A Horse of Course!

A picture left over from last weekend when we were cleaning up the yard.

We had a very chill weekend, especially since the weather was so icky. Mother's day was relaxing and fun socializing with all the fam at my mom's. It is so obvious now that Drew is more comfortable/mellow around people he doesn't know or see very often, where Kelsey is attached to my side and will cry the minute she feels constricted or overwhelmed. We are gearing up for their 2 year doctor's appt (I know it's like 6 wks late but we had to reschedule their 18mo appt and the appts need to be 6 mo apart because of shots). So I'm excited to hear how their growing and what to look forward to in the next year. Hope everyone had a beautiful Mother's Day.

Auntie Cassandra saw this for FREE at a rummage sale, and of course
had my brother stop so they could pick it up for the kids. You wonder
a little about why it was free....but we thoroughly checked it out and
couldn't find anything wrong with it - except if they try to get on it
without an adult around!

My daper dude triking away Mother's Day morning

He was really getting into the bouncing!

We were pulling patio furniture out and the kids crawled right up, like
mini bunk beds!

There was fake snoring coming from the bottom "bed"!

Buh-Bye Potty

I found a picture of the kids sitting on the potty, side by side, taking their sweet time reading. They "sit" on them a lot but there isn't much action. Once in a while Kelsey will go and sometimes she will just stand up and start walking with her pants around her ankles. Apparently at the sitter's, Drew likes to brush his teeth while sitting on the potty - which doesn't make sense since he's a man and they don't multi-task very well!!;) I recently picked up a second potty at a resale and let's be serious, how could I not with its pink crown! But I will surely see Drew using the pink one only because it is different and new. Their favorite part is flushing the pee down the toilet, ya know you have to get right in there so you can see it and say, "buh-bye potty".

With all this fantastic spring weather, we have been spending lots of time outdoors. We spent two full days on the lawn; trying to get grass to grow where we had the landscape trench put in to keep water away from the house (i.e. NO MORE FLOODED BASEMENT!). And we could start a "stick garden" with all the branches that fall from the huge, mature trees in the yard - honestly it is a full-time job picking the sticks off the lawn (I'm sensing a future chore for the kids in the next couple years). I've been working on flower beds since we bought the house - we've been dealing with a shady yard, like what wants to grow in "mostly shady" areas. Well I'll tell you not a lot and not a lot of pretty flowering things. So I dug up some plants that didn't make it - R.I.P. - and I'm going to suck it up and realize that I will just have a green flower bed and color will come from the annuals.

Our bright orange fence to discourage any kids from running down the driveway
without us.

A robin that built her nest right on the corner of our house. Drew always looks for
her to be in it. Hopefully we will get to see her babies!

We also finally updated the last of our fuses. What? What's that - you don't know what a fuse is or that houses have them? Well, I believe you are not able to sell a house these days without updating to breakers so you shouldn't be seeing them anymore. Oh wait, you are wondering how we bought ours without knowing there were still fuses? I'll tell you how - it was trickery! There are 2 breaker boxes in the basement so one would assume that was that! Even the home inspector didn't notice anything. A couple months after living here we were having some issues with our first floor switches so I had my grandpa come down and take a look. He went to turn off the power to those switches and couldn't find it in the breaker box so he spent hours looking around the house and found a fuse box in the hall closet! The previous owners remodeled the kitchen so they updated the electrical for that room. The  problem is that when you "blow a fuse", you can't just flip the breaker switch, you have to replace the fuse. Long story short, after 9 hours, a co-worker's electrician husband, and a fat check, our house is electrically updated!

Leftovers

I found a couple pictures that weren't posted...most of them Kelsey and her scowl-y face!

 

This was the last time we had to wear winter hats! (of course it's my hat she's
being silly with)

Doing flippys!

Oh snap!

Found the bubbles!!

The kids drive the powerwheels so far and then abandon it in the yard.
Then Craig has to drive it back to the garage :)

Again I hear, "Mommmmmmmmmmmmm!"
 

Spring is here and we have been spending almost each evening outside absorbing all the fresh air we can! Besides trying to contain the kids to the backyard, we are having so much playing outside this year.

We ROCK!

Rock Band for Wii, that is! As we have been slowly getting our basement back to normal, obviously the first things we took care of were walls and floors. So now we've been replacing the damaged electronics. And with all of the rain, the kids not being able to get outside, we NEEDED another avenue to release their energy! I know they watch the sitter's grandson play Wii baseball, so they get the concept of the video games. Craig plays the "guitar" and the kids grab the drum sticks. Of course, Craig doesn't actually activate the drummer on the video game. Drew doesn't like to share the drumsticks, which maybe shows how passionate he is about drumming because I can get him to share pretty much anything by saying the word, "share" to him. We may be on the hunt for another set of drumsticks so Kelsey and Drew can be dueling drummers. The best part is hearing the kids exclaim, "I wanna dum!" or "I dum" every night after dinner. I told Craig we have to watch what they say in public because people may think we call our kids DUMB and they are repeating it! I know "r's" are hard to pronounce, even Drew says, "I Dew" with no r. We try saying DRUM to them, to emphasize the R they are missing and they just say "dum" as if, duh mom I just said that. I know it will come, right?

 

 

 Then on Saturday, we were in Wausau to celebrate Braden and Ella's birthdays. Cousin Braden has a REAL drum set and the kids were in heaven! They were so excited when it made actual noise and we had a hard time getting them away from it. And no, we will not be asking for a drum set for Christmas :)

Spring Has Not Sprung

I thought I'd post some pictures of the tiny bit of Spring we experienced over Craig's spring break. Like, he was able to take the kids outside, granted they had to wear winter coats but weren't wet and muddy as one would think in this weather. I know it's hard to believe there was sunshine and dry ground only a week ago. We are so excited for parks and playgrounds and tricycles and turning the T.V. OFF - then maybe the kids won't ask about Caillou every.second.of.the.day. Caillou is a cartoon on Sprout. He's four years old and bald, yes totally bald. We aren't sure what his appeal is but almost any moment that Caillou isn't ON the television, one of the kids is asking, "Where's Caillou? I wan Caillou." And they laugh at him and are totally mesmerized by the short cartoon clips.

Otherwise the kids have been doing a lot of "colouring" then Kelsey says, "look - TADA!" We've been trying to get the kids to say "love you" back to us but they just associate us saying love you with a kiss - so they pucker up!

 

Sometimes you just gotta lay down at the department store!

 

Happy Easter

With all of the sickies we had this week, Easter was going to be a game-time decision for us. The kids woke up pretty normal Sunday morning and actually ventured OUT of the living room for the first time in a week. I didn't see them play on their own at all before this. So I figured they were feeling more like themselves. But the true test comes after waking up, so we were going to make the absolute decision after naptime.

They woke up "okay" and they had spent a lot of time indoors last week so I wanted them to be able to get out. Drew actually climbed into the stroller Sunday morning, asked for his coat, and asked to "go out". So, knowing it would be a quick visit, (by the time they got up and we drove up there we would only be spending about 2 hours with other people) we packed things up while the kids finished napping. It all started out fine but I don't know if I said the trigger word "home" or they were just done with Easter but they were in tears by the time we left.

They are in much better spirits today; back to their goofy selves with a lot less coughing, snot, and crabbiness!

Sweet baby Etta, trying to figure out all these kids!

Drew had no trouble jumping in and playing with the toys.

"I did it!"

I don't know about that face

Movie star...diva...top dog. just a few words come to mind when we
see her like this!

Classic Uncle Derek pose - point at nothing and ponder it.

Stealing hugs from a shy, squirmy Kelsey

Birthday Recipes

We had lots of compliments/questions on a couple of goodies from the birthday party last week. So I thought I would post the recipes for anyone interested in trying them! And don't worry: the cream cheese cinnamon goodness that my grandma made comes calorie/fat/sugar/guilt FREE ;) Enjoy!

Cream Cheese Cinnamon Stix

Ingredients:
2 packages (8 ounce size) cream cheese, softened
2  egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2-3 loaves white sandwich bread
2 tablespoon ground cinnamon mixed w/
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups butter, melted

Directions:
In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, egg yolk, and 1/2 cup of sugar until smooth; set aside.

Cut the crust off each slice of bread then roll out each slice with a rolling pin. Spread the cheese mixture over one end of the bread,,roll up tightly. Dip rolls into melted butter, then into sugar-cinnamon mixture.

 Place on ungreased cookie sheets. Cover with foil and freeze for at least 8 hrs. Bake frozen, uncovered, at 400 for 15 to 20 min, until brown.

Hawaiian Bun Baked Ham and Cheese Sliders

Ingredients

1 12 pack of King's Hawaiian Original Rolls

1 lb. deli ham, shaved (I used black forest ham)

1 lb. Swiss cheese or Havarti, thinly sliced

1 1/2 sticks butter

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

3 teaspoons of poppy seeds (optional)

1 onion, chopped

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350. Melt butter and mix in mustard, Worcestershire sauce, onion and poppy seed. Simmer for several minutes.

2. Cut the entire pack of rolls in half, horizontally (keeping all top and bottom halves in tact).

3. In a tin foil lined 9x13 pan, place bottom half of rolls and spread 1/3 of the onion mixture over the bottom of the rolls followed by the ham and cheese.

4. Replace the tops of the rolls and spread the remaining onion mixture over top.

5. Bake for 15-20 minutes. When finished, cut along "bun" lines for serving.