Getting the Itch....

...to move.   OK, not really but am feeling the need for some sort of change since this is the first time in 9 YEARS that we are not moving!  There is always such excitement (and stress) moving to a new place but it is kind of nice knowing we don't have to move our whole household right now.  Especially with a baby!  We left Japan in 2003 which is the longest we have lived anywhere (as a married couple), then we spent 18 months in Idaho, three months in Nevada, two years in Panama City, FL and two years in Fort Walton Beach, FL.  And we have been in our current city now for two years and about two months.  So that explains why I am wanting to deep clean our whole house, paint, re-arrange furniture and re-hang some pictures.  This is the plan I have in my brain but right now I am lucky to keep up with the dishes in a day.  Extra bonus if I cook!  Or get a load of laundry done.  Or a blog post!  But I am OK with that.  If our kiddos are cared for, healthy and happy then I am committing to not having to have a perfectly clean and organized house to sacrifice time with these guys...

Some of the going-ons during the last few weeks...here are the chicken and duck feet drawn by Jack and Wyatt respectively.

Happy to see daddy.

Out of approximately 60 attempts at a Valentine's picture of all three of these kiddos, this is the best picture I could get.

Happy to see Wyatt:

Avery is really using her hands and grabbing anything that crosses her path.

The boys played with play-doh for a couple of the hours the other day with Avery watching in the background.  I love her position here.

Sweet smiles.

Snow removal helpers:

Such little men!  Ready to play in the snow.  Below are two of my new favorite pics of the boys.

 The ohsosweet sleepy eye-rub:

 Already pulling herself up when she is in a reclined position:

 Oh stop!

 Stop the cuteness!

 Okay.

 Don't stop.

Wyatt making us laugh.  He was walking around with my boppy saying "look at my canoe!"

And having a fun glo-stick bath night in the big tub.

...complete with goggles.

These two play hard.  And they crash hard.  Good night!

Catching Up

After I just posted that I cannot find pictures on the computer;  I just found some!  Not all of the pictures are showing but here are the ones I could access.

Wyatt loves to grab Avery and roll around with her and snuggle and she thinks it is so funny.  I will post more as I find them.

Back up to Valentine's Day.  Another idea from pinterest.  I couldn't resist using it since they are the only boys in their preschool class right now.

And a pretty random picture of the boys after they decorated Avery in their Valentine's mail and stuffed animals.

 And back-up again to Portland.  Here are some iPhone pictures of Aunt JJ with the crew at lunch (just after purchasing swimming goggles obviously).

 And the boys have been surprising me with how much they want to color and draw and practice writing lately.

Updates

Our switch to the mac world definitely has a learning curve!  I am not certain where my pictures are being stored so when I try to attach pictures to this blog;  blogger cannot find them.  I am also waiting for some editing software to arrive.  I don't want to upload the 600 pictures from my camera until it arrives.  I have had so many blog ideas swirling around in my brain to post but don't want to do the post without the pictures!

So, I guess I will talk about the new recipes we tried in February.  We tried a new:

-green smoothie recipe
-cookie recipe
-chicken marsala recipe
-spaghetti, homemade sauce and turkey meatball recipe
-tortilla soup recipe
-green chicken chili recipe

The green smoothie recipe is our favorite right now...it is just water, spinach, frozen strawberries, a frozen banana, ice and stevia.

The cookie recipe had oats, maple syrup, c-chips, salt, butter, and vanilla extract.  The dough was great but the cookies were a little dry.  It needs tweaking.

I found the chicken marsala recipe on pinterest and we have made it twice this month.  We doubled the sauce and mushrooms for the second time - it is a keeper. Recipe linked below:
http://savorysweetlife.com/2010/03/chicken-marsala/

Loved the spaghetti and meatballs recipe by Ellie Krieger on the Food Network.  I made the sauce but left out the spicy ingredients and used regular tomatoes over fire roasted.  I also made some changes in the herbs/spices for the meatballs based on what we had and it turned out great.  Recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/turkey-meatballs-with-quick-and-spicy-tomato-sauce-and-whole-wheat-spaghetti-recipe/index.html

The tortilla soup recipe was from "blendtec" but was a disaster since I added a homemade taco seasoning that Geoff had made and didn't realize it was so spicy.

And another mess-up with the chili recipe.  The recipe called for mild diced green chilis and I didn't realize that the ones we had were "fire-roasted" (I don't like the flavor personally) until after I put them in and the taste overpowered the recipe.  So we will have to do a do-over on that one.  Here is the recipe link:
http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2010/02/recipe-for-amys-amazing-white-chicken.html#more

Portland

We took a quick trip to Portland a couple of weeks ago to meet up with Jenette because she had two overnight trips in a row to Portland.  My parents flew in as well to drive back with me and the kiddos for a visit while Geoff flew out for a work trip.  The highlights of the trip for the boys?  Seeing Aunt JJ, Papap and Grandma, and the hotel pool of course!  Geoff stopped to buy multiple goggles for the boys so they would go underwater and they took every opportunity to wear them.  I have ten more pics I want to post here but can't get blogger to recognize the photos from my iPhone right now.  I am trying to stay patient as I figure out this mac.  Please share any tips you mac users out there. 

A wearing her first bathing suit.

She wasn't going to swim but wanted to look the part to support her brothers.

She was quite content snuggling with Aunt JJ in the heated pool area.  She enjoyed the sound of water and splashing.  She has her getting-sleepy stare here.

Here she is asleep in the car seat while I was getting ready.  The housekeeper started the dishwasher and the loud humming sound put her to sleep.

We woke up one morning to a full rainbow outside the window.

Back at home with Papap.

Big brother.

Big yawn.

Big snuggle.

Big grin.

Big open mouth?

Big ruffles.

Avery is her activity center looking as if she is running.

I can't resist her rolling diaper bottom.  She has discovered her knees and feet.

The boys and grandma playing pachinko.

Grandma and Avery...I can't get this photo to stay vertical in Mac...any tips?

Fun family photo.

Thank you for all your help Papap and Grandma-we had a fun visit.  Come back soon!

Handmade Treasures

We have received such special gifts for Avery.  We are thankful for each and every one.  In this post, I just had to share some handmade gifts Avery has received.  Especially since I don't have an ounce of sewing/knitting/quilting/embroidering craftiness in me, I am so inspired by those who do. My dear friend Katie who I met very shortly after arriving to Purdue just sent this "bapron" she made.  I love it.  You can read all about her craftiness on her blog www.craftwhatever.blogspot.com

The reverse side.

Check out these bow Katie made as well.  Will post some pics of her in them soon.

My neighbor Angel made this soft blanket.  

My friend Katie made this owl jacket and sweet shoes.  She has an etsy site.  Ma Chere Finery. http://www.etsy.com/shop/macherefinery

Our friend Brittany from Florida busted out her embroidery machine and sent us several burp cloths (my favorite pictured here) and several bibs (see below)

The boys' preschool teacher Mary knitted her this hat.

And such a special gift.  My mom saved this quilt I used to have on my bed.  My great grandma Lucy quilted this.  The different holly hobby dresses are made from the grandkids clothes.  I love it.  Just wanted to showcase the talent of all of these ladies.   

Eczema Strikes Again

OK, so Avery hasn't been officially diagnosed with eczema but the writing is on the wall.  We were so hoping to avoid eczema because it affects so much more than skin.  We have seen what it does to a kid's ability to sleep.  And Avery likes to take five or six 30-minute naps a day.  And she still wakes up every 2 1/2 -3 hours at night to eat.  Her night schedule is almost the same as when she was four weeks old (without so many diaper changes).   Those tiny little naps don't allow her to get the restful REM sleep she needs so I dusted off my copy of "Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child" and buckled down this past weekend to try to get her to lengthen out those naps.  We made a little progress.  She took a couple of longer naps during the day but then made up the difference at night.   And yesterday she was back to the 30-minute nap.  I have adjusted to the broken sleep somewhat but I get all mixed up when I am sleep-deprived.  I forget things.  I can't find the right words when having a conversation.  I burn things while cooking.  Bad news.

But I knew there might be more to it by the looks of her skin.  We just returned from Avery's 4-month well-baby appointment.  Here is our little 12-pounder in her designer Missoni outfit:

I am not surprised by her skin but the pediatrician sure was. Her scalp looks terrible, her little ankles and wrists are rough and red, and her sweet little cheeks look like she has been out skiing they are so chapped.  The doc wants me to eliminate dairy, egg, soy, nuts, and wheat from my diet for two weeks to see if her skin improves.  Then I can add back one item at a time.  Obviously I don't have to do this, I can switch from nursing to a hypo-allergenic formula but that just seems silly.  Especially since there is a chance that even an elimination diet won't improve her skin then I might as well keep nursing.  The doc thinks she is overall itchy which keeps her from sleeping well.  So we need to get to the source of the problem first, then our pediatrician suggested a possible antihistamine to help her out.  I definitely want to keep nursing so I will give it a try.  Eliminating wheat would be the hardest for me since I love it and the boys never had to cut that from their diet (thank goodness) so I will have to do some research on that.  And we already have the rice milk.  Geoff pointed out the other day how much milk we have because we have rice milk, almond milk, regular milk, and lactose-free milk.  Pretty much everything but coconut and soy milk!
   I am traveling this weekend so I will wait until I get home to start.  But the sooner I do it the better we may all feel.  This will make my new-recipe-resolution a little more challenging.
On another note, this is my first post from our new mac!  I am trying to adjust to it but so far I can't believe I have been doing any of my blog posts the old way.  It took me forever to get the pictures moved around and this is so easy!  Speaking of pictures, I will sign off with another one of little miss in a cute combo skirt/tights that my cousin Amy sent.  

Resolutions

Did you make any resolutions for 2012? I did this year. Quite a lengthy list in fact. One of my resolutions is to try one new recipe a week. Or four recipes in a month. Very do-able and will keep me from the oh-it-is-5:30-already-what-should-we-have-for-dinner? routine every night. We eat a lot of quesadillas. Or I should say the boys eat a lot of quesadillas or oatmeal. And who doesn't love breakfast for dinner?
We have tried four new recipes already this month and except for one burnt soup situation it has been a success.

January recipes (so far):
Barefoot Contessa Turkey Meatloaf - very good...makes a lot so I halved the recipe
Barefoot Contessa Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic - amazing! Company-worthy (I used breasts instead of the whole chickens)
Butternut Squash Soup - http://www.cookingafterfive.com/cookingafterfive/2010/11/24/roasted-butternut-squash-soup-with-sage-croutons.html Loved this. Creamy and a little sweet and spicy. I was surprised at how easy roasting the butternut squash was.
Chicken Posole Soup - Sunset magazine recipe... http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/speedy-chicken-posole-with-avocado-lime-10000001947682/
Very good...very similar to a chicken tortilla soup. I had to modify the recipe to take out the spiciness and will use less hominy next time.

I love the Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten). Most of her recipes have minimal ingredients but taste gourmet.