Sick & Tired

The four of us have been feeling "under the weather" lately. Joel put it best yesterday when he said, "we're all just sick and tired of being sick and tired." Last week the kids and I stayed home all week... no playdates, no bible study, no MOPS.  It was nice to veg out in jammies for a few days and let them relax.

We tried two new recipes last week which, I highly recommend. The first was Cheeseburger Soup; recipe found here. It was a hearty soup that we all enjoyed, the kids especially.

source

 The second recipe changed our lives forever. Seriously, I now will be making all of our bread homemade. The recipe for white bread can be found here. We don't have a kitchenaid mixer or a bread maker to knead our bread dough and, this recipe was easy to make and delicious to eat. After we made our first loaf, the kids and I stood by the counter eating the bread, like Survivor cast members who had just won a reward challenge. Norah would say in her sweet voice, "more please" and Henry in his he-man voice, "MO."

We've been paying about $2.50 per loaf for the bread we like so, making from scratch will be a huge cost savings, especially since the kids and I eat sandwiches everyday for lunch. Below is a picture of the bread.

source

Yesterday, I use the bread recipe for caramel rolls. Simply delish!

The cowl scarf Norah's wearing is something I knitted about 4 years ago. It's so warm, it feels like you're wearing a vest. She likes to wear it and I love to wear it so, it appears I will be making Norah a cowl scarf for Christmas this year. :)

 Norah does a good job hiding the fact that she's not feeling that great. Just don't look at the back of her head.....

 Exhibit A

Even when she's sick, she never fails to care for her baby. In the pictures above she's very happy because she got to try 1/2 a cough drop.

 Henry's happy too.... as long as he doesn't see a kleenex coming toward his nose!

Norah's doing a little ditty in her mismatched socks.....
Have a safe and happy Halloween everyone! Joel and I will be wearing our very orginial "mom and dad" costumes and, Norah and Henry will be dressed up in flannel jammies as two sleeping kiddos.:)

About Joel

Joel is an amazing dad. Period. He is hands-on: changing poopy-diapers, giving baths, wiping runny noses, cleaning sippy-cups, brushing teeth... he helps with everything. He sings to the kids, prays with them, watches Veggie-tales because Norah loves it, dances with them and cuddles with them
Last weekend while Henry was still napping, Joel went outside and rode bike with Norah. It was one of those heart-melting moments that left me thanking Jesus for giving us Joel.

Up and down our little side street they rode.... Norah was in all her glory.

Joel took a moment to show Norah how awesome he is.... as if she didn't already know!

We love you and appreciate all you do, Joel!

Henry's 1st Haircut

Is was time.... Henry's red mop was begging to be tamed. Above is Henry's "before" picture.

I'll admit, I was nervous to cut his hair... I couldn't imagine him sitting still for more than .8 seconds with me messing with his hair. But, he did GREAT! He sat nicely looking at his picture-book

If anyone wants to donate a hair scissors to my family so, I don't have to use my sewing scissors... it would be greatly appreciated!!:)

Henry's "after" picture. It seemed like he went from adorable baby to..... looking like a handsome 2 year old in just 10 minutes! There's still a tint of red but, his hair looks much more blond now.

Henry's 1st Birthday

Henry had a great birthday last week.... I bet he'd tell you it was the best one he's ever had!:) Since it was during the week, Joel had to work all day so, we kept it very simple. The night before Henry's birthday, he was up about 4 times during the night.... teething, growing, trepidation about turning one... who knows. We ended up moving Henry into our bedroom so Norah could sleep, and Henry actually sleeps better in the pack-in-play anyway. My guess is that when he thrashes around in his bed, he wakes up when he hits the wood but, in the pack-in-play it's soft walls allow him to keep sleeping.
Here are a few things we did to celebrate Henry's big day!
Joel had already left for work when Henry woke up so, it was Norah and I that sang "Happy Birthday" to him in the morning.

Once Henry was out of bed.... a dance with big sister was in order!

 Henry got some really great gifts. Clothes, toys, books, money for his savings account, and a slide.... what more could a boy want?!?!

 For supper we hade Henry's favorite meal: barbecues and sweet peas. Then it was time for cupcakes...

 Henry was actually very neat in eating his cupcake.... I'm partial but, he's very mature for his age.:)

A couple neighbor kids came over for cupcakes too! The recipe for the cupcakes can be found here.

source

By 6:30pm Henry was completely spent! In his fleece jammies and ready for bed..... and he was probably relieved that he wouldn't have to hear his Mom sing "Happy Birthday" to him anymore that day!



Thanks to everyone who remembered Henry on his first birthday!! He sure appreciated all the phone calls, cards and gifts! You guys are the best!!

Happy Friday!

I've got just a  couple pictures to share from this week....

We found this Sesame Street trike at a garage sale for $0.50. Norah loves it and I can tell it makes her feel like a big kid. She's always watched the neighbor kids ride their bikes and now she's got her own wheels.

 Norah knows how to pedal(kinda/sorta) but, she will accept any and all help in the form of a push!

This little boy of mine will turn one in just a couple days.**sigh** This weekend I'll give him his first haircut.

Last week while we were on a walk, Henry pointed to a Bobcat and yelled "COUP"(scoop). He's a smart little boy.

Very random:  I got this ceramic pedestal bowl (perfect condition) at a thrift store for $1.25. That makes me one happy lady.

Have a great weekend! I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend that includes drinking hot coffee with my husband tomorrow morning. Hot coffee is a weekend thing at our house.:)



DIY: recycled crayons

Okay, raise your hand if your kids like to color.

Keep your hand raised if you have a ton of broken crayons.

Now, keep your hand raised if you have broken crayons from your husband's childhood..... and my hand is still in the air.

Awhile back, I saw this tutorial on recylcing crayons over at Makes and Takes and, I knew my little artist would think they're pretty cool.

Step one: Take all the paper off crayons

Step two: Pre-heat your oven to 275*

 Step Three: Cut the crayons up (Note: I should've used a paper plate to cut the crayons on because, cleaning this cutting board wasn't really that fun.)

Step four: fill your mini-muffin tin or your regular sized muffin tin. The tutorial I originally followed said to spray sooking spray in the tins but, I didn't and they still dropped out real easy.

Step five: Put in oven for 7-8 minutes. (Watch closely)
Step six: Remove from oven, swirl crayons with a toothpick(optional) and let cool. I put ours in the fridge to speed up the process.

 Norah loves counting them and Henry says they taste delish.

Enjoy!

Growth Chart & Noodle Beads

Growth Chart
We used to mark the kids' height on a 2x4 downstairs in our furnace room. Norah was less than impressed with this and since we don't plan on living in this house forever.... something had to change.

I found this Pottery Barn knockoff growth chart tutorial at 517 creations and knew we needed one. So we made one for the kids' room... then we made three for our church's craft sale! The tutorial is so easy, give it a try.:)

We used walnut stain on the boards then, Joel measured and marked off the lines. Finally, I added the numbers and went over the lines with a paint pen. The boards aren't very heavy so Joel just added a sawtooth hanger hook on the back. We might need to reinforce ours a little, Henry likes to to walk and swing it like a pendulum.

If we ever have a "play-room" I think this chart would look great in there but, It looks good in the kids' bedroom too.

 Here are the three for the craft sale. We just tied a ribbon around the rop with a tag including the price and hanging instructions. Hopefully someone thinks they're as cute as I do!

Noodle-beads

I think I got this idea from pinterest. Joel picked up a black rope and two swim noodles from the hardware store($0.99 a piece) and I just used a serrated knife to cut "beads" between 1-2 inches in length. I think the rope is 15 feet in length, if I remember correctly.

Norah LOVES activites like this so, she will enjoy many hours taking the beads off just to put them back on.

I'm always on the look-out for easy good projects I can make and enjoy with the kids. Today we melted our old broke up crayons(some were from Joel's childhood!) in muffin tins and they turned out awesome. More on that soon!