Seen and Heard

Kyle putting Luke down for bed tonight.

Luke: Daddy will you snuggle with me?

Kyle: No, I have to feed the dogs?

Luke: What if I cry?

This kid is too smart for his own good! Or not smart enough. It might have worked if he hadn't TOLD Kyle how he planned on manipulating him before he actually did it.

Updates!

Kyle: Kyle has been very busy lately. It seems I always say that about him. I think that him being busy isn't an update. We can just assume he's always busy =). I mentioned that he and Traver did not purchase a Timeshare website. Instead they plan on building their own. Currently they're working on a database of all the resorts in North America. When that is completed, then they will build the website and then continue later to finish all the resorts in the world. Last weekend Kyle went on a fishing trip with Fireman Paul (as he is known to Luke). They went to Grand Lake and fished for Spoonbills. They each caught a 45-50lb fish. Kyle brought the meat home. He got a recipe from a friend that he plans on trying out next week.

This week he has been working on fixing his sprayer that he pulls behind the lawnmower. He finally got it completely fixed and working this morning. He plans on fertilizing the lawn on Monday. It supposed to not be windy that day. Kyle had been continuing to run, but has yet again injured his old man hamstring so he thinks he's out for the season. Which is too bad, we had been hoping to all go to Kansas City and watch him run this summer, but it looks like that will no longer work.

Rachel: We have started a new Body and Soul session. I know all the songs except for one, which I don't have to have learned until Wednesday so I'm in good shape for that. We have had several people over lately, reminding me of how much I enjoy that. So that has kept me busy. I feel like we're getting into a bit of a groove now, so maybe I'll get better at continuing to have people over. I don't have anything else new going on with me. I'm the boring one in this house!

Luke: Luke will officially be 2 1/2 tomorrow!!! Time sure does fly! Luke went fishing with Kyle (I posted about that already) but here are some more pictures from that evening.

Luke is still learning, but he is doing much better at being gentle with Leta. We still have a long way to go. I can now be standing several feet away from Leta while they are in the same room for like...maybe a minute or two now! But ALWAYS within seeing distance.

Last night Luke and I went on a "Love Date". Leta and Kyle stayed home and we went to Chick-Fil-A to eat (his choice). It was cold and rainy so we didn't play in the play land but we did get to go to Target afterward!!! I let him pick out a book because it was our "special date". We had fun and I enjoyed getting to spend time with just him since there isn't much of that anymore with me needing to protect Leta from him so much.

Leta: Is now 3 months old. We went to the doctor this past Monday because she was so congested etc. just to get her checked out. She weighed (with wet diaper and clothes) 12lbs 8oz. She had fluid in her ear and I was told to watch for not wanting to suck and a temperature. Which developed yesterday. Which on the plus side, meant we got great naps out of her all day long! Unheard of! But, the poor girl felt horrible so that was no good. I emailed her Dr. and we both assume she went ahead and got her first ear infection. (Luke has never had one before) So she's breaking us in on that front. The ear infection is why she and Kyle stayed home last night.

Seen and Heard

Picture of Luke on his first fishing trip to the pond in the back yard. He caught 4 fish with Kyle. They used dried blueberries for bait. I didn't go out because I've been having horrible allergies lately, so this picture was taken with Kyle's cell phone.

Luke mastered his first memory verse today!!!

Matthew 19:14

Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

I am one proud mama!!! We're working on a few others as well. I have a Steve Green 2 disc set, one is a CD of like 20 scripture songs, the other is a DVD with 14 scripture songs with videos. We've been watching a few of them during Bible time.

New Meal plan that I'm half way done with already!

Luke has become quite possessive lately. Here he is NOT sharing his Cream of Wheat with me. "These are mines, Mommy. You can get your own in the pantries." I hear this every time I ask for a bite of something he has.

Leta dying Easter Eggs

Here's the latest meal plan. I'm 4 recipes into it and just now getting around to posting it. I guess I should also add, that Luke is awake from his nap and playing (i.e. thumping LOUDLY) around in his room...and Leta is awake from her nap and... well...crying on and off in her crib. And here I sit, blissfully ignoring both of them and blogging. Does that say something about my priorities? Or maybe that my 45 minute break from both of them at once, just wasn't quite enough today!!!

Kyle left for the lake house this morning. He's getting the boat serviced today for the summer (yea!!!!!) and he's going fishing tomorrow with Fireman Paul (his workout friend from the gym). So I'm home alone until Monday! I've been considering early retirement from motherhood. Both kids have colds.

Chili Cheese Fries Casserole (from the last meal plan...I didn't make it, so I just carried it over)

Creamy Chicken Penne

Greek Chicken Pasta

Crockpot Chicken Burrito

Creamy Pasta Primavera

Audra's Beef Strogonoff

Ham and Ricotta Stuffed Chicken

Feta Stuffed Chicken

Hamburgers

French Toast

Extras:

Granola Bars, Pizza, Chicken Strips, Guacamole, Strawberry Shortcake

We had some friends over for supper and I made the Crockpot Chicken Burrito. For some reason I CANNOT estimate accurately how much of that stuff to make...I made WAY to much. It was ridiculous. We had the guacamole to go with it and I made our first Strawberry Shortcake of the season.

Strawberry Shortcake

1lb strawberries, hulled and halved or quartered

3T powdered sugar

1 c heavy cream

---

2 c flour

1/4 c sugar

1 T baking powder

pinch of salt

1 c heavy cream

Preheat oven to 400. Grease a baking sheet. To make the shortcakes, sift flower into bowl. And sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix well. Gradually add cream, stirring with a fork. Gather clumps, but don't knead. Shape into a 6" log. Cut into 6 slices. Place on baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar. Bake 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

Mash 1/4 of the strawberries with the powdered sugar and the rest of the cut berries. Let stand at room temperature for an hour. Serve with whipped cream.

---Notes: I made a double batch of the shortcake. I don't recommend doing this. They turn out better if you just do two batches separately. I had a hard time stirring that amount, and as a result, I think I over-worked the dough. The cakes came out not quite as well as normal. Not bad, just not my best work. So it could be the double batch or that I let Luke help and he spilled some of it and maybe more baking powder got spilled than should have etc. Who knows. Anyway..they were still good and no one complained! But when it's company and a husband whose taste buds only say, "yummy!" who would complain?!? ...I guess that would be me =)

Okay....off to get the kids from their naps.

Random Thoughts Thursday

I think this is the sweetest picture ever.

Our Spring session for Body and Soul begins April 5th. There are classes all over the metro (all different varieties, too!). The class I co-teach is at Quail Springs church of Christ MWF from 9:15-10:15 with FREE childcare. There is a 2 for 1 discout. So a current student can bring a brand new person and they will each receive 50% off. Each class is $3.50. If you have any questions just comment.

Easter is coming up. I'll have to do an Easter post. Luke and I decorated eggs on Tuesday as our "structured play time" (that part was for you Audra =)) Last year it was rainy so he had to hunt eggs inside. It's supposed to be nice on Sunday so hopefully he'll get to hunt outside this year. Leta will probably get the shaft. She's too little for Easter. Luke is excited for a chocolate bunny. On his "New Veggie Tales In The Sink" as he refers to "Rack, Shack, and Benny" they sing, "The Bunny Song" which he really enjoys and now has his heart set on a chocolate bunny for Easter. We'll see if the Easter bunny provides or not =).

We've had great weather here lately. Very warm. Very windy. It's nice to be able to get outside more.

I'm enjoying our At Home Day schedule. Luke likes it too, although when I told him it was Chore Time, he said, "Is chore time over?" BUT he did get to work the dust buster today, and he was all about that. It's helping our mornings to feel like they're going faster and I'm accomplishing our bible time, which was something I've said I wanted to do with him for quite some time now, but never actually did. We read about Noah out of "a real" bible this morning.

Kyle and Traver's opportunity to buy that website didn't work out. So now they're building a new timeshare website. It will be www. TimeshareClassifieds dot com. It's not up yet so there isn't anything to look at. He's been busy working on the resort database and had a little personal party yesterday after his completion of all the Florida resorts. (There are about 500).

This post doesn't seem that random to me, just sort of update-y. Oh well.

Kyle and I had our first date night since Leta was born. Actually since...well, I don't remember when. Mabye our anniversary this past summer? That is sad. Needless to say, we were excited about our 2 1/2 hours of freedom. We went out to eat and EACH ordered dessert (which neither one of us could finish and had to bring home) and then we went to the grocery store.

Kyle decided he wanted apple pie for his birthday. I think that was my first apple pie all the way from scratch myself. When we made them growing up, mom always had the filling canned from our own apple tree, so I could just dump a jar of that in. It turned out really well. Brandon and Shanna Hayes came over with supper that Sunday night and helped us eat it.

Also, that Sunday was the first time for the Oakdale church of Christ to meet. It is a church plant of the Memorial Road church of Christ. We met in a different area of MR for worship last Sunday. There were probably close to 100 in attendance (including children). It was mostly younger families with younger kids, so we were happy to see that. We will continue to meet in Memorial Rd. until September when we'll move to meeting in the Oakdale Elementary school. We'll meet there until the new building is finished. I am very excited about this new church plant and have every reason to hope that it will have all the things I LOVE about Memorial Road with out the massive size. I think we will be very happy there.

Leta should be waking soon to eat so I need to go finish my "Me" time by reading one of the 3 books I'm working on: Becoming Childwise, Making the Terrible Two's Terrific and Training Hearts, Teaching Minds. I don't know if all this reading will equip me or make me feel like a failure. We'll see! = P