleb's clothes - put away the ones he has outgrown and get out ones he can wear
- Wipe down kitchen cabinets
- Clean both bathrooms
- Dust
- Put away and organize Joshua's toys - I recently found an old rack for his closet and plan on using baskets etc to put his stuff away

Product Review: Puffs with Vicks

I recently picked up a box of Puffs Tissue with Vicks at the grocery store. The concept seemed like a great idea to me. However, no one in my family will use them. Joshua thinks they are weird and John just flat out doesn't like them. Also, as the box sits on my table it gives off the odor of Vicks vapor rub...not something I really want my house to smell like. I imagine if you have the flu they are a good investment but for every day tissue I find them to be a waste of money.

Go Read this

Seriously, what an amazing blog post. Go read it.

Making Your Home A Haven: Tidy

Monica is hosting this great opportunity to Make Your Home A Haven. THis is something I always strive for and lately feel like I'm so far behind on it with the new baby. So this is a great opportunity for me to make a little extra effort.

Here are my goals:

*Morning - bible study at church - I'm in charge of bringing breakfast

- make breakfast

- do dishwasher and run it

*Lunch - feed kids and get them down for quiet time

- empty dishwasher

- put away laundry

- finish putting away items that we pulled down from the attic (we cleaned it this weekend)

- tidy up piles on kitchen counters

- tidy up toys

- prepare dinner

*Dinner w/ family

___

So far I have accomplished everything on my list EXCEPT putting away the laundry. However, I also organized & refilled the diaper bags and feel good about the house looking neat. I think I might even spoil myself with a soak in the tub before going off to bed. :)

Will start writing again soon - for now...pictures..

Words of a two-year old

Joshua loves to catch bugs and has a little bug catcher container. So today he caught a bug in his container and before we went to bed he wanted to look at it. John told him the bug could sleep in the container in the garage tonight in which Joshua replied, "Bug don't have bed." But it's Joshua's inflection that really says everything. Because I think what Joshua was really saying was, "Dad, you really aren't very smart. The bug can't sleep in a cold, hard plastic container. There is no mattress, no sheets, and certainly no pillow. Geez!"

Joshua's simple corrections are a pretty common occurrence and happened earlier tonight in another similar situation when John said as we were driving down the road, "Look the moon is chasing us." In which Joshua replied, "Dad, moon has no wheels." Two year old logic wins again.

And he smiles...

Oh how precious to see your babies first real smiles...here is one of Caleb's. Also, a picture of Joshua who had sneaked into Caleb's bassinet and this is exactly how I found him.

Harvest Fun!

We had 2 fun Harvest Festivals to go to this weekend. The boys had a ton of fun!

Lactation Bars

I am breastfeeding but have a very hungry guy and a limited supply so I'm having to supplement. I am taking Fenugreek and Reglan but I just found this recipe which is supposed to help increase breast milk supply. Has anyone tried anything like this? I think I'm going to give them a try...I'd be interested to hear other's experience.

Lactation Bars

2 c. butter, Crisco, or margarine (can mix and match to equal 2 c.) or sub in equal peanut butter for "fat"
1 c. granulated sugar
2 c. packed brown sugar
4 eggs
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
2 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. wheat germ
1/4 c. brewer's yeast or nutritional yeast powder
1/4 c. flax meal (or whole flax seed milled fine in a coffee grinder)
4 c. oatmeal (old fashioned, or as thick-cut as you can find)

Add In's: 1 bag mini semi sweet chocolate chips, chopped nuts ,dried fruit (especially berries) chunky peanut butter, butterscotch chips, milk chocolate chips, marshmallows, chocolate pudding

Cream butter and sugars well, then add eggs and vanilla and beat until well incorporated. Mix all dry ingredients except for oats in separate bowl, then add all at once and stir in as well as possible by hand before mixing with beaters until smooth. Add oats and chips (and nuts, if desired), and stir until well blended. Divide dough into five parts and line a 10x7 cookie sheet (with shallow sides, like a jellyroll pan) with foil, then spray foil with nonstick spray. Spread 1/5 of the dough into the foil-lined pan and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. When done, simply lift out the bars by the foil and place another piece of foil into the pan and spray for the next batch. Allow to cool at least slightly before cutting each pan of bars into eighths. Makes 40 bars. You can also use cup cake tins!

Update on the Boys

My goodness it's hard to get a picture of the boys together but here was my attempt from this morning. The second picture Joshua moved his leg at the last minute but it kind of looks like Caleb is smiling so I had to put it up. All continues to go well. Joshua has been very clingy lately and is still learning what it means to be a big brother and to have to share attention. And we are still learning what the best ways are to juggle them and to make the transition easier for Joshua. We've learned little lessons like we have to tell Caleb he has to wait while we take care of Joshua so that Joshua thinks that we are being fair. Simple and sometimes silly but it seems to make Joshua feel better.
In the meantime, Joshua has really stepped up to filling in the big boy role. He completely goes to the potty without any help and he now stands up at the big toiled (on a stool) to pee. He was sitting and using the small potty. He still needs help putting his pants back on as he hasn't learned the fine art of just pulling his pants down a little he takes them completely off - a little like George Costanza.
Joshua is very excited to be batman for Halloween. He has worn his costume around the house a few times and sings, 'na na na na na na Batman'. And sometimes like to shake it up by saying, "Bat-cat" or "Bat-dog". Caleb will be a caterpillar as long as the costume fits - we haven't tried it on him yet.

As for us, we have been spoiled by so many wonderful meals that I've hardly had to cook. The few times I have I seem to smoke up the entire house for some reason or the other which goes to show me how much those meals have been needed. :)

Sweetness & Monsters