Celebrating Birthday with Cy

Cy invited Emily to celebrate her birthday at last weeks WBB game. She received a birthday card signed by Coach Fennely, the team, and Cy. We also got free tix and cupcakes! It was a fun experience. At this age, Rob and I do a lot of work and the kids could really care less about watching the game.

Yummy Snow Cream

We made this for afternoon snack (probably not super nutritious). It feels special since it is my MIL recipe. The kids enjoyed helping make the ice cream, normally I would have had them collect the snow, but I spared them from that task as it is -2 degrees out! They had the first helping with chocolate syrup, and the second helping (I know!) with sprinkles. Now that they are are sugared up, I hope Robert comes home from work early today.

The snow cream melts fast, I also put the extra in the freezer for Rob to enjoy later.

I heart weelicious

I have been making several recipes from weelicious.com the last couple of months. The snack recipes have been a big hit around here. It is nice to give the kiddo's something with less sugar, and no preservatives. Let's face it, most snacks don't stay around here long enough to need to "last" long anyway. My two current favorite recipes are the Graham Crackers, and the Oatmeal bars.

Emily and Dallas are currently on their 3rd oatmeal bar of the day.

lettuce wraps (or boats in our case!)

Picture and recipe from Kayln's Kitchen

We had these tonight for dinner, see recipe below. I made several changes. We used shredded pork (we had on hand), I didn't have fish sauce so I subbed peanut sauce, which was delicious, and we used romain lettuce leaves which made it less wrapy and more boat-like. We layered all the ingredients and then just sauced the top.

Asian Lettuce Wraps (or Cups) with Pork, Napa Cabbage and Red Bell Pepper
(Makes about 8 lettuce wraps or 4 main-dish servings, recipe adapted from The South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook.)


Dressing:

3 T Fish Sauce (I'm partial to Three Crabs Fish Sauce which I discovered from The Perfect Pantry)
3 T rice vinegar (not seasoned rice vinegar which contains sugar)
2 tsp. garlic puree or finely minced fresh garlic
2 tsp. ginger puree or finely minced fresh ginger
1 tsp. Asian sesame oil
pinch red pepper flakes

1 lb. pork cutlets (I used two large pork loin chops, cut in half crosswise and pounded thin)
salt and fresh ground black pepper, to season pork before cooking
1 T peanut or canola oil
2-3 cups shredded napa cabbage (less than half a head, sliced thin)
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
8 leaves Boston, Iceberg, or Romaine lettuce, washed and dried

In a small bowl whisk together the fish sauce, rice vinegar, garlic puree, ginger puree, sesame oil, and red pepper flakes. Set dressing aside.

Thinly slice the napa cabbage and cut the red bell pepper into strips. Put napa cabbage and bell pepper strips into a bowl and toss together. Wash lettuce and spin dry or dry with paper towels.

Cut pork chops in half to make thin cutlets, then pound with a meat mallet (or something heavy) until the pork is about 1/4 inch thick. (Next time I would pound mine a bit thinner than the photos.) Season pork with salt and fresh ground black pepper on both sides. Heat oil in heavy frying pan and cook pork cutlets until lightly browned on both sides, about 2-3 minutes per side. Cut the cooked pork into thin strips and toss with about 2 T of the dressing mixture.

Toss the napa cabbage and red pepper mixture with 2 T of the dressing mixture. Then assemble lettuce wraps or cups by putting 6-8 strips of pork in each lettuce leaf, topped with a small handful of the napa cabbage and bell pepper mixture. I like to add about a teaspoon of extra dressing on top. Fold over or cup in your hand and enjoy!

If you're not going to eat all the lettuce wraps at once, toss the cooked pork with dressing but only add dressing to as much of the napa cabbage/bell pepper mixture as you're going to use. Refrigerate ingredients separately. I reheated the pork strips when I ate the leftovers, but it's not essential.

snowblower

Rob is on the hunt for a bigger (more manly) snowblower. Ames is done selling them. All the places that sell such things have moved on to BBQ pits. Do you have any left in your neighborhoods? We would love to hear about it!

things that are about lately

- I am loving the faces I get from Dallas when I ask him to shut his eyes, he can even wink! It is some crinkly cute face goodness, that I can't get enough of
- today I had a diet Coke, and it has literally turned my day around
- Noelle is back to a three hour feed and wake sched at night, YEAH!
- Dallas was up all night, kept coming to find me, we figured out at 4:30ish in the morning he had a pooped diaper (such a rariety at night) by then it had burned his skin, no-wonder he couldn't sleep, poor kid. We thought he was repeating last weeks Wed night madness and not sleeping between 1 and 4:00 am (this is why the dc saved my day)
- Emily has been making some fantstic Valentine's Day crafts. Her dollhouse is ready for the holiday. I will have to post a picture, she cut out the hearts perfectly, her fine motor skills have changed so much in the last year.
-we start up ballet again tonight, this session comes with a performance!
-Rob and I are doing the 4 Hour Body diet from Tim Ferris. Can you believe I have not had sugar since Sunday. The first two days were crazy for me, I know I am a sugar junkie, I crave it after every meal, which I really realized this week. The only slip ups I have had are eating fruit, I love fruit, I have had two apples and two banana's, but I haven't slipped up on the white stuff yet, yeah me! Oh and a dc (you are allowed 16 oz of diet soda a day, and I had a small fountain, maybe 12 oz?)
- Rob got new shoes, they are very "Matt Good", love it!

little Noelle at 4 months

Little Noelle had her 4 month well check this morning. It was a relaxing visit, Rob met me at the clinic and played with Dallas and Emily in the reception area. I had plans for them this morning, but they were foiled by the 2 hour delay for the schools.

Noelle is still growing great.
She weighs 13 lbs on the button, and is 23.5" long. I remembered to ask the Dr.'s opinion on what her eye color might end up, his guess was hazel. He said they would probably be brown by this point if they were going to be brown as that is a dominate gene. Although they are blue some days, they are not as light as the siblings, we were going to guess hazel too!

When we got home, I put Noelle to sleep, her appt. was prime napping time. I got Dallas and Emily bundled up in their snow gear and headed out to play/shovel/ride the sled I pulled.
Dallas wouldn't keep his mittens on, and got very cold hands. It was a lot of fun, and we were out for longer than I expected, but getting them dressed and undressed is sure a chore. I am totally wishing for a mud room. There are currently 4 pairs of snow pants, coats, boots, hats and gloves strewn about everywhere, plus dirty snow water on the floor.

He loves his Buzzy PJ's, this is the second time he has spent all day in them!
Look at her cuteness

Em's first payday. She got a lesson on giving, saving and spending, and decorated three envelopes for her system

In other news

- Noelle has croup

- Dallas and Em both had fevers 1 day each this week

- Rob and I have had the same head cold the last couple of days

- taking three kids to the Dr. is harder than most of my workouts, they shouldn't even accept seeing family's with kids under 3 in the afternoon

- Emily earned her first commission this week after completing her first week of work

- I haven't had to clear the table or wipe it down this week, or put away her clothes or her brothers!

- Robert completed week one of his new gigs, he hit a few snags with the sound absorption in his office, but he now has that figured out

- Emily has two loose teeth! how can that be, it makes me want to freeze time

- the night that followed the post that Noelle won't sleep, ironically had us up from 1 -5:00 am for Dallas, Noelle slept 3 hours at a time

- we invested some Christmas "fun" money into a PSP3 move, it is fun, looking forward to playing with Rob more often

Little Blue Truck

Dallas (2 yr) and mommy reading Little Blue Truck

mom jeans, do you wear them or do they wear you?

I found this article crazy funny and enlightening, as I am working off the last 10lb of Noelle weight so I can get into all my jeans. I don't usually read this blog, but catch it now and again. These women did a great study, with pictures on "mom jeans" how and where those back pockets should be placed. It is a must read! (not saying I know anyone who wears their jeans this way, just think it is good info!) Now who wants to come over and take pictures of my butt in jeans so I can see them objectively?

Blog on mom jeans and avoiding the dreaded long butt look

little Noelle and my need for REM sleep

A question for all of you mamma's. Noelle has been waking every 1.5 - 2 hours a night for the last week or so. This is really not working out for me so well. I have read that at four months they go through a little sleep disruption, I guess this might be it.
I feel like I need a new plan of attack. As they say the only consistency is my inconsistency! Do I go to her every 1.5 hour, do I stick her paci back in, do I feed her each time? One of the problems is she seems to be getting out of her swaddle. She often gets at least one arm out if not both, and then bats her head with them, sometimes putting them in her mouth, which I think she does find soothing. I would like to drop the swaddle now or soon, I really don't want to invest in some fancy swaddle garments.
She has never slept through the night nor do I expect her too, although if she did I wouldn't argue. She does usually sleep 3-5 hours the first time being put down and then wake 1 or 2 times a night.

She is a pretty good napper during the day, she has just developed a fairly good morning nap where she will sleep 1.5 hours, and then naps in the afternoon a couple of times.

Soooooo, what to do. I need a plan, and need to stick to it. How do I break the swaddle habit?

HELP!

Our train Engineer
Rob's cousin is also following his dreams, his recently published book, he did the artwork, order here

Dallas is steering and Emily is running the gas, safe?

Fun to make a potholder with Em, did we all do these as kids, a classic!

sisters

lately on my mind

Emily woke up a couple nights ago wanting a new shirt, her pj top was to wet. She drooled herself awake, so cute!

Dallas is really into books, he wants to read "Little Blue Truck" over and over. If you pause at the right spots he will say "beep" and "moo", but he uses "moo" for all the animals!

I puked myself into the New Year. Embarrassingly enough it started in the driveway of our friends house. No one else has gotten sick which is great, and I am down 5 lbs, great way to start 2011

Rob has started his new gigs, figuring out how to make an office have ample sound absorption figures to be harder than we thought

Noelle is also a drooly little girl, I think it is because she spends more time sitting or standing so her mouth is draining South. She is quite the fashionista as the droolyness gets her 3 or 4 outfits a day