Dinner Ideas

Nanette mentioned to me once about blogging about my dinners for a week or so to help give her (and others) some inspiration for their own meals. It would've been nice if I had taken pictures to go with all this but I didn't think that far ahead. Sorry about that. We've had some colder days which have been great for using my new crockpot. I love my new one- the last two Rival Smartpots I had both ended up incinerating the food and this GE crockpot I bought is working great so far. I love all the settings it has and the retractable cord is awesome. But definitely its strong point is that it doesn't burn our food. So here's some of our recent meals.

*Sweet and Sour Chicken (the recipe was on Hy-Vee's website but I can't find it now) with steamed rice. It's an easy meal (lots of prep work with cutting but the cooking goes super fast) and good for you too.

*Scalloped potatoes and ham, corn and strawberry/pineapple/banana jello salad. I am not the biggest fan of ham, but even I really liked this. The scalloped potatoes and ham recipe was from the Fix It and Forget It cookbook- one of my faves.

*Barbecued shredded/pulled pork, rolls, corn and mashed potatoes. I have to admit that one of our local grocery stores makes far better pulled pork than I ever do so I finally just gave up and only buy theirs.

*Deep pit beef, oven roasted potatoes, jello, green salad and rolls. The deep pit beef was disappointing but it was my fault because I didn't get it marinating soon enough. It was okay but it didn't really have any flavor. We started making our own salad dressing a while back- from the packages at the store, nothing crazy- and I would recommend that. It is so good and makes you want to eat more salad. Deep pit beef recipe also in the Fix It and Forget It cookbook.

*Shredded beef tacos. I reinvented the deep pit into shredded beef for tacos and that tasted great.

*Barbecue chicken, rice and salad. This is probably what we do the most during the summer. Barbecue some meat, and eat a carb/starch and a vegetable with it. We really like to use McCormick's GrillMates Montreal Chicken seasoning.

*Spaghetti, garlic bread and salad. I make my own sauce- nothing fancy but it tastes better than anything out of a jar and is really quick and easy. It makes a lot so we reuse it in our own made up dish I like to call "stuffed bell pepper casserole". Rob calls it Spanish rice but that isn't right either. You just mix up the leftover sauce with cooked rice, bell peppers and cheese and cook it in the oven just long enough to heat it all up.

We don't cook like this all the time but these are some of the highlights from the last two weeks. Hopefully this helps Nanette or anyone else come up with an idea for dinner- I know what a struggle that can be!

Hard to Believe

It's hard to believe Wyatt is already 4 months old. He hit the milestone on Sunday so we did another photo shoot.



He also had a well-baby exam this week and he is doing great. He weighs 15 pounds, 9 ounces (65th percentile) and is 26 inches long (85th percentile). I'm also happy to report he has a completely average size head (unlike the giant melon on top of Rex's shoulders) so maybe he can actually wear some baby-size hats and it won't be such a struggle to get a shirt over his head every day. He had to get just two shots this time and he did great with those too- a little crying at first but that was it. We talked about what he is doing and the best thing is that he is laughing now. I love it. He's trying to turn over from his back to his tummy but so far has only got up on his side and then can't quite finish. He hates laying down for tummy time or back time so it's hard to work on that. He still wakes up a lot in the night sometimes and now I know why. I always put him down in his crib after I get him to sleep so any time he wakes up, he thinks, "Wait- how did I get here? Where am I and where's my mom?" He usually goes right back to sleep once I hold him and rock him (sometimes with feeding and sometimes not). The doctor said I should get him used to going in the crib while he is still awake to help stop this but I'm having trouble with that. The doc said he'll probably cry at first but then he'll get used to it. The crying we could deal with except Rex usually goes to bed at the same time and I don't want Wyatt waking Rex up. So, we'll just keep doing what we're doing for now. When Rex was a baby, I always put him in the crib once he'd fallen asleep and there was just a natural point to make the switch where I would put him down while he was still awake and it went fine. I think (I hope) there will be that natural point with Wyatt too and I'm not ready to force the issue just yet.

When we did the 4 month photo shoot, I had a really hard time keeping Rex off the bed and I finally gave up. I had him get up there so I could get a few pictures of them together and this was the best one.



They really like each other so much and I hope they always do! Wyatt will have a big smile and coo at Rex anytime Rex gets close to him and Rex just loves to give him kisses and talk to him. It's a lot of fun to watch my two boys interact with each other.

Meeting George

This past weekend, there was a special storytime with Curious George featuring an appearance by George himself. Right away, Rob and I made plans to go because we knew Rex had to be there. Curious George is a pretty special guy. Whenever you see a picture of Rex, George is usually close by. We are redecorating Rex's room with George stuff- my mom's making a quilt and we've gotten some wall decals and a poster. They started out with a storytime for all the kids followed by a little meet and greet time with George.

There were way too many people for the small area but we all managed somehow.



Since it was just me and Rex, I ended up holding Rex for most of the time. I think I'm ready for one of those Strong Man competitions now. Anyhow, I was so excited for the part where Rex could go up and meet George and we could take a picture. I thought he would just be so excited and all over him.



I was wrong. He wasn't afraid of him- I think apprehensive is probably a good word. He was fine with getting this close and waving and saying hi but that was it. I tried to get him closer and he did not want to. So we got a little souvenir and headed home.



He plays music and scoots along on his little scooter. Pretty cool but the song (Camptown Races) plays at like 250 decibels so we've got to fix that somehow. I think Rex had fun and I'm glad we went even if it didn't turn out how I'd envisioned it- things rarely do in life.

Rob worked on getting the rest of the bike shop demoed (demo'd? demo'ed?). Hopefully the weather cooperates this week and weekend so he can get the roof done. Here he is removing the ceiling.



I just have one more funny photo of something Rex does. He has OCD-ish quirks just like his mommy and daddy and has for a while now but this is the most recent.



For a kid who tears through the house all day and leaves it looking like Hurricane Katrina part II just blew through, it is so funny to see him line up his little cars in a perfectly straight line. But he does. All the time. I just love that kid.

Family Room

Recently I insisted to Rob that we had to find more space in this house for me and the boys to spend time in every day. Our living room space is pretty large but we use half of it as a dining room so that makes the living room a little tight. You can't spend much time outdoors from November-March so maximizing your indoor space is critical. I have just barely made it through the two winters Rex and I have spent at home so far. Now that Rex is up and playing more and we have Wyatt, I realized I would never make it through this winter in the space we have. There were two options- fixing up either the basement or converting our 3 season room (known as the "bike shop") into a family room. Spending time in the basement still seems strange so we decided we'd rather be above-ground. It only gives us about half the additional space the basement would (250 sq ft as opposed to 500 sq ft) but the family room will be a lot nicer space. The first step was to remove the old windows and install new ones which Rob was able to do. He spent the last two weekends on it and is all done now.




He still has the trim to put on the outside of the house but that's not so bad. I've helped as much as I can- thankfully, Rob didn't need much help since I need to keep an eye on the boys. Here's what happened when I went to help Rob yesterday.



Rex was having a snack and I thought I could just leave him eating his yogurt while I helped Rob for a few minutes. When I came back in, Rex had smeared the yogurt on everything within his reach. I just laughed. I didn't know what else to do. I got Rob to come in and look and he started laughing too and said, "How do you get mad at that?" Exactly. I know he loves to smear his food in his hair so what was I thinking when I left him alone with a full container of yogurt? Anyhow, someone is coming by to help us make a decision on the roof- it is a flat roof that has leaked in the past and we need to make sure that won't happen again. Then it will be on to the drywall, electrical, flooring and maybe a few other things too. It's a good thing Rob likes to have a project and be busy around the house!

Everything else is going good here. Rob has been our chef since Wyatt was born so I've been doing a lot of cooking now that Rob is busy with the family room project. I got a new crockpot because I had to. The old one would have things boiling hot when set on low. The new one did fantastic with the roast I made last weekend and I think I'll be relying on it a lot this winter. Wyatt is awake and crying now so I better go before he wakes up Rex. Here he is in a much happier mood.

I Am Old

I just ordered a new cell phone today because the old one is about 98% dead. It has been randomly shutting itself off (a trick my last phone also used to do to me) and now you can only talk on it using the speakerphone. The speakerphone is not really an option when you have a 2 year old that likes to talk loudly while mommy is on the phone and a 3 month old who may or may not be quiet when I want him to. So as I am looking through the phones on the website (because they are cheaper there and I don't have time to go to the store), I can hear myself thinking things in my head that definitely sound like someone I can't believe I have turned into. Things like "What the heck is an android phone? I see the commercials but I don't think my arms will actually start turning into robot arms so what does this phone actually do?" And "What's the difference between email and mobile email?" Then "Can't I just find a damn phone that I can talk and text on? I'm just a stay at home mom who doesn't twitter, facebook or have the need to put a bunch of music or tv on my phone!" I don't know how I got so out of touch with cell phone technology but I did. I was trying to get up to speed in about 20 minutes but I don't think I learned anything. I do still care enough though that I picked one of the cooler looking phones (I hope) so at least I look like I have a clue. I will have a huge learning curve when it gets here tomorrow. I ended up ordering one of the android phones, still not knowing what it does and why it's an android so if you see me and I have robot arms, please help me!

If You Just Heard That Thunk...

So here's the story of Rex dropping the F-bomb on us. All four of us were in our not-so-spacious bathroom because it was bath night for both boys and it takes everyone to get through that. I was working on getting Wyatt cleaned up while Rob was trying to get Rex undressed and in the bath. Rex bonked his head on the cabinet and Rob told me, "If you just heard that thunk, it was Rex's head hitting the cabinet." Apparently Rex thought "thunk" was a funny word so he kept trying to say it. At first it sounded a little like thunk but as he kept trying to say it, it ended up sounding exactly like the F-word. I was laughing so hard but I had my head down and kind of turned so Rex couldn't see me. I managed to not make a sound with my laughing which is very important- once he hears a laugh, he will just keep going and going with something. There were also tears running down my face from laughing so much. Rob was doing the same as me, laughing with no sound, but he pulled it together a little faster than I did. So, Rex dropped the F-bomb without hearing it from anyone and even better, has not ever said it again since. Here's my funny guy now, with my headband on his face. Apparently, he thought they were glasses.



Rex is pretty helpful now. He keeps the fridge stocked for me with Coke Zero.



He has quite an imagination and he likes to pretend a lot now. One of his favorite things is to pretend like he is going to Lowe's or the grocery store. He gets his keys and my old sunglasses on, sometimes he puts on shoes and grabs one of his phones too, and tells us "time" (which means "have a good time") and tells us he loves us then proceeds to the door. It is so so funny.



Wyatt is doing good too. He is a terrible sleeper. I hope that when he starts on rice cereal in a few weeks things will get better. Last night, he went to sleep around 10:30 and woke up at 1:00 a.m., 4:55 a.m., 6:20 a.m., and then it was touch and go from there. That is too much getting up in the night. He has times where he'll sleep 6 or 7 hours but those times have been very few. He is so different from his brother. I knew Rex was an easy baby and I was afraid this time would be more difficult and it is. I'm sure it could be worse though and really, it's not so bad. Knowing that it won't always be like this makes me feel much better. We've got to be getting past it soon. Wyatt also isn't as smily as Rex was. We took him to get his 3 month old photos taken a few weeks ago and he would not smile. Even when I tried to take his 3-month old photos that I do at home that same day, he wouldn't smile for his mommy either. Very serious kid and if you get a smile from him, you know you earned it. Wyatt's a great kid, he is just a little more work than his brother was but Rex was seriously the easiest baby in the history of the world. Seriously. Here are some of the photos I took for the 3 month old photo shoot.



Okay, I did get a little smile out of him- finally!


I'm going to try and do better with my blog posts this month. It is incredibly hard with Wyatt though since he doesn't nap much and always wants attention. I promise to do better than last month though!

TMI

I have too much information to share and I just don't know where to start. Wyatt just crashed out next to me in his bouncy seat which is awesome but now Rex is awake so I will have to keep this short for now. It's hard to believe that at the beginning of this month I had nothing to blog about! Our water was turned back on 2 days earlier than expected so that was such an unexpected blessing. Everything in my life is back to normal now but I know there are a lot of people who will be dealing with the flooding for months still. My father came for a visit last week so I have things to share from that too but I will save it for the next post when I have more time. Rex dropped the F-Bomb on us the other night which deserves its own post. I do have to say though that he did not hear the word from our mouths- or anyone's actually. Wyatt turned 3 months old a week ago and we did another monthly photo shoot as well as took him to get professional photos done. Our weather has been alternating between pretty hot and humid and really nice. I am just thankful for the nice periods because it makes 90 degrees and humid easier to deal with when you get a break. Anyhow, better get going but here are some pictures of us.

My friend Amy made these adorable shirts for the boys.



Me and my two boys.



When I was taking Wyatt's 3 month old pictures, Rob said "Change it to say '3 boys' and Rex and I can get in there too" so here they are, my 3 boys.

Water Water Everywhere, But Not A Drop To Drink

So, funny story. I realized last weekend that I hadn't posted anything in quite some time and thought maybe I should do something about that. But then I couldn't think of anything to write about. Rob's birthday was on Tuesday so I thought I would just wait until I had some material from that. Before I could post anything about that, I got way more material than I ever could've imagined. First though, Rob's birthday.



It's tough to get much done during the day but I decided we had to do something for Rob's birthday. I took the kids out and got a cake, balloons and posterboard to make a sign. The idea was to put Rex and Wyatt's handprints on the sign, but as soon as I tried it with Rex I realized it was not the best idea I ever had. Rex wanted to basically fingerpaint all over the sign rather than just make handprints so that was a struggle. Then the paint, which was face paint, wouldn't really come off his hands too well so I decided we would just skip Wyatt's part in the sign-making process. The sign didn't turn out quite how I imagined but I'm learning that is just how it goes when you are working with kids. We had dinner at home- Rob had to buy and cook his own dinner. It sounds terrible, I know, but listen to me first. He picked up the groceries on his way home from the massage I booked him so that's not so bad, right? Then he had the option of cooking or watching the kids while I cooked and he picked cooking. Not like I know how to grill up a steak for him anyways so that all worked out for the best. Here we all are with the birthday cake.



I took two pictures like this using the camera's timer and this was the better one since 3 out of 4 are actually looking at the camera. The dinner and the cake were yummy and I think Rob had a very good birthday.

So on to my really big and crazy news. It's flooding here. It is CRAZY. Our house is completely fine. There was a small puddle in one corner of the basement- so small it could just be wiped up with a towel- and that was it. We are very thankful for that. Rob was able to make it to work on Wednesday by going way out of town and around and then back again only to discover that there was no power where he works and nothing really he could do. He left work around 11:00 a.m. and they ended up telling all the employees not to come in at all on Thursday. This is what it looked like all over town on Wednesday- lots of flooded streets and lots of people looking around at it all.



The worst news was still to come though. Because of all the flooding, there was a chance our water supply was contaminated and we have been under a boil water order since Wednesday afternoon. Thank goodness Rob was home because he went out to the store immediately to stock up on bottled water and bought a few gallons in the milk jug type containers too. We can only use very little water while they try to get the water towers (which were nearly drained empty) filled back up and then flush the whole city water system. You can take a shower but it has to be less than 5 minutes and you better keep your mouth closed while you are in there. How do you wash a 2 year old and a baby though? With store-bought gallons of water apparently- at least, that's what we did last night. They can't keep their mouths closed the whole time so we bought a bunch of water on Friday to use for their baths last night. It was either that or go rent a hotel room in another city so buying the water didn't seem so expensive after all. We have been using paper plates/bowls and plastic silverware as much as possible to avoid getting any dishes dirty. It's a lot like camping around here. They hope to have everything back to normal by Tuesday evening which is far later than they first predicted. They also thought there was only one water main break to begin with too so there you go. Although it is all incredibly inconvenient and annoying, I am very happy that is all we are having to deal with right now. It could have been much worse and I know there are a lot of people not very far from here who are dealing with much worse circumstances.

Blown Away

Last weekend we had a quite a storm that started in the wee hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning. I knew it might rain so I wasn't shocked when I heard the rain, thunder and lightning when I got up to feed Wyatt in the middle of the night. It also sounded really windy but I was still very surprised to see this when I looked across the street the next morning. (If you click on the photo below to make it bigger, you'll see the huge limb that took out the neighbor's fence and also landed on the garage. You can also see a lot of sticks and branches in our yard.)



I couldn't believe it! Wow. We have some serious storms here but I haven't seen anything like that before. Trees were down all over the place. Or there was so much damage that you had to take the whole tree out, like we had to. This is our backyard.



If you ask me, this was a special gift from God just for me. Rob would not agree. That tree had been a sore point between us ever since the squirrels planted it for us there. I wanted it gone when I saw it coming up and Rob wanted it to stay. I hated it because it shaded too many of my plants that I like which require a lot of sun. Rob liked the privacy it gave our yard. I agree that we need something tall in that area for privacy but a large bush/shrub that doesn't shade my plants would be a far better option. Rob asked me that morning, "Did you see the backyard?" I told him yes and he said, "So how happy are you right now?" Hee Hee- oh so happy! So long tree!!

Since so many people had so much damage, the city allowed everyone to put all their fallen limbs and branches in your front yard for a special free pickup they would provide. Nice. And then every street you went down looked like this.



It turned out the winds were above 70 mph in our area- woah! Anyhow, it was quite the storm. I think a lot of people were unhappy with the damage done but I couldn't be more pleased with how it all turned out for us. And now, I actually have both boys asleep in both their beds so I am going to write some thank-you notes which are long overdue!

2 Months Old

Wyatt turned two months old yesterday so it was time for another photo shoot.



I took Wyatt to the doctor today for his 2-month old checkup and he is doing just great. He weighs 12 pounds, 4 ounces and is 23 3/4 inches long. I looked up Rex's measurements at this point and was shocked to see that Rex already weighed 14 lbs, 10 oz at this point and was 1/4 inch shorter- what a pudge! I was sick- again!- and had to take my second round of antibiotics in just six weeks. It was something different each time. I don't get sick very often at all so this has been really crappy. But I am doing much better now. Rob's good and the boys are both good too. It's been super hot here lately (115 heat index) but is a little better now. We had a crazy storm this weekend. I have a lot to say about that and will put it in my next post with pictures of some of the damage. One more exciting thing to report is that Wyatt is now sleeping in his crib. His first night was the same night as the big storm so that didn't go too well but it's been going a lot better since. My boys are both getting so big!