A Date!!

 I have a GREAT reason for not blogging last night! Ready? We......went on a date! woohoo! One of the perks of living close to family. That and having help when your car keeps breaking down:)

I dropped the kiddos off at my mom's house where they feasted on pizza and watched a movie. They even got to spend the night, which was such a big treat for them! They have never gotten to do this kind of thing. Eliana was excited but a little nervous. She had to call me around 9:30 last night to say goodnight because she was feeling a little sad:( I guess she went right to sleep after she was assured of our love for her:)

We got to eat dinner and do a little Christmas shopping for our babies, thanks to a gift given to us! We have been so blessed! We went from not being able to get our kids anything to being able to get them each a gift, some stocking stuffers and one big gift for them to share. God has really provided for us and we are so thankful.

It was so fun wandering around Target aimlessly without having to reprimand children to stop touching everything they see or wandering off or whatever. We wandered! Who gets to do that?? We got home after 9:30pm and watched a Redbox movie. It was such a great evening!

AND we got to sleep in til 8am this morning! I woke up expecting to hear Eliana calling for me that she had to go to the bathroom but there was only silence. Weird. Last night I missed them so much. Funny, isn't it? They were gone only just over 16 hours and it felt like days! They gave us big hugs this morning and told us all about their fun. They are super tired today so I am hoping for some good quiet time this afternoon!

Yesterday I got Eliana to take a little nap (3 naps this week, can you believe it?!) but she woke up SO grouchy. After trying to rock with her for a bit and get her to wake up slowly, I finally put her back in her bed and told her she needed some more time to wake up and I would wait in my room and when she was ready, she could come get me. She cried for about 5 minutes and then I heard her door shut. I waited a couple minutes and went to investigate and I found her glasses set neatly outside her door:) haha. It made me laugh! Sometimes she just needs some time to wake up slowly. She was back to her happy self about 10 minutes later.

I decided last-minute to do a little ornament craft with the kids this morning. I don't do crafts with them much anymore, like I used to when the boys were little. We did a little salt-dough handprint ornament. The boys put in the ingredients and Samuel kneaded the dough. (He was munching on an apple in the picture.)

We put the handprints on a tray to bake and I let them play with the scraps. Z decided to make a little Olaf:)

Such a tired girl!! I will post pictures after the ornaments dry and we paint them! They got so much pleasure out of decorating our tree this year and seeing all their ornaments they've made at school that I knew another handmade ornament would be a hit!

Plus I will enjoy wiping away a stray tear years from now as I look at their handprints and reminisce about how little they were:)

Have a great Saturday!

Nasty Flu Shot and Recipe!

 Yesterday at their doctor's appointment, Eliana and Zakkai received their flu shots. (Samuel got his awhile ago.) I always wonder if they are really worth it but thought, especially with Eliana being in preschool for the first year, it would be a good idea. After her reaction to it and hearing belatedly that they aren't even working that well this year, I wish I hadn't done it!

This was how Eliana was all afternoon yesterday. She stopped using her arm immediately after getting the shot and as soon as we got home started crying and didn't stop. After a half and hour of not even being able to put her down, I finally laid down with her in our bed and stroked her head until she fell asleep. She was a complete wreck even after a little nap!

Right before Awana, I was able to get some Tylenol in her and she hung out with me last night instead of going to her Cubby class. Poor baby!

This is how her arm looks today! The red marks are from the band aid (sensitive skin anyone??) and the bruise from the shot. The problem is she is old enough to remember how bad this made her feel so I have a feeling we'll have to do the nasal mist next year or nothing at all!!

She started out a little grumpy and sore this morning but improved a lot through the day. I thought she looked so cute today! This is a cute reversible pinafore top I made for her last year.

The other side is gray but she wanted to wear the pink side, of course!

I made a delicious dinner tonight for the first time so I wanted to pass it on! We were quite low on food at the beginning of this month so I took a good chunk of this month's budget and spent it at Costco, leaving a small amount left for each remaining week in December. I was perusing the internet for low-cost, yet delicious meals and found this one from Better Homes and Gardens.

Chicken With Parmesan Noodles

Ingredients:
9 oz. angel hair pasta (or how much ever your family uses!)
2 large carrots, thinly sliced
2 TB butter
1 1/2 lbs skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (I used chicken tenderloins.)
6 TB pesto
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (the recipe calls for finely shredded but I used grated out of the can!)
Olive oil (optional)
Fresh basil (optional)

Directions:
1. Prepare angel hair pasta according to package directions.

2. Melt 1 TB butter in large skillet and add carrot slices. Saute until just beginning to become tender, 3-5 minutes. Add chicken and cook on med-low heat until chicken is no longer pink. Stir in 4 TB pesto and cut chicken into bite-sized pieces.

3. Drain angel hair when cooked and stir in remaining TB of butter (or leave out!), 2 TB pesto and a few TB of parmesan cheese. Serve with chicken mixture and more Parmesan cheese. Drizzle with olive oil, if desired and sprinkle with fresh basil. Enjoy!

*I cut up the chicken in bite-sized pieces and served the chicken mixture over the pesto noodles for all of us except E, who suffers from the common young child "don't let my food touch" syndrome:)

We sprinkled a little more Parmesan cheese on top and served with a side of broccoli and everyone raved about it! I didn't use pepper (I never do!) or the extra olive oil or basil. It was still really great! I wasn't sure about the carrots, as it seemed like an odd addition to the meal but the pesto made everything taste so delicious. Mmm! This is definitely a keeper!

Growing Kids!

It was a day full of appointments! We finally got everything set up medically-wise and are trying to get caught up with all of our appointments. Eliana had both a dentist (beautiful teeth!) and a dr's appt today and her eye appt at the end of the month. The boys had dr's appts today and dentist appointments next week. I am afraid we will be heading into the world of palette expanders and braces before we know it!

 

Samuel is, as everyone could guess, tall and skinny! He weighed in at 61.8 lbs and is 4 ft 6 1/2 inches tall. He will be passing me by in less than a foot! He is somewhere between 65th-75th percentile for height, which he didn't get from me:) And he is 34th% for weight. Thankfully, he is nice and healthy!!

 

Zakkai is 52.6 lbs (37th %) and just above average for height at 4ft 2 inches. I told him that he has only 1ft 1inch to go before he reaches my height and he'll be patting me on the head before he knows it:) He is healthy, too, other than slight congestion (normal for him all winter) and a lingering cough.

 

Eliana is short and chubby:) She is 33.4 lbs (33rd %) and 3 ft 1 1/2 inches (7th % for height.) I am thankful she is above the 3rd % finally! She is slightly chubby for her height (but nothing serious) so the Dr said to watch her fat/dairy intake. I was thinking about it and I am not too worried because Zakkai had the same body type when he was her age (chubby with a Buddha belly!) and he is a beanpole now!  We eat pretty healthy and limit sweets. I think the "problem" (if you could even call it that) might be that she is not as active as the boys. And it's mostly my fault!  The time we spend together is mostly running errands, going to preschool, etc. I think I will try to work in a little fun exercise/dance time to our days to help make up for her lack of outside/playground time. It would help me, too! I will definitely not be worrying about her body or passing on any body image issues. I know that crap starts way too early with kids, girls especially and I know what it is like to struggle with that.

 

She is beautiful inside and out, the inside being the most important and that's what we'll continue to teach her! You know what they say.....Good things come in small packages:)

A little pic of B and I this weekend:) Happy Wednesday!

Ghetto Van and Decorated Tree!

I shouldn't worry that I will run out of ideas to blog about. Just when I think the coffers may be running dry, I have a little adventure! Today it was my car.

We have called AAA twice in the past month (thanks to my mom!) and narrowly avoided a third time today! So, last week I took our van into Honda for some recall work. Gotta love repairs that cost $0!! We all know how often that happens. While I had the van in, I asked them to check out our sliding door on the driver's side, which has been getting harder to use. It squeaks and grates and gets stuck a little bit sometimes. Their verdict? It needs a new center roller bearing (or something like that) and the other door will need one soon and it will cost $218.50 per door.

I said, "No, thanks!" To that, and the other bazillion repairs they came up with totaling over $2000 (seriously) and we have been checking into which repairs we absolutely need to do safety-wise (because yes, we are not stupid enough to get them done at a dealer!) and trying to figure out how to fund them. We figured we could move the door repair towards the bottom of the list.

Until today. When I got loaded up a couple bags of groceries, Eliana and then could NOT get the door to close! I tried with all my might (which, okay, okay, maybe isn't too mighty) to get the darn door to close, to no avail! Then some older man came along, who spoke little English, and he kept trying to find a button to push while I kept trying to explain that we don't have power doors! He pushed and pulled with all of his might, too, with no results.

So, once again, my dearest Mama came to my rescue (she will start to dread my phone calls pretty soon if this keeps up!) We wanted to avoid towing costs so my mom came to pick up Eliana and follow me to the dealer. I had to drive 20 minutes with the door wide open! As the lady at the dealer put it so eloquently, "You might look a little ghetto but....."

Yeah, that's me! I just didn't make eye contact with anyone and turned up the heat for the drive! I went to pull into the service garage door and this guy was like, "Um, your door is open..." ha! Long story short, they helped me close the door and I opted out of them fixing it then because they tried to up the price to almost $400 per door!! Yeah freaking right! I told the guy what they quoted me only last week and he said if they wrote it down then they have to honor it. He looked very sad about that:)

So, we are all banned from using that sliding door until we figure out how to fix it. Hopefully soon! Our poor van that we have loved so much is falling to pieces!

But to end the day on a happier note, we finally decorated our little tree tonight! The kiddos waited anxiously all day! They had so much fun pulling ornaments out and remembered ones they've made at school or were given as gifts.

Our cute little tree:) The guy at the tree lot lopped off way too many branches at the bottom so we did our best to pull the branches down with heavy ornaments and use the tree skirt to cover it up. As Ben said, it kind of looks like a man who got his hair cut a little too short in the back....haha.

We followed up our decorating with our Advent devotions for the night. It's been really cool to do it together. We read the scriptures, talk about what the story means and how it relates to Jesus' birth and then take turns cutting out and hanging up the ornaments. We are really loving this new tradition!

Happy Christmas;)

Christmas Trees and Buckeyes!

I totally dropped the ball blogging yesterday! Oops:) I'm still pretty happy with 6/7 days! My excuse is that it was a busy day and the Buckeyes were playing a really big game last night. I fell asleep probably 10 minutes before the end, too:)

Ben worked a lot this weekend so he was really tired. We hung around in the morning yesterday and then before he had to go to work again, we ran out and got a little Christmas tree! My mom and stepdad get a real tree every year and asked if we wanted to meet them nearby to pick one out.

We haven't had a real tree since 2004! I clearly remember Ben dragging it down the apartment steps after Christmas, leaving a long trail of dead pine needles....:) Since then we have put up our teeny 3 ft high Christmas (fake!) tree most years and for a few years we had an old cast off from my Grandma. It leaned a little and the lights flickered occasionally but it was still pretty until we had to lay it to rest a couple years ago.

This year, we weren't even going to get a tree, as we have a super small living room but we decided to get a little one just because we can! And there is something SO beautiful about a real tree.

Love my mom and stepdad!

Cheese! It was FREEZING outside so it was pretty much the shortest Christmas-tree-picking-outing ever. But still fun:)

Short but cute! We still haven't put any lights or anything on it because Ben had to run off to work after he put it up and then we have been gone all day today. Hopefully tomorrow!

We have a pretty wreath to help cover up our ugly orange door! Orange is definitely not my favorite color but there's nothing to do about it except make it look at pretty as possible:)

Our cuties last week at the family Buckeye party! They got their Buckeye shirts from their Grandma and they wear them faithfully every Saturday:) They will hardly know what to do with themselves with football season coming to a close!

Now off to get ready for the new week ahead. Hope you had a great weekend!