Free Range on Fairview

So it's new years eve and I'm trying to put the house back together after Christmas and purge some of our complete excess. The kids got so much for Christmas. We got so much. We added to how much we had. We decided to get rid of a piece of furniture and realized how much junk it was storing. I picked up my diaper bag the other day and realized I am carrying around the weight of an additional child. Yikes! I picked an extra roomy diaper bag because I knew I would need to haul a lot of stuff... but really I don't need to keep the junk. Yes I do keep a change of clothes for both boys, my little coupon holder and some emergency snacks but among other things I was carrying around: 6 pens 2 ketchup packets and one ranch cup 3 lip glosses and a lip stick 3 coupons for Goodwill a size 5 diaper (Lincoln hasn't been in them in months) sunscreen several grocery lists and store receipts at least 5 baby toys about 1/4 cup worth of assorted cereal, snack and trail mix

Brown Rice and Lentil Casserole. I stole the recipe from an old blog but also found it at $5 Dinners and it is so easy, so cheap, healthy and delicious. I also double the recipe, putting the dry ingredients in one bag and the chopped onion in another and it freezes for an extra quick meal to throw together. It takes a while to cook but it is all hands off time! Also if you are on WIC this meal is practically free. On $5 Dinners she breaks down the cost of the meal which is less than $2. For the whole thing! Plus you could use vegetable stock and it is a great option for a vegetarian family too. It doesn't really look appealing in pictures so I will spare you the awkward blog photo, but just try it. It's what's for dinner tonight! Ingredients 3 cups broth (chicken or vegetable)  3/4 cups green lentils, although any color will do  1/2 cup brown rice  1/2 yellow onion, chopped  2 tsp Italian seasoning  1 tsp garlic powder  1/2 tsp pepper 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar che

I was wondering why my life seems a little crazy lately and I finally figured out why. I have a short, mute, little man calling the shots. Mom here reporting for duty from mission control.  He even lets me know how to cook in the kitchen. Actually I have three little men that think they should all be the boss... oh man.

Ok both of these are a little cheaty because they are so easy, but making something ordinary seem special is one of the things that is magical about Christmastime. So I got out the fancy table cloths and pulled out all the stops to make a fun after-school hot chocolate bar. We had marshmallow bits, mini marshmallows, white chocolate chips, sprinkles, candy canes and whipped cream. Oh yeah! Dylan made sure to fill his to the brim. And because I'm running low on energy we had snowflake sandwiches. I took one giant marshmallow and flattened and pulled out the corners to make a star. Then the mini marshmallows in the corners followed by marshmallow bits around that. Cute and not too fussy.

Yay! We finally got more snow since that random stuff back in October. After taking what felt like and hour but was probably closer to twenty minutes we were all bundled and headed out to play in the snow. I had to take a picture of Warner making his first snow angel. Lincoln didn't want to sit still because he had too much exploring to do. Plus a snowflake got in Warner's eye so he wasn't too happy about this situation either. But I had to get a picture because I remember doing the same thing with Linc when he was a baby. So funny to see how they change, or how similar the are! Warner on left and Lincoln on right 12/14/12 Lincoln on left and Dylan on right 11/23/10 We practiced making foot prints. We figured out which one was Mommy's and which one was Lincoln's by what size they were. We made foot prints in straight lines. We made circle footprints. I even made a flower. I tried to hype up making Lincoln's first snowman. He was all about

Lincoln didn't want to be part of this situation. Ugh I have been growing out my bangs for all of Warner's life and they are killing me. Lucking the high ballerina bun trend has assisted in me getting them out of my face but I was ready for a change. Insert the amazing headband idea here. Seriously, what could be easier. I had planned to sew them and even found great idea on Pinterest... but getting the sewing machine out with the boys awake and trying to keep them off of it just didn't sound fun at all. So what did I do? Pull out the trusty glue gun. Yup, I made two head bands with a few scraps of old shirts, a button and a glue gun. Plus I had a few rosettes left from the crafty wreath earlier this month. They are almost even cute enough to give away as a crafty Christmas gift. Except I don't have anything like it and want to keep them for myself!  First you measure your head or figure out how much fabric it will take to wrap around your head snugly. Also whe

I am not a late night, Christmas Eve kind of wrapper. I mean if I rapped about Christmas I would be a pretty cool mom I guess... but when it comes to wrapping I do a little here and a little there. Getting out the tape from one drawer, the scissors from another and then the ribbon from the closet gets tiring pretty quick especially if I want to bang out a present or two during nap time or some other time I get five minutes to myself. Enter my wrapping bag. Sure you can use a cute basket to blend with the decor, or use whatever you have. Now I can practically wrap on the run. My kit includes tape, scissors, a pen, gift tags and ribbon. I've also thrown the bows in now too. I also put in wrapping paper scraps because I always seem to find something tiny to wrap at a later time.  Of course if you give ribbon to your baby to occupy him for just a second, you will end up with a mess like this. But hey you got one thing done right?

Oh man these were just as good as they looked! I used the best brownie recipe from the hershey kitchen online so they always turn out scrumptious and then I added a little Christmas flare. I've seen this done with strawberries but the raspberries were a better deal this week so they worked perfectly. I didn't have a small round cookie cutter so I used a heart which works fine since the boys didn't actually care how the looked, just how quickly they could eat them. So it's brownie, spray whipped cream, raspberry, and white chocolate chip. You could probably use a little whipped cream to "glue" the chocolate chip to the top if desired. 

So lucky to get cuddles from these boys!

We love chicken in our house because it is yummy, very versatile and somewhat affordable. It is also Shane's meat of choice for his "tone and sculpt" plan. (ok so I just love how special he is and really I am not making fun of him)  I generally try to find boneless, skinless chicken for less than $2 a pound. These days it is getting increasingly difficult, even looking into Zycon or Costco so when I found some for $2.30/lb I got all the had... two packages. I frozen one because Shane will BBQ that for lunches on the weekend. With the other package, which I think was about 3.5 pounds or 5/6 breasts, I was able to look on the monthly menu plan and figure out what chicken type dinners I had coming up and chop from there. Since the breasts are usually very thick I slice them in half, like a top and bottom part. Then I either chopped up into bite sized pieces or froze whole. For less than $9 in chicken I made four meals that will serve at least two adults and two children.

Since it is the holiday season we have a plethora of marshmallows in the house. Sure I buy them for s'mores in the summer but I don't usually have three (3!) different types at one time. There are the big jumbo ones because we are going to make snowmen snacks out of them. We have the mini ones for normal hot chocolate and 3D house building with toothpicks. I also found these cute little ones just because I can't get over how tiny they are. So Lincoln likes to think that marshmallows make good snacks and also like to think that he can just help himself in the kitchen. He got a whole bowl of dry cheerios out for himself yesterday so I got out the toothpicks and mini mallows and let him get to work. This activity helps with fine motor skills while keeping a busy boy entertained. I forget he still has little chubby toddler hands so the pictures turned out extremely adorable in my opinion. I have a strange fixation with pictures of my kids hands being cute (If you remember my p

Warner is a screecher, he likes to make loud noise... I think just to fit in with everyone else. He just learner how to control some of the noise he makes and luckily I was able to catch a bit of it on camera :)

Seven months. Seven Months! My baby is seven months old. That is more than half a year. Where is the time going? I'm not sure but being grouchy or wishing I had more sleep isn't the answer so I'm working hard this month on being intentional with my time with each boy, being playful and being generous to the people around us.  Warner is such a delightful baby. He is easy going (except when someone else is holding him and I come in the room) and likes to see and do what his brothers are doing. He is smiley and cuddly. He is also teething so that makes for fun when he thinks I am a teether while he is eating. He screams, but he thinks it is for fun. He is just learning the "if I drop it, Mommy will pick it up" game. He likes staring at the Christmas tree and the ceiling fan. His favorite things to play with are things that make a crinkly sound or his little rubber toy snake - since it is so good to chew on.  He likes to eat little baby snacks broken in half but

Well we've been staying busy even as the temperatures start to drop. Shane has been working like a mad man so I've been trying to keep the boys busy at home during the week. Lincoln thought it was pretty awesome to poke pipe cleaners through the holes in a colander and even cleaned them up himself, by taking them into his room and throwing them on the floor.  Man that kid never wears a shirt Shane spent the weekend fighting a cold so we got out of the house and went to a benefit for the local food bank where the kids could bounce around in bounce castle type things and make crafts. It was great to take them to a store and let the boys pick out a bag full of food to donate. I brought my camera but didn't even take it out of the diaper bag because I spent the whole time wrangling Lincoln and bouncing Warner in the front pack. Lincoln isn't a meek kid if you've ever seen him so I am struggling with trying to keep him with me / stand in line / listen in crowded p

I was going to say cheap gifts... but hopefully the receiver of the gift doesn't think so, so inexpensive to me just means that the person giving would rather spend time on thought rather than money, right? So here are just a few of the things I have been up to lately... Still have a few more ideas to finish but I am getting close and with only 18 days left, it's about time! Iron on transfers. I love them. They are so fun! And I love personalizing things. So my previous experiences haven't been 100% great with transfers but hey I'm not selling my stuff to the public so I think it's ok. I used them to make two tote bags (luckily the receiver of the aunt bag below is not my sister Jackie... so don't get your hopes up!) a super hero cape and a baby gift. If you search printable transfers or iron-ons there are tons of cute ideas everywhere. Next time I buy transfer paper I am getting clear though because the white didn't work as great as I had hoped but sti

So I doubled my first ever attempt at pizza dough in the bread machine with a recipe I found here and it turned out great. So great that I made it again the next day when I had friends coming over for lunch. Easy and quick (other than the 2.5 hours the machine does the work). I handed a chunk to Dylan and one to Lincoln and let them get to work. Dylan decided to make a candy cane so we put red colored sprinkles on one of the snakes and then twirled it around a plain one and easy, done. Lincoln wanted a Christmas tree (thankfully red and green were the only colors of sprinkles I had so I didn't have to get too creative) so I made a triangle shape and let him go wild. Notice he is fully clothed for once in this picture.  Letting them do their own thing and trying not to micromanage. Posing with their final products. Momentary brotherly love.  And this is how Lincoln waited to get his snack out of the oven. He just decided he was ready for a bath.

So I created and am sharing my first downloadable pdf file. Whoohoo I am learning more every day. Don't laugh because seriously I am learning all of this by googling for help so it takes a while.  First the boys and I read the book The Three Wise Guys by Mike Thaler which is a hilarious tale of kids in a Christmas play and their view of the three wise men's trek to visit baby Jesus. We also talked about the actual Christmas story and how they are similar and different. Afterward I had these print outs ready for the boys to write what they would bring if they were there. Lincoln said he would bring a pencil and a present. Dylan said he would bring a teddy bear because he can snuggle with it. What a thoughtful boy :) If you are interested you can click on the link below to download and print. Download Wise Men Writing Prompt

So I'm new to Pinterest but it has been fun and helpful looking for Christmas type snacks. I saw lots of posts for trees using green grapes or green olives but I didn't have either nor did I want to spend the money to buy some when I had perfectly good celery going on the verge of getting chopped and frozen. So first I made a snow scene with cream cheese. Then I sliced all the celery in half length wise and then in half width wise, it's easier for my boys to eat this way and makes a better tree too. Then I cut a star out of cheese and a cheese trunk (but I'm not sure why I did that now) and cut up turkey pepperoni to be the ornaments. Plus I added little footprints to the cream cheese because I love the book The Snowy Day and it reminded me of it. Dylan ate all the pepperoni before Lincoln woke up from his nap but I gave him more later. Both of the boys actually ate it up. Also instead of "ants on a log" with the traditional celery, peanut butter and raisin

Or if you give your baby a bite of pudding, he’ll grunt for another. Then when you give him another you will laugh out loud because he is so cute and realize that no one else is around and you kind of look like a lunatic laughing at your baby. Then because you are worried that you are turning into a lunatic you take out your camera to document the occasion because you think your husband might be sad he missed such a funny thing in your youngest and final child’s life. Then you keep wondering why your camera won’t take a picture, but it’s because you are still in video mode from taking a video of your baby sword fighting. Then you get the pictures, show your husband and realize that he thinks it’s cute but not as much as you hoped, so you get on your blog and share it with the world because you know someone else out there will appreciate the cuteness that is a baby with pudding face. Then you have more pudding. 

Day 25 I am thankful for the sweet voices of my children and the hilarious (to me) things they say. Lincoln has trouble pronouncing a few letter sounds still so when he says something as simple as I love you Uncle Josh is comes out “I huve you unka dosh.” He has special names for his brothers Bobie and Dub. He says things like “that’d be cool” and “dehicious” or delicious. When he is not telling me no or waking up in a cranky mood almost everything out of his mouth melts my heart. Dylan is actually getting witty in his  7 years of living and I’m not sure if he knows it yet. My mom is soon to be married and when I was talking to him he sang “first comes love, then comes marriage… and that’s where it stops.” Oh man I was laughing. Warner isn’t talking yet but his little coos and gigantic squeals are sure fun. Day 26 I am thankful for coffee. Yes. I love it. I think I have a problem especially since I am still exclusively nursing Warner but I just can’t help myself. Plus Shane is