Woo Hooo!

ME!
I finally won a contest! I enter several contests/challenges on the scrap forum I belong to and also a few blogs. I won the Method Challenge (on a blog) and found out Monday evening. I win some scrap supplies for a company called Studio Calico which you can subscribe to or order a monthly kit. There stuff is really nice so I'm very excited to receive it! I won for the Bonaire Beauty layout which the challenge was to use strung beads on your page.

FOOD
We made a yummy root veggie soup Monday night and the kids even ate it! Of course left over candy from the Easter bunny was a nice incentive as was the Peperidge Farm bread we had with it which is one of their favorites. Tuesday night we had tacos. We had them unlike normal with veggie taco 'meat' and some sauteed veggies, cheese, tomatoes and jalapenos. We made the kids eat some, which they did, again dessert served good incentive. Jasper supplemented his meal with some chicken anytizers, but he did pretty well with the tacos, just not the sauteed zucchini.

HEAD
Gheesh! Still bad. Was bad all of Monday and took imitrex. Didn't take anything Tuesday--just suffered through the day since I've been taking so much lately and know I'm rebounding. Plus all muscles are sore from the imitrex. Woke up today (Wednesday) and couldn't take it any more and took another imitrex. I know allergies are bad right now and I stayed up late working on a project and couldn't sleep due to the stupid head. Grrr!

Easter!

FAMILY
The kids loved Easter morning. We have never done anything in the past and what a thrill it was for them to have chocolate first thing in the morning! They didn't even care about the toy eggs we had gotten for them. The easter bunny did bring baskets and hide them and even ate the carrots we put out for them.

After the sugar rush had slightly worn off, we managed to get some breakfast in them and pack up and head over to their cousins for easter lunch. It was a big crew at that event. Nancy's parents, her brother and his family, plus all of us! There were 7 kids if you count the teens. They all had fun and love each other so much, it is really nice to see them interact and play together. After brunch we headed home to Marshall, much to Mika's dismay.


FOOD
Matt and I made focaccia and (nonsweet) Monkey Bread for the meal and various other things were made making it a wonderful brunch. There were a few frittatas, fruit, veggies, ham, sweet quick bread, key lime pie and Evelyn's delicious white chocolate coated chex mix.

HEAD
Very bad. Took an imitrex and 3 torodal. Horrible. I had to go lay down immediately upon arrival to Jeff and Nancy's. Would have went to urgent care if time had permitted and it wasn't a holiday. Ugh.

Saturday: Shopping, Parking & Eating!

FAMILY
Saturday Matt planned to cook a big meal for the family. Wendy, Bob, Papa, Bear, Jeff and Nancy were all coming. He shopped that morning at Whole Foods while I watched the kids. Once he got home I was able to spend the day with Alana. We went and had lunch and then did a little shopping. Sadly the scrap store I intended to go to was out of business. We did go to Target and I got a little bit of scrap stuff along with some basics that are hard to find in Marshall. The day was riddled with parking issues! Some lots had no spaces and street parking was impossible. I guess maybe it is just that I'm not used to it anymore.

FOOD
Alana and I thought we'd eat quickly at Cafe Latte but the parking was an issue and normally we would have walked, but the sidewalks weren't shoveled yet. Therefore we ventured out of our way to Highland Grill. It was busy, but there was a table and we were sat right away. We split our two meals and I had a tomato, spinach and brie scramble and she had Jack Cakes which were buckwheat pancakes topped with blueberries, bananas, raisins, granola, peanuts and honey. It was all very yummy.

That night Matt had a first course of about 5 kinds of cheese with baugettes and olives, cured sundried tomatoes and fava beans. The main course was a roast chicken with garlic and lots of fresh herbs and root vegetables. I had a nice piece of salmon and a side of the veggies without the chicken stock. Everyone raved about it. Wendy brought a delicious mocha cheesecake from Cafe Latte. We had a very good time. Our kids ate pasta pick ups I think. Sad huh? They did have lots of fun playing with their cousin, Bear and got pretty worn out by the end of the night.

HEAD
Slightly better today. Only had to take an Imitrex.

To St. Paul we Go

FAMILY
We were off to St. Paul yesterday around 5:30 on Thursday and we missed the majority of the snow, so the drive was nice and pretty uneventful. We arrived at Papa's house around 8:30 and the kids were excited to be there and were too wound up to go to bed right away and we decided that since Jasper hates his pack-n-play so much we'd put him on the trundle in Mika's room. He was ok with that till we left and he realized he could follow. We had to lay with him till he fell asleep. He still slept better in that though. Mika loved having her little brother in the room with her and was so good about his crying.

Bright and early the next morning we were off to the Mall of America. We arrived before the stores opened since Jasper decided to get up at 5:30 am. (He took a small nap before we left) We hit Barnes & Nobel and each child got a book so that made them happy. Then we took a sneak peak at the new Nickelodeon Park and they were very excited, but it wasn't open yet so we did a bit of shopping and headed back. They had lots of fun and Matt took them on a few rides and then they headed off to lunch and I went to pick up some scrapbook supplies and would meet up with them there. Jasper, in his immensely tired state, decided he didn't like that idea 15 minutes into waiting for his lunch. Once the meals arrived pulled mine down on the floor. Yikes! Luckily I arrived shortly after, quickly ate and we left!

FOOD
We ate at Twin City Grill and the service was great despite our crazy child. (Mika was an angel) I had my typical meal of salad and flat bread pizza which I love there. It was so crazy, I don't even know what Matt had. Mika had fries and a grilled cheese which she didn't eat, "I don't like American cheese, mommy." Guess we know to be more specific when ordering next time. That night we ditched our plans of McCormick & Schmick's and decided to order take out from Saji-Ya instead. We ate in at Papa's house with aunt Wendy and her friend, Bob. We had a nice time and we all love sushi. The kids even had, and liked, a little edamame.

HEAD
My head hurt alot at the Mall. Not a good place to be in an amusement park with a level 7 migraine. I took imitrex and toradol. It was bad. Of course I managed to go to the scrap store.

Make your Wet-Jet Greener

So for those of you that don't know, our entire basement with the exception of the guest bedroom, is laminate. I love it--I don't have to worry about the kids spilling or anything, it's great. The only thing I hate is the wet-jet cleaner. I hate that you can't refill them and you have to throw that big plastic thing away every time. Well, guess what? You don't! You can twist off the cap with a big wrench and refill it! I just did it and I certainly don't consider myself a strong person, I think of myself as a 'girly-girl'. I used about two capfuls of pine-sol and filled the rest up with water and popped it back on and it worked perfectly. I will use half vinegar, half water with a little essential oil after I use up the pine-sol, but this is what we had and we don't have any non-fancy vinegar, go figure. I know you can make it even greener by making a few pads out of bar towels by sewing some velcro on one side and throw those in the wash instead of buying the pads, but I'm not there yet. Some people even talk (on web site) of using Always brand pads to save money since they are cheaper too but I think I'd make them first! But the Swiffer pads do look just like that--ha ha! Just by refilling the fluid you are saving a ton of money and helping the environment. Wooo Hoooo!

Tattoo--day 8

Today she finally let me remove it! FINALLY! (With a cotton ball and cooking oil--I had to search to find the vegetable oil.) Then afterwards she said, "that wasn't so bad, was it". I replied, "I said it wouldn't hurt and I would tell you if it does, like when we go the doctor to get shots, I tell you that it will hurt, but just for a second." She said, "yea, I don't want another skeleton tattoo, though". Thank goodness.

Birthday Take II and Tattoos

So we had a small Marshall party for Mika, again pirate themed. Why reinvent the wheel? It went great she was happy, the kids were happy, everyone loved Matts cooking. I only wish we would have captured the cute 'cake' on the camera! He made cinnamon rolls and put three on a cake stand a put a long skinny candle on each one. It was so cute. Mika was thrilled and although she didn't eat all of her regular cake at the first party, she did eat all of her cinnamon roll!

I'd have to say the funniest outcome of the party is her temporary tattoo. I can't figure out how she feels about it since she doesn't want to look at it now that the party is over. (It's a skull--she picked it out.) She hates changing clothes and warns us, "I might cry again". Mostly because she thinks it will damage it. Giving her a bath was the biggest challenge and she typically LOVES bath night. She cried for almost the entire bath and Matt had to put her in in with her fighting the whole way! Now, even a week later and for the last 4 days, I have been using it to my advantage. "But I don't want to take a nap, Mommy." "Do you want to take a nap, or do you want me to take off your tattoo?" She stands for a moment in contemplation... "I'll take a nap"... with a sigh of defeat. Its funny what I resort to to make naps and diaper changes easier. If I had known the outcome of the tattoo, however, I would have never put it on.

Mika Turns 3

Mika turned 3 on the 28th, but we had a small family party for her the day after Thanksgiving. The VonHorns graciously hosted the party at their home even though they had just had us and a gang totaling around 22 the day before! The party was a great success and Mika was very happy with her pirate themed party that she requested. As she was opening the gifts she exclaimed to me, "Mommy, this is the best birthday party I ever seen!" Check out the attached video, it is just too cute! She loves her train and the Melissa and Doug food sets and is trying very hard to drive me crazy with the very loud kazoo type recorder/flute thing. It may have to run out of batteries very soon. She and Jasper have been playing with ALL the toys so much! Aiden and Charley have both been over to to play with the toys as well.

Elf yourself

This is (albeit somewhat disturbing) hilarious... If you elf YOURSELF, let us know!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1134946092

Thanksgiving 2007

So this was our Thanksgiving and unfortunately we decided to take the family photo at about 5 pm when the children had had no naps. Mika isn't fond of pictures, or mainly being told what to do, especially at 5 pm and without a nap so we are all trying to get her to cooperate by saying "MIKA" in the photo. I guess we'll try again tomorrow. Earlier. Jasper wasn't too cooperative either... this is the best photo, I should have posted a funnier one. All in all they did really well without naps and all the people, I think there were 22 of us. Mika loves Bear-Bear though and they had lots of fun. Of course there was plenty of good food! My favorites were the stuffing (we brought) and Evelyn's fudge, the white chocolate pumpkin cheesecake that Wendy brought from Cafe Latte was a close third though!