Crazy Times

I apologize for the lack of posts lately, but things have been rather crazy around here! I am getting ready to go on Reserve orders for at least the next few months, so I have had alot to do to get ready for that.

The kiddos started back in daycare today and absolutely loved it! Ironically, our new babysitter moved from Minot to Texas 2 years ago :) The kids had such a great time with her that Kayla actually cried when I told her we were going home. She begged to stay at daycare....gotta love it!

So anyways, between buying Adam a car, getting all of the paperwork ready as well as the logistics of it all, I have been rather busy. Add on to that the twice weekly playgroups the kids have been a part of and everything else and there you go :)

The only downside to my going back to work is that Adam and I kind of work opposite shifts and therefore will really only see each other on Sundays :(

Have a great 4th of July weekend everyone!

Funny little boy :)

I came out of the laundry room today to find that Carter had decided to take a nap in the entry way! He brought his blanket and pillow down and was attempting to fall asleep on the floor. I guess he thought the cool linoleum was easier to sleep on than his warmer bedroom upstairs!

How cute is that!!!

A "new" car

We have been a 1 car family off and on for a few years now. I sold Adam's old car over a year ago after he deployed for a year, and we have been slow to buy one since he returned (he has been home since Jan!). However, now that I am going back to work (at least until Oct) on Reserve orders, we now need 2 vehicles. We went out yesterday and managed to snag an amazing deal on a car! For those of you that know Adam well, you will realize that this is the nicest car that he has owned since well pretty much ever. He is very happy that not only does he not have to drive a mini-van anymore, but he gets a pretty nice car in exchange.

You will notice in the bottom of the picture that Pilchard the stray cat still lives in our yard, and sometimes on really hot days I let him into the garage or the house for 15 minutes or so.

What goes around comes around...

Here is a little background for you....when our kids refuse to clean up their rooms we give them the ultimatum that they either clean it in a certain amount of time or we will take whatever remains and get rid of it....that being said...

Yesterday Kayla was in the office with me working on her photo album, and she bumped into part of a computer that Adam had laying on the floor. She got very upset at him! I told her to watch where she was walking and she informed me very nasty "Well if Daddy would clean up his stuff like he is SUPPOSED to then I wouldn't get hurt!"

So today we were getting ready to go to playgroup at the art studio and she turned to Adam and said "So you have until I get home from playgroup to get your office cleaned. When I get home I am going to go inspect it and if it isn't clean I am throwing your stuff away!" Wouldn't you know it, when she got home from playgroup she went upstairs and inspected his office!!!

I love it!

Lesson Learned

So it seems that Kayla learned a very important lesson last night/early this morning.....don't put items other than food in your mouth! At some point last night after I put her to bed, she decided that it would be fun to put one of those pencil eraser cover thing-a-ma-gig things in her mouth. You know the big rubber pieces that come in various shapes that are like a bigger eraser and just slide over the pencil eraser. Well this one happened to be a circle about as big around as a nickle, maybe a bit bigger. Adam and I didn't find out that she has swallowed it until midnight when she woke up screaming in pain and told us what she had done. Between the 2 of us we decided that because of the size, that I should take her to the ER to make sure that it wasn't getting caught up somewhere in her digestive track.

So off we went to the ER a little after midnight. We waited with the tons of other people in the waiting room until at 2:30am....then we were taken back to see a Dr. Ironically, the ER Dr was an old neighbor that we had in Minot the first 4 months we lived there :) Small world! So anyways, he did an ultrasound and x-rays, but the problem is that rubber doesn't really show up well on anything, so we couldn't find it.

We got home this morning right about 7am (which meant that I had been up for 24 hours straight!) and are now on a wait and see approach. Hopefully sometime in the next week the eraser makes it's way out of her body.

Later this morning after attempting to get some sleep (but only succeeding at an hour or 2 because of the sun shining in my house) Kayla and I had a long talk about how the only thing that should go in your mouth is food.....whodda thunk that a 4 year old would do that....my 2 year old yes, but I never would have guessed it from the 4 year old!

Another garden update

I have to say, for as unseasonably hot and ridiculously dry that it is here, our container garden is doing relatively good.

The photo above is our yellow bell pepper plant. I am pretty sure that those 2 peppers popped out over night. There are 3 more just like them on the plant and several buds starting.

These are the first peppers starting to show on our purple bell pepper plant.

It's kind of hard to see but there is the beginnings of an orange bell pepper in there...what can I say, we love bell peppers!

This one is the jalapeno plant that we have already picked about 10 peppers off of, and as you can see there are a ton more blooms that should turn into peppers...

We have green beans :) Ok so only 2 right now, but hey it's a start!

The biggest surprise so far has been our cantelope plant! It is getting huge! We are starting to see the beginnings of some melons, but a whole melon is still a ways off.

Finally, we have the unknown plant......a neighbor gave us this pot and said he couldnt remember what fruit/veggie he grew in it last year, but it was already starting so we let it go. Any ideas of what it could be???

It's just been one of those days.....

As the title implies, today was definitely not one of the best for the kiddos. I have no idea what their issues were (heat maybe??) but they were HORRIBLE! The "fun" started not long after the woke up this morning, and has continues throughout the day....

We managed to get a 2 for the price of 1 deal in the time out department today....

I know, they look so sad....but believe me, if you lived here you wouldn't think that :)

So as the day progressed I seem to yell more and more....then we reached the point that I like to call the 6 o'clock meltdown....ever had one of those at your house??

Here is the beginning of the meltdown.......

and it just keeps getting better after that......

Yes Carter, my head hurts too.......

But as the saying goes.....what goes up must come down.....

Sleep....my thoughts exactly!!!

Homemade Granola Bars

If your kids are like mine, then they love Granola Bars! Kayla and Carter are both growing kids, and as such, I give them 2 or 3 snacks a day. I try to keep their snacks healthy (carrot sticks, apples with peanut butter etc). One of their favorite snacks though are granola bars. In addition, they make great snacks while we are on the go (hiking, Sea World, zoo, playgroup etc etc). The problem I have, is I hate buying granola bars. First off, they are ridiculously expensive, and second, they have lots of processed ingredients in them that I would like to avoid for the kids.

So I scoured the internet for a good granola bar recipe to build on...I say build on because I really don't like to follow recipes, and I prefer to use them more as a guidline :)

Here is the recipe that I have been using, and the kids LOVE them. Oh and Adam and I love them as well :)

Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats (I use old fashioned and not quick)
1/3 to 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup wheat germ
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 C flour (you can use all-purpose but I always use whole wheat)
1 C either raisins or craisins (dried cranberries, which my kids prefer to raisins)
1/2 C slivered almonds
1/2 tsp salt (you can use 1/4 tsp as well)
1/2 C honey
1 egg beaten
1/2 C canola oil (my least favorite part of the recipe but it seems to be necessary)
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease pan (if you want thin bars use a 9x13 and for thicker ones use an 8x8 square)---AS A NOTE---I tried the 8x8 for the first time tonight and didn't bake them nearly long enough for as thick as they were, so we now have granola bar bites :) In the future I will just use the 9x13 and determine the thickness there...

In large bowl mix together oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, craisins and almonds, and salt. Make a well in the center and add honey, egg, oil and vanilla. Mix well with hands (spray your hands with cooking spray first so it doesnt stick to your hands to bad).

Pat the mixture into your greased pan. If you are using the 9x13 leave about a 1 inch gap at one end of the pan (don't worry, they won't spread). Bake for about 15-30 minutes (depending on thickness) or until the edges start to turn golden brown. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then turn out onto a cutting board and cut into desired sized bars. Do not allow them to cool completely or they will be harder to cut.

Store in tupperware or ziploc baggies in the pantry for about 2-3 weeks

ENJOY!!

Swimming

The pool at our subdivision clubhouse opened full-time this weekend. We decided to take the kids out on Monday afternoon for a swim.


They had so much fun chasing Adam around and trying to splash him!


Trying to pose for a good photo...better luck next time...

Carter did so well for his first time without me holding him. He splashed and kicked around the whole time. We even let him try swimming with just the arm floats and no ring, and he just about has it!


Here is a video of the kiddos trying to swim on their own

Hiking

On Sunday we took the kids to Friederich park just north of town to try out the hiking trails. From what we had heard, they were some of the better ones in the area, and we were not disappointed! This was the first time the kids went hiking, and they rocked! We ended up hiking about 4 miles by the time we were all done.

Here is the sign at the entrance to the trails. I love all of the wonderful wildlife that you could encounter :)

Time to decide which trail we will take

The windmill is the largest operational windmill in our county...it still pumps water into a giant tank!

Just moving along......

They are so good at teamwork :) It makes me smile to see how much they help each other! Oh and if you spend lots of time outdoors in a hot climate, you NEED to get your kids the small sized camelbaks! These things are lifesavers for us!


Part of the trail

She is such a daddy's girl :)

I even managed to get into some photos :)

Someone got a bit tired during the hike and need to lay down for a minute....

They were looking at an airplane/posing to be silly :)

All in all, we had a wonderful day outside and plan to take lots more hiking trips!

Lying

I am curious if any of you parents out there have dealt with the "wonderful" (note the dripping sarcasm) lying stage? Kayla has started to lie about EVERYTHING! When we turn our backs she hides food under her booster seat and then tells us that she ate it. She is very quick to blame Carter for things that go wrong....my favorite being when she blames him for something, yet he has been asleep in bed for 30 minutes...hmmmmmm....If I ask her if her room is clean she will say yes, yet when I get up to go look she starts screaming "No you can't go look because it's not clean!!!"

So my question is, if you have dealt with this, what worked for punishment/behavior modification????

Lesson Learned

So I learned a very good lesson today....when you live in a large city like we do, ALWAYS check locations on a map before booking an appointment. I made a dental appointment for the kiddos about a month ago. I saw the street it was on and recognized it as being near us....however, I forgot that there are 5 or so different roads here in town with that same name, the only difference being whether they have N, S, E or W etc attached to them. Lo and behold, I managed to book the kids a dentist appointment smack dab in the middle of the ghetto! Thankfully, Adam was able to go with us since the appointment was in the morning.

We got to the appointment, and it was in an ok building...old and kinda rundown but not horrible....but then we got inside.....The waiting room was in need of a facelift, but I was still reserving judgement. We got back to the exam room (which we had to weave thru their records storage room to get to) and it was cramped full of old equipment etc etc etc. This was Carter's first appointment and Kayla's second, and Carter was VERY nervous. The dentist came in and did Kayla first. She basically had us hold K in our lap and lay her back with her head on the edge of an exam chair (which had stuff laying on the other end) and then went to town on Kayla doing a normal adult cleaning (using the metal pick and electric cleaning thing) and Kayla FREAKED OUT! Thankfully her half-ass (sorry but I couldn't think of a better word) attempt last less than 2 minutes. Meanwhile, Carter and I were sitting on a chair in the corner where I began noticing things like syringes with needles attached (like what you use for novacaine) hanging in a stand on the first shelf of a bookshelf....thankfully Carter didn't see them or that could have been a disaster (although Adam said later that Kayla noticed them and she was very angry that they did not have them put up).

So anyways.....time for Carters turn. I go sit in the chair and go to lean him back. At this point I am hoping that like a normal first visit they just look at his teeth, count them and let him go....NOPE! They pinned his head down and did a full on cleaning on him as well........he was so not a happy camper, and neither was I!!!! The only good thing that came out of this appointment was that the kids got really nice toothbrushes........

Needless to say, I will be calling our Dental Insurance company to complain about the conditions (especially the needle part!) and the treatment. I don't understand why you would be a Pediatric Dental office (who only takes kids) and yet have no idea how to deal with children when it comes to dental treatment!!!!!

Scentsy Warmer of the Month

I haven't posted a lot on here about my Scentsy business because I don't want to force it on anyone. That being said, I wanted to share with you all the June Warmer of the Month. It is a gorgeous patriotic warmer that I think a lot of you would love!
If you would like to order it or anything else, please visit my website www.scentsy.com/slange