My AMAZING friend Tara offered to drive with me to see my family last week. We may be crazy for thinking it was a fun idea to load up 4 kids under 3 into a suburban and drive for 12+ hours each way…but we all came back friends and can already laugh about it all. We did learn a very valuable lesson, though, on “what not to EVER say on a roadtrip with your children”. I thought, for your sake, I would share these with you so that you don’t make the same mistake we did.

1) Never say “Aren’t you amazed at how great our kids are? So flexible, so laid back, we are so blessed” because you can guarantee that approximately 46 seconds after you utter those words, a complete and total melt-down will occur

2) Never say “Can you believe we are making such great time? We are right on schedule. I’m so impressed with us” because you can guarantee that at the next major city there will be a huge accident, shutting down the two major interstates and adding 2 hours to your trip.

3) Never say “Well, if we had to get stuck in traffic at least we are amazing navigators and found this incredible detour” because you can guarantee that your incredible detour road will merely cross over the interstate you were trying to get back to and will have exactly ZERO access to such interstate…adding yet another 30 minutes to your trip.

4) Never say “I’m positive we can make it 30 more minutes until the next town before we get gas. The car would have to be leaking gas to finish a 1/4 tank before then” because you can guarantee that the next time you stop you will have a scare where someone tells you that you car actually IS leaking gas (check out Tara’s blog for an amazing indicator of the IQ levels we experienced at one McDonald’s).

Yep, that about sums it up. We spent the rest of the drive just shaking our heads and saying “don’t say it, just DON’T SAY IT”.

Tara has some adorable pictures of our munchkins on the trip on her blog as well. Too bad we don’t have a video documentary of the actual car time. It was AMAZING.

Thanks again, Tara. It was a blast!!
ABL

The same only bigger…

…our family is growing and so is our ride!

Sweet baby sister is so high maintenance that she required a new vehicle (before she even arrived)! Not that I mind…owning a minivan is a dream come true for me. As excited as I was, though, to bring home the new wheels, there may or may not have been a few tears shed over leaving the Camry behind. I’ve had the car long enough that we pulled these out from under the seat before we left the car at the dealership.The Camry was the first car I purchased on my own, the car that I loaded up to move to Texas, the car I drove to work at my very first “real job”, the first car I put Texas license plates on and the car that we washed in our wedding attire. While it is silly to “love” an inanimate object, I sure do love all of the memories that were packed in that little vehicle. So, it won’t come as a surprise to you that I made the car salesperson pose for the below pictures.

Goodbye, Camry! You were an amazing car. (Even the salesperson could sense my mixed-emotions and put his arm around me as I handed over the Camry keys…how funny is that!)

Hello, Sienna, and the memories still to be made. KJ for one already thinks this car is the coolest thing ever and just likes to go for ride in it. A child after my own heart!

So, we’re moving on to bigger and better things around here. Anybody need the Annie soundtrack on cassette tape?

ABL

“God be in my eyes, and in my seeing”
(while covering your eyes)

“God be in my ears, and in my hearing”
(while covering your ears)

“God be in my mouth, and in my speaking”
(while covering your mouth)

“God be in my life, and in my living”
(while pointing to your suspender straps)

“God be in my heart, and in my loving”
(while crossing your heart…or giving yourself a love squeeze!) AMEN!

I’ll never again write on my blog about how one of my children didn’t/doesn’t get sick. Less than 2 days after writing that KJ doesn’t get sick because of washing his hands…he has a fever over 102. Nice.

I feel like it is probably time for a new post when every time I click over to my own blog (which is rare), I feel hungry (which is frequent).

so…I actually did two posts. Because my kids are much more endearing than talking about my cooking/eating habits! Read yesterday’s post with some random updates on the kiddos. AND here are some pictures of the cutest boys I know (I’m allowed to say that on my own blog, right?)

Cbug is quickly catching up with his “big brother” in size…and in his own mind, he’s pretty strong, too! Now as for walking, that is another story. Don’t get me started on the dramatic act this boy puts on when you try to get him to take a step on his own.

For Christmas, KJ got a new bathroom stool. His hands are now OFFICIALLY clean ALL OF THE TIME. When we are at home, he washes his hands no less than 15 times…an hour. No wonder he hasn’t gotten sick yet (knock on wood).

Cbug is WAY more of a climber than KJ ever was (yet refuses to walk). Here he has climbed up onto a chair and on top of a table then reached across to grab one of the pretty pottery pieces we got as a wedding gift…in a matter of 12 seconds. This beautiful (and quite sentimental) scripture pottery has been sitting on this window sill since we moved into the house (pre-kiddos) and the location was NEVER an issue with KJ. May need a new child-proofing methodology with Cbug.

There is nothing better than wrestling right before bedtime… unless, of course, wrestling right before bedtime also includes a cardboard box. This box (excuse me, I mean boat) was LOADS of fun, especially when it tipped over (and over and over and over).

There is never a dull moment at our house. I sure hope our sweet baby girl is ready for the fun her brothers are sure to provide for her!

ABL

Cbug had his 1 year check up a couple of weeks ago (a month late) and is doing GREAT. The doctor was so good to answer questions I have about C’s development- nothing major AT ALL, just mom questions (mostly about how much FOOD he requires, the fact that his thumb is getting sores on it where he sucks on it and the fact that he still isn’t walking). We all agreed, though, Cbug is doing great. Despite eating like a teenager, he is in the 50th percentile for height and weight so he’s obviously not being OVER fed. He’ll walk when he’s ready. And he won’t go to college with sores on his thumb from sucking it (hopefully not even elementary school). He laughed and entertained everyone at the doctor’s office and we were so glad that blue bear was there to come to the rescue after shots! Love the blue bear…do not love that the only replacement I’ve been able to find on ebay was $30 (seriously, for a stuffed bear?).

KJ is definitely getting closer to 3 than 2. He is totally into rationalizing things and can argue with the best of ’em. Our favorite/least favorite KJ phrase is “well, i was JUST….” 100 times a day. He also has a very tender heart. He does not like for anyone to be sad or be left out. He can be seen comforting friends in tears in bible class or asking strangers at the playground to play. This morning he was drawing a picture at the table. I asked him who he would like to give it to. He said “Um, I think the lady that doesn’t have any paper”. Over the last couple of months we’ve given gloves to people that didn’t have any and toys to kids that didn’t have any. I guess that was on his mind. I asked where the lady that didn’t have any paper was and he said “At church”. Ummm, ok (I hid the paper).

OH, and random note… KJ calls our GPS the “nice lady”. WE are not sure how this started, but is presumably because of her nice accent and fact that we frequently call the stranger at the grocery store or in the mall “the nice lady”…I guess in his mind, GPS lady is a stranger and seems friendly enough. We usually play this game with him where we say “which way should we turn now” and he says right or left. But after we got the GPS for Christmas he now will occasionally, instead of answering, say “maybe you should ask the nice lady”. Thanks for that reminder, KJ.

We got to see Baby Sister via sonogram again at our last appointment. She looks very healthy and was, once again, curled in an angelic little ball as comfy as could be. WAY different than sonograms with the boys where you had to catch ’em quick to get a picture. Here’s hoping this will say something about her laid-back personality. Haha. She does have a name and I’m so thankful that she will not be named in the delivery room like Cbug. Its not really fair, though, because I’ve basically been working on a girl name since about 2005 (when we found out we were pregnant the first time). Like the boys, I’ll not be posting her real name here. Ask me about it, though. I LOVE it!! KJ and Cbug’s “blog names” just sort of seemed easy, but baby sister’s hasn’t quite come to me yet. Any suggestions?

That’s it for randomness. Pictures following shortly.

ABL

I am not a cook. I don’t mind cooking, I just haven’t ever really had time or creativity to make it work. However with a growing family (and therefore shrinking budget), I’m always looking for new and creative ways to put a meal on the table. I work part-time, have two little boys, and I’m pregnant. Therefore, even though I have an incredible hubby who is awesome about helping around the house, we do not have a lot of time or energy for huge menus. We are not healthy nuts (as evidenced by the large supply of girl scout cookies currently in our freezer), but we try to eat a balanced diet. Anyone else out there that can relate to all of that?

I thought it would be good to put together a list of resources. I’m slowly gathering them as I go on this quest for menu help. Here are a couple of my current go-to’s.

I love the Cooking for Slackers blog. It is a fairly recent discovery for me, but you must try it. I love that she puts up two week menus so you get some ideas and her menus always have a pretty broad range of selections. The meals are all fairly family friendly (but not always diet friendly). I also love that she provides recipes for each item. The recipes are categorized in the sidebar so they are easy to find. Best part, she usually has a review about whether her kids liked the dish or not. Last night we tried this baked ziti recipe and it was absolutely delicious (and nearly as good today for leftovers at lunch).

A couple of other great resources for quick and easy meals:
Ask Tara at “My Life“. She sometimes puts recipes on her blog, but if you know her you should just talk to her. She is great about coming up with easy and kid-friendly recipes to pass along. Check out her recent update on croissant pizzas. YUM! She’s also good at menu planning in advance.

Her sister also has a recipe blog “In the Mood for Food.” I haven’t tried any recipes from it yet, but I can certainly get on board with the title…and everything looks yummy.

Anyone else have any good suggestions? Provide me some links and I’ll make a list to share. The links should have recipes that are EASY and require less than 1 hour to prepare, do not require any ingredients I can’t pronounce or can’t be found at my local grocery store, and should be kid friendly.

Thanks for the help!
ABL

I know, it is February, but well…this is my blog and I can rewind back to Christmas if I want to, right? I just need to get a few more of these pictures and memories into the mix and then I can move forward. There’s the disclaimer, now for the pictures (and boy do I mean A TON OF PICTURES).

I loved spending time with all of our extended family and wouldn’t trade the memories of having so many loved ones gathered around for anything. That said, though, my very favorite part of Christmas was the special time that we spent with just our little family of 4 (and 1/2). Here are a few glimpses into our family time and some of our traditions.

Even if I don’t get a Christmas card sent out (I’m averaging every other year), I still like to have at least one really good family Christmas picture from each year. I frame them in a Christmas frame and pull them all out to decorate each Christmas. This is our annual picture/Christmas card from 2008:

I could probably post about 100 failed attempts at a Christmas picture, but here is one that pretty well sums them up. The picture is blurry because I’m trying to catch Cbug while snapping the shot. KJ is *fake* crying because…well, who knows. He’s 2. Need I say more?

Tradition #3- The candlelight service

It was great to be in town for our Church’s Candlelight service on Christmas eve. The place was PACKED and worship was incredible. What a great way to stop and remember why our family celebrates the season! My family was especially thrilled to get dressed up for yet another family photo (they just thought I would stop after we got ONE good one- yeah right!)

Tradition #4- Before bed:
I love Christmas pajamas. Aren’t they adorable (even if the wearers would prefer to wrestle instead of pose).

Before we go to sleep we have to read the Night before Christmas and the story of Christ’s birth. Here, Nonna is getting ready to read us the Night before christmas (via web cam) while we enjoy hot chococolate (or a bottle).

Almost ready to go to sleep, first we just need to leave a treat for Santa. I had it on good authority that Santa wouldn’t mind eating one of the leftover Christmas cupcakes instead of a cookie this year. KJ picked the perfect one, then we left a note.

Tradition #5- The finishing touches

After the boys were asleep, RRL and I began the task of wrapping presents and putting together the boys big gift- a basketball goal. This was our first year to have something to put together on Christmas eve- RRL did a stellar job…the first of many, I’m sure.

Lots of traditions, lots of memories, LOTS of fun!

ABL

RRL and I have, without even trying, become frequent (VERY FREQUENT) amazon shoppers lately. It all started with a great deal on some books for favors at Cbug’s party, a couple of hard to find toys and a new GPS (our Christmas gift)…and in ONE WEEK’s time turned into this:

Thank you, our friend AMAZON.COM! (Could we please get some kind of discount for this little plug?)