Where does the time go?

December was a roller coaster ride. But now we are in January and I almost feel bored. Just kidding. Not with 2 2 1/2 year olds and an almost 5 year old.

December quick recap: I and I were sick with a cough and ear infections and went to a walk in clinic to get antibiotics, then N got it for a week (but no ear infection, just a cough), then E got it for 4 days (somewhere in there, K got it, too) and E ended up in the hospital for a couple of days with beginnings of pneumonia (on antibiotics). Then N had a surgery for a cyst on her neck. Then K's parents were here for Christmas, then we went to my parent's house and now we're home for a loooong time. Oh, and K took antibiotics, too, but is still coughing... The rest of us are healthy for now.

N had surgery to remove a cyst on her neck and I had spent the day at the hospital with E. I really wished I could be both places, but E had a hard time at the hospital and was really needy. He ended up being able to go home the same day N had her surgery so we were all together that night, which was good. My mom was here, too so she could watch the boys while K & I were with N at surgery. But it ended up being I with my mom, me with E and K with N. If that makes any sense. Anyway, so I saw N that night after having surgery about 10:30 in the morning. She was totally normal. She had a couple of doses of Tylenol - one that night and one the next day and she was totally fine. Her usual crazy, happy self. After surgery with general anesthesia. K said she napped a little after the surgery, but that was it. I was really surprised. I guess I expected more pain or sleepiness. Oh! And she had to be on antibiotics for a few days after surgery, too. So we all had antibiotics during the month of December. They are pretty cheap after you've met your deductible for the year. Just saying.

We had a great (and healthy) Christmas! We spent a lot of time with the cousins and K's parents. It was fun! N loves playing with her cousins that are her age because they are girls. :) And the boys love to play with different toys at their cousins' house. We also ate a lot. I think I gained 4 pounds. Seriously. Our treadmill is broken and it's cold outside and I have no self control around food. Bad combination.

We had good trip to my parents' house, too. Well, not the actual trip, but seeing my family was fun! The trip back was fine, because they all slept a lot!

Now we are looking forward to N's 5th birthday in a week. How did she get to be 5 already?! She is so excited for her birthday! Especially because she will get to go to preschool on her birthday and bring the snack.

Maybe I'll even post pictures of her birthday. But don't hold your breath...

The boys are 2!

Yes, they've been 2 for a few weeks now, but I'm obviously not blogging very regularly. We celebrated on June 18th with a family party. Here are a couple pictures from their birthday party:

I ordered the big cookie from a lady here and she did a great job! I loved it - she even used the same colors in my "theme". I wanted to do an airplane birthday party, but had trouble finding an airplane cake. I tried to order an airplane cake from a lady that my sister knows, but she didn't do airplane cakes. Anyway, the big cookie was wonderful! And the boys could eat it by themselves and didn't make a huge mess.


In the past few weeks, I've noticed that E has become Mr. "I do it." He wants to do everything himself. E cracks me up all the time. He says the funniest things or imitates things. I love how he says "glasses" or "playset" because he has a little bit of a lisp.

I has become more of a mama's boy. I is also talking more. He is pointing out more things and saying what they are. E has been talking quite a bit, too, but I wasn't talking as much. I also loves to throw things. Anything. He especially loves to play catch. And swing. He spends a lot of time swinging outside.

N still has a very short attention span (unless she is playing on the xoom or watching TV). Not the best things for a 4 year old to do. She loves to read books. She also loves to help in the kitchen with baking. She also will play for short periods by herself in her room! In other news, N started waking up in the morning with a dry diaper, so she is now sleeping in her underwear. I know, so exciting!

Mother's Day

I got exactly what I asked for for Mother's Day: sleep and not having to cook. A typical Sunday.

I got to sleep in until 8:00! I had nursery in the boys' room at church at 9:30 and then went to church with Emma. We went out for lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant (the usual Sunday lunch spot). They have a lunch buffet and it is so good. I ate way too much. In addition to the usual stuff (chicken & beef burritos, steak chimichangas, cheese quesadillas, make your own tacos, delicious pico de gallo, cheese sauce, chicken & beef enchiladas, etc.), they had added pork burritos which were delicious. Now I'm getting hungry!

I took a looooong nap in the afternoon and then we picked up Subway and went to the park for a picnic. Fun was had by all! Michael finally went down the slide by himself. The same slide over and over. Samuel has been going down the slides by himself for a little while. And they all love the swings.

We went home around 7 and called our moms to wish them a happy mother's day.... After the kids' bedtime, I watched Gilmore Girls and ate ice cream with a brownie. Yum!!! It was a great mother's day!!

Easter

Happy belated Easter! We had a fun Easter weekend with K's parents here visiting. We spent lots of time with them and with the cousins. So fun! Friday night we went to friends' house and made resurrection rolls. They were a great illustration of Jesus' resurrection! And they were really yummy and fun for the kids. They will be a new tradition for our family! We also dyed eggs and frosted cookies (the kids did mostly) with the cousins and Grandpa and Grandma on Saturday morning.

Dyeing eggs with Daddy at the cousins' house
Samuel getting in on the frosting of cookies

We went to church Saturday night for the Easter service. It was great! Lots of loud music! On Easter morning we did an Easter egg hunt at our house and had lunch at the cousins' house. We had another egg hunt that afternoon. The kids loved it!
E-man finding eggs

Emma striking a pose for the camera

I did one last round of the resurrection eggs with Emma yesterday and then packed up the plastic Easter eggs and decorations. May we be reminded all year of the joy of Easter and Jesus' resurrection!

(Big thanks to Aunt M for taking the pictures!)

Quick cookie update

On Saturday, Emma & I made some yellow cake mix cookies and I filled half with vanilla frosting and half with chocolate frosting. I liked the yellow cake mix cookies best - probably because they weren't so thick. I liked both types of frosting. Although I think next time I'd use a different chocolate frosting. I made the kind I use to frost brownies and it was a little runny. Still tasted good, though. And I did freeze at least half of them so I wouldn't eat them. I have no self-control around sweets.

Here is a link to the recipe on my good friend's blog, if you'd like to make them yourself: http://blessedintheprairie.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/out-of-the-box/
Yum!!

Live blogging

I'm live blogging a cooking project with Emma. We got a fancy Xoom which is in need of a name. So I'm typing from the kitchen while waiting for the milk to "become" buttermilk. Now she is doing the sprinkles. And I'm sure I'm getting food on this thing. Pardon me, I need to open the sprinkles...there she's back at work. We're making filled cookies but I'm sure I did something wrong because there are supposed to be 30 cookies, but we will be lucky to get a dozen. I'm sure they will still be good, though - just large. Well, they smell good. Gotta go, Emma wants to play angry birds. :-)

Updated later: The cookies are yummy. They are chocolate cake cookies with vanilla frosting in the middle - like an oreo only better. They are very large and filling if you eat a whole one. I split one with Emma and she only finished 1/2 of her half. Next time we will use the right scoop (I later figured out that I grabbed the large scoop not the small cookie-sized one). You think I would notice that!

The missing months

Yes, the van is fixed. It only took a few weeks, but obviously I haven't updated my blog since then.

My month(s) in summary:

September was busy. We went to visit K's parents over Labor Day and had a fun time! Now if I say we're going somewhere, Emma asks if it is a long drive (like her grandparents' house) or if it's a short drive. We did a Operation Christmas Child box for church and I was trying to explain that it would go to a child far, far away and she said "like Grandpa & Grandma's house?". I think we need a globe to explain that one.

At the end of September, we went on a trip to Estes Park, Colorado with our good friends (T, D, N (3 year old) & E (1 year old)) from Nebraska. Emma had fun with her BFF, N. This is not a great picture, but so cute!

Emma (L) and N

The kids took turns passing around sicknesses - that's what happens when you have 3 "babies" and 2 toddlers, I guess. The babies got it the worst with croup-like sickness. Actually, my friend, D, got it the worst with the stomach flu. Not fun! We took turns watching the kids...K and T went hiking one day and hiked up Hallett's Peak and Long's Peak. It was lots of walking! K and I went hiking one day, too. I should have spent more time preparing for that. I was huffing and puffing up the mountain! D and I went shopping one day, too. We took Emma and N for a little while and let them pick out shirts to buy. And a snack.

The fam at Bear's Lake - Samuel, K, Emma, me, Michael

We celebrated N's 3rd birthday while we were there and D's birthday, too, but I won't say how old she is! : ) We also went on lots of little hikes with the kids. We stayed at T's dad's house, so that was great! We could cook our own meals and do laundry and everything. It was lots of fun!

Hmmmm...October I don't really remember. Halloween was fun. It was basically Emma's first time and she really enjoyed it. Last year, it was super windy and the boys had runny noses. This year it was perfect weather. We went around the neighborhood with my sister-in-law and kids. They all had a blast!

Lion, Cinderella and Cow

November. I'm sure I'll forget something, but I'm skipping to Thanksgiving. K's parents came and his mom's sister came, too. We hosted Thanksgiving. K's brother, wife and kids live 5 minutes from our house, which is great! We ate lots of food...LOTS of yummy food. K and I also went Black Friday shopping since his parents were at our house. It was fun! We went to Tar-get. K waited in line while I shopped and it worked wonderfully (for me anyway). We also went to Men-ards. Totally crazy. But still fun. Both places "only" took about an hour to get through the line. We were going to stop for breakfast, but ended up only getting donuts at a gas station since we had a carpet remnant sticking out of the back of the van.

Speaking of carpet remnants....we got a "free" pool table the Monday before Thanksgiving. The actual table was free, but we ended up getting pad and carpet to go under it and we had it re-felted so it wasn't exactly free. But it is a nice pool table!

And here we are in December. K is going skiing this weekend with a co-worker friend. My parents are coming for the weekend. Yes, I'm a wimp. But they can also babysit for me when I go to our Life Group Christmas party. And they can help with all the questions (Emma) and getting into EVERYTHING (boys). And it's way more fun to cook for more than one person + kids.

I'm actually done Christmas shopping (early for me). I did a lot of shopping online this year. I'm not, however, done wrapping the gifts. Not even close.