overheard

Overheard last night while Charlotte was coloring Uncle Grant Schell and Aunt Leah Schell (you try telling her that is not their last name).
Charlotte: Where is the brown crayon? Sh*t ,I cannot find the brown.
Mama: *short pause* What did you say?
Charlotte: Sh*t, I said sh*t because I cannot find the brown crayon.
Oh boy, well it isn’t the first, and it won’t the last but it sure was surprising to hear it used in the correct context out of my 2 ½ yr olds mouth. It is still so infrequent that ignoring this language seems to be best. Off to watch my language....

watch out

 

 

 

 

Charlotte and I went ice skating today. What an adventure. This Florida girl sure needs some more time on the ice before teaching a wobbly toddler. We had to try out a couple pairs of skates for her, until we finally settled on the smaller single blade skates with much better ankle support. Once that was decided, we had fun, skooting, sliding, and watching. Charlotte only fell a couple of times (because for the most part I was holding her up), and we only fell together once. Charlotte was all smiles even though she could rarely get her balance or get her feet untwisted. I am calling it a success and am sure we will try again.

christmas day

lots of fun, lots of family and friends, lots of yummy food.

 

Santa

 

Charlotte sat on Santa's lap last Saturday night. I thought for sure she would be afraid, but nothing could be further from the truth. She had already decided what she would ask him for before we arrived, and Papa, who was sick at home, sent her with a question for Santa. I thought for sure she would be afraid, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Before he arrived she was dancing around at the thought of meeting him. When he arrived, she waited her turn in line all by herself and climbed right on up in his lap. She told him she wanted a pony. And she then asked him if he wanted us to leave cake or cookies for him. He told her that he would love cookies, chocolate chip to be exact. He then gave her a candy cane and she was thrilled.
It was a fun experience. Timothy had fun being there, waiting in line for a few moments then dashing over to the tree to try to run away with the presents. Apparently he would rather run off with a sure thing than ask Santa and wait and see if he gets it. He had no desire to sit in Santa's lap, and I had no desire to force him. We got out of there with no crying and I am left still trying to figure out who told my not-even-3-yr-old that she could ask for a pony?

sledding

 

 

 

We have been having a heat wave here-it is warming up to 30 degrees during the days :) Warm enough for us to finally get outside. Our new neighbors across the street have 2 children a few years older than C and T, and they have 2 sleds. They were gracious enough to let us borrow one to pull the kids around the other day.
The kids had a blast and I ampretty sure Reid got a decent workout. When we pulled back up in the driveway, Timothy held his pointer finger up and said "more". I forsee more sledding in our future.

out takes

The kids and I had a little photo session recently. It definitely tried my patience until I just gave in to their whims. It seemed that when one was cooperating the other was not-there was bribery with dried fruit, and eventually M-n-M's (not a good idea-too messy, too distracting, too much sugar). Eventually I gave up getting a decent picture with the two of them at the same time. Here are some fun ones to enjoy from our morning of photos.
Timothy has been a little cutie lately. He obsessively looks for the deer in the backyard. He has fun using tools and helping Papa. He loves pointing out any truck of unusual size or shape. And he loves to say "Monn" (interpretation: Come on), grab your hand and lead you to whatever he needs or wants to show you. He is a great helper in the kitchen-dishes (aka flinging bubbles across the kitchen), cooking (aka sampling). Lastly,he has mastered flirting-pretty adorable.
Charlotte has been doing good too. She loves hide and seek-and there are so many good places to hide in our new house. Her naps are pretty slim lately,and so she gets a bit cranky by late afternoon. She is beginning toy with talking back-should be interesting. Today,when I asked her to pick up the buttons she spilled on the floor,she said "Weeeelll, I could but I won't because my hands are broken" -excuse me, really??
She is however sleeping in much better. We set up a nightlight on a timer in her room so when it comes on she knows it is morning and she can get out of bed-pure genius (a friends idea,I take no credit). It gives her a lot more power and she sleeps better for it the entire night.
We also had a fun day on Sunday. She and I had a girls morning out and went to Art in the Afternoon. We had lots of fun and got some good Xmas presents,and were then inspired to come home and make some of our own today (look for a blog post on it soon). If anyone needs good holiday presents, you should check out some of Lander's local goods by Mountain Aven Baby (more than just baby stuff, like scrumptious, minkie scarves).

nutcracker

 

Well, I have had many requests for pictures of me in my Nutcracker tutus. Here is one of Charlotte and I on stage after my last performance. This is my least favorite of the three tutus I wore, but it is the only picture I have. This one was for the dance of the flutes. I also performed as a snow princess soloist in a white tutu witha crown and in waltz of the flowers in a beautiful burgandy tutu. You will just have to use your imagination for those :) Charlotte had fun seeing me dance on stage and of course wants to do it all by herself now.

what's this?

 

any guesses???

turkey leftovers

What to do with all those turkey leftovers? Leftovers are by far my favorite part of Thanksgiving, because it should make for a week of easy meals. Last year, I even roasted an extra turkey because I didn't have enough leftovers.
Usually I make turkey potpie, turkey tetrazini, turkey soup, or sometimes all three. This year I wanted something a little different. I am still making turkey soup (tonight's dinner),but I also made a really yummy Greek turkey salad that I thought I would share. One stipulation is, I didn't measure anything-so just add it all to taste.

Shredded turkey
Chopped tomatoes
Diced red onion
Sliced olives
Feta cheese
Your favorite vinaigrette (I used Annie's Balsamic)
Salt and Pepper

Easy and delicious. Great alone,on lettuce, or in between bread. Enjoy, and please share any yummy turkey recipes you have found.

2 fairies

 

 

 

fun with dress up. Pretend play has been big around here lately.

our new house -or- please excuse the mess

We have been busy! We have been working hard to try to buy a house and it has paid off. We moved in last Friday, and all is going smoothly so far. We had 20 friends help us move and it was done in 5 hours!! I could hardly believe it. After everything was here we had help placing things and putting things away. Two wonderful angels put my entire kitchen away, watched my kiddos, and stocked my fridge. What a wonderful community of friends we have.
It hasn't taken us too long to get boxes unpacked and find plenty to give away and throw out. It is so liberating to me to lighten my load of possessions. I absolutely love giving things away and I look forward to getting even better at it. Life is so cyclical. I find that for everything I give away just as much is returned to me. I am trying very hard to accumulate less "things" and so I wonder if I turn away accumulating material possessions, if it won't make room for more life-growth experiences.
Anyway back to the house (I know it is a large material possession,seems like a contradiction of my previous statement-probably is),I have included a few pictures of our stuff in the house-and please excuse the mess :) The house was built in the 1950's to mimic the Frank Lloyd Wright style and has some fun design features. Not much has changed in the house since it was built. It has lots of space inside and out and I think my favorite room may be the upstairs bathroom. It has the original turquoise sink,tub, and toilet as well as original white Formica counter tops complete with turquoise starbursts. Fun,fun.

brief pause......

We will return to normally scheduled blogging in a week or so. Life is busy, busy--and we will share all about why soon. -management :)

evening activity

We had fun dancing to lullaby's last night. Charlotte got out her tutu and Timothy was beside himself until he got one too. Just a cut little clip.

trick-or-treat

We have already been out to trick-or-treat on Main St. Lots of fun. Charlotte was fascinated with the entire thing. The costumes, the candy. She kept saying "oooooo, he's farey(scarey)".
Timothy was more excited about the candy, and after getting 2 pieces in his bag he was happy just to sit in the stroller and eat his tootsie roll. Pretty funny to me, how much more relaxed I am with the second. Last year at Halloween, I wouldn't even let Charlotte eat candy and she was older than Timothy is now-ha!
They also both seem content to eat only 2 pieces and save the rest for later-I'll count myself lucky.

Happy Halloween!

I confess

Yesterday, I set out to work, and realized my time would be better spent "fixing" the little things around our house to make it more presentable to potential renters. We are trying to buy a house, and need ours rented! Soooooo I went to paint the front door where a certain someone (eeehhmm, my well-intentioned hubby) stripped 1/3 of it 2 summers ago. Anyway, it just needed to be painted over. So I sanded, wiped and then got out the white, semi-gloss paint and began. Well, after I finished the door I glanced over at the trim and moulding and noticed it could use some touch-up too. Before you know it I was in a painting frenzy. I touched up everything white in the house-all trim, doors, and the kitchen cabinet doors.
My confession is that in the kitchen especially, I realized that instead of wiping off the coffee stains, etc from the cabinets I could just paint over them! And viola, like that beautiful, fresh cabinets with much less elbow grease than all the scrubbing would have taken. And I decided, I don't even care that I wasn't supposed to do that-how liberating :)

another peek

 

 

I had a moment this week where I thouhgt I could do some knitting while the kids played. Knitting, sewing, and crafts are things that have fallen by the wayside in the last few weeks, so anywhere I can squeeze it in I will take it. Well as soon as the kids saw me knitting they wanted to join in, so they each got their own needles and yarn and we had a family knitting session. You may see some things again-maybe as Christmas gifts.

sneak peek

 

 

a peek at the kids costumes. what will they be??

pumpkin drumming

After carving our pumpkin. The kids thought pumpkin drumming sounded like a hilariously fun activity. I love the picture where Charlotte is cracking up, it makes me laugh out loud. A big thank-you to CG for our wonderful Halloween tablecloth that she made, we have been loving it. It makes for instant festivity at our house.

wonderfully scary

 

This fun picture is compliments of Charlotte as I carved our pumpkin yesterday.

dinner tonight

I have had an excess of carrots this year. As I plated quite a few in my new raised bed. I have been trying to decide what to do with the last of the bunch, and carrot soup just sounded delicious. It is super easy, it tastes yummy too.
Here is my recipe:

1/2 large sweet potato cut into 2 inch cubes
4-5 cups carrots cut into 2 inch cubes
4 cups stock, either chicken or vegetable
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
olive oil
salt

Serves 6

1. Saute sliced onion and minced garlic in about 2 tablespoons olive oil until onion is translucent.
2. add stock, carrots, and potatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for about 45 min, or until carrots and potatoes are soft.
3. Blend (either use a hand blender or a regular blender)and blend soup to desired consistency. I like mine smooth with little chunks, but you may prefer chunky. (Note: be careful when blending hot soup, it may be best to let it cool a bit before blending. And if using a regular blender do not fill more than halfway-so do it in batches)
4. Add lemon juice and salt to taste.
5. Great toppings are: sour cream and nutmeg, or cheddar cheese, or sesame oil.

This soup is gluten free and casin free (obviously if you don't add the dairy on top). Our kiddos have had colds lately and Timothy is really hanging onto his cough, so I am trying to reduce all the dairy we can, as he doesn't do well with it on his healthiest days.
I cannot decide what to serve this with, but am thinking of a spinach salad with goddess dressing (oo-I will include my recipe for that soon), and our freshly roasted pumpkin seeds, and/or some homemade brushetta. Enjoy everyone, and let me know what you served with it if you make this soup too!

banner

I am changing the banner back to fall. It seems fall has actually arrived here.

leaf play

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day, and for so many reasons we needed to be outside. Everyone gets along better in the fresh air and with extra room to run and play. We started the morning going to a new (to us) park, playing and having a picnic. Then we headed up the mountain to feed the fish in the rise of the Popo Agie River. We headed home for a nap, where only Timothy actually took one. So after nap, or in place of nap for some, we went back out and raked leaves into big piles. As soon as I began raking, Charlotte asked if she could jump in them. She spent an hour jumping and playing in big, soft piles of leaves. She insisted that I join and I obliged. Timothy was happy just to watch, but joined in a little bit too.
After we had exhausted ourselves we headed out for a walk to see if Chuck Faulkner had his horses out for cart rides. Thankfully he did. We hopped in with some friends of ours (who just adopted 2, 7-year-olds from Russia) and headed out for the usual Chuck adventure. Afterward, we headed on and Mama took everyone out for a Thai food dinner.

playing in the park

This snowy filled October is finally melting off, and we have been able to get out and enjoy the warmth of fall. Charlotte, Timothy, Isa, and Sylvi all found plenty to do at the park. The play area was still a bit snowed in but leave it to toddlers to seek out the mud puddles and horses. Lots of fun, and looking forward to a bit more fall in the next week.

an unbirthday

Charlotte had an unbirthday this week. Her unbirthday was a requested reward.

Reid and I have had a visitor on several nights attempt to crawl into bed with us. She has been having difficulty staying in her own bed to sleep. We asked her what she wanted as a prize if she slept in her bed for 3 nights. She said she wanted a birthday cake with candles she could blow out. I am thinking that after Cinch's birthday she was wishing the same experience for herself. Isa and family were happy to join in the celebration. I am pretty sure I spy a picture of Sylvi drooling at Isa's cupcake.

cinch's birthday

 

 

Cinch had a birthday last weekend (October 3rd,92 years young)and she came over for a little mid-morning celebration. We had apricot brandy pound cake-which was soooo yummy-and thankfully she took all the leftovers home to share with her house mates at Westward Heights. Side note-maybe best not to make this cake with toddlers around who love to lick spoons. After a couple samples of batter for each of them, I remembered the brandy-ooops :o)
I just had to include this picture of Cinch opening her present, as Charlotte seems completely unamused that the present is not for her and she is not being asked to help. Too funny!

really??

is it really still snowing at my house!! All signs point to yes-I am still shoveling snow, watching it fall, and feeling stuck inside. It seems we have had a least a foot of the heavy, wet, white. I am not quite sure what happened to fall. I am certain that it was 80 degrees last week. None of the plants seem ready for this much snow-leaves are still on trees. While grunting, shoveling, and cursing through the snow in my garden, I was pleasantly greeted with the scent of mint and marigold-delicious combination. And if it weren't 30 degrees out I may try making ice cream out of the two-on the list for next summer. Anyway, flowers were peeking through the snow and the kids are already in their snow bibs playing. Welcome winter!

timothy

Timothy has been a bit easier (than Charlotte)lately. He is not full of so may cute quotes,but he does have lots of funny things he likes to do and say. He loves dancing as you can see in the video. His favorite new word is no, no, no. That's 3 words you say, try telling him that. This kid has opinions about how his life should be going and will let you know if things are not running accordingly.

He loves his Papa as much as ever and asks about him or to see him all the time!

He loves his blankie and prefers to wear it around his neck, or to lay on the floor and cover up with it playing hide-and-seek,

He knows the order things happen,just try to skip one part of his bedtime routine (like reading books) and he will let you hear about it.

He is a little flirt and is becoming more daring socially. Although he still has to check new people out for quite a while before smiling, he does not seem quite as scared of them as he used to be.

He loves, loves, loves being naked. He runs around the house playing, chasing, and laughing.

And he loves the water-pool, bath, whatever-splashing,falling,scooping, pouring,sticking his head in-lots of fun.

He loves his sister,playing with her and provoking her. He wants to do whatever she is doing. Charlotte's new job is feeding all the animals and Timothy really wants to help her. He got to feed Ava all by himself this morning!

He is fascinated by animals. He gets so excited, bouncing up and down on his legs,giggling. His favorite animal sound is neigh-and I think he says it 30 times a day. He will hop on my back and sayneigh,wanting a ride or to be bounced.

He is also working on a bunch of teeth and not sleeping quite as well as normal. But i will take the midnight snuggles,as they will be gone soon enough. And with winter weather on the way-naps will just have to be in order for everyone.

charlotte

Charlotte has been a handful lately. Along with all the recent defiance,pushing and hitting-yikes-has come some big personality developments. She has been saying the funniest things lately and is so serious about them. Here are some recent quotes:

She often asks to be sent in the mail. In the picture here she is all packaged up,shipping label and all. When i asked her where she was going she said Uncle Grant's house.

If she is having a hard time or something goes wrong she says Oh,no this is terribolt.

If I ask her to do something nicely and she doesn't want to (often I just hear "NO!")she says sweetly Weell, not today.

She fell in the toilet while trying to pee like a big girl and she said This is not so good.

Yesterday while she was feeling cranky she saidI'm just being fussy. We have been working on expressing and identifying emotions.

While struggling to get into her carseat on her own our conversation went something like this:
Mama-would you like some help?
Charlotte-I need a man
Mama-what did you say?
Charlotte-I need a man to help me.
I promise she has never heard that from my mouth!

To anybody:Want to come to my house for tea and cookies?

Some version of this heard often (she actually just said this to me: Guys, i have a baby in my belly. Are you excited about that? Want to see? You know, I have 2. They are coming out soon and then you can hold them.

At night,after Timothy goes to bed,we read books and snuggle in Mama and Papa's bed. We often talk about what we want to dream about that night. Last night our conversation went like this:
Charlotte-I don't want to read books, I just want to cuddle.
Mama-Okay,lets talk about our dreams.
Charlotte-What do you want to dream about?
Mama-I think I would like to dream about Papa becauseI miss him.
Charlotte,stroking my hair says-What else do you want to dream about sweetie-pie?
We went on and on and couldn't help but start laughing.

Then lately the spontaneous I need to tell you something. I yove you Mama.

Well,melt my heart :)

ahhhhhhh

It's only 10am and guilt is setting in. Guilt,guilt,guilt-it is like a little dagger.

*sniff sniff*

I cannot believe it. My kiddos are at a real daycare for the majority of the day today, and 3 days a week from here on out. *sniff, sniff*. I have lots of mixed emotions. I will miss them today, but I am very, very thankful for time to myself (even if I do plan to work all day). It will be quiet here and I can even have a kitty snuggle on my lap while I type! Amazing. I don't think I will turn on the radio or go anywhere all day.

The kids did great when I dropped them off. They joined the others at the table for fruit and breakfast burritos (oh yeah daycare also means 3 days a week with me not fixing or packing breakfast, snacks, and lunch-sounds small, its huge). Charlotte has been well prepared for today because I could explain everything to her and how her day would go there. Timothy is a bit less prepared, and although we did visit and play last week, I think it may be rough for him today. There was no crying when I left, but I am sure once he realized I was gone there were some tears. But,I know they are going to be fine, right, right???

Why the sudden change to daycare, you ask?? Well, Reid and I are trying to buy a house. Which means I need to make more money, and I am ready! Ready for some adult time, some job time, some time for me to fulfill a purpose outside of motherhood for about 30 hours a week. More on all of this as we progress.

before and after

 

 

 

 

Charlotte got her ears lowered this morning :) She did great sitting for quite a while, figety but staying in the chair. Her hair needs a little touch-up to even some places out, but overall it looks pretty cute. Reid and I both think she looks like Alden, Reid's sister.

kitty love

 

 

what Tyler will put up with for a little TLC.