Girl's Lunch!

Me, my mom, and my sister went to lunch at the Glitz today. It was so fun! We rarely have the opportunity to be together without children! We had lots of time to talk and all enjoyed our food. We all had a spinach/marinara/phyllo turnover for the appetizer. Then for main entree Cara and I had the Turkey Crepes and mom had the Beef Stew. This came with a small salad as well. Then for dessert we each chose something different. My mom chose banana pudding, Cara got the meringue with jamocha icecream, and I chose the berry sorbet seen below. It was very good and we were stuffed. Then we walked around for a few minutes looking at the antiques. It was a great afternoon! Thanks, mom!

It was so pretty I had to take a picture!

Finished Laundry Room!!

Before






After

It's done! The shelves are installed and now we are getting things organized on them to free up some of our other closets. Andy has done a phenomenal job! I am so proud of him! Thank you so much for all of your hard work babe!

Potato Skins

I've made Pioneer Woman's Potato Skins 3 times. Every time they are demolished! They are so good!

8 slices bacon, crumbled (we prefer turkey bacon)
8 russet or idaho potatoes, scrubbed clean
canola oil
kosher salt
1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
sour cream
4 green onions, sliced

Preheat oven to 400. Prick your clean potatoes and rub the skin liberally with canola oil. Place on baking pan and bake 45min-1 hour until fork tender. Meanwhile, cook bacon, shred cheese, and slice onions. Slice the potatoes in half lengthwise. With a spoon, scrape out the inner flesh of the potatoes, leaving a small margin of potato in the skins. Brush both sides with canola oil and salt both sides of the potato. Place skins cut side down on the pan and bake 7 minutes. Flip potatoes over and bake 7 minutes on the other side. Sprinkle cheese and chopped bacon into each potato skin. Return to oven just until cheese melts. Just before serving sprinkle green onions on top and serve with sour cream! Enjoy!

Ty's New Shoes!

On Saturday my friend took Wilson and Luke to the Children's Museum with her two boys. The were gone for the whole afternoon! They had the best time. So I took Ty to my favorite children's shoe store to get him some new shoes. He had outgrown his first pair and was using a hand me down pair from Luke. They weren't fitting over his wide foot too well. So long story short, there was one pair in the store that fit Ty's extra wide foot! He is now size 6, EW (extra wide!!). Cracks me up. The velcro shoes don't close over his foot so we had to go with lace up. He looks very cute in his new running shoes!

His 18 month stats: 79%ile for height, 67 %ile for weight, 97%ile for head circumference. He weighs 27 pounds!

Big Game

Tonight we had a fun UK vs WV party at our house. Unfortunatly for me UK lost. But Andy, his dad, his uncle, his brother, Wilson and Luke were all cheering for WV. Crazy. I can't believe UK lost...but we had fun and the food was good. Decided to go with appetizers for the game. I made Ham & Cheese Pretzel Bites, guacamole, and potato skins. Dan brought chicken honey barbecue anytizers. The only new recipe was the pretzel bites and they were good! I love soft pretzels though.

I'll never hear the end of this loss with so many WV fans on Andy's side of the family!

Laundry Room

Taken from the doorway - I love the paint color we decided on! Bright and cheery!

Luke's crazy pose!

Andy's project from the summer continues! To see the past project posts see here, here and here! The past two weeks he has done the mudding on the drywall, tons of sanding, priming, painting, electrical, laid the laminate floor, put up the baseboard, and now he is installing shelving. He is amazing. I can't believe he knows how to do all of this. Plus he did all the plumbing this past summer to move the washer/dryer from the back of the garage to the laundry room he built! It used to be part of the garage but he put up a wall in the garage and cut out a door in the basement and poof! a laundry room was created. Can you tell I'm excited? We haven't been able to do laundry for the past 2 weeks at our house. He did 2 loads to get us through at his Uncle's apartment last weekend but that's all we've done in two weeks. My washer and dryer are both running right now! That is a good thing! Once all the shelving is installed I'll take a final picture and post that. His next project he plans to return to is the basement bathroom. That project was going on in tandem with the pipe replacement and laundry room etc.

Luke's Easter Party

No MOTY awards for me...Luke's preschool had picture day on Tuesday and an Easter party on Thursday. I laid out his clothes Monday night (jeans and a green sweater he loves) forgetting the next day was spring picture day. He was dressed nicely but in play clothes. Not spring picture day clothes (khakis with a button down shirt - maybe arms rolled up a couple times!). Oh well. We'll be getting our own family pics soon and I can get some individuals of Luke like I was planning on anyway.

But Thursday. That was a little worse. Thankfully Andy redeemed us and took care of everything. Let me just remind you that the past two weeks have been very busy for us. Ahem. So Andy went to drop Luke off at school on Thursday and as he pulled up he noticed tons of parents inside. That is not normal. He figured it must be the easter party day. He drove back home (like 2 minutes away) and found the newsletter that I had printed off, but not transferred the party date to our calendar. Saw that yes it was indeed party day and Luke needed 12 plastic eggs with candy and his easter basket. Thankfully, Luke's party didn't start until 11. So they had time to prepare. Ran to Walmart, got the eggs and candy. Came home and stuffed the eggs. They got his basket out and headed over to school in time for the party. Luke was fine with the whole thing. Andy had to change his plans for the morning but willingly did so. It all worked out...but it's haunting me! I don't want to forget important events for my kids, especially don't want to send them without what they are supposed to have. Thankful for a good daddy who took care of everything!

Egg hunt with his friend from school

I got the April newsletter email today and the dates are already on the calendar. I'll try my best to ensure this doesn't happen again. But I'm not perfect :)

Baked Oven Fries

Finally tried Baked Oven Fries from Annies-Eats. They were good and looked just like the ones in her blog picture. We ate them with her salmon burgers. The burgers were ok but not my favorite. I porbably won't make those again. But you should try the fries!

No Training Wheels! & other stuff!

On Tuesday it was beautiful outside! We are thoroughly enjoying the spring weather. We took a short family walk around the court and when we got back to the house Wilson had decided he was ready to take off his training wheels. He had already run into the garage to find the right size wrench. Once the training wheels were off Andy helped him start and he just rode his bike! We couldn't believe it - I thought it would be hard at first and take several attempts. But he just started riding! Andy ran in to get the camera and shot this video. He rode again on Wednesday and did great then too! Wilson definitely has coordination!

Today Wilson did wonderfully at the dentist! He generally has a tough time and worries a lot. But today Andy said he did so well. He is learning to deal with his anxiety better. He kind of froze up when they called him but after some reassuring he sat in the chair and was fine. That is so huge. Before it has been pretty bad. So thankful he is learning how to be in control of his emotions/thoughts! He got to join the cavity free club! Luke did well at the dentist and is also in the cavity free club! I'm thankful that Luke helps Wilson to be so brave. His easy going spirit really helps Wilson feel at ease. Luke is loving t-ball and just gets out there and participates. It is amazing to see how he can start something new without it bothering him! It is a welcome change.

This is a long post. That is what happens after two BUSY weeks! We did survive and got all of the major things done (consignment sale, poetry cafe, conference day, Andy out of town for part of last weekend, report cards, etc) . Andy has been diligently working on the laundry room. I can't wait to post the final pics when he is done! I will be so thrilled to have a completed laundry room. We had a positive comment from a lady while we were out to dinner. She came up to me and said "I just want to tell you what a nice family you have. Your children are so well behaved!". It meant a lot even coming from a stranger. I just looked at Andy after she left and smiled, saying it is nice to know we're doing something right with this whole parenting thing! Because so many days you don't feel that way...

My 18 month old

I am the worst at taking pictures. Seriously. So right now I don't have a picture but hopefully soon. This has to be quick! Tyler is now 18 months old- I can't believe how quickly the past year and a half has flown by. He is all of a sudden such a big boy. Tonight at dinner he refused to eat his spaghetti with me helping him. He wants all of his food on a plate/bowl in front of him in his highchair. He likes to feed himself, he's just not that good at it! He shook his head no when I reached over to try and help him. My little man is communicating so well! He has several words and now shakes his head yes and no. So cute! And he knows what he means too...don't make him mad! He loves crackers for a snack and absolutely loves his cereal bars. I think he'd eat 3 a day if we'd let him. He is running and climbing everything. When we sit on the couch to work on school work he comes and sits next to us with a book of his own. He wants to be just like his brothers! We're getting rid of so much baby stuff. Officially done with the baby phase. Andy keeps reminding me we made this decision together. I KNOW it is the right decision and I am thankful to not go through pregnancy again, but I love babies! Life goes so fast!

Big Week Ahead

Wow- this is going to be a crazy week.

Consignment Sale- All items have to be entered in the computer by midnight tonight. I think I have that part done. Now I'm ironing and hanging clothes. I ran out of hangers so as soon as I get more I can continue. Tomorrow I will print tags, cut tags, and pin them to all the clothes. Then they will be ready for Andy to take to his work shift Tuesday night. Monday may be a late night.

Poetry Cafe- On Wednesday each 2nd grade class is having our annual Poetry Cafe! It is one of my favorite things we do. The kids have been writing poetry for the last several weeks at school. Now we are publishing our poetry on cute paper and preparing to share a poem out at the cafe. I cover the tables with tablecloths in spring colors, put flowers on the tables, and have refreshments out. So, lots to do here. Finish publishing with the kids, practice reading their poem outloud for the BIG audience, make the program, and figure out the food...Tuesday will be a late night!!

Conferences- On Friday the kids are out of school so I'm using the day to get as many parent conferences completed as possible. At this point I think I have 13 signed up! Yea! Makes my life after-school a lot easier with kids of my own. I need to get report cards filled out and print test results to prepare for these conferences. That will be my plan on Wednesday/Thursday...

Read This!

I started reading this a couple of weeks ago. My mom bought it for me at her church. It is SO good. I highly recommend this book! I'm only on chapter 6 and can't wait to keep reading!

Baby Chicks

At school we are studying Life Science right now. So in each 2nd grade room we have had eggs in an incubator. Yesterday they started hatching! I have 2 chicks in my classroom that have hatched and 2 more were starting to break through the egg shell this afternoon. It is so neat to watch! The kids have been beside themselves the last two days. Very exciting.

Andy brought Luke and Tyler in this afternoon to see the chicks. I knew Luke would want to see them. Wilson has been spending a lot of time in the back of my room watching them. Luke held a chick and Tyler was very interested in them. It was so cute to watch! Tyler put one finger out and patted a chick on the head. He kept wanting to look in the box and see the two chicks. Can't wait to see how many more hatch this weekend. So thankful to Gayla for going to check on our little babies this weekend!

Back to the Ballpark

Last night I took Wilson and Luke to the ballpark to meet their new coach. We are on the Reds again and the exciting part of this year is that Wilson and Luke are both playing t-ball together! Wilson is excited to have Luke playing with him. We got there for the 6:00 meeting and stood around forever. I think we started the 15 minute meeting 30-40 minutes after it was supposed to start...which wouldn't have been a big deal except I was wanting to get to my meeting with my small group at 6:30. BUT, the worst thing was after being there for about 10 minutes both of the boys came up and told me they needed to poop within 2 minutes of each other. The bathrooms were locked. Nowhere to go! So I told them to hold it. Thankfully it worked! That would have been one interesting night at the ballpark! Our first practice is next Wednesday. Can't wait to see how they do!
With boys, it's always an adventure!

A Great Weekend

This has been a wonderful weekend. I think the sunshine had a lot to do with it! Friday night we had Stephanie, the cousins, and Poppy over for dinner. The boys looked forward to playing with their cousins all week. We had a great dinner and a fun time hanging out. Saturday Andy and I had some time to ourselves (with Tyler) which was so very nice. We went through the car wash and ran a couple errands. My mom and dad took the big boys to the park with the other cousins and had them stay over for lunch and playtime. Thanks mom and dad! Later, we took all 3 boys for a haircut and Tyler did much better this time around. I'd say the sucker helped...which last time he wouldn't even taste! Tyler is growing up so quickly - he has decided he doesn't want to eat when we feed him. He wants to do everything independently. We let him feed himself most things but yogurt and applesauce can be so messy!
Saturday night I went out for dinner with friends which was so much fun. It was nice to hang out, chat, and laugh a lot!
Today we went to church and then I took a long nap. It was wonderful. Then I took the boys to the park after Andy went to work. My mom went with us which was nice. Tyler was again Mr. Independent which resulted in a bump on his forehead but we all had a blast! So thankful for a beautiful weekend full of sunshine, family, and friends.

An Expensive 2 Days

Expensive but good...!!

Yesterday Andy took the Jeep to get new tires. They've needed to be replaced for 1.5-2years probably. You know it's bad when your parents are both sides are telling you that your tires are needing replaced! So, a year or so later we've gotten it done! I do feel safer driving the Jeep now that the tires actually have tread on them. Thankful!

Also, we've been waiting on our new windows since about November. We finally made the official decision then and today our windows were installed. They were 6-8 weeks behind for installation back in November. Then add in all the freezing cold temps and tons 'o snow and we finally have our windows on March 2nd. But hey, no complaining, we're just glad to have them installed. They look great! I got home and walked in every room oohing and aahing over them. It was like a brand new house! We had original windows (~31 years old) single pane glass. They were old, drafty, & noisy (in the boy's room 1 window rattled loudly in the wind). So thankful! So now you know where all of our tax return went plus some!!