Catch up

This is a post just to catch up on everything from the last couple of weeks so get ready for some randomness! :) 

My dear husband brought me flowers last week.  He was trying to think of something nice to do for me like send me on a pedicure but I told him hinted to him that I wanted flowers.  Awe. Aren't they pretty? 

One of our favorite meals from this months menu so far has been the pork loin roast.  I just love love love pork with cranberry sauce (thank you Pioneer Woman).  I didn't follow her recipe exactly this time.  I just cooked a preseasoned roast in the dutch oven then simmered a can of cranberry sauce (with whole cranberries) with a little garlic, onion, and rosemary and used that to top our roast.  Throw on a side of rosemary roasted potatoes and carrots and we're good.  The plate pictured is mine so the carrots are raw.  The kids like there's sliced and simmered with a little water, honey, and butter. 

I saw a neat idea on pinterest and now my two youngest think I am so cool.  All I did was cut the netting out of the long sides of the pack-n-play and put a fitted sheet over the top and now they have a book nook that can be put away when not in use . I have big plans to sew receiving blankets together to make a top for it and sides that can hang down or be tied up.  But.... for now it's just a cut up pack-n-play with a sheet.  But they love it. 

Another favorite meal.... chicken pot pie.  This was my first time to not use canned chicken, canned soup, and canned broth.  I actually boiled a chicken, simmered the bones for 18 hours to make stock, and used a little bit of the stock to make the filling for the pie.  I did buy the pillsbury refrigerated pie crust (the two pack of rolled up crusts).... it's just so easy and it tastes great.  And I've never made pie crust.  Yet.  I made it in a giant cast iron skillet and it was perfect! 

The crust cooked perfectly... yum. 

Just enough left for Daddy to take for lunch the next day.  :)

While I was making the above chicken pot pie, the boys pretended to be in time out.  Silly boys.

Henry has a new favorite place to do his math. 

On top of the shelf under his window. Whatever works! 

Oh!  You know it's our first time to have a winter garden so while it's technically not unusual to harvest broccoli while there is ice hanging from the trees, it was a first for me.  How cool to go outside in 32 degree weather and pick broccoli?!  I also got a little bit of cauliflower.

And look at the brussels sprouts!  Our chickens peck at the garden every chance they get so the leaves aren't pretty, but thankfully they haven't eaten any of the vegetables yet. 

We also have a couple of nice heads of cabbage going. 

Last but not least, my handsome 10 year old begged me to let him try out his new basketball shoes that are suppose to be for inside the gym only .....

My Best and Most Painful Birthday Present Ever

 

My best and most painful birthday present ever... That's what Henry told everyone at church that he was.  :)  If you don't already know it, Henry and I share the same birthday.  Today!  I like to say that I'm still 25 since I gave my birthday to him on my 25th birthday.  He was suppose to arrive by August 26th and I just new he would be here at least by August 31.  Or sometime after September 1st.  But nope, he chose to come on September 1st. It really is pretty special sharing a birthday with someone you love so much though. 

Henry decided to follow in Nelson's footsteps and break his water after we'd finished watching the Rangers game in overtime and went to bed.  I didn't have any contractions to start with this time but since my water broke, we woke up my parents (who were staying with us) so they'd know to keep an eye on Nelson and went on to the hospital.  My mom came up later after things got going good. 

It took a long time, about 19 hours, and was a little bit eventful....  When I finally got my epidural it went up instead of down. You know, like it made my chest and my neck numb but everything from my diaphram down was feeling it all. Wierdest. Feeling. Ever. I thought I couldn't breath. The guy wanted to try to redo it but I wouldn't let him. If you can't get it right the first time, sorry, that's it. No second chances putting a needle in my spine.  The one time that James slipped out to get a bite to eat and some coffee my heart rate went through the roof.  So high they paged a cardiologist and when James came back they had a team of people checking me out and had me hooked up to all kinds of things.  They threatened me with a c-section if things didn't calm down but they did.  They continued to monitor me though just in case.  Then Henry's heart rate kept going dangerously low.  We changed positions multiple times and as a last reslut (again with the c-section threats) they put a catheter in my uterus and turned on fluids.  It worked so that told us the was compressing his cord... putting fluid in helped him get off of it.  Thankfully I jumped to a 10 shortly after and was able to push.  The nurses didn't think the pushing would go so fast but it did.  After one push they demanded that I resist all urges to push until the doctor made it in.  It seemed like an eternity and once she made it in, 2 more tiny pushes and Henry was born!  He was discolored... kind of a grey color... and didn't breath on his own so I only saw him for a split second.  I wasn't even sure what was the matter because they didn't tell me anything but I saw on my mom's face that things weren't quite right.  I learned later he had to be suctioned really good and coaxed into taking his first breath.  Thankfully it was nothing more.  He was passed off to me and I couldn't believe it when I saw him!  He was beautiful.  But he did not look anything like I expected!  He was so different than Nelson.  He had a the smallest amount of blonde fuzz on his head, he was so thin, and just tiny!  If I hadn't been there I wouldn't have believed he was mine. James was the only one of us to mark him! 

Henry was such a sweet baby and I couldn't wait to show him to his big brother!  Nelson was so excited to have him home too.  Until the crying started... LOL!  He was definitely higher maintenance and it took a while for us to get use to him and him to us.  After about 3 months of being fussy, not gaining weight fast enough, and testing my breastmilk, we learned the poor boy was just hungry... combine the high metabolism he inherited from James with the low quality milk he was getting from me and the poor kid was starving!  A bottle of formula a day changed the world! :) 

So.... today is my best and most painful birthday presents 8th birthday!  Happy Birthday Henry!!

TAY goo

Tegu blocks caught my eye while Jack was a baby.  I couldn't justify the purchase at the time especially since I wasn't sure Nelson and Henry would be in to them.  I've looked at them online and watched for sales since then.  FINALLY Ecobabybuy had them on sale for almost half off a couple weeks ago.  I ordered a 52 piece set in Jungle.  So the day they arrived we opened them up and got busy.  I am wishing I had purchased more!  These blocks are awesome. They provide a great outlet for imagination and creativity.  Nelson, Henry, & Jack love them.  (kash loves to put them in his mouth).  I even had fun playing!  Now that I know how cool they are I would totally recommend purchasing them even at full price.  Besides being a really cool toy, Tegu is a great company.  The factory is in Honduras where 50% of the population live below poverty level.  They are providing jobs with good pay.  When you buy blocks, they plant trees to restore the forestry in Honduras that was destroyed in the 90's.  They also contribute to the education of many of the kids in Honduras.

Sonlight Box Fun

Our Sonlight box had the outline of a castle on the inside so we took it apart, colored it, and made a castle.  Jack and Henry had a ton of fun with it!  Nelson was enjoying some time at the lake with friends so he didn't get to do the cardboard castle fun... I'm sure he is really dissapointed! (not)