Things My Kids Say

* This is the first year the boys have gotten into the Santa thing (thanks to all of the cartoons on Nick Jr and Disney HA) but, boy was it fun.  They talked about sneaking out of their room to see Santa on Christmas Eve.  Neither did but, Nate told me on Christmas morning that he thought he heard Santa come in the house and then he heard him say, "Ho, ho ho" so he knew he was here.

*The boys were also concerned  because Darryl happened to be sleeping in the living room on Christmas Eve night (due to his back injury).  They said Santa wouldn't come if he was in the Living Room - Darryl told them not to worry, he covered his head and his so Santa had no idea ;-)

* When the boys came out of their room on Christmas Morning, first I heard, "I don't think Santa Came . .", then they walked out and Nate exclaimed, "Look, Santa brought us two presents".  Now, here's the deal, I had wrapped all of the gifts and they were in my room - the boys saw them.  What they didn't see were two gifts that were in gift bags so they think Santa only brought those and I did the rest to help Santa out.  Next year, I will need to change how I wrap stuff :-)

* Josh informed us today (Thursday, Dec 26th)  that he wished he didn't have a butt so he didn't have to poop.  He doesn't like it and it stinks.  Darryl then explained why it is important why we poop so I foresee a book in our future  . . ."Everybody Poops" HA!

*Nate pulled a sweater out of his closet to put on - he told me he was sweating so he needed to wear a sweater to not swear any more.

* Josh put on a concert for us recently and informed us that we could not even "whisker" while he was playing his songs but when  he was done we could "whisker" as loud as we wanted.  Hehehe

* Words uttered at the table tonight:
Josh: mom, what is that delicious smell?
Nate: that smells icky, I want Doritos and ketchup please.
Josh: when will you eat real food Nate?
Nate: when I am 6.

*I gained some insightful information this past week.  When Nate poops, he likes for someone to stay in the bathroom with him as he has a fear of falling "in".  Anyway, one day, as I was standing there, he says, "Mom, that was a small one . . .on, and that one was bumpy."  Then he said, "Mom, the smooth ones mean my poop is clean; you'll see that I'm right when you wipe me." Guess what?  He's right HA!

*I find it interesting to hear my kids say new phrases.  The one that makes me giggle currently is when I hear Josh say to whomever, 'Oh, did I startle you?"  LOL  I know, I know, it is only funny to me. 
 

Goals and My 2014 Theme Word

I was going to review my 2013 goals from last year but, lets keep it real, I fell off the wagon last year when it came to goals.  I started out the year ok and got some things done; then summer came and it got hot.  I was ready to get back on the goal track but we started school in September and it took up a lot more of my time than I expected.  Follow that up with my husbands back injury and I'm not even sure where September-November went.  One thing I DID figure out during those months, though, is that I needed to go back to a concept I hit a few years ago which brought me back to "Simplify".  I need to simplify our lives once again in order to keep my sanity ;-) 

I just picked up a book called "7 An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess" and am looking forward to reading it and applying it to my life.  I also started an organizational book called "Organize Now, Live and Think Clutter Free" which is a year long study on organizing everything from your dreams to your closet.  AND I have an e-book I picked up awhile ago called "Project Organize Your Entire Life" that I want to finally read.

So with that in mind, I thought I would just highlight a few areas I really want to get control over this year and work toward making them, well, more simple.  Less is more (except with money - than more is more but if life is simple then you WILL have more because you spend less WHEW!).  Each year I tend to focus on the same basic areas and then grow my goals from there; I then look attempt to look over them at the end of the month and plan things to get done the following month.  At the very least, it helps me focus on some projects. 

The basic areas I will be looking at are: Home, Kids, Darryl, Homeschooling, ME, Money, Organizing, Memories and Time.

I'm still working on where I want to go with each of those areas but will share my January goals soon.  I usually have these done already but . . .well, I'm running a little behind already HA! 

Food Friday - Fruit Salad #2

Fruit Salad
adapted from The Pioneer Woman

  Isn't that such a pretty salad??  I came across this recipe and decided to add it to our Christmas Dinner menu and it was a huge hit.  I love serving fruit with a big dinner because I have one kid that will eat it like crazy and I find that people like the "clean" taste of fruit with all of the heavy food.  I've shared another fruit salad in the past that we serve at family gatherings that is good for my brother who is allergic to some fruits; we'll this is just as good but with a different syrup on it.  My store did not have any strawberries and the blue berries were so expensive so I opted for just HUGE green grapes, raspberries and blackberries (which were SOOOO cheap!).  This fruit salad would be awesome over pancakes especially since it has an Orange Simple Syrup on it so it has extra sweetness.  (Also, I just used vanilla extract and left out the mint - it tasted great to me!)

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 cup Water
• Juice Of 1 Orange
• Zest Of 1 Orange
• 2 whole Vanilla Beans, Caviar Scraped Out (or 2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract)
• 4 pints Strawberries, Hulled And Halved
• 2 pints Blueberries
• 2 cups Red Grapes, Halved
• 2 cups Green Grapes, Havled
• Mint Leaves

Preparation Instructions

Place the sugar, water, orange juice and orange zest into a small saucepan and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat to low and simmer for 15-20 to thicken slightly. Set aside to cool, then store in the fridge until cold.
Mix together all the fruit in a large bowl and pour the syrup over the top, tossing gently. Garnish with mint leaves and serve.

One Last Christmas Party

We finished up our Christmas Season with a family party with Darryl's family.  Darryl's grandma is in her 90's and lives in a nursing home so we have the family party there.  I will admit, it is not the first choice for any of us to meet at the nursing home but it has been the only solution for the past few years. 

 Darryl visiting with his Grandma.  She is hard of hearing (naturally, after all she is in her 90's!) so having a conversation is not easy especially with two very active boys. 

 Josh and Nate giving Grandma (Darryl's mom) some gifts.  Josh had painted two pictures for her and we also gave her the Fingerprint Christmas light pictures. 

 For gifts this year, we did a cookie exchange.  My mother-in-law, sister-in-law and I all made cookies and did our little exchange.  Grandma gave us each a bag of truffles (since she couldn't bake). 

 The boys trying to be so patient while they waited for their gifts - the blessing of being young . . .you still get gifts!

 Grandma giving the boys their gifts.

 Funny story, the boys each got a DVD.  When Nate opened his, he handed it to me and said, "I will never, ever watch this movie."  HA! 

 After the party was over, the four of us went out to dinner at my favorite place - The Beltline Bar which is a Mexican Restaurant.  It was so good!  Another funny story, while waiting to get a seat (the place was packed but thankfully we remembered to call ahead!) there was another little boy there.  He would scream and kick; he scratched his mom in the face and then threw his sippy cup over and over again out of anger.  When we sat down, Darryl asked the boys if they say that boy and what did they think of how he acted.  Josh said, he was bad and that makes me want to be good HA!   From there, we headed home but noticed that the Light was on at Krispy Kreme which means free donuts!  We decided to stop and took the boys in - they were enthralled with the donuts being made.  They stood at the window for 30 minutes.  Josh did eat a donut and loved it - Nate is not so much of sweet eater so he just watched the process.

Aren't they so cute?? :-)

As a side note, my mother-in-law and I talked about the Christmas gathering and plan to make some changes.  One, we aren't going to go to the Nursing Home.  Instead each family will take time in December to go visit Grandma for an a little bit and take her a special gift.  Then, for the family party, we can gather at my MIL's house instead.  Two, we are going to exchange gifts.  Whether we draw names, buy for everyone or do a general gift exchange game, we are going to do gifts.  Plus we want to be able to buy my in-laws a gift of appreciation just because.  :-) 

So, this is the end of Christmas!  This year has been really great.  It's been relaxing and fun with great family time.  Compared to last year when I was so sick I don't even remember most of December or January . .. this year was a "perfect" Christmas.  Shoot, we even had snow! 

Happy New Year!

Hard to believe that we are looking at a new year - 2014!  Remember when the year went from 1999 to 2000 and everyone was crazy about what was going to happen and yet here we are 14 years later. 

We are not New Year's Eve party people.  Instead, we stay home, relax, eat snacks, watch all of the shows and go to bed at 12:01.  I am planning a few fun things with the boys like a "countdown" starting at 5:00 so that they end up in bed at 8:00 but we will celebrate like it's 12:00 ;-)  They don't really get the concept yet but we'll still have fun. 

New Year's Day is very quiet around here.  I like to watch Parades and Football and set some goals for the year.  I feel like once we hit January 2nd - we have a long winter to get through before we get to leave the house and have fun again!! 

So with all of that said, from my family to yours

Happy New Year!

Christmas Day 2013

Christmas Day - beware this is photo overload but part of why I write this blog is for my own memory too!

 The boys were so excited to come out of their room and see their stockings.  Nate could hardly even wait for a picture - he was ready to dig right in!

 Josh loves pictures  . . and he loves being silly!

Nate finally digging into his stocking

 Once they had pulled everything out, Josh felt like their should be more ;-)

 Josh asked me to take his photo with the presents before they were "all gone."

 After stockings, we ate breakfast.  This year I made eggs, bacon, waffles and we had applesauce.  We usually have Orange Julius and Biscuits and Gravy but, since Darryl is avoiding Dairy, I left those off the menu this year. The boys ate . . a bite. . .and then wanted to open gifts but I made them wait until we had cleaned up - at least I used all paper products so clean up was pretty quick.

 Surprisingly, the boys were more excited about giving us the gifts they had picked out so we did those first.  They boys were so excited to show us their stuff - especially mine because they had picked out 10 things each for m at the dollar store.  As I would pull an item out they would tell me why they picked it with GREAT joy!  It was so adorable and so neat to see how well they really know me and notice things I do and things I like.  (For example, Josh picked out a box of Whoppers . .. back on Halloween I teased the boys and told them that Whoppers were awful so they could give them all to me to eat  . .. they figured out that I love them!)

Time to open gifts.  While we were cleaning up from breakfast, Josh had laid out all of the gifts so that they could read the name tags.  Reading their names on the tags was so much fun for them that I let them pick out the gift they wanted to open next.  They loved it. 

 About mid-way through the gift opening the boys gave each other their gifts - $10.00 each at the dollar store makes for some fun gifts.  They were so excited to show each other what they picked out. (And they LOVE their stuff - some of those gifts have been played with more than the things I picked out for them)

 This is Josh telling Nate that the gift he is now opening is also from him; which it wasn't; so then he told him it was from Santa.  (which, it wasn't HA)

A favorite, much requested toy - Light Friends.  Both boys got one - it is something they have been asking to get for MONTHS. 

 The final gift - Nabi Jr.  The boys would also steal ask to use my dad's Phone or Ipad anytime they were at his house.  When we saw how much they love that type of technology, I did some research and found that the Nabi's are great for kids and are app based.  This was the favorite toy.  They already have them figured out, love playing the games and listening to music. 

 Nate with all of his toys.  This year I did a lot of games and books with a few requested fun toys thrown in for fun.

 Josh with his toys. 

Playing with their new Nabi's.  This is how Papa and Nana found them when they arrived. 

 Josh also had to set up the gifts that Nana brought in - he is such a helper. (or he just wanted to touch all of the gifts!)

 The first gift was a new quilt that my mom made for each of the boys.  My mom makes awesome quilts and she did not disappoint!

 Giving Papa and Nana the gift that the boys made for them.

 Thomas the train stuff - always a big hit in this house!

Giving another gift to Papa and Nana - this one made Papa cry (it had all of the Grandkids listed on it)

 Josh was a huge help all day - he is really a work horse  . .. but he also likes to do this stuff because he feels like he is in charge and we ALL know how much he loves that!

We had a great dinner of Ham, Cheesy Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole, Glazed Carrots, Fruit Salad, Christmas Layered Jell-O, and Rolls.  Yum!! 

After dinner, the boys played and the adults talked.  It was such a relaxing afternoon.  My mom had made Christmas Cookies for dessert so we all munched on those and at least one person who shall remain nameless but goes by Nana took a nap. 

On Thursday morning the boys asked if Papa and Nana were coming back with more presents :-) HA!