Our Family in Iowa

A bomb just went off in our house!

2012-02-10T13:45:00.004-06:00

Yes, it has happened again. The laundry bomb went off in our house. It is amazing how quickly laundry piles up in the house when you have kids. Yes, that's right, there is laundry all over the living room!

Not to worry though, it is CLEAN laundry. I get points for that at least. This week has been so busy I just haven't had a chance to sort, fold, and put away our laundry. You know it is bad when you start to run out of laundry baskets. The worst thing is when you have to go rummaging through the piles to find matching pairs of socks. Don't lie! I know you have done this too! The worst part is I still have 2 loads in the wash and 2 waiting to be done. Laundry is everywhere right now!

That got me thinking about how much laundry our family does in a typical week. We do on average a daunting 14 loads a week. That is 728 loads of laundry in a year!!! Here are our numbers broken down:

--1 load of towels a week

--3 loads of cloth diaper laundry a week

--2 loads of boys clothes

--1 load for the baby

--1 load of kitchen towels and bibs a week

--1 load of jeans

--1 load of gym clothes and socks/undies

--1 load of darks

--1 load of lights

--2+ loads of miscellaneous things (Includes anything like sheets, bedding, and of course the "oops the kids" category for accidents and spills).

That is a lot of laundry! That doesn't even include all the other things I do during the day like the dishes, cooking meals, picking up the same toy over and over, and sweeping the floors (which I need to do still today by the way). Forget deep cleaning, I just try to keep it "tidy." Although I should mention I did scrub the floors and bathroom down this week. I surprise myself sometimes!

So husband dear...if you are reading this you should be asking yourself what does this mean??? I will tell you what it means. It means Valentines Day is coming up and that you really really love your wife. Did I say really enough? Because you REALLY just love her so much. I don't ask for much. You know diamonds and jewelry are not my kind of thing. But flowers, well those are nice. Or you could let me sleep in one morning next week. That would be perfect. I am sure you will think of something. You always come through.

Signed,

Your loving wife

Mom needs some donuts!

2012-02-03T21:49:00.005-06:00

I think I will treat myself to some donuts this weekend. That is right, THIS GIRL has been working hard at the gym and is finally seeing some results. In January I lost 10 pounds! A huge huge victory for me!

My focus this month was to get my body used to what it feels like to you know... EXERCISE again. I would like to be in a position this spring that I can go jogging with Oliver and Eleanor in the double jogger. However, I have to be decent shape in order to do that. So cardio for me it is!

All month I have been increasing my workout in intervals. Week 1 I started out by walking for 2 minutes on the treadmill and then jogging for 3 minutes. Then I would repeat it. I did this each week until I was able to exercise for a full 25-30 minute period. Week 3 I increased how fast I was running and by week 4 I increased how long I was jogging for. By week five I was running for 5 full minutes and walking for 2 minutes. I now run 1.8-2 miles in a daily workout. My goal is to gradually increase how long I run for until I no longer need walking intervals. To any veteran runners out there this might not seem like a big accomplishment, but for me this is huge progress. You are talking to the person who did not like to run the mile in high school and would walk the last two laps. I am not a runner by nature. Scratch that, I am not an ATHLETE by nature! So *me* enjoying running, well that is just super!

As it turns out, exercising at the gym has some nice perks I had never even considered. On days I go to the gym, the kids all play in the nursery. Why is this so wonderful you ask? Well first off, mommy gets a nice little break from sticky fingers clinging to her legs and baby spit up down the front of her shirt. Even better, the kids tire themselves out and have a blast playing with new friends. In fact, they run off so much energy that they enjoy taking a nap when we get home! BONUS! However, the BEST part is I actually get to take a shower! Not just any shower, it is a "no kids invading the bathroom, no interruptions" kind of shower. The kind you have time to get dressed afterward, and can brush your hair and maybe put on some makeup! Hallelujah rejoice! What a nice little perk!

So maybe I don't need those donuts after all! My perk is getting a shower! Lovely isn't it? Parenthood problem #9017 solved.

Proof I am actually working on my New Years Goals!

2012-01-27T14:56:00.002-06:00

Today I did some grocery shopping. Being the awesome mother that I am I even did it with a cranky 3 year old and a 7 month old who has recently decided she doesn't need a morning nap. Using my super amazing powers as a mother, I got all of us out the door and managed not to forget our grocery list. I *may* have bribed Oliver by telling him he could have a sucker if he would be my helper. However, in our house we call that an incentive.

Our goal today was to work on goal #1--feed the kids. I went to the store to buy our weekly groceries and lots of fresh produce and healthy alternatives for us to eat. Our meal plan for the week included several kid-friendly meals with healthy options. Here is our meal plan for the next week:

Friday-- Stir Fry (Happy Chinese New Year by the way!)

Saturday-- Tacos

Sunday-- Homemade Pizza from scratch

Monday-- Pasta with tomato basil and beef sauce

Tuesday-- Crockpot Salsa Chicken

Wednesday-- Church Dinner Night (mommy doesn't cook--YES!!!!!)

Thursday-- Mac & Cheese and Veggies

The next goal was to organize our refrigerator with healthy eating and young children in mind. I filled small containers with fresh fruit and cheese for little hands to have easy access to. I also made sure their favorite yogurts were right in front. Most importantly, I keep water bottles for each of my boys on the top shelf. When I am busy with the baby and they need a glass of water they can grab it themselves. A wonderful lactation consultant from Iowa City gave me this perfect little tidbit of advice and really it is genius! The other thing I did was make the top shelf a place for leftovers. We never seem to grab them unless they are the first thing we see. Knowing this, I put all of our leftovers and extras from this week on the top shelf. Hopefully this will cut down on food waste in our house.

So there you have it--I am actually working on our goals for 2012! And now you have proof of all of my hard work!

2012

2012-01-17T15:15:00.002-06:00

2011 was a pretty wild year. In a nut shell we moved to a new place, we had a baby, and I officially switched to staying at home full time. Lots of changes in the Schenk household meant mommy was a little bit crazy (I said a little bit so don't lock me up just yet). We some how didn't find the time for blogging.

2012 will be better--I think. Brent just started an executive MBA program which is proving to be harder on me than it will be for him. Week one is over and the poor guy had to endure living in a suave hotel with housekeeping and a catered lunch and dinner for every meal. Hardly roughing it. Meanwhile, our household was on the brink of catastrophe that would match any apocalyptic nuclear meltdown. Our week involved strep throat, a blizzard and a funeral. Oh, and the Packers lost to the Giants. In all seriousness, I am hoping that at this point the rest of 2012 will not repeat itself.

There really is a lot of good things to look forward to this year. I may just be crazy (see first paragraph) but I have lots of goals for this house. In the spirit of making new year's resolutions here is what I would like to do this year.

1) Feed the kids. Starving children just don't look happy in family photos. JUST KIDDING. I feed my kids. However, this year I think we are going to try and incorporate more fresh fruit and veggies in our meals and we are going to try and eat more unprocessed food and organic food. If we can find the time this spring I would like to start a family garden too. Maybe I can make the kids do the work for me! :-D

2) Become debt free. Bye bye student loans! Dave Ramsey says I should kick you to the curb! Cheetah meet budget -- you have met your match!

3) Blog something. 2011 was a bad year for blogging. Even if I said I would double my posts from last year I don't think it would be enough! So here is to hoping for one post for each month!

4) Don't be a hoarder. In 2011 we got rid of stuff. Lots of old clothes and boxes of forgotten items. This year I want to continue to get organized. Less stuff has meant less cleaning. As the president of Bad Housekeeping I can promise that less cleaning is a good thing. Getting organized will be our goal this year.

5) Go running with a donut on a stick. Not really but yeah kind of. Now that the baby is older that means I can send her to the gym's childcare. Which pretty much means mommy has no excuse to NOT use the gym when we pay a nice little price tag for it. What is a mom to do when she hates the elliptical? I think I will just have to find a nice little carrot on a stick for me to chase after. I have some health and fitness goals for this year. I think if I do them I should get something nice, like a piece of chocolate cake that I don't have to share with the kids. Then again, maybe food shouldn't be my reward....

Well that is my food for thought today. Here is to a wonderful rest of 2012!

Photos of Eleanor!

2011-06-18T16:57:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the world Eleanor Eileen!

2011-06-16T22:27:00.003-05:00

Our precious baby girl was born just four days before her due date on Wednesday June 15th, 2011 at 3:30 AM. She has lots of dark hair and cute chubby cheeks. She weighed 9 lbs 9 oz, was 20 inches long, and had a head circumference of 14 3/4. She arrived after a fast delivery and is doing great. After a lot of discussion we have decided to name her Eleanor Eileen Schenk! We can't wait to bring her home, she is such a joy!

What's happening in the Schenk house!

2011-06-04T15:53:00.001-05:00

It has been a while since we last posted anything on the family blog. We have been plenty busy since last December and have made some big changes in our family life. The biggest change of course is that Brent and I are expecting our third child, a baby girl. She is due to arrive any day now this June and we are very excited to meet her. The boys can't wait to be her big brother, they love their little sister already.

We also recently moved from North Liberty to Cedar Rapids. The location is very convenient and is close enough to downtown that Brent can actually bike to work. There area has lots of parks for us to enjoy together as a family and the local school is just blocks away. It is a good fit for us and we really love the new place. It is an older home but has a lot of unique charm. We have 3 bedrooms now and a much bigger kitchen which I love. It really fits our simple lifestyle. Or favorite thing about the home is the GIANT backyard and walk out deck. The boys have discovered there is a lot of exploring to do in the backyard, it kind of feels almost like a farm. We have a little farm shed complete with a ladder and attic, a long clothes line, their big swing set, lilac trees, honeysuckle trees, a mulberry bush, rhubarb and even grapes growing in the back yard!!! Every day we go outside and discover a "new" plant or flower that we hadn't noticed before. I don't have much of a green thumb but I might have to try out my hand at a little bit of gardening. I think we will try to start out small with tomatoes or strawberries this year, maybe even some potted herbs. I will have to post how that goes, I am sure I will have some memorable epic fail moments to share with all of you.

In other changes, I now stay at home full time with the kids. The funny thing about staying at home is that I am finding I have less free time than when I was working part time outside of the home! The kids really do keep me busy. No bonbons and daytime TV for this mom! We make many trips to the park or pool and find fun family activities to do around town. Don't worry though, we are just about all settled in now so I have no excuses for not posting anymore. I will make sure to share pictures and stories once again.

Additionally, Brent and I have started what I would call the second chapter of our Financial Peace journey. As most of you know, we finished Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace course in the spring of 2010. We have undergone many lifestyle changes in the last 16 months. We don't use credit cards or take out loans and we have discovered how freeing it can be to simplify your finances and have a working budget. What is interesting though is that by simplifying our finances we have actually simplified how we live as well. This I think is because our priorities are being reshaped. Money is not important, stuff is not important, and things are not important. Our friends, family and God have become the most important things. I wouldn't say we are prefect as we still have lots of work to do and a long journey ahead of us. However, I do feel that this has really helped us grow closer as a couple and made our family stronger. Financial Peace has changed more than just our finances. It has changed our outlook on life as well. What a blessing that has been! We are excited to see where our journey will take us in the next few years.

We are so excited to blog again and can't wait to share all the happenings our family has going on. Look to see more posts from us very soon!

Oliver's 2nd Birthday Party

2010-12-20T17:40:00.002-06:00

Have Yourself an Elf Day!!

2010-11-18T10:39:00.002-06:00

The boys and I had so much fun with our Halloween e-card we already went ahead and made a new one for Christmas. Hope you enjoy!

The Schenks go Star Wars

2010-10-31T22:22:00.002-05:00

Trick or Treat! For Halloween we dressed up in our best Star Wars gear. Brent and I went as Hans Solo an Princess Leia and the boys were R2D2 and a clone trooper. We had a great time in our costumes and the neighbors loved it. We even met Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker when we were out trick or treating. Pretty cool!

Preschool Party

2010-10-31T22:03:00.002-05:00

Thomas had a party at his preschool on Friday. We were in charge of bringing the class treat and decided to make special cupcakes for the class. In all we ended up making about 48 cupcakes to make sure we would have enough plus some extras for the class. We made Frankenstein, vampire, worms, brains, spider, pumpkin, and mummy cupcakes. Thomas helped me decorate them all.

I got to attend the preschool party as a guest and helper. Thomas enjoyed having mom there I think. The kids got to trick or treat in the area and they had lots of Halloween games for the children. Here are some pictures of our cupcakes and the party.

Pumpkins!

2010-10-31T21:57:00.002-05:00

Here are the pumpkins we got this year. We started out with just 4, then added two more and ended up with a total of 6 pumpkins and 1 gourd. We had a cute little arrangement on our front porch. Oliver and Thomas have been practicing counting the pumpkins each time we go in and out of the house. Fall it is a great time of year and pumpkins make it extra fun! We even have bed time books we read about pumpkins. Our favorite is, "Too Many Pumpkins." We know practically the whole book from front to back and we can quote lines out of it we read it so much!

Pumpkin Painting

2010-10-31T21:53:00.003-05:00

This year the boys had a play date with some of their friends to paint pumpkins. It was nice out so they had a little picnic lunch and finger painted their pumpkins outside. Look how cute they were!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-28T12:11:00.001-05:00

The boys and I giggled so hard while we were making this. We decided Grandma Patty made a good mad scientist. :-)

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

My Birthday Weekend Task

2010-10-18T22:49:00.002-05:00

Well this weekend I was tasked with creating an R2D2 stroller costume. Here are some photos of my best try so I hope you all enjoy this. Ill also post them on facebook for others to see and/or comment on.

Chalk Time: Featuring Oliver & Thomas

2010-10-13T15:25:00.003-05:00

The boys love to spend afternoons or mornings coloring with chalk out in the driveway. This is an almost daily event for our household and we do this so often that we go through buckets and buckets of chalk each year. Right now because there has been no rain in quite some time our drive looks like someone has used it as their graffiti art head quarters. There are so many things covering our driveway that today we literally had to color new pictures on top of old ones! The boys don't seem to mind the plethora of rainbow colored Crayola chalk everywhere. To be honest I don't mind it too bad either. Not sure how the neighbors feel but I think it adds a nice friendly vibe to the neighborhood!

Art Exhibit #1: Thomas and "Oliver" the Train

Art Exhibit #2: Rainbows

Art Exhibit #3: The creature in your nightmare

Exhibit #4: Heavenly Gardens and Critters

Exhibit #5: Halloween Spectacular!

Exhibit #6: Pumpkins of the Chalk

Exhibit #7: Helicopter-Spacecraft-Machine-Thing (appropriately named by the artist named Thomas)

TOO MANY PUMPKINS!

2010-10-11T14:06:00.002-05:00

Life's a bowl of....apples?

2010-10-06T13:15:00.003-05:00

September was a very fun filled month for our house. It wouldn't be a good September without a few trips to the apple orchard--it's a tradition! This year we made 4 trips to the apple orchard in total and I am sure we will squeeze in a couple last chance trips this October too. We go to Wilson's Apple Orchard north of Iowa City. They have tractor rides on the weekend, a picnic area, apple treats to taste and of course an impressive collection of apple trees covering the entire apple orchard. We love to go as a family and literally just get lost out in the orchard and the boys love being able to taste all the yummy apples and treats.

So many apples later...here are some pictures from our most recent family trip. On this trip we got to show off the orchard to Kim, Reid and Jessie since they came for a special visit that weekend.

Little apple farmer, Oliver is excited to go pick some apples!

Waiting for the tractor

Smile--TAKE ONE

SMILE--TAKE TWO, only one kid is smiling! Gotta do it again!

I said smiiiiiile--TAKE THREE, okay I give up!

Family Portrait-- Christmas card photo perhaps?

Tractor Ride!

What's that mom? You want an apple? Let me see here, I just have one apple left in my basket and I took a bite out of it. Sorry I ate the rest!

Brent and Thomas

Oooooh!!! Apples!

Come on Oliver, there are more apples this way! Hurry, we have to get the good ones!

Oliver and Thomas

This one tastes just right!

Taking a big bite!

Yum!

And for my last magic trick...I will make this apple disappear in 3...2...1!

It's Hawkeye Football Time Folks!

2010-09-04T13:24:00.002-05:00

GO HAWKS!!!

Future Hawkeyes!

Also future class clowns...

Game time! Got to watch part of it at home.

Happy because the Hawkeyes are winning!

Touch Down!

Field Goal is Gooooood!

Tailgating in dad's truck

Playing with the bean bags

Snack time!

The boys made a new friend today. Oliver loves dogs so this was too cute!

Oliver and Jordan having a little break

Listening to the music

Making crafts at the ICM booth

Basketball Time

Grandma Patty and Thomas

Go Hawks!

Hokey Pokey at Fry Fest

Oliver Dancing

Trains Trains Trains!

2010-09-03T22:33:00.002-05:00

Oliver really loves trains, cars, airplanes, and tractors right now. But he especially loves choo choo trains. He likes to play with the train table in the basement and race the trains up and down the track and his favorite book to read is a book about trains. Lately I started letting him watch little clips of Thomas the Train on netflix and he has been going crazy over them. Looks like we have another little engineer in the family. :-)

Chocolate Frosting...Because it is a Chocolate Kind of Day!

2010-09-01T16:17:00.004-05:00

The boys and I baked some goodies today. I made my favorite recipe of chocolate frosting to go over our brownies. It is the absolute best chocolate frosting ever and goes well over both cakes and brownies! We love it!

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup crisco
3-4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cups baking cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4--1/2 cup milk

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and crisco so is completely smooth. It helps to soften the butter and crisco a little bit in microwave. Add vanilla and mix well. In separate bowl whisk together cocoa and powdered sugar. Slowly add to large mixing bowl adding a little at a time to butter mixture. Add enough milk until frosting reaches spreading consistency.

First Day of Preschool

2010-08-31T14:38:00.002-05:00

Thomas had his first day of preschool on Monday. He was really excited to go to school and make new friends. Brent and I both were at the drop off and he was very cool about the entire thing. We had him put his bag and hat away, wash his hands and join the rest of the group for circle time. We waved bye and he wasn't phased at all by any of it. He was more ready than I realized for school, I was actually a little nervous about how he would do without either of this to direct him but he seems to be doing really well. I can't believe our Thomas is a big boy!!!

Crazy for Cookies!

2010-08-29T22:27:00.003-05:00

I ran across this sugar cookie recipe on allrecipes.com and simply had to try it out with the boys. It was really simple. The only changes I made was I used the butter flavored crisco sticks and added a bit of almond extract in addition to the vanilla extract the recipe calls for. Our cookies only took 8 minutes to bake in our oven and they cooled perfectly and were perfectly soft. Might have to keep this recipe around for the holidays this year when we make our sugar cookie cutters. Could be a new favorite!

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/soft-sugar-cookies-iv/Detail.aspx

Ingredients

2/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar for decoration

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, shortening and sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, stir into the creamed mixture until dough comes together. Roll dough into walnut sized balls and roll the balls in sugar. Place them on an unprepared cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until bottom is light brown. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks.

Snip snip chop chop!

2010-08-29T21:39:00.004-05:00

Or really I should say buzz buzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzrroooommmm. I say that because I tried my hands out as a professional stylist and barber today. I cut the boys hair for the first time. Don't worry, no cute boys were harmed in the process. I even bribed them with suckers so they actually made out quite well from their terrifying experience with me and the clippers today. Thomas really needed a hair cut because he starts preschool tomorrow and his hair was looking kind of shaggy with a little "turkey" of hair sticking of in the back as we call it. Can't have that going on in the many pictures I am sure to take tomorrow! I did not WANT to cut Oliver's hair since he is my baby and I loved his long soft hair but it was getting pretty hard to manage. I am

still adjusting to his big boy hair cut but I am sure my scars will heal quickly. He seems to like it and I think we will have less crazy hair days around here because of it.

Here are the before pictures:

And after:

RIP the-blue-right-foot-croc-shoe

2010-08-02T10:15:00.004-05:00

On Friday the whole Schenk gang had a little road trip to Des Moines to visit family and friends. After successfully managing to pack up the whole gang in the van we were off to Ankeny. Kim and Todd joined us to meet up with Brian and Amy. We got to see their new place in Ankeny. They have the cutest home I have to say and it was so nice to share some pizza with them on a Friday night. They tried REALLY hard to talk us into moving in next door, they almost had me for a minute too! Thomas and Oliver loved all of Noah's cool toys. Next time we will have to let Noah come over here to play. Thomas was funny on the way home. It was really foggy out driving back and everyone was really quiet driving home since we were all tired. Out of the blue he blurted out, "The car is really dirty! We better wash it!!!"

Saturday Brent had the annual PDI golf outing. Jordan got to be an honorary member this year since the crew was one member short. The boys placed 4th in the tournament. No trophy this year, but Brent will still be back next year to give it another shot I am sure. The boys and I had lunch with Todd and Kim at chips and we got to see some familiar faces back in A-town. Thomas got to go swimming with Todd while Oliver napped and I visited my family. We then met up with Brent and I got to see Jordan's home for the first time. He has quite a nice little bachelor pad I must say. And I was very impressed that he had photos of the boys up on the fridge. We ate dinner out that night at Bang Bang, a new restaurant in West Des Moines. We ran in to my friend Nicole and her family. It was neat to see some old friends. On the way home Oliver was so goofy. He kept singing "baba" over and over again for his sippy cup. Everyone started singing baba songs to him. Everyone in the car was singing a different song at the same time with baba in it. Haven't quite laughed that hard in a long time. We are a silly bunch!

Sunday we got to meet up at the Uptown church. So crazy how much larger that church is compared to the ones we go to. I did a little bit of errands and picked up some crayons at Target with a coupon to donate to the food pantry in North Liberty. But what is any errand without a little bit of an adventure to complicate the trip? As we were checking out Oliver started throwing the biggest temper tantrum. We get out to the car only for me to discover he did not have his shoe! He had lost it somewhere in the middle of Target. So off we venture back into Target with Oliver still crying. After 1o minutes of searching and several strange looks we finally find it after backtracking our steps through the store. Out we go and I have all the kids loaded up in the car. Well as I am buckling Oliver in a car pulls by to tell me we lost a shoe. So glad he pointed it out to me! What a day it has been. Now that my errands are all finished I can visit family once more. The boys loved getting to see Noah and were really excited when Aunt Melissa brought out the bubbles. However when it was time to go we lost our 3rd shoe of the day. Only this time Thomas has lost his shoe. We searched high and low and what do you know we did find a full pair of crocs that were also missing, BUT it was not Thomas's missing shoe! I am sure it will show up by the time he either has grown out of them or it is winter. So happy that we lost our crocs 3x in just one day! RIP the blue right foot croc shoe. You will be missed--your other half is in mourning and your loved ones miss you so dearly.

Photos Photos Photos!

2010-07-20T14:26:00.003-05:00

All dressed up with no where to go! Thomas loved showing off his new vest and hat that we got at the outlet store!

Hands down one of the BEST pictures of Thomas I have ever taken! I actually took it on accident and was trying to get one of him coming down the slide! He has the most beautiful smile that is just like his dad's smile!

This is the boys new favorite lunch--ravioli!!! I just buy a big bag of it frozen and then make my own sauce. Oliver gobbled it up!

Thomas lately has been requesting to eat out of his star wars cup and bowl. He wanted star wars ravioli!

Here the boys are swinging on the swing set which we play almost every day.

Oliver has been refusing to sit in the baby seat lately and wants to swing like his brother. What happened to my baby boy???

Giving his brother a little boost!

Swimming in the pool. They thought it would be funny to throw the chair in too.

Thomas showing off how he rides the swing like a horse.

Play ball! Thomas has been teaching Ollie how to use the t-ball set.

This picture depicts every day life in the Schenk house! The boys thought it was funny to stick their butts up in the air at me on the couch and played this game for a good 1/2 hour giggling at me the whole time!

Enjoying some jello jigglers for the 4th of July!

Ollie wouldn't even stop eating them to smile at the camera. He just wanted me to get him more jello!

Being a total ham for the camera!

Oliver enjoyed using his new float. He likes to go in "boat rides" in it.

How lucky is he here? We all went swimming at the hotel the weekend of 4th of July and Oliver got everyone to push him around the pool.

Oliver and Grandpa Todd had a blast playing catch in the pool!

You wouldn't know it but this is AFTER their bedtime. They were wide awake after the fireworks we saw.

We went to the 4th of July parade in Coralville. The boys loved the cool flags they got.

Oliver loved his flag and all the cool trucks and cars that came by. I think it really spurred an interest in cars and trains for him because ever since then he carries little hot wheels cars and Thomas the trains with him everywhere.

This is our favorite rainy day activity in our house. Thomas will play Mario Kart or Lego Star Wars on the Wii and Oliver will "play" with him.

Here he is playing with Thomas. He thought he was driving the car I think! :-)

Summer Fun!

2010-07-20T13:56:00.002-05:00

The boys last day of daycare, notice that Oliver is choosing NOT to look at the camera.

When did he grow up so much? It seems like overnight Thomas has grown up!

Oliver loves brownies ALMOST as much as his mom does. I can't imagine how he learned how to eat brownies like that! ;-)

The whole gang cooling down with some popsicles.

Thomas and Laina playing the sprinkler. We will really miss Laina. Thomas adores her! But thankfully we will still get to see her at church.

And this is Lola the puppy. If you ask Oliver where Lola is he will bark like her and get really excited. He loves dogs!

Oliver dumping water in and out of the pool.

Swimming in the kiddie pool.

Enjoying some yummy cake at a birthday party!

Laina and Thomas enjoying some birthday cake! Looks like it was good!

July Update

2010-07-20T13:33:00.003-05:00

These summer days have been so much fun for our family. The boys love exploring in the backyard and playing with the neighborhood kids. So crazy how fast July has flown by for us!

July has been a month of change in our house you could say. Brent and I decided that the time was right for me to stay at home with the boys during the day from now on. So last week the boys enjoyed their first week back with us. Monday we baked cookies. Only baking day ended up being a little fun because I didn't realize we were out of eggs. I found a replacement for eggs but my chocolate chip cookies ended up tasting like banana chocolate chip cookies. Still quite delicious to eat though! Tuesday we visited the library and new splash pad on the south side of Iowa City. The boys had so much fun with Cooper and CJ. We even had a little picnic lunch outside. Wednesday we did a little shopping at the outlet mall and then on Thursday we enjoyed our first kids movie at the theater here. For 2.75 each we get free popcorn and a kids movie showing in the morning. That week they showed Diary of A Wimpy Kid. Thomas thought the stinky cheese in the movie was very funny and Oliver enjoyed sneaking popcorn when I wasn't looking.

We also are very happy to report that Doug is back from China! He has been visiting us this summer. Last Friday we went to a stock car race in Cedar Rapids with him. Thomas and Oliver loved how noisy the cars were and liked the tricks the best. We have had lots of fun with Grandpa Doug. The boys love wrestling and goofing off with Grandpa but especially love for him to read books to them. Oliver calls him "dada" since he can't say the "g" sound very well.

August is looking to be like a very fun month for us as well. We have plans to visit Reid and Jessie in Chicago and Tiger and Logan will be flying in from China in August too! The boys are taking a vacation to Grandma Kim and Grandpa Todd's in August too. This will be Oliver's first real trip away from mom and dad. He has stayed overnight before with family but this his first year getting to visit Grandma and Grandpa for a week. When he gets back Thomas will get to start preschool in the fall. He will be going to the community preschool 3 days a week part time. He is very excited to go to school and make friends.

Myrtle Beach 2010

2010-06-07T23:43:00.002-05:00

May Photos

2010-05-28T01:26:00.002-05:00

Riding around in the F-150 car that our neighbor Ben has

Say cheese!!!

Mother's Day outside the North Liberty Methodist Church

Cooper had a bouncy house for his 3rd birthday. The kids just loved jumping in it!

Our Monday mornings look a little something like this. Oliver is not a fan of Monday mornings!

Oliver loves his swing now!

Thomas has been working really hard to try and learn how to "pump" his legs to swing by himself

The boys paid a visit to the barber shop and got new hair cuts

Pool time!!! Thomas and Oliver got the swimming pool out over the weekend and went swimming with Ben

Auntie Melissa took some photos of Oliver for a very overdue "1 year portraits" photo session. Oliver was very cranky and did not want his photo taken. But Melissa was awesome and was able to get these two which are my new favorites of Oliver!

April Photos

2010-05-28T00:22:00.002-05:00

Playing outside at Terri's house

Typical Thomas smile!

Oliver playing in the tunnel

Oliver playing outside

Oliver making a crinkly smile

Oliver scooting around in his chair on the deck

Same crazy hair and smile

After our family picnic at the pond

Thomas loves the "little pond" that has a fountain overlooking the "big pond"

Easter Festivities

2010-05-28T00:11:00.003-05:00

Sad Bunny.....

Happy Bunny....

Easter egg hunt in our back yard

Inspecting the loot

Easter Baskets, the Easter bunny brought the boys swim suits and beach gear this year

Boys with their baskets

SUPER UPDATE!

2010-05-27T23:47:00.002-05:00

Oh blogging! How I have abandoned you!!!

Okay okay I won't be over dramatic about it, but I have been a very bad blogger this spring. To update everyone though--I started a new job with Nordstrom at the end of March and have been busy between the two jobs and managing things around the house. Don't worry--I am still sane, well I think so anyways!

The boys have gotten so big since the last I wrote. Oliver is running all over the place and has proven to be even more of a handful than his brother was at this age. Thank goodness he is usually running after his older brother or I suspect I would be chasing him nonstop. It might be good exercise but I think I would run through a lot of shoes!

The spring weather has been very nice. Brent and I found a great deal on a swing set for the boys on craigslist. We have been enjoying most of our evenings outside playing with the boys. Last weekend we were even able to get the kiddie pool out with all the hot summer weather we have been getting. Thomas now asks every day if he can go swimming and play outside with his playmates in the neighborhood.

Oliver has learned several new skills this spring. He can say a lot of words now. He knows mama, dada, brother, dog dog, cat, hat, ball, cup, baba (bottle), shoes, shirt, pants, elmo, car, book, slide, please, help, whats that, hi, bye bye, and grandma. I am sure I am leaving more off, it seems he learns a new one every day. He also loves animal noises and loves to blow kisses and wave hi to everyone when we are out and about. We have had a little separation anxiety this spring and he doesn't like to leave mom or dad but he is proving to be such a bright little boy.

Oliver isn't the only one to learn a bunch of new things this spring, Thomas has grown up so much! Thomas has mastered reciting the alphabet and is getting very good at writing his letters. He now knows how to write his name perfectly. He also surprised me by writing "MOM" on mothers day all on his own! The next weekend I taught him how to write "DAD" with the chalk out on the sidewalk. He is very proud of himself. He also is very caring and loves to give hugs and kisses and chat it up with the neighbors and our friends at church. He had his last Sunday school class of the 09-10 church year and I think he is really going to miss it this summer. He loves playing with the kids in the neighborhood. His best buddy is Cooper and Ben, though he loves CJ and Libby too! And even though he an Laina fight he tells me he likes her too!

Brent has just started golf league. He went back home to play in a tournament in a couple weekends ago and placed first with his team. He was quite elated because he got to play with a couple of old teachers of his and he showed them how the "real golf pros" do it. He loves working in Cedar Rapids and has a great team. Right now we car pool together and even though he knows how to push my buttons I do enjoy driving with him. As long as he lets me pick the radio station that is.... :-)

As for the big summer plans we are gearing up to travel to Myrtle Beach to kick off our summer and then we will enjoy the North Liberty Fun Days festival. Then we hope to enjoy some good 4th of July festivities and get in as much golf as possible before the craziness of August and fall arrives with that good ol' Hawkeye Football.

As for pictures I have oodles and oodles to share, so be prepared for lots of photos!

Dad Day

2010-04-18T21:47:00.003-05:00

The weekends at our house are what we call dad days. Throughout the week we have Laina days, which refer to his, Thomas', playmate at the daycare in which the boys go to. Then Saturdays are Dad days and Sundays are Dad days and Church days. Mostly this lets Thomas know what we are doing once he gets up. Tomorrow is his first Mom day in a while as Jessica is now starting her regular hours at Nordstrom which allow for her to stay home on Mondays and work Tuesdays through Saturdays. We had some fun these past couple Dad days and I wanted to share some good pictures that I was able to get of Ollie since those seem to be tougher and tougher to get these days as he doesn't just automatically smile for the camera anymore.

Look at that golfer stance right there above. Put a club into his hand instead of that babygate and I'd say he's a natural golfer. The last couple I wanted to demonstrate that Oliver also has to earn his keep around here and what better way to do it then to make him scrub the deck!

Star Wars space ship and a Death Star

2010-04-16T20:01:00.002-05:00

Please pay no attention to the colors of our project as we had to improvise on our star wars spaceship and our mini death star. Thomas had just as much fun building these as he did playing with them!

Dinosaur Mario Kart

2010-04-08T19:52:00.003-05:00

Well today marks the day that I will begin to immortalize Thomas and I's projects onto this blog. It seems most times we play with Legos and other open ended building toys we will end up with something totally cool and then destroy it and it will be completely forgotten about as we move onto the next project. Well today I introduce a new series of posts that will allow Thomas and I to remember our past projects as we move onto new (and hopefully more sophisticated) projects. If we ever have anything with moving parts I will make sure to include a video in the future.

Today I present Dinosaur Mario Kart as Thomas calls it. We started out trying to build a race track and ended up adding some dinosaur spectators. I'll let you all enjoy the pictures.

Amen! (Amen!)

2010-03-22T21:22:00.002-05:00

Yesterday at church Thomas and his preschool class sang If You're Happy And You Know It. I had my camera on me and did my best to get a clip of it. Sorry it is a little blurry and bumpy in spots. I was giggling in part of it and our camera has a hard time getting a good shot in the church because there isn't a lot of light. Enjoy it though! Thomas is wearing the purple, green, and white sweater vest! He is also the one saying "Amen" after everyone! :-)

North Liberty Easter Egg Hunt is Next Saturday!

2010-03-21T22:11:00.003-05:00

Just want to share that next Saturday is the North Liberty Easter Egg hunt! Brent and I will hopefully be able to take the boys to have a fun morning out. We are supposed to be having a garage sale, so one of us will probably take the boys then. Should be a fun time!

Easter Egg Hunt

The North Liberty Optimist Club and the Recreation Department will co-sponsor the annual Easter Egg Hunt. Candy will be spread in the grass area. If inclement weather, event will move inside at the NLRC. Don’t be late, the candy vanishes in minutes!
Ages: 10 yrs & under
Date: Saturday, March 27
Time: 10:30AM Sharp!
Location: Penn Meadows Park fields 3 & 4 or NLRC
Fee: FREE

Don't steal me' rainbow cupcakes!

2010-03-17T22:34:00.003-05:00

The boys and I made rainbow cupcakes yesterday for St Patrick's Day. It was a great way to practice colors with Thomas. We went over which colors when put together make other colors. The recipe was super easy to do. You just make your cake mix as usual. Then you separate it out into 6 equal parts. You add food coloring to each bowl to make the six colors of the rainbow. Then you layer them with a spoon or teaspoon into your cupcake pans in the order of a rainbow. When you pull the cupcake liners off it looks like a rainbow down the side of the cupcake. Bite into them and they look even cooler!!! For extra flair we decorated the top of them with green sprinkles for St. Patrick's Day. Thomas helped me with everything and even Ollie helped in the kitchen. He had his own bowl and spoon he played with in the kitchen.

Here Thomas was practicing lining up the cup cake liners. I will have to remember how much fun it was for him to do this. He kept counting them over and over as he re-stacked them each time.

He thought the liners were just hilarious. We normally don't make a lot of cupcakes so these are cool to him. I like that it is less mess, he likes that they, "are like blocks but make crinkly noises." Go figure.

Thomas loves to help stir the cake mix. He kept asking me what things he can do. I don't let him crack the eggs but boy would he love it if I did. He had fun using the whisk to mix the ingredients together.

Here the batter has been divided up into ceramic dishes. It took a little bit of trial and error to get the dye colors right but the turned out perfectly with a little extra hard work.

Here is the batter all layered in the liners. Just remember if you try this yourself to allow for a little room from the top since the batter will expand. A little batter goes a long ways.

Here you can just about see all the colors. The trick I think is using just a dab less on each layer if you want it to bake just right.

Showing off the cupcakes before going in the oven. He was very proud of our hard work in the kitchen. Both the boys kept wanting to watch through the glass window in the oven.

Ta da!!! They are done!!! He begged me to let him eat one right away. How could I say no?

Unfortunately one meant TWO. I made him wait to frost the cupcakes before eating any. Oliver was getting pretty testy with me--he wanted those cupcakes right then and there!

Thomas couldn't decide which one he wanted. This picture just cracks me up. You can just tell how excited he is to get his hands on that cupcake!

Silly boy!

Better take one last picture before they are all gone!

The destruction of the first cupcake! Youngest always come first!

At last....cupcakes for all!

The aftermath photo. They both ended up with frosting all over their face. However Oliver also had a little sugar rush. He loves his sugar. Don't tell our dentist! :-)

Hy-Vee - Red Hot Weekend - March 13th & 14th

2010-03-10T16:22:00.000-06:00

Hy-Vee - Red Hot Weekend - March 13th & 14th

Just saw this from HyVee. They will be running some special deals on the 13th and 14th plus they are handing out special bonus coupon booklets for everyone who participates. Last year the coupon books in the spring were good for over $50 off in HyVee brand products. If you are headed out to shop this weekend would definitely be worth the trip. Make sure to check the specials online, they are not releasing them until 5 PM on Thursday.

http://www.hy-vee.com/company/press-room/announcements/red-hot-weekend-march.aspx

Happy Birthday Thomas!

2010-03-09T13:55:00.002-06:00

We had Thomas's birthday party on Sunday. Thomas wanted to have a Star Wars party so we did all things Star Wars. This was the first year that we let him help pick out everything (on a budget of course). These days he loves super heroes, anything related to science, and star wars. He has grown up so fast! I find myself wondering what happened to my little boy. He is so big now!

I made the invitations using an invite we found online. They turned out pretty cute. Thomas loves to play Lego Star Wars on the Wii with dad so it was a perfect find for us. They were cheap to make too because I just printed them from Walgreens for 10 cents each.

We ordered our cake from Ginny's Cakes here in North Liberty. Normally I am not one to do the custom cakes but she also did Oliver's first birthday cake. I was so impressed I wanted her to make a cake again for us! She did such an awesome awesome job! She custom made us an R2D2 cake exactly like I wanted it to be! Thomas's face lit up when he saw the cake. R2D2 was a big hit with everyone else at the party too!

I tried to get a couple of pictures taken for all the out of town people that couldn't make it. We decorated the place black, blue, and green and with little stars everywhere.

Thomas got lots of presents and loves his new toys. We are going to be getting rid of some of his old things he doesn't play with anymore. We will be donating them this weekend with a special post-birthday party trip. We do this every major holiday and birthday to keep it simple around here.

Here is another photo of the main living area. Brent set up some fun music for us to listen to during the party. We played star wars music of course plus a bunch of Thomas's favorite songs and a few party songs.

Here is Thomas with his birthday cake! He was smiling so big!!!

Here Thomas and Austin are posing by the big Darth Vader and Yoda poster we found at a party store. It was a lucky find and you can be sure it will be going up in the basement play room!

These were the "yoda sodas" we made. They were made with lime sherbet, ginger ale, and lemon lime soda. They were extra fizzy and green like yoda! I found them online and couldn't resist, it was too cute of an idea to pass up! We also served "galactic pizza" and "space snacks."

And what is a party without a couple presents? Here Thomas is opening some cool star wars gear. All the kids had a blast testing out the new toys.

Grandma got him a star wars coloring book and pajama set too!

Oliver was so cute at the party. He was calm here but he loved the balloons and the remote controlled R2D2 his brother got.

March is here!

2010-03-04T15:32:00.002-06:00

What a wonderful month it has been already! I celebrated my birthday on the first of March and the boys and I have been enjoying the little bit of "warmer" weather we have had. Spring is definitely on it's way and we are all excited for some spring time fun. To celebrate my birthday Oliver and I enjoyed some yummy chocolate.

The result was a sticky chocolate mess as you can see but fortunately no damage was done. Last I checked a little bit of chocolate is actually good for you so we treated ourselves to a couple pieces.

Ollie and Thomas have been playing a lot lately in their little play house. The boys love to play peekaboo and hide and seek using the play house. We can't wait for the snow to melt so we can pull it outside for the summer.

Oliver also has been really enjoying his Elmo's World DVD lately. Elmo is his favorite and he loves to dance around the room when Elmo is on. It is pretty cute to watch him do it. Funny thing is Thomas didn't care for Elmo near as much as Ollie does. I remember when Thomas was little we got him the TMX Elmo and he didn't care for it at all! Wish we had hung onto it because Oliver loves Elmo and all of the Sesame Street characters. Funny how different the two can be sometimes!

A SUNBEAM on a beautiful Sunday day!

2010-02-28T11:56:00.002-06:00

The boys had such a fun time at church this morning. Thomas went to Sunday school and learned about giving to the poor. Meanwhile, Ollie met a new friend named Kayla at church. Kayla is 13 months so she and Ollie are about the same age. They played together in between the services and decided to dance and sing with the band today. Ollie and Kayla showed off their moves for everyone to see. They were so cute playing together.

Then during service Thomas got to sing with his preschool class. They sang the sunbeam song about how Jesus wants them to be a sunbeam. Thomas is quite the good singer now. If you can get him to sing for you he will sing really loud. He told me that the sunbeam song is his favorite song to sing.

Cookies for Church!

2010-02-27T22:58:00.003-06:00

Mmmmm hot and fresh m&m cookies!!! And no they are not for me. Our focus for the second week of Lent was to give as much as we can of ourselves. Through out the week we focused on what we can do to be kind to others and how we can use the gifts God has given us to bless others in our lives. So to wrap up the week, I am bringing some yummy MONSTER size cookies for the treat cart at church. I am going to have to resist the temptation to eat these all up, and to keep the kids out of them too. But it feels good to give.

Thank you Lord for blessing us and allowing us to give back to those around us. Sometimes all it takes is taking the extra time to listen to a stranger who needs help. Sometimes you ask us to give financially. And other times you call for us to use our own great gifts that you have given us and share those with others. Help us to make sacrifices and share our gifts so that we can share joy and peace in your name. Amen!

Here is the recipe for anyone who wants to try it! We found it on Cooks.com and used the Easter M&Ms for some fun spring colors!

M & M PARTY COOKIES

1 c. shortening
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/4 c. sifted flour
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. M & Ms

Blend shortening and sugars. Beat in vanilla and eggs. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in 1/2 M & Ms. Reserve the rest for decorating. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet. Decorate as desired and bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until golden.

Don't let that angelic face fool you!

2010-02-27T22:13:00.003-06:00

Don't let that halo over his head fool you. Ollie is quite the busy little toddler these days. Just one day after his little accident Ollie was getting into everything as usual. He thought it would be really cool to practice his jumping skills by climbing onto of the potty and diving off. And of course, every body needs a good book on the potty right? Ollie chose his favorite book to jump off the potty with.

Seriously, that picture right there is proof of why they strongly recommend you have good insurance for children under the ages of 3!

I did capture one calm one of him. Only here he is sitting on top of his books. I guess this is how we have story time these days.

And since we were both feeling a little blah we indulged in some homemade chocolate cake. Ollie was not happy at all when the cake was gone. He wanted more!!!

All kidding aside, he is quite the angel isn't he? Love you baby boy!

It's official--Oliver is my dare devil child!

2010-02-24T12:25:00.003-06:00

Oliver had his second trip to the hospital last night. Poor little guy had to get stitches. He was chasing his big brother and hit his head on the metal bed frame in the bedroom. Fortunately it wasn't too serious but it did require some stitches. The doctors were so good to him, his surgeon even tried to get him to laugh and sang him a song. His nurse stayed with us the whole time and talked to him about cars and Elmo, she really helped me keep him calm. I am so thankful for Mercy Iowa City's medical staff. They took such great care of my little baby boy. I can't thank them enough!

Today Oliver is back to his normal, usual self. He is running around and being goofy again. I think we might just have to bubble wrap everything though so he doesn't have a repeat experience. I guess I better start saving up for all those future ER trips from my little dare devil!

Here is my tough little guy:

Thank you Lord for taking care of my baby boy last night and please continue to bless him with a super quick recovery.

SNOW DAY!

2010-02-23T17:04:00.002-06:00

These are from Monday. Thomas had a snow day at daycare with his friend Laina. Don't they look so adorable in the snow?

Here they are helping build the fort.

Hard to believe how much snow there is! It is just about taller than them!

I'm with the band

2010-02-23T13:42:00.004-06:00

Today was music day! The boys and I made homemade instruments out of a used paper towel roll. We decorated them a little, cut out paper to go over the ends, poured some rice in them and tied rubber bands over the ends. The boys loved shaking them all over the house.

They had their own little band going for a while!

Shake it boys!

Oliver thought it was silly!

Thomas started singing songs too! What a talented little musician! :-)

Block Party!

2010-02-23T13:10:00.003-06:00

Yesterday Ollie and I had a little "block party." These days Oliver loves three things: 1) balls 2) little people and 3) blocks. Well as you can see, blocks are probably he favorite thing right now.

His favorite thing to do with the blocks is bang them together. He thinks it is hilarious and could probably spend half of his day banging them together and belly laughing each time.

And the other half of they day he likes to run around holding two blocks trying to get you to chase him. Running around holding onto his toys is the best. Only thing better than that is getting mom and dad to chase you around while you do it.

Well guess what? Mom LIKES block time too! Shhh! It is our little secret, don't tell Oliver. It is the one time you might catch Ollie sitting still. So if it isn't a picture perfect moment, mom at least gets to rest her feet before chasing him around the room again.

A Few Reflections

2010-02-18T14:52:00.006-06:00

Yesterday was the start of the Lenten season for Christians all across the world. Lent is a time for personal reflection and growing--a time to turn away from sin and repent from anything keeping you from God. We have never been the best at attending church and giving God our full attention. In a world with all the electronic distractions and busy schedules, God often gets put on hold. We have been very bad about putting God on hold and have recognized that it is time to grow with Him in our lives again. To keep our family focused on what really matters, we will be working on a new thing every week to keep us more mindful of God's presence in our lives.

This week our focus is prayer. We are going to try and incorporate prayer into our lifestyle. Not just praying at dinner or before bed, but talking one on one with God in our moments of frustration and anger--asking for patience when we need it the most. But we also will pray to God and share our joys with him and be thankful for what he has given us. It is my hope that by starting with a strong focus on prayer we can make God a bigger part of our lives and he can guide us not just through the rest of Lent, but the rest of 2010.

So here is our prayer for the day:

Dear Lord, help us to be keepers of your plan. Help us to do good works and walk away from all that keeps us from you. Let us be strong and patient in the face of opposition. Encourage us with your spirit when we are discouraged in our weakest moments. Comfort us when we need a friend and feel alone. Let us be reminded of your love for us, that you gave away your only son so that we could be free of sin. All that we have been given is because of you, and we are so thankful Lord. Help us oh Lord to be who you made us to be--your servants. Amen.

A Valentine Treat for YOU!

2010-02-18T14:27:00.002-06:00

Thomas and I baked cupcakes after church on Sunday night. They were super yummy! They were gone in days and even that is quite amazing since we love eating goodies in this house! Enjoy our Valentine's Day Photos!

Family sent some special cards and presents in the mail. The boys are opening their gifts here:

Showing off the goods!

The boys gave their daddy the card they made him!

New Blog Name!

2010-02-12T17:27:00.002-06:00

We have updated our blog name to try and keep things more simple for everyone now reading our blog. The blog name has changed to http://ourfamilyiniowa.blogspot.com/. Add it to your favorite blogs to stay up to date on the Schenk Family happenings!

~XOXO

Happy Valentines Day!

2010-02-12T17:11:00.003-06:00

This week the boys and I made some Valentines from scratch. We got out the scissors and paper and cut up some hearts. I had picked up some Valentines Day scrapbooking goodies at Target for $1 and we used those and some cute red paint to decorate our valentines. Thomas and Oliver especially loved getting paint all over their hands. Oliver decided to squish it and made it go everywhere. Don't worry, no carpets were destroyed in this activity!!!

Here is a *sneak peek* at the Valentines we made!

And of course, our little artists in the making: Thomas + Oliver!

Happy Valentine's Weekend everyone! XOXO

Oliver's 1st hair cut!

2010-01-18T13:19:00.002-06:00

Oliver had his first hair cut over the weekend. I tried really hard not to cry. He is such a big boy now. He follows his brother around, loves his little people toys and playing pretend. He and his brother are quite the little men. Seeing him walk out of the salon made me sad. Oliver you are not supposed to grow up this fast!

Before:

Sitting in the chair:

First snip:

Tears:

After:

Christmas Photos are finally here!

2010-01-18T12:19:00.002-06:00

Here is a link to our Christmas Day photos. All 200+ of them. Enjoy!

http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r318/hawkeyeglaser/Christmas%202009/?albumview=slideshow

It's not Christmas Eve without a little baking in the kitchen!

2009-12-24T14:35:00.004-06:00

Thomas and I made Kringlas today! They turned out beautiful! Up next are gingerbread men and more sugar cookies! We ate all of ours from last week so now we have to make more for Santa. Weight Watchers and gym membership...see you in 2010! ;-)

Here is the recipe we used:

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1 egg

2 cups of sour cream (2 8 oz size containers)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

3 1/2 cups of flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease baking sheets.

Combine the sugar, beaten egg and sour cream together. Add vanilla extract and almond extract. Stir well. Mix in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Blend thoroughly.

Gather dough into a large ball. Take a freezer size ziplock bag. Spray with a little nonstick spray on the inside, then sprinkle in about a 1/4 cup of flour and shake up. Place dough in ziplock bag. Cut off a 1/2 inch or narrower tip of the bag in the corner. Use to squeeze out little tubes of dough. This keeps your hands from getting super messy in the sticky dough.

Roll lightly with hands on lightly floured board into a tube about 6-8 inches long. Form into a figure "8" , and pinch ends together. You can wet your fingers with water if necessary if dough doesn't want to stick very easilly.

Place figure 8's on cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes or until tops are just starting to brown.

Happy First Birthday Oliver!

2009-12-21T00:43:00.003-06:00

Here is a video of Oliver eating his birthday cake. He kept laughing at us while he ate his cake. I think he really liked all the sugar.

Christmas Cookie Bake Off 2009!

2009-12-15T10:49:00.002-06:00

2009-12-11T10:27:00.004-06:00

"On one hand, every single one of my ancestors going back billions of years has managed to figure it out. On the other hand, that's the mother of all sampling biases."

Just thought I'd share this funny XKCD today.

Countdown to Christmas!

2009-12-01T21:45:00.004-06:00

It's December! And that means its time for Christmas sweaters. I found an old sweater from when Thomas was a baby and gave it to Oliver. It fit perfectly. Too cute for words.

Last weekend, Brent's side of the family visited and spent Thanksgiving with us. Reid and Jessie stayed with us Wednesday night and Todd, Kim and Kayla were in town Wednesday thru Saturday. We enjoyed some yummy Amana Colonies food and Kim was so nice, she got 3 pies to go. Unfortunately it was so good that we are already out of it! :)

We also put the Christmas tree and decorations up in the house on Thanksgiving. The tree is all decorated and most of the presents are all wrapped or hidden in the closet away from little eyes to peak at. Though, Thomas has been quite the sneaky one already. Monday morning we woke up to him ripping open a present. We had to explain to him that its not Christmas YET. Can't open the presents until Santa comes.

Here are some cute pictures of the boys today. Lindsay hiding in the background there in the picture. She stopped by to say hello today and see the boys. She was trying to get Oliver to walk for the camera. He is very close to full on walking. Last night he walked half way across the living room all on his own. Hard to believe how fast both of the boys have grown this year. I can't believe it's almost 2010 already!

Halloween Costumes

2009-11-14T14:21:00.003-06:00

Well its 2 weeks until Thanksgiving but its better late than never to share our Trick or Treat pictures! The boys had a blast on Halloween. Thomas decided to be Max from his favorite book, Where the Wild Things Are. Oliver was a lion. We had fun trick or treating around the new neighborhood. Aunt Mary trick or treated with us too. She was a pretty awesome witch. Unfortunately we all had the H1N1 flu the following week so we didn't get a chance to enjoy that candy right away. But we are all feeling better now and still have a good 2+ lbs of candy that will last probably until Christmas. :)

Little Pirates

2009-10-30T08:58:00.003-05:00

They are all set to steal your candy loot tomorrow night. Be on the look out for these 2 hooligans. :)

PUMPKINS PUMPKINS!

2009-10-27T22:19:00.002-05:00

We carved and painted the pumpkins tonight. The boys helped me paint the little pumpkins and Brent carved the big pumpkins. We lit them up outside and they look pretty cool from the street with their candles in them. We are all set for Saturday then. I also picked up some funky glow sticks for a dollar at Walmart and a pumpkin flashlight. Should make for some fun little treats for the kids.

Thomas can't wait to trick or treat, he has been asking to go every night now for over a week. He keeps changing his mind on what he wants to dress up as. He has a couple costumes to pick from, so Saturday he will surprise us with what he wants to be. Oliver is going to be a little lion. He has been practicing his roars and is a very ferocious but cute lion. As it so happens, he is also teething so this little lion bites too. :)

Children's Place $5.99 SALE!

2009-10-27T15:13:00.005-05:00

The store has a lot of sales going on this week! With the home game and Halloween coming up its going to be a busy weekend I am sure!

Today all sale items from fall went to $5.99. And the Halloween costumes are also included in that. Some of the Halloween accessories are under $5.99 as well!
The outerwear is back on sale! The winter coats, ski overalls, and snow pant sets are 30% again.
And select Dressy holiday items are on sale for 25% off. A couple of items were added to that sale today.

And don't forget to use your Place Cash or coupon mailer if you still have yours! They both end at the end of the month.

LOTS of things going on that you can check out at your local Children's Place. Definitely for a limited time so get there and check it out! Call before heading out to check to see if your store is participating. Happy Shopping!

Need a laugh?

2009-10-22T09:39:00.004-05:00

Visit http://myfirstfail.com/ . They have pictures of kids doing funny and hilarious things. Totally worth checking out!

My personal favorite has to be this one:
http://myfirstfail.com/2009/09/30/funny-baby-photos-these-are-my-ever-dry-deadly-claws/

Every bargain hunter's dream: more steals!

2009-10-19T12:29:00.004-05:00

Hooray for more daily deal websites! Brent already shared http://kids.woot.com with everyone but now there is also http://www.KidSteals.com which is a spin off of my personal favorite: http://www.babysteals.com . Kid steals offers kids and toddler deals and baby steals offer baby deals. These are great places to check for baby shower gifts, birthday gifts, and christmas gifts with the holidays approaching. You can bet I will be browsing for some last minute Christmas deals. Happy Deal Finding!

Upside-Down Peach Cake

2009-10-19T09:16:00.003-05:00

I tried this recipe for the first time and it was so yummy. I have to share it with you to try!

A recipe for peach upside down cake made with a white cake mix.

Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 can peach slices, (29 ounce can)
maraschino cherries, halved
2 eggs
1 box white cake mix

Preparation:
Pour oil in 13x9x2-inch pan; sprinkle brown sugar evenly in pan. Drain peaches, reserving syrup in a large measuring cup. Arrange peaches and cherry halves in the sugar mixture, I used a bundt pan and made a ring of peaches. Add enough water to peach juice to make 1 1/3 cups of liquid; add liquid and 2 eggs to cake mix. Mix as directed on the package. Pour batter over the fruit. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 60-70 minutes or until cake pulls away from sides of pan. Let stand 5 minutes then turn upside down onto a cake dish or large platter. I recommend placing a pizza pan or baking sheet with edges covered in foil underneath where you would like the cake because it can be messy when you flip the cake. Serve warm with peach or vanilla ice cream.

Pumpkin Patch 2009

2009-10-18T22:12:00.003-05:00

October so far has been very busy. Last weekend we had our first "snow" in Iowa, which for us was a light trace of snow and meant that the heat go turned on for the first time. Brent was pretty thrilled because that meant no more seasonal allergies with the temperature dipping below freezing.

This weekend, Kim and Todd came to visit us to celebrate Brent's 25th Birthday! He is a quarter of a century old and (hopefully) a year wiser. Brent isn't much of cake guy so I made him a peach cake. It was pretty good and I think I might have to post the recipe to share.
We also visited the Pumpkin Patch on Saturday. The boys had fun feeding the animals and playing on the play equipment and fall rides there. Oliver loved the tractor ride and Thomas loved playing in their corn box. The corn box is like a sand box but with corn feed. We got our pumpkins and enjoyed some of Bloomsbury Farms specialty hot apple cider. Hopefully we get to paint and carve the pumpkins this week. They look pretty cute on the front porch right now. We got 5 this year. We normally only do 1 per person but Thomas decided he wanted two little pumpkins this year.

Today, I enjoyed a day off from work and we went and saw the movie Where the Wild Things Are. Thomas loved having popcorn and water as a treat and was cracking up at parts in the movie. The ending was super cute and I noticed myself tearing up at parts. There were lots of good lessons and most importantly Thomas loved seeing his favorite book as a movie. Afterwards we made a quick trip to the children's museum and checked out their new Take Flight exhibit. The kids love the parachute jump and the flight simulator there. Its more of a big kid exhibit but Thomas and Oliver both enjoy that room and we could easily spend a couple hours in there if there was enough hours in a day.

After picking out our pumpkins at the pumpkin patch:

All giggles and fun:

In the corn box:

Partners in crime for life:

I'm a ghost here, but I am even more scary when I wake up in the morning. My vampire husband and scarecrow and Frankenstein children will tell you that for sure...

Wendy's Halloween Coupon Book for $1

2009-10-01T07:37:00.003-05:00

Stop by any participating Wendy's through October 31 and purchase Frosty Trick or Treat gift books for only $1. Proceeds benefit the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.

The booklet contains coupons for 5 FREE Jr. Frostys and all benefits go to help children find adoptive families in the United States. Support a good cause and treat yourself today!

Eat at Chilis TODAY!

2009-09-28T10:39:00.002-05:00

Today (September 28th) when you eat at Chilis 100% of the profits go to St. Judes Children's Hospital. Its only for ONE day so go ahead and eat out today. Its for a good cause!

http://www.createapepper.com/

http://www.chilis.com/ourcommitment/

From the Chili's website:

"Chili's is a proud to support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital®, one of the world's premier centers for the research and treatment of pediatric cancer and other catastrophic childhood diseases. As part of a 10-year commitment, Chili's plans to donate $50 million to help St. Jude fight childhood cancer. Funds and awareness for this important cause are provided by the Create-A-Pepper campaign, which invites guests to create custom pepper designs and make donations. The annual campaign also includes a one-day event where Chili's restaurants offer up 100% of their profits to St. Jude. Learn how you can help Chili's find cures and save children."

Seven Straight Penn St is No. 8

2009-09-27T23:46:00.004-05:00

Earlier this year, Brent wasn't sure which Hawkeye game to go to this year. Today, I think he knows he picked the right game. Every year Brent has an annual boys trip and this year he picked Iowa @ Penn State to go to. Not just because it was furthest game from home (where his wife and kids would be), but because it also was a night game.

The trip began late Thursday, September 24th, of 2009. Something was stirring in the air and a man by the name of Jordan Kappos stopped at our door to show off a bright yellow sign. A short 6 hours later these men would wake to start their journey. A few good men and their homemade sign were starting their voyage to State College, PA to cheer on the mighty Iowa Hawkeyes.

Well as luck would have it, this game was going to be big, very big. Going into the game Penn State was ranked at #5 and Iowa was not ranked. Iowa was unfavored by 10 points and didn't face good odds. Last year in 2008, Iowa smashed Penn State's chances at a national title by defeating them at Kinnick Stadium. Penn State was looking for revenge this year. ESPN's Game Day knew this was a big game. Saturday morning bright and early all the media and Penn State fans gathered in Happy Valley.

But so were some very special Hawkeye fanatics who were brave enough to cheer in the rain and wind. Weekend warriors that tailgate and follow the Hawkeyes wherever they play--rain, snow, or shine. This is what college football is about folks. And that the Iowa Hawkeyes won the game, well that only sweetens the ending and makes the whole trip priceless.

Final Score: Iowa 21, Penn State 10

4th Annual Schenk Family Apple Orchard Visit

2009-09-19T23:31:00.001-05:00

Ollie Cruisin'

2009-09-11T15:37:00.002-05:00

Ollie has gotten so BIG! Last weekend I caught him walking around the basement with the walker. He falls a lot but gets right back up! SO cute!

Get $10 back when you spend $75 at participating GGP malls

2009-09-05T12:07:00.001-05:00

Get $10 back when you spend $75 at participating GGP malls

Posted using ShareThis

Wednesday Funny

2009-09-02T12:15:00.003-05:00

I saw this online and think it is pretty funny even if some parts of it are mildly offensive. Enjoy!

Honest Random Thoughts of 25-35 year olds:
-I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

-More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

-Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

-I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?

-Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

-That's enough, Nickelback.

-I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

-Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know"feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?

-Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

-There is a great need for sarcasm font.-Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f was going on when I first saw it.

-I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

-How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

-I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

- I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

-The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

- A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

- LOL has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

- Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

- Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart",all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

- How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

- I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a ---- from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"

-What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other
While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

-Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty,and you can wear them forever.

- I would like to officially coin the phrase 'catching the swine flu' to be used as a way to make fun of a friend for hooking up with an overweight woman. Example: "Dave caught the swine flu last night."

-I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

- Bad decisions make good stories

-Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

- Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?-If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

-Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....

-You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

-Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

-There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

-I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

- "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

-I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

-I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello?Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What did you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

-When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

-I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle,then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

-Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...

- As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers,but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

-Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

-It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

-I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

-Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

-Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I’d bet my --- everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

-My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

-It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

-I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

-I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

-I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

-The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words,someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.

Such little men!

2009-09-02T08:30:00.003-05:00

The boys are getting so big these days. I caught this photo on my phone yesterday and it is my favorite. Brent was wrestling with the boys and they just loved playing with daddy. I love my little men!

Time to blog!

2009-08-31T13:59:00.002-05:00

We are all moved in and ready to blog!
That's right! Brent and I will be getting back into blogging mode this September! We took a little 2 month break from the blogging world to get all moved into our new home (well and moved out of the old one) but we will be back to our regular blog-tastic selves now.
The boys have grown up so much over the summer. Ollie is crawling and pulling himself up on everything and eats tons of table foods. His favorite meals are mac and cheese and pancakes which just so happen to be his big brother's favorites too! Thank you Ollie for not making me a short order chef! One meal at a time to cook is so much easier than catering to every one's separate demands!
Thomas loves the new place. He likes to go on bike rides around the lake across the street from us. Today we played in the backyard and visited the park. Thomas also has made some new friends and loves to play with our neighbors and share a popsicles with them outside. July and August have been kind of cold for summer so we never got to go swimming. But we are hoping September will be warmer.
We have BIG plans for this September. This weekend kicks off the start of the Hawkeye football season. To prepare we bought Ollie his first Hawkeye tee shirt and stocked up on tailgating foods. Auntie Melissa turns 20 this Friday!!! Happy Birthday Melissa! And at the end of the month on the 30th Noah turns 1!!! Lots of big things going on this month. Also, very soon we will be making a trip to Wilson's Apple Orchard for our annual apple picking and pie making date with Lindsay! Can't wait to take Ollie for the first time. And in between all of this we will hopefully squeeze in some end of season golf outings! Got to get those in before snow comes!

KIDS.WOOT.COM

2009-08-19T07:54:00.002-05:00

just an FYI for anyone wanting to purchase gifts for their little ones. Woot.com, an online favorite of mine, has just opened up a site for kid's toys. For those of you who are unfamiliar with how woot.com works, it sells one item a day until it sells out. The price is typically discount and the items on the site were purchased by woot wholesale or are refurbished items. Anyways, today is the second day for kids.woot.com and it's a Thomas the Train engine set for 50 bucks, and after searching for it on various other sites, this same exact set is around 100. So if you are in need of a train set this might be the one to start with but you can only get it today. I'll keep posting here when i think an item on either site, but mostly kids.woot.com, might be useful.

and for those of you veteran wooters, just imagine a kids.woot.com woot off!

Who needs quiet anyway?

2009-07-02T13:15:00.003-05:00

My little rock stars love to make noise. Not just any noise, but sweet music. That's right....my kids are the next musical prodigies. :-)

Though I admit, I may have to break down and invest in some earplugs if they start a grunge band in the garage.

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-02T12:52:00.002-05:00

We are all set to enjoy an early weekend here. We leave tonight for Des Moines to spend the holiday with family. For the big plans, tonight we will be at the capital enjoying Yankee Doodle Pops, complete with live music, vendors and of course fireworks. Tomorrow we haven't made any big plans for the day but will go to the Annual Iowa Cubs 4th of July Game. They have the best fireworks at the end and it will be Ollie's first baseball game so I am looking forward to it. Saturday we will visit the old neighborhood and go to the parade before heading home. If we still have energy we will catch some more fireworks in Coralville or do some golfing. Can't wait to spend the weekend with the family. And hopefully I will catch some good photos of the boys to share too. Happy 4th of July and hope everyone has a great weekend!

New Family Photo!

2009-06-30T11:29:00.002-05:00

Check out these great family photos my sister took of us. Not perfect, but I have never been able to get both kids to look at the camera anyway! Thanks Melissa! You're the best!

1 month until moving day!

2009-06-29T12:58:00.002-05:00

Well it is officially 1 month until we move! Anyone else nervous? I know I am.

We do have a good head start on all of the packing. Our basement is about emptied and the office and playroom have been nearly cleared out to storage. So far we have filled up almost 2 entire storage units. I think we officially know we have too much junk.

Brent and I went to the new place this last Thursday to take down some measurements. No idea how to decorate the place yet but getting excited that we will finally be out of the downtown area. Looking forward to it despite all the trouble moving will be.

Things only a parent would really know...

2009-06-29T12:15:00.003-05:00

Hand sanitizer is important. Especially when your child wants to touch everything--including dead bugs and animals.
Sticky fingers usually mean something else that is not supposed to be sticky IS.
The person who said babies should cry it out has it all wrong--mom is the one who wants to be alone and cry.
White clothing should never really have ever been invented.
Children think bathrooms are a communal place.
Playdoh is really hard to get out of carpet.
You don't even probably know it, but there is probably playdoh in your hair too.
If there isn't playdoh in your hair, something else is.
Dirt is going to happen. So is sand, dust, and everything else that is dirty. And your mother will notice it when she comes to visit no matter how many times you vacuum.
Getting to the grocery store can become quite the marathon.
Diapers and formula are expensive. So is anything related to baby.
Somewhere in your house, there is a lego on the floor.
Your workout will look something like this: chasing after your kids (cardio), picking up toys (squats), putting together puzzles and train tracks (mental), carrying your baby around (strength building), and getting your child to nap (endurance).
Spills will happen most of the time. Most of the time is usually when its something that won't come out.
Children might be God's work, but they are still work.
The only thing that can prevent a diaper blow out is no diaper. And even that makes a blowout sound better.
One of the first word's a child knows how to say is no.
Somewhere out there, someone else's child is sleeping while your child is not.
Your kitchen floor is probably covered in stepped on cheerios and goldfish.
Your two kitchen staples are probably ketchup and ranch. Your children love ketchup and your husband probably loves ranch.
You really wish someone would event a parenting tool belt with everything you need for the day. You also wish it would be in fashion.
Midday naps are the sweetest when everyone naps.
Kisses make everything better.

Ollie is 6 months old today!

2009-06-19T21:50:00.004-05:00

This was Ollie the day he was born. What a change! Ollie has gotten to be such a BIG boy! Today he is 6 months old. Time is just flying by and he is growing up so fast. His favorite people are his daddy and Thomas, although he loves mommy too.

At 6 months old he:

Can scoot backwards and in circles
Is able to sit up unsupported
Loves to touch his toes
Is a yeller, he loves to screech and squeal at the top of his lungs in a very high pitch
Smiles when a familiar face walks in the room
Wears size 12-18 month and 18-24 month size clothing
He wears size 3 huggies diapers but only because I am trying to use up the big box we have--he should be in a size 4!
Is very long and lean, but his thighs are chubby chubby chubby!
Has size 3 feet but never wears shoes or socks
Hates the bottle and refuses to take a pacifier
Cries when someone leaves the room
Loves to eat baby food and has ate rice cereal, carrots, bananas, peas, and applesauce
Has one front bottom tooth in and the other front bottom tooth is almost there
Loves his jumperoo and likes to "stand" with help
Enjoys peekaboo and row row your boat
Does not sleep through the night and mostly cosleeps
Puts everything in his mouth
Is very fussy at night and hard to sooth--he fights his sleep a lot
Has started to "talk" and "sing" and can say the syllables DA, DEE, and GA and GU
Brent also thinks he might have heard him say "Daddy" although I have not heard it and am holding out hope for his first word to be "momma" or "mommy" :-)
Loves to play in the grass and go for walks in the stroller
Has favorite toys now, the two big ones being his lion and rattle
Loves meeting new people and "flirting"
Is attached to his fleece blankie and won't sleep well without it even though its summertime
Wants to be held all the time and loves to cuddle

Happy 22nd Birthday Lindsay and Mary!

2009-06-11T15:21:00.003-05:00

Happy Happy Birthday to 2 of my favorite ladies!!! Hope you both enjoyed the ice cream cake that Thomas picked out for you. :-)

Blowing out the candles!

Me, Lindsay, and Mary

Thomas showing off the birthday cake! 1 pink candle for each girl!

Trip to West Des Moines and the Zoo

2009-06-09T13:18:00.005-05:00

Oliver at the zoo

Thomas and Logan

Oliver and Noah

Mmmmmm what does this taste like?

Monkeying around outside the monkey cage

Matching lightning bolt paint tattoos

Playing at the PBS kids area

Meeting "Duck" from Word World

Little bit of t-ball in the back yard

Thomas played "catcher"

Driving around Grandma Patty's neighbor hood

Hitting the street to look for some girls to impress in their hot ride :-)

Ollie playing in the grass

Logan just loved the car, I think he wants one for in China now!

Kicking back

Playing dress up

Mary got in on the fun

The Chinese have that Irish spirit too!

What is a fun night without karaoke?

Lets get funky!

Oh what a week!!

2009-06-08T11:35:00.002-05:00

Hard to believe how fast this last week went by. Reid and Jessie got married on Friday and had a BEAUTIFUL wedding. All the family was there and there was never a free moment. It was great to see everyone, Brent and the boys and I all had a great time.
On the last weekend of May, Brent's family came back from China and we took Tiger and Logan to the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines. They had a special PBS Kids Day event going on, and the boys enjoyed doing a bunch of activities. Then we headed back here for a couple days. We didn't get any golfing in, due to thunderstorms, but instead took the kids to the Children's Museum on Tuesday.
On Wednesday I headed back for the big wedding weekend. Grandma Patty was gracious enough to help out with some baby sitting. On Thursday we had the rehearsal dinner and met up with all the out of towners. We were really excited to see everyone. We hadn't seen a lot of people in a long time and Oliver met a lot of family for the first time. I wish we had more time to spend with everyone. It was a lot of fun and I hope we will all of the chance to get together like that sometime again.
Friday was the big day. Brent and Thomas were in the wedding so we were up early in the morning getting ready. Jessie looked gorgeous in her dress and Reid looked pretty handsome too. We were able to avoid most of the meltdowns by Thomas but had a few close calls. But we made it through with out any scars or battle wounds. That is the critical part when it comes to small children and weddings--that no one gets hurt. Just kidding of course!
The reception was great. Thomas enjoyed hanging out with uncle "George" Jordan and dancing with the flower girls. I think he really enjoyed the cake though the most . All the sugar and dancing had everyone tired, so it was off to bed. And honestly, my children have never slept so well. It was the absolutely best sleep I have had in a long time! Alleluia!
Saturday we enjoyed brunch with the newly wed couple and the family. Thomas ate way to many lemon bars and went swimming. We took it easy and enjoyed some burgers and watched the Red Wings smoke the the Penguins in a 5-0 win before going to bed. And then by Sunday it was time to pack everything up and go home. We got back into Iowa City and went to see the movie Up with Doug, Tiger, and Logan before saying our good byes. Thomas was pretty bummed to see his pal Logan go, but I know there will be more visits. Hopefully sooner than later!
Today is a lazy day of laundry and catch up around here. I hope to get all of my pictures posted on here soon though. Should be some good ones to share!

Wacky Wednesday

2009-05-27T23:51:00.002-05:00

Things were just crazy around the house today. There is something about being stuck inside due to rain that must make small children go wild. Thomas and Ollie were both up early. For breakfast, Thomas wasn't interested in the usual so what did we eat...watermelons and yogurt of course. Healthy yes, but definitely not our usual breakfast menu items. We then pulled a switcheroo and and ate pancakes for lunch. Why not right? After being cooped up all day who doesn't want buttermilk pancakes for lunch? Ollie was funny, he was really eyeing his brother's pancakes. He is getting better at eating rice cereal but not quite ready for anything else yet. Soon he will be big enough to eat some though. Even today he was being such a big boy. He and Thomas played on the floor and "rolled" a ball back and forth. Ollie loves playing with Thomas. I'm not sure if Thomas is ready to share his toys yet but I hope so, Ollie is now his new competition in the house!

Rain rain go away...

2009-05-26T23:00:00.003-05:00

my kids really wanted to go outside and play today!

That's right, today we were stuck inside most of the day. The rain did let up for a brief period in the afternoon. Lindsay surprised the boys with a visit to say hi and we went with her to get some ice cream. We made sure to bring our umbrella on the walk there but didn't make it home quite in time because it started raining again. Oliver go a little bit of rain on him for the first time. I think he liked it though. We also cut up some fresh watermelon, officially kicking off summer in our house. Thomas all day was begging me to let him have some so by the time dinner rolled around he at up about 1/8th of our watermelon. Tomorrow for snack we are having... you guessed it--more watermelon!

Here is to a much drier and exciting week. If not, there is always grocery shopping as an indoor family outing! ;-)

Chicago Day 2 at the Brookfield Zoo & Weekend Photos

2009-05-25T16:34:00.005-05:00

Ollie's first trip to the zoo

Thomas

Thomas froze in his steps when the dinosaur "roared" at him

Photo showing how big the dinosaur was

Lion

Seeing dolphins was really cool

This one came right up next to us and checked us out

Ollie was so big eyed watching the dolphins

Brown bear brown bear what do you see?

The polar bear was pretty cute

Showing Thomas the bears

And a carousel ride on a kangaroo at the end

Using his cool new snake as a pillow on the way home

At Village Inn, he learned that 3 straws ARE better than 1

At the Iowa City Children's Museum Passport to the World exhibit

Chicago Day 1 and Navy Pier Photos

2009-05-25T15:32:00.005-05:00

Looking at the trains, cars, and planes

Watching the plane come over

Ollie's funny face

Playing

Love his beautiful blue eyes

At the Chicago Children's Museum

Playing in the water complex

Playing with his boat

Two girls were nice enough to show him how to make the water come up, he really liked that

He wants one in the back yard now I think

Getting the boats to come down the "waterfall"

Grandma Patty treated him to CHOCOLATE ice cream even though he was wearing a WHITE tee shirt

The Windy Chicago "Pirate Ship"

Me and my boys on the Windy

Grandma Patty gave Thomas a tour of the upper deck

Thomas loved the canon they shot out at the end

Beautiful Shot of Chicago from Lake Michigan

Navy Pier

Navy Pier again

Navy Pier Light House

Play time and Park Photos

2009-05-25T15:03:00.003-05:00

Teething

Sitting up all by himself

Play time

In his "safari" hat

His cheeks are so chubby in this one!

Napping at the park

Walking to the park

Thomas at the play area

Peaking out above the slide

Weekend Update!

2009-05-24T23:20:00.002-05:00

It seems as though with all the nice weather I have been skipping out on blogging! But have no worries, the next couple days are supposed to be rainy around here!

To play a quick game of catch up, the last week has been pretty laid back around here. I wrapped up my finals on the 14th and celebrated by getting my hair cut that weekend. I decided not only to indulge and get some highlights but also to go a little retro and get bangs!!! A pretty brave choice for me but I love it so far.

To make up for my "me" moment I spent the entire week with my boys. I think we went to the park almost every day. One day we went 3 times, I think we need some new activities. At least my legs are getting toned up for summer skirts and shorts! We also went to Chicago with Grandpa Patty.

But no trip out of the house would be complete without a little bit of drama. Wednesday would have been a perfectly ordinary day, but Thomas had other plans for me. To start the day Thomas had an accident during the middle of what should have been his nap. Let me tell you....a 3 year old + no pull up during nap = potential for disaster. What resulted lets just say was I had to clean up poop all the way from his bedroom down the hallway to the bathroom when he ran to try to make it to the toilet. I am not sure who is more scarred, me or my floors. Well that wasn't enough excitement so of course we happened to run out of wipes right before dinner. I thought I had some stockpiled but I couldn't find them. So I needed to make dinner FAST and I decided to make grilled cheese, only to find out the bread was moldy. Well I hadn't bought groceries this week since we were leaving town for 3 days. I mean why bother? The food would sit there while we were gone. So I had to get 2 cranky kids loaded up in the car to go get us dinner and wipes. Ollie was crying and Thomas was throwing a fit because he wanted to go to the park. It would have been lovely to have a "sub" at this point. Every mom should have a stand in mom. Well we get some fast food which is a rare thing in our house. But Thomas decided he doesn't "like" his food. I make him eat 3 bites (how awful!!) before he can have his apples. Well he ate it fine, he just wanted the apples. (**WARNING: stop reading now if you have a weak stomach**) We finally get to Target and Thomas threw up ALL OVER, on purpose I imagine. And by all over I mean everywhere--the car seat, carpet, himself, back of the seat. And what does he do, he tried to catch it with his hands and he no joke hands it to me to take. Yuck yuck yuck. So there I am, just standing there in amazement, and I don't even have wipes to clean it up with. OMG I about died. I stripped him down (the person parked next to us I am sure was standing there trying not to laugh at this point) and grabbed a random outfit from the back (Thank goodness I had even that) and ran into the store with 2 cranky boys (one of which was also very smelly) to grab stupid wipes and now a towel to clean up the mess. I bathed Thomas and somehow managed to get him not to smell (a feat right there!) but the car on the other hand is kind of smelly. Thank goodness I have developed a sudden aversion to driving. However, car cleaning services in the Corridor area are happy to take my business at this point. What a stimulus for the economy my 2 children can be!

However, apart from my *wonderful Wednesday* evening, the week was great. On Thursday we visited Navy Pier in Chicago. We visited the Chicago Children's Museum which is FREE 5 PM-8 PM and sponsored by Kraft Foods. Thomas loved the water play feature they had. We also went on a sunset boat cruise on Lake Michigan. Thomas loved it when they shot a canon off the "pirate" ship. Ollie even enjoyed the boat ride. He loved watching the waves across the lake. Then on Friday we went swimming at the hotel and to the Brookfield Zoo outside of Chicago. I have to say that the Brookfield Zoo was really cool. We enjoyed seeing seals, dolphins, bears, lions, snakes, and even a life-size dinosaur! They had a fantastic Dinosaur exhibit that was so realistic. I only wish it was open later in the evening, we would have stayed much longer! We were sad to come home but we got to see Grandma Kim who was on her way back from Detroit.

I will have lots of pictures to share soon, be watching for them!

Slow start to the week

2009-05-13T23:19:00.003-05:00

It seems like the week has been dragging along because it has felt super slow around here despite finals approaching for me. On Monday and Tuesday the boys got to visit the park and bake cookies. Today it was rainy so we declared it a movie day and made mini pizzas and watched Disney movies. Tomorrow I have my last final, which has been keeping me busy and from posting more. But starting next week I can't wait to have more photos again and share with all of you how are day was. Here is to a good rest of the week!

Playing with his toy in his sleep. It was pretty funny really, he wouldn't let go!

Honestly, Kraft should pay my kid to advertise for them. Thomas loves his mac and cheese!

My little chefs making cookies, Oliver wanted to lick the bowl! ;-)

Thomas working hard

Oliver eating rice cereal, he couldn't get enough tonight

The weekend in pictures

2009-05-11T23:47:00.002-05:00

At lunch after Reid's graduation reception
Thomas feeding the fish and ducks

Joe and Thomas

Swans

Grandma Kim, Brent and Oliver

Mother's Day Photo

Thomas with his spiky hair

Oliver in his high chair at Mother's Day Brunch

All smiles

The boys great great grandma

Reflections on the last 4 years

2009-05-08T00:02:00.010-05:00

Friday is my last day as a full time student and a mom. I have a few loose ends to tie up but this summer I will be completely done with school. I feel refreshed but at the same time it feels strange knowing that there are no more papers, finals, late night readings or cram sessions. And hopefully no more cold coffee after sleepless nights! I know I won't miss these things, but it defined who I was as a mother for so long that I feel emotional letting go. For almost the last 4 years I have been both a student and a mother.

Looking back on it all I can say that being a mom and a student was awkward at times. I was that "different" person in the classroom. Not that I was weird or better or anything like that, I just stood out. Never before in my life have I been more self conscious. I was very aware that I was in a much different place in my life than everyone else. My peers were enjoying the freedom of college life and an occasional beer, which I completely understand. Meanwhile, I was at home trying to balance everything. I was attempting to study while getting my child ready for bed and cooking dinner, all at the same time.

It sounds humorous really, that my life was a balancing act. Or as some have said, that I was trying to do "too much" all at once. But it was everyday life for me. I chose this life and I could handle it all. I had no desire to party but I did feel like I was misunderstood, judged, and horribly out of place. In the beginning I struggled with this, I felt ashamed and alone to be a student AND a mom. Yes, I had friends that stuck by me and I had an amazing family that were there every step of the way. However, being different meant that certain friends would leave my life forever because they would never understand that being a parent has no off days. It dawned on me that I should be proud of what I was doing. From then on I embraced my identity as BOTH a mom and a student.

These last four years my family, school, and extended family and friends have defined my life. Today I start a new chapter. My identity feels "unknown" in the sense that I get to redefine my life. Oh the things that I can do now! There are so many possibilities of what to do with my "free" time, it is overwhelming really! I can do household projects I have been neglecting. And then maybe even relax or take up a hobby or two.

It is fitting that my last week of classes is right before Mother's Day. In my heart I know I am a better mom for powering through school. If I had stopped or slowed, I would never have been able to finish. I am the type of person that has to completely dive into something to finish a project. I just HAD to keep going. So I kept pushing myself and pushing myself, and then pushing myself a little more. I used my momentum as motivation. Financially we are more secure. And I would like to think that I am also wiser for finishing my degree. Some day when our children are grown I hope to be able to use it finally. But for now I just want to take a break and be there for all those small moments. I don't want to miss anything and I hope to never have to leave my boys again.

So here is to all those mothers that are determined to finish school and work hard every day, pushing themselves and persevering despite being told it is too much to handle or impossible. Everything in life is doable, you just have to enjoy the ride.

My zen moment of the week

2009-05-06T14:57:00.003-05:00

It has been a long week thus far and I really just needed to unwind for a moment. So I flipped through some photos I took in the Carribbean last August. It took me back to pure bliss, *sigh* -------

Where was I? Oh yes... if you find yourself needing to take five, just look up photos of around the world on the internet. Its really relaxing and everyone loves to share where they have been so there are many to flip through. Here is a link to National Geographic Photos. They are super cool and as an added bonus--educational! http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography

Tuesday Morning Hairspray

2009-05-05T23:25:00.002-05:00

Today was great. The boys and I played outside in the nice weather. Thomas loves to play baseball right now and it was great to get outside. I also spiked the boys hair after bath time this morning so here are some pictures of them showing off their super cool hair!

Who needs entertainment when you have bubbles???

2009-05-05T22:50:00.005-05:00

Our little bubble maker! We will work on manners later...

Monday Night TV

2009-05-05T12:43:00.002-05:00

Well last night was Monday night and for our family that means House and 24. After getting the Chinese take out and ready to eat we sat down to what was a great episode of House. I know most of us House viewers have just been silently waiting for the moment when House and Kuddy finally decide to get together but the end of the episode was just that. Hopefully that doctor can stop himself from popping anymore of those pain pills.

After that it was on to 24 where Jack Bauer once again is saving innocent American lives while being misunderstood by everyone around him due to his controversial methods. I can't say I'm disappointed with this season as it has certainly been exciting. What I'm waiting for is the explanation as to how he is going to survive this season since he has a bio weapon pathogen in him that has no treatment or cure yet I know they are filming or have already filmed the next season. My guess is that he takes the experimental treatment he has already turned down to pursue a vendetta against Tony Almeida. We'll just have to watch and see as there aren't too many episodes left in this season.

On another good note, I just saw Friday Night Lights (I'm a fan, trying to get Jessica to watch it as well) was renewed for two more seasons. I was worried about that show as I know its so good, yet it has never gathered a huge following. I'm not sure if Friday night just isn't a good time slot for a show, as people are usually out and about on those nights, or if it's misunderstood as a sports show rather than the drama that it actually is. Either way I'm excited for two more seasons of that. I know Thomas enjoys the football scenes in that show.

As long as the Red Wings remain in the race for the Stanley Cup we'll have enough hockey to keep us busy as well. We're all rooting for Wings here in Iowa and it isn't too hard to find others just like us.