6 Months…and change

I finally got around to taking Aubrey’s 6 month quilt shots.  She was a bit over half a year, but who’s counting?  She now can get to wherever she wants to by inchworming herself over to it!  Usually it’s over to the tree to get at the ribbons on the presents!  She talks all the time in typical girl fashion, she absolutely adores her daddy, I’ll post a video of that later, she finally has her own bed (woohoo!), and is such a joy to have around.  What a blessing she is to our family.

One week and 6 months!  It’s amazing how much they change in half a year.  Once again it was pretty hard to keep her in one spot trying to get this picture.  She kept curling up her legs trying to grab at her toes, rolling over, and just wiggling around a lot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all folks.  We have a super busy and exciting weekend ahead, tonight Ryan’s family is coming over to do an early Christmas before we leave, my parents come tomorrow, the Christmas concert at church is Saturday, my parents leave with the boys to go back to their house Sunday, and we follow with the wee one Monday!  Enjoy the season and Merry Christmas!

Bunk beds = Awesome

It’s official, 3 is a crowd! But it’s also more fun, according to the big boys.  Aubrey now gets to sleep in a bed instead of on the FLOOR in our room, and when she wakes up in the morning, Jake goes to her crib and un-swaddles her, Warren climbs in the crib, and they entertain her for a while until 7:30, which is when they are allowed to come out of their room.  This morning it sounded like a party in there, Aubrey was cooing with absolute delight at having her brothers give her so much attention. 

Here are some shots of before and after the new beds.

Munching on an apple watching Daddy assemble.

 Go Daddy-O!

 They love their new beds!!

And the little Miss all snuggled up in a bed of her own.  I love her bedding and am so glad we can use it now.  Thanks Grammy! And Aunt Jess for the blanket!

Thanks to Grandma & Grandpa and Grammy & Papa for the awesome beds for Christmas, we love them, and especially you!

O Christmas Tree, We Shall Get Thee, Eventually…

And we did, but what an ordeal!  Every time we went to go get the tree, something came up, or there was a really good reason not to go at that particular moment.  The best reason that we did not get a tree one evening when we meant to goes as follows:

After about 3 failed attempts to get in the car and drive to get a tree, we decided that we wanted to go get a quick bite for dinner and on the way home swing by Home Depot, play the Christmas Tree Lotto (more on that in a minute) and head for home to decorate and drink hot chocolate.

We had been wanting to go to Chick-Fil-A for a while after hearing so many southerners rave about it, so we decided to combine the 2 errands. After locating the closest one we set off.  In rush hour traffic.  WITH the rush hour traffic.  A normally 20 minute drive took about an hour.  And on the way back, it took another hour.  Needless to say, we didn’t end up having enough time to get a tree because we are kind of Nazi-ish about bedtimes (usually).  But let me tell you, the 2 hour drive time was worth it!  We all loved it, even Aubrey, who unfortunately had to eat mooshed up cooked veggies instead of juicy tasty chicken.  Which she likes.

check out the cowlick on that boy!

 Num Nums

Well, there you have it.  The reason we didn’t get a tree on the evening we ate Chick-Fil-A.

Now back to the Christmas Tree Lotto.  This yuletide tradition originated with my parents who are very practical people and don’t like to waste much time with unnecessary details.  They rarely get caught in analysis paralysis, so it naturally follows that finding a Christmas tree would be no exception.  Ryan and I have continued on with the Lotto in our family because it just works.  No one gets upset, we ALWAYS get a great tree, and it's in and out of the tree place in about 5 minutes or less, depending on how fast the saw guy is cutting.

Here’s how it works:  You drive to Home Depot.  You locate the type of tree you want, either Douglas or Noble (we choose Douglas, they’re more in our price range), figure out the size (we prefer the 6 to 7 feet ones), grab one that is still bundled up, making sure the top is star worthy (in other words one that our star will work with), have the guy take a little off the bottom, pay, and you’re outta there!  Quick as a flash we have a tree and are headed for home.

Our tree this year is great, there’s a little bald spot, but it’s nothing an ornament or some lights can’t fix and you’d never even know now that it’s all spruced up.

Fantastico!  We’ve never had an argument about a silly tree, we always seem to get great ones, what could be better? 

Even Aubrey was in on the decorating fun!

I also made a nifty wreath with the leftover branches from the bottom.  It was my first time so no snickers from the peanut gallery.

Merry Christmas!

All Snuggled Up

I thought I would tell you all about one of my most favorite things ever—The Heated Mattress Pad!!

I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to slip into a warm bed when it’s chilly outside (and inside).  Now I understand that “chilly” is a relative term.  Here in the land of “Let’s Build in the Middle of the Desert” a.k.a. Southern California, chilly is about mid-50s, maybe down into the 40s during a really cold snap.  I know all you east coasters, and Montanans, and, well, everywhere else except here are all rolling your eyes at the computer screen right about now, but hey, at least you guys get SEASONS. 

My first experience with this modern marvel was at my parent’s house a couple of years ago.  My mom has one on the guest bed and we would use that thing even in the summer because in their warm months, the temperature is about equal to our cool months temp.  (They live in the S.F. Bay Area.) 

Now, the pure genius of this thing is that most have dual controllers for the 2 sides of the bed!  I’m sure my husband and I are pretty typical in that I’m almost always cold and he’s not, so I crank mine up pretty high while he keeps his on a lower setting, and we both sleep comfortably-brilliant!  Before getting ready for bed at night, I turn on the handy pre-heat setting, brush my teeth, wash my face, clean up a little, and bingo-I can get into a toasty warm bed. 

If you have never experienced once of the amazing contraptions, I highly recommend it, especially for those of you in colder weather climates.  A nifty Christmas present perhaps?  (That’s when my parents gave us ours.)

Sleep warm! I know I will.

I’m Still Here.

I’ve sort of fallen off the bloggy bandwagon lately, sorry.  We’ve had lots of sickies in the house, I think everyone’s been sick, and  now I’ve finally received the lovely gift of hacking and sneezing.  I thought I was going to avoid it this time because for days and days I only had a minor scratchy throat, but it found me. 

Poor little Aubrey, I actually had to take her in to urgent care Thursday night because she was having problems breathing.  She had this horrible croupy cough and was wheezing when she would get worked up coughing or crying.  The doctor gave her some liquid prednisone and that opened up her airway almost immediately and she’s fine now, just a lingering cough.

What else, what else?  Grammy came to visit the Master’s Kids with us on Tuesday, just like Grandma did last month.  It’s pretty neat when the kids get to bring a special friend along.

Here’s a funny video of Jake and Aubrey.  She was in the peak of her sickness (you can tell by her huge puffy eyes) but still thought her brother was hilarious. 

Well my friends, that’s about it.  It’s been a pretty uneventful week, except that Ryan is just about done with this semester.  He got the bulk of his work turned in last week, and what a burden lifted that is!  One more semester left, then we’re outta here!  Where we’re going, who knows (only the Lord), but at least there’s an end in sight now!

Ok, sorry about the boring post, I’ll have more for you later.  We’re going this afternoon to get a Christmas tree, so I’m sure there will be some fun pictures to post later on.

Peace out.

Birthday Boy!

 

The turkey turned 4! (This picture was taken on Thanksgiving.)

We had a small birthday party at Grammy & Papa’s house with Brian, Christi, the girls and us.

Party Theme: Dinosaurs!

Brian let me borrow their dinosaur cupcake molds, so we had dino cupcakes and I set up the food table with lots of dino books and toys, it was very cute.

Close up of the cupcakes:

The food table (we had pizza):

Opening presents and playing with toys:

Aunt Natalie even made it to the party all the way from Oregon! (via web chat, that is.)

Fun party, fun times!  Happy Birthday Kiddo!

Tasty Tuesday-Thanksgiving Style

Pumpkin Dump Cake

I found this recipe when I was blogstalking one day, and man oh man is it divine!  I am a big fan of Dump Cake, and this one tops them all.  I’ve made this before, and it’s going to be my contribution to our Thanksgiving feast at my in-laws.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 (29 oz) can pumpkin
• 1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 t. cinnamon
• 1 t. ginger
• 1/2 t. allspice
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 3/4 cup melted butter

Directions

• Grease 9 x 13” baking dish or 2 9” pie plates.
• Mix first 8 ingredients together in mixer, pour into pan.
• Sprinkle cake mix over top, butter on top of that.  What I found works well instead of melting the butter, is grating the butter on top with a cheese grater, then spreading evenly. 
• Bake at 350 degrees 50 to 55 minutes, watch toward the end because it will get too brown really quickly. 
• (optional) Top with whipped cream.

Enjoy, and Happy Thanksgiving!

“To God be the glory, great things He hath done!

So loved He the world that He gave us His Son."

Monday Funnies

Aubrey has turned into a growler.  She loves to grunt and growl, and she thinks it’s so funny!  It’s nice to have a baby who entertains herself.  She especially likes to growl when she wakes up.  I was attempting to get this on video the other day and I got the tail end of the grunting when she discovered me.

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You may or may not know this about me, but every Monday you can find me singing, “It’s just another manicure Monday” to the tune of “Manic Monday” by The Bangles.  It drives me crazy that it’s in my head all day, but it’s how I remember to cut the kids’ nails on a regular basis.  Mondays are manicure days.  Catchy eh?

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Now please, promise me you’ll never reveal to Warren when he’s older what I’m about to show you, it would embarrass him beyond compare!  The boys got these plastic teeth from the grocery store and Warren thought it would be a good idea to wear them on the potty.  No, we’re not quite potty training yet, but every once in a while he will agree to sit on the toilet and squirt out a drop or two in exchange for some chocolate chips.

 

Notice the drool dripping down his chest…apparently it’s somewhat difficult to keep your green plastic teeth AND drool in your mouth at the same time.

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And finally, Ryan discovered how to keep crazy rollie baby from rolling off the bed:

A cage!

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Check back tomorrow for another scrumptious Thanksgiving-themed Tasty Tuesday (do you like the alliteration?)!!

oops

Sorry for how the format got all messed up in the "Pictures" post, I'm not sure how it happened, and I don't want to take the time to fix it either. Some of the words got covered up, but you can get the general idea.

We are leaving to drop Ryan's thesis (rough draft) off! Wahooo!

Then, and perhaps even more Wahoo worthy, is that we're dropping off the boys with Grammy so they can spend the night and we can go to the mall to spend our gift card money and get dinner. Aubrey will be with us (Grammy informed me she doesn't have the right "equipment" to take care of the girl overnight) which will be fine because she's pretty quiet and easy.

Until next time...happy blogging!

Bedtime Routine

The boys’ bedtime routine consists of

1. clean up
2. get jammies on
3. brush teeth
4. Bible story
5. prayer
6. and this:

Lots of Pictures

I am so behind on picture posting, so I’m just going to do lots right here and now. And you’ll love it. Here we go.

Aubrey is so into her toes right now. She loves to grab onto them and shove them in her mouth, so we often find her like this:

Kidspace! We went last weekend to Kidspace, a children’s science/discovery museum in Pasadena with Grammy & Papa, Christi and her girls, and the 3 littles and me. It was lots of fun, lots of discovering, and lots of getting wet.

Jakers climbing on the wall.

Warren riding a tricycle.

Driving a Jeep

More climbing!

For Master’s Kids I made the kid’s snack (rice krispie turkey balls) and let the boys at home do a test run to “make sure they tasted ok.” They did.

We then had our Thanksgiving Dessert Social (for Master’s Kids). The kids put on a little Indian & Pilgrim play for the moms…too cute! Jake was an adorable little Indian.

(No comments from the peanut gallery about my eyes being closed…it’s a little problem I have for those who may not know) :)

And last but not least…you may remember that Warren used to get stuck under the red chair when he started scooting around before he could crawl forward. His little sister is now following suit. It is simply hilarious.

Ok, I think that about covers it for now. I hope you are well and have a wonderful Thanksgiving season!

Tasty Tuesday

So for this TT and the next we’re doing Thanksgiving themed foods.  Delicious!  I got this recipe from my husband’s aunt, and boy is divine.  It is so yummy that you’d think it was a dessert, but it’s mostly carrots so it qualifies as a side dish! 

Carrot Soufflé

Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 2 cups cooked baby carrots
• 2 T. flour
• 1 t. baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 t. cinnamon

Directions:

• Mix all ingredients in blender until fluffy.
• Bake at 400* for 15 minutes, then at 350* for another 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

BTW-this is my 200th post…go Trzeciak Chatter!

Brotherly Love

These moments don’t happen all the time so I like to capture them when they do!

 Pretty cute, eh?

Happy Lord’s Day!

Awww….

 

My bloggy buddy Lindsay at Our Lives in a Nutshell bestowed this award upon my blog, thanks!  I’ve been following her blog for several months now and love it for several reasons: she tells great and hilarious stories about her cute kids, she takes great pictures that she shares, and of course, Tasty Tuesday!  And I get to listen to David Archuleta every time I check out her blog.  Awesome.

Here are the rules for getting this blog love:

1. Name 5 things you love
2. Pass this award on to 5 blogs you love.
3. Link back to the giver’s blog, and tell how fabulous they are.

So, here are my 5 things:

1. I love reading.  I am currently reading John Adams by David McCullough (such a great read, plus I’m learning so much about the birth of our nation), and The Sovereignty of God by A.W. Pink.  This is a book that I would love to devour in an evening, but I’m reading it slowly, one chapter at a time, in order to glean as much good stuff as possible.  This has become, for me, a book that I think every single person who names the name of Christ should read.  It’s an oldie, first published in 1928, but goodie and reads as if it was written this morning and is extremely relevant for our lives today.
2. I love little girl clothes way more than I thought I would.
3. I love the hour between 1 and 2 p.m. when all the children are sleeping and the house is quiet. 
4. I love taking Jake to The Master’s Kids Tuesdays at church and watching him have a blast playing with the other kids and learning so much.
5. I love pasta of all kinds.

That’s all, it was actually pretty hard to narrow that down to just 5.  I love lots of things (and people).

Now, I award the bloggy love to:

The Stegman Family – My sister’s family blog.  I love seeing pictures of my nephew and niece since we don’t get to visit with them very often.

Whatsoever Things are True – Another new bloggy bud, actually Lauren is my sister’s friend.  I enjoy following the ins and outs of her family life as well.  I blog-stalked her for a while before I came out in the open about it.

The Hopeful Sandersons – A fellow seminary family.  We’ve been following their baby’s story since she was born a little over 3 months ago.

Tales of the Munch Bunch – Now I know Kurt and Julie don’t know I follow their blog!  They are a family at our church and Ryan knows Kurt through seminary and Children’s Ministries.  She has some very funny tales to tell about their family of 7.

Thompson Tales – My super good friend Shilo and fam.  They moved away (sniff sniff) to Washington so this is the best way to stay up on pictures of Aubrey’s betrothed, Micah.

The end.  Now go check out these blogs!

Howdy

Just a quick “hello” on a busy Wednesday!

Also-I made Lindsay’s chili tonight and all I have to say is “nummmooo” to the max! I put everything in the crockpot this morning, made some cornbread before dinner, and was that ever a tasty meal! Thanks my bloggy buddy for some great recipes!

Tasty Tuesday!

Oven-Easy Chicken

I got this recipe from my mom, and I have no idea where she got it, but it sure is good. And easy, a plus.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 t. paprika (I used smoked paprika, I love the flavor)
• 1 t. salt
• 1/4 t. pepper
• 1 stick of butter, or less depending on how much chicken you use, or how many calories you want to consume that night.
• chicken, up to a pound. I use chicken breast halves.

Directions:

• Place butter in whatever dish you will bake chicken in the oven to preheat to 400* while you prepare chicken to allow butter to melt.
• Rinse and dry chicken.
• Mix all dry ingredients in a paper bag.
• Add chicken, small amounts at a time, to bag, shake to coat each piece with dry mixture.
• When butter is melted, place chicken in baking dish. Bake 15 minutes, turn chicken, bake another 15 minutes or until done.

Simple, delicious, easy, quick, what could be better? And, you don't need your stove, so the kitchen should be safe.

Fire!

This is definitely a first for me, almost burning down the kitchen!  Well, perhaps it’s a little too dramatic to say I almost burned down the kitchen, but it was a start.

Here’s what happened: I have a nifty cookbook holder that my mom gave me for Christmas last year.  Usually I put whatever recipe or cookbook I’m using in it, but today I had two out, so I put the other one on the back of the stove up against the wall.  Well, in turning on the burner to get the rice going, I didn’t notice just how close the cookbook was to the open flame, until the book was on fire!  As embarrassing as this is to say, I actually starting blowing on it really hard in attempts to get the huge flame to go out!  But then my brain clicked and I grabbed it and threw it in the sink that was thankfully full of dishwater.  Yikes.  I was the only one upstairs so no one heard my scream.  In the end, the only casualty is my cookbook.  Well, and the rice water which was full of ash, but that was easy enough to start over. 

Here’s the damage:

Check out which page got the worst of the fire damage:

 

SMOKY Almond Chicken, get it?!

The really big bummer is that now I have to re-copy all my recipes in a new book!  Do you have any idea how long it took my to do it the first time?  Let’s just say I’m not done yet, and my mom gave this to me a couple Christmases ago. 

So I’m ok now.  My heart finally calmed down, it was racing like crazy for a while.  That’s quite enough excitement in the Trzeciak house for a while.