after griping about the snow...

The girls all had a fun time playing out in it yesterday afternoon. Miriam told us recently that we don't have any pictures of them out in the snow this year, so I wanted to make sure I got some before it hopefully melts soon!

big, big catch up!

Blogging has gone by the wayside for us over the past 9 months. Life has gotten busy and sitting down to update here has been lost in our routine. I do hope to continue to post a little more regularly as I feel like we're back in a pretty stable routine now. So...here are the biggest changes since last July!

Miriam started Kindergarten. It has been a great school year for her. She has a wonderful teacher and has learned so much. I still can't believe we've become parents of a school-aged kid! Where does the time go?

Ella has grown leaps and bounds! She turned one in January and is now, scooting, pulling up, cruising, attempting to walk, saying a few words, waving, smiling and loving her sisters. She is a delight. Still no teeth, however, at almost 14 months old!

Abbie turned 3 a few weeks ago and is growing up so much. She loves to chat, cuddle, color, and generally do whatever Miriam is doing. She is a good big sister to her little sister.

Matt is still working at church and keeping busy doing so. We are thankful for his job. I am still at home full time, although I just finished up a brief position as an after school teacher for a math club. It was about 8 weeks and a great way to keep up a bit on my teaching. Matt and I were also able to briefly escape this extremely long winter to Florida for an extended weekend (thanks to our parents!). It was wonderful! Other than that, life is carrying along as usual! Here are a few pictures of life lately...

what taking a family photo involves...

...a lot of outtakes!

And there, finally:

a house full of girls!

September happenings

Well, here we go again...it's another end of the month and I've realized I've neglected updating anything on here.  It's not intentional, I promise!  September has been full of many activities (as usual).  Mostly, we've been enjoying welcoming in fall--minus all the cloudy, rainy days.  But this is always my favorite time of year.  The weather gets cooler, the leaves changing are beautiful and it's time to start baking again (specifically with apples!).  

So, here's what we did this month....

 ...visited the orchards.  Abbie loved the goats and tried feeding them grass, hay, and basically anything she could find.

 Miriam enjoyed taking pictures by the bus and visiting the corn maze in the background.  

 She also like climbing up the stacks of hay and pretending to be the Statue of Liberty.  I love how she was dressed in sweats the same color as the Statue of Liberty that day!

 Abbie feeding again...

 Family picture!

....stayed inside and listened to music!

Matt has been leading worship from the guitar on Sunday evenings for church and has spent a good amount of time polishing up his skills.  The girls always enjoy listening to him, too.  I'm still incredibly impressed how he basically picked up the guitar one day and started playing (with no music or anything).  He's far surpassed anything I can do with guitar!

....smiled!

...and got some new shirts!  

We found these shirts on Francesca Battistelli's website and decided we should get them.  But, so that I don't stretch out too much more....I think I'll have to wait to wear it again until Baby3 is born!

...last but not least, it's a girl!!!!  

Speaking of Baby3, we have now had 2 ultrasounds to confirm we are having another girl.  We're pretty thrilled!  Miriam was really hoping for a brother, but was so excited to hear that she is officially a girl.  She carries around the ultrasound pictures and shouts, "it's a girl!"  We certainly are prepared with girl clothes, toys, furniture and pretty much everything we need!

life; an update in pictures

It has been much too long since I've updated, so I'll give a quick rundown with some pictures over the past few weeks.

We went to the Minnesota Zoo on Mother's Day weekend with Matt's mom because moms got to go free!  We had a great time.  The weather was fantastic and the girls really enjoyed it.  Here we were on the car ride over:

We didn't get a lot of pictures of the animals, but we laughed when all the camels were lined up like they were ready for a family picture: 

Before the weather started improving, we spend a few days at the Indoor Sports Center in town.  The girls really enjoy just running and playing there.  We're glad we have someplace to go and run when the weather isn't the greatest.

Miriam also likes putting on the costumes at the sports center.  I think this one is a salamander:

We've been continuing to wear matching outfits.  No surprise there.  I can't help myself.

Matt gave me these fabulous flowers (that are still looking fabulous!) for Mother's Day.  Thanks honey!

Other than that, we've been spending a lot of time outside enjoying this wonderful spring/summer weather!

vinegar, part two

I got a few comments on the vinegar post that I thought would be worth sharing for those of you interested in using it as a cleaner (or for other uses as I found out).  

"Vinegar is also a great window/ mirror cleaner when diluted a bit with water.
Also, when boiling eggs.... Add a bit to the water when you put in the eggs- it hardens the shells and they're easier to peel..."

"also to clean the bathroom/tub. my mom uses it like crazy and the smell goes away after a little bit."

"I use it to clean my counters, make fabric softener, heartburn, mirrors and glass, and toilet cleaner...to name a few."

Thanks for the ideas!  I will be giving those a try.  Let me know if there are any other vinegar uses.  Otherwise, I'm done with vinegar posts for awhile.  I promise.

the wonder of vinegar

I know I haven't updated on family things for us in quite some time, but basically...we've all been sick in one way or another much of this month.  So, not too much new to report.  On that note, I thought I'd pass on a few tips I've learned about vinegar (who knew it can be used for more than just cooking?).  When I began cloth diapering awhile back, my friend Amber (who also sold me the cloth diapers) told me that I should do an extra rinse on my diapers as often as possible with a 1/4 cup of vinegar.  Apparently, it helps restore the pH of the cloth diapers and helps with diaper rash.  Also, I've heard that adding vinegar to the rinse cycle of any laundry is effective.  I really don't know the ins and outs of why it's good, but I've heard this from more than one source.

Another use I've found for vinegar?  Using it as a rinse aid in my dishwasher!  I've actually found that it works better than the rinse aids I buy at the store (and it's much cheaper!).  We don't have a water softener, so we really can tell the difference without the rinse aid.

And finally, although I haven't tried this because I'm still somewhat skeptical...apparently vinegar can replace pretty much any of the regular household cleaners you may have (and thereby saving a ton of money).  We still have a lot of cleaners around here, so maybe when they run out, I will try that.  Does anyone have any experience with cleaning with vinegar?  I guess I'm still learning more about it, but my curiosity has been piqued!  Also, in a quick google search, I found this book that seems like it would be a great resource for starting to clean with vinegar.  I can't really review it since I've never read it, but if you are interested, it was recommended on another site.  Happy cleaning!

caption needed

Earlier this week, I walked into the living room to find this:

It gave me quite the laugh.  Then I showed Matt and he grabbed the camera.  I'm still not sure how it ended up that way, but we both found it humorous.  So then he posted the picture on Facebook this morning with this explanation:

We honestly have no idea how this grandma ended up in this position--either the cats, Miriam, or Abbie. However, part of me wonders if it was the grandma herself avoiding the car roll-over that you see in the background--Matrix-like.

I thought that was quite clever!  But, I thought it would be fun to see if anyone else could come up with a clever caption to this odd photo.  Ideas?

In other news, I will just jot down my top ten events/thoughts from the week:

1) We all had the flu starting with the girls last Saturday.  It has lingered on through the week and we are extremely thankful to be at the tail end of it.  Yuck.

2) Abbie is walking EVERYWHERE.  I love it.  Some moms dread when their kids become mobile, but I so enjoy it.  I think they are happier, too, because they can get to where they want to be (and sometimes in some clever spots!).

3) Cooking has gone downhill this week.  Probably because we've all been sick and not really eating much anyway.  I'm hoping to resume a meal plan again soon.

4) I am ready for winter to be done.  I typically love this season, but this year has seemed to drag on.  The forecasted 40's for this next week have me so excited!

5) My "read through the Bible in a year" has been going really well!  I am so thankful to be in the routine of reading Scripture again.

6) I have started up rehearsals with the symphony again.  Enjoying that.

7) I can't wait to go outside for a walk soon.

8) I don't mind doing laundry.  I just don't like folding clothes and putting them away.

9) I can't believe Abbie's birthday is coming up so soon!

10) Did I mention I can't wait for spring?

updates

Wow, I guess I let last week get in the way of blogging!  I'm not even sure what I was busy with, but it always seemed like every time I wanted to sit down and write a post, something else was calling my name (sometimes literally).  So, here goes...a very brief update on my week of meal planning!  I may have to continue this post later with each of the recipes and include another post with some of the wonderful recipes I have yet to try.  I already mentioned that Day 1 went well, so I will go through the rest of the week.

Monday: Angel Hair Pasta with Chicken
This was a recipe we got from my Dad's cousin Sarah (along with a ton of other recipes).  We really liked it!  It was a nice alternative to other "typical" pasta recipes.  

Tuesday: leftovers
We actually decided to take the girls to the Children's museum that afternoon, so ended up having dinner out (Culver's also had $1.00 cheese curds, so we couldn't really pass that up).  Anyway, the leftovers from Monday were used for lunch on Tuesday instead of dinner.

Wednesday: California Beef Rice Skillet Dinner
We got this recipe from Jen D and I must say, this was a two thumb's up for my hubby.  He really loved it.  It was nice and simple and we gave it a little Mexican kick.  Definitely another one we'll try!

Thursday: Marinated Chicken and Sage-infused Potatoes
Well, this recipe ended up getting put off until Friday because I went to MOPS that night (where they served dinner).  I also didn't realize that the California Beef Rice Skillet Dinner would give us enough for leftovers, so everyone else ate that again.

Friday: leftovers
As mentioned before, we ended up trying the marinated chicken and sage-infused potatoes on Friday instead of Thursday.  The marinated chicken is something I often do (I just put chicken into our crock pot and pour a dressing/marinade over it and let the crock pot do the work).  We got the sage-infused potatoes recipe from my cousin Sarah and really liked how the sage added a new twist.  These were also cooked a lot healthier than we usually do (not much butter or cream), so I definitely enjoyed that.

Saturday: Stovetop Beef 'n Pasta
Saturday we traveled to the cities to do a belated Christmas gathering with some of my relatives, so we got a nice meal there instead of me needing to cook!  Therefore, this recipe will need to go on my list of ones to do in the future (another one from Jen D).

So, thank you for all the recipes!  Like I said, I was given a lot more that I haven't even had a chance to try yet...so I definitely look forward to using those.

More updates with recipes to come!

success! a meal plan!

Thanks everyone!  I have a meal plan for next week along with some great recipes to use in the future.  I bought just a few groceries tonight of some things I needed to make those meals possible for the upcoming week.  Here's my plan:

Sunday: Baked Mac 'n Cheese and veggies on the side
Monday: Angel Hair Pasta with Chicken
Tuesday: leftovers
Wednesday: California Beef Rice Skillet Dinner
Thursday: Marinated Chicken and Sage-infused Potatoes
Friday: leftovers
Saturday: Stovetop Beef 'n Pasta

We'll see how this goes!  These are all new recipes for me, but they seem pretty simple and delicious.  After the week is up, I will post how it all went and what we thought of our new dinners.  Please feel free to continue passing along any recipes my way as you find some good ones for your family.  I'm sure my family will appreciate it!

easy meal ideas? help please!

Okay, so I know I mentioned in my last post that I wasn't really into the "goal-setting" part of the new year.  However, one thing I would like to do more of this year is meal-planning.  I used to be really good at this: when I had just one child and a little more time on my hands.  Now with both kiddos and the lack of desire to go anywhere in frigid weather with both of those kiddos, my grocery shopping trips are extremely limited or consist of sending Matt to the store for one quick thing so I can attempt to throw a meal together. Hamburger helper, spaghetti, lasagna and chili have been used all too much this winter.  Now I know there are a billion recipes at my fingertips online, but I just don't really have the time to sit around searching for a recipe that is relatively easy, healthy and includes ingredients that I actually have.  So, help?  Please?  Anyone have any good and easy (maybe crock pot or quick meals to put together) recipes that use mainly "staple" ingredients?  I guess that's my other main problem...my lack of staples.  I do have a ton of canned tomatoes, cream of chicken soups, pasta, chicken broth and a spice cabinet that's exploding at the seams.  I also have ground turkey and chicken on hand.  Other than that, I'm pretty limited.  Anyone with recipes that include those items or maybe just one or two more things would be great!  Or, if you have a fantastic recipe that you often use with your family that you think would help me out, please share!  Do help this busy mom who doesn't want to venture out too often.  Then maybe if I get motivated, I can put together a post with all the recipes I got so that you can use them, too!

an artist in the making

One of my favorite things about Miriam growing up is that she just loves to sit and paint, color, cut or do anything craft-related.  I'm not all that crafty, but I do love art and enjoy doing these activities with her.  It's also fun just to watch her sit and keep herself occupied doing these things by herself!  It sure helps when I'm trying to take care of Abbie or do other things around the house.  It's always fun to see what she comes up with when she colors and paints --we can already see a very creative mind in her!