Toast 2 Mom

Homeward Bound

A quiet ride home... Tonight, our own beds.

 

Happy Birthday America!

And we'll have a cupcake to celebrate your big day! :)

Mountain Success

The girls and I had two goals on our trip into the mountains today, 1) see some snow and 2) see an elk. We accomplished both. It wasn't easy. We had to endure rain, sleet, cold weather, cranky, crying moments... But we surged through it all! Tomorrow's goal is a little less aggressive - find a cupcake place!

 

Vanathon 09 Part 1

We're taking two road trips this summer (lonngg road trips). Part of this one, the girls and I are got to enter a new state. Happy trails...

Snacks, yes please!

I can't believe I've never talked about snacks before and the obsession my girls have with snacks. Maybe I have talked about snacks before. Even if so, they are such a major aspect of our days that it is worth mentioning again. In fact even Cheekers marches around the house barking the word, "schnacksss" at me!

I'm not quite sure what is so powerful about that word, "snack," but I can prepare lunch and say, "let's eat lunch," and my girls (especially Sydney) will not be interested. I can prepare the same lunch and say, "let's have a snack," and it will be gobbled up.

I often struggle to find a way to creatively and nutritiously prepare three meals a day for my children. I get so trapped in the "kid menu" that I feel like I'm not providing good variety or using any creativity. In fact, I've put together numerous menu plans to try and shake things up, but I always fall back on the basics mainly due to time and because kids like what they like (my kids anyway).

Snacks, I guess, are the way to break that boredom with the day in, day out breakfast, lunch, dinner menus. For some reason I feel like snack food is cuter and therefore more interesting to kids.

The biggest key to our snack success is variety. Ironically they will eat the same breakfast every day but I have a pantry full of multiple snack options. And the place that provides all of these options.....drum roll....Costco. I basically have a membership to Costco to fill my pantry like a multiple option snack vending machine.

So this week I've been with challenged by making sure I have enough snacks packed for our trip. We're taking a little (long actually) road trip. And with car boredom comes passing of the Ziplock bag filled with yummy goodness. Let's hope we can make it out of the state of Texas before my supply runs dry. It's a big state, you know.

By the way, if you have any snack ideas (or meal ideas for that matter), please share! I'm always willing to have more options!!

Say It Ain't So

 
Today this little munchkin of mine turned seventeen months. I know seventeen months is not the traditional month to comment on milestones. But to me it seems that it is around this age that babies start to take that turn, the turn toward no longer being babies...

I know every Mama out there loves their babies. I know that for many it is so hard to even articulate how crazy your heart can ache when you think about how blessed you are to have a child. And they way they make you feel...how it creates a feeling more than your arm hair to stand up or your heart to feel warm or your eyes to well. There just aren't enough words to describe the joy these little stinkin' boogers can bring!

As Cheekers is my second born, I thought I might be more familiar with the stages they go through. I thought I would remember how they are at nine months and at one year and at eighteen months. I do to an extent remember what they are like at what age. But I guess I thought I would be saying, 'oh, I can't wait until Natalie turns X age.' However I still just seem to be in the mindset of loving every single stage we're currently in, just as much as the last one. Contradictory to that, though, I am beginning to grow more and more weepy as I see my baby disappearing.

Many people cannot wait to interact with their child and can't wait for that communication to begin. And I love that too. I love to hear all the things that come out of my first born's mouth. I just love being a nurturer best. Which is kind of odd for me to say because I never really believed I had those instincts in me. Even with the people I love the most, I struggle a bit to display nurture. Maybe it just comes naturally with your children?

Well this couldn't be a milestone post without a "brag paragraph". At a now wee-age of seventeen months, my baby girl is already identifying her colors. Tonight in the bathtub, my little Miss Einstein handed me the red squirty piggy when I asked her to. Then she handed me the green squirty piggy when I asked for green. Then the yellow. I even mixed them back up and asked again later....and she mastered it again. I have told her the colors of these pigs once. How do they do this??! Amazed, I am.

My little turkey pants likes to walk around the house asking for "apples". She also is fond of "flowers," "ducks," "r-flys" (butterflies), "dogs," "cats," "Dora," and yes, "Ariel". Her favorite song is Old MacDonald - sung best by big sis. Her favorite things to do are sit down and look through her books, play on the Barbie computer, carry the yellow ball from room to room and try to pretend she can color just as well as her "Sissy".

The neat thing about my baby (babies) growing older is the show I get to witness daily between the two of them. I'm not quite sure what I'd title this twosome skit yet...

Happy seventeen month Cheekies! It's going fast...sigh.

***By the way, on another note, I know there are issues seeing the video from yesterday's post. I'll work on this....more fun with technology!

Splash!

Hey, guess what?! I have a way to add video to my blog now! See below link for the first video post!

So, sure it's almost the Fourth of July. That means it's pretty hot just about everywhere in the U.S....from each person's own perspective. Our first summer in Texas is proving to have its own definitionof hot. We've been sitting in the 100's every day for well over three weeks now. The other day we picked Daddio up from the airport and it was 106. I said, "pretty much after it hit 100, I haven't noticed a difference from 101 to 108.

The good news is we've been taking full advantage of the swimming pool. Our once timid little minnow is developing into quite the nautical princess. She went from not even wanting to get her face wet about six months ago to going underwater, kicking like crazy, jumping in the water and just start wanting to dive!

To see a little clip of our most recent splash, check out the link below!

Click here for the big splash!