Treasure Box

Aiden blew out of his shoes this week so while the kids were at my parents Rich and I went shopping for shoes. We went to our local Walmart and we picked up a nice pair of shoes. We did a bit more shopping when we walked past more shoes .....Star Wars shoes. As soon as I saw them I knew Aiden would love them but I would have walked away from them. You see, I'm really not into licensed stuff - I don't buy shoes, shirts, pants or bedding with characters on them. Never really liked them. I do buy them undies, socks, backpacks and lunchboxes with them on but nothing they wear. They haven't been completely deprived since other people have bought them shirts (and they always end up being their favourites). But Rich convinced me that we should buy him the shoes (plus he has a cool pair of Next shoes -they're just hard to get on)- so we did. Even if they aren't the most stylish - it was worth the look on Aiden's face - he was so excited to have star wars shoes and now he is carrying the box around with him - it contains his treasures. So cute!! Christian received handymedown Cars shoes so he's pretty pumped. Poor Ethan - hopefully he doesn't need counselling when he gets older b/c we didn't buy him fancy shoes!:)

11months

Tried to do a nice little photo shoot for 11months but Callia was all monkey for it.

Wow - this is my second to last post about my baby girl -well as far as a monthly update goes. Our first year is coming to a close and I'm a little sad about that. A couple of nights this week Callia has woken up in the middle of the night and nothing has worked to get her back to sleep except feeding her - my first reaction is AHHH, SLEEP but then I look at her and think AHHHH she's growing up and is my last baby this is it - take the moment to ENJOY her (even if it is 4 in the morning). Here is Callia at 11 months:

-still nursing, won't touch formula but next month we're bringing on the cow's milk

-eating everything (everything one can without any teeth)

-can go from laying on her tummy to sitting, so we lowered her crib

-pulls herself up on us but not on furniture

-crawls up to us, puts her head down which means she wants to go upside down (her favourite

-loves her mama best (even daddy says so)

-shakes her head no and means it

-was afraid of the bath for a bit - maybe b/c I started to sit her up in it and just dump water over her head? but since I've began laying her down to wash and then sitting up to play she likes it)

-loves the pool, books, music and ball

I think that's about it. Until next month. (sniff)

Yummmo!

I received a new crock pot for Christmas and have been using it almost every week since and I'm loving it. A month ago I tried a recipe for "pull a part pork" and it was okay but this month I tried a new recipe and it is AMAZING!! It is so tasty and saucy and tender and just plain great. The boys gobbled it up where as with the first recipe they complained (well, the buns we used the first time were way too crusty too). B/c this recipe is so fantastic I thought I would share it with you all. The only difference is I only used 1lb of meat but the full amount of sauce. If I was to do the 2lbs of meat I would probably double the sauce b/c we liked it really saucy. Here it is:
lean pork roast, cubed 2 lbs
tomato sauce 7.5 ounces
ketchup 1/2 c
chopped onion 1 c
white vinegar 1/3 c
brown sugar, packed 1/3c
prepared mustard 1 tsp.
Worcestershire sauce 1 tsp.
chili powder 1 tsp.
salt 1/4 tsp.
molasses (not blackstrap) 2 tbsp.
water 2/3c

hamburger buns

Combine first 12 ingredients in 3.5 quart slow cooker. Cover. cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.
Remove pork and shred it. You can then add as much sauce as you like to the pork or put it on the buns. The sauce is good for dipping homemade fries into too.

Don't know what to do

Okay - so I really think I'm a little crazy. We put Christian into a preschool this year b/c he really wanted to go to school. The preschool I sent E and A to didn't work with A going to kindergarten so C wasn't going to go until one opened up on the school property of where E and A go to school. He has been going there all year - he enjoys it but we've always said that we would look into getting him into the preschool his brothers went to for four year old preschool. Well, I phoned them last week and of course they are all full. For A they squeezed him into the morning four year old even though he never went to three year old but for C I was way to late and the waiting list for 4 year old is way to long. So I decided to look into a local preschool here that has had great reviews from friends - it does all the same stuff E and A's did - Christmas Concert, graduation, Bible teaching, mom's tea, dad's bbq etc. When I think back to hearing E and mostly A singing and praying things they learned in preschool I love that they had that teaching for one year. I phoned them up today thinking that they would be full for AM but I thought I would give it a shot. I was so shocked when they said that they still have four spots left. So I jumped at the chance and said that I would come in tomorrow to pay the deposit. The crazy part is that now I feel unsettled about taking him out of the old one - is it mostly b/c I feel bad for his present preschool teacher - she has just started up and I don't want to discourage her, is it b/c I'll have to rush to get to the new preschool (or any one that isn't on the school grounds) or is it a check in my spirit? ERRRR! I asked Christian and he doesn't care b/c all the boys in his class this year are going into kindergarten next year so it'll be all new boys. So what to do????? Here is a list of pros and cons.

Current

-right at school
-teacher knows Christian
-only have one teacher (so when he threw up the poor thing was left standing
by himself in the bathroom)
-strong emphasis on Halloween, no Christian teaching
-probably won't have "grad" etc
-closed for all pro d days
-no indoor gym or preschool playground
-classes not age specific (which is a pos.
and neg)

New
-have to drive to it (neg)
-teachers don't know Christian
- has multiple teachers
-taught the Bible
-has lots of extras (grad, concert, teas, bbq)
-won't miss fri and mon b/c of pro days
-indoor gym and preschool playground

See told you I'm crazy. B/f the new preschool said yes I was really hoping and praying he would be able to go to it. I think I'm mostly feeling bad about potentially hurting the current teacher. Oh why do I have to over think EVERYTHING!!!! What do you think?

New Ways to clean...

Way back in June 2008 I posted that I would no longer use cleaning supplies like fantastic but instead I would try to use environmentally friendly stuff. So in Jan. my cleaning supplies finally ran out (you may be thinking that either my house is a sty or I had a lot to use up). Not having much extra time on my hands I did a quick search online for cleaning alternatives and vinegar and water kept popping up. Since I had to clean the house that day, didn't want to buy anything and had lots of vinegar I decided to give it a whirl. I've been using a vinegar water mix for a couple of weeks now and it seems to be working???? Who really knows, I can't see the germs, bacteria that may be festering on my counter tops and toilets but hey it looks clean. If anyone has any environmentally cleaning products let me know. I have to say it feels good squiring water and vinegar instead of chemicals.

10 months

Callia is changing way too quickly. This month she:
-bum scoots around the house
-goes to the edge of the stairs and gives and big grin when I say no
-she is eating everything we eat - she has eaten a jam sandwich, curry, chili, rice, melon, cheese etc.
-she weighs in at 16lbs 6oz
-has the best funny face that she usually makes while eating
-has a new cry/scream when she isn't getting the attention she wants
-loves buttons and jewelry
-often scoots to the car bin and looks thru them
-has had a couple of fights with Christian
-"helps" when getting dressed
-dances to music
-says - dadda, mamma, hi ya (of course none of these mean anything)
-waves bye when going up to sleep
-only chewed on two pieces of lego so far
Though she still has no teeth - which makes her eating skills quite amazing. I saw my cousin's newborn just last week and it really made me realize how big Callia is. (sniff) I'm now at the point where I could hold a newborn for somebody and love it since my baby is growing up so quickly. Callia is so good and easy going. We all love her to bits!

Errrrrr!

I don't get it. We've had our place up for sale since Sept. We weren't really planning on it -it just kinda happened. We had said that we would wait for Callia to be a year but we didn't. Wished we had. She is now almost one and our place is still up for sale. We had an offer this weekend and we accepted it. They wanted possession by April 2 so we moved fast -found a house we loved - it was the perfect size, layout and location so we put an offer on it. The catch was that it was out of our price range by about 40 grand however, it needed a lot of work done to it - about that much probably so we thought we would put in a one time offer. Our realtor didn't really hold out much hope - I felt (for some reason) that it would work out and guess what, it did. On Mon (today is Wed) we wrote the offer and it was accepted. EVerything was to be completed by next week - our house would be completed in one week and the offer on the other house would be completed in 9 days and we would move in at the beg. of April. Which was perfect timing since Callia would be turning one and we could have a big fam. party (finally) at our house. HOwver, it is not going to happen. The people who wanted to buy our place lied about their finances and last night everything fell thru. IT sucks!! We thought this was the right thing b/c of how everything was coming together - the timing seemed perfect - our financing was way better then expected but I guess it wasn't the right thing. I am so tired of not knowing what's going on. I'm so tired of waiting for someone to offer us something. I am tired of wondering if there will be the perfect house out there for us. Most of all I'm so disappointed that we have spent almost all of Callia's first year having this unknown hanging around our necks. On the whole it hasn't made a diff. to how much time we've spent with her but there have been days when I've had to clean like mad and ignore her and the other kids. Anyways, I"ll stop now. Nothing much more to say except that I don't get it and that I'm tired of it all.