ode to recipe girl....

There is another great blog that i love to read, The Recipe Girl @ www.therecipegirl.blogpost.com

She does such a great job taking the pictures the entire way thru the process of cooking. This has to add atleast 30 minutes to the cooking time.

So i decided to do my own recipe, this one is great for kids and super easy!!!
Jello Jigglers.

Purchase 1 set of cute ice cube trays (in the dollar spot at target, but $2.50) or even regular ice cube trays should work too.
Spray container with cooking spray, enough to coat the container to allow for the jigglers to pop out easily.

Ingredients:
1 C Hot water (I use a 2C measuring cup)
2 packets of jello, any flavor, even sugar free.

Heat water in Measure cup for 2-3 minutes until boiling. The hotter the water, the better the gelatin will melt and mix.
Mix 1C hot water and 2 packets of any type of jello in the measuring cup.
*Note, if you mix cherry and lime, it looks like a pretty gross brown. I recommend 2 of the same flavor or similar color.
Pour the mixture into the ice cube trays as seen below.
Make room in the fridge before transporting. Jello can be really sticky if spilled.
Place in fridge for 1 hour.
Remove from fridge, use a knife to remove jello from ice cup tray.
Enjoy. These treats can be placed in a lunch box as a great surprise for the kids. They are easily handled by kids of all ages. This is a great and easy treat if used with sugar free jello.

Note:

The original recipe calls for 2 1/4 C of hot water and 4 jello packets. I found this made too much liquid. I had used a 8 cup measure cup to heat the hot water in and mix the jello packets. However, i had to transfer into a smaller measuring cup to pour from as not to spill. You can also just make this amount and pour into a 9x13 pan and cut the jigglers into small squares as needed. A lot of fun for the kids to pick the color/flavor of jello, watch the mixing of the jello and water and taste the final treat.

More fun for the 2nd snow day.

Yes, we are having a 2nd snow day. no one is stir crazy, yet. Justin did go to work. Since i am not a fan of being cold and wet outside, I thought i would bring the snow inside. This idea worked pretty good. I got a large rubbermaid container and filled it with snow from the front yard. Luckily, the snow was light and fluffy and shoveled into the container easily. Also, the lightness helped because then i carried it upstairs to the bathroom. (so if you do this and the snow is heavy, use a smaller container many times or not too much snow.) The kids had not even noticed that i did this while they ate their breakfast.

Sophia was so excited, she said, "wow, you are the best mom ever." She was pretty excited to be able to play in the snow and the only part that was cold were her hands. You can see that the kids climbed right into the bathtub to play.

I do not recommend to do this right after you have cleaned the bathtub. Since I had left the container on the driveway, there was a lot of dirt. Then the snow was dirty too, after i dumped all the snow out, i then had to scrub down the bathtub. However, it was worth all the 'contained' dirt that it made.

What to do on a snowday

Of course, we finally think the snow is done. It took Justin over 3 hours to shovel out our driveway and sidewalks from all the snow and ice that we received over the past day (not sure of the actual total snowfall). I decided we needed to keep the kids extra busy today, so we put up the tent. This was a great purchase from www.craigslist.com. Sorry that the pictures are out of order, still working on perfecting the blogging, but here are the pictures.

Miles is enjoying his grilled cheese sandwich as a picnic in the tent.

Sophia also enjoyed the picnic.

Miles was attempting to tell us how great the tent is, but he just looks angry. I guess that he is making a point.

Sophia and Miles were really enjoying their "clubhouse"

Here is a picture of our tent sitting up in the living room. It is big enough that the adults can even get in and stand up most of the way.

While Sophia and Miles were still in their p.j.'s, they took the time to bring down friends, blankets, and bean bags to make the tent more comfortable.

We really enjoyed our snowday!!! we even made cookies and enjoyed all of our time together. However, Justin vows to get out of the house tomorrow, NO MATTER WHAT! (he was off tues, wed, and is scheduled to be off with the kids on friday and does not want a 6 day weekend at home) We hope that Sophia can return to school tomorrow, but we will just have to see. So what did you do during your snowday???

too cold to be out

The past 2 weeks, the weather has been REALLY cold. Once i got to work, i checked the temperature and took a picture (below). I did not even realize that my van could read in teh negatives.

What a beautiful day.....

to not go to work or school,
stay in our p.j.'s all day
eat cereal for all 3 meals (well, maybe not ALL 3 meals)
and watch the snow fall, fast and furious.
The snowflakes are atleast 1" in diameter

For those of you who are reading this and not in central ohio,
we recieved 3" snow yesterday, then ice overnight and probably another 3-6" today. The school canceled classes last night before we went to bed, so we could all sleep in. Justin actually stayed home yesterday d/t not being able to get into work with all the traffic. He was able to move all of his meeting around so he could stay home. Luckily, he can call into work later today for the meetings that were not canceled. I would miss working with people, but that is a definate perk of his job!

I hope wherever you are, you take a moment to enjoy the weather, and try to stay warm

what have we been up to??

There is no one good reason for not keeping up with the postings on the blog, there are MANY good reasons that we have been so busy.

Things since last posting, many will be addressed in upcoming posts

*new years eve dinner with good friends
* visits from Kevin and Margie
* Charlie's 40th b-day celebration. Wow, we have friends that are 40, now i am really starting to feel old.
* take down of all the christmas stuff- lots of work.
* Finishing sophia's 16 day christmas break, we all survived better than expected, but Justin WAS ready to return to work.
* lots of snow and cold.
* playing out in the snow.
* getting back into the swing of things, school, work, packing lunch, etc.
* re-arranging bedroom furniture.
* Sophia becoming a jr. turtle and starting more swim lessons.
* Great-grandma carr's 87th b-day
* G.G.'s 60th b-day. (Sorry, i mentioned your age, but you do not look or act like it, so no one would actually know!)
* Painting the downstairs bathroom. the kids really wanted to help justin.
* New baby sitters for the kids. They were so excited to see the babysitter and SO UNHAPPY to see us return home. Sophia actually said, "NO, not yet. I don't want them to leave." and miles kept coming back to us saying, "Go to work now." (also trying to get us to leave.)

I am hoping to try to keep up with the posts a little bit better. i am sure that there is something that i am missing.

When i grow up.... by Sophia 2008

while riding in the car today, Sophia talked, a lot. However, it was some really good conversation.

We had to go to my work and she wanted to talk about jobs.
S: "there are too many jobs to pick just one."
R: "sometimes people never pick one, they just change jobs a lot."
S: " I have 5,
1. painter (not sure if she meant artist or house painter)
2. hospital worker
3. teacher for gymnastics
4. teacher for swimming
5...........

and then she got off on a tangent.

we are in for some TROUBLE!!!!

Miles is really starting to show his true colors, i.e. a mischievous little boy. some examples include the following:

*Miles enoys taking his sisters drink, getting her attention, "soph, soph" and waiting until she is watching to actually take a drink from HER cup.

*Tonight at dinner, we were having grapes. Miles 'armed' himself with 2 grapes. When Justin was not looking, Miles got his attention by launching the grapes at Justin, one at a time. When asked about throwing grapes, he just laughed at Justin.

*Also tonight, Miles said, "pants falling down." Justin helped to pull them up, however, Miles quickly responded, "no dad, no." Miles removed his pants, went over to sophia, called, "soph, soph, " to get her attention. When she did not pay any attention to him, he then took off his diaper and ran around naked trying again. THEN he crawled onto the coffee table. It has been cleaned, but i do not recommend placing any type of food on the coffee table.

* At naptime, Miles had finished the 2 books that he gets at naptime. Then, asked for another, "read Thomas?" I reminded him, only two books. With this information, he tried another tactic, the puppy dog eyes and speaking slowly, "read Thomas?" with a big smile at the end. When he was called on it, he said, "man," and turned around to lay back down.

now remember, this all happened in the span of just a few hours. He keeps us very, very entertained each day.

Miles' 1st snowfall

Last year, Miles did not get the chance to 'play in the snow'. Therefore, this year, when it started to snow, he was eager to get out in it. Sophia had fallen asleep on the couch and Miles asked Justin, "Go out, Go out??"

Miles enjoyed trudging thru the snow, all 1/2 in of it.

He was especially excited and happy to be out in the snow, even if it was cold.

Writing a letter to santa......

Last night, Sophia was working on her late letter to Santa. She needed some help, it went something like this.....

Dear Santa,

I want
2 barbies
1 princess bean bag chair
3 princess chapter books
2 necklaces- dog and cat
love, sophia

About 1/2 way thru writing the letter, i asked Sophia if she wanted to tell Santa how good she had been. Her answer,

""NO!!!""

I think that she was not sure that she had been good enough, and did not want to tell Santa.

Christmas tree and such

Sophia has always enjoyed helping to decorate the house and trees for Christmas. Here she is helping un-roll the lights to allow Justin to place them on the tree.



Miles was excited that he was allowed to help this year.

Sophia took the time to unwrap all the ornaments.

Miles took the time to review all the ornaments, especially the angel.

Miles attempted to string the lights on the tree as well, with less luck.

Firetrucks galore!!!

While in IL, we had the priveledge to visit the local firehouse. My friends son is a volunteer firehouse chief. He invited us to the firehouse on Thanksgiving day to see the truck. This was a GREAT experience for all the 'kids'.

They both LOVED driving the big trucks.

Thanksgiving

Over Thanksgiving, we traveled to IL to visit with Justin's parents. Sophia and Miles took the time to make the pumpkin pie for the big day. Everyone had a turn stirring the pie mix.

Back to himself

Yesterday Miles had new ear tubes placed. Unlike any other trip to Childrens Hospital, we were only there for 2 1/2 hours. It was actually an in and out procedure. Miles did great and we got to see some of our Cardiology Dr.'s. Everyone felt that he looked great. We are glad to be home, watching Laurie Berkner DVD's, eating donuts and recovering. He is getting closer to his usual self, not fully there yet, but i assume by tomorrow, there will be no stopping him.

Taking a Christmas card picture.....

is never actually easy. Here, Sophia and Miles are dressed to get a "formal" picture taken at the local photo studio.

Here they are practicing their yoga doing 'downward dog'
Tried to get situated sitting next to each other.

A little TOO happy and squeezing each other TOO hard.

Not quite the best smiles,

We are getting closer.....

and finally, the best picture for our card this year.

Ear tubes please

we are now officially scheduled for sometime in the morning of Dec. 17th. Wish us luck.

Wedding Photos

Our great friends, Kevin and Margie, finally got married after only 9 years. Here the kids are all dressed up for the wedding.

Miles looks very handsome in his jacket, vest and tie. Let me just tell you that it is hard to actually tie a tie for a 2 y/o. the longer part of the tie was tucked into his pants.

Miles completely enjoyed the ice cream bar at the end of the night!!

Waiting for the ceremony to begin, Miles and G.G. sit together.

A few days before the wedding, we had to practice to make sure that everything would work together and fit.

We tried to decide about wearing the tie with the vest or without.

Look at the little Republican.