Wednesday, December 29, 2010

New Toys

With all the new toys Robert hasn't had a moment to stop the excitement. So far Thomas the Train tent has been a huge hit. Christmas morning right after opening all his presents he went right in the tent with all his new toys and we couldn't get him out. Notice the great bed head hair!


Mrs. Paula gave him the Thomas pillow and he tries very hard to keep all of his Thomas' together!
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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

December-Long post




This post has been long in the making and way over due. December seemed to escape us while we spent most of it at the pediatrician. 3 ear infections, 1 sinus infection and one respiratory infection later we hope to welcome in a healthier 2011. On the bright side, we are now the proud owners of a nebulizer. Exciting, I know. Prepare for this, it is a giant ramble and full of awful organization and punctuation.


We did have a great coffee club this month, snow and a very, very loud noise maker included. Little Robert stayed at home with 2 of the 3 ear infections while I enjoyed Sweet Pete's and good Holiday discussion.

Lots and lots of Christmas cards were mailed and how much fun we had writing and mailing them all. I managed to get the sinus infection half way through the card writing so I take full responsibility for all misspellings.





We skipped Santa this year. Scrooge, I know. With all the illness we picked up without his visit I figured one Santa visit and we would be sure to catch all sorts of wonderful. Hopefully better health and a great Santa visit next year. Little Robert did however catch on to Santa and talked non stop starting Christmas eve about Santa "coming in the door" and "has a key." Christmas morning we brought Robert down the stairs to a Thomas the train tent, basketball hoop and a chainsaw. What more could a boy want? He loved every minute.


Christmas night family came and we cooked a great big meal:

Appetizer:

Main:
Mac and Cheese
Made the SP top look like this.

Dessert:
Fudge Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Chocolate Cream Pie

The day after we had chili with more family and Robert protested sleep. We are back in sleep training mode and fingers crossed we are in our second and last day. With all the illness we lost our sleeping habits. We are however getting in all 5 of our final teeth. R took off Monday and Tuesday and Little Robert is soaking it all in. We have had a great time and accomplished loads. Monday we got in all of our shopping for the new year at the Avenues and the outlets and Tuesday we packed up all of the decorations and cleaned out closets.
Little Robert is officially 21 months and only 3 to go for the big 2-4! Party plans are starting!



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Thursday, December 9, 2010

Next weeks meals

It's early but we have colds and skipped CBS so we are going to attempt to get ahead on life.

I don't know Meg D. but I hope to one day. She is one of those far off bloggers who I don't know but feel like I do and in normal daily life makes me out to be a weirdo for keeping up with someone I have never met. She is a great Mom though and you can never read about to many of those. This next week we will be eating a few of Meg's meals.

M: Chicken Enchiladas
T: Stuffed Shells
W: BBQ Meatballs
R: Noddles with Chicken (Not the ham)
F: Out with Friends
S/S: Out with Friends/leftovers
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Video of Robert and the tree

We started the decorating Saturday after Thanksgiving and to keep Robert in sight we buckled him into his car and just pushed him as we worked. I did get this video of him when he discovered the Snoopy train ornament.















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The start of December



A lot has been going on lately- Robert has yet another shiner and we have decorated for Christmas! This month is going to be a busy one. We have something on the calendar almost every day and the weekends can't possibly get any busier. Robert turns 21 months on the 25 and he is changing more and more every day. He talks up a storm and loves to sing and dance. He loves anything with buttons or an engine and watching his Thomas DVDs are great fun for him. He still isn't the best eater. He loves cheese, graham crackers, bananas, apple sauce and anything Gerber pureed.


Robert woke up one morning and went straight for his new Christmas book.

Robert loves to help!



The latest shiner:


R starting the outside lights:


I took this two weeks before the month started. I warn you it is much worse now!



We had Robert's little friends from Sunday School over and Ryland had a blast in the icing while we decorated cookies!



Robert wasn't so much into the eating but loved the decorating!



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Thursday, November 18, 2010

Back to Normal Posting

Don't judge me for Shutterfly post- I am crossing my fingers it comes through:)

This past week we have been busy with CBS and getting ready for the Holidays. Days have been full of reading "My Big Truck and Train Book" watching Veggie Tales, eating cheese, cheese and more cheese.

Robert LOVES to read his "My Big Truck and Train Book" and then when we are out point at everything he knows from his book.



His friend Lilly Anna is taking a brief absence from CBS and mornings have been a bit harder without her but Noah's company seems to have done the trick. Robert also showed us this week that he can climb without ANY help into the pack n play and also onto our bed. He also showed me more of his superman skills and almost climbed into the bath tub-good for me I was near by with a quick yank to the back of his shirt collar. He talks non stop and says all sorts of funny phrases but never consistent. The other day I had told him "Thank you" and he shot right back with, "Your Welcome." He LOVES to sing all sorts of songs. His favorite is probably "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." He just says, "row, row, row" and mumbles and sways along.

We made "Mini Maple Pancake Muffins " yesterday for Bible Study and we are going to be making this "Apple Crumb Bar" for dinner tomorrow with Ryland.
Here is a photo from this time last year:

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Monday, November 15, 2010

Shutterfly Christmas Cards

Shutterfly is offering 50 free cards for the Holidays for blogging about their great holiday collection. In past we have loved their yearly calendars and photo birthday cards. We are still crossing our fingers we will have a family photo in time for mailing our cards. Worst case, we will just use one of Robert’s fall photos. Who knew getting 2 adults, one child and a dog in one photo was so difficult? Wonder if Mary and Joseph could have pulled it off with Jesus? Last year’s photo proved to be quite the challenge and production and in the end it worked out and the cards were mailed. Hopefully we have had our last year of Christmas card photo chaos.

We are thinking about using one of these for our Christmas Cards:




Check out these links:

· holiday cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards
·Christmas cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards
· Christmas photo cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery
· 2011 calendar to http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars
· new years cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/new-years-cards
· canvas art to http://www.shutterfly.com/home-decor/canvas-wall-art


Want 50 of your own? Sign up here:

Share on Twitter, Facebook, and in your post:
Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010
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Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Fall Photos

We picked up Robert's fall photos last week and they turned out great!
These are just a few:
















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Monday, November 8, 2010

Robert's package, Sweater vest

Last week Robert received a special package in the mail. He was very excited and even worked by himself to open it. He found a Caillou book inside...from Spain!









These are not the best photos but trying to get him to stand still is quite the task. He wore this Saturday to a birthday party. The vest was made by Aunt Celina! It fits perfect!






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Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Pumpkin Bread

Pumkpin Bread by Dixie found on Toads T:


Preheat oven to 350F & grease and flour your pans. (This recipe makes alot of batter so you'll get at least 3 9X5 pans or 30+ cupcakes out of it!)

In a large bowl combine the following until smooth:
3 cups of sugar
1 C vegetable oil
1 can pumpkin puree {15 oz}
2/3 C water
4 eggs

Blend in:
3 1/2 C flour
1 T cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
{Or instead of the cinnamon and nutmeg I just use a T of pumpkin pie spice}
2 t baking soda
1 1/2 t salt

Fold in 1 c chocolate chip {and 1/2 c chopped nuts if you like them--I left them out}. Put batter into baking dishes and bread pans for 1 hour or until knife comes out clean. I bake the cupcakes for about 20 minutes or so & the cookies for 12-15 minutes depending on how big you make them.
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Monday, November 1, 2010

Halloween 2010

Thursday R was home with a Stomach bug, Friday Macy was sick, Saturday we had a short, but enjoyable reprieve and then Sunday Morning it all hit the fan. Little Robert woke with a 103 fever and we spent the day giving him baths, Tylenol, Advil and liquids. Needless to say he was absent from trick or treating. We did however disqualify ourselves from any Parent of the year awards by letting him pass out candy (His hands were washed and clean). He loved every minute of it. Whenever he would run out of candy to giveaway he would throw his hands up and open and close them, ready for more!





We were at the Dr. first thing this morning and turns out he has two ear infections. You wouldn't have ANY idea by the way he acts.

His Puppy costume didn't quite go with his fever so we went for something a little cooler. A train conductor costume came in handy:


It borders on "Boy Dress" but it was OK for 5 minutes and he will grow into it!


Pumpkin:





Earlier last week this came:




It looks like this out of the package (Photo from Pottery Barn):



When it is hung I will have another photo. Robert is now loving to eat cheese and noodles:



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Soup

Found this soup recipe at Sullivan and Murphey:


Max & Erma’s Chicken Tortilla Soup

- Sue’s Version

Ingredients:

2 (10 3/4 ounce) cans Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup

2 (10 3/4 ounce) cans Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup

2 (10 3/4 ounce) cans Campbell's condensed cream of celery soup

2 (10 3/4 ounce) cans Campbell's cheddar cheese soup

2 (15 ounce) cans chicken broth

1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes (I use petite)

1 cup picante salsa (I use Pace brand- medium hot)

1 (4 1/2 ounce) can green chiles (Ortega brand)

1 medium onion, chopped fine

4 fresh garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon red New Mexico Chile Powder

(NOTE -- This is not the same as ordinary red chili powder. Red New Mexico chile powder can be found in specialty foods stores or often in the specialty area of your supermarket- sometimes in the produce department with the dried chiles)

If you use ordinary chili powder, you can start out using approximately 2 Tablespoons of it.



1 /4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

4 cooked chicken breasts, cut into small chunks

salt and pepper, to your taste

10 flour tortillas

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

1/2 lb Colby cheese


Directions:
1.In a large (10-12 quart) stockpot combine and whisk together all eight cans of soup until smooth.
2.Add chicken broth, tomatoes, salsa, green chiles, onion, garlic, chile powder, salt and pepper. Bring all ingredients to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 1 hour.
3.Add chicken breast chunks. Simmer another hour. Add cilantro during the last 15 minutes of cooking time.
4.While soup is simmering, make your soup toppings: Cut flour tortillas into small, thin strips. Heat oil to 325 degrees and fry tortilla strips in batches until lightly browned. Be careful- it’s easy to burn them if you aren’t careful. Shred cheese.
5.To serve: Ladle soup into bowls, top with shredded cheese and fried tortilla strips. You can top it with additional sprigs of cilantro, as well.
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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Pumpkins

This past Saturday morning (before the bottom fell out:)) we picked up our pumpkins. What a difference a year makes! Last year Little Robert would sit and stare and wasn't walking. This year he was ALL over the place and tried to throw every pumpkin he could get his hands on.


His face right after he threw a pumpkin:




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