So so so annoying

So the Jetta was fixed 2 weeks ago.. the check engine light finally went off as did all those break lights. Well today the light came back on!!!! But even more annoying ...the stupid car has somehow convinced itself that a door is open ( none is... its some sort of electrical problem) and beeps constantly while you are driving and flashes a message that says Driver side door open. It the most obnoxious loud beeping sound.. its even worse if the lights are on ( at night) and because it thinks the door is open we can no longer lock the doors of the car. Hopefully now one steals our very expensive car seat!

Playdate!!!

Since summer is winding down we have started up with the regular play dates again. We hosted the first one. It was beautiful outside so all the kiddos played in the backyard for hours. The swing set, pool, and sandbox kept everyone amused. Us mama's got to sit around and chat! Good times.
Toddlers in the pool!!
Miss Louisa
Mr. Aidan
Miss Sarah
Miss K herself!
Mr. Andres

Award for Best Husband

Last night while I was away, my amazing husband made me a pan of Peanut Butter Fudge. It was delicious. This after working non-stop this weekend to do the electrical and bathroom updating.

Fall bloomers

After a few days of fallish weather summer appears to be back.. at least for yesterday and today anyway. I filled up the pool since it had been a week or so since Keira had been in it. She likes to drink from the hose as you can see.

Keira and I headed outside to play ( mike was home for lunch so he took this dark shot) I did lighten the picture all though it appears to have have gone back to being dark.


My only fall blooming flowers.... They happen to be quite gorgeous at the moment!

Bathroom remodel pics

Okay.. pic above is the old bathroom medicine cabinet ( leaning against the living room wall) and old ghetto lights on the side. We have the world's smallest bathroom so those lights on the side of the mirror were the only lights in the bathroom.. sort of dark and dingy and I am all about light. The more light the better as far as I am concerned!
New mirror... obviously since this one is minus the lights on the side we need to do some painting...
new light fixture
Light and mirror together... the finish matches perfectly and also matches the finish on the sink facet as well.
Mike didn't quite finish the bathroom shower fan... Believe it or not our old house had no bathroom vent fan. The new one is nice. Its both decorative and functional and has a night light option too which I am excited about since I put a nightlight on in the bathroom every night. I never did understand why people don't have a bathroom night light. Who wants to turn on a big light in the middle of the night ? I guess if you don't get up in the middle of the night you don't have that problem....
Anyways we have hopes in the future to replace all that yucky white tile on the bathroom walls with white bead board that goes halfway up the walls. Then the bathroom will be completely done with new floors, new vanity, new shower/tub, new fan, new lights, new toilet etc etc!
ohhh and in case anyone is keeping track.. Only 2 more trips to Loews/Home Depot today. That makes for a total of 7 trips this weekend alone!

5 yes 5

Mike made 5 trips to Lowes/Home Depot today! I think that is a new record maybe??? Mike and Hippert say no that is not a record... But I dunno- its the most trips in one day that I can remember. Since Mike had to take the medicine cabinet and bathroom lightening down to run new electrical in there for the bathroom fan I took advantage of it and talked Mike into buying a new medicine cabinet and new lighting for the bathroom. They are both rustic stainless steel... I will post pics when they are installed ( hopefully) tomorrow.

Animal blood

Keira eating applesauce with her fingers... yes I did offer to spoon feed her and no she would not let me!

And with a spoon.

So this morning around 8 am I was rushing to get a beef roast in the crock pot. I needed to leave at 8 to pick up the 1/3 of a cow we ordered. Actually we are splitting it with Mike's parents this time so we get 1/2 of a 1/3 of a cow. Anyways I need to hurry and go so I could get back and relieve Mike of watching Keira so he could get going on the electrical stuff. Anyways we have to keep our kitchen trash perched up high at the moment because Keira likes to throw stuff in it like shoes, toys etc. Well I was peeling the bloody packaging off the beef roast so I put the trash bucket behind we so I wouldn't drip blood and guts all over the floor. So I get the roast in the crock pot and I am adding a sauce and cutting garlic etc... I turn around and Keira has pulled the bloody meat packaging out the trash and was playing with it.. there is blood all over her hands, the floor and yes all over her beautiful new pink fleece slippers. Now if you know me really well you know that I HATE dealing with raw meat. I always go crazy with the disinfecting when I am done.. my hands, the cutting board, the counter etc etc... Ever since I took microbiology in nursing school I am a bit neurotic about raw meat and bacteria.. Sometimes if I am making meatballs or something similar where I have to touch the meat alot I wear gloves. So to see that animal blood all over my clean baby drove me a bit crazy.. I am praying that she didn't actually stick any of it in her mouth because that would be really disgusting.

Electrical stuff

Mike and Hippert having being doing electrical stuff all day... In addition to updating everything up to code and wiring all the smoke detectors in the house together ( so if one goes off they all go off), he added several plugs to Keira's room and a fan to the bathroom. Next comes the rest of the insulation and DRYWALL!!!! Keira might actually get moved upstairs before Christmas and have a playroom on the main level!!

Kids day downtown

Looking at the animals in the petting zoo


Keira's favorite part of the whole thing... the free samples of Rice Chex

Keira and Aidan.

One of the hotel's had Kids day today. Its more for older kids but since they had a petting zoo we figured we would check it out. Julie and Aidan met us there since Mike is busy all day doing electrical for Keira's new room ( more on that later).

Potatoes and diapers

The new diapers... On the left an Under the Nile fitted diaper and on the right a eco baby organic cotton dipe.
The inserts or doublers for extra absorbency
Cranky Keira needed distractions while I made calzones for dinner.... my tub of spatula's did the trick
Of course then they were all over the house....

Playing with the potatoes

New slippers
But mom I don't want anything on my feet!

As usual the order of these pics is all messed up!! Another rainy day called for a plan of action.... This morning Keira amused herself with a bag of potatoes she found under the sink. I figured it was harmless enough. She did of course carry them all over the house and when she was done I had to go searching all over the house for stray potatoes. Luckily I am saving them for a crock pot dinner so I knew exactly how many were in there and how many to look for! After Keira's am nap and a quick lunch Keira and I headed down to Nashua to shop at this awesome store called Mother and Child. Its a consignment store for kids but it also has new stuff that's sort of related to all natural mothering type stuff... Stainless steal sippy cups, slings, lots of breastfeeding stuff, wooden toys, cloth diapers and tons and tons of used clothes, toys and baby equipment at good prices.

I bought Keira a pair of slippers for 3.00 ( see pics) Lately she has been taking off her socks every time I put them on.. and being that we have only wood or tile floors they are COLD. When I first put on the slippers she couldn't get them off and she threw a tantrum!!! LOL Its probably because she has been in sandals or barefoot all summer and now doesn't want to wear shoes.

I also bought some diaper inserts or doublers for extra absorbency and 2 cloth diapers. So there are literally hundreds of different types of cloth diapers. Ranging from cheap (1-2 dollars a dipe) to midline ( 10-13 dollars a dipe) and high end fancy ounces- 16-30 dollars a dipe). All the ones I have are cheap ( 2.00 a dipe) today I bought 2 mid line ones. They are super soft and look pretty absorbent.. They are the Velcro kind so no Snappi or pinning type of device is needed. Looking forward to trying them out!

Obama: Agent of "Change"

This insight brought to you by my brother Joe.

"This election like every election should be more about ethics and values than about the economy.

Germany post-WWI was a democracy; so how was Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany?
President Paul Von Hindenburg needed Hitler to become president so he appointed Hitler Chancellor of Germany.

Hitler and the Nazis promised to make Germany big again, respected among the world, and rebuild their economy. That promise of change created many German followers. So when President Paul Von Hindenburg died, Hitler declared himself president and Chancellor of Germany.

When they came for the Jews, I didn’t help them because I wasn’t Jewish.
When they came for the communists, I didn’t help because I wasn’t Communist.
When they came for the handicapped, I didn’t help because I wasn’t handicapped.
When they went for the Christians, I didn’t help because I wasn’t Christian.
When they came for me, I screamed, but everyone was gone.

Hitler followed on his promise and rebuilt the economy. The German people once again had money, entertainment, excitement, and respect from the world. But while they were gaining material things, they lost their rights, respect, and dignity.

Nazis forced abortions, euthanized (killed) handicapped, elderly, and anyone not fit as human.

Most of the German people considered themselves Christians, so why was this allowed.
They looked the other way. They didn’t want to cause any problems for themselves or their families. They had money because the economy was strong. Germany was respected because the military had been rebuilt. Hitler brainwashed them into believing this was the right thing to do.

The Nazi propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, once said “if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

How do you teach your children values and to respect themselves when everywhere they go their bombarded with sex, violence, and disrespect? They are being brainwashed into thinking it’s alright."

Catholic Vote

Taken from http://daniellebean.com/2008/09/10/catholic-vote/

"There are still another 55 days to go until the presidential election, but already I am weary of the Palin bashing and the Palin defending.
Our job is not to debate Palin’s life choices. Our job is not to elect a vice president whose life decisions perfectly mirror our own. Our job is to elect people to positions of power who will best represent our values in those positions of power.
Sometimes we forget to see the forest because of all these darn trees.
I think this short video from Catholic Vote puts it all into perspective quite nicely."

What a mess

I was doing some laundry down in the basement and when I came up Keira had helped herself to the bag of Rice Crispies. What you don't see in the pictures is how when she got tired of eating them she thought it might be fun to throw handfuls of cereal on the floor.. in the kitchen, living room, hallway and her bedroom. While I was cleaning that up she got into the garbage bags under the sink and unrolled them and scattered them all over the house.... sometimes I am thankful I have a teeny tiny house as I don't know how I would clean up after all her messes if we had a larger house; and you all know how Mike and I like everything clean! Ohhh and in case you can't read Keira's shirt it says ME ME ME 9-5 all the time! Its so true!
Allergy season is in full swing.. Mike is a miserable coughing,sneezing, puffy eyed mess of tiredness and Keira has red, swollen watering red eyes and a congested nose. Apparently its fall too as its been in the 40's as night! We have to get rid of the a/c units and start winter proofing this house.
Mike found an electrician on Craigslist and got an estimate to do the upstairs.. Mike was and is going to end up doing it himself it looks like but considering the cold air is coming on fast and Mike had insulating to do in Keiras room, a truck to fix and 2 new windows to install we thought it might be helpful to pay someone to do the electrical in Keira's new room to get things going.... Its not a big job.. maybe a few hours. Just adding some plugs... old houses have like 2 plugs to a room and bringing things up to code. The electrician admitted it was a small job and then gave us a quote of 938 dollars.... his hourly rate is 75!!! OUCH. Looks like Mike gets to do it all......

Did you know.....

that hairspray takes pen marks out of clothing??
It really works. I tried it!!

laws of toddler hood

Toddler Property Laws

1. If I like it, it's mine.
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
5. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
6. If I'm doing or building something, all of the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks just like mine, it's mine.
8. If I think it's mine, it's mine.

and a few personal Keira laws
If I point to my eating chair and whine - I'm hungry
If I lean on the cabinet and gesture towards the upper cabinets I am looking for chips
If I lean on the fridge and whine I am hungry
If I lean on the backdoor and whine I want to go outside
If you say your going to change my diaper I will have a tantrum
If you put me in the car or stroller and neglect to give me a snack baggie I will throw a tantrum
If I suck my thumb I am either tired, anxious or scared.
If there is water around in any way shape or form I will find it and make a mess with it.

Too cute!

This is the first time Keira has worn this outfit... its a New Balance track suit and its adorable! Its supposed to be a jacket and capri's but of course the capri's are pants on miss shorty. Its has all this cute flower detail all over it! The fun in dressing a girl never ends.... okay I am sure it ends when she gets to pick out what she wears but until then I enjoy it immensely!