Happy Birthday To Me!

I got to spend my birthday on a beach in Mexico during a weeklong vacation for the beautiful wedding of my lovely cousin Kim and her beau, Jon.  I will be posting more photos, but for now, only the wonderful birthday sunset I got to enjoy!

Kids' Artwork

During last school year, I kept pretty much everything the kids brought home - artwork, writing, awards, projects, etc.  I have a drawer in the kitchen with a Rylan pile and a Mackenzie pile.  Everything got stuffed in there and I didn't have to think about it.  The first week of school this year, I took it all out and was really surprised at how much was stuffed in there!  I started sorting and threw a lot out, but kept a lot as well.  I still had two pretty big piles of stuff for each kid - now what?  Then I remembered a tip from Nick's cousin, Jessica - she told me she had taken pictures of her kids' artwork and made a photo book. Well that's right up my alley, so I started taking pictures and went straight to Shutterfly.  Here's what I made!

The first half of the book is Rylan's art, the second half is Mackenzie's.  The pieces aren't to scale, but that's okay.

I chose a simple black book style and I think it looks great.

I kept special awards and samples of Rylan's writing, but those papers are easy to store.  With this book, I get to keep the memory of all their artwork without all the actual stuff cluttering up a drawer or cupboard.  And let's be honest, if I kept all the individual art, would I ever take it out and thumb through them?  This is such a better option!  Thanks for the idea Jess!

Old Aunt May

We have been playing Old Aunt May lately - aka Old Maid, but the Spiderman version.  Get it, Aunt May from Spiderman?  Haha!  Rylan got a game set from a friend - Spiderman dominoes, Old Aunt May and Spiderman Memory.  We've really been having fun with them.  I don't think we've ever played Old Maid with Rylan and he just loves it.  The anticipation about who ends up with the Old Aunt May card is really fun for him, and I just love to see him so excited.

This was the game he lost - I love this face! 

  

Get Vaccinated!

I don't have anything super interesting to post about and I don't have any recent photos to share today.  So, you get a PSA about being vaccinated!

A couple years ago, Nick's cousin's daughter got pertussis (whooping cough) as a newborn and it was a scary time for them.  She likely got it from an adult who hadn't been vaccinated.  Infants get 5 doses of the DTaP vaccine (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis) starting at 2 months.  So before they are fully vaccinated, they can get these nasty diseases and at that age, they can be life threatening.  No one ever told us that when our kids were born, so I'm thankful that they were never affected.  Little Claire recovered and was/is fine, but it was a wake up call for the whole family.

With three new babies arriving in the next 2 months (sister, sister-in-law, friend) we don't want to put any of them at risk.  Both Nick and I got vaccinated in the last 24 hours and even though I'm currently lying in bed suffering from the side effects, I'm still glad I got it.  Just a little fatigue, nausea, stomach ache, headache, and chills - nothing I can't handle.   But I'm already feeling better than I was at noon today, so that's good.  :)

So if you haven't ever had it, go get your Tdap vaccine!  The adult version has a different name, but it still protects against all three diseases for 10 years.  Even if you've had a tetanus shot, check with your Dr. because sometimes they only give the Td vaccine, which doesn't have the pertussis component.

Here is the link for the vaccine info from the CDC
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/vis/downloads/vis-td-tdap.pdf

A Combo I Can Handle

We went out to the Ranch for a long weekend and nature hit us with a beautiful winter wonderland.  Okay, it wasn't so beautiful as the freezing rain was falling during the last hour of the trip, but we got there just fine and by the next morning, everything was covered in a layer of ice.  Not so good for traveling, but a perfect addition to an already beautiful landscape.  I'm not a fan of super super cold weather we can get here, but as long as the sun shines, winter doesn't bother me much.  So even though we couldn't do much playing outside this weekend, the bright sun streaming through the windows made for a wonderful place inside to play lots of board games and watch movies together!

Winter wonderland

Nick wishes the antlers were actually that thick.  ;)

Icy grass

Goofball #2 pretending to sleep when I wanted to take a picture.

Can't leave a baby out of the photo.

My sweet guy

We also took some photos to possibly use for Christmas cards.  Here are some that won't make the cut, but funny equals blog worthy.  

Nick also shot his rifle whitetail buck!  A nice 5x5 for the wall - at the Ranch.  :)  I was super wife because I bundled up the kids to hike down into trees and take photos.  Then, I helped Nick drag it out of the trees AND hoist it up into the back of his truck.  I'm no Tiffany Lakosky, but that's hunter-wife-of-the-year for me!

It's that time of year again - time to start thinking about Christmas Cards!  I LOVE making our Christmas card each year and I LOVE Shutterfly, so below is the most recent card I've made on Shutterfly.  Now to decide which one to use!  Head on over the Shutterfly and make your own - cards and other great photo gifts are 40% off until Wednesday at midnight!

Christmas Card 2012

Oh Holy Night Religious Christmas Card

Shutterfly Christmas cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

My Pirate Gymnast

Whoops, some more pictures I forgot about.  During Halloween week Mackenzie was allowed to wear a costume to her gymnastics class.  However, I knew the dragon would be way too hot, so we dug out her pirate costume from Rylan's 5th birthday party.  It was a little short and tights were pretty snug, but I figured it was fine for gymnastics.  She loved it!

During their play time in the pit, they took turns being held like this by the coach, then he dropped them in - she thought it was hilarious!

My little pirate girl!

Chia Seed Pudding

A couple months ago, I posted a recipe for Refrigerator Oatmeal.  Click the link to go back and see it.  One of the ingredients I bought for that oatmeal was chia seeds.  I loved the oatmeal but haven't made it lately because I like something warm for breakfast (I guess I could just heat it up, huh?).  Anyhow, I saw this recipe for chia seed pudding on Pinterest so I decided to check it out.  I liked the chia seeds and I like pudding, so what the heck!  I made some this morning - holy moly - SO DELICIOUS!  If you like tapioca pudding, you'll LOVE this - very similar texture, but way better!  It was probably good I only made a single serving, because I would have just kept on eating and eating.  Here's the original post I found the recipe on: http://www.anediblemosaic.com/?p=10130

I didn't use the stevia packets, I used 1 1/3 tablespoons sugar.  I'm going to make it again tomorrow, but I'll cut down on the milk this time(or add more seeds), I'd like it a little thicker.  

A Little More Organized

Rylan's room has bothered me for a while.  It felt cluttered and disorganized and I didn't know how to fix it.  We started with some cleaning in the toy room, putting some toys in storage and getting rid of some.  After that, we had room to move the train table from Rylan's room to the toy room.  Then I hit Pinterest and found an idea for these bench shelves.  I bought 2 Expedit bookshelves from Ikea and laid them on their side.  Target has super cute fabric animal storage drawers and also LEGO brand plastic bins with wheels for heavy things.  This is the perfect solution for Rylan's room because he can put all his Imaginext and Hot Wheels sets on top and all the cars/accessories in the drawers.  It's easy for him to access and clean up!

School Pictures

School Pictures!!!!  How is it possible that my kids are old enough for school pictures!  But check these out - aren't these the most adorable kids you've ever seen?  LOVE them!

Mackenzie Leigh - 4 years old - Preschool

Rylan Russell - 6 years old - 1st grade

Recent Recipes

I've tried a few new recipes lately - and they were pretty good.  The first was Spicy Tuscan Soup.

You can find the recipe here.  It calls for spicy sausage, but I just used regular pork sausage so it was a little bland, but I'm excited to try it again with some different spices.  

The next recipe I made was Stuffed Shells with Sausage and Spinach.

You can find this recipe here.  These were pretty easy to make and they were delicious.

I also found a pin on Pinterest that claimed to be the seasoning used for Taco John's potato ole's.  That piqued my interest right away so I mixed the ingredients together and sprinkled it on some tater tots.  It wasn't quite the same, but it was still pretty good.  However, when I used the mixture on some chicken to make fajitas, it was awesome!  Nick wished it had been a little spicier, but I thought it was just right.  Here are the ingredients:

4 teaspoons Lawry's seasoning salt

2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

I think I will always keep this mixture in my spice draw - a great mexican seasoning to add to lots of recipes!

Art Class

Our community has wonderful art programs for kids, in and out of the classroom.  Rylan and I took advantage of one last weekend, a morning of art classes we could participate in together.  He chose classes in pottery, painting and puppets.  We had a great time and will definitely go again the next time they are held. 

The pottery class was first - and was his favorite.  First he flattened and smoothed a piece of clay.

After cutting the edges off, reattaching them on top, making some carvings, and painting - his castle was done!

He was thrilled with his work and we can't wait to get it back in a couple weeks after it's been glazed and fired.  I know he will be surprised at the outcome!

Next up was puppets - he chose to make puppets of himself and Ace.  For a moment, I wanted to offer my help on his drawing of Ace, but quickly decided not to so we can always remember how he drew things.

Here is the final product - his puppet show in a cup!  

His puppet has a ball thrower, the Ace puppet has a tennis ball in his mouth and he made a chair puppet for when his puppet might want to sit down.  The background features a sun, cloud, tree and blue bird. He did all the drawing and coloring by himself, I just helped attached stuff with a stapler.

Last was painting.  First we had to draw something on a piece of paper - either just a design or a simple picture.  Then we had to put the paper over a thin sheet of foam and trace over the design so the image was indented into the foam.  Then we rolled paint on the foam and pressed it on a new sheet of paper so the original lines were white and the background was colored.  Rylan then chose some fabric scraps to glue around the outside as a frame.

The yellow one got a little too much paint on it, it was a picture of Rylan and Ace, but the blue design turned out great!

We're excited to get the pottery back and to sign up for the next classes!

Swimming

A new fitness facility is open in our community and it's wonderful!  The kids have been going to swimming lessons there and we've been enjoying swimming as a family too - it's such a great place.

Rylan has really made progress with swimming - we're so proud of him!

Backstroke

In this photo, he had swum out to the middle and was treading water before diving to the bottom to retrieve a weighted ring.  He did so great!

Here is the main pool with the splash features.

This is the rest of the area - a lazy river and a lap pool on the right.  There are also 2 big waterslides, but I didn't take pictures of those.  The kids are too short for those yet, so I kind of forget they are there.

Rylan loves to jump in from the edge.

Mackenzie still doesn't like to have her head go under, so she just leans off the bench on the side - looks like a good jump in a photo though.

She's definitely improving too though - blowing bubbles, practicing floating on her back, and willing to stick her face in.