Things of note:

These were probably worth mentioning... but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

*Allison is fully potty-trained, and 98% accident-free. She's also very independant about it... I generally don't have to remind her to go. She'll tell me she has to, then run upstairs and do it all herself. Its wonderful (and it cut my diaper budget in half!). And it was easy... on our third try.


*Carter is walking. He's very cute when he walks, because he's so darned chubby. He sticks his belly out. Its adorable. Sometimes I look around and wonder who dropped their toddler off for me, becuase that can't possibly be my baby.


*We FINALLY managed to get family pictures taken. Sadly, we could not get the kids to sit nicely for a photo together, but we got a few good ones of all 4 of us. I'd call that an accomplishment. I think this one is my favorite.



Next year, I aspire to use a real photographer. But these are good for now.

Walking Tour

Wanna take a tour of my house? Click below.



There are rules associated with the tour:

1) no judging me for the lack of tidiness of my home. I have 2 small children. My house it what is is most of the time. I'd call today's tour an 80% day. My desk always needs help and I'm looking for a long term solution for that.

2) you must agree that my daughter is adorable.

3) you must now stop asking for picture of my house. Do you know how hard it is to get a decent picture of a whole room with nothing but a point and shoot digital camera?


Anyway... its longish... almost 7 minutes. So only watch if you care.



OH! And yes, the walls in the halls, stairwell, living and dining rooms are pink. We'll be painting this summer. I'm thinking a soft, buttery yellow would be much preferable to the pink without clashing with the carpet (which is wine colored... not my favorite, but its in good condition so we have not intention to repace it).

Ten Reasons I Love My House

10) Its 4 bedrooms. That means theres space for kids to be in their own rooms, space for my to have a sewing & crafty room...

9) Its in a great, friendly, low-traffic neighborhood where we can take walks, talk to the neighbors and play with the other kids.

8) A yard for my kids to play in. By themselves, if I want. That we don't have share with anyone else.

7) STORAGE!!! Not only does this place have an whole unfinished basement (with AWESOME food-storage shelving), but it has AWESOME, HUGE closets. With lots of space for clothes, and linens, and seasonal items... *sigh* =)

6) A fireplace. Sounds nice for our long, cold, VERY snowy winters.

5) Appliances that work the way they're supposed to (we have quite the history with not-so-great appliances in our past rentals)

4) Master bath. Granted... we're not exactly using it yet, but we will... once we get the shower doors moved out of the kids' bathroom. Cause who wants to bathe kids in a tub with doors on it?

3) Nice big kitchen with beautiful corian countertops. Good cabinet space, good counter space.

2) A playroom! Yes... a WHOLE ROOM just for the kids' toys for them to make what-so-ever messes they may, without making a mess of my whole house. Bliss!

1) Its mine... and if I decide that theres something I don't love about it, I can change it (or, at least tell Brian to change it).

Pictures to come soon(ish), I promise. Just let me find a few minutes (or a miracle) of neat and tidy rooms...

What are we up to?

Just...

building castles.

One

Goodbye formula! Goodbye bottles...

Hello whole milk & sippy cups... Carter's one!

Mmm... birthday cake...

A new interest

Before I get to the meat of this post, am I a bad mommy if I'm sitting here blogging while my children are in their rooms, awake from their naps and calling for me to come get them? I just don't think I'm ready yet... its been one of those days.

So, I'm newly interested in cooking ahead. I don't go all out Once A Month Mom cook ahead cooking, but I am learning the immense joy of havaing meals, or peices of meals, ready to go in the freezer.

It all started with chicken thighs. I found it on sale for 99 cents per pound a few weeks ago and bought some. Trouble it, it was bone-in, skin-on. I hate bone-in chicken. I can deal with skin... bones are harder. Especially after you've frozen the meat and its not completely thawed when you're trying to debone it so you can turn it into something that your 2-year-old will hopefully eat. So, I tossed the whole package into the crock pot with 2 cups of broth. When it was done, I had three 24 ounce tuperwares full of meat and 4 cups of broth, all of which when into the freezer. The next night, dinner was so easy! I made chicken stew and it went together so fast... all becuase I didn't have to cook the chicken.

So now I've pre-cooked more chicken. I've got homemade egg rolls that I made a few weeks ago frozen and ready to go. I froze extra enchilada filling. Extra rice from Cafe Rio style burritos. And now I'm doing beans. Two pounds of beans cost me $2 and, cooked in the crock pot, pretty much zero effort. It will yeild me at least a dozen can's worth of beans... at a fraction of the cost.

Maybe I'm nerdy, but its got me excited. And maybe I will try the Once A Month Mom thing one of these days. Today, a full day of cooking sounds like a nice change from a full day of mothering.

Dear April 6th

As I'm sure you know, you are the date we selected in our real estate contract to close on our house. There are many reasons that we feel like you are, in general, a great date.

1) You fall in the 2nd qaurter of the year, which is decidely spring. Spring is always wonderful, and so are you by association.
2) Easter generally falls near you (as it does this year). We like Easter.
3) An important event, dear to our hearts and of great religious import to us, happened upon you nearly 200 years ago. It even happened not far from where we're now living.

We feel that soon we will be able to add the purchase of our first home to the list of reasons why we love April 6th. However, dear 6th of April, we have one small complant...

Could you hurry it up? We're anxious to see you... and maybe getting the keys to our house has something to do with it too...

We would appreciate you taking our request into your consideration.

Sincerely,

The Thornock Family