dancing queen

shelby has always loved to dance. she danced before she walked! she would pull herself up on the coffee table and dance. i started taping the show 'so you think you can dance' for her because they always have great music during the show. tonight she started imitating one of the dances! it was so sweet :) looks like there are dance lessons in our future!

water babies

we went swimming at the Y today. it was elise's first time in the pool! she was sitting on my lap in the kiddie pool while shelby played and nathan worked on schoolwork at the picnic table.

elise loved it. she splashed with her hands and kicked with her feet! she liked standing from a sitting position on my legs, too. and of course nathan and i got a good laugh when she 'blew bubbles' in the water!

shelby discovered the girl in her today! she was playing in the pool, picked up a leaf, and then dropped it and ran out of the pool yelling 'Ewww!' it was hysterical. she avoided that leaf the entire time we were there. i don't even know where she got that from.

i think this will be daily thing after i swim my laps since the outside pool is open now. we ate our lunch out there and then the girls came home and took really long naps!

social lives of babies

the girls and i made it back to church today! i have not been since elise was born... i had to build up the courage to take them both in by myself. we did it! shelby walked into her class like an old pro. it was easy because she is so used to going to the toddler room at the Y every day. i hung out for awhile because i didn't know the women working with the kids. i just feel better if i can get to know them a bit. elise did well for awhile, but they had to put up her number at the end of service. i had forgotten her t-shirt AND her pretzels. whatever. i figure that as long as i remember the kids, everything else is gravy.

shelby is little miss independent these days. she's become pretty good at putting on her sandals by herself, although she did go to church today with them on the wrong feet. today she's been insistent on dressing herself as well. she also handled the potty all by herself while she was with stephon today, too! she went from two to grown in a matter of a week!

elise hung out with me while i worked on my scrapbook at terry's. she seems to be like shelby in that she doesn't want to sleep anywhere else but in her own crib. shelby eventually grew out of it. somehow i got work done in spite of having a cranky infant with me! she totally missed her long nap... and her short one that would have occurred during church hours. so she fell asleep for the night at 8:00 tonight. we'll see how that turns out. she's so much more social now. that seemed to happen at about the same time that she started sitting up real well, it seems. i'd say that she has gotten pretty stable while sitting in the last couple of days. she's been very chatty since the day i wrote about our first conversation.

milestones

elise slept all night last night! woo hoo! i put them to bed at 10, and they didn't wake up until i got them up to leave around 7. it sure seemed really stupid to be waking them up the first time elise slept all the way through. i had an appointment, though, and it couldn't be avoided.

shelby put her sandals on all by herself for the first time today :)

elise is sitting up really well. she sits well enough that i can sit her in front of an activity and leave her there with just a pillow behind her in case she falls. it sure makes it easier for her to play and stay content.

extended family

elise had her six month check-up and shots today. she weighs 24 pounds and 13 ounces, with her clothes on!

nathan watched the babies for me while i went to an appointment. i put them down for their 1:00 nap and they generally sleep for a couple of hours. well, they woke up and elise was very unhappy. nathan handled it great. he stayed calm, called me, and we figured out how to calm her down together. he's a super dad in training :)

tonight we went to bradley cole's concert at the arts impact middle school. it was so cool! they played steel drums and barrels and other percussion instruments. we were outside and it was absolutely beautiful.

shelby followed bethany around all evening. she just thinks that bethany is so cool! elise hung out with aunt gwennie ;) babies love gwen! and she has lots of experience with big babies since sandra had big babies, too. she carried elise around the grounds, claimed her as her own, and told other parents that her baby could eat their baby! oh gwen.

we wrapped up the evening at mcdonalds with grandma and grandpa godin. i've known sandra's parents for several years. it's always so good to see them :)

more tricks

elise has been on a roll this week! today she ate vegetables for the first time. we started with carrots. she loved them when i mixed them with her wheat cereal. i gave her some straight earlier in the day, but it was really just for the photo op. she didn't want them straight, which is what i expected. it's easier to introduce new foods to babies if you mix them with food they already like, even if the thought of the mixture seems gross... like wheat cereal and carrots!

the wiggle dance

we watch a show called jack's big music show in the morning. stephon and i like it for the kids because they introduce several types and styles of music, as well as numerous musical instruments. well, there's a song that they sing called the wiggle dance and apparently elise has picked up on it :) she moves from side to side and the more you encourage her, the more she does it, and the more excited she gets about it. it's very funny! so shelby and i sing the wiggle dance song for her when she gets on a roll.

sandra's chicken casserole

this is one of our favorite things that sandra has fixed for us. i did, however, add a bit of my touch to the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts (two full breasts)
16 ounces sour cream
2 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 bag soup vegetables
fresh ground pepper
seasoned salt
6 servings prepared stuffing

Directions:
sprinkle the seasoned salt onto the chicken and cook the chicken
mix the cooked chicken, sour cream, soup, vegetables, and pepper to taste in a 13 x 9 baking dish
cover the mixture with the prepared stuffing

bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes

heart to heart

elise and i had our first conversation tonight! she was clicking, so i clicked with her. she figured out that she could do it on purpose and cause me to respond with the same sound. she loved it! so did i :) we "talked" for awhile.

we're in the money!

i spent part of today and yesterday at terry's doing a garage sale. the turn out was great. i spent $30 and made $35 so technically i'm up $5! the money is not the primary reason i participate, anyway. it's nice, but mostly i just have fun hanging out with terry and her family AND it motivates me to clean things out of my house that we don't need.

i worked on our garage this week and cleaned out about half of it. it looks SO much better. i hope to finish it this coming week, but i'm not sure what i'm going to do with the rest of the stuff that i come across that i would have sold. i'll have to think about that one.

braces faces!

i am about to have both of my guys in braces! stephon is getting them, too. i told him that when nathan got braces i was there to take pictures. somehow i don't think i'll get pictures this time ;)

dr. pierce showed me nathan's records today, too. it's amazing how much better his teeth are than when he first got them! they had wonderful things to say about him, too. the doctor, the receptionist, and the nurse all talked about how much they enjoy nathan and what a good kid he is. i told them that it's the daily beatings ;) i don't go into the office with nathan very often. he's old enough to go in by himself, and it's easier to keep the babies contained in the car. so it was really cool to hear such great feedback today.

here are more pictures of nathan from when he got his braces on july 23, 2007!

mommy's meat loaf

this recipe will probably change over time. i'd like to experiment with red wine and tomatoes in it at some point. otherwise, we love this meat loaf with mashed potatoes!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup realemon lemon juice
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon beef-flavored bouillon
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
* i use 85% lean ground beef, any leaner is too dry, any more fat is too greasy
1 1/2 cups italian bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 egg, beaten
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:
preheat oven to 350 degrees

in a small bowl, combine ketchup, sugar, 1 tablespoon realemon, and mustard
in a large bowl, combine remaining ingredients and 1/3 cup ketchup mixture and mix well
in loaf pan, shape into loaf
pour remaining ketchup mixture over loaf

bake at 350 degrees for one hour

spring cleaning

it is time for terry's annual community garage sale, so i am cleaning out my garage! the girls take their nap at one, so yesterday and today i got through a good portion of it. i had organized this one wall of shelves about two years ago, but where there is an empty space my guys will stash stuff! it is actually going much easier than i thought because the shelves and storage on that wall are still organized... every thing has a place, and there is a place for every thing :) now if i could just catch up the rest of my house.

have you seen ice age? i put the girls in the van and put this movie in so that i could keep working. i usually do not believe in using the tv to babysit, but i am working towards a deadline. anyhow, there is a scene in the movie where sid the sloth plows through a bunch of dodo birds with a watermelon in his hands. for some reason, every time that scene plays shelby cries her little eyes out. it's so pitiful! i can't figure out what is making her cry, though. i had put the movie away for several months because of it, but she did it again today. poor baby.

mother's day two

i had breakfast cooked for me again today! stephon made me pancakes, hashbrowns, sausage, and bacon. i could definitely get used to this! he brought me tulips and a card. he wrote a really nice note in the card, but i have to tell you that he colored the guy on the front of the card with a pencil so that it would have a black guy on the cover. it's hysterical!

shelby had a new trick today for mother's day. she is starting to figure out how to write a couple of her letters. i asked her to make an "H" and she did! it took her a bit, but she got it! how cool is that!

aaand we played star wars battlefront II for the rest of the day! i could get used to that, too ;)

mother's day one

we celebrated mother's day today since nathan will be going with parish tonight and tomorrow. nathan started out the day with breakfast for me :) he made french toast, bacon, sausage, and eggs. afterwards he worked on a carving for me that he is making from a stump of wood that we had out back. it's a big heart and it says "mom" on it :) i'm so flattered that he is working hard on a gift for me. then we played star wars battlefront II for the rest of the day. it doesn't get any better than that!

we got elise's new car seat this evening. her and shelby have matching car seats :) i can't believe she's already outgrown her infant seat. it only went to 22 pounds, and she weighed 21 pounds last month! her feet were also hanging over the edge of it. it was time.

in good company

stephon and i went on a date tonight! i believe it was our first one in 2 1/2 years. we went to dick's den on high street. although the name sounds like we hung out at an adult book store, it is actually a dive bar that is known for the jazz bands that play there.

it was fun... the band was pretty good. however, the singer was pretty bad... comically bad. while it was our first date in forever, stephon still refused to look at me the entire time we were there for fear that he would not be able to control his laughter. we had a good time, and it wouldn't have been nearly as fun if the singer had been any good.

i got to use my new toy for my laps today! i had to return my swimp3 player because it wasn't working. the replacement came yesterday so i am back to dancing through my laps ;) i really wanted to sing with the music, but that would have been embarrassing.

shelby and i started working on colors today. she was curious about colors of things, so i figured it was prime learning time!! she did pretty well. as always, her pronunciation is very entertaining:

red	ret
orange	orache
yellow	yellow
green	gween
blue	bue
purple	purper
black	back
white	white

training, educating, and schooling

i took nathan to the Y at 5:30 this morning! you would not believe the number of people at the Y that early in the morning. he has been training for a triathlon. today we talked to the guy he is training with and have decided to continue the training, but work towards a triathlon next year. the smallest of the triathlons is called a "sprint." they only have to swim .75 km (almost a half-mile), bike 20 km (12.4 miles), and run 5 km (3.1 miles). can you imagine!?

shelby is so ready to read! she knows her alphabet, although she still misses about two letters each time she says it. i'll let you know as soon as she gets through them all, error free. she knows the sound of each letter. for the first time today, she seemed to understand the concept that words are comprised of letters. it happened to be her name on my t-shirt that she recognized. stephon has been working on her name with her, and today i really think she got it. after her name on my shirt, she got a book and asked me what all of the words were. i'm telling you, she's ready!

elise has been working me for two days. she cries unless i hold her. it's next to impossible to get anything done. she just needs a lot of love right now ;)

stephon is schooling nathan in some madden football right now. who would have thought that school would be in session at 10:30 at night! Mr. President, call in the National Guard! Send as many men as you can spare! Because stephon is killing nathan! he needs emergency help!

at the zoo

we went to the columbus zoo today. it was a beautiful, sunny, perfect day! nathan checked out the baby elephant. shelby and i have seen it a couple of times now and i didn't want to wait in line for it today. instead we met up with nathan at the petting zoo. elise made friends with a goat!

nathan had martial arts this evening, so the girls and i hung out at the house. they already play well together. it was really fun to watch them entertain each other. shelby jumps up and down and elise laughs and laughs! this, of course, makes shelby laugh and she jumps up and down even more. i think it's neat to see them forming this bond. they will always have each other :)

more pictures

new tricks

elise found her toes today! it may be surprising to you that she can get her toes to her fingers with all of those rolls in between ;) she's been working on this for awhile, and stephon has seen her do it before, but i'm counting it as a trick for today since this is the first that i've noticed it.

we went to academy park today and shelby tried out the rock wall. it's about five feet tall, she made it up to the first level of steps. she almost had herself pulled up to the next level!

nathan is working on something new, too! i'm not supposed to know, but he walked in the house with his carving tools the other day. he slipped, so i get to write about it ;) i think he is carving something out of wood for me for mother's day :) if you have kids, never take their unconditional love for granted. if your kid is a boy, never take being the love of their life for granted because it won't last for long.

mommy's oatmeal

you wouldn't think that oatmeal needs a recipe, but good oatmeal does :) essentially, i start with a pie recipe. i've also used cookie recipes, such as peanut butter cookies. use honey to sweeten it to keep it healthy!

Ingredients:
6 cups water
1 cup milk
3 cups oatmeal
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup honey
raisins* or 1 can pumpkin

Directions:
Put water, milk, and oatmeal in a pot and turn the stove on high
Add the rest of the ingredients
Bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes
*If you are using raisins, add them once the oatmeal is done and ready to serve. This will keep them firm

singer and song-writer

the girls were in the bath tub tonight and shelby started singing. she sings every once in awhile, but it's always babble. tonight i could understand enough to know what she was singing about! i have always wondered if she was mimicking a song that i sing to her (she sings bye-oh-baby a lot) or if she was making up her own. now i know.

she sang about going poo poo in the potty. she sang a song about her hands. and lastly, she sang a song about elise :) isn't that cute ! !

mommy's pot roast

this is SO good! the au jus makes a wonderful gravy.

Ingredients:
3 1/2 - 4 pound roast
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups water
4 teaspoons beef bouillon
1 cup burgundy wine
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon thyme
1 package onion soup mix
fresh ground pepper to taste
one bag instant brown rice

Directions:
sprinkle seasoned salt on roast
sear roast in olive oil
mix remaining ingredients in a crock pot
add roast
cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 6
leave rice in it's cooking bag and submerge in crock pot one hour before you eat

i've also been experimenting with this in a pressure cooker. it tastes really good, but i haven't got the roast as tender and falling apart as i can in the slow cooker. i'll let you know when i do, or if you have a great secret to do this, please let me in on it!