My darlings!

I love 'em.  

They LOVE school!

Reagan scares me!  I am told she only tries to take her shoes off in class, but here it looks like she is getting ready to disrobe.  Yikes!

I think her pigtails were out when I picked her up.  But she LOVES her teacher and has a ball here!

Taylor lounges with his friends in class.  He is relaxed and is a clown with them!  I wonder sometimes how to settle him down?!  He is so SUPER-CHARGED, he goes bananas when I get him and is sad to leave his friends and class!  

Here he is getting ready to scramble to the door, Yes, I have been discovered!  This is right before I get tackled.

Saturday, well, lucky we got through it...

I think I will knock down my kitchen... why not?

I am the female conquerer of the playroom!  I have mastered the unthinkable!

Now I will stand over that which I have defeated!

Now watch as I do my celebratory dance!

Here is the way I found the crib (obviously with Reagan in it).  Read below for full account of the story.

I know you can't tell, but the dresser was far, or so I thought, from her crib.  The drawer lays on its side close to the rails.  

And so, here is another thing we have purchased to try and help our FUSSY baby.  Oh wait, the vibrating chair was first, the bag was second.  

So, now it is story time.  Saturday began nice and relaxing.  I think I slept in (thank you, honey!)  Both Trent and Reagan were sick.  Stuffy, and snotty, and Reagan was having fevers.  Well, Casey says that he has to go into work.  Okay.  No problem.  During naps, that should work out.  Well, Taylor didn't nap, baby didn't nap, and mommy didn't rest.  Reagan may have rested, but now I am not so sure.  Taylor came down from his room and I allowed him to assist me in the kitchen to make cookies.  Oh boy, were we in for some yummy peanut butter cookies, later.  While we fixed them, Trent fussed and fussed.  Nothing unusual, except he hasn't gone to the bathroom in 2 days and so he is really having tummy problems and his cries are blood curdling!  Anyway, cookies don't really finish themselves so it took awhile.  Then, I got Trent to sleep and heard Reagan.  I went to get her from her room and SURPRISE... I found her in her crib with all of the contents of a dresser drawer, diaper off, with her clothes, blankets, pacifier, and lovey, COVERED in pee.  She has done this countless times, but never pulled the dresser to her or emptied the contents of anything in her crib.  She did pee on a book her daddy gave her to read in her crib a couple of days prior.  Anyway, I am too tired to check for pee at this time, (back to story) and just grab her and diaper her and bring her down to the playroom.  Waiting for Casey to come home, waiting for a break when I just am going to lose it because now everyone is at it again.  Trent crying, Taylor going a mile a minute and then CRASH!  I turn around and Reagan has hurled the kitchen play unit over towards the middle of the room.  I try and settle Trent and then grab the camera (probably not the smartest thing!) and she revels in her accomplishment and then starts to dance all over the fallen mess.  Casey was supposed to go grocery shopping, supposed to come home already but no.  AND the crockpot meal I had started wasn't even cooking itself?!  I don't know what happened there.  It was now 6pm and I didn't have dinner and well it is starting to come apart now.  Case comes home and I just ask him if we can PLEASE go to Sonic.  Drive-in.  We are just pulling out of the driveway when Trent starts screaming.  No worries, I have a bottle.  Taylor, I ask, can you feed the baby.  That didn't work, Taylor shoved it in his face and made things just a little worse.  We hadn't even got out of our neighborhood when Casey couldn't handle it anymore... He pulled us over and everyone got out.  I took Trent, tried to shh him, daddy got Taylor's carseat, took it out and moved him to the back and I was now the designated middle seater and had to feed the baby the bottle.  All is okay for a little bit.  We get to Sonic and baby is finished with eating but still mad.  The other 2 are hungry and so are mommy and daddy.  We get our food and I am patting the baby, when Casey gets 2 bites in.  He again, has had enough so he says, "Give me the baby..."  he takes Trent and walks the shopping center and parking lots trying to get Trent to stop crying while I feed the other ones.  Meanwhile, Taylor says, "I'm sorry, I just peed in my pants."  I tell him to open his door and climb out (remember, I am sandwiched in the middle of the 2nd row, and can't get out) and go pee on the wheel.  He pulls down his pants and goes only to find his daddy coming back just at the same time embarrassed that his son is buck naked peeing on the wheel.    I quickly say I told him to go.  Casey hands me back the baby who is still crying.  We can't go on.  We put the food up and decide we need to go back home.  I tell Casey we need to get a water bag thingy to put hot water in to put on Trent's tummy.  He stops at the pharmacy and picks up what he thinks I am talking about.  A reusable douche bag and a rectal bulb thing.  Um, not what I was looking for.  We unload the kids at home and I get the heating pad for Casey to lay Trent on for his tummy.  I put the older ones to bed and come down to find that Trent had fallen to sleep and then the moment Casey put him down he started screaming again.  I decided to take Trent with me to return the said items back and look for the bladder bag that I was wanting.  Found it, came home, Trent still screaming, and we had peace finally at 11PM.  I think the heat and the weight of the bag helped some, and I think he was so tired, he wore himself out.  Now, today, he is going to the bathroom again, a relief, and I try to lay him down with the bladder every time.  It is working.  Thankfully.  The End.  

Delicious meal!

Last night, we ate really well!  I am trying out vegetarian and vegan recipes so that I increase my vegetable intake and cooking awareness.  If that makes any sense.  NO, WE ARE NOT VEGETARIANS OR VEGANS, but it is fascinating some of the recipes that I have stumbled on!  Here is one:

Rustic Roasted Vegetables

4 cups eggplant, cut into 2-inch cubes
4 cups zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced 1-inch thick
4 cups yellow summer squash, quartered lengthwise and sliced 1-inch thick
3 cups onions, cut from end to end into 1/2-inch-thick half-moons
2 cups green bell pepper, cut into rings
2 cups red or orange bell pepper, cut into rings
2 Tablespoons garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary or 2 teaspoons dried
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh thyme or 2 teaspoons dried
2 teaspoons basil
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

1.  Preheat oven to 425.  In a large bowl, combine vegetables.  In a small prep bowl, combine herbs.  Toss mixed herbs over vegetables and mix well.  (Note:  this is a large amount of vegetables and exceeds 8 cups.  You may scale down as I did and leave out or substitute anything your family favors.  We had but did not include yellow squash or green peppers.  We used 1 orange and 1 yellow bell pepper and 3 sweet onions.)  Lightly oil a large roasting pan or cookie sheet with olive oil.  Transfer vegetable mixture to the pan, and spread into a single layer.
2.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Stir vegetables and spread into a single layer again.  Roast an additional 10-15 minutes or until vegetables are just tender.
3.  Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.  Enjoy as a side or add to pasta or rice dish.

We roasted a full chicken too!  It was really good!  We let it marinate all night.  I made sure to turn it over in the refrigerator when I woke up with Trent at night so it marinated evenly.  It was really good.  Here is the recipe I used for it:

Roasted Marinated Whole Chicken

AWESOME!  AWESOME!  AWESOME!

This came out fanastically good, full of flavor and moist. 

1 cup Dijon mustard
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup to 3/4 cup lemon juice (and reserve the rinds) (4-5 lemons)
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1 whole chicken
a few sprigs of fresh rosemary
a few sprigs of fresh thyme

1.  Whisk together the Dijon, oil, lemon juice, soy sauce, garlic, salt and pepper for the marinade. Marinate a whole cleaned chicken at least 4 hours.

2.  Put a lemon rind or two along with the rosemary and thyme sprigs in the cavity of the chicken.

3.  Roast at 375 until done, basting periodically, probably about 2 hours for a 4-5 lb chicken. Or roast at 325 for 3 hours. Pulling at the drumstick to see if it moves easily is one way to tell if it’s done. Or get yourself an instant meat thermometer to be sure.

Happy moments!

Not as big as Taylor was, but he is getting there!  Oh, and his feet toes, are reminiscent of Taylor's.  

Charming!

Big smile!

Finally a moment of stillness and a smile.  Don't let it fool you though, he still is mister "Grumpy Pants!"

The last 2 days have been hard!  He didn't nap at all yesterday and still has tummy problems.  I have almost considered brewing Chamomile Tea and giving it to him with a dropper.  Sigh.  

Learning to ride his bike.

Just after 3 weeks of using his strider bike, Taylor is now practicing on his big boy bike without training wheels.  He admits he is still nervous, a little, and wants his training wheels on sometimes, but he is having so much fun growing up!  Now we just need to get practice time in!  It is so much fun!  What a big boy!

Our baby is getting big

I am having problems with loading pictures, which is a bummer, I have been trying for a while now. I also don't have the option to load videos anymore. I am sad there are technical difficulties with Blogger since there are some really fun things to share with you. Hopefully, we will be back on tomorrow. Whether or not I am able to post tomorrow is another thing. Hope you all have a wonderful Monday! Night, night.

London, 2011

PLEASE CLICK THE TITLE OF THIS POST: LONDON, 2011; TO VIEW AN ARTICLE AND PICTURE OF SOME PARALYPMPIC ATHLETES.

If you didn't know, Casey went last week to London, England. He met with other athletes and attended some confrences while present. He has been very fortunate to have had close ties with many of the athletes pictured and the swiss athlete pictured in front of Casey is a good friend and sends Casey home with cheese that he makes at home, for a living. It is really good! We already ate the whole thing! Here are some pictures:

6AM

The baby is out of my hands for a minute, but because I am trying him in the swing now at 6AM.  We have been up all night, sigh.  I fed him at 10pm and he was finally down at 11pm and then Taylor woke up and came down at 12AM and said he was scared.  I said he could sleep downstairs which SUPPOSEDLY would help him sleep.  RIGHT!  What was I thinking, what, with the baby there and all???  At 1:30 the baby woke up for feed and of course, Taylor woke up with him.  He stayed in bed and I went out to the couch to feed him.  I fell asleep until 3:30 and then Trent decided he wanted to be fully awake for no reason, or at least no reason I could figure.  I have been awake since.  I tried to return to my room to sleep however and put Trent in the vibrating chair and found that Taylor was awake again.  He said he was having trouble sleeping.  (I don't remember if we made a peep coming in...)  He couldn't breath through his nose and wanted to snuggle.  Well, I ended up finding some Vicks and rubbing some on him but had to tell him he might just have a better time sleeping upstairs.  He protested because he said he was scared, but I told him if he didn't get any sleep, I wasn't going to take him to school.  He finally went because I told him to get the big flashlight and take it with him.  He finally did go, but Trent was fussy so I went back to rocking him and put some Vicks on him too.  I bounced and rocked him and nothing worked.  I have to hope that the swing will put him to sleep now, but I can't go back to sleep now, we have got to get up and get ready for school soon.  I am a wreck.  I must go now.  I anticipate a nap today, and maybe I will order pizza for dinner.  I have to go for now.  Duty calls...

Colicky baby and crazy day!

He is sad, mad, sad all day long!  He gets purple/red when he gets in his mood.  He was like that today at the grocery store and it always gets me because everyone always says, "how cute!"  I always think... "REALLY?!  ((puzzled)) HE'S CRYING?!  Meanwhile, I can't pick him up since I am pushing the grocery cart, trying to keep my 1 1/2 year old from falling out of the lame buckle that is too big and does nothing to keep her in.  I also can't pick him up because my 4 year old has run to get me bananas and has wandered the whole store looking for me... ~he finally come back to me with a store worker in an apron concerned that a little boy is wandering around lost.  SIGH!  I am thankful that he got the bundle of bananas, and am thankful he was returned to me, so I couldn't be mad.  SIGH AGAIN!  This was my day.  I havn't mentioned this to the husband yet.  Maybe he will read it here on the blog.  If he reads this.  Mostly, I think he just looks at pictures.  Ha!

Oh look, mad again.  I am craving a massage at the mall right now, just looking at this photo.  Obviously, he is sleeping right now.  But, I have to go get the other baby, she is up now.  So long for now.