He's Hot & He's Cold

(Photos Courtesy Lou Lou Photography)

Not sure if you know the words to the Katy Perry song, but it goes through my head daily. My little Milo is kind of that way. I always say that when he is sweet, he is REALLY REALLY sweet... melt your heart, want to bottle him up, sweet. And when he is sour, watch out -- DUCK AND COVER! -- he is REALLY  REALLY sour!  He is everything you read about 2 and 3 year-olds, combined with everything you read about busy boys, throw in a helping of angry outburst, a side of sweet hugs and kisses and you have my Milo.

Sunday morning Hannah came in around 5:30 to inform us that Milo had gum in their room. I go in, expecting to find a piece of gum in his mouth... no, I find that he has 2 packs of gum, one is empty and the other only has a few pieces left. Down on the floor were all the balled up wrappers. He had used a chair to reach up in the drawer and get two packs of gum. He has also pulled out the little drawer will all the magic markers in and they were dumped. (Thankfully he isn't big on coloring.) He did inform me that he couldn't find the matches (he is big on fire,) which are in a neighboring drawer. You can guarantee I was happy that I had moved the matches the day before because he knew where they were, and I like to make sure that isn't the case.

Yesterday we were standing in line at a store and the lady behind us in line said something to him, and in his grumpy voice he scowled at her, backed away, and snapped: DON'T YOU TALK TO ME!!
She seemed a little put out by his cheery disposition. I wanted to say: He's a little ray of sunshine, isn't it!?!

Lately when he doesn't like the answer I give him or when I ask him to do something, he informs me that I'm not his friend. I tell him that I am his friend. He says: NO, Daddy is my friend, not you!!

Do you wonder why I am writing this? Well I hope to one day look back and laugh at it... 

I hope we will be beyond our terrible 2's and 3's.

Bread Recipe

There was some requests for my bread recipe... I still love it, but I have come across a couple others that I am going to try. I'll let you know if they become my new favorite "everyday bread"

As I said before I love this bread, not only because it is soft and tasty, but because it is all whole wheat... and I love knowing that it is good for us.

Whole Wheat Bread
Makes 2 loaves

2 1/2 c. warm water
1/4 c. honey
1/4 c. oil
1 Tb yeast
1 Tb salt
2 Tb vital wheat gluten
1-2 Tb dough enhancer
5-6 cups freshly ground whole wheat flour (white wheat)
Optional: I will often times put 1/4-1/2 c baby oatmeal in, but only because I have it.

Whisk water, honey, oil, yeast, salt, gluten and dough enhancer in large bowl (or kitchen aid bowl) Add 2 cups of flour and mix well. Let proof for a few minutes. Spray pans and set aside. Add remaining flour until dough pulls away from sides of bowl, make sure dough is soft, not too sticky. Knead for about 10 minutes, until smooth. Spray work surface and hands with cooking spray, and form 2 loaves. Place in pans and cover with greased plastic wrap. Let dough raise until an inch above top of pans.
Carefully place dough into cold oven. Turn onto 350 degrees and bake for 38 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on rack.

*If you are using fresh ground red wheat or store bought wheat flour, don't use all wheat. Store bought is much heavier than the white wheat I grind. Start with 2 cups of wheat flour & the rest white flour. You could probably increase it by another cup, but I'm not sure how it will turn out if you use all wheat.

Reduce, Recyle, Reuse...

Am I the only one that is loving how "In" it is to re-purpose things? I am both practical and cheap, so giving things a face lift with a fresh coat of paint really speaks to me.

I have wanted to paint the fan blades on the fan in our kitchen for a long time... 

not sure why it's taken me so long.

The ivy was just not my thing. (The kitchen was remodeled by previous owners who had a love of ivy.) A few years ago I did take the blades off with the intention of turning them over... Well the other side wasn't white...

This afternoon I finally did it. I took the blades down and gave them a good wash. I removed the fan from the ceiling... but I did let Jeff unhook the electrical wiring, because I'm a wimp when it comes to stuff like being electrocuted.

The blades got a nice coat of white spray paint. And all the rest was sprayed with a metallic paint.

At the last minute I decided to take down the medallion and give it a new coat of paint as well.

Jeff was kind enough to come hook the wires back up for me.

I LOVE how it all turned out!!

My little Owl

Milo has no idea who Darth Vader is (he kept asking where his Elebator costume was), but he saw the light saber, I tried to talk him into being a jedi or Han Solo.  

But he seems to be drawn to villains, he must go with his love of guns and all things dangerous. 

(Brings a mother such comfort.)

 Hannah was Aerial last week at the trunk-or-treat, but decided to go as a bride on Halloween.

She was also a great helper with the younger kids that we were with trick-or-treating.

We got invited to a party, we all met up to trick-or-treat and then back to a friend's for dinner and some karaoke. It was a fun evening, but all the festivities were exhausting!!

Halloween Projects

The week before Halloween Hannah had Thursday and Friday off of school for fall break. 

We did some Halloween crafts.

The kids decorated some cookies, but they got nibbled and licked and I forgot to take pictures. These were the last ones sitting before I dumped them in the trash days later. 

So wasteful!

We did carve pumpkins on Halloween (well on the 30th) but we are slacker parents and didn't get pictures of the process or the end results.

Chester's Party Barn

On Saturday morning we headed over to Piedmont Oklahoma to go to Chester's Party Barn. 

(Why you would name this place after a clown named Chester, I'm not sure.)

Surprisingly Milo was willing to feed the animals, but not Hannah....

We took a cold and windy hayride over to the corn and wood mazes, and the BIG Slide....

Yeah, they had pumpkins, but due to our procrastination the selection was a little slim. 

We were all a little cold, grumpy and ready to head home.... we were Party'd out! 

But how cute are these little monsters of mine??

I'd like to find a Pumpkin Patch to go to next year. Anyone know of one here??

Storybook Forest

We heard about The Storybook Forest a couple of years ago, but I always seem to forget about it until it's too late to go. This year I was reminded and we went. You wander through the forest on a path and come to little stops with props and stories. The kids could trick-or-treat their way through the forest.

At the end of the path there was a clearing where there were some games to play and a hayride to go on.

 

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The kids had a good time, but if I'm being honest...we aren't sure if it's something we would do again. 

Manna...almost

Four words: Sourdough jalapeño cheese bread. Easy to make, and even more delicious to the taste.

Witches Brew

The last couple of years I have been looking for fun things to start doing as holiday traditions. My SIL, Mandi, has told me about a tradition her mom did with them while growing up... Witches Brew! I loved the idea, it seemed so fun and festive. So last night we made up some root beer complete with dry ice and spiders. It was an even bigger hit than I thought. I even went as far as to steal the chili and scone dinner.

As you can see, the kids loved it, and Hannah asked if we could do it every Halloween.

Not sure if we will keep calling it Witches Brew, Milo started calling it Monster Potion. I'm not sure if it's because we had Monster Mash playing in the background, but it got me thinking of some fun things for next
year!

P.S.
Witches Brew
3 cups sugar (or less)
1 1/2 gallons water
1/2 bottle (2 Tbs) Root Beer Extract
2-3 lbs dry ice
Spiders, of the plastic variety (optional)

Stir sugar into water until dissolved. Stir in extract. Add dry ice. Let kids be entertained for a bit while it bubbles and brews.

Tips... or things we learned.
It doesn't have to be warm water, ours was and it melted the dry ice a little quicker than we would have liked.
You can use less sugar, after you add the extract taste and decide if you want more. I will do less next time.

Saturdays

It's Saturday... I love Saturdays, they are always spent with my little family (can I still call my family little now that there are five of us?) Saturdays are yard work days, clean out the garage, start or finish a project days. Saturdays involve trips to Home Depot, running errands that I hate doing alone with the kids, playing outside (if the weather is nice.) If there isn't a project we are doing or wanting to do, we try to find something fun to do together. We don't necessarily do or go anywhere special, but it's usually together.

I know that not everyone gets the same sort of Saturday. In the last few months I've had friends mention something during conversations that have given me a glimpse into their Saturdays... And they are nothing like mine. It has left me wondering what does everyone else do with their Saturday?

The Black Eye & The Happy Girl

Here is the eye today... The swelling has gone down.

On Monday morning as I was trying to get ready to take the kids to the doctor Vivien followed me into the bathroom, but with newly found walking-legs she is quite wobbly, and she fell. I am not sure what she hit, the wall, the corner, or this odd little threshold on our furnace room door. All I saw was the little scratch & the quickly swelling bump under it. I had no idea she was going to wake up the next morning with a black eye. I have a feeling this little girl will be covered in bumps & bruises for awhile. Ever since she started walking, she has decided to do more climbing. She drags and pushes stools and chairs all around the house to get up on higher surfaces. Example: The stool to the toilet seat, to the toilet tank. YIKES!!

But look how happy she is...

She has entered the cheesy grin stage and knows all about smiling for the camera.

I LOVE IT!!

She Faught the Wall...

And

the

Wall

Won!

Fall is Here

The weather has been delightful the last couple of weeks and we are spending lots of time outside.
By the end of the day there are  lots of dirty little faces, hands, and feet that needs scrubbing.
I LOVE IT!

Three

Milo turned 3 at the end of the month... how can that be!?!

He started his day with a breakfast so far from healthy that I decided not to photograph it.

He had a great birthday and was loving all of his presents!
Hannah was a real trooper watching him open his presents and refusing to share.

Not sure how many candles we ended up lighting that day for him to blow out, but it was quite a few.

His dinner request was "MEAT!" so we headed to Texas Roadhouse.
We love our crazy little Milo!