Egregious Foul

This is my new favorite phrase. It also describes my wanton disregard for all things blog. I had so much fun the last few times I was killing time at the computer, because it had been a while since I checked up on my favorite blogs, and it is fun to read several entries at once! It's like a phone conversation after a month or two of not talking. Except you can't hear their voice, and they don't know they've communicated with you, and it's 100x creepier. . .

Any-who! Still working, and still liking it. I have a neat job, flexible, fun and interesting all at the same time. I have had a bit of an initiation into the working world now, I've been yelled at, complained to (probably about as well), complimented, brushed aside, put on the spot, everything that makes it fun! At very least it is something new and interesting almost every day, which is what I enjoy.



The kids are AWESOME! They are loving their new rooms at school, Ella's actually looks like a little classroom, with desks that all face the teacher at the front, and Kyle is in a room of only 5 kids! Which is so perfect because they still need lots of love and individual attention at only 15 months old! He is literally running everywhere. And yelling. And he has perfected this open mouth cry that carries really well across the house, so as to alert every living being in the vicinity he would like attention immediately.



He's really fun and hilarious to watch. Like many kids his age, he picks up everything. Nothing happens without his noticing and committing it to memory, and he can replicate anything! The way I eat, Ella writing, daddy combing his hair. He tries to put on his own socks, which is so funny, and he loves baby powder. We have to hide it, actually. He can pop the lid off a chap-stick post-haste and paint the wall in a jiffy. He loves to throw and has quite a little arm. He threw a block which caught my head and left a welt! And I was standing up. . . no lie

Well, that;s a basic rundown of the tots. I'll give you my favorite pic as of late.

THIS is why I think Kyle is too skinny..

Mommy, Daddy and Ella at the pool, summer '05




'Nuff said.

Knit-tastc

My newest obsession, well, besides the awesome Apple Airport Express that enables me to blast ABBA and Bread in my kitchen, is these cloths my grandma has been knitting for me! They are the size of a standard washrag, she uses 100% cotton, and they are so fantastic! She intended them for use in the kitchen, and they are so great. They are soft and clean so easily, but the loops/stitches make them grab stuff/scrub really well. I have started buying them from her (I insisted, since I have like 15) and use some in the kitchen and some for bathing the kids she is so great she just takes the $ and buys more yarn!

Here are some pics, since I am so obsessed I thought I'd spread the word. I never would have thought of these. She also makes gorgeous baby blankets. She definitely logs some hours under her OTT-Light :)

Kid's Meal!

Both of my children officially require their own meal at restaurants! That's not to say there isn't any Robin Hood action going on from mommy and daddy's plates to the kids' - especially since they eat as much as we do.

Ella had her very first kid's meal at McAlister's a couple weeks after her first birthday:



And Kyle had his first kid's meal at Yes! McAlisters! A couple weeks after his first birthday!



Ella likes to point out that SHE is the one with "boy hair" in these pics. Here she is three years later with real girl hair.

How Could I?

The Horror!!
I totally forgot our 5 year anniversary. OMG. Josh completely, completely busted me last night! Well, technically it is today, but he came in last night being all nice and sweet (clue #1 I was about to get slammed) and then asked if I wanted him to make reservations for a nice dinner (#2). I kinda feel bad! How could this have happened?

Oh, well. We are going on a vacation later this summer with some friends, and we upgraded our room (to the swim-up beachfront suite with service! Yay!) in honor of our anniversary. I guess I just filed it away as "done." I'm sure he'll forgive me, luckily we're pretty low key about stuff like this, so it's certainly not going to cause any dramatic episodes :) I always cringe when I hear stories of people going crazy because someone forgot their 6 month anniversary or ridiculous things like that. Thankfully neither of us operates that way. Actually, I think he's glad to be honest. There were no high expectations to be met.

The night we got engaged in Key West:


In other news, I am starting a new job soon! I am really jazzed and excited. I'm sad not to spend so much time with the kids, but really, I am just not satisfied at present. I need to be doing more, making something else happen for myself. That's not to say don't savor every second with my kids, but I think that's because it has always been my plan to stay home for X amount of time and then get to work.

AND - we are getting our new countertops over the course of today. Which is why I am holed up with the kids in Ella's room watching Nemo for possibly the 1000th time and bumming around on my macbook. Love it! Although I am ready for it to be finished. I can't wait to see what the stone actually looks like - Josh and I spent an hour at their shop pouring over all the options and carefully choosing one, and then when they came out to the house to make a template of the kitchen, I spotted a corner of a slab leftover in his truck and changed the order on the spot. So we shall see. Hopefully I wasn't suffering hysteria after running around with Ella on her big girl bike in the Texas heat.

They finished pulling the old ones out, so now I'm left with this, waiting for the OTHER crew to come and install. At least it gave me time to sweep out under the stove! Although I did have to complain that they brought the wrong sink to install. Stink!

Our demolished kitchen! (It's really not that bad)

Czechs-Mex 2009

Kyle's first baby pool experience, thanks to his bud Ian.



OK- still trying to figure out how to mobile in pics.. I'll get it eventually..

Circus

Not long ago we took Ella-Ka-Bean-Ka-Bob to the circus!





It was the mini-circus, only one ring, some of the animals and no real clowns, much to Ella's dismay.



She lasted until the lion show, which was a bit ?sad? - there was a lot of whip action...



Anyhow, it was fun, and the $10 cotton candy came with a free hat which provided a majority of the entertainment for the evening, to be honest. She asked me a couple days ago when it will be back, she's ready for another.

Cookie Bar Update

Nevermind on those. Maybe I should have cooked them on parchment paper, or made the oven cooler since I used a glass pan, but they came out WRONG! I call them the "Teeth Crackers." Seriously. And finagling a plate-full of decent looking bars for Josh to take was difficult, taking two different offset spatulas, a knife and a cake server. For reals.

But- I also made cheese soup last night. I have in the past given out another recipe, one my MIL passed on to me, but I kind of like this one for the simple fact that I tend to always have the ingredients on hand. (Which never includes chicken bouillon, but it's still good)

Garden Cheese Soup (thanks, Allrecipes!)

1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons margarine
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups water
1 cup chopped carrots
1 large potato, peeled and diced
6 cubes chicken bouillon
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
2 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
3 cups milk

1. In a 6-quart pot, saute celery, onion, and garlic in butter or margarine until soft.
2. Stir in flour. Gradually add water, and then vegetables, bouillon cubes, and chives. Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat.
3. Cover the soup, and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Stir in cheese and milk, and stir until melted. Do not boil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

I just dump in however much vegetables I have on hand, and to make it really awesome you can add a cup of sour cream right before it's done and stir it in. YUM!

OK I have a mountain of clothes to fold. I figure if I fold while watching all the TV shows I like on the laptop, I can make it take all day and not feel guilty :) I'm still cleaning all day, I mean, dang.

Hello darkness my old friend

I'll just let you know now there are no pictures in this post. You can go ahead and click away now. Now that that's out of the way- I am sitting in the kitchen at midnight waiting for the cookie bars Josh suddenly remembered he needs for work tomorrow (today?) to bake. Although I am proud that I came up with the cookie bar idea, which are a one time bake, as opposed to the requested cookies, which take at least an hour and a half to make and then bake in batches. Plus, the dough has no eggs in it, so I scooped out a tiny bit- Okay, a big girl bite- and had a late night sneaky snack.

The recipe is really easy, and kid friendly- in case you want to give it a shot: Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

I have been feeling a little funky this week so far, you know- fever, snot, crabby - the whole nine. But I have high hopes for tomorrow and even promised my friend (and myself) I would be at the gym at an ungodly hour tomorrow. And I will. I will. I will.

Let's see, what else can I cover.. hmm.. We had a fun weekend going to some friends house a little ways out of town. The drive was really nice and the people were really fun. I love getting away for super fun get-togethers like that. I hadn't laughed that hard or been that goofy in a long time. I even lost a tiny bit of coin in a bean-bag tourney. My partner and I participated in a match that might possibly qualify for the Guinness Book of Records in that it lasted longer than any game has ever lasted before. Mostly because we were all so terrible, nobody could score a point. It would have been wise for us to start awarding points for "closest to the board" - I would have said "hole," but same difference for us...

Anyhow- My timer just went off, so I can go make a cookie plate and hit the sack! Yay! I wanna be on top of my game for the early morning butt-whoopin' I'll be getting tomorrow. :)

Much Love

Time Flies

Ladies and -who am I kidding, ladies, we have an official 4 year old! Her birthday was this past monday the 16th. Although, we have taken a page from Aunt G's book and she has really been celebrating all week. Monday she had a breakfast date and then a coffee (well, coffee for mommy) date with a friend, then lunch and ice cream with extended family, a free for all at WalMart, from which we returned with a new fish among other things. Later was her choice of dinner and a chocolate cake!
She has been really fun, and very excited about #4, more than 3 for sure.
She did have her Dr checkup, where she did all kinds of fun tests- the vision, hearing, it was so so cute! I wish I had taken my camera, seeing her in that little room, perched on the chair with her curly pigtails and those giant headphones on was so funny...
She's still tall, I know, are you shocked, too? She soldiered through the 4 shots with not a tear, although, she did decide she would pass on having her ears pierced. :) She said "We can just go to the mall and buy some ear piercing another day, okay?"
So that's about it, she has been really fun lately, she is really changing. There is not much baby left, which is sad but she has such a fun and lively personality it's hard to dwell on that! She is sharp and witty already, which is more scary than anything. She has "wicked eyebrows" according to my mom, and uses them to the full extent of her ability.
She loves loves her daddy and waits for him to get home every day, even if she plays it cool when he does walk in. I think it is so funny to see her yelling excitedly that "Daddy is home!" and then he will walk in and she will barely look up...
What else can I tell you? She loves to fly her kite, ride her bike, drive her barbie jeep/golf cart/go cart, play with her new puppy (a live acting toy), and read read read. All books Bernstain Bears, Franklin, Max and Ruby, and Diego and Dora are for her!! And Cheetos. And baking, she's a great help in the kitchen, most days :) In fact today we are going to make some cupcakes, so wish us luck!! I'll leave you with some pics, some even have Kyle in them! Shocking!

Caught by Commercials!

Ella watches cartoons every morning while mommy gets brother, backpacks, lunch etc. ready to head out the door. And I'm not ashamed! Well, lately she decided she prefers Nick Jr. cartoons to the PBS cartoons. Which is fine by me, I really don't mind them. at this point they all make me wish I couldn't hear.

Along with the cuter, more exciting cartoons on Nick Jr. comes commercials. Finely crafted vehicles for the transfer of anadulterated desire for whatever plastic hunk they are hocking. The first time I took notice was at the grocery a couple weeks ago, and Ella requested "Danimals," which to be honest I didn't know what on earth Danimals was. Apparently it is highly colored yogurt, that comes in little tiny cups adorned with bright happy labels. You know, healthy stuff.

And then, we went to TJ Maxx, and were perusing the toy section, when she started actually singing the theme song to the Barbie tattoo commercial! She knew the whole thing!

Ach, so I have been crafting careful responses to her requests for everything she sees, but man it sucks!

Tidbits

Okay so I don't really get around to posting much any more. I decided to busy myself doing slightly more productive things lately :) I guess frequenting the library and renting insane amounts of books counts? Right? And hmm.. we've got awesome weather lately so we spend a lot of time outside. Which is awesome. I forgot how much I love being in the sunshine..

So- more to the point, I have a few tiny tidbits from lately. Ella has been having a rough time, she is growth spurting (I think I made a new verb!) and therefore falling, tripping, banging, stumping into everything. Living, inanimate, large small, she doesn't discriminate. The past couple days have been especially bad, she poked herself in the eye with a straw and burned herself with a carrot at lunch yesterday (don't ask), fell about a million times while camping a few weeks ago, once almost into the fire, and today got a fat lip on the playground. I feel so bad for her! I wish I could do something to help. :(

Kyle on the other hand, is still.. well... he blinks and breathes, and eats and poops.. You know, still pretty calm and cool. He does that "army crawl" thing, and will stand if he's got something to steady himself on, but that's about it. He's happy just to sit in the middle of a room and get catered to by his sister. She digs bringing him toys, so he's probably a little lazy. He's developing a bit of an aggressive personality too, I think in response to hers. I actually witnessed a brother v. sister slap fight a couple days ago. I must admit it was really funny.

Besides that, we've been hanging out with friends, we went to a zoo, to the firehouse, and have been spending lots of time at the park and stuff like that :) I love the spring! (Is it spring yet? I say yes!)

All right, well, I'll come back later with pics

Funny Bunny

I don't know why I started calling her "Bunny" but I still do. It probably came from my telling her to hurry up and saying "C'mon Ella, quick like a bunny!!" I don't even know where that came from. But it's the most common "pet-name" I have for her. And I call Kyle "Bubby." I guess I just like the B's. Although after I watched Pineapple Express, I always think of Saul's grandma when I say Bubby.

Any-having-random-thoughts-how, a couple funnies:

While driving a mudded up truck pulled up next to us and this is the conversation we had about it:
"Mom! Look! That truck is SO yucky dirty!"
"Yeah, it is. How do you think it got that dirty?"
"Oh, well, he must have drove through Oklahoma. It's really dirty in Oklahoma."


"Why did God make some people so fat?" -Seriously, I just flat out changed the subject. I usually always explain but this one was a bit much at the moment.

"Why do Daddy and Popi and Uncle Jon have fur?" Note- she is very clear that their "fur" and their whiskers are different.

I don't know. I can't think of anything else at the moment, although there have been several times in the last few days where I paused and thought "I should write that down" I guess I should have!

Today was an extra fun day! Some friends have a bounce-house at their house, so we went over to - well, to bounce- and it ended up being so fun! The kids only turned it off and collapsed it on one child, so I guess that's not too bad. :) Then me and "other mama" took our 4 kids to Sam's so they could run off whatever energy they had left.

We initially went for diapers, formula, and to check out the brisket selection. One awesome hotdog special($1.70!!), a chocolate milkshake(also awesome) and 2.5 hours later, our girls were STILL running up and down the gargantuan aisles screaming and laughing while other mama and I chatted, looked at steamers, books, socks, beer, lawn furniture.. you know, the basics! I just love that place. I only ha to sprint to the bathroom once upon the threat of a certain Bunny pooping in her pants. SO after checking out, we exited the store and I think there was an audible collective sigh from the employees.

SO we loaded our super jumbo sized Pampers, formula, beer and conditioner into the car, and headed home. After a quick cleanup of the home-front, I bathed the kids super fast ans they KONKED OUT. Hard. Love it!! I suggested to other mama we do that every Friday, but I don't think she is as excited as I am about that... We'll see...

Volcano

For the full effect, click the "play" button. If you don't like my music choice, or would prefer to take a lingering looksie, the pics are below.

Some Random Shots

In case you didn't know, this is what a man with big muscles and fast legs looks like.


Classy ride. I had heard that BMW was coming out with some lower-end, more affordable 128's and 135's, but this has gotta be like a 1.


"Yeah, boss, I KNOW HOW IT WORKS! The rain comes out the gutter onto the ramp, goes UP its slope, climbs over the ledge on the taller end, and then that giant rock helps it get to the drain grate! I KNOW!"


And finally, this abandoned car just made me laugh in that embarrassing immature way that you laughed at Borat and didn't want anyone to know about.

And Finally...

I think the boots really make the outfit. She was chasing me after Christmas Eve mass:


Kyle and the aforementioned Grandma Sweetie Pie


Myself, Kyle, Ella, Uncle Jonathan, and Josh


Ella was on poor little Bandit like white on rice the whole time we were at Aunt Chrissy's :) Poor little guy!


Bum-Bu-BUUMMM! SANTA!!! (Also known as Uncle Mark to those who can read)

And Still More...

Kyle's Feet are in the center of the kiosk at the mall! Cool, huh? It's a pic of his 3 week old feet with my wedding ring on one toe and Josh's on the other... Maybe I should get a better one so you can see it


Snow!!


Snow!!


Snow!!


The ramifications of frolicking in the snow for 4 hours? Weeks of this:

And More...

PILOT TO BOMBADIER!!!


Ready for SANTA!!!


Family Picture. The one time Josh looked at this blog he commented on the lack of reference and inclusion of HIMSELF in it. So here, Josh, in case you ever again return to "the blog thing."


Having lots of fun at the mall petri dish. I mean playground.


Isn't this a classic "screw you, mom! stop taking my picture!" look?

More...

World Fest! A great day for family fun! We will definitely go back next year, and we'll actually take $ for food...


When your friends take pity on you for not having a double stroller



Now for some random shots of Ms. Ella Bean:

How Ella watches TV


How Ella rides in the car


How Ella does some light reading (Twilight, anyone?)

Photos For You

Ella and her cousin Ashlynn


Ella, Auntie Cheryl, and Ashlynn


Fun in the backyard! I love a good action shot...


Loving on Uncle Jon's puppy Cash (this is how she "smiles" for the camera these days)


What a sweet puppy! He went to live with a new family, where he will get proper training as a hunting dog!