Monster cookies

Sunday's baking project:

Monster Cookies

From Paula's Home Cooking

Servings: 3 dozen Prep Time: 13 min

Cook Time: 10 min Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

1 cup granulated sugar

1 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

3 eggs

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 12-ounce jar creamy peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon baking soda

4 1/2 cup quick-cooking oatmeal (not instant)

1/4 cup raisins, optional

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup multi-colored chocolate candies

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats.

In a very large mixing bowl, combine the eggs and sugars. Mix well. Add the salt, vanilla, peanut butter, and butter. Mix well. Stir in the chocolate candies, chocolate chips, raisins, if using, baking soda, and oatmeal. Drop by tablespoons 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 minutes. Do not over bake. Let stand for about 3 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool.

My side Notes: I used my Kitchenaid mixer with the dough hook attachment to mix these and it worked awesome. I also added about ¼ cup of coconut and substituted the raisings for Cherry juice infused Craisins for delicious goodness. Letting them cool before moving to the wire rack is very important because they are squishy for the first few minutes after taking them out of the oven. Let them sit for a couple minutes then place on wire rack to cool a little more.

Enjoy the delious Goodness!

Tonight I made banana bread...

Tonight I made my favorite banana bread recipe.  I found it several years ago in a Family Fun magazine.  Its no fail.  The secret ingredient is the sour cream. 
Enjoy
Recipe is here

Lego table

Here I am!  blogging about my most recent project!  Oh and I found a blogger app for my new phone so this is gonna be awesome!!!!

This project came to me from Pinterest, my new favorite website.  I knew I hD to make once for my boy.  I found this coffee table at the local goodwill for $7 and a soon as I saw it I knew what it was for. 

The hardest part was finding the Lego baseboards. I found them online for different prices but learned quickly that Duplo costs a lot more than the regular Lego base.  After I found out that they are interchangeaable with all sizes of Lego I decided to buy the cheaper small Lego plates. I found 2 at Toys R Us for $7.99 each and since we were using a christmas gift card I also got Jax a small fire cheif and vehicle to go with it: 

I decided to velcro the lego bases onto the table so that I can remove them and we could interchange the activities later. 

The original table I found on on Pinterest had a little white dash road around the edge so of course I needed to do this.  I've only gotten as far as painting them and haven't decided if I should seal them or paint more onto the table. 

Jaxon loves his new play table as does his big sister.  Win win! 

New goal for my blog

It is my intention to blog all of my projects, from here on out.  yup, new goal.  Losing weight too....but that's another story and not for my blog! 

Just wanted you to know.

I'm challenging myself to blog at least weekly.  Lord knows I do more than one project of some sort a week.  So, here we go.....

Inspiration can come from strange places

This fall our family went to the annual Pumpkin hurl and medival faire in Snohomish.   It was quite fun, I'm pretty sure we all enjoyed all of it.

I was hit by a small bit of inspiration while walking around looking at booths.  I found this...

I would assume by now your asking, "What is this thing? is that a hat? what the heck?" Well my friend, yes, it is a hat. This wonderful crafter makes these gorgeous hats as you see and while I fell madly in love with this particular piece it was priced at $55. I looked at this and thought, "I could totally make that." Why would i do that you ask? Well you see...In my past life I was a preschool teacher. My favorite book is "Where The Wild Things Are." I get such joy out of reading that book aloud to kids, I can't explain it, I just do. So, serioiusly since I've had my son, I've been wiating for just the right time to dress him up as Max, the boy in the story for halloween. I've been trying to figure out just how to do this. Literally like two years now.
I found a girl through work who knitted a hat for Jaxon to look like wolf ears.  $20
Then, about a couple weeks went by and I decided to go to a thrift store to try to find some hats i might be able to use.  I spent a good week looking around trying to find things to use for our costumes. I ended up buying a couple of hats and an awesome brown velvety dress (it looked like soft fur to me). Total spent $6.50
About a week later I took myself to the fabric store and bought some felt and fur and a much needed new pair of scissors.  Total spent after coupons $22. 
I literally spent 3 weeks of my life crafting, creating, working in my free time to make 3 wild thing hats, and turning one pair of little pj's into a wolf suit.  I did at one point ask a friend to help who had a sewing machine, just with the feet and crown.  Otherwise I sewed the entire project by hand. My husband helped one night iwth some of the teeth because my hands were in such pain from my tendonitis.  so, I can't entirely say I did it all by myself.
Basically I created the most awesome halloween costumes ever for our entire family and I'm quite proud of the outcome.  We were a bit silly if alone...but if we were all traveling together we were quite the team.

Ignore my freakiness...and simply adore the kids...I said ADORE!

My husband and I...go on, say it...aaaaahhhh

Max, the wolf is quite busy

Max is charming those wild things again

Let the wild rumpus start

Front of his costume

I've seriously never gotten more satisfaction from a project.

trick or treating

I adore this one. The man who sets up the greatest Halloween display I've ever seen, loved the little man. jaxon about freaked when he knelt down to talk to him. lol

one more trick or treat

Now, its simply time to clean the house.  I have ignored it for a month.

When it rains it pours

It seems like most days of this ridiculous year, that rain occurs a lot these days. I'm trying to stay on the sunny side, working on being optimistic about the outcome from all of the crap in our lives right now. It is very difficult when you get one problem figured out and the next day it rains again.
There is no easy solution. Life is what it is. It's not easy right? I mean easy would be boring after all. I feel so blessed that I have such an awesome husband, who despite my daily gripes I love completely and wouldn't give him away for all the change in the world. (well, maybe, how much would that be? jk!) My kids are the chocolate to my chip and make every day survivable. Here is why:

I was handed a home made ticket as I walked in the front door yesterday and told that it was for the movie after dinner in my tweens bedroom. The kids had been working all afternoon on the movie theater and all of it's greatness. The theater was even named in French as she has been trying to learn the language with some library media. The movie tickets were punch cards, i guess so we could continue to come back. The movie of the night, Surfs Up, a lovely penguin flick sure to make us all happy.
Jaxon was wearing a cape, made by his big sister. He, of course, was running around the living room and up and down the halls yelling, "I flying, I flying! Woosh!" You'd have to be made of stone to not love that.
We had dinner and watched about 1/4 of the film until Jaxon had unplugged the tv and we were apparently done. Being as it was his bedtime anyway we enjoyed a few books and down he went.
I really can't hate that. Any of that. I'd have to be stone. They really do make every day better. I can't wait to get there now.

Death and the crap that follows

It is not easy to hear that someones about to die. For anyone. Typically a parent dying is going to drive anyone into emotional downtraught. June 24th my father passed away.
He had battled with Parkinson's disease for many years, just as his father did several years prior. My father and I were not close. Infact, until recent years a father to me was someone who called you maybe 3 times a year and discussed the weather because he didn't know what else to say to you. Many of my good friends also were raised by their single mother. It was odd to me to grasp the concept of having two parents. It had probably been about a year since I last saw or talked with my dad. Mostly because last time I tried to call I was told by my step mother that he could no longer talk on the phone because he kept falling down and they wouldn't allow him to have one in his room at the nursing home any longer. I thought, possibly she would offer to use her cel phone from his room to call me so I could speak with him, but no such luck.
There is a lot of anger built up inside me when it comes to him and maybe there shouldn't be now that he's passed but there is. In fact, I think it's almost worse now as I am angry that I'm not that upset. We went down the day he passed as he was in a coma, to say goodbye. I didn't have much to say. My siblings sure did. I had nothing. That's a strange feeling. I held his hand a bit. They talked. I listened. And then I just felt bad for them at their loss. That's not right is it?
So anyway, I learned about the funeral on the internet. Again, no one bothered to call me, shocker. I will show up like a good daughter would and do what is expected of me, and then I assume be done with that side of the family with the exception of my sisters. I may or may not see my step brother and his family again. We shall see, it'd be nice, I like them. but being as it was 15 years until I saw him at the nursing home that day, I'm guessing it's not likely.
My step mother will most likely never see me again. I say this because she's never seemed to care to see me any other time she's seen me. So I'm assuming this will be the case. After all, I did belong to my mother not her.
So there, that's it.
I can't wait to have closure on all of this soon. I wish the funeral wasn't so far out.

And Summer Begins

Occasionally these days we see the sun. Tuesday was the first official day of summer. It reached about 78 degrees here. It was glorious! Today is thursday, it has rained, and the sun has shown more than one time. We are going to enjoy it when we can.
For me, most days are spent in the office from the hours of 8am-5pm. So I see the weather through the big window facing the street behind my desk. For others, during the summer, they get to enjoy the world outside. These others are my family. My husband works for a school and his last official day of work was Monday. My daughter just finished 5th grade yesterday. My son, of course, being 2 gets to enjoy every day doing whatever he wants. So, here I sit, wishing I were off work too. *sigh*
Mind you, this is only day 3 of them being home with daddy for the summer. Maybe it's the fact that he already had a full year at home. Ok, he was unemployed, but I was still jealous. It's going to be a long summer of me wishing I wasn't at work and wishing I too, were on a 2 1/2 month vacation.

First family camping experience

Over the past weekend, my family took our first ever offical family camping trip! The preparation took weeks, the planning was long, I'd been half packed for days. The trip itself lasted 3 nights.

The adventure began with a trip to Frost Donuts (http://frostology.com). The best donuts ever are made here. No, really. I had a Groupon I'd boughten a few months back and saved it specifically for this day. It was well worth it. Yum.


We left Mill Creek and headed straight for Federal Way to go meet a man about some tires. Craigslist can be a wonderful thing. My Jeep's tires were only over a year old and somehow worn to shreds, so finding these were a wonderful thing. So, we had to carry tires all weekend, so what! We met at Costco, so the kids and I went inside and found a lovely beach bucket filled with toys, hooray!

Off we were finally headed to Olympia, the state capitol, my plan to treat my daughter to a little educational moment. It being Memorial day weekend and all I found it fitting to stop at the memorials at the captiol campus so she could see them. It was good for us all. And we have some lovely photos from the captiol buildings and memorials to show for it.


The boy enjoyed all the marble staircases and tried to slide down the sides. He makes it interesting every time I tell ya.

Our trip continued to the Millersylvania state Park for camping. We arrived about 130 and found our site. It was great, nice and big, thank goodness as many of them are small there and very close together. While it was far away from the restrooms (not cool) it was a great spot and perfect for the boy.


My sister Kelly had planned on being there as well but was unable to make it until the next day. This brought fun our way as she was bringining the bbq. My husband was making carne asada fajitas. His challenge, cook meat. He tried over the fire grill, but it took forever, so he finished wiht the pan on the stove, wasn't quite the same, but the meat was cooked and we ate, and it was delicious. Smores for desert of course.

Our son being two, found the entire experience to be awesome. Dirt surrounded him everywhere, as well as rocks. We were smart and brought his 4 wheeler and a helmet. He used it all weekend long. He mostly enjoyed getting stuck and letting his tires burn out. lol. funny boy. I will upload video of this soon. The funniest part was when he would stick his hands into the dirt and dig around then complain of being messy and run over to the water spicket to wash his hands.
Our first night we were forced to sleep on the cold ground of our tent as the air pump we brought for the air mattresses required power and even though my husband brought a lovely thing from his father that should have worked being plugged into the truck, work it did not. It was a cold hard night. I awoke at 1am and decided it was a must to go out to find the bathrooms. It was Blair Witch Project dark out there!! As you can imagine I did not continue the walk to the bathroom but found the nearest tree and ran back into the safety of the tent where my husband was snoring away. The children were exhausted and fell asleep ok but woke up at 330 am. All I have to say is thank goodness for the Ipod Touch! The kids watched cartoons and I tried to sleep. By 6 am they had both fallen asleep splendidly! And momma got to sleep until 9!

Breakfast was wonderful, bacon, eggs, toast on the fire! My husband is good for cooking! :) Jaxon ate most of our bacon though, little rugrat would steal some and run away and say Yum!


My sister Kelly arrived around 1030 and Jaxon greeted her with a huge hug full of oatmeal fingers! That was great. We were so happy she came and it was a fun time. I'm pretty sure Tallyn is her twin. They sure had fun together. It was so nice to see her and spend time with her as I hadn't done in years.

We spent Sunday sitting around the fire as it was cold, watching the kids play. We took the kids and dog on a walk to the lake and played there for a bit until the boy needed his nap. Thank goodness for a good air mattresses and naps. Yes, my sister saved the day with her battery powered air pump. Note to self, but battery powered air pump! As the boy slept we made smores...shhh don't tell him.
Dinner was brought to us buy Kelly. She barbecued shishkebobs! But to her sadness forgot the veggies at home, lol. We survived and chowed down the meat and our pasta and potato salads. It was wonderful.

After a good nights sleep on the lovely air mattress, we all slept wonderful and did not shiver all night. The kids even slept in! We had breakfast by the camp fire. We toasted bagels over the fire, and man oh man was that good stuff! After some lounging by the fire it was time to pack up camp. I took some time in the tent separating a few things as our next destination was to be Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, Wa. The kids were completely unaware and I could not spill the beans as I had kept this secret for a good two months.

We hugged Kelly goodbye and spent two good hours of packing up the truck. The kids spent most of that in the truck watching a dvd, thank goodness for those portable dvd players. At exactly Noon we were on our way out of camp. Bidding the woods adieu, and headed for home! *cough cough* A short 15 minute drive found us at Great Wolf lodge, see the video posted under this post for the surprise!! It was so fun to see Tallyn's face light up with shock and excitement!!!!! She didn't believe us at first and asked me how I paid for it! Funny girl. Me and my deal finding, she wanted to know how I did. Luckily with a nice deal through work, I was able to get a discount on the room during a weeknight.


I'm leaving out the problem we had with the stupid, ignorant, dont ever use them dog kennel (Nelly's Ark Inc. NO one was there! ), as it makes me angry, but long story short, We checked in and were able to upgrade our room from a family suite to a Kid Kabin of awesomeness! My husband had to make the two hour drive to get the dog to a wonderful friend so we could enjoy our stay at the lodge as no pets are allowed. Luckily the little guy went right down for a nap
on the big ol comfy bed, so he slept most of the time dad was gone and my daughter and I relaxed with some TV, her in the top bunk of her cabin, and I unpacked in peace and quiet in a warm room by the fireplace, aaaaaahhhh!
Tallyn was swimsuited up and ready to go to the waterslides by the time Jaxon woke up from his nap and he was ready within minutes.

Unsure of this overwhelming environment we had thrown him into he had a blast despite it all! He is definately in love with water. Tallyn loved the wavepool. I loved the fact that there was a billion lifeguards all over and I felt ok letting her go off on her own instead of making her wait around and play with her little brother in the baby pool. After a good hour or so we decided to see if Daddy had returned and went back to the room for a snack. It was a long trek indeed to room 6038, but well worth the walk each time to relax. Daddy was indeed there and we snacked and off we went again to enjoy the water with Dad!

The greatest part of our adventure here was this: Tallyn wanted to play the MagiQuest game the hotel offers which is pricey, but being the Harry Potter fan she is we knew this was inevitable. We were splashing in the pool all together as a lovely little family when it occured to me as she asked one more time, "Can I play Magiquest?" That it would be a splendid idea to tell the child she must try the waterslides before we would even consider spending money on the game for her to play during our stay. She has awful anxiety associated with her ADD and sensory disorder so we knew this would be huge and may not happen and we may not need to pay out. Well, guess what happened? Someone came out of her shell and said, "OK, I'll do it!" It took a little bit but she did it, she went down the waterslide all by herself. I wish I had a picture or video of this but the camera was not waterproof so I did not take it inside the waterpark. She got off the slide and I was right behind her (my second time) said, that was scary, and moments later said, "I wanna try the yellow one." It was amusing! So I said, "Awesome, see it's fun! Now, to get Magiquest you must go on one of the big ones, with Daddy." She was hesitant but DID IT!! He said she cried the whole way down, she said he laughed at her. I'm guessing she went way fast with im in the raft. We were done with the water at this point, as it was time for MagiQuest.

The girl did it, she got $60 bucks out of us! As it was more economical to purchase the "paw pass" then just the game itself for $30. With the paw pass the kids were able to share activities including, making a stuffed animal (a wolf for Jaxon), a wand and game of Magiquest, a snack and souvineir drink cup from snack bar in the waterpark, a glitter tattoo, 20 tokens to the arcade and a color your own tshirt or pillowcase (Tallyn got the tshirt that we all colored together).

Jaxon and I enjoyed night time story time by the big tree and Tallyn and Dad went off to start the quest. Jaxon was a bit weary of the big talking trees and animated creatures, but enjoyed it, I think. He also enjoyed the guy in the Wolf costume that came out to read the story with the nice lady.

Now, you should know, MagiQuest is fun. It is a lot of work. It is time consuming. And they should allow it all hours of your stay, but they do not. It turns off at 10pm and back on at 9am. Granted you should sleep, I mean, your kids should, ahem. Tallyn and I played the game after dinner until it closed down, at which point we played games in the arcade and had a blast together. Then we went down to the lobby and played Checkers on the big huge log checker tables. That was fun, I won! LOL! We returned to the room to find the boys fast asleep in their beds and we had some lovely strawberry shortcake for a late night snack before retiring to the super comfy beds. The whole family had a wonderful nights sleep. What a way to end a camping trip! I highly recommend it to anyone.

Tuesday morning we awoke and ate a quick breakfast and went right to the fun. Tallyn had a quest to accomplish and Jaxon and I went into the arcade for some fun. Sadly there were only two things he could do in there. But I won 85 tickets with one hit on the wheel of fortune! yeah me! Check out is 11am and so we returned to our room to pack up our things. We packed a single bag to take to the waterpark and went to play one last time. We again had a blast. Our little man tired out much quicker this time so after a few slides with my girl we had a snack and packed up to try to finish her quest. We made the tshirt in the cub club and then We let Tallyn work on her quest some more while Jax and I played in the cub club and read stories and he played in the little house there. Sadly, however, she did not finish the quest and by 2:30 the whole family was worn out and ready to leave, so we did.

Not 5 minutes into the drive both kids were fast asleep. We all really enjoyed our family vacation and hope to do it again soon.

BEST SURPRISE EVER!!!

Living with lifes challenges

It seems my family is presented with challenges daily. Well, really, whose family isn't? Maybe we just feel that the challenge fairy picks us more than others..maybe we are being selfish by taking all the stressful challenges for ourselves. My husband and I would be very happy to share these daily life challenges and stresses with anyone who would be willing to take them from us.

Be it financial, time, car problems, scheduling problems, household problems, medical problems, putting the kids first we are here for it all. The long haul. We have been married for almost 7 years, I can't even believe that, and in that 7 years we have endured many, many, many trials. I found these Buddhist wedding vows on the internet and found them fitting...

“In the future, happy occasions will come as surely as the morning. Difficult times will come as surely as the night. When things go joyously, meditate according to the Buddhist tradition. When things go badly, meditate. Meditation in the manner of the Compassionate Buddha will guide your life. To say the words ‘love and compassion’ is easy.But to accept that love and compassion are built upon patience and perseverance is not easy.”

Mommydom

In life there are many changes that occur. We all have to go down a path and decide where it takes us. Take graduation for example, I've been lucky enough to experience it twice. We spend all of our time learning how to succeed at school only to be released out into the unknown with a wonderful celebration where everyone tells you how proud they are of you and what you have accomplished. Mommydom has many changes that occur, many paths to chase, and the celebration at the end of the trails are multiple, but not for you. You celebrate your children's accomplishments, moments of excitement, every little path they take, you are along for the ride.
My kids are really making me feel the end of a big path recently. Tallyn has only one month left of Elementary school. She will celebrate the end of fifth grade June 21st, and I will cry like nobodies business. I seem to be having a lot of feelings about her moving on to middle school. I keep trying to figure out why. I think I've come to the conclusion that its the fact that she is becoming her own person and I am simply here to make sure she survives it all.
She has become someone who is excited about singing, drawing, writing, and is trying to learn who she is quietly and slowly. yes I said slowly, like a turtle. Which makes me jump out of my Mommydom cave and bite sometimes, but she survives. I'm hoping at some point the child will catch on to things and go after them with a little gusto instead of like a snail climbing up the side of a house.
She makes me proud though, that's for sure. Tomorrow night is the last choir concert of elementary school She will be singing a solo. I Will cry. Sigh. I just do.
My son is jumping from milestone to milestone and amazing me daily. Just in the past few days he moved into a big boy bed and out of his crib. The transition was way less painful for him than I. I go in and peek at him in his bed and get a little emotional at my big boy lying there, because I have no idea where my baby went.
Mommydom is a beautiful thing. There are many paths and bumps along the way. I am learning daily that the little accomplishments and milestones they overcome are the celebrations of mommydom.

THE FOOT

I just realized I should mention the injured foot of my daughter...it's been 4 weeks and at this point she is walking normally. She has returned to full function and while she does say it hurts now and again has improved enough that she will go back to her bowling league tomorrow morning. We will see how that goes for her. Hoping it's ok and she doesn't twist it. I'm certain I would if it were me...

TANTRUMS

Have I mentioned I live with a 2 year old? Yeah, well, I do. It's apparent daily. I mean he has been two now for a total of 19 days so, you know, it's bound to happen. Now, my husband always says that our daughter threw tantrums, no, no she didn't. Jaxon on the other hand is slowly becoming an expert. If something is occuring that he is not happy about he will let you know it immediately and under no uncertain terms that he would like things to go his way and not yours.
For instance, every morning before work, I wake him up and change him and get him ready to head out the door to go to Nana's house. This morning however, he decided that instead of being his normal self of helping to put his coat and boots on he was having no part of it because today should not be a day that mommy leaves and goes to work. Work however, begged to differ. The child would not put his coat on and flung himself all around while screaming, tears streaming down his face and pulling his coat off as I was trying to help him to put it on. I got up and decided that instead I would try pull over fleece (heeheee, harder to get off when your 2) he picked up his little ride on motorcycle and jumped on yelling "NO NO WAY!" I did successfully get the fleece on him, he did try to take it off, but mommy won.
Next came the boots, we did not have success...I gave up. He screamed as I gathered all our bags at my feet, grabbing, yelling, crying. I had to pick him up and carry him to the car crying. The train went by, it did help for a moment of distraction, but next came the carseat. You don't wanna know.
I had to scrape the ice off the windows this morning, yes in March. Not cool. nope not cool at all. By the time I got into the car the little man was angry that the TV wasn't turned on. Yes, I said it, TV in the car. It's what us parents do nowadays to prevent crying in the vehicles. Our son, has grown accustom to this being the case almost at all times while riding in the Jeep. I feel like a horrible mother but this child has never enjoyed the car much. And with the TV he does much better. This morning was his GEOTRAX movie, choo choo trains. Choo Choo trains always save the day. He was happy all the way to nana's until I made him get out of the car. Then he yelled some more telling me how mad he was to leave his choo choo movie. Once I had him picked up and carried him into her house he was fine, but said NO when he heard her voice inside.
He went right to her as usual and was fine with me leaving, as usual.
I find it amazing that this little man seems to know how to read a calendar and truly knows when it is friday and he is ready for his week to be done. I'm pretty sure he lives for the weekend just as I do to get to spend two days at home with snuggle and playtime as a family at home. Even when I drag him to the store I'm pretty sure he's happy I'm home. Being a working mom is not always the easiest gig.

Jaxons birthday.

So, here's the finished cake. Hardest project Ive ever taken on for sure. I really really love it when I get a thought in my head and have to bring it to life. Then half way through I'm like what the hell was I thinking? Needless to say the cake exceeded my expectations in the end. I have no idea how this happened!
I was up til 3 am Saturday night finishing all the details. Took me Friday night and literally all day Sunday. But this face made it all worth it.

He woke up and I took him to see his cake. He then ran to his sister with my phone with the picture on it and woke her up saying, "Look my cake!!!" Then ran back into the kitchen trying to open the fridge and said "My train, My train". So, I took it out for him to see. He adored it, all day. I had fear he would be upset when I cut it and we ate it, but he gladly munched on it an the car, gladly.

My baby boy is getting so big, I'm so proud.

Happy Birthday my sweet bug. Mommy loves you ridiculously.

A train and a sprain

I just spent the last day making Jaxon's train cake. Yes, i said day. I left the house this afternoon for about two hours and other than that, Ive been working on that cake since Jax went to bed friday night.


Oh and did I mention my poor daughter, whom I allowed to go do something with her friends and no parents for the first time ever!!!! Went roller skating friday night and fell. She is a terrible skater, poor girl. She has sensory processing disorder and has serious balance issues, still wont ride a bike. So the few times shes been skating have been interesting. I guess some kid accidentally ran into her and she got knocked down. She is a big girl for 11 and I'm sure went down really hard. The dr thinks its just a really bad sprain but she is in a brace similar to a cast and is on crutches.
So, remember the part where I said she has sensory processing disorder? Its gonna be a long next few weeks. wish us luck.


Anyway, Jaxon is 2 today! Unbelievable. I'm so excited I baked him a cake. No seriously, did I tell you how long it took? I honestly dont know why I think I need to do projects like this, its all for me I think. I really doubt anyone else cares. i mean i think his party is going to be just a few people anyway, we shall see.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about his first haircut! Ok, well, we have cut his hair at home but we took him to professionals for the first time. a place called sports clips, strictly for guys. LOL. they did an excellent job and so did he, it was fabulous. My husband told her to give him a fohawk. apparently that's what he has now. Its kinda awesome.

Birthday overload

In an effort to share crazy ramblings of the obnoxious housewife, here I am! It's me! The annoying housewife. lol. If only I was actually able to be the stay at home housewife I aspire to be. So, here I sit, rambling, true to form yes? My last post stated I aspired to blog more, I lied apparently.

So the past few weeks of my life have been filled with birthday after birthday after birthday.

It begins the first of the year with the kids Great Grandmother who lives in oregon which is celebrated by a lovely phone call. Shortly after it is dear FIL's birthday to which the entire family was treated to a fabulous meal at the Golden Corrall where conversation was me talking to my kids and my husband, husband talking with his dad, and step mother and her daughters speaking to one another on their end of the table. Great times.

With a few days off for good behavior, dear husbands birthday came and went without fail. I, being the dear wife I am sent him a lovely plant for his office with a birthday balloon so the entire school he works for would know it was indeed his birthday. *snicker*

Our daughters birthday is next, this year turning 11. Yes, I said 11. My baby girl. My darling little sweet little princess is now an 11 year old young woman who is about 1 inch away from my height. Not that I'm tall mind you, but It's rather scary when you are yelling (yes I yell) at your kid to clean their room and they are standing infront of you staring you right in the face saying "No I don't want to" and you feel intimidated rather than intimidating. Doesn't work for me. :(

So, said birthday had a party of course. But her birthday this year landed on a Monday and the superbowl just happened to land right before this Monday and only small handful of friends were invited and all had to attend for this party to work to my liking. Yes, I said my. I planned this party, every inch, every cranny. She had nothing at all to do with it. I have never been able to keep a secret from that sweet little face before. I managed to surprise the little bugger. She knew of course that there was a party, and had say in which friends were invited. I was even nice and let her add on one more than I planned. My plan, to have a scavenger hunt party that ends with the girls finding the last clue taking them to the only thing my daughter said she wanted for her birthday...to see the Harry Potter movie in the theater before it was gone.

So, all of the girls were super excited for the scavenger hunt and came with no idea of what to expect. It worked like a charm, Harry potter napkins, sorting hat balloon, clues were fabulous, they figured it all out as I toted them in the car around town taking pictures along the way. All was great until the movie ended causing tears and sadness because of the ending...oh Dobie, why did you die? Well, they said they had fun anyway, who knew it would be sad? not like I read them! Maybe I should. lol.

So with the party and superbowl behind us her actual birthday came with no big excitement other than the joy of her being 11. She went to school, had a lovely day and daddy cooked us all dinner. Good times.

As I write this I am preparing for my son's 2nd Birthday this weekend. Yes, 2! My little baby boy is going to be 2. Oddly though, I am way more emotional about the big one turning 11.

The party this weekend will be "Choo Choo" get it, he's gonna be two...the plates have a train with the number 2, 2 coming out of the smoke... ok, well, I found it amusing. I did. Sue me. I being the nut that I am will be creating a fabulous cake that hopefully represents a lifelike train and dressing my dear sweet boy up like a little train conductor, with overalls, hat and a big ol wooden train whistle. It's my right, I suffered to birth the boy, I get to make it as crazy as I want!

Thus will end the chaos of the begining of the year, bringing life back to normal for whatever that means.

How's that for a blog. Sorry I did it now aren't ya?

I aspire to blog more, and am inspired by others. that is all....

Little chef on the counter

Long time no blog

I was just peeking in on my blog and realized I Havent posted in ages!

I feel like all of my creativity for writing is out the window when I read thru other bloggers and what they write. Where do you all come up with this stuff? I could probably go thru my Facebook status updates and find some great things, but that's kinda dumb. I'd like to update more and tell wonderful stories of my family, my kids, our lives together. Where does one begin?

To update My daughter, Tallyn is 10 now, a beautiful 4th grader. Learning the perils of puberty, friendships, life. Daily I struggle with things going on for her. It is so hard to just let your kids grow up and let them become independent little people. We are working with pediatric therapists with her trying to figure out if her diagnosis of ADD 3 years ago is accurate or not. We have a lot of issues with it, and are finding that the medications that have been prescribed don't do anything but make her an emotional wreck. She has a lot of strange little anxiety things about her that make it worse if she is on those medications. Hopefully we can figure all of this out soon. I know some of it is just growing up, but it's as though she just doesn't always get it. So, we will figure this out.

Super fun times with a toddler who definately is strong willed and has a mind of his own (no idea where that came from!) . Jaxon is just about 15 months old. He is begining to talk. He can say "Dadddy" Momma, Buddha (the dog), cookie, granpa, huh? and probably some others I haven't caught yet. He also began signing Please to us, working on a few others. He's super smart though, my little man. And super cute.

Hubby, has been without a job since November of 2009. Trying times financially for sure, but nice to have him actually around for a change. Sometimes though, I want to kick him out. But we figure it out and still like each other at the end of most days. LOL! He does not enjoy being a stay at home dad nearly as much as I would love to be a stay at home mom. And somehow isn't able to find time to do most tasks I would be accomplishing if I were home. So, I get frustrated. But I know in the end, that Jaxon is safe and loved and it's kinda nice not having to have him daycare all day...he's just with daddy.

Me? I'm still mom. Working Full time. Coming home to a crazy little family, that I like to think, couldn't live without me.

I'd like to stay home and do crafts all day. Catch up on Scrapbooking...about 9 years! Bake wonderful creations and love on my little man. But for now, I'm the breadwinner. Bringing home the bacon if you will. Thankful I have a job.

Had a great day at the mall with the fam buying miss t school clothes. found a cool store. wish i was rich

First Tooth

Well, it's finally here, Jaxon has his first tooth. Front bottom one. It's little, and cute. I'd get a picture if he'd let me, but he won't! LOL! Pretty sure he's working on the one next to it too! Little bugger!
He is also crawling I'd say officially. It's not fast yet, kinda slow but it is definately an actual crawl. Last night he was on the floor playing near his toys and daddy was watching him, I was napping and he made his way over to me he wanted me awake. it was cute.
He is also playing the drums, oh yes, I said drums. He has a little Leap Frog electronic drum, and yesterday i showed him how to bang on it, like a bongo, and he did it, he loves it, he banged and banged and banged. Smart little fella my boy! LOL! Musical already, of course! Need to get him a guitar now!
Also he had his 6 month check up last week, he is blossoming...16lbs 2 oz and 26 inches still...his head is 17 in.

Hello people! just wanted to share a small bit of my crazy life. Jaxon is 6 Months old now and sitting up, trying to crawl, getting some bottom teeth(first ones), he's eating 2nd foods biter cookies, little cereals and loves yobaby yogurts! He is wearing a 6 to 9 months now! Getting his 6 month shots tommorrow so I'll fill you in with stats. Tallyn is doing well not having a very exciting summer and very anxious for Fourth grade to begin! She has lost several teeth this summer and is working on another wiggly molar. Buddha is making me crazy as he is jealous that we are busy with the baby and he is not the baby anymore. The dog that never barks barks at me now and I don't like it one bit! Last night he pooped in the house for the first time in almost 2 years! Aaron is working. Always working, JAxon and Tallyn miss daddy and I'd like to have a husband at home to help with many things. I think he misses many great moments and I feel bad for him. It's tough on all of us all in hopes maybe one day will be better, it's a lot of struggle in moreways I Can say all for hope. Me? I'm here cleaning the house, feeding the kids, bathing them, doing a lot more laundry and vacumning because little Jax is messy and moving! I have many goals and no time to acheive any of them as work never ends. 38 Hours a week at work and 24/7 as a mom. Gotta pack the kids stuff for them to hang with mom for the next two weeks til Jax starts his daycare and Tallyn starts school.p.s. This is all typed on my little phone via text. Yeah technology!

Spiders are icky! Why do they only show up when my hubbYs away? Also I Just spilled formula on my new couch

blogging is very time consuming

My boy is 15lbs 15oz! I can't believe how big he has gotten!

Truly just wanting to update for all my followers! LOL! That's funny huh? Cuz I probably have none! Our family has been very busy lately.
Aaron is working as usual and it's summer so things are crazier than ever. This year he is the only Manager for the region and he has many venues that he is working with. White River Amphitheatre, Everett Events Center, The Gorge, Redhook Brewery, and the list goes on for festivals and such around the region. He's a busy man. He's not home a lot but when he is we sure try to take that time and make the best of it even though he's too exhausted to do anything.
Tallyn is bored....um...ok she's 9 and it's summer and well, you know! She is spending some days with Nana (who broke her arm a few weeks back!) and some with our friend/babysitter Brandi. She just came back from a 2 week trip to Oregon to visit her Great Grandma and her Great Aunt and cousins down there. Longest she's ever been away from us...it seemed to go very quickly, I'm thinking because I was busy with the baby.
So, speaking of the baby! lol! Jaxon is now 5 months and 10 days old! My how time flies! He is getting so big! He is now rolling all over the place and likes to be on his tummy a lot playing and sleeping (someone forgot to tell him he's supposed to sleep on his back!) I think he'll be crawling soon, which worries me a ton! I don't think I'll get any rest!
He has started eating big boy foods now too. He seems to love it all except for the 1st foods pureed meats, I don't blame the poor boy it stinks! Green beans were an aquired taste as well, but he'll eat em. He seems to really like prunes, but his tummy blew up...i learned to mix it with cereal and give him bananas a little later in the day! LOL!
He is now eating teething biscuits and baby mum mums (rice crackers) He loves these but gets frustrated easily when he drops them and doesn't know how to pick them up yet. So I hand them back to him (they are all slimy) and then he is happy again, vigilently biting away at it on his little gums. We are certain he is teething and are just waiting for a little bud to pop out. he is actually in quite good spritis for a first time teether. Just gets a little fussy here and there but is easily calmed down.
On another note, we fell into some new living room furniture yesterday and are so excited about it I could scream! It's so nice, and for only $50 too! you can't even get a crappy couch at the goodwill for that! A love seat, ottoman, and large chair so comfy! And it matches too~ Crazy!
So that's it for now, enjoy life...

Just testing mobile blogging!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

jaxon