February Photo Dump

This is how Hunter plays with my phone

these are mine from when  I was his age

he sometimes plays with my phone like this

and the always adorable sleeping baby

they had a royal party at school...this is my Knight in Shining Armor

Royal Party...visit from Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Steve and Tante Lorie...concussion...ambulance ride...what a day

Sporting his hospital bracelet while he plays with baby sister

Hunter dumps out the blocks and likes to sit in the box

Sweet Stella

This was the last day I was pregnant...a local photographer needed a pregnant model to practice some new techniques.  I went into labor a few hours later and this photo is now hanging in my OB's office to advertise this photographer.

Sweet girl

My theory is Zack is trying to make me break my ankle again 

we spent valentines at a bar full of vintage video games and craft beer...how perfect

my little Viking

played hard

worked hard

mommy...I want to go out in the snow

see what I mean?  The reality is Zack likes to be close to me so he plays on the stairs during rest time...he has gone so far as to carry the tool bench to the landing.  He checks on me between activities

when your van is stuck in the garage behind a sheet of ice and life group is right up the street.

Hunter loves his sister

I taught Zack how to play store

so cute

playing with puppets he made at Church with Kathryn

 

Zack found Adam's old bear

Hunter was cracking up one day while watching the windshield wipers

Stella loves Hunter

They really look alike here down to the facial expression...we love watching Planes 2

This is how Hunter plays with Stella

Trying Something New

I was really good at cooking for my family and making Zack only homemade organic baby food before I became pregnant with Hunter and before I discovered couponing (buying prepackaged things for almost free...yes please).  That slowly turned into loving how easy prepared prepackaged food was.  Now that Hunter is a little older and Stella is a dream baby I want to start going back to intentionally making my family more health conscious and fiscally responsible,
Call it nesting or one of my crazy whims but I went on pinterest (yeah...this could potentially end badly) and found recipes for healthy home made versions of snacks my kids love and all sorts of household cleaning supplies.  While pregnant with number three and super excited about going completely homemade and chemical free I started to become overwhelmed with the time it might take and the things I needed to buy and what if it didn't work out...so I put this on the back burner...until Stella was in preschool...or kindergarten...or until we figured out Hunter's needs...or until the kids slept past 5:30 and I wasn't so tired...
Well I do this a lot.  I plan something huge and I can't figure out where to start, so I don't start.  Now I'm not pregnant and hormonal...I'm still tired but not too tired...and most of all I'm more realistic.
The plan is to only make changes that are easy, cheaper and healthier for my family.  Here is what I am starting with:

Homemade Fruit Snacks
My boys LOVE fruit snacks and unfortunately the only thing fruit related is the shape...well unless like us you buy the super hero fruit snacks...then there is NO fruit and LOTS of sugar along with other ingredients I can't pronounce but assume aren't nourishing.  I'm hoping Zack will like these, they are much cheaper and pretty much all fruit even better than the Annies organic fruit snacks I bought to make myself feel a little better.

Homemade Granola Bars
These aren't totally free of "weird ingredients" because it uses rice krispies to make them a little more kid friendly and easier to chew.  This recipe will allow me to customize our granola bars and keep things Hunter can't have out of them,

Homemade Applesauce
My boys (especially Hunter) LOVE applesauce in the pouch...and to be honest I love that they are usually mess free and easy to throw in my bag for a quick pick me up.  Hunter eats almost two pouches a day.  The 12 pack is around $8...and is actually made without the crazy ingredients I am trying to eliminate.  I've made applesauce before but never in the crock pot (just when I thought I couldn't love my crock pot more).  I bought these pouches and will save about $20 a month.  Plus if I don't have time to make applesauce I can buy a big jar and fill up the pouches in a pinch.

DIY Dishwasher Pods
Last year while I was out Hunter tried to eat one of our cascade pods...he failed to ingest any (we think) but he spilled it all over the floor and made Adam taste the powder so that he would know what Hunter was feeling if he was actually poisoned.  Yes...so Hunter was fine...Adam was fine...and the pods well I like them.  I'm guessing I won't be totally happy with the outcome but its worth a try especially since the stuff I needed to buy would be used for many other homemade cleaning products...and this would be less poisonous if ingested????  maybe?????  It would definitely save some cash and cut down on chemicals I use.  Why did I choose these before the other DIY cleaning products?  Because I'm almost out of them.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Snow 2015

I've become "that mom" who HATES snow.  I hate that it's actually mostly ice.  I hate that it cancels school.  I hate that it makes me not want to drive...because I don't take the risk with my kids...and it doesn't matter anyway because our very shady driveway ices quickly and keeps my van trapped in the garage.  Hey...I'm not adding shoveling to mu "to do" list and if I make Adam shovel, he would have to shovel our whole shady alley.  I hate that it requires so many extra layers which take a ridiculous amount of time to put on the kids...and I hate the mess in my house when we take those layers off.

I did make sure to get a photo of each kid in the snow...

I have to say I am super thankful that we had the stomach bug for our second snow and couldn't go out to play...is that bad?

I could not be a mom of littles up north.

Concussion

Zack had his first ambulance ride.  That's a milestone right?  It was pretty scary and more of an out of body experience for me.  For Zack...I couldn't tell you...he just says "I rode in an ambulance" [excited voice] "it was fun".
It's been a week so now that I've wrapped my head around the whole thing it was something I'll most likely forget until another emergency...then I'm sure all the feelings will rush back.

We had a very exciting visit from grandma, grandpa, uncle Steve, and tante Lorie...I mean exciting for a normal person...for Zack it was the most exciting day of his life...as is any special activity (ie...getting a new cup, going to target, going to school, wearing a new shirt).  I wasn't surprised that Zack acted like a crazy person and ran around all afternoon.  I wasn't surprised when his craziness caught up with him and he fell and cried.  I thought it might have been about time that he wet himself because he's 3 and hasn't done that in a while.  I thought the second he fell asleep that of coarse he is tired...he really needed a nap after the dress up day at school and our special visitors.  In the back of my mind I was a little concerned but nothing to make me think anything was wrong.  We had a hard time waking him up for dinner, which was weird.  It was a little scary when he started continuously vomiting.  I googled concussion symptoms and it was clear that's what had happened.  We had a concussion scare a couple years ago when he threw a tantrum and threw himself out of the grocery cart...I had taken him to the doctor and because he was running around the doctor said to just observe him because they really don't like doing CT scans.  I figured we would be in for a long night of worried observation.  Just to be safe I called the on call pediatrician office and the guy at the answering service said these symptoms were on the "call 911" list.  So we did.
Zack was half asleep and vomiting on himself.  I'm glad we called.
The fire truck and ambulance arrived and Zack had several strangers in uniforms piled into our hallway talking to him and poking at him.  He didn't care...which is unlike my super excitable guy.  I carried him out to the ambulance which assured all our neighbors who were outside checking out the action that it wasn't anything too serious.  Zack was totally calm the whole ride and fell asleep when we got to the hospital.  He was difficult to wake and because of the possible loss of consciousness (I know...scary) and the urinary incontinence and the sleeping and the vomiting they thought a CT scan was necessary.  He woke up only for the scan and was terrified.
The scan was clear and we were sent home.  We had to keep him calm and inactive and screen free for a week after symptoms stop.  Meaning no school, no playdates, no running, no tv, no ipad, nothing where he could potentially fall (which in Zack's case included coloring...because coloring while balancing on our toes and elbows is typical).
We have officially survived a week of nothing and Zack is going back to school tomorrow.  I'm a little scared...I don't know of what...but like Dory says "you can't never let anything happen to him...or nothing will ever happen to him" (yes I just quoted finding Nemo).

Stuck at home photo shoot

I had to take 3 month photos of Stella...and Zack wanted to be in them too...plus we were stuck at home with that whole concussion thing...and couldn't watch tv...so why not take some photos to update some of my frames.