Muffin Tin Monday

Today's theme was Patriotic/4th of July. I don't normally buy muffin tins like this, but after two stores, this was the only 6-cup muffin tin I could find. Featured in this muffin tin is all things red, white and blue!

Pasta and spaghetti sauce, mozzarella cheese, blue Jell-o and whipped cream, strawberries and whipped cream, vanilla yogurt with patriotic sprinkles, and blue cotton candy.

I enjoyed doing it and the kids liked it too! Everything was completely devoured except, Xander didn't want pasta after all that sweet stuff and Tayla doesn't like Jell-o.

For more Muffin Tin Monday Fun visit Michelle's blog: Her Cup Overfloweth

Muffin Tin Monday

It's Muffin Tin Monday!

I found this cute idea on my new favorite blog; Her Cup Overfloweth.
Every Monday is "Muffin Tin Monday." She has all sorts of creative themes for building a meal out of a muffin tin. This being my first muffin tin meal, I copied an idea from one of her followers.

This was our "Very Hungry Caterpillar" MTM. It goes as follows:

Hole 1: Sugar and Spice Yogurt dip

Hole 2: "He ate through one apple"

Hole 3: two pears

Hole 4: three plums

Hole 5: four strawberries

Hole 6: five mandarin oranges

Dessert: grape butterfly Jello jiggler


This made dinner a fun occasion. My little caterpillars were NOT still hungry after this meal. Xander LOVED eating "caterpillar food." And they both played with the butterflies...pretending they could fly over the dinner table. It was weird eating only fruit for dinner, but that was my fault and the kids didn't seem to mind. Overall, it was a success and we may be doing more MTM's in the future.

Funny Things

Tayla (17 months today) made Xander and I laugh. We were eating soup for lunch and she kept saying we were eating "poop." Another one that gets Xander every time is when we ask Tayla if she wants to go to the zoo. She responds, "eww." She is a parrot; repeating the last word in every sentence we say -- but it's still humerous to listen to her mispronouciations.

Here's some of our favorite Tayla words:
Boop (Book and her first word)
Mee mow (Mickey Mouse)
Bubble (Incredibles)
Beep (Sheep)
Bee-ar (Bear)
Bink (Blanket)
Nana (Banana)
Meal Peas (Milk Please)
Ans (Dance)
Tee (Teeth)
Ning-ers (Fingers)
Wah wer (Water)
Wee Wee (toes, this little piggy went wee wee)
Mummy (Monkey or Tummy, depending on the context)
Asses (Sunglasses)
Nan-ner (Xander, one of her favorite things!)
Daddy, work (Daddy is usually followed by the word 'work' lately)
Habby (Crabby)
Appy (Happy)

I am loving this phase, because we never got this phase with Xander. I swear I couldn't have made a list like this. If he said a word, it was the right word -- no baby talk. I LOVE that Tayla 'baby talks.'

Another funny difference between the two kids is in their singing. When Xander sings, I recongize the song only because I recognize the sequence of words he's saying, not the tune. When Tayla sings, I recongize the song only because I recognize the tune not the words. It's funny how even at a young age, they have very different talents.

14 miler

I ran 14 miles today! Crazy, I know. But it's just over half of a marathon...which I'm signed up to do just less than 3 months from now. Today I ran from our house in Idaho Falls to my in-laws' house in Shelley. I'm proud of myself.

I think a lot while I'm running (what else is there to do for 2+ hours by yourself). I may have had some profound thoughts, but I can't remember them right now.

The whole time I was waiting for Curtis and the kids to drive up and give me some water/Powerade. They finally showed up at about the 10 mile mark. Hooray! What was even more thrilling was when they came back on the 4-wheeler to say 'hi' at the 12 mile mark. I was thinking that they should do that the whole 14 miles, but I never got a chance to tell Curtis to do that. Somehow he read my mind and it really made my day. Thanks, honey.

When SAHM's day goes arwy.

Anyone wonder how a SAHM (stay at home mom) could have a bad day? Well this is just represents part of one afternoon (maybe just 1 hour). I was doing some dishes and my 1 year old daughter was 'helping' me. She kept taking the glasses out, I kept putting them back into the dishwasher. As I was putting a glass in the dishwasher it completely shattered and the force of glass flying everywhere shredded my thumb in several spots.

I locked my daughter in her room so I could clean up the mess without her getting hurt. I start dropping chunks of glass into the garbage, when I notice my thumb is bleeding onto the floor. I decide to go patch myself up before finishing the glass mess. I go to the bathroom closet for our first aid kit, as I open the door Curtis's electric razor falls from a really high shelf and bursts open, leaving whiskers all over the bathroom floor and hallway. (I had previously put the razor on that high shelf because I caught my almost 3-year old son holding it over the toilet earlier with it still plugged in. I was worried about him getting electrocuted...I don't know if he would have, but better be safe than sorry.)

Anyways....I patch up my thumb, vacuum up the whiskers, clean up the blood off the floor, pick the glass out of the dishwasher, and empty the trash before I can let my screaming daughter out of her room. And then I go back to doing the dishes and making dinner with a bandaged thumb.

On a plus side, earlier today I scored some items at a garage sale. A headboard for our new bed, a plastic shelving unit for our new apartment, and a chutes and ladders game for $20 total! I haven't done a whole lot of "garage sale-ing", but this was fun!

Anyone else have a SAHM bad day?

We are moving...

While we were on vacation in Ohio, we sold our house (just 1 week after putting it on the market). It was amazing that it sold so quickly and I only had to clean and stage the house once! Curtis said, "Aww, I didn't want to SELL our house." "Well why did we bother," I say. We sold our house because we have to move to a different region for Curtis's job.

We have been searching for houses and rental properties over the past week and a half. We found nothing we really liked and nothing that worked out for us until yesterday. Here's the plan: We are going to rent a basement apartment in Pocatello for about a year. With all the money we save, we should be able to make a significant impact on our current debt. Our goal is to be debt-free in 5 years and be ready to settle into our "dream house" for life.

Now about our new living situation: We found a two bedroom apartment in our landlord's basement. Sounds small, dark, and creepy right? Well when we saw it, this place just felt right. It was very clean inside, and not too small considering there are only two bedrooms. The landlord seems like a nice guy and he actually remodels for a living -- hence the nice apartment in his basement. The yard is beautiful too and the backyard is fenced in. We will basically be on vacation for a year -- reaping the benefits of someone else doing repairs and yardwork. We are sad to move away from our friends and life here in Idaho Falls, but excited to see what adventures this move will bring.