Walk & Ride

Friday morning the boys and I went out for a walk. Well, I walked and the boys rode in the Gator. Carson had this Superman cape and belt on prior to leaving and wanted to keep wearing it. Then he wanted to wear it while riding his bike. The black sunglasses complete the look!

Andrew thought the garage needed to be swept with the shopvac. I guess he still needed his bike helmet to do this. Safety first!!

Fort Rapids Resort

This past Saturday and Sunday we spent at the Fort Rapids Resort in Columbus. We went as a family to celebrate our 10th Anniversary. It is an indoor water park. We got there around 2:00 on Saturday afternoon. I'm not sure when the last time it was that the boys stayed in a hotel. Perhaps 2 years ago while traveling to The Outer Banks? They were so amazed when we entered the lobby area. It was grand, several stories open area. Andrew kept saying "wow!" and "This is incredible!!" Too cute.

We were able to check into our room and promptly change to head down to the water park. It was very busy that afternoon. We stayed for a little over 2 hours and Carson was ready to head back up to the room. Carson gets a little overwhelmed in new places especially if there are a lot of people. He was pretty attached to me. Wouldn't even stay with Chad, well he did but was crying.

We all headed back to the room. The boys thought their bunk beds were pretty neat. There were two walls surrounding the bunk bed like a fort or log cabin. Here they are on the top bunk peaking down at me.

And here they are on the top bunk watching their own flat screen TV mounted to the one fort wall. Pretty exciting!!

We went out to eat that evening. The Resort wasn't in the nicest part of Columbus and we spent quite a bit of time driving around trying to find a place to eat. We finally settled on Subway - it was probably the third one we passed! After Subway we found a Graeter's ice cream for some tasty ice cream.

It was a little tricky getting Carson to sleep that night. He is still in a phase where he sleeps much better in familiar settings. This was not his room or his bed! I was a little afraid that one or both of the boys might fall out of bed that night. Carson still sleeps in his crib and Andrew is used to sleeping in a double bed. (or the floor of our room) The bunk bed railing on the top bunk was not much higher than the mattress. So after the boys were asleep, I took some pillows off our bed and put them on the floor next to the bunk. After the boys were asleep we didn't hear anything out of either one of them. At 5:45 I got up to go to the bathroom. On my way back to bed I decided to check on the boys. I could see the hotel blue blanket on top of the white pillows on the floor. I took a step closer to look at Carson on the bottom punk, but I kicked him! He was asleep on the floor. I guess he fell out of bed at some point and stayed on the floor. Good thing the pillows were there. I can't believe I didn't hear him.

We had planned on staying around on Sunday to play at the water park. Our check out of room time was 11am but we could stay at the water park until it closed, 10pm. But we weren't real thrilled with their lockeroom facilities at the water park. We opted to head down to the water park at 9am when it opened and stay til 10:30. This way we could shower and get ready in the room prior to check out.

The water park was pretty empty Sunday morning compared to Saturday afternoon. It was great! Carson wasn't quite as attached to me and by the end really enjoyed racing me down one of the slides. I would have liked going down the large water slides but couldn't remove him long enough to get away. Andrew loves the water! He enjoyed the slides, playing basketball, the lazy river, and often you found him floating around under water. There was a 40 ft. high play tower to climb. There were water guns and hoses along the climb to squirt people. The very top was a large barrel that would fill with water and dump out tons of water. Quite the splash!!

After checking out from the hotel we headed into down town Columbus for lunch. We ate at Northstar Cafe. (If you click on 'Cafe's', you can see their menu) Chad had heard of this restaurant at the Food, Inc film he went to last week. It was a great restaurant! I would definitely suggest this restaurant if you are in downtown Columbus. Wish we had known about it when we were there for convention a few weeks ago.

Wedding Entrance

A friend of mine posted this. It really made me smile and laugh. Perhaps this is how Chad and I and our wedding party should have made our entrance ten years ago. Would not have happened!!

Chad and I were able to spend a week together without the boys in early May in Texas. We went there for an annual meeting of Chad's. So to celebrate our anniversary, we decided to have a family fun weekend. Today we are heading to Fort Rapids Resort in Columbus. It is an indoor waterpark at a hotel. We plan on having lots of fun with the boys, spending the night there. They don't know we are going yet, but I think they will be pretty excited!!

July 24, 1999

Ten years ago today, we said "I do."

It is hard to believe that 1o years have passed since then. (Have we aged?) Time really goes fast. I had thought about posting pictures of us through the years, but I am having trouble finding pictures of the two of us. (I will try to do better at taking pictures of the two of us in the next 10 years.) Or maybe I just am being too selective, I don't like the pictures for one reason or another.

What has happened in those 10 years? Lets name a few of the major things...

6 moves, 5 of which were in Ohio. We are touring the state. :) Making many great friends along the way

4 years of medical school, 1 year of internship, 3 years of residency & now nearly 2 years of being an Ophthalmology attending

3 different nursing jobs, well 4 if you count the week long orientation in Erie, PA

2 baby boys were born

It's been a great ten years. Looking forward to many many more years together.

Carson the chipmunk

This is what Carson does when eating grapes. He places one grape in each cheek. It looks really hilarious with bigger grapes than what he had today. You can actually see his teeth in this picture! Normally his teeth don't show when he smiles.

Oh, DEER!!

The deer have been really rough on our hostas recently. I like to see the deer around our yard but I do NOT like that they eat our plants. Good thing Chad rigged up a fence around our garden!! We have been using Tree Guard on our plants. This is something our neighbor recommended. It worked well last summer and this summer until just recently.

I think this is the lone hosta that has not been touched. I love how full it is.

These four as well as the next picture are directly in front of our house. They are even nestled back in a bit between our garage and front porch. Doesn't phase the deer! (I'm not sure you can really tell in the picture but they are well eaten off of! If you click on the picture to see it bigger you will be able to tell.)

These are in our backyard, back along the trees. They have totally demolished these hostas...
as well as these hostas and the one eyed Susan's blooms were almost ready to open!
They have not eaten these flowers. I love the tiny little flowers within these flowers!
Maybe next year we should only plant flowers and plants that the deer aren't supposed to eat. But I really like the hostas!! Dumb Deer

Food, Inc.

Chad went to Columbus tonight to see the film Food, Inc. I'm excited to hear what he thought of it. He thought the film was only going to be in Columbus this week, but because of the demand and response the film has received they are keeping it two more weeks. Check your local movie theatre. I think the film will make you think about what you are eating.

Swimming Lessons

The boys have had swimming lessons the past two weeks. They have them Mon. - Thurs. at 9 am for two weeks. It is the middle of July, so you would think that it would be warm even hot but it is not! It has been really chilly at 9 the past few mornings!! Reminds me of polar bearing at Little Eden!

Innitially I had signed Carson up for the Level 1 group. I was hoping he would do this, that way I wouldn't have to get in. But the first day he would not get in the water with out me. I really don't think it is a water thing; it is a Momma's boy thing and being overwhelmed by new people. So we did the parent child class again this year. Most sessions he has done well, but sometimes he lets his true "twoness" shine through. He can be very vocal "Not this way, that way!" - when he would rather play in the shallow water than swim in the deeper water. He loves jumping in the pool from the side, climbing the ladders, doing the songs we do - like The wheels on the bus, and playing with the pool toys. It has been nice that two of our neighbors and a friend from church have also been in the parent child class the past two weeks. This weekend we were at my parent's house. By the end of the day on Sunday, he was swimming by himself in their pool with just little arm floaties on!

Andrew is in the Level 2 group this summer. He is doing very well. He has no fear of putting his head in the water this year. He is actually swimming! He puts his head in the water and does several arm strokes and leg kicks before standing back up to take a breath and wipe off his face. :) Floating/swimming on his back still intimidates him a bit.

Tomorrow is their last day. It is supposed to be a party day. They will have free time. The water for the slides and fountains will be on, as it is when the pool is open in the afternoons. However it has been raining here all afternoon and evening - something we really needed! And looks like it should continue tomorrow. So we shall see.

Potty training???

So Carson is 2 1/2 years old, 32 months now. He really doesn't seem to be too interested in getting rid of diapers. He really doesn't want to sit on the toilet. But he no longer wants to lay down for me to change his diaper. I do standing up diaper changes now, except for the messy ones. The diapers can sometimes be difficult to fasten or get on properly when he is standing.

I thought I would give pull ups a try. I got him some Diego pull up pants. They have a cool alert when they get wet and they have either a back pack or frogs image on the front that disappear when wet. I told him he didn't want to lose his back pack/frogs. The first couple times he wore these after he would urinate, he would pull down his shorts and look to see if the images were still there. Then he would say "Me want another one" and he would go off to his room to get a new pull up. Sometimes he would even pull the wet one off and put a new dry one on! I can handle this! Except he pulled one off after he went #2, not so good.

But now he doesn't even care if he wets them. So since they are more expensive than normal diapers we are going back to normal diapers till he shows more interest in potty training. I really don't feel up to forcing a strong willed 2 1/2 year old to potty train if he isn't interested. He will do it sometime.

He is trying to become very independent as well. I hear "No, me do it." often through out the day. He wants to climb in and out of his car seat by himself. I have tried to just put him in when I have been in a hurry before - won't do that again. He likes to choose what he is going to wear for the day. He has a favorite little basketball type outfit. Nearly every morning when it is time to get dressed, he says "Me wear the blue ones!" Andrew never was very particular about what he wore. However he did go through a stage when he had to have socks and tennis shoes on at all times - only exception being nap/bed time.

Here is a picture of what Carson did one time when I asked him to go get a new pull up. I guess he thinks the pull ups make a better hat!

Blueberries

Monday evening the four of us went blueberry picking. We went to this place called Z Blueberry Farm. This is the same place we went last year. They are organically grown, if you pick them they are $2.00 a pound. But they do this thing called "going halves" where they get half of what you pick and then you get the other half for free! I love free but when you spend all that time picking 8 1/2 # that really cuts into the amount you bring home, 4 1/2#.

Andrew did a pretty good job picking. He picked 1# himself. Carson fell asleep in the car on the way to the farm. He slept in the car for about 30-45 minutes and then joined us picking berries. I think his little nap was a good thing. Blueberry picking for hours is not much fun for a 2 year old.

One bad thing about this particular farm is that there is poison ivy everywhere. Last year we didn't realize this and I got poison ivy. I told a friend that we picked blueberries several weeks later and she asked if we got poison ivy. At the time I hadn't made the connection between the two. So this time we wore jeans and long sleeve shirts and I had Chad stop at the office to get me a pair of gloves!! Thankfully it was a cool evening. Hopefully we won't get it this year. I told Chad the reason they do this "going halves" is because they don't want to go out there and pick and risk getting poison ivy!! :)

Here are the all the blueberries we picked (minus the ones we munched on) being prepped for a pie and the rest for freezing.

I made my first blueberry pie. And I must admit that I was pretty proud of the way it turned out! :) I got the recipe from our friend Sarah's blog. She also just posted a recipe for Blueberry Lemon Squares that I might have to try. Andrew won't eat plain blueberries but he thought this pie was pretty yummy with some ice cream! The recipe calls for 3 pints of blueberries, which really made a big dent into the blueberries we picked! I guess we will have to go pick again, maybe we will just pay for everything we pick this time.

Days of Elijah

My cousin Jill and Eben had a baby boy this week and named him Elijah. I was telling the boys about their new little second cousin and told them his name. I said/sang "You know,...These are the Days of Elijah...." And Carson promptly started singing "There's no God like Jehovah, There's no God like Jehovah" I am amazed how they are like little sponges! and the things they remember at times are amazing!

I am supposed to lead songs this week at church. I asked the boys what songs they wanted to sing and of course they said "There's no God like Jehovah!!" I responded that I didn't know how to play guitar and that seemed like a guitar song. Andrew said he could teach me how to play guitar. How very thoughtful of him, but he doesn't really know how to play. If I learned from him, I'm positive the song would be a huge flop.

Chad stumbled upon this video, I think it was when he was looking up information for Convention. This shows that you don't need to know how to play guitar to sing this song. Unfortunately our small church does not have voices like this! I like how the sign language adds a nice touch and the very end when they slow it down... the harmony gives me goose bumps.

July 4th Weekend

Last Friday morning (July 3rd) the four of us and Bradley & Lucca headed into Columbus for the Mennonite Convention 2009. Renee (Bradley's wife) and Barb & Byron (Chad's parents) were at Convention since Tues. of last week. We enjoyed being with that large group of Mennonites, worshiping, attending seminars, taking in the hymn sing and running into friends and family. Being there reminded me of the two Conventions I went to with our youth group and the meaningful times we had there.

As we pulled into the parking garage that morning, the parking attendant asked if we were staying for the fireworks that evening. Columbus has a huge fireworks display called "Red, White & Boom". Chad & I went to it two years ago and watched it from a balcony of a condo the one physician has. It was pretty spectacular. We hadn't mentioned the fireworks to the boys at all because they weren't supposed to start until 10pm. We weren't sure how the boys would be at that time! But Andrew heard the attendant mention them, so periodically throughout the day Andrew would ask about them. After the hymn sing and staying till intermission of the musical following, we decided the boys were pretty tired. We told Andrew we would drive back home and watch the fireworks at home. As we were driving into town we could see the fireworks and pulled in to watch the last few minutes. But at least we saw them and didn't have a very disappointed little boy!!

Saturday morning we packed up and headed to West Liberty for the rest of the weekend. We spent the day with both of Chad's brothers and their families. On Sunday after church some of Chad's Kauffman cousins arrived for a little family get together. It was fun to see all of them. Three out of the four sisters were there. We had a fun afternoon which included a wonderful lunch, a wagon ride pulled by the tractor, a softball game, and wonderful fellowship. Here are some pictures from the day.

Emma & Lucca being silly before jumping off the picnic table
Carson with his hard hat

Lucca & Bradley

Anna's mighty swing

The softball game

The Kauffman clan - minus a few

Standing - Alan & Tisha, Bradley & Renee, Roger & Cheryl, Heater, Nate, Susan, Brenda, Chad & me

Sitting - Lucca, Leah, Emma, Barb & Byron, Anna, Carson, Andrew, Ingrid

Fun times!

The basement, pretty much complete

The end of last week was pretty eventful here. Thursday morning the men arrived to install the carpet in the basement. They were here all day working on that. I really wanted to see what it looked like!! After they left around 5:00, we all went downstairs to run around on the soft new carpet!

Shortly after that Chad's brother Bradley and daughter Lucca arrived. We were excited for their visit and enjoyed spending time with them. They were the first people to stay in our newly finished guest room! We had one small problem though, the queen box springs that has been set up in Carson's room for two years now would not fit down the stairs to the basement. It was SOoooo close, but it just wouldn't fit. The mattress did make it down to the new guest room and Bradley and Lucca slept on that on the floor. I looked on the Internet and they do make a split queen box springs - which is what we need I guess. I was really looking forward to getting that out of Carson's room!! For now, I just leaned the box springs up against the wall in his room to give us a little more room in there. Here are some pictures of the wall to wall furniture in Carson's/guest room prior to finishing the basement.

This is the guest room in the basement. It was kind of hard to take a very good picture of the space but there you go. Mattress on floor. The quilt was made by my Grandma Short for our wedding. The wall color we had actually purchased with the intention of painting our living room the darker color and hallway the lighter color on our main level. But when we started painting the living room we didn't like the color with the color of our kitchen. So we used it down here instead! One problem with the carpet install, now the doors don't fit back up! They need to be trimmed in order to hang. It really only affects this room, the entry door and the closet sliding doors. When we thought we were almost done, yet more work for Chad.

It will be so nice to have this space for our guests and now Carson won't have to sleep in the pack-n-play in our room whenever we have guests! :)

The finished space (office, hallway, guest room and bathroom) is to the left when you come down the stairs to the basement. To the right is a large open partially finished space. Chad painted the brick walls and we had carpet put down in this space as well. In the collage below, the top left picture is what you see when you come down the stairs to your right. Wide open space to run run run! To the right in that picture is the furnace/storage room. The middle picture is an area tucked off to the left in the first picture. Lots of toys were taken off our main level and put down there. Top right picture, Andrew and Carson in there "on your marks, get set..." position. Bottom left pic - the GO! picture. They race a lot! Bottom right pic - Carson bating. He often says "batter up!" before he swings. Lots of fun. Chad and Andrew have started playing some form of dodge ball down there. Basically it consists of Andrew running around and Chad throwing balls at him. They both seem to enjoy this a lot. It's a little wild! :)

Puppies!!

Was it two weeks ago? We went to my parents' for the weekend. It was the weekend of the annual CJ Open, a golf tournament my mom's family has in honor of my grandpa. Chad and my dad golfed in the CJ Open. The boys and mom and I headed over to my aunt Elaine and Uncle Fred's house. Their dog had recently had puppies. I believe the pups were 5 weeks old here. The boys had so much fun holding the pups, watching them run around and listening to all the cute little noises they make.

The boys both enjoyed this visit to the farm. Fred and Elaine live in the house that my grandparents lived in. I have fond memories of this farm...most vivid memories of swimming in their pond, enjoying Grandma's sugar cookies and flavor ice on a swim break & playing The Ghost in the Graveyard with my cousins. (I can't remember how you play that right now - can any of my cousins help me out with this? I just remember the phrase - The ghosts are out tonight and we shall have a freight! and that most people hide while one person looks for them.)

Andrew also liked chasing the geese around the pond until they flew into the pond. The boys both liked visiting the cows. They got to sit in Fred's tractor. Elaine, Katie, Mom, the boys and I all took a ride in their Gator. The boys thought that was pretty neat since their Gator is a mini version of this one.

Thanks Katie for posting these pics on facebook for me! Thanks for sharing the pups with us and being so layed back about how the boys handled them. (it actually made me a little nervous! Carson kept grabbing them by the neck...)

A few new recipes

I have been trying to be more aware of what we are eating recently. I look at food labels more often; what are the ingredients? Here are some new things I have been trying.

The first is a cream of chicken soup. I began making this when I was avoiding all dairy/soy while nursing Carson. I would use it in recipes that called for any cream soups... cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, cream of celery.... you get the picture. I did stop making it after Carson and I were able to eat whatever we wanted again. Let's face it, it was much easier for me to just buy the can of soup. But I have started making it again. I am able to squeeze in some veggies in the boys and I would think it is better for us than the canned version. It does alter the taste and look of the recipe, some recipes more than others. This recipe makes approximately 2 cans worth.

Cream of Chicken Soup
2 cups chicken broth
2 small potatoes, skinned and chopped
1 small carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
celery leaves chopped

salt & pepper

Combine in saucepan and cook for 20 minutes. Puree in blender.


I was surprised by the long list of ingredients on the package of tortillas that I often buy. What is all this stuff??? Then I came across this recipe for homemade tortillas. They are pretty tasty. I have made them 3 times now and each time I make them they turn out better. A little learning curve for me. This last time I made them I used more like 2 cups of water and it worked out much better. If I continue making these, I might have to purchase a tortilla press. It would make it easier and take less time to make them. After I make these, I find myself counting in my head while doing things! (isn't that an OCD thing?!) You will see why when you read how to cook them! They are great for Mexican recipes and sand which wraps.

Homemade Whole Wheat Tortillas

2.5 cups whole wheat four
2.5 cups unbleached white flour
2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup olive oil
1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups boiling water (I use a little more than that, more like 2 cups)

Mix the flours and salt together. Then using your hands mix in the olive oil. Rub together until it looks a little like oatmeal. Make a well in center and pour in the boiling water. Stir together until dough forms and is neither sticky or crumbly.

Form dough into golf ball sized balls. (I would say larger, or maybe I underestimated the size of a golf ball) Let sit, covered, for at least an hour or up to 8 hours.

Roll the tortillas out or use a tortilla press. (I rolled out all the tortillas and then cooked them all)

On fairly high heat, put tortilla down on a hot ungreased non-stick pan for about 10 seconds until you see it start to bubble around the edges. Then flip it over and cook for 30 seconds, flip back over to the first side and cook for 30 more seconds.



And here is an awesome recipe that combines the two recipes I shared above. We enjoyed this several times this summer with fresh spinach from our garden. Chad thought this is a restaurant quality recipe!

Chicken Enchiladas

1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can chicken broth
8 oz. sour cream
2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
1 pkg. frozen spinach, thawed and drained well (or fresh)
2 cups grated marble cheese
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
8 large whole wheat tortillas

Preheat oven to 350.
Combine soup, 3/4 can chicken broth, and sour cream. Set aside 1 cup of this mixture.
To the other mixture add the chicken, spinach, 1 cup cheese and spices.
Divide filling between 8 tortillas. Place filling in the tortilla shell and roll up.
Place side by side in 9x13 pan.
Add the remaining 1/4 can of chicken broth to the reserved soup mixture and pour over enchiladas. Cover with the remaining cheese. Cook for approximately 30 minutes or until bubbly.