Trzeciak Chatter

some sibling love

2010-03-27T09:51:00.001-07:00

Greetings bloggy world! It’s been a while. I barely had time to catch my breath after Daniel was born, and now we have a 5 month old! Those precious newborn moments are all but gone, and replacing our sleepy, snuggly, pink infant is a very happy, cooing, rolling, wiggly little baby who just adores his siblings. This little guy is the most content, happy baby that we’ve ever had, and such a joy to have around.

I’ve been a little (a lot) camera lazy, so Daniel doesn’t have as much documentation of his early days as the other children, but that’s what Grandmas are for, right? By the way moms, I’ll be wanting all those pictures you take of the kids when you’re here. :)

Just a recap on where all the kiddos are:

Jake: 5 1/2 years old (I know! Can you believe it? Cause I can’t) This is one lean, mean, reading machine. He devours any and all books he can get his hands on. This was really amazing for me to see because we had started a kindergarten phonics program at home, and halfway through it he had all the tools he needed to take off with reading. It really became clear that he was a reader one day at my sister’s house. We were in their kitchen and Jake saw a picture on the wall and said, “Hey, that says, ‘Enjoy a little taste of Italy!’” Well, needless to say, I sure never taught him to read “Italy” and “taste” and “enjoy”! You give this kid a little tiny bit of fuel for his brain, and he takes off like a rocket. Amazing.

Warren: 3 1/2, he’ll be 4 this summer. Warren is, and always has been, the wild child. He cracks us up with his goofy facial expressions and funny sayings. Yesterday I asked him if he had to go potty, and his response was, “No, I just went 2 weeks ago.” Warren is the Awana Bible verse expert, and memorizing comes very easily to him. I wish I had his brain.

Aubrey: 2 in three months! Gah! This little girl is still very girly, and enjoys choosing her own clothes. Her vocabulary exploded all of a sudden (wonder why, with 2 older brothers constantly gabbing at her) and she surprises and delights us with the words and sentences she comes up with. Aubrey is a little ball of fire, and the challenge is teaching her to control herself, especially with the screaming. She loves giving kisses to us all.

What a joy all these children bring to Ryan and I. Sometimes it feels overwhelming being responsible for so many precious lives, but His grace is sufficient.

Look at this face!

Hope you’re all well, I would love to hear from you!

mr. fix-it

2010-02-04T12:01:00.001-08:00

Or, perhaps he is more aptly titled, “Mr. Take It All Apart and Can’t Remember How to Put it Together Again.”

Either way, the Jakeman seriously enjoys unscrewing his toys and finding out what’s inside. So far he’s taken apart this saxophone and a remote controller for a robot. A new hobby, or a calling?

da-du

2010-01-31T15:19:00.001-08:00

That’s what Aubrey calls Daniel, anyway. She doesn’t quite have the “L” sound down yet, so it comes out Da-du.

Here are some recent Da-du pics.

(is this Jake, or what Mom?)

And as a grand finale, this post-sneeze picture cracked me up:

a boy and his grandpa

2010-01-22T15:16:00.001-08:00

“I sure love you Grandpa!”

This was taken at Christmas when my parents were visiting. Daniel had just started smiling at people and my mom captured this perfectly!

on having a daughter…

2010-01-16T12:32:00.001-08:00

She completely understands the need to feel girly in a house full of boys.

I just love this girl. She has the ability to go from total ham to cuddling in my lap to shrieking at something her brothers did in 1.4 seconds flat. I love that as she gets older we’ll be able to do all the fun girly stuff together like shopping and getting pedicures and drinking lattes, and that I’ll also be able to teach her what true beauty is; loving the Lord with all her heart and possessing a gentle spirit that is precious to God.

It’s nothing short of amazing to know that this little tiny girl will one day grow up to be a woman with a heart full of dreams and passions that hopefully line up with the Lord’s will for her life. What a great responsibility God has placed on us as her parents to guide her into adulthood.

I look forward to knowing her as an adult and sharing that special relationship only mothers and daughters can have. I look at my dear friend Missy and watch the interaction she has with her adult daughters and am eager for that to be Aubrey and I. And of course, the treasured relationship and love for my own mom causes me to long for the same kind of special bond as Aubrey gets older.

But for now, while she’s still my little peanut, I’ll treasure these little moments of toenail painting and cuddling, as well as the ever-present screaming and temper tantrums, never forgetting to be thankful for my great gift from above.

a girl and her horse…and her hunting hat

2010-01-13T14:23:00.001-08:00

(the hat says, “Hunting Princess, if the Camo fits”, a gift from Grandpa)

Aubrey started making this goofy face whenever she sees a camera. Observe:

teach ‘em early

2010-01-09T16:34:00.001-08:00

Even little girlies can carry in wood for the fire.

Our New Years Resolution

2010-01-09T16:24:00.001-08:00

To eat more Krispy Kreme. Done and done.

We started out the new year right! We drove up to Issaquah and had lunch at Fat Burger (a close rival to In-N-Out for you Californians) and dessert at Krispy Kreme. We got there just in time to watch the batch being made and enjoy doughnuts as they ought to be: warm and fluffy.

mmm…a fountain of glaze.

(Sorry ‘bout the pink paci Daniel, it was all I had.)

Happy New Year!

just a quick hello…

2009-12-29T15:03:00.001-08:00

from the gang! We’re all well, Christmas with my family was great, and we’re enjoying the very chilly pacific northwest weather!

count it all joy…

2009-11-21T20:38:00.001-08:00

Greetings friends.

Let me just tell you how blessed I am at this very moment... All my kids are occupied by their daddy and Papa, my mother-in-law has dinner in the oven and dishes being washed, my itty-bitty is healthy and home, and I have a few brief moments to capture some thoughts and share them with you. Amazing!

In case you didn’t know, Daniel had hernia repair surgery yesterday afternoon. We noticed on Wednesday that he was a very unhappy camper, which was unusual for him. He was very inconsolable and wouldn’t nurse. The next morning, I called for an appointment as soon as the office opened, and they were able to squeeze me in an hour later. The doctor we saw told me to get him to the ER right away because she thought the problem was an incarcerated (stuck) hernia and if that was the case, they would need to perform surgery quickly to correct it. Well, you can just about imagine my response. I managed to hold it together until I left the office, and as I was calling my sister to ask if I could drop the kids off, I’m absolutely sure I was very incoherent, attempting as I was to speak through the sobs and tears.

Thank the Lord for a mom who will pray for you over the phone, because after I spoke with her, right as I was pulling up at my home, I began to feel much more calm and collected and think clearly about the situation.

After a relatively brief ER visit to Children’s Hospital in Seattle (such a great hospital, we highly recommend it), we were informed that Mr. Daniel would need repair surgery in the next couple of days, as the surgeon was able to un-incarcerate (de-carcerate? unstick? clearly I’m not part of the medical world) the hernia. We were reassured by many surgeons and doctors that this was a pretty simple and common surgery. Ok, cool, but still, my 21 day old baby was going under the knife!

What was great about having a day in between the crisis and surgery, was that the Lord spoke to me through His word about our trial.

count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience (james 1:2)

be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (philippians 4:6-7) (this was the verse i kept going back to over and over again)

cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you (1 peter 5:7)

and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (romans 8:28)

i know, o Lord, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps (jeremiah 10:23)

It’s really something to sit back and reflect on God’s promises to us from His word. It’s a great relief actually to realize and remember that trials are to be expected. They are given to us to strengthen our faith, increase patience, and rely ever more on the Lord. As I was thinking about how God is sovereign over every single detail of our lives, it caused me to be thankful all the more for little Daniel and the short time we’ve had with him, no matter the outcome of the surgery.

As Ryan and I were sitting and waiting during the surgery, a family was paged over the intercom to report to neurosurgery. That’s when it hit us that, yes, our little tiny baby was in surgery at that precise moment, but look at what others are enduring too! Somewhere in the hospital was a family with a child undergoing brain surgery. A little perspective goes a long way.

So here we are. Back home again. The Lord saw fit to spare Daniel and allow us to continue to raise him and give him all the love and snuggles we can for however long we have him. That is truly something to be thankful about.

For Your lovingkindness is great to the heavens and Your truth to the clouds (Psalm 57:10).

Diary of a 4th…

2009-11-07T23:04:00.001-08:00

Dear readers of mom’s blog:

My parents love me, they tell me that all the time, but the photo evidence is severely lacking. Could you please ask them to step it up and document my existence? Now that that’s out of the way, here are a few of the pictures they have taken.

First of all, my birth day was very memorable for my family, for reasons other than the obvious. It was very cold that day and hailed around lunch time. The hail stuck for hours and looked like snow out in the fields; it was so beautiful, or so I’m told.

So anyway, things here are good. On my second day home I was initiated into siblinghood by Aubrey. She was “showing” me a Thomas train and bashed me in the head with it. I got a little scrape, but nothing serious. Mom wanted to take a picture of it, but, well, she didn’t.

My brothers and sister love me like crazy. Sometimes a little too crazy, but I think I like it. Warren wants to hold me lots, and Aubrey is always kissing me. Jake is a great big brother and brings mom diapers and things all the time. It’s very helpful for her.

(All bundled up, ready to go home!)

(See? all. the. time. That’s how much Warren wants to hold me!)

(Snoozin’ after a long hard day)

These next ones are some of mom’s favorites ever. Aubrey is so thrilled with me, and these pictures show that.

How cute is that?!

Mom and dad have a bouncy chair for me, which I kinda like, but Aubrey thinks it’s for her. Since she’s still so little, she meets the weight requirement and mom lets her play in it. I think I’ll need it more when I’m a little older, so for now I’ll just let her play with it.

And this last picture is for Grammy. Grammy sent my brothers and sister some presents and this one of Aubrey is how they all felt about what she sent. Pure happiness and excitement!! Thanks Grammy! I love my new sleepers too!

Ok everyone, almost time to eat. Again. Hope you all are well, hope to meet you soon. Mom said she’s not promising anything concerning the blog, as life is just a tad busier now, but she’ll try. Love to all!

He’s Here!

2009-10-28T11:14:00.001-07:00

After an unexpectedly long labor, Daniel Ryan made it! He was born last night at 11:30 p.m. and was our 2nd heaviest baby at 7 lbs 7 oz, and a short little guy measuring 18.5”. He’s completely healthy and right now as I type is in the very capable hands of his big brother Jake. We thank the Lord for another beautiful addition to our family.

And what you’ve been waiting for…

First bath by Nurse Judy. She was awesome.

The boys are so thrilled with their little brother! We are set to go home this afternoon, something I’m very happy about! I’ll post more as soon as I can, but don’t hold your breath…you know how it is. :)

Bye!

life lessons from the week

2009-09-26T20:49:00.001-07:00

~on sampling grapes from your yard:

ALWAYS take a teeny-tiny bite before you’re sure it won’t be the most bitter thing you’ve ever tasted.

~on awesome hair-dos:

ALWAYS take a picture. Or a lot.

~on letting your baby help you wrap a gift:

Just do it. Even if it’s messier and more time consuming.

~on playing the saxophone:

ALWAYS encourage proper technique.

~on making birthday goodies for a certain now 30 husband:

ALWAYS go the extra mile and make homemade chocolate cupcakes with chocolate marshmallow-frosting and Snickers and Big Hunks on top. He will love you more than he did yesterday. (or is that “he will love more of you than yesterday because you gained 3.5 pounds from eating batter and marshmallows”? No, that’s just baby weight.) And your boys will have way more fun making them than if they came from a box. You will also giggle a lot on the floor of the kitchen with said boys while licking the remaining frosting out of the bowl.

~on living a half-mile from an alpaca farm:

ALWAYS go when they have open farm days. Especially when they have a 2 hour old baby alpaca.

(This gal and I had lots in common…she was about to deliver any day now)

Chicky Babe

2009-09-10T14:54:00.001-07:00

We’re quickly coming to realize that Aubrey is the embodiment of a girly girl. She is the “exact representation” (to borrow a phrase from an ancient) of a typical girl. She gabs incessantly, likes her accessories, always wants to wear her tutu, and is beginning to care about what clothes she wears! If she’s anywhere near her dresser when I’m picking out her clothes for the day, she’ll root through until she finds something she likes and HAS to wear. What a diva. She also has a very favorite pair of jammies (pink with big green frogs) that she would wear every night if possible.

Her brothers balance her out somewhat though. She does enjoy playing with their cars and guns. Which is a good thing because I’m not sure we could handle a total Miss Priss.

Here are some shots of the lass in her girly glory.

(She likes her hats, even if they are her brother’s camo ones)

(Headbands are a favorite…on, off, on, off…looks more like a sweatband here though.)

(And the tutu of course. She was kicking that ball around the house in the tutu.)

(Now this isn’t a girly girl picture, but can’t you just hear Grandpa saying, “That’s my girl!”? And yes, she does make the shooting sounds.)

And for good measure, I’ll throw some boys in this post too.

How cute are they?

These Feet Were Made For Walking

2009-08-26T12:05:00.001-07:00

Now I am under no delusions that you all want to see a video of Aubrey walking and the boys playing, so don’t feel bad for not viewing it! This is mostly for the Grandmas and family members that we don’t see often.

Enjoy (or not)!

Blueberry Streusel Masterpieces

2009-08-25T14:12:00.001-07:00

Every so often, someone from church will stop by the church office with some goodies for the pastors, and last week we got some freshly picked blueberries—tons of them! I made some muffins for my sister, and after that barely made a dent into the berry stash, found a recipe for Blueberry Streusel muffins out of my Southern Living Cookbook. I’m kind of on a muffin kick lately and these are definitely the best that I’ve had in a long time!

Looks yummy, no? With a hint of lemon, these berry packed muffins were so delicious piping hot out of the oven. It also used up most of the rest of the blueberries.

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I finally got in to the doctor to begin regular prenatal visits again. I found a great midwife group at a local hospital. I will deliver at the hospital with the midwife on call meeting me there. I only have 9 weeks left…where has the time gone?

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I’ll leave you with some oldies that never got posted. These were taken this summer at my parent’s house when Aubrey was learning how to push the walker toy. This is her excited face, and you have to imagine the “OH!” sound coming out, it was so funny watching her figure it out.

Until next time…

Oh, Hello!

2009-08-21T14:56:00.001-07:00

It has been such a long time since I’ve blogged and I’m going to pretend nothing ever happened and just pick up from my most recent pics. I have way too many to ever catch up on anyway.

As far as the last couple of months have gone, we are finally up here in Washington, all settled, and loving it. That about covers it! Ryan loves working at the church and we love our new house. We had quite the heat spell as you probably heard. Everyone was telling us that we brought it from California. Yeah right, we came up here to escape the heat! After another brief hot spell, we’re back down to normal.

So, let’s dive right in!

My FOURTEEN AND A HALF MONTH OLD is now finally walking! I was beginning to doubt that she ever would. She can now carry around her dollies and stuffed animals which pleases her immensely. (We were having a bad hair day. Bad mommy didn’t fix it when she woke up from a nap).

The wee one is also now an accomplished climber. She managed to get up on a dining room chair and after bouncing around a little, fall off. She survived. And climbed back up. These pictures were pre-fall.

I know you didn’t really need 3 pictures of the same thing (well, maybe the Grandmas did), but how could I choose just one since they’re all so cute?!

Speaking of cute…

Warren is now the big 3! I’m sure it didn’t feel any different since he was saying he was 3 about 2 months before his birthday. We had a few people over for his party, including Grammy and Papa, who were up here visiting. His birthday (and our anniversary) fell during the nasty heat wave. It wasn’t so much fun having people over when the house was 95*, but we all lived. It’s just a fading memory now anyway, with the only thing to remind us of it is all the pink cheeks in the pictures.

The Cubs hat from Great-Grandma was (and still is) Warren’s very very most favorite of all time present. He wears it non-stop, and yes, even to bed.

Check out how sweaty Johnny is! The poor kiddos were so hot and red. Hey LeProhon’s—that cool dump truck has never looked the same since that day! It always has rocks and dirt in it now. Instead of shiny and yellow, it is now dusty and battered. In other words, he couldn’t love it more.

Instead of a cake, I made cake balls. They were awe.some. Cake on a stick, I guess you could say. It was a bit difficult making them in 100* heat, but overall they turned out great, quite a hit with the kiddos.

Here are just a few random shots from recently.

It might be hard to tell, but the boys are holding hands here. I caught this sweet moment from inside the house. They didn’t know I saw them!

At Lake Washington celebrating Micah Thompson’s 1st Birthday! What a gorgeous day in Washington.

Check out the wave hair-do! I love it.

And finally, Aubrey enjoying her first of many (I’m sure) Tootsie Pops. Tasty. This was back in July at my parent’s house. Ok, so I did post some oldies.

See ya’ll soon!

Happy 4th!

2009-07-04T20:23:00.001-07:00

Aubrey was feeling very festive in her red, white and blue stars today. She even kept a hair bow in for around 2 1/2 minutes, enough for me to get some cute pictures.

The boys got some scooter riding in, and lots of playing today. My grandma was over for most of the day, and Ryan and I did lots of packing up. Most of our stuff is still in boxes in my parent’s garage, but what we did bring in, we’re now re-packing. We load up the moving truck tomorrow after church.

We just finished up the apple pie my mom and I made. As soon as it gets dark enough, we’ll play with the fireworks we got for the boys. Late night tonight!

(Look at me go…2 posts in a couple of days!)

Here We Go!

2009-07-02T21:15:00.001-07:00

We can finally say with certainty that we are on our way to Washington!! Ryan will be the new Associate Pastor of Student and Children’s Ministries at Eastridge Baptist Church in Kent, Washington. I have been avoiding talking ~~too much~~ at all about our move because we just didn’t know if this was a sure thing. Now we do, and I can post the pics I have, and tell you about our visit several weeks ago.

I’ll start at the beginning in case you don’t know too much about the situation. The senior pastor (John) of Eastridge and Ryan have been friends for 5 years now. They met the first day of seminary and were buds all the way through. They had talked casually during school and after graduation about ministering together, and now the Lord has brought that to fruition.

So, the 5 of us flew up 3 1/2 weeks ago for a visit for the purpose of the church getting to know us, as well as for us to look for a home. The day we flew was Aubrey’s 1st birthday (June 4th) and John and his wife Trish had a little party for her! My sister and family came as well as John’s daughter and family. Trish made 2 cakes, one for Aubrey to eat/destroy, and the other for the rest of the guests. The cakes were so cute, and Aubrey had a blast digging in. She systematically picked off all the little frosting balls all the way around the cake and ate every single one! She then proceeded to destroy the rest and get cake everywhere. Pretty awesome.

The next day (Friday) we spent with John and Trish looking for a place to live. We left the boys with my sis and tortured Aubrey with a day of in and out of the car, which ultimately paid off because we found an awesome house. I can not emphasize enough the awesomeness of this house. It sits on 2.5 acres of beautiful open land with horses and cows surrounding the entire property! I was ready to sign the lease papers before we even stepped foot in the house, but my more reserved half wisely made us look around inside too. Which was also great. Here it is:

Front

Out behind the house.

It’s a dream come true for 2 little rambunctious boys and their mom who needs them out of the house sometimes. Ok, so it’s more than sometimes. But I digress… The property management company held the house for us and now we’re moving this coming Monday.

Saturday of our visit Ryan played in the church annual golf tournament in the morning while the kids and I spent the morning with my sister and her kids. We crammed her two car seats in our rental van, and combined with our three, it was quite squished. I think the kids all had fun together though.

That evening, Ryan headed over to church to speak to the youth group. The kids got a chance to get to know him a little bit. The little people and I spent the afternoon and evening at our hotel for some down time before a long Sunday ahead.

Sunday, Ryan preached in the church service and again for the youth group. After church there was a barbecue where we got to meet and talk with quite a few of the people. Looking back on the weekend, we were very struck by how friendly people were. It was a great day!

We spent a good deal of Monday just hanging out at the hotel. We were all very tired from a long and busy weekend. We packed up most of our stuff and for dinner met our good friends the Thompson’s at a nearby mall. They are serving at a church in Seattle, and we are so excited to be living close to them too! (The picture is Aubrey and her betrothed, Micah Thompson at dinner.)

Oh, Monday, we also went by the church to take a few pictures.

This was Warren’s Sunday school class. He loved the Noah’s Ark mural.

We flew home Tuesday exhausted, but so pleased at how the weekend went. We were more excited than ever to be up in Washington at Eastridge.

A couple of weeks later, Ryan flew up to the church for a very short visit for a Q & A Friday night, and then a men’s breakfast Saturday. It was just another opportunity for the congregation to get to know him. The church voted that Sunday and called him to come on staff. Amazing!

Sorry for all the boring details; I wrote them down mostly for my benefit later when I’ve long forgotten what we did that weekend.

Now the plans are: pack up what little we’ve unpacked while here at my parent’s house this weekend, pack up the moving truck Sunday, and take off Monday! My parents are driving our truck up to help us out, as well as see their other grandkids for a couple of days. We will be staying with some friends Monday night in Grant’s Pass, OR, having lunch Tuesday with Ryan’s sister in Portland, and hopefully arriving at our new house sometime Tuesday afternoon.

I’ll keep you posted on our trip after we’ve arrived!

Slacker

2009-06-26T17:04:00.001-07:00

Helloooo

2009-06-26T15:44:00.001-07:00

I bet you thought you’d never see me on here again! For those we don’t see regularly, we’re still here. There’s been lots going on with us the last month and a half, so I’ll quickly recap.

Ryan graduated (again!) on May 10th from The Master’s Seminary with a Master of Theology in Bible Exposition. He also graduated magna cum laude, I might add/brag.

It was a long 5 years in seminary, but so worth it. Our family almost tripled in size during that time! Well, technically it did, but one is still unborn. :)

Speaking of the unborn…I haven’t actually told you on this blog that he’s a boy! I had my mid-way ultrasound on our moving day. Poor Ryan was at home with his sem buddy Joey slavishly loading the moving truck and watching 3 other rugrats while I was watching the wiggles of our little guy on the television screen in the ultrasound room! As of my last appointment on May 28, all is well with he and I. The Lord continues to give me easy pregnancies, for which I am very thankful. Other than being tired towards the end of the day (and who wouldn’t be after keeping up with two very boyish boys?), I’m feeling great. We have just recently begun trying to come up with a name. The hardest one to please is Jake! He hasn’t liked anything so far except Daniel, which is the current favorite.

Speaking of moving…We left our little Temple City place on May 29 (my mom’s bday too!). We’ll miss that little house, especially the yard. I loved having the yard gated all the way around because I didn’t have any fears about the boys and strangers and running out in the middle of the street and such. Well, except for when they slipped under the gate, but hey, they didn’t figure that out until right before we moved, so it worked out just fine in the end. We also had great landlords, a quiet street, close grocery shopping, and Grammy and Papa a short jaunt down the freeway. Except for the close quarters, it was the perfect place.

Since we knew we were leaving southern California, we did some fun things before we left:

Descanso Gardens in La Canada with Grammy…

The Aquarium of the Pacific with Jake’s Master’s Kids class…

(gazillions of Nemo and Dori fish)

(Jake took this picture of us, pretty good)

Riding the huge carousel at the mall…

(Don’t you love Warren’s cowboy boots with his basketball shorts? Guess who got himself dressed that morning?)

(Aubrey and I sat on a bench rather than ride a tiger or something.)

Master’s Kids Graduation…

(Jake and his best bud Evan from Master’s Kids)

Some general silliness…

And a birthday party for the wee girl who is now 1…

(The boys decorated her cupcakes)

(One last goodbye for all the cousins)

Busy times. There’s much more that’s been going on since we moved up to the Bay Area with my parents, and I’ll have to reserve that for another time. There’s two little guys here who want an otter pop something awful.

Thanks for bearing with my absence, I will get to the newest pics sometime soon, as well as a current update on the latest with moving to Washington.

TTFN. (My aunt Lori gave the boys The Tigger Movie, can you tell?)

Playing Catch Up…Again

2009-04-11T21:05:00.001-07:00

Hello one and all. Not much going on around here, we’ve been in full Holy Week Swing, with Resurrection Day approaching tomorrow. It’s been a great week watching the boys learn more about the death and resurrection of our Lord. We made our usual resurrection mountain and have been acting out with the pipe cleaner people events that happened during the week. Of course, we always wonder just how much they are learning because the attention span of a 2 and 4 year old is nothing to write home about, but then little moments like this happen that make it all worth it:

This is Jake explaining to Warren what each of the Resurrection Eggs means, and Warren was listening to him! It was great.

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So last night as we were on our way to church for Good Friday service, Jake was explaining to Warren how Samson killed a lion with his bare hands. The conversation went something like this:

And Samson killed the lion with no gun and no lightsaber! He had bare feet and bare hands!

It was hilarious. We were trying not to laugh out loud so as not to discourage Jake, but it was priceless. Samson didn’t even use that lightsaber he had!

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This past Wednesday, Grammy and Papa took Jake and cousin Hannah to a bubble exhibit so we told Warren he got to go to McDonald’s and play on the play thing. I got some great shots while we were there.

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My parents came for a visit and the only evidence I have is this:

My dad’s legs with boys attached.

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Aubrey is into everything. It’s pretty well impossible to keep this girl contained. She likes to squeeze into tight places, like between our couch and end table. I don’t know how she fits in there, but we’re having to yank her out of there every once in a while. When Ryan was taking out the trash one evening, before we could bat an eye, she ended up here:

Playing in the trash cupboard! Gross. Her favorite place to explore is the toilet, so we now have to keep the bathroom door closed. Hopefully this stage will not last all that long.

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And most of you probably know by now that there will be another little Trzeciak joining the ranks in late October. We are all excited, Jake most of all. He’s SURE it’s a girl. We think he wants another girl because Aubrey hasn’t reached the annoying little sibling stage yet and he likes girls for now. I go in Tuesday for my registration (paperwork) appointment, but will also get an ultrasound that day as well. We’ll keep you posted!

For Shilo

2009-04-02T10:18:00.001-07:00

I am indebted to Shilo for asking me to get a picture of Aubrey’s teeth, because the result was one of the funniest (that’s a word, right?) pictures I’ve ever seen of these guys!

Messy face aside, it’s pretty cute eh?

You Know You Have Brothers When…

2009-03-30T21:15:00.001-07:00

You really like playing with Darth Vader.

Incidentally, what is it with boys and Star Wars? Our guys LOVE Star Wars. I’m talking about the older ones, not the new cheesy ones. It’s become a hair cutting tradition now to watch a bit of a Star Wars movie, which started as an attempt to keep them still during said hair cutting. It works, by the way.

Speaking of brothers…

They wanted to pose in their red shirts. This is another one of those pictures to remind us of the happy times when things aren’t so happy between them.

ps-sorry for such a long absence. We were all sick for a while, I had tonsillitis twice, and as usual, we’ve been very busy. I will post an update soon about what’s next for us after graduation in May. Until then…

Tasty Tuesday

2009-02-16T17:52:00.001-08:00

Chicken Tortilla Soup

This recipe is filled with so much awesomeness, you won’t believe your taste buds. Try it, I dare you.

Ingredients

4 T. extra-virgin olive oil
5 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 small brown onion, chopped (I’m not sure what a brown onion is, so I just used whatever yellow or white onion I had on hand.)
1 box (1 qt.) chicken broth (Trader Joe’s)
3/4 box (1 qt.) creamy tomato soup (Trader Joe’s)
3 cans (15 oz.) tomatoes. Make 1 or 2 of the cans Fire Roasted. Puree tomatoes undrained until smooth.
1 t. pepper
2 t. cumin
2 t. chili powder
4 frozen chicken breast halves
1 1/2 cups frozen fire roasted corn kernels (Trader Joe’s)
1 can (15 oz.) black beans

Directions

In a large pot, or Dutch oven (like my shiny new one!!) sauté garlic and onion in evoo until soft.
Add all remaining ingredients except corn and beans and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer approx. 1 hour.
Remove chicken, shred, and return to pot. Add corn and beans, simmer 15 minutes more.
Serve with fresh cilantro, shredded cheese, diced avocado, sour cream, and tortilla chips.

I got this recipe from Karen, a lady in my church. I’ve only met her one time very recently, but have been following her blog for a little while now. Any recipe she puts up is so delicious. I think I’ve made just about everything she’s posted in the last couple of months. A while back she posted a recipe for a mean blueberry French toast that has now become our traditional Christmas morning breakfast. She also, through her blog and emails, taught me to pour my own candles. Awesome. Enjoy the soup!

Happy Day of Love!

2009-02-14T11:04:00.001-08:00

My mother-in-law is rubbing off on me. I’ve had our kitchen table decorated for Valentine’s Day most of the week. The boys were sooo excited to see all the goodies. My MIL is very into decorating for occasions and I’ve realized that it really does make the occasion/holiday seem more special. And it’s just fun too.

This morning I made pink heart buttermilk pancakes, so yummy. We’re doing haircuts now (well, Ryan is cutting the boys’ hair, then I’ll do his after) and for dinner I’m making them a dish that I know they love, which means they’ll eat it, which is different from most every other night. I figure they could have a full belly on the love day. I’m also making heart shaped rice krispy treats; I found a silicone heart mold at Target this week, can’t wait to try it out.

Alrighty, have a great day celebrating loved ones!

Addendum: I suspect most of you probably just want to see pictures of my kids rather than reading my blah blah blah about Valentine’s Day, so here you go!

Bye!

Movin’ On Up

2009-02-13T18:47:00.001-08:00

Literally. Aubrey is now pulling up to standing! Egads, she’s only 8 months old. She gets especially excited when she sees Steve on the couch.

Holding on to the bouncy chair.

She thinks she’s pretty hot stuff these days.

And finally, here is the Kid Train. They (perhaps excluding Aubrey) were having a blast pretending they were on a train.

Have a lovely weekend all.

FYI

2009-02-11T15:20:00.001-08:00

In case you’re wondering what’s in the economic “stimulus” bill, check out this article. First, move any and all items away from your computer that can be thrown, because that will be your first instinct while reading said article.

I think when Ryan gets home this evening we’ll have a little talky-talk about not even looking for a job after seminary because we’ll be just fine living off of WIC and Food Stamps with all the money allocated to each of those “programs.” Why work when the government can support you? Ok, perhaps that was a bit of a pessimistic outlook, but read the article and then tell me what you think.

Happy Wednesday!!

My Little Sunshines

2009-02-09T16:24:00.001-08:00

I need to say something nice about the rugrats now because they are all (minus the girl at the moment) being super winy and annoying. I wish you could all hear this right now. Oi.

So here’s some cute pictures of them to remind me of the better times. :)

Hanging out in the stroller at Master’s Kids.

On the playground

It was America Day at Master’s Kids.

This is Jake’s friend from school, Evan and his sister Aubrie! We were at their house for a play date a while back.

Munching on Charlie Brown

Wii boxing at Grammy & Papa’s

Warren’s Superman impression…don’t ask me why he thinks that’s Superman! Notice the socks on his hands.

The trademark Trzeciak baby blues!

This is Aubrey’s new favorite toy. Warren was showing her how to play the little piano.

Well all is quiet again on the homefront. Ahh, peace.

Friday Funnies

2009-02-06T16:49:00.001-08:00

You will laugh, I promise.

He Thought it was Yogurt.

2009-02-06T16:23:00.001-08:00

This is one of those stories that is laugh out loud funny, but absolutely embarrassing to the poor kid.

Last week one evening before bed, Jake was reading books. We were all going about our business as usual when Jake started crying uncontrollably. We kept asking him what was wrong, and it eventually came out that there was spit up on one of the books that he had been reading. (Aubrey had recently been playing in the area.) We told him it was ok, wiped it off the book, and thought that was the end of it.

Well, much to our surprise, the little guy kept carrying on and on with the crying and we had no idea what was going on. After doing our best to calm him down, he finally blurted out, “I ATE BARF!” He had actually tasted some of the spit up on the book! Ryan asked him why in the world he did that and he told us it was because he thought it was yogurt! Yogurt!! The poor guy was so traumatized over having tasted spit up! We made sure to tell him that’s it’s best to eat yogurt only when it comes in the container. Better to be safe than sorry I think.

The offending book. Bad little animals.

Who Dressed That Baby?

2009-02-04T17:44:00.001-08:00

It’s time again for the game “Who Dressed That Baby?”

Was it

(a) her mother
(b) her brother
(c) her father

Notice the polka dot pants (with footies, which are out of the shot), the striped tennis skirt outfit, and the too small pink jacket. Your guess? That’s right folks, it was the dad!

To his credit, he actually can dress himself very well, and usually does a fine job with Aubrey too. I think in this instance he just grabbed whatever was on top in her drawers. He’s great at matching ties with shirts and pants, and often on Sunday mornings I’m asking him if my outfit looks ok. So, we’ll just consider this gem of an outfit a mishap, and capture it for posterity (and Aubrey’s baby album.)

She sure doesn’t seem to mind that she’s mismatched though, does she? :)

Skype-ing It!

2009-01-29T20:10:00.001-08:00

So I discovered Skype and so far have talked with my sister-in-law Natalie, and my sister Jess. It’s so cool to be able to see the person you’re talking to, although there are clear disadvantages to this mode of communication also.

You’re pretty well tied to your computer. Even if you do have wireless internet, it’s not much fun lugging a laptop all over when you’re talking. Often when I’m on the phone I’m doing something else, like the dishes or straightening the desk or the kids’ room.
Even though the live feed can be somewhat grainy, it’s SO obvious if one hasn’t showered or even changed from ones pajamas at 4 in the afternoon. This sister shall remain nameless. :)

Overall, it’s great to be able to see face to face people who live far away that you don’t see often. My boys had fun talking with their cousin Johnny in Washington.

If you’re on Skype, let me know and we can chat! (Make sure you shower first though.)

That’s Jess and I talking last night.

Why We Have Children…Part II

2009-01-29T18:47:00.001-08:00

To do the dishes of course! This was yesterday, and all day today Jake keeps asking if he can do the dishes! If it weren’t for the water all over the floor and food bits on the “clean” dishes, I’d totally say yes. Give it a few years, kid, then you can knock yourself out on those dishes.

Tasty…Wednesday

2009-01-28T16:38:00.001-08:00

A day late, a recipe short…

This is one of my very favorite salad recipes…so good with the feta. It’s also really easy to prepare and is best if chilled for a couple of hours before eating. If you go that route, wait to mix in the cheese until right before you serve it. YUM!

Slaw with Feta Cheese

Ingredients

2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup water
1 garlic clove, pressed or minced
1-2 t. ground pepper
3/4 t. salt
1 t. dried Italian seasoning
1 med. head red cabbage, shredded
4 oz. package feta cheese, crumbled

Directions

Whisk all ingredients together except cabbage and cheese.
Pour over cabbage, mix in cheese.

My Guys

2009-01-26T20:42:00.001-08:00

Goofing around the other day, look at Jake’s big blues!

Pretty handsome aren’t they?

Why We Have Children

2009-01-24T16:09:00.001-08:00

He vacuumed the whole carpet and did a great job! Notice the sheer determination in his face, tongue out and everything!

The Day of My Birth

2009-01-23T17:44:00.001-08:00

I entered this world courtesy of my mother on January 21st, 29 years ago. Yep, that’s right, less than a year from the big 3-0. My troop and I just hung out all day until Ryan got home from work, then I went to Target (by myself, sweet!) to pick up some face wash and hair color. Ryan had asked me earlier in the week if I wanted him to make dinner, and while deeply appreciating the gesture I also know he is somewhat lacking in the culinary skills department due to never cooking, and decided to make the Thai noodles in Peanut Sauce that I had been wanting to try. It turned out ok, the recipe needs some tweaking, and when I get it right, you’ll find it on Tasty Tuesdays I’m sure.

(Quick tangent about Ryan’s cooking skills: before I went to Washington for the weekend a couple weeks ago, I had purchased all the ingredients needed to make a homemade macaroni and cheese [which, incidentally, is so delicious because it’s made with Velveeta instead of cheddar], but never got around to making it. Well, when I called home Friday night I asked the boys what they had for dinner and they said that daddy had made macaroni & cheese. Shame on me, it didn’t even cross my mind that he had made it from scratch, I just assumed he made up a box of Kraft. When Ryan got on the phone after the boys, he proudly informed me that he had actually made the dish with the ingredients I bought! I think a Dad of the Year award is in order here, don’t you agree? Maybe I could have trusted him to make a birthday dinner!)

Back to birthday business.

Ryan did end up making me a cake (yellow, with chocolate fudge frosting, my favorite) and it actually looked very pretty! He frosted it very well and of course it tasted delicious. After dinner I opened the presents my guys had gotten me, and after the boys were in bed I started the book Ryan got me, David McCullough’s The Johnstown Flood. (So far it’s awesome.)

All in all, it was a very nice day spent with my very favorite peeps.

The Sprinkle King used an entire container of nonpareils!

Of course the boys had to help me open my presents. :)

Being silly!

Jake is practicing his photo taking skills!

And I think I’ll leave you with an incredibly cute picture of my incredibly beautiful daughter, taken at Master’s Kids last week.

Check out all that drool on her shirt!

What a wonderfully blessed 29 years I’ve had!

Friday Funnies

2009-01-23T16:34:00.001-08:00

Hi all-my sister sent me this in an email and I wanted to pass it on to you-it’s hilarious!

Simple Home Remedies:

Avoid cutting yourself when slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold the vegetables while you chop.
(for the guys) Avoid arguments with the females about lifting the toilet seat by using the sink.
For high blood pressure sufferers: simply cut yourself and bleed for a few minutes, thus reducing the pressure on your veins. Remember to use a timer.
A mouse trap placed on top of your alarm clock will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.
If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives. Then you’ll be afraid to cough.
You only need two tools in life: WD-40 and duct tape. If it doesn’t move and should, use the WD-40. If it shouldn’t move and does, use the duct tape.
If you can’t fix it with a hammer, you’ve got an electrical problem.

My favorites are #3 and #5. I laughed and laughed when I first read those!

Happy Friday!

Tasty Tuesday

2009-01-20T15:09:00.001-08:00

Chicken Noodle Soup a la Mom

My mom came up with this delicious recipe and it’s even a soup that my kids will eat! Bonus points around here for a recipe that the boys like.

Ingredients

one rotisserie chicken from Costco or your supermarket, remove meat and cut up or shred
olive oil or butter
onion
celery and some other veggies like carrots if desired
chicken stock or broth
egg noodles

Directions

Chop the onion and sauté in the oil or butter until tender. Add in celery and other veggies and sauté those until desired tenderness at the same time as onion.
Add as much broth as you want, depending on how much soup you want to make. Bring to a boil.
Add noodles and cook according to package directions.
Add chicken and cook until chicken is warm, just a couple of minutes because the water is already boiling.
Season generously with salt and pepper and enjoy!

I like this one because it’s all about however much of the ingredients you want to use. Experiment with it. Mine was pretty thick with ingredients the other night and we liked that better than more broth. This soup goes well with buttermilk biscuits too.

Nail Salon

2009-01-18T21:02:00.001-08:00

For my birthday Part 1, my mother-in-law, who believes birthdays should last at least a week long, took me to get a pedicure and I had a very hard time understanding the girl who was doing mine. There was one time she kept asking something and I never did figure out what she said, I sort of smiled and shrugged. Seriously, what are you supposed to do in that situation? Anyway, I immediately thought of Anjelah Johnson. If you’ve never seen her Nail Salon video, you’re in for a real treat. This is an extended video with some things in the beginning I hadn’t seen before. Enjoy!

(Not too) Distant Travels

2009-01-18T19:08:00.001-08:00

Hi all. Sorry for the absence. Other than Tasty Tuesdays I have not been making much of a contribution to the blogosphere. My most recent excuse is that I was out of town last weekend! Aubrey and I flew up to Washington for a girl’s trip. She was a dream baby to travel with, super easy. The airports were a breeze, check-in and security lines were almost non-existent, and I got a yummy power bar on the first flight! The only mishap was on the way home when we had to de-plane and re-board another plane because there was a problem with the first plane they couldn’t fix right away. Which was actually slightly nerve-wracking having just watched 24 the night before. You 24 fans know what I’m talking about!

The trip overall was fantastic. My friend Shilo picked me up from the airport and I spent the night at their home Thursday, then she took me to my sister’s house and I stayed there the rest of the time. It was so great catching up with Glen and Shilo and little Micah man (until 1:30 a.m. on Thursday!) and getting to meet my niece Jeanine for the first time! I think my nephew Johnny was a bit wary of me at first, but he warmed up and I was tackling him on the stairs in no time. Here are some pictures to share. I’ll put up some more of Aubrey and Micah Thompson (wow girl, the names written out look good together, don’t they?!) (side note: Aubrey and Micah are betrothed, we’re setting them up for marriage in 20 years.) when HIS MOMMY SENDS ME SOME! hint hint.

Goofing around at the mall.

Having fun on the last night.

This was my view from the airplane of Mt. Rainier. It was such a gorgeous view! A little further south was Mt. St. Hellens, also beautiful, but I forgot to take a picture. The above pic of Aubrey was also on the plane.

I still have some great videos to post from Christmas, I’ll try to do that soon. You know I keep saying that because I want you to keep coming back right? =)

Stay tuned for a yummy Tasty Tuesday recipe coming up!

Tasty Tuesday

2009-01-13T20:56:00.001-08:00

Another week gone by, another recipe is here! Drumroll please for…….

Cranberry Scones

This recipe came from a lady in our old church in Castro Valley. I make these all. the. time. Really, several times a month. We love these scones and I always have cranberries on hand because the boys are cranberry fiends. Here we go.

Ingredients

3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
zest of 1 orange
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) cold butter, cut in small pieces
1 cup dried cranberries or 1 1/2 cups fresh
1/4 cup juice of the orange you zested + 1/4 cup milk

Directions

In food processor place flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, zest, and butter. Mix until blended.
Add cranberries and mix. Slowly pour in liquid (juice + milk) while food processor is running until dough forms ball. Dough should be soft but not sticky. If sticky, add flour until ball is firm, but not wet.
Form dough into 2 balls. Flatten one ball into a circle about 1/2” thick. Lightly brush with milk and sprinkle and sugar. Cut into eights and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Repeat with other ball.
Bake 400 degrees for 12-20 minutes until golden brown.

Enjoy!

I will really try to update with pictures soon, I was just in Washington over the weekend visiting my sister and friend and have some great pics. Have a great week!

Tasty Tuesday

2009-01-06T19:34:00.001-08:00

It’s baaaack! I’ve been on Tasty Tuesday break for a while and need to get back in the swing of things. Here’s a very simple soup recipe since it’s a soupy time of the year.

Potato Soup

This recipe is a family one. I can remember having potato soup way way long ago. I think it came from my Grandma, but you’ll have to talk to my mom to verify that. The amounts of the ingredients are really up to the soup maker, but here’s a rough idea:

Ingredients

potatoes-as many as you want, depending on how much soup you want to make, or how thick with potatoes you want it-cubed.
milk
butter-1 stick-ish, depending on how much soup you make
flour
salt & pepper

Directions

Put potatoes in a large soup pot (or something like my brand shiny new Rachael Ray bright orange 5.25 quart Dutch oven!!! Thanks Mom!!) and cover with water. Boil potatoes until tender when pierced with a fork.
Dump much of the water out, reserving a little in the pot. Add enough milk to the pot to make as much soup as you want! Or dump all the water out and make the entire broth with milk. It’s up to you. I leave only a little bit of water, and use mostly milk.
Melt the butter in small saucepan. Whisk in the flour little by little until mixture is very thick. Add mixture to the soup (this just thickens the soup a bit).
Heat soup until hot, seasoning with salt and pepper.
When the soup is in the bowl ready to eat, we like to smoosh the potatoes with a fork.
Serve with crackers (saltines or oyster crackers are the best).

Delicious! Glad to hear some of you are enjoying past Tasty Tuesday recipes! Happy cooking!

Outta Steam

2009-01-06T16:47:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone! As the title suggests, I’ve lost steam for the blog. I have so much to post and write about, but I’m know I’m not going to get to it all. So I’ve decided to just cover the highlights with pictures.

We’ve all been sick over the Christmas break, which was a bummer, but really, is there a better time to be sick? I think not, since Ryan didn’t have to miss any school or work, and there was lots of family around to entertain little ones. We were up at my parent’s for Christmas and New Years (which was spent watching a movie and going to bed early). We had so much fun, but after almost 2 weeks away from home, it was time to leave.

I promise I will update the theme of the blog soon too, I know Christmas is over.

Well, here we go, beginning from before we even left for vacation.

Talk about a cutie! And happy. One thing Aubrey is is very happy.

Brian and Christi got the boys Buzz Lightyear hands! They love high-fiving with them.

My parents came down for our church’s awesome Christmas concert and to deliver NEW (to us) COUCHES! No more nasty old ripped couch! Thanks mom & dad.

Aubrey fell in love with Billy and loved to grab on to him. Billy was very patient and endured it well, even when she tried to take his chewy.

Warren’s new saxophone. He plays that thing all the time.

Aubrey studying Grandpa--I just love this one, it’s so sweet.

The boys with their new camo hats and jackets.

They each got stick ponies too. Cute little cowboys.

Of course no trip to Grandpa’s is complete without a motorcycle ride! We bundled them up, found some of my mom’s gloves and off they went!

And how about one more great one of Aubrey loving on Billy:

I also have some fantastic videos of Aubrey crawling, Aubrey bouncing, and the boys riding ponies, but they will have to wait. Dinner’s a’waiting.

I’m off gallivanting this weekend with Aubrey up to Washington to visit my sister and friend Shilo. I can’t wait! Hope ya’ll have a great weekend too!

6 Months…and change

2008-12-18T09:55:00.001-08:00

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

2008-12-15T14:48:00.001-08:00

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…

2008-12-11T14:43:00.001-08:00

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

2008-12-08T16:59:00.001-08:00

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.

2008-12-06T10:31:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-12-01T09:55:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-25T09:22:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-24T15:46:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-20T14:40:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-20T14:28:00.001-08:00

The boys’ bedtime routine consists of

clean up
get jammies on
brush teeth
Bible story
prayer
and this:

Lots of Pictures

2008-11-20T14:20:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-18T16:58:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-16T20:18:00.001-08:00

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….

2008-11-13T16:32:00.001-08:00

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:

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

So, here are my 5 things:

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.
I love little girl clothes way more than I thought I would.
I love the hour between 1 and 2 p.m. when all the children are sleeping and the house is quiet.
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.
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

2008-11-12T20:11:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-11-11T16:39:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-11-10T21:46:00.001-08:00

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.

Skin Grabbing

2008-11-08T16:19:00.001-08:00

So my little boys have this weird thing where they like to grab each other’s skin and make funny noises. Usually it’s arm skin, but any other convenient body place works too. Observe:

As you can tell, they think it’s hilarious! And can someone tell me why the laundry basket is such a fun place to play? I can’t keep these guys out of it!

5 Months!

2008-11-07T15:22:00.001-08:00

Here we are again, another month mark, more quilt pictures. This past month was great with Aubrey. She’s become quite the chatter box, more so than the boys were. I’ve heard it’s because she’s a girl, well yeah, we have lots to say people! She’s become very interested in her toys, still is in love with her brothers, began eating “solids”, and loves to wake up at 5:30 a.m.! Good thing her daddy is up at that hour usually and takes her out of the room so I can get a little extra snoozin’ in, otherwise I’d be a bear. And according to Titus, we’re to affectionately and tenderly love our kids, not be bear-like. So, thanks hubby for entertaining Aubrey while you read and write in the mornings!

Here are some pictures of Aubrey at 5 months, and one at one week, to compare.

Can you believe that? She’s like 7 squares big now! It wasn’t easy getting these pics, she kept wanting to curl up her legs and hold her toes. (You were right, Lauren, much more difficult now to get good pictures now that she moves so much!) Ryan was laying at the edge of the quilt and holding her legs down until right before I snapped the picture. Look how pink and plump she is!

Here is a little mosaic of us goofing around with her after her “photo shoot.”

That’s all for now, the fellas are awake and the babe will be going down for her nap soon. Have a sweet weekend!

Tie Boys

2008-11-06T16:55:00.001-08:00

They don’t come any cuter than this, people!

Warren was so thrilled to wear this tie to church, just like daddy. If you remember, Jake threw a fit about wearing to to church last year on Easter Sunday. Actually, it was just this past Easter, how time escapes me.

Adorable!

We got him to at least put it on for the pictures.

It’s a weird feeling having Warren fit into and wear Jake’s old clothes! I just can’t believe that they are getting so big.

Boy, oh, Boy

2008-11-05T12:01:00.001-08:00

Well, I was going to start out with a sarcastic comment about how we have a new National Community Organizer (my mom’s witty comment!), but I’ll refrain. Instead, I’ll write about what the Lord has laid on my heart about the election.

It’s really quite simple: “Every person is to be in subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God,” Romans 13:1-2.

~~National Community Organizer~~ President-Elect Obama was put in place by God, whether we like it or not, according to Scripture. The thing is, we should be praising God because His will was accomplished last night, again, whether we approve or disapprove of the results. There are so many verses, especially in the Psalms that speak of the Lord ruling the nations from His throne above (Psalm 47:2, 47:7-8, 93:1, 96:10, 97:1, 97:9, Daniel 2:21, just to name a few), that we can and should be confident that it was God who not only knew what the election results would be, but caused it to happen.

As believers, we are citizens of heaven and earth, and while we are to be concerned about earthly matters, the more important and better concern for us is on things above. We are to seek first God’s kingdom and set our minds on things above.

So rest assured you politically weary friends, that our God is in control of the earth. We may not approve of our new President’s policies or views, but God is quite clear that we are to be in subject to him. We should be praying for him and imploring the Lord to put godly men and women around him and for the Spirit to draw him to Himself so that he may come to know the Lord one day and be saved from God’s wrath. As I constantly remind my boys, wouldn’t that be an action that pleases God?

I’ll leave you with this verse that is quite a comfort for such a time as this: “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all” Psalm 103:19.

Tasty Tuesday!

2008-11-04T09:56:00.001-08:00

It’s that time again!

Southwestern Chicken

Ingredients:

2 cans (15 1/4 oz) corn, drained
1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
16 oz jar chunky salsa, divided
6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 cup low fat shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

Combine corn, beans, and 1/2 cup salsa in slow cooker.
Top with chicken, top with remaining salsa.
Cook on low 6-7 hours, or until done (mine only took about 4 1/2 or 5)
Sprinkle with cheese, cover for 5 minutes for cheese to melt.

This goes really well with rice.

Enjoy!

Baby Stunts

2008-11-03T14:59:00.001-08:00

By the third baby, you finally begin to realize how much fun they are to play with! Babies are a lot more resilient than we realize when we first start having them. After seeing so many pictures of my cousin and his wife’s kids and what their Papa does with them, Ryan and I thought: hey, we can do that too, let’s try it! So behold the standing-baby-up-high-in-the-air trick!

Pretty nifty, eh?

Home Making Rule #174:

2008-11-03T14:43:00.001-08:00

When attempting multi-tasking (not always a good idea with multiple children) always set a timer.

These are the apples I was cooking up for Aubrey to make into applesauce. After about 40 minutes, I remembered they were on the stove. I decided she wasn’t at the “crispy” apple stage yet, so I started over.

The finished product looks (and tastes) much better.

Live Writer

2008-11-01T18:43:00.001-07:00

Hello all-

I’m trying a new “system”, uhh, “way to blog”…I have no idea what to call it. Anyway, my online friend Lindsay told me about Live Writer after I mentioned I was having spacing issues with Blogger so I’m giving it a try.

Here’s a picture we just took with out web cam. Does anyone else out there have a webcam that we could talk to?

Yes, that is a light on Jake’s head, he’s been wearing it all day. Warren broke his earlier on. Aunt Pam gave the boys these last Christmas and they still love them.

Well, this Live Writer thing is pretty cool, lots more features than blogger. Thanks Lindsay! Sorry I missed Tasty Tuesday last week, I was out of town, but looking forward to this week!

By the way, it’s my favorite day of the year today/tomorrow with the end of daylight savings…one extra hour to sleep…yes!!

Reformation Day

2008-11-01T16:16:00.000-07:00

A day late, here are some pictures from our Reformation Day party. Not that we have anything against Halloween (really, can anyone say there is anything inherently evil in going door-to-door asking for candy or dressing up as a cute something or other?), we just decided to celebrate a day that is infinitely more important to us as believers.

In the afternoon the boys and I made stained glass pictures, we told them the story of Martin Luther and a little about the Reformation, and after dinner put on the movie Luther and ate a Diet of Worms! (gummy worms that is.) Even though they're still so little, Jake was able to understand the difference between what the Catholic church teaches about salvation by works and what we know to be true from the Word: salvation is a gift from the Lord, nothing we do can merit that gift (Ephesians 2:8-9). He kept saying over and over that we have to trust Jesus to go to Heaven! How wonderful for him to understand that at such a young age! So here are a couple pictures.

Coloring the pictures with crayons

Then you take a cotton ball soaked in oil and rub all over the page.

Viola! The finished product looks so pretty in the kitchen window.

Gee, Thanks JESS

2008-10-30T20:10:00.000-07:00

OK, so these "Tagged" things are mucho annoying-o and until now I have avoided them, but will play along this ONE time. Jess, you don't get a Christmas present for doing this to me.

Here we go:

1. What time did you get up this morning?
Technically 6:30 because that's when Aubrey started stirring, but in reality it was 7:00 to feed her.

2. Diamonds or pearls?
Diamonds for sure. They're sparkly.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
The cinema? Well, I went to the movies and saw Batman Returns with my hubby.

4. What is your favorite TV show?
"24", but I also love watching HGTV and imagine all the things I will do to my future house.

5. What do you usually have for breakfast?
Cereal and orange juice.

6. What is your middle name?
Ann

7. What food do you dislike?
Shepherd's Pie. Blech.

8. What is your favorite CD at moment?
I'm not sure, I guess I would have to say the new Third Day. Musically, it's awesome. Lyrically, totally lame.

9. What kind of car do you drive?
A 1998 Toyota Sienna, even though Ryan and I made a pact NEVER to drive a minivan. But what else are we to do with 3 kids in 3 car seats? Actually (secretly) I love it.

10. Favorite Sandwich?
BLT with Avocado, hold the mayo, add lots of mustard. mmm.

11. What characteristic do you despise?
Apathy. It drives me up a wall when people just don't care.

12. Favorite item of clothing?
my Eddie Bauer shaped fit dark indigo wash jeans.

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
Sicily.

14. Favorite brand of clothing?
Eddie Bauer or Land's End.

15. Where would you retire to?
Somewhere cold and snowy in the winter and decent in the summer...Montana perhaps, or certain parts of Canada.

16. What was your most recent memorable birthday?
I can't even remember my last birthday.

17. Favorite sport to watch?
Gotta be baseball!

18. When is your birthday?
January 21. Are these questions a little out of order?

19. Are you a morning person or night?
Neither. I'm a middle of the day person. Seriously.

20. What is your shoe size?
8 1/2

21. Pets?
Steve the cat. He's 7.

22. Any new and exciting news you would like to share with us?
uhh, no.

23. What did you want to be when you were little?
A veterinarian, I think. Later on, towards jr. & sr. high it was a teacher.

24. How are you today?
I had a stomach ache earlier, but now I'm fine. (did I answer that question the correct way?)

25. What is your favorite candy?
I like my sister's answer "the kind you eat." I quite agree, I love love candy. If I were forced to choose a kind with a gun pointed at my head, it would be Hot Tamales. My mom gave me a 5 lb. bag of them for Christmas one year when I was away at college and I think they were gone by January. Maybe February. I love candy.

26. What is your favorite flower?
Gerber daisy

27. What is a day on your calendar you are looking forward to?
November 30-Jake turns 4! Then December 20th-ish-the Christmas concert at our church.

28. What is your full name?
Jennifer Ann Trzeciak (again, questions a little out of order!)

29. What are you listening to right now?
Jake screaming on his bed because he didn't want to take a bite of dinner. Warren playing with the globe toy.

30. What was the last thing you ate?
Black eyed peas with ham and rice. Soo delicious.

31. Do you wish on stars?
No, I pray to their Creator instead. (good answer Jess!)

32. If you were a crayon what color would you be?
Green.

33. How is the weather right now?
A little too warm for my taste for late October. Otherwise, very beautiful huge puffy clouds, turning orange and pink as the sun goes down.

34. The first person you spoke to on the phone today?
Ryan. I couldn't find the checkbook, but as soon as he picked up I found it in the spot where it's supposed to be. That's weird.

35. Favorite soft drink?
Coke

36. Favorite Restaurant?
Olive Garden when I feel like Italian, Chevy's when I feel like Mexican. McDs when I feel like taking the boys out for a treat.

37. Real Hair Color?
Brown.

38. What was your favorite toy as a child?
I honestly have no idea. I don't really have a good memory for that kind of thing. I can barely remember yesterday, let alone 20 years ago. (Are we almost done yet?)

39. Summer or winter?
Winter for sure.

40. Hugs or kisses?
Depends on who's giving/getting them. Ryan-kisses. My kidlets-different kinds of kisses. Everyone else-hugs.

41. Chocolate or vanilla?
Chocolate

42. Coffee or tea?
Coffee. Unless it's later in the day and I've already had enough caffeine but want something hot to drink, then hot tea. I love Constant Comment the best.

43. When was the last time you cried?
A couple days ago. I won't tell why, sorry.

44. What is under your bed?
Wrapping paper and ribbon/bows, a lumbar pillow (for driving while pregnant!), Ryan's slippers, a small-ish toolbox, and a broken down nightstand. We don't have a whole lot of storage, so there's lots of stuff under there!

45. What did you do last night?
Watched August Rush with Ryan.

46. What are you afraid of?
My children living their whole lives and never trusting in Christ.

47. Salty or sweet?
Both! I love lots of salt on popcorn, but as you already know, I love candy too!

48. How many keys on your key ring?
3...my car key, my house key, Ryan's parent's house key.

49. How many years at your current job?
Almost 4!

50. Favorite day of the week?
Depends on what's going on during that particular week, but usually the Lord's day.

51. How many places have you lived in?
7 different cities (all in CA) in 9 different houses/apartments.

52. Do you make friends easy?
Not really.

53. What is your biggest pet peeve?
Bad drivers who don't know the rules of the road.

54. We all waste time. What do you do that wastes the most time?
Participating in Tagged things. What a waste of time. Seriously though, I do spend too much time on the computer. It's an easy distraction.

55. Are you a nerd?
I don't know. To some, probably. To others, probably not. My kids don't think so.

56. Fiction of nonfiction?
Non-fiction, especially biographies.

57. What is something that you miss?
Hot Tamales when I don't have any in the house.

58. Have any hobbies?
Crocheting, reading. Not in that order.

59. What is something you're passionate about?
My faith. I love learning more about God's word.

60. What is something you've learned from your current job?
That little boy kisses and hugs are one of the most precious things on this earth!

I'm not tagging anyone because I don't think anyone will respond. I would have tagged Jess, but she got me first. So, there you all go, my little gift to you: not being tagged!

Shades

2008-10-21T15:37:00.000-07:00

A little late for summer, girlie!

Tasty Tuesday!

2008-10-21T14:57:00.000-07:00

This will be a quick one, don't have much time today. I need to start packing for our trip to my parent's house and church for the Jerry Bridges conference, can't wait! So, without further ado.....dun dun dun...it's

Dump Cake

(This one's for you Warren, if you're checking!)

Ingredients:

1 20 oz. can cherry pie filling

1 20 oz. can crushed pineapple, drain a little

1 yellow cake mix

1 pkg. chopped pecans, about 3/4 cup

1 stick butter-grated

Directions:

Spray a 9" x 13" pan with cooking spray.

DUMP ingredients into pan in order given, grating the butter on top evenly.

Bake at 350* for 40 minutes.

You won't believe the aroma in your home during bake time. Simply delicious!

2 Warrens is Confusing

2008-10-20T16:12:00.001-07:00

My cousin Warren came to visit this weekend en route to Monterey. He's a stud naval officer on his way to learn Spanish at the Defense Language Institute, where my sister learned Arabic. They boys instantly loved him and had a great time playing. It was quite confusing having two Warrens, but we worked it out. Here's a picture from right before he left.

Nummo!

2008-10-18T13:19:00.001-07:00

Well, sort of. This is Aubrey's face after trying baby cereal for the first time, priceless! (She likes it now though.)

And here are some shots I took the other day. I love love love this dress and wanted to get a few shots of it before it was way too small for her. As of right now, it's beginning to get a bit tight, which is ok because the weather is finally beginning to cool. These pictures turned out so great, if I do say so myself. Ryan says he likes the 2nd one the best because her eyes are smiling!

What Month is it?

2008-10-17T13:33:00.000-07:00

So my calendar says October the 17th. Now, normally when I think of October, I think of fall setting in, the days becoming cooler, the leaves turning brilliant colors (in other parts of the country that is, not in CA), and jeans and jackets.

Nope. Not here. My little desktop icon that shows the current temperature says at this precise moment that it is 94* in Temple City. That, my friends, is h-h-hot. *sigh* Good thing we still have lots of Otter Pops left in the freezer, cause it looks like we'll need them today!

Mr. Mantis

2008-10-16T18:59:00.000-07:00

Praying Mantis, that is. The boys found this guy on our stairs the other day. Yuck. Of course Ryan had to catch it and bring it in so we could study it for the evening. Double yuck. He was pretty cool looking though, and if he looks ginormous, it's because he was! I did not like that he was in the house with the potential for getting loose, but thankfully nothing happened.

Marriage Advice

2008-10-16T14:06:00.001-07:00

For all of you wondering what the secret of a fantastic marriage is, look no further.

Tasty Tuesday!

2008-10-13T21:46:00.000-07:00

Polish Sausage Chili

I got this recipe from my sister-in-law Natalie, who made it for a chili cook-off, and won! Amazingly, this is a chili recipe that doesn't call for all day simmering, just 20 minutes in the saucepan you make it in. Or, like I did yesterday, I threw the whole thing in the crockpot and let it cook on low for several hours. As Lindsay says, nummmmmmo! It was so good with some freshly baked corn bread.

Ingredients:

1 T. vegetable oil

1 lb. kielbasa-diced to 1/2" pieces

1/2 c. chopped onion

1 can (16 oz) red kidney beans

1 can (16 oz) stewed tomatoes

1 cut picante sauce (as in Pace picante the salsa...I had to ask Natalie. I used Medium, it made it pretty spicy, so if you have a weenie mouth like me, try the Mild. My nose was running and everything when I was eating it!)

1/2 c. chopped green pepper

1 T. (or less, depending on your mouth weeniness again) chili powder

1/2 t. garlic powder

Directions:

Heat oil in medium saucepan on medium-high heat.

Add sausage and onion, cook and stir 5-7 minutes, reduce heat to medium.

(*at this point, I threw everything in the crockpot)

Stir in remaining ingredients, simmer 15 to 20 minutes. Enjoy!

Again, let me know if you make this and what you think. Jess, this is a really easy one to throw together, you'll love it.

~Sorry for the funky spacing, every time I go back and add spaces inbetween the ingredients and directions, it goes back to single spacing when I post. I know it makes it kind of difficult to read, not sure what's going on.

Ouch

2008-10-13T15:20:00.000-07:00

So, remember last week when I was talking about our car, and being thankful for it? Well, it seems that the Lord wanted to make sure I believed what I wrote. Funny thing, when Ryan went to start his car on his way to work last Friday, it didn't start! Turns out it's the alternator, and the mechanic decided to throw in some new front brakes as well (which we had to pay for). Ow-ow-ouch.

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On a more positive note (pun intended, you'll see below), it seems that Aubrey is destined for American Idol brilliance. Or, at least Jake thought so.

Those silly American Idol microphones that McDonald's gave away last year sometime have been the best toys! The boys just love love them and play with them all the time. I usually throw away happy meal toys a couple of weeks after getting them, but I would be big time busted if I tossed these. And now Aubrey's using them!

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Did anyone make the Tasty Tacos from Tasty Tuesday last week? I know my mom did. I'm making it again this week. Preview: if this chili recipe turns out tonight, it will be my tasty Tuesday contribution tomorrow. My mouth is watering smelling it simmering in the crock pot. See ya'll tomorrow!

4 Months!

2008-10-11T16:04:00.000-07:00

Another month come and gone. This past month has been so much fun because Aubrey is grinning all the time and at practically everyone. She's been laughing out loud if you get her in just the right tickle spot, she's discovered Steve, she's sleeping from 8:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. (almost) without interruption, she is still crazy about her brothers and follows them (with her eyes of course) around the room, and is quite the snuggle bug. What a joy this little girl is to us! Here are a couple 4 month shots, and since there are getting to be so many, I'm going to stop posting the month shots side by side. I think I'll just do the newborn, and whatever month bday it is. And of course, the boys had to get in on the picture action, so there are some great ones with Aubrey as well. Enjoy!

Look at This Face!

2008-10-08T19:25:00.000-07:00

Too cute!

Tasty Tuesday!

2008-10-07T15:42:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone! Through my new internet friend Lindsay, I've discovered Tasty Tuesday and decided to participate. The way it works is I will post a yummy easy recipe that (hopefully) the whole family will love along with the Tasty Tuesday link so you can go and check out Lindsay's recipe, as well as others who are participating. In the end you will have some fantastic recipes that are pretty easy to make. So, drumroll please......the first Tasty Tuesday on Trzeciak Chatter (that sounds pretty clever eh?).

Tasty Taco Fillings
(recipe came from FamilyFun Magazine)

I made this last week and everyone, and I do mean everyone, loved it.

Ingredients:

1 T. vegetable oil

1/2 cup minced onion

2 garlic cloves

1 serrano chili, minced

1/2 cup tomato sauce

1 teas. cumin

1/2 teas. salt

3 1/2 cups shredded, cooked chicken, I believe I used 2 chicken breasts (I cooked the chicken in the morning so I wouldn't have to bother with it at dinner time)

12 flour tortillas

Directions:

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and chili and saute until the onion has softened, about 6 minutes.

Add the tomato sauce, cumin, and salt and continue to cook for one minute more.

Add the chicken and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes.

Taste, and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Serve in tortillas with toppings of your choice.

Sooo delicious, and a nice change from the normal ground beef with taco seasoning packet.

PS- Mom, this is the recipe I told you about a couple of weeks ago, so you'll want this one for sure.

Also-please go check out Lindsay's blog to find some other yummy recipes.

The World Through Jake's Eyes

2008-10-07T15:12:00.000-07:00

This morning Jake and I were driving to Master's Kids. He's quite the chatty boy lately and I've really enjoyed the time alone with him driving to and from church every Tuesday. Today, completely unbeknownst to him, he reinforced a great lesson for me. This lesson, by the way, is one that we've been pounding into him for a while now. Funny how the Lord teaches me through my kids.

Jake loves to look at other cars and comment on them. Today as we're driving he points out a red car. He loves red cars and thinks all of them are race cars. As I find the car he's pointing out, my first reaction in my head (thankfully) is, "That piece of junk?" Now, the actual words didn't come out of my mouth, again, thankfully, because the car really was a piece of junk, but in his precious innocent eyes, this was a really cool car! I'm pretty sure those were his exact words, "That's a really cool car mommy!" So here's my train of thought over the next minute or so: this "pretty cool red race car" just so happens to be the exact same car Ryan drives, only his is white. Our car is a 1988 Toyota Corolla which my parents bought for me for my 18th birthday. I can still remember when my dad brought it home we all piled in and drove to Val's for hamburgers. Mmmmm. I loved loved loved that car and drove the stuffing out of it. Lots of trips to Quaker Meadow camp, and back and forth from northern to southern California. This car has served us well and we've put hardly a penny into it, other than normal upkeep. It has been a great car. But over the years (10 to be exact) I have found myself being ungrateful for the gift that car is. I know it's wrong, and I know I need to be thankful for what we do have, which is exactly what we tell Jakeman all the time because our lives don't consist of the things we possess (Luke 12:15). Instead of being thankful all the time (1 Thess. 5:18) that our car is still running well and getting Ryan to and from work and school, which is a lot of miles, sometimes I wish for a new car for him.

So...all that to say that I realized I should be looking at the world through my son's innocent eyes. When I look at our beat down, old car, I need to be seeing a "really cool white race car," and a special gift from the Lord that has lasted us an incredible 10 years.

For Auntie Natalie

2008-10-05T17:37:00.001-07:00

Hi Aunt Natalie, just wanted to show you a picture of me in my awesome dress you got for me! It's mom's favorite right now and she even had to make a bow to match and, yep, you guessed it, glue it into my hair! See you in December.

I Love Technology...

2008-10-05T17:07:00.000-07:00

So I spent the afternoon on the phone with a Dell technician in India today! He (supposedly) resolved our computer problems and we're back online! It turns out our computer only has 1 gig of memory, and for Vista to run successfully you need a minimum of 2 gigs. Gee, that information sure would have been helpful 2 months ago when we ordered it! I was just struck when I was on the phone with this man that I was talking to someone 7,600 miles away who was already into Monday! (It's Sunday afternoon here as I write this.) Amazing. He was also able to remotely view my computer and fix it that way. I was impressed.

I'm sick. This cold hit me very quickly and very hard. I went to bed Friday night and felt fine and woke up Saturday and felt terrible. Today was even worse with me not even remembering much about this morning, other than that Ryan said he was going to stay home from church with us. Then I went back to sleep for another couple of hours in between feedings. I feel a little better this afternoon, so maybe by tomorrow I'll be better (wishful thinking, huh?).

The weather people weren't kidding when they said it would be "cold" by the weekend. It was around 100 Wednesday, and yesterday, Saturday, it was upper 60s and rainy! Woowoo! We were all freezing of course, being used to the hot hot weather, but I loved it. I actually wore a long sleeve shirt and slippers!

Last Tuesday was train day for Master's Kids. We took the MetroLink train to Union Station in L.A. and spent a little time down there before catching the train back. We saw lots of neat "touristy" things that we normally probably wouldn't see, including the Avila Adobe, the oldest standing house in southern CA. Ryan, Warren, and Aubies came with us, and I was so glad because Warren had a great time too. Jake was so thrilled the entire week before we went on the train, and the actual day did not disappoint! It was fun for him seeing all the kids he's met in school, and he told us he was glad Warren came along too! Here are some pics:

If It's Not One Thing...

2008-10-03T16:45:00.000-07:00

It's your internet! As I write this, I'm sitting at my in-law's computer checking email because ours is busted! It seems all those ominous Windows Vista stories are true. We're having trouble with Vista which is affecting our internet. We keep getting messages that our ISP is not reading our modem, or something like that. Aargh.

Not a whole lot going on to report about. After a scorching couple of days, we're now down into the 70s, and supposedly it's going to be in the 60s this weekend - hallelujah!

So what's up with the Cubs? It was a tense time watching those ugly back to back games with multiple errors. We are, however, confident that with a days rest the Cubbies will clobber the Dodgers here in LA because after all, my hubby and his dad and our brother-in-law will be at the game Saturday to cheer them on sporting their Chicago gear. How sweet it will be watching the Dodgers go down in flames in Los Angeles and seeing the Cubs clinch the series at home!

Okey Dokey, sure hope we have our computer up and running soon. Kind of a bummer to have all those pictures pile up on my computer and nowhere to upload them to!

Guest Blogger: Aubrey Rachel!

2008-09-29T13:53:00.000-07:00

Hi guys, mom said I could write a post and let you all know a little more about me. Plus I have to tell you about this crazy thing she did, but more on that later.

So, I guess my favorites right now are my brothers, Jake is so funny, I like to smile and laugh at him when he talks to me. And Warren really likes to hold me, which I think is fun. He does get up in my face a lot, which isn't so fun, but I still love him anyway. Mom says I just have to remember that he's still little and doesn't know that it bugs me. What else...oh yeah, I really like biting when mom feeds me. She always yells when I do this; she must not like it too much. I love my play rings, and especially when mom and dad clip them onto my bouncy seat. I can't get enough of playing with them and grabbing on. My grammy just got me this awesome book. It's soft and has animal faces on it and whenever I see the bright colors on it I get really wiggly and my hands and legs start moving uncontrollably! I just love that book!

Here's a picture of me and my brothers. Who do you think I look like the most?

Now as for that funny thing that mom did: we were in the nursing room at church yesterday and I hear mom ask another mommy how she got a little bow to stay in her girl's hair. This other baby had hair like mine: None. Just fuzz. Which, by the way, is way easier to do in the mornings than lots of hair and makes going somewhere pretty simple. So this lady said she uses washable glue. An in a glue stick. Through my swallowing I thought I heard wrong, but nope! Well, mom decided to get all crafy and make a bow for my outfit this morning because none of my other ones matched and just guess how she stuck it in my hair? Glue stick! For the record, even though I pretend it's icky, it works really well. The thing has not come loose all day even with all my thrashing around in my sleep. Here's a picture of my glue bow.

I know it's not a great shot of the bow, but you get the idea. Don't I look cute? (Mom said that was really vain, sorry.)

Well, I sure am getting sleepy and fussy. I think it's close to nap time and I know that mom still hasn't cleaned up the kitchen from lunch, so she has some things to do too. It was nice getting to do this, hope I get to see you all soon!

~A.R.

Saturday Musings

2008-09-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, and especially to those 6 who officially follow my blog, 2 of whom I've never even met, you make me feel so special! They would be Lindsay, from whom I receive many yummy recipes (the Italian Chicken was delicious!) and "met" through Kyle and Steph Sanderson, and my sister's friend Lauren who lives in Georgia and amuses me with hilarious insights and stories about childrearing. Amazing how the internet brings us together!

Anyway, this last week was a great one, other than that icky Indian Summer heat wave. We had Master's Kids, Ryan's birthday, Baby Gym at church, and a family dinner for Ryan's birthday on Friday. And of course, the usual fun with three little munchkins around. Here's a recap in pics.

Look at that cute little face so excited about his crafts at Master's Kids!

The birthday boy (29!) with the kidlets.

Awww...

Warren thought it was hiiiilarious to put his cars on Aubrey's bouncy seat. And I don't want to hear any guff about her ginormous bow either...it's cute.

I chose modesty over the cuter picture here (which you're probably thankful for), but after baths in the Trzeciak house there is nothing more fun than naked ducky superman time.

And last, but certainly not least, my cute little sleeping baby. No joke people, we put her to bed (and down for naps) swaddled and on her back. This is how we find her every time she wakes up! Look at how her hands are folded! I think she really likes to have her hands near her mouth, so she twists and contorts her body to get her arms out of the wrap and near her face. She also must like sleeping on her tummy, but not going to sleep on her tummy. She fusses and has a fit if I lay her down on her belly to go to sleep, which is followed inevitably by spitting up. She must be swaddled to get to sleep, but then she decides to roll over. Is an almost 4 month old supposed to roll over yet? With Jake, Ryan had to actually teach the boy to roll over when he was about 10 months old!

Some Cuteness

2008-09-23T15:53:00.000-07:00

Isn't it amazing all the neat things we can do with our pictures these days? And I am quite confident that I haven't even touched more than the tip of the iceberg of cool things to do with pictures. Anyway, enjoy my really cute baby girl getting bigger every day!

What?!

2008-09-22T20:21:00.000-07:00

Big Ol' Head

2008-09-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

The little miss is somewhat top heavy, so when she was looking down at her blanket she kept rolling over! Completely unintentional to be sure, but still cool.

From the Mouths of Babes

2008-09-18T19:02:00.000-07:00

At dinner tonight Ryan asked Jake what kind of toys we should get for Aubrey. He of course said dolls because, "Girls play with dolls and boys play with cool stuff!" Cool stuff consists of guns, cars, dinosaurs, jets, rockets, puzzles, monsters, and swings. He would know, he's an expert on cool stuff.

Have You Ever...

2008-09-16T22:03:00.000-07:00

Painted a fish? Jake has. Today at Master's Kids. It was a real fish, a really dead one. And we painted it and smooshed paper on it to imprint the image onto the paper. Jake thought it was pretty cool painting the eyeball and that poor fish had more paint in his eye than on the rest of his body. The paper smells like dead fish and paint. mmm

I never thought we'd be doing that in preschool!

(I had my friend Heather take some pictures of us painting, so when I get those from her I'll post them.)

Bumbo Chair Fun

2008-09-16T19:16:00.000-07:00

She's still a little little for this, but she was able to sit in it for a bit and grin at Jake.

The Master's Kids!

2008-09-12T18:58:00.001-07:00

Jake and I are participating in The Master's Kids, a preschool program at our church. It's one day a week - Tuesdays in our case - and so much fun! There's lesson time, Bible lesson, craft time, snack, and free play. During the kids' lesson time, we moms have our Mom's Time, where we all just hang out, eat some goodies, and occasionally hear a speaker. As expected, Jake had a great time and can't wait to go back. Here are a few photos of the first day:

Photography Lesson

2008-09-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

So the boys are very interested in my camera and always want to take pictures. Usually I say no, but last week I decided to let them try. The subject was Aubrey of course, and the pictures turned out pretty good!

Warren's Pictures

Jake's Pictures

Ahh California

2008-09-08T21:48:00.000-07:00

Where else can you go from this

to this, in under an hour?

On Saturday Ryan and I took the kidlets up to the San Gabriel Mountains and found a campground to eat our packed lunch and let the boys hit trees with sticks and run down hills at full speed. They had a blast, we all were a little sunburnt, and we decided to go back in a couple of weeks and camp overnight. I'll let you know how that goes. :)

Here are some pictures of the fun day.

And now for the cutest picture of the day:

Your Friend and Mine (and especially Warren's)

2008-09-07T21:02:00.000-07:00

Meet Alexander Fleming. This man, quite by accident, paved the way for the discovery of penicillin, and thus all other bacteria -killers, including cephalexin, which is quickly wiping out Warren's impetigo. Where two days ago his neck was completely covered in funky sores, it is now healing and people won't recoil in horror when they look at him. Whew! So here's to a science experiment gone wrong in a messy laboratory, and we thank God it did!