On Valentine's Day, my friend Sarah and her family came for a visit. They live in Maine and have two little girls. Ryan and Ella had a blast playing with them, and Sarah and I enjoyed catching up. Sarah and I have been friends since we were in 5th grade, and we still talk almost every day. Sarah's husband, Jim, had to fly out on Monday (the 15th) to get back to work. I can't imagine why he wouldn't want to hang out with us girls, I mean, especially since James was working the whole time they were here! I guess work sounded better...I don't know :)
Here are a few photos from their visit:
The girls opening some Valentine goodies
One of the days they were here, we took the girls to see Johnny Only. He is a local act who performs each week for preschoolers. Ryan had preschool that morning, so he didn't go with us...shhhh.
Eliza showing off some dance moves to Johnny Only's music
Ella's turn to bust a move
The girls...waiting to hear what was coming up next
And what visit would be complete without a tea party?
Well, I wasn't quite done adding pictures, but blogger has decided to poop out on me, so I guess these will have to suffice.
Anyway...we had fun. It was great to see them in person and to catch up. Our visits to Maine are normally very rushed, as we have a lot of people to see in a little amount of time, so it was nice to be able to spend more than a few hours together!
I found this short video clip as I was going through and uploading recent pictures to our computer. We have two digital cameras. One is an old(er) Kodak EasyShare camera. It has video capability, but no sound. I rarely use the Kodak camera anymore, but I did use it recently and noticed that I had apparently grabbed it for a quick video last summer while the kids were splashing in the kiddie pool. A forgotten video! This was before Ella was even a year old, and I'm thinking it was probably her first time in the pool. I just thought it was cute and wanted to share. Remember...no sound.
**I made my first call to Poison Control on Saturday night. Ella got into Ryan's vitamins. Fortunately I recognized the sound of the bottle shaking and got to her quickly. She had dumped the entire contents onto Ryan's bedroom floor. I fished one vitamin out of her mouth, but have no idea if she actually ingested any. The lady from Poison Control said if she had ingested 20-25 of them, that I should get her to the hospital. I knew she didn't have that many, so upon recommendation from nice Poison Control lady, I gave her a snack and something to drink so that she would have something else in her stomach (even though we had eaten dinner only an hour before).
**Ryan has a very vivid imagination. He can entertain himself for long periods of time with pretend play. Over the weekend, I joined him in a pretend adventure. We were playing school. He was the teacher, and I was his little buddy, Warren. Ryan went through the whole day (in about a half hour). I used to wish I could be a fly on the wall in his classroom, you know, just to see how he acts during school and to see what goes on when I'm not there. Well, I don't feel the need anymore. Ryan laid out the whole day for me in perfect sequence (I know this because I do have a general idea of how the days go). He even stuck his head out of the pretend door to say "Just a reminder, tomorrow is blue day, remember to have the kids wear blue." Seriously, he nailed the performance!
**I'm reading Sarah Palin's book, "Going Rogue". I don't consider myself a real political person, but I am enjoying reading into her life. I do, however, feel that the book is kind of jumpy. I feel like it jumps from one period of time in her life to a completely different time and then back again, all in the same chapter. This happens mostly in the beginning of the book, but I found it to be distracting.
**Ryan's favorite book is Pumpkin Soup, by Helen Cooper. We read it quite a bit, but now Ryan has begun 'reading' it to me. The paragraphs in the book are quite lengthy, but he can pretty much recite the whole book word for word. And I do mean word for word. I thought it may be that the pictures helped him through the story, but my mother-in-law told me that when Ryan recently stayed the night at their house, he started talking about the book and she (knowing he could recite the words) asked him to tell her the story. He did. Without the book, he paced around the living room reciting the whole story. Wow.
**I'm really looking forward to spring. I can't wait to get outside again and to do outside things. I know the kids are anxious, too. They haven't been out in the snow much, as it has just been too darn cold. As of right now, we have no snow. I'm sure we haven't seen the end (in fact, I think we are supposed to get a little tonight), but I am definitely looking forward to warmer weather.
**James is going to attend a funeral for a fallen Trooper tomorrow. This will be the 3rd funeral he has attended since October for a fallen officer. Sad.
Random thoughts, I know, but I thought I would share. :)
Since I have become a stay at home Mom, we eat out WAY less than we used to.I mean WAY less.In fact, besides the Wegmans sub that we SPLIT for dinner last Friday night (and our stops to eat to and from Maine last month), I couldn’t tell you the last time that we actually ate out.I don’t mind, really, I love to cook.Fortunately for me, I have two children that are not terribly picky eaters.Don’t get me wrong, I get the “I don’t like that” and “I’m not eating that” from my 4 year old every once in awhile, but for the most part, they don’t complain.
I started getting serious about planning our meals when James was stationed in themiddleofnowehereville, NY.We did have a small grocery store just across the street from our little apartment, but I really did not care to shop there.I mean, to get a gallon of milk, fine, but to do big grocery shopping there was the pits.And it was expensive.I had to travel 25 minutes to the closest Wal-Mart, which at the time was the next ‘best’ thing.Economically, it made sense to me to plan a trip there twice a month.So, I began planning our meals.
I started receiving the Kraft Food and Family magazine while we were living in said nowhere town and it served as my inspiration.They sometimes have a section called “1 bag, 5 meals”.Usually, one of the meals consists of a DiGiorno pizza, but hey, they have to get their advertisements in there somehow, right?The magazine used to be free, but now you have to pay for it (yuck!), but you can go online and browse the archives for free.Anyway, the recipes are quick, easy, and generally require very few ingredients (not only that, but ingredients that I can pronounce and that I typically have on hand).
The night before ‘grocery shopping day’, I take out my magazines, and other recipes I have collected, and start making a list of meals that we will eat for the next 2 weeks.Typically, I plan for about 10 meals.We usually eat leftovers a couple of the nights in between, or I concoct something from whatever we have remaining when we start getting close to my next grocery run.I then make a list of everything I will need to make those meals.We, of course, run out of things like bread and milk in between my bi-monthly grocery trips, but we are fortunate to have a plethora of grocery stores to choose from where we are now.
I grew up eating ‘generic’ foods.Most of what my Mom had in our pantry was from Hannaford (at the time, Shop-N-Save).I am always willing to try generic, and for the most part we have mainly generic foods in our cupboards, but there are some things that we just like to buy name brand.As I said, we have a large selection of grocery stores from which to choose from in our area, but I mainly shop at Aldi (to save tons-o-money) and Wegmans (both stores also have recipes on their websites).I buy a lot of our ‘dry foods’ (cereals, granola bars, etc) at Aldi and go to Wegmans for fresh produce and the things that we just have to have in their name brand glory.By the way, I do like the Wegmans brand items!
I have found that planning our meals not only saves us money, but it also helps us to waste less and even to eat healthier.This week, when I did my grocery shopping, I spent a total of about $180 (and that includes diapers and toiletries that we were running low on).I think that is pretty decent for 2 weeks worth of meals and other necessities. I’m sure there are some Moms who can do better than that.I know some people have some mad couponing skills.I have not found that I am that great at it (nor do I think we live in a very coupon-competitive area).
Here is a look at our list of meals for the next couple of weeks:
Layered Mexican Bake Italian Meatball Soup (a recipe I copied from American Baby magazine when Ryan was an infant)
Homemade Chicken tenders and sweet potato fries (my own concoction)
Spaghetti (doesn’t everyone have spaghetti night?)
Homemade pizza (see this post for my favorite crust recipe)
Side note: I do not plan meals for breakfast or lunch, but buy the typical items that one would for such a meal.
For those who love to cook, I hope I have provided you with a new recipe idea!I realize meal planning is not a new concept, but I just thought I would share that it works for us! I’d love to hear a favorite recipe of YOURS!Feel free to leave it in my comments section!I might need one to replace that tuna cake meal…still not sure we’re going to like that one!!
We spent Thanksgiving in Oneonta with James' parents. We had a nice day and a yummy dinner, but bedtime proved to be a HUGE issue for little Miss Ella! It was then (along with a few hints she gave us during other trips last fall) that we discovered that she really doesn't care for sleeping anywhere other than her own bed. Lovely.
Ella in the toy bin at Grandpa and Grandma's
Ryan playing with some of James' old GI Joe toys
December:
Mid-month, we attended a Christmas party for the kids that one of the dispatchers at James' station planned. It was a lot of fun. In the words of my 4 year old, it was "a wonderful night and the best party ever." Or, was it, "a wonderful party and the best night ever"? Either way, I think he had a good time.
Anxiously waiting for their names to be called to get their gift from Santa
Ryan opening his gift...a new car! How did Santa know?
Ella's turn...
A telephone! This one DOES like to chat!
We headed back to Oneonta for Christmas Eve where we celebrated with a traditional Swedish Christmas Eve dinner called dopp i grytan (which literally means dip in the pot). Basically, it is korv (a swedish sausage), ham, and roast beef. My mother-in-law also makes rice pudding and puts out rye bread and bond ost cheese. The way some people in the family eat the meal is to put the cheese on top of the bread, and then pour the juice from the meat on top . The swedish tradition is actually to stand around the pot and dip the bread into the juice. Hmm...I think I like the way we do it better. It was one tradition that took some getting used to for me, but it's nice to celebrate the Swedish heritage!
ANYWAY...moving along...We decided to brave it with Ella and stay overnight so we could celebrate Christmas with everyone. James' brother and his family, along with James' sister and her family were all there as well. Here are some of my favorite Christmas photos:
It was quite an effort to get all of us in one picture. This is probably take 23. I don't know, really, but I do know that it was the best one. Look how Ryan's eyes are closed and Ella isn't looking at the camera. Of course...the best one is NOT the best one of my children. Oh well. It was hectic.
A picture of all the cousins. Again, my children are the only ones who felt in necessary to hold their blankies. Come on, Ella...get it together girl and look at the camera! Ha!!
I'm not sure this picture does justice to the amount of gifts that were under the tree. When there are 15 people in one place for Christmas...it's quite a sight! Overwhelming, really.
Ryan checking out the array of gifts on Christmas morning
Ella and her Elephant
I thought this was cute...
There were more gifts to be opened when we got home. I love that Ella was more impressed with the paper than she was the actual gifts. So cute.
After Christmas we made a trip to Maine to visit with my Mom for a week. We had a great time visiting with her, as well as other family and friends. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures while we were there (oops!). Though we enjoyed our travels, it was definitely nice to be back home in our own beds. Did I mention that Ella doesn't really enjoy sleeping anywhere BUT in her own bed!? Oh, I did? Well, let me reiterate!
Now, it's back to the grind. I kind of like the grind.
I know, I know. It's been WAY too long since I have updated my blog. Our computer had a "glitch" through the month of December. Thanks to a friend of ours, it has been fixed! We have been busy, busy, busy and I haven't had the time to upload a month's worth of pictures. When I do...you will be among the first to see (and read about) what we have been up to! Until then...Happy New Year to you all!
