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Monday, June 17, 2013

The men in my life

It has been awhile since I have posted anything, but I thought since it was Father's Day yesterday I would write a little something about the special men in my life.


1 - my father - he has been there since I was born, the good, the bad, you name it.  I have fond memories of laying under one of the cars he was working on and checking it out.  I also remember following him with my hands in his back pocket too.  Now, that I am older, I look forward to our little talks.  He is a good father and a grandfather and I am thankful he is in my life.


2 - my husband - the 2nd man that came into my life.  Right away he was a step dad and he didn't care.  He treated Peter like his own and for that I love him.  We have had our ups and downs, but through it all, I am so proud of the husband and father he has become.  







I found this poem and I thought it was fitting for the special men in my life and for all the other Dads out there:

Only a Dad

Only a dad, with a tired face,
Coming home from the daily race,
Bringing little of gold or fame,
To show how well he has played the game,
But glad in his heart that his own rejoice
To see him come, and to hear his voice.

Only a dad, with a brood of four,
One of ten million men or more.
Plodding along in the daily strife,
Bearing the whips and the scorns of life,
With never a whimper of pain or hate,
For the sake of those who at home await.

Only a dad, neither rich nor proud,
Merely one of the surging crowd
Toiling, striving from day to day,
Facing whatever may come his way,
Silent, whenever the harsh condemn,
And bearing it all for the love of them.

Only a dad, but he gives his all
To smooth the way for his children small,
Doing, with courage stern and grim,
The deeds that his father did for him.
This is the line that for him I pen,
Only a dad, but the best of men.

So, in closing, I hope all the fathers, biological and step, and grandfathers had a great day enjoying time together with family!  


Monday, June 3, 2013

There is no 'I' in Team...

Well, I haven't posted anything in awhile, but this was definitely blog worthy!  First, I must warn you, there are a lot of pictures.  Second, they are mostly of Peter playing ball, and third, I can only take credit for the team picture.  The other pictures were taken by my Uncle Mike with his really great camera!  

So, after years of being on different little league teams, he finally landed a good team!  All the kids get a long, play well together, and have been making the parents really proud of all their hard work!  




Now, I have to tell you because I think it is funny.  Who is your worst critic?  You, right?  Well, that's what Peter was doing to his pictures and noticed that he looked a little constipated while he was pitching!  It is also from the mouth of a 10 year old! 








Here is Peter's #1 fan!  So happy to be outside! 


The weekend was filled with 5 games.  The boys had 2 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday!  They did awesome! They ended up getting 1st place in the mid season tournament!  So proud of the team and the coaches!!  

It was a long weekend in the sun, swatting away gnats, and not so healthy concession eating, but it paid off and the boys took home a nice medal!!  

Monday, May 6, 2013

Let the demo begin...

Ok, so my husband and I decided it was finally time to do some remodeling on our home.  My husband has been helping friends and family with their renovations and is finally able to get to ours!  I am super excited about this, but not so excited at how our house looks presently.  Our kitchen is all a mess, our hallway is down to the plywood, we have the dining room table and chairs in the living room, and everything from the kitchen cabinets is also in the living room.  Yes, it has put our normal routine out of whack, but the final outcome will be amazing!

What are we doing to our home you ask?  Well, we are taking the creamy white carpet up in the living room, hallway, and stairs and putting wood laminate down there.  We are also pulling up the flooring in the kitchen and doing the wood laminate out there as well.  Now, when I say "we" in my post here, I am not trying to make you think that I am doing any of the renovations.  I just want to make that clear right now.  I am not going to take any of the credit.  I am giving it ALL to my wonderful husband!  

Day 1 - ripped up carpet and trim in the hallway.

.
Day 2 - ripped out the 4 layers of flooring in the kitchen /dining room .
The next step is to pull out the rest of the stuff in the cabinets.  It is also a good time to decide to decide if I want to keep or throw away anything I haven't used or forgot that I had!  The items that get pushed way back in the cabinets and you don't miss them, probably are the items that should just be tossed!

Well, today I have the toughest job of all - deciding on which color I want to paint the cabinets in the kitchen!  Reza doesn't care.  The only things he cares about is that I make the decision soon (TODAY) because the flooring can't go in until we paint!


Thursday, May 2, 2013

Cheese + crackers = 2nds please

I currently found a recipe for homemade cheese crackers and wanted to try them since, 1) the recipe didn't call for an off the wall ingredient that I was going to have to buy this 1 time and never use again, 2) easy to make, and 3) I was in the mood for Cheeze Its!  As most of you know most of the recipes I find, make, and eventually post are from Pinterest!  So, here is another one of my Pinterest finds, Homemade Cheese Crackers.


In they go!
The recipe only called for flour, milk, cheese, salt, butter (I used unsalted butter since I was already adding salt), and crushed red pepper flakes.  


Out they come!  My house smelled like cheese!  I tried them on all my kids, husband, and my Mom.  Thumbs up from all of them!  I will definitely make them again.  Next time I will roll them out a little thinner so I get more crackers.  These were gone in a day!  

The 2 things I will probably do differently with them next time is to roll them out thinner and do half whole wheat flour and half regular flour.  Other than that, they were yummy!!

Oh, I almost forgot to leave you the recipe:  go to this yummy site and make them today!

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Happy 1st Birthday Mr. Maison!

Well, Maison turned the big O-N-E yesterday, but we had his birthday party on Saturday!  There were moments that time stood still for me and stopped moving.  I thought I would never get through the first 6 months!  At least that's what I thought at times with Maison.  Here we are though celebrating his 1st year with friends and family memebers.  



What IS fun about about being 1?  You poop your pants, throw up on people, and cry to get attention?  
Oh, the being cute...that would be fun!


Well, here is my little guy!  He is a lot smaller than my other two!  He doesn't have any rolls yet!  



Here is his smash cake, but he didn't dig into it like we all thought he would.  Clean up was quick and easy so I was happy about that!





Big sister trying to help him out with a present.  


See his expression?  Well, he had that for most of the party.  It wasn't until after everyone left that he came out of his shell and started laughing and smiling!  I think he was a little overwhelmed with all the commotion!

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Happy 10th birthday Peter!!

WARNING !!
Peter is now 10 years old!


Yep!  He is now in the double digits!  So big now!  So, it's only fitting to add a baby picture of him!  I can still remember it like it was yesterday.  
My Mom went with me to just a routine doctor's appointment and we were so looking forward to having chinese for lunch.  It turned out the doctor and Peter had other plans.  Peter ended up being born about 5 hours later!  Of course that is the short version of the story.  I figured you could do without the labor and delivery details.  


He requested that I make an Oreo Pie for his big birthday celebration!  It was quite yummy!

His birthday menu was the following:
Steak
Baked Potato
Salad
Break for presents
Oreo Pie

I was planning on grilling the steak and potatoes outside, but due to the enormous amount of rain we have been getting my George Foreman and crock pot were there to save the day.



Aaahh, the first present of the evening.  Abigail decided to photo bomb the picture!  


He was SO excited to get this shirt and I don't know why!  What exactly is Minecraft anyway?  All I know is that Peter loves it!  He learned about it from one of his friends at school.  I will have to thank that Mom (she knows who she is) for that!  


He LOVES the Cubs!  So, he was excited to add another Cubs poster to his Cubs themed room!  I have no idea where we are going to put this!  


Peter is also a fan of Tony Hawk and the color red!  


Finally, the Oreo pie with 10 candles!!  

Peter also got a brand new bike and an Ipod touch!  

The next day he said it was the best birthday!  

I don't know how we will be able to top that at his 11th birthday!!

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Abigail is 4!!

I haven't posted anything in awhile.  The weather is slowly getting warm enough to play outside and I was busy planning a 4th birthday party for our Miss Abigail.  It is remarkable how fast they grow up!  Every single day she amazes me so much with what she knows, wants to do, and wants to learn.  


I had to share a picture of Abigail from when she was 2.  She was so cute.  She is still cute, but that chubbiness has gone away and I loved that.  She didn't say "no" or "I can do it myself" yet.  Not like she does now!  


Here she is with her birthday smile and a new pink barrette in her hair.  She actually has a good smile for us!  It doesn't usually happen.  Normally she likes to goofy and stick out her tongue or even cross her eyes!  Yes, I said cross her eyes!  


She loves those fans!  What kid doesn't?


Now you get to see her birthday outfit!  A multi colored tutu with a pink shirt!  I think she even wore the tutu when she went with my husband to pick up the balloons!  It was her birthday!  She can wear whatever, it's her day!  


Aren't big brothers nice?  I wouldn't know because I never had one, but Abigail does and she was loving all of his help.  

So, 1 birthday down and 2 more to go.  Peter's is the 17th and Maison's is the 30th!  Whew!!  

Friday, March 22, 2013

A little update...

I am so sorry for being MIA lately on my blog!  I don't know where the time went!  Anyway, here I am, back and ready to tell you about what I have been up to.  

I recently celebrated my 34th birthday, yes, my 34th!  I am happy about it.  Most days I feel older, but I definitely don't act like it!  I guess that is a good thing.  On one hand my kids make me feel old and then on the other they make me young!  My Mom made my 2 faves which are Ham loaf and for dessert my Creme de Menthe cake!  Yum, yum, and yum!!  


I don't know if it's the creme de menthe liqour that I love or the hot fudge!  


My son is on Spring Break from school and came up to me this morning at 8:30 and told me he was "bored"!  Really?  Mom, if you are reading this, did I ever say that to you?  If I did, I am sorry.  Last night he was able to go to the Iowa NIT basketball game and had so much fun!  He went with his Dad, Grandpa, cousin, and uncle!  So, I guess it was a boy's night.  

I am currently planning Abigail's 4th birthday party.  She wants it to be a Dora theme this year.  So, I was nice and gave the Dora cake pan to my Mom to do.  She always asks why I don't try and do it myself, but I blame it on the fact that I have a shaky hand!  It may not be that shaky, but my Mom would do a MUCH better job than I would!  

My family and I are sick to death of this goofy weather and pray that it starts warming up soon.  Although, I think there is a chance of snow headed our way again!  The zoo has opened up, but it has been too cold to go!

So, that is my little update on what has been going on here.  Have a good weekend everyone and stay warm!

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Mr Maison is 10 months old!

 Here I am in the middle of March finally posting pictures of Maison now at 10 months old!  Bad mother?  I am definitely not.  I didn't forget.  Time just got away from me!  

Anyway, he is on the go these days.  He LOVES following me when I vacuum so he has made it pretty difficult to clean the house.  Does he crawl?  Uh, yeah!  Does he crawl slow?  Nope.  When he wants a toy or one of Abigail's puzzle pieces he will get it!  So fun to watch him.  


He smiles a lot more these days.  He is getting quite the personality.  Does he still have the occasional attitude?  Yes he does and I don't see that going away anytime soon!  He now likes to show off his 3 teeth and let me tell you, he does NOT let me forget they are there!  Nursing Moms - I don't think I need to elaborate on that any further.  He still LOVES staying up later than his brother and sister.  My husband and I are hoping that it is just a phase because it makes it very hard to watch our movies or our recorded shows (Psych and Duck Dynasty are 2 examples).  We rented Taken 2 and finally were able to watch it a couple days later.  Red Box is so nice and cheap, but we spend more on the late fees!   


I still can't believe he is 10 months old already.  He is just so precious!  He loves following his sister around and smiles and laughs every time she comes around.  

Monday, March 4, 2013

Pipe cleaner counting

When my husband and I decided to keep our daughter home and not send her to preschool it wasn't just because I was a SAHM.  Even though that was a HUGE part of it, that wasn't the only reason.  In my mind, I felt like it would benefit her more to stay home for preschool rather than send her.  The preschool I would have to send her to is ALL day and EVERY day!  I was a little scared to put her on that bus!  I also wanted more time with her at home. Before long she will be getting on that bus and heading down the road and that will be it.  Trying to hold back the tears...  So, I decided to try my hand at homeschooling her.  Well....easier said than done.  There are days where she is so wound up that I can't get her to sit down for 5 minutes and listen.  I found this neat idea on Pinterest and she really likes it.  All I did was buy beads, pipe cleaners, and I already had index cards.


Cut the pipe cleaners in half. Cut the index cards and put numbers on them.  I went from 1 to 15 for now.


Then, there you go.  An easy way to teach your child to count.  Whatever number the pipe cleaner has on it is how many beads she puts on the designated pipe cleaner!


You know that chaotic time in your house?  Ours is right around dinner time!  The baby is crying, Peter is getting home from school, and she is wanting to be right where I am in the kitchen.  I brought this out and let her work on it and it kept her busy while I could finish getting dinner ready!  She loved it!  

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Snow day!!

Well, it has been winter for a few months, but the weather has been so goofy here in the midwest!  We got about 5 inches here yesterday and so the kids took advantage of it since it may be the last, but like I said the weather has been really goofy this year so who really knows.  Peter's school was canceled on Tuesday too so he was itching to go outside.


Peter was supposed to help with shoveling, but it doesn't last long until he gets bored and wants to play and roll around in the snow!  



 Abigail, a 3 year old, did more shoveling than my 9 year old.  How funny is that!  


Getting the snow ready and piled up high for the beginning of the snow fort.


This is how Maison was spending his snow day - INSIDE.  


Maison finally got to play with the house all by himself without Abigail pushing it away or picking it up and taking it to the other side of the room.  I just realized his socks don't match his outfit.  Oh well!!  It was a snow day!!


Well, he snubbed me didn't he?  No more pictures for me I guess!


Here is the finished project that my husband and the kids worked hard on.  They loved the snow fort!  My husband said he could even fit in there!  Yep, he is a pretty good snow fort builder!!