I tried to capture a sweet moment between Cade and Reese on my phone. Cade is such a good big brother and it's pretty much the cutest thing ever when he interacts with her...but sometimes this happens. Oh my.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Teachers Like Apples
Sorry friends. No time to blog lately. Lots going on around here and I'm spending every free moment with
I've always been a fan of the underdog. Never buying into the magic of the Apple products. The PC is fine with me. Until I started using some Apple products. I'm sorry PC, but Apple wins. My new iPhone 4S is amazing. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, as nearly every person on the planet already has an iPhone. So forgive me for being a little slow to catch on. I guess that's what happens when you root for the underdog.
I'm loving all that this phone can do. Heck it's revolutionary to me just to have internet access let alone all the great apps. I haven't touched our home computer, or my camera for that matter, all week! I am very glad I have the 4s...even though I could care less about Siri. Really she has done me no good. So far she has just been a glorified web-search. But the microphone feature itself is amazing. I haven't had to learn the new keyboard because I've been talking every text message, email and now this blog entry. Neat, huh? I was nervous about making the switch to a new phone in general. I hate change. But it's so user friendly it hasn't been a tough transition at all. Everything just makes sense. It really contrasts with how difficult PCs make everything.
Now I'll give you advice, like I'm some expert after being an iPhone user for two weeks now. I've only dabbled in the free apps and so far my most-used apps are:
The YouVersion Bible App: many Bible versions available, has daily reading plans, a verse of the day, reminder features, highlight/bookmark capabilities. Very cool.
iBaby Log App: Wish I would've had this when the kids were newborns. Takes the place of my ghetto clipboard charting. This app easily tracks EVERYTHING you would need to with a baby. It times feedings, records diaper changes, doctor visit notes, fever, medication, developmental milestones, sleep patterns, pumping info, and anything else you could possibly need!
Buy Me A Pie Grocery Store List App: easily logs and categorizes items on your grocery list. Makes shopping so easy because once you put the item in the cart you just swipe it and it disappears off of your list. It can put items in order of your store and will save your lists so you can reuse.
Hobby Lobby App: tells me the sales at Hobby Lobby. Very important, you know.
Diptic Collage App: Makes cool collages of pics.
Facebook/Pinterest: Loving browsing these more easily...usually when I'm nursing.
And, of course, the camera on the phone is much better quality and takes pics much faster than my camera.
Collage from the Hot Air Balloon Fest (AKA the poorest planned event EVER)
I'm still exploring the wonderful world of the iPhone so feel free to send me any of your tips, tricks, and favorite apps!
Don't have an iPhone 4S? Get one. Now. Go.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Five Months Ago...
Hard to believe that five months ago today I left school, dropped off the dry cleaning, and soon-after we got to meet Reese.
I have loved getting to spend all day of every day of these last five months getting to know our Sweet Reese. School officially starts back up again tomorrow.
Reese has adjusted very well to the sitter. The first few days she hardly slept at all and was a little on edge by the time she made it home. They seem to be getting a routine down and she's taking one long nap during the day. She's continued to sleep well at night regardless. She goes down at about 8:30pm and sleeps for about 12 hours, with me pretty much feeding her in her sleep at 12:30am right before I go to bed and 6:30am when I get up.
She wants to crawl so, so bad. Up on all fours and rocking back and forth. Lots of scooting and some backwards-ish crawling. She doesn't seem very close to sitting up which worries me a little because I'm pretty sure Cade was sitting up by now. But, of course in hindsight, I'm pretty sure Cade was sitting up, had 5 teeth, and was saying his ABCs by 5 months. No?
As you may notice in the pictures, she's outgrowing most of her clothes these days...exposing a few rolls here and there.
Her fist or fingers are pretty much in her mouth at all times. She got confused here and was holding up four fingers instead of five for five months. Silly Reese.
Can't resist that sweet gummy smile!
See us at one month, two months, three months, and four!
I have loved getting to spend all day of every day of these last five months getting to know our Sweet Reese. School officially starts back up again tomorrow.
Reese has adjusted very well to the sitter. The first few days she hardly slept at all and was a little on edge by the time she made it home. They seem to be getting a routine down and she's taking one long nap during the day. She's continued to sleep well at night regardless. She goes down at about 8:30pm and sleeps for about 12 hours, with me pretty much feeding her in her sleep at 12:30am right before I go to bed and 6:30am when I get up.
She wants to crawl so, so bad. Up on all fours and rocking back and forth. Lots of scooting and some backwards-ish crawling. She doesn't seem very close to sitting up which worries me a little because I'm pretty sure Cade was sitting up by now. But, of course in hindsight, I'm pretty sure Cade was sitting up, had 5 teeth, and was saying his ABCs by 5 months. No?
As you may notice in the pictures, she's outgrowing most of her clothes these days...exposing a few rolls here and there.
Her fist or fingers are pretty much in her mouth at all times. She got confused here and was holding up four fingers instead of five for five months. Silly Reese.
Can't resist that sweet gummy smile!
See us at one month, two months, three months, and four!
Thursday, August 16, 2012
"Re-Tweet" of Monthly Pics Idea
I guess this is my version of a "re-tweet" in my Twitter-less world. But this was so cool I knew you'd want to see it too!
It's a new take on the monthly baby photos by our friends, the Gramkows. And the baby is sleeping during the photo shoots...genius!
Seriously, take two seconds and check it out. And then take a few more minutes and explore their blog. Check out their story. They are awesome and even though our lives "overlapped" in Manhattan for just a short time, what seems like worlds ago, we are forever connected in the Blogosphere. I continue to be inspired, encouraged, and enlightened by Mandy's journeys and I know you will be too!
(Add her to your Google Reader...right now.)
It's a new take on the monthly baby photos by our friends, the Gramkows. And the baby is sleeping during the photo shoots...genius!
Seriously, take two seconds and check it out. And then take a few more minutes and explore their blog. Check out their story. They are awesome and even though our lives "overlapped" in Manhattan for just a short time, what seems like worlds ago, we are forever connected in the Blogosphere. I continue to be inspired, encouraged, and enlightened by Mandy's journeys and I know you will be too!
(Add her to your Google Reader...right now.)
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Summer Entertainment
Catching up on transferring pics over from my camera. A few pics of a few of the ways we've stayed entertained lately...
A trip to Chuck E. Cheese a couple weeks ago when my mom was visiting. Cade went with Matt's parents when we were in Chicago and was begging for a return trip!
He used his last tokens to ride this...
I think he likes it because he gets to push the buttons? Let's hope.
We attended the Parents As Teachers summer picnic and got to sit in the firetruck!
Now this was awhile back, but we got to meet Gavin Heine and have actually been on several outings with them. Cade LOVES playing with Reegan!
We celebrated the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics at the Perkins'.
Reese and I worked four weeks of basketball camp. Reese was older than Cade was at camp two summers ago which presented a few challenges but for the most part she was great. Slept through most of it!
We ate at the T-Rex restaurant when Gentry was in town. **Oh yes, and Matt wanted me to please note that it was "Jersey day" at camp this day, he wouldn't normally sport his vintage MNU jersey around.
Sweet moments with the kids. We've had such a great summer!
A trip to Chuck E. Cheese a couple weeks ago when my mom was visiting. Cade went with Matt's parents when we were in Chicago and was begging for a return trip!
He used his last tokens to ride this...
I think he likes it because he gets to push the buttons? Let's hope.
We attended the Parents As Teachers summer picnic and got to sit in the firetruck!
Now this was awhile back, but we got to meet Gavin Heine and have actually been on several outings with them. Cade LOVES playing with Reegan!
We celebrated the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics at the Perkins'.
Reese and I worked four weeks of basketball camp. Reese was older than Cade was at camp two summers ago which presented a few challenges but for the most part she was great. Slept through most of it!
We ate at the T-Rex restaurant when Gentry was in town. **Oh yes, and Matt wanted me to please note that it was "Jersey day" at camp this day, he wouldn't normally sport his vintage MNU jersey around.
Sweet moments with the kids. We've had such a great summer!
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Olympic Dreams
Thanks to Angie for bringing this lovely Groupon to my attention! Now KGDC can capitalize on all of the parents out there with Olympic hopes and dreams!
Friday, August 3, 2012
Ideas That Are Not Mine
As I prepare for the start of school...it's kinda like nesting. This summer has been quite blissful and I'm pretty darn sure that spending about 45 hours away from my kids and my home is going to rock my world. That being said, I'm trying to off-set this transition a bit with some organization and meal planning help so I can minimize the time spent on these tasks and maximize my time spent with my kids in the evening.
Now we all know I'm mildly interested in Pinterest. Have you seen my boards? I have like 3 things pinned. I do think it's a great concept. I just haven't really embraced it yet. Maybe someday when I have more computer time...or when I actually get a smart phone? But I do love it when you all blog about things that you've pinned. I've tried almost all of Dedra's recipes from Pinterest and now this from Sarah's blog.
The Ultimate Menu Board
I don't mind menu planning and grocery shopping (remember, I have to grocery shop as part of my job!?) but I HATE having to rack my brain for what meals we like and what I haven't made in awhile. That's the beauty of the board! When it comes time to shop I just lay out the cards from the top box and choose what we want to eat. The ingredients are on the back of each card so I just make my list from there and I'm off.
Making the cards was super-duper not fun and it took me several settings to get all the meals and ingredients typed up. If it wasn't such an annoying process I'd actually reprint the cards because the font I used was tiny and I should have aligned them on the right instead of the left where the clothes pin clips. Hindsight is always 20/20. But the board does work and I do love it! Thank you, Sarah, for being such a great Pinterester!
My next mission was to come up with a schedule so that I could easily do about 15 minutes of housework each day instead of cleaningonly when company is coming for hours on the weekends. There actually are several cleaning schedules available on Pinterest. But none of those really seem realistic and the ones I saw were pretty vague.
My mother-in-law has actually devised this amazing system using index cards to organize her cleaning and housework. I simply made a list of all the chores I could think of and how often I want to do them. Then she split them up into a rotation so there is a card for each day that varies by the week of the month.
You wouldn't have to use cards. I tried using the system as a spreadsheet first, but found I preferred the old school cards better using one card made for each box of the spreadsheet.
Chores are repeated based on how often I want them done and grouped together so that it shouldn't take too much time to get it done for the day. The chores listed on the 5th week cards are chores that only need done a few times per year. Which is just as often as all of my cleaning used to be done actually before this system. (Don't tell my mother-in-law.)
Now, I combined the menu board with the card system by adding a large clothes pin to the board to hold the chore cards.
So far so good! (But I haven't started that whole 45 hours per week away thing yet.) It's very nice to feel like I have a cleaner house in the day to day and to be able to do the cleaning quickly when the kids are sleeping. Now won't it be nice when the kids are old enough to help me with the daily chores on the card?
Now we all know I'm mildly interested in Pinterest. Have you seen my boards? I have like 3 things pinned. I do think it's a great concept. I just haven't really embraced it yet. Maybe someday when I have more computer time...or when I actually get a smart phone? But I do love it when you all blog about things that you've pinned. I've tried almost all of Dedra's recipes from Pinterest and now this from Sarah's blog.
The Ultimate Menu Board
I don't mind menu planning and grocery shopping (remember, I have to grocery shop as part of my job!?) but I HATE having to rack my brain for what meals we like and what I haven't made in awhile. That's the beauty of the board! When it comes time to shop I just lay out the cards from the top box and choose what we want to eat. The ingredients are on the back of each card so I just make my list from there and I'm off.
Making the cards was super-duper not fun and it took me several settings to get all the meals and ingredients typed up. If it wasn't such an annoying process I'd actually reprint the cards because the font I used was tiny and I should have aligned them on the right instead of the left where the clothes pin clips. Hindsight is always 20/20. But the board does work and I do love it! Thank you, Sarah, for being such a great Pinterester!
My next mission was to come up with a schedule so that I could easily do about 15 minutes of housework each day instead of cleaning
You wouldn't have to use cards. I tried using the system as a spreadsheet first, but found I preferred the old school cards better using one card made for each box of the spreadsheet.
Chores are repeated based on how often I want them done and grouped together so that it shouldn't take too much time to get it done for the day. The chores listed on the 5th week cards are chores that only need done a few times per year. Which is just as often as all of my cleaning used to be done actually before this system. (Don't tell my mother-in-law.)
Now, I combined the menu board with the card system by adding a large clothes pin to the board to hold the chore cards.
So far so good! (But I haven't started that whole 45 hours per week away thing yet.) It's very nice to feel like I have a cleaner house in the day to day and to be able to do the cleaning quickly when the kids are sleeping. Now won't it be nice when the kids are old enough to help me with the daily chores on the card?
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