Cooking

I've been cooking a lot lately since tax season is over. I couldn't decide what to make when we went up to Melbourne a couple of weeks ago so I bought a ton of stuff...then I ran out of time and only made brownies. I still had a bunch of ingredients left over though so I've put them to good use.

I made carrot cake last weekend for my parents and they loved it. It was moist and delicious. I've become addicted to a few blogs lately and I've decided The Pioneer Woman is nothing but BAD BAD news! How can recipes that are so bad for you look so good. I need to stay off of her website if I ever want to fit into my clothes!!

I also had a cooking-fest last weekend to make meals for the month. Last year I went to No Fuss Meals a few times to stock up on meals. They were delicious, but I learned a few good techniques for freezing and I started doing it myself.

I made a big pot of spaghetti sauce and turned it into lasagna, baked ziti and freezer bags of sauce. I like jarred sauce just fine but I LOVE my mom's spaghetti sauce recipe and it is so easy to make and freeze. I also figured out the perfect way to cook for our family...loaf pans. Whenever I make casseroles (baked ziti, lasagna, chicken and rice...whatever) I just split the recipe into loaf pans. They are deep too so they are perfect for lasagna. I make one that night and put one or two (depending on how much the recipes makes) in the freezer for later in the month.

It is the perfect amount of food for the three of us plus leftovers. I used to always make these things in 9x13 pans and we would end up either eating it for a week and wanting to gag if we ate it one more time or throwing it away.

I also took the mini-loaf pans and made an individual lasagna and baked ziti for my "microwave-only" cooking sister. I warned her of the dangers of metal in the microwave first though...I never know about her :-)

My only concern with this is the "anti-green" mentality of the disposable aluminum pans. I rinse them, crumple them and recycle them so I'm not a horrible anti-greenite but still. Does anyone have any other suggestions for going from freezer to oven?

Caution: Rant coming
If you are thinking wow...that is a lot of pasta, you are right. I have a houseful of annoyingly picky eaters. Neither Joe nor Zach like anything. Joe is a lost cause but I'm determined to win Zach over. Kaitlyn hasn't started eating anything that doesn't come out of a jar yet so we'll see how that goes. I mean seriously they don't eat vegetables, potatoes (except fries) or rice. What kind of people don't like mashed potatoes? They are like little piles of heaven. What the heck am I supposed to make????

They both do like meat though (except fish). So I make a lot of pasta and chicken and pasta and meat and pasta blah, blah, blah. On a semi-healthy note I use wholewheat pasta 95% of the time. The one good thing about pasta is it is totally easy to sneak veggies into it. I puree and finely chop all kind of veggies into the pasta sauces. My boys defintely get their fair share of lycopene from all of the tomato sauce.

I don't cater to them always. I try making things I know is on the no-no list but it is really hard to spend time cooking food that no one but you eats. Zach and Joe will both go to bed hungry rather than eating something not on their small list of "things I like to eat". I'm not about to start making different meals for everyone. I LOVE vegetables. I was a vegetarian for six years for goodness sakes. How did I go from Tofu Chili to these two!!!

I put veggies on Zach's plate every night though. Does that count? Can this have some sort of osmotic effect?

On a positive note, Joe may be picky but he is very nice about it. He could care a less if I actually cook dinner. He is perfectly content with cereal for dinner. I think dinner has to have a vegetable so that doesn't work for me but it is nice to know he doesn't expect me to limit my cooking to his likes.

Long time no post

I've been enjoying my freedom and playing with my little monkeys.

Kaitlyn is officialy mobile...very mobile!!! She doesn't want to sit down. She began a sorta crawl like thingee a few days before her sixth month birthday. I found her standing in her crib on her 6 and 1/2 month birthday. At seven months she is crawling completely and pulling herself up on everything...stationary or not. This has proven to be very dangerous! A few days ago she began moving around while holding onto the furniture in a very crude crusing maneuver. I'm completely and totally amazed by her strength.

I rememeber with Zach waiting and waiting and waiting for him to get the desire to move. He just wasn't interested. He took his sweet time. If he wanted a toy that he couldn't reach...he'd find something else. Kaitlyn on the other hand, that girl, is determined. She has no fear. If she wants to get something she will stop at nothing until she gets it. She has done a few kamikazee moves where she throws herself at the object forgetting the laws of gravity and the fact that she can't walk yet. She is tough though. She falls down cries and gets right back up. My guess is she will be walking before she is 9 months old. Zachary was 15 months.

I'm so curious to see the differences in all of our children. It seems the opposite is true for Corgan and Annabelle and Leah and Erin so it isn't necessarily a birth order thing or a gender thing but evidently its a kid thing :-)

We had a really great time visiting with all of the gang in April. It is so much fun to get together with everyone. I took a few pics but see the rest of the websites for some great pictures.

On a realted note, our thoughts and prayers are with the Konicki family.

Just a Swingin'

I miss them!

I know, I know get back to work so you can go home. I'm trying. I'm trying, really I am, but I miss them and looking at pictures of them makes it better and so much worse!

How much is she going to hate me for that pebbles hairdo one day! I'm glad I could do my part to traumatize my little girl!

Hubbie Love

Well it appears that everyone's hubbies are going the extra mile lately, mine is no exception.

This time of the year is so hard on all of us. He really has stepped up to help with my absence in the house. Yesterday he came and picked up the van on his way home from work so he could get Kaitlyn and Zachary from school and take them to the playground. I got to stay late (or early is 1am late or early...not sure oh well) and work.

Then this morning while I was getting ready to come back to work after my wonderful 18 hour day yesterday, he was once again getting them ready to take them to the park. I'm so thankful that my hubby loves to play with our children. I'm also super jealous and very sad to be working instead of playing with them but that is another story.

I don't know, can you tell there might be a slight hostility at my chosen profession????

Aghhh it is almost over. Only one more weekend to go!!! If you need to get in touch with me after about 12:00 on April 15th I'll be on Fort Lauderdale beach playing with my kids WITHOUT a computer!!!!! I'm so sick of looking at this screen (well except for my little 15 minute blog checks and rants :-))

Happy taxes everyone!

PS - We went to see Horton Hears a Who last Saturday after work with the kids and then we went to the playground. We had a blast!! Pics are up on the gallery. I'm pretty sure my children aren't demons (most of the time anyway). Can anyone tell me what is up with the red eyes and how to avoid them in the future. I know I can "fix" them I just haven't had time yet. I know there is a big blinding sun in the picture with Kaitlyn but I LOVE her face in that picture. I must have taken 50 pictures of her on that swing and that was by far the best of her. After tax season my top priority is to read up on how to take and edit pictures.

Kaitlyn in her Easter Dress

I love these pics but I'm SO glad I have such talented friends that can take pictures of my kiddies! My photography skills could use some work!! Notice my attempts to create a background...umm I think it should have gone under her also. Thank goodness for Liz &

Erica

Pics from the Spring Party

I loved this little peep driving the swiss cake roll! People are so creative.

Caution: Miscellaneous mommy blabberings that may or may not contain tales of poop

After I wrote this, I decided it was way to long for most people to read so I'll just highlight the best parts in case you just want to read the really funny stuff.

My nanny had to take her boyfriend to court yesterday (not for murder or anything just a traffic citation...he doesn't have a license) so I got to stay home yesterday!! While this was upsetting to everyone I worked with, I was more than happy to stay home. I was already planning on taking at least part of the morning off to go to Zach's party anyway. Now I was just going to have to bring Kaitlyn...that should be fine, right???

If you read my last post you saw that I didn't get much sleep on Wednesday night but I was very excited to be staying home with my adorable little kiddos anyway. I usually actually require very little sleep to stay a functioning pleasant member of society so we were good to go.

Morning in a nutshell (a very large nutshell :-))

6:00 AM- I woke up early to make rice krispy treats for Zach's "spring" party. I had told his teacher I would be there at 9 to help set up. They didn't have an Easter party because of the Jewish children. Everyone brought eggs, bunnies and peeps anyway. Evidently if you do this after Easter it is PC?????

7:30 AM -Zach and Kaitlyn both wake up. I wasn't quite finished with my goodies yet because I had to start by cleaning up a REALLY messy kitchen. I hadn't done the dishes the night before due to the bunko. I put Kaitlyn in her exersaucer and left the kids to entertain themselves for the ten minutes it should have taken me to finish up. Children have a sixth sense ability to tell whenever you are pressed for time though and manage to be utterly and completely unable to entertain themselves during this time. Kaitlyn started crying and Zach jumps on his scooter and says, "Kaitlyn hold on...I'm on my scooter. The super sleuths are on the case." I seriously laughed for like ten minutes. How cute is that!

8:00 - I get Zach dressed.

8:15 I go and grab Kaitlyn and dress her for the party. Zachary decides he has to go to the bathroom during this time. He doesn't want to miss anything so whenever he goes, he goes as quickly as possible (except for bedtime when it takes him 10-15 minutes but that is another story). He jumps off the potty. I asked him if he went poopy..."yup". Knowing that he hadn't suddenly developed the skill of hiney wiping to my satisfaction I was afraid. Rightfully so it turns out, he had sat on his leg and there was poo on the sock, shoe and mat. Great...now I have to clean up poo and change his clothes.

8:30 - I jump in the shower. Zach is running around the house like a madman and Kaitlyn is sitting in her bouncy seat crying the entire 5 minutes it took me to shower. I throw on whatever is hanging closest to the closet door and brush my teeth. I was looking pretty hot, I've got to say :-)

8:35 - I feed Kaitlyn. I was trying to do it as close to the party as possible so she would be content for the whole party plus driving time and a stop at the grocery store.

8:45 - Kaitlyn spits up all over me. I change clothes again.

8:52 - I finally get everything we need, put both kids in their seats and pull out of the driveway...Phewww!!!!

9:06 - Arrive at school to a frantic teacher wondering where I was??? Do I explain, nah she deals with this everyday!

The rest of the day involved many trips back and forth. I went back to school at 3 to pick him up and then we went back again at 6 for a parent night.

After we left school that night we went to Target to return something. Zach wanted to go in with me. When we walked passed the Starbuck he tells me, "Mom, I want a coffee??". More hysterical laughter!

Finally this morning, I was cleaning out the refrigerator and I set a 1/2 cup of spaghetti sauce that I was going to get rid of on the counter...well not really. It splashed on the floor and splattered on every surface in my kitchen within a 10 foot radius (read-my entire kitchen). Zach walks in and says, "Mom, did you make a mess?". Me, "Yes, Zach mommy made a mess but she is cleaning it up." Zach, "Good job Mom".

I love this kid!!!

Bunko

I had lived in my house for 2 years now and had yet to be invited to play bunko.

I was starting to think one of two things...either

1. I was disliked by every woman in the neighborhood (which I thought was highly unlikely considering I haven't met any of them) or
2. they no longer played bunko.

When we first moved in a lady mentioned it to me but then she moved out of her house the next month so I never heard about bunko again. I have to mention that since I didn't even know what bunko was and I don't have a lot of free time this was also not really at the top of my priority list either. But needless to say I was outside watching Zach ride his trike and playing with Kaitlyn when my neighbor invited me to play bunko last week.

I now know why I never see any children playing outside on a regular basis. All of the woman were grandma's (50-70). There were two woman in their early 40's there (including my neighbor) who have older teenagers but other than that Zachary and Kailtyn are the only young children in my neighborhood. How sad! I did find a teenage babysitter though which I'm very excited about.

I also found out the juicy neighborhood gossip. When the bunko lady from above moved out of her house, a family with 3 small children moved in. Joe and I were very excited. Zachary went to the 2 year olds birthday party a year ago February and we really hadn't seen them since. I wondered how a family with three children could never be outside. I continued to see cars in the driveway until about 4 months ago when there wasn't a car for almost 2 months. We figured the house had been forclosed on with the housing market being the way it is. Well about 2 months ago the dad's car suddenly appeared again. We thought they were back but no...only him. Well apparently a year ago 20 police cars raided the house and took the children away...don't know why but scary all the same. We were in that house!!! I guess I miss all of the good stuff while I'm at work. You hear these stories on the news but who knew it happens in your neighborhood in the middle of suburbia!

Sorry for the sidebar...anyway back to Bunko. It was fun, well as fun as hanging out with a bunch of grandma's can be anyway. One of them was a little pistol. She had a bit to much wine and was hilarious!! I lost my $5 and overall had a nice time. I met my neighbors and will now know the answer to the question above if I don't get invited again :-)

Another Long Sleep post from a tired mommy

It is amazing how much parents talk about how little their children sleep. You don't know how important sleep is until you go a few weeks/months ok maybe years without it!


Zach woke up every two hours until he was six months old. I would feed him and then he would go right back to sleep. On his six month birthday I said enough of this. I let him cry one night. It took about ten mintues and he has with few exceptions slept through the night ever since.

Kaitlyn on the other hand has been a much better sleeper. Once she was about a month old she would sleep in four hour stretches through the night. Then at two months she would sleep 5-6 and around 4 months she was sleeping 9-11 hours. I was spoiled.

Well about two weeks ago she decided she'd change things up a bit. She thought it would be fun to see what mommy and daddy looked like at 2 and then 4 and then 6. I tried to explain to her that we just kept looking worse. She didn't seem to agree. She would greet us with the biggest and happiest grin whenever we slowly trudged our tired lifeless bodies into her room.

I decided that two weeks of getting up at 2 and 4 and 6 was enough so I made the decision that Wednesday would be the last of it. I went in there and made sure she was ok at 2 and then left. She immediatly began screaming. I went to my room and pulled the covers over my head and tried as hard as I could to ignore the screaming child who only wanted her mommy. I knew if I went in there she'd stop, but unfortunately I also knew that if I went in there this would continue indefinitely.

Kaitlyn I love you but I really like (need, require, absolutley for the love of all that is holy MUST have) sleep also. I started by saying I'll let her cry for ten minutes, if she hasn't stopped by then I'll go in there. Ten minutes came and went, she was still crying. Ok, fifteen, ok twenty, ok twenty-five...alright 30 but that is absolutley it! Thankfully for me at 29 minutes of lying there fighting every urge that said go in that room I started to get up to go in there and what did I hear...quiet. Aghhh...it worked!!!

Thankfully it only took one night. (PS- I'm sorry to the moms who are cursing me right now) She went to bed last night at 9:00 and slept until 6:00am. I went to the kitchen to make her a bottle and by the time I was done she was back to sleep until 8:00. YEAH!!!

Pics

There are way too many pics up of Easter on the gallery but here are a couple of my favorites. I took the pic of Kaitlyn right after nap time so she wasn't quite awake yet.

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a nice Easter. We had a blast. Holidays are SO much more fun with little ones. Whenever I think about how much I love my children I am reminded of Keri's post about how kids make you laugh. That is the best way to sum children up.

We woke up early Sunday morning and made breakfast casserole. Zach loves to help me cook. Our eggs ended up with a little extra dried mustard though because when I wasn't looking Zach decided to pour it in. He also stirs a little aggressively but overall he is a fantastic helper!!

Then we made some strawberry rice krispy treats and used Easter Cookie cutters to cut them into cute shapes.

It rained here all day so we couldn't hide our eggs outside. While Zach was napping the Easter bunny came and hid eggs all over my parents house. He had a great time finding all of the eggs and he was disappointed when he'd found them all. He loved his Easter basket filled with gardening tools. My sister also got him an Easter basket filled with toys that a mother would NEVER buy her three year old like a foam shooter and water guns. The only meltdown occurred when I took the foam shooter away because he shot Kaitlyn with it. Really, people without kids just don't understand.

Overall it was a fantastic day. Zach ate way too much candy and entertained all of us especially Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn obviously was to little to fully enjoy Easter but she looked adorable in her little Easter clothes.

Best quotes of the day:
Zach (while eating a tootsie pop) - Everyone watch out the poop is about to come out.
(We didn't understand he was talking about the Tootsie roll at first. He is fully potty trained now and likes to announce to us that he is going so you can see the confusion.)

Nana- Zach is that a piece of chocolate on the couch?
Zach - No Nana that is an acorn. (Um...OK, I didn't even know he knew what an acorn was.)

Papa - Zach get your shoes on so I can take you outside
Zach - OK Papa but you go potty first. Then he literally corralled my grandfather into the bathroom.

Good times!!! I didn't have our camera so I have to get the pics from my mom.

Angel Pie?

Evidently I call Kaitlyn angel pie. What a ridiculous little pet name. I guess I didn't even realize that I called her that. Zach is so cute now with her. Whenever she cries now he tells me, "mommy stay I'll get her." Then he tells her, "its ok angel pie." and he makes these little clucking noises. It is super cute!

More cute pics

Can you tell I love playing dress up with my little girl :-)

Good times

Ughh it's tax season but we still have been managing to have a good time. The weekend before last we hung out with Stacy and Landon at the beach. Zach had a blast with Stacy's dad and Landon. He was definitely taking advantage of his wanting to play.

I didn't have my camera because I knew that since Joe wasn't going to be there I would not be able to take my eyes off of the kids. Melissa and Nicole took some pics but I'm not sure if I'll ever see them :-) I'm still waiting on pics from Christmas from my sis.

This past weekend we went to the park with Liz so she could take pictures of our family. We woke Zach up from a nap to take him to the park. He was fine with playing but he wanted nothing to do with the pictures. Liz was really patient and worked really hard to get a good pic of the four of us with my little stubborn man. Liz did an amazing job!!!! Thank you so much!! I have two friends at work already that want to book her!! She isn't done editing the pics yet but here is a sneak peak that she gave me. PS-I just sat here for 10 minutes trying to pick out which pic to give the sneak peak of. They are ALL so good!!!

Whoops

Kaitlyn is so mobile now and she just now turned 5 months. I cannot believe how much quicker she accomplished this than Zachary. It is ironic because with Zach I was always waiting for the next milestone hoping they would come quickly but with Kaitlyn I just want her to stay in each stage as long as possible.

Last night we were playing on the bed and she was rolling from one end to the other. I was right there laying on the bed with her and watching her. Well on her last roll she literally threw herself over and rolled right off of the bed. She went over two feet on this roll. Like I said, I was right there so I caught her by the legs so she didn't fall. I thought she would be completely freaked out, but no...she was giggling hysterically. She kept trying to do it again. What a crazy girl...I think she is going to be able to keep up with her brother any day now.

Thanks Keri

How cute is Kaitlyn in this outfit that Keri bought her. I've loaded a bunch of miscellaneous pics up on our gallery from February.

Oxymoron

Again to those of you who received my email about the password thingee I have changed my blog name to "protect" my family's identity.

When I went to log on to post a new blog I realized how silly my blog title was now. What an oxymoron...a working mom. Any mom knows how silly this is. The very title mom implies work. All moms "work" whether you work outside of the home or not. I work outside of the home from 4 or 5 until 1 and then come home to start my "real" work with my kids. This is the part of the day that I enjoy though. I LOVE being a mom.

When I leave my office, I'm done with "work" for the day. Once I get home though my "work" is never finished. I'm sure all of you stay-at-home moms feel the same way.

We are constantly thinking of ways to enrich our children's lives or make our family better or run more smoothly. I don't think my family brain ever turns off. Our work doesn't stop because we are sick or tired or stressed...we are still "on duty". Here is to all of the "working" moms out there who love their jobs :-)

Happy Valentine's Day

I just got back from Zach's little Valentine's Day Party at school. He was having a blast. He had a great time giving all of his teachers his homemade candies. I put a picture of him making the candies on the bag and he had to show everyone "Zachary making the candies"...it was super cute!

I hope everyone has a nice day.

I got the cutest pictures of Leah and Erin and Halle in the mail yesterday. Those pictures were all SO cute!

Pre Valentines Day Fun

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I just have to tell you all about a GREAT craft project for all of your little ones. Zach is having a Valentine's Day party at school on Thursday and we were in charge of bringing in 2 things for the goodie bags. I headed up to Micheals and bought some candy molds, paint brushes and those little meltable candies.

I melted some of each color in little bowls and let Zach "paint" all of the molds before I poured the rest of the chocolate in them. He had a blast and he loved that he could eat the "paint". I'm a little worried that he might try this with real paint but I made it pretty clear this was "special" paint. The chocolate was just barely melted so it wasn't very hot. I of course had to try rubbing it on myself just in case :-)

The candies that Zach painted came out amazing. An adult never would have mixed all of the colors together the way a child would. I'll post some pics on the gallery tonight when I get home.


I also took the kids to Sadies to get some Valentine's Day pics that I'll post later.