again?

Seriously, this is not what I was expecting to see today- nor am I all that excited about it! SNOW, it started about 7:30am and 3 hours later we have a good bit on the grass and the cars. Perfect packing snow, meaning the kids chucked snowballs at Geo Gramps when were saying hi to him and the dog. How unexpected was the snow, well BOTH of Elliot's winter jackets are currently in the dryer after being washed last night. that means he wore two thin jackets over his long sleeves. Also, the boy's snow pants were no where to be found when I shopped so my dear sis has them waiting in WA for us. Off to finish packing and maybe bake something to keep us busy (like there aren't a million other things I should be doing!).

Snow

new tradition? after decorating the tiny fake tree, eat chocolate chip mint ice cream.


bulls eye, she got me with this throw of a snowball.
morning of the first snow, you must eat some.

these two refuse to both smile at the same time lately.

Saturday evening I went to the store, instantly when I went outside it just felt like it was going to snow. 9pm, I look out the window and sure enough, it was SNOWING! Clayton did not believe me and had to see it for himself. I was very tempted to wake the kids up, but they had been so grumpy and were sleeping so good we didn't. Elliot woke up first Sunday morning, I opened the curtain and showed him outside, he mumbled "whatdat?" He was very excited about it, and went out in just his jammies for his first real touch of the fluffy cold white stuff! Once Gabby woke up we were right away all in our jammies, boots and jackets- headed outside. There really was barely any snow, more on the deck than the grass but it was still fun and special. We threw a few snowballs, stomped in it, touched it, got cold and came inside. The kids each had a mini bowl full of fluffy snow and hot chocolate for their pre-breakfast snack. It was all gone before 11am, so it was on to normal life. I got to go hang out with some of my mommy friends, have tea and do a cookie exchange.

Project Blog, Breakfast

What do you have for breakfast? I get into ruts, and getting out of them can take more thought than necessary. I love different breakfasts than most of the family- well than Clayton. I love runny eggs, he only likes them scrambled well done. boring. The kids will eat the same over and over again, and then one day they just don't want anything. So, lately I have a few go to things that I whip up for breakfast.

1. Roll ups. I am the Queen of roll ups, I make them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. A breakfast roll up for us is a tortilla (Costco has a great deal on whole wheat ones, they have like 7grams of fiber, I microwave one or two for 30 seconds to get it pliable) I cut up a piece or two of lunch meat (turkey or ham) put it in a pan and then crack an egg or two and scramble the egg and meat together. Put it in a tortilla (sometimes with a sprinkle of cheese too) and roll it up. My TRICK: use aluminum foil on the bottom half of the roll up to keep it together. The kids love these, some days. I do them all the time for lunch with spinach, quinoa, lunch meat, leftover grilled chicken, tzatziki sauce, artichoke hearts, and lately cream cheese and ham for the kids and cut into slices so they have bite size pinwheels.

2. Oatmeal. the kids eat this almost daily, and it seems to keep them full the longest.

3. Pancakes. There is a reason I am not the normal pancake cook in the family, I make them lumpy and don't follow a recipe. However, even with the lumps they have been pretty good. I make enough so I have some in the fridge that the kids can munch on later. Add flax seed and pumpkin puree a dash of cinnamon and they a little healthy, plus they don't need syrup so they are not as messy.

Right now our thing is oatmeal, but I am wanting eggs tomorrow.

wish list

I'm going to try to do this again... here goes. IF I could have 3 presents this year, not including such things as world peace and no one going hungry, I would wish for:

1. A treadmill. Maybe that would get me back into running, consistently and daily without issues of weather, daylight, pushing a stroller.

2. A new wardrobe, starting with the basics of undergarments!

3. A vacation with just the hubby and I. We have never spent a night away from the kids, well I haven't (excluding the nights I was in the hospital having Elliot and Clayton was home with Gabby). Elliot is not a good sleeper, and he would make it more than rough for whoever was watching him. Gabby is mostly easy, but even when Clay puts her to sleep I have to go in and say our prayers- otherwise she wakes me up in the middle of the night for them.

Now, if I could just get my Christmas shopping in order, it is more a mind game right now for me. I am struggling with do I buy here and now, ship it or pack in our suitcases or wait and do it all last minute? Happy Holidays!

Thankful

Life is good. I have so much to be thankful for, and this past weekend we celebrated so many of the things in life that make us so blessed. We had Thanksgiving two times, and ate tons of delicious food. Here is a picture recap of what we have been up to, and some of what makes my family happy.

Geo came to visit this weekend, (for our 2nd dinner). Elliot and Geo got along great, and were so cute together. This is my only pic of their trip, but we had such a good time with Pam, Yoyo and Geo. Gabby was a happy girl to have her best friend here, and have a sleep over with him.

persimmons. From my friends tree. I have eaten so many of these almost candy fruits!

pecan pie, I could eat it for breakfast. lunch. dinner. it disappeared. I used a spring form pan for this (the 2nd one) and it worked much better than I thought.

me, with straight hair. Gabby was none to happy about me straightening it- even just for the day. I felt like she was my dad (love you Dad!) the way she got upset about it!

My baby girl is sick today, fever. She "just doesn't feel like playing" and so Elliot and I spent the day by her side as she lay on her bed and the couch.

udon noodles, carrot, spinach, all in Clay's homemade turkey broth. today's lunch that we gobbled up.

Asian lettuce wraps- minus the wrap! ground turkey, cabbage, carrots, cilantro, soy, ginger, sesame oil, siracha, rice wine vinegar.

breakfast picnic, Gabby's new thing. she sets up a table cloth and napkins for all our meals (on the ground!). pumpkin pancakes (with flax seed )

TWO!

I see a few games in their future.

look at that face. G had her last day of ballet and all the parents watched.

she did pretty good, but didn't stop talking the entire time!

as of last night this little monkey has his crib converted into a toddler bed! he is PRO at climbing out of the crib and for safety we thought it would be better to have him closer to the ground in all his monkey business. so far he is excited about it- he likes to get up and down out of it and jump. sleep, not so much!

traditions

Now that Clay and I have our own family, complete with two kids, and living away from all our family we have started making up our own traditions. How do traditions get started, they just kind of happen I think. I feel a bit funny sometimes, but it is also pretty fun. So far the traditions we have include:

*making chicken pot pie for Halloween dinner, easy to put together early in the day so you have a warm meal before heading out to trick or treat. I may switch this up to chili or something because not everyone (Clay) is the biggest fan of pot pie.

*Christmas Eve or night dinner, making it a fun family activity of make your own pizza. This was so fun last year when it was just the 4 of us here in VA and Clay had to work. We didn't feel like doing a big fancy meal and the pizzas were such a fun thing for all of us to do, yummy too.

*Singing Happy Half Birthday. As of Wednesday I am 28.5 years old.

*Having an Eskimo party. This is a brand new thing, we had one with the Party Aunty and it consisted of root beer floats and a movie. The original Eskimo party consisted of Coke and chocolate but we changed it to fit our lifestyle ie; having kids that need to go to bed without being loaded on caffeine. I am an "honorary Eskimo" since I gave birth to two real ones! On a side note, a girl at ballet told G she liked her coat. G replied with "thanks, I'm an Eskimo." It has a little fur lined hood.

*New Christmas pjs for the kids, and a special Birthday shirt.

This is all I can think of right now, and yes most involve food. Every year seems to be a little different just due to the fact we spend holidays here and there (WA) and work schedules are set regardless of Holidays. What are traditions you have in your "new" families?

Nene & Baba

"We are playing Nene and Baba" is what I hear coming from the toy room. This is what I find, potato head glasses on my goofballs. We love you Grandma and Grandpa!!

Yes they are inside the toy box, they won't stay out of it so now it is upside down.... lets hope strong boy can't figure out how to get his muscle to flip it open.

sailors

K and I made these adorable and delicious sailor cupcakes for a BBQ we went to with sailors (well there were 4 of them there, a mini Japanese reunion). I somehow missed getting a picture of all of them, and this was the lone survivor after the trip (maybe it was the staying up laughing and eating so much sugar till 1am?) Each one was totally unique, hair, eye shape/color, nose, mouth all were different!

This sassy little princess had one after dinner the other night... well she licked all the frosting off it. Asleep at 7p, then awake at 8:15p till 10PM!!! Why? Oh well it is my assumption now that she was on a caffeine high. We used coffee to tint the cream cheese frosting a skin tone color (not the pink faced one shown) which means right before bed I gave her a nice gulp of coffee. I must admit the frosting was more than yummy.

Party Aunty!

We had such a wonderful week with the Party Aunty, and a great day with Uncle 'Mas (hmm, fancy, french, party, VP all of those would work!). Party Aunty spoiled us rotten with love, presents, clean laundry and dishes, pretend play, fun, laughter and a good times! Gabby cried each day talking about how she didn't want her to have to leave in 5, 4,3,2,1 more days! Miss you so much K., and T too. Pictures are not in any order.

We ran down the hill at Trashmore, to burn off our treat. Here is Aunty and E. I ran as fast as I could chasing G and it was so fun!

G's new obsession to talk about and do- walk the tight rope. I think she got it from "Harold and the Purple Crayon".

why does she keep doing this when she ends up stuck?

This was our treat, doughnuts. G had plain with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. E had a black and white cookie (toooo sweet!) K had a bismark with bavarian cream. S (me) I had a slightly doughy apple fritter

HOURS were spent playing restaurant. G was the chef here, the menu is usually fancy and there is a hotel connected.

Early Christmas presents arrived from the Grandparents! notice G's nose tissue, E stuck his finger so far up her nose it bled, they were just playing.

ta-da! new rolling suitcases for them to wheel on our upcoming trips; Great wolf lodge and lots of airports!

Our quick trip to the aquarium.

using the self timer, that is E's hand trying to help out!

Charles E Fromage, our new favorite hangout! This is what G referred to as "the gerbil princess wheel!"

my boys at sunset.

showing off our beach, even in the cold it is beautiful!

E will only wear his rain boots, seriously, only them. Must buy more, the frogs are getting snug.

Sweet Gj

Representing WWU, yes it is an adult size hat he is wearing. What can I say, he is full of brains.

Classy!

I jus

I

have a seat

I snuck out of the house tonight for a few minutes while Clay and the kids built more pillow forts. I went to AJ Wright, same company as TJ Maxx. The one close by is a little on the ghetto side, but oh I can find some deals there! How is it I go out for me time and end up only buying things for the kids? The last thing I grabbed was this awesome bean bag chair- perfect for either G or E's room (since I bought them lime green bedding that coordinated when they shared a room at our old apartment). I did a quick change, moved "auntie Carm's chair" into E's room and put the new polka dot bean bag chair in its place in G's room. It is an instant hit!

E is testing it out, reading his favorite book "Hand Hand Finger Thumb!"

Oh and the other things I bought were new winter jackets since we have started to have chilly weather- today marks day 1 of the heat being turned on.

Halloweenie

Halloween has come and gone, three times it feels like! This weekends festivities included Zoo Boo at, the ZOO! Clay was working so it was just Little Red Riding Hood (Gabby) a Cowboy (Elliot) and I, meeting up with our good friends Spencer (Seth), Spencer's tender (Gina) and Sir Topham Hatt (Rick). We had a great time, even with the crowds of people there. The only animals I saw were the rear ends of a rhino and zebra. We spent most of our time playing in the bouncy house, hay ride, and walking around a very slow congested circle to trick or treat!

Here is part of us, with an extra ghost and girl thrown in.

Cowboy, he wrangled sucker after sucker (as you can see in his hand) and was a sticky boy who fell asleep in the stroller before we got to the car.

Costumes for the day, courtesy of our dress up box!

Gabby Loved these two things! Not afraid at all, I worry about the girl.

I have only a few pictures of the actual night of Halloween. I guess we were just too busy knocking on doors, grabbing candy and having fun for me to even think twice about the camera around my neck. We went with our buddies, again- Gina, Rick, Seth and Anna, Stella and Albert in Anna's MIL's neighborhood. What can I say, the kids got like 3 full size candy bars and lots of the houses were fully decorated with inflatables, lights and music! We lasted an hour, walking slow to try and keep us all together, but ended up with a load of candy! The kids were wiped out, home at 7:30 and asleep at 8pm.

right after this picture, he pulled off the tail! he does love to pull tails!

My Princess, without her wig and before the army jacket was on.

I got the job of going through the candy! I organized it by chocolate, fruity candy and then suckers! Some of it is hidden away, from all of us (let's hope I forget where it is!).

We really didn't bring 4 pumpkins with us. Saturday, Dennis who we call our geographical grandpa brought Gabby a pink, and Elliot a green pumpkin FILLED with goodies. Candy bars, mints, juice boxes, chips, pretzels, silly band rings, and fruit snacks! It about made our day, so sweet!

I am exhausted now, time to take it easy and rest up before another VERY exciting weekend- filled with something sweeter than candy.... FAMILY!