New Toy Review...

A few weeks ago, Ben's aunt came out to see everybody and brought each of the kids a new toy.  Kinnley got a new Barbie (we are right in the middle of the Barbie obsession with her) and Easton got the new Fisher Price Shake and Crawl Racer.  We bought him two of the smaller cars from this toy line for Christmas and I already love them.  The don't have any turning wheels that you have to worry about being chewed off.  Instead, it uses a large ball in the middle of the car to make it roll.  Perfect for little ones.  So, when I saw that he had gotten this car I was pretty excited.

We, of course, had to open it to show Easton how to 'play' with it.  (I love this reasoning...it gives me a true reason to play with all of the cool toys the kids get without feeling bad.)  There are two ways to make the car go.  The first is that you can roll the ball on the top of the car.  This causes the car to come to life with noise and start driving forward.  The second way, and the coolest I think, to make it move is to shake the flag rattle.  This allows the smaller kids to play with this car.  Easton wasn't able to 'roll' the ball, but he was able to hold onto the rattle, shake it, and make the car to go. 

The car has two settings for the driving directions on the bottom.  It can either drive a straight line, or with a flip of a switch, it can be driven in large circles.  The large circles help to keep Easton entertained, while Kinnley likes when it goes straight and she has to chase it down.  It won't be long before Easton is chasing it down!  He has started pulling his knees up under him whenever he is on his tummy.  Once he firgures out his arms/hands, we're in BIG trouble!

I would give the Shake & Crawl Racer two thumbs up.  It's inexpensive, easy to use, and fun for a wide range of ages (including moms & dads).  Fisher Price has quite a few toys in the 'Lil' Zoomers' toy line and they all look fun.  You can see them here.  Fisher Price has a coupon for $5 off the Shake & Crawl Racer here.

Enjoy!

Easter

Well, I think I have recovered from a very busy Easter weekend!  I had decided to do quite a bit this year because Kinnley is at the age where she can help and she understands more.  Plus, I usually decide to bite off more than I can chew anyways.  I am happy to announce though, I did everything that I wanted to for Easter this year!

We started out with coloring eggs.  Last year I let Kinnley put stickers all over the plastics eggs instead of coloring the real thing.  I didn't want to deal with the mess and I knew she wouldn't be able to do it by herself last year.  It worked out great and she still got to 'decorate' eggs.  This year we went for it...we dyed eggs and she LOVED it.

Tired of waiting on mommy to get everything 'organized'.

Before

After



She did great and she loved writing/coloring on the eggs with the wax crayon.  I have only boiled eggs a few times and had to have my mom refresh my memory of how she does it.  I started with 17 eggs...we used one egg out of the dozen and a half...and I am happy to say we ended with 17 eggs.  Well, 17 eggs made it thru the boiling stage, but only 16 make it thru the Kinnley decorating stage.  The one poor lost egg was enjoyed by Kinnley.  That is, until she got to the 'dirt' and refused to eat any more.  I was totally lost until she showed me what the 'dirt' was...it was just the yolk.

I had found some new blogs that I have enjoyed looking at and one, eighteen25, had a great Easter giveaway craft.  It was 'Bunny Tails', which you can find here.  I was originally going to send these to the babysitter's with Kinnley for all of the kids there, but the horrible wildfires at the lake kept them away from there last week.  So, instead we took them to church and handed them out to the kids.

I think they turned out super cute.  They were super cheap and super easy, so it is definately something I will keep in mind for next year!

Remember The Pioneer Woman?  Well, I have now officially made three of her recipes and all three have been wonderful!  I made mini meatball sandwiches last week for dinner one night.  I had leftovers, so I cooked some noodles and we had spaghetti and meatballs the next night.  I could have divided the recipe in half and only cooked what we needed, but price wise it made more sense for me to cook the full recipe and then add some noodles the next night for an additional dinner.  If you have a bigger family, then this might not work for you.

For the church dinner Sunday, I made bow tie lasagna, which is easy, cheap, and delicious.  Can you tell we like pasta at our house?  When I fix spaghetti, Kinnley eats the noodles and leaves the meat and the majority of the sauce!  I try to use whole wheat pasta when I can.  I had a box of the whole wheat bow tie noodles, so I used that here.  I added a can of Italian diced tomatoes and some grated parmesan cheese.  If you fix the whole box of noodles, you will definately need at least a jar and a half, if not two jars of sauce.  I only had one, so the diced tomatoes helped a little.

For my dessert I made her pig cake.  Why it is called that I have no clue because there is absolutely nothing that has to do with pork in it.  I guess it's called a pig cake because it's so good you pig out on it?  It calls for very few ingredients, all of those are cheap, it's easy and it's quick.  (Do you see a pattern with my recipes...they all seem to be cheap, easy and quick.  They have to be with two kids and a husband who is still a kid himself sometimes!)

Sorry I forgot to take a picture before church, so you get one with half of it gone.

This is probably the most moist cake I have ever made!  I'm definately not the best at baking, but this turned out great!



Have I mentioned that I'm in love with her website?  You can get these recipes, as well as many others at The Pioneer Woman's website. 

We thought Ben might have had to work Sunday, but thankfully he didn't.  We were up bright and early Sunday morning to do our egg hunt at the house and then get ready for church.  After church every Easter, we have a potluck dinner...we Baptists like to eat!  After the lunch, the kids hunt eggs.  Kinnley has come a long way from her first Easter.  She nearly had a nervous breakdown when her feet or hands would touch the grass!  (Some would say she gets that from her mommy, but I don't know if I'd agree with that.)

After their egg hunt...Easton saw something he liked in his sister's basket!

Run Kinnley Run!

Found some!  Such a sweet big sister gave the football & basketball 'eggs' to brother!

We got Kinnley a cheap digital camera for Christmas, and she loved it.  The problem is that it only holds 25 pictures and the resolution is horrific.  We had looked at the kid friendly cameras, but I wasn't going to spend $50 on one of those when I could spend $25 on a regular digital camera that had the same stinky resolution.  Her camera seems to be the one 'toy' she still plays with from Christmas on a regular basis, so I think we will get her a little bit nicer one for her birthday.  In the meantime, she likes to practice with my camera.  I think she's pretty good for a 3 year old.

Hi Daddy!

Daddy & Aunt KiLee

It's tradition that we take a family snapshot each Easter...so here is ours from this year, plus one of Kinnley that Daddy took...I'm in love with it and am going to get a big print made.

(Yes Easton has a mohawk for Easter...fits his personality so far!)

That's my Kinnley girl!

I hope everybody had a wonerful Easter.  Have a great weekend.  It looks like it's going to be me and the kids for most of it because Ben is having to work....I need to go grocery shopping...me plus two kids...Yikes!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder....

I know you've missed me.  I apologize for being gone, but I know that in my absence you have come to love me more.

Right???

It has been a busy two weeks, yes that is how long it has been and yes I know a mommy should never neglect her followers.  So, for this I am sorry.  I have some new stuff to share and a website that, well, I have fallen deeply, madly, wildly in love with!

If you remember from earlier, I was in a stand still battle with my sewing machine.  I had followed the instructions (which is really hard to do, too much reading of so much boring information when I'd rather just figure it out on my own) and gotten everthing put together correctly.  I was just having a problem getting the needle/thread to catch the bobbin thread.  Well, I am happy to announce that I am VICTOURIOUS!  That is right that sewing maching went down.  Caramie 1 Sewing Maching 0 (Yes that is a big fat zero to be exact!)  While I have conquered the sewing machine as far as to get it to sew, and I did sew ribbon onto a spit diaper, I still, as I always have, have trouble with straight lines.  Straight lines and I are like oil and water, we just don't mix very well.  I can't draw one, cut one, sew one, park straight, or even walk a straight line.  So, while the ribbon is on the spit diaper and is not coming off, it is, well, rather ugly.  I say who cares though, it's only going to get puked on anyways.  Easton is a pro puker!  He has his favorites that he usually, almost on cue, spews on.  Poor Daddy is definately one of those!  (Ok, maybe I do find it quite amusing when Easton covers his daddy in puke, but I try to be sympathetic after I quit laughing.) 

Anyways, back to the sewing.  I have accomplished threading the machine, threading the bobbin, and actually sewing something to something that doesn't include my finger, but I do need to work on my straight lines..ugh!

We have pretty grass!  Not a lot, but definately a start.  We are working on the front of our house trying to make it look all nice and pretty.  We have new bushes and new, pretty, green grass!  I am hoping it will be good for the kids to play in barefoot this summer.  I have also planted two tomato and one squash plant.  We'll see how long I can keep these alive.  They have been watered every day to every other day and have officially made it (alive at our house) for nearly a month!  Maybe I have a green thumb after all...yeah I doubt it too.

I have the saddest, most depressing news to share with you.  Ok, maybe I'm exageratting a bit, but this is my baby girl we are talking about.  I have officially registered Kinnley for Pre-K. (insert semi-hysterical mommy sob here) She's so excited and I know it's time, but that doesn't make it any easier for me!  This is my sweet, tiny, baby girl that shouldn't be this old yet.  She did give me a glimmer of hope at one point when she told me she wasn't big enough to go to school.  I was about to be beside myself with excitement until she informed me that when she turned 4 years old (June 30), she would be big enough to get her ears pierced and to start Pre-K.  Well, fine then.  So, it looks like we will be busy around her 4th birthday getting ears pierced and shopping for new school clothes.

Easton has found his feet and is almost as in love with them as he is me, his mommy.  I have to brag on my boy a little and how much he loves me.  Ben was holding him one evening so that I could do something, what I have no idea though.  When I was done I asked Easton if he wanted mommy or daddy to give him a bath and, I am happy to say, he leaned forward towards his mommy!!!  So, yet again Mommy Rules & Daddy Drools!!! Oh yeah...Mommy 2 Daddy 0.  (I put two because Kinnley loves me the most too...no matter what she may say on certain days.)

Ok, I'm sure I could write on and on about my wonderful (well most the time they are) children, but I won't bore you to death.  Onward to the newest amazing website that I have found!  It all started one day at my mom's house when I was looking at one of her new cookbooks, 'The Pioneer Woman'.  It has some of the yummiest looking recipes.  She has side stories with loads of pictures too.  I found her on the internet and have since read about her children, the reason she chose to homeschool them, her dear Charlie and how they thought he was lost one night, found a few new recipes that I decided to try, and a lot of other neat things.  I cooked one of her recipes last night for dinner, mini meatball sandwiches, and they were WONDERFUL!  Because only three of us ate (I thought the meatball might be a little tough for Easton to gum, so decided to stick with applesauce and oatmeal for him), I had left overs.  So, it looks like we will have spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.  I love any recipe that I can stretch into two meals.  Definately go check her out and enjoy!

I knew it was going to happen someday, I actually figured it would have happened long before now, but it has officially happened.  Kinnley informed me this morning that 'Easton is the meaniest little brother in the world because he pulls my hair!'  If she had listened to the hundreds of warnings to not get in his face or he's going to pull your hair, maybe this could have been prevented.  Oh well, the next minute after announcing Easton is the worse brother, she was back in his face and sticking her finger in his mouth because 'Mommy he loves to chew on my finger'.  It is really an adventure every day with the two of them.

This is Easter weekend, and as usual, I have waited until the last minute to get things together for the egg hunts.  I have decided that I'm going to do something different this year for the egg hunt at the Church and I will take pictures to share.  Due to the wildfires at PK Lake, it looks like it may just be me and the kids hunting eggs Sunday.  Poor daddy will be working all weekend on the powerlines at the lake.  While this makes me sad, I like to look at the bright side - overtime hours = overtime pay = big check = SHOPPING $$!  So, I will be honest and admit that I'm ok with this.  There will be plenty of pictures, and probably video, so he will feel like he was there with us.  Afterall, he'll be feeling guilty for missing it, and I'm sorry to say, I'm not above using that guilt to my advantage...I do need a new purse after all.

Happy Easter to all!
Caramie

Poop in the tub...

Yes, that is right, I knew it would happen, but didn't know when.  I have started giving Kinnley and Easton baths together to help make our bedtime routine a little quicker, and I knew that at some point, Easton was either going to tee tee on his sister or poop in the tub.  Well...it happened, not once, not twice, but three times all in the same bath time!  I had finished washing Kinnley and her hair and was fixing to start washing Easton's when I looked down and saw green stuff floating.  In my mind I am trying to figure out quickly how I'm going to get Kinnley out of the tub without her seeing it and keep Easton from splashing it everywhere (since we now love to kick our feet and splash with our hands).  Before I could say anything, Kinnley stands up and announces, 'Mommy get me out of here now because I am about to throw up!'  Too late...she saw it!  Dear sweet brother is just laying there on his bath seat/lounger thing grinning away.  (I'm wondering if that was a sign of sweet satisfaction of getting the bath all to himself.)

So, I got Kinnley out, picked Easton up, cleaned the tub very quickly, refilled and put him back in, only to have him go AGAIN!  Thankfully, Ben was inside and able to hold Easton over the toilet while I cleaned the tub yet again.  So, I have to brag...my 4 month old son has already went poopy in the toilet (circumstances need not matter).  I got him back in the tub and was nearly finished with his bath when, you guessed it, he went a THIRD time in the tub!  Daddy got to dress Easton that night so I could clean the tub for the last time that bath time.

We had Easton's four month check up yesterday.  He weighs 14 lbs & 11 oz and is 26 inches long.  He's strong, nosy, and is wanting to chew on EVERYTHING.  He is now a pro at reaching out and grabbing things (including hair...he's gotten his sister a few times and a scream of 'stop it brother right now' usually follows).  He has his own little laugh and it fits his personality.  We still have redish hair and it sticks up and blows in the wind all on its own.  We have rolled over both ways, but we are now bored with that so we refuse to do it anymore...stinker!  We want to sit up so bad and can with the support of our boppy pillow.  Our dr. seems to think he'll be crawling before long...watch out Kinnley girl!  Which means I am now going to have to find every tiny Barbie show, crown, accessories, etc. and lock them in Kinnley's room. 

We have a semi busy weekend ahead, but I will hopefully be getting pictures of what we've been up to around the house, outside.  I do want to share a quick and easy way to boil a chicken.

Boiled Chicken...Crock-Pot style!
1 whole Chicken
1 cup water

Place chicken in crock pot, pour in water, put lid on.  Cook on low 6-8 hours. 

That's it...love this 'recipe'!  After it's done, I de-bone the chicken and use the meat for chicken spaghetti, chicken enchiladas, or whatever.  I cooked two whole chickens Tuesday while I was at work and we used some of it for chicken salad sandwiches last night and we're going to have chicken, cheese, and mushroom quesadillas on the grill tonight!  You can season the chicken when you put it in the crock-pot if you want to.  I usually add a little salt and pepper.

Have a great weekend & enjoy!
Caramie

Baby Leg Warmers

I have found a new favorite baby item....Baby Leg Warmers!

I have seen them before, but only for little girls.  I have found some of the neatest boutiques on Facebook and one has 'Wednesday Night Specials'.  I just happened to be on at the right time and got these cuties for $8 & free shipping!  That's my kind of deal...I <3 free shipping!!!





I know he doesn't look as excited about them as I am, but it was early in the morning and he's not a big morning person...he gets that from his daddy.  I kept telling him how cute he was and that we were going to have to fight all the little girls off of him when he wore these leg warmers.  I guess he decided that wasn't so bad after all.

I just love my little stud muffin!  These are awesome for these mornings that are so cold, but then gets warm in the afternoon.  You can put them on with a onesie, then in the afternoon when it's too warm for them, just take them off.  It also makes diaper changes super easy...unless you have a wiggle worm like I do and then no diaper change is easy.  They help protect knees when crawling and also can help make potty training easier.  Slip these on with a t-shirt and you don't have to worry about getting pants or shorts pulled down before it's too late!  So many uses and they're cheap too!  They run about $12 per pair.  I am on the search for more cute ones for my little man and some for Kinnley girl too!

Enjoy!

Caramie