Babyfood mania

I am so happy to say that I am finally successfully making babyfood! I tried with Toby but the little squirt preferred the jarred variety, so I quickly gave up. So this time around I've been determined that I'm not going to throw nearly as much money towards Gerber and Beechnut.

Today I made a batch of pears - 4 pears, cored and halved, in a casserole with 1 inch of water, baked for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Take the skin off, puree, and freeze!

Earlier this week I made sweet potatoes - 2 sweet potatoes in the microwave for 9 minutes (had to put the bigger one back in for another minute) and puree and freeze.

I've also done broccoli - steamed in ZipLoc Steamer bags for 3 minutes, puree with some water, freeze. Mix with rice to serve.

Peaches - bake like the pears.

Peas - Steam (I actually used frozen peas that come in a microwave steamer bag), puree with a little water to the right consistancy

Blueberries - Put in pan with 4 cutes water and boil (can't remember how long right now - something like 15 minutes?), then puree with some of the water leftover. Luci loves these!

I have peaches on the counter now ready to be baked and some blueberries in the fridge. I also want to bake a butternut squash - hopefully early next week, as Luci loves squash. I have these nifty freezer trays from One Step Ahead - the ones shown above - and they work out perfect, freeze great without getting ice buildup on the cubes. Luci normally eats 2-3 cubes for a meal, so 2 full trays makes 5-7 meals for her.

I love making her babyfood and do regret a little giving up on Toby so fast. I bet if I would have stuck to it longer he would have come around.

New video of the kids

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Luci crawls! Other than that, just some normal sibling interaction...but I thought the gparents would eat it up :)

Sleep Deprivation

That's about how I feel right now. This week has been terrible! Luci is teething (top 2 are getting close to breaking through). So she's not sleeping...as in, won't take a morning nap, afternoon nap isn't longer than an hour, and she's up at night - last night it was 3 times. Motrin doesn't seem to be making any difference. And if that weren't bad enough, Toby was up for an hour last night too - just refused to go back to sleep! I was so afraid he was going to wake up Luci - she'd just gotten into a good sleep. And of course Luci was up at 6am. I am so tired right now...I think I got maybe 3 hours of sleep last night? Yesterday was just tough...Luci was cranky and tired, Toby had a TON of energy...I was bitten by both kids and a dinosaur (don't ask), spit up on (massively), hair pulled, cheek scratched by a long nail, contact ripped, and it rained again so it's still too wet to go out and play. I need a day off!

Lots of rain!

Last year at this time I would never imagine such a blog title! After last year's terrible drought, we are getting storm after storm! Last weekend we had a big rain that gave us almost 2 inches of rain...so much rain! They were calling for more rain yesterday, but by 3:00 I thought we weren't getting any so I gave my tomato plant a little water just in case (I am determined not to kill this one!). Sure enough by 7:30 it was rumbling outside and we had a good little storm that ended in a nice long rainshower...ANOTHER 2 inches of rain! Now I'll probably kill the tomato from overwatering. It sure is a wet world out this morning! But the skies are blue today...maybe a dry one!

There was some nasty weather near us last night, but thankfully we avoided the worst of the storms...just a little wind and lightning here.

Luci is teething and having problems sleeping lately...which means mama is having trouble sleeping too. Yawn, I am so tired! Toby is being a good little duck for mama though, so that is a big help!

Fourth of July, a little late

I meant to get these pics up earlier, but hadn't sat down at the computer much this week!

Here's Toby at a cowboy cutout before fireworks - he loved this guy!

A picture of the fireworks

Patriotic Toby and Luci before the morning parade

More of the pet parade...loved the dogs!
Before the fireworks, they had a giant inflated skide and Toby loved it...went down at least 4 times and would have done more if mom or dad had wanted to stand in line with him
Luci's new trick....we find her all sorts of interesting places now!

Happy Independence Day!

I hope you are all enjoying a celebration of the good ole' US of A!

We started out this morning at the local parade...they do a pet parade first, then a traditional one. Toby loved it, and he really made out with the candy, too! COldstone Creamery even gave out ice cream samples! There's nothing like ice cream at 10am! Yum!

Then we made a quick run to Lowe's and the grocery store for charcoal and bbq fixings. It's hot dogs, potato salad, and apple pie for dinner tonight! After dinner we're planning to see firework at the Fair Barn...we've never been there before - normally we go to the lake, but last year the traffic was horrific so we've decided to try a new venue. Plus, the mosquitos at the lake...ugh! Hopefully they'll be better where we're going! Can't wait!

Love you all!

Chel

A traveling we will go

And home again!

We went to Ohio for almost 2 weeks to see family. It was a wonderful little vacation. The weather was so beautiful while we were there...to come back to the sweltering 90's was certainly a wake up!

We had such a nice time and Toby had such a great time getting to know family. I think he really got used to all the extra attention because he's been extra clingy since we got home.

I have lots of pictures to share!

Here is Toby, Curtis, and Uncle Joe feeding the ducks at Golden Gate Park. The ducks weren't that interested in the bread, unfortunantly. I have never seen ducks walk away from food before.

Here are Daddy and Toby at the playground at the same park. Toby had such fun playing there!
Luci was baptised while we were in...such a lovely service!
We went with my parents and brother and sister in law to a little local zoo...it was a rainy morning so no one was there, and since it was deserted one of the keepers gave us a personal tour! In the reptile house he even pulled out a snake for us to touch and hold! I've touched snakes before but this was the first time I'd held one. Very cool! And I must add that my sister in law and mom and I all held the snake...but none of the guys would! :)
Here is a cobra that I thought was pretty cool. We saw more animals than this and maybe once I've sorted through my pics I will post some more.Curtis did a lot of grilling while we were in. He did beer can chicken over at his parents house - YUM! He did pork tenderloin, a whole ham, and one night of stuffed hamburgers and hotdogs over at my parents. He loved it! I think he was a little ashamed to admit that he really liked using propane...he's been a loyal charcoal user, and the taste is definitely supreme, but the propane is so much easier!

We spent one day in Cincy. I met up with a friend who has kids the same age, then we hit up the zoo, and we ended up eating dinner with longtime friends of Curtis's and mine. We had dinner at a local pizzaria, then grabbed ice cream and headed to a local park with a beautiful view of the city.

I took the opportunity to take some 6 month pics of Luci. I need a new one to hang on the wall! I haven't sorted through them all yet, so I don't know which I will use, but I really like this one! It was taken as a storm was rolling in. When the storm did hit, the winds were scary! There were several large limbs that came down at my parents house.
Luci had quite the accident too...our first ER visit! I would never have guessed we would be in with her before Toby. Just after the infamous storm, I sat down to nurse Luci in a rocker. She worked her hand in behind me and got her finger pinched in the chair :( It looked terrible so we ran her to the Children's Hospital and had her checked at the Urgent Care there. The very tip was broken, and the skin was broken right next to her fingernail. Since the joint is ok, we didn't have to splint the finger, but the cut took a long time to quit bleeding, so they had to rig up a dressing for her tiny fingers. It's been a week now and the cut is looking much better. The break hasn't slowed her down at all...since breaking the finger she's started crawling and pulling up! She will be cruising soon!
One of the main reasons for our visit was the wedding of Curtis's brother to his long time fiancee. I am so happy it's finally official - I adore my new sister in law! I am so blessed to have 2 great sisters in law! Anyway, the wedding was beautiful - definitely the uniting of two souls who were meant to be together. Curtis was a groomsman and had a great night out on the town with the guys, and little Toby was the ringbearer! Toby did a great job - he was so excited about it. The day of the wedding was long, so I had to leave the reception early with the kids...I was disappointed that Toby didn't get to participate in the dancing more (he would have loved that!) but both kids were hitting that "get me to bed NOW" wall and I needed to get them to sleep!

Here's a picture of Curtis and Luci before the wedding.

And Toby in his little tux. He was so sharp!
And a close up of Toby. Love those eyes!

I have tons more pics but not sure whether I'll get a chance to post them. Toby loved his Grandpa's motorcycle and the giant bell at Grandpa's house...I have some neat pics of that! So I will try to get more up but I have a lot to do right now preparing for our Chicago trip which is coming up very soon!