it's a birthday miracle.

Both monkeys slept through the night- and I only got up once to check and make sure they were alive!  I think it was Ike's birthday present to me. It's his birthday today- and I've always been one to think that the mother should be the one who receiving gifts on birthdays.  I am, after all, the one who did all the hard work on this day last year.  I'm also the one (with some help from kent) who does the hard work keeping him alive day after day :). So, thanks for the present little man!

We are going to be having a small celebration tonight- but I thought I'd just post a little tribute to him now.

Little Ike- aka Friedrick, freddy, fred, ike, ikey poo, rugrat, monster baby, destroyer- is one year old!  Zeb's first birthday was so exciting and I looked forward to it for weeks! But Ike's kind of just snuck up on me. I think it's because with Zeb he wasn't walking yet and I thought for sure that upon turning one he'd just stand up and become ambulatory. Ike, on the other hand, has been ambulatory for months now and I kind of feel like he's been one for months already.

Ikey is very laid back, almost always happy, and easy to please. He loves to destroy things and finds great pleasure in making Zeb scream. His favorite foods are beans (black and kidney) and cheese.  And he loves more than anything else to be rocked to sleep at night by Kent.

Right now he has eight teeth, a constant runny nose, and lots of bruises on his head.  He loves to clap, wave, shout hooray, point, stomp his feet, and touch his head. He hates sitting still at church, being ignored, and getting the straight arm or an elbow from Zeb.

We love you little turkey- and it's a good thing because we can't return you anymore.

Sometimes I feel like this is all I blog about, but just stop coughing, PLEASE!  For me there is almost nothing worse than coughing children all night long.  We have spent months of the past two years of our lives listening for coughing, hacking, wheezing, sneezing, and sick babies.  And as happy as I am about six more weeks of chilly weather and snowy days, I am afraid we also may have six more weeks of the mucous monsters.

 Here is Zeb mid-cough and Ike mid-sneeze.  They just keep passing it back and forth to each other.  They also wake each other up with it all night long. And to make matters worse than worse, when we do miraculously have a few hours of no coughs- I'm getting up constantly to check and make sure they're still breathing because I just can't believe that they aren't still coughing!!!

Hey- rugrats, please don't make us get up eight times tonight!!!!!

!!

I am a girl of extremes.  My entire life I've been told that I'm one giant superlative. For me it's almost always an ultimate love or an utmost disdain.  My life is full of the MOST ridiculous experiences or the BEST EVER foods or the WORST things ever, etc.  Either I love it or I hate it.  And I think it's what makes my life so great.  I'm a super taster (this article describes me almost to a T- even down to thinking that cilantro tastes like soap) and apparently a super"lifer", too. 

And the whole point of explaining this via blog is so that I can make a list.  A list of the things that I'd die for right now.  That I just love so so much. I've felt myself in a bit of an "extremes" craze lately and I thought I'd share.


1. snyders honey mustard and onion pretzel pieces.  If you haven't tried them you are missing out BIG time. Sure, they look nasty- but they are beyond amazing.

2. hershey's double chocolate nuggets. Smooth and creamy milk chocolate on top with bitter dark chocolate on bottom.  mmmmm.  the perfect little combination.

3. my exersurprize class at the gym. I thought it was going to be my easy day with a name like that- but it turns out this class is harder than hard and it's fantastic. 

4. my husband.  he's astounding. happy first day of valentines, ralph.

5. and finally, this recipe.  It's unreal.  Delicious.  Totally doesn't count as dinner because it's too sweet and treaty- but it's what we had for dinner tonight anyway. oh- and the homemade buttermilk syrup is a MUST.

from "taste of home"

Sourcream Blueberry pancakes! made plenty for us -plus leftovers.

2 c. all-purpose flour
¼ c. sugar
4 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 eggs
1 ½ c. milk
1 c. (8-oz) sour cream - this is one of the few things I don't like to go fat free on.  I'll go light, though.

1/3 c. butter, melted
1 c. fresh or frozen blueberries (I use frozen)

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl, beat the eggs. Add milk, sour cream, and butter; mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until blended. Pour batter by ¼ cupfuls onto a greased hot griddle and drop on blueberries (we cut ours smaller); flip when golden on bottom. Cook until the second side is golden brown.

Buttermilk Syrup ( I halved this and still had plenty left)

• 1.5  cup white sugar ( I reduced this to just one cup)
• 3/4 cup buttermilk (3/4 c milk with 1.5 tsp lemon juice left to sit for 3-4 minutes and then stirred well)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 tablespoons corn syrup
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Bring sugar, milk, butter, and corn syrup to a boil and let bubble for seven minutes (stirring regularly).  Remove from heat and add vanilla.  Let cool.

Here is Zeb (who has the computer and mouse totally figured out already) showing Ike his favorite letters on starfall.com.  Both of these kids love their letters and each other.  Ike idolizes Zeb more and more each day.  He follows him around and begs to play with him.  He grabs onto the backs of Zeb's shirts and then gets dragged down the hallway as Zeb tries to escape. His very favorite thing to do right now is give big family hugs to each of us.  He'll run from Zeb to Kent to me tilting his head on our shoulders while hugging and saying "ahhhh".  We have it on video- I just need to upload it onto the blog!

 I wish I had something more noteworthy or picture worthy to blog about- but our lives are pretty normal right now.  We are all happy but both kids are moderately sicko.  Zeb is getting breathing treatments regularly due to coughing and wheezing while Ike has the same cough but without wheezes.  It's been awhile since we've had to do breathing treatments so often and Zeb is NOT happy about it.  You'd think we were actually scraping his throat with a razor blade or something the way he's been screaming about it.  I'm sure our neighbors are going to call DCFS soon.

Here he is with Thomas and Ben.  He loves for me to take pictures of his trains and then look at them all.

Kent is about to get much busier with school starting tomorrow and I am just doing the regular Leisy stuff.  We'll try to do something more exciting this week- but no promises. Oh- and my phone is busted! Sorry to anybody that's been calling.  I can't tell when I get calls sometimes- and other times I can tell but can't hear.  T-mobile has sent another phone and it should be here this week sometime (free since it's under a year old!  hooray!!).   I know I've been missing calls like crazy but it should all be remedied shortly :)

PBS scored gold with Zeb on their newest cartoon.  He LOVES both dinosaurs and trains, so "Dinosaur Train" is his favorite show right now.  He's even got his own Dimetredons, t-rexes, and brachiosauruses riding his dino train around the house.  He's so funny when he talks about the dinosaurs and uses their names. Can you see the little Utah Raptor he has poking out of the train's chimney?

 

This is why I can never get the house clean!  these rugrats migrate to me when they can tell I'm trying to get something accomplished. Ike LOVES to empty the dishwasher and Zeb loves to make water messes all over the counters.   If I decide to work on another room, they just follow me there too. ahhhh. they make me crazy. 

Luckily besides making me crazy they also make me smile now and again. 

This is how zeb falls asleep every night.  With one leg up and crossed over the other- and lately with his blanket up over his head.  He also goes to bed by six-thirty almost every night because he's stopped taking naps.  I used to terribly miss the naps but now I think I enjoy having child free evenings with Kent more than I enjoyed a few child free hours during the day.

 

Ike doesn't get any cute pictures today because he was nasty crabby.  We even skipped playgroup because of it.  I'd say it's teething- but that's always my excuse for crabby babies and half of the time no new teeth arrive.

Here's a cell phone pic I sent to Kent so he could get a taste of his unpleasantness.  Anybody want a baby?

what a splendid day.

There are VERY few things in life that make me happier than saving money.  And today we saved a bundle. $168.46 to be exact. With parts- diagnostic- and labor, the dryer repair was going to cost 200 dollars.
I'd been shopping around for the dryer part we needed and was pretty discouraged that we were going to have to shell out ninety bucks for the element.  And then I found appliancezone.com.  $24.59 plus $5.95 shipping. I ordered it yesterday at noon and it showed up on our doorstep today at two!  that's crazy fast.  I have nothing but AMAZING things to say about appliancezone.  Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you.
I have even more amazing things to say about Kent. He had the old one out and the new one in place in a matter of minutes.  Our dryer works again for a mere (comparatively) thirty bucks. Our clothes and towels are back to being soft and fluffy and that's worth celebrating. If anybody's dryer goes out- just call us. Kent says maybe he should have gone into dryer repair.

And also today Ike found a new love. Ketchup.  Although I can't blame him- I love it too. The kid somehow managed to get a hold of a little cup of ketchup while we were playing with friends at the new mcdonald's kids zone today.  He's in to everything. He's the destroyer.