One load of dishes...

It always amazes me what one load of dishes can do for a kitchen.

Before

After

Of course it helps that I didn't have to hold ryan all day like I did yesterday. Or to rock him to sleep for 20 minutes and have him only be asleep for two minutes. Today he was content to play with some toys on the rug in front of the sink. And I won't show you that hit that the dining room took with Claire's cutting fun.  Or the living room toys scattered all over. Or myself that hasn't showered for far too long. Just trying to keep it real. So that I can remember these days although they're tough, tiring, and busy they are good, oh so good. I feel so blessed because after Claire's birthday we've had three whirlwind of sicknesses and I think all better now. 

First Trevor and Ryan got hand foot and mouth, but they just got the mouth blisters part. That only lasted about five days,but  Ryan had to be on medicine or else he wouldn't nurse because he was in such pain.  I cannot think of a more painful sickness to get, in conjunction with his acid reflux. Before Ryan was all better, Trevor got an ear infection and Eye infection. Then Claire got the eye infection which I learned was pink eye.  Last but not least we all got a cough. Took Trevor over a week  to get over his cough but Claire, Ryan, and I got over it in a few days. So you can tell why I feel blessed! I also blessed because with all the sicknesses Jason and I have stayed pretty healthy throughout it all! 

Ryan

Our little Ryan is here!

 
As you can tell, we are all in love with this little guy!



He came on his due date, just like Trevor, weighing 7lbs 6 oz, just like Trevor as well.  But his hair is alot like big sisters as a newborn.  He is our tallest baby yet at 20 inches (the other two were 19 &  19.5").

tips I don't want to forget

and I might as well share em...

This lemon oil- is awesome... it does wonders on wood that I thought was a lost cause and just needed to be sanded, restained and a new coat of polyurethane!  Thank goodness for something that works!  I tried almost every wood polish out there.  Although I do love, Liquid Golds Wood polish (Almond scent) for getting rid of fingerprints and really cleaning wood.  The lemon oil is perfect for wood that needs more moisture and is loosing its nice (polyurethane) glow .  I also tried making some homemade wood oil cleaner with oil, vinegar and essential orange oil.  But its hard to spread evenly and ended up with oil drops on wood surfaces even weeks afterwards.  Last tip: always apply wood oil or cleaner (polish) with microfiber cloths!  (Found at Dollar Tree)

Curly Hair care tips:
http://www.wikihow.com/Follow-the-Curly-Girl-Method-for-Curly-Hair
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktauE1eNbmU&feature=relmfu
-love all her ideas!  Except I am glad that my hair looks good without all the expensive products- But I do agree in using a leave in conditioner, frizz reducer (some days), and a good amount of gel And not shampooing (because of sulfates), just use conditioner (without silicone) during showers, and loosen the dead skin by messaging with finger tips.  Claire's hair is not ready for a complete curly hair do- but the leave in conditioner is great for her frizz + some curls. I put some leave in conditioner in a spray bottle with water, and spray it in Claire's hair.
Another tip: She doesn't really talk about this in her videos or wiki, but I have found with my hair, that I need to let it air dry after the shower for 10 mins before I add leave in conditioner... And during those 10 mins I do alot of head turned upside down scrunching (as she suggests).    Then I after adding the leave in conditioner, I need to wait a few more minutes before adding gel.  If I add products to quickly then it doesn't really help style my hair.  And if I wait to long and hair get frizzy, then add more leave in conditioner.  That is the biggest problem with curly hair, it needs more moisture!

Weight loss tips: not that I am trying right now, but its good to know that weight loss is a numbers game and not some vudu science and that at least one person I know has it figured out:
http://tkhymas.blogspot.com/2012/10/better-body-weightloss-is-math-not-magic.html 

oh yeah, and Sara from Ourbestbites.com seems to have it figured out too:
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2013/01/obb-faves-bodybugg-giveaway/

Last tip:  I love our inverter microwave, we bought it at Costco when we moved 2 years ago.  And it is so awesome.  Our old place had a very nice, big, and powerful microwave, yet it took 10 mins to defrost 1lb of meat, and 20 mins to defrost 2 lbs of meat.  On our new microwave the inverter technology is so awesome it does it in 4.5 mins for 1lb and 9 mins for 2 lbs!  I love it!    We have the Panasonic Inverter Microwave and  I love it! 

It also has this sensor cooking, where  you just push reheat and start and it estimates when the dish is warm enough based on the state of water molecules (or something like that).  I don't use it that much, because Claire likes things cool- warm, not hot.  Just so you understand, she would rather eat a frozen dino nugget than one that is too warm.  Lol.. silly girl.

Well I hope my tips help some one else!  Or at least help me remember that curly girls wiki page... :)

Christmas time

Sunday pics a few days before Christmas

Christmas Eve- Jason got to meet our newest niece, Emma, she was born 1 month early -weighing just 5lbs. I was sick for 3 weeks and didn't get to meet her until she was almost 4 weeks old. She is so precious!

Nativity costumes- Trevor started out as a shepherd, but then really wanted to be a wiseman :) He loved taking the beads on and off, one at a time. Can you tell how excited Claire was to be Mary- so sweet!

Nativity cast + Trevor in the corner :)

Presents!
Quilt grandma vdH made for our little guy, in mama's belly.

Claire was absolutely in love with all her new dress up stuff!- After opening Christmas pjs mom made- You can tell how excited they were to take a pic...lol

I put out a lot less decorations this year, and I really liked the sweet simple message it brought this year.

Christmas morning! Claire was so cute and excited about every thing she got! Here she is opening her stocking presents, before dad or Trevor were awake. (I asked to put back the first two things she pulls out, so I could get her reaction on video. But she's not one to fake/re-enact it.)

From tradition on mom's side, we had to eat breakfast before opening any presents. Lucky for our little ones, Mom got up early (pregnancy sleeping joys) and stuck in our overnight french toast casserole in the oven.
One last try at our Christmas pajama-ed cuties.

Trevor opening up his stocking last

jan random

Claire loves her new princess bedtime story book! And Trevor loves to hangout too.

Claire's quilt+ snow

This is the main reason I didn't even attempt to make a Halloween costume for Claire this year. I was busy finishing a quilt for her. I hoped to finish it before her birthday, but finished it right after. That's okay, because she loved opening it up on Christmas. (see video below)

This was the first big quilt I've made.  Next time I will have to remember to use masking tape to hold them bottom sheet taunt, while I baste the layers together.   It was not a big deal, but I know it help with the quilting part next time.  The only frustrating part was breaking so many needles at the end.  I even had the big 90-14 needle in.  I think my walking foot has issues... it seemed to push my needle so that it would not go into the hole (down to bobbin), and would hit the metal and break my needle.  But without the walking foot I got four times as many pleats.  Its a miracle I finished!


This was the first snow storm! Usually this first snow is a really heavy, good snowman making snow, but even this first snow was so powdery and hard to form. But lots of fun to play in, because you don't get soaking wet.

random

Silly kids
 
Mom and Claire went shopping for a gift for Trevor for Christmas. Claire was so excited to take the pennies she has earned in her piggy bank to the store.
 
After Claire went to her first friend birthday party



More silliness

Claire's birthday!

We celebrated Claire and Matthew's birthday at our place


I got some of those x-large cake tips at Walmart and then found a right coupler at Joanns and decorated some funfetti cupcakes for the party. I used the Our Best Bites tutorial to help. It wasn't as hard as it looks.


After dinner we played some games downstairs, then opened presents.

Birthday cousins- I love how Claire leaned closer to Matthew without prompting- They are such great friends


Claire's cute pose with her preschool crafts and Halloween candy



We had preschool at our house on Claire's birthday.  We were talking about Going Places that month, and she saw this idea to make a car in  a library book.  She told me that she would love a car like that more than her red fisher price one in the garage.  So we made these box cars for her birthday, she played with it for one day... probably because of all her other cool presents she got that night :)


Mom was tired from making the cake and we had a good coupon for our newly opened Papa Murphys, so we enjoyed pizza for dinner. Next time, I will remember to decorate the things in the middle of the cake before adding the things on the outside...but it all worked out.


The birthday girl and her castle cake. She loved her cake and told everyone about it for weeks!