Ten on Tuesday.

1. I made Butternut Squash Risotto tonight for dinner. I used the recipe just as it was minus the sage just because I didn't have any! We had it as the main entree along with roasted asparagus. It was super yummy! Pat had three helpings, I had two, Owen ate all of his one helping and Jack tried every which way he could think of to get out of eating his. He even said, "Mommy, I think I need a time-out right now, so I need to leave the table and sit in the corner." Well played Jackers, but you still need to eat!

2. When I was in Kindergarten, I vividly remember dressing up as witch for Halloween. We wore our costumes to school and we had a Halloween parade through the halls of my school. I remember it being very neat. Screech...halt...what?!? The times, they are a changen' Jack's preschool handbook clearly stated that, We Do Not Dress In Costume For Halloween because we celebrate what each season has to offer and not specific holidays to respect the beliefs of families. I get it, I do....but it would have been more fun if Jack could have dressed up!


However, we were still able to bring treats, which I was all about! So, my original plan was for Jack and I to make these:

Totally cute, right?!

Well, then I had a dilemma...make those cupcakes or take a shower. Now, I had not showered for three days or maybe was it four days? So gross, I know, which then led me to choose the shower and go with plan B, which were these:

Goodies attached with Jack's thumbprint jack-o-lanterns tags.

Quick, easy and Jack mastered the art of the hole-punch.

3. 

Dear Solicitors,

I love that you come to my house and ring my doorbell at the most convenient times of the day, when my baby is sound asleep for his nap or when we are right in the middle of our family dinner. I love that many of you, after ringing my doorbell resulting in my three dogs barking like crazy, ask, "Oh sorry, do you have a baby napping?" or "Oh sorry, are you eating dinner right now?". Seriously?!

I don't want to hear about your religion and how it will save me from the devil, I don't want to buy your Kirby vacuum, I don't want you to practice public speaking and eye contact with me, I don't want a reduced-price magazine subscription, I don't want your Schwann's Food (the ice cream is tempting though), and I don't want my lawn sprayed with your chemicals.

Enough! Read the rock!

Thank you for your time.

Disclaimer: This is not for those selling GS cookies, tubs of cookie dough and popcorn, and maybe pizzas.

4. I heart farm sinks!

 Image Found Here

5.  The boys and I gathered up a bunch of acorns from my backyard today. Maybe I will attempt to make an acorn wreath? I found a super easy, but probably will burn my fingers tutorial right here!

Image Found Here

6. I hope this movie is good...real good because I'm excited to see it!

Speaking of movies, this weekend I watched two!

1. Sex and The City 2: Although it was fun to see with a friend, it was basically garbage! What were they thinking making that? 1/2 star

2. The Town: Awesome, thrilling & my goodness has Ben Affleck got himself one gizzled body. 4 stars

7. We went for a walk in the woods yesterday or as Jack kept saying, "we're going on a bear hunt and I will fight him off because I am Spiderman". Yes, we are still talking about/wearing Spiderman...still. Anyway, the adventure into the woods was super fun as my little explorers found lots of new and exciting things to talk about/play with/take home. We will most definitely be doing this again.

 

 

8. On Halloween night, Pat begged me to watch the premiere of The Walking Dead. Begged me. He did not do this because he wanted to spend time with me or because he thought I might enjoy the show too, but because he was scarred.

I should have expected this!
HeeHee!

But, I did watch the premiere with him and I actually liked it! It's disturbing and freaky and down-right scary at times....and it's got us hooked. For now anyway.

9. Here the boys were watching Toy Story 3 for the first time since it just came out on DVD (gotta love that Redbox!). 

Mesmerizing!

In all honesty, Owen truly only sat like this for the amount of time it took for me to snap this photo. 

10. Silhouettes anyone?

Cranberry Orange Bread

 

Here is a great bread recipe, perfect for the fall.

It's an oldie, but such a goodie a la my Grandma.

I made this last night in preparation of a weekend visit from one of my best girlfriends!

I doubled the recipe and used what I think tastes best (changes in purple)!

Enjoy!

Cranberry Orange Bread

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 Tbs. melted shortening, cooled (2 Tbs. melted butter)
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 2 Tbs. hot water
• 1/2 cup ground nuts
• 1 cup chopped cranberries (2 or more cups whole cranberries)

Preheat oven at 325 degrees, Swift dry ingredients together. Add beaten egg, melted shortening/butter, orange juice and hot water. Combine only until dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in nuts and cranberries. Put in a greased loaf pan and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool and store in refrigerator

A Moment.

Jack likes routines. 

He is now at the age where if the routine is off, he will let us know.

He prefers his Momma to put him to bed at night, every night. 

Except just recently he gave Tuesday nights to his Daddy.

I guess Momma knows how to snuggle just right!

Anyway, to the moment.

Tonight as I was laying with Jack, he said, "Momma, I love you."

So I asked why, "why do you love me Jack?"

Jack then responded, "I love you so much because you have beautiful hair."

Ohh, how sweet. I liked where this was going, so I asked, "why else do you love me?"

And that just opened a can of silly worms because he told me this,

 "I love you because you have beautiful eyes like Beasley and your teeth are green and you have boogers in your nose and you have googly eyes!"

And it ended just as I expected....both of us giggling.

After I whisper my nightly sweet things in his ear, he asks, "Momma, will you put Scooby next to me?"

It's part of the routine.

Halloween 2010: A Checklist.

HALLOWEEN 2010

MiMi and PaPa here to help celebrate.....check.

Carve pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns.....check.

Have PaPa help get out the "yucky guts" from the pumpkins.....check.

Take a picture of my lil' pumpkin carvers with their PaPa....check.

Display our cute jack-o'-lanterns for Halloween night....check.

Roast pumpkin seeds for a yummy snack.....check.

(Owen loved these...just loved them, more so than anyone else!)

Make a 'take your own' candy bowl....check.

(This was my first time doing something like this because we were all going out trick or treating this year and it worked out perfect!)

 Ask Jack one thousand times what he wants to dress up as for Halloween.....check.

Have Jack tell me he wants to be "I-Ron Man" for Halloween one thousand times....check.

Tell Jack one thousand times we do not have that costume nor will Mommy be buying that one due to the three superhero costumes he already has.....check.

Jack made a split second decision to be Captain America complete with rubber rain boots and sword.

Thank goodness....check.

Dress-up Owen in his "moo-cow" costume complete with a nose and freckles (do cows have freckles?)....check.

Attempt to get a picture of them together (*sigh*)....check.

But get one with their grandma....check.

Take the boys around our neighborhood on a beautiful fall night...check.

Jack ran the entire time, collapsing into the stroller when we reached our block. Such a trooper.

Owen insisted on walking and having a sucker in his mouth the whole time. He threw a fit if he was not doing either of those. As he went up to each house with the sucker in his mouth, he would hand that goopy sucker to the person and grab a new one out of their bowl.

Take a quick picture with my boys before their post-candy meltdown.....check.

Owen had a post-eight suckers meltdown....it was ugly (thank goodness he's my cutie-patootie).

and

Jack snuggled with his MiMi and watched How to train a Dragon.

Halloween was so much fun this year. I am so glad my in-laws were here to spend time with us and see the boys relishing in all of it. The boys are at a great age and they're really understanding all this stuff now. Interestingly enough however, neither of them have asked for their candy (not once!) since.

Because of this, I need to know:

How many small-sized candy bars make up a regular sized candy bar?

Knowing this may help to keep me away from their candy buckets.
But it probably won't....sheesh!

A song.

I have been listening to this a lot lately.

Mommas....you better grab a tissue.

And it came on just like that.

Each of the boys had their last tumbling class for the current session. It was ribbon day... they get up on the podium, accept their ribbon and shout, "Ta-Da"!!

After watching his brother for the past (almost) two years, Owen was finally able to take his first tumbling class. So while Jack was in the big-boy, don't need your Momma anymore class, Owen and I were in his toddler, get out your energy class together.

Owen loves his Ms. Jody. 

A little back story on this tumbling class. 

When we first moved here almost two years ago, Jack was just two and I was very pregnant with Owen. It was the middle of the winter, I didn't know a soul and I needed something to do with my Jackers. Thank goodness for Google because it led me to this gymnastics gym and its tumbling classes. After I had Owen, I took Jack to class with my baby carrier in hand. I was getting O all situated in the carrier when another mom informed me that no babies/no babies in carriers were allowed. Literally, tears welled up in my eyes when she told me this as I was thinking, "Now what am I going to do?".

rambunctious toddler + newborn baby + middle of winter + don't.know.anybody = Emotional Nicole

Anyway, we made it work so we could still take Jack to this class and so I could have interaction with other human beings. We have since had Jack in many classes and he went to there camps this past summer. Looking at these pictures has shown me how far I have come and how far my boys have come and that makes me happy. 

And then after lunch and naps....it came on just like that!

The first icky virus of the season hit both boys at the exact same time.

Jack explained it as, "my brain hurts" and "food it hurting my throat" 

and

Owen had lots of tears and was attached to me for two whole days.

And both boys had high fevers, glossy eyes, and were super lethargic.

"Hold me...hold me...hold me" ~ Owen

My cure for the icky virus is simple.

The boys get into their comfortable clothes, we make "sick beds" on the couch, we have lots of downtime, take naps, watch movies (three to be exact) and eat popsicles.

This worked....48 hours later it has exited our household (hopefully).

One down....who knows how many to go?!?!

Cousins, Superheros and a Wedding.

Road trip, road trip...we went on a road trip.

To see cousins Ty and Frankie

and

attend my aunt's wedding!

Yeah...Yippee...Woot-Woot!!

.

.

.

.

Are we almost to Ty's house?

It's okay Owen that you have been fussing for the past four.hours.straight. 

Truly, four hours people!

We're still having fun.....right boys?

This sign of affection (which I have been seeing a lot of lately) definitely seemed to help.

Ahh...heart warming as I look at this (even if the focus is on the blanket and not the hands-boo).

After greeting each other with hugs and giggles, the boys immediately changed into a more appropriate attire.

Spiderman, of course!

Which then made them extra goofy and extra silly!

Perfect way to hand them off to the two babysitters along with their siblings and four dogs!

Yes, I was nervous...very nervous.

But, we glammed ourselves up and headed out to the wedding...nerves and all.

My brothers....oh, how they make me laugh like no other!

                My brother Andy and his wife Kady.                                             Us.                                                          My brother Keefe and his wife Holly.



Okay, onto the wedding. This was my aunt's wedding, as I said before, and she was getting married for the second time. Her first true love died unexpectedly six years ago. Well, who knew that there was another man out there in the world whom she would fall deeply in love with three years later. And three years later, get married. This wedding was not only the union of two people, but it was truly the union of two families. Beautiful, just beautiful. It was something I had never experienced before.

You could feel the love between these two families, it was overflowing!

(and they actually like each other as well)

 This picture makes me smile for many reasons.

But, what comes to mind first is that after seeing my aunt so sad for so many years, it makes me smile (big) to see her so truly happy.

beautiful wedding + fun night with my family + flawless babysitter experience = A Good Night Out!

The next morning, we woke up to rain...all.day.long.

So, we got in some GiGi snuggles

and we played in the rain anyway.

Warning...cuteness overload.

 

 

I wonder what they are talking about?

Doodle (which stems from Frankie Doodle which stems from the song Yankie Doodle) was not feeling well while we were visiting so she mostly was sleeping or snuggling her Momma. 

But, I was able to snap a few pictures of her.

She is always up for a photo-shoot even when she is not feeling well.

*Sigh*....she sure is a lovey!

And before we new it...time to head home boys...

Owen didn't even make it to the freeway before he completely zonked out! Phew!

Sure do wish we could see them and all of my extended family more often! When we got home, Jack asked, "Momma, now how many more sleeps until I get to see Ty?" 

We need to make that sooner than later, Bub!