Friday, March 16, 2007

Fun Friday Stuff

Just a lazy Friday around here. I'm so glad it is though! Friday, I mean. I love weekends!!

My sister Becky arrived last night. She's visiting for a long weekend. It's really nice to see her as we haven't seen her since she left to move to Las Vegas about a month before we moved out here. The kids, as always, are having a blast with another family member here.

Speaking of family, I just realized we'll have a few other visitors here before we know it. Ryan's Mom and stepdad are coming for a few days the beginning of April. It'll be nice to have family here for Easter. And then my parents are coming for Savannah's birthday and staying for two weeks again. We're playing around with the idea of taking a little trip while they're here, but I don't know if we can fit it in or not.
I can already tell the month of April is going to fly by!


Anyway, we spent the morning doing a bit of shopping.
New shoes all around. Well, minus me. But the cute ones got 'em, so that's what counts.














And groceries. That's always fun!
Actually it was fine because I had the company and help of my sister. Plus, I bought some fun stuff to make treats for our game night tomorrow. St Paddy's Day you know.
I'm also indulging and making a Whoppers Pie for us tonight. Mmmmmm!!
I made one a couple of weeks ago (with the left over Whoppers candy from our movie game night) and I am in love! Three of my favorites together... ice cream, malt, and graham cracker crust. Can't beat it.
Here's the super easy recipe if you're interested...
Whoppers Candy Malt Shoppe Pie
9" graham cracker crumb crust
2 cups vanilla ice cream, softened
1 8oz tub Cool-Whip, thawed
2 cups Whoppers Malted Milk Balls, crushed

Combine softened ice cream and whipped topping until well blended. Mix 1 cup of candy into ice cream mixture; spoon into crust. top with remaining crushed candy. Cover; freeze 4 hours or until firm. Optional: serve garnished with additional whipped topping and whole malted milk balls.


Also thinking about us girls going to see a movie tonight. Can you believe I've only been to one movie since we've lived here? And that was to take Savannah to see Happy Feet -not my idea of great entertainment. Kind of looking forward to getting out.

So that's what we're up to today. Not a whole heck of a lot.
Hope you all are looking forward to a great weekend!

Thursday, March 15, 2007



So this is what we're looking at today.

Again.















Yeah, two days ago we were outside playing in the green grass and 70 degree sunshine and today....
well, we're not.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Time Flies

They really do grow up so very fast.
I know everyone says that, but really- isn't it absolutely crazy how fast it goes?

I threw a couple of things in Sawyer's closet a few months ago from Savannah's. She's growing out of all the 3T's and he's wearing 2T, so I figured if it's a unisex piece of clothing, why bother packing it away. He'll be in it soon enough. Well soon enough turned out to be a little sooner than I expected.

I pulled one of those shirts out today, and to my surprise it fit him like a glove.

I don't know why, but all day today, every time I look at my little baby, I think how can my little baby boy already be wearing that shirt?! Savannah was only wearing that a year and a half ago.





















(don't they both look drunk in this picture?)







That was before Sawyer was even born! And now here he is in the same shirt, looking almost as grown up as she. Crazy!





















Also, going back through old pictures....


this one yesterday









reminded me of this one three years ago...

I think it was the striped shirt. Wasn't she just this little?!

cute curls and toddler trials




Savannah was so excited because she slept in curlers last night.
She got them for Christmas in her stocking and we have attempted "the big curl" a couple of times, but by the time we get her wet hair (so much hair!) in the curlers and she tries to get to bed, she complains that she can't sleep with the curlers on her head.
Anyway, she made it all night last night, and she was super excited with all the curls this morning. She called three different people to tell them about her curls today. She also loves the fact that I told her my mommy used to do my hair like that when I was little. And I think she was even more excited when she was showing her curls off to Nicole today and Nicole told her she used to do that when she was little too! Savannah has reminded me of that three times already this afternoon.... What color were your curlers? Pink! Miss Nicole had pink curlers too! Pretty cute stuff.





She's happy, I promise... she just wasn't being so cooperative with my wanting a picture!

Let's see, what's the news of the SawMan lately? Um... you mean besides being a textbook toddler? Seriously. Why do toddlers do what toddlers do? Or don't do I should say.

Sawyer is driving me crazy with his toddler pickyness when it comes to food. I mean, it is plenty hard enough to figure out what to feed him with all his allergies. But then when he changes his mind every day?! Actually I'm lucky if he changes his mind... at least then he might eat something. Here's the current list of his allergies and likes/dislikes.

He breaks out (severe eczema) if he eats:
  • any dairy (which in a normal toddler makes up approximately 95% of what they actually like, right?... cheese, yogurt, milk, mac&cheese, goldfish and numerous other snack crackers with cheese, etc.)
  • including eggs
  • acidic fruits (oranges, peaches, nectarines, kiwis, tomatoes- meaning no pizza or pastas with tomato sauce. but remember, no white sauces either with dairy!)
  • any legumes (beans, peas, soy -that one makes the no dairy harder!, tofu)
  • berries

Now for things he can, but will never eat:
  • asparagus
  • broccoli
  • avocado
  • most other vegetables
  • raisins

Things he used to eat, but now refuses:
  • chicken
  • turkey
  • pork
  • sausage
  • ground beef as in meatballs, burgers, etc.
  • carrots
  • potatoes- white, red, and sweet
  • bagels
  • toast

Which leaves things he will currently eat:
  • ham
  • hot dogs
  • fishsticks
  • crackers (and crackers and crackers)
  • apples (he's just agreed to within the last few days)
  • pears
  • bananas (I couldn't begin to count how many bananas we go through around here)
  • chicken only in fast food/freezer nugget form (he refuses even homemade nuggets or strips and you can forget about baked, broiled or otherwise healthy poultry)
  • veggie pasta
  • veggie stix
  • his dairy/egg free frozen waffles (sometimes)
  • cucumbers
  • olives
  • pizza crust (can you tell I'm reaching to make this list longer?)

I've just recently started letting him *go hungry* if he doesn't want to eat what we offer him. I've always kept his likes and dislikes in mind (and obviously his allergies) when I make up a meal for him. And I try to mesh it with our meals as much as possible. For example the other night, we had Meatballs Stroganoff over noodles, with mixed peas and carrots. He had plain meatballs and noodles without the sauce, with carrots. Or if we're having salmon, and I know the kids don't like it, I'll make them fishsticks instead of the salmon. I try to make it as much as a family meal as I can while not catering to them, but avoiding the biggest struggles with things I know they won't eat.
But with Sawyer's newfound pickyness, especially the things he used to love like chicken or sweet potatoes, there is just no happy medium.
So now I'm offering him a combination of something I know he'll eat, something he used to eat, and something new or that he hasn't agreed to before. If that's what we're having. And that's all he gets. No more serving the turkey bites with carrots and having them all smashed into his hair instead of his mouth, so then giving up and warming him last nights chicken nuggets. If he doesn't want to eat it, he can get down from the table.

I've hesitated before on doing that, because I feel like he's too young to understand the whole I'm hungry because I didn't eat anything, and frankly, I don't want to hear about his empty tummy at 2 in the morning. But enough is enough and if he's hungry, he's got his chance to eat with the rest of us. If he really doesn't eat anything, then we'll usually offer him some oatmeal or applesauce or something later before bed, but as a bedtime snack, not as a meal replacement. So hopefully he'll make it till morning.

So far, no progress. He's still not eating any better at meals. But obviously, he's not starving to death. It's just frustrating. Can a kid really live on chicken nuggets and bananas? I hope he outgrows these allergies.

Anyone have any new ideas, both parenting-wise and food suggestion-wise, for things to try with him?

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

a sneak peek of spring

sunshine
69 degrees
zoo
friends
playground
smiles

more tomorrow
(writing that is. not sure about the weather. and probably no zoo.)
















































oh, I have to add that Sawyer found himself smitten with a little girl on the playground... he followed her around for a bit and then he kissed her in the tunnel!! Isn't she so cute!
















and Nicole, here's the other end of the hug you got the pre-shot of...
yeah, I think Porter had enough of that!







and you can find my favorite zoo pic of the day here

Saturday, March 10, 2007

ponderings

I had a little extra time in the shower today, so I was doing a bit of thinking. I know... scary! But I have a few random ponderings to share with you and then I want a little reader feedback, okay? Okay. So I was showering.

First thought...
Oh to shower by myself!
We had a few errands that needed to be done this morning and Ryan offered to take the kids himself and leave me alone in the house.
A huge list of things I could get done with an hour to myself around here immediately started forming in my head... so much more and actually productive housework gets done when the kids are not underfoot and undoing whatever I'm trying to do. My floors need to be cleaned, there is plenty of laundry to do today, I should have put a pot roast in for dinner, and of course the house was already strewn with toys at 9AM when they left.
But what did I decide to do with my precious alone time?
Shower.

It was just heaven standing there under the warm water. And knowing that I could just stand there. For as long as I wanted. I didn't have to be hurrying or listening for kids screaming and having to discern whether it was fighting screaming or someone hurt screaming. I didn't have to poke my head out of the shower curtain four times during a five minute shower to answer pointless questions or respond to tattling. Both the kids are just getting old enough to leave alone and "watch out for each other" (those are very big quotation marks) for just a few minutes, so I've been able to squeeze a quick shower in once in awhile without being too worried about Sawyer tearing the house apart or killing himself. Normally I just take my showers at night before bed so I can have that little time to myself and not worry about the kids. But then I'm thinking about how late it is and how I should be in bed already and I still have to dry my hair and so on and so on. At that point it's just kind of one more thing I have to get done.
But today.
I just stood there and let the water wash over me. I took my time washing and shaving and just standing there. Ahhhhh....
And then I took my time getting dressed, doing my hair and getting ready for the day. So nice. Thanks honey!

So moms, tell me... do you get good shower time in your house? How do you do it? Do you hurry while the kids are otherwise entertained? Do you sneak it in during a nap? Do you actually get up earlier than they so you can get up and ready for the day like a normal person?

Second...
I was reading awhile ago Leslie's cousin Kristin's blog and she just had Lasik surgery done on her eyes. I poured over all the details; I am so interested in hearing people's stories and experiences regarding that procedure as I am so wanting to look into that myself.
Anyway, Kristin was writing about all the differences in seeing vs. not seeing without your glasses or contacts in and how life changing it is. She mentioned a bunch of little random things, one of which being able to see the writing on her shampoo and conditioner bottle in the shower. I was thinking about that in the shower today. Now I RARELY am contact-less. I am so, so blind it's ridiculous. And my glasses are so old and scratched up that I don't like to wear them for long, so you will hardly ever see them on me. Mostly I just keep them by my bed for JIC in the middle of the night. But, I cannot stand to not be able to see anything, so I shower with my contacts, swim with my contacts, and pretty much everything else I guess I can think of. And yes, I've lost a contact or two (I wear extended wear disposables) in the lake, but it's worth being able to see. Being able to see 'till I lose one that is.
So, as Kristin pointed out, some people don't do that. I know many people who always take their contacts out before jumping in the pool or wear glasses for a whole camping trip. If you have bad eyesight, when do you go lenseless? (Is that a word? ) How bad is your eyesight... do you have to have your nose to the mirror to put make-up on? Do you go through your shower in a blur or do you put them in as soon as your eyes are open?

Third...
As I was taking my own sweet time in the shower, I of course thought about all the more productive things I could be doing with that "time off". Aside from the housework, next on my list of leisure activities would be scrapbooking. I am so incredibly behind where I want to be in that department. I actually have not gotten anything of value done with our albums since we moved here. That is going on a year, people. It's pretty sad.
I have all this stuff in my head, but I am so lazy about getting photos printed and actually making the time to sit down and do it. But I do spend a fair amount of time planning my scrapbooking... putting layouts together in my head and finding a great picture here and there that I can't wait to do a page on. But I really want to get caught up in order. And then that gets me thinking about when I finally get Sawyer's first year book done. Then what? I've been pondering this for awhile and I wonder how other scrappers do it. With more that one kid... do you keep doing books of each individual child, or do you put them together in family albums? I mean, there are so many layouts I still think of doing for pictures of each of the kids, but there are plenty of great ones of the kids together too. So if I keep a running album of the individual, would I want to do a double of the "together" pages for both of their books? Or just do an individual book for their first year or so, and then just have kids or family albums in general for everything together? How do you/are you planning on scrapbooking or keeping albums for more than one child?


And lastly...
This Game is so freaking ADDICTING!
Did you play with this that I posted the other day? Well, that is just silly and a mere blip on the timewaster meter compared to this one.
This is a full on quiz that I CANNOT FINISH. Oh, but I will. The Barczaks came over last night (Nicole brought over her new laptop to try out her newfound portability) and at one point we had three computers going, all of us trying to get further and further in this little "intelligence quiz". It's one of those brainteaser type logic or stupid logic things. I think Nicole and I spent close to two hours on it. Yes, we're pathetic. But I just cannot give up. So close!

Oh, and I just "got" another one today Nic... you know the clock?
Stop... Hammer Time. HAHA!

Thursday, March 08, 2007

very random

Had a great grocery shopping day today. All coupons were doubled up to $2.00 and I took full advantage of sale items with coupons! I got a pack of diapers for $5, refrigerated pie crusts for $1 each, and the new Bumble Bee Prime Fillet precooked and seasoned seafood steaks (I got the pink Salmon) for just 29 cents each! I saved over $30 with coupons! Woo-hoo!

After dropping Savannah off at preschool, Sawyer and I ran a few errands (JoAnns and Big Lots) and grocery shopped for the rest of the morning until it was time to pick her up, where I proceeded to chatter away with her teachers and a parent or two. And then we got home, made lunch, put the kids down for naps, and finally happened to look in the mirror for the first time since I brushed my teeth this morning.
SCARY! It's really gotten pretty pathetic how little I care about how I look going out in public anymore. I mean, a couple of years ago I would have never left the house in basically my pajamas or without even a dab of make-up. But here, I guess I figure it's not like I'm going to run into anyone I know (since I know oh, about three people) and regardless, I can pretty much assume not many people are dressed to impress at the grocery stores around here.
Still, I suppose I could manage to actually run a brush through my hair before I leave the house once in awhile. Before Ryan calls to say he's on his way home from work.

And in other news... sad, sad news... Signing Time is no longer airing on our PBS station here and life is just not the same. I'm telling you, that single half hour of tv was something Savannah looked forward to all week! I don't know where it went... it's just not on anymore and no sign of it anywhere else in anyone's line-up. Now we're back to the one DVD we own; over and over and over and over.
Savannah was drawing today and she would periodically come over and show me her pictures. She did one of all of us, one of Sydney, one of a sunny day outside, and then she started tracing her hands in all different colors and all different ways. Then she was randomly asking me how to spell things. And then she brought this one over and asked me to "please hang this sign up by the tv"...


Now you might not be able to read this signage correctly, so let me translate...
"Signing Time, Signing Time, please come back !"
That's exactly what she told me it meant.
I guess she's taking this a little harder even than I thought!


And just one more thing.
I've recently started visiting every so often a blog that I'm loving... it's written by a father who has a great take on the world around him. Funny stuff. But this was the funniest...

~You know those commercials by Staples, the ones with the "Easy Button" ? I particularly like the one where the woman pushes it and the office is instantly clean and organized, and the annoying employee is in the cupboard. I need an "Easy Button" with those kind of powers.

Here's an Easy button for you...Go on, Click it....

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

it's still winter round here

We got another maybe 3 or 4 inches of snow last night and so we were out this morning playing in the wintery sunshine.

I just love the fact that we live somewhere where my kids can bundle up and play outside like this...










...and also know that in the summer they can be stripped down to their skivvies running through the sprinkler or splashing in the lake.
I love having the "real" seasons... the snow to play in in the winter and the warm enough weather all summer to run around in swimsuits and to hang out at the water or need a refreshing popsicle. LOVE IT!!


























Sawyer was a crack up in all the snow. He tries so hard to follow Savannah around... but the snow is just too deep for him. For awhile, he managed to stay on top of the snow enough to walk okay... he didn't step hard enough to go very deep. But it got harder and harder for him to walk around all over the yard. I tried getting him to stay and play on the driveway and back patio because that's where it was shoveled or there were just a few inches of snow so he could walk around. But he wanted to run like Savannah, and he just couldn't make it through the deep stuff...

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

this is what happens

when a Mom is awakened for the day by a noisy baby boy at 4am, has a splitting headache all day, prompting her to lay around on the couch and let the kids run the house.






















I believe this is called chaos.
If you can believe it, this house was actually perfectly clean and organized less than 24 hours before these pictures were taken. That mess I would like to call a kitchen above?.... that was absolutely spotless when I went to bed last night.
How do they do it???

a couple of birthday hellos

Happy 22nd Birthday to my baby sister Trish. Yikes, you're getting old! Hope you have a great day and enjoy yourself!!

And a late Happy Birthday to Gabe... we didn't forget, we just went to bed early last night, hence no blogging yesterday and no happy birthday post just for you... but you have a gift on the way! Glad you got to experience a Chuck E. Cheese birthday, and sorry we couldn't be there!

And how about an early Happy Birthday to Andy...
I know it's not for a couple of weeks yet, but anytime I mention a birthday Savannah jumps right in and tells me it's Grampa Andy's birthday because it's March. Nevermind the other birthdays we have to celebrate this month... she seems to think you own the whole month! So you'd better make it a happy one!