Sunday, January 30, 2011

One of the funniest moments in my marriage...

One of the funniest moments in Josh and I's marriage was the summer after we first got married. We went out to visit my parents and Josh decided to take a ride on their horse named Charisma. Now, Charisma is an Arabian which are not the biggest horses, and Charisma is small even for her breed. Josh is tall. So already, you need to picture this small dainty horse with a big tall man sitting atop her... it's an awkward picture... and rather humorous.

First Josh tried to catch her. He wrapped his arms around her neck which she didn't like so she started to run around in circle... Josh never let go. So Charisma got to drag Josh around the pen for a minute or two until I mention that we could just give her feed to make her calm down and slip the halter on while she was eating. I could have mentioned this before he did his little tango with her around the pen, but it was so much funnier to wait until after.

We saddle her up and Josh, whom hasn't really ridden horses before, was determined to go out all on his own with her. Must be a manly moment thing, trying to prove that he could do it, didn't need advice, didn't need a girl to lead him around, he's a man, he's gotta prove it... errr something like that. So he gets on and directs her to start walking in my parents yard (which is huge by the way). They get about half way up this hill across the yard when Charisma starts to do a little dance. Now, me, standing by the pen where we had saddled the horse up could tell immediately that she was getting skittish, that she needed to be reined in a circle... to not have her jaw yanked on so hard by an oversized man whom was beginning to freak out... ahem, she just needed a gentle voice and a firm (but not THAT firm) hand.

Well Charisma freaked out. She spins around super fast and starts to take off towards the pen where I was standing. This means that I got the best view for the show. Upon Charisma taking off running Josh decided to let go of the reins and hold on to the saddle for dear life. Now, most people would hold on to the horn on the saddle... it's the most logical place. Not my husband, oh no. He grabs underneath the front of the saddle and leans back with all his might which causes the saddle to lift off the horse. So from my view, I have the freaked out horse running straight at me with an oversized man sitting on top with a look of sheer terror on his face holding the underneath part of a saddle which is causing it to ride up. Charisma runs right up to me and stops abruptly, and since Josh was leaning back as hard as he could he didn't have much balance, so when she stopped it caused him to launch forward onto her neck. Upon stopping I think Josh looked at me for a second like 'what the hell just happened? Am I actually alive?' then he jumped off the horse faster then I've ever seen anyone dismount before.

My husband hasn't ridden horse by himself since.

Now. You may think that I am cruel for laughing my head off when my newlywed hubby gets the poo scared out of him. You can think I'm cruel for laughing before the horse even stopped running. And you can think I'm cruel for still teasing him to this day about the look on his face and the funny position he hung on for dear life in. My mom, whom was standing next to me the entire time was laughing just as hard as I was. And my husband cheeks still turn slightly pink when this story comes up.

Friday, January 28, 2011

My latest fight...

Eli and I are having a fight. It goes something like this...

Me: "Eli, you need to sleep through the night."
Eli: "No Mom, you don't understand, I can't!"
Me: "Yes you can. You sleep through the night about once a week. How can you go from sleeping through the night one night and then have to get up three times the next night?"
Eli: "Um, well, it's because I, I, um... it's because I go so long without eating the first night that I have to make up for it the next. Yeah, that's right. It takes my stomach awhile to catch up Mom!"
Me: "Eli, you're lying."
Eli: "No, no I'm not Mom. I need to eat at night. I'm hungry."
Me: "You're not hungry. If you can make it through the night one night a week then you should be able to make it the other six. You are consistently following this pattern of one good night, six bad nights."
Eli: "What's 'consistently' mean?"
Me: "That's besides the point. You need to sleep through the night."
Eli: "Nope, not gonna do it Mom!"
Me: "Yes you are!"
Eli: "But I can't go back to sleep without my tummy full of warm milk... and I kinda just like snuggling with you at midnight... and 3AM... and 5AM... and sometimes 1AM and 2AM too! Mommy, I love you."
Me: (this is where I get stuck, my baby just wants me!) "I love you too. Please? Please sleep?"
Eli: "No."

The end.

This is Eli. After fighting with him two hours one night he still wouldn't sleep so I finally gave in and nursed him back to sleep in bed.


Sigh. He's so cute... Probably why he's getting away with this!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Peach Patch

Look! I have my very own cabbage patch doll!


I think I'll name him Cutie Pie Patch... or Peach Patch:)

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Vienna's Cake

This last weekend my niece Vienna turned the big one! I got to go down to her party in Brainerd on Saturday which was a ton of fun and Vienna seemed to be absolutely loving it! I also got to make her cake which was fun too!

Monday, January 24, 2011

My men...


I love my men!!!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Baby Food

Eli has started eating baby food and he loves it! I could tell he was very ready to eat big people food. He would sit on my lap while I was eating and follow every bite to my mouth, then he would slowly start opening his mouth every time I took a bite and was grabbing at all my food. He tried cereal with breast-milk for the first time when he was six and a half months old.



When Gabriel was eating baby food I made all of my own baby food for him. We lived in Korea at the time so I didn't really have a choice but it wasn't hard and I actually enjoyed it! Now that we live in the States again there are loads and loads of options for baby food in the store. Even with all the options out there I have decided to make some of my own baby food again.

I have this theory. I think that the reason that Gabriel loves his veggies so much is because I made my own baby food. See the stuff in the jars or plastic containers that you can buy in the store does not taste like the actual vegetables so when you try to transition from baby food to actual food the baby has to get used to a whole new flavor and re-develop their taste buds to suit to the actual vegetable. Follow me? So I'm making my own vegetables for Eli!

Making your own baby food is definitely not a hard thing to do and you have more options then they have in the store pre-made. This second time around for me I'm learning even more things! I discovered a newer and (I think) easier way to freeze the baby food. Most websites tell you to freeze the pureed food in ice trays or sell you expensive containers specially designed for baby food. Honestly, the easiest way I've found it to pour all the mixture into a baking sheet (or round pan), freeze it, take it out and let it sit for maybe 5-10 minutes and then cut it with a pizza cutter. Then you pull out the cubes of food and throw them in a ziploc bag that is labeled and there you go. That way you don't have to worry about having enough ice trays for the food, you can make a lot more at once, and you don't have to spend the time spooning the food into the little holes of the ice cube tray.

Also, I've discovered something else new this morning. I have lots and lots of baby food jars already from buying fruit for Eli (I actually get them for free from WIC since we're low income). I was going to throw them all out because I couldn't think of a use for them. Then I realized that, hey, I could use these to can the vegetables that I make for Eli for when I go out! That way I don't have to worry about making sure to have a freezer available for the frozen veggies if we were to go away for the weekend, it would be in the jars and I wouldn't have to worry about it! It would be just like it's store bought! Or you could just buy them in the jar and save the time... but you wouldn't save money if you bought it! I haven't tried it yet, so I don't know how well it's going to work but I'm excited to try it out.

I've been having fun (yes, I said fun!) making baby food for Eli and I'll keep learning more and more as time goes on!

Pink Juice

Gabriel loves what he calls pink juice. Pink juice is very popular in our house. Pink juice is also known by most people as something called a green smoothie.

The first time I heard about a green smoothie was from my sister Kristy. It sounded rather gross when she told me about it first. Green smoothies are kefir, banana, frozen berries, spinach and a raw egg. Yeah, sounds kinda gross doesn't it? Well it's actually not, it's pretty good! I guess you are only supposed to use organic eggs, which I don't have so I just forgo the egg part and put the rest in. Gabriel LOVES them! See...



Yeah, it gets really messy at our home when we have 'pink juice'. Wipes and napkins are necessities. And I'm not sure why he calls it 'pink juice' because it's not pink at all, but hey, more veggies go into us and it makes Gabriel's day!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Rachel's Cake

Yesterday we celebrated my sister-in-law Rachel's birthday! She asked me to make the cake for the celebration and her only request was no chocolate. So I did a strawberry themed cake. Inside was french vanilla cake and strawberry frosting and it was topped with fresh, cut up strawberries.

I was happy to do her cake and I wish I would have been able to do a bit more but I didn't have a ton of time this week so I had to do something a little more easy. But in the end it was simple and purty :)

Camping

On Friday night Josh and Gabriel went camping. They moved Gabriel's little tent into the middle of his room and Mama made it as comfortable as possible for them and they went camping! It was so cute and Gabriel was so excited! They each had a thing of juice/water, a ton of books and flashlights. I tucked them in and said goodnight and let them have fun.

This is Gabriel getting ready...


I walked by the door a few times and heard talking so I stopped and listened to hear Josh reading books and Gabriel going 'lalalalala'. I guess when Josh was reading books Gabriel was trying to help and whenever he would stop Gabriel would insist that he would keep reading! Haha!

Gabriel was so excited that he didn't want to fall asleep and stayed up past ten! Josh said they had tons of fun and Gabriel was still walking around with flashlights the next morning.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Have you ever?

Have you ever snuck into your children's room after they have fallen asleep just to take a picture of them? Even if it means that the flash might wake them up just to capture that precious moment?


I have! 

Monday, January 3, 2011

Christmas Morning

This year, or technically last year since it's now 2011, we were all very excited for Christmas. Since Gabriel was born we haven't really had our own Christmas with the Christmas tree and decorations and tradition. I think I may have explained it in an earlier post but just in case I thought I did and I really didn't, I will explain again.

So Gabriel's first Christmas, he was 4 months old, we lived in this teeny tiny little apartment and we weren't sure when we were going to have to move so we decided not to decorate, we also didn't have room to decorate. It was a super small place. Gabriel got one gift that year, it was a Jumperoo!

Second Christmas we were living at my parents and things are always crazy there around Christmas time and I think we opened up gifts a few evenings before Christmas.

This year the boys actually got to wake up on Christmas morning and open presents! Not that that is what Christmas is all about but it's a fun little part for the kids. Gabe was so excited to see gifts under the tree and I think Mommy and Daddy were even more excited to give the gifts away! Here are a few pictures of our morning...

 See the workbench? Yeah, it came out of a dumpster. Not kidding. Gabriel loves it!

 So excited to read the books he got!




 Cheese!!!
 Eli got bibs and sippy cups and chocolate in his stocking... chocolate he will have to get through Mommy milk:)
Merry Christmas!!!

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Christmas Cake

The days before Christmas I was very busy. I spent much of my time preparing for Christmas and it involved a lot of baking, packing and planning. And I made this...

And it took a lot of time to make. But, I had so much fun and though it didn't turn out exactly as planned I thought it turned out pretty good! My second fondant cake!