The Kitchen Post

Right Now

2011-12-21T14:43:00.001-06:00

Right Now the kids are downstairs wrapping Christmas presents for me and Neal. Aedan’s is apparently something he made at school today (his last day of the year) and Lily just “shops” around the house for things and wraps them. There is a large assortment of boxed pudding and cake mixes wrapped with “snappy tape” and “oh so beautiful” bows from her under the tree, each carefully labeled by mom for their intended recipient (one even says To: Lily, From: Lily).

Can I just say this is the kindest looking Santa ever? Love Lily’s Santa Phobia. Our little village has a BIG Christmas party.

Right Now the baby is kicking me a lot. I have to go back for another ultrasound in two weeks because the baby was positioned in such a way that they couldn’t get all their measurements. We are a bit worried that I am getting a fair amount of swelling at this point in pregnancy, having low iron and such, and I am just hoping and praying I don’t wind up on complete bed rest.

Neal and Lily on the Holiday Train at the Illinois Railroad Museum

Right Now Lily’s pants are riding low as we have been working on potty training this month and she is out of diapers. She is not quite 2 1/2 yrs and if I was feeling up for it she might have been trained earlier but my goal was by the end of the year so not too bad. My limited experience doing potty training has led me to believe that potty training is more training for the parent than the kid. We just go straight to underwear, no diapers (except overnight) and while there are accidents, it works pretty well and quick. I am THRILLED to have a handful of months without diapers!

Right Now the house is a mess. What’s new.

Right Now Neal is working hard so that he can take time off for the rest of the year (starting tomorrow!). We are looking forward to a quiet Christmas at home. I can honestly say I am so thankful to not have to be dealing with the stress, money, time, and more stress of travelling for the holidays. But we do miss family.

Daddy is good for making the kids smile when they don’t want to.

Right Now I am organizing my to-do list for the weekend. We have two sets of missionaries here for Christmas Dinner (so much for quiet) and we are trying to figure out menu. So far Vichyssoise Soup, Beef Wellington, roasted veggies, rolls, salad, homemade applesauce, and maybe some pie. Most can be prepped ahead of time. What are you having for dinner?

The kids perusing the toy catalogs, marking up what they want for Christmas. We used to do this as kids, it was kind of funny to watch them do it.

Baby #3 is another…

2011-12-13T22:06:00.002-06:00

Princess :)

We guessed right! Lily was too busy watching Kai Lan on the phone to care. Aedan sobbed when I told him after school that it is another girl. I mean he really cried, it was heartbreaking. When asked later if he was sad that it is a girl he said no and yes. What he really wanted was one of each… as in twins.

Poor guy.

Updates to come!

Soccer Season

2011-11-03T11:15:00.001-05:00

I think we are all kind of glad soccer season is over. It was fun but having every Saturday taken up by games is just hard. Aedan is not an aggressive soccer player at all so a lot of it was us watching him not going after the ball but we are proud of him for trying it. He likes being on a team and pretending to do a super soccer kick but we were lucky to get him to intentionally kick the ball once a game. Guess we will have to work on that.

At least he has the intimidating look down.

Congrats buddy for sticking with it! You were fun to watch!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T09:52:00.001-05:00

People have been anxious to see what we are wearing for Halloween this year. Well sorry to disappoint but nothing new. This week I am 16 weeks into pregnancy and, well, I only have one costume that I could easily fit into.

Flattering I know. Aside from a TON of ironing out wrinkles, I had to make a new costume for Aedan. Lily does not like dressing up at all and it was a fight to get her costume on. No way was she going to let us do hair or makeup. She was a little scared of me once I blew up and has been concerned that I need to wash my face every day to keep the blue away.

And other misc Halloween fun. Scary Monster pancakes at IHOP,

and pumpkin carving with the missionaries.

Just can’t end the year without a trip to the hospital

2011-10-27T17:35:00.001-05:00

When Fall hits here this poor guy has bad allergies. He has a snort that drives me up the wall and a throat clearing noise to match. He gets itchy eyes and half the time he looks like he is just plain miserable.

We have tried every over the counter allergy medicine available and then some prescription to no avail. We have had several doctor visits including a visit to the allergist to test for reactions to various inhalant allergens and it all came back negative. The allergist claimed it was probably just “a phase”. Ya, a reoccuring phase that happens at specific times of the year. She claimed probably most of it was just “in his head”. I may not be a medical professional but, really? I don’t think so.

Which leads me to this week. Monday he caught the croup and I believe the combination with the allergies caused his airways to swell up to the point that we had to take him to the ER to help him breathe. It wasn’t until they gave him some steroids to reduce some swelling that he started to have an easier time inhaling.

He was admitted to pediatrics overnight until they could get his breathing more stable. I spent the night with him and by the morning he was much better and having a great time in the hospital. “Mom, I really like this place.” I don’t think he remembers everything that went on. Probably best.

He was released Tuesday and we’ve been home in our own infirmary. Lily and I have caught the bug too. Hopefully we can all get better in time for Halloween fun this weekend!

Mom’s Graduation–Then and Now

2011-09-29T09:55:00.001-05:00

Missing Summer already. Just before school started we went to Utah for my mom’s graduation. Since I was at her last graduation I figured it was only fitting that I came to her next one.

Obviously the dress code in Hawaii was a little more lax…

Don’t worry, I didn’t wear the same thing to her latest graduation. As if!

Congrats Grandma! A Masters in Public Administration, just because! Wow!

Lily’s Birthday

2011-09-24T00:10:00.001-05:00

I can’t believe she is already two! In many ways she has felt two for a while but now it is official. Many many months ago a mom at Lily’s library group time said to me, “I hate to tell you this but she has gone from baby to little girl in the last week.” It was so true.

Last year her birthday was kind of crazy. We had a concrete truck pull up to our place so Neal and his dad could make steps, walkways, fix existing porch, etc. and we also were in charge of a luau so Lily’s birthday was sadly the last thing on my list. I made a disaster of a cake for her birthday and ended up sending Neal’s mom to Sams club to pick up a premade cake. Oh well. I suppose the guilt had to be worked out in this year’s birthday.

It was a close contest between Dora, Tangled, and My Little Pony for a theme. I went the pony route. She loves the newer generation show, My Little Pony/Friendship is Magic series and I’ve got to admit that they are way better than the older versions. Ponies look different but oh well.

I have a long ways to go in my cake decorating skills but it turned out fun regardless. I made marshmallow fondant which is kind of yummy and cheap.

Lily caught the tail end of the decorating process and kept exclaiming, “Ooooo! So beautiful!”

She was very excited about the inside.

She loves rainbows.

Ponies and Princesses. She loved them all.

We had to celebrate a day early as Neal was supposed to have class the night of her birthday. On her birthday, we felt the need for a little mani/pedi, just mom and Lily for some good girl time while Aedan was away at school.

She loves her “pretty nails”

We also went to our local children’s museum for some fun.

We had a fun little birthday just me and the kids and later daddy joined in.

Lily has been a true joy. She can be so sweet most of the time and she is so kind to tell my that I’m “beautiful” particularly on days when I haven’t bothered getting myself fully ready for the day! She is always wanting to do things “by myself” and she has even tried the toilet a handful of times so yay, maybe early toilet training? Either way, I am in no rush for this little girl to grow up!

We love you Lily Cakes!

“Lily Cakes is her name”

2011-09-21T22:46:00.001-05:00

Or rather, spelled Lilyz Kakz is hr nam. This time the vandalism was on Lily’s little baby wooden stroller. Not sure why this kid feels the need to write on everything.

On the one hand, we have been encouraging him to write more since he is reading well. I hate to squash his creativity but maybe I just need to buy him a cool journal or something.

I don’t know where the name Lily Cakes comes from. Seems like he just made it up but now we are all calling her that. ;)

The Vandal Strikes Back

2011-09-13T18:29:00.001-05:00

You know this is going to be good. I mean, when has the Vandal ever failed you?

It all began with a pregnant mom with a cold trying to get some quick shut-eye and a dry erase marker just begging to be used….

And so we see how markers became banished from the Kitchen household for life or 30 days, whichever comes first.

And now for something completely different

2011-09-03T09:10:00.002-05:00

Funny video of Neal and kids. Watch on your computer if you wanna see the captions.

On a side note I really hate when youtube links to other videos that are not mine, hopefully I took care of it with this one but my apologies if it doesn’t work.

Why, yes, we DID get suckered into buying all of these….

2011-09-01T09:28:00.000-05:00

Aedan’s LEGO Birthday

2011-08-30T10:13:00.000-05:00

I know my posts are all out of order but so is my mind…

There once was a boy obsessed with Legos and a mother who was a little too eager to get away from chores….

This little boy decided ages ago that he wanted a Lego birthday party. The possibilities were endless - apparently a lot of boys are obsessed with Legos who also have moms who want to avoid housework, and of course blasted the internet with their cool ideas. This little boy and his mom planned and prepared for this party with great care. The first creation that came out of their craftiness was Lego minifigure crayons, made by recycling old stubby crayons lying in wait for their second life.

Next came home made Kool-Aid Play dough stamped with love.

A banner to deck the halls was made. Candy Lego bricks were made to top the not-so-homemade cupcakes (cop out, yes, but not entirely ashamed).

A Lego brick shaped piñata was made from scrap cardboard, newspaper, and crepe paper. Sadly a final product shot was not taken but the reader has to have room for imagination, right?

The party was staged.

The beverages were dressed for the event.

The boy had fun adding some personal touches to the decor.

The party was packed with smiles galore. And goodies too.

Games entertained even the princess of the party. Gifts were well received to say the least.

A couple months past 5 now, but Happy Birthday little man! Looking forward to many more (Lego or not)!

Back to School

2011-08-28T17:13:00.001-05:00

Entering the big Kindergarten year. We have had a rocky start to our year when they assigned Aedan to an ESL class and then had to hire another teacher the day before class to accommodate all the kids they tried to put in ESL but didn’t belong. Sigh.

But we got things situated just in time for him to have a first day of school with everyone else.

I had mixed feelings about it but he is taking the bus to school. The first day we got him on and then met him at school to help him into his class.

His teacher (the new hire) is Mr. Brown, incidentally was the former ESL teacher. The day before class started he still had the alphabet up in Spanish and Aedan said, “Hey mom! Cheese doesn’t start with a ‘Q’"!”

It has been a week and a half since his first day and all seems to be going well. He is half day but they do school lunch there and everything so it has been nice. Lily and I have loved having some girl time but she will occasionally go around the house saying, “Aedan! Where are you?” so I know she misses him.

So fun to be growing up!

Julyness

2011-08-20T11:54:00.000-05:00

Tball

2011-08-19T11:40:00.000-05:00

I was a coach.

Yes, it is hard to believe.

I never imagined that statement would come from me. EVER. I mean I like to play sports but was never any good to actually play on any team outside of church ball. Besides, being married to Neal who is Mr. UberSportsGuy, I would be more of a bench warmer.

So,…. ya.

I was a coach.

Of Aedan’s Tball team. Actually co-coach or maybe more of an assistant coach. Whatever. Aedan’s friend’s mom roped me into it and I must say it is a very fun/frustrating/exhausting/silly job.

And I’ve actually learned some things.

It is true.

1) Sometimes it is the ones who throw well that you have to watch out for (as in balls whizzing past my ear)

2) Kids like to eat their gloves. Gross.

3) 3 innings is an eternity.

4) Kids want to throw the ball with their gloved hand. Makes no sense.

5) Some kids want to run along ALL of the lines drawn out on the field before going to 1st base.

6) Being a coach and forgetting to show up for team pics is SUPER lame.

7) In a single run, a kid will hit the ball, run to catch the ball they hit, and then run to 1st base to hand it to the other team’s 1st baseman.

8) Being an outfielder in Tball is a bummer.

9) If you are a baseman it is a job requirement apparently to be chatty with the other team.

10) Even though he is ok at Tball, I think Aedan is in it for the social aspect.

Oh what fun! Overall, I am glad I did it and I am having a blast!

I think I was the team cheer leader.

Congrats for making it through buddy! We are now in soccer season so updates on that later!

Aedan’s Graduation

2011-07-09T00:28:00.001-05:00

I am starting to panic as I have to get Aedan ready for Kindergarten which starts in a month and then I realize I never posted pics of his graduation (among many other things…)

Bear with me, pic overload but BONUS there is a video at the end! Feel free to skip to that.

Aedan attended a preschool at a local evangelical church and they did an excellent job with him. They worked in Bible themes with some of the lessons and even taught them some songs which sound funny to me but then I wonder if Primary songs sound funny to everyone else who is not Mormon. Anyway, this picture is of him singing:

Thank You, God, for who I am
I don't have to be a Superman
Thank You, God, for who I am
All I wanna be is Your best friend

Aedan was a shy kid in his class. He barely spoke to his teachers and seriously this is the best smile I could get from him as he received his diploma.

Someone’s mom went all out. Nope not me.

Aedan’s teachers Mrs. Ilkow and Mrs. Turner.

Aedan’s Lego graduation gift from us. I spent some time making a funny lego card for him because for some reason this kid LOVES cards. Especially if they are well thought out.

We celebrated with lunch at the place of his choice, Burger King.

We are so proud of the many things he has learned this past year! He is reading books on his own now, his favorites being all of the Mo Willems Elephant and Piggie books (they are hilarious, not your Dick and Jane). He is a very methodic boy, which makes Legos a perfect fit for him and he can follow the instructions on his own. He has learned to LOVE dancing, thanks to Just Dance 2 and Michael Jackson’s Experience on the Wii. His graduation program was full of song and dance and he shocked us all (incl. his teachers) by his extreme dance moves.

It came out of nowhere.

His teachers were cracking up because he is NEVER like that at school.

Afterwards we asked Aedan why he was dancing SO well and he said that he wanted to “win the dance”. Apparently he thought it was a game like the Wii.

Here, see for yourself. I don’t think I need to even tell you where he is in the crowd. He is the one knocking other kids down with his moves.

Funny kid. We love you Aedan! Good job!

Neal’s Promotion

2011-06-01T09:06:00.001-05:00

A couple weeks ago Neal was busy doing interviews for a position within his company and I am happy to report that he was offered the job! Neal will be the new Product Manager, Immunoassays and will officially begin that post in Septemberish. This is so amazing as he has only been a Tech Support Scientist for a year now. In theory he was supposed to be in his current position for two years but they are willing to make an exception in this case.

This is a big jump for him and will surely make him a much busier man. He has completed two semesters of MBA school this last year and would like to continue pursuing the degree but may have to scale back on the course load for a while. This opportunity was too good to pass up and we feel so blessed.

If you or anyone you know is looking for work in the life sciences be sure to let us know! Neal can’t start his new job until they get someone to fill his place :)

Good Job Neal!! We love you!

Vandalism!

2011-05-13T22:09:00.001-05:00

Exhibit A

The graffiti artist is at it again. Since his last crime, his work has evolved, becoming less abstract.

Exhibit B

I refer to the vandal as a “he” because he made a very incriminating mistake by autographing his work. There are two possible suspects (see Exhibit C) and investigators are trying to determine if one or the other or both were involved.

Exhibit C

Evidence was found several yards from the scene of the crime.

Exhibit D

Turkey Cake Tutorial

2011-05-09T21:47:00.001-05:00

As promised, here is my set of instructions on how to build your very own Turkey Cake just like the one I made for our April Fool’s Feast.

First you need to bake some cake! I made a Vanilla Cake and baked it in two round cake pans (1 recipe’s worth) and then made an Applesauce Spice Cake (with brown coloring added to darken it) and baked it in one round cake pan (also 1 recipe’s worth), recipes at the bottom of the post. They are both yummy and better than box mixes but if you must, you can do a yellow or white cake mix and a spice cake mix. You really only need three levels max.

When the cake has cooled and removed from the pans, take a bread knife and cut off the rounded tops off of all but the one you will use on top. Save what you cut off as you will use it for “stuffing” later on.

Wrap up the cakes in a couple layers of saran wrap and stick them in the freezer. This makes the cakes infinitely easier to carve into your desired shape without have crumbs all over the place. This step is a must.

I just froze mine overnight but you might be able to get by with just a few hours. Pull your cakes out and unwrap them. Layer them with buttercream frosting in between, spice cake on bottom (for your “dark meat”) and white on top with the rounded cake on the very top. I don’t know why I did it but don’t use foil underneath while you are cutting.

Carve away! If you need to look at pictures of roast turkey on the web so you can get the general shape.

….. carve….. carve…. carve…

Resist the temptation to eat those scraps. The kids might sneak some though…

Clean it up and put it on your platter. I used a little frosting underneath to sort of glue it to the platter but it may not be necessary, it is weighty enough.

Make your buttercream frosting a nice brown turkey skin color. It took a good mixture of brown and yellow and orange to get it looking right.

Frost that beast. To get a nice smooth surface I took my spreader and dipped it in a cup of hot water until it gets hot, take it out and shake off excess water, and work the spreader over the frosting. This way it will sort of melt it a little bit and smooth it out beautifully. Go back and forth dipping in water and working on cake. Or you could do fondant if you are into that. The frosting was pretty yummy though.

Make a batch of rice krispie treats. I don’t know why but I can not get consistent results with rice krispies, weird huh? Maybe I shouldn’t have used no name brand rice cereal…. Either way, make them, and grease up your hands so you can mold them into drum sticks and wings. Mine kept falling apart but in theory it should work well.

I used several toothpicks to secure these appendages onto the body. Then frost them like the cake.

Have an insane amount of patience, you are almost done.

Once all is frosted and in place, I used some spray on food coloring to kind of give it a real cooked turkey skin look. I could only find red and orange (no brown) so I used a little, here and there, mostly on spots you would expect to brown first like the top and the drums, etc. Don’t do it all over and don’t do a heavy coat. It probably wasn’t too noticeable but oh well.

Now it is time to make the platter more presentable. Add your “stuffing” by using cubed cake leftovers (both light and dark) and mound them to look like they are coming out the rear. Dress up the platter. I used real parsley, orange slices. I had hopes to do cranberries as well but that didn’t happen.

To have fun place it in your cooled oven and close the door. People can peak in if they must. Carve it like a real bird, let people choose their light or dark meat, drums or wings, and you’ve got an awesome “dinner”!

Holiday Backtrack

2011-05-07T12:59:00.000-05:00

April fun in the wake of the April Fool’s event (btw turkey cake tutorial coming up next…):

Pretty fingers. First finger nail polish for Lily and she LOVED it!

And Easter Egg decorating. We didn’t get to spend last Easter together as a family because Neal and I (and baby Lily) were house hunting at the time.

And we even celebrated Earth Day in our own way. We had the missionaries over for dinner and for dessert we each had to decorate our own earth cookie, doing our best to be as geographically correct as possible. Neal won the best looking globe award.

Half Marathon

2011-05-05T12:33:00.001-05:00

This last weekend Neal ran a half marathon with two of his sisters down in Champaign/Urbana. He did a great job and so did his sisters!

A lot of people have asked how long has Neal been training for this. Years. No actually not really. More like weeks. Really. He had been planning on running this for quite a while but only got around to running in mid-March sometime. We don’t have a treadmill or a local track so he was limited to running outside when weather permitted. Which, living in northern Illinois, that meant hardly ever.

He hurt his foot running a couple weeks before the race so stayed off of it until right before. Neal used to run in high school and I’m guessing he was a born runner because with the limited practice he had he was able to do the 13 miles of running in 2 hours. Not bad! He was so fast that we missed him twice as we (with all the kids) were trying to catch him along the way.

{Before and after the race}

We are so proud of him and his amazing sisters! What an incredible accomplishment!

Guess who?

2011-04-06T20:19:00.001-05:00

Guess who won this prestigious award?

Won at a Stake dance a couple weeks ago.

I’ll give you a hint. It wasn’t me, it wasn’t Aedan, and it wasn’t Lily.

Congrats Neal for beating out even the ladies ;)

The 1st of April goes a-somethin like this

2011-04-02T11:35:00.001-05:00

We had a busy day yesterday. We had 4 families over for dinner. Most of them had no idea we were setting them up for an April Fools Dinner. Good times. Here is what was on the menu:

It was embarassing, really. Everyone got here and dinner was still in the oven and looked like it needed more time. SO we started with dessert. It was April Fools Day after all…

Probably my worst decorated meatloaf and mashed potato cake ever as it was having some issues. You can see I did the same thing in a cupcake version in the background. Those were more popular with the kids. Here is a better looking cake from a few years ago. People kept asking me what kind of cake it was (still had no clue) and I just had to smile and grin and say that it is a very special recipe that we only do once a year!

Served with our signature punch. Raspberry, Cherry, or Strawberry Banana Jell-O. This one really got people. Even when you carry it you don’t notice it right off. I’ve read some where people will put just a tiny bit of juice on top after it has solidified to make it look more liquidy but it worked fine without. We also served rolls and corn but I didn’t do anything ~~weird~~ special to them. Oh and Mac N Cheese for the kids, just in case they didn’t like the cake.

The kids loved eating the Jell-O with their straws. They managed to keep their dessert conversation overflowing with jokes such as, “Hey, you have a monkey on your face…. APRIL FOOLS!” I had to remind them to eat their dessert so they can have dinner….

… and I had to remind the adults to save room for dinner. Because it was awesome. We had roast turkey.

This is a turkey cake, complete with white and dark “meat” (vanilla cake and applesauce spice cake) and rice krispie drums and wings. I put it in the oven before guests arrived so I could pull it out later. I’m going to have to do a separate post for how I constructed this beast. There weren’t a whole lot of helpful tutes online so my contribution to society will be a set of my own with tips on what I will do differently next time :) so look for the tutorial soon. BTW I found most people that made turkey cakes make them for Thanksgiving. It was insane cutting into the cake, I felt like I was carving a turkey.

And thanks to a fun idea from a friend we served peas and carrots on the side. I got lazy and just made excess rice krispies into cupcakes and frosted them, topped with quartered orange Starbursts and green Sixlets.

And the mashed potatoes, gravy and butter was a nice compliment to the cake. Vanilla ice cream, yellow Starbursts, and caramel sauce.

Hope your April the 1st was just as silly!

Nap Time

2011-03-20T10:27:00.000-05:00

I don’t know why but I like to watch my kids sleep. Does anyone else do this? Makes me smile. I am going to miss these days.

Kitchen von Trapp

2011-03-18T10:19:00.000-05:00

I only title it this way because of the matching outfits. We have yet to start a family choir…

Lily at 11 months

Last year I was at a kid consignment shop and found this dress for Lily. I was so excited because it is from the same shop and made from the same fabric as an outfit that was given to Aedan when he was a babe.

Aedan at 2 months

Fun coincidence. Maybe I’m the only one who cares about that sort of stuff though.

Concrete Evidence

2011-03-15T16:26:00.000-05:00

We really are working over here and here is the evidence. Granted these pics were taken last September….

Making steps to go out onto our patio. There was just a wooden step before and it wasn’t sturdy. We had a nephew fall there in the summer so we definitely needed to fix it.

Aedan was in HEAVEN. A cement mixer at his house! A cool looking one too. I took him to school late that day because he really wanted to watch everything.

Neal and his dad worked hard and fast. They made a sidewalk go around the side of our house leading up to the door that opens from our garage. They also fixed our front porch which was sloping towards the house and I think that solved a good portion of our basement moisture issues. I’ll take pictures of the finished product someday when it gets warmer outside…

work and more work

2011-03-13T17:23:00.000-05:00

I’ve done a lot of posts on the kids lately but maybe it is time I update you on Neal and Jackie stuff:

Lovely illusion at our local children’s museum, September 2010. Apparently tricks the camera too.

Neal is coming up on his one year anniversary working at Thermo Fisher Scientific! He seems to enjoy the people and the set work hours and he doing well with his job duties. He has been on a couple short trips for work and has another coming up in April to Orlando (jealous). We feel so blessed to have got this job and to get our foot in the door, especially in today’s hard economic times. Work is paying for him to take some MBA classes and that keeps him busy but will hopefully be worthwhile. He currently has classes on Monday nights and Wednesday nights and we try to get him the rest of the time ;).

Neal didn’t have a church calling for a few months after we moved in which was okay since he was still finishing up the PhD. He was finally called to be the Melchizedeck Priesthood Group Leader in August (basically Elders Quorem and High Priests were combined and he was called as president) and had to be set apart as a high priest because of it. Well, a few months later the church changed guidelines and that calling was dissolved. That was kind of our “DOH!” moment because now that he was a high priest, he couldn’t serve as Elders Quorem President. However he was called as High Priest group leader so it worked out just swell. He is still busy with that calling but he doesn’t have to teach nearly as many lessons. Neal has been in Primary for sooooo long and he loved it and did a great job there but I think it is time for the adults to experience him! He is great though, I have branch members tell me how thankful they are for him and what he does. It blesses our family in ways I’m sure I’m not always noticing, but it is there and we are grateful for it.

Me? Well this week I have been pulling late nights trying to get our living room ready for painting. It looked SO ghetto with all the patchups and paint samples slapped on the wall. The previous owners just don’t know how to fix up a wall well. Nuff said. But it is getting better and it is primed and almost ready to go. I am painting it Benjamin Moore Stonington Gray, a color used by Pottery Barn, and I am going to try adding a very slight amount of sheen using silver metallic paint and glaze. Really slight, like barely there but enough to hopefully make all the difference in the world, right? In spite of our house in constant construction mode, I feel like we’ve been doing a lot of entertaining lately. We’ve been inviting a lot of the branch members over for dinner and it has been fun to get to know everyone. I purchased two Wii dance games that have been a huge hit for these dinner parties (Just Dance 2 and Michael Jackson’s Experience) and my dad gave us Wii Pictionary which is also fun for parties (but I don’t break a sweat doing that!).

So aside from painting and cooking and normal day to day stuff with kids, I keep busy serving in the Primary at church. I am serving as a counselor in the Primary presidency. There really is only the president and myself. I play piano in there too. And I basically serve as secretary. It has been awesome. I am learning so much. It is hard work but the internet has been such a huge blessing in this calling. For handouts, for organizing, for lesson helps, everything. I love that others have such awesome ideas and freely share it. People have commented to me that I am creative but really what it is is that I have gotten good at gathering creative ideas from others, so I can take no credit whatsoever! I wish I could be that creative though but seriously, who has the time these days :) Apparently everybody but me… My faves currently are:

www.sugardoodle.net because they have everything it is overwhelming. Check out their general conference packets, they are amazing.

scriptures4kids.com because they have some awesome printables

visitingteachingblog.blogspot.com I know not Primary but I am feeling like an awesome VTer with these cute supplements to the lessons. March’s is particularly cute.

Aedan and Lily Talk

2011-03-11T13:15:00.000-06:00

I keep meaning to write down some funny things that the kids are saying. Time is going by so fast and I don’t want to forget these moments. Plus some random pics can’t hurt. First Lily, now at 17 months old (take note of all the Dora/Diego ones):

“Booze” (for Boots)

“Dohwaaahhh! Doo Doo Dohwaaahhh!” (Dora plus a little bit of theme song)

“Ba Lililililil” (sound she makes when she is tickling you)

“Prelee Lily” (pretty Lily)

“Ahbida!” (ariba, spanish for up)

Lily 10 months, July 2010

“Star! Straya” (star, estrella spanish for star)

Me: “Uno” Lily: “Dos” Me: “Tres” Lily: “cuato, geeco, seis” Me: “Siete” Lily: “Ocho, nuebe, diez!” She loves to count in Spanish although last night I discovered she can sort of count to 13 in English.

“BaGah!” (grandpa or grandma, my dad tells me it means fool in japanese…)

“oopsie!”

“Bellyby” (butterfly)

“Away!” (go away)

“Water Pea Cup! Milk Pea Cup! Juice Bok!” (water sippy cup, milk sippy cup, juice box)

Lily 16 months January 2011, outside our home

“Loot Loots!” (Fruit Loops)

“Rescue Pack!!!” (shouts this when she wants to get out of her highchair)

Me:” Lily, where did you put your bread?” Lily cups her hand to her mouth and wanders around the house shouting: “Bread!? Where are you bread?”

For a while the only word that she would whisper was “Jesus”

***************************************************************

And Aedan (4.5 yrs) has been a hoot too:

Aedan at our local children’s museum

Do you find yourself purposefully not correcting your kids because what they are saying is too cute and you just don’t want them to stop? I do. Aedan still says “I want to get chicken nuddits at Old McDonald’s”. And he says “nackin” for napkin.

He gave me a kiss one time and said, “Now we are married!” To which I had to explain that that is not how things work. He was a bit crestfallen and replied, “But mom! I just love you SO SO much!”

I showed him a church video clip from lds.org about a study done with little children who were given a single marshmallow and were told that if they wait 15 mins and don’t eat it they could have another one (lesson on patience and holding out for something even better). Aedan had been bugging me to go to McDonalds quite a lot or to buy him more legos and I’ve been trying to teach him that we need to save money to do fun things for his birthday in June and whatnot. After watching the video I said, “See! Isn’t it a good thing to wait and not eat the marshmallow so that they could have two?” He frowned a BIG frown and replied “No.” Confused I asked, “Why do you say that?” He said, “I don’t want to have an OLD marshmallow!!”

Aedan asleep across kitchen chairs, of all places…

Hair SOS!

2011-03-09T13:17:00.000-06:00

This is her hair after naptime. Her hair is cute but hard to manage plus she doesn’t let me tie it back or put clips in (pulls them out). Any suggestions?

Bath time

2011-03-07T13:05:00.000-06:00

July 2010 pic vs. January 2011 pic

Can never have too much bath time in our house. Or mohawks for that matter.

What am I going to do with her?

2011-03-05T12:59:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the lo quality pics, taken from my phone. What a funny girl.

Mirror, Mirror On the Wall

2011-03-03T12:22:00.000-06:00

Bathroom #1 adding light fixture, removed mirror/medicine cabinet (was the size of the white unpainted wall section in the pic).

Mirror #1 up, wow the kids can see themselves in the mirror now.

Bathroom #2 before, puny mirror + puny bathroom = a place I avoided

Mirror#2 up, big mirror + puny bathroom = the illusion of twice the space, enough to trick the mind into liking it better. Neal got creative with the braces.

Mirror #2 coming down, big broken mirror + puny bathroom = oh crap.

We are getting these mirrors free off of craigslist and I have some crown moulding to frame them, also free from craigslist. So free fancy mirrors aside from cost of mounting material and paint. There are two ways we could mount these mirrors, hanging up with hardware or glueing to the wall with mirror mastic. Since I will be putting a frame around/over it, it made more sense to glue it so the hardware wouldn’t interfere with the frame. But glueing has drytime and so we had to brace the mirror up for a few days. Mirror #1 went up great. Mirror #2 did too but a combination of a few factors (probably all avoidable, bummer) caused this mirror to break.

Taking down a glued mirror is A PAIN. I was so scared for Neal and the floor and there was glass everywhere. We got mirror #3 also from Craigslist but had to cut down to size. Cutting a mirror is also A PAIN and even though it isn’t a straight cut, it is fine as the frame will cover it. It’ll be nicer as it is bigger than the one we originally put up. Will update on that as we get Mirror #3 up….

Seven years bad luck here we go :(

Oh and Lily’s cute mirror, purchased at garage sale last summer and I spray painted white.

A Day out with Thomas

2011-03-01T16:28:00.000-06:00

I think we are slowly exiting the Thomas phase of Aedan’s life. It is kind of sad. However the novelty of trains never seems to wear out, and you think it would given the fact that we used to live by train tracks, and we currently have trains run behind our backyard. We discovered that we live near America’s Largest Railway Museum and they were hosting a Day out with Thomas event. It was a hot hot day so if you don’t enjoy seeing sweaty foreheads, stop right here.

Aedan’s favorite yellow double decker train.

Aedan vs. Swimming Lessons

2011-02-27T15:53:00.000-06:00

Right after we moved into our home, I signed Aedan up for swim lessons. He needed something to do other than playing in boxes. Here are some pictures, he liked it and he hated it. It was something new but so cold apparently.

He was in a class full of girls. He was the only boy, except for one instructor who reminded me of this guy

See? BTW, I’m not a twilight person, and only saw the second movie with rifftrax. Don’t think I would watch them otherwise… Anyway, back to my little wild thing…

And that pic totally reminds me of his dad

Aedan was so afraid to do anything and would usually cry when he did each task. But for some reason he was extra anxious to try the diving board.

A small fish in a big pond.

Aedan’s Birthday

2011-02-25T15:17:00.000-06:00

…was a while ago. Like, 8 months ago. We had only lived in our house for one month and Neal was so busy finishing up school on top of working and we were all so busy that we didn’t have many friends in the area yet. Poor guy, he had to settle for a family party with a church-buddy-neighbor and parents who don’t eat sweets. But we were glad they came.

He requested an excavator cake. Huh?!? Really? Ya mom!

Yikes. Here is my attempt.

All edible except the cardboard inside the ‘arm’. I just found a pic on the web and went for it. Aedan was thrilled. I think he enjoyed watching me make it more than anything else.

Yes I know, I gave him a tea set. Last time he was at his Great Aunt H’s house they played tea party and he had a blast. I thought it would be fun to get him one but everyone sells girly ones and this was a paint your own set I got at a garage sale new in box. Funny kid decided to leave them white like “mommy’s dishes”. He also got a Transformer’s Bumblebee scooter and books, train stuff, a star wars tent.

But now he is 4 1/2 and with Christmas over he is now planning for his next birthday. Currently Legos are in the running for the theme.

Happy belated Birthday buddy!

Aedan and Preschool

2011-02-23T13:54:00.001-06:00

About time right? Here are a few pics from last year:

Aedan graduated from his Little Maroons Preschool class early May. This was at the beginning of their program and for whatever reason Aedan decided to not sit with everyone else. If you ask me it looks crowded…

While all the other kids sang and did fun hand actions and the like, Aedan sat and stared. I wonder what was going on in his mind.

Getting a little more animated.

Wow, that was so long ago! Neal had already started his job and was living away from home so he couldn’t see the fun event.

Mrs. Yagow was so great with Aedan! She always had such nice things to say about him. Aedan chose a gift for her all by himself and was so shy to give it to her.

Aedan started school back up again in a preschool run by an Evangelical church just a few miles west of us. They pretty much follow the same curriculum used for the Kindergarteners for the school he will go to and it has been great.

First day of school was great. He was excited to wear his new Transformer shirt and his new Transformer backpack. During crafts time he decided to cut a hole in his shirt. Arrgghh.

School photos. Aedan is really shy at school (must get that from mom) and most pictures they take of him and send home have him scowling or frowning. This picture was barely a smile. He is getting better and has no problems making friends but he doesn’t speak to his teachers hardly ever. He says it because they got mad at him for cutting his shirt early in the year. I seriously doubt they were more mad than I was, and he still talks to me…

He is learning so much and is reading loads of beginning reading books from the library. We are so proud of him and yikes, I go to register him for Kindergarten in a couple days. Wow!

Snow Days

2011-02-08T11:44:00.000-06:00

Last week was a crazy weather week. I think we had temperature lows in the –20 range. We had a fair amount of snow but I think what made it worse at our house was the wind. We literally had snow dunes going on.

Just so you know, we don’t have hills in our backyard, that is all snow. When things died down a bit outside we peeked and were excited to still see patches of our driveway. Little did we realize all of the snow was piled up against our garage.

See you can even see some street in the background. But really there were so many drifts, several of them chest deep, that EVEN IF we could get our cars out of the garage we wouldn’t have been able to get out of our cul de sac. Crummy weather.

Here is a better pick of what the end of our driveway looked like. That is a bobcat plowing us out.

It was freezing outside so we didn’t get to play in the snow. It took Neal probably over 4 hours to get to the end of our driveway. He of course didn’t have work that day but I’m sure he didn’t relish the work at home.

Well, maybe he had a little fun.

Baby Steps

2011-02-07T15:15:00.001-06:00

Baby steps to the computer. Baby steps to the blog. Baby steps insert picture.

I have SO much to catch up on so I decided to start out with some baby steps. Here is Lily taken at 14 months old last November. She saw me putting this picture up and shouted “LILY!!!”. She is a girly girl. Loves being “pri-lee” (pretty"). She currently ~~loves~~ is obsessed with Dora. She can’t get enough Dora and currently counts to ten in both English and Spanish but prefers Spanish.

And she has CURLY RED HAIR! The color of red that is getting everyone else jealous. I have a list of people who want clippings to take to their hairdresser to try to match color…

This picture makes her hair look so tame but truth is I am having a hard time trying to figure out what to do with it.

This beautiful pettiskirt was made especially for her 1st birthday last year thanks to my good friend at Little Creek Boutique. It seriously is awesome.

I am loving having a little girl to fuss over

Oh ya, he finished his PhD!

2010-12-14T13:36:00.001-06:00

Neal got his new job in end of March and started mid-April but he still had to finish writing his dissertation and defend. He did all this by mid June and presented his work to his department and committee on June 16th. Above is a picture of his PI giving an introduction for Neal and below Neal begins his presentation. As you can see it was a packed house… well, actually people did come but no one likes to sit up front next to the speaker unless they are married to him or they gave birth to him (Neal’s parents came for the occasion) …

He missed the May graduation date and they don’t do a ceremony for Fall but Neal didn’t feel like going through the whole pomp and circumstance so he opted out of all of that. Which is okay I guess. We got the diploma in the mail and maybe we’ll have to take a family picture of it with him.

So I just had to give him a hard time about the fact that among all his acknowledgements and thank yous he included the kids but not me (and look here’s proof) but that’s just fine. I’m just glad it is done! Neal did a great job so far as I can tell (Bio is practically a foreign language to me) and we are very proud of him! He has since then jumped into doing an MBA at a local business school and he is still busy working full time. I don’t think I can say that we see him more. Maybe less. He is a hard worker and we look forward to have lots of time with him over the holidays! Congrats Neal!

Unpacking

2010-12-10T02:07:00.001-06:00

So I unpacked a few more boxes and guess what I found?

Naw, not really. These were from when we were packing to leave our old place. The kids loved playing with the boxes and that gave me a few moments of peace as I was busy packing.

(At the time Lily was always making this face it was funny)

House Before and During (still waiting on the After)

2010-12-10T01:47:00.001-06:00

In order of start date:

Tiling bathrooms and fireplace with my Craigslist marble tile purchase (Craigslist, seriously, it rocked). Tiling floors was not entirely necessary. Fireplace tiles were literally falling off so they had to be replaced. Got the tile and had enough for two bathrooms and fireplace:

Lily’s room with my choice in paint color (the Pottery barn baby pink, funny it looks different in all of these pics)and the new flooring that we are putting down through the house (Tiger Wood – Brazilian Koa not the golfer):

Still have to nail in baseboards (they are cut and placed) and paint them and sew curtain (it’s gonna be awesome you’ll see).

Aedan’s room with his choice in paint color, not mine.

Painting bathrooms. They are actually more done than this but I need to take an updated pic:

Items added to home (mostly from Craigslist):

Mirror to be framed and go in bathroom (free plus free crown moulding for framing) and brown leather couch (1 in set of 4) for living room. Lamp from good friend and no end tables yet (still hunting down the perfect one for the perfect price…)

Pier 1 mirror with Mexican Pine over fireplace

Cabinet thingy also made out of mexican pine although not purchased with above mirror. Currently using it as media cabinet. This was a hybrid craigslist and garage sale purchase. I won’t bore you with the details…

Love the grommet curtains, got them at ikea in the summer and still have hemming to do for some of them:

Light fixture in kitchen and got a new-to-us table. And the micro suede just wasn’t working for two little kids so I recovered the seats with a leather looking vinyl.

We put in some closet organizers, now just need nice looking hangers.

And that is just inside! There is more but you get the idea!

Welcome to our World of the Weird…

2010-12-02T10:36:00.001-06:00

Before I give you all an update on the house, I figure I should give you a little area history. Here are some things unique to our neck of the woods:

This was the first thing I saw of the area when I came up with Neal for house shopping. We saw the steam from a long way off and I jokingly said to Neal, “Hey, I bet that is a nuclear power plant.” Sure enough it was. These cooling towers are seriously huge, reaching 495 feet into the air. Together the units can produce enough electricity to power more than 2 million average American homes. Now it didn’t bother me that we would be living near one, and I especially felt comforted when I saw their “blast radius”.

See that little star on the right, sitting pretty outside of the radius? Woot! That’s us! :)

The surrounding area is also home to…

Do you remember this movie? The team was called the Rockford Peaches, one of the first all-female baseball teams in the world. Well while they take many liberties with the characters and events in the movie, the team did exist.

I have yet to go here but I’m told that Rockford has the nation’s finest Japanese Garden. It seems kinda odd for the midwest but we’ll take it.

Lest you think the place is home to many Japanese American folks (I observe very few, it’s too bad), it is actually the home of one of the highest concentrations per capita of Swedish Americans.

Which brings us to the fact that as of this year we are now host to Illinois first ever Kubb Tournament. Kubb (pronounced Koob) is nicknamed “Viking chess,”a Scandinavian lawn game where the object is to knock over wooden blocks by tossing wooden sticks at them. Obviously the helmets are essential. Anyone want to help us form a team so we can join in on the fun next year? :)

Ok one last weird one I promise:

Here let me zoom in for you in case you missed it

We don’t live in this town but our branch meets down the street from this place. You ever wonder where all the extra parts of the turkey goes because Butterball sure doesn’t pack them with the rest of the bird? Well now you know. They truly chop them up and deep fry them. We really got into local festivals these past few years but I don’t know if I could ever bring myself to participate in this festival. Apparently it has been going on for 30+ years. Should you want to know more you can go here. Yikes. People are crazy.

Alright, now that I got that out of my system I can now give you a serious post about our place! What weird things are happening in your world?

Halloween 2010 CHECK it out MATE!

2010-11-29T10:22:00.001-06:00

I realize another main reason people check this blog is to see what we dress up as for Halloween. Well, being in a new location and having almost no time, we decided to revive an oldie but a goodie. We went as chess pieces with Neal as the king, Jackie as queen, Aedan as a knight (the only new costume made) and Lily as a pawn (Aedan’s costume when he was the same age).

I didn’t get any more pictures than this as I couldn’t find the camera and Neal took this one with his phone. People wonder about the hats. They are paper mache on top of a poster board and tape form. You can’t see it very well but Aedan’s was particularly tricky as he has a helmet with a horse’s head on top. It was pretty cool but not entirely practical for a kid as it was stiff. I did line the hats with felt to avoid getting chaffed by the scratchy dried newspaper and you notice Neal and my hat is HUGE and to costume fit it to our heads I used packaging foam in side. It was pretty comfy. Aedan’s shield is just foam boards glued together and painted.

And I just chuck the hats because it’ll probably be a while before we where them again and they were cheap/free materials so I don’t have a hard time parting with them.

As added bonus we made a rook castle out of a box (there are still a lot of those around here) and we spray painted it silver and cut out holes for windows and a door for a drawbridge. We stuck our fog machine (yes we have one) into it and brought bean bags and made it into a game for the kids to earn prizes at our trunk or treat. It was cool. But no picture. Sorry!

Can I just say I have a ROCKIN hoop skirt?!

Giving Thanks

2010-11-24T22:17:00.001-06:00

Aedan made a native American headband at preschool and apparently learned how to stare down his mom into submission...

We are on the road headed for neal's sister's house for the big turkey day.

I have a sour cream apple pie in the back of the car and some other food items to make slow cooker stuffing (from scratch, hi five me!) and some green bean casserole. I will also make an Oreo pudding pie.

I'm curious what everyone is bringing to the table tomorrow. I already know we are going to have way too much pie...

Happy Thanksgiving!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Checking in

2010-11-24T03:15:00.001-06:00

Ahem. Hello. It has been so long I feel I should introduce myself.

I. Am. Kitchen.

And I was hibernating. For a long time.

That and a whole list of excuses to which I will get to. All in time, dear reader.

But we all know why you are here – here is a picture of the kidlets:

Yes they have grown and I intend to go back and document the last few missing months so that everyone can continue on with the life they put on hold while waiting for this next post. Right?

Right?

Okay then. And so ends the first of fiftyish posts that are due by January 1st, 2011.

Moving

2010-05-13T21:37:00.000-05:00

Hey! If you are still out there we are in the process of moving and even though things are busy I had set a few blogposts to post automatically but apparently that didn't work. I'll get that fixed sometime but we are packing up the computer tonight.
We are currently driving down from our home (Neal not me. I'm not crazy enough to try blogging while driving). We closed on the house Wednesday and while it was still a little more work dealing with HUD I'd have to say it was fairly painless. We slept our first night in the house with the bare essentials to keep us afloat as we got a few things done in prep for the official move.
I'm tired (and probably a bit grumpy) because it has been so nonstop and the kids are not exactly 'loving' it. But we are glad to be another step closer!
Please email me at thekitchenpost(at)gmail(dot)com if you would like me to send you our updated info.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s off to work he goes!

2010-05-03T12:06:00.001-05:00

My handsome hubby off to his first week of work. He has been at “the company” for two weeks now and we sure miss him at home. Fortunately we are only a 3 hours drive away so we’ve been able to see him weekends.

After his first week of work we were able to attend an open house for all the employees to come see the new building that was recently added to the facility. It was a pretty impressive work place and even more impressive that they put in a lot of effort to make the event very kid friendly.

Aedan and Lily had quite the stash of scientific product (m&m filled test tubes, magnifying lenses, toy dust monitors, Mr. Yuk stickers) when they were done. Aedan especially liked the shipping department and came away with some ~~nerdy~~ cool labels.

New Vehicle

2010-04-12T13:35:00.001-05:00

Here’s our new baby:

Not that one, this one:

We got a 2009 Mazda 5 Sport MICROVAN! What is a microvan, you ask? Just like it sounds, smaller than a minivan. Actually, I’m not sure if it is really called a microvan, that is just what the dealer called it. These vehicles are apparently much more popular outside of the US.

We needed a second vehicle and our Toyota Rav 4 (below, parked next to the Mazda) is great for us now but if we ever add on another child to the family we would need a bigger vehicle. Well, as you can see by the picture the microvan is not necessarily bigger.

(This is Aedan with the salesman putting on our plates)

**SIDE COMMENT: Aedan asked us yesterday if Heavenly Father and Jesus make microvans. Funny kid.**

We went to the dealer to test drive some minivans and to be honest I wasn’t quite ready to be a minivan mom. I just don’t like the feel of driving vans. And it is not like I am not used to them. Being the oldest of 5 kids in my family I was well trained in the art of busing people around in big vehicles. I love the space of a minivan but it seemed too big for us at this stage in our life.

The dealer caught on to my half-hearted attempts at shopping for a van and introduced us to the Mazda 5. We test drove it and WOW! It drives like a car! It seats up to 6! The doors slide open just like a minivan! The cargo space is not the greatest if we have a full car but the back seats fold down and it is perfect. Even if we have another kid in the next few years we will still be okay. AND this was more of an economical move for us, better gas mileage, etc. AND the price tag was easily less than half the cost of some minivans so we were able to get a lot newer model rather than settling for a much older used minivan.

(same layout but with black interior and no navigation system)

Can I just say shopping for used minivans is not a picnic? (Especially in a short period of time?) After a handful of years old they start getting a little trashy. Plus they are not easy to come by as people tend to hold on to their minivans for a while. We hope this Mazda will serve us well for many years and when the kids are older/bigger we will most likely dive in to the minivan world.

But for now Aedan likes to call our vehicles “twins” as they are both silver. We are all lovin it.

Our First Home

2010-04-11T01:04:00.001-05:00

A lot has happened this past week! And NO it wasn’t an April Fools Joke!I can’t believe we were able to go house hunting, find a home, get an offer accepted and a contract drawn up, AND purchase a second vehicle all within a week. That is not to mention all of the research/prayers that went into making these major purchases!

With Neal starting a job so soon and with two more months of rent left on our current residence, the plan of action is that Neal will be living in temporary housing while he works and writes (he is going to be finishing his PhD work in the evenings and weekends) and the kids and I will stay here to pack. We are looking at about 3 hours of drive time separating us for about a month and a half. As you can imagine it is a less-than-ideal situation but it is manageable and we can see him on the weekends if he isn’t too busy.

The company is offering Neal the chance to get a business degree by taking evening classes while working and so most likely he will begin that this Fall. The job is at least a 2 yr commitment, probably 3 for the business degree and who knows what will happen after that. With that in mind, we were looking to start out in a smaller home with the idea that we may not be here longer than your average postdoc.

We saw several homes and our very last home we saw was the one we got. It is a HUD home (read this to know what I’m talking about) however it is in very good condition. There are a lot of things we need/want to do to it prior to moving in but overall this seemed like the smartest investment for us, especially if we have to turn around and sell it in a few years. But who knows, we could be there for a lot longer.

It is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home with an unfinished basement so we have room to grow. It has plenty of yard and it is on the end of a culdesac and, yes, is right next to train tracks which for those who know our current status, it is nothing new although it is much quieter than here. It is in a little growing town called Davis Junction just south of Rockford. The nearest LDS chapel is about 10 miles away and we will be in a branch (yes we knew about that beforehand) and we had a chance to meet some people in the branch this last Sunday. The branch president made sure to collect our callings history and was very adamant that, “the Lord needs you here!” and I guess he was right because we got the home.

Being a HUD home means we will have a little bit of work to do before we move in. It is stressful but kind of fun to be able to pick out carpet and flooring and light fixtures and appliances…. I know that sounds like a lot but even with all of that we believe we will be coming out ahead when it comes time to resell. What an adventure! I am excited to be able to pic out the things that we want (or is it I want?)

We have big plans for the basement and Neal is a handy guy so we will get to it as soon as time permits. If you looked carefully at the aerial view you would notice a pool which is no longer there so we have to help the grass grow back. Well for the few readers who need more pics (hi mom!) here they are. Just think of them as “before” pics with the “after” pics yet to come:

Aedan chose his room. Thank goodness it was the one we were going to put him in. He spent Easter weekend at his Grandma and Grandpa K’s house while we house hunted.

Lily was perfect for us! What a trooper!

All those trees are ours. There are many more trees.

Tax Credits and Rebates here we come! Be sure to check back to see vehicle #2!!

Hello Goodbye

2010-04-01T17:23:00.001-05:00

Hey all! Just thought I would pop in to let you know that we are in the process of MOVING OUT!

That’s right, Neal just barely accepted a job at Thermo Fisher Scientific in Rockford, Illinois!

They originally wanted him to start next Monday (um, no) but pushed his start date back to April 19th so we are scrambling around to make everything happen.

And another hip-hip-hooray, Neal’s paper just got accepted for publication.

Things are good/crazy/busy and we are going house hunting this weekend. Will post more details soon!

Follow the Prophet

2010-03-30T00:39:00.001-05:00

Chorus
Follow the prophet, follow the prophet,
Follow the prophet; don’t go astray.
Follow the prophet, follow the prophet,
Follow the prophet; he knows the way.

This weekend is general conference and it seemed very appropriate that Neal was teaching the kids to sing Follow the Prophet in Primary for the month of March. We liked the idea of dressing up the kids as the different prophets but thought it would be a hassle to bring a ton of props so I made posters. To try to make them as church approved as possible, I tried my best to make them look like the pictures suggested in the March Friend magazine (pictured above). I have a long ways to go with my artistic skills but they turned out to be fun.

Not to make fun of the prophets or anything but our kids faces suggests certain captions and I’ve included them in quotes and italics so there is no mistaking that this is Jackie speaking and not the church ;) I’ve also put down the verses of the song to go with the pictures.

“There’s nothing like a life-time of back-breaking labor to make a person HAPPY!!”

1. Adam was a prophet, first one that we know.
In a place called Eden, he helped things to grow.
Adam served the Lord by following his ways.
We are his descendants in the latter days.

“RIGHTEOUS!!”

2. Enoch was a prophet; he taught what was good.
People in his city did just what they should.
When they were so righteous that there was no sin,
Heav’nly Father took them up to live with him.

“Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?!?”

3. Noah was a prophet called to preach the word,
Tried to cry repentance, but nobody heard.
They were busy sinning—Noah preached in vain.
They wished they had listened when they saw the rain.

“Who’s your daddy?”

4. Abraham the prophet prayed to have a son,
So the Lord sent Isaac as the chosen one.
Isaac begat Jacob, known as Israel;
Jacob’s sons were twelve tribes, so the Bible tells.

“After all we’ve been through, you are worshipping a CALF?!?”

5. Moses was a prophet sent to Israel.
He would lead them to the promised land to dwell.
They were slow to follow, or so it appears.
They were in the wilderness for forty years.

“Peek-a-boo!”

6. Samuel was a prophet chosen as a boy.
Hannah promised God her son would serve with joy.
In the tabernacle, Samuel heard his name;
He was called by God and answered, “Here I am!”

“Did you just see that? What a rush…”

7. Jonah was a prophet, tried to run away,
But he later learned to listen and obey.
When we really try, the Lord won’t let us fail:
That’s what Jonah learned deep down inside the whale.

“Yep. Still here.”

8. Daniel was a prophet. He refused to sin;
So the king threw Daniel in the lion’s den.
Angels calmed the lions, and the king soon saw
Daniel’s pow’r was great, for he obeyed God’s law.

“I make this look good!”

9. Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to return.
He blesses us with prophets who help us to learn.
President Monson humbly leads God’s Church today.
As we heed his words, we’ll walk a righteous way.

The Great Debate

2010-03-25T20:05:00.001-05:00

We get very different opinions when it comes to whether Lily looks like Aedan. Their growth charts are practically identical: long and heavy for their age group. But everything else? You be the judge:

Lily age 6 months

Aedan age 4 months

Aedan 6 months

Lily 6 months

Since we last met…

2010-03-23T00:41:00.001-05:00

Well hi there! I know it has been ages since I last posted. I dunno, lots of stuff happened but not much to report ;) I’ll eventually get around to an update but today my little Lily reached the 6 month mark and I just now realized that I never wrote out her birth story. For shame! I realize birthing stories may not appeal to some or most but just know I need to write this down and you are more than welcome to just view the pretty pictures….

You may or may not recall that I was a week overdue with Lily and we set our induction date, planning (not by my design) to wake up at 5am to make a call to ensure there was room for us in the hospital. There was and we showed up at 6am ready to get things going. Since this was my second time going in to be induced, I haven’t had the “privilege” of rushing in while in labor so my experience going in is very laid back, I get a good night’s sleep prior to coming in, etc. Well, things generally go a little slow to start because, hey, what is the rush for them right?I don’t think we got on pitocin until 9am. That was just 3 hours of sitting and paperwork and, well nothing much. They got me started on a low dose (hallelujah) and gradually worked me up and meanwhile my water breaks and I finish reading a book that I was meaning to finish before the baby came. Contractions became more painful once the water broke and I planned on getting an epidural because other than the fact that I am a wimp I knew that with Aedan things didn’t really progress until I caved and got an epidural and then things went faster. So as soon as I dialated to a 4 I was ready for that epidural.

You’d have to ask Neal but I feel like I did better pre-epidural this go ‘round. Sure I was in labor for a shorter period (got the epidural 12:30ish) of time before getting it and I knew what to expect. But can I say I LOVED the epidural just as much. I would have been a terrible pioneer lady. I’m okay with that. ;)

Well, here is the crazy part about her birth story. Neal was on the phone with his mom giving updates and since I was still a 4 and just got the epidural and just got checked by a nurse who said it’ll be a while before things start happening, Neal was relaying the message that it looks like we’ll be in labor for a while longer.

My OB told me to turn and lay on my side to see if that helps things move along. So I turned once and while Neal was still on the phone I had one contraction and my jaw just dropped. Even with the epidural it felt HUGE. I told Neal that I thought something odd just happened and whoa nelly my comfort level dropped a ton. Our nurse came in with another nurse who was there to do who knows what and she just happened to need to check me and she was shocked that I went from dialated at a 4 to a 10 in one contraction! It is insane to think that my body could do something like that so quickly and it was the weirdest sensation.

Well seeing as the OB was just there and thought we had a while left, she went off to do a C-Section. So I had to wait and they had to tell her to hurry up and she finally came and three pushes later and we had our little baby, 2:30 pm. The delivery experience was so much better as the epidural wasn’t too strong so that I wasn’t completely numb like I was with Aedan. Absolutely wonderful!

That little Lily was so bright eyed and a beautiful sight to see! She was such a lamb and wow, I still can’t believe that she was able to smile a couple times before we even left the hospital. That was surely a sign of what was to come because she really is a happy baby and is quick to smile for us. We love our little Lily and are loving each passing moment we have with her!

Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy Chinese New Year!!

2010-02-14T00:25:00.001-06:00

Some might wonder if I’m giving up blogging. Others might wonder if we’ve skipped off of the face of the earth. Then there are those who might wonder if Twinkies are better deep fried.

Don’t worry, they are.

Well in answer to the first two questions: not giving up blogging, and we are still here but barely. Here’s how Jan-early Feb went down:

Team Kitchen fought a tough game last month. The opposition, team X, came on full force with RSV and pneumonia but fell behind at half time. So they brought in the “reserve” team players: pink eye and stomach flu and the game went into a double overtime.

It wasn’t pretty.

It seems every time we would set foot outside the home we would pick up something else and then share it with the family. Arrgghh. I feel like life this past month (I guess technically past two months) has been put in slow motion and I don’t know if I really accomplished much. Now that we are finally back to good health I am having trouble getting back into a normal groove. I suppose so many things have changed in the last month making that goal nearly impossible to accomplish.

For instance, Aedan, has grown up so much. Not just in size, although I am finding him at an awkward toddler/boy in between stage in his clothes right now. He has really taken an interest in reading and writing lately and I am just scrambling to try to keep up. He can read some words either out of familiarity or out of earnestly trying and sounding out letters. He is finding the patience to actually write now. He wanted to write his name on his own Valentines but could only handle so much for so long. So for a few cards a day over a handful of days we made it.

His vocabulary and sentence structure has improved but I wonder if it wouldn’t be much more advanced if it weren’t for me holding him back. You see, when he says certain things that aren’t right but they sound cute, I don’t want to correct him. Things like…

“Mom, I want to go to Old McDonald’s" (McDonalds)

“Oh look! There is the angel Ramoni” (Moroni)

“Squidward Testicle Pants” (supposed to be Tentacle and yes this is from Spongebob)

Okay, that last one I set to correcting lightening fast. In hind sight, tentacle isn’t a whole lot better. He’s a squid people. Hhmmm. Moving on…

Lily is a happy girl. She has taken to squealing. And she gets frustrated like a girl. I don’t know how to explain it but I can tell I’m in for trouble already.

She discovered her feet shortly getting out of the hospital and a week ago today she rolled over, twice, although as it happens I was the only one who witnessed it, thus no one believes me. She has not done it since and really I’m not sure if she has the motivation to do so but we’ll see.

And here I am, a happy mommy of a babe with no teeth yet. I’m dreading the nursing-while-teething stage although she has become very drooling this last month so who knows.

Well have a happy Valentine’s Day or Chinese New Year, whichever you prefer! Who knows maybe I’ll get around to taking off the Christmas blog decor soon too…

Holiday Insights

2010-01-19T21:47:00.001-06:00

I have been getting some interesting freebies in the mail lately and was just about to throw away an Oriental Trading 2010 calendar when I noticed something kind of funny. They have a whole slew of holidays on their calendar that I never knew about.

How could I have missed the Festival Of Sleep – a good excuse to sleep in - on January 3rd?

Or National Nothing Day on January 16th? I am such a loser, I actually did something on that day! (some might say I celebrate this day more than once in a year though…)

Others missed: Cuddle Up Day on the 6th, and Make Your Dreams Come True Day on the 13th. I did remember Martin Luther King, Jr. Day but I admit I wasn’t very festive…

I am determined to not miss any more holidays, what with some very keen ones coming up. Maybe this will give me something to get motivated to post about and of course, something to look forward to now that Christmas has come and gone…

Here is some upcoming ones to plan for (because I know you will):

January 20th National Buttercrunch Day (Woot! Tomorrow!)
January 21st National Hugging Day
January 23rd Measure Your Feet Day
January 25th Opposite Day
January 28th National Kazoo Day
January 29th National Puzzle Day

We will see how this goes and I will make vague plans to post a celebratory picture and some background info of the holiday. I’ll also make sure to put up dates ahead of time to allow time to plan. Speaking of which I gotta find a kazoo…

Here’s to an eventful 2010!!! Feel free to join me!

For more info check out www.holidayinsights.com

At a brief glance I am thoroughly looking forward to Everything You Do is Right Day, No Housework Day, Ask A Stupid Question Day, and National Goof Off Day!

On the mend

2010-01-18T23:43:00.001-06:00

Things are finally calming down here on the Kitchen front. Lily had a follow-up appointment at the pediatrician’s office last weekend and she is doing great aside from the fact that I think she got some stranger anxiety from her whole hospital stay. Some have suggested it is the age but I don’t think it is or that it is a major player here – it was a pretty night and day sort of switch from being the happy and super friendly kid to mostly happy but very fearful of anyone wearing a stethoscope kid.

She really is afraid of all medical staff and a lot of people outside our little family. It is so sad. She has perfected her pout which is cute in a way but it is sad to see her change like this practically overnite.

I am dreading her 4 month checkup next week.

She is definitely wanting more attention which is fine and I’ll oblige for a while as she went through a lot but I am tired and trying to get myself motivated to do more at home. I feel like a lazy bum. Her night time schedule is horrid after the hospital but that could be a little bit of being a baby. It is hard to say. All I know is there isn’t much that my body will want to do between 4 and 6 in the a.m. She is so happy and playful during that time, it is insane, she won’t even let me be grumpy at that hour.

I can’t believe I’m complaining about her being happy and playful but there you go.

Ooo weee, do I have a lot of catching up to do in the blogging world! Maybe I should start blogging before the crack of dawn. Hhhmmm, I will think about it, it could be entertaining for all of you to say the least ….

I suppose if you want to look for the good that came from all of this, she improved on her hand coordination while in the hospital, she has become a drool princess and likes to suck on just about everything but a pacifier (sometimes I would welcome the binky), and she likes to reach for her feet now. She really wants to sit up independently but it just ends up looking like she is working on some ab crunches. She is extremely ticklish and gets the giggles every time we change her clothes!

I do believe she has begun mastering the “fake cry”…

Lily is a real treat!

Day 6 Lily comes home!

2010-01-09T23:00:00.001-06:00

The other day when the nurses were changing shifts and coming in to meet us, I was in the middle of fixing up Lily's bed just right to prop her up and I was going about fixing some of the wiring on and around Lily. The new RN was watching me and I barely heard her whisper to the other nurse asking if i was a nurse. The other lady just laughed and said I was a hospital pro which means it was time we should go home. Man, if the staff mistakes you for staff you know you've been there too long....,
I am not even close to being able to do what they do but I'm glad they were willing to let me help and were even willing to teach me a thing or two. For the most part everyone has been very helpful at the hospital. I am so grateful.
This morning I awoke to a different doctor and a few nurses in the room. The doctor is someone we know from our old ward before we split and something about seeing a familiar face in there made me feel comforted. He told me Lily was doing well and that he thought she could go home today.
We got her completely off the oxygen and then slowly and one by one all of the tubes and IVs and monitors came off. She was so excited about that and was kicking and moving around like crazy. You could tell she was super excited because she even smiled while they suctioned out her nose, funny girl.
Lily was released around 2 or 3 pm and we are home! We are thrilled as you can imagine! We are all still sick and with rsv I imagine we will feel the effects for quite a while but it sure feels nice to be together again.

So long to economy seating

2010-01-08T16:23:00.000-06:00

Look what happens when you stay at the hospital long enough...

.... they upgrade you to first class!

Sorry the pics aren't the best - I'm using my phone for everything here. These pics dont do it justice - you wouldnt believe the mess of wires we have to work around to get her in! But even still, her smile says it all, she is so thrilled to have something to do!

Still here

2010-01-08T16:20:00.001-06:00

Day 5: Lily is getting so close to getting off the o2 but she is having to endure a lot of suctioning out her nose lately.

We had a couple scary moments when her heart rate kept dropping in her sleep but she made it through.

She got a brief visit from Neal while I enjoyed a few moments with aedan outside of the room. Definitely not going home today but hopefully within the next couple days.

The Trendsetter

2010-01-07T17:31:00.001-06:00

New fashion for the chic baby: introducing the diaper muff! Her IV was getting in the way of her wild arms so something had to be done!

New diagnosis: RSV plus pneumonia equals one sad baby girl

2010-01-06T20:10:00.000-06:00

Saturday and Sunday were tough on Lily - in addition to her cold symptoms she had high fevers and began breathing rapidly. I called the ER and while they agreed that her breathing was fast they said that I shouldn't come because her temperature was not high enough.

Lesson number 1: it is better to go and feel stupid if there isn't anything wrong than to not go and to wish you did because the situation needed it.

Neal and I took the kids to their pediatrician who decided that Aedan just needed eye drops and time to heal but Lily got some xray work done and it appeared that she might have pneumonia. She was given a nebulizer treatment but her O2 levels did not improve so they called for an ambulance.

It was a strange thing that they brought out the big stretcher for such a little person and an even stranger thing that they wanted to just buckle her carseat on top. We were quite the sight leaving the office to the ambulance. The EMT's were surprisingly in a joking mood the whole ride to he hospital, it felt so out of place while they were prepping her but I was in no mood to complain.

We were admitted to the emergency room instantly and the pediatric doctor felt like she just had something viral so he quickly moved her up to the pediatric floor. A handful of tests later and it was determined she has RSV. They tested for some types of pneumonia which came back negative and the test for influenza first came back positive but was retested and came back negative. She was put on oxygen and they've been trying to wean her since but haven't had any luck.

This morning they took more xrays and they determined that she has a combination of RSV and pneumonia. She started antibiotics and they have someone coming in every once in a while to literally pound on her chest for a few minutes straight to try to loosen up some junk in her lungs. She is not thrilled with all of the needles and tubes and wires and suctions and interruptions and it is a hard thing to watch.

She has a long list of complaints which she likes to tell me many times a day. It almost sounds like she is saying "ow" when she cries. She looks long and hard at her tormentors as if she is means to get her revenge, someday. Okay not really but she may just develop some stranger anxiety from all of this. She cries at the sight of some things and some people.

She gets some joy out of little things: a balloon from the hospital, some toys she got for Christmas, and kisses on her little double chin.

I wouldn't be surprised if we were here until next week. Meanwhile Neal and Aedan are hanging out. Aedan can not visit is because he is sick and Neal seems to have gotten worse so he is staying away. We are in isolation here so no visitors and while at times it gets a little lonely, I keep plenty entertained with books, phone, internet, and of course trying to get some smiles out of my little girl.

Lily in the hospital

2010-01-06T00:24:00.002-06:00

As mentioned in the last post, we have all been pretty sick but things got worse and our little Lily is currently in the hospital. I'll give more details later when I can get on a computer instead of doing this on my phone. She was ambulanced to the hospital on Monday and what was first suspected as pneumonia and possibly influenza was later determined that she actually has RSV (respiratory virus). She is on oxygen and is okay and I am with her in isolation. We don't know how long we will be here at this point.

Can't wait until they let us go home!

Auld Lang Syne

2010-01-03T23:12:00.001-06:00

I was thinking of this song the other day, don’t know why. I decided that this is one of the most familiar unfamiliar songs around. Sure everyone knows it is the New Years song but ask anyone to sing past “Should old acquaintance be forgot” and you’ll get a few mumbles at best. Or maybe I’m wrong and I’m the only one on the planet who la-la’s my way through it.

It’s probably just me.

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne ?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Well there are other verses, two of which have something to do with drinking and others with seas and daisies and streams… but no one sings those ones do they?

I’m not trying to be down on this Scottish poem turned song, really I’m not.

Wikipedia says: auld lang syne literally means "old long since", but a more idiomatic English translation would be something like "long long ago", "days of long ago", or "olden days". "For old times' sake," or "to the (good) old days," or "To days(or times) gone by" may be modern-day expressions, in common use as toasts, that capture the spirit of "for auld lang syne". The song begins by posing the question whether it is right that old times be forgotten, and is generally interpreted as a call to remember long-standing friendships.

So I guess where I’m going with this is, I really am going to get back to this blog, for auld lang syne and for my personal sanity. Holidays aside, I have been miserably sick for two weeks and now the family has it. My poor baby is too wiped out to cry hard :( We are home now but in reality I probably should’ve stayed home because I’m sure it was I who got many others sick, including my nephew who is now currently in the hospital for RSV.

*sigh*

We had a lovely holiday break with lots of family at Neal’s parent’s place, in spite of illness.

Here’s hoping for a healthier new year! Hope your holidays were merry and bright!

It’s beginning to look A LOT like Christmas

2009-12-22T01:33:00.001-06:00

Aedan decorating great-grandma’s tree.

Aedan was treated to a special Christmas breakfast at Thanksgiving point by his grandma and grandpa. Apparently he liked all of the characters there….

Except for the Grinch. He wouldn’t go near him.

This year he was very willing to go sit on Santa’s lap. He even wrote a letter and is showing it to him in the picture.

Our tree plus the oh-so-necessary train tracks underneath. Sure it is fun but who knew it also created a barrier/distraction so that kids won’t reach for the ornaments?

Our family Christmas traditional train ride with Santa and Christmas parade in Monticello, IL.

We can’t wait!

You would cry too if it happened to you

2009-12-21T01:00:00.000-06:00

I am officially in the thirty-something club now. That’s all I want to say about that.

My birthday was this last weekend and I wanted to go see Avatar and we managed it with my first few hours away from Lily. Can I just say I am SO proud of my lil’ bro who helped make the movie? It was awesome. The 3D was very well done, not gimmicky like some other movies.

We had Neal’s sister and family over for dinner afterwards since they were so nice to watch our kids for us during the movie. Okay, really, they babysat our kids AND brought dinner. How cool is that?

I got shoes. Snow boots finally, and two croc dress shoes, all purchased by me. Neal, or rather the kids, got me some Julia Child cookbooks which is a little intimidating….

Christmas Present Spoiler Alert!!!

2009-12-17T16:21:00.001-06:00

I am sending these out to family but they are too cute to hold off posting. This is Lily in her baby blessing dress. We blessed Lily out in Utah (details to come) and I got loads of pictures while there but I felt like I needed to go and get some professional pictures as the only pictures I had of her were when she was with someone else and I wanted some pictures of just her alone. And the dress. AND the headband.

Yes, it is all about the baby but now I’m starting to think it is all about the outfit :)

We are drowning in dimpled cheeks, double chins, and slobbery smiles over here and LOVIN it!

Picture credits go to Portrait Innovations and the only thing I made in these pics is the happy little girl. Dress is Cie Jae Marie and the flower headband I got at Macey’s (the grocery store of all places) and I forget who it was made by.

Come, Ye Thankful People, Come!

2009-12-17T00:17:00.002-06:00

We took a quick trip to Utah over Thanksgiving so we can let my parents meet Lily and to have Lily’s baby blessing there (post on that yet to come) as Neal’s parents were vacationing out there as well. I was grateful for the timing of it all as I had not been home for Thanksgiving since before Neal and I were married. Now I know why we hadn’t done it sooner – Thanksgiving is too short a time to really feel like you can get in a full visit and when you get home, you literally hit the ground running because Christmas is just around the corner. I wish we could have stayed longer!

My mom with Lily, her first grand daughter.

Aedan with Grandpa who likes to show Aedan YouTube videos.

Neal, Lily, Aedan trying to predict snow in the forecast at the Clark Planetarium in SLC.

Ooooooo!

Aedan loved getting some good Grandma and Grandpa time.

Lily with her Great Grandma (my dad’s mom) for the first time.

Aedan made special Thanksgiving presents, a hand stamped Turkey apron and a T-shirt for himself. We made it using fabric paint and a fabric marker to draw on the details. Lots of fun but tricky for a kid who generally doesn’t like getting his hands dirty.

Great Aunt D and Aedan before the Thanksgiving feast.

Baby’s 1st Thanksgiving. It was a great one, just like the ones I remember as a kid. I’m glad my kids got to experience that.

Words to live by

2009-12-16T23:45:00.001-06:00

Aside from the usual things I find myself saying to Aedan - “eat your food,” “don’t pick that up,” etc. – I recently found myself saying these little oddities:

“Stop eating carrots and eat your noodles!”

“You can’t pick someone else’s nose!”

“No interpretative dancing at the dinner table!”

It either speaks volumes about him or my parenting skills. I haven’t decided which.

Let’s see, where to begin?

2009-12-16T13:07:00.001-06:00

Before I attempt a post-a-palooza stint, I just have to post this picture. Jump to post-Thanksgiving time. We made a quick trip out to Utah and as always, Aedan practically idolizes his uncle S. So much that he works on his uncle “S face” every so often.

The resemblance is just too weird! He’s got it down to the eyebrows and everything!

Cracks me up every time I see it.

Miss you uncle S!

Dear Blog

2009-12-16T03:09:00.001-06:00

I know I haven’t stopped in for a while. I wanted you to know I’ve been thinking about you, blog. I promise to start feeding you again but for now how about a change of clothes?

There! Isn’t that better? I need to fix a few things but this’ll have to do in the meantime.

Now go to bed and stop keeping me up so late! Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow!

luv,

Because that last post seemed a little depressing…

2009-11-17T00:33:00.001-06:00

And yes, all are in good health now! Something to really give thanks for!

Bronchitisaurus

2009-11-05T23:13:00.001-06:00

This picture was taken the day that Aedan got his flu shots, seasonal and H1N1. Needless to say, he was miserable.

This week he got Bronchitis (so naturally I wouldn’t dare set the two of them this close) and we are waiting it out with some bubblegum flavored meds from the doctor. It’s a hard knock life I tell ya!

Big Kid Aedan

2009-11-05T23:12:00.001-06:00

At the grocery store. These shopping carts are a lifesaver!

Curtis Orchard Pumpkin

Shaving (not a real razor in case you were wondering)

First day of Preschool

Halloween at his Little Maroons Preschool with his teacher Mrs. Yagow

Lily’s first 6 weeks

2009-11-05T23:02:00.001-06:00

Scattering Sunshine

2009-11-02T23:45:00.001-06:00

Lily started smiling at 3 days old, no joke. The last day in the hospital she really threw me off guard when she made eye contact and broke into a little grin. I can tell the difference between unintentional smiles and intended ones and she most definitely smiles with a purpose about 90% of the time. It was just weird to see a newborn smile at me.

Unfortunately I was unsuccessful at capturing it on camera until two weeks ago so you are just going to have to believe me. This little baby has been SO much fun for me and when I think about it I think that is in part due to the fact that she has been so responsive from the start and that little bit of interaction sure makes my day!

There were two in the bed

2009-11-02T23:35:00.001-06:00

and the little one said,

ROLL OVER!!!

I think we are starting to see a pattern. Lily sleeps okay at night in her bassinette but she sure sleeps better on a decent mattress. Now they are both taking over our bed!! Actually, Aedan has been great in his new bunk bed’s fancy mattress but once every blue moon he might nap on our bed. This particular day he wanted to lay by Lily and they fell asleep. Cute kids.

I am starting to think that we need to invest in a really good crib mattress if there is such a thing. If there is one thing I learned with Aedan is that while his new mattress may be a bit more pricey, you can’t put a price on a full night’s worth of sleep without your kid climbing in next to you and kicking you and grinding his teeth so you hear it all night long. There are some who say family bed time is the way to go but I think I prefer sleep. So selfish of me yes but I am a better mommy for it during the daytime where I can enjoy snuggle time while I am awake.

I’m reminded of that Princess and the Pea story when it comes to these kids – they must have royal backsides as they want nothing but the finest.

Halloween Costumes 2009

2009-11-01T23:50:00.000-06:00

Before Halloween gets too far behind us (that was SO last night) I thought I should share our costumes for this year. Now before you get too excited I must preface this by saying that there were no special FX that went into these costumes like last year’s. I also wanted to make life a little easier for me (this is where I guffaw) and reuse a costume from the past (mine). Okay I’m stalling here….

We did an Alice in Wonderland theme. Having a little girl in the family sure opens up more possibilities for costume themes.

Didja notice Aedan’s white rabbit costume?

Didn’t think so. That is because he is not wearing one. Poor guy had a good reason too: I finally got things arranged for him to get the regular flu shot (they told me H1N1 was out) and they scheduled him on the day of our ward party. He went in and to our surprise they were also able to give him the H1N1. He came home with a shot in each arm and was a cranky little boy. He did not want to wear any costumes at all. It was hard to get him to go to the trunk-or-treat party and we almost didn’t go.

Aedan originally wanted to be the white rabbit in our Alice theme and I made him the full rabbit costume with a tunic and a mock Elizabethan ruff collar and at the last minute the kid refused it all. Okay that is not entirely true, for his giant pocket watch I made him a treat bag with a clock on it and he wanted to take that to the party. It wasn’t until later that he was even willing to put the ears on.

Yes it looks huge & I didn’t bother finishing it off. I wore it Halloween night. I don’t think I’ll take pictures of the rest, I’m too bummed.

Neal, the Mad Hatter, was mistaken for Willy Wonka by a few and I can see why but oh well. I think of all the costuming I did this year I had the most fun making his hat. I have made several hats before but never had sewn one. I’m at least glad I made that. I had recently learned (because I was too daft to inquire about it earlier I suppose) that the 10/6 on the Hatter’s Hat is actually a price tag. 10 shillings and 6 pence which, if you are quick to Wiki means that would be equivalent to 40.55 pounds today with inflation. Either he is boastful and left it on on purpose or mad and completely forgot to take it off. Either way it’s mental but he truly can’t be the Mad Hatter without it. Otherwise, apparently, he would be Willy Wonka.

Lily’s Alice dress was so tiny (tiny clothes are frustrating!) and the material was so cute and sparkly with big poofy sleeves and a tiny little petticoat. (that last sentence contained several words that I don’t think I had used up until we had a little girl in the family…) I had great plans of making an “Eat Me” “Drink Me” accessory but never got around to it.

My dress for the Queen of Hearts was made back in my undergraduate days as some of you might recognize although a post-pregnancy body was not meant for it :) Oh well, I squeezed into it for a few hours and survived. But the best part? I actually splurged for a 6 hoop hoop skirt! Oh how much fun! Love it!

One for the roomies. I think K-Money made this for a calendar am I right? Wow, good times. Miss Happy Meal was so fitting don’t you think?

A side note – we had also made giant cards (clubs, hearts, diamonds, spades) out of poster board to decorate our car for the trunk-or-treat but it rained so that was disappointing.

We had literally a trick-or-treating event every day since Wednesday. Admittedly, I felt horrible having my little boy dress up as a rabbit. Is that silly of me? Feeling the need to give him an opportunity to have a very BOY costume and seeing as we had plenty of costuming events to attend to, we marched off to Wal-Mart and *gasp* bought a costume for him there. Of all of the super heroes he had to choose from, guess what he chose?

Aedan at preschool by his cubby, I like that word, cubby.

Yup. My little boy as Darth Vader. It took some convincing that his name was not Dark Vader. The kid has no clue who this character is. What really sweetened the deal was that I told him he was a bad guy (much easier than explaining that in the end he was a good guy) and that he uses a light saber (or “gun sword” is what he called it). He was sold.

Trading in the saber for a dart gun for a wild west apple shoot-off at the trick-or-treat street.

In an attempt to further explain this bad guy so Aedan could get in character, Neal told him a few key phrases that Vader would say. The one that stuck in Aedan’s mind was “I am your father” and proceeded to say that to many who would approach him.

Even the sith need a little TLC every once in a while. They highly recommend DQ for such a time.

At the trick or treat street party at the local rec center, a little boy dressed up as a Jedi knight excitedly ran up to my little Darth and shouted, “Hi Darth Vader!” Aedan gave him a look that said, “Who are you?” and said a very polite hi to him. The other kid clearly had a clue as to the whole story line and I could tell he desperately wanted to duel right then and there. After a bit of awkwardness when Aedan did not get all hyped up about the situation the other kid walked away saying, “Later Vader!” Too cute.

Vader’s mistress shown here is a witch and a cute one at that. Together they terrorized our neighborhood on spooky All Hallows’ Eve.

Aedan also wore this costume to his preschool trick-or-treating and also for Halloween night. He really enjoyed making Vader breathing noises while wearing his mask. Funny kid, I think he thought he was a Transformer.

The brotherhood of the sith. They’re out there I tell you. Armed with a deadly arsenal of sugar. I’ve given in to the dark side, how ‘bout you?

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T23:10:00.001-05:00

What? You think just because I own a blog it means I actually got to use it? :)

I know it has been over a month since my last post and I definitely don’t plan on making that a habit but things have been too ______ (insert adjective) to do even the shortest of write-ups.

If you know me at all, and I like to think that you do, you would have been able to guess that October would cast me into the bowels of our life’s “Bermuda Triangle”. There is the everyday tasks that are always there but now I’m adjusting to baby/lack of sleep AND I’ve been getting things ready for Halloween. Now while the Halloween part may not seem important, I fear I have got some sort of reputation to uphold and people here have been, um, getting all anxious to hear what we have in store for this year. Yikes, talk about stress!

Okay, confession, I wrote a draft post to update you on life here a couple weeks ago and never got around to publishing it. My prime blogging time has also been Lily’s prime awake time and, well, she is cuter than my blog so I’m not going to fight it! I think I need to break my big catch-up post into bite-sized posts so look forward to these throughout the week. But first, a teaser:

YOU DON’T KNOW JACKie and the rest of the Kitchenators

(I used to love that game…)

1) Aedan has begun:

a) Preschool

b) Break-dancing

c) making up adverbs

d) all of the above

2) Labor and Delivery was

a) less painful than Aedan’s

b) quicker than Aedan’s

c) more back labor than Aedan’s

d) more extreme than Aedan’s (it is a strange feeling going from 4 cm to 10 cm dilated in one contraction, let me tell you)

e) all of the above

2) Lily loves

a) dancing

b) music

c) baths

d) mommy

e) daddy

f) Aedan

g) all of the above

3) Lily had a visit with a language/speech pathologist because

a) she frequently confuses her nouns and verbs and it is quite frustrating

b) she cries in Russian, it’s the bizarrest thing…

c) she clicks while nursing

d) all of the above

4) Lily began smiling at

a) 3 weeks

b) 3 days

c) 3 pm today

d) hasn’t even cracked a grin yet

5) Aedan loves

a) Lily

b) holding Lily

c) moving Lily

d) pulling Lily

e) prodding Lily

f) all of the above

6) Jackie has been

a) sewing paper and cloth but not together

b) having too much fun with a baby again

c) cooking up a storm

d) making baby announcements and got most of them mailed off

e) getting more sleep than she knows what to do with

f) some of the above

7) In any given moment, Neal may be found

a) coughing

b) IMing his brother

c) doing all of the chores his precious wife has neglected to do

d) working hard and looking for a job

e) being a super daddy

f) all of the above

8) Halloween time this year was not the most ideal for us because:

a) After I spent too much time making costumes for the family, Aedan decided he didn’t want to wear his

b) After trying to coordinate a time for Aedan to get his flu shots, the best time they could give me was Thursday afternoon – Aedan has been cranky up until today

c) Being on a Saturday sure made for way too many parties beforehand…

d) Hardly any trick or treaters and too many candy bars left in the bowl downstairs makes losing pregnancy fat a real challenge

e) Most definitely all of the above

I suppose I’m not really looking for you to answer these but you can if you want to. Now I’ve got to catch up on all of your blogs – so sorry for the long break! I promise I will be a hostess with the mostess postess this week…

Introducing our Fall Lily!

2009-09-23T16:25:00.000-05:00

Lily So-Han

Born 2:30pm September 22nd, 2009

First Day of Fall was a rainy one

7 lbs 10 ounces

20.5 inches

She is an angel and a lamb rolled up in one.

Not nearly as loud as Aedan was but just as cute :)

She is a very curious girl and loves to look at everything.

Aedan is THRILLED and is always anxious to hold her (inspite of the nasty cold he has which he has passed along to mommy now...)

We are all doing great and will be bringing her home tomorrow!

Inducement here I come…

2009-09-21T23:54:00.001-05:00

So I’m a handful of hours away from my appointment to be induced and hopefully all will go well. I was induced with Aedan but I didn’t go as far into the pregnancy as I did with this one and with Aedan I was progressing better, so…, ya. Oh well!

Meanwhile Neal has recovered from his cold but managed to pass it on to poor Aedan. I feel so bad for Neal’s sister and family who has Aedan for the night tonite. We are supposed to call the hospital at 5am to go in to be induced (hello? who set that time up I want to know?!?) so we figured it would be good for Aedan to have a sleepover. He was so excited – he was carrying his backpack and sleeping bag around the house a couple hours before we took him over. People have asked me if he is excited to have a little sister. I would have to say yes but right now it seems as if this sleepover at his cousins house trumps new sibling.

I don’t know why but I’ve always been bothered by the term “nesting”. I’m not a bird for heavens sake! I will say, however, that I have done some pregnancy-induced interior decorating/rearranging. We plan to have this baby in our room in a bassinette for a while so Aedan’s room is still just his room. I wanted to make it a place where he wants to play as that is basically the only room that comes close to a toy room. But we have major space issues here and things were tight as is.

Remember Aedan’s sleep problems? Well, I feel like such a bad mommy now but I am starting to think that his problems were mostly from the fact that he was sleeping in an uncomfortable toddler bed. He has been asking for a bunk bed for a while now but it almost seemed silly to get him one as it wouldn’t be shared for a long time. But we caved and got one anyway with the idea that we could transform it into a loft bed simply by not setting up the bottom portion and have the bottom area available for toys and play. Wow does it make the room feel bigger now!

Turns out loft beds are generally more expensive than a bunk bed which seems dumb to me but now I have a makeshift loft bed with the option of adding in the bottom bunk when I need it. Yay! Plus Aedan has a super comfy mattress (apparently better than ours) and he has preferred sleeping on his own in his own bed ever since we got it! What a relief!

It is a pretty colorful room I know but it is fun. I’ll have to get pics later but we strung some multi-colored rope lights underneath the top bunk to provide some fun lighting for the play area bellow and he is loving it.

Okay, off to bed I go and we will try to post pics soon!

Overdue

2009-09-16T22:28:00.001-05:00

Today was my “official” due date and no baby yet. I had an appointment with the doctor today and all is well. There is a chance I will go over the weekend and if not I will be induced next week.

We have been extremely blessed to be relatively sick-free all summer long. And now, a matter of days before this baby makes her debut, Neal has fallen ill. So hopefully he can be better before she comes!

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!

Fair Enough

2009-09-14T22:21:00.001-05:00

The fairs here in the Midwest are quirky, there’s no getting around that. Last year we wrote about the Arcola Broomcorn Festival and as boring as it may sound this is actually our 4th (I think) time back and we love it!

We hit some of our favorite vendors and a few new ones as well. Deep-fried candy bars, who would have thought? I saw on the news that a vendor at our state fair was selling chocolate covered bacon. I think if it is good for you it doesn’t belong at the fair. Just sayin’…

The parade was fun (yes folks, that is me still pregnant) and for someone who LOVES (understatement) all things with wheels, Aedan sure did a lot of this during the parade…

Gotta love the Lawn Rangers of course.

Hey wait, can I zoom in on this for a second? Is that Obama with a plunger?

Well anyway, a few extra quirks caught our attention this year:

Puppet and Drama Ministry? Okay don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of using all sorts of teaching methods, in moderation. This seemed a little silly though but I’d be willing to give it a try... Course, I’ve never been a fan of Veggie Tales either…

And in case you forgot Grandparents Day yesterday: get granny a H.A.G.S. Tshirt. I know my grandma would have got a good laugh out of it! (no we didn’t buy one for you Grandma, maybe next year)

Happy 090909

2009-09-09T10:32:00.001-05:00

And yes, I missed posting this at 9:09 am… But to answer your question that is on the tip of your brain right now, I’m still here, still pregnant. Last week when Aedan was playing with his new baby doll he got creative and stuck her up his shirt and came waddling over to me (yes, I believe he really was waddling) and said, “Look mom! I have a baby in my tummy too!”

As if that wasn’t enough, a minute later he comes back to me with a little bit of a frown on his face and says, “Mom, I jumped and the baby fell out of my tummy. You gotta jump mom!”

Sigh. If only it were that easy!

Alas, a checkup at the OB’s office yesterday confirmed that I am in fact very far from delivering right now. Most likely I will make it to my next appointment next week on my due date so we will see!

And while I hate getting my picture taken while I’m pregnant and swollen, I am determined to document this flattering time in my life. While I remember my mom being pregnant (last time when I was 10 yrs old) we have no pictures of her to prove it (by her specific request). I can totally understand that but I suppose I wish we had pics of her anyway. So, here we go, for my posterity, etc.

Saturday we went to the Arthur Cheese Festival to participate in the cheese eating contest and the cheese curling event though we were unable to participate in anything as it was a rained out day and yet there were too many people there to fill up any available slots. I don’t recall even tasting any cheese at this cheese festival. Oh well! Pictured here are the fabulous Petersons and ourselves by the cheese mobile.

And here I am at 39 weeks.

Our newest little arrival

2009-08-31T21:54:00.001-05:00

Now don’t get too excited, this post isn’t what you might think it is… or is it?

Bringing her home and falling asleep with her

As mentioned in my last post, Aedan has taken a liking to baby dolls. Every doll has been declared a girl doll and given his sister’s name with exception to one who was a boy whose made up name was what seemed to me like a cross between Lorenzo and Fonzie if you can imagine such a thing.

Apparently using her as a pillow.

With a little coaxing from my sil today, we went and bought a baby for Aedan today. If only adding a family member was this easy! (Okay, maybe it is a good thing that it isn’t… ) It took us two stores to find her but it was worth it.

He has been so excited to have her and take care of her. I whipped up a little crocheted blanket and didn’t quite get to finish it before he demanded to use it. Tomorrow we will hopefully work on making her a crib and pillows per his request.

So there you have it, I actually bought a baby doll for my boy. And he likes it. No shame in that right? :)

Oh Aedan!

2009-08-29T23:00:00.001-05:00

This month has been a very strange one in all things concerning Aedan. He has displayed absolute horridness and absolute sweetness in August and everything else in between. The horrid parts were mostly his more aggressive ways of interacting with others which may in part be due to the fact that he is learning to cope with people in large numbers, and he could be going through a phase. I’m sure I could slip in imprefect parenting in there… Let’s just say that it has been very stressful for me. In this last week or so he seems to have mellowed out a little and I am regaining faith that he can handle having friends again.

Well anyway, here’s the high and lowlights of this last month:

His most commonly used phrase? “I can do it all by mineself!”

*************

Aedan has stopped calling us ‘mommy’ and ‘daddy’ and uses ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ now. It feels too grown up for him I think!

*************

Aedan: “Hey mom! Look, I can stick the red game part in my….”

Me: “Huh? What! NO!!!”

and then the next day…

Aedan: “Mom? Can I play with the game with the red piece? I won’t put it in my bum.”

Me: “Thanks for clarifying that for me kid.”

*************

As we were headed to the car to go run errands…

Aedan: “Mom? I’m thirty-six. Can I drive?”

*************

Lately he gets very sad/upset when Neal takes the car. Not because he is leaving us behind, but really because he doesn’t want him taking the car.

*************

I’ve been showing Aedan photos of when he was a baby and when he was born. For some reason his crying pictures are of interest to him and he likes to proudly point out, “Look! I’m fussy!”

*************

Aedan has taken to playing with the baby dolls in nursery and at friends homes these last few weeks. He will hold the baby very gently and take care of her for much longer than I would have expected of him. A couple days ago he found this baby doll at my sil’s house and held it on his shoulder while vacuuming the floors. Don’t know where he would have seen this but it is funny to see him multi-tasking.

*************

Sometimes my influence on Aedan is pretty pitiful. For example, he had a buddy over playing the other day and I overheard them pretending to go to garage sales.

*************

If there is one thing I’ve learned about Aedan through these last few months is that he is generally very honest. If he does something wrong he will fess up to it. Of course he does so very matter-of-factly (“Ya. I hit him.”) and I’m not sure if it is indifference or just plain ignorance of the act being wrong in the first place. He is also not a whiner or crier for the most part. And while this may seem like a good thing I am finding that he can’t tolerate fake crying or whining in other kids and he has tried to act as the discipliner on multiple occasions…

*************

Aedan still wakes up in the night and tries to crawl into bed with us. Sometimes when he does this he is awake enough to say something. One night I was startled awake to find him standing on my side of the bed (almost never happens) and he was just looking at me all confused. I asked him what was wrong and he asked me, “Mom? Did the baby come out of your tummy?” He seemed very concerned about it (must’ve been a dream?) and I reassured him that she was still in my tummy and he gladly went back to sleep.

Boy are we in for some fun next month!

How to save a buck the Jackie way

2009-08-26T11:58:00.001-05:00

Someone nagged me for not posting any recipes lately so here you go although I’m sure this wasn’t what you meant…

I admire those of you who have the patience for big time couponing or bargain shopping. How do you find the time? I’ve tried it and I just can’t quite justify the time I spend on running around town and the like. Maybe you have a super system going, I don’t know.

Well I’ve found some alternative ways to save a buck or two and I’ve already had to pass along this information to a few people so I might as well post it for all. Not that any of this is new or anything…

I am on my second batch of making my own laundry detergent and all is going well. I’ve switched to making a lot of my own household cleaners too, in part to be a little more green and also to stop my pregnant self from passing out from the fumes, but that’ll have to wait until another day. I don’t think this laundry detergent is entirely green per se, but it is a step up from store bought and A LOT CHEAPER. I spent under $10 for all of the ingredients and it looks to last me for many many batches. All the ingredients are found in the laundry section of your store although the soap is not the easiest to find so be on the lookout. It is easy enough to make as long as you know how to boil water.

How does it compare? Well, first off, don’t expect your clothes to come out of the wash with a scent. If it is a psychological thing and you want scent on your clothes, add a few drops of essential oil to a clean rag and toss it in with the rest during drying. The detergent has a nice scent itself but it doesn’t linger on the clothes. As far as cleanliness it seems to work pretty good, at least no complaints so far. One good thing I’ve noticed is that if for some reason you are lazy (what me?) and leave your clothes sitting in the dryer for too long the nasty mildewy smell that would typically immerge from a batch of laundry using the store bought detergent would be non-existent in a batch done with the homemade stuff. Yay for making procrastination that much easier…

I suppose the only downside to this stuff is that you have to shake the bottle (I just recycle my old detergent bottle) before each use as it clumps up some. No biggie though. There are a lot of different variations of this recipe online but I was looking for an end product that wasn’t too large in bulk but would also have a sensible measurement per load value (who wants to measure 5/8ths of a cup per load I ask you?).

Laundry Detergent

Hot water
1/2 cup Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax
1/3 bar Fels Naptha Soap (grated)

In a large pot, heat 3 pints of water. Add the grated bar soap and stir until melted. Then add the washing soda and borax. Stir until powder is dissolved, then remove from heat.
In a 2 gallon clean pail, pour 1 quart of hot water and add the heated soap mixture. Top pail with cold water and stir well.
Use 1/2 cup per load (matches the measurement of my recycled detergent container’s cup), stirring soap before each use (will gel).

Try it and let me know how it works for you.

And some other good deals I’ve found? I have acquired a lot of freebies as of late – some in the mail and some as redeemable coupons for local stores. I’ve got loads of 4x6 photos processed, $10 worth of Schwann’s food delivered to my door, toilettries, paint, videos, restaurant food, etc., all for free. This is nice for me as most of this stuff is delivered to me and I don’t have to chase down the deals in the stores. Here are my links and if you know of more please let me know! I love freebies!

Hey, It’s Free

Making Life Sweet

and on occasion iMommies

Making light of the situation

2009-08-25T23:48:00.001-05:00

Can’t

They’ll

Shouldn’t

Won’t

I’d

She’ll

Don’t

Can you tell I’m suffering from random contractions?

3 weeks to go folks!