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Reese’s One Year Photos…3 months later

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So, after picking up Reese’s “school pictures” when I dropped her off at daycare this morning {and laughing my arse off because they are epically bad}, I  decided to pull the flash drive out of my bag that has all the pictures from Reese’s “One Year” Photo Shoot we had done…you know, back at the end of July. I’ve only looked at them a couple of times. Andy hasn’t even seen them. Considering those two things, I clearly haven’t shared them on the blog either. Until now, of course.

 EYES!!!rice003That smirk…it is so…Reese.  2013-07-271 Of course we had to get a few of the girls together…2013-07-272And of course we had to snap a few of my sweet little ham bone… 2013-07-273 This girl…such a skeptic…2013-07-274 I sure do love these girls…2013-07-275And one with the binkie…because obvious things are obvious.rice053

Confession: I didn’t really love them the first time I looked at them. I was bummed we couldn’t get her to smile in a single picture. But after looking at them again, I realize this is Reese to a T. These are her “looks” and I’m so glad we were able to capture them. AND THOSE EYES! Now? I can’t stop looking at them.

P.S. A post about the school photos will be coming!

P.P.S. All photos by Kristen Moss Photography.

The State of the State

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Within the last 20 minutes, I just finished up my first post car accident 90-minute massage. I’ve got a little bit of time before I need to go get the girls, but not enough time to head back to the office so I’ve found myself sitting in Starbucks sipping on my beloved iced coffee and water…lots and lots of water.

I’ve been somewhat slacking in the blog department lately and have plans to get back into it {broken record, I know} but I feel like we’ve missed some things along the way, so I figured I’d fill the 20-30 minutes of free time I have here with a general life overview. A “state of the state” if you will.

Reese
Whoa buddy, this girl. She is…fierce. That is the best word to describe her. She lives life…big. She has big ideas and big curiosity and big opinions and a big set of lungs. And a big stomach…homegirl is always hungry. She is in to everything she shouldn’t be. She loves to “help”. She’s starting to “talk” more and more. Her latest word is “cracker” and her latest phrase is “bless you”. She’s a little stinker, but she continues to bring so much joy to our family and I love her so.

Rylee
Kindergarten has been good to this girl so far. She’s reading more and more. She’s continually blowing my mind with things she knows and how easily she’s picking up new concepts. She’s learning to tell time. She gets “optional” homework sent home in her Tuesday folder every week. {for the record, it’s not optional in our house} Just last week her teacher included extra “challenge homework”…with things like greater than/less than as well as “which digit is in the ones place”. I thought, no way this is going to end well. Ry? NAILED IT. She is smart beyond smart. We’re talking about starting gymnastics. She’s getting into the stage of girlhood where she wants to listen to the same song over and over and over again and learn every single word. Then of course sing and dance along. Currently her song is Taylor Swift’s “I knew you were trouble”. Not gonna lie, I am totally loving this stage so far.

Andy
Ha, not much to report here. The beginning of the school year crazyness seems to be easing up a bit {knock on wood}. He’s still working on wrapping up some of the big outside projects on the property in time for winter. Last weekend he and my dad did their first wood cutting trip of the season.

Katherine
Yep…I’m still plugging away. Work is work. My back/neck have been jacked since the car accident so the massage I just had was heavenly. I’m apparently at a point in my life where playdates at Target are totally my idea of fun…and I’m 1 million percent ok with that. I’m also at a point in my life where I’ve come to terms with the fact that I don’t have time for everything. I didn’t can a single thing this year. Didn’t even pick a single pear off of our pear tree. On one hand, I hate the fact that I’m not making the time for those things, but on the other hand, I have my sanity about me and I’m not trying to squeeze in a bajillion things into two days off while wrangling a couple of kids. Life is life and my priorities have been set and I’m not wasting energy on peripheral things.

The Blog
I wish it wasn’t so neglected, it’s true, but there are so many other things that need to take priority these days. I’ve recently stopped blogging over at Liberating Working Moms. It was a bittersweet decision, but definitely the right one for me. I’ve also taken the blog off of the “Top Baby Blogs” directory. I don’t know that I ever thought this blog would “make it big” {whatever that means} but I’m super happy with where it’s at, I don’t know the last time I checked my stats. I do love blogging, I do it for fun and I do it for my kids to look back at someday and don’t see myself stopping anytime soon.

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Fall is always a funny time of year for me. It starts out hectic with the beginning of a new school year then always seems to settle nicely into a season of evenings spent by the fire and reflection and relaxation.

Life is life. Kids are kids. Work is work. Love is love.

And that, my friends, is the state of the state.

Stuff & Things in the first week of October

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So, Friday again, hey?

I had grand plans to blog a lot this week. Where “a lot” means “more than once” but here I am writing my token weekly post.

Turns out getting rear-ended on a Monday morning kind of throws your whole week off kilter. Who knew?

So if you don’t already know, I was on my way to work Monday morning when I was rear-ended by a car that was rear-ended by another car that was rear-ended by a car that was following too close. So yea, 4 car “pile-up” on Beltline on a Monday morning. FUN STUFF! Thankfully the girls weren’t with me. Overall I’m sore. I went to the doctor and they said I had whiplash, go figure, and I should take a couple of days off. So I did. Andy was happy I did and totally stepped up in the off work at a decent time, kid shuffling, dinner making way. Also, turns out muscle relaxers straight knock me on my booty.

The rest of the week has been met with me attempting to play catch up at work as well as taking phone calls from insurance companies. Throw in a trip to the police station to get a copy of the accident report and boom, no time for blogging. Good times.

I do not recommend getting in a car accident, by the way.

Overall things are looking up in the “everything is crazy” transition of a new school year. Mornings are settling into a nice routine and aside from the “I just want you to hold me” cries/demands coming from a certain stubborn one year old, the evenings aren’t too bad either.

I still have grand plans to post some pretty great stuff…things like freezer meal tips, freezer meal recipes as well as a few nuggets for my girls.

For now? How about a photo dump from my phone…

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Here’s to next week.

When no one is watching…

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Miss Rylee,

There are moments as a parent that will stop you in your tracks. Last weekend was one of those moments for me.

Ten, twenty, even thirty years from now you may not remember that day, but I will.

Your dad, sister, you and I piled in the car and headed over to Bend for Cousin Connor’s super hero birthday party. It was a great day.20130927-093615.jpg

Part of the party was a “super hero training course” where you had various obstacles to complete around their backyard. While all the kids were running around having a good time a “super villain” came out and dropped “bombs” on you guys. They were balloons and you had to run around and pop them as fast as possible to “save the city”. Everyone was having lots of fun running around making the “bombs” blow up.

There was a boy there. He was bigger than you. He was louder than you. He knew more of the other kids than you did.

You both went for the same balloon. You beat him to it. You popped it. You giggled in delight. He was mad. He threw himself on the ground and started crying, frustrated that you beat him to the balloon and that he didn’t get to pop it. You noticed him, but seemed to move on to grab the next bomb that was being dropped. You were having so much fun.

That’s when something extraordinary happened.

Instead of grabbing the next balloon, one of the last ones, and popping it, you rushed to grab it and you immediately ran over to that boy, who was still lying on the ground, and handed it to him.

When your dad was telling me this story, it was at this point that my heart stopped. I may have got a tiny bit teary eyed.

The truest test of one’s character is how they act when they think no one is watching.

Well, your dad saw this whole thing take place. You had no idea he was watching your every move, you were just doing what you thought was the right thing to do. As soon as it happened he called you over to him. He hugged you as tight as he could, kissed you on the top of your head and told you how proud of you we are.

You smiled at him and said thanks. Then ran back to the obstacle course to keep playing.

From the time you took it upon yourself to thank soldiers sitting in a restaurant for their service, now to this, I am continually amazed by your kind heart and your thoughtful, gentle nature.

You really are a super hero.

I am so proud of the little lady you are becoming.

I love you,

Mama

 

Taco Tuesday Remix: Pillsbury Taco Melts

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It hasn’t exactly been a secret that our {read: my} transition from summer to school year has been…rough. Things seem to be settling into a groove now. I think. I hope. It gets easier right?

Through this transition, I’ve found that there are just some things that are out of my control. Like how long Reese naps at daycare, for example. But other things, I have complete control over. If you’ve been around these parts for long, you know I’m a huge advocate for meal planning. These last couple of weeks I’ve added another aspect of meal planning to my arsenal: pre-prep. Anything that can be prepped the night before, once the kids are in bed, is automatically at the top of my list of recipes to try.

When I was perusing the different recipes on Pillsbury’s website, I had specific criteria in mind. It had to be easy, quick, something that could be pre-prepped and I wanted to have the ingredients on hand {sponsored post aside, we almost always have a can of Pillsbury biscuits in our fridge}. When I found the recipe for Taco Melts, I knew I’d found the winner. Anything that incorporates Taco Tuesday is a always going to be a hit in my house.

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Anytime Rylee gets to use the rolling pin she’s all about helping with dinner prep! Plus it frees up my arms to hold a certain fussy one-year-old.DSC_0717

Since we eat dinner as a family 99% of the time, Ry & I were able to prep this meal as soon as we got home and then wait until Andy was close before we put them in the oven. Then we were sitting down for dinner just minutes after he walked in the door!

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In addition to the taco melts, I also warmed up some refried beans and opened up a bag of pre-made salad mix. Doesn’t get much easier than that!

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While I didn’t follow the recipe to a T {get it? T for taco!?}, I didn’t make many changes. The main thing I did was melt the cheese in with the meat and seasoning instead of sprinkling it on top of the meat before crimping them closed. I’ve found the melty cheese works well as a binder and makes them less messy for me to assemble. I also set aside some of the meat without the salsa to make melts for the girls since they aren’t so much into spicy things.

Overall, this recipe was great. Like I said, it was easy to prepare, it got Rylee involved and the whole family loved it {I totally ate the leftovers for breakfast the next morning}. Win-win-win.

I’m already thinking of ways I can incorporate this style of recipe into more of my meals…next up? Ham & Egg melts. Who doesn’t love brinner? YUMM! For more ideas, they’ve even put together a free downloadable recipe book!

Thanks to Pillsbury for helping make my transition back to school a little bit easier!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. The content and opinions expressed here are all my own and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of General Mills. Compensation was provided by General Mills via Clever Girls Collective.