Cold Weather

I don't know what's going on with Tucson lately, but we are on a 5 day cold streak of temps in the 40s!  & I have to say, I absolutely hate it.  I will gladly take 100 degree weather over freezing cold any day.

 

 

Last Winter, Tim wanted to go up in the mountains to take Ryan to see the snow.  For whatever reason, that never worked out.  Every time it snows in the mountains this year, he talks about taking the kids up to see the snow.

 

I am from Yuma, Arizona... probably one of the hottest places in the US.. seriously.  Okay- maybe not.  I have seen snow only a handful of times. 

 

The first time I saw snow I was a junior in high school.  My family and I drove up to Colorado to spend Christmas with my brothers.  While we were there we drove up to the mountains to see the snow.

 

 

The second time I saw snow, it was actually pretty exciting.  In January 2007, it snowed in Tucson (after living here for 9 years I have seen it snow twice.)  It was my first time seeing snow fall.  I don't think I even cared about how cold it was outside.  My roommates and I played in ths snow, built a little snowman and a turtle & threw snow at each other.  We took a ton of pictures, which I'll have to find someone-- they are somewhere stored in internet space.

 

 

 

The third time I saw snow was January 2008.  Tim & I and our friends Jennifer and Bryan went up to the white mountains for New Years Eve.  (There we are down below!)  I went sledding for the first time in my life.. hopefully the last time too :)  It was fun.. for a while.  Until my fingers felt like they were going to fall off.  I did everything I could ever want to do in snow.  I went on a sled.. I made a snow angel.. I wrote in the snow with my fingers and I threw snow balls.

 

 

 

 

 

The fourth time I saw snow, was February 2010. I was pregnant with Ryan, Tim had woken me up in the middle of the night to go see. I went downstairs and looked out the garage and then went back to sleep. Eh. It was only snow & it was too cold for me! That next morning there was still snow on the ground and my little monsters at work were so excited about it.

 

 

That brings me to the fifth time I saw snow, this past weekend, January 12, 2013.  Tim has been talking about it for a couple years now and I finally gave in on Friday night when I looked at Tim and asked "Hey, did you want to go up to Mount Lemmon tomorrow?"

 

That is how this day began.  We made breakfast in the morning.  Tim grilled up some hot dogs and hamburgers to take up to the mountains.  He popped some popcorn.  I packed diapers, sippy cups, mayonaise and ketchup. 

 

I don't think they even sell snow gear anywhere in Tucson.  I took the babies in their rooms and put a couple pairs of socks on them, pajamas, long sleeved shirts, sweat pants, more pants, more long sleeved shirts, sweaters.. and once we were out of the car, jackets.  Jakey actually had on two jackets.  The kids had five different layers on them. 

 

 

Jakey actually made me giggle.  He had so much clothes on him that he looked like a little rollie pollie and he couldn't even put his arms straight down; they stuck out.

 

 

 

We got out of the car, took some pictures, walked around for a few minutes and then went back in the car to warm up.. & this process repeated again.. two more times.

 

Whoever actually enjoys cold weather is crazy.  Being cold is probably the worst feeling.. if it's not the worst, well then it's pretty close.  My fingers hurt. My nose hurt.. My body hurt.  I had lots of layers and on and I was still cold.  Maybe that's why some people wear face masks with little eye holes cut out of them.

 

 

 

 

 

We drove back down the mountain because I wanted to eat and it got warmer the further down the mountain you were.  Well, it only felt like half a degree warmer.  We got out of the car.. took a few more pictures.   Then I asked Tim if we could eat in the car.  No way was I going to sit down at a picnic bench and let my booty freeze. 

 

 

 

We got back in the car & ate our popcorn.  I decided I didn't want to eat in the car, I wanted to go back into town and have a picnic.

 

 

 

 

Before we left, we stopped to say "hello" to a dog.   Ryan laughed and laughed as the dog licked his face.

 

 

We drove into town & had a picnic at the park.  We let Ryan run around and play for a few minutes & then sat down to have our hot dogs and hamburgers.  We decided it was too cold to stay any longer and went home.

 

When we got home, I checked the weather and it wasn't even in the 40s yet!

 

 

If I learned anything this day, I learned that I could care less if I never see snow again.. and if I do, I will be wearing a beanie that covers my head with the eyes cut out.

Dinner Menu- Week 2

When I planned last week's dinner menu.. I was on a roll so I actually planned this week's menu also.

Monday


Hamburgers & Hot dogs

Tuesday

 

Crockpot Chicken Tacos

This one is one of my favorites! After the first time Tim & I ate them, we wanted them for Ryan's second birthday party.

 

Wednesday

 

Bean Tostadas

 

Thursday

Pierogi Casserole

I have never made this casserole.. but it looks so good  (& so unhealthy!)  Yikes.  I'll let you know how it tastes.

Friday

Homemade Calzones

Just a fun way to make pizza :)

Saturday

Tacos.

I stole this picture online too.  Tim doesn't make tacos like this, I do.  But tonight is Tim's taco night, not mine!  I'll have to pay attention to what he does when he makes his tacos so I can share the recipe with you. He mixes ground beef with saltine crackers, salt, pepper, and garlic salt... maybe something else.. I'm not sure.  Anways, he mixes it all together and puts a little in a corn tortilla.  He folds the corn tortilla in half and fries them in a skillet.  I'll try to remember to take pictures and post the recipe.

Sunday

... leftovers!

This week I only took 3 recipes from Pinterest.  I love Pinterest for dinner ideas.

Dinner menu shopping list:  cooking spray,  potatoes, tomato, cheese, corn tortillas and crackers. I have all the other ingredients needed.  Love small shopping lists :)  Next weeks will probably be bigger.

The Week of Christmas

The week of Christmas was pretty special.  I guess it's more like the week before.  My last day of work before Winter vacation was Dec 19 & I got out at 11:30am.  We headed up to Yuma on Dec 21 because our sweet little niece had a very special 3rd birthday the next day that we couldn't miss.

 

 

 

 

Rian- "Rianlicious."  She had the cutest little Pinkalicious party.

 

 

The next day, Rebecca & Steven and Tim & I were getting the babies dedicated at church.  My grandpa dedicated the kids & Rebecca's dad and my dad said a special prayer for us.  It was pretty special to have our families up on stage with us.

 

 

 

 

We spent the day baking cookies & Ryan wanted to help.  He stuck a measuring spoon in the mix and tried stiring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Eve consisted of baking cookies all day long & looking at Christmas lights that night.  Ryan helped us decorate the cookies.

 

 

 

 

We couldn't end Christmas Eve without a letter to Santa.  Ryan's first letter to Santa :)  Daddy helped Ryan write his letter.

 

 

 

Ryan was pretty excited about Santa coming that night.  After we took the picture, I went to put my camera on the counter and Ryan started eating Santa's cookies so we had to put them up on the counter until Ryan went to bed. :)

 

 

 

 

Christmas was so fun this year!  Ryan was so excited about checking out the goodies in his stocking.  He helped Jakey look through his too.  Their favorite stocking gift was their tooth brushes.  They spent at least 20 minutes chewing on their tooth brushes and brushing their teeth.

 

Santa left the boys a train of hotwheel cars around the tree and Ryan kept saying "A car!....A car!... A car!" over and over and over.  He brought them over to momma one by one so I could open them up for him.

 

 

 

Ryan loved opening up all his presents and got excited over all of them.  New shoes & new cars!

 

 

 

Jakey was even able to pull the paper off of his presents too.

 

 

More presents.

 

 

 

We loved watching them open their presents.  I am so excited for next year when the kids are a little bigger and have even more fun opening up their presents and seeing their gifts from Santa.

 

 

 

That night Jakey was super snuggly and we took advantage of it and snuggled right along with him.

 

 

 

 

We had to leave Yuma the day after Christmas so we could go to Tim's parent's house and have  Christmas with them.  The kids love their grandparents!

 

 

We came home to another Christmas presents.  The kids got personalized puzzles from their Auntie Loni.  They love them!  Ryan knows all the lowercase letters too.  He's getting so smart.

 

 

 

My two week vacation was nice.  Lots of time spent with my parents and lots of time with Tim's parents as well.  A sweet little girl turned 3 and our little Jakey turned 1.  & I didn't cook dinner once :)

 

 

Meal Planning

I have tried several times to meal plan. I have gone a whole week and even up to two quite a few times, and then for whatever reason, stop.  I like cooking dinner for my husband and kids.  However, not knowing what I want to eat, or what Tim wants to eat can get pretty annoying when I open the freezer, then fridge, and pantry... repeat.

So this year, I would like to be better at meal planning.  I'm also going to write it all down here.  I have frequently google searched "meal planning" to see what everyone else is eating for dinner.  I don't care about what's "healthiest" or "organic."  If it tastes good, I'll eat it.  & Many things to Pinterest for making my meal planning so much easier than ever before!

Monday

White chicken enchiladas

Tuesday

Lasagna

Wednesday

The picture on Pinterest doesn't link to anywhere- at least mine doesn't.  You don't really need any words (just follow the picture!)... roast, 1 packet of brown gracy, a packet of ranch, and a packet of italian dressing in the crockpot.  Yum!

Thursday

Oven baked chimichangas

Friday

Pizza casserole

Saturday

Crock pot pork chops w/ cream of mushroom soup

Sunday... left overs

All pictures are stolen from the websites I got the recipes from and all recipes are underneath the pictures, just click on the link!

My shopping list of this week consisted of: sour cream, egg noodles & lasagna noodles.. everything else was already in my house!  Not bad.

If I ever wake up and don't feel like eating a meal that night, I just swap meals with a different day of the week & I still have all ingredients I need.

Ryan's New Room

We painted Ryan's nursery at our old house.  It was a tanish/brown color on two walls with a green stripe around the room.  We hung up monkey pictures and safari animals around his room.  When we moved into our new house, Ryan was already 2  years old.  Tim was the first to mention not hanging up the safari animals in Ryan's new room since he wasn't a baby anymore.  I had never even thought about it.

 

Ryan loves cars so I searched Pinterest for the perfect big boy room for Ryan.  I knew I wanted green & blue with a road in the middle.  Tim & I set out to Walmart for the perfect paint.  Well, Walmart only had one of the colors we wanted so we went to Lowes and got the rest.  4 cans of paint later, we were ready to paint his room!

 

I shouldn't say "we."  Momma spent her time playing with the kids and coming in quite frequently to check the progress.  Daddy did all the work.  I am so in love with how  it turned out!

 

We still have his baby furniture.  He will be getting big boy furniture for his 3rd birthday.  Papa is going to make him a twin bed & Grandma is making him a new quilt to go along with it (we already picked out the fabric but I have to wait another 6 months to see the end result.)

 

 

Here are some pictures of how everything turned out!

 

 

Auntie Jenn got him the car canvas above his dresser.  I love it.

 

 

Grandma R got him this little table for his 2nd birthday.  Auntie Loni got them the cute name puzzles!

 

 

Grandma H made him some new curtains!  His new quilt and pillow case will match the curtains.

 

 

 

 

Auntie Caitlyn made him this sign.

 

 

 

Some baby touches, I'll probably keep these in here :)  I like his baby pictures and his little piggy bank.

 

 

Grandma H found this little truck basket & got it for Ryan, new it would fit perfectly in his new room.

 

 

I still want to hang up a few things on the wall, but overall, I am so happy with how everything turned out & I'll post more pictures in June when Ryan has his new furniture and quilt.  Ryan loves it too!

 

Ryan- 2.5 years old

I haven't written an update on Ryan in a while.  He is doing so many new things and learning so much that I thought it's about the time that I sit here and write it all down.

November & December were such big learning months for him.

A week before Thanksgiving, we went to JoAnn to get wooden letters for Jake's room.  Ryan was so excited he ran up the letters and started pulling them off the shelf.  Not only was my 2 year old pulling them off the shelf, he was identifying them as he was looking at them.  "M," "N," "K,"O."  Tim and I just looked at each other.. No way.  How the heck does he know his letters?  I know he can SAY them but I didn't know he could IDENTIFY them.  So I kept holding them and asking him what they were and he kept telling me the RIGHT answers.

I had bought Ryan a few puzzles for Christmas.  When we got home I opened up a Melissa & Doug alphabet puzzle for him & this kid was in heaven.  He was identifying at least half of the letters and I felt so proud of him.  We have been working on his puzzle and his bath foam letters and within a week he could identify every single letter!  My mom helped with him too, she had him for two days before Thanksgiving and worked on his letters with him.    It took him about a month to say the letter "L." For whatever reason, he always skipped over that one.  As of this past week, he finally will say the letter L.  When he says his ABCs, he can say "A, B, C, D, E" & "W, X, Y, Z."  We are still working on everything in between.

On top of letters, we have been working on numbers.  First he learned 5, then 2.. followed by everything else.  He can identify the numbers 1-9.  5 is his favorite number.  We are working on counting.  He can count all the way up to ten.  Sometimes he makes mistakes.. sometimes he leaves out the number 4.  Pretty soon we will have 100 percent accuracy.

He likes shapes too.  He can point out and identify stars and circles.  He sure loved Christmas time and seeing stars all over the place.

He is becoming quite the little helper.  He wants to help us do everything.  He loves to help cook and bake.  He likes to crack eggs and help stir.  He helped mommy bake cupcakes & loved every minute of it.

His expressive language skills are really starting to take off.  He is now over 100 words.  He can form simple sentences.  He can also say which objects belong to a person, for example "momma car," "Jakey cup."  He now tells us when he is hungry by saying "eat."  He used to just get whiney and grumpy.  The other morning he told me "eat" and I asked him if he wanted cereal.  He said "No."  "eggs, juice."  That was the first time he has told me what he wanted to eat.

We had a step stool outside acting as stairs to Ryan's climber.  Well, I brought it in one day because he was always wanting up when I was cooking.  This new step stool has become his very best friend. This kid pulls the step stool all over the house.  It definitely came in handy these last few weeks with Christmas cookies and Jakey's birthday cupcakes on the counter.  Ryan will, very sneakily, drag the stool over to the counter as quiet as he can until he does see me any more and then pull it as fast as he can.  He thinks he has it all figured out.

He also uses it when we make waffles or toast.  He loves to wait for the food to pop up.

Ryan loves to snuggle with mommy and daddy.  He loves to wear shoes.  He is always asking us to put shoes on.  He doesn't like to wear socks without his shoes on, he pulls them off.  He doesn't like wearing jackets.  He takes those off too. He is FINALLY starting to tell me when he needs a new diaper. Maybe potty training is coming sooner than I thought it would.  We will see.  He loves to do puzzles and play with cars.  He is crazy about the alphabet.  He got a magna doodle for Christmas and is always asking me to draw letters on it, mostly X or W.  He loves to sing songs.

He is DEFINITELY two.  He was the sweetest little guy... but now is age is showing through his cute little face.  He doesn't really take naps anymore.  He doesn't want to go to bed at night.  He will cry for only a minute though and then goes right to bed since he didn't take a nap earlier.  He sometimes likes to share.  He sometimes doesn't like to share.  He likes to squeal and scream and run around like a mad man.  He's loud and crazy.

He is 23.5 pounds.  He is wearing a size 5 shoe.  His shirts, pants, shorts, and pajamas are all size 18m.  He can wear some 2T shirts and pajamas but they are a little big.

On December 22, after 2 years 6 months and 6 days, we moved his car seat from rear facing to forward facing.  He really likes it.  All I ever hear now is "Momma, a X" and "Momma, a car!" and "Momma a H." Over.  And Over. And Over.  He is seeing all sorts of things he used to not be able to see.  I wanted him rear facing until he was 2.5 and we made it!