My baby turns TWO!

Wow. Miss Bedelia, can you even believe this? Where did the time go? You are TWO! (Or, as you like to respond - SIX!). The past year has been full of big things for you, my crazy girl. You've learned how to walk, how to talk, how to run. So many milestones tackled this year!

Right now, you are my adventurous one. You love danger. I swear you seek it out. You love jumping off the dock at the lake, sometimes not waiting until someone is ready to catch you. You love taking off in high gear in the power wheels. You love swinging "higher!". You love to find things at the playground that scare mommy and then do them. You summersault off the couch. You jump off your bed. You spin in circles until you can't walk straight - and then try to walk. You love Papa's go-cart. You LOVE swimming and you take your floatie out just past the line that makes mama uncomfortable before you kick your feet and turn yourself around laughing. You are so brave. Never lose your sense of wild adventure, baby girl.

You are also my good eater. You are not only adventurous in life, but in trying foods as well- unusual for our family! You like pretty much anything, and you like your mouth to be stuffed full. Your favorites right now are probably spaghetti (which your brother and sister won't eat) and cereal (to be fair, you prefer drinking the milk more than eating the cereal!). And you love yourself some treats. You try to go potty extra times so you can ask for more treats :)

You are always making us laugh - you talk non-stop, almost as much as your big sister, and you have to list things all the time. But more than just your talking and story telling, your facial expressions are what get me. You have the most expressive face I have ever seen. You have these faces that just crack me right up - from your 'evil eye' to your duck face, and hundreds in between. I love this about you. Always keep your sense of humor, sweet baby.

Also, sweet Delia, you like to be naked. You drive your daddy nuts! You would love the world so much more if you could just run around in the buff day in and day out. Sometimes I just let you be in your undies - since you usually take your clothes off by yourself and get down to the undies anyway - and you just run. Yelling the whole way. You are thrilled to be naked. You like to pretend you need to rinse off so you can take off your swim suit and go in the water naked. You run around the house after a bath, refusing to put clothes on. Again, this cracks me up. Many pictures have been taken which you'll enjoy in the years to come, I'm sure :) Never let other people govern your choices about clothing or the way you look. While it is the law to have clothes on, keep your free spirit always Bedelia!

You are so concerned about everyone around you. While you still get rough sometimes and the biting hasn't totally stopped, you are the first one to try to comfort someone when they are upset. You have to know where everyone is at all times and will ask a hundred times until you are satisfied with the answer. You get right up in my face and ask "All better mommy? All Better?" after I say ow. And well, I think that might just be your preferred means of communication - you like to get right up in everyone's face. And every day you run through the list of people you know and ask me where they are. At least five times. I love your concern for others. Continue to love deeply those around you. Be there for them always.


I love you, sweet Delia Grace. I love how many times in the past year I have been struck by how fitting your name is for you. You are SO independent, so free-spirited and SO passionate, and stubbornly so - I find Grace to be the perfect middle name. I'm sure we will both need it often if you continue to be so much like your mommy in so many ways! I will pray that you continue to be brave and adventurous - that you take risks for Jesus. That you continue to love laughter and inspire it in others. That you continue to be care-free and unconcerned about judgement from others. And that you continue to show love, and do it fiercely. Oh, what a girl like you can do for your Jesus! 
love, 
mama

My Diva-girl turned three!

I cannot believe how fast the time has gone - that my teeny tiny girl is now three! Eden-girl, you are a whirlwind, and a big lump catches in my throat when I stop to think that through. I know I've said it a hundred times - a thousand even - but you are amazing. Your very life a daily reminder of God's amazing blessings in my life.


At age three, you know all of your letters, you can count to 25, you know all of your colors and shapes. You dress yourself and are totally done with diapers - I thought the day would never come for your stubborn little self, but you decided to do it and never looked back! You show your independent spirit by choosing to do everything yourself - getting into your car seat, buckling your shoes, getting your dishes, etc. 

There is a very soft side of you, sweet girl, and your emotions are on your sleeve. You are quick to make us very aware if your feelings are hurt or if things didn't go your way. I don't want to squash this side of you though - as much as I long for you to be able to use words to talk about your feelings, this emotional, soft part of you is a good balance for your passionate spirit. I think you'll figure out the balance one day :)

Right now you are all about being fancy. You love to wear purple and pink and ruffles and bows and all things fancy. You HAVE to have your fancy shoes. They are bright red with bows on them, scuffed toes and all. We bought new shoes for preschool and of course, you fell in love with the Twinkle Toes - and are now enjoying modeling them for us around the house as you impatiently wait to wear them to school. I love this part of you. I love that you have such a free and fancy attitude - and I will never stop you from choosing your own outfits. If you choose to wear a tutu to school, then so be it. If you want a fancy braid in your hair, I'll happily do that for you. Never let anyone squelch your sense of fun and your love of life. You get SO excited - lifting your hands in the air and waving them all around when you have something fun to share or see something fancy. Never stop finding things to wave your hands about!

Oh my goodness, Eden-girl, you are about to start preschool! Can you even believe it? I know you are so excited, with your new shoes and Fancy Nancy backpack. For your mama its hard to believe that day is here! I am so thrilled for you to take this next step. You are definitely ready! I just can't fathom the fact that you are already old enough for this! You are excited to meet new friends, and to have your own teacher and school to talk to your brother about. I pray you'll be brave and that you will love school. You have a love of learning just like your brother - hang on to that! 

Can you believe you've only been talking for a year and here you are singing songs and making up rhymes? Look back at how far you've come, and be proud. We just had you down to see your NICU doctors - and of course, you blew them away, flying through every evaluation they threw at you. Other than a couple of tiny scars and your teeny, peanut size, there is nothing about you that separates you from any baby born healthy. You are a healthy, happy kid - let's never stop praising God for that, okay? 

And oh, my sweet girl, you are starting to talk about your sister and about how she died. This breaks my heart, but I am so, SO glad that you are asking these questions and that we can talk about Hannah. That you know that she was in my belly with you and that you love her and that she is in Heaven. Such big things for a three year old to understand! I pray that you will continue to have a passion to praise your Jesus, that you will come to know Him as your own SO soon, and oh, what a reunion you will have with your sweet sister in Heaven!

Eden-girl, I love you so. I love crawling into your tiny bed at night and singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow with you, just like I did all those days rocking you in the NICU nursery. I love holding your hands as we go on a hike. I love watching you bounce as you run, and feed the zoo animals in your tutu. I love your passionate nature and your sensitive soul. I love your dramatic flair - everything is over the top with you. 
You are always and forever my little Eden-girl.
love, mama

Potty Boot Camp - The final Score

Last weekend was our potty boot camp. We had a 4-day weekend dedicated to POTTY. Steve and I were alone with the girls for the entire day Friday and Saturday and we literally did nothing but potty: talking about the potty, training our potty dolls, practicing potty, having dolly practice, and talking about how the people we love go potty and love dry pants. We went into this event having read the book Potty Training your child in 24 hours or less.. I loved the book - it was a fast read, and aside from a few themes and language that was clearly from the 70s (the book was written in 1974), the concepts were great. 
First - the idea is that the child will first train a doll and thus they learn what is expected by teaching someone else how to do it. Score. We spent the first hour with these dolls and by the end, they knew where they needed to go, how to sit, that praise came from success, how to dump the potty by themselves, and of course pulling up undies. OH - and the dolly had an accident - we learned how we react to accidents, how they clean it up by themselves, changing undies, and practicing running to the potty from all over the place. Stop and run!
Then there is a lot of pants-checking. They needed to physically stop and FEEL their undies and confirm wet/dry. What does it feel like to be dry? What does it feel like to be wet? Huge praise for DRY. Then they started practicing - every 15 minutes. Absurd at the time. This gets stretched out as they have successes…
Day one was intense, following as close to the method as possible. Dry naps, I think we had two or three accidents between them… We decided to repeat a second day (not part of the book, but felt they needed refresher).. Our kiddos were definitely not accident free after a day, nor were they dry at night as some are after this method. BUT a week later, we have now had 3 days accident free, all dry naps, and a few dry nights here at the end! (Including one where Delia got out of bed, peed on the floor, and went back to bed - don't want the pee on the floor, but she knew she needed to get out of bed!).
Here are my thoughts. This method would have been much more successful if we had done one at a time. Having both girls around each other was distracting for them and more stressful for us. Doing it over, I would have taken one girl the first day, and the second girl the second day. The book doesn't say anything about training twins - this would have been a helpful chapter! So if you want to try it and you are doing more than one, that would be my biggest recommendation.
While it wasn't "successful" according to what the plan laid out, we weren't able to follow the method exactly - both because we had two and because they lost interest in the treats. I seriously thought we had an amazing variety of all kinds of crap they don't usually get - but they stopped getting excited about the 'treat' drinks and this totally wrecks the system because they need intake to have outtake.. Duh, right? And by day two we had lost our way in the method - we never switched from telling them to go potty to simply asking them if they had to and then progressing to casual comments about it - so they were left thinking we would tell them and they didn't go unless they were told. The point of the method is that you progress out of this so they go on their own with NO HELP from you. No having to stop everything and take them, clean up after them, wipe them, etc.. Stinky that we missed that , but I think it was also in part due to them not having to go as often and thus with the fast time schedule of the method, we were constantly having them sit based on the timer instead of them taking over that directing role.
And we made the mistake of trying pull-ups after our first soaked night. I used them with Josiah at night and he never called them diapers - and was typically dry. My girls instantly called them diapers and peed the second they put them on. The next night I tried putting their undies on first and then a pull-up (so they would feel the wetness?) and same thing. So I have an almost-full pack to get rid of - no more pull-ups! And I knew better, but still annoying.
However! They are now signaling when they need to go. While they still tell us (mostly I think to find their potties since we move them depending on where we are - need to get better about directly stating when we move locations!), they go by themselves, do undies by themselves (Delia needs help getting them over her bum sometimes, but she is practicing), dump their pots by themselves (need help with our flusher), and put the pots back. They don't scream about having to sit on the potty anymore because they are on their own time table - I only direct them before nap and bedtime, asking if their pants are dry (making them check and confirm) throughout the day, and if its been a long time (for Eden's steel bladder) I will casually ask her. With Eden last week, I never thought this would happen! But wow. The only accident that we've had in the past few days is Delia not getting their quick enough when going #2 - so it ends up half and half. AND when we took a trip to the zoo we discovered that Delia has a fear of public restrooms and she would not pee. So - I either need to bring a seat with or figure out how to get her past that. But we had our potty in the van, so in between stops and then on our way out of town, they peed in their own potty in the van (we had to help dispose of this, of course). Awesome.

Overall, I would totally recommend the book even though I didn't have total success. What I love the most about our results is that the girls are doing this independently - something I didn't have with Josiah (taking care of their potty, wiping, etc.). They love being able to dump their pee too! So its a win-win. I love the method and the reasoning behind it - its written by psychologists, so its all based on how a child's mind works and responds, which I thought was great. I need to work on making sure I limit drinks after 6pm - they guzzle at dinner, which is great - milk is good for them - but increases the risk of night wetting. Even if you don't want to follow any particular method when doing the potty training at your house, I would recommend reading the book just for the numerous ideas and insight you can garner from it. Plus its a super fast read - and I got quite a few chuckles out of the out-dated gender related advice. "If you want your husband to support your quest to toilet-train your child, simply have him be the one to change all of the diapers for a day" (like they wouldn't touch a diaper otherwise). The graphics are humorous too :)

Freezer Filling Frenzy/Crazy Ladies

Wow. Sometimes I go a little overboard. This time it worked out in my favor (in the long run), but let me tell you this was exhausting! My dear friend Amy wanted to do some freezer cooking to stock up for a busy summer month - we talked about just swapping recipe ideas, but then decided we would ship our kids off with our husbands and cook for a day together. 15 hours and lots of craziness later, my freezer is plum full. 
Before I get to the recipe list, let me just say this day was so much fun. Here is what NOT to do when you are going in to a massive day of cooking. Do NOT start compiling recipes at 11:30pm the night before. Do NOT grocery shop at 12:30am that morning. Be smarter than I was (don't procrastinate?!). Wear shoes! I would even suggest being ridiculous and bringing a second pair to change into - trick your feet! Check/re-check/triple check your recipes to your grocery list and then to the supplies purchased before starting. (Avoid running raggedly to the store the day of). Make an oven 'schedule' right away - we sat with the oven empty for several hours at the beginning while we were prepping non-baking things. Be wise owls folks! Have candy on hand. And chocolate milk - this produces better results. Have someone available to run you caffeine at 9pm. Also, next time we are planning to use a church kitchen AND our husbands to make the process SOMUCH faster. Plus we can trick them into washing the dishes by telling them "its a cool machine".. LOVE. Oh my goodness we had such a crazy fun day. A few curse words. Its okay.


Here is the rundown. Note that I put everything into 4 person meal sizes (8x8 pans or gallon ziplocks) - and one 8x8 pan would feed us dinner and then Steve and/or I lunch the next day. Except the baked mac- this makes two overwhelmed 8x8s, because I never remember to buy two bigger pans for it. So when I thaw it, I dump my 8x8 into a deep dish 9x13 and that is full. By splitting a meal into 2 8x8 pans, even a larger family could stretch any recipe by simply adding a side to a meal - but we typically still have leftovers even when splitting. SO many of these recipes make way more than what they say on the original post. I have noted by each item how many 8x8 pans it made. The burritos are an amazing example - the recipe says it makes 8, but it made 16. The enchilada casserole recipe was supposed to make one - I doubled the recipe and ended up with 3.


Dinners
1. *new* Summer time Beef Tips (recipe makes two meals)
2. Sour cream noodle bake (recipe makes 2 meals)
3. Baked Mac-n-Cheese (recipe makes 2 9x13 - so 4 meals for us)
4. Burritos (recipe makes 5 meals - I gave one to Amy, thats a lot of burritos)
5. Dump Chicken (made 2 bags): Pkg chicken tenders in gallon bag with half a bottle of your favorite dressing - marinate overnight then freeze.
6. Teriyaki Chicken (recipe makes 2 meals)
7. Pizza Dough (two large pizzas)
8. Best Burgers (I made 6 burgers with this recipe)

Bacon Crusted Pork -Photo from Vanessa Druckman

9. Bacon Crusted Pork Tenderloin (OHMYGOODNESSYUM. recipe makes 2 meals)

Spicy BBQ Stuffed Chicken - Photo onceamonthmom.com

10. BBQ stuffed chicken (8 giant chicken thighs stuffed - at least 2 meals): I made half with pepperjack (per recipe) and half with swiss for the kids.
11. Enchilada casserole (recipe makes 3 meals)
12. Garlic Bread (made 6 - 3 loaves halved)


Lunch-ish items
1. Mini meatloaf cups (recipe made 24 cupcake-sized meatloaves)
2. Pizza rolls (made 16): Pepperoni and Mozzarella rolled in crescent roll and baked - dip in pizza sauce.
3. Ham/cheese rolls (made 16): deli ham with slice of swiss rolled in Pillsbury crescent roll and baked. 
4. Tacos in a Sleeping Bag (recipe is ridiculous. Made 16 and had ton of meat left over -and started with less than a pound): Ground beef with dry taco seasoning (don't add water), with cheddar in a crescent roll and baked.
5. Corn Dog muffins. (made 24): I add 1tbls brown sugar and a little extra milk per batch - sweeter and keeps them from drying out.


Breakfast
1. Breakfast cookies (I quadruple the original recipe because we gobble these. I ended up with 4 plump gallon bags): You know me, I would not ruin these with cranberries. I add a bit of cinnamon to the recipe and then sprinkle with a tiny bit of cinnamon/sugar before baking.
2. Baked oatmeal (I doubled this, and baked shallow muffins in a tin so I could skip cutting/dishing them out of a 9x9 pan - genius. This way they are already portion-sized! One batch made 18 discs instead of the 9 bars you would maybe be able to cut out! Ooh, And I do NOT use fruit. I mix in a small amt of mini chocolate chips to the batter instead)
3. French toast sticks (The recipe easily uses up a loaf of Texas Toast Bread - which is huge - I made another half recipe to make more). For some reason the original recipe isn't available on their blog anymore - this is the toddler version which sneaks in some squash puree - puke. The original uses 12 eggs, 2c milk, 1/2c sugar and 1/2c melted butter. I add way more cinnamon just because that's the kind of people we are.
4. Idaho Sunrise (recipe made 24 cups, and PS I use way more bacon.)


Snacks
1. Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Banana Bread (made 3 loaves and 22 muffins - I only had 3 loaf pans! Make this. It's incredible). No nuts. Just delete that part of the recipe folks.
2. Pumpkin Muffins (made 120+)
3. *new* Energy Bites (Made a double batch): I change this recipe a bit. I detest coconut, and I never buy flaxseed. I used 2c of old fashioned oats, 2c of these same oats pulsed like mad in my food processor- it provides filling, but with different texture, then I use a cup with mostly wheat germ and 2Tbls or so of cocoa (round up!). And then of course the PB, Honey and mini chocolate chips. They are chocolately and YUM. My kids call them chocolate balls and think they are a cookie. Little do they know they are healthy little things - I could use dark cocoa to make it even healthier, but I don't like it, so I won't. I will freeze half of these…I hope...
4. *new* Crock Pot Greek Yogurt. A new wild hair. A couple months ago we made our own frozen yogurt cups with plain yogurt and frozen fruit and thought we could make these portable yogurts even cheaper by making our own yogurt. So I finally tried it. Its still in the crockpot bed under some bath towels (NO JOKE). But I am pretty pumped to try it out.


And I brought my camera.. And we didn't take a single picture. Boo. SO 20 hours or so (I finished some baking today), less than $300 - my family will eat stress-free for more than a month. I posted an inventory on the dry erase on my fridge so we can track when we take an item out and see what is left. I also noted thaw times and side items (hello husband!). I am pretty confident that this stock will last well into July and that cost includes sides like rice, potatoes, steam fresh veggies and refilling my staples like flour/sugar/butter, etc. The only thing we will need to buy is milk at some point. I LOVE it. Even better? My husband tried to get my kids a "treat" the night I was off cooking and bought pizza rolls - my kids didn't like them and Josiah said "mom, can't we have the ones you make? They are WAY better!". Score.

Can you even believe it?! (also, OAMC part 3)

Yes, well, I finally have a working laptop again (it hasn't worked properly since September and actually died in October - so much for that Mac theory!)… BUT praise the Lord and pass the ammunition folks because I am just on overload now. I don't know what I would have done without a smartphone! Can you imagine life before constant access? (Sad, isn't it, how dependent we are? hmm…)

Before I lose my mind since January is almost over and my freezer is starting to clear out already, I wanted to update with another foodie post (I'll get to the grand holiday stuff later - it's tardy already anyway). Mostly, I just want to share with you a couple of new recipes that rocked my socks off. Yep, rocked 'em right off. Shall I start with my absolute favorite? I suppose then you have no reason to work to the end? ;) I'll do it anyway, and you can just trust that they are all good. Okay, so here was my list for January - followed by links/photos of the new additions that were important enough to earn a highlight on homework night.

1. Breakfast cookies (duh)
2. Frozen fruit cups (I know its winter, but my kids think its dessert, and its just fruit!)
3. marinated dump chicken (2 bags!)
4. Meatloaf/meatballs (2 pans of meatloaf, 4 bags of meatballs)
5. Meaty Manicotti (2 - 8x8) (NEW!)
6. Lasagna (2- 8x8) (NEW!)
7. Three cheese baked mac (downgrading from the spicy mac due to a complaining 5 year old!)
8. Yogurt (NEW!)
9. Granola Bars (NEW!)
10. Idaho Sunrise (NEW!)
11. Breakfast Bagels
12. Garlic bread
13. Cheese Scones (NEW!)
14. Chinese pot roast
15. Italian pot roast
16. Waffles - have yet to get a batch to the freezer.. Need to make them at night instead (duh)

Idaho Sunrise

Okay - first, the Idaho Sunrise. My new favorite I think. I love quick, easy, good-for-you breakfast, and I think this is fairly good for you? You make a nest of hashbrowns (with a little cheese mixed in), bake it a bit, then crack and egg in, top with parsley, a little bacon and cheese. I don't like whole eggs, so I scrambled them and then poured them into the 'nests', but same idea. I flash froze them, then put them in a gallon sized bag. I was nervous about reheating these in the microwave. I waited SOIMPATIENTLY for the toaster oven on the first morning. NOT a quick route at all. But WHOA was it worth it! The girls started asking for bites too. Even my picky bird, E! So then I put one in the microwave and did a nervous dance not wanting to ruin one of these precious treats. And it tasted just fine! YAY! So in 1:30, you have an amazingly fresh tasting breakfast, and its easy and filling and YUM. One seems to be enough, but I tend to want more. Uh oh… These are going to be a staple for sure. Plus they require so little bacon it works well with the bagel sandwiches. TRY these. It would also be a great breakfast/brunch item served fresh if you are having company over. Use a dark pan - you want these to get brown on the bottom or they fall apart when you try to get them out.

Manicotti (We put sauce on top too)

 Manicotti - and lasagna.. we LOVE pasta. We actually tested out the Wal-Mart brand "oven-ready" lasagna noodles and the recipe right off the box, which we had never tried before - and put it to the freezer test right off the bat. It works, if you thaw it overnight. It actually wasn't bad, even with Steve making it - I tend to flavor things a bit more than he does :) Nice job! I like the Target box recipe better - they add more cheeses, but I think we could toss in more variety and it wouldn't matter.
The Manicotti was, again, a recipe we had never tried. It needed a little more spice, but it froze well.

This inspired my yogurt..

This pinterest find was actually for smoothie packets, but it got me thinking about gogurt… We buy gogurt all the time for Josiah's cold lunch - to freeze and then you stick it in the lunch box and it thaws in time for lunch… And just in general I guess, I always hate that he begs for the cartoon kind and I always am having to explain why I don't want to buy that kind for him - we get the "natural" kind - but even so, its not very natural I suppose (just a bit more?).. So why not make our own! Now, on www.onceamonthmom.com, they have a post showing how they make their yogurt into gogurt tubes. I am not about to attempt that (yet). And I haven't yet tried making my own yogurt, though after this we did talk about doing just that. But we bought some good-for-you yogurt and some flash-frozen fruit and we dumped it all in the processor. Then I stuck it in portion-sized gladware cups and froze them. So he has gogurt cups now, but he LOVES the taste, and I love that its REAL. So we'll work on the packaging (I'll put a sticker on it or something). 

I made my Cheese Scones heart shaped, but these are okay :)

Ah yes, cheese scones. These turned out yummy. Its more like a biscuit because its savory and cheese-ish, but it makes a nice snack or side item for my kiddos (or I will steal one too). And I wasn't being an over achiever in making hearts, it was the smallest cut-out I had!