A Week at the Jamison's (Saturday)

Saturday 2.27.10

Today has been one low key day from beginning to end.  We all got a slow start to the day.  After breakfast the kids got to watch some Saturday morning cartoons.  Part of the morning was spent with Connor playing with Play-Doh and Angela coloring and decoding some jokes.  Just before lunch Brian took all three kids to the car wash and washed my car.  During naptime Angela read a book and then she and I played Monopoly Jr. (it might be time to get Monopoly for the family).  The five of us ended up playing Oregon Trail on the computer.  It brought back a lot of memories for Brian and I.  Then it was time to make dinner.  What an ordeal, we waited until late to start it and every option we picked took a little bit more time than we expected.  We ended up having mashed potatoes, grilled chicken, chicken gravy and grapes.  We bathed both boys and sent them off to bed.  Angela has been having some really good morning so she earned herself a dip in the hot tub with dad.  They had been in there for quite some time when I heard a loud noise outside.  Shortly after that Angela came in saying I needed to go outside that dad got hurt.  By time I got to the door he was just coming in.  A large piece of ice had slid off of the roof and landed on his shoulder/head.  His head has a few scrapes on it but otherwise wasn't hurt too bad.  His shoulder, on the other hand, he says hurts really bad.  He took some pain killer and is going to try and sleep it off.  Thankfully Angela was on the other side of the hot tub and did not get hit at all.  This will take some action on our part to make sure it does not happen again. 

Well this was a week at the Jamison's - hope you enjoyed seeing a little piece of our lives!  

A Week at the Jamison's (Friday)

Friday 2.26.10

Brian usually has Fridays off and today was no different. It is really nice having him home on weekday mornings so that he can help get all of the kids up and moving. On Friday morning it is especially busy as Emeric and I need to leave at the same time Angela does; Connor gets to stay home for some dad time. I am part of a book study group. We are studding What Every Girl Wants: A Portrait of Perfect Love & Intimacy in the Song of Solomon by Lisa Harper. Often times we spend more than our allotted hour, but today I had to cut out a little early. Angela had her follow up dentist visit to get her cavity filled. We had her eat lunch before the appointment just incase she was not allowed to eat afterwards. When we got there she was acting kind of funny; she said she was scared. Once in the chair the doctor gave her the choice of using the numbing or not. He said with a baby tooth you sometimes can do it without; she decided to go without. She was in an out in about 20 minutes, no crying or screaming. I was super proud of her. We got her back to school in plenty of time to participate in her class’s popcorn party. Brian, the boys and I just relaxed through our afternoon. We enjoyed a small snack from the leftover pies. When Angela got home from school she and Connor went outside to play. Then she came in and helped me to cook dinner (grilled chicken, egg noodles with a cheesy sauce and a broccoli/cauliflower mix). I helped Brian make up some chai tea mix and then I headed off to teach my water aerobics class. Brian got the kids ready for bed and tucked them in. He was enjoying a show on TV when I got home. We bought an antenna for our TV so that we could watch the Olympics but unfortunately we do not get that channel. He and I completed on of our devotionals and then sat in the hot tub.

A Week at the Jamison's (Thursday)

 

Thursday 2.25.10

Today I can foresee being a very busy day.  I woke up at 5ish and got started making some pies.  I made my family secret never fail pie crust and filled it with chocolate cream, coconut cream (thinking of you Rachel) and banana cream filling.  Two are for my MOPS meeting tonight and the other one is to leave at home for Brian and the kids.  About this time Angela was in full swing getting ready for school.  Shortly after that Emeric and Connor woke up.  After getting the boys breakfast and Angela off to school I did some of my exercise videos; to the shower and get ready for the day.  We ran to the store to quickly pick up a few items and then it was off to a friends in Pardeeville for a playdate and lunch.  I got home and put Connor and Emeric down for naps and then made up some really fun potluck stands to place the name or recipe of your dish in.  

These were so super easy to make and they got rave reviews from all of the MOPS ladies.  I can not take credit for the original idea.  I was browsing etsy and found a shop selling these.  I can not remember which shop, but I know that I could make them myself and not have to spend the money (since I used my stash to make them).  Brian got home from work just shortly before Angela got home from school.  He and Connor spent some time together while Angela was working on her homework.  I cooked up a dinner (lasagna, garlic bread and corn) for them and then headed off to my MOPS group.  I don't know what Brian, Angela and Connor did for the evening, but I am sure they had a good time.  I know that he was able to relax in front of a movie after the kids went to bed.  Emeric and I had a really fun time at MOPS, although we had too much pie to bring back home.  Brian and I enjoyed a few minutes of visiting and then we were off to bed.

A Week at the Jamison's (Wednesday)

Wednesday 2.24.10

Here goes another day.  It was a good night last night, Emeric only got up once to eat and Connor never ended up in our bed.  Today getting ready seemed to go quickly.  Angela ended up with time to sit and read books with Connor.  Connor, Emeric and I headed to a friends for a morning play date.  We spent most of the morning there enjoying all of their fun toys (imaginext & geotracks).  The boys and I had lunch and then I got lucky and got Connor in his room and Emeric napping at the same time.  I did one of my devotionals and then cleaned the dinning room, living room and kitchen.  The boys got up just a few minutes before Angela got home from school.  Today was a much better day for homework, she got it done really quickly.  All the laundry I did a few days ago has been sitting folded on the chair; we all put it away this afternoon.  The kids got some new toys from the friend we visited today: a toy finder, two books and a ball.

I think the toy finder and the ball are really cool and I am going to see if I could make something similar.  They had a really good time playing with them.  I made up a batch of spice cookie dough and put a pizza in the oven for dinner.  Not homemade this time I was going for absolutely no work and no thought for dinner.  After dinner I baked up the cookies and Brian and I did the weekly hot tub maitinance.  We got all the kids into bed quite quickly.  Then it was time to order me up a new swim suit for work.  It was very much needed as I could hold my suit up and see all the way through to the other side.  I can only imagine what it looked like on me.  While online we spent a little bit of time working on some of his apprenticeships paperwork.  I also worked a little bit on my Bible study.  He and I then headed out to sit in the hot tub for some much needed body relaxing and then we headed up to bed. 

A Week at the Jamison's (Tuesday)

Tuesday 2.23.10

Since I took the computer to bed with me last night, I did not get up quite as early to work on it this morning.  Instead I was up at about 6:30 nursing Emeric and encouraging Angela to get ready for school.  Mondays are normally an exercise morning for me, but with Angela home that got thrown out of wack.  As soon as she headed off to school I did my morning exercises.  Then off to the post office to mail a package and get some stamps.  Next to the library for story time, playing and checking out books.  We then drove to Poynette for a play date/lunch with some friends.  We made it home in time for a quick snack and then Angela got home from school.  Since she had not been in school since last Wednesday it was a bit (let's be honest) a huge fight to get her to do all of her homework.  It took her two hours to read 15 minutes and complete 3 worksheets.  While she was doing that Connor and I read and played for a little bit.  I cleaned the kitchen island as I was working on dinner (Southwestern eggrolls with a avacado dip and red beans and rice).  Brian helped me to get the kid's teeth brushed and jammies on so that I could help Angela finish up her homework.  We had to play multiplication bingo.  I had to go to work teaching water aerobics (what a tough job getting paid to exercise).  Once home I had to search for Brian only to find him snuggled up under the covers with Connor, too bad I didn't get a picture of that.  I showered up and headed off to bed.     

A Week at the Jamison's (Monday)

Monday 2.22.10

I got up at quarter to 6:00 to have my quiet time checking e-mails and fiddling on the computer.  Since there was no school today for Angela (as it was a teacher inservice day); she got to sleep in until around 8:00.  After getting her and Connor bowls of cereal they played while Emeric and I played.  During that time I did a couple of loads of laundry and read my Mom's Devotional Bible.  I am working on reading a devotion a day for 2010.  I made a quick lunch of ziti noodles, leftover pizza sauce, cottage cheese and cheddar cheese.  Then off to the dentist for Angela and Connor.  Connor was watching Tom and Jerry and kept forgetting to hold his mouth open wide, but otherwise things went just fine for him.  Angela, on the other hand, did not have a good visit.  She has one cavity that needs filled and a couple more that are growing.  Hopefully if she cleans her mouth well they will not turn into anything that needs taken care of.  She is not really excited about going in next week for that.  Next we quickly headed to the Wal-Mart to pick up two presents and some fabric for an upcoming project.  Then to slow things down a little Emeric needed to nurse.  Nothing like nursing a baby to keep you from running too fast for too long.  After paying a bill we headed home for a little bit of relaxing.  The kids watched a movie and then worked together to unload the dishwasher.  I tiddied up the house, folded laundry and made dinner (string pie - a cross between baked spaghetti pie and lasagna).  As soon as Brian got home we headed off to drop Angela and Connor at a sitter while he and I went out on a date.  Then it was home to get all the kids into bed, change the sheets on our bed (since Connor made a mess on them) and head to bed ourselves.  I decided to take the computer to bed with me and blog a little bit.  I also found myself on another blog, the Altered Art Junkies blog hosted a Valentine's card swap which I took part in; my card is shown on the above post.

A Week at the Jamison's (Sunday)

Some people have asked me to share a little bit more about our lives.  I decided to run a seven part (read: boring) series titled "A week at the Jamison's". 

Reader: Laci, this series is going to be boring?

Laci: Yes reader it will be boring.
Reader: Why would you post a boring blog?
Laci: Well it is a week in our life for people to see what we do.
Reader: So what makes that boring?
Laci: We do not do that much, but maybe some people will find it just slightly more interesting than I am expecting.  Enjoy!

Sunday 2.21.10

Weekend mornings equal a breakfast that mom makes and not a bowl of cereal.  Today was nothing fancy, just scrambled eggs.  We seemed to get ready really quickly this morning which is unusual for us on a Sunday morning.  See this is our day of rest.  We go to a later service which allows us to sleep in a little bit on Sundays.  We got Angela to Sunday school at 9:00 and headed off to go grocery shopping.  That got done a little faster than we expected so we returned some movies to the video store and to the library.  We made it to church at 10:15.  We got back home about quarter to 12, unloaded the groceries and got started on lunch.  Sundays we have "leftover lunch" somedays it is over whelming as we have a lot of leftovers, other days we hardly have enough for everyone.  Once Connor was down for his nap Brian went outside to give his car a tune up.  Angela and I played a couple of rounds of uno.  Angela invited a friend over to play and Brian, Angela, her friend and Connor all watched a movie.  I made our bran waffles (watch out eggo!) and dinner: meatloaf, twice baked potatoes and asparagus.  After dinner we, friend included, drove a little over 20 minutes to the Dells to get some Cold Stone delight.  Once we got there we found out it was closed with a big space for lease sign in the window.  We ended up going to Dairy Queen, but you know when you are salivating for Cold Store, Dairy Queen just doesn't cut it.  After getting the friend dropped off and all three kids in bed, Brian and I enjoyed a little bit of time in the hot tub.  We also did our Song of Songs devotion (by Anita Renfroe and Mr. Renfroe). 

Emeric at 5 Months

Emeric is five months old already, the time is flying by.  He is growing by leaps and bounds.  He is such fun to be around.  He loves to smile and watch his sister in most everything she does.  He smiles at Connor and really got giggling/laughing once.  His bottom two front teeth have just about broke through the gum.  The gums are swollen and you can see the teeth just under the surface.  It seems like when you have your first child you watch them all the time.  You jump for joy over the smallest smile and kick of the leg.  Then you have your second child.  You get excited about these things but there is not as much jumping for you.  Now we are onto our third child and darn it all you miss some of these things.  A couple of weeks ago we had Emeric laying on his back on the play mat in the living room.  Brian walked in to check that he was okay and he was on his stomach.  What the heck, we missed his first time rolling over.  Since then he has rolled from back to front a half dozen times and we have seen those.  He is sleeping well, only waking up once or twice during the night to eat.  He has not started solid foods yet, but he is working on breaking in the high chair. 

If It's Not One Thing....

This week has been one thing after another. Last Sunday morning Connor was not feeling well. We were pretty sure that it was an ear infection. We took him to urgent care, got a prescription and were on our happy little way. Then Tuesday morning I had to take him to the emergency room. He fell; hitting the back of his head on the corner of the wall and it split his head open. I was able to get the bleeding stopped pretty quickly and fortunately he did not have to get any stitches; they were able to glue it together. It did not seem to slow him down as he was running up and down the halls in the ER before we left. Then Wednesday morning Angela was complaining about not feeling well. I took her to the doctor that afternoon to find out she has strep throat. She ended up having to stay home from school both Thursday and Friday. I am truly hoping that is my three and we are done for a while.

Kid's Valentines

Valentine's Day is not a very big holiday for me.  I really could care less about the flowers, chocolates and such.  I enjoy going out on dates and if it ment Brian and I got one that would be fine, but really I try and keep it low key.  Growing up my parents always gave my brother and I a little something on Valentine's Day to show their love for us.  That was one tradition I wanted to carry on to our children.  This year I made the gifts for the kids.

Emeric got a pair of shoes.  I tried to make them manly, Brian said he wants a bigger pair. 

Connor got a fishing pole and fish.  The pole has a magnet on the end and the fish have magnets in their noses.

Angela got three headbands and a sugar cube toy (something she's really been wanting).

I really enjoyed watching them play with and enjoy their things.

All You Need is Love

In 2001 Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor stared in the film Moulin Rouge. I am not too sure I liked the movie, but I really enjoyed the soundtrack. At one point McGregor is singing to Kidman; who would have thought that this guy could sing, I mean this is Obi-Wan Kenobi we are talking about. But back on track, he is singing “All you need is Love…” For this to make sense, let’s look at what love is. Webster’s Dictionary defines love as: 1. Intense affection. 2. A feeling of attraction resulting from sexual desire. UrbanDictionary.com defines love as: The most spectacular, indescribable, deep euphoric feeling for someone. This sounds like the type of love I see in stores, hear on the radio and see on T.V. Later in the song Kidman responds “You’d think that people would have had enough of silly love songs” to which he says, “I look around and I see, it isn’t so.” So right he is, as Valentine’s Day approaches commercialism says that we must show our love by participating in these silly love songs. But what happens when that feeling of love runs out? Well isn’t that when real love comes around. The – you are making me really upset and I feel not one iota of love but I am choosing to love you – love. This is where we make the choice to love our husbands and children every day. Now when Valentine’s Day is past and the feeling of store bought love is gone; remember the words of 1 Corinthians 13 and make the choice of love.

Connor's Haircut

I will let the photos do the talking since I am not too sure I know what to say (funny, me with nothing to say).  Well maybe a little miracle grow would be nice but until then here is our little boy.

Before:

 

After:

Sledding

Last weekend we went sledding.  It was a lot of fun, albeit a little cold.  A friend's mother lives on Silver Lake, here in town.  It is a nice gently slopping hill the goes down towards the lake.  Angela was concerned with going onto the lake, but Brian assured here that it was solid and would not break if they went onto it. 

She still wasn't certain so Emeric, Brian and I went down the hill first.  Brian stopped us at the bottom and up we climbed.  Angela decided to head down with dad and they flew down the hill, over the bank and out onto the lake.  I was not prepared for this and did not get any pictures.  I was afraid that she was never going to try it again but she was laughing and screaming about how much fun it was and how she needed to do it again.  Happily I took pictures of their decent. 

Next she wanted to go down with me.  I tried to explain that dad steered them through the cat-tails on the bank of the lake, but I would not.  Unfortunately for us, our encounter with the cat-tails left us on the losing (messy) side of things. 

Brian really enjoyed our misfortune.  Connor had a great time pulling the sled around, but I don't think he actually ever sat on it to sled down the hill. 

He also liked walking out on the lake.  It was a fun afternoon for all of us.   

Play-Doh

I have got a project I want to start a project in early summer and I need empty Play-Doh containers. 

I have put up a CraigsList posting and an ad in my MOPS newsletter with no results.  Then this morning I opened up our Play-Doh box and sure enough our Play-Doh is dry and yucky.  Thus I have four containers to use, but nothing for the kids to play with.  This is where the fun started for Angela, she got to help me make up a batch of purple play-dough.  I forgot how absolutely simple and easy it is to make play-dough (thank you mom for the recipe) and how much softer/more pliable it is compaired to the store bought variety.  The kids had a fun Saturday morning playing with it. 

I've Been Sewing (cont.)

At the end of my 'I've Been Sewing' post I left you hanging with the thought of completing a new project.  Yesterday I did it.  I was able to get both boys in their room and/or asleep at the same time and then I made a pair of baby booties.

I found this pattern from a blog I follow, Make It and Love It.  They seemed super easy and I was right.  I had them done within 2 hours as that's all the longer quiet time is for Connor.  Part of that time was spent putting Emeric to sleep and then back to sleep.  So, I'd really say that I got them done in about an hour.  I think next time they'll go a little quicker as I have a better idea of how they go together. 

This pair is for a friend that is due in just a few weeks, hopefully these pictures won't spoil the surprise.  I am now trying to figure out how to make them a little more manly.  I think I will try some for Emeric and see.

Only the Best of Etsy Sample Packages GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Only the Best of Etsy Sample Packages GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

I love to get mail. So much so that around noon I start watching for the mail lady (she usually doesn't get here until about 2 PM). Unfortuanately not much fun stuff comes in the mail. This would be a great giveaway for me to win, we'll see.

Angel Food Cake

I have always wanted to try and make an angel food cake but it requires a dozen egg whites. I thought it was silly to buy a dozen eggs to use them all in a cake. But then the other day as I was baking pies I ended up with nine extra egg whites, so really what is three more? I might as well give it a try! I made the angel food cake out of my new Betty Crocker cookbook. I then put a vanilla glaze on it, fresh fruit is not quite in season but that would be my next pick. I took it to a church potluck on Sunday evening. We were near the front of the line and were able to get a piece to share and good thing too, there was none left when I went back. It seems to have turned out well. I guess I will be buying those dozen eggs after all.

[Side Note: I was working on making a batch of cookies.  I had my first dozen out of the oven when I heard a sizzle and a pop.  I opened up the oven and the element looked funny, so I turned it off to let it cool down.  After it was cool I took a look inside, my lower element had broken in two.  By time Brian got home and looked it had broken in another two places.  I really don't think that is what is supposed to happen to my oven!  I have things to bake in there darn it!]