Two Week Re-cap (photos!)

I've been MIA from blogging recently because we've been having a very difficult time with our oldest.  And as many blended families can relate, the transition is never seamless when a biological parent moves away (especially when they only see their son once every 6 months).  We been working through a "grieving process," and he is now experiencing a lot of anger.  From the moment he wakes up he is furious and some days it has continued until he goes to bed.  He's a had a few happy times in the past 4 weeks, but for the most part, he has been very angry and has had extremely defiant behavior.  .  His Psychiatrist warned me of this phase, and said it could last a few days to a few years.  His teacher and school guidance counselor are very proactive and have been a tremendous support during this challenging time.  On Friday, he woke up as "happy Braylon" and the trend has continued through the weekend!!!  So we accomplished a lot and enjoyed a handful of family events since dad was off Friday and Saturday.  Today was another sweet day.  I volunteered for my first time in the nursery at church.  It was so much fun!!!  I am on a monthly rotation in the "crawler" room :)  After Church, I raced home to get Peyton dressed for a day with her Mimi and Grandma.  They went to lunch and then attended a Play at the local Theatre.  Peyton had a wonderful time!  The rest of my afternoon was spent hanging out with the boys (daddy was at work), laundry time, and cooking baby food.

Below are the pictures from the past few weeks!  Including:  2 birthday parties (we love our friends so much!), evening cookout with my parents, MOMS Club Holiday Party, gymnastics, Gator Fred's, Holiday Winterfest, Busch Gardens and all the in betweens!

Birthday party craft!

 Only got a few shots before my camera died.  Sooo much fun! 

 Little crafters :)

At Mimi's to roast marsh mellows and make s'mores.  Unfortunately, I was getting sicker by the minute.

 Roasting!

 I believe he ate about 10...lucky duck!

 Pax is such a big boy eating food!  And B. enjoys helping.

 Arts and crafts

 Very focused

 I love this shot.  Braylon working hard and Pey and Ky building legos in the background.

 MOMS Club Christmas Party!

 65 people attended!  Yay!

 Me assisting Santa

 Pey waiting patiently in line.

 I was the candycane holder and our Santa did an AWESOME job!!!

 "I want toys."  Thaaaanks for making easy ;)

 Kyan got up!  So proud of him!

 Pey and her little pal watching.  It's so sweet watching their eyes light up when Santa arrives!

 Almost all of us!  Braylon was boycotting Santa in the back.

 Our sweet family!

Bray with one of his best pals!

All the donations our MOMS Club Chapter collected for our local homeless shelter!  wow!

Birthday party fun!

The death of a bounce house.

Decorating gingerbread houses!

Braylon's school project!  This is the main character from a Fictional book of his choice.  Meet Fly Guy!  On the back is a summary of personality traits and physical traits.  His school requires 1 project per month and we are very proud of Bray!

 Kyan on the rings at Open Gymnastics!

 She is BEGGING to start gymnastics classes!  I am holding off as long as I can :)

 Mommy, Paxtyn (in the Ergo) and Kyan!

 Little sandwich!

 Petyon reading to the baby and Raven (my parents dog who stayed with usr 4 days).

 Her first 100 piece puzzle!  Wow!

 Classic picture of daddy reading to the kids.  LOL!

 This place was AMAZING!  Bounce houses and lots of little play stores for toddlers to have fun in!

 "I'm going to be a cooker and a mom like you when I grow up!"  Insert melting heart :)

 Mommy and Paxtyn!

 Modeling the "Ergo rear view mirror!"  http://www.quirkybaby.com/ 

 Kyan the fireman!

 Winterfest with our HAPPY Braylon!  I finally found some low cost matching red sweatshirts!

 Snow sleading!!!  The kids waited in line for 30 minutes :)

 Pey insisted on riding by herself!  I was shocked.

 FREE bounce house #5!

 A perfect evening with happy healthy kids.

 And to top if off, we got to watch a Nutcracker performance!

 Busch Gardens Bounce House!

The first time all three got in!

So much fun!

 Braylon used his own money to buy nectar for the birds...

 I thought he would get really upset with the birds touching him but he did great!  I was very proud of him!

 Beautiful.

 The kids sat patiently for 30 minutes waiting for the ice show to begin and it was well worth it!  The show was AMAZING!!!

 Spectacular!

 They were mesmerized

 Had to get a photo of our little Eskimo!

 We then stopped by Banoi and Onoi's house for dinner :)

 Great grandma will turn 100 in three weeks!!!

 Peyton in her new dress and lip gloss...all ready to attend a Christmas Play with her Mimi and grandma!



Friday Kidisms 12/3/2010!

Before Vu left for work today, I was able to get in a few quick errands after I dropped Bray off at school.  I dashed over to Dollar General to snag a few last minute items for the MOMS Club Christmas Party tomorrow and then ran into Michael's Craft Store and picked up a few items for Bray's school project.  When I got home a package was delivered..my Ergo!  Squeeeeeal!!!  I will create post later next week with pictures of my new baby carrier.  I am SOOOO excited!!!

After lunch, naps and picking up Bray, we headed home to make some pigs in blankets for dinner.  Braylon again was such a helper and assisted me with the dough...things were going great until I realized I haduunnn

Friday Kidisms 12/3/2010

(I'm a little behind so here's a few weeks worth!)

"My favorite holidays are Halloween, Christmas, Easter and Camping!" --Peyton

"Mimi, you are my expensive family."  --Peyton telling my mom she is her "extended" family.

"Eat my Pax'n sandwich!" --Kyan attempting to "eat" his "Paxtyn sandwich"

"You mean YOU beat all the boys!?!  You are the most unbelievablist mom in the world!"  --Braylon's reaction to me telling him that I beat out all the boys in Elementary School in street hockey and won a hockey stick from the Lightning Team.

"Bullying is when kids make fun of you, call you names, hurt you or make Guerilla noises at you."  --Braylon's explanation of what bullying is.  Ms. Florida came and talked to his class about how she was bullied in school...it made a real impact on him!

"I want to be a chef like mommy and help people like daddy!"  --Peyton's response to what she wants to be when she grows up.

"Braylon, don't be mean to mommy!  God is WATCHING YOU!"  --Peyton.

Feeling Better Thursday...Aquarium and Ikea.

Everyone is finally on the mend!  Yay!  Paxtyn finally had a normal night and slept 11 hours  *whoop whoop*  I just have a nagging cough and Kyan should be ready to be around friends by tomorrow.  Therefore, today we made a grand escape from the house and headed for the Aquarium!  Hooray for fish, sharks and sting rays!  Our kids are obsessed with the Aquarium and Peyton let her marine life nerdiness show this morning when she gave Mr. John (an employee) a description of a Transient Orca Whale and squealed with excitement when she raced over to another exhibit, "LOOK!  LOOK!  It's the Rosetta Spoonbill!  It's my most favorite bird because it's PINK!"  It's really wonderful witnessing Kyan's vocabulary expand, too.  Everything is more descriptive, the once shark is now the "Hammerhead Shark," the seahorse is now the "Dragon Seahorse."  The kids had a great time! 

After the Aquarium we headed to Ikea.  I've never been and had some extra time before picking up Bray, so I thought what the hay.  Um, yeah.  After hearing all the rave reviews about this place I assume I am in the very small minority of people who dislike Ikea.  Greatly dislike.  I am not a big shopper and had no idea what an event it is supposed to be!  I felt completely claustrophobic.  Everything was so contemporary with sharp edges, I had no control which way I wanted to go, and I just felt as though it wasn't a personal buying experience.  When I spend ANY amount of money I want it to be MY choice.  The whole experience felt so superficial and then it top of it, it took me 25 minutes just to get out of the store!  It just was not what I was expecting...at all.

After I picked up Braylon we came home and had a wonderful evening with the kids while dad was at work :/  After the little ones went to bed I assisted Braylon with a rough draft of his November/December School Project.  I was VERY proud of how hard he worked and focused for 45 minutes before bed.  He had some awesome ideas and we'll buy the crafts tomorrow to complete it.

Below is a super cute video of the kiddos dancing at the Aquarium!  Ch-ch-check it out! :)

Homemade Baby Food Time!

Today was daddy's day off!  YAY!  Unfortunately, I was STILL coughing up a storm and was unable to ride my bike to school with Braylon (we try to ride bikes with him once a week).  Therefore, Vu was on bike duty and I was stuck inside all morning again.  Being inside is very very hard for me!  The kids had a decent morning and Paxtyn seemed to be well, although Kyan was still runny and sneezy so dad took just Peyton to Open Gymnastics.  We had the garage door repaired yet again during the day and I cooked Paxtyn's first batch of baby food (recipe below) and was a bit overzealous when I made the decision that I was well enough to ride to Bray's school in the afternoon for pick up.  I'm surprised no one stopped their cars to ask if I was ok!  Hacking the entire time.  Looovely.  When we got home, Braylon was in a very helpful mood and after folding a load of laundry he became my assistant chef in the kitchen!  We cooked a huge pot of Chili with rice...it was DEEE-LICIOUS!  I think I might even make another pot for a Christmas Party this weekend.

That evening Paxtyn had a very big milestone and ate his first baby food!  Once I became a stay-at-home mom I decided to push starting foods back further to keep my milk supply stronger, longer.  Kyan didn't start solids until 7 months and Pax is 2 days shy of 7 months.  Doesn't work for every mom, but certainly has worked for me!  Pax loved the Butternut Squash and ate like a pro :)  I am so proud of my sweet baby boy.

Butternut Squash Baby Food

I started with this veggie since it's not too sweet and just one Squash makes a LOT of food!  Right now I'm guesstimating on amounts and hopefully in a week or so I'll have the portions correct.  Making baby food is easy-peazy and takes very little time...in my opinion.  To get a refresher, I used the site http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/.  Last year when I started making food for Kyan, I found countless sites that suggested freezing the food in ice cube trays which made thawing exact 2 ounce portions easier.  I did this for my first few batches but in the end, found it to be a waste of time.  Maybe if I started my babies on food at 3 months and needed the smaller amounts it would have made a difference...but not at 7 months.  Therefore, what I found to work really well was to make a batch and just allocate the food into a few containers...keep one in the fridge and freeze the others until needed.  Usually 1 plastic container would last a day and half to two days. I also just fed cold baby food pulled straight from the refrigerator...none of that warming/reheating business and never had any complaints ;)

I bought two Butternut Squash and one Acorn Squash.  I used the medium sized Butternut to make this batch.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

 Cut squash in half.

 Scoop out the seeds.  I use an ice cream scoop.

 All set.

 Fill pan with 1/2 inch of water and place squash side by side "meat" side down.

Cook at 400 degrees for 45minutes-1 hour (until skin is brownish and puckery).

Scoop out inside and put in blender...if pieces of skin are attached, it's no big deal.

 Ready to blend!  I blended on high for about 2 minutes.  Also, add small amounts of water as needed to get desired thickness.

 And that's it!  Fabulous Homemade Butternut Squash Baby Food!

 This is how much one squash made.  The 3 containers on the right went in the freezer and will all probably be used within the next week.

 And the verdict???

 "Mikey likes it!!!"

 Can't get enough!

Short video of Paxtyn chowing down!