Homemade Poptarts

I have really been trying to have the kids eat better and healthier food. Since they eat virtually nothing, it has been hard! One of Henry's favorite food is brown sugar poptarts. The ones from the store have so much sugar and so many things that I have no idea what they are in them! So I found a recipe on a great blog for homemade ones and decided to try it out. They were fantastic!! I was very surprised how much they tasted like the ones from the store! As usual, when Henry makes something, he wants to take them to Yaya and Papaw! They even said they were great!! I have definately found a replacement for the yucky store ones!! Now if I could just find a homemade ketchup that they would eat, we would be great!!!


http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/family-recipes/homemade-brown-sugar-cinnamon-oatmeal-pop-tarts

a new bedtime

One of the things that I wanted to accomplish was to get the boys out of our bed and into theirs; both at bedtime and all night!! So I decided that today was the day, I was ready for the fight tonight at bedtime! I took the boys to Target and they each picked out a new bed spread and a new stuffed animal to sleep with. All day I talked about how they are big boys now and they were going to sleep in their own beds tonight. Bedtime came and I was ready! They whined a bit, but climbed in bed. I sat with them for a few minutes, Henry fell asleep within 5 minutes! Tyler took a little longer, but he fell asleep too!! I am so proud of them! Now I just hope that tomorrow is not a lot harder!

Chopsticks

Keith had sushi for lunch today. He always uses chopsticks with sushi. Today the boys were fascinated with them. They both wanted to know how they worked and they wanted to use them to eat their pizza! So Keith tried to show them how to hold them and how to pick up their food with them. It was a very fun lunch!

Time to move again!

We got our official orders to move! Now it's time to clean out and decide what to keep and what to get rid of! I decided to sell all of my scrapbook supplies. I have a TON! I have not used them since we have been here, so they needed to go! I sold a bunch of stuff to a couple of friends in Japan. Now I just have to get the rest organized and take pictures to list on craigslist. I had no idea I had so much stuff!!

But that is the easy part! The kids toys, that is a bug mess! Not only is the playroom a disaster, but I think I am more attached to some, ok, a lot, more than the boys are! They are just growing so fast and I want to keep them small!! So the playroom is the next to tackle! Besides, we wont have a playroom in the next house, it will be a small 3 bedroom, so I need to only keep stuff that I know they play with!

I have lots of baby stuff that I should get rid of. But I just can't! We got rid of everything when we moved to CA, and then when we got pregnant with E, we had nothing! I really don't want to start all over again if we deiced to have the fourth child! I have 4 bins of clothes of hers that are too small, but then again, I held onto the boys clothes for a long time. And bins don;t take up that much space!!

Then there is all of the kitchen stuff I have! I went hog wild with pampered chef a few years ago, and as a result, I have 2 shelves full of stuff!! I should get rid of some of it, but someday I may use it!! I love kitchen gadgets and this is one of my weaknesses! So I am sure that I will keep the 10 chip and dip trays I have and all of the PC stuff and just put it into storage. Someday I will have a house that I can have it all out to use in....someday!

So the pre-move clean out continues, a little everyday and by May we will be ready to start our next adventure!

Oh, the places we find Evelyn!

Evelyn has become a little climber and is into EVERYTHING!!! Here are just a few places she has been lately!

Stuck in her carseat!

Hanging onto the TV try! (no, she cannot see over it!)

On the Fireplace step!

Checking out the fridge!

Taking stuff out of the bottom drawer

Helping with the dishes

Henry Made Bread!

I am trying to have all of us eat healthier and better food. I found a great blog (the simple dollar) that had a recipe for making homemade bead. Henry, Keith and I decided to give it a try. The bread was awesome! No more store bought bread for the Paquin's!! Henry was so excited about it that he took the entire loaf to Yaya and Papaw!

Mixing the dough
kneading the dough


Flouring his hands

more kneading

dough before rising

dough after rising

folding the dough to put into pan

putting dough into pan

Finished Bread!!

Back to a regular schedule!

I never thought I would hear myself say that I am glad the kids are back a school!! While I loved having them home and being able to be lazy and do whatever we wanted, I realized this morning that I like a schedule! I also realized that I really miss my morning times alone with a cup of coffee and the news. In Monterey I would always get up before the kids and make coffee and sit in a quiet house watching the news. I have not done that in over a year. Over the Christmas break, I found that when I got up before everyone I was much more relaxed and happy. So this morning I got up, made a cup of coffee and just sat on the couch! I have to say, my morning was much smoother than when I get up at the same time as the kids and we are rushing! So I will be doing this every morning! Now if I can get my weekly household chore schedule worked out I would be even better!! I just put Evelyn down for her morning nap and my goal is to get a double batch of taco meat and a double batch of spaghetti meat made up and in the freezer!