Some Zekey Cuteness...

Well, today was Zeke's 12 month check-up. He is 22 lbs and 30-1/4 inches. His growth has slowed down, so he is just average now. Everything is fine and great and healthy. Well, maybe. We have to take him to see an orthopedic doctor for his feet. When he crawls and walks and stands his feet are turned out really far. I'm sure nothing is super wrong, but the doc wants it checked out. So anyway. Here are some cute pictures I took of the ZekeMan today.

Getting him up from his morning nap.

*sigh* This is him pre-haircut.
The back of his cute, long, baby hair.
"Like, OMG! What happened to my hair?!?" Here he is post-haircut. Another cute pic of him.

Okay, that's it. Gotta' go do laundry now.

My Monday

Well, my sister Heather asked if we would share our week with everyone. She got the idea over at Ali Edward's blog. This was originally a scrapbooking project. I'm not much of a scrapbooker anymore, so Heather suggested I just blog about it. Ali suggests taking notes about what you do during the day and snapping some pictures to show your life. The fun thing about doing this was that when Jason asked me at the dinner table what I did that day, I was able to read him my list.

This is actually an odd week for our family. We had no school on Monday, Zeke has a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday, and we have a WIC appointment and Zeke gets shots on Thursday. So this isn't a completely typical week, but I will still share. So, here is My Monday:

-Zeke woke up at 6:45.

-Slept on the couch while Zeke played and watched a video.

-Sierra got up at 7:45.

-Tyner got up at 8:00.

-I got breakfast for everyone (big bowl for me, little bowl for Zeke, cups for dry cereal for Sierra and Tyner). While getting the kids' drinks, I spilled chocolate milk on myself, so I finally got dressed.

-The kids and I went into town. We went to the grocery store, then walked to the thrift store, and the post office.
-We came home and I opened the toys I bought for the kids. Jewelry for Sierra and a cap gun for Tyner. I put caps in the gun when I opened it.
-Nursed Zeke and laid him down for his morning nap.
-Helped Sierra with a page in her Which Way USA? book.
-Unloaded the bags from the grocery store.
-Started dishes.



-Got Tyner unstuck from the log pile.
-Avoided doing dishes by emailing Mom.
-Refilled the cap gun.
-Avoided doing dishes by doing a blog post.
-Did some dishes while pictures loaded.
-Changed my shirt because I got water all over myself doing the dishes.
-Told Tyner to get away from wasps.
-Finally finished the dishes.



-Sorted laundry.
-Started laundry.
-Made lunch (quesedillas for the kids, an egg/cheese/salsa burrito for me).
-Ate lunch.
-Fed Zeke lunch.
-Cleaned up from lunch.
-Nursed Zeke.
-Refilled the cap gun.
-Moved laundry around.
-Folded and put away laundry.
-Put away the flour and sugar I bought earlier.
-Got online to order some stuff for bread baking.
-Went to the library and the post office. Forgot the DVDs, even though they were right next to the library books.
-Nursed Zeke and laid him down for his afternoon nap.
-Made cookies with the kids.
-Cleaned the kitchen after making cookies.
-Started dinner (Taco Salad. No, not Aunt Marjie's Taco Salad.) and fed Zeke dinner.
-Ate dinner.
-Cleaned up the kitchen from dinner (although I didn't do the dishes).
-Refilled the cap gun.
-Relaxed a little.
-Gave Zeke a bath.
-Nursed Zeke.
-Put the boys to bed; put Sierra in her room to read.
-Went with Jason over to say hi to GG and Papa, since they had been in Medford all day.
-Came home and read for a little while.
-Went to bed at an unprecedented 9:00 pm! I was SO tired for some reason. Actually, by the time I peed, did a Fill-It-In and brushed my teeth, it was about 9:15.

So, that was my Monday.

Sorry I didn't take more pictures. I will try to do better as the week goes on. I actually took a picture of myself as soon as I woke up, while I was still laying in bed, but I deleted it. I look so horrible first thing in the morning!!!!

Well, I will be back tomorrow to post about my Tuesday. See you later!

Making Slime

Kimi sent me a website a while back on how to make slime with your kids. Since I'm the coolest mom ever, I decided to give it a try. It was really easy, and it only used four ingredients. The kids thought it was awesome; even I had fun playing with it. They got out Sierra's kitchen toys to use with the slime, too. The best part? There is nothing to clean up from the slime. It's not like PlayDoh, were you get a ton of little crumbs everywhere. It will stick in carpet (which we found out at GG's), but you're good to go on the tabletop and on linoleum. You really should try it out with your kids! Here are some pictures of our fun. Enjoy!

Tyner waiting patiently for Sierra to get home. All four ingredients. White glue, water, Borax powder, and food coloring (optional).
The glue, water, and food coloring, ready to be stirred.
Sierra mixin' it up.
Tyner stirring together the water and Borax.
The start of slime.

I'm pretty sure Tyner is saying "Awesome" in this picture.

We used plastic stencils to make shapes in the slime.
All stretched out.
I had to take this video so you could HEAR what the slime sounds like.



Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Random Pictures 537

I numbered this post so high because I feel like I'm always posting Random Pictures on here. Anyway, here are some videos and pictures I have taken in the last few weeks.

This first video was actually taken on September 2nd. Dropshots wouldn't upload the video for some reason, so I didn't post it then. So, I'm doing it now. This was right after dinner; Zeke and I were finishing up and just kinda' hangin' out. The kids were playing crazy, and Zeke was loving it.


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

This next video shows the extent of Zeke's walking thus far. He only takes about four steps at a time. But he is standing alone a lot more now, and when he is cruising along the furniture, he is starting to let go of things before he is holding on to the next thing. Sorry it's so dark, but that's how our living room is in the evenings.


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books
Here are the kidshelping me frost Papa's birthday cake. He really likes coconut cake (just a white cake with white frosting and coconut all over it), so I made him one again this year. I think for his 80th birthday, I'm going to make him the ultra-deluxe Alton Brown Coconut Cake. It's one where you use real coconuts and real flour and sugar, and all those fresh ingredients.

Zeke discovered Jason's TV in our bedroom the other day, and kept trying to get the screen.

Well, that's all the random photos I have for now. Hope you liked them. If not...too bad! :D

Zeke's New Jammies

I bought these pajamas for Zeke awhile back, but it hasn't been cold enough to wear them. I ran out of hot-weather pajamas the other day, and it has been a little chilly at night, so I grabbed these. I actually left him in his jammies to go to MOPS the other day, because he just looked so darn cute!

Kitchen Adventures

As I've gotten more comfortable making old favorites in my kitchen, I've discovered that I like being uncomfortable. I like trying new things. I like making a mess, screwing up, figuring out what went wrong, and then trying again.

I've recently started baking. I've tried making whole wheat bread a couple of times (it didn't turn out either time). I've made pita pockets (picture and link below), pizza crust, and I'm working on creating a sourdough starter (more on that in another post). I would love to try making other new things, like bagels and tortillas and assorted dinner breads, as well as conquering the darn whole wheat bread! Someday I would like to get a Bosch mixer to make baking a little easier. My sister gave me her bread machine, but I can't really use the dough cycle on it because I have had to add extra flour to all my recipes lately. At this point I wouldn't even mind a KitchenAid mixer (although I didn't really like the way the dough hook performed on one I used), but I think I'm gonna' hold out for the Bosch.

Not only have I been baking, but I've been busy trying other things. Sweet potato fries, pizza sauce, pickled bean sprouts. On the To Do in the Future list are yogurt, crackers (wait, would that be baking?), cream soups, cooking with whole grains (barley, quinoa, brown rice), and trying lots of new recipes.

I'm not sure how my hubby feels about all my experimenting. I know the kids don't always appreciate having something new at dinner. But I'm having a good time, and my family is being exposed to lots of new foods. Plus, I am making what we are eating. It isn't coming from a box, which is not only more healthy, but it saves us money too.

So, anyway. Here are some pictures of things I've done recently:

Sweet potato fries. I got the basic instructions here, on WholesomeBabyFood.com. The last time I made these, they got pretty burned on my metal pan. So this time, because I had too many to put in a glass 9x13 pan, I used parchment paper on my metal pan. Not only did it make clean-up A LOT easier, but it kept the fries from burning. I'm not a big sweet potato fan, but I couldn't stop eating these. Pita pockets. The recipe came from Tammy's Recipes, one of my favorite blog/cooking websites. Here is the link to the actual recipe. Sierra loves these pita pockets. She will eat these sometimes with nothing in them, and sometimes for breakfast she wants one with just peanut butter. And yes, that is a napkin in that pita pocket. No, we didn't eat it. I just put it in there to hold it open.
Pizza sauce. Sierra's friend was coming for a sleepover, and I was making mini pizza's, and I realized I had no pizza sauce, and no money to go buy any. So I found these basic instructions, and made my own. The great thing about this sauce was that I had everything I needed right at home. It used canned tomatoes, tomato paste, onion, garlic, and spices. I used my cheap little stick blender to smooth it out a little, since my kids aren't fans of big chunks of tomato. I made too much, so I put the extra in a quart canning jar in the fridge. I used some last night to make pasta for dinner. I also thought about freezing the extras in Ziploc bags, 1 cup each, since that is about how much we use on a pizza. The mini pizzas I made. Everybody got to make their own. The one on the left was Tyner's; that's a face made out of pepperoni. The one on the right, Jason and I shared ('cause I knew we would be eating the kids' leftovers). My part just had pepperoni, and his had chicken and red onion.
Well, that's all the pictures I have for now. Next time I will have pictures of my pickled bean sprouts and my sourdough starter. Hope you enjoyed this peek into my kitchen. Now I need to go do my dishes before I post anything else.

Sibling Photo Shoot

I don't think these pictures need any explanation at all!