Our New House

So we finally got a house!!! Well we don't close until June 11th, but we are really counting on it all working out because we were told on tuesday that we have two weeks to move out of our rental!!! Crazy times. So after having two breakdowns and I'm embarrassed to admit a bout of hyperventilating I think we will be okay. I don't think the moving so quickly would have been quite such a big deal, but we didn't know yet if we had gotten the house and later that day the people moving in came and brought a truck load of their stuff and moved it in that evening. More craziness. There is a big long story to go along with all of this, but it looks like everything should be fine...eventually. We will probably have to stay a week or two with Chris' parents until we close on our house. So I have been packing and cleaning, but I really needed to stop and blog because I was thinking about how much the kids have grown since we moved here and I wanted to document a few things. So..

Claire has grown like a weed, she is now in the girls section of clothing, which makes me sad. She is a coloring/drawing fanatic and probably spends an hour plus each day on her artwork. She is also really into computer games right now. It probably isn't a really great thing but I've noticed her reading/spelling skills improving. She now writes words on her own that she's picked up from her games. She writes her name really well, she knows her address and phone number by heart and she's still a major drama queen. She still loves her "soft blanky" that I made her for Christmas two years ago. She still loves to dress up, and play hairdresser with her barbies in the bathroom sink. She is still very particular about what she wears and sometimes I have to use all my powers of persuasion to keep her from wearing the craziest outfits when we go in public. Claire got a fish when we moved in here, I had promised her. His name is Goldie and he's been a great little fish, but I am not a pet person so we got rid of him. I feel like a bad mother, I told Claire he jumped down the drain like Nemo to find his family. He actually got sent to live with a nice lady who loves animals and has a huge aquarium for him. I feel bad that I didn't want to go to the trouble of keeping this fish (you know what a hassle fish can be..haha) but I am not a fish person I hate having to deal with it and Claire had really lost interest, so there you go. Our first and most likely last house "pet" is gone. I really should have told her the truth, but I couldn't bring myself to see that look on her face that I had given Goldie away. I'm just glad it didn't turn out to be a big deal for her.

Jake is so fun. He loves to give hugs and kisses. He loves his big sister. He is heavy! I don't know how much he weighs, but he's a big boy!! Tall too. He is a major pouter. I am so thankful that he is not (yet) like his sister. He crosses his arms and pouts when things aren't working out the way he'd planned. He loves hats and he's saying 3+ word sentences. He is a champ in nursery and goes and plays even though he doesn't want to leave us. He is almost 2!! He follows Claire around and loves to wrestle and play with her. He loves apples and eats them on a daily basis. He eats a ton of food for that matter. Some days it doesn't seem natural how much food he can pile in!! He loves the swings and the trampoline. I am so glad they are both healthy and happy and I know they are going to have a blast in their new house/neighborhood.
So that's the craziness going on around here, and on top of all this it's still SNOWING around here.

Make up

My boy loves make up. That's a sentence I was hoping I'd never have to say. But, it's true. And I can't help thinking it's so cute!! Provided it isn't a habit that sticks around! I don't think cross-dressers are all that cute. But he really and truly loves my makeup. I have a drawer in the bathroom where I store it and if I EVER leave the door open, and it's quiet, I know exactly where he is. At first he would squirt my lip gloss everywhere and write on the counter with my eyeliners, but he has learned that if he makes a mess he gets in much more trouble. So now he is VERY careful to put everything back as best as he can when he's done fixing himself up. He isn't even two! I keep thinking every time he gets into it that I'm going to find this big mess, but it doesn't happen. He applies his makeup and puts it back where it belongs. I probably wouldn't even know if I didn't find him like this...



Notice the mascara and lip gloss. I can't get over his fascination with it, and apparently neither can he. For right now I'm trying to not let it bother me and just think it's cute, and hopefully it will just be a funny embarrassing story to tell his girlfriend one day. Hopefully...

Playing outside

So there's got to be something wrong if you are playing outside in May with your winter coat on! We got more snow last night. I ams so sick of the cold and wind. But the kids still want to play outside, I can't blame them. I am sick of being inside.




I also have another granola recipe. This one has much less oil in it, and it's really yummy. I am going to try and keep granola around enough so that the kids can have it for breakfast cereal. Oats are so healthy, and cheap too! I also added cream of wheat because I have a ton of it and it's hard to get rid of and also very healthy.

Cranberry Raisin Granola
Ingredients:

3 c. old fashioned oats
1/3 c. sliced almonds
1/3 c. sunflower seeds
2 T. flax or sesame seeds
1/4 c. maple syrup
1/4 c. honey
2 tsp. canola oil
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. dried cranberries
1/2 c. dried raisins
1/2 c. chopped, pitted dates

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine oats, nuts and seeds in large bowl. In small saucepan, heat maple syrup, honey, oil, cinnamon and vanilla until mixture is warm, 2-3 minutes. Stir, then pour over oat mixture. Stir with rubber spatula until evenly coated. Coat large cookie sheet with vegetable oil spray. Spread granola to cover pan in even layer. Bake 5 minutes, remove from oven and stir. Repeat every 5 minutes until oats are lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Cool granola in pan. It will get crisp. Store in airtight container 1-2 weeks.

Cooking Day

Well I follow a blog called Moneysavingmom.com and every month she does a freezer cooking day and makes a bunch of dinners for her family she can freeze. Well I wanted to try it, but I didn't really do any dinner items, mostly I wanted to do convenience food that I don't want to buy because they tend to be processed and have extra preservatives and other stuff that's basically just crap. She has a place where you can link up what you did so that's why I'm posting. :) It really didn't take me as long as I thought it would, but I do have a sink full of dishes to show for it!
So here's what I did:
Whole wheat blueberry pancakes
Strawberry Lime freezer jam
Whole wheat sesame crackers
Tortillas (I made pinto beans, and I am going to put together some burritos to keep in the freezer for lunch)
Chicken nuggets (I got a great deal on some free range organic chicken, and chicken nuggets are a hard habit to break for the whole family. We're used to running through the drive through and getting the kids some chicken nuggets, well NO MORE!! I am sick of hearing about all the crap in them, so I'm making my own. I'm hoping if I have to make them, that we won't eat them as often as we would otherwise. I am trying to reduce our families intake of meat.)
Maybe one of these days I'll be brave and actually try a freezer dinner, this is something I think I will definitely do again.



I had to throw in this beautiful picture I took yesterday from our back yard. Although I hate hate hate the windy weather out here in the country, I love being able to see this.