5 Kids under the age of 5

Yes my friends, at this very moment I have 5 CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE 5. How you might ask then do I have time to blog? Well let me just show you.....................

                                        

One Down....

Two Down.....

 

                                                                        Three Down......

 And 2 wonderful cousins who love to play together.  All I have to say is at this moment if looks like a piece of cake to have 5 children, just wait till they are all awake again. I think we'll try going to the grocery store .......................................NOT!

Valentines day lesson "For Mom"

This morning I made some cute pink heart pancakes for my sons for valentines day. I put them on a plate and handed them to them. One was big for 4 year old Branik, one was small for 18 month old Brixston. Here's the conversation that follows.
Branik: mom will you eat the big one and I'll have the small one?
Mom: I made you the big one and the small one for Brixston, but I can make you a small one too.
Branik: No, that's okay if you made this one for me then I like it just the way it is.

Clearly Branik has learned from what I've tried to teach him rather then from what I do considering I'd been pouting all morning that Tory(husband) had bought me a purse for valentines day and I didn't get to pick out the one I wanted. Out of the mouth of babes, we are taught. Happy valentines to all, and may we all remember to be thankful for what we get even if it's not what we would have picked ourselves.

New Garage Door

So my house is slowly falling apart, piece by piece. The other day I was trying to unlock the front door because Branik was asleep and I didn't want to open the garage door because it's a lot noisy and I didn't want to wake him up. I was holding the screen door with my bottom while I was unlocking the door with one hand an holding a bag and my lunch in the other. You know tipical mom style can't make more than one trip, have to be able to show everyone you can do it all in one trip. Anyway the wind caught the screen door just right and wripped the thingy mo bob that holds the door open and lets it close, I don't know the technical name. The door swung completely open and put a hole in my siding. Then a couple days later I was making dinner like the good wife I am and I heard the garage start to open then it made a horrible I'm wripping myself off the track kind of sound. It's always noisy and creacky, but this was not normal. My car was in the garage and I was afraid when I opened the door I would have a mashed car. Luckily I hadn't fallen completely off the track and it didn't harm my car, but it did fall apart. The belt broke on one side and bent a couple of the panels up a bit. The next day Tory called a couple garage door people and they said they'd call him back to set up a time to bid a new garage out. Two days later I was looking through the coupon magazine thing that comes in the mail and I came across one for Advanced Door. I called Tory and asked if he had made me an appointment yet and he said they hadn't called him back and he hadn't tried to call them. A little bugged, I told him I would take care of it. I called Advanced Doors and within 25 minutes they were already here to look at the Garage (impressed #1). The first thing he said to me was are you sure you want a whole new door, we might be able to fix this one for you, he clearly didn't see the bent panels yet, but he wasn't trying to sell me something I might not need (impressed #2). He showed me some options of doors. I showed him the one I liked. Then he looked up at my garage door motor, which doesn't have a cover on it and never has since I lived there and asked if I wanted him to put a new one of those on his bid so I could see how much it would cost. He said that without the cover it was probably way noisier than it should be. So that's all I needed was a new cover and it would have been quieter, why didn't someone tell me that 7 years ago. Before the guy left he told me he would email me a bid and then asked how long I wanted him to wait before he called to see if I wanted them to do it (impressed #3), he didn't want to bother me before I was able to make a decision. He sent me an email with the bid, Tory and I had looked online at garage doors at Lowes and Home depot and they were $900.00 and up not including instalation, from this, we had come up with a number that we were willing to pay for a new garage door. Advanced doors bid, even with a brand new belt driven automatic garage door opener was $600.00 under our budgeted price just for the door. Tory called them after work to tell them that we wanted them to put in the door, they were closing for the evening, and it was the holiday weekend so they wouldn't be able to install it until Tuesday so they sent someone out on their way home to make it so at least we could open the garage (impressed #4) That meant I didn't have to carry the lawn mower through the house again. Needless to say we have a new garage door and a new automatic opener and we couldn't be happier. They came out an installed it today and I had only called Friday. I am so impressed with Advanced Doors that I wanted everyone to know about them. So when your house starts to fall apart you know who to call.
Oh and I almost forgot, (impressed #5) which could have actually been #1 because it's the reason I called them in the first place. The gaurantee the door and opener for the life of the door. They will come and fix it if we have any problems with it for free. The spring breaks again, free fix. The motor starts making loud noises or stops working, they fix it for free, FOR LIFE, even if I move they said I could use it as a selling point that the garage and motor are gauranteed for life. If you put your car in nuetral instead of Park on accident and your car runs into the garage door, they don't fix it for free, you have to pay for that one. Don't pretend it doesn't happen to the best of us.

I don't know if anyone has missed us or not, but we haven't really missed you because although I don't have the time to update my blog I have time to blog stalk and see what everyone else is up to. I won't promise anything, but I do have a little more free time than I used to so I may update more often. I just have so many ideas and projects in my head of different things that I'd like to do or make. Blog Stalking just gives me more ideas and less time. The Stauffer family are all doing well. I thoght I would try and start potty training Braink but he had other ideas. Underwear on your bottom, what are you talking about mom they go on your headYes, my son wears underwear both on his bottom and on his head but don't get excited he still doesn't pee on the potty much. If any moms out there have any advice or ideas I'm all ears.
Remember our last post, well apparently we didn't learn much because I went downstairs the other day and here was my son, painting the door to the garage. You guessed it his dad was watching him again. Oh well it needed a new paint job anyway. He just wants to be like his mom.
I love being home with Branik all the time again. The couple days I do go to work are a perfect little break for me and a chance to miss him and want to squeeze him. It is so amazing how fast little kids learn and grow up. I love being a mother it is so fun to watch Branik learn new things. Some of the things that come out of his mouth I don't know where they come from. The other day I told him we'd put on his new diapers his Aunt Lori had bought him and when I got them out and showed them to him, he said "those are Nice." I definately don't say that, I'm not that cool, but he clearly is. I sometimes think that I could be a mother of an only child because I don't ever want to miss anything that Branik does or have to share my attention with other children besides him and a baby would take away a lot of my attention away. He always says "Mom cuddle me" and I love it. I can't think of anything better than being a parent of a loving, naughty, stong headed, mischievious little 2 year old well at least not until next year when he's a 3 year old.

The Story Goes Like This....

We're driving home from church....

Tammie: Honey, when we get home I have to run into the house and go pee so I'll come out and help you get the boy and the bags when I'm done. (I don't know about the rest of you mothers out there, but when I have to go, I have to go fast.)

We pull into the garage and I run into the house. I come out of the Bathroom and Tory is walking down the hall with both our bags.

Tammie: Where's Branik, is he still in the car?

Tory: No I sat him down inside the garage door, he must be in the basement still.

Tammie: That could be bad.... as I'm running down the stairs. I painted a shelf thing that my dad, brother and I made the other day (soon you'll see pictures cause it's so cool). anyway I left the roller, full of paint and wrapped in plastic wrap, on the basement floor, in case I needed it agian. Branik, what are you doing?

I fly around the corner and there he is. He looks up at me...

Branik: I painting. He says as he proudly shows me his hands.

Good thing the boy is too cute to be mad at, that and it's not his fault at all. Sorry about the blurr, he didn't want to stand still for the picture, he just wanted the paint off his hands.
So this is how his cute church outfit looked when we took it off. RUINED. That and his cute DC shoes he got from his grandma.

We got him in the bath and he washed all the paint off of his hands, what a good boy.
The good thing about the story is I googled "how to get dried paint off clothes" and I found a lot of people saying hairspray or alcohol. I decided it was probably the alcohol in the hairspray that worked so I tried rubbing alcohol on the shoes, and much to my surprise.....
It worked, they're not perfect, Tory pointed out a couple pin size spots I missed, but I'd say WOW they look amazing. Thanks to all the wonderful people out there who submit their ideas to the world.

We're back, but just for a second.

It's been awhile sinlce I've been able to blog. I started school in August and I've been extremely busy. I go to school Monday-Friday and when I get home I just want to spend time with Branik and Tory. It was very hard going from spending almost everyday with Branik to only night time with him. I didn't think I'd be able to handle school, being a Wife, and being a mother, but I have a wonderful husband who has helped me so much. There are still times I start to feel overwhelmed, but Tory always pitches in when he feels me sinking. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful and patient husband. Branik is doing fine not being with his mom all the time, and is learning so much from his Grandma's and Grandpa's. We feel so blessed to have them around, able, and willing to take turns watching the little animal every week while I go to school. It's funny somedays he's sad when we drop him off, and it makes me sad to leave him and then other days he just waves to us and says "Dye"(Bye) that makes me sad too because he doesn't care if I leave. You can't win when you're a mom.

Here are some things that we have been up to it the last couple months.For Halloween we were our own little football game. Tory was the football player, I was the cheerleader, and Branik was the Football.
This is the only Football I can honestly say "I liked watching".

In September we went on a Stauffer family road trip to Nebraska, for Uncle Bruce's retirement party. I wasn't excited about being stuck in a car with a 1 year old for 12 hours, but it wasn't bad at all. As long as he had on his mosies (baby Einstein movies), he was fine. Who doesn't enjoy 12 hours of Baby Einstein?

It was a lot of fun, I'm glad I was able to skip a couple days of school and go with them.

We went to Day's Farm to pick some pumpkins for Halloween. Branik wanted to pick up every pumkin, but they were all too heavy. Madison, Branik's cousin, and her mom and dad came with us, It's a Wood's family tradition we started about 5 years ago.Branik loved the tractor the most, he didn't really care about the pumkins after he saw this. I let him sit in it so I could get a picture, what a cute boy."Like Father Like Son", that's definately what you would think when you see these two together. Branik is the spitting image of his dad, with a little sprinkle of him mom somewhere, I'm not sure where, but I know it's there. Tory and I took Branik to the circus, these are the only pictures you get though because you can't take cameras into the Energy Solution Center.

Well that's all the updating I have for now, hope you enjoyed.

Zucchini Night

We planted a little garden this year and our zucchini plant has exploded already. I have shredded 3 large ones, cut one into sticks, and we still have one ready in the garden and 7 growing. I wish our tomato plants were ready too, but I guess for now zucchini will do. I found a sight awhile back with tons of different recipes and have been excited to use the zucchini recipes. I'll add the recipes of foods I try, but here's the site in case anyone wants more recipes. www.arealmomkitchen.blogspot.com

The first recipe I tried was Zucchini meatloaf.....mmm mmm Good Zucchini Meatloaf Recipe

2 eggs, slightly beaten

2 cups shredded zucchini

1/3 cup Plain Bread Crumbs

1/3 cup chopped onion

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef

Topping

2 tablespoon packed brown sugar

1/4 cup ketchup

1 Tablespoon yellow mustard

Heat oven to 350.In a large bowl, mix all meat loaf ingredients until well blended. Press mixture into ungreased 9 1/2-inch deep-dish glass pie plate. Bake 35 minutes.Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix all topping ingredients.Remove meat loaf from the oven; pour off drippings. Spread topping over loaf. Return to the oven; bake 10 to 15 minutes longer or until thoroughly cooked in center and meat thermometer reads 160. Let stand 5 minutes before serving for juices to set up

This is my own recipe for Fried Zucchini Sticks, they're delicious!

Fried Zucchini Sticks

1 Zucchini

1/3 C. parmesean cheese

1 C. bread crumbs

1 t. garlic salt

1 t. season all

1 T. Italian Seasoning

1 egg

Cut Zucchini into sticks (any size you want) Beat egg in a dish. Put drey ingredients in a seperate dish. Dip Zucchini in egg then into bread mixture. Coat all pieces. Bring oil to a hot sizzling temperature. Place Zucchini in oil and cook about 3-5 minutes until golden brown. Dip in ranch dressing if you want. Healthy treat gone bad.

And for dessert, you guessed it, Carmel Zucchini Cupcakes. Yummy!Zucchini Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting

3 eggs

1 1/3 cups sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 1/2 cups shredded

Zucchini Caramel Frosting

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2-2 cups confectioners' sugar

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, oil, orange juice and extract. Combine dry ingredients; add to the egg mixture and mix well. Add zucchini and mix well. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes or until cupcakes test done. Cool for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack.For frosting, combine brown sugar, butter and milk in a saucepan; bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla. Cool to lukewarm.Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until frosting reaches spreading consistency. Frost cupcakes.