So far, it has become a tradition to celebrate Husband’s birthday in Chelan at the Fire and Ice festival. Now, generally speaking, I think it’s more catered towards a childless crowd, since it boasts a wine walk, beer garden, and various other drinking related events that are past the wee one’s bed time. We still have a great time though, because if nothing else, we get away from work for a weekend! Oh, and they got smart and now allow kids in the beer garden 😉 I’m guessing sales went WAY up!
My very skilled sister-in-law Anne Black took these pictures for us. She is so talented! I love these photos. You can check out her work here.
Not a big deal or anything, we are just the cutest family ever 😉 Thanks Anne!
Boy, Thanksgiving and Christmas really did us in this year! We have been so busy I’m just NOW able to take a breath. I think our little family really felt the stress of the holidays this year, which resulted in weird behavior from Caidoc, a sickness that wiped us all out one at a time, and some scary early labor!
As far as “weird behavior” goes, we just noticed a big decline in Caidoc’s usually stellar attitude. I think most of that had to do with having an ear infection, getting sick twice, too much attention during the holidays, and confusion about the impending “dethronement”. I’m happy to report that with out schedule getting back to normal, he’s just bouncing right back to his happy self 🙂
Don’t get me wrong, we had AMAZING holidays. We were all SO spoiled with lots of Christmas present and goodies, and got to have lots of family time which was much needed. This year we were able to continue our familie’s tradition of a Christmas light drive (Caidoc’s first that he really remembers), and the Kent Christmas Dash, both of which were big kits with Caidoc. Can I just say, the holidays are SO MUCH fun with a kid!!!
What a great family I have 🙂
In other news, as most of you know, we found out a few days before Christmas that we are having a little GIRL!!! I was so stocked. I was convinced it was a boy. Now, I don’t mean I just had a feelings, like with Caidoc (I was wrong with him too), I was CONVINCED. I was getting out all of Caidoc’s baby clothes! That will teach me. Oh well. After the initial shock, and asking the technician to double check, I am finally getting excited for a little girl. I guess I just wanted a buddy for Caidoc, but as several have pointed out to me, I’m super good buddies with my older brother and younger brother who are close to my age. So, I guess it will be ok 😉
I’ve had many more ultra sounds and appointments than I did with Caidoc, mostly because of the VBAC situation, but I feel good about it and I’m not stressed about the birth. We also recently had another meeting with our doula, whom we just love, and she always makes me feel more calm. We are so excited to welcome a new little one.
Caidoc is going to be such a good big brother. We are not over stimulating him with the idea, I don’t think we need to. He’s extremely aware of what’s going on and I don’t want his babyhood taken away prematurely. He already wants to be such a grown up that I have to remind him that he’s “still my baby”…mostly because I’m a little sad to see him grow up. Time for a newborn so Caidoc gets some breathing room! Haha!
So, around May 9th (I’m expecting it to be much later though) we will be welcoming Azélie Eloise Jillian into our little family. Keep us in your prayers!
I have FINALLY finished my advent calendar that I have been making for Caidoc! It took a long time because I got SUPER side tracked by lots of things, first, I had to wait to borrow my moms sewing machine, I saved up money for fabric, and then I changed my plans because a friend of mine gave me a ton of awesome fabric! So, it turned into more of a project than I thought. I also probably made it more complicated than it needed to be and I’m a little rusty with sewing 🙂 Regardless, I am THRILLED how it turned out.
Isn’t is pretty?! Those pockets are what took me so long. I had to sew down ALL the corners after I cut them all the exact same size. And I’m really please that it’s kinda “eclectic” looking, because I think it makes it look more homemade 🙂 Did I mention the supplies cost about 10 dollars?!
Here is a pocket close up. So what I am doing is every other day is a piece of Caidoc’s nativity scene which it gets to place in the stable, baby Jesus being last of course. In between those days is a Christmas carol written down that we sing, okay really I sing and he dances. He LOVES music, so this is pretty much his favorite thing.
Did you spy the Dum Dum? That was originally bribery for doing the calendar each day, turns out I didn’t need it AT ALL. He LOVES it. We have only done it three times and all I have to say is, “Caidoc, its time for the Advent calendar” and he going RUNNING over to it. Win 🙂 So now the Dum Dum is just a plus.
I LOVE holly berries as a Christmas decoration. Like, seriously love them. It’s no surprise them made it on here 🙂
I am only showing you this wise man because he’s the only one you can see peeking out of his pocket!
YAY! I’m so excited. I feel like such a good mom when I get homemade projects done that Caidoc loves 🙂 I hope to keep this a family tradition for a long time.
I’m having fun reading all the blog posts of people’s fun Halloween night, and enjoying all the cute pictures of everyone dressed up! Some people really do have a talent for making costume and being creative, I love it! We were going to put out our decorations and have candy for trick-or-treaters, but unfortunately, I spent the evening with my head in our toilet. It was rather unexpected, but when “morning” sickness wants to come, it comes. My wonderful husband, as always, rose to the occasion and took care of Caidoc, and ran errands for me while I was er, otherwise occupied.
I recouped well, thankfully, and Caidoc had a good night’s sleep, which meant husband and I had a good night’s sleep. We really needed it after this week. The best thing to wake up to is a delicious and nutritious breakfast, but until Caidoc is old enough to make breakfast in bed for us *yeah, right haha!* Husband and I usually choose sleep over getting up and slaving over food. Luckily, we usually have homemade granola that is super yummy, incredibly filling, delicious warm or cold, and fits our dietary (and time) restrictions. It truly is a breakfast of champions. It’s an old family recipe to boot! I remember my mom making it all the time when we were little. It’s what we ate when we woke up and sat at our big round table 🙂 I’ll share the recipe with you today:
Ingredients:
10 cups of quick cook oats (I use Bob’s Red Mills Gluten Free Whole Grain Rolled Oats)
2 cups of honey
2 cups of brown sugar
2 cups of olive oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
3 cups of shredded coconut
1 cup rasins
2 cups sliced almonds
2 cups blended walnuts
Directions:
1. Place all oats and nuts into a dutch oven and mix well (a dutch oven is what I use, you can use any oven safe pan too I assume, but the dutch oven works the best in my opinion) and place in oven at 350 degrees.
2. Heat till liquid and blended on stove; olive oil, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and honey. (Tip: use the same measuring cup for the olive oil and honey, but measure the olive oil first. That way, all the honey comes off easily AND quickly from the measuring cup. No waste!)
3. Once melted, pour the liquid mixture over oats and stir ( I highly suggest removing the pan from the oven altogether, it can be tough to stir).
4. Place back in oven for 45 min- 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes
5. Remove and add raisins and coconut for additional 10 minutes (or till most coconut is light brown)
6. Let cool in pan, stirring occasionally. It will start to clump a little, that is ideal.
7. Remove, once completely cool. I store mine in gallon bags so its easy to get out.
8. Serve with milk and enjoy!
Notes:
I buy the oats in bulk at Cash and Carry, right down the road. They have tons of Bob’s products real cheap! It saves a bucket of money.
I buy honey, olive oil, and brown sugar from Costco, also in bulk, for the same reason.
Everything else I get from Safeway, since I don’t use the other ingredients all that often.
We aren’t big Halloween people. I think it’s because Caidoc isn’t quite at trick or treating age, and I was raised just not celebrating it. I’m also not a huge fan of making a big deal of creepy things and reveling in the gore and scariness of it all. I know it’s not ALL like that, but since I became a mom, I don’t find much enjoyment in scary movies or anything remotely Halloween-ish. I think it’s because it’s stressful enough being a parent and you become much more tender hearted, and almost more impressionable. Just my take on it!
As a family we love to celebrate the season of Fall though! We love our pumpkin patch adventures and our fall leaf drives and the candy of course! So, we don’t ignore the season altogether. don’t worry 🙂
Happy Monday! Enjoy your Fall!
Finally! I’ve been promising you guys a look at our bedroom since we expanded the bed, decorated, and made a head board! It’s wonderful and I’m so proud of Husband for all his hard work. There is still more to do since we need king sized pillows to fit our pillow cases and some euro shams, but I don’t like buying those things so close to Christmas season since they make great presents (and saves us money! Woot!) So here it is…
I went with a gray theme because it was simple and will be easy to accent with different colors if I feel like. Plus it’s not too *girly* which I think is important since I do share the room with a man 😉
Husband and I followed a tutorial on Pinterest, well, kinda, the ended up doing it differently, more simple and cheaper. We used foam intended for mattresses (king sized) instead of buying expensive foam from the fabric store. and we also ended up using some left over wood we had, as well as a curtain for the fabric instead of buying it. MUCH cheaper. The curtain is a duplicate of the ones I have hanging in the room so it draws it together nicely. It’s also incredibly sturdy (which is VERY important for a head board) and was on sale! Woot!
Above is my side, complete with the books I’m reading (usually a water bottle), my fav picture from our wedding, and a seashell from our honeymoon in the Bahamas!
Above is Husband’s side of the bed as you can tell since it has two bins to hold all his things, including his phone and such.
Lots on people have commented on the number of pictures we have of ourselves/our wedding in our house. I don’t see why they think it is strange. It’s the most wonderful day of our lives and they are gorgeous pictures. You bet your sweet butt I’m gonna show them off. See that little storage bin thing there? No it does NOT hold blankets! it in our super sneaky important paper filer! Complete with child lock! Haha! You get creative in a small space.
Well, thats all! Cheers!
Man, I feel like life has been a BLUR lately. Maybe it’s my super active toddler that I’m finding out need to be doing something ALL. THE. TIME. Or maybe it’s the pregnancy fatigue or that work is kicking up. Probably a combo of all. But man, I feel like the house is always dirty, the kitchen always a mess, and I just can’t get on top of all the emails in my inbox or voicemails on my phone. So, our family fun has been falling behind a bit, we haven’t even gotten our Halloween/ Fall pumpkins yet! Shame! Between the playdates, finger painting, baking cookies, making play dough, reading books, running in the park, and learning LOTS of new words, I’m able to get fewer and fewer pictures! Anyways, here is what we’ve been up to–the little moments amid the blur 🙂
And of course…
It was really neat to see an ultra sound this early, we only had one with Caidoc at 20 weeks. Of course, the betting as already started, Husband thinks it’s a girl and I’m CONVINCED it’s a boy… I was wrong last time though…Anyways, what’s your guess?
I’m pretty sure Down with the Sickness is a song title, but maybe I’m just making that up since it sounds cool. You know what’s NOT cool? Pregnancy causing loads of fatigue, morning sickness, tender boobs, bloating, and THEN your toddler get’s sick. Yay…
I suppose I have no one to blame but myself for at least ONE of those things 😉 but I should probably be held responsible for poor peanut getting sick too. Last week, I said to myself, “Self, you are going to be a super outgoing mom this week and have lots of play dates and get your only child all socialized up.” Stupid self. Now, I don’t regret those play dates, I felt so brave venturing out everyday even though I felt like poop. Caidoc had a wonderful time as well. Of course now he is sick because his stupid mom probably got in over her head with all her grand ideas of “socializing” and “being adventuresome” , well I learned my lesson. Ugh.
Caidoc doesn’t handle being sick well. Some babies start to sleep lots when they are sick, Caidoc stops sleeping altogether. He also becomes a whining, begging, irritable tyrant. No joke, he puts some medieval kings to shame. Due to his general unpleasantness, Husband and I both slowly become worn down and start to resemble the zombies from Walking Dead (um, anyone else excited for Sunday?!?) and when I say resemble, I mean we look and act exactly like the zombies from Walking Dead except we turn into nose rags for Caidoc constantly dripping nose. Needless to say, we don’t handle Caidoc getting sick very well either. The weekend just got exponentially more dfficult with our dryer crapping out of us, right when I had a mountain of laundry to do, and Chris needed clean clothes for his business trip. I’m hoping it gets fixed soon since that mountain is now slowly spreading into a vast range across our room.
Our weekend plans got hijacked since Caidoc was so miserable, which included me running a 5k race I was SUPER excited for. It’s probably for the best, now that I look back, since we are STILL recovering from sleep depravation. Anyways, despite all my whining (wonder where Caidoc get’s it from? Yeah, me neither) we did have a couple cool things happen this weekend.
First off, we went to the circus! YAY! It was super duper cool. We only got to stay for half since thats when Caidoc really started melting down and I was already pretty sure he was coming down with something. Nevertheless, Caidoc got to see elephants which, made it all worth it 😉
Second, we stopped by, kinda on accident, a JBF consignment sale for baby stuff and mom stuff and IT. WAS. AWESOME. I got some books, and some sweaters for Caidoc and *ahem* a $7.50 highchair for Caidoc. WOOT! Can you say STEAL?! Anyways, I’m hooked on them. For anyone that’s wondering, there is another one happening in Puyallup on the 18th and I highly suggest checking it out.
This morning, to help cope with the sicky lil dude, I ran to the store to pick up some fresh raw garlic to make a salve. It turned out great and I’m already seeing results with Caidoc. Love it. Here’s the link to the recipe I used. I also just love this blog in general. She’s a kindred spirit, I can tell…and not just because she refers to her child as “hobbit” :). The only alteration I made to the recipe was to add about five extra drops of lavender–that garlic is potent. Caidoc now just smells like stadium garlic fries to me *YUM*, but I’m sure that will get old soon.
I’m also going to make this stuff, because I think it will keep lil dude entertained. Well, it better since taking him outside or trying to do much of anything with him results in fits and crying. *sigh* Can’t wait to have my normal Caidoc back especially since Husband is going out of town and I become a totally wimp without him.
Well, that’s all for now, have a good week and wash your hands!
It feels likes these days have been dragging by! Lately, it’s all I can do to keep Lil’ Man entertained until Husband gets home so I can just collapse on the couch. I’m attributing 99% of my exhaustion to the pregnancy because this is exactly what it was like last time, lethargic, exhaustion, zero motivation. It’s tough. I had hoped this pregnancy would be different but so far, nada. I shouldn’t complain, Husband has been shouldering so much of the toddler and house cleaning load that I feel bad. Maybe these symptoms I’m feeling will only last the first trimester and not the whole pregnancy like last time? Please?
I’m trying to keep up with my exercise since that seems to help a lot, but man, this rain makes it so…un-compelling huh? B vitamins are a saving grace these days since the smell, and taste of coffee make me throw up. This baby hates acidic things I’ve decided, because tomatoes, sun-dried, fresh, you name it- they all make me lose my cookies. This baby loves vanilla, milk, and mint though, things I usually don’t like, but suspiciously, Husband does. I’ve heard the more children you have by a man the more you become like him since your body absorbs more and more of his DNA. Boy, do I believe it. My mom jokes that God made it that way so that when you are old and your children are all gone, you won’t want to kill your husband when it’s just the two of you, because you’ll see eye-to-eye on more, haha, oh, mom!
Thank goodness it’s Friday. But please weekend, don’t go by so fast like you have been doing lately! We have a really fun weekend ahead, a wedding on Saturday and my belated family birthday party on Sunday. I’m excited to get my presents! 🙂 A blog post will be coming about those because then I can finally show you are finished bedroom! Yay! I hope you all have fun plans for the weekend. Cheers!
