Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Photo Card

Banner Of Joy Christmas
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Friday, November 4, 2011

Preparing for Winter

It's that time of year again where I study the forecast for the upcoming weekends to figure out just how many 'nice' weekends we have left before old man winter sets in. Looking at our forecast here, our weekends are limited. This weekend looks to be the best with sun and temps in the mid 60's so its game on for fall cleaning!
I've searched the internet for a fall cleaning list and haven't found a complete one, so here is our personal list:


  1. Check the attic for leaks
  2. Check the caulking and weather seals around doors and windows
  3. Rake leaves...again
  4. Mow the yard - hopefully this will be the last time!
  5. Clean gutters
  6. Clean grill
  7. Clean and store patio furniture
  8. Wash and wax van
  9. Drain and store water hoses
  10. Hang Christmas lights - no we won't be turning them on until after Thanksgiving, but its better to hang them now than when its 30* degrees!
  11. Wash window - I hate this one!
  12. Clean out and behind fridge
  13. Defrost deep freezer
  14. Wash all bedding, rotate and flip mattress 
  15. Clean all trashcans 
  16. Scrub baseboards and walls - another task I dislike 
  17. Clean large toys like the exersaucer and highchair outside
  18. Clean fish tank
  19. Deep clean each room - I highly doubt that this will happen in each room over the weekend! 
  20. Declutter all closets 

Yeah, looking at this impressive list, fall cleaning will probably go through next week as well. Though I love a good challenge and geared up for our fall cleaning weekend. I've made meals in advanced, got a frozen pizza for dinner one night so cooking shouldn't be an issue. I'm ready to wake up early and go to bed exhausted, but I love the feeling of a clean house! 


Thursday, November 3, 2011

Pumpkin Muffins and Christmas Music

Today it has been cold and rainy, so the babies and I have stayed warmly inside our lil' home listening to Christmas music (yes, I know its early) and making dinner (crock pot chicken tortilla soup) and pumpkin muffins for Thanksgiving. I got the pumpkin muffin recipe from The Pioneer Woman. I ended up making tripling it to make 3 dozen. In one dozen I added raisins like she suggested, but in the other two, in went mini chocolate  chips! Benjamin and I sampled one and yum! However, they are not as good as these pumpkin cupcakes that I made a few weeks ago from The Joy of Baking. The Pioneer Woman's pumpkin muffins you couldn't taste the pumpkin flavor as much! Oh well, they still taste good and once they are frosted with cinnamon cream cheese icing, they will be delicious.

I should have taken a picture of the muffins before they went in the freezer, or the sight of our kitchen after Meredith numbed on a strawberry while Benjamin and I baked! It only took 4 hours to make 3 dozen muffins!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Family of 5!

Let the chaos continue! Baby 3.0 is due March 9, 2012. We are a little scared, a little nervous, and a bit calm about it all. I mean, really 3 babies in 27 months...how hard can it be? It has to be easier than when they will be 14, 15, and 16 years-old!

With this little one, we are not going to find out the sex until the big day. It's one of those surprises in life that I want to be able to experience. It took a bit of convincing the husband, but he finally agreed. Just like he finally agreed to paint Meredith's room yellow! He has learned that "what the pregnant lady wants, the pregnant lady gets!" The plan is to move Meredith into Benjamin's room since (hopefully) they will both be sleeping through the night and put baby in Meredith's room. That's the plan anyway. Until it backfires, like our last plan of putting Benjamin in a twin bed so we wouldn't have to buy a 3rd crib! That lasted a week, until I was so exhausted of only getting 3-4 hours a sleep at night that I gave in and put him in his crib. He is obviously not ready and really that is fine with me, I am not going to rush them to grow up just because their is a new baby! Plus Alan found a crib that is the exact same as Benjamin's for sale for $89 it was the floor sample, so for $89 I'll take it!

I hope to get better with this blog, because it will be interesting to see how working from home with 3 babies in 27 months will go! And before I go, here are some pictures of my babies getting bigger each day!