Poetry reading

Back on March 24, Andrew and the two kindergarten classes did a poetry reading for the rest of the grade school and any parents or other family members who could attend.  Both kindergarten classes were at school all day this day to prepare for the afternoon reading.  I picked Carson up a bit early from preschool so he could be there too. 

The poetry reading was so sweet.  The children did a great job and was so interesting to hear the poems read, even if it was a repeat of a poem done earlier, because each child read it so uniquely. 

Here is a photo of Andrew & his two friends reading the poem Color Monsters.

Color Monsters

Red, red

forgot his head

Blue, blue

is sick with flu

Green, green

is a dancing queen

Yellow, yellow

sat in jello

Orange, orange

squished an orange

Brown, brown

your pants fell down

Pink, pink

has feet that stink

White, white

bites at night

Black, black

plays quarterback

(these colors might be out of sequence from how he actually read it, but this is how he recited it to me just now.  This poem was very popular with the kids.  Some read the whole poem, others only read about one particular color.  Most had to gigle when saying Brown, brown your pants fell down and Green, green is a dancing queen.)

Forts

Carson is super into making forts recently.  He removes every cushion in our living room, 2 pillows from the boys' bedroom and 2 pillows from their play room and builds these fun forts.  Blankets are also a requirement.  Often he builds them on the floor but this particular day it was on top of the couch cushions.  The forts don't always last real long but they sure are fun.

 Andrew climbed in too and played a little Nintendo DS inside the fort.

I saw these cool Crazy Forts while browsing at Barnes & Noble.  I might need to get this for him sometime.  That way we can still have a place to sit in the living room!

Weekend Away

Back on February 12th, we met our good friends The Steiner Family at Kalahari Resort in Sandusky.  We had such a fun time with them at this great resort.  I made a huge sacrifice for my boys.  ;)  The thing I looked forward to the most in this pregnancy was that I am pregnant all during the Fall, Winter and Spring.  No need for a bathing suit!  Right?  Wrong! 

Of course the big attraction at Kalahari is the indoor water park, the largest indoor water park in the US.  It. was. HUGE.   It was amazing and tons of fun.  Andrew & Carson's favorite part of the water park was the wave pool.  It would have waves for approximately 15 minutes and then those would shut off and just be calm still water for approx. 15 minutes.  There were large inter tubes to float on as well.

The boys weren't tall enough to go on some of the slides and Carson didn't really want to anyways.  Andrew did go down some of the slides with Rob, Jonah & Isaac.  He thought they were pretty fun.  The boys were at a pretty good age to enjoy this place.  They are old enough that they know they need to stay with either Chad or I and they are OK with that.  In a few years it might be a different story!

After we were done swimming on Sunday the boys enjoyed this tree top play area.  Lots of fun. 

 We ate lunch at the resort and then played a round of miniature golf.  The course was pretty dark inside and light colored clothing kind of glowed. 

He never looks at the camera!

It would have been nice to have some pictures of the boys at the water park but I didn't want to take our camera in there and then not really have a safe place for it.

Sunday morning Chad and I walked the four oldest boys, (ages 7, 6, 5, & 4) down to the water park while Rob & Sarah were packing up some things.  I looked at Chad and said "People probably think we are crazy with these 4 boys and my obviously very pregnant belly."  Chad replied "Especially since you look like you are 16!"  Ha Ha!  (he doesn't think I look that young but people have been known to think that I am much younger than I actually am.)

Our Bedroom

I am not a decorator.  I wish it came naturally to me.  We moved into our current house in July of 2007, 3 1/2 years ago.  At that time all the rooms in our home were painted the same color, a really really light tan / off white.  I'm thankful that it was a nice neutral color.  We painted the kitchen and living room just prior to moving in and then Chad painted Andrew's room a few years ago and the basement after it was finished.  We had been wanting to paint our bedroom but we weren't really sure what we wanted.  This Fall Chad painted our bedroom.  Here is what we came up with.  (I don't really have a before picture, shucks!)

And another angle.  (I guess it was a very sunny day when I took these pictures and most likely the ground was covered in bright white snow....not anymore!)

The paint colors we chose were from Sherwin Williams...love it when your little brother can get you a discount!  The colors were from an Arts & Crafts brochure; 3 walls are in Twilight Gray & one accent wall Library Pewter.  We were thinking a light gray color and a dark brownish color to go with the new bedding..  It didn't exactly turn out the way I hoped, but I am happy with it.  I think the gray color looks more taupe than gray and the darker wall looks more like a dark greenish than brown.  We also got bedside tables this Fall and the Arts & Crafts style lamps that are on the tables.

 For a while now (YEARS) we have had a very mismatched linen set on our bed.  We wanted to get something new but it was really difficult for us to find something we liked.  We found these linens on Macy's website.  I also saw them on Ebay but was a bit afraid we wouldn't like them and then not be able to return them.  So we got them from Macy's, found we liked them, returned part of the order and got the rest off of Ebay for a good deal.  Here is a shot so you can have a better look at them.  We didn't get the sheets that matched the set (expensive) but found a nice enough light gray set at Home Goods as well as the down comforter that is inside this duvet cover.  We love it.

We do need some wall art or more decorative items, not too much but the room needs a little something something.  I like these cut metal wall hangings from Ten Thousand Villages.  Those might be a good possibility for the room  Right now there is a mirror on one wall and I framed 3 of our 4x6 proofs we had taken this fall.

The night Chad finished painting our bedroom he decided we also needed an updated TV in our bedroom.  The TV that was in there we got the week after our wedding back in 1999.  So hopefully our dresser won't be so top heavy anymore.  (in that link you can also sort of see a before picture of our room.)

The below picture is our guest bedroom in our lower level.  We took the linens that were previously on our bed (mismatched as they may be) and put them on the bed down there.  I liked these pillows but just got tired of moving them every evening and morning!  This room could also use some wall art.

Now I feel both rooms are more complete.

Baby Products

As you know, we are expecting baby boy #3 in about 13 weeks.  We have kept most things related to babies and toddlers so fortunately we will not need too much.  Except that this baby will be born in May and Andrew and Carson were both November babies.  There will be a few sizes of clothes that will not match up for the season;  0-3 month clothing, 6-9 month, 12-18 month, 18-24 month...that is actually more than I realized but we will make due with what we have and buy some new items when needed.  I've already purchased quite a few clearance items in the 6-9 month size for next winter!  So fun.

We needed a new infant car seat.  Our base for the car seat we used with both boys has an expiration date of Dec. 2009 on it.  Is that for wear and tear on the plastic base?  I'm not exactly sure.  But we also were having issues with the car seat locking into the base, not good.  Sometimes we would get home and realize that the car seat wasn't actually locked into the base correctly!  Or we would have issues getting it disconnected from the base.  So what do we do with this old car seat?  It's really not safe to use...do we just throw it in the trash?   I was able to find a new travel system (infant car seat, base and stroller) for a good deal.  So I will try and sell our old stroller.

We still have our crib (though it is a drop side crib which I guess aren't safe anymore) Pack-n-play, high chair, bouncy seat, swing, activity mats, exercauser, door jumpy thing...so we won't need many new items.  When Carson was born, we didn't get too many new things.  We did however get a Bumpo seat, something I wish we had when Andrew was an infant!  He always wanted to be upright - much more content that way.

But there are a few things I am wondering about, considering purchasing.  Those of you with little ones, I would love your advice!!  If something worked well for you, or didn't work so well, I would love to hear about it!!

Some of the things I'm considering have to do with nursing.  Andrew & Carson are going to be around a lot of the time when I am breastfeeding.  I feel like I need to be a little more discreet - even in my own home this time.  I was never very good at that, especially with Andrew....trying to be modest and he hated being covered with a blanket while nursing!  I actually didn't like it either, it was hot!  So I was considering one of the nursing cover ups,  The Hooter Hider or Udder Covers or some other cover up.  And I never found a nursing cami that I liked either.  I would think these would be nice, no need to have a bare abdomen exposed.  I had one, a pretty well known brand (I think it was a Glamourmom) but it just didn't work for me...for reasons I don't really need to go into here.  And what about the nursing tops, shirts that have some secret way about them to make breast feeding your baby easier.  Never had any of those.  But maybe you wouldn't need the nursing tops or nursing tanks/camis if you had nursing cover up.  Advice?

We probably need some new bottles since ours were bought before the whole BPA thing came out.  We probably won't need to use too many bottles since I'm not working this time but would like to have bottles that are BPA free for on those rare occasions that we might go on a date or something.  We had Avent bottles before and liked them.  Advice?

A baby carrier.  We have a Snuggie baby carrier but I really didn't use it very much.  I found it difficult to put on and difficult to put the baby in.  And once I did have the baby in and the Snuggie on, it just wasn't very comfortable.  It hurt my back.  So I'm wondering about a baby sling or a different kind of carrier.  Advice?

A baby monitor.  Ours has all kinds of feedback!  Not exactly something I like to hear when attempting to sleep!

And while I am thinking about baby items and asking advice.... this will be the first time we bring home a newborn to this house.  Andrew & Carson were born where we lived before.  In that house, our bedroom and the baby's bedroom were right next to each other.  The boys were in their crib, in their room from night one.  At our house here, we have a ranch and our bedroom and the baby's bedroom are as far apart as possible and still be in the same house (well unless it was downstairs).  I'm not looking forward to recovering from a C-section and having to walk clear across our house multiple times a night to feed the baby.  There is a queen size bed in the baby's room but I just want to be in my own bed.  So I am thinking the baby will be in our room for a few weeks until I feel recovered enough to make the trek multiple times a night.  I think we will probably put the Pack-n-play in our room or maybe have the baby sleep in a booster seat during that time.  Any other thoughts on that situation.

I would really like to hear from you...tell me products you liked or didn't like and why.  Thanks for your help!!  If you don't want to comment on here, send me an email.... ckkauffman@embarqmail.com.  Thanks.

Chocolate Brownie Cookies

I made these Chocolate Brownie Cookies tonight. The best of both worlds! A fudgy brownie cookie. Yum. I doubled the recipe for more cookies to snack on.

Products

There are two new products in our house that are simply making life easier and I love them.

The first is a Eureka Enviro Hard-Surface Floor Steamer. It is wonderful. It uses only water, no chemicals. It has a cloth that goes on the base of the unit that is machine washable to reuse again and again. It cleans the floor with steam. It is amazing and our hardwood floors and bathroom floors will be mopped much more often now. My only wish is that the cord was a little longer. I remember when we still lived in our house in Dayton, I said if we had another house with hardwood floors, that I would get something to help clean the floors. That was 3 1/2 years ago! But I have one now and am just a little gitty over this product! I will never mop the floors like Cinderella again!

The second product Carson & I are enjoying is a new Babysmart Cushee Booster. He hadn't been using a booster seat at the table for many months now. We had a hard plastic booster with a detachable tray. When I had the booster seat off of the chair to clean under it, (disgusting!) I noticed that the hard plastic of the booster seat was rubbing off the finish of the chair. So we stopped using it. Since then he has been so squirmy at the table. He would sit on his knees so he was tall enough at the table. Then he would get fidgety, end up standing on the lower rung of the chair and we would find ourselves saying.... sit still Carson, sit down Carson... But this booster is great! It is all one piece, no more cracks for food to hide in. It is a soft cushee foam material, so it is comfortable for him to sit in and no more rubbing off the finish of the chair. Andrew could probably still benefit from one of these as well, but I guess one is enough.

These are two products I wish we would have had for years now! And I also love amazon.com where I got both of these products!

Winter Storm

This week we are experiencing a winter storm as many other states across the U.S. are. We have mainly had freezing rain/ice and now some wind and snow. We luckily never lost power, well only flickered a few times and I will still keep my fingers crossed that we don't lose it! The wooded area behind our house was coated with ice. It was a bit eery last night listening to the branches sway and crack with the ice breaking and crashing to the ground. Mainly small branches broke off, but a couple larger ones too.

The boys have not had school yesterday or today. I wonder if they will tomorrow? Our road still looks incredibly icy but our development often has the worst roads due to the rare appearances off the snow trucks. Well actually the past two snows we have had, they did a better job of clearing the roads. The boys and I are getting a bit restless! We haven't left the house since Monday afternoon.

Today was a great day to bake bread...something I haven't really felt like doing over the past several weeks. And now I can enjoy the smell of fresh baked bread! Love the aroma! Perhaps some cookies need to be baked as well!!

Below is some of our bushes covered in ice and snow. The holly bushes....

and our crab apple tree. Really kind of pretty, especially with the red berries!

See how slick the driveway looks! I haven't even ventured out to get the mail. I really don't need my pregnant butt falling on the icy driveway.

New Recipes....2 failure and 1 success!!

I recently tried a few new recipes. The first was Roasted Pepper Soup. I thought this recipe was quite tasty. It was a heart warming, comfort soup. The three males in our house had a different opinion. They each took one little bite of the soup and decided that was enough. I guess you sort of need to like red peppers to like this soup & I should have known better than to make it for them! Even though I really liked the soup, it made a fairly large batch and I didn't want to eat the soup for every meal for the next week. So I emailed some of my near by friends asking if they would like some free soup. I had two takers and delivered my own little "meals on wheels" the next day. They each enjoyed the soup. Although I enjoyed the soup, I probably won't be making it again. That is unless I have some red pepper loving friends come for a visit and Chad and the boys are not around. Yeah, not gonna happen!

The next recipe I tried was Mushroom and Black Bean Tortilla Casserole. In my attempt I did not use mushrooms due to our mushroom fearing boys. Instead I used two cans of black beans. The boys did not like the taste of this dish. And actually, I wasn't that thrilled with the taste either. I kept thinking, This should taste really good! We love all the ingredients. Why is the taste so off? I will try this recipe again. Next time I will make my own tortillas, they are so yummy but I just didn't feel up to making them the day I made this dish. I will also buy salsa instead of using the salsa I canned. I think this might help improve the taste. And I will bake it longer than this recipe says. Mine wasn't hot enough in the center, the cheese wasn't melted.

So I guess these recipe attempts weren't necessarily failures but they didn't work well for my family. I hope the Black Bean Tortilla Casserole is much improved the next time I make it.

The recipe I made last night was Chicken & Spinach Pesto Lasagna and it was a hit! We all enjoyed it!! I found the recipe on the back of a bag of Kroger mozzarella cheese. YUM! It makes a lot for this family of four. I ended up putting some away in the freezer.

Chicken & Spinach Pesto Lasagna

Ingredients:

12 uncooked lasagna noodles (I used 9)

3 T. olive oil (I used coconut oil)

1 cup chopped onions

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 packages (12 oz each) frozen chopped spinach

3 cups cooked diced chicken breast meat

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

2 cups ricotta cheese (I used cottage cheese)

1 large egg

1-1/2 prepared pesto sauce,

plus 2 Tbsp

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Spray 13x9 casserole or lasagna pan with nonstick cooking spray. Partially cook lasagna noodles according to package directions. Spread 2 Tbsp. pesto in bottom of prepared pan.

3. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir onions and garlic until transparent. Add spinach; cook and stir about 5 minutes. Add cooked chicken and stir about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

4. In large bowl, mix together ricotta cheese, egg, pesto and Parmesan cheese until thoroughly blended. Add chicken and spinach mixture to bowl and stir to combine.

5. Layer 4 (3) lasagna noodles, slightly overlapping. Top with one third of spinach ricotta mixture and one third of mozzarella. Repeat layers twice.

6. Bake about 35-40 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Go Diego, Go!

Carson loves watching Diego these days. When it is his turn to choose a show he almost always selects Diego. At the end of each episode there are questions regarding what the show was about, usually facts about the animal the episode was about. There are two choices for the answer. Carson always chooses the wrong one, on purpose! Kind of funny.

Blog title

At the beginning of December, I had an ultrasound after having a pregnancy complication. Without going into too much detail, one of my doctors was concerned about the baby's bowel when viewing it on the ultrasound. So I was sent to a high risk OB for another US the next week. It was a nerve wrecking week, but honestly I really felt at peace about it. During that US, Chad & I were able to see the baby who at one point gave us a thumbs up! The high risk OB wasn't overly impressed or concerned but didn't say that it was perfectly normal either.

We don't do the genetic screenings that are offered during pregnancy. We feel like these screenings just tell you your risk & aren't very definitive. Plus it wouldn't change how we would proceed in the pregnancy. The high risk OB suggested we have another US in 4-6 weeks to have that US to compare with the first.

I had this US this past week. We decided to also find out the baby's gender at this time. Chad would have liked to wait and be surprised....I was ok with this but at times really wanted to know. That is the planner in me! So Chad said "I think you want to know more, than I don't want to know." So at my US last Tuesday, I didn't look while she was checking but had the tech right down on a piece of paper the gender of the baby & put it in an envelope. She actually printed out a few pictures as proof and included those in the envelope as well.

The high risk OB told me that everything looked great, nothing to be concerned about! So thankful and a wonderful answer to prayer. What a relief!!

That evening after dinner, the four of us sat down and opened the envelope....it is a boy!! We are all excited and can't wait to meet this little guy in about 14 weeks! So no need to change the title of this blog, we just need to start thinking more about little boy names! Carson likes to suggest names such as "Buzz Lightyear" & "Brittany". Andrew was quick to tell him that Brittany was a girl name, so Carson then suggested "ALVIN!!" :) I'm thinking that it might be a bit wild with 3 boys, but it will be a few years before this little one can mix it up with Andrew & Carson.

Kauffman cousin time

These cousins have so much fun together. Often they don't even need adult intervention or suggestions.

Here they are playing a game with Grandma, I think it was Bingo.
Here they are all bundled up to head outside for some sledding. They spent several hours outside sledding each day. Anna & Andrew were usually the last ones to come in.

Here is the whole crew on the couch with Bradley. I'm thinking Andrew was up to something in this picture. Pretty sure it was pure and honest orneriness!

Christmas with the Kauffmans

Sunday evening Dec. 26th we headed to the Kauffmans. We shared a late evening meal together, sang some songs, listened to scripture and a Children's story and exchanged gifts.

Below you will see Grandpa Byron, Grandma Barb, Chad with Carson, Bradley's arms holding Rowan, Renee & Lucca. Leah, Andrew & Grandpa Byron. Andrew enjoying his new tablet and pens.

Anna opening her sweater and beads to make jewelry; Tisha, Emma & Leah

Grandma Barb holding baby Rowan. He was born Nov. 5th. Fun to have a little one around again to hold and snuggle with.

We attempted a cousins picture. Oldest at the top (holding the youngest) stair stepping down to the youngest. Leah with Rowan, Anna, Andrew, Emma, Lucca & Carson. Carson held the title of youngest in the Kauffman family for 4 years but has passed the title on to Rowan....at least for a few more months until our little one is born. After attempting to get a nice picture where everyone was looking and smiling (not sure we accomplished that) we let them do whatever they wanted. Which meant crossing your legs, doing different gestures with your hands and silly faces!

Anna & Leah, with Tisha accompanying, did a little piano recital for us.

Carson holding Rowan.
I think someone is going to be a good little helper!

Christmas with the Shorts

While at my parents we were able to attend the Christmas Eve service together as well as church on Sunday morning. My Dad was chorister Sunday morning and was also asked to get some special music together. Our family and my uncle LaVon, cousin Darin & his daughter Morgan all sang that morning. It's always enjoyable for me to sing in a group, especially special with family.

Everyone in my family was at Mom & Dad's after church on Sunday for a meal, fellowship and gift opening.

My brother Ben & his little girl Abby

This twirly ribbon was really a present for Abby but Andrew seemed to really enjoy it.

The boys each received a Toy Story sleeping bag for Christmas that came with this alien eye sleep mask. Too funny.

My parents celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary Dec. 26th. My siblings & I each wrote down some favorite family memories and things we appreciated about our wonderful parents. We also gave them some money for a weekend away to celebrate. So thankful for two wonderful parents!

We were sad to miss my Mom's extended family gathering that Sunday evening but it was time for us to head to the Kauffmans. It seems to get more and more difficult to get every one's schedules to jive at Christmas!

Sledding on Christmas Eve

The boys thought it would be fun to go sledding while at my parents at Christmas. It had warmed up a little and the sun had melted some of the snow but they still thought there was enough snow on the hill to sled....that is debatable!

Andrew was all smiles and full of comments like "This is so AWESOME!"

Carson heading down the hill. Usually when he went by himself he wiped out at the bottom. One time it was really bad...head over heals, snow covering his little face and even up his nose. He wasn't too pleased with this but managed to go up the hill again. I think from then on he always recruited someone to sled with him.

Andrew was loving it!

Chad usually went down with Carson,

but he did convince Tric & Grandma to go down with him too!

Wish I had video of that! There was some screaming.