Jacob's first time bowling

Last weekend we went bowling with some friends.  This was Jacob's first time, they even had shoes that were his size!  They were awesome.  It was a fun, relaxing night out. 

Jacob liked pushing the ball, but being the boy he is, he had to try other ways as well...he tried kicking the ball, which barely made it down the alley, and once it got to the pins...well, the pin stopped the ball!  It was very comical.  

Dad also had him go between his legs. :)  It was fun.  It will probably be something we do again some time. 

What's new with this 2 1/2 year old boy?  He's basically potty trained, meaning he sometimes wakes up wet in the morning, and goes most days without accidents.  He had done so awesome in the fall, then we had a little relapse with about 2 weeks of multiple accidents a day...I'm hopeful that we have things on the right track again.  He's growing, but not at an incredible rate.  His latest activities include splashing in puddles with his froggy boots, checking things out with his binoculars, helping in the kitchen, splashing in water - at the sink or in the bath, reading books, dancing to music, going to the library, feeding his cats treats, pushing his parents buttons, goes non stop full speed, and riding his tricycle...just a couple weeks ago when we had a warm spell we hauled it out and his feet were barely just long enough to work the peddles, with momentum he can keep the peddles going.  By the end of summer he'll be zipping all over.

We are looking forward to the snow melting and the warmer temperatures to have the opportunity to be outside more frequently and for longer periods of time. 

For now, we are home together...a fever in the middle of the night changed our plans for the day.  However, he has seemed ok, I can tell he's down a little, but not much :)  Hoping this little bug doesn't stick around for long! 

A change of pace

I get into a rut...of making the same foods for supper and it usually balances out between chicken and beef dishes, mixed in with a little pasta from time to time.  Most people who know me well know that I do not like pork.  I know it's a healthy option, but I have never been super crazy over it.  But as I recalled from my childhood a recipe that involved pork chops I figured I should give it a shot again.  My sister pulled through with the recipe, it's easy to prepare, doesn't take long to cook and my family likes it.  So I thought I would share if someone out there needed a change of pace in their meal prep.  I will post the recipe at the end.

Step 1:  Get a strong, handsome two year old to peal & slice your apples. 

 arrange your apples in the bottom of a pan, sprinkle with cinnamon, brown sugar and butter

 

  salt and pepper porkchops and brown them on the stove, place on top of apples

Cook & serve!  Our favorite way to eat them is with loaded sweet potatoes

Porkchops & Apples

Porkchops - however many you need

3-4 apples (I used 2 apples for 3 of us)

brown sugar

3 T butter

cinnamon

salt

pepper

In 8x8 pan (or 9x13 if you have a larger family) put cut apples - I also peel mine.  Sprinkle brown sugar & cinnamon over top to cover.  Cut butter in thin slices & place on top.  Salt & pepper pork chops, brown them in a pan on the stove, place on top of the apples.  Bake at 375 for 30-45 minutes.

The aroma of this meal is fantastic.

To solve my stuck in a rut problem I have created a two week menu, this is helping me to not repeat things in the two weeks, adding variety, mixing in new recipes (thanks to my new Sheldon Christian Cookbook that is AMAZING!).  This has also assisted in cutting down on grocery store trip, which often result in spending money on unnecessary things...oh, and from eating out as much too.  This seems dumb, but it has also taken the 'brain work' out of the daily-ness of ... what's for supper?!  I don't have to think about it.  I go look at the board in the morning to check if I need to take anything out of the freezer, and wah-lah. 

So what's on the menu tonight?  Chicken with white wine sauce.  This is a new recipe for me from my new cookbook.  I hope it goes well!  It sounds tasty for sure.

Cooking with Jacob

 Jacob LOVES helping in the kitchen.  The minute I set foot in the kitchen he comes running and shouts...I wanna help you!  It's awesome and I love it...usually :).  I love to see him "help" and he means so well.  Yes, it means extra patience and clean up, but who can resist the opportunity to build a child's self-esteem and give them a sense of accomplishment.  To Jacob, helping includes eating the food we're using to make our final product.  I always needed a taste tester.  I have added some pictures of Nate and Jacob making homemade pizza together and down further he is spreading the frosting of a fruit pizza.

I can only imagine what kind of helper he will be in the garden this spring and summer.  He already pretends to grow vegetables in the carpet...usually it's carrots.  I am very ready for spring to be here!  I'm hopeful that any snow that falls around us this week will melt quickly.

Disney - Part IV

This day was the day I had the most difficulty deciding what to do, so I left it up to the 2 yr old!  Why should I stress over the decision, right.  So his choices were:  Go to Magic Kingdom again, see the castle & Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers OR go to see animals at Animal Kingdom...I knew there wouldn't be any doubt where he wanted to go, but I was torn.  I figured if I left it up to him...I couldn't feel bad and we'd be happy either way. 

Our 4th park in 4 days ended at Animal Kingdom.  Jacob and I ventured out alone as dad was stuck in meetings in the hotel.  The weather forecast for this day was rainy...like 80% chance for all day.  THANKFULLY, the 20% pulled through for the majority of the day.

We went on two animal safaris (we had to go on it again because I left the camera in the stroller...ugh.  We saw a lot of animals, up close!  Most of the animals were roaming around, finding their breakfast, before the heat of the day sun barely peaked out.  Jacob thoroughly enjoyed seeing all of the alligators, hippos, rhinos, giraffes, other weird creatures that I can't remember their names, lions, ostriches, gorillas, elephants...you get the picture.  In all honesty, I don't think it topped Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo.  We saw a bird show...kinda cool I guess...some of the birds weren't obeying their master, and that's always comical to see as the trainers don't quite know how to respond.  We went to a 3-d show called "It's Tough to be a Bug" - pretty cute, Jacob wouldn't wear his 3-d glasses, which turned out to be a good thing...but at the end there is some effect in the seats and it feels like bugs are running under your butt.  Jacob liked telling dad about that.  The ultimate highlight of Animal Kingdom was going to the Lion King musical and Finding Nemo musical.  3

One of the negative aspects of this park is that it closes at 5pm...because it gets dark, then you can't see the animals, however, our viewing of Finding Nemo didn't start until 445, so I knew when we left the show, we'd head to the bus parking, and I also knew we were in for a good hard rain.  We jetted out...phew, no rain.  But it does begin to downpour just as we're leaving the park entrance...but don't let that fool you....it's still a nice walk....run with a stroller to get to the bus pick-up zone.  I knew time would be tight, but I was NOT going to miss my bus pick-up, as the next one wouldn't come for another half hour.  Thankfully, we made it.  We were wet...but a warm rain is way better than blowing snow any day.

There was a nice play area for Jacob to run and have freedom.  This slide was a favorite for sure.

He found this box and was pretending it was an elevator.  I love this kids imagination!  He was pushing the buttons, making dinging noises, then he would jump off the elevator!  

Nate's activities went all day, but we did get to see him for a short while.  Jacob and I had a pizza party in our room while we watched a movie on tv...then got busy packing up...which was difficult with some wet things. 

Believe it or not, I only took only one pair of shoes, and my shoes were pretty wet from rain.  The blower in our room was of course at the top of the wall...so I jimmied my shoes up on the window covering rods in hopes that this would help them dry out over night!  It worked! 

Tuesday, our departure day was just gorgeous.  It made it extremely difficult to leave.  We arrived at the airport in plenty of time...only to find out that our flight was being delayed.  Yikes!  We finally departed about an hour and half to two hours later.  Our arrival time into our connecting airport was 5 minutes after our connection was to depart.  We also knew that flight had already been delayed about 20 minutes, so it could always be delayed further.  So again....Amazing Race style through the airport....only to find out, we missed it.  Long story short, the flight we were booked on also became delayed and we arrived into Omaha 5 hours later than we were suppose to and finally pulled into the driveway at 1:30 am.  Bummer.  On top of that...it was bitterly cold, like -20 or so.  BRRRR.  And to put the icing on the cake, I came down with a sickness Wednesday.  I was able to teach, but came home and crashed, then was able to make it to the dr...after enduring an influenza test (negative, phew!) I got some drugs and was on my way.  Totally not the way I would recommend ending a vacation. 

We had an awesome time!  We love looking through our scrapbook that we made on Shutterfly that arrived in a timely manner and Nate is making a dvd of our trip too.  If I HAD to do it again :) I would go for more days.