story time

OK, I'm (S here) back at work full-time, but that doesn't mean I get out of kid adventures....

So, while C had a dentist appt this morning, I got all 3 kids and was going to head off to story time at the public library (we have story time at our own private library several times a day.) I have done things with the eldest 2 kids without any problems, but I have not ventured out with all 3 yet. I was a little nervous as to how baby C was going to do. If he gets fussy / crabby when momma is around - a little snack settles him down (95% of the time.) But, if he gets fussy / crabby when just dadda is around he gets..... um..... held and lots of pleading to settle down. So I was wondering how this small adventure was going to go. Before she left, C got baby C to sleep and put him in his car seat and so I thought - this might be smooth sailing, IF he stays asleep. So, I got G&W in the van and came back in for baby C. And of course the moving to the van woke him up. Carp. But, G was already pumped to go, so away we went.

Once we got the the library, I thought "How am I going to get all 3 kids into the library?" I have 2 arms and 3 kids and a full parking lot ....hmmm.....I'm good, but not that good. So, I got G out of her seat but kept her in the van, took baby C out and around to W's side and then set him down and got W out and G down. Then closed the door, picked up baby C in his seat, held W in my other hand and had G hold C's seat with me. Yeah me. But, I was still a little nervous as the short van ride over did not put C back to sleep. But, one obstacle down - one to go...

... and it went as smooth as the peanut butter in our cupboard! G loves story time and so she was completely entertained the whole time. W likes to sit in your lap and watch other kids and the books and he did just fine. Baby C just kicked and looked at W and I the whole time without so much as a peep. And not one person said "my you have your hands full" - so apparently we're starting to look like we can handle our bunches of babies.

go ahead and laugh...

...i eventually did! =) Yesterday I was sick of being cooped up in the house after a week of yucky colds and I also had the urge to shop so after much thought, I took all 3 kids to Albertville outlet malls to look for some clothes for summer for them. There were a few sales going on and I had a coupon so off we went after W's nap. It had rained all morning, but didn't rain while we were there so that was good. I took the stroller and the baby bjorn along and had 3 stores that I wanted to get to. So I was thinking this wouldn't be so bad!

When we got there, G and baby C were sleeping, so I was going to get everything ready with the stroller and such before waking them up. I had the stroller set up and was going to load my bag in it from the front seat, when the wind started to blow the stroller away. I stepped out to get it, and when I turned back to the van, I miscalculated where I was standing and turned back right into the open door and the corner of it gave me a nice 2 in gash on my forehead. Carp. (we don't say crap in our house because we have little parrots that choose those words to repeat over and over...) Now what was I going to do?! It was bleeding pretty good and it was a good size...should I go get stitches somewhere?...where would I even go for that?...does Albertville have a clinic or hospital?...all the way back to the cities? By this time it was bleeding profusely! So I grabbed kleenex out of my diaper bag and held that to my head and opened the glove compartment to get the first aid kit. Carp. It had never been used and has plastic around it that was impossible to get off, especially while trying to hold a kleenex to my bleeding head! Finally got the plastic off with only a little blood on the front seat. Open the first aid kit to find a hopefully inconspicuous band-aid. Carp. We bought the kid-friendly first aid kit and it only had bright crayon band-aids. Hmmm...should I go with bright red, bright yellow, or bright blue?...i guess blue. Cleaned up my head again (trying not to pass out!) and put the band-aid on really tight. OK. Now I was feeling a little woozy, so I decided to get everyone out and head for Mrs. Field's cookie store to get something to restore blood sugar and energy. Plus make the kids happy too! =) Then if it was still bleeding out of the band-aid when we were done there I would scrap the shopping trip and head for the nearest medical facility that could patch me up. Fortunately, the wound seemed to be fine and feeling renewed after chocolate, we continued our expedition.

After telling this all to S later, he said that he would call me super-mom...if I hadn't done it to myself!

As for the rest of our day? Good! We marched between stores with either C in stroller and me holding W or with W in stroller and C in the bjorn (and G running along besides). All the stores I wanted to go to were kids' clothes stores so they had kid-friendly things to distract G&W and all the kids did really well. We did 2 stores and then it was getting too late to make it back before supper so we went to the expensive coffee shop to eat supper and feed baby C (that is one thing the outlet mall lacks, decent places to eat!). Then we went to our last store, hanna andersson, which is our favorite. Super good quality clothes, but unfortunately really expensive, so I love the outlet store and especially the clearance racks at the outlet. I just can't pay $33.50 for a pair of khaki shorts out of their catalog (I don't pay near that much for khakis for me!), so I picked them up on the clearance rack for $12. Now that still may be more expensive than the $6 Target ones, but they are so soft and will last through 2 boys and beyond! While I shopped (we were the only customers in the store), C slept in the bjorn, W played with the train set, and G talked the ear off of the store clerk. Too cute!

The ride home was the only other unfortunate part of the outing - it started raining, hard, was dark, C was crying, and W was sleepy and I could NOT let him sleep otherwise the night would be shot! But we made it home with some good deals and cute clothes for the kids.

Oh, and by the way, not one person asked or said anything about the bright blue crayon band-aid on my head while we were out!

visit from M & A...

aren't they cute?? =)

Long overdue, but wanted to post about it anyway! Although, now that I think about it, it was only a couple weeks ago - but for some reason feels a lot longer! Maybe we need more sleep...=)

The second weekend of March my brother M had classis exams here. We were exicted to see him, and even more excited because his wife A came along as well! This was the first time they had seen baby C so that was really neat too. The visit was from Monday to Thursday and we all had a marvelous time! S had Wednesday off, and my dad also came up on Wednesday too so good family time was had by all. We ate at noodles and co, had Dad's scalloped potatoes and ham, played rook, but most of all just enjoyed visiting with eachother. Oh yeah, lots of playing with kids and reading books too! The kids had so much fun and were sad to see everyone go. (As was I, I must say. =)

Before pics though, I have to put in props here for lovely A. She not only helped us run our errands on Tuesday (in which we were able to accomplish 3 stores in less than 2 hours, when that would normally take me 3 days - thanks so much A!), she helped me get 4 jumbo packs of the expensive fru-fru diapers for $5 each, free shampoo, conditioner and hairspray, and 3 cartons of free ice cream (breyers and kemps even - not the cheapo store brand!) all utilizing coupons. Yay!!!! She is my coupon hero...

Alright, on to the pics!

scalloped potatoes and ham...

When my brother M, his wife A, and my dad were here last week (different blog post on that later =), I asked Dad if he would make his famous/infamous (??) scalloped potatoes and ham. Now, it is the Betty Crocker recipe (with ham added), but my dad has a special touch that always makes it turn out better than anyone else who tries to make it. I have many fond memories as a child of helping my dad make this (and he would be cruel and make us 1 1/3 the recipe sometimes just so we could practice our math) in our kitchen. This is a labor intensive recipe and Dad can make this easily by himself, but it works so much better if a lot of people help. So all of us chipped in to help Dad out last week.

A favorite non-family blog of mine to follow and read is called Pioneer Woman. I won't go into everything on her blog right now, but one of the sections on her blog is about cooking and she takes detailed pictures of each step of the recipe which makes it very easy to follow. So since I had taken pictures while we were making the scalloped potatoes and ham with Dad, I thought I would do a picture how to post showing our fun.

How to make Dad's Scalloped Potatoes and Ham:

Put ingredients for white sauce in pot and stir stir stir...
(M always enjoyed this enthralling job)

Peel a bunch of potatoes
(I had forgotton to take a picture of this so A is actually posing! =)

Cube up a bunch of ham
(this is a great all natural ham from Costco that they only carry around Easter and Christmas)

Someone has to hold the fussy baby!
(S is either not sure why C is fussing or why that is his job! =)

Slice up the bunch of peeled potatoes
(Dad is super good at doing this evenly and quickly - it takes me way too long and the slices are never even and I always manage to almost cut my fingers off so he stopped letting me help do this part)

Slice up a bunch of onions
(do NOT add the clementines to the pot!)

Watch intently as a 3 yr old shows you how to layer everything in the pot...except the uber hot white sauce - an adult should do that
(G loves this part and fortunately she is 3 so she fits the bill for this job)

Save some nice big potato slices for the top layer
(ooooh, look at that potatoey, hammy, oniony goodness!)

Put in oven and watch bake for a while
(shh, don't tell, but this is actually a picture of all of them watching bunny cookies bake, not the scalloped potatoes and ham!)

Make way for the clean-up crew!
(and you really need to get out of the way, W is dangerous with a broom!)

And then enjoy!
(no pictures were taken of that because we were too busy stuffing our faces! =)

Baby C...2 months

Can you believe it? Our tiny Baby C is over 2 months old already. I sure can't! Time just flies. Everyone tells you that, and we even know that being that we have 2 older ones, but still, our little one is growing up way too fast. C is such a good baby though - God certainly knew we needed that! What a blessing, and a true joy in our lives. So here's the update on the little man:

Baby C at 2 months...

...weighs in at 14lbs 2 oz (97th percentile)
...is 24 1/4 inches tall (90th percentile)
...is still bald, but what a handsome little guy! =)

...is outgrowing his bassinet

...loves to be held while sleeping (thankfully loves his baby carriers too so momma can get something done!)

...smiles and coos and loves to watch his big sister and big brother

...loves his bouncy seat

...does not like his swing

...even though the jury may still be out on this one, we think he looks a lot like W

...acts like him too! =)

...is loved so much by his momma, dadda, big sister G and big brother W!

some catch-up...

This is some catch-up on some of the things we did the end of February and some pics to go with it.

On a Saturday S had off, after W woke up from his nap we took off for an afternoon evening out. We went to the Eastman Nature Center which is a great little nature center in the middle of the Elm Creek Park Reserve about a half hour away from us (We had told G where we were going, so when we pulled into the parking lot, she asked "Where's the nature?" Funny, since we were surrounded by trees! I think she meant "nature center." =). It has some neat interactive exhibits as well as a great kids corner with all sorts of fun nature play toys and animals. It also has live frogs, turtles and snakes (yeah, I made S look at the snakes with the kids as I have a great fear of them!), which G & W just loved. They were also doing a deer watch program while we were there and we got to observe about 8 of them pretty up close to the building. After this, we continued on to Maple Grove where we survived the first time eating out with all 3 kids at Panera. It actually went remarkably well! Shoe shopping for little W did not go as well as we left the store with all 3 kids crying, but we did get shoes at least! All in all it was a great outing for all of us.

G & W looking at a turtle

"How big is your wingspan??"

Some of the deer that came to eat the corn by the building.

~~~

S and G have been reading Charlotte's Web together. I found this book for a quarter on a garage sale so it was on the bookshelf, and G took it down a couple weeks ago and asked S what it was about and if they could read it. S said sure completely thinking that she would lose interest 2 pages in, but she lasted a whole chapter and asked him to read another! What a big girl!

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Hee hee! This picture is my favorite! W is nursing a babydoll! I am nursing baby C a lot during the day, and G likes to do everything that momma does so she often sits and nurses a babydoll too. Well, W likes to do everything that G and momma do so here ya go! =) G emphatically informed him that "Boys can't nurse!!!" but I told them that he could sure pretend to.

~~~

Gma B had been up to help us out a couple of days. The kids had a lot of fun, we got a number of things done, and momma got a couple of naps in too which was wonderful. Thanks Gma B!

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We had a nice day towards the end of February so we all bundled up and went outside for a while!

.ceb. .photography.

Auntie C came and took some pictures of the kids last month that I am finally getting around to posting. Beautiful photography. Beautiful kids (I know we are biased, but look at them! =). I am so happy she does this for us - thank you auntie C!

CTB - 5 weeks old
WJB - 20 months old
GAB - 3 1/2 years old
(picture at the end of all 3 was a good as we could get of them together!)