Lately...

This blog has been sorely neglected over the past week.  Our house has been a bit crazy over the past few days.  In an effort to keep you all updated, I've put together a quick recap!

PLAY TIME

Caleb continues to entertain himself with lego.  He's become quite the creative lego builder.  For months he would sit and watch us build him cars and machines (anything... as long as it had wheels) and now he's been creating his own vehicles.  The other day he came running up to Doug and I with his latest creation... legos in the shape of an "X".  "Look Mom and Dad!  I made an X!"  Then he proceeded to give it a quarter turn... "Now it's a "T".  It's all in how you look at it."  Then he went on to turn it into an "X" car.  Hmm.

Hours of fun building things with wheels

Every so often he still wants us to come and join him on the floor.  The other morning he really wanted me to come build something with him... I was being a somewhat neglectful mother (enjoying my coffee while checking my email) and kept saying I'd be there "in another minute honey."  Caleb persistently kept asking me to come build legos with him... finally I stopped and asked him what he wanted me to build... an airplane?  a helicopter?  Caleb stops, looks at me and says so innocently, "Those ones might be a little too tricky for you."  In seconds I was on the floor building a helicopter determined to prove my three year son wrong.  In hindsight I'm wondering... was I playing with Caleb?  Or was he playing with me?

Caleb's "X" car

ENTERTAINING TIME

My little Emmy continues to entertain me... with her cute little outfits, with her persistent little mohawk, with her big bright eyes, and now with her first smiles.  She is such a happy little girl.  Her day consists of eating, sleeping, and smiling.  That makes this mommy smile too.

JUST BOYS TIME

On Friday I was hosting a baby shower at my place so the boys were forced out of the house for the evening.  Hours later, they made their way home after quite an eventful night.  It started with pies at McDonalds and continued with a round of mini golf and Castle Fun Park.  They then went hot tubbing at Grandma and Grandpa's and headed home.  They did a quick drive by and found that the baby shower was still going strong, so off they went to Walmart for play time in the toy section.  Needless to say, I had two tired boys on my hands that evening.

Mini golfing fun

 PROJECT TIME

I pulled our my sewing machine this weekend and whipped up a few more baby blankets and re-hemmed my dining room curtains after Caleb decided to "un-hem" them during a time out (that IKEA iron on hem just doesn't hold up in my house).

You can never have too many cute swaddling blankets.  And really, with flannel this cute how can I resist?  I even got a little crazy and rounded the corners of the cherry blanket.

Even Doug managed to get in on the sewing action.  After watching me struggling to cut the flannel evenly-- Doug began to look worried.  His mathematically oriented, cabinet installer, perfectionist driven brain went into overdrive.  Suddenly he's asking me if I know how to make it square, starts reaching for a tape measure and begins to throw around words like "hypotenuse ".  Before I know what's going on the scissors have been taken from me.

My blankets have never been more square.

And here's Emerson modeling the cherry blanket.  I think her brother was entertaining her at the moment.

EATING TIME

Meal time has been going great in our house.  Caleb continues to ask for fun lunches and I continue to make them.  Caleb's never minded vegetables, but all of a sudden he really, really likes them.  If the cucumber is in the shape of a star, he'll eat 10.  Last week he actually got mad at me for putting the broccoli away after dinner.  Apparently he wasn't finished.

We've all been enjoying these two meals, so I thought I'd share them with you!

Meal number one... Pork and Apple Fajitas.  I discovered the recipe on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog and after making it once, everyone in our house was sold.  I've created a more simplified version myself-- instead of the marinade I sometimes just use Cattle Boyz BBQ sauce and I've opted to BBQ the pork and then slice it up instead of stir frying.

And now meal number two... green chile enchiladas.  The secret ingredient is green chile enchilada sauce-- so far I've only managed to find it across the border in the States.

They're really easy to make.  I just slice up a couple of chicken breasts and stir fry them with onions, add a tin of green chiles, a block of cream cheese, a little bit of sour cream, and a quarter of the tin of green chile sauce.  Then I roll up the mixture in a few soft tortillas with some shredded cheese, put them in a pan and top with the remaining sauce and more cheese.  Throw it in the oven until it's hot and bubbly and serve with a salad and maybe some spanish rice.  Always a winner in our house!  These cans of sauce are pretty big, so sometimes I'll make two 8x8 pans of enchiladas and throw one in the freezer for another day.

TRAVEL TIME

And tomorrow, I'm leaving on a jet plane with both kids.  We're heading home to the prairies to spend the rest of the week with my family.  Caleb has been counting down the days for weeks now and Emerson is excited about her first trip to the farm.

I pulled out our suitcases this morning and let Caleb pack his own.  After a good hour in his room by himself he rolled his suitcase down the hallway (it was closed), parked it at the top of the stairs, announced that he was all ready to go, and went back to playing.  A few minutes later he all of a sudden got really worried.  "Mommy, do you think Nana and Papa have socks at their house?"  I forgot to pack mine."


After Caleb went down for his nap I opened it up to take a peek.  I was somewhat surprised to find that he actually thought to pack underwear.

Mom, my suitcase is full of green chile enchilada sauce just for you.

See you tomorrow!