Some of my favorite things

I always love to see what the latest and greatest finds are among my friends.  Having had a few things stand out in my mind as being pretty dang great, I thought I would share some of my favorite finds. 

This one was a Mother’s Day gift.  Honestly, I wasn’t super excited about it at first.  Then I had to use it.  And use it again.  And again.  And again.  See, my kids like to turn on the lights inside the car and leave them on.  On top of that, my battery hasn’t loved the cold weather.  I’ve used it to jump start my car more times than I can count.  I’ve used it to jump other people’s cars as well.  There’s nothing like a woman in a mini-van coming to a man’s aide.  I’ve also used it to pump up a flat tire.  Honestly, this was one of the most useful gifts I have ever received.  I feel much more secure having this in my car. 

UPDATE: Mine is a Peak brand jump starter with inflator.  You can find it here.  Mike got mine on at Sam’s club. 

 

Ok, so I’m not a crockpot queen by any means.  But when I do cook in it, I hate scrubbing it.  Mine is black and it never seems to come clean.  Then I found these babies and let me say that they are worth every penny.  If you ever use a crockpot you need to get these.  Seriously.  Amazing.

These next two go together.

Fleece sheets

Heated mattress pad

 

At first, I was thinking that the fleece sheets would get too warm.  Then I remembered that I live in Wisconsin and decided to go for it.  I will never go back.  Fleece sheets are amazing.  They are so soft and they don’t get cold.  Flannel sheets are great, but these are probably at least 98 times more cozy.  Carter got some for Christmas and I don’t think I’ve seen a happier boy.  

The heated mattress pad really just takes the cake.  I could stay in bed all day.  I turn it on before I brush my teeth and wash my face and by the time I get into bed it’s a toasty little piece of heaven. The king size comes with separate controls, so Mike doesn’t even have to turn his side on and I can leave mine on all night.  I can’t recommend this one highly enough.  FYI, they are sold at Kohl’s .

This last one is kind of random, but it is my favorite organizational tool lately.  I found this at www.motivatedmoms.com.  It’s basically a chore list.  The premise is that if you do the daily chores, your house will stay clean and you won’t ever have to deep clean because it’s all broken up over the year.   It also reminds you to do things like plan for birthdays, change furnace filters and water plants.  It’s a pretty intense list, and I have had to get over my need to have everything checked off, because in all honesty, I rarely get it all done.  But it has given me a routine of daily jobs that if I get done, will keep my house looking good.  You do have to pay for it, which is a downside, but I think it’s been worth it.  They do have an app as well, but it needs some work before it would be worth the money for me. 

And last, but definitely not least are these Munchkin snack traps:

You can find them at Target.  I love these things.  I can fill it up with animal crackers and it will keep Ben happy for hours.  He just carries it around and snacks.  The lid keeps them from falling out and keeps him from shoving 20 crackers in his mouth at once.  We give Ben one at the beginning of church and it will get us through at least 2 hours.  They are great for the car as well.  The only downside is that crumbs will still come out when it’s banged on something, so it’s best with less crumby snacks.  The Stauffer’s animal crackers from Sam’s club are my favorite thing to put in these. 

Those are some of my favorite things lately.  What are some of yours? 

We Survived!

We had quite the storm last night!  It had been talked up for a few days – “the storm of the decade”, “snowmageddon”, you get the idea.  We were supposed to get up to 20 inches or so of snow.  They were saying that if you go out on the roads, make sure to have a survival kit because if/when you got stranded, you wouldn’t get help for a while. 

The wind was insane last night and before we went to bed we saw lightening and heard thunder, which typically means that it’s going to dump.  So imagine our surprise when we went out this morning and saw this: The driveway was almost all cleared!  The wind had just blown it away.   Oh, wait.  The wind dropped it all here:

And here.  You can’t see it very well, but that drift running across the front lawn, sidewalk and driveway is at least 4 feet deep.  What happened to the snow blower?  I guess it doesn’t work quite as well when the snow is 3 times taller than it is. 

Mike spent an hour and a half clearing snow.  I spent another 2.  Where is the masseuse when you need one?  

I started running out of places to put the snow at the end.  Luckily, it’s not supposed to snow again until this weekend. Wait, why do we live here again?

Christmas 2010

Christmas was great this year. Honestly, with everything else going on throughout the month, it all kind of blurred together.  We tried to make sure the kids knew the reason we celebrate Christmas, and I think they got it a little bit.  But in the end, it was all about the toys.  When is it not?

We had a quiet morning unwrapping gifts and then had friends over for dinner.  It was a good day.  Unfortunately, my usual mad camera skills were nowhere to be found that day and we ended up with a lot of these: Ben was confined to the high chair for most of the unwrapping.  As long as he had something to unwrap he was fine with it.  Samantha and Carter visited Santa at Winter fest at their school.  Santa promised that if they would leave cookies and milk that he would indeed get them the princess toys and Bakugan video game that they asked for.  Thanks Santa.  What ever happened to “we’ll see what I can do” or a good non-committal “I’ll keep that in mind”? Someone needs Santa lessons.  Luckily, Santa was able to pull through and deliver the goods (thanks Kohl’s.com!).  All in all, I would say that Christmas 2010 was a success (other than the lack of pictures), and I think they would agree:

Birthday Boy!

Six years ago, Carter made me a mommy and nothing has been the same since.  He has always been a handful, in both good and bad ways.  I can honestly say that there is never a dull moment with this boy.  Sometimes it’s due to his bipolar tendencies, but mostly it’s because he is a smart, sassy, loving, imaginative, thoughtful young man. 

One of my favorite things about Carter is the face he makes when you fill his love bucket.  He gets this quirky smile and comes in for a big hug.  He definitely wears his emotions – good and bad – on his sleeve.  You never have to wonder where you stand with him, he’ll tell you.  He’s super smart and very inquisitive, he likes to know everything about everything and everyone.  He loves video games and Star Wars more than anything else right now.  The last six years have taught me more than I thought possible and I have grown as a mother and a person.  I wouldn’t trade them for the world!

One of the many reasons Carter was excited to get a walking cast was because he really wanted to go bowling for his birthday.  It’s becoming a yearly tradition for him.  But we all have fun, so it’s not a bad thing.  Samantha could carry her own ball this year.  We took a little break after the 4th frame to open gifts.  Here’s how it went down:

“Ok, these Star Wars action figures are alright, but I hope the rest of these gifts are better than this…””This is more like it.  I like Mario, I like chess.  Let’s see what else there is…””Holy mother of Mario!  It can’t be!””It is!  It’s Super Mario Brothers!  I can’t believe it!””Best. Birthday.  EVER!!!”  He was shaking with excitement at this point.  I think he liked it.  At one point he wanted to live with Aunt Amber in Utah because she has this game.  Apparently he loves it more than he loves us.  Guess what he did for the next 3 days. Birthday Karma was looking out for him, because after I had a good talk with him about how nobody wins anything out of these machines and how he would be wasting his money he won a football on his first try.  And then he won the jackpot on this machine and won us all jawbreakers.  We ended the night at Famous Dave’s where we were sure that Carter would love the ribs and cornbread (two of his favorite things ever).  Well I got my payback for the Mario game when he told me that my cooking was much better.  The birthday ice cream eased any disappointment in the food though.  And you always know it’s been a good day when you see this when you get home. 

Happy Birthday Carter!  We love you! 

Ben

Ben started walking back in November, and I totally meant to post about it then.  Then December came and kicked me in the rear.  Now that I’ve recovered and regained my inner peace (cleaned my house), here’s what he’s been up to:

Walking!  He didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get going, but he finally got it down in November.  Mike said he took a few steps in church on the 28th, but I didn’t see it, so it doesn’t count.  I did see the steps he took the next day.  Teeth!  Holy Moly, this kid is a tooth making machine!  He was born teething (literally) and hasn’t stopped since.  He has his 2 year molars already and his 4 canines just came through this week.  These have been the hardest ones yet.  After this, he should be done until he gets his 4 year old molars.  Hopefully they will come in when he’s 4!  I have been impressed with how happy he has been through it all.  Ben is definitely my mischievous child.  Carter is sassy, Samantha is destructive, and Ben is just mischievous.  He knows when he shouldn’t be getting into something and loves to do it anyways.  The bathroom is his favorite place to be naughty.  I caught him with some of my mixing bowls in the toilet one time (yes, they have been thoroughly cleaned since).  He loved to pull everything out of the bathroom cupboard until I put a lock on it.  He laughs and squeals when I catch him.  He loves to sneak through the baby gate when one of the kids are a little too slow closing it behind them.  Mostly, he just loves to get in trouble. 

He is a copy cat.  He loves to imitate everything and everyone.  When we walk outside he will caw like a crow.  He is talking quite a bit and says lots of words, just because he likes to copy what we say.  He will try to say pretty much anything you ask him to.  He saw me clean the toilet once and since then has tried to do it himself a number of times.  He saw me clean the litter box and keeps trying to do that too.  Needless to say, there has been some serious hand washing going on around here. 

He’s learning his body parts.  Ask him to show you a nose and he will stick his finger right up whoever’s nose you are asking about.  He discovered the cat’s nose tonight.  I don’t think she was super excited about that. 

He is a great sleeper.  He goes to bed around 6:30 and sleeps until 7 or 8 in the morning.  And he usually takes a good afternoon nap.  I guess he got the memo about me needing my sleep. 

He loves to eat.  He will eat pretty much anything and a lot of it, although yogurt and “nanas” are his favorite as of late. 

He’s awesome!  He knows more about temper tantrums than I would like, but what can you do?  Lucky for him, he’s cute then too. 

Invited you are…

To take a glimpse into the coolest birthday party a six year old could ever ask for.  Seriously, it was fabulous.  I’d like to think that all of the kids left happy.  As they arrived for their Jedi training, they were given proper Jedi attire.  Carter and Samantha modeled them for me.  We all know that half of what makes an outfit is the attitude.  These kids seem to have that part taken care of.  Every Jedi needs a light saber, right?  These Jedis needed non-lethal ones, so they got to decorate their own foam versions.    After using the Force to pin the light saber on the Jedi, they went to the basement to hone their light saber skills by keeping balloons up in the air with them.  That was when this very modern looking droid came to them with a message from Princess Leah.  This had to be their favorite part.  They got to go on a scavenger hunt to find Princess Leah (AKA Samantha).  They found her being held captive in the guest bedroom by a storm trooper.  After storming the room, they showed that storm trooper who was boss.  That would be Mike in the fetal position.  Surprising how much damage a big blob of duct tape at the end of one of these can do.  Note to self for next time – use tissue paper.  The boys kept asking if they could go find Princess Leah again.  Mike wasn’t so keen on the idea.  Go figure.  This was my version of the Death Star.  Ok, I have a confession to make here.  Are you ready for this?  I’ve never actually seen Star Wars.  I’ve seen bits and pieces, but not enough to know what the Death Star is actually supposed to look like.  In the end I painted it too dark, but Carter was appeased when I made the laser thing grey.  Regardless of the final product I feel that I deserve an “A+” for effort.  And don’t mind that old mattress in the background.  We’ll get rid of it one day.  For now the kids jump on it sometimes.  Carter picked his cake from Sam’s Club.  It was delicious, but I think I probably could have whipped up something that looked at least as good.  Oh well, it did the job.  As far as I know, all of his birthday wishes came true.  And then some.  And here are the sugar-high Jedis at the end of the night.

I was absolutely exhausted at the end of the night.  Mentally and physically.  It was worth it, but I think Samantha will have a nice quiet tea party for her birthday. 

Hello Old Friend…

Hello blog.  Remember me?  I used to stop by every so often and drop off a new post.  I know, I know, it’s been a while.  Ok, it’s been a long time.  That cast that Carter got the last time I stopped by?  Well, it’s been replaced with an Iron Man-esque boot.  And that little Iron Man?  Well, he turned six and I haven’t even gotten around to telling you about it. It was a pretty awesome party if I do say so myself.  Ben started walking a while back – I can’t believe I forgot to mention that one. We also had a fabulous Christmas and a rockin’ New Year’s Eve.  The kids have been nothing but trouble, but that really hasn’t changed, has it now?  What’s that you say?  You’d like to hear all about it?  Even when it was all so long ago?  Well ok, I’ll do what I can to catch you up.  And I will try to stop by more often.  But as always, I make no promises!