Not Me Monday.... Stellan Style!

I don't usually do these... or at least I haven't yet, but today I feel compelled to make sure Stellan is at the front of everyone's minds.

So here it goes...

I have NOT thought about Stellan most every moment of every day since I found out he was in SVT.

I have NOT felt guilty that I get so irritated when my children are sick, and then I have NOT felt even more guilty knowing how selfish that is when there are other mom's and children dealing with much more.

I have NOT checked http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ literally 30 times a day to see if she has a new post, and when she does not, I have NOT gone so far as to link to her tweets just to get a small update.

I have NOT cried, prayed, or cried more wanting this baby to be well. NOT ME!

Heather, you said it best, so I am taking it from you... Pray. Pray. Pray. Hope. Wish. Whatever it is you do, please do it!

The Twelve Hours of Motherhood...

I've been very busy. As some of you know (and others don't) I have my own two kiddos that I stay home with as well as 3 other babies I watch during the day. Yes you counted correctly... that's 5 kids... Cole 2 years old, Carter, B, and B (I'm keeping their names private for their parents) are all 1, and WD is 9 weeks old. I have my hands full, but week keep on quite a daily routine. Yesterday, I started humming the Twelve Days of Christmas in my head, and realized that's kind of what my day feels like... so here it goes... (oh, for the sake of time, I'm just going to count it down 1 time backwards)

In the Twelve hours of motherhood my true loves asked of me...

Twelve diaper changes

Eleven sippy cup refills

Ten quiet minutes

Nine blocks for stacking

Eight hours playing
Seven books for reading

Six trips to the potty

Five precious babies (I know that's only 4, but WD is too small... and I try not to post pics of my daycare kiddos faces for privacy sake)

Four hot lunch plates (and three warm bottles, four breakfasts, and six to eight snacks)

Three hours sleeping

Two dino jammies

ONE TIRED MOM!!!

It's been a good week with our newest addition WD. He is a precious baby. Hope this was a fun little post about our days together. Now we're preparing for a BLIZZARD...OOOOOH! I'll believe it when I see it- I'm predicting it misses us. So far we've had some yucky ice pellets, but I guess the advantage to being a SAHM (stay-at-home mom) is that we don't have to go out in it! Guess it will give me LOTS of time to post this weekend.

Walk Boo Walk!

Do you see what I see? Yep, that's our Carter Boo standing alone and taking steps...Praise the Lord, it has finally happened!!!!!



After Cole growing up so quickly, I swore I was not going to push Carter out of babyhood, but my back is aching from carrying him around, and I long for the days of having a free hand to sign a credit card slip at the store...so Friday evening when he decided to take his first steps I could do nothing other than CELEBRATE! He loved chasing this ball around the house. He would pick it up, toss it, and then take 3-5 steps to get it. I know he has a long ways to go before life will get easier, but this is the first step (literally!)



Other than that we spent the weekend with good friends and family.

Saturday we went to celebrate Princess K's 3rd Birthday at the Crown Uptown Theatre. We saw the afternoon showing of Cinderella. It included a lunch buffet... every child's dream... applesauce, mac n' cheese, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and french fries... not a veggie in site. Happy Birthday K! Cole (and all of the Anderson's) truly adore you, and think you are growing up to be a beautiful little girl.



Saturday evening I made one of my favorite meals... Diet Coke Chicken.

I am giving you the recipe, and requesting you give it a try... even if you don't like Diet Coke... I promise, it doesn't taste like Diet Coke, IT'S DELICIOUS, and it's SO easy. So here it is:

1 can of Diet Coke
1 cup of Ketchup
3-4 chicken breasts chopped into chunks

Combine the three ingredients into a large skillet. (When you pour in the Diet Coke it gets kind of bubbly and gross, but just keep stirring.) When the items are mixed together, bring to a boil for 5 minutes, and then turn down the heat. Keep the temp to where the mixture bubbles, but not a true boil. Bubble the mixture for 45 minutes (without a lid on the skillet)... it should thicken and turn into a saucy mixture that coats the chicken. Serve over rice... yummy! The beautiful thing is that other than occasionally stirring it around a little, it makes itself.

I also made this for dessert Saturday night (I'm not Martha Stewart, but it was delicious... and kind of healthy... fresh berries and reduced fat Vanilla Wafers.)



Well, Spring Break is over, but spring has sprung in Kansas... we're expecting tornadoes tomorrow, better go dust off my ruby slippers!

Happy Spring Break!

First off, the big reveal... here is the house with the finished paint! Way to go Brian... thank you for being so patient with me... I love you!

BEFORE:

AFTER: ( I can't wait for leaves on the trees, and the green grass to grow!)

It's been such a FUN and busy spring break... I have truly taken this week as a vacation. The laundry is piling up, the dishes aren't (only because I haven't cooked), and the house, well let's just say it needs a little sprucing up, but oh what a fun week we have had. I have TOTALLY slacked on the "what a good mom does" duties, and gone more for "what a mom on vacation does"... for example, I found the boys eating this for breakfast yesterday... AND ALLOWED IT!


Yep, those are ice cream filled root beer popsicles.

Monday I took Cole to a birthday party at Pump It Up. For those of you unfamiliar with the facility, it has several of those large inflatable slides and jumping houses. Cole loves it, and it is truly fun for them. I got to have a little fun also. There is a maze that Cole goes in there, and always gets stuck, so I had to follow him through the maze to get him unstuck... a good excuse for a great time.

Tuesday and Thursday we spent at the zoo. I don't think the boys will ever get tired of the zoo. Wichita has such a beautiful zoo, and it truly takes hours to get through it. I love asking Cole all of the things he wants to see when we go... this week it was the cows, and the "chimpangees". We got to watch the "chimpangees" eating their "big, big carrots" for lunch. Carter growled at everything. It's so much fun to watch him begin to understand the zoo.

Such a brave little baby to growl in the face of a gorilla!

Oh yes, and we can't forget Bolt. We went to see Bolt the movie this week... who would have guessed that two toddlers could finish 2 suckers, 2 boxes of Junior Mints, a popcorn, and a drink... and still only be 30 minutes into the movie! We had to leave before we got kicked out! (I am pretty sure they were on the way to kick us out as we were leaving... really!) OH WELL!

We also spent time at the Sedgwick County Park and the Duck Park this week. After all of that and squeezing time in for lunch with Nana, daddy, and the W-O-E's, the week is pretty much over... so sad.

So there you have it... Spring Break in review.

Now, a quick 30 Day Shred update... I am still committed to the Shred. I actually completed all three levels in one workout the other night. It took me almost an hour and a half, but I felt so good! I really like this workout. The only problem I am facing right now is that I think if I work it that hard I am going to have to do it every other day to give my muscles a day to repair themselves. So next week I think I will do The Shred on MWF and go to the Y on T/TH for just some cardio. It is a GREAT workout, and I can already see my body toning up from it. I am wearing all size 16's now. When I started this journey in August I was in a size 24, and that was even sometimes too small! I can buy my clothes off the rack at Old Navy and Target now! IT FEELS SO GOOD!

We're going out with a great friend for her birthday dinner tonight, and I can't wait! Happy Birthday K! Happy first day of Spring to you all!

Well, Thank You Very Much...

... officer. Ughhh. Yep, you guessed it, I got a ticket this evening. I went with Brian's mom this afternoon to get some groceries, and then took her home to drop off hers. When I left her house I took a different route than usual that put me about a block different than when I normally go home... not a big deal right? Not unless that 1 block and a dog on the loose causes you to run a stop sign. (I need to mention that the stop sign I ran is to a side street that is not heavily trafficked.) This is not an excuse to run it, but I was out of sorts watching the dog running around, and suddenly lights and sirens come flying up behind me... I'm not exaggerating... I thought there was a major catastrophe happening somewhere, so still not knowing I had done anything wrong I pull over thinking he is going to fly around me. Instead he pulls up behind me. "Explicative!" I knew it couldn't be good, but what had I done? Well, as I informed you earlier in the story, the officer informed me of my violation. You would think that a cool and calm girl like me with NO PRIOR tickets may get a warning. I did explain that it was an honest accident and that I was very sorry. Oh no, here's an $86 ticket to start off your spring break. Any questions? That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

I'll Give You 30 Days...

Ok, so here is the new workout video I bought Tuesday night after Bunco.

It was on sale at Target this week, so I figured what the heck. May as well try something new. So I came home Tuesday night excited to give it a go. I mean it only takes 20 minutes... how bad can it be? So I laced up my sneakers and headed to the living room. I'm not sure I can be called in shape yet, but I do put on my running shoes five times a week, so although I thought myself to be more of a Level 2 or 3, I decided I would start at the very beginning and see what it was all about. "Let's start with a 2 minute warm-up"... no problem. "Now into push ups"... OK. "Squats with presses at the end."... feeling the burn. "Another round of push up"... you're strong keep it up... "Next set of squats with presses"... I'm out!

The whole philosophy of the video is that she is going to burn as many calories as possible off of your body in 20 minutes, so everything is timed, and there are NO RESTS in between. You do 3 minutes of strength training, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs.

Here are my 2 complaints about this video (and most videos in general):

1. Who taught personal trainers how to count? I get sick and tired of them saying "Ok, a couple more"... and 20 reps later... in my book couple means 2.

2. The video claims to take 20 minutes, and when I finished it had been 27 minutes and 32 seconds. Not to be a stickler, but in this day and age EVERY second counts.

What I love about this video:

1. It was still a fast workout.

2. It worked my ENTIRE body.

3. Jillian states during the video... I know this is hard, but if I am going to tell you I will get the job done, I must live up to that standard, and deliver a workout video that will get the job done.

So, I'll give you 30 days Jillian. I will faithfully use your video one time per day, and give it 100% effort. What can you do for me?

Stay tuned.

Falling Out

OK, so I was notified last night that I had fallen out of the blogging world. I am sorry. We have just been so busy... it's hard to decided what to make time for. In the end my family and working out seem to top the list, and blogging has fallen to the wayside several times, but here it is... Since I blogged last the Andersons have been very busy...ALWAYS!? Last Saturday I had a Silpada party. I have to be honest that I was very nervous because I had not gotten a good RSVP response, and the rep was driving in from Kansas City. I called her last Thursday night to cancel, and she told me that she had 2 other parties, so she wanted to keep the party on the books. Saturday I had about 9-10 girls show up, and I ended up having a $1000 party! (Thanks to the last minute book orders that made it a "qualified" party.) I got to pick out $310 worth of jewelry... could a girl be any happier? Here is what I got for FREE!

Saturday night we had a mom's night out with my mom's group... what fun! I mean we had too much fun. We had the pregnant mommies be the DD's, and we went to Margarita's for dinner, drinks, and dancing. I have not partied like that in at least 4 years... and I will probably NEVER party like that again. I know I had 6 shots and 5 margaritas, and I am sure glad we had Lindsey and Laura to get us home, or I would have had to walk. I could barely get out of bed the next morning, but Brian convinced me to go off of the "lifestyle change" for a moment... OK, it's not exactly in the Best Living book to throw back 11 drinks either, but he wanted me to put something heavy in my stomach. So he went and got me a hamburger and fries for lunch (I had not had that since last August)... it was good, and helped A LOT. By Sunday afternoon I was mobile again.

After I recovered Sunday, Brian's mom took us to LB for some new clothes. I am not going to post everything, but I got this dress to wear for Easter, and for the summer.

Other than that I had Bunco on Tuesday night. We ended up being short some girls this month, so we just watched Biggest Loser... does anyone follow it? I liked Mandi... she was quiet, but I think she had a lot of heart like Tara. I would love to see Tara win. All of the girls think that Jillian was really harsh on the black team for their choices at the reward, but I think her point was that when you go into the real world these choices will be set before you every single day... you must resist. One bad choice can blow an entire week. I know it sound like I am preaching, but I'm not. I make bad choices every day. I just think that they are REALLY protected on the ranch, and that they have got to show restraint when they leave, or they will end up where they started. Food is an addiction like any other... drugs and alcohol are Powerful addictions, but you must seek them out, and they are not required to survive. I cannot ever BREAK my addiction to food because I will always have to eat to live... therefore, I have to learn to control my addiction. I think that is what Jillian was trying to teach them.

Well, enough about me.

Brian is really liking his job at Terradyne. He thinks he is going to be doing a lot more management, and less hole digging this summer... that can't be bad right? He is on a much more regular schedule. We miss him during the day, but things seem a little more organized at home also. So it's been a good change for all of us.

I am so ready for Carter Boo to walk. He spend his time pushing this thing everywhere.

We have also been going outside a ton, and now it's too cold again... Carter wants out so bad.

Cole is just like his daddy... he wants to wear shorts ALL of the time. I can't convince him it's cold outside, so I don't even fight the battle most days (I mean it's 74 degrees in the house.)

Finally, Cole wanted me to "take a picture of my blankie". So I did. There you have it. I'm off to play Gator Golf with the boys.

Sunny Day...

... sweeping the clouds away! Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? We found it tonight!

A little boy anxious to meet Elmo!

We took the boys to see Elmo's Green Thumb tonight. We started the evening by running out to dinner at Chipotle. We enjoyed some yummy Mexican food, and then headed to the show. I have to be honest that I was not sure how little Carter would handle it, but he did very well considering we asked him to sit in our laps for 2 hours straight... I dare not put him on that germ infested floor (oh, I wish he would just walk!)

We had a great time. The boys were enthralled with the show, and we had no major breakdowns until the end. I would like to thank the Kansas Coliseum for their kid-friendly concession menu (hot dogs, peanuts, beer, pop, and popcorn... really that was ALL of it). I chose popcorn and pop, and just prayed that Carter didn't choke on it... we needed some sort of distraction before the show started. Anyways they absolutely loved it, and it felt like an evening well spent. Here are some more pics. Enjoy!

Ready to enjoy the show!

The show has started... no more pics please.

Sugar with daddy

The cast and crew! What a fun evening!

Hello to All...

It seems like forever since I have posted... I mean truly posted, so let me give you a rundown of the recent Anderson Shuffle.


Last week we spent our days looking out the window watching daddy paint our house. It turned out to be a minor catastrophe, but thanks to my loving husband who allows me my woman's right to change her mind. We (I) decided that if we were going to paint the house we were going to make it look like the one I saw on the cover of the AT&T yellow pages 5 years ago. So, after about 3 hours at the paint store we decided that this was the color for our house...

Nope that's not it!

That's definitely not it, in fact I HATE it.... no Brian, I really hate it. (A conversation I had with Brian after he had FINISHED painting the body of the house.) I was ready to cry... if I had some neon colored spray paint I could have put polka dots on the house and made it an Easter Egg (seasonally appropriate at least). So after about 30 minutes of me throwing a mini-tantrum, he agreed to paint the house again... you counted correctly, that's three paint colors! I am happy to say that I do love the new color, and it is coming along. The cold weather has set us back, so you will have to wait for the final reveal... MORE TO COME!

Other than that, we did some fun things last week. The boys had their first major role play when they decided to play "Gwocewy Store". I got out the food and shopping cart, as well as the cash register, and we spent the morning shopping and stocking our gwocewies... what fun!

Painting took most of the week, but on Saturday we took a break, and took the boys to their final swim lesson for the month, and then... I got to got to Healing Waters Medical Spa for a facial and manicure. I have to admit that I was mildly bummed at first that I was getting a facial instead of a massage, but during the facial... I got a mini massage- WONDERFULLLLLLL!

We ended the weekend by picking up some of our best friends from the airport, and they took us for a lovely dinner. By the time I got home, I was incredibly nauseous, and before the night was out I was puking (I know, so gross), so I've spent the day recovering from food poisoning, but it was great for the weight loss plan- Ha! This morning when the boys got up I put cereal, toast, and milk on the coffee table for them, and allowed them to eat in front of the TV while I dazed in and out of a mini-coma, trying to get better.

So there you go, now you know.