My children are brilliant!

Henri's sentance structure is amazing.  He's 2 and talks like a 3 or 4 year old.  This morning we look out the garage and he remarks, "Mommy, it's raining outside." Perfectly enunciated.  He asks later, "Where the DS go?  Where is the DS?"  He changes pronouns.  If you say, "Do you want some milk?" very clearly he replies, "I want some milk, please"  You forget you're talking to a 2 year old.  Now that we can communicate, we get along much, much better!

To let you know he's still normal.  He's now addicted to Teletubbies & Dora & Diego.  Oh, well.


Here's some samples of Carter's recent writing from Kindergarten.

The tree behind our shed.

Me and my dad play Super Mario Galaxy.

I play Wii sports with my little brother, play to win a new game on Wii sports.

He's one of only 7 kids in his class of 24 taking books from the B bin as opposed to the A bin and they are a bit easy for him, I think we'll be on the C bin as he's reading every word to me with no errors or help.  His teacher says he's one of the top two students in reading in the class.  Reading the B bin with no help is considered reading at Kindergarten end of year level :)

Getting back into my groove

The first few weeks of the year, I was in a groove.  I was making things happen, on time to everything (one of my resolutions-being late makes me anxious, which is bad for my blood pressure) I was working out an hour everyday, etc.  Then I got a little touch of something and was TIRED.  I was "off" for a week.  Missed Carter's gym, couldn't seem to keep up on washing diapers, etc.  So the last two nights I headed to bed early, I put in 2 hours of working out one day this week and I think I'm getting back into the swing of things.

February 2nd, I decided a nap was more important than working out and joined these sweet babies on the couch.  My spot was behind Valerie, my legs in front of Henri :)

February 3rd, cooking....

February 2nd, we did the grocery store.  I had my coupons and almost everything I had a coupon for was already on sale at Top Foods.  Isn't that a great way to get your groove back, when things work out for you without trying?  So I spent over $200 on a cart of food, but savings with coupons and sales was $80.  Not bad.  February 3rd the Costco coupons started.  I only buy things that have a coupon at Costco, for the most part.  It gets us to try new stuff.  In our house our dinners come from the grocery store and our breakfasts and lunches come from Costco.  I also splurge on a few ready to pop in the oven dinners at Costco if I have a coupon because there's always crazy nights when you just need something easy.  Our grocery shopping is now done for the month (I budget $500 a month for a family of 4, which is $125 a week and includes all drug items, diapers, paper, etc.)  I know I could do better if I couponed, but I don't have the time/inclination or want to devote the space to stockpiling at this moment.

However, I don't have to cook anymore.  What you see above is all my cooking for the day. I made 10 pans of Chicken Enchilada Casserole and 6 plus a large pan of Fiesta Shrimp Dinner.  I made them in batches, so the Chicken Enchilada Casserole I made in 2 parts (the recipe is large, so I made 5 times the recipe, 2.5 batches in each pot), the Fiesta Shrimp was also 2 parts (recipie is also large-2 times the recipe is enough for 3 dinners of 4 (12 servings)).  I have two groups I'm swapping dinners with now.  I could have just made 16 of the same since it's two groups and maybe I will next month, but this is what I had coupons/sales for.

Between going out of town for a week, Paul's curling schedule (we don't always cook on those nights) and leftover nights, 16 meals is more than sufficient to feed us for the month.  I may be even able to stretch all this 2 weeks or so into next month.  My pantry is fuller than it has been in probably 3 or 4 months.

I've been going to bed shortly after the kids which means when Valerie wakes up at 5:30 to eat (she's also been having a midnight feeding lately) I have 1/2 hour to brew coffee & unload the dishwasher before Henri wakes up at 6am.  Staying awake in the morning helps relieve the grogginess I usually get when I pass back out on the couch next to Henri from 6-7:30 when we have to wake up Carter for school.

yep, think by next week I could definitely be back to being super mom.

February 1st!

Carter got his tangerine peel off in one piece!

Let's see what else... today I took Carter to school and the babies to Henri's gymnastics class.  Then we headed home and my grandparents stopped by for some soup for lunch courtesy of our dinner swap group.  Then I did Jillian's Shred it with Weights Level 2, then Jackie's Xtreme no-crunch abs, then Weights Level 1.  Then I took a shower and bent over the pack n play serving as our change table to change Valerie and realized the error of working out 90 hardcore minutes after 3 days off.  My legs started to shake.  I still had to walk to go pickup Carter!  Carter then went to his friend's house for a playdate for an hour or so and we had a chicken bake from our dinner swap. After hemming and hawing and a shower, Carter finally tried it and liked most of it.  Paul came home from dinner and then went to a late curling game. 

The babies went down pretty easily, Carter just has to finish his homework then he can go to bed. 

Oh, I also discovered an easy way to make a cup of hot cocoa.  Microwave 1 cup milk for 1 1/2 minutes.  Meanwhile, put 2 Tbsp of cocoa in a mug along with 2 Tbsp sugar and 1/4 tsp of vanilla (I like to add a leftover candy cane as well) then pour the milk in the cocoa and stir.  So, so good and just as easy as those little packets, which I'm never, ever buying again :)

Jan 30, 31

Yesterday was this silly picture!

Today, I discovered my Mickey Mouse antenna ball had been stolen.  Considering I got it 3 years ago, it had a good run, but I live in an area where there are a lot of white station wagons and having an antenna ball is a necessity since I can barely remember where I parked my car most days it helps identify it from a distance.

I mentioned it was stolen to Carter who remarked, "we should call the police and ask them to help us catch who did it."  Then I realized, compared to the maladies  the police have to deal with my antenna ball was probably not a big deal.  I mused, "someday when Jack in the Box gives them out again I'll get one, maybe."  Before the Mickey ball was a regular Jack in the Box restaurant ball, a Construction worker Jack and a New Years' Jack.  I promptly forgot the idea and when I got home, we'd had dinner with my grandparents so Paul headed to Jack in the Box to grab something to eat (note, I did not mention I was hoping to get a ball from there in the future).  I thought, "hmm. I wonder if they are still selling the mini funnel cakes" but didn't say anything because the last one I had gotten was a little burnt.

Darned if that man didn't bring home a Jack antenna ball and a funnel cake!  I love him, but he needs to get out of my head, ha ha!

Jan 27-29 and Valentines!

Jan 27th-only thing he loves more than brushing & flossing is bathtime.

January 29-Smoothies for breakfast!

January 28th, rice cereal for Valerie!

Made 24 boy and 30 girl Valentines with Carer.  He had a lot of fun making them with me.  I made envelopes after he went to bed.

Jan 23-26

January 23rd, we realized our sink faucet had been leaking for awhile when we discovered a bunch of water under the sink.  Paul had to be called in since I wasn't able to get in there... I called Dad to ask about it and then he called back later and asked how it was going I mentioned that Paul had sawed off the old faucet and was at Home Depot with the boys to buy a new one.  His response was," that's drastic"

January 23, now it's not enough just to grab her toes, they must be tasted as well...

Not a picture of the day, but a cute baby's always worth sharing.

January 24th, Henri decided these videos don't look that hard... (we were also trying potty training that day...failure)

January 25th, Carter taught Grandma & Grandpa to play Wii bowling so they wouldn't look dorky when they tried to play downstairs with other residents...

January 26th, we had dinner at Red Lobster with my parents.  Carter and Henri enjoyed the lobsters...through the glass.  They weren't quite brave enough to pet the lobster.  BTW, all the lobsters were fresh from Canada.

Henri eating a Lemon at Red Lobster.  You'll note one part where he says, "Hey, you guys" to another table...

Jan19-22

Jan 19, look, Valerie can grab her toes!

Jan 20, the boys roughhousing and laughing their heads off.

Jan 21, my new guru.  OK, not really, but  here's what's going on.  At my 6 week followup after Valerie. My doctor tells me.  You are about 30 pounds over your idea weight and you keep having blood pressure issues.  Lose 30 pounds.  I did half-heartedly over the fall and lost about 5-10 pounds.  Then I enjoyed my holidays and ate whatever I wanted.  Jan 1 I began running a Biggest Loser competition on my scrapbook message board.  I've lost 2 pounds a week at least and I'm now working out about one hour hard-core 5-6 days a week and this week lost 3 pounds.  I'm now 14 pounds down, 16 pounds away from goal .  At 2 pounds a week, that's only 8 more weeks before I hit my goal weight!  Once I do, I am planning to get rid of anything that's baggy and buy a new wardrobe so that I can never wear those clothes again, then go to a more reasonable workout routine, like 45 minutes 3-4 times a week.

It's a lot of exercise. I'm frequently stiff, but I'm losing the weight, I'm stronger-I can lift the kids easier and without huffing and puffing, I've got more energy, I'm making it on less coffee each day, I'm also fitting into my clothes easily and the endofphins are making me feel like I can conquer the world.  So for 8 more weeks, I'm going to be working my butt off, literally.

Jan 22nd-one day I took off this week from exercising, I scrapbooked with my online buddies!  I got 27 pages done today, and now have all our pictures up until December 21st scrapbooked into albums for the kids.

Ok, I guess I did do swim lessons with the kids, then went to scrapbook, then went to church to try our new Lego club.  The boys loved it and everyone passed out cold from a busy day.