Yum!

I dreamed about making more lollipops last night...weird, I know...maybe I can blame it on being pregnant! I thought of all kinds of concoctions...one was mint oreo cookies and creme! Oh. My. Goodness. These are so good! I melted almond bark candy, mixed in a little peppermint extract and crushed oreos. I will definitely make more of these!

Candy Lollipops

I've been thinking of making some candy/cake/cookie pops to give away as little treats during the holidays. The "pop" just seems so fun! I've found some ideas that I'd really like to try, but here's one that I did today. My first time making candy lollipops. I used a pumpkin mold. They are super easy, but I only have one mold that can make seven. That's all we made today:) I'll have to purchase some real ribbon to tie the bags instead of the kids' craft yarn:) These are mint chocolate flavored...

A New Recipe

I forgot which website I found this idea from first, but I've seen it on a few. Let me tell you, the girls LOVED it! All you do is line a muffin tray with foil muffin cups, insert a deli slice of ham into each cup, and then pour a mixture of egg, sausage, and cheese into each cup. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or so and you've got a delicious breakfast! I think it would be great for a brunch or something like that.

For twelve muffin cups:

*Brown (do you use the word brown for sausage?) 1 lb sausage, but use only 1/2 lb. I saved the other 1/2 for calzone stuffing I'll make later this week.

*Beat six eggs and mix with a handful or so of chedder cheese

*Mix the eggs and cheese with the sausage

*It takes a little less than a fourth of a cup to fill each muffin cup

*You can be as creative as you like by adding other ingredients, but we are simple/picky eaters, so a protein filled cup is what we like!

Jordan kept saying, "This is SO good!" and ate 3 of them!

Some lessons this week

There is no theme here, just a couple lessons. I want to focus on numbers with Jordan this week, and colors with Rylie. The first picture shows a graph of the leaves we collected yesterday. We sorted them and glued them on the poster. Then Jordan counted them. I learned that she could tell me which column had the "most" leaves, but she did not know what the word "least" meant. Then there were two columns that were the "same."

A little side note: I'm learning that Jordan and Rylie learn different ways. Rylie loves manipulatives and *doing* things with her hands (a lot like Justin). Jordan is much more the typical "sit and get" kind of student and really likes listening and doing worksheet type stuff (a lot like me, though I really like hands on stuff too!).

Here is Rylie sorting colored blocks. I learned that she just wasn't getting me *telling* her what color things were. So, I decided to have her do a simple colored block sorting. I wasn't sure of her skill level, so I started with just one color. I asked her to find all the red blocks and put them on the red paper. She did that pretty easily, so then I put out the rest of the colored paper and she sorted them very well. Every time she put a block on a color, I said the color to get it into her brain. Eventually, I want to get to where she can pull out a a blue (or red, or green, or whatever color) just by me saying the name of the color.

Five Months

Not the best picture, but it works! Yesterday I reached 23 weeks. I sometimes have to look at my friend Marie's blog to remember what week I'm on. She's four days ahead of me. If you think of it, be sure to pray for her as she nears 24 weeks, the week she was on with her first pregnancy when her water broke. Read her story if you don't know her...it's a good one!

*I'm finally feeling the baby kick a lot and getting to see my belly move a bit. Justin and Jordan have even gotten to feel it!

*I have started gaining weight now, and several strangers have not been afraid to ask if I know what I'm having, so I must look pregnant!

*Nothing else is much different than at 4 months. The second trimester is really the best!

Meal Menu and Preparation

List of easy meals I make (or have made) *regularly*:

1. Spaghetti, homemade bread, salad

2. Lasagna, homemade bread, salad

3. Enchiladas (beef), chips/salsa, rice

4. Beef stroganoff, mashed potatoes, noodles (homemade or store-bought egg), green beans

5. Taco/chili soup, fritos or chips

6. Calzones, corn or salad

7. Pizza, corn or salad

8. Enchiladas (chicken), chips/salsa, rice

9. Chicken legs-baked, baked potato, green beans

10. Chicken breasts-mayonnaise and spices, baked potato, frozen mixed veggies

11. Chicken breasts-chex or fried onion dipped, baked potato, frozen mixed veggies

*Can pretty much have ingredients for all of these on stock and ready to go without having to run to the store (if I plan and make preparations regularly).

Justin lunch list:

1. Left overs

2. Peanut butter and jelly

3. Lunch meat (peppered turkey and Monterey Jack cheese)—special lunch because I’m learning that deli meat and cheese is a bit expensive!

4. Egg Salad sandwich

Meal preparation:

1. Cook bulk beef and freeze ½ lb baggies (need for 1^st 7 recipes)

2. Combine a few bags of beef with cut up pepperoni, salami, mushrooms, and cheese for calzone stuffing.

3. Cook whole chicken in crockpot and freeze in 1 cup baggies (need for chicken enchiladas). I’m thinking about doing this around thanksgiving with turkey that’s on sale and cooking in our roaster.

4. Boil eggs for eggs salad

5. If get homey enough, pre-make beans for taco soup in bulk and freeze in 1 cup baggies.

6. Cook several cups of rice and freeze in 1 cup baggies.

Girls’ lunch list:

1. Left overs for sure!

2. Peanut butter and jelly

3. Grilled cheese and tomato soup

4. Chicken nuggets

Gymnastics

Last week, the girls started their gymnastics classes. Rylie in the month-long two year old class, and Jordan in the 4 year old academy class. Jordan has already been learning skills on the balance beam, rings, and bars. She does a great job, though it would help if she was a bit more flexible. Bad genetics from both her parents on that trait.

Retreat

I only took a few pictures at the retreat this last weekend. I'm sad that I didn't think of getting a picture of our first camp site. I was awake most of the night camping, but it was cool because I got to see a raccoon right outside our tent eating some chips that Jordan left out. I told Jordan about it the next day and...proud teacher moment...the first thing she did was look on the ground for its tracks!

Rylie has found a new friend. She HAD to swing next to him, have him hold her during worship, and play tag/hide and seek with her whenever she got the chance. SO CUTE!

What do you do all day?

While I'm busy trying to clean and organize this room...

...the girls are busy destroying this one! Jordan set up a little Bible study with her chairs and pillows. They did have to clean it up before nap time, though!

Our third baby is a...

BOY!

Camping Theme

This weekend is our church-wide retreat. We are really looking forward to it! We decided that we would go the camping route. I'm pretty excited about camping, since we've never done it before. Justin does not quite share my enthusiasm:) The weather looks like it's going to be just about perfect, so what better time to try it out.

So, to gear up for the weekend, I'm doing a camping theme with the girls. Not much, really, but enough to hopefully get them excited. In the perfect weather yesterday, we went outside and collected "nature" items from the yard. The girls thought everything they found was treasure. Too bad their daddy does such a great job on the upkeep of the yard...there wasn't a whole lot of variety in their treasure bags!

Today, we used their treasure to make a camping scene in a shoe box. The girls (especially Rylie) loved putting the dirt on the bottom. Maybe after their naps today, we can make some smores!

Tomorrow's the Big Day!

We get to find out if we are going to have a boy or a girl tomorrow morning! We're pretty excited to see what's in store for us! I think it's going to be a boy. What do you think?

Fall Changes

The fall-like weather today is making me want to make my blog over to match. Still learning how to do it, so there will surely be changes!

Graphs and Cookies

Here's our finished graph of animal tracks. I think the fox? dog? cat? tracks are actually badger tracks. I'm pretty sure we saw some burrows for them along one of the trails. Reality check: I was way more into this activity than the girls:) Neither one cared too much about sorting the cards. But, as soon as I got the glue out, I couldn't keep their little hands away!

Then, we decided to make sugar cookies. I will look back at this post in the future if I ever think it might be *fun* to make sugar cookies again. It was not fun! It was harder than I ever imagined and a ton more time consuming! Way to go, Kendra, for all those cookies you have ever made! I had no idea how much work you did! I'm sure the kids would have had more fun had I not been so grouchy and irritated: "No, Rylie, you cannot eat all the dough you dropped on the ground! (which she ended up doing anyway!)," "No, Rylie, you do not dump the entire container of sprinkles on ONE cookie!", "Jordan, just let mommy do it!" You get the idea. So, this is the real me. Don't let my posts of only the *good* things deceive you!
We made more cookies than these, but I "quit" and these are the only ones that got iced and decorated. It was enough to share at small group last night:)