Holiday prep

Made Shepard pie last night for dinner.  I dont recall ever having it before, and i definitely have never made it.  Its pretty easy!  And it was such a hit!  I found a couple recipes on pinterest and then just went with my own, combining a couple different recipes.

I didnt have block cheese to shred so i just broke up some of my pre-sliced Tillamook cheddar cheese.  Turned out great!

 Last Sunday, my friend Rachel came over.  We enjoyed just hanging out with the kiddo's.  Watched a movie and made some snowflakes to decorate the front windows with.  Now you would think with us being grown up women that we would be able to make snowflakes with no problem.  WRONG! lol  Rachel couldnt even make full ones, she kept opening them to be half snowflakes LOL, and mine were always messed up too.  They looked like rectangles or werent cut very good.  Finally after finding a couple different directions on Pinterest, on how to fold the paper, we got it!  By then it was already a couple hours into cutting them.  I let the girls help but it was to hard for Madisen to make little cuts on folded paper.  Julia figured it out right away though and will soon be better than Rachel and I! lol  Here are some of Julia's creations!

Add caption

This one is mine, once i figured out how to fold it the right way lol

Kinda hard to see, but here they are on the windows :)

So now the winter season is apon us.  Im getting into the holiday spirit, especially because we have a house to decorate now and not a townhouse that was 3 floors.  Not that i like this house very much, but it is, none the less, a house.

And of course we cant forget about my Santa mug to fully be in the spirit of Christmas! :)  As well as Julia's school doing a number of holiday inspired activities.  Which of course we just find out about and they are all really really soon.  One of which is the giving tree.  They want you to bring in gift cards from a selected number of stores to go to families in need.  If you do that, then you can pick an ornament off the tree in the front office. They are also having a book fair the same week.  As well as horse drawn carriages around the neighborhood for a small price, that includes hot chocolate and cookies.  Jer doesnt really care to do that one but said i could take the girls, so im just going to pay for me and the two oldest.  Kinda a fun little mom and daughter time, so im all for it!  Then also in the same week, we are to bring a white shirt in for Julia to make for her 1st grade musical they are putting on in 2 weeks.  But the shirt has to be in by monday.  So lots going on here for us!  To add to the chaos, Madie has a ballet recital Dec.15th, which is the same day as Julia's soccer orientation.  Which was also a day i was invited to a gathering at my friends house that i have to pass on because we are so busy.  Life of a mom i guess.  On a side note, Julia has a girl scout meeting this friday that i know nothing about yet, but i know she will have fun like she always does!

When the next few weekends finally slow down, i think we will go see the zoo lights here.  Thats a tradition we have done since Julia was born, and even though its a different zoo, we can keep the tradition :)  We are even thinking about taking a couple hour drive up to where there is SNOW and letting the kids play in it for awhile.  They really really really want to make a snow man!  I still need to find the time to make some winter/christmas crafts with the kids.  SOON!

A note on Ella's potty training.  She is doing really great!  We are still training obviously though.  She has many days where she stays dry all day!  I take her hourly, sometimes longer than an hour.  Im working on her telling me when she has to go.  She tells me a couple times a day she needs to potty.  But everytime i ask her, she says "no".  Even if she just said " i needa go potty" and then i say, "what? you need to go potty?" and she immediately says "no" lol.   Um whatever, im taking you to the potty, and she goes right away.  Guess i should be working on what NO and YES mean lol.  Only got her to go #2 on the potty once.  She still likes to disappear and concentrate really hard on going in her underwear with out being caught.  Hahaha.  Then she comes and finds me and says "eeeeww, P-U, uh-oh and NO NO" followed by some jumbled words while she grabs the back of her pants and says "poopoo goes on potty"...YES, YES it does! lol

not so sure about a singing Christmas decoration

Silly face!

Aubrey is getting so big!  She can roll all over the floor now, she grabs at her toys and pulls them off her play gym.  She loves her exersaucer and is totally outgrowing the swing already, just out of boredom! lol  I swear i give birth to toddlers and not babies.  She wont even be 4 months until Dec.1st!  She is teething like crazy, so shes constantly drooling, putting her hands in her mouth and making crazy faces because she likes to bite her tongue haha.

Was supposed to be sleeping!

Silly face!

 I have to add a little about Madisen because she has been such a helper these days!  While Julia is at school she has gotten to be quite the big sister!  Always helping with Aubrey and Ella and picking up toys, even though Ella is the main one that has dragged them all over the house.  Ella likes to clean up most of the time though, shes going to be a good cleaner upper like Julia was when she was little :)  Also, the lazy walker that madie used to be, is No more! lol  The walking to Julia's school and back and really gotten her muscles up lol.  She jogs half way there and back now.  Unless of course, i want to jog too, then she stops behind me and whines so we end up walking lol. 

Julia is julia.  Emotional, loving, smart, beautiful and did i mention emotional? lol  She is doing great though, all the kids in her class want her number to have play dates.  Oh joy. lol  And all the boys like her too, GREEEEAT. haha.   

Well mom duties are calling...more like whining.  So until next time...

Our first Thanksgiving here

Mmmm Margarita

Happy Thanksgiving!! 

Im going to apologize now for any errors you may come across i dont catch to fix.  Thanksgiving cooking is done at my place and i've started on my margarita's :)  Since this is our first Thanksgiving in a whole new state with no family/friends.  I've taken it apon myself to cook the traditional feast.  I wanted to take this time "alone" as a chance to see if i could do it, but also to took a whole turkey on my own.  Maybe if i learn how to cook a great turkey, having Thanksgiving at my house wont be such a big deal someday :)  I think it turned out great!!  The turkey was a little dry, but throwing some gravy on it, fixed that lol  The girls ate great~  And since it was finished early and eaten for lunch, we will have the left overs for dinner, followed by some pumpkin pie.  YUM!

My first turkey~

Looks great to me!

The girls made us some place settings :) 

aww i love my place setting :)

Good job girls!

 

We've been busy like usual since my last post.  Ella is doing great with her potty training and has moved up from the every 20 min. potty trip, to hourly or a little over an hour.  We are getting there!  She is mostly dry and has anything from no peepee accidents, to only one or two.  What we are working on is #2 in the potty and also telling us when she needs to pee.   She comes up to me AFTER she pees or poo's her pants, but hasnt said anything before hand yet.  She stays dry at nap already though! :)  I started in her in underwear almost 2 weeks ago.  Such a big girl!! 

Aubrey is getting so big, and such a smart girl!!  Ive been working on crib training her.  She has gotten better.  And i think i'll be packing up the co-sleeper tonight or tomorrow.  Her crib is in our room on my side of the bed anyways, so she wont be far.  But she needs her own space that is bigger than the co-sleeper.   I would keep her there forever if i could.  But i want the transition to the crib to be easy on her, even if its hard on me cause shes my baby.  I'd rather her get used to it now when its no big deal, than to have her scream and cry later just because i wanted her with me.  Makes me kinda sad though that she is already gonna be 4 months old on Dec.1st.  She is taking a really good nap in her crib as i type this.  Shes gotten on the schedule of taking a good 2-3 hour nap in the middle of the day.  Such a good baby!!

While Ella took her hour nap or so.  Usually longer, but since potty training, she will wake after an hour or so, to use the potty.  The other night she slept for 2 hours and woke dry.  So eventually she will train her bladder to hold it longer and hopefully her naps will increase in time too.  But since we are talking about Ella, who has always been a cat napper.  They probably wont get longer lol

Julia's girl scout meeting went good.  They made ornaments to sell at the holiday bizarre the school puts on.  Ive signed her up for soccer that will start here for their winter season of Jan-Mar.  She's excited!!  Madie is still in ballet and will be until June, when it ends the term or whatever.  She must of had a growth spurt cause her ballet shoes fit a few weeks ago, and then last week were soooooo tight.  So i ordered her another pair that are bigger, and some new tights.  

Yesterday was the Thanksgiving feast at Julia schools for all of the 1st graders.  I showed up early to help for that, and i stayed late to help clean up.  I know her teacher has 3 kids of her own and prob. wanted to leave when school was out.  As i was done doing some dishes and cleaning up, i went back to Julia's room to grab my coffee and over heard her (during circle time) say "today was the best day ever"!  hehe so cute! I got to eat next to her for lunch and the kids thought it was so cool to eat in the courtyard with some parents.  They've eaten out there before, but with the teacher, so this was new for them :)    They also got their shirts.  I guess every year the school lets the teacher make class room shirts that all the kids get.  They say the teacher's name, whatever design she or the class chooses, color, and the school mascots.  

She wore this hat ALL day! lol Insisted on wearing it to Costco and Target after school too :)
I made some Thanksgiving day crafts with the kids the other day too.  Used their foot prints for the turkey's body and their hand prints for the turkey feathers.  It turned out sooooo cute!  Something for me to keep, thats for sure!

getting ready to work on our turkey craft :)

The mornings are pretty cool here.  For a about a week it was in the 30s overnight.  Now its been in the 40's and by the time the girls and i walk Julia to school. Its in the high 40's or low 50's.  So we need coats, and the girls in the stroller need a blanket, coat and hat.  I LOVE IT! lol  Its usually sunny, and by the end of the day has been in the 70/80s with a chill in the air. So its perfect!!  I miss the fall colors though, and since im Oregon born and raised.  I do miss the rain.  I miss the stormy days when a fire and movies is on the agenda :)   While this time of year is PERFECT here, it wont be long until the heat returns.  Im told by locals that it starts getting hot again in March.  Since its October by the time it cools down, thats 6-7 months of heat.  Way to hot, HEAT.  Half the year perfect, to be ruined by the other half of the year heat.  Something that would get old, pretty fast.  Especially with no extra car and no in-ground pool.  

My beautiful girls!

 Football is on, the weather is great and we have tons to be Thankful for!  We made the girls say what they are thankful for before we ate tonight.  So cute!  Julia said she was thankful for being born, etc.  And Madie said she was thankful for food.  This is kinda funny cause she is our most difficult eater. haha.  The baby has woken from her 3 hour nap in her crib, so we are going to take advantage of going to the park for a bit before the sun sets and then its dinner time (again)! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!
Until next time....

Short notice

This morning was pretty chilly outside.  I loved it!!  It was only 60 out or something and i thought it was great.  Sunny and beautiful.  Everyone here is so used to it being so hot that they acted like this 60 degrees was 30 and they needed parka's or something.  hahaha  It was actually kinda humorous when i dropped Julia off at school.  Everyone saying how cold it was over and over again..."oh my gosh, its so freezing out this morning", i heard many times in a few minute period.  It made me smile, "this is your freezing cold" i thought.  And i dont even come from an area that really gets THAT cold, but still.  60 degrees in November is pretty nice and would require a hoodie, capri's and flip flops in Oregon (if it werent raining and colder)  Another beautiful thing we saw while walking my daughter to school, was a Coyote.  Yes i said beautiful :) It just ran right past us!  No biggie, headed somewhere i guess.   People out walking, kids on their bikes...didnt matter, everyone didnt seem to care much :) 

While starting my walk home, minus one kid, a friend of mine yells from across the street " are you coming to my house later today!?"  Uh, huh?  " what are you talking about, for what?"  I say.  Come to find out, Julia has a girl scout meeting today, at her house, after school.  Lovely.  I have no car, she lives a mile from the school, which means 2 miles from me.  So almost 4 miles total to and from. 4 miles may not seem like much, and it isnt much, for me.  But to have to walk that with miss Madisen, is going to be a PAIN!  Its only supposed to be 77 here.  Which is perfect because they have barely any humidity so it will be great.  But its still the sun beating down on us which feels hot.  I thought about skipping the meeting but they are decorating Christmas tree ornaments that they are going to sell at the school holiday bizarre in a couple weeks.  Plus, she only has one meeting a month, so i'd hate for her to miss it.  The whole reason i signed her up for this girl scout troop was because it was a 'meet on friday' troup, and that worked with my schedule.  UGH.  I hate having these things thrown on me last min.

My cute little pottier in training :)

So now i have to interrupt Ella's potty training to deal with this.  Wouldnt seem like a big deal but she has been dry all day and i hate to throw her in a pull up.  But i will because im not going to be trying to take her potty in a new place, this early in her training.  Also, a home that will be packed full of strangers to her and myself and i dont need the added stress of it all.  So, after finding all this out, i come home, deal with the regular routine of snack and lunch and nap the little girls.  Fit a quick shower in, start dinner in the crockpot since i knew i wouldnt be able to have much time after walking home later, and then decided to start this blog entry :)  Ella has woken up since i started this, and she was dry, and went pee on the potty!  Maybe she isnt going to be near as stubborn as i thought she was!! :) 

Well, time to go prepare little baggies of snack for the kids after school, because we wont be returning home for snack.  I really wish i had a car during the week, or a golf cart, or even a horse and buggie at this point! lol 

Until next time...

Sleep deprived and potty training....dont mix

The way she finally passes out at night lol

 For the 4th night in a row the baby has woken me more than once a night again, like when she was a newborn.  Then right after she goes back to sleep, Ella decides its time to get up.  Even though the sun isnt even up and her room is still pitch black.  She even has black out panels on the windows to keep the light out.  Julia has some too, but hers are the Target brand and let much more light in than Ella's.   Because its not even 6 am yet and Ella has woken up Madisen, as well as myself and Julia, the whole house is up.  Are you kidding me?? Its waaaaaaay to early to start the day.  Its not like everyone is up and relaxing and i can just sit on the couch and watch tv or anything.  As everyone creeps out of their rooms, i have to remind them to go to the bathroom.  You would think a mother wouldnt have to remind her 4 and 6 year old to go pee right after they get up in the morning.  But i do.  Otherwise they both hold it until as long as possible and then they fight over who gets to go first when its a matter of seconds before someone pees their pants.  Which hasnt happend yet, or at least in a very long time.  But the fighting is the wrong way to start the day.  Especially when i've gotten little sleep.  Puts me in a bad mood!  Time to feed the baby.  In the 10 min. it takes to feed her, i will be asked about breakfast at least 3 times.  Ella will say she is "hungey" and start pulling on her high chair.  That reminds me, she needs to start transitioning out of that because i need it for Aubrey soon.  Anyways, feed the baby, put her down somewhere, or hold her and make the other girls food with one hand.  I've gotten pretty skilled at making things with one hand these days. :)  Serve the girls their breakfast while i usually dont have a chance to eat mine, or im standing and taking bites as i run around the kitchen.  Emptying the dishwasher from last nights dinner dishes so it can be stuffed full a few more times through out the day.  Sometimes i really think about just using paper plates, sure would make clean up a lot easier!

I knew that potty training Ella would take, patience, time and consistency as when you're potty training any child.  She reminds me of Julia in many ways and Julia was by far my most stubborn child when it came to potty training.  I would have started 2 months ago, like i normally do, when they are 18 months old.  But as most of you know, i kinda had A LOT going on :)  Now dont get me wrong, she is being stubborn, but not as bad as i thought.  I've had her pullups the last couple weeks.  Yesterday i decided to just go all in and put her in undies.  Sure doesnt make my day any less stressful or easy.  I thought i could do the once an hour potty time, but i have to work up to that.  This girls pees all the time!!  I take her every 30 min. and she still has a few accidents a day.  Oh well, we will get there.  This is my first kid to potty train. Or even my 4th or 5th.  I used to do it for a living when i was a early preschool teacher at Kindercare for the 2-3 year old room.  I always had a class of ten, 2 year olds by myself.  They had to be potty trained and turn 3 to go into the preschool room.  My turn over rate was pretty fast cause i would have them potty trained pretty quickly.  I would get on average a new set of 10 kids every few months.  So just estimating, i've potty trained about 60 kids.  Well more like 65 kids including the ones i've nannied and my own.  Not counting Ella or Aubrey yet :)...  Goodness thats a lot of kids.  Surely i was not paid enough! lol The ones in the daycare i had fully trained by 2.5, they werent coming to my room until sometime after their 2nd birthday.  The ones i nannied and my own have all been fully trained by their 2nd birthday.  I've learned very specific ways of potty training all types of kids.  Some work best with rewards, like M&M's, others do just fine with stickers, a sticker chart, or nothing but praise and a hive five.  Just depends on the kid :)  Consistency is definitely the main focus for me.  Once i start them in undies, theres no going back, or they will not potty train as quickly.  Of course i still use pull-ups for nap and overnight.  At least for now, and until they start to be dry, i will continue to use them.  Also, in this early stage of training, i will still put a pull-up on when i leave the house.  At least until she starts to hold it for a couple hours at a time.  Even with all my training,  it is still HARD.  And requires a lot of hard work on my part.   And it sucks!  Not having enough sleep, being grumpy, and trying to keep calm isnt easy.  I still havent had my coffee!  

Madie reading

 Ok, enough about potty training.  Im so proud of my 4 year old daughter, Madisen.  Who is now reading!  She literally can read almost every word in the book "Green Eggs and Ham".  I have a video of it that i would post here, except for some reason the add video part of this blog isnt working. So a picture will have to do.  She amazes me!!  All my mommy hard work is paying off :)  

On a side note..i have a killer headache today :/  Bleh.  And still need to give Julia and Madisen a shower.  I cant wait until they are able to do that themselves! 

 A couple baby pictures to leave you smiling :) 

 Until Next time...

I DID IT! plus "WINTER" wonderland FUN

I did it! I did it! I finally tackled my closet.  Phew!  Feels so good to walk in there and not have 2 huge boxes with hangers and clothes i never wear draping all over the boxes lol.  Also cleaned the bathroom tub and counters, sink, etc.  Found a spider in the process of putting clothes away.  Those that know me, know i HATE spiders with a passion.  It boarders on arachnophobia but not quite so bad.  Since Aubrey was napping in her crib and Ella was napping in her room, which is on the other side of my closet wall, i had to be quiet.  And i was :)  I calmly walked my shirt over to the tub where i turned on the faucet and rinsed it down the drain.  Which of course i then closed to make sure it didnt crawl back out! lol  The spiders here have different markings than the spiders im used to back home, so they creep me out a little more than usual.  Anyways...mission accomplished!!  Closet and bathroom FINALLY organized.  Now its time for a ton of laundry.  Bleh.

Last saturday we attended the winter wonderland thing that Intel put on at one of the farms out here.  It was a lot of fun!  We spent 3 hours there and that was plenty! lol  Free food, but of course all the food lines were always crazy long, and since this is Arizona, it was hot standing in the sun.  Good thing we got there when it opened, and lunch was the first we got.  Barely had to wait in line for that and most of the stuff the kids went on were short lines too.  As we walked around and more people showed up, the lines were ridiculous!  The whole 'eat as much as you want thing' went out the window because there was no way either of us was going to go through a line like that more than once with 4 kids.  

After lunch the first thing the girls wanted to do, was ride a pony.  No problem, short line and it was right next to the lunch area.  SWEET! :) 

Then off we went to see and do everything there was to offer.  There was a few little kid rides like you would find at a fair.  Julia willingly went on these, but did NOT like how high they went.  Madie of course, loved it!  They got to control if it went up or down, and madie is smiling and making it go up.  And we see Julia, with huge eyes and yelling at madie that they are high enough and to make it go down!  We couldnt help but laugh.  These are rides are for 5 and under!  But she got to go on anyways lol.  

Then we spot the roller coaster.  I was sure Julia did not want to ride that!  It reminded me of the one at Oaks Park in Portland, but this shorter in height and was made of metal.  Thank goodness, that wooden one scares me! lol  Jeremy convinces the girls to sit in front, i did not think this was such a good idea, knowing how Julia feels about rides and heights and everything.  So of course after the roller coaster goes up, it must go down.  It starts it decent and i hear Julia screaming, not from excitement or joy, but from pure horror.  Then i see her face as they go around and she is balling her eyes out and her face is all red and i feel awful!  I should have told them not to sit in the front.  At this point i realize she has to go around two more times.  Here comes round two, she screams again and is kinda crying this time when i see them go around.  Im almost in tears now knowing she has to go around again.  She doesnt seem as bad as they start the 3rd go around.  Still, I hear her scream as they start to decent but this time no tears and actually as smile on her face as it comes to a stop.  She said she had fun, so i guess i can feel a little bit better about her being scared to death for the first half of it lol.  She points to the swings that a fair would have, and says i am NOT riding those.  Too bad, the swings were always one of my favorite rides!  Oh well.  As for Madie and the roller coaster... she was stoked to get on, she was happy riding it, and would definitely do it again.  Thats my girl! :)

Thumbs UP!  We did it!

Next was a petting zoo, some huge ground pillows to jump on, watched some pig races, got a tiny scoop of ice cream, but passed on the corn maze.  We were going to ride the train but the line was long, as well as the line for the hayride.  I didnt want to leave the stroller, and by this time we had already been there over 2.5 hours and it was getting pretty warm out.  

Had a baby chicken using this pig as a pillow lol

They started head butting after i took this

Started to relieve its massive bladder while i was taking this picture..haha

These things were awesome!

I wanted to go on it too!

The pig race was adorable! :)

Before we headed home, we had to make sure and stop at the pumpkin patch!!  They tried to make it like you were walking around where the pumpkins grew, but there were no vines attached to them and the small field was a little to perfect to have grown pumpkins in it.  No biggie, still had some pumpkins and the girls liked walking around and picking them up.   At least we didnt have to worry about tripping over a vine or stepping on a rotting pumpkin!  Although i do still love the Oregon pumpkin patches better :) 

Madisen

pretty empty pumpkin patch

Julia 

One more stop before it was time to leave.  The big tube slides!  The girls walked the mini hike to get up to these things while we waited at the bottom to take pictures and stay with the stroller full of sleeping kids lol

Yay for free Intel activities!  The girls had a blast!!!  

The girls loved the pumpkin ice cream! :)

The train we never rode but wanted to!

Until next time...