Halloween Evening!

Today's Halloween festivities began with lunch with friends, here is Sydney wearing her most festive ensemble complete with little bow head band and pink socks! Wouldn't you know it even with these pink items some smarties still wondered how old my adorable little boy is!

After lunch Emma, Sydney and I headed downtown for some kid friend trick or treating we met up with some friends, family and Grandma Jean and Grandpa Dan. Emma had a blast getting candy from strangers while Sydney slept. After the vanity of candy wore off Emma spent her time pushing the stroller and trying to get her grandparents with it!

Her is Emma sharing some m&ms with her cute little bee cousin Huddy!

Emma "falling" out of her stroller at the peak of her sugar high!

Once we returned home Emma promptly fell asleep and took about an hour nap. Soon we had trick or treaters aplenty coming by as well as frinds and family stopping in to share a glass of wine and some taco soup that I made yesterday, what a successful holiday!

October Cooking Day Completed!

My morning began late which was nice! Emma usally wakes us up between 7 and 7:30 but this morning we got to sleep until 8:30!
I rushed right out of the house because I had forgotten to purchase the foil pans that I use for freezing the majority of the meals in and made it back home by about 9:00.

The first item that I made today was a new one, using pre-
packaged bisquit dough I created apple cinnamon pull aparts.
They smell delicious, cinnamon, fresh apples, applesauce and
butter!

Around 10 my dad Daniel came over and helped me here you can see him assembing lasagna. It was so great to have a helper today in the kitchen, McKenzie kept an eye on the girls so I was able to focus pretty well throughout the day.

Here is another item that we put together today, a baked ziti pasta with red pepper flakes, mozzerella and parmesan cheese! It is a very tasty and filling meal

Here is a breakfast item that I put together towards the end of the the day. Apple Struessel Muffins. They have chunks of fresh apple inside and a walnut pecan struessel on top and they are delicious!

One of the recipes on todays menu was California Sushi Wraps (not pictured). This recipe made a sushi style wrap using a tortilla instead of Nori (seaweed paper). I have though been playing with some bento lunch ideas recently and had some onigiri seasoning and some seaweed in the pantry so in addition to the Wraps I also put together some california rolls and some crab and cucumber stuffed onigiri. We ate some for dinner and froze the rest (I'll have to update later I'm unsure of how well they will hold up in the freezer!

All in all it was a great cooking day. I cooked from about 9-3 with a couple of breaks to nurse the babe. Still have some clean up to do!

Tomorrow morning while making breakfast I'll also put together the last two items from my menu, pear pancakes, and apple cinnamon waffles.

Happy Halloween to all today was busy and tomorrow will be a fun filled day!!!

October Cooking Day Part #2

So, this morning after Grandma Valerie arrived to play with Emma, Sydney and I headed to the grocery store to purchase the items for my November menu. We spent about an hour and a half going through each section of the grocery store and making our choices. She was a trooper too, she was wide awake and alert in the beginning and fell asleep about half way through while I was finding the different kinds of canned beans that I needed for various chilies and other entrees. While there my cart got fuller, and fuller, and heavier with every step! Once I got to the checkout stand I was surprised by the total! $195.00 while this still feels like A LOT of money to be spending on one grocery shopping trip I have to remind myself that it is for the entire month with the exception of 2-3 trips to the store for milk, eggs, fruits and veggies. All in all I think our grocery bill for November will total only about $300.00 which is at least $200.00 savings if not more compared to when we cook as we go through out the month. Generally speaking a few times a week in the past we end up eating out and that gets expensive! However, last month with our freezer full of meals ready to eat we only went out a couple of times, all of which were social occasions and not the "I'm too tired to cook" occasions ;-)

As you can see from my photos: in the first I purchased a ton of dry goods including a variety of canned beans, tomatoes (diced, sauce, paste, with chilies etc.), sugar, flour, pecans, walnuts, bread crumbs, noodles, noodles, rice etc. I'll let you look at the picture!

In the second you can see our packed refridgerator the night before my cooking day, and before I had done any prep! Items here that will be used up tomorrow include: ground turkey, a pork roast, spinach, pork loins, chicken breasts, pilsbury bisquits and crosaints, a variety of shredded cheese, eggs, milk, apples, napa cabbage, celery, carrots, imitation crab meat, etc.

With barely any room left in the fridge, I scurried off to work where my students and I celebrated the upcoming holiday weekend with a Jack'o Lantern paper art project, healthy snacks that they brought in to share with one another and a few Halloween stories! After school was out I rushed home to help get the girls ready to go trick or treating on Linfield's Campus. Emma looked adorable as a Princess Ballerina Giraffe, and Sydney slept soundly in a reindeer costume :)

Once we arrived home after a delicious dinner out, thank you grandpa Dan! Dad put Emma to bed and I sat down and watched my DVR'd Project Runway season finale while I waited for Sydney to go to sleep for the night.

I spent the next few hours cleaning the kitchen. Cooking up some of the meat for tomorrow. Chopping up some vegetables, including 7 onions (oww my eyes!) and then cleaning up again.

I am now ready for tomorrow to begin! I'm hoping to beat my time from last month which was 8 hours. I hope that with the prep I began tonight I will be one step ahead and shave a bit off of my time from last month!

Good night!

Sleepless Night

So, last night after Emma went to bed we had Sydney swaddled like she is every night and at nap times through out the day, and in her swing. She was trying to fight sleep and suddlenly arched her back almost throwing herself out of the swing. So our first lesson last night was that she could no longer be swaddled from the belly down because she needs to have her seatbelt on now in her swing.

I began thinking maybe it would be a good idea to try to get her to start sleeping with out the swaddling blanket...this little idea lead to almost no sleep for myself, or Sydney last night.

I put her down with out her swaddle at about 9:30 she woke up immediatly but didn't really fuss much, I just had to retrieve her binkie for her every 10 minutes or so. By 10:30 I was getting tired of giving her back her binkie and I wanted to get some sleep. By 11:30 we were still at it so I put her in bed with me long enough to feed her. By 12:30 she was done eating and sleeping soundly. I moved her back to her bassinet and she continued to sleep well until about 1:30. McKenzie had quite the cough and that could have added to our light sleeping but at 2:30 after another hour of giving her her binkie I chose to feed her again, which by the way is not normal, usually she sleeps from about 8-4 or 5 in the morning not waking to eat. By 3:30 we were asleep I moved her back to her bassinet and she was awake again at 4. At which point I through in the towel (or swaddle blanket) and wrapped her up tight again. Now at 7:30 she has been soundly asleep for 3 hours....I hope I'm not still swaddling her when she starts college!

October Cooking Day Part #1

Last month I tried out some freezer cooking for the first time! It was wonderful being able to have all of our meals for the month prepared and ready to go in the freezer. Where as we usually end up eating out up to 2 or 3 times a week this past month we've only gone out 2 times all together now that has saved us some money!

So for the past few weeks I've found time to put together my October menu. This month instead of following the menu as put together by www.oamm.com I've pulled recipes from my September menu that we want to enjoy again as well as picking and choosing recipes from other fall menus found on the Once a Month Mom website. Here is a list of what's on the menu for our household this month:

Breakfast Items:
Cinnamon Pull Apart Rolls
Apple Cinnamon Waffles
Pear Pancakes
Apple Struessel Muffins

Snacks/Sides:
Corn Dog Muffins
California Sushi Wraps
Pizza Croissants

Entrees:
Parmesan Paprika Pork Chops (McKenzie's Favorite, so far!)
Deconstructed Broccoli Cheese Chicken
White Bean Chicken Chili
Baked Ziti
Taco Soup
Baked Eggrolls
Cheese with Onion Enchiladas
Cold Weather Chili
Smoked Pork (for pulled pork sandwiches)
Simple Down Home Lasagna


I'm eager to get started cooking but there was work to do prior to beginning the cooking! This week I put together a shopping list for all the items I will need. I've also looked through the recipes to see what meat I can cook the night before as well as what veggies I can chop and what needs to be defrosted.

Tonight my plan is to look through the kitchen and pantry to see what items we already have on hand so I can pair down my grocery list.

Friday morning I plan to do the shopping before work and then do my prep Friday evening followed by a good night sleep before my cooking day begins on Saturday!

Early Literacy

Tonight after putting Sydney into her baby seat on the floor, Emma ran to her bedroom and came back excitedly carrying her copy of Goodnigt Moon.







She sat down and I went to pick up the book to read it to the girls. But, instead Emma yelled, "NO!!! Emma!!!" Then she say down next to Syd Syd and started reading to her. (pointing to pictures and naming them :) )







Soon she got tired of reading and proppd the book up for Sydney to look at.

Sydney really enjoyed looking at the black and white pictures.

Just goes to show you, kids and babies all love books as long as they are exposed to them!

Balancing Act

Well, this is officially my fifth year teaching. My second teaching 3rd grade. It's funny I was just in my classroom afterschool today thinking about how all of the sudden I really feel like I'm becoming the teacher I always imagined I would be. It was such a great day, nothing out of the normal or spectacular happened. I still had students who needed reminders on how to behave, to speak more quietly, to stay on task. But it has just settled in and is just going so well.

I feel like I know what I need to get done, the best way to get it done and which things are of urgent importance vs. which things can be put off and left to another day.

Now, with this said I do have to remind myself that I am only working half time right now and won't be back full time for almost a month still. And, I'm positive that will add a whole new dynamic to my current outlook, but I have so many positive feelings right now about this year, this group of kids, my teaching partners, my school. I feel like I'm coming into my own and I like the way it feels!

My house, on the other hand is feeling the effects of two babies, two working parents and two dogs. There are endless loads of laundry, piles of dishes, toys to be tripped over in all rooms including our bedroom and both bathrooms! I guess it all is just about balancing, learning to let go of the small stuff, choosing my battles and deciding which is really most important. I heard a poem about kids and clutter that I keep meaning to adopt as my motto, if only I could let go of the stressful feelings that come every so often from the mess that can be at home some days!

Cleaning and scrubbing can wait for tomorrow,

For babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow.

So settle down cobwebs and dust go to sleep,

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

(Ugh...I get teary eyed just reading the last line!)

Onigiri Bento Box Lunches

So, while at Uwagimaya on Saturday I purchased some rice molds to make onigiri (rice balls) as well as some seasoning, and some plastic sushi grass. I got the idea for bento box lunches from a Nichole, a sister from my Chi Omega days. So this morning I made some steamed rice in our rice cooker, mixed in the seaweed and sesame seed seasoning and then formed onigiri in the shape of bears, stars, hearts and cubes. In the pictures above there is: Emma's bento box lunch with carrots, hot dog pieces, a star shaped cheese slice, a smiley bear onigiri, a star onigiri with sprinkles and a cube onigiri, and then my bento box lunch with onigiri, cheese, lunch meat, pickles and carrots. This was very fun to make today, I hope Emma enjoys eating it while at daycare too. I've also ordered some special bento box lunch box sets from ebay but they probably won't get here until December as they are coming straight from Japan!

Off topic but I just wanted to include a picture of Sydney and her carved pumpkin from Grandpa Dan's last night too!

3 Month Photo Shoot

Last night McKenzie was DJing a halloween party and Emma was spending the night at grandma's house, so it was the perfect opportunity for me to do some scrapbooking. While doing that I realized that I hadn't done any little photo shoots with Sydney for quite some time so I set up the cute tutu that Grandma Valerie got Emma and took some pictures of Sydney this morning while Emma was still out. As you can see Sydney was not too happy about this but I think I got one good picture :)

Sydney was not the happiest of campers so we only got a few shots but I wanted to celebrate her 3 month birthday!

Tummy time in an itchy skirt is no fun!
This was a nice relaxed pose though.

This one is my favorite!

Happy baby girl!

Afternoon at Uwajimaya

Today the girls and I spent the afternoon at Uwajimaya Japenese Grocery store, and then had lunch at their restaurant. We had a great time with Grandma Jean and now Emma is spending the night with grandma and I'm enjoying a quiet Saturday evening at home while McK is DJing a party and Sydney is sleeping soundly in her swing :)

I'm getting all the supplies together to begin creating Bento style lunches for Emma to take with her once a week at daycare come January. I've ordered a couple of really cute kids lunch box sets from Japan and so for fun went to Uwajimaya today where I found some molds to use to create mini "onigirl" or rice balls in fun shapes including: cubes, stars, and animals, I'll post more about those once I try them out!

After we explored the store and did a little shopping we dropped our goods off in the car and I fed Sydney then we returned for lunch in their restaurant. We ordered Emma a rice ball with sour plum filling. She at first sight shouted, "CAKE!!!" Soon she was digging in and soon was unsure of what to do as sticky rice was covering her fingers and she couldn't get it off, it was a pretty funny sight! She did eat most of the riceball, and it was quit fun to watch her disect her meal!

Pumpkin Patch Pictures

The Pee Pee Song!

So decided to begin the journey of potty training today. We ate breakfast and then spent the last two hours "playing" in the bathroom. We put towels down on the floor, (thanks to the genius who decided that carpet belonged in the bathroom...) put Emma in her new Elmo Panties, put out her little on the ground potty as well as the Elmo seat on the big potty. We spent our time talking about pee pee and poo poo. Reading potty related books, Potty Time with Elmo, and Once Upon a Potty. Emma also brushed her teeth, and I did her hair. She applied generous amounts of lotion to herself, and drank a lot of water. By the end of the two hours she went through two pairs of panties and we have three towels that have wet spots!

All in all it was a busy morning. We didn't successfully use the potty but we had a good time!

Emma's potty song: (to the tune of Jingle Bells just like Elmo does on Elmo's World)

Pee pee pee

Pee pee pee

Pee pee pee pee peeeeeeeee

Pee pee pee pee pee pee pee pee pee pee pee pee pee!!!!!

Today while playing her drum, Emma woke Sydney up from her first morning nap....big surprise!

Sydney was pretty happy to be awake though, and once I unswaddled her she started kicking and waving her arms about with a grin on her face. As she moved I suddenly noticed her gaze find her feet and freeze there. She spent the next few minutes focused right on her toes! It was fun watching her discover her feet. This week she is suddenly spending more and more time awake and happily watching her surroundings :)

Emma has also had some developmental changes this week. She is really proving to us that some days can really be terrible twos while others she is just a doll! Here is a photo of her last night eating her dinner like a "big girl" The night before however she was not eating like a big girl and instead was stuffing her mouth full, and refusing to chew or swallow! She is so stubborn sometimes, I think she must get that from both her mom and her dad!

Yesterday Emma had her two year check up, below is a photo of her "terrible two" stubborn face. I got this reaction after telling her "no, you cannot have my camera" she can be so serious! It's hard to not laugh at her sometimes because she can be so particular about what she wants and when she wants it!

We keep thinking that the terrible twos can't last too long and then we remember about the time Emma out grows them, Sydney will just be getting started!

Multiple Birthday Weekend

This past weekend we spent celebrating our birthdays, McKenzie turned 33 on Sunday and I turned 30 0n Monday. To celebrate we had a family lunch at my aunts house and then went out to dinner with some friends and then out to a local bar, I partook in some drinks, something I had not done in close to three years due to our babies, boy it was fun to remember the way things used to be! With the exception of the extreme exhaustion we both felt all day Sunday...that never used to be the case! Emma spent both Friday and Saturday nights up in Lake O with Grandma Valerie, and Sydney spent her first overnighter here in town with Grandma Jean on Saturday night! We are so lucky to have grandparents who choose to be so involved with our little ones! It was fun giving Sydney 100% attention on Friday, and then giving ourselves all the attention on Saturday!

Emma continues to be the fantastic helper with her sister :) She is always quick to replace the "bink bink" once Sydney starts to wail! However, it seems Syd is beginning to get increasingly interested in her surroundings! She is spending more and more time awake, sitting up or laying in her play gym and starting to bat at toys!

On Sunday, once we got both the girls back at home we headed to the pumpkin patch with Grandmas and Grandpa Dan and Uncles Bryce and Blake too! Grandma Valerie had fun taking some pictures (can't wait to see 'em), going down a slide, watching pumpkins being shot out of cannons, driving toy tractors, playing with balloons and the hay and pony rides!

Monday sent me and McKenzie back to work, and brought on the dreaded "30" for me. I do have to say though I kinda like 30. I know myself better than I did at 20 and really am enjoying my life right now as it is. I accomplished the goals I wanted to by 30, I've had my two beautiful daughters, I've married my best friend, I'm loving my teaching career, completed my masters degree. Life is good. I'm looking forward to the upcoming bunches of excitement in the years to come!