The Gender Reveal

I should fully disclose that my husband was not behind this at all. Don't even get him started on how he thinks it completely narcissistic and the whole idea of "revealing the gender" {in a big way} is ridiculous.  He thinks it is completely self-centered and is purely driven by social media to "one-up" the next person.

Me?  I just thought it was a cute idea. 

Plain and simple.  

It ended up being a partial compromise on my part, because I wanted to be completely surprised and have the ultrasound tech seal it up in an envelope and we could take it to a bakery and have the cake done and be completely surprised.  We may or may not of had a heated discussion about this the morning of. 

Ahem.

But then, he pulled out the "I always give in [to whatever] and I think you should do this for me."  Well, that laid it on pretty thick.   

Ahem.

So we found out the day of the ultrasound and we each told our immediate families right away.  Because I had my heart set on doing a cake, we revealed it to my extended family this afternoon, on our normal day for Sunday Family Dinner.  No special party needed.  Ha!

So drum roll please....................we are having another...........................













 BOY!

Most important though is that from what they can tell, he looks really healthy, with all his measurements being right where they should be.

And to that I say amen!  


And PS......

(Please excuse the cake as it looks a little green here on the good ol' internet.  I even photoshopped it, adding in some more blue and for WHATEVER strange reason, it looks nice and blue on my own personal computer file, but when I upload it, it takes on the green tinge again! Anywho......) 


 

15 or 16 Weeks Update. Close enough, right?

Thought I should give an update on this good ol' blog.  You know, since I dropped some fairly big news the last time I wrote.  I've been feeling pretty well.  I was pretty nauseous and tired there for awhile, but the nauseousness is pretty much all gone (yay for me!) and while I am still tired on occasion, I am feeling much more energetic than I was even just a month ago.    As of this writing I am 15 weeks along, which makes the graphic below entirely inaccurate.  But, close enough, right?  15.....16 weeks?  Gosh, I am already starting to sound like a three time mom. I am just too tired right now to pull up CS5 and create that photo all over again.  In my defense, I didn't even have a photo with me and the little brother between 13 and 19 weeks, so the fact that I am keeping up with a pregnancy photo every four weeks is a definite step up from last time!

According to all sorts of information on the internets, the baby is the size of an apple. Or in my case, a sack of apples.  Whichev.  Apparently, the nauseousness from a few weeks back certainly didn't inhibit my caloric intake.  As of about three weeks ago, I started testing my blood sugar again (I had gestational with the Peanut, but NOT the little brother) and since then, I've been trying to be really good.  And I've succeeded for the most part--I've had dessert at a few family functions, but I've curtailed my nightly candy intake completely.  Yes, I know. Like I really needed that!  Just know that that is a very REAL sacrifice for me and I've been doing it.  I've also been watching my overall carb intake, so hopefully my glucose test will be good like last time.   

We celebrated my sweet Hubs birthday yesterday.  The last year of his 30's.  Wow.  Because we are always on such a tight budget, we celebrated by taking the kids to a nearby park--one in the northern part of our county that we rarely, rarely visit. Our weather has been unseasonably dry and also warm--at least for this part of the country.  We packed a picnic lunch and the kids got to play for hours on the play structure and kick the soccer ball and play catch with daddy.  They even got juice boxes--a rarity.  (You should have heard them telling my parents about it later when they stopped by....juice boxes AND the park.  It was the best. day. ever.  At least they are easy to please!)   Then we came home and we all took naps (every one of us!) and for dinner we had the Daddy's birthday dinner request--grilled carne asada.  It was a really nice, relaxing day.

Finally, just a little picture I snapped of the kids a few weeks ago with my parents lab.  It's one of my new favorites!

 

Happenings Around Here

Thanksgiving has come and gone {explain to me exactly how that happened?} and we are already full swing into many Christmas festivities.  But before I forget, I wanted to share these little tidbits.

♥  

My dad's employer is one of the very few left that still gifts a turkey to their employees for Thanksgiving.  My dad also likes to bless us, so he gave it to us.  We all went to my aunt's home and had a lovely Thanksgiving Day at her house, but I am in the camp that Thanksgiving just isn't the same if you don't have leftovers.  I cooked up the gifted turkey the Saturday after Thanksgiving (along with {from scratch} green bean casserole {FYI: once you go scratch, you never go back.  For reals.}, horseradish carrots, mashed potatoes and gravy and of course, fresh cranberry sauce) so we too, could have a weeks worth of meals.

Once all the trimmings leftovers were gone, of course we had lots of turkey still to be eaten.  So the family favorite White Enchiladas was on the menu. Can you say yum? 

And then. 

Ladies (and gentlemen as it may be), these are the new family fave for leftover turkey. 

Turkey Taquitos with a Spicy Cranberry Dipping Sauce

I was reading my favorite Food Network Magazine and Guy said these were his favorite to make with leftover turkey.  And funny enough, it isn't his recipe, but they are still oh so delicious!  I'll be honest, they are a pain to make if you don't have a deep fryer (we don't) but well worth it!!!  While casseroles that use up all the trimmings are great, they still taste like Thanksgiving dinner, and if you are like me, four or five days in you want. some. variety. of flavors!!!  Any Mexican inspired dishes are always a hit at our house, and these are a great option.

I also made these pretzel rolls and these schnitzle sandwiches recently.  Actually, it was about six weeks ago, but whatever.  The rolls tasted great (which I thought turned out looking pretty good too!) and the schnitzel sandwiches were divine. 

♥ 

We've all been passing around the sickies.  So that's fun.  But what's really the greatest is that I currently sound like (and have for about a week now) a fifty year old two-pack-a-day-smoker named Roxie.  I'm telling you, it's every bit as charming as it sounds. 

 ♥ 

About a month ago, our sweet boy was at the counter eating his lunch and he looked a little sad.  He was propping up his head on the counter with his crooked arm {I hope that word picture makes sense}.  I asked what was wrong and he said to me, "Me wish me had a truck like Daddy's" and sighed a sigh so big, you would have thought he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

 ♥

A few weeks ago, I overheard the Peanut telling her Daddy about her day at school.  They have chapel on Fridays and she was telling him all about it:

"Sometimes when we are singing, people hold up their hands and close their eyes......I don't know why they close their eyes. But they hold up their hands 'cause it's like they are giving a high five to God."

Oh my gosh, I just about died laughing.  This girl is something else.  I feel like I fail her on so many different levels each and every day and she is just still as sweet and innocent as can be. 

I can't believe God chose me (!!!) to be her and my son's mama. 

To say I am humbled would be an understatement. 

The Perfectly Imperfect Gingerbread House

I am learning and really, have been learning since the Peanut was about two, that these traditions I am trying to create with them don't have to be perfect. 

Why yes, I am a very slow work-in-progress.

Anyhow, our little Christmas schedule is quickly filling and between all my DIY projects, Peanut being in school, and just living life {otherwise known as cleaning, laundry, ironing, bath time, the revolving door of sickness, etc}, there were very few days where Operation: Decorate Gingerbread House could commence. So this weekend it was.

And thank you, Grandma, for picking this up for the kids and thank you, Wilton, for placing such high expectations (for myself) of how these should turnout. (Really, their little kit is great and such a time saver, but holy smokes, do these people have children?  I think not.)

By about the third candy placed on the house and in between the little brother placing the gumdrops IN his mouth before placing them ON the house {"Me didn't eat, me just tasted" was his explanation}, I realized the picture perfect gingerbread house would not happen. Why yes, I believe I've had the conversation in my head before.  The same happened this year as well. 

But once again, just like all the other times, in the end the kids had such fun, and could. not. wait. for Daddy to get home so they could show him their artistic prowess. 

It was a great day.


 

Picking Punkins' with the Punkins'

Early this week, the pumpkins were ready to be picked in the very nice garden my dad so kindly grew for me.   He even planted the sugar pumpkin variety this year at my request, as those arguably make the best pumpkin puree.  (For the record, I make pumpkin puree every year with the pumpkins my dad grows....and with the help of my Cuisinart, I've had very successful puree with regular ol' jack-o-lantern sized pumpkins as well.  But let me tell you--this puree?  It's very good indeed.) 

At a whopping 38 pie pumpkins brought home, I am going to have plenty of puree to use to my hearts content.   Plus, plenty left for a festive harvest display outside our front door.  Yay!

We went over to my parents the other night after dinner and of course it was pouring down rain.  However blessings were upon us, and the clouds started to break up just before we made it to my parents and by the time we were picking pumpkins, it was wasn't raining at all.

While the kiddos were waiting for daddy (my parents very kindly store our outdoor furniture for us at their house and he was getting it put away) they played in the puddles left by the downpours.  How is it that small children NEVER seem to mind being cold and wet?   I was never that way--at least not that I remember.

Growing up, my mom's best friend's family had a beach house and they invited us to go clamming on more than one occasion.  My mom thought it was the greatest fun and she drug us (maybe I was the only one who had to be drug? dragged? drugged?) along.

It was cold, wet, sandy and dirty and you smelled like fish when it was all over.  One of the most miserable experiences I remember from my childhood.     And yes, Dad, I know in the grand scheme of things, life could be much worse.  But even still, clamming is SO not on my top 10 list of favorite things to do. 

But, I digress. 

The Peanut was all about picking the punkins'.  My sweet boy?  Not so much.  He was much distracted by any and all other things.  He played fetch with my parents lab, inspected my dad's grapes (or lack thereof due to some hungry birds), and even was on p*o*o*p patrol (or catrol as Peanut called it at one point not so very long ago) with my dad going around pointing out the aforementioned dog's droppings in the yard for my dad to clean up.  

That said, I still got my photo op of the family at a pumpkin patch--circa 2014.  We won't have the opportunity with Peanut's kindergarten class this year as we did with her preschool class.  Which ended up being a good thing, seeing as the little brother had no interest in it anyhow! 



 

First Day of Kindergarten

I'm not anything but predictable.....

After fin.a.lly getting her to eat 3/4 of her breakfast, we went outside to take the obligatory first day of school pics. 

After I finished, Daddy was putting the little brother into the car {yes, we made the first day drop off a family event}, Peanut begged to have a picture taken with her brother, "because she was going to miss him so much."


I think that last one pretty much sums up their relationship. 


Sigh.




 

I Think We've Turned a Corner

So back at the end of May, I mentioned we were going to attempt potty training the little brother.  And then a week later, I decided to throw in the towel, deciding he wasn't as ready as I thought.

I don't know......I can't read his mind?

Anyhow, fast forward to this past week (Peanut was completely done with swimming lessons, so we could be housebound by choice once again) and we decided to give it another go when we used the last of the diapers.  

A week ago Thursday was good, Friday not so much, Saturday not so much and Sunday was meh.  I mean, I didn't even really try that hard on Sunday because we had Sunday Family Dinner at my parents.  In fact, it was so unremarkable, I actually went to pick up some more diapers while the boy was down for a nap at my parents.

But then Monday morning, he awoke bright and early declaring he had to go potttttty!  And so we were back at it once again while Daddy watched him and kept an eye on him while I ran errands in the mornings (giving me a break, let's be honest!) before he had to go in to work.  Daddy even achieved a #2 victory with him while I was out and about.  Daddy for the win! 

It's so funny too, because like each of our children, the potty training experience has been completely different each time.

With Peanut, she learned early on to tell me when she had to go.  Like every two minutes we were in the bathroom while she relieved herself of the one sip of water she had had ten minutes prior.  And so it went for probably a week (a month?) before she started to figure out she could hold it long enough to relieve herself of the entire sippy cup of water all at once.

With our boy, he instead learned from nearly the beginning that he could hold it.  But then, he didn't quite figure out that he needed to tell me when he needed to go.  So I've been cleaning up lots of messes this week.  Ahem. 

We've went through a ridiculous amount of gummy bears this week--don't judge.  His goal of course, was no wet underwear--meaning he goes all in the potty and not half on the floor in the living room before telling mommy.  Each time he achieved this, I would hand him a gummy bear and his response would be "Sissy gummy bear?  Mommy gummy bear?" meaning he thought his sister and I should get one as well.  It was kind of like he declared "Drinks Gummy bears are on me!" at our {breakfast} bar.  He is so funny!

So it's been an emotional week of highs and lows to be sure.  And really, potty training shouldn't be this emotionally draining.  {Maybe it is for everyone??!?!}  I said as much to the Hubs and his response was, "This reason it is for you is because you can't control it."

He's so right.  

Because not controlling it is really hard for this self-admitted control freak.

Not Already

I knew this day was coming....but I thought I had a couple more months at least.  I mean, she hasn't even started Kindergarten yet.

That said, I should have known it wasn't very far off.  With a super early September birthday, she will be starting Kindergarten just shy of turning six years old--three days shy to be exact.

But I digress.  The little Peanut's first permanent tooth has popped through.

Note, I didn't say she lost her first tooth.  Because she hasn't.  But that permanent one?  Well, it's certainly right there behind it.  

So like any good mom who dabbles (and I use that term very loosely) in photography, I marched her straight outside to capture that fading glimmer of her baby tooth smile.

Be still my heart.  

I was seriously crying the ugly cry while she played outside quietly during her brother's nap.  It's like hard core evidence shoved in my face that she isn't my little, sweet, Peanut anymore.  I mean, she's still my sweet Peanut--my sweet, fiery Peanut to be sure.  But little?

Not as much any more.

Puppy Party: Our Boy's 2nd Birthday

A puppy party. 

I saw the idea of a it just a few months after his first birthday.  Yes, I know. 

While there are TONS of cute little boy party themes to choose from on the grand ol' world wide web, so many seemed just a little too old for him....baseball, super heroes, Legos, camping.....all of those are super sweet and fun, but none of those are things he has an interest in just yet. 

And he loves my parent's black lab.  So it just made sense. A puppy party it was. 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, none of these ideas were originated entirely with me.  Pinterest provides lots of inspiration y'all.  

When we have Sunday Family Dinner at my parent's, my aunts and uncle and cousin all bring their dogs each month, so this was another great reason behind doing the puppy party, because what fun is a puppy party without dogs, right?

I looked at lots of ideas on Pinterest for the invites and combined several ideas to come up with this:

I decided to stick with red and blue with the Fourth of July being just days after our little guy's birthday.  I mean why reinvent the wheel, right?  Stick with red and blue and then whatever is leftover can be used the following weekend.  Can I get an amen? 

Peanut has a friend in her preschool and his birthday is July 2.  I was talking to his mom and she said she's done some sort of red, white, and blue theme for all five of his birthdays.  This last year he wanted superheroes party and her first thought was, "Red, white and blue....superheroes....?.....we can do Captain America!"  I love how she thinks! 

This last winter I found the cutest little dog t-shirt for him on clearance at Gymboree.  I paid like $5 total for both the shirt and shorts.  It was in reds/blues/greens and I totally made it work. 

On the menu were hot dogs (what else, right?) with all the fixings and potato salad (homemade because store bought is just blech!) and a fresh fruit platter.  I also did Puppy Chow, because, of course.  And then cupcakes and homemade chocolate and vanilla bean ice cream.  The chocolate was this recipe, and the vanilla was this recipe.  They were both amazing.   

My mama gave me a Cricut cutting machine nearly six years ago and I had a cartridge that had a little puppy face cut out.  I used that for the treat {doggy} bags, the bunting banner, the cupcake toppers and even the paper circle garland.  To make all those crafts probably cost me less than $10.  My mom had bought me a lifetime supply of white paper lunch bags at our local restaurant supply store prior to Peanut's Elmo party nearly four years ago.  While I thought it extremely excessive at the time, those bags have come in handy each year since.  I had red, white, and blue card stock from my prior years as a Stampin' Up demonstrator, and I had white thread for my sewing machine for the paper garland.  Really all I had to buy was the red/white baker's twine for the bunting and the navy/white star scrapbook paper for the background for the bunting and red/white washi tape.  Because I've seen this washi tape trend all over and I finally had an excuse to try some!  Plus, the twine, scrapbook paper, and tape I got all on sale.  So it really took more time than anything!

For the treats inside the bags, I got dog bone shaped graham crackers (dipped in chocolate) and blue racquet balls.  So the kids could play fetch and get a treat.....get it???!?  Also included but not shown were "dog tags", whistles, sidewalk chalk, blue bandanas (which we forgot to pass out!), and bubbles.  Those were all purchased--that did not come from my stash!


I found straws and cupcake sugar pearls from this Etsy shop....and let me offer you a little public service announcement when using sugar pearls for cupcakes.   First off, it had nothing to do with the brand or where I got these sugar pearls from.  The Etsy shop owner was oh so great!

I was so disappointed in the cupcakes I didn't even take a close up of them.  Right: the one that held up.

But here goes.....because I am a planner and list maker extraordinaire, I knew I would be busy with decorating and last minute food prep the day of the party.  So naturally, I baked and iced the cupcakes the day before.  Because I made cream cheese frosting, I refrigerated the cupcakes.  And because that would be grody to leave cupcakes in the open refrigerator air, I put them all in covered containers.  All but one cupcake, because the last one didn't fit in said containers.  So there he sat in the open refrigerator air all night long.  Don't ask me why the cupcake was a he.  He just was.

I'm no scientist, but my theory is the condensation had no where to go but on the little sugar pearls and cause them to bleed all over.  The one in the open air?  Held up beautifully--and still is three days later.  I might have totally had a meltdown the morning of the party.  To the point of tears and considering using cleaned tweezers to take the melted sugar pearls off and replace them with new sugar pearls.  Then my mom suggested that was way too time consuming {which it was} and scraping off the icing and starting over would be much easier {which it would have been}.  But then, that just seemed INCREDIBLY wasteful with all those in the world who don't even have enough food on their plates each and every day (I'm dead serious).  It took nearly everything I had, but in the words of Elsa, I "Let It Go."  It was a very hard thing to do.  But like my sweet six year old daughter reminded me, "They'll still taste good, mommy." 

Out of the mouth of babes, right? 

Anyhow, after that little spoiled sob story, here is my PSA: if you make cupcakes ahead and use sugar pearls and feel the need to refrigerate, DON'T cover the cupcakes.  There.  I feel so much better having shared that with the masses.  


Oh, and then the weather.  What a blessing THAT was.  Ten days ago it said the day of his party was forecasted for rain.  And rain it was up to the day of the party.  Even several people who came to the party said they drove through downpours and showers all the way to my parent's house.  But my parents house?  A slight sprinkle the morning of and even slighter sprinkle that afternoon.  That was it.  It even ended up being slightly sunny for the better part of the party.  To the point of all the older kids swimming in my parent's pool!  In 68* weather no less!!!  But that's another story for another time....  All that to say: we were blessed immensely.  Praise the Lord!

So finally:  Our boy had such a fun time.  And he didn't say a word about the cupcakes.  He loved seeing his cousins and aunts and uncles and over of course, his Papa and Gamma.  He was a big fan of the fruit platter (he loved on mango for the first time!) and he generally didn't. stop. moving. for nearly six hours.  He enjoyed all there was to enjoy and then some. 

He had a blast at his pawty--no pun intended, as he can't quite say his R's yet. 

Next up?  He is so excited for the fow woks {fire works} because what boy doesn't like explosives? 


 

Pool Time

My crazy kids.

We get over to my parents the other night and my dad had started getting the pool ready.  The big pool, that is.  Not the dog's pool.  He's taken the winter cover off, starting cleaning it, and starting putting water in it.  Once all that is done, then he'll have to get the pH balanced so it's all good to swim in.

Then the weather has to cooperate.  And let me tell you we've really had a GORGEOUS spring, so know that I'm not complaining.  We've definitely had some rain, but lately it seems to be all at once.  We'll get some doozies (read: torrential downpours) over the course of several days and then it clears up and it'll be dry and warm for a week at a time.

This is not typical for the Pacific Northwest.  It's actually quite a bit more common to have 76 rainy days in row.  Of course, it never rains non-stop for that long, but to have 76 days in a row where it rained at some point during each day?  Pretty common.  So this weather we've been having?

So, so nice.  

But not quite warm enough to get that ol' pool warmed up.  We need some HOT days to get it all swimable {yes, I just made that a word} if we hope to get in it prior to the 4th of July.

And while I know my little Peanut is very impatient for that pool to be ready, if our whole summer was this way?

I'd take it. 

In a heart beat.  



 

Silly Girl!

Our little girl's sense of humor is developing more with each passing day.  She cracked. me. up. the other night when I suggested I get a picture of her and her brother with their grandma and grandpa.  She smiled sweetly for the obligatory posed pictures and then she pops out with, "Let's do a silly face picture!"  It just made me laugh, because that's not something we've really ever done in my family.

Me?  I like to have the perfect smiling picture of myself.  Probably 'cause I don't think I am very photogenic, and those good photo occurrences are so few and far between! 

She's got her daddy's sense of humor {and his confidence!} that's for sure.




 

I Know This May Take Longer Than I Think

The benefit to having more than one child is that you sort of know what to expect the second time around.  Key phrase being sort of.

This week I am attempting to get the Little Brother potty trained.  I know "they" say that boys always take longer, and that very well may be true, but this little guy has been asking to go in the potty for probably the last month or so.  And he will actually "go" in the potty.  Each time.  When Peanut was that age, she asked too......and she just smiled sweetly and sat there and didn't do anything.  So while we've definitely encouraged it with the Little Brother, I haven't pressed it with Peanut still being in school.

What does Peanut being in school have to do with it?   I learned the first time around {much to my surprise!!!} that it takes just as much discipline on the parent as it does on the little one.  I had to just get down to business when it came time to potty train her.  No random errand shopping, post office visits, limeade fixes in the middle of the day.  I figured out not so quickly that you just have to been done with diapers.  Put 'em underwear and you'll be cleaning up lots of messes and doing lots o' laundry for several days.  No Pull Ups....because let's face it, they are just like diapers in that your toddler won't feel wet.  And they need to feel wet.  Makes them cold and uncomfortable...makes them figure out that hey, maybe I should be telling mommy.  All this to say, that with Peanut, I stayed home and stayed put. While it took about a week....I finally had her potty trained. 

In the interest of full disclosure, I am talking about potty trained during the day.....it took about another year until she was potty trained at night.  But again, the night potty training?  Mommy and Daddy discipline as well!  Changing lots of wet sheets, but within about three weeks....she started being dry all night long.

And I know that many will argue who are you really potty training?  Me or the toddler?  Because sure, I wasn't comfortable letting her "go" completely by herself until probably about a year and half later (she was just over two when we potty trained).  It's hard for little ones to get their pants down, do their business, wipe well, get their pants done back up, and wash their hands to mommy's satisfaction.  They need some help to do all that.  And to be perfectly honest, some kids still can't do all that even at age seven!  But the way I figure, if they can tell you that they need to go, then they are ready.  So what if you're helping them with all the logistics for some time after?  You still are helping them with everything else when they are just two years old anyhow, right?  Bathing, getting dressed, meals, drinks, laundry.....obviously the list is endless! 

And even still, if all those logistics take a year (or two!) to get down....the savings on diapers alone are so worth it!  I estimate it's anywhere from $500-$1000 in savings--and for this tight budgeted family?  I'll take it!  

Plain and simple.  
 

Anyhow, all that said, I am attempting it with the Little Brother this week.  I did all my shopping, running errands, etc., and we are staying home this week.  Got him a potty seat (Peanut's was pink, of course!) and a set of training pants.  I actually already purchased some underwear for him awhile back because they had them at Costco a few months back.  So today when he woke up from his nap, the training pants (the thick cotton Gerber ones--they absorb more than underwear!) went on.  No pants/shorts, just the training pants.  And for the next four hours?  He told me probably 5-6 six times that he had to go--and he did, each time!  I only had to change him out of wet training pants twice.  That's a huge victory as far as I'm concerned because Peanut didn't go down that easy.  I changed her out of wet bottoms probably that many times in the first hour! 

But we will see....for the rest of the week, we will be at it again each day.  Hopefully we will have victory by the end of the week?   If not, I am not going to sweat it.  (Can you say second child???)  We will just try again in another month or so and do a repeat of this week.  But by the end of summer? 

Definitely hope diapers will be a distant memory!  



 

This Girl

...is officially done with preschool.  They had a little "graduation" party for the students today--the last day of school!  And can I just say that I cannot even tell you just how much I have LOVED having her at this school?  Her teachers are such special people and it has been such a blessing.  There are no two ways about it, that's for sure!

I tell you, she is just growing right before my eyes.

It's like a gentleman commented to me at the store the other day.  He complimented me on my cute kids (his words not mine!!) and then he gave me this serious look and said, "But you've made that common parenting mistake."  Well, I was all smiles until he said that.

He continued without missing a beat, "You feed them and then they grow."

Indeed they do.

Indeed they do.