Diary of a Mischevous Boy

So I spent quite a while this afternoon playing with Legos with Megan. We had a TON of fun! Nick alternated between playing Legos with us and playing with other toys. At one point he asked for a drink. I told him I'd get him one in just a second and bad me forgot so Nick decided to take things on himself...

First, he brought the stool over. That must not have been nearly good enough because next thing I knew he was putting the stool back. It was then that I realized what was going on so I grabbed the camera and snuck over to the kitchen to watch him. By the time I got there, he had already pushed his bench for watching tv over to the cupboard...
And then he started to lift a leg. It didn't work the first time and he made a couple frustrated sounds before he made a decision on what to do next...
Yep, try #2...

...and he got that knee up!
This could work if there weren't so many things to bring out to the recycle bin up there... He just didn't have much room to work!
It must have seemed impossible at this point because he then got down (which is when he noticed me lol)
(I did get him a drink when it was all said and done.

Southwest Chicken

This is a winner!!!



Southwest Chicken
1 jar salsa
2 lbs. chicken breasts
1 can black beans
1 can pinto beans
1 taco packet
1.5 cups frozen corn

Mix slasa and taco packet. Place other ingredients in slow cooker. Pour salsa mixture on top. Cook on high 4 hours or low 8 hours.
After cooking, shred chicken and use as burrito filling, taco filling, nacho toppers, taco salad, etc. etc.

My serving suggestions would have been to add a ton of cayenne/crushed red pepper, etc. It was awesome and super flavorful as it was but it had little to no kick. I want some spice!! We had it on tortillas, though, and it was great!!!

Crazy Nicholas

2 years ago this month we had a roly-poly little boy. Do you remember how huge he was? What a memorable boy Nick was. He had reflux but wasn't being treated for it. He cried for hours every night. He spent most of is time in pain. Oh, but those grins and giggles made every second of it worthwhile.
Gone are the days of "Baby Nick". Now we have this kid hovering between toddler and boy...

...who has a great sense of humor already and is always being silly
...whose blue eyes can soften even the hardest of hearts
...who could (and oftentimes does) spend his entire day playing with his trains
...who (as a friend said) is always happy
...whose teeth are more chipped at 2 1/2 than Mommy's and Daddy's combined, and each chip has a different storyand who leaves us in stitches as he comes up for excuses as to why he shouldn't go to bed, get ready for bed, pick up his toys, get his shoes on to go somewhere, etc. etc. etc.

My beautiful Megan

Oh how she's changed. This is Megan 2 years ago this month. She was gorgeous back then too but look at how much she's grown! My toddler with curls all over her head is gone.
In her place is this little girl with thick, beautiful straight hair, a fantastic sense of humor, a a (nearly) endless supply of patience for her little brother, a need for socialization, and a thirst for learning. She's the greatest!!

Isn't she gorgeous??? Do you see the mischievous spark in her eyes too? I look at this picture and just grin.

Megan's first book

I decided that with Megan's great imagination and love for drawing that she should start her career as an author and illustrator. I explained to her the parts of a book, we talked about what her book would be about and I pushed for details but other than that, she did it all. (oh, I wrote it too but it was all dictated by her) Here it is!

We even have a title page and she now knows what the author, illustrator and publisher are.
In this picture you can see the slide at the park... and how did she get to the park? In her rocket ship, of course!
That's a birthday cake on page 3.
They rocket shipped back to Megan's house.
Rocket shipped Emma home too. :)
back cover:

Rusty

Rusty has gotten very little mileage on the blog. The poor dog who used to mean everything to us certainly got shoved in the back seat when we had Megan and then got tossed in the trunk (lol) when Nick was born. Just to prove he's still around, though, here's a few pictures for you dachshund lovers...



Of course, that's not my only reason for taking pictures of the dog... I also am updating my blog list (see left side) and one of the blogs I noticed while looking for new ones was about this person who, in order to improve her photography skills, is taking a staged picture every week of the year in order to see her photography improve. I like the idea and I think it's fun (or incredibly frustrating, depending on who the picture is of) to take staged pictures.

Bread

Today we're going out to eat so my crock pot isn't in use. I was missing the wonderful smells in the kitchen so I found this recipe and mixed it up this morning. There was a lack of flour problem which slowed me down a bit (I added some whole wheat to the mix which stopped the bread from rising as much as I think it should have) but it tasted pretty good! I'll try it again another time when I know I have enough flour to see if it's a keeper or not.


Do YOU have any good (non bread maker) bread recipes? I have a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer which makes bread making easy peasy!

Crock pot cooking

This week I'm going to give the oven/stove a rest and make all of our meals in the crock pot. Today's lunch was Mexican Minestrone. Isn't it pretty?


It tasted pretty good too!

Meganism - fire

Megan: You shouldn't play with fire. That's bad. Except on Looney Tunes, then it's funny.

Finally a snowman!!

We've been wanting to make a snowman ALL winter and the snow just hasn't cooperated! It's been too cold and the snow has been too fluffy (which makes my back happy but not the kids!). Finally we got a couple inches of snow last night and it is wet and heavy. Underneath was still a lot of dry powdery snow so we couldn't really roll snowballs for a snowman but we were able to pack enough on to make a snowman...

Here's Adam and the kids putting a face on our friend...

Nick and the snowman
Megan and the snowman
kids with the snowman
Our snowman...

Meganism - Heaven

We were driving to playgroup this morning and on our street was a freshly squashed squirrel. It still looked normal from our vantage point except that the middle of it was somewhat flat.

Megan: Mommy, will that squirrel go up to Heaven to be with God too?
Mommy: You bet it will!
Megan: Do you think that Grandpa will see it?
Mommy: Yep, I think he will, Honey.
Megan (giggling): I think the squirrel is going to need a new tummy before he goes up to Heaven. Then he will have a healthy body again too.

Meganism - life cycles

The kids and I sat down to play a couple games this morning. The first one we played was The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It's a great game and I highly recommend it for younger kids. Anyway, Nick was kicking our butts in the game and got to this part of the game......and Megan excitedly gasps and yells out, "Nick's a raccoon!!"

Meganism - Jesus

while looking at a picture of the Lord's Supper...

Isn't it a nice picture, Mommy? I like Jesus in this picture. Isn't He cute???

Sewing!

As I referred to in this message, I had some sewing to do. As is typical for me, when I get a project to do, I get really really excited about it. I jumped into it immediately and am done! Sort of a letdown, but I'm so excited that I don't care so much.

The first picture is the fabric Megan chose for her Easter dress. I lucked out because when I bought the fabric for her other three dresses, they put the fabric away in a different place, so I could let her pick some fabric without worrying about her picking the ones I had picked for her.

Front:
Back
The next two dresses are from the same pattern but are fabrics I picked out.

This last dress is my favorite. It's a fun fabric, is a different pattern and it's just so stinkin' cute! I SO want to have her try it on but they are a birthday gift so I guess I"ll wait a while longer. Isn't it darling???
Front:
Back:

Happy Valentine's Day!

Nick says

while getting a diaper change before naptime...

Nick: I get up and play.
Momma: Oh?
Nick: I get up and play. It's actually morning.

Done!

They caused a few tears of frustration (now that Megan knows how to write her name properly she gets really frustrated when it isn't perfect - gosh, I wonder where she gets that from????) but our Valentines are in the mail!

Finished socks!

Here's the finished socks! I'm so glad she loves them. :)

testing

Testing my new signature. how's it look? I don't want a stinkin' box around it, though - I'll have to figure out how to get rid of that.

As you can see, changes are being made to the look of my blog. it's going to be ugly for a while while I get my header looking the way I want it to look and before it can do that, I need to know how I want it to look.

Megan's birthday present...

plus
this pattern and this pattern
equals a fantastic birthday present (and Easter dress too!**) for Megan

**Easter fabric still needs to be purchased - I wanted Megan to help pick it out!

todo

OK this week I am bringing back the todo list of years past...

• goodwill - get rid of the clothes that no longer fit my kiddos!
• add a signature to my blog - I've got some ideas and I just need to sit down and figure them out!
• change the look of my blog - again, I have ideas. Just need to figure it out
• get the bottom of the driveway cleared
• get dog poop picked up (ewww!!!)
• Clean off dining room table and keep it clean for more than 24 hours (is it possible?)
• finish Megan's stripey socks
• measure M for her dresses
• start buying fabric for dresses for Megan (she wants some, it's a great b-day gift for her!)
• get patterns for Megan's dresses
• work on typing more of Granddad's story
  
• finish M's school valentines with her
• Make valentines for family members
  
• start working on M's scrapbook
  

Megan's latest socks

Megan told me before I even finished her first pair of socks that she wanted a stripey pair. I wasn't quite sure how to go about such a thing but finally bit the bullet and started some. When she came out of her bedroom the morning after I finished them, she got a huge grin on her face and said, "Mommy, they're just what I wanted them to look like!" What a girl! I'm obviously not done yet but here's the socks! I won't do stripes again. Sewing in that many ends with yarn that is this thick leaves grooves in the socks that I wouldn't think are very comfortable. We'll see what she thinks. Here they are, though!

Valentines Cupcakes

For church last night we needed to bring a dessert and since it's so close to Valentine's Day, I had to bring some V-day cupcakes. I found these cupcakes and they turned out great...

...probably due to my adorable helpers. Here's adorable helper #1.First I got the foil balls ready...
and got out my cutesie cupcake liners
and mixed up the cake batter (the strawberry jello was added right after this picture was taken)
Here they are ready to bake!
beautiful!
Here they are ready for frosting!
Here's adorable helper number 2!
"Mommy, I need to eat this one because it's too small!"
Done!
Aren't they cute hearts??