Kids- They really do say the darndest things!

Maddox- "Hey mommy, you know what I love?"
Me- "What's that bud?"
Maddox- "Rescue bots. Know what else I love? Lightning Mcqueen."
Me- "I know you do buddy, the're pretty fun aren't they?"
Maddox- "Yeah. And you know what else I love? Snacks. And my toys, and my sissy, and Brother, and my cars, and this house, and the dog, and the rug, and music..."
Me- "Wow, that's a lot of things you love."
Maddox- "Yeah. I love a lot of things."  (long pause)  "Know what else I love Mommy?"
Me- "What's that?"
Maddox- "Boobies."

Weekend in Pictures

This has been a fairly (to quote Barney) "legendary" weekend. Put aside the fact that our Friday kicked off with a vomiting five year old, and the weekend went rather well (for a weekend with three kids and a horse sized puppy that is).

Late afternoon Friday it started to snow in Redding, and it kept snowing all through the night until we ended up with this-

We're lucky if it snows once a year in Redding, it's even more rare that the snow actually sticks to the ground. I couldn't have asked for more for our little city boys' first winter in Redding. Saturday we took a walk through the neighborhood, built a snowman, hung some more Christmas lights, and had a snowball fight.

Our tribute to San Francisco :)

I assure you, Jax is in this picture... I'm pretty sure he ducked behind the snowman for the shot. Lola was napping.

On Sunday we braved the cold and headed up to Mt. Lassen to hunt a Christmas tree. 

We have spent a lot of time missing the bay area lately, but I will say it will never hold a candle to this-

It's been years since we have cut down a tree in the woods. After all, there aren't really "woods" in the bay... it was definitely a first for the kids. As much as we tried to prepare them for the 18 degree weather, I don't think we succeeded. They soldiered through a lot of hiking, but after a few small falls in the snow, they were over it. It all culminated with Maddox needing to pee, and not being able to get his pants down fast enough with his gloves on. Picture me, sprinting through the snow, ripping my gloves off, only to pull his pants down mid pee. So now not only was he cold, but he was covered in his own urine, and a good 1/4 mile from the car. Ahh parenthood. The kids ended up spending the rest of the trip in the car, pants-less (heater on of course), while Nolan and I alternated trekking through the woods looking for a tree. 

Here is the difference between childless couples, and couples with young kids:

Childless couple- "Let's go cut a Christmas tree today."

"Okay, when do you want to leave?"

"How about now?"

"Okay!"

And they leave.

Couple with young children- "Let's go cut down a Christmas tree today!"

"Okay, when do you want to leave."

"It's 9:30, if we start getting everyone ready now we should be able to leave in an hour."

"Okay."

Three hours later they leave.

Childless Couple- "Let's hike around until we find the tree we like best, no need to rush!"

"Yes, let's just enjoy the day together."

Couple with Young Children- "we're on borrowed time here, let's just pick one and get out, we've been here for four hours! One kid peed on himself, one is soaked, and they're all hungry."

"Good idea, I'll get them in the car, you go find one. Just mark a trail to it in the snow and I'll come back with the saw while you feed the baby."

And so on and so forth. The tree we ended up with is beautiful unique. It is bald in the middle and splits into a sort of wishbone effect at the top. Quite lovely really... 

We made it out of the woods just as the sun was going down.  All in all it was a pretty amazing weekend, and I'm sure we made some amazing memories. 

"Hey Maddox, remember the time you peed all over yourself in the woods?" 

I think everyone was pretty thoroughly exhausted by the end of the trip.

As a side note, if you've never seen this video, it's pretty hilarious. I don't think I could do a better job of describing parenthood...

Monthly Meal Plans

I've been asked by more than a few people how I manage to put together and grocery shop for a full month worth of meals for our family in one swoop. I'm hoping to shed a little light on that with this post...

First of all let me be clear- I don't sit down and plan out the entire month's dinner menu because I like to. I actually get really annoyed with it. I do it for two major reasons: 

1.) Grocery Shopping with three kids ages five and under, by myself, while trying to stick to a budget is like trying to herd cats while wearing a blindfold. Once a month is more than enough.

2.) The way our budget is set up, and the timing of our paychecks sort of dictate when we can do major grocery shopping trips- once a month. Granted we end up having to run to the store for milk or eggs in between trips, but it's nice to know we have everything we need for our dinners and lunches ready to go in the pantry.

This is my November dinner menu. Obviously it's a little on the skimpy side. Because I got a late start this month, and I took Thanksgiving into account, I didn't have to plan out as many dinners. Hopefully you will get the idea though!

There is a method to my madness, I promise. Normally I try to plan at least four crock pot meals (one per week) which helps keep my weeks a little less hectic, and a few "Nolan friendly" recipes which help keep his nights less hectic when I have to work (two nights per week). I also try to make sure at least half of my meals will have enough leftovers to feed us the next evening. I think this is the key to keeping the budget on track. Other than that I just try to choose recipes that don't call for mass amounts of weirdly expensive ingredients, and of course are delicious! 

The above menu is for 17 nights (six of those meals will create two nights worth of food). The ingredients for those meals, plus groceries for lunches, snacks, home made baby food and breakfast for those 17 days came to a grand total of $160. Honestly I've done better as far as the budget is concerned, but $160 is still pretty good for a family of five!

Hope my tips help those of you attempting to plan a whole month at a time! 

Jimmy

Jax has become obsessed with Star Wars recently, which I have to say is pretty cute. A few nights ago my mom and dad were watching one of the movies with him, and quizing him on who the characters were. The conversation went something like this-

Papa- "Who's that guy? Is that Hans Solo?"
Jax- "Mmmhmm, yup."
Papa- "And who's that furry guy next to him (meaning Chewbaca of course)?"
Jax- (without hesitation or question) "That's Jimmy."
Nana- "Wait, what did you say? What's his name?"
Jax- (without even taking his eyes off the screen) "Jimmy. Sometimes they call him furrrr ball!"

That kid seriously cracks me up. And now every time I watch Star Wars I will think of Jimmy the Wookie.

Kids. They really do say the darndest things.

This morning, as we are rushing through our morning routine like maniacs, desperately trying to get out the door in time to avoid the dreaded kindergarten tardy, Jax stops in the middle of the living room. Standing in only a T-shirt and underwear, he throws his hand up and yells,
 "What is happening to my life?!"

My thoughts exactly son ;)

Have You Seen This Car?

This evening as we were getting the boys ready for baths, Jax suddenly began frantically searching for a very specific hot wheel car (one out of what seems like 1000 hot wheels laying around the house). Apparently it was imperative that he have it for his bath.  As he was trying to explain to us what the car looked like, he stopped mid sentence and ran out of the room. He came back with a piece of paper and began sketching a picture...

"Have you seen this car? This is the car I am looking for!"

Amazingly enough, this picture helped, and we were able to locate the missing blue hotwheel, just in time for a bath.

Roses and Rust

A few weeks ago (okay, more like a month ago), my mom, sister and I teamed up to run a booth at the twice annual Roses and Rust Vintage Market here in Redding. This is the first time I have done anything like this, and it was certainly an interesting experience. The three of us spent months preparing to be be one if literally hundreds of vendors with a 10'x10' booth. Personally I didn't' sell much... for whatever reason this year people just weren't buying furniture (mine was not the only booth not moving bigger pieces, although I'm told in past years furniture just flew out the doors), however the event was great exposure, and certainly a good networking tool.

Our booth, almost ready to open!

This event also gave me the perfect excuse to try a few things I have been meaning to try- like painting upholstry (see the teal armchair in the photo), and checking out the Alameda Flea Market for the first time with my good friend Tegan. Overall it was a great experience, and I'm so glad I got to spend the time with my mom and sister. 

Shortly after Nolan and I got to take a very rare trip without the kids, back to the bay for a day. We got to catch up with good friends, do some shopping, have a nice lunch, and best of all, make some money! I sold this amazing bedroom set for almost $800 over what I paid for it, AND the buyers paid our gas money for the drive down. That TOTALLY makes up for not selling much at Roses and Rust. 

And while we were away, this went down...

Things have calmed down just in time to start preparing for Halloween.