crazy 8 tag

8 things I look forward to:
1. do I REALLY need to say naptime and bedtime?
2. afternoons and evenings when my kids are sleeping.
3. the end of my exercise workout
4. the quiet time that is found during specific parts of the day due to REM occuring in my children.
5. Quality time with Josh
6. Checking my e-mail/blogs/facebook
7. Going outside so the kids are endlessly entertained and happy
8. Bedtime for myself.

8 things I did yesterday
1. Man, how am I going to remember this? Oh wait, they're coming back to me now.
2. Changed approximately 5 poopy diapers- I'm not counting Conrad here. (or Josh) :) ha!
3. Went to Macken Park and let Conrad loose amongst 90 6th graders there on a field trip.
4. Wal-mart, bought some anti-P90x food. *sigh of happiness!*
5. Ate almost whole package of anti-p90X food.
6. continued to wipe goop from the stye-in-my-eye.
7. phoned my mom in tears due to anxiety of raising a 2 1/2 year old boy.
8. checked my e-mail/blog/facebook.

8 things I wish I could do
1. oh dear I could go on and on!!!
2. Focus and hold an intelligent and amazing conversation with a human.
3. not yell and lose my patience with Conrub.
4. run a half marathon on June 6th, actually, just the 10K is wishful thinking enough.
5. Manage my house.
6. ok, I'm stopping here because I am just getting depressed about all the things I wish I could do!!!

8 shows I watch on TV
1. House
2. The Office
3. Sesame Street
4. Little Einstein's
5. Max and Ruby
6. The Soup
7. Dirty Jobs
8. Mythbusters

I tag any bored people out there. Thanks Emily, it was just what I needed tonight.

Spinach!?

Quick post here.

Last night Josh and I had Caesar salads with spinach for dinner. Josh had a piece fall off his plate, Conrad picked it up and ate it. HOLY SMOKES! If you know me, you know that I am a verrry concerned parent when it comes to his nutrition. Josh then proceeded to give Conrad more pieces and more pieces. And Conrad kept eating them! I was sooo excited but I didn't want to make it seem like a big deal. I kept my cool. Conrad loved it! All the headache over vegetables is starting to ease away. I've taken the approach to just put a balanced meal on his plate, and let him eat what he wants. If he doesn't eat his vegetables, then that's OK. I'm at least exposing them to him. He had some peas on his plate, but didn't touch a single one of them. THAT's OK! WAY TO GO CONRAD! I honestly didn't think he'd even try spinach until he was way older. SPINACH is GOOOOD FOR YOU! Hurray! Hooray! Who-Ray!

Who wants a cupcake?

That's an "ABSOLUTE YES" for Conrad.
oh, and for Amelia, too!

Thanks for sharing, Conrad! You are the nicest big brother!

Update, then some therapy

Update on Chantel: she is talking, but still unable to stand up and walk on her own. She's having an EEG today and hopefully we'll hear more soon.

P90x Diet: I hate it.
P90x Workouts: I love them.

Josh is still doing really well with the whole program, but I've started to just eat what is more affordable- bread and cereal! Serious, we ran out of food stamp money last month in 10 days!!! So, I am a little resentful that I haven't stayed motivated enough to use my own budget money to pay for the groceries, but at the same time, as long as I'm exercising I feel good about myself. I think I am a pretty healthy eater anyway, minus half a bag of chocolate chips every afternoon. I never drink pop, only eat whole grains, try to have a fruit and vegetable at least once a day, drink lots of water, I never fry my foods.

Why do I feel like I'm in a fog, though? I seriously feel like life stops when Conrad is awake. Though life is most certainly happening! Having a terrible 2 year old is like having the lid off the blender. I find myself constantly calming myself down, to cope with his antics and broken record statements and questions. When he came to me at 6:30 this morning and told me he was wet all over his shirt and bed... I was taken back (understatement). I kept telling myself, "it could be much worse, it could be much worse."

Everytime I get them down for their naps I cope by totally tuning out and perusing around facebook, some blogs, craigslist, some favorite stores, etc. Why do I need to do that!? I really wish I could just go and go and go. Like work on a craft. Or maybe fold some clothes. Or clean a bathroom. There's always something to do. Always something to be improved around here. I'm sure if you're reading this you understand the enormosity.

Anyway, thanks for the therapy. I haven't seen my therapist for a couple of weeks now so I felt like I needed a fix. :)

Here is a thing that I thought I would share. I'm dreaming of doing a fairy theme for Amelia's bedroom. (Conrad's theme: yellow walls-haha, actually I want to put the alphabet up all around his room someday... someday!). I thought this was a cute idea. Click here. What do you think?

p.s. she's down to nursing once a day, but doesn't like formula. Do you think it's ok if I start giving her a little bit of cow's milk? She will be 1 on May 15th.

Please pray for Chantel

The Martineau family in my ward is needing all the prayers they can get right now. Their daughter Chantel is in the ICU after suffering a seizure caused from a fever. She happened to be in the bathtub when it happened, so she went without oxygen for X amount of minutes. She has swelling on the brain, is intubated, and is just desperate for prayers. Our ward is having a ward fast today/tomorrow, so please keep her in your prayers. She's in Conrad's nursery (they're the same age), and is a beautiful happy girl. Thanks for any effort to think of her in your prayers. This is her family's blog.

Four squirrels and a nut.

Take a minute to see what a wonderful family she comes from.

My favorite pancake: Scottish Oatcakes

Amelia's favorite, too!
I don't know where my mom got this recipe, but I could eat a million of these. They are not only yummy, but they are healthy, too. Or, should I not mention that so you can focus on just how yummy they are. I generally don't like how heavy traditional pancakes are, so these are a nice lighter version. If oatmeal texture bothers you you may not like them. But you have to at least try them to say you didn't like the texture. We had these for breakfast today. Conrad ate 5, and Amelia ate 4. She loves to eat! Here is the recipe. I could've eaten 10, but Amelia and Conrad ate more than I expected! I had to stop at 6. :)

Scottish Oatcakes

2 cups buttermilk

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

mix buttermilk and oats together and let sit for about 5 minutes.

Next, sift the following dry ingredients together, then mix the eggs in.

1/2 cup. flour

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. soda

1 tsp. salt

2 beaten eggs

Combine the flour mixture with the buttermilk/oat mixture. Ready to cook! Just like ordinary pancakes (on a preheated griddle approx 350-400 degrees).

Substitutions:

-I never buy buttermilk. I always just use my skim milk and lemon juice. So, for 2 cups of buttermilk I use about 1 3/4 milk with 1/4 cup lemon juice. Let it sit for about 5 minutes until it gets sort of curdly.

-Use wheat flour! It tastes just as good as white flour. Plus, it's healthier. (no, not the "H" word again!)

Here is Amelia after she had already eaten 4, and was just enjoying hanging out.

Josh is totally wrapped around this little girl's finger. He told me today he has a huge crush on her. He's feeling really bad for all our family members far away that can't see her as often as we do, so I decided to share the above video with you. :)

Our day with Daddy home

We went to see the Easter Bunny. And that was all we did. Conrad preferred to look from afar, and we didn't mind not having to wait in the line. He is pretty excited to have the Easter Bunny come to our house and "have fireworks." I don't know where he gets this idea!

Official Picture with the Easter Bunny.At the mall we went to (Crown Center) they also have an exhibit celebrating 70 years of The Wizard of Oz. It was aimed at the young and then the old. They had a lot of cool display items for the old, then some cool things for the kids to run around and play on. Dorothy and Glinda. (I didn't know her name was spelled with an "i" until today) Conrad was a little nervous around them.

This is the Emerald City where Dorothy and bunch finally meet the Wizard of Oz.Adorableness:

After we went to the exhibit we went to the WWI memorial. We walked and walked and walked over there. We weren't really sure where we were going so we killed a lot of time just trying to figure out where and how to go.

We enjoyed walking around. We didn't go up the tower or go inside the museum, so we didn't get the full effect. But it was nice, still. Conrad was pretty excited to see those cranes that you'll notice in the far distance on the left.

"That's the number 1."

We forgot to get our parking validated, so we walked back and headed to Josh's favorite place, "The Candy Store."
Excited to eat Jelly Belly's. Butter popcorn + Blueberry= Blueberry Muffin!

Great job, Daddy on taking your last med school section final yesterday! You've come a long way! Now all Josh has are Boards at the end of May. So, he's taken today and tomorrow off before he really starts studying.

Random subjects of my desire

Getting items of business taken care of first: this is ONE of the pictures Conrad will just STARE at and be obsessed about. The picture in the post below with Conrad (him looking in the magazine) was a picture of a lady screaming. I threw the magazine away, so no pic. He is entertained by people with either 1-Scared looks on their face, or 2-Dirt on their face. He tells me, "Her is crying." With this picture below Conrad says, "he fall down and bonk his head." I had to clean my toilet today because he pointed out to me that it was dirty. (*embarassed!*)

Yummy Granola! I just LOVE granola. I made Amanda's recipe for granola yesterday, and it is goooood! I didn't add as much oil as the recipe called for, though, so it's not QUITE as crunchy and clustery as I would like it.

My lunch. I am in love with this meal out of our P90X menu. Whole wheat Pita pockets filled with cucumbers, tomatoes, green onions and chicken. Then you squeeze lemon juice over the top. It's refreshing. I am going to have to make my own whole wheat pita pockets because they are too expensive to buy. It fills you up, though! In case you are wondering, we're still plugging along. We feel great, we love the workouts, and the food is keeping us full. I'm not perfect with the diet, but I've learned that as long as I can work out then I've had a good day with the plan.

This little girl crawled across our floor from the front room to the kitchen when I sat down to eat. She pulled herself up to try eating what I was eating. She wants to eat everything I eat. Funny girl.

Just hangin out (pics for grandma's)

This picture speaks for itself.
I'll have to do a blog post all about what Conrad was looking at. He looked at it forever! And then he has been obsessed with it today, too. It's funny.

Here is some deliciousness:

I really could eat her up. Everytime I pick her up I kiss her cheeks off. OH, and guess who's learned how to give kisses!? Yep, a big wide open mouth. She is getting so smart. She's figured out how to sign to let me know when she's all done eating. She's certainly getting stronger and pulling herself up to a lot of things, too.

I'm so glad that I have this sweet delicious baby around when I'm having huge frustrations with my terrible 2 year old. It is a blessing, let me tell you! Everyone should have a sweet little baby to mug on when raising a 2 or 3 year old. Except, I don't know what I'd do with 19 kids by the time I hit menopause. Hello!