Non-Gingerbread Houses

My Mother pointed out I hadn't updated my blog recently.  This is her way of saying "I want to see pictures of the kids."  And I can no longer claim to have a broken camera since we bought a brand-spankin' new one for Christmas (and of course, have to use it to record all of the holiday happenings) plus, I discovered THREE SD cards and one USB stick stuck in the nether reaches of our PC.  Don't ask. 

I pointed out to my Mom not much has been happening unless you want pictures of me changing poopy diapers...  I figured not. Lucky for you, we actually did something last night and remembered to take pictures of it!

Thanks to my best friend Whitney, I remembered there are these things called graham crackers that you can use to make gingerbread houses and the whole process is so much easier.  So, last night we made graham cracker houses and had a crazy dance party and saw a dancing light show. 

Here are the kids showing us their silly poses:

Pretty sure the kids had already had too much sugar and we hadn't even started yet. 

The final products:

  Lillian was too busy eating the candy to concentrate on building anything more complex than a lean-to. 

 My masterpiece.  As you can see I took it very seriously, (not really - I just made a triangle and stuck a graham cracker and candy on top).

 Carlin's castle with a lake and walkway.  Samuel took way too much glee in toppling the turrets.

 Samuel's ancient ruins - as you can see this was pretty serious stuff.

Of course, as soon as they had enough toppings (meaning, Mommy had said no more candy), they delved into eating them.  This is one of many goofy faces Samuel keeps showing the camera.  I suppose it's better than his deer-in-the-headlights look...

This Thanksgiving

While driving to Stillwater to spend Thanksgiving with my family, we overheard the following conversation from our kids:

Samuel: "Look horses!"
Lillian: "Yah Samuel, we can be cowboys!"
Samuel: "But we don't have cowboy clothes."
Lillian: "Oh."
Samuel: "But I have a blue dinosaur costume."
Lillian: "Yah, and I have a butterfly costume, Samuel." 

And this epitomizes what I'm grateful for this year most of all: my children.  I love taking time and listening to their conversations which only make sense to them.  I've learned to take a step back and appreciate their logic, humor, and curiosity.  Like last night when I found them playing under Lillian's bed with all of their blankets and when I asked what they were doing I was told by Samuel "To just walk away Mommy." 

Samuel loves to make me laugh and not just in a "oh Mommy found that funny I'll do it again" way, but I'm rather convinced he comes up with things he thinks will make me laugh.  And when I do respond with real laughter his little face lights up and he gives me a hug.  I believe he takes after his Dad, both make it a goal to make me laugh once a day and it works.  I mean who wouldn't laugh between Carlin's "old man pants dance" and Samuel's "bum-bum dance."  (In which he holds one hand in the air while the other one holds his bum and he bounces it up and down.... don't ask, cuz I have no idea).

Lillian literally sings and dances her way through life and I love sharing in her enthusiasm and imagination as she scares monsters and ghosts away for me.  She is truly a ray of sunshine with her curly blonde hair and big blue eyes.  She loves being included especially when cooking and I'm happy to share it with her. 

Yes, this season I'm grateful for my children.  And while we have our ornery moments and our bad days, most of the time if I just take a step back and listen I find two children who are completely amazed by the world around them. 

Thank you Samuel for squishing spiders for me.  Thank you Lillian for always knowing when I need a good cuddle.  And thank you to both of you for fighting over my lap and begging for one more book at night.  It might be a stalling tactic, but it also might be that you just love to read.  

Happy Happy Halloween

As Samuel says. 

We had so much fun celebrating Halloween and we didn't wait till October 31 to start. 

We made Spooky Trail Mix (complete with ghost droppings and witches broomsticks), Mummy Hot Dogs, Creepy Rice Krispie Treats, Jack-o-Lantern Quesadillas and Mouths the days leading up to Halloween.

We also decorated the house and made pictures and played pumpkin games.

We couldn't go without making some Jack-o-Lanterns.  I carved the kids pumpkins via their instructions and cheering and was done after that, hence only three pumpkins this year.  I'll let you guess which one was Carlin's... 

And then it was the much anticipated day of Halloween! 

We had chili, cornbread, junk food, and oatmeal pumpkin cookies that I tried to make into oatmeal cream pies using marshmallow fluff...

Trust me - they are oh so delicious and moist!

Then we were invaded by a blue dinosaur.

And it was very important he was a BLUE dinosaur.

And the cutest butterfly I've ever beheld!

As with most butterflies, they are constantly in motion and it is hard to capture them on camera, especially your phone camera.

It was everything Halloween is supposed to be and I woke up suffering a sugar-hang-over.  The kids however wasted no time getting into their candy and have been bouncing off the walls since...

Lilly-girl

Pretty sure Lillian is going to be one of those girls who wears skirts, does her hair and wears commando boots. 

Yes, she's that awesome.

Oh and crafts...

Identity Crisis

Sometimes being a Mom makes one lose their identity. At least it makes one feel like that sometimes. 

Especially when Dora is in the background shouting something that sounds eerily like my name with a Spanish accent: "Aubray!  Aubray!" 

Halloween

I have a love-hate relationship with Halloween.

See, I LOVE it.  I love the candy, the costumes, the decorations (cute ones, not creepy ones, but I can appreciate the creepy ones), the good food and did I mention the costumes?

But I have to be original and creative in my costuming and never under any circumstances may I BUY a costume.  Kind of snobby that way.  Doesn't help I married someone whose favorite holiday is Halloween.

Every year I try to come up with something creative for not only myself and husband but also kids.  They are getting to the age where they just want to be a princess and dinosaur, but I still have to find something for Carlin and I.  (It's a lot of pressure people, hence the love-hate relationship).

While I try to think of something creative, I looked back on Halloweens past.  Here is one of my favorites, I believe we were engaged at this point... or maybe first year married.  May I introduce the scooby gang:

Yep, that's KeLei at age 12 or whatever.  Hahaha!

And I thought I would enter this contest at the Dating Divas.

So, my dear friends, family and readers (assuming I have readers who have no relation to me except through my blog... and that's a pretty big assumption), I ask that you vote for me starting October 16.

Until then, I might be stealing some ideas from other contestants, because some of those costumes are pretty good...

Awards...

My dear friend Whitney nominated for me an award - or did she just give me an award?  Because technically nominations just mean I'm a candidate for the award.

So, it's called the Liebster award.



And there's a million steps I'm supposed to do for it, so I'll just plunge in:

11 things about myself:

1.  I actually don't like these award thingys.  It feels insincere when you're supposed to tag 20 other bloggers or something crazy.  It's kind of like those annoying emails that you're supposed to forward to 20 people and then you suddenly realize you don't have 20 friends to forward things to and so you just get depressed.

2.  That being said, I would feel left out and hurt if I didn't get nominated/included on at least one or two a year.

3.  Also, I'm doing this mainly because it's from my best friend Whit, and I'm bored and too lazy to come up with an actual post.  Hahaha.  (So, what this has to do about myself:  I'm a bit of a pleaser when it comes to people I love and I'm also really lazy).  :)

4.  I've recently taken up running and really enjoy it.  Except I seem to be attracted to the "weird" races like the Warrior Dash (a mud race), the Color Me Rad race, and most recently I would love to do the Zombie races in October!

5.   I'm a bit of a health-freak.  My family always complains that I don't have junk food in my house when they come over.  One of our friends recently informed me that Lucky Charms isn't a true sugary cereal, it's a wanna-be.  Darn.

6.  I love to cook and bake.  I might not have Twinkies and other disgusting pre-packaged, processed foods lying around my house, but I'll make Banana Chiffon cake, cookies, and cinnamon rolls in a heartbeat.  Mmmm.

7.  People always wonder how I can possibly read so many books.  They always say they don't have time to read.  Well, it's pretty easy to find time when you don't clean, do crafts, or really anything extra in your life.  Just the basics.

8.  That being said, I do love my children and they are some of the only people I will put my books down for so we can go to the park or even better, the library.  :)  They just crack me up and I'm always amazed at how they went from being helpless little infants to these little people with personalities, running and jumping and getting into all kinds of mischief.

9.  I'm a hopeless romantic.  I get lost in romantic movies, stories, and live vicariously through fictional characters.  However, whenever my husband tries to be romantic and say some line from some movie or something I crack up laughing - because when you take those lines outside of the context and put them in real life they're just cheesy.  No way around it.

10.  Whenever I go out for alone time I end up at the library (if I have no money) or Barnes & Noble (if I do have money, because then I can buy a cookie or something while browsing books and most likely talk myself into bringing home a new book).  Carlin knows not to expect me home till closing time.  He also knows that I'll come home with a new book to read, even if I have a stack of books currently sitting by my bed waiting to be read.

11.  There are times when I'm doing something mundane like the dishes, the kids are playing in the backyard and Carlin is working on something on the house and I suddenly feel completely content because no matter how much I wanted to be swept off my feet and married to some rich prince when I was younger, when I really thought about what I pictured my future to be, it was this.  Just living my life with the people I love.

Okay, now if you haven't had enough of me yet, you get to read my answers to Whitney's questions:

1.  Favorite candy? (you knew it was coming)  Gummy Sweet-tarts and M&Ms.  I'm both fruity and chocolate-y.

2.  What's one thing you'd change about yourself?  Nothing because I'm awesome!  Haha.  Honestly, I would love to be more patient, especially with my family.

3.  To cuff pants or not to cuff pants?  That is the question.  I am not even sure what you mean by this Whit...  I don't cuff my pants.  I think...

4.  Favorite type of crafting?  Hahahaha - oh you're serious.  Okay, I'll admit I actually really like to make wreaths and am currently looking for cute spring and summer wreaths to make, so I'm open for any ideas. 

5.  The best book you've read recently?  Oh, that's a hard one.  I'll have to go with "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer.  It's definitely now on my top 10 all-time favorite reads. 

6.  Favorite way to unwind at the end of the day?  Watching TV - bet everyone thought I was going to say reading, huh?  I do read before bed, but in order to unwind I usually curl up with Carlin on the couch and watch something mindless or play video games with him. 

7.  How did you meet your husband?  At institute, we were trying to keep him from running home every weekend so the powers-that-be called him as my assistant to help with a thing on campus we were arranging.  Found out later that it wasn't purely coincidental, apparently they thought I would be interested in him.  Which makes me wonder about the two other guys I had to work with before Carlin... apparently some people were trying to set me up...

8.  Hot cocoa or hot apple cider?  Hot Cocoa hands down.

9.  Do you hang-dry your shirts or dryer-dry them? (odd question, I know, but I'm kind of OCD about my laundry)  Dryer-dry unless it specifically says to hang-dry.  I am SUPER lazy when it comes to laundry.

10.  Biggest pet peeve?  People who suck the mucus into the back of their throats - sniffling.  Just blow your nose already!

11.  Favorite holiday?  Christmas, although I love Fall (but it's not really a holiday is it?).  I just love the decorations, the colder weather, the music, the good food, and the fact that Carlin gets a week paid holiday.  :)

So, I think that does it.  I'm too lazy to come up with some questions so just use the questions Whitney gave me.  As for nominees - anyone can do it.  I'll pick on my Mom and Nichole.  I know, I'm supposed to come up with 11 people (who chose 11 anyway?  My Monk-side is coming out, couldn't we just drop it to an even 10?).  But I'm kind of done with this post for now.  So, Mom and Nichole - go for it!

It all started, when one day...

I decided to make pasta from scratch.  I had recently stolen - I mean, borrowed, my Grandma's pasta attachment to my Kitchen Aid Mixer and was dying to try my hand at homemade pasta.

So, I got out the flour, salt and eggs and started mixing.  Except that I was one egg short of the recipe I was using and the dough wasn't coming together, it was just really dry and in little chunks.  However, undaunted, I simply added water.  Now I had a rather stiff, chunky mix of flour and eggs.  My kneading wasn't making the dough "soft and smooth." 

But, I wasn't to be stopped so easily.  Oh no, I was making pasta that night no matter what.  I decided I would just run the dough through the roller attachment and see what happened.  Except I didn't have instructions on how to attach said roller.  That's alright, I'm pretty good at figuring things out on my own.  After a little bit of critical thinking I had the attachment on my stand mixer and was ready to insert my dough. 

The dough was tough, I apparently did not have the attachment on correctly and the whole thing (attachment and dough) started flipping itself in circles with the dough making a smacking noise.  My kids started laughing hysterically.  My own personal cheerleaders.

Finally I figured out the attachment was locked into place.  So, I locked and started shoving my dough through the roller.  It came out looking like this:

Yeaahhh....  However, I was going to have pasta no matter what, so I thought I would just skip the rolling out process and run it straight through the spaghetti cutter.  In case you were ever wondering if this is acceptable, it's not.  In fact, it's a very, very bad idea.  I'm just lucky I didn't break anything. 

Now what?  My kids were still laughing and cheering me on (so, I thought) and I really wanted to have homemade pasta that night.  I stood there thinking for a moment casually gathering up all the scraps of dough when I realized the dough was a lot softer.  All the work I had put it through had softened it quite a bit.  I ran it through the roller one more time and got something that resembled the soft, flat sheets that was in the picture, if one used their imagination greatly...  I then ran the sheets through the spaghetti cutter and voila - I had something that resembled spaghetti!

Yay me!  I turned around to proudly show my children what a little bit of determination and hard work can do when I found this...

Apparently the laughing and cheering was not for me after all... Water was EVERYWHERE. 

At this exact moment a rather over-zealous splash sent water flying into my vicinity of the kitchen.  Now I was covered in water, the stove was covered in water, even the dining room table was covered in water.  I figured there was nothing to be done right now, the kids were soaked, the floor was soaked, might as well keep making dinner.

I started to boil the water on the stove.  Barely a minute after turning on the burner my GAS stove became possessed.  It tried to light itself.  The clicking got louder and louder as I frantically tried turning off burners that weren't even on in the first place.  I suddenly had an image of a fireball erupting from the kitchen and made a quick decision.  We must evacuate.  It is a GAS stove after all.

I shoved the kids out the front door while calling Carlin and flipping breakers trying desperately for the ticking noise to stop.   Finally I got the ticking noise to stop and decided we would wait for Carlin to get home outside playing in a box.

After all this one would think I should have given up.  That it was fate, something telling me to not make pasta that night.  But Carlin unplugged the stove, we started it manually with a lighter and were soon eating homemade pasta with canned spaghetti sauce (I did have to stop somewhere, obviously fresh sauce was out of the question).  It was delicious.

We later found out that the water from the splashing had caused the lighter on the stove to short-circuit, hence the ticking noise.  A few hours of drying and our stove and oven were back in business. 

Home

"It's been a long hard ride,
And I won't lose hope,
This is still the place,
That we all call home."

I thought I would take a page out of my SIL's book and start this post off with lyrics to one of my favorite songs.  It's partly because I've wanted an excuse to put this song on my blog, partly because I am trying to convert my SIL to country music so she must listen to the song in it's entirety at the end of this post (hint, hint Heather), and partly because I just wanted to mention a few things about life in general. 

 My days are filled with Dora the Explorer, Go Diego Go, singing, adventures, preschool and messes.  Sometimes I find myself completely overwhelmed with all the STUFF that needs to be done on top of the daily stuff and the just-being-a-Mom stuff.  I don't have any secret formula how to control this stress, but I find that if I try to laugh I get through the days a bit easier.

A laughing incident recently occurred when the kids pulled the sheets off the mattresses, the mattresses off their beds, and were pushing their bed-frames around saying they were garbage trucks. 

There was also the "dirt-angels" they tried making instead of snow-angels. 

Or when they got into my "party box" filled with ribbons, crepe paper, banners, balloons... you get the picture and "decorated" the upstairs bedroom for my surprise party. 

Or when my daughter locks me out of the house and then climbs onto the counter and eats marshmallows all while smiling at me through the window (don't worry, I always have a way to get into my house). 

I find that my friends and family help me see the humor.  Whenever I share the latest adventures with my Mom she just laughs and eventually I find myself laughing along with her. 

This song is really about our country - and oh how I love my country.  Because without my country, I would not have my home and the beautiful life I get to live. 

First Day of School!

Samuel started his first day of Preschool yesterday. 

He's just growing up sooo fast.  Sigh.

The kid wouldn't let me take pictures of him so this is the best I got...

How did he like it?  I don't know - he was too upset over not being able to ride the bus home to tell me anything. 

I Give Up!

It's freakin' hot outside.  My kids are mischievous by nature.  They have to entertain themselves somehow.

Soap and water people.  I give up.  (and just so you know, soap foams as you try to clean it off counters, floors, furniture, and other such things).

On the other hand, I converted Samuel's bedroom into a playroom and stuck the beds in Lillian's room.  The playroom is heaven on earth and they can play and make a mess to their hearts content. 
We haven't decided if we like the sharing a sleeping area thing yet...

I briefly considered cleaning the playroom in order to take pictures... but remember I give up.  :)

Daily Routine

Don't let the big blue eyes, angelic curls, and beautiful smile fool you...

Lillian is actually an imp (a mischievous child, spirited). 

She has a daily routine of pure chaos and it starts with her room.  Anytime she is left unattended in her room for an extended amount of time (1 minute or more) for time-out, nap-time, bed-time, or just plain playing by herself, the following occurs:

First: De-shelving the books.  This is a systematic process in which climbing onto the top of the dresser is required.  I'm pretty sure she starts with the lower shelves first and then works her way up.  She's even been known to reach the very top shelf, how this is done I do not know, I can't even reach the top shelf without standing on tip-toe and then haphazardly tossing said item on the shelf. 

If I'm lucky this is where it stops, if not well...

Since her drawers are already pulled out to make a stair-like accessibility to the shelves, she then pulls out all of her clothes. 

So, now we have clothes, books, and a few dolls on the floor.

Of course, if you are going to pull out clothes you might as well pull out ALL of the diapers from the diaper box.  Looking at the diapers reminds of you the wipes, if Mommy or Daddy last changed the little imp in her bedroom and forgot to take the wipes out the wipes are next to go.

This process is done with an extraordinary amount of speed.  I'm pretty sure if there was some world record for the amount of wipes that could be pulled out in 60 seconds or less my daughter would be the uncontested champion. 

The wipes are now on top of the clothes and books and let's not forget that wipes are by nature WET.  Soaking of clothing and books then occurs. 

All of the clothes and diapers and wipes has reminded our little imp she wanted to change to a different outfit anyway, so she begins to change herself.  She decides to wear the "big girl panties" which would be completely supported by her mother if she would go to the potty.  This rarely occurs and instead we find wet-spots on the floor. 

Usually she is found by this point and the necessary cleaning occurs, however, if Mommy or Daddy have been occupied - say by another sibling or re-stuffing the couch cushions (also the handy-work of our little imp), then the closet is next to go.  Shoes, toys, dolls stripped of clothing, blankets, and dress-up clothes. 

And the worse part...

This happens Every. Single. Day. 

Dear Carlin, Happy Birthday

It's Carlin's birthday today and I seem to be more excited than he is... which isn't too surprising considering how excited I get about birthdays. 

I'm excited because I feel like I'm celebrating a milestone for him.  See, he's turning 30 and for some reason in my head, it's a big deal, it's like he's officially becoming an adult even though he's married and a father and graduated from college and working a full-time job... being 30 seems to solidify all of this. 

Goofy picture I took upside down at the Muir woods... cuz I think it's funny.

But mostly, I am so excited because I love him so much and today is his day in which I get to celebrate HIM - my most amazing husband.  I thought of all the cutsie 30 things I could do - 30 reasons why I love him, 30 memories I have of him, 30 things you might not know about Carlin, 30 songs that remind me of him... I think you get the point.  But instead I wanted to write a small letter on my blog. 

Dear Carlin,

I love you so much and I am so glad I get to celebrate this birthday and many more birthdays with you.  You are so good to me, you keep me grounded while also reminding me to laugh... and often making me laugh.  A day doesn't go by that I'm not grateful to have you in my life and that is why today I am so excited to celebrate you!  Today is your day and all about what you want - because when you love someone so much you want to celebrate them. 

Love,
Aub

 P.S. Happy Father's Day too!

I Survived the WARRIOR DASH!!!

3.11 miles of rough terrain, climbing walls, crawling through mud, balancing on beams, and jumping over fire.

Completed: 1 hour 29 seconds.

Celebrations

You know the saying "when it rains it pours?"  I think that saying can apply to both the good and bad things in life.  This past weekend it applies to the good.

Friday May 25:
Samuel turns 4 but we don't celebrate it until Saturday because...

My sister graduates from High School.  I sadly do not have any pictures because I forgot to pull out my camera (so Dad, if you're reading this, I would really like some copies of the pictures you took).  However, I do have pictures of an awesome cake I "helped" make (and by "helped" I mean I paid for all the ingredients and showed moral support while my friend, Erica, used my kitchen to make it - she's awesome). 

It was for KeLei's graduation party. 

The next day was Samuel's birthday in which we went bowling. 

He loved it.  He also loved all his gifts including a train table Grandpa H. made him.  (Didn't get a picture of that either).

Sunday, May 27 welcomed 6 years of marriage for Carlin and I - to celebrate we went "camping" with Carlin's brother Mitchell and wife Heather in their backyard.  Yep, we're that awesome.  We grilled hot dogs, roasted marshmallows, made shadow puppets, slept in a tent on air mattresses, and topped the experience off with a rooster crowing first thing in the morning.  Nope, they don't live in the country, they live smack-dab in the middle of a the city in an established neighborhood.  We have no idea why someone owns a rooster. 

mmm...smores!

Can you tell how awful I was at pictures this weekend?  I didn't even get a picture with my sexy husband. 

And to close this post we had severe weather last night and my backyard looks like this:

 P.S. I officially give up on blogger... for all their fancy updates it still isn't giving me an option to rotate my pictures.  Am I doing something wrong?

Breaking News!

Lillian, after two years and four months of denying her mother's attempts to tame her hair, has finally let her mother pull the wild curls back into "two-ponytails."

Lillian only commented: "I so pretty."  Lillian's mother is thrilled with the progress but says "now, I just have to figure out how to part her hair evenly!"

In other news...
 

The kids and I took a quick trip to Washington to see my MIL's family.  It was fun and I loved getting to know Carlin's cousins and family. 

We did a lot, including family pics in matching red shirts and American flag bandanas...

Seeing Mt. St. Helen's from afar... it's snow covered peak.

But the highlight of the trip was definitely the beach.  The kids LOVED it. 

It's Bigfoot!  Oh wait, just Samuel.  And once again Blogger has a mind of it's own and puts the pictures in all crazy like, I give up. 

Hopefully this video works, we shall soon find out. The kids were both fascinated and terrified by the waves.  Weird to have moving water like that... :)