Our weekend...

We had a great weekend! Here are some highlights:
-R counting "10, 11, 12, 13, 16....ha ha ha ha!!!"
-the vehicles not starting friday morning, so us getting an extra long weekend to spend with daddy...he stayed home and played with the boys all day!
-getting the entire house cleaned and a shwack-load of laundry done while daddy was home on friday
-working out for WAY longer than I ever get to because daddy was home to watch the kids
-oh, sleeping in, because daddy was home....ha ha...oh, the benefits, he should stay home everyday!
-going to an adoption conference, which was really informative and touching
-having my sister and brother in law watch the kiddos for us during the conference, the boys loved every minute of hanging out with them!
-visiting with my sister and brother-in-law, which is always fun
-opa's for lunch on saturday, ha ha
-R always saying "mommy, I miss you!" every time I leave him for any amount of time.
-R pooing on the potty a few times
-we watched avatar, the last airbender cartoon....which A loves...and he told us that he is Aang the avatar, daddy is the boy off avatar, mommy is the girl off avatar, and R is appa....ha ha....appa is a huge fluffy flying sky bison, LOL

Pictures of Roos' party and my cool creations for it!

Close up of the cake pops that I made! Complete with cute little ribbons

the whole cake pop cake, mom helped me decorate it

this one I made to look like a bouquet of flowers or something, for my neighbor who's dad just passed away

These are the angel food cupcakes I made...in the making here, with strawbs and raspberries

all finished...the cupcake cake

little roo waiting in anticipation for his cupcakes

The over-excited guests

opening presents....he was most excited about the spiderman bag....:)

digging in!!The berries were his fave part...he pretty much just ate them and the whipping cream

my cousin dropped by for a bit too...mom took this pic because everyone thinks we look so much alike

party poopers....they all fell asleep after the party...you can barely even see Ju-ju's head, ha ha

Some more guests...before they fell asleep for the evening

Roo turns 2!!

My little roo-bear turned 2 yesterday...he's getting SO big! And SO sweet....I just love him to pieces. When he was born, they rolled him out of the OR to see his daddy....who later said that one of his first thoughts was the he just looked like a Reuben. There had been so many names on our list, and that was not one of my top names....maybe daddy's, but not mine. My faves were: "Maverick, Zaid and Holden". But as that sweet little boy was snuggled into my arms...I could feel that he came with his own unique personality. I felt the same way when naming A, like you could just tell what kind of a baby, child and person that they would end up being. So, with R, the same thing happened....except that I presumed he would be similar to A, and so I had come up with names like his. But, he wasn't at all similar. He had a completely different spirit about him...each of our boys were uniqe, and wonderful in their own ways. R had a sweet scalming spirit. I had the feeling that he would be quiet, an easy child (not baby, unfortunately), I sensed his obedient and calm nature. I also had a huge sense that he would be intelligent...quiet, calm and really intelligent. It seems like a weird thought to have about a baby, but thats what I thought. And so Reuben it was, as that is the only name that really fit him. We have loved him ever since that day, SO much....so much more than you fathom possible...and here us my post dedicated to him and  the neat things that he does and has learned in the past 2 years:


-he's always been SUPER snuggly....I LOVE that kids snuggles.


-he's always so quiet and good-natured. He would rather just sit and listen to everyone else, or quietly talk to himself as he plays. Its common for him to play completely by himself for an hour, just talking, and making airplane noises, or walking around...he really does have such a sweet little personality.


-he LOVES us so much, he is always more than ecstatic to see us. Even if  I just run out of the house to the van, or to get the mail, when I come back in he RUNS over to me and is completely over-the-moon that I'm back home...its wonderful. :) He loves his dad and brother too. One of my fave parts of the day os seeing the boys completely freak out when daddy gets home from work, they run out the door to him, yelling "daddy, daddy, daddy!" and giving him HUGE hugs. He always copycats everything that A does and says too. If R doesn't want to do something, all we have to do is get A to do it first, and he will follow suit immediately. Its pretty funny.


-He is SO smart. I know I've said this before, but he really is. He never does anything on demand though, he just sits talking to himself in his highchair, while eating or something....and suddenly I realize that he's actually saying something SUPER smart. The amazing thing is that we have never told him to do these things, or practiced them with him...he just listens and learns. One time it was numbers, he counted from 11-16, and 7-11...and then started doing his colors, of which he now knows brown, green, blue, red and orange....he did the ABC's the other day (only missing a few letters too!); the other day as I was cooking in the kitchen he came into me with a magnet letter saying "Mom! This is an O!" with the letter O, I was completely surprised, as we had never even started practicing any sort of letters names or sounds with him yet...he does the same with the letter "A", and anytime he sees one in a book, or written around the house, he makes sure to stop and tell us.
-The only thing we have to do to convince him to pee on the potty, is tell him that we will ALL clap for him. He LOVES it when we clap after he pees....its stinkin hilarious. Although, everyone in the house has to stop what they are doing and clap loud enough for him to hear, ha ha.
-He is incredibly obedient. Ever since he was a little baby, maybe 10-12 months....if he was crying or throwing a tantrum and we told him to stop, he would! He can be screaming and yelling, and all I'll say is "Roo, its not appropriate to scream like that, you need to stop" and now matter how loud he is crying, he'll stop immediately, like mid-cry! Its pretty much amazing....I don't even know if I could have the self control to stop mid-cry, ha ha.
-He loves his highchair and his playpen! He's always saying how good his sleep was the night before, and that his playpen is "SO comfy", ha ha. And uf he sees another little kid getting put in his highchair, he throws quite the fuss....he'll stay in that thing for an hour, just eating and playing with his food...its great!
-He talks SUPER well....like yesterday we went into the bathroom to look for his little potty seat and he said "Mommy, I can't find it!" and promptly walked around looking for it, and when we found it he said 'Oh, here it is, my potty seat, I found it! I pick it up and bring it" and walked it into the bathroom to put it on and then "pee in the potty, I clap it! daddy clap it! mommy and A, clap it too!"....ha ha...he says the cutest things, an has the cutest little voice. I would have never thought that "booger-wipe please!" could sound SO cute!!!!! ha ha.
-He is excited about life. Anything and everything is SO exciting!! As is apparent by his voice intonation...he always yells when he's excited "GO TO POTTY!!!" or "GET THE MAIL!"...he gets excited over pretty much everything.
-I almost forgot, he is incredibly polite....he says please and thankyou all the time. Thankyou is one of his favorite words...next to "No, I don't want too!"....even in the middle of the night, he'll be tired, cranky and crying...and he still he never forgets to say thankyou when we do anything for him!


Well thats my little roo-bear in a nutshell, he's sweet, he loves us and we love him! Happy Birthday R!!

nothing

I realized that I haven't written since Valentines day...but there's not much to say about this week. The first few days were grand. We FINALLY got the car back in working order...so I was able to get out of the house with the kiddos...and even managed to get the boys hair cut! 

Boy, was that fun. NOT! ha ha...R cried THE whole time....saying "ouchie! ouchie!" everytime she would cut....ha ha...apparently getting your hair cut hurts! Who knew! LOL. 

A's wasn't quite as bad, although he really dislikes the feeling of cut hair all over his face and neck...but they were both bribed by some YUMMY v-day cookies...so they stayed still, even though they REALLY didn't want to!

We were also able to run some MUCH needed errands...with only one minor mishap. Daddy had taken off the back seat of the car, to try and fix it hinmself, and it hadn't been put on yet. He failed to mention to me that the car made HORRIBLE bannging sounds, because of everything loose in the trunk...which apparently is muffled wit the seat on, but not when its off. 

Not knowing this, I attempted to drive it home, only to completely FREAK out, thinking that something was scraping or breaking or something...I pulled over several times. 

BUT, since I don't have a cell phone, and knew that my hubby would be at home waiting for me, I just drove REALLY slowly....only to find out that the car was FINE!! I was so stressed...and wasn't too happy that he failed to mention this noise problem to me. It seriously sounded like something SO bad.

He claims that he did warn me though...as I was walking off to the car he yelled out "don't be scared!:...which I thought was weird...but just brushed off...I was thinking something more along the lines of "the car is going to make a ridiculoulsy loud scraping and grinding sound the WHOLE time your driving it, and you may start thinking it will explode any minute, with YOU in it...but no worries...its just the natural sounds of the car, so don't freak out."....ha ha...nope, not him. LOL. Anyways...enough of my rant. 

You'd think that was the worst part of my week...but it actually wasn't! I watched my sisters kids on wednesday....I tried putting my boys to sleep, but they knew that the girls were up watching a movie..and so they were HORRIBLE!!!  After about 2.5 hours of yelling, and getting out of there beds, and throwing absolutely everything off their bunkbeds...they FINALLY fell asleep. And unfortunately the next morning, it didn't get any better...they slept bad that night, and woke up grumpy the next day (yesterday)....so that day was awful too. Not to mention that I have horrible cramps, and might be a little bit more on edge than usual(oh, and did I mention that my little friend came 11 DAYS EARLY!! not too excited about that...ggggrrrrr)...R must have been feeling my pain, as he cried almost ALL day, for no apparent reason. It was  fantastic day....lol...

Luckily those days rarely happen, and most days are awesome. They both usualy listen as well as you could hope for, ha ha, and R never cries for no reason (well, not very often at least)...so I can't complain. 

Today is already going much better, besides that I'm feeling really junky...they are both back to their normal selves! Which is great for me, as I've bene laying around in pain most of the morning...hopefully that changes soon!

By the way, I'm SUPER excited for this wknd...for 2 reasons: 

1) I think I may have convinced my family to drive down and visit! And I LOVE my family!!!

2) Its little R's 2nd Birthday on SUNDAY!!! Yay!! He is SO adorable, if you ask him how old he is turning, it takes him a while, but he says "2!" while holding up 1 finger, so then I show him how to do it...and he emphatically holds up ALL of his fingers while shouting "2!!" ha ha...he'll get it one day. Oh, and he knows somehow that birthdays mean treats, so he's been talking about cupcakes ALL week long...ha ha...I better make cupcakes! I was going to go for angel food cake, can you make those into cupcakes? :) 

Hope everyone else is enjoying their weekend as much as we are!!

love day

I LOVE love day....its fantastic. Its even more fantastic that my hubby loves me SO much that he celebrates it with me (-ish, ha ha) even though he dislikes it! He doesn't relaly believe in all these little holidays...present-giving, celebrating...all the hooplah...but he does it anyways because he loves me!!

He came home from work bearing flowers, mini-eggs (my FAVE treat, bar none) and he even brought the boys home these cute little heart-shaped balloons....awwww. 

Well he was gone, we made our own little home-made old school valentines, and wrote all the things we love about him on the backs of the hearts. A and R's consisted of alot of scritch-scratchy colors, but A did manage to spell his name out pretty well...and they love him because he plays with them, and tickles them...ha ha..their funny. 

I opted to give him a coupon for a couples massage and pedicure! I'll tell you how it goes! 

Anyways...love day is over...but thats fine with me, because I celebrate it every day of the year!! I LOVE all of my boys...they are FANTASTIC!!

My friday with a little chocolate on top...

I had an AMAZING girls night last night, with such a great turn out. A couple of gals from purely inspired came over and did us over...and everyone looked fantabulous! I must admit, I looked a bit creepy, as I did one eye with a more lavish look, and one with a casual look...completely different colors...ha ha..it was FUN!! Thanks ladies!! Oh, and we also made some fantastic home-made lipgloss...if you want to learn how, check THIS blog out. Sorry, I didn't take pics!

TODAY was chocolate day....EVERYTHING in chocolate...ha ha...we went a little crazy, Katie even drizzled some on my arm...but it was LOADS of fun, and turned out WAY cute. So, if you LOVE chocolate...then READ ON!! And if you were thinking of not coming over tonight, think again...these babies will change your mind...we're gonna PARTY tonight!!

Strawberries...my personal fave of the day, taste-wise

Marshmallow dipped in chocolate...these were the prettiest...

Pink, red, white and milk chocolate

BROWNIES!!!

Pretzels

Another one of the strawbs...they were just so dang good!

I hope everyone else has a GREAT Valentines day weekend...HAPPY FRIDAY!!

I almost forgot!!

My wonderful husband got me this awesome ring set from Stella and Dot for my V-day present...isn't it grand??

I'm not sure if you can see the tiny little sparkle in one of the rings, but its my FAVE one of the set of 7, who doesn't like a little sparkle?? ha ha

My Craft-filled week...

So, all week long I've been adoring these amazing blogs all about FUN crafts and cooking ideas. I finally decided to try some out. The biggest reason I never did any before, was that I didn't have the supplies...so at the beginning of this week, I wrote out everything I would need, and found most of the supplies at the dollar store or bulk barn.
My next plans are to make THESE cute crayon hearts and some strawberries dipped in chocolate swirled with white and pink chocolate drizzles. Oh, and something like THIS for the dance tomorrow night. Anyone want to come craft/cook with me tomorrow? It should be fun!!!
Anyways...on to the stuff I made this week....

These are the cutesy little valentines day cards I made for A's preschool friends:

Then I made THESE cute sandwiches for A's preschool snack, along with THESE delicious cupcakes...but I forgot to take pictures of them (my cupcakes weren't quite as cute as hers, because my icing didn't set properly, but they tasted AMAZING!!), so you'll just have to check out that blog for what they looked like. I LOVED how great my sandwiches worked out, and I'm a little sad I didn't get any pictures of them.
This photo is off PB and J sandwiches I made with the leftover small hearts, for the boys breakfast:

Thes are some decorations around the house that I made:

This is a V-day sign I hung, I was quite surprised at how even the lettering turned out!

I found this heart idea on a blog...and just used scrapbooking and origami paper to make these little hearts

These are bigger hearts I made, mixed with the small

Here's how the whole big string looks.

This is a cake plate I made from a regular plate and a candlestick.

 

 Thats about it for the decorations, besides this snack bowl covered in white in tissue paper,  that I dolled up with some  pieces of confetti.

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner with the Haitsma's...by popular demand :)

Easy-ish meals:
taco rice (this is just hamburger with tomato soup mixed with taco seasoning over rice, super easy and super yummy!)
spaghetti
hamburger helper (healthy, I know)
soup and sandwiches (I LOVE my friend Shelley's soup from the soup company, the beef barley with dumplings is incredible!!! facebook: "The Soup Company"; and tuna sandwiches are loved the most in our house)
potsickers and rice(we buy these from costco in bulk, they are my kids faves)
thai chkn and rice(pan-fry chkn, add costco's sweet chili sauce, and chow-mein noodles, eat over rice; a friend of mine adds coconut milk to her rice, but I haven't tried it yet)
chicken ceaser salad
tacos
potatoes and chili or pan-fried chicken with seasoning (always a fave)
meatloaf and potatoes(I make mini-meatloafs in muffin tins because they are awesome! This is also super easy to freeze and eat later, I add BBQ sauce and a slice of cheese on top)
pizza
chili cheese fries
perogies
fried and chicken strips  (okay, okay....I never said it was all healthy, ha ha...I try and only eat one of the easy-junk meals a week, ex. pizza)

a little trickier (well, more time-consuming):
cafe rio(http://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/2007/11/jared-and-i-love-cafe-rio.html ...pretty tricky, but yummy, and once I make it I usually freeze half for anotherr dinner, including the geern sauce, it freezes well. I buy the pork rind from costoc, which are super cheap...i saw them today for $13.00!! Which is crazy, because its boneless, and there is a TON of meat there...can you tell I love love love costco??)
sheperds pie ( I kind of just use whatever for this, not usually a set recipe)
apple chicken salad with baby greens (found this recipe through pampered chef, but you could probably google a similar one)
chicken tex mex and rice ( I just googled a recipe for this, something like this would work well, and its a GREAT slowcooker meal... http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/slow-cooker-tex-mex-chicken-107258.aspx)
mexican pizza ( I layer tortilla shells with hamburger mixed with beans, salsa(sometimes mixed with ranch or something), peppers and onions, and cheese)
fettucine alfredo
hawaiian meatballs (this is from my sister-in-law katie, so I haven't made it yet, so norecipe to share, sorry!)

I buy my hamburger in bulk from costco, and make the mini-meatloafs to freeze. If I'm really on the ball I'll fry up the rest of the beef, divide it and freeze it...but if not, I just divide the uncooked meat into smaller ziploc baggies.

 I usually make the easy meals a few times throughout the month,  and the more difficult ones only once. 

The ones my kids and hubby REALLY love, usually get in there weekly. I have a white-erase calendar that I stick to the fridge, so everyone knows whats for dinner. This works especially well when having exchange students, because then they can write if they'll be home for dinner or not. 

I find that meal-planning like this makes it SO much easier to shop (which I do weekly, once I write out my list from the meal plan) it also tends to save money at the grocery store, when your not buying aimless food. 

Anyways, I hoped this helped some of you!!

Date night...

Daddy and I are pretty much always late for our friday night temple dates....but whatever, at least we still have FUN!! So...this afternoon, how many things could go wrong. The car broke down yesterday, so my plan to pick up ther sitter before daddy got home didn't work out so well there. Then, daddy got stuck on a call at work, coming home 1/2 hour late...oh, I almost forgot, of course the van was out of gas, why wouldn't it be? ha ha...it's always empty, because we always drive the car...so we have one full broken car, sitting in front of the house, HA! Happy date night to us!! LOL

Daddy has the serious issue with driving, where he always falls asleep. ALWAYS.period. He gets some weird idea every once is a while, that he's not sleepy, and he'll be fine driving, but no! It never ends well. So, he takes the wheel on the west side, and before we even leave Lethbridge, he's going off about how the sun beating down on him, mixed with the lull of the engine and blah blah blah...he's already falling asleep! How that can even be possible, I don't know...I can't even fall asleep in the dark, at night, when all is quiet! Let alone in a noisy car, with other cars everywhere, on a sunny afternoon day....crazy man!

As I'm realizing this, yet again...surprise, surprise...I am just wishing that I could be resting or napping or something, but no, I have to stay up and keep him awake. 

So...this is what we do when we have no fun conversations to start, PLAY 20 questions!! YAY!!! Its actually more like 175ish questions, because we ask until we actually guess the object/thing/whatever...! Here is a list of the "answers" to our game: a grain sylo, fog, plastic and Harry Potters wand (WHAT?!) that one obviously wasn't mine...he was just going for a really tricky one because I stumped him so hard on grain sylo. 

The rest of the date was about as fantastic as our game of 20 questions...which, just in case you were wondering, was AWESOME!!! Basically, just full of fun and laughter.

                                Blog out!

My blog obsession...

I love reading new blog posts....its such a great way to keep up on the lives of your friends, be inpsired by touching words, or catch a desire to start crafting/cooking. One of my new fave blogs is THIS ONE! I don't even remember how I stumbled across it...but it is FAN-freaking-TASTIC!! Just take a look at all of the wonderful crafts and cooking creations...and it will help you catch that much-needed desire to make something beautiful, and tasty too! 

Another fave blog of mine, of course, is the Nie Nie dialogues, but who doesn't love that blog! Seriously! On that note...another one of my fave "touching" blogs that I truly enjoy reading is this one about adoption, from a birthmothers view...and of course, pretty much any of the mormon messages found here. One of the greatest things I've discovered this year, is studying scriptures through the church website, that way, you can look up any words or phrases your interested in, and have so many tools and resources to do so, just a click away. Its awesome. 

Oh, I almost forgot, THIS wonderful website, has THE most amazing modest dresses EVER!!! My goal in the next few months is to lose enough weight to look good in a dress like that, and then my reward will be buying one!!! I'm pretty much excited. 

Besides that, my other fave blogs just include keeping in touch with familly and friends, I love reading little stories about them and their families...its such a great way to keep in touch. 

I'm pretty much just saying, I LOVE BLOGS!! ha ha...who knew I'd be such a sucker for a good blog.