what we've been up to......

Our household has been busy, busy, busy within the last month or so.  Here's what we have been up to!

I ran my first 10K.  Now, I am trying to figure out what is next.  For sure the Tulsa Run in October and the Jenks Half Marathon in November, but it feels like I need something before then.  Of course, in Oklahoma you don't really want to be running long distances during the summer months, but I do like having something to train for.  Right now I am just working on building up my miles and enjoying my longer runs on Saturday with my sister!

pre-10K

afterwards with my sister

my good lookin' hubby who watches the kiddos while i run

Jason's dad and step-mom came for a visit.  I took a grand total of zero pictures while they were here.  The kids had a fabulous time with them and are still asking when Paw Paw and Elaine are going to be back over.

molly riding her bike one of the days scott and elaine were here.  luckily the weather was beautiful while they were here!

Lawson has been falling asleep in the floor.  Seriously.  He will be playing and then BAM, asleep.  I feel like a bad mom (a little) for not knowing when to put my kid in bed, but there is no warning that he is tired.

Molly's nap schedule or lack thereof continues to be a problem.  Sometimes she does great without a nap, other times she clearly needs one and will fall asleep easily (but then be a nightmare at night) but without fail, waking her up is terrible.  On another note, her head seems to be healing great.

Lawson's 15 month checkup was last week.  Turns out my big guy isn't so big after all.  We've known he is not gaining a lot of weight for awhile, but this appointment, he fell off the chart for weight.  My pediatrician and I discussed some reasons why he might not be packing on the lbs, and we will see the ENT in May to discuss surgery to get adenoids out, but until then we are loading him up on high calorie and high fat foods.  Kind of weird to be planning unhealthy meals for my baby.  Also awesome are the comments from well meaning people about his size, or what we are feeding him, or the fact that he still uses a bottle, not a cup.  After talking to a friend of mine I have decided the best policy is to keep my big ol' mouth shut about what I am feeding him and how I am feeding him.  Regardless, I am pretty sure he is the cutest 15 month old on the entire planet.

eating nutella for the first time.  he liked it.

Isabelle is ready to start school.  She asks everyday.  Her mother is maybe not quite that ready.  I am terrified to buy a curriculum and have it be the wrong one for her.  They aren't cheap and I hate making bad decisions.  However, I think I have found one that will be great, isn't too terribly expensive and I am almost ready to pull the trigger.  

Other things that are going on...

1.  My brother and sister-in-law find out the sex of their baby today.  I am pretty excited.  Not that it matters, but I am hoping for a girl!

2.  I have joined a book club and am ready to start reading!

3.  We are in the planning phase for our summer and I am already anxious to start doing some fun things with the kids.  

4.  Jason is still very busy at work, and is working on some pretty cool and exciting projects.

5.  I started watching another documentary.  WHEN WILL I LEARN???  After watching just the first half hour or so I am seriously thinking about trying to go vegan or at least trying to be vegan for most of the week.  Cuh-razy.

6.  We are selling our patio furniture and building a picnic table (and maybe a kids table also) to replace it.  I love this one from ana-white.com.  I can't wait to have it done and on our deck!

That's some of what we've been up to.  What about you?

A few reasons why we are going to homeschool

Yep.  We are going to homeschool.  There, I said it.  No more speculation.

When Jason and I started talking about school for our kids homeschooling was never on our radar.  After all, aren't homeschooled kids totally weird?

However, when it came down to it, we don't feel like public school is an option for our kids, and we can't currently afford private.  After talking to some other homeschooling families, we decided to at least look into it as an option.  Here are some statistics I came across in my research.

Over 2.04 million students are currently homeschooled.  That is a 78% increase since 1999.
When it comes to test taking, homeschooled students consistently outperform public school students.  They did well whether or not their parents were certified teachers.
Homeschooled students graduated from college at a higher rate than their peers.

And while those numbers/stats are impressive, they aren't the reason we are going to try this whole homeschool thing.  Here are just some of the reasons we are homeschooling.

Our big reason is cost of private education.  Yep, we can't afford private school for three kids. (or four for that matter)  And frankly, we think that even if the time comes when we could, we would rather pay for their college, or family vacations, or both.  And like I mentioned before, we just don't feel like public school is the right choice for us.  I am not bashing public school or saying kids should not go to public schools, but after prayer, it just isn't for our kids.

Another reason, I like my kids.  Whaaaat?  I do, I like my kids.  I don't have any desire to only spend time with them when they are at their worst during the day.  Maybe your kids are different.  Mine are at their best during the day.  About 4pm each day I start to think they are a little crazy.  They get a little cranky, don't want to obey, start arguing and fighting more and are generally just out of sorts.  Then we have dinner and bath time and story time and it is off to bed between 7-8pm.  If school started at say, 2pm and went until 6pm and served dinner instead of lunch we might have a deal.

Next, we decided that the best time to give homeschooling a try was during the pre-k, k and 1st grade years.  Who knows, maybe I will try it and it will be horrible and we will change our minds.  But, if I only try through 1st grade I won't have done that much damage, right?

And one last reason (but certainly not the least important) is our desire to teach our kids from a biblical world view.

The things listed above don't even begin to scratch the surface of our list of reasons we are homeschooling, but they are some of the biggies.  Making the decision to homeschool/go to public or private school is not one that should be made lightly.  We have spent time praying, discussing, and researching our options.  We have talked to people who we respect who are in public schools and private schools and who homeschool to get their opinions.  And, just in case you are in the camp who wonders, "How will those poor Dickinson kids ever get socialization?"  Rest assured that they are around other kids at MOPS, church, play dates, and soon enough, sports.

Have you ever considered homeschooling?  What made you take the plunge?  Or, what changed your mind?

Molly's Noodles

Last Thursday, Molly and I had the fun experience of going to urgent care for her to get stitches.  In my experience with kid traumas, here is the where stitches stack up against the others (number one being the worst).

1.  Concussion for Lawson

2.  Stitches for Molly

3.  Molly biting through her tongue

I am not counting the two surgeries (Lawson's and Isabelle's) in this list because they weren't really "traumas."

So, here's how it happened.........

pre-stitches at the urgent care

Molly and I were playing in the living room.  I needed to go make lunch so I told her we were done playing for a minute.  She decides to start running/spinning around the living room.  I had not got up off the floor before I heard a loud CRACK and see Molly's head colliding with the corner of our stone coffee table.  Honestly, I was not the least bit concerned that her head was going to split open.  I thought, based on the sound her head made hitting the table, that she was going to have a concussion.  As soon as it happened, I scooped her up and looked at her head.  Within a second, her and I were both covered in blood.  I started yelling at Isabelle to find my phone and call Jason while frantically getting something to cover the gash in Moll's head.  After yelling repeatedly at Isabelle, I realized the phone was plugged in on the counter.  I grabbed the phone, called Jason and yelled at him to come home, then proceeded to call the Dr. who said I needed to take her to the ER for stitches as their office was too busy.  At some point I thought, "hey, maybe I am overreacting," so I took off the washcloth and looked at the cut.  I was NOT overreacting.

Fast forward to Jason coming home and confirming I was not overreacting and Molly and I leaving for the urgent care.  Once we were there, we got in fairly quickly (praise God that her cut stopped bleeding pretty quickly at home).  The doctor and nurse were very sweet, but Molly did NOT enjoy her time there.  For starters they wrapped her up in a thick fleece blanket to prevent her from moving around.  Molly h.a.t.e.s. being confined or restricted in any way so this made her VERY mad.  It also made her extremely hot.  Then they put a paper with a hole cut-out over her face which only served to infuriate her more.  She was scream-crying for me to make them stop before they even started with the lidocaine shots.  Those apparently hurt like the dickens because just when I thought Molly couldn't scream any louder, she was.  She kept asking me to make them stop the poking and telling me she was ready to be done and go home.  When they started the stitches, Molly must have heard the word needle, because she then started calling her stitches, noodles.  If she hadn't been so upset, I would have thought it was much funnier.

right after they were done she asked to see her "noodles"

After we were all done, and Molly was mostly calmed down, I took her to get lunch at her favorite place, Chick fil A, and all was right with the world.  By the time we got home she was back to her old self.

We have to go back to the doctor on Tuesday to get her four stitches out, and until then we have to keep it nice and clean.  She is doing great and it looks like it is healing very well.  I am praying for no scar or one that is barely visible.  I would hate for my beautiful daughter to have a scar right in the middle of her face.

she has done great leaving a band-aid on and keeping it clean

I am not at all surprised that Molly was my first kid to need stitches, but I am hoping this is a one time deal. I don't think I can deal with any more noodles for awhile!

How we Celebrated

Here is a little recap of how we celebrated Easter this year!

1.  Saturday night we attended our church's Easter services.

best family pic out of like 10

handsome hubby

my bff, my sister

2.  We had Easter tacos for lunch on Sunday (a tradition for our family).

3.  The girls ate a ton of candy from their Easter baskets and then proceeded to act like crazy people the rest of the day!

4.  We had an egg hunt in the front yard.

another great one of the hubby

most of the fam

5.  Molly was finally able to fly her new kite.

6.  After a full day of family, food, and fun everyone in my house was asleep by 9pm!

Molly is Three (well almost three)

When Isabelle turned three I did an interview with her and then did it again when she turned four.  I decided to do the same with Molly Moo.  Her birthday isn't for a few more days, but in her mind since we had her party, she is three.  Therefore,  I have just pretty much accepted that my baby girl is three and she is growing up and someday she will be 18 and move out and I will be so, so, so sad.  Moving on.  Here is my interview with Molly at age 3.

Favorite Food:  Stroganoff

Least favorite food:  Soup

Favorite Show:  Phonics Farm

Favorite Movie:  Toy Story 3

Best Friend:  Isabelle and Mom

Favorite Toy:  Big Jessie (her new Jessie doll from Toy Story)

Favorite Book:  Cat in the Hat (her real favorite is Pete the Cat or Everyone Poops)

Favorite Snack:  Fruit Snacks

What do you want to be when you grow up?  Police man

What does mom do all day?  Clean dishes and hang stuff up (amazingly accurate)

What does dad do all day?  Clean dishes and hang stuff up (totally NOT accurate)

If you could change your name, what would you change it to?  Baby

Coolest person you know:  Mom

Favorite Song:  I love my friend, Jesus
This is a song she learned at church.  The song says, "He's always with me, and I'm so happy.  I love my friend, Jesus."

 Here are a few things about Molly from my perspective.

Loves: stroganoff and spaghetti, playing with Isabelle, watching the Toy Story movies, doing things on her own, helping me out around the house, giving hugs and kisses, sitting on laps, calling herself by different names, calling us by different names, "helping" her brother, grammy's big lake (lake of the ozarks) and spending time with family.

Does not love:  being told what to do, going to bed, taking a nap, waking up, sharing, sitting still.

Molly is so different from her siblings.  She really doesn't have things she loves or hates, she just likes to be a part of the action.  She will try new foods and is a better eater than Lawson and Isabelle combined.  She is wild and crazy and loud and strong willed, but she is also sweet and sensitive and kind and loving.  She is hysterically funny and incredibly smart.  Molly makes me a better mom, constantly forcing me to seek God and His help in parenting.  It would be easy to think I had it all figured out if not for Molly!!!  Haha.  Molly is almost always involved in the best and the worst parts of my day.  She is such a blessing to our family and I can't imagine how boring my days would be without her!  My little NICU baby who seemed so fragile when she was born is by far the most resilient of all my children and funny enough, has the least amount of issues when it comes to her health.  She is a go-getter and get-upper.  She is tough, like seriously tough, and she will go from 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye.  I am so thankful I get to be her Mom.

Toy Story Cake

This past weekend we celebrated Molly's birthday.  Her official birthday isn't until this weekend, but with Easter on Sunday, we decided to celebrate early.  Three year old post to follow!

Recently, Molly has become obsessed with Toy Story.  Her most favorite is Toy Story 3, but she loves, loves, loves all of them.   Her favorite character is Jessie.  So, when she started asking for a Jessie cake I was not surprised.

What did surprise me was the cakes that turned up when I looked on pinterest or the internet for Toy Story cakes.  Every last one of them was fondant.  I hate fondant.  I have never had any that tasted good, it is expensive to buy, and frankly, I don't know how to use it.  So, to say I was frustrated that I couldn't find any Toy Story cakes online to get inspiration is an understatement.

Luckily, I have a really creative husband.  Jason and I started talking about the cake, deciding it should for sure be a round, layered cake, and that our best bet for Jessie was a plastic Jessie from Target.  We talked about putting the Toy Story 3 logo on the cake, but decided against it.  I knew I wanted a 3 on the cake somewhere, but wasn't sure what I wanted it to look like.  Jason suggested the cow print and from there we pretty much knew exactly what we were going to do.

Here is a pic of the cake.  We put cupcakes around the cake that said Rootin'est Tootin'est.  This is the frosting I made.

I am not a super decorator, nor am I a super party planner.  What I can do is make a cake.  So, while you will never see pics of the worlds most fancy party, I do try to make the cakes special for each birthday.  I am pretty sure Moll loved her cake and I know she loved all the Toy Story plates/napkins/toys.

And for the record, while I do sometimes make the cakes from scratch, this year the cakes were just box mixes and they were delicious!

Adventures in Cooking: Cake and Casserole

You know, I think it is important to remember that there was a time that I couldn't cook anything.  Okay, I could cook tacos and spaghetti and a few other easy things.  But I was not doing any real cooking.  Sometimes when I am talking and mention a dish or a dessert that I am making, people say things that make me think they personally don't think they could ever cook what I am talking about.  That could not be further from the truth.  If I can make it, so can you.  Keep in mind that I am the person who served my husband under-cooked chicken.

Moving on.

I won't lie and tell you that this cake was the easiest thing ever to prepare.  But, it wasn't impossible.  I did learn that I don't know how to beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks.  For some reason, I could not accomplish it despite much time on google and youtube (and almost a whole carton of eggs) trying to figure it out.  Luckily, the cake turned out great without stiff peaked egg whites!

Here is the link.

I made this for my mother in law's birthday a couple of weeks ago.  It was very, very, yummy.  I did end up buying a spring form pan which I didn't think I would need, but actually is crucial to the recipe.  Also, I learned a whole lot more about hazelnuts than I ever thought possible.  If you want to make this, you should know that hazelnuts don't come skinned, toasted and chopped.  That is a job you will do yourself.  You will buy whole hazelnuts, toast them, remove the skins and then chop.  I found toasting them and then removing the skin by rubbing them together in a dishtowel while they are still warm was the best way for me.  Just don't use a towel you care about because it will likely be stained.  Then chop, chop, chop.  And, in case you are like me and are hazelnut ignorant...they are not cheap.  So don't go into this cake thinking cheap and easy because you will be wrong!

Also, if you are like me and can't get the stupid egg whites to cooperate, don't worry, it didn't affect the cake or the marshmallow swirl really at all.

Lastly, I would reserve some of the marshmallow swirl (not fold it all in) and make just a layer of swirl on the top.  The recipe doesn't say to do this, but the picture in the magazine sure makes it look like that's what they did and after tasting it I think that would make the cake even better.

Overall, this cake was a winner and one that I will probably make again now that I have an idea of what I am doing (and leftover hazelnuts).  Everyone loved it, including Molly and Isabelle.  I think my mother in law was pretty happy also!

Next up, Bean Tortilla Casserole. Another Martha recipe.

Since we are trying to eat more meatless meals around here, I was pretty excited when I saw this in Everyday Food this month.  It is similar to another recipe I have but Jason liked this one much better.  The pureed tomatoes and cilantro did add a great flavor to this dish that the other recipe is missing.  If you are looking for a pretty simple and yummy vegetarian meal this would be a great one to try.

There you go, one easy dinner and one not so easy, but totally worth it dessert.  Happy cooking!