When the Preschooler's Away, the Toddler Will Play!!!

I'm not the only one that has enjoyed Riley being in preschool.  Madison will not admit it, (she has a kind heart) but she has a blast when Riley is not around.  The house is her playground.  And, I let her go in Riley's room to chew on anything she pleases, Riley hates that Madison eats everything.  Hates it. 

Oops, those aren't the little babies that go to Riley's doll house are they?

You could probably classify me as a bad mother, but I have a weakness for the second beast.  I was a middle child, my older sister picked, and picked, and picked on me, and I was passive.  Not passive anymore, but, I was once.  I remember not having anything of my own, ever.  Stacy stole it.  Always.  Now, I am seeing that behavior repeated.  And I may or may not be having nightmares about it.  I'm hoping that one day I can stop the sister squabble thing, but in reality (some place I don't live in often) I know that I can't.

So, when Riley is away, Madi and I play!!  I let her do bad things.  Not bad, bad things.  Just semi naughty things.  Like this morning, I let her eat breakfast upstairs.  I am a firm believer in no food outside the kitchen, unless it's me.  Sometimes I don't even let the hubby leave the kitchen.  Just kidding.  But seriously I wish I did, hubby's are worse than the kids sometimes with spillage, especially when football is on.  Okay wait, I'm getting off subject.

Back to the point of the post.  I had lots of work to do today.  Accounting + January through April 15th = I'd rather be a bum on the street then working for my Dad.  Busy.  Busy.  Busy.  Not fun.  So, I really didn't have time to sit downstairs while Madi leisurely ate her breakfast.  Solution, I fed her upstairs.  She sat right next to me on my little ottoman and enjoyed pancakes, juice, and yogurt.  She did good too.  No spilling.  As I was walking up the stairs, I thought it was a disaster waiting to happen.  I was pleasantly surprised. 

You didn't actually think I'd let this beast feed herself did you?  I'm not that brave.  Not over my carpet.

Please disregard the long, in your eyes bangs on this kid.  Her first real haircut is tomorrow!

I guess through all my ramblings what I'm trying to say is, I've really enjoyed my alone time with Madison, we do fun things, and it's nice to have that one on one time with her.  She deserves that, and she loves it too. 

Hope everyone has a fabtabulous weekend!

Preschool Update

Tomorrow, after 12:00 pm, Riley will have completed 3 full weeks of preschool.

She's doing great!  At least I think she is.  The teachers have nothing but good reports for me every time I pick her up.  They told me that they had a discussion about her on how great she is doing considering she's never had an experience like this before.  They looked shocked, to me, that's good news. 

I still don't really know if she's gone potty there.  I don't know why I'm so obsessed with this subject, but I am.  Riley tells me that she does and then she washes her hands.  Apparently, Riley is a little obsessed with washing her hands, the teachers told me that she's a pro now.

They do a lot in 3.5 hours.  I'm always surprised with how much I'm carting back to the car.  Painting, coloring, tracing, letters, everything.  I'm loving that they are really teaching her about Jesus, like really.  Brainwashing is the best.  Can I get a Woo Hoo for Jesus???  Amen.

Riley does not really tell me about preschool.  Some things that I've learned... (through a lot of questioning.)

1. She has a friend named Becky, we'll see about that.
2. She loves to play outside.
3. The kids are great.  "Really coo kids Mom."
4. Raisins are awesome.  (She's become a better eater watching the other kids try new things.)
5. Jesus lives upstairs.  She tries to find him when we are at home.
6. Her favorite activity is to paint.

She has developed some what of an attitude that is in full swing when we get in the car to go home.  She tries to demand me to do things.  Tells me not to yell at her.  Riley can do it.  Angry eyes.  Humph attitude.  Where is this coming from?  Is it because she has to listen and obey the teachers for a full 3.5 hours?  That is a lot of good behavior for a three year old.  Especially my 3 year old.  So, I'm not to hard on her but I don't let her disrespect yo.

She's so good in the mornings before she goes to preschool.  She does whatever I say and is happy to do it.  I wish every morning was a preschool morning.  Not that I want her in preschool everyday, I just want happy mornings everyday.  Such a dreamer I am.

Some of her beautiful artwork:

This is a fire truck. It's been on the fridge since her first day. The other day, Riley was eating her breakfast and she was admiring her work on the fridge. I was doing Mom things when she said, "Oops, ha ha. Those wheels suppose to be down der." She then got up to show me exactly where they were supposed to be.

On a side note, there are a lot of older parents with their kids in this preschool.  Why are they rude?  Not all of them, but for instance, on Riley's first day, I came to pick her up a little early and one of the kid's Mom and Dad were there to hand out cupcakes and pizza.  As they were leaving, I said, "Thank you so much for the cupcakes!"  The Mom looked at me, and said, "Mm Hm."  Not in a friendly tone.  Okay.  Weird.  If someone (anyone) said thank you to me for bringing cupcakes, I'd respond with a, "Oh you are so welcome!"  Or something like that.  I'm not worried about it or anything, but I've definitely noticed a difference between older parents and younger parents.  Is that bad to say out loud?  Just curious if anyone else has had a similar situation.  I'm not saying it's all older parents, and by older, I'm talking like 37/38.  That same Mom and Dad were having a conversation with another older parent and they were so pleasant to each other, that's why I was so surprised with her Mm Hm response to me.  Oh well.  Whatev.  Maybe I'm just sensitive.  Maybe it's just that one parent.  Like I said, it's not all older parents, just a select few.  I don't want anyone who might be an older parent read this post and get upset, that is not my intention.  And also, when I say older, I don't mean old, I mean older than me.  Okay, I'm done now.

A Few Random Pictures

A few randoms of the girls for the peeps in Oregon. We have not been up to anything over here, very boring stuff. So, just some pictures of the girls hanging out at home. I've been bad at taking pictures lately, like really bad. I have not been into it. When I bought my camera that I love so, so much, I thought to myself that I would never get sick of taking pictures, or never not feel like taking any. I was wrong. Maybe it's because the holidays are over and I feel like all I did was, snap, snap, snap. I don't know. I'm hoping to get over my funk soon. We'll see.

We bought Riley an easel last Christmas 2008, she never opened it, so we gave it to her this past Christmas. For those of you that have easels at your house for the older child, how do you keep the markers, crayons, pencils, paint, etc, away from the youngest? I don't know what to do with this thing. Our garage is far from being a safe environment, we don't have a patio cover yet and the sun is the devil, inside, there are things that can get ruined. I'm at a loss. Help.

I've been keeping it in my guest bedroom with the door closed.  I hate that.  I like to look at my pretty room not keep it closed off from 1 year old beasts.

Riley played dress up yesterday.  Unfortunately the only face I could get out of my princess was this one...

And this one...

Could it be?  A smile?  Who could tell really.

Oops, I almost forgot, I do have two children don't I?  Here are a few of number 2.

So that's it, until we do something exciting over here.

Nervous??

Fifteen Months

Our little Madison Reagan is fifteen months old.  Wowzers!  She's practically an old lady.

She's a good kid that little Madi.  A few updates on her,

She only likes to take one nap during the day.  Two naps are no longer her bag, baby.  She's in there yelling at me right now, as I speak  write.  She sleeps really good at night though, anywhere from 6:00 6:30 or 8:00 till anywhere from 7:00 - 8:30 en la manana (sorry Dora has been teaching me Spanish).  Overall, I'd give her an A- in the sleeping department.

The girl loves her food.  I mean loves it.  She will try everything once.  Her fav, green beans.  I go through cans of green beans like nobody's business.  Good eater that one.  The other day, we were upstairs playing and I asked Madi if she was hungry, and she got all giddy, and baby ran to the gate at the top of the stairs.  She then tried to climb over the gate, like a crazy maniac.

She is officially potty trained.  Dookie and pee pee in the potty all the time.  Just kidding, I wish.

M.R. has been walking since she was 11 months old, and it still looks like she just started.  Talk about lack of focus when it comes to that.  I think she just tries to run everywhere.  And, I'm being a little sarcastic.  She can switch directions like a pro, but she is constantly tripping over her own feet. 

She has a whole herd of teeth.  I'm not sure exactly how many.  I stop counting after the first 8.

She seriously is comedy in a diaper.  That girl is constantly making me laugh.  Such a people pleaser, and so dang cute.  She seriously gets cuter every day.  But back to the funniness.  She brings it.  She brings the funny.  I like to say that she gets it from me Tim.

Everything still is in the mouth with that kid.  EVERYTHING.  When does that nightmare end?  She swallowed my earring in December.  Don't worry it was just a stud.  She had something in her mouth, again, and I went to get it out, when she tipped her head back to try to get away from me.  I got one thing out as I watch this sliver, shiny thing just slide right down her throat.  Nice.  The good news?  Tim got that diaper.

Talking, talking, talking.  Madi is a talker.  She repeats everything, in her baby babble of course, but it's pretty dang close.  I'd list all of the words that she says but honestly, I've lost count.  Some are, wa wa (water), eye, thank you, nigh nigh (night, night), that, no (nose), mou (mouth), cookie, sish (sister), etc.  Not used to this.  Riley talked so late.  She also can point out my nose, eyes, mouth, and ears, and point to things in books when I ask her where something is. 

She refuses to call me Mama.  My new name is DaDa, nice to meet you.

Hates to get her diaper changed, I think she'd run around naked if I'd let her.

Loves to give kisses, blow kisses, get kisses.  She is sooo lovey dovey.  She loves to sit in my lap with a toy.  She likes to back up into you and plop right down.  She really is a sweet heart. 

Trying to think of anything else that I should post on here and I'm drawing a blank.  Well, Madi is an awesome kid.  Has a bit of a temper, but that girl never gives up.  She is smart.  At least I think she's smart.  I love that little girl so dang much, more and more everyday.  She's just an awesome kid.  Love her.

Just a Little Information

I don't know if any of you really care to know this stuff or not, but I post it anyway.  I have been fooling around with my own html codes to get the blog look that I want, and am constantly searching for tutorials on how to do things.  Some stuff is easy to find, and some is not.  And some, is non existent.  So when I figure something out, I like to share it in case anyone is in the same boat I am. I recently helped a fellow blogger (Debbie) with her blog.  She wanted the extra large pictures that blogger now offers, and a two column blog.  But, she still wanted to be able to have a pretty background.  This is fairly simple to do, so I thought I'd copy and paste the instructions that I gave her and post them here.  She claims to not know much about computers and what not, and she said that my instructions were very easy to follow.  So here they are.  These codes are for if you'd like a two column blog that is big enough to show the extra large pictures, and will still allow you to still use a pretty background.  If you change to this look, you can only use the 3 column backgrounds that all of these wonderful sites offer, like the cutest blog, etc.  If you'd like to take a look at Debbie's blog, click here.  This is what your blog would look like if you change a few things.  Only follow these instructions if you have the standard blogger template.  Two column, minima template.  I'd recommend saving a copy of your html code in case you don't like the new look.  It also might help to print this out and look at it while you are changing your html code. That way you don't go back and forth between screens.

How to get to your html code:  Go to Customize or your Dashboard.  Click Layout, and Edit Html.
Find this in your html code: 

#outer-wrapper {
width: 880px;
margin:0 auto;
padding:10px;
text-align:$startSide;
font: $bodyfont;
}

#main-wrapper {
width: 660px;
float: $startSide;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}

#sidebar-wrapper {
width: 200px;
float: $endSide;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}


Just change the numbers in orange. Your html will have different numbers, your numbers look like this:

/* Outer-Wrapper
----------------------------------------------- */
#outer-wrapper {
width: 660px;
margin:0 auto;
padding:10px;
text-align:$startSide;
font: $bodyfont;
}
#main-wrapper {
width: 410px;
float: $startSide;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}
#sidebar-wrapper {
width: 220px;
float: $endSide;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}

Change the numbers in red to the numbers in orange. Change your outer wrapper number from 660px to 880px, and change your main wrapper from 410px to 660px. Also change your sidebar wrapper from 220px to 200px.

After you make these small changes, you will probably want to change your header wrapper and possibly your footer-wrapper to a similar size as your outer wrapper. You can play with this number to get exactly the look that you want.

#header-wrapper {
width:860px;
margin:0 auto 10px;
border:0px solid $bordercolor;
}

#header-inner {
background-position: center;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
}

#header {
margin: 5px;
border: 0px solid $bordercolor;
text-align: center;
color:$pagetitlecolor;

Adjust your header wrapper to the 860px. Now, you have the option to include the border around your header or not. If you don't want a header border, all you do is change the border in two places from 1px to 0px. If you don't like it, change it back. Or make it thicker by going with 2px or 4px. I have mine changed so that the inner line is smaller than the outer. Play with it to get what you like.

That is it. Also, I made your main wrapper big enough to fit the extra large pictures. I tried this out on my test blog so I know it works.

Oh yeah, and you can do any 3 column background with this layout. The 2 column backgrounds will be too small. Hope this helps!!..

Now check out my post that is more fun under this one.

Daddy Love

I feel like I only take pictures on Sundays because that is when Tim is almost always home.  Unfortunately, that means my kids are always in PJ tops and diapers/undies b/c I do my picture taking in the morning.  This is also why you don't see many pictures of me, I'm scary in the morning, consider it a gift to you, the viewers of my blog.  I'm doing you a favor.  You are welcome.  Any who, my girls absolutely love their Daddy.  Dad's are the ultimate toy.  I can't tell you when I am more happy.  Watching the way he is with our girls just melts my heart.  That's one of the things that was on my list while searching for a hubby, a family man.  Tim is definitely a family man, and just a good man, period.  He even likes my crazy family and does not mind that I see them practically every day.  Not just for work, my Mom is a big part of my life and we hang out all the time.  Hello mother in law.  He is a good guy.  I think it's safe to say that I'm going to keep him around for a while.

When Daddy is home, our day revolves around him.  We eat our breakfast with Daddy...

We play on Daddy...

We take our phone calls from Sleeping Beauty on Daddy...

We stare at Daddy...

I think sometimes it would be nice if their were two Tim's.  The girls want a lot of individual time...

Uh Oh, I think someone intercepted the phone call from Sleeping Beauty.  Sorry Riley, I'm sure she'll call back after she dries off.

A Recipe or 2

I don't normally post recipe's on my blog because it takes a lot of time to write out all the ingredients, but, I have some totally worth sharing.  Plus, the hubby, loves both of these recipes.

The first one is a butternut squash soup.  I made it over Christmas time (with a few changes) and loved it.  Such a good, simple soup.  Not too rich.  Just right.  I feel like sometimes some recipes for butternut squash soup are way too rich that you can only have a few bites.  The first time I made this, I substituted  butter for the olive oil, because everything tastes better with butter and it was Christmas time.  If you can make something 1,000 more calories at Christmas, then you should.  I also added a little bit of whipping cream.  I made this again last night with some BLTA's (bacon, lettuce, tomato, and avocado) on wheat bread.  This time, I made almost exactly how the recipe recommends, except for a little extra garlic.  I love me some garlic, oh yeah, and more salt, salt your soup to taste, and I used fresh sage which I would definitely recommend.  Didn't add badness.  Used the olive oil, skipped the whipping.  It's an awesome soup, and one that is so basic that you can add what you want.  It'd be good with crumbled bacon for example, but, that's why I made it with the BLTA's.  So here she is, and, I feel like I have to post this recipe because of the calories.  You will be shocked when you eat this soup how filling it is.  I'm on a bit of a diet and I know some of you are too, so it's really a great one to add to your collection.  Plus, it is soooo easy, and I get my butternut squash already seeded and cut into cubes at Costco.  Costco has great produce.

I got this off of Recipe zaar.  If you click on this you might be able to print it.

Next recipe is my Lime and Cilantro Chicken Salad, Kelly, I think you requested this one a while back.  Everyone loves this, it's from the Nordstroms cookbook.  I make a few slight changes to fit my liking.

My changes:  For the salad - I use a rotisserie chicken, I use a can of corn niblets, and omit the tomatoes (not a fan of tomatoes in salad)

For the dressing:  I use more chipotle chiles.  I like it spicy.  If you find that you put too many chipotles in, cancel out that hotness with the honey.  You can play with it to get it how you like it.

Please excuse how dirty that scan is.   As you can tell, I make it a lot.

Enjoy!!

BTW - I clicked on each recipe and was able to print them both out.

Can I Get a Woo Woo!!!

First off, I want to start by saying, Thank you, thank you, thank you, to my awesome brother Sean.

He has become our official beastsitter.  He works for cheap too, he works for a $10.00 blue ray at Walmart.  All I have to do is write him the check.  Is that outstanding or what? 

Tim and I have had so many date nights this month, that I haven't even had time to post about any of them.  We've had a total of 3 date nights, hopefully with another one this Saturday.  I think total, that's more than we had all year last year.  I'm definitely happy.  Can you tell?

So last weekend we went to the opening night of Supercross.  Not exactly my idea of a date, but, Tim loves it and I like to see him happy.  Tim's friend Danny bought us tickets so it was that much better!  Tim painted Danny's truck through his work Imzz Industries, which turned out awesome, if you'd like to take a look you can click here here and here.  It's been featured on a few websites and will be in a few magazines.  If you look at the pictures, please excuse the half naked girl that is showing the vehicle. We had a great time, thanks Danny for the tickets!!

I tried to play photographer, but it didn't really work that well.  Oh yeah, and so certain people don't get upset for not being mentioned (I'm not going to name names or anything), my Mom came over to watch the beasts for us that night.  Thanks Mom!!  Her job is harder than my brother's too.  She actually feeds, bathes, and puts the beasts to bed.  Sean always comes over after they are asleep.

So some pics...

Our pit pass...

Before the racing starts, they have what they call the pits. This is where all the fans can walk around and see all the rider's bikes, get some autographs, and some free stuff.

Ryan Villapoto (a rider)                                                 See that #22 bike, that's my fav guy,  Chad Reed.                                                                                                 He's from Australia, nough said.



Opening ceremonies...

And the racing begins...

Most of my pictures turned out like this...

Between races, they had stunt riders.

And, last but not least...

Did you think this post was over?

It's not.

One more date night to post.

Saturday night, Tim and I dated in.  Tim had the "great" idea to put on nice clothes for each other as if we were really out.  I tried to get out of it, but it didn't work.  He left go pick up sushi in a button down, so I had to put something semi-nice on.

Our delicious dinner...

Some Sapporo's

This may or may not be TMI.  After we ate, Tim allowed me to run upstairs to get some PJs on.  I like to be comfy ok?  He even cleaned up our dinner.  Nice.  When I got back downstairs, he told me he was going to run up and slip into something a little bit more comfortable.  Well, he came down in quite the outfit.  My hubby thinks he is funny.  To spare your eyes, I've cropped the pic I quickly snapped of him before he ran upstairs to get his real comfortable's on.  Can you believe he was afraid that I would blog that little incident?  I'd never...

And I almost forgot!!  Last night, Sean "watched" the girls while Tim and I went to the movies.  We saw It's Complicated, and I laughed so flippin' hard!  It was hilarious.  I definitely recommend that one.  So funny. 

That's Caketastic

Hola!

I've updated my Your Sugar Rush page if you'd like to go take a look!  I'd love to hear what you think!

Adios!

Click here -----> Your Sugar Rush

Riley's First Day of Preschool

Sigh.

My baby is not a baby anymore.  Last night, I teared up while making her lunch.  I had a hard time sleeping.  Today is Riley's first day of preschool.  She is there right now, hopefully being a good little girl, and hopefully listening to her teachers and doing what they ask of her.  This is weird for me.  Riley and I have been together since the day she was born.  No daycare, no anything.  Just me, or Tim, or my Mom.  It's hard knowing that my little girl is under the care of someone else.  But, it's good.  It's really good.  Riley is so ready for this.  Mommy is having a few issues/tears but she'll be okay.  Not to worry.  I'm holding back my urge to call them, and/or stalk the preschool.  I need to give her the day to figure it out.  If I call and find out that she's having a hard time, I will want to go pick her up.  And, I'm not picking her up on her first day of preschool early.  Do you think I should call?  What would you do?  I'm not going to call.  She's a big girl.  She told me bye, she told me that she loves me.  She's good.  She'll be fine.

She was super excited, I'm hoping that she will never need this...

The extra outfit.  She's a little scared of public restrooms, but she told me that she was going to go potty at the preschool potty, and then wash her hands after.  So, we will see.  She's great at holding it, hahaha!!

Her little lunch.  Oh no, I'm reliving it.

 

So excited...

I was happy that I at least got a hug good bye, and not a, "Mom, go, please, I don't need you right now..."

I hope you have a great first day of preschool Riley!!  I'll be there in 1 hour, 50 min, and 35 seconds to pick you up!

***  So I just got back from picking Riley up from preschool.  The teachers said she did great!!  Phew, what a relief!  I picked her up in the same clothes I dropped her off in, good news, except for one of the teachers informed me that her pants were too big and they kept falling down.  Oops, bad Mommy.  I guess she cried for a few minutes after I left (she ran after me, and I didn't know, how sad), and after that she was okay.  She didn't want to leave when I came to pick her up, and, the lucky girl, got pizza and a cupcake on her very first day.  Mommy cried over her little packed lunch for nothing.  I asked her if she met any new friends, and she said yes.  I asked her how many and she said, one, and then quickly changed her answer to eight.  So far, so good!!