Love Lies and Motherhood » Kids

An Ice Cream Tradition…

admin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:40:49 +0000

There is a Newman tradition that I believe started with Travis when he was a baby…I might have to get my facts straight on that one. Oh and since I just put all of his baby pictures on disk…you’ve got it…here is a baby picture of my hubby!

Travis When He Was a Baby

So…yes, he was an amazingly cute baby and you can see his red hair already! And also, my children look exactly like him…I know this and now you do too!

Back to my story…

I believe Grandpa Newman started a tradition of giving the baby their first taste of ice cream. He was delighted to see the faces of the babies as they discover the wonderful new flavor and texture of this famous desert. What started with Travis continues into the next generation! Brook was given her first taste of ice cream on Thanksgiving of 2005. It was her first turkey day and the first day she learned ice cream is good.

Brook at 4 Months Trying Ice Cream for the First Time

So fast forward to this past Thanksgiving. The tradition has continued and Grandpa Jay gave Blake his very first bite of ice cream.

Blake Having His First Bite of Ice Cream

Both kids liked this tradition, although I think both of them were a little wierded out by the coldness of the dessert. The fact that both of them tried ice cream for the first time on Thanksgiving is completely coincidental. It’s just that this is a family event and since all the family likes to witness this tradition, Thanksgiving seems the appropriate time. We were also able to get a picture of four generations of Newman boys…this is a great shot!

Four Generations of Newman Men

Grandpa Newman couldn’t resist giving Blake a few bites of ice cream also…

I’m not going to wish life away, but I must admit that one day, when it’s Travis’s turn to give the ice cream to the grandchildren, I’ll fondly look back and remember when my babies had their turn…

Gotta love traditions

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Crafts for Kids – Halloween Ghosts…

admin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:14:25 +0000

Two weeks ago across the street, I saw some awesome homemade ghosts in our neighbors tree. I went over to see how they made them and I was surprised to find that they were only handkerchiefs, cotton and string. I thought this would be a great craft to do with Brook, so I promptly went to JoAnn Fabrics to get the material.

Brook's Ghosts Hanging In Our Tree

While at JoAnn’s, I picked up some styrofoam balls for the heads and some white floral wire for hanging, but the didn’t have any handkerchiefs…

Here is where my stupid shows up…

I proceeded to spend the next two days driving around town trying to find handkerchiefs for this project. Why did I have to have handkerchiefs? Well, because I had a one track mind…stupid.

I went to Khols, Target, Marshall’s, Michaels, TJ Max, Ross, Sears and I went…CRAZY!!!

Finally, I started to think outside of the handkerchief box when Travis suggested I buy a sheet and cut it up…Yeah, couldn’t find a cheap enough sheet…That is another day of running around…See my stupid is really showing now!

So, have you figured out my solution yet? On the third day my brain decided it was sick of being stupid and the light bulb came on (don’t worry, my brain is now being ran on eco-friendly CFL light bulbs)…

Ready for this? JoAnn’s sells fabric by the yard!

WHO KNEW?

Not me obviously! So, I went back to the very first place this whole quest started and bought 3 yards of white fabric for a whopping $2.99 a yard. Oh and the $40 of gas that I spent to run around town and figure out my solution was underneath my nose. Unfortunately, the gas was not so eco-friendly…crap!

Was it worth it?

Yes! Brook loved the project and now you can learn from my mistake…you can get everything you need at the craft store and it’s actually really inexpensive to do and the little ghosts look so good outside hanging on the tree.

Brook loved making different faces and she could twist tie the styrofoam balls in place too.

One of Brook's Scary Ghosts In Our Tree

So, here is the the supplies and instructions for making Halloween Ghosts…

Halloween Ghosts

18 – 2 1/2 inch Styrofoam balls

3 yards of White Fabric

18 pieces of 20 Gauge White Floral Wire – 18 or more inches

Scissors

Sharpie Pen Thin Tip

1 – Cut out 12″x12″ squares out of the White Cloth (or whatever size you want)

2 – Put the Styrofoam Ball in the center of the cloth and pinch the cloth around the ball.

3 – Secure the ball in the cloth by twist tying the Floral Wire around (see picture)

4 – Use Sharpie to make Ghost Faces

5 – Hang in a tree or anywhere you want using the remainder of the floral wire after twisting it around the bottom of the Styrofoam Ball.

As always, go and make some memories with your kids and Happy Crafting!

Brook Tying a Ghost to the Tree

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Halloween Artwork with Cotton Balls and Q-Tips…

admin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:07:56 +0000

This past week at Brook’s school, I noticed one of the classes working on this skeleton project and decided I would do it with Brook. On Saturday night, Brook was bored and said she wanted to do an art project and I actually felt awesome knowing I had this one in my back pocket…it’s super easy and even your husband will have fun doing it, case in point…

Brook and Travis Working On Their Skeleton

Here is what you will need:

Halloween Skeleton Art Project

Black Construction Paper
Cotton Balls
Q-Tips
Scissors
Glue
Hole Puncher
String or Ribbon
White Marker
Black Stickers or Paint Pen for Face

1 – Glue the head cotton ball on first. Glue one whole Q-tip underneath head for the body and then glue second cotton ball under Q-tip to represent the pelvis area.

2 – Cut off the tips of 4 Q-tips and then cut them in half. Glue them on the right and left of the long “body” Q-tip…they are representing ribs. Tip: if you put the glue on the paper first and then put the Q-tip on, it seems to be easier.

3 – Glue two leg Q-tips under the “pelvis” cotton ball and glue 2 Q-tip arms by the ribs. Use any black stickers you have or some type of paint pen from the craft store to make a face on the skeleton. Or, leave it faceless…your choice.

4 – Use the white pen to put your name on your piece of art. Make two hole punches on the top of the paper and string the ribbon through the hole punches and tie it off. This is so you can hang your art work.

5 – Find a fun place to show it off…

Here is what the finished product could look like…

Skeleton Project

This is how happy my family was making these fun guys!

Brook Doing Her Halloween Art

The Artists Showing Off Their Masterpieces

And this is where are art gallery of skeletons are inside our house…

Our Studio and Gallery

Have fun this Halloween season and make some memories…Happy Creativeness!

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Just When I Think I Know Him…

admin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:21:07 +0000

He’s cute and cuddly and his laugh is contagious, but…

He now thinks it’s funny to pull Mommy’s hair. Before, he would caress and “pet” it, but as of yesterday he gave it a good tug and thought it was the funnest thing ever! So, he did it over and over and over…

My hair will now be in a ponytail for the next 6 or so months, get used to seeing me in one hairstyle only people!

Blake Playing with a Mound of Toys

Also, I was just bragging that he is finally sleeping through the night. That he has been going down from around 7:30pm and getting up between 5:30 to 6am and then going back down after a bottle for another hour or so…

THIS WAS AWESOME!

Was is the key word in the last sentence. He is back to getting up between 3am and 4am. This would be fine, but the last two nights he actually wanted to get “up” for the day. Let’s get up and go, he said in his baby ways. He was so noisy and fussy about going to bed after his early morning bottle that I had to go back in his room and comfort him back to a sleepy state…Three hours of my sleep gone.

When no one sleeps well through the night because of him and then in the morning Brook decides to sleep in, I let her. We are always late to her school because of this and I am sure the teacher hates me for it, but here is the thing…

I need my sleep! So do the kids. I figure she is a better student while she is there because she is well rested and I am less of a psycho Mommy because sometimes Blake doesn’t just wake me up…he wakes her up too.

You never understand the power of sleep until you are a parent and then after that it seems like your world is really only about sleep. Well that and poop.

On another thought…if you were like me and up around 4am last night, did you see the moon? Here it was beautiful! It was a crescent moon, but it was very large and so bright that you could see the outline of the rest of it. Also, there was a planet on it’s left which was just as big and bright. It was the highlight of my 4am wake up call.

Well, he can always sleep through tonight, we will see.

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Carpooling on Steroids…

admin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:07:42 +0000

I wish I would have had my camera with me this morning, but alas, I didn’t. So, you will just have to use your imagination.

In my Jeep, I had Ellie, Blake and Brook crammed in the back…

CUTEST THING EVER!

Ellie (Brook’s best 4year old friend) and Brook sat by the windows and Blake was turned around and smashed in the middle. He was completely hooked in and we did a seat belt/hook combination for the girls.

Both girls were super excited that they could watch a video on the way to school and each of them had their own headphones. Blake was cracking up looking at both of them.

He was all like, “hey look at me squished between two cute girls…well, gross one’s my sister, but still fun and entertaining.”

Blake liked being turned around and looking at what the older kids were doing, then at himself in the headrest mirror.

Last year, we had a carpool with another neighbor and the kids had to share the two headphones we had and it wasn’t ideal, so the girls definitely like the third kid being a baby who can’t even see the screen, let alone demand to hear the DVD.

CUTEST THING EVER!

If I happen to pick up Ellie from school today, I will be sure to take a picture and update this post…we will see!

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Cooking for Baby…

admin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:01:27 +0000

So I admit that until a couple of days ago, I wasn’t cooking for Blake…Even bigger shocker is that I never cooked for Brook when she was a baby either. But, Carol bought me a while back this baby food steamer/puree all-in-one machine called the Beaba Babycook. You don’t need one of these because it’s basically a steamer and a small food processor, but it is nice to have it in one bowl…less mess. There is some controversy about it leaching BPA, but the website says it doesn’t and really I think making homemade food is much safer and healthier overall. I was feeding Blake organic babyfood before (that is what Brook ate too), but it still always smelled and tasted bland and kinda gross.

Carol also gave me a baby cookbook called Cooking for Baby which is great for beginner cooks or someone who wants ideas. I thought some of the recipes were “filler” meaning once you know the method just tell the reader what veggies or fruit work with that method instead of making individual recipes of all of them. In the beginning it was kind of redundant, but it got better as it went along which makes sense since your baby will like more variety and texture of foods as they get older.

So far I have made Blake fruit sauce of plums, nectarines and peaches. He really likes this, which makes sense since it is sweet. Another good thing about making his food here is that I keep the skins on (I buy organic so I can do this).

Fruit Puree of Plums, Nectarines and Peaches

Today I made him a puree of carrots and put in a 1/2 teaspoon of fresh dill and a teaspoon of fresh mint and a pinch of salt and about 1 teaspoon of agave nectar. I use the agave nectar because it has a better glycemic index then other sugars and it really adds a nice flavor to food. He was not as interested in this dish as the fruit puree, but then I decided to add some organic applesauce to the recipe that I bought at Whole Foods and by golly he liked that. So here is the carrot puree recipe if interested.

5 carrots washed (not peeled) cut into chunks

1/2 tsp fresh dill

1 tsp fresh mint

1 tsp agave nectar

small pinch of salt

Steam the carrots for about 10 minutes or until soft. Put steamed carrots along with the fresh mint and dill, salt and agave nectar into a food processor. Add some of the cooking liquid left over from the steamer. Start with 1/8 of a cup and add more if you need to depending on what kind of consistency you will want. Puree till you get the consistency your baby will like or needs. If needed mix the carrot puree with some applesauce in a 1 to 1 ratio for picky eaters. If possible buy organic since you will be using the peels in this recipe.

Another thought…

I think I might make some elbow pasta for Brook and make some “macaroni and cheese”. In the cheese sauce though, I’m going to stir in some of this carrot puree without the applesauce. Mmmmm….healthy mac and cheese! If I do this, you will get the recipe!

Happy Eating!

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My Daughter Wants to Say a Few Words…

admin — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 17:24:08 +0000

Brook is interested in blogging today. So, I told her she could tell me what to write and I would in turn type it into a blog post. So, here are her words.

Brook:

I love you. Grams wants me to call her. And, she wants me to give a very nice hug to my parents. And that’s not all…

I love you Mama. There’s boats in a picture…and, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.

“She is now giggling.”

And I want to have a one year old and I want you Grams to get a baby that is four.

Um, Auntie Shanny likes me. Got it?

Word question…I want you to turn on and off the light for we can sleep well.

That’s all I wanted to say!

Mommy:

I know, she is adorable! She wondered what I was doing on the computer and I told her I was reading one of my favorite blogs, www.dooce.com. She then asked what a blog was and I told her it was a place where people journal about certain topics like being a Mommy, gardening, cooking, toys, etc. Then I told her that I had my own blog and she in-turn told me she wanted to write in it. So, I couldn’t resist writing down what her little voice wanted to say. I wrote it exactly the way she said it…She is cute as a button!

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Kids Say The Darnest Things…

admin — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:13:24 +0000

So tonight we took a family walk around the neighborhood, because we knew we wanted to go out for ice cream and thought, “well burning a few of those calories might help our waistlines slightly.”

On this walk Brook said to Travis…

“Dad, stop walking like a Pimp!”

HAAAAAA! Hilarious…I asked her how she knew the word Pimp and she then sang this song…

I got money – I don’t need a raise…

I’m a Pimp – I don’t need a cane…

Okay, so rap music is now officially out of the Newman house . This is the influence of Abby, she admitted…and honestly, it’s fine, I just am so amazed how their brains absorb everything…EVERYTHING!

When Brook said her Pimp statement, it made me think of this clip of JD and Turk on Scrubs.

So, Daddy…stop walkin’ like a Pimp, unless you are walkin’ to me…

Nuff Said!

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Where In The World Am I?

admin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:08:30 +0000

So it seems like I fell off the face of this Earth, when in reality I started watching both kids full time, which means there is only 1 hour in the day for me, if I’m lucky before bed and I’ve been using that to either catch up on email, spend time with my husband, attempt to exercise or read a book. It goes by really fast and there isn’t much room for multiple accomplishments in that hour. I know, this seems like a lame ass excuse and if you want you can think that, but in reality, it’s my life…take it or leave it.

Okay, so the last month has been a complete blur, but if you want to know the highlights…well, here it goes.

Everyone got the stomach flu in our tribe…I got it the worst, it was god aweful…like someone kicked me in the balls (if I had said balls). And the worst part is I got it while in Tucson for my cousin’s college graduation, so I wasn’t in the comforts of my own home when I felt my worst. I mean, I had a fever and I don’t think I’ve had a fever in well over ten years…very sick. Oh and to try to be a mom while this sick is virtually impossible, but it doesn’t matter, you get only 24 hours to get better and then you have to be back on the job, even if you still feel like crap and still need to recover.
One day after I was starting to get better, we packed up our trusty rented U-Haul trailer and started our 4-day journey across the United States to our summer cabin in Wisconsin. It was really hard with a three month old, he didn’t like being in the car for that many hours out of the day and really I don’t blame him. Also, Travis’s body decided to have the stomach flu while on this drive because we weren’t all miserable enough already.
I literally lost my mind the first week or so that we were in Wisconsin…I was a crying heaping mess who couldn’t do one thing without losing it. Lovely, I know. I was a wreak because the intense stress of two kids trying to get comfortable in new surroundings while this cute little cabin was falling apart with at least a half a dozen things broken, (major things like hot water heaters, water pumps, dishwashers and heaters). Heater in the summer you ask? Yes, because apparently Wisconsin didn’t get the memo that summer has started and it’s freekin’ freezing around here most days!
I’ve had to, not by my choice, slow editing production down since there isn’t 28 hours in a day.
I’ve almost gained all the the weight I worked so hard to get off…stress, no exercise and eating to cope have all played a part in that demise. Hopefully, I will get back on track sooner than later…Horrible kick off to the summer of the work out!
I got over most of my anxiety thank god and now we are starting to get in the groove of things…I’m hiring some summertime help, everything has gotten fixed and the kids are doing better…so hopefully the blog will get more action then it’s seen lately .

So, that is what you’ve missed out on in a nutshell….hopefully I will be able to keep up a little better in the near future.

TTFN!

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Sometimes You Have to Let Them Dress Themselves

admin — Sat, 02 May 2009 04:50:21 +0000

Brook: “Mommy, I want all of these in my hair.”

Me: “All five? Really? How about two?”

Brook: “No five!”

Me: “Okay, but don’t take them out at school or I won’t let you put so many in your hair again.”

Brook: “Okay Mommy, I won’t, I promise.”

Brook With Her Blinged Out Hair

Brook: “Mommy, I want these shoes…My new shoes.”

Me: “That’s fine…but, they don’t match your dress.”

Brook: “That’s okay!”

Brook Showing Off Her Clothing Choices

Me: “Hey babe, your shoes are on the wrong feet. Switch them.”

Brook: “No Mommy, I like them this way!”

Me: “Fine, let’s get to school.”

One Day She Will Put the Shoes on the Correct Feet

Sometimes it is just easier to let them dress themselves…

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