One Proud Mama!!!

I have some of the best girls ever! For real! We have been going to school for 2 weeks now, this is Kirsten's 2nd year in the program but now that she is older they do a lot more classwork. In her class they do worksheets to practice writing skills, colors, shapes, letters, drawing lines, and other fun crafts. I love checking her backpack when we get home to see all the things she did that day. It's so much fun for me to see that she is doing well, completing her work, and being a good student. I'm so proud :)

 

Kara does great in her baby room too! She takes longer naps there then she will for me at home, and eats and plays great for the teachers! Each day they give me a little report so I know how she did.

6 months :)

Kara is 6 months old today! We are halfway through her first year....insane!

Look at that cutie :)

I can't get enough of these two! I am so excited to see them grow up together!

Learning how to drink from a sippy cup! Such a big girl :)

This Week's Eats

Here is our dinner menu for the week. We will be trying Brussels Sprouts for the first time! I have heard that they taste kinda like a cabbage/broccoli baby so I am actually really excited :) I think I might love them! My plan is to roast them with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Sunday:
Mandarin Chicken Salad

Monday:
Salmon, Farfalle with Feta, Brussels Sprouts

Tuesday:
Beef Enchiladas, Corn

Wednesday:
Italian Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Peas

Thursday:
Baked Spaghetti, Green Beans, Garlic Bread

Friday:
Creamy Chicken Casserole

For lunches I have planned:
Sandwiches, Tuna Salad, Pizza, Burritos, Chicken Wraps, and Leftovers. We always have fresh veggies (carrot sticks, broccoli, cucumbers) and Fruit (grapes, apples, strawberries) on hand to eat with our lunches.

Have you ever tried brussels sprouts? Love them or hate them?
I think the name sounds disgusting so maybe that's what has kept me from trying them for so long! I'll let you know what we think

Whining and Rolling

Lately there has been lots of whining from this one...

and rolling around from this one....

Kirsten has been a DRAMA QUEEN! She has at least one major meltdown daily over something small and ridiculous like not getting a particular snack that she wants, having to take a nap, or like tonight she broke down because she didn't want to sit down in the bathtub when I was trying to give her a bath.

We have been trying to talk to her about how it's important to listen and obey immediately when we ask her to do something, and that if she chooses not to then there are consequences.

I think this is just part of growing up for her and becoming a little more independent. We are trying to be consistent with our discipline when she acts up so that with time she will learn that whining gets her no where. I need prayers for patience though, because man the whining drives me nuts!

Kara stills hates being on her stomach but now she has learn to roll over from her back to stomach really well, so she is doing that all the time and then getting frustrated because she is on her stomach :) Silly child. She is also starting to sit up really well! I think crawling is a ways off however. She scoots herself around the floor on her back and LOVES to suck on her toes :)  I can't believe she is almost 6 months old now!

How do you respond when your child whines or argues? What works and what doesn't?

It's the holiday season?

We started celebrating Christmas quite a bit early this year. Kirsten had been begging me to make Christmas cookies with her so when Grandma (who makes tons of Christmas cookies every year for all the family) came to visit this week I decided it would be fun to have a little bit of Christmas in August!

Having kids makes celebrating holidays and birthdays so much more fun for me! Their excitement over the little things is contagious. I am always SO anxious for all the fun traditions that we do to celebrate Christmas and now I have two little girls to be excited with me :)  But it's only August so maybe this will hold me over until....um October?! haha!

Back to School!!!

Today was our first day of school. Kirsten was so excited to go back to school this year! She is in a preschool class with about 20 other kids her age and just loves it! The other teachers are all wonderful and she loves getting to do school work, sing songs, play, and make crafts!
Kara is in a class with all the other little babies. She gets to play, swing, sleep, (all that baby stuff). The ladies who take care of them are awesome and I know she is in good hands!
I really miss seeing them for that few hours in the morning. I probably miss them more than they miss me :)  But I love working with the other teachers in my class and getting time to socialize a little myself.  And I know it's great for Kirsten to get out to socialize with other kids as well.

Here we are ready for school...

Ignore the mess in the background, we are still moving in :)

Then Kirsten said, "Now let me take one of you Mom."

(My first UK shirt, maybe I'm a fan now!)

We had a great first day! My room was a little nuttzo, but it always is for the first little bit until the kids get used to everything. I think we have a great group of kids though and I can already tell there are some real sweethearts in the bunch that will soon become my best buds!

Kirsten got to practice drawing circles and made a little bear puppet. She said she likes Mrs. Michelle and that she "talks nice" :) She also got to play outside on the playground and she was a little worried that she got her new school shoes dirty.

Kara did great too! I packed her  baby cereal for the teachers to feed her and then went to her class to nurse her real quick when it was time to eat. I am so thankful that I can do that so I don't have to worry about pumping or her not taking a bottle. Kara is pretty easy going and happy so I knew she wouldn't have a problem.

I better go to bed now, I have 20+ energetic cuties waiting for me to play with them in the morning!

Moving

This happened a couple weeks ago...

We sold our house!

And tomorrow we are moving out. The next couple days are gonna be crazy, we move out tomorrow, sunday we need to clean out this house, and then Monday we start school and close on the house.

I will really miss this house and especially the location. It's been sooo perfect for Kirsten to be able to play outside with out having to worry about cars or anything. And she has become best friends with the girl across the street :)

We are just moving into a different house in the same neighborhood but it's still a little sad to move. It makes the best financial sense for us to sell right now so that's why we are even though we don't really want to lose this house. Changes like this are always a little scary/sad for me, I am hoping we all love the new house, and that Kirsten finds some new neighbor friends to play with. (even though I am sure we will still have her best friend over to play)

Better go start packing :)

Bedhead and Baby food

  Check out Kirsten's hair!

She woke up this morning rocking the perfect 80's frizz! haha! As I was laughing and taking pictures of her, she got embarrassed and said "Mommy, fix my hair please."

On to the baby food...

When Kirsten was a baby I decided to make her baby food myself instead of spending the ridiculous amount on the jarred stuff. Not only is it a lot cheaper to make it myself, it tastes a lot better too. The options are endless, you can make almost any fruit or vegetable into the perfect baby food. It's super simple.

Today I made butternut squash. Just cut it in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds.

Lay them skin side up in a baking dish and add a little bit of water to the dish. Bake at 375 for 45min-1hr. Until the squash is soft and skin is bubbly.

 Then just scoop out all the good stuff into your food processor. I usually need to add about 1/2cup of water to get it to the consistency I like. Then blend it all up until it's nice a smooth.

Perfect!

This makes a lot for only a couple dollars. To store it I spoon the food into ice cube trays, cover and freeze and then pop them out and put them in a freezer bag. When it's time to eat, I just take a couple cubes out and heat them up. You can easily make yummy combinations by adding a cube of apple to squash, etc.

So far for Kara I have made sweet potato, apples, squash, and banana. Some foods like banana and avocado, you don't even need to cook first. Just mash it up and add a little water to thin it out if you need to.

A Day in My Life

I love being a mommy and spending my day taking care of my girls. Here is what a day in my life looks like right now. It may not be that exciting to some,  but I love doing what I do. God made me for this :)

7:45am - Kara wakes up, I wake up change Kara's diaper and get her dressed.
8:00am - I eat breakfast while Kara plays on the floor.
8:15am - Nurse
8:30am - Kirsten wakes up - I get her dressed, make her breakfast, and feed Kara her baby cereal
9:00am- Playtime, while I do dishes/laundry or whatever else needs done.
9:45am - Lay Kara down for nap and start a cartoon for Kirsten so I can take a shower/get ready.
10:15am- playtime with Kirsten until Kara wakes up.
10:45ish - Kara wakes up, then we all go outside to play.
11:15 - Nurse Kara
11:30 - pick up toys, start getting Lunch ready.
12-1pm - Lunchtime (Jack comes home and we eat lunch together)
1:30pm- Naptime- my time :) most days I only have about 1 hour where both of the girls are asleep at the  same time. I usually mess around on the internet, pay bills, fold laundry, or watch TV.
2:30pm- Nurse Kara
3:00pm - Snack time - Kirsten wakes up grumpy sometimes so when that happens I let her chill and watch a cartoon to get out of her funk :)
3:30-5pm - If I have errands I need to run this is when we usually go, otherwise we will play outside if it's nice or stay inside and do crafts, play dough, whatever Kirsten is wanting to do.
4:30pm Kara takes another small nap.
5:15pm- I start cooking supper and get Kirsten cleaned up.
5:30pm- Nurse Kara
6:00pm - Daddy comes home! While he entertains the girls I finish up supper.
6:30pm - We eat :)
7-8pm - We play, watch TV, clean up the clutter from the day, etc.
8pm- Bath time for the girls.
8:30pm- I nurse Kara, and put her to bed, While Kirsten has a snack and plays with Daddy or watches a cartoon.
9:00pm - Brush Kirsten's teeth, read stories, nighty-nighty!
9:30pm till I decide to go to bed, chill time :) (spend time with hubby, blog, read, tv, and some kind of chocolate!)

So that's my typical day. I like having my girls on a pretty predictable routine, but of course there are days when we have stuff going on that throws everything a little off but I always try to go right back to the normal schedule the next day. It seems to really help them to know what to expect when and it allows me to be able to plan out the things that I need to get done as well.

Flat Cookie Syndrome

I have a problem...I can NOT make a thick cookie. No matter what recipe I follow my cookies alway fall flat :( I can make cakes, pies, brownies, cupcakes, but man silly cookies! I don't know what I am doing wrong. Today I stumbled upon a recipe for what was supposed to be a puffy thick peanut butter chocolate chip cookie. And her cookie actually looked thick and puffy, so this gave me hope! Maybe if I followed her recipe exactly I would finally conquer my flat cookie syndrome!

So this afternoon I made cookies. Kirsten helped :)

Stealing a chocolate chip...

or three :)

I could eat a bowl full of this stuff (if it weren't for pesky salmonella)

Ready to go into the oven :) Finger's crossed!

And they are done!

Grrr, flat yet again!

 Even though these didn't stay puffy for me, they are still super delicious! Someone needs to fill me in on what I am doing wrong. What's the secret to a thick cookie!?

This Week's Eats (lunch and dinner menu)

We are trying to cut back on eating out this month so I thought it would help to plan out specific meals for lunch too because when we aren't sure what to eat, we go fast food :)

Monday:

Lunch - Ravioli's and green beans

Dinner- Shredded Chicken wraps, carrot sticks, chips

Tuesday:

Lunch-Chicken Strips, waffle fries, apple slices

Dinner- Frozen pizza, salad (Jack play's basketball tuesday nights so this night is always something quick)

Wednesday:

Lunch- Breakfast burritos, grapefruit

Dinner- Salmon, baked potatoes, corn on the cob

Thursday:

Lunch- Tuna salad sandwiches, fresh broccoli, apple slices

Dinner - Mediteranean Chicken with brown rice, peas

Friday:

Lunch- Pasta roni with chicken and peas

Dinner- Turkey burgers, grilled potatoes, green beans

That's what the Defreitas house is eating this week. I'd love some inspiration for new meals to try. What's on the menu at your house?