Park

This evening we went to a new park not too far from our house, 15minutes away.  We had to wait until this evening as it has been so darn hot during the day.  The girls really enjoyed it.  I think that they get tired of being cooped up in the house since it has been so hot.  They are not a fan of the heat at all.  We did some garage saling this weekend, it was a lot of fun.  We (I guess me) decided that we are going to do a thrift Christmas.  We are really cutting back on the people that we are giving to AND the cost.  It is ridiculous to spend and enormous amt of money on things that you can easily find at thrift stores and garage sales.  I am not going to buy junk but plan to search and get the things that i think are appropriate at a fraction of the cost.

I leave with some pics..

Well now I cannot get the computer to read the card from the camera.  I will upload more pics later when I have a minute.

 

Edited to take out that pesky extra “o” I added to to and some more pics.

 

 

 

Check it out!

Check out my daughter Alex’s new shop on Etsy. Click the pictures on the right to go directly to her shop or go here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ImaginationSoup?ref=pr_shop

BAAAAAACK!

I am back!  I have been inspired by another blog that I have been reading for some time…2 moms.  I love the fact that they keep up with it and have some great pics!.  The summer is ending here, not the weather, Toni started back to school last week a the kids start back on Monday….  Not OUR kids, they are still staying home and her mom cones to watch them.  They are really lucky, and they love her.  It is nice to have them here while I am working.  I can take a quick break and pop down to say hello.  I went into the office week before last all week and have to go in next week Tuesday-Friday 8-6:30.  Makes for a long week in that I have to leave about 630a and get home at almost 8p.  I am lucky that it is rare.  We had one vacation this year and the girls got to ride ponies.  To say that they loved it is an understatement.  I need to look and see if there is somewhere that they can go around here.

 

Last night we went to the mall as the girls loved their croc*s and they are now too small.  We live in the sticks, so there are only croc*s available in the sporting good stores here.  The closest store is about 1 hour and 20 minutes away.  We had fn.  They got to shop at the Dis*ney store and pick out a toy and night gowns they pick the same nightgown and almost the same toy, one was Minn*ie and the other Mick*ey.  We went to the croc*s store and out of a zillion pairs, they picked the SAME ONES.  They did, however, pick different jibbi*tz.  They have a fountain thingie that people can play in outside the mall and Avery REALLY wanted to play in it but we needed to wait until we were done as they would be soaked.  It was turned off by the time that we got out.  they DID get to play in a big puddle and loved it.

 

I leave with a couple of pics on horses

 

Toni and Avery

 

Aidan

O’ Christmas Tree O’ Christmas Tree…

The girls are growing by leaps and bounds. They kinda got Christmas.  They REALLY got Christmas when they were opening their presents.  They were really quite good Christmas morning.  We were really not sure what to expect.  They held out the whole time and really loved it.  We open our presents one by one, and there was a total of 11 people here.  It always has the potential to last FOREVER.   We did take occasional breaks for the potty and food.  I made a breakfast casserole and apple coffee cake.  We started a few traditions this year.  They are ones that I did sporadically with the older kids but have better intentions of sticking with them.  We made Christmas cookies:

Decorating a gingerbread Man

Stockings…

 

And presents….

 

 

 

 

 

Even the dog was Happy…

 

The girls pottied..

 

and then it was done….

 

 

Halloween!

They really had a good time trick-or-treating this year.  I was not so sure that they would last very long, but they did great.  They are growing up so fast.  I cannot believe it! I think that the holidays are going to be a lot of fun this year.  They are talking a lot more but a lot of it is still not discernible.  I am a little sad that they are growing up so fast!  I need to post some birthday pics too but they are on another card.  I will get back and do so soon.

 

good food

Yesterday was good.  Alex and I got a lot done.  We made more beans and whole wheat pancakes to freeze.  We also made a good dinner.  We made grilled chicken, homemade honey wheat bread, squash, zucchini and onions, roasted potatoes, and dill roasted carrots.  I thought that maybe there might be leftovers.  The only thing left was one piece of the grilled chicken and some bread.  EVERYONE ate it and the girls liked it all.  Right now, they are mostly good eaters.  They are starting to throw more tantrums, I think that is might be because they are having difficulty communicating.  They ARE saying a lot more words, especially in the last few days!  I can even understand what they are saying 🙂

Breakfast

this morning for the girls:

one farm fresh brown egg

two homemade whole wheat pancakes

6oz cream on top french vanilla organic yogurt

5 big juicy organic strawberries

the dog dined well on Aidan’s egg and pancake

Avery drowned at least 1/2 of egg and 1/2 of pancake with her water while I was cleaning up Aidan’s mess

all the yogurt was consumed.  4 of the 5 berries were eaten when I felt safe to walk away to wash dishes.  Last strawberry was well masticated by both and spit out on the tray in front of them.

Needless to say..not a good am.  I hope that this does not translate how the rest of the day will be.  One day a week, I have to work until 9pm, so I do not start until 10:30.  This is one of those days that I wish I had started at 8 😦

Psycho..

Yep, that I might be.  I have been doing a lot of reading and have decided to work on cleaning our diet up a bit.  I am trying to eliminate a lot of the canned foods that we eat.  We mostly used canned beans.  I soaked some black beans last night and cooked them all day in a crockpot.  I drained, rinsed and froze them in 2 cup portions.  I am going to soak pinto beans tonight to cook tomorrow.  We are having refried beans this week with some chicken tacos.  I am going to make my own.  Yep!  I am a moron.  I also mad a big pot of spaghetti sauce today.  ALex and I are going to make some whole wheat pancakes/waffles tomorrow to flash freeze.  I AM going to do more, just have to decide what will be next.  We got a great stainless steel steamer/rice cooker.  Gonna steam all the veggies this week so they do not have to be cooked in plastic.  Any ideas out there for me????

Play..

We spent $1000 to divide the backyard with a fence to keep the dogs on one side and bought this great climbing toy.  It has been hotter than hell and the dogs dug under the gate.

Lazy…

We have been lazy in this household for a long time.  It is stressful.  I want things to be different but do not feel that I can do it all on my own.  I want the house to be organized, it is in complete disarray most of the time.  I want things different, but I am the only one that is willing to work on it.  Then…I get discouraged because I realize that there is NO WAY that I can do it all on my own.  There are so many things that I want done but worry that it will never happen.  These girls deserve more, I deserve more.  I am great at making up lists… Not so great at completing them.  I also need to lose a lot of weight.  I have been working it and lost 34 pounds so far but really need to lose about 50 more.  It is discouraging.  I really do not know what to do to get it all done.  There are not enough hours in the day.  I get frustrated in that I can not make another adult in this household realize that there is a lot of weight to be lost on both our parts but I am the only one the is REALLY committed. I mean come on, we got fat by eating all the things that we want, it cannot continue like that. you HAVE to make a sacrifice to lose it and get healthy.  You have to be SERIOUS, not half-ass.