Wordless Wednesday.

Freebies

Last week I signed up for a free sample from Boiron products. They offer homeopathic cold and flu remedies. It was an offer for all Moms that blog. Yesterday UPS came knocking at my door with 3 full sized items to try for kids. Luckily, we don't have need for them right now, but I am totally amazed by the speed and amount they sent for us to try. Fingers crossed we won't have to use them, but if we do I'll let you know how they worked.

AHHAHHAHA!!!

That is what Shane and Kenny said to each other a few evenings ago when they both completely scared one another. It all played out like this:

Shane and I were in the living room playing and Kenny was on a hunt in the garage for our pumpkin carving tools for a party we were headed to later that day. I told Shane he should go out to the garage and help Daddy. Kenny had been rummaging through the Halloween decorations box where he found an old scary mask and a black wig. For some reason he felt like putting them on as he continued his search bent over in a corner with his back turned to the garage door. Shane headed out into the garage and started walking towards Daddy. Kenny jumped up and turned around not knowing Shane was coming out to help and to top it off even gave a startled yell. Shane got the look of terror in his eyes and starts crying instantly. He was so scared! Of course, Kenny yanked the mask and hair off, but Shane was not having it still. I came running when I heard all the commotion. The little guy's heart was racing so hard and he was shaking. He didn't want to touch or look at the mask or wig. Finally we got Sadie and Dodger to wear it which made him laugh and things got a little better.

Just yesterday he went into the kitchen with out the lights on and came running back out crying saying he was scared. I am pretty sure Dad permanently traumatized him for life....even if it was on accident.

Shanester

What has my little buddy been up to lately?! Slowly but surely learning new words, "peas" AKA please, is the newest one. I'm really not sure on his total word count, I find it hard to keep track of because he will imitate a lot of words if you ask him to say them, but just doesn't use them in conversation on his own yet.

He loves books and being read to. And has really found his own with playing by himself. It is so great to see him wander off to his room and play with his trains or build a train with his big legos. He says everything is the color yellow. Often if you tell him it is another color, he'll argue with you and so no, it's yellow. He refers to himself as either I Do, Me or Ne. I'm pretty sure we hear "more, yeah" about 1 million times a day. Everything is "more, yeah" and "I do". He is starting to get a sense of how to pull a fast one on us. The other night at dinner he had to have one more bite before he got down. He put the food up to his mouth and let it dribble down to the floor so Dodger could get the majority of the food. He picks up on so many things that still boggle our minds. He isn't short on sense of humor, that is for sure!

Homemade Chili

I've been working really hard lately to get some healthy, quick and easy recipes added to my dinner rotation. I think some major progress has been made and I wanted to start sharing some of my yummy discoveries. This week I made homemade chili. It was a huge batch, so we ate it two nights in a row and I frozen enough for two more dinners.

Our dinner schedule usually works that I make dinner one night and the next is left overs. I just haven't gotten to the point where I want to be making dinner every night! It works for us.

I also love dinners that I can start during nap time or in the morning and have ready to pop in the over when it's time to cook it. I'd prefer not to be slaving over a hot stove with a trillion different pots going. Just to much focus needed with a 2 year old in the house.

This chili recipe was super easy to make. I put it in the crock pot and let it simmer and get all yummy during the day. The house smelled so good. Then I survived it up with some cornbread. Everyone liked it!

Homemade Chili
from the kitchen of Jeanette Lynton
1 onion chopped
1 Tbs. oil
3 lbs. ground beef
2-10 oz. cans Campbell’s French Onion Soup
1-12 oz. can tomato paste
1-15 oz. can tomato sauce
2-27 oz. cans kidney beans with liquid
2-15 oz. cans red beans with liquid
2-½ tsp. chili powder
5 tsp. cumin
1 ½ tsp. ground pepper
Brown chopped onion and ground beef in a large soup pot. Drain. Add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer for 30 minutes. Or transfer in a large crock pot and set at low for 4 hours. This is best to bring out the flavors. For a smaller batch, just cut the recipe in half…easy. Serves 10-12

Perfect for these cold fall days! Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday.

Vote For Your Favorite Card.

The first weekend in November I will be attending Close To My Heart's Regional Celebration in Portland, OR. I'm super excited to hang out with other Consultants, attend seminars, get fabulous new ideas and of course, create wonderful things!

CTMH will be sponsoring a card contest for those Consultants who wish to enter it. The prize is $50 in product credit. Which I could spend in a flash! The cards that are entered into the contest must be fall or winter themed.

I can't decide out of these 5 cards, which one to enter. I would love your opinion. Take a peek and vote for your favorite card by leaving me a comment. It may just be the one I win $50 with!!! (Click on each image to enlarge the picture.)

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Mojo Monday.

This morning I found myself inspired by the Mojo Monday blog sketch for this week.

Here is what I created:

All supplies from Close To My Heart:
Twitterpated Paper (featured colors: Sorbet, Sweet Leaf and Chocolate)
Treasure Life stamp set
Many Thanks stamp set
Chocolate Ribbon Rounds

Video Montage

Trying to remember to take videos of Shane is super hard for me. I grab my camera all the time, but I've found as soon as I turn on the video camera he instantly stops doing whatever he was doing. Here are some recent videos of the little guy. I've been trying to capture his speech development.

This first video was taken in September while we were reading books before bed. Of course, the moment Kenny showed up he stopped reading it the way he was. I still haven't figured out why he calls "A, B, C's", "A, E, O's", but he does and no matter what we say he still says it that way.



This second video was taken about exactly a month later on October 16th. He has received a couple Halloween cards in the mail. When ever he would open them he would "read" them to me. This particular card threw him off a little bit since there was a little special something that fell out of it.

Finally, just a little taste of what evenings are like at our house. You can see in the bottom corner of the screen the Tunnel. Which Kenny would like to write a book about: 100 Ways to Use a Tunnel. I think it is true, he is pretty darn close to 100 ways of using that thing! Shane loves every single one of them, too.

Wordless Wednesday.

Pumpkin Carvin' Party

With fall comes fun things like Pumpkin Carvin' Parties! And of course carving competition is essential at a party like this.  I'm sad to say we didn't take home any prizes for our pumpkin master piece, but we did have a lot of fun.

Starting the carving process.

The party was at Dahlia's House.  Here Shane and Dahlia are getting creative with paint and pumpkins.

The judging begins! The categories were Most Creative, Funniest, and Best Overall.

October Craft Club

This month Craft Club headed down south to Lynette's house.  We made Halloween Trees.  It was really cool to see how everyone's turned out totally different.  Most people made their trees using black Halloween Trees.  I decided to go a slightly different route so that I could use my "tree" all year long.  My goal is to decorate it for different seasons and various holidays.  After Halloween I'm going to turn it into a Fall look.  Then come December I'll go with a Christmas theme.  And will start the new year off with a Winter feel.  Of course I won't forget to use it for Spring and Easter!

I would like to add a few more pictures to it, but need to print a couple more out.   And the little pumpkins in the bottom of the glass container holding up the sticks are the cutest things ever!!

Click on the images to see more detail.

Welcom Baby Easton!

I would like to congratulate Molly, Jeremy, Jordan and Taylor Ann on their new addition to the family. Baby Easton arrived on September 29th. He weighted 7lbs, 2ozs and was 19.5 inches long.   

Shane and I got to visit them this week.  Shane said he liked the baby and that he was little and didn't cry.  Which is all pretty accurate. 

You can't see the little guy in the picture very well, but I think he looks just like his proud papa!

Almost Wordless Wednesday.

Waiting for Dad to come home.

Christmas Cards

These cards are from a card swap I participated in with some fellow CTMH consultants. I love seeing all the ideas we can come up with using the same Jingle Paper Packet.

This card was a version of my Christmas Card workshop, just with different colors.

Milk Addict

Yes, I have a Milk Addict in my family, actually I have two! Can you guess who they are?? Yep, you got it....Shane and Kenny both have major milk addictions.  Who knew that a love for milk could be past down in the genes?! The past couple weeks Shane's love has hit an all time high.  He was drinking and asking for it more then ever.  One day in the car I realized life with a 2-year had gone down hill fast! He was whining, complaining, not sleeping, not eating and being an overall out of control toddler.  Life with him was just not fun.  I vaguely recalled there being a time when he wasn't this bad....was it just a phase or were we doing something wrong?  This is when the evaluation began and the answer I seemed to come upon was just to much milk.  He wasn't eating because all he wanted to do was drink milk.  Then since he would still be hungry he was crabby, whiny and grouchy.  And just plain tired from waking up hungry, but still not wanting to eat.

Mean old Mom stepped in and went back to what the original milk limit use to be: 3 cups of milk a day.  The first thing Shane use to do when he woke up was drink milk, of course. Then he never wanted to eat breakfast.  This new plan requires he eat breakfast and then gets milk. Which then leads into 30 minutes of Sesame Street.  No breakfast equals no milk which equals no TV.  The first morning went fabulously! He was like a new kid.  Devoured his "mmmmm yum yum" "fried egg bread surprise", got milk and watched cartoons.  And he was one pleasant kid to be around.

Step 2 was lunch. Again lunch needed to be eaten before milk...which then leads to books and nap time.  My favorite part of the day! Another huge success.

Finally we ended the day with dinner and then milk and 30 minutes of  "ABC's" on DVD.  I couldn't believe how much this kid was actually eating.  Not to mention drinking juice and water happily.  He transitioned into the new routine like a pro.  No questions asked. Trust me, he still whines and acts like a 2-year old, but so much less then before.  My milk addict has found room for food in his life and it is making our lives a lot happier.

Now I just have to figure out how to get Shane to stop picking his lip, finger and toe nails.  Another trait he inherited from his Dad.  

Pumpkin Patch

We hit the Pumpkin Patch at The South 47 Farm yesterday.  This is one of my favorite fall adventures (warning lots of pictures!).  The pumpkin crop was fabulous this year.  There were so many great pumpkins to pick from it was hard to narrow it down to just three. 

World Card Making Day -- Blog Hop

Welcome to the Close To My Heart 2009 World Card Making Day Blog Hop! Join me and other CTMH consultants as we share our card creations with you. If you've come from Cami's Blog then you're hopping right along.

To celebrate this wonderful event, I've made all of you a virtual card.  I wish I could send a card to all my friends, family and blog readers, but instead you'll have to settle for looking at this one online.  Take a minute today and make a card for someone you know. You don't even need to be a "card maker". Just sit down with some paper and make a little some thing for someone you care about.

Join the fun and hop on over to Jamia's Blog from here. This is a "round robin" hop so just keep hopping and Happy World Card Making Day!