Wednesday

This morning I dropped E off at school then came home, and MJ and I played school until I sat down to work on my February issue. MJ headed to school and E got off the bus around noon. I videoed JMan walking some more (BTW-I have been trying to upload a couple new videos of him today, but they don't seem to be working. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.)

I am avoiding the grocery store as long as possible, although we're about out of milk, bread, eggs, butter and cheese, plus some other staple items. Fortunately we have meat and veggies, so we'll be eating fine this week. Tonight I was excited because I ended up throwing together a really great casserole with some things I had in the fridge.

I'm not sure what I'm going to call it. It's kind of like Texas Cavier, but I made it a little saucy with the sour cream and cream cheese. Normally I would put something similar in tortillas to make quesadillas, but I was out of those. So instead I put the cheese and chips on top.

Here are the ingredients:

Diced chicken

black beans

corn

green peppers

onions

tomatoes

sour cream

cream cheese

spices (salt, pepper, cumin, cilantro, garlic)

shredded monterrey jack and cheddar cheese

crushed tortilla chips

I baked it about 20 minutes until it was hot and bubbly and the cheese was melted. My little family of five ate almost an entire 9X13 casserole pan of it. Wow! The kids loved it.

After dinner I took M up to religious ed class, then it was back home for books, prayers and bed. Not too exciting a day, but some fun and laughs were had along the way.

I Do It Myself, Mom

That's Emma favorite phrase right now, I think. She says it a lot. This little independent one of mine. She also says, "I neeeeeeed it." a lot too. She drawls it out like that. I usually respond with "no, you don't need it, you want it." To which she replies, "I want it, Mom." So, matter-of-factly, like okay, then give it to me.

Anyway, she loves to do things on her own, making peanut butter sandwiches is one of them. I cringe each time I see her pull out the bad of bread and jar of PB. But, I know she has to do it by herself. I just am not a fan of messes-especially peanut butter ones. It just seems that the mess winds up in places you don't expect. You think you get it all wiped up and 10 minutes later you still smell peanut butter on your person and you wonder, "what?!" only to look down and see it somehow got smeared on your shoe and you've tracked it into office and onto your chair.

Yeah, huh?! How'd that get there?

Oh well. She's so proud of herself though. And that makes me proud too. So, here's to you Little E and your PB sandwiches you love to make yourself when you're three!

Here he comes

Go Cats!

Go WildCats!

We enjoyed watching K-State beat Texas 71-62 last night. I'm so glad the basketball team is doing well this year. They weren't very good when we were in school; it was the football team all the way. But it's great to see them come around. And we're excited to cheer for K-State no matter when, where or which team it is. MJ and E were both standing in front of the TV, shouting out, "Go K-State, Go K-State!" MJ also cheered, "Who do we appreciate? K-S-U!" Even though we're in blue and orange country and we love our Broncos, we are still raising them to bleed purple out here!

Just a little random silliness

Emma wanted a photo with Little J.



Trying to take a few steps



We were trying a group portrait.



Me and E



Strike a pose, baby!



Little macaroni head



He was making his little cheese face, where he scrunches his nose.



One day the girls donned their leotards and asked me to turn on the classical music, then they proceeded to perform. It was so cute.







Josh made it home safely. The kids were so excited to see him (me too, of course). In fact, J will hardly let him put him down when Josh is in the house. He crawls after him and wants him to hold him too. It's really sweet.

The girls played house in the living room today. It was so cute, listening to them, making plans, designing each room. They got along very well. Of course, earlier in the day there was some screaming at each other. It's like they love each other and play so well one minute, then can be at each other's throats the next. Ugh! I just love seeing them playing well together. I try to remind them how nice it is. I know though, when push comes to shove, they will be there for each other. That's what matters most, I guess.

The weather was really nice today so the girls played outside a long time before lunch. It was good for them to get some fresh air. MJ had today and tomorrow off of school. But, she's already asking to go back.

Tonight when I tucked Emma in she told me she had a guy in her mouth. It was a little guy. And I needed to take him out and put him in the garbage. What?! So, I pretended along with her and took the little guy and threw him away. She just giggled. And said, "one more time." So I did it again. And she giggled. And she said, "one more time." Usually one more time means about five more times. I just love bedtime with my kids. Sometimes it does seem to take awhile, especially if we're late with dinner and baths. But, when I think about, it is some really great one-on-one time with my kiddos. We usually read together, then I tuck the girls in separately. And sometimes they get more books. And we pray together and read a Bible story. And sometimes we through little men in the garbage. ?!? MJ and I have had some good talks at bedtime too. I hope we can always talk like we do now.

Little J was walking around even more today, even getting across the room before falling. He also loves pushing his little walking toy and gets a little rough when he's trying to move it around. He just jerks it back and forth until he gets it turned around. Glad he's learning to figure things out. Here are just a few things I want to remember about this stage:

-he loves to take baths. He enjoys the balls that came with a bath toy and likes to reach and dive for them.
-he loves to eat. This kid can pack away a lot of food. He eats about anything-all kinds of meat, veggies, fruits, breads, pasta, crackers, eggs. He is drinking well out of his sippy cup.
-he usually nurses when he wakes up in the morning then before his nap around 10 a.m. and before his afternoon nap. Then again at night and once before bed about 8 p.m. He's sleeping about 10-11 hours. He doesn't take a bottle really at all and doesn't like formula, so when he's away from me, he just drinks water, but seems fine. Fortunately, we'll be switching to whole milk soon. Not sure how we're going to get him weaned, but we'll do it gradually. MJ weaned herself at 10 months. Emma was finished by 14 months. I have always enjoyed being able to breastfeed my children. It's been great having that special time to share with each of them. I'm sure I'll miss it once we're finished, but I will just be grateful I was able to do that.
-J may be trying to cut out his morning nap. Some days he still take two-if he wakes up around 6. On days where he sleeps later til 7-8, then he's not really ready to go down at 10. Today he ate a late breakfast, so he went down at 11 and slept until 2. I'm not quite ready to push him to only nap in the afternoon, but I think it was around 12 months when the girls moved to one nap a day.
-each day he's taking more steps and getting into more things. We are seeing how babyproofed our house is not. We've purchased the babylocks, but have yet to install them. Need to do that soon. Very soon.
-he's a joy, such a joy. As are the girls. They all seem to grow and change each day. It's always something new. Makes me happy. Makes me a little sad. But it's good. Life is good.

Some midnight ramblings

Today was a fun day. We went to see Josh's mom for her birthday then did a little shopping around in Nampa. I haven't been out much at all lately, so it was nice. We only went to three stores and the kids did very well. Tonight we were invited up to a friend's house. She had invited a few ladies over from church. One of them used to babysit the kids so we carpooled together. I had seen the other gals before at Mass, but we had not met. It was a fun night of food, fellowship and fun. The kids also had fun playing and talking together. J was trying to walk all over the place. I think at one point he took 8 steps at once. Crazy, crazy. I also delivered the rest of the photos I did for our church's adopt-a-family before Christmas. It was so neat to see the looks on their faces when they saw them. It warms my heart to know I could give the gift of a family portrait to them.

I think Josh is ready to be back home. Today was the female show in Denver. When I talked to him, they had gotten the stalls broken down and were waiting to load the trailer. He and his Dad fly back in late Sunday night. We miss him too. He'll be starting to calve out the spring cows in the next couple weeks, so I know he's anxious to see what the next calf crop will bring. We also have flyers and information to get out on all the bulls for sale.

The weather was better today. I actually saw sun and needed my sunglasses. Wow, what a boring post. It's still really mucky out. Tomorrow, I am hoping to get some closets cleaned out and some organizing down.

The kids and I have had some fun times this week. They are each so different, so amazing in their own ways. I just love watching them. I am blessed.

A few steps