MPM

Wow, I haven't posted since Monday. I actually have some photos to post from this week too. I don't know if I'm going through a not in the mood to blog phase or if it's really just being to tired. I am reading everyone else's blogs though!! We went to Outback Steakhouse for Kyle's Dad's birthday Sunday, so we'll eat Sunday's meal tomorrow:

MONDAY: teriyaki chicken, brown rice, peas
TUESDAY: butternut ravioli with alfredo sauce---my OB appt and hopefully 10 wk ultrasound
WEDNESDAY: chili (with meat this time) and sticky rice
THURSDAY: spaghetti and meatballs
FRIDAY: Cajun Blackened Chicken penne (this is a frozen thing from costco)
SATURDAY: Hamburgers and sweet potato fries
SUNDAY: leftovers or out
check out more menu ideas at Orgjunkie.

Usually we have salad when Kyle gets home from work at midnight, so Reese is already asleep. Kyle had salad this evening while Reese was still awake (I was still totally stuffed from Outback) and we discovered Reese LOVES salad with italian dressing. He gobbled close to half of Kyle's salad, spinach stems and all. So I think we'll try giving him his own little plate of salad tomorrow.

This week actually did some stuff--finger painting with mommies' group, Christmas tree chopping with Mimi and the uncles, finished Christmas shopping, and we got SNOW!!!

The Christmas Tree is Fun!!!

Getting Ready for Chrstmas

Reese had a really good time helping Daddy put up the outside Christmas lights. He loves having his turn on the ladder.

He's not too pleased when it's someone else's turn.

He had his first cinnamon bun and sniffed in cinnamon frosting--yeah that on his nose is bun frosting not boogers.
He LOVES to find all the bells on the tree and is sure to ring any and all he can reach. We are not being too diligent with the don't touch rule. I just sparingly decorated and didn't put any of the Hallmark ornaments up and only non-breakables are down low.Another favorite Christmas tree past time is crawling under it to get to the cat. He has perfected this skill so he can back out without hitting his head on the tree.
He has perfected this skill by crawling under the bed after Yodi and coming out the side. The cats are so happy he has acquired this skill.
He can now officially sign "please" and says EEEEEEE out loud and uses this word appropriately. He says "uh-oh" whether it's an accident or not. He says kitty and he says bye-bye with a wave. He does this to us if he is going to walk more than a few feet away and he does it unprompted to any cashiers after we finish checking out at a store.

MPM

oooh we've been bad. We ate out a lot. I am ridiculously tired during this 1st trimester. I guess with Reese I was free to sleep in as late as I wanted because my work and school didn't start before 2pm. I don't know how women can be pregnant 4 or 5 or more times and have the energy to deal with their other kids while they are in the first trimester. I think I'll ask Santa for a personal chef and a morning toddler nanny.

MONDAY: flat iron steak, sweet potatoes, and corn, aparagus and carrot medley
TUESDAY: spaghetti and aidell's meatballs--finally found them at Freddies and gleefully paid full price--I am still putting a request in costco's box everytime we go though.
WEDNESDAY: Chicken Enchiladas
THURSDAY: mommies group, no dinner before Kyle goes to work
FRIDAY: French Dip Sandwiches, sweet potatoe fries
SATURDAY: Teriyaki Chicken, rice, peas
SUNDAY: leftovers

THANKSGIVING

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house. This year we had my dad from VA, Kyle's parents from down the road, my mom, Dylan, Travis and Travis' girlfriend Amy from Port Orchard.

Here's the table setting:

My magnificent bird-- 23 pounds.

The spread:
Reese realizing the karaoke microphone has buttons.....that changes stuff on the screen of the tv.

and here is the boy singing karaoke:

Thanksgiving Week - Wednesday

We took my dad to Famous Dave's BBQ because he doesn't have one in VA. Reese thoroughly enjoyed is meal. My Dad and I caught up on our tivo shows and got last minutes groceries.

Thanksgiving Week - Tuesday

My Dad arrived at about 1am from Virginia. The next am I lamented that we hadn't gotten up in time to get breakfast before Reese's therapy group. So Kyle decided we should play hookey and hit the Big Apple Diner for breakfast/lunch.

Then we did some shopping.

Then we headed home for naptime--except for Kyle who headed off to work.

TURKEY

I have no photos to share because I just haven't taken any and if I did the thought of having to pull out the cord and load them to the computer is overwhelming. I am experiencing only 2 pregnancy symptoms: super tiredness and food cravings. The problem is I crave different things and then when I eat them they are just not all that great. I was dying for Red Robin for several days, we finally went and my big fat juicy burger was ho-hum. Kyle says his food is fantastic, so I'm assuming this ho-hum food is a pregnant thing. Also the bicycle aisle at Walmart was the most retched rubber smell in the history of the world and it followed me around the store--gross!

I bought my Thanksgiving turkey at Safeway for $0.27 a pound---I think I may have told you already. We went in today to get the rest of our supplies and got another one to stash in the freezer for later. Once we use up the first 23 pounds I figure I'll make another and then we'll have precooked cubed and shredded turkey to go in the freezer for casseroles and enchiladas.
I fought with food network's new website to find Alton Brown's recipe for my turkey and I checked the USDA site for cooking times. Turns out my bird must cook for 5 hours---ugh! I'll need to nap while it roasts.

Hey do you see a photobucket ad behind my blog entries? I can't figure out where it came from or how to get rid of it. Please let me know if you see it. I thought I figured out how to block it but once I logged out and back in it was back. Maybe it's just on my screen somehow and not really embedded in my blog.

Ultrasound

We had our first ultrasound Monday. We saw a heartbeat in a 1/2 centimeter long bean shaped blob. This size puts it at 6 weeks and 3 days, so my official due date is July 10, 2009. That will only be altered if growth varies from this date by 2+ weeks.

21 month old birthday

Menu Plan Monday

The Barley Burritos from this week were a hit! We couldn't have spaghetti because Costco stopped selling the aidells meatballs and I can't find them anywhere else. We were unable to bring ourselves to eat it without our beloved meatballs. There are lots of other menu ideas at OrgJunkie, but this is what we're eating this week:

MONDAY: Ham Casserole that I made on Sunday night since tomorrow is my first ultrasound and Reese has speech.
TUESDAY: PJ's Organics Burritos Reese had Little Tykes today.
WEDNESDAY: Spaghetti Squash
THURSDAY: Stuffed Peppers
FRIDAY: leftovers
SATURDAY: Red Beans and Quinoa Chili
SUNDAY: leftovers

I will post recipes asap.

Burrito Eating Boy

Reese can finally eat a burrito! Woo HOO! Forever now it seems I've given him the guts of the burrito on a plate to eat with a spoon or fork. Today he refused to accept it doing the Stevie Wonder dance (that's probably very un-PC) to keep his mouth away from the spoon while simultaneously screeching and reaching desperately for Kyle's burrito. So I wrapped him his own and he can eat it now. Yippee!

So tonight was one of our vegetarian meal days. We had barley, black bean and corn burritos (I switched the scheduled nights around a bit). I have to say if you actually seek out real vegetarian recipes not just spaghetti sans the meatballs there is some good stuff out there.
My quest for organic meat in dinky kitsap county has not been very fruitful, so.....I just don't know what the plan is, but I really do want to eat steak again sometime and beef stew. I am going to check the couple of real butcher shops I am aware of but no grocery stores carry any organic red meat except ground beef and honestly I can't remember the last time we even had ground beef. Probably sometime last summer if I made burgers. All recipes that use ground beef I switched to ground turkey or chicken eons ago....chili, sloppy joes, stuffed peppers---I just add a few shakes of Worchestershire Sauce and honestly you can't tell the difference. I don't know if my OB checks cholesteral, so I may have wait until my 2010 physical to find out but I expect all this barley, quinoa, whole wheat pasta and such to make a difference in my cholesteral!

big boy room

We long ago got rid of the computer desk and moved our computers down to the basement. We recently got rid of the futon. We moved the bookcase and dvd case down to my sewing room to hold books. In the last few days we finally emptied the closet that was jam packed with stuff. So Daddy (with a smidge of help from Reese) is going to paint the closet and hang rods and shelves as this closet came bare.

I got some paper mache letters from the fabric store and some scrapbook paper to make his name for the wall. I may change the paper on the R, not sure how I like it.

I also got fabric to make curtains with blackout backing. If I can ever get some time to myself I may actually get them made. I am still searching fro some primary color flannel crib sheets to go on the toddler bed. AND we are procrastinating on painting his dresser that is waiting patiently in the basement. Reese loves to play in his room so I think he will make an easy transition from the nursery to the big boy room. My only concern is the lack of bars holding him in may mean nighttime or way too early morning wandering aroudn the house. So we'll see how it goes. I think we'll start with just napping in the big boy room.

What we've been up to........

Reese discovered he LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to sweep. The problem is he doesn't want to stay in the kitchen. Unfortunately brooms don't move very well on carpet. Another problem is the broom doesn't go with him under the table well either. So after an endless number of emotional breakdowns over the frustratingly uncooperative broom we had to hide it in the basement. As much as I'd LOVE, LOVE, LOVE someone else to sweep the cat litter 50 times a day I couldn't take the tears and screaming anymore.

He also has discovered he really enjoys playing with balloons. We went to my friend's son, Liam's, 3rd birthday party last Friday. The balloons were his favorite thing. He also quite enjoyed the tooth rottingly sweet cake.

On Sunday we went to El Sombrero for Mimi and Uncle Dylan's birthdays. We have been going here forever and they put sombreros on you and take your photo with a Polaroid (or similar brand) photo. They stopped making the film so no more photos!! I took this one, but the lighting is weird.Reese was not happy with the birthday singing crew.

On Thursday we went to the police station down from our house with a Bremerton mommies group my friend linked up with. It was really a tour for much older kids, but I was curious to see the inside of the new building and I ran into an old friend. So I enjoyed it. Then we went to Noah's Ark for lunch where Charlie and John Paul were super well behaved and Reese was a BEAST! In this photo Charlie and Reese are investigating the memorabilia case. He wore his glasses the whole time! We walked from our house to the station I swear uphill both ways!

I added the recipe for Chicken and Pork Risotto that I didn't get to on MPM.
****Gas was only $1.99 at Costco tonight. Can it be real or did I just roll back 6 years?

Menu Plan Monday

I just noticed I'm getting a lot hits from Organizing Junkie for people looking at menu ideas. So I want to remind (or let new lookers know) Kyle leaves for work about 3:15 pm so we have dinner about 1:30 or 2pm everyday. We eat a big salad generally spinach (or spring mix) with matchstick carrots, red onion, red bell pepper, and occasionally tomatoes when he gets home around midnight:30. So we don't have veggies with our spaghetti and meatballs except the bell peppers onions and tomatoes in the sauce since we have a couple veggie servings in our salad. This is also the reason why a morning mommy & me type activity makes it a no dinner day.

Monday 11/10 - leftovers--Reese and I are going to the Poulsbo Marine Center with my friend and her boys at 11am, so really this is a fend for yourself day for Kyle. But Reese and I will probably eat out.
Tuesday 11/11 - Peas and cheese tortellini from Racheal Ray magazine
Wednesday 11/12 - spaghetti and meatballs, homemade sauce
Thursday 11/13 - barley, black bean and corn burrito from Southern Living Slow Cooker Cookbook if this turns out to be good I'll post a recipe
Friday 11/14 - leftovers
Saturday 11/15 - chicken and pork risotto
Sunday 11/16 - leftovers

Name Debate--What are YOUR thoughts?

GIRL - Heather
Cadence
Clair
Emma
Glory
Harper
Josie
Journey
Jubilee
Liberty
Mallory
Marley
Savannah
Scarlett
Shelby
Tess
Veronica

BOYS - Heather
Atticus
Carson
Carter
Chase
Dexter
Fletcher
Gabriel
Gideon
Gus
Hendrix
Holden
Jake
Jasper
Keegan
Layne
Lennox
Logan
Milo
Noah
Oliver
Sawyer
Simon
Sullivan
Tristan

GIRL - Kyle
Carly

BOY - Kyle
Blake
Carter
Cole
Dexter
Gabriel
Ian
Liam
Logan
Noah
Owen
Reid
Walker
Will
Wyatt

wordless wednesday

Menu Plan Monday

Due to the amazing amount of leftover tetrazini and fried rice and our burning need to go to Famous Dave's Saturday and no sink Sunday we didn't get to 2 of our meals from last week, so they are repeated this week.

MONDAY: butternut squash ravioli (speech therapy and kyle's doctor appt)
TUESDAY: Stubb's chicken, butternut squash, broccoli mix
WEDNESDAY: Veggie Lasagna Florentine
THURSDAY: leftovers
FRIDAY: red bean and quinoa chili
SATURDAY: homemade pizza
SUNDAY: leftovers

Kitchen Sink

We found a tiny leak in our kitchen sink about 2 days before Kyle left for San Diego, so we just left it and I didn't use that side of the sink. I figured between the Lowe's visit and the actual work we'd waste a whole day. Since I'd be the only one using the water I figured I could remember not to put water on that side. So we just got around to fixing it a week or so ago and then it leaked again. So Kyle decided this probably meant we should just get a whole new sink---it's been on the list for sometime in the future, so we just made that sometime now. Here's the installation:

Reese had a lot more fun than Kyle. Then the big test---it still leaked. Kyle was livid and ready to call a plumber (actually I left a message for our plumber--we've used him twice and I like him--Eagle Plumbing in Silverdale). But I decided to use my Ecosearch.org powered by google and discovered plumber's putty was the answer so off to Lowe's AGAIN. But by this time it was 6:30pm and no kitchen sink so we HAD to go to Big Apple Diner for dinner. YUM!
and here is the finished product. LOVE IT!!

bone lickin' good

We got our timeline a little off tonight and realized we could not get all our errands done today if we didn't eat out. We weighed the options and decided we'd rather not have to drive back to the same place tomorrow. SOOO we ate at Famous Dave's BBQ. Here is our meat loving boy chowing down on some ribs.

He also loved the cornbread muffins so much the waiter packed some up for us to take home. They all thought he was so adorable. He was very smiley and agreeable, so that always helps.

Halloween

We started halloween bright and early at Granddad's orthodontist appointment. He got his braces off after EIGHT long years just in time for the holiday candy rush. The ladies there really wanted to see Reese so we headed over in his costume. Then we visited the hairdo ladies, then on to Costco. Daddy got his flu shot. Reese says "how ya doing up there? I did it so I know you can too."

We also hit Walmart before heading for a nap. Then off to Mimi's house. hmm this looks interesting adn smells good.
come here you want to get in on this?
Of course no visit to Mimi's is complete without some time in Uncle Dylan's drums.We ended up getting a little more than 150 photos yesterday. Reese wore his costume from 10 am until about 9:30 pm except for an afternoon nap. He only complained about the hat part a time or two. Hopefully next year he'll like his costume as much AND be able to say trick or treat.