The Chokehold

Sep 13, 2011 by Lindsay

Let me preface my little story here with some background info. Last week one day we were swimming at my inlaws, after a bit the boys started to get restless and I sent them outside to run laps around the porch while I got our stuff ready to go. When they went to come in Joshua tripped and skinned both knees on the cement.

The next night after dinner daddy offered to take the boys on a walk. Apparently once they got to the neighbors house they both bit the cement and skinned their knees.

Last night we went on another walk where Joshua got to close to the back of Daddy’s sandal, kicked it, tripped and scraped his knees again.

So, needless to say my boys’ knees are looking like, well…..boys’ knees! After baths I wanted to try and snap a picture of them together with their banged up knees and this is how our little photo shoot went down.

Mommy : Say boo boo!! Boys, over here, say, boo boo!!

Joshua : Mom, he’s choking me, Andrew get your fingers out of my neck!

Joshua : No, your fingers are digging into my neck, I don’t want your arm around me!

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Preschoolers

Aug 23, 2011 by Lindsay

Today my two big boys started school for the year! Just two days a week for three hours each day, but preschool none the less. On our drive to school we talk about what kind of boys I pray they will be…..

Kind

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Homemade Baby Food

Aug 17, 2011 by Lindsay

I am here to share yet another way I have found to save money! Andrew and Joshua never ate homemade baby food, but with Zachary I knew that I didn’t want to add $14 worth of baby food to the grocery list every week, so we gave this a try and I will never go back!

For vegetables I buy mostly frozen, some fresh. For fruit I have done fresh, canned or frozen as well.

I have made sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, corn, carrots, peas, peaches, pears, blueberries and bananas. (I have not bothered to make my own apples, I just buy natural applesauce in the big container from the store, it’s fairly cheap and I figure it’s ok to cop out on that one!)

Today I made spaghetti squash. First you cook the squash (or any of the vegetables you are making) I put mine in the microwave in a small amount of water and cook it until it’s tender. Then just scrape out the contents of the squash and put it in the blender. (If this were fresh carrots/sweet potatoes/different kind of squash I would peel the skin off first, then cook them and just transfer it to the blender.)

Add a small amount of hot water (I use the cooking water) and blend until it’s a good consistency for your baby to eat. Then I transfer my puréed baby food to a 4 cup measuring cup for easy pouring. Pour your baby food into ice cube trays and put them in the freezer.

Once your cubes are frozen you can transfer them to freezer bags.

When it’s time to eat just pick out a few different fruits and veggies and pop them in the microwave! On the menu today was carrots, peas, squash and peaches!

I add a little bit of cereal to thicken it up.

And I have one satisfied boy!!!

For those that are interested I did a little price comparison. If you buy pre-made baby food you get 2 containers for about $1.10. Zachary eats the equivalent of 2 containers per meal. So that’s $2.20 per day to feed him.

On average it costs me $1 to make 1 ice cube tray of homemade food. That’s $.07 per cube and he eats 6 per meal. So that’s $0.42 per meal, or $0.84 per day. Over 50% savings!

In half an hour you can make two kinds of fruits and two kinds of vegetables that will last you for 2 weeks and you won’t have to think about adding baby food to your grocery list! Happy puréeing!

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Sweet Nothings

Apr 21, 2011 by Lindsay

Andrew has been saying so many funny and sweet things lately and I want to make sure I remember them all!

For Spencer’s birthday we were going out to dinner and I put a headband in my hair and when I came out of our room Andrew said (with no prompting) “Mommy you look beautiful!” The next day when we were getting ready to leave the house I asked him if he thought I was beautiful and he said, “Well, you don’t have that thing on your head.” So I guess it was my headband that he thought was beautiful!

On Tuesday we went for a walk and I had Joshua and Zachary in the double stroller and Andrew was walking with me. When we cross the streets I have him hold my hand and then once we are across I let him walk alone. While we were in the middle of a street he says to me, “Mommy, I love holding your hand…let’s just keep holding hands.” Melt my heart!

One afternoon before nap time Andrew was cracking me up because I was trying to get him into bed and he was like a dead weight in my arms. I couldn’t help but laugh because I used to do the same thing to my mom and it drove her crazy! After that he was asking me what was so funny and I told him that I used to drive his Mimi nuts doing that exact thing. I asked him if he remembered his Mimi and he asked where she was. I told him that she got sick and Jesus took her to live in heaven with him. Andrew thought for a second and said, “How did she get into heaven, did a man take her there on an airplane?”

Sometimes when I ask him to complete a task for me he will say, “That’s easy peasy!”

Last week I could hear him playing in the back room and singing but I didn’t know what song, after listening for a minute  I could hear him repeating, “Zippy do da! Zippy A! Hey!” (Zippity Do Da) He sang that over and over and over! When I tried to sing it with him he told me I was singing it wrong

We have been talking a lot about the Easter and I will ask him to tell me the story of Jesus and why we celebrate Easter. I usually have to remind him along the way by asking the right questions and when I asked him what happened after Jesus had been in the grave for 3 days he responded by throwing his arms in the air and yelling, “He came back into life!!!”

After talking about the resurrection we talk about how Jesus went up into heaven and will come back someday for everyone who has Jesus in their hearts and one time in particular he said, “I can’t wait to go to heaven.” Talk about a moment of pure joy! I love that he is learning that while it’s fun to hunt eggs and eat candy that Easter is about celebrating Jesus’ gift of salvation!

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Hollywood Studios

Apr 11, 2011 by Lindsay

On our last day at Disney we decided to go to Hollywood Studios because our kids love the Pixar movies and Disney Junior. We started the day at the Disney Junior Show which featured all the characters from the shows, unfortunately it was too dark for very good pictures and the characters were puppets, so we couldn’t take our picture with them after.

Then we headed straight to meet Buzz and Woody. Thankfully some super intelligent Disney worker had thought ahead about the kids having to wait in line and there were different picture opportunities all along the way….it helped pass the time with two toddlers who were anxious to meet the characters!

*Disclaimer – no children were hurt in the taking of this picture…..although their facial expressions may appear otherwise.

Then it was FINALLY our turn! Andrew had no fear of the 8 foot tall Woody…he was just so happy to be done waiting!

I love this picture! Pure joy!

After lunch we headed to the “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” playground, but it should really be called “Honey Watch Out Because It’s Seriously Easy To Lose Your Kids In Here” playground! We had three adults and two kids and at one point I was sure we were going to lose one!

During about the hottest part of the day we decided to see a show and Joshua fell asleep while inside, he managed to stay asleep for over an hour, just long enough to miss the entire parade that afternoon!

This picture doesn’t do it justice, but Andrew literally could not contain himself when he saw the Toy Story Characters. He was jumping up and down and waving both hands frantically in the air yelling “HI Woody!!! Hi Buzz!!!’

Apparently Andrew is a big Lotso fan, even though he doesn’t like him in the movie! Ha!

We snapped this picture on our way out of the park, just Spencer and I with the big Mickey hat…and the girl with the holy jeans! haha!

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Outnumbered

Feb 13, 2011 by Lindsay

Friday afternoon we had two cousins and one friend at our house! I was outnumbered six to one for about an hour and a half, but it wasn’t bad at all! (John and Jess, Troy and Blair we really did enjoy having your kids!!)

The girls spent a good while playing “mommy” with all the boys. Andrew and Joshua were happy to play along, but Gavin wasn’t as easily convinced!

At this point I believe Taylor was telling Andrew, “If you get up you don’t get to be line leader!”

The one piece of furniture I would really like to get is a table that seats at least 8 people. As you can see, we were maxed out! (Check out the collection of extra backpacks!)

After dinner Spencer bathed the boys, then I bathed the girls and then I convinced them to let me play with their hair Oh the joy it gave me!

And what completes a night better than some popcorn and Praise Baby?

We were a little outnumbered but we had fun!

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