Time Outs and Crafts

Right now multiple fans and a de-humidifier are blowing onto our ripped up pantry floor. They've been going nonstop since Thursday afternoon and will continue until Monday. We've already looked at new vinyl flooring and it's really hard to choose, they all look the same after a while. Lucky for Sawyer, since the pantry area is inaccessible that means no time outs. Due to a ridiculous increase in the amount of whining and fit throwing in the past two weeks we had to designate a 'time out' corner, which ended up being the corner between the door to the garage and the pantry door. I wasn't sure how well time out would work, but so far it's been working like a charm. All we have to say now is, "Time out for_____(fill in the blank with throwing a fit, whining, screaming, etc) and he will walk right over to the corner where he stands for either 30 seconds or up to a minute which we set on the microwave timer. When the timer goes off he knows his times up and can come out where we then hug him and say, okay no more ___(whatever his bad behavior was). The crazy thing is, it actually works! He understands what it means, and he behaves better afterwards. Plus,  I must confess it's pretty dang cute seeing him standing in the corner ;) 

This last week we did our first craft at home. I broke out all my old puffy paint, sequins, glue and glitter and Soyboy went to town. He painted glue, patted on sequins, squeezed a little puffy paint, painted on more glue, sprinkled glitter, more glue, more sequins....and so on and so on.

A little ribbon here and there and a final touch of glue smeared over the top and...

Voila! A masterpiece worth framing. 

Our House

Foreword: It is past midnight, I just got done doing homework for the past four  hours, and we had a household mishap this evening (which you will soon read about) so forgive any misspellings or grammar in this post since my brain is running out of steam. 

Due to many inquiries as to what our house looks like on the inside, here are a few photos: 

Our living room below is sporting our 'Tournee Le Chat Noir' poster that we got for less than $10 at TJ Maxx a few years go simply because we can't bear to part with it. It doesn't necessarily fit the decor, but until we find something more aesthetically pleasing the cat in all it's orange glory will stay put. A while ago I saw in a magazine a large clock sitting on a stand and liked the way it looked so when I opened up our bins from California and realized we owned a large clock AND a stand I put them both on the entertainment console. I like the look and the best part is that Sawyer has only made it fall once. 

I recently turned our couch diagonally after Matt's Aunt Rosie suggested the idea. It took Matt a little while to warm up to it, but we really like it now. It's nice to have the table behind it to set glasses on and it makes the room more conversation friendly as my Aunt Linda pointed out. Plus it's makes for perfectly angled television watching, what more can you ask for? 

Our front room still remains empty except for one white side table and this little gem that hangs on the wall. I found this at our neighborhood garage sale for only $1. Then I found the bird photo online and printed it out. Eventually the front room intends to have a bird theme--that is, if birds are not completely out of style by the time we get around to furnishing it. The keys I found at Ross for $3.99 and couldn't pass up. I foresee Sawyer having a lot of fun using them to try and unlock all sorts of things in our house. 

Sawyer's bathroom upstairs was one of the only rooms that was completely finished before we had family come visit. Thanks to a gifted beautiful bedroom set by family our bedroom is now done as well, but I don't have photos of that yet to post.  His bathroom all revolved around this particular shower curtain that I had seen at Bed, Bath and Beyond and really loved which is the reason I decided to do hair again so I could afford to buy it! The starfish hook was the final touch and was only $3.99 at TJ Maxx.

This photo was also found at TJ Maxx for under $15 and fit the theme perfectly. 

The blue shelf I found at the neighborhood garage sale for $1 too. And it was already painted blue so I didn't have to do a thing to it! The mason jar with shells, candlestick and sand with shells in the starfish jar were all things I blogged about previously, but I moved them from the window ledge and onto this wall shelf. In the frame is the front of the birthday card my parents gave Matt for his recent birthday.  I saw it and knew it would work great in the bathroom, so I ripped his card in half. Of course not until after he read it ;)

And then on the window ledge is the canoe I had painted previously with the shells sitting in it. So there you have it, one bathroom totally decorated and done. 

Also, with all the good that comes with being a new homeowner there is also the bad and the ugly. We have experienced the first bad having a dishwasher go kaput. Not too big of a deal. Unfortunately today we discovered the ugly when our fridge was dripping water. all. over. the. floor. I first noticed the laminate flooring in the kitchen bubbling a little this morning and then it looked like it was getting worse throughout the day. Matt went under the house to check things out and saw the boards were soaked! We finally figured out it was the fridge and had my dad come over to assess the damage. Looks like we'll be making a call to our insurance company in the morning. Yippee. It also looks like our floor will need to be completely ripped and replaced in the pantry and leading into the kitchen where the fridge is. Double yippee. As frustrating as it is we are trying to keep things in perspective and just keep telling ourselves, it could be worse. 

Right Now

At this very moment Sawyer is cozy on the couch watching "Tangled" which is his new favorite movie. Yep, Tangled has definitely beat out the movie Cars. He especially likes the white horse in it and laughs every time he comes on the screen. 

We just got back from a hour walk around the neighborhood with Moxie where Sawyer did most of the walking and Moxie did most of the stroller riding. We walked down to the creek by the railroad tracks where there is a field with a trail that Sawyer walked along picking up rocks and throwing them into the weeds. I'm super excited to take him camping over Labor Day weekend because he is going to have a ball playing outside and getting dirty for 2 whole days! After walking in the field we went to this grassy hill overlooking the creek and sat on a rock watching a train go by. Now back at the house the kitchen has been cleaned, the dishwasher is running (quietly, unlike our old one) and a load of laundry is going with the shirt I am going to be wearing to class tonight. Gotta look good on my first day back at school! Right before I sat down to type this, I finished hand washing our wedding wine glasses that we broke out last night to celebrate my parents 30th anniversary!

We kept it a secret from my mom, but my dad knew what we had planned. I had called a few times during the week to arrange things with my dad and he had taken my call into another room so she kind of suspected something was up. Just to throw her off I called yesterday over to their house and my dad answered the phone. I asked him if they wanted to come over to our house for dessert around 7ish. He nonchalantly asked my mom if she want to come over and then asked Bryson who said casually "um, I guess since I don't have anything else planned" (He was in on it too!)  They picked my Grandpa Howell up on the way over, telling my mom he wanted to come over and see our house since he hadn't yet. Linda and John had arrived beforehand to our place and we had the whole kitchen set up with the wine glasses for sparkling lemonade and a cheesecake bar with loads of toppings. Earlier Matt had helped me hang streamers from the dining room chandelier to the ceiling and we had decorated the kitchen table with a bunch of their wedding photos and their wedding album. 

Right before they pulled up to our house we skyped Ben, Chantal, and Jett. Then we called Megan and Kevin on one phone and Grandma and Grandpa Hansen on another and had them both on speaker. They got to our house around 7:15 and when my mom and dad rounded the corner into our kitchen we all yelled "Surprise!" 

We made them stand in front of the table and reenact their wedding photo on the left. They still look just as in love as they did 30 years ago on their wedding day! We also had them reenact the kissing photo on the right, but I won't embarrass my mom anymore by posting it for all to see. But it is really cute.

After we stuffed ourselves silly with toppings, I mean, cheesecake, we had everyone sit down on the couch. We saved the best for last and had prepared a slideshow for them to watch, which I've attached at the bottom. Notice the box of kleenex behind my mom, yep, that was strategically placed there because I had a feeling it might be needed during the video. ;) Even I got teary eyed watching it and I'm the one who made it! 

Here's a few more photos from the evening...

We found a list of predictions that people had made for my mom and dad thirty years ago on August 19th, 1981 at my moms bridal shower. It was fun to read them and see which ones were way off and which were pretty close. One made by my grandma was almost right on! She had predicted, "You'll go to BYU and have a baby, in two years you'll move to California." 

Hope you guys had fun at our house! It was fun to celebrate such a momentous occasion with you. We are thankful you both chose to marry one another and it's truly a day to celebrate since none of us would be here without you! Literally! 

Here's the slideshow video. If you watch it be sure to turn up your volume because it just isn't the same without hearing the music!

Veggie Tables

This particular night was a breakthrough on the vegetable front. I made a Jamie Oliver tomato sauce recipe that claimed to be the "best tomato sauce ever". That's a lot to live up to and it definitely did.  It was a double batch recipe intended for you to freeze the extras. I liked that idea since starting this Monday I will be taking a full load of classes this semester: Humanities (why has it taken me this long to get that one out of the way?!), Sociology (again, I might add, since according to BSU the soc. class I took previously is unacceptable), French (because I'm stubborn and refuse to learn Spanish), and Human Growth & Development.  Since returning to school I've only ever taken classes part time so this is going to be my busiest semester yet.  Anyway the point is that I've been trying to stock up on healthy essentials so it will be easy for Matt to whip up dinner when I am in class at night. 

I was crossing my fingers that the Soyboy was going to approve of this sauce since one portion of it has 2 to 3 servings of vegetables! I really hoped this could be my ticket to getting some veggies in his little peanut butter fueled body. He watched me chop up all the veggies, helped throw them into the pot and watched me stirring it. While I was adding the finishing touches he was licking his lips and said he wanted some (as in he pointed at it and grunted). I gave him a couple spoon licks and he wanted more...next thing I knew he had chowed down two bowls! He didn't even have any noodles in it, just the sauce with some parmesan on top. 

It was a veggie miracle. 

What is this blessed sauce? Well, I've included the recipe below in case you want to try it. I should add too that Matt, who tends to be veggie challenged as well, also liked it. It definitely gets two thumbs up, three if I had an extra one. 

*2 small onions

*2 red bell peppers

*2 zucchinis

*2 stalks celery

*2 carrots

*1 leek

*1 small butternut squash

*4 (14.5 oz) cans plum tomatoes with juice

*2 cups water

*pinch of sea salt

*pinch of freshly ground pepper

*large pinch of dried oregano

*2 bay leaves

*olive oil

-Peel the onions, trim the leek and celery, halve and deseed the red bell peppers, then roughly chop everything up. Use the coarse side of a box grater to grate the zucchinis and carrots. Heat a LARGE saucepan over medium heat and add a tablespoon of olive oil followed by all your chopped veggies. Add the oregano and bay leaves, then cook slowly, stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes or until the vegetables are soft, but not starting to brown. Meanwhile, peel the butternut squash, then cut it in half, discard seeds, and coarsely grate the flesh. Add it to the pan of vegetables. Add the 4 cans of plum tomatoes, water, sea salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the squash is soft. Take the pan off the heat, spoon out the bay leaves, and let sauce cool before blitzing with a stick blender until smooth (or use a blender of food processor in batches). Makes 13 cups. To freeze, divide the leftovers between large freezer bags. Press as much air out of the bags as possible before sealing them, then lay flat in the freezer. 

Stranger Danger

Alright, here's the scoop:  

If you are reading this then you know we decided to go private again. The decision was made after I had a dream last night that someone broke into our house and then reinforced just now as we heard about a child molester hurting numerous children at a daycare nearby in Nampa.  Needless to say, we feel like it's in our  best interest to be a little more discreet about who reads our blog. I don't want to worry about some creeper finding us on the world wide web, especially since I posted shots of Sawyer's cute caboose!

Cheeky

 At what age does it become inappropriate to post bum shots? I've determined that it is when your baby is no longer a baby and in my book that's age two. That means we've got two more months before these photos become taboo. So until then....

Corinne Dee Ruth Anne Marie Dawn Vause

One of my childhood friends Corinne recently had a baby girl and was in town visiting. My mom and I were able to go see her and hold her beautiful new baby Gianna Deanne. Corinne was glowing from motherhood a.k.a. tired as heck from no sleep,  but masked by the incredible happiness that comes from being a new mom. It was fun to get to see her again since it had been over six years since we'd seen each each other last. We grew up in the same neighborhood and were especially close around age 12. Our houses were just around the corner from each other so whenever we'd get together to play we'd meet at the infamous corner and go from there. Usually we'd go play in the field behind our neighborhood with our horses (bikes) and ride up and down the dirt hills or walk to Fred Meyer to try on an endless amount of clothing in the dressing rooms. I'm sure the Fred Meyer clothing department staff  really loved the fact that we occupied their dressing rooms for hours on end. Then on the walk home from Freddies we'd stop by Dairy Queen or Baskin Robbins and ruin our appetite for dinner by shamelessly eating multiple sundaes. At church there were a group of us girls that hung out together a lot and one day when we were together  we realized Corinne had no middle name. We decided we'd remedy that for her by loaning her all of our middle names so Jessica and Jennifer Roundy, Melissa Smith, myself and Lauryl Lewis donned her from there on out: Corinne Dee Ruth Anne Marie Dawn Vause and it's stuck ever since. Plus it's just really fun to say. Go on, try it. 

Below:

 Corinne and I at age 13 during our eighth grade graduation. 

And now as twenty-seven year olds and both moms. 

  

Welcome to mommyhood Corinne! I'm lucky to be able to call you a friend after all these years. I'll be crossing my fingers that you get to move back to Boise soon! 

Montessori Kid

Sawyer is late talker.

 His comprehension is right on target, but as for words he just doesn't care to use them. I could worry about it and to be honest I was concerned for a little while and thought about ways to try to get him to speak, but he very carefully chooses to use words here and there so I'm confident he will choose to talk when he's ready. Instead of focusing on what he's not so good at, I've decided to focus in one what he excels in and enjoys doing and that is his using his fine motor skills. I found this blog called "Counting Coconuts" that has some really amazing Montessori type activity ideas that are right up his alley! 

I put together a bin full of fun things for him to do. This activity is taking marbles and putting them one by one into the muffin tins. He can use this eventually for counting or separating the marbles into colors. 

This idea I actually got off another blog called "Chasing Cheerios" and he loved it! I 'borrowed' a tin of dry black beans from my parent's house and he spooned them into the flower pot like dirt and then arranged the pinwheels like flowers in it.  

As you can see he took this job very seriously. 

One of the other things I had him do was string animal shaped beads onto a ribbon. He also like taking tooth picks and putting them very carefully one by one into the top of a parmesan shaker. 

 I had moved his little picnic table from his play room and into the kitchen where he sat for almost 2 hours 'working' on these little jobs. After 5pm the men took to the couch to unwind together after a long day of work. 

Dutch Brothers

Having Dutch Brothers in Idaho has proved to be quite dangerous.  While Matt and I are hugs fans of their iced double chocolate mochas, Sawyer is an even bigger fan of their super creamy chocolate milk. The kids chocolate milk is only a little more than a dollar and you get to keep the cup, but we have over 6 of their cups in our cupboards at the moment so the price obviously adds up! The other day just to save a buck we made sure to not stop by their drive thru until Sawyer was passed out in his car seat. He was fast asleep, but as soon as we pulled up wouldn't you know it his little peepers popped open! He must be hard wired to smell chocolate milk wafting in the air. Is that even possible?!

Saturdays

When Matt wanted to marry me my dad warned him that I like to be busy and can't sit still for long. Yep, that's pretty accurate and unfortunately for Matt it usually rings true on the weekends when he is in relax mode from working all week and all I want to do is run around doing stuff! This last Saturday spent with Greg and Melissa pretty much sums up my ideal way to spend the weekend, from morning to night. 

We got up relatively early and had muffins for breakfast. Not just any regular run of the mill muffins either, these were chocolate chocolate chip muffins and did I mention they were gluten-free? Ya baby! Finally we came across a mix so good you can't even tell it's gf. Side note for anyone interested: Sunflour Mills is located in Boise and makes all sorts of great gluten free mixes. Pancakes and Waffles (with chocolate chips of course) are made around our place on a weekly basis with their whole grain all purpose flour. The aforementioned delectable chocolatey goodness muffins were made with their Chocolate Cake mix. Anyway the point is they are super delish and were devoured by all.

After breakfast we headed to downtown Boise for their farmers market held each Saturday at the grove. I was really hoping to take Carol and Faye there too, but they had to leave super early that morning to get back to California. They made it back in ONE day! From having done that drive more than a few times, I know is it not a fun one to make so my thanks goes out again to both of them for enduring it to come visit us!! :) 

Thankfully that morning it hadn't gotten too hot out yet so we were able to walk around for quite a while at the market. I love the look of downtown, it reminds me a lot of Pasadena in California. Lots of fun little shops, loads of interesting people to look at, and an artsy vibe. 

The men enjoyed some fresh homemade donut holes for second breakfast--the most important meal of the day.

You can't take Sawyer to the grove without getting in the fountains. Well for that matter,  you can't take him anywhere near standing or spraying H20 without him squealing with delight and running right for it! 

Greg snapped a photo of this man playing his harmonica. I can't stop thinking about how I really wished I had put some money into his cup when we walked by. Guess that means we'll just have to go back next Saturday and look for him.

When we left the market it had really started to warm up. Next we went over to Ann Morrison park where Greg cooled off in the water. I was tempted to do the same! Hot weather makes me cranky and I probably would have had more patience with Sawyer that day (he was super whiny from lack of sleep and his cold) if I'd just ran through the fountains myself!

At the park Melissa played with Sawyer on the playground. It was super nice all week with her entertaining him for me! He just ate up all the undivided attention.

After the park and taking a little dip in the Boise river our good day got even better when we decided to do Cafe Rio for lunch! We took it to go and went back to our house where Sawyer took a lovely two hour nap whilst we had lunch and some interesting conversation. I always love a good convo!

We wanted to do something fun with both of them before they hit the road the next morning to continue on their way to Wisconsin. They both are water park enthusiasts so is there anything better to do then go to Roaring Springs? I think not. We found out they had a great deal on Saturday nights for four from 7-10:30pm. It was a blast and the best way to end a hot day. We rode just about every water slide there (besides the lame ones) and floated in the lazy river and wave pool. It reminded me of the summers I worked there when I was a teenager. What a cushy job that was! Getting paid to get a tan? Um, yes please!

We had a great time with everybody and can't believe it's already been a week since they were here! Thanks everyone (Rosie, Steve, Faye, Carol, Melissa, Greg) for making time to come spend time with us. It was fun getting to see everyone after being away for 8 months. Hopefully not that much time will pass by again before our next reunion!

Wszystkiego najlepszego!

Bet you thought the title of this post "Wszystkiego najlepszego!" was Sawyer going crazy on the keyboard. Good guess and it certainly looks like it, but it really means Happy Birthday in Polish! While Matt's fam was in town we were able to celebrate his 31st birthday all together, in true summer style with a barbecue!

"My Dad's HOW old?!" 

 Matt's grandma made ribs, potatoes, baked beans and other fixings while Greg grilled everything outside on...Matt's brand new birthday barbecue! 

While the food was cooking Greg, Melissa, Sawyer, Matt and I went swimming at the neighborhood pool since it was in the high nineties. (Yep, the week they were here was the hottest week we've had thus far! Luckily the mornings were still cool enough that one morning we all went for a bike ride and were able to get a few walks in.) Once we got back from the pool, Sawyer entertained the rest of us by jumping on the couches and you guessed it,

 Melissa's air mattress too! 

Finally he wore himself out and decided to take a rest and watch the movie  'Cars' with Grandma Faye while the rest of us chowed down. 

After dinner Matt's mom brought out his ultimate favorite birthday cake a.k.a. Adam's Peanut Butter Fudge Ripple Cheesecake. Thankfully there is a Cheesecake Factory here in Boise now!

We were even able to get in a few family photos while we were all together in one place. And thanks to the timer and multiple shot setting on Greg's camera we caught one with even Sawyer looking.

 In just the nick of time too since he lately he goes from happy to M.A.D. in a matter of seconds. I swear two year olds have worse mood swings than a pre-teen girl. 

Here's a good one of Sawyer and his nana Carol. Check out those cute matching dimples! Thanks Greg for taking such great photos while you were visiting!