bullets

  • Shad and I were at Target the other night, actually on a date come to think of it. We go on super exciting dates. Usually it's a toss up between Costco or Target. After we go out to dinner of course. Has anyone else noticed how there are no good movies out lately? Anyhow, back to my point, we're at Target, a place Shad doesn't spend nearly enough time at. While I'm in the baby aisle, Shad informs me that he's going to take a look at the toys and comes back with two HUGE Nerf guns in his cart . He wanted to buy more, but he bought the last two. He said they are for Tanner, Kate and him to play with at night. I eyed him with a look that asked, "are these really for the kids, or for you?" He smiled. However, they have played with them every day since he bought them. They set up forts and run around the house hiding and hunting each other down. No one is aloud to shoot Kate though. She'd flip out.


  • Has anyone see Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution? Holy smokes. If you want to gag and never want to see a chicken nugget ever ever again, cry at the crap we feed our kids even though we live in the most prosperous nation, and yet be inspired to more tears at his mission, watch this show. He rocks. Even if you're not into this, you gotta watch just to hear his voice. His London accent....so cool.
  • Time Warner upped our cable bill to $67 a month. We were paying $29 a month. What the crap? Over a 100% increase in one month? I know we were getting a good deal before, but "cable prices have gone up across the nation" is hard to buy. We're thinking of dropping it. We're so into our Desperate Housewives on Netflix, I think we'll be okay. I will desperately miss Modern Family though and now Food Revolution. Shad and I got really bored with The Office and 24 this year. Two of our favorites. What happened this season?
  • Last Saturday morning, Shad and I wanted to sleep in. Of course we have 3 kids, five and under, so that makes it a bit tricky. We bribed Tanner and Kate with frozen yogurt at Costco later in the day and went back to bed. An hour and a half later, Kate comes running in with ice cream all over her face. From forehead to chin. Tanner however, is perfectly clean. Out in the kitchen is a melted container of ice cream. We ask, "Did you guys sneak ice cream?" They both enthusiastically with smiles on their faces, answer, "No". Hmmmm....I ask again. "Did you have ice cream?" Again, they say, "No". So I go into the whole "it's worse to lie than to tell the truth even if you did something bad..." I ask again and they confessed. It was hard to be upset though, because we did get a good nap and what can we really expect when having a 5 year-old babysit his 3 year-old sister, when there's forbidden ice cream in the freezer?
  • We've been going to the gym. It's my life saver and I am loving it. I get 45 minutes of uninterrupted time to workout and maybe even go pee all by myself without a child sitting on my lap. Pure bliss.
  • This one is in no need of a caption...

  • Kate is such a girlie girl yet wants so bad to be like her brother. For instance, she is obsessed with her "golden shoes" and wants to wear them everywhere. She will want me to wear my "golden shoes" too (metallic ballet flats), so we can match, "cuz we are both girls Mom". Yet, she LOVES playing with army guys, Batman and Robin. If Tanner is ever at a friend's house, she is occupied the WHOLE time by sneaking and playing with all of his Batman toys and Dragon Castle. She loves it. With some of her birthday money, she bought a bucket full of green army men.
  • Tanner is obssessed with looking up which toys he wants to buy on Amazon. We finally had to put a password on the computer to keep him off of it because it's all he'd want to do. It drove me nuts. The only problem with his whole "chores = money" plan, is that he has majorly forgotten the "chore" part. He only wants to look at the toys and talk about them. It's like pulling teeth to get the kid to actually do a chore anymore.
  • Elle is a dream baby. She is so good. The sleep could be better (or a lot better), but she's only 7 weeks, so I'm content. She smiles all the time. She looks just like Tanner did as a baby. It's like his face with Kate's hair. She's really strong. She's tried to hold her head up since birth and is always trying to stand up on her tiny legs. I'm still not sure how she's still in one piece. Tanner and Kate love her, smother her, squish her, lay on top of her and rub their tired faces all over her face. I'm mostly worried about her little arms being pulled out of their sockets. She puts up with it all.
  • I'm back to Weight Watchers. Of course it's a good thing and I'm excited to slim down and be able to fit into my clothes again, but I'm having a really hard time not day-dreaming about Cadbury mini-eggs and Reese's Peanut Butter eggs. Yumm. I know I could eat a small portion and be alright, but that's not what I want to do. I want to sit down with a whole bag (not an individual size) and eat as many as I want. Dieting is a bummer always. But especially at Easter time.
  • Here is my cute new family (minus me of course):


  • Here's a yummy recipe I made for my dinner group today:


Ingredients

* 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
* 1 onion, chopped
* 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
* 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
* 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
* salt and pepper to taste
* 1 cup frozen corn kernels
* 2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
* 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, and saute until lightly browned.

2. Mix quinoa into the saucepan and cover with vegetable broth. Season with cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes,

3. Stir frozen corn into the saucepan, and continue to simmer about 5 minutes until heated through. Mix in the black beans and cilantro.

**I added chopped cherry tomatoes and avocado.


If you haven't ever used quinoa...give it a shot. It's good stuff. Major superfood. Kate loves it.