sweetness

We are back from Seattle now. My mom stayed with Judah and he had his first ice cream cone. So cute.

Judah poked me in the eye last night. Really hard, and my eye was open at the time. It is a little better than it was last night. I can at least open it now without it watering like crazy. It looks like part of the eye is scratched. Today I have a horrible headache on just that side. I am going to try to sleep for awhile since I have both boys sleeping.
I'll tell you all about our trip later.

moment of truth

I have been making fun of this show since it started airing commercials. I am watching it right now, mostly out of boredom. I also thought I better give it a fair chance before I continued bad mouthing it. I don't really understand how they know if she (or he) is lying. I thought they were hooked up to a lie detector thingy, but she isn't. This girl admits to being fired for stealing, and it the previews it looks like she admits to having a affair, being in love with someone else on her wedding day, and being willing to leave her husband for a ex-boyfriend. (I am only part way through the episode so I'm not positive what her answers are)
My question is: if you had issues like that then why would you go on a show like this?
I have no sympathy for her. If you have baggage like that, either be honest with your husband (the obvious right choice), or don't go on a show like this.

I think I am going to find that I think it is even stupider than I thought before I watched it.


edited to add: Now I am even more confused. On the website it says the contestants know the questions beforehand. They are asked the questions ahead of time and that is when they are hooked up to the lie detector.

...So confused. This is so stupid.

flamingo

We got a flamingo a couple weeks ago. I liked the placement of it. Way to be creative boys!

Read more about the pink flamingo project HERE .

playtime

Judah decided it is a lot of fun to go down the slide face first. I always thought kids learned these things by watching other kids do it. Judah thought this one up on his own.

Then we had a face plant.

He was a little more cautious after that.

I wish you could hear the giggles that went along with this!


Then it was time to go.



I wish we had a park within walking distance. I think we would go more often. Judah always enjoys his time there.

I learned my lesson

I've asked Justin several times to put up this leaf thing we have for Cohen's room. He hasn't been able to do it yet. I decided I could probably do it, just a few nails right? And it would be one less thing for him to have to do. I thought I had measured where I wanted it to go...but this is how it turned out:



It is touching the ceiling. Not what I wanted.

Now I have to ask Justin to pull out my nails, putty the wall, and put it back up in the right spot.

I should have just waited for him to do it.


So here is my advice for the day.

"IF YOU'RE GOING TO DO SOMEONE ELSE'S JOB MAKE SURE YOU CAN DO IT RIGHT. OTHERWISE YOU'RE JUST CAUSING MORE WORK FOR THAT PERSON, NOT HELPING THEM."

Hmmm....I can think of a lot of instances this would apply. :)

Since Cohen was watching I'm hoping he learned the lesson to.

happy 1/2 birthday to judah

We went to Northwest Trek today. We wanted to spend some special time with Judah because next weekend he is getting left with grandma for 3 nights while we go to Seattle for a conference.

I finally gave in and we turned him around!





We stopped at Stewart's Meats on the way back and stocked up on meat. I am so excited!

ick

I HATE my post-pregnancy body.

I know that I grew a baby and it is a miracle and it took me 9 months to put the weight on, it will take me 9 months to lose it, blah, blah blah...I know.

Those things are true and usually I choose to focus on those things, but not today.
I am tired of not having clothes that fit. I am tired of my belly bulging over my jeans. I find it so hard to bother with making an effort to look nice. What is the point?





I did grow a beautiful baby though.

i like treasure hunts

I had a treasure hunt of socks this morning. What a fun way to start the day!

its a tornado

Oh wait. It's just Judah.
...seriously this kid is killing me today!
How does he have so much energy?

i need car seat advice

Right now Judah is in a Britax Marathon car seat and Cohen is in the Graco infant seat. Cohen will be outgrowing the Graco seat soon, so we need to buy another car seat.

Originally I was going to buy another Marathon, but then I was looking at the Britax Regent . Judah would move to the Regent and Cohen would go into the Marathon we have. It goes up to 80 pounds, but it is only forward facing.

(we obviously wouldn't get the girly cover!)

Judah is still rear facing at this point. Justin really wants him to turn forward, but I am not sure I am ready for that. Justin can't drive the van with both of the boys rear facing because he can't put the seat back far enough, so I do understand his frustration with that. I just know that it is safer rear facing. I also know that it is not UNsafe to turn him around...I just am having a really hard time doing it.

So today I was looking at the Radian80. It also goes up to 80 pounds and it can be a rear facing seat (up to either 33 or 35 pounds, I found 2 different numbers).


My only problems with the Regent are that he can't rear face in it, and it seems like such a "big boy" seat that I am unsure of the safety of it for him because he is at the low end of the weight range for it. But it must be fine since he is within the range, right?


So what should I do? Get another Marathon? It goes up to (I think) 65 pounds. Get the Regent? Or get the Radian?

I want to keep the boys in a 5 point harness for as long as possible, so I think we would get good use out of either seat that goes up to 80 pounds. I am not really concerned about price. Car seat safety is a big deal to me, so I am willing to pay the money to get a good seat. We can come up with the money someplace. We want more kids, so should I just get another Marathon for Cohen and then when the next kid comes get a Regent and move Judah up to that?

I REALLY can't make a decision. Help me please!

Judah is around 28 pounds now. If that helps anyone. :)

i love my stroller

I can't convey enough to anyone how much I love my stroller...maybe if I just keep telling everyone, eventually you will get the point.

Today I had some library books to pick up. I have to put the boys in the stroller to go into the library, so I figured since it wasn't raining and they would be in the stroller we should go for a walk around downtown. We started out at the coffee shop for a iced coconut mocha (so good.) for me, a cookie for Judah, and a bottle for Cohen. Then we headed to the library to pick up my books.

Two of them are cookbooks. Local Flavor uses ingredients that can be found at farmers markets.


The Herbal Kitchen uses a lot of herbs and fresh ingredients.



I have been looking at both of them online for awhile. I thought I would check them out from the library and see which one I liked better and buy it. Unfortunately I think I LOVE both of them! I don't know what I am going to do now. I can copy some of the recipes out of them...but it isn't the same.

I think I am going to start buying as much locally as possible once the farmers market opens. We need to eat fruit and vegetables, and I don't have enough frozen/canned to last us for very long. I am going to try to freeze/can a lot more this summer so hopefully we don't have to buy much from the store the rest of the year. I haven't figured out a solution for other grocery items. I am going to start with produce and meat, then go from there.


So after the library we walked to Safeway to get some butter to make Valentines Day cookies, then we went to Lynch Creek, and then we came home. It was a nice walk. Now Judah is napping, and I'm hoping Cohen is going to fall asleep so I can make my cookie dough.

ready for camping

We have always talked about getting a trailer of some kind for camping. Since we want a bunch of kids it will be too expensive to stay in hotels and eat out for vacations. Justin hates it when I speak in absolutes, so I won't say that we will never be able to do that...but I think it will be a very rare thing. I think it is important for families to get away together, especially for us with Justin's job as the kids get older I think it will be important for them to have time away with dad. We want to do ministry together as a family as much as possible, but sometimes the kids are going to have to stay home while dad goes and hangs out with other kids. I think that is a lot for kids to process and understand, and has potential to be a really negative thing. (some of that is another post for another time) So I think time away will be a huge priority for us.

Thanks to the government it pays to have kids, so part of our tax return is going towards this:



Seriously, I love it. It is exactly what we were looking for. A basic trailer that we can cook in and store stuff in, and something to "take shelter" in. As the boys get older and we have more kids they will be in tents outside. Maybe Justin too...I'm not sure how we are both going to fit on the bed. :)



The last owner took the benches out. It makes it look really bare, but it makes it even more perfect for us because we can fit a pack and play in that corner for a kid to sleep in. There is no table, which I am a little bummed about but we can either buy one for it, or do without.




I'm looking forward to cleaning it out really good and figuring out a mattress for the bed and filling it with our camping supplies. And possibly making curtains. Justin says no curtains, I say yes curtains. I think it is the girl in me that wants to make it homey. I am hoping it will be a home away from home for us. :)

Now we need to plan our first camping trip.

my advice of the day

So I decided to try for the "coolest mom of the year" award. I was thinking if I won it I might get a pay raise. :)

I have some pretty tough competition though. Liz lets her kids play with shaving cream...that is a pretty cool mom!

Today I thought I would try to win some points. Judah has been really into dipping his food in things. We had some caramel in the cupboard, so I thought I would let him dip his apple slices in it. Sounds cool for a little boy right? Desert for lunch? I thought so.






So here is my advice for the day:

Don't let your kid dip his apples in caramel unless you are prepared to bathe him, yourself (ever try to carry a sticky kid to the bath?), his high-chair, the floor within a 5 foot radius of his chair, and the bathroom (because I didn't know he had a poopy diaper until I took it off, then I had to run for the wipes while he touched everything he could with his sticky hands).

That was a lot of work. I definitely deserve a pay raise.

breakfast bars

I love finding new recipes to try. This one is a new favorite of mine. They are great to grab in the mornings. I also like that pretty much everything needed can be bought in the bulk bins at Fred Meyer. I am sure they could be purchased at the food co-op, but I haven't been able to make it over there yet.


Breakfast bars

1 14-fl-oz can condensed milk

2 1/2 cups rolled oats (not instant)

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup mixed seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, sesame)

1 cup natural unsalted peanuts

1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees and oil a 9- x 13-inch baking pan or just use a disposable aluminum foil one.

2. Warm the condensed milk in a large pan.

3. Meanwhile, mix all the other ingredients together and add the warmed condensed milk, using a rubber spatula to fold and distribute.

4. Spread the mixture into the oiled or foil pan and press down with a spatula or, better still, your hands (wearing those disposable latex CSI gloves to stop you from sticking) to make the surface even.

5. Bake for 1 hour, remove, and after about 15 minutes, cut into four across and four down, to make 16 chunky bars. Let cool completely.


I have some baking in the oven right now...yummy!

crash and burn

Is it anyone else's first reaction to take a picture when your kid falls down? I sure hope it isn't just me.



When he fell later and was dripping blood because he bit his lip I didn't take a picture. Would you think I was a bad mom if I told you I wish I had??? It was his first accident that resulted in bleeding...if that isn't worth a picture I don't know what is. :)

hooray for seeds

I placed my seed order today. I am so excited! I ordered from Seed Savers Exchange. I decided to plant all heirloom seeds in my garden this year. We will see how it goes. They sure do have fun names! Here are two I am really excited about:


Romanesco Broccoli


Dragon Carrots

guess who results

Here are the answers:

1. Cohen


2. Judah


3. Cohen


4. Cohen


5. Judah


6. Judah



And the big winners are Liz and Jami! Congrats guys. Wish I had a super cool prize...but I guess you just win bragging rights. :)

cool shirts

Judah and Cohen's Auntie Kaci got them this cools shirts for Christmas. I had been looking for shirts like these everywhere, and could never find them in the right sizes. Auntie Kaci must be a mind reader. :) Thanks Auntie Kaci, we love the shirts!