Friday, March 27, 2015

Taking a breath.....

The days seem to be slow moving at the moment but I know they just feel that way. We're missing the South, tons of friends, warmer weather, sickness invaded the last two weekends lingering into the week and zero parent time out for myself.  Then add a horrible experience at Harper's school leaving us with questions about her return. And it has snowed, rained or been cloudy for a week.  Thankfully, one of our beloved baby-sitters is scheulded to come for 3 hours tomorrow and she said she was staying for us to go to dinner or whatever we wanted.  I'm so excited, I could kiss her. 


But some fun things first.....
We had a Spring party at Hailey'sschool.  

Learned Harper doesn't like worms. She won't walk outside after a rain.


Hudson turned 14 months and turn into a toddler it seems.

Momma got stitches. I had a spot/mole removed. Just my luck, the dr didn't get the entire mole. Wth? So now I have to wait another month, pay another $50 co pay to have her re look. Then I'm sure I'll have to pay another $50 co pay for her to correct it. Needless to say, after she corrects it, I will find a new dermatologist.  I'm over $500 in co pays since October because she doesn't treat our breakouts and eczema the same appointment. Or she doesn't do full body cancer screens with any other appointment. Why this wasn't a red flag, I am so upset with myself. She was highly recommended. Let's not talk about what your skin looks like after stitches.
Thankfully it improves each day.

Lots and lots of Barbie's lately. 

Oh Hudson, you are pushing your limits. Two seconds to hang something already on a hanger in Harper's closet. Two seconds.

And because you know the floor is so over rated.

He loves cleaning. Our little janitor.

Harper's laugh is contagious.

She is a helper but wants to earn quarters. 
Momma, I don't work for free. 


See, more Barbies!




He wasn't a Harper fan this day.
Typical day.
Lost a tooth on Christmas Eve and another on St Patrick's Day.
until next time, we'll keep on climbing..........

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Sweet Hailey Grace


HG has turned into the sweetest girl lately. After battling a brutal stomach virus, loosing 6 pounds, not eating for 4 days, her sweetness is back at school. She is ever so sweet with her friends and teachers at school, always being praised when I am up there. She is the first to jump up and help anyone.  Friends send colored pictures home with her with I love Hailey Grace all over them. It really makes our heart so happy that she is such a helpful delight around her peers.
Their goal in Kindergarten is to read at level C in our district. Smart girl is reading daily at E, many F's and working into G's. This is huge up here, so many kids still struggle on level C. I smiled and said that all the reading I make her do is paying off. She reads to us daily and the change from August until now is huge. From 6 to 6.5, she has matured so much. She gets things now and understands why on so many simple things that just doesn't click for younger kids.  Those of you with kids close to her age understand what I mean. She gets it. Even if she doesn't like it, she gets it.

But then, everyonce in a while she gets her feelings hurt. Bad hurt. I hate this part of life.  Poor girl couldn't eat, couldn't sleep and could only think about someone being mad at her. My heart broke for her seeing her struggle. I wanted to fix it. I wanted to make it all better. Instead, I hugged her and assured her she was lovely.  No mattered what happened while she was absent, it will be okay. We prayed for the friendship last night.

She was made fun of on the bus, whispered about, someone tried to get others to talk about her and not be her friend. Then the little one refused to let her play after school in a mean way.  Sadly, all totally normal kid stuff. I see it up here more than I ever did in the South.   But it broke her heart. She crumbled. It was seriously so heart crumbling to watch.  It is the second time it happened.  I assured HG that in a day or two, it will pass and she will be best buds again wanting to play. Isn't is heart breaking that kids have to go through this part of life at all?

Why must females be so mean at times?Maybe it is just the female make up.  It is always the last ones you expect too. We learned the hard heart breaking way this past year. 

Poor girl is learning a lot about life, friendships and surviving right now. All these ups and downs will help mold her into the amazing woman she will be one day........hopefully living in sunshine she said!

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Part of a healthy lifestyle for us

In today's world, eating healthy isn't always the first option, if an option at all.  Schools, dining places and even grocery chains are slowly working to offer better choices for families. I personally do not believe it is a one sided campaign, this is something that takes a team to accomplish. With three children, all at various stages in their lives, we work hard to achieve this goal in our house. When I say we work hard to accomplish it, we work daily.  We have two that eat anything and everything.  We have one that we wonder how she functions and survives. Seriously.

Her answer......



























Greek Yogurt!

While the majority of our meals are considered healthy, we do have splurges here and there. Don't we all crave that cookie, ice cream, and pizza? All of our meals and snacks have one thing in common in our house, Greek yogurt. For as long as I can remember, yogurt has been part of my like. My dad used to mix it with green peas as a child for us to eat.  It's no wonder why I dislike green peas, can you imagine? We've had Greek yogurt in our house long before the new fad of eating it.  To us, it was always the healthier choice and worked as a great replacement for milk and ice cream in many ways. All three of our kids us parents too all agree that our favorite Greek yogurt has always been Chobani. Our middle child eats very little but we can not keep enough yogurt in the fridge for her.  A favorite sweet around our house is frozen Greek yogurt or dipping stuff into black cherry yogurt. Or any berry flavor to be exact.

Like I said earlier, many places are adding or coming around for more options when it comes to snacks or lunches. Hailey Grace eats at school very rarely, the choices aren't always the best. Sometimes I am shaking my head at the meal choice.  Packing can get boring with daily sandwiches so we try to get creative. Daily, no matter what we pack into her tiny lunch box, we always include cibonai yogurt. Not only do we feel she will get a little food in her belly, it will be a healthy choice packed with protein. If you haven't been to an elementary school cafeteria lately, you really should go join them. There is no way you will actually finish your meal unless you do no talking and a lot of shoveling.  Can you imagine kids not talking in the cafeteria? I sure can't.  I worry about all the children still around me and the lunch ladies who are doing their best that they are allowed to do. This is where Chobani yogurt tubes, squeeze pouches and snack cups could work perfectly.  They can chit chat all they want and still manage to eat. Wouldn't it be awesome if the cafeteria included these in their meals? The kids are served milk, in our case it is always chocolate milk, but this could be a perfect alternative for many. We have quite a few non meat eaters in our Kindergarten class and see the children pulling out various forms of yogurt from their lunch boxes.  This would allow more options for some of those children as well as the school cafeteria.

Another way we indulge in the healthy items from Chobani are these new to us tot pouches.  I can sneak in loads of vegetables while all the kids taste is wholese goodness.  If you know me, I am always trying to sneak something healthy into something not so healthy for Harper.  She is the cutest, most precious and lovable little tyke ever. But she doesn't eat. I have spend days praying or in tears for just one bite of anything.  Thank you Chobani yogurt, you constantly save us.  We never leave home without them.  At times, Harper might eat 4 pouches in a 30 minute drive. To us, this is huge.



Each family has their own idea of nutrition and healthy choices. At our house, I would say we are on the upper end of healthiness by the choices we make. We strive to be a better, healthier family.  Chobani contacted us to write about their Greek Yogurt and it was only natural that we did a blog post about it.  When you have child that has food issues and the one thing she loves is the product that contacted you, how could you not brag and promote their product. 

Here is our quick list on how we use Chobani Greek Yougurt in our lives:

  • Breakfast, lunch, dinner & snacks
  • School lunches
  • In the car snacks
  • Sporting events such as swimming, gymnastics, soccer, etc,
  • School parties
  • Middle of the night snacks
  • PANCAKES- my kids some pancakes!
  • In place of ice cream. We dip fruit, cookies, and other various treats into the greek yogurt
  • Use instead of butter
  • Muffins, dips, cupcakes
  • Instead of Sour cream
What ever healthy or non healthy lifestyle you and your family choose, I urge you to try Chobani Greek Yogurt. I would have told you in Target, in the grocery, or at the park even before I was contacted to post about it.  We buy Chobani greek Yogurt at least twice a week, many times three times a week and we buy in what we consider in bulk each time. 






Saturday, March 21, 2015

Weekend stomach virus

We're hunkering down around here. Last weekend Harper had a stomach virus thanks to it passing around her school.  Today, HG woke up during the night sick as can be. She finally caught the miserable stomach virus that has been taking down the kids in her class and their parents. Many have missed an entire week of school because of it. Moms couldn't make it off the couch. We've had our fair share of sickness and belly stuff but have been lucky......thanks to zofran or similar.
So while HG hunkers down running fever in her room, we are in another part of the house. We've disinfected everything, washed load after load of laundry and washed our hands until they bled.



Thursday, March 19, 2015

Show & Tell

How is it Thursday already? It seems like it was just Sunday. As I sit here recalling our week, it has been fast and furious. Big  couple of weeks but we'll touch on that more later. 


Every Friday is show and tell in Kindergarten here. HG picks out various things to take and show to her friends. Sometimes it is cuddly bear, something they have all seen a million times, and sometimes it is extra special. Like last Friday, she loaded up my cell phone in her back pack and headed to school. I had no idea. I looked for it for 4 1/2 hours before checking my email learning about my cell spending a day in Kindergarten. I'm just thankful I decided to get on an actual computer, this is something I rarely have time for. I greeted the school office with a comment about my phone and all ladies enjoyed a good laugh.  Oh to have a school age kid now and the things they learn.
 
Harper is really into dressing herself


Last week we decided to pull out all the Spring and Summer items since we won't have another chance until after April 17th.  We might need a few items before then......Even though we are going to have some cold days before then!

Hailey Grace and Faith have been mailing items back and forth.  So cute and I am glad they are learning the importance of writing rather than internet stuff.





School was delayed due to fog one morning.  This was some serious fog.



HG had a terrible pop tart for breakfast one morning she can't do sweets early and then had to stay home from being sick because of it.  An hour later, she was back to her crazy self.  It also happened with hot chocolate recently but I sent her on to school.

One of his very favorite meals, slow cooker turkey chili.








We had a couple of beautiful days.
Oh HG.

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Weekend wrap up

We had friends come and play today for five hours. It was so nice outside but since Hudson is still pulling on an ear and coughing a little, we decided to stay inside. He is much better, slept 6:45-6 over night but still wheezing some and on breathing treatments.  The rest of the week looks great so hopefully we can get out to play a bit.
The husband arrived back in town this week just long enough to repack a bag and head down to Texas.  We are eager to have him back in town for a bit after traveling the last three weeks.




It was 50 in the garage so we road bikes in there.


Hudson is having lemon sorbet while the girls have ice cream. The egg in the ice cream causes hives and of course I did not have his epi pen since the ice cream date was unplanned.

Hudson went to Harper's beauty shop.

These girls were grounded Saturday.
Such a big boy.


We've looked and looked at houses but making an offer this week. Wish us luck. Indiana isn't our ideal location to live since the husband still travels.  We are making the best of it and looking forward to our own house again. .