a blessed September...

family photo taken by our favorite photographer (and s.i.l), c.e.b.

OK, ok, technically this photo was taken on the last day of August, but it really started September off for us so you get to see them here. We asked our lovely s.i.l, C, for a photo shoot in honor of our 10th anniversary this year. We did one with her for our 5th anniversary, and I would like to do this at least every 5 years. (I stole this idea from my Aunt K and Uncle H! =) Although mild obstacles occurred - a little confusion between a boat dock and a boat launch gave us a late start (the two gals who have no boat or lake knowledge should not have been the ones talking =), and then with 90+ degree weather and 90% humidity we were all a little sweaty and the kids were fussy and crabby. As you can see though, we got some nice pictures and had so much fun. Thanks again, C!!

September was busy with starting school for G and getting used to that schedule for all of us, and also it was the start of church programs and Sunday school. I am teaching W's class this year - six 3-4 year old boys! We also got our first taste of fall weather - 4 days after the 90+ weather on the first of the month, it was 60 degrees and we were scrambling to find jeans and long sleeve shirts that fit.

G notes:

• Oh this girl loves school! And that is so wonderful for S and I. It is great to have her excited to go every day. She also loves telling us about school too when she gets home (one of the things I was worried about was the typical answer "fine." to the "how was your day?" question.). After her first full day at school, she sat with me and told me all the details...then we went over to our neighbors house and she told Mrs. L all of the details...then she talked to Aahma and Boppa R on the phone and told them all the details...so by the time S got home at 7 that night, she didn't want to tell him ANYTHING - "I am tired of telling everyone the same story!" So I had to fill him in.
• For the month of September, they worked on colors and shapes...pretty basic for starting kindergarten! Each day they had to wear a specific assigned color for the day - this was a challenge being that this girl only wears pink, but really fun for G to help look for different colors in her clothes to wear. When they finished all the colors and shapes, they took a class field trip to the Walker Art Center and spent time in the sculpture gardens as well as the museum. G's favorite part was riding the bus! We do not get bus pick-up where we live which is very disappointing to her - she actually asked us if we could move so she could ride the bus.
  
• Other highlights for her have been being the milk helper and class leader, painting, library and storytime, singing, and playing with new friends at recess of course.
• Things that we are having to work on are being distracted and taking a long time with bathroom breaks, eating lunch and different projects. She is doing well in everything other than that though, and some of those things are just going to get better the more days she is in school (I have a feeling the novelty will wear off sometime).
• As usual with our kids, life and schedule changes don't really affect them too much during the day, but it comes out at night when they sleep. All the kids have been waking up more frequently, having nightmares, and of course wanting to all sleep in our bed since school started. Just takes time to work itself through...
  

W notes

• It took W a while to get used to G being in school 3 days a week. Not only did he miss his sister, but play is just different for him depending on whether she is here or not. Not much competition for toys when she is at school, a lot more when she is home...just hard for him to figure out his place again.
• He is enjoying some more attention from mom on school days though, and his relationship with C is growing too. That has been really fun for me to see!
  
• W was a little slow warming up to Sunday School this year, but by the end of the month, he was more excited about going and didn't cling to me the whole time. We are hoping he grows a little more in this area this year as he really has a hard time being apart from S and I yet.
• Storytime has started again at the library and continues to be a favorite activity of W's. He loves to listen to the stories and of course getting to pick out new stories to bring home and read.
  

C notes

• C has been just a lot more clingy since school started - I am sure it affects him too, although not as easily seen as with W and G.
• He really has been playing with toys by himself a lot lately. He of course is interested in the big kids toys and art supplies that W and G play with.
• We finally made the jump from C screaming to get what he wants to him yelling for "Mumma!" or "Dadda!" There are more times where he will ask with a please, too, without being prompted. My baby keeps growing up!!!
  
• Seemed to us that C was teething most of the month as he was fussier and had a finger in his mouth all the time. We didn't think much of it until we caught a glimpse of his upper teeth and they didn't look right. Took him into the dentist at the end of the month, and it turns out his molars are full of cavities and he will need to go into Children's hospital again the beginning of November to get them all crowned. This mostly comes from genetics as we are so careful with the sugar that our kids eat - no juice or soda, no hard candy or really candy at all, and limited other sugary treats. And we brush their teeth all the time! This means though that October could be an interesting month as you can tell that his teeth hurt him.
  

where we tried to take a picture for friend J...

One fine day in August we met other friends from church at Red Sign Park. I took my camera along and was taking some pictures of the kids playing. B said that we should take a picture like friend J (who moved away last year) did that one time (when we had met at the same park a couple years ago).

Great idea! Line the kids up and snap away. No problem, right?

Well...

...this was the best we could do with 7 children under the age of 5!

So these pictures are for you, J. Hugs to your kiddos, and happy park playing in CA!

taco filling - one of our go-to's...

produce from our garden

The theme of our Ladies' Night Out kickoff this past Tuesday was "favorite recipes." We got together at a gal's house and had a good evening of fellowship...and wonderful food of course! And everyone brought favorite recipes and cookbooks and we all had a lot of fun sharing them.

The recipe I brought is for our taco filling. It is one of our "go-to" recipes when you can't figure out what to have for supper. It is also incredibly versatile and we have 4 recipes that use the same taco filling so leftovers are never a problem. Thought I would share it with all of you too!

Taco Filling
1 lb hamburger
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 pkg taco seasoning (or 1/4 cup seasoning, 3/4 cup water)
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cups cooked rice
1 can black beans, rinsed (opt.)
1 cup frozen corn (opt.)

Brown hamburger and onion in frying pan. Add taco seasoning and water according to package directions. Then add tomatoes, rice, beans and corn. Mix all together and cook over medium heat until heated through. Serve in soft-shelled tacos and top with favorite taco toppings!


Nachos
Taco Filling (see recipe above)
Shredded cheese
Salsa
Guacamole
Sour cream
Tortilla Chips

Layer hot taco filling, cheese and salsa in glass pie plate or other microwave safe dish. Microwave for a few minutes to melt the cheese. Add guacamole and sour cream on top and serve with tortilla chips.


Mexican Lasagna
Taco Filling (see recipe above)
Salsa
Flour tortillas
Shredded cheddar cheese

Spoon a very thin layer of salsa in the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan (keeps tortillas from drying out). Next add a layer of tortillas, tearing the tortillas if necessary to make them fit nice. Then spread ½ of the taco filling on top of the tortillas followed by a layer of shredded cheese. Repeat tortilla, meat and cheese layers again. Add one more tortilla layer, then top with salsa and a bit more cheese. Bake 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees until cheese is bubbly and center is heated through.


Stuffed Green Peppers, taco style
Taco Filling (see recipe above)
Fresh green peppers, halved and seeded
shredded cheese
2 cups tomato soup (not condensed)
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Bring a big pot of water to boil. Drop halved and seeded peppers in and boil for 6 minutes. Remove and let dry on paper towel. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp shredded cheese in bottom of each pepper half, then fill the rest of the way with the taco filling. Arrange in glass baking dish. Mix tomato soup, water, and Worcestershire sauce together to make a gravy consistency. Pour over green peppers, making sure there is at least ½ inch liquid in bottom of baking dish (add more water if there isn’t). Top each half with more shredded cheese. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, removing cover for the last 5 minutes.

Taco Salad
Taco Filling (see recipe above), cooled
1 head lettuce
8 oz Italian dressing mixed with 1 Tbsp taco seasoning
8 oz shredded cheese
2-4 tomatoes chopped
1/2 bag (or so) crushed taco flavored tortilla chips (Doritos work well too!)
Salsa

Tear lettuce into large bowl. Add about 2-3 cups cooled taco filling, shredded cheese, tomatoes, and dressing. Stir up, add salsa to desired consistency. Add crushed chips right before serving (add more salsa if necessary).

So what are some of your "go-to" or favorite recipes?

test 2...

newborn baby stuff...

My brother M and sister-in-law A are expecting their first child early March. Yay! We are so excited for them! Finally another cousin on the R side. My other brother L is getting married to J in February so then we can start bugging them for babies too...=)

Earlier this year, SimpleMom did a couple of blog posts on "things you don't need for baby" and "things you do need for baby." I was talking with S at that time about what we used for our babies, and thinking about M & A lately, I thought I would do my own version of "what worked for us with our babies." It is a list of things, yes, but really, to us, it is part of the story of how we raised our babies, too.

To preface all of this, we are a shining example of how you don't need anything before you have the baby. We had lists upon lists of things to buy made before our first child was born, and S had taken a day off during the week for us to go on a major shopping trip, but G decided to make an appearance 6 weeks early instead! We had a pack of onsies and...that's it. Not even a car seat! We were able to go out and get everything on our list before G came home with us (she spent 10 days in the NICU). While we don't really recommend being that little prepared, we do recommend not being stressed out about having everything ready. Remember too, that this little person comes into the world very tiny and basically only needs you, not a house full of stuff.

I also am a big fan of garage sales and craigslist and thrift stores, but always always make sure that anything you buy used is in good working condition and up to current safety standards. Anyway, these are the basic things that worked for us:

for sleeping...

• Cribs are nice, but not completely necessary. You really just need a good and basic pack'n'play with a bassinet, especially in the beginning. This was very useful to us not only at home, but traveling, so that the little peanut had a familiar and safe place to sleep.
• We also co-sleep with our kids. This worked very well for us, especially with C, in making the night-time wakings short and brief (don't have to get up and drag yourself to their room down the hall!). Always practice good safety with co-sleeping, though.
• Having something to rock a baby to sleep in is also necessary in my book. I have loved rocking and nursing my babies. We were fortunate to receive S's Grandma B's wooden rocking chair, and we also received a great used recliner from our friends, E&T, named La-Z-Brown. All of our babies have been rocked so many hours in these chairs!
• Now, an extra that has proved to be in-valuable to us is definitely our exercise ball. Yep, exercise ball. Not for my labor, not for getting me back into shape after the baby was born, but for bouncing very fussy babies to sleep. G was an extremely fussy baby due to a dairy sensitivity that we did not discover for many months. On a tip from dear brother-in-law J and sister-in-law C, we tried holding G out in front of us and bouncing on the slightly deflated exercise ball. Oh my, how she loved it. And so have W & C. So the number of hours bouncing seriously rivals the number of hours rocking in this house.
  

for eating...

• All you really need is the momma! =) And I was lucky enough to be able to nurse all my babies!
  
• A Boppy pillow was very useful to me with all my babies.
• And if you want a pump, the Medela pump is definitely a good one.

for changing...

• We also use cloth diapers with our kids. We started with chinese prefolds, snappis and prowraps, added some bummis wraps to the mix, and now have been using my favorite of them all, softbums! They are so great with sizing for little bums to big bums, and a lot trimmer than most cloth diapers are. Plus the gal that designed them and who makes a lot of them is super nice and lives less than 5 miles from our house.
• There is a great information on the whole cloth diaper choices and process on softbums' website too. I will add to that info that we love our metal trash can with liner as diaper pails and BacOut for help with odors and stains in the wash.
• When we don't use cloth, we use Target brand diapers. They are not expensive, and they do not have any fragrance to them, which is a big deal for us. All our kids have sensitive skin and break out if we use other brands (even expensive ones!).
• And for those breakouts, we really like Burt's Bees diaper ointment. A little more expensive, but once again worked really well on our babies' skin. We figured the money we saved with cloth diapers and Target diapers meant we could splurge on the diaper ointment!
  

for bathing...

• We bought a fancy sponge baby tub insert and didn't like it at all. Nor did we like the spendy tiny bath tub that only holds baby for about 2 months. All we did were sponge baths on a towel, or we soaped them up and rinsed them with one of us in the shower, or we washed them in the bathtub sitting on a washcloth. Fancy towels are sure cute, but not necessary either.
• What was necessary for us with bathing babies were California Baby bodywash, and Avalon Organics aloe lotion. A little more expensive, but quality stuff with natural ingredients that we felt good about using with our babies.

for clothing...

• Nice cotton onsies. Carter's has always been a favorite brand. They are really true to size and have lasted through multiple babies. The white ones are great as well as the patterns - oh so cute too!
• Hanna Jams. I will say that Hanna Andersson sleepware is a staple in our kids' wardrobes. I know they are expensive, but the quality is outstanding and when they can be used heavily by 3 kids and still look great, that is a pretty good investment. We had a Hanna outlet near us until it closed last year so I was always able to find them on sale and clearance for great prices, and I have also picked them up on ebay or when they go on super sale at the regular stores or online. This is also something that we use extra birthday/Christmas money on!
• As for other clothes...um...don't get me started...I have a weakness for cute clothes for my children...but I do love a great sale or clearance rack at Target! (or Gymboree, or Carter's, or...)

for traveling...

• A good car seat is a must. We did research (as all good B's do!) in Consumer Reports and bought a Baby Trend car seat. We have really liked it a lot - the triangle on the handle makes it very easy to carry and lug on one arm too.
• We bought the matching stroller to complete the "travel system", and we have used it quite a bit, but when W came along we bought a double stroller and that is really all we use now. A stroller is definitely good to have, but if you are thinking about having more than one kid at all, I would choose something that would either give you a little more flexibility like this, or just spend wisely, knowing another stroller might be in your future!
• Baby Carriers!!! We LOVE "wearing" our babies. I am a little bit of a baby carrier collector, but I do have 2 favorites. My talented sister-in-law C made a mei tai for us (pictured above with W!) that works so well with tiny newborn babies up to toddlers. We also purchased a Baby Bjorn Active carrier (with back support), that was also great to use from about 10 pounds to 20 pounds. The added back support was totally worth the extra. We also have a Maya Wrap, an Ergo, and we just got a backpack carrier from some friends too!

So, M & A, happy baby! Hope this list helps you a little, and always make sure to use what works for you...you don't have to listen to your crazy sister or anyone else! Love you!

emotions and kindergarten...

Last week marked a huge milestone for our oldest child.

She started kindergarten.

Yes, I know there are so many milestones in a person's life, but this one is terribly significant...for G and also for this momma. For 5 years I have been blessed to care for this little peanut almost 24/7. For 5 years I have been blessed with the opportunity and responsibility to teach this little peanut. For 5 years I have been blessed to help this little peanut and have been blessed to be the one that she has looked to everyday for help. For 5 years I have been blessed to watch this little peanut learn and play and experience everything around her.

And I am just supposed to drop this precious child off for someone else I hardly know to care for and teach her for more waking hours than she will now spend at home?

Naturally, sending her off to school was an incredibly hard thing for me. Starting with the decision to do that at all. We seriously considered homeschooling because I love my children and I love helping them and watching them learn. In the end we chose to send her to school because I love my children and want to be the best mom I can be for them and I knew that homeschooling would stress that area especially with the ages of our kids. We chose Calvin because it was a good Christian school that was near us. If we couldn't educate G at home, we wanted a place where she would get a Christian education - to be able to learn more about God and His creation and be free to say and know that everything is God's. A continuation of what she learns at home and church.

This decision, which we believe is the best for G and our family, did not help my emotions at all the past month (actually several months). I have been a worried, emotional wreck. Wondering whether we made the right decision, wondering whether or not she will be able to handle this huge amount of independence, wondering whether we have taught her enough, wondering whether she will make good friends or good choices. And also, in a sense, mourning this huge change in G's life. No longer will she be my baby, my buddy, my big helper all day everyday. No longer will she be able to have a completely carefree life sleeping till she wants to and having relaxing mornings filled with play before we change out of jammies or get breakfast. No longer will we be able to pick up and go wherever and whenever we want. But the biggest thing I was mourning was being able to see G learn and experience all these new things at school. I want to see her face light up when she gets a concept or learns something new and fun. I want to see her laugh and play and sing. I want to see her friendships with her classmates grow and develop. I want to see that she is making good choices and remembering to say please and thank you. I want to go to kindergarten with her!

I cried a lot the week (ok maybe the month) before kindergarten started.

But I am ok now. It was like I was overly sad and worried while I could still make the decision to just keep her home (and believe me, if she would have been nervous or hesitating at all I would have said "It's ok baby, you just stay home with your momma where you belong!"), but when the time came to send her, I was fine. The thing about being a parent is that we are teaching and bringing up G in the Lord so that she can grow up and be her own person. One who won't stay 4 and live with us forever. One who is faithful, beautiful, intelligent, and who can take care of herself. Proverbs 22:6 "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." I was struck by the excitement and confidence of my daughter in taking this next big step. I figured if she can have this much excitement and confidence, I surely can too.
And I know that we are not done being her teachers. We will always be teaching her, and watching her grow and learn and play. And now we have the fun of hearing her chatter about her day at school and hearing about all the new things she has seen and done and learned. Our jobs as parents are far from being done, the role has just changed a little bit, and will continue to change as she grows.

Doesn't mean that I won't want her to stop growing so darn fast sometimes. But I will hopefully not cry for a month. =) But you know, even with all the crying, it was a good month. It was good to share the emotions and learn from them rather than bottling them all up. It was good to share and cry with God, friends and family, and know that we are supported in so many ways.

And the more we have learned about the school, the happier that we are that G is there. Her teacher is incredible, the opportunities that G will have are great, the staff is welcoming and friendly, and the families that we have met have all been so nice and helpful. Everyone comments on the family feeling of the school and we are starting to see why everyone says that. The school and the kindergarten teacher, Mrs. B, have done a fabulous job of preparing G and us to start school. We have helped clean the classroom with Mrs. B, have gone to the kindergarten picnic with all the kindergarteners and their families, have gone to the all school picnic with all the Calvin families, have had a meeting with Mrs. B the day before school to bring all of G's school supplies and see where all G's things are in the K room, and started the first day of school with a chapel for all the students and their families followed by a welcome reception for new families and kindergarten parents. Each of those things helped us become more familiar with the school and people there, and made the first day of school a lot less scary for all of us.

And enough yammering on by me now, time for what you really want to see and hear about, G's first day! She had such a good time and just loves it. She has handled the first week of school well, even the full days, and it has been so much fun to hear her chattering on about everything. She even has asked us why she can't go every day!

G outside her kindergarten room


hanging up her backpack


G with her teacher, Mrs. B


Now we just have to work on this one. This is W after G left for her classroom that first day.

W misses his sister when she is at school, but has enjoyed doing some fun things with just Momma and C. We will all be in transition a while as we adjust to this new school schedule, but we are so proud of G and happy that she loves school and learning so much.

hello blog...

...it's been a while. I know I have neglected you, but I promise that I will try to catch you a little bit on our happenings, and not ignore you so blatantly like I have been as of late. It's not you, it's me...or rather life, and I just haven't made you a priority at all. Which, no offense, was completely fine by me for a while. But as you are the sole means right now of documenting what goes on in my sweet children's lives, I know I need to crawl back, beg forgiveness and move on with our relationship. So keep your eyes out for much needed back-dated posts and some new material as well...thanks for still being there.