Two weekend ago....

I wanted to post some pictures from our little family get together we had at my cousin's house two weekends ago.  It was a fun time so I just wanted to share!

Since we went down on Thursday, we got to get together with my dad on Friday evening for supper.  Here' s grandpa reading to O and then S had to join in too!

 O with one of the babies... can't go anywhere without them!  She has recently started laying on the couch with them.  Sometimes she will have two babies, a stuffed monkey, dog, and lion as well as bottles and cups with her!

 S and Grandpa... I think he is looking at the fan...

 On Saturday morning we went to my cousin Kami's house for a little family get together.  The crazy lady just had a baby a month ago and invited us all over for brunch!!  We had a great time! 
Here Kami, Gaga, and S are cooking..

 Here one of Kami's boys is flipping our pancakes.  He did a good job!

 If you couldn't tell, S LOVES to be in the kitchen!!  He wants to stir everything.  Most of the time it's great but when you are in a rush to get supper done before it's too late it's not so.  Some of the time I can get away with giving him a measuring cup and a teaspoon to stir his own "supper."

Cousin Kami with S

 This is Aunt Kelly with Kami's boys and the new baby girl!  I think they like having a little sister. :)

 Yes, O was there although I'm not sure how she didn't get into many pictures.  Here she is pushing her baby(again, can't leave home without it), in Kami's little girl's swing. :)

 I realize that this is a blog I do, but I never have pictures of myself on it.  Well, mom decided that she wanted a picture of Kami and me.  There's a posed one we did first and then we decided we didn't really like posed pictures so this is what we needed up with...

 Saturday night Mom was nice enough to watch the kids so I could go have some grown-up time with some of my friends who still live in the area.  While I was gone I guess there was some coloring going on...

 I wasn't there but I can guess the reason why S is now sitting, buckled into the chair is because he was standing on the chair in the first two pictures...

 My little girl is so good at writing and coloring!  She can almost write her name(little kid style of course!)

This last weekend James was home and no one was at our house.  We got stuff done Saturday morning and then James had to go into work for a little bit.  But he surprised me when he came home and said he called our babysitter and she would be here at 5:30 and we were going out to eat and to the Comets indoor soccer game!  It was a really fun time and good to get out, just the two of us!  No pictures though.

As I've been writing this blog I've been hearing cat growling noises and banging.  I've had to go into the kitchen a few times to see what was going on....

 Yes, we have many squirrels in our neighborhood and we do put out some corn for them(I'm sure our neighbors with the gardens love us!).  Apparently it had been awhile since I put out corn and a squirrel was coming up to the door to get some more!

Let the count down begin!!

Those of you who know me may be able to figure out the subject of this post by looking at the title and the date.  Yes, you are correct.  That wonderful time of the year has come to COUNT DOWN THE DAYS TO MY BIRTHDAY!!  YEA!!! :)  Only 30 days to go!  You see, I love my birthday.  I've loved it for as long as I can remember.  I'm not sure exactly why.  Here are a few reasons I've come up with:
1. I got to watch whatever I wanted to on tv!  Since I lived in a house with two younger brothers and a father who loved football and my birthday is in February, right after football ended, it was great to be able to watch some nonfootball-related show.  Actually, to be honest, maybe part of me really did just want to bug my dad and brothers by making them watch figure skating. :)
2. I got to pick whatever I wanted to eat.  I love manicotti.  We never had manicotti unless it was my birthday.  And my mom makes the most amazing chocolate cake(with miracle whip in it but don't tell anyone!).  I would always have that too!
3. I could have a party.  I've had everything from a swim party(which is funny because I hate to swim now!) to a roller skating party with my WHOLE class and I didn't get any of the cake, to surprise birthday parties.  I  guess I just like parties!
4. I don't mind getting older.  Actually, I think it's kind of fun.  There's always something new to do when you are "older."  At almost 32(in one month)... yes... I actually said my age... gasp!... I still think there's more fun things to do in life that I couldn't do at 15 or 20 or 28.  Case in point, about a month ago I looked in the mirror and I had a gray hair.  Yes, a gray hair.  Just one.  And it was on the very top of my head.  I noticed it because it was curly.  First I was excited because I had a curly hair!!  Even one curly hair is worth getting excited about when you have super straight hair!  Then I was excited that I had a gray hair!  What!?!?  Did she just say she was excited about a gray hair!??!(I know you are thinking this!)  Yes, I was excited.  It's just another part of life... something new!  Well, I looked at the hair all proud and stuff and went about my day.  A week or so went by and the gray hair was still there but it was doing crazy things.  Like it just wasn't curly it was sticking straight up in the air curly!  I was thankful at that time that it was only one hair and then had a wonderful thought that maybe when my head is all gray I will have fabulous, curly, sticking out everywhere gray hair all over my head! Then I remembered an old wise tale that said if you pulled out a gray hair, two more would grow back.  hmmm, I thought, do you think that's really true???  So I pulled it out and the search for more gray hair ensued!  How exciting!  Yes, I'm being real and honest with you... I looked for more gray hairs everyday!  A few days later one appeared!  It was true!!  But I only saw one.  Maybe, I thought, I didn't pluck it all out and I needed to do it again.  So out that gray hair went and the search continued.... and continued... and continued... with nothing... nada... zero gray hairs.  Still nothing and it's been several weeks.  So, I'm sorry to disappoint everyone but that old wise tale is totally not true!  I have no gray hairs and I should have kept my one, crazy, curly one.  Oh, why did I have to be so greedy?!?  :) 
I'm sure there's more reasons I love my birthday.  And I'll post them when I think of them.  But right I really should do some grown-up stuff like fold the laundry that has been on my couch for 3 days, do the dishes, pay the bills that may or may not but almost past due, and figure out what's for supper.  You know, I am getting older and stuff....

Early morning cranberry streusel muffins

This morning, like all the mornings for the last 3 or 4 weeks, started at 5:50 when S woke up.  Put a pacifier in his little mouth and went to bed until 6:20 when I finally had to get up because James had put O in our bed and she was touching me on the arm and face.  I don't like to be touched on the face when I'm trying to sleep!  Anyway, my children have decided that if they sleep until 6:30 they are sleeping in and missing out on some fun play time.  I, personally, don't think it's fun to play until about 10 but I can't convince them of this.  And today they wanted to eat breakfast at 6:35.  So by 7:15 I had changed two poopy diapers, ate breakfast, cleaned up, ran the dishwasher and had a load of wash going.  O then said, "Mommy, I'm sleepy."  I'm thinking "yeah, you woke up too early... again"  but just said "well, go lay down then."  And this is what I saw in the front room a few minutes later....

They look sleepy, don't they??

So I decided we were going to have to have a snack this morning and it was a good day to make cranberry streusel muffins.  Here's all the ingredients ready to go..

O stirring the streusel part

As O was stirring I looked over and S had stolen a piece of cranberry from the bowl!  He didn't look too guilty!

Thankfully I hadn't added the egg and milk before a cranberry was stolen!

O decided she needed some cranberries too but she was going to "drink" them.

O putting the papers in, S still eating...

All done!(yes, I put a kitchen towel behind them so you couldn't see my messy counter!)

Eating!  O keep calling the cupcake paper her "basket."

They were pretty good.  A little dry.  I should have left the whole cup of cranberry sauce in that I put in by accident instead of taking out 1/2 cup.  And I cooked them a little long... shorter than what the recipe said but my oven is doing strange things so I'll blame that. :)  If you want the recipe go here.

I'll try to post some pictures from this weekend soon.  We had a fun time in Wichita with family!

Snow day gingerbread men!

Just because the backyard looks like this:

and it might be a little hard to swing:

I thought we would make gingerbread men on Monday. :)  My neighbor loaned me her gingerbread man pan, her recipe, and her leftover jar of molasses(thanks Amanda!) for our snow day event.  I thought I would take pictures through each of our "steps" and I tried to write down some "O sayings" made along the way.  Here it goes!

O: "What ya doing Mommy?"
Me: "I'm getting ready to make a gingerbread man.  Do you want some?"
O: "No, butter sandwich"- background needed- O LOVES peanut butter sandwiches.  She has one about every day for lunch.  She calls them 'butter sandwiches.' Oh, to make the last comment funny... I was getting ready to make the dough at 7:35AM... doesn't matter what time of day, O always wants a 'butter sandwich'!

      

I'm kind of proud of the ones with S in them as I took the picture while holding him up to look in the mixer.  I'm sure it was a funny sight but the pictures turned out well!

Look at this next picture and 'hear' O say: "Mess!  Mommy clean it!"

Sometimes I feel bad that my little guys still can't do all the fun stuff O can do.  But then I look down and he is happily "stirring" his own contraption! :)

Here is the "squishing part" as O said.  Yes, S is unclothed.  The dough had to sit in the frig for an hour so we ate breakfast while it chilled.  S is too messy of an eater to eat with clothes on(I already do alot of laundry!) and we just hadn't gotten him dressed yet.  But you can have fun squishing without a shirt on! :)

So I cooked it and wanted to take a picture while it was in the pan in case when I got it out it all fell apart...

Hooray!  It didn't!

O had a hard time waiting for it to cool off to decorate it.  She kept taking about his head...

Finally we were able to decorate...

We used M&M's for the eyes, nose, and buttons.  I kept asking O if she wanted to put more buttons on and she said no.  Not sure if she has PTSD from us using M&M's as bribery for using the potty in the past but she didn't want to put more than 4 on. :)

And the finished product...

Now we get to eat!

O: "Mommy, I eat foot!"

Me: "Yes, O had a big piece!  His foot was big wasn't it?"

O: "I big foot too!" (as she puts her foot on the table to show me)

And the after snack faces...

And the after snack gingerbread man...

It was a fun time!