Walking and....

Look who's walking!!!!!!

We've been practicing a lot lately, and he's at the stage where he can do it, but it's faster (not to mention safer!) to crawl. Whenever he walks to me, he gets going so fast that instead of just coming to a stop in front of me, he will just fall into my lap.

Also, notice anything different??? ;)

Too Funny!!!!!

For only $20, this Hug Me Pillow can be yours from Overstock.com!!!!!
I seriously can't stop giggling when I look at it. :)

Our new "Clab Hose"

** UPDATE: I took Neighbor Girl to the library with us this afternoon and she said, "Liz, you're really nice. And I like your shirt." She might have been just sucking up after what happened this afternoon, but it did make me feel like I did the right thing instead of scolding her. With as much time as she spends here, I hope I can be a positive influence on her. Oh, kids. :)

Original Post:

Little B got a new armoir from R+M this weekend and it was the perfect size to build a little fort! Or a castle. Or a club house. It changes frequently. :)

So yesterday with a cleaver and a little duct tape, I hacked away at this box for the kids to play in. It's a little ghetto, but way cute. They played out there for almost 5 hours straight. It's nice to know that if we ever become homeless, I'll be able to provide us adequate shelter!

But today, laughter turned into tears. I let her play outside with Neighbor Girl and Friend, but totally spied on them the whole time to make sure everyone was playing nicely together. Turns out they weren't. For some reason, the girl's claimed the playhouse as their own home and Reese's home was in "the cage" in the backyard behind all the outside toys. She seemed a little sad, but was tolerating it so I didn't say anything. They were playing "let's pretend you are [......] and I'm [.....] okay now it's two hours later and we [......]" and so on.

Then I noticed that they were trying to "lock" Reese out of the house by putting up their shoes in front of the door so that she couldn't get in. Then Neighbor Girl starts YELLING at Reese, telling her to "get me that shoe", "gosh, she never listens" and "now go home!"

(I took a picture of it to show Wade. Ha! strange I know.)

I about lost it.

Reese slowly turned around and started running toward the house bawling, so sad. I came outside and just hugged her while she cried. Having just saw what happened, I told her to go inside for a minute while I talked to Neighbor Girl. Instead of yelling at her (like I wanted to) I put on my teacher hat and asked her what happened and how important it was to not leave anyone out, especially when your at someone else's house. After that they all played well together and seemed to have fun. But it seriously made me so thankful that I get to stay at home w/ my kids to teach them those little lessons on a daily basis.

But MAN was it hard not to just CLOCK this little girl for making my child cry. Ahem.

Backyard Swimming

I love Mondays. As long as it's warm, every Monday I pull out the inflatable pools and we splash around all afternoon. And I open up the invitation up to other moms that we are friends w/ in the area. It's fun because we usually get a bunch of kids crawling/running/toddling around getting wet, blowing bubbles and munching on snacks. And we always have popcicles afterwards. :)

It's just so summer!

Happy Monday!!! :) :) :)

Money-Saving Tip II

Movies!

Having two young kids, we don't get the chance to get to the theater as often as we used to back when we were dating. (Not to mention that it's almost $10 per person now, geesh!) And we very rarely (okay, never) buy DVDs from the store to add to our collection. But we do like watching movies, so to save a little money we do a couple of things.

1. We borrow movies from friends. It seems like everyone else besides us has a pretty decent movie collection, so we just ask to borrow one or two at a time and then remember to return them!

2. We rent movies from the library. Our library doesn't have all the newest releases but it's definitely got some good classics. This is where we get all of the movies Reese watches. They've got a TON of kids DVDs. My problem is making sure they get back on time so I don't rack up fines!

3. Redbox. If you've got one in your area, seriously take advantage of it! They are only $1 per rental per night, which beats Blockbuster and Netflix. And if you know a promo code, you can get them for FREE!!!! Try it out. I don't think we've paid for a movie with Redbox yet. When you go to check out, type in either DVDONME or BREAKROOM. At Walgreens, use DVDATWAG. It will only work once per credit card, but if you've got a couple different cards you can use it on each one. Go to this website for more codes for free rentals.

Have you met...

my friend, Christina?

She's pretty awesome. She lives over on the East Coast, so we don't get to see each other very often. :( We met back in 2004 down in Orlando while doing our internships for Disney World. She ended up being one of the 12 (yes, 12) roommates that I had that year in our 4 bedroom apartment.

Getting matching (just kidding) tattoos in Cocoa Beach, FL in 2005.

At my wedding in 2007.

She's got an infectious laugh. She's gorgeous. She's got the biggest heart and genuinely cares about people she's known for only minutes. She and Reese share the same birthday. She's the girl you want to go out with because no matter what you do, you know you'll have fun. She sends me stuff from Starbucks. She's a beauty queen and a tram driver.

Like I said, she's pretty awesome.

I told her I was going to post a couple of pics for her of Reese, so here ya go Aunt Kiki! We love you!

.

(Seriously. Are those not cute or what!?!?)

Berry Crisp

We are back from another busy weekend! Mondays at our house this summer have been full of putting the house back together, naps, and just recovering from the busy weekend. Mondays are also usually our backyard pool days (but not today since it was only in the 70s) but I'll post about that later.

But right now, here's the spur-of-the-moment dessert I made this afternoon!

A friend of mine brought over a bunch of cherries last week. I really needed to use them up before they went bad so I found a recipe for cherry crisp online, only I added blueberries and strawberries since I didn't have enough cherries. It's pretty tasty so I'm guessing it's not going to last very long! Tomorrow, the kids and I are off in search of tahini, which we need to make hummus!

Fresh Cherry Crisp

4 cups pitted sour cherries
1 1/2 cups white sugar
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large bowl, combine cherries, 1 1/2 cups white sugar, and 4 tablespoons flour. Pour into 9x13 inch baking dish. In a medium bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups flour, oats, and brown sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over cherries.
Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until topping is golden brown.

Money-Saving Tip I

When it comes to money, I've always been a saver. Thrifty. Frugal. Cheap. Call it what you want, but I've been like this even back when I was younger. When I got birthday money as a kid, I usually chose to put it in my savings account (or I was forced to...I'm not sure) and by 16 I was investing money in mutual funds.

Anyway, now that I stay at home with my kids, I'm always looking for ways to save money so that we can live off of one income. It always made me feel way cheap in a society that was obsessed with spending. But....... as you know, the tides have changed, and our economy is now in a recession. Bad for the US, great for me! Suddenly, every magazine, TV show, book is giving advice on how to save some money. And now it's perfectly understandable to decline an invite out to eat or something similar because "money's tight" and "we're in a recession". Luckily, this recession hasn't really affected us that much, but I am loving that more people are interested on saving money.

So, to mix up some of the family posts, every once in awhile I'll post ways that we save money as a family. Most of them are pretty small and seem insignifigant, but a lot of small savings add up to a big chunk of money which equals me staying home to raise our kids!

So here's the first one:

Soap. With changing lots of diapers comes washing lots of hands. So I've found a way to stretch the soap to go a little bit farther.

I love the Bath and Body Works Foaming Soap, but I've learned that I can basically double what I get by diluting it with water with a 1:1 ratio. The foam seems exactly the same and I've been playing around with exactly how much water I can add before I can tell a difference. I've also gotten many of these as gifts, and you can't get much cheaper than free.

For the kitchen, I purchased a KitchenAid Foam Soap Pump for $15 at Kohl's (on sale and with a gift card, of course!). It requires 10% soap (the regular kind) and 90% water. Shake and use! It's pretty awesome.
And there's more tips where that came from, so stay tuned! ;)

Veggie Burgers

We are BIG fans of burgers in this house (who isn't?!) so we love trying different meats, toppings, combinations, and buns. We had these veggie burgers last night for supper and they were awesome! We've had them before, and each time they were great. Really healthy and really easy.

And tonight for our pizza night, instead of our usual pepperoni/sausage, I'm going to try all veggies and play around w/ cream cheese fore the sauce. I may add chicken, I haven't decided yet.

Homemade Black Bean Veggie Burgers Rated: Submitted By: LAURENMU Photo By: baskerville_gal Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 20 Minutes Ready In: 35 Minutes Servings: 4 "Spiced up with chili sauce, cumin, garlic and chili powder, these quick and easy black bean burgers will make you forget all about frozen, packaged veggie burgers. They're great on the grill or baked in the oven." Ingredients: 1 (16 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed 1/2 green bell pepper, cut into 2 inch pieces 1/2 onion, cut into wedges 3 cloves garlic, peeled 1 egg 1 tablespoon chili powder 1 tablespoon cumin 1 teaspoon Thai chili sauce or hot sauce 1/2 cup bread crumbs Directions: 1. If grilling, preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil a sheet of aluminum foil. If baking, preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C), and lightly oil a baking sheet. 2. In a medium bowl, mash black beans with a fork until thick and pasty. 3. In a food processor, finely chop bell pepper, onion, and garlic. Then stir into mashed beans. 4. In a small bowl, stir together egg, chili powder, cumin, and chili sauce. 5. Stir the egg mixture into the mashed beans. Mix in bread crumbs until the mixture is sticky and holds together. Divide mixture into four patties. 6. If grilling, place patties on foil, and grill about 8 minutes on each side. If baking, place patties on baking sheet, and bake about 10 minutes on each side. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2009 Allrecipes.com Printed from Allrecipes.com 7/9/2009

Next time I might double the batch and freeze them for a quick last-minute supper. Yum!

Don't Tell Daddy!

4th of July Weekend

I love 3 day weekends. Not because I get a day off of work (ha!) but Wade does and it's busy, fun, and awesome. This past 4th of July weekend was no exception.

On Friday we spent the day on my friend Kolby's new (to her) boat. It wasn't "crazy like the ol' college days" since we had two young kids on board, but still fun.

Then, we spent Sat and Sun at my parents house. We watched fireworks from the deck, played games, saw Mitchell's new apartment, went to the "beach", and ate lots of good food. It was low-key and fabulous.

Engagement Pics Take 2

"Photos by Allison"

I know Allison is going to groan out loud when she sees these, but I think they're funny. :)

These are a couple of the engagement pictures that my sister took for us almost 3 years ago at the ISU campus. At the time, I was looking for ways to save $$ and she enjoyed taking pictures, so it worked out well. I was SO pleased with how they turned out, especially since they were free! (I should mention that these by far were not the best ones of the day, there were ones that were actually pretty decent.)

Fast forward 3 years.... the girl's now got dreams of photography school, owning her own business, and is an editing genius.

She is preparing for an engagement session with another couple soon and wanted a little practice beforehand, so Wade and I were her guinea pigs. It was our engagement pictures TAKE 2! It was fun. Click HERE to see more pictures on her blog! She really is amazing. Not gonna lie, I cried.

Happy Birthday Reese!

Reese turns THREE today!!!!!!!!!! It's going way too fast. She is really excited, not so much for the birthday or the presents, but for the cake. That's my girl! (The pink cake that I just burned b/c I forgot my oven cooks at 100 degrees hotter than what it's set it at. But I just scraped off all the burnt parts, and I'll slather it with tons of frosting and no one will know the difference!)

To my Sweet Girl,

My world revolves around you. You are with Grandma and Becky right now shopping and I don't know what to do with myself. You make me laugh, cry, giggle, and scream. I hope that you stay just as sweet and cute as you are today, your third birthday. Three years ago you made me a mom. Your mom. My life instantly got brighter. And I know this is who I was meant to be.

I secretly love it when you crawl in bed with me in the middle of the night. And I brush your hair out of your eyes, tell you to stop wiggling, and just cuddle. Even though "they say" your not supposed to start bad habbits like that.

I love that you wear my high heels around the house, even though I am always tripping over them and dragging them back to my closet. You just look too darn cute.

I love that you save the craziest part of your personality for us. You are a very cautious young lady around others, and that's okay. It's part of who you are. The world's just not ready for you and your crazy side. Believe me, I've seen it.

Thank you for being YOU. A big sister to Beckett, daddy's little girl, and mommy's princess. You have made these the best three years ever!