I ironed my couch.

Really, I did. I ironed my couch the other day. Betcha can't say you've ever done that before... This is the reason. I got a new slipcover!!!!! Yahooo! In case you forgot what it looked like...

(This was obviously last year, a day or two after we brought Jacob home)

I ordered the slipcover from SmartBargains. What a deal!! It was over 60% off! I only paid $30 for it! It's kind of a pain to have to re-tuck it so often, but that's okay! Anyway--it was, of course, wrinkled from the packaging when it arrived. I threw it in the dryer with a wet rag for a while, but it was still kinda wrinkly. So I ironed it on the couch! HA! I really like it with my chocolate brown walls :)

Anna helped me make Jacob's birthday cake this afternoon. She thoroughly enjoyed licking the beaters!! :)

She insisted I put this picture in here. She is the boss around here ya know. ;)

She also decided that she would be a princess this afternoon, so she got out all her dress up stuff. She actually wore her Cinderella slippers to the grocery store today :) Oh yes, and they're not shoes...they're glass slippers. Or so I was informed. She had a lot of fun and used her "wand" (she has an actual wand, but didn't want to look for it, so she just used her furry Piglet pen!) to turn Jacob into a king and me into a princess. I remember playing dress up all the time as a girl. It's so much fun to pretend!!!

Tomorrow is Jacob's party. I hope it's not super hot (yeah right), but we'll have a lot of fun!

It won't be long now (I HOPE!)

Look at me Mama! I'm such a big boy!!!

Uh-oh...here comes the wood floor...

Ahhhhh! It's too fast!!!

I also LOVE to ride big sister's trike...Mommy says it's too bad I can't peddle myself (especially since I don't really like it when she stops pushing me!!! Except, of course, if there's a camera around...then I'm happy to stop and pose!).

Salsa Recipe

I've had several people ask me for the recipe for salsa. There isn't really one, so I'll do what I can! :) And this is from Kim. Everything is chopped by hand (or a hand chopper)--if you like very runny salsa, you can probably put everything into a blender and do it that way. I like chunkier salsa, like pico de gallo (is that how it's spelled??). And this usually makes almost 2 big jars of salsa...
5-6 regular tomatoes OR 10-12 Roma tomatoes, skinned*, chopped and drained (my tomatoes
are really juicy, so I throw them into a strainer after I chop them)
1/2 large red onion, chopped
2-4 green onions, chopped
cilantro, chopped (it's all up to your taste. It doesn't take a whole lot)
Lime juice (I squeeze the juice out of 1/4 to 1/2 of a lime)
Salt to taste
That's it! Refrigerate and it'll be gone by the end of day if you're anything like us!
*Kim taught me a trick for skinning the tomatoes very easily. Bring a large pot of water to a gentle boil and drop the tomatoes in--it takes less than a minute (you don't want to cook the tomatoes!). Then put them in cold water (just to cool them off so you can skin them). The skins peel right off!
Enjoy!

A Day in the Life

I don't think this post needs any words... :)

Cooking with Mama

Anna is my right-hand girl...she loves to help me, especially with cooking and washing dishes (seems like I used to be a lot like that...right Mom?) Anyway, yesterday afternoon we made some more salsa (I had 2 buckets full of tomatoes!). And yes, it's already gone! Binga brought Anna and I some matching Amish-made aprons (thanks!!), so we wore our matching aprons, chopped up veggies, and made salsa! Anna has allergies and they just started in again this week. She gets completely stuffed up-sneezing-coughing-gags on the gunk at night. It's miserable (don't I know!). So she carries a box of tissues around with her and she's such a little old lady about it! She keeps one tissue and uses it several times, tucking it away in a pocket in between! Hilarious. So this day she was keeping her tissue in her apron pocket. It was absolutely adorable to see her tuck her tissue away in her apron pocket!!!

Look at me Mom! -- she calls me Mom most of the time these days :(

Tucking her tissue into her pocket.

Helping Mama chop up the green onions (she likes to use the Pampered Chef chopper)

Since Jacob was already up from his nap and wanting my attention, I put a Berenstain Bears movie on the computer. Anna stood there and watched and stirred for the longest time! In fact, she got mad when it was time to put the salsa into the jars!

This is what Jacob did while the girls cooked (I'm sure it won't be long before he'll be watching ESPN while the girls cook!!). *he didn't actually sit in that chair the whole time--I just plopped him up there for a picture! he's growing up too fast!!! :(

Daddy had Anna bedtime duty tonight. Not sure who fell asleep first! She was watching a cartoon after her bath (remember when I said she doesn't like to be cold? Even in the summer time she likes to stay in her towel where it's "warm". So she usually gets to watch 10-15 min. of a cartoon after her bath.) I was working on the computer and realized after a while it was pretty quiet in there. Like father like daughter! I've always said they have the same sleeping habits (such as they have to be covered with blankets-big ones-no matter how hot they get!). And b/c of her severe congestion right now, she's been sleeping on a mattress on the floor of our bedroom so she doesn't wake up Jacob. She gags multiple times during the night on all the gunk, which makes her half-way wake up and cry quite a bit (who can blame her?!).

Plain and simple Mac & Cheese....or is it??

Several months ago I bought a cookbook called "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld. Basically she was a frustrated mom of 3 kids (even though her husband's a celebrity) who didn't like to eat enough fruits and vegetables. So she came up with a way to sneak them in to the foods they loved--puree them and mix it in. Amazingly enough, you can't taste them! I've only done a couple of the vegetables in things, but you can't tell. She has lots of recipes for all the kid-popular foods (like mac & cheese) to make them from scratch. Which is healthier too b/c you cut out all those preservatives and yucky stuff. Well, this isn't from scratch mac & cheese (tried it and it did NOT turn out well!). But I did put pureed butternut squash in it. Can you tell? NO!Just used a box of Kraft Mac & Cheese Deluxe and put in about 1/2 c. of pureed squash.

Well, he's not picky anyway, but it's hard to get veggies into his diet b/c he really doesn't have enough teeth to really chew and I can only eat so much steamed broccoli! :) (sorry this picture is so weird. It came out dark and I tried editing it and obviously, that didn't work!)

She's really not a picky eater either, but I don't think she would eat butternut squash otherwise! Plus, this makes me eat my veggies too! ha

Was it really???

Last weekend Mom and I got to attend a women's conference at a church in Hutch. It was amazing. Challenging and yet still fun :) The theme was "More Love to Thee" and my friend had a really good post on it (so you just read what she wrote b/c it's exactly what I would have said!). Anyway, my parents came down on Thursday night and Friday morning we headed out to the farm (my grandparents' farm) for a visit. Mom and I decided to make it a girls' weekend, so we spent the night in Hutch Friday night and left the kids with Papa, Daddy, and Great Gma & Gpa (very capable hands, I might add!). So we go, get to sleep uninterrupted (although I still woke up numerous times...figures!), have a great day of learning and fellowship and then meet up at my cousin's horse ranch for supper with my family. We get there and Susan says "So how was your first night away from Jacob?" I said "What? That was my first night away from him??" HA! I didn't even realize it. Technically I spent a couple nights at the hospital with Mom during her thing, but I don't think that really counts (I basically went up there after I got the kids bathed and in bed and then was back in the morning). So anywho I thought that was funny that I didn't even realize :) Just goes to show how different things are the 2nd time around!! I wasn't away from Anna until she was almost 2!
So here are some pics from the weekend. Looks to me like the kids had plenty of fun without me!!!

Gettin' a ride in the old wheelbarrow (Papa did a much better job fixing Anna's hair this time--last time he used twisty ties!!)

Fun with Papa

Even more fun with Great Grandpa!


They have kitties!! Anna loves little kittens.

No joke--she actually fell asleep like this! Dad said they were playing, bouncing her on his legs and then he realized she was asleep!!


Jacob and Papa doing "Baby Signs". Well, Papa doing the signs. Jacob wouldn't do them with his own hands, he would just take Papa's hands and make him do the sign! Stinker.

Jacob and Cubie

So my cousin Ange has a GIANT black lab, Cubie (he's so much bigger than any other lab I've ever seen). He might be big, but he is incredibly gentle and he loves kids. 2 years ago when we were out there for the race, Anna was about a year old and she did the exact same thing Jacob did--climbed all over him, laid on him and just loved him! And Cubie just laid there (both times) and let them!! Once in a while he'd give them a lick (or try) just to let them know he was actually alive (and not just a jungle gym/pillow!). It was so cute, then and now! :)

"Really Mama? I can play with this thing??"
Narrowly misses the lick ;)
"That's enough of that licking mister!"
"Here, I'll just climb over to the other side. Then maybe that big ol' tongue can't reach me..."
Well, the tongue might not reach, but the nose can do Mama a favor! haha "Mama, we should really get one of these at our house. They're so much fun!!"

Sorry, son. Been there, done that and it ain't happenin'! Too allergic :(

"Hmmm...this looks like a good part to climb over....."

Yeah, that's Cubie's face he's climbing over. Cubie just laid there like nothing was happening!

Whew! Tired boys after lots of hard play! :)

Drum roll, please...

I finally got the pictures downloaded! Stop laughing at me Dad!! And well, Ange is just an awesome photographer, so there are a lot of pictures (and I still have more for another post...just on Jacob and Cubie!!) :)

Almost there! The last .1 mile....holy cow! They just ran 13 miles!!!

Uncle Bill and Aaron. I certainly wouldn't be standing, let alone smiling, after that. They're awesome.
"Yeah wight Daddy! You want me to dwink someting called Joint Juice?!? Gwoss!!!"
So that's where he gets the double chin! I've been wondering.....
I'm surprised he wasn't eating the grass...seriously.



Uncle Bill, Ange, Nate, Jacob (he's not so sure about Bill!) and Anna

The fam. A little awkward (trying to hold both kids) and it's nearly impossible to get both kids to look at the camera at once. But it's a picture of all of us! :)
Trying to keep up with big sister! He really takes off when he wants to and you have to run to keep up! :)


He decided to start walking only holding one hand that day. He did really good! Anna decided he still needed help, though.

I told you the tongue thing is genetic!

How cute is she?!

Such an innocent face. Don't believe it for a SECOND!!!

"What?! There's dessert too?!?!?!?!!?"

"Hehehehe. Just teasin' ya Jacob!"

Well, suffice it to say we had a great time! I'll post some pictures of Jacob and Cubie (Ange's HUGE black lab) later. Ange, thanks again for taking all these great pics and for sending me the CD! You got some awesome shots!