Benza Bulletin

My New Business

2012-02-01T12:01:00.000-08:00

Want to know what cool stuff is in this box? Let's schedule a party!

Dear Friends, I started an exciting new business venture. I decided to become a consultant with the Thirty-One. I've done a couple catalog parties with a lady in Alabama, but I really wanted a home show. I've had difficulty finding someone so I decided to just become one myself. I'm really excited to get this business going and have visions of it being so fantastic my husband can quit his day job to help me out. ha ha! Until such time I'm going to earmark this as our Disneyland or bust fund. I'm really hopeful this business can fund a trip to Disney in 2013.

The company offers some really great bags (you know I love me some good bags!) in super cute fabrics. Honestly, I want just about every single one. Thirty-One's mission is to Celebrate, Encourage and Reward women in whatever season of life they are living. We all need a little celebrating, encouraging and rewarding. We all need help organizing and looking stylish. I'm thinking Thirty-One will be the perfect outlet to let me keep being a stay at home, contribute some income to our family and connect with some great friends.

I really do want you to schedule a party...I need 3 by February 24, 6 by March 24 and 12 by April 24. I'd prefer to front load them so I'm not anxiety riddled about meeting those goals. BUT since you may need some celebrating, encouraging and rewarding I'm not going to make you wait! You can shop and order online for my LAUNCH PARTY!

Follow this LAUNCH PARTY link to view the catalog and place your order online. The special is for every $31 you spend get an additional item at 31% off. If you spend $62 you get 2 items at 31% off and they do not have to be equal or lesser value. You can spend $31 and then get the $149 bag at 31% off. Woo hoo!!!

Once I get my kit all opened and reviewed I'll come back with some cool use ideas for you. Thanks, friends!

Love, Heather

Canning in Winter?

2012-01-23T18:07:00.000-08:00

Why yes we did do some wintertime canning...probably more for the enjoyment of the process and the company than the actual product. But I can't wait to make some scones because this lemon curd is going to be divine!

After the ketchup debacle (Anya's take) this was so, so simple! and quick! We zested some lemons and squeezed some juice.

Then quickly moved on to cooking it with eggs and sugar until it was thick. Then we processed it in a normal stock pot. We didn't even need to overwhelm the stove top with the giant canner!

We ended with these adorable little jars of lemon curd! Now they just need cute labels and a basket of scones! YUM!

We LOVE Treats!!!

2012-01-22T19:48:00.000-08:00

We love treats around here so we made LOVE treats tonight!

I melted some chocolate chips in the microwave and then stirred them until it made smooth chocolate.

Then everyone got a piece of wax paper to work on. I spread some of the melted chocolate on a pretzel stick.

Everyone got to put their own sprinkles on. We used Wilton's Valentine's Day sprinkle mix.

We slid the wax paper with the pretzel onto a cookie sheet and put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes.

Then Viola! they were read to be eaten! Everyone liked them so much we made some more to share with our friends on our play date tomorrow!! Ssshh! Don't tell the Monroes, it's a surprise!

Snow Cream

2012-01-20T12:59:00.000-08:00

I remember when I was little I always loved making snow cream. I thought about it when we started getting snow, but now that I'm the mom I just think...yuck, it's probably all contaminated with exhaust fume particles and other grossness. Last night I heard Gus on the phone with Mimi saying "Eat snow?!!? Eat snow??!!?" His face was all squished up with his head cocked to the side, clearly convinced Mimi had lost her mind. I promised we could eat snow in the morning. So when I noticed the downpour begin I rushed out and grabbed some good clean snow before it was washed away and turned into nasty gray slushy sludge.
My mom's old recipe called for 2 eggs and a lot of milk. I didn't really want to make THAT much and I don't really want to eat raw eggs in these modern times. So I hunted for a smaller recipe. This is what I made.
Snow Cream:
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 cups CLEAN snow
mix the milk and sugar and vanilla until dissolved, add to snow, mix, mix, mix until nice ice creamy consistency.

This is Gus' face right before he announced it was too cold.
I am sad to report the rain in washing away our hopes of a 3rd day of being snowed in. Facebook has been overrun with people complaining they want the snow to end so they can get out of their house. I am happy to report we stocked up on the necessities, didn't lose power, and have apparently created a much cozier, comfy home than everyone else. We don't want to go back to regular life so soon! Kyle was really hoping for 3 snow days off from work that would result in an unexpected 5 day weekend. We've really enjoyed this extra time with no time limitations to play games, have light saber battles, bust out the legos and wedgits for building frenzies and watch movies. Except for the occasional need to restock food we could happily stay in our house forever!!

Blizzard 2012

2012-01-18T18:58:00.000-08:00

After a lot of fanfare and hype we finally got snow. I was getting kind of annoyed that even Sirius XM was telling me about how much snow we were having when we still had nothing to show for it. But it finally began around 2am Tuesday night/Wednesday AM. We woke up to about 4 1/2 inches in our yard.Right off Gus was having a time of it. He kept saying "Mommy, this hard, walkin' too hard." Eventually he got the hang of walking through the snow. But at first I was afraid he was going to insist we go inside before he even played.

They shoveled for a little bit.

Reese was really having fun. He especially liked stomping around making footprints in the snow.

While Daddy had some energy left he swooped Reese around on the little mini sled thingys. When Gus saw Reese got snow all over his butt and legs when he slid, Gus declined to give it a try.

He also declined photos. He said "don't don't don't take picture, Mommy," but I took it anyway and got this squeezed closed eyes pose.

Reese was doing some major hopping around in excitement to build the Fortress of Solitude.

See that red cooler? It was supposed to be the mold for the snow bricks. The snow wouldn't come out, so we scrapped the fortress idea.

We moved onto building Frosty the Conehead or Jabba the SnowHut.

We survived the blizzard of 2012 without nearly the snow that was promised. We're hoping when we wake up there's a BUNCH more!!!

Happy 2012!!!!

2012-01-01T12:11:00.000-08:00

New Year's Eve

2011-12-31T12:03:00.000-08:00

2011 is at an end. WOW when did this happen?!?!? This is the fastest year in the history of the world. I'm not sure if it's because I'm old and the older you are the faster it goes or if it's because I'm a mom and my baby became a toddler. Either way...lightening speed!!
We decided to spend New Year's Eve safely at home away from the lunatics on the road. We had snacky party foods for dinner.We had spring rolls, Tex Mex dip and tortilla chips, and cheese fondue....
....YUM!
OK so these photos were kind of sucky. Ignore Kyle's squinty eye and the out of focus fondue. No I wasn't drunk, just in too much of a rush to eat the goodies I failed to notice they didn't come out well.
Anyway, the boys made it until 9pm leaving us enough time to watch a movie and still catch the ball drop in Times Square and the fireworks at the Needle.

Christmas Break - Chuckie Cheese

2011-12-30T23:44:00.000-08:00

On Thursday Gus had his 2 1/2 year well baby appointment at 12:30 and all three guys had haircuts at 5:45 in Silverdale. Now I guess we could've gone home in between but in an effort to consolidate our trips we decided to stay. To fill the gap we went to Chuckie Cheese. I took the boys awhile back to a birthday party on a Saturday. CHAOS! It was so packed. We only used about half of our tokens. I promised we'd go back with Daddy and this time slot during the break was the perfect time!

SO we saved about a gallon of gas by staying in town, but we spent $65 at Chuckie Cheese! Yeah so much for cost effective. The boys had a blast and Kyle did too.Reese loved the driving games and this snow mobile one. They made me ill. I think I need a motion sickness band to play these. It was funny since someone else was using the other machine Gus just climbed on with Reese.

Reese really got into air hockey with another little boy. I thought he was just having fun, but when the other kid had to leave and I stepped in I realized Reese was digging it because he smoked the other kid. As soon as I got ahead by one point he got all grumpy and didn't want to play! I made him finish, but he was less enthusiastic.He moved back onto the exciting riding games.He loved the riding games even when he was just hanging on the back of the chair while Gus drove. Of course neither could reach the gas pedal but they thought it was great just the same.
I could not get Gus out of the little kid rides! We rode this Handy Manny ride about 7 times!!!
Anyway, it was a bit expensive, but we actually liked the pizza (we got a large for us AND a little one for the boys to share so we could have good toppings). I thought they had an awesome salad bar so Kyle and I got salad bar as well. Then we went ahead and bought the snazzy Chuckie cup for the boys...from now on they'll get free refills at any Chuckie Cheese forever! (That's how we'll make our money back!!) We also had to go back and buy $10 worth of tokens. So clearly this will be a sometimes activity as opposed to a regular outing.

By the way Gus passed his well baby exam with flying colors...stellar across the board!

Christmas Break - Children's Museum

2011-12-29T21:55:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday we headed south to the Children's Museum in Olympia. Something we didn't really think through was that lots of people were on vacation, so it was a mad house. Gus took awhile to warm up to playing this time since he was so overwhelmed by all the people.

We headed over to the grocery area first. Gus overloaded his basket with a bunch of fruits and veggies.

Reese kept his basket a little less full. Here he's waiting for Daddy to ring up his purchases.

Then we headed over to the theater and veterinarian clinic. The boys sold us some tickets.

Reese pretended to be a dog.

They spent lots of time in the gears area. They built a ball run with Daddy and had a so much fun I had time to browse the gift shop.

Gus loves driving the truck in the construction section.

Reese and Gus had a great time. They were very excited to play with everything with their Dad.

Christmas Break - Zoo Lights

2011-12-28T21:43:00.000-08:00

Kyle's work shuts down from Christmas to the New Year, a period we refer to as Christmas Break or "the break." I think this is because we equate this to the break from school over the holidays and we forget we're not still that age. So we made some big plans for the break, a bazillion things that there would not be nearly enough time to do. We did get to a handful of activities.
On Monday we slept until noon to recuperate from the late nights/early-ish morning of the previous several days. The boys played with some new toys while assessed our new storage needs. Then we headed out to Zoo Lights.It was cold and slightly blustery, but mostly dry. I'm so glad we chose to go Monday because our other plan was Tuesday which turned out to miserable...total downpour. The boys really enjoyed the lights and a handful of the animals.The penguins were out in full force. We also saw a tiger and a camel. Reese really wants to go back to see the animals now. I told him we should put that on his birthday wishlist....zoo membership, hint, hint.

Christmas Day

2011-12-26T21:16:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning we headed over to my parents' house for more presents and Christmas dinner.

By now both Reese and Gus have this gift opening thing down pat.

Reese got the Crime Fighter Headquaters he's been asking for since before Halloween.

These planes are something we bought ages ago and put away, then Mimi bought them too so we took ours back. He's been really excited about planes for awhile and these do cool tricks.

Reese insisted on bringing home his new Captain America suit even though I suggested he keep it at Mimi's since we have a suit at home, but this one has red and white vertical stripes over the ab muscles and he "needed" it at home too.

Again they got hoards of stuff. In addition to the suit and crime fighter headquarters Reese got some Eeboo games and a soccer ball and "Chill Out Scooby Doo", the movie he's been wanting for about 6 months and a Pirates of the Caribbean ship. He's super excited about that. Gus got Magna-Trucks, pattern blocks, a puzzle, animal counters, a sprig truck, a giant teddy bear and they both got fleece blankets Mimi made for them.
We ate so much over the past two days. Both Kyle and I felt sick from eating too much sweet dessert (chocolate mousse from his mom, pecan pie from mom). We need to do a sugar detox to survive our holiday food intake!!
The boys had so much fun. After all the Christmas gift opening was over Reese announced "now that Christmas is over we can buy toys again!" I've been telling him since early October we couldn't buy toys because Christmas was coming and we needed to wait and see what he got. He's totally ready to buy more now. He totally snowed that Santa whose lap he sat on by asking for a silver crayon. That guy had no idea what a greedy consumer that child is! He does love that silver crayon Santa brought though. Mommy loves the other 149 colors!

Christmas Eve

2011-12-25T23:55:00.000-08:00

In the afternoon of Christmas Eve we headed over to Kyle's parents' house for dinner and more presents.

They were a little disappointed not to tear right into the gift opening, they had to wait until after dinner. After of tenderloin for everyone except Gus, who spent the whole meal cutting his jello fruit salad, we got to the goodies.

These boys stuffed themselves on candy essentially the whole night while trying out their new stuff.

They got an easel, lincoln logs, action figure legos, neon race car tracks, a Thomas light/talk toy and legos.

We finally packed it in and headed home at 11pm! They were wired! Mommy and Daddy were beat.

Reese went to bed with his new Star Wars sticker book. He also very excitedly told me he wanted more Christmas! Lucky for him the next morning we headed over to my parents' house for Christmas day.

Christmas Morning at Our House

2011-12-24T15:29:00.000-08:00

When Reese came into our room in the middle of the night I said I didn't know if it was a good idea because Santa may not come if the prep and landing guys didn't see him in his bed. He assured me it was fine because Santa "already just came!" Then he went back to sleep until about 9am, when we got up and started opening presents.

Of course, Santa knows the Benza boys love their PEZ. They each got a new Christmas PEZ dispenser and PEZ refills in their stockings.

Reese got a Marvel umbrella and Gus got a Thomas the train umbrella. I really hope the open umbrella indoors equals bad luck is fake because otherwise we're in for a LONG time of bad luck.

Gus was so excited opening his presents this year. He got a super cool Imaginext crane truck and Elmo guitar that he loved.

I was able to get some photos of actual expressions...

....unlike Reese's gritted teeth "cheese" pose that you can see here. He was overjoyed with his new BatCave but you can't tell by this goofy smile. He was really excited to get the bat boat, bat mobile with lights and catwoman toys that went along with the cave.

Tara was pretty happy with her scratching post. The boys found it hysterical when she actually demonstrated her scratching technique.

Reese really liked the concept of his eukele when I told him he could learn with Grandad who has a new guitar. He was pretty mad that he couldn't instantly play it well.

Way back Gus almost opened the Amazon box holding Grandpop's present. Yes, the brown amazon box you normally need scissors to open. He got all but the last inch of tape while I was in the shower one day. They spent several weeks wondering what was inside the blue bag! They got a huge set of Wedgits!

But Gus was also really happy with the "fort" holding Grandpop's present.

After all the presents were opened we had chocolate peppermint pancakes for breakfast!

When we were all done Reese was about jumping out of his skin when he told me "I really like Christmas! I want some more Christmas!" That worked out well because the boys spent a few hours playing with all their new stuff before we headed out to Kyle's parents' house for Christmas Eve dinner...and more presents.

The Presents are here!

2011-12-23T00:15:00.000-08:00

We go to my family's house on Christmas day and they want us there to open presents in the morning. It would be ridiculous to wake the boys early, make then open their gifts in a fog, then say "time to get ready" and rush out the door before they can even play with their stuff, then have them spend the rest of the day cranky. So we open our gifts on Christmas Eve morning. Santa hits our house on the eve of Christmas Eve before he starts on Norad's traditional route.

Here is our tree. You can see Gus' crib in his room so you know he had a great view!

Reese agreed to have his door closed so Santa could do his work in private. It is just to the right of the tree so he has a full on view. Since we don't have a mantel or fireplace Santa left his gifts and stocking right at his bedroom door.
We left milk and plenty of cookies. Reese said he needed lots of cookies because Santa "is a big fat man!" Daddy not only gobbled them up he didn't even leave any crumbs!

Countdown to Christmas - Crafts!

2011-12-18T13:59:00.000-08:00

We made some Christmas crafts I found from Our Homeschool Fun. (This may be private, but if not check it out because it's full of good ideas.)

We've been reading a lot of snowmen books, so we made some snowmen from Popsicle sticks. We used felt for the scarf and buttons. Reese is very particular about doing things just so. Gus was just excited to use glue.

We also made a snowman family by painting the boys' hands with white paint and then gripping a clear ornament. Gus just could not stop squishing it so his was a blur of white paint. The photo is Reese's hand. Down on the palm I wrote Reese's name and 2011. I filled the inside with sparkly confetti. I could not get a photo to turn out well, but trust me it looks like snow.

We also did tree footprints. They used sparkly stickers to be the ornaments. They both really love these. I realized that we really need to make more handprint and footprint crafts. They are just so sweet! I love their little feet!

Countdown to Christmas - Baking Cookies

2011-12-14T13:30:00.000-08:00

We made cookies with Mimi and Gigi at Gigi's house.

It was not as productive as I had expected. I was thinking we'd have a bazillion cookies by days end. We did not. But we did all come away with a selection of cookies we would not have made if we each made our own in our own kitchens.

The boys thought it was fantastic because now they have tons of cookies to eat. They still consider 2 or 3 at once tons.

Countdown to Christmas - Decorating our Tree

2011-12-12T13:45:00.000-08:00

On the Friday after Christmas Reese basically asked non-stop when we'd decorate the tree until we brought it up from the basement and did it!

In the past the boys were not particularly interested in the decorating process. I was afraid they'd break ornaments so we put a minimal number of them on tree and up high.

This year they both loved it and wanted to participate, so they put on almost all of the ornaments themselves.

That means there were tons of ornaments down low, packed together on branches and like kinds grouped together. Normally I'd spread my 12 wooden candy canes around evenly across the tree. But the boys wanted them super close together like the candy canes above.

We put the breakable ornaments up high, so it looks relatively evened out.

Both Reese and Gus love the tree. It's in the living room this year where they both can see it from their beds. After a month of going to sleep by tree light we'll see if they'll go back to sleeping in mostly dark.

Countdown to Christmas - Cutting Down the Tree

2011-12-10T12:32:00.000-08:00

So I bought this cool countdown thing from Land of Nod (not on the site anymore) I could have totally made myself, but I know I'd never get around to it, so....

Lots of the days were things like read Christmas books, watch Christmas movies and the like. Our begin the countdown event was cutting the grandparents Christmas trees. So we are sort of fake Pacific Northwesterners. We have a spider-less, needle falling-less, perpetually hydrated FAKE tree. yes, that's how we roll in the Benza house. But our parents have real trees and we go with them and another family to Bacon's to cut down their trees. Then we go to The Big Apple Diner for breakfast/lunch..I guess brunch.

We spent a lot of time searching for the right trees. It was SUPER windy that day and cold and Gus was sick and we woke him up about 90 minutes earlier than his normal time, so Gus spent a lot of time up on Daddy's shoulders.

Reese had a great time running around checking out everyone's options.

There was lots of picture taking....

....and finally the Gutierrez tree was chosen. Uncle Dylan cut it down.

The Benza grandparents' tree.

Reese really got into helping to cut down Gigi and Granddad's tree.

The Nix family tree.

The boys had to get measured just like the trees.

Reese and Gus got to enjoy the process of perusing the tree farm and cutting down three families' Christmas trees. Kyle and I did not have to water a single one or vacuum a single pine needle or fight off one single grody spider. The best of both worlds!!

Thanksgiving

2011-12-09T15:55:00.000-08:00

Did we have Thanksgiving this year you may be wondering? Why yes, yes we did. However we didn't really manage to adequately document it from a photographic standpoint. In fact we did not take one stinking photo of my beautiful bird or any other food for that matter.

I was on the ball at first. Here is Gus helping to make pumpkin pie. We also had apple pie using my self canned apple pie filling which, now that I'm looking for a link I see neither myself or my canning cohort mentioned in our canning posts. All the usual suspects were present. Great Grandma Joyce, Granddad (Kyle's dad), Great Grandpa Bob (you know the greats are for Reese and Gus...they are regular grandparents to Kyle).Kyle and Reese.
Mimi (my mom), Gigi (Kyle's mom), Gus and Reese.and yes I was there and Grandpop (my dad), Poppop (my step-dad), Uncle Travis and Uncle Dylan (my brothers).

We had the traditional turkey. I follow the Alton Brown Roasted Turkey recipe for brining and cooking. This is the 4th year I brined the turkey. I will never prepare a turkey without brine again. It is the best way! You must use a William Sonoma brine bag for the best experience.
Of course we also had mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing (I think I'm sticking with this recipe), brussels sprouts gratin, green bean casserole with homemade cream of mushroom soup, roasted butternut squash, homemade cranberry sauce, hawaiian rolls and for the first time ever I made that sweet potato with marshmallow recipe...it will be coming back every year!

Even though we failed to document it I think a good time was had by all. It's so nice that our boys get to enjoy Thanksgiving with 4 generations of their family!

Cookie Party

2011-12-07T13:17:00.000-08:00

I really hope this becomes known as Our First Annual Christmas C ookie Decorating Playdate!

My friend Anya and I had a playdate planned already when we discovered our dear friend Amy was coming into town with her kids for the first time in almost a year. It quickly morphe dinto a gathering of 4 mom friends, a nana, and 19 children aged 10 months to 11 years!!
You would think it would be insane, but it was actually a really fun visit. A relaxed get together even!
Anya made up a zillion sugar cookies in advance so the kids set to work decorating them with frosting and sprinkles and such. We had a delicious lunch and mochas.
It was a great visit made extra special since our friend has been missing from our activities for so long and all of our kids were able to play together so well. The moms were able to fall back into our conversations just as easily as if we'd visited every week over the last year. I sure hope that this can be repeated year after year...even when Amy lives back in town!

Potty Training???

2011-12-05T20:45:00.000-08:00

Ha ha no not yet. But Gus decided he wanted to wear underwear one day.

During one of the daily strip downs he also decided to try out the potty.He REALLY enjoyed the wiping portion. He shoved about 6 wipes into the potty. This was the last day of potty interest though. When I ask if he wants to wear underwear and pee in the potty he says no.

Lots of Sleep?

2011-12-04T20:30:00.000-08:00

I do not know why I have all these sleeping photos. I am quite sure there wasn't excessive sleeping going on.
Gus has taken to stripping down randomly to put his jammies on. Here he somehow fell asleep sitting on the kitchen table somewhere between the strip down and the donning of the jammies.
This is another freaky one...how did this boy fall asleep in this weird position with that weird facial expression? I have no answer. I think he was supposed to be Captain America frozen in ice.

This was during the sick period so it's not really a weird sleep, just a cute one!

This was so funny. Reese fell asleep and Gus came up out of no where to blow raspberries on Reese's tummy. He never woke up though Gus must have done it for 5 full minutes and laughed hysterically between each raspberry.

Sick boy

2011-12-02T20:25:00.000-08:00

Gus had his first stomach bug. Luckily we were watching tv when I heard a not quite right cough from Gus' bedroom. I went running in to find him sitting up in a pile of vomit totally confused. Luckily I got him to the bathroom and the rest managed to go in the toilet.

The next day was spent mostly on the couch holding him. Occasionally I had to get up to do something and he sat so pathetically in his bean bag.

Every single vomit episode caught me off guard. I was in the middle of saying "Do you need to throw up?" while reaching for the bucket when the projectile shot everywhere...only once all over me. blech...

Goofy Brothers

2011-12-01T20:17:00.000-08:00

When Grandpop was visiting the boys had to sit next to each other at our little square kitchen table to make room for another adult at the table. These boys are real characters...a comment Reese has been saying a lot lately. I guess someone said this more than a few times in Reese's ear shot.

On a side note Reese has been a ridiculously good eater at every meal for the first time in ages. I figured he must be having a growth spurt so I measured. He's grown almost 2 inches since October 15! That's less than 2 months!

Grandpop's Visit

2011-11-29T09:05:00.000-08:00

Grandpop visited from VA for the week of Thanksgiving. This is how Reese and Grandpop spent the mornings while mommy and Gus slept in!The first two mornings Reese woke up way too early and said "I'm ready to see Grandpop!" I convinced him to sleep a bit more and when it seemed a reasonable hour I said he could run down to see if Grandpop was awake. After those first 2 days he just went down without telling me and I blissfully slept on. They sat on Grandpop's bed and ate their cereal and watched movies. This morning we were up in the dark and the freezing cold to take Grandpop to the airporter bus. Of course no one but mom had any interest in going back to bed, so we had some cinnamon buns for breakfast and we're starting our day way earlier than normal. Maybe we can keep up this early morning routine.

2011-11-06T22:47:00.000-08:00

Even though I haven't posted I promise I always have a menu plan on my dry erase calendar. Except when we decide to eat out we follow it pretty well. Since we are currently eating Halloween candy and gearing up for Thanksgiving, then Christmas we've got to get a handle on portion control! ha ha!

Monday: Pork Roast, roasted potatoes from our garden, broccoli
Tuesday: Spicy cabbage soba pork (Food Matters Cookbook, soba noodles, napa cabbage and left over pork)
Wednesday: Veggie Stir Fry over Brown Rice
Thursday: Homemade Chicken Soup - use up homemade stock
Friday: Jambalaya
Saturday: AmyLu Sausages/rice/peas casserole
Sunday: Fajitas

Get more menu ideas at Organizing Junkie!

Happy Halloween

2011-11-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

Da na na na na Batman! and Robin! I love the idea of coordinated costumes. This is the first year we've done it though because in the past Gus has been whatever Reese was at that size and when we bought the costume to begin with there was no need for coordinated suits. I'm wondering if this is the last year Gus will be willing to do whatever Reese wants.

We started at Mimi's house about 3:30pm. We visited a little and got big gift bags of candy. Really we needn't have gone farther than this one stop with all the candy Mimi piled on, especially since it was the good stuff. No single stick of gum or pixie stick at this house. (Though as a mom I'm thinking one pixie stick per kid is plenty. It's just not enough for the parents.)

Then we had a quick dinner and headed over to my friend's house to trick or treat with them...and their whole cul de sac. UGH. While Reese thought it was great Kyle and I were on sensory overload from too many crazy kids and varying ages. It was a seemingly never ending night of hurry up and wait for everyone to get together. Then a huge jumble at the door and every. single. house had skinny windy stairs. BUT the pay off was good loot. This neighborhood had a high rate of participation and a handful of really good decorators. We saw tons of skillfully carved pumpkins and some pretty intricate yard displays. One even had coordinated music. (Like those crazy shows you see on HGTV at Christmas, but on a smaller scale.)

Batman and Robin with Daddy just when we were getting started. I prefer to start out in the light, but coordinating so many kids (and their pack of adults) took us over the threshold of dusk into actual night. It was super dark and in the cluster I got few decent photos.

The boys were super happy with the whole scene. Reese only once forgot to say Trick or Treat and Thank You at the house of a hanging lady that I think slightly unnerved him. Gus never said Trick or Treat once, though he did it perfectly when we practiced at home. He did however say "tank yooooooo, Next House!" in his southern drawl. It was pretty cute. It also scored him an extra piece of candy at a several houses.

By the end of the night Gus decided he was all done. His pumpkin became too heavy to carry. So he rode in my friend's stroller for the remainder of the houses while Reese continued to Trick or Treat. Then we headed to Gigi's house to visit a little and get some more candy and sort of watch Scared Shrekless. Finally we headed home and got into bed.....at 10:20PM!!!

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-30T02:29:00.000-07:00

We went to an awesome pumpkin patch with some friends way out in Timbuktu. They had a mini maze made out of hay bales that worked really great for the preschool/toddler set.

There was a tricycle track with enough bikes for everyone to have a go round.

The barn had a jump in the hay area. This was a big hit though I found it a little stinky. Outside of this area were some llama, sheep and goats. I didn't get any photos of the animals because just as Gus threw down his hay after changing his mind about feeding the llama he got his very first bee sting. :(

Luckily I had a bee sting wipe in my trusty purse first aid kit that numbed it up a little. It worked well enough for him to carry on with the day though there was a good 15 minutes of crying about that boo boo. We checked out the pumpkins after we got calmed down.

Gus chose this green one beside Reese's foot. Reese chose a little sugar pumpkin to be Daddy's pumpkin and he got some kind of small seafoam green squash for himself. They would have liked the gigantic pumpkins but for some reason the wagons were all gone and I was not about to lug a 30 pound pumpkin to the pay counter a mile away (ok, maybe not a mile, but a long way.)

Then we climbed the hay tower for a photo shoot. Gus declined to climb it. I think the bee sting was making him less adventurous than normal.

It was quite an uncoordinated photo shoot.

I think this was the best group shot.

But this was the best display of Reese's spidey moves. I cropped it to make sure you could really get a good look.

It was really sunny and only a little chilly when the wind picked up. Overall, it was a perfect pumpkin patch day. I was quite happy to find it totally dry as well, so I didn't have to haul muddy pumpkins or clean muddy boots.

"That's all folks!"

Halloween Party

2011-10-28T11:52:00.000-07:00

Our local library had a Halloween party. There were some stories and snacks. We didn't want to ruin the surprise of our real Halloween costumes, so Gus was a tiger and Reese was Captain America. They were supposed to be a tiger and a turtle, both costumes handed down from Uncles Travis and Dylan. But Reese was on a Captain America kick.We did some pumpkin coloring.
We also did some coloring pages.We also had a parade!

Children's Museum

2011-10-27T23:28:00.000-07:00

We headed down to Olympia with Mimi on Monday to visit the Hands On Children's Museum and visit Uncle Dylan at college.Reese drove the ship.

Gus manned the life preserver.

They both spent a good bit of time rock loading.

We fiddled with the water table for awhile, but honestly I don't like getting wet or smelling like chlorine.

In the theater area the costumes were a hit for the first time ever. Normally we just play with the stage sound buttons. Both boys gave these wooden shoes a whirl.

Gus drove the delivery truck while Reese worked on "washing" it. I didn't get a picture of him but he was very thorough with his scrub and rinse.

It always cracks me up that they insist on putting their seat belt on. Reese also really likes talking into the cb radio while driving. hmmm....we'll have to make sure to nip that in the bud before he gets his driver's license.

We spent some time in the kitchen. Gus especially loves to cook. He's so funny toddling around with his pans.Reese did a great job wearing his glasses. Finally he's wearing them for the large chunks of time. He traded them in for work goggles here.
I completely forgot to take any photos when we took Uncle Dylan out to dinner. We dropped off some food supplies and a microwave for his dorm and then headed off to Red Robin for some dinner.

My son, Indiana

2011-10-23T10:19:00.000-07:00

Jones that is.

Reese is very into playing Indiana Jones lately. He has his hat, whip and "satchel" aka backpack. Then he jumps and rolls around the living room a la Indy on the run from the bad guys. Luckily we have 2 big bean bags to pose as rocks for a safe landing when he jumps from cliffs and caves (couch/ottoman).

Walking Wounded

2011-10-21T00:04:00.000-07:00

Gus tripped on the outside stairs and fell face first down the concrete steps. His legs were up in the air flailing about while his face was firmly planted on the concrete. OUCH!There is a huge bruise at his hairline with a giant scrape a bit lower.
Under his eye is another scrape and what will probably be quite a shiner by tomorrow.Off to the side of his mouth is another scrape that seems to be the most bothersome. He kept craning his mouth open wider than it should go and sticking his tongue out at it. I'm hoping he doesn't infect it with nasty mouth germs.
Overall he seems pretty much over it and feeling good though.

Friends

2011-10-20T00:33:00.000-07:00

These cute boys are really becoming friends. On the days we are home all day with no distractions they have been playing together very cooperatively. Yes sometimes, a lot of times, someone is snatching someone's toy and someone is shrieking. But more and more these two are building a fort together or running and jumping like Spiderman, though I'm not sure Gus knows he's being Spiderman, he may just be copying Reese.I'm so disappointed this photo is blurry, but I just can't delete it. They are so darn cute! This is Gus mimicking Reese's pose.

I love listening in on their conversations. It's so funny (and insightful) to hear what they have to say to each other. It cracks me up when they talk about why Daddy is at work (to make money to buy toys and pay for our house, food and pajamas, in that order). Reese is adamant that Gus label things properly which is super frustrating for him since Gus doesn't have all the language skills necessary for that yet. They can go in circles about things for quite some time.

Reese rarely wants to do anything without Gus. He's always quick to verify Gus is included in whatever plans we're making. I'm happy he wants to hang out with his little brother even when they play with other friends. I'm not sure it's even occurred to Gus that it's an option to do anything without Reese.

Cider

2011-10-16T20:10:00.000-07:00

Yum, we found some awesome apple cider. It tastes great served hot in a tea cup.

I just happen to know two new fans of the stuff.

Dinner

2011-10-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

This is my weird cat...staring at the bathroom door. Seriously she sat here the entire time the door was closed while someone was in there. Her food bowl is also in there. I think she was stressed that instead of someone using the potty she believed her food bowl was being raided.Once the door opened she flashed inside to eat her dinner. This is what we had for dinner. The boys were so excited to be served dinner in a pumpkin! It was super tasty!!

You can find the recipe here from Taste of Home magazine. I got it from my friend, Julie, after she made it for a play date. Yum!!

Fun in the Sun

2011-10-14T10:44:00.000-07:00

Summer finally arrived in September. These photos are from a few weeks ago. It's not sunny like this anymore, but the boys really enjoyed September. They loved playing outside in their fort and harvesting from our garden.

They both really loved the fort part of their swing set. Gus finally got the hang of climbing up the climbing wall portion after he figured out he needed to wear the sunglasses.

They played together so well on these outside days. Generally indoors Reese continually does something that results in ear piercing shrieks of protest from Gus.

To the right of Gus you can see 2 green potato planters. See how the plants look a little decrepit? We finally harvested and we got about 10 pounds of potatoes!!! Last year we didn't ever get around to harvesting. I assume those rotted and then the plants just came back this summer. I didn't realize they were perennials. The boys are excited to eat them...and me too.

Hangin' with Dad

2011-10-13T10:26:00.000-07:00

The new favorite pastime: Madden Football on the PS3. Notice Gus is using an Xbox controller so he doesn't mess up the game but he thinks he's playing. I'm not really sure what Reese does with his controller...maybe Kyle popped out the battery.

Another much loved activity is eating popcorn and "watching" a movie. I use this term loosely because Gus just eats the popcorn then runs around like a crazy person. This is his "NO PICTURE!" pose.

Finally I got a nice smile from Reese, but it's a little blurry. Generally I get a wretched forced, grated teeth style smile, so I'm going with this even though it's not sharp. He actually looks like the sweet boy that he is.The only way to get a Gus face in a photo is to catch him stuffing the popcorn in..his hand is too busy to block my camera.

I'm Back!

2011-10-12T12:08:00.000-07:00

I'm finally back after the computer crash of 2011. I hadn't backed up photos since November 2010. UGH, and I've been a slack blogger, so I have very few. Very traumatizing. But after not a small amount of tears my bloggy friend's husband offered help. I'm sending my hard drive to see if he can extract my photos since our computer fix it shop couldn't.
Now I need to figure out how to deal with photos on my new laptop. In the mean time I have a temporary solution so I can at least get photos on the blog!
After a bit too much quiet I went into the kitchen to find out what Gus was doing.This is what I discovered.Can you SEE that? Approximately half a bottle of Nature's Own Seasoning added to his sandwich...and the plate, the table, the floor.He gleefully showed me how exciting it was.Reese found it pretty amusing too. Luckily I had just purchased a new bottle at 50% off to stash in the pantry.

Toilet Fun?

2011-08-23T09:58:00.000-07:00

While I was apparently failing to pay attention Gus grabbed gobs of toilet paper. He then proceed to run like a mad man out of the bathroom, through the kitchen, onto the living room chair.

Reese broke the strand. Gus abandoned his chair post and latched on to the part still attached where Reese had broken it. A tug of war ensued. I decreed they must cease and desist with pulling new paper off the roll. I threw up my hands and said "Whatever, you may as well play with the part you've pulled off." But the oh so helpful Reese decided to snatch it all from his brothers clutches. And bolted...

While I desperately screamed "NO! NOT! IN! THE! TOILET! NO FLUSHING!!!!!!"

But he got it all into the toilet....and flushed. Here is my bowl seemingly completely dry except for the dripping wet wad of about half a roll of TP. I called Kyle to ask if I could just flush some more or what. He said absolutely not. He said "You (meaning me) need to pick it out by hand and put it in the trash." Well, we had some places to be and ran out of time. Luckily my husband is awesome and when he came home from work he immediately checked it and scooped all the TP out into the trash by hand without complaint. Hooray!!

Menu Plan Monday

2011-08-22T21:13:00.001-07:00

Wow we've been on a bit of an eating out kick. We're are buckling down and eating dinner at home...indefinitely, starting NOW.

Monday: finish up leftovers (Costco pizza)
Tuesday: Roasted Garden Vegetable Lasagna
Wednesday: Flat Iron Steak on the grill from the grass-fed guy at the farmer's market, baked potatoes and zucchini
Thursday: Spaghetti squash with sausage
Friday: Sweet Potato and Black Bean taco a la Anya
Saturday: Beans and Rice Tostada
Sunday: The Sandwich King's Italian Beef Sandwiches

Check out what everyone else is eating at Organizing Junkie!

oops Just noticed Gus is wearing the same shirt in his June and July photos. I promise he has other clothes.

Big Fat Hole in my Education

2011-08-20T23:25:00.000-07:00

I just read a blog post that combined titles from lists found at College Board and The Most Recommended Books List from Reading Lists for College-Bound Students and went through to see what she completed. I am proud to say that even though she was 3 1/2 years into a pHd I have read more than her, but wow there are so many I have never read. My plan is to get though all of these eventually. Anyone want to read them with me?
The titles in italics and red are the ones I've read. I couldn't figure out how to strike out the titles. Hopefully the red doesn't hurt the eyes.

Beowulf
Achebe, Chinua - Things Fall Apart
Agee, James - A Death in the Family
Austen, Jane - Pride and Prejudice
Baldwin, James - Go Tell It On the Mountain
Beckett, Samuel - Waiting for Godot
Bellow, Saul - Seize the Day
Bellow, Saul - The Adventures of Augie March
Bronte, Charlotte - Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily - Wuthering Heights
Camus, Albert - The Stranger
Carroll, Lewis - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Cather, Willa - My Antonia
Cather, Willa - Death Comes for the Archbishop
Cervantes, Miguel de - Don Quixote
Chaucer, Geoffrey - The Canterbury Tales
Chekhov, Anton - The Cherry Orchard
Chopin, Kate - The Awakening
Conrad, Joseph - Heart of Darkness
Cooper, James Fenimore - The Last of the Mohicans
Crane, Stephen - The Red Badge of Courage
Dante - Inferno
Defoe, Daniel - Robinson Crusoe
Dickens, Charles - Great Expectations
Dickens, Charles - A Tale of Two Cities
Dostoevski, Feodor - Crime and Punishment
Douglass, Frederick - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Dreiser, Theodore - An American Tragedy
Dumas, Alexandre - The Three Musketeers
Eliot, George - The Mill on the Floss
Ellison, Ralph - Invisible Man
Emerson, Ralph Waldo - Selected Essays
Faulkner, William - As I Lay Dying
Faulkner, William - The Sound and the Fury
Fielding, Henry - Tom Jones
Fitzgerald, F. Scott - The Great Gatsby
Flaubert, Gustave - Madame Bovary
Ford, Ford Madox - The Good Soldier
Forster, E. M. - A Passage to India
Garcia Marquez, Gabriel - One Hundred Years of Solitude
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von - Faust
Golding, William - The Lord of the Flies
Hardy, Thomas - Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Hawthorne, Nathaniel - The Scarlet Letter
Heller, Joseph - Catch 22
Hemingway, Ernest - A Farewell to Arms
Homer - The Iliad
Homer - The Odyssey
Hugo, Victor - The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hurston, Zora Neale - Their Eyes Were Watching God
Huxley, Aldous - Brave New World
Ibsen, Henry - A Doll's House
James, Henry - The Portrait of a Lady
James, Henry - The Turn of the Screw
Joyce, James - The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Kafka, Franz - The Metamorphosis
Kafka, Franz - The Trial
Kingston, Maxine Hong - The Woman Warrior
Lawrence, D. H. - Sons and Lovers
Lee, Harper - To Kill a Mockingbird
Sinclair, Lewis - Babbitt
London, Jack - Call of the Wild
Malamud, Bernard - The Assistant
Mann, Thomas - Death in Venice
Mann, Thomas - The Magic Mountain
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia - One Hundred Years of Solitude
Melville, Herman - Bartleby the Scrivener
Melville, Herman - Moby Dick
Miller, Arthur - The Crucible
Morrison, Toni - Beloved
Morrison, Toni - Sula
O'Connor, Flannery - A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Olsen, Tillie - Tell Me a Riddle
O' Neill, Eugene - Long Day's Journey Into Night
Orwell, George - Animal Farm
Paton, Alan - Cry the Beloved Country
Pasternak, Boris - Doctor Zhivago
Plath, Sylvia - The Bell Jar
Poe, Edgar Allan - The Fall of the House of Usher, The Purloined Letter, The Cask of Amontillado, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart
Proust, Marcel - Swann's Way
Pynchon, Thomas - The Crying of Lot 49
Remarque, Erich Maria - All Quiet on the Western Front
Rostand, Edmond - Cyrano de Bergerac
Roth, Henry - Call It Sleep
Salinger, J. D. - The Catcher in the Rye
Scott, Sir Walter - Ivanhoe
Shakespeare, William - Hamlet
Shakespeare, William - Macbeth
Shakespeare, William - A Midsummer's Night Dream
Shakespeare, William - Romeo and Juliet
Shaw, George Bernard - Pygmalion
Shelley, Mary - Frankenstein
Silko, Leslie Marmon - Ceremony
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Sophocles - Antigone
Sophocles - Oedipus Rex
Steinbeck, John - The Grapes of Wrath
Stevenson, Robert Louis - Treasure Island
Stowe, Harriet Beecher - Uncle Tom's Cabin
Swift, Jonathan - Gulliver's Travels
Thackeray, William Makepeace - Vanity Fair
Thoreau, Henry David - Walden
Tolstoy, Leo - War and Peace
Turgenev, Ivan - Fathers and Sons
Twain, Mark - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Twain, Mark - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Updike, John - Rabbit, Run
Voltaire - Candide
Vonnegut, Kurt - Slaughterhouse Five
Walker, Alice - The Color Purple
Welty, Eudora - From the book "Thirteen Stories" - Why I Live at the PO, The Worn Path, The Petrified Man
Wharton, Edith - The Age of Innocence
Whitman, Walt - Leaves of Grass
Wilde, Oscar - The Picture of Dorian Gray
Williams, Tennessee - The Glass Menagerie
Woolf, Virginia - To the Lighthouse
Wright, Richard - Native Son

I actually possess several of these books that I purchased years ago to start a classics bookclub with a co-worker. We read Virginia Woolf - A Room of One's Own and started Moby Dick. We couldn't get through Moby Dick and our book club idea fell apart. I did recently find Moby Dick for elementary age readers in the dollar bin a Target so maybe I'll start there. :)

Garden Monsters

2011-08-20T08:37:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, these are the babies coming out of our garden. I am certain I check daily and yet they go from way too little to pick (like mini sweet gherkin pickle sized) to this gigantic monster of a zucchini. This one really tested Reese's muscles. I spent the better part of a day shredding it. I'd shred a little, do something else, shred a little, do something else...on and on. My elbow and wrist REALLY hurt. My friend Anya pointed out that I was a lunatic and need to use the food processor. When I discovered that her full size processor has a shred attachment that my mini-prep does not I packed up my 18.5 pounds of zucchini and dropped them off at her house the next morning. The boys and I headed out for a play date, then swung by her house on the way home to pick up beautifully shredded zucchini...not soggy like my shredded by hand zucchini. She kept one honking big zucchini and I took home 2 or 3 gallon ziploc bags--geez I can't remember how many. I gave one bag away. I made 89 muffins with the rest. My hand shredded one filled a 12 qt tupperware bowl. I used that first. I still have about a half a gallon of shredded zucchini to use up. I only have 2 muffins pans so all the waiting to be able to refill them made me run out of time and I haven't revisited baking day. But I will!
Now the search for yummy ways to eat normal sized zucchini begins.

Canningpalooza

2011-08-12T15:10:00.000-07:00

Over the years we've done a lot of group canning events. In 2007 we worked with a TON of apples. Can you believe how little Reese is? In 2008 we made applesauce and jam. I also made pear butter with Kyle's grandmom and mom. In 2009 we did nectarines, this was Gus' first time. In 2010 there was just so much going on with new babies and moving I had no canning dates. :(
This year we joined forces with the Monroe Family at the Picha Farm for strawberry picking. My friend and I and our combined 8 kids picked for approximately 2 hours. That included walking from the pay place to the berry patch, so probably 1.5 hours of picking. Let's just say we are happy, oh so happy we are not professional pickers. But the sunburn and achy muscles netted us a pretty good haul. I picked a 10 pound box and got a box of "jammers" free...probably also about 10 pounds. The Monroe's picked I think 30 pounds, plus the jammer box and a box of raspberries.

That clump of twiggy, weed looking stuff is Gus' contribution to the box.

Then we made freezer jam:

plus those 2 cases of jars! That was just my share! It went on forever!! We're stocked up until next year for sure.

A couple of weeks later we made pickles. We made 12 quarts of Dill Pickles each and a bunch of Bread & Butter pickles. We decided we didn't get enough pickles to last us ALL YEAR, so we needed more.

The second time around we decided to make spears.

And we thought since we have so much jam and any new berries would just produce more jam we needed to branch out. We figured we'd try our hand at ketchup. Oh, what a mistake! Except for the hilarity it provided in the lives of others, this was not a worthwhile endeavor. Well, unless you count the life experience and friendship memories. We had fun, sort of.
I went to Cash and Carry where I paid $27 for 50 pounds of Roma tomatoes. Everywhere else was $1.49-$2.99 a pound so this was a bargain! Which is why I decided to go for the gusto and get 2 boxes of 25 pounds. We wanted to make sure we actually got a reasonable amount.
First of all the recipe was a big fat lie. It said dip the tomato in boiling water for 60 seconds until the skin split. Well that took about 15 minutes for each batch. Then we plunged it into ice water and removed the skin. Yes the skin came off easily, but pretty instantly the water was hot, we ran out of ice and boiling tomato juice was squirting out at us!
Then we moved onto quartering and de-seeding...endless!! Finally we got to the cook it until it reduces by half. "This should take 1-2 hours." LIES! LIES!! LIES!!! Big fat lies, I tell you. After about 2 hours on the Monroe stove we had to pack it in. I was afraid it would spill in my sparkling new-ish van, so I raced in after work traffic to pick up Kyle on his walk home from work and raced back to pick up the boiling pot of tomatoes. Kyle held it on his lap to take it back to our house. It cooked for 6 hours at my house, was off for 5 hours, then back on from 5:30AM until I gave up on reducing and thickening and processed it at 2:30pm.
I ladled it into a sieve and collected the "juice" since it never got to the point where the liquids don't separate. I had enough to make 12 pints.

Twelve lovely, hard earned pints of ketchup. Six for the Monroes and six for the Benzas. I suspect in the future as long as it's less than $8 we'll happily fork over cash for gourmet, organic, chemical free ketchup.
I also processed 6 half pints of ketchup juice, but since that sounds revolting I'm calling it spicy tomato stock. We'll use it in chili, stew, soups and the like.

I'm hoping we get enough pears on our tree to can some slices and pear butter this fall. We're looking forward (I'm pretty sure it's not just me) Canning 2012, but we'll make some more informed choices.

***update: I forgot to mention that Kyle was surprised at how little 50 pounds of tomatoes looked in a gigantic stock pot and he was even more shocked at how that gigantic stock pot full of tomatoes became 12 little pints.

Check out Anya's take on our splendid experience.

ZOO

2011-07-24T16:48:00.000-07:00

We went to the zoo while Grandpop was visiting. It was actually Gus' first time. It was a little hot for a lot of the animals I think. Next time we'll go on an overcast day so everybody is out and rambunctious.Reese took a camel ride. You have to be 3, so Gus will have to wait until next year. Hopefully the camels don't drown in our rain. They said the camel can go for a full year without water if it needs to, but no info about excessive water.

The boys really checked out the monkeys forever! Luckily the part where the people stand is covered, so I was happy to wait in the shade for ages.

The touch tank was pretty awesome...notice where Gus' hand is....YUM, sushi!

By the end of the day we were all pretty spent. Gus was chillin with his drink and for the first time both boys wore their hats for an entire sunny outing. We will definitely go back soon.

Birthday Party

2011-07-12T22:43:00.001-07:00

We had a backyard barbecue to celebrate Gus' second birthday with all the grandparents. Though Gus hasn't really watched the movie yet he is very excited about Cars. He squeals when the commercial for Cars2 comes on tv and he regularly plays with Reese's matchbox style cars from the first movie. So we went with a Cars theme.

He blew out his #2 candle...

and really enjoyed eating his cake.

Gus and the Grandmas:

Gus with Reese, Daddy and the Grandpas.

What a sweet 2 year old boy!

This photo makes him look like such a big boy!!!

Reese was SUPER helpful when it came to opening presents. Luckily Gus was happy to have the assistance.

He anxiously looked on as Reese tried to get into the gift from Kyle's grandparents.

It was a mower, which Gus loves. He asks to play with it every time we go outside.

This is Reese's Spiderman dismount from the slide.

Reese begged me to build the motorcycle on the packaging of the Zoobs. Here is my completed masterpiece.

Later that night Gus got to work on his new Legos. He really enjoyed his birthday party. He is such a sweet baby. It makes this Mama sad that he is so quickly becoming a big boy.

Gus and the at-home Surgical procedure

2011-07-07T18:56:00.000-07:00

These are the surgical tools:

This is the surgical patient:This is what was removed:

Gus got down from his high chair (with help from Dad) and instantly came running to me, pointing to his nose saying "bean, bean, bean." I chuckled and said "That's a boogie not a bean. Do you want Mommy to help you blow?"
I used the sucker thing they send home with you from the hospital for your newborn. It moved it down, but not out. So I got the Q-tip, which just pushed it further in. Then I got the flashlight and realized it was not a slimy boogie, but a solid lima bean. While I called the pediatrician to get suggestions Daddy tried the toothpick, which kind of just shredded it. Then we settled on the tweezers and successfully removed the bean just before the pediatrician called back. Phew. She thought it was big enough not to aspirate anyway. She noted that frequently parents don't notice until it starts to rot and therefore STINK.
Grody.
Good ting we discovered it right away. A rotten bean in my cute boys nose would really gross me out.

Visiting Grandpop

2011-07-01T22:45:00.000-07:00

Grandpop arrived safely from VA for his birthday visit. Reese loves to show Gus the photos of Grandpop and remind him that Grandpop comes on the airplane. Since they have this conversation regularly Gus always remembers who my dad is and has no need for a warming up period.

So far the boys have been busy running him ragged. Hopefully he'll have enough energy left for tomorrow's birthday party!

2 year Well Baby Appointment

2011-06-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

Gus, aka The Green Lantern, had his 2 year old well baby appointment. He weighed 25 1/2 pounds which is 15th percentile for weight. His percentile dropped from the last check up. He measured 35 inches tall or 68th percentile...a significant jump from last time. Since he suddenly has no round belly and he usually does AND he is having a hard time getting comfy the last week or so when we sit in the rocker, I suspect he just got taller all of a sudden.
he has 50+ words and understands when people speak to him and points and engages with people and whatnot. He can move and run and climb and such. So...nothing at all to report. Normal across the board. The doctor was not concerned with his weight percentile drop since he still happily eats a variety of fruits and veggies and seems to have shot up in height. We assume the next round of growth will be some weight instead of height to balance it out.
As we were finishing up he started on the "Why?" routine. The doc thought he was a little early for that. I've been thinking we were on the downward slope of the whys because it's been non-stop for a couple of months now. It's hard to judge what is typical because Reese really just had his Why? phase immediately before Gus started...so significantly later than typical I guess.
A highlight of the visit was no shots. So all in all a great report. Gus is doing everything he is supposed to and nothing he is not.

Menu Plan Monday

2011-06-27T09:15:00.000-07:00

Even though I have been a blog slacker I do always have my menu plan on the dry erase calendar. It is my intent to keep up with regular blogging for the rest of the year. My poor Gus will look back at his 18-24 month old period and wonder why I barely have photos or info about his life. So, in an effort to stick with my plan I am back to posting the menu. I promise to have more cute photos of Reese and Gus on Tuesday.

MONDAY: tortellini and peas --- 2yr well baby appt.
TUESDAY: Trader Joe's Chipotle Flat Iron Steak, homemade steak fries, broccoli/cauliflower/carrot medley
WEDNESDAY: Pork Loin, scalloped potatoes, lima beans (Gus' new favorite)
THURSDAY: Burgers on the grill, baked beans, broccoli
FRIDAY: Spicy Napa Cabbage with Soba noodles and pork stir fry (leftover from the loin) from the Food Matters cookbook
SATURDAY: GUS' BBQ BIRTHDAY Guy Fieri Tri tip from Costco (hopefully it's good), Macaroni Salad, Baked Beans and PW's Iced Coffee

You can get ideas from other people at Organizing Junkie.

TWO!

2011-06-26T20:41:00.000-07:00

Gus is TWO years old today! He is growing so fast. Five more pounds and he'll catch up to Reese. He says a zillion words, loves cars and trucks, motorcycles, trains, puzzles, Little People, superhero suits and especially playing outside. Of course he also wants to play whatever Reese is playing.

This was way back on Day One.

He's wearing his cow suit at about 3 months old.

Cute cue ball at 6 months.

One year old!

At 18 months old he went to his first Children's museum visit.

Sit and spin at about 21 months.

Right before going to bed for the very first time as a two year old.
I can't believe this sweet boy has been here two years already. Gus is so sweet and cuddly and becoming just a little bit ornery too. We sure do love this boy.

Mukilteo Lighthouse

2011-06-04T20:55:00.000-07:00

Over the Memorial Day weekend we visited the Mukilteo Lighthouse. The Coast Guard gave the lighthouse to the city about 10 years ago. Now a group of volunteers mans the lighthouse on weekends and holidays so you can tour the grounds and lighthouse.

This is the lighthouse building. There is also the keeper's home currently being used for storage of archives and the assistant keeper's home which is now the gift shop. The gift shop also houses a historical time line of the lighthouse.

It's a "short" lighthouse, so it was easy for Reese and Gus to climb the stairs to the top. Here's Gus and Daddy out on the landing.

In the background are Whidbey and Camano Islands.

This is the lens currently in use. It has an itty bitty 50 watt bulb. All the reflective mirrors are what make the light bright enough for boats to see.

This is an old lens circa 1895 that was salvaged from a fire. Once upon a time they put candles in the center.

Then we checked out the beach. This rock came home with us.
Reese would have liked to throw every single rock on the beach in the water, but then there would be nothing under us since the "beach" is really nothing but rocks.
He toned down the enthusiasm a bit and then chose very specific rocks to throw.
We watched the ferry pull out for Clinton, Whidbey Island.
It turned out to be a really nice sunny and warm day. The boys had a blast running all around the beach. We learned a lot of info about lighthouses. Did you realize lighthouses all have a unique signature of light? Mukilteo is 2 seconds lit up, 3 second pause. They also all have unique daymarks. It's how they look in the daylight so you can tell your position from sea. One of the few other lighthouses I've visited has a very distinct daymark. They have a cool passport program that gives you stamps in your passport and patches for visiting lighthouses. I am excited to do it when the boys are a little older. We had a really fun day!

IMAGINE!

2011-06-03T06:33:00.000-07:00

We went to IMAGINE! Children's Museum in Everett last weekend. It is AWESOME! We totally want to move up there so we can go everyday! Seriously, it was that cool. There was so much we couldn't do everything. The rooftop is an outdoor play area.

ALL the boys enjoyed the dinosaur bone area. There's a huge dino skeleton as well as smaller bones on the ground covered in rubber mulch for excavating.

They really enjoyed digging out the bones.

Gus enjoyed collecting all the shovels best though. I'm hoping this is an effort to clean up, not be a hoarder.

Inside the bank vault is an area with steel plate money thing. You use money shaped paper to make a dollar bill rub.

There's a giant sized connect 4 style game using big coins.

They have a cool black light glow room. All the building shapes are transparent neon acrylic. It also has a big "light brite" style wall. Super cool.

This is Reese on the screen. The colors change as you move around. We spent a lot of time jumping around like Spiderman in this room.

This is the front half of a real bus. You can walk up the stairs and drop in your fare. The driver's seat has all the controls and a working microphone so Reese could instruct his passengers to "move on back."

We spent the bulk of our time up on the rooftop. It has about 7 or 8 slides on the playground.

The boys tried out the big musical instrument area.

Reese got into it a little bit more than Gus.

Reese took off up this climbing wall like a pro. I think this may have been his highlight.

Gus really liked the slides best.

We will definitely be going back. I wish it was a little bit closer. We are considering buying a membership, but there's no way to know if Kyle will work in Everett again, so...how much will we use it? 80 miles is pretty far for a play day at a place that closes at 5pm. Perhaps if we ever become morning people we could get there in a timely fashion. :)

Summer Movies

2011-06-02T07:18:00.000-07:00

So probably not appropriate, but we took Reese to see Thor. I was really nervous that we'd be those people that brought a way too little kid to the theater that would annoy the other movie patrons. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to focus on the movie because of all the judging eyes boring a hole into my bad parent back. But the theater was packed with way too little to watch a PG13 movie boys. Reese was so excited to wear his Thor helmet and carry his Thor hammer in the movie theater.
He was also really excited about movie popcorn (see his mouth full?) and soda. It was a fun treat for him. Now he can't for Green Lantern, Captain America, Cars2, Kung Fu Panda 2 and his lost goes on and on.

Spring Fluke

2011-06-01T07:06:00.000-07:00

We did actually have a couple of warm days. I even popped the a/c on for a moment when it hit 73 and I wanted to vacuum without roasting. But it was totally a fluke. We are back to wretched weather. In the few hot warm moments the boys like to use their water guns. We've been using those cheapie tiny ones that you'd get in a bulk package of 3 for $1 for party favors. I can't stand refilling them every 45 seconds. So a search for guns that could really hold some water was in order.
Reese is using the Scatter Blaster to water my plants.
Gus is trying to get a handle on the Point Break model. It holds 6 ounces of water, so it's a little front heavy for him. he can make it work though.
Reese moved on from the plants to Gus... ... who is not pleased with this turn of events.
Then we moved on to trying to shoot the water over the fence. They will do this as long as I will refill the water. I can't wait for more hot days so we can actually use these.

More Easter Discovered

2011-05-31T22:46:00.000-07:00

Apparently I actually did take some photos on Easter morning. They've just been inside my camera all this time. Oops. Reese was so happy the Easter Bunny was able to find a Thor Pez. We searched for him for a long time. I must admit I find Pez to be a very unsatisfying candy choice, but both the boys LOVE Pez. Really I don't think it's because of the delivery device. I think they'd happily eat the Pez straight from the paper packaging.Gus found some bugs in his basket.

Gus was pretty excited to find his own Reester's candy.
They both decided to chow down on a Reeseter's before breakfast. YUM.
Reese found an entertaining way to consume his jelly beans. At least he didn't waste the Starburst jelly beans. They are a precious commodity around here.
When we got to Mimi and Poppop's we headed outside to hunt for eggs.
Reese couldn't wait to find out why the Spiderman eggs sounded different...they were filled with coins. I don't know what Gus is looking at, but he was so darn cute!!He got the hang of it and had fun racing to get as many eggs as Reese.
That really is the end of the Easter photos. I promise the grandparents, the uncles and Kyle & I were actually present.

EASTER

2011-05-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

Wow I'm so behind we haven't even talked about Easter. We all went to my mom's for dinner, including Kyle's parents. The Easter bunny brought baskets to both grandparent's houses. Apparently I took not one single photo of the event.
Here are the Easter baskets at our house.
Reese got a very cool viewmaster disc holder case thingy that mommy just loves. Gus likes to crumple Reese's viewmaster discs, so this will completely prevent that. Reese also got the highly coveted Thor Pez dispenser. I searched for that for ages. I found it the night before Easter at the check out. Woo hoo!

Gus got the other coveted (by Reese) Pez, Captain America and some CARS cards that are way too old for him. Since he destroyed the board book of The Hungry Caterpillar he got a fresh new copy.

And as you can see Mommy scored all the best treats.

Hand On Children's Museum

2011-05-24T23:45:00.000-07:00

We went to the Hands On Children's Museum in Olympia waaaaay back in April. The boys and I have been with friends, but Kyle has never seen it. We really enjoy it, but the boys had a lot more fun doing it with daddy.Here they are hauling rocks. the wheelbarrows were a hit.

Reese's full upper body pressed into the pins.

In the gear room, Gus is trying to move the magnetized gears (they move, he couldn't do it though, I had a hard time too).

Reese, set to release the ball into his tunnel on the magnetized wall.

Reese putting in more balls for another go 'round. We did this a LOT.

Both boys driving the boat.

Gus in the treehouse.

Reese investigating the best floating device in the wind tunnel.

Both boys really enjoyed the food delivery truck, store and kitchen area. They made us quite an interesting feast.

Reese was quick to buckle up for safety in the ambulance driver's seat.

Vacation Fun Center

2011-04-29T20:50:00.000-07:00

At the same place we went bowling in Bend, Oregon we also did arcade type stuff. Gus couldn't quite figure out how to do ski ball. He preferred walking all over it. Reese could only get the ball to the edge, but not quite over the lip into the hole. It was funny, but Mommy and Daddy earned lots of prize tickets on this one. Reese and Daddy did this sit inside video game where you shoot the dinosaurs.

Reese really got into air hockey. In fact I think he actually beat Kyle once.

Gus particularly enjoyed the driving games. I did not put money in, I just let him play on the sample game and he happily shifted gears until his heart was content.

Reese actually rode this motorcycle one. He probably would've been happy with no money put in as well, but he tried it out for real and thought it was pretty cool.

Afterwards we turned in our tickets for some prizes...candy and bubbles. Everyone loved this place. We will definitely go back whenever we return to Central Oregon.

Bowling

2011-04-22T21:56:00.000-07:00

After the shutdown scare traumatized us for a couple of days we headed out to Central Oregon for vacation at Kyle's parents' timeshare.
Their weather was about the same as ours...crappy. The boys still had a great time playing outside on the playground (I stayed inside with the fireplace.) We also found some indoor fun.

The boys went bowling for the first time.

The wind up.

Eying the playing field.

Check out the follow through.

Gus was so cute in his bowling shoes watching everyone take their turn.

He did end up needing to use the metal ball aimer thingy.

Just look at Gus's first ever score, pretty sweet! Reese got that 59 straight out throwing the ball (we did have the bumpers up.)
Honestly the boys were done after about 4 frames, but since we paid we went ahead and made them finish. They did have quite a bit of fun and we had some yummy snacks.

Little Chef

2011-04-15T21:22:00.000-07:00

Gus just loves to pull out the pans and tote them around the house for his cooking experiments. On this particular day Gus sat on the carpet in the living room right at the kitchen doorway while I cooked.

Sometimes though, he drags his cookware all over. I've found my asparagus pot in his laundry hamper, a frying pan sitting on the toilet seat, and pans mixed in with toys.

He just grunts and groans as he lugs the heavy ones around. It cracks me up!

Baby Chores

2011-03-30T06:50:00.000-07:00

Gus is totally obsessed with the vacuum. He comes flying from wherever he is the second it comes out. He MUST hold onto the handle and "push" the whole time. It is so funny because at this age Reese was still crying and I had to hold him on the couch while Kyle vacuumed. Gus has his little tongue out half the time because he's working hard, you know.
Since Gus makes it seem so fun Reese actually participates some now too. I think this is mostly because he realizes Gus is "a baby" and can do it, so he should too.I think Kyle will be happy when Gus can just take over the job, because it kind of elongates the whole process now.

The Plague

2011-03-29T18:35:00.001-07:00

The plague hit our home. Reese woke up about midnight one night hacking and wheezing. He seemed like he might cough until he threw up so I took him in the bathroom where he spent about 10 minutes hacking over the toilet. His fever was 104. UGH....so we took some ibuprofen and turned on the shower steam and then went out on the porch to breathe the cold air. Eventually he fell back to sleep. The next day he laid on the couch watching tv all day. He awoke from his nap crying hysterically, fever 105. So I called the pediatrician. They were able to fit us in. They decided it was croup from the parainfluenza virus (since normally croup has a lower fever.)We spent about 5 days with the super high fever before it finally tapered off. Then the snot came...ugh it lasted forever. I found these forehead things called Be Kool, that are gel-like stickers. They were very cool..he said they made him feel better.

In the middle of this Kyle got 3 days of flu symptoms. I washed my hands so much they were about to crack off. But it worked because I only got a couple of days of sore throat, no actual cold or flu. Hooray. Gus just got mild runny nose. This was all back in the second week of March.
Now, of course, the plague got me. I had a week of headaches, went to the eye doctor thinking my prescription must have changed. It barely did. Turns out it was a sinus headache, then the snot came...ugh. I am really hoping today this is the last of it. This is spring break and we had big plans. I don't want to have to reschedule everything!

Menu Plan Monday

2011-03-28T00:10:00.000-07:00

During my blog lapse I was actually still menu planning. We discovered a new awesome recipe. I don't really know the rules of posting non-original recipes. Mine comes from Mark Bittman's Food Matters cookbook. At first glance I thought this cookbook had a lot of weird food in it. But each recipe we try we really like and makes me feel more open to some of the weird recipes. In fact I just found one and I thought "hmmm, this seems so normal, why did I think it was weird?"

"Cannellini with Shredded Brussels Sprouts and Sausage" from FoodMatters Cookbook
3 TBSP Olive Oil
8 ounces Italian Sausage (I use 6 ounces)
2 TBSP minced garlic
red chile flakes to taste...in another recipe he discusses the different ways to had heat, flakes, chili oil, hot sauce, peppers etc. and how each one adds it's own unique flavor but is really interchangeable in any recipe. I would NEVER have veered from the recipe before reading this. Dumb, huh? I find flakes give hot spots, so I add Arizona Gunslinger liquid to get a more uniform seasoning throughout the dish. ANy hot sauce you like will do.
salt and pepper
1 pound brussels sprouts, shredded or roughly chopped
1/2 cup white wine or water (I use the wine)
2 cups cooked cannelini beans drained. I used 1 1/2 cups dry pintos

1. (Paraphrasing) Put oil in skillet over medium. When hot add sausage, brown and break into small bits. Add garlic and chile flakes (hot sauce), cook for a minute or so.
2.add brussels sprouts and wine, stir frequently, cook until tender but crunchy, about 10 minutes. Salt and pepper.
3. add COOKED beans, stir occasionally, taste and adjust seasoning. I took the photo before adding beans because at this point I thought it would look really pretty with white beans, but my pintos were kind of ugly. It totally looked fine with the pintos.
He suggests serving over a cooked grain like farro, bulgur or cracked wheat. We just aren't ready for that level of crunchy granola-ness. So we just ate it in a bowl with no grain.

EVERYONE gobbled it. Even Gus:
On the menu this week:
Monday: Beans and Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Sausage
Tuesday: Baked (in marinade) Pork Chops, brussels sprouts gratin
Wednesday: Chicken Tetrazini, green beans
Thursday: out
Friday: Stirfry with brown rice
Saturday: Tortellini with peas and cream sauce
Sunday: Veggie Soup (I just make my own concoction of whatever we have: carrots, celery, onion, mushroom, diced tomatoes, green beans, peas, chicken and beef stock, small soup pasta and a little sausage. A salt-free seasoning like Mrs. Dash table blend, Turmeric, paprika, salt and pepper.)

Check out other menu ideas at Organizing Junkie.

Music Man

2011-03-27T00:03:00.000-07:00

We record a few superhero cartoons and Scooby movies on the tivo. If I am sitting and watching I'll fast forward through the commercials. If not, Reese watches them. ugh. He discovered a "movie" he wanted to watch during the commercials. It was comcast's ad for Taylor Swift On Demand. So we went on YouTube and found the video in the commercial. "Mine" is the title but Reese calls it "put your arm for the first time" ha ha! The line in the commercial he heard over and over was "You put your arm around me for the first time." Reese wants to watch over and over again. Every time he tells me "I like her white dress", "OOO baby!!" and "He's 4 just like me!" These are the scenes of their wedding, new baby and 4th birthday cake. It cracks me up. He loves it. He also loves the Megamind dance to Michael Jackson's "Bad", so he watches Bad and Beat It too. It is so funny listening to him sing along. Whenever Kyle is in the car he plays those on his iPod and Reese just belts it out and dances in his car seat. Hysterical!

Brotherly Love

2011-03-26T00:03:00.000-07:00

We are experiencing much more frequent cooperative play at our house. Yes Gus is somewhat demanding that he gets what he wants, when he wants it, but it is so lovely when Reese actually has some patience with him. They frequently play together doing the same activity. Gus is probably just parallel playing, but Reese is really trying to include his brother. I'm so happy they enjoy each other.
Tonight Gus had a fit at bedtime (unusual). It turned out he needed to give his brother a kiss goodnight before he could go to bed without complaint. Awww...so sweet!

Superheros

2011-03-25T00:02:00.000-07:00

Literally every single day superheros invade my home.

Gus is operating the Iron Man full helmet with great skill these days. His little hand is pushing buttons that makes it talk. The other hand is holding the Indiana Jones whip Poppop helped Reese make at their last sleepover. At his feet is an Optimus Prime mask. All heros and their gear are welcomed here.It is so funny to me that Gus has gotten into the costumes so much earlier than Reese. I guess a boy must do what his big bro does as soon as he notices it's happening. Of course, gus has to have the legs and sleeves cuffed since all the suits are Reese's size.

But we wear our suits for all occasions, work and play.

They are shockingly agreeable when it comes to sharing. This is Reese in the full Iron Man suit and helmet. The Iron man suit was actually Reese's very first dress up costume.

On this day Reese declared Gus as Superman to be his Spiderman sidekick. I'm not sure what comic book Superman fans would have to say about that or about the Man of Steel riding on a cow. Reese is very into having a sidekick right now. Gus is just happy to be included in the fun.

The Batman suit came from Santa who I assure you searched high and low at a not Halloween season and paid top dollar to acquire said suit. I loathe it as it is ill-fitting (HUGE, hard chest, super skinny arms and legs). But both of the boys love it. Now we need Robin. The new Young Justice Robin has a way cooler suit than the old Robin. I hope there are costumes next Halloween.

So this is how we spend our days, hurling webs and leaping tall buildings (ottomans) in single bounds.

Catch up

2011-03-24T22:24:00.000-07:00

So let me pick up where we left off, um, a month ago!! Whoa! I've been a blog slacker. I last blogged immediately following Reese's birthday.

He turned 4!!!
My dad came to visit for the big event.

He went home with a some cold germs and we went back to our regularly scheduled programming.

The Range

2011-02-25T11:47:00.000-08:00

While my dad was here we decided to go out to the shooting range.

This particular gun is a little much for me especially with magnum rounds. We forgot to take photos using the 38s. I didn't actually hit the target much with this gun.

My dad and Kyle both had better luck (it's their experience I'm sure) than me.

They are working on the normal pistol range so we had to use these "bays" with a cool metal target thing on the left. There are six metal circles that make a very satisfying clink when you hit them. There is only one left standing in this photo. Then we used these cool neon under black targets so when you hit you see a neon splat around the bullet hole which is very helpful from way back where we have to stand.

We had fun and will definitely take my dad back again.

The Party

2011-02-24T09:23:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Reese's 4th birthday with a party Saturday night. We had all the grandparents over for Lasagna and cake.

Reese changed his mind a lot about the kind of cake he wanted, so we just went to costco and let him pick from their options. When we went to pick it up he was a little surprised it wasn't Hulk, but he was pretty happy with the caterpillar...and all the Spiderman party supplies!
He blew his candle out on the first try.
He dug right into his red part....he ate none of the actual cake portion. He likes the icing, just like his mom.
He really enjoyed his gifts. He got the complete original series of Scooby Doo and an Optimus transformer you can see in this photo. He also got star wars figures and superheros, wedgits, a vtech map, a knight/king dress up "suit" (he is offended by calling them dress up clothes) and several movies as well as new clothes....size 4T.

He is such a big now!! He really enjoyed playing all his grandparents and is very happy with his new toys.

Grandpop's Visit

2011-02-23T11:16:00.000-08:00

Grandpop came from VA to visit for Reese's birthday. We had to go to the grocery store for birthday dinner supplies. Of course we had to hit the in-store Starbucks.

The boys were a little wild after their vanilla steamed milks.

I'm not sure how we managed to not know about the $1 kid drinks! They were really happy to have their own cups of "coffee."

This crazy behavior was a good indicator of their antics the whole time Grandpop was here...they were crazy boys! They thoroughly wore him out.

Birthday with Grandpa

2011-02-22T23:08:00.000-08:00

Last week we celebrated Reese's birthday and his great-grandpa's birthday at Kyle's parents' house. Reese turned 4 on the 16th and GGpa turned a bit older the day before. We had a nice visit with the great grandparents a couple nights last week and a shopping outing. Reese was VERY interested in Grandpa's loot. He helped open the cards and was right there at Grandpa's lap during all the opening process.

Reese and Gus were both really excited about Reese's gift. This is a dog bank. With each drop of a coin the ears wiggle and the dog barks. They love it. I guess now we need to start an allowance system so he can keep dropping coins in!!

We had lots of fun and we'll try to keep doing a joint party every February.

Birthday Boy

2011-02-16T23:18:00.000-08:00

It does not seem possible that 4 whole years have passed since Reese arrived on the scene. After two weeks in the hospital trying to control my pre-eclampsia my antepartum team decided it was time. Each of my contractions (which I could not feel, but could see on the monitor) caused his heart rate to plummet and stay low too long. A c section was scheduled for the morning of February 16, 2007. After what seemed like an eternity, but they said was only about 15 minutes, Reese was out and whisked away to the adjacent recovery room. Once he was readied they rushed him out to the NICU holding him up as they went, but he was covered by a blanket so I couldn't see him. Eons later (about 7 hours) I was able to go up to the NICU to see him.

Reese 2/16/07 2 pounds 2 ounces (975 grams), 13 3/4 inchesThe halfway point:
February 2009 2 years old
Suddenly he is 4 years old! A few days ago we celebrated Reese and Great Grandpa's birthdays (more to come on that). Can you believe the difference? Our boy is so grown now.

February 2011 Since we will have Reese's party this coming weekend we decided to do a few birthday things today. We sang "Happy Birthday" at school. Afterwards we picked up Daddy from work and went to the Reese's favorite restaurant. You guessed it..McDonald's, where the boys played in the playland and had strawberry shakes. Then we headed to Walmart to pick out a birthday toy and party gear. Here we are in our driveway. He has his superhero action figures in his hands.

February 16, 2011 29 pounds, 39 inches (I think)
Our own little superhero is tuckered out from his big day.

Menu Plan Monday

2011-02-14T23:35:00.001-08:00

We have been doing really well about not grabbing food out when we're on the go! We actually ended up having leftovers a few times, so we have strayed from the menu plan. But my new planning using the $5 Dinner Mom's menu/grocery list has really been helping.

Monday: Spicy Pork and Cabbage Soba --this is from the Food Matters Cookbook by Mark Bittman using Napa Cabbage, Soba Noodles and only 8 ounces of pork. This cook book has lots of great recipes that use the meat more as an enhancer than the star. This is a new favorite.
Tuesday: Fried Rice and egg rolls (this keeps getting booted for some reason, but we WILL eat it this week for sure!!)
Wednesday: Red Bean and Quinoa Chili from the Feeding your Whole Family cookbook by Cynthia Lair
Thursday: Bean and Butternut Squash Gratin...from Food Matters. This uses only a small amount of sausage, but is so flavorful. It's one of our new favorites.
Friday: probably eat out because my Dad will be visiting.
Saturday: the big 4 year old birthday bash! Lasagna, garlic bread, cesaer salad, cake

Check out Organizing Junkie for some more ideas!

Gus' 18 Month Well Baby

2011-02-08T00:01:00.000-08:00

Gus turned 18 months the day after Christmas. Since my pediatrician's office won't schedule appointments 3 months out (i.e. when I was standing there at his 15 month appointment), the holiday vacations, my annoyance at calling daily only to be told maybe the calendar would be open tomorrow....Gus finally went to his appointment February 4th. SO, he was 19 months and a few days.
Gus has soared to the 19th percentile in weight! He is a chubby 24 pounds 15 ounces. He's 58th percentile for height, 33 inches. He hit all his milestones and fell well within "normal" range for communication, fine and gross motor skills and problem solving.

He now has 2 upper molars poking through as well as another tooth poking through on the bottom, for a total of 9 teeth. He absolutely loves to brush his teeth. Gus will all but shove Reese off of the stool in front of the bathroom sink in order to secure just the right spitting angle and to ensure he can fully reach the water with his tooth brush. He really wants to be able to rinse frequently. It's pretty funny. However, he is totally uncooperative when I brush his teeth. I usually have to lay him on the floor and brace his arms and legs down with my legs so I can try to crank open his mouth long enough to get a few reasonable sweeps with the tooth brush.

Gus is a climber. He can almost get himself onto our bed without help. He can get up on the couch without assistance most of the time. He wants to sit in Reese's high chair at the table whenever he can.

He loves play-doh and his wheelie bug cow. He likes to play with his Little People and workbench and trucks and anything that is in Reese's hand.
Since the windows are lower in the van he seems to really look out the window and notice things when we are driving. He loves the automatic door. If I open Reese's side, but not his (as I've been doing on the crazy windy days we've been having) he just has a fit, pointing and shrieking at the button over the rear view mirror I should be pushing to open his side too.

He's very interested in sweeping, shutting doors, wiping up spills and wiping his own hands and face...and fake coughing into tissues. he also really loves to flush the toilet. He wants to throw toilet paper in as well. He loves the bath, but hates the shower. Reese really liked the shower and that was so much easier to just let him shower with one of us. Gus cries the whole time, so it is easier to just do the bath routine.
Every day we are so surprised by some new "big boy" thing he does. He seems like a baby genius! I guess this just makes it clear how behind Reese was. Gus is very sweet and cuddly. He buries his head in my neck to snuggle before every single nap and bedtime. He copies butterfly kisses by fluttering his eyes at me...so darn cute!! He is quick to offer hugs to his brother whenever they are scolded for not playing nicely with each other. He happily responds to "Come on, Robin," hopefully he'll enjoy being the sidekick for awhile longer.
Gus loves to dance. I just never really remember Reese dancing much, but Gus dances to everything! Mostly the theme songs to Reese's shows. It is so funny when he busts out his dance moves to the Batman theme.
It is so shocking that Gus is now closer to 2 years old than to 1. The time has raced by. He is really getting big SO fast. Reese wasn't 33 inches until his 2nd birthday. He was only 29 inches at 19 months. In fact at this point Reese only weighed 18 pounds 3 ounces. Gus is 6 pounds 12 ounces more.
Gus is just the cutest little giggly guy. We love him so much!!

Menu Plan Monday

2011-02-07T22:48:00.000-08:00

Our big news is that since the van purchase we haven't eaten out. Gus and I did not even have our traditional weekly Wendy's date while Reese was at speech! Since Reese had an ophthalmologist appointment at 4:30pm and we decided to save gas and time by consolidating our errands too. So...we decided to eat out. Reese chose...McDonald's, I know not my first choice for our only eating out occasion.

Monday: Reese's choice--McDonald's
Tuesday: Stir Fry with brown rice
Wednesday: Enchiladas (a la green sauce Old El Paso recipe), spanish rice
Thursday: Fried rice, egg rolls
Friday: Ham casserole

Saturday: fajitas, Homemade refried beans: Seriously I don't know what took me so long to do this..easy peasy! Soak pinto beans overnight, drain, cover with fresh water, simmer 90 minutes or so, drain. In a skillet saute onion, add beans, taco seasoning (when I run out of my costco jug I'll just use cumin, chili powder and garlic powder), mix and smash with silicone spatula...voila, YUM!

Sunday: spaghetti and meatballs

See what everyone else is eating at Organizing Junkie!

Nice Weather!

2011-02-06T10:00:00.000-08:00

While the rest of the country is buried in snow we've actually had some nice play outside weather!
We've been trying to head out to play a little before school each day. Since Reese goes to school at 12:15, Gus has to nap as soon as we get home in order to get adequate sleep before I wake him up to pick Reese up at the end of school.
Each day we'd come home from dropping off Reese and Gus wanted to play outside. I felt so mean only giving him 5 minutes or so before taking him in to nap.They both have really been loving the before school play time.

Gus is very excited with himself when he climbs up on his little climber slide thing. They both really enjoy the swings too.

Gus' New Favorite Activity

2011-02-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

Gus has discovered play doh. He LOVES it. He wants to play with it everyday. He also wants to sit in Reese's chair to do it.

Luckily Reese is happy to sit in a regular chair to play.

Gus has a difficult time sharing the play doh tools at this point, but he's still a bit excited at the newness of it. I realized I was letting Reese play with it much sooner than I did with Gus. So we're making an effort to sit at the kitchen table and let Gus do messy things.

They both are really happy with the messy playtime.

Best Friends

2011-02-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

Reese and Gus are spending so much more time together. I don't just mean hanging out beside each other or in the same room, but playing together, sharing activities and cooperating. Sometimes it's just Gus wanting what Reese has and wanting to do what Reese does.
But lots of times it's at Reese's instigation that they play something together. I frequently hear him saying "something, something, Robin." I'll look to find him wearing his Batman suit and guiding Gus around assigning him tasks.
I am so happy they are getting along well and acting like they will be great friends.

Jump, Jump, Jump Around!

2011-02-03T23:09:00.000-08:00

We went to Jump! I think 2 weeks ago (wow I'm slow to report) with some friends. The boys love the bouncy houses. Gus is still a little short to be able to get inside on his own, but he doesn't hesitate to let me know he wants up.

This is the big open jump house. In the past I've always had to jump with Gus, but he really took off on his own this time. It always amazes how different he his from how Reese was at this age. Gus is much more adventurous and just jumps right in without hesitating.

They went down the slide tons. It is very exhausting because I have to lug Gus up to the top...whew it's a lot of cardio.
Reese had a great time.
This is what he thought about leaving.

MAXXED OUT!!!

2011-01-31T15:16:00.000-08:00

UH-OH, I've reached my photo limit on blogger. I had no idea there was a limit. So...I just extended my storage space. I may have to wait 24 hours it says. But I am prepared to post some cute photos of the boys (and be more regular about it) once blogger registers I have space to do so!

Parent Mobile

2011-01-29T23:34:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I took our car in to the dealer because the check engine light had come on. I asked what the trade in value was...just for info, getting our ducks in a row. If we have a third baby we'll need a van, so we'd like to plan ahead. They just happened to have a 2010 Town and Country on the lot super loaded with great incentives. It was determined we could get a great deal. We hashed it out and decided we weren't ready. I called the salesman and let him know we weren't coming in to test drive. We'd be back later in the year. So he called us back with another option. So into the dealership we went. Test drove an awesome van that was a super deal, but still way out of our price range. Our guy had another customer so we got to deal straight with his manager. We told him this was just too much car for us. We needed to stay cheaper, but of course now we really liked the goodies on the car we drove. We decided what goodies we needed and what we could pay. Off he went to see what he could find.

Reese and Gus really enjoyed the free popcorn and bottled water while we waited to see what was available. He came back with a silver 2011 Grand Caravan Crew. Adjustable pedals, telescoping leather wrapped (luxuriously smooth) steering wheel, stow and go seats (they fold down into the floor when you don't want to use them), BACK UP CAMERA (so we can parallel park!), 30gigs of hard drive to store music so we don't need to have cds or ipods in the car (though it has a cd player and ipod jack), sirus radio, fancy schmancy dash board stuff, roof racks, 12 oil changes/tire rotations/car washes/vacuums. It is very cool! And super cheap payments! Woo Hoo!!

It was dark by the time we got home so this isn't the best photo, but this is our new parent-mobile.

Menu Plan Monday

2011-01-17T07:23:00.000-08:00

Well, last week I failed to notice a key ingredient in 2 of my meals. OOPS...so we did not have shrimp quesadillas or navy bean gratin. In an effort to elongate my coffee date i went grocery shopping with my friend who suggested potatoes instead of rice with the sausage and peppers. It was a HUGE hit!

Sausage and Peppers

1 pound sweet italian sausage (I used breakfast links)

1 big onion, 2 bell peppers sliced

1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp basil, 2 tsp minced garlic

2 TBLS tomato paste, 1/2 cup marsala wine, 1.2 cup chicken stock, 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Heat oil in skillet over medium, brown sausage, cut into bite sized pieces, set aside.

Cook peppers, onions, salt and pepper. Add tomato paste, wine, stock, pepper flakes, stir. Add sausage back in cook until sauce is thickened.

Serve over rice or on rolls. OR my new way...I diced potatoes and cooked them in the sausage grease like breakfast potatoes and set them aside with the sausage. Then added the sausage and potatoes back at the end. We served them just like that, no rice or rolls.

We also subbed in PW's Chicken Tortilla Soup instead of the quesadilla. Everyone loved it. Reese says he wants to eat it a whole bunch of times! On to this week:

Monday: Soba noodle stir fry...hunting for a recipe

Tuesday: Ham, homemade Macaroni and Cheese, Peas

Wednesday: Stubbs pork chops, baked seasoned red potatoes, green beans

Thursday: Jambalaya

Friday: Green Enchiladas (Old El Paso recipe), spanish rice
Saturday: Butternut Squash Ravioli

Sunday: Homemade Soup

You can find a ton of menu ideas at Organizing Junkie.

better than football

2011-01-16T22:22:00.000-08:00

The high hopes we had for the Seahawks today turned out to be a huge letdown. We went to Kyle's parents to watch them make history...you know the team with the losing record winning during the playoffs to make it to the superbowl...yeah. The game was so hideous Kyle didn't even make us finish watching it.

Since that game was such a bust Reese and Gus went back to their tried and true, always good for endless fun, climb in the tv stand game. Note that the LOST series box is removed. It had to find a new home because this game has become so popular they can no longer take turns. They have to both fit in at once.

A Real Snow Day!

2011-01-12T22:26:00.000-08:00

We had a REAL snow day! This was last night about 10:30pm out the front door.

This was out the back door. Looks like about 4 inches. It continued snowing after we went to bed so I'm not sure how much we actually ended up getting. Kyle's work only had a 2 hour delay, but our school district was completely closed.

Gus had so much fun having Reese home all day.

We played with play-doh...

...and a bucket of beans.

We also spent a significant amount of time dancing. Not always at the table but this was during lunch. I turned from the sink to see Gus swaying back and forth to The Goo Goo Dolls in Reese's high-at-the-table chair. Of course, reese joined in. At the end he's saying he wants to see the picture on the camera's screen. Gus finds all music equally danceable. From Eleanor Rigby to Dirty Deeds he is jamming.

It was a great snow day!!

The Snow Day That Wasn't

2011-01-11T09:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we woke up to snow flurries. I thought we might get enough to cancel preschool by 12:15pm. The car seats were not in the car though, so I figured I get them in before it was too snowy.

Gus came outside with me to check it out. He was very cute. He kind of ooeh ad aahhed like it was fireworks, but he wasn't quite sure what to do.

I got busy on the car seats and he wandered around the yard investigating the swings and sliding board and picnic table.

Right before school it started coming down alarmingly heavy. I called the school's weather number to verify we 'd be open and we headed out. This is Reese on his was to school. When we got there the teacher was collecting everyone's cell phone numbers so they could call us to come do pick up when school closed.

Then about 2pm I looked out the window and the snow had stopped. By the time we left to go get Reese there was none at all. This is Gus on his way to the car. He was looking for the snow.

What a disappointment that snow day turned out to be.

Menu Plan Monday

2011-01-10T22:24:00.000-08:00

We have several food related goals for 2011. Menu Planning will definitely be required to keep on track. We went to Costco last Thursday and have vowed we will NOT return until the last week of the month. Hopefully this will help in our quest to save some money because we spend a ridiculous amount of money food. I have actually plotted the full month in an effort to avoid the grocery store as long as possible too. This week we'll be enjoying:

MONDAY: Chicken tetrazini, brussels sprouts gratin

TUESDAY: monday's leftovers

WEDNESDAY: red beans and quinoa chili (beans and meatless!)

THURSDAY: sausage and peppers over rice
FRIDAY: PW's Shrimp Quesadilla
SATURDAY: Food Matters Cookbook (Christmas Gift) Navy Bean Gratin
SUNDAY: Fajitas and Spanish Rice

To get a ton of other ideas check out MPM at OrganizingJunkie.

2011 Organizing Resolution

2011-01-08T18:47:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah I am so all over this New Year's Resolution stuff! I discovered on Thursday that Organizing Junkie was hosting a 52 weeks of organizing challenge and decided to do it. Which spurred me to get posting in the new year with our other resolutions too. I printed the form she created and filled in 26 of the 52 weeks with goals. Goal #1: deal with the Christmas toys.

There are no before photos as these toys issues did not exist before except as gift wrapped boxes under our tree. That bin shelf is now where the bookcase used to be. It holds top row: Transformers, Superheroes, Playfood, Ironman stuff (yeah he's been a favorite long enough to need his own bin). 2nd row: Toy Story, lacers, animals, Pixar legos. 3rd row: Cars 18 wheelers, hodge podge, monster bowling, dinosaur puppets. bottom row: soft squeaky blocks, foam blocks, view finder, vehicles. The basket holds our newest books right now, but after the Christmas new wears off it will be our featured reading for the week or so. There's a green bucket behind Gus that holds the drum sticks and mallets. When not in use the drums get stacked.

That bin used to be here where this eye sore black shelf now sits. Eventually we'd like Land of Nod shelves, but for now this will do. Almost everything on this shelf was a Christmas present...lots of big stuff. That aircraft carrier and batcave on the bottom were our biggest problems and this style shelf really fits them. The game situation on the top will probably change because it interferes with the wall decor. The bookshelf moved over to the far right on the wall and the riding toys fit in between.

Reese's bed is the race car that is to the immediate left of the drums from the first photo. That cube thing is not really great for our current phase. I don't like having the pig and the bead thing smashed in the same hole, but...for now this is what we're doing. I didn't get a photo of the living room toys, but Gus now has his younger aged stuff in a big square Longaberger in the living room. None of the little people stuff (big barn for example) has to be out there uncontained now because it's on the shelf.

I am very happy to have completed challenge week #1. Woo hoo! We are not behind. As I write this Kyle is at Lowe's getting supplies for one of his projects which I assigned weeks 19 and 20. He's so excited about this challenge he's jumping ahead.

See how other people are solving their organizing challenges at Organizing Junkie.

Happy New Year!!!

2011-01-07T23:49:00.000-08:00

Finally I am getting around to posting! We enjoyed a lovely Christmas break. Reese had off from school starting 12/21/10 and Kyle had off of work starting the 24th. Over the break the boys and I joined some friends at the Hands on Museum. We enjoyed Christmas Eve with Gigi and Grandad. We spent Christmas day with Mimi, Poppop, Uncle Travis and Uncle Dylan. Kyle painted the kitchen ceiling and changed our light fixture. It is an unattractive fluorescent rectangle, but finally I can see!!! The boys and I went to an indoor playplace with my friend and her boys. Kyle and I went with my friend and her husband to the shooting range. We went with Kyle's parents to see True Grit at the theater. We had a Twilight Saga movie fest.

Then Kyle got sick and missed the first 3 days back to work, but Reese returned to school. Poor Gus' sleeping schedule is all messed up! But due to the sickness I made a number of homemade soups and we discovered we really like it. Which is so helpful towards one of our new year's goals.

2011 Goals

~~Don't~~ eat out less
Do not go to Walmart/Target/Costco every single week. Normally we go every Tuesday so we can buy the blu-rays we want, since we're out we eat out and we browse the store spending WAY more than we normally would
Build our emergency fund to have at least $5000 at any given moment
Pay off at least half of our heat pump-we currently owe $14,000
Cut grocery bill by utilizing batch cooking/freezer meals instead of throwing away leftovers or eating out.
Cut grocery bill by eating homemade soup for at least 3 meals per month
Cut grocery bill by eating at least 3 bean dishes per month
Eat at least one meatless meal per week (not including soup/bean meals)
Exercise at least twice a week
Join a bookclub (this is for Heather only)
Get family photos at least quarterly---last year's monthly goal did not happen at all!!! The above Christmas photo was the only one since January that we got in 2010.
Participate in Organizing Junkie's 52 weeks of Organizing
Get all photos properly stored

I am really hoping to stick to the plan for the new year. For some reason time always seems way to short for everything we want to do.

Christmas Morning

2010-12-30T22:43:00.000-08:00

Reese's Christmas break began December 20th and Kyle's the 24th. We have been so busy playing that I haven't really taken any photos, so I haven't blogged. Finally I'm going to post our Christmas morning photos. Since we go to my mom's house on Christmas morning to open gifts and then stay for Christmas dinner we decided to do "Christmas morning" at our house on Christmas Eve. Reese actually passed the tree with all the gifts under it as he came to our bed at 5am. I was shocked he just crawled under the covers and went to sleep. I thought maybe he didn't notice even though we left the tree lights on overnight. When we woke up at 9am Kyle asked Reese is he thought Santa had come to our house. Reese said yes he saw the presents!! Ha ha I can't believe he didn't want to wake us and open them at 5am!!

Gus went straight to the big ones.

Then he spent a lot of time trying to reach stuff behind the big ones!

Reese was super excited about the Batman muscle suit Santa brought. He asked every Santa we saw this year for the suit. He wore it the rest of the day.

Gus' favorite seemed to be this piano. The little round colored buttons play real songs like Love Shack and ABC,123. He loves dancing to the music.

Reese and Daddy have both been enjoying the Imaginext Aircraft Carrier from Grandpop Joe.

Gus was pretty amazed by the Car Garage from Grandpop Joe.

Reese is so happy with anything superhero. I'm excited to try out Chutes and Ladders!

Gus loves all the books Mommy chose. I found these Lois Ehlert's at Costco for cheap!!

Gus really got into ripping off the paper!

Reese got tons of imaginext...we really like these toys. I found this TRex on sale for $5!!!

Both boys really enjoyed opening gifts. Even Gus ripped the paper off. They were very excited with all of their loot and spent a long time checking everything out. After Gus' nap we headed over to Kyle's parents' house for Christmas Eve dinner and opening gifts with them...I forgot my camera. Reese was ecstatic to receive the imaginext BatCave from Gigi and Grandad.

The next morning we went to Mimi and Poppop's house. He is overjoyed with his talking spiderman action figure and batman's batcopter. Mommy was particularly happy with lightbright!! Cube style so they can both play together.

Kyle has been enjoying playing with PlayStation3 Move. I'm thinking perhaps I can use this to exercise and I'll be tricked into thinking it's fun. Ha ha!!

We were happy NOT to have a white Christmas this year. It made traveling to each grandparents house so much easier!!