We've come a long way, baby!

Parker is 5!!!

Wow, not only is Parker in kindergarten, but he is a little 5 year old! As usual, we had a low key birthday celebration. Because Parker started school this week and we are all getting up an hour earlier then normal, we tried to take it easy. Unfortunately, Parker had had it. We only continued the celebration at Camden's insistance.

Parker does not like birthday cake, so I bought birthday cake ice cream and formed it into a little cake. Unfortunately, Parker still thought it was a cake, and this was his reaction: (poor little guy!)

After putting it in a bowl and showing him it was, in fact, ice cream-he was much happier
We then went to open presents, but Parker was ready for bed. Camden wrote Parker a pokemon story and made him some homemade pokemon cards (to him, this is of great value!) He told me he would have bought Parker something, but that he didn't have any money and $1 wasn't enough ;) I guess I really need to start allowance!



Overall, not the best birthday, but oh well! We are having fun hanging out this weekend, so we will make up for it :)

What's for dinner?

So, every week I do what my mommy taught me and make a grocery list with the dinners on one side, and all the ingredients I need to buy at the store on the other. Some weeks it's easy to decide what is for dinner, and some weeks it's hard. So, I thought I would list my weekly dinners, and then you can use the comments section to tell me what you are having and give me some new ideas! I don't pick which days I'm going to have what (since I never know what I'll be in the mood for) and usually have at least one extra dinner planned per week just in case I'm in a rush, or don't feel like something I planned or whatever. I will also include a recipe of the week to share. I made some yummy new dishes last week (lemon shrimp on parmesan rice, herb artichoke ravioli-yum!) So will add the recipes when they make the dinner rotation again!

Dinners for this week:

Santa Fe Chicken with yellow rice
Chicken Tandoori with brown rice and naan
Ravioli with salad and bread
Beans and rice wtih fruit salad
Spinach pizza with salad and fruit
Breakfast for dinner (we do this every Sunday)-smoothies, bacon and eggs
Loaded baked potatoes and fruit salad

I also have peirogies, gnocchis and a bertolli's pasta dinner in the freeqer in case an evening gets too hectic!

So, here is the recipe of the week from my list (also will post on relative recipes)

Santa Fe Chicken:

Marinade:
juice from 3 limes
1/4 c. soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp. olive oil
1 1/2 tsp. chile powder (I'm a wimp, I only put in like 3/4 tsp.)
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
1 1/2 tsp. coriander
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 tsp. honey
2 whole chicken breasts (4 pieces)
1/2 c. white wine
3 T. chopped cilantro leaves

Marinade chicken in ingredients. (The recipe actually says to add the wine and cilantro 1/2 hour before cooking-but I can never remember, so I just add it all when I make it) Bake at 375 degrees till done, or grill. Serve with papaya salsa.

Papaya Salsa:
1/2 c. cilantro leaves
1 c. cubed papaya
1/4 c. choped red bell pepper
1/4 c. diced red onion
1 small jalapeno pepper-seeded and minced (again-wimpy girl puts like 1 slice in)
2 T. lime juice.

Mix together and serve over chicken. I like to make this the night before or earlier in the day so that the flavors meld together better. You could also pulse lightly in the blender if you wanted a smoother salsa.

Enjoy!

Catch up time!

Well, the Olympics are officially over. Time to go back to cleaning my house, reading with the kids and blogging :)

I will go chronologically backwards to let you know about our past week!
Today was Parker's first day of Kindergarten! He is in a fabulous classroom with high ceilings and lots of room. There are 6 kids, 1 teacher and 2 TA's. His teacher seems very nice and really wants to challenge the kids and help them reach their full potentials. He loved visiting on Meet the Teacher night, but wasn't as keen getting dropped off. But I've heard that he is doing great and having fun. Camden was a bit jealous of his cool classroom..but oh well! I am sad that they are on different schools and different schedules, but it will give me some alone time with each child every day and then different times throughout the year! So that will be great. Here is a picture of my big boy (more on that later!)


Over the weekend, we had lots of fun. On Saturday, we had an Indian dinner (well, my americanized version) and converted 2 men who said they hated Indian food to now knowing what to order at an Indian restaurant! We made a curry chicken, curry potatoes and spinach, Chicken Tikka Masala and naan. We also had some non-Indian alternatives ;) The men really liked the Chicken Tikka Masala. Their wives, who like Indian food, were so grateful :) I will post the recipes on the "relative recipes" blog for anyone to copy and make at home!


On Friday, the whole family went out on the boat with our friends. This was the first time for either Parker or Camden to be on a motorboat. Camden had fun tubing and swimming and we all had fun powering across the water. Parker really enjoyed the wind in his face as we went. Camden did mention, though, that it was "too much fun" and wanted to know why we didn't have a boat to take out on a regular basis. Ummm....that was fun to answer :) Luckily, they are older then us, so I pointed out their older children and how we aren't really able to buy a boat right now, and it would be tough to take Parker out regularly anyways. That will hopefully hold him off for a few more years!

Look at this sailor boy!


Lovin the wind in his face!


On Wednesday, Paul took off of work and we headed to the beach for the day! It was really fun. Camden went boogie boarding for the first time and really enjoyed that. We picked up terrible seashells (seriously, they're bad!) and pretty rocks on the beach and, of course, played in the sand. The kids both enjoy the beach so much, it makes it an enjoyable day for all!

Boogie boarding!

And, referring to the "big boy" comment. We took Parker to his GI Dr. last Monday and he had gained 6 (yes SIX) pounds in the last 6 months!!!! He is now 36 pounds. He went from finally making it on the growth chart last visit to being in the 20th percentile! Now wonder he grew out of all his clothes this summer! We actually have to cut back his feedings to get him back between the 5th and 10th percentile (why make it any harder for him to move!) Now that we aren't stressing about his weight for the first time in almost 5 years, we can work on getting him to eat!



Well, life has been good and busy! We are sad the olympics are gone :( Camden is now determined to be in them-we figure 2020 or 2024 :) He hasn't picked his sport yet, but we will keep you posted!

Nothing much to report...

Sorry for my lack of blog posts! I haven't taken any pics and just haven't been doing much except watching the olympics, which, by the way, I am TOTALLY addicted to! My favorite parts have been some of those amazing Phelps races, the women's beach volleyball team, women's gymnastics (favorite since I was little) and watching the 100 meter dash last night. Wow! What an impressive showing!

Parker just finished up his last week of summer school and Camden has finished 3 weeks of first grade. I was out having fun until I sprained my elbow-seriously, I am such a klutz! I fell while playing tennis-you know, that contact sport that results in so many injuries...yeah...So we have just been hanging out! Paul is taking Wednesday off and we are planning on heading to the beach, unless weather dictates otherwise. It will be fun to take a family day-he has been working so hard this summer! Everyone is doing well! Parker has his GI appointment tomorrow, so we will get to see just how big this growth spurt has been. He is almost looking his age (well, until he turns 5 in a week and a half.)

So here are just some tidbits about the kids. Camden is still very much into Pokemon (stupid easter bunny for putting them in his basket...) He is doing well in his new school and has finally taken a liking to reading-which has resulted in massive improvements in his reading and writing! He finally sees the utility in it (he can read and write pokemon stories...) We are going to preview a gymnastics class in a few weeks that is at the same time as Parker's PT-he liked the olympics too!

Parker is sweet as always! He did a good job of adjusting to summer school, so I hope his transition to his new class will go as well! He will start horseback riding in the Fall, and keeps doing his physical therapy at the gym. He continues to work to try and communicate better!

I hope all of you are doing great! I'll add pics after our beach trip!

Yep, that's me! Still not too old to try new tricks :)

I had a very fantastic Friday! :) I got to go out on my friend's boat and learn how to water ski!!! The weather was absolutely fabulous and the water was nice and calm. It took me 3 times to get up, and a 4th time to actually get going! The first try, I told her to "hit it" and when she gunned the engine, I was just not prepared and got water up my nose and totally biffed it. The second time, I prevented the water up my nose, but still didn't go anywhere. The 3rd time, I got up, but leaned back too far and flipped myself back...but the fourth time...I was money!!! I had a HUGE smile on my face the whole time-it was really cool!

It was SOOO fun! She ended up sinkng me by going too slow over some bumps, and I wasn't sure what to do and just let go. Not only was it fun, but I got a good workout! We also had a picnic on the water, and I went tubing with her kids (also a good work out!).

It was fun to have a mini vacation for the day while the kids were at school! It was also quite the pick me up since I had been feeling a bit down...I did feel a bit guilty that Paul was off working hard, and I was on the lake...but he'll be going white water rafting next month with his coworkers, so it all evens out :) Hopefully we'll be able to get the whole family out one day-I'm sure Camden would love tubing, Parker would love speeding along on the water, and Paul has never been able to "pop up" while water skiing because the water has always been choppy-so he deserves a try! Here's to living less then 30 minutes from a lake! Ahh, I just love it here!

A kid this cool deserves a cool room to go with it

This first picture is of Camden and his homemade costume. He got this idea in his head and started collecting supplies, then told us that he was making himself an Iron Man costume. I so wish the movie was appropriate for him, he would love it! Anyways, he stapled and taped everything together, put it on, and came over telling us, "I Am Iron Man!" He is so creative!

Yesterday, Paul was out of town, so I redecorated. I decided to continue my painting binge with Camden's room. I have been thinking about this a long time, and finally did it! The stripes were time consuming, but I think that they turned out fantastic! I still have a little touching up to do since the tape doesn't create a perfect line, but I am really happy with how it turned out! Camden also thinks that it's really cool (although he would prefer a Pokemon, Speed Racer, Transformers room.) I like it so much, I think I'm going to post it on ratemyspace.hgtv.com and see what everyone else thinks! I painted 2 walls khaki (cheaply using leftover paint from the house) and then painted the other 2 1/2 walls blue (there is a diagonal doorway which creates another wall.) the stripes are onl on the khaki wall using the color scheme/style from the quilt.

So, I was thinking, why do I tend to redecorate when Paul is gone? here is what I came up with:

1) I don't feel guilty staying up till 2am finishing my project (I get kinda obsessed with my "projects"), or ditching him all day and evening.

2) I don't make him feel guilty for not helping-I actually prefer to do these projects myself, because I have an idea in my head but can be flexible if its not turning out how I want (and I'm kind of bossy...)

3) I like to stay up late when he is gone so I am super tired and don't have enough energy to be afraid of the dark when he's not home.

4) Because I don't have to worry whether he really likes my idea or not, or whether he prefers it "the way it is."

5) Paul doesn't leave very much, so it just gives me an excuse to get of my behind and do it!!!

1st day of 1st grade

My child is officially a 1st grader-wow! He was so excited to see the computers in his classroom and was more excited then scared to meet his new teacher. She seems really nice, and our neighbor had her last year and said that she is fantastic, so we are very excited. Her is the 1st day of school pic-he's getting so big! I went back and found his first day pics from the last few years, it is so fun to compare! Also, you can see his height growth by comparing the door handles-who would've thunk?

My big 1st grader:

1st Day of Kindergarten:

1st Day of 4 year old preschool:

1st Day of 3 year old preschool: (how cute was he?)

Pictures from the summer

Camden with his cool walking stick from Camp Blazing Trails-he enjoyed the fun outdoor camp and is looking forward to becoming a cub scout in a couple of years.

Camden, Clark, Spencer and Parker all enjoying the playground! We all hung out together while Scott and Jen attended a temple session.

Camden and I on the train ride at Pullen park. We were even blessed with fabulous weather!
Camden out on the rink where he was a star. I admired his endurance and independence.


video-look at this persistence!

Summer Camps

I am behind on blogging because I have misplaced my camera...as soon as I find it, I will add some pictures. But I thought I would do a bit of an update on the summer before school starts, which for Camden, is tomorrow!

Parker has been doing a summer camp at the Tammy Lynn Center for the developmentally disabled. During the school year, they take the children that have too many medical issues for the public school system. During the summer, they have 2, 4 week, sessions of summer school for children that have special needs. Parker really enjoys it and gets so much attention and care! It is worth the tuition and the 25 minute drive each way. Camden and I have listened to several books on CD to and from his school-our favorites being the first 2 books of the Septimus Heap series! He is so excited when he gets to school every morning-as are his classmates and teachers. He has one little girl that always wants to give him a hug and a kiss and practically chants his name when he arrives!

Camden had 2 half day camps this summer. At the end of June, he was in an international culture art camp. They "travelled" to several different countries and then did art projects that had to do with the country's culture or festivals. He made all kinds of fun crafts.

After we got back from Albuquerque, he had a week off, and then went to YMCA Camp Blazing trails. This was my thought of what a summer camp should be! It was a half day camp at Lake Crabtree park about 10 minutes away. (If you have visited us, it is next to the big lake we pass on the way to and from the airport.) They did hiking, fishing, archery, canoing and even had a ranger come visit! They also had a fun water day at the end with a huge slip and slide. They gave Camden a cool walking stick. He really enjoyed the camp, and the counselors were sad he hadn't signed up for another week :( He loved all the beads that he got for doing various things (like kissing a fish,) and also got a camper of the day and camper of the week bead!

So, this last week was his last week of summer since he starts school tomorrow! (Ahhh!!! Where is that camera for my first day of school pics?) So, last week, we did mommy camp. We did a fun activity every day to end up the summer. We went to the Marbles kids museum, which has an awesom olympic exhibit for the kids to try the events. We also went ice skating, to a cool park with paddle boats, a train and carousel, and saw "Journey To the Center of the Earth" in 3D. I think that Camden actually liked the movie the best-he was SOOO excited to see it! I waited till late in the week so I could bribe him with good behavior (or threaten him when there was bad behavior...) Ice skating was an unexpected highlight. He went once when he was like 3 1/2 and Paul and I had to hold him on either side, but he did much better this time! First of all, Camden wouldn't let me help him-he was determined to do it himself. In fact, he told me that when I helped him, it made it harder for him to skate! He fell like every 20 seconds, and he would just get back up and keep going. I have some video I will download soon-it is really cute. He kept saying over and over how much fun it was-so it is definitely a do again!

Well, that was the kid's summer! Parker will continue in summer school for 3 more weeks...then a week off, and then they will both be in school for 5 weeks! Juggling traditional and year round school may be challenging, but I think that it will be fun to have breaks with both kids alone and really spend quality time with each of them. I look forward to our new school year and new adventure! I'll keep ya'll posted! (And I promise pictures will follow tomorrow!)

Nursery Leader

Well...our RS president is moving to Australia, so our entire preisidency was released from our callings and many of us got new ones.

So what is my new calling?...I am the new nursery leader for the ward. I know, what?!?!?! So I will go from planning activities that about 40 ladies show up for, to planning Sunday for 30-40 little 1,2 and 3 year olds. Yes, it is a large nursery! There are currently 3 nurseries, soon to be 4-which will be split between 3 classrooms. So, really, I am like the CEO of nursery :) I went today to check it out, and found I will have to get used to the little ones again...but I'm sure that it is like riding a bike :)

So, there is my exciting news for the week! If you need me on Sunday, you'll know where I am! No more talking in the halls during Sunday school... If any of you have great ideas for nursery-let me know! Luckily, the nursery leader that I am replacing did a fabulous job of getting it organized and running smoothly, so hopefully I can try to take her place! Wish me luck!

Our backyard

Here are some updates to our back yard ;)

First of all, I got a tube slide from a friend at church (Thank you Sherri!!!), and after about 10 hours of heavy labor, I finished it! First, some advice to anyone thinking of adding a tube slide to your playground...DON'T!!! It was A LOT of work! Plus, they are normally ridiculously expensive! But it does look really cool, and Camden thinks that I am a cool mom. He wanted to invite the neighbors over to play on it, and they had a lot of fun. So...maybe it was worth it :) At least Camden now has MY dream swing set ;) Funny what we do for our kids because we would have wanted it as a kid...

My garden continues to grow. I have to admit, I love gardening in North Carolina! Let me tell you what I have done to help my garden grow....uh...nothing. Granted, the rabbits keep nibbling at my parsley, they ate all my lettuce and onions, and the zucchini is covering my chives and bell peppers...but I got 4 yummy tomatoes and a cucumber today...so sounds good to me! Plus, check out my 2 foot tall basil! My spaghetti squash is the plant in the back going crazy. I'm pretty excited about it, but it will be a strange thing to be sharing-anyone want to "pre-reserve" any spaghetti squash? Next year, I'll even take better care of it and it will be even better!This last pic has nothing to do with our back yard, I just thought it was funny. Parker got ahold of ONE chocolate covered pretzel-seriously, I had no idea he could make such a mess with it!

Thoughtful prayer

Camden has never been one to look forward to his evening prayers. He often even simply says, thank you for everything in order to shorten it. But last night, he said the sweetest prayer, and I had to share. He said that he was thankful that I was nice to him (came as a shock to me ;), he blessed daddy to be safe (since he knew he had to travel around a lot to go to all of his appointments), and then he said he was thankful that I had found a good summer school for Parker, one that made Parker happy. How thoughtful to think about the best thing for his brother, and recognize it.

I wish that I was as quick to remember the simple things to be thankful for. As I laid in bed last night, thinking about all of the simple things that I had been blessed with, I was overwhelemed with gratitude for the simple things that I take for granted...(in no particular order)

I'm thankful my husband has a job-one he even enjoys!
I'm thankful my kids have such great opportunities for education
I'm thankful that my kids are happy
I'm thankful that I am able to take care of my children
I'm thankful for my home and community (We really do love it here in Cary!)
I'm thankful for the abundance of friends I have-especially after moving to NC!
I'm thankful for 3 sisters and a brother-who still all keep in contact with me and how much fun we have when we spend time together
I'm thankful for 2 parents who both love me and want the best for me and raised me to be a good person
I'm thankful that I love my inlaws ;) And that they are so supportive and wonderful-I gained a second set of parents!
I am thankful to have children to remind me of the wonder and simpleness of everything around me-who remind me to look for simple joys and to enjoy them
I'm thankful to be a mom-to allow me to have these small moments...between the craziness of life!

There is so much more I am thankful for...but alas, I must pick up Parker from his afformentioned summer school...

More pool pics

Parker and Camden have really enjoyed the pool this year. Camden wouldn't even put his head under water at the beginning of last summer, and now he's diving for his torpedo-the big difference is goggles. He HATES to get water into his eyes! Parker will drink the pool if I let him. His favorite things is being splashed and "rained on." We have a splash yard at the Y, which he LOVES. This is why I bought the stroller I did-the cover comes off and it turns into a mesh stroller, so I can stroll him around the splash yard instead of tring to carry a heavy squirmy kid! I'm so smart :) Anyways, here are a couple more pics uf us at the pool last week. They were too cute not to add!

Aunt Tiffany taking Parker through the "rain" at the pool.



Camden enjoying the water with his goggles (which I had to go buy since we hadn't brought any)Landon playing with John. Cute little kid ;)

Our fun week in Albuquerque

After we were done celebrating mom's birthday, it was time to do some fun things for the kids. We were in Albuquerque till Saturday, so had some extra days to have fun. We went to the Rio Grande Nature center-one of the trails was not very exciting, but the river was pretty. We went to the Museum of Natural History and the Explora children's museum (Thanks to reciprocity with my NC Museum of Life and Science membership.) On the 4th, we went to a really cool pool and then had a cookout in the backyard. Camden said he wished we could stay for 200 days! So, here are some of the highlights of our week:

Daddy and Camden hanging out near the Rio Grande:
Rub a dub dub, 3 boys in a tub:

Tired after going to the museum:Playing at the West Mesa pool:

The Water slide...Camden went down this thing like 25 times. He would ride down, swim to the edge and run back up the stairs. He did this over and over again for almost an hour! It was great fun for him, and he crashed that night!

My mom's surprise birthday weekend o'fun!

Many of you know how long we have been planning this and want to know how it went...so here is a summary of the weekend!

For those who don't know the background...my mom turned 50 yesterday, and wasn't all that excited about her birthday. Last year (planning ahead), I thought it would be so fun to surprise her and get all of my siblings to come out for her birthday. I thought, what better way to show our mom how much we love her and appreciate all that she has done for us for the last 30 years then to all come out and "kidnap" her for her special day. Well, her birthday ended up falling on a Monday, so we thought that we would make a whole weekend out of it!

First, we surprised her! Now, my sister, Tiffany, was in charge of keeping her in town since she works with her. She definitely had the hardest job! My mom had to travel to Arizona on Friday and didn't get home till almost 10pm! We spent that time trying to think of a creative and fun way to surprise her, since our original plan had not worked out since she wasn't home. The ideas ranged from putting panty hose over our heads and swarming her car as she pulled in, standing in the garage and let her lights shine on us as she came in (we were worried she wouldn't be paying attention and run us over), just casually come into the living room one at a time, all sit on the couch and casually welcome her in...well, you get the idea. What did we settle on?!?!? We simply hid behind the couch and jumped out and surprised her-boring....but effective. She just started laughing hysterically after we all jumped out!We then presented her with the itinerary for the weekend, which my lovely sister Shana made up for her. She was a bit more surprised at that point...

So, what did we do?

Here was the itinerary:

Day 1-Saturday: Excitement and Adventure

We took a white water rafting trip on the Rio Grande river! The morning was a gentle float and lunch followed by an afternoon of rapids. I took Parker for the afternoon and tried to find good spots to take pictures of the raft making its way down. It was really fun and everyone had a really fun time! We followed our rafting trip by a cookout at home for dinner. We rented a movie, but half of us fell asleep because we were so tired!

Day 2-Sunday: Relax and Renew

Well, of course, we attended church. But then we created our own personal spa! We found items from mother's day past, as well as brought various items to create an entire home spa. We did facials, manicures, pedicures as well as some self massage. We treated our mom, but all did our own nails and facials ;) Camden didn't quite think it was as much fun as we did!

Day 3-Monday-Celebrate and Enjoy-Mom's Birthday!!!

The day finally arrived! We started out in the morning playing tennis together. We all had fun trading off playing doubles and singles. Even Camden and Landon got into the action. We then came home and had a fantabulous brunch with sweet and savory crepes, eggs, bacon and smoothies. We went bowling in the afternoon. Parker loved bowling-especially the high 5's after a great frame! We all then came home and relaxd and got ready for dinner. We went to Buca Di Beppo for some fun, family fare! My dad gave my mom and new Canon powershot, which we were all envious of, and we enjoyed some great food. We then came home for cake-and lots of noise! We had gotten some noisemakers and had fun creating a rucus for her happy birthday song. We partied till everyone wa too tired to party any more! ;)

Tennis:

Bowling:

Dinner:

Blowing out the candles!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY AWESOME MOM!!!